Backstage w/Supak: organic, progressive, environmentalist

From the why-I'm-not-letting-up-on-Bush files

He's not REALLY the president, and shrub and his smirk belong back in Austin and Al Gore (who's commision had plenty of great ideas to make airlines safer that were ignored and ridiculed by Republicans and the airline industry) should be running the show. The "election" of 2000 was just the beginning of Jr. ruining this country. Now he's on the "crusade" to kill the "evil doers." As if events weren't surreal enough, Dumbya's tele-prompter people are mixing up their comic book lines with the president's speeches.

Oh, and hey, I'll be the first to mention it when Bush Boy actually says something smart. I read that in a meeting with four key Senators, W actually said, "What's the point of shooting a 2 million dollar missle at a ten dollar tent that's empty?" I hope the Uncle Dick and the Joint Chiefs were listening.

Bush Rejected Terrorism Commission Report

Salon's Jake Tapper reports, "White House officials failed to embrace any of the recommendations to prevent acts of domestic terrorism delivered earlier this year. Bush administration officials told former Sens. Gary Hart, D-Colo., and Warren Rudman, R-N.H., that they preferred instead to put aside the recommendations issued in the January report by the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century. Instead, the White House announced in May that it would have Vice President Dick Cheney study the potential problem of domestic terrorism -- which the bipartisan group had already spent two and a half years studying -- while assigning responsibility for dealing with the issue to [FEMA], headed by former Bush campaign manager Joe Allbaugh. The Hart-Rudman Commission had specifically recommended that the issue of terrorism was such a threat it needed far more than FEMA's attention."


The Gore Commission Demanded Tougher Airline Security, But Airlines And Conservatives Said No

In 1997, the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security - commonly known as the Gore Commission - issued 50 recommendations for defending air travel against terrorists. The cost: $2-8 billion, to be paid from user fees. But the airline industry dismissed the threat of terrorists, and attacked the commission. And conservative ideologues rejected the proposal on "cost-effectiveness" grounds. How much are 5,000 lives - not to mention the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and America's security - worth?

Phil Gramm (R-TX) Blocked Clinton Bill to Trace Terrorist Money

The NY Times reports, "Federal officials say they have not persuaded foreign banks to open their books to investigators and that in this country, a law that would have allowed the United States to penalize foreign banks that did not cooperate was blocked last year by a single United States senator... The bill, introduced by the Clinton administration, would give the Treasury secretary broad power to bar foreign countries and banks from access to the American financial market unless they cooperated with money-laundering investigations. It was strongly opposed by the banking industry and [Senator Phil] Gramm. 'I was right then and I am right now' in opposing the bill, Mr. Gramm said yesterday. He called the bill 'totalitarian' and added, 'The way to deal with terrorists is to hunt them down and kill them.'" According to the Times, Bin Laden's financial methods have not changed since he worked "side by side with the C.I.A. to support the rebels fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan."

Why Did Bush Give $43 Million to Afghanistan in May?

On May 22, LA Times columnist Robert Scheer denounced "the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell... makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that "rogue regime" for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God... Never mind that Osama bin Laden still operates the leading anti-American terror operation from his base in Afghanistan, from which, among other crimes, he launched two bloody attacks on American embassies in Africa in 1998. Sadly, the Bush administration is cozying up to the Taliban regime at a time when the United Nations, at U.S. insistence, imposes sanctions on Afghanistan because the Kabul government will not turn over Bin Laden." Is the US funding the Taliban? Bush needs to tell Americans the truth.

Yeah. Like that'll happen. And the immortal words of Wayne (Mike Myers): "And monkeys might fly outta my butt!"