Author: Gareth

More political stuff. Show these to a conservative you know. Maybe eventually they’ll come to their senses.

We can hope, can’t we?

1. A recent article in TIME, exposing a paper trail that appears to point to the fact that Cheney coordinated the awarding of lucrative Iraqi oil contracts to his old corporation, Halliburton….despite his continued public denials.

2. AP Story about the fact that Bush keeps Saddam’s pistol in the White House as a trophy. Nah….there was no personal family vendetta at work here. Here’s another thought for you: exactly how may federal and D.C. local laws is Bush breaking with his possession of that firearm? Did he receive a background check for the transfer of ownership? Is Bush licensed to possess a firearm in a federal facility? The District of Columbia prohibits firearms to be gifts, and it’s illegal to own a handgun in D.C. unless it was registered prior to 1976…has anybody bothered to check?

3. Top Bush Administration officials have fake degrees from “Diploma Mills”, some of which have since been shut down by law enforcement agencies.

4. It turns out that Chalabi, the guy who gave the Bushies most of their reasons for going to war against Iraq, might have been an Iranian spy. Hell, Iran even ADMITS a “close relationship”. Er….whoops. I seem to remember the conservatives in this country wanting to lynch Clinton and Gore for supposedly dealing with the Chinese….where’s the outrage and media frenzy over this little tidbit?

5. Amid all of the chaos of the deteriorating situation in Iraq, a stumbling economy and skyrocketing gas prices here in the US, Bush instead focuses on trying to push his wacko, Jesus-freak, evangelical fundamentalist agenda.

6. Let’s not forget the fact that the administration is successfully keeping the huge amount of Abu Ghraib abuse evidence from the public…”in our best interests”, and the MEDIA IS LETTING THEM. The story has dropped from the public eye, because the Pentagon isn’t releasing the pictures and the movies, and the American media *isn’t demanding the release*, or even talking about the fact that it’s being covered up. WHAT THE FUCK HAS HAPPENED TO THIS COUNTRY?

Memorial Day

Available from The Propaganda Remix Project on mugs, posters, shirts, etc. Go there. Buy some.

Terror! Impending Doom….ish. Sorta.

Call me cynical. Supposedly, al-Qaida is poised to strike the United States “hard.” They are “90% ready” for a major attack within the US during this Summer or Fall, or so we’re being told. The sky is falling, and rough beasts are slouching en masse towards their particular Bethlehems.

…and yet, the nation’s terror threat level not been raised.

Hrm.

The President not changed his schedule, still going to plenty of “soft target” campaign appearances.

Hrm.

Administration officials told the New York Times “there’s no real new intelligence.”

Hrm.

I’m sure I’m just being a nay-saying liberal. It’s entirely possible that John Ashcroft and his pals have our best interests in mind, and are being properly cautious and issuing a pro-active warning.

Of course, it’s entirely coincidental that this warning-but-no-elevated-threat-level makes for a very nice distraction from Bush’s nose-dive in popularity and approval, and bumped reports of gas prices, Iraq, Abu Ghraib, etc. to second-and-third place below-the-fold stories. Entirely coincidental.

From the NY Times:

“Attorney General John Ashcroft said at a news conference that intelligence reports and public statements by people associated with Al Qaeda suggested that the terrorist group was ‘almost ready to attack the United States’ and harbored a ‘specific intention to hit the United States hard.’ But some intelligence officials, terrorism experts — and to some extent even Mr. Ashcroft’s own F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III — offered a more tempered assessment, saying, ‘For the next few weeks we have reason to believe there is a heightened threat to the U.S. interests around the world.’ And some opponents of President Bush, including police and firefighter union leaders aligned with Senator John Kerry, the expected Democratic presidential candidate, said the timing of the announcement appeared intended in part to distract attention from Mr. Bush’s sagging poll numbers and problems in Iraq.”

“‘ … There’s no real new intelligence, and a lot of this has been out there already,’ said one administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ‘There really is no significant change that would require us to change the alert level of the country.'”

I’m sure I’m just being cynical.