The ink wasn't dry on the Washington Times swift-plane story before
Murtha announced he was going to hold hearings on just that subject -
how members of Congress and the administration have been using - and
misusing - the fleet of Pentagon jetliners.
The next sound you heard after Murtha's threat was the sound of 200
GOP assholes slamming shut.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/5407
Feb 10 2007
Swift-Flyers For Truth
by Stephen Pizzo
Earlier this week we learned that this administration shipped 363 TONS
of cash money, $4 billion in US $100 bills on pallets to Iraq.
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=212762007
GIANT pallets loaded with cash amounting to more than $4 billion and
weighing a total of 363 tons were sent to Baghdad aboard military
planes shortly before the United States gave control back to Iraqis,
it has been revealed to Congress.
Then they hurriedly handed all that cash over to a handful of Iraqi
Charlie Keatings.
And guess what?
Most of it disappeared into the worm-woodwork.
(The total cash shipments to Iraq came to $12B and "they can't find"
$8.8B.)
That would be the same week we are learning, thanks to the Scooter
Libby trial, http://www.slate.com/id/2158157/entry/2159366/ just how
much VP Cheney and others in the administration were lying and
covering up the lying about the real state of Saddam's non-existent
nuclear program.
And it's the same week that the Pentagon's own inspector general
released his findings that Rumsfeld's own No. 2, Douglas Feith, had
spent his pre-war days making up stuff about Saddam's non-existent
links to al Qaida.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2862621
WASHINGTON Feb 9, 2007 (AP)-- Pentagon officials undercut the
intelligence community in the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq by
insisting in briefings to the White House that there was a clear
relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, the Defense
Department's inspector general said Friday....Acting Inspector General
Thomas F. Gimble told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the
office headed by former Pentagon policy chief Douglas J. Feith took
"inappropriate" actions in advancing conclusions on al-Qaida
connections not backed up by the nation's intelligence agencies.
Yep.
All that in just one week.
One would think that at least those "fiscally conservative"
Republicans in Congress would able to talk about almost nothing but
363-tons of cash the US government "lost track of" in Iraq.
But no, they had bigger fish to fry:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/2/8/155333.shtml?s=al&promo_code=2D27-1
Nancy Pelosi Wants Bedroom on Jet
Critics charge that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is abusing the perks of
power by asking for a jumbo military jet with sleeping accommodations
for her flights across the country.
Of course, the story was completely false.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_rob_kall_070209_right_wingers_get_eg.htm
It turned out that the House Sergeant-at-Arms, Bill Livingood - who
was appointed by former GOP House Speaker, Dennis Hastert, actually
was the person that requested the military provide a plane large
enough so Pelosi could fly nonstop to the West Coast.
Was Livingood just looking out for his new bosses security, or was he
setting her up?
I can't say.
But it was his request, not Pelosi's, that set the new Dem Speaker up
for a thorough Swift-boating by GOP brown shirts.
But, unlike John Kerry, Pelosi didn't let the story churn long
unchallenged.
The role played by GOP-holdover, Livingood was put right out there.
Now she needs to go a step further.
She needs to find out who at the Pentagon took Livingood's lob over
the plate and slammed it into far right field.
As Democrats learned from Kerry's swift-boating, the only way to deal
with a lie is to promptly and unceremoniously cram it straight down
the throats of the liars.
Now that the swift-planers have been exposed, Dems need to teach them
a lesson.
They need to go to the floor of the House and read back the words of
every one of those GOP representative who took the floor this week to
repeat the lie.
Then Democrats need to demand each of them retract their remarks and
apologize.
Then make it clear to the GOP bully boys that Democrats are going to
do just that every time they try to pull one of these swift-boat
stunts in the future.
The message needs to be clear and convincing: You get no more free
swings at Democrats.
And before you swing next time, you damn well better have your facts
in line, because we are going to demand to see them.
Former US Marine, Rep. John Murtha understands the value of firing
back.
The ink wasn't dry on the Washington Times swift-plane story before
Murtha announced he was going to hold hearings on just that subject -
how members of Congress and the administration have been using - and
misusing - the fleet of Pentagon jetliners.
http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272611465.shtml
The next sound you heard after Murtha's threat was the sound of 200
GOP assholes slamming shut.
Oh, and then there's this.
Since GOP members of the Senate seem determined to block any vote or
debate on Bush's so-called "surge" of new troops into Iraq, they might
want to use that time instead to hold hearings on this instead:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bushfam9feb09,0,2095254.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Bush's uncle benefited from illegal stock sale, records show
February 8, 2007
President Bush's uncle William H.T. Bush was among a group of
directors of a defense contractor who reaped $6 million from what
federal regulators say was an illegal five-year scheme by two company
executives to manipulate the timing of stock option grants, documents
show.
Bush, known as "Bucky," becomes the second member of the president's
family to become enmeshed in the stock options scandal this month.
Bucky Bush is the youngest brother of former President George H.W.
Bush.
He was an outside, non-executive director of Engineered Support
Systems Inc., a defense contractor whose profits were bolstered
because of the Iraq war.
The St. Louis-based company, a supplier of equipment and electronics
to the military that was acquired last year by another defense
contractor, has been under investigation by federal prosecutors and
the Securities and Exchange Commission concerning the alleged options
backdating scheme.
Hey, no "cut and runners" among the Bush clan!
They're in Iraq for the duration.
A surge in troops means a surge in defense spending as well.
Let the good times roll.
A rising tide of blood raises all yachts.
This time around GOP brown shirts are going to have much tougher muck
to *****.
As I noted at the top, the list of GOP/administration failures, lies,
deficits, deceits and corruption is so long, so documented and so
handy, that Democrats have plenty of ammo.
So, at the bottom it's really just about glass and rocks.
On the right we have the GOP, holed up in the biggest glass-house
since Teapot Dome, throwing rocks at anyone that crosses them.
On the left we have Democrats, well armed but legendary for their
glass jaw.
Unless Democrats quickly and robustly return fire on these GOP's bully
boys, it's their glass jaw that'll end up busted - again.
So, on guard.
The attempted swift-plane-ing of Pelosi is just the beginning.
_____________________________________________
Harry
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