Up From Zen, part 3 of 4: Roshi Phil Jackson Torpedoes the Presidents +^

[Disbasing Zen Stories]

Up From Zen: Roshi Phil Jackson undermining the Presidency ...

Part three of four:

____ Background for Toxic Zen Stories _____________________

https://groups.google.com/group/alt.zen/msg/b4ad0ce368728934?hl=en

____ George W. Bush _______________________________________

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____ The Improvised and Explosive George W. Bush (43rd)
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George Bush did not apparently have a man-crush on Zen Roshi Phil Jackson and the Lakers before the election. However, after the razor thin margin and hotly contested nature of the election, he would come to heavily publicize his interactions with the popular and winning Zen Man. The story and full picture coverage of his White House Visit with the Zen Men on January 28, 2002, was splashed across nearly every single newspaper and television station in the country, with a large picture of Bush-43 receiving his very own Zen Lakers numbered shirt.

December 13, 2000: "Bush Claims Presidency as Gore Concedes - Bush assumes the mantle of president-elect in a nationally televised address. He praises Gore and urges national unity after a divisive campaign."
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/bush/legacy/timeline/>
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Bush-43 White House victory visit by Zen Roshi Phil Jackson and the Lakers (2000 season) should be on, or around, January 2001, but is unreported in any press release or newspaper article.
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January, 2001: "From the moment he took office, Bush made noises about 'finishing the job his father started.'" (Time Magazine) [much of the timeline is taken from 'The Path of War Timeline' - By Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane, Raw Story]

"George Bush's former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill asserts that Bush took office in January 2001 fully intending to invade Iraq and desperate to find an excuse for pre-emptive war against Saddam Hussein. 'From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,' O'Neill said. 'For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the US has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap.'" (Sunday Herald)

"Testifying at his Senate confirmation hearing former General Colin Powell, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War, said Bush wanted to 're-energize the sanctions regime' and increase support to Iraqi groups trying to overthrow Hussein. Powell also said Hussein, 'is not going to be around in a few years time.'" (Air Force Magazine Online)

"Vice President Dick Cheney, who was defense secretary during the war against Iraq, has also suggested a Bush administration might 'have to take military action to forcibly remove Saddam from power,' as has current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld." (Cato Institute)

February 16, 2001: "Twenty-four US and UK warplanes bomb sites near Baghdad. Bombings within the no-fly zones have previously been common, but these are more widely noted and criticized." (CNN)

April 2001: "Cheney's energy task force takes interest in Iraq's oil. Strategic Energy Policy Challenges For The 21st Century describes America's 'biggest energy crisis in its history.' It targets Saddam as a threat to American interests because of his control of Iraqi oilfields and recommends the use of 'military intervention.'"

"The report is linked to a veritable who's who of US hawks, oilmen and corporate bigwigs. Commissioned by James Baker, the former US Secretary of State under Bush Sr., it was submitted to Vice-President Dick Cheney in April 2001 -- a full five months before September 11. It advocated a policy of using military force against an enemy such as Iraq to secure US access and control of Middle Eastern oil fields." (Sunday Herald)
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Victory call by Bush-43 to Zen Roshi Phil Jackson and the Lakers, June 15, 2001.
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September 11, 2001: "In his address to the nation on the evening of Sept. 11, Bush decides to include a tough new passage about punishing those who harbor terrorists. He announces that the U.S. will 'make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.' To many observers, the president's words set the tone and direction for the Bush administration's policy on Afghanistan and Iraq." (PBS)

September 12, 2001: "According to Richard A. Clarke: 'I expected to go back to a round of meetings [after September 11] examining what the next attacks could be, what our vulnerabilities were, what we could do about them in the short term. Instead, I walked into a series of discussions about Iraq... I realized with almost a sharp physical pain that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were going to try to take advantage of this national tragedy to promote their agenda about Iraq...By the afternoon on Wednesday [after Sept. 11], Secretary Rumsfeld was talking about broadening the objectives of our response and 'getting Iraq.'

'On September 12th, I left the video conferencing center and there, wandering alone around the situation room, was the president. He looked like he wanted something to do. He grabbed a few of us and closed the door to the conference room. 'Look,' he told us, 'I know you have a lot to do and all, but I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he's linked in any way.'

'I was once again taken aback, incredulous, and it showed. 'But, Mr. President, Al Qaeda did this.'

'I know, I know, but - see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred--'" On the Issues ('Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror,' by Richard A. Clarke)

September 13, 2001: "Two days later, Wolfowitz expands on the president's words at a Pentagon briefing. He seems to signal that the U.S. will enlarge its campaign against terror to include Iraq: 'I think one has to say it's not just simply a matter of capturing people and holding them accountable, but removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism. And that's why it has to be a broad and sustained campaign.'

Colin Powell and others are alarmed by what they view as Wolfowitz's inflammatory words about 'ending states.' Powell later responds during a press briefing: 'We're after ending terrorism. And if there are states and regimes, nations that support terrorism, we hope to persuade them that it is in their interest to stop doing that. But I think ending terrorism is where I would like to leave it, and let Mr. Wolfowitz speak for himself.' (PBS)

September 15, 2001: "Four days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush gathers his national security team at Camp David for a war council. Wolfowitz argues that now is the perfect time to move against state sponsors of terrorism, including Iraq. But Powell tells the president that an international coalition would only come together for an attack on Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, not an invasion of Iraq. The war council votes with Powell. Rumsfeld abstains. The president decides that the war's first phase will be Afghanistan. Iraq will be reconsidered later." (PBS)

September 16, 2001: "According to a 60 Minutes piece, citing Bob Woodward: 'just five days after Sept. 11, President Bush indicated to Condoleezza Rice that while he had to do Afghanistan first, he was also determined to do something about Saddam Hussein. 'There's some pressure to go after Saddam Hussein. Don Rumsfeld has said, 'This is an opportunity to take out Saddam Hussein, perhaps. We should consider it.' And the president says to Condi Rice meeting head to head, 'We won't do Iraq now.' But it is a question we're gonna have to return to,' says Woodward." (CBS News)

October 2001: "The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh writes: 'They call themselves, self-mockingly, the Cabal--a small cluster of policy advisers and analysts now based in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans. In the past year, according to former and present Bush Administration officials, their operation, which was conceived by Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, has brought about a crucial change of direction in the American intelligence community. These advisers and analysts, who began their work in the days after September 11, 2001, have produced a skein of intelligence reviews that have helped to shape public opinion and American policy toward Iraq. They relied on data gathered by other intelligence agencies and also on information provided by the Iraqi National Congress, or I.N.C., the exile group headed by Ahmad Chalabi."

