Man approaching VP seized

f you are feeling at all strange, don't go anywhere near Dead-eye Dick.

In the mean time, get Vice some Haldol. He can share it with his Security Detail.

DenverPost.com - Man approaching VP seized:

"U.S. Secret Service agents detained and later released a man Friday in Beaver Creek who approached Vice President Dick Cheney in an inappropriate manner, an agency spokesman said.

The man's 'behavior and demeanor' caused some concern, said Eric Zahren, spokesman for the Secret Service. "

America's problem is again a usurping king called George

This is a must read.
One has to wonder of Bush plans on leaving office at all.

Guardian Unlimited Comment is free America's problem is again a usurping king called George:

"Bush's determination to impose his own reading of new laws amounts to a power grab and subverts the US constitution "

Contradictions Cloud Inquiry Into 24 Iraqi Deaths - New York Times

While this article is about the events which happened in Haditha and gives a good amount of information about that, read it as if it was happening here.

What if armed-to-the-teeth soldiers from another country were kicking down your doors, barking orders in a language you didn't understand, shooting children and women....what if ...


Contradictions Cloud Inquiry Into 24 Iraqi Deaths - New York Times:

"What really happened in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005?

On that day, marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including 10 women and children and an elderly man in a wheelchair. But how and why it happened and who ultimately bears responsibility are matters of profound dispute.

Interviews with marines who were present that day or their lawyers, Iraqi residents who witnessed the attack and military investigators provide broadly conflicting accounts of the killings. This article, based on those interviews, does not resolve those discrepancies. But it does lay bare the task facing investigators as they try to square the accounts with ambiguous forensic evidence, and suggests that the work will be hindered by the passage of time, the tricks of memory and the fog of fast-paced action at several different locations in Haditha, a tense Euphrates River valley city, seven months ago. "

Corpus Christi, TX - KRISTV.COM - Interview: Former Enron President Skilling has mulled suicide

Can't help but wonder if this was a PR stunt or an act of war. Maybe that idiot down at Gitmo can tell us.

Actually, it sounds like a conscious of guilt, in this particular situation.

Corpus Christi, TX - KRISTV.COM - Interview: Former Enron President Skilling has mulled suicide:

"NEW YORK -- Former Enron Corp. President Jeffrey Skilling says he contemplated suicide after his company crumbled and authorities began to ratchet up legal pressure on him."

Bush administration failure on Homeland Security

Major cities aren't ready for catastrophes, government says -- Newsday.com:

"WASHINGTON -- New Orleans is still woefully unprepared for catastrophes 10 months after Hurricane Katrina, and the two cities attacked on 9/11 don't meet all guidelines for responding to major disasters, a federal security analysis concluded Friday.

Ten states were rated in a Homeland Security Department scorecard as having sufficient disaster response plans. But the analysis found the vast majority of America's states, cities and territories still are far from ready for terror attacks, huge natural disasters or other wide-reaching emergencies.

'Frankly, we just have not in this country put the premium on our level of catastrophe planning that is necessary to be ready for those wide-scale events,' Homeland Security Undersecretary George Foresman told reporters. "

Fisk Raises 9/11's Rude Question

The forbidden question; WHY?

Fisk Raises 9/11�s Rude Question :: thetyee.ca:

"British journalist Robert Fisk has inspired a verb in the blogosphere: to 'fisk' is to systematically rebut unwelcome arguments. Bloggers supporting Bush and the Iraq war have long applied the term to their own critiques of Fisk's stories from the Middle East.

In Vancouver to promote his book The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, Fisk showed he can fisk his own opponents and critics quite effectively.
Casually dressed, shirtsleeves rolled up, Fisk spoke to a crowd of over 500 on Sunday night at the Maritime Labour Centre at Triumph and Victoria. He struck his theme at once: 'Refuse to accept the narrative of history laid down by presidents, prime ministers, generals and journalists.'"

The most immoral, if not amoral, administration ever.

From deciving a nation into war, smearing critics and putting their lives in danger, to shoplifting, to pedophilia, and God only knows what else, the Bush administration is filled with sleaze, from top to bottom.

Records: Press aide knew online chat risks - Yahoo! News:

"BARTOW, Fla. - In Internet and phone chats with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl, a Department of Homeland Security press aide talked about underage sex, boasted about his job and called President Bush a 'liar,' according to transcripts released by prosecutors.

Brian Doyle, 56, of Silver Spring, Md., acknowledged his chat room pal, 'Ashlynne', could be a police officer 'trapping' him, according to about 400 pages of records released this week. Undercover Polk County sheriff's detectives posed as the girl.
Doyle allegedly wrote that 'law enforcement is very good at this ... i have soooo much to lose ... despite your denials that it was rape ... they would prosecute me. and i would go to prison.'

Doyle resigned from his job shortly after his April 4 arrest on charges of trying to solicit sex with an underage child. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on $230,000 bond. If convicted on all counts, he could be sentenced to life in prison."

The Disconnect (Part 1)

The Disconnect:

"On February 17, the Media Research Center's director of media analysis, Tim Graham, published a guest post on the CBS News Public Eye blog that answered 'a few questions we are often asked' about the MRC. But it raises a few more questions about the MRC's methods.

In his post, Graham makes a surprising admission:
But the great majority of what we watch and read is not noticeably unfair or inaccurate. If we were asked the recent CBS poll question, 'How often do the news media tell the truth,' we would answer 'most of the time.'

This admission would seem to undermine the main foundation of the MRC's existence, that the media is liberal-liberal-liberal. Given the generally accepted view that a majority of journalists are liberal-leaning (which the MRC is all too happy to remind you of, with lots of graphs and pie charts and stuff), this would seem to indicate that even a senior staffer at the biggest promoter of the concept of liberal media bias believes that the great majority (to use Graham's term) of news reports are not tainted by those reporters' evil liberal views -- another MRC bedrock assumption."

The Disconnect, Part 2: The End of the Affair

The Disconnect, Part 2: The End of the Affair:

"A few months back, we noted the Media Research Center's disconnect on media criticism and its habit of ignoring facts inconvenient to its point of view. We cited as an example of the latter its determination to paint Chris Matthews as an unrepentant Democrat despite his history of advancing conservative talking points and saying complementary things about President Bush.

Could that be changing? A June 14 NewsBusters post by Tim Graham begins this way:

In the Clinton years, the Clintons [sic] fans loathed Chris Matthews, locating him firmly inside the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. In the Bush years, Matthews is whacked regularly by the left and by the right.

Graham then declared that Matthews was 'sounding just like another disgruntled member of MoveOn.org.' So reality-based treatment of Matthews may still be some time in coming." (Read On ^)

We are losing the fight for honest media..

No Shit, Sherlock, and the nation loses right along with us.

Consortiumnews.com:

"Some e-mailers and friends have asked why I didn't attend some of the recent progressive conferences, like 'Take Back America' or the 'Yearly Kos Convention', where media was on the agenda. The short answer is that I have been to progressive meetings in the past where media was discussed, and almost nothing gets done.

