http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=743

Indications Saddam Was Not in Hiding But a Captive




DEBKAfile Special Report

December 14, 2003, 6:55 PM (GMT+02:00)


A number of questions are raised by the incredibly bedraggled, tired and crushed condition of this once savage, dapper and pampered ruler who was discovered in a hole in the ground on Saturday, December 13:

1. The length and state of his hair indicated he had not seen a barber or even had a shampoo for several weeks.

2. The wild state of his beard indicated he had not shaved for the same period

3. The hole dug in the floor of a cellar in a farm compound near Tikrit was primitive indeed – 6ft across and 8ft across with minimal sanitary arrangements - a far cry from his opulent palaces.

4. Saddam looked beaten and hungry.

5. Detained trying to escape were two unidentified men. Left with him were two AK-47 assault guns and a pistol, none of which were used.

6. The hole had only one opening. It was not only camouflaged with mud and bricks – it was blocked. He could not have climbed out without someone on the outside removing the covering.

7. And most important, $750,000 in 100-dollar notes were found with him (a pittance for his captors who expected a $25m reward)– but no communications equipment of any kind, whether cell phone or even a carrier pigeon for contacting the outside world.

According to DEBKAfile analysts, these seven anomalies point to one conclusion: Saddam Hussein was not in hiding; he was a prisoner.

After his last audiotaped message was delivered and aired over al Arabiya TV on Sunday November 16, on the occasion of Ramadan, Saddam was seized, possibly with the connivance of his own men, and held in that hole in Adwar for three weeks or more, which would have accounted for his appearance and condition. Meanwhile, his captors bargained for the $25 m prize the Americans promised for information leading to his capture alive or dead. The negotiations were mediated by Jalal Talabani’s Kurdish PUK militia.

These circumstances would explain the ex-ruler’s docility – described by Lt.Gen. Ricardo Sanchez as “resignation” – in the face of his capture by US forces. He must have regarded them as his rescuers and would have greeted them with relief.

From Gen. Sanchez’s evasive answers to questions on the $25m bounty, it may be inferred that the Americans and Kurds took advantage of the negotiations with Saddam’s abductors to move in close and capture him on their own account, for three reasons:

A. His capture had become a matter of national pride for the Americans. No kudos would have been attached to his handover by a local gang of bounty-seekers or criminals. The country would have been swept anew with rumors that the big hero Saddam was again betrayed by the people he trusted, just as in the war.

B. It was vital to catch his kidnappers unawares so as to make sure Saddam was taken alive. They might well have killed him and demanded the prize for his body. But they made sure he had no means of taking his own life and may have kept him sedated.

C. During the weeks he is presumed to have been in captivity, guerrilla activity declined markedly – especially in the Sunni Triangle towns of Falluja, Ramadi and Balad - while surging outside this flashpoint region – in Mosul in the north and Najef, Nasseriya and Hilla in the south. It was important for the coalition to lay hands on him before the epicenter of the violence turned back towards Baghdad and the center of the Sunni Triangle.

The next thing to watch now is not just where and when Saddam is brought to justice for countless crimes against his people and humanity - Sanchez said his interrogation will take “as long as it takes – but what happens to the insurgency. Will it escalate or gradually die down?

An answer to this, according to DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources, was received in Washington nine days before Saddam reached US custody.

It came in the form of a disturbing piece of intelligence that the notorious Lebanese terrorist and hostage-taker Imad Mughniyeh, who figures on the most wanted list of 22 men published by the FBI after 9/11, had arrived in southern Iraq and was organizing a new anti-US terror campaign to be launched in March-April 2004, marking the first year of the American invasion.

For the past 21 years, Mughniyeh has waged a war of terror against Americans, whether on behalf of the Hizballah, the Iranian Shiite fundamentalists, al Qaeda or for himself. The Lebanese arch-terrorist represents for the anti-American forces in Iraq an ultimate weapon.

Saddam’s capture will not turn this offensive aside; it may even bring it forward.

For Israel, there are three lessons to be drawn from the dramatic turn of events in Iraq:

First, An enemy must be pursued to the end and if necessary taken captive. The Sharon government’s conduct of an uncertain, wavering war against the Palestinian terror chief Yasser Arafat stands in stark contrast to the way the Americans have fought Saddam and his cohorts in Iraq and which has brought them impressive gains.

Second, Israel must join the US in bracing for the decisive round of violence under preparation by Mughniyeh, an old common enemy from the days of Beirut in the 1980s. Only three weeks ago, DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal, the terrorist mastermind himself was seen in south Lebanon in surveillance of northern Israel in the company of Iranian military officers. With this peril still to be fought, it is meaningless for Israelis to dicker over the Geneva Accord, unilateral steps around the Middle East road map, or even the defensive barrier.

Third, Certain Israeli pundits and even politicians, influenced by opinion in Europe, declared frequently in recent weeks that the Americans had no hope of capturing Saddam Hussein and were therefore bogged down irretrievably in Iraq. The inference was that the Americans erred in embarking on an unwinnable war in Iraq.

This was wide of the mark even before Saddam was brought in. The Americans are in firm control - even though they face a tough new adversary – and the whole purpose of the defeatist argument heard in Israel was to persuade the Sharon government that its position in relation to the Palestinians and Yasser Arafat is as hopeless as that of the Americans in Iraq. Israel’s only choice, according to this argument, is to knuckle under to Palestinian demands and give them what they want. Now that the Iraqi ruler is in American custody, they will have to think again.

http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3710931&p1=0

The New Law of Uncertainty

By Jonathan Alter

NewsweekDec. 22 Issue - "Game over," an Iraqi on the streets of Baghdad told CNN. Maybe. More likely, the game is just beginning, and not only on the ground in Iraq. The American presidential campaign, connected at the hip this year to foreign policy, will now move in a different direction. Toward a Bush landslide? Not so fast.

The biggest fallacy in forecasting of any kind is to take current conditions and extrapolate forward as if those conditions won't change. President Bush could still be vulnerable politically. Same for Howard Dean in the primaries, regardless of how positive the news climate may be for both of them right now. Even with good odds, the shoo-in doesn't fit.

That's because the media-political universe adheres to two strange laws simultaneously. The first is the Law of Premature Predictions. It's a dinner party or chat-room thing. "Stick a fork in him" sounds confident and smart. "Who knows?" sounds boring and lame. So people look at the latest news--Saddam captured, Al Gore endorses Dean--and ignore other inconvenient variables.

Then there's the Law of Media Oscillation. The process invites--no, demands--a series of sine curves to keep everyone interested. Up one week, down the next. The only safe prediction is that a static, unchanging political narrative is impossible. As we're seeing, stuff happens in war and politics, and when it doesn't, the media will half-consciously rearrange all the atoms of emphasis and particles of story choice to make it seem so.

Think of Werner Heisenberg's theory of physics, the Uncertainty Principle: "The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known." In other words, the more we handicap, the more handicapped we.

From here on, beating the ever-changing expectations spread gets tricky, abroad and at home. Bush must now show rapid progress toward security and democracy in Iraq, or end up worse off than he was before Saddam was apprehended. For all the value of the Gore endorsement in making Dean more credible with African-Americans and other core constituencies, the governor may be at his moment of maximum peril. The usual Democratic buyers' remorse (which hobbles every presumptive nominee in early summer) could set in early this time, as harsh antiwar declarations lose their appeal.

Dean's hedge against the Uncertainty Principle is the Tupperware Party. He's pioneering the use in politics of what is called "multilevel marketing"--the magic behind Tupperware, Amway and other sophisticated selling schemes. The most amazing statistic I heard in New Hampshire last week was that Dean supporters there have, in three months, held nearly 1,000 "house meetings." A "Deaniac" invites over a dozen friends and passes out a compelling Dean pamphlet modeled on Tom Paine's "Common Sense." Dean himself is mentioned only on the last page of the pamphlet; it's mostly about building a movement to "take the country back" from the big-money interests that have hijacked it. New recruits to the crusade then hold their own house meetings, and the idea spreads virally.

When you buy Tupperware, you get Teflon, too. Normally, gaffes stick to a candidate and dry up money. Dean has reversed that. Every time he runs into trouble, his backers give more. It's almost a form of human insurance.

For months, the other candidates have tried to derail the Dean Machine. John Kerry calls him a flip-flopper. Joe Lieberman warns that Dean is in danger of being isolated on the left on national security, trade and spiritual values. John Edwards explains that optimism, not anger, wins presidential elections, a point borne out by the failure of populist campaigns to ever win the White House. (FDR, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton all ousted GOP incumbents with smiles, not scowls.)

