Collective Sigh

...the overhaul of a national symbol raised some complaints particularly since it came from U.S.-appointed leaders. U.S. administrators previously tried to alter the Saddam-era flag by dropping the words ''Allahu akbar'' ''God is great'' but Iraqis refused to abide by the change

Her son doesn't graduate until Spring 2005, but he can enroll up to a year before his entry date. I did when I enlisted in the Army. And not only should he enlist, but he should do so for a combat arms slot. Not some wussy pencil-pushing gig, but a job that could see combat. Infantry, armor, engineer, airborne, artillery, special forces (like Pat Tillman), or pilot.

So how about it, Karen? Ready to put your son where your mouth is? And if not, why should other Americans put their sons and daughters through the meat grinder on behalf of your boss' botched war?

By the end of the year, close to 10 interceptors are expected to be on alert at two sites: Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. They will be linked to a specialized radar able to track inbound missiles over the Pacific Ocean.

But the interceptors face two upcoming tests of their ability to find and destroy incoming ballistic missiles, the first expected in late spring or early summer.

"If they both fail, we've got big problems," Kadish said. "We expect them to be successful."

In the last year, the Energy Department has increased its assumptions about the size and firepower of terrorist teams that could assault its labs. Government officials now say that anyone bent on attack probably could use high-powered explosives to punch holes though reinforced concrete walls and then be able to penetrate razor wire fencing and defeat the most sophisticated electronic surveillance systems.

But the General Accounting Office, an arm of Congress, will report today that the threat posed by terrorists against the nation's weapons labs is estimated by intelligence agencies to be far more lethal than what the Energy Department has accepted in its most recent planning for security.

Bush adviser Karen Hughes turned to what Kerry did after returning from the war. Hughes said Sunday she was offended by Kerry's anti-war activities in 1971 and accused him of not actually throwing back his medals when he and other veterans protested in Washington.

"He only pretended to throw his," Hughes said in a CNN interview. "Now, I can understand if, out of conscience, you take a principled stand, and you would decide that you were so opposed to this that you would actually throw your medals. But to pretend to do so -- I think that's very revealing."

As a pilot who flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam, I can tell you that the best thing our government can do for its combat veterans is to quit making more of them. Peace is patriotic; a preemptive war is immoral, illegal, unconstitutional, a war crime, and TREASON.

Karen Hughes, an adviser to President Bush, appeared on CNN today to provide a counterpoint to the anti-Bush sentiment on the Mall. She praised the president on his "very strong record for women," saying he has employed more women in senior-level staff positions than any other presidential administration.

She also said that abortion-rights activists were moving against what she said was popular momentum, particularly since the terrorist attacks of 2001, in favor of anti-abortion policies.

"I think that after September 11, the American people are valuing life more and we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life," she said. "President Bush has worked to say, let's be reasonable, let's work to value life, let's reduce the number of abortions, let's increase adoptions. And I think those are the kinds of policies the American people can support, particularly at a time when we're facing an enemy and, really, the fundamental issue between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life."

Mr. Bush is portrayed, for the most part, as an engaged commander in chief who decided soon after Sept. 11, 2001, that he must confront Saddam Hussein, but did not finally choose war until he had judged, more than a year later, that the diplomacy meant to avoid it had failed.

Employers could reduce or eliminate their retirees' health benefits once the former workers qualify for Medicare, under a proposal from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Sharka, a two-ton white rhino, got amorous with Dave Alsop's car when he stopped with three friends to take pictures of the animal mating with his partner Trixie at the West Midland Safari Park.

The 12-year-old rhino tried to mount the Renault Laguna from the side, denting the doors and ripping off the wing mirrors before Dave drove away with a puffing Sharka in pursuit.

But can Edwards help Kerry win? Many Democrats don't think Edwards can even carry his home state of North Carolina, which Bush won by double digits in 2000. Edwards' supporters point to his appeal among independents in Wisconsin and South Carolina.

Will he be chosen? He'll definitely be a top finalist, and if the economy emerges again as the central campaign issue, he's my odds-on choice.

