TODAY'S TOPICS: Naomi Klein, Olympics, Athrax Conspiracy, Hamden, Daily Show, Olbermann, Green Building
"Salim Hamdan received a fair trial."
-- White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto, 8/6/08
VERSUS
"[E]ven if Hamdan had been acquitted on all charges, he would have been detained indefinitely. Nowhere else in the U.S. justice system can someone be held for life regardless of whether he is convicted or acquitted of a crime."
--ACLU, 8/6/08
VIDEO SECTION
MORE ON THE ANTHRAX CONSPIRACY...
Who nominated Ivins for this award? This item has not been picked up by the press like it should have. C&L’s Mark Groubert:
On March 14th, 2003 Bruce Ivins, the alleged anthrax killer and anthrax vaccine inventor, was awarded the highest civilian honor of the Pentagon by Army Secretary Thomas White.
Exceptional Civilian Service Award
The LA Times:
At a Pentagon ceremony on March 14, 2003, Ivins and two colleagues from USAMRIID were bestowed the Decoration of Exceptional Civilian Service, the highest honor given to nonmilitary employees of the Defense Department. “Awards are nice,” Ivins said in accepting the honor. “But the real satisfaction is knowing the vaccine is back on line.
As David Willman reports:
On April 26th, 2003, almost a month after White gave Ivins the award, the Army Secretary was fired by Donald Rumsfeld supposedly for this:
Some more excellent analysis of the Anthrax con job being perpetrated by the FBI from John Amato of Crooks and Liars:
This whole story concocted by the FBI smells really, really bad. Are we supposed to believe this yarn? I’ll try to do a bunch of posts on this because it is a completely insane story. Did it really take seven years for the FBI to finally catch Bruce Ivins, a scientist who was working with anthrax and then helping the FBI to finger Steven J. Hatfill—who just so happens was wrongly accused and smeared until he happened to fight back?
June 27: The federal government awards Hatfill $5.8 million to settle his violation of privacy lawsuit against the Justice Department. Have you ever seen a huge settlement like that right before they catch the real killer? Did you watch the press conference yesterday? It absolutely made no sense. The feebs made it sound like there were millions of people that could have had access to anthrax. When they were asked why it took so many years to come up with Army scientist Bruce Ivins—they looked to the universe.
Q: When did you get around to him as a suspect from March 31st in 2005?
A: It’s important to remember how complex and complicated this investigation was. At the outset we had to identify the universe of persons and labs that might have access to this type of anthrax. Once we identified what type of anthrax it was, then over the years there were efforts to shrink the size of the pool…
What the hell is he talking about? I’d say the FBI was drowning in a pool of lies. Are there 8 million people and labs to check out to see who actually had anthrax? I want to see the FBI logs on this case. The day to day activity. Really, there needs to be a full investigation of this. How many hours did they spend on this case? What did they know and when did they know it? Ivins was actually helping the FBI with their own case! It’s right out a serial killer novel. I’ll have more later. There are so many layers to this story.
WATCH THE FBI LIE:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/07/bruce-ivins-anthrax-scientistfbi-story-is-a-joke-investigation-needed-of-the-fbi/
The Daily Show reports on the latest firing of a desperately needed Arabic translator because he was gay!! Wonderful…what good is wiretapping if we can’t understand what people are saying????
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/07/when-national-security-and-a-right-wing-culture-war-collide/
The Daily Show tracks the evolution of offshore oil drilling…which Americans not only now overwhelmingly support, but actually believe it will do something about gas prices. A level of stupidity that literally makes the cosmos shudder in disgust:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/07/daily-show-off-shore-drilling-has-already-saved-us/
Classic Greenwald short film on Bill O’Reilly and his book O’Reilly for children…or something ludicrous like that….its as if what he’s writing in his book for kids precisely describes the things that are wrong with his own behavior…a level of hypocrisy unrivaled by any major figure in America today:
http://foxattacks.com/kids/?utm_source=rgemail
Finally, someone in the corporate media calls a duck a duck, or in this case, that “the disgrace” is no maverick. Watch Cafferty of CNN:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/07/jack-cafferty-on-mccain-this-maverick-stuff-is-a-lot-of-hooey/
Colbert on McCain’s admitting that yes, tire pressure does indeed have a major impact on fuel efficiency. Question: Then why all the ridiculous and deceptive antics John?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/06/mccain-deflates-his-own-tire-gauge-attack/
Rachelle Maddown and Keith Olbermann discuss McCain’s rather comical “event” at a biker type rally…as in, McCain needs to find big crowds to go speak at, while Obama creates big crowds…just a slight difference…
Offering up his wife for a nearly nude body contest and then making fun of Obama for his tire pressure remarks (which bikers would know to be true) are just two of the highlights of “the disgrace’s” latest campaign follies. I say he should just put on a f****** clown suit for the rest of the campaign, then when he gaffe’s it seems more intentional…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/06/rachel-maddow-on-mccains-new-pr-strategy-ride-kid-rocks-coattails/
Constitutional expert John Dean is on Countdown to discuss some of the evidence unearthed by Suskind… and agrees that yes, they absolutely signal impeachable offenses on the part of the administration and that Congress find their spines and pursue it.
I mean, is this the precedent we want to set? Allow a sociopathic, authoritarian, perhaps retarded leader with a God complex destroy the constitution, murder millions of people, and torture thousands more simply walk away Scott free? Is this the new standard for what our nation allows a President to do? Even if he’s not impeached in the end, for Christ’s sake we need to show the rule of law means something!!! Plus, by doing so, it may help prevent an even more catastrophic action: war with Iran.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/06/john-dean-confirms-suskinds-book-focuses-on-impeachable-crimes/
NAOMI KLEIN ON OLYMPICS...
Being that the Olympics are approaching in the country that our multinational corporations and hedge fund managers love more than any other, China, I think its worth discussing this rising fascist/authoritarian/capitalist/communist love (or maybe hate?) child of a nation. More than just trying to figure out what exactly China is becoming, also of interest, is in what ways are the big money interests in our country facilitating their human rights abuses…and what does this relationship tell us about our own rapidly disintegrating democracy’s future?
