The Latest Senate Intel Report

The Times has a front-pager and an editorial on the new Senate Intelligence Committee report on pre-war Iraq intelligence.  Here is the 57 page .pdf on the CIA role and a 172 page .pdf on public statements of various Administration officials.  Page 165 of the .pdf is the section of the Minority Views that recites some public statements of Hilary Clinton, Jay Rockefeller, and Dick Durbin.

My To-Do list is lengthening, but dig in.

Comments

[kim]

There was a dubious source code named Joe Wilson who passed on the information that Saddam would use his biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction on US troops if we invaded, in an LATimes op-ed of 2/6/03. The NYTimes, once happy to mention his name, neglects this intelligent bit.
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[eightnine2718281828mu5]

shorter intel report:

"Muddle-headed presidents pursue muddle-headed policies"

[bgates]

It sure looks like fun to summarize things you haven't read! Let me try.
shorter "The Brothers Karamazov":
"three guys get eaten by a gorilla"

[bad]

Did the times read the report or did they just read the sound bites from McClellan's "book?"

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

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It sure looks like fun to summarize things you haven't read!
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George!!! Is that you, W?

[Syl]

The Democrats, confident of victory, lost 49 states because they misread the calendar.

'I was sure it was still 2003' said Howard Dean. 'It's quite embarrassing'.

[qrstuv]

eightnine,
There will be a day when your lot are regarded the same way the Copperheads are now regarded.

Remember, they didn't think we should keep the Union together. Presumably slavery wasn't that big a deal with them, so it didn't matter to them what the south did. Certainly it wasn't worth fighting over.

[PeterUK]

The usual shit by the usual suspects.
We have a global credit crunch,global warming,cooling,staying the same but costing a mint,Assorted loop the loops sitting on the worlds energy resources,madmen with nuclear weapons and an unprecedented global migration.
That is just some of it and these berks are living in the twilight zone of half a decade ago.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

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There will be a day when your lot are regarded the same way the Copperheads are now regarded.
---

There will also be a day when your lot will be tagged with the epithet 'Bushist'.

[qrstuv]

Eightnine,
That would only happen if the notion of freedom and democracy becomes as devalued as you would like it to be.

But then the last few years it's become obvious that so-called progressives are deeply and bitterly opposed to democracy anyway.

[kim]

Hah, eightnine, you're gonna miss him when he's gone; in fact, you miss him already.
====================

[PeterUK]

"There will also be a day when your lot will be tagged with the epithet 'Bushist'."

OOooohh!! Scary!

[bgates]

George!!! Is that you, W?
You're implying the President would do something you just did, and you think he's an idiot.
Go lay down for a while.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

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That would only happen if the notion of freedom and democracy becomes as devalued as you would like it to be.
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Freedom, eh?

Let's hear a bit from our libertarian friends since on their signature issue.

http://publiusendures.blogspot.com/2008/05/why-obama-could-be-best-dem-president.html

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I still have every intention of supporting Bob Barr this election as an F-You to the Republicans. But stuff like this gives me hope that a President Obama actually would undo a lot of the harm done by President Bush and Co.:
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[Jane]

Right, you want to make sure we get attacked right 89? You want the economy to tank, taxes rise, layoffs to happen. You want to lose in Iraq.

Tell us how you love this country again.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

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OOooohh!! Scary!
---

It certainly is to John McCain; he's been going to great lengths to avoid appearing with Bush in front of cameras.

But of course we got 'the hug', which is the only pic we need for November.

[Syl]

If he's really a libertarian he'll just LOVE that 'shared prosperity' thing Obama is touting!

Not.

[Soylent Red]

a President Obama actually would undo a lot of the harm done by President Bush and Co.:

Problem is that he would simultaneously undo a lot of the good done by Jefferson, Madison, and Co.

Don't pretend to be a libertarian and then spout such nonsense. NO libertarian would ever vote for Obama. Even though we are dealing with shades of statism in this election, I assure that Obama is the deepest shade of statism we have to choose from.

[Soylent Red]

deepest shade of statism

Now call me a racist for that. Please. Obama wants you to.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

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Right, you want to make sure we get attacked right 89?
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Like when O'Reilly gave terrorists the green light to take out San Francisco?

And Coulter was disappointed that they didn't blow up the NYTimes?

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Tell us how you love this country again.
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Yeah, you guys have loved it to death; time for a little less of that kind of love.

[SteveMG]

Then Congressman from Georgia Bob Barr supported the 2002 Iraq Resolution which authorized the use of force.

He used the same arguments that the White House.

[Obama]

time for a little less of that kind of love.

More nanny state. That's what we need.

[Obama]

And a dash of surrender.

