The road to truth is long, and lined the entire way with annoying bastards.
 – Alexander Jablokov

The Radical Fringe

BuzzFlash thinks that bombing Iran is going to be this election cycle’s October surprise.
Associated Press

Bolton: U.N. must now focus on sanctions

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 31, 1:54 PM ET

Iran has left no doubt it intends to seek nuclear weapons now that it has violated a U.N. Security Council deadline to suspend uranium enrichment, and the council must now be ready to impose sanctions, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Thursday. Iran’s president defiantly refused to compromise, saying his country won’t be bullied into giving up its right to nuclear technology.

Security Council unanimity was not needed before taking action against Iran, Bolton said in a reference to continued Chinese and Russian reluctance to move quickly on sanctions.

He spoke shortly after the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran shows no signs of freezing enrichment, adding that Tehran started work on a new batch Aug. 24.

Iran’s refusal to cooperate fully with the IAEA and its continued development of nuclear technology makes clear that it is seeking a nuclear bomb, Bolton told reporters. Iran contends its program is for peaceful purposes.

“There’s simply no explanation for the range of Iranian behavior which we’ve seen over the years other than that they’re pursuing a weapons capability,” Bolton said…

Crooks and Liars

Keith Olbermann Delivers One Hell Of a Commentary on Rumsfeld
By: Jamie Holly on Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 at 6:22 PM - PDT 

Keith had some very choice words about Rumsfeld’s “fascism” comments tonight…

Olbermann delivered this commentary with fire and passion while highlighting how Rumsfeld’s comments echoes other times in our world’s history when anyone who questioned the administration was coined as a traitor, unpatriotic, communist or any other colorful term. Luckily we pulled out of those times and we will pull out of these times.

Remember - Rumsfeld did not just call the Democrats out yesterday, he called out a majority of this country. This wasn’t only a partisan attack, but more so an attack against the majority of Americans…

[Click through to read the transcript and to watch the video.—Caro]

Here’s another take on Rumsfeld’s historical inaccuracies.
TomPaine.com

Rumsfeld’s Misuse Of History
John Prados
August 31, 2006

John Prados is a senior analyst with the National Security Archive in Washington, DC. His forthcoming book is Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA (Ivan Dee Publisher). 

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, said the philosopher George Santayana a century ago. Knowing the facts of history is crucial to much of what we do as a nation and a people, but so is how it is used. And the Bush administration’s use of history—and specifically its use of “appeasement”—requires comment because it is both dangerous and misleading.

In the past week Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has twice invoked the historical analogy to appeasement—referring to the years just before World War II, culminating in the Munich conference of March 1939—to frame the globe’s current struggle with terrorism in apocalyptic terms. Vice President Dick Cheney has used the same analogy, without even gracing it with a name, to defend what he calls the “battle for the future of civilization.”…

The Bushies clearly intend to evoke an atmosphere of shattering events, but their history is fractured and misleading, and their use of this analogy is a throwback to the methods that led America into Vietnam, among the nation’s greatest errors of the last century. In invoking Munich, Secretary Rumsfeld claims that the Western approach was based upon “a sentiment that took root that contended that if only the growing threats . . . could be accommodated, then the carnage . . . could be avoided.” He further presents this as “cynicism and moral confusion” and “a strange innocence” about the world.

None of this is true. There was no mass political movement demanding appeasement of Germany. Rather there was a specific policy choice—made primarily by Sir Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister of the time—to mollify Hitler and gain time for rearmament. In fact, the French wanted to stand on their alliance with the Czechs and fight Hitler, but were persuaded to back down. The British might even have been right within a certain narrow framework: For years they had restricted defense spending and were just starting to correct that, while Hitler’s promises—both to his military and his Italian allies—envisioned no war before 1942, which could have enabled an allied military buildup to bear fruit. The widely accepted charge that the Allies were wrong to “appease” Hitler stemmed in part from Neville Chamberlain’s extravagant declaration that Munich had brought “peace for our time”—when only a short time later World War II broke out…

The correct lesson to be drawn from Munich today is that when presidents and their administrations raise its specter, it is a sure sign they want to pursue extravagant policies, usually of violence, based on narrow grounds with shaky public support. Today the Munich analogy functions as a provocation, a red flag before a bull. It is dangerous because it claims that the only solution to any situation is to fight—Cheney’s point exactly. Having done nothing beyond silly propaganda—despite its own claims—to undermine the jihadists by eliminating the economic and political oppression that form the basis of jihadist appeal, the Bush people counsel that the fight is everything and that talking is “appeasement.” We have seen in Lebanon lately just how misguided is that approach.

Bush administration history is like their reality—faith-based…

The faith is that if you repeat falsehoods enough times the public will believe them. There is another historical analogy there—a real one—to Adolf Hitler’s henchman, Josef Goebbels. He called it the “Big Lie.” No wonder the administration’s flacks need friendly audiences.