Who better to delve into these questions, and what better model to use to answer them, than Naomi Klein and her theory of Disaster Capitalism and the Shock Doctrine? Would you be surprised to know that at the same time that China is being rightly criticized for their egregious human rights violations from Tibet to Darfur, that America’s corporate hierarchy is aiding their efforts to quell dissent every step of the way for these Games? Or worse, that the surveillance industry itself in this country is able to sell their most oppressive technologies to the Chinese to be used to their utmost potential…all in hopes we can someday bring those technologies into the mainstream here? Wiretapping and street cameras are just the beginning my friends (to quote The Disgrace), watch China show how its really done…as our own soulless corporations help them do it.
A few clips from Klein first:
Much of the Chinese government’s lavish spending on cameras and other surveillance gear has taken place under the banner of “Olympic Security.” But how much is really needed to secure a sporting event? The price tag has been put at a staggering $12-billion — to put that in perspective, Salt Lake City, which hosted the Winter Olympics just five months after September 11, spent $315 million to secure the games. Athens spent around $1.5-billion in 2004. Many human rights groups have pointed out that China’s security upgrade is reaching far beyond Beijing: there are now 660 designated “safe cities” across the country, municipalities that have been singled out to receive new surveillance cameras and other spy gear. And of course all the equipment purchased in the name of Olympics safety — iris scanners, “anti-riot robots” and facial recognition software — will stay in China after the games are long gone, free to be directed at striking workers and rural protesters.
SNIP
There is a bitter irony here. When Beijing was awarded the games seven years ago, the theory was that international scrutiny would force China’s government to grant more rights and freedom to its people. Instead, the Olympics have opened up a backdoor for the regime to massively upgrade its systems of population control and repression. And remember when Western companies used to claim that by doing business in China, they were actually spreading freedom and democracy? We are now seeing the reverse: investment in surveillance and censorship gear is helping Beijing to actively repress a new generation of activists before it has the chance to network into a mass movement.
SNIP
It’s easy to see the dangers of a high tech surveillance state in far off China, since the consequences for people like Jun are so severe. It’s harder to see the dangers when these same technologies creep into every day life closer to home-networked cameras on U.S. city streets, “fast lane” biometric cards at airports, dragnet surveillance of email and phone calls. But for the global homeland security sector, China is more than a market; it is also a showroom. In Beijing, where state power is absolute and civil liberties non-existent, American-made surveillance technologies can be taken to absolute limits.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/07/10860/
THE HAMDEN SHAM
So, according to the government’s rationalization for the extended torture, imprisonment and now conviction of Salim Hamden, all those limo drivers that have escorted President Bush around DC are also complicit in his illegal war and murder of Iraqis. That’s right, THE DRIVER of Bin Laden, someone who by all accounts was innocent of ANY crime or act of terrorism, was convicted the other day by a justice mocking Military Tribunal! I suppose its not enough to torture and prison a man for 5 years for doing nothing, now we add insult to injury and convict him too…under the sick, sick auspices of “justice” and a “court hearing” no less. Ha!!
If anyone deserves jail for life it’s Bush and Cheney, not a guy that drove Bin Laden’s car! This mockery of justice called a Military Tribunal is so absurd, and so antithetical to our Constitution and the concept of justice and human rights that it’s offensive for them to even claim he had a trial, or he was proven guilty…of anything.
One piece of good news that just came out is that the military jury - even though the prosecutors' requested 30 years to life and had ALL the advantages of a rigged process - STILL made him eligible for release in just five months! However, it remains unclear what will happen to Hamdan once his sentence is served, since the U.S. military has said it won't release anyone who still represents a threat. So, sorry dude, even when the Tribunal rules in your favor, our government can overrule it!!! What a system!!
A few clips of this tragic charade…that has stolen yet another man’s life:
After 7 years, the Bush administration got its first war crimes conviction but not of anyone who plotted the 9/11 attacks, but that of Osama bin Laden’s driver. Yemeni national Salim Ahmed Hamdan’s crime was to chauffeur bin Laden in Afghanistan, which the government argued allowed bin Laden to plot attacks against the United States. Hamdan was convicted for material support for terrorism and could spend the rest of his life in prison. In fact, whatever sentence a court may determine, the Bush administration claims that it has the authority to hold him indefinitely as an “enemy combatant” until the cessation of hostilities in the so-called “war on terror.” Hamdan, who has a fourth-grade education and was earning $200 a month as one of Osama bin Laden’s drivers, has been detained for almost seven years now.
SNIP
...there was the other face of Guantánamo, that of interrogations conducted by military and intelligence officials using techniques approved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld such as sleep deprivation, stress positions, exposure to extreme temperatures, and sexual humiliation. But the public won’t learn about coercive interrogation techniques at trial because that is considered top secret. In fact, in response to allegations that Hamdan had been subjected to sleep deprivation prior to being interrogated, the judge issued a ruling that was largely redacted. We saw pages and pages of black ink that presumably referred to sleep deprivation. Any hint of misconduct whether proven or not is automatically classified! Secrecy in effect is used to shield abuse.
In the Hamdan case, the government requested a protective order that forbids mention of the CIA. The impact of this is so broad that it extends to public documents. At trial, Hamdan’s lawyer held up the 9/11 Commission Report to question a government witness, but he was prevented from reading a sentence from the report by the government on classification grounds. This, despite the fact that the report is not only a public document but also a New York Times bestseller, only underscores the arbitrary nature of the level of secrecy that affects the military commission proceedings. When two defense witnesses, one of whom is with Special Forces, were about to testify about events in Afghanistan, the NGO observers and the media were cleared out of the courtroom because we did not have a security clearance. So, we never heard how Hamdan was treated by intelligence officers or cooperated with U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/07/10850/
SOME Good News...
"Nearly three times as many cities and counties approved green-building policies last year as did four years ago." Fourteen states took such action last year, compared with one in 2004.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
TODAY'S TOPICS: Suskind, Forged Letter, Anthrax Conspiracy?, Olbermann, Colbert, Obama, McCain
THE SUSKIND BOMBSHELLS
Impeachment? Imprisonment? Anyone? Anyone? We've got our SMOKING GUN!
