The Chron gets scooped on Bush. (Iraq on Bush's "to do" list back in 1999)

[3days]

According to Baker's report, Herskowitz said that Bush felt frustrated with his image as an "underachiever" compared to his father, that he had "failed" to complete his National Guard requirement during the Vietnam War and that his private business efforts had been "floundering."

Perhaps most consequential: Herskowitz said that Bush had Iraq on his "to do" list as early as 1999. " said, 'If I have a chance to invade…if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it,' " Baker writes, adding later that the ellipses were for a pause and not words omitted.

An exclusive -- possibly explosive -- set of claims from a trusted Bush source? Surely one of the major news outlets from the often-sneered-at "liberal media elite" would jump at the chance to gore Bush. But not one would bite, says Baker. He wound up posting it on October 27 on the Guerrilla News Network Web site.

http://www.houstonpress.com/issues/2004-11-18/news.html

And they go after Clinton for a BJ. Give me F'n break. Spineless media!

[autorank]

1. Welcome to DU! You rock!

[3days]

5. Thanks much *

[medeak]

2. made raw story as well

http://www.rawstory.com/

[GetTheRightVote]

3. I read it, pretty scary and they put him back in office, lol

stupid repubs but their day will come, and we will mourn over their stupidity.

[struggle4progress]

4. kick for corporate organs of mass produced consciousness

:kick:

[Skinner]

6. Forgive me -- I changed your thread title.

I think people were missing the most important part here.

[3days]

18. No problem. Thanks *

[Politicub]

7. Though this would have been nice before Nov. 2.

:kick:

[jackster]

8. I do remember reading about this ..

at the end of Oct. I also remember that there was some of that attack the message and not the messager - I remember that Herskowitz (sp?) took some heat...

it only confirms though what any thinking person can figure out - for George, this war was about his oedipal complex. The neocons were just thrilled to have found someone that would be willing to go to Iraq

then 9/11.....

little georgie bush is the luckiest man alive

regarding the media - look what WaPo's doing - readership is down so they're going to print more pictures.

thank god for the "internets"

[Judi Lynn]

11. Readership's down because they've stopped printing actual newsstories.

No doubt they took the off-ramp during the Reagan administration, when Otto Reich was put in charge of public disinformation from the "Office of Public Diplomacy." The stories of his intimidation and vicious attacks on reporters he didn't like are truly discouraging, and second rate. You'd never expect professional public servants to conduct themselves like that, ordinarily.

He set a new low mark for posterity, claiming reporters covering Nicaragua were being serviced by local prostitutes, both straight and gay, and were virtual sex fiends in pursuit of exotic sexual adventures, rather than news.

[AuntieM1957]

15. Photo of a Man BADLY in need of a BJ

I really think the root of his animus toward WJC (Clinton) is that NO ONE will give him a BJ.

God knows if anyone ever needed one - it's GWB.

[ChicanoPwr]

9. Yeah, but Houston

has had practice in media control. Every media source here in Houston has a pack to control what is reported. That is why nobody will ever hear about anything happening in Houston. Years ago I saw an independent documentary on the Houston media and the 60s. It was very interesting to know that Houston also had their share of riots, protests, and sit-ins; even MLK came down here to lead people in a March but none of these events were ever covered by the media. The most interesting part of the documentary was the secret meeting between the three major TV channels, the Houston Chron and the mayor to discuss these events. All of them agreed to never cover any story because they did not want to people to think Houston was the same as the other three larger cities and they did not want anybody especially the Hispanic community to get any "silly" ideas. So I am not surprised the Chron did not print the story.

I will try to research more on this documentary and post it.

[AuntieM1957]

14. I'm a Houstonian

who always thought we were different - if I was manipulated - I'd really like to know more.

Do you recall the name of this independent documentary you saw?

I'd really like to see it - and learn more about this conspiracy.

[Native]

10. Nice, but would it have made any difference?

Nothing else seemed to make a difference. Face it, Bush is a "Good Christian," and that's all it took!

[Gin]

12. Not to worry folks...these guys will do themselves in....have they

done anything right yet? (except of course rigging the votes to give him a couple more years.)

It's interesting how he uses the word "capital". Since he has an MBA....I wonder if running corporations and governments into the ground is part of the MBA business module.

[lakeguy]

13. not to worry?

i'd be worried if i had an employee that fucked up for four years and then basically got re-hired and promoted (elected), rigged or not!

[AuntieM1957]

16. We do have such an employee

I've been seriously considering registering as a tax protestor. You can file as a conscientious objector to the war.

They still make you pay, but at least you're on record.

However, my mother, a former Treasury employee, tells me that if I do I'll be watched.

Anyone else feel like telling the feds we're tired of paying for chaos, stupidity, and greed?

[janetle]

17. Helen Thomas wrote about this ...

...after the election but it was so astounding to me that I cut her editorial out of the paper and saved it. Unfortunately, I do not have the date.

