No big deal, really

TheStar.com - Martin knew of fund, ex-PM's aide says
Thanks, Eddie, for showing such loyalty to the party and government that kept you employed for how many years?
That said, there is nothing wrong with a government having a slush fund -- governments need it, as do corporations and every other organization -- because budgeting is neither exact nor precise, particularly given the lead times that governments must use. In your company, you likely call it "petty cash".

Why the hysteria?

CNN.com - Ex-White House aide defends 9/11 allegations - Mar 23, 2004
As my son pointed out, the Bush White House didn't have to respond with such hysteria over the Clark book. They could have just said that of course they were concerned about Iraq, its weapons, its destabilizing effect on the whole middle east, etc, etc. -- which has been exactly the justification for the whole war anyway. So why the hysteria?
I think I feel a conspiracy theory coming on here:
Take the Bush family ties to the Saudi royal family
+ the Saudi connection to Bin Ladens
+ Bush's derision for anything that Clinton or Gore thought was important, including the danger of Al Quaida
+ maybe, Bush being asked, quietly, either by his dad or by the Saudis, to back off Al Quaida and Osama because, after all, Clinton was really just wagging the dog, and Osama was on our side during the war with the Soviets, and the Taliban will let us put a pipeline through Afganistan if we act nicer to them.
So then, maybe, Bush did back off Al Quaida during his first months in office. Which turned out to be a horrible mistake. And maybe that why he wanted Iraq to be responsible for 9.11, not Bin Laden. And maybe that's why the Saudis had to be flown out of the country so quickly after 9.11, before they could say anything embarassing. And maybe that's why Bush became so terrified about Iraq and so fixated on the preemptive doctrine, because he didn't want to make that kind of mistake again. And maybe that's why he has been so reluctant about the 9.11 Commission. And maybe that why the reaction to Clark's book from the Bushies has been so hysterical.

Random thoughts about Martin and Harper

Conservatives prepared to think as one: The Globe and Mail
I have wanted to write something coherent about the Canadian political scene lately, with Harper's star rising as he comes off a leadership victory, and Martin's star apparently falling as he gets mired in the mess Chretien left him with. But all I have right now is some random thoughts:
- for the first time in 35 years, I will vote Liberal in the next federal election. I think Martin's heart is in the right place, and he has the leadership skills to actually implement some of the major political reforms this country needs. He reminds me a little of Roosevelt -- rich, patrician upbringing, intellectual, but he actually listens to people, he wants to make things better for them. And I don't think people appreciate how radical and risky some of his ideas are -- giving more authority and responsibility to backbenchers, making parliamentary committees independent of the Prime Minister's Office -- its revolutionary, I think -- he has the potential to be one of Canada's great prime ministers. I just hope he gets the chance to prove it.
- if Martin wants to get any seats in the West, he had better scrap the gun registry. Helping the beef industry won't get him any political credit, because helping out an industry in trouble is what the federal government is supposed to do anyway. (Chretien always made such a big deal about doing things like this, as though he had a choice. But Canadians know that any government should do what Martin has now done for the cattle growers, that's why we elect these guys in the first place!) No, only dismantling the gun registry would show the west that Martin gets it. In theory, a gun registry is a good idea, of course, but this particular registry is so messed up, it's hopeless. Sometimes amputation is the only solution.
- its impressive that Harper has managed to unite the right, for the first time in 20 years. He's quiet but he is obviously determined, too, and he must have some political skills which I hadn't appreciated before, and that's also going to be good for the country. However, I was totally disgusted with the Conservatives talking about an alliance with the Bloc Quebecois if they get into a minority government in the next election. How opportunistic.

A thousand stories

According to Google News Canada, there are now more than a thousand news stories online about the Clark accusations that Bush and the national security teams ignored Al Quaida before 911, and about the White House trying to rebut the charges. If they do that as poorly as they did tonight on Hardball -- when the deputy national security adviser, whose name I did not catch, showed up trying to blow smoke about an Amazon printout that Clark's book was supposed to be published in mid-April, not mid-March, thereby somehow proving his testimony was being hyped or something, it was pathetic -- it shows how scared they are about what Clark is saying. No smoke without fire.

It's About Time

Finally, the Wall Street Journal does some actual reporting about the Bush administration on 9-11, as opposed to the usual cheerleading.
Most revealing is Bush's Seven-Minute Freeze: ". . . uncut videotape of the classroom visit obtained from the local cable-TV station director who shot it, and interviews with the teacher and principal, show that Mr. Bush remained in the classroom not for mere seconds, but for at least seven additional minutes." It's even more chilling to watch the videotape. The Memory Hole has it.
Here he is, the decisive leader in action, at the 1:15 mark (one minute and 15 seconds after Card has told him "America is under attack!":
And here he is again, at the 4:50 mark:

What would President Gore have done?

