Republicans are every bit as condescending in this populism that says everyone in flyover country is a bloc of amiable, pleasant, hardworking common folk. They nuzzle up to them in the same manner.
Our nation is strong because -- the nation is strong because we're prosperous. We're strong because we got a great military. Yet we need to remember that our greatest strength is in the character of our citizens. The other day my opponent said, when he was with some entertainers from Hollywood, that they were the heart and soul of America.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: I believe the heart and soul of America is found in places right here, in Marquette, Michigan. (Applause.) We are strong because of the values we try to live by: courage and compassion, reverence and integrity. We're strong because of the institutions that help give us direction and purpose: our families, our schools, and our religious congregations. These values and institutions are fundamental to our lives. They deserve the respect of our government. (Applause.)
Listen to Laura Ingraham: She does that "heartland" schtick all the time.
"It was the same premise used by Garrison Kielior after Coleman was elected. when he called it a low rent mistake. That's a sure way to get people to embrace your ideas, accuse them of being ignorant."
What Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife forgot to tell us about the yellow-cake scandal.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Tuesday, July 13, 2004, at 9:27 AM PT
Two recent reports allow us to revisit one of the great non-stories, and one of the great missed stories, of the Iraq war argument. The non-story is the alleged martyrdom of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wilson, supposed by many to have suffered cruel exposure for their commitment to the truth. The missed story is the increasing evidence that Niger, in West Africa, was indeed the locus of an illegal trade in uranium ore for rogue states including Iraq.
The Senate's report on intelligence failures would appear to confirm that Valerie Plame did recommend her husband Joseph Wilson for the mission to Niger. In a memo written to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations, she asserted that Wilson had "good relations with both the Prime Minister and the former Minister of Mines [of Niger], not to mention lots of French contacts." This makes a poor fit with Wilson's claim, in a recent book, that "Valerie had nothing to do with the matter. She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip." (It incidentally seems that she was able to recommend him for the trip because of the contacts he'd made on an earlier trip, for which she had also proposed him.)
Wilson's earlier claim to the Washington Post that, in the CIA reports and documents on the Niger case, "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong," was also false, according to the Senate report. The relevant papers were not in CIA hands until eight months after he made his trip. Wilson now lamely says he may have "misspoken" on this. (See Susan Schmidt's article in the July 10 Washington Post
.)
Or...
FOUR CRUCIAL FACTS came into the public's view these past few days:
Fourth, President Bush did not lie about Saddam's attempt to purchase uranium and the intelligence he was provided by the CIA showed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
Report Disputes Wilson's Claims on Trip, Wife's Role
By Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 10, 2004; Page A09
<NITF>Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.
</NITF>
Wilson last year launched a public firestorm with his accusations that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for war. He has said that his trip to Niger should have laid to rest any notion that Iraq sought uranium there and has said his findings were ignored by the White House.
</NITF>
<NITF>Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.
</NITF>
<NITF> The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.
</NITF>
And who sponsors Joeseph Wilson's web page endorsing John Kerry ironically titled "restore honesty" http://www.restorehonesty.com/
 that endorses John Kerry? Why it was paid for by none other than John Kerry for president. What a shock. Quid pro quo ? He's also an advisor to the Kerry campaign. How fitting.
Imagine you are a war hero senator running for president. You have a very long and, for the most part, dull legislative record. You're stiff on TV and generally listless on the stump. You can't stop talking like a senator even though you know it leaves people cold. Your opponent, the incumbent, is presiding over a booming economy just emerging from the doldrums. Your base despises the president, but you need to reach out to moderates who are inclined to like him.
Wouldn't it make sense to fix your charisma deficit and bolster your ticket by picking an energetic, enthusiastic, appealing younger guy - somebody who both excites your party's base and charms the press by being polite and high-minded?
Well, that's certainly what Bob Dole was thinking when he picked Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996.
No, doper. Lower prices for everyone. Plentiful supplies. It's been 15 months. Where's the oil you've been bashing the U.S. about for even longer? Where...is...it???
...On June 5, 2003, SOMO issued its first oil sales tender since the war started, for 8 million barrels of Kirkuk crude stored in tanks at Ceyhan and 2 million barrels stored at Basra. Dozens of companies placed bids for the oil, with winners including ChevronTexaco (U.S.), Cepsa (Spain), ENI (Italy), Repsol (Spain), Total (France), and Tupras (Turkey)....
...Major purchasers included BP (England), ChevronTexaco (U.S.), ConocoPhillips (U.S.), ENI (Italy), ExxonMobil (U.S.), Marathon Oil (U.S.), Mitsubishi (Japan), Petrobras (Portugal), Repsol (Spain), Shell (U.S.), Sinochem (U.K.), Total (France), and Vitol (England)....
BOSTON -- When Mayor Thomas M. Menino (D) welcomes delegates to the Democratic National Convention here, the chairman of the California delegation plans to stand up and walk out.
 Art Torres has asked the rest of his state's 541 delegates, alternates and committee members to leave with him as a show of solidarity with Boston police and firefighters, who are locked in a bitter contract dispute with Menino that threatens to disrupt the convention. "I don't know what other message to give to this mayor that workers who protect our lives deserve a contract," Torres said.