These arguments may be true, but they aren't likely to be relevant in the primaries. The challengers' best bet may be a simple change of scenery. Every epidemic has a break point, a natural and often inexplicable moment when, just as in punditry, present trends no longer continue. For Dean, that may come when the campaign shifts to Southern and Midwestern states where local politicians have detected no groundswell for him.

The Dean phenomenon is empowering for the hundreds of thousands of people who suddenly feel a connection to politics; it's invigorating for a process that seemed as if it were destined forever to be run by big money; it's inspiring for a Democratic Party that has traditionally trailed far behind the GOP in attracting small donors, and it's intriguing to see how far it goes. Might the movement grow large enough to fire Bush? It sure doesn't look that way this week. But the only certainty of American politics is that its quantum physics will continue to confound us.

© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.

Saddam Captured Hiding in Hole Near Tikrit
By Joseph Logan


A photo of Saddam Hussein after his capture is shown during
a press conference in Baghdad, December 14, 2003. U.S. troops captured
Saddam Hussein near his home town of Tikrit announced U.S. administrator
in Iraq Paul Bremer on Sunday, in a major coup for Washington's beleaguered
occupation force in Iraq. Photo by Reuters

AD-DAWR, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein hiding in a hole near his home town of Tikrit in a major coup for Washington's beleaguered occupation force in Iraq .

Grubby and bearded the 66-year-old dictator was dug out by troops from a cramped hiding pit during a raid on a farm in Ad-Dawr village late Saturday, the jubilant U.S. commander in Iraq Ricardo Sanchez said Sunday.

Gunfire crackled out in celebration across the country as Iraqis greeted a U.S. military video showing their once feared leader, disheveled and sporting a bushy black and gray beard, undergoing a medical examination after seven months on the run.

The arrest is a boon for President Bush after a run of increasingly bloody attacks on U.S. troops and their allies that imperil his campaign for re-election next year. Saddam may also provide intelligence on alleged banned weapons. The former president, who once seemed almost to believe his own claims of invincibility and urged his men to go down fighting the invaders, gave up without a shot being fired, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez told a news conference in Baghdad.

Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," a beaming U.S. administrator Paul Bremer said in his first comments to the news conference where the film was shown. "The tyrant is a prisoner."

Cheering Iraqis in the audience shouted "Death to Saddam!"

Leading members of the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council said they would put Saddam on trial in Baghdad. He may face the death penalty as he answers for a three-decade reign of terror and for leading his oil-rich nation into three disastrous wars.

"We want Saddam to get what he deserves. I believe he will be sentenced to hundreds of death sentences at a fair trial because he's responsible for all the massacres and crimes in Iraq," said Amar al-Hakim, a senior member of the Shi'ite party the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

NO END TO VIOLENCE


The White House warned, however, that Saddam's capture may not mean an end to violence, which continued hours after he was seized, with a suspected suicide car bombing that left at least 17 dead at a police station in Khalidiyah, west of Baghdad.

U.S. officials say anti-American Muslim militants affiliated to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network have become active in Iraq amid the chaos following Saddam's ousting on April 9.

U.S. officials will also hope to extract vital intelligence on the alleged weapons programs which formed the public grounds for Bush to go to war in defiance of many U.N. allies.

Little evidence of banned weapons has been found, helping fuel continuing international wrangling over the lack of security in Iraq and the cost of rebuilding a country that holds the world's second biggest oil reserves.

However, there was broad consensus among opponents of the U.S. invasion that getting Saddam behind bars was a good thing. French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, both fierce critics of Bush's war, hailed the arrest.

"This has lifted a shadow from the people of Iraq. Saddam will not be returning," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's main ally in the invasion of March 20.

In the Arab world, there were mixed feelings, with many ordinary people welcoming the final humiliation of a man who had invaded two of his neighbors, Iran and Kuwait, oppressed Iraq's Shi'ite majority and launched gas attacks on Kurdish villages.

Others, however, regretted the role the U.S. occupiers played in his overthrow and capture and some lamented the passing of a figure they saw as a defender of Arab interests in the face of the global superpower.

HOLE IN THE GROUND

Saddam's capture was in stark contrast to the bloody demise of his once powerful sons Uday and Qusay, who went down with guns blazing against an overwhelming U.S. force in July.

Saddam kept up a series of taped appeals to his countrymen after that. But a huge manhunt and the $25 million price on his head must have cramped his role in the guerrilla war. It was unclear if any bounty would be paid for his capture -- U.S. forces paid out $30 million to a man who informed on his sons.

Sanchez said the farm where Saddam was seized near Ad Dawr, south of Tikrit, had been surrounded by troops acting on a tip.

It was a humiliating end to a lifelong adventure that began not far away in a poor village on the Tigris river outside Tikrit. Clan connections in the Sunni-dominated military and a taste for ruthless street violence took Saddam to the top of the Arab nationalist Ba'ath party which seized power in a 1968 coup.

He crushed all opposition and spent huge amounts of Iraq's oil wealth on marble-lined palaces and massive monuments to himself. Many of the former are now barracks for U.S. troops while the latter were pulled down by joyful Iraqis months ago.

The soldiers finally tracked the fugitive down to the bottom of a narrow, man-sized hole in the ground, some two to three-meters (six to eight feet) deep, Sanchez said.

Washington had made Saddam number one -- the "ace of spades" -- on a list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.

Saddam would be put on trial, Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi told Reuters. A tribunal system for Iraqis to try Saddam and fellow Baathist leaders was set up only last week and U.S. officials say it could make use of capital punishment.

Christmas Funnies Contributed by Claudia:

"Can a "miserable failure" of a president win re-election? Bush's victory would testify to a civic failure more dangerous to the American future than any policies implemented or continued during a second Bush term. A majority would have demonstrated that democratic accountability is finished. That you can fail in everything and still be re-elected president." -- Jack Beatty, http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/polipro/pp2003-09-24.htm

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

Chicago Sun Times
http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-iraq08.html

Getting Saddam may not end attacks
December 8, 2003

BY JIM KRANE




BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Guerrillas killed a U.S. soldier with a roadside bomb in northern Iraq on Sunday, and a U.S. military commander said insurgent attacks might not abate even if American troops kill or capture Saddam Hussein.

A soldier from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division died and two others in his unit were wounded when rebels detonated a bomb as a their convoy drove through the center of Mosul at midday, Master Sgt. Kelly Tyler said.

''I heard an explosion and came running toward the site of the attack and saw three soldiers, one of them covered with blood,'' said Bahaa Hussein, a student. Mosul is 250 miles north of Baghdad.

The top commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, said attacks could surge ahead of a July 1 deadline for a transfer of authority from the U.S.-led coalition to a transitional Iraqi government.

''We expect to see an increase in violence as we move forward toward sovereignty at the end of June,'' Sanchez said.

''The killing or capturing of Saddam Hussein will have an impact on the level of violence, but it will not end it,'' he said. ''It won't be the end-all solution.''

''It's a needle in a haystack,'' he said of the hunt for the ousted Iraqi leader. ''Clearly we haven't found the right haystack. . . . We are moving under the assumption that he is still in the country, that he is still operating.''

After a daylong trip to Iraq on Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he wants senior commanders in Iraq to consider whether the Pentagon underestimated how many U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces would be needed before a sovereign Iraqi government takes over next summer.

He said he worried that the current goal of 220,000 Iraqi security forces may not be able to be increased later if need be.

''I worry that budgets will begin to get committed, and we may not know if we need more until sometime, for example, in February or March or April,'' Rumsfeld said on the flight to Washington, arriving early Sunday. By then, he said, the money might not be available.

The number of Iraqis now in uniform is now said to be about 140,000, many of whom were rushed through training programs. Rumsfeld sees the buildup of those forces as the key to completing the military mission there in the aftermath of Saddam's deposed dictatorship.

President Bush's chief of staff dismissed as ''a moot point'' any lingering question about whether Bush relied on faulty intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.

Andy Card also rejected charges from fellow Republican Newt Gingrich that the administration's postwar policies went ''off a cliff'' after an impressive invasion that deposed Saddam Hussein's government.

Overall intelligence has been ''very, very good,'' Card said Sunday. But, he added, ''Intelligence is a collection of dots, and then an analysis on how those dots might be connected. Some of those dots may not be what they appear to be, and some of the connections may not have been what people would have suggested.''

Gingrich, former speaker of the House, said in the Dec. 15 issue of Newsweek magazine that he was proud of what Gen. Tommy Franks, who planned and commanded the American-led invasion of Iraq, did ''up to the moment of deciding how to transfer power to the Iraqis. Then we go off a cliff.'' Gingrich is a member of the bipartisan Defense Policy Board, which advises Rumsfeld.

