Posted 2:18 PM by david

Rumsfeld's appointment as Secretrary of Defense rescued his political career from demise in the state of Illinois. His cohorts crashed and burned like the World Trade Center. He was a member of the transition team of George Ryan, then the newly elected governor of Illinois. It was not widely known at the time that George's Republican cabal had been using tax money to fund Republican political campiagns since 1991. Alan Drazek, one of Rumsfeld's fellow committee members, pled guilty to tax evasion in a bargain that also required him to testify against Ryan's former Chief of Staff Scott Fawell. The trial criminal trial of George Ryan continues, as the prosecution struggles to present evidence of a tragic accident caused by a truck driver who purchased his license with a bribe while Ryan was Secretary of State. The prosecution seeks to prove that such bribes were business as usual under Ryan's administration, with fatal results. See today's story in The Chicago Sun Times

Posted 3:16 PM by david

Role of Pakistan Central to Current Conflicts in the Former British Empire

The nuclear capability in Iran was aquired from Pakistan,and likewise were the leadership and intelligence resources of the Taliban. Half a decade ago, experts were seriously adressing this problem which then seemed to focus on the nuclear saber-rattling between India and Pakistan.

In the picture above, George W. Bush smiles while dismantling decades of work diffusing what had become Churchill's nightmare: an ungovernable empire of unmanageable wealth that could explode violently at any moment.

Bush fired the most important US experts on Afghanistan and the Taliban during the 2 months prior to 911

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Posted 3:30 PM by david roknich
According to the Times of India,two suspects detained in connection with the March 11 terrorist attacks in Spain may ultimately turn out to be ISI (Inter-Service Intelligence of Pakistan) agents. This may further embarass an administration that has relied upon Pakistan as an ally against Al Queda, an organization created by Pakistan's ISI and still intricately linked to it.

Posted 2:10 PM by david roknich

Mixed Signals from Pakistan

"...elements within the Pakistani military and its intelligence establishment are helping Al-Qaeda members evade capture and making a mockery of the media hype about the fresh military operations against leaders such as Osama bin Laden, United States analysts have said.
With anti-Taliban and anti-Al Qaeda forces controlling Kabul, Stratfor said, the only remaining suspects are within Islamabadís Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) apparatus.

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Posted 12:19 PM by david roknich

US Gunfire Increases Toll of Arab Journalists

BAGHDAD (IHT 03-19)
A reporter for the Arab satellite television station Al Arabiya died from his wounds Friday after U.S. soldiers shot him hours earlier along with a cameraman, who died at the scene. The death brought to five the number of journalists killed in Iraq in less than 24 hours.

"There are so many things that are untrue that are being reported by irresponsible journalists and ... television stations, particularly like al-Jazeera and al-Arabia," he said, adding that the Iraqi people are being given an unbalanced picture "of what is happening in their country."
Donald Rumsfeld 11-03-2003

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Posted 10:33 AM by Steven Realo

Justice Department Appeals Detainment Ruling

The Justice Department urged the court to overturn an appellate ruling that found President Bush had exceeded his constitutional authority in detaining Jose Padilla, an American citizen who the government contends has links to Al Qaeda.
''The ultimate issue,'' Ms. Newman said in an interview, ''is whether the president has the authority to order the military to detain a U.S. citizen captured on U.S. soil outside a zone of battle and to deny him access to a court to review the legality of that detention.''

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Posted 10:31 AM by Steven Realo

Senate Probes Backing of Haitian Insurgents

The DOD has supplied 20,000 M-16s and other equipment to the Dominican military over the past two years. Was the Dominican Republic being used as a staging ground for weapons transfers and coup plotting?

