skippy the bush kangaroo

hastert's decision to give the commission until july 26 to complete its work clears the way for congress to approve the extension and could resolve a dispute that has held up action on an unrelated highway bill.

hastert, r-ill., in a letter to the two chairmen of the commission, former new jersey republican gov. thomas h. kean and former rep. lee hamilton, d-ind., acknowledged that he had been “reluctant to support this extension” because of the need for congress to move quickly on the findings of the report.

the panel investigating the sept. 11 attacks on the united states will get one hour to ask president bush what he knew about events leading up to the suicide airline hijackings, the white house said on friday.

"they are looking at an hour as you pointed out," white house spokesman scott mcclellan said when asked by a reporter whether he could confirm reports that bush was limiting the meeting to an hour.

rather than sitting down with all 10 members of the so-called 9/11 commission, bush and vice president dick cheney have only agreed to meet privately with its chairman, thomas kean, and the vice chairman, lee hamilton.

the panel would prefer that bush meet with all of the members.

according to mr. bush, reporters conducted a thorough investigation of his time in the texas national guard when he ran against ann richards for governor in 1994, and again when he ran against al gore in 2000. the complete guard records, the president told tim russert on "meet the press," were "scoured."

this came as news to me, as i lived in and reported from texas during those times and feel that questions about the story — mr. bush's life story — linger 10 years after his first political victory. why they linger is a more complicated question, one that has as much to do with the press as it does with the president.

as patrick woodson, one of ms. richards's campaign consultants, told me earlier this month, "we were unofficially told that because of [sen. lloyd] bentsen's kid the guard thing was not on the table."

some reporters got their information from time-consuming freedom of information act requests, others took what they were handed by opposition researchers — in my experience, the unfortunate norm in most modern campaigns. if there was a release of documents comparable to the one made by the administration earlier this month, no one around here recalls it.

perhaps 2004 will be the year that details of george w. bush's time in the national guard — indeed, his life in the early 1970's — finally get filled in. this time around, there are certain factors that might put added pressure on reporters, editors and news organizations to complete the story. after all, the questions about mr. bush's service are being raised while we are at war and while the president is facing a genuine war hero as a potential opponent. maybe this year, 10 years after mr. bush's first political victory, the lingering questions will finally disappear.

fifty-six-year-old peggy law collapsed during the first public showing at the warren theater in east wichita. she suffered a heart attack during a climactic scene in the film, kmbc reported.

"it was during the time that they were crucifying christ, and putting the nails in his hands and feet," one witness said.

the growing furor over president bush's vietnam-era national guard service - or lack thereof - is fraught with consequence and should be of more than passing concern to all veterans. i'm reminded why by my experience at a veterans reunion two years ago.

…most of those who go to war, draftee and volunteer alike, are average folks, of average (or below average) means, from average backgrounds. they make it possible for society's political and social elite to continue being elite. despite that, i'm proud to have been one of those average guys. by the same token, i don't take kindly - and i would hope other veterans don't take kindly - to those in power who didn't answer the call when it was their turn, but who thereafter have no compunctions or pangs of conscience about sending average sons, daughters, husbands, and wives off to die for ulterior political motives.

on monday, doonesbury creator garry trudeau offered a $10,000 reward in his syndicated newspaper comic strip for anyone who "personally witnessed" bush reporting for drills at dannelly air national guard base in alabama between may and november 1972. trudeau explains in strips later this week — and on his web site, doonesbury.com — that the reward money will be given to the uso in the witness's name.

"sounds like a stunt worthy of a comic strip," republican national committee spokeswoman christine iverson said monday.

trudeau, responding in an e-mail monday, said the issue matters. "how well george w. bush handled his air national guard service — and how honestly he answered questions about it — have become frequently asked questions in the 2004 presidential campaign," he said.

"it's a legitimate offer," said comics historian r.c. harvey.

rebuking "the president and his henchmen" for their criticism of him, kerry took particular aim at republican senator saxby chambliss of georgia for his remarks earlier yesterday attacking the massachusetts senator's opposition to some missile defense systems and intelligence spending programs.

"i don't know what it is about what these republicans who didn't serve in any war have against those of us who are democrats who did," kerry told reporters upon arriving here for two campaign events in georgia today. "but i'm tired of their trying to divert attention from the real issues that confront america," kerry added.

asked if his rebuke was aimed at president bush, who has faced questions recently about his vietnam-era service in the national guard in texas and alabama, kerry said: "no, that's not what i'm saying. saxby chambliss, [vice president] dick cheney, and a whole bunch of people are very busy challenging the patriotism of democrats who question the policy in iraq, and question the course of our nation."

kerry also released a letter that he sent to bush yesterday charging that the white house was challenging the patriotism of vietnam veterans like himself and former senator max cleland, and seeking "to reopen these wounds for your own personal political gain."

in his letter, kerry wrote, "over the last week, you and your campaign have initiated a widespread attack on my service in vietnam, my decision to speak out to end that war and my commitment to the defense of this nation."

"if you want to debate the vietnam era, and the impact of our experiences on our approaches to presidential leadership, i am prepared to do so," the letter added.

the challenge from kerry is the latest indication that if he emerges as the democratic nominee, the vietnam war will figure prominently in the campaign between him and bush.

cheney's openly lesbian daughter is the target of a new website urging her to use her political visibility to protect the rights of homosexual couples. the 9-day-old site, dearmary.com , features virtual postcards written by visitors exhorting her to publicly oppose a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

"we very much launched this as an effort of psychological warfare against the vice president," said john aravosis, a washington political consultant and writer who helped create the site.

"my intent was for him to wake up monday morning and see this in the newspapers, and say, 'oh my god.' this battle's gotten personal."

this sort of online grass-roots movement is nothing new to aravosis. four years ago, he and los angeles activist and comedian robin tyler launched a successful internet advertising boycott of talk show host dr. laura schlessinger — http://www.stopdrlaura.com — in response to anti-gay comments she made on her radio show.

organizers aravosis and tyler explain on the dearmary site's home page their reasoning for leveling criticism at mary cheney: "as an open lesbian who has worked for years as a public advocate for gay civil rights, you are in a unique position to defend yourself and your community in this dire hour."

the conference board, a business research group based in new york, said its closely watched index of consumer confidence fell to 87.3 from a revised 96.4 in january. it was the lowest level since 81.7 in october 2003.

economists had expected the confidence index, based on a survey of 5,000 households, to fall to 92 from the originally reported 96.8, according to briefing.com.