Evidently, Bush and his people were so enthralled by how Margaret Thatcher had people throwing flowers at her and giving her standing ovations in Parliament after the 1982 Falklands War, that they thought a good little easy war was the key to building "political capital". The key to being considered a great Commander in Chief and hero leader, George W. Bush believed, was having a successful popular invasion and war. Iraq seemed the obvious pick. According to Thomas, Bush told Herskovitz, "one of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as commander in chief." And this is 1999, folks.

I agree with Thomas: "The idea that we would go to war to boost a president's political fortunes is obscene."

[leftchick]

19. Here it is.....

Isn't Helen the greatest? Welcome to DU janetle! :toast:


~snip~

Mickey Herskowitz, a prolific book author and the Bush family's authorized biographer, says Bush was "thinking about invading Iraq in 1999. It was on his mind."

How does Herskowitz know that? It turns out that he had been hired by Bush -- then governor of Texas -- to ghostwrite his autobiography, ultimately titled "A Charge to Keep: My Journey to the White House."

Herskowitz was given unimpeded access to Bush, and the two men met approximately 20 times so Bush could share his thoughts, according to independent journalist Russ Baker, who interviewed Herskowitz.

During one of their conversations, Herskowitz said, Bush told him that "one of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander in chief."

He said Bush's circle of advisers had a fixation on the political capital that former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher collected from the Falklands war in 1982.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1105-24.htm

[3days]

20. Helen Thomas is the best.

Bush is a wuss who can't even bother to answer her questions.

Oil pimp!

[NJCher]

21. First laugh of the day

Oh man, I came in from working outdoors to have a bit of lunch and then I find this thread.

First, Judi Lynn's picture of dumbya with the phone upside down cracked me up but then Gin's observations about the MBA module about did me in.

Not to mention lakeguy's cut to the chase remark about how this guy would be looked at as a failure no matter what position he was in, let alone that of president of the United States!

I do so love a good laugh like that, straight from the gut!


Cher

[NVMojo]

22. matches perfectly the Project for a New American Century's

manifestos that are on their website from 99-2000 about what we need to do to become a global military industrial machine nation. Just like the Pearl Harbor-like event they suggested was needed to get the country behind the military manifesto of the neocons.

[robbedvoter]

23. Story out since October - media stayed away from it- note the "capital" BS

http://russbaker.com/Guerrilla%20News%20Network%20-%20B...
“He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999,” said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. “It was on his mind. He said to me: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.’ And he said, ‘My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.’ He said, ‘If I have a chance to invade….if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency.”

[w4rma]

24. They aren't spineless. They are Repug owned and operated. (nt)

[shuffnew]

25. Anyone having problems with the link to houstonpress?

I am having problems accessing the link provided in the post. Maybe it is something with the security settings on my system (dunno?) Just wanted to know if anyone else is having problems with accessing it.

[GetTheRightVote]

26. No, I just went to it and read it

This is the same story I read back in October and it scarces the hell out of me too. He planned it all it looks like and I would say it makes logical sense to follow this story with the fact that many Americans believe he and his posse allowed 9/11 to happen as well to get us into the war. Evil man.

[shuffnew]

27. Conservative Christian Republican says listen to whistleblower...

Thanks... I went to our other system (roadrunner) and it worked fine, it is just my dialup system that was being rejected...

hmmm.... here goes Karl Schwarz again - which also supports the 9/11 coverup theory... read it and look at who all has reportedly signed up (willing to go to grand jury supposedly)?!?!? The full text link has an option to download a .pdf format "free copy" of this report too
( http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/112004Schwarz/11-20-04_Schwarz.pdf ).

Special Report

A Conservative Christian Republican says listen to whistleblower Sibel D. Edmonds

By Karl W. B. Schwarz
Online Journal Contributing Writer

< Excerpt follows... >

"November 20, 2004—The following is an open letter to Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General for the State of New York and William Casey, Chief Investigator for the Attorney Generalﾒs Office ( http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=939 ). In fact, this was hand delivered to Mr. Spitzer's office before it was published as was a three-part expose I have written titled Pop Goes the Bush Mythology Bubble. That three-part article will break soon and is in the hand of investigators at this time.

Sibel D. Edmonds was one of the many multilingual translators hired by our FBI to help track down terrorists and anticipate their next moves. At least, that was the plan and the purported "job description."

Once Sibel was working inside the FBI she uncovered something, tried to go public with it when Attorney General John Ashcroft and her FBI superiors would not, and the Bush-Cheney-Ashcroft team slapped a gag order on her so you could not hear what this lady has to say. What she has to say directly relates to 9-11 and it totally disputes the Bush Mythology they want Americans to believe.

So listen up, America. Here is what Sibel uncovered–she found "drug trafficking, money laundering, foreign names and American names directly involved in the financing of the 9-11 attacks on WTC (World Trade Center) and the Pentagon." It was not the Saudis, folks. Americans were involved and Bush does not want you to know that. That exposes the Bush Mythology as the lie that it is."

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/112004Schwarz/112004schwarz.html

[Lone_Star_Dem]

28. This is a classic example of the media being led by the nose

After I read this article I sat here saying, "this is so wrong, how do we fix this?", over and over again. I have no answer.

<snip>
Baker noticed, too, that Herskowitz had contacted former president George H.W. Bush's camp to give them heads-up on the piece.