Several executives explained to me that they were opening new plants in Asia — not because of cheaper labor. Labor is a small component now in an automated high-tech manufacturing plant. It is because governments in these countries are so eager for employment and the transfer of technology to their young populations that they are offering huge tax holidays for U.S. manufacturers who will set up shop. Because most of these countries also offer some form of national health insurance, U.S. companies shed that huge open liability as well.

Iraqi leaders choose mayor of Baghdad
Coalition administrator expected to give his OK

In a scene that coalition officials must have dreamed about for months, Iraqis lined up Sunday to cast their ballots for the next mayor of Baghdad -- sort of.

But rather than a general election open to all eligible residents of this city of 5 million, 49 local government representatives assembled in a heavily guarded municipal building to choose who'll lead them in tackling the problems that plague this fabled and unwieldy metropolis.

Outside, a dozen U.S. Army Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles kept a protective watch.

The final approval of his selection will be made by L. Paul Bremer, the American administrator of the coalition. However, officials said Bremer is expected to give his OK after a background check.

The Iraqi representatives, members of the Baghdad City Council and other local leaders, picked a resident of the United Arab Emirates, Alaa al-Tamimi, an Iraqi native who promises to return to his homeland and begin to address Baghdad's horrendous traffic, overflowing garbage and inadequate water and sewage systems.

Conservatives, talk radio hosts and some newspaper editorials have questioned the seriousness of his injuries and whether the Massachusetts senator was deserving of the three Purple Hearts, which resulted in his reassignment out of Vietnam.

The shortages became noticeable when soap and deodorant disappeared from American contract shop shelves, and salads and sweets became scarce at dining halls catering to the U.S.-led coalition. Around the same time, U.S. forces dipped into their ammunition and fuel reserves.

"We're a-OK on fuel and a-OK on ammo again. We're starting to build our stocks up," a senior coalition military official said in a background briefing this week, trying to reassure reporters that supply routes are being re-established. He declined to specify when or for long they weren't a-OK.

Pressed, the official, who asked not to be named, used Pentagon jargon to describe how ammunition and fuel stocks had dipped below military planners' comfort levels: They'd gone from green to amber in recent days, he said, gingerly avoiding details that could offer valuable information to the enemy. That's still better than red or black, at which points military operations are significantly affected.

Last week, after writing about the Governor’s Sin Tax being a exceedingly dumb way to finance public education, I’ve had some second thoughts. I don’t mind admitting when I’ve made mistakes. That’s how you know that my column is not being ghostwritten by the President.

"There's not an American ... that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future," Senator Chuck Hagel told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq.

"Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, arguing that restoring compulsory military service would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face."

The Nebraska Republican added that a draft, which was ended in the early 1970s, would spread the burden of military service in Iraq more equitably among various social strata.

Simply having diabetes makes a man two to four times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than someone without the disease. Diabetes makes a woman's risk of a heart attack two to six times greater. Researchers say that's because a diabetic's blood is thicker and more prone to clot.

The new guidelines say diabetics should take cholesterol-lowering statins — even if their cholesterol levels are good — if they have any one of the following health problems: high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, or a family history of heart disease.

[...]


"Statins do have an effect on cholesterol and cholesterol is in the brain," said Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of Alzheimer's research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "They [the drugs] may also have an effect on the protein called 'amyloid,' which is thought to be a major culprit in the development of Alzheimer's disease."

Statins have also shown early promise against autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. The drugs are being studied in cancer prevention, too, with the results of large clinical trial due later this spring. (link)

At a recent dinner party hosted by New York Times D.C. bureau chief Philip Taubman and his wife, Times reporter Felicity Barringer, and attended by Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Maureen Dowd, Steven Weisman, and Elisabeth Bumiller, Rice was reportedly overheard saying, "As I was telling my husb—" and then stopping herself abruptly, before saying, "As I was telling President Bush." (link)

"What I think the president ought to do, is he ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say, 'We expect you to open your spigots,' " Mr. Bush said in New Hampshire in January 2000.