Card bristled at the charge.

''Well, Newt Gingrich is not all-knowing. And I'm sure he has opinions. He has always expressed them,'' Card said on the CBS program ''Face the Nation.'' ''Things are going better than they could have been expected to go at this time, and we're making great progress.''

AP

Here is a cute email:

Richard McCauley
12/04/03 10:57 AM

To: Keith McCauley/MazakCorp
cc:
Subject: Ze New Kalifornia Language


Keith

This combined with a little Kentucky accent should work quite well.
The California Governor-Elect has just announced an agreement whereby
English will be the official language of the state, rather than German,
which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, The
Terminator's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for
improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known
as "Austro-English" (or, perhaps even better, "Austrionics".)

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make
the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of
the "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less
letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the
troublesome "ph" will be replaced with the "f". This will make words like
fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to
reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments
will enkourage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a
deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the
silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with
"z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou"
and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no
mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza.
Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity." -- Christopher Morley

Two little boys in first grade were chosen to be the leads
in their first school play. It was to be a Shakespearean Play.

The first little boy was to say "My fair maiden....I have come
to snatch a kiss and fill your soul with hope". The second
little boy was to reply by saying "Hark! a pistol shot"

Well on opening night in the school auditorium, the two
little boys were a bit nervous, knowing that all the seats
were going to be filled with grown-ups. The teacher told
them to take their places on the stage and to remember
to speak very loud as soon as the curtain goes up. The
curtain rose and looking out upon the audience the two
boys were terrified! . They stood there frozen.

So the teacher whispered for them to begin. The first boy
yelled out these unforgettable words...........................

"My fair maiden....I have come to kiss your snatch!...
and fill your hole with soap."

The second boy screams out..."Hark! a shistol pot, a
postle shiss, a pot of sh*t, horse sh*t, cow sh*t, bull
sh*t....I never wanted to be in this lousy play anyway.

The audience left howling.
_____________________

Do you know The difference between margarine and butter?

Both have the same amount of calories. Butter is slightly
higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by
53% over eating the same amount of butter according to
a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other
nutrients in other foods. Butter has many nutritional
benefits where margarine has a few only because they
are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can
enhance the flavors of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine
has been around for less than 100 years.

Now for Margarine...

Very high in Trans Fatty Acids...
Triple! risk of Coronary Heart Disease...

Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad
cholesterol)

Lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)
.... Increases the risk of cancers by up to five fold...

Lowers quality of breast milk ..
Decreases immune response...

Decreases insulin response.
And here is the most disturbing fact....

HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being
PLASTIC...This fact alone was enough to have me
avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is
hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added,
changing the molecular structure of the substance).

YOU can try this yourself: purchase a tub of margarine
and leave it in your garage or shaded area. Within a
couple of days you will note a couple of things: no flies,
not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that
should tell you! something) ... it does not rot or smell
differently...becau se it has no nutritional value, nothing
will grow on it...even those teeny weeny microorganisms
will not a find a home to grow.

Why? Because it is nearly plastic.

Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that
on your toast?
______________________




Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity." -- Christopher Morley

Here is a good one that Cladia just sent to me:

Go to www.google.com , type in 'miserable failure' and hit the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

Atlantic Unbound | September 24, 2003

Politics & Prose | by Jack Beatty

"A Miserable Failure"

Will Bush be re-elected? Only if voters wittingly ignore his long list of failures while in office

.....

ith one phrase Dick Gephardt has defined the issue to be decided next November. Can a "miserable failure" of a president win re-election? Bush's victory would testify to a civic failure more dangerous to the American future than any policies implemented or continued during a second Bush term. A majority would have demonstrated that democratic accountability is finished. That you can fail in everything and still be re-elected president.

You can preside over the most catastrophic failure of intelligence and national defense in history. Can fire no one associated with this fatal chain of blunders and bureaucratic buck-passing. Can oppose an inquest into September 11 for more than a year until pressure from the relatives of those killed on that day becomes politically toxic. Can name Henry Kissinger, that mortician of truth, to head the independent commission you finally accede to. You can start an unnecessary war that kills hundreds of Americans and as many as 7,000 Iraqi civilians—adjusted for the difference in population, the equivalent of 80,000 Americans. Can occupy Iraq without a plan to restore traffic lights, much less order. Can make American soldiers targets in a war of attrition conducted by snipers, assassins, and planters of remote-control bombs—and taunt the murderers of our young men to "bring it on." Can spend hundreds of billions of dollars on nation building—and pass the bill to America's children. (Asked to consider rescinding your tax cut for the top one percent of taxpayers for one year in order to fund the $87 billion you requested from Congress to pay for the occupation of Iraq, your Vice President said no; that would slow growth.) You can lose more jobs than any other President since Hoover. You can cut cops and after-school programs and Pell Grants and housing allowances for the poor to give tax cuts to millionaires. You can wreck the nation's finances, running up the largest deficit in history. You can permit 17,000 power plants to increase their health-endangering pollution of the air. You can lower the prestige of the United States in every country of the world by your unilateral conduct of foreign policy and puerile "you're either with us or against us" rhetoric. Above all, you can lie the country into war and your lies can be exposed—and, if a majority prefers ignorance to civic responsibility, you can still be reelected.

Even Republicans must be capable of applying a cost-benefit analysis to this record of miserable failure. Their tax cuts on one side, the burden of Bush-begotten debt on their children on the other. And surely even Republicans breathe the air befouled by those power plants. I have it on good authority that the conservatives in the party do as well. Surely they must question the judgment of a President who proposes to turn Iraq into what James Fallows calls "the fifty-first state" in order to bring democracy to the Middle East—the kind of do-gooder fantasy conservatives have long ridiculed in liberals.

But the election won't be decided by Republicans and conservatives. Most will sacrifice independent judgment to ideology or party and vote for Bush. No, swing voters will pick the next President. They vote the man not the party, character not ideology. Many voted for Bush in 2000 because they liked him better than Al Gore—applying the standards of product acceptability to a job that entrusts its holder with the power to blow up the planet. Well, do they still "like" Bush? I fear many do. After all, he has spared them the embarrassment of having to discuss sex with their children. Swing voters like Bush's "image" as a strong leader, a CNN pundit claims. Are they incapable of looking behind that image and seeing the weak President who stayed away from the White House on September 11 because his Vice President said it was not safe for him to be there and whose PR people lied to cover up his failure of leadership? John F. Kennedy, as R. W. Apple wrote on the front page of The New York Times on September 12, remained in the White House throughout the Cuban missile crisis knowing that it would be hit in any nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.

The Founders feared that the republic would succumb to corruption without republican citizenship—without citizens who could transcend privatism and hold elected officials to account, demanding probity and competence, and judging their performance against both the clamorous necessities of the time and the mute claims of posterity. They made property a criterion for voting because it secured a measure of economic independence. Property-less wage laborers, they feared, would vote as their employers instructed them to. The extension of democracy to those who could not rise to the responsibilities of republican freedom would corrupt the republic—hasten its decay into oligarchy or mob rule.

For all their worldliness the Founders were naïve to regard property as a shield of incorruptibility or the property-less as inherently corruptible. Their core insight, however, remains valid. A republic can be corrupted at the top and bottom, by leaders and led. The re-election of George W. Bush would signal that a kind of corruption had set in among the led. Our miserable failure as republican citizens would match his as President.

test

Christmas Songs for the mentally ill

Schizophrenia: Do You Hear What I Hear?

Multiple Personality: We Three Queens Disoriented Are.

Narcissism: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing About Me!

Dementia: I Think I'll Be Home for Christmas.

Paranoia: Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me.

Mania: Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town.

Depression: Silent Anhedonia, Holy Anhedonia, All is Flat, All is Lonely.

Personality Disorder: You Better Wach Out, I'm Going to Cry, I'm Going to Pout, then maybe I'll tell you why!

Obsessive Compulsive: Jingl Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Swing, Jingle Bell Swing, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Swing, Jingle Bell Swing, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bell Rock

Suicidal: Thoughts of Roasting on an OpenFire


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity." -- Christopher Morley

Hack the Vote
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
Tuesday 02 December 2003

Inviting Bush supporters to a fund-raiser, the host wrote, "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." No surprise there. But Walden O'Dell — who says that he wasn't talking about his business operations — happens to be the chief executive of Diebold Inc., whose touch-screen voting machines are in increasingly widespread use across the United States.

For example, Georgia — where Republicans scored spectacular upset victories in the 2002 midterm elections — relies exclusively on Diebold machines. To be clear, though there were many anomalies in that 2002 vote, there is no evidence that the machines miscounted. But there is also no evidence that the machines counted correctly. You see, Diebold machines leave no paper trail.

Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey, who has introduced a bill requiring that digital voting machines leave a paper trail and that their software be available for public inspection, is occasionally told that systems lacking these safeguards haven't caused problems. "How do you know?" he asks.

What we do know about Diebold does not inspire confidence. The details are technical, but they add up to a picture of a company that was, at the very least, extremely sloppy about security, and may have been trying to cover up product defects.

Early this year Bev Harris, who is writing a book on voting machines, found Diebold software — which the company refuses to make available for public inspection, on the grounds that it's proprietary — on an unprotected server, where anyone could download it. (The software was in a folder titled "rob-Georgia.zip.") The server was used by employees of Diebold Election Systems to update software on its machines. This in itself was an incredible breach of security, offering someone who wanted to hack into the machines both the information and the opportunity to do so.

An analysis of Diebold software by researchers at Johns Hopkins and Rice Universities found it both unreliable and subject to abuse. A later report commissioned by the state of Maryland apparently reached similar conclusions. (It's hard to be sure because the state released only a heavily redacted version.)

Meanwhile, leaked internal Diebold e-mail suggests that corporate officials knew their system was flawed, and circumvented tests that would have revealed these problems. The company hasn't contested the authenticity of these documents; instead, it has engaged in legal actions to prevent their dissemination.

Why isn't this front-page news? In October, a British newspaper, The Independent, ran a hair-raising investigative report on U.S. touch-screen voting. But while the mainstream press has reported the basics, the Diebold affair has been treated as a technology or business story — not as a potential political scandal.

This diffidence recalls the treatment of other voting issues, like the Florida "felon purge" that inappropriately prevented many citizens from voting in the 2000 presidential election. The attitude seems to be that questions about the integrity of vote counts are divisive at best, paranoid at worst. Even reform advocates like Mr. Holt make a point of dissociating themselves from "conspiracy theories." Instead, they focus on legislation to prevent future abuses.

But there's nothing paranoid about suggesting that political operatives, given the opportunity, might engage in dirty tricks. Indeed, given the intensity of partisanship these days, one suspects that small dirty tricks are common. For example, Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently announced that one of his aides had improperly accessed sensitive Democratic computer files that were leaked to the press.

This admission — contradicting an earlier declaration by Senator Hatch that his staff had been cleared of culpability — came on the same day that the Senate police announced that they were hiring a counterespionage expert to investigate the theft. Republican members of the committee have demanded that the expert investigate only how those specific documents were leaked, not whether any other breaches took place. I wonder why.

The point is that you don't have to believe in a central conspiracy to worry that partisans will take advantage of an insecure, unverifiable voting system to manipulate election results. Why expose them to temptation?

I'll discuss what to do in a future column. But let's be clear: the credibility of U.S. democracy may be at stake.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/02/opinion/02KRUG.html

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity." -- Christopher Morley

Liberal Nightmares
by Thomas Burns

A New Word: Gop

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Christopher Wright

ATTENTION: NEW WORD

To fill in some glaring gaps in standard English vocabulary, word will be proposed here from time to time. Permission is given for use of these words by anyone who is trying to bring down the corporate-Republican establishment.

gop \jop\ v gopped, gopping [from GOP, American Republican Party slogan] To defraud, cheat, or deceive the public by means of false publicity, false piety, or lying, particularly with the collusion of the news media and especially when done for the benefit of corporations.

gop-off \jop-of’\ n An act of theft through means of false publicity, false piety of lying with the collusion of the news media.

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY

Will the real turkey please stand up?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17520-2003Nov27.html

An Indelible Moment in A War and Presidency

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 28, 2003; Page A01



President Bush waves as he emerges from behind
camouflage netting for Thanksgiving Day dinner in Iraq.
(Pool Photo Anja Niedringhaus)

Three images tell the story of George W. Bush's presidency.



The first, of Bush and bullhorn atop the rubble at New York's Ground Zero on Sept. 14, 2001, came to symbolize his transformation into a powerful wartime president. The second, of Bush in flight suit with "Mission Accomplished" banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, became the symbol of Bush's unrealized optimism about the U.S. military's victory in Iraq.

Yesterday, Nov. 27, 2003, brought an equally vivid but more complex image of Bush. His stealthy landing in Baghdad on Thanksgiving Day portrayed a leader well aware of the chaotic and dangerous situation in Iraq but determined to assure the Iraqi people that the United States will not, as he has put it, "cut and run."

While the troops cheered the moment, it is too soon to know whether the image of Bush in his Army jacket yesterday will become a symbol of strong leadership or a symbol of unwarranted bravado.

Iraqis may be reassured that the United States will put down the insurgency and restore order in their country. Or they may take the image of Bush landing unannounced at night without lights and not venturing from a heavily fortified military installation as confirmation that the security situation in Iraq is dire indeed.

But one thing is certain. Bush's Thanksgiving Day surprise ties him, for better or worse, ever more tightly to the outcome of the Iraq struggle.

"It raises the stakes," said Rich Bond, a former head of the Republican Party. "When you're playing poker and somebody is coming at you, a great way to deter them is to raise the stakes. George Bush just placed his stature in an extraordinary way to reassert his commitment to Iraq."

There is nothing novel about presidential visits to war zones at holiday time. Bill Clinton went to Kosovo for Thanksgiving in 1999, Lyndon B. Johnson went to Vietnam for Christmas in 1967, and President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower visited Korean battle fronts in 1952. Richard M. Nixon also traveled to Vietnam, in 1969.

It is also not unprecedented for a president to make unannounced trips in wartime under intense security. Franklin D. Roosevelt's trips to Yalta and other ports during World War II make that clear. And while people may debate the wisdom of sending Air Force One into an area known to have frequent antiaircraft fire, security experts said the secret defensive technologies on Air Force One put the plane at little risk compared with the DHL aircraft that was struck over Baghdad a few days ago.

In contrast to Bush's carrier landing, which they immediately branded a stunt, Bush's critics yesterday did not begrudge him the trip to Iraq, nor the necessary secrecy, nor even the disinformation the White House used to lead people to believe he would be at home on his ranch in Texas all day. Rather, they said the visit may come to reinforce their view that the administration has led the United States into a lonely occupation of Iraq without an obvious exit strategy.

Bush's entourage was fitted with ballistic vests, and the plane came in with neither running lights nor cabin lights, parking on a dark landing strip. "The message to the Iraqis is Bush doesn't think their country is secure," said Sidney Blumenthal, a former adviser to Clinton. "It underscores the insecurity, and it conveys insularity."

Chris Lehane, a strategist for retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark's presidential campaign, said Democrats would not fault Bush for visiting the troops.

"It's absolutely appropriate to be honoring our soldiers overseas in battle on a day like Thanksgiving," he said. "It's more important to honor them every day, which includes allowing us to appropriately honor the heroes who come back in caskets and giving our troops a strategy so they're not there next Thanksgiving."

Bush, in his brief words to the troops, had little of the braggadocio from his May 1 speech and much of the grim determination from his bullhorn speech.

There were no pithy slogans on banners behind him. "You're engaged in a difficult mission," he said, with a poor amplification quality that fit the improvised nature of the trip. "Those who attack our coalition forces and kill innocent Iraqis are testing our will."

But, he added to applause, "We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq, pay a bitter cost in casualties, defeat a brutal dictator and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins."

The message fit the mood of the weary soldiers. In the audience, Staff Sgt. Gerrie Stokes Holloman of Baltimore said she feels "depressed" being in Iraq but buoyed by Bush's visit: "For the most part, people are tired and want to go home. But the support and encouragement we get from our leadership builds a bond with our soldiers."

Retired Army Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, a commander during the 1991 Persian Gulf War who maintains extensive ties to the Army, predicted the visit would boost soldiers' morale. The visit "brought tears to my eyes," McCaffrey said. "This is the kind of thing that will have a major impact on their level of trust with their own commander in chief."

The visit's impact on U.S. public opinion and on the Iraqi public is not yet knowable. Though it will be to history to judge whether this third major image of Bush's presidency will become shorthand for a failed occupation or a successful war, both supporters and critics yesterday said it was appropriate to make a holiday visit to the soldiers he sent to battle -- and to bind further his political fortunes to the outcome of the mission in Iraq.

"The fact that it's on Thanksgiving is a little bit contrived, but I don't have any problem with it," said Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution and a frequent critic of the president's Iraq policy. "It's politics the way it's supposed to be, in a sense."

Staff writer Vernon Loeb contributed to this report.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak27.html

GOP pulled no punches in struggle for Medicare bill

November 27, 2003

BY ROBERT NOVAK SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST


During 14 years in the Michigan Legislature and 11 years in Congress, Rep. Nick Smith had never experienced anything like it. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, in the wee hours last Saturday morning, pressed him to vote for the Medicare bill. But Smith refused. Then things got personal.