"I think that could possibly explain why at least one major publication reversed its decision to publish the story at the 11th hour," says Baker, again declining to name the news outlet.
<snip>

This was information that should have been covered by all the media outlets. This is one hell of a story, there should be no exception as to the time it's released or who it muddies in the process. This is a news worthy discovery. If this had been against Sen. Kerry I would have wanted to know before I cast my vote. I believe, as I know most here do, in my heart that if this had been against the Senator it would have been covered. This is what we are fighting against.

Baker did the right thing, sadly, very few ever knew.

If a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it does it make a sound?

[UTUSN]

29. Yip, That Darned Media Is Just LIBERAL

the info? Oh, nothing, just that Shrub wanted to perform the illegal Iraq attack even BEFORE he stole power, in 1999. What, oh, what could his motives back then have been, since back then there was no 9-11, no intelligence being provided to him about WMD or nu-ku-lar capabilities?

It couldn't be, could it?---such motives as revenge for his wimpy father, and family cartel business, and trying to get out from under his wimpy father's shadow. Naw, it just COULDN'T be things like that. And to think that American families are offering up their kids like so much human sacrifice.

And those Holy Christians, the ones who yell for blood, who don't appear to turn any cheeks, who don't seem to have charity, who don't love their neighbor, and just worship and adore Shrub------what can we say about them?

[bhikkhu]

30. Not explosive - all this was available in 1999

I read a great deal prior to the 2000 elections. At the time, the environment was my greatest concern (oh...for those carefree days). All the stuff we know about * was available then, or at least existed as likelihoods based on absent evidence. What was lacking then and now is the majority do not care. In the last election, stories that would damn a public official in any other country are shrugged off here as routine. People here may not deserve what they get, but the ignorance of the minority seems to have lowered all of our expectations.

[selmo7]

31. This was on "to do" list LONG BEFORE

Remember the Project for the New American Century's letter to Clinton in JANUARY of 1998? And who is the PNAC? Cheney, Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush, Paul Wolfowitz, etal... This letter put forth by Richard Armitage, Elliot Abrams and Bill Bennett.

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

"We urge you to articulate this aim, and to turn your Administration's attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power. This will require a full complement of diplomatic, political and military efforts. Although we are fully aware of the dangers and difficulties in implementing this policy, we believe the dangers of failing to do so are far greater. We believe the U.S. has the authority under existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf. In any case, American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.

We urge you to act decisively. If you act now to end the threat of weapons of mass destruction against the U.S. or its allies, you will be acting in the most fundamental national security interests of the country. If we accept a course of weakness and drift, we put our interests and our future at risk."

[boi1946]

32. I agree--

and the PNAC group influenced B* (well, influence might be too mild a word). They have wanted to control the Middle East since the group's inception. And since I am beginning to be convinced B* is sociopathic, he made the "suggestion" all about himself...

[RawMaterials]

38. pnac was on PBS all the time for the last 10 years

I sucks that everyone doesn't know whats going on. The reason that we are going to war and the monetary policies that our government has has a real reason, and they all lead back to pnac and University of Chicago and the classes with wollfowits and company.

[Annette]

33. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know he wanted to go to Iraq

My sister said to me after the debates of the 2000 election that if Bush became President we would go to war with Iraq. She reminds me of this often. Why other common people didn't see this is beyond me.

[leftchick]

34. kick for the liar* in chief....

he has no clothes...

:kick:

[shuffnew]

35. "W".... "Saddam tried to kill my daddy"....

Yes, he has let us know many times and in numerous ways about his great power struggle to try to outdo his dad and coverup his incompetence and failures throughout his entire life... those duped into support of the pre-emptive "go it alone" war in Iraq were blinded & brainwashed! "W" wants to leave an image of power and success because he has failed in everything in life. He has made it known many times that he was anxious to get to Iraq (not because of 9/11, but daddy didn't think it should or could be done himself)...

I don't think his historical image is going to match his goal at all!

Bush calls Saddam 'the guy who tried to kill my dad'

From John King (CNN)
Friday, September 27, 2002 Posted: 1:48 AM EDT (0548 GMT)
< Excerpt >
"HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- President Bush leveled harsh criticism Thursday at the Senate on homeland security issues, but he revised his stump speech to make clear "there are fine senators from both parties who care deeply about our country."

And, in discussing the threat posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Bush said: "After all, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad."

The new language in discussing his fight with the Democrat-controlled Senate over homeland security was a reaction from Bush to sharp complaints from Democrats that he was being overly political in his speeches on issues related to the war on terrorism.

Yet Bush did not back down from the thrust of his critique."

Full Text ...
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/27/bush.war.talk/

[VPStoltz]

36. Obviously, that's not all.

What gripes me (and that's being kind) is this whole freakin' mess must have been in the plan. * was planning a war when he knew there was a surplus (thanks to Bill Clinton). Instead of spending the surplus on his illegal war, he chose to give it away to the wealthy and charge the war onto our tab with China and Japan. Why pay your bills when you can bankrupt a nation and then make it up on the backs of the middle class?
What a "f"ing jerk!

[indepat]

37. HIghest marks for mission accomplished