EMPIRIA Magazin - Hanna Kuliffay's selection of quotes & clipmarks

NOTE CARDS VII - Part 1.

SHOCKING, INTERESTING, OUTRAGEOUS, IMPORTANT, CYNICAL

all in all thought-provoking

QUOTES, QUIPS, EXCERPTIONS

(some funny and plain stupid ones, too)

(2007 quotes/quips in black; 2006 quotes/quips in purple; 2005 quotes/quips in black; earlier ones in green)

"Torture is how you create enemies, not how you defeat them."

(Senator Barack Obama. October 2007)

"As you might remember back then, we tried the diplomatic route: [U.N. Resolution] 1441 was a unanimous vote in the Security Council that said disclose, disarm or face serious consequences. So the choice was his [Hussein's] to make. And he made a choice that has subsequently caused him to lose his life."

(President George W. Bush. March 24, 2007, news conference)

“It’s not individual atrocity. It’s the fact that the entire war is an atrocity.”

(Specialist Garett Reppenhagen, a sniper from the 263rd Armour Battalion)

"I hope Iowans will caucus for me as their first choice this Thursday, because of my singular positions on the war, on health care, and trade. This is an opportunity for people to stand up for themselves. But in those caucus locations where my support doesn't reach the necessary threshold, I strongly encourage all of my supporters to make Barack Obama their second choice. Sen. Obama and I have one thing in common: Change."

(Congressman Dennis Kucinich)

“I have a lot of respect for Congressman Kucinich, and I’m honored that he has done this because we both believe deeply in the need for fundamental change. He and I have been fighting for a number of the same priorities -- including an end to the war in Iraq that we both opposed from the start, reforming Washington and creating a better life for America's working families. I encourage all Iowans to take part in the caucuses this Thursday -- not because it will be good for any one candidate, but because it will be good for our party and the future of our country.”

(Senator Barack Obama issued this statement)

The alleged ringleader of US troops who killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2005 in Haditha will not face murder charges, a US Marines spokesman said. Sgt Frank Wuterich, 27, will stand trial for voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, dereliction of duty and other charges, officials said. The decision was made by Lt Gen Samuel Helland, who is overseeing the case. Sgt Wuterich is the last of four marines to have the murder charge against him dropped.

(Marine avoids Iraq murder charge. BBC News)

"We are going to bring an end to this war and I will fight now in the United States Senate to make sure that we don't pass any funding bill that does not have a deadline to start bringing our troops out."

(Senator Barack Obama. ABCNews.com September 17, 2007)

"The Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation."

(Senator John McCain. September 2007)

“All Kristol wants is war, war, war.”

(Neoconservative Bill Kristol’s Fox News college Juan Williams)

“I visited Guantanamo just about a year ago. “My sense, since I visited just about every single prison in the Arkansas prison system, is that most of our prisoners would love to be in a prison more like Guantanamo.”

(Republican Congressman Mike Huckabee told CNN. December, 2007)

“It (“enhanced interrogation techniques”) was authorized. It was legal, according to the Attorney General of the United States.”

(Former CIA director George Tenet. Interview with ABC News’s Charles Gibson. 2007)

Summary of the Contradictions:

Why, when only 4 planes were hijacked, were there so many reports of other hijacked planes? And why were the military personnel so ready to interpret these hijacking reports as being part of the exercises, when no one had ever “imagined” such a thing? Given the warnings of incipient terrorist attacks that had been repeatedly received by the Administration and the FBI, why would anyone coordinate two major annual air training exercises at this time, and divert key resources to the North Pole on an outdated mission? Who was in a position to do this? Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste resolved to pursue these questions “very very diligently”, and made determined efforts to do so. But what did the Commission do about his unanswered questions? It ignored the issue of the drills and continuously pointed to FAA incompetence. However, blaming the FAA lacked credibility, because the failures of duty were not followed up and no one was disciplined. Thus the the mock live hijackings which were apparently in progress on the morning of September 11th should be investigated as a plausible explanation for why the national defense was such an abysmal failure. If the drills impeded the response, a new investigation should question why the two strange departures from longstanding air defense protocols were made in the months before 9/11.

(Elizabeth Woodworth: The Military Drills of September 11th: Why a New Investigation is Needed)

* *

“Musharraf will be finished.”

(William (Bill) Kristol. December 2007. Fox News)

As much as George W. Bush deserves to be dragged kicking and screaming out of his ivory tower and tossed into prison conditions no better than at Gitmo . . . it is not going to happen. The Democratic Party has failed America as much as the Republican Party failed us.

(Timothy Sexton: Let's Face It: Nancy Pelosi is Physically Incapable of Growing Balls. December 19, 2007)

“President Bush could easily build political support” for an attack on Iran “at the beginning of 2008.”

(Neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol. Fox News)

“I understand the marketplace, but government is supposed to be here to redress the inequities of the marketplace. That’s one of its functions. Not just to protect the nation, secure our security and all that shit. And not just to take care of great problems that are trans-state problems, that are national, but also to make sure that the inequalities of the marketplace are redressed by the acts of government. That’s what welfare was about. There are people who really just don’t have the tools, for whatever reason. Yes, there are lazy people. Yes, there are slackers. Yes, there’s all of that. But there are also people who can’t cut it, for any given reason, whether it’s racism, or an educational opportunity, or poverty, or a fuckin’ horrible home life, or a history of a horrible family life going back three generations, or whatever it is. They’re crippled and they can’t make it, and they deserve to rest at the commonweal. That’s where my fuckin’ passion lies.”

(Satirist, political entertainer George Carlin)

"Economics is not something I've understood as well as I should."

(Senator and presidential contender John McCain. December, 2007)

“We could be in a military confrontation with Iran much sooner than people expect.”

(Neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol. Fox News)

Iraqis of all sectarian and ethnic groups believe that the U.S. military invasion is the primary root of the violent differences among them, and see the departure of "occupying forces" as the key to national reconciliation, according to focus groups conducted for the U.S. military last month. Outside of the military, some of the most widespread polling in Iraq has been done by D3 Systems, a Virginia-based company that maintains offices in each of Iraq's 18 provinces. Its most recent publicly released surveys, conducted in September for several news media organizations, showed the same widespread Iraqi belief voiced by the military's focus groups: that a U.S. departure will make things better. A State Department poll in September 2006 reported a similar finding.

(Karen DeYoung: All Iraqi Groups Blame U.S. Invasion for Discord, Study Shows. The Washington Post. December 19, 2007)

The erosion of democracy we’re experiencing today is occurring not with jackboots in the streets, but by a steady „process of erosion”, with the public largely unaware and distracted by media mind manipulations.”

(Stephen Lendman: Police State America – A Look Back and Ahead. BaltimoreChronicle.com)

The assumption that events will conform to a preconceived model is a failing to which neoconservatives are notably vulnerable. Part of this may be Marxist residue that never quite washed off. The intellectual descendants of Trotskyists, the neocons find the idea of revolution from above, in which intellectuals and ideas play the crucial role, instinctively appealing. (. . .) In this sense, the assumption that Iraq was destined to become a liberal democracy with just a nudge from the United States is an error akin to Jeanne J. Kirkpatrick's Hannah Arendt-inspired view that Communist totalitarian societies could never reform from within. There was nothing wrong with that theory either, except that it happened to be completely wrong. (. . .) Occupation? David Rieff's Nov. 2 article in the New York Times Magazine offers pieces of an answer. The neoconservative Iraq hawks inside the Pentagon -- Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Douglas Feith -- thought our troops would be welcomed as liberators and that the Iraqi National Congress could run the country for us (a view Gideon Rose demolished in Slate back in April). Wolfowitz, in particular, was known for his view that fixing Iraq would provoke a reverse-domino effect of democratization throughout the Middle East. Those who bought into this wishful thinking didn't want to hear about the potential problems.

(Jacob Weisberg: Occupational Hazards -- How the Pentagon forgot about running Iraq)

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation. (. . .) The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.”

(James Madison)

"While violence has gone down, one of the ways it has been achieved is by effectively separating people. That means mobility is limited, with roadblocks by the U.S. and Iraqi military or local militias."

(Matthew Warshaw, senior research manager at D3 Systems)

Sen. John McCain strolled briefly through an open-air market in Baghdad today in an effort to prove that Americans are “not getting the full picture” of what’s going on in Iraq. NBC’s Nightly News provided further details about McCain’s one-hour guided tour. He was accompanied by “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships overhead.” Still photographs provided by the military to NBC News seemed to show McCain wearing a bulletproof vest during his visit. McCain recently claimed that “there are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through, today.” In a press conference after his Baghdad tour, McCain told a reporter that his visit to the market today was proof that you could indeed “walk freely” in some areas of Baghdad.

(Posted by Faiz on Apr 1st, 2007 at 7:35 pm)

"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda. We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda."

(President George W. Bush. Quoted by The Washington Post)

"But the case that we took to the world and the case that we took to the American people rested not just in his human rights abuses or his cheating on the Oil for Food program, it rested on the real and present danger of weapons of mass destruction that he could use against his neighbors, or terrorists could use against us. That was the precipitating issue in my judgment, and it turned out those weapons were not there."

(Colin Powell’s “phony mea culpa”)

"There probably are not 72 virgins in the hell Abu Musab al-Zarqaw is at. And if there are, they probably all look like Helen Thomas."

(Republican House of Representative Steve King. Radio Iowa)

From the very beginning -- back when our torture chambers still had that new torture chamber smell; and before our chief executive's incompetence exploded like an M80 inside the clenched-fist of the world -- George W. Bush has been an embarrassment. We know his disgraceful deeds and policies. But it's his utter lack of quality; his unsubstantial presence; his marble-mouthed oratorical retardation; his inability to inspire greatness; and his empty-suit absence of intellectual curiosity which preordained him to be the worst President of the United States in modern history.

(Bob Cesca: Barack Obama For President)

Impunity is also a gift of U.S. client state status and, importantly, Israel is free to assassinate, commit aggression, and violate international law across the board with complete impunity. Along with the United States, Israel has the world’s finest remote-control assassination technology ever devised (which some have found of possible relevance to the sophisticated Hariri murder). Like the United States, Israel can even maintain an open policy of assassination -- “targeted killings” -- as a complement to its steady and ruthless process of ethnic cleansing. No penalties occur and the “civilized” world in Europe and North America continues to enlarge its economic ties with Israel, even as the latter continues to build its apartheid wall in the face of an adverse International Court ruling, assassinates Palestinians on a daily basis, and displays increasing signs of moving toward more openly genocidal violence (see Matthew Wagner, “Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing of Gaza,” Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2007; Ali Abunimah, “Top Israeli rabbis advocate genocide,” Electronic Intifada, May 31, 2007). But no “special court” for Israel, no enforceable action by the UN or governments anywhere. (. . . ) It is also dramatically evident that in general impunity is a function of power and relationship with the supreme criminal. The perpetrators of the million deaths from the “sanction of mass destruction” in Iraq (Clinton, Albright, Holbrooke) and those with primary responsibility for the half a million or more deaths in Iraq since March 24, 2003 (Bush, Cheney, Blair, et al.), have complete impunity. So do all the mass death-dealing clients of the supreme criminal, who are either free or who have died at home, none subjected to a special court: Sharon, Pinochet, Suharto, Kagame, Rio Montt, among others. In the case of Yugoslavia, Milosevic had his special court, but not Tud- jman, Izetbegovic, let alone Clinton or Blair.

(Edward S. Herman: The Hariri Special Court vs the Imminent U.S. Attack on Iran)

“The Iranian people would embrace the right use of targeting military force.”

(Neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol. Fox News)

The Syrian border authorities found and confiscated Israeli-made listening devices that appeared to be on their way to Iraq.

