BBC NEWS | UN bugging scandal widens

"'Of course I was (bugged),' Richard Butler told ABC radio.
'I was well aware of it. How did I know? Because those who did it would come to me and show me the recordings that they had made on others to help me do my job disarming Iraq.'
Mr Butler said he was bugged by the Americans, British, French and Russians.
'I knew it from other sources,' he said. 'I was utterly confident that I was bugged by at least four permanent members of the Security Council.' "

I'm note sure that I believe Bubba Butler's story, which would seem to be trying to soften the blow of the bugging story rather than qualifying it. If indeed everyone does it and everyone knows then there is no story. But if this were the case, why was it so outrageous that Katherine Gun spilled the beans.

Personally I don't buy Butler's story. If you remember, Butler was very close to the Clinton administration, doing favors for Clinton during the Lewinsky hearings. It's not so far-fetched that this story is now a favor to Blair and Bush.

Rapes Reported by Servicewomen in the Persian Gulf and Elsewhere

"In addition, about two dozen women at Sheppard Air Force Base, a large training facility in Texas, have reported to a local rape-crisis center that they were assaulted in 2002. The Air Force Academy in Colorado is still reeling from the disclosure last year of more than 50 reported assaults or rapes over the last decade."

Still think that the Army provides equal-opportunity careers for women?

Ex-Minister Says British Spies Bugged Kofi Annan's Office

"A former member of Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet asserted today that British intelligence services conducted electronic surveillance of the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, in the run-up to the Iraq war. "

This "breaking story" just goes to show you how much the journalism scene has changed these days with respect to Bubba Bush.

BubbaLogic posted the origins of this story pre-war when a British newspaper, the Guardian, obtained secret information about a request issued by the NSA to foreign intelligence affiliates for any information pertaining to the leanings of the "swing members" of the Security Council. The leak was poo-pooed in the Drudge Report, mentioned on MSN Slate, but otherwise received no attention whatsoever in the US press. A short time later, the person who leaked the request, Ms. Gun, was prosecuted in Britain, and this still received no press in the US.

There are a lot of ways of looking at this non-reporting, but I don't think that you should consider the story as being unimportant. On the contrary, to those who heard about it, it was a devastating blow to the remnants of American pre-Iraq political image.

Well, now we see the story coming up again. What's amazing is that it's seen as a blow to Blair but no problem for Bubba Bush. Blair is fighting to keep the estime of his party members and he's trying to defend his actions. But Bush has yet to explain why his government is soliciting espionnage on UN council members. Perhaps it's just a question of diminished expectations on Bush's behalf.

A story that broke a year ago in the UK but went unnoticed in the US has now resurfaced on the front page of the New York Times. Isn't that a message about the changing Times?

The Observer | Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

"You've got a President who says global warming is a hoax, and across the Potomac river you've got a Pentagon preparing for climate wars. It's pretty scary when Bush starts to ignore his own government on this issue,' said Rob Gueterbock of Greenpeace.

Already, according to Randall and Schwartz, the planet is carrying a higher population than it can sustain. By 2020 'catastrophic' shortages of water and energy supply will become increasingly harder to overcome, plunging the planet into war. They warn that 8,200 years ago climatic conditions brought widespread crop failure, famine, disease and mass migration of populations that could soon be repeated.

Randall told The Observer that the potential ramifications of rapid climate change would create global chaos. 'This is depressing stuff,' he said. 'It is a national security threat that is unique because there is no enemy to point your guns at and we have no control over the threat.' "

Sid Vicious was only about 40 years too early.

Thanks to cursor.

HoustonChronicle.com - Lab altered corn worries Mexican farmers

"But its detection in the peasant fields of Mexico, where all the corn varieties in the world had their origins 5,000 years ago, has farmers fearing that the altered gene could infect native plants, creating strange but beneficial traits like the ones that caused villagers to line up along Maldonado's fence six years ago. "

Beneficial to Monsanto, perhaps, but not necessarily to the consumers and to the ecosystem.