A week before 35,000 people begin arriving here, organizers insist the city is ready for the July 26 opening. Bumpy roads have been smoothed, lampposts painted, parks manicured. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge approved a vast security apparatus that will turn the convention site into a fortress and leave residents grappling with traffic jams, closed roads and other inconveniences.
But concern is growing that the standoff between the unions and City Hall will not only embarrass the Democrats but also disrupt events inside and outside the convention hall and serve as a distraction for emergency workers that will compromise the safety of attendees at a time of heightened national alert.
The more than 1,400 members of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association and Boston Firefighters Local 718, plan to protest every convention event the mayor hosts or attends. Their efforts will focus on the walkout during Menino's opening speech July 26 and on picket lines outside the 29 official state welcoming parties at high-profile venues likely to draw big Democratic names.
The unions have written to all the state delegations asking them not to cross their picket lines. The leaders of at least six -- North Dakota, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and California, the nation's largest -- have said they will avoid picketed events and will encourage their delegates to do likewise, which has led organizers to contemplate cancellations. Ohio delegation chairman Dennis L. White wrote the police union this week that he and his staff are prepared to join the walkout on Menino.
The police will also protest in City Hall Plaza on July 26, and smaller demonstrations are planned throughout the week.
National conventions for both major parties have experienced protests from activist groups with varying motivations -- most notably when police clashed violently with war protesters outside the Democrats' convention in Chicago in 1968 -- but rarely has organized labor become involved.
Boston convention chief executive Rod O'Connor has tried to tamp down concerns, telling reporters this spring that some unions reached contracts with Los Angeles just three weeks before the 2000 Democratic convention opened there.
"This is something that unions occasionally threaten because they have such leverage within the party," said Colorado College professor Robert Loevy, a historian of political conventions. "But to the best of my knowledge, this could be the first time that it wasn't settled by the time the event begins."
The dispute has disrupted construction at the FleetCenter, where the convention will be held. Last month several vehicles were turned away by shouting pickets, and work was stalled for days.
Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), who the convention will nominate as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, canceled a June 28 speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, hosted here by Menino, when union members made clear they would be picketing the event. "I don't cross picket lines. I never have," Kerry said at the time.
About 12 percent, or 500 of the 4,352 delegates to the convention, are union members, according to the AFL-CIO. The top brass of the AFL-CIO will be in Boston and will not cross the lines, said Lane Windham, spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO.
But the labor federation does not want the convention's events to be interrupted. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney has spoken to the police and firefighters' unions and to the mayor, Windham said, in an effort to resolve the labor dispute.
But if resolution is not reached, Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the Firefighters International Union, said some union-sponsored events that Menino planned to attend might be postponed or canceled.
Concerned about that possibility, a number of women- and minority-owned businesses doing work for the convention warned Friday at a news conference that any picketing would be damaging to them.
"The truth of the matter is: By boycotting these parties, they really are hurting some of the core people who are part of the Democratic Party," said Colette Phillips, whose communications company is planning a $100,000 jungle-themed party for the California delegation in the Franklin Park Zoo.
Karen Grant, a spokeswoman for Boston 2004, the city's host committee, said no events had been canceled. She added that contracts with vendors will be honored.
Several state delegations said they are still deciding how to handle the labor dispute.
Kentucky Democratic Party executive director Eddie Jacobs said Friday that he and party chairman Bill Garmer will not cross picket lines, and that they will let their 72 delegates, alternates and committee members decide for themselves how to proceed.
Vern Thompson, executive director of the North Dakota Democratic Party, said that instead of his state's official welcome party, he will ask delegates to attend a union party, dubbed "Boston Police and Firefighter Heroes Welcome the DNC," in Dorchester, a neighborhood south of downtown Boston, on Sunday, July 25.
Jim Barry, a police union spokesman, said he expected as many as 1,000 delegates to attend the union-hosted reception, and that his members would be joined on their picket lines by union members from across the country who have pledged to travel to Boston. "We want the delegates here," he said. "It's not them we have a problem with; it's the mayor."
For Menino, who worked to bring the convention to Boston, these have been trying months. His appearances have been picketed by union members since March. "This is a safe haven right now," he said, only partly in jest, at a recent private reception introducing an advertising campaign to promote the city for the convention. "Anybody out there got a sign?"
The city has offered the unions an 11.9 percent raise over four years, and Menino has said that while the convention is important to him, he will not mortgage the city's future by signing a contract he says it cannot afford. Union leaders say they are holding out for a 17 percent raise.
Three months ago, more than 30 city unions were without contracts, but Menino has since signed agreements with 75 percent of the city's workforce. But negotiations with the police, who rejected Menino's repeated calls for arbitration, have been acrimonious.
Aides to the mayor have accused the union, which supported George H.W. Bush (R) over home-state Gov. Michael S. Dukakis (D) in 1988, of playing politics. The union said it will probably endorse Kerry, but not until it has a contract. Unlike many unions in Massachusetts, the Boston police association has donated money to both political parties, not solely to Democrats.
Both sides of the labor dispute have been meeting with the state's Joint Labor Management Committee, a mediation body, which was seeking to broker an agreement and had voted to appoint an outside arbitrator.
But this week, Gov. Mitt Romney (R)
intervened by replacing the acting head of the management committee, citing a concern that the dispute would not be resolved before the convention. "Public safety personnel during the Democratic National Convention should be focused entirely on security, not manning a picket line," he said.