CBS News | Did Bush Press For Iraq-9/11 Link? | March 21, 2004
Read this article, then re-read it substituting "President Gore" for President Bush -- doesn't work, does it? "President Gore" was knowledgeable about the Bin Laden danger and took it seriously; his people would not have been re-fighting the cold war, either. He would have followed the Clinton example and begun running an active situation room, particularly when the "chatter" began to increase in June, 2001. And then, who knows what might have been accomplished if the CIA and FBI had been communicating, if the National Secutiry Council had done its job, if...and if, and if...

The vast right-wing conspiracy

Jerry Landay writes a brilliant article in Media Transparency: "The Apparat -- George Bush's Back-Door Political Machine"
I have wondered why, when so many nations of the world, including Canada, are moving toward a more liberal, open, diverse society, the United States seems to be moving backwards. This article explains what has happened in the United States over the last 30 years, the ideology and tactics behind it -- its frightening to realize how entrenched this is, how strategic, how organized -- and how difficult it will be and how much it will cost to turn this around now. Bill Gates, your country needs you!
You know, when I first read Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale 20 years ago, I thought her description of a facist American society went a little over the top. Futurist fiction is supposed to be based on an extrapolation of current trends, and so my enjoyment of the book was tempered by my belief that there was no way the US would ever allow itself to become the kind of state she described in this book. I thought that American pride in their country as a beacon of human and civil rights to the world, their national character of individualism, plus a self-confident swagger which skewered fools and ridiculed government bureaucrats, meant they would never allow a totalitarian political system to develop. More fool I.

You take the blond and I'll take the one with the turban

Slate describes the Guantanamo tribunals as a legal Frankenstein bringing to mind an updating of Young Frankenstein -- starring
Bush as young Dr. Frederik Frankenstein -- "Pardon me, boy, is this the Transylvania Station?"
Rumsfield as Igor - "Could be worse. Could be raining!"
Powell as Inga- "Roll, roll, roll in ze hay"
Rice as Elizabeth - "Sweet mystery of life, I think I've found you"
Dick Cheney as Frau Bluecher - "Neiggghhh!"
Tony Blair as the Police Inspector - "To the castle!"
and Bin Laden as the Monster - "Putting on the Rizzz"
"It could work!"

American faith

Medea Benjamin - A Day For Marching
A powerful statement about the human side of war in Iraq. One thing missing, however -- she could also have written about the terrible long-term effect this war will have on America's faith in itself as a nation of justice, civil rights and peace. When your nation acts as the Bush Administration has done following 911, it shows how brittle, how shallow, and how easily broken, was America's national faith -- one test, and it shattered. And if Bush wins in November, after what he has done to America, then America will be truly lost.

The picture that CNN would not run

She almost looks like she's asleep, doesn't she, until you realize that the top of her skull is gone. This photo is from an early time in the war, and its broadcast on Aljazeera inflamed the Arab world. The American media would not use it.

That's three!

Quebec appeal court paves way for gay marriage
This is terrific -- now Quebec joins Ontario and BC as a place where gay people can get married. It's wonderful. I love my country!

No, and No

MSNBC - A barometer for candidate Bush:
". . . what will happen next time the United States determines there is a threat so serious it must be removed even before provocation.
"Will the world believe it?
Will even America's most stalwart allies like Great Britain risk the enormous political backlash to support us again? "

I thought this would happen -- another botched arrest

MSNBC - All charges dropped against Army chaplain:
Pardon my cynicism, but this is not surprising at all -- after the hysterical media frenzy about these charges, they have come down to nothing at all. Of course, they won't actually admit that, just to make sure that Yee's reputation remains blackened forever --
"Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, commander of the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo Bay, dismissed the more serious charges Friday, citing national security concerns that would arise from the release of evidence"
-- why do I think that the "concern" was that they had no evidence? This, remember, was what happened with the Los Alamos scientist who was supposed to have leaked secrets to the Chinese -- they tried the "national security" excuse that time, too, but a judge would not stand for it and the testimony showed their case was a tissue of fabrications.

How pathetic is this?

"One Year Later: It Wasn"t Us" from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace:
This great article (thanks to War in Context for the link) lists the five most recent Bush administration talking points about the war
"1) the war was a continuation of Clinton policy;
2) everyone thought Saddam had illicit weapons;
3) officials just repeated what the intelligence agencies told them;
4) they never said the threat was imminent; and
5) they never asserted an operational link between Al Qaeda and Iraq. "
In other words
1. it was him
2. it was them
3. it wasn't us
4. we didn't say it
5. we didn't do it
What a pathetic bunch they are. Rumsfield's Sunday talk show appearance hit a new low, and made me suspect Altzheimers -- it appeared that he actually didn't remember having said what he said 18 months ago, when he DID use the "immediate" word.
But I guess anything said pre-war is now "inoperative" as the Nixon White house would have called it.

Isn't it ironic?

the road to surfdom: Powell, before the war:"And there are many other nations that for a variety of reasons don't want to be publicly identified, but are also a part of the coalition of the willing." Tim Dunlap, today: "Pretty funny that they wouldn't tell us who was in the COW and they're now running around screaming at John Kerry for not telling them which leaders told him they don't want Bush reelected."
Thanks, Calpundit, for pointing this one out.