Vote for Bush or Die

In the weeks following 9/11, President Bush's popularity--which was languishing at around 50 percent in August 2001--soared to 90 percent. By mid-October 2001, support for Republicans in Congress--which was at just 37 percent in August--had shot up thirty points. After Republicans lost most major 2001 gubernatorial races to Democrats, GOP strategists realized that the key to electoral success was tapping into the post-9/11 fear of terrorism and focusing on security issues. On January 19, 2002--just nineteen weeks after the 9/11 attacks--Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, told a high-level gathering at the Republican National Committee to "go to the country" and tell the American people they can "trust the Republican Party to do a better job of...protecting America." Soon afterward, Bush authorized the Republican Party to sell photographs of himself aboard Air Force One, looking concerned and talking on a red telephone to the Vice President on 9/11.

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Bush Lied About his Military Service

• Memos reveal Bush went Awol in Texas during Vietnam war

New documents unearthed in the midst of the presidential campaign fill in some blanks but raise other questions about the sometimes mysterious and spotty story of President Bush's military service during Vietnam when he won a coveted spot in the Texas Air National Guard and avoided the war. Reviving issues that have shadowed his political career, the documents show Bush ignored a direct order from a superior officer and lost his status as a Texas Air National Guard pilot more than three decades ago because he failed to meet military performance standards and undergo a required physical examination.  They raise the specter that Bush sought favors from higher-ups and that the commander of the Texas Air National Guard wanted to "sugar coat" Bush's record after he was suspended from flying.[more ] and [more ]

• Pictured above: Colin Powell who stated in his biography  "I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed ... managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units .... Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country (Colin Powell, My American Journey, p. 148) [more ]
• What the Bush Guard Papers Really Say [more ]

Hurricane Ivan Begins Lashing Jamaica

Waves two-stories high crashed on Jamaica's eastern shore Friday, flooding homes and washing away roads as Hurricane Ivan's ferocious winds and pounding rains began to lash the island and threatened a direct hit on its densely populated capital. The death toll elsewhere in the Caribbean rose to 33. Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson declared a public emergency and pleaded with the half million people considered in danger -- about one in five islanders -- to get to shelters. Many residents, however, refused to leave, fearing their homes would be robbed if abandoned. [more ] and  [more ]

There Were No Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq at the time of US invasion

Iraq Survey Group Report:
Tony Blair will be confronted with a fresh challenge over Iraq within the next two weeks when the long-awaited final report of the Iraq Survey Group concludes there were no weapons of mass destruction in the country at the time of the US-UK invasion. The Guardian has learned that the team of weapons inspectors sent in by Washington and London at the end of the war to comb Iraq will find that though the threat of Saddam Hussein was real, there were no stockpiles. The absence of banned weapons has long been suspected, but the finality of the report's conclusion, together with its timing on the eve of the Labour party conference in Brighton, will be controversial. [more ]

U.S. Warplanes Strike Two Iraq Cities Kill 43

After a week of violence that killed 19 Americans and challenged the authority of Iraq's interim government in vast areas of the country, U.S. commanders launched airstrikes Thursday on two cities controlled by insurgents and sent troops into a third to reinstall a deposed local government.  The Iraqi Health Ministry said at least 43 people were killed and 111 wounded during air attacks on Fallujah, 35 miles west of Baghdad, and Tall Afar, a northern city near the Syrian border. U.S. troops massed outside Tall Afar, in apparent preparation to move in and restore the local government there. [more ]

Thousands of Iraqis Estimated Killed in Bush War for Oil

At Sheik Omar Clinic, a big book records 10,363 violent deaths in Baghdad and nearby towns since the war began last year -- deaths caused by car bombs, clashes between Iraqis and coalition forces, mortar attacks, revenge killings and robberies. While America mourns the deaths of more than 1,000 of its sons and daughters in the Iraq  campaign, the U.S. toll is far less than the Iraqi. No official, reliable figures exist for the whole country, but private estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000 killed since the United States invaded in March 2003. [more ]

Defense chief Rumsfeld says Military Deaths are cost of fighting terrorism

With the number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq apparently reaching the 1,000 mark, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met the symbolic figure head-on Tuesday at the Pentagon. He said the deaths were part of the cost of going on the offensive against terrorism and related the count to attacks ranging from recent Russian school deaths to the Sept. 11 strikes three years ago. [more ] The War in Iraq has nothing to do with terrorism and it has nothing to do  with school deaths in Russia.

