Weasel Breaking News

Today's disgusting testimony by Exxon Rice's substitute, Dick 'Watergate' Armitage brings to mind this page . . .
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/coupbehind.htm

What's So Funny? Bushes yuck it up at 9-11 services

Echoes of Chicago ’68? The City and Activists Gear Up for the RNC
http://www.thebrooklynrail.org/express/march04/echoesof68.html
A party’s pro-war leadership is at odds with its activist base. A nominating convention is being held in a city hostile to political protest. Radical factions threaten violent demonstrations, from which a reactionary political party stands to benefit.

Not every parallel is exact, but the issue is clear: Will New York City late this August witness a repeat of Chicago ‘68?

---

March 20^th - nothing posted. In the streets for peace with the rest of you!

FLASH!

letter allegedly from Al Qaeda terrorists:

WE WANT BUSH TO WIN

Tenn. County Wants to Charge Homosexuals
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=519&u=/ap/20040317/ap_on_re_us/county_gay_ban_1
DAYTON, Tenn. - The county that was the site of the Scopes "Monkey Trial" over the teaching of evolution is asking lawmakers to amend state law so the county can charge homosexuals with crimes against nature.

The Rhea County commissioners approved the request 8-0 Tuesday.

Commissioner J.C. Fugate, who introduced the measure, also asked the county attorney to find a way to enact an ordinance banning homosexuals from living in the county.

"We need to keep them out of here," Fugate said.

The vote was denounced by Matt Nevels, president of the Chattanooga chapter of Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

"That is the most farfetched idea put forth by any kind of public official," Nevels said. "I'm outraged."

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) struck down Texas' sodomy laws as a violation of adults' privacy.

Rhea County is one of the most conservative counties in Tennessee. It holds an annual festival commemorating the 1925 trial at which John T. Scopes was convicted of teaching evolution. The verdict was thrown out on a technicality. The trial became the subject of the play and movie "Inherit the Wind."

In 2002, a federal judge ruled unconstitutional the teaching of a Bible class in the public schools.

The new Pentagon papers
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/03/10/osp_moveon/
A high-ranking military officer reveals how Defense Department extremists suppressed information and twisted the truth to drive the country to war.

Did the FBI conceal wider right-wing involvement in the Oklahoma City bombing?
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/mar2004/mcv-m08.shtml
The insistence by the highest levels of government that McVeigh acted alone in the Oklahoma bombing is motivated, in part, by the need to conceal the close ties between numerous political figures at the federal, state and local level with the Christian right, militia groups and racist and anti-Semitic organizations. In particular, Republican Party senators, congressmen and local politicians have actively solicited support and funds from some of these fascistic outfits.

Skull 'n Bones Election Update

Yale grads Kerry, Bush share bond of secrecy
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_04b4cf2d058740920061.html
WASHINGTON -- In the spring semester of their junior years at Yale University, John Kerry and George W. Bush were tapped on the shoulder and abruptly asked: "Skull and Bones, accept or reject?"

Both answered, "Accept."

Kerry was initiated into this most famous and mysterious of Yale's secret societies in 1965. Bush entered Skull and Bones in 1967, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Thus was set up the first presidential election between Bonesmen nearly four decades hence.

This development was perhaps inevitable. For generations, 15 Yale seniors -- frequently future leaders of government, business, media, arts and other professions -- have gathered in secrecy in the Tomb, the windowless home of their select society on the Yale campus.

Often after graduation, their bonds have strengthened inside a Bones network entwined throughout American culture.

"The only agenda of Skull and Bones is to get its members into positions of power and then to have those members hire others to positions of prominence. The organization has an enormous superiority complex that partly fuels their secrecy," said Alexandra Robbins, author of Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power.

"I think the problem here is that, frankly, I don't believe that the people who represent our country, especially the president of the United States, should be allowed to have an allegiance to any secret group. Secrecy overshadows democracy," said Robbins, a 1998 Yale graduate who belonged to Scroll and Key, another secret society.

"They stopped talking to me after my book was published," she said, describing the spirit of secrecy that still permeates the societies.

Such secrets seem safe with Bush and Kerry, the likely Democratic nominee for president.

In separate episodes of the NBC program Meet the Press, host Tim Russert asked Bush and Kerry about their memberships in Skull and Bones.

