The Truth Handler

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Bush Started Listening to Americans' Phone Calls BEFORE 9/11

Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm - washingtonpost.com

For all you Neocon apologists who answer, "9/11" to any question as to why you're OK with Bush doing things contradictory to the Constitution, read this. His fascist, totalitarian tendencies were already there.

Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products.

Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV' - Independent Online Edition > Americas

Wow. Add propaganda to the list now. How does this guy still have supporters?

US-Russia missile defense talks fail

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned President Bush's top two Cabinet officials on Friday to back off U.S. missile defense plans for eastern Europe as high-level talks yielded little more than a pledge to meet again.

US-Russia missile defense talks fail - Yahoo! News

We make them rich by staying dependant on their oil, we make them paranoid by having a unilateral, pre-emptive foreign policy, we give their leaders moral justification for spying, torturing, and detaining without legal representation of their own citizens, and we destroy the U.S.'s reputation as the shining beacon on the hill, so the citizens of Russia have fewer role models in the world with which to demand change...then we question why Putin acts so boldly and refuses to work with us.

Blackwater Guards Disarm U.S. Soldiers and Make Them Lie on Ground

The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV.

Does Blackwater Play By Its Own Rules in Iraq? - Newsweek: World News - MSNBC.com

Blackwater Guards Fired At Fleeing Civilians

Blackwater USA guards shot at Iraqi civilians as they tried to drive away from a Baghdad square on Sept. 16, according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene, where they found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons.

Soldiers: Blackwater guards fired at fleeing cars - Washington Post - MSNBC.com

US General Damns Iraq 'Nightmare'

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US general damns Iraq 'nightmare'

Gen Ricardo Sanchez: US leaders "incompetent" and "corrupted". Calls Iraq "a nightmare with no end in sight".

Nevada Straw Poll: Romney Shows Up, Ron Paul Wins

Ron Paul won the GOP presidential straw poll conducted by organizers at the Conservative Leadership Conference held at the Nugget Casino this weekend “by a large margin,” according to an organizer.Paul won with 32 percent, McCain came in second with 17 percent, Hunter was third with 15 percent, and "Romney was in the lower numbers because people came out for his event but they just didn't vote for him," according to organizer and McCain operative Paul Jackson.

Despite Showing Up In Person, Romney Loses Nev. Straw Poll - First Read - msnbc.com

Friday, October 12, 2007

NSA punishes Qwest for refusing to spy on Americans

Documents released in an insider trading trial yesterday reveal that “the National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program.” In the documents, former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio is quoted as saying “the request was both inappropriate and illegal, and repeatedly refusing to go along with it.” Nacchio’s lawyer said the CEO “refused to turn over customer telephone records because he didn’t think the NSA program had legal standing.”

Think Progress » NSA punishes Qwest for refusing to spy on Americans.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Ron Paul: A New Hope

Tumors Found on 225 Italian Soldiers Serving in MidEast

A total of 255 Italian troops have contracted tumours in missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and the Balkans over the ten years from 1996 to 2006. Thirty-seven, or 14.5%, have died. The information came in a statement made by the defence minister, Arturo Parisi, to the Senate commission of inquiry into depleted uranium. In the same period, 1,427 troops not involved in missions abroad also contracted tumours.

Corriere.it

Number Of U.S. Army Recruits With Criminal Records Doubles

The U.S. Army met its recruiting goals for the last year but enlisted thousands of new soldiers with criminal records and fewer who have earned high school diplomas, according to figures released Wednesday.

Number Of U.S. Army Recruits With Criminal Records Doubles - Politics on The Huffington Post

They're having to reach deeper into the apple barrel to get people to go fight this thing. The next Ken Burns documentary on this war won't be the same, will it? The uneducated and criminal don't make as good an interview as "The Greatest Generation."

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

MN Solders Brought Home One Day Short of Receiving Full Benefits

Nearly half the members of one of the longest serving U.S. military units in Iraq are not eligible for a more generous military educational benefit, with some falling one day short of eligibility.

The Associated Press: Minnesota Soldiers' Benefits Fall Short

Turkey Begins Shelling Northern Iraq

Turkey is shelling suspected Kurdish rebel camps across the border in northern Iraq, a newspaper reported Wednesday, but the government appeared unlikely to move toward sending ground troops until next week.

Turkey Shells Rebels in Northern Iraq

Ron Paul on Chris Matthews

List of Countries Left in Coalition of the Willing

List of countries that still belong to U.S.-led coalition in Iraq - On Deadline - USATODAY.com

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Spy Flies Found at Political Events (with pic)

FOXNews.com - Spy Flies All the Buzz at Washington, N.Y. Political Events - Technology News | News On Technology

Keeping Marijuana Illegal Costs $70 Billion Annually

A new study finds the marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers $41.8 billion a year in law enforcement, diverts $113 billion from the legal economy, and loses a whopping $31.1 billion in revenue annually.

MotherJones.com | MoJoBlog - Social Issues and Political Commentary: Marijuana Laws Cost Taxpayers Billions

Remember, right-wingers are the ones telling you the left is for big government and "spending."

Army needs three to four years to recover from Iraq strains: chief

AFP: Army needs three to four years to recover from Iraq strains: chief

Monday, October 8, 2007

Polls: Bush's Numbers Closer to Nixon than Clinton for Impeachment

In March 2006, the Wall Street Journal found that public support for impeaching President Bush was nearly twice the peak support for impeaching President Clinton. This was in spite of eight years of 24/7 scandal mongering and impeachment talk and an actual impeachment trial in Clinton's case, and a virtual news blackout on the grassroots movement to impeach Bush.

