Posted on 06/10/2002 4:14:03 PM PDT by hchutch
Democrats.com: Bush Avoids All Responsibility for Sept. 11; BuckStopsThere.com Launched With Events in SF, Berkeley
To: Metro Desk
Contact: David Lytel of Democrats.com, 202-248-0339
WASHINGTON, June 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Democrats.com, the largest independent community of Democrats, will launch an offensive this week to force President George W. Bush to take responsibility for the diplomatic and intelligence failures that led to the attacks of September 11. So far, Bush has refused to hold anyone responsible for the failures that provoked the terrorist attack and allowed it to succeed. Instead, Bush announced a plan to reorganize minor government agencies - but NOT the agencies most responsible for the failure to stop September 11: the FBI, CIA, National Security Council, the Defense Department, and the FAA.
In response to this attempted evasion of responsibility, Democrats.com will launch a new Web site called "BuckStopsThere.com" with events this week in San Francisco and Berkeley. The events are to be held on Thursday June 13 at Maya, a restaurant in San Francisco, starting at 5:30 p.m. and on Friday, June 14, at Cafe de la Paz, a restaurant in Berkeley, starting at 5 p.m. There is more information about these events at http://www.democrats.com/nocal or it is available by sending an e-mail message to events@democrats.com.
According to Democrats.com co-founder Bob Fertik, "The President is ultimately responsible for the failures of his government. President Harry Truman hit the nail on the head when he declared, 'The Buck Stops Here.' George W. Bush claims to be an admirer of Truman. But when it comes to September 11 for Bush, the buck stops THERE -- somewhere, anywhere, as long as it is far away from Bush himself. Hence our new Web site at http://www.buckstopsthere.com."
According to Democrats.com co-founder David Lytel, "BuckStopsThere.com is focused on identifying ALL of the senior officials in the Bush administration whose actions -- or inactions -- led to the catastrophic events of September 11. This includes the State Department officials who, in secret negotiations with the Taliban in the summer of 2001, threatened Afghanistan with an all out attack if they failed to approve a natural gas pipeline proposed by California-based Unocal. It also includes failure to take obvious precautions in response to the numerous warnings prior to 911, and also the failure to respond in real time as the attack unfolded on that fateful -- but not unexpected -- day."
Now in its third year, Democrats.com is the largest independent community of Democrats and a leading vendor of Internet campaign services to Democratic candidates and committees. Calling themselves "the aggressive progressives," Democrats.com publishes the most widely circulated commercially sponsored electronic newsletters for Democrats, and engages Democrats in focused and effective political action. Its goal is to make the Democratic Party a more effective vehicle for the opposition to the Bush presidency and for the presentation of a progressive, alternative agenda. More about what Democrats.com has done recently is available online at http://www.democrats.com/lately
IIRC, Fertik and Lytel are tight with Gore and Hillary. Can someone double-check on that?
Bush Avoids CLEARED OF All Responsibility for 9/11 - CLINTON 100% RESPONSIBLE!
Democrats.com co-founder Bob Fertik, a/k/a Mr. Mom.
Bob Fertik is one of America's leading Internet political strategists - and also a leading feminist.Fertik is the co-founder of several feminist groups, including: Women Leaders Online, the first and largest feminist group on the Internet Women Leaders Online Fund, which created the Women's Voting Guide, the first interactive tool for researching Congressional candidates Prochoice Resource Center, which trains feminist activists in grassroots politics Eleanor's List, a fund for pro-choice Democratic women candidates in New York State
Fertik is also a writer and lecturer, including: Co-author of "Pro-choice Power," the first guide to mobilizing the pro-choice majority Editor and publisher of Political Woman Newsletter, the first newsletter on women and politics Speaker at numerous conferences on the Internet, politics, and feminism
Fertik is also a consultant, including: Founder of I-Progress, the first Internet consulting firm for progressive non-profits Consultant to political campaigns, including Geraldine Ferraro's 1998 race for the United States Senate
Fertik went to New York public schools, and has a B.A. in Economics from Yale, where he edited the Yale Graduate-Professional newspaper.
He is married to his college sweetheart Antonia Stolper, a law partner at Shearman & Sterling. He has been the at-home parent of their son Ted, a straight-A student and starting quarterback at Stuyvesant High School. He lives in New York City.
Believe it or not, I had a lot of friends there, or at least people that would be civil towards me and I had a FEW good conversations.
However, thier viewpoints are as unmovable. It is useless engaging in dialogue with them. When some Republican beat them on logic, they would scream "Circular Argument," and go nuts.
