Rebels may have plotted assassination attempt against President Bush!

The AP

November 27, 2004, 7:11 PM EST

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's main rebel group asked followers to mount an assassination attempt against President Bush during his visit to Colombia last week, Defense Minister Jorge Uribe said. There was no evidence Saturday that rebels even tried to organize such an attack.

Uribe told reporters late Friday that informants said the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, told followers to attack Bush during his four-hour visit in the seaside city of Cartagena last Monday, where he met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.The defense minister, who is no relation to the president, said security forces were on full alert during the visit. About 15,000 Colombian troops and police, along with U.S. troops and Secret Service agents provided security. There was no indication Bush's life was ever in danger.

Uribe did not say where the informants had heard about the attack.

The Art of the Possible: Let's look at the question of Vice-Presidentialism on the Democratic side.

Once Upon a Time: Arthur continues to demonstrate why he's considered by many of us to be one the best.

The Moderate Voice: ESPN fires Mark Madden for Kennedy assassination remarks. Apparently sports fans are more discerning than the pea-brained dittoheads who listen to wingmutt radio. Rush Limbaugh got that message in a hurry a few years ago.

skippy the bush kangaroo: Time to stop buying donuts - an action alert

Best wishes to Libby Spencer

HOLY CRAP: Pentagon-connected ministry is electioneering and Obama-bashing...Who profits from "Biblical Capitalism"?...A traditional news outlet finally notices the religious elephant in our political living room...The real impact of the Hagee-McCain divorce...Faith Factor Factbox...The General's Ride...Louisiana dragging science ed. back into the swamp...Beyond Belief...Clinging to the Crucifix...Bible study for atheists

The consequences of neglecting Afghanistan and the resurgent Taliban are apparent.

NYTimes:

A well-coordinated assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai by suspected Taliban insurgents at the Afghan national day military parade in central Kabul has turned into a moment of national embarrassment for the government, which has been pressing to take over responsibility for Kabul’s security from foreign troops.

Three people were killed Sunday in the brazen assault, ruining what was supposed to have been a proud moment for Afghan security forces. The ability of the attackers to get so close to Mr. Karzai, who escaped unhurt, suggested they had inside help.

Considering President Bush recently admitted that it's "probably true" the next attack will come from Afghanistan, this really doesn't surprise me. But it does worry me.

Via CNN:

Pakistan's Interior Ministry backtracked Tuesday on its statement that Benazir Bhutto died because she hit her head on a sunroof latch during a shooting and bomb attack.

The government also published a reward offer in several national newspapers to anyone who could identify two suspects from the killing.

Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told CNN the ministry will wait for the findings from forensic investigators before making a conclusion about her cause of death.

Cheema said he based his statement Friday about the sunroof latch "on the initial investigations and the reports by the medical doctors" who treated her at Rawalpindi General Hospital. Read on...

I won't begin to offer a theory or explanation, but it is significant that the Pakistani government has made this move. The release of the latest video of Bhutto's assassination has raised many more questions and it appears that pressure from the international community and media, as well as from Bhutto supporters has put the Pakistani Interior Ministry back on its heels.

Enter Jeopardy Think Music:
Wikipedia: "on November 22, 1963, independent sources began reporting that three shots had been fired at the President’s motorcade. At 12:34 p.m., approximately four minutes after the shots were fired, the first wire story flashed around the world..."

Answer: Arlen Specter!

The Single Bullet Theory, called the magic bullet theory by critics, was introduced by the Warren Commission to explain how three shots made by Lee Harvey Oswald resulted in the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy.

The theory, generally credited to Warren Commission staffer Arlen Specter (now a U.S. Senator.), posits that a single bullet, known as "Warren Commission Exhibit 399" (also known as "CE399"), caused all of the non-fatal wounds in both President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally.

44 years ago tomorrow...

During Hardball's love in with Ann Coulter----Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of John Edwards called in and asked her to stop lowering the bar with personal attacks in our country's political debate. Coulter was not ready for this one...

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Coulter denies attacking Edwards on GMA (Coulter:...if I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.”) and then talks over her as Elizabeth tries to get through...She tells Ann that her ilk debases political dialogue---Oh, really? Ann tries to spin it that Edwards is telling her to stop talking which is of course---wrong. Elizabeth also tells her that she's the mother of the son who died and called her out on Coulter's column that said this about John Edwards:

If you want points for not using your son's death politically, don't you have to take down all those "Ask me about my son's death in a horrific car accident" bumper stickers?

Ann's defense is that she wrote it three years ago....

Think Progress has got it too...

Guardian Unlimited (h/t Gregory):

A recent case suggests that the war on terror has been superseded by the war on embarrassment

A man accused of blowing up an airliner and killing 73 people, who has already admitted to bombing hotels with fatal consequences and who has a conviction for a failed assassination attempt on a head of state, was freed on a technicality in a Texas court this week, and can look forward to a quiet retirement in Florida.

In London a man accused of hacking into the computer system of the Pentagon and Nasa is waiting to see if the House of Lords will hear his appeal against extradition to the US to face a trial in which one prosecutor has already indicated he should "fry". Blowing up an airliner is clearly regarded as less serious than causing major embarrassment to the defence establishment.

Glenn Reynolds gets taken to task for his murder fantasies of Iranian civilians:

The mainstream media finally sees Putz for what he is: not a moderate, reasonable "non-partisan" -- but a hard-right extremist. Columnist Paul Campos not only takes Putz to task for his assassination fantasies,...read on

Scott Lemieux tells Reynolds that his pal Michael Ledeen is a war criminal if Iran has been at war with us since 1979.

Wampum reports that NPR has been drinking the same GOP Kool-Aid.

Ignorance can kill so don't listen to Laura Bush. Incompetence is just as deadly. Is character assassination the only thing the Bush administration knows how to do?

Not a blog, but definitely worth reading...A Nobel Prize-winning economist and a former Assistant Secretary of Commerce report on the Iraq War's stunning price tag --between $1 and $2 trillion.

Catch: One of the Wicked--Conrad Burns

Scrutiny Hooligans: 9/11 did not turn our nation into a belligerent monarchy, George Bush did.

Catch: One of the Wicked--Conrad Burns

Scrutiny Hooligans: 9/11 did not turn our nation into a belligerent monarchy, George Bush did.

Coretta Scott King: R.I.P

"Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died at the age of 78. Flags at the King Center were lowered to half-staff Tuesday morning...read on"