20050224
Good blogs are Open Source News
Bush: World Must Gang Up On Iran
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/international/europe/23cnd-prex.html?ex=1109826000&en=e9237b5235681da5&ei=5070
Bush Says United Front Is Essential to Curb Iran
Iranian distrust of America is 50 years in the making
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050222/opcom22.art.htm
The recent revelation of secret U.S. reconnaissance missions inside Iran and President Bush's inaugural speech, which included his promise to end tyranny around the world, brought back memories for me and many Iranians. Those recollections include a coup d'état in 1953 that led to a distrust of America that lingers today.
Iranians Depict American 'Den of Spies'
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=508478&page=1
Although this museum has been around in some form since the hostages were released, it has been updated to include derogatory pictures of George Bush, shown drowning in one depiction along with Israel's Ariel Sharon. There is a new exhibit on the war in Iraq and the mistreatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.
The Pentagon is promoting a global counterterrorism plan that would allow Special Operations forces to enter a foreign country to conduct military operations without explicit concurrence from the U.S. ambassador there, administration officials familiar with the plan said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48522-2005Feb23?language=printer
"This is a military order on a global scale, something that hasn't existed since World War II."
Syria Committed to Withdraw From Lebanon
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2005/feb/24/022403954.html
In the wake of Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination, the Bush administration has issued strong calls for Syria to withdraw completely from Lebanon, where Damascus has about 15,000 troops. The Americans have also said Syria should remove its intelligence agents, but there was no sign of such a move.
The Syrian intelligence officer who appeared on the U.S.-funded Iraqi state television station had a stark message about the insurgency - he'd helped train people to build car bombs and behead people.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2005/feb/24/022403735.html
The videos were broadcast as the Bush administration steps up pressure on Syria to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs by allowing insurgents to cross into the country to fight coalition troops and by harboring former Iraqi regime members. Syria has denied the charges.
Fear of Death Omnipresent in Baghdad
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2005/feb/24/022404290.html
Nearly two years after the U.S.-led invasion, and almost a month after elections, Baghdad remains a terrifying place.
George W.M.D. Bush today hailed images of “jubilant Iraqis dancing in the streets last month, holding up ink-stained fingers.”“
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3bp.htm
In recent times, we have witnessed landmark events in the history of liberty: A Rose Revolution in Georgia, an Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and now, a Purple Revolution in Iraq.”
Also drawing U.S. alarm are Putin's attempts to influence elections in Ukraine, Russian arms sales to Syria and the Kremlin's close ties to Iran.
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=050224&cat=news&st=newsd88f0ndo0&src=ap
High on Bush's agenda for the meeting were his concerns over Putin's moves to solidify his power and clamp down on civil and press liberties.
Lives more important than liberties says Bliar
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/16847543?version=1
The most controversial powers, being kept in reserve, could see suspects held without trial in their homes or in Government accommodation.
Geroge W. Bush taught three Oregon schoolteachers a new lesson in irony – or tragedy – Thursday night when his campaign removed them from a Bush speech and threatened them with arrest simply for wearing t-shirts that said “Protect Our Civil Liberties.”
http://www.bend.com/news/ar_view^3Far_id^3D18712.htm
Three Medford-area schoolteachers Janet Voorhees, Candice Julian, and Tania Tong were ejected from a Bush rally in Central Point, Oregon for wearing these shirts, which Bush event staff called “obscene.”
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
Media is the front line of the corporate system. And media transmits the values, sells the products. All of this is about selling, not telling. The tradition of journalism is being eroded. And in its place we have impressions, images, archetypes, icons, celebrities and the like. This is how public opinion is now being massaged and manipulated. The war was a testing ground, not only for new weapons systems and techniques, but also for new communications strategies.
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/02/int05010.html
...our media became a weapons systems targeted at us. Usually in war propaganda you try and confuse the enemy. In our case, this propaganda infiltrated very skillfully back into American and global public opinion, and it was done with the help of Hollywood producers, and corporate PR people brought in to help out at the Pentagon.
Hard Questions About White House Media Manipulation
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=83323&lftnav=talkingpoints
Perhaps President Putin should press President Bush about his own media abuse and manipulation at home. The White House record of corruption continues to grow: paid journalists acting as administration shills; fake news stories produced by government agencies; and now partisan GOP "newsman" James Guckert (who works under the false name Jeff Gannon to cover up his second life as an Internet prostitute) gaining access to the White House press office and potentially sensitive national security information.
