Do me a favor and look at the end of this post.

[babylonsister]

:(

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6365736&mesg_id=6365736

[karynnj]

1. Thanks for posting this here - it is tragic that they had no moral courage or integrity

and yes, that goes for Colin Powell, who far too often gets a pass.

[babylonsister]

2. Thanks for reading it. That graph blew my mind. nt

[Island Blue]

3. Selfish Bastards.

These three were more concerned about their careers and/or their legacies (although how this helps, I'm not quite sure) than they were about the Iraqi people or the future of the United States. :grr:

[beachmom]

4. I think this is why the Left continues to go after JK.

Now we know. Back then, little was said. I didn't hate Bush with full passion until 2005, when I learned he himself had declassified docs that Cheney used against Joe Wilson. And Bush never fired anyone over that CIA agent leaking. I viewed him from that moment on as a liar. Before then, I definitely gave much more benefit of the doubt, and had trouble accepting that such evil was occupying the White House. Especially when there was little evidence for all the conspiracy theories being floated by Bush haters. Well, it ended up on a lot of things, they were right (as Glenn Greenwald discussed in his column a few days ago). But ALL OF THEM leveled their hate on Kerry. Go back and read the archives of dkos from 2005. All that hate was saved for Kerry, in many ways moreso than on Bush. And that is why the MSM continues not to take a lot of those lefties seriously: they are anti-social and vindictive. Nobody wants to give credit to jerks like them.

[beachmom]

5. Consortium News puts it all together:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/082209a.html

Editor’s Note: A new book by former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge describes how Bush administration insiders pressed for an escalation in the color-coded threat level the weekend before the 2004 election following a released videotape of Osama bin Laden denouncing George W. Bush.

Ridge says in his book, The Test of Our Times, that Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged the escalation but Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller blocked the move by citing a lack of significant threat evidence.

Ridge writes that he wondered, "Is this about security or politics?" -- and the incident firmed up his decision to quit, which he did, although not until after the election.

However, lost in the debate over Ridge's revelation is evidence that al-Qaeda was almost as eager for Bush to gain a second term as the Republicans were. One senior al-Qaeda leader later confided to a terrorist ally in Iraq that "prolonging the war is in our interest."

Plus, the reason for the threat-elevation discussion -- the release of bin Laden's video -- was being interpretted inside the CIA's analytical division as an attempt by bin Laden to ensure Bush's second term and to make certain Bush's clumsy "war on terror" continued.

Because of the Ridge disclosure, we are re-posting a story from our Archive -- originally published on July 4, 2006 -- regarding bin Laden's clever tactic to keep "crusader" Bush in office:

Go to the link to read the article.