• New York Times publishes pictures of the first 1000 U.S. troops killed in Iraq [more ]

Costa Rica Drops Out of Coalition

Costa Rica asked the United States to remove it from a list of Iraq coalition partners on Thursday after the country's Constitutional Court ruled that inclusion on the list violated the Constitution, which bars support for any military action not authorized by the United Nations. Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar said a diplomatic note had been delivered to the American Embassy in San José. "The court has ordered me to get the country's name off that list, and that's what I'm doing," he said. A White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said the United States would be willing to remove Costa Rica, though a White House Web site still had the country listed on Thursday evening. [more ]

• The Coming Bush Draft [more ]
  
• Bush will bring back the draft [more ]

Examiner says Taser did not cause death - Black Man Hog Tied and Shocked 5 Times

• "Are we supposed to believe that a healthy 31-year-old Black man who was athletic, who did not drink or do drugs, who had no history of heart problems, somehow died of a heart attack?"

Five shocks to the chest with a Taser gun did not cause the death of a man injured in a scuffle with sheriff's deputies, a medical examiner's report concluded Wednesday. Frederick Jerome Williams, 31, a Liberian native who lived in Lawrenceville, died of brain damage from a heart attack after the altercation in May, according to the final autopsy report in the case. But investigators at the Gwinnett County medical examiner's office were not able to determine what caused Williams' heart attack, according to the report. "The cause of death is brain damage -- lack of oxygen and/or blood to the brain -- due to a heart attack of uncertain etiology [unknown reasons]," said Forensic Investigator Ted Bailey. "There is no evidence the Taser directly caused or contributed to his death." Williams was the second Gwinnett inmate in eight months to die after being shocked with a stun gun in a scuffle with deputies. Members of Williams' family were disappointed by the autopsy report, said Melvin Johnson, the family's attorney."Four children ages 1 to 9 are left without a daddy and all they can say is they don't know how he died," said Johnson.  Johnson said it is hard to believe Williams' death "had nothing to do with him being hog-tied and shocked five times with a Taser and placed in a restraint chair." Gwinnett Sheriff Butch Conway said  "I've looked into the Taser as deeply as I can and I don't think it can cause death." [more ]

• TalkLeft: Why Did This Man Die in Police Custody? [more ]
• Lawsuit against gunmaker and Police filed in taser case [more ]
• Taser industry's claims that the stun guns are not lethal were unsupported by records [more ]

Two Middle Eastern Men allegedly set on Fire, Burned in Hate Crime

Two men who claimed they were set on fire in their car early today in Jackson were in critical condition at the University of Michigan Burn Center. The victims told a Blackman Township officer that suspects in a red Ford pickup threw gasoline on them and ignited it, and made racial slurs regarding their Middle Eastern descent. The victims, whose names were not released, flagged down an officer at 1:33 a.m. on W. Michigan Avenue. Thomas Finco, public safety director for the township, said the victims said they had met two women in a local club and left with them.  "There may be a little inconsistency as to what was reported to us," Finco said. "They said they drove around 20 to 45 minutes looking for a hospital. I would have stopped at the first gas station and called 911." Except for the initial contact, officers have been unable to interview the victims. Each was sedated and fitted with oxygen tubes. They were flown to Ann Arbor by helicopter. [more ]

Nathaniel Jones' Family Sues Cincinnati for Police Beating Death

The family of a black man who died during a videotaped fight with police last year sued Cincinnati, city officials, police and firefighters on Friday, accusing them of violating the man's civil rights. The lawsuit alleges that Nathaniel Jones, 41, was unnecessarily struck with metal batons, suffered respiratory failure while officers lay or sat on him and wasn't immediately given resuscitation. Bessie Jones, the victim's grandmother, filed the lawsuit seeking unspecified money damages, funeral and burial expenses and a court order to prevent Cincinnati from repeating the alleged constitutional violations. In August, a police watchdog agency concluded that officers used excessive force. The Citizen Complaint Authority sent its conclusions to the city manager, who will decide whether the officers should be disciplined. The FBI has said it is investigating whether there were civil rights violations in Jones' death. [more ]