The two sides have been called to a meeting with mediators Monday, leading to some optimism that a deal might be possible before the convention.
"A road map for the settlement of this dispute is now in place, so I don't see the point of more protests," said Seth Gitell, Menino's spokesman. The mayor has been working the phones with various state delegations, Gitell said, hoping to convince them that the city is doing all it can to find a solution.
As of now, he said, Menino's convention week schedule remains unchanged.
July 17, 2004 Unions Plan to Picket Site of Republican Convention By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Three of New York City's most prominent unions - the police, the firefighters and the teachers - plan to begin round-the-clock picketing at Madison Square Garden on Monday to protest their lack of a contract.
The three unions have decided to picket the Garden, the site of the Republican National Convention next month, to pressure Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg into improving his wage offer and to bring attention to their cause.
"We're doing this to deliver our message to all New Yorkers," said Stephen J. Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. "The Republicans are coming to bask in the glow of Sept. 11, and yet the firefighters and police officers who died in record numbers and continue to be the frontline defenders for this city haven't had a contract for more than two years."
Union officials said they had been planning to file a lawsuit yesterday because, in their view, the Police Department was violating their constitutional rights by saying that no more than 46 union members could picket on the block surrounding the Garden.
But the city avoided litigation when it lifted that limit after negotiations between the unions and the corporation counsel's office. The city agreed to let 150 to 200 people picket and distribute fliers outside the Garden so long as they stood at least 20 feet apart. In addition, the city agreed that several hundred more union members could picket near the corner of Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street.
WASHINGTON - President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, is the focus of a criminal investigation after admitting he removed highly classified terrorism documents from a secure reading room during preparations for the Sept. 11 commission hearings, The Associated Press has learned.
Berger's home and office were searched earlier this year by FBI agents armed with warrants. Some drafts of a sensitive after-action report on the Clinton administration's handling of al-Qaida terror threats during the December 1999 millennium celebration are still missing.
Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed handwritten notes he had taken from classified anti-terror documents he reviewed at the National Archives by sticking them in his jacket and pants. He also inadvertently took copies of actual classified documents in a leather portfolio, they said...
...When asked, Berger said he returned some of the classified documents, which he found in his office, and all of the handwritten notes he had taken from the secure room, but said he could not locate two or three copies of the highly classified millennium terror report.
"In the course of reviewing over several days thousands of pages of documents on behalf of the Clinton administration in connection with requests by the Sept. 11 commission, I inadvertently took a few documents from the Archives," Berger said.
"When I was informed by the Archives that there were documents missing, I immediately returned everything I had except for a few document that I apparently had accidentally discarded," he said....
Hmmm... I wonder what was in those documents that were "accidentally discarded". Surely nothing that would give the Clinton administration a black eye.
The officials said the missing documents were highly classified, and included critical assessments about the Clinton administration's handling of the millennium terror threats
...In other words, the "wall of separation" constructed by Jamie Gorelick made it virtually impossible for U.S. authorities to stop Ahmed Rassam, the "Millenium Bomber," by design or intention. It was left to blind luck. The NSC's Millennium After Action Review — which, based on Attorney General Ashcroft's testimony, must be devastating in its analysis of not only this event but of the Gorelick policy — remains classified. And, most significantly, it's likely the Review's criticisms and warnings were either ignored or rejected by the Clinton Justice Department.
Given all the past intelligence information that has been made public by the 9/11 Commission — including the August 6, 2001, President's Daily Brief, which had never before been released — there appears to be no legitimate basis for the 9/11 Commission keeping the Review under lock and key. It's time to release it.
The entire article is a good read and this was only a summary.
I find it shocking that 2 of Kerry's top advisors who use to be in the Clinton administration are now involved in this scandal. Perhaps they can share a jail cell with Joe Wilson, another Kerry advisor.
How anyone can support Kerry at this point is beyond me.
I did find this:Â I think it was under "Be our drone".
Week ofJuly 12, 2004
What have you read about Kerry-Edwards in your local newspaper? Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper in response - speak out about your support and excitement for the Kerry-Edwards ticket.
Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper and/or magazine about your support and excitement for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Start by picking your favorite 1-2 writing points.
Click hereto use Congress.org to get email addresses for local newspapers and magazines. If you have the time, please consider handwriting your letter. Handwritten letters are more likely to be published.
Click hereto report back to us - share your letter, tell us where you sent it, and we'll be in a better position to report back to you on our success. If you aren't able to use the reporting page, please send us a copy by emailing mediacorps@johnkerry.com.
Click hereto read Media Corps' Styles Guide - remember that a successful letter to the editor is usually no longer than 200 words!
Writing points are below in "The Details". Pick your favorite point or two to write your letter.
If you'd like to read what newspapers are reporting about the Kerry-Edwards ticket, click here.
Â
John Edwards shares John Kerry's optimistic vision for the future of the country.
John Edwards knows first hand the importance of creating good paying jobs so that all American families can get ahead because he comes from a place where those jobs have disappeared under President Bush.
John Kerry has a plan to ensure all Americans have a right to health care that is affordable and accessible. John Edwards has been a leader in the fight for affordable, quality health care, fighting alongside Kerry to pass a Patients Bill of Rights and bring down the cost of prescription drugs.
