I will be working all weekend and my hubby will be home, so I will probably not be updating for a few days unless something major crosses my email path. However, I do want to leave you with a few things to view during my absense:

Something to Ponder

Colin Powell is using a term that has a double meaning. Twice I have heard him call the new inspection teams in Iraq "exploitation teams". In his interview in early June with Peter Jennings, Jennings said, You and the British are both accused today of using faulty intelligence at best. Powell commented:

Let me tell you something, Peter. As I was getting ready for my 5th of February presentation to the United Nations Security Council, I knew that the credibility of the United States was on the line.

And I spent four days and four nights � maybe five days, five nights, it's a blur � with the analysts themselves, with the director of Central Intelligence, the deputy director of Central Intelligence out at the agency, with people who were not from the CIA but who were on my staff to ask pointed direct questions and the information we presented on the 5th of February was sound, it was multi-sourced and I think in due course, as the inspections continue with our new exploitation teams that were brought in, people will find that we presented a solid case, a case that is there and was there and will remain there. And all the skepticism that's being demonstrated now, all the charges that are being levied now, in due course will be found to be incorrect.

Then yesterday, a reporter caught Powell after a meeting with Koufi Anan, and asked him, Mr. Secretary, could you comment on Senator Biden saying today that there were people in the Administration, in the cabinet, who hyped the available intelligence in order to push toward war sooner than the UN was willing to push toward war.

Powell said, I didn't hear Senator Biden's comments this morning, but the President asked me to make the definitive statement of the view of the United States with respect to weapons of mass destruction and I did that before the Security Council on the 5th of February. We stand by that statement. And we are continuing our work in Iraq with the exploitation of documents, with the interogation of individuals who may have knowledge of WMD programs and with on-site inquiries as well. And more experts are going in. And I think one should be careful about making judgements as to what was hyped or not hyped until the exploitation is finished. Thank you. (note: I heard this on C-Span and no other documentation can be found.)

The word exploit has several meanings:

1. To employ to the greatest possible advantage

2. To advertise; promote

3. To make use of selfishly or unethically; synonymous with manipulate

Now the first definition sounds sweet and nice, but it too has sinister undertones. To employ to the greatest possible advantage. Who's advantage? These exploitation teams are working towards the Bush Administrations greatest advantage. To advertise; promote. Oh yes, this is being used as a huge propaganda campaign. They cannot find the weapons, so they are using exploitation teams to find those "invisible" WMD. And finally, to make use of selfishly or unethically; manipulate. Is Powell giving us a precursor to manipulated documentation? Did he let the cat out of the bag by telling us that whatever they find, could be "planted"? Perhaps I am stretching this just a bit, but then, I put nothing past this Administration. Was this merely a Freudian slip? Or the truth coming out?

News Sources

Here is the list of news sources to check out when I am absent:

Antiwar.com
This guy posts updates daily and grabs headlines from all over the world.

TruthOut
This site is also updated daily and has some really interesting articles and op-eds.

For the more liberal leaning readers, Liberal Slant

The Golem News and Reviews
This is one of the more unusual sites that I frequent, but occassionally there are some awesome articles there.

The Nation
An Excellent source

Reuters
Still one of the more trusted news sources out there

Mike Malloy's Radio Show Archives
This is the archived page of the articles Mike Malloy discusses on his show.

Institute for Public AccuracyGreat Resources!

Buzzflash
a liberal news source

AlterNet.org
an Independent News Source

Of course, you can also check out the Alphabet News Sources(CNN, CBS, ABC, and MSNBC) and you can also read these popular online newspaper sources (The Washington Post, The LA Times, The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, The Washington Times, The Guardian Unlimited, The Observer, The Asian Times Online, and Pravda (Russian newspaper)).

For my more liberal readers, check out these links from Democratic Underground: Liberal Weblogs, General Democratic Party Sites, Forums and Communities where you can discuss everything Democratic, and Humor and Parody - humorous-slanted sites about the Bush Administration.

For my Libertarian and Conservative readers,check out these news sources: The Daily Objectivist, The Drudge Report, The Sierra Times, and World Net Daily.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. As I said before, unless something news-worthy and/or urgent crosses my email this weekend, I will not be updating again until Monday.