Bush tells school kids "Childrens do learn,"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Offering a grammar lesson guaranteed to make any English teacher cringe, President George W. Bush told a group of New York school kids on Wednesday: "Childrens do learn."

On my reading list: Not Holier Than Thou

George Bush and Karl Rove have always used homosexuality as a weapon, have righteously opposed it and have routinely accused people of it, knowing that those people were normal, while all along they have colluded to make the Republican Party a sodomite organization from the top down. That's the theme of the latest, incendiary book by Alan Stang, who says Republican leaders are using homosexuality to terrify critics into silence, so they can bring the United States to its knees.The book is Not Holier Than Thou: How Queer Is Bush, which includes a "Special Section on Dick's Dykes," a revelation available nowhere else of how Mary Cheney, the most famous lesbian in the United States, got to be what she is. Stang says the trouble could have started with Mamma Lynne's lesbian novel, Sisters. "And where was Dick when this cloaca of lesbianism was befouling the family hearth?" Stang asks.

Leave the office furniture behind. It isn’t worth one soldier’s life.

Thanks to Wonkette for these photos. Apparently Ahmadinajad is also a Texas Longhorn fan. The photo below is of Bush in Bulgaria.

It's Word War III

This is the top link over at the Fox News website. Has World War III broken out? No, the link leads to a story about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Columbia University. Fox News doesn't even pretend any more to be a real news site rather than a propaganda site. And what did Ahmadinejad say about the prospect of war?

When asked whether he wanted to go to war, he said he did not.

"Why is there a need for war?" Ahmadinejad said. "Why should they threaten another country? Why should they create more insecurity? I think officials who talk this kind of talk should really be pressured and warn to know what to say and when not to say something."

Ahmadinejad said that the religions of "Christ and Moses" as well as Islam are "all brothers. They all want the same thing."

Huma Abedin with alleged lesbians Hillary Clinton and Ellen deGeneres

Hillary Lesbian Rumor Given Weight by DOJ Official

“I am close enough to Hillary and Huma to tell you that this ‘rumor’ is true,” the official says. “It is well known inside her campaign that Hillary and Huma are an item.

“If you call Hillary’s residence in DC first thing in the morning, Huma answers the phone,” the official continues. “Same thing late at night and on the road. It’s a closely guarded secret that Hillary’s inner circle guards at all costs.”

Feds Target Blackwater in Weapons Probe

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal prosecutors are investigating whether employees of the private security firm Blackwater USA illegally smuggled into Iraq weapons that may have been sold on the black market and ended up in the hands of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, officials said Friday.

Latest video sensation: Ron Paul Girl

She says "If he gets elected, I'll take off even more..."

Two survivors of Sunday's shooting at a busy Baghdad traffic roundabout said Tuesday that security guards for a State Department convoy opened fire without provocation, contradicting assertions by the guards' U.S.-based employer, Blackwater USA, that they were responding to enemy fire.

Peru: Doctors Aid in Rising Number of Illnesses after Meteorite Crash

Puno, Peru's Regional Health Director, Jorge López Tejada, reported yesterday that at least 150 people had been seen after having stated they had dermal injuries, were dizzy, nauseous or vomiting.

According to the townspeople, the illnesses began after the meteorite crashed and they began to touch the glowing rock believing it had some type of monetary value. Aside from the hundreds of townspeople that were affected, Tejada reported that 8 police officers had to be hospitalized after having taken samples of the meteorite.

Jack Ruby stripper Jada

Journalist Gary Cartwright wrote about Jada in Texas Monthly (Dec 1990) text of article here

My friend Bud Shrake, who shared an apartment with me on Cole Avenue in 1963, recently refreshed my memory. Ruby and other characters from the Carousel Club, including an unforgettable stripper named Jada, hung around our apartment. After the assassination Jada told us Ruby once introduced her to Lee Oswald at the Carousel. While they were having drinks, Beverly Oliver, a singer from the Colony Club next door, stopped by and was also introduced. For some reason, I chose to forget Jada's story when I wrote about Ruby in 1975. Jada is dead now, but I phoned Beverly not long ago and asked if she remembered. "Sure do," she said. Ruby introduced him as 'my friend Lee from the CIA.'"

According to exclusive information obtained by Pajamas Media’s Washington editor Richard Miniter, the movement of key CIA station personnel in Baghdad has been all but shut down.