"According to the Pentagon adviser, Special Plans was created in order to find evidence of what Wolfowitz and his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, believed to be true--that Saddam Hussein had close ties to Al Qaeda, and that Iraq had an enormous arsenal of chemical, biological, and possibly even nuclear weapons that threatened the region and, potentially, the United States." (New Yorker)

"Also according to Seymour Hersh, in the fall of 2001, an unsupported allegation by Italian intelligence that Iraq had been attempting to buy uranium from Niger in 1999 was snatched up by Cheney:

Sometime after he first saw it, Cheney brought it up at his regularly scheduled daily briefing from the C.I.A., Martin said. 'He asked the briefer a question. The briefer came back a day or two later and said, 'We do have a report, but there's a lack of details.' The Vice-President was further told that it was known that Iraq had acquired uranium ore from Niger in the early nineteen-eighties but that that material had been placed in secure storage by the I.A.E.A., which was monitoring it. 'End of story,' Martin added. 'That's all we know.' According to a former high-level C.I.A. official, however, Cheney was dissatisfied with the initial response, and asked the agency to review the matter once again. It was the beginning of what turned out to be a year-long tug-of-war between the C.I.A. and the Vice-President's office." (New Yorker)
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Tuesday, Oct 30, 2001: Zen Roshi Phil Jackson and the L.A. Lakers kick off their 2001-2002 season, Phil's 9th Championship season against the Portland Trail Blazers.
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November 21, 2001: "60 Minutes further cites Bob Woodward: 'President Bush, after a National Security Council meeting, takes Don Rumsfeld aside, collars him physically, and takes him into a little cubbyhole room and closes the door and says, 'What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq? What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret.'

Woodward says immediately after that, Rumsfeld told Gen. Tommy Franks to develop a war plan to invade Iraq and remove Saddam - and that Rumsfeld gave Franks a blank check,' Woodward says." (CBS News)

Late 2001: "By the end of 2001, diplomats were discussing how to enlist the support of Arab allies, the military was sharpening its troop estimates, and the communications team was plotting how to sell an attack to the American public. The whole purpose of putting Iraq into Bush's State of the Union address, as part of the 'axis of evil,' was to begin the debate about a possible invasion." (Time Magazine)
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Bush-43 White House victory visit by Zen Roshi Phil Jackson and the Lakers, January 28, 2002. This makes a big splash in the press and is reported in almost every paper in the country. Bush-43 heaps praise upon Jackson and his Zen minions.
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January 29, 2002: "In his State of the Union Adress, Bush calls Iraq part of an 'axis of evil,' and vows that the U.S. 'will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons.'" (White House)

February 13, 2002: "Ken Adelman, a onetime assistant to Donald Rumsfeld, writes that the conquest of Iraq would be a cakewalk: 'I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk. Let me give simple, responsible reasons: (1) It was a cakewalk last time; (2) they've become much weaker; (3) we've become much stronger; and (4) now we're playing for keeps...

In 1991 we engaged a grand international coalition because we lacked a domestic coalition. Virtually the entire Democratic leadership stood against that President Bush. The public, too, was divided. This President Bush does not need to amass rinky-dink nations as 'coalition partners' to convince the Washington establishment that we're right. Americans of all parties now know we must wage a total war on terrorism." (Washington Post)

January-February 2002: "The Niger uranium story becomes a matter of contention within the CIA; By early 2002, the intelligence--still unverified--had begun to play a role in the Administration's warnings about the Iraqi nuclear threat. On January 30th, the C.I.A. published an unclassified report to Congress that stated, 'Baghdad may be attempting to acquire materials that could aid in reconstituting its nuclear-weapons program.' A week later, Colin Powell told the House International Relations Committee, 'With respect to the nuclear program, there is no doubt that the Iraqis are pursuing it.'" (New Yorker)

"By early 2002 U.S. Ambassador to Niger Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick was asked about Iraq-Niger uranium trade; she informed Washington that there was no basis to suspect any link. Then Cheney's office decided to investigate the letters' substance. Former U.S. ambassador to Gabon, Joseph C. Wilson (a man of exceptionally distinguished diplomatic career), was (in his words) 'invited out to meet with a group of people at the CIA who were interested in this subject' and agreed to investigate the content of the documents, which he had not seen. He left for Niger in February, and made an oral report in March.

Meanwhile, during the same month, a four-star U.S. general, Marine Gen. Carlton W. Fulford Jr., deputy commander of the U-S European Command (the headquarters responsible for military relations with most of sub-Saharan Africa) also visited Niger at the request of the U.S. ambassador. He met with Niger's president February 24 and emphasized the importance of tight controls over its uranium ore deposits. According to MSNBC, he also visited the country two months later. This year, Fulford told the Washington Post that he had come away convinced that Niger's uranium stocks were secure." (CounterPunch)

March 2002: "Seymour Hersh writes: 'By early March, 2002, a former White House official told me, it was understood by many in the White House that the President had decided, in his own mind, to go to war... The Bush Administration took many intelligence operations that had been aimed at Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups around the world and redirected them to the Persian Gulf... Chalabi's defector reports were now flowing from the Pentagon directly to the Vice-President's office, and then on to the President, with little prior evaluation by intelligence professionals." (New Yorker)