"the most important factor [in this survey] is labor market, labor market, labor market," said anthony chan, chief economist at banc one investment advisors, who had one of the lowest forecasts for tuesday's number on wall street.

among the questions bush had to answer on his application forms was whether he wanted to go overseas. bush checked the box that said: "do not volunteer."

bush said in an interview that he did not recall checking the box. two weeks later, his office provided a statement from a former, state-level air guard personnel officer, asserting that since bush "was applying for a specific position with the 147th fighter group, it would have been inappropriate for him to have volunteered for an overseas assignment and he probably was so advised by the military personnel clerk assisting him in completing the form."

president bush distanced himself wednesday from white house predictions that the economy will add 2.6 million jobs this year, the second embarrassing economic retreat in a week and new fuel for democratic criticism.

the jobs controversy came on the heels of white house economist n. gregory mankiw's assertion that "outsourcing" american jobs overseas was
good for the u.s. economy in the long run. bush, house speaker dennis hastert and other republicans quickly disavowed mankiw's remarks, and the economist had to apologize for a "lack of clarity."

jobs are a sensitive political issue for bush as he fights to keep his own job in a second term. the economy has lost 2.2 million payroll jobs since bush took office, the worst job-creation record of any president since herbert hoover.

protesters at this summer's democratic national convention in boston may be confined to a cozy triangle of land off haymarket square, blocked off from the fleetcenter and convention delegates by a maze of central artery service roads, mbta train tracks, and a temporary parking lot holding scores of buses and media trucks.

under a preliminary plan floated by convention organizers, the "free-speech zone" would be a small plot bounded by green line tracks and north washington street, in an area that until recently was given over to the elevated artery. the zone would hold as few as 400 of the several thousand protesters who are expected in boston in late july.

attorneys are challenging a preliminary security plan for this summer's democratic national convention that would limit protesters to a small patch of land virtually out of sight of the convention hall…

if protesters are restricted only to the small pen without fear of arrest or harassment, attorneys will take their challenge to court, said carol rose, executive director of the american civil liberties union of massachusetts. the aclu has joined with the lawyers guild to ask police to change the plan so delegates will have to walk past protesters…

a similar situation arose during the 2000 democratic national convention in los angeles, where protesters were initially restricted to an area blocks from delegates. a federal judge ruled the protest area was unconstitutional and ordered that protesters be allowed to demonstrate in a parking lot across the street from the convention's entrance.

"i think it will be central," delay, r-texas, told reporters before addressing the knox county republican party's annual lincoln day dinner at rothchild's. "every now and then, an issue that is central to who you are and what your world view is comes along."

americans "have been tolerant of homosexuality for years, but now it's being stuffed down their throats and they don't like it," delay said.

california and new york, two of the 10 march 2 super tuesday states, were no. 1 and 2, respectively, for the last three years, with 549,717 jobs lost in california and 481,684 in new york, according to job-placement firm challenger, gray & christmas. illinois, which votes march 16, ranks third with 411,431 layoffs. texas, which has a march 9 primary, ranks fourth with 324,111 jobs lost over the last three years.

it appears that karl rove and karen hughes, as far back as mr. bush's first governor's race in texas, did not have faith in the neoconservative right's ability to forgive the young george w. for "things undone" as a younger man.

suffice it to say that this writer believes that president bush could have very well told the entire truth about his military pilot service in alabama and texas, even if it was splotchy, and would be no worse off today.

after all, the rumors about his bachelor past abound with all titillation -- including women, drugs, liquor, a possible felony gone lost, and drunk driving to boot. the mere fact that he was beneficiary of his family's influence to keep him alive might not have rendered politically impotent - even running against albert s. gore in 2000.

the real issue, painful in a society that prides itself on being egalitarian, is privilege - who got to serve in the guard's "champagne unit" as his unit was called, and who went to vietnam, perhaps to die.

it was all inside and cozy back in texas then. lloyd bentsen iii, son of a future senator, got a coveted slot in the houston-based guard unit. john connally iii, son of the former governor, got another. and in 1968, george bush, son of houston's congressman, made it after ben barnes, speaker of the texas house, talked to the head of the national guard on the young man's behalf. bush's first solo flight made headlines in the houston papers.

no one expresses himself more passionately about this kind of favoritism than colin powell, who came up from the streets of the bronx and is now president bush's secretary of state. in his 1995 memoir, "my american journey," general powell wrote: "i particularly condemn the way our political leaders supplied the manpower for that war [the vietnam war]. the policies determining who would be drafted and who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live, were an anti-democratic disgrace.... i am angry that so many sons of the powerful and well-placed ... managed to wangle slots in reserve and national guard units. of the many tragedies of vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to our country."

no white house has ever come out and bluntly said that an event on the president's schedule was a public relations ploy orchestrated for the incumbent's re-election campaign.

no one expects them to, either.

but, we do expect the press to report relevant facts that stand in contradiction to official statements made by the white house.

this is exactly what william douglas of knight ridder newspapers and maura reynolds of the los angeles times did while reporting on president bush's visit to fort polk, la.

both reporters challenged white house press secretary scott mcclellan's cookie-cutter statement -- "this event has been in the works for several weeks" -- by simply picking up the phone and calling a few military officials at fort polk.

"found herself transferred in the spring of 2002 to a post as a political/military desk officer at the defense department?s office for near east south asia (nesa)? just as war fever was spreading, or being spread as she would later argue, through the halls of washington. indeed, shortly after her arrival, a piece of nesa was broken off, expanded and re-dubbed with the orwellian name of the office of special plans. the osp?s task was, ostensibly, to help the pentagon develop policy around the iraq crisis." she was speaking out against the travesty of bu$hco's iraq adventure while still inside the machine, and since her retirement has been a most illuminating source of the truth hidden deep in the neocon forest of bullshit.

i have a novel idea - why don't you go out and get your own job. you are so pathetic that you have to look to the president for a job. i hate to break the news to you but the president doesn't have any ability to create jobs. as i said a few years ago, yes bill did a great job with the economy - bill gates that is not bill clinton who had nothing to do with it. - realistic

still carrying on like a fool, aren't you?

get a life kid?

you are one ignorant son of a bitch. and, yes, you are unpatriotic... as well as just plain stupid.

look in the mirror. you don't have the iq of a potato. dumb as a brick. and proud of it, too. what a combination. you are simply too stupid to understand a man with the experience and wisdom of president bush. - stephen

"inexperienced soldier who had incorrectly set the pin for a hair-trigger detonation."

sir,
pins on hand grenades are not set for anything, by anyone, you are a full of shit liberal. been there done that. some stupid ass in san francisco might believe it, not a veteran. do some research you won't look as dim.

sir,

i didn't write that, i quoted that. you are writing to the wrong person. do some research, you won't look so dim.

sorry, i guess its the crap you "quote", that makes you look dim.

the advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending feb. 7 was 3,186,000, an increase of 106,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,080,000. the 4-week moving average was 3,122,750, an increase of 16,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,106,000.

bush arguably has committed the greatest strategic blunder in modern memory. to put it bluntly, he attacked the wrong target. while he boasts of removing saddam hussein from power, he did far more than that. he decapitated the government of a country that was not directly threatening the united states and, in so doing, bogged down a huge percentage of our military in a region that never has known peace. our military is being forced to trade away its maneuverability in the wider war against terrorism while being placed on the defensive in a single country that never will fully accept its presence.

there is no historical precedent for taking such action when our country was not being directly threatened. the reckless course that bush and his advisers have set will affect the economic and military energy of our nation for decades. it is only the tactical competence of our military that, to this point, has protected him from the harsh judgment that he deserves.

at the same time, those around bush, many of whom came of age during vietnam and almost none of whom served, have attempted to assassinate the character and insult the patriotism of anyone who disagrees with them. some have impugned the culture, history and integrity of entire nations, particularly in europe, that have been our country's great friends for generations and, in some cases, for centuries.

bush has yet to fire a single person responsible for this strategy. nor has he reined in those who have made irresponsible comments while claiming to represent his administration. one only can conclude that he agrees with both their methods and their message.

with the controversy over his military service still simmering, president bush came to one of the army's premier training bases tuesday to declare that he will never relent until the terrorist threat to america is removed.

several thousand troops, most dressed in battle fatigues, heartily cheered bush's remarks and showed no visible signs of protest over democratic claims that he had not shown up for part of his service in the national guard.

