Things I’ve Seen

From the Boston Globe

“If we had something to hide, we wouldn’t have met with them in the first place,” said Bush, who had initially opposed the very creation of the commission, had not wanted to meet with the commission, had insisted on the rigorous ground rules, and had kept his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, out of the hearing room for weeks.

At a hearing of a House Appropriations subcommittee, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was asked about US casualties.

Asked how many American troops have died in Iraq, the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian estimated Thursday the total was about 500 - more than 200 soldiers short.

Memo to Paul Wolfowitz: it’s 736 as of April 29th, plus another 106 allies.

Here’s a worthwhile site - the Claims vs. Facts Database

The Center for American Progress has launched this new database project to chart conservatives’s dishonesty - and compare it with the truth. In this database, each conservative quote will be matched against well-documented facts, so that users can get a more accurate picture of the issues.

This will really work if it is a collaborative effort - so go along and submit all the well documented contradictory quotes and facts you’ve been storing up…

This CBS News Poll has lots and lots of good snippets in:

Just 32 percent, the lowest number ever, say Iraq was a threat that required immediate military action…

Less than half, 47 percent, now say the U.S. did the right thing taking military action in Iraq…

41 percent now think the war increased the threat of terrorism against the U.S….

71 percent say the Administration’s policies have worsened the U.S.’s image in the Arab world…

61 percent believe the Administration did not try hard enough to reach a diplomatic solution before going to war in Iraq…

The struggles in Iraq appear to have hurt assessments of the President. His overall approval rating (46 percent), his rating on handling Iraq (41 percent), and his rating on handling foreign policy (40 percent) are at the lowest points ever in this Administration….

It seems that I hit come sort of latent interest out there with What’s Making Blognews?. Over two months worth of visits in a single day.

Watch this (or that) space for developments.

Who served? has a collection of facts…

Jan Herman of blogcritics has a lovely description of how Bush and Cheney are going to “cooperate” with the 9-11 commission. You know, the enquiry to find out how the worst attack on their country in 50 years managed to happen under their administration? The enquiry that they’ve said they will give every possible assistance to?

Not under oath. Not in public. No recording. No transcript. Two note takers only. Those are the peculiar ground rules when the ventriloquist and his dummy take their act to the 9/11 commission tomorrow morning. If that’s not clear enough, a White House adviser to the dummy explains: “He is not testifying, he is talking to them. A transcript implies testimony.” Advice to the note takers: Brush up your shorthand and sharpen your pencils. Advice to the commission: Make sure the ventriloquist drinks a glass of water when the dummy is talking.

I don’t know how I’ve coped without BugMeNot.com. If a site wants you to register to get access, bugmenot keeps a list of valid usernames and passwords.

Drag their bookmarklet onto your toolbar or bookmarks, and just click on it to get instant relief from irritating sites.

This friday, Nightline will be doing a tribute to those US servicemen and women killed in action in Iraq.

ABC News’s “Nightline” will devote its entire broadcast on Friday to reading the names of the more than 500 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen who have been killed in action in Iraq.

As anchor Ted Koppel reads the names for the entire half-hour, viewers will see photographs of those killed since March 19, 2003, as certified by the Defense Department.

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I know that the rest of the world doesn’t think the same way as I do, but I can’t believe that the Republicans are trying to pick Kerry apart over this medals ‘controversy’. If they hadn’t said anything about Kerry and Vietnam, then it would have been hard for Kerry to make an issue of his record - and even harder for him to attack Bush’s lack of record without seeming negative. But now he can make the comparison in the context of defending himself.

This CBS news story sums it up nicely:

Kerry added that the president “can’t even prove” that he fulfilled his service.

The dilemma the Bush campaign now faces is that Kerry refused to comment on Mr. Bush’s National Guard service until Republicans began parsing through Kerry’s service in the war and his later opposition to it.

Kerry will continue to say, “This is a controversy the Republicans are pushing,” as he did Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”