"It's so secret we can't talk about it," answered the president.

"I wish there were something secret I could manifest there," Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, replied warily when Russert asked if he would divulge rituals of the Tomb.

"What's so staggering about the fact that both presidential candidates are members of Skull and Bones is that this is a tiny organization with perhaps only 800 living members," said Robbins. "This isn't an organization in which a member can simply get an interview at some Joe Schmo law firm. This is an organization where members can call up presidents, Supreme Court justices, and Cabinet members, and ask for jobs, power, money, or connections."

In researching her book, Robbins interviewed more than 100 members of Skull and Bones. She inquired about which candidate the secret society would rather have in the White House.

"I asked many Bonesmen that question," she recalled. "The sincere answer to me was, 'We don't care -- it's a win-win situation.' "

Of course, Bush and Kerry are only the latest Bonesmen to star on the national stage. President George H.W. Bush, the incumbent's father, was also a member of Skull and Bones, as were former President William Howard Taft; former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart; former Sens. Prescott Bush, David Boren, James Buckley, John Heinz and John Chafee; Time magazine founder Henry Luce; writers Archibald MacLeish, John Hersey, William F. Buckley Jr. and his son, Christopher Buckley; historian David McCullough; Washington power brokers Averell Harriman and McGeorge Bundy; anti-Vietnam War activist the Rev. William Sloane Coffin: Morgan Stanley founder Harold Stanley, and a wealth of other well-connected notables.

"I think Skull and Bones has had slightly more success than the Mafia in the sense that the leaders of the five families are all doing 100 years in jail, and the leaders of the Skull and Bones families are doing four and eight years in the White House," author and Yale graduate Ron Rosenbaum said on the CBS News program 60 Minutes.

Ritual and reverence

With roots stretching to 1832, Skull and Bones is the oldest of Yale's secret senior societies. There are others, however, that also meet on Thursday and Sunday evenings in their own "Tombs." Among them are Scroll and Key, Book and Snake, Wolf's Head and Berzelius.

Each chooses 15 or 16 new juniors as members on "tap night" in April. As seniors, they will spend countless hours together in their Tombs and form lifelong relationships. With varying input from alumni, each class chooses -- "taps" -- its successors.

In Secrets of the Tomb, Robbins revealed much of the ritual and reverence of Skull and Bones:

New members are assigned secret names. Some are traditional: "Long Devil" is the tallest member. "Boaz" (for Beelzebub) goes to a varsity football captain. The new member with the least sexual experience is dubbed "Gog." The most sexually experienced member becomes "Magog."

The elder George Bush was nicknamed "Magog," Robbins reported. George W. Bush was called "Temporary" because he was not assigned a name and didn't choose one. The author didn't know Kerry's secret name but "Long Devil" might be a good bet.

Kerry's Bonesman class of 1966 included Alan Cross, now a physician and director of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Federal Express founder Fredrick W. Smith; and William Warren Pershing, grandson of Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, an infantry officer who died in Vietnam.

Among Bush's diverse group of Bonesmen, who graduated in 1968, were Olympic gold medalist Don Schollander; future Harvard Medical School surgeon Gregory Gallico; Jordanian Muhammed Saleh; Donald Etra, an Orthodox Jew; and Roy Austin, then African-American captain of Yale's soccer team and now U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.

As president, George W. Bush has appointed other Bonesmen to his administration, including Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson and Assistant Attorney General Robert McCallum.

Most of Yale's secret societies set aside long sessions in which members tell their life stories in deep, intimate detail.

The lore of Skull and Bones, which began accepting women members in 1992, describes additional meetings in which each member gives explicit accounts of his or her sexual history. This is known as a "CB" or "Connubial Bliss" account.

"There was nothing perverse or surreal or prurient -- just an open exchange," a Bonesman told Robbins.

Alumni gather annually

Skull and Bones is a "dry" society. No alcohol is consumed inside its Tomb. Members dine together at 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays in the Firefly Room, where light comes through fixtures shaped like skulls and beverages are served in skull-shaped cups.

There are also plenty of actual skulls and bones, both human and animal, inside the Skull and Bones Tomb. Initiation puts new members in coffins.

