Point taken, but who acted on this, and who botched the job?

You will not see me type on these boards that Bush has executed the war flawlessly, or even particularly well. The choice of Iraq over other potential post-Afghanistan targets was logical, but the reasons were never clearly articulated to the American public let alone the world audience. Bush has two huge failings that were under his control:

- He has failed to articulate a clear strategy for defeating the enemy, something akin to FDR explaining that the US would concenreate first on Germany and then Japan. Perhaps Bush fears the amorphous nature of the war would make such pronouncements look silly in hindsight. The point is not to be a prognosticator, it is to give the American people enough faith in their leadership that there is a plan, and they can trust the leadership to make adjustments mid-course as needed. FDR never mentioned anything in his Germany-first reasoning about a sweeping land war in Africa...

- Bush is conducting World War III as if the United States was on a peacetime footing. He is tiptoe-ing around the political sensitivities of neutral and enemy nations. He hasn't seriously addressed increasing the size of the military. He failed to make the symbolic "heads have rolled" gestures that would restore public confidence in the intelligence community.

There are a large number of things that have gone wrong in the War on Terror, but it is unfair to lay blame for all of these problems at the president's feet. That said, the administration needs to get more nimble in reacting to things not going right. Expect that things will go wrong in the future... recall the proverb "If everything is going smoothly then you don't know what is going on."

While the US-UK-Australia side of WW3 has had its setbacks, look at things from al Qaeda's point of view for a moment. The aftermath of September 11 was nothing short of a disaster. They believed that the US would "run if bloodied" based on past experience from Vietnam up to Somalia. The gameplan was something like this: hit the US, draw it into conflict in the Middle East where the US would get bloodied and run, then establish a theocratic Islamist regime in the area where the US now fears to tread. What actually happened is that regimes that have militarily stood up to the US have fallen. Oops.

(edit for grammar)

---

No animals were harmed in the making of the above post... much.

Point taken, but who acted on this, and who botched the job?

Well, of course he acted on it. Presidents and world leaders and gov'ts act on intelligence every day, all over the world. What else would you expect them to do?

As far as "botched," that just sounds like partisan rhetoric to me. The most effective wars are those where the enemy society and their idea of civilization is utterly dismantled, taken apart beyond all recognition. But, that usually involves war and bombing raids like that visited upon Dresden and Tokyo.

In Iraq, that is a real problem. You don't want to bomb the citizens back into the stone age. Because of that, people who refuse to submit, but understand the value of dressing as civilians will always be able to attack, thereby directing further danger to civilans around them.

The real effect has been to turn Iraq into a free-for-all killing zone for irrational religious zealots, and a bitter lesson for future attackers--a lesson Japan learned the hard way.

Besides, this is just gov't force, something that people line to to beg the gov't to use. They should be thrilled.

---

Account frozen...

---

Account frozen...

---

Account frozen...

Bush and his minions continue to con America

MARTIN SCHRAM SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

November 18, 2005

The conning of America goes on.

It may not rise to the level of high crime, or even misdemeanor. But make no mistake: America has endured a low-level governance-by-deception that has droned too long just below our radar of impeachable offenses. It has left behind a vapor trail that shows a clear pattern of official deceptions, foreign and domestic.

We are talking here about deceits, distortions and disingenuous look-the-other-ways perpetrated by the administration of President Bush that are contemptible if not impeachable.

But we are talking also (albeit to a lesser degree) of the revisionist responses and sound-bright sound bites of a leader-lite Democratic opposition that has failed to galvanize, let alone offer, any semblance or even sense of alternative plans to lead America and the world out of the mess that has been made at home and abroad, on issues global and local.

We will get to the long and growing list that of course begins with the international cons – distortions about Saddam Hussein's purported ties to al-Qaeda in the rush to invade Iraq and the disastrous bungling of the never-planned postwar that has given al-Qaeda a harbor in Iraq that it never had before.

But first, consider the latest deception (on a domestic issue that is only important to those who are females or who have ever had females in their families). Namely, the secret shunning of science in a rejection of access to the least offensive abortion method of all by the newly politicized Federal Drug Administration.

Without waiting for the government's scientists to complete their review and make recommends, FDA officials summarily rejected an application to allow over-the-counter sales of the morning-after contraception pill called "Plan B."

According to investigators at the nonpartisan Government Accounting Office, top FDA officials inserted themselves into the process in a way that was characterized as "very, very rare."