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Posted 10:28 AM by Steven Realo

Pakistan Poses Greater Threat than Taliban

"...the administration is still covering up for Pakistan, whose government recently made the absurd claim that large-scale shipments of nuclear technology and material to rogue states - including North Korea, according to a new CIA report - were the work of one man, who was promptly pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf. "

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Posted 1:40 PM by david roknich

Al Jazeera Goes to Jail

by Christian Parenti of THE NATION
"Donald Rumsfeld has called Al Jazeera's coverage "outrageous" and "inexcusably biased" and implied that he'd like to see the satellite channel thrown out of Iraq. So far the American military has bombed the network's offices in both Baghdad and Kabul, killing one employee; and arrested twenty-one of Al Jazeera's reporters...."

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Posted 12:07 PM by david roknich

Report from An American In Venezuela

The conflict in Venezuela began with a sucessful petition to recall 37 opponents of Hugo Chavez, with a response from his apponents for his recall...
The tendency of the opposition now seems to be towards the use of guns. When opposition leaders or adherents are detained with high-powered weapons, the media discredits the arrest and repeats reports that the guns were planted.
The opposition leaders urge their faithful to increase the resistance to a full-scaled rebellion, and the most virulent commentators insult the military for not staging a coup, something that seems very unlikely.

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Posted 4:01 PM by Steven Realo

Train Wreck Influences Election in Spain

The government had initially blamed ETA, an armed Basque separatist group, for Thursday's string of train bombings in Madrid. Analysts (predicted) that blaming the massacre on ETA, which the government has gone all out to crush in recent years, would likely benefit the ruling party in today's election. (and it did indeed....

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Posted 4:04 PM by david roknich

DOGSPOT Foreign Service Detained in Kabul

Kabul (03-11)
We have just received a report that the entire staff of DOGSPOT's foreign service has been detained in Afghanistan, and taken to Kabul for questioning. The last message recieved from our staff was posted by Steven Realo

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Posted 6:22 PM by david roknich

Stolen Moments? Follow the Money

The day the music died in the intelligence committee hearings

Time is money: especially in this quagmire called Iraq. Much ado has been made of the false basis of our involvement. Investigations have come and gone here and in the UK. Tony Blair managed to hang on by his fingernails in the wake of the Hutton inquiry while the inner circle of Bush advisors manged to keep a stiff upper lip and carry on as if the game had been played by the book.

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Posted 12:35 PM by david roknich

Interview with Aristide Confirms US Coup

ěThis is what I call a real coup díČtat,î Aristide said. ěThis is an issue for all African Americans and Africans.î
ěItís like he is in jail, he said. He said he was kidnapped,î Waters said. She said Aristide had been threatened by U.S. diplomats who reportedly told the Haitian leader that if he failed to leave, Guy Phillippe, the rebel leader, would storm the palace and he would be killed.

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Posted 3:59 PM by david roknich

Discovering Why We are in Iraq

Separate statements by Ahmed Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), and U.S. retired Gen Jay Garner, who was in charge of planning and administering post-war reconstruction from January through May 2002, suggest that other, less public motives were behind the war, none of which concerned self-defence, pre-emptive or otherwise.

DOGSPOT

Posted 3:58 PM by david roknich

Hussein Declared a POW, Receives Visit from Red Cross

BAGHDAD, AP(2-21)

"...the Pentagon formally declared Saddam a prisoner of war last month because of his status as commander in chief of Iraq's military. As a POW, Saddam is entitled under the Geneva Conventions to certain rights, including visits by the international Red Cross and freedom from coercion of any kind during interrogations."

DOGSPOT

Posted 4:09 PM by david roknich

US Backed Contras in Haiti

A close associate of Chamblain, Emmanuel ěTotoî Constant, has admitted its CIA funding and direction. Chamblain was revealed in documents reviewed by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York as one of those present during the planning, with a USA agent, of the assassination of the pro-Aristide minister of justice, Guy Malary, in 1993. The USA refuses to release documents it seized from FRAPH during the 1994 USA invasion - presumably to cover up the CIA ties to FRAPH. Philippe and Chamblain were among those from the Haitian opposition, recognized by the USA - the Convergence - who organized conferences in the Dominican Republic, funded and attended by USA operatives from the International Republican Institute.

