Actually, the question might be who introduced Bill and Hillary Clinton to Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko. In the famous photograph already shown nationwide, the nineties-looking Clintons flank Rezko in front of a blue drape. Someone connected with the couple speculates that the undated photo may have been taken around the time of the 1996 Democratic national convention, hosted by Chicago.

Given the Clintons’ multiple ties with the Chicago political establishment, it may have been taken earlier.

Mrs. Clinton’s statement about Rezko, now detained in advance of his February 25 trial on multiple counts of fraud, is that she does ...   more »

75^th in continuing blog series. The problem of those missing Iraq WMD keeps surfacing and will not go away.
March 28-29, 2003:

March 28, 2003 – White House press secretary Ari Fleischer conducts a somewhat testy White House press briefing, 12:35-1:15. Tension in the administration increases amid rising news reports over signs that Iraq WMD are not being found:

“Q One of the questions that has been -- perhaps is premature -- has been, where are the weapons of mass destruction. And so let's accept the fact that that is a question to be answered weeks ...   more »

74^th in continuing blog series. The first few days of the invasion see brazen and triumphal assertions of success in Iraq, with some intermittent mystification because those caches of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction are not turning up.
March 26-27, 2003:

 

 
March 26, 2003 – Bush gives a speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, FL:

“It has been six days since the major ground war began. It's been five days since the major air war began. And every day has brought us closer to our objective. At the opening of Operation ...   more »

73^rd in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. Within a very few days of the initial invasion, key developments lay down a pattern that will stay in place for the rest of the Bush administration: major contractors commence profiteering in Iraq; the White House begins backpedaling on the claim of Iraq WMD while frantically looking for support for its claims; and the large media outlets try to ignore both.
March 21-25, 2003:

 

March 21, 2003 -- MZM, Inc., the company owned by indicted and discredited administration crony Wade Mitchell, receives a $2,427,264 contract awarded ...   more »

72^nd in continuing blog series. The administration finally achieves its long-sought objective and invades Iraq. It takes immediate steps to lock down Iraqi assets, primarily the Iraqi oil fields.
March 19-20, 2003:

 
 

March 19, 2003 – The U.S. begins the bombing and invasion of Iraq.

 

Same day – The ‘Project for the New American Century’ (PNAC) issues a “Statement on Post-War Iraq,” “supporting the military intervention in Iraq.” It has 26 signers.

 

The phrase “military intervention” is an Orwellianism, newspeak at its ugliest, rewording the invasion and conquest of ...   more »

71^st in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. In the last 48 hours before the invasion—which of course the administration has already determined on—the president plays his cruelest prank on the Iraqi people and on the American public. The White House issues a pretended ‘deadline’ for Saddam Hussein to leave power in Iraq. Saddam actually does make plans to exit and begins his attempts to escape, but of course the deadline is bogus. With U.S. and world opinion sufficiently trammeled, there is no chance that the Bush administration will voluntarily refrain from invading.
March 17-18, ...   more »

The push to war continues with massive public relations. Behind the scenes, the Secretary of Defense continues his mild probe to find out about a purported Iraq deal for Niger uranium.
March 10-16, 2003:

 

March 10, 2003 – CIA headquarters receives copies of the Iraq Nuclear Verification Office (INVO’s) March 3 assessment of the Niger uranium documents. (Libby trial document DX64.9, before)

 
The assessment, of course, is that the documents are unreliable.

 

March 11, 2003 – CIA faxes a report and memo to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in a prompt response to his ...   more »

The recount of votes cast in the Democratic New Hampshire primary was ended yesterday. About 40 percent of votes were recounted, but Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who requested the recount on the Democratic side, ran out of funds to get the count completed.

 
Here are some facts about the incomplete Dem recount:
 

• The recount was conducted for only Hillsborough and Rockingham counties, the most populous counties in New Hampshire. All Hillsborough counties had a recount.

