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From Jerry and Joe Long at The Huffington Post: Bush Changes Religion
WASHINGTON, October 10 - White House spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed today that President Bush has converted to Islam, and taken the Muslim name Yasaar Qutaybah Ratheem: meaning rich, irritable rodent.
Speculation had been rampant that Bush, currently at 2 percent in the polls due to 19 dollar a gallon gas prices, would attempt an "October surprise" to rally GOP support for the mid-term elections.
Yet even many in the administration were taken aback when, during yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Bush produced a prayer rug, climbed on the table and prostrated himself before Mecca.
Vice President Cheney, meanwhile, continues to campaign across the country touting the administration's medicare prescription drug plan; which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of seniors due to their inability to figure it out. Cheney explained that while the deaths were regrettable they should in no way detract from the success of the program, since many of the elderly had been in their "last throes".
On Iraq, McClellan described the president as being "optimistic" that the civil war would soon end. Now that the Shias, with the aid of an Iranian tactical nuclear weapon, have driven the remaining Sunnis into Saudi Arabia.
Still, it is the president's conversion to Islam that has generated the most talk inside the Beltway. Though scholars assert that all monotheistic faiths, despite minor differences on pork, shellfish, and transubstantiation, are equally mad; no sitting president has ever changed religion. Jefferson and Lincoln were converted from Deism and Agnosticism after their deaths.
McClellan dismissed speculation that Bush was trying to send a signal of negotiation to Al Qaeda. "President Ratheem, peace be upon him, will continue to focus on doing the work of the American people," he said.
As for the Democrats, who remain locked in a statistical dead heat for control of Congress, they plan to unveil their new campaign slogan, 'Bettering Together Tomorrow's Building', in time for Halloween.Tags: political diversion, quote/unquote
humour:  chipper
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From Alberto Gonzales' testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on eavesdropping: | President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale. |
I have nothing. Seriously. I mean, never mind the obvious difficulty in Washington and Lincoln using electronic surveillance (and the fact that the Civil War and the first two World Wars were lawfully declared by Congress - and that, even if Bush did have "war powers", he would still be bound by FISA, which specifically addresses warrantless surveillance during wartime), um... for which war was President Washington Commander-in-Chief, using this electronic surveillance on US citizens? Anyone? Tags: politburo, quote/unquote
humour:  amazed
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Well according to Janis Karpinsky, it certainly looks like it. At the very least, the orders appear to have come from the office of... Donald Rumsfeld. Brigadier General Karpinski was in charge of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq when the infamous torture photographs were taken. She was reprimanded and demoted to Colonel for her failure to properly supervise the prison guards. Karpinski is the highest ranking officer to be sanctioned for the mistreatment of prisoners. The other day, she was interviewed by Marjorie Cohn at truthout: MC: You wrote in an e-mail: "The techniques are a clear departure from what soldiers are taught and understand, the techniques that were directed by the highest level of this Administration." By that, you mean all the way up to the Oval Office?
JK: I mean all the way up to Cheney. I don't know the workings of how it gets up there. But I would think that, very similar to any other big corporation or the military, that if you have a deputy - or a Vice President, in this case - and he is making decisions or approvals, then maybe by default you will say, "If I didn't know, I should have known," or "I did know." Because he's your Vice President. Or he is the Vice President. Or he is the Secretary of Defense. I don't know what they are telling the President. And I don't care. He's the President, and he's supposed to know what's going on in this Administration, and honestly, sometimes it doesn't seem like he does. ...
MC: Do you think the investigations that have taken place so far have uncovered the truth about this torture and who is responsible?
JK: Absolutely not. The truth has been uncovered, but it's been suffocated and it has not been released with the results of the investigation. You know, they can say that, McClellan and Rumsfeld can get up on their high horse and say that there've been no fewer than 15 investigations that were conducted. But every one of those investigations is under the control of the Secretary of Defense. And every one of those investigations is run and led by a person who can lose their job under Rumsfeld's fist.
