Infuriating!! Let's compare Clarke's supposed profiteering to Bush Co.

[9215]

All day everyday endless talk show and other media shit on Clarke's "ulterior" motives such as profiteering on his book, being a disgruntled bureaucrat, etc. All of this crap spewed without the slightest merit, the media incessantly pounding out exactly what the WhiteHouse wants them to pound out. . Did these whores ever think that people are buying the book because it gives them a much needed counterweight to the corporate whore Press?


These vile reptilian, slithering!!!

A hypothetical encounter:

NOW! STOP CAMERA!!

Refocus on the Bush gang. How about we take a few moments to discuss THEIR profiteering. We know they were obsessed with going into Iraq at the expense of fighting terrorism, but WHHHHY! were they obsessed? The corporate whore, sewer gators NEVER!! ask that question

Remember, keep the focus on the Bushies for a moment longer. Can we do that??

The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, IS Fascism -- Delano Roosevelt


Is there an ulterior motive for Bush to go into Iraq? What about Carlyle group? His Poppy was/is/will be on the board of directors at this "private equity" fund that is heavily invested in defense technologies. Carlyle made a killing in the 1st Gulf War after it sold Defense properties it had bought a few years previously for pennies on the dollar. It's status as a private fund allows it to avoid SEC scrutiny. Coincidently a Bin Laden family member is/was/will be on the board of directors as well. Soon after 9/11 he left the board.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0915-04.htm>

.....the Carlyle Group, an investment consortium which has a big interest in the contracting firm, United Defense. Carlyle's board includes George Bush Sr and James Baker, the former secretary of state. One program alone - the Crusader artillery system - has earned Carlyle more than $2bn in advance government contracts. ..:: The Bush Administration The Bush administration is implicated in the energy business to a stunning degree. Bush is a former director of Harken Energy Corp. and Cheney served as chief executive officer of Halliburton Energy Services Corp. Six other members of the administration, including, in the Commerce Deprtment, Secretary Donald Evans and Undersecretary Kathleen Cooper, went straight from the energy industry to Washington. National Security Council Director Condoleezza Rice served on the board of directors of Chevron. The Center for Public Integrity found <http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=15&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0> that the top 100 Bush appointees collectively had most of their holdings in the energy sector, valuing to almost $150 million.

Can we still stay focused for another minute or so? Thank you very much your weasely, lowlife media whore that knows who butters your buns.

What about Cheney? Could there just possibly be an ulterior motive for him hawking for war while Halliburton gets some seriously profitable contracts. Cheney has lied about the money he has recieved from Halliburton. Halliburton even got the contract to build the jail in GTMO.
He has been called to the matt numerous times by politicians and watchdog groups but won't reply:
Halliburton to rebuild Iraq:

<http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2003/03/06/rtr900049.html>
<snip>
HOUSTON, March 6 (Reuters) - A Halliburton Co. (nyse: HAL - news - people) subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) has won the contract to oversee any firefighting operations at Iraqi oilfields after any U.S.-led invasion, a Defense Department source said on Thursday.
KBR was widely viewed by many in the oilfield services industry as the likely candidate to oversee firefighting in Iraq's oilfields. Halliburton does extensive logistic support work for the U.S. military.
Vice President Dick Cheney served as Halliburton's chief executive officer from 1995 to 2000,.......
Cheney still recieving payment from Halliburton:

Big Time" still on Halliburton's books
Cheney is still paid by Pentagon contractor
Halliburton, the Texas company which has been awarded the Pentagon's contract to put out potential oil-field fires in Iraq and which is bidding for postwar construction contracts, is still making annual payments to its former chief executive, the vice-president Dick Cheney.
more....
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,912515,00.html>


Did You know that Lynne Cheney.....yes that is Dickhead Cheney's wife...is on the board of Lockheed. In case you didn't know that is another Military Industrial Complex co. that makes bookoo bucks off of war (read: blood, sweat and tears of thousands).
Lockheed gets contract for ship missiles: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=315083
The U.S. Navy awarded a $92 million contract yesterday to Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. to deliver MK 41 Vertical Launching Systems (VLS) for three Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers.