(Juan Cole -- DPA reports in Arabic. December 2007)

In the Spring, 2003, I happened to debate William Kristol, one of the architects of the neoconservative agenda and an enthusiastic supporter for Bush's invasion of Iraq and subsequent policy. He blurted out his judgment that "on the ground experience was highly overrated." That arrogant assertion of ideology and preconceived ideas over practical experience has precisely led to the quagmire we find ourselves in today in Iraq and the Middle East.

(Joseph C. Wilson: The Real Hillary I Know -- and the Unreal Obama)

Hints of Huckabee’s bizarre worldview seep out now and then. Bob Vander Plaats, Huckabee’s Iowa campaign manager, for example, when asked about his candidate’s lack of foreign policy experience, told MSNBC: “Well, I think Gov. Huckabee has a lot of resources that he goes to on national security matters. Here’s a guy, a former pastor, who understands a theological nature of this war as we’re fighting a radical religion in Islam.”

(Chris Hedges: The Evangelical Rebellion)

”Until Democratic voters divorce Democratic leadership from the AIPAC/neo-con/War-Party agenda, we do NOT have a functioning opposition party. . . nor a truly functioning democracy.”

(Michael Lind: "Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics")

The Vatican has welcomed Tony Blair's decision to become a Roman Catholic. “The choice of joining the Catholic church made by such an authoritative personality can only arouse joy and respect said.” Federico Lombardi Vatican spokesman. (. . .) Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, who is the head of Catholics in England and Wales, said he was "very glad" to welcome Mr Blair into the church. "My prayers are with him, his wife and family at this joyful moment in their journey of faith together," he said. (. . .) Last year, Mr Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, said he had prayed to God when deciding whether or not to send UK troops into Iraq.

(Vatican hails Blair Church switch. BBC News)

At all levels, the U.S. military and the Bush administration continue to project a reality in Iraq that does not exist -- a view that is aimed as much at the soldiers fighting the war as it is at the American public.

(David Enders: Make-a-Sheikh - How the Pentagon transformed a contractor into a symbol of the surge’s ‘success’)

And then Lieberman, asked about his 2006 campaign, said it was important he had defeated the pro-Lamont, antiwar part of the Democratic party because once the 2008 Presidential campaign came around the Lamont part of the party would have trouble with “the American people, who know we’re at war with a brutal enemy who attacked us on 9/11.”

“We are at war with a brutal enemy who attacked us on 9/11.” Really, Senator Lieberman, and who would that be?

(Chris Durang: Lieberman Peddles the Old Iraq-9/11 Connection. The Huffington Post)

During an appearance on Meet the Press today, Mitt Romney took another swipe at his chief primary opponent, Mike Huckabee, calling on him to apologize to President Bush for describing the current U.S. foreign policy as "arrogant bunker mentality." "That's an insult to the president and Mike Huckabee should apologize to the president," Romney said when read Huckabee's statement by moderator Tim Russert. "To say that the president is arrogant and has a bunker mentality, that's when he went over the line."

(Sam Stein: Romney Tells Huckabee: Apologize To Bush. The Huffington Post)

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies. . . if the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency. . . . the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprave the people of their prosperity until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

(Thomas Jefferson. 1743-1826)

“A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made.”

(Alaskan Governer Sarah Palin. Newsmax magazine. September, 2007)

In his book "The One Percent Doctrine," author Ron Suskind said Zubaydah was not the "high value detainee" the CIA had claimed. Rather, Zubaydah was a minor player in the al-Qaeda organization, handling travel for associates and their families, Suskind says. Abu Zubaydah's captors soon discovered that their prisoner was mentally ill and knew nothing about terrorist operations or impending plots. That realization was "echoed at the top of CIA and was, of course, briefed to the President and Vice President," Suskind writes. But Bush portrayed Zubaydah as "one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States. "And, so, the CIA used an alternative set of procedures" to get Zubaydah to talk, Bush said in the spring of 2002, after Zubaydah was captured. Suskind writes that Zubaydah became one of the first prisoners in the wake of 9/11 to undergo some of the harshest interrogation methods at the hands of American intelligence officials. Suskind says that, despite the fact that Bush was briefed by the CIA about Zubaydah's low-level al-Qaeda status, the president did not want to "lose face" because he had stated his importance publicly. "Bush was fixated on how to get Zubaydah to tell us the truth," Suskind writes. Bush questioned one CIA briefer, "Do some of these harsh methods really work?" Zubaydah was strapped to a waterboard and, fearing imminent death, he spoke about a wide range of plots against a number of US targets, such as shopping malls, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Yet, Suskind writes, the information Zubaydah had provided under duress was not credible. Still, that did not stop "thousands of uniformed men and women (who) raced in a panic to each . . . target." And so, Suskind writes, "the United States would torture a mentally disturbed man and then leap, screaming, at every word he uttered."

(Jason Leopold: Chertoff Concealed Role in Tape Destruction. t r u t h o u t)

Claire Shipman: "You can't be the candidate of inevitability and then the underdog." Sure you can! When the media paints you as inevitable, then paints you as the underdog, it sure damn well can happen!

(Jason Linkins: TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads)

. . And by ending its occupation, the United States would go a long way toward repairing its relations with the Arab and Muslim world and thus eliminate one of Al Qaeda's chief recruiting tools. A withdrawal is risky, but on the evidence so far, for the US military to remain in Iraq is a sure recipe for disaster.

(Juan Cole: How to Get Out of Iraq. The Nation. April 9, 2007)

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hope of its children. "

(Former president Dwight D. Eisenhower)

“I do not support Roe v. Wade. I think it should be overturned.”

(Senator John McCain. The NewYork Times. February 24, 2007)

Of course, along with the right to assassinate is impunity for gigantic crimes like aggression -- and here also the United States is able to engage in major violations of the UN Charter, as in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, not only without the slightest threat of any “special court,” but with the eventual kindly cooperation by the UN in consolidating the conquest (see UN Security Council Resolution 1546 of June 8, 2004, which gives the aggressor in Iraq occupation rights and a UN Security Council blessing).