but bush's military record was clearly a subtext to his appearance at this military base where, after his speech, he also had lunch with an arkansas national guard unit that will soon be dispatched to iraq.

many troops would not talk on the record when asked about the controversy, but some privately expressed doubt about the president's service while others supported him. after the speech, one soldier jested, "well, i guess we will all go out and vote for john kerry now."

this week's newsweek cover in particular was devastating for the gop and the president. it showed bush and kerry, side by side as they were more than 30 years ago when vietnam was still raging. the inside story was not biased or unfair to the president in any way. it did not have to be.

with u.s. gis still dying by the week in iraq in a war that increasingly looks to have been unnecessary, bush's national guard record of 30 years ago has become an albatross around his neck. he served in the guard safely at home. but now he has sent thousands of guard members to danger and even death because of a war that may not have been necessary. and in kerry, he now faces a foe all too eager to take advantage of it.

this is not the campaign bush and rove planned for and expected…

as a result, bush and rove are now on the defensive. they have already been driven off their planned main theme of "the war president." now they have been forced back to "running on the record." but with all those 2.2 million plus job losses since january 2001, that is meat and drink to kerry. job creation may indeed soar over the next nine months, but it will have to do so in the most spectacular way to wipe out all those losses, and recovery has especially lagged in the manufacturing/industrial sectors, which means the president has a big and growing problem in the big industrial states where this election will likely be decided.

none of this means the president must lose in november. but for the first time since they emerged on the national scene four years ago, bush and rove are truly on the political defensive, forced to respond to an aggressive, efficient, fast-moving enemy team that is suddenly calling the shots.

their strategic offensive has always been so good the country has never had the chance to see how they play on defense when the heat is on. but it may be we are about to find out.

howard dean is like the old reel-to-reel tape in “mission impossible.” he gave the rest of the candidates their instructions and then self-destructed. in doing so, he may have helped save the party and the country. thanks howard.

the sweeping charges were later discussed in a conference call with some of the scientists that was organized by the union of concerned scientists, an independent organization that focuses on technical issues and has often taken stands at odds with administration policy. the organization also issued a 37-page report today that it said detailed the accusations.

together, the two documents accuse the administration of repeatedly censoring and suppressing reports by its own scientists, stacking advisory committees with unqualified political appointees, disbanding government panels that provide unwanted advice, and refusing to seek any independent scientific expertise in some cases.

"other administrations have, on occasion, engaged in such practices, but not so systematically nor on so wide a front," the statement from the scientists said, adding that they believed the administration had "misrepresented scientific knowledge and misled the public about the implications of its policies."

"i don't see it as a partisan issue at all," said russell train, who served as administrator of the environmental protection agency under presidents richard m. nixon and gerald r. ford, and who spoke in the conference call in support of the statement. "if it becomes that way i think it's because the white house chooses to make it a partisan issue," mr. train said.

gibson has now cast himself as a main character. he plays a sinful imperial (but not native roman) centurion, whose job is trying to police the desert against anti-roman jewish terrorists. (danny glover once again plays his partner, here named mvrtavgh.) mel is depressed by his wife's death, and in one scene he actually puts his own sword in his mouth and threatens to kill himself. he is stopped by the sudden appearance of a vision.

"i've been looking forward to the time when this is a two-person race and people will focus on senator kerry and myself," edwards said. "it now appears that we're very close to that place, and maybe even there."

instead of answering the questions, the documents, most of which were simply duplicates of already released public records, confirmed what skeptics have been saying for some time: there's simply no data available to knock down the assertion that for months at a time bush failed to show up for required guard duty. instead, a picture continues to emerge of a trained guard pilot who in 1972, two years before his six-year commitment was up, decided to not only walk away from his flying duties completely, but to serve as little as possible in the guard, before getting permission to leave in order to enroll in harvard business school…

the most glaring omission from the stash released by the white house is bush's 1973-'74 officer effectiveness report. commanders are required to fill one out for every officer who serves. the last oer on record for bush was completed on may 2, 1973, and covered the period from may 1, 1972, to april 30, 1973. but according to bush's payroll and retirement records, he was credited for serving 38 days after may 2, 1973, which means he should have been evaluated. yet his officer rating seems to have simply disappeared.

unlike bush's routine guard pay stubs, which would have shed light on his whereabouts but seem to have also been lost sometime during the last 30 years, oer's are among the most important personnel reports generated inside the guard. "i've never met a commander in 28 years that didn't take oer's seriously," burkett told salon last week. "they review oer's in excruciating detail and probably take them more seriously than pay documents."

last week calhoun told the atlanta journal-constitution that bush asked for weekend drills. but according to the documents released by the white house one week ago, only five of the 12 days bush was credited for serving in alabama were for weekend days.

specifically, calhoun told reporters bush was assigned to his command at the 187th tactical reconnaissance group, and he saw bush serve between eight to 10 times for about eight hours each from may to october 1972. but those may-to-october dates do not correspond with the payroll records the white house released last tuesday. they indicated bush was credited for doing guard duty in alabama during the months of october, november and, presumably, january.

secondly, when bush moved to alabama to work on the blount campaign, he first asked to be transferred to the 9921st air reserve squadron (the postal unit). there's no evidence bush ever showed up at the 9921st. instead, bush in september 1972 asked to serve with a different alabama unit, calhoun's 187th tactical recon group, for the months of september, october and november. so why would calhoun have seen bush signing in at the montgomery base during may, june, july, august and september, if bush didn't even ask to be transferred there until sept. 5? and according to the recently released white house documents, bush didn't actually show up at the montgomery base until october 28-29.

like so many of the mysteries surrounding bush's guard service, the white house account and calhoun's simply do not add up, and the questions are unlikely to go away.

although i will vote against president bush, i will never hold his serving in the guard against him. he was honorable in exercising another service option.

what offends americans is not the quality of president bush's service, but that he used family connections to secure a reserve post that was extremely difficult to obtain -- with no rotc or officer candidate experience to qualify him. he then was slack in fulfilling his relatively minor obligations and has lied about taking the easy way out...

it would be an affront to worthy military men to be commanded by a man without honor...

regardless of the alleged time gaps in president bush's guard service, the real issue is that his father used political connections to keep him out of harm's way.

"the white house finally found one guy who says he remembers serving with president bush on national guard duty in alabama. isn't that amazing? now if they can find someone who remember bush working on an economic plan!"

after trying to quell stories about his vietnam-era military record, bush sought tuesday to put that controversy behind him by meeting with members of the national guard. twelve soldiers assigned to fort polk have died in iraq, including two soldiers killed by a roadside bomb last week, according to paula schlag, a base spokeswoman.

bush was to meet privately with the relatives of fallen soldiers, then have lunch with guard members.

white house officials said bush was reaching out to guard members here because nearly 40 percent of the troops heading to iraq in the next rotation will be guardsmen.

-- it’s hard to fathom just what an extreme group of people [they] are, how little regard they have for what we think of as the public interest, until you examine the details. and in this case, the devil really is in the details.

-- i think there’s a real healthy understanding among all sensible people right now that there is only one hope for the future of this country and that is to get rid of this man, no matter who replaces him. i would be very happy to vote for bob dole or george herbert walker bush. he is the most dangerous man ever to occupy the american presidency in the past 100 years.