The Case of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali. The Latest Revelation of the Bush Cartel Stalinesque Gulag.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/opinion/24thu2.html?
In an undisciplined attempt to wring statements out of any conceivable suspect, American officials have worked with countries like Saudi Arabia, a nation whose attitude toward human rights is deplorable, and Syria, which is counted by Washington as a state sponsor of terrorism. And now these officials are faced with the problem of what to do with these prisoners, most of whom have proved to be no use to interrogators, but who remain on America's conscience.
US Army Reports New Detainee Procedures
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-02-24-voa2.cfm
The U.S. military says it has implemented new procedures to ensure that detainees are not abused, as they were at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and allegedly at other U.S. military detention facilities. Officials say allegations of abuse by army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in 308 criminal investigations.
War Crimes
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0508,hentoff,61345,6.html
Congress dozes while detainees are sent to other countries to be tortured
Torture Nation
http://www.counterpunch.org/wright02242005.html
Meanwhile, we live under one-party domination with an enfeebled "opposition" party trying to appeal to the snake-handling and clinic-burning crowd before the next election. And the U.S. military is in Iraq, not to spread the virtues of punch-card voting or high-fructose corn syrup, but to dominate the planet's central energy supplies. This it will do by any means necessary, employing torture, leveling more Fallujahs, or whichever atrocities people will accept back in the "homeland."
At least 15 people, including two U.S. soldiers, were killed in blasts today across Iraq, U.S. military and Iraqi political officials said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ask7Ns1HPXbg&refer=top_world_news
As many as 18,339 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion and subsequent violence, according to a tally by Iraq Body Count, a London-based group that opposes the war and compiles its casualty toll from media reports and official statements?
Dropping Report's Iraq Chapter Was Unusual, Economists Say
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45323-2005Feb22.html?referrer=emailarticle
Concern About Impact on White House's Credibility Cited
Reports Question Blair's Steps to War
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=526518
The demands came after The Guardian newspaper and Channel 4 television reported that Attorney General Lord Goldsmith warned the government in a written report on March 7, 2003, that an invasion of Iraq could be deemed illegal.
Lets Not Forget: Bush Planned Iraq 'Regime Change' Before Becoming President
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1221.htm
...despite threatening war against Iraq for developing weapons of mass destruction, the US may consider developing biological weapons -- which the nation has banned -- in decades to come. It says: 'New methods of attack -- electronic, 'non-lethal', biological -- will be more widely available ... combat likely will take place in new dimensions, in space, cyberspace, and perhaps the world of microbes ... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool';
l and pinpoints North Korea, Libya, Syria and Iran as dangerous regimes and says their existence justifies the creation of a 'world-wide command-and-control system'.
Few tears will be shed when Saddam Hussein's rule meets its rightful end. But we err when we assume that deposing a dictator is in itself a noble act. We have deposed many dictators in the past, and replaced them with equal tyrants who we cloaked in the now-tired rhetoric of democracy. For this reason we have earned the skepticism with which the world now views us. In the Persian Gulf, ours is a history without honor, and our cause has rarely been just. They who would bury more men in the Middle East owe us far more than bluster. Thus the onus is on the Bush Administration. They owe us evidence, and if they want their war taken seriously, they owe us as well a reckoning--an acknowledgement of past crimes and a plan that shows us something meaningfully better.
http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.asp?id=225
These, of course, likely will not come. But the war will. It has ever been thus; the powerful have never lacked the capacity for betrayal. Nor the powerless for broken hearts.
For many 9/11 families, one more heartbreak
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7022540/
Out of nearly 2,800 victims, fewer than 300 whole bodies were recovered.
No trace found of 1,100 WTC victims
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-wtc24.html
Since the attacks 3 1/2 years ago, the medical examiner's office identified nearly 1,600 victims, although progress had slowed considerably in recent months. The city has about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead.
Separating the Gannons from the Guckerts
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6844293/#050220a
“I can’t speak to the White House vetting process,” Guckert/Gannon told CNN in the only answer he gave that even bordered on being substantive. “I suppose that they don’t - they aren’t interested in reporters’ sexual history either.” This would come as a surprise to the ABC producer/reporter in Iraq who was outed by the infamous Matt Drudge (because, as Drudge told The Washington Post, “Someone in the White House communications shop tipped me to it”) as being not only gay, but Canadian.