As the Right has built up a vertically integrated media infrastructure that stretches from newspapers, magazines and books to talk radio, cable news and well-funded Internet sites, wealthy liberals mostly have sat on their hands. Even now, as the Right expands that infrastructure horizontally down to state, district and local levels, with ominous portents for Election 2006, well-heeled liberals remain mostly passive.
And this pattern has been going on for years." (Read On ^)

Has Fitzgerald been shut down?

citizenspook: RANDALL SAMBORN INDICATES FITZGERALD�S PLAME INVESTIGATION MAY HAVE BEEN SHUT DOWN:

"While yesterday's Citizenspook headline was clearly labeled as conjecture -- citing no sources -- today's headline carries an impeccable, unimpeachable source --Randall Samborn -- Fitzgerald's notoriously tight lipped press officer.


In a political atmosphere run amok with pundits in constant chatter mode, Samborn has become infamous for his pat phrase 'no comment.' But as you will soon see, some 'no comments' are much bigger than others, especially when the same question asked yesterday of Samborn in a CBS News report elicited a complete reversal by the Special Counsel's Office.

This is rare history. Randall Samborn has issued a statement which tells us something we did not already know before he opened his unusually tight lips."

Breaking news: Dick Cheney tells a lie

What a bunch of crap! Is Vice just delusional or is he really evil?

Attytood: Breaking news: Dick Cheney tells a lie:

"Taking down Saddam Hussein was exactly the right thing to do.

It's also, I think, in part responsible for the fact that we haven't been hit again in nearly five years. That's no accident. The fact is, we've taken the battle to the enemy. That's been the key to the safety and security of the American people these last few years, and we need to continue to do it. And we need to make certain that Iraq doesn't become a failed state, but instead the Iraqi people have an opportunity for self-government. And that's exactly what we're doing.

Well, a part of that is true: There has been no major terrorist attack on U.S, soil since 9/11/01. But since the issue at hand is Iraq, there has never been an attack of America by, or sponsored, by Iraq going all the way back to, oh, July 4, 1776, at least.

Does Cheney attribute the fact that we've never been attacked by Iraq for 230 years to the March 2003 invasion? -- that's what we would call a post-preemptive war, we guess. Or maybe it was the electronic surveillance program of President George Washington.

In the same interview, Cheney goes onto to say that '[t]here have been attacks all over the world, in London and Madrid and Bali and Istanbul, as well as New York and Washington; that the key to our success to date has been to actively and aggressively go on offense.'"

Zaeqawi's death was a media event, nothing more

The horror continues:

Series of explosions kill 7 in Baghdad - Yahoo! News:

"BAGHDAD, Iraq - A series of explosions struck commercial areas in Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least seven people, a day after a suspected shoe bomber blew himself up inside one of Baghdad's most prominent Shiite mosques, killing 13 people. "

News Alert: Leaked Pentagon Talking Points for GOP Reveals Bush Doublespeak on Iraq

A must read, packed with lies that the GOP hopes will fool the American people, again.

News Alert: Leaked Pentagon Talking Points for GOP Reveals Bush Doublespeak on Iraq:

"BuzzFlash.com has obtained a leaked copy of the Pentagon's 74-page 'Defense Prep Book,' created to arm Republicans with material to help them defend the Bush administration's Iraq policies in Congressional debate. "

Busting the Myth of Post-9/11 Security

Proving, once again, that adrenalin is stupid juice.

Seven Days: Tales from the Cryptographer:

"Bruce Schneier has little patience for pointless security measures. As an internationally acclaimed cryptographer and security expert who travels extensively for work, he encounters them every day. Most airline passengers probably have wondered whether taking off their shoes for airport screeners accomplishes anything. Schneier not only understands why it doesn't, he can explain why it actually make us less secure. As he puts it, 'If we're relying on airport screeners to prevent terrorism, it's already too late. After all, we can't keep weapons out of prisons. How can we ever hope to keep them out of airports?'

Schneier, 43, has the same assessment of the National Security Agency's controversial program of eavesdropping on American citizens. While advocates of so-called 'data-mining' projects claim they can help foil future terrorist plots, Schneier contends that they're not just costly, time-consuming and an invasion of privacy; they're also ineffective at catching terrorists. He argues that when it comes to defending homeland security, the real choice we need to make isn't between security and privacy. It's between liberty and a police state. "

African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List Greg Palast

This is disgusting and if it doesn't stop, we ought to burn Washington and the RNC headquarters to the damn ground.

African-American Voters Scrubbed by Secret GOP Hit List Greg Palast:

"The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.

A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.
Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.

One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas."

Stagflation Talk Increasing UPDATE

Everybody who makes less than $100,000/year is already hurting. The hurt is about to be spread around, it seems.

Daily Kos: Stagflation Talk Increasing UPDATE:

"Stagflation is an economic condition of increasing inflation and slowing economic growth. This situation places interest rate policy makers in a quandary. If they raise rates to slow inflation, the economy will continue to slow, possibly leading to a recession. If they let inflation run, they run the risk of letting inflation getting out of control, possibly leading to early stage hyper-inflation. In other words, no matter what the Fed does, they are bound to inflict pain on someone.
Talk of stagflation has increased over the last few months. Below are the latest entries in the dialog."

White House reporter Helen Thomas calls Bush press secretaries 'robots' 'spouting nonsense'

Rave on Helen!!

The Raw Story In new book, White House reporter Helen Thomas calls Bush press secretaries 'robots' 'spouting nonsense':

"In a RAW STORY exclusive excerpt from her new book, White House columnist Helen Thomas calls Bush press secretaries 'robots' 'spouting nonsense' and dubs Bush's press team 'Orwellian.' Thomas has covered the White House since 1960 and is now a columnist for Hearst. From pages 36-37 and 52-56 of Watchdogs of Democracy by Helen Thomas, which hits bookstores June 15."

Fascism Alert!!!!!!!!!!!

Top court upholds no-knock police search - Yahoo! News:

"WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court made it easier Thursday for police to barge into homes and seize evidence without knocking or waiting, a sign of the court's new conservatism with Samuel Alito on board.

The court, on a 5-4 vote, said judges cannot throw out evidence collected by police who have search warrants but do not properly announce their arrival.

It was a significant rollback of earlier rulings protective of homeowners, even unsympathetic homeowners like Booker Hudson, who had a loaded gun next to him and cocaine rocks in his pocket when Detroit police entered his unlocked home in 1998 without knocking."

Congressional Corruption in Broad Daylight

Has all of Washington gone insane?

Nevermind...silly question.

In Broad Daylight Sunlight Foundation:

"Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) has a lot of friends and Ken Silverstein at the Harper's.org blog has brought them all together in one place. His friends in the Capitol may be dwindling as the Democratic Caucus is voting right now to decide whether Jefferson will be removed from his seat on the Ways and Means Committee. Two of the most powerful members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and John Lewis (D-GA), have broken ranks with the CBC, staunch backers of Jefferson, and will vote to remove the troubled congressman from the tax-writing committee.
The Hill documents the powerful defense industry lobby and their congressional connections. The PMA Group stands out for honorable mention as one of those lobby shops that is filled with former congressional staffers. Don't forget this little piece about Pete Visclosky's ties to PMA.