-- the one bright spot of the complete and total lack of responsible planning for the entirely predictable aftermath of the invasion of iraq is that they’re not in a strong position to take this show on the road.

c. murphy archibald, a nephew of [senate candidate winton] blount's who worked on the campaign that fall, told time that bush "was good at schmoozing the county chairs, but there wasn't a lot of follow-up." archibald, now a trial attorney in north carolina, remembers that a group of older alabama socialites, who were volunteering their time, gave bush a nickname because they thought he "looked good on the outside but was full of hot air." they called him the texas soufflé.

hung -- who is ambitious, sincere and achingly naive -- doesn't want to be a clown. he wants to be a pop star.

"i see this as a learning experience of how to succeed if i was to become an american pop star someday," hung, pausing to choose his words carefully, said over coffee this week in san francisco's japantown, where he was returning a rented cd.

hung said he knows he has a lot of work to do as a vocalist. his spirited, chinese-accented rendition of ricky martin's "she bangs" was aired jan. 27 by producers who clearly coveted hung's entertainment value -- not his pipes ... meanwhile, hung said he has been invited to perform at events from a philadelphia 76ers basketball game to the mtv asia awards in singapore, and he has appeared on several television shows.

on monday night, hung performed at an open mike at the clark kerr dormitories where he used to live and work in the dining commons. this time he was greeted by more than 400 students armed with cameras and camcorders.

"it's the pop-culture fad right now. and its berkeley's own," said sophomore alex bollfrass in explaining his attendance.

"you have to respect his genuineness," said fifth-year student whitney brechwald. "he tries so hard."

"i hope i've shown everyone in the world that regardless of success or failure, just keep trying. never give up," hung said. "because only then can you say to yourself that you tried your best and had no regrets."

if you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
but make allowance for their doubting too...

yours is the earth and everything that's in it,
and--which is more--you'll be a man, my son!

awol matters because it reveals how this administration not only has no respect for the truth, but it lies -- repeatedly, without conscience, and so far without consequence.

the awol matter is only the first consequence. once it has become clear that the president's credibility deservedly is nearly nonexistent, then a number of other issues -- plame, the economy, the environment -- come into much clearer focus.

welcome back, daschle. we were all wondering what happened to you guys. but it's not just the senate. all across the party establishment there is a renewed energy and sense of purpose and the realization that we can, in fact, win.

and the key to all of this is us. while the party leaders in dc were lamenting their sad lot in life, democrats started turning out in droves to cast ballots in the democratic primary. even after kerry ran away with it, they still came out in record numbers. and those "fired up democrats" were also talking to their friends and neighbors and coworkers, so bush's poll numbers dropped some more.

it wasn't the party leadership that led -- it was us. it was the blogosphere. it was people who wouldn't know how to turn on a computer. it was me. it was you. we took control of this party, and they never saw it coming.

british prime minister tony blair and us president george w. bush ought to say sorry for waging "an immoral war" against saddam hussein's iraq, according to excerpts of a speech archbishop desmond tutu was to deliver.

in an evening lecture to be delivered at church house, westminster, in central london, the nobel laureate was to say that bush and blair would reap a revival in credibility if they apologise for waging a war that left the world "a great deal less safe".

"how wonderful if politicians could bring themselves to admit they are only fallible human creatures, and not god, and thus by definition can make mistakes," according to excerpts of the speech published in monday's independent newspaper, which is sponsoring the event.

my son-in-law, evan, was killed in action in iraq in july, having served with the 101st airborne. he died a hero and so was awarded the bronze star. i pray that god lets him rest in peace. what evan did leave behind, besides his legacy, are his grieving parents, my family and, of course, my daughter, his wife.

for the last six months either my daughter or i have had to contend with the bureaucracy of the army, the u.s. government and groups, although well-meaning, that continue to bring up memories. hailing him as a hero, letters of how bravely he served and "what he did for the country" ring hollow compared with the lack of concern, compassion and assistance by the army and our politicians. let me tell all who use such words to look within.

the form letters of sorrow are wearing thin, and i wish they would remove my daughter from their lists. congressmen, senators, the president and even people from other states continue to send a barrage of their guilt toward us by way of a form letter. letters to the army by me regarding the mishandling of this entire episode have gone completely unanswered.

on the question of whether he was ever awol, that charge appears to be exaggerated based on the balance of evidence available to date.

mr. bush's payroll records do indeed show that he missed guard training during eight months between may 1972 and may 1973. for much of that time, mr. bush was immersed in the united states senate campaign of winton blount…one issue [of the campaign] was how tough to be on draft dodgers.

but records also show that mr. bush took several steps to fulfill his guard obligation, including completing enough extra training after the campaign ended to fulfill at least the minimum annual requirements for retirement purposes.

still, one major remaining question is why mr. bush, who said he wanted to make flying "a lifetime pursuit" when he joined up, failed to take a required annual flight physical in 1972. as a result, records show, he was suspended from flying on aug. 1, 1972, an action that some guard officials have said should have set off an inquiry. no records of any such inquiry have been released…

another question is precisely how mr. bush obtained an honorable discharge from the guard on oct. 1, 1973, eight months before his six-year commitment ended.

[chief executive of american airlines] gerard arpey said the airline has grounded the pilot with pay while executives investigate the incident.
arpey said he apologized to anyone who was offended by the pilot's comments on a flight from los angeles to new york.

"let me assure you that we take this very seriously and are conducting a thorough investigation," arpey wrote in a letter to abraham foxman, national director of the anti-defamation league, an advocacy group that monitors anti-semitism. he said american airlines "promotes an environment of respect for the diversity of all persons, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, disability, gender, age or sexual orientation."

only one person has come forward with recollections of serving with bush in alabama. john b. "bill" calhoun, 69, said he saw bush at dannelly air national guard base eight to 10 times from may to october 1972. but calhoun also said he recalls bush at dannelly at times in mid-1972 when the white house acknowledges bush was not even based in alabama.

may 24, 1972: bush seeks a transfer from his houston guard unit to the 9921st air reserve squadron in montgomery, ala., for an unpaid assignment while he works as political director on the senate campaign of winton m. blount, a friend of his father. the transfer is approved by the unit's commander. there is no record bush reported for duty.

the latest rumor is president bush was told to leave the texas air national guard and to get treated for alcohol problems and that they would not let him fly until he was treated. this is just entirly and completley untrue. he did not have no drinking problem then and he does not have one now. and he never flied any jets after he was drinking.

i was in the regular army from 1969 to 1977, in vietnam in 1970, and asked for a hardship discharge in 1976. my son was having seizures from a brain disorder, and my wife had almost died. my request was denied. president bush was released early from the national guard to attend graduate school…

for almost a year i have asked the bush administration for my wife's, son's, and my own military medical records. all of my requests have been in writing and by e-mail. the president gets his records in a day while my formal written requests are ignored.

cleland was ordered to set up a radio relay on a nearby mountain. he and his signals team were airlifted to the site. while disembarking from the helicopter, cleland saw a grenade that he thought had fallen from his webbing. cleland tells what happened:

on april 8, 1968, i volunteered for one last mission. the helicopter moved in low. the troops jumped out with m16 rifles in hand as we crouched low to the ground to avoid the helicopter blades. then i saw the grenade. it was where the chopper had lifted off. it must be mine, i thought. grenades had fallen off my web gear before. shifting the m16 to my left hand and holding it behind me, i bent down to pick up the grenade.

a blinding explosion threw me backwards.

the grenade turned out to belong to an inexperienced soldier who had incorrectly set the pin for a hair-trigger detonation.