BBC NEWS | UK | Paper claims Bin Laden found

"A US intelligence source tells the paper the leader of al-Qaeda is 'boxed in' with 50 loyal henchmen in an area measuring 100 square miles.
American military officials believe the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, is with him and neither man has any chance of escape. "

There is something so 1984ish about this announcement and the way in which "news from the front" often speaks of victory at hand, yet the "victory" has no follow-up and no impact on the reign of war. During the Iraq conflict we've have so many announcements of proven connections to Al Qaeda, of WMDs found, of an end to insurgents after capturing Saddam Hussein, etc, yet nothing has come close to ending the mess or bringing any semblance of peace to Iraq, much less the Middle East as Bush's lofty claims touted.

So here we are again with a claim of "Osama bin Laden is close to capture". Well, maybe it's true, and that would be good news, and maybe it's not, but when you get right down to it, the Al Qaeda network is really fed by desperate people with a deep sense of anger, and the Bush administration has done nothing but augment this segment of the world population. I hope that he's captured, but I don't think that the terrorism will stop because of this.

HoustonChronicle.com - Prairie View students sue again over voting

"The lawsuit asks U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon to order the Prairie View early polling place opened for two days from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Loewe said they normally are open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The lawsuit also asks Harmon to force county officials to obtain Justice Department permission before making the changes, as required by the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Greenbaum said all changes affecting voting must be cleared by the Justice Department. "

It's upon reading articles like this that you wonder if the country isn't run by Iranian fundamentalists.

White House Under Fire for Projections on Jobs

"Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said President Bush 'faces a credibility gap with his own economic team that's as wide as the employment gap for millions of American workers.'"

Another example of how, this time around, the Bush question will be "can we trust him?"

A Texan's Accent for French Fables

"Now a Texas-born director [Robert Wilson] with only rudimentary French has for the first time staged a selection of the fables at the Comédie Française, the shrine of French literary classicism.

As Mr. Wilson put it, 'they let this guy from Texas come and direct a treasure of their culture.'"

Funny that the Americans call him Robert Wilson while in France he's known as Bob Wilson.

Robert Wilson, like Robert Rauschenberg, is one of those Texans known and admired world-round but little known in his native state. Houston and Dallas can offer sumptuous fine-art museums, opera and symphony, but only Europe can offer admiring crowds from the mainstream.

Volatility from Paris Archives : Bush, Up or Down

"The Republicans' best bet is to paint the decision as one of changing horse in midstream."

That would be the subjects of one of the BUSH-CHENEY '04 bumper stickers that were going around the net a while back:

DON'T CHANGE WHORES IN MIDSTREAM.

'bout sums it up!

BBC NEWS | Americas | Storm brews over US trade policies

BBC NEWS | Americas | Storm brews over US trade policies

"Many of the people I spoke to argued that, not only does the US have too great a hand in framing international trading rules, it also ensures that its own producers are somehow insulated from the tough 'free trade medicine' that it recommends for others.

Big US agro-business is intent on spreading its products around the world, with the simple mantra of 'what is good for the US consumer is good for the rest of us'

Nobel-prize wining economist Joseph Stiglitz characterised this as 'the prevailing hypocrisy' in Washington.
He told me that the US ' talked the free trade rhetoric' but what they were really saying, even under the Clinton administration, was that 'trade was good but imports were bad'.

Joseph Stiglitz was one of President Clinton's chief economic advisers.

'The bottom line,' he says, 'is that there is no US commitment to free trade.'
'It is really a commitment to getting other countries to give access to American producers to their markets and the US reciprocates when it is convenient.' "

I'm sure that Europe is in the same boat as the US in this respect.

The Victoria Advocate

The Victoria Advocate

"I hereby declare, an oath ... that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies foreign and domestic .... that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God. "

So much for the supposed separation of church and state. Naturalized Americans are apparently supposed to ignore this part of the Constitution!