"What just happened? Evidence. A secret that has been judiciously kept for five years just spilled out. All of what follows is new, never reported in any way:
The Iraq Intelligence Chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush — a man still carrying with $1 million reward for capture, the Jack of Diamonds in Bush’s famous deck of wanted men — has been America’s secret source on Iraq. Starting in January of 2003, with Blair and Bush watching, his secret reports began to flow to officials on both sides of the Atlantic, saying that there were no WMD and that Hussein was acting so odd because of fear that the Iranians would find out he was a toothless tiger. The U.S. deep-sixed the intelligence report in February, “resettled” Habbush to a safe house in Jordan during the invasion and then paid him $5 million in what could only be considered hush money.
In the fall of 2003, after the world learned there were no WMD — as Habbush had foretold — the White House ordered the CIA to carry out a deception. The mission: create a handwritten letter, dated July, 2001, from Habbush to Saddam saying that Atta trained in Iraq before the attacks and the Saddam was buying yellow cake for Niger with help from a “small team from the al Qaeda organization.”
The mission was carried out, the letter was created, popped up in Baghdad, and roiled the global news cycles in December, 2003 (conning even venerable journalists with Tom Brokaw). The mission is a statutory violation of the charter of CIA, and amendments added in 1991, prohibiting CIA from conduction disinformation campaigns on U.S. soil.
So, here we go again: the administration in full attack mode, calling me names, George Tenet is claiming he doesn’t remember any such thing — just like he couldn’t remember “slam dunk” — and reporters are scratching their heads. Everything in the book is on the record. Many sources. And so, we watch and wait…"
-- Ron Suskind, author of "The Way of the World"
VIDEO SECTION
More on the US government forgery designed to link al Qaeda and Iraq, and allow for the illegal murder of millions of innocent Iraqis. This from The Young Turks:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/waroniraq/94099/white_house_ordered_cia_forgeries_to_wage_iraq_war/
And Olbermann interviews an expert on the Anthrax case – Gerald Posner - on the conspiracy to tie the attacks to Al Qaeda, the possibility that Ivins is a patsy, and much more:
http://www.truthout.org/video/the-anthrax-attacks-sunlight-is-best-disinfectant
Some of the questions that will determine the outcome of this campaign are: How low will McCain go? How infantile will this campaign become? How dutifully will the media continue to act as stenographer and megaphone for the GOP distraction machine? Will Obama start to strike back harder (which he started to yesterday)? And just how racist, stupid and gullible are the American people?
ON that note, watch Olbermann debunk the McCain/GOP attacks on, well, the truth about tire pressure…yes, that’s how low we’ve gone. Or as Obama said, “It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.” How true! Watch his response here as well…he’s starting to realize to take on the corrupt and powerful you need to be ready to fight…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/05/mccain-tire-gauge-mocking-of-obama-ignores-support-from-those-on-his-side-of-the-aisle/
As I have said, Evan Bayh should NOT be chosen as Obama’s VP…nonetheless, he beats down Joe Lieberman in this recent debate on Fox (Lieberman apparently is the GOP water-boy these days…). The DAY after the election the dems need to kick his ass off every committee…
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/waroniraq/93987/evan_bayh%3A_change_you_can%E2%80%99t_believe_in/
Stephen Colbert on the grumpy gramps the disgrace’s recent Spears/Hilton ad…classic “nailing” done by Colbert…such as what about all the Republican celebrity candidates elected??? Reagan, Bono, Schwarzenegger ring a bell?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/05/the-w%c3%b8rd-colbert-finds-a-better-potential-republican-candidate-from-mccains-celeb-ad/
Marc Fiore is back with one of his great political cartoons…this on the oil industry:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/93940/oil%27s_well_that_ends_well/
ARTICLE SECTION: THE FBI’S SUSPICIOUS “ANTHRAX CASE”
Glenn Greenwald – who is rapidly becoming one of my “go to” experts when anything to do with the law or privacy comes up – breaks down the MANY strange and suspicious aspects of the FBI’s case (to date) against Ivins. Doesn’t it seem just a little too convenient for the government – who also has ties to 9/11 itself – to suddenly find the Anthrax killer just when he turns up dead? Let’s say he in fact was the one, we still don’t know who all those ABC sources were in government saying that the true culprits were Al Qaeda (or Iraq). Or, perhaps the same government who had some hand (how extensive I don’t know) in the 9/11 attack and its cover-up could have also played a role in heightening the fear by orchestrating an Anthrax attack on prominent Democrats?
To say that their case so far is weak is an understatement. And to say they have any credibility on issues like this is an overstatement. We know through Suskind that not only did the Bush Administration want to push the idea that Al Qaeda/Iraq was behind the attacks, we also know they forged letters connecting Iraq and Al Qaeda around the same time. Is it really such a stretch that A. they could have been behind the Anthrax attacks - on some level - too? Or, that perhaps Ivins knew something he shouldn’t and they framed him? Or maybe they knew he had mental problems and would be the perfect patsy if they ever needed to put the crime on him? On that note, if he was so crazy and mentally disturbed, how could he have had such a high level government job working on some of the most dangerous chemical weapons for all those years without being fired?
Maybe he’s innocent and was killed, or maybe he was innocent and took his life due to the intense psychological abuse he took at the hands of our government? Or, maybe he's guilty as sin AND knew a whole lot of things he shouldn't? And let’s also not forget, Ivins happens to be a lifelong Democrat who has voted in nearly every election in the past 20 years…isn’t it strange that he tried to kill only Democrats? And that he tried to do it under the guise of Al Qaeda, thereby aiding Bush’s rush to war(s) and the creation of a military state?
Can you say "Time for an Investigation"!? Suffice it to say, I smell a big, fat, fascist hairy rat. And you will too after reading this.
A few clips first:
Given everything that has happened over the last seven years — not just with the anthrax attacks but with countless episodes of Government deceit and corruption — it’s astonishing (and more than a little disturbing) how many people are willing, even eager, to assume that the Government’s accusations against Ivins are accurate even without seeing a shred of evidence to support those claims.
When you add on to that the magnitude of this case and the ample reasons for error and deceit — it’s the first lethal bioterrorism attack on the U.S., one which, according to the Government itself, originated at a U.S. Government facility, perpetrated by a U.S. Army scientist, that was then used by numerous factions inside the Government and out to ratchet up fear levels and falsely blame Iraq and/or Al Qaeda for the attacks and, thereafter, was blamed on someone who appears to have been completely innocent — what minimally rational person would be willing to assume that the Government’s uncorroborated, unexamined, untested claims are accurate?