(Edward S. Herman: The Hariri Special Court vs the Imminent U.S. Attack on Iran)

Bill Clinton said:

“Well, the first thing she (Senator Clinton) intends to do, because you can do this without passing a bill, the first thing she intends to do is to send me and former President Bush and a number of other people around the world to tell them that America is open for business and cooperation again.”

Former President Bush's office has released this statement:

Former President Bush wholeheartedly supports the President of the United States, including his foreign policy. He has never discussed an "around-the-world mission" with either former President Bill Clinton or Senator Clinton, nor does he think such a mission is warranted since he is proud of the role America continues to play around the world as the beacon of hope for freedom and democracy. President Bush is excited about several of the excellent Republican candidates running for President, and looks forward to supporting their candidacy once the Republican nominee is determined.

* *

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey today sharply rebuffed congressional demands for details about the Justice Department's inquiry into the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes, saying that providing such information would make it appear that the department was "subject to political influence."

(Dan Eggen: Mukasey Won't Give Congress CIA Tape Details. The Washington Post)

And OF COURSE the old-guard Wall Street "so-last-century" GOP establishment power base is nervous. They courted the real deal, and now they GOT a LIVE one. The GOP elders now simply make mistakes for a living, especially when it comes to who has God's ear. (Not to mention the economy.) All that golf and scotch. All those tartan pants. All that scheming. They sold their party in bits and pieces like bankrupt suburbanites at a yard sale, and they sold it mostly to evangelists and hate mongers so they could strengthen the base. They grinned at their less-hip allies at the Prayer Breakfasts, and they smirked, because it didn't get in the way of free-market pollution of the environment or rapacious corporate profit-making. God was just as good a reason as oil in the neocon handbook for transforming global power. (. . .)

"At this time of year", Huckabee says, looking into the camera, "it only matters that we celebrate the birth of Christ." No it doesn't! What matters is figuring out how not to blow up the entire Middle East as we plan our (SLOW, RESPONSIBLE) egress from Iraq.

(Jon Robin Baitz: Mike Huckabee and the Evolving Blood-Sport of Pious One-Upmanship)

“If we are handing power back to the Iraqis, why are 4,500 British troops needed for what is essentially a training mission?”

(Vince Cable acting Liberal Democratic leader called for a timetable to bring all British troops home from Iraq)

The Pentagon neocons dumped Condi Rice out of the loop. Yet, according to Newsweek’s Mike Isikoff, Condi has now offered Wolfie a job. It wasn’t enough that he trashed Iraq and the World Bank. (He’s still larking around town with Shaha, the sweetheart he gave the sweetheart deal to.) Condi wants Wolfie to advise her on nuclear proliferation and W.M.D. as part of a State Department panel that has access to highly classified intelligence. Once you’ve helped distort W.M.D. intelligence to trick the country into war, shouldn’t you be banned for life from ever having another top-level government post concerning W.M.D.?

(Maureen Dowd: The Dream Is Dead. The New York Times)

"The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the REVOLUTION."

(Benjamin Franklin)

The threat is suicide, which ranked as the No. 3 cause of death for Army National Guard Soldiers through Aug. 13, according to the Army National Guard’s Suicide Prevention Program. There have been 42 cases of suicide in the Army National Guard this fiscal year, and it narrowly trails only combat (47) and accidents (45) in terms of Soldier deaths. Statistics reveal the National Guard suicide trend mirrors the active-duty Army and the numbers are increasing. The Army Suicide Event Report released Aug. 16 reported there were 99 confirmed suicides among active duty Soldiers in calendar year 2006, its highest number since 1991. The Army National Guard’s total of 42 is already 17 more than the 2006 total and marks the highest total since the Army National Guard began keeping suicide statistics in 2004.

(Sgt 1st Class Erick Studenicka: Suicide seen as major threat to National Guard Soldiers. National Guard Bureau. August 20, 2007)

Henry Kissinger did open the door to China, but he kept the Vietnam War going for four years (doubling the casualties) to maintain “credibility.”

(Andrew Greeley: US Intelligence Usually Wrong. The Chicago Sun-Times)

Today it happened in Des Moines, Iowa. The Des Moines Register, owned by the corporate controlled media monster, Gannet, and Iowa Public Broadcasting, yet another dumbed down version of the Peter's Principle PBS, banned Dennis Kucinich from its debate. Not One. Not One of the pretenders to democracy from the Democratic Party hierarchy protested.

(Michael O'McCarthy: The Death of Democracy -- Silence the opposition)

"Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

(President George W. Bush. Press conference)

Most of the rest of the (Senate) committee members were seated docilely in the choir pews, muttering amens. They seemed if anything more concerned with repudiating the attack ad on "General Betray-us" published the day the hearings opened than with doing any serious cross-examining of the commander of our mess in Mesopotamia. David Petraeus is perfectly cast in that role. He rose to fame not by his achievements but by his success in selling them as achievements.

(Rod Nodland: In Iraq, Nothing Succeeds Like Failure. Gen. Petraeus is a smart and capable leader. But he's not the savior Congress imagines him to be -- and his strategy won't work. Newsweek Web Exclusive. September 14, 2007)

"I don't think the (National Intelligence Estimate) gives a benign rendering of Iran. I see it as still quite dangerous."

(Condoleezza Rice)

"Iran could restart a weapons program and may still have one that is not known to the outside world."

(Dana Perino, White House press secretary)

Britain's adventure in Basra began four years ago with euphoria, relief and an amazing display of alfresco plumbing. (. . .) The first priority was to establish a city base. Saddam's massive, sprawling presidential palace complex on the banks of the waterway was an easy choice. A "redistribution" of the palace's plumbing began. Bathroom fittings were gold-plated, so gilt shower rails, l00 brushes and taps were "reassigned" by the city's new conquerors. That was how the locals saw the allied troops: not saviours but conquerors.

(Butcher was in Basra after it fell to British forces)

(Tim Butcher: Locals saw troops as conquerors, not saviours. Foreign Policy in Focus)

In a speech in the capital Buenos Aires, President Fernandez said she remained undeterred in her desire to deepen relations with other Latin American countries and Venezuela in particular. "This way of trying to operate in regional politics will not be successful," she said. "They will not achieve results. This president may be a woman, but she will not allow anyone to pressure her."