Frank Rich: My Hero, Janet Jackson

Frank Rich: My Hero, Janet Jackson

"That investigation, piggybacked by last week's Congressional hearings, is an election-year stunt as full of hot air as the Bud Light horse flatulence ad. 'Like millions of Americans, my family and I gathered around the television for a celebration,' declared Michael Powell, the F.C.C. chairman, upon announcing that the entire halftime would be examined. A celebration of what, exactly? Didn't Mr. Powell, the nation's chief television regulator, watch the previous MTV halftime show?

He promises to conduct the investigation himself -- a meaningless gesture, though it may gain him an audience and perhaps a photo op with Ms. Jackson. Mr. Powell's real agenda here is to conduct a show trial that might counter his well-earned reputation as a wholly owned subsidiary of our media giants."

As I wrote earlier, the real indecency is all the hype about JJs flash, distracting us from two really vile shows: the whole halftime phenomenon, which is truly trash, and the Michael Powell sellout of US media to the highest bidders. Thanks to Bubba Powell, 2004 is surpassing the wildest dreams of the author of 1984.

NYTimes Editorial: How America Doesn't Vote

"The sad state of voting rolls may be due to underfunding and mismanagement, but it can create an appearance of ulterior motives. The voters wrongly removed by Ms. Harris's purge were disproportionately black -- African-Americans make up one of the strongest Democratic voting groups in the state -- as were the voters on the St. Louis inactive voters list. For years, partisan 'ballot security' programs in the South singled out tens of thousands of black voters for removal from the voting rolls. Just this month, civil rights groups sued a Texas district attorney who threatened, in violation of the law, to prosecute students at Prairie View A&M University, a predominantly black school, if they register using their school addresses."

In Iran it's the Conservatives banning the moderate candidates.

In the US, it's Republican governors that "ban" moderate voters.

Time to ask Kofi Annan and the Swedish Parliament to send UN observers to the US for the next presidential election.

HoustonChronicle.com - Files shed light on Bush Guard service

"The records failed to directly confirm Bush did any service in Alabama, where, according to some critics, he shirked his Guard duty in the United States during the Vietnam War. "

The optimist would say that at least Bubba Bush didn't falsify his service records. That is an upside.

On the downside, it looks like the current Chief Bubba didn't perform his duties like he should have. Now the questions are 1) Was this normal because everyone was getting away with it? 2) Was he technically AWOL?

HoustonChronicle.com - Janet Jackson gets humanitarian award

"Ms. Jackson's humanitarian and philanthropic efforts have been amazing. She has done a wonderful job giving back to communities across America. That fact has not changed,' Behind the Bench spokesman Vince McCaskill said. "

Nice to see that somewhere in America there are people with a little bit of common sense.

The Victoria Advocate : Fight brewing over Waco VA hospital

"Roger Sturdevant, 53, goes to the Waco VA hospital several times a week for the therapeutic swimming pool and post-traumatic stress disorder group therapy sessions. But he said Friday that he probably would not be able to drive the 35 miles to Temple or 100 miles to Austin.

'I think it's terrible for them to make vets go so far from home,' said Sturdevant, who walks with a cane after his broken legs didn't heal properly after Vietnam. 'They're slitting our throats. They don't care about us, period.'"

This is what the Rebubbalicans are all about: pull a bunch of guy and gal reservists out of their regular jobs, send them around the globe to be wounded and traumatized in unpopular, elective, unnecessary wars, put out "stop-loss" orders so they can't end their tours of duty on time, and then get rid of their benefits once they've been disabled and sent home. This last part, the "benefits", is what Alan Greenspan, the rebubbalican Fed Shill, calls the "expenditure side".

CBS Pulls Advertisement on Medicare Prepared by Administration

"CBS said on Friday that it had stopped running a television advertisement for the new Medicare prescription drug law while Congress investigates its accuracy.