SNIP
Within less than 24 hours, we went from “a New Jersey mailbox used to send the anthrax was less than 100 yards away from a sorority for which Ivins harbored an intense life-long obsession” to “the mailbox was near a storage closet used by a sorority that Ivins used to frequent 27 years ago and by a specific chapter that Ivins appeared to have absolutely nothing to do with.” And then there is the Hatfill-like leaking of scurrilous information about Ivins, including the fact that he had — as the NYT put it today — “a history of alcohol abuse, had for years maintained a post office box under an assumed name that he used to receive pornographic pictures of blindfolded women.” Leaving aside the fact that alcohol abuse and pornography consumption aren’t exactly clues marking someone as the anthrax killer, how bad could his “alcohol abuse” have been if he continued to maintain Government clearance to work at a U.S. Army facility with the nation’s most dangerous pathogens?
And what had originally been leaked as the sinister-sounding claim that Ivins maintained “a post office box under an assumed name” transformed into the much more innocuous revelation that he did so in order to surreptitiously receive porn — behavior that isn’t exactly unusual given that “revenues for the world pornography industry hit an estimated $97 billion in 2006, overshadowing the revenues of the top technology companies — the likes of Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and Apple — combined.” Bruce Ivins isn’t the only American male surreptitiously using pornography, to understate the case drastically. The FBI’s need to demonize Ivins as a creepy, porn-loving drunk suggests that their actual evidence is far from convincing.
SNIP
The leaked “scientific” evidence is no better. If anything, it’s worse. The Washington Post today reports — all based on anonymous leaks — that “key to the probe” is the fact that Ivins “borrowed from a bioweapons lab that fall freeze-drying equipment that allows scientists to quickly convert wet germ cultures into dry spores” and that “the drying device, known as a lyopholizer, could help investigators explain how he might have been able to send letters containing deadly anthrax spores to U.S. senators and news organizations.” The article further claims that “the device was not commonly used by researchers at the Army’s sprawling biodefense complex at Fort Detrick, Md.”
But that appears to be completely false. Here is the abstract of a 1995 research report, for which Ivins was the lead scientist, reporting on discoveries made as part of their research into anthrax vaccines (h/t substantial).
SNIP
And then there is the issue of Ivins’ mental state. The New York Times reported today that part of the FBI investigation was so heavy-handed that it actually entailed showing gruesome photographs of the anthrax victims to Ivins’ adult children, telling them that their father is the one who did that, while trying to entice them to turn on him with promises of a reward. As Rep. Holt indicated this morning, is it any wonder that any person — guilty or not — would experience severe psychological distress when targeted by the FBI that way? Moreover, this morning’s Frederick News Post (doing some of the best reporting in the country on this case) reported that it was FBI agents who told Jean Duley to seek a protective order against Ivins — the action that then created the record used by most media outlets to depict Ivins as a crazed psychopath.
No matter what the FBI says over the next week, or whenever it is that it finally gets around to stopping its manipulative leaks to its media friends and begins instead showing the public its evidence, a full-scale investigation is required here. Bruce Ivins may very well be the anthrax killer, having acted alone, but there is no rational basis for believing right now that he is.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/05/10827/
NEWS CLIPS...
'RAMPANT VIOLATIONS' UNCOVERED IN HUMAN EXPERIMENT STUDIES AT ARKANSAS VETERANS HOSPITAL: The Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released a report today citing an Arkansas veterans hospital for "rampant violations in its human experiments program." The investigation into the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock "found that researchers had failed to report 'serious adverse events' during the experiments, including the deaths of 105 veterans." The report also found that "entire consent forms were missing, signatures were missing from consent forms, HIV testing was conducted without documented consent, and research officials failed to obtain witness signatures in a study involving patients with dementia." In one review of cancer studies, investigators "randomly sampled the files of 105 patients and could locate only 20 consent forms." The studies at the hospital "involved thousands of veterans who had volunteered for behavioral and drug experiments." The Inspector General has recommended that the VA "determine whether human subject research should continue at the hospital." This report comes just two months after a Washington Times/ABC News investigation revealed that mentally distressed veterans were recruited by the VA for tests on pharmaceutical drugs linked to suicide and other violent side effects.
According to documents obtained by the Washington Post, "the Bush administration informed all foreign intelligence and law enforcement teams visiting their citizens held at Guantanamo Bay that video and sound from their interrogation sessions would be recorded." Thus, the U.S. may possess "hundreds or thousands of hours of secret taped conversations" between detainees and foreign representatives.
THE SUSKIND BOMBSHELLS
Impeachment? Imprisonment? Anyone? Anyone? We've got our SMOKING GUN!
"What just happened? Evidence. A secret that has been judiciously kept for five years just spilled out. All of what follows is new, never reported in any way:
The Iraq Intelligence Chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush — a man still carrying with $1 million reward for capture, the Jack of Diamonds in Bush’s famous deck of wanted men — has been America’s secret source on Iraq. Starting in January of 2003, with Blair and Bush watching, his secret reports began to flow to officials on both sides of the Atlantic, saying that there were no WMD and that Hussein was acting so odd because of fear that the Iranians would find out he was a toothless tiger. The U.S. deep-sixed the intelligence report in February, “resettled” Habbush to a safe house in Jordan during the invasion and then paid him $5 million in what could only be considered hush money.
In the fall of 2003, after the world learned there were no WMD — as Habbush had foretold — the White House ordered the CIA to carry out a deception. The mission: create a handwritten letter, dated July, 2001, from Habbush to Saddam saying that Atta trained in Iraq before the attacks and the Saddam was buying yellow cake for Niger with help from a “small team from the al Qaeda organization.”
The mission was carried out, the letter was created, popped up in Baghdad, and roiled the global news cycles in December, 2003 (conning even venerable journalists with Tom Brokaw). The mission is a statutory violation of the charter of CIA, and amendments added in 1991, prohibiting CIA from conduction disinformation campaigns on U.S. soil.