What you say on the campaign trail, stays on the campaign trail. That seems to be the motto for the newest Congress critter, Brian Bilbray (R-CA). According to the Club for Growth blog, Bilbray, who holds the infamous Duke Cunningham seat, denounced earmarking on the campaign trail and called for greater transparency. But yesterday Bilbray voted against all of Jeff Flake's challenges to earmarks in the Transportation-HHS Appropriations bill.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt likes to fly. Mike Leavitt likes to fly on luxury jets that are only intended to be used for emergency purposes. Did I mention Mike Leavitt likes to fly? "

Judicial Watch Obtains Documents from Army Related..."

U.S. Newswire : Releases : "Judicial Watch Obtains Documents from Army Related...":

"WASHINGTON, June 15 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that the Department of the Army, per order of U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, has released to Judicial Watch approximately 100 pages of documents which detail the multi-billion dollar, no-bid contract awarded in 2003 by the Army to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton Co. One document uncovered by Judicial Watch suggests the United States Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) may have publicly lied regarding the involvement of the Vice President's office in awarding the contract.

In an email dated April 22, 2003, Carol Sanders of the USACE, writes, 'Mr. Robert Andersen, Chief Counsel, USACE, participated in a 60 Minutes interview today in New York regarding the sole source award of the oil response contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root. Mr. Andersen was able to make many of the points we had planned.' Sanders subsequently provided sound bites from the interview, including, 'There was no contact whatsoever (with the VP office).'"

Stay the Course? What Course?

Really!

Stay the Course? What Course?:

"Fresh from his triumphal visit to Baghdad -- a place so dangerous he had to sneak in without even telling the Iraqi prime minister -- George W. Bush is full of new resolve to stay the course in his open-ended 'global war on terror.' That leaves the rest of us to wonder, in sadness and frustration, just what that course might be and where on earth it can possibly lead.

This is a 'war' in which three men held for years without due process at the Guantanamo Bay prison kill themselves by hanging, and their jailers are so unnerved and self-absorbed that they see the suicides as an attack. Rear Adm. Harry Harris's all-about-me lament -- 'I believe this was not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us' -- was worthy of delivery from Oprah's couch."

We are all Sista Soulja, now.

Sold out and shown nothing but contempt at every turn, when are we going to stop bitching and do something about it?

The Blog The Huffington Post:

"The lives of our troops are being sacrificed every day by cynical conservatives like James Taranto, who don't mind seeing them maimed and killed indefinitely if it helps their partisan political interests. And as for the rest of us -- we're all Sistah Souljah now.

They're selling out our national security for an electoral strategy - and they call themselves 'Americans.'
They've been insulting our patriotism for years, just because we tell the truth... " (Read On^)

Bernake carrying water for OPEC

The Blog The Huffington Post:

"To quote Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke 'energy has an influence that is disproportionate to its share in real gross domestic product (GDP)'. All the more reason for a dispassionate
and objective assessment of current market phenomena , especially as regards crude oil the bellwether of the energy complex. Yet, Mr. Bernanke, in his talk to the Ecomomic Club of Chicago proved adept only at repeating the oil patch mantra which we... " (Read On ^)

It's 'Putdown With Keith Olbermann'

Agreed; she is dumber than a box of rocks...

New York Daily News - Daily Dish & Gossip - Lloyd Grove's Lowdown: It's 'Putdown With Keith Olbermann':

"'Rita's nice,' Olbermann wrote to a fan from his MSNBC E-mail account, 'but dumber than a suitcase of rocks.' Yesterday Cosby retorted: 'Keith got it wrong. I'm not that nice.'
But a Cosby intimate gasped when informed of Olbermann's E-mail. 'That's incredibly disappointing,' he said.
An MSNBC spokesman didn't dispute the authenticity of the months-old E-mail, which came to light this week after the recipient shared it with this column on condition of anonymity."

Waste, Fraud and Abuse in Iraq

Committee on Government Reform Minority Office:

"Thursday, June 15, 2006 -- Rep. Waxman today addressed the floor of the House of Representatives to highlight waste, fraud, and abuse in the reconstruction of Iraq. Despite $50 billion in expenditures, oil and electricity production remains well below pre-war levels. The Bush Administration's gross mismanagement of the war has wasted taxpayer dollars and produced lackluster results."

Congresswoman 'Apologizes' for Not Taking Allegations of Stolen 2004 Election Seriously!

Of course it was stolen.

The BRAD BLOG : Congresswoman 'Apologizes' for Not Taking Allegations of Stolen 2004 Election Seriously!:

"Congresswoman 'Apologizes' for Not Taking Allegations of Stolen 2004 Election Seriously!

Was it Stolen? 'Only Answer is Yes,' says Schakowsky who Claims DCCC to Announce Steps Soon to Avoid 'Repeat Performance'

EXCLUSIVE: Complete Text of Prepared Remarks from today's 'Take Back America' Conference'" (Read On ^)

Our Flag and Our Freedom

This is about the most obnoxious thing I have ever heard.

It just so happens that a flag that has touched dirt or in some other become soiled and unseemly is supposed to be burned, in order to decommission it, so to speak.

Our flag, as of late, been soiled with the blood of innocents. It should be burned.

At least, it should be flown upside down as a sign of distress, as the Democracy for which it stands is on life-support, barely.

Our Flag and Our Freedom:

"With campaigns at full tilt and the Fourth of July just around the corner, the Senate's new priority is to debate and vote on yet another resolution to amend our remarkable Constitution. This time it's an amendment that would allow Congress to prohibit a form of protest that a large majority of Americans do not like: the burning or desecration of the American flag. Since 1989, when the Supreme Court decided unanimously and correctly that these rare, unpleasant demonstrations are expressions of speech and therefore protected by the First Amendment, there have been many such attempts. Fortunately, all have failed.

Unfortunately, enthusiasm for this amendment appears to have grown even as flag-burning incidents have vanished as a means of political protest. The last time I saw an image of the U.S. flag being desecrated in this way was nearly 20 years ago, when the court issued its decision. Thus this amendment -- never appropriate in the oldest democracy on earth -- has become even less necessary. But necessity is not always the mother of legislation."

Al-Qaeda in Iraq sought war between United States, Iran

I smell psyops.

USATODAY.com - Al-Qaeda in Iraq sought war between United States, Iran:

"BAGHDAD (AP): A blueprint for trying to start a war between the United States and Iran was among a 'huge treasure' of documents found in the hideout of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi officials said Thursday.
The document, purporting to reflect al-Qaeda policy and its cooperation with groups loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein, also appear to show that the insurgency in Iraq was weakening. "

Gallup: Americans Feel We Are 'Worse Off' Because of Iraq War

Bad News For the Bushites:

To Rethugs in Congress: Debate this, you assholes.

Gallup: Americans Feel We Are 'Worse Off' Because of Iraq War:

"NEW YORK While most public opinion polls this week show a slight bounce in President Bush's approval ratings, the most recent Gallup Poll, taken June 9 to 11, reveals that Americans continue to have a negative view of what the war has really accomplished for Americans.

Gallup asked Americans if the war in Iraq had made things better off, the same, or worse off for six entities: the American people, the Iraqi people, the strength and preparedness of the U.S. military, the war on terrorism, the prospects for democracy in the Middle East, and the image of the United States around the world.

The result for that final category was the most clearcut: 6 in 10 Americans said the image of the U.S. was 'worse off,' with only 11% saying 'better off.' "

Voters, Be Worried. Be Very Worried. (3 Letters) - New York Times

How about a modern day Boston Tea Party, except worse?

Voters, Be Worried. Be Very Worried. (3 Letters) - New York Times:

"Bob Herbert is correct in saying that although it can't be proved that the 2004 presidential election in Ohio was rigged, in light of the irregularities observed in the process itself, it is overwhelmingly probable that it was.

When one considers what occurred first in Florida in 2000 and then in Ohio in 2004, one has good reason to be concerned.

The irresponsible and dishonest leadership of our current administration has already done our country and the world incalculable harm.

If free and fair elections do not exist here in America, democracy in our country, already under siege, is further jeopardized.

For our system of governance to work, we need appropriate checks and balances and Congressional oversight, both of which are directly dependent on an electoral process that is not fraudulent."

Is Brownback Bringing Opus Dei Into The Senate? | Democrats.com

OK! That's it! The final g--damned straw!

Opus Dei?

Why don't we just elect Tom Cruise and be done with it?

Is Brownback Bringing Opus Dei Into The Senate? Democrats.com:

"The United States Senate is often called 'the greatest deliberative body in the world' which usually raises the bar on the tenor and intellectual content of speeches given on the floor and for the official record.

Not so for Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) who took to the Senate floor last week to deliver a strident push for the bigoted Marriage Protection Amendment, with massive distortions of the issue and an argument that was based almost solely on the opinion of a little-known, conservative think tank affiliated with the Roman Catholic organization, Opus Dei .
'
The problem we have in front of us is the institution of marriage has been weakened, and the effort to redefine it on this vast social experiment that we have going on, redefining marriage differently than it has ever been defined before,' the Kansas Senator grimly intoned last week. 'This effort of this vast social experiment, the early data that we see from other places, harms the institution of the family, the raising of the next generation. And it is harmful to the future of the Republic.'

Brownback then went on to give figures for how various states have shown their hatred of gay people with their own prohibitions on same-sex marriage and used that as his rationale for a similar amendment to the U.S. Constitution."

Sun Myug Fool and the Bush Family

This has to be the most bizzare alliance yet, but I have read and seen too much to not believe it.

Consortiumnews.com:

"Over the past quarter century, South Korean theocrat Sun Myung Moon has been one of the Bush family's major benefactors, both politically and financially, while enjoying what appears to be protection against federal investigations into evidence that his cult-like organization has functioned as a criminal enterprise."

War on terror called failure

Hey Dems! Here are some talkng points for you, in the House debate.

TheStar.com - War on terror called failure:

"Washington is failing to make progress in the global war on terror and the next 9/11-style attack is not a question of if, but when. That is the scathing conclusion of a survey of 100 leading American foreign-policy analysts.

In its first 'Terrorism Index,' released yesterday, the influential journal Foreign Affairs found surprising consensus among the bipartisan experts.

Some 86 per cent of them said the world has grown more, not less, dangerous, despite President George W. Bush's claims that the U.S. is winning the war on terror.

The main reasons for the decline in security, they said, were the war in Iraq, the detention of terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, U.S. policy towards Iran and U.S. energy policy."

Now, What About Cheney?

Yep, that is the question of the day....

AlterNet: Now, What About Cheney?:

"It's disappointing that Karl Rove won't be indicted for his role in the CIA leak case -- but now we must push to learn what the Vice-President knew."

Secret Memo: Rethug Despicable Strategy

So, they want to exploit 9/11 again, eh?

Ooo.k! Let's talk about 9/11 and while we are at it, let's talk about the anthrax attacks!

Think Progress � EXCLUSIVE: Majority Leader Boehner�s Confidential Strategy Memo For Thursday�s Iraq Debate:

"On Thursday, the House of Representatives will hold a debate on the Iraq war. Media reports say Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) 'hopes to match the serious, dignified tone of deliberation that preceded the Gulf war, in 1991.'
ThinkProgress has obtained a 'Confidential Messaging Memo' from Boehner instructing his caucus to conduct a very different kind of deliberation. Here's a quick summary:

1. Exploit 9/11. The two page memo mentions 9/11 seven times. It describes debating Iraq in the context of 9/11 as 'imperative.'

2. Attack opponents ad hominem. The memo describes those who opposes President Bush's policies in Iraq as 'sheepish,' 'weak,' and 'prone to waver endlessly.'

3. Create a false choice. The memo says the decision is between supporting President Bush's policies and hoping terrorist threats will 'fade away on their own.' "

Time for a new New Deal?

WorkingForChange-Time for a new New Deal?:

"WASHINGTON -- There is no sturdier liberal or Democratic slogan than 'Jobs, jobs, jobs.' But liberals have a problem: The old capitalist job-production machine is not working the way it used to. The venerable promise that new (progressive) leadership will create masses of well-paying jobs is harder to make, and even harder to keep.
I
n principle, this is a larger problem for conservatives, whose main economic program involves reinforcing the status quo by giving tax cuts to rich people so they have more money to invest. Conservatives simply ignore the fact that fewer jobs are being created, particularly at home, for each dollar invested.

But conservatives are expected to stand up for the rich. Liberals are supposed to expand the standard of living for everybody else. That is harder than it used to be. "

GOP Measure Forces House Debate on War

In the first place, Iraq has nothing to do with the "War on Tur." It is nothing but a distraction.

The Democrats need to ask one question, over and over again: Where is bin Laden and his crew?

Zarqawi was a nobody until the Bushites made him somebody.

The Democrats might also bring up the fact that the administration had numerous chances to hit Zarqawi, the Muslim Lazrus, before the war in Iraq began.

The Rethugs in Congress want to debate the Iraq war? Fine. The Democrats had better be prepared to blast them into next years on the subject.

The 'War on Tur' is being lost, forty ways from Sunday. Anyone who can't see thhat is a fool.

GOP Measure Forces House Debate on War:

"Nearly four years after it authorized the use of force in Iraq, the House today will embark on its first extended debate on the war, with Republican leaders daring Democrats to vote against a nonbinding resolution to hold firm on Iraq and the war on terrorism.

In the wake of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death and President Bush's surprise trip to Baghdad, Republican leaders are moving quickly to capitalize on good news and trying to force Democrats on the defensive. Bush continued his own campaign with a morning news conference and a White House meeting with congressional leaders from both parties, while House leaders strategized on today's 10-hour debate."

Phone Jamming Update - Senate Majority Project

If the penalties for this kind of Bullshit were more severe, maybe these knotheads would think twice before pulling these electioneering stunts.

