Section: Editorial

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Crotonblog Stats for July

August 1, 2005

Wow! Seven consecutive months of reader growth... So, we just wanted to check-in and say thanks for your readership. For your interest, following are selected blog stats for July 2005 & the previous six months.

Unique visitors
July - 1,614
June - 1,469
May - 1,269
Apr - 1,275
Mar - 1,144
Feb - 741
Jan - 302

Number of visits
July - 5,096
June - 4,827
May - 3,956
Apr - 3,349
Mar - 3,359
Feb - 2,042
Jan - 803

Pages
July - 46,110
June - 40,882
May - 30,615
Apr - 30,277
Mar - 27,500
Feb - 21,401
Jan - 13,557

For fun, you can follow our stats here. As always, thank you. Keep reading & commenting! You can also contact us with your suggestions too... Oh, we also really appreciate your monetary support of Crotonblog by contributing/donating to us.

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On Rove: No Comment From Rep. Sue Kelly

July 14, 2005

I called Congresswoman Sue Kelly's Washington DC office on July 14, 2005, to get her position on Karl Rove leaking CIA Agent Valerie Plame's name to both Matt Cooper from Time Magazine and Judith Miller, currently serving hard time, from the New York Times, but the polite person who answered her telephone was not prepared with a response.

As a matter of fact, I called her office in June about her position on the Downing Street Memo. Same thing, no position or comment. Her office told me that they would send it to me in the mail. Guess what? It hasn't arrived yet...

Even funnier, (not like ha, ha), her website was just updated with recent news releases from July 13, 2005 about things like Terrorism Insurance... See, I think putting our national security on the line by exposing covert CIA operatives who specialize in WMD, that's weapons of mass destruction, as in the ones we never found in IRAQ, the "slam dunk" that makes it truly necessary to have terrorism insurance in the first place, is the real issue. But, her website had nothing on Rove.

So over on GOP.com, Republicans are standing up for Rove, including two of Congresswoman Sue Kelly's collegues from New York; Peter King and Tom Reynolds. They say the following, if you can believe your eyes:

Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY): “The Extreme Left Is Once Again Attempting To Define The Modern Democrat Party By Rabid Partisan Attacks, Character Assassination And Endless Negativity. And As Has Become Their Custom, The Rest Of The Democrat Party Is Standing By Silently.” (National Republican Congressional Committee, “NRCC Chairman Tom Reynolds Statement On Karl Rove, Democrat Partisan Attacks,” Press Release, 7/13/05)

“Democrats Are Bitter About Losing In 2004. And They Will Stop At Nothing To Accomplish Through Character Assassination What They Could Not Accomplish At The Ballot Box.” (National Republican Congressional Committee, “NRCC Chairman Tom Reynolds Statement On Karl Rove, Democrat Partisan Attacks,” Press Release, 7/13/05)

Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY): “Republicans Should Stop Holding Back And Go On The Offense: Fire Enough Bullets The Other Way Until The Supreme Court Overtakes.” (Jim VandeHei, “GOP On Offense In Defense Of Rove,” The Washington Post, 7/13/05)

Source of qoutes: GOP.com.

You too can call Congresswoman Sue Kelly at 202-225-5441 and ask her if she intends to either hold President Bush to his word when he said, and I am paraphrasing here, that "leakers would not work in his administration" or follow Whitehouse Press Secretary Scott McClellan's lead and avoid any comment at all. I'll even boil it down further... National Security or partisan politics?

-- Ross Weale

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Fortunate Son

July 6, 2005

Teddy Pataki, son of New York Govenor George Pataki, just graduated from his father's alma mater, Yale, as newly commissioned 2nd lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.

However, it seems as though Teddy missed President George W. Bush's recent nationally televised address to the nation on June 28, 2005 to address Iraq and the "War on Terror".

President Bush said, "I thank those of you who have re-enlisted in an hour when your country needs you. And to those watching tonight who are considering a military career, there is no higher calling than service in our Armed Forces. We live in freedom because every generation has produced patriots willing to serve a cause greater than themselves. Those who serve today are taking their rightful place among the greatest generations that have worn our nation's uniform."

I know why, but with all the war rhetoric, why would Teddy with dad's support, seek a 3-year deferment from active duty in the United States Marine Corps so he can attend law school? To me, it seems as though he is truly one of the few, but not one of the proud.

Continue reading "Fortunate Son."

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Downing Street What?

June 16, 2005

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005

Dear Mr. President:

We the undersigned write because of our concern regarding recent disclosures of a Downing Street Memo (pdf) in the London Times, comprising the minutes of a meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers. These minutes indicate that the United States and Great Britain agreed, by the summer of 2002, to attack Iraq, well before the invasion and before you even sought Congressional authority to engage in military action, and that U.S. officials were deliberately manipulating intelligence to justify the war.

