The topic in John Sunderdick's leadership class at Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City, Md., was the military. The first task was word association.

"Just write down the first word that pops into your head" connected to the military, Mr. Sunderdick, 25, said.

The results would have gladdened the heart of any recruiter:

"Strong," "bravery," "proud to be an American," "service," "Bush," "really hard workouts" and "heroes."

A few students wrote negatives like "blood" and "imperialism." But by and large, the class of 18 sophomores and juniors voiced a striking degree of confidence in the military.

Condoleezza Rice was quoted in a German magazine Sunday saying the Bush administration was trying to patch up strained relations with Germany but would continue to ostracize Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Focus magazine reported President Bush's national security adviser told a German visitor recently that relations between Bush and Schroeder were ruined because of the German leader's outspoken opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

"We're now doing everything we can to improve relations to Germany at all levels," the unnamed German visitor quoted Rice as saying. "But we're going to work around the chancellor. It's better to leave him out."

"The Bush-Schroeder relationship will never be what it was and what it should be," Rice was quoted as saying in Focus.

She was also quoted as saying that Bush was aware of Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer's past as a street-fighter turned politician and doesn't believe he is suited to be a statesman...

...Rice has been widely quoted telling associates that resulting U.S. policy should be: "Punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia."

Thanks Tony,

For delineating that the lines of Western global imperialism, as highlighted by someone like W.E.B. DuBois even a century ago, still stand effective today. Thanks for serving as the articulate mouthpiece for a US President who's own ethics on the matter could hardly ever raise themselves above "We're making progress" or "We're gonna get 'em." Your intervening as the intelligent Brit in this regard really did wonders for the War's domestic media sell. Thank you also, then, for helping to entrench a dominant neoliberal rightist regime in America, even though you stand for a more Third Way moderatism in the UK...bellying up to this extreme economical right-wing in America as you have done is really helping the U.S. working class to see that just because a political party has one's name on it, doesn't mean that they intend one any good will. Finally, then, for the great mass of Americans who cringed and gasped as President Bush landed upon a victorious aircraft carrier in jumpers -- all smiles, leader of the free world, media beaming with false pride as the dollars flowed -- thanks for nothing...

...We really do have to change this model. Throwing every daddy-deprived and special-handling child in the world into one classroom -- and then mandating a one-size, top-down solution that relies on traps to police enforcement. This model is not working...

The 600-page law, Mr. Bush's basic education initiative, was passed with bipartisan backing four months after Sept. 11, 2001. Many prominent Democrats, however, have since withdrawn their support, including Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, who recently described it as "a phony gimmick." "We were all suckered into it," Mr. Gephardt said. "It's a fraud."

Such an outcome could mean only one of two things: Either our intelligence apparatus is more incompetent than we had dreamed possible, or we were lied to on a massive scale by our own government to lure us into war.
Either way, the implications would be stunning. It's like being told after World War II that the Japanese had never attacked Pearl Harbor. For that reason, I hope we find the material. I hope our leaders are proved right.
But if they're not . . .
Before the war, U.S. leaders expressed no doubt whatsoever about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld, in January, claimed that Saddam Hussein "has an active program to acquire and develop nuclear weapons." Colin Powell pledged to the United Nations that "our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical-weapons agent."
And Bush, in a pre-war press conference, claimed that "in some cases, these materials have been moved to different locations every 12 to 24 hours or placed in vehicles that are in residential neighborhoods."....

The Department of Defense, already infamous for spending $640 for a toilet seat, once again finds itself under intense scrutiny, only this time because it couldn't account for more than a trillion dollars in financial transactions, not to mention dozens of tanks, missiles and planes.

Read the entire article.

"The Colorful World of Warheads"

From Al Kamen column "In the Loop" - Washington Post - May 12, 2003

Public Service Recognition Week, held last week on the Mall, featured about 100 exhibits from federal agencies. The idea is to show visitors the importance of government service and national defense.

The Missile Defense Agency handed out coloring books for maybe 5- to 8-year-olds that start out simply enough. There's a drawing of President Ronald Reagan to color in, with an explanation that he "led U.S. efforts to develop missile defenses."