Cady Heron (Lohan) is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels (Bennett), the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George (McAdams).

Time Magazine has published its list of the 100 "World's Most Influential People," including President George W. Bush, which it called "a radical gambler."

Saying the Republican president will be judged by the Iraq war, columnist Andrew Sullivan wrote: "We do know that this unassuming man became a radical gambler with his fate and with humanity's."

The last three worker elves at Father Christmas's official headquarters in Finland's Arctic have been fired as Santa Park grapples with its finances.

This week George Bush came closer to telling the truth about the invasion of Iraq than at any time in his presidency.

It is extraordinary that, a year after invading a foreign country unprovoked, the US leader had still not answered straightforwardly the big question overhanging the whole enterprise - why?

Bush's real motive has been laid bare. Early in the march on Baghdad, he was reluctant to speak of it. But neither was it a secret. It was hiding in plain view. He spoke of it five times in one form or another in his press conference this week: "We're changing the world."

Since the end of the Cold War, a group of Republican ideologues has been developing a theory of and practice of hegemony. Labelled the neo-conservatives, or neo-cons for short, these people are the bearers of the doctrine of American exceptionalism, much as the author Herman Melville formulated it in 1850: "We are the peculiar chosen people - the Israel of our time. We bear the ark of the liberties of the world."

As soon as Bush was elected, he tasked the Pentagon with the work of rewriting the National Security Strategy, which a professor of military history at Yale University, John Lewis Gaddis, describes as perhaps "the most important reformulation of US grand strategy in over half a century".

The two key concepts it enshrines are pre-emption, and hegemony. The US will pre-empt threats to preserve hegemony. And hegemony is a nice way of saying preponderant and unchallengeable global domination. Iraq was destined to be the test bed for the new doctrine as the Bush Administration set out to recast the world in its own interests. Iraq was the ideal starting point for reasons that include its implications for oil supply and for the security of Israel. But they are details in the grand vision.

Bush's National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, observes that this is a period of great danger for the US, but also "of enormous opportunity ... a period akin to 1945 to 1947, when American leadership expanded the number of free and democratic states - Japan and Germany among the great powers - to create a new balance of power that favoured freedom".

September 11 was the perfect political opportunity to win political support for the new doctrine. As the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, quickly grasped, that day created "the kind of opportunities that World War II offered, to refashion the world".

It is an idealistic vision, the opposite of realism, and a powerful one. But because it refuses to submit to existing realities of world affairs, it is also a disruptive one. Because it seeks profoundly to change the status quo, it is a revolutionary doctrine.

Bush this week vowed to pursue his vision "to change the world." As he said: "It's important for those soldiers to know America stands with them, and we weep when they die." There will be much more weeping as Bush pursues his conception of America's manifest destiny.

"I think we have to broaden the definition of terrorist to include warlords," said Adam Bouloukos, deputy representative with the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Kabul. "You have al-Qaida and the Taliban and then this whole range of other characters who are just as destructive because they are trying to undermine the political process and they are well-armed."

Some observers fear a repeat of what happened in the 1990s, when the United States walked away from Afghanistan after the Soviet Union withdrew its occupying army and the warlords' excesses contributed to the rise of the puritanical and repressive Taliban.

Jackie Robinson burst onto the scene in 1947, breaking Baseball's color barrier and bringing the Negro leagues' electrifying style of play to the majors. He quickly became Baseball's top drawing card and a symbol of hope to millions of Americans. With Robinson as the catalyst, the Dodgers won six pennants in his 10 seasons. He dominated games on the basepaths, stealing home 19 times while riling opposing pitchers with his daring baserunning style. Robinson was named National League MVP in 1949, leading the loop in hitting (.342) and steals (37), while knocking in 124 runs.

Hi Mom -

Woke up to about a half inch of snow on the ground and its been snowing pretty heavily all day, though not sticking. Goofy weather.

Watch American Idol tonight! Should have come on last night but it was moved because of the dumb president. (My roommate) watched his speech, tried to make me watch it too, no thanks.

