May 14,  2004  TGIF

Pentagon's No. 2 man grilled by senators

The OLYMPIAN - 5-14-04

...Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton,.. "You come before this committee ... having seriously undermined your credibility..

She quoted to him from his previous testimony from the runup to the war, in which he asserted that the Iraqi people would see the United States as their liberator, that Iraq could finance its own reconstruction and that then-Army chief Gen. Eric Shinseki's estimate that it would take several hundred thousand troops to occupy Iraq was "outlandish."

Wolfowitz ignored many of the attacks, including most of Clinton's charges...

Wolfowitz Draws Democrats' Ire

 Washington Post  5-14-04

Senate Democrats lit into the Bush administration's Iraq policies yesterday, using an uncharacteristically contentious hearing on additional war spending to attack the Pentagon's number two official in personal and bitter terms...

Senators Assail Request for Aid for Afghan and Iraq Budgets
By ERIC SCHMITT NYTIMES 5-14-04
Lawmakers complained that the request to add $25 billion to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan lacked specific details...

Is Paul Wolfowitz George W. Bush's Casper Weinberger?

"Now we're going to give $25 billion, and I'll give $50 billion – I'll give $100 billion. But there seems to me...that we do have an oversight responsibility as to where this money is spent. I don't think that all of that money has been well spent." Senator John McCain (R-AZ) at the Senate hearing for additional funding for the War in Iraq


"Donald Rumsfeld said he was happy to be visiting Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. How much stress is this guy under when he goes to Iraq to unwind?"  Craig Kilborn
 

EMAIL:

Subject: Thanks

Here's a five dollar donation. Wish it could be more. Thanks for all you do.

Nancy.

Dear Nancy,
Deep curtsey to you.
Thank you for thinking of me!

I was wondering how history would be taught in the future...see below


High school history class in the year 2015:

Teacher: Which US President invaded a country that had the second largest oil field in the world?
Class: Dubya

Teacher: Which US President was impeached and presided over the largest economic expansion in history?
Class: Bill Clinton

Teacher: Which US President was called the WAR PRESIDENT?
Class: John Kerry

Thank you.
Power is in numbers.

 

 DONATIONS GREATLY APPRECIATED FOR MY EXISTENCE 

 

"President Bush told unemployed workers today that we're in a 'time of transition.' If he thinks this is a time of transition just wait till after the election." Jay Leno
 

www.bagnews.com

The-World-Is-A-Safer-Place-Without-Saddam-News

"In a recent interview Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle said that American politics is becoming meaner and meaner. After hearing this top Republicans said that Daschle makes a good point for a guy who's ugly and probably gay." —Conan O'Brien

Limbaugh attacks Krischer in ads - 

Palm Beach Post 5-14-04

WEST PALM BEACH -- Rush Limbaugh's rage -- toned down recently as judges mull the use of his medical records -- popped out in full-page ads Thursday in South Florida newspapers....

America's military coup

Donald Rumsfeld has a new war on his hands - the US officer corps has turned on the government

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday May 13, 2004
The Guardian

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, told George Bush in February about torture at Abu Ghraib prison. From the limited detail Rumsfeld recalled of that meeting, it can be deduced that Bush gave no orders, insisted on no responsibility, did not ask to see the already commissioned Taguba report. If there are exculpatory facts, Rumsfeld has failed to mention them.

"The prison scandal is really hurting President Bush's poll numbers. In fact, I hear he's already working on his concession smirk." —Craig Kilborn

Disturbing News

 

Republican Shenanigans

"This is an administration that allows something that they arrogantly called the Patriot Act to strip away America, to make America not the America that I grew up in.  It was a coup d’etat. At first a bloodless coup d’etat, but unfortunately afterward it has become very bloody." Michael Berg, father of Nick Berg, the 26-year-old Pennsylvanian whose beheading was broadcast on an al-Qaida-linked Web site

There is something very strange about the Nicholas Berg story--from his association with the roommates of Moussaoui to his detainment in Iraq. This story may have legs, long legs.

Kerry Won't Shy Away From Clinton Help
Fort Smith Times Record, AR - 5-14-04
... of good people like Blanche Lincoln, Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, Bill Clinton and Wes ... These guys are the radicals,” Kerry said, meaning the Bush administration ...


Mis-Education President
http://www.madkane.com/mis_education.html

 In an effort to court female voters, Bush now has wife Laura touting his failed education policy in a campaign ad.  Here's my take on the topic: 

Mis-Education President

 Bush swore he'd leave no child behind,
A very worthy goal.
Instead, he left the states a great big budgetary hole.

States' rights must be preserved, Dub said.
The states know what is best.
Then signed a law he failed to fund, which makes them test, test, test.

Bush said they have to test to prove
That kids learn what they must.
Then handed out a budget that betrays our nation's trust.

The rest of my poem is here:
 http://www.madkane.com/mis_education.html
 

Madkane
 

Excerpt from Senate Hearing on the Iraq War Costs

JACK REED: Mr Secretary, do you think crouching naked for 45 minutes is humane?

PAUL WOLFOWITZ: Not naked, absolutely not.

JACK REED: So if he's dressed up, that's fine?

Let me put it this way. 72 hours without regular sleep, sensory deprivation which would be a bag over your head for 72 hours. Do you think that's humane? And that's what this says, a bag over your head for 72 hours. Is that humane?

PAUL WOLFOWITZ: Let me come back to what you said the work…

JACK REED: No, no. Answer the question, Secretary. Is that humane?

PAUL WOLFOWITZ: I don't know whether it means a bag over your head for 72 hours Senator. I don't know.

JACK REED: Mr Secretary, you're dissembling, non-responsive. Anybody would say putting a bag over someone's head for 72 hours, which is sensory deprivation…

PAUL WOLFOWITZ: I believe it's not humane. It strikes me as not humane, Senator.

JACK REED: Thank you very much.
 

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told senators that the Geneva convention on prisoner's rights applies in Iraq, but not for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay. When asked what the difference was Rumsfeld said that nobody has pictures of Guantanamo Bay." —Conan O'Brien

Biz/Tech News

'Untitled (Big Man), 2000' by Ron Mueck as part of the exhibit, Bodily Space: New Obsessions in Figurative Sculpture, at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., Tuesday, May 4, 2004. Mueck's lifelike oversized sculpture is made from pigmented polyester resin on fiberglass.(HO)

Odd News

Good News

 

An undated hand out graphic image received on May 13, 2004 shows a five-legged steel starburst sculpture entitled 'The B of the Bang'. The new sculpture, which at 56 metres will be 10 metres taller than the Statue of Liberty, will be installed beside the City of Manchester football stadium in Manchester, northern England. The 150-tonne artwork, named after Britain's Olympic sprint champion Linford Christie 's description of when he leaves the starting blocks, represents the burst of energy when athletes respond to a starting pistol. (HO)

Peace.