(Though she did not mention the US by name, correspondents say she was clearly referring to Washington.)

(Kirchner denies illegal funding. BBC News)

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) also said that while he didn’t receive the requested documents, he did receive “a letter this morning from the Office of the Vice President identifying some documents that would be responsive to the committee’s subpoena.” In the letter, the administration claims the Office of the Vice President is not part of the Executive Office of the President. Leahy responds, “Well, that’s wrong. (. . .) Oh, incidentally, at least this morning, as I left Vermont, I checked the White House Web site. And even their own Web site, this morning, at least, says that the Executive Office -- that the vice president is part of the Executive Office of the President.”

(Leahy: Cheney Told GOP-Led Congress It Was ‘Not Allowed To Issue Subpoenas’. Think Progress)

But veterans and their advocates say the ratio could be as high as 700 veterans to one medical doctor.

(Lou Michel: Veterans with injuries physical and mental, struggle to adapt and get care)

Finally, council members note the hard reality of the U.S. position in the Middle East, where we are militarily overextended and are widely disliked. Additional saber rattling stands the chance of pushing the entire Middle East, not just Iran, into chaos. Further military conflict must be avoided at all costs. But instead of recognizing they had made a mistake, as the NIE did in reversing its assessment from two years ago, (. . .), Bush and the neoconservatives are choosing to bury their heads deeper in the sand.

(Erik Leaver: Midwest City Fights Back Against Iran War-Mongering. AlterNet)

“For me, with a lifetime of nothing but very positive relationships with Mormons, Romney's religion is as much of an asset as his family heritage. He was raised right by a couple I greatly admired, and the values they gave him are exactly those I would hope a leader would have.”

(David S. Broder: Like Father, Like Son -- How the Romneys Tackled the Faith Question. The Washington Post)

“There are a number of faculty and students who are shocked and surprised and dismayed that Mr. Cheney will not only be honored as a commencement speaker but also receive an honorary degree from BYU. I believe this is the first time in BYU history the school has so honored a commencement speaker who is in the process of being impeached by Congress.”

(Business professor Warner Woodworth. Deseret News. 2007)

"The United States must employ a comprehensive strategy that uses all elements of its foreign policy arsenal, in particular offering 'direct, unconditional and comprehensive talks' with Iran -- where all issues, ours and Iran's, are on the table."

(Republican Senator Chuck Hagel)

Senator Clinton also took credit for strengthening U.S. ties with Ahmad Chalabi, the convicted embezzler who played a major role in convincing key segments of the administration, Congress, the CIA, and the American public that Iraq still had proscribed weapons, weapons systems, and weapons labs. (. . .) In the fall of 2002, Senator Clinton sought to discredit those questioning Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice-President Dick Cheney, and others who were making hyperbolic statements about Iraq’s supposed military prowess by insisting that Iraq’s possession of such weapons “are not in doubt” and was “undisputed.” Similarly, Clinton insisted that Secretary of State Colin Powell’s February 2005 speech at the UN was “compelling” although UN officials and arms control experts roundly denounced its false claims that Iraq had reconstituted these proscribed weapons, weapons programs, and delivery systems. In addition, although top strategic analysts correctly informed her that there were no links between Saddam Hussein’s secular nationalist regime and the radical Islamist al-Qaeda, Senator Clinton insisted that Saddam “has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members.” Though the 2003 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq was inaccurate in a number of respects, it did challenge the notion of any operational ties between the Iraqi government and Al-Qaeda and questioned some of the more categorical claims by President Bush about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD). However, Senator Clinton didn’t even bother to read it. She now claims that it wasn’t necessary for her to have actually read the 92-page document herself because she was briefed on the contents of the report. However, since no one on her staff was authorized to read the report, it’s unclear who could have actually briefed her.

(Stephen Zunes: Hillary Clinton on Iraq. Foreign Policy in Focus)

“[Obama’s] riding a wave of euphoria. She [Clinton] needs to puncture it. The way you puncture euphoria is reality, or to be more blunt, fear. I recommend to Senator Clinton the politics of fear.”

(Neoconservative pundit Bill Kristol. Fox News)

“We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It’s their government’s choice. If they were to say, leave, we would leave.”

(President George W. Bush. May 2007)

The corporations which now own the government of the United States and its "liberal" political organ, the Democratic Party, are terrified of Dennis Kucinich. Last night CNN, (think FOX light,) all but refused to allow Kucinich to participate in what CNN advertised as a debate. Despite continually guaranteeing "that everyone will have plenty of time," the incompetent Wolf Blitzer continually refused to allow Kucinich to respond to questions. Blitzer and CNN’s team of professional anchor-faces either steered questions or allowed rebuttals from the "front runners" or simply ignored Kucinich when he attempted to join the debate.

(Michael O'McCarthy: CNN Censors Kucinich)

“During the time that the airplane was coming in to the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President, “The plane is 50 miles out.” “The plane is 30 miles out.” And when it got down to “the plane is 10 miles out,” the young man also said to the Vice
President, “Do the orders still stand?” And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said, “Of course the orders still stand.
Have you heard anything to the contrary?”

(Norman Mineta)

(Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta was in the Presidential Emergency Operating Center with Vice President Cheney as Flight 77 approached Washington, D.C. On May 23, 2003. He testified in front of the 9/11 Commission)

"American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out. The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States' main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists."

(Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee)

Kreiger, 35, has a long list of medical problems that, he said, are related to his 2003-04 service in Iraq with the 105th Army National Guard Military Police Company. His right leg was crushed when a Humvee he was riding in crashed. His left hip was injured when he was thrown from another Humvee during an attack. Exploding mortars and roadside bombs -- including a direct hit on a Humvee on which he was the machine gunner -- stole hearing from one ear. He has been diagnosed with a brain injury and is being treated for that at the Buffalo VA’s Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic. He suffers from memory loss, nausea, dizzy spells and seizures. (. . .) Kreiger, in addition to his brain injury, also suffers from post-traumatic stress. Nightmares, flashbacks, road rage and homicidal feelings are all now part of his life. “You get the urge to want to kill people,” he said, adding that he attends VA-sponsored group therapy. (. . .) Two years after Kreiger returned home, doctors thought he suffered a stroke because of numbness in his body. It turned out he had tumors on his spinal cord. “The doctors said the tumors were connected to my combat duty. They got most of them,” said Kreiger, who is on 10 different types of medication. “I live on painkillers.”

