Coming to a Bookstore Near You

Allegedly, Richard Clarke is in the process of publishing a book which will purportedly reveal some interesting insight on the lead-up to 9/11:

Well next month we have yet another book to digest — from the inside of the Bush White House. Richard Clarke, the former NSC counterterrorism expert from Bush I, Clinton and 2 years plus of Bush II is publishing his insider book that takes no prisnors. Word is that Rove is very afraid of what Clarke has to say — particularly because Clarke was the August 6 2001 briefer of Bush, and there is a good deal about how he got told never to raise such matters again with Bush. Book will get big play. Richard Clarke knows where all the bodies are buried.

I don’t know exactly what was discussed in the 6 August 2001 briefing, but I know it included more than vague chatter about al Qaeda liking airplanes.
In a recent interview, Sidney Blumenthal provided a hint as to what Clarke might disclose:

Richard Clarke was Director of Counter-Terrorism in the national Security Council. He has since left. Clark urgently tried to draw the attention of the Bush administration to the threat of al Qaeda. Right at the present, the Bush administration is trying to withhold documents from the 9/11 bipartisan commission. I believe one of the things that they do not want to be known is what happened on August 6, 2001. It was on that day that George W. Bush received his last, and one of the few, briefings on terrorism. I believe he told Richard Clarke that he didn�t want to be briefed on this again, even though Clarke was panicked about the alarms he was hearing regarding potential attacks. Bush was blithe, indifferent, ultimately irresponsible. The public has a right to know what happened on August 6, what Bush did, what Condi Rice did, what all the rest of them did, and what Richard Clarke�s memos and statements were. Then the public will be able to judge exactly what this presidency has done.

Bush? Indifferent to national concerns? Where have we heard that before, Paul O’Neill?
Sooner or later, interesting Bush White House secrets are bound to come out. Let’s hope they make it out before November.

Challenging the Ignorance Defense

Sidney Blumenthal isn’t buying the claims of Bush, Kay, et al.:

The truth is that much of the intelligence community did not fail, but presented correct assessments and warnings, that were overridden and suppressed. On virtually every single important claim made by the Bush administration in its case for war, there was serious dissension. Discordant views – not from individual analysts but from several intelligence agencies as a whole – were kept from the public as momentum was built for a congressional vote on the war resolution.
Precisely because of the qualms the administration encountered, it created a rogue intelligence operation, the Office of Special Plans, located within the Pentagon and under the control of neo-conservatives. The OSP roamed outside the ordinary inter-agency process, stamping its approval on stories from Iraqi exiles that the other agencies dismissed as lacking credibility, and feeding them to the president.
At the same time, constant pressure was applied to the intelligence agencies to force their compliance.

So the “we” in “we were all wrong” means the people the administration paid attention to.

What I Learned . . .

at Townhall.com:

  • Generally speaking, government spending is anti-Christian because it teaches people to take refuge in the government rather than in God.*

  • If President Bush invokes God’s name in calling for a program, then that spending is okay.

* This not include weapons-system and star wars spending because we need those to ward off Satan.

National Guard Record Keeping

So how can there be no attendance records from George Bush’s 1972 National Guard service? Beats me. I don’t know much about the system. But Phil Carter does. And he lists other available records which should shed light on the controversy.
Seems like some reporter should be capable of getting to the bottom of this; it’s hard to believe that all these records have vanished.
UPDATE: Kevin Drum examines the infamous “torn document” in Bush’s records.

Brainwashing

I was reading about the Bush administration’s new campaign to promote Medicare reform. This part sounded so crazy that I dialed the number to verify it’s true:

THE AD’S DISTORTIONS: The new Medicare ads urge citizens to call 1-800-MEDICARE to hear more about the new law. And in “Big Brother” style, when you call that number you have to actually say out loud “Medicare improvement” in order to get information.

That’s right. You’re literally instructed to say “Medicare improvement” to find out about changes in the law.
Government propaganda in action.
Incidentally, the media company purchasing these “informational” Medicare ads (at taxpayer expense) just happens to be a company that’s working for President Bush’s re-election campaign. Small world, isn’t it?