So, here we go again: the administration in full attack mode, calling me names, George Tenet is claiming he doesn’t remember any such thing — just like he couldn’t remember “slam dunk” — and reporters are scratching their heads. Everything in the book is on the record. Many sources. And so, we watch and wait…"
-- Ron Suskind, author of "The Way of the World"
VIDEO SECTION
More on the US government forgery designed to link al Qaeda and Iraq, and allow for the illegal murder of millions of innocent Iraqis. This from The Young Turks:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/waroniraq/94099/white_house_ordered_cia_forgeries_to_wage_iraq_war/
And Olbermann interviews an expert on the Anthrax case – Gerald Posner - on the conspiracy to tie the attacks to Al Qaeda, the possibility that Ivins is a patsy, and much more:
http://www.truthout.org/video/the-anthrax-attacks-sunlight-is-best-disinfectant
Some of the questions that will determine the outcome of this campaign are: How low will McCain go? How infantile will this campaign become? How dutifully will the media continue to act as stenographer and megaphone for the GOP distraction machine? Will Obama start to strike back harder (which he started to yesterday)? And just how racist, stupid and gullible are the American people?
ON that note, watch Olbermann debunk the McCain/GOP attacks on, well, the truth about tire pressure…yes, that’s how low we’ve gone. Or as Obama said, “It’s like these guys take pride in being ignorant.” How true! Watch his response here as well…he’s starting to realize to take on the corrupt and powerful you need to be ready to fight…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/05/mccain-tire-gauge-mocking-of-obama-ignores-support-from-those-on-his-side-of-the-aisle/
As I have said, Evan Bayh should NOT be chosen as Obama’s VP…nonetheless, he beats down Joe Lieberman in this recent debate on Fox (Lieberman apparently is the GOP water-boy these days…). The DAY after the election the dems need to kick his ass off every committee…
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/waroniraq/93987/evan_bayh%3A_change_you_can%E2%80%99t_believe_in/
Stephen Colbert on the grumpy gramps the disgrace’s recent Spears/Hilton ad…classic “nailing” done by Colbert…such as what about all the Republican celebrity candidates elected??? Reagan, Bono, Schwarzenegger ring a bell?
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/05/the-w%c3%b8rd-colbert-finds-a-better-potential-republican-candidate-from-mccains-celeb-ad/
Marc Fiore is back with one of his great political cartoons…this on the oil industry:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/93940/oil%27s_well_that_ends_well/
ARTICLE SECTION: THE FBI’S SUSPICIOUS “ANTHRAX CASE”
Glenn Greenwald – who is rapidly becoming one of my “go to” experts when anything to do with the law or privacy comes up – breaks down the MANY strange and suspicious aspects of the FBI’s case (to date) against Ivins. Doesn’t it seem just a little too convenient for the government – who also has ties to 9/11 itself – to suddenly find the Anthrax killer just when he turns up dead? Let’s say he in fact was the one, we still don’t know who all those ABC sources were in government saying that the true culprits were Al Qaeda (or Iraq). Or, perhaps the same government who had some hand (how extensive I don’t know) in the 9/11 attack and its cover-up could have also played a role in heightening the fear by orchestrating an Anthrax attack on prominent Democrats?
To say that their case so far is weak is an understatement. And to say they have any credibility on issues like this is an overstatement. We know through Suskind that not only did the Bush Administration want to push the idea that Al Qaeda/Iraq was behind the attacks, we also know they forged letters connecting Iraq and Al Qaeda around the same time. Is it really such a stretch that A. they could have been behind the Anthrax attacks - on some level - too? Or, that perhaps Ivins knew something he shouldn’t and they framed him? Or maybe they knew he had mental problems and would be the perfect patsy if they ever needed to put the crime on him? On that note, if he was so crazy and mentally disturbed, how could he have had such a high level government job working on some of the most dangerous chemical weapons for all those years without being fired?
Maybe he’s innocent and was killed, or maybe he was innocent and took his life due to the intense psychological abuse he took at the hands of our government? Or, maybe he's guilty as sin AND knew a whole lot of things he shouldn't? And let’s also not forget, Ivins happens to be a lifelong Democrat who has voted in nearly every election in the past 20 years…isn’t it strange that he tried to kill only Democrats? And that he tried to do it under the guise of Al Qaeda, thereby aiding Bush’s rush to war(s) and the creation of a military state?
Can you say "Time for an Investigation"!? Suffice it to say, I smell a big, fat, fascist hairy rat. And you will too after reading this.
A few clips first:
Given everything that has happened over the last seven years — not just with the anthrax attacks but with countless episodes of Government deceit and corruption — it’s astonishing (and more than a little disturbing) how many people are willing, even eager, to assume that the Government’s accusations against Ivins are accurate even without seeing a shred of evidence to support those claims.
When you add on to that the magnitude of this case and the ample reasons for error and deceit — it’s the first lethal bioterrorism attack on the U.S., one which, according to the Government itself, originated at a U.S. Government facility, perpetrated by a U.S. Army scientist, that was then used by numerous factions inside the Government and out to ratchet up fear levels and falsely blame Iraq and/or Al Qaeda for the attacks and, thereafter, was blamed on someone who appears to have been completely innocent — what minimally rational person would be willing to assume that the Government’s uncorroborated, unexamined, untested claims are accurate?
SNIP
Within less than 24 hours, we went from “a New Jersey mailbox used to send the anthrax was less than 100 yards away from a sorority for which Ivins harbored an intense life-long obsession” to “the mailbox was near a storage closet used by a sorority that Ivins used to frequent 27 years ago and by a specific chapter that Ivins appeared to have absolutely nothing to do with.” And then there is the Hatfill-like leaking of scurrilous information about Ivins, including the fact that he had — as the NYT put it today — “a history of alcohol abuse, had for years maintained a post office box under an assumed name that he used to receive pornographic pictures of blindfolded women.” Leaving aside the fact that alcohol abuse and pornography consumption aren’t exactly clues marking someone as the anthrax killer, how bad could his “alcohol abuse” have been if he continued to maintain Government clearance to work at a U.S. Army facility with the nation’s most dangerous pathogens?
And what had originally been leaked as the sinister-sounding claim that Ivins maintained “a post office box under an assumed name” transformed into the much more innocuous revelation that he did so in order to surreptitiously receive porn — behavior that isn’t exactly unusual given that “revenues for the world pornography industry hit an estimated $97 billion in 2006, overshadowing the revenues of the top technology companies — the likes of Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and Apple — combined.” Bruce Ivins isn’t the only American male surreptitiously using pornography, to understate the case drastically. The FBI’s need to demonize Ivins as a creepy, porn-loving drunk suggests that their actual evidence is far from convincing.