Now, a few lowlights from the Conning of America list: The Rush to Invade Iraq. Bush officials spotlighted the most inflammatory intelligence (about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction) and deep-sixed contradicting assessments. Bush officials repeatedly claimed al-Qaeda was linked to Saddam – claims based chiefly on a purported meeting in Prague that others disputed. All that was pretense for diverting U.S. forces from the right war in Afghanistan, whose purpose was to crush al-Qaeda and capture Osama bin Laden.

The Bungling of the Peace. (See also: The unwitting creation of a new safe harbor for al-Qaeda – in Iraq!) By failing to properly plan for Iraq after Saddam, the U.S. invasion created chaos, civil war and a security vacuum that allowed al-Qaeda to move in and set up a new base of terrorism. Also, new recruits are reportedly joining al-Qaeda in protest of the invasion. Bottom line: Bush's invasion of Iraq may have made us less safe at home.

Failure to Support our Troops. Unbelievably, the Bush administration failed to provide proper armor to U.S. troops before sending them into harm's way. They also broke their commitments of a limited combat tour to brave men and women who enlisted and found their combat duty extended.

Pre-Election Falsehood, Post-Election Indictment. During campaign 2004, the Bush White House assured voters Karl Rove and Scooter Libby were not involved in leaking CIA secret agent Valerie Plame's identity to discredit her husband, who had found no proof to back Bush's claim about Iraq seeking uranium from Niger. Now, after the election, we learned Rove and Libby were involved – and Libby was indicted for deceiving the FBI and grand jury.

Administration Winks at Big Oil Gouging of Motorists. Oil company profits soared as much as 89 percent in one year, while gas prices for motorists skyrocketed to record heights. Bush officials sat in benign silence. Congress held velvet-glove hearings. Some threatened a windfall profits tax – but plowing money back into the U.S. treasury won't help motorists who have already over-paid.

Now this: Americans seem to have finally caught on. The latest Gallup Poll shows that a record 60 percent now disapprove of the job Bush is doing as president and just 37 percent approve. Bush responded as presidents have before him when their polls plummet. He used his Air Force One jet engines to power himself upward – on a trip to Asia that his aides hope will boost his image as a world leader and thus boost his approval rating at home.

It's a bit that presidents always try. It never works.

---

me@rescam.org

got this in an email so I can't vouch for its validity..
===

Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, lashed back at critics after the FBI discovered that up to 700 so-called members of the city police force simply did not exist. Funding for many of these officers was provided by the federal government. "During the storm and aftermath we'd heard reports that hundreds of New Orleans police officers had deserted their post," said an FBI spokesman. "Further investigation indicates that these posts had never been manned and the funds supposedly paid in wages has disappeared."

"Sure we overstated the number of officers on the force," said Nagin. "We did this to deter crime." As Nagin explained it, the phantom officers were used as a decoy to frighten would-be offenders. "Just as George Washington lit fake campfires to lull the British troops before his surprise attack at Princeton, we in New Orleans have employed a similar strategy." The effectiveness of Nagin's alleged strategy is in doubt, though. New Orleans has one of the highest crime rates per capita in the nation.

As for what happened to the funds that were supposed to have paid police salaries, Nagin asserted that they were used to hire consultants and purchase computer software needed to sustain New Orleans' "virtual police force." "The software had to be custom made," said Nagin. "It's not something you can buy at CompUSA. Software designers don't come cheap. Neither do the public relations experts who developed our media campaign." The media campaign featured TV spots of various street people implying that they could be undercover cops. In one ad, an apparently toothless derelict looks into the camera and says "I be watchin' you. So, don't you go misbehavin'."

Unimpressed by Nagin's explanation, the FBI asserted it will continue its investigation.

got this in an email so I can't vouch for its validity..
===

Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, lashed back at critics after the FBI discovered that up to 700 so-called members of the city police force simply did not exist.

"Sure we overstated the number of officers on the force," said Nagin. "We did this to deter crime."

Unimpressed by Nagin's explanation, the FBI asserted it will continue its investigation.

This "news" article was, however, merely one of several Hurricane Katrina-inspired political spoofs that hit just close enough to home to seem believable to many. It was taken from the 30 September 2005 version of the weekly "Semi-News" column produced for The Arizona Conservative by John Semmens, and as a glance at some of the other items in the columns demonstrates, "Semi-News" is a satirical take on current events.

---

---

Account frozen...

