Biffster’s World

Friday was a bad news day for the Bush administration. The truth is coming out, which is a bad thing for an administration that relies so much on lies and half-truths. The last thing that the Bush administration wants aired is the truth. Yet the truth has a habit of always being discovered, always being freed. It is inevitable that, eventually, someone will hear the truth, and then the truth will spread.

First up was the truth about Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. Quoting the Associated Press article (via http://news.yahoo.com):

Saddam Hussein regarded al-Qaida as a threat rather than a possible ally, a Senate report says, contradicting assertions President Bush has used to build support for the war in Saddam Hussein regarded al-Qaida as a threat rather than a possible ally, a Senate report says, contradicting assertions President Bush has used to build support for the war in Iraq.

Released Friday, the report discloses for the first time an October 2005 CIA assessment that before the war, Saddam’s government “did not have a relationship, harbor or turn a blind eye toward” al-Qaida operative Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or his associates.

The Bush administration has been trying to tie Iraq and al-Qaida together ever since they started trying to push for the Iraq war. But not only was their no connection between Saddam and al-Qaida, we now know that Hussein didn’t even like al-Qaida. Ironically enough, Saddam agreed with us when it came to al-Qaida. If we hadn’t have invaded Iraq, Saddam would’ve worked to keep al-Qaida out of Iraq. By attacking and destablizing Iraq’s government, we opened the door for al-Qaida to establish a foothold in Iraq.

Not good. Definitely not good.

The second bit of news that came out over the weekend is that our intelligence agencies can’t find hide nor hair of Osama Bin Laden (via the Washington Post):

The clandestine U.S. commandos whose job is to capture or kill Osama
bin Laden have not received a credible lead in more than two years.
Nothing from the vast U.S. intelligence world — no tips from
informants, no snippets from electronic intercepts, no points on any
satellite image — has led them anywhere near the al-Qaeda leader,
according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

“The handful of assets
we have have given us nothing close to real-time intelligence” that
could have led to his capture, said one counterterrorism official, who
said the trail, despite the most extensive manhunt in U.S. history, has
gone “stone cold.”

Now, this would already be bad. But this is even worse news, because it turns out that we had a chance to captura Osama in Tora Bora:

This calculation is based largely on a lack of activity elsewhere and
on other intelligence, including a videotape, obtained exclusively by
the CIA and not previously reported, that shows bin Laden walking on a
trail toward Pakistan at the end of the battle of Tora Bora in December
2001, when U.S. forces came close but failed to capture him. [Emphasis mine]

We had the opportunity to capture the perpetrator of the most gruesome attack ever on American soil. We were able to get him on videotape. But instead of concentrating all of our forces on Tora Bora to track Osama down and bring him to justice, we instead started reassigning forces for the upcoming invasion of Iraq.

It is very good that this information is coming to light. As more and more information is released, more people will have to take notice.

The tide is turning.

I was planning on writing a massive rant on how horrible Bush’s veto of the stem cell research bill was, ’til I saw this Daily Show clip where Jon Stewart skewers this much better than I ever could. So I’ll just link to that here instead:

I still don’t understand how Bush can handle his own hipocracy. And the next time that someone says that an embry is a “human life,” I think I am gonna scream. I also want to know why it is better that excess embryos from fertility clinics are destroyed rather than used for research that could save millions of lives…

How many ways do I love Steve Colbert? His bitterly-sarcastic skewering of right-wing tv hosts like Bill O’Reilly already won my heart. But then, his tongue-lashing of George W. Bush, with Bush sitting about six feet to Colbert’s left, totally won me over. How can you not love someone who would say this to George W’s face?

Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in “reality.” And reality has a well-known liberal bias.

But why take my word for it? Watch it yourself!

There’s another one down, as 9White House press secretary Scott McClellan is out!

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday he is resigning, continuing a shakeup in President Bush’s administration.Appearing with Bush on the White House South Lawn just before the president boarded a helicopter at the start a trip to Alabama, McClellan, who has parried especially fiercefully with reporters on Iraq and on intelligence issues, told Bush: “I have given it my all sir and I have given you my all sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary.”

I wonder if Scott will be able to sleep a little easier at night, now that he doesn’t have to get up in the morning and blatantly lie to the country…

MOsanthrope is brilliant and diabolically funny. There’s no other way to describe Hunting with the Vice Peep - a delicious re-enactment of Cheney’s hunting trip with those yummy marshmallow delicacies known as Peeps.

There are places where you expect to see people lashing out against the Bush administration’s civil liberties abuses, including DailyKos. And then there are places where you don’t expect it, such as on PC guru John C. Dvorak’s blog, Dvorak Uncensored. Dvorak takes the Bush administration to task in an entry titled “Erosion of Freedoms x 2″:

We old folks used to talk about Nixon and his imperial presidency. He was a lightweight in comparison to what’s going on these days.Erosion #1: DOJ: NSA Could’ve Monitored Lawyers’ Calls

The National Security Agency could have legally monitored ordinarily confidential communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and their clients, the Justice Department said Friday of its controversial warrantless surveillance program.

Responding to questions from Congress, the department also said that it sees no prohibition to using information collected under the NSA’s program in court.

Erosion #2: The Job of the FBI…

On March 14, [Common Cause President Chellie] Pingree participated on a panel on open government sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

A week after the panel, an FBI agent contacted the local League president, Susan Gilbert, to raise questions about Pingree’s published remarks at the panel.

For some reason, Roger Waters “The Tide Is Turning” keeps playing over and over in my head. I don’t know whether that gives me hope or makes me sad, though…

Bush actually says something worthwhile of a standing ovation, so the Democrats give hime one. And Crooks and Liars has the video!

The relevant section:

By 2030, spending for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid alone will be almost 60 percent of the entire Federal budget. And that will present future Congresses with impossible choices - staggering tax increases, immense deficits, or deep cuts in every category of spending.

Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security,.. [cue standing ovation by the Dems]

Brilliance, pure brilliance.

Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. Looks like this goes for a nation, as well as for individuals. Yahoo! News details that much of the debate over President Bush’s illegal wiretapping goes back a couple of decades:

“We strongly believe it is unwise for the president to concede any lack of constitutional power to authorize electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes,” Robert Ingersoll, then-deputy secretary of state, wrote in a 1976 memorandum to President Ford about the proposed bill on electronic surveillance.

[...]

George H.W. Bush, then director of the
CIA, wanted to ensure “no unnecessary diminution of collection of important foreign intelligence” occurred under the proposal to require judges to approve terror wiretaps, according to a March 1976 memorandum he wrote to the Justice Department.

And it’s unsurprising that the Bush Sr. was involved in trying to keep this power for the president. Still doesn’t change the fact that the FISA rules and the 4th Amendment make it illegal for the president to order warrantless wiretaps.

The Left Coaster has a pretty straight-forward (if very snarky) rundown of facts -vs- talking points regarding Bush’s illegal spying. This is great information that everyone needs before discussing this issue.