archy

So much material; so little time
I'm not a fisker but I play one on the internet. Some days I spend hours surfing through blogistan and the news looking for something to comment on, or mock, and other days, I log on and find one article that demands multiple posts.

(CNN) -- Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry accused the Bush administration Sunday of falsely linking Iraq to the attacks of September 11, 2001, "in its desperate attempts to reinvent a rationale for the Iraq war."

Is Kerry going soft on Bush? This is not a new attempt "to reinvent a rationale;" this has been their lying claim since day one.

Kerry made his charge in a statement released after Secretary of State Colin Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he has seen nothing to link Saddam Hussein's regime with the 9/11 attacks.

[...]

Kerry said Powell "came clean with the American people about the lack of a connection between Iraq, Saddam Hussein and the September 11 attacks."

Not only that, Kerry said, Powell also contradicted comments Vice President Dick Cheney has made as recently as Friday.

This is an issue Kerry should build on. The Bush administration is at war with itself. Powell is increasingly staking out an apologetic position at odds with the administration's waffling lies. Rumsfeld is in hiding because he is a symbol of the administration's lawlessness. Cheney continually clings to old lies that even Bush has disavowed. Certainly, we can do better than this chaos.

On Thursday in Cincinnati, Ohio, Cheney described Saddam as a "man who provided safe harbor and sanctuary to terrorists for years" and who "provided safe harbor and sanctuary as well for al Qaeda."

In Wisconsin on Friday, he said the "al Qaeda organization had a relationship with the Iraqis."

"The bottom line is that we're [in Iraq] for the safety and security of the nation, and our friends and allies around the world," Cheney said.

"We didn't do anything to provoke the attack of 9/11. We were attacked by the terrorists, and we've responded forcefully and aggressively."

[...]

In his statement Sunday, Kerry complained that Cheney "continues to intentionally mislead the American public by drawing a link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 in an attempt to make the invasion of Iraq part of the global war on terror.

"The president needs to answer the question: Who do you think is right? Vice President Cheney or Secretary Powell? And if it's Secretary Powell, will you direct your vice president to stop misleading the American people?"

Yet when Kerry points out that the administration is falling to pieces, he is characterized as "complaining." "Look at those whiney Democrats; they’re wearing brown blazers again! What a disturbing character flaw!" He isn't complaining; he's indicting. He's justifiably calling bullshit on the administration. Too bad the fourth estate isn't as brave.