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Posted 3:56 PM by david roknich

US Backed Contras in Haiti

Even as Colin Powell insists the USA does not seek ěregime change,î the attempt to oust the legitimate elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide grows more violent by the day. During the past week, at least 50 people have been slaughtered, and probably far more, in Gonaives, Haitiís fourth-largest city - most by those whom Powell and pro-USA media call ěrebels...

more

Posted 11:32 AM by david roknich

Bush Appoints Iran-Contra Figure To Head Iraq Probe

PACIFICA RADIO (02-12)

"The impartiality of the commission has...
...come into question. The co-chairs named to head up the inquiry will be federal appeals court Judge Laurence Silberman and former Virginia Democratic Senator Charles Robb.

Judge Silberman has been described as a longtime Republican operative and is widely thought to have helped orchestrate Ronald Reagan's1980 "October Suprise" when Reagan secretly made contacts with the Iranian government before he was elected.

More about the return of the contras at DOGSPOT

Posted 7:43 PM by david roknich

Prepare for Another Whitewash

In the wake of an investigation that largely cleared Prime Minister Tony Blair of falsifying intelligence that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq, President Bush now calls for a similar inquiry into the "sources" that lead to our involvement. As the New York Times blighthly notes, this undertaking is awash with difficulties. Some would say flawed form the outset. Notably Jay Rockefeller, vice chairman of the senate committee tasked to investigate this type of failure.

Posted 12:45 PM by david roknich

Andrew Gilligan's Resignation Statement -- full text:

"...The Government did sex up the dossier, transforming possibilities and probabilities into certainties...
and many in the intelligence services, including the leading expert in WMD, were unhappy about it."

His complete statement

Posted 1:26 PM by david roknich

False Basis of Iraq War Precipates International Scandal

"For bureaucratic reasons we settled on weapons of mass destruction
because it was the one issue everyone could agree on."
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz

special coverage

Posted 3:30 PM by david roknich

Occupation Becomes Unpopular

"If Saddam Hussein had ever put barbed wire around this village, we would have fought him," the Sheik says angrily.

Interview with the sheik of Saddam Hussein's tribe

Posted 3:26 PM by david roknich
London Times 12/31/02

DONALD RUMSFELD, the US Defence Secretary and one of the most strident critics of Saddam Hussein, met the Iraqi President in 1983 to ease the way for US companies to sell Baghdad biological and chemical weapons components, including anthrax and bubonic plague cultures, according to newly declassified US Government documents.

FULL STORY

Posted 4:36 PM by david roknich

Pangloss Doesn't Live in Azerbaijan Anymore

AP Stories:
(12-03) 11:42 PST BAKU, Azerbaijan
__Rumsfeld congratulates Aliev on his October election victory
(12-05) 14:36 PST BAKU, Azerbaijan
__Jailed opposition refuses food after rigged election

published by opposition leaders who found refuge in the Norwegian embassy

Rauf Arifoglu, editor of the opposition party paper Yeni Musavat, and dozens of others jailed with him have refused food since Dec. 1, demanding to be released.
They were arrested on Oct. 27 on charges of encouraging disorder after thousands of people rioted to protest disputed elections in Azerbaijan, an oil-rich country that has pursued close ties with the United States.

more daring than Indymedia

Posted 12:46 PM by david roknich

Rumsfeld Wins "Foot in Mouth" Award

The Plain English Campaign announces its annual awards

'Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns ó the ones we don't know we don't know.'

Plain English Campaign Awards

Posted 12:46 PM by david roknich

Freedom of Press in Iraq Excedes that of US Invaders

(11-25) 14:20 PST WASHINGTON (AP)

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld claims that Arab news organizations Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya cooperated with Iraqi insurgents to witness and videotape attacks on American troops.
"They've called Al-Jazeera to come and watch them do it...
THAT IS EXACTLY HOW THE AMERCAN PRESS COVERED BATTLES UNTIL
COLIN POWELL CHANGED THE POLICY IN THE AFTERMATH OF MAI LAI

AP Story

Posted 12:47 AM by david roknich

"Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread...