SNIP
The leaked “scientific” evidence is no better. If anything, it’s worse. The Washington Post today reports — all based on anonymous leaks — that “key to the probe” is the fact that Ivins “borrowed from a bioweapons lab that fall freeze-drying equipment that allows scientists to quickly convert wet germ cultures into dry spores” and that “the drying device, known as a lyopholizer, could help investigators explain how he might have been able to send letters containing deadly anthrax spores to U.S. senators and news organizations.” The article further claims that “the device was not commonly used by researchers at the Army’s sprawling biodefense complex at Fort Detrick, Md.”
But that appears to be completely false. Here is the abstract of a 1995 research report, for which Ivins was the lead scientist, reporting on discoveries made as part of their research into anthrax vaccines (h/t substantial).
SNIP
And then there is the issue of Ivins’ mental state. The New York Times reported today that part of the FBI investigation was so heavy-handed that it actually entailed showing gruesome photographs of the anthrax victims to Ivins’ adult children, telling them that their father is the one who did that, while trying to entice them to turn on him with promises of a reward. As Rep. Holt indicated this morning, is it any wonder that any person — guilty or not — would experience severe psychological distress when targeted by the FBI that way? Moreover, this morning’s Frederick News Post (doing some of the best reporting in the country on this case) reported that it was FBI agents who told Jean Duley to seek a protective order against Ivins — the action that then created the record used by most media outlets to depict Ivins as a crazed psychopath.
No matter what the FBI says over the next week, or whenever it is that it finally gets around to stopping its manipulative leaks to its media friends and begins instead showing the public its evidence, a full-scale investigation is required here. Bruce Ivins may very well be the anthrax killer, having acted alone, but there is no rational basis for believing right now that he is.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/05/10827/
NEWS CLIPS...
'RAMPANT VIOLATIONS' UNCOVERED IN HUMAN EXPERIMENT STUDIES AT ARKANSAS VETERANS HOSPITAL: The Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) released a report today citing an Arkansas veterans hospital for "rampant violations in its human experiments program." The investigation into the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System in Little Rock "found that researchers had failed to report 'serious adverse events' during the experiments, including the deaths of 105 veterans." The report also found that "entire consent forms were missing, signatures were missing from consent forms, HIV testing was conducted without documented consent, and research officials failed to obtain witness signatures in a study involving patients with dementia." In one review of cancer studies, investigators "randomly sampled the files of 105 patients and could locate only 20 consent forms." The studies at the hospital "involved thousands of veterans who had volunteered for behavioral and drug experiments." The Inspector General has recommended that the VA "determine whether human subject research should continue at the hospital." This report comes just two months after a Washington Times/ABC News investigation revealed that mentally distressed veterans were recruited by the VA for tests on pharmaceutical drugs linked to suicide and other violent side effects.
According to documents obtained by the Washington Post, "the Bush administration informed all foreign intelligence and law enforcement teams visiting their citizens held at Guantanamo Bay that video and sound from their interrogation sessions would be recorded." Thus, the U.S. may possess "hundreds or thousands of hours of secret taped conversations" between detainees and foreign representatives.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
TODAY'S TOPICS: Anthrax Conspiracy, Dumb Americans, Obama, Kerry v. Lieberman, Chiang v. Schwarzenegger
No time today, and behind, but I do have some great copy and paste info, particularly on the growing Anthrax scandal, the success of the McCain attack machine with help from the media, and the mindlessness of the American public (now everyone believes offshore oil drilling is needed...just like they've been told to think!).
NEW BOOK ACCUSES WHITE HOUSE OF ORDERING FORGERY TO LINK IRAQ AND AL QAEDA: According to a new book, "The Way of the World," by Pullitzer Prize winner Ron Suskind, the White House ordered the CIA in fall 2003 to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the head of Iraqi intelligence, to Saddam Hussein. The letter, according to Suskind, "was designed to portray a false link between Hussein's regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war." Suskind, quoting "two former CIA officials who claim to have seen a draft of the letter on White House stationery," writes that "the idea was to take the letter to Habbush and have him transcribe it in his own neat handwriting on a piece of Iraqi government stationery to make it look legitimate. CIA would then take the finished product to Baghdad and have someone release it to the media." Habbush was reportedly paid $5 million afterwards. When the letter was first released in fall 2003 it was called "probably fake," as it contradicted "highly detailed" intelligence compiled by U.S. law enforcement officials. The White House attacked Suskind's new claims as "gutter journalism," while former CIA director George Tenet called the book "seriously flawed." Suskind responded on NBC's Today Show: "I think this is part of George's memory issue. ... I went to all the people around George, close to George, who remember because they were involved in the thing, and they remember what George says to them."
Britain’s Sunday Telegraph in December ‘03 caused a sensation by reporting the discovery in Baghdad of that letter… and a few days later NEWSWEEK reported strong doubts that the letter was genuine. Among other things, experts wondered, why would Saddam’s intel chief write about both Atta & nuclear material in the same letter?
No time today, and behind, but I do have some great copy and paste info, particularly on the growing Anthrax scandal, the success of the McCain attack machine with help from the media, and the mindlessness of the American public (now everyone believes offshore oil drilling is needed...just like they've been told to think!).
NEW BOOK ACCUSES WHITE HOUSE OF ORDERING FORGERY TO LINK IRAQ AND AL QAEDA: According to a new book, "The Way of the World," by Pullitzer Prize winner Ron Suskind, the White House ordered the CIA in fall 2003 to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the head of Iraqi intelligence, to Saddam Hussein. The letter, according to Suskind, "was designed to portray a false link between Hussein's regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war." Suskind, quoting "two former CIA officials who claim to have seen a draft of the letter on White House stationery," writes that "the idea was to take the letter to Habbush and have him transcribe it in his own neat handwriting on a piece of Iraqi government stationery to make it look legitimate. CIA would then take the finished product to Baghdad and have someone release it to the media." Habbush was reportedly paid $5 million afterwards. When the letter was first released in fall 2003 it was called "probably fake," as it contradicted "highly detailed" intelligence compiled by U.S. law enforcement officials. The White House attacked Suskind's new claims as "gutter journalism," while former CIA director George Tenet called the book "seriously flawed." Suskind responded on NBC's Today Show: "I think this is part of George's memory issue. ... I went to all the people around George, close to George, who remember because they were involved in the thing, and they remember what George says to them."