Among other things, the British government document quotes a high-ranking British official as stating that by July, 2002, Bush had made up his mind to take military action. Yet, a month later, you stated you were still willing to "look at all options" and that there was "no timetable" for war. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, flatly stated that "[t]he president has made no such determination that we should go to war with Iraq."

In addition, the origins of the false contention that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction remain a serious and lingering question about the lead up to the war. There is an ongoing debate about whether this was the result of a "massive intelligence failure," in other words a mistake, or the result of intentional and deliberate manipulation of intelligence to justify the case for war. The memo appears to resolve that debate as well, quoting the head of British intelligence as indicating that in the United States "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

As a result of these concerns, we would ask that you respond to the following questions:

1) Do you or anyone in your administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document?

2) Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional authorization to go to war? Did you or anyone in your Administration obtain Britain's commitment to invade prior to this time?

3) Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with the justification for the war as the minutes indicate?

4) At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq?

5) Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states?

These are the same questions 89 Members of Congress, led by United States Representative John Conyers, Jr., submitted to you on May 5, 2005. As citizens and taxpayers, we believe it is imperative that our people be able to trust our government and our commander in chief when you make representations and statements regarding our nation engaging in war. As a result, we would ask that you publicly respond to these questions as promptly as possible.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Sign your name here.

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Up Is Down

June 3, 2005

There are many errors and misconceptions in the most recent ccc1 newsletter (word doc), available from ccc1@bestweb.net, that must be challenged.

It's my pleasure to be in a position, now that I'm no longer a sitting board member, to speak more freely about the actual facts. I'm no longer in a position to jeopardize the village's position in litigation. It's in the hands of the courts now and can no longer be influenced by careless remarks.

Continue reading "Up Is Down."

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Too Liberal Then

Funny thing about the timing of finding the following quote by George McGovern, on dailykos.com was that since hearing "Fire" on WFUV 90.7 while driving to work, I've been listening to Hendrix all morning... It seems like a recurring soundtrack of the times to me. Different though as it seems to be parents who are really concerned about Iraq too.

"This war in Iraq, in my opinion is worse than anything Nixon did. I think Nixon deserved to be expelled from office in view of the cover-up that he carried on and the laws that he violated.

But we have an administration in power now that led us to a war that is internationally illegal; it's a war that we are fighting with a country that has no threat to us that has nothing to do with the 9-11 attacks.

McGovern said Nixon was undoubtedly "tricky," but said of Bush: "This man claims to be Christian, following the will of God, and then he misleads the whole nation on a totally fraudulent enterprise in Iraq that we should have never been attached to."

George McGovern, in "New 'Deep Throat' needed for Iraq, says Nixon rival".

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Flush McClellan

May 26, 2005

Scott, blame the FBI. No, wait, the source is not credible. Oh, yeah, the DoD is investigating.

Anyway, read the article for yourself. From Rueters, "An FBI agent wrote in a 2002 document made public on Wednesday that a detainee held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had accused American jailers there of flushing the Koran down a toilet."

Earlier in the week... Blaming the Messenger, by Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post, Wednesday, May 18, 2005; A17

"It's appalling that this story got out there," said the secretary of state. "Shaky from the very get-go," thundered the White House spokesman. "We've not found any wrongdoing on the part of U.S. servicemembers," declared the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Continue reading "Flush McClellan."

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Don't Believe Your Own Eyes

May 22, 2005

"I don't think a photo inspires murders. I think they (insurgents) are inspired by an ideology that is so barbaric and backwards that it's hard for many in the western world to comprehend how they think." - President George W. Bush, Friday, May 20, 2005.

Really? Maybe this, this, this, , this, this or this (graphic) does then.

Further... Prewar Findings Worried Analysts.

Continue reading "Don't Believe Your Own Eyes."

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Lynda Jones for School Board

May 17, 2005

For years I have been looking forward to writing an endorsement for Lynda, so I am delighted to ask the readers of CrotonBlog to come out and vote for Lynda Jones for Croton-Harmon schools trustee. The voting will take place today, Tuesday, May 17, at the PVC middle school.

Continue reading "Lynda Jones for School Board."

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Bush asked to explain UK war memo

May 12, 2005

BREAKING STORY IN US MAINSTREAM MEDIA (Don't worry about the "news filter", the BBC was covering this very story 11 days ago on May 1, 2005).

MAY 12, 2005 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Eighty-nine Democratic members of the U.S. Congress last week sent President George W. Bush a letter asking for explanation of a secret British memo that said "intelligence and facts were being fixed" to support the Iraq war in mid-2002... Read the rest here.

Continue reading "Bush asked to explain UK war memo."

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