State Department Insists Al Qaeda not active in Iraq - in November 2001

Check out the information released by the State Department in 2001 in response to the 9/11 attacks. They have a map of the world showing where Al Qaeda is active, and this includes much of the world, but it doesn't include Iraq (although it includes Iran, Syria, Jordan, and even the US). How can Bush ever claim with a straight face that Iraq had Al Qaeda ties when their own State Department said they didn't - after 9/11? Hell, the US had greater Al Qaeda ties than the US did. Didn't two of the highjackers live with an FBI informant in San Diego prior to 9/11?

Update on the Axis of Evil

Three years ago this January, George Bush electified the neo-conservative world with the phrase "Axis of Evil," labelling in one fell stroke the nations of North Korea, Iran and Iraq evil nations beyond the pale of civilizations. Such nations, he told us, would have to be dealt with, one way or another. He never said "dead or alive," but damn if I didn't see that smirk right there when he was talking.

So, nearly 3 years later, with the most aggressive foreign policy in US history, the Axis of Evil must be on the run by now. Let's take a look.

We sure showed Iraq. Hussein wouldn't admit to possessing WMD, so we invaded and kicked his butt, he's "toast" now (in the nearly immortal words of Dick Cheney as spoken to a man who had greater access to the president on war issues than Colin Powell, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia). We went in, we kicked ass and took prisoners (too many, it turned out, and had to lead a bunch of them around naked to show them not to do it again). Sure we got bogged down there a little bit, but let's face it, Muqtada al Sadr is a tough opponent, and he just doesn't play fair when he hides out in holy Shia shrines. Never mind that he was not our enemy until we invaded and then tried to crack down on him.

We have turned over whole regions of Iraq to insurgants. Fallouja is controlled nearly completely by Sunni insurgants, weeks of battling in Najaf never led to us vanquishing a Shia rebellion. US soldiers and Iraqi civillians continue to die in large numbers, along with rebels, of course, but despite the re-introduction of the Vietnam-era body count by Donald Rumsfeld, we seem to have lost sight of the fact that there is a nearly bottomless supply of new ones to take their place. In closing, we have taught one group of Iraqis that our regular army can kick butt, we have taught a whole other group of them how they can prevent us from maintaining control, and thus have tied up 70% of our combat units for 1 1/2 years without being able to control a country the size of California with a population the size of New York.

Iran - Well, for a little while, Iran was on the run there. They agreed to open themselves up to inspection to the IAEA (International Atmoic Energy Agency), and looked as if they were going to come clean about their nuclear ambitions, as well as have their goals of a bomb stymied. They still had a reformist prime minister and a population who looked with more affection than loathing to the US.

Now, of course, Iran has given the big flip off to the US, the UN, and the IAEA. They dumped their reformist prime minister by rigging the elections, and they now state, ernestly in their view, that they need these nuclear plants to meet their energy needs. Who are we to tell them no, even if they have all the oil they'll ever need and are attempting to build plants which are really only likely to be used for bomb making. Afterall, they have little to fear from us since those heady days of the Iraq invasion. 70% of our military cannot control a country the size of California with a population of New York that had been under continuous and intense international military sanctions for a decade. They know good and well that we will have no ability to attack, occupy and control a country 4 times larger with 70 million people in it, who has not been under any sanctions

And finally, North Korea. Oh, yes, I can just see Kim Jong Il quaking in his Gucci boots in one of his palaces in Pyongyang, sipping $100 bottles of Scotch and being attended to be multiple prostitutes. A person as big a fool as him even knows that we are taking troops out of South Korea to build up our failed effort in Iraq. Just for the hell of it, he decided to test a large bomb. Now he has us guessing, was it nuclear, was it conventional, was it a mine accident? Of course, we are in no position to harm him in the slightest, not that we ever were, what with him conventional ability to decimate 1/2 of South Korea's population and industry in about an hour of serious shelling of their country from the DMZ, only about 30 miles from South Korea's capital. We can be relieved that we no longer appease them like we did during the Clinton administration. But then again, they didn't build any nuclear bombs during the Clinton adminstration, they waited for us to call them part of the axis of evil before they did that.

All in all, it's good to see that the axis of evil is alive and well, perhaps even prospering. Sure, Hussein's gone now, but Bush actually called Iraq the axis of evil, and by all signs, Iraq seems to be more evil than ever. Our troops die there at rate of a couple per day, terrorists have begun using it as a new Afghanistan, as if our failures there didn't make the new Afghanistan almost as hospitable as the old one. I'm sure that the neo-cons who have run our foreign policy by political theory rather than political reality are thrilled with the rhetoric, unfortunately, the rest of this country will be struggling with the reality long after the neo-cons are a bad memory.

Jeb Bush Hits a New Low

Apparently, because the Reform party is not a true "national" party, Florida law deems that the Reform candidate does not get automatic access to the Florida presidential ballot. Of course we know who the Reform candidate is - Ralph Nader, and his being on the Florida ballot obviously would hurt Kerry, as it did Gore in 2000. A federal court issued a temporary injunction keeping Nader off the ballot, so what did Jeb and company do?