[bgates]

89 - do you embrace Obama's criminal and racists associates, or do you consider them the price you have to pay to destroy all hope of democracy in the Arab world?

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

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89 - do you embrace Obama's criminal and racists associates
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Sure, why not; you guys spent the last 7 years embracing Bush's. All balances out in the end I guess.

[RichatUF]

Another report, does this make something like four in this country alone. Surprised that this bit made it into the time:

graf-

The report on the prewar statements found that on some important issues, most notably on what was believed to be Iraq’s nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs, the public statements from Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and other senior officials were generally “substantiated” by the best estimates at the time from American intelligence agencies. But it found that the administration officials’ statements usually did not reflect the intelligence agencies’ uncertainties about the evidence or the disputes among them.

So. The Bush Administration, already saddled with Clinton's War in Iraq, made an unnuanced political case of the Iraq threat based on the best estimates of US intelligence at the time. It took the Rockefeller Committee 5 years to do this. Why?

Oh yea. Oops.

[kim]

That's flimsey, not whimsey, eightninesy.
======================

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

And the nanny state thing; haven't noticed republicans being shy about making full use of the levers of Big Government when they were at the helm.

[kim]

Just what is so enervating about libertarians; all this pushing of big levers.
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[eightnine2718281828mu5]

I like your style, kim; probably not eye2eye on many issues, but style goes a long way in my book.

You can at least entertain me while you insult me. :-)

[PeterUK]

eightnine2718281828mu5 Not much of a libertarian,they have names not numbers.

"It certainly is to John McCain; he's been going to great lengths to avoid appearing with Bush in front of cameras."

You know this for a fact,how exactly?

[kim]

You remind me of a Pauliac I had lovely conversations with on Wizbang 6 months ago. We had fun, fun, fun, 'til the Daddy took the T vowels away.
======================

[Obama]

Sir:

Those, uh, you know, criminal and racist associates you, uh, refer to are, uh, not, sort of, uh, the same criminal and racist associates I thought I knew.

Uh, let me clarify...

This is, uh, the exact kind of distraction that, uh, the failed policies of the Bush administration, uh have forced on people, to uh, sort of, make them uh, you know, fearful. I can, uh, no more distance myslef from these, uh, you know, criminals and racists, then I can distance myself from my grandmother.

Uh, what I obviously meant by that statement was, uh, you know, uh...

Hope and Change.

[PeterUK]

"89 - do you embrace Obama's criminal and racists associates
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Sure, why not; you guys spent the last 7 years embracing Bush's. All balances out in the end I guess."

Not so much the libertarian as the opportunist.

[bgates]

89, which are you looking forward to more - the unabashed racism of an Obama presidency, or seeing an Israeli city get nuked? You can say 'both'. I'm betting it's both.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

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You know this for a fact,how exactly?
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http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/05/19/daily77.html?surround=lfn

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A Tuesday fundraiser headlined by President Bush for U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign is being moved out of the Phoenix Convention Center.

Sources familiar with the situation said the Bush-McCain event was not selling enough tickets to fill the Convention Center space, and that there were concerns about more anti-war protesters showing up outside the venue than attending the fundraiser inside.

Another source said there were concerns about the media covering the event.
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[Soylent Red]

Who left the door to the monkey house open today?

More importantly, when are we going to kick off drunken NIE writing?

[PeterUK]

"Sources familiar with the situation said the Bush-McCain event was not selling enough tickets to fill the Convention Center space, and that there were concerns about more anti-war protesters showing up outside the venue than attending the fundraiser inside."

That o numb one puts Bush and McCain together,maybe not with anyone else but definitely together.

[Clarice]

Anytime you're ready, Soylent, take it away..

[RichatUF]

More from the Times-

The report on Iraq on Thursday was especially critical of statements by the president and vice president linking Iraq to Al Qaeda...

Now why was it that NYT worked overtime, with some creative leaking from the DNI, to pull the Harmony Documents off the net where researchers and scholars had access. I remember this project...Iraqi Perspectives Project...they produced this not widely read report* which the media has generally ignored. AT had a useful write up.

*written in that wonderful NIEese with such clear and useful phrasing as, "...these documents do not reveal direct coordination and assistance between the Saddam regime and the al Qaeda network, they do indicate that Saddam was willing to use, albeit cautiously, operatives affiliated with al Qaeda..." Then further in the report it details direct coordination and assistance to "al Qeada affiliated groups" and Zawahiri. As if Saddam's caution was a sign of benevolent intent.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

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or seeing an Israeli city get nuked?
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Yeah, I remember the nukes flying the last time the dems were in the whitehouse. Of course the Trilateral Commission covered it all up right after they blocked laetrile sales.