Smith, self term-limited, is leaving Congress. His lawyer son Brad is one of five Republicans seeking to replace him from a GOP district in Michigan's southern tier. On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father's vote. When he still declined, fellow Republican House members told him they would make sure Brad Smith never came to Congress. After Nick Smith voted no and the bill passed, Duke Cunningham of California and other Republicans taunted him that his son was dead meat.

The bill providing prescription drug benefits under Medicare would have been easily defeated by Republicans save for the most efficient party whip operation in congressional history. Although President Bush had to be awakened to collect the last two votes, Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Majority Whip Roy Blunt made it that close. ''DeLay the Hammer'' on Saturday morning was hammering fellow conservatives.

Last Friday night, Rep. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania hosted a dinner at the Hunan restaurant on Capitol Hill for 30 Republicans opposed to the bill. They agreed on a scaled-down plan devised by Toomey and Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana. It would cover only seniors without private prescription drug insurance, while retaining the bill's authorization of private health savings accounts. First, they had to defeat their president and their congressional leadership.

They almost did. There were only 210 yes votes after an hour (long past the usual time for House roll calls), against 224 no's. A weary George W. Bush, just returned from Europe, was awakened at 4 a.m. to make personal calls to House members.

Republicans voting against the bill were told they were endangering their political futures. Major contributors warned Rep. Jim DeMint they would cut off funding for his Senate race in South Carolina. A Missouri state legislator called Rep. Todd Akin to threaten a primary challenge against him.

Intense pressure, including a call from the president, was put on freshman Rep. Tom Feeney. As speaker of the Florida House, he was a stalwart for Bush in his state's 2000 vote recount. He is the Class of 2002's contact with the House leadership, marking him as a future party leader. But now, in those early morning hours, Feeney was told a ''no'' vote would delay his ascent into leadership by three years -- maybe more.

Feeney held firm against the bill. So did DeMint and Akin. And so did Nick Smith. A steadfast party regular, he has pioneered private Social Security accounts. But he could not swallow the unfunded liabilities in this Medicare bill. The 69-year-old former dairy farmer this week was still reeling from the threat to his son. ''It was absolutely too personal,'' he told me. Over the telephone from Michigan on Saturday, Brad Smith urged his father to vote his conscience.

However, the leadership was picking off Republican dissenters, including eight of 13 House members who signed a Sept. 17 letter authored by Toomey pledging to support only a Medicare bill very different from the measure on the floor Saturday. That raised the Republican total to 216, still two votes short.

The president took to the phone, but at least two Republicans turned him down. Finally, Bush talked Reps. Trent Franks of Arizona (a ninth defector from the Toomey letter) and Butch Otter of Idaho -- into voting ''yes.'' They were warned that if this measure failed, the much more liberal Democratic bill would be brought up and passed.

The conservative Club for Growth's Steve Moore, writing to the organization's directors and founders, said defeat of the Medicare bill ''would have been a shot across the bow at the Republican establishment that conservatives are sick of the spending splurge that is going on inside Washington these last few years.''

Hammering the conservatives to prevent that may have been only a short-term triumph.

Business Deals of Bush Brother Detailed in Divorce

(2003-11-25) HOUSTON (Reuters) - Neil Bush, younger brother of President Bush, detailed lucrative business deals and admitted to engaging in sex romps with women in Asia in a deposition taken in March as part of his divorce from now ex-wife Sharon Bush.

Visit this link for the full story:
http://publicbroadcasting.net/phoenix/news/content/573478.html




Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity." -- Christopher Morley

GROUND FARCE 1 Nov 23 2003


Queen's fury as Bush goons wreck garden

Exclusive By Terry O'Hanlon


THE Queen is furious with President George W. Bush after his state visit caused thousands of pounds of damage to her gardens at Buckingham Palace.

Royal officials are now in touch with the Queen's insurers and Prime Minister Tony Blair to find out who will pick up the massive repair bill. Palace staff said they had never seen the Queen so angry as when she saw how her perfectly-mantained lawns had been churned up after being turned into helipads with three giant H landing markings for the Bush visit.

The rotors of the President's Marine Force One helicopter and two support Black Hawks damaged trees and shrubs that had survived since Queen Victoria's reign.

And Bush's army of clod-hopping security service men trampled more precious and exotic plants.

The Queen's own flock of flamingoes, which security staff insisted should be moved in case they flew into the helicopter rotors, are thought to be so traumatised after being taken to a "place of safety" that they might never return home.

The historic fabric of the Palace was also damaged as high-tech links were fitted for the US leader and his entourage during his three-day stay with the Queen.

The Palace's head gardener, Mark Lane, was reported to be in tears when he saw the scale of the damage.

"The Queen has every right to feel insulted at the way she has been treated by Bush," said a Palace insider.

"The repairs will cost tens of thousands of pounds but the damage to historic and rare plants will be immense. They are still taking an inventory.

"The lawns are used for royal garden parties and are beautifully kept. But 30,000 visitors did not do as much damage as the Americans did in three days.

"Their security people and support staff tramped all over the place and left an absolute mess. It is particularly sad because the Queen Mother loved to wander in the garden just as the Queen and Prince Charles do now.

"Some of the roses, flowers and shrubs damaged are thought to be rare varieties named after members of the Royal Family and planted by the Queen Mother and Queen.

"Other Royals had their own favourite parts of the garden as children and some of those areas have been damaged."

The Queen's insurers have told her she is covered for statues, garden furniture and plants she personally owns, but the bill for repairing damage to the lawns and the structure of the Palace will probably have to be picked up by the Government.

The Americans made alterations to accommodate specialised equipment. The mass of gadgetry meant the Royals couldn't get a decent TV picture during the visit.


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

----- Original Message -----
From: Claudia D. Dikinis
To: Claudia D. Dikinis
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 4:02 PM
Subject: Text of my resignation letter to AARP


Dear AARP:

Enclosed please find my membership card to AARP. Please cancel my membership immediately.

You have, without my permission, used my membership dues to finance special interest lobbying in support of the Republican Right Wing’s so-called prescription drug plan for Medicare.

You have further misappropriated membership dues for television ads sanctioned by right wing CEO William Novelli, champion of extremist Newt Gingrich and other anti-American politicians and lobbyists, who seek to undermine the will of the members of your organization.

You are in breach of contract with your membership, by having committed fraud, misrepresentation, and breach of your fiduciary duty by using AARP to promote the narrow special interest agenda of Novelli, Gingrich, et al.

I am ashamed and saddened that I ever bothered joining your organization. I have been betrayed by having been used as an instrument for the Republican Right Wing.

I will continue in all ways possible to alert people to the truth of AARP and do my level best to get as many people as possible to resign from your organization.

If money is all you care about, then it looks like the American people are just going to have to take it away from you.

Maybe then you’ll listen.


Sincerely,


Claudia D. Dikinis


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3845856


U.S.'s 'Iron Hammer' Code Name 1st Used by Nazis
Tue November 18, 2003 01:18 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military's code name for a crackdown on
resistance in Iraq was also used by the Nazis for an aborted operation
to damage the Soviet power grid during World War II.

"Operation Iron Hammer" this week launched the 1st Armored Division's
3rd Brigade into the roughest parts of Baghdad to ferret out the
attackers who have killed scores of U.S. troops since Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein was ousted in April.

A Pentagon official said the name was chosen because of the "Old
Ironsides" nickname of the 1st Armored Division. He was unaware of any
connection to any Nazi operation.

"Eisenhammer," the German for "iron hammer," was a Luftwaffe code name
for a plan to destroy Soviet generating plants in the Moscow and Gorky
areas in 1943, according to Universal Lexikon on the www.infobitte.de
Web site.

A researcher at Britain's Imperial War Museum confirmed the existence of
Eisenhammer.

The Nazi's long-range bombing operation was repeatedly postponed and was
finally scrapped after an allied air assault destroyed many of the
German planes on the ground in 1945, shortly before the defeat of Germany.

After it declared war on terrorism, U.S. officials changed the code name
for its impending attack on Afghanistan to Operation Enduring Freedom.

The original name, Operation Infinite Justice, was jettisoned amid fears
that the Muslim world, already leery of U.S. intentions, would object on
the basis of Koranic teachings that only God can provide infinite justice.



Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

Better Left Unsaid!

1. Weightlifting commentator at the Olympic Snatch and Jerk Event: "This is
Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up
and it was amazing."

2. Ted Walsh - Horse Racing Commentator: "This is really a lovely horse and
I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother."