However, she did inform me afterwards what she had learned from it (note, she was being absolutely serious when she said this, and actually somehow believes this?!?!) - apparently, (my roommate) learned that if Kerry wins he will pull all troops out of Iraq and if that happens we're all going to die in a year.

Huh?!

Hi, Sweetie!

Perhaps (your roommate) could show you in the transcript where it says that?!

I'm sure that's what Bush thinks, too; but back in the REAL world - we have botched it up so bad, there will be troops - U.S. and/or U.N. - in Iraq for many years to come.

If Kerry wins, I'd say we have a better chance of 1) less hatred from the Muslim world, and 2) other nations cooperating with us to prevent future terrorist attacks. Tell (your roommate) she can take that to the bank.

Here's the words out of John Kerry's mouth -

"To maximize our chances for success, and to minimize the risk of failure, we must make full use of the assets we have. If our military commanders request more troops, we should deploy them. Progress is not possible in Iraq if people lack the security to go about the business of daily life."

(Your roommate) very likely felt & heard the impact when that plane hit the Pentagon, so I can't blame her for wanting to do anything and everything possible to avoid terrorist attacks in the future. But remind her that as long as there are disenfranchised, oppressed, angry people in the world - there will be terrorists. As you've heard me say before - you can't wage war against an abstract noun.

You can only do everything humanly possible to prevent it - which Bush has failed miserably to do - and try not to create any MORE terrorists. Bush is turning them out by the hundreds.

Love,

Mom

It (the Bush administration) believed Iraq was going to vindicate these ideological positions. As events unfolded the administration proved stubbornly unwilling to look at facts on the ground, new evidence and the need for shifts in its basic approach. It was more important to prove that it was right than to get Iraq right.

"I've just watched the press conference later on C-SPAN. Not only was the transcript encouraging. I found the president clear, forceful, impassioned, determined, real. This was not an average performance. I found it Bush at his best. He needs to do it more."

"There was nothing in this report to me that said, 'Oh, by the way, we've got intelligence that says something is about to happen in America'," Bush said.

Citing statements by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Bush said: "Now may be the time to revamp and reform our intelligence services."

Until now, Attorney General John Ashcroft has been a beneficiary of the intense attention paid to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. The controversy surrounding Rice has taken the focus away from Ashcroft's own counterterrorism record -- a record of misplaced priorities, missed opportunities and mistakes. But, on Tuesday, Ashcroft will raise his right hand, take an oath and testify publicly before the 9/11 commission.

MR. RUSSERT: June 30: You’re going to turn the keys over to the Iraqis. Who do you turn them over to?

AMB. BREMER: Well, that’s a good question, and it’s an important part of the ongoing crisis we have here now. We’ve always said that there are two dimensions to dealing with the problems of Iraq. One, of course, is the military dimension, which we’re working on right now, but the other is to give a political perspective for the Iraqis to have more and more responsibility. We’ve been working on that for months. We are now working with the secretary-general of the U.N.’s special representative here, Mr. Brahimi, to figure out the best way to get a representative government in place before the end of June so it has a little practice and then turn over sovereignty to it on June 30. And I’m confident that working with him and with the Iraqi people, we, in fact, will get that. We’ll get a representative government in place before June 30.
(more)

In his first comments since Saturday's release of the presidential daily brief, Bush said the document contained "nothing about an attack on America." Bush said if there had been any specific intelligence pointing to threats of attacks on New York and Washington, "I would have moved mountains" to prevent it."

Patty Bickerton, the youth minister at Glassport Assembly of God, said the performance wasn't meant to be offensive. Bickerton portrayed the Easter rabbit and said she tried to act with a tone of irreverence.

"The program was for all ages, not just the kids. We wanted to convey that Easter is not just about the Easter bunny, it is about Jesus Christ," Bickerton said.

The warning came in a secret briefing that Mr. Bush received at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., on Aug. 6, 2001. A report by a joint Congressional committee last year alluded to a "closely held intelligence report" that month about the threat of an attack by Al Qaeda, and the official confirmed an account by The Associated Press on Friday saying that the report was in fact part of the president's briefing in Crawford.

