Rising Hegemon
If August was John Kerry's month to be defensive as he was slandered by one book after another, then Attaturk predicts (and you know it's important when it's in comes in third person form) that September will be all that for Chimpy in spades, with the added element of much of the criticisms being true.
Vietnam Backfiring;
While the swift-boat liars probably did minimal damage, their dominance of the news cycle was clear. Though the harm may not have shown up so much in the polls it so dominated two to three weeks of news that it definitely ended momentum before the GOP convention. So Bush got three weeks of relative non-criticism.
But that will change now. First, the polls also show that the majority of people think the swift-boats were smears and that Bush was behind them. All pretty good guesses.
Now, comes the backfiring. By opening up Vietnam, Bush now opens himself up for attack, especially with people believing he is behind them -- the appointing of two swifties to a Veterans advisory board was not so swift of the administration either.
In comes Ben Barnes, who will tell '60 Minutes', either this Wednesday, or more likely, next Sunday that he was approached by a surrogate of George H.W. Bush to get his son into the National Guard, which for political purposes, Barnes then the Speaker of the Texas House (a powerful position in Texas where the Executive is rather weak) complied with [having somebody owe you a favor is powerful incentive]. Barnes will say that Bush is hardly the only prominant person he did this for, giving you a window into the world of political corruption, a world the Bushes are more than familiar with and do well to take advantage of.
Both Bushes have denied, and continue to deny using any special favors, but the evidence is definitely stacked against them, and unlike the Swiftboat Liars, Barnes is talking about his FIRST HAND direct knowledge of events. Sure he's a Kerry supporter, as are all the Swifties (John O'Neil's laughable assertion otherwise notwithstanding), but again BARNES knows directly what happened as a participant. Using a surrogate only gives the elder Bush a chance to deny 'directly' being involved -- but that is weak.
Then tied in with Barnes, is more information, as discussed in Salon, of Bush's non-service carousing and screwing around in Alabama for months at a time.
Some may argue that Bush, unlike Kerry, hasn't made Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign, but that is bullshit. First, Kerry giving his biography is hardly making it the only thing he talks about, and second, there is a damn fine reason Bush doesn't want to talk about the National Guard, it is embarrasing. But by having his surrogates open up this can of worms by sowing lies about Kerry and Vietnam, he must now reap the whirlwind of his own cowardice and irresponsibility.
Hitting Bush where he is Strongest
Bob Graham is a lousy Presidential Candidate, being deprived of any semblance of charisma. However, nobody would say that Bob Graham is not supremely intelligent, serious, and a patriot. Furthermore, he is the world's most anal retentive diarist and is blessed with a photographic memory.
In short, he is definitely NOT the guy that you want on the Senate Intelligence Committee if you are trying to commit fraud on the public about your analysis and use of intelligence, including a strong-armed effort to deprive the public of information about your buddies in Saudi Arabia.
And Graham has a new book coming out, "Intelligence Matters", this Tuesday, which accuses the Bush Administration of base fraud, and compromising of American interests.
Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship, Sen. Bob Graham wrote in a book to be released Tuesday.
The discovery of the financial backing of the two hijackers ''would draw a direct line between the terrorists and the government of Saudi Arabia, and trigger an attempted coverup by the Bush administration,'' the Florida Democrat wrote.
And in Graham's book, Intelligence Matters, obtained by The Herald Saturday, he makes clear that some details of that financial support from Saudi Arabia were in the 27 pages of the congressional inquiry's final report that were blocked from release by the administration, despite the pleas of leaders of both parties on the House and Senate intelligence committees.
So Bush protects the Saudis. Kerry knows this stuff too, which explains his nameing of the Saudi Royal family in speeches ahead of the curve. Graham's outing of this information allows Kerry to broaden the attack and for the press, should they be so inclined, put Bush on the defensive after Labor Day.
He oversaw the Sept. 11 investigation on Capitol Hill with Rep. Porter Goss, nominated last month to be the next CIA director. According to Graham, the FBI and the White House blocked efforts to investigate the extent of official Saudi connections to two hijackers.
Graham wrote that the staff of the congressional inquiry concluded that two Saudis in the San Diego area, Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Bassan, who gave significant financial support to two hijackers, were working for the Saudi government.
Al-Bayoumi received a monthly allowance from a contractor for Saudi Civil Aviation that jumped from $465 to $3,700 in March 2000, after he helped Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhdar -- two of the Sept. 11 hijackers -- find apartments and make contacts in San Diego, just before they began pilot training.
