If this is "Safe", I wanna know what "Fucked, Beyond Belief" Is?

These days George Bush is looking forward to being an Ex-President. He's bought a new 2 Million Dollar home in Dallas, he's making the rounds in a series of "Exit Interviews" where he's managed to justify invading and attacking Iraq - even though they had nothing to do with 9/11, and didn't have WMD's and weren't going to share what they didn't have and weren't going to attack us - or anyone - and after more American have died in Iraq than did on 9/11, he still thinks he did he "right thing".


Ok, Sure, whatever.


His personal delusions don't bother so me much until it's obvious that they've been spreading to so many other people, particularly former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan who recently stated:

When Republicans say, in coming years, "At least Bush kept us safe," Democrats will not want tacked onto the end of that sentence, "unlike Obama."

The man's not even in office yet and already he's supposedly "failed the nation"... oy vey!

I'm keeping this short, because it's really simple.

Here's the problem - BUSH DIDN'T KEEP US SAFE.


When Bush came into Office he REVERSED the previous Clinton focus on counter-terrorism.
Rather than respond to the Urgent Request for a high-level meeting on Al Qaeda and Bin Laden from NSA Counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke - they ignored him for months while having meeting after meeting on Iraq.


When the August 6th PDB appeared stating clearly that Bin Laden would Attack America by Hijacking a set of planes, and that he had likely targeted New York and Washington - Bush IGNORED IT!

And finally when America WAS ATTACKED - he didn't do Jack SHIT!

Watch!

..

Most indications from counter-terrorism experts has been that Bush's actions both before and after 9/11 has made us LESS SAFE, not more.


Bush doesn't deserve credit, he deserves nothing but scorn for his incompetent and ineptitude at the cost of thousands of American Lives and Trillions of Dollars.


"Good job", Bushie - and Good Riddance.


More on this from Tonight's Countdown...

Vyan

The Black Rock Cafe - Amalgam 1991

Here's a video I just uploaded from a documentary featuring an old band of mind called "Amalgam". I used to use my first name back then - which is "Frank" - but now I use my middle-name "Vyan". Times change, but they also stay the same. Black Rock Cafe - Amalgam 1991

Check out the interview as well as the songs (which did have vocals - but aren't shown). The entire 1-Hour Black Rock Cafe documentary is now available on YouTube at this link. My favorite section is Part 12 with Blakasaurus Mex, who totally ROCK THE HOUSE!!

IMO Some of the best BRC bands at the time aren't in this documentary, although you can hear the band Total Eclipse, which featured former members of the Busboys and Sound Barrier as well as Sammy Hagar's Wabaritas, playing in the background during Part 11 with their song "Hey, You Check Me Out!" Various members of Fishbone and the Chili Peppers attended BRC Meetings. The group "Hello Children" who are mentioned in the film are on Myspace right Here. Members of Civil Rite (now known as Freakjuice) who are also mentioned in the film eventually joined Terrence Trent Darby, Body Count, Michael Franti's Spearhead, Dionne Farris from Arrested Development, Cree Summer as well as Morris Day and the Time. Tom Morello (from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave) was a BRC member with his old band Lock Up, although back then he was kinda quiet and shy. I didn't even realize he had been there until meeting him years later and he recognized *ME* from the BRC at a Dio concert. Weird. Another great group from back then was Planet Z, not to be confused with my own later group - Planet X/Sacto. (Which was a complete accident that I always thought was hilarious!)

Modern groups such as Sevendust are linked to the BRC through Lajon Witherspoon who used to be in a Living Colour cover band. Not to mention King's X, Stevie Salas and his partner for the group Nicklebag Bernard Fowler, David Ryan Harris' Band Follow For Now, England's Skunk Anansie and Ra. Brand new groups such as Blaxmyth, Headrush and this great new band I just discovered called Asphalt Messiah - and naturally myself - are still breaking down barriers and preconceptions - even our own - today. The documentary is great, but it was just the tip of the iceberg.

Vyan

Gitmo Prosecutor: "Torture is Wrong, Unethical, Immoral"

After being assigned by the Military Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld to prosecute terrorists at Guantanemo Bay - and beginning as a "True Believer" in the War on Terror - the J.A.G. officer eventually discovered that those he had been trying to prosecute for crimes, had themselves become victims of torture by U.S. Officers and agencies themselves.

Rather than being a lone sheep among wolves, in a recent Washington Post Op-Ed, a former U.S. terrorism interrogator who succesfully used non-violent and non-abusive tactics to secure information from some our highest value terrorism targets leading to the neutralization of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, has echoed Col Vandeveld's deep and serious misgivings.

I'm not some ivory-tower type; I served for 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, began my career as a Special Operations pilot flying helicopters, saw combat in Bosnia and Kosovo, became an Air Force counterintelligence agent, then volunteered to go to Iraq to work as a senior interrogator. What I saw in Iraq still rattles me -- both because it betrays our traditions and because it just doesn't work.

Torture and abuse are against my moral fabric. The cliche still bears repeating: Such outrages are inconsistent with American principles. And then there's the pragmatic side: Torture and abuse cost American lives.

I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. The large majority of suicide bombings in Iraq are still carried out by these foreigners. They are also involved in most of the attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. It's no exaggeration to say that at least half of our losses and casualties in that country have come at the hands of foreigners who joined the fray because of our program of detainee abuse.

You can't say it much plainer than that - there's a right way to fight terror and wrong way. Using Terror itself is Wrong. "Enhanced Interrogation" is Torture and a War Crime, it doesn't work and it costs American lives.

Vyan