 

• In Rockingham County, there was no recount in 18 municipalities using the Accuvote technology: Auburn, Deerfield, Exeter, ...   more »

69^th in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. The White House maintains its all-points campaign for invading Iraq, which with some reaction in the media means a full day for the powers that be.
March 7-8, 2003:

 

March 7, 2003 – The U.S. and allies Britain, Spain and Bulgaria appear before the U.N. Security Council. Their proposed resolution is that Saddam Hussein be given a deadline to disarm by March 17.

 

March 7, 2003 -- Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the U.N. Security Council:

“If Iraq genuinely wanted to disarm, ...   more »

68^th in continuing blog series on the Bush administration push to war with Iraq. At the beginning of March 2003, the bombing and invasion of Iraq will commence in seventeen days. Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy ride: A barrage of statements for public consumption by the White House intensifies the only-too-easy propaganda attack on Saddam Hussein. Behind the scenes, preparations for invasion are more than completed, obviating the public claims that Saddam can and must ‘disarm’. The nearly hysterical public relations campaign includes in its wake measures taken by the White House and the ...   more »

Is Hillary Clinton using lines on Obama that she should have used on Bill Clinton?

It would be fun to vote for a woman in the upcoming presidential election, and I wish I could. But the fundamental problem with Mrs. Clinton is the fundamental problem with Mitt Romney: She has that knack for saying nice-sounding things, for saying good things—up to a point—and then turning around and either doing the opposite or using her words as a rubric for economic rapacity. Bush Lite.

Her vote for George Bush’s war authorization is the perfect example. The public overwhelmingly recognizes that the ...   more »

 

67^th in continuing blog series on the White House push to war. Administration efforts to mold public opinion in favor of invading Iraq add some new personnel to the mix, including a pro-administration journalist whose credentials are questioned. A writer previously associated with GOP circles, who goes by the pen name Jeff Gannon, is given a White House press pass.
February 25-28, 2003:

 

Feb. 25, 2003 – U.S. Army General Eric K. Shinseki, Army chief of staff, testifies in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that a postwar Iraq would require several hundred thousand American troops....   more »

66^th in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. Throughout early 2003, the White House propaganda assault on the American public and on world opinion continues relentlessly. Meanwhile, even while American reservists are on beepers, waiting for their orders to ship out to Iraq, American companies are doubling up on their oil imports from Iraq.
February 22-24, 2003:

 

 
Feb. 22, 2003 – Bush discusses Iraq in a joint photo op appearance with Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar:

“Early next week, working with our friends and allies, we will introduce an additional Security ...   more »

The White House avalanche of propaganda against Iraq, pushed off onto the American people, continues.
February 15-21, 2003:

 
 

Feb. 20, 2003 – Bush discusses Iraq in presidential remarks:

“It's important -- it's very important for our citizens to understand the significant change that took place on September the 11th, 2001. Obviously, it changed a lot of people's lives and we still mourn for the families who lost life. But it used to be that oceans -- we thought oceans could protect us, that we were guarded by the oceans; and that if there was a ...   more »

The conventional wisdom is already congealing around results in the Nevada and South Carolina presidential contests yesterday.

 
On the Republican side, the line is that John McCain’s win in South Carolina last night is comeback and vindication, after his 2000 loss to George W. Bush marked by extreme campaign ugliness by Bush tacticians including Marvin P. Bush, the president’s youngest brother.

 
On the Democratic side, the line is that Hillary Clinton’s ‘victory’ in Nevada was awarded by women and Latinos, as proclaimed by the Washington Post’s Shailagh Murray and Anne Kornblut this morning and, instantly, by CNN ...   more »

64^th in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. White House statements about purported Iraqi weapons of mass destruction continue without cessation. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the White House and the Office of the Vice President search feverishly for any evidence, any at all, to back up their public assertions.
February 8-14, 2003:

 

Feb. 10, 2003 -- “On 10 February 2003, a US Defense Attache Officer reported that he had examined the warehouses [in the port of Cotonou, Benin, Africa], as described by the reporting in paragraph fifteen, and found they contained cotton rather than ...   more »