Peru's official government news agency reported this afternoon that scientists which went to the town of Carancas in the Region of Puno, Peru, have confirmed that the glowing object which fell from the sky on Saturday afternoon was indeed a meteorite.

To date no reports of the recently dead coming back to life.

Alicia Silverstone poses nude for PETA

My candidate and family

Bush meets some real people.

Peru meteorite crash 'causes mystery illness'

A meteorite has struck a remote part of Peru and carved a large crater that is emitting noxious odours and making villagers ill, according to local press reports.

A fireball streaked across the Andean sky late on Saturday night and crashed into a field near Carancas, a sparsely populated highland wilderness near Lake Titicaca on the border with Bolivia, witnesses said.

Uh oh. More photos here. "Causó alarma en los pobladores." I can imagine. Scientists investigating. Jorge López Tejada, a representative of the Regional Health Directorate, reports:

"Between 10 and 12 people have reported dizziness, migraines and in some cases vomiting. They assure that after having had close contact with the object the symptoms began," stated Tejada. Furthermore, Tejada stated that check ups would be performed and that it had not been discarded that the symptoms could be related to the glowing object which fell from the sky.

"They are healthy people, it could be (due to) radiation, we don't know, we are assuming, it's worth investigating. Things will be clearer tomorrow," stated Tejada.

More here.

Residents complained of headaches and vomiting brought on by a "strange odor," local health department official Jorge Lopez told Peruvian radio RPP.

Seven policemen who went to check on the reports also became ill and had to be given oxygen before being hospitalized, Lopez said.

Rescue teams and experts were dispatched to the scene, where the meteorite left a 30-metre-wide and six-metre-deep crater, said local official Marco Limache.

"Boiling water started coming out of the crater and particles of rock and cinders were found nearby. Residents are very concerned," he said.

"Residents are very concerned." Typical Peruvian understatement, no doubt.

Update: Video here

Update: More than 600 villagers ill (with more video.)

Update: (NBC) Slideshow of photos

Update: (BBC) Scores ill in Peru 'meteor crash'

A team of scientists is on its way to the site to collect samples and verify whether it was indeed a meteorite.

"It [the object] is buried in the earth," local resident Heber Mamani told the BBC.

"That is why we are asking for an analysis because we are worried for our people. They are afraid. A bull is dead and some other animals are already sick," he said.

In related news--one month to the day before the alleged meteor impact: Scores killed in Peru Earthquake

A powerful 7.9 magnitude earthquake has hit the coast of Peru, killing at least 337 people and injuring hundreds more, Peru's civil defence institute says.

Berenice, another resident, said the earthquake was the strongest she had ever felt.

"For some it seemed like the end of the world, and most people I know are still nervous," she said.

Police Taser Student During Kerry Speech

I've only watched this once but from what I saw the student was asking a question--a long three-part question--but Senator Kerry was willing to hear him out and answer his question. The police moved in and tasered and arrested him. Another view here.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that the United States can contain the Iranian threat to Iraq without going to war with the Islamic republic.

I suggest Gates not go hunting with Dick Cheney.

Blackwater License Being Pulled in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) -- The Iraqi government said Monday that it was revoking the license of an American security firm accused of involvement in the deaths of eight civilians in a firefight that followed a car bomb explosion near a State Department motorcade.

The Telegraph: Bush setting America up for war with Iran

Senior American intelligence and defence officials believe that President George W Bush and his inner circle are taking steps to place America on the path to war with Iran, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

In a chilling scenario of how war might come, a senior intelligence officer warned that public denunciation of Iranian meddling in Iraq - arming and training militants - would lead to cross border raids on Iranian training camps and bomb factories.

The vice president is said to advocate the use of bunker-busting tactical nuclear weapons against Iran's nuclear sites. His allies dispute this, but Mr Cheney is understood to be lobbying for air strikes if sites can be identified where Revolutionary Guard units are training Shia militias.

General Wesley Clark: The Next War

Think another war can't happen? Think again. Unchastened by the Iraq fiasco, hawks in Vice President Cheney's office have been pushing the use of force.

Moving toward war with Iran

The Guardian: Proxy war could soon turn to direct conflict, analysts warn

The growing US focus on confronting Iran in a proxy war inside Iraq risks triggering a direct conflict in the next few months, regional analysts are warning.