[...]

The White House has said that nothing in it pointed specifically to the kind of attacks that actually took place a month later.

The Congressional report last year, citing efforts by Al Qaeda operatives beginning in 1997 to attack American soil, said that operatives appeared to have a support structure in the United States and that intelligence officials had "uncorroborated information" that Mr. bin Laden "wanted to hijack airplanes" to gain the release of imprisoned extremists. It also said that intelligence officials received information in May 2001, three months earlier, that indicated "a group of bin Laden supporters was planning attacks in the United States with explosives." (emphases mine).

"There was a threat assessment and there are guidelines. He is acting under the guidelines," an FBI spokesman said. Neither the FBI nor the Justice Department, however, would identify what the threat was, when it was detected or who made it.

Where are the useless Governing Council? Why isn't anyone condemning the killings in the south and in Falloojeh?! Why aren't they sitting down that fool Bremer and telling him that this is wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong??? If one of them were half a man or even half a human, they would threaten to resign their posts if there isn't an immediate ceasefire… the people are enraged. This latest situation proves that they aren't Iraqi- they aren't here for the welfare of the Iraqi people.

Bush spent the morning watching national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's televised testimony to the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, then toured his ranch with Wayne LaPierre Jr., chief executive of the National Rifle Association, and other leaders of hunting groups and gave an interview to Ladies' Home Journal. On Sunday, he is to appear in public at nearby Fort Hood, the home base for seven soldiers recently killed in Baghdad.

[...] This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.

On Saturday, Bush and his father were to go fishing at the ranch's bass pond with a crew from the Outdoor Life Network's "Fishing with Roland Martin."

The White House approached the network about coming to film Bush, who is eager to cultivate an image as a sportsman with the millions of voters who hunt and fish. The crew was to bring its own boat for the shoot on the small pond.

An Associated Press reporter in Fallujah saw cars ferrying the dead and wounded from the Abdul-Aziz al-Samarrai mosque. Witnesses said a helicopter fired three missiles into the compound, destroying part of a wall surrounding the mosque but not damaging the main building.

The strike came as worshippers had gathered for afternoon prayers, witnesses said. Temporary hospitals were set up in private homes to treat the wounded and prepare the dead for burial.

''I'm going to Disney World,'' quipped Pitts, after thunderous newsroom applause erupted when his prize was confirmed.

"now it appears not to be the case that it was that solid."

As a presidential candidate in 2000, George Bush pledged to use his "political capital" to influence OPEC when gas prices soared, saying that during a crisis, a president, "ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say, 'We expect you to open your spigots". But with gas prices soaring in the United States, newspapers report the White House now says the president refuses to "personally lobby oil cartel leaders to change their minds".

Why are we hiring bus drivers for Iraq in Florida? Doesn't a bus driver need to know the local geography? Doesn't a bus driver need to speak the local language? Are all the Iraqi bus drivers employed?

"I haven’t authorized anything. But I will say this. If there’s a movie, revenues, substantial revenues from any movie, just as substantial revenues from this book, are going to go to charities related to Iraq, to Afghanistan, and to the victims of 9/11." - Richard Clarke on Hardball, April 1, 2004

Clarke says such criticisms are unfounded -- and he flatly disputes charges he's motivated by profiteering (he's donating some funds from the book to a fund for families of 9/11 victims) or partisanship (he says he is not endorsing either Kerry or Bush for President).

For some contractors who work for the Defense Department, 40 cents out of every dollar spent goes for required insurance for workers, said Bunny Greenhouse, the chief contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers. At least a dime to 15 cents of every dollar spent is for security, according to the inspector general for the Coalition Provisional Authority.

"Why are we paying 40 percent?" for insurance, Greenhouse asked in an interview Wednesday with Knight Ridder. "That's unbelievable. ... Nobody foresaw that we were going to be in this kind of dilemma."

The civilian officials in the Pentagon who planned the war foresaw a quick end to Iraqi resistance and a rapid reconstruction of the country.