seven days later, operation pegasus was ended as the nva was forced out of the area. from the beginning of the siege to the end of pegasus, 730 americans were killed in action, 2,642 were wounded, and 7 were officially classified as missing in action. a few months later, khe sanh was officially abandoned.

although cleland's injury occurred in a combat zone, during general combat operations, cleland was not eligible for a purple heart, as his injury did not occur while in direct combat with the enemy. ("friendly fire" injuries qualify for the purple heart only if the fire was directed at an enemy.) however, it is not a mischaracterization to say cleland was wounded "during a routine noncombat mission where he was about to drink beer with friends" -- it is a lie. max cleland did indeed leave three limbs on one of the bloodiest battlefields of vietnam, and it is a savage denigration to the thousands of dead and wounded american soldiers of khe sanh to say otherwise.

president bush, trying to stamp out a political firestorm, released all his national guard files during the vietnam war on friday to answer election-year charges from democrats that he shirked his duty.

the white house handed out thick packets containing hundreds of pages of documents retrieved from a national guard records center in denver. a group of reporters was given 20 minutes to review dozens of pages detailing bush's medical exams during his service.

the university of michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index for february sank to 93.1 from a revised 103.8 in january, according to market sources quoted by reuters. economists, on average, expected a reading of 103.3, according to briefing.com.

“people are seeing we're not getting job growth, even though there have been a lot of promises of it," said delos smith, senior economist at the conference board, a private research firm that publishes its own monthly consumer confidence survey. "that's the key; for people to be satisfied, you have to have job growth."

u.s. president george w. bush may or may not have gone awol during his texas national guard vacation from vietnam but one thing's sure: the media did.

tuesday's sudden — and oh-so-fortuitous — release of his service records during a heated white house press conference had them finally reporting for duty — four years after the boston globe's walter v. robinson broke the story.

at the time, it was ignored, minimized or pooh-poohed by the new york times, the washington post, the los angeles times, the television networks etc.

a database search of that period turned up some 13,000 references to former president bill clinton's having avoided the draft — and only about 50 about bush's military career.

washington post reporter dana milbank's account of the president's "meet the press" appearance all but called him a liar... "if you look at the appropriations bills that were passed under my watch," he claimed, "in the last year of president clinton, discretionary spending was up 15 percent, and ours have steadily declined." not so. "federal discretionary spending has grown by more than 25 percent in the past two fiscal years," milbank wrote, "following average annual increases of 2.4 percent in discretionary spending in the 1990s, according to figures from congressional budget panels." …so what's going on here? is the nation's allegedly liberal press simply reacting to bush's sinking poll numbers and going in for the kill? partly, yes. after all, there's nothing new about this administration's preference for theory over reality, only the media's willingness to confront it. the post's budget numbers even made it to paula zahn's cnn broadcast on monday evening, a sure sign that factual journalism has grown newly fashionable.

there is no viable military record.....he got his assignment because of his father, then he never showed up to any of his posts.

he supported the vietnam war, but was not willing to make a personal sacrifice. this character trait remains evident today,as the president supports preemptive war but refuses to ask his constituencies to sacrifice anything.

president bush got into the national guard when there was a 500-person waiting list. he barely passed the pilot qualifications, and passed over more qualified people.

bush's credibility is at stake on whether or not he used political influence to avoid combat during the vietnam war. his proof that he was paid during the period in question does not prove that he actually served.

yes, it's a legit concern. the people have a right to know whether or not their president has told the truth about his military service.

it is a legitimate concern because it speaks to mr. bush's proclivity to exaggerate the facts. the information about iraq was shaped, molded and packaged for the us voters. now we are finding out that his service record was also massaged for our consumption.

of course it is a legitimate concern! how can the commander in chief send our service people into harms way while he shirked his his own military obligations?

his truthfulness should certainly be a legitimate concern.

of course it's a legitimate concern. as i reported here...http://www.southerner.net/blog/awolbush.html

"there is no excuse for that. aviators just don't miss their flight physicals," said major general paul a. weaver jr., who retired in 2002 as the pentagon's director of the air national guard, in an interview.

brigadier general david l. mcginnis, a former top aide to the assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, said in an interview that bush's failure to remain on flying status amounts to a violation of the signed pledge by bush that he would fly for at least five years after he completed flight school in november 1969.

"failure to take your flight physical is like a failure to show up for duty. it is an obligation you can't blow off," mcginnis said.

george w. bush left his texas air national guard assignment and moved to alabama in 1972, even though the air force denied his transfer request, his military records show.

the future president did not ask for an official transfer until nine days after he moved to alabama in may 1972. the air force rejected bush's request, saying the fighter pilot was “ineligible” to move to the unit bush wanted: a squadron of postal handlers.

an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 357,000. the 4-week moving average was 350,500, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week's revised average of 345,500.

u.s. retail sales outside the volatile auto sector gained strongly in january as shoppers loaded up on food and clothing, a government report showed on thursday.

in a separate report, the labor department said initial claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week by 6,000 to 363,000, confounding analysts, who had predicted an improving job market and expected a dip to 345,000 new claims.

the commerce department said total retail sales -- comprising about 36 percent of u.s. consumer spending -- fell 0.3 percent to $322.87 billion in january from december levels. it was the first decline since september.

instead i looked down into the trashcan. underneath most of the trash — the trash level was within two inches of the top — i saw that the trash on the bottom was basically packing cartons, i do remember that there were a couple of elastic type straps and that sort of thing, and on top there was a little bit of paper. and on top of that pile of paper, approximately five-eighths of an inch thick, and jim wanted me to estimate the number of pages and i said probably between 20 and 40 pages of documents that were clearly originals and photocopies. and it wasn't any big deal, i looked at it, it was a glance situation, and it made no sense to me at all except at the top of that top page was bush, george w., 1lt...

those documents were performance, what i term performance documents, which would include retirement points, [unintelligible] type documents, which would be a record of drill performance or nonperformance, and there was at least one pay document copy within the top six to eight pages of that stack that was in the trash….

(the authenticity of this entry must be questioned. nov. 11 is the date veterans day always falls on in tribute to the 1918 armistice, which the holiday originally commemorated. national guard units never drill on veterans day.)

[the documents released by the white house] also establish that, if you use the most generous measure available, bush squeaked by with enough service "points" to justify his honorable discharge. his early discharge in october 1973 to attend harvard business school still seems undeserved, given his poor attendance record, his apparent failure to meet the minimum-training requirement, and his suspension from flying (for failing to show up for a physical) during much of his time in what was, after all, the air national guard. taken together, though, these documents indicate that it's probably unfair to state, even metaphorically, that bush went awol. bush's guard service merits a d, not an f.

two forms in bush's publicly released military files — his enlistment application and a background check — contain blacked-out entries in response to questions about arrests or convictions. bush acknowledged in biographies published in 1999 that he was arrested twice before he enlisted in the air national guard: once for stealing a wreath and another time for rowdiness at a yale-princeton football game.

the nature of what was blacked out in bush's records is important because certain legal problems, such as drug or alcohol violations, could have been a basis for denying an applicant entry into the guard or pilot training. admission to the guard and to pilot school was highly competitive at that time, the height of the vietnam war.

the national guard cited privacy as the reason for blacking out answers. the full, unmarked records have never been released. bartlett did not respond wednesday to a request to release the records with nothing blacked out, which bush could do as the subject of the records.

a copy of the letter was provided to the new york times by a lawyer for mr. burkett to support statements he makes in a book to be published this month, which mr. burkett repeated in interviews this week, that mr. bush's aides ordered guard officials to remove damaging information from mr. bush's military personnel files.

mr. bartlett denied on wednesday that any records were altered. general james, since named head of the air national guard by president bush, also denied mr. burkett's account. but mr. bartlett and another former official in mr. bush's administration in texas, joe allbaugh, acknowledged speaking

to national guard officials about the files as mr. bush was preparing to seek re-election as governor.

both said their goal was to ensure that the records would be helpful to journalists who inquired about mr. bush's military experience.