I do not hate the Democratic party per se' but it has shifted once again to the extreme left and embraced anti-americanism. I feel that this might be thier downfall. Of course, they lie to the American people. When is the last time you heard ANY of them say that they were liberal? Of course the ones like TEd Kennedy and his ilk that live in liberal havens will use the term but others WILL NEVER call themselves a liberal. Why do you think that is?
It is because the American people dont WANT them. WHich is why they scare people and engage in hysterics like the above message from Democrats.com. Lets face it, they engage in brainwashing on an enormous scale and that pisses me off. If they are so friggin "Superior," why do they have to indoctrinate the children and lie to the adults?
As they are now, I find them sickening. Even JFK would loathe what the Democratic Party has become. They ought to just rename themselves The American Socialist Collective and be honest. Of course, being honest would destroy them... pitiful.
Let's see what google has to say about David Lytel, shall we?
Bill Clinton,first President to try and suppress a website.
White House official David Lytel successfully put pressure on Hotwired Magazine
to stop linking President Clinton's name to the Skeleton Closet -
a website with less than flattering information about the president.
He was in charge of the "whitehouse web internship program". Lots more.
Not least of all, the Sink Emperor his slick self.
What you are inferring is that the President would kill 3500 Americans in order that his friends could make money.
Go pound sand.
David Lytel
is president of Sherpa Consulting Group, which provides online business development strategies for
corporate clients. A former member of the Clinton administration, he was co-developer and managing
editor of the White House web site. Lytel holds a master's degree and Ph.D. in government from Cornell
University and teaches at Georgetown University. Oh HO HO! Look what we have here.
A little something for all you "Ithica, City of Evil" affectionados.
"Designing 21st Century Ithaca"
David Lytel
Office of Science and Technology Policy
The White House
Remarks as prepared for delivery for the Networking Tompkins County conference,
Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York, 16 March 1996.
I want to start out by thanking you for inviting me, especially to organizers Bill Kaupe and Steve Worona.
I have participated in a number of events like this in the three years I have been a part of the Clinton
Administration, but this is the first time I ever touched upon what is now known in Washington as the
"Mike Espy Problem." Espy, as you'll remember, was the Secretary of Agriculture who was forced to
resign for a number of reasons, including too many trips back home paid for at taxpayer expense. So, of
course, when faced with a determination by the ethics referee that the play you've called is out of bounds
there is nothing you can do but capitulate. OK, fine, I won't consider it official travel. Let's call it a trip
home. Then I discovered, to my horror, that the conference press release called me a "former" Ithacan. I
was a man without a home. It turns out that getting the "former" removed from the proud title Ithacan is a
simple but potentially expensive outpatient procedure that can be performed by any licensed realtor, so we
went to see one yesterday and are trying to get that taken care of. It is tough to know where to look but I
had an epiphany yesterday afternoon when we were out looking--we want Ithaca schools but the
Trumansburg Telephone Company. This narrows down the search considerably, basically to the north
side of Perry City Road.
The subject that I get to talk to you about today is one of my most enduring fantasies, one that goes back
to the day I first visited Ithaca as a high school student more than twenty years ago. It is one that I've
worked and re-worked in a series of articles in the Ithaca Times in the early 80s, in a master's thesis here
at Ithaca College in the mid-80s, in a doctoral dissertation for Cornell that was completed in the early 90s,
and in a novel that will probably never be finished. During that time I have seen it from the perspective of
a community activist, and then from the perspective of a Common Council member. And I have brought
you a door prize you may do what you want with. In 1987, I think, at a celebration of the Harmonic
Convergence I was introduced to a guy who worked for Corning. That turned into this proposal for an
integrated broadband communications system for Ithaca that was written by Touche Ross Associates. It
sets out some of what could be done and how we might go about it. It still makes interesting reading, but
you can safely ignore the July 1988 response deadline.
At its simplest the idea this document contains and the one that has animated my writing and research for
years is just this: That both history and technology provide Ithaca and Tompkins County with a rare,
almost unmatched combination of resources and attributes for it to be the first city of the 21st century.
Some of these attributes are measurable, like the importance of research and education to the local
economy, the percentage of households with computers, or the extremely high level of cable connectivity
due to the hills and the lack of over-the-air broadcast reception.
But while they create a substrate, they are not primarily what Ithaca has that make it ideally suited for
work on the frontier of technology and democracy. Ithaca and Tompkins County are extremely well
politicked and well governed. By politicked I mean we have a vibrant, thriving political life in which a
great part of the population feels involved. There are ample means for citizens to express themselves and
they retain that almost lost sense that they could by their actions change something worth changing.