Failure to Support our Troops. Unbelievably, the Bush administration failed to provide proper armor to U.S. troops before sending them into harm's way. They also broke their commitments of a limited combat tour to brave men and women who enlisted and found their combat duty extended.

As the Secretary of Defense said, "You go to war with the Army you have, not the one you'd like to have." Eight years of ruthless Defense cuts by the Clinton administration had taken their toll. This included cuts in the size of the military not to mention not buying that armor that everyone cares so much about.

The Bush administration is deploying Humvee armor as fast as it can be manufactured, but after five years in office they really should have been able to do something to increase the size of the military.

Pre-Election Falsehood, Post-Election Indictment. During campaign 2004, the Bush White House assured voters Karl Rove and Scooter Libby were not involved in leaking CIA secret agent Valerie Plame's identity to discredit her husband, who had found no proof to back Bush's claim about Iraq seeking uranium from Niger. Now, after the election, we learned Rove and Libby were involved – and Libby was indicted for deceiving the FBI and grand jury.

The special prosecutor said no such thing. Please read the indictment... it charges that Libby, for reasons unknown, spun a yarn to the grand jury about when he (not Novak) found out about Plame's allegedly secret identity.

This is probably a case of a minion taking a bullet for his boss when the bullet would have missed anyway. NO ONE IS GUILTY OF THE ORIGINAL CRIMES FOR WHICH THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR WAS APPOINTED.

Administration Winks at Big Oil Gouging of Motorists. Oil company profits soared as much as 89 percent in one year, while gas prices for motorists skyrocketed to record heights. Bush officials sat in benign silence. Congress held velvet-glove hearings. Some threatened a windfall profits tax – but plowing money back into the U.S. treasury won't help motorists who have already over-paid.

Anyone who was of driving age in the 1970's knows how well windfall taxes work.

The reason that Hurricane Katrina caused a supply shock is the inability of the petrochemical industry to build new refineries or start new oil wells. Had ANWR been up and running (which would have required getting it stated during the Clinton administration), it would have picked up the slack. And that is just one of the areas made off-limits to drilling by radical environmentalist groups that want the world to start running out of oil so that the human race is forced to a lower rate of energy usage, pursuant to some half-baked theory of sustainability. Had they not made it impossible to build a new coal or nuclear plant, we wouldn't have been nearly as dependant on a rock-steady supply of oil and natural gas.

The next time you think to yourself, "Why on Earth do I have to look at $2.25 per gallon gas as an improvement?" turn and look at the nearest tree-hugger.

Now this: Americans seem to have finally caught on. The latest Gallup Poll shows that a record 60 percent now disapprove of the job Bush is doing as president and just 37 percent approve. Bush responded as presidents have before him when their polls plummet. He used his Air Force One jet engines to power himself upward – on a trip to Asia that his aides hope will boost his image as a world leader and thus boost his approval rating at home.

It's a bit that presidents always try. It never works.

Second-term presidents invariably have these problems. It seems worse this time around because people in the press are saying it's worse this time around.

The eventual trial of Scooter Libby should be entertaining, because his defense team will call scads of political journalists to the stand and make them testify under oath where they get their leaks (Democratic staffers), how they decide how to spin stories (make the Republicans look bad), and how they source their material (anyone with obviously forged documents that implicate Bush must be telling the truth). Or they will refuse to testify, and the entire Washington press corps will be in jail.

---

No animals were harmed in the making of the above post... much.

Unruly kids - Some shops pull the welcome mat

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

November 19, 2005

The next time you go out for coffee, you might want to leave the kids at home. Coffeehouses in cities around the country have put parents on notice that their kids are no longer welcome. Well, not unless the kids behave themselves and learn to use their "indoor voices."

It's true, and it's happening from California to Illinois to North Carolina. Owners of coffeehouses are trying to draw the line at kids' rowdiness and other manifestations of what might be called anti-social behavior. Some of them are hanging up signs urging parents to keep their kids quiet and calm or get out. Others are printing similar messages on menus, forcing parents to choose between their kids and their cappuccino.

We're happy to report that, at least most of the time, parents are choosing the kids. But many of these parents are also fit to be tied, as they threaten everything from lawsuits to boycotts to fight against what they term uncaring and unwelcoming treatment by businesses that they consider to be less than kid-friendly.

