Arianna Huffington......A must read!

[buff2]

Bush's Mis-State-Ment Of The Union Fiasco

By Arianna Huffington

Poor Karl Rove. He spends close to two years meticulously staging photo
ops and carefully crafting sound bites to create the image of President
Bush as a take-charge, man-the-controls,
land-the-jet-on-the-deck-of-the-aircraft carrier, "Bring 'em on" kind of
leader. But now the latest revelations about the Misstatement of the Union
fiasco are threatening to bring back the old notion of W as a bumbling,
detached figurehead-in-chief.

And it's the president's own people who are painting this unflattering
portrait.

Take George Tenet: While robotically impaling himself on his sword, the
CIA director took great pains to point out that he thought so little of
the Niger/Saddam uranium connection that he and his deputies refused to
bring it up in congressional briefings as far back as fall 2002. It just
didn't meet his standards.

Same with Colin Powell. The Secretary went on at great length about the
intense vetting process -- "four days and three nights" locked up with the
leaders of the CIA, working "until midnight, 1 o'clock every morning,"
going over "every single thing we knew about all of the various issues
with respect to weapons of mass destruction" -- that went into deciding
what information would be used in his United Nations presentation. A
presentation that ultimately did not include the Niger allegation because
it was not, in Powell's words "standing the test of time."

Hmmm, just how hard is that test? Powell's UN speech came a mere eight
days after Bush's State of the Union -- leaving one to wonder what the
expiration date is on patently phony data? About a week after a president
uses it, it turns out.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[ewagner]

1. this is REALLY damaging.

>"As the Niger controversy -- Yellowcake-gate -- is turning into a political firestorm, the question should be: What didn't the president know -- and why didn't he know it? And why does he know less and less every day?">

this has the potential of alerting the American voters to the fact that they elected an empty suite to the office to be filled by people they wouldn't have voted for or supported EVER.

Wow!

This is some heavy stuff

[Terwilliger]

3. Keep plugging, Arianna!

Maybe someone will listen to you one day!

[EOTE]

2. Thanks, but..

You would really just do a clip of the article and provide a link to the rest. You know, to keep out of copyright troubles and so forth.

[Sushi_lover]

4. The Atlanta Journal sometimes carries her columns

I hope they pick up this one.

I even liked the line about Clinton being a world-class weasel. It's a nice pre-emption to the "Yeah but Clinton lied" defense.

[chiburb]

5. WOW!!!

Especially the last 5 paragraphs!
You shouldn't have pasted the whole thing, but thank you. If the thread gets locked, repost using snips... especially the concluding ones.

Thanks again.

[ianbruce]

6. Link to Arianna's article:

http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/files/071603.html

[oasis]

11. Thanks for the link, ianbruce, this article kicks ass.

A must read, indeed.

[noonwitch]

7. I'm so glad that Arianna saw the light

She's worth 500 Dennis Millers! I also love to see her on shows-she is well-spoken and quick with an answer. She also has that great accent.

[newyawker99]

8. buff2

Per DU copyright rules
please post only 4
paragraphs from
the news source.


Thank you.


NYer99
DU Moderator

[opihimoimoi]

9. Unreal thread

Kudos

drip drip pour

[oasis]

10. "the imminent threat that wasn't" !!!!! Yes Arianna, tell it like it is.

:wow:

[Jack Rabbit]

12. War crimes trials are necessary

Bush may not recognize the ICC, but the point would be moot if he and his fellow thugs are tried for war crimes in US courts.

Bush decided to go to war and his people cherry picked the intelligence data to sell it as a product. Remember, that's what Andy Card called it. No one cared whether the reasons publicly given to justify the war were factual. In fact, most of them were not. As long as no one cared whether the data itself could be verified, why should anyone be concerned about the authenticity of the exhibits to support it? They didn't care whether the Niger document was a fake.

If going to war and presenting the American people and the UN Security Council fabricated evidence to justify it isn't a crime against the peace, what is?

Impeachment doesn't go far enough. Neither does simply defeating him in the next election. These people must be sent to prison. As a nation, we must reassure the world that this will not happen again. It is absolutely necessary that the junta's leaders be tried for war crimes.

[chiburb]

13. JR...

A continuation from a locked thread...

I agree with a War Crimes Trial. I said that in my post. My point though was that impeachment now, without control of either house, would be moot and a waste of ammo. Defeating him in a real election is the FIRST step TO "sending him to prison". After that they'll get what they deserve.

[Jack Rabbit]

14. I am going to argue for impeachment

Even if the Republicans control Congress and aren't likely to vote for it, it's the right thing to do. We cannot allow Bush to continue in office now. We cannot allow any of his aides to continue, either.

We should demand impeachment. If the Republicans refuse for purely partisan reasons, let them pay the price for it. Do you remember what happened to those who waited for the last minute to distance themselves from Nixon?

In any case, as Arianna says, this is much worse than Watergate. And that's saying a mouthfull. Watergate was an attack on our system of free elections (something else the junta is apt to do -- that's why we call it the junta). However, this was a betrayal of trust involving war. How dare they be so cavalier with the truth when sending young Americans into combat? Some of my two sons' friends are signing up for service. I've known these kids since some of them were in kindergarten. They can get killed over these lies.

[Terwilliger]

15. *APPLAUSE*!!!!!! YES!

I'm with you, Jack Rabbit. No time like the present to show the American people just exactly what these vicious little oil tycoons really are.

:nuke: