Other Music from a... Different Kitchen

In a stunning snub, two Democrats on the 9/11 commission yesterday abruptly walked out in the middle of the Oval Office interview with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Both early-departing panelists, former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey and ex-Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, insisted they had prior commitments - but their sudden slip out the side door of the White House left Washington and some fellow commission members in shock. (full story)

Whether or not North Korea has nukes or not, the US will be safe from them by the end of the year, Air Force Lt. Gen. Ron Kadish, director of the "Star Wars" Missile Defense Agency said yesterday [April 28]. But critics claim the multi-million dollar program is an overpriced waste.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, has called the missile tests "shamefully rigged" and said the money [a $1.12 billion budget overrun in 2003] could be better spent sending another 10,000 troops to Iraq.

L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq, said in a speech six months before the September 11, 2001 attacks that the Bush administration was "paying no attention" to terrorism.

"What they will do is stagger along until there's a major incident and then suddenly say, 'Oh my God, shouldn't we be organized to deal with this,"' said Bremer at McCormick Tribune Foundation conference on terrorism on February 26, 2001. (full story)

By mid-April, it was already the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq. By Thursday, the month's death toll had climbed to 134, more than the number of troops killed in the war's opening stages, from the invasion to the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad. (full story)

Iraqi's will have a "lot more sovereignty than they have right now" after the June 30 handover, but the US will still control security and the caretaker government won't be able to make laws says John D. Negroponte. They will [however] carry out the government's day-to-day operation [and] focus on organizing elections

After 9/11, Congress gave the Bush administration $40 billion worth of emergency antiterror funding. The money was supposed to finance post-attack cleanup, the global hunt for terrorists and improvements in homeland security. The funding bills instructed the administration to "consult" Congress about specific projects on which the money would be spent. But following allegations by author Bob Woodward that the administration diverted funds from the antiterror war to make secret preparations for war in Iraq, Democrats accused the administration of ignoring the legal requirement to keep legislators informed. Sen. Robert Byrd, top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, charged the "Bush White House provided no consultations as required by law." (full story)

"I think after September 11th the American people are valuing life more and realizing that we need policies to value the dignity and worth of every life. And President Bush has worked to say, let's be reasonable, let's work to value life, let's try to reduce the number of abortions, let's increase adoptions."

"The fundamental difference between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life. It's the founding conviction of our country, that we're endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

"Unfortunately our enemies in the terror network, as we're seeing repeatedly in the headlines these days, don't value any life, not even the innocent and not even their own..." (full transcript from CNN.com)