The BRAD BLOG : Winter Patriot

IAEA: US Report on Iran's Nuclear Work 'Incorrect and Misleading', 'Outrageous and Dishonest'

Guess what? It's Deja Vu All Over Again!

Big Surprise! The Intelligence is being Fixed around the Policy!

By Winter Patriot on 9/15/2006 1:28pm PT

If anyone had reason to suspect that representatives of the Bush administration would tell bald-faced lies in order to try to justify a war they had already decided to fight, we might have reason to take the following report from Reuters somewhat seriously. [my emphasis, here and below]

U.N. inspectors have protested to the U.S. government and a Congressional committee about a report on Iran's nuclear work, calling parts of it "outrageous and dishonest," according to a letter obtained by Reuters.

The letter recalled clashes between the IAEA and the Bush administration before the 2003 Iraq war over findings cited by Washington about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that proved false, and underlined continued tensions over Iran's dossier.

Sent to the head of the House of Representatives' Select Committee on Intelligence by a senior aide to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, the letter said an August 23 committee report contained serious distortions of IAEA findings on Iran's activity.

The letter said the errors suggested Iran's nuclear fuel program was much more advanced than a series of IAEA reports and Washington's own intelligence assessments have determined.

It said the report falsely described Iran to have enriched uranium at its pilot centrifuge plant to weapons-grade level in April, whereas IAEA inspectors had made clear Iran had enriched only to a low level usable for nuclear power reactor fuel.

We've been here before, haven't we? And we know what happens next, too. Don't we?

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Article Categories: Iran

Jimmy Carter Wishes Tony Blair Would Grow A Spine

or some cojones!

But of course he's too much a gentleman to say so in those words

By Winter Patriot on 9/14/2006 2:50pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

According to a report from the BBC,

Ex-US President Jimmy Carter has said he is "disappointed" by the apparently subservient attitude of the British government towards the White House.

Mr Carter said Tony Blair was a good man, but could have used his influence with President Bush more wisely.

The 81-year-old said there had once been "a very strong voice from London in the shaping of a common policy".

Quite correct! Once there was a very strong voice from London ... but not anymore!

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Article Categories: Tony Blair, Jimmy Carter

Toon Of The Moment: How Do We Decide?

By Winter Patriot on 9/13/2006 12:00am PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

by David Horsey, from the September 3rd Seattle Post-Intelligencer, via Bartcop, via my science advisor (who loves Bartcop!!)

Please consider this an OPEN THREAD!

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Article Categories: Toons

Lookout, Arizona! Hand Recount Probably Won't Be Done; ID Law Not Blocked

It's A Double-Whammy --- And Just In Time For The Primaries!!

By Winter Patriot on 9/12/2006 10:22pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Election integrity advocates in Arizona got a double-whammy Tuesday --- just in time for their primaries!

First we have some bad news from Erica Meltzer of the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson:
Backup verifying of votes unlikely: Hand-recount procedures not cleared for touch screens

The hand recount that was supposed to guarantee the integrity of the touch-screen voting machines being used in today's election probably won't be done because the secretary of state didn't submit its procedures for federal review until Thursday.

The widespread use of electronic voting machines to comply with the Help America Vote Act raised concerns among some political activists that the machines could be used to tamper with election results.

In response to those concerns, the Legislature passed a bill requiring a random recount of 2 percent of all precincts, and the Pima County Board of Supervisors said it would require a 100 percent hand recount.

The Justice Department signed off on the bill last month, but the secretary of state didn't submit procedures for the recount until late Thursday.

What??? Late Thursday? To get the recount procedures approved for use when?

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Article Categories: Arizona, Election 2006

FEENEY WATCH: 'Pork Buster' Tom Feeney Criticizes Earmarked Pork, Even While Grabbing Some For His District

Jonathan Allen Has The Details At The Hill

By Winter Patriot on 9/12/2006 9:32pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Jonathan Allen: Most RSC members enjoy pork

Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) is one of the House’s harshest critics of pork-barrel spending. A member of the conservative Republican Study Committee, he was one of 20 lawmakers who voted 19 times in May and June to strike earmarks from appropriations bills. He refers to himself as Tom “Pork Buster” Feeney.

But Feeney’s antipathy toward lawmakers’ pet projects has not extended into his own district, which is due to receive $500,000 in earmarks in the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill, including $250,000 for the Arnold Palmer Hospital in Orlando.

and more...

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Article Categories: Tom Feeney

Homeland Insecurity Goes After Greg Palast

Palast and his producer have been charged with unauthorized filming of a 'critical national security structure'

It’s true. It’s weird. It’s nuts. Get Some Now!!

By Winter Patriot on 9/12/2006 8:25pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Have you seen this yet?

It’s true. It’s weird. It’s nuts. The Department of Homeland Security, after a five-year hunt for Osama, has finally brought charges against… Greg Palast. I kid you not. Send your cakes with files to the Air America wing at Guantanamo.

Though not just yet. Fatherland Security has informed me that television producer Matt Pascarella and I have been charged with unauthorized filming of a “critical national security structure” in Louisiana.

Weird is RIGHT!

You can read all about it here.

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Article Categories: War On Terror

THOMAS NOE SENTENCED: 27 Months In Federal Prison For 'Campaign Money-Laundering Scheme'

Noe remains free on bond pending his other trial --- for 48 felony counts in the rare-coin scandal!

Mike Wilkinson has the goods at the Toledo Blade

By Winter Patriot on 9/12/2006 8:14pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Regular BRAD BLOG readers will know that Thomas Noe has been in big trouble for a long time. As reported previously on these pages, the former head of the Lucas County, OH GOP and a "Pioneer" level (responsible for more than $100,000 in contributions) fundraiser for Bush/Cheney '04, pled guilty to three charges including funnelling more than $45,000 in illegal contributions to the Bush/Cheney re-election effort in Ohio. Noe's wife, Bernadette, was the head of the Lucas County board of elections and was forced to step down after "irregularities" were found in their management of the 2004 election. Some of those points are discussed in Bobby Kennedy's Rolling Stone article on the gaming of the 2004 election.

Today we got the first meaningful indication of how much time Tom Noe is going to spend in prison. The Toledo Blade has very good coverage, and more than I can quote here. So hurrry on over and get yourself some of this: Noe gets 27 months in federal prison for illegal Bush contributions

Tom Noe, the GOP fund-raiser at the heart of Ohio's biggest political scandal in a generation, was sentenced today to 27 months in a federal prison for illegally funneling money into President Bush’s re-election campaign.

U.S. District Court Judge David Katz also ordered Noe to pay $136,200 in fines for sending more than $45,000 into a 2003 Bush fund-raiser by using two dozen friends and associates — including several current and former local Republican elected officials — in violation of federal election laws.

Noe, 52, remains free on bond until the conclusion of his trial next month on 48 felony counts in state court related to allegations that he stole millions from a $50 million rare-coin fund that he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

Noe, a former Maumee rare-coin dealer whose large donations made him a powerful political figure, apologized in court for the scheme to give friends money to donate to Bush to fulfill his promise to generate $50,000 for a presidential fund-raiser.

Noe said he arranged the scheme because “in 2003 I was pressured by Bush-Cheney officials to become a Pioneer,” a name the campaign gives to people who raise $100,000.

It's an incredible tale in the American-dream mold: rags-to-riches-to-prison!
And Mike Wilkinson has done a fine job on the story so I really want you to read it all.

But I can't resist this bit:

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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Article Categories: Thomas Noe

FEENEY WATCH: Tom Feeney's Hair Makes Big News

By Winter Patriot on 9/12/2006 7:03pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Thanks (I think) to Radar Magazine, if you went to this page: Capitol Domes: Creepy comb-overs. Macabre toupees. Misadventures in gel. (And that's just the women.), and you scolled down to where it says "Trend Four: CHILDLIKE HAIR", you would find:

Feeney, 48, a close ally of the religious right who considers yoga a threat to our country and has been accused of commissioning an electronic voting computer program that could rig an election, faces a slightly different issue. His hair looks, well, pubic. As in seventh grade discussions of "secondary sexual characteristics" pubic. He's not necessarily doomed, however, to resemble an adolescent groin, says Maysonave: "He could do a few things to convey more experience. Add a little gray to his temples. Maybe wear some subtle, wire-framed glasses."

And if he doesn't actually need glasses?

"Well," she says, "that's not really the issue, is it?"

They have a picture. Click that link!

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Article Categories: Tom Feeney

FEENEY WATCH: Corrupt congressman claims Clint Curtis accused him of 'knowing about the 9/11 attacks not only before they happened, but before President Bush was elected'

The BRAD BLOG has reported on Curtis and his accusations against Feeney many times --- but we've never heard that one!!

By Winter Patriot on 9/12/2006 4:45am PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Here's Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel, from his blog, with my emphasis:

I just sat in on some of Tom Feeney's pitch to the Sentinel's ed board for why he should be re-elected. (I just silently observe in these things.)

The board first wanted to know about what we've written much about here already --- his strategy to paint Democratic Clint Curtis as a loony tune. Feeney's response was basically what I've said before --that he tried to ignore Curtis, but that Curtis has accused him "of murder, putting scorpions in his glove box, killing his dog ... and knowing about the 9/11 attacks not only before they happened, but before President Bush was elected."

The board seemed to still have some concerns about this strategy and his use of accusations of mental illness as an attack. But they didn't get too much more into it. I imagine they will when/if Curtis comes before the board. (And by the way, Curtis says he never accused Feeney of everything Feeney says.)

As reported extensively at The BRAD BLOG during the past two years, Clint Curtis has leveled several specific accusations at Tom Feeney. The chief allegation is that Feeney requested Curtis to design a software vote-rigging prototype (a computer program which appeared to be a simple vote-counter but which was in fact something else). Curtis has taken --- and passed --- a polygraph test in support of his allegations. Feeney has not indicated any willingness to go near a polygraph.

For more on the Clint Curtis / Tom Feeney story, start here.

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Article Categories: Florida, Tom Feeney, Clint Curtis, Election 2006

Jersey Girls Survive Attacks, Continue To Press For Truth About 9/11

Sidestepping the Queen of Hate must have been easy compared to Confronting the King of War Crimes

Excellent coverage from Paul McGeough in Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald ties it all together

By Winter Patriot on 9/11/2006 5:00pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

From the Sydney Morning Herald's main man in New York, Paul McGeough, September 9, 2006: Right sets attack dogs on Jersey Girl widows

The angel-faced Kristen Breitweiser had it all. She hung out in the bars on the beaches of New Jersey. She did the law degree - but did not need to practise. She eloped and married on a tiny Caribbean beach.
...
Americans warmed to Breitweiser and three other September 11, 2001, widows. They were dubbed "the Jersey Girls" as they campaigned for the US equivalent of a royal commission into the al-Qaeda attacks on Washington and New York.
...
There were shades of Thelma and Louise as they wore a path to the capital, finding the courage to stare down the President, George Bush; Vice-President, Dick Cheney; and [now] Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. They demanded an explanation of the failures that allowed their husbands to be incinerated in the World Trade Centre.

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Article Categories: 9/11

What Bomb? What Testimony?

Firefighters, Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians say they heard Bombs going off in the WTC

By Winter Patriot on 9/11/2006 11:11am PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot and Agent99

Excerpts from oral testimony provided by NYC firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians, downloaded from this page courtesy of the New York Times, and transcribed by Agent99 exclusively for The BRAD BLOG. These are only a few of many more first responders and others at the scene whose testimony has reference to bombs, explosions, holes in vehicles, burning metal and/or other evidence of controlled demolition. We have added the emphasis. Click on a name to download the full PDF of that person's testimony.

Richard Banaciski, Firefighter (FDNY)

... I just remember we were --- initially we were out by the street and they started having jumpers, so they all kind of moved back towards the building, so nothing could come down on us.

We were there I don't know, maybe 10, 15 minutes and then I just remember there was just an explosion. It seemed like on television they blow up these buildings. It seemed like it was going all the way around like a belt, all these explosions. Everybody just said run and we all turned around and we ran into the parking garage because that's basically where we were. Running forward would be running towards it. Not thinking that this building is coming down. We just thought there was going to be a big explosion.