3. Grand Prix Race Announcer: "The lead car is absolutely, truly unique,
except for the one behind it which is exactly identical to the one in front
of the similar one in back."

4. Greg Norman, Pro Golfer: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my
mother and father."

5. Ringside Boxing Analyst: "Sure there have been injuries and even some
deaths in boxing - but none of them really that serious."

6. Baseball announcer: "If history repeats itself, I should think we can
expect the same thing again."

7. Basketball analyst: "He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like
it. In fact you can see it all over their faces."

8. At a trophy ceremony BBC TV Boat Race 1988: "Ah, isn't that nice, the
wife of the Cambridge president is hugging the cox of the Oxford crew."

9. Metro Radio, College Football: "Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like
they've got eleven Dicks on the field."

10. US Open TV Commentator: "One of the reasons Arnie Palmer is playing so
well is that, before each final round, his wife takes out his balls and
kisses them. Oh my God, what have I just said?"


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

WATCH NOVA ON PBS NEXT TUESDAY NIGHT:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/magnetic/

Something potentially earth shattering is brewing deep within the planet's molten core. As much as we hate to admit it, some acts of nature are firmly beyond our control. Case in point is the possible magnetic storm headed our way. PBS offers this timely look at our mysterious magnetic field and how this necessary component to life on Earth could reverse, or even disappear and wreak untold havoc.

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/11/con03340.html

November 12, 2003

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by AWOLBush.com

Mr. Buzz,

Did you notice how the 30 day deadline on El Drugbo's rehab came and went without comment from anyone? Not good. We need to keep this issue front and center.

* * *

The Hillbilly Heroin Update

November 11, 2003

It's been 33 days since Rush Limbaugh abandoned his ditto monkeys for a rubber room at the Hotel California (you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave). For the first time in 15 years, what's left of American culture has brief respite from Slimebaugh's frenzied right wing disinformation campaign.

As El Lardbo's drug saturated brain dries out, the mean and stupid of the world are sobering up from a 15 year hate binge. Not a pretty sight ... and the number of anti-drug rants from Limbaugh's substitute hosts? El Zero.

So where do we stand at this point? Let's review, shall we?

* * *

The official spin on the Maha Gasbag's fall from grace is:

1. Everyone makes mistakes;

2. Anyone can become addicted to drugs;

3. He deserves a second chance;

4. Blah, blah, blah...

This is what's known as the Change The Subject Doctrine. Popular with the Unelected Fratboy Administration.

The real issue isn't wether or not Limbaugh is a drug addict. It's true anyone can fall prey to addiction (just make sure you're rich and politically connected when you get caught). The real issue is that, according to reports, Mr. Family Values knowingly broke the drug laws FOR YEARS. He also pressured his housekeeper (an employee) into breaking the drug laws. All this coming from someone who's built a lucrative career on ruthlessly attacking the frailties of other people.

Imagine if a prominent Democrat were in El Blowhard's shoes. The media storm from the radical right wing would be deafening, with Limbaugh leading the charge.

It will be interesting to see how this latest, and most flagrant right wing hypocrisy to date, shakes out with Limbaugh's hardcore following -- the ditto monkeys. The smart money says he'll emerge from this scandal as someone who courageously "took responsibility" for and overcame an addiction to drugs. The wanton, long term violation of the drug laws will be conveniently overlooked. Classic Republican hypocrisy not seen since a lynch mob of right wing adulterers crucified President Clinton for ... adultery.

Double Standard Alert!

Remember, during the impeachment farce of our last legally elected President, all those self righteous sermons about the "rule of law"?

And finally -- as for those government ads about illegal drug use helping terrorists -- not to worry. There won't be any secret tribunals for the Maha Junkie.

http://www.awolbush.com

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=462607


President George Bush now faces a dilemma over whether to back down and remove the steel tariffs. The American government issued a statement yesterday saying that it disagreed with the ruling but would study it carefully.

The WTO's decision comes at a sensitive time, with the US presidential campaign about to begin in earnest. In drawing up its list of sanctions, the EU has deliberately selected products from states which are crucial to President Bush's electoral hopes.

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

First Christmas joke of the season (NOT):

A Christmas Story


Three men died on Christmas Eve and were met
by Saint Peter at the pearly gates.

"In honor of this holy season," Saint Peter said,
"you must each possess something that symbolizes
Christmas to get into heaven."

The first man fumbled through his pockets and
pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on. It represents
a candle, he said. You may pass through the
pearly gates Saint Peter said.

The second man reached into his pocket and
pulled out a set of keys. He shook them and
said, "They're bells". Saint Peter said you may
pass through the pearly gates.

The third man started searching desperately through
his pockets and finally pulled out a pair of women's
panties. St. Peter looked at the man with a raised
eyebrow and asked, "And just what do those symbolize?"

The man replied, "They're Carol's".

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

'No President has lied so boldly and so often and so demonstrably'
By Andrew Gumbel
09 November 2003


"The intelligence process is a bit like virginity," says Ray McGovern, who worked as a CIA analyst for 27 years. "Once you prostitute it, it's never the same. Your credibility never recovers.

"Watching what has happened with Iraq over the past several months has been like watching your daughter being raped."

Such is an indication of the extraordinary depth of feeling within the US intelligence community as the Bush administration's basis for the war in Iraq - the weapons of mass destruction, the dark hint of links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'ida - has been shown to have been built on air.

Mr McGovern worked near the very top of his profession, giving direct advice to Henry Kissinger during the Nixon era and preparing the President's daily security brief for Ronald Reagan. Now he is co-founder of a group of former CIA employees called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, or Vips for short.

What the Bush White House has done, he believes, is far worse than the false premise that dragged the United States into the Vietnam War - a reported second attack on a US destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin which later turned out not to have taken place. "The Gulf of Tonkin was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and Lyndon Johnson seized on that. That's very different from the very calculated, 18-month, orchestrated, incredibly cynical campaign of lies that we've seen to justify a war. This is an order of magnitude different. It's so blatant."

Mr McGovern accuses Mr Bush of an extraordinary act of chutzpah - taking advantage of his authority as President of the United States to make people believe there must be something to his insistent allegations that Iraq possessed potentially devastating weaponry.

"Many of us felt there had to be something there ... If this had been another country, one would have written a convincing analysis that this guy is lying through his teeth, that there are no weapons in Iraq. But people thought, the President can't say he knows something if he doesn't. That was persuasive, in a way.

"Now we know that no other President of the United States has ever lied so baldly and so often and so demonstrably ... The presumption now has to be that he's lying any time that he's saying anything."

It will, Mr McGovern believes, take a change of president and a change of CIA director to even begin to repair the damage done by what he sees as an overt politicisation of the intelligence business. But even that may not be enough.

"Unless what has happened in the past year and a half is recognised as a scandal, in which the CIA has been badly abused, then there's no hope," he said. "I pin my hopes mostly on the press these days. Turns out, surprise surprise, that even the US press doesn't like to be lied to."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9708-2003Nov6.html

White House Puts Limits on Queries From Democrats

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 7, 2003; Page A29


The Bush White House, irritated by pesky questions from congressional Democrats about how the administration is using taxpayer money, has developed an efficient solution: It will not entertain any more questions from opposition lawmakers.

The decision -- one that Democrats and scholars said is highly unusual -- was announced in an e-mail sent Wednesday to the staff of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. House committee Democrats had just asked for information about how much the White House spent making and installing the "Mission Accomplished" banner for President Bush's May 1 speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

The director of the White House Office of Administration, Timothy A. Campen, sent an e-mail titled "congressional questions" to majority and minority staff on the House and Senate Appropriations panels. Expressing "the need to add a bit of structure to the Q&A process," he wrote: "Given the increase in the number and types of requests we are beginning to receive from the House and Senate, and in deference to the various committee chairmen and our desire to better coordinate these requests, I am asking that all requests for information and materials be coordinated through the committee chairmen and be put in writing from the committee."

He said this would limit "duplicate requests" and help answer questions "in a timely fashion."

It would also do another thing: prevent Democrats from getting questions answered without the blessing of the GOP committee chairmen.

"It's saying we're not going to allow the opposition party to ask questions about the way we use tax money," said R. Scott Lilly, Democratic staff director for the House committee. "As far as I know, this is without modern precedent."

Norman Ornstein, a congressional specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, agreed. "I have not heard of anything like that happening before," he said. "This is obviously an excuse to avoid providing information about some of the things the Democrats are asking for."

Campen's e-mail wording suggests the policy may extend to other inquiries about the functioning of the Executive Office of the President, but the immediate targets were the spending committees. For years, those panels had a strong bipartisan tradition in which the majority party generally joined the minority in tough oversight of the administration.

Brookings Institution government scholar Thomas Mann said the Democrats have little ability to challenge the decision. "This is just one of many instances where Republicans have a legal basis for what they're doing, but it violates long-standing norms," he said. All the Democrats can do, he said, "is carp."

The White House said it is in discussions to reach an amicable compromise. "There have been staff-level discussions about ways to better coordinate requests from Congress," said spokeswoman Ashley Snee. "It was not the intent to suggest minority members should not ask questions without the consent of the majority."


© 2003 The Washington Post Company

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/
How the White House deletes the truth
By Derrick Z. Jackson, 11/5/2003


This is the same president who erases history itself.

Bush's desire for us to become ostriches over the deaths and wounding of American soldiers in Iraq -- 379 dead and 2,155 hurt at last count -- is but one more pathological act in sticking all of America into the sand. Bush severely limited access to the presidential papers of his father. Vice President Dick Cheney erected an iron curtain around his energy task force. Hundreds of Muslim immigrants were detained without due process and with no evidence they were involved in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The administration wiped out parts of an Environmental Protection Agency report that specifically tied human activities to global warming.

Bush has his eraser out again. The Justice Department recently released a commissioned report on diversity among its attorneys. Half of its 186 pages were blacked out.

The Bush administration made sure to filter in the good news in the report. The federal government, regardless of which party is in power, has long been more inviting to people of color at the entry level than the private sector. The Justice Department is no different. Its attorney work force is 15 percent of color and 38 percent women, compared to 12 percent and 30 percent, respectively, in the national legal labor pool.

The blacked-out pages betray a Justice Department that does not want America to know what happens after people are hired. The full report is available on a Web site called the Memory Hole, which electronically lifted the blacked-out sections. Among the conclusions of the full report were:

"When controlling for component, grade, and salary, we found that the average minority is currently residing approximately one-third step lower than the average white and the average woman is currently residing approximately one-half step lower than the average man. These effects are statistically significant."

"Race and gender combine for a particularly strong negative effect of identity for minority women."

"Section chiefs are an extremely critical element of the department's diversity climate. They have significant authority in recruitment, hiring, promotion, performance appraisal, case assignment, and career development. The section chief work force is not diverse, and turnover is low. This pattern, combined with the generally low attention that these managers pay to staff career development, leads minorities to perceive a lack of advancement opportunities."

The sections on "stereotyping," "racial and gender tension," "harassment behavior," and "mentoring," were completely blacked out. Asked if employees felt free to "express differences that may be due to different cultural backgrounds," 83 percent of white men and 73 percent of white women said yes. Only 56 percent of men of color and 42 percent of women of color said yes.

Deleted was this statement: "More than 40 percent of racial minorities participating in the study believe that stereotyping of minorities having limited abilities is a problem. Further analysis shows that an actual majority (51 percent) of nonwhite women hold this belief. Although we do not know the extent to which this belief is based on actual differential treatment of people, it clearly represents a barrier to the goal of creating an environment where all members feel equally valued and able to contribute."

An further analysis provides an even more deeper divide. While only 13 percent of white attorneys at the Justice Department say people of color are stereotyped, 60 percent of African-American lawyers say attorneys of color "are often stereotyped here."

Deleted was a paragraph that showed that about 20 percent of lawyers of color say they have personally experienced racial harassment at the department. Deleted was the fact that only 53 percent of attorneys of color felt that the promotion process was fair with respect to color compared with 87 percent of white attorneys. Deleted was the fact that 60 percent of women felt that the promotion process was fair with regards to gender, compared with 81 percent of men.

Deleted was the fact that only 45 percent of attorneys of color, compared with 74 percent of white lawyers, "feel that assignments I receive, and management decisions about my career development, have been made without regard to my race/gender/ ethnic origin."

With all these deletions, it was no surprise that all nine pages of "Recommendations" were blacked out. Hear no problem, see no problem, solve no problem. Bush blames the media when he is bringing back memories of Nixon erasing tapes. The administration deleted the data on global warming. It blacked out diversity reports. It disappears immigrants. With a war built on falsehoods failing with fatal consequences, Bush now wants to disappear the media. It is all part of Bush erasing you.

Derrick Z. Jackson's e-mail address is jackson@globe.com.

© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

Enough to really make one sick:

Sick soldiers wait for treatment
By Mark Benjamin
UPI Investigations Editor
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20031029-020609-6750r
Published 10/29/2003 3:58 PM




FORT KNOX, Ky., Oct. 29 (UPI) -- More than 400 sick and injured soldiers, including some who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, are stuck at Fort Knox, waiting weeks and sometimes months for medical treatment, a score of soldiers said in interviews.

The delays appear to have demolished morale -- many said they had lost faith in the Army and would not serve again -- and could jeopardize some soldiers' health, the soldiers said.

The Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers are in what the Army calls "medical hold," like roughly 600 soldiers under similar circumstances waiting for doctors at Fort Stewart, Ga.

The apparent lack of care at both locations raises the specter that Reserve and Guard soldiers, including many who returned from Iraq, could be languishing at locations across the country, according to Senate investigators.

Representatives from the office of Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., were at Fort Knox Wednesday looking into conditions at the post.

Following reports from Fort Stewart, Senate investigators said that the medical system at that post was overwhelmed and they were looking into whether the situation was Army-wide.

Army officials at the Pentagon said they are investigating that possibility. "We are absolutely taking a look at this across the Army and not just at Fort Stewart," Army spokesman Joe Burlas said Wednesday.

"I joined to serve my country," said Cpl. Waymond Boyd, 34. He served in Iraq with the National Guard's 1175 Transportation Company. He has been in medical hold since the end of July.

"It doesn't make any sense to go over there and risk your life and come back to this," Boyd said. "It ain't fair and it ain't right. I used to be patriotic." He has served the military for 15 years.

Boyd's knee and wrist injuries were severe enough that he was evacuated to Germany at the end of July and then sent to Fort Knox. His medical records show doctor appointments around four weeks apart. He said it took him almost two months to get a cast for his wrist, which is so weak he can't lift 5 pounds or play with his two children. He is taking painkilling drugs and walks with a cane with some difficulty.

Many soldiers at Fort Knox said their injuries and illnesses occurred in Iraq. Some said the rigors of war exacerbated health problems that probably should have prevented them from going in the first place.

Boyd's X-rays appear to show the damage to his wrist but also bone spurs in his feet that are noted in his medical record before being deployed, but the records say "no health problems noted" before he left.

"I don't think I was medically fit to go. But they said 'go.' That is my job," Boyd said.

Fort Knox Public Affairs Officer Connie Shaffery said, "Taking care of patients is our priority." Soldiers see specialists within 28 days, Shaffery said and Fort Knox officials hope to cut that time lag.

"I think that we would like for all the soldiers to get care as soon as possible," Shaffery said.

Shaffery said of the 422 soldiers on medical hold at Fort Knox, 369 did not deploy to Operation Iraqi Freedom because of their illnesses. Around two-thirds of the soldiers at Fort Stewart did serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Soldiers at Fort Knox describe strange clusters of heart problems and breathing problems, as did soldiers at Fort Stewart and other locations.

Command Sgt. Major Glen Talley, 57, is in the hospital at Fort Knox for heart problems, clotting blood and Graves' disease, a thyroid disorder. All of the problems became apparent after he went to war in April, he says. He is a reservist.

Talley said he was moved to Fort Knox on Oct. 16 and had not seen a doctor yet, only a physician's assistant. His next appointment with an endocrinologist was scheduled for Dec. 30.

"I don't mind serving my country," Talley said. "I just hate what they are doing to me now." Talley has served for 30 years. He was awarded two Purple Hearts in Vietnam.

Sgt. Buena Montgomery has breathing problems since serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. She said she has been able to get to doctors but worries about many others who have not.

"The Army did not prepare for the proper medical care for the soldiers that they knew were going to come back from this war," Montgomery said. "Now the Army needs to step up to the plate and fix this problem."

In nearly two dozen interviews conducted over three days, soldiers also described substandard living conditions -- though they said conditions had improved recently.

A UPI photographer working on this story without first having cleared his presence with base public affairs officials was detained for several hours for questioning Tuesday and then released. He was told he would need an Army escort for any further visits to the base. He returned to the base accompanied by an Army escort on Wednesday.

This reporter also was admonished that he had to be accompanied by an Army public affairs escort when on base. The interviews had been conducted without the presence of an escort.

After returning from Iraq, some soldiers spent about eight weeks in Spartan, dilapidated World War II-era barracks with leaking roofs, animal infestations and no air conditioning in the Kentucky heat.

