Oh how quickly we forget ...

File this in the catching up with stuff bin ...
I happened to be quickly skimming last week's edition of the Hippo while sipping coffee this morning and noticed the latest Granite Views column by Jody Reese knocking Republicans at the Statehouse for trying to return $85 million in No Child Left Behind money to the federal government.
Right out of the gate, Reese makes a big blunder.

Q1: Will Bush be impeached Monday?

The Internet and global press have been abuzz about something called The Downing Street Memo, written in July 2002 and recently released in Britain: ["The secret Downing Street memo"].
In the memo, British intelligence officials claim that the Bush administration was rigging intelligence to make the case for invading Iraq. Here is the suspected incriminating segment of the memo:

"C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."

This memo has been virtually ignored by the mainstream press in the U.S. and a Google of the words "Downing Street Memo" pretty much proves this, even though the story was broken in early May in the British press and clearly affected that country's election cycle since Blair barely hung on to keep his seat [Isn't it interesting that we hear everything about the Royals but nothing about this? We heard about Charles' second wedding to the woman whose tampon he once said he wanted to be; we still hear about Diana, almost eight years after her death; but nary a word about this].

Interesting stuff ...

Here are some links in the past few weeks I haven't been able to post because I have been too busy with other stuff.
Yesterday, this was posted by Kevin Zeese, Ralph Nader's press secretary: ["Mishandling Nader"]. Check out this section, about the meeting between Nader and Kerry:

"Instead, at the meeting Kerry warned us of the coming legal threat telling us of the thousands of lawyers they had lined up to ensure a Kerry-Edwards victory. Some of us thought these lawyers were to prepare against Republican harassment, others interpreted it as a threat to the Nader-Camejo campaign’s ballot access. And, when we got back to the office the news was not only covering the Kerry-Nader meeting but the announcement of a new anti-Nader, pro-Kerry 527 organization. Rather than a two fisted battle against Bush the Democrats drew the battle lines between Nader and the Democrats – diverting significant attention from Bush-Cheney."

Wow. So, once again, the Democrats blew an opportunity to win an election because there were obsessed with Nader. Zeese is currently in New Hampshire, heading up the Nader recount effort, which so far, has yielded little change in the results: ["Nader-requested recount in N.H. moving slowly"] and ["Recount New Hampshire"]. It's interesting that AA's big mouth Randi Rhodes would request Nader perform a recount when she attacked him so harshly during his campaign. Here is some of the data from Ida Briggs: ["Invisible Ida"].
Here is another post from Common Dreams, about the recount in Ohio: ["Ohio Presidential Results to be Challenged"]. Isn't it interesting that the Greens and Libertarians would care enough about the actual outcome to raise $150k to force a recount, yet Kerry and Edwards can't seem to be bothered? And why is the media ignoring all of this? Mark Jurkowitz has a good piece here: ["Media accused of ignoring election irregularities"].
Then, there is Clinton and his silly library. Interestingly enough, there isn't any factual information about the numerous scandals he and his wife were involved in: ["Whitewashing Whitewater"].

Nader: Sunday's the day ...

On Sunday's "Meet the Press," Nader will announce his 2004 intentions: ["Nader to Announce Decision on 2004 Bid"].
FoxNews says he's in: ["Nader to Jump in Presidential Race"]. Also, Nader responds to The Nation magazine: ["Whither The Nation?"]. FoxNews had a stupid national poll on Friday showing Kerry and Bush equal at 45 percent. But throw in Nader and the numbers were Bush 43, Kerry 42, and Nader 4 percent. It is amazing that the guy hasn't even announced and he supposedly would get more votes than he did in 2000! But these national polls are fraudulent and the media shouldn't be reporting them at all.