"'F___ Saddam. we're taking him out.' Those were the words of President George W. Bush, who had poked his head into the office of Condoleezza Rice. It was March 2002, and Rice was meeting with three U.S. Senators, discussing how to deal with Iraq through the United Nations, or perhaps in a coalition with America's Middle East allies. Bush wasn't interested. He waved his hand dismissively, recalls a participant, and neatly summed up his Iraq policy in that short phrase. The Senators laughed uncomfortably; Rice flashed a knowing smile." (Time Magazine)

"Dick Cheney carried the same message to Capitol Hill in late March. The Vice President dropped by a Senate Republican policy lunch soon after his 10-day tour of the Middle East -- the one meant to drum up support for a U.S. military strike against Iraq... Before he spoke, he said no one should repeat what he said, and Senators and staff members promptly put down their pens and pencils. Then he gave them some surprising news. The question was no longer if the U.S. would attack Iraq, he said. The only question was when." (Time Magazine)

"As early as March 2002, Blair's foreign policy adviser, Sir David Manning, assured Condoleezza Rice of Blair's deadset support for 'regime change.' Days later, Sir Christopher Meyer, then British ambassador to the US, sent a dispatch to Downing Street detailing how he repeated the commitment to Paul Wolfowitz, the US Deputy Defence Secretary. The ambassador added that Mr Blair would need a 'cover' for any military action. 'I then went through the need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors and the UN Security Council resolutions.'" (Raw Story: Manning; Raw Story: Meyer)

"Manning returned from talks in Washington warning that Bush 'still has to find answers to the big questions,' which included 'what happens on the morning after?... They may agree that failure isn't an option, but this does not mean they will necessarily avoid it.' The Cabinet Office said that the US believed that the legal basis for war already existed and had lost patience with the policy of containment." (Telegraph)

March 12-13, 2002: "Manning meets with Condoleeza Rice. On March 14, he reports to Blair: 'I said that you would not budge in your support for regime change but you had to manage a press, a Parliament and a public opinion that was very different than anything in the States. . . . Condi's enthusiasm for regime change is undimmed. But there were some signs, since we last spoke, of greater awareness of the practical difficulties and political risks.'" (Raw Story PDF)

March 17, 2002: "Sir Christopher Meyer, British ambassador to the US, meets with Paul Wolfowitz. The next day, he reports to Manning: 'On Iraq I opened by sticking very closely to the script that you used with Condi rice last week. We backed regime change, but the plan had to be clever and failure was not an option. It would be a tough sell for us domestically, and probably tougher elsewhere in Europe. The US could go it alone if it wanted to. But if it wanted to act with partners, here had to be a strategy for building support for military action against Saddam. I then went through the need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors.'" (PDF of memo; More at Telegraph)

March 17, 2002: "'We know they have biological and chemical weapons.' - Vice President Richard Cheney

The Statement was misleading because it professed certainty when the intelligence community provided only an 'estimate.' According to CIA Director George Tenet, 'it is important to underline the word estimate. Because not everything we analyze can be known to a standard of absolute proof.' In addition, the statement failed to acknowledge the Defense Intelligence Agency position that: 'There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities.' Source: Press Conference by Vice President Cheney and his Highness Salam bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain, White House" (truthuncovered.com)

March 8-25, 2002: "Several leaked documents show the British government considering the implications of shifting from an Iraq policy based on containment to one of regime change, along with considerations to be addressed in supporting Bush's objectives. A memo from the British Foreign Secretary states: 'The rewards from your visit to Crawford will be few. The risks are high, both for you and for the Government. I just that there is at present no majority inside the PLP for any military action against Iraq ...A legal justification is a necessary but far from sufficient precondition for military action. We have also to answer the big question - what will this action achieve?'" (Iraq Options Paper - P F Ricketts Memo - Jack Straw Memo)

May 2002: "'Rumsfeld has been so determined to find a rationale for an attack that on 10 separate occasions he asked the CIA to find evidence linking Iraq to the terror attacks of Sept. 11. The intelligence agency repeatedly came back empty-handed. The best hope for Iraqi ties to the attack -- a report that lead hijacker Mohamed Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence official in the Czech Republic -- was discredited last week.'

'The White House's biggest fear is that U.N. weapons inspectors will be allowed to go in,' says a top Senate foreign policy aide." (Time Magazine)

"Throughout this period, and into 2003, Mr Blair was insisting in public that war was not inevitable. In May 2002 he said Iraq would be 'in a far better position' without Saddam, but added: 'Does that mean that military action is imminent or about to happen? No. We've never said that.'" (The Independent)

"US/UK bombing of Iraq intensifies: Despite strict No-Fly Zone guildeines, Rumsfeld had ordered a more aggressive approach What was going on? There were very strict rules of engagement in the no-fly zones. Rumsfeld later said this was simply to prevent the Iraqis attacking allied aircraft, but a British Foreign Officers' remark told more: In reality, the 'spikes of activity' were designed 'to put pressure on the regime.'" (Sunday Times)

May 2002: "Karen Kwiatkowski says: 'From May 2002 until February 2003, I observed firsthand the formation of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans and watched the latter stages of the neoconservative capture of the policy-intelligence nexus in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq... I saw a narrow and deeply flawed policy favored by some executive appointees in the Pentagon used to manipulate and pressurize the traditional relationship between policymakers in the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies. I witnessed neoconservative agenda bearers within OSP usurp measured and carefully considered assessments, and through suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis promulgate what were in fact falsehoods to both Congress and the executive office of the president." (Salon)

June 1, 2002: "In a speech at West Point, Bush commits the United States to a doctrine of preemption: 'Our security will require all Americans…[to] be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives.'" (White House)
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Victory call by Bush-43 to Zen Roshi Phil Jackson and the Lakers, June 12, 2002.
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July 21, 2002: "Cabinet Office paper: Conditions for military action: '1. The US Government's military planning for action against Iraq is proceeding apace. But, as yet, it lacks a political framework. In particular, little thought has been given to creating the political conditions for military action, or the aftermath and how to shape it.

2. When the Prime Minister discussed Iraq with President Bush at Crawford in April he said that the UK would support military action to bring about regime change, provided that certain conditions were met: efforts had been made to construct a coalition/shape public opinion, the Israel-Palestine Crisis was quiescent, and the options for action to eliminate Iraq's WMD through the UN weapons inspectors had been exhausted.

3. We need now to reinforce this message and to encourage the US Government to place its military planning within a political framework, partly to forestall the risk that military action is precipitated in an unplanned way by, for example, an incident in the No Fly Zones. This is particularly important for the UK because it is necessary to create the conditions in which we could legally support military action. Otherwise we face the real danger that the US will commit themselves to a course of action which we would find very difficult to support.'" (Sunday Times)

July 23, 2002: "From The Downing Street Memo, minutes of an official high-level meeting between British and American officials: British intel MI6 director Sir Richard Dearlove 'reported on his recent talks in Washington... Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

The Defense Secretary said that the US had already begun 'spikes of activity' to put pressure on the regime. No decisions had been taken, but he thought the most likely timing in US minds for military action to begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the US Congressional elections.

'It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.'" (Raw Story; via Sunday Times)

"MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal. The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier. The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair's inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was 'necessary to create the conditions' which would make it legal. . . .

'It is just possible that an ultimatum could be cast in terms which Saddam would reject,' the document says. But if he accepted it and did not attack the allies, they would be 'most unlikely' to obtain the legal justification they needed. Suggestions that the allies use the UN to justify war contradicts claims by Blair and Bush, repeated during their Washington summit in June, 2005, that they turned to the UN in order to avoid having to go to war." (Sunday Times)

Late July, 2002: "At the end of July 2002, they need $700 million, a large amount of money for all these tasks. And the president approves it. But Congress doesn't know and it is done. They get the money from a supplemental appropriation for the Afghan War, which Congress has approved. ..Some people are gonna look at a document called the Constitution which says that no money will be drawn from the Treasury unless appropriated by Congress. Congress was totally in the dark on this." (CBS News)

August 2, 2002: "Scott Ritter states: 'Are the weapons that were loaded up with VX destroyed? Yes. Is the equipment used to produce VX on a large scale destroyed? Yes.

'The fact Tony Blair cannot put on the table any substantive facts about a re-constituted Iraqi chemical weapons programme is proof positive that no such evidence exists.'" (Tribune)

August 7, 2002: "Cheney says of Saddam Hussein, 'What we know now, from various sources, is that he... continues to pursue a nuclear weapon.'" (New Yorker)

August, 2002: "U.S., UK conduct secret bombing campaign. 'The [air] attacks were intensified from May, six months before the United Nations resolution that Tony Blair and Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, argued gave the coalition the legal basis for war. By the end of August the raids had become a full air offensive.' (Sunday Times)

Powell reports trouble getting U.S. allies on board for a war with Iraq... As Bush leaves for an August vacation in Crawford, Texas, he agrees to take his case to the U.N. and asks his advisers to start preparing the speech." (PBS)

August 26, 2002: "Cheney suggests Saddam had a nuclear capability that could directly threaten 'anyone he chooses, in his own region or beyond.'" (New Yorker)

September 5, 2002: "When It became clear that Saddam Hussein would not provide justification to launch the air war, the U.S. and UK launched it anyway, beneath the cloak of the no-fly zone. More than a hundred allied aircraft attacked the H-3 airfield, Iraq's main air defence site. At the furthest extreme of the southern no-fly zone, far away from the areas that needed to be patrolled to prevent attacks on the Shias, it was destroyed not because it was a threat to the patrols, but to allow allied special forces operating from Jordan to enter Iraq undetected. (New Statesman)

September 8, 2002: "Cheney tells a TV interviewer, 'We do know, with absolute certainty, that [Saddam] is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon.'

Condoleezza Rice says, 'We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud'--a formulation that was taken up by hawks in the Administration." (New Yorker)

September 9, 2002: "The International Institute for Strategic Studies releases a report that says Iraq was, 'only months away if it were able to get hold of weapons grade uranium . . . from a foreign source.' The IISS had bad information. Their argument was compounded by a UK Dossier that relied on the IISS report." (US News)

September 14,2002: "Bush says, 'Saddam Hussein has the scientists and infrastructure for a nuclear-weapons program, and has illicitly sought to purchase the equipment needed to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon.' There was no confirmed intelligence for the President's assertion." (New Yorker)

September 16, 2002: "Iraq unconditionally accepts the return of UN inspectors." (BBC)

September 17, 2002: "Bush's National Security Strategy asserts that the US will never again allow its military supremacy to be challenged and embraces unilateral preemptive military strikes." (White House)

September 19, 2002: "Washington Post cites the IISS report to show that the aluminum tubes sought by Iraq were unlikely to have been intended for a nuclear program." (Washington Post)

September 24, 2002: "George Tenet and other senior intelligence officials brief the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Iraq's weapons capability as Congress prepares to vote on authorizing war in Iraq. According to Seymou Hersh, this briefing includes claims about both the aluminum tubes and the Niger uranium. Two days later, Colin Powell will also cite the Niger uranium before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." (New Yorker)

September 24, 2002: "(the 'sexed up' dossier) Tony Blair is convinced new sources of intelligence from inside Iraq provide 'persuasive and overwhelming' evidence that Saddam Hussein is reassembling and expanding his weapons programme... Blair is confident that the 55-page dossier on weapons of mass destruction will convince many doubters. He told colleagues: 'Saddam is developing his weapons programme and doing it as fast as he can.'" (Guardian)

September 26, 2002: "Rice says Qaeda operatives have found refuge in Baghdad, and accuses Hussein of helping Osama bin Laden's followers develop chemical weapons. (CBS News)

October, 2002: "Seymour Hersh writes: 'A set of documents suddenly appeared that promised to provide solid evidence that Iraq was attempting to reconstitute its nuclear program. The first notice of the documents' existence came when Elisabetta Burba, a reporter for Panorama, a glossy Italian weekly owned by the publishing empire of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, received a telephone call from an Italian businessman and security consultant whom she believed to have once been connected to Italian intelligence. He told her that he had information connecting Saddam Hussein to the purchase of uranium in Africa.

She wanted to arrange a visit to Niger to verify what seemed to be an astonishing story. At that point, however, Panorama's editor-in-chief, Carlo Rossella, who is known for his ties to the Berlusconi government, told Burba to turn the documents over to the American Embassy for authentication. Burba dutifully took a copy of the papers to the Embassy on October 9th.

George Tenet clearly was ambivalent about the information: in early October, he intervened to prevent the President from referring to Niger in a speech in Cincinnati. But Tenet then seemed to give up the fight, and Saddam's desire for uranium from Niger soon became part of the Administration's public case for going to war.'" (New Yorker)

October 10, 2002: "Congress passes the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq." (White House)

October 22, 2002: "In October 2002, in a notable front-page article titled 'For Bush, Facts Are Malleable' (10/22/02), Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank noted two dubious Bush claims about Iraq: his citing of a United Nations International Atomic Energy report alleging that Iraq was 'six months away' from developing a nuclear weapon; and that Iraq maintained a growing fleet of unmanned aircraft that could be used, in Bush's words, 'for missions targeting the United States.' While these assertions 'were powerful arguments for the actions Bush sought,' Milbank concluded they 'were dubious, if not wrong. Further information revealed that the aircraft lack the range to reach the United States' and 'there was no such report by the IAEA.' (FAIR)

November 8, 2002: "The UN Security Council unanimously approves resolution 1441 imposing tough new arms inspections on Iraq and requiring Iraq to declare all weapons of mass destruction and account for known chemical weapons material stockpiles on pain of 'serious consequences.' Iraq accepts the terms of the resolution and UN inspectors return. (Iraqwatch)

November 14, 2002: "'a week, or a month' Saddam Hussein could give his weapons of mass destruction to al Qaeda, which could use them to attack the United States and killed '30,000, or 100,000 . . . human beings.' - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

The Statement was misleading because, by evoking the specter of thousands of deaths in a time frame as short as 'a week, or a month,' it suggested that Iraq posed an urgent threat. The U.S. intelligence community, however, had deep divisions and divergent points of view regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Further, according to the National Intelligence Estimate, the intelligence community had 'low confidence' regarding whether Iraq would provide al Qaeda with weapons of mass destruction. Source: Secretary Rumsfeld Live Interview with Infinity CBS Radio, Infinity-CBS Radio" (truthuncovered.com)

November 15, 2002: "The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq is formed 'to promote regional peace, political freedom and international security through replacement of the Saddam Hussein regime with a democratic government.' An offshoot of the Project for a New American Century, it has close ties to Ahmed Chalabi and is dedicated to promoting the Bush administration's Iraq policies. (CounterPunch)

December 2, 2002: "The British government is accused of double standards yesterday after launching a dossier on Iraqi human rights abuses designed to soften up public opinion ahead of a possible war. British foreign secretary Straw defends the moves, and cites WMDs.

'He's got these weapons of mass destruction, chemical, biological and, probably, nuclear weapons which he has used in the past against his own people as well as his neighbours and could almost certainly use again in the future,' he said.

But the Foreign Office later retreats. It has repeatedly accepted that Iraq does not have nuclear arms and a spokesman, clarifying the position, said Mr Straw had been 'referring to Saddam Hussein's intention to acquire such weapons' (Guardian)

December 7, 2002: "Iraq submits a 12,000-page declaration on its chemical, biological and nuclear activities, claiming it has no banned weapons."

December 17, 2002: "Colin Powell indicates there are problems with the declaration."

December 18, 2002: "Jack Straw indicates the UK believes Iraq is in material breach of the UN resolution. The Ministry of Defense reveals ships are being chartered to bring troops and equipment to the Gulf."

December 19, 2002: "Hans Blix says the declaration contains nothing new out its WMD capacities and does not inspire confidence. The US immediately accuses Iraq of being in material breach."

December 22, 2002: "Iraq invites the CIA to come in an look for WMD's." (Guardian)
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Bush-43 White House victory visit by Zen Roshi Phil Jackson and the Lakers, January 2003.
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January 27, 2003: "The UN arms inspectors' report indicate that no banned weapons have been found but criticizes Iraq for not giving the inspectors full access to facilities and scientists and not providing clear accounts of certain materials." (Iraqwatch)

January 28, 2003: "President Bush delivers the State of the Union address, stating: 'The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.... Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.' Bush adds that the US is prepared to attack Iraq even without a UN mandate. (White House)

Since October, the CIA had warned the administration not to use the Niger claim in public. CIA Director Tenet personally persuaded deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley to omit it from President Bush's Oct. 7 speech in Cincinnati. But on the eve of Bush's State of the Union address, Robert Joseph, an assistant to the president in charge of nonproliferation at the National Security Council (NSC), initially asked the CIA if the allegation that Iraq sought to purchase 500 pounds of uranium from Niger could be included in the presidential speech. A CIA official said he told Joseph that the agency objected to the British including that in their published September dossier because of the weakness of the U.S. information." (Washington Post)

January 29, 2003: "'His regime has the design for a nuclear weapon, was working on several different methods of enriching uranium, and recently was discovered seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa.' - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

The Statement was misleading because it asserted that Iraq sought uranium from Africa despite the fact that the CIA had expressed doubts about the credibility of this claim in two memos to the White House, including one addressed to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet also had warned against using the claim in a telephone call to Ms. Rice's deputy. In addition, the statement failed to mention that State Department intelligence officials had concluded that this claim was 'highly dubious.' Source: Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Myers Hold Regular Defense Department Briefing, Defense Department" (truthuncovered.com)

January 31, 2003: "The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq.