The 30-second advertisement, prepared by the Bush administration, assures Medicare beneficiaries that the program is not changing in any way except to provide 'more benefits.' Democratic members of Congress and some liberal advocacy groups say the advertisement amounts to a taxpayer-subsidized political commercial for the administration."


Stooping this low is not surprising for Bubba Bush administration. After all, they've gotten away with so many specious assertions already, why not another one?

Perhaps our Bubba-in-chief just hasn't noticed that the rules of the game have changed recently in big media. George W. is, of course, kept away from the madding, dissenting crowds and is only briefed by his very-close staffers, so he may just think that he can pull one more whopper and no one will be any wiser.

But that's no longer the case. In 2000, no one dared talk about the AWOL-thing, even though W wasn't yet appointed by the Supreme Court. But today we can quite openly suspect the integrity of the current Big Bubba without fear. And CBS can pull the administration's ads because of questions of "accuracy". Why?

Because Big Business is finally getting tired of seeing the economy going down the drain just to satisfy neocon fanatics (oops, that's probably redundant). And when Big Business changes course, the Big Media do too since they are indistinguishable, and that's what we're seeing today. After all, if you were a businessman, wouldn't you prefer the booming Clinton economy to the Bubba Bush bust?

Kerry hasn't said much about media ownership rules, which probably makes him a viable candidate for Big Media.

Contra Costa Times | 02/14/2004 | Rumsfeld says panel will evaluate detainees

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced Friday the creation of an administrative panel that will annually review the cases of inmates at the U.S. military jail in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to ensure that none is held 'any longer than is absolutely necessary.'
But Rumsfeld, in a speech to the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, defended the government's practice of holding the prisoners indefinitely without charges, saying they 'are enemy combatants and terrorists who are being detained for acts of war against our country.
'And that is why different rules have to apply.'"

Different rules means ignoring the US Constitution. Ignoring the US Constitution is, by definition, un-Constitutional. Rumsfeld, along with Bubba Bush himself, is ignoring his pledge to defend and uphold the US Constitution.

Without irony, Bubba Rummy says we'll have "annual reviews", but reviews of what? What will have changed while these men are held in the US Gulag? They haven't been tried, but they have been condemned by Rummy to arbitrary prison terms. Where is the justice in this? Even Britain, our great ally, is against this practice and the army lawyers are calling it exactly what it is: despotism.

There is hope for these men, however: John Kerry. As soon as we get a "regime change" in Washington, these men will most likely see better justice.

Private U.S. Operatives on Risky Missions in Colombia

"The men's families and critics of American policy here say the case sheds light on a shadowy world of secret operations that employ private contractors in deals that make it easy to skirt public scrutiny and for all to wash their hands if something goes wrong."

In the same fashion that Dyncorp, a subsidiary of Computer Sciences Corporation, has become the US International Rent-a-cop in the Middle East and elsewhere, we also have susidiaries of Northrop Grumman running undercover intelligence missions. These are nothing less than mercenary operations, especially in view of the jobs status of those running the missions. Why do you need mercenaries, you might ask? Well, that way, there is no need for oversight, no need to ask permission, limited responsability in case of problems, as the families of these men are learning now.

Family members [...] remain confused about the contractual obligations of the men's employers.

[...]

Northrop Grumman, in a statement, declined to answer a list of questions regarding details of the program and requesting a response to the relatives' claims.

[...]

"We hear that Butch went to work for CIAO [a sister Grumman subsidiary] three days after he was assigned to Colombia," said Betty Oliver, the mother of Mr. Oliver, who is known as Butch. "And consequently CIAO does not recognize who is working for them. Grumman does not recognize he worked for them. So who did he work for?"

The Victoria Advocate

"Greenspan was asked how he would come up with the decade-long cost of $1 trillion to pay for extending the 2001 and 2003 individual tax cuts. 'I would argue strenuously that it should be taken out on the expenditure side,' he answered."