Lockheed will subcontract to United Defense of Aberdeen, S.D., to produce subassemblies for the MK 41 VLS, which is capable of launching missiles for every threat in naval warfare, including anti-air, anti-submarine, ship self-defense, land attack and missile defense.
<http://www.sunspot.net/business/bal-bz.digest14jan14,0,4335710.story?coll=bal-business-headlines>




What about Homeland Security? Marvin and Jeb Bush
Marvin and Jeb Bush are investors in Winston Partners. This co. is a member of the Chatteree group that has a very large holding in a company called Sybase that is making a killing making "Patriot Act compliant software" .

http://www.bushnews.com/burns.htm
Not that the Patriot Act is Sybase's only federal conduit. The company
is also a significant government contractor (especially nowadays),
with contracts from the Agriculture Department, the Navy ($2.9 million
in 2001), the Army ($1.8 million in 2001), the Defense Department
($5.3 million in 2001), Commerce, Treasury and the General Services
Administration among others. The federal procurement database lists
Sybase's total awards for 2001 as $14,754,000.
Sybase is only one of the companies with federal contracts from which
Marvin Bush's firm derives financial benefit. Winston Partners'
portfolio also includes Amsec Corp., which got Navy contracts worth
$37,722,000 in 2001.



http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3336.htm
Marvin also was named to the Board of Directors of the Stratesec Company, another large publicly-traded firm. This company is very secretive and you can find virtually nothing about it. Their website does not allow entry to several links unless one has a password. Virginia-based Stratesec is a provider of high-tech security systems. Two of the major customers for which they provide security are the Dulles International Airport at Washington, D.C. and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Stratesec's revenues recently went up by 60%, due to what the company describes as "new customers" Prominent people at Stratesec also include former Reagan operatives including Barry McDaniel and Air Force General James A. Abrahamson (who was involved in the Reagan "Star Wars" project). Stratesec is a company is heavily inter-related with the Kuwam Corporation ("Kuw" = Kuwait; "am" = America). Kuwam is a major Kuwaiti Company into many, many activities including the aircraft business. Stratesec's Chief Executive is also the Managing Director of Kuwam Corporation and Kuwam's Chairman Mishal Yousef Saud Al Sabah sits on Stratesec's Board of Directors. Stratesec is providing the primary security for one of the most sensitive airports in the world. Dulles in D.C., has a heavy middle eastern airline connection.


"Can I hold your attention for a moment longer," I ask the media whore, "while I tell you more about your pimps and his family's profiteering?" Oh, sorry, time for a fucking commercial break. Shit the whole thing is one long commercial break: whores marketing Bushand Co. Why aren't they excited about these revelations I ask myself as I hear one of them selling scented Maxipads or some other vital consumer product. What does this kind of whoring do to ones soul I ask myself. Thinking to myself: "
Pretty soon they will be selling brand name condoms: "Guaranteed not to break no matter how big your dick is......We'll, even pay for the abortion due to product failure......Of course this assumes Roe vs. Wade is not overturned." Then we find out Trojan is a lobbyist to overthrow Roe v. Wade.
Maybe package them in with the Erectile dysfunction medicine......zzzzzzzzzzzzz

"Did you have something else," the news jockey asks.

Yes, thank you very much for allowing me to interrupt your program.

What about Bush friend ex-CIA head James Woolsey? He knows who butters his buns too. He is a key shareholder in Paladin Capital which stands to benefit immensely from the war on terror

<http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,953563,00.html>
James Woolsey, former CIA boss and influential adviser to President George Bush, is a director of a US firm aiming to make millions of dollars from the 'war on terror', The Observer can reveal.
Woolsey, one of the most high-profile hawks in the war against Iraq and a key member of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board, is a director of the Washington-based private equity firm Paladin Capital. The company was set up three months after the terrorist attacks on New York and sees the events and aftermath of September 11 as a business opportunity which 'offers substantial promise for homeland security investment'.
The first priority of Paladin was 'to invest in companies with immediate solutions designed to prevent harmful attacks, defend against attacks, cope with the aftermath of attack or disaster and recover from terrorist attacks and other threats to homeland security'.
Paladin, which is expected to have raised $300 million from investors by the end of this year, calculates that in the next few years the US government will spend $60 billion on anti-terrorism that woul not have been spent before September 11, and that corporations will spend twice that amount to ensure their security and continuity in case of attack.