Bush Tells Canadian Prime Minister's Scott that He has a Prettier Face Than Bush's Scott!
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/01/con04022.html
After a small discussion about Scott's duties for the PM, Dubya said, "Well, you got a pretty face. You got a pretty face. You're a good-looking guy. Better looking than my Scott [McClellan, Bush's Press Secretary and Karl Rove's mouthpiece] anyway."
Gingrich expressed surprise that Democrats aren't piling on more on issues such as Republican contracts with conservative commentators and the White House's admission of a pro-Republican male hooker to the press corps.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3052707
"It's fair to say that in my career I would probably have found an opportunity to comment on it," Gingrich said.
Gannongate: It's worse than you think
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/23/more_gannon/index_np.html
Bush's press office gave Jim Guckert access, even knowing his only credentials were from the blatantly partisan group GOPUSA.
The Unholy Alliance Between Iran and Syria
http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/cmolin/2005/cdm_02231.shtml
Hinchey suggested that presidential political mastermind Karl Rove is behind the fake documents that brought down several top executives at CBS. The controversy led to the early retirement of longtime anchor Dan Rather, many believe.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/02/22/hinchey2.htm
"Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: It originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House ... . Once they did that, then it undermined everything else about Bush's draft dodging. … That had the effect of taking the whole issue away."
Bush Gets Stoned by the World Media
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48042-2005Feb23.html
President Bush all but admits to illicit drug use for the first time. Overseas it's the stuff of headlines. At home, the U.S. press has generally downplayed the story.
On the audiotapes of George W. Bush recorded secretly by his erstwhile confidant Douglas Wead in 1999, the future President revealed how much he feared candid discussion of his personal use of marijuana and cocaine. As quoted in The New York Times, Mr. Bush vowed that no matter what rumors and facts circulated about what he did or might have done, he would doggedly decline to answer forthrightly.
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18611
The poor and the black are incarcerated for using pot and coke, while the rich and the white lie to their kids (and occasionally to the voters) about those same transgressions. ¶ 24.2.05
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/23/international/europe/23cnd-prex.html?ex=1109826000&en=e9237b5235681da5&ei=5070
Bush Says United Front Is Essential to Curb Iran
Iranian distrust of America is 50 years in the making
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20050222/opcom22.art.htm
The recent revelation of secret U.S. reconnaissance missions inside Iran and President Bush's inaugural speech, which included his promise to end tyranny around the world, brought back memories for me and many Iranians. Those recollections include a coup d'état in 1953 that led to a distrust of America that lingers today.
Iranians Depict American 'Den of Spies'
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=508478&page=1
Although this museum has been around in some form since the hostages were released, it has been updated to include derogatory pictures of George Bush, shown drowning in one depiction along with Israel's Ariel Sharon. There is a new exhibit on the war in Iraq and the mistreatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison.
The Pentagon is promoting a global counterterrorism plan that would allow Special Operations forces to enter a foreign country to conduct military operations without explicit concurrence from the U.S. ambassador there, administration officials familiar with the plan said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A48522-2005Feb23?language=printer
"This is a military order on a global scale, something that hasn't existed since World War II."
Syria Committed to Withdraw From Lebanon
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2005/feb/24/022403954.html
In the wake of Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination, the Bush administration has issued strong calls for Syria to withdraw completely from Lebanon, where Damascus has about 15,000 troops. The Americans have also said Syria should remove its intelligence agents, but there was no sign of such a move.
The Syrian intelligence officer who appeared on the U.S.-funded Iraqi state television station had a stark message about the insurgency - he'd helped train people to build car bombs and behead people.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2005/feb/24/022403735.html
The videos were broadcast as the Bush administration steps up pressure on Syria to stop meddling in Iraqi affairs by allowing insurgents to cross into the country to fight coalition troops and by harboring former Iraqi regime members. Syria has denied the charges.
Fear of Death Omnipresent in Baghdad
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2005/feb/24/022404290.html
Nearly two years after the U.S.-led invasion, and almost a month after elections, Baghdad remains a terrifying place.
George W.M.D. Bush today hailed images of “jubilant Iraqis dancing in the streets last month, holding up ink-stained fingers.”“
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3bp.htm
In recent times, we have witnessed landmark events in the history of liberty: A Rose Revolution in Georgia, an Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and now, a Purple Revolution in Iraq.”