Then there are figures of men and women to be filled in, with a notation that "men and women like working at the Missile Defense Agency."

But things get tricky when the kids get to the "ground-based midcourse defense" and a drawing of an "interceptor missile." There's a blow-up of the "exoatmospheric kill vehicle" atop the missile. The kids will know what colors to use on that since it looks just like the main machine in Willy Wonky's Chocolate Factory, the one that stamps out the gobstoppers.

The coloring book comes with "cool crayons," which are made, naturally, in China, one of the countries whose missiles would be shot down by the exoatmospheric kill vehicle. Better stock up on the crayons.

Color in your own exoatomspheric kill vehicle by viewing and downloading the book.

Senator John Kerry (D-MA) will be part of the Forward Attack Tactical Command that leads the invasion of Syria or Iran, Victoria Clarke announced today at the Defense Department’s daily briefing on the National Overseas Tactical Aggression Ground Air Invasion Network .... "Kerry still looks good in his old Vietnam uniform, especially with all those medals," said Clarke .... "He has everything it takes to fulfill the role of an American serviceperson: he’s smart, he’s strong, and he has that innate instinct to go for the jugular. You can’t teach that, believe me," she said, "it’s gotta come naturally."... [This operation] represents one of the quickest response-times in recent memory... It began with an informal agreement sponsored by Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle (D-SD). "Democrats aren’t sissies," said Daschle flanked by Republican leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Iraqi exile potentate Ahmed Chalabi, who had been flown in from Baghdad for the occasion. "We’ve got guys who had more time in combat than Bush had in a uniform."
"We worked through the night on this," said a weary-looking Frist, "but finally we reached an agreement: We’d give them two photo-ops during acquisition of pre-selected enemy targets, and they’d give us floor votes on two appeals court judges.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch applauded the agreement. "We desperately need to begin filling these judicial vacancies," he said, "and I appreciate John’s willingness to deal. War is hell, and gee, I think the photo-ops will be priceless. This just goes to show how far we Republicans will go to prove that we believe in fair play."...

WASHINGTON, May 8 — Senate Republicans backed down today from an effort to make permanent the sweeping antiterrorism powers in a 2001 act, clearing the way for passage of a less divisive measure that would still expand the government's ability to spy on foreign terrorist suspects in the United States....In an agreement finalized over the last week, Senator Orrin G. Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dropped his effort to extend provisions of the 2001 legislation, the Patriot Act, whose broad powers to investigate and track terrorist suspects are scheduled to expire in 2005.... Under current law, federal officials must establish a link to a foreign terrorist group in order to secure or request a secret warrant.

The day's developments represented a major test of the balancing act between fighting terrorism and protecting civil liberties, and the result delivered a mixed verdict as many lawmakers expressed reservations about giving law enforcement officials too much power to fight terrorism.

"There's a delicate balance between liberty and security," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who was one of the authors of the so-called "lone wolf" counterterrorism measure. "It's a seesaw, and that's the debate that we're seeing now in Congress."

The overwhelming passage of the measure masked intense behind-the-scenes maneuverings in recent weeks over the powers that the federal government has been given to fight terrorism.... Mr. Hatch's effort to make the Patriot Act permanent set off immediate criticism from civil liberties groups and lawmakers, including some Republicans, who said Congress needed more time to scrutinize how the act was working — and whether law enforcement officials were abusing it. Some of the Republican opposition has come from lawmakers concerned about reach of "big government." Jeff Lungren, a spokesman for Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., the Wisconsin Republican who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that extending the life of the Patriot Act "will happen over his dead body."
As part of a tentative deal reached last week and completed over the last several days, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee agreed not to seek a repeal of the act's sunset provisions at today's vote on the terrorism bill if Democrats pulled some of their own amendments that the Republicans considered objectionable.

"The Democrats weren't going to give us a vote on the thing unless there were no Hatch amendments, period," said a Republican Senate aide who demanded anonymity. "A lot of the Democrats hated the Patriot Act even though they voted for it, and they certainly didn't want to see it made permanent. It's an ongoing, simmering debate."

