Giuliani also addressed a cell phone call he took from his wife, Judith, last week during his speech to the National Rifle Association...

"And quite honestly, since Sept. 11, most of the time when we get on a plane, we talk to each other and just reaffirm the fact that we love each other," he said.

A Challenge For Lawmakers Who Voted To Attack MoveOn Ad: Will They Now Condemn Limbaugh?

On September 20, 72 Senators voted for the highly politicized, "bait and switch" resolution that condemned a newspaper ad by MoveOn.org. The amendment, offered by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), expressly stated that the Senate would condemn "any effort to attack the honor and integrity" of "all members of the United States Armed Forces"

On his radio show yesterday, right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh attacked the "honor and integrity" of some members of the Armed Forces. Limbaugh attacked troops who hold a different viewpoint than his own as "phony soldiers." Iraq war vet Jon Soltz writes that Limbaugh's comments are directed at "the majority of troops on the ground in Iraq" because they "do not back the President's failed policy."

For all the Senators who rushed to make political hay over an empty resolution, the spotlight is on them. Will they now enforce their "sense of the Senate" and condemn Rush Limbaugh?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Did not vote)
Phone: (202) 225-0100
Email: http://www.speaker.gov/contact/

House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Voted to condemn MoveOn ad)
Phone: (202) 225-3130
Email: http://democraticleader.house.gov/

House Whip James Clyburn (Voted to condemn MoveOn ad)
Phone: (202) 226-3210
Email: http://hoyer.house.gov/contact/email.asp

House Democratic Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel (Voted to condemn MoveOn ad)
Phone: (202) 225-1400
Email: http://www.house.gov/emanuel/IMA/issue.htm

GOP debate is marked by jabs at absences

Republican presidential candidates discussed the importance of reaching out to people of color during a minority issues debate Thursday night and criticized the four leading GOP contenders for skipping it.

"I think this is a disgrace that they are not here," said Sen. Sam Brownback. "I think it's a disgrace to our country. I think it's bad for our party, and I don't think it's good for our future."

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he was "embarrassed for our party."

The no-shows -- Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mitt Romney -- cited scheduling conflicts in not attending the debate at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Moderator Tavis Smiley jabbed at the no-shows, saying, "Some of the campaigns who declined ... have suggested publicly that this audience would be hostile and unreceptive. Since we're live on PBS right now, I can't tell you what I really think of these kinds of comments." Rep. Duncan Hunter, Rep. Ron Paul, Rep. Tom Tancredo and Alan Keyes also attended.

GOPKKK

F*ck Bush.

This is the view of the Collegian editorial board.

(click the picture to download Jay's entire program, or right-click

"We had Pat Insentenio (spelling?) who's a conservative on the line who said 'Well you can criticize George Dubya Bush but you have to be respectful'. No Pat, read the First Amendment to the Constitution. And who decides what's respectful and what's not..... But let me get back to my point. How do you claim moral high ground when you yourself don't have any? I'm sorry, the GOP and these ultra rightwing conservative talking heads don't have any high ground in this area. And if the College Young Republicans...are gonna come out against this why aren't they gonna come out against anything else? Let me give you some examples".

"And I challenge Dick Waddams or anybody else to come on this program and justify the stuff we've just played and tell me how THAT is okay but printing this in the Rocky Mountain Collegian is wrong. You come on here ya bunch of cowards. You're cowards and you're hypocrites and I'm sick of your crap."

Report Says Hussein Was Open To Exile Before 2003 Invasion

Less than a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein signaled that he was willing to go into exile as long as he could take with him $1 billion and information on weapons of mass destruction, according to a report of a Feb. 22, 2003, meeting between President Bush and his Spanish counterpart published by a Spanish newspaper yesterday.

The meeting at Bush's Texas ranch was a planning session for a final diplomatic push at the United Nations. The White House was preparing to introduce a tough new Security Council resolution to pressure Hussein, but most council members saw it as a ploy to gain their authorization for war.

Spain's prime minister at the time, Jose Maria Aznar, expressed hope that war might be avoided -- or at least supported by a U.N. majority -- and Bush said that outcome would be "the best solution for us" and "would also save us $50 billion," referring to the initial U.S. estimate of what the Iraq war would cost. But Bush made it clear in the meeting that he expected to "be in Baghdad at the end of March."

....

The account offered a rare glimpse of how Bush interacted with a trusted foreign leader, offering blunt assessments and showing a determination that led even Aznar, a close ally on Iraq, to ask that Bush show "a little more patience" in the march toward war. Bush expressed anger and irritation at those governments that disagreed with him, warning that they would pay a price. He directed particular scorn toward then-French President Jacques Chirac, one of the most public opponents of invasion, saying Chirac "sees himself as Mr. Arab."

Got War?

At a dramatic congressional hearing that saw the eviction of several dozen mostly female protesters, Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, on Wednesday urged lawmakers to approve $190bn to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.

Mr Gates said the Pentagon needed another $42bn for the conflicts on top of the $147bn outlined earlier this year. The request would bring total US military spending for fiscal 2008, which begins in October, to $671bn. If approved, the budget would equate to spending almost $21,300 a second and would rank the Pentagon ahead of the Dutch economy, the 16th largest in the world, in terms of size.

In theatrical opening remarks that elicited cheers of approval from tens of "pink lady" protesters who have become a staple of congressional hearings on Iraq, Robert Byrd, Democratic committee chairman, lambasted the administration's "fatally flawed" surge strategy and said the committee would not "rubber stamp" every request by President George W. Bush.

US Military Says Violence in Iraq Has Increased

Iraqi officials say bombings have killed more than 20 people in northern Iraq and Baghdad, a sharp increase in violence after an apparent lull. A spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq says the spike in attacks is not a surprise.

"There has indeed been an increase in violence in the last few days, largely in areas in which al-Qaida in Iraq operates and with al-Qaida in Iraq signatures, as they have sought to ramp up attacks," said General Bergner.

There is speculation that the timing of the attacks could indicate an organized attempt to undermine claims by U.S. forces that they are making progress toward reducing violence and achieving control over wider areas of Iraq.

