HoustonChronicle.com - Fired Watergate prosecutor Cox dies at 92

"Archibald Cox's refusal to curtail his Watergate investigation after being ordered to do so by the White House cost him his job, and opened the way for President Nixon's impeachment.
Cox, whose principled stand against what he termed 'exaggerated claims of executive privilege' guaranteed him a place in the history of Watergate, died peacefully Saturday, said his daughter, Phyllis Cox. He was 92.
...
Nixon ordered Cox fired in October 1973 for his continued efforts to obtain tape recordings made at the White House, important evidence in the investigation of the Watergate break-in and coverup.
...
At his firing, Cox issued a one-sentence statement: "Whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men is now for Congress and ultimately the American people.""

I can't help thinking that the late Mr. Cox, upon seeing the shenanigans of the current administration, must have felt that our nation hadn't learned a single thing from the Watergate era. Exaggerated executive privilege is just the tip of the iceberg in the Bubba Bush administration.

HoustonChronicle.com - 2 in 5 juniors at Houston high schools failed TAKS exam

"Two of every five Houston high school juniors didn't make the grade on the TAKS exam that they must pass to graduate.
The Houston Independent School District's 61-percent passing rate is well short of the overall state passing rate of 72 percent. "

Houston, we have a problem! And who was claiming credit for the Texas miracle back during the 2000 elections?

NYTimes.com | Abuse of Captives More Widespread, Says Army Survey

"May 25 — An Army summary of deaths and mistreatment involving prisoners in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan shows a widespread pattern of abuse involving more military units than previously known."

The news about prisoner abuse and what can only reasonably be construed as war crimes committed by members of the US Army, apparently high ranking, is just now coming into play.

Yet two years ago in Afghanistan, there was this horrifying story that just never made it to the front page:

"U.S. probe mass Taliban 'suffocations'

August 21, 2002
(CNN) -- Washington is looking into reports that hundreds of Taliban prisoners suffocated to death in northern Afghanistan and were dumped into mass graves after surrendering to U.S.-backed forces last year.

State Department spokesperson Philip Reeker said Monday the United States would look into the "circumstances surrounding the events that are reported," and seek accountability from Afghan authorities.

This week, U.S. magazine Newsweek reported that around 1,000 Taliban prisoners died after they had surrendered to the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance and were in the hands of warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum.

They died of suffocation in cramped container trucks while they were being taken from their Kunduz stronghold to Sheberghan prison, west of Mazar-e-Sharif, the magazine quoted a confidential U.N. memo as saying.

So who is going to mention this today (other than yours truly)?

Media Matters for America

"Drudge and Washington Times cited each other in propagating anti-Kerry rumor"

Another example of Druge Report lying!

Alterman | Is Koppel a Commie?

"Even by the debased 'with us or agin' us' standards of Bush-era punditocracy discourse, Sinclair stands out as an impressively dumbed-down operation. Like Rupert Murdoch's Fox Network, it shamelessly distorts the news and mocks those who would let reality interfere with its ideologically induced ignorance. "

Independent | The Marine's tale: 'I felt we were committing genocide'

This article via cursor

"'In a month and a half my platoon and I killed more than 30 civilians,' Mr Massey said. He saw bodies being desecrated and robbed, and wounded civilians being dumped by the roadside without medical treatment. After he told his commanding officer that he felt 'we were committing genocide', he was called a 'wimp'.
Mr Massey, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and depression, left the Marines in November. Back home in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, he says the cause of the uprising in Iraq is that 'we killed a lot of innocent people'."

Another very disturbing assessment of US actions in Iraq from an Army official. The article gets a lot worse:

'Iraqis, he said, "would see us debase their dead all the time. We would be messing around with charred bodies, kicking them out of the vehicles and sticking cigarettes in their mouths. I also saw vehicles drive over them. It was our job to look into the pockets of dead Iraqis to gather intelligence. However, time and time again, I saw Marines steal gold chains, watches and wallets full of money."'

Calgary Herald - Cannes Jury Defends Palme d'Or and the Prize They Didn't Award

Says Tarantino:

"'A movie doesn't have to be about pretty pictures. A film can be funny and that's all it ever has to be. A film can be insightful and that's all it ever has to be. A film can be profound, and that's all it ever has to be. It can make me cry, it can make me laugh, it can disturb me, it can elate me.