It's just as well the coffeehouse ban is in effect because, obviously, these folks need to cut back on their caffeine intake. Talk about an overreaction. These parents need to act their age. These coffeehouses are private establishments and the proprietors have the right to set whatever ground rules they like, within reason. If customers don't like it, or think a particular rule is unfair, they don't have to be customers. They can vote with their feet and take their business elsewhere. We'd rather they did that than resort to lawsuits, tantrums and other pressure tactics to try to get their way.

---

me@rescam.org

Slaying Lyons
by Becky Akers

If it came to a choice between your family and the career enabling you to feed
and support that family, which would you choose?

That devilish dilemma confronted Christopher Lyons of Oxford, Connecticut,
when he, his wife, Karen, and their two-year-old boy, Spencer, fell into the
clutches of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) last February.
Screeners who unearthed a penknife in the Lyons' carry-on bag decided it
was "artfully concealed" and called the cops. The stunned and shaken couple
agreed that she would take the rap lest his job as a corporate pilot be
threatened. While her son sobbed and her husband watched helplessly, this
34-year-old mother was marched away in handcuffs to be fingerprinted,
photographed (mug shots), and interrogated. Presumably, arresting Mrs. Lyons
struck some sort of blow against terrorism, but I'm a bit fuzzy on exactly how.

The Lyons' saga began when they set off on what was supposed to be a vacation
to sunny Disney World in the pre-dawn blackness of a winter's day. Federalized
airport security does its best to turn travel into torment, and the Lyons'
attempt to board their 7AM flight on Southwest Airlines was no exception.
Screeners rifling their belongings found a Swiss Army knife with - horrors!
- a 2-inch blade nestled midway through a container of "Huggies" diaper wipes.

The TSA wants us to believe the couple deliberately concealed the $15 penknife
so it can fine them up to $10,000 each. That Mrs. Lyons used to work as a
flight attendant while Mr. Lyons is a pilot and former Marine and that both of
them are, therefore, pretty familiar with airports and security and much
cleverer ways to hide "weapons" - yes, the TSA persists in calling that 2-inch
blade a "weapon" - doesn't faze Our Rulers. Nor does the glaring absence of
any motive or criminal record.

The Lyons have a reasonable theory for why the knife was lurking in the
Huggies, though they can't say for sure ("I have no idea...," Mr. Lyons, 43,
told the Hartford Courant, while his wife added, "We didn't even know it had
fallen out of his pocket"). To minimize the overwhelming stresses the
government now inflicts on travellers, the Lyons drove the 65 miles from their
home to Bradley International Airport the night before their flight. They
slept at a neighboring hotel. Mr. Lyons thinks he had the penknife in his
pocket when he changed his son's diaper around 5 that morning before checking
out of the room. Because he didn't turn on a light, he didn't see the knife
when it slipped from his pocket into the Huggies container. Nor did his wife,
who replenished the canister, thereby "concealing" the knife, in preparation
for long checkpoint lines and a flight with a two-year-old. They say it's also
possible the "weapon" fell on the bed and one or the other inadvertently
scooped it up with the extra Huggies in their rush to leave.

But a knife so innocuous neither parent worried over its proximity to their
son alarmed those courageous dipsticks at the TSA. Never known for their
smarts or speed, the screeners ran the diaper bag through their X-ray gizmo
time and again while the Lyons' anxiety mounted. Then came a quarter-hour
consultation with screening supervisors. Bradley's TSA honchos are at the same
moronic level as those in the rest of the country: their response to this
insane sunrise scene was to call the Connecticut State Police. Good
bureaucrats all, the cops told the Lyons, "We have to arrest someone." And, by
jingo, though lacking any crime, these whizzes still managed to come up with a
charge: the Lyons were "circumventing airport security." Husband and wife
conferred. Knowing an arrest could badly injure or even kill his career, the
couple agreed that Mrs. Lyons would sacrifice herself. Troopers cuffed her and
dragged her off, not to Disney World but to a holding cell.

A hearing on this criminally absurd case was scheduled for this week. "Any and
all attempts to purposefully conceal a prohibited item at a passenger security
checkpoint will result in the issuance of a civil penalty," sniffed TSA spokes-
stooge Ann Davis. Apparently, neither she nor the other moronic bullies at the
TSA lose sleep over destroying their fellow-citizens' lives, impoverishing
them, or persecuting sincere, hard-working parents trapped in a silly web of
events. But never let it be said the TSA has no heart: it has magnanimously
recommended the Lyons be fined only $6000 apiece, rather than the full $10,000
allowed by its regulations. I suppose the hearing will feature endless
testimony about dim hotel rooms, penknives - excuse me, "weapons" - and
Huggies. Let's hope the diaper in question is submitted for evidence so the
court stinks as badly as the rest of this tyrannical charade.

