judgment day

The whole Bush apology is an exercise in PR and hypocrisy, coming from a man who made jokes about a woman who was about to be executed. There's a question that comes to mind when reading this: "Asked what Mr. Bush knew about abuse in Texas prisons while he was governor, Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, said the problems in American prisons were not comparable to the abuses exposed at Abu Ghraib. "

Which does that mean is worse?

Here is yet another reason to admire politicians.

Funding the War on Terror; BNA Homeland Security Procurement Forum to Feature Rep. Chris Cox, 11 DHS Officials and DOD Iraq Funding Officials Mark Lumer and James Crum
May 06, 2004 03:30 PM US Eastern Timezone

Funding the War on Terror; BNA Homeland Security Procurement Forum to Feature Rep. Chris Cox, 11 DHS Officials and DOD Iraq Funding Officials Mark Lumer and James Crum

The Bureau of National Affairs' (BNA) 2nd Annual Contracting with
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Forum

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 2004--
The Bureau of National Affairs' (BNA) 2nd Annual Contracting with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Forum Monday-Wednesday, May 10-12, Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington Virginia





Congressman Christopher Cox, Chair of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, will kickoff BNA's 2nd Annual Homeland Security Forum on Tuesday, May 11 at 8:30 am.

The next two days, over 25 top officials throughout government and the private sector will address the opportunities and risks of homeland security and Iraq reconstruction contracting.

With $18.4 billion recently allocated to reconstruct Iraq, $34 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security and tens of billions more available at the state and local level and among venture capitalists, the stakes are enormous and growing.

Top Iraq reconstruction contracting officials to speak include:

-- MARK LUMER, Assistant Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army, Policy and Procurement for Iraq

-- JAMES CRUM, Director of the Program Management Office, Pentagon, Iraq Reconstruction

Eleven officials representing the Department of Homeland Security officials include:

-- STEVEN I. COOPER, Chief Information Officer

-- JAMES WILLIAMS, Director, US Visit Program

-- C. SUZANNE MENCER, Director, Office of Domestic Preparedness

-- THOMAS LOCKWOOD, Director, National Capital Region Coordination

-- GREGORY ROTHWELL, Chief Procurement Officer

-- KEVIN BOSHEARS, Director, Office of Small Business and Disadvantaged Business Utilization

-- HUGO TEUFEL, Associate General Counsel for General Law

-- DAVID BOLKA, Director, Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA)

-- DAVID HAGY, Director of Local Coordination, Office of State and Local Government Coordination

-- PAT SCHAMBACH, Chief Information Officer, Transportation Security Administration

-- WENDY HOWE, Acting Administrator, Safety Act Implementation

The war on terror waged at home and abroad is leading government, business and the venture capital community to cooperate in unprecedented ways to meet the growing threats.

Yet questions abound:

-- How do the daily security risks and casualties impact the contracting process in Iraq reconstruction?

-- What opportunities will the controversial U.S. VISIT program--estimated to be worth up to $10 billion-- provide to contractors?

-- What products and services will DHS need to develop in the chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological arenas?

-- How will issues regarding the SAFETY Act be resolved? and many others...

BNA's world-class faculty will include two case studies from business executives who recently won contracts from DHS who will share their lessons learned.

The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. publishes over 200 publications including Federal Contracts Report, Federal Contracts Daily and Homeland Security Briefing.

On Monday May 10, a special pre-conference workshop will be held "Venture Capital Investing in Homeland Security". The workshop is co-sponsored by International Business Forecasting (IBF) featuring a world-class faculty from leading VC firms such as:

-- IN Q Tel

-- INTEL CAPITAL

-- MORGENTHALER VENTURES

-- PALADIN CAPITAL GROUP

-- PATRIOT VENTURE PARTNERS LLC

For more information about the 2nd Annual Contracting with the Department of Homeland Security Conference, contact: Randy Cochran IOMA, a BNA Company Tel: 212-576-8740 rcochran@ioma.com

Web site: www.ioma.com/homelandsecurity

Contacts


IOMA
Randy Cochran, 212-576-8740
rcochran@ioma.com
Web site: www.ioma.com/homelandsecurity

Media Matters for America, the new site that David Brock is running, has a collection of idiocy and McCarthyite venom from Rush, but this may be the best -- check out the last part of his harangue:

"The Liberals put their party and their quest for power above national interests. They wouldn't join with Reagan during the Cold War. Defended the Soviets. Tried to make Gorbachev the hero of the world. Iraqi freedom, George W. Bush. Then we had the situation down with the Contras in Nicaragua. Democrats did everything they could to support the Contras and their client state, the Soviet Union. We've got Iraqi Freedom. [4/13/04]"

Now why does anybody take seriously someone who (1) doesn't know that the Contras were Reagan's guys and (2) doesn't know what "client state" means? And NBC had him on as an election night commentator? And these are the liberal media?