He also says the increase is similar to the pattern in previous years when extremists mounted more attacks in conjunction with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

A federal judge issued a stern rebuke of a key White House antiterror law, striking down as unconstitutional two pillars of the USA Patriot Act.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled Wednesday that using the act to authorize secret searches and wiretapping to gather criminal evidence - instead of intelligence gathering - violates the constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

"For over 200 years, this nation has adhered to the rule of law - with unparalleled success. A shift to a nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised," Aiken wrote.

"Childrens do learn," Bush tells school kids

Offering a grammar lesson guaranteed to make any English teacher cringe, President George W. Bush told a group of New York school kids on Wednesday: "Childrens do learn."

Bush made his latest grammatical slip-up at a made-for-TV event where he urged Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, the centerpiece of his education policy, as he touted a new national report card on improved test scores.

The event drew New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings plus teachers and about 20 fourth and fifth graders from P.S. 76.

During his first presidential campaign, Bush -- who promised to be the "education president" -- once asked: "Is our children learning?"

...

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured," he said.

Not smarter than a 5th grader

BREAKING: Lieberman-Kyl's Iran amendment passes

By a vote 76-22, the Senate passed the Lieberman-Kyl amendment, which threatens to "combat, contain and [stop]" Iran via "military instruments." Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) called the amendment "Cheney's fondest pipe dream" and said it could "read as a backdoor method of gaining Congressional validation for military action."

War Inches Closer to Iran
U.S. Soldiers Create Military Base on Iraq-Iran Border

It will be called Combat Outpost Shocker, and it will hardly come as a pleasant surprise to Iran that the United States will have a new base just 5 miles from their border. Col. Mark Mueller, of the 3rd Infantry Division, said it is the first time the U.S. military will be that close to Iran.

"Obviously, they probably won't be very happy about it," Mueller told ABC's Terry McCarthy.

The Iraq war, Al-Qaeda, Hurricane Katrina, high gas prices, the housing industry, CIA spy leaks, September the 11th, voter caging, attorney firings, Cheney's energy deal, wiretaps, Halliburton, Terry Schiavo, North Korea, global warming, Karl Rove, Minnesota bridges, K-street, Osama, Enron, Rummy, Mark Foley, airport bathrooms, hot tub Tom, Dubai port security, health care, Made in China, tax cuts for corporations, hot missing white chicks, Habeas Corpus, torture, Iran, Fred Phelps, stem cell research, Fox News, a MoveOn ad, foreign policy, WMD's, Lieberman, NSAT&T, Alberto Gonzales, bridges to nowhere, pollution, diaper sex, free speech zones, massive deficits, illegal immigration, Don Imus, the dollar's value, the Patriot Act, Blackwater, Ralph Nadar, the Coalition of the Willing, Macaca, rubber stamping, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, and the last episode of the Sopranos.

"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma,"

President George W. Bush announced new U.S. sanctions against Myanmar's military rulers on Tuesday and urged other countries to follow suit amid Myanmar's biggest anti-government protests in 20 years.

"The United States will tighten economic sanctions on the leaders of the regime and their financial backers," Bush said in his annual address to the U.N. General Assembly.

"We will impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights," he added, declaring that Americans were "outraged" by rights abuses in Myanmar.
Myanmar?

Today's performance in New York set a new low even for the Bush Administration. Except for tepid applause when Bush was introduced and when he left the podium, no one clapped. Not even our allies. The world has caught on to the George Bush propaganda game and declines to show him a modicum of respect.

(snip)

The world sat largely silently listening to a crazed little man rant about the abuses in the rest of the world. But his condemnation of the war in Sudan and the creation of refugees in Darfur could not blot out the reality of his war in Iraq and the millions who have fled that hell hole.

This was chutzpah. Just before Bush began speaking a series of car bombs swept Iraq killing and wounding hundreds. A country the United States has occupied for more than four years continues to be ravaged by violence. The Iraqi people themselves are denied the rights Bush extolled. Hell, the United States even protects mercenary armies–like Blackwater–who operate outside of any law and kill innocent civilians without any consequence.

The rest of the world sees and understands our hypocrisy. Unfortunately, many Americans share the ignorance and vacuity of George Bush and do not realize how foolish and stupid we look on the world stage. Today's performance by George Bush does nothing to win friends or influence enemies.

White House upset over copy of Bush speech posted to U.N. website

Apparently, a marked-up draft of the president's speech popped up on the U.N.'s website as President Bush delivered his remarks this morning before the General Assembly, USA TODAY's David Jackson reports. The draft included phonetic spellings of some names and countries, and the cellphone numbers for Bush speechwriters.

Press secretary Dana Perino downplayed the incident, and said phonetic spellings are used to help interpreters. Asked if the president has trouble pronouncing some country's names, Perino deemed it "an offensive question."

"There was an error made," Perino said, noting it was not a final draft.

Update at 12:46 p.m. ET: Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy says he has a copy of the speech that got the White House so worked up this morning. Here are some of the phonetic guides it included, according to the magazine's blog:

• Kyrgyzstan (KEYR-geez-stan)
• Mauritania (moor-EH-tain-ee-a)
• Harare (hah-RAR-ray)
• Mugabe (moo-GAH-bee)
• Sarkozy (sar-KO-zee)
• Caracas (kah-RAH-kus)

(dum-FUK)

Giuliani Party Seeks $9.11 Per Person

A spokeswoman for Rudy Giuliani says it is unfortunate that a supporter throwing a party that aims to raise $9.11 per person for the Republican's presidential campaign is asking for that amount.

Abraham Sofaer is having a fundraiser at his Palo Alto, Calif., home on Wednesday, when Giuliani backers across the country are participating in the campaign's national house party night.

.....

"I'm just providing support for him. He's an old friend of mine," Sofaer said of Giuliani.

Sofaer was a State Department adviser under President Reagan and is a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution

9/11!!!!

Bush, the Bomb and Iran

To bomb or not to bomb Iran, that's the question the Bush Administration appears to be debating these days, once again revealing the extraordinary disconnect between the White House and the American people. With a catastrophic occupation of Iraq and polls showing the American public so skeptical about the use of military force that only eight percent support military action against Iran, there is nevertheless a clear and present danger that Cheney and the neocons will again prevail and lead this Administration into another disastrous military misadventure.