"Picture perfect. Part Spider-Man, part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan. The president seizes the moment on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. We look at the images, the messages and the consequences of the president's week... In another victory lap, Donald Rumsfeld goes to Afghanistan and Iraq and lays out his vision for a remade military. ... Lingering on the sidelines, the Democrats. Nine would-be presidents gather this weekend in South Carolina for a 90-minute debate. What will they say? Can they be heard?... Plus, everybody wants to talk about the economy. Republicans debate tax cuts. Democrats debate health care. Who gets to set the agenda?"

IFILL: So, Alexis, is--is what the president saying that victory in Iraq equals retribution for September 11th?

Ms. ALEXIS SIMENDINGER (National Journal): Well, Gwen, I think I'll quote from the president. [Bush] called Iraq "one victory in the war on terror." And I thought that language was very interesting because [Bush] made a conceit in which he said that the longer running conflict that the United States is engaged in is the war on terror and terrorism, and he called Iraq and Afghanistan "battles"--those were the words he used--in that longer running war.

Interestingly, there wasn't anything in that speech that we haven't heard from the president in the past. There was no new information in that. And there were some practical reasons why the president did that speech, but I think in listening to it, there--there were three important messages that I thought that the president was really interested in trying to convey. The first one, of course, was that he thought that the US goals in Iraq had been accomplished. And that was a pretty interesting assertion since we know that the connection that he was trying to make between al-Qaida and Iraq is as nebulous as it's ever been. The weapons of mass destruction, which was the reason that this was supposed to be a threat to the United States and worth a pre-emptive war, are missing. And the regime change--that is still an idea. Certainly not democracy accomplished.

The second message: the Bush doctrine. He came back to this muscular policy that he's fond of and he tried to articulate it again, that the United States will go after the bad guys before they get us. And he talked about a reason for that, trying to bring freedom around the world, not just US freedom. And he talked about all cultures need liberty as they do need food and water and air, basic sustenance.

Now the third message was the easiest to get because it hit us all over the head like a two-by-four and that was the president's desire to make sure that seared into our psyche was this image of the warrior president that--the person who liberated other people and then that quick pirouette away from Baghdad back to Main Street....

Ms. SIMENDINGER: Right. The--the White House and the administration know that in the minds of a lot of Americans, i--in fact, an incredible majority of Americans, they believe that there is this linkage between al-Qaida and Iraq. The president is absolutely trying to play up on that. He wants to make sure that he is the president for security and that American public believe that this was a reason and he was right.

First, learn the right lessons from parochial and exclusive private-school programs. High and demanding expectations are set for student performance. The expectations are reinforced with individual attention and a palpable sense of community support for each child. In the best of these schools, every child is respected and even loved.

Using a unique methodology that investigates people's background knowledge on subjects before asking their opinions, Retro Poll compares each person's answers to different but related questions. This allows an assessment of the extent to which background knowledge, or its absence, contributes to particular views in the sample....In an earlier poll taken in September 2002, Retro Poll found that 43% of those giving their opinion believed that Iraq and Saddam Hussein worked with the Al Qaeda terrorists although a suppressed CIA report and other experts found no such evidence. The current poll asked a slightly different question: whether there is "evidence that Saddam Hussein worked with the 9-11 terrorists;" 40% said yes and 36% no. Since September, government officials and media pundits have logged hundreds of appearances to bolster this contrived connection. Yet, no hard evidence to contradict the CIA report has been published. There is a powerful correlation (p=.005) between knowledge on this issue and rejection of war. In the previous poll, people who said there is no evidence of a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda were 4:1 against war while those who said there was evidence were 2:1 for the war. In the current poll the same correlation remains significant. Those who think there is clear evidence are 2.2:1 for the war, and those who challenge this assertion remain opposed (although now at 60% against war compared with 80% in the earlier poll)....
"The pillar of support for war on Iraq and also the abuse of our civil rights is the 40% of the public that do not perceive that Bush, Rumsfeld, Powell and their advisors have used the media in an extensive disinformation campaign--including claims of an Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction and connections to the 9-11 terrorists," asserts Dr. Marc Sapir, Retro Poll's director. "Thus support for war is related to the mass media's failure to challenge the government's self-serving persistent disinformation campaign about threats to our security."