Talk about chickens cominghome to roost: One would have hoped that we would have learned from what happened to "stateless" persons in the 1930s and 1940s. But, of course, that was different, because it was Germans, who lacked the necessities for civilized behavior, rather than Americans in charge of the "stateless."

This story didn't seem to get much play that I could see. And when you read the details, it gets clearer why -- well, I take that back, they run all sorts of stories they shouldn't. Anyway, you've got guys who appeared to defend him in 1996 now appearing against him, and their only explanation is that in 1971 he may have meant them when he referred to atrocities and war crimes -- true, those statements didn't receive much attention in 1971, so you can understand them not having heard about them until some time between 1996 and yesterday.

According to a Lebanese journalist who supports democratic reform in the Middle East: "The administration now claims that the goal of the Iraq war was to build Iraq into a democracy that would be a model for the region. It has billed the war on terror as a war of ideas, in which democracy must triumph over the nihilism of jihadis.
But the Abu Ghraib scandal, says Melhem, feeds the suspicions of every Arab who believes America has dark designs on the region, and makes a mockery of talk about democracy.
The impact might not be quite so stunning if America's Arab allies weren't already reeling from President Bush's endorsement of Israel's right to retain many West Bank settlements. Or if the Abu Ghraib photos had not shown a kind of sexual humiliation that is particularly shameful in Arab culture.
Melhem readily debunks any facile comparison with Saddam's prison tortures. But he adds that 'Arab regimes don't claim they are democracies [while] Americans are preaching these moral values. When I try to say that Americans are shocked because they believe their country is one of laws, nobody at home wants to hear this.'"

After announcing his appointment, followed by Gen. Meyers claiming the media screwed up -- Saleh hadn't been appointed to head the Fallujah Brigade, now Douglas Feith acknowledges it was a mistake to appoint someone with Republican guard leadership experience and close ties to Saddam, but Rummy explains this is all part of "public vetting." Which makes sense, because why we would we expect that our government would have any knowledge of who was whom in Saddam's army? That would be like expecting htem to know that religious leaders are importaqnt folks in Iraq (a story in this week's U.S. News & World Report boils down to the fact that the CPA is just now figuring out that, with Saddam gone, Muslim clerics may be more influential than expatriates with close ties to the U.S.). Hilarious, if not for all those being killed, maimed, and rendered homeless.

Iraqi Editor Quits, Citing U.S. Meddling

Grim reading here about the Dept. of Homeland Security, including an amazingly inapt analogy to WW II by an "expert" from the Heritage Foundation:

Two and a half years after 9/11, the Bush administration is deeply enmeshed in its "war on terrorism," but remains primarily focused on the part of that fight it is waging abroad. When talking of terrorism, President Bush emphasizes the importance of staying "on offense." Bolstering homeland security -- domestic efforts to defend against another attack on American soil -- is Plan B.


That's a smart strategy, says James Carafano, a homeland-security and defense specialist at the Heritage Foundation. He compares the fight against terrorism to World War II. "The first priority was to defeat Germany. The president's strategy [today] is a similar thing. It's 'get the terrorists first,' " Carafano says. "The 'away' game is more important. You've got to spend some on defense, but offense wins the ballgame."

Uh, didn't Germany have armies to engage in Europe and Africa? Uh, wasn't there little likelihood of them launching an air or sea attack on the U.S.? Uh, didn't they have territory that we could attack? Uh, is this guy an idiot?

Well, the mail is probably slow.

In U.S., Seeking To Limit Damage as nations around the world react inappropriately to the images from Abu Ghraib.

The New York Times reports: "Crown Prince Abdullah, who effectively runs the country, said the government would pursue the terrorists even if it took 20 to 30 years to get them all. Speaking to a group of intellectuals late Saturday, he blamed outside influences, specifically Israel, for the terrorism plaguing the country, according to a report carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
'It became clear for us and I say it, not 100 percent but 95 percent, that Zionists' hands are behind what is going now,' the crown prince said. 'Unfortunately, they deceived some of our sons. The devil made them daring and they are supports of the devil and colonialism.'"