Few residents of Fallujah seem to show remorse for attacks Wednesday on four U.S. civilians in the city, whose bodies were burned and hanged by angry mobs. Many residents in the restive town tell reporters the grisly deaths were a proper show of disdain for America.

Greenhouse said she hoped to lower insurance costs by including coverage for workers in such low-risk locales as Germany.

How much contractors - and thus taxpayers - pay for the insurance depends on who hired them. The U.S. Agency for International Development negotiated a group insurance deal for its companies years before the Iraq war, allowing them to get a rate of $2.15 per each $100 of payroll.

Some experts estimate that Defense Department contractors pay as much as $25 to $50 per $100 of payroll.

When given a choice of two dogs, judges correctly matched 25 purebreds with their owners nearly two out of three times.

A U.S. representative said Tuesday that the administration of President George W. Bush allowed Japan to invest in a major oil field project in Iran in exchange for its dispatch of Self-Defense Forces troops to Iraq.

"An administration desperate for re-election will take 550 soldiers from Japan, which provide the veneer of international support and credibility for our relations in Iraq, which is the preoccupation of the electorate, and give the green light to $2.8 billion going from Japan to Iran," said Brad Sherman, a California Democrat.

He was speaking during a hearing of the House International Relations Committee, in reference to an agreement in February between Japan and Iran on an oil development project in Azadegan, southern Iran, one of the world's largest oil fields.

He is associated with the worst mistakes of Iraq-- concentrating in 2001 on Saddam rather than on al-Qaeda, hyping Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction, insisting that Iraqis would welcome a US occupation with garlands, thinking Iraqi Shiites were "secular" and had no sensitive holy cities in that country, and backing the corrupt financier Ahmad Chalabi and his militia as successors to Saddam and the Baath.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was aware of Abdul Qadeer Khan's nuclear black market activities for at least a few years, but political pressures kept him from moving aggressively against Khan until recently, US Under Secretary of State John Bolton says.

In prepared testimony, the CIA's new chief Iraq weapons inspector said he does not rule out finding weapons of mass destruction, adding "we regularly receive reports, some quite intriguing and credible, about concealed caches" of weapons.

I would also like to take this occasion to offer an accommodation on another issue on which we have not yet reached an agreement - commission access to the president and vice president. I am authorized to advise you that the president and vice president have agreed to one joint private session with all 10 commissioners, with one commission staff member present to take notes of the session.

On March 4, 2004, the FEC voted 5-1 to consider new rules that would have the effect of redefining many nonprofit groups as political committees, thereby forcing these groups to meet vastly more stringent financial and reporting requirements or to forego many of the advocacy and civic engagement activities at the core of their missions. (People For the American Way)

Under federal campaign finance laws, federal "political committees" must register and file reports with the FEC and can accept contributions only from individual persons (and other federal committees), and only up to $5,000 per year from any one donor ("hard money"). The FEC is now proposing to redefine "political committee" to include any group that:

1. Spends more than $1,000 this year on nonpartisan voter registration or get out the vote activity or on any ad, mailing or phone bank that "promotes, supports, attacks or opposes" any federal candidate; and

2. Supposedly has a "major purpose" of election of a federal candidate as shown by:

(a) Saying anything in its press releases, materials, website, etc. that might lead regulators to conclude that the group’s "major purpose" is to influence the election of any federal candidate; or

(b) Spending more than $50,000 this year or in any of the last 4 years for any nonpartisan voter registration or get out the vote program, or on any public communication that "promotes, supports, attacks or opposes" any federal candidate.

What’s more, any group that gets turned into a federal "political committee" under these new rules has to shut down all its communications critical of President Bush (or any other federal candidate) until it sets up "federal" and "non-federal" accounts; and raises enough hard money contributions to "repay" the federal account for the amounts spent on all those communications since the beginning of 2003.

These proposed rules would apply to all types of groups: 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, 501(c)(4) advocacy organizations, labor unions, trade associations and non-federal political committees and organizations (so-called "527" groups, as well as state PACs, local political clubs, etc.).