Also drawing U.S. alarm are Putin's attempts to influence elections in Ukraine, Russian arms sales to Syria and the Kremlin's close ties to Iran.
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=050224&cat=news&st=newsd88f0ndo0&src=ap
High on Bush's agenda for the meeting were his concerns over Putin's moves to solidify his power and clamp down on civil and press liberties.
Lives more important than liberties says Bliar
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/16847543?version=1
The most controversial powers, being kept in reserve, could see suspects held without trial in their homes or in Government accommodation.
Geroge W. Bush taught three Oregon schoolteachers a new lesson in irony – or tragedy – Thursday night when his campaign removed them from a Bush speech and threatened them with arrest simply for wearing t-shirts that said “Protect Our Civil Liberties.”
http://www.bend.com/news/ar_view^3Far_id^3D18712.htm
Three Medford-area schoolteachers Janet Voorhees, Candice Julian, and Tania Tong were ejected from a Bush rally in Central Point, Oregon for wearing these shirts, which Bush event staff called “obscene.”
Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm
Sometimes the media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
Media is the front line of the corporate system. And media transmits the values, sells the products. All of this is about selling, not telling. The tradition of journalism is being eroded. And in its place we have impressions, images, archetypes, icons, celebrities and the like. This is how public opinion is now being massaged and manipulated. The war was a testing ground, not only for new weapons systems and techniques, but also for new communications strategies.
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/02/int05010.html
...our media became a weapons systems targeted at us. Usually in war propaganda you try and confuse the enemy. In our case, this propaganda infiltrated very skillfully back into American and global public opinion, and it was done with the help of Hollywood producers, and corporate PR people brought in to help out at the Pentagon.
Hard Questions About White House Media Manipulation
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=83323&lftnav=talkingpoints
Perhaps President Putin should press President Bush about his own media abuse and manipulation at home. The White House record of corruption continues to grow: paid journalists acting as administration shills; fake news stories produced by government agencies; and now partisan GOP "newsman" James Guckert (who works under the false name Jeff Gannon to cover up his second life as an Internet prostitute) gaining access to the White House press office and potentially sensitive national security information.
The Case of Ahmed Omar Abu Ali. The Latest Revelation of the Bush Cartel Stalinesque Gulag.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/opinion/24thu2.html?
In an undisciplined attempt to wring statements out of any conceivable suspect, American officials have worked with countries like Saudi Arabia, a nation whose attitude toward human rights is deplorable, and Syria, which is counted by Washington as a state sponsor of terrorism. And now these officials are faced with the problem of what to do with these prisoners, most of whom have proved to be no use to interrogators, but who remain on America's conscience.
US Army Reports New Detainee Procedures
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-02-24-voa2.cfm
The U.S. military says it has implemented new procedures to ensure that detainees are not abused, as they were at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad and allegedly at other U.S. military detention facilities. Officials say allegations of abuse by army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in 308 criminal investigations.
War Crimes
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0508,hentoff,61345,6.html
Congress dozes while detainees are sent to other countries to be tortured
Torture Nation
http://www.counterpunch.org/wright02242005.html
Meanwhile, we live under one-party domination with an enfeebled "opposition" party trying to appeal to the snake-handling and clinic-burning crowd before the next election. And the U.S. military is in Iraq, not to spread the virtues of punch-card voting or high-fructose corn syrup, but to dominate the planet's central energy supplies. This it will do by any means necessary, employing torture, leveling more Fallujahs, or whichever atrocities people will accept back in the "homeland."
At least 15 people, including two U.S. soldiers, were killed in blasts today across Iraq, U.S. military and Iraqi political officials said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ask7Ns1HPXbg&refer=top_world_news
As many as 18,339 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion and subsequent violence, according to a tally by Iraq Body Count, a London-based group that opposes the war and compiles its casualty toll from media reports and official statements?
Dropping Report's Iraq Chapter Was Unusual, Economists Say
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45323-2005Feb22.html?referrer=emailarticle
Concern About Impact on White House's Credibility Cited
Reports Question Blair's Steps to War
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=526518
The demands came after The Guardian newspaper and Channel 4 television reported that Attorney General Lord Goldsmith warned the government in a written report on March 7, 2003, that an invasion of Iraq could be deemed illegal.
