Neo-Conservatism=Mental Illness

[Stephanie]

They have scraped the bottom of the barrel. They can't stoop any lower. It's so transparent I don't think there's anyone left who's buying. What do you think? Can they spin this?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25176-2004Mar25.html

Analysis
White House Wages A War on Clarke
Bush Aides Move to Head Off Damage

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 26, 2004; Page A01

As his advisers tell it, President Bush had tired of the White House playing defense on issue after issue. So this week, his aides turned the full power of the executive branch on Richard A. Clarke, formerly the administration's top counterterrorism official, who charges in his new book that Bush responded lackadaisically in 2001 to repeated warnings of an impending terrorist attack.
Click here!

Bush's aides unleashed a two-pronged strategy that called for preemptive strikes on Clarke before most people could have seen his book, coupled with saturation media appearances by administration aides. They questioned the truthfulness of Clarke's claims, his competence as an employee, the motives behind the book's timing, and even the sincerity of the pleasantries in his resignation letter and farewell photo session with Bush.

The barrage was unusual for a White House that typically tries to ignore its critics, and it was driven by White House calculations that Clarke would appear credible to average viewers. Bush's advisers are concerned that Clarke's assertions are capable of inflicting political damage on a president who is staking his claim for reelection in large measure on his fight against terrorism.

<snip>

"They are vulnerable, which is why they are attacking so hard," Thurber said. "You have to go back to Vietnam or Watergate to get the same feel about the structure of argument coming out of the White House against Clarke's statements. They've had multiple people rebutting him, with information that is incomplete and selective at best."

<more>

[DWright]

1. hi Stef

No, I don't think they're gonna get away with it. There are too many witnesses. Check this Salon story...

http://salon.com/news/feature/2004/03/26/translator/index_np.html

A former FBI wiretap translator with top-secret security clearance, who has been called "very credible" by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has told Salon she recently testified to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States that the FBI had detailed information prior to Sept. 11, 2001, that a terrorist attack involving airplanes was being plotted.

Referring to the Homeland Security Department's color-coded warnings instituted in the wake of 9/11, the former translator, Sibel Edmonds, told Salon, "We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001. There was that much information available." Edmonds is offended by the Bush White House claim that it lacked foreknowledge of the kind of attacks made by al-Qaida on 9/11. "Especially after reading National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice where she said, we had no specific information whatsoever of domestic threat or that they might use airplanes. That's an outrageous lie. And documents can prove it's a lie."

Edmonds' charge comes when the Bush White House is trying to fend off former counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke's testimony that it did not take serious measures to combat the threat of Islamic terrorism, and al-Qaida specifically, in the months leading up to 9/11.

[buycitgo]

7. hey, thanks for headsup!

longer version of this story from Gail Sheehy, whose on TOP of the commission whitewash in a big way

she appears to be championing the cause of Kristen Breitweiser and the other NJ widows, and the 911 families, by extension

http://www.gailsheehy.com/9_11/9_11_art1_21.html

this one made me so mad, I couln't sleep last night

check this thread for more, including another Sheehy article that details what a farce having Zelikow as gatekeeper most likely will be, and how this commission is just as bad as Warren or Iran/Contra

Kerry should campaign on establishing a REAL commission as his first official act

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1291328

[jaijoe1]

2. Hi Stef & Denis!

I think it's backfiring on them and now they're hoping it'll just go away in the next news cycle.

The average person can think of only one reason Condi won't testify under oath and it reflects badly on her and Bush.

[Zan_of_Texas]

3. Hi Stef, Denis, Doug

Just came to check out the digs. Hmmmm, no imported beer on draft. Oh well. It will do.

[jaijoe1]

4. Hiya Zan

Hey does anyone remember the first time Bush said "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists"?

I think it was either his SOTU in November 2001 or an address to the U.N.

[Richard_TAP]

5. 'ello, 'ello, 'ello?!

Well, I finally found my way here, but it seems not many of the others have yet.

