Tuesday, April 22, 2003

 
Clever Bastards!

Why didn't we think of this?

I can't count how many times over the last two and a half years that progressives have speculated that a given action by the Administration would result in their ultimate demise. Every single time, the Administration won. Connections to 911? Who cares? Insider trading? Whatever? AWOL? DUI? Afghanistan? "First Strike" Policy? Enron? fabricated energy shortage? Arsenic in the Drinking Water? Zz z z z z z z z z z z z….

This Administration gets away with absolutely everything. And the American people lap it up. I was reading a poll that said more than 50% of Americans to this day believe that Saddam was tied to the attacks of September 11th! What??!!

Are they out of their minds? Bush has more connections to 911 than Saddam has. Many more.

Now what do we have to look forward to? 2004? Yeah right! The GOP announced that they were going to put off the nominating convention. So what?

So What! This simple little move allows Republicans to do many things.

Before we get to that though, recall that the Democrat's finances are ALWAYS worse than the GOP's. Recall also that the Democratic primary will consist of not less than 52,000 candidates, or something like that.

Not only does the primary have the potential to be a divisive free-for-all, it is also guaranteed to consume tens of millions of dollars that are not easily renewable for the general election.

In the meantime, The Administration's little "late nomination" maneuver will accomplish the following:

~ Allow for a $200 million campaign running up to the September 2, 2004 Republican Convention. This undermines the spirit of a law that institutes a spending ceilings that take effect when the parties officially nominate their candidates. Thus it is to be expected by those loophole-lovin' Republicans.

"Under campaign spending laws, candidates who accept public financing will have about $75 million to spend between the nominating conventions and Election Day. Because the Democrats scheduled their convention for late July, the party's candidate will have to stretch out the same allocation over a longer period. The nominees of both parties are expected to accept public financing.

Even though Mr. Bush will not begin his formal campaign until after the convention, his political team is preparing to begin broadcasting television advertisements as early as next spring. By that point, the White House expects the Democratic candidate to be settled, but battered and sapped of money from the primaries, and thus unable to counter a Republican advertising assault."

Ugh!

~ Allow for the complete politicization of September 11th as Bush shuttles back and forth between GOP convention festivities and Ground Zero commemorations.

~ Mute any noise made by the Democrats during the initial weeks of the general election campaign. Ha! The joke's on them. As of late, Democrats mute themselves.

So what should the Dems do?

Immediately, they should push their convention back. Sure some say the logistic change at this stage of the game is impossible. I say quit crying and get it done.

Then, when a Democrat finally does control the presidency, they should do two things immediately:

1) Regulate the media
2) Make presidential and congressional elections publicly funded.

In the meantime, Bush is laughing all the way to the bank!!

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posted by Thomas Ball 6:47 PM

 
Bush, Iraq and North Korea News Summaries

US bolsters forces to quell looting in northern city (UK Telegraph) The United States began sending reinforcements to the key northern city of Mosul yesterday to support units struggling to maintain order after widespread pillaging. More than 30 vehicles from the 101st Airborne Division rolled into the airport of Iraq's third city, where 1,500 marines and infantry are based. Most of the division of approximately 25,000 troops are expected to be deployed in Mosul and Kirkuk, the oil-producing centre where looters have caused millions of pounds worth of damage to the national oil company's offices and spare-part stores.
 
Rumsfeld: U.S. Expects a Fair Democracy in Iraq(FOX News) The United States expects an eventual government of Iraq to be a democracy where the rights of minorities are guaranteed, not a theocracy run by clerics such as in neighboring Iran, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says. "There should be a country that is organized and arranged in a way that the various ethnic groups and religious groups are able to have a voice in their government in some form," Rumsfeld said Monday at a Pentagon news conference. "And we hope (for) a system that will be democratic and have free speech and free press and freedom of religion."
 
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Arrested (Associated Press) Muhammad Hazmaq al-Zubaydi, who played a key role in the brutal suppression of the Shiite Muslim uprising of 1991, was arrested Monday in Iraq, the U.S. Central Command said. Bush administration officials have identified al-Zubaydi as one of nine Iraqis - including Saddam himself - sought for trial on charges of war crimes or crimes against humanity. Iraqi opposition groups have accused him of the 1999 assassination of a top Shiite cleric.
 