The parallels between now and the run-up to the Iraq War are troubling. Nobel Peace Prize-winner Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who warned the Bush administration in 2003 about the lack of a nuclear program in Iraq and was subsequently attacked for his position by the Bush machine, the neocons and by many in the mainstream media, has now struck a deal with Iran to answer questions about its nuclear program within a defined timeline and improve access for inspectors. ElBaradei has called for a "double time-out" of all enrichment activities and new sanctions.

The result of ElBaradei's attempt to shed light on Iran's nuclear program? More attacks by the Bush administration. More outright hit jobs like this one from the Washington Post, or even the more subtle shading by the New York Times that ultimately portrays ElBaradei as a dictatorial loon. The result is, once again, an amplifying of the Administration's drumbeat calling for war.

(snip)

"Administration officials, including Secretary Rice, attacked the credibility of the director-general [in 2003] too," Cirincione says. "The Washington Post also blasted ElBaradei on his Iraq assessment. They were dead wrong. But this hasn't stopped them from attacking with guns blazing again. ElBaradei's record is far better on these issues than either the secretary of state's or the Washington Post's. You would think they would have some humility given the magnitude of their past mistakes. But some people have no shame."

Analysis: Bush Unwelcome on the Trail

Republican presidential candidates can't be any more clear: President Bush isn't welcome on the campaign trail.

Competing to succeed him, top GOP candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and John McCain barely utter Bush's name. They essentially ignore the lame-duck president, or give him only passing credit, as they rail against the status quo and promise to fix problems he hasn't solved.

"We all know Americans want change," said McCain, an Arizona senator, explaining the aversion to aligning with Bush. "I give him credit for a number of things but I think the fact is Americans are turning the page, including our Republican primary voters."

.....

How candidates handle the 800-pound elephant in the room now could have implications beyond the primary. Privately, Republican strategists agree their nominee will lose next fall if the general election is a referendum on Bush. They say GOP candidates are wise to distance themselves from the president now, given his unpopularity among the public at large.

Bush

"I will work to see to it that a Republican wins and therefore don't accept the premise that a Democrat will win. I truly think the Republicans will hold the White House."
~Bush

Bush may boost spending request for Iraq war

The Bush administration may increase the amount of money it is seeking for the Iraq war for the 2008 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, the White House said on Friday.

The White House outlined a request for around $147 billion for fiscal 2008 for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the administration is reviewing those figures and is considering giving Congress an updated request.

"I would expect it to be higher, I can't tell you what the number will be," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

Money Pit

Bush: MoveOn.org ad on Petraeus 'disgusting'

A MoveOn.org political advertisement that criticized the top U.S. commander in Iraq was "disgusting," President Bush said Thursday, accusing Democrats of being afraid to criticize the anti-war group.

Bush told reporters at a White House news conference that MoveOn.org's ad in The New York Times about Gen. David Petraeus was a "sorry deal." The September 10 full-page ad was titled "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"

"I felt like the ad was an attack, not only on Gen. Petraeus, but on the U.S. military," Bush said. "And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democratic Party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad."

Bush said that "most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like MoveOn.org" and they "are more afraid of irritating them than they are of irritating the United States military."

Hide behind your generals

Democrats proceed with Iraq legislation

Senate Democrats defiantly charged ahead Thursday with legislation ordering troops home from Iraq, still lacking the votes to win but armed with the mantra that Republicans, along with President Bush, now own the war.

"They want this war more than they want to protect our soldiers," Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters. "When I say they want the war, they want to protect their president more than they want to protect our troops."

Reid spoke minutes after Republicans successfully pushed through, by a 72-25 vote, a resolution condemning an advertisement by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org. Displayed in The New York Times, the ad taunted Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, as "General Betray Us."

Reid's tough rhetoric reflected frustration by Democrats that more Republicans haven't broken with Bush on the war. Several Republican senators had grown increasingly anxious throughout the summer about the violence in Iraq and lack of political progress in Baghdad.

Lap Dogs

"The fundamentals of economy are strong," Bush said. "I'm optimistic about economy. I would be pessimistic if Congress had its way and raised taxes. We're keeping fiscally responsible.

Magna Carta required the king to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal procedures and accept that his will could be bound by the law. It explicitly protected certain rights of the king's subjects, whether free or fettered - most notably the right of Habeas Corpus, meaning that they had rights against unlawful imprisonment.

"I don't think of Sept. 11 as being my defining experience. I think if it was I wouldn't have been able to handle it,"
~Judy Riuliani, Giuliani: I'm Among Best Known Americans

Democrats plan several more bills in the next few weeks to try to speed troop withdrawals, but the one on "dwell time" was considered their best chance to get the 60 votes needed under Senate rules to shut off debate. It fell four votes short: 56-44.
Houston Chronicle

GOP identification drops

Americans aren't just having a tough time seeing themselves pulling the lever for Republicans these days. Fewer are seeing themselves as Republicans, period.

That's the conclusion of one of the party's most respected polling firms, based on a compilation of its national surveys conducted so far this year. Public Opinion Strategies, based in Alexandria, Va., counts among its clients about one-fourth of all Republican members of Congress and is half of the bipartisan team that conducts polling for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal.

.....

Of real concern, however, is the firm's finding of fewer self-identified Republicans among men over the age of 55 and men who live in rural areas - groups that have been GOP mainstays for most of the Bush era.

Data compiled by Public Opinion Strategies this year also reaffirms a more widely acknowledged point in political circles: that the GOP continues to trail dangerously on the question of whether voters would be more inclined to elect a Democratic or Republican member of Congress, aka the generic congressional ballot test.

The Base

Six years after the deadliest attack on U.S. soil, the head of U.S. spy operations admitted to lawmakers that "9/11 should have and could have been prevented."

Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, told members of the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday that "it was an issue of connecting information that was available."
ABC News

He is seeking changes to the Protect America Act, which Congress passed to effectively supersede or modify the Foreign Intelligence Surveilliance Act - a law that administration officials have said tied their hands in combating terrorism.

