Friday, August 27, 2004

 

Al Franken Knew. How ?

Last night I was re-reading "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" published September 2003 and I noticed two very odd claims.

p 111. "Immediately after the embassy bombings, Clinton issued a presidential directive authorizing the assassination of Osama Bin Laden."

p 120 "Now on Aust 6, CIA director Tenet delivered a report to President Bush entitled, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." The report warned that al Qaeda might be planning to jijack airplanes."

Let's see, the first fact was hidden by the Bush administration when they sent to the 9/11 committee only 2,000 of 11,000 pages of Clinton administration documents identified as relevant by the national archives. It was revealed immediately before John Ashcroft's testimony and he wasn't alert enough to change his line even after a commissioner had mentioned the new discovery. How did tem Franken know in 2003 ? Franken did get the timing a bit off.

Over to you John Ashcroft and Richard Ben Veniste on April 13 2004.



John Ashcroft said (under oath) "Let me be clear: my thorough review revealed no covert action program to kill Bin Ladin. " and " Even if they could have penetrated Bin Ladin's training camp, they would have needed a battery of attorneys to approve the capture. "

Back to Ben-Veniste

MR. BEN-VENISTE: Good afternoon, General Ashcroft. I want to say hello to Larry Thompson, and to Mr. Olson my renewed condolences.
I believe in your statement, General Ashcroft, with respect to the failed capture policy of the prior administration, that you may be incorrect. I don't believe that you have seen the MON that we have recently received as of last week which had not been previously made available to us. And I will leave that for others to discuss. We've got to tiptoe around it for obvious national security and classification reasons. But you may be enlightened by reviewing that document.

Then on p 120 Franken quotes the title of the August 6th PDB. This was the document that the Bush administration fought hardest to keep from the 9/11 commission. The title was first publicly revealed by Condoleezza Rice on April 8 2004
"MS. RICE: I believe the title was "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."
OK so he missed a "side", but how did he know all but one syllable of this top top secret title ?

Many bloggers have noted that the best TV news program is the Daily Show. Is Al Franken head of team Franken the best investigative reporters in the USA.

posted by Robert permalink and comments9:10 PM

 

Two posts from Brad Delong

"Somebody who used to work for the Bush administration and knows his stuff writes to admonish me for concluding that the overtime rules change is likely to be a significant redistribution away from labor, and to say that we really do not know what the effect of the rules change will be: "

and

"Andrew Samwick, who just left the CEA for Dartmouth, has been arguing that we really don't know what the impact of the overtime rules will be--and that the Labor Department has fallen down on the job by failing to gather the information that would allow us to know."

hmmm sounds like the best protection of an anonymous source since the WaPo quoted a high ranking Bush Amdinistration foreign policy advisor who asked that her name not be used.

posted by Robert permalink and comments7:17 AM

 

Johnny Carrera (my brother in law) told me about this great sloganator site (as featured on Wonkette). Just in case anyone else missed it.

posted by Robert permalink and comments6:29 AM

 

Making Scott McClellan look good.

In the August 26th Washington Post Karl Vick, Naseer Nouri report

"On Wednesday night, policemen from the cheif's security detail barged into a hotel in Najaf and arrested more than 50 Iraqi and foreign journalists at gunpoint. The police officers beats some of the reporters and fired assault rifles in the lobby. After the journalists were brought to the main police station, Jazaeri denied they had been arrested and insisted they had simply been summoned for a news conference"

They don't report if any of the journalists asked tough follow up quiestions.
Hell this Jazaeri guy almost makes Arie Fleisher look good.

posted by Robert permalink and comments4:26 AM

 

The Gallup likely voter anomaly. Enough said. I've been pointing this out for months. It makes a 4 point difference (Bush-Kerry)likely minus (Bush-Kerry)registered.



BUSH vs. KERRY: Among likely voters; with leaners, where available.


Bush Kerry

FOX 8/25 44 45

Gallup 8/25 50 47

GWU 8/17 47 49
Battlground
Zogby 8/14 43 50

Gallup 8/11 50 47

ICR 8/8 48 48

Time 8/5 44 51

Registered voters
Bush Kerry

Gallup 8/25 47 48

posted by Robert permalink and comments3:54 AM

Sunday, August 22, 2004

 

Can you count to 527 ?
The Collier county GOP has taken down the fund raising appeal for the GOP unaffiliated Swift Boat Veterans for Truth but they still have this on their site

"Must read of the ....well, period.Unfit for Command is the most important read period for anyone wanting to know about the real John Kerry. written by non-partisan Vietnam Vets who represent the vast majority of the people serving alongside Kerry, this is a tell all that will leave you disgusted that such a person could have gotten this far in American Politics..... Both the book itself and the ads for the book are being censored by the mainstream media. In addition, lawyers from the Kerry camp are threatening legal action against TV and Radio stations that run the commercial. The hipocrisy with regards to the treatment of this book and the treament the mainstream media gave, and is still giving, to Michael Moores "crockumentary" is staggering in its scope.... "

Living in a glass house, I nonetheless dare assert that they are guilty not only of hypocrisy but also of ilitaricy.

posted by Robert permalink and comments4:26 AM