You guessed it, they appealed (automatically lifting the injunction), and began printing ballots with Nader on it, claiming that there was no opportunity to argue against the permanent injunction due to Hurricane Ivan! What a load of crap! They are actually going to disobey the law to try and harm Kerry and help Bush. Every time you think that the Republicans have hit a new low, they go and prove you wrong with some new idiocy. Let's see how this one pans out.

Here's the article

MIAMI (Reuters) - Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader's name can appear on Florida ballots for the election, despite a court order to the contrary, Florida's elections chief told officials on Monday in a move that could help President Bush in the key swing state.

The Florida Democratic Party reacted with outrage, calling the move "blatant partisan maneuvering" by Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's younger brother, and vowed to fight it.

In a memo to Florida's 67 county supervisors of elections, Division of Elections director Dawn Roberts said the uncertainty of Hurricane Ivan, which could hit parts of the state by week's end, forced her to act.

The action came in an ongoing legal battle over whether Nader should be allowed on the Florida ballot as the Reform Party candidate.

Nader, an independent nominated by the Reform Party, was a presidential candidate in 2000 when Bush won Florida, and the White House, by 537 votes over then-Vice President Al Gore. Analysts said most of the nearly 98,000 votes Nader got in Florida would have gone to Gore had Nader not been on the ballot.

Florida Circuit Court Judge Kevin Davey issued a temporary injunction last week preventing the state from putting Nader on the 2004 ballot, siding with a Democratic challenge that the Reform Party did not qualify as a national party under state law.

A hearing on a permanent injunction is scheduled for Wednesday. But Roberts said Hurricane Ivan, which is headed for Florida's Gulf coast, had raised "a substantial question as to when such a hearing" will be held.

'PARTISAN MANEUVERING'

As a result, she said, Florida's Department of State had filed an appeal against the temporary injunction. The appeal application automatically lifts the injunction, allowing the counties to put Nader's name on overseas absentee ballots, which must be mailed by Saturday.

"I'm in disbelief," said Scott Maddox, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party. "This is blatant partisan maneuvering on the part of Jeb Bush to give his brother a leg up on election day."

"They are trying to get ballots printed with Nader's name on them," said Maddox. "I am astounded that Jeb Bush is willing to defy the judiciary to help his brother."
Maddox said if Nader drew votes away from any candidate it would be Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Gov. Bush said he agreed with Roberts' decision.

"It's up to the judge to determine, based on the law, whether Nader should be on the ballot or not," Bush said. "But while that process goes on, we cannot put ourselves in the position where the ministerial role of the supervisors cannot be fulfilled."

Maddox noted that Tallahassee, the state capital where Davey sits, is not expected to be directly hit by the hurricane. He said the circuit court could hear the case as scheduled on Wednesday and rule immediately.

In addition, the case is before the Florida Supreme Court, which could also rule at any time, he said.

Polls not too Bad?

Check out this site, it suggests that all is not lost. According to the latest local polls nationwide, Kerry is ahead in the electoral map, 272-233, with FL and NV dead even. This is great news, and it looks as if the Bush "bounce" was really just the nation laughing. I'm not thrilled with Kerry's campaign, but in light of the way the media works these days, it's probably the best we can do. Let's win in November, and then worry about changing the nation more afterwards.

Update: They now have Maine tied, which gives Kerry 269 with FL & NV still dead even. That means if Bush takes FL & NV, Kerry has swung only one state to his column from 2000, and loses the election. More work needs to be done....

Zell Miller, Last Dixiecrat?

Zell Miller, Confederate?
Watching Zell Miller's speech (the part of it I could stomach, that is), made me think about how much he has in common with the leadership of the Republican party, and for that matter, with those Southern Democrats from the 1940s, 50s and 60s who did their best to prevent integration. For the most part, these Democrats became the present day Republican leadership. He sort of reminds me of the Southern Democrats at the time of the Civil War, for that matter. This got me thinking, Zell Miller and the ascendancy of the present day Republican leadership since 1968 seems to signify to me that perhaps the South didn't really lose the Civil War. Let's face it, many Southern princples from the Civil War era have reappeared in the form of the Republican party today. Excessive emphasis on states rights, opposition to a strong central government that works for the welfare of the nation, allowing of segregation (if the majority accepts, of course), repression of individual rights (especially when you consider that most states seeking to imprison people for what they do in their own bedroom are Southern states), heavy militarisation of society (Zell did say that the military is who we should thank for freedom of speech, not the press - notice how free speech and the press was who he took a shot at for an applause line), ending the separation of church and state, suspicion of science if it conflicts with religious beliefs (do we have to fight the Scopes Monkey Trial all over again?).All in all, when you look at the judges that Bush wants to appoint, the beliefs he expresses, his worldview, the statements of the leadership of his party, and you take out slavery, you might as well be looking at the old confederacy. Maybe the North's victory was a "catastrophic victory" for freedom that we have regretted ever since. Is there any way we can renegotiate the South's demands and let them secede afterall?