Phone Jamming Update - Senate Majority Project:

"Yesterday was a mixed bag for Karl Rove. He got the news that he won't be charged in the CIA leak case, but got a not so warm welcome in New Hampshire last night, where a swarm of New Hampshire residents were less than pleased with his visit and the circumstances surrounding it.

Last night, Rove was the guest of honor at the New Hampshire Republican party's annual dinner/fundraiser. The special guest was invited in an effort to boost fundraising efforts to pay the party's phone jamming legal bills.
"

A shameful silence on Coulter's spewing

McCain and Lieberman can rot in hell, for all I care!

WorkingForChange-A shameful silence on Coulter's spewing:

"With the predictable regularity of a locust plague, Ann Coulter and her enablers at the once-reputable firm of Random House have issued yet another volume of fascistic entertainment. Now the hard-drinking, trash-talking, fortysomething bachelorette bills herself as a Christian moralist, in holy battle against the liberal heathens.

That whiff of brimstone in the air may only be the match she is striking for her next cigarette.

But her version of 'Christianity' turns out to be a strangely modern and convenient faith, which encourages heaping scorn on bereaved widows, bearing false witness against them on television and publicly gloating over the ill-gotten profits thus attained. Leaving behind the golden rule of the Gospels to 'do unto others as you would have them do to you,' she embodies a new rule of gold: You can never be too rich, too thin or too vicious. "

Revealed: the lax laws that could allow assembly of deadly virus DNA

How f'ing stupid can ya get?

This is un-freakin'-believable!

Guardian Unlimited Special reports Revealed: the lax laws that could allow assembly of deadly virus DNA:

"DNA sequences from some of the most deadly pathogens known to man can be bought over the internet, the Guardian has discovered.

In an investigation which shows the ease with which terrorist organisations could obtain the basic ingredients of biological weapons, this newspaper obtained a short sequence of smallpox DNA. The deadly virus has existed only in laboratories since being eradicated from the world's population 30 years ago.

The DNA sequence of smallpox, as well as other potentially dangerous pathogens such as poliovirus and 1918 flu are freely available in online public databases. So to build a virus from scratch, a terrorist would simply order consecutive lengths of DNA along the sequence and glue them together in the correct order. This is beyond the skills and equipment of the kitchen chemist, but could be achieved by a well-funded terrorist with access to a basic lab and PhD-level personnel."

Behind the Spin, the Oil Giants are More Dangerous Than Ever

These Oil company assholes need to have a few scares thrown into them. They feel way to safe.

Behind the Spin, the Oil Giants are More Dangerous Than Ever:

"For a company that claims to have moved 'beyond petroleum', BP has managed to spill an awful lot of it on to the tundra in Alaska. Last week, after the news was leaked to journalists, it admitted to investors that it is facing criminal charges for allowing 270,000 gallons of crude oil to seep across one of the world's most sensitive habitats. The incident was so serious that some of its staff could be sent to prison.
Had this been Exxon, the epitome of sneering corporate brutality, the news would have surprised no one. But BP's rebranding, like Shell's, has been so effective that you could be forgiven for believing that it had become an environmental pressure group. These companies have used the vast profits from their petroleum business to create the impression that they are abandoning it.

Shell's adverts feature photos of its technologists in open-necked shirts and showing perfect teeth (which proves they can't be real greens). They tell stories of their brave experiments with wind power, hydrogen, biofuels and natural gas. The chairman of Shell UK was one of the 14 signatories to a letter sent by businesses to Tony Blair a week ago, calling for the government to exercise 'bold leadership on domestic climate change policy' in order to speed 'the transition to a low-carbon economy'.

BP's adverts tell the same story, illustrated with its logo - a kind of green and yellow sunflower which looks rather like the Green party's. So what on earth was it doing in Alaska, messing around with crude oil? Don't its filling stations now dispense pure carrot juice? "

A Leap of Faith, Off a Cliff (which is not faith, but insanity)

Do we hear the death knell for Democracy in America?

A Leap of Faith, Off a Cliff - New York Times:

"On Monday, the Bush administration told a judge in Detroit that the president's warrantless domestic spying is legal and constitutional, but refused to say why. The judge should just take his word for it, the lawyer said, because merely talking about it would endanger America. Today, Senator Arlen Specter wants his Judiciary Committee to take an even more outlandish leap of faith for an administration that has shown it does not deserve it.

Mr. Specter wants the committee to approve a bill he drafted that tinkers dangerously with the rules on wiretapping, even though the president has said the law doesn't apply to him anyway, and even though Mr. Specter and most of the panel are just as much in the dark as that judge in Detroit. The bill could well diminish the power of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, which was passed in 1978 to prevent just the sort of abuse that Mr. Bush's program represents.

The committee is considering four bills. Only one even remotely makes sense now: it would give legal standing to groups that want to challenge the spying in court. The rest vary from highly premature (Senator Dianne Feinstein's proposed changes to FISA) to the stamp of approval for Mr. Bush's claims of unlimited power that Senator Mike DeWine drafted.

Mr. Specter's bill is not that bad, but it is fatally flawed and should not go to the Senate floor. He is trying to change the system for judicial approval of government wiretaps in a way that suggests Congress is facing a technical problem with a legislative solution, when in fact it is a constitutional showdown. "

Judge Rules That U.S. Has Broad Powers to Detain Noncitizens Indefinitely - New York Times

Holy Crap!

Judge Rules That U.S. Has Broad Powers to Detain Noncitizens Indefinitely - New York Times:

"A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled yesterday that the government has wide latitude under immigration law to detain noncitizens on the basis of religion, race or national origin, and to hold them indefinitely without explanation."

End of Privacy = Death of Democracy

Huntington News:


"Removing the protection of individual's private data is another step, a big one, to moving the nation closer to a dictatorship. Today, anyone can troll the Internet and within a blink of the eyes track down various aspects of an individual's life from birth, schools attended to marriages, devoices, children, address, and numerous other personal data. All this plus our telephone records are now easily accessible to various government and non-government agencies. It is quite unnerving to think that we have no idea to what extent the government is exercising, or prepared to exercise surveillance of the citizens of this once real democracy.

The latest bad news came as the government started seeking to require Internet service providers keep data of all Internet usage for up to two years. For those of us who have been around for a while, we may remember with nostalgia the good old days prior to the presence of high-speed data search engines like Google and all kinds of data mining software when such accumulation of data would have been pointless. Today the records can be cut and diced in so many different ways that the government can easily know more about us than we do ourselves. Already, this exponential growth of the power of the 'Big Brother' is surreptitiously changing our day-to-day life to the point that we now have to question what is still left with a true democracy that we once thought we knew and had. On the other hand, perhaps this question is already getting to be irrelevant.

Indeed, through technologies like the radio frequency identification (RFID) devices, which are now widely adopted in all major toll systems in this and other nations, it is possible that data can become available to governments for tracking of vehicle movements.