"the way things are now, people want to party and george w. is the kind of guy you can party with," the montreal gazette quoted lee as saying.

"back in 1973, we rolled a couple of doobies [marijuana cigarettes] and smoked them together. and i can tell you -- he definitely inhaled."

we have the payroll and retirement records released by the white house which show a different story than the white house is trying to desperately spin. bush had only 9 days of active duty in 1972. this is below the required 15 days but may be given an ok if due to special circumstances...

the inactive duty days from those records show an odd history - there is no record for the 3rd quarter where he was denied a transfer to alabama but went anyway. there is a record for the 4th quarter where he got a transfer for an alabama unit but it shows no days. with his last day being an inactive training day on april 16, 1972, bush is past the red zone - reserve nomenclature for a non-participant (awol) due to his not reporting for over seven months. this pay record is one way commanders spot this.

for interpreting records - only codes 30 and 32 appear to be active duty codes - other codes are inactive duty. this is also called adt and idt. code 22 is idt…

the first quarter of 1973, in addition to showing first quarter days, also now retroactively shows oct. 28, 29 and nov. 11-14 1972 as idt (inactive duty training) days. they were not there before. did someone pull his butt out of the fire or were his records lost for awhile?

bush's staff provided copies of a one-page record of a dental exam, complete with drawings of the president's teeth, that showed he was at dannelly air national guard base in montgomery, ala., on jan. 6, 1973.

the document is the first definitive evidence that bush showed up at a base of the alabama national guard during a period of about 11 months, from may 1972 to may 1973, for which it was unclear how the president had fulfilled his military service.

miller's disconcertingly flaccid attempts to meld jokes on the news, serious political commentary, conservative hero worship and the chimp were greeted by a huge-by-cnbc-standards initial audience of 746,000 viewers, but they seem to be plummeting.

week one averaged 540,000 viewers for the first airings of new shows; week two pulled in less than half, just 261,000.

if they can succeed in making dennis miller no longer funny, does that mean the terrorists have won?

if president bush thought that his release of selected payroll and service records would quell the growing controversy over whether he ducked some of his required service in the air national guard three decades ago, he is clearly mistaken. the payroll records released yesterday document that he performed no guard duties at all for more than half a year in 1972 and raise questions about how he could be credited with at least 14 days of duty during subsequent periods when his superior officers in two units said they had not seen him…

the issue is not whether mr. bush, like many sons of the elite in his generation, sought refuge in the guard to avoid combat in vietnam. the public knew about that during the 2000 campaign. whether mr. bush actually performed his guard service to the full is a different matter. it bears on presidential character because the president has continually rejected claims that there was anything amiss about his guard performance during the alabama period. mr. bush himself also made the issue of military service fair game by posturing as a swashbuckling pilot when welcoming a carrier home from iraq. now, the president needs to make a fuller explanation of how he spent his last two years in the guard.

overall, then, his story hangs together reasonably well — but whether his story is true is still a judgment call and i think the only way for people to judge the whole thing is to hear it in his own words. and that's where the bad news comes in.

i have to head out right now to get another cortisone shot [ed. note: too much information, kevin!], so i can't work on this for another few hours. what's more, the clerical staff here at calpundit hq seems to have cleared the base or something, and transcribing even the relevant chunks of our conversation is going to take quite a while. so i don't know when i'll be able to post this stuff.

however, it sounds like burkett has talked to dozens of reporters in the past few days, so i wouldn't be surprised if his name starts popping up more frequently in news accounts. keep your eyes peeled.

i am a retired cpo and retired out in 1974 i spent 5 years of my life both on land and in the waters surrounding viet nam. as an enlisted man i took an oath upon enlisting and again upon re-enlisting as i continued in my navy career…my honor said no matter what i gave my word that i will do what needs to be done to protect and serve those under me, along side of me and those above me.. honor is just that, you are bound by your word, you cannot say "hell, i am having a great time on this 72 and so what if i don't go back to duty for another day, what is it going to matter, the job will get done by someone, no biggie." …lt. gw bush had to know these things, he couldn't have gotten thru knife and fork school without this knowledge. he, in my opinion did not, at the time, have the moral fibre to observe the gravity of the oath that he took, or due to his family station, felt that his place in the hierarchy of having a family that was very highly connected in government from ambassadors to a father that was a senator meant that he was above that oath that he swore to.

i have this funny feeling that this man feels the entire world owes him its adulation, and in turn he owes no one anything...

ken jackson
cpo usn ret.

more than one reporter pointed out that those pieces of paper your press secretary waved at them yesterday mean nothing. even if they aren't forged documents, getting paid does not necessarily mean you showed up to do your duties. as retired army col. dan smith, a 26-year veteran, told the ap:

"pay records don't mean anything except that you're in or you're out," said smith. "it doesn't necessarily reflect what duty you've actually performed because pay records simply record your unit of assignment and then all of your pay and benefits per pay period”…

but your "desertion" didn't go away -- and here's the reason why. you have sent countless numbers of our sons and daughters in the national guard to their deaths in the last 11 months. you did this while misleading their parents and the nation with bogus lies about weapons of mass destruction and scary phony saddam ties to al qaeda. you sent them off to a never-ending war so that your benefactors at halliburton and the oil companies could line their pockets. and then you had the audacity to prance around in a soldier's uniform on an aircraft carrier proclaiming "mission accomplished" -- while the cameras from your re-election campaign ad agency rolled

bush may well have played fast and loose with the rules -- probably never realizing that someday he would want to run for governor of texas or president of the united states. he may not have been a very good airman, but he was neither a deserter nor absent without leave. still, he needs to open all his records to set the record straight.

the problem with this form of "proof" is that no one doubts that the son of a well-connected friend of president richard nixon would continue to get paychecks. what americans want to know is whether bush actually did his duty. how about some records showing what bush actually did to earn those paychecks while other young men from texas were fighting and dying in vietnam?

kerry aides told time last week that they were worried their candidate had already come close to crossing the line. "there were a lot of people cringing around here when john let himself get engaged in this thing," said one. "it could backfire, no matter what the truth is." yet kerry's war record seems to be working for him. in the latest time/cnn poll, 60% of voters say john kerry did his duty for the country during the vietnam war, while only 39% make that same assertion for president bush.

