Friday, April 30, 2004
Young Republicans are on the march in Florida.City Link Magazine
Thursday, April 29, 2004
How do conservatives lie? Let us count the ways. The Center for American Progress has created a useful database contrasting right-wing myths and lies with the factual evidence challenging them. Could be useful in disputes with conservaties.The Progress Report - Center for American Progress
Thursday, April 22, 2004
Amid the furor over the Woodward book, what happened to source confidentiality? It's been evident for years who Woodward's main sources are by the favorable treatment they get in his books. But this time around he went further, playing for CBS staff tapes of some of his confidential interviews. As CBS reports:
For his book, Woodward interviewed 75 top military and Bush administration officials, including two long interviews with the president himself. Mr. Bush spoke on the record, but others talked to Woodward on condition that he not reveal their identities.
60 Minutes won’t name those Woodward interviewed, but we've listened to the tapes and read the transcripts of his key interviews to verify that his accounts are based on recollections from people who took part in the meetings he describes, including a historic meeting on March 19, when Bush gives the order to go
And the Rumsfeld transcript also reveals some top sources, including the vice-president, as well. So much for secrecy... CBS News | Woodward Shares War Secrets | April 19, 2004�07:04:32
For his book, Woodward interviewed 75 top military and Bush administration officials, including two long interviews with the president himself. Mr. Bush spoke on the record, but others talked to Woodward on condition that he not reveal their identities.
60 Minutes won’t name those Woodward interviewed, but we've listened to the tapes and read the transcripts of his key interviews to verify that his accounts are based on recollections from people who took part in the meetings he describes, including a historic meeting on March 19, when Bush gives the order to go
And the Rumsfeld transcript also reveals some top sources, including the vice-president, as well. So much for secrecy... CBS News | Woodward Shares War Secrets | April 19, 2004�07:04:32
Monday, April 19, 2004
President Bush couldn't remember his mistakes. At the top: not firing Rumsfeld, Bremer and Wolfowitz for their mistakes that caused American deaths.The Miami Herald | 04/18/2004 | These men committed firing offenses
Saturday, April 10, 2004
The inside dope on Condi Rice's testimony: a one-stop shopping site on all the major contradictions and evasions.Questions for Condi - Center for American Progress
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
President Bush: "Just Say Yes" to heroin? How Bush's policies gave Afghanistan back to Al Quaeda and hooked our forces on dope. Seymour Hersh explores in this week's New Yorker how we lost the aftermath of the war in Afghanistan -- shades of the Iraq debacle. And now our soldiers there are starting to become hooked on the skyrocketing amounts of home-grown heroin. Here's how Hersh explains it in a Q-and-A:
Q:One of the most disturbing parts of your piece has to do with drugs. What’s happened to the heroin business in Afghanistan?
Hersh: There has been a lot of talk from the Administration about eradicating drugs, dealing with the drug problem. The fact is that the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime recently reported that not only did the number of fields used to cultivate poppies—the raw ingredient for heroin—grow to near-record levels in 2003, but, according to surveys of farmers, seventy per cent expect to grow even more next year. Much of that is taking place in areas in which the U.S. has a major military presence. The Taliban, awful as they were, hated drugs, and in their last year in power heroin production had fallen to a hundred and eighty-five metric tons; last year, the number was thirty-six hundred.
Q:Almost a twentyfold increase.
Hersh: That’s right. And to the credit of the Pentagon, I must say, there are people there who recognize that there has been a failure on our part, and that something needs to be done about it.
Q: What about American soldiers? You write that there are concerns about their well-being, given the glut of drugs in the area.
Hersh: I’ve been told for more than a year that there were problems of heroin use, in particular among the rear-echelon soldiers in Afghanistan, and that it was a problem that was simply being buried by the leadership. In my reporting, I was also told that there had been a problem with some of the Marines. And the Pentagon, when they were asked for comment, acknowledged that there had been problems with some U.S. military personnel for suspected use, though in the case of the Marines, at least, they said that it was marijuana, not heroin. A lot of hashish is also produced in Afghanistan
He gives his views on this topic and the failed war on terrorism in an accompanying interview on the Web page.The New Yorker: Online Only
Q:One of the most disturbing parts of your piece has to do with drugs. What’s happened to the heroin business in Afghanistan?
Hersh: There has been a lot of talk from the Administration about eradicating drugs, dealing with the drug problem. The fact is that the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime recently reported that not only did the number of fields used to cultivate poppies—the raw ingredient for heroin—grow to near-record levels in 2003, but, according to surveys of farmers, seventy per cent expect to grow even more next year. Much of that is taking place in areas in which the U.S. has a major military presence. The Taliban, awful as they were, hated drugs, and in their last year in power heroin production had fallen to a hundred and eighty-five metric tons; last year, the number was thirty-six hundred.
Q:Almost a twentyfold increase.
Hersh: That’s right. And to the credit of the Pentagon, I must say, there are people there who recognize that there has been a failure on our part, and that something needs to be done about it.
Q: What about American soldiers? You write that there are concerns about their well-being, given the glut of drugs in the area.
Hersh: I’ve been told for more than a year that there were problems of heroin use, in particular among the rear-echelon soldiers in Afghanistan, and that it was a problem that was simply being buried by the leadership. In my reporting, I was also told that there had been a problem with some of the Marines. And the Pentagon, when they were asked for comment, acknowledged that there had been problems with some U.S. military personnel for suspected use, though in the case of the Marines, at least, they said that it was marijuana, not heroin. A lot of hashish is also produced in Afghanistan
He gives his views on this topic and the failed war on terrorism in an accompanying interview on the Web page.The New Yorker: Online Only