Karl Rove: Dreyfus or Valachi? The Press Needs to Find Out | The Huffington Post

Good analysis of current "Rover, the Frogman," situation.....

The Blog RJ Eskow: Karl Rove: Dreyfus or Valachi? The Press Needs to Find Out The Huffington Post:

"In the same breath he used to announce that Karl Rove won't be indicted, his attorney indicated he won't make 'any further public statements' about the situation. Many questions remain, however, and the public has a right to know.

Who knows? Maybe those other witnesses were lying, and Karl's completely innocent. If so, why would his attorney zip his lip like that?"

Committee on Government Reform Minority Office

Inquiring minds want to know...

Committee on Government Reform Minority Office:

"Tuesday, June 13, 2006 -- In light of reports that Special Counsel Fitzgerald will not pursue criminal charges against Karl Rove -- and does not appear likely to file a report or make other public statements about findings -- Rep. Waxman renews his request to Chairman Davis for a congressional investigation that would provide public accountability and address unanswered questions. "

What we KNOW about Rove and why the press should start asking questions.

Froomkin nails it

He also gives us quite an overview of all that we DO know about Rove's behavior. It ain't prety.

The time for questions has arrived. The press and the TV news media need to do their damn jobs, or will the bloggers have to do it for them, again?

Roves attorney carefully chose his words. He did not say that Rove had been cleared of wrong-doing nor did he say that he was innocent. He said only that Fitzgerald's office does not plan to indict Rove and that he plans no further comment on anything.

Why is he not singing from the rooftops that his client is purer than the driven snow? Because he isn't?

But, since Rover is no longer in criminal jeopardy, for the Plame leak, at least, there is nothing keeping Wilson from filing a civil suit.

That is one way of getting to the truth. I doubt seriously that we can depend on the media or the press.

White House Briefing -- News on President George W Bush and the Bush Administration:

"The White House has long maintained -- spuriously, I might add -- that the ongoing criminal investigation precluded them from answering any questions even vaguely related to Rove's conduct.

Now, without charges against Rove in the offing, the media should demand answers to a slew of questions. The overriding issue: Just because Rove wasn't charged with a crime doesn't mean his conduct meets the standards the public expects from its White House.

If Rove was irresponsibly lax with classified information, if he intentionally misled the press, the press secretary and the president, if he conspired with fellow White House aides to punish someone who spoke out against the president -- all of which appears to be the case -- what is he still doing serving as the president's most trusted aide?"

The liberation of Karl Rove

What Sidney has to say.....

Comment is free: The liberation of Karl Rove:

"The special prosecutor's decision not to seek indictment of President Bush's chief political adviser and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove suggests two possibilities. "

Image of U.S. falls again

Image IS the problem:

The Image of being a democracy, the Image of having a moral compass, the Image of being a world leader...image, image, image.

What we need is authenticity!

Screw Image! It's all a lie anyway, and that is the problem.

Image of U.S. falls again - Americas - International Herald Tribune:

"As the war in Iraq continues for a fourth year, the global image of America has slipped further, even among publics in countries closely allied with the United States, a new global opinion poll has found.

Favorable views of the United States dropped sharply over the past year in Spain, where only 23 percent now say they have a positive opinion, down from 41 percent in 2005, according to the survey, which was carried out in 15 nations this spring by the Pew Research Center. In Britain, Washington's closest ally in the Iraq war, positive views of America have remained in the mid-50s in the past two years, still down sharply from 75 percent in 2002.

Other countries where positive views dropped significantly include India (56 percent, down from 71 percent since 2005); Russia (43 percent, down from 52 percent); and Indonesia (30 percent, down from 38 percent).

In Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, only 12 percent said they held a favorable opinion, down from 23 percent last year.

Declines were less steep in France, Germany and Jordan, while people in China and Pakistan had a slightly more favorable image of the United States this year than last.

The ebbing of positive views of the United States coincides with a spike in feeling that the war in Iraq has made the world a more dangerous place. This perception was shared by majorities in 10 of the countries surveyed, including Britain, where 60 percent said the world had become more dangerous since Saddam Hussein's removal from power in 2003.

Over the past year, support for the U.S.-led fight against terrorism also declined again, Pew found.

Reporter Left Behind Details 'Ruse' With Bush in Iraq

Under armed guard?

Damn.

This really is The Soviet States of America!

Reporter Left Behind Details 'Ruse' With Bush in Iraq:

"NEW YORK: President Bush's sudden trip to Baghdad caught White House reporters by surprise -- deliberately so. But, as always, a few were chosen as pool reporters for the trip, as detailed by E&P this morning.

Now, in a pool report from one of the reporters left behind, Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the Baltimore Sun, we get a glimpse of the ruse and how the reporters here, at Camp David, experienced it -- under armed guard, as it happens. "
Read On ^

Rove Got Away With 'Misleading' the Media

Yeah, right. Rover is busy throwing Cheney under a bus

AP's Yost: Rove Got Away With 'Misleading' the Media:

"WASHINGTON The decision not to charge Karl Rove shows there often are no consequences for misleading the public.

In 2003, while Rove allowed the White House to tell the news media that he had no role in leaking Valerie Plame's CIA identity, the presidential aide was secretly telling the FBI the truth.

It's now known that Rove had discussed Plame's CIA employment with conservative columnist Robert Novak, who exposed her identity less than a week later, citing two unidentified senior administration officials.

Rove's truth-telling to the FBI saved him from indictment."

Lewis Retained Defense Attorney, Several Weeks Ago

Another Rethug lawyers up.

....and we thought the Rethugs hated trail lawyers.

Lewis Retained Defense Attorney �Several Weeks Ago�:

"Faced with a widening federal investigation into his ties to a high-powered lobbying firm, House Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis has retained a criminal defense attorney, said sources close to the California Republican. "

Rove/Bush pull an O.J. today

Boiling Mad: Rove/Bush pull an O.J. today:

"George W. Bush's scheme to lead the U.S. into an unjust and illegal war, which has created more terrorists, raised oil prices, and diluted U.S. efforts to capture bin Laden, escaped justice today."

Let's hold a grudge on Iraq

Somebody needs to pay for this mess!

As a matter of fact, a whole lot of people need to pay and keep paying for the next 4 years or so.

WorkingForChange-Let's hold a grudge on Iraq:

"AUSTIN, Texas -- Iraq and the media, the media and Iraq -- over and over. Last week was supposed to be a good media week for Iraq -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was dead. Taken out, we said, by a combination of American and Iraqi troops with Jordanian intelligence.

The churlish might note this was the second time the American military had announced Zarqawi's death -- but, hey, we've announced the capture of Osama's No. 2 guy at least seven or eight times. Others claimed Zarqawi was never that important to begin with, indeed had been built up by our side. Still, that's a goal for our side, as they say in World Cup play.

Then reality got a bit bumpy. Zarqawi wasn't exactly dead when we found him. We put him on a stretcher and cleaned him up -- the fog of war intervened. "

BuzzFlash Interview: Greg Palast Uncovers the 'Armed Madhouse' of the Bush Reign

We have been saying this for two years.

