April 3, 2004

Isn't This A Kind Of Torture? "The Guardian has uncovered more than a dozen instances in which ill or injured soldiers were sent to war by a US military whose resources have been stretched near to breaking point by the simultaneous fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq. In its investigation, the Guardian learned of soldiers who were deployed with almost wilful disregard to their medical histories, and with the most cursory physical examinations. Soldiers went to war with chronic illnesses such as coronary disease, mental illness, arthritis, diabetes and the nervous condition, Tourette's syndrome, or after undergoing recent surgery." ... When will newspapers in this country report on these stories?

Did you know that as Richard Clarke was testifying before the 9/11 Commission, Bush's top lawyer placed a call to at least one (and probably two) of the Commission's five Republicans? White House counsel Alberto Gonzales called Fred Fielding and may have called James Thompson. Was Gonzalez giving the two men some talking points with which to attempt to discredit Clarke?

9/11 Commission member Jamie Gorelick on the Bush Gang's refusal to turn over thousands of Clinton's terrorism papers: "We can't afford to have documents that are relevant to our inquiry being withheld on a technicality. This is not litigation. This is finding facts to help the nation, and we should not treat this as if we're adversarial parties here." If this isn't litigation, why is the White House acting like a defendant?

"Take Your President to Work Day" -- The White House must be terrified of what Bush could say to the 9/11 Commission if they are insisting that Cheney be alongside him for the duration of the meeting. I'm no Clinton defender -- but can you imagine the jokes and non-stop coverage if he had refused to testify unless he had a handler or Al Gore sitting beside him? ... Seriously. Can you imagine it? Because I've been trying for hours and I can't.

No comments: