state condoleezza rice

This sure isn't a way to defend the claims in Woodward's new book:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she cannot recall then-CIA chief George Tenet warning her of an impending al-Qaida attack in the United States, as a new book claims he did two months before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"What I am quite certain of is that I would remember if I was told, as this account apparently says, that there was about to be an attack in the United States, and the idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible," Rice said.

Rice was President Bush's national security adviser in 2001, when Bob Woodward's book "State of Denial" outlines a July 10 meeting among Rice, Tenet and the CIA's top counterterror officer.

"I don't know that this meeting took place, but what I really don't know, what I'm quite certain of, is that it was not a meeting in which I was told there was an impending attack and I refused to respond," Rice said.

Way to try and spin it there Condi. The problem is the American people already know you are a liar (mushroom clouds ring a bell?). I am sure that she remembers damn good and well what happened. This is just her defense (ie. Scooter Libby defense).

I just read the following headline and rolled my eyes:

Bush wants UN resolution on Lebanon conflict fast

We are almost a month into this conflict and now Bush wants a resolution "fast". What about our veto at the U.N. last month or our constant screwing around with the resolution so it says what the U.S. and Israel wants it to say? This resolution is sugar coated to appeal to Israel, yet not give anything to Lebanon.

President George W. Bush resisted a demand by Lebanon on Monday that Israeli troops immediately withdraw from southern Lebanon, saying it could create a vacuum and allow Hizbollah guerrillas to rearm.

Bush told reporters he wanted a U.N. Security Council resolution as quickly as possible calling for a cessation to hostilities in the nearly month-long conflict between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas.

But he did not welcome a Lebanese demand that Israeli forces withdraw immediately from southern Lebanon.

"Whatever happens in the U.N., we must not create a vacuum into which Hizbollah and its sponsors are able to move more weapons," Bush said.

At a news conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at his ranch, Bush also said he believed an international force to be created by a second U.N. resolution should patrol the Syrian border and stop the re-arming of Hizbollah.

Washington wants this resolution in days, not weeks.

Get that? We want it in "days, not weeks". We wait until weeks to try that. We are being lead by the worst foreign policy in our nation's history and it is no wonder why our country is less safe today then it was 6 years ago.

That is the number of Lebanese children killed in an Israeli air strike this morning (or Bush's moment of "opportunity"):

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 50 people — more than half children — in a southern Lebanese village Sunday, the deadliest attack in 19 days of fighting. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice postponed a visit to Lebanon in a setback for diplomatic efforts to end hostilities.

Infuriated Lebanese officials said they had asked Rice to postpone the visit after Israel's missile strike. But Rice said she called Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to say she would postpone the trip, and that she had work to do in Jerusalem to end the fighting.

The missiles destroyed several homes in the village of Qana as people were sleeping. Rescue officials said at least 50 people were killed, and the bodies of 27 children were found in the rubble.

Israeli said it targeted Qana because it was a base for hundreds of rockets launched at Israeli, including 40 that injured five Israelis on Sunday. Israel said it had warned civilians several days before to leave the village.

Other developments include:

• Lebanese crowd breaks into U.N. HQ in Beirut
• LEBANON: An environmental disaster looms
• Many Arabs Applaud Hezbollah

There is no end in sight to this fighting and most experts are in agreement that the fighting is only strengthening Hezbollah.

Yesterday North Korea called Condi Rice a 'imbecile'. Today, the ultra-conservative Insight Magazine is calling her incompetent and calling on Bush to replace her:

Conservative national security allies of President Bush are in revolt against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she is incompetent and has reversed the administration’s national security and foreign policy agenda.

The conservatives, who include Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle and leading current and former members of the Pentagon and National Security Council, have urged the president to transfer Miss Rice out of the State Department and to an advisory role. They said Miss Rice, stemming from her lack of understanding of the Middle East, has misled the president on Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"The president has yet to understand that people make policy and not the other way around," a senior national security policy analyst said. "Unlike [former Secretary of State Colin] Powell, Condi is loyal to the president. She is just incompetent on most foreign policy issues."

So we have numerous that have called for Rumsfeld to be fired and now they are calling for Condi to be fired. When will these people wake up and realize it isn't just the team that needs to be fire, but rather the team and coach?