By well governed I don't just mean that the local governments provide competent services at an
acceptable tax rate. I mean that we are lovingly governed by members of our community who have the
motivation, the intelligence, the creativity, and the support of their fellow citizens to address the problems
we face together. And just as this is true today it is also true historically. I cannot walk across DeWitt
Park without thinking of the legacy we have been bequeathed by generations of local politicians long
gone. OK, I know, this is probably a strange way to enjoy DeWitt Park, but that is what I think when I go
there.
Past generations have done a good job with everything from the layout of the community to the design of
our political institutions. But the difference between making history happen and having history happen to
you is knowing where you are in time and space, and taking action to help give birth to a future you see
before you struggling to be revealed.
That is what I think is before you--before us--right now. We can be midwives to the birth of a new
democracy. We are living at a moment in which democracy is triumphant worldwide. That is fine as far
as it goes, but it is the triumph of 18th century democracy. The political geography of our landscape was
built around the time it would take a person on horseback to travel in a day. Needless to say, these
assumptions about transportation and communications are hopelessly obsolete. But the core principles of
our democracy--freedom in a just society--are there to be recaptured by a new set of decision-making
rules that are built not on 18th century speech and travel but on how we do this and will do it in the 21st
century.
Public decision-making may be thought of as structured communication--a set of procedures that, if
followed, lead to an authoritative decision being made about the allocation of values or resources. So
dream with me for a moment.
First, let's dismiss the problem of the equitable distribution of the next generation of communications
technology. The reason I have been excited by cable in the past is because that set-top box they place in
peoples homes is rapidly becoming a computer. In some places--even some run by Time Warner--it
already is a more powerful computer than today's personal computer. The cable company could replace
today's set-top box with tomorrow's and in a short time Ithaca would be the most technologically
advanced community in the world. Time Warner already does distribute computers that are more
powerful than your PCs to test subscribers in Orlando. They give them an SGI Indy so they can buy
more TV shows. However, they do not give the subscribers a keyboard for the Indy or anything to do
with it that uses its communications capabilities.
But it is very important that we don't stop with the image of a single person at home in front of their TV
or computer. If this is what we are trying to accomplish we could do that, but it would either have not
much to do with democracy and community- building or would actually undercut them. You have to
imagine as well a network of local access centers, places where people can go to get help, to use a printer
or scanner, or to help other people. Picture GIAC, Southside, the library, and each of the schools as
places people can go for access. This is not only very possible but if you read the franchise Time Warner
signed you would have thought this would be done by now.
So Ithaca could be a technology pioneer by taking this step. However, being a technology pioneer is not
much of a challenge. Being a pioneer in the distribution and application of computer-based media--in what
is now being called social computing-- this is the challenge. We have to set the clear--and profoundly
political goal--of bringing everyone along. Most citizens do not recognize better access to computers and
networks as a need. What they want is more free time, fewer administrative hassles, lower cost housing
and utilities, better health care and education for themselves and their children, and to live in a more
loving community. And since my time is limited let me just focus on the last of these, on how 21st
century Ithacans--the Ithaca of five years from now--could make a collective decision. You can imagine
any number of details on how this could work, but here is my rough draft of the software for a viable
electronic democracy.
First, let the Common Council set the public agenda. This gives them something important to do and
keeps them involved, which prevents them from doing something bad. They could use online or telephone
surveys or sunspots or whatever means they wished to set out the top five things to be decided in a year.
Next, all of the local associations and opinion leaders get to express themselves. They can do this online,
of course, but also through radio, television, newspapers, the mail, word-of-mouth, whatever. What
matters is that we get the activists--the people who really care about this--to address themselves not to
Common Council but to their fellow citizens.
People can vote. What would a democracy be without voting? If their minds are already made up they
can vote as soon as voting is allowed. If they require more information they can gather it from those for
or against the measure, through whatever medium they are most comfortable with. Or they can turn to
"objective" analysts to help them decide. Actually casting a vote can either be done online or at one of the
access centers, and security can be greater than maintained by today's Board of Elections with very little
effort.
Once a quorum has voted--some minimum percentage like a majority--then six weeks (or whatever)
remain for everyone who has not voted to cast a ballot. Vote or don't vote but once a majority has voted
then we've passed the threshold of a real decision. My guess is that a whole lot of people will not start
paying attention until there is a deadline.
The results, of course, are known the instant that voting stops. They could be merely advisory at first, but
woe be to the politician who goes against such a carefully constructed and well-expressed majority
opinion. It wouldn't even need to be formally legal for it to carry such legitimacy that it would be
implmented.
This, I believe, is how Ithacans could be making decisions in a few years. If we do this, we will be
showing the world something extremely important--where democracy is going.