The new law eased some of the restrictions on government eavesdropping contained in the decades-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, to let the government more efficiently intercept foreign calls and e-mails.

The Protect America Act allows the government to eavesdrop, without a court order, on all communications conducted by a person reasonably believed to be outside the United States, even if an American is on one end of the conversation provided the American is not the intended focus or target of the surveillance.

"Let's have some truth in advertising, the act gives the president almost unfettered power to spy, without judicial approval, not only on foreigners but on Americans," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, the chairman of the subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Guardian UK

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has attacked the head of the UN nuclear watchdog for urging caution in the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme.

The criticism came after IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said force should be a last resort in the Iran dispute.

He dismissed talk of military action in Iran as "hype" and urged people not to forget the lessons of war in Iraq.

Ms Rice maintained that "all options" were on the table to resolve the stand-off over Iran's refusal to end its uranium-enrichment work.

Maher: Isn't it a dirty trick, sort of, on the American people when you send a military man out there to basically do a political "sell-job"?

Hagel: Well it's not only a dirty trick, but it's dishonest, it's hypocritical, it's dangerous and irresponsible.

Bill: I've heard a lot of Republicans in the last year or so say "I want my party back." .... I imagine you're somewhat in the same camp, you think the Republican party has been hijacked by incompetents and religious fanatics?

Hagel: Oh, I think it's been hijacked by incompetency, I think that's what has driven the Republican party right off the cliff, and we are not who we say we are. And that's at best dishonest.....

Iraq Orders Blackwater to Leave After Civilian Deaths

The Iraqi government has ordered the American private security contractor Blackwater, which provides protection for US officials in the country, to shut down its operations after its guards were accused of killing 10 civilians and injuring 13 others in Baghdad.

Employees of the company are alleged to have opened fire indiscriminately after a bomb exploded on Sunday in the Mansour district of the city, packed with people shopping for Ramadan.

The Iraqi government's decision, personally endorsed by the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is the strongest measure taken yet against private security contractors, who have been repeatedly accused of carrying out unprovoked shootings of Iraqi civilians.

Airport bust: Sting hits Justice Dept.

A U.S. Justice Department official has been arrested on suspicion of traveling to Detroit over the weekend to have sex with a minor. John David R. Atchison, 53, an assistant U.S. attorney from the northern district of Florida, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Detroit Monday afternoon. Prosecutors said Atchison flew from Pensacola, Fla., to Detroit on Sunday intending to have sex with a 5-year-old girl.

A 5 YEAR OLD!

The undercover detective expressed concern about physical injury to the 5-year-old girl as a result of the sexual activity. Detectives said Atchison responded, " I am always gentle and loving; not to worry, no damage ever, no rough stuff ever. I only like it soft and nice."

The undercover detective asked how Atchison can be certain of no injury. He responded, "Just gotta go slow and very easy. I've done it plenty," according to detectives.

Alan Greenspan, the consummate Washington insider and long-time head of the US central bank, has backed the position taken by many anti-war critics - that the invasion of Iraq was motivated by oil.

His claim comes in his newly published autobiography, The Age of Turbulence, in which he also castigates George Bush's administration for making "grave mistakes" in economic policy.

Sounding more like an activist than a lifelong Republican who worked alongside six US presidents, Mr Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman, said in an interview with the Guardian that the invasion of Iraq was aimed at protecting Middle East oil reserves: "I thought the issue of weapons of mass destruction as the excuse was utterly beside the point."

In the book Mr Greenspan writes: "Whatever their publicised angst over Saddam Hussain's 'weapons of mass destruction', American and British authorities were also concerned about violence in the area that harbours a resource indispensable for the functioning of the world economy. I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."

The US president, George Bush, is expected to name a retired New York federal judge to replace the controversial Alberto Gonzales as the attorney general today.

Michael Mukasey - who has in the past received endorsements from Democrats - is expected to win Senate confirmation without much opposition.
Guardian

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued this statement late last night:

"While he is certainly conservative, Judge Mukasey seems to be the kind of nominee who would put rule of law first and show independence from the White House, our most important criteria.

Judge Mukasey repeatedly defied the demands of the Bush administration, ruled against them, excoriated them on multiple occasions for failing to comply with his legally issued orders, and ruled that Padilla was entitled to contest the factual claims of the government and to have access to lawyers. He issued these rulings in 2002 and 2003, when virtually nobody was defying the Bush administration on anything, let alone on assertions of executive power to combat the Terrorists.

(snip)

None of this is to say that Mukasey should be confirmed as Attorney General if, as appears to be the case, he is the nominee. There is a long record of rulings that very well may constitute potent grounds for opposing him.

(snip)

Criminal defense lawyer Jeralyn Merritt, a tenacious advocate for defendants' rights, says Mukasey is "independent-minded, extremely experienced and smart," and that although he is "far too supportive of the Patriot Act and too close to Rudy Giuliani for comfort, he doesn't run rough-shod over defendants' rights."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice co-owned a home and shared a line of credit with another woman, according to Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Glenn Kessler, who reveals the information in his new book, The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy.

According to the book, Rice owns a home together with Randy Bean, a documentary filmmaker who once worked with Bill Moyers. Kessler made the discovery by looking through real estate records. The home is located in Palo Alto, California.

Bean explains the joint ownership and line of credit in the book by saying she had medical bills which left her financially drained and Rice helped her by co-purchasing the house along with a third person, Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor. Blacker is openly gay.

"Condi Rice works for an administration that uses attacks on gay rights to win votes. She has stood by silently while the President has proposed writing anti-gay discrimination into the Constitution of the United States. Whenever she is given the opportunity to distance herself from their anti-gay polices she punts."

In a televised speech last night, President Bush said his "surge" strategy has produced positive results, which will allow the US to cut the number of troops in Iraq. The Washington Post say on the front page that Bush coined a new slogan to describe his latest strategy, 'Return on Success,' meaning that further progress will enable further withdrawals." However, Bush's remarks, in which he endorsed the recommendations of Gen. David Petraeus, are receiving generally skeptical coverage. The Washington Post says Bush "made a case for progress in Iraq by citing facts and statistics that at times contradicted recent government reports or his own words." On MSNBC, Chris Matthews said, "The idea we're one of 36 countries fighting the war I think is ludicrous and why the President would throw that out there, I think it only opens him up to ridicule."