Britain’s Sunday Telegraph in December ‘03 caused a sensation by reporting the discovery in Baghdad of that letter… and a few days later NEWSWEEK reported strong doubts that the letter was genuine. Among other things, experts wondered, why would Saddam’s intel chief write about both Atta & nuclear material in the same letter?
WATCH SUSKIND:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/05/ron-suskind-white-house-ordered-forgery-to-link-al-qaedasaddam-to-911-attacks/
The Purported 'Anthrax Killer', Was a Registered Democrat
The Party Affiliation of the Now-Deceased Bruce Ivins, as Confirmed by His Local County Board of Elections, Adds Yet Another Curious Question to the Increasingly Troubling Investigation into the Post-9/11 Terrorist Attacks on American Soil...
Bruce E. Ivins, reportedly on the verge of being indicted for capital murder in the anthrax killings, was a registered Democrat, according to the Fredrick County, MD Board of Elections. He had been registered there since 1982 and records indicate that he voted in "every election since 1996," including Democratic primaries, according to the official who responded to a request from West Virginia-based radio host Bob Kincaid.
The party affiliation of the bio-terror researcher who worked at U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID) adds a notable twist to the ever increasing questions surrounding the bizarre case following Ivins' reported suicide last week...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6245
WaPo Scrubs Story Questioning Fed Case Against 'Anthrax Killer'Paper
Then Returns to Similar Questions About Ivins' Lack of Access to 'Dry, Powdered Anthrax' in Sunday Article
New WaPo Story Begs Additional New Questions in Feds' Purported Case...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6242
'Not One' Reporter Bothered to Ask Brother About Political Leanings of 'Anthrax killer'
Corporate Media Coverage of Now-Deceased U.S. Army Bio-Researcher/Suspect Fails to Note Obvious 'Liberal' Targets of Deadly Post-9/11, Pre-War Letter Campaign
ALSO: ABC News Continues to Protect 'Sources' Who Lied About Iraq Connection to Anthrax...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6237
CA Controller Chiang holds ground, refuses to obey Governor's demand to cut worker salaries!
This is part of Controller Chiang's official response to Governor Schwarzenegger:
To the extent that the Order attempts to govern the constitutional duties for which I was independently elected to perform and, because it is based on faulty legal and factual premises, I will not comply with the Order.
WATCH THE PROTESTS...STOP THE GOVERNOR:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/04/meet-the-hero-who-said-no-to-arnold/
Some suggestions for Obama to take on McCain and the GOP that you've heard me say here many times...this from C&L:
Right now the only conversation is about whether Obama is qualified to be president or not. I think McCain's ads in this regard have been comical. They have flat-out sucked. But that doesn't matter. Because the only thing that matters is the conversation itself.
If Obama doesn't change the topic, he gives up an enormous advantage he has, which is the American people are grossly dissatisfied with the Republican Party (even the chairman of the NRCC is telling Republican Congressman to run away from their own party). Make the election about Republicans.
Secondly, Obama has not attacked at all. This is the same mistake Kerry made. He could have pounded Bush for all of his mistakes; instead he hardly laid a glove on him because he wanted to run a positive campaign. That's ridiculous.[..]
Should Obama go after McCain for voting with Bush 95% of time last year and 100% of the time this year? He would be an absolute idiot if he doesn't. Who cares about the nuances? That's not what voters remember. They'll remember that McCain voted with Bush almost all of the time, for whatever reason.
Obama wins simply by having this conversation. If the question is — does John McCain blindly follow George Bush — Obama doesn't even need to win that debate. He wins simply by having that debate. What is stuck in people's mind is how much McCain voted with Bush.
END
John Kerry debates scum bag Joe lieberman...here Joe is caught in a bald faced lie...
Another McCain brain freeze, followed by one of the most blatant lies ever caught on camera by a Presidential candidate...about MLK day no less.
McCain Defended Opposition Of Federal MLK Holiday By Saying He Supported Arizona's State Holiday. During a press availability in Panama City, Florida, John McCain said,
"I have supported hundreds of pieces of legislation, which would help Americans obtain an equal opportunity in America. I am proud of that record, from fighting for the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday in my state to sponsoring specific legislation that would prevent discrimination in any shape or form in America today." [McCain Press Availability In Panama City, Florida, 8/1/08]
FACT: McCain Supported Republican AZ Governor's Decision To Rescind MLK Holiday. ABC News reported, "In Arizona, a bill to recognize a holiday honoring MLK failed in the legislature, so then-Gov. Bruce Babbitt, a Democrat, declared one through executive order. In January 1987, the first act of Arizona's new governor, Republican Evan Mecham, was to rescind the executive order by his predecessor to create an MLK holiday. Arizona's stance became a national controversy. McCain backed the decision at the time." [ABC News, 4/3/08]
FACT: McCain Supported Gov. Evan Mecham's Decision In 1987 To Rescind Martin Luther King Jr. Day. As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, "In a vote likely to haunt him for the rest of his public career, McCain voted against 1983 legislation establishing the third Monday in January as the federal holiday marking King's birthday. Back home in Arizona, he supported Gov. Evan Mecham's decision in 1987 to rescind an executive order creating a state holiday for King, but later reversed his position." [Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/16/08]
FACT: McCain Voted Against Creating Martin Luther King Holiday. In 1983, McCain voted against a motion to suspend the rules and pass a bill to designate the third Monday of every January as a federal holiday in honor of the late civil rights leader, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The motion passed 89-77. [HR 3706, Vote 289, 8/2/83; CQ 1983]
He's tried to back pedal that this was some youthful ignorance on his part, but he was 48 years old when he voted against the MLK holiday. As much as I'd like to characterize 48 as youthful–and trust me, nothing would make me happier, that just isn't going to fly.
WATCH HIM FREEZE UP, THEN LIE:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/02/mccain-lies-about-his-support-for-mlk-jr-day-in-arizona/
OBAMA AS ANTI-CHRIST PEDDLED TO EVANGELICALS
FROM C&L:
The McCain campaign has apparently decided to spread the notion among Evangelicals that Barack Obama is the Antichrist.
Michael Froomkin: New Low For McCain Campaign: Obama == The Anti-Christ
SoonerG says: McCain's Left Behind Attack
Snoopes has more: Obama as Anti-Christ
This is typical for the McCain campaign. Dog-whistle politics is a common tactic by Rove and Lee Atwater. It's in play now right before your eyes and this time it's targeted at evangelicals.