(Lou Michel: Veterans with injuries physical and mental, struggle to adapt and get care)

"Having imagination it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that if you were unimaginative would take you only a minute."

(Franklin P. Adams)

The NATO decision to take on the International Stabilization and Assistance Force in Afghanistan was on my watch as secretary-general. I have never, not for a moment, regretted that decision. The task was necessary and urgent, and NATO was the only organization in the world that could do it. (. . .) The choice before us, and every democratic state, was simple and stark: either we go to Afghanistan, or Afghanistan comes to us. (. . .) Sure, it's dangerous for Canadian and British soldiers in Helmand and Kandahar. But as one blunt British soldier told me: "It's better we fight and defeat these bastards out there than in the streets back home." I was reminded of those sentiments when I recently passed a war memorial in London and saw these words: "They died with the faith that the future of mankind would benefit from their sacrifice." For the past 60 years, we have indeed reaped the benefits of these sacrifices, but their sacrifice will be in vain if we allow evil to prevail.

(Secretary-general of NATO from 1999 to 2003 and Britain's defense secretary from 1997 to 1999, Lord Robertson: We need to stay in Afghanistan -- and we need to win. Globe and Mail)

Canadian Force engineers are planning to build a new forward operating base in Arghandab, a strategically-vital district north of Kandahar City and the site of fierce fighting between coalition forces and the Taliban this fall.

(Allison Lampert: Canadians building a new base in southern Afghanistan. December 16, 2007)

"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference; and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him."

(John Kennedy)

"We separate church and state affairs in this country, and for good reason. No religion should dictate to the state nor should the state interfere with the free practice of religion. But in recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America -- the religion of secularism. They are wrong."

(Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney)

* *

“J.F.K.’s speech was to reassure Americans that he wasn’t a religious fanatic. Mitt’s was to tell evangelical Christians, ‘I’m a religious fanatic just like you.’”

(Jon Krakauer about the Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney)

If Time magazine had a "country of the year", it would surely be Russia. . . Russia held parliamentary elections the same day confirming its transformation from a weak kleptocracy, servile to US wishes, into a vigorous and confident opponent of the US. The backlash to the crony capitalism and phony democracy of Yeltsin gave his appointed successor a chance to wrest control from the powerful oligarchs, restore the power of the state as the engine of economic and social development, effectively nationalizing the remaining elite power centres. Boris Berezovsky, Putin's bête noire fuming in London, is a good example of the marginalization of the "offshore elite". Another is Mikhail Khodorkosky, in his unfashionable striped uniform, learning to sew in a Russian jail. Putin's genius was to be able to articulate the resurgence of national pride, the return of the repressed, as people rallied to the Soviet-style anti-imperialist standard which he hoisted. Unlike the boorish, dipsomaniac Yeltsin, who welcomed US advisers to help him dismantle the once powerful Soviet Union, Putin sent them packing and tapped into the subliminal desire of the people to re-identify with a powerful state which advocated law and order both at home and abroad.

(Eric Walberg: Return of the repressed -- Recent elections were either a triumph of the will or a confirmation that Russia has found itself)

Professor Dan Shiftan, head of the Israeli National Security Studies Centre and a well-known specialist in American-Israeli relations, published an article in Haaretz newspaper on the eve of the Annapolis meeting stressing that it had absolutely no relation to resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Shiftan wrote that the meeting was held in order to help President Bush create the necessary conditions for striking Iran. He further wrote that the Annapolis meeting must be viewed as a purely American-Israeli affair, with no input by the Palestinians or Arabs, and that Israel's goal in participating was to help Bush confront Iran. Shiftan mocked statements issued by Arab and Palestinian leaders describing the meeting as a "window of opportunity".

(Saleh Al-Naami: The real goal of Annapolis -- While the world watched the Arabs, Annapolis was for Israel and the US to prepare the ground for attacking Iran)

"We repeat and again reaffirm that neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. Neither can constitutionally pass laws or impose requirements which aid all religions as against non-believers, and neither can aid those religions based on a belief in the existence of God as against those religions founded on different beliefs."

(The Supreme Court)

Not only did the congressional Gang of Four fail to inform the public about the use of torture by our government, but it also kept the 9/11 Commission in the dark. Pelosi testified before the commission on May 22, 2003, but uttered not a word of caution about the methods used. However, more than two years later, on Nov. 16, 2005, Pelosi stated correctly that on the basis of her “many years on the intelligence committee,” she knew that “the quality of intelligence that is collected by torture is. . . uncorroborated and it is worthless.”

(Robert Scheer: Waterboarding Our Democracy. TruthDig.com)

The U.S. military paid a Florida company nearly $32 million to build barracks and offices for Iraqi army units even though nothing was ever built, Pentagon investigators reported. The project had to be abandoned because the Iraqi Defense Ministry couldn't obtain rights to the land where the headquarters were to be built, according to a report released this month by the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General. Still, the Air Force agency overseeing the project paid contractor Ellis Environmental Group $31.9 million of the $34.2 million obligated for the project, the report said.

(Matt Kelley: U.S. paid $32M for Iraqi base that wasn't built. USA Today)

The only candidate with a platform of sufficient social, governmental, structural change is Dennis Kucinich. But if there were ever a conspiracy to silence the voice of change, short of assassination, it is the campaign by all the other Democrats and the media to censor Kucinich. As in the so called CNN debate on Thursday night, November 13th when Kucinich was allowed only 5:37 minutes out of a 120-minute program.