"The preoccupation with bones, mortality, with coffins, lying in coffins, standing around coffins, all this sort of thing I think is designed to give them the sense that, and it's very true, life is short," said Rosenbaum. "You can spend it, if you have a privileged background, enjoying yourself, contributing nothing, or you can spend it making a contribution."

During their senior years, members often hang out in the Tombs, which are closed to outsiders. The Skull and Bones building is described as more comfortable than plush, and the society is financed through an endowment and contributions by alumni. There are no dues.

Meetings are held behind a locked iron door in the Inner Temple, or Room 322. The number is hallowed in Skull and Bones history. In its beginnings, the society was known as the Eulogian Club and honored Eulogia, the goddess of eloquence. She "took her place in the pantheon upon the death of the orator Demosthenes in 322 B.C.," reported Robbins.

Inside their tomb, Bonesman refer to outsiders as "barbarians."

Alumni are expected to return to the Tomb for events. And members from over the years gather at least annually on Deer Island, which is owned by Skull and Bones and located just north of Alexandria Bay, N.Y.

"Bones likes to bring back its prominent alumni, especially, because the visits remind younger members of the illustrious footsteps in which they are expected to follow," said Robbins, "and that the bizarre traditions in which they participate are traditions that famous men have been following for nearly 200 years."

I have another name for bonesmen: "spoiled little shitheads with tiny dicks"

Thanks to Michael Kane for art

Bush Exploits Photo of Dead Bodies, Despite Ban
http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df03052004.html
As the nation headed for war last year, President Bush "clamped down" on the media, extending and expanding a controversial policy that banned reporters from photographing flag-draped caskets of soldiers killed in combat. The White House said the policy was enforced to "spare the feelings of military families." Yet, in the very first television advertisement of his 2004 campaign, the president has blanketed the nation's airwaves with an image of "firefighters carrying a flag-draped body" from the 9/11 wreckage at Ground Zero.

The hypocrisy of preventing Americans from receiving a "reminder of the toll of war" at the very same time the president exploits an image of a dead body for his own political gain has caused an outrage among victims' families 4. Chris Burke, whose brother Tom died in the attacks, said, "Using my dead friends and my dead brother for political expediency is dead wrong. It's wrong, it's bad taste and an insult to the 3,000 people who died on Sept. 11."

The president's actions have also raised new credibility questions because he previously promised not to exploit the 9/11 attacks. Speaking of 9/11 in January 2003, President Bush told the Associated Press that he had "no ambition whatsoever to use this as a political issue."

Reports from Madison Avenue!
http://www.legitgov.com/election_coup2_ads_030504.html
Has the RNC's 2004 kickoff ad campaign backfired?
You decide.

Aristide in his own words - KPFA's "Flashpoints" Exclusive
http://nyc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/88654/index.php“In overthrowing me, they have uprooted the trunk of the liberty. It will grow back because its roots are many and deep.” In the shadow of Toussaint L'Ouverture, the genius of the race. I declare in overthrowing me they have uprooted the trunk of the tree of peace, but it will grow back because the roots are L'Ouverturian. - - President Jean-Bertrand Aristide

Gossip Vine:

asscroft is now a clinical drunk
http://www.datalounge.com/datalounge/forums//index.html?thread=2876670&stack=&continuebutton=Not+Now
"The overwhelming majority of pancreatitis cases are caused by alcoholism. "

We knew it all along !

AMERICANS DEMAND THAT BUSH SUBMIT TO A POLYGRAPH EXAMINATION

This is a call for ALL WOMEN TO STRIKE THIS MONDAY, MARCH 8TH!


Demands of the Global Women's Strike

♦ Payment for all caring work – in wages, pensions, land & other resources. What is more valuable than raising children & caring for others? Invest in life & welfare, not military budgets & prisons.

♦ Pay equity for all, women & men, in the global market.

♦ Food security for all, starting with breastfeeding mothers. Paid maternity leave, breastfeeding breaks & other benefits - stop penalizing us for being women.

♦ Don’t pay ‘Third World Debt’. Women owe nothing, they owe us.

♦ Accessible clean water, healthcare, housing, transportation, literacy.

♦ Non-polluting energy & technology which shortens the hours we work. We all need cookers/stoves, fridges, washing machines, computers, & time off!