When the staff tried to conduct interviews in that investigation, and with an FBI informant, Abdussattar Shaikh, who also helped the eventual hijackers, they were blocked by the FBI and the administration, Graham wrote.
The administration and CIA also insisted that the details about the Saudi support network that benefited two hijackers be left out of the final congressional report, Graham complained.
Bush had concluded that ''a nation-state that had aided the terrorists should not be held publicly to account,'' Graham wrote. ``It was as if the president's loyalty lay more with Saudi Arabia than with America's safety.''
And there is more, particular in regard to how Afghanistan and the war against Al Qaeda in the name of the Iraqi-clusterfuck.
Graham also revealed that Gen. Tommy Franks told him on Feb. 19, 2002, just four months after the invasion of Afghanistan, that many important resources -- including the Predator drone aircraft crucial to the search for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda leaders -- were being shifted to prepare for a war against Iraq.
Graham recalled this conversation at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa with Franks, then head of Central Command, who was ``looking troubled'':
"Senator, we are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan.''
''Excuse me?'' I asked.
''Military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq,'' he continued.
Graham concluded: 'Gen. Franks' mission -- which, as a good soldier, he was loyally carrying out -- was being downgraded from a war to a manhunt.''
These attack Bush on two definite weaknesses regarding his role as Commander in Chief, as well as an obvious area of weakness, his intellectual stupidity.
Bush as Sadist
On September 13, 2004, Seymour Hersh's book "Chain of Command" comes out. This will show the depth of the torture in Iraq in its most rancid form and as the book implies draw the problems all the way up to the highest levels of the Bush Administration.
Here is the editor's note, which adds to the interest the book will receive. Look for Hersh on the talk shows next week and excepts in a major publication:
In Chain of Command, Hersh takes an unflinching look behind the public story of President Bush's "war on terror" and into the lies and obsessions that led America into Iraq. He reveals the connections between early missteps in the hunt for Al Qaeda and disasters on the ground in Iraq. The book includes a new account of Hersh's pursuit of the Abu Ghraib story and of where, he believes, responsibility for the scandal ultimately lies. Hersh draws on sources at the highest levels of the American government and intelligence community, in foreign capitals, and on the battlefield for an unparalleled view of a crucial chapter in America's recent history. With an introduction by The New Yorker's editor, David Remnick, Chain of Command is a devastating portrait of an Administration blinded by ideology and of a President whose decisions have made the world a more dangerous place for America.
Bush family as Scandalous Powermongers
Well, if matters of national security cannot awaken the SCLM from their fog of Bush ignorance, then sex and base-scandals should do it.
And thus, at the same time that Hersh's book comes out, there is the double whammy of Kitty Kelly's "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Family Dynasty"
Kelly specializes in finding scandals and first hand accounts of scandals, and they always get massive attention, and never result in any lawsuits -- which tells you something. Ann Coulter she ain't.
What is in the book is unknown, but if these rumored allegations are in the book it will definitely generate some headlines:
The biography is obviously unauathorized.
It reveals alleged sex offenses against minors by Dubya's father.
It reveals the use of the White House by male hookers.
It reveals crooked business deals by every member of the Bush clan, including the oh-so-holy first lady, Laura "Round Heels" Bush.
It reveals how former first lady Babs Bush is almost a practicing witch.
It reveals how Dubya has had a very special friend in the mayor of a Tennessee city, who has has cohabited the Texas ranch many times.
It reveals the details of embarassing photographs of Bush that actually caused U.S. Govt. agents to perpetrate the anthrax mailings to destroy the building of National Enquirer and kill photo editor Stevens.
It reveals how you can get surprisingly close to America's Darth Vader.
It reveals the incredible relationship between Dubya and some famous televangelists.
It reveals intimate details gleaned from persons close to Bush in Crawford, Texas.
It reveals the filth of Bush's ancestors, the most shocking family in US history.
It reveals how Bush plans additional wars for oil, under the pretense of fighting terrorism and defending Israel -- these are just pretenses, the real reason is we are running out of oil.
It reveals Dubya's oedipus complex with Babs, his love/hate relationship with his father, some surprising medical details about Duby, including an explanation of why he is so burnt out.
It reveals who runs Bush, and it is not Round Heels.
It reveals murders committed by the Bush family.
It reveals why George W. Bush is the greatest threat the US and the world has ever faced.
This book makes Fahrenheit 9/11 look like pablum. It is real raw meat.
Now, they may defrost Osama this month (though I doubt it) -- and they may issue many a terror warning -- but nonetheless, September will probably be a tough month for Bush.
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