HOW MUCH MORE OBVIOUS CAN THE MEDIA BE?

Well, Lee, you're wrong.  There was a justification.  In this election, like none I've ever seen before, the press is determined to be a factor.  They are going to do everything they can to make every news story that comes along look bad for Bush ... even to the point of distorting the story itself.

OK ... I know.  This doesn't apply to every person in Washington or New York making their living as a journalist.  But you check out the stories yesterday on CNN, ABC, CBS, The New York Times, The LA Times, the Washington Post, Associated Press and more and you'll see what I'm talking about.  Every one of these media outlets said that the 9/11 report debunked Bush's reason for ridding the world of Saddam ... even while the very chairman of the commission was saying it just ain't so.

FINALLY, THOUGH, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS FIGHTING BACK

Finally, for once, the Bush administration has grown a pair and is hitting back over the media allegations that the 9/11 Commission has "discredited" the president's assertion that there was a relationship between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.  There clearly was, but such is their desire to defeat President Bush for re-election, the biased media is reporting otherwise.

Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the evidence was "overwhelming" that Al-Qaeda had a relationship with Iraq.  He called the media reports that the 9/11 Commission report was contradictory "irresponsible."  He also said "There clearly was a relationship.  It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming."  Cheney then went on to say the contact goes back to the 90's, and involved Osama Bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence officials.

Then, Cheney finally dropped the hammer.  He said the press is "often times lazy, often times just reports what somebody else in the press said without doing their homework."  Truer words have never been spoken, except he could have added that the Bush-hating liberal media wants to do everything it can to defeat his administration and elect The Poodle.

The Bush administration, including the president himself has said that there was a relationship between Al-Qaeda and Iraq, because there was.  What the 9/11 Commission is saying is the same thing the president has said, which is that there is no evidence of a direct link between Iraq and the attacks of September 11th.

There was never a contradiction, nothing has been discredited and there is no inconsistency, and the media knows it.  At least this time, the administration is hitting back.

DO YOU WANT A SENSE OF WHAT A POODLE PRESIDENCY WOULD BE?

Well ... let's look at a Kerry campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio.  The Souffle was talking about education .. and about the large number of young black men that were in jail.  There are, you see, more young black males in prison then there are in college.  According to Kerry, "it's not their fault."  That's right.  It's not these young black males fault that they sold drugs, robbed, raped and murdered.  It's our fault.  We ... us adults.  We did it to them, they didn't do it to themselves.  It's all because of poverty, poor schools, and no after school programs.  You've heard all this before.  The normal and typical response of liberals to the problem of crime.

This is actually part of the leftist war against the individual.  You simply cannot hold individual black males responsible for their decision to commit crimes.  Society did it to them.  Isn't it going to be just grand when this apologist occupies the White House?

WE REALLY HAVE FORGOTTEN, HAVEN'T WE?

I spent a good bit of time last evening watching the coverage of the 9/11 Commission's last public hearing.  We heard tapes from the hijackers of the four commercial airliners.  We saw computerized depictions of the paths these airliners took on their way to murder over 3,000 people.  What we didn't see, though, was pictures of the airplanes crashing into the World Trade Towers.  Our media is perfectly willing to show us video of the so-called abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison over and over, but how long has it been since you've seen those airplanes exploding through the towers?  It seems that Americans have forgotten the horror of that day.  Well ... maybe that's part of the plan.  Remember the template.

WHAT IF THEY HAD BEEN SHOT DOWN??

So yesterday the 9/11 Commission played back the radio transmissions from the 9/11 hijackers.  They were disturbing, with one of the hijackers, believed to be Mohammed Atta, saying to passengers "Just stay quiet and you'll be O.K."  Of course, we all know what happened when that murderous Islamic terrorist crashed that plane full of innocent people into the World Trade Center.

Also presented was evidence that the government bureaucrats at the FAA then took forever to contact the military, and eventually reached someone who asked if it was a real emergency or an exercise.  By the time the F-16's were scrambled, it was too late.  Later, the president, through Vice President Dick Cheney, authorized shooting down planes that were headed for Washington, but the orders never made it to the pilots.  It's pretty sad when direct orders from the President of the United States aren't carried out. 

Anyway, all of this begs the question:  What if they had been shot down?

What if the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania was shot down, the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center -- what if they had all been shot down, crashing harmlessly to the ground.  Can you imagine what would have happened?

Even though less that 300 lives would have been lost instead of almost 3,000,  people would have been in an uproar.  Democrats would have been calling for President Bush's resignation the next day.  The left would be calling Dick Cheney a murderer, and the victim's families would be holding press conferences.  The media would align against the president, saying that if only they had waited, maybe we could have talked to the terrorists.  Maybe we could have negotiated; found out why they were angry.  Surely they weren't going to crash those planes into buildings.  Impeachment proceedings would get underway.

An absurd idea?  Maybe...but think about all of this in terms of September 10th.  On September 11, the United States was not on a war footing, nobody anywhere could envision what happened.  All we can do is not let it happen again

TERRORISTS ARE NOT PRISONERS OF WAR

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that he approved the secret detention of a suspected terrorist in Iraq after receiving a request from the CIA.  The prisoner was hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross for seven months.  The Geneva Conventions call for prompt registration of the prisoner of war and access by the Red Cross.  The left, including The Poodle, is howling that we didn't designate this particular suspected terrorist a prisoner of war.

There's only one problem with all of this: terrorists are not prisoners of war, and thus are not entitled to the protections afforded to them by the Geneva Conventions.  Sure....we'll treat them humanely, give them food, water and a place to sleep.  But this is why they are called "enemy combatants," and not prisoners of war. 

To be entitled to prisoner of war status, the combatant must conduct operations according to the laws and customs of war.  For example, be part of a chain of command, wear a uniform and bear arms openly.  Terrorists and spies are excluded.  Those are the rules.

The United States could take terrorists out and shoot them and not be in violation of the Geneva Conventions.  So we hold certain Islamic terrorists in a secret prison for a couple of months...who cares. 

The Libertarian Party had a chance to make an impression on the media and the American people with their convention, and they blew it.  Let's take this column straight to #1 on Townhall.

Guess who's absolutely everywhere!  Why, it's none other than Bill Clinton!  He's got the book.  There's a new movie out!  What timing!  All of this happening when the focus should be on The Poodle.

Here's a rundown of the links between Al-Qaeda, Saddam Hussein and Iraq, including some that the 9/11 commission missed.

This is a story you're unlikely to read in the mainstream media: Israeli Arabs are crediting the security fence with their newfound prosperity.

The 9/11 commission is getting it wrong again....and Richard Miniter explains why.

Here's a transcript of Vice President Cheney's exchange with Gloria Borger on CNBC about the Al-Qaeda-Iraq connection.

The liberal media is at it again over the 9/11 commission's report...and the Media Research Center is there.

Something has happened in the Middle East, but barely anyone has noticed.  The Palestinian intifada is over, and the Palestinians have lost.  Charles Krauthammer explains.

If the United States really wanted to invade a country for oil...how about Canada?  They're our biggest supplier, and it's surely easier to invade a country with whose border is not defended.  Rich Tucker debunks the idea that countries are afraid of the United States.

What will happen if a nuclear bomb is detonated by a terrorist in the United States?  Paul Greenberg has this prediction, in his 'dispatch from the future.'

How about, instead of the government spending billions of our tax dollars on NASA, we instead unleash the private sector in space?  Jeff Jacoby explains.

Thomas Sowell looks at speech codes in schools around the country and asks: who is silencing whom?

Rap video being filmed while inmate walked out of Fulton County Jail.

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