AMERICA - The Right Way!! (Day 1160) [Remember the Trade Center!!]

Various News Sources and FReepers | March 25, 2004 | All of Us

[Jemian]

Libya on Thursday brought to an end decades of international isolation as a pariah state with a promise to join forces with the United States of America and the United Kingdom to fight the global war against terrorism. It is to provide intelligence to help root out Al Qaeda and on Thursday secured a gas exploration deal with Shell that could be worth billions of dollars.

Wow! What a coincidence! BTW, the war on terror IS working.

[prairiebreeze]

great cartoon! Clark speaks with forked tongue....

Prairie

[MozartLover]

YIKES!

Geez Louise..............as if I haven't enough trouble sleeping!

Stay safe, you hear me???

Criminy........

Oh yeah: prayers. Definitely. Not probably.

[Iowa Granny]

I'm going to turn in. I've had a mentally exhausting week, and quite frankly I'm having difficulty posting in complete sentences. Tomorrow is another day. A day filled with Grandbabies visiting their Granny.

I've instructed both DIL's to send grubby clothes,, we're going to spend some time outside. Projected temps here tomorrow= 70's. Yippy Skippy. It's time!

[MozartLover]

Good night Gran. Sounds like a fun day tomorrow for you.:)

[lysie]

Me, too, IG.

Goodnight everyone. Pleasant dreams.

[prairiebreeze]

I'm headed off to the land of Nod soon too. Good night all

Prairie

[MozartLover]

Oh sure..I show up & everybody decides to call it a night.;^)

Good night ladies!!!!!!

[Utah Girl]

A CLARKE THEORY [Rich Lowry]
E-mail: “Rich, I think I have this Clarke guy figured out. If you look at everything he has said, as well as the facts that everyone agrees on, he believes that Clinton "cared more" about Al Queda but did nothing about it, whereas Bush "cared less" about it but appointed Clarke to develop a more comprehensive strategy to eliminate rather than contain it. What he have is the confluence of Clinton's charisma and Clarke's ego. I have heard an awful lot of people say that Bill Clinton makes each person he spoke with believe he agrees with them. He was also a micro manager who avoided tough decisions. Clarke reported directly to Clinton and briefed him personally on security matters, whereas Bush got his briefings directly from the source--the CIA director. So when Clarke briefed Clinton, he (Clarke) "felt" Clinton was engaged and interested, and of course Clarke felt terribly important as the guy who was briefing the President. But Bush delegates, he doesn't "feel people's pain" the same way as Clinton. It's all about Clarke's "feelings," not about actually doing anything about terrorism. Clinton made Clarke "feel" good--even though he avoided all of those undecided issues left for the Bush camp from 1998--while Bush made Clarke feel left out, like a little kid who didn't get invited to someone's birthday party, even though Bush was actually doing more about terrorism. Because, you know, like, I mean, it's all about "feelings" man, don' t you know?”

[MozartLover]

Wow.....makes sense to me.

A good take.

[MozartLover]

Did you watch the pairs skating tonight?

[Utah Girl]

CLARKE IS STILL "SHREWD" [Rich Lowry]
At least according to Fred Kaplan over at Slate, who was telling us yesterday that Clarke is too shrewd to get caught contradicting himself. Well, now Clarke has been caught contradicting himself, but Kaplan is still sticking with the story that he is extraordinarily shrewd. I was eager to see how Kaplan would explain the discrepancy between Clarke's 2002 briefing and various other statements on the one hand and his book on the other. He doesn't. Kaplan makes two points.

1) That Clarke's prior testimony to the 9/11 commission--when he apparently wasn't so harsh about Bush--didn't focus on the Iraq War. His book sounds different because it does focus on the war. As Kaplan says, "The heart of his book's attacks surrounds the war." This won't wash. Yes, there is a lot of Iraq in the book, but there is also a lot of argument about how Bush did, as Clarke has put it, "virtually nothing" about al Qaeda prior to 9/11. You can't square Clarke's 2002 briefing and the book on this point. So I guess Kaplan is wise not to try.

2) Kaplan explains that Clarke had limited choices when he was asked to give that 2002 briefing. He could have resigned, but he thought he still had important work to do. "He could have lied, but nobody told him to do that, and he wouldn't have in any case." Or he could just put the best spin on things that were strictly true. Fine. As I said earlier, it is theoretically possible for Clarke to give a generous version of the facts in 2002, then write a more complete and critical account once he becomes a private citizen. But this is manifestly not what Clarke has done. He has written a book arguing that Bush did virtually nothing, when we know from Clarke's briefing that it was the Bush team that began to change counterterrorism policy and move it in a more aggressive direction after it had been frozen in place since late 1998. Clarke defenders like Kaplan have to square the book with the briefing and none of them that I have seen have done it--and in my opinion, it can't be done.

[MozartLover]

Also very good. A continuation of the previous article, right??

[MozartLover]

I'm going to go read for awhile...might BBL.........

[Utah Girl]

Bye. I just read that the mini-scandal of the moment is President Bush's comedy routine at the WH Correspondent's Dinner. Pardon my French, but he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

[Utah Girl]

Reading anything good? :)

[prairiebreeze]

Yawwnnn! I'm still here, bleary-eyed and typing. Just posted an interesting article about the US placing a war ship in the Sea of Japan to help defend against North Korea. But I'm almost too sleepy to read my own article, LOL!

Whazzup with you tonight ML?

UG, thanks for the post about Clarke and his fragile ego getting stroked by Clintoon. One really gets the idea that might be an accurate assessment of Clarke. He's a narcissist through and through. IMO.

Prairie

[Utah Girl]

My sister's brother-in-law is a career State Dept employee. He's lived all over the world, has been in for about 20 years. He was in Hong Kong when x42 and his planeloads of minions came to vist (1998? 1999?) Anyway, Brent had to go to a diplomatic reception and greet x42. Brent is a true blue conservative, of the VRWC type. He hates x42 with heat of a 1000 fires. And yet, when he shook hands with x42 in the line, he said just for a split second he was pulled in by the charm and the eye contact, and the feeling that he was the only person in the room with x42. Said that is the only time anything like that has ever happened. His wife, who is apolitical, thought x42 was pure slime.

[JRandomFreeper]

Prayers have already been partially answered. I'll have more info tomorrow. I know who the caller was (98%).

/john

[JRandomFreeper]

Is there a thread to the President's routine? If so, please post or ping. I need a hearty laugh.

/john