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Accounting for punnish headlines and events: Careful, boys: Take care with the finger-pointing. I'm sure there are plenty of FBI and CIA officials who, if not already, are starting to get peeved at the constant blame-shifting going on, live, right in front of our very eyes. Account of Broad Shiite Revolt Contradicts White House Stand

Bob Graham acquired strong sense of propriety and proportion
That man started out telling me he was a crook, and then proceeded to try to get me into what would be the biggest financial transaction of my life. What kind of a fool does he think I am?
Such, I imagine, was Senator Graham's reaction when George W. Bush bluffed his way through 2002 selling "the war on terror" to the suckers in Congress (and when, last month, he showed the video of his smirking WMD pantomime to a crowd of smirking reporters).
On Oct. 9, 2002, Graham -- showing a doubletalk detector as acute as his father's -- told his Senate colleagues that attacking Iraq was a foolish distraction from the pursuit al-Qaida. We arm for battle with a shield of ignorance at home. By [invading Iraq], according to our own intelligence reports . . . we are going to be increasing the threat level against the people of the United States.
As for the political chicanery that day in the Capitol, Graham said: I recognize there are backroom deals made. This is what people have come together on: . . . We are locking down on the principle that we have one evil, Saddam Hussein. That, frankly, is an erroneous reading of the world. There are many evils out there, a number of which are substantially more competent -- particularly in their ability to attack Americans here at home -- than Iraq is likely to be in the forseeable future.
· Bob Graham: A Man Too Decent to be Nominated... [ via Common Nightmares]
· See Also Reflections on the Politics of Crime: from nasty campaign ads that attack the personal integrity of one's opponent, to lavish spending by the major parties in order to sway the public to their candidate
· See Also There's much more to Clarke's critique of the administration's policies than what Condi did and didn't do[link first seen at The Rest Of The Book without indulging in a little schadenfreude]
· See Also Secrets and Lies Becoming Commonplace...
· See Also Norman Solomon: Nevertheless, the first task of the occupation remains the first task of government: to establish a monopoly on violence
· See Also Kim Antieau: We Are the People We Are Waiting For...
· See Also Seumas Milne: Bush and Blair Have Lit a Fire Which Could Consume Them...
· See Also Prince El Hassan bin Talal: The Third World War is Now...
· See Also Fingers in a Bag...