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Just a few of the thousands of reasons we must clean house come November...
The Greed Factor
Sanctions against rogue regimes would have been abandoned if Dick Cheney had had his way
[A]s a private businessman, [Vice President Dick] Cheney apparently had more important interests than preventing [Saddam] Hussein from rebuilding his army. While he claimed during the 2000 campaign that, as CEO of Halliburton, he had “imposed a ‘firm policy’ against trading with Iraq,” confidential UN records show that, from the first half of 1997 to the summer of 2000, Halliburton held stakes in two firms that sold more than $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was in charge. Halliburton acquired its interest in both firms while Cheney was at the helm, and continued doing business through them until just months before Cheney was named George W. Bush’s running mate....
From the Center for American Progress's Progress Report:
"Our highest responsibility is to the safety and security of the American people."
- Sen. Bill Frist, 9/15/04
VERSUS
Conservatives in Congress this week killed a series of proposed amendments to the Homeland Security spending bill, including funding increases to secure ports, airports, borders, chemical plants and rails, as well as to train and equip firefighters and other emergency responders.
- American Progress, 9/16/04
Far graver than Vietnam
Most senior US military officers now believe the war on Iraq has turned into a disaster on an unprecedented scale
by Sidney Blumenthal for The Guardian
'Bring them on!" President Bush challenged the early Iraqi insurgency in July of last year. Since then, 812 American soldiers have been killed and 6,290 wounded, according to the Pentagon. Almost every day, in campaign speeches, Bush speaks with bravado about how he is "winning" in Iraq. "Our strategy is succeeding," he boasted to the National Guard convention on Tuesday.
But, according to the US military's leading strategists and prominent retired generals, Bush's war is already lost. Retired general William Odom, former head of the National Security Agency, told me: "Bush hasn't found the WMD. Al-Qaida, it's worse, he's lost on that front. That he's going to achieve a democracy there? That goal is lost, too. It's lost." He adds: "Right now, the course we're on, we're achieving Bin Laden's ends."
Retired general Joseph Hoare, the former marine commandant and head of US Central Command, told me: "The idea that this is going to go the way these guys planned is ludicrous. There are no good options. We're conducting a campaign as though it were being conducted in Iowa, no sense of the realities on the ground. It's so unrealistic for anyone who knows that part of the world. The priorities are just all wrong."...
Group Offers Bush Bleak Iraq Assessment
by Katherine Pfleger Shrader, Associated Press writer
WASHINGTON - The National Intelligence Council presented President Bush this summer with three pessimistic scenarios regarding the security situation in Iraq, including the possibility of a civil war there before the end of 2005.
In a highly classified National Intelligence Estimate, the council looked at the political, economic and security situation in the wartorn country and determined that — at best — a tenuous stability was possible, a U.S. official said late Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The document lays out a second scenario in which increased extremism and fragmentation in Iraqi society impede efforts to build a central government and adversely affect efforts to democratize the country.
In a third, worst-case scenario, the intelligence council contemplated "trend lines that would point to a civil war," the official said. The potential conflict could be among the country's three main populations — the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.
It "would be fair" to call the document "pessimistic," the official added. But "the contents shouldn't come as a particular surprise to anyone who is following developments in Iraq. It encapsulates trends that are clearly apparent."
The intelligence estimate, which was prepared for Bush, considered the window of time between July and the end of 2005. But the official noted that the document draws on intelligence community assessments from January 2003, before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the subsequent deteriorating security situation there.
This latest assessment was initiated by the National Intelligence Council, a group of senior intelligence officials that provides long-term strategic thinking for the entire U.S. intelligence community. It was completed in late August.
Acting CIA (news - web sites) Director John McLaughlin and the leaders of the other intelligence agencies approved the intelligence document, which spans about 50 pages....
C.I.A. Unit on bin Laden Is Understaffed, a Senior Official Tells Lawmakers
by James Risen
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 - Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency has fewer experienced case officers assigned to its headquarters unit dealing with Osama bin Laden than it did at the time of the attacks, despite repeated pleas from the unit's leaders for reinforcements, a senior C.I.A. officer with extensive counterterrorism experience has told Congress.
The bin Laden unit is stretched so thin that it relies on inexperienced officers rotated in and out every 60 to 90 days, and they leave before they know enough to be able to perform any meaningful work, according to a letter the C.I.A. officer has written to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees....
Why Bush Left Texas
by Russ Baker
Growing evidence suggests that George W. Bush abruptly left his Texas Air National Guard unit in 1972 for substantive reasons pertaining to his inability to continue piloting a fighter jet.
A months-long investigation, which includes examination of hundreds of government-released documents, interviews with former Guard members and officials, military experts and Bush associates, points toward the conclusion that Bush's personal behavior was causing alarm among his superior officers and would ultimately lead to his fleeing the state to avoid a physical exam he might have had difficulty passing. His failure to complete a physical exam became the official reason for his subsequent suspension from flying status....
From the Center for American Progress's Progress Report:
Did Ashcroft Break the Law?
A new Government Accountability Office report found that Attorney General John Ashcroft spent more than $200,000 of taxpayer money on trips to 32 cities in August and September of 2003 to specifically whip up public support for the Patriot Act. In the process, Ashcroft may have broken the law. A 2002 federal law explicitly prohibits federal funds from being used by any executive branch agency – including the Justice Department – to lobby the public for support or defeat of legislation pending before the Congress. Ashcroft's trips came immediately after the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan amendment, sponsored by Rep. Butch Otter (R-ID), which would have limited the Patriot Act – something Ashcroft opposed and was using public money to campaign against. Ashcroft even traveled to Otter's home district to publicly lobby Otter's constituents against reforming the Patriot Act. Again, this behavior by a Cabinet secretary is prohibited by federal law. After two months of Ashcroft's taxpayer-financed trips, Congress reconvened from its summer recess and stripped out the provision from the final bill behind closed doors in a conference committee....