Then remember David Kay? He was the Weapons inspector who returned empty handed from Iraq and went from saying weapons were surely there and would be found, to they probably would be found to maybe to they don't and never did exist in the space of few short weeks. Well, one thing is for sure the lie of Saddam's WMD's has been very profitable for Kay.



http://www.williambowles.info/ini/ini-0105.html
.......But it's the blatant conflict of interest that's the most important aspect of Kay's role in peddling the lie of Saddam's WMDs, through his relationship to SAIC ('conveniently' terminated last October) and of SAIC's relationship to the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development Council, which is wholy owned by this US defense corporation! A corporation which also has contracts to supply services to the Department of Homeland Security. This is the reality of the 21st century mercenary, where the administration of an occupied country has been handed over, lock, stock and barrel to a company and also through a sub-contract from Vinnell Corp, another mercenary outfit hired by the US government to 'police' Iraq.

What the investigation of David Kay reveals is the incestuous and utterly corrupt, interlocking relationship that exists between defense corporations, the Pentagon, right-wing ideologues and the USUK governments at the highest level, that makes any assertions made by Kay, Bush or Blah not worth the paper they're written on. With billions of dollars of contracts being handed out to corporations that are also involved via people such as Kay and who try and justify the policies that make such contracts possible, is crime of monstrous proportions. A crime that the media ignores completely. This is the real story, and the media need to be called to task for failing to report it..........

..........Let the buyer beware
Kay also has connections to the man who supplied much of the totally discredited information on Iraq’s alleged nuclear weapons programme, Khidir Hamza who, surprise-surprise is also now an employee of SAIC as a member of the Iraqi Reconstruction and Redevelopment Council! Hamza has much to answer for and it’s more than likely that the fabled ‘other documents’ (if they exist at all) that Blah has referred to in connection with the faked Niger yellowcake documents, are the ones supplied to the IAEA in July 1995 by Hamza. .......

Now the chucklehead public sits in bewilderment that our war, sanctioned by Bush, who was sanctioned by god is not going as planned. The above is just a smidgen of the corruption in Operation
Iraqi
Liberation


Then we can't even get Homeland Security to do its main job: analyze threats". Does this have anything to do with those involved in managing the contractors being corrupt?

http://www.politrix.org/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=592

WASHINGTON -- An office overseen by the central intelligence director now plays the key role of analyzing threats to the United States, even though the Department of Homeland Security was opened a year ago for that very reason.

Lawmakers are asking pointed questions about who's in charge, amid worries that the overlap and confusion that plagued intelligence efforts before Sept. 11, 2001, could recur.

<snip>

Critics note that Homeland lacks resource and hasn't hired all the employees Congress has funded.

"It's a joke," said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief who still maintains contacts in the intelligence community. "What do you gain by having a DHS intelligence shop?"

Privately, even some in U.S. law enforcement and intelligence circles have quietly called Homeland's analysts inexperienced and reactionary.


Sure, maybe it is all just a coincidence, but similar profiteering at taxpayers expense and war was a Bushie mainstay in the 80's. In an article "The Family that Preys together" the sleazy, monie grubbing off of the S(L fiasco by the Bushboys is legend. Neil, the philandering jet-setter brother who has Asian call girls call on him unsolicited (fat chance) was a key player in the Silverado scandal and got away scot free.