The Dog-Whistle:
Dog-whistle politics, also known as the use of code words, is a type of political campaigning or speechmaking employing coded language that appears to mean one thing to the general population but has a different or more specific meaning for a targeted subgroup of the audience. The term is usually used pejoratively by those that do not approve of the tactics.
WATCH THE AD...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/08/04/mccains-obama-is-the-anti-christ-ad/
REPUBLICANS SHOW COMMITMENT...TO BIG OIL INSTEAD OF TROOPS
Oh those silly Republicans, trying to show how seriously they take their job to represent their oil lobbyist buddies constituents by repeating the shenanigans of Friday. We've got Roy Blunt castigating the 110th Congress for not passing an appropriations bill, and yet here Congress is, trying to get a veterans' appropriations bill passed and there goes the Republicans, playing games.
The Republicans' unsuccessful attempt to derail the veterans bill comes after President Bush threatened to veto the legislation over excessive spending on veterans and our troops and after Senate Republicans blocked the National Defense Authorization Act in the Senate over the same issue. The House did pass the FY 2009 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill, H.R. 6599 despite the Republican obstruction. This bill provides another much-needed funding increase for veterans' care (11 percent more than last year and $2.9 billion more than the President's request) - building on last year's largest ever increase in the 77-year history of the Veterans' Administration. All of the major veterans groups endorse the measure.
As Chairman Edwards explained, Veterans' organizations also called for its swift passage: "we urge that no impediments are put in its way and that its passage can come quickly and smoothly. The issues in this bill …are not controversial, and they have broad bipartisan support. Attaching non-germane issues to the veterans funding bill that serve to delay or block passage would truly be wrong." [VFW, 7/25/08]
Nonetheless, Republicans attempted to derail the bill by attaching drilling provisions that would destroy some of the nations most pristine areas forever in exchange for savings of only pennies per gallon more than 15 years from now, according to President Bush's own Energy Department. The provisions, however, would provide billions of dollars in profits for the oil industry.
All this, as conservatives have tried to force the House to adjourn "eighteen times over the past 90 days," now that the House is actually adjourned, Republicans are using political stunts to demand that "the chamber be called back into session" for a vote on offshore oil drilling. White House officials, however, rebuffed their efforts yesterday, saying they "don't have plans to call Congress into session."
AMERICAN IDIOCY – MCCAIN ATTACKS, DISTRACTIONS AND LIES WORKING'
I couldn't have made this point better myself. This is exactly what I 've been seeing these past few weeks. Incredibly disheartening and sad to see that the American public is just as gullible and ignorant as they were in 2004...the same old tricks are working. I'm trying really, really hard not to give up on the people...including Obama. Here's the article in full:
MEMO TO AMERICA (FROM "You are dumb" website)
Jesus H. Motherfucking Buddha on a Segway, that was, without a shadow of a doubt, the single stupidest week in the presidential campaign to date. And if a spot poll is correct, the American public sucked it up and begged for more. Thanks, everyone! For a little while there, I was starting to think there was no way you could fuck this one up, but American stupidity is pretty much the only remaining aspect of American life where we can overcome odds and accomplish the impossible.
This is, of course, abut John McCain's new ads, which prove, as if it needed proving, that Obama is not only fighting the same uphill media battle that John Kerry fought in 2004 and Gore faced in 2000. But that battle has another ten or twenty degrees added to its slope thanks to Obama being black. It provides a whole new set of no-win scenarios the media can try to place him into, and let's face it, the media loves nothing more than placing Democrats in no-win scenarios.
McCain released a couple of ads last week, the basic message of which was that "Barack Obama thinks he's hot shit, but we all know better, don't we?" He used the now time-tested method of releasing a controversial ad on the Internet or a few small markets, spending very little money, and then letting the cable news channels fill their 24 hours a day arguing about the controversy. Clearly, the cable news people know they're being used. It's a tactic so blatant that even the world's most gullible rock would know it's being pulled on him. Even more clearly, the cable news people don't CARE they're being used, which amazes but does not surprise me.
The first ad compared Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. The second ad said that Obama thinks he's Jesus. But the most important thing about these ads is that there is absolutely no way in fucking hell Barack Obama would have gotten away with running them. I usually try to shy away from the "If a Democrat did this, they'd..." form of argument, because it's speculative, unprovable, and whiny, but let's face it. Six weeks ago, Wesley Clark got shamed into leaving the public eye by fake outrage over him saying something demonstrably true in direct response to a leading question by a reporter.
McCain said of the ads, "We were having some fun with our supporters that we sent it out to and we're gonna display a sense of humor in this campaign." And he gets away with it, just like he's gotten away with other jokes. You know, the ones about women getting beaten and raped and enjoying it, or the ones about killing Iranians with cigarettes. But I guaranfuckingtee you if Barack Obama were to crack a joke at the expense of McCain's public image, we'd hear about how horrible it was from every corner of the globe for weeks.
Look at what happened this past week. McCain puts out ads with imagery that sits behind the plausible deniability firewall and shoots Tasers right into the hindbrains of racists and end-times evangelicals. You've got Obama next to young white women. Obama thinking he's better than you. Obama rising to unite the world like the Antichrist. Obama responds, in part, by mentioning how his opponents are going to attack him for being different, for not looking like the usual Presidential candidate.
So Rasmussen does a poll this weekend, and 53% of respondents thought OBAMA was being racist, compared to 22% thinking McCain was being racist. Which points out that at least 53% of Americans have no fucking idea what the word "racist" means. It is not racist for a black presidential candidate to say that people are going to attack him for being black. Especially after months of being attacked for being black. But what the hell, what's one more double standard for Obama to have to dodge around on his way to the White House?
It's so fucking stupid. This week, we've been told that Obama's too popular to be President, that Obama's too good to be President, that Obama's too THIN to be president (I SHIT YOU NOT), that Obama's too much like an oversexed misbehaving starlet to be President, that he's too presidential too soon to be president, and that he's gonna steal all the white women and turn America over to the forces of Satan. Man, I sure am glad that we live in an equal and fair society where everyone has opportunity and the only thing keeping them from making the most of it is their own personal failings. USA! USA!
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