Remember, there is no ineluctable force that pulls the community-oriented applications of new media into
being. As long as people are making individual purchasing decisions on buying computers, and modems,
and software, and network connections then this community and democracy stuff just grows organically,
without organization. My fear is that without design it will produce a "community" that is no more than a
cacophy of voices, all screaming "me, me, ME!" This is what many of today's commercial online services
and the Internet often are like. That is fine for a market, for people interacting with one another as buyers
and sellers. But consumers do not build communities. Citizens do. We have more in common than what
we buy. We share a city, a county, and a community.
I am a licensed doctor of governments, and that is what I think is wrong with ours and how it should be
corrected. I know my license isn't recognized everywhere, but it ought to at least be recognized here in
Ithaca where I got it. I think we can do something that is very new and very exciting. Or, as it says most
eloquently in words etched into the sidewalk on the corner of Stewart Avenue and Buffalo Street--"deeds
can't dream what dreams can do." Your dreams can rekindle a flame that has almost gone out, that we
hold our own future in our own hands. We can show the world what democracy can become in the 21st
century.
A licensed Dr. of Governments INDEED!
Now this guy is scary.
You're a euro-ninnie, why do you keep using words such as "we", let's and our?
The final phase of the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan, the goal of which was the elimination of al-Qaeda and Taliban groups, is over. Bin Laden and Mullah Omar are hiding somewhere in the mountains, but these are the details. The provisional government of Afghanistan has been formed and is now up and running. The peacekeepers from the temporary UN contingent are arriving in Kabul daily. Afghanistan has a peaceful life now, almost peaceful. However, there is an issue now about the interest of the Western countries in Afghanistan, American interests in particular.
We are not going to dwell on the geopolitical interests here; we’d better talk about the financial and economic interests of the powers-that-be from Wall Street. To be more precise, oil. It is an open secret to what extent the global economy, the Russian economy in particular, depends on the fluctuations of the oil prices.
So, on January 3, 2002, George Bush appointed Zalmay Khalilzad to the position of the special aide in Afghanistan. This person earlier worked for the American oil company Unocal. It was emphasized in the comments about the new appointment that the real economic and financial interests of the United States in the Central Asia were under a threat. The aide’s objective is gaining direct access to the petroleum and gas resources in the region. There are few gas or oil deposits in Afghanistan, but they are very expensive to developt due to the mountains. However, there is oil and gas in the republic of Turkmenistan.
The idea about the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian ocean appeared in 1997. The special aide participated in the negotiations between the oil company Unocal and representatives of the Taliban movement on the subject. The cost of the project was two billion dollars. There was also another variant considered, the extension of the pipeline to India. This would cost $600 million more.
This very special aide also lobbied the interests of the Taliban in the American government. Four years ago, the Washington Post published an article in which Zalmay Khalilzad defended the Taliban regime when the Taliban were charged of funding terrorist activities. It should be mentioned in this respect that this was in 1997, and a lot of those powers-that-be who supported the Taliban movement at that time are now doing their best to forget about it as if it was a bad dream. The transaction did not take place at that time, since the Talibs were stubborn, and the internal situation in Afghanistan was not stable. Now, it is totally different.
The construction of the mentioned pipeline is a serious blow for Russia in terms of its economic and geopolitical interests in the region.
Dmitry Litvinovich
PRAVDA.Ru
Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
World Socialist Web Site : Oil company adviser named US representative to Afghanistan Asia Times Online : US policy on Taliban influenced by oil - authors Asia Times Online : Reconstructing Afghanistan - on oil and gas Pittsburgh Post-Gazette : Oil still turns the wheels of U.S. foreign policy The Guardian (UK). : A pro-western regime in Kabul should give the US an Afghan route for Caspian oil
Read the original in Russian:
http://pravda.ru/main/2002/01/09/35400.html
Link
Your boy clintoon is the scum in this big bucket of smelly fish. I'd do like your congressman are doing and keep quiet. Maybe, just maybe the investigations won't notice. LOL
The Dems are SO toast if they push this.
Actually, we want them to do this. The more they harp on "who shot John", the more that leaves the field open for Bush to proceed with the war. Americans don't care about the past. They want to know how the war is to be won! This effort is coordinated with the DNC. I believe that the Democrats have figured out that while Bush's conduct of the war has brought him popularity, the resentment against him in the activist community needs to be stoked. This website is for the Base, nothing more, nothing less.
They hate Bush already.
Don't pay it any mind.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
How well will stuff like this go over when the average guy/gal on the streets hears about it?
It'll fly... like a rock!
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