(11-17) 23:11 PST WASHINGTON (AP)

When the House voted to stop charging wounded soldiers for their hospital food, it had a lot to do with what Rep. Bill Young's wife heard during a bedside visit with the troops.

Read more about this unspeakable outrage....
at least now IT'S FEDERAL CRIME TO CHARGE
WOUNDED VETERANS FOR THEIR
HOSPITAL FOOD

...and forgive us our trespasses": Jesus Christ

Posted 4:15 PM by david roknich

Privatizing the Military Industrial

From the AP wire October 30, 2003

By paying civilians to handle military tasks, the Bush administration is freeing up U.S. troops to fight. But the use of contractors also hides the true costs of war. Their dead aren't added to official body counts. Their duties ó and profits ó are hidden by close-mouthed executives who won't give details to Congress. And as their coffers and roles swell, companies are funneling earnings into political campaigns and gaining influence over military policy ó even getting paid to recommend themselves for lucrative contracts.

complete story

Posted 3:50 PM by david roknich

Who Stood Down on 911

The system comes from Project Looking Glass ó
technology developed under this project facilitates surveillance on a whole new level

The efforts to break down the wall of government secrecy on black projects come up against the basic official line that the government has the right to keep these secrets for purposes of "national security." However, on 9/11 the government really did have a legitimate national security interest and, using the quantum-based surveillance technology described below, actually had detailed advance warning of the attacks ó and deliberately sat on this information in order to gain vast new funding for the C.I.A. and Pentagon, and a boost to the Bush presidency, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. story continues in Blogger's most controversial Blog
mirror site
google cache

Posted 5:00 PM by david roknich
Some background on recent applications: Page 89, New World Vistas, Air and Space Power for the 21st Century, Ancillary Volume, unattributed article, 1996.

New Vistas in Sublethal Warfare

It would also appear possible to create high fidelity speech in the human body...
When a high power microwave pulse in the gigahertz range strikes the human body, a very small temperature perturbation occurs. This is associated with a sudden expansion of the slightly heated tissue. This expansion is fast enough to produce an acoustic wave. If a pulse stream is used, it should be possible to create an internal acoustic field in the 5-15 kilohertz range, which is audible. Thus, it may be possible to "talk" to selected adversaries in a fashion that would be most disturbing to them.

Full story

Posted 1:00 PM by david roknich
Village Voice - 30 minutes ago
...Rummy has practically set up his own government. It's almost like a mini-coup in Bush's Washington

Rumy Reinterprets the War on Terror

"...the Defense Department said it would be calling up more National Guard and Reserve troops for Iraq duty. Not combat troops, according to General Peter Pace, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but people in support capacities that can wind up in the line of fire. The DOD will call up 10,000 troops in the Arkansas and North Carolina guards. The war remains unpopular with the troops, and press reports are noting that at least some troops on furlough are dodging a return to the front. "
Full story

Posted 1:53 PM by david roknich
Just a reminder... Cheney enjoys "a slice of the pie" at the Pentagon with fellow ideologue Donald Rumsfeld

Posted 1:48 PM by david roknich
From a press conference last year, archived by the US State Department
Rumsfeld: It's not for me to give advice to other countries. We do have a saying in America, if you're in a hole, stop digging. I'm not sure I should have said that. [Laughter] Let's pretend I never said that. [Laughter]"
Who is he laughing at?

Posted 6:35 PM by david roknich
News from Patrick Cockburn in Dhuluaya
"US soldiers driving bulldozers, with jazz blaring from loudspeakers, have uprooted ancient groves of date palms as well as orange and lemon trees in central Iraq as part of a new policy of collective punishment of farmers who do not give information about guerrillas attacking US troops." more news

Posted 2:45 PM by Steven Realo
kind of funny that rumsfeld started his august press conference bragging about the $30 million dollar HIT he put out on the Hussein bros, and amazing that the press actually cut to the chase for once and immediately switched the subject to Liberia...where we might indeed be knee deep in hot sand rather soon.

