Category Archives: Shrub Watch

First Conquer America, Then The Gulf, Then The Rest of the Free World

If our 2000 election seemed like more of a homeland invasion when it was finished, it’s no coincidence.
Bush planned Iraq ‘regime change’ before becoming President
By Neil Mackay for the Sunday Herald.
(Thanks, Pete)

The PNAC report also:
l refers to key allies such as the UK as ‘the most effective and efficient means of exercising American global leadership’;
l describes peace-keeping missions as ‘demanding American political leadership rather than that of the United Nations’;
l reveals worries in the administration that Europe could rival the USA;
l says ‘even should Saddam pass from the scene’ bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will remain permanently — despite domestic opposition in the Gulf regimes to the stationing of US troops — as ‘Iran may well prove as large a threat to US interests as Iraq has’;
l spotlights China for ‘regime change’ saying ‘it is time to increase the presence of American forces in southeast Asia’. This, it says, may lead to ‘American and allied power providing the spur to the process of democratisation in China’;
l calls for the creation of ‘US Space Forces’, to dominate space, and the total control of cyberspace to prevent ‘enemies’ using the internet against the US;
l hints that, despite threatening war against Iraq for developing weapons of mass destruction, the US may consider developing biological weapons — which the nation has banned — in decades to come. It says: ‘New methods of attack — electronic, ‘non-lethal’, biological — will be more widely available … combat likely will take place in new dimensions, in space, cyberspace, and perhaps the world of microbes … advanced forms of biological warfare that can ‘target’ specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool’;
l and pinpoints North Korea, Libya, Syria and Iran as dangerous regimes and says their existence justifies the creation of a ‘world-wide command-and-control system’.

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Mandela Speaks Out On Cheney and America’s Misguided Foreign Policy

Nelson Mandela: The United
States of America is a Threat to
World Peace

In a rare interview, the South African demands that George W. Bush win United Nations support before attacking Iraq

Nelson: “…there is no doubt that the United States now feels that they are the only superpower in the world and they can do what they like. And of course we must consider the men and the women around the president. Gen. Colin Powell commanded the United States army in peacetime and in wartime during the Gulf war. He knows the disastrous effect of international tension and war, when innocent people are going to die, young men are going to die. He knows and he showed this after September 11 last year. He went around briefing the allies of the United States of America and asking for their support for the war in Afghanistan. But people like Dick Cheney

Making Faces At The Outside World (and making monkeys out of us)

Jimmy Carter has written an editorial for the Washington Post about the tragic misdirected messages our government’s statements and actions must be sending out to the world:
The Troubling New Face of America.

Some new approaches have understandably evolved from quick and well-advised reactions by President Bush to the tragedy of Sept. 11, but others seem to be developing from a core group of conservatives who are trying to realize long-pent-up ambitions under the cover of the proclaimed war against terrorism.
Formerly admired almost universally as the preeminent champion of human rights, our country has become the foremost target of respected international organizations concerned about these basic principles of democratic life. We have ignored or condoned abuses in nations that support our anti-terrorism effort, while detaining American citizens as “enemy combatants,” incarcerating them secretly and indefinitely without their being charged with any crime or having the right to legal counsel. This policy has been condemned by the federal courts, but the Justice Department seems adamant, and the issue is still in doubt…
…Belligerent and divisive voices now seem to be dominant in Washington, but they do not yet reflect final decisions of the president, Congress or the courts. It is crucial that the historical and well-founded American commitments prevail: to peace, justice, human rights, the environment and international cooperation.

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Dennis Shedd: Another “Bad Egg” Bush Nominee to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals

A friend of mine emailed me this today:
Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 1:58 PM
Subject: Another Bush Judicial Nominee Threatens Disability Rights

“Dennis Shedd’s Record on Disability Issues”
Judge Dennis Shedd, a Bush nominee to the Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals, has a striking record of hostility toward
civil rights during his years on the federal bench,
including a consistent disregard for the rights of people
with disabilities. He has ruled against disability rights
plaintiffs in almost every instance, departing from settled
law and adopting tortured interpretations of disability
rights laws. His opinions routinely ignore evidence, stating in conclusory fashion that the plaintiff has failed
to produce evidence to support her claims.

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The International Association of Firefighters to Bush: “You are either with us or against us.”

Bush vetoed a Bill last week that would have given hundreds of millions of badly needed dollars to US Firefighters, and then expected them to be smiling when he showed up a week later to “honor” them in front of the cameras.
The International Association of Firefighters wants the Shrub to know that he can’t have it both ways. Our nation’s firefighters needed that money badly — and how can Bush treat them like this, while smiling to their face? (After so many risked their lives and, according to the firefighters, died unnecessarily, as a direct result of outdated radio equipment (and other outdated equipment) that made it more difficult to get people out of the building quickly during 911.)
See the story by Helen Kennedy for the NY Daily News:
Firefighters blast Bush (May boycott 9/11 tribute after veto of funding bill).