'This movie did all of those. Pretty pictures be damned.'"

But the best part from this article is the prize that was almost awarded:

"The jury that awarded the top prize at Cannes to Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 also considered awarding a special prize to U.S. President George W. Bush for best comic performance in a movie."

USATODAY.com - Iraqis say tape is of wedding struck by U.S.

"'There was no evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a wedding celebration,' Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said Saturday. 'There may have been some kind of celebration. Bad people have celebrations, too.'
But video that APTN shot a day after the attack shows fragments of musical instruments, pots and pans and brightly colored beddings used for celebrations, scattered around the bombed out tent.
An AP reporter and photographer, who interviewed more than a dozen survivors a day after the bombing, were able to identify many of them on the wedding party video -- which runs for several hours. "

USA Today points out the inconsistencies in the Army claims. This does not add to the credibility of the situation in Iraq, nor does it lend credence to Rumsfeld's affirmation that the prison abuse is limited to a handful of baddies.

Tallahassee Democrat | Texas official says Unitarian church not tax-exempt

"Unitarian Universalists have for decades presided over births, marriages and memorials. The church operates in every state, with more than 5,000 members in Texas alone.

But according to the office of Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Texas Unitarian church isn't really a religious organization - at least for tax purposes. Its reasoning: The organization 'does not have one system of belief.'"

My friend Andrew Boucher turned me on to this story, still apparently little covered in the press.

Seems that instead of denying tax-exempt status to any number of crackpot, money-grubbing "religions" that reside in Texas (no need to name them, you know who they are), the current Rebubbalican Texas Comptroller has decided to do it to the Unitarians.

Many folks don't know who the Unitarians are or the important part that they haved played in the founding of the US. Probably Comptroller Strayhorn doesn't even know that. But what she probably does know is that Unitarians are known to be humanists, human-rights backers, intellectuals and, god forbid, democrats!

One thing I read that truly mystifies me:

"Strayhorn's ruling, as well as a similar decision by former Comptroller John Sharp, has left the Texas comptroller's office straddling a sometimes murky gulf separating church and state."

John Sharp happens to familiar with the Victoria Unitarian Fellowship and it seems highly surprising that Strayhorn would use one of John Sharp's actions as a legal precedent for exluding Unitarians from church-status.

I found some information from another Dallas-FortWorth Star Telegram article:

"The reason for that, he said, is precedent in a similar case, inherited from former Texas Comptroller John Sharp, in which a tax exemption was denied to the Ethical Culture Fellowship of Austin. The Austin group filed suit and has won its case at the Texas Supreme Court level."

A group calling itself the "Ethical Culture Fellowship" may not apply. Is it a religion or not? I couldn't say. But suggesting a well founded, 300 year-old religion, much older than the Mormons, may not be a "religion" is sheer partisan poppycock.

BBC NEWS | Putin U-turn could rescue Kyoto

"Putin appears to have ignored advice to reject Kyoto
Russian President Vladimir Putin has surprised the world by promising to move quickly on ratification of the Kyoto climate change treaty. "

Bubba Bush was trying to show the world, a few years back, that he was closer to Putin than was the EU. Now Putin leaves Bush alone in the dust.

Boston.com | Kerry urging energy independence in U.S.

"Powell was asked about Kerry's statement in an interview with Westwood One Radio on Friday. He replied that Kerry was using it as an 'applause line' but was not stating a clear policy for Iraq.

'That's not sending our troops overseas for oil,' Powell said. 'That's sending our troops overseas to put in place a democratic nation rested on a foundation of openness and human rights that will be a friend and partner of the United States.'"

Well, Bubba Colin, if you really believe that then you'll have to admin that Bush, Rumsfeld and yourself have failed miserably!

Reuters | Anti-Bush tirade wins Cannes award

"Moore's diatribe focuses on how America and the White House reacted to the September 11, 2001, hijacking attacks and traces links between the Bush family and prominent Saudis, including the family of Osama bin Laden."