After a decade of seeming repute, Alan Greenspan has turned into a total Rebubbalican shill.

What To Say About WMD
"Under my watch, the military was sent into Iraq because all reliable intelligence from around the world suggested WMD were there."

The Intellectual Bubba offers this phrase as something that Bush should have said on Meet The Press, claiming that it is honest. Bush would say "Hey, I was wrong, but I had the best info available."

Except, that is itself a lie, as the entire world knows, including all those who laughed at Colin Powell's flawed "testimony" before the Security Council. Including Hans Blix, who is having a field day. Including Bill O'Reilly, who refused to believe the evidence that "there were no WMDs" and now says "I apologize". (Why doesn't he show some contrition by quitting instead?)

Bubbas refuse to see the writing on the wall, but major media don't. The tide has turned on Bush and big business is seeing the down side so much clearer these days, so the media are going to turn very negative on Bush up to November. I don't feel sorry for the guy, but I do wonder what took so long.

The Victoria Advocate : Bush predicts 2.6 million new jobs this year

"If the jobs forecast comes true, it will represent the first year of the Bush presidency in which there will be a net increase in payroll jobs. Since he took office, the country has lost 2.2 million payroll jobs.

On the campaign stump, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry said Bush had the worst jobs record of the last 11 presidents and the rosy view of the economy presented in the new report was probably 'prepared by the same people who brought us the intelligence on Iraq.'"

No comment necessary.

Times Online - Founder of Atkins diet 'was obese when he died'

"Dr Robert Atkins, creator of the famous low-carbohydrate diet, was clinically obese at the time of his death, according to medical reports made public today.

The New York medical examiner's records, which have been published by the Wall Street Journal, state that Dr Atkins weighed 18 and a half stone when he died last April after being injured in a fall on an icy New York City street.

At 6ft tall, Dr Atkins, 72, would have qualified as obese, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention's body mass index calculator."

First no WMDs, now Atkins dies obese. Who can you trust these days?

Reuters | Transatlantic allies poles apart over breasts

"Jackson opted not to appear at Sunday's Grammy Awards. But Christina Aguilera, famed for her raunchy videos, was heartily sick of the furore.
'Come on,' she said, sporting a pink gown with a plunging neckline she constantly checked to see she was covered. 'People are bored at this point to be still talking about a boob. We all have them.'
Across the Atlantic, that was very much the viewpoint of tabloid columnist Vanessa Feltz.
'Talk about a storm in a D Cup. Janet Jackson's boob popped out at the Super Bowl and you'd have thought Justin Timberlake was doing the Lambada with Osama bin Laden,' she said."

Even the Brits are making fun of the American Bubba attitudes.

Reuters | Transatlantic allies poles apart over breasts

"Jackson opted not to appear at Sunday's Grammy Awards. But Christina Aguilera, famed for her raunchy videos, was heartily sick of the furore.
'Come on,' she said, sporting a pink gown with a plunging neckline she constantly checked to see she was covered. 'People are bored at this point to be still talking about a boob. We all have them.'
Across the Atlantic, that was very much the viewpoint of tabloid columnist Vanessa Feltz.
'Talk about a storm in a D Cup. Janet Jackson's boob popped out at the Super Bowl and you'd have thought Justin Timberlake was doing the Lambada with Osama bin Laden,' she said."

Even the Brits are making fun of the American Bubba attitudes.

Libération :L'Amérique sein dessus dessous



Pretty much the entire world is poking fun at the knee-jerk-Bubba attitude in the US. How does one glimpse of one-half of Janet Jackson's bosom manage to show this attitude so well? Most of the Frenchies just think "Haven't Americans ever seen a breast before?" It's a good question.

Now what better way to discuss the phenomenon in France than to show us JJ's stunt. It's been in the free papers that you read on the train. And now I find it in Liberation's online edition, so I decided to add a link to it. Shocking, n'est-ce pas?

Now what I find funny in this story is that if there is anything lewd and tasteless in the half-time performace, it wasn't JJ's enhanced nipple but rather the whole song and dance. Being half topless was perhaps the only human part of her stunt: the black merry-widow getup is just horribly bad taste, so tear the whole thing off. And all the grinding, the cheesy lyrics, get rid of 'em.

When you get down to it, the tastelessness and cheesyness were an original part of the act.

Forbes.com: TEXT-Bush NBC interview on Iraq, economy

"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval
Office in foreign policy matters with war on my mind. Again, I
wish it wasn't true, but it is true. And the American people
need to know they got a president who sees the world the way it
is. And I see dangers that exist, and it's important for us to
deal with them."

That's right, Bubba! Since you chose to go to war, an elected, pre-emptive, divisive war, you are now a war president!

But amazing to see how the "dangers" that were underlined by the outgoing Clinton administration were so deftly ignored, just because at the time you didn't see them!

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Janet Jackson will miss Grammys

"Terri Carlin, a 47-year-old bank clerk in Knoxville, Tennessee, is seeking 'maximum' compensation from Jackson and Justin Timberlake, as well as from Viacom, the owner of CBS, which broadcast the event. "


Well, we had to suspect there were more Bubbas in Knoxville than South Knox Bubba!

The Victoria Advocate

"Regional water planners are preparing to seek state funds for a study on the effects of imports and exports of underground water by the emerging class of entrepreneurs known as water marketers. "

There's a story that Bubba Bush once asked what was the French word for entrepreneur.

At any rate, we can say that "water marketers" are just plain thieves, stealing a common good, public property and making a profit from it. Better to call them "water profiteers".

The Victoria Advocate: Remains of 17th century sailor laid to rest

"'As a French citizen, I'm deeply moved to see so many Texans present to pay tribute to an unknown French sailor who participated in the founding moments of Texas,' said Jean-David Levitte, France's ambassador to the United States."

As all Texans know, there were six flags over Texas, and one of these is the old flag of the French monarchy. La Belle touched down close to my home town of Victoria, Texas.

So as a US citizen, a hometown Texan and as a French citizen, allow me to say that I, too, feel moved by this tribute. On the other hand, it's too bad that the funding for further archeological work fell through on La Belle. Maybe France should cough-up some goodwill money in this respect.

HoustonChronicle.com - Other celebrity peeks sneaked on TV:

"Other celebrity peeks sneaked on T: JULIE ANDREWS, MEREDITH VIEIRA, CHARLOTTE ROSS"

I think that America needs to be treated to a little bit of French television. You see more breasts on French TV in 3 minutes of commercials than the entire history of US television!

HoustonChronicle.com - FCC investigating Jackson's Super Bowl halftime exposure

"Timberlake blamed a 'wardrobe malfunction,' but Federal Communications Commission chief Michael Powell called it 'a classless, crass and deplorable stunt.' "

There are so many levels to this one line that it is difficult to know where to start.

First off, who cares? If you can rip off Britney Spear's black pants to expose bikini briefs at the Washington Mall in a stunt intro'd by the commander-in-chief himself, then what's wrong with a little bosom? Is that gonna kill you? Is it "obscene" to see Janet Jackson's breast? Get a life, America, and come off it!

Secondly, when it comes to "classless, crass and deplorable" then Michael knows something about it. His cheap schill to the media giants, Murdoch and Clear Channel, is the most sickening retch-fodder outside of Richard Perle's seminars or Ashcroft's Patriot Act. Sure, the Senate laid into him, a little, so he had to scale back a bit, but Powell is nothing more than the architect of Goebbel's style 2004 presidential campaign coverage.

So at least Janet gave us a reminder of something beautiful and timeless, which Powell only reminds us of the hate-mongering that the Bubba administration fosters.