TV critic Tom Shales writes in the Washington Post that the speech was "delivered in a stern, stony manner, something like a high-school disciplinarian getting tough, or rather staying tough, with a class of unruly students." Noting the "Return on Success" phrase, the Los Angeles Times says on its front page the word "victory" has "quietly disappeared from the president's vocabulary," replaced "by a more ambiguous goal: 'Success.'" Another front page Los Angeles Times story, however, reports that in his remarks, Bush used "much the same argument he has since the first year of the war -- that terrorists fighting in Iraq are, ultimately, seeking to attack the United States." In an analysis piece, the New York Times also says that "Return on Success," as a "goal," is "very different from the 'victory' Mr. Bush was touting less than two years ago." Also negative is the assessment of the Financial Times, which reports Bush "defied calls for a dramatic change of course, saying the US military role would stretch 'way beyond' his presidency."

The Washington Post reports that if the "prime targets of...Bush's appeal for patience last night were moderates in his own party, his speech may have fallen flat." Republican lawmakers, "facing tough reelection bids in the midst of an ongoing war, reacted with grave concern to the president's call for only modest troop reductions and no dramatic change of mission in Iraq."

USA Today reports Bush's plan would "leave about 130,000 American troops in Iraq -- roughly the same number there when Bush ordered the temporary boost eight months ago." In fact, the New York Times reports "the White House said troop totals may not return to exactly 133,000, the number deployed before the so-called surge began early this year, because of the need to keep in place specialized units, like the military police and helicopter squadrons." McClatchy says the speech left Bush's "war strategy effectively unchanged."

CNN ignored Boehner's "small price" comment after latching onto Kerry's "botched joke"

Summary: On The Situation Room, House Minority Leader John Boehner stated: "We need to continue our effort here [in Iraq] because, Wolf, long term, the investment that we're making today will be a small price if we're able to stop Al Qaeda here, if we're able to stabilize the Middle East, it's not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids." CNN did not re-air Boehner's comments, or provide any discussion of the controversy that followed them. By contrast, CNN extensively covered Sen. John Kerry's October 30, 2006, statement -- which he later explained as a "botched joke" -- that, "Education, you know, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," and the controversy that followed.

Gonzales Ready to Leave the Stage

After nine months of noisy controversy over his troubled tenure, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales is leaving office quietly today with a low-key farewell address to Justice Department employees in Washington.

Gonzales, who has made only three public appearances since announcing his resignation on Aug. 27, is expected to dwell on his record in combating terrorism, child exploitation and other crimes rather than on the divisive issues that forced him from the job.

During a brief news conference yesterday in Des Moines, Gonzales played down those controversies, including the congressional uproar over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year and the Justice Department and congressional investigations into whether he lied in testimony or attempted to influence the testimony of a witness.

"We're all human and all of us make mistakes, and the thing that's important is to identify when those mistakes are made, acknowledge the mistakes, correct the mistakes and then you move on," Gonzales said in answer to a reporter's question, without going into detail. "So, you know, that's what I've endeavored to do as the attorney general."

Don't Recall

Democrats Push Toward Middle On Iraq Policy

Democratic leaders in Congress have decided to shift course and pursue modest bipartisan measures to alter U.S. military strategy in Iraq, hoping to use incremental changes instead of aggressive legislation to break the grip Republicans have held over the direction of war policy.

Standing against them will be President Bush, who intends to use a prime-time address tonight to try to ease concerns that his Iraq strategy will lead to an open-ended military commitment.

Both efforts share a single target: a handful of Republican moderates in the Senate whose votes the Democrats need to overcome the threat of a GOP filibuster. Should enough Republican moderates sign on to a compromise measure, Democrats could finally pass legislation aimed at changing direction of the war.

"We're reaching out to the Republicans to allow them to fulfill their word," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) said yesterday. "A number of them are quoted significantly saying that come September that there would have to be a change of the course in the war in Iraq."...

No Leadership

According to Fox News, advisers are telling the White House that diplomacy has failed to stop Iran's nuclear program, and as a result officials are making plans to attack Iran as early as next summer.

"A recent decision by German officials to withhold support for any new sanctions against Iran has pushed a broad spectrum of officials in Washington to develop potential scenarios for a military attack on the Islamic regime," Fox reported on Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas McInerney told Fox, "Since Germany has backed out of helping economically, we do not have any other choice. ... They've forced us into the military option."

"The one I favor the most, of course, is an air campaign," he continued. "Forty-eight hours duration, hitting 2500 aimed points to take out their nuclear facilities, their air defense facilities, their air force, their navy, their Shahab-3 retaliatory missiles, and finally their command and control. And then let the Iranian people take their country back."

McInerney described such a bombing campaign as "easy" and spoke enthusiastically of the weaponry involved, including "a new massive ordnance penetrator that's 30,000 pounds, that really penetrates ... Ahmadinejad has nothing in Iran that we can't penetrate."

They were not killed in combat, nor on a daring mission. They died when the five-ton cargo truck in which they were riding overturned.

The victims, Staff Sgt. Yance T. Gray, 26, and Sgt. Omar Mora, 28, were among the authors of "The War as We Saw It," in which they expressed doubts about reports of progress.

"As responsible infantrymen and noncommissioned officers with the 82nd Airborne Division soon heading back home, we are skeptical of recent press coverage portraying the conflict as increasingly manageable and feel it has neglected the mounting civil, political and social unrest we see every day," the soldiers wrote.

(snip)

While the seven soldiers were composing their article, one of them, Staff Sgt. Jeremy A. Murphy, was shot in the head. He was flown to a military hospital in the United States and is expected to survive.

Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge

In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus's superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.

Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickenshit" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.

That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon's mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus's recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer.

The enmity between the two commanders became public knowledge when the Washington Post reported Sep. 9 on intense conflict within the administration over Iraq. The story quoted a senior official as saying that referring to "bad relations" between them is "the understatement of the century".