(Michael O'McCarthy: Kucinich My Working Class Hero)

Diplomatic friction between the United States and the People's Republic of China has grown more palpable during the past week. Regarding the balance of power, the events of the last week are a clear indication that a change is occurring in East Asia. Expressed in the simplest terms, the U.S. Navy is losing the ability to dock in Chinese controlled territories while the Chinese navy is gaining the ability to dock in Japanese territories. The frontier of the American sphere of influence is regressing, while the frontier of the Chinese sphere of influence is growing outward. At a deeper level of analysis the change in the balance of power is even more evident. The USS Kitty Hawk is considered a significant vessel by the Chinese. The ship provided indispensible support to the campaign in Afghanistan, to which China, along with other member states in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, has taken a clear stance of active disapproval. To the Chinese government, the USS Kitty Hawk is symbolic of Washington's role in Afghanistan and presence in Central Asia.

(Drafted By: Richard Komaiko: China's Decision to Deny U.S. Ships from Port of Hong Kong. http://www.pinr.com)

Gunning down seventeen Iraqi civilians in an incident the military has labeled "criminal." Multiple Congressional investigations. A federal grand jury. Allegations of illegal arms smuggling. Wrongful death lawsuits brought by families of dead employees and US soldiers. A federal lawsuit alleging war crimes. Charges of steroid use by trigger-happy mercenaries. Allegations of "significant tax evasion." The US-installed government in Iraq labeling its forces "murderers." With a new scandal breaking practically every day, one would think Blackwater security would be on the ropes, facing a corporate meltdown or even a total wipeout. But it seems that business for the company has never been better, as it continues to pull in major federal contracts. And its public demeanor grows bolder and cockier by the day.

Rather than hiding out and hoping for the scandals to fade, the Bush Administration's preferred mercenary company has launched a major rebranding campaign, changing its name to Blackwater Worldwide and softening its logo: once a bear paw in the site of a sniper scope, it's now a bear claw wrapped in two half ovals -- sort of like the outline of a globe with a United Nations feel. Its website boasts of a corporate vision "guided by integrity, innovation, and a desire for a safer world." Blackwater mercenaries are now referred to as "global stabilization professionals." Blackwater's 38-year-old owner, Erik Prince, was No. 11 in Details magazine's "Power 50," the men "who control your viewing patterns, your buying habits, your anxieties, your lust. (. . .) the people who have taken over the space in your head."

(Jeremy Scahill: Blackwater's Bu$ine$$. December 2007. The Nation)

* *

July 13: (Joe) Lieberman goes on Hugh Hewitt's show:

HH: In a statement earlier this month, Senator Lieberman, you said that, and I’m quoting here, “The fact is that the Iranian government, by its actions, has declared war on us.” Given that, if President Bush announced he felt compelled to take military action against Iran, would you support him?

JL: Yeah, of course I would.

(Jane Hamsher: Iran)

Mitt Romney's "Faith In America" speech in Texas last week has been negligently reported by the Times. Beginning with the preview article on December 3 Michael Luo and Michael Cooper, through two additional articles by Mr. Luo, including one that was featured on the front page -- as well as several prominent editorials -- Mr. Romney's controversial comments about excluding Muslims in his cabinet have been alarmingly omitted. Given that the speech was supposed to be about, as Luo and Cooper put it, America's "grand tradition of religious tolerance," it is most problematic that Romney's intolerant remarks went unmentioned.

(Blue Texan: My Letter to Clark Hoyt. New York Times)

The Book of Mormon teaches that the colored races are descendants of the evil children of Laman and Lemuel, who impiously warred against the good children of Nephi and received their pigmented skin as punishment. (. . .) "The Mormon interpretation of the curse of Canaan. . . together with unauthorized, but widely accepted statements by [Mormon] leaders in years past, has led to the view among many Mormon adherents that birth into any race other than white is a result of inferior performance in pre-earth life, and that by righteous living dark-skinned races may again become 'white and delightsome.' (. . .)"

(A Utah State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights drew on the Mormon scripture in a scathing report on the state of the tiny nonwhite minority in Utah. 1959)

(Time with CNN)

Imagine: you are a foot soldier in a paramilitary group whose purpose is to remake America as a Christian theocracy, and establish its worldly vision of the dominion of Christ over all aspects of life. You are issued high-tech military weaponry, and instructed to engage the infidel on the streets of New York City. You are on a mission -- both a religious mission and a military mission -- to convert or kill Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, gays, and anyone who advocates the separation of church and state -- especially moderate, mainstream Christians. Your mission is "to conduct physical and spiritual warfare"; all who resist must be taken out with extreme prejudice. You have never felt so powerful, so driven by a purpose: you are 13 years old. You are playing a real-time strategy video game whose creators are linked to the empire of mega-church pastor Rick Warren, best selling author of The Purpose Driven Life.

(Jon Hutson describes the video game Manhunt 2)

A government watchdog group now says ten to twenty million White House emails, which may contain information about the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's covert CIA status, have been destroyed by the Bush administration. In a report from April, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) detailed a massive hole in the White House email records. The report, titled "Without a Trace: The Missing White House Emails and the Violations of the Presidential Records Act," accused the Bush administration of destroying "more than 5 million" emails and failing to attempt to recover them. According to CREW, their sources now tell them the number of missing emails is probably between ten and twenty million.

(Matt Renner: Waxman, Mukasey and Ten Million Missing Emails. t r u t h o u t.)

"I have to say this is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I've ever seen or ever read about. They have failed the country."

(Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, speaking Wednesday before the Council on Foreign Relations)

Defense lawyers preparing for the war crimes trial of a 21-year-old Guantánamo detainee have been ordered by a military judge not to tell their client -- or anyone else -- the identity of witnesses against him, newly released documents show. The case of the detainee, Omar Ahmed Khadr, is being closely watched because it may be the first Guantánamo prosecution to go to trial, perhaps as soon as May. Defense lawyers say military prosecutors have sought similar orders to keep the names of witnesses secret in other military commission cases, which have been a centerpiece of the Bush administration's policies for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Some legal experts and defense lawyers said the judge's order, issued on Oct. 15 without public disclosure, underscored the gap between military commission procedures and traditional American rules that the accused has a right to a public trial and to confront the witnesses against him. (. . .) But Joshua L. Dratel, a lawyer in New York who represented another detainee prosecuted for war crimes, described such orders as an Orwellian effort to hamstring defense lawyers while making it appear that detainees are rigorously represented. "It is ‘1984,'" Mr. Dratel said. "No system in the United States would operate this way."