♦ Protection & asylum from all violence & persecution, including by family members & people in positions of authority.

♦ Freedom of movement. Capital travels freely, why not people?

Who Owns September 11th?

by Nicholas Levis

911truth.org

Friday, March 5th, 2004.


NEW YORK CITY. Who owns the imagery of Ground Zero? Who controls
its meaning? When is it appropriate for a political campaign to
use traumatizing pictures in an effort to influence the vote?

These were the underlying questions conjured when relatives of
people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks and a firefighter involved
in the rescue attempts issued an impassioned plea to George W.
Bush, demanding he withdraw campaign ads that employ footage of
the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center.

Speaking today to an overcrowded hall of press and camera crews
at the Sheraton Hotel in Manhattan, Rita Lasar described how she
lost her brother in the attacks. He had worked on the 27th floor
of the North Tower, and decided not to evacuate after a plane
hit the building, but to stay behind with a quadraplegic
co-worker and await rescuers. They were caught in the building's
collapse.

"Ground Zero is a burial place," Lasar said. Two and one-half
years have passed, but: "Any family family member will tell you,
for us it's still like the first day." She noted that in a 2002
speech, George W. Bush promised never to use the Ground Zero
site for political purposes. "We trusted him, and he broke his
promise," she said. "To say we are outraged today is simply the
truth. We feel deep sorrow that any politician would seek to
gain advantage with these images."

Lasar is a founding member of Peaceful Tomorrows - a group of
victims' relatives who since the attacks have warned against
perpetuating the cycle of violence by waging war on whole
nations.

Bob McIlvaine lost his son, a 26-year-old employee of Merrill
Lynch, who worked on the 106th floor. "My son was murdered," he
said. "Although I have spoken about this a hundred times since,
saying that is always the hardest part to get through." He said
he was absolutely outraged that any political party would use
Ground Zero for gain. "It makes me sick."

The controversial ads, which suggest that Bush has made the
nation safer, are a misrepresentation given how little
disclosure there has been about what actually happened on the
day, McIlvaine said: "They say our nation is stronger, but
people forget the 3,000 who died. Many, many questions have been
left unanswered. I am absolutely outraged why these answers have
not been given. Instead of parading around telling us how secure
this country is, tell us why it was left unprotected."

Tom Ryan, a former firefighter who was with the rescue crews at
Ground Zero after the attacks, objected to the images of rescue
workers carrying the body of dead firefighters, as used in the
commercials for the Bush 2004 campaign. "We are not allowed to
see dead soldiers from Iraq. Why are we allowed to see dead
firefighters?" he asked.

"It's raw. you relive every moment," Ryan said. Ground Zero "is
a sacred ground, and it shouldn't be used for political gain."
He noted that he has had respiratory problems since his work at
the site, which was still smoking many weeks after the attacks.
"Hundreds of firefighters have problems, I don't want any
politician exploiting that," he said.

Ryan described as a further contradiction that even as the ads
run on television, the White House is still obstructing the
investigation of the 9-11 Commission. "At the end we have sixty
days?" he asked, referring to the recent hard-fought extension
of the 9-11 Commission's deadline - which the White House
initially opposed. "Is that enough?"

In response to reporters' questions, Lasar and the other
speakers clarified repeatedly that they by no means meant that
Sept. 11th should be avoided as an issue. On the contrary, they
suggested the real issues of Sept. 11th have yet to be addressed
- because of the failure of investigators to credibly answer
many of the open questions.

Instead, Lasar's point of contention is specifically with the
use of images of the attack, which she called manipulative, and
which McIlvaine characterized to one reporter as inspiring fear
in an effort to sway the hearts and minds of voters.

"I am not saying (Sept. 11th) is not to be talked about," Lasar
said. "Of course we must talk about this. This is what the 9-11
Commission is supposed to do. All we are saying is, don't use
sacred ground, don't use the images as a backdrop to change the
minds of voters. Don't show the firefighters. It's obscene."

One reporter wanted to know if the speakers were members of
political parties. "To tell you the truth, I have no clue what
party I am in, or anyone else here," McIlvaine said. He
explained that "Peaceful Tomorrows" is not a partisan group, and
that the name is from a speech by Martin Luther King.