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Tom Toles, Washington Post

Americablog

Bush gives “not political” speech at political rally
by Joe in DC - 8/31/2006 09:56:00 AM

Yesterday, Bush told reporters that his upcoming speeches on terrorism weren’t political:

“They’re not political speeches,” Bush said Wednesday when asked if they might have an impact on the congressional elections just over two months away. “They’re speeches about the future of this country, and they’re speeches to make it clear that if we retreat before the job is done, this nation would become even more in jeopardy. These are important times, and I seriously hope people wouldn’t politicize these issues that I’m going to talk about.”

Yet, later that same day, Bush found himself at a political campaign rally giving his terror speech…

So, basically he lied…again. Bush is in campaign mode as is his entire cabinet. Rummy, Cheney and Condi are all giving the same kinds of political speeches. Imagine, just imagine, if this crowd put as much time thinking about ways to solve the Iraq crisis as they do in to politicizing Iraq. A lot fewer American soldiers would be dead. A lot more Iraqis would be alive.

This is also part of the Republican 2006 campaign.
Americablog

Why do I need an ad campaign to remind me about September 11?
by John in DC - 8/31/2006 08:36:00 AM

There’s a new ad campaign meant to apparently remind us that September 11 happened and was a really bad thing.

Where were you when you heard about Sept. 11?…

Unfortunately we live in a country and a society where the dead aren’t just eulogized, they’re propagandized.

You want an ad campaign? Here’s an ad campaign:

Sadly, the five-minute delay in Bush’s response to 9/11 wasn’t shown in Court TV’s otherwise fairly good documentary, On Native Soil.  Here he is, 4 minutes and 45 seconds after being told of the second plane hitting the second tower of the World Trade Center:

I continue to be amazed.
Media Matters for America

Wed, Aug 30, 2006 8:06pm EST

Hannity: “[M]aking sure Nancy Pelosi doesn’t become the [House] speaker” is “worth … dying for”

On the August 29 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Fox News host Sean Hannity sought to encourage Republican voters and candidates to ensure a Republican victory in the November midterm elections by proclaiming that “there are things in life worth fighting and dying for, and one of ‘em is making sure” that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA) “doesn’t become the speaker.” Hannity then urged his listeners to “[i]gnore the polls, ignore the media, ignore the pundits. It’s 70 days to go. The end is not here yet. We still can turn this thing around.”…

And more amazed.
Truthdig.com

Limbaugh: ‘The Government Is Killing the Poor…With Too Much Food.’

Posted on Aug 30, 2006

Rush Limbaugh, pioneer of inane babble, has accused the left, the government and the United Nations of exacerbating the obesity epidemic in America by attempting to feed the hungry.  Limbaugh, in a trail of thought Magellan couldn’t have navigated, used as his inspiration a recent study which noted the prevalence of obesity-related health problems in poor communities…

[Click through to read the transcript and to listen to the audio.—Caro]

They actually get one right at the
Washington Post (see the last two paragraphs)

Ex-Colleague Says Armitage Was Source of CIA Leak

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 29, 2006; Page A06

The leak of information about an undercover CIA employee that provoked a special prosecutor’s investigation of senior White House officials came from then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage, according to a former Armitage colleague at the department. Armitage told newspaper columnist Robert D. Novak in the summer of 2003 that Valerie Plame, the wife of a prominent critic of the Iraq war, worked for the CIA, the colleague said. In October of that year, Armitage admitted to senior State Department officials that he had made the remark, which was based on a classified report he had read…

Seeds of Doubt

Republican Hypocrisy Is Matched Only By Republican Chutzpah Dept.
Talking Points Memo

(August 30, 2006 — 04:02 PM EST // link)

Why did Alaska GOP Sen. Ted Stevens (the $250 million “Bridge to Nowhere” Ted Stevens) say he’s holding up a $15 million proposal to create transparency in government spending?

He’s worried about the cost.

– Justin Rood

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TPM Muckraker

Tomlinson: He’s Here, He’s Crooked, Get Used to It
By Justin Rood - August 30, 2006, 4:01 PM 

Buried amid our nonstop “anonymous holder” coverage yesterday was a real gem of a muck: serial lawbreaker/administration appointee Kenneth Y. Tomlinson got busted — again — for improper activities in another senior post.

But Tomlinson, whom the Washington Post calls a “longtime ally” of Bush adviser Karl Rove, isn’t in danger of losing his new job at the Broadcasting Board of Governors: the White House says it continues to support him, and the Justice Department has declined to prosecute him based on the new findings.

What’s disheartening about Tomlinson is the pattern apparent in his record: he’s not a guy who, in a fit of greed or a moment of weakness, crossed a line. He appears to engage — routinely — in petty, me-first corruption: hiring friends, eschewing proper procedures, getting himself double-paid, and pursuing his own private agenda without regard for the organizations he’s responsible for.

And his boss — the White House, which continues to appoint him to senior posts — lets him get away with it. Why?