[Update: Not to retract what I said below, but honesty compels an update—maybe Bill Clinton’s creepy comments about the Nevada caucuses actually were politically on target, in their own unethical way. Unsavory as this kind of success would be, perhaps Clinton’s aggressive sleaziness to restore his own political standing, via his wife, worked. Here’s the breakdown. Nevada caucus results are now mostly in, with Clinton holding steady at about 50 percent of the vote, Obama about 45 percent, and Edwards most of the rest. Nevada has 17 counties. Barack Obama leads in eleven counties, all around the state, and Clinton leads in six. But Clinton did not need to win all over the state. Of Clinton’s [5318] Nevada state . . .    more »

Following the State of the Union address, the White House and the Office of the Vice President use the month of February to the fullest.
February 1-7, 2003:

 

Feb. 4, 2003 – CIA/WINPAC sends a note to the U.S. Mission to the IAEA in Vienna, and to the U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) office in New York. The note contains copies of the original language documents obtained by Embassy Rome and says the material can be passed to IAEA/INVO’s Baute; the originals are passed to UNMOVIC who pass them to INVO. (Libby trial document ...   more »

Following the infamous State of the Union address, the White House and the Office of the Vice President sustain their rhetorical assaults on Iraq through the rest of winter, 2003, and of course into the spring. The rhetorical strategy with its hype about purported threat represented by Iraq, in early 2003, is eerily echoed five years later by similar hype about Iran in early 2008.
January 29-31, 2003:

 

Jan. 29, 2003 – Bush comments on Iraq in a speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan:

“See, the role of the inspectors are not to play "gotcha." He's ...   more »

61^st in continuing blog series on the administration campaign for war. The ill-fated countdown to the State of the Union address, with its wrong “sixteen words,” winds to its prearranged end.
January 24-28, 2003:

 
 

Jan. 24, 2003 – Upon a request from Steve Hadley, Deputy National Security Director, at NSC about WMDs, the CIA “faxed a packet of background information to the NSC,” including the uranium item. (Libby trial document DX18)

 

Same day -- The DIA provides a background paper on the Niger item to the Office of the Secretary of Defense/International Security Affairs, without ...   more »

60th in blog series on the administration campaign for war. White House hype about purported Iraqi weapons of mass destruction comes out faster and more furiously by the day.
Jan. 22-23, 2003:

 

Jan. 22, 2003 – Judith Miller publishes an article about germs on the front page of the New York Times:
 

“To help protect against the threat of bioterrorism, the Bush administration on Wednesday will start deploying a national system of environmental monitors that is intended to tell within 24 hours whether anthrax, smallpox and other deadly germs have been released into the air, senior ...   more »

59^th in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. As the days count down toward the president’s State of the Union address, a lively morality play of Error and minimal Truth dukes it out behind the scenes, between the White House and what’s left of the domestic Intelligence Community.
January 12-20, 2003:

 
 

Jan. 12, 2003 – The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) in the State Department sends an ICE-mail to CIA, expressing concerns that the documents pertaining to the Iraq-Niger deal were forgeries. (Libby trial document DX64.7)

 
As noted before, the CIA ...   more »

The release below comes from Kathy Dopp (Utah) of USCountVotes and Election Archive. As usual, Kathy makes a very good argument, solid and professional. The only point NOT touched on below—that there were anomalies on the GOP side in NH, also--would only reinforce what she writes. There is, after all, no ‘race’ or ‘women’ factor among the Republican candidates, all of whom are white and male.

 
QUOTED MATERIAL FOLLOWS:

“RELEASE:  NEW HAMPSHIRE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY – WERE VOTES COUNTED ACCURATELY?

