Top Republicans Break With Bush on Iraq Strategy

Leading Republicans from Congress, the State Department and past administrations have begun to break ranks with President Bush over his administration’s high-profile planning for war with Iraq, saying the administration has neither adequately prepared for military action nor made the case that it is needed.

These senior Republicans include former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft, the first President Bush’s national security adviser. All say they favor the eventual removal of Saddam Hussein, but some say they are concerned that Mr. Bush is proceeding in a way that risks alienating allies, creating greater instability in the Middle East, and harming long-term American interests. They add that the administration has not shown that Iraq poses an urgent threat to the United States.  Link   New York Times Aug 15 [Moreover - moreover...]

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In Texas he would have gotten 450 years and six life sentences…

The ringleader of Sydney’s notorious pack-rape gang screamed an obscenity at the judge after being sentenced yesterday to 55 years’ jail, with a non-parole period of 40 years - believed to be the longest non-murder sentence in NSW history.

Interesting that Australia was horrified at a 55 year sentence for gang rape while in California  some unfortunates are doing life no parole for non-violent crimes.

Sword of justice fells worst rapist [Sydney Morning Herald]

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World Summit on Sustainable Development

Email from David Steven of The Daily Summit:

You might be interested in www.dailysummit.net, a blog we’ve set up to report from the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Joburg next month.  I’ve long been interested in the potential of blogging to open a window onto major events.

We now have the chance to report on what happens when you ask 106 world leaders and 65,000 other delegates to come up with a “blueprint for the 21st century.”

At the moment, the site is mostly a “linker,” tracking preparations for the event and reflecting opinion from across the political spectrum.  We officially launch on 19 August and will be live from Joburg a few days later.

To be honest, we don’t know what will happen then, but the idea is to wander the streets and the corridors, picking up the news and the gossip and post to the site as often as a working internet connection looms into view.

It’ll all be over in the first week in September - so it’ll be great if you can link to the site sometime between now and then. Also, please let me know if you write about the summit in your blog - so we can keep up with the blogosphere’s take on world summitry.

Politics in the Zeros has picked up the news feed from The Daily Summit and will be reporting fully on this important conference.  Yes, through the miracle of XML and Radio UserLand (the software this blog runs under), subscribing to news feeds becomes simple.  Even more to the point, Daily Summit found this blog via Radio UserLand.

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Davis shuts out the Greens
BY JEANNE ROSENMEIER
Special to The S.F. Examiner, 08/12/02

SUPPOSE I TOLD YOU that there is a candidate for governor of California who had the support of a million California voters, who was a successful businessperson, who was a pioneer in socially responsible investing, a lifelong advocate for working people and a Latino.

Suppose further that this candidate was campaigning full-time, with a statewide party behind him. Suppose he had proposals to improve healthcare without spending more, make solar energy affordable, balance the state budget without cutting vital services and reduce poverty. Would you want to hear his ideas?

Well, the candidate’s name is Peter Miguel Camejo, and he is the Green Party candidate for governor, but you won’t get to hear him. Not if Gray Davis gets his way.

Davis’ campaign staff is lobbying the media not to cover the Camejo campaign. To give just one example, Gary South, Davis’ campaign chief, asked Bill Rosendahl, host of the Los Angeles cable TV show “Week in Review,” not to cover the Camejo campaign. (Rosendahl refused.)

NBC and its subsidiary, Telemundo, are planning a gubernatorial candidate debate. They were ready to invite all three candidates, but a Davis representative made it clear that Davis would pull out if the Green Party candidate was included. NBC capitulated to the threat and agreed to exclude Camejo.  More

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Let’s give Dubya a rousing California welcome!
George Bush will be in California the end of August to campaign for Bill Simon.  Wow, two failed businessmen on the podium at the same time!  

Start working on those protest signs now! 

The fund raisers and accompanying demonstrations will be at:

Fri Aug 23
Stockton CA 11:15 am
Private residence?  link

Friday, Aug 23, 5:45 pm
St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa
Dana Point  link

Sat Aug 24
Regency Club, 8 AM
10900 Wilshire Bl at Westwood Blvd. 
L.A  link

‘Doors will open [for attendees of the fundraiser] at 7:00 am and will be closed at 8:00 am for security purposes,’ according to the invitation, so you may wish to be there early to show your protest signs and give a good yell to the campaign contributors.

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This sounds like a bad B-movie plot

Bacardi accused of campaign to oust Castro

Rum company boss ‘bankrolled CIA mission to kill Cuban leader’
The Bacardi rum company has been engaged for more than 40 years in clandestine attempts to overthrow the Cuban government by both violent and other means, according to a new book. The company is accused of bankrolling extreme rightwing groups and American mainstream politicians in an effort to remove Fidel Castro.

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I’m guessing Ashcroft won’t apologize

‘Dirty bomber’ has no links to al-Qaeda

The investigation into Jose Padilla, who is accused of planning to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” in the United States, has found no evidence that he was preparing such an attack and little to suggest that he had any support from al-Qaeda to do so, FBI officials say.

The findings could be an embarrassment for the US Attorney-General, John Ashcroft, who focused unprecedented attention on Padilla’s arrest in March, describing it as a textbook example of collaboration between the FBI and CIA.

But FBI officials said their investigations had concluded that Padilla was probably no more than a “small fish” with no ties to al-Qaeda cells in the US. Any plot to detonate a dirty bomb had probably never gone beyond the stage of being “thought out”, they said.

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Confused on the concept, eh?

Investors Applaud AOL Time Warner’s Honesty
 
NEW YORK — Despite warnings from Wall Street analysts, shares of troubled entertainment behemoth AOL Time Warner Inc. (AOL) rose Thursday as investors applauded the company’s recent moves to come clean on the accounting front.

So investors are happy that AOL, kicking and screaming, is being forced to be honest?  But hold on.  If you read the story further, well, uh, AOL still has accounting problems with the “online unit” and several ongoing federal investigations into their accounting.

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Anti-Baghdad Talks Shunned by Top Kurd

The most powerful Kurdish chieftain in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, refused the Bush administration’s invitation to attend the meeting of Iraqi opposition figures at the White House last week, Kurdish and administration officials said today.

The absence of Mr. Barzani, whose father, Mustafa Barzani, led the largest Kurdish rebellion of the last century and died in exile in the United States, was a blow to Bush administration officials who had orchestrated the meeting in part to demonstrate that Iraqi opposition forces were unified behind a new campaign to oust Saddam Hussein.

Hmm, well, in the last Iraq war, we promised the Kurds we would support and defend them,  then did looked the other way when Iraq massacred and poisoned-gassed them.  The doofuses in D.C. think the Kurds will believe them this time?

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