We're never going to know the truth until they do an independent commission or look into this independently. I don't know if this has to be a commission. I don't know what the term is. But I do know that we never would have known the truth about 9/11 if they didn't appoint an independent commission. And this thing, this thing is not about what happened in Cellblock 1-A on a night shift. And it is certainly not about seven reservists who went crazy one night. This is about instructions delivered with full authority and knowledge of the Secretary of Defense and probably Cheney. I don't know if the President was involved or not. I don't care. All I know is, those instructions were communicated from the Secretary of Defense's office, from the Pentagon, through Cambone, through Miller, to Abu Ghraib.
And those civilian contractors who were imported were not subjected to the same Uniform Code of Military Justice discipline as the soldiers. They were cleared, removed from the face of the earth, and seven soldiers are being held responsible. It was grossly unfair.
MC: Now why do you think the Administration is resisting an independent investigation if it has nothing to hide?
JK: Well, for the same reason that when they started to make noise a couple of weeks ago - McCain, I think, recommended developing a bill or was recommending a bill that would define the limits of how to interview prisoners, would require an international database so family members would know where their loved ones or relatives were being held. And Cheney said he would recommend to the President that any bill that would limit his ability to extract information from terrorists, he would recommend disapproval. And the President has said that he would disapprove any such bill. And it's consistent with this Administration's reluctance to get to the truth, because it will reveal that they knew that this was designed at their level and started from the memo under Gonzales and Haynes. |
Hmmn. Tags: quote/unquote, source
humour:  not surprised
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Larry Johnson's Democratic Radio address: Good morning. I'm Larry Johnson, an American, a registered Republican, a former intelligence official at the CIA, and a friend of Valerie Plame.
I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985 with Valerie. We were members of the Career Trainee Program. Senator Orin Hatch wrote the letter of recommendation for me which I believe that helped open the doors to me at the CIA.
From the first day we walked into the building, all members of my training class were undercover, including Valerie. In other words, we had to lie to our family and friends about where we worked. We could only tell those who had an absolute need to know where we worked. In my case, I told my wife.
I knew the wife of Ambassador Wilson, Valerie, as Valerie P. Even though all of us in the training class held Top Secret Clearances, we were asked to limit our knowledge of our other classmates to the first initial of their last name.
So, Larry J. knew Val P. rather than Valerie Plame. I really didn't realize what her last name was until her cover was betrayed by the Government officials who gave columnist Robert Novak her true name.
I am stunned that government officials at the highest level have such ignorance about a matter so basic to the national security structure of this nation.
Robert Novak's compromise of Valerie led to scrutiny of CIA officers that worked with her. This not only compromised her "cover" company but potentially every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company or with her.
We must put to bed the lie that she was not undercover. For starters, if she had not been undercover then the CIA would not have referred the matter to the Justice Department.
Val only told those with a need to know about her status in order to safeguard her cover, not compromise it. She was content with being known as an energy consultant married to Ambassador Joe Wilson and the mother of twins.
I voted for George Bush in November of 2000 because I was promised a President who would bring a new tone and a new ethical standard to Washington.
So where are we? The President has flip-flopped on his promise to fire anyone at the White House implicated in a leak. We now know from press reports that at least Karl Rove and "Scooter" Libby are implicated in these leaks and may have lied during the investigation.
Instead of a President concerned first and foremost with protecting this country and the intelligence officers who serve it, we are confronted with a President who is willing to sit by while political operatives savage the reputations of good Americans like Valerie and Joe Wilson.
This is wrong and this is shameful.
We deserve people who work in the White House who are committed to protecting classified information, telling the truth to the American people, and living by example the idea that a country at war with Islamic extremists cannot focus its efforts on attacking other American citizens who simply tried to tell the truth.
I am Larry Johnson.
Thank you for listening. |
Tags: quote/unquote
humour:  smug
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![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
misanthropic
enriched