The new rules, including those that apply to voter engagement, cover all types of communications -- not just broadcast TV or radio ads -- but messages in any form, such as print ads, mailings, phone banks, email alerts like this one, websites, leaflets, speeches, posters, tabling, even knocking on doors.

The FEC will hold a public hearing on April 14 & 15. Written comments are due by April 5 if the group wants to testify at that hearing; otherwise, by April 9. The FEC plans to make its final decision on these proposed rules by mid-May and they could go into effect as early as July, right in the middle of the election year, potentially retroactive to January 2003.
It’s clear that these rules would immediately silence thousands of groups, of all types, who have raised questions and criticisms of any kind about the Bush Administration, its record and its policies.

A mother kills all her kids, claims that God told her to do it, and the American public says, "She's INSANE!" An American President says that God told him to invade a country and to slay its leader. As a result of this invasion, thousands of innocent people are killed along with hundreds of soldiers and the American public says, "This President is such a grand man of God." Did God tell Bush to lie about his reasons for declaring war on Iraq? God seems to be getting a bad rap from his fans. Go figure!"

Translation: Karen Hughes is back.

As part of "Choose or Lose," MTV will broadcast a half-an-hour special tonight on the next President of the United States, John Kerry. In the special, Senator Kerry will take questions and address issues that concern young people. So tonight, at 10:30 EST, turn on the TV to MTV, bring in undecided friends, and have them see why they should join other young Americans in supporting Senator Kerry.

Also, at 11, switch over to Comedy Central for the Daily Show with special guest former Bush counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke. It's going to be a great night of educational TV!

the Commission must agree in writing that Dr. Rice's testimony before the Commission does not set any precedent for future Commission requests, or requests in any other context, for testimony by a National Security Advisor or any other White House official.

the Commission must agree in writing that it will not request additional public testimony from any White House official, including Dr. Rice.

the President and Vice President have agreed to one joint private session with all 10 Commissioners, with one Commission staff member present to take notes of the session.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice will be allowed to testify in public under oath before the commission investigating the failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an administration official said Tuesday.

The official said the decision is conditioned on the Bush administration receiving assurances in writing from the commission that such a step does not set a precedent, said the official speaking on condition of anonymity. It appeared the administration already had such assurances verbally in private and is confident it get them in writing. ((emphasis mine)

Iraq under Saddam Hussein did not pose a threat to the United States, but it did to Israel, which is one reason why Washington invaded the Arab country, according to a speech made by a member of a top-level White House intelligence group.

Inter Press Service uncovered the remarks by Philip Zelikow, who is now the executive director of the body set up to investigate the terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001 - the 9/11 commission - in which he suggests a prime motive for the invasion just over one year ago was to eliminate a threat to Israel, a staunch US ally in the Middle East.

[...]

Zelikow made his statements about "the unstated threat" during his tenure on a highly knowledgeable and well-connected body known as the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), which reports directly to the president. He served on the board between 2001 and 2003.

"Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat [is] and actually has been since 1990 - it's the threat against Israel," Zelikow told a crowd at the University of Virginia on September 10, 2002, speaking on a panel of foreign policy experts assessing the impact of September 11 and the future of the war on al-Qaeda.

"And this is the threat that dare not speak its name, because the Europeans don't care deeply about that threat, I will tell you frankly. And the American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell," said Zelikow.

The statements are the first to surface from a source closely linked to the Bush administration acknowledging that the war, which has so far cost the lives of nearly 600 US troops and thousands of Iraqis, was motivated by Washington's desire to defend the Jewish state.

Under one proposal, Rice's testimony would be released to the public shortly after her appearance, but it was not immediately clear whether this would satisfy members of the bipartisan commission or quell Democrats' demands to hear openly from the key aide to President Bush

Several hundred people stormed the small yard of President Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, yesterday afternoon, pounding on his windows, shoving signs at others and challenging Rove to talk to them about a bill that deals with educational opportunities for immigrants.