Thanks for the 'road-map' Stef & Doug. I've got email addies for Noel and Didius, if they're not on your lists. If you need them, let me know and I'll email them to you.

[jaijoe1]

6. Hi Richard

Zan & Rosemary gave me those adresses, thanks tho.

I found the speech where Bozo said with us or agin' us, it was September 20th, 2991.

[buycitgo]

8. "joe".....

grasaswire know about this?

there's also this WPost story

This week's testimony and media blitz by former White House counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke has returned unwanted attention to his former boss, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

The refusal by President Bush's top security aide to testify publicly before the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks elicited rebukes by commission members as they held public hearings without her this week. Thomas H. Kean (R), the former New Jersey governor Bush named to be chairman of the commission, observed: "I think this administration shot itself in the foot by not letting her testify in public."

At the same time, some of Rice's rebuttals of Clarke's broadside against Bush, which she delivered in a flurry of media interviews and statements rather than in testimony, contradicted other administration officials and her own previous statements.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage contradicted Rice's claim that the White House had a strategy before 9/11 for military operations against al Qaeda and the Taliban; the CIA contradicted Rice's earlier assertion that Bush had requested a CIA briefing in the summer of 2001 because of elevated terrorist threats; and Rice's assertion this week that Bush told her on Sept. 16, 2001, that "Iraq is to the side" appeared to be contradicted by an order signed by Bush on Sept. 17 directing the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25177-2004Mar25.html

is rice, uh, toast?

[jaijoe1]

9. Hiya. Yeah I hope she's toast

I was just saying how sweet it is to see her having this statement come back at her:

i **Democratic commission member Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed this week that Rice had asked, in her private meetings with the commission, to revise a statement she made publicly that "I don't think anybody could have predicted that those people could have taken an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center . . . that they would try to use an airplane as a missile." Rice told the commission that she misspoke; the commission has received information that prior to Sept. 11, U.S. intelligence agencies and Clarke had talked about terrorists using airplanes as missiles.

[buycitgo]

10. whoaaaaa, is that from the post article above?

I still can't get in there

grasswire has emailed me a few froomkin stories, but I can't read anything past the clips

the Post's new ID setup bypasses the salon/tabletalk ID, and they won't accept any personal info I give them

ergooooooooooohhhhhhhhh, I can't read stuff

really annoying

suggestions?

meanwhile, from one of the reddest states of all:

His assertions come in his new book, Against all Enemies, which is rocketing to the top of the bestseller lists, and which the Bush administration sees as a serious threat to Bush’s “War President” façade. Clarke says when he told the Bush cabinet that Afghanistan’s al Qaeda claimed responsibility for 9/11, Bush insisted on finding “any thread” to link the bombings to Iraq. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was quoted as having said: “But there aren’t any good targets in Afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in Iraq.”

Needless to say, the Bush administration is fighting back with everything it’s got. National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice-President Cheney are all on the stump trying hard to discredit the veracity of Clarke’s assertions.

In this grim national debate of “he said, she said,” it has now come down to a question of “Whom do you believe?” In that equation, the Bush team comes up very short, thanks to its almost endless list of lies, distortions, false threats, and ostentatious declarations of victory.

On the other side of the equation, you have the man charged with leading the fight against the shadowy underworld of terrorism by the last four presidents—three of whom were Republicans. At the height of his long and distinguished professional career, why would Clarke suddenly want to engender the well-known wrath of the Bush administration toward its critics? The answer, that Clarke must do this for the good of the nation, rings as true as a clarion bell in the misty twilight of secrecy in which the Bush administration has cloaked our country.
http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=3937

[Richard_TAP]

11. Revise ??????? Misspoke ?????

Ha! That's rich. She wants to "revise" what she "misspoke".

Call me dim, if you want, but to me, that means only one of two things.

Either she was lying then, or she wants to lie now.

A liar's a liar. Past tense, present tense or future tense; it makes no difference. Lies are lies - period. She was a liar, is a liar and will always be a liar.