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Article Categories: 9/11

9/11 Op/Eds: One Great Big Stupid Lie After Another

Hacks Scribble While the Official Conspiracy Theory Burns!

By Winter Patriot on 9/11/2006 12:28am PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

I don't know whether you've noticed, but I have: billions and billions of op/ed pieces coming out every day lately, purportedly "debunking" the so-called "conspiracy theorists" on the subject of 9/11. A glutton for punishment, I read as many of them as I can get my grubby little hands on.

One thing they do --- one thing they all do --- is fasten onto one or a few of the least plausible suggestions ever advanced by anyone who didn't believe the official story of 9/11, shred them (yes, very easy to do!) and then act as if such shredding nullifies every question raised by every person who does not believe the “official conspiracy theory" of 9/11.

The logic is stunning in its simplicity. It's as if --- bear with me; this gets better --- you're at a football game with sixty or seventy thousand other people, and a stranger sitting next to you says to his buddy, "They'll never score if they don't start throwing the ball!" And now suppose the next play is a straightforward running play and it goes for a touchdown.

Without necessarily being a professional logician, nor a master of sciences theoretical or applied, but simply as a semi-intelligent human being, you should be well-equipped to answer the following question:

What conclusion can you draw from this incident?

If you said:

"NOBODY IN THIS WHOLE STADIUM KNOWS ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING!!"

then you could be missing out on a career as a "9/11 conspiracy-theory" "debunker"!!

But first you must learn how to smile as you kill.

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Article Categories: 9/11

Camp Democracy Established: Video, Photos Online Now!

By Winter Patriot on 9/10/2006 6:05pm PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Camp Democracy has landed!

That's, uh, one small camp for man, one giant camp for mankind!

Don't believe me? You think this is a hoax? Well, it's up to you. But do some research:

Watch the video.

Enjoy the photos:

[1]: 09/07/2006 - Camp Democracy’s Immigrant’s Rights Rally in front of the US Capital Building

[2]: 09/07/2006 - VR’s “Impeachmobile” on the grounds of Camp Democracy, at the foot of the Washington Mounument.

[3]: 09/09/2006 - Camp Democracy moves from near the Washington Monument to the front of the US Capital Building.

[4]: 09/09/2006 - “Bushocchio” at Camp Democracy giving a “Thumbs Up”!

For even more background, read The BRAD BLOG's interview with David Swanson.

That is all. For now!

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Article Categories: Cindy Sheehan

Five Years Ago Tomorrow...

Where were you? What were you doing? and What did you think? when you heard the news

By Winter Patriot on 9/10/2006 10:42am PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

It's September 10th, 2006.

If you were living and breathing and paying attention, you probably haven't forgotten where you were five years ago tomorrow, nor what you were doing, nor what you were thinking. I can remember what I was wearing! I can remember what my next-door neighbor was doing! Some days get etched on your mind like that ...

And sometimes it helps --- somehow --- to talk about these things ... at least for certain people it does ... and if you're one of those people, this is your place!

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Article Categories: 9/11

Britain: Blair Calls The Kettle Black While Labour Tries Not To Devour Itself!!

Afghanistan: British Troops Promised, Denied, Dying ... And NATO Wants More!!

Meanwhile: Humanitarian Crisis: Mass Starvation Looms ... but Opium Production Hits Another Record Level!

By Winter Patriot on 9/10/2006 5:55am PT

Guest blogged by Winter Patriot

Here's a quick roundup of some relevant stories from far away and even farther. Let's see whether you can spot any connection between these stories and some others, from near and even nearer:

In Great Britain, as you may already know, there is open revolt among the governing Labour Party.

From September 6th:
Gordon Brown scents victory as Blair suffers massive revolt

Gordon Brown left Downing Street tonight looking like the cat that got the cream.

After three hours of bad-tempered talks with Tony Blair, the Chancellor still wore a big smile.

Mr Brown had apparently won a promise that the Premier will finally come clean about his departure plans.

But sceptical allies of the Chancellor were still asking: Can we really believe Blair this time?

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Article Categories: Afghanistan, Great Britain, NATO, Tony Blair

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