A reporter asked McIlvaine to specify his concerns about the
9/11 investigations. "I am extremely frustrated, anxious," he
replied. "They are stonewalling everything." He recalled "all
the commissions in the 1990s" - on which more than 100 million
dollars were spent, he said - and compared that to the just 3
million dollars in the original appropriation for the 9-11
Commission. A later appropriation, of 8 million additional
dollars, was at first stiffly opposed by the White House.

"We have lots of questions - not one has been answered,"
McIlvaine continued. "All investigations are compromised, all
are political. There is no cooperation" with the investigations
by government authorities, McIlvaine said. He said the families
had expected the investigations to be run by "independent
people," not exclusively by politicians and former members of
the government.

"Why do you think that is?" one reporter asked.

"Well, you should tell me!" McIlvaine shot back. He went on to
the next question, but whether intended or not, the remark stood
as an accusation against the mass media's failure to cover or
even acknowledge the many open questions of Sept. 11th and the
ongoing controversies in the investigations.

"We get threatening phone calls telling us every day to get over
it, to forget about it," McIlvaine said, asking how the families
could forget when so much remains unresolved.

It was a non-reporter who had to ask the next question, finally:
"What are some of your unanswered questions?"

In rapid-fire phrases, McIlvaine brought up three issues:

• The failure of U.S. air defenses to mount interception
attempts of the four Sept. 11 flights, as required under
standard operating procedures.

• The 45 minutes of inactivity by Bush during the attacks as he
stayed at a Florida school with children, which was covered live
on television.

• The government admission that 140 Saudis left the United
States in the days after the attacks, and were allowed to fly
during the period when all civilian flights were grounded. Among
those who left were relatives of Osama Bin Laden and members of
the Saudi royal family, whom some in the FBI had wanted to
question.

McIlvaine cautioned these questions represented only the
beginning of an inquiry.

The Family Steering Committee, which is tracking the work of the
9-11 Commission, recently issued a set of 23 questions they
would like George W. Bush to answer in public testimony under
oath.

A Daily News reporter spoke up to say that some family members
differ views on the issue, and have said they are not offended
by the Bush ads.

"It's so hard to deal with this as a family member because it is
in your face," McIlvaine replied. "A lot say, I don't want to
deal with it."

Question: "How would you like to see Bush talk about Sept 11th?"

"Go to the Commission," McIlvaine said. "That is the forum for
it. Why do we use war as a political tool?" He noted the example
of John Kerry also using his service in Vietnam as a political
tool, and wondered how this was relevant to actual policy
questions of the day.

"What matters (about Sept. 11th) is that, until we find out what
happened, we will never protect this country," McIlvaine said.
"Because the world is at war due to Sept. 11, we are not normal,
breathing families who can be left alone. Every single day, we
are called upon and reminded."

A final admonishment to Bush: "Find some other way to run a
campaign, without stepping on the bodies of the dead."


---------------------------------------------
© 2004 Nicholas Levis

5 Mar 04 / 3 p.m.
Draft cleared for free further distribution by author. Please
employ ethical standards of editing.

------------- APPENDIX---------------
23 QUESTIONS OF THE FAMILY STEERING COMMITTEE TO GEORGE W. BUSH

The Family Steering Committee Statement and Questions Regarding
the 9/11
Commission Interview with President Bush February 16, 2004

February 16, 2004. The Family Steering Committee believes that
President Bush should provide sworn public testimony to the full
ten-member panel of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
Upon the United States.

Collectively, the Commissioners are responsible for fulfilling
the Congressional mandate. Therefore, each Commissioner must
have full access to the testimony of all individuals and the
critical information that will enable informed decisions and
recommendations. Before an audience of the American people, the
Commission must ask President Bush in sworn testimony, the
following questions:

1. As Commander-in-Chief on the morning of 9/11, why didn't you
return immediately to Washington, D.C. or the National Military
Command Center once you became aware that America was under
attack? At specifically what time did you become aware that
America was under attack? Who informed you of this fact?

2. On the morning of 9/11, who was in charge of our country
while you were away from the National Military Command Center?
Were you informed or consulted about all decisions made in your
absence?

3. What defensive action did you personally order to protect our
nation during the crisis on Sept. 11? What time were these
orders given, and to whom? What orders were carried out? What
was the result of such orders? Were any such orders not carried
out?