http://mediafilter.org/caq/BushFamilyPreys.html

"Tell Him...The Vice President's Son" Called "There was no conflict of interest," third Bush son Neil told reporters after the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) in Washington issued a notice of intent in January 1990 to hold a hearing on the failure of Silverado Banking Savings and Loan. Neil had been a member of Silverado's board of directors from 1985 to 1988. *45 Federal regulators shut down Silverado shortly after George Bush was elected president in 1988. The federal bailout cost U.S. taxpayers $1 billion. Neil was responding to charges made in an OTS report that he had "breached his fiduciary duty" to Silverado by engaging in unethical business deals while a board member of the Denver savings and loan. The report documented that Neil personally profited from questionable Silverado loans to his business partners, Ken Good and Bill Walters. Good and Walters later defaulted on $132 million in loans to Silverado, leaving the taxpayers to pick up the tab. The OTS report alleged that Neil failed to disclose his business connections to Good and Walters when he voted to approve a $900,000 line of credit to Good International, Inc. Neil got Silverado to write a letter of recommendation to authorities in Argentina, where Good International, in partnership with Neil's JNB Exploration Company, was exploring for gas and oil. Good also gave the President's third son a $100,000 loan to invest in the commodities market, which Bush was never required to repay.


Dubya himself made a killing on a quick sell of his stock in Harken just before it dropped shortly before the 1st Gulf War and failed to file with the SEC. Did Poppy tip off Junior to upcoming events and help the dimson out when authorities came calling?

Meanwhile, Jeb and his business partner Armando Codina profited handsomely when the Bush administration bailed out Broward Federal Savings and Loan in Sunrise, Florida, which went belly up in 1988. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) absorbed $285 million in bad loans, including a $4.6 million loan by the Bush-Codina partnership. According to the deal struck by federal regulators, the Bush-Codina partnership wrote a check for $505,000 to the FDIC, and the government paid off the remaining $4.1 million of the loan for an office building on which Jeb and Codina defaulted. As a result of the bailout, the Bush-Codina partnership retained possession of its office building at 1390 Brickell Avenue in Miami's posh financial district. Currently, Jeb is involved in a number of joint ventures with Codina, a Miami real estate developer who is also a leader of the right-wing Cuban American National Foundation (CANF). The Brickell Avenue office building is owned by IntrAmerica Investments. Jeb was listed in business documents in 1985 and in 1986 as the president of IntrAmerica Investments, and the building is managed by one of Jeb's real estate companies. Codina owns 80 percent of the building, while Jeb owns the remaining 20 percent.

Even Poppy's brother Prescott got in on the action.

Prescott Bush, Jr., the president's older brother, also has a knack for nailing down "incredible deal." Prescott took advantage of his brother's first presidential visit abroad in February 1989 to schedule a business trip to the same countries-China, Japan and South Korea. Prescott arrived in Tokyo February 14, 1989, ten days before President Bush's stop in Japan, to drum up business for Prescott Bush Resources Ltd., a real estate and development consulting company. Prescott said he was dealing with four Japanese companies wanting to do business in the U.S. From Japan, Prescott went to China, where he had a joint partnership with Akoi Corporation to develop an $18 million golf course and resort near Shanghai. Prescott had introduced the Tokyo-based Akoi to Chinese officials in 1988. With a 30 percent stake in the project, Prescott used his China connections to pave the way for capital-rich Akoi. Akoi had run into business obstacles in China because of lingering Chinese resentment over Japan's brutal occupation of China in the 1930s and 1940s.
Some of Prescott's most controversial business deals have been with Asset Management International Financing & Settlement Ltd., a Wall Street investment firm which has been in bankruptcy proceedings since fall 1991. Prescott was hired by Asset Management, which paid him a $250,000 fee for consulting in its joint venture with China to set up its internal communications network. Asset Management enlisted Prescott's services soon after President Bush imposed economic sanctions in June 1989 in response to Beijing's brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrators in Tienanmen Square. Under the sanctions, United States export licenses were suspended for $300 million worth of Hughes Aircraft satellites, a key component of Asset Management's joint venture with the Chinese government. The satellites would beam television programming to broadcasters in China and provide telecommunications links for the country's far-flung provinces. In November 1989, Congress passed additional sanctions specifically barring the export of U.S. satellites to China unless the president found the sale "in the national interest." On December 19, 1989, President Bush lifted the sanctions that blocked the satellite deal, citing "the national interest." Two months earlier, the Bush administration had granted Hughes Aircraft "preliminary licenses" to exchange data with Chinese officials to ensure that the satellites met the technical specifications of the Long March rockets which would launch them into space. Meanwhile, Prescott was hard at work in the summer of 1989 as middleman in the takeover of Asset Management by West Tsusho, a Tokyo-based investment firm linked to one of Japan's biggest mob syndicates. Prescott, as head of Prescott Bush & Co., received a $250,000 "finder's fee" from West Tsusho when the deal was closed and was promised an annual retainer of $250,000 over the next three years as a

"consultant."




