Bad Deeds for 9-24-2007

Top neocon urged Bush to bomb Iran at private White House meeting – Norman Podhoretz, who is among a dwindling class of aggressive defenders of President Bush’s Iraq invasion, argued the United States needed to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities during a private 45-minute sales pitch in the White House. Podhoretz is now serving as a foreign policy adviser to Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign. Podhoretz says he believes that “Bush is going to hit” Iran before his term ends.

Cheney mulled luring Iran into war with Israel – David Wurmser, who had served since 2003 as Cheney’s Middle East adviser, told a small group of people that Cheney had been mulling the idea of pushing for limited Israeli missile strikes against the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz—and perhaps other sites—in order to provoke Tehran into lashing out. The Iranian reaction would then give Washington a pretext to launch strikes against military and nuclear targets in Iran.

Massive surveillance net keeps track of Americans’ travel — down to the size of your hotel bed – The Bush Administration has been collecting detailed records on the travel habits of Americans headed overseas, whether you fly, drive or take cruises abroad — not simply your method of transit but the personal items you carry with you and the people you stay with. They even sometimes keep track of what books you read, for as long as 15 years. As an example, Zakariya Reed, a Toledo firefighter, said in an interview that he has been detained at least seven times at the Michigan border since fall 2006. Twice, he said, he was questioned by border officials about “politically charged” opinion pieces he had published in his local newspaper. Once, during a secondary interview, he said, “they had them printed out on the table in front of me.”

US snipers ‘bait’ Iraqis – At the urging of Pentagon experts in special operations, US military snipers operating in Iraq are “baiting” Iraqis by scattering items like detonation cord, plastic explosives and ammunition and then ambushing and killing those who pick them up. In a country that is awash in armaments and magazines and implements of war, if every time somebody picked up something that was potentially useful as a weapon, you might as well ask every Iraqi to walk around with a target on his back.

US violent crime climbs for second year
More than 1.4 million murders, rapes, robberies and assaults were committed around the United States last year, marking a rise in violent crime for the second year in a row, the FBI said Monday. “Nationwide, there were an estimated 1,417,745 violent crimes reported in 2006,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in its “Crime in the United States” report, which updated preliminary data released in June. The rate of violent crime was up by 1.9 percent compared with 2005, with murders and non-negligent homicides climbing by 1.8 percent to nearly 15,000 cases last year. Less than half of violent crime cases — 44.3 percent — were cleared, the data showed.

Bill O’Reilly Surprised At Civility Of Black Restaurant Patrons – Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia’s, Bill O’Reilly reported that he “couldn’t get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia’s restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it’s run by blacks, primarily black patronship.” O’Reilly added: “There wasn’t one person in Sylvia’s who was screaming, ‘M-Fer, I want more iced tea.’”

Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn Voted Against the Restoration of Habeas Corpus – They must hate the Constitution and basic civil rights. They do not believe in the fundamental right of due process. Call them now!

Republican National Committee Chair Mel Martinez says that Passing the Troop-Rest Bill Would “Demean The Troops” – ‘Martinez: “I think we would demean their service if we were to say to them that there had to be a parity between the time in service out of the country and the time at home.”

Peter King (R-NY) sees ‘too many mosques in this country’
New York Rep. Peter King, a prominent House Republican, said there are “too many mosques in this country” in a recent interview with Politico. “There are too many people sympathetic to radical Islam,” King said. “We should be looking at them more carefully and finding out how we can infiltrate them.” King is listed as Rudy Giuliani’s homeland security adviser. He now claims his comments were taken out of context, but there’s a YouTube clip:

State Department’s inspector general has repeatedly thwarted investigations into contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan – Howard J. Krongard, the State Department’s inspector general, has repeatedly thwarted investigations into contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan, including construction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and censored reports that might prove politically embarrassing to the Bush administration. “Success” in Afghanistan?
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Bill O’Reilly Says Tasered University Student Is The “Biggest Wimp”
Billo likes to show what a big, tough guy he is. Talking about Andrew Meyer, the university student tasered at a John Kerry speech, Bill assured us that Meyer’s cries of pain were all an act. O’Reilly says, “I’ve been tasered for a story, and all I can say is: He is the biggest wimp in the United States of America.

Regards,

Jim