Chickenshit!

In almost four decades of involvement in national politics, much of them as a card-carrying Republican, I was never concerned that the GOP posed a threat to the well-being of our nation. Indeed, the idea would never have occurred to me, for in my experience the system took care of excesses, as it certainly did in the case of the president for whom I worked. But in recent years the system has changed, and is no longer self-correcting. Most of that change has come from Republicans, and much of it is based on their remarkably confrontational attitude, an attitude that has clearly worked for them. For example, I cannot imagine any Democratic president keeping cabinet officers as Bush has done with his secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, men whom both Democrats and Republicans judged to be incompetent. Evidence that the system has changed is also apparent when a president can deliberately and openly violate the law -- as, for example, simply brushing aside serious statutory prohibitions against torture and electronic surveillance -- without any serious consequences. Similarly, but on a lesser scale, Alberto Gonzales faced no consequences when he politicized the Department of Justice as never before, allowing his aides to violate the prohibitions regarding hiring career civil servants based on their party affiliation, and then gave false public statements and testimony about the matter. When the Senate sought to pass a resolution expressing "no confidence" in the attorney general, the Republicans blocked it with a filibuster. The fact that Bush's Justice Department has become yet another political instrument should give Americans pause. This body was created by Congress to represent the interests of the people of the United States, not the Republican Party, but since the system of law no longer takes account when officials act outside the law (not to mention the Constitution), Republicans do so and get away with it.

(snip)

As I was writing this closing section an old friend from the Nixon White House called. Now retired, he is a lifelong Republican who told me that he voted for Bush and Cheney twice, because he knows them both personally. He asked how my new book was coming, and when I told him the title, he remarked, "I'll say the government's broken." After we discussed it, he asked how I planned to end the book, since the election was still a good distance away. I told him I was contemplating ending midsentence and immediately fading to black -- the way HBO did in the final episode of the Sopranos, but that I would settle for a nice quote from him, on the record. He explained that he constantly has to bite his tongue, and the reason he does not speak out more is because one of his sons is in an important (nonpolitical) government post, and we both know that Republicans will seek revenge wherever they can find it. How about an off-the-record comment? I asked. That he agreed to.

"Just tell your readers that you have a source who knows a lot about the Republican party from long experience, that he knows all the key movers and shakers, and he has a bit of advice: People should not vote for any Republican, because they're dangerous, dishonest and self-serving. While I once believed that Governor George Wallace had it right, that there was not a dime's worth of difference in the parties; that is not longer true. I have come to realize the Democrats really do care about people who most need help from government; Republicans care most about those who will only get richer because of government help. The government is truly broken, particularly in dealing with national security, and another four years, and heaven forbid not eight years, under the Republicans, and our grandchildren will have to build a new government, because the one we have will be unrecognizable and unworkable."

These comments summed up our current situation -- and our possible future -- as eloquently as anything I could have wished.

The president will say he understands Americans' deep concerns. Bush will continue by saying that, after hearing from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, he has decided to reduce the U.S. military presence but not abandon Iraq to chaos.

Bush will place more conditions on reductions than his general did, insisting that conditions on the ground must warrant cuts and that events could change the plan.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Bush appears poised to bring the country back to where it was before the election that put Democrats in control of Congress -- with 130,000 troops in Iraq. "Please. It's an insult to the intelligence of the American people that that is a new direction in Iraq," she said.

PRESIDENT Bush hit the roof over a secret diary that troubled first lady Laura has kept documenting their White House years, GLOBE has learned in a world exclusive. And insiders reveal he fears if the tell-all is published it will destroy his legacy and reveal the painful truth about their turbulent marriage - including his boozing, their bitter fights and relationship with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

They all observed a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., Tuesday - the exact moment in 2001 when terrorists slammed the first jetliner into the World Trade Center in New York.

The president stood with Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne on the South Lawn during the simple ceremony that has been repeated each year since the attack. Dressed in dark suits, the four of them bowed their heads as a member of the Honor Guard stood nearby, holding an American flag.

Bush stood sternly as the Marine band played "God Bless America." Mrs. Bush then took his arm and they walked inside along with the Cheneys.

"I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by, nor shared with, anyone in the Pentagon, the White House, or Congress."

My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. I will cite some examples, and these are from human sources.

Now, a special program note: Tomorrow night at 9 pm eastern on the Fox News Channel, Brit will have an exclusive interview with General David Patraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker about the state of the Iraq war and their testimony to Congress. Please be sure to watch.

"In Afghanistan, 28 million people are free. They have their own president, they have their own parliament. Improved a lot on the streets," Rumsfeld says in the October issue of GQ magazine.

Rumsfeld said the Department of Defense and the U.S. military are not responsible for any failures (in Iraq) or in Afghanistan.

He said the refusal of Turkey, a NATO ally, to allow U.S. troops to cross its border into Iraq at the outset of the war, gave would-be insurgents "free play for a good period of time. I mean, there's a dozen things like that."

President George W. Bush's homeland security adviser said on Sunday al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is "virtually impotent" and can do little more than send videotaped messages.

"This is a man on the run in a cave who is virtually impotent other than his ability to get these messages out," Townsend said on CNN's "Late Edition." "It is propaganda.

"Based on our experience, we have never seen bin Laden use a tape to trigger any operational activity."
Reuters

------------------------------------

Bush, attending a summit of Pacific Rim leaders in Sydney, Australia, said: "The tape is a reminder about the dangerous world in which we live, and it's a reminder that we must work together to protect our people against these extremists who murder the innocent in order to achieve their political objectives."

The Homeland Security Department was continuing to analyze the video to see if it includes any coded messages, department spokesman Russ Knocke said.
Faux

In their long-awaited report to Congress, Petraeus and Crocker will say the buildup of 30,000 troops, which brings the U.S. total to nearly 170,000, is working better than any previous effort to quell the insurgency and restore stability, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations.
Guardian

About 70% of Iraqis believe security has deteriorated in the area covered by the US military "surge" of the past six months, an opinion poll suggests.

