Saturday, January 24, 2004

Vice President Dick Cheney is getting out there, now that Bush-Cheney '04 is well-underway. And his public appearances are being noticed, if only for his insistence on repeating assertions about the war in Iraq that have already been debunked. The Los Angeles Times reports that just Thursday, Cheney made two whoppers, declaring "there was 'overwhelming evidence' that Saddam Hussein had a relationship with Al Qaeda and that two trailers discovered after the war were proof of Iraq's biological weapons programs."

Other Bush administration officials have abandoned these arguments, but not Cheney. The Times reports: "Members of Congress and some in the intelligence community said Thursday that Cheney's comments could lead the public to believe there was collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda, and that that was not supported by the evidence."

10:29 AM |

Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie has been saying retired Gen. Wesley Clark was really for war in Iraq -- but the record doesn't bear that out.

"Wesley Clark claims to have always been against the war in Iraq. Yet, testimony he gave to the House Armed Services Committee two weeks before Congress passed the Iraq Congressional Resolution says otherwise," Gillespie writes on the RNC website. Gillespie made similar remarks in a speech given Jan. 15, saying of Clark's testimony "There was no stronger case made" for going to war.

But Gillespie gives only selective excerpts of Clark's testimony to the House Armed Services Committee Sept. 26, 2002 . Actually, Clark repeatedly urged patience and diplomacy, criticized the Bush administration for undercutting "friends and allies" and said "I think it's not time yet to use force against Iraq ."

Don't take our word for it: Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, a strong supporter of going to war, testified with Clark at the same hearing and said, "I think Gen. Clark doesn't want to see us use military force . . . . The bottom line is he just doesn't want to take action. He wants to wait."

10:08 AM |

Friday, January 23, 2004

Bob Keeshan, who gently entertained and educated generations of children as television's walrus-mustachioed Captain Kangaroo, died Friday at 76.

12:12 PM |

Monday, January 19, 2004

"Bush in 41.2 Seconds" was done as a parody of the MoveOn.org ads. The intent was to say what a lot of liberals are thinking ("Bush lied"), but to do it in a manner that was so over-the-top it would be funny as much as ludicrous. Because it parodied both MoveOn and the idea of homespun political ads -- two liberal-minded ideals -- it was risky to run on Liberal Oasis. Still, Scher got the joke and the piece went up.

2:02 PM |

Their idea was to encourage Soviet officers [in Afghanistan during the war there] and soldiers to defect to the mujahideen. As [CIA chief Gust] Avrakotos derisively describes it, "The muj were supposed to set up loudspeakers in the mountains announcing such things as 'Lay down your arms, there is a passage to the West and to freedom.'" Once news of the program made its way through the Red Army, it was argued, there would be a flood of defectors.

11:07 AM |

JERUSALEM -- Israel is considering a new name for its massive complex of walls, fences and watch towers in the West Bank -- changing it from a "security fence" to the "Terror Prevention Fence" in an attempt to improve its international image.

10:53 AM |

President Bush's last State of the Union address became notorious for laying out a case for war against Iraq based on weapons of mass destruction that were never found. He takes another stab at assessing our place in the world tomorrow night. In an address timed to steal some political limelight from those stumping Democrats, Bush will argue he's "meeting the tests of our time."

And while Bush is expected to paint a rosy scenario on the economy, James K. Galbraith does a reality check for Salon on the "no jobs" president's hidden agenda. "What does Bush want? He wants a growth rate high enough to get him through the election. That's obvious. After that, he doesn't care," Galbraith writes.

10:42 AM |