As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Committee Investigating 9/11, John Edwards understands the problems that threaten our world today and shares Kerry's vision of how to make America safer and more respected around the globe.
John Edwards believes in order to make America strong and secure, we must have a strong military and energy independence so that no American in uniform is ever held hostage to our dependence on Mideast oil.
Wilson's charges, embraced by Democrats and publicized far and wide by a news media all too willing to believe the worst about Bush, were given great credence because Wilson was the man chosen by the CIA to investigate the suspected Iraqi effort.
By his concluding that the Iraqi uranium-buying attempt was pure fiction, it gave critics of the war in Iraq one more chance to call Bush a liar and say he took the United States into battle under false pretenses.
Thus, Wilson became a great hero. And the laurel-leaf crown on his head became thicker and shinier when allegations arose that someone in the White House, in apparent retaliation against Wilson's whistle-blowing, leaked to newspaper columnist Robert Novak the fact that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was an undercover CIA agent.
That further inflamed the Bush critics, touching off cries for a full criminal investigation into the leak. That probe is under way.
Time magazine put the saintly Wilson on its cover last October. Wilson subsequently wrote a book about the whole nasty business, depicting himself and his wife as martyrs in the cause of truth. That set off a whole new round of media swooning. For two weeks in May, Wilson was everywhere.
But now, two reports have surfaced that suggest Wilson might have been wrong, and Bush might have been right in saying Iraq tried to buy uranium in the African nation of Niger.
The first came in the widely ballyhooed Senate Intelligence Committee report, which earlier this month concluded that much of the intelligence Bush relied on to make his case for war against Iraq was faulty.
It also found that Wilson's investigative trip to Niger in 2002 actually "lent more credibility to the original CIA reports on the uranium deal."
Second, the Senate report said that Wilson "was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly."
Wilson, in several media interviews, denied that his wife had anything to do with suggesting that he undertake the mission.
ABC News' Ted Koppel, on the Sept. 30, 2003, edition of "Nightline" asked Wilson, "Did your wife propose to her CIA colleagues that they call her husband, you?" Wilson replied, "No."
Further knocking down Wilson's case was this past week's release of a British board of inquiry report into intelligence leading up to the Iraq war. "The British government had intelligence from several different sources" that Iraqi officials tried to buy uranium from Niger in 1999. "The intelligence was credible," the report said.
But now that the Wilson case has been debunked, it is interesting to note that the news media, so eager to build him up, and tear Bush down, now seem reluctant to tell the rest of the story, or at least the next chapter. Wilson, who had been a fixture on television, now seems to have disappeared. Democrats are silent.
Why were the media so willing to believe Wilson when he was an obvious Democratic partisan? He not only worked for the National Security Council in the Clinton White House, he also is a foreign policy adviser to the Democratic presidential campaign of John Kerry. Why, indeed?
So let's see. Sandy Berger, another Kerry advisor is caught in a lie. Unless of course you believe he "accidentially" took classified documents from the national archives. Now he had a portfolio or briefcase with him, yet he "inadvertantly" stuffed them in his pants or jacket. And some of those classified documents just happened to have accidentially been lost or destroyed. And he must have simply forgot to request to take those records with him. Sure I can see how that how could happen. They must have got tossed with the 0% credit card offers and magazine subscriptions. And records accidentially got stuffed in his clothes, happens all the time.
He should be on the ballot. It doesn't matter who collected the signatures. I know I'd sign for him to be on the ballot. Not because it will take votes away from Kerry, but because it's the right thing to do. I'd sign it for a third party candidate that would take votes away from the Republican candidate as well.
I'd sign. But unlike JT I won't sign for someone who I believe would take votes away from Bush. I have no doubt some democrats helped Perot in 1992 and 1996.
If it's a big enough story, it will eventually get to the front page.
Headline's on the first page of the website.
WorldNet Daily thinks it's the biggest story in eight years of the Clinton presidency, which ended more than three years ago. No treatment of the story could be too big for them.
You have the former NSA chief and Kerry advisor stuffing classified documents in his pants and it's if? Yea, sure. I can see how a story about untucked shirts takes precedence over that. I'm sure if it were Condi Rice or Karl Rove it would be A-16. Sure.
I'm sure if it were Condi Rice or Karl Rove it would be A-16. Sure. The Times would probably have a special edition if Rove or Rice were implicated in such an act.
they are not making America work instead they are trying to take it apart and replace it with socialism. they have been fairly succesful, too.
Republicans are every bit as condescending in this populism that says everyone in flyover country is a bloc of amiable, pleasant, hardworking common folk. They nuzzle up to them in the same manner.
You have some examples of this ?
Â
Bush on Tuesday:
Our nation is strong because -- the nation is strong because we're prosperous. We're strong because we got a great military. Yet we need to remember that our greatest strength is in the character of our citizens. The other day my opponent said, when he was with some entertainers from Hollywood, that they were the heart and soul of America.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE PRESIDENT: I believe the heart and soul of America is found in places right here, in Marquette, Michigan. (Applause.) We are strong because of the values we try to live by: courage and compassion, reverence and integrity. We're strong because of the institutions that help give us direction and purpose: our families, our schools, and our religious congregations. These values and institutions are fundamental to our lives. They deserve the respect of our government. (Applause.)
Listen to Laura Ingraham: She does that "heartland" schtick all the time.
