June 8,  2004 Tuesday

Agency's document justified torturing


Deemed necessary to prevent terrorism



Washington Post 6-8-04

WASHINGTON - In August 2002, the Justice Department advised the White House that torturing al-Qaida terrorists in captivity abroad "may be justified," and that international laws against torture "may be unconstitutional if applied to interrogations" conducted in President Bush's war on terrorism, according to a newly obtained memo..

Ashcroft Says Bush Rejects Use of Torture
Guardian, UK 

Is Tenet where the buck stops?
Boston Globe, MA - June 8, 2004.

THE PAIN ON President Bush's face when he announced the resignation of CIA Director George Tenet was evident. ...

Remedies for Prisoner Abuse 

Washington Post Editorial 6-7-04
THE ONLY WAY to staunch the continuing damage of the prisoner abuse scandal is for the Bush administration to fully document and publicly report on the dozens of cases of homicide and physical abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan...


I don't trust an Attorney General that speaks in tongues.


"They remind me of teenagers who got their inheritance too soon and couldn't wait to blow it." --Bill Clinton on the Bush White House



The-World-Is-A-Safer-Place-Without-Saddam-News


Florida Voter Viagra

Elections chief in Florida resigns

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 6-8-04

Kast quits as Florida elections chief 5 months before election

Less than five months before the Nov. 2 election, veteran elections official Ed Kast is quitting his job overseeing the state's voting machinery. Secretary of State Glenda Hood named the agency's top lawyer, Dawn Roberts, to replace him…



 

One sunny day in 2005 an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the U. S. Marine standing guard and said, "I would like to go in and meet with President Bush."
The Marine looked at the man and said, "Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here."
The old man said, "Okay" and walked away.
The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, "I would like to
go in and meet with President Bush." The Marine again told the man, "Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer
president and no longer resides here." The man thanked him and, again, just walked away.
The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same U. S. Marine,
saying "I would like to go in and meet with President Bush."
The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, "Sir, this is the third
day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I've told you already that Mr. Bush is no
longer the president and no longer resides here. Don't you understand?"
The old man looked at the Marine and said, "Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it."
The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "See you tomorrow."


Sent in by Joi


Are you a Democrat or a Republican?

“I am not a registered anything. I vote both parties. I did vote for Bush. My husband did, too. Now we're A.B.B. -- Anyone but Bush. We have lost the moral high ground in this country”. – Sherron Watkins – Enron Whistleblower in a New York Times Interview


New Documents Suggest Enron's Lay, Skilling, Washington Lobbyist Knew About Company's Trading Schemes In California
The Baltimore Chronicle, MD - 6-7-04

…On May 17, 2001, Enron Chairman Ken Lay called a secret meeting at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., in an effort to get some of the state's rich and famous to lobby the California Legislature about getting "deregulation right this time." Lay apparently paid close attention to Enron's trading profits. A few months earlier, Sue Mara, an Enron governmental affairs employee phoned Bob Badeer, an Enron trader, with a question from Ken Lay. Following public comments by Davis about the state of California's energy crisis, Mara said Lay personally wanted to know if Davis's comments had affected the price of power in the forward market. That Lay would be interested in such minute details contradicts the former chairman's public statements that he had no idea about the shenanigans taking place inside of Enron.

California's current Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who unseated Davis in a contentious recall election last year, attended the meeting at the Peninsula Hotel with Lay, as did former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and junk-bond king Michael Milken and other luminaries. Lay handed the attendees a seven-page document that contained so-called solutions to the state's electricity crisis….

George, Ken and Benito
Aljazeerah.info 



"It was as if Osama bin Laden, hidden in some high mountain redoubt, were engaging in long-range mind control of George Bush, chanting 'invade Iraq, you must invade Iraq." --Richard Clarke, Bush's former counterterrorism coordinator, on Bush's response to 9/11


Disturbing News



"I don't think he's stupid. I think we're stupid, because if we weren't, he wouldn't talk to us this way." –-Daily Show host Jon Stewart, on President Bush


Republican Shenanigans


Gallup Approval Rating for Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush2


How sweet it is: Respect for Clinton rebounds among Americans

USA Today 5-23-03

...Only Abraham Lincoln (chosen by 15%) and John F. Kennedy (13%) finished ahead of Clinton (11%) in the April poll, which asked Americans who was "the greatest" president. George W. Bush managed to tie Clinton for third place.

Ronald Reagan, a conservative icon, garnered 10% of the vote, followed by Franklin Roosevelt, George Washington, Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter. Bush's father, the 41st president, was chosen by just 2% of the respondents, tying with Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson. ..

So Clinton was more popular than Reagan in 2003.  Gee, listening to the cable news channels I  sure thought otherwise. I found this article on Altercation .


 


On This Day

In 1985, Shiite Moslem gunmen commandeered TWA Flight 847 carrying 153 passengers and crew from Athens to Rome. The ordeal ended 17 days later in Beirut, where one of the hostages, a U.S. sailor, was killed.


 

Biz/Tech News

 

Good News


Military Families Protest Iraq Services
Wilmington Morning Star, NC - 6-8-04

It's been 550 days since members of the 94th Military Police Company left their homes. Children have been born, marriages delayed, jobs put on hold. And family members Monday demanded...


"I wouldn't kick President Bush out of my bed." --Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Carson Kressley


The transit of Venus across the sun is projected onto a hand.  Five transits of Venus have been recorded -- the last occurred in 1882. (HO)

Peace.