US-Iranian tensions have mounted significantly in the past few days, with heightened rhetoric on both sides and the US decision to establish a military base in Iraq less than five miles from the Iranian border to block the smuggling of Iranian arms to Shia militias.

"Washington is seriously reviewing plans to bomb not just nuclear sites, but oil sites, military sites and even leadership targets. The talk is of multiple targets," said Mr Cronin. "In Washington there is very serious discussion that this is a window that has to be looked at seriously because there is only six months to 'do something about Iran' before it will be looked at as a purely political issue."

The Daily Star: US-Iranian chicken in the Gulf

The most dangerous flashpoint is still Iraq. Military forces are engaged - America's openly, Iran's clandestinely - in a battle for influence over the shattered remnants of the Iraqi state. Indeed, now that the United States has co-opted Iraq's Sunnis, the new American priority is to prevent Iranian hegemony over Iraqi Shiites. US officials say they have tried to reassure Iraqis they won't fight a proxy war against Tehran on Iraqi territory. But that's precisely what has been happening in recent months.

Alberto Gonzales finally tells the truth

"Over the past two and a half years, I have seen tyranny, dishonesty, corruption and depravity of types I never thought possible."
>

George W. Bush: Spawn of Satan?

Yesterday I posted the photo of George Bush making what some have called the devils hand sign during a memorial for victims of September 11. Now I come across this photo of Bush making the same sign while meeting the Queen of England!

Now some have said that this sign is merely the "hook 'em horns" of the Texas Longhorns. But why would the President of the United States flash a football sign at a 911 memorial or when meeting the queen?

For more on the history of the "hook 'em horns" sign see 50 years of 'Hook 'em Horns'

But as this article points out:

Nowotny had reason for concern; in some parts of Europe, it's used to insinuate that a man's wife is being unfaithful to him. It's also viewed as a salute to the devil in some Scandinavian countries and is part of the American Sign Language word for "bullshit."

Also it appears that this sign has been made by a number of people who one would not think were big fans of the Texas Longhorn.


Perhaps we should have listened to Hugo Chavez at the UN:

"The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right in the house.

And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here. Right here." [crosses himself] "And it smells of sulfur still today."

Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil, came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world."

Air Force Times:

On Sept. 14, flight lines will be very quiet at Air Combat Command bases.

The entire command — about 100,000 active-duty airmen — is standing down training flights and many other operations as part of a command-wide safety day.

There are leaks and then there are leaks. Pentagon sources say that Admiral William Fallon called General Petraeus "an ass-kissing little chickenshit".

The conservative sites seem to be suspicious of the bin Laden video as well.

Hot Air: Digital forensic analyst: Osama video was manipulated

Rightwing Nuthouse: OSAMA VIDEO MAY BE A FAKE

Michael Ledeen in the National Review:

Third, is it really Osama? As you know, I was reliably told something like two years ago that Osama had died. Nothing in this speech sounds at all like the "old" OBL. That man knew how to give a stemwinder, he used elegant language, his threats were blood-curdling, his calls to the faithful inspiring. This man talks like, well, a high school dropout. In fact it reads like an "Onion" spoof. And the sound is bizarre, at least on my IBM desktop. It sounds almost as if there was enough garble in it to make it difficult to match with voice prints of the "real" guy. I'm not convinced.

Bush makes satanic hand gesture during 911 memorial service. (Photo from Yahoo)

Obama for President

Barack Obama has been consistently right about the war in Iraq. He was right in 2002 as can be seen in Remarks of Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama Against Going to War with Iraq:

What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.

And he is right about Iraq in 2007:

"Let me be clear: there is no military solution in Iraq, and there never was. The best way to protect our security and to pressure Iraq's leaders to resolve their civil war is to immediately begin to remove our combat troops. Not in six months or one year - now. We should enter into talks with the Iraqi government to discuss the process of our drawdown. We must get out strategically and carefully, removing troops from secure areas first, and keeping troops in more volatile areas until later. But our drawdown should proceed at a steady pace of one or two brigades each month. If we start now, all of our combat brigades should be out of Iraq by the end of next year."

Perhaps even more importantly he is right about Iran:

We hear eerie echoes of the run-up to the war in Iraq in the way that the President and Vice President talk about Iran. They conflate Iran and al Qaeda. They issue veiled threats. They suggest that the time for diplomacy and pressure is running out when we haven't even tried direct diplomacy. Well George Bush and Dick Cheney must hear - loud and clear - from the American people and the Congress: you don't have our support, and you don't have our authorization for another war.

