Red State Renegade

In desperation, Hillary takes a lesson from the Giuliani fear mongering playbook:

Last night on the democratic debate on ABC TV, Hillary invoked the worst terror attack on US soil to continue her criticisms of Barack Obama, mentioning 9/11 five times to criticize his association with a member of the group Weather Underground (which bombed government buildings in the 60s), his openness to talking to rogue leaders, and even a question about energy policy.

She continued to keep Rev. Jeremiah Wright (Obama’s former pastor) in the news, reiterating her earlier declarations that she would not have Wright as her pastor. This time she invoked the suffering of the people of New York to justify that view:

“But I have to say that, you know, for Pastor Wright to have given his first sermon after 9/11 and to have blamed the United States for the attack, which happened in my city of New York, would have been intolerable for me…”

But is it still intolerable if it is honest and true?

Many others have been denounced for suggesting 9/11 was caused by failed U.S. policy. But regardless of your opinion of Pastor Wright, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates seems to be in agreement with the Pastor, in testifying to the house arms services committee on April 10:

“We were attacked from Afghanistan in 2001, and we are at war in Afghanistan today, in no small measure because of mistakes this government made–mistakes I among others made in the end game of the anti-Soviet war there some 20 years ago.”

I hope the 9-11 ploy works as well for Hillary as it did for Rudy.

What more is there to say about the Petraeus and Crocker show today, predictably unveiling nothing but more fucking of America.

Fucking of the troops - those killed for George’s messianic visions, or worse, maimed for life. Fucking of their families - the sons and daughters of who live with this disaster every second and have to buy into it because…Christ…How can you admit that this hellish life is all a mistake?

Fucking of our standing in the world - Yes, as a superpower but an often benevolent one. Fucking of the good will and sympathy we had after 9-11. Fucking of world opinion of the U.S.

Fucking of previous military leaders who didn’t back the party line. Fucking of the Iraq Study Group, Fucking of the GAO report on the surge…Fucking of our own intelligence agencies, who say we’re breeding terrorists over there faster than we can kill them.

Fucking of the real numbers - Sectarian violence, Children dying, poor levels of electricity and water, increases in disease, families displaced.

Fucking of the Iraqi people yet again, who in the latest BBC poll say life is worse for them and that the surge isn’t working.

Fucking of the future of America - not just of our strength in the world but our future health care, education, your children’s Social Security, our roads and bridges.

It goes on…and who is to blame? The Neocons, for sure. The party in power…the media…Our loser reps in Congress. All the bit players on the inside who see the wrongs everyday and bite their tongues either in fear or in denial.

And the American people as one. Including you and I.

The next step will be the ultimate wag the dog. A bad sequel that, someday, we will realize already played out 5 years ago. A new marketing prgram that somehow sounds familiar. After all, why change something that worked so well (and continues to)?

Those paying attention lately will not be surprised to find out the latest product will be another attack - this time on Iran. Sure, we could never send in ground troops, but we can bomb he hell out of them.

You don’t think the American people will go for it? It won’t happen again? I hope you’re right, but standby to be barraged with propaganda designed to convince say, 1/3 of the people that Iran is an imminent threat that needs to be handled. What about the other 66 percent?

Fuck the rest! That’s their feeling - these guys DO NOT CARE.

They have nothing to lose. They are going out with their biggest bang yet.

9-11. Iraq. Iran.

Cheney will be pushing it, but through his lapdog’s 9-11 memorial speech.

Start paying attention. Listen to the war drums. Be aware. Warn your friends.

Maybe as a nation we can head this one off…It will either take impeachment…or a lot of people in high places who truly are fed up…or a lot of marching in the streets.

New information released this week should be GIANT news!

In the ‘more-ahead-of-it’s-time-than-we-could-have-ever-imagined’ department, Michael Moore’s highly controversial documentary Farenheit 9-11 made some startling (but later proven) claims that are well documented on his website:

“The White House approved planes to pick up the bin Ladens and numerous other Saudis…At least six private jets and nearly two dozen commercial planes carried the Saudis and the bin Ladens out of the U.S. after September 13th. In all, 142 Saudis, including 24 members of the bin Laden family, were allowed to leave the country.”

The organization Judicial Watch has fought for several years to gain access to the FBI documents regarding these flights. Such documents, obtained early on by Judicial Watch and turned over to the 9-11 Commission, represented the first official government admission that such flights even existed.

Earlier versions, however, were heavily redacted by the FBI.

Lawyers for the group believed, based on unredacted footnotes (oddly enough), that the blacked out names included references to Osama Bin Laden himself.

They pressed the issue in court and in 2006, the FBI was ordered to re-release the documents.

The un-redacted documents were released this week and plainly state:

“THE PLANE WAS CHARTERED EITHER BY THE SAUDI ARABIAN ROYAL FAMILY OR OSAMA BIN LADEN”

What can you say?

It is ABSOLUTELY INSANE that the FBI had previously redacted Osama bin Laden’s name from the records in order “to protect privacy interests.” (And that the media is barely reporting this new admission).

The other aspect of the story has to do with just how much these planes were searched or the passengers interviewed.

The 9-11 Commission report said: “We found no evidence of political intervention” to facilitate the departure of Saudi nationals” and that “Our own independent review of the Saudi nationals involved confirms that no one with known links to terrorism departed on these flights.”

Yet the newly released documents show that the FBI work relating to these flights was shoddy at best. The documents claim (eight days after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. History) that not a single Saudi national nor any of the bin Laden family members possessed any information of investigative value, and that they were freed because none of the names showed up on terrorism “watch lists.”

Judicial Watch also points out numerous errors and inconsistencies within the FBI reports, further questioning the caliber of the investigative work:

“For example, on one document, the FBI claims to have interviewed 20 of 23 passengers on the Ryan International Airlines flight (commonly referred to as the “Bin Laden Family Flight”). On another document, the FBI claims to have interviewed 15 of 22 passengers on the same flight.”