Details of the aggressive surveillance operation, which involves interception of the home and office telephones and the emails of UN delegates in New York, are revealed in a document leaked to The Observer. (Observer) Katherine Gun, a British intelligence officer is arrested in March on charges of passing secrets. She admits she leaked a secret memo to a British newspaper about US-UK government surveillance of the United Nations before the war in Iraq, and is later freed. (Guardian)

February 5, 2003: "Colin Powell makes a presentation to the UN, attempting to prove that Iraq is evading the inspectors, continues to produce WMD's, and is linked to al-Qaeda. (White House)

Powell cites the British dossier of February 3 as a 'fine paper that the United Kingdom distributed... which describes in exquisite detail Iraqi deception activities.' (Guardian) 'Powell embellishes an intercepted conversation about weapons inspections between Iraqi officials to make it sound more incriminating, changing an order to 'inspect the scrap areas and the abandoned areas' to a command to 'clean out' those areas. He also added the phrase 'make sure there is nothing there,' a phrase that appears nowhere in the State Department's official translation." (FAIR; CommonDreams)

February 7, 2003: "Downing Street is plunged into acute international embarrassment after it emerged that large parts of the British government's latest dossier on Iraq - allegedly based on 'intelligence material' - were taken from published academic articles, some of them several years old." (Guardian)

February 9, 2003: "US rejects a French-German initiative to triple the number of inspectors in Iraq. (Department of State)

February 13, 2003: "The Washington Post reveals that, according to anonymous sources, two Special Forces units have been operating in Iraq for over a month." (Washington Post)

March 3, 2003: "Britain and the United States have all but fire the first shots of the Iraq war by extending the range of targets in the 'no-fly zones' over Iraq to 'soften up' the country for an allied ground invasion. Pilots have attacked surface-to-surface missile systems and are understood to have hit multiple-launch rockets." (Guardian)

March 7, 2003: "On March 7th, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in Vienna, told the U.N. Security Council that the documents involving the Niger-Iraq uranium sale were fakes." (New Yorker)

March 16, 2003: "Dick Cheney states on Meet the Press: 'We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various terrorist groups, including the al-Qaeda organization. . . . We know that based on intelligence that he has been very, very good at hiding these kinds of efforts. He's had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. I think Mr. ElBaradei frankly is wrong.'" (Mount Holyoke transcript)

March 19, 2003: "War begins." (White House)

May-July 2003: "The British Ministry of Defense's most senior biological weapons expert and adviser to intelligence agencies on Iraq, Dr Kelly was the anonymous source for BBC reports in May 2003 that a dossier used by the Blair Government to justify invading Iraq had been 'sexed up.' After being revealed as the BBC's source and grilled before a parliamentary inquiry, Dr Kelly was found dead in July 2003." (The Age)

May 1, 2003: "'The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more.' - President George W. Bush

The Statement was misleading because it suggested that Iraq was linked to al Qaeda. In fact, the U.S. intelligence community had conflicting evidence on this issue and was divided regarding whether there was an operational relationship. Source: President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended, White House" (truthuncovered.com)

"'The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 -- and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men -- the shock troops of a hateful ideology -- gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the 'beginning of the end of America.' By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed.' - President George W. Bush

The Statement was misleading because by referencing the September 11 attacks in conjunction with discussion of the war on terror in Iraq, it left the impression that Iraq was connected to September 11. In fact, President Bush himself in September 2003 acknowledged that 'We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th.' Source: President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended, White House" (truthuncovered.com)

May 16, 2003: "'QUESTION: Do you think they will find any (WMDs)? SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, I am quite sure. And, in fact, we have found a couple of items of equipment, some mobile vans, so that with each passing day the evidence is clearer to us that they were used for biological weapons purposes.' - Secretary of State Colin Powell

The Statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. Source: Interview with ZDF Morgenmagazin, ZDF German Television" (truthuncovered.com)

May 22, 2003: "'There is no doubt in our minds now that those vans were designed for only one purpose, and that was to make biological weapons.' - Secretary of State Colin Powell

The Statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. Source: Interview with French Television 1, TF-1" (truthuncovered.com)

May 29, 2003: "'We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.'- President George W. Bush

The Statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. Source: Interview of the President by TVP, Poland, White House" (truthuncovered.com)

July 2, 2003: "'Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice? There are some that feel like if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they are talking about if that is the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on.'
- President George W. Bush

Bush's tough talk was criticized by Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt who said the president should stop with the 'phony, macho rhetoric?. I have a message for the president. We should be focused on a long-term security plan that reduces the danger to our military personnel.'" (truthuncovered.com)

July 13, 2003: "'My only point is that, in retrospect, knowing that some of the documents underneath may have been--were, indeed, forgeries, and knowing that apparently there were concerns swirling around about this, had we known that at the time, we would not have put it in. . . . And had there been even a peep that the agency did not want that sentence in or that George Tenet did not want that sentence in, that the director of Central Intelligence did not want it in, it would have been gone.' - National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice

Ms. Rice was responding to questions regarding how the claim that Iraq sought uranium in Africa made it into the President's January 28, 2003, State of the Union address. The statement that the Director of Central Intelligence and the CIA did not object to the claim was false. In October 2002, the CIA expressed doubts about the claim in two memos to the White House, including one addressed to Ms. Rice. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet also warned against using the claim in a telephone call to Ms. Rice's deputy in October 2002. Source: Face the Nation, CBS" (truthuncovered.com)

July 31, 2003: "'Going into the war against Iraq, we had very strong intelligence. I've been in this business for 20 years. And some of the strongest intelligence cases that I've seen, key judgments by our intelligence community that Saddam Hussein could have a nuclear weapons by the end of the decade, if left unchecked . . . that he was trying to reconstitute his nuclear program.'
- National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice

The Statement was misleading because it failed to acknowledge the Defense Intelligence Agency position that: 'There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities.' Source: National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice Interview with ZDF German Television, ZDF German Television" (truthuncovered.com)

