9-11 Lawsuit: Families find Smoking $audi Gun
From the New York Post
Excerpt: The legal team - which is suing some members of the Saudi royal family and Osama bin Laden's family business - says new evidence shows that more than $1 million was funneled to al Qaeda cells in Europe, including 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta's in Hamburg.
also
Bush pressures 9-11 families to drop Saudi lawsuit
From the Guardian
Excerpt: ...Some plaintiffs in the case say the Bush administration is pressuring them to pull out of the lawsuit in order to avoid damaging US-Saudi relations, threatening them with the prospect of being denied any money from the government's own compensation scheme if they continue to pursue it. Bereaved relatives who apply to the federal compensation scheme must, in any case, sign away their rights to sue the government, air carriers in the US, and other domestic bodies - a condition that has prompted some of them to call the government compensation "hush money". They remain, however, free to sue those they accuse of being directly responsible for the attacks, such as Osama bin Laden, and - so they thought - the alleged financers of terrorism...
But now the department of justice says it is investigating whether participation in that lawsuit could disqualify the relatives from claiming government compensation. The investigation, the plaintiffs argue, is meant to frighten them off because Washington is intent on preserving cordial relations with Saudi Arabia - above all, in the event of proposed military action against Iraq.
also see
Bush and Bin Laden families' business connections
Flashback from Red Herring

Labels: September 11

Congress Knows
Washington Post
Excerpt: Eleanor Hill, the joint committee's staff director, said in her 30-page statement to the committee that CIA Director George J. Tenet would not declassify "any references to the intelligence community providing information to the president or the White House." Hill also said Tenet would not declassify the identity of or information about a key al Qaeda leader involved in the attacks.
"According to [Tenet], the president's knowledge of intelligence information relevant to this inquiry remains classified even when the substance of that intelligence information has been declassified," Hill testified. She added that "the American public has a compelling interest in this information and that public disclosure would not harm national security."
What does Congress know?
Action Alert: Fax the Joint Committee investigating 9-11

Fool me once...uhhh...
Video clip from MSNBC

Most influential hawks in Bush administration have long, deep connections
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Bush's Iraq War Plan written in 2000 by Wolfowitz / Libby
(aforementioned chickenhawks)
Sunday Herald
Read the report for yourself from the Project for the New American Century.
Click here for the report. Requires Adobe Acrobat.

Christopher Reeve blames Bush for lack of progress
Faults Bush Administration for halting cloning research
Guardian (UK)
also
Cloned foods coming to a supermarket near you
Not clear if the FDA can keep cloned animals out of the food supply
Washington Post
also
HHS Seeks Science Advice to Match Bush Views
"...eliminating some committees that were coming to conclusions at odds with the president's views and in other cases replacing members with handpicked choices..."
Washington Post

Flight 93 & Private Jet tapes won't be played in Moussaoui trial
From the Miami Herald
Excerpt: ...The tapes from United Airlines Flight 93, and a private jet that tracked the doomed airliner, should not be played to jurors unless prosecutors can demonstrate they are essential evidence, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said. End excerpt.
Private jet? What private jet?

300,000 protest Berlusconi in Italy
Reuters
In Iraqi war scenario, oil is key issue
Washington Post
State Department website had link to Republican Party website
Washington Post
Hundreds in California protest war
Tampa Tribune
Noelle Bush's Counselors Subpoenaed; Lawyer Says They Won't Talk
Tampa Tribune

Labels: September 11

West Nile Watch
1295 cases
54 deaths
Centers for Disease Control

Bush and Blair share same false 9-11 memory
Both claim to have seen the first plane hit the World Trade Center on TV live on TV.
George W Bush:
"I was in Florida. And my Chief of Staff, Andy Card -- actually, I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works. I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it. And I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my Chief of Staff, who is sitting over here, walked in and said, 'A second plane has hit the tower, America is under attack.' "
Town Hall Meeting Transcript, December 4, 2001
Tony Blair:
"I remember it very, very clearly. I was about to give the speech to the Trades Union Congress in Brighton, and so I was preparing my speech and the television was on in the background. You saw the first plane crash, and then people came in and started to brief me on it, and then of course it became clear a short time afterwards that this was not simply a terrible accident but was almost certainly a terrorist incident, and then everything changed." BBC News, September 11, 2002

Nobody else saw footage of the first plane hitting until hours later. Were they watching some bizarre closed-circuit broadcast from the Twilight Zone? Do you think that's what they were watching at the DC Ritz Carlton on 9-11, when James A. Baker and Frank Carlucci of The Carlyle Group were meeting with the Bin Laden family?

Labels: bush, carlyle group, September 11

Florida Election Follies
There's nothing funny about having your nation's democratic process subverted and perverted the way it's gone down in Florida the past two national elections.
49 states in this country manage to make it through elections each year without voters getting turned away, given the wrong ballots, told they're not allowed to vote, waiting until 1 pm for polls to open. This situation in Florida is unique to our Democracy. For more than 220 years American voters elected with confidence, until Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris came along in 1998.
Could this be merely the incompetence of bumbling idiots or is it just more corruption on the part of another member of the Bush Family?
We don't need an "independent commission" to investigate this, simply convene a grand jury. Show them this video clip from BBC and read them this chapter from the book "Stupid White Men" about Jeb and Katherine Harris's role in the 2000 election debacle. Make sure the grand jury seats at least a few of the thousands of voters who were wrongly kicked off the rolls before the 2000 election, a race that George W Bush won by only 537 votes. Trust me, the grand jury will do the right thing.

Labels: vote fraud

Kraft recalls Turkey Lunchables
From ABC News
Excerpts: Kraft Foods Co. is recalling 12,600 pounds of turkey lunch kits because they contain ham, the Agriculture Department announced Tuesday. The lunch kits under recall are 3.8-ounce and 6.75-ounce boxes of "Oscar Mayer Lunchables, Cracker Stackers, Lean Turkey Breast & White Turkey Cured." They were made Aug. 11, and each box has the use-by-date code, "Nove 19 02 C EST. 537 L." The kits also have an hour code between 16:31 and 19:55. The product was distributed in stores in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and Wisconsin.
More on Kraft (Phillip Morris)

The FBI informant who lived with the hijackers
Newsweek

U.S. allows Syria to trade with Iraq
and
Bush's "Iraq Evidence" disputed
Both articles from MSNBC

West Nile Watch
954 cases
43 deaths
Centers for Disease Control

Labels: FBI

No Crawfishing From a Unique Vernacular
Washington Post

also
How to Deal with a Bully
McGruff's Safety Tips for Kids.

West Nile Watch
737 cases
40 deaths
Centers for Disease Control