Botched Saddam Deal? (ABC News) Saddam Hussein's intelligence chief sought help last week to arrange some kind of a deal between the United States and Saddam, leaders of the prominent Iraqi Dulaym Tribe told ABC News. The tribe made contact with, among others, Bob Baer, a former CIA officer with whom they had worked secretly in the past. "They told me the chief of Iraqi intelligence was seeking to get in touch with the United States and could I do anything about that," said Baer, who is now an ABC News consultant. On April 11, Saddam's intelligence chief, Gen. Taher Haboush, showed up at the home of the Dulaym Tribe's chief near the town of Ar-Ramadi, purportedly on behalf of Saddam, to work out arrangements for a meeting. But shortly after he arrived, tribal leaders said U.S. forces bombed the home, killing the chief.
 
INC says it's closing in on Saddam (Washington Times) The Iraqi National Congress said yesterday that it has received several credible reports of sightings of Saddam Hussein and that it is hunting the ousted president in an area between Baghdad and the Iranian border. "We are 12 to 24 hours behind him, but we are getting closer," said Zab Sethna, the chief spokesman for the group. "We are convinced he is alive and on the run." Mr. Sethna said the information about Saddam had come from several informants who said they had sighted the deposed president. He said the number of sightings and the consistency of the information led the INC to consider the evidence credible.
 
Hunt for Iraqi Arms Erodes Assumptions (Washington Post) With little to show after 30 days, the Bush administration is losing confidence in its prewar belief that it had strong clues pointing to the whereabouts of weapons of mass destruction concealed in Iraq, according to planners and participants in the hunt. After testing some -- though by no means all -- of their best leads, analysts here and in Washington are increasingly doubtful that they will find what they are looking for in the places described on a five-tiered target list drawn up before fighting began. Their strategy is shifting from the rapid "exploitation" of known suspect sites to a vast survey that will rely on unexpected discoveries and leads.
 
U.N. Scrambles to Reclaim Role Amid Debate on Rebuilding Iraq (WSJ) As the struggle over administering Iraq moves onto center stage Tuesday at the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan is engaged in a broader fight to reclaim the U.N.'s leading role in world diplomacy. The U.N.'s Security Council appears as deeply split as it was over the war itself, the U.N. staff is demoralized and the organization is being sidelined from the new Iraq that the Bush administration is rapidly pushing to build.
 
Security Council Set To Debate Blix Role (Washington Post) Russia, Germany and France will urge the United States at a Security Council meeting Tuesday to preserve a key role for the chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, in certifying the disarmament of Iraq, according to council diplomats. The initiative is setting the stage for the first major confrontation in the 15-nation council since the United States' invasion of Iraq without the council's approval. White House and Pentagon officials want to exclude Blix from verifying Iraq's disarmament, according to U.S. officials.
 
Washington to Syria: Hand over Saddam's WMD First (Debka - speculative info) The US ultimatum to Damascus consists of three demands: (1) give up the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam has secretly hidden in Syria(2) return to Iraq all the officials of the Saddam regime granted asylum(3) disband the command structures of the Hizballah, Hamas, Jihad Islami and other Palestinian terrorist groups operating out of Lebanon and Damascus and give their leaders into American hands.
 
Syria Welcomes Bush Remarks, Wants Serious Dialogue (Reuters) Syria said it wanted a "serious and constructive dialogue" with Washington and welcomed remarks by President Bush in which he noted Damascus was heeding U.S. calls for cooperation."We welcome the statement of President Bush and hope that this statement marks the beginning of a serious and constructive dialogue," Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara said on Monday. On Sunday, Bush said Damascus was "getting the message" that it should deny sanctuary to fleeing members of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government.
 
Syria Is Forced to Adapt to a New Power Next Door (NY Times) Riad al-Turk, Syria's most outspoken dissident, ticks off the roughly one-third of his life spent as a political prisoner: 13 months under the current president, Bashar al-Assad, a whopping 18 years in solitary confinement under Mr. Assad's late father and sundry years or months stretching almost back to independence in 1946. Now, like everyone in the Middle East, he has a new political factor to consider: the United States military, setting up next door in Iraq as the latest occupying power. Like many Syrians, he is horrified, yet he - like other government critics - also recognizes that the welcome toppling of Saddam Hussein, if handled right, may push the kind of political and economic opening that they have sought for decades.
 
Next Stop: Syria? (Time) Just days after U.S. troops entered Baghdad, the Bush Administration was already contemplating a new scrape. A group of the President's top foreign-policy advisers - including Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell - gathered in the White House to discuss the road ahead. Only half the meeting was devoted to developments in Iraq. The rest of the session was spent debating how to tackle a fresh target: Syria. With Syria keenly aware of the 250,000 U.S. troops next door, Bush's advisers decided "to rattle the cage" of Syrian President Bashar Assad, says a White House aide.
 