"one of bush's strengths is he seems to be a straight shooter, and his ratings on integrity and honesty are still pretty good," says john mueller, a political scientist at ohio state university. "if you can chip away at that, that's obviously good for the democrats. if he's been lying or clintonizing, that would be the ultimate coup de grace. he might even lose some republican votes that way."

in the end, the relative import of questions about bush's military service during the election boils down to how voters in the center of the political spectrum perceive the issue. and there are several ways to perceive the question, says stephen wayne, a political scientist at georgetown university. "for some, it will be a patriotism issue, for others a credibility issue, and for others, it happened too long ago to matter," he says.

why would bush's superior officers treat bush with such favoritism? the answer to that is simple. bush's entire national guard career was the product of favoritism:

• his admission to the guard despite a national waiting list of 100,000, thanks to string-pulling by friends of his powerful father, then the congressman from houston

• his assignment as a pilot, despite the lowest possible grade (25%) on the pilot aptitude exam (yet another example of "affirmative action" for a rich white kid, but that's a different story)

• his commission as a lieutenant, despite the lack of all qualifications such as prior military service, rotc, or a medical degree
thus, it would be completely consistent for bush to be given an "honorable discharge" that he did not earn - or deserve.

retired national guard lt. col. bill burkett said tuesday that in 1997, then-gov. bush's chief of staff, joe allbaugh, told the national guard chief to get the bush file and make certain "there's not anything there that will embarrass the governor."

col. burkett said that a few days later at camp mabry in austin, he saw mr. bush's file and documents from it discarded in a trash can. he said he recognized the documents as retirement point summaries and pay forms.

wesley clark, the novice politician with four-star military credentials, abandoned his presidential bid tuesday after two third-places finishes in the south, the associated press has learned.

the retired army general will return to little rock, ark., on wednesday to announce his departure from the race, said a senior adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity.

for more than three decades those records have been locked away at the federal military records center in overland. the center director tells news 4 that the records were removed from a vault at that facility just a few days ago and sent to the national guard headquarters at the pentagon in washington.

the records are at the heart of allegations that bush did not report for service with the air national guard in 1972.

in my case, it was something similar -- although (darn!) i was not rich. i was, though, lucky enough to get into a national guard unit in the nick of time, about a day before i was drafted. i did my basic and advanced training (combat engineer) and returned to my unit. i was supposed to attend weekly drills and summer camp, but i found them inconvenient. i "moved" to california and then "moved" back to new york, establishing a confusing paper trail that led, really, nowhere. for two years or so, i played a perfectly legal form of hooky. to show you what a mess the guard was at the time, i even got paid for all the meetings i missed.

an american airlines pilot made some passengers fearful when he urged them to make wise use of their flight time by talking to christians, passengers said monday.

passengers were "shocked," said karla austin, who had flown on friday's los angeles to new york flight 34. some reached for their mobile phones and others used the on-flight phones, she said.

"just given the history of what's happened on planes in this country, anything can happen at this point. so we weren't sure if something was going to happen at takeoff, if he was going to wait until jfk (john f. kennedy) to do something," austin said. "but there was definitely implication there that we felt that something was going to happen"…

"we were just at the beginning of our flight. the pilot came on to greet everyone and give his comments for the morning, and he said he'd recently been on a mission trip, and he'd like all the christians to please raise their hands," said passenger jen dorsey.

he said, 'if you are a christian, raise your hand.' he said, 'if you are not, you're crazy,'" said austin.

that's kind of like the godfather appointing sonny, michael and fredo to investigate why there is organized crime in the city.

the u.s. economy should shed its jobless label this year with the creation of about 2.6 million new positions, the white house forecast on monday..

in the annual economic report of the president, the white house said the number of workers on u.s. non-farm payrolls was likely to rise to an average to 132.7 million this year from a 2003 average it thought would come in at 130.1 million.

according to the latest jobs figures released by the labor department on friday, which incorporated data revisions, payroll employment averaged just 129.9 million last year.

last year, the bush administration was looking for the creation of about 1.7 million jobs. but the economy actually lost 53,000 jobs, bringing the total number of jobs lost since bush took office to 2.2 million.

confounded by sluggish job growth, some economists are starting to suggest that underlying changes in the labor market -- including globalization -- mean it may be time to throw out the old forecasting models.

if they're wrong, then the current labor market could look a lot like that of the early 1990s -- a "jobless recovery" followed by a job boom. if they're right, then the next job boom could be a long time coming.

the clowns were dressed as president bush, as attorney general john ashcroft and as a porn star.

"bush is giving clowning a bad name,'' said lawrenzo the clown.

the clowns, all members of a group called clownarchy, boarded a westbound bart train at san francisco's embarcadero station and rode to 16th street. on the way, they passed out flyers urging non-clowns to put on a nose and join the troupe for a million clown march on washington in october.

passengers seemed amused, puzzled, overjoyed or bored by the display. somewhere below market street, ellie kim, a student at the boalt hall school of law, was trying to read a legal text while several clowns juggled around her.

"i think this is the first amendment in action,'' kim said, looking up from her book at last. "but i'm just a first-year student, so i could be wrong. ''

if there were misjudgments about the nature of iraq's weapons programs or in the ways the administration presented that intelligence to the public, we need to know whether he recognizes them and has learned from them. yesterday, in an interview with nbc's tim russert, after a week in which it became obvious to most americans that the justifications for the war were based on flawed intelligence, mr. bush offered his reflections, and they were far from reassuring. the only clarity in the president's vision appears to be his own perfect sense of self-justification.

in the coming campaign, mr. bush, who described himself as a "war president," is going to have to show the country that he is capable of distinguishing real threats from false alarms, and has the courage to tell the nation the truth about something as profound as war. nothing in the interview offered much hope in that direction.

a time/cnn poll found that only 44% described bush as "a leader you can trust," while 55% said they "had some doubts and reservations."

in addition to the subpoena of drake university, subpoenas were served this past week on four of the activists who attended a nov. 15 forum at the school, ordering them to appear before a grand jury tuesday, the protesters said...

in addition to records about who attended the forum, the subpoena orders the university to divulge all records relating to the local chapter of the national lawyers guild, a new york-based legal activist organization that sponsored the forum.

the group, once targeted for alleged ties to communism in the 1950s, announced friday it will ask a federal court to quash the subpoena on monday.

gerald mcentee, president of american federation of state, county and municipal employees, delivered the news in a meeting with two other unions whose support has been propping up dean's campaign, said two democratic officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

the defection denies dean valuable organizers, money and political contacts at the worst possible time: the one-time front-runner is fighting for his political life after going winless in the first spate of primary season contests.

bush named former democratic senator and governor charles robb of virginia and us circuit court judge laurence h. silberman to lead the nine-member panel. the president appointed five other members yesterday, including senator john mccain, republican of arizona.

"as we move forward in our efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, we must stay ahead of constantly changing intelligence challenges," bush said. "the stakes for our country could not be higher, and our standard of intelligence gathering and analysis must be equal to that of the challenge." the president ordered the commission to report its findings by the end of march 2005, more than four months after this year's presidential election.

the nation's unemployment rate dropped to 5.6 percent in january to the lowest level in more than two years as companies added just 112,000 new jobs ? fewer than expected but enough to keep alive hope for a turnaround in the struggling job market.

the jobless rate fell 0.1 percentage point last month to the lowest level since october 2001, when it was 5.4 percent, the labor department said friday. january's rate matched the 5.6 percent posted in january 2002.

employers added new jobs last month at a pace not seen in three years. the last time payrolls expanded more than 112,000 was in december 2000, when companies added 124,000 positions.

economists, on average, had expected 165,000 new jobs -- one forecast was for payroll growth as high as 300,000 jobs -- and unemployment at 5.7 percent, according to briefing.com.