Black Man who alleged Police Tortured him to Remain in Prison

Even though Cook County prosecutors dropped all charges against Darrell Cannon in a 1983 murder, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board said Thursday it believed he had a role in the slaying and decided he should remain in prison indefinitely. Board Chairman Jorge Montes said he was "inclined to believe" Cannon's claim that detectives working under former Chicago police Cmdr. Jon Burge extracted a confession from Cannon through torture. But the board, said Montes, did not accept Cannon's claim that he was only an unwitting bystander to the gang-related slaying. The ruling capped an unusual parole revocation hearing at which Burge and four detectives he once supervised invoked their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination, refusing to answer questions about how they obtained a murder confession from Cannon.  Cannon, 53, alleges the detectives under Burge took him to remote locations where they shocked his genitals with a cattle prod, put a shotgun he thought was loaded in his mouth and repeatedly pulled the trigger and taunted him with racial epithets. In January 1991, just before a trial judge was scheduled to hear testimony about the torture, Cook County prosecutors agreed to a plea deal with Cannon. He pleaded guilty and dropped the torture allegations in exchange for a scheduled August 2003 release date. Before he was released, the Prisoner Review Board served Cannon with a parole revocation notice issued after he was convicted in the 1983 slaying. As a result, Cannon remained in Tamms Correctional Center, the state's highest security prison. [more ]

FBI probes Police shooting of Ron Lollis as possible civl rights violation

The FBI is now investigating the Aug. 23 shooting of Ron Lollis on Doty Road as a potential civil rights violation. Special Agent Sheila Thorne, based at the FBI's New Orleans office, said civil rights investigations are routine for the FBI. She said the FBI's investigation will be independent of the one being conducted by the State Police and the local District Attorney's office. "The FBI looks into civil rights violations and this is one such instance of that," Thorne said. The findings of the FBI's investigation will be submitted to the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Lollis, who was black, was shot and killed by a white Concordia Parish Sheriff's Deputy. Sheriff Randy Maxwell has said the deputy was responding to a harassment call involving Lollis and Lollis pulled a gun on the deputy. A gun was found at the scene. The deputy has been put on administrative leave until the conclusion of the investigation. The sheriff's office turned over the investigation to the State Police because of their involvement. [more ]

Calumet City residents protest beating of Black Teenager by Police

Angry Calumet City residents demonstrated outside City Hall Thursday and inside City Council chambers to protest police inaction in the face of allegations that an officer beat a 15-year-old student detained for jaywalking. Chanting "no justice, no peace, no racist police," the crowd called for the officer to be relieved of his duties and for officers who watched the alleged beating of Don Pennington Jr. to be reprimanded. After a number of demonstrators were allowed to speak for about an hour, the hundreds of protesters moved outside where they formed human chains, blocking traffic.  The altercation with police started when Pennington was stopped by an off-duty police officer for allegedly jaywalking across 154th Avenue in front of Thornton High School after school, the boy said. He was rapping his fingers on a wall at the police station as he waited for a citation when a detective wearing badge number 0069 told him to stop and then punched him in the face, Pennington has said. [more ]

Bush Administration Calls Sudan Violence Genocide

In a new signal of its concern over the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, the Bush administration Thursday declared for the first time that the African country's troops and allied militias have committed genocide. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told senators that a State Department report drawn from interviews with 1,000 Sudanese refugees had concluded there was a "consistent and widespread pattern of atrocities committed against non-Arab villagers" in the Darfur region. Speaking before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Powell said that the Sudanese government and its militia allies, known as "janjaweed," "bear responsibility" for the atrocities and that "genocide may still be occurring." [more ] and [more ]

• Sudan Rejects U.S. Genocide Declaration as Politics [more ] and [more ]