The US pressures UN members with blackmail:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/03/06/001.html>

The Coalition of willing: http://members.tripod.com/~Daredevil_30/peace/coalition.html
Facts about our "coalition of the coerced and the bribed"
Tidbits from the Feb. 2003 CIA Factbook about our "coalition of the coerced and the bribed" the majority of which are some of the poorest countries on the face of the earth with populations not even equaling that of Newark, NJ. Many are both heavily involved in drug trafficing and violating human rights. What does that message send?
Albania-Population-3,544,841 Economy-overview: Poor and backward by European standards
Australia-Population-19,546,792 Economy-overview: prosperous Western-style capitalist economy
Azerbaijan-Population-7,798,497 Economy-overview: Azerbaijan's number one export is oil. Population below poverty line:64%
Bulgaria-Population-7,621,337 Economy-overview: high rates of poverty and unemployment.
Colombia-Population-41,008,227 Population below poverty line:55% Unemployment rate:17%
producer of coca, opium poppy, and cannabis; world's leading coca cultivator
Czech Republic-Population-10,256,760 Economy-overview: stable and prosperous
Denmark-Population-5,368,854 Economy-overview: modern market economy
El Salvador-Population-6,353,681 Economy-overview: 48% below poverty line, 10,029km road system of which 8,043 km unpaved. Airports-83, paved-4.
Eritrea-Population-4,465,651 Economy-overview:desperately poor country GDP-per capita:$740
Estonia-Population-1,415,681 Economy-overview: emerging economy, transshipment point for opiates and cannabis from Southwest Asia and the Caucasus via Russia, cocaine from Latin America to Western Europe and Scandinavia, and synthetic drugs from Western Europe to Scandinavia
Ethiopia-Population-67,673,031 Economy-overview: poverty-stricken economy GDP-per capita:$704
Population below poverty line:64% lack of a well-developed financial system Economic aid-2001-$308 million
Georgia-Population-4,960,951 Economy-overview: severe damage suffered due to civil strife
Population below poverty line:54% Unemployment rate:17%
Hungary-Population-10,075,034 14.8% over 65. Economy-overview: relativly strong economy with less than 10% of population below poverty line. Foreign ownership of and investment in Hungarian firms totaling more than $23 billion since 1989. 90% of it's exports are in machinery and manufactured goods.
Italy-Population-57,715,625 18.6% over 65. Economy-overview: Italy's economic performance has lagged behind that of its EU partners. Persistent problems include illegal immigration, the ravages of organized crime, corruption, high unemployment, and the low incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the prosperous north.
Japan-Population-126,974,628 Economy-overview: the second most powerful economy in the world
third largest economy in the world after the US and China. comparatively small defense allocation (1% of GDP)
South Korea-Population-48.324 million Economy-overview: strong export economy with one of the lowest unemployment/poverty rates (4%) in the world.
Latvia-Population-2,366,515 Economy-overview: slowly becoming self-sufficient as a manufacturing economy, but with low population and being slightly larger than West Virginia, they are solely dependent on imports for energy and exports for capital.
Lithuania-Population-3,601,138 Economy-overview: Baltic state that has conducted the most trade with Russia 77% Electricity production by nuclear with electricity exports of 6.3 billion kWh producing stable annual revenues. Total annual trade deficit however is in excess of $1 billion.
Macedonia-Population-2,054,800 Economy-overview: the least developed of the Yugoslav republics. Population below poverty line:24% Unemployment rate:39% major transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and hashish
Netherlands-Population-16,067,754 Economy-overview: prosperous and open economy HOWEVER major European producer of illicit amphetamine and other synthetic drugs; important gateway for cocaine, heroin, and hashish entering Europe; major source of US-bound ecstasy.
Nicaragua-Population-5,023,818 Economy-overview: one of the hemisphere's poorest countries
low per capita income, huge external debt, with only 320,000 televisions in the entire country. (I guess FAUX news isn't real popular there).
Philippines-Population-84,525,639 Economy-overview: not the brightest bulb in the Asian-Pacific region. Over $50 Billion in external debt. exports locally produced marijuana and hashish to East Asia, the US, and other Western markets; serves as a transit point for heroin and crystal methamphetamine
Poland-Population-38,625,478 Economy-overview: one of the most successful and open transition economies in the world. major illicit producer of amphetamine for the international market
Romania-Population-22,317,730 Economy-overview: one of the poorest countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Population below poverty line:45%. Inflation rate:35%