The survey by the BBC, ABC News and NHK of more than 2,000 people across Iraq also suggests that nearly 60% see attacks on US-led forces as justified.

the average number of daily attacks against civilians remained about the same over the last six months.

While overall attacks declined in July compared with June, levels of violence remain high. Enemy initiated attacks have increased around major religious and political events, including Ramadan and elections.5 For 2007, Ramadan is scheduled to begin in mid-September.

The August 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq6 (NIE) also reports that the level of overall violence in Iraq, including attacks on and casualties among civilians, remains high....Levels of insurgent and sectarian violence will remain high over the next 6 to 12 months.

Brain study finds political divide

Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.

In a simple experiment reported todayin the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at New York University and UCLA show that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.

Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions.

The results show "there are two cognitive styles -- a liberal style and a conservative style," said UCLA neurologist Dr. Marco Iacoboni, who was not connected to the latest research.

Participants were college students whose politics ranged from "very liberal" to "very conservative." They were instructed to tap a keyboard when an M appeared on a computer monitor and to refrain from tapping when they saw a W.

M appeared four times more frequently than W, conditioning participants to press a key in knee-jerk fashion whenever they saw a letter.

Each participant was wired to an electroencephalograph that recorded activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that detects conflicts between a habitual tendency (pressing a key) and a more appropriate response (not pressing the key). Liberals had more brain activity and made fewer mistakes than conservatives when they saw a W, researchers said. Liberals and conservatives were equally accurate in recognizing M.

W

Utah 'Fredheads' gather for SLC rally

A handful of Utah "Fredheads" - political activists supporting the late entry of Republican Fred Thompson into the presidential sweepstakes - gathered Thursday in Salt Lake City to kick off their campaign for the oldest fresh face in the race.

Just four Thompson supporters showed up at Utah Republican Party headquarters for the event, leaving dozens of untouched cookies and vegetable snacks provided in hopes a much bigger crowd would materialize.

Those present listened in on a live nationally broadcast conference call in which the new candidate thanked his supporters and told them he would be the candidate who wouldn't just give lip service to topics such as the war in Iraq.

4

Osama Bin Laden is said to be preparing to release a video message to the American people to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The announcement was made on an Islamist website, where al-Qaeda's media arm frequently posts messages.

US homeland security officials could not confirm the existence of a tape, and said there was "no credible information of an imminent threat".

Bin Laden has not been seen in a video since October 2004, when he threatened new attacks against the US on the eve of the presidential election.

The Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has two words for all the network neutrality backers who believe that a bit of government regulation could go a long way towards keeping the Internet open: trust us. In comments just filed with the Federal Communications Commission, the top lawyers from the Antitrust Division called preemptive network neutrality regulations a bad idea, instead arguing for a free market system in which the DoJ would step in to correct any antitrust violations after they occur.

(snip)

The basic arguments that relate directly to net neutrality are twofold. One, the DoJ points out that there have so far been few real violations of the neutrality principle in the US. When egregious examples have come to light (rural telco Madison River was smacked down by the FCC when it began blocking VoIP calls), they have been handled quickly. Rather than lay down a "prophylactic" system of regulations, the DoJ believes it would be better to leave the market unregulated and deal with problems as they come up.

The second major argument is that network operators need to massively expand their capacity and consumers will be stuck paying the bill if network neutrality is enacted. "Several studies have noted," says the DoJ, "that prohibiting broadband providers from charging content providers directly would lead consumers shouldering a disproportionate share of the costs necessary to upgrade network infrastructure."

Left unexplained is exactly how a network infrastructure has been paid for over the last 15 years as Internet traffic as exploded. Here's a hint: it hasn't been done by forcing every website to pay every major network operator if said website wants to reach customers a little faster. It also hasn't been done by sticking consumers with the bill in its entirety, as the DoJ filing appears to indicate. Content providers do pay for access to the network; they pay vast sums of cash for bandwidth, in fact, and that money filters out to the ISPs that carry their traffic through peering and carriage arrangements.

A federal judge struck down controversial portions of the USA Patriot Act in a ruling that declared them unconstitutional yesterday, ordering the FBI to stop its wide use of a warrantless tactic for obtaining e-mail and telephone data from private companies for counterterrorism investigations.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York said the FBI's use of secret "national security letters" to demand such data violates the First Amendment and constitutional provisions on the separation of powers, because the FBI can impose indefinite gag orders on the companies and the courts have little opportunity to review the letters.

The secrecy provisions are "the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values," Marrero wrote. His strongly worded 103-page opinion amounted to a rebuke of both the administration and Congress, which had revised the act in 2005 to take into account an earlier ruling by the judge on the same topic.

The ruling follows reports this year by Justice Department and FBI auditors that the FBI potentially violated privacy laws or bureau rules more than a thousand times while issuing NSLs in recent years -- violations that did not come to light quickly, partly because of the Patriot Act's secrecy rules.

He thanked Mr Howard for his introduction and for being such a "kind host" for the OPEC summit.

As if that was not enough though, Mr Bush also botched the host country's name, referring to Mr Howard's visit to Iraq in 2006 as a thank you to "the Austrian troops there".

Mr Bush also stumbled over his pronunciation of Jemaah Islamiah, the regional terror network, but had no trouble with its abbreviation - JI.

Upon finishing his speech, Mr Bush took the wrong way off-stage and, looking slightly perplexed, had to be redirected by Mr Howard to a centre-stage exit.

Craig Bungling Continues

On "America's Most Wanted" television show, suspects often get identified after their pictures are aired. Such was the case when Larry Craig's daughter, Shea Suzanne Howell appeared on ABC.

Craig can add the arrest of his daughter to the list of unintended consequences he is racking up. This sad event proves that "no good deed goes unpunished."

After her national TV appearance, a GUARDIAN reader put two and two together and sent this little unsolicited nugget late Wednesday from the Ada Sheriff's warrant list:

"You would think the Boise police would go ahead and arrest the "stand up" character witness's Larry had with him Saturday!"

adasheriff.org warrants
HOWELL SHAE SUZANNE
2108 N FASTWATER AVE
BOISE, ID 10/11/70 M0615800 4/18/2007 1 M CONTEMPT OF COURT
$500 BOND

We checked with officials at the jail and according to their records the contempt of court warrant is active. It will be difficult for the coppers to ignore such a high profile wanted person-especially after she appeared on national television defending a U.S. senator. Chances are she may not have been aware of the warrant and until she became a television personality, few people (including the coppers) linked her name to Craig.