[Lincoln is overrated]

eightnine,
There will be a day when your lot are regarded the same way the Copperheads are now regarded.

Remember, they didn't think we should keep the Union together. Presumably slavery wasn't that big a deal with them, so it didn't matter to them what the south did. Certainly it wasn't worth fighting over.

Presumably slavery wasn't a big enough deal to fight over in Lincoln's mind either, seeing he said in 1861 that he wasn't opposed to the first 13th Amendment which would have made slavery a States' rights issue, and said in 1862 that if he could save the Union without freeing a single slave, he would do it.

That's good ol' Abe for you, a principled man for ALL of the people!!!

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

Abe the Opportunist; not quite the same ring as the Great Emancipator

[PeterUK]

"Yeah, I remember the nukes flying the last time the dems were in the whitehouse. "

Harry S Truman - Hiroshima - Nagasaki.

[Soylent Red]

First, we must choose a country. Since I am hungry for Chinese, and in need of beer, I will leave the decision up to all of you.

Perhaps beer and Chinese will help drive away the trolls.

[RichatUF]

How about an NIE on the last "intelligence report"?

Introduction: In the last 5 years the Senate Intelligence Committee, which has access to documentation and personnel, and has a significant budget to investigate these matters, has undertaken an investigation into the unnuanced political statements Bush Administration figures regarding Iraq between Sept 12 2001 and Feb 2003. We have found many of these statements unnuanced, at times belligerent, and sometimes the Bush Administration made complete statements which were political in character and intent.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

OT, but self parody doesn't get any better than this:

Count Harvard University’s Drew Faust as one higher-education leader who recognizes that the debate over how wealthy universities use their endowments is an issue unlikely to fade away. Yesterday, she chose one of the university’s most ceremonial of occasions and locations, the graduation ceremony at Harvard Yard, to introduce a very visible defense.

“In recent months, Harvard’s $35-billion endowment has become something of a target — publicly both envied and maligned,” said Ms. Faust in her speech.

“But it is poorly understood. Endowments represent a concrete embodiment of our accountability to the past and to the future,” she continued. “They derive from our history and the dreams of those who have preceded us; they are in turn the vehicle that enables us to project our own dreams into the future.”

Harvard’s endowment provides “resources and the independence to support work that may not pay off in the short term,” she said, and that is valuable to society. “In an era in which large and important financial organizations have been known to disappear over a weekend, universities are durable, proven institutions, here for the long haul. —Goldie Blumenstyk

[sbw]

As always. Ne pas feedez les trolls. They have no attention span when they are ignored. Well.

Of course, they have no attention span when they are not ignored, either.

[eightnine2718281828mu5]

---
Harry S Truman - Hiroshima - Nagasaki.
---

Republicans are quite happy putting lead down range; it's the contemplation of return fire that makes them wet their pants.

[bad]

Via Jonah Goldberg at NRO

From San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford:

Barack Obama isn't really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway.

This is what I find myself offering up more and more in response to the whiners and the frowners and to those with broken or sadly dysfunctional karmic antennae - or no antennae at all - to all those who just don't understand and maybe even actively recoil against all this chatter about Obama's aura and feel and MLK/JFK-like vibe.

To them I say, all right, you want to know what it is? The appeal, the pull, the ethereal and magical thing that seems to enthrall millions of people from all over the world, that keeps opening up and firing into new channels of the culture normally completely unaffected by politics?

No, it's not merely his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiring rhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a black president will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand different ways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn't have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity.

Dismiss it all you like, but I've heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who've been intuitively blown away by Obama's presence - not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence - to say it's just a clever marketing ploy, a slick gambit carefully orchestrated by hotshot campaign organizers who, once Obama gets into office, will suddenly turn from perky optimists to vile soul-sucking lobbyist whores, with Obama as their suddenly evil, cackling overlord.

Here's where it gets gooey. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

The unusual thing is, true Lightworkers almost never appear on such a brutal, spiritually demeaning stage as national politics. This is why Obama is so rare. And this why he is so often compared to Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., to those leaders in our culture whose stirring vibrations still resonate throughout our short history.

But there simply is no denying that extra kick. As one reader put it to me, in a way, it's not even about Obama, per se. There's a vast amount of positive energy swirling about that's been held back by the armies of BushCo darkness, and this energy has now found a conduit, a lightning rod, is now effortlessly self-organizing around Obama's candidacy. People and emotions and ideas of high and positive vibration are automatically draw to him. It's exactly like how Bush was a magnet for the low vibrational energies of fear and war and oppression and aggression, but, you know, completely reversed. And different. And far, far better.

Who needs to slog through musty old information, facts and figures, etc... when one can just let the light vibrate the truth into your soul?