Reuters certainly isn't pulling any punches with language like "tirade" and "diatribe". I happen to believe that any factual documentary of the Bubba Bush administration can only be appreciated as very negative. So if facts are "diatribe" then we need more of them!

The Victoria Advocate | Palestinians hungry, thirsty and living in fear

"RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Food and water are running low, there's no milk for the nine babies and toddlers, and the older children are terrified. For Khalil Shagfa's extended family of 55, as for thousands of others in this besieged refugee camp, the Israeli incursion has brought fear and deprivation.

Shagfa says Red Cross supplies have reached a mosque across the street but he can't collect them because of heavy Israeli fire."

You know that public opinion is shifting away from the Rebubbalicans and Neocons when you happen across an article like this in the Victoria Advocate!

HoustonChronicle.com - Pelosi on Bush: 'The emperor has no clothes'

"[Pelosi said ] 'The results of his action are what undermine his leadership, not my statements,' she said. 'The emperor has no clothes. When are people going to face the reality?'

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Pelosi's comments 'were meant to inspire her political base. But who else do they inspire? If we followed Mrs. Pelosi's advice, Saddam Hussein would still terrorize the citizens of Iraq. We would still be waiting for the U.N. to make any decision regarding our national security.' "

The old Rebubbalican lies are ever in vogue. Bubba Hastert remakes the claim that the Iraq war was for US security, which everyone, including Colin Powell, has admitted was a lie, even a downright fib straight from the president.

And, sure, Hussein is no longer killing an torturing Iraqis, but the CPA seems to have filled in the torture gap pretty well.

Do you feel safer today?

FOXNews.com - Four Detained in Berg Murder

Yes, folks, the Iraqi Inquisition is in full force. This announcement from the CPA gives you a pretty good idea of what an American-style Iraq looks like (not to mention what America itself is tending towards these days).

"'Coalition forces conducted a raid to capture four individuals suspected of involvement in the Nicholas Berg assassination,' Kimmitt said. 'Four persons were detained and questioned. Two personnel were released and the other two are still being questioned.

'We may find out that they have no association with the murder but we will continue to question them for some period of time until we are convinced they are innocent,' Kimmitt said. "

FIRE THE WAR PIMPS

"Had they stood firmly against the war and Bush, on the right side of history, they might have helped slow or even reverse the rush to war during the winter of 2002-3. Their failure to accurately assess the case for war, coupled with their willful blindness to this Administration's neofascist tendencies, contributed to needless carnage, attacks on individual rights and the creation of dozens of covert CIA gulags around the world. Every time someone was raped at Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Base or Gitmo, Tom Friedman and Christopher Hitchens and Bill O'Reilly and David Brooks were de facto accomplices.

They should have known better--lots of us did. Or they did know better and lied about it. Whether their integrity or their intelligence was compromised, they should never again be taken seriously.
"

This from cursor.

NY Times : Some Iraqis Held Outside Control of Top General

"About 100 high-ranking Iraqi prisoners held for months at a time in spartan conditions on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport are being detained under a special chain of command, under conditions not subject to approval by the top American commander in Iraq, according to military officials.

...

Defense Department officials said the principal responsibility for the high-value prisoners and their treatment belonged to the Iraq Survey Group, which is headed by Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

DIA is under Rumsfeld, isn't it? How convenient!

FT.com | Abu Ghraib leaks expose CIA-Pentagon schism

Another scary article, implicating Rumsfeld directly.

"The New Yorker magazine on Saturday quoted several intelligence officials blaming the Pentagon's political leadership for setting up a clandestine interrogation programme, first used in Afghanistan and later in Iraq.

The operating principle, according to one former intelligence officer, was: 'Grab whom you must. Do what you want.'"

FT.com | US seeks to protect "Merchant of Death"

It's things like this that give the US a sometimes-well-deserved "bad name" in the world. Unfortunately for Americans, the US papers and news outlets will not carry this article. The upshot is that we Americans just dont' know how bad we are!

"In 2000, Peter Hain, then British foreign office minister responsible for Africa, described Mr Bout as 'the chief sanctions-buster and . . . a merchant of death who owns air companies that ferry in arms' for rebels in Angola and Sierra Leone.