Lets Not Forget: Bush Planned Iraq 'Regime Change' Before Becoming President
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1221.htm
...despite threatening war against Iraq for developing weapons of mass destruction, the US may consider developing biological weapons -- which the nation has banned -- in decades to come. It says: 'New methods of attack -- electronic, 'non-lethal', biological -- will be more widely available ... combat likely will take place in new dimensions, in space, cyberspace, and perhaps the world of microbes ... advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool';
l and pinpoints North Korea, Libya, Syria and Iran as dangerous regimes and says their existence justifies the creation of a 'world-wide command-and-control system'.
Few tears will be shed when Saddam Hussein's rule meets its rightful end. But we err when we assume that deposing a dictator is in itself a noble act. We have deposed many dictators in the past, and replaced them with equal tyrants who we cloaked in the now-tired rhetoric of democracy. For this reason we have earned the skepticism with which the world now views us. In the Persian Gulf, ours is a history without honor, and our cause has rarely been just. They who would bury more men in the Middle East owe us far more than bluster. Thus the onus is on the Bush Administration. They owe us evidence, and if they want their war taken seriously, they owe us as well a reckoning--an acknowledgement of past crimes and a plan that shows us something meaningfully better.
http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.asp?id=225
These, of course, likely will not come. But the war will. It has ever been thus; the powerful have never lacked the capacity for betrayal. Nor the powerless for broken hearts.
For many 9/11 families, one more heartbreak
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7022540/
Out of nearly 2,800 victims, fewer than 300 whole bodies were recovered.
No trace found of 1,100 WTC victims
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-wtc24.html
Since the attacks 3 1/2 years ago, the medical examiner's office identified nearly 1,600 victims, although progress had slowed considerably in recent months. The city has about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead.
Separating the Gannons from the Guckerts
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6844293/#050220a
“I can’t speak to the White House vetting process,” Guckert/Gannon told CNN in the only answer he gave that even bordered on being substantive. “I suppose that they don’t - they aren’t interested in reporters’ sexual history either.” This would come as a surprise to the ABC producer/reporter in Iraq who was outed by the infamous Matt Drudge (because, as Drudge told The Washington Post, “Someone in the White House communications shop tipped me to it”) as being not only gay, but Canadian.
Bush Tells Canadian Prime Minister's Scott that He has a Prettier Face Than Bush's Scott!
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/04/01/con04022.html
After a small discussion about Scott's duties for the PM, Dubya said, "Well, you got a pretty face. You got a pretty face. You're a good-looking guy. Better looking than my Scott [McClellan, Bush's Press Secretary and Karl Rove's mouthpiece] anyway."
Gingrich expressed surprise that Democrats aren't piling on more on issues such as Republican contracts with conservative commentators and the White House's admission of a pro-Republican male hooker to the press corps.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3052707
"It's fair to say that in my career I would probably have found an opportunity to comment on it," Gingrich said.
Gannongate: It's worse than you think
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/02/23/more_gannon/index_np.html
Bush's press office gave Jim Guckert access, even knowing his only credentials were from the blatantly partisan group GOPUSA.
The Unholy Alliance Between Iran and Syria
http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/cmolin/2005/cdm_02231.shtml
Hinchey suggested that presidential political mastermind Karl Rove is behind the fake documents that brought down several top executives at CBS. The controversy led to the early retirement of longtime anchor Dan Rather, many believe.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/02/22/hinchey2.htm
"Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: It originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House ... . Once they did that, then it undermined everything else about Bush's draft dodging. … That had the effect of taking the whole issue away."
Bush Gets Stoned by the World Media
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48042-2005Feb23.html
President Bush all but admits to illicit drug use for the first time. Overseas it's the stuff of headlines. At home, the U.S. press has generally downplayed the story.
On the audiotapes of George W. Bush recorded secretly by his erstwhile confidant Douglas Wead in 1999, the future President revealed how much he feared candid discussion of his personal use of marijuana and cocaine. As quoted in The New York Times, Mr. Bush vowed that no matter what rumors and facts circulated about what he did or might have done, he would doggedly decline to answer forthrightly.
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18611
The poor and the black are incarcerated for using pot and coke, while the rich and the white lie to their kids (and occasionally to the voters) about those same transgressions. ¶ 24.2.05