Iran Won't Back U.S.-Installed Iraq Gov't (Associated Press) Iran said Monday it will not support a U.S.-installed government in Iraq. It also said some Iraqi opposition groups will not accept an American-led administration but could support one set up "under United Nations auspices." "I believe the government led by Americans in Iraq will not be acceptable (to Iran)," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told Dubai-based Al Arabiya satellite television. "This is a matter that will not be accepted by the Iraqis."
 
Arafat fight over Cabinet dashes peace hopes (London Times) Israel all but wrote off the prospect of reviving the Middle East peace process yesterday as Yassir Arafat stood on the brink of winning a power struggle with the new Palestinian Prime Minister. Senior Palestinians said that Mahmoud Abbas had no chance of forming a government after his row with Mr Arafat, the Palestinian leader, over Cabinet appointments. Mr Abbas, the Palestinian Prime Minister-designate, has until today to submit his Cabinet list to the Palestinian Legislative Council for approval.
 
U.S., North Korea to StartTalks Wednesday in Beijing (Associated Press) The U.S., North Korea and China will hold three days of talks starting Wednesday in Beijing on the North's nuclear weapons program, the State Department said Monday.Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.S. delegation will be led by Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly.Mr. Boucher said Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs "are a matter of concern to the entire international community." He said the U.S. believes the inclusion of Japan and South Korea in the discussions at a later stage is essential, given the stakes they have in a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
 
Rumsfeld calls for regime change in North Korea (UK Telegraph) A secret Donald Rumsfeld memorandum calling for regime change in North Korea was leaked yesterday, opening a fresh foreign policy split in the Bush administration. The classified discussion paper, circulated by the defence secretary, appears to cut directly across State Department plans to disarm Kim Jong-il, the North's dictator, through threats leavened by promises that his regime is not a target for overthrow. The paper does not call for military action against North Korea, but wants the United States to team up with China in pushing for the collapse of Kim Jong-il's bankrupt but belligerent regime, the New York Times reported.
 
Report: U.S. Has Plans to Bomb N.Korea Nuke Plant (Reuters) The Pentagon has drawn up plans to bomb a North Korea nuclear plant if it reprocesses spent nuclear fuel rods, according to an Australian newspaper report on Tuesday that was quickly downplayed by Australian officials. Citing "well-informed Canberra sources close to U.S. thinking," The Australian's foreign editor Greg Sheridan said the U.S. has produced a blueprint to bomb Yongbyon if the plant went ahead with reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods to make atom bombs. He said the plan also involved a U.S. strike against North Korean heavy artillery in the hills above the border with South Korea, threatening the capital Seoul and about 17,000 U.S. troops stationed nearby.
 
Analysis: India and Pakistan agree to talk (UPI) India and Pakistan have taken another significant step back from the brink. The second- and fifth- most-populous nations on earth have both agreed to hold a new round of talks aimed at defusing tensions between them. Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee held out an olive branch to Pakistan last week when he said India and Pakistan should agree to resolve the issues between them through diplomatic negotiations. Pakistan's leaders went out of the way to signal they were ready to pick up the olive branch being offered to them.
 
Two Arab-Americans Held at Border Crossing (CBS) Two Dearborn men were being questioned by the FBI today after police said they saw them videotaping the Ambassador Bridge and found dynamite and shotgun shells in their car. Police were holding the 26- and 30-year-old men, both described as Arab-Americans, on a felony charge of possessing a dangerous weapon because the officers found a collapsible baton inside the car.The Ambassador Bridge is the nation's busiest international border crossing, with about 10 million vehicle crossings every year. The bridge handles about 25 percent of all trade traffic between the United States and Canada.
 
First woman al-Qaida suspect held? (UPI) A woman with suspected links to al-Qaida has been arrested in Pakistan, NBC News reported Tuesday. Aafia Siddiqui, a former Boston resident, is wanted for questioning by the FBI. The FBI recently issued a worldwide search notice for Siddiqui. Siddiqui, 31, lived in Boston before she disappeared, the FBI says. She holds a Ph.D. in neurological science and has studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis University, and other institutions. Specifically, Siddiqui may have been providing logistical support to Adnan El Shukrijumah, a 27-year-old Saudi man sought by the agency on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks in the United States, agents say.

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posted by Thomas Ball 2:32 PM