Ranting Nutjobs, and other political delights.
 

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

(1) As set forth in the Lord Butler report, the phony set of documents were not relevant. I also note that Wilson cited these as evidence backing his claim, even though they didn't come to light until 8 months after his "report."

By "not relevant," you mean "now not the only things the Brits say they were relying upon." They are highly relevant, and no one outside England knows of any other support.

As for Wilson, he explains himself in the six-page statement neither you nor Slave apparently can be bothered to read, but -- again -- you are discussing Wilson's credibility, and I am discussing something much more important.

(2) Take it up with Lord Butler

You may have noticed that he is not a U.S. government official, and I would prefer that we only go to war when U.S. government officials have first-hand knowledge of the cassus belli.

(3) They had a nuclear program. It may not have been as advanced as we thought, but it was there.

It was shuttered some time before. We now know it was not active.

(4) It is true what you say about the mines . . . in Niger. Niger is not Africa, however.

Yes. And then there's what I said earlier. But if you're going to stop relying on Niger, maybe you owe Wilson some kind of apology for trashing him.

(5) Wilson, himself, cites evidence that Iraq sought uranium in 1999.

That is, at best, an overstatement.

(6) Scare is a pejorative term. He laid out what he believed to be true. At the same time, Saddam was in violation of 1441 and was playing games with the inspectors. And, of course, the nation had just been bombed 1 year before, and the intelligence agenices were roundly being criticized for "not connecting the dots." What do you think dots look like? Hint: it is not a perfect picture where, if you work hard enough and are smart enough, you get an infallable answer. Frankly, I would be calling for Bush's removal had he not done what he did.

Do you really believe that Bush had any "belief" about Iraq & WMD? Transparently, he had decided to invade, and was looking for a pretext. The intel was boiled down to a [b]single page[b] for him. Give me a break.

Saddam was in violation of 1441? BFD. Like you guys give a rat's ass about UN resolutions at any other time. When the UN passes resolutions about Israel, you scoff, and not without good reason. And "games with the inspectors"? Please. Hans Blix was there, looked in the places our intel suggested, and found nothing. Nada.

We're not talking about getting an infallible answer here. We're talking about being flat-out wrong. Iraq's so-called WMD were no threat to us. Meanwhile, Iran has a nuclear program and ties with Al Qaeda, but we shot our wad in Iraq.

Hank, Hank, Hank
 

And this is why you'll see more military personnel vote Democrat this year than in a long, long time.

Compare Kerry's understand of being in battle with Bush's lack thereof and the apparent desire of the R's to not even talk about what the soldiers are going through (and to not even let the coffins be photographed for example).

It's not unpatriotic to acknowledge that war is hell. Indeed, it is part of appreciating what soldiers are doing for us.

Weapons of Thread Destruction
 

It wouldn't let me start it. I would like you to rename it "Ranting Nutjobs" though please.

"Moore" on Linda
 

Apparently, booing is becoming commonplace on the '04 Ronstadt tour:

"Those fans who came to Wolf Trap on Wednesday to hear tunes from when Linda Ronstadt wore satin short shorts and roller skates -- and the place teemed with 'em -- went away disappointed....

The biggest excitement of the night, by a long shot, came when Ronstadt then dedicated her encore of "Desperado" to filmmaker Michael Moore, kick-starting a boo-cheer competition throughout the venue that drowned out her singing and left grown-ups in tuxes and evening gowns yelling at each other on their way to the parking lot."

Homeland security
 

In a mild panic, I started reading a yahoo article entitled " Man sought for taking photos of refineries". The man apparently was seen taking photos in Texas City, which is about 30 miles south of here. You may remember that Texas City has the dubious distinction of being the site of the largest industrial accident in the United States. Nearly 600 people died in 1947 when an uncontrolled fire hit a ship full of ammonium nitrate and a few chemical plants. My dad--who was sitting in a kindergarden classroom over 50 miles away--was knocked out of his chair by the blast and still bears scars from the flying glass, so I'm not really comforted at the distance from here to Texas City if something were to happen there.

Anyhow, the guy who is investigating the photographer seems competent, and I'm comforted that he's not leaving any avenue unexplored. "This is based on the idea that al Qaeda does its homework," Clawson said. "That's not to say we don't have enough home-grown idiots already who might want to do something."

Here's hoping that it's a harmless idiot.

Weapons of Thread Destruction
 

How about "Nutjobs Ranting About Politics"?

Hank, Hank, Hank
 

My posts are going to change military votes? and if you really believe the military will be voting democrat this year, will you please get word to Kerry's people not to exclude such a high numbers of the absentee military ballots the way Gore did in Florida. tell him hos you think he might be getting some of 'em.

Max Cleland revives the mantra
 

and gives new meaning to the words "Stump Speech"*

"US Democrats stepped up attacks on George W. Bush's anti-terror policies when an official of White House candidate John Kerry's campaign said the president "flat-out lied" over the Iraq war.

Former senator Max Cleland made his remarks in a conference call to reporters with Democratic chairman Terry McAuliffe as part of a party offensive ahead of this week's release of a major report sure to fuel criticism of Bush's war on terror.

Cleland, a national co-chairman of Kerry's campaign, described the Bush administration's arguments that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and ties to al-Qaeda terrorists, as a "pack of lies."

The former lawmaker from the southern state of Georgia defended the vote that he, Kerry and others cast in the Senate to authorize military intervention in Iraq, saying the Congress was "flat-out lied to."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...iraq_democrats

*admit it, this one is funny.

Originally posted by Slave

As remarked here and elsewhere, some phony, some not.

What's not phony? The truth is, we have no idea what else the British may have been relying on, although we know they were relying in part on bogus information. You have no problem with buying a big in a poke, it seems.

Its program (or programme as the Economist likes to call it) was shuttered and Saddam, by most accounts, intended to ramp it back up once the UN sanctions were lifted. So to say "no program" is misleading.

And I indeed to buy a new 911 as soon as I have the money, but I am no threat to be doing so soon.

Isn't "French control" an oxymoron?

Nicely done. Now work in the flood thing.

Uranium constitutes near 80% of Niger's exports - was this the rainy season?

Oops -- I guess we have to give the French some credit.

I like how you include the words "now know"

You'll recall that the Admininstration classified the material which undermined the war effort, so none of us were privy to all of it before the war. eta: Max Cleland knows more about this than I do.

Max Cleland revives the mantra
 

And you seriously think you're the first to have thought of it?

Max Cleland revives the mantra
 

I'm sure that somewhere, somehow, Paigow claimed to invent it.

This is rich.
 

A British paper reports that their other source was the French:

• Though it has not been stated in the four official inquiries into British intelligence, London's source for its claims about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium - widely repeated in the US until discredited - almost certainly came from French intelligence.

The Guardian

Too fucking funny. Am now waiting for Right Blogistan to line up to say that if the French told the Brits, it must be true.

your illiberal media
 

Radio & TV -- from which most people get their news -- give more money to Republicans than Democrats:

http://jackotoole.net/misc/tv-radio-dollars.gif

Carry on.

"Moore" on Linda
 

Were they booing because:

(a) Linda R dedicated a song to Michael Moore, an implicit compliment?

(b) Linda R dedicated a song to Michael Moore that starts with the line "why don't you come to your senses", a clear insult?

or

(c) because they finally realized that they had paid money to hear a washed up singer who belongs in a parody of a Vegas lounge act?