Did he say that voters who didn't vote for him were somehow tricked ?
He was complimenting them, big difference between that and telling them they were all being duped.
How do you know Bush doesn't believe what he said, Rick? I mean he has spent a lot of time in Texas.
"It was the same premise used by Garrison Kielior after Coleman was elected. when he called it a low rent mistake. That's a sure way to get people to embrace your ideas, accuse them of being ignorant."
I don't know that he was out to pursuade anyone.
Plame's Lame Game
What Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife forgot to tell us about the yellow-cake scandal.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Tuesday, July 13, 2004, at 9:27 AM PT
Two recent reports allow us to revisit one of the great non-stories, and one of the great missed stories, of the Iraq war argument. The non-story is the alleged martyrdom of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wilson, supposed by many to have suffered cruel exposure for their commitment to the truth. The missed story is the increasing evidence that Niger, in West Africa, was indeed the locus of an illegal trade in uranium ore for rogue states including Iraq.
The Senate's report on intelligence failures would appear to confirm that Valerie Plame did recommend her husband Joseph Wilson for the mission to Niger. In a memo written to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations, she asserted that Wilson had "good relations with both the Prime Minister and the former Minister of Mines [of Niger], not to mention lots of French contacts." This makes a poor fit with Wilson's claim, in a recent book, that "Valerie had nothing to do with the matter. She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip." (It incidentally seems that she was able to recommend him for the trip because of the contacts he'd made on an earlier trip, for which she had also proposed him.)
Wilson's earlier claim to the Washington Post that, in the CIA reports and documents on the Niger case, "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong," was also false, according to the Senate report. The relevant papers were not in CIA hands until eight months after he made his trip. Wilson now lamely says he may have "misspoken" on this. (See Susan Schmidt's article in the July 10
Washington Post
.)
Or...
FOUR CRUCIAL FACTS came into the public's view these past few days:
First, Valerie Plame
recommended
her husband Joe Wilson for the mission to Niger to investigate claims that Saddam was attempting to purchase uranium there.
Second, Joe Wilson
lied
about that, and about other things as well.
Third, Saddam did try to
buy uranium
from Niger.
Fourth, President Bush did not lie about Saddam's attempt to purchase uranium and the intelligence he was provided by the CIA showed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/004/322qvfeb.asp
Plame's Input Is Cited on Niger Mission
Report Disputes Wilson's Claims on Trip, Wife's Role
By Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 10, 2004; Page A09
<NITF>Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.
</NITF>
Wilson last year launched a public firestorm with his accusations that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for war. He has said that his trip to Niger should have laid to rest any notion that Iraq sought uranium there and has said his findings were ignored by the White House.
</NITF>
<NITF>Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.
</NITF>
<NITF>
The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts.
And contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.
</NITF>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html?referrer%3Demailarticle
Hmmm.
And who sponsors Joeseph Wilson's web page endorsing John Kerry ironically titled "restore honesty"
http://www.restorehonesty.com/
 that endorses John Kerry? Why it was paid for by none other than John Kerry for president. What a shock. Quid pro quo ? He's also an advisor to the Kerry campaign. How fitting.
Â
Â
Â
.
.
Ok, Jimmy The Greek.
Time to buy a lotto ticket. one of those is a possiblity. Gas prices might go down as they ALWAYS do after the summer.
LOL
"I'll bet you $1,000,000Â gas prices will go up next year right before Memorial Day."
Imagine you are a war hero senator running for president. You have a very long and, for the most part, dull legislative record. You're stiff on TV and generally listless on the stump. You can't stop talking like a senator even though you know it leaves people cold. Your opponent, the incumbent, is presiding over a booming economy just emerging from the doldrums. Your base despises the president, but you need to reach out to moderates who are inclined to like him.
Wouldn't it make sense to fix your charisma deficit and bolster your ticket by picking an energetic, enthusiastic, appealing younger guy - somebody who both excites your party's base and charms the press by being polite and high-minded?
Well, that's certainly what Bob Dole was thinking when he picked Jack Kemp as his running mate in 1996.
 http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/jg20040716.shtml
Gas went up 9 cents today.
Watch the movie. It's hillarious
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/180007
Torpedo-8 7/16/04 7:26pm
Where's all that oil we invaded Iraq over?
you don't think it was for lower prices for you,do you?
No, doper. Lower prices for everyone. Plentiful supplies. It's been 15 months. Where's the oil you've been bashing the U.S. about for even longer? Where...is...it???
"Quit talking to me crabgrass" - Torpedo-8
Where's all that oil we invaded Iraq over?
Boston Labor Dispute Awaits The Democratic Convention
Sat Jul 17, 1:00 AM ET
BOSTON -- When Mayor Thomas M. Menino (D) welcomes delegates to the Democratic National Convention here, the chairman of the California delegation plans to stand up and walk out.
 Art Torres has asked the rest of his state's 541 delegates, alternates and committee members to leave with him as a show of solidarity with Boston police and firefighters, who are locked in a bitter contract dispute with Menino that threatens to disrupt the convention. "I don't know what other message to give to this mayor that workers who protect our lives deserve a contract," Torres said.
A week before 35,000 people begin arriving here, organizers insist the city is ready for the July 26 opening. Bumpy roads have been smoothed, lampposts painted, parks manicured. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge approved a vast security apparatus that will turn the convention site into a fortress and leave residents grappling with traffic jams, closed roads and other inconveniences.
But concern is growing that the standoff between the unions and City Hall will not only embarrass the Democrats but also disrupt events inside and outside the convention hall and serve as a distraction for emergency workers that will compromise the safety of attendees at a time of heightened national alert.
The more than 1,400 members of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association and Boston Firefighters Local 718, plan to protest every convention event the mayor hosts or attends. Their efforts will focus on the walkout during Menino's opening speech July 26 and on picket lines outside the 29 official state welcoming parties at high-profile venues likely to draw big Democratic names.
The unions have written to all the state delegations asking them not to cross their picket lines. The leaders of at least six -- North Dakota, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and California, the nation's largest -- have said they will avoid picketed events and will encourage their delegates to do likewise, which has led organizers to contemplate cancellations. Ohio delegation chairman Dennis L. White wrote the police union this week that he and his staff are prepared to join the walkout on Menino.
The police will also protest in City Hall Plaza on July 26, and smaller demonstrations are planned throughout the week.
National conventions for both major parties have experienced protests from activist groups with varying motivations -- most notably when police clashed violently with war protesters outside the Democrats' convention in Chicago in 1968 -- but rarely has organized labor become involved.
Boston convention chief executive Rod O'Connor has tried to tamp down concerns, telling reporters this spring that some unions reached contracts with Los Angeles just three weeks before the 2000 Democratic convention opened there.
"This is something that unions occasionally threaten because they have such leverage within the party," said Colorado College professor Robert Loevy, a historian of political conventions. "But to the best of my knowledge, this could be the first time that it wasn't settled by the time the event begins."
The dispute has disrupted construction at the FleetCenter, where the convention will be held. Last month several vehicles were turned away by shouting pickets, and work was stalled for days.
Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), who the convention will nominate as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, canceled a June 28 speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, hosted here by Menino, when union members made clear they would be picketing the event. "I don't cross picket lines. I never have," Kerry said at the time.
About 12 percent, or 500 of the 4,352 delegates to the convention, are union members, according to the AFL-CIO. The top brass of the AFL-CIO will be in Boston and will not cross the lines, said Lane Windham, spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO.
But the labor federation does not want the convention's events to be interrupted. AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney has spoken to the police and firefighters' unions and to the mayor, Windham said, in an effort to resolve the labor dispute.
But if resolution is not reached, Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the Firefighters International Union, said some union-sponsored events that Menino planned to attend might be postponed or canceled.
Concerned about that possibility, a number of women- and minority-owned businesses doing work for the convention warned Friday at a news conference that any picketing would be damaging to them.
"The truth of the matter is: By boycotting these parties, they really are hurting some of the core people who are part of the Democratic Party," said Colette Phillips, whose communications company is planning a $100,000 jungle-themed party for the California delegation in the Franklin Park Zoo.
Karen Grant, a spokeswoman for Boston 2004, the city's host committee, said no events had been canceled. She added that contracts with vendors will be honored.
Several state delegations said they are still deciding how to handle the labor dispute.
Kentucky Democratic Party executive director Eddie Jacobs said Friday that he and party chairman Bill Garmer will not cross picket lines, and that they will let their 72 delegates, alternates and committee members decide for themselves how to proceed.
Vern Thompson, executive director of the North Dakota Democratic Party, said that instead of his state's official welcome party, he will ask delegates to attend a union party, dubbed "Boston Police and Firefighter Heroes Welcome the DNC," in Dorchester, a neighborhood south of downtown Boston, on Sunday, July 25.
Jim Barry, a police union spokesman, said he expected as many as 1,000 delegates to attend the union-hosted reception, and that his members would be joined on their picket lines by union members from across the country who have pledged to travel to Boston. "We want the delegates here," he said. "It's not them we have a problem with; it's the mayor."
For Menino, who worked to bring the convention to Boston, these have been trying months. His appearances have been picketed by union members since March. "This is a safe haven right now," he said, only partly in jest, at a recent private reception introducing an advertising campaign to promote the city for the convention. "Anybody out there got a sign?"
The city has offered the unions an 11.9 percent raise over four years, and Menino has said that while the convention is important to him, he will not mortgage the city's future by signing a contract he says it cannot afford. Union leaders say they are holding out for a 17 percent raise.
Three months ago, more than 30 city unions were without contracts, but Menino has since signed agreements with 75 percent of the city's workforce. But negotiations with the police, who rejected Menino's repeated calls for arbitration, have been acrimonious.
Aides to the mayor have accused the union, which supported George H.W. Bush (R) over home-state Gov. Michael S. Dukakis (D) in 1988, of playing politics. The union said it will probably endorse Kerry, but not until it has a contract. Unlike many unions in Massachusetts, the Boston police association has donated money to both political parties, not solely to Democrats.
Both sides of the labor dispute have been meeting with the state's Joint Labor Management Committee, a mediation body, which was seeking to broker an agreement and had voted to appoint an outside arbitrator.
But this week, Gov. Mitt Romney
(R)
intervened by replacing the acting head of the management committee, citing a concern that the dispute would not be resolved before the convention. "Public safety personnel during the Democratic National Convention should be focused entirely on security, not manning a picket line," he said.