"this report is a slow boat to china, reflecting continuing business caution about hiring people," said sung won sohn, chief economist at wells fargo. "facing unprecedented competition from both domestic and foreign sources, businesses are still focused on productivity gains with as few employees as possible."

analysts said the employment report, which showed a decline in the unemployment rate to 5.6 percent from 5.7 percent in december, marked a continuation of tepid increases in payroll employment outside the farming sector. at this stage of an economic recovery, they said monthly job gains of 300,000 or more is the historic norm.

in advance of today's report, the consensus forecast among wall street economists called for an increase of 135,000 to 200,000 jobs.

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bob novak, the pugnacious conservative pundit, may have to answer an assault charge in manchester, n.h., stemming from an altercation with an activist on primary night last month. the dust-up ensued after brad carr, 54, who calls himself "an independent citizen" who's against the bush administration, taunted novak, 72, a host of cnn's "crossfire," which was broadcasting live from a restaurant.

ambassador to niger: paul wolfowitz
ambassador to mars, george w. bush
ambassador to venus, ralph nader.

janet jackson's right hooter will continue to fascinate more americans than any of the democratic candidates, but will, in the end, receive fewer delegates.

in november, a letter postmarked chattanooga, tenn., and addressed to the white house was intercepted at an off-site mail sorting facility in the washington area, sources told abcnews.

the powdery substance in the letter tested positive for ricin. however, the tests indicated that the poison was in a low-potency, granular form that posed no health risk, the sources said.

according to two law enforcement sources, the intercepted letter addressed to the white house was signed "fallen angel."

that sign-off was also used in a letter that was part of a package containing ricin that was left at a post office in greenville, s.c., in october 2003.

that letter complained about new federal trucking regulations requiring more rest for drivers. the letter described the author as "a fleet owner of a tanker company" and contained this threat: "if my demand is dismissed i'm capable of making ricin … i will start dumping."

liberaloasis: is there anything specific that you can point to that president bush’s donors have received for their investment?

charles lewis: how much time do you have?

he described himself as a "messenger" candidate and said he wasn't disappointed by the new hampshire primary, in which he earned 154 votes to bush's nearly 34,000.

"i've never run for president with any kind of thought of winning except to make a statement that we need change desperately," laughlin told the associated press on sunday.

the issues he's most concerned about: bush's claims that iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and congress' recent approval of a medicare bill that prohibits the purchase of cheaper health care drugs from canada.

bush: he wants to win fair and square this time.

a dangerous man for dangerous times

hey, don't forget about that $600 rebate check for working families we sent you in 2001! bush '04!

sen. john kerry, the front-runner among democrats vying for their party's presidential nomination, leads president bush in a head-to-head matchup, according to a cnn/usa today/gallup poll released monday.

sen. john edwards of north carolina and retired gen. wesley clark also emerge as formidable opponents, according to hypothetical matchups in the poll, which found a decline in bush's approval numbers.

a secret service agent then told us we had to go to the free-speech zone. i offered to move again, and she said there was nowhere we could be but the free-speech zone. i told her that i was already in a free-speech zone — the united states of america — and she ordered a local cop to arrest me. the arresting officer told me the problem was the content of my sign…

i held up my sign and told the officer to do what he had to do; i was on public property, other citizens were there, and i wasn’t going to be singled out, rounded up and put in a free-speech zone.

i was cuffed and put in a paddy wagon, where i watched through the bars as the president went into the hangar and told the republican faithful that “they hate us because we are so free.”

five months later, the state dropped their charges against me, and mr. thurmond had me arrested under the rarely used statute titled “presidential assassinations, kidnappings and threats.” the statute gives the secret service the authority to arrest anyone who knowingly enters into a restricted zone and refuses to leave.

i didn’t know anything about a restricted zone until the day mr. thurmond brought the charges. everyone on the scene that day, protesters and police alike, all thought the issue was our going to the free-speech zone.

the evidence from bush visits across the country that the secret service does exactly what i allege was not considered at my trial. federal magistrate bristow marchant agreed with mr. thurmond that the case would focus narrowly on whether i knowingly entered into a secure zone and refused to leave. our evidence that the secret service routinely violates its own protocols by zoning free speech was not considered.

unfortunately for our country, my wild claims are true. the center for constitutional rights in new york has taken the case to try to bring some judicial restraint to the vague and growing zones in this country where the constitution doesn’t apply.

president bush said monday he would appoint an outside commission to review u.s. intelligence on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in iraq.

responding to political pressure, bush told reporters at a cabinet meeting he wanted to look at prewar intelligence and what the iraq survey group -- the u.s. team hunting for iraq's weapons programs -- found.

white house sources tell cbs news chief white house correspondent john roberts the commission will have full access to materials they need. the commission will be set up quickly, but is not expected to complete work until next year - after the election.

3/19/03: "the people of the united states and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder."

3/16/03: "the dictator of iraq and his weapons of mass destruction are a threat to the security of free nations."

1/3/03: "the iraqi regime is a threat to any american. ... iraq is a threat, a real threat."

11/23/02: "the world is also uniting to answer the unique and urgent threat posed by iraq whose dictator has already used weapons of mass destruction to kill thousands."

1/3/03: "the iraqi regime is a threat to any american. ... iraq is a threat, a real threat."

11/23/02: "the world is also uniting to answer the unique and urgent threat posed by iraq whose dictator has already used weapons of mass destruction to kill thousands."

9/26/02: "this man poses a much graver threat than anybody could have possibly imagined."

10/2/02: "there's a grave threat in iraq. there just is."

10/2/02: "the iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency."

the new figures represent the first time the white house has released its projections of the bill's costs. they could deepen an election-year wedge between the white house and conservative republicans upset over spending and budget deficits that they say have grown too high on bush's watch.

the numbers raise questions about whether administration officials revealed everything they knew before the vote on medicare, some conservatives complained privately. bush signed the bill dec. 8.

"one clear signal we need to send to the american people and the markets is, `we're going to be wise when it comes to the expenditure of the people's money,' " bush said. "and we submitted a budget that says just that."

all of these [points made earlier] raise tough policy questions with no easy answers. yet neither this congress nor this president cares to answer them, preferring to pile on new obligations for the government without really knowing their scope, even as they push to further reduce revenue. president bush's spokesman was pressed friday to explain why mr. bush touted the plan as costing $400 billion; the spokesman insisted there was no intent to deceive. amy goldstein reported in the post yesterday that administration officials had a pretty good idea as the bill was being debated that they would deem the $400 billion figure unrealistic. so which would be worse -- that the president knew, or that he didn't? either way, the bottom line is the same, namely that this is an administration that doesn't give a hoot about the bottom line.

two suicide bombers walked into separate buildings of the two main kurdish political parties this morning in the northern city of erbil and detonated explosives wrapped around their bodies, killing at least 56 people and wounding more than 200 others, kurdish and occupation officials said.

it was the most devastating attack in the northern kurdish region since american-led forces deposed saddam hussein's government last april, and it came at a time when the two parties are trying to unite the administration of the region to better make a case for demanding broad autonomous powers for the area?

it was unclear who was responsible for the coordinated attacks. though suicide car bombings have become relatively common in iraq, there have been few instances of bombers detonating explosives attached to themselves, a tactic often used in israel. some officials said suicide attacks carry the signatures of foreign fighters or ansar al-islam, a kurdish terrorist group that was based near the mountainous iranian border until american fighter jets attacked its villages last spring.

as many as six people were killed when a residential area of baghdad came under rocket or mortar fire twice late on saturday.

earlier, a suspected suicide attack on a police station in the northern city of mosul killed at least nine people.

and three american soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb blew up between the towns of tikrit and kirkuk.