Wow, such glowing praise…
Al-Zawahri: Bush a liar in war on terror
By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
CAIRO, Egypt – Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri called President Bush a failure and a liar in the war on terror in a video statement released Friday, and he compared Pope Benedict XVI to the 11th century pontiff who launched the First Crusade.
“Can’t you be honest at least once in your life, and admit that you are a deceitful liar who intentionally deceived your nation when you drove them to war in Iraq?” Osama bin Laden’s deputy said, appearing in front of a standing lamp and a small, decorative cannon.
Al-Zawahri also criticized Bush for continuing to imprison al-Qaida leaders in prisons, including al-Qaida No. 3 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind who was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.
“Bush, you deceitful charlatan, 3 1/2 years have passed since your capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, so how have you found us during this time? Losing and surrendering? Or are we launching attacks with God’s help and becoming martyrs?” he said.
Yahoo!
Republican quits US Congress over e-mails to boy aides
51 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Republican Representative Mark Foley of Florida has resigned after revelations of e-mails he sent to under-18 male congressional aides and jeopardizing Republicans in November’s election.
“Today I have delivered a letter to the Speaker of the House informing him of my decision to resign from the US House of Representatives, effective today,” Foley said in a statement.
Foley was favored to win re-election against Democrat challenger Tim Mahoney on November 7, in legislative contests that could lose Republicans control either house of Congress.
According to ABC television, a former congressional page, 16, complained about e-mails he received from the six-term lawmaker.
More at Yahoo News
Some of the sordid details about who knew what and when as well as material too risque to be published by mainstream media can be found at Americablog.
IBM and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) announced the start of international regional competitions leading up to the 31st annual International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) yesterday. Check out the press release over at ibm.com for the details.
I’ve been personally involved with the ACM ICPC going back to 2001, representing IBM and Extreme Blue at the Southern California regional competition for the past few years, and attending the world finals in San Antonio last year. We will be at several other regional competitions this year to talk with contestants about internship opportunities at IBM. Check out the regional contest information and schedule over at the ICPC web site.
I was looking at my blog site stats tonight and found a referer link from an ibm.com site. Turns out it’s the IBM Blogroll. A site that was set up as a place to find many of IBM’s external bloggers.
Or skirt, as the case may be…
Q: How can you tell when a Bush administration flunkie is lying?
A: When their lips are moving.
2001 memo to Rice contradicts statements about Clinton, Pakistan
Larry Womack
Published: Tuesday September 26, 2006
A memo received by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shortly after becoming National Security Advisor in 2001 directly contradicts statements she made to reporters yesterday, RAW STORY has learned.
“We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al Qaeda,” Rice told a reporter for the New York Post on Monday. “Big pieces were missing,” Rice added, “like an approach to Pakistan that might work, because without Pakistan you weren’t going to get Afghanistan.”
Rice made the comments in response to claims made Sunday by former President Bill Clinton, who argued that his administration had done more than the current one to address the al Qaeda problem before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She stopped short of calling the former president a liar.
However, RAW STORY has found that just five days after President George W. Bush was sworn into office, a memo from counter-terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke to Rice included the 2000 document, “Strategy for Eliminating the Threat from the Jihadist Networks of al-Qida: Status and Prospects.” This document devotes over 2 of its 13 pages of material to specifically addressing strategies for securing Pakistan’s cooperation in airstrikes against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
more at RAW STORY…
NOT George W. Bush, that’s for sure.
Iraq is ’cause celebre’ for extremists
By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer 16 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – A declassified government intelligence report says the war in Iraq has become a “cause celebre” for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that is likely to get worse before it gets better.
In the bleak report, released Tuesday on President Bush’s orders, the nation’s most veteran analysts conclude that despite serious damage to the leadership of al-Qaida, the threat from Islamic extremists has spread both in numbers and in geographic reach.
“If this trend continues, threats to U.S. interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide,” the document says. “The confluence of shared purpose and dispersed actors will make it harder to find and undermine jihadist groups.”
Bush ordered a declassified version of the classified report released after several days of criticism sparked by portions that were leaked. Asked about those Tuesday, Bush said critics who believe the Iraq war has worsened terrorism are naive and mistaken.
Yahoo News
News 8 Austin | 24 Hour Local News | LOCAL NEWS | Dot’s Place reopens Tuesday
Dot’s Place reopens Tuesday
Updated: 9/26/2006 8:57 AM
By: News 8 Austin Staff
Fans of Dot’s Place have something to be excited about. The restaurant famous for its Southern home cooking is reopening Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. for the lunch crowd.
Dot’s new location is in the Windermere Shopping Center in Pflugerville near FM 1825 and Pecan Street.
Casey widens lead in Pa. Senate poll
By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes ago
HARRISBURG, Pa. – Democrat Bob Casey appears to have opened a double digit lead over Sen. Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania’s Senate race, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Casey had a 14-point lead in the Quinnipiac University Poll, with 54 percent of likely voters saying they planned to vote for him compared to 40 percent for Santorum. One percent said they wouldn’t vote and 6 percent said they didn’t know.
Casey had a seven point lead among likely voters in a match up between the two in the same poll on Aug. 15.
On Monday, a state judge said Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli would be removed from the ballot because the party did not have enough valid signatures in its nominating petitions — a move pundits said would help Casey.
Yahoo News
Seems that some in the G.O.P. can’t win an argument fair and square, so they resort to their old habit of dirty tricks. Too bad they don’t understand the technology well enough to hide thier tracks…
GOP aide busted for fake blog posts on liberal sites
RAW STORY
Published: Monday September 25, 2006
Liberal bloggers have uncovered a staff member to Rep. Charles Bass (R-NH) using government computers to make fake posts on liberal blogs in New Hampshire, today’s ROLL CALL reports.
Heard on The Hill columnist Mary Ann Akers has authorized RAW STORY to reprint the full registration-restricted item:
Raw Story via C&L
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – The government is partially lifting its ban against carrying liquids and gels onto airliners, instituted after a plot to bomb jets flying into the United States was foiled, an administration official said Monday.
A Homeland Security Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made, said that most liquids and gels that air travelers purchase in secure areas of airports will now be allowed on planes.
That means that after passengers go through airport security checkpoints, they can purchase liquids at airport stores and take them onto their planes, said the official. Announcement of the new rules was being made at an 11 a.m. EDT news conference at Reagan National Airport. The Transportation Security Administration said only that it planned to announce “refinements to security measures.”
Yahoo News
Wow. That was one of the things I was bitching about while travelling last week… why can’t you buy something beyond the security checkpoint, like a soda or coffee, and not have to throw it out before you board? 
by David Millikin 53 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AFP) – US spy agencies dropped a political bombshell six weeks before national elections, with the leak of a classified report concluding that the war in Iraq has spawned a new wave of Islamic radicalism and increased the global threat of terrorism.
The intelligence document rocked a central pillar of the Republican Party’s campaign platform ahead of November elections: that the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ouster of Saddam Hussein made America safer, not weaker.
“The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror, and that depends on victory in Iraq,” Bush said in one speech on August 31.
Such assertions were looking decidedly shaky Sunday after The New York Times and The Washington Post released details of the classified National Intelligence Estimate, the most comprehensive assessment yet of the war, based on analyses of all 16 of America’s intelligence agencies.
The report, Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States, says “the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” an official familiar with the document told The Times.
The Washington Post said the report described the Iraq conflict as the primary recruiting vehicle for violent Islamic extremists.
While the US has seriously damaged Al-Qaeda and disrupted its ability to carry out major operations since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, it noted, radical Islamic networks have spread and decentralized.
Yahoo News