Hillary Clinton is, is some ways, an impressive candidate, but I just do not trust her on the vital issues of war in Iraq and Iran. Accordingly, this humble blog endorses Barack Obama for President.

Two of the Seven NYT Op-Ed Soldiers Have Died in Iraq

Two of the seven soldiers who wrote the New York Times op-ed piece criticizing U.S. counterinsurgency strategy 3 ½ weeks ago have been killed in Iraq. Yance T. Gray and Omar Mora died Monday in a vehicle accident in Baghdad. The AP has reported on Yance Gray here, and KHOU, a Houston-area TV station has reported on Omar Mora here. Their families have been notified.

Terrorists: We'll cut off head of 'prostitute' Britney Spears

"If I meet these whores I will have the honor – I repeat, I will have the honor – to be the first one to cut the heads off Madonna and Britney Spears if they will keep spreading their satanic culture against Islam," said Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror organization.

An interview with Robert Parry:

When the press fails, when the political system fails, when the various checks and balances that the public counts on to protect the republic fail for various reasons, the American people will be the last hope to prevent a complete collapse and move to a whole different form of government.

Fox News: U.S. Officials Begin Crafting Iran Bombing Plan

WASHINGTON — A recent decision by German officials to withhold support for any new sanctions against Iran has pushed a broad spectrum of officials in Washington to develop potential scenarios for a military attack on the Islamic regime, FOX News confirmed Tuesday.

Political and military officers, as well as weapons of mass destruction specialists at the State Department, are now advising Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the diplomatic approach favored by Burns has failed and the administration must actively prepare for military intervention of some kind. Among those advising Rice along these lines are John Rood, the assistant secretary for the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation; and a number of Mideast experts, including Ambassador James Jeffrey, deputy White House national security adviser under Stephen Hadley and formerly the principal deputy assistant secretary for Near Eastern affairs.

Consequently, according to a well-placed Bush administration source, "everyone in town" is now participating in a broad discussion about the costs and benefits of military action against Iran, with the likely timeframe for any such course of action being over the next eight to 10 months, after the presidential primaries have probably been decided, but well before the November 2008 elections.

Daniel Hopsicker: What New Orleans was to the Kennedy Assassination, Venice is to the 9/11 terrorist conspiracy: the operation’s nerve center.

Switching Sides in Iraq

Some good reporting on the new alliance of "former" Sunni insurgents and US forces against al Qaeda in Al Anbar province. (From the CNN transcript)

Reporter Michael Ware speaks to Sunni leader Abu Ahmed:

"The insurgents will never stop until they liberate Iraq," Abu Ahmed (ph) says in front of the former al Qaeda headquarters. "We respect them, and, God willing, they will liberate Iraq. We are all against the occupation and for the establishment of a national Iraqi government."

Fears in Baghdad and in America of U.S. troops supporting armed groups opposed to the government are not unfounded.

Abu Ahmed (ph) insists that, "If our demands are not met by our petitions and by demonstration, then we will carry weapons and defend our Iraq."

Michael Ware's analysis:

These guys made it very clear to us on this day and on other days when I have contact with other groups, they are opposed to the Maliki government and any government that they believe is beholden to Iranian influence, a belief shared by many within the U.S. mission. So, these are anti-government forces that America is supporting against the government it created. And, certainly, within the Iraqi government, they believe that this is America building Sunni militias to act as a counterbalance to their influence.

Cannonfire asks: The DC Madam case: Honeytrap?

The DC Madam, Jeane Palfrey, is attempting to get her case thrown out on the grounds that the "United States Government has been directly or indirectly benefiting from the operation of her service by monitoring her customers and is thus equitably barred from prosecuting her." In motions filed with the court she names a new client, one Ronald Roughead, from a company SAIC which has many intelligence connections. Read Joseph's piece.

George Will: The Surge has Failed

Before Gen. David Petraeus's report, and to give it a context of optimism, the president visited Iraq's Anbar province to underscore the success of the surge in making some hitherto anarchic areas less so. More significant, however, was that the president did not visit Baghdad. This underscored the fact that the surge has failed, as measured by the president's and Petraeus's standards of success.

Andrew Sullivan: The Surge's Real Target: Iran?

I think Petraeus' testimony and the administration's agenda makes the most sense if you see all of this as a prelude to a risk of the wider war that Cheney desperately wants. If you keep Iraq occupied and in a state of barely arrested civil war, the chances of a casus belli against Iran increase.

From Down with Tyranny!

Last night David Letterman summed up Petraeus' credibility with a comment about Britney Spears' career-ending VMA performance: "General Petraeus thought it went quite well."

Sibel Edmonds and the real culprits of 911

Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds has made a number of disturbing claims about the 911 attacks, but perhaps the most disconcerting is her oft-repeated statement that the US authorities have covered up an entire organizational layer within al-Qaeda.

"The public has still not been told of the intentional obstruction of intelligence. The public has not been told that certain information, despite its relevance to terrorist activities, is not shared with counterterrorism units. This was true prior to 9/11, and it remains true today. If counterintelligence receives information about terrorism that implicates certain nations, semi-legit organizations or the politically powerful in this country, then that information is not shared with counterterrorism, regardless of the consequences. In certain cases, frustrated FBI agents have cited "direct pressure by the State Department." The Department of Justice Inspector General received detailed evidence regarding this issue. I provided your investigators with an account of this issue, the names of other witnesses willing to corroborate this, and the names of U.S. officials involved in these transactions and activities."

We need a new investigation of the events of September 11, 2001.

A series of veterinary and toxicology studies, dating to the mid-1990s, stated that chip implants had "induced" malignant tumors in some lab mice and rats.

Published in veterinary and toxicology journals between 1996 and 2006, the studies found that lab mice and rats injected with microchips sometimes developed subcutaneous "sarcomas" — malignant tumors, most of them encasing the implants.

Hundreds of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula are flowing faster, further adding to sea level rise according to new research published this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research. Climate warming, that is already causing Antarctic Peninsula increased summer snow melt and ice shelf retreat, is the most likely cause.

I would say that the chances that those Advanced Cruise Missiles and their W80-1 nuclear warheads were loaded accidentally on that B-52 are exactly zero. So the question is: who ordered this flight, and why?

Report that Rep. Paul Gillmore was murdered

A private investigator hired by people close to Rep. Paul Gillmor told Big Head DC in an interview Saturday that “there is clear evidence of foul play and intense pressure on locals to keep quiet about the facts of the murder.”
.............................

Jamie S. Nixon, an acquaintance of Gillmor, told Big Head DC that he believes Gillmor’s ties to the finance sector could have played a role in his possible murder. The Congressman served on the House Committee on Financial Services and was the ranking minority member of the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit.
.........

Nixon said that Gillmor told him he discovered a “type of swindle set to take place in the stock markets later this month — and he was planning to go public with the information.”

Doubts about the bin Laden VideoRush Limbaugh says it's not bin Laden

He excoriates the Democrats. Now I understand why some people were saying earlier that this tape could not be good for Democrats, because what he apparently says on this tape, this Bin Laden look-alike -- I'm sorry, I refuse to believe it's Bin Laden. It's just me.

Booman Tribune says Latest Bin Laden Video Is a Forgery: All References to Current Events Are Made During Video Freeze

Osama Bin Laden's widely publicized video address to the American people has a peculiarity that casts serious doubt on its authenticity: the video freezes at about 1 minute and 58 seconds, and motion only resumes again at 12:30. The video then freezes again at 14:02 remains frozen until the end. All references to current events, such as the 62nd anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Japan, and Sarkozy and Brown being the leaders of France and the UK, respectively, occur when the video is frozen! The words spoken when the video is in motion contain no references to contemporary events and could have been (and likely were) made before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Switching sides in Iraq:

AMERICAN forces are paying Sunni insurgents hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to switch sides and help them to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Israeli Holocaust Porn (via J.Orlin Grabbe)

The Conspiracy Art of Mark Lombardi

Spelunking thee Ideosphere draws our attention to a fascinating story of an artist who diagrammed the connections of the Bush family to the bin Laden family--before 9/11. Not only that but he died mysteriously.

The artist Mark Lombardi, who sadly left us in 2000, graphically documented the threads of social and financial relationships that direct the bulk of material resources on our planet.

One of Mr. Lombardi's pieces, created in 1999, remains among the many that are vitally important in understanding current affairs. With the dry title "George W. Bush, Harken Energy and Jackson Stephens, ca 1979–90," it illustrates "the proven connections between James Bath, the Bush and bin Laden families, and business deals in Texas and around the world." Please, feel free to do a double-take on that one - Lombardi illustrated the bin Laden-Bush connection in 1999, two years before 9/11 and one year before he mysteriously died.

