I'm Through With You

There's a new US/UK-sponsored resolution before the United Nations.
It's seeks to legitimize the reconstruction of Iraq by getting a UN stamp of approval.
However, Russia's UN ambassador has dare to bring up unfinished business:

"What is the situation since no WMDs have been located up to now?'' Konuzin asked Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in an open Security Council debate on Thursday.

"It is our opinion the resolution being prepared by the Security Council on Iraq must give a clear answer to the question _ who will bear the responsibility for looking for traces of weapons of mass destruction,'' said Konuzin, whose country opposed the war.

A pursuit of facts and accountability.
How refreshing!

Back in March, Vice-President Cheney went on Rush Limbaugh's show and said that Richard Clarke "wasn't in the loop, frankly, on a lot of this stuff" relating to fighting terrorism.

Now it's Donald Rumsfeld's turn, except that this time it might be true:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Thursday he did not know if Iraqi leader Ahmad Chalabi told Iran that Washington had broken Tehran's secret communications code.

Rumsfeld also said he was unaware whether the United States was investigating the matter or if any Defense Department officials had been questioned about who might have told Chalabi that the code was broken.

``I just don't know,'' Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him to Singapore for an Asia security conference.

Let it sink in: The Secretary of Defense is unaware of a high-level FBI investigation going on inside the Pentagon.

Secretary Rumsfeld, I'm through with you.

CIA Director George Tenet has resigned for "personal reasons." I don't care whether he jumped or was pushed, but I really hope he starts naming names if he gets used as the fall guy for the White House's own mistakes.

President Bush, it seems George Tenet is though with you.

Via DailyKos we find this fine story about a soldier in Iraq getting in trouble for solving a big problem:

"According to the letter from First Sgt. Chisholm, his unit needed extra armoring for some of their humvee's to protect against small, makeshift explosives. Dean's office collected more than 1,000 old bulletproof vests, but in an e-mail, Chisholm told Dean he's now getting, "quite a bit of harassment from (his) higher command."'

A guy with initiative is called on the carpet for coming up with a way to protect the lives of his soldiers. Nice.

President Bush, I'm through with you.

The White House: "Let's tear down the Abu Ghraib prison and build a new one!"

The Pentagon [watching Bush speech on TV]: "What did he just say?"

If they can't coordinate something easy like this, imagine how they're handling the hard stuff:

...Pentagon officials said the president's words had taken them by surprise, and they scrambled without success to come up with details of the plan. "This office was not aware of any plans to raze Abu Ghraib or build another prison," said a Pentagon spokesman who insisted that he not be identified because he did not want to be seen as contradicting the president.

President Bush, I'm through with you.

The relationship between Rep. Tom DeLay and former Rep Dick Armey is a shining example of the growing split between old-guard fiscal conservatives and new-right social conservatives. Some Republicans don't recognize their own party anymore:

"To his critics, Armey says that's precisely why he left his job as majority leader. He was having to make even more serious compromises on policy under a Republican president than he did under Clinton, and he no longer wanted to have to take party positions contrary to his philosophy."

Specifically asked about the conflict with "The Hammer":

"Armey declined to comment on the matter, saying only that DeLay doesn't scare him. 'There's only one person in this town who won't take my calls, and I wouldn't call him anyway. You can't hurt a man who don't give a damn.'"

President Bush, some of your own party are through with you.

Ahmed Chalabi, of the Iraqi National Congress.
Sat with the First Lady at the State of Union address.
Was paid $340,000 per month of our tax dollars to gather information.
His organization (the INC) gave top secret U.S. intelligence to Iran.
Allegedly passed on false WMD information from Iran.

It seems that President Bush has a scapegoat.
But pay attention. It's not that simple.
The WMD disinformation didn't to go the CIA or the FBI.
It went to the Pentagon. And to Vice President Cheney.

"A letter written to the Senate Appropriations Committee by the INC in June 2001 said that information gathered by the group went directly to the Defense Department and Vice President Dick Cheney's office, the chief proponents of a pre-emptive attack on Iraq.

The administration got played. Big time.

President Bush, I'm through with you.

Frontline's "The Jesus Factor" looks at the inextricable relationship between President Bush's religious and political lives.

In particular, I'm fascinated by the political strategizing by Doug Wead:

"The message did come home. My God, you can win the White House with nothing but evangelicals if you can get enough of them, if you get them all, and they're a huge number." (speaking of the 1988 Presidential race.)

View the entire episode online here.

The New York Times spells out the hypocritical double-talk in plain English:

"...in a twist this election season, many administration officials are taking credit for spreading largess through programs that President Bush tried to eliminate or to cut sharply."

And when it comes to pocketbook issues, like skyrocketing medical costs:

"The administration has been particularly energetic in publicizing health programs, even ones that had been scheduled for cuts or elimination."

President Bush, I'm through with you.

Two stories on President Bush and the evangelical Christians in his political base. They may seem contradictory. In fact, I think they reveal how non-mainstream Bush really is, and how he'll do damn near anything in trying to appease his far-right supporters.

Village Voice writes of a memo summarizing a meeting at the White House with members of the fringe Apostolic Congress:

"Everything that you're discussing is information you're not supposed to have," barked Pentecostal minister Robert G. Upton when asked about the off-the-record briefing his delegation received on March 25.

Reuters writes of fears about eroding support among mainstream evangelicals:

"I know there are a lot of evangelicals who are disillusioned with the war and worried about a lot of things, the Woodward book, the Clarke book ... (and) how we got into this thing," said Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.