[buycitgo]

12. pip, pip and cheerio, richard!

I started a thread about this

I'm even MORE angry the more I think about it

what's a good Britslang word for furious?

I was going to used pissed, but it's way too early in the day, heehaw

on second thought, perhaps a bit of Pimm's Cup?

what is that, anyway?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1294693#1294795

[Richard_TAP]

19. Can't think of anything better than ...

PISSED! Except that over here we always add OFF!

BTW, I'd recognise you anywhere, brad. Pip, pip for now!

[Stephanie]

14. Wow!! You see!

They are going down over LIHOP!! They did it!

[jaijoe1]

15. What's LIHOP?

[Zan_of_Texas]

17. Hey

LIHOP - re 9-11 means BushCo Let It Happen On Purpose.
MIHOP - Made it Happen on Purpose

I miss everybody! I know, I see you. Richard, hi! <waving>

Anyway, here's a humor break. New animation by Fiore.

Kinda fits in with the rule to deceive, as espoused by Leo Strauss and Machiavelli.

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=16655

By the way, that's an impressive PNAC Strauss archive Stef set up here in the neighborhood (Newbies -- hit the link above for Bush, Conservatives, and Conservatism and you should see it)

As for Condi -- yes, she's asked privately to change one of our favorite lies, that they hadn't a CLUE, not a CLUE that someone would use airplanes to attack things.

AND, according to the NYT yesterday, Condi is preparing to leave her job at the end of the year. That's all the article said, just slipped in half a sentence.

[jaijoe1]

22. Ah, OK thanks. I agree Stef.

[Stephanie]

13. It's a tradition at DU to say

Welcome to DU, to new DU posters.

Welcome to DU, Richard_TAP!! Good reads will be found in the folders General Discussion and Late Breaking News.

xx
S

[Zan_of_Texas]

16. Hey -- oops, double post. Deleted

[Richard_TAP]

20. Hiya, Zan!

Sheesh - this place certainly takes some getting used to. For a "newbie" like me, anyhow.

[buycitgo]

21. kinda sux, doesn't it, compared to the other place, in terms of

user friendliness

especially if you're trying to navigate a longer thread

real PITA

[buycitgo]

23. valuable resource cache on whistleblowers

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1293947

[Richard_TAP]

18. Thanks, Stephanie [Stef]

I actually registered here many moons ago, when you gave me the link at the time w-xing was driving us all crazy, before we moved to PF.

I lurked for a while but until now, never got round to posting.

[harperpine]

24. Hi everybody,

just seeing if this works. Thanks for setting this up, Stef.

[Zan_of_Texas]

25. Hey! Is that you harper?

Where's Phyl? Who brought popcorn?

[harperpine]

26. Hi Zan,

yeah, it is I. Or c'est moi. Just watched Powell lie in a non-agitated way to Jim Lehrer and David Brooks admit that the worst thing the administration could have done was spend all week attacking Clarke. Now watching the re-run of last night's Daily Show.

[Zan_of_Texas]

27. Great that you're here.

Meanwhile, relative to nothing here, but too good to miss!

Check this out for your political/geographic entertainment.

Find out who in your very own zip code donated at least $200 to a presidential campaign.

http://www.fundrace.org You just go to the website, click on Neighbor Search, then type in your own, or some other, zipcode and enter. It will bring up lists of names of donors, how much they donated and to whom in the Presidental race. They also have colorful maps of neighborhoods of whole cities, by political donation.

[Zan_of_Texas]

29. Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

Our man on the tech job says:

8:01 PM: The word on the e-street is that the import is "almost done". It's not clear whether we will be able to get our hands on the database tonight, or whether it will be in the morning-- but I'm optimistic for tonight. Of course, I'm an optimist in general, so take it for what it's worth. There has been a lot of back-and-forth e-mail traffic about this topic, so I'm not eager to press for a more specific estimate. We're just waiting. Hang tight.

[Pale Blue Dot]

28. A big DU welcome to all the newbies in this thread!

It's great to have all of you here!