The war in Iraq has served to slow down oil production in an ever-expanding consumer market and boost consumption. It takes a helluva lot of oil to fight a war, let alone two.. Then there were the tax breaks for buying the biggest SUVs available and the announced patriotism of consuming, traveling; using as many petroleum products as we could possible find.

Bush's buddies and supporters are becoming wealthy beyond most people's ability to even imagine.

It's the corporatists, stupid!



BuzzFlash Interview: Greg Palast Uncovers the 'Armed Madhouse' of the Bush Reign:

"We were screaming in the streets: no blood for oil, which, of course, you know, most Americans consider a bargain, blood for oil, as long as it's not their blood, right? But in fact, it wasn't blood for oil. It was blood for no oil. It was blood to make sure that not too much oil would flow and bust the market. Oil had been down under Bill Clinton to eighteen bucks a barrel. Now it's over $70 a barrel. -- Greg Palast"

CIA Asset maintains job in Iraq through three governments.

Apparently in charge of death-squads and the like.

The Plank:

" Shahwani is the head of an Iraqi intelligence structure (or, if you prefer, secret police) which is independent of the interior or defense ministries. And funny thing about that: He took his job under the Iyad Allawi interim administration, meaning he's kept his job despite two changes of government. Why might that be? Well, when last anyone checked in--anyone being the intrepid Hannah Allam and Warren Strobel of Knight Ridder--it was because the CIA refused to turn over Shahwani's intelligence bureau to Iraq's elected Shia officials. According to Allam and Strobel, CIA paid Shahwani's salary and kept funding his agency, largely out of the fear that it didn't want to turn over intelligence assets to a government with ties to Iran. I have absolutely no information that Shahwani is still on CIA's payroll. But after a year and yet another change of government following Knight Ridder's story, Shahwani--unique among Iraqi officials--is still in place. Hmm."

Iraq's Pentagon Papers; where are they?

Elsberg wants someone to step up

Iraq's Pentagon Papers - Los Angeles Times:

"A JOINT resolution referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) calls for the withdrawal of all American military forces from Iraq by Dec. 31. Boxer's 'redeployment' bill cites in its preamble a January poll finding that 64% of Iraqis believe that crime and violent attacks will decrease if the U.S. leaves Iraq within six months, 67% believe that their day-to-day security will increase if the U.S. withdraws and 73% believe that factions in parliament will cooperate more if the U.S. withdraws.

If that's true, then what are we doing there? If Iraqis don't believe that we're making things better or safer, what does that say about the legitimacy of prolonged occupation, much less permanent American bases in Iraq (foreseen by 80% of Iraqis polled)? What does it mean for continued American armored patrols such as the one last November in Haditha, which, we now learn, led to the deaths of a Marine and 24 unarmed civilians? "

Think Progress � Bush Administration Developing Plans To Keep 50,000 U.S. Troops In Iraq For Decades

Why is anyone suprised by this?

There has to be someone there to staff all of the permanent bases Bush has been planning for Iraq. How many was that? 14?

Think Progress � Bush Administration Developing Plans To Keep 50,000 U.S. Troops In Iraq For Decades:

"The New York Times reports that the Bush administration is making plans to keep tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely:

Mr. Bush on Friday made clear that the American commitment to the country will be long-term. Officials say the administration has begun to look at the costs of maintaining a force of roughly 50,000 troops there for years to come, roughly the size of the American presence maintained in the Philippines and Korea for decades after those conflicts."

Ray McGovern: The Courage to Face the Consequences

The time is coming when everyone will know exactly what must be done, but wil anyone have the courage to do it?

Ray McGovern: The Courage to Face the Consequences:

"Hope is here. The cold light of truth is piercing the cloud of lies conjured by Donald Rumsfeld and others about the war in Iraq - even in the defense secretary's own bailiwick. "

Bolton Let's Big Fart at the U.N; someone strike a match!.

Bolton would be obnoxious even if he never said a word, because he must be the ugliest human baing on Earth outside of a freak show

At the U.N., Bluster Backfires:

"John R. Bolton, the ambassador in question, has a rich history of losing friends and failing to influence people. He was notorious, even before arriving at the United Nations last year, for having said that 10 stories of the U.N. headquarters could be demolished without much loss; he had described the United States as the sun around which lesser nations rotate -- mere 'asteroids,' he'd branded them. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Senate refused to confirm Bolton as U.N. ambassador. 'Arrogant,' 'bullying,' and 'the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be,' Sen. George Voinovich called him."

It is time for the Bushites to go, one way or the other.

Chris Floyd - Empire Burlesque - High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Imperium - Home:

"The last few weeks have seen disastrous news breaking over the Bush administration, like Katrina come again. This time, though, it's not hurricane winds and surging seas, but waves of innocent blood overtopping the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates to turn the White House crimson. Report after report of horrific atrocities, long held back by a levee of lies, fear, obfuscation and the natural confusion of war, has broken through, flooding the imperial capital with the reeking, corpse-filled backwash of the vast criminal folly committed by its grubby little Caesar.

So great is the stench of moral corruption that even America's corporate media, for so long a simpering handmaiden to the ruling thugs, have been forced to take notice, just as they did, all too briefly, during the Bushist abandonment of New Orleans. New sites of shame have entered the American lexicon: Haditha, Ishaqi, Hamdaniyah, Samarra, places where horrors large and small, confirmed and alleged, comprehensible and unfathomable, have marked this beginning of the fourth year of occupation. "

Can we spell Whistleblower?

The large majority of Americans are not as dumb as the government and much of the mainstream media and press appear to think we are.

We know the difference between a whistleblower, who believes that the government, or some other powerful entity, is breaking the law in such a way as to be harmful to the American people, or democracy and our way of life, and an administration snake, who prefers slithering around in back channels, in order to smear critics and intimidate political opposition.

That the press and TV news media seems not to know the difference is, indeed, frightening.

If the administration has something to say, let them say it from a podium or shut the hell up!

Meanwhile, whistleblowers should be given medals of freedom, unless those awards have totally lost all meaning in Bushworld, a distinct possibility

Public Secrets:

"Why does The Washington Post willingly publish 'classified' information affecting national security? Should Post journalists and others who reveal the government's secrets be subject to criminal prosecution for doing so? These questions, raised with new urgency of late, deserve careful answers.

There's a reason why we're hearing these questions now. We live in tense times. The country is anxious about war and terrorism. Washington is more sharply divided along ideological lines than at any time since I came to work at The Post in 1963. The Bush administration has unabashedly sought to enhance the powers of the executive branch as it wages what it calls a 'war on terror,' many of whose components are classified secrets.

These are new circumstances, but to a reporter who has been watching the contest between press and government for four decades, what isn't new here seems more significant than what is. What isn't new is a government trying to hide its activities from the public, and a press trying to find out what is being hidden."

Keep the Internet neutral, fair and free - Jun 9, 2006

If there is one thing that Corporate America, and their puppets in goovernment hate, it is anything having to do with egalitarianism, fairness or freedom.