4. In your opinion, why was our nation so utterly unprepared
for an attack on our own soil?

5. U.S. Navy Captain Deborah Loewer, the Director of the White
House Situation Room, informed you of the first airliner hitting
Tower One of the World Trade Center before you entered the Emma
E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida. Please explain
the reason why you decided to continue with the scheduled
classroom visit, fifteen minutes after learning the first
hijacked airliner had hit the World Trade Center.

6. Is it normal procedure for the Director of the White House
Situation Room to travel with you? If so, please cite any prior
examples of when this occurred. If not normal procedure, please
explain the circumstances that led to the Director of the White
House Situation Room being asked to accompany you to Florida
during the week of September 11th.

7. What plan of action caused you to remain seated after
Andrew Card informed you that a second airliner had hit the
second tower of the World Trade Center and America was clearly
under attack? Approximately how long did you remain in the
classroom after Card's message?

8. At what time were you made aware that other planes were
hijacked in addition to Flight 11 and Flight 175? Who notified
you? What was your course of action as Commander-in-Chief of the
United States?

9. Beginning with the transition period between the Clinton
administration and your own, and ending on 9/11/01, specifically
what information (either verbal or written) about terrorists,
possible attacks and targets, did you receive from any source?
This would include briefings or communications from:
* Out-going Clinton officials
* CIA, FBI, NSA, DoD and other intelligence agencies
* Foreign intelligence, governments, dignitaries or envoys
* National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
* Richard Clarke, former counterterrorism czar

10. Specifically, what did you learn from the August 6, 2001,
PDB about the terrorist threat that was facing our nation? Did
you request any follow-up action to take place? Did you request
any further report be developed and/or prepared?


11. As Commander-in-Chief, from May 1, 2001 until September 11,
2001, did you receive any information from any intelligence
agency official or agent that UBL was planning to attack this
nation on its own soil using airplanes as weapons, targeting New
York City landmarks during the week of September 11, 2001 or on
the actual day of September 11, 2001?

12. What defensive measures did you take in response to pre-9/11
warnings from eleven nations about a terrorist attack, many of
which cited an attack in the continental United States? Did you
prepare any directives in response to these actions? If so, with
what results?

13. As Commander-in-Chief from May 1, 2001 until September 11,
2001, did you or any agent of the U,S, government carry out any
negotiations or talks with UBL, an agent of UBL, or al-Qaeda?
During that same period, did you or any agent of the U.S.
government carry out any negotiations or talks with any foreign
government, agents, or officials regarding UBL? If so, what
resulted?

14. Your schedule for September 11, 2001 was in the public
domain since September 7, 2001. The Emma E. Booker School is
only five miles from the Bradenton Airport, so you, and
therefore the children in the classroom, might have been a
target for the terrorists on 9/11. What was the intention of
the Secret Service in allowing you to remain in the Emma E.
Booker Elementary School, even though they were aware America
was under attack?

15. Please explain why you remained at the Sarasota, Florida,
Elementary School for a press conference after you had finished
listening to the children read, when as a terrorist target, your
presence potentially jeopardized the lives of the children?

16. What was the purpose of the several stops of Air Force One
on September 11th? Was Air Force One at any time during the day
of September 11th a target of the terrorists? Was Air Force
One's code ever breached on September 11th?

17. Was there a reason for Air Force One lifting off without a
military escort, even after ample time elapsed to allow military
jets to arrive?

18. What prompted your refusal to release the information
regarding foreign sponsorship of the terrorists, as illustrated
in the inaccessible 28 redacted pages in the Joint Intelligence
Committee Inquiry Report? What actions have you personally
taken since 9/11 to thwart foreign sponsorship of terrorism?

19. Who approved the flight of the bin Laden family out of the
United States when all commercial flights were grounded, when
there was time for only minimal questioning by the FBI, and
especially, when two of those same individuals had links to
WAMY, a charity suspected of funding terrorism? Why were bin
Laden family members granted that special privilege � a
privilege not available to American families whose loved ones
were killed on 9/11?

20. Please explain why no one in any level of our government has
yet been held accountable for the countless failures leading up
to and on 9/11?