Slovakia-Population-5,422,366 Economy-overview: Growing in spite of high enemployment. The banking sector is almost completely in foreign hands.
Spain-Population-40,077,100 Economy-overview: Spain has played a catch-up role in the western international community with a GDP that on a per capita basis is 80% that of the four leading West European economies.
Turkey-(still not a firm member of the coalition)-Population-67,308,928 Economy-overview: dynamic economy but with an annual inflation rate approaching 70%. Turkish, Iranian, and other international trafficking organizations operate out of Istanbul; laboratories to convert imported morphine base into heroin are in remote regions of Turkey as well as near Istanbul; government maintains strict controls over areas of legal opium poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate.
United Kingdom-Population-59,778,002 Economy-overview:leading trading power and financial center, is one of the quartet of trillion dollar economies of Western Europe. Annual military expendures exceed total GDP for 2/3 of the members of the coalition combined.
Uzbekistan-Population-25,563,441 Economy-overview: Economic policies that have repelled foreign investment are a major factor in the economy's stagnation. A growing debt burden, persistent inflation, and a poor business climate highlight the Soviet-style economy, a large producer of gold and oil, and a regionally significant producer of chemicals and machinery. Military expenditures annualy less than $200 million.
So there you have it. You can come to your own conclusions about our coalition. But with the exception of the UK and Australia, you won't see any help except lip service and an extended hand for aid in the future. Oh, and don't forget to look the other way as they participate in the illicit drug trade the Shrub administration is so desperately trying to eradicate.

I was going to mention something about the news media profiting from the war, especially from promoting the war. But they have a good reason here: people don't like to see negative things about the war. So why show them? Hard to get this message out through the medium that is guilty.

News media profits from hype of war.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/CA286548.htm
Covering war protesters may be bad for business. That's among the findings of new research from Frank N. Magid Associates, the influential news consulting firm.
Getting the News Where viewers go first for war newsSourceShare of respondentsCable news*45%Network news**22%Local TV news20%Other media11%Where they go nextSourceShare of respondentsLocal TV news27%Network news**22%Cable news16%Internet15%Newspapers10%Radio8%*CNN, Fox News Channel, Headline News, MSNBC and CNBC **The evening newscasts of ABC, CBS and NBC Source: Frank N. Magid Associates, survey of 6,400 TV viewers In a survey of 6,400 viewers on their attitudes regarding Iraq and the media, the news consulting firm found that the viewers had little interest in anti-war protests. Magid doesn't tell news directors to avoid protests. It just says viewers tend to hate seeing them.
"Obviously, you have to give both sides of the story,'' says Senior Vice President Brian Greif. "But how much time you devote to and where you place it in your newscast becomes an issue."
According to Grief, the research ranks war-related topics by viewer interest. Protest coverage was at the bottom.
Near the top are stories about technology that can protect troops or citizens at home, particularly in markets seen as terrorist targets or with large military bases, Greif says. "Viewers find a lot of value in those stories.
"The issue for the local stations-and it comes through loud and clear-is that, if they take a traditional approach to their coverage they are making a big mistake."
For proprietary reasons, Magid did not to release the entire list of story preferences, but Magid's research usually gets the attention of news professionals, because as news doctors, their prescriptions usually help.
The study says that 45% of Americans rely on cable news channels as their principal source of war news, twice as many (22%) as those who turn first to the broadcast networks' evening newscasts (see chart).
The most popular second stop for war news is local TV stations, the research says. Viewers are turning to cable first because of the convenience, Greif says. They know that they will get the latest news from the front. Then, he says, they turn to local newscasts "for the local perspective and the local impact."
Greif is not surprised that viewers see local newscast as a better second choice than the broadcast networks' evening newscasts (27% vs. 22%). The evening newscast tends to repeat what is on cable, he says. Plus, "viewers have a higher level of trust, a higher level of comfort with local stations than they do with the networks."
He was also impressed that Fox almost tied CNN as the preferred cable channel (CNN wins, 37% to 36%). "The study is a strong indication of how strong Fox has become in a short period of time."