October 3, 2003: "'It isn't a figment of anyone's imagination that just 15 years ago they gassed and killed 5,000 people with sarin and VX at a place called Halabja I visited just a few weeks ago. They never lost that capability.' - Secretary of State Colin Powell

The Statement was misleading because it professed certainty when the intelligence community provided only an 'estimate.' According to CIA Director George Tenet, 'it is important to underline the word estimate. Because not everything we analyze can be known to a standard of absolute proof.' In addition, the statement failed to acknowledge the Defense Intelligence Agency position that: 'There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities.' Source: Remarks After Meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs, State Dept" (truthuncovered.com)

June 16, 2004: "The Sept. 11 commission reported that it has found no 'collaborative relationship' between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the war in Iraq." (truthuncovered.com)

July 6, 2004: "After examining available transcripts of the Vice President's public remarks, the 9-11 Commission believes it has access to the same information the Vice President has seen regarding contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq prior to the 9-11 attacks. - Statement by Thomas H. Kean, Chair, and Lee H. Hamilton, Vice Chair of the 9-11 Commission" (truthuncovered.com)

After the improvised explosive Bush-43 blew his cork on Iraq and Saddam Hussein, the uncontrollable anger from his traumatic injury carried through the rest of his term, obliterating any common sense or judgement:

* The Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, CIA leak, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney affair
* "Mission accomplished!" and "Bring 'em on!"
* Abu Ghraib and Gitmo
* The Hurricane Katrina 'incompetence' that turned Louisiana from a red to a blue state
* Signing statements on 750 laws, contravening Congress
* Firing the Justice Department Attorneys and the disappearing White House emails

Bush-43's polls effectively mirrored the drop of his father, except that after his term ended, his popularity did not rebound like his father's, because people did not really like him once they became sick of his arrogant anger.

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At the end there was a final touch from Zen Roshi Phil Jackson and the boys:

Sept. 7, 2008: "Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Seized By Government - The U.S. government takes control of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which held about half of the country's mortgages. The move put the liability of more than $5 trillion of mortgages on the taxpayers." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Sept. 14, 2008: "Bank of America Buys Merrill Lynch - Bank of America, the nation's largest bank, credit card company and mortgage lender, buys Merrill Lynch for $50 billion. The purchase makes Bank of America the largest retail brokerage." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Sept. 15, 2008: "Lehman Brothers Files Bankruptcy - After the firm reported $19.3 billion in revenue in 2007, Lehman Brothers was forced to file for bankruptcy after it failed to find a buyer for its $60 billion in failing assets. The company had been in business for 158 years." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Sept. 16, 2008: "Government Gives AIG Emergency Loan - In exchange for nearly 80 percent equity stake in the company, the government announces it will give insurance giant AIG an $85 billion emergency loan. The government said a failure of AIG could be devastating to the already struggling economy and financial markets." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Sept. 17, 2008: "Barclays Makes Deal With Lehman - After passing on buying Lehman Brothers before the firm filed for bankruptcy, Barclays -- a British bank -- buys the company's North American investment banking and trading operations." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Sept. 19, 2008: "Bush Announces Bailout Plan - The Bush administration asks Congress for powers to execute a plan to buy bad debt and mortgages." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Sept. 21, 2008: "Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Change Status - Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley get approval from the Federal Reserve to transform from investment banks to bank holding companies. The change means the companies will be regulated by the Federal Reserve, and will give them access to its emergency loan program." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Sept. 29, 2008: "Citigroup Agrees To Buy Wachovia's Banking Operations - Citigroup agrees to buy the majority of Wachovia's banking operations for $2.1 billion in stock." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Sept. 29, 2008: "House Rejects Bailout Package - The House of Representatives rejects the $700 billion rescue bill by a 228-205 vote." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Sept. 29, 2008: "Dow Suffers Largest Ever One-Day Drop - The Dow falls 777.68 points to mark its largest one-day point loss in history. The decline is spurred by the House of Representative's rejection of the $700 rescue plan." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Oct. 1, 2008: "Senate Passes Bailout - The Senate passes an amended proposed bailout bill, putting pressure on the House to do the same." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Oct. 3, 2008: "Wells Fargo Tries To Acquire Wachovia - Days after Citigroup agrees to buy Wachovia's banking operations, Wells Fargo says it will acquire the company for $14.8 billion in an all-stock deal, without government assistance. This starts a battle between Citigroup and Wells Fargo for the company." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Oct. 3, 2008: "House Approves Bailout, Bush Signs Bill After the House voted in favor of the bailout 263-171, President George W. Bush quickly signed it. After the vote Bush said the government 'acted boldly' to prevent the Wall Street crisis from spreading, but said 'our economy continues to face serious challenges.'" (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Oct. 6, 2008: "Dow Drops Below 10,000 - For the first time since 2004, the Dow Jones industrials dropped below 10,000. At one point during the day, the Dow was down 800 points before it rallied near closing to finish the day down 369 at 9,955.50." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Oct. 8, 2008: "AIG Gets Another Loan From Feds - The Federal Reserve agrees to provide AIG with a loan of up to $37.8 billion, on top of the $85 billion loan it received in September." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Oct. 9, 2008: "Down Falls Below 9,000 - Financial fears caused the Dow to drop to below 9,000 for the first time in five years. The Dow dropped almost 700 points to close at 8,579.19." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Oct. 10, 2008: "Wells Fargo Wins Battle For Wachovia - Antitrust regulators clear Wells Fargo to acquire Wachovia." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Oct. 28, 2008: "Dow Has Second-Largest Point Gain Ever - The Dow soars 889 points to reach the 9,065 level." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)
______________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, Oct 28, 2008: Zen Roshi Phil Jackson and the L.A. Lakers kick off their 2008-2009 season, Phil's 10th Championship season against the Portland Trail Blazers.
______________________________________________________________________