What they failed to probe was how small it seems compared to Haliburton's 1.7 Billion dollar sweetheart deal for rebuilding the very same Iraq they helped destroy..
btw, how far did Cheney really distance himself from that massively profitable outfit when he allegedly divested? oh, but this is the Donald Rumsfeld Blog, we'll broil Cheney somewhere else -:)

Posted 2:24 PM by david roknich
regarding Rumsfeld and fiscal responsibility: "For fiscal year 2000 alone, auditors for the Pentagon's Inspector General's Office found $1.1 trillion in bookkeeping entries that could not be tracked or justified.... ...Although this is not a new problem -- for fiscal year 1999 the Pentagon Inspector General reported $2.3 trillion worth of untraceable accounting entries -- the budget mess is prompting critical attention even from defense hawks." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, during his confirmation hearings in January, acknowledged that the problem is "terrifying" and "monumental," adding that "it's going to take a period of years to sort it out." Hard to believe Rumsfeld could ever be terrified... he has indeed proceded, undaunted by the fiscal disaster he acknowledged openly in his confirmation hearings, to increase the military budget with unprecedented abandon.

Posted 11:52 PM by Steven Realo
Where's the money trail. Donald?
During Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's January confirmation hearings, Senator Byrd said, "I seriously question an increase in the Pentagon budget in the face of the department's recent inspector general's report. How can we seriously consider a $50 billion increase in the Defense Department budget when DoD's own auditors...say the department cannot account for $2.3 trillion transactions in one year alone?

Posted 12:22 PM by Steven Realo
News From The Laboratory of Donald Rumsfeld

"... in 1977, Donald Rumsfeld...was hired as the president of G. D. Searle Laboratories. Searle was then seeking approval of a new controversial sweetener, which has since become popular as "Aspartame". Rumsfeld said he could handle aspartame as a ělegal, rather than scientific problem.î In 1980, shortly after Reagan came into power, Rumsfeld was quoted as saying that ěhe would call in all of his markers and that no matter what, he would see to it that aspartame would be approved that year."

Rumsfeld was paid $3.5 million in salary and bonuses between 1979 and 1984.
Monsanto, a leader in biotechnology with important connections to the intelligence establishment, subsequently purchased Searle. During the first 12 years of aspartame use in the US alone, the incidence of brain cancer has increased by 10%. This is the same type of cancer associated with aspartame in primate studies done in the mid 60s before "aspartame" was considered for use as a a sweetener.
Stay tuned for news of further research on this topic, which has been carefully silenced by the corporate media.

Posted 12:08 PM by Steven Realo
Now Owned By Monsanto
"...Former President George Bush Sr. appointed Monsanto lawyer Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a past chairman of G.D. Searle Co., now owned by Monsanto. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Venneman was on the board of directors of Calgene Pharmaceuticals, now owned by Monsanto."

Posted 8:31 AM by Steven Realo
More lies from the corporate media
October 8, 2001 Interview with Bryant Gumbel on CBS "Early Show"
"And we know that the targets were all military targets and that the humanitarian aspect of it has been completed and the planes are returning to base now."

Posted 9:26 PM by Steven Realo
Rumsfeld In a Time Warp?
Pravda 2001-08-17
RUMSFELD WAS NEGOTIATING WITH ěENEMYî IN MOSCOW
"US Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld irritatingly mentioned in the interview to the TV channel PBS that he ěwas conducting negotiations with enemyî in Moscow. President Putin and Russian Foreign Minister are ěenemiesî for America. Rumsfeld added that there was no special need to continue negotiations pertaining the AMB national system with Russia. This was said after Putin and Bush publicly swore at the recent summit they would have mutual understanding and cooperation for ages. Rumsfeld himself claimed before his recent visit to Moscow that the US did not consider Russia to be their enemy and that the Cold War era was behind. Nevertheless Rumsfeldís recent speech was just a slap in Moscowís face. His speech was not against Washington policy ń they know what they want there."