:toast:

[Richard_TAP]

30. Thanks Finnfan

It's good of you to say so, and nice to meet you.

[Zan_of_Texas]

31. humor

Okay, also off-topic (hey, Stef, this IS a free-for-all, I hope?), but have a free laugh.

http://shrubya.com/alert.html

Homosechsual Alert -- color coding system

[indigobusiness]

32. A sick mind is better than no mind at all...

Condi Denied Cell Next To Martha


Get your honest news here:
http://sludgereport.blogspot.com

[DWright]

33. Hi all!

Just popping by to say hello. It's a GORGEOUS day here and I'd better take advantage of it before it gets scorching hot.

LIHOP = Let It Happen On Purpose

I can't stand it that TAPA is down for this. Arrrrrggghh! But thanks, Stef, for setting this up, and thanks for the warm welcome from DUers...

[buycitgo]

34. hey, denis

seen this?

http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.asp?id=287

interview with Hunter Thompson:

>>>What do you think of the state of America today vs. when you were writing in the 60s and 70s?

Ho, it's a whole different game. Yeah, this is a, uh, oh, a corporate, uh state, really. Pretty much on the order of uh...

>>>Like the Weimar Republic, kinda?

Yeah, yeah exactly. There we go! And it's ah, I don't know, National Socialism in a way, that would be a good conversation. Let's, wait, let's say something about that. Let me hear, what do you think about that, just, I'll go on, I just want a little uh... lets see, the thing that fascinates me is, I've been reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich again. I see parallels throughout the Third Reich to the extent where I often refer to this as the Fouth Reich.

>>>The post-American Century then.

Well it's a convenient break you know, the new century. And it just happens to be that we started off with, well, you might call it a bang, you know? Why the voters in this country continue to vote for the same people who plunge them into economic doldrums and real trouble?

>>>Why do you think that is?

That is what brings us I guess to the uh, Third Reich and that comparison. It baffles me, enrages me. And I can't, it seems to me like simple stupidity.

>>>You think people are just dumb?

Well, the education country, the patriotism, the boom boom boom drum, and the propaganda, and the cooperative media, yeah. That, well come to think of it, the Germans were economically stricken, weren't they?

>>>Yes, that's why they weren't so opposed to getting the Nazis in.

Exactly but, the country on paper, in a state of prosperity. And we know better about who was, you know, what stocks were really worth what. But, it was a prosperous country, seemingly, people weren't wheeling wheelbarrows of dollar bills through the streets to buy a loaf of bread. And, just to watch the quality of life in this country go down and down, and lesser expectations of happiness and freedom and discretionary income, leisure, all the things that seemingly defined this country uh, in the past let's say 50 years. It has been... moving forward and upward, a lot of quarrels in there, a lot of things to argue about, but I don't think it has been, in most peoples eyes, a nation where the current generation of children can, and does look forward to a standard of living lesser and
lower than their parents. You know, not live as well.

[Richard_TAP]

35. TAPA's back up, Denis.

But enjoy your lovely weather first. See you later.

BTW, hi, brad.

[buycitgo]

36. is not! is there some other way to get in?

hey, richard

got any early grey for me?

[Gabi Hayes]

38. hey! buycitgo, you're the MAN!

wait a minute....that's.....me.

what's going on around here?

[Gabi Hayes]

37. wtf? this won't work, will it?

I googled "conservatism=mental illness" and this came up!

[Augdog20]

39. Neo con with Crowley, Ingraham ties calls for making Bush *president for life*

Philip Atkinson, published in familysecuritymatters.org, called for making George Bush President for Life. He said that "The inadequacy of Democracy, rule by the majority, is undeniable."
He also called for removing all Arabs from Iraq.

familysecuritymatters.org
is a project of the Center for Security Policy, which has Monica Crowley, Frank Gaffney and Laura Ingraham as board members.

Check the article on the psycho op-ed peice (No, it's not from "The Onion.")
http://watchingthewatchers.org/news/1290/conservative-group-calls-bush