HRC: OUTRAGES WALL STREET REPORTS THE NY SUN AS SHE “RATCHETS UP HER ANTI-BUSINESS RHETORIC”

She was reported to have said “Why Don’t We Hold These Wall Street money-grubbers responsible for their role in this recession?” Her campaign now said she used the term “money brokers,” not money grubbers. Your News Dissector goes further in a column today asking why the the sub-crime criminals are not being jailed?

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” - Helen Keller

LAURA BUSH TO THE RESCUE
MEDIA CAMPAIGN FOR WAR WITH IRAN UNDERWAY
POLLSTERS SAY RACE IS TIGHT IN INDIANA

The other day I was talking about how every day brings a new distraction. Well, it also seems to bring a new disaster as well.

Thousands More Deaths Expected in Myanmar

The New York Times reports:

As the death toll from a devastating cyclone escalated to nearly 4,000, the foreign minister said that it could rise to 10,000.

And then we heard from, of all people, Laura Bush, the first lady with no government standing, criticizing the government formerly known as Burma for not notifying the people of the danger.

US First Lady Laura Bush accused Myanmar’s military rulers Monday of failing to warn their citizens in time about a killer cyclone and pressed the junta to accept US aid in the disaster’s wake.

“Although they were aware of the threat, Burma’s state-run media failed to issue a timely warning to citizens in the storm’s path,” Bush said in an unusual appearance at the White House briefing room podium.

“It’s troubling that many of the Burmese people learned of this impending disaster only when foreign outlets, such as Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, sounded the alarm,” she said. Washington calls the country Burma.

Bush, who has taken a leading role in shaping US policy towards Myanmar, said Washington “stands prepared” to increase its assistance well beyond an initial emergency 250,000-dollar outlay by the US embassy in Yangon.

She declined to give a precise dollar figure, saying the junta first had to allow a US disaster assistance response…

Why did Laura speak out? Why her?….Maybe this is a good sign. Perhaps she has taken over a la Eva Peron from her dysfunctional husband. Maybe she will push McCain aside and run herself, or just bring Karl Rove back to fix the election?

I spoke with a veteran UN Correspondent last night who said that the infrastructure in Burma is in such poor shape the he doubted that they had the capacity to warn the public.

Laura also offered warning of her own: “…she warned the regime off holding a planned constitutional referendum Saturday and said that US President George W. Bush on Tuesday would sign a law giving imprisoned democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal — the highest civilian honor that US lawmakers can bestow.

“That’s important,” said the first lady, who called the award a way to “let the people of Burma know that the United States is standing with them.

Go Laura. She is finally finding her voice. Maybe she should take over.

FOR MORE ON BURMA: Myanmar ReliefHOW TO HELP!

IRAN IS BEING TARGETED REPORTS GARETH PORTER

WASHINGTON, May 5 (IPS) - Three weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, former U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld established an official military objective of not only removing the Saddam Hussein regime by force but overturning the regime in Iran, as well as in Syria and four other countries in the Middle East, according to a document quoted extensively in then Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith’s recently published account of the Iraq war decisions.

Feith’s account further indicates that this aggressive aim of remaking the map of the Middle East by military force and the threat of force was supported explicitly by the country’s top military leaders.

IS THE NY TIMES UP TO ITS OLD TRICKS? IS IRAN, THEIR NEW IRAQ?

After the Judith Miller debacle you would think the NY Times might learn a thing or two. But apparently, exclusive leaks from government sources are too tantalizing to pass up, so its Dejavu all over agaib when it comes to the Times “scoop” on Hezbollah in Iran. Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner comments:

This morning’s New York Times contains an article by Michael Gordon in which he reveals information from “an American official” that Hezbollah has been training Iraqi militia fighters in a camp near Tehran. UGH! This is so deja vu that it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Remember Salman Pak? That was the terrorist training camp in Iraq that was used over and over again to justify the invasion. The parallels to this new story are striking.