Posted 2:30 PM by Steven Realo
ENFORCEMENT ARM FOR THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
"U.S. citizens are not aware of the broad military plans of the U.S. for space because of the PR spin of the new Star Wars pitch (it's about protecting against a "Space Pearl Harbor," as the Rumsfeld Commission puts it, "just" about "missile defense") and due to communications media that are lazy and worse.
But other nations of the world do understand. That's why, at the United Nations last November 20, a resolution was introduced - on which 163 nations voted yes - for "Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space." It reaffirmed the basic international law on space, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, and specifically its provision that space be set aside for peaceful purposes. The United States abstained."

Posted 1:57 PM by Steven Realo
George Bush's America
"...the Rumsfeld review has concluded that the Pacific Ocean should now become the most important focus of US military deployments, with China now perceived as the principal threat to American global dominance.
The huge distances involved in the Pacific mean that the Pentagon must give additional priority to "long-range power projection", the report says."

Posted 1:17 PM by Steven Realo
"...In the past we had most to fear from charismatic tyrants. Today it is the technocrats, the "slight types" who efficiently run our government and dominate our age. It is the Dick Cheneys, who manage our withdrawal from the Kyoto treaty on global warming and cut spending on conservation; the Donald Rumsfelds, who lead the charge for missile defense and space war and disturb the world's nuclear equilibrium."
Wanted: Henry Kissinger

Posted 12:46 PM by Steven Realo
U.S. defense secretary discusses Turkey, Ukraine, Iraq, China
"Q: Then should we read your visit as a strong show of support for (Ukrainian) President (Leonid) Kuchma who has, you know, been implicated in the death of this journalist?
RUMSFELD: I would read it exactly as I have stated it. The Ukraine is an important country, and it's in a difficult transition as are most of the former Soviet republics, and we wish them well and we hope they continue on a path towards free institutions.
Q: But what about a free press?
No answer.

Posted 12:14 PM by Steven Realo
And then of course, there's Henry Kissinger, who was secretary of state during Rumsfeld's last stint in the DOD. Henry continues to make the headlines for his exploits "back in the day". "Henry Kissinger and the United States were more deeply involved than was previously thought in a 1970 plot to prevent a left-wing politician from becoming the president of Chile, CBS television news reported Sunday. The program "60 Minutes" quotes an independent researcher as saying the CIA sent a cable to its office in Chile instructing agents there to continue fomenting a military takeover. The cable came following a conversation with Kissinger, who at the time was President Nixon's national security adviser and later became secretary of state. According to researcher Peter Kornbluh, the order also came a day after Kissinger has said he cut off any attempt to undermine Chile's democratic government."
That one's from the AP wire, Sept. 9, 2001. You can read it and other documents about Henry's international career at the
Global Policy Forum

Posted 12:06 PM by Steven Realo
Yes to the World Criminal Court, But With America on Board
"With the successful prosecution and sentencing of Bosnian war criminals by the ad hoc international tribunal investigating atrocities in former Yugoslavia, now would seem a good time to push ahead with the current plan for a permanent court to catch and bring to justice some of the world's butchers and war criminals who still go free...
Officials from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on down have shown a marked distaste for the undertaking." And exactly why? We will be publishing details in coming days.

Posted 11:59 AM by Steven Realo
a loser from the start
"Bush named Donald Rumsfeld to be his secretary of defense... a job Rumsfeld held at the end of the Vietnam War. Give W. credit, it's shrewd and self-effacing to admit right at the start he needs people with experience dealing with hopeless, immoral calamities."

Posted 10:57 AM by Steven Realo
The boys at the Pentagon were tripping over their shoelaces with glee the day Donald Rumsfeld was appointed Secretary of Defense by our resident in the Whore House. With each day this relic from the Vietnam War era holds sway, the military industrial complex will prosper while our freedom erodes at taxpayer expense. Get rid of him and the illegally installed Miltary Junta NOW!