They can appear to themselves
Every day
On closed circuit TV
To make sure they're still real
It's the only connection
They've failed
They can polish their medals
And sharpen their smiles
And amuse themselves
Playing games for a while
Boom boom, bang bang
Lie down you're dead
Pink Floyd--The Fletcher Memorial Home (for colonial wasters of life and limb. Is everybody in? NOW the FINAL SOLUTION can be replied)

I believe that is exactly correct. And yes the world is an unfair place. It is unfair that the people of Iraq have been slaughtered even though they never did anything to harm us. Not looking at the intelligence report on Iraq is unforgivable and voting for something that was so clearly wrong probably might be construed as unfair. I guess that is why the dems figure we should vote for Hillary now but you know there are just some things I cannot force myself to do and voting for Hillary comes under that heading. I suppose that is terribly unfair of me but there you go.

Kerry got my last war-mongering vote. for all of my living days.....

Um, I'm pretty sure a typical sociopath doesn't need any reason to feel victimized. It comes naturally.

Umm, it isn't just the horrible things one does that opponents use. It's also the good things one attempts that opponents twist and spin to your harm.

Doing nothing becomse the most sensible course in our system.

A political leader should project an image of "new", "bold", and "innovative" while carefully maintaining the old, the timid and the same old crap.

Jon, I wonder - why do you conclude Cheney didn't know about Wilson's report? Larry Johnson, formerly of the CIA, thinks the opposite, in this quote from an extremely interesting panel discussion at the University of the District of Columbia earlier this month, prompted by the publication of The Italian Letter: How the Bush Administration Used a Fake Letter To Build the Case for War in Iraq, and expanded to respond to the publication of George Tenet's memoirs at about the same time. Another panelist was Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, formerly chief of staff to Colin Powell at the State Department. But here's Johnson:

Johnson: Yeah, back to this "knowing," and put some of the activity into context: I bring to the experience of having worked in the office of the CIA Operations Center and knowing how the paper's generated and forwarded to principals: When Dick Cheney saw that reference in a Defense Intelligence Agency report, to the possibility of Iraq buying uranium from Niger, and queried his briefer, we now know, basically—I was in Valerie Wilson's training class, by the way, at CIA—we now know from her testimony before Congress, that that very same day, somebody in Cheney's office—and it had to be Libby; if it wasn't Libby, it was Hadley—somebody called out and got a junior case officer in Valerie's office on the phone, and said, "Hey! We really need this information!"

So, on the question of any information dealing with Iraq, uranium, Niger, that was on the radar screen for top-level officials. It's not like we were talking, "What was banana production in Costa Rica?" Or, "How many diamonds came out of Liberia?" You know, this was something that was at the very top of their issue. It was at the White House Situation Room there, it was at the top; the CIA Operations Center there was at the top, because when you're sitting there as a watch officer, when you see these topics come across your screen, you hit the "print" button, and you make sure that certain critical documents are available for the principals the next day.

That's why I'm certain Dick Cheney saw Joe Wilson's report. Because the White House Situation Room hit the "print" button. Dick Cheney didn't like Joe Wilson's report that was generated based upon his trip, because it didn't support the notions that they wanted. But the knowledge at the White House level, just the way the bureaucracy works, there is no way in Hell, that these people were not being briefed on a regular basis on anything that had to do with Iraq acquiring uranium, and the possibility of reconstituting the nuclear program—no way.

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/forum_features_.html#more

When I think about whether I'd ever vote for Hillary, I'm reminded of the old joke:

"How's your spouse?" "Compared to what?"

I wouldn't say I'm completely convinced that Cheney never saw the Wilson report. But from what I've read, I think it's very likely. In particular, remember that Cheney was jotting things in the margin of the Wilson op-ed that indicate he didn't even know the trip had taken place.

I also find it completely plausible that a huge, incompetent, cowed bureaucracy like the CIA wouldn't have shown the report to Cheney. It didn't give the people in charge the answer they wanted, and in huge, cowed, incompetent bureaucracies, that kind of stuff tends to get lost in the shuffle.

People who have associated with pumphead Cheney for a long time say that his mental functioning has deteriorated these last few years. Remember his gratuitous assertion, for example, during the 2004 campaign, that he'd never met John Edwards - easily refuted by photos of the two of them together. So if someone says "Cheney certainly must have been shown X, even if he doesn't remember it," I find that quite credible. As I parse it, then, Larry Johnson could be quite correct - they flagged it and printed it out for Cheney - and Cheney still could have forgotten it.

Also, I start from the premise that Cheney's goal was NOT - "let's find out what's really happening" - it was rather, "let's get this war on." So naturally he would pay less attention to matters that pertained to the first, and more to the second.

no matter what anybody says, i'm going to go on believing that bullies strengthen the herd.

Maybe Ole Deadeye forgot (memory deteriation,or just plain "don't care") that OUTING A CIA AGENT IN TIME OF WAR IS TREASON AGAINST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Ginko Biloba or EXILE TO THE GREEN ZONE may jog his memory. ( WE did it to Gen. Benedict Arnold but Ole Deadeye may well end up imprisoned and TORTURED in ENGLAND so better the SAFETY of THE GREEN ZONE.)