Mark Lombardi apparently hung himself in March 2000. According to Wikipidia:

A number of friends like Andy Feehan were mystified by Mark's death: "When the news of Mark's death arrived, all of us thought that he was murdered. We assumed that he had made one too many accusations, and that someone made a phone call. We still don't know what happened. We'd read that the medical examiner ruled Mark's death a suicide, but we're unable to understand or accept the idea that Mark would kill himself right when he was at the top of his game."

Operation Vigilant Shield Scheduled for October 15-20

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command along with U.S. Pacific Command, the Department of Homeland Security as well as local, state and other federal responders will exercise their response abilities against a variety of potential threats during Exercise Vigilant Shield ‘08, a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff-designated, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM)-sponsored, and U.S. Joint Forces Command-supported Department of Defense exercise for homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities missions.

From the Fact Sheet:

National Level Exercise 108 will include the simulated detonation of three radiological dispersal devices within the USNORTHCOM and U.S. Pacific Command areas of responsibility. These exercise events and others are designed to test the full range of incident management responseprocedures at the local, state, and federal levels.

For additional information about the exercise, please call 719-554-6889.

Osama bin Laden and the Kennedy Assassination

From the transcript:

"In the Vietnam War, the leaders of the White House claimed at the time that it was a necessary and crucial war, and during it, Rumsfeld and his aides murdered two million villagers. And when Kennedy took over the presidency and deviated from the general line of policy drawn up for the White House and wanted to stop this unjust war, that angered the owners of the major corporations who were benefiting from its continuation.

"And so Kennedy was killed, and Al-Qaeda wasn't present at that time, but rather, those corporations were the primary beneficiary from his killing. And the war continued after that for approximately one decade.

Osama then and now.

"The president had no interest in the intelligence," a CIA officer disclosed. "Bush didn't give a fuck about the intelligence. He had his mind made up."

"No one in Congress was aware of the secret intelligence that Saddam had no WMD as the House of Representatives and the Senate voted, a week after the submission of the NIE, on the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq," Blumenthal writes. "The information, moreover, was not circulated within the CIA among those agents involved in operations to prove whether Saddam had WMD."

Historians Put Once-Secret KGB Files Online

VILNIUS, Lithuania -- Once-secret KGB files can now be viewed online, thanks to a project started by Lithuanian historians who want to shed light on the clandestine workings of the former Soviet police agency.

Secret directives sent from Moscow to KGB headquarters in the three Baltic states -- Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia -- are now available to anyone with Internet access.

Book Reveals Bush Saw Ghosts

George W. Bush, the U.S. President, is prone to bouts of crying caused by the stress of his job and claims to have seen ghosts emerge from the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House, according to a new book on his presidency.

Perhaps the oddest revelation is an episode from 1992, when his father was president.

The younger Mr. Bush found the White House a "creepy place," Mr. Draper writes.

After exercising in a White House gym one evening, he told a friend he froze in his steps while approaching the Lincoln Bedroom.

Mr. Bush insists "he saw ghosts - coming out of the wall," according to the friend.

Kathleen Willey: Clintons stole my manuscript

Kathleen Willey, the woman who says Bill Clinton groped her in the Oval Office, claims she was the target of an unusual house burglary over the weekend that nabbed a manuscript for her upcoming book, which promises explosive revelations that could damage Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Willey told WND little else was taken from her rural Virginia home as she slept alone upstairs – electronics and jewelry were left behind – and she believes the Clintons were behind it.

AP: The Air Combat Command has ordered a commandwide stand down Sept. 14 to review procedures, officials said.

Federal counterterrorism officials are analyzing a posting on an Islamic forum Web site that warns of "a special gift" to be given on the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, FOX News has learned.

Update: the surprise may be a bin Laden video.

The Air Force announced that all flights of fighters and bombers in the United States will be halted on September 14 to allow for a review of procedures.

A Sept. rollout for Iran war

WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card once famously said of the administration’s 2002 campaign to get support for the invasion of Iraq, ''From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August.''

Now August is behind us, and -- right on schedule -- marketers both in the White House and among their supporters outside are rolling out their newest product, a public relations blitz urging a U.S. military adventure in Iran.

