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Pentagon moves to second-stage planning for Iran strike option

by Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Thursday September 21, 2006

The Pentagon's top brass has moved into second-stage contingency planning for a potential military strike on Iran, one senior intelligence official familiar with the plans tells RAW STORY.

The official, who is close to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest ranking officials of each branch of the US military, says the Chiefs have started what is called "branches and sequels" contingency planning.

"The JCS has accepted the inevitable," the intelligence official said, "and is engaged in serious contingency planning to deal with the worst case scenarios that the intelligence community has been painting."

A second military official, although unfamiliar with these latest scenarios, said there is a difference between contingency planning -- which he described as "what if, then what" planning -- and "branches and sequels," which takes place after an initial plan has been decided upon.

Adding to the concern of both military and intelligence officials alike is the nuclear option, the possibility of pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons targeting alleged WMD facilities in Iran.
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Republican Torture Laws Will Live in History

By Larisa Alexandrovna, AlterNet. Posted October 2, 2006.

If we learned anything from the Nuremberg trials it is that citizens are responsible for what their government does in their name. The right wing of Congress, which has shed any last vestige of being anything remotely conservative in substance or American in spirit, has, like a deranged peacock, proudly shown the world that it can and did "happen here." The passing of the pro-torture bill is a full handover of everything democratic into the arms of fascism.

Before Bush has even signed his pro-torture, anti-humanity bill into law, his legal framer and torture apologist Alberto Gonzales is already cautioning the judiciary:

"Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is defending President Bush's anti-terrorism tactics in multiple court battles, said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president's judgments in wartime."
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9/11 Widows Blast Bush Administration Over Rice, Tenet Meeting

By Larisa Alexandrovna
RawStory.comIn an October 5th response to recent news of yet another pre-September 11th warning that was ignored by senior Bush administration officials, four widows who lost their husbands during the terrorist attacks have issued a statement about what they see as the failure of White House officials to act upon warnings that Al Qaeda was planning a strike on the United States.

Lorie Van Auken, Mindy Kleinberg, and Patty Casazza – who are among the four widows from New Jersey known as the Jersey Girls (the fourth, Monica Gabrielle, is not a member of the group) – have issued a compilation of pre-9/11 terrorism warnings that they believe paints a disturbing picture of a negligent Presidency.

They also address the latest revelation from Watergate reporter Bob Woodward that then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was warned of a possible attack on July 10, 2001 by then-CIA Director George Tenet.
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Book: Bush told reporter Jews are 'all going to hell'

Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Saturday September 2, 2006
An upcoming book about presidential advisor Karl Rove reports allegations of anti-semitism by President George W. Bush, RAW STORY has learned.

In The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power, Austin-based journalist James Moore and Wayne Slater, senior political reporter for the Dallas Morning News, will allege that Bush once made anti-semitic comments to a reporter.

"You know what I'm gonna tell those Jews when I get to Israel, don't you Herman?" a then Governor George W. Bush allegedly asked a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman.
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Sunday, October 15, 2006

Country Music, Anal Sex, GOP Fund-raising and Dancing With the Stars

Because nothing is more important to Americans than the nexus of politics and “Dancing With the Stars,” we are pleased to report that Sara Evans — apparently a Nashville pop singer and champion dancer — has left the hit show because her husband is one of those sex creeps on CraigsList.

Failed Republican congressional candidate and GOP fund-raiser Craig Schelske is also accused of abusing his wife and making his young children watch pornography. According to Evans’ complaint, there are more than a hundred pictures stored on the family computer of Schelske screwing myriad women as well as parading around his house naked and “aroused.” According to his CraigsList ads, Schelske is particularly interested in having anal sex with strangers and threesomes.

More filth after the jump.

A one-time “Republican BABE of the Week!” and national-anthem singer at various GOP conventions, Evans is apparently very popular with red-state voters. That she appeared to have a happy family was exploited by the party’s family values wing.

And the way you have a happy marriage in the Christian world is to submit to yer husband:“It’s most important to keep marriage and family together. I am a child of divorce, and it’s devastating. I have a 12-year marriage. And the way I see it, the way to an amazing marriage is having sex … lots of sex. Sex keeps the marriage young. And a woman should maintain herself for her husband and stay attractive. I like to put the kids to bed, have a glass of wine on the patio or by the fireplace, and I ask Craig, ‘What do you need of me?’”That didn’t work out so well.
What you’re probably thinking right now is, “How was Tom DeLay involved?”

DeLay was campaigning for Evans![He]e “is using his post-congressional clout to influence another election — the viewer voting on ABC’s ‘Dancing With the Stars 3,’” which features 11 celebrities and 11 actual dancers, and which had its season premiere earlier this week.

DeLay recently “sent out a mass mailing asking his friends to vote for Sara Evans because she “represents good American values.”After Tucker Carlson’s heartbreaking ejection from the hit TV show, Evans was the GOP’s only chance to defeat all the Democrat dancers. DeLay was especially concerned about the buffoon Jerry Springer, who is apparently “ultra liberal.”
Court documents state husband’s adultery, pornography reasons for Sara Evans divorce [The Tennessean]

Evans Talks About Fashion, Music … and More [CMT]

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/13/1156/7852 [Daily Kos]

Divorce Trips Up Sara Evans on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ [ABC News]

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Dick Cheney visits Sarasota on October 6, 2006 and is told - "Go Home".

On Friday, October 6, 2006 several hundred patriotic Americans came out to express their displeasure at a visit to their hometown, Sarasota, Florida, by a man who has shamed the office of the Vice President of the United States. Many would have said that after Spiro Agnew it was impossible to further shame the office of the Vice President, but Dick Cheney has certainly exceeded all expectations.

The event was a fund raiser for corrupt car salesman Vern Buchanan who is running the most expensive campaign for Congress in American history, and also one of the dirtiest. Buchanan has given his campaign $2.1 million of his own ill gotten gains. The car dealer has exceeded the "millionaires threshold" enabling Democrat Christine Jennings campaign to increase the limit on individual donations to $4200 per person. Despite a slew of dirty attack ads from Buchanan, the latest polls show Jennings leading by double digits in what was once considered to be a fixed Republican district - the same district that sent the infamous Katherine Harris to Congres in 2002 and 2004.

Jennings has called on Buchanan to return the $2000 donation he received from Republican pedophile Mark Foley, but she may not be aware of the $7500 in donations that Buchanan made to Foley over the past few years. Maybe Buchanan should just ask for the $6500 balance back, although I can't imagine why he would need the money. Which brings us back to today's visit. Why did Buchanan need to have Cheney disgrace us with his presence at a fund raiser? They charged $10,000 for a photo with Dick. Out on the street, you could get a photo with this replica for free.

Here are just a few of the patriotic Americans who showed up today:
See Photos

Friday, October 06, 2006

Rice hopes to exploit the Arab-Iran divide
By Ehsan Ahrari

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in the Middle East again to shore up Arab support against Iran. If she succeeds in achieving that objective - and that is a big if - there is likely to be a major realignment of forces in that area. This is her first trip to the region since the ceasefire of August 14 ended the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia that controls much of southern Lebanon.
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