Kevin e-mails to note Greg Palast's latest which is a letter to John Conyers:
It's official: The Downing Street memos, a snooty New York Times "News Analysis" informs us, "are not the Dead Sea Scrolls." You are warned, Congressman, to ignore the clear evidence of official mendacity and bald-faced fibbing by our two nations' leaders because the cry for investigation came from the dark and dangerous world of "blogs" and "opponents" of Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush.
On May 5, "blog" site Buzzflash.com carried my story, IMPEACHMENT TIME: "FACTS WERE FIXED," bringing the London Times report of the Downing Street memo to US media which seemed to be suffering at the time from an attack of NADD -- "news attention deficit disorder."
The memo, which contains the ill-making admission that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed" to match the Iraq-crazed fantasies of our President, is sufficient basis for a hearing toward impeachment of the Chief Executive. But to that we must add the other evidence and secret memos and documents still hidden from the American public. Other foreign-based journalists could doubtless add more, including the disclosure that the key inspector of Iraq's biological weapons, the late Dr. David Kelly, found the Bush-Blair analysis of his intelligence was indeed "fixed," as the Downing Street memo puts it, around the war-hawk policy.
Here is a small timeline of confidential skullduggery dug up and broadcast by my own team for BBC Television and Harper's on the secret plans to seize Iraq's assets and oil.
What follows the above excerpt is a timeline worth reading. Hope that got you interested and that you'll seek out Palast's entry. And add Palast to the list that includes Danny Schechter and Bob Somerby as people who've weighed in on the Todd Purdum article.
Kara notes Jude's comments (Iddybud) on Thomas Friedman:
I would also remind Mr. Friedman that he was taken in by the administration himself, and I believe it's partly because he is an opitimist and wants to see success in the region. That said, Mr. Friedman is not being intellectually honest in presenting any provable form of truth in his all-too general interpretation of how "liberal" Americans feel and/or think "deep-down." That's voo-doo mind-reading malarkey and, needless to say, it is not at all professional. I'd remind Mr. Friedman that we'd all like to see peace and prosperity in the region and that we do not cheer at the news stories of dead civilians and soldiers. To the contrary, it breaks our hearts.How dare he make such sweeping generalizations? I am deeply offended.
Laraine e-mailed to note Folding Star's latest at A Winding Road. It's worth reading but here's an excercise you can do with it, note the Gore Vidal excerpt. We excerpted from it, Folding Star excerpts from it. Obviously, Folding Star is a part of this community and someone we support. But when you read it, note that two people who agree can still find different things to highlight. (Yes, I'm saying think of it in terms of the boycott I nixed in the last entry.) Folding Star's highlighting some great passages from the article. Hopefully, we did as well. People can emphasize what they see as important and should.
Finally, In Dallas e-mails regarding a post at Ron's site (Why Are We Back In Iraq?). Ron's addressing the issues of mailings and the link is coming up but note first that Ron is proud to be a not work environment friendly site. So the f-word pops up a great deal in the entry. You've been warned. Click here to read his point about the mailings saying "Send money! Send money!" We dealt with that issue when we were addressing the myth of the "red states." We've also noted that the Democratic Party needs to do more to reach out and stop contacting just when they want money. Ron's reaction is at gut level and honest and party leaders would do well to pay attention to it because a message is sent of "if you can't pay, you can't play."
If that's too confusing for anyone, let's say that every time we see Harry Reid at the grocery store, he walks over to ask to borrow money. After awhile, we'll hurry to avoid him, even abandoning our carts and groceries just to get away. The Democratic Party needs to work really hard on letting all members know that they are included.
(I know we have third party members and if that ended up sounding like it was rah-rah Democratic Party, my apologies. I'm dead tired.)
I know I summarized the last two and I probably did a lousy job on the two excerpts but I'm tired and calling it a night.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