First of all, it feels like the story is part of a strategic communications plan. It is not something that happened last week. The individuals who revealed this information were captured between September and December of last year. A key piece of information came from a Hezbollah commander who was captured in March 2007. He is just now talking according to the article.

At Salman Pak the story was that Hezbollah was being trained. In the new version, Hezbollah terrorists are the trainers.

In the new story, the group size is 16 militants. At Salman Pak, the groups were smaller, around five individuals.

At Salman Pak the foreigners were trained on the other side of the facility. In the Iranian camp, these foreigners are close enough so informants can hear their “other dialects and languages.”

I expect the American officials - at the beginning of the article, it was one official, but by the end there were officials - expected an echo from the story. The echo from the Salman Pak story was repeated by CENTCOM briefers during the invasion and FOX news hosts were even repeating it a year later. This morning’s New York Times piece has already been echoed by Reuters, Bloomberg and UPI.

If the pattern of Gulf II repeats, we would expect the White House web site to begin to link to the article in the area that deals with Iran.

It is hard to understand why Gordon did not make a parallel in his article to Salman Pak after all the problems the Times had in being used before Gulf II. It is hard to believe Reuters, Bloomberg and UPI were so quick to repeat the story. It is hard to believe American officials are using the same old techniques.

Media propaganda analyst John Stauber adds:

“Greg Mitchell of Editor and Publisher notes that New York Times military reporter Michael Gordon, “who contributed several false stories about Iraqi WMD in the run-up to the U.S. attack in Iraq,” has been writing about Iran’s alleged involvement in attacks against U.S. service members in Iraq. Gordon’s latest article, “Hezbollah Trains Iraqis in Iran, Officials Say,” is “based solely on unnamed sources,” notes Mitchell.

An article from McClatchy’s Baghdad bureau also contradicts Gordon’s New York Times piece. McClatchy reports that the Iraqi government “seemed to distance itself from U.S. accusations towards Iran.” Iraqi government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh said the government had formed a committee to find “tangible information” about Iranian activities in Iraq, instead of relying on “information based on speculation.” Al-Dabbagh also told Agence France-Press that there is no “hard evidence” of Iranian support of insurgents in Iraq.

NYT: Iran Suspends Talks For Iraq Peace As US Continues to Attack Shia Militias

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad (ICH) : There Will Be Blood

Since the assassination in Damascus of Imad Mughniyeh, a leading Hizbullah operative, a sense of foreboding once again grips Lebanon. The Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah says the bombing foreshadows Israeli aggression and has declared his willingness to wage ‘open war’ should there be another invasion.

SURVEY: 68% Want Our Troops Safely Home in 6 Months

As Congress considers President Bush’s request for another $100 billion for Iraq, 68% of Americans want Bush to bring U.S. troops home within 6 months, according to a Democrats.com telephone poll of 628 adults conducted from May 1-4, 2008 by ICR ( http://www.icrsurvey.com ).

The poll marks a 14% increase from 54% in September. Most of that increase (11%) came from those who want Congress to require Bush to use existing funds to bring our troops safely home, bringing that total to 51% - a majority of Americans.

Broken down by party, 85% of Democrats want our troops home within 6 months, as do 78% of Independents. By contrast, only 32% of Republicans want our troops home soon.

Democratic support grew by 15% since September, and Independent support grew by 20%. By contrast, Republican support was unchanged.

The new poll differs slightly from last September’s poll because Congressional Democrats have proposed giving President Bush $70 billion more than he requested in order to avoid another unpopular funding vote before the November election.

The new poll asked: “President Bush wants Congress to spend 100 billion dollars more in tax dollars this year to keep U.S. troops in Iraq.” The comparison data below is only for the identical questions, with last September’s data immediately below in italics.

HERE ARE THE RESULTS:

This desire for a more rapid withdrawal from Iraq conflicts with the positions of all the leading political candidates for President.