The International Association of Firefighters caused a furor yesterday by voting unanimously to consider boycotting President Bush’s October speech honoring the 343 FDNY personnel who died in New York.
The umbrella group for the nation’s firefighter unions is furious that Bush cut $340 million in funding last week, some of which would have improved outdated radio equipment – a key reason so many firefighters didn’t hear warnings to get out of the twin towers Sept. 11.
“President Bush, you are either with us or against us. You can’t have it both ways,” said the association’s general president, Harold Schaitberger. “Don’t lionize our fallen brothers in one breath and then stab us in the back.”
Bush killed a $5.1 billion spending bill Tuesday that also contained money for veterans, AIDS prevention, domestic security, Israel and health testing for Ground Zero workers.
Virginia firefighter Michael Mohler, who made the boycott motion Wednesday night at the association’s convention in Las Vegas, accused Bush of standing with firefighters only for the cameras.

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Finding Time To Fight Terrorism In-between Holes

Here’s one just for fun, except, as usual it’s all real.
I can’t wait till I get my video editing system set up so I can provide clips of this stuff online when I see them on TV. I saw this on the Daily Show a few nights back and couldn’t believe my eyes.

With his golf club at the ready, and wagging his finger for emphasis, Dubya commented, “There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have started. We must not let them.”
The six-sentence statement complete, Dubya thanked reporters, then smirked and ordered: “Now watch my drive.”

Don’t forget to try out the Quote Navigator!
(Aw, come on. Is it really so important for one to unite one’s tenses?)

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The Shrub Attempts to TIPS the Scales of Justice Back to 1984

The Shrub is hoping to have 1 in 24 Americans spying on each others’ everyday lives in the name of fighting terrorism.

Why should we all become volunteer spies and hand over what little freedoms we have left by cashing in our friends’ and neighbors’ rights to privacy? What if there’s no TIPS program at all? (But what if there is! — Aha! Fear! The ultimate controller of the masses rears its ugly head yet again.)

This is most likely just an attempt to fragment the public by making us all paranoid of each other. Don’t fall for it friends.

If memory serves me correctly, to date, the Bush Administration hasn’t been too great about telling us much of anything.

See the story by Ritt Goldstein for The Sydney Morning Herald:
US planning to recruit one in 24 Americans as citizen spies.

The Bush Administration aims to recruit millions of United States citizens as domestic informants in a program likely to alarm civil liberties groups.

The Terrorism Information and Prevention System, or TIPS, means the US will have a higher percentage of citizen informants than the former East Germany through the infamous Stasi secret police. The program would use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans to report “suspicious activity”.

Tariff Doublecross Coming Back To Bite Bush?

The European Commission is contemplating giving the US a taste of its own medicine.

See:
Europe plans $300m sanctions retaliation on US,
by Michael Mann and Edward Alden for the Financial Times.

The European Commission on Friday proposed slapping more than $300m of trade sanctions on politically-sensitive US products, including fruit, T-shirts, steel, guns and even billiard tables, in retaliation for US-imposed steel tariffs.

The Commission’s proposal for retaliation, which would require majority backing from the 15 EU member states, is designed to “hit the US where it hurts” by targeting exports from states crucial to US president George W. Bush’s re-election. These include citrus fruits from Florida, apples and pears from Washington and Oregon, and steel from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. The plan would levy tariffs worth E377m ($336m) on US exports of those products.

The plan calls for the sanctions to be imposed on June 18. But the US warned such early retaliation would be a fundamental violation of international trading rules. One US trade official said it would “strike at the heart of the multilateral trade system”.

The Commission proposal is aimed at increasing pressure on the US to reconsider its decision last month to impose tariffs of up to 30 per cent on steel imports, including E2.4bn ($2.1bn) of steel from Europe.

Okay, I get it: Levying tariffs on US imports into Europe would ‘strike at the heart of the multilateral trade system’, but imposing 30% tariffs on european steel imports into the US just sort of ‘nibbles in between the toes of the multilateral trade system.’ (Aw heck, the multilateral trade system probably likes it.)

Bush Backs Constitutional Amendment

Huh? Seems like we could set up this kind of a system (notifying victims of their attacker’s parole hearings) without amending the constitution over it. Actually, I’m a little surprised that such systems aren’t already in place.

And what else might get ushered into the Amendment in the process??

Here’s CNN’s piece on the crime victims amendment issue:
Bush backs constitutional amendment for crime victims.