Mr. Lyons made the obligatory obeisance to the TSA by telling the Courant that
he "appreciates the need for strict airport security." But "this is my career,
and it's not something to be taken lightly and mess around with."

Then he cut to the heart of the matter. "I was in the military and I hate to
say this, but I just don't trust the government anymore."

Welcome to the club, Mr. Lyons.

===============================================================================

TSA idiots, gropers of any reasonably attractive women. Why we don't fly commercial domestic flights anymore. I hate being terrorized by my own government.

-Mrs. anon

Slaying Lyons
by Becky Akers

If it came to a choice between your family and the career enabling you to feed
and support that family, which would you choose?

[snip]

TSA idiots, gropers of any reasonably attractive women. Why we don't fly commercial domestic flights anymore. I hate being terrorized by my own government.

-Mrs. anon

I fly pretty regularly, and nothing like this has ever happened to me. You and the story's writer present this as if it is the norm, but it is not. I can think of many things that may have happened here, things that a writer with a chip on her shoulder may not have included, or may have softened, to make a point. I have seen some pretty rude, caustic passengers go through airport security, and I have seen people stopped with prohibited items, but I have never seen TSA single out a passenger without cause or fail to give a passenger a choice when it comes to prohibited items.

Then there are the stories about people, reporters usually, who try to get items past security, just to show it can be done. After succeeding at this, an article will appear in the local newspaper complaining that TSA is worthless and fails to do their job. Ya' can't win.

I fly pretty regularly, and nothing like this has ever happened to me. You and the story's writer present this as if it is the norm, but it is not. I can think of many things that may have happened here, things that a writer with a chip on her shoulder may not have included, or may have softened, to make a point. I have seen some pretty rude, caustic passengers go through airport security, and I have seen people stopped with prohibited items, but I have never seen TSA single out a passenger without cause or fail to give a passenger a choice when it comes to prohibited items.

Then there are the stories about people, reporters usually, who try to get items past security, just to show it can be done. After succeeding at this, an article will appear in the local newspaper complaining that TSA is worthless and fails to do their job. Ya' can't win.

Well Tom, knowing what you look like doesn't make you a likely candidate to be groped. But when we were flying commercial flights I was picked out to be groped way to often for it to be just coincidence. Like 1 out of 3 times. And I'll be damned if I look like some kind of a terrorist. And don't bother telling me to file a complaint because that was done and you damn well know that nothing became of it.

-Mrs. anon

Well Tom, knowing what you look like doesn't make you a likely candidate to be groped. But when we were flying commercial flights I was picked out to be groped way to often for it to be just coincidence. Like 1 out of 3 times. And I'll be damned if I look like some kind of a terrorist. And don't bother telling me to file a complaint because that was done and you damn well know that nothing became of it.

-Mrs. anon

I am sorry for you being treated poorly, but the story you posted was about an ex-Marine and former airline stewardess (she was not groped, but her diaper bag was searched) and they don't seem to have been singled out based on their looks. Nothing in the story gives us a clue about their attitude toward the TSA, so maybe that had something to do with it.

So my point stands: this story, even if it happened exactly as Becky Akers wrote it, is not a common situation. And as for you being groped, if a male TSA employee felt you up in public, at a security checkpoint in an airport with video monitoring, I would get a good lawyer to sue them--I'm sure you could find one willing to take the case.

P.S. I Googled Becky Akers, and she does indeed seem to have a chip on her shoulder.

And as for you being groped, if a male TSA employee felt you up in public, at a security checkpoint in an airport with video monitoring, I would get a good lawyer to sue them--I'm sure you could find one willing to take the case.

I don't need to waste my time, the court's time and I certainly don't need whatever piddling little sum of $$$ they "might" award.

P.S. I Googled Becky Akers, and she does indeed seem to have a chip on her shoulder.

Tom, you're just so...so...Republican!

-Mrs. anon

PS: Just read more idiocy in the other TSA thread.

P.S. I Googled Becky Akers, and she does indeed seem to have a chip on her shoulder.

Tom, you're just so...so...Republican!

-Mrs. anon

PS: Just read more idiocy in the other TSA thread.

I am conservative, but not Republican. I like to think that I recognise, conservative or liberal, when someone takes a position that is based more on ideology than fact. And for me, that bias makes me question their position even more.