Park City, UT January 14, 2008
CONTACT: Kathy Dopp kathy@electionarchive.org 435-658-4657

NEW HAMPSHIRE'S DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ...   more »

January – February 2003    Moving forward toward the invasion of Iraq that is already almost a fait accompli, the White House continues its unremitting barrage of messages about Iraq to the American nation. During this time, there is close to no effective major media analysis or questioning of the administration drive to war – even while most prominent media figures acknowledge directly or indirectly that war is the administration objective. Occasional accurate news reports about Iraq as one of the more secular nations in the Middle East, and one in which women have by and large advanced well beyond ...   more »

The problems coming out of New Hampshire are very, very serious. While these results may distress Democrats who support Mrs. Clinton, and Republicans who support Mr. Romney and Mr. Giuliani, the vote anomalies in the New Hampshire primary are larger than the interests of any one candidate. See below:

The unofficial vote tallies in the New Hampshire primary can be divided into two categories, votes counted by hand and votes counted by machine.

 

On the Democratic side,

·        Where votes were counted by machine, Clinton came out with about 40 percent and Obama with about 35 percent.

• Where ...   more »

 

57^th in blog series on the administration push to war. The Christmas holiday season of 2002 sees no abatement of the project, even while a December Los Angeles Times poll shows that most Americans still do not believe that the White House has made the case for war with Iraq.
December 20-31, 2002:

 
 

Dec. 20-21, 2002 – The State Department hosts a ‘Future of Iraq Project’ working group on oil and energy in Washington. The gathering is hosted by the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in State, where Vice President’s daughter Elizabeth is on ...   more »

New Hampshire Secretary of State William M. Gardner announced Friday in a press release that Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich and Republican candidate Albert Howard have requested a recount. Gardner states that the recount will start Wednesday, January 16.

According to the press release on the NH Sec of State web site, "Mr. Howard and Mr. Kucinich have satisfied the requirements for initiating a statewide recount of the Republican and Democratic primary."

"Secretary of State William M Gardner will estimate the cost of the recounts, which must be paid by the candidate(s) for the recount to proceed."

"Secretary of State Gardner ...   more »

56^th in blog series on the administration push to war.
December 9-19, 2002:

 
 

Dec. 9, 2002 – Former BBC correspondent Tim Lewellyn reports for the Middle East Economic Survey after a visit to Baghdad:
 

“The Iraqis are awaiting a solution, however it may be delivered, from out of whatever alien landscape. The Iraqi people have no control over any function of their lives except that of sheer survival. They can no more organize themselves to rid the nation of Saddam Husain and the extraordinary network of power and solidarity he has built for himself ...   more »

Nov. 20, 2002 – On a trip to Eastern Europe to drum up and to consolidate support for the Iraq war, Bush travels to Prague, Czech Republic, and makes a joint appearance with Czech President Vaclav Havel:

 
“We did talk about Iraq. There is universal recognition that Saddam Hussein is a threat to world peace. There's clear understanding that he must disarm in the name of peace. We hope he chooses to do so. Tomorrow we'll discuss the issue. We'll consider what happens if he chooses not to disarm. But one thing is certain; he'll be ...   more »

The day of the New Hampshire primary, CNN.com ran a 'ranking' of the three main Democratic presidential candidates--Clinton, Edwards, Obama--that falsely placed Clinton in the number 2 spot behind Obama. The erroneous listing remained on the CNN main page the entire afternoon, well after this blog had called attention to it.

Today CNN.com announces John Kerry's endorsement of Barack Obama thus: "Kerry snubs Edwards, endorses Obama." The report on the Kerry endorsement is somewhat more measured, but only somewhat:

"The endorsement could be seen as a blow to former Sen. John Edwards, who was Kerry's running mate in the 2004 ...   more »

New Hampshire Results: With odds like these, we’re off to Vegas--

“Where Paper Prevailed, Different Results”:

Lori Price, at the estimable Citizens for Legitimate Government, mails a quick breakdown showing an anomaly in the New Hampshire primary results, received from supporters of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.). Up and down the board, the results are different in counties using Diebold election machines from those in counties that counted votes by hand.

Here is the quick comparison between percentages of votes cast for Clinton and Obama, re hand versus machine, passed along by Price:

2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary Results --Total ...   more »