A senior western diplomat close to the UN negotiations said: 'We are disgusted that Bout won't be on the list, even though he is the principal arms dealer in the region. If we want peace in that region [of West Africa], it seems evident that he should be on that list.'

Another senior diplomat close to the UN discussions said on Sunday that the UK had originally included Mr Bout's name on its preliminary list of individuals to be targeted. The diplomat said US officials then told their British counterparts they did not want Mr Bout included because he was 'being used in Iraq'.

A former UN official familiar with the sanctions process said he had also heard of Mr Bout's Iraq connection. The ex-official said he had been told by a reliable source about a month ago that 'the American defence forces are using Victor's planes for their logistics'."

Another article from the FT strikes even closer to home:

"The travel ban imposed on Mr Bout in 2001 in response to his role as a main supplier of arms to Charles Taylor's regime, has not halted his activities. A UN report in November 2003 alleges that he is in ultimate control of a Texas-registered company called Air Bas, that is flying to Somalia."

HoustonChronicle.com - Some Baptist Bubbas concerned over gay cruise

"DALLAS -- The Southern Baptist Convention Annuity Board is drawing criticism from some within the denomination because it owns about $14 million worth of stock in Carnival Cruise Lines, which is hosting a 'Gay Days' cruise.

The annuity board administers the medical and retirement plans for the denomination's pastors. Its investment in Carnival already had brought disapproval from Baptists opposed to the casinos and alcohol sales offered on the company's 'fun ships.'

'The Baptists don't believe in gambling, liquor or pornography, or gays,' said Don Allmon, a deacon at First Baptist Church of Dyer, Tenn., who hopes publicity will force the board to reconsider its Carnival investment. 'When I say that, we love gays, but we don't like their lifestyle.'"

Of course, that makes a lot of sense. We love you but not what makes you "you".

MSNBC: Iraq: The Human Cost

This article is really scary. The article's title suggests that it is about loss of life in Iraq. But the subtitle tells the story: Coalition Deaths Since the End of Major Combat Operations.

Am I the only one who has noticed that some Iraqis were also killed, some of them in US-held prisons? Has MSNBC forgotten, like the Bubba Bush administration, that Iraqis are just as human as coalition troops?

The Cincinnati Post : Bubba Bush wants a Blank Check for Iraq

Why couldn't this sort of scrutiny have been applied for the year 2000 elections?

"The nation was assured before the war that Iraqi oil revenues would pay for rebuilding and occupying Iraq; the implication being that this venture would be of only moderate cost to the taxpayers. Iraq's oil revenues are projected at $16.6 billion this year. Once the money is deducted to renovate the oil fields after years of neglect and mismanagement, what's left might not even be enough to fund the new interim Iraqi government. With the $160 billion or so we have spent so far, plus another $66 billion next year, the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan could be more than $220 billion by the end of fiscal 2005.

Wasn't it Larry Lindsey who was fired as White House economic adviser three months in advance of the invasion of Iraq for suggesting that the war would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion?"

FT.com | COMMENT: Blair has few options in Iraq or Washington

It's becoming clear that the shaky coalition bullied into being by Bush has become the downfall of all those involved. Here's the upshot from the FT:

"Mr Blair's options now are limited. It is probably too late simply to detach himself from his friend in the White House. But what exists now in Iraq is a military occupation without a political strategy. Publicly as well as privately, the prime minister must now try to salvage something from the chaos.

Internationalising the crisis will not be easy, not least because those governments that opposed the war are understandably reluctant to help clear up the mess. But Mr Blair must put himself on the side of those - including Jacques Chirac, the French president - who insist that political authority for guiding Iraq back to self-government be given to the United Nations.

Replacing misdirection from Washington with a substantive role for the UN Security Council will not of itself restore stability in Iraq. The UN's own reputation in that country has been tarnished by a decade of sanctions. But it might be the beginning of a process that persuades Iraqis that the notional transfer of sovereignty on June 30 is more than a cloak for continued US control.

Mr Blair should throw his full political weight behind the French idea for an international conference on Iraq, comparable to the Bonn meeting that preceded the political settlement in Afghanistan. To go public would be to risk rebuff in Washington. But Mr Blair has run out of choices. And, watching the crisis in Washington deepen by the day, I cannot help thinking that this might, just might, be the moment when Mr Bush has to pay heed to his closest ally."