Bush doesn't care about the job Condi does. As long as she is "loyal", she can do anything. That is the only resume requirement Bush has, loyality, and that is what has been the biggest downfall of Bush. Loyalty means telling someone they are wrong when you know they are wrong, not kissing their ass 24/7. Of course Bush is to much of an idiot to even recognize that.

Here is the Sunday morning line up:

This Week with George Stephanopoulos:

• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on brewing tension in the Middle East
• Fmr. Secretary of State Madeline Albright on Middle East tensions
• ROUNDTABLE: Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts, Fareed Zakaria, and George Will VOICES SUNDAY: Olympic gymnist Kerri Strug fights crime in Washington

Meet the Press

• Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) will share their views on the recent violence in the Middle East, the foreign policy hot spots of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, and the upcoming election season
• Robert Novak, the journalist at the center of the CIA leak case that led to the indictment of Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, explains his role

Face the Nation:

• Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State
• Richard Haass Council on Foreign Relations
•  Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) Select Intelligence Committee

CNN's Late Edition

First he said he never believed the presentation he gave to the U.N. in 2003. Now he says he wanted more troops for the initial invasion of Iraq:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday defended the Bush administration's Iraq war planning after her predecessor, Colin Powell, said he had made a case to send more troops to deal with the war's aftermath.

Rice also said she did not "remember specifically" what instance Powell was referring to on his recommending to President George W. Bush that more troops be sent.

In an interview with a private British television station on Sunday, Powell said there had been debates about the size of the force and how to deal with the aftermath.

This story has become one of the two buzzes of the blogosphere today (the other being the Colbert appearance last night). While everyone is focusing on what Powell is saying, I am focused on what he is not saying. That would be his reason for waiting three years before saying any of this.

I can not remember another administration in history that has had this many ex-officials come out and tell us what we thought all along - the administration is broken. The list is a mile long, and one I plan on compiling here in the near future so any help will be appreciated.

The point is, someone needs to ask Powell why he has waited so long to say anything. If he says what we all suspect, that he was afraid of what it could do to his career, then Congress absolutely must call Powell and other former members of the administration in, put them under oath and ask the questions. We have numerous departments and agencies so people can focus on their areas of expertise. Bush is no where near a "know it all", no matter how much he acts like one.

We have the makings of a war within the administration now thanks to Condi:

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he did not know what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was talking about when she said last week that the United States had made thousands of "tactical errors" in handling the war in Iraq, a statement she later said was meant figuratively.

Speaking during a radio interview on WDAY in Fargo, N.D., on Tuesday, Rumsfeld said calling changes in military tactics during the war "errors" reflects a lack of understanding of warfare. Rumsfeld defended his war plan for Iraq but added that such plans inevitably do not survive first contact with the enemy.

"Why? Because the enemy's got a brain; the enemy watches what you do and then adjusts to that, so you have to constantly adjust and change your tactics, your techniques and your procedures," Rumsfeld told interviewer Scott Hennen, according to a Defense Department transcript. "If someone says, well, that's a tactical mistake, then I guess it's a lack of understanding, at least my understanding, of what warfare is about."

Rumsfeld's questioning of Rice's comment came amid long-standing tensions between their departments over the war in Iraq and other issues. Rumsfeld and the Pentagon have been criticized by members of Congress and even some retired generals for missteps in Iraq, such as failing to anticipate the insurgency.

Now if this gets too heated which side will Bush take. Will he side with Condi and possibly that be the end of Rumsfeld or is it the other way around? Speaking of this - where is the "unity" in the administration? Maybe Ken Mehlman should start a talking points attack of the White House for their lack of unity now.

Via the Washington Post:

FOX NEWS SUNDAY (WTTG), 9 a.m.: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.).

THIS WEEK (ABC, WJLA), 9 a.m.: Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.); Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.); Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D); Harvey C. Mansfield , Harvard professor; Naomi Wolf , author.

FACE THE NATION (CBS, WUSA), 10:30 a.m.: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.); Stephen J. Hadley , White House national security adviser.

MEET THE PRESS (NBC, WRC), 10:30 a.m.: Rice.

LATE EDITION (CNN), 11 a.m.: Rice , Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.); Qubad Talabany , representative to the United States for the Iraqi Kurdistan government; retired Marine Lt. Gen. Bernard Trainor ; retired Army Gen. George A. Joulwan .

Hadley and Rice - that sure isn't a Chinese dish. Must be out doing more cheerleading for Iraq. Perhaps I should just sleep in tomorrow.