The two sides have been called to a meeting with mediators Monday, leading to some optimism that a deal might be possible before the convention.
"A road map for the settlement of this dispute is now in place, so I don't see the point of more protests," said Seth Gitell, Menino's spokesman. The mayor has been working the phones with various state delegations, Gitell said, hoping to convince them that the city is doing all it can to find a solution.
As of now, he said, Menino's convention week schedule remains unchanged.
Birnbaum reported from Washington.
The same thing happened at the '88 Democratic Convention in Atlanta. It was the transit workers, then.
The convention went on. There was some rancor, but it got smoothed out.
Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander
More
AP: Clinton Adviser Probed in Terror Memos
By JOHN SOLOMON
Hmmm... I wonder what was in those documents that were "accidentally discarded". Surely nothing that would give the Clinton administration a black eye.
From my above link:
Then I found this:
The entire article is a good read and this was only a summary.
I find it shocking that 2 of Kerry's top advisors who use to be in the Clinton administration are now involved in this scandal. Perhaps they can share a jail cell with Joe Wilson, another Kerry advisor.
How anyone can support Kerry at this point is beyond me.
Alabama for Kerry
Andrewcorn for Kerry
Arizona Kerry Volunteers
ASU for Kerry
Arizona Statewide Students
Armenian Americans for Kerry
Armenians for Kerry
Artists for Kerry
Austin for Kerry
AZ Deaniacs for Kerry
Brevard County (FL) for Kerry
Blog4Kerry
Bucks County for Kerry
BU Students for Kerry
Chicagoland for Kerry
Climbers 4 Kerry
Colorado for Kerry
Conservatives for Kerry
Contra Costa County(CA) for Kerry
Doctors for Kerry
Doctors and Nurses for Kerry
EastBayKerry
Florida for Kerry
Grassroots for Kerry
Greens for Kerry
Harvard Students for Kerry
Hawaii for Kerry
Hawkeyes for Kerry
Hot Flashes from the Campaign Trail
Howard County (MD) for Kerry
Illinois for Kerry
Independents for Kerry
Iranian-Americans for Kerry
Kansas City for Kerry
John Kerry 2YA
Kerry Freedom Fighters
KerryBlog
Kerry Connector
Kerry Grassroots
KerryNorCal
Kerry Pioneers
Kerry Rocks
Kerry San Antonio
Kerry Support
Kerry's Wes Wing
Kids for Kerry
Law Students for Kerry
Leon County (FL) for John Kerry
Los Angeles for John Kerry
Louisiana for Kerry
Mahoning Valley for Kerry
Massachusetts for Kerry
Med Students for Kerry
Miami-Dade for JohnKerry
Mississippi for Kerry
Moms for Kerry
North Fulton Democrats
Nurses for Kerry
Orange County (California) for Kerry
Orange County (Florida) for Kerry
Oregonians for Kerry
Panhandle for Kerry
Pennsylvania for Kerry
Pinellas County, Florida for Kerry
Rally to John Kerry
South Asians for Kerry
Southern California for Kerry
Southerners for Kerry
South Jersey for Kerry
SuperWednesday
Teens for Kerry
Tennesseans for Kerry
Texans for John Kerry
Tough Enough
VA4JohnKerry
Veterans for Kerry
Wes Clark Democrats for Kerry
Western Michigan for Kerry
Western PA for Kerry
Yakima for Kerry
Young Professionals for Kerry
Thats it Rick keep your blinders on.....
ASU for Kerry
All 8 of them?
I couldn't find "Alabama for Kerry" or "Andrewcorn for Kerry"
Of course, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it.
heh-heh
Links are on the Kerry website.
They're under "Cornballs for Kerry".
I tried, but I can't find them.'
I did find this:Â I think it was under "Be our drone".
Week ofJuly 12, 2004
What have you read about Kerry-Edwards in your local newspaper? Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper in response - speak out about your support and excitement for the Kerry-Edwards ticket.
Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper and/or magazine about your support and excitement for the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Start by picking your favorite 1-2 writing points.
Click hereto use Congress.org to get email addresses for local newspapers and magazines. If you have the time, please consider handwriting your letter. Handwritten letters are more likely to be published.
Click hereto report back to us - share your letter, tell us where you sent it, and we'll be in a better position to report back to you on our success. If you aren't able to use the reporting page, please send us a copy by emailing mediacorps@johnkerry.com.
Click hereto read Media Corps' Styles Guide - remember that a successful letter to the editor is usually no longer than 200 words!
Â
John Edwards shares John Kerry's optimistic vision for the future of the country.
John Edwards knows first hand the importance of creating good paying jobs so that all American families can get ahead because he comes from a place where those jobs have disappeared under President Bush.
John Kerry has a plan to ensure all Americans have a right to health care that is affordable and accessible. John Edwards has been a leader in the fight for affordable, quality health care, fighting alongside Kerry to pass a Patients Bill of Rights and bring down the cost of prescription drugs.
As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Committee Investigating 9/11, John Edwards understands the problems that threaten our world today and shares Kerry's vision of how to make America safer and more respected around the globe.
John Edwards believes in order to make America strong and secure, we must have a strong military and energy independence so that no American in uniform is ever held hostage to our dependence on Mideast oil.
Wilson's charges, embraced by Democrats and publicized far and wide by a news media all too willing to believe the worst about Bush, were given great credence because Wilson was the man chosen by the CIA to investigate the suspected Iraqi effort.
