It's pretty clear that the éminence grise duo of the Bush Whitehouse, Cheney and Rumsfeld, played George Bush's teenage ego like a Stradivarius. Whether it was convincing him he was some cross between Thomas Jefferson and Abe Lincoln bringing Democracy to the middle east, or in this case, convincing Bush that he was "the Sword of God", bringing down the wrath of Jehovah on Muslim fanatics in the Middle East:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090518/ts_ alt_afp/usiraqpoliticsreligionrumsfeld;_ ylt=AqSEwXwf7xX7eAEEaDR.l1uyFz4D

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I wanted to share this great 5 minute clip with you.

Please comment and pass it around to all independents. Talk about being a flip-flopper!

Now would you want for this the next clip to become true?

Act now. In many states, we are down to only a few days left to register. Get folks out now! Every state is a swing state.

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I just had  thought. Its become clear that many GOPers, now that Mc Cain is a shoo-in for the Republican nomination, are crossing over to vote for Obama in the primaries "because they hate Hillary" (they say)

Well, remember back to the Clinton administration when (belatedly) the US apologized in a public way for many of the crimes committed by US intelligence agencies, etc. in the past. This terrified many neocons, for obvious reasons.

Well, I was just thinking, could Obama's pledge not to 'demonize' the Republicans really be a CODED MESSAGE TO THE TRULY POWERFUL THAT HE WON'T UPSET THEIR BOATS? that for example, he wont PROSECUTE members of the Bush administration for crminal actions that occurred under the Bush administration, in return for money and assistance getting elected now?

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Cross Posted @ http://www.standingbeforethefire.com

From Today's Washington Post  <In one of his longer ruminations, in May 2004, Rumsfeld considered whether to redefine the terrorism fight as a "worldwide insurgency." The goal of the enemy, he wrote, is to "end the state system, using terrorism, to drive the non-radicals from the world." He then advised aides "to test what the results could be" if the war on terrorism were renamed<</p&gt

End the state system? What? How could terrorism end the state system? I'm not minimizing the threat of terrorism, they are a threat to kill innocent people, but they don't threaten the existence of any state, let alone the "State System." They have no Army, Navy, or Airforce, and very little if any military equipment. Nor have they exhibited the desire to end the existence of states. Rumsfeld wanted his fellow citizens to be irrationally afraid in a desperate attempt to increase the popularity of the war the incompetently managed. In his mind the ends justified the means, but the effect of an irrationally terrified population is worse then the consequences of not achieving his military ends, which won't be achieved anyways.

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I was able to get an advance copy of Peter Dale Scott's new book The Road to 9/11 from its publisher (University of California Press) so I thought I would share my review of it here. It will be available in your local bookstores this month, perhaps on the 11th itself.

This book, though it has 9/11 in the title, is about much, much more than 9/11. The title, I think, is a bit misleading. It might be more accurate to call it The Road THROUGH 9/11 since it's really about how 9/11 was used by certain neocon gentlemen - including a Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld - to get to where we are today. There are plenty of books one can read about the right-wing cabals that we are fighting against, such as David Brock's recent Blinded by the Right which describes his journey through the networks of the right-wing cultural wars, and Bill Moyer's 1988 Book The Secret Government (adapted from his PBS Special). But this book goes deeper, back through several decades and administrations, to examine this "deep" history of our government's leaders and their tendency to operate behind the scenes.

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