Not Contempt!

Republican presidential hopeful, U.S.,Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. during a speech at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2007.

Brownback drew boos from the audience when he called for passage of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

A B-52 bomber flew the length of the United States mistakenly loaded with as many as six nuclear armed cruise missiles, US military officials confirmed today.

The mix-up last week was only discovered after the aircraft landed at Barksdale air force base in Louisiana after making the three and a half hour journey from Minot Air Base in North Dakota.

Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That's like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform walking out of a post office. And how does someone watching a B-52 land identify the cruise missiles as nukes? It just does not make sense.

So I called a old friend and retired B-52 pilot and asked him. What he told me offers one compelling case of circumstantial evidence. My buddy, let's call him Jack D. Ripper, reminded me that the only times you put weapons on a plane is when they are on alert or if you are tasked to move the weapons to a specific site.

Then he told me something I had not heard before.

Barksdale Air Force Base is being used as a jumping off point for Middle East operations. Gee, why would we want cruise missile nukes at Barksdale Air Force Base. Can't imagine we would need to use them in Iraq. Why would we want to preposition nuclear weapons at a base conducting Middle East operations?

His final point was to observe that someone on the inside obviously leaked the info that the planes were carrying nukes. A B-52 landing at Barksdale is a non-event. A B-52 landing with nukes. That is something else.

Now maybe there is an innocent explanation for this? I can't think of one. What is certain is that the pilots of this plane did not just make a last minute decision to strap on some nukes and take them for a joy ride. We need some tough questions and clear answers. What the hell is going on? Did someone at Barksdale try to indirectly warn the American people that the Bush Administration is staging nukes for Iran? I don't know, but it is a question worth asking.

Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction
Salon exclusive: Two former CIA officers say the president squelched top-secret intelligence, and a briefing by George Tenet, months before invading Iraq.

On Sept. 18, 2002, CIA director George Tenet briefed President Bush in the Oval Office on top-secret intelligence that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, according to two former senior CIA officers. Bush dismissed as worthless this information from the Iraqi foreign minister, a member of Saddam's inner circle, although it turned out to be accurate in every detail. Tenet never brought it up again.

Nor was the intelligence included in the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, which stated categorically that Iraq possessed WMD. No one in Congress was aware of the secret intelligence that Saddam had no WMD as the House of Representatives and the Senate voted, a week after the submission of the NIE, on the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq. The information, moreover, was not circulated within the CIA among those agents involved in operations to prove whether Saddam had WMD.

On April 23, 2006, CBS's "60 Minutes" interviewed Tyler Drumheller, the former CIA chief of clandestine operations for Europe, who disclosed that the agency had received documentary intelligence from Naji Sabri, Saddam's foreign minister, that Saddam did not have WMD. "We continued to validate him the whole way through," said Drumheller. "The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming, and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy, to justify the policy."

Now two former senior CIA officers have confirmed Drumheller's account to me and provided the background to the story of how the information that might have stopped the invasion of Iraq was twisted in order to justify it. They described what Tenet said to Bush about the lack of WMD, and how Bush responded, and noted that Tenet never shared Sabri's intelligence with then Secretary of State Colin Powell. According to the former officers, the intelligence was also never shared with the senior military planning the invasion, which required U.S. soldiers to receive medical shots against the ill effects of WMD and to wear protective uniforms in the desert.

Oil

Bush: 'She (Condi) Can Be My Date'

Condoleezza Rice has been President Bush's foreign policy tutor, sports buddy, national security adviser and his secretary of state.

Bush came up with a new designation Wednesday at a dinner in his honor.

"She can be my date," the president said, reaching out his left hand to touch Rice's arm as they stood before the cameras at a dinner hosted by Prime Minister John Howard and his wife Janette at their residence, Kirribilli House .

First lady Laura Bush had stayed back in Washington, saying a pinched nerve prevented her from taking long flights.

"Pinched Nerve!"

At a recent Washington, D.C. dinner party, New York magazine says Condoleeza Rice "was reportedly overheard saying, 'As I was telling my husb-' and then stopping herself abruptly, before saying, 'As I was telling President Bush.' Jaws dropped, but a guest says the slip by the unmarried politician, who spends weekends with the president and his wife, seemed more psychologically telling than incriminating. Nobody thinks Bush and Rice are actually an item."

Senator Larry Craig reconsidering resignation

Sen. Larry Craig is reconsidering his decision to resign after his arrest in a Minnesota airport sex sting and may still fight for his Senate seat, his spokesman said Tuesday evening.

"It's not such a foregone conclusion anymore, that the only thing he could do was resign," said Sidney Smith, Craig's spokesman in Idaho's capital.

"We're still preparing as if Senator Craig will resign Sept. 30, but the outcome of the legal case in Minnesota and the ethics investigation will have an impact on whether we're able to stay in the fight - and stay in the Senate."

NOT GAY!

Jimmy Carter has dedicated his life after the White House to conflict resolution around the world. Presidents George Bush the elder and Bill Clinton have campaigned together on behalf of communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina. So how does President George Bush junior imagine spending his retirement years?

"I can just envision getting in the car, getting bored, going down to the ranch," he says. He also has big plans for making money. "I'll give some speeches, to replenish the ol' coffers," says Mr Bush, who is already estimated to be worth $20m. "I don't know what my dad gets - it's more than 50-75 [thousand dollars a speech], and "Clinton's making a lot of money".

(snip)

It gets worse. Mr Bush reveals that whenever he feels depressed about the death toll in Iraq, he turns to God for comfort. "I've got God's shoulder to cry on, and I cry a lot," he says. "I'll bet I've shed more tears than you can count."

There is at least one point on which the president and his detractors will agree. In a moment of breathtaking candour, Mr Bush laments the fact that the media no longer listens to him. "I've been here too long," he says.