I apologize for

last night's entry, which, upon rereading it, appears to be half coherent and mostly profanity. Not that I don't talk that way at times, but I try to be more coherent.

But seriously - CHRISTMAS is under ATTACK? I can never tell if that nutjob is just saying things to get a public reation, or if he's really out of his mind. And didn't he spout this shit last year too?

Veteran's Day - the poppies. We do have them here, Geogrrl, a man from the DAV was outside the supermarket last night offering them to customers. It's not as widespread a custom as it was when I was a child, and I'm afraid when the retirees who carry it on today pass on the custom will die with them.

As for that lying sack of shit in the White House, "Congress had the same intelligence" - oh please! some of us still remember Sen. Bob Graham's very unequivocal position against the war. And why.

Graham and Durbin had been demanding for more than a month that the CIA produce an NIE on the Iraqi threat--a summary of the available intelligence, reflecting the judgment of the entire intelligence community--and toward the end of September, it was delivered. Like Tenet's earlier letter, the classified NIE was balanced in its assessments. Graham called on Tenet to produce a declassified version of the report that could guide members in voting on the resolution. Graham and Durbin both hoped the declassified report would rebut the kinds of overheated claims they were hearing from administration spokespeople. As Durbin tells TNR, "The most frustrating thing I find is when you have credible evidence on the intelligence committee that is directly contradictory to statements made by the administration."
On October 1, 2002, Tenet produced a declassified NIE. But Graham and Durbin were outraged to find that it omitted the qualifications and countervailing evidence that had characterized the classified version and played up the claims that strengthened the administration's case for war. For instance, the intelligence report cited the much-disputed aluminum tubes as evidence that Saddam "remains intent on acquiring" nuclear weapons. And it claimed, "All intelligence experts agree that Iraq is seeking nuclear weapons and that these tubes could be used in a centrifuge enrichment program"--a blatant mischaracterization. Subsequently, the NIE allowed that "some" experts might disagree but insisted that "most" did not, never mentioning that the DOE's expert analysts had determined the tubes were not suitable for a nuclear weapons program. The NIE also said that Iraq had "begun renewed production of chemical warfare agents"--which the DIA report had left pointedly in doubt. Graham demanded that the CIA declassify dissenting portions.

In response, Tenet produced a single-page letter. It satisfied one of Graham's requests: It included a statement that there was a "low" likelihood of Iraq launching an unprovoked attack on the United States. But it also contained a sop to the administration, stating without qualification that the CIA had "solid reporting of senior-level contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda going back a decade." Graham demanded that Tenet declassify more of the report, and Tenet promised to fax over additional material. But, later that evening, Graham received a call from the CIA, informing him that the White House had ordered Tenet not to release anything more.

I just don't understand why more people aren't really pissed off about this. If distorting evidence to manipulate support for a war isn't an impeachable offense, what IS?