"we have a very noisy crowd of Republican protesters outside the naval observatory, the official residence of Vice President Al Gore. It's a young, very Republican, very conservative, very noisy crowd. They're taking advantage of a day off, this Saturday, to make their voices heard, chanting things like, "Get out of Cheney's house," and "No more Gore".

In August 2001, FBI Deputy Director John O'Neill resigned from his post over George W. Bush's policy on terrorism and Osama bin Laden. Specifically, O'Neill's department was told to "back off" their bin Laden and Al Queda investigations while the Bush administration negotiated with the Taliban. O'Neill became the security chief of the World Trade Center - where he died during the events of 9/11.

The legend of John P. O'Neill, who lost his life at the World Trade Center on September 11th, begins with a story by Richard A. Clarke, the national coördinator for counter-terrorism in the White House from the first Bush Administration until last year. On a Sunday morning in February, 1995, Clarke went to his office to review intelligence cables that had come in over the weekend. One of the cables reported that Ramzi Yousef, the suspected mastermind behind the first World Trade Center bombing, two years earlier, had been spotted in Pakistan. Clarke immediately called the F.B.I. A man whose voice was unfamiliar to him answered the phone. "O'Neill," he growled.

"Who are you?" Clarke said.

"I'm John O'Neill," the man replied. "Who the hell are you?"

In Washington, O'Neill became part of a close-knit group of counter-terrorism experts which formed around Richard Clarke. In the web of federal agencies concerned with terrorism, Clarke was the spider. Everything that touched the web eventually came to his attention. The members of this inner circle, which was known as the Counter-terrorism Security Group (C.S.G.), were drawn mainly from the C.I.A., the National Security Council, and the upper tiers of the Defense Department, the Justice Department, and the State Department. They met every week in the White House Situation Room.

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Clarke immediately spotted in O'Neill an obsessiveness about the dangers of terrorism which mirrored his own. "John had the same problems with the bureaucracy that I had," Clarke told me. "Prior to September 11th, a lot of people who were working full time on terrorism thought it was no more than a nuisance. They didn't understand that Al Qaeda was enormously powerful and insidious and that it was not going to stop until it really hurt us. John and some other senior officials knew that. The impatience really grew in us as we dealt with the dolts who didn't understand."

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O'Neill never presumed that killing bin Laden alone would be sufficient. In speeches, he identified five tools to combat terrorism: diplomacy, military action, covert operations, economic sanctions, and law enforcement. So far, the tool that had worked most effectively against Al Qaeda was the last one—the slow, difficult work of gathering evidence, getting indictments, hunting down the perpetrators, and gaining convictions.

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After the millennium roundup, O'Neill suspected that Al Qaeda had sleeper cells buried in America. "He started pulling the strings in Jordan and in Canada, and in the end they all led back to the United States," Clarke said. "There was a general disbelief in the F.B.I. that Al Qaeda had much of a presence here. It just hadn't sunk through to the organization, beyond O'Neill and Dale Watson"—the assistant director of the counter-terrorism division. Clarke's discussions with O'Neill and Watson over the next few months led to a strategic plan called the Millennium After-Action Review, which specified a number of policy changes designed to root out Al Qaeda cells in the United States. They included increasing the number of Joint Terrorism Task Forces around the country; assigning more agents from the Internal Revenue Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to monitor the flow of money and personnel; and creating a streamlined process for analyzing information obtained from wiretaps.

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In March, 2001, Richard Clarke asked the national-security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, for a job change; he wanted to concentrate on computer security. "I was told, 'You've got to recommend somebody similar to be your replacement,' " Clarke recalled. "I said, 'Well, there's only one person who would fit that bill.' " For months, Clarke tried to persuade O'Neill to become a candidate as his successor.

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Meanwhile, intelligence had been streaming in concerning a likely Al Qaeda attack. "It all came together in the third week in June," Clarke said. "The C.I.A.'s view was that a major terrorist attack was coming in the next several weeks." On July 5th, Clarke summoned all the domestic security agencies—the Federal Aviation Administration, the Coast Guard, Customs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the F.B.I.—and told them to increase their security in light of an impending attack.