Professor Smartass: Bush impeachment polls more like Nixon than Clinton

Isolationism vs. Non-Interventionism by Ron Paul

A non-interventionist foreign policy is not an isolationist foreign policy. It is quite the opposite. Under a Paul administration, the United States would trade freely with any nation that seeks to engage with us. American citizens would be encouraged to visit other countries and interact with other peoples rather than be told by their own government that certain countries are off limits to them...

It is not we non-interventionists who are isolationsists. The real isolationists are those who impose sanctions and embargoes on countries and peoples across the globe because they disagree with the internal and foreign policies of their leaders. The real isolationists are those who choose to use force overseas to promote democracy, rather than seek change through diplomacy, engagement, and by setting a positive example.

Union Leader - Rep. Ron Paul: I advocate the same foreign policy the Founding Fathers would - Monday, Oct. 8, 2007

Isolationist: N. Korea
Non-Interventionist: Switzerland

U.S. Embassy in Iraq Bigger than Vatican

The embassy, which will be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world, was budgeted at $592 million. The core project was supposed to have been completed by last month, but the timetable has slipped so much that the State Department has sought and received permission from the Iraqi government to allow about 2,000 non-Iraqi construction employees to stay in the country until March.

Iraq Embassy Cost Rises $144 Million Amid Project Delays - washingtonpost.com

Yet Another Report Saying War on Terror Making Terror Worse, Not Better

The so-called War on Terror has been a "disaster" and British military policy in Iraq and Afghanistan must be fundamentally changed if al Qaida is to be defeated, a new report states.The report, by the Oxford Research Group think tank, calls for major changes in foreign policy and warns of the dangers of military action against Iran.Iraq has become a training ground for violent jihadists and British and US forces should withdraw from the country immediately, it adds.

War on terror has been a 'disaster' | UK Latest | Guardian Unlimited

Saturday, October 6, 2007

U.S. Interrogation in WWII

"We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture..."

Fort Hunt's Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII

Nearly two dozen previously unknown Iraqi insurgent groups announced a new coalition to fight foreign occupation but it also set conditions for talks with the U.S. in a statement on a Web site affiliated with the country's deposed Baath party.

Iraq Insurgents Unite To Fight U.S.

ABC News Coverage of Ron Paul

When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations. But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations - New York Times

Congress Gives Military $2.5 Billion Worth of Airplanes They Don't Want

Defense bill provides home for earmarks | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Ron Paul Raises $5 Million in Q3

Ron Paul's 114 percent increase is in stark contrast to the decrease suffered by Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, and John McCain. Romney's fundraising was down 29 percent. Giuliani was down 40 percent. McCain was down 55 percent.

Ron Paul 2008: Press Release: Third Quarter Fundraising

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

What Does $87 Billion Look Like

A Little Visual Perspective on the $87 billion being spent on Iraq by Xinjo.com

Former Bush Lawyer Admits Eavesdropping Program Illegal

A former top lawyer for the Bush administration on Tuesday said that parts of the President Bush's controversial eavesdropping program were illegal.

Legality of Eavesdropping Questioned | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited

Israel says it bombed Syria

Nearly a month after a mysterious Israeli military airstrike in Syria generated political aftershocks from Washington to North Korea, the Israeli government lifted its official veil of secrecy Tuesday.It didn't provide much new information about what took place on Sept. 6, however. While its government censor cleared the way for journalists here to report that the incident had taken place, rigid rules remained in effect that ban reporting what the target was, what troops were involved or why the strike was ordered.

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 10/02/2007 | Israel says it bombed Syria, but why remains a mystery

OK folks, next time the Neocons throw the 'ol "poor Israelis" thing at you, show them this unprovoked attack.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Army is worn too thin, says general

The Army's top officer, General George Casey, told Congress yesterday that his branch of the military has been stretched so thin by the war in Iraq that it can not adequately respond to another conflict - one of the strongest warnings yet from a military leader that repeated deployments to war zones in the Middle East have hamstrung the military's ability to deter future aggression. (emphasis mine)

Casey tells Congress Army is stretched too thin - The Boston Globe

Iranian University Chancellors Ask Bollinger 10 Questions

Seven chancellors and presidents of Iranian universities and research centers, in a letter addressed to their counterpart in the US Colombia University, denounced Lee Bollinger's insulting words against the Iranian nation and president and invited him to provide responses for 10 questions of the Iranian academicians and intellectuals.

Iranian University Chancellors Ask Bollinger 10 Questions > NewHeavenNewEarth > News Articles Archive

Iraqis say Basra quieter after British troop pullout

"Residents of Iraq's southern city of Basra have begun strolling riverfront streets again after four years of fear, their city much quieter since British troops withdrew from the grand Saddam Hussein-era Basra Palace."

Iraqis say Basra quieter after British troop pullout | Reuters

Where's the "bloodbath," Neocons? Another of your predictions wrong. What a surprise!

China Military Might Grows as U.S. Distracted

"While the U.S. has been tied up in Iraq, China is modernizing its military and its air defenses are now nearly impenetrable to all but the newest of American fighters, the senior U.S. military official in Japan said."

China's Military Nearly Impenetrable

Christian Conservatives Weigh Abandoning GOP

ABC News: 'Giuliani Is Beyond the Pale': Christian Conservatives Weigh Abandoning GOP