Cheney Calls Democrats liars - threatens to leak identities
Oh, the same old lies about how they didn't inflate or cherry-pick the pre-war intelligence, does the media ever get tired of printing this stuff? Or are they just helping the Bush team to "catapult the propaganda." "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."Â
George W. Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005"Any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped, fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false," Cheney said, decrying what he called the "self-defeating pessimism" of Democrats.
"What is not legitimate -- and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible -- is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence," Cheney said.
Interesting, coming from a man who said the US does not torture (despite evidence to the contrary), but
wants McCain to add a torture exclusion for the CIA. If we don't torture, then why would we need anexclusionn? Because our administration has never been anything other than honest, right?
THE PRESIDENT: We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.
Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002 - "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us. And there is no doubt that his aggressive regional ambitions will lead him into future confrontations with his neighbors -- confrontations that will involve both the weapons he has today, and the ones he will continue to develop with his oil wealth."
No WMDS - "In his final word, the CIAÂs top weapons inspector in Iraq said Monday that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction has Âgone as far as feasibleÂ
and has found nothing, closing an investigation into the purported programs of Saddam Hussein that were used to justify the 2003 invasion."
Clearly, Mr. Halliburton must not understand the definition of "dishonest and reprehensible":
Main Entry:
dis·hon·estPronunciation: (")di-'sä-n&st also -'zä-
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French deshoneste, from des- dis- + honeste honest
1 obsolete : SHAMEFUL, UNCHASTE
2 :
characterized by lack of truth, honesty, or trustworthiness : UNFAIR, DECEPTIVE
Good commentary by Larry Beinhart over at Mother Jones on Bushenomics I thought I'd pass along:
The Medicare package has the bizarre requirement that the government has to buy pharmaceuticals from the drug companies at the highest possible price. That means it is requiring us to pay the highest possible price. The $12.3 billion energy bill was a triumph for special interests and was followed, shortly thereafter, by $3 a gallon gas at the pump and record profits for the oil industry. more...
No Food For You - Happy Thanksgiving
Yesterday the House narrowly voted to defeat a budget bill that would have cut funding for health and education services, but today they sliced plenty of social programs from the budget. Who cares about the poor when you can put tax money to good use like billion dollar contracts to companies that have already been investigated for trying to rip off our government like Halliburton? With the 200,000 people still displaced and living on assistance after hurricane Katrina, does it make sense to start kicking people off of food stamps? But that's exactly what our lovely government is going to do.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Friday to cut $700 million from the food stamp program as part of a broad bill to reduce federal spending by $50 billion, despite objections from antihunger groups.
Some 235,000 people would lose food stamp benefits under the House bill, according to one analysis.
...States would have the option to continue offering free school lunches to families cut off of food stamps. The Center on Budget said it was unlikely all states would do so.
The House proposal also would require 70,000 legal immigrants in most cases to wait seven years to become eligible for food stamps, rather than the current five years.
If you've ever had the opportunity to work or volunteer at a school in a low-income area you'd notice that almost every kid there gets a free meal. What's sad about this, is that for most of the kids that is the only meal they are guaranteed to get in a day. Not only won't we help our own citizens from starving, we won't let other countries help us either. Here's a little seen but disturbing story about how
we rejected 400,000 meals sent to Katrina victims immediately after the storm from the British government because of fears of mad cow disease. So instead, we decided to let people continue starving while FEMA scratched their heads trying to figure out how to get food to them. All of that food we eventually shipped to Guatemala, not good enough for us so let's just ship it to South America? Also ludicrous is the concept that America is safe from Mad Cow anyway, considering that it has been found to brake the brain blood barrier and we continued to allow cattle to be fed the blood of other cattle until two years ago. I find the entire thing highly ironic, as a someone who lived in England for 4 years during the height of mad cow disease I am not allowed to give blood (even though I'm a vegetarian and didn't eat the beef). America just wants to give the appearance of safe meat so it won't hurt our beef industry, which is the entire reason we ban other countries' meat anyway - less competition. But I digress.
Also cut by the house, student loans. That's right. Let's cut everyone off of Medicare and Medicaid, off of food stamps, no chance for a higher education, and no increase in minimum wage. The land of opportunity - for who?
So what can you do? Write a lovely letter to your representatives who voted for this bill.....
you can find that list here. This bill was passed by TWO VOTES! TWO REPs DIDN't VOTE: DEMOCRATS
BOSWELL AND
TOWNS - send them an email telling them how much you appreciate them skipping work.
Total Anarchy in Darfur
USA Today reports on the escalating violence in Darfur:
Black villagers are being forced from their homes as Janjaweed avenge an SLA raid on the town of Almallam. In the past six weeks, more than 5,000 people have arrived at Zam Zam, a camp close to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. An additional 1,900 have made their way to Abu Shouk on the other side of the town, an international aid worker said. The numbers were confirmed by an African Union monitor in the region. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the government's sensitivity about the situation in Darfur.
Jan Pronk, the United Nations special representative to Sudan, said in an interview in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, that the surge in violence appears to be linked to splits within the SLA, the main rebel group. Rival commanders are vying for influence ahead of peace talks with the government scheduled to resume in Nigeria on Nov. 21.
Pronk also said leaders of both the nomad and rebel forces appear to be struggling to keep control over their troops. "There are quite a number of attacks for which we hold them responsible, but they say it is not them," he said. "There are some military commanders that are taking their own decisions."
From September 2004 to August 2005, violence between the rebels and Janjaweed caused about 200 deaths a month. "I don't have the final figures for September," Pronk said, "but we have gone past that. It is a sort of anarchy." more...
More bad news about climate change - asthma and malaria increase
A new report was released today entitled "Climate change Futures," by Harvard Medical School's Dr. Paul Epstein in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program and reinsurer Swiss Re. The report details how the changing climate will increase the spread of malaria, while worsening allergies and asthma.
Rising temperatures increase the range of the mosquitoes and ticks that carry maladies like malaria, West Nile virus and Lyme disease, the study said.
Cases of asthma, which is worsened by particulates in the air, can increase from greater amounts of CO2, the report said. Plants high in pollen and some soil fungi grow better with higher levels of the gas. -Reuters
The report also looks at the financial implications of these diseases and estimates that American healthcare costs will likely rise by another $18 million in response to the asthma, allergy and malaria increases.
Confessions
Totally random site I found the other day that I thought both warranted an inclusion for the refreshing honesty as it did for the profound sadness and isolation that is the socitey we now live in
http://grouphug.us/
