...Let Us Pray...

International:
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez stunned the UN General Assembly with a speech in which he called US President George W. Bush "the devil" who acts like he owns the world. Chavez infuriated US officials with his sarcastic presentation in which he said "yesterday the devil came here," referring to Bush's speech from the same stage 24 hours earlier. "Right here," he added, "and it still smells of sulphur today, this table that I am now standing in front of." Chavez then crossed himself, brought his hands together as if in prayer and looked up to the ceiling of the assembly chamber.

"Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president of the United States, the gentleman I call 'the devil', came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of the world." Chavez launched a virulent attack on what he called US "hegemony" and "imperialism" and renewed calls for drastic reform of the United Nations to reduce US influence.

His speech was warmly applauded. It was the second anti-Bush tirade at the assembly in two days, following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech Tuesday.

To Torture or Not To Torture
John Dean, Richard Nixon’s White House counsel speaks on the legal and historical context of the Geneva Conventions and the actions taken thus far by the Bush administration. Dean’s latest book is

Conservatives Without Conscience. He is also featured prominently in the new HBO documentary Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater. [airing tonight –Wednesday at 9:30 on HBO2 –DirectTV. By the way, I urge everyone to read Conscience of a Conservative –especially republicans].

And then there were 5
Last Thursday, Gen. Colin Powell, a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) objecting to the President’s plan to redefine Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Powell said Bush’s plan would “put our troops at risk.” He was joined by three other former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs — Gen. John Vessey, Gen. John Shalikashvili and Admiral William Crowe. Today, McCain’s office announced that a fifth former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Hugh Shelton, has publically declared his objections. Shelton said Bush’s plan “would signal that the U.S. ‘is attempting to water down’ its obligations and would be an ‘egregious mistake.’” Watch CNN video

here. Why would the administration want the laws to be changed RETROACTIVELY, if they were right?

National:
Access Granted…
Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House, according to documents released Wednesday that provide the first official accounting of the access and influence the two presidential allies have enjoyed. The White House released the Secret Service visit records to settle a lawsuit by the Democratic Party and an ethics watchdog group seeking visitors logs for the two GOP strategists and others who emerged as figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Earlier this month, the White House suggested to the judge in that lawsuit that such records need not be disclosed because the information was privileged and might reveal how Bush and his staff get private advice, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press. See more info

here.

VP Donald Rumsfeld?
There But For The Grace Of God ...
In mid-August of 1974, Gerald Ford had to name a Vice President. His search narrowed to three finalists. One was the man who got the job: Nelson Rockefeller.
Another was the man who badly wanted it: George H.W. Bush.
Do you know who the third finalist was?
Donald Rumsfeld?! Click

here to get the scoop!

"

There is so much political corruption on Capitol Hill that the FBI has had to triple the number of squads investigating lobbyists, lawmakers and influence peddlers."

"

A state judge yesterday rejected a Georgia law requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification, writing in his decision, 'This cannot be.'" The judge said the law, which critics call a modern day poll tax, "disenfranchises citizens who are otherwise qualified to vote." In the meantime the House passes a bill to make voters show ID by a 228-196 vote.

"

The nation's airports face a looming crisis in their ability to screen checked luggage for bombs that will require billions of dollars to avert," a new GAO report shows. Many airports "have too few screeners and use slow, labor-intensive bomb detectors that are being overwhelmed."

Impeachment Hearing [no, not for Bush, silly] A House Judiciary Subcmte. will hold a legislative hearing on H.Res. 916, a resolution impeaching Manuel L. Real, a U.S. District Judge of the Central District of California, for high crimes & mis-demeanors. In Feb. 2000, Judge Real allegedly interceded on behalf of a defendant known to him.

THURS., C-SPAN3, 9AM ET

From The Left:
Official Cheney biographer thoroughly discredited by Senate Intelligence Committee on Iraq connection to 9-11 attacks Less than two weeks after U.S. News & World Report revealed that Weekly Standard senior writer Stephen F. Hayes had been chosen to write an official biography of Vice President Dick Cheney, with the cooperation of Cheney and other administration officials, the Senate Intelligence Committee, on September 8, released a postwar report on Iraq's weapons programs and its purported links to terrorism that thoroughly debunked the claim -- repeatedly advanced by Hayes -- that there existed a connection between the government of Saddam Hussein, Al Qaeda, and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In addition to broadly concluding that "Saddam Hussein was distrustful of al-Qa'ida and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al-Qa'ida to provide material or operational support," and that "[n]o postwar information indicates that Iraq intended to use al-Qa'ida or any other terrorist group to strike the United States homeland before or during Operation Iraqi Freedom," the Senate report also debunked a number of specific theories cited by Hayes in his Weekly Standard articles over the last three years in an effort to prove a connection between Saddam and the attacks of 9-11.

From The Right:
Today’s article comes from John Stossel entitled

It's hard to tell a conservative from a liberal. He argues that in this era of a big-spending Republican administration, the differences between conservatives and liberals have shrunk so much, it's hard to tell who's who.

...also,

A Sep/19 - Poll finds rebound in Bush approval. Amid falling gas prices and a two-week drive to highlight his administration's efforts to fight terrorism, President Bush's approval rating has risen to 44% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. That's his highest rating in a year.

Finally: Laura Bush is spending the week w/ Bill Clinton [does George know?!]. Rupert Murdoch is also scheduled to show up at the Clinton Global Initiative conference.

(Sources: AP, RandomHouseBooks, IsThatLegal, CNN, Center for American Progress, FOXNews, USNews, Senate Intelligence Committee, Media Matters, Townhall, WashingtonTimes, NY Daily News, WashingtonPost, USA Today, Hannity, AFP)