When a British journal starts saying "Jacques Chirac was right" and that Blair should adhere to Chirac's model of dealing with Iraq, you know that things are going downhill for the Bubba administration. Whether this comes home to roost in the states or not is still a question.

Perhaps Europeans will be able to thank W for unifying them better than they could have done themselves. Bush, as a matchmaker, can already claim a success story in the reunion of Sunni and Shiite forces in Iraq.

FT.com : US reveals deaths of prisoners in Iraq

The assertion by Iraqis that the level and quality of incarceration by the US of "prisoners" in Iraq is "just as bad as under Saddam" has been given more strength by the recent admissions in the US.

"The Pentagon, struggling to contain allegations of torture by US soldiers, revealed on Tuesday an investigation into the deaths of no fewer than 25 prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Then there is more bad news about "accountability".

"President George W. Bush first saw the torture pictures when they were broadcast on television last week, and did not learn of a classified Pentagon report on the initial investigation until it was reported in the US press, the White House said on Tuesday.

In his radio address to the nation last week, the president had declared there was no more torture in Iraqi prisons."

Apparently, Bubba Bush did not mean US-originated torture, which is, after all, "good" torture and only for good ends.

Then, the punchline:

"Douglas Feith, an undersecretary of defence, said: 'There is no country in the world that upholds the rules of the Geneva Convention more steadfastly than the United States.'"

After Guantanamo, after massive incarceration, after torture, after the vicious assault on Fallujah and the deaths of 700 civilians during an "occupation", how can Feith claim that the US upholds the Geneva Convention?

CS Monitor | To Arabs, photos confirm brutal US

"'The Americans say they went into Iraq to stop these abuses. But now they're doing exactly the same thing as Saddam Hussein.'

That is a typical reaction here to the graphic picture and several others like it taken by American soldiers guarding Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

But to some extent the impact of the pictures has been blunted, as many Arabs say they expect no less from the United States given the widely held view that it is running a brutal and oppressive occupation in Iraq."

The Christian Science Monitor underscores the big lies that the US is 1) Winning hearts and minds in Iraq 2) Running a kinder war. What is perhaps the most telling is later on in the article:

"It's unbelievable. These are the same old practices of Saddam," says Sateh Noureddine, a columnist with Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper.

Now who believes that Iraq is better off since Saddam Hussein was deposed?

Sinclair Broadcast Group -- Another American Scandal

From the homepage of the Sinclair Broadcast Group:

"ABC Nightline Pre-emption

The ABC Television Network announced on Tuesday that the Friday, April 30 edition of 'Nightline' will consist entirely of Ted Koppel reading aloud the names of U.S. servicemen and women killed in action in Iraq. Despite the denials by a spokeswoman for the show, the action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq.

There is no organization that holds the members of our military and those soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in service of our country in higher regard than Sinclair Broadcast Group. While Sinclair would support an honest effort to honor the memory of these brave soldiers, we do not believe that is what 'Nightline' is doing. Rather, Mr. Koppel and 'Nightline' are hiding behind this so-called tribute in an effort to highlight only one aspect of the war effort and in doing so to influence public opinion against the military action in Iraq. "

Amazing arrogance and cynical demagoguery! Who is calling whom political?

Who says that this is to "oppose our military action"? When will these "fallen" really be honored?

I, and I'm not alone, believe that the US does no honor to itself, nor to its soldiers, be they fallen or wounded, active currently, previously or in the future, by minimizing the horror of war. On the contrary, the Bubba Bush administration's attitudes are the gravest dishonor! What soldier or soldier's family can approve of the absurdities of "Cakewalk", "Bring 'em on", "Mission Accomplished"?

Furthermore, Sinclair is soiling the very heart of American democracy: the US Constitution. Is there any reason to fight for Democracy when the example given at home by Sinclair is "Preemption" of free speech? Is this how we honor our soldiers?

Sinclair is pretty far from the high-minded ideals of those who believe in free speech. "I may not agree with what you say but I'll fight to the death for your right to say it"?