William Kristol: Terrorist Training Camps in Iran: Should they be safe havens?

"Why are terror training camps in Iran, camps that are directly training terrorists to attack U.S. troops, off limits?" After all, if Khameini (to whom the IRGC reports) has already established the principle of cross-border attacks against accelerators of violence, who are we to disagree with the wisdom of the Supreme Leader?

ADL Campaign Says 'No' to Nuclear Iran

New York, NY, September 5, 2007 … Over the next few weeks and months, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will roll out a public awareness and advocacy campaign aimed at focusing attention on the gathering threat of a nuclear-armed Iran to Israel, the Middle East and the world.

With the slogan, "No Nuclear Iran," the campaign focuses on Iran's clear and present threat to Israel, America and the global community through high-profile eye-catching posters, advertisements in national and community newspapers, and other awareness initiatives using e-mail and the Internet to spread the word.

The League's efforts to raise awareness of the threat come as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has recently intensified his calls for the destruction of Jews and the State of Israel.

Kenneth Timmerman: Call It War, Mr. President

So now it’s official. Republicans are the Party of Victory, and Democrats the Party of Surrender.

Mr. President: it’s time to stop pandering to the Party of Surrender, unless it’s your own rendition you are seeking to negotiate.

We are at war, and Americans are not quitters, despite what Nancy Pelosi believes.

So let’s roll.

Fox News: IAEA: Hoodwinked by the Ayatollahs

The fact of the matter is that in spite of talks and sanctions, the regime continues to militarize its nuclear program, dig new tunnels for its underground facilities, enrich uranium and make continuous progress at the heavy water nuclear reactor in Arak.

Reuel Marc Gerecht (American Enterprise Institute) in Newsweek: Deadly Persian Provocations

Iran's bloody role in Iraq has yet to be widely acknowledged. But the clerical regime is killing U.S. soldiers there.

Barnett R. Rubin: Iran War Roll Out Starts

On the morning of Thursday, August 30, someone who is a professional in handling information called me to recount a conversation from the previous Thursday or Friday (August 23 or 24). In this conversation, someone whose proximity to knowledge of such things is so great that I cannot identify him in any other way, told my interlocutor that President Bush would be inclined to accept suggestions for withdrawing some troops from Iraq and moving as many as possible into more secure bases, as a safeguard against reprisals in the event of a U.S. attack on Iran.

Meanwhile: Iran warns US over risks of military action

TEHRAN: Iran on Tuesday issued a stark warning to the United States over the danger of launching a military attack, saying Washington could never foresee the size of its response against US troops in the region.

"The US will face three problems if it attacks Iran. Firstly it does not know the volume of our response," said General Rahim Yahya Safavi, the new special military advisor to supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

"Also it can not evaluate the vulnerability of its 200,000 troops in the region since we have accurately identified all of their camps," added Safavi, who stepped down last week as head of the elite Revolutionary Guards.

"Secondly, it does not know what will happen to Israel and thirdly, the United States does not know what will happen to the oil flow," he was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying.

Larry Johnson: Are We Staging Nukes for Iran?

Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That’s like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.

So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy, let’s call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can’t imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

His final point was to observe that someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52 landing with nukes. That is something else.

Michael Ledeen on Hannity & Colmes

I just heard Michael Ledeen's interview tonight on Hannity & Colmes. Ledeen has in the past falsely claimed that he had been against the Iraq War. Colmes called him on it, quoting a column he wrote in August of 2002, in which he said:

"One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today."

Ledeen claimed that he was referring to political change in the region. He was lying. In the same column he referred to "the desperately-needed and long overdue war against Saddam Hussein and the rest of the terror masters."

Ledeen is plugging his new book, The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction, which is out just in time for the kick-off to the marketing campaign for the Iran War.

Arnaud de Borchgrave: The Next War?

After a brief interruption of his New Hampshire vacation to meet President Bush in the family compound at Kennebunkport, Maine, French President Nicolas Sarkozy came away convinced his U.S. counterpart is serious about bombing Iran's secret nuclear facilities. That's the reading as it filtered back to Europe's foreign ministries.

Huma Abedin.

Hillary Clinton's "mystery woman." Her "personal aide." Her "body person." Need I say more?

Michael Musto asks: Is she Hillary's Not-So-Secret-Lover?

Ann Coulter Got her Tits Fixed

Warning: clicking on the above link will result in looking at photos of Ann Coulter.