Bechtel says Iraq war about Oil.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/viewtopic.php?topic=19789&forum=17
...The study, which discloses the intimate links between the Bechtel Corporation and Bechtel executives and U.S. policy towards Iraq, also shows that some key players in the push for America's war against Iraq, including Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, and other former Reagan administration officials Roger Robinson, Judge William B. Clark and Robert McFarlane, have been intimately involved in issues relating to Iraqi oil as far back as the1980s....

The other partner of Carlyle, Bin Laden also is in on the action. These incestuous convolutions would make Machiavelli blush.


The BIN LADEN Family: The REAL 9-11 clean up...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=1135&forum=DCForumID70
My thought for today: As you probably know, former President George Bush and former British Prime Minister John Major both sit on the board of Carlyle Group.
The Nation, on March 27, 2000 - in a story co-authored by David Corn and Paul Lashmar - wrote, "In January former President George Bush and former British Prime Minister John Major paid a social call on Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah..." This story confirms at least one meeting between the elder Bush and Saudi leaders, including the bin Ladens. That the bin Ladens attended this meeting was confirmed in a subsequent September 27, 2001 Wall Street Journal (WSJ) story. The January 2000 meeting with the bin Ladens was also later confirmed by Bush (the elder's) Chief of Staff Jean Becker, only after the WSJ presented her with a thank you note sent by Bush to the bin Ladens after that meeting.
James Baker visited the bin Ladens in 1998 and 1999 with Carlyle Group CEO Frank Carlucci.
The WSJ story went on to note, "A Carlyle executive said that the bin Laden family committed $2 million through a London investment arm in 1995 in Carlyle Partners II Fund, which raised $1.3 billion overall. The fund has purchased several aerospace companies among 29 deals. So far, the bin Laden family has received $1.3 million back in completed investments and should ultimately realize a 40% annualized rate of return, the Carlyle executive said.
"But a foreign financier with ties to the bin Laden family says the family's overall investment with Carlyle is considerably larger..."
In other words... Osama bin Laden's attacks on the WTC and Pentagon, with the resulting massive increase in the U.S. defense budget has made the bin Laden family a great big freeking pile of money.


There is alot more info on the state of fascism in the US.

[0007]

1. .....and you look and see who's chairing the 911 Investigation

and the nitwit repukes that are commissioned to sit with Thomas Kean -

Now you would think that being a business partner of the brother in law and alleged financier of "Enemy No. 1" would be considered a bona fide "conflict of interest", particularly when your mandate --as part of the 9/11 Commission's work-- is to investigate "Enemy No. 1".

New Chairman of 9/11 Commission
had business ties with Osama's Brother in Law
by Michel Chossudovsky

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO212A.html

[9215]

4. Nice addition. Thanks

And Zelikow. I'm posting a topic on him soon

[Bread and Circus]

2. I am becoming so cynical. I hardly feel this is America anymore.

[peacetalksforall]

3. Do you feel we are surrounded and being taken over...

Are they simply and only pompous, arrogant theives and liars who are hell bent on ruining our country?

[9215]

5. Kick