Oct. 30, 2008: "Economy Shrinks In Third Quarter, Signaling Recession - The government says consumers cut back on their spending in the third quarter by the biggest amount in 28 years." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Nov. 5, 2008: "Economy Stumbles After Election - The Dow falls more than 400 points on renewed fears of a recession." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Nov. 10, 2008: "AIG Gets Bigger Bailout - The government provides new financial assistance to troubled insurance giant American International Group, including pouring $40 billion into the company in return for partial ownership." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Nov. 10, 2008: "DHL Cuts 9,500 Jobs - Mail and logistics company Deutsche Post AG says it will cut 9,500 jobs and close all of its DHL express service centers in the U.S. amid heavy losses in the market there." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Nov. 13, 2008: "Jobless Claims Soar - The government says that the number of newly laid-off individuals seeking unemployment benefits jumped more than expected last week to a seven-year high. The Labor Department says jobless claims increased by 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 516,000." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Nov. 13, 2008: "Budget Deficit Reaches Record $237.2 Billion - The federal government begins the new budget year with a record deficit of $237.2 billion, reflecting the billions of dollars the government has started to pay out to rescue the financial system. The Treasury Department says the deficit for the first month in the new budget year was the highest monthly imbalance on record." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Nov. 14, 2008: "Bush Wants Give $25 Billion In Loans To Carmakers - The White House is throwing support behind a plan to speed release of $25 billion in loans to troubled automakers but is rejecting a Democratic proposal to use money from a financial bailout for car companies. Spokeswoman Dana Perino said the Democratic proposal would lead to partisan gridlock because the $700 billion rescue package was never intended to help automakers and shouldn't be now." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Nov. 15, 2008: "World Leaders Seek To Prevent Future Economic Crisis - World leaders are agreeing to flag risky investing and regulatory weak spots in hopes of avoiding future financial meltdowns. President George W. Bush and leaders from nearly two dozen countries endorse broad goals to fend off any future crisis and revive the economy. They are pledging to lay the foundation for reform so that the kind of global crisis now dragging down the economy does not happen again." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Nov. 19, 2008: "Dow Drops Below 8,000 For First Time Since 2003 - Wall Street hit its lowest level since 2003. The Dow Jones industrial average fell below the 8,000 mark. It dropped nearly 430 points to 7,997. The news came as major automakers await a decision from Congress about a bailout for their industry." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Nov. 20, 2008: "Jobless Claims Rise - Labor Department reports that claims for unemployment benefits hit their highest level since 1992. The Labor Department said new applications for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 542,000 from a downwardly revised figure of 515,000 in the previous week." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Nov. 24, 2008: "Citigroup Gets Another Bailout - The government announces it is giving another $20 billion to Citigroup with the hope it will keep the financial giant from collapsing. The government will guarantee as much as $306 billion of risky loans and securities backed by commercial and residential mortgages, and in exchange, the government will get $7 billion in preferred shares of Citigroup." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Dec. 18, 2008: "Mortgage Rates Drop To 37-Year Low - Rates on 30-year-fixed mortgages drop to their lowest levels in at least 37 years. The decline came as the Federal Reserve pledged to pour money into the mortgage market in an effort to pump life into the U.S. housing market. According to Freddie Mac, the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 5.19 percent, which is the lowest rate since April 1971." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Dec. 19, 2008: "GM, Chrysler To Get $17.4B In Loans - President George W. Bush says the government will rescue the troubled U.S. auto industry, offering $17.4 billion in loans in exchange for concessions from carmakers and their workers." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Jan. 12, 2008: "Obama: Rest Of Bailout Package "Imminent And Urgent" - President-elect Barack Obama's economic adviser tells Congress that the need for the remaining $350 billion of the financial bailout package is 'imminent and urgent.'" (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

Jan. 13, 2008: "Citigroup, Morgan Stanley Merge - Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley announce they are combining their brokerages. Morgan Stanley is paying Citigroup $2.7 billion for a 51 percent stake in the joint venture." (Project Economy - Timeline Of U.S. Financial Crisis)

To summarize:

George W. Bush's powerful man-crush for the Zen Man Phil Jackson and his Zen men of the L.A. Lakers caused him to blow his cork on Iraq and Saddam Hussein, and the uncontrollable anger from his traumatic injury carried through the rest of his term, obliterating any common sense or judgement:

* The Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame, CIA leak, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney affair
* "Mission accomplished!" and "Bring 'em on!"
* Abu Ghraib and Gitmo
* The Hurricane Katrina 'incompetence' that turned Louisiana from a red to a blue state
* Signing statements on 750 laws, contravening Congress
* Firing the Justice Department Attorneys and the disappearing White House emails

Bush-43's polls effectively mirrored the drop of his father, except that after his term ended, his popularity did not rebound like his father's, because people did not really like him once they became sick of his arrogant anger.

He will be considered the worst President in American history. It would be hard to imagine someone exercising less judgement than he did. He wasn't simply wrong, Bush-43 somehow managed to be 180 degrees in the wrong direction in almost every decision he made.

His legacy was failure in every department of the administration: diplomacy and statecraft, economy, defense, environment, regulation, education, employment ... is even one thing better than when George Bush took office? Did any President ever leave a worse mess for his successor?

George maintains that over time, he will look better than he does now, as he is viewed from a distance. It is hard to imagine the location and aspect of such a view.

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End of part three of four ...

LS Chap. 16 .....

All harbor thoughts of yearning
and in their minds thirst to gaze at me.
When living beings have become truly faithful,
honest and upright, gentle in intent,
single-mindedly desiring to see the Buddha
not hesitating even if it costs them their lives,
then I and the assembly of monks
appear together on Holy Eagle Peak.
At that time I tell the living beings
that I am always here, never entering extinction,
but that because of the power of an expedient means
at times I appear to be extinct, at other times not,
and that if there are living beings in other lands
who are reverent and sincere in their wish to believe,
then among them too
I will preach the unsurpassed Law.