Had enough of gay Republican sex scandals? Me neither. According to Down with Tyranny! there are more to come, as well as a rare heterosexual Republican sex scandal.

(And of course there are the non-gay Republican perverts-- and not just David Diapers Vitter. Steve LaTourette (R-OH), for example, is going to be in for a very bumpy ride... very soon.)

Bill Kristol starts off the post-Labor Day drive to Iran

FOX and Friends led the charge this morning, with Weekly Standard Editor and PNAC Chairman Bill Kristol telling Steve Doocy that the US will probably have to take action against Iran, not for their nuclear program so much as for their aggressive support of Iraqi insurgents.

"We Are Going To Hit Iran. Bigtime" Update: The link to the left is no longer good. Apparently this post has been removed from Daily Kos. Why? Here is the google cache.

I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth.

I asked her about the attack, how limited and so forth.

"I don’t think it’s limited at all. We are shipping in and assigning every damn Tomahawk we have in inventory. I think this is going to be massive and sudden, like thousands of targets. I believe that no American will know when it happens until after it happens. And whatever the consequences, whatever the consequences, they will have to be lived with. I am sure if my father knew I was telling someone in a news organization that we were about to launch a supposedly secret attack that it would be treason. But something inside me tells me to tell it anyway."

I asked her why she was suddenly so cynical.

"I have become cynical only recently. I also don’t believe anyone will be able to stop this. Bush has become something of an Emperor. He will give the command, and cruise missiles will fly and aircraft will fly and people will die, and yet few of us here are really able to cobble together a great explanation of why this is a good idea.

She had to hang up. She left by telling me that she believes the attack is a done deal. "It’s only a matter of time before their orders come and they will be sent to station and told to go to Red Alert.

Will President Bush bomb Iran?

Mr Bush's escalation of the rhetoric was deliberate. A former White House aide said that the reference to a "nuclear holocaust" was a precise attempt to bracket Mr Ahmadinejad's quest for nuclear weapons and stated desire to wipe Israel off the map with Hitler's destruction of the Jews.

"By using that word 'holocaust', Mr Bush has provided a moral reason to allow the Jewish state to do what it needs to do," said the former aide. "He is reinvoking the notion of 'never again'. If you believe that there could be another Holocaust, it becomes morally indefensible to stand back. It is a powerful and loaded term. Those people in Europe who believed that the neo-cons have gone away and shrunk under a rock had better wise up fast."

I just can't keep up with all the Republican gay scandals. Down with Tyranny! asks WHO'LL BE THE NEXT REPUBLICAN HYPOCRITE TO BE DRAGGED OUT OF THE CLOSET SCREAMING ABOUT MEDIA WITCH HUNTS?

Apparently it may be Congressman Patrick McHenry. DWT connects him to the three men involved in the recent gay murder-suicide in Florida. One could spend all day following the web links from one site to the next. At least one of the murdered men is also linked to former Jerry Falwell associate Ralph Reed:

Ralph Gonzalez, a former executive director of the Georgia GOP while Ralph Reed was its chair, was found shot to death yesterday with two other men in a home he with shared with one of them in Orlando.

Reed himself, the former head of the Christian Coalition, also flies under the gaydar in Republican conservative circles.

Patrick Buchanan sums it up:

What is to prevent Bush from attacking Iran and widening the war, at a time and place of his choosing, and sooner than we think?

Nothing and no one.

The Iran war is coming and not one of the major Democratic candidates for President is speaking out against it. The Iran war is coming and the Democratic Congress is doing nothing to stop it.

Reagan and the Alien Threat

Juan Cole: Night of the Living Dead in Iraq

I personally find the controversy about Iraq in Washington to be bizarre. Are they really arguing about whether the situation is improving? I mean, you have the Night of the Living Dead over there. People lack potable water, cholera has broken out even in the good areas, a third of people are hungry, a doubling of the internally displaced to at least 1.1 million, and a million pilgrims dispersed just this week by militia infighting in a supposedly safe all-Shiite area. The government has all but collapsed, with even the formerly cooperative sections of the Sunni Arab political class withdrawing in a snit (much less more Sunni Arabs being brought in from the cold). The parliament hasn't actually passed any legislation to speak of and often cannot get a quorum. Corruption is endemic. The weapons we give the Iraqi army are often sold off to the insurgency. Some of our development aid goes to them, too.