By his concluding that the Iraqi uranium-buying attempt was pure fiction, it gave critics of the war in Iraq one more chance to call Bush a liar and say he took the United States into battle under false pretenses.
Thus, Wilson became a great hero. And the laurel-leaf crown on his head became thicker and shinier when allegations arose that someone in the White House, in apparent retaliation against Wilson's whistle-blowing, leaked to newspaper columnist Robert Novak the fact that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was an undercover CIA agent.
That further inflamed the Bush critics, touching off cries for a full criminal investigation into the leak. That probe is under way.
Time magazine put the saintly Wilson on its cover last October. Wilson subsequently wrote a book about the whole nasty business, depicting himself and his wife as martyrs in the cause of truth. That set off a whole new round of media swooning. For two weeks in May, Wilson was everywhere.
But now, two reports have surfaced that suggest Wilson might have been wrong, and Bush might have been right in saying Iraq tried to buy uranium in the African nation of Niger.
The first came in the widely ballyhooed Senate Intelligence Committee report, which earlier this month concluded that much of the intelligence Bush relied on to make his case for war against Iraq was faulty.
It also found that Wilson's investigative trip to Niger in 2002 actually "lent more credibility to the original CIA reports on the uranium deal."
Second, the Senate report said that Wilson "was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly."
Wilson, in several media interviews, denied that his wife had anything to do with suggesting that he undertake the mission.
ABC News' Ted Koppel, on the Sept. 30, 2003, edition of "Nightline" asked Wilson, "Did your wife propose to her CIA colleagues that they call her husband, you?" Wilson replied, "No."
Further knocking down Wilson's case was this past week's release of a British board of inquiry report into intelligence leading up to the Iraq war. "The British government had intelligence from several different sources" that Iraqi officials tried to buy uranium from Niger in 1999. "The intelligence was credible," the report said.
But now that the Wilson case has been debunked, it is interesting to note that the news media, so eager to build him up, and tear Bush down, now seem reluctant to tell the rest of the story, or at least the next chapter. Wilson, who had been a fixture on television, now seems to have disappeared. Democrats are silent.
Why were the media so willing to believe Wilson when he was an obvious Democratic partisan? He not only worked for the National Security Council in the Clinton White House, he also is a foreign policy adviser to the Democratic presidential campaign of John Kerry. Why, indeed?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/columnist/benedetto/2004-07-18-benedetto_x.htmÂ
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Joe Wilson lied and Sandy Berger was stuffing documents in his pants. Yea, Bush lied, war for oil blah blah blah.
So let's see. Sandy Berger, another Kerry advisor is caught in a lie. Unless of course you believe he "accidentially" took classified documents from the national archives. Now he had a portfolio or briefcase with him, yet he "inadvertantly" stuffed them in his pants or jacket. And some of those classified documents just happened to have accidentially been lost or destroyed. And he must have simply forgot to request to take those records with him. Sure I can see how that how could happen. They must have got tossed with the 0% credit card offers and magazine subscriptions. And records accidentially got stuffed in his clothes, happens all the time.
Michigan Republicans collect signatures for Nader
I imagine they are sincerely interested in third option for the voters.
What's fair or what's unfair, who the hell knows anymore?
I guess anything goes. But that's all right. The Republicans can't cry foul with any measure of credibility.
He should be on the ballot. It doesn't matter who collected the signatures. I know I'd sign for him to be on the ballot. Not because it will take votes away from Kerry, but because it's the right thing to do. I'd sign it for a third party candidate that would take votes away from the Republican candidate as well.
You can believe whatever you want is right, but it's my opinion that Michigan Republicans have other motives.
Does it really matter?
The Democrats did it on the other side, using lawsuits.
Nader should be on the ticket.
Michigan Republicans collect signatures for Nader
I'd sign. But unlike JT I won't sign for someone who I believe would take votes away from Bush. I have no doubt some democrats helped Perot in 1992 and 1996.
I bet rick had no problem when whats his name ran against Bush 1 and Clinton.
No, I didn't have any problem with What's His Name.
N.Y. Times buries
Berger story
'Paper of record' relegated big news to page 16
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39539Â
If it's a big enough story, it will eventually get to the front page.
Headline's on the first page of the website.
WorldNet Daily thinks it's the biggest story in eight years of the Clinton presidency, which ended more than three years ago. No treatment of the story could be too big for them.
If ?
You have the former NSA chief and Kerry advisor stuffing classified documents in his pants and it's if? Yea, sure. I can see how a story about untucked shirts takes precedence over that. I'm sure if it were Condi Rice or Karl Rove it would be A-16. Sure.
Â
" I'm sure if it were Condi Rice or Karl Rove it would be A-16."
That would be a 1A story.
If it's a big enough story, it will eventually get to the front page. It is a big story but it just isn't on the Times front page.
Buy yourself a newspaper, jethro. You can put whatever you want on the front page.
I'm sure if it were Condi Rice or Karl Rove it would be A-16. Sure. The Times would probably have a special edition if Rove or Rice were implicated in such an act.
Buy yourself a newspaper, jethro. You can put whatever you want on the front page.
The Times is biased. Just face it. There isn't anything wrong with that. What is wrong is that they allege they don't.