"I arrived here and was placed in the World War II barracks," one soldier wrote in an internal Fort Knox survey of the conditions. "On the 28th of August we moved out. On 30 Aug. the roof collapsed. Had we not moved, someone would be dead," that soldier wrote.

Shaffery said all of the soldiers have moved out of those barracks. "As soon as we were able to, we moved them out," Shaffery said. The barracks now stand empty and have been condemned.

Also like Fort Stewart, soldiers at Fort Knox claimed they are getting substandard treatment because they are in the National Guard or Army Reserve as opposed to regular Army. The Army has denied any discrepancies in treatment or housing.

"We have provided, are providing, and will continue to provide our soldiers -- active and Reserve component -- the best health care available," Army spokesman Maj. Steve Stover said Oct. 20. He said Army policy provides health care priority based on a "most critically ill" basis, without differentiation between active and our Reserve soldiers.

"Medical hold issues are not new and the Army has been working diligently to address them across the Army," Stover said.

"They are treating us like second-class citizens," said Spc. Brian Smith, who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom until Aug. 16 and said he is having trouble seeing doctors at Fort Knox. The Army evacuated him through Germany for stomach problems, among other things. "My brother wants to get in (the military). I am now discouraging him from doing it," Smith said.

"I have never been so disrespected in my military career," said Lt. Jullian Goodrum, who has been in the Army Reserve for 16 years. His health problems do not appear to be severe -- injured wrists -- but he said the medical situation at Fort Knox is bad. He said he waited a month for therapy. "I have never been so treated like dirt."



Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International

Bush says God chose him to lead his nation

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1075950,00.html


Book reveals how President's religious and political beliefs are entwined - and claims he did pray with Blair

Paul Harris in New York
Sunday November 2, 2003
The Observer

President George W. Bush stood before a cheering crowd at a Dallas Christian youth centre last week, and told them about being 'born again' as a Christian.
'If you change their heart, then they change their behaviour. I know,' he said, referring to his own conversion, which led to him giving up drinking.

Behind Bush were two banners. 'King of Kings', proclaimed one. 'Lord of Lords', said the other. The symbolism of how fervent Christianity has become deeply entwined with the most powerful man on the planet could not have been stronger.

Few US Presidents have been as openly religious as Bush. Now a new book has lifted the lid on how deep those Christian convictions run. It will stir up controversy at a time when the administration is keen to portray its 'war on terror' as non-religious.

The book, which depicts a President who prays each day and believes he is on a direct mission from God, will give ammunition to critics who claim Bush's administration is heavily influenced by extremist Christians.

Bush is already under fire for allowing the appointment of General William Boykin to head the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Boykin, who speaks at evangelical Christian meetings, once said the war on terror was a fight against Satan, and also told a Somali warlord that, 'My God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.'

Bush has also been accused of a 'creeping Christianisation' of federal government programmes. In September, the government made more than $60 billion available for religious charitable groups. Critics say the groups will be able to use the cash to promote their religion. One group that benefited from previous grants was an Iowa prison project that entitled inmates to televisions, private bathrooms and computers - in return for Christian counselling.

Now Bush is likely to face intense scrutiny. The book, The Faith of George W. Bush, was written by Christian author Stephen Mansfield. It details numerous incidents where Bush's faith has been shown to be at the centre of his political thinking.

Among Mansfield's revelations is his insistence that Bush and Tony Blair have prayed together at a private meeting at Camp David. Blair has previously denied this.

Mansfield, however, says that, while there were no witnesses, aides were left in little doubt as to what had happened. He told The Observer: 'There is no question they have shared scripture and prayed together.'

The book also shows that in the lead-up to announcing his candidacy for the presidency, Bush told a Texan evangelist that he had had a premonition of some form of national disaster happening.

Bush said to James Robinson: 'I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen... I know it won't be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.'

In another incident, Mansfield recounts how, on Palm Sunday last year, Bush was flying back from El Salvador aboard the presidential jet Air Force One and seemed to be destined to miss church.

However, knowing that Bush hated to miss a service, some officials suggested they worship in the air. Bush agreed, and soon 40 officials were crammed into the plane's conference room. The service was led by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, while the lesson was read by close Bush aide Karen Hughes.

The author also proves anecdotes about Bush that had previously been dismissed as false. Rumours that he had prayed with a young soldier who had lost a hand in Iraq were thought to be myth, but Mansfield tracked down witnesses and a hospital chaplain who said that Bush had prayed with the man, ending by kissing him on the forehead and telling him he loved him. 'For me, that sums up Bush's beliefs. He really believes Jesus is taken up in his heart and soul,' Mansfield said.

· A woman rammed a car carrying her children, aged three, five and eight, into a building where Bush was campaigning in Mississippi yesterday. Betina Mixon, 29, was dragged away at gunpoint and charged with aggravated assault.


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

Screen Shot of Right Wing Kathy Parker Column, Which She Later Altered, That Quotes An Admired Source Saying that the Democratic Presidential Candidates Should be Lined Up and Shot 11/2





Look at the third paragraph below:



Now here is her edited article:

Politics are out of place in time of war
Kathleen Parker


November 1, 2003


Georgia Democrat Sen. Zell Miller explained his surprising early endorsement of George Bush for 2004 in terms of trust and the future.

The next five years will determine what kind of world his children and grandchildren inherit, he said. And he doesn't "trust" any of the nine Democratic presidential candidates to secure that future.

Miller is not alone, though some are more sanguine when it comes to evaluating the roster of contenders. Here's a note I got recently from a friend and former Delta Force member, who has been observing American politics from the trenches: "These bastards like Clark and Kerry and that incipient ass, Dean, and Gephardt and Kucinich and that absolute mental midget Sharpton, race baiter, should all be lined up and slapped."

"All this carping and undercutting of our foreign policy - whatever happened to politics stops at the water's edge? - is giving strength and hope to our enemies. That makes them fight harder and longer and in the end costs the very lives they claim to care so much about."

OK, so he's a little emotional. We'll pardon him, given that earlier in the day he had learned of a pal's death in Afghanistan with whom he served several years. His friend was no kid, but a veteran of many wars. A Native American Indian, they called him "Chief," which he liked just fine so everybody in the ethnic sensitivity guard can relax.

My friend's disgust with the current climate of debate may be extreme but not uncommon, especially among military folks. His remarks also speak to a spirit and a reality that the Democratic candidates might do well to consider before they shoot themselves in whatever extremities remain free of self-inflicted wounds.

That spirit is this: Americans are willing to entertain legitimate criticism and discussion, but not bile and invective driven by the politics of self-promotion. When people are dying, it ain't kosher. It's also dishonest.

It is disingenuous to vote in favor of war, as some of the candidates did, and then to declare when the going gets tough that you favored war only if everything went according to plan - a plan, incidentally, that was visible only in a rearview mirror.

Sens. John Edwards and John Kerry, for instance, say they supported getting rid of Saddam Hussein, but disapprove of the way Bush has executed the war. Shoulda, Coulda and Woulda are brilliant on Monday mornings, but no war goes according to anyone's plan.

Then retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who's still attached to the fraudulent "imminent threat" meme, says he was always against the war, even though he's on record contradicting himself. Clark is like the news on eggs. One day eggs are good, next day they're bad. Whatever they are, he always knew it.

The reality portion of this picture, as Bush continues to reiterate, is that we should not, cannot and will not abandon the Iraqi people to be subsumed by terrorists now infiltrating the country or devoured by the subterranean Saddam and his Baathist ghouls.

Miller's trust in Bush, meanwhile, mirrors that of 56 percent of Americans who are sticking with him despite imperfections, such as that pre-war intelligence was weak to wrong, depending on the item; post-war planning was inadequate; American soldiers' falling to snipers and suicide bombers is distressing and apparently unexpected.

Personally, I find reprehensible the administration's policy of concealing our military dead. On the eve of the Iraq war, the Pentagon issued a directive forbidding "arrival ceremonies for, or media coverage of, deceased military personnel."

Bush as nanny doesn't fit Bush as commander-in-chief. We're grown-ups out here.

As grown-ups, Americans can absorb the reality that the war against Iraq was both legitimate given Saddam's refusal to abide by U.N. resolutions and necessary as a response to Sept. 11, even absent a group hug between al-Qaida and the Saddamites.

We hit Saddam because we could, as Thomas Friedman of The New York Times wrote, "and because he deserved it and because he was right in the heart of that (Arab-Muslim terrorist) world. . Every neighboring government - and 98 percent of terrorism is about what governments let happen - got the message."

At this point, our future depends on staying on message, as politicians like to say. The next president will be the man or woman Americans trust most to understand that.



©2003 Tribune Media Services