Rice said she was “deeply saddened by the terrible loss of innocent life” in Israel’s attack. But she did not call for an immediate cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militias.
ABC News: 34 Youths Among 56 Dead in Israeli Strike
More time!
On Dec 23, 2005, at 5:23 PM, Senator_Frist@frist.senate.gov wrote:
I write to share good news with you about a new student aid initiative that represents a dramatic step toward promoting math and science education and ensuring America’s economic competitiveness in the future.
What about medical diagnosis via video? I would like to learn how to carry out medical diagnoses from the comfort of my home using a webcam.
Thanks and good luck with the SEC investigation,
Daniel J. Wilson
Via Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo:
By virtue of his constitutional role as commander-and-in-chief and head of the executive branch, the President has access to all national intelligence collected, analyzed and produced by the Intelligence Community. The President’s position also affords him the authority - which, at certain times, has been aggressively asserted (1) - to restrict the flow of intelligence information to Congress and its two intelligence committees, which are charged with providing legislative oversight of the Intelligence Community. (2) As a result, the President, and a small number of presidentially-designated Cabinet-level officials, including the Vice President (3) - in contrast to Members of Congress (4) - have access to a far greater overall volume of intelligence and to more sensitive intelligence information, including information regarding intelligence sources and methods. They, unlike Members of Congress, also have the authority to more extensively task the Intelligence Community, and its extensive cadre of analysts, for follow-up information. As a result, the President and his most senior advisors arguably are better positioned to assess the quality of the Community’s intelligence more accurately than is Congress. (5)
In addition to their greater access to intelligence, the President and his senior advisors also are better equipped than is Congress to assess intelligence information by virtue of the primacy of their roles in formulating U.S. foreign policy. Their foreign policy responsibilities often require active, sustained, and often personal interaction, with senior officials of many of the same countries targeted for intelligence collection by the Intelligence Community. Thus the President and his senior advisors are uniquely positioned to glean additional information and impressions - information that, like certain sensitive intelligence information, is generally unavailable to Congress - that can provide them with an important additional perspective with which to judge the quality of intelligence.
Congressional Research Service: Congress as a Consumer of Intelligence Information
Anyone still want to claim that the Congress saw all the same intel that the White House did?
The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein’s suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims during the run-up to the war in Iraq.
Five senior officials from Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with The Times that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball, never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so.
According to the Germans, President Bush mischaracterized Curveball’s information when he warned before the war that Iraq had at least seven mobile factories brewing biological poisons. Then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell also misstated Curveball’s accounts in his prewar presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, the Germans said.
Los Angeles Times: How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of ‘Curveball’
BugMeNot can provide you with a login/password combo if you don’t want to register.
I like guys who’ve never been there that criticize us who’ve been there,” he said. “I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don’t like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done. I resent the fact, on Veterans Day, he (Bush) criticized Democrats for criticizing them.
Mr. Five Deferments would be Dick “Torturific” Cheney. He had “other priorities” during Vietnam.
A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.
NY Times: Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Suspicions
The D.I.A. report also pointed out why it was highly unlikely that Saddam and Osama (still a free man, by the way) were collaborating; Saddam’s regime is intensely secular
and is unlikely to provide assistance to a group it cannot control.
on or about July 10 or July 11, 2003, Libby spoke to a senior White House official (”Official A”) who advised Libby of a conversation Official A had earlier that week with columnist Robert Novak in which Wilson’s wife was discussed as a CIA employee involved in Wilson’s trip. Libby was advised by Official A that Novak would be writing a story about Wilson’s wife;
Via CNN: Special Counsel’s Statement, page 7 [136 KB PDF]
Late Friday, three people close to the investigation, each asking to remain unidentified because of grand jury secrecy, identified Rove as Official A.
Associated Press: ‘Official A’ stands out in indictment
If Rove told Novakula of Plame’s CIA status…
Just as Bill Clinton is guilty of not acting to stop the genocide in Rwanda that he and his top advisers knew was occurring, George W. Bush is guilty of ignoring the warnings from his own Federal Emergency Management Agency that a powerful hurricane would have a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast region, New Orleans in particular.
New Orleans is sinking.
And its main buffer from a hurricane, the protective Mississippi River delta, is quickly eroding away, leaving the historic city perilously close to disaster.
So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most castastrophic disasters facing this country.
The administration grossly underfunded levee projects around New Orleans while passing tax cuts, which they still hope to make permanent.
Despite continuous warnings that a catastrophic hurricane could hit New Orleans, the Bush administration and Congress in recent years have repeatedly denied full funding for hurricane preparation and flood control.
That has delayed construction of levees around the city and stymied an ambitious project to improve drainage in New Orleans’ neighborhoods.
For instance, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requested $27 million for this fiscal year to pay for hurricane-protection projects around Lake Pontchartrain. The Bush administration countered with $3.9 million, and Congress eventually provided $5.7 million, according to figures provided by the office of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).
The Chicago Tribune: Flood-control funds short of requests
While a Category 5 hurricane ravaged the Gulf Coast, George W. Bush was on vacation.
A large majority of Democrats (59%) say they agree that the President should be impeached if he lied about Iraq, while just three-in-ten (30%) disagree. Among President Bush’s fellow Republicans, a full one-in-four (25%) indicate they would favor impeaching the President under these circumstances, while seven-in-ten (70%) do not.
Zogby Poll Analysis, June 30, 2005
I wonder how many Republicans who oppose impeaching Bush for lying about Iraq wanted Clinton impeached for lying about the whereabouts of his penis…
Pollster John Zogby: “Voters seem to have kept up with events. When we explain the meaning of impeachment, three of four Republicans (74%) want the President impeached, as do a similar number of Democrats oppose impeachment (75.9%).
George W. Bush’s speech in condensed form: “September 11 happened, so I had to invade the country that had nothing to do with it and posed no threat to the United States.”
Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, the masterminds of the attacks, are still alive and kicking. Also, I’ve heard something about Iran and North Korea working on nuclear weapons. Let’s hope they don’t make any progress in the next handful of years!
Interaction design and usability, technology, politics, music, and random thoughts…
I am Daniel J. Wilson; a musician (drums), interaction designer, and proud member of the reality-based community.