21. Please comment on the fact that UBL's profile on the FBI's
Ten Most Wanted Fugitives poster does not include the 9/11
attacks. To your knowledge, when was the last time any agent of
our government had contact with UBL? If prior to 9/11,
specifically what was the date of that contact and what was the
context of said meeting.

22. Do you continue to maintain that Saddam Hussein was linked
to al Qaeda? What proof do you have of any connection between
al-Qaeda and the Hussein regime?

23. Which individuals, governments, agencies, institutions, or
groups may have benefited from the attacks of 9/11? Please
state specifically how you think they have benefited.

The Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Independent
Commission –
www.911independentcommission.org

We cannot dignify the GOP ad campaign by even posting the many articles blasting their nausiating campaign theme.

Bush campaign defends disgusting ads
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/04/politics0810EST0502.DTL

Families Of WTC Victims Angered At Bush Campaign Ads
http://www.wnbc.com/wtc/2896142/detail.html
Until Bush cooperates with the federal commission that is investigating the nation's preparedness before the attacks and its response "by testifying in public under oath ... he should not be using 9-11 as political propaganda," said Kristen Breitweiser, of Middletown Township, N.J., whose husband, Ronald Breitweiser, 39, died in the World Trade Center.

CSubmit a message to 9-11 memorial - and what you think of bush jr. ad campaign using this for cheapshot ad campaign.

NEW BUSH ADS USE OF FIRE FIGHTER IMAGES
SMACK OF POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM

As Bush Trades on Heroism of Fire Fighters, His Homeland Security Funding Cuts Hurt Fire Fighters and Communities
WASHINGTON, DC – The General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, AFL-CIO (IAFF), Harold Schaitberger, issued the following statement today after President Bush unveiled new political ads that use images of fire fighters in September 11, 2001 attacks for political gain.

"I'm disappointed but not surprised that the President would try to trade on the heroism of those fire fighters in the September 11 attacks. The use of 9/11 images are hypocrisy at its worst. Here's a President that initially opposed the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and now uses its first anniversary as cause to promote his re-election. Here is a President that proposed two budgets with no funding for FIRE Act grants and still plays on the image of America’s bravest. His advertisements are disgraceful." Resolution by IAFF calling on Bush to pull the ads - PDF.

Powell and Aide Questioned on Haiti by Panel's Skeptics
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/politics/04CAPI.html

Rich nations prove miserly in anti-AIDS fight -UN
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03503528.htm
Rich nations are proving miserly in funding the launch of a global program to put 3 million poor people infected with AIDS on anti-viral drugs by the end of 2005, a U.N. envoy said on Wednesday.

First Bush Ads Focus on 9/11
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=4491174
Although use of 9/11 could leave Bush open to charges of exploiting a national tragedy, Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman said it was fair game because it was a landmark moment in Bush's presidency.
and
Two ads refer to the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, as the Bush campaign seeks to present Bush as a leader who has risen to the challenge. One ad, entitled "Tested," shows a damaged building from the World Trade Center ruins behind an American flag. Another shows firefighters.

♥ ♥ ♥ LOVE is in the air !!! ♥ ♥ ♥

Facing criminal charges, mayor will continue same-sex weddings

(NY Att'y Gen.) Spitzer: Gay Marriage Illegal

Nyack mayor to officiate, participate in same-sex marriage

The hacks in the machine
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1160482,00.html
The electronic voting being used in today's Super Tuesday Democratic primaries offers unprecedented opportunities for electoral fraud. . .

Same-Sex Marriages to Begin in Oregon
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-portland3mar03,1,4863830.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
The attorney for Multnomah County issued a legal opinion Tuesday that would allow marriage licenses for same-sex couples in Portland and elsewhere in the county, considered one of the most liberal in Oregon.

'Bullet magnets' prepare for Iraqi frontline
The largest troop rotation in US history starts this month - but the reservists have little training or appetite for battle
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1159141,00.html

Ohio gay GOP official turns Democrat
http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2004/02/26/3
Saying he can't stomach President Bush's support for the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), a gay Republican leader in Ohio announced on Thursday he is becoming a Democrat.

The Junk Science of George W. Bush
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17949

BUSH STONEWALLS 9/11 COMMISSION, LEAVING THE FAMILIES TO WONDER WHY
http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/gallagher154.html