(William Glaberson: Witness Names to Be Withheld From Detainee. The New York Times)

“Too much of our wealth goes to maintaining the systems of domination and providing obscene luxuries for a tiny percentage of the population.”

(Bill McKibben: Deep Economy)

"I think it relaxes everybody, but part of this has to do with the Bush administration’s representation of the Iran threat. The administration had suggested there was an immediate, imminent threat, which was frankly always contradicted by a body of evidence that was available even before the release of this NIE. Nobody thought Iran was on the threshold of developing a nuclear weapon anytime soon, so this was a particularly important contradiction in the way the administration had chosen to present this Iran case. (. . .) I think the Bush administration was misleading the public regarding the immediacy of the Iranian threat. That was obvious before the release of this report.)

(Ray Takeyh: Immediate Threat of War with Iran Now Reduced. Council on foreign Relation. December 4, 2007)

"The President has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran and if he does, as foreign relations committee chairman, I will move to impeach."

(Presidential hopeful Senator Joe Biden)

"We've heard the president before, in his build-up to go to war in Iraq, try to lay the same foundation for going to war in Iran. We've heard it and the sixth year is a daily reminder of us that that's the case."

(Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid)

“Part of what is so pernicious about publicly traded corporations is that their only real accountability is to impersonal financial markets for which the only measurement that matters is instant profits. (. . .) Human and environmental costs are totally ignored, as is any other long-term consideration.”

(David Korten: The Great Turning Point: From Empire to Earth Community)

"Victory in Iraq will bring something new in the Arab world -- a functioning democracy that polices its territory, upholds the rule of law, respects fundamental human liberties and answers to its people."

(President George W. Bush)

"We have to start focusing on the things that people really need. When I was growing up, I lived in 27 places, including cars. (. . . ) People need health care and I'm the only one up here that supports non-profit national health care. (. . .) If you want your country back. . . you give me your vote and I'll give you back your country."

(Presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich. Presidential debate. 2007)

The first jury trial Mrs. Clinton handled on her own, for instance, concerned the rear end of a rat in a can of pork and beans, and if here you’re thinking, “Go get ‘em, Hillary! Evil corporations are trying to poison us!” you are sadly misled. She represented the corporation, and “she argued that there had been no real harm, as the plaintiff did not actually eat the rat. "Besides," she wrote in her autobiography, describing her client’s position, "the rodent parts which had been sterilized might be considered edible in certain parts of the world.”

(Adam Liptak: Attorneys at Politics: Would You Hire One to Represent You? The New York Times)

Baptist pastor Wiley Drake admitted to asking his congregation to pray for the death of two leaders of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. They had been calling for an IRS investigation of Drake for endorsing a Presidential candidate, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, on church letterhead reports the Los Angeles Times. Drake said he was "simply doing what God told me to do."

(The Progressive)

"Your actions may be undermining our mission in Iraq and really hurting the relationship and trust between the Iraqi people and the American military."

(Representative Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, questioning Black Water's Erik Prince)

Two factors have set into motion the decline of the West. The first is that the leading power of the West, the world's sole superpower, has failed far more miserably in Iraq than the media and Western politicians are letting on. The second is that Europe still follows policies that lack independent substance, distinction and constructive force. The stature of Europe has declined largely because of policies that subordinate Europe to the US. Whether inspired by some perceived need for camouflage or protection, or by eagerness to evade assuming its share of responsibility for international security and stability by handing the reigns of world leadership to the US alone, these policies have given rise to the most blindly biased and/or opportunistic tendencies. What is worse for Europe is that these tendencies are not motivated by any sense of collective European interests, let alone the welfare of the international community and world peace. (. . .) Europe could halt the decline of the West if it revives confidence in its ability to say "No" to Washington and Israel.

(Gamil Mattar: The age of Western decline. Al Ahram)

I spoke to President Musharraf right before I came over here to visit with President Sarkozy. And my message was that we believe strongly in elections, and that you ought to have elections soon, and you need to take off your uniform. You can't be the President and the head of the military at the same time.

(President George W. Bush. Mount Vernon, Virginia. November 7, 2007)

The leading Republican candidates for president don’t even seem to realize that there’s a problem. A few months ago Rudy Giuliani, denouncing Hillary Clinton’s economic proposals, declared that “she wants to go back to the 1990s” -- as if that would be a bad thing. In fact, memories of how much better the economy was under Bill Clinton will be a potent political advantage for the Democrats next year.

(Paul Krugman: Winter of Our Discontent. The New York Times)

Before The Lord spoke unto Pat Robertson and told him to endorse Rudy Giuliani, family man, for President, the Reverend got a message that higher powers wanted him to arrange a hit on another President: "Hugo Chavez thinks we're trying to assassinate him. I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it." Robertson has a tough time separating Church and Hate.

(Greg Palast: The Assassination of Hugo Chavez. GregPalast.com)

Rudy Giuliani said yesterday he "never had any doubt" that if he were President four years ago, he would have invaded Iraq. He said he is now "even more certain" that it was the correct national security move. "I actually believe that Democrats are going to agree with me on that by the time we get to the general election," the Republican former New York City mayor said. (. . .) Giuliani said that if Saddam Hussein were alive and in power, he would be trying to build a nuclear arsenal to meet a growing nuclear threat from Iran. "We'd have two -- instead of one -- irresponsible, terrorist-supporting regimes that have enormous amounts of wealth available to them wanting to become nuclear powers in Middle East," he said.

(John Distaso: Invading Iraq gets a nod, but illegal aliens are out. Unionleader.com)

“Let them protest all they want, as long as they pay their taxes.”

(Alexander Haig)