CNN.com - Commentary: Keep the Internet neutral, fair and free - Jun 9, 2006:

"But why change a good thing? Right now, the Internet is a level playing field for everyone. The wonky term for this is 'Net neutrality.' When the Internet is neutral, everyone can use it, just like everyone can use public roads or airwaves. All businesses on the Internet get an equal shot at success."

Democracy is on life-support in America

Either we do something about this, or we can expect all manner of American living to become untenable.

The American people must be prepared to do whatever it takes to stop the foolishness of long lines and paperless voting machines.

tbe Progressive American:

"Republicans, and even a surprising number of Democrats, have been anxious to leave the 2004 Ohio election debacle behind. But Mr. Kennedy, in his long, heavily footnoted article ('Was the 2004 Election Stolen?'), leaves no doubt that the democratic process was trampled and left for dead in the Buckeye State. Mr. Kerry almost certainly would have won Ohio if all of his votes had been counted, and if all of the eligible voters who tried to vote for him had been allowed to cast their ballots.

Mr. Kennedy's article echoed and expanded upon an article in Harper's ('None Dare Call It Stolen,' by Mark Crispin Miller) that ran last summer. Both articles documented ugly, aggressive and frequently unconscionable efforts by G.O.P. stalwarts to disenfranchise Democrats in Ohio, especially those in urban and heavily black areas.

The point man for these efforts was the Ohio secretary of state, J. Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who was both the chief election official in the state and co-chairman of the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio � just as Katherine Harris was the chief election official and co-chairwoman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Florida in 2000.

No one has been able to prove that the election in Ohio was hijacked. But whenever it is closely scrutinized, the range of problems and dirty tricks that come to light is shocking. What's not shocking, of course, is that every glitch and every foul-up in Ohio, every arbitrary new rule and regulation, somehow favored Mr. Bush. "

It is high time for the Senate to stand up to BuCheney

Is there any such thing as courage in elected Washington anymore?

With few exceptions, the cowardice in DC is breath-taking.

It remains up to the people to resuscitate our Democracy and Bill of Rights.

Blind Man's Bluff - New York Times:

"For more than six months, a few senators have been fumbling around in the dark, trying to write laws covering a domestic wiretapping operation that remains a mystery to most of them. Their ideas are far from radical; some just want to bring the White House back under the rule of law by making the spying retroactively legal. But Vice President Dick Cheney, who is in charge of both overseeing the spying and covering it up, has now made it crystal clear that the White House does not intend to let anything happen. It's time for the Senate to stop rolling over and start focusing on uncovering the extent of the spying and enforcing the law.

A good place to start is by compelling the executives of the major telecommunications companies to testify about reports that they have turned over data on the phone calls of millions of Americans without a court order. Those reports were a reminder that this is not a debate about whether the government should spy on terrorists by tapping their phone calls. President Bush wants Americans to believe that critics of the program oppose that, but nobody does. The real issue is that Mr. Bush does not want to bother with legal niceties like getting a warrant or to acknowledge Congress's power by accounting for his actions"

Lieberman keeping his options open

Lieberamn should join the Likud Party and be done with it.

The Bristol Press - Lieberman keeping his options open:

"BRISTOL - In the wake of a statewide poll that shows U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman winning re-election easily if he runs as an independent, the three-term Democratic incumbent refused Friday to rule out the possibility."

UN report accuses Afghan MPs of torture and massacres

Afghanistan is going so well, eh?

Is there anything Bush can't f*** up?

Guardian Unlimited Special reports UN report accuses Afghan MPs of torture and massacres:

"A controversial UN report that has been shelved for 18 months names and shames leading Afghan politicians and officials accused of orchestrating massacres, torture, mass rape and other war crimes.

The 220-page report by the UN high commissioner for human rights, which the Guardian has obtained, details atrocities committed by communist, mujahideen, Soviet and Taliban fighters over 23 years of conflict. Originally scheduled for release in January 2005, the report's publication has been delayed repeatedly due to sensitivities over identifying former warlords still in positions of power.

'The UN has been intimidated. It is afraid to rock the boat because of these guys,' said Sam Zarifi of Human Rights Watch. 'But the boat is taking on water and they are going to pull it down.'"

Far from clear sailing for Bush's favorite Democrat

If we have anything to say about it, Lieberman is toast!

Chron.com Harrop: Far from clear sailing for Bush's favorite Democrat:

"ANGER at President Bush could bring down a number of congressional Republicans, and one Democrat might join them. He is Joseph Lieberman, senator from Connecticut. Many voters there want nothing more than to sink 'Bush's favorite Democrat.'

They are mad at Joe Lieberman over his uncritical support of the Iraq war and 18 other things, including his bottomless need for right-wing approval.

So Lieberman will not have a clear sail into November, easily smiting a little known Republican. First he'll have to duke it out in a tough Democratic primary on Aug. 8. His challenger is businessman Ned Lamont, who, if elected, would not be Bush's favorite anything."

The Problem is Indecency!

Yes, why don't we call this what it is, and call, write, bitch and scream continuously about it to the FCC, until fines are handed down for giving air time to hateful people who make money off the worst kind of indecency; that which will inevitably lead to civil war in this country?

calendarlive.com: REGARDING MEDIA/TIM RUTTEN - Ann, let's call this what it is:

"PORNOGRAPHY is difficult to define, wrote Justice Potter Stewart, 'but I know it when I see it.'

That famously commonsensical line would seem to obviate the need for any deeper analysis of the egregious Ann Coulter. Like most pornographers, however, she is resourceful in the service of her own economic and other interests. That makes it hard to do what most sensible people do when confronted with obscenity, which is look away.

At the moment, Coulter is out pimping her latest book and, this week, she was definitely in your face."

NeoCon Egg-heads shut down PNAC

I can remember when all liberals from the Northeast were considered to be eggheads, with no common sense and not to be trusted with the welfare of the country..

Seems that the wingers now have their version of egghead; the NeoCons, who have never, themselves, fought a war, but believe they know all there is to know about using the most deadly military on earth to carry out their dreams of re-shaping the Middle East.

We all can see how well that has gone.

What is it with these people? They know nothing of war. They won't listen to anyone who does.

They should all be forces tro resign, in disgrace, and those who were the decision-makers in matters which wound up in the Iraq quagmire, Abu Ghraib, black prisons, secret renditions, etc., should be tried and if found guilty, imprisoned for life, at the very least..

I have always opposed the death penalty. But if the death penalty is ever permissable, it should be reserved for leaders of nations, who use the resources of their people, ignoring international law and the laws of their own land, to wreak a hellish havoc on anyone they damn well please while attempting to deceive their own people and the world community.

The death penalty should be reserved for the powerful, whether governmental or corporate, because by the power afforded them, through government agencies or wealth, they are capable of far more wide-spread damage and horror than the individual with no real power.

The Democrats, Keeping a Civil Tongue:

"The doors may be closing shortly on the nine-year-old Project for a New American Century, the neoconservative think tank headed by William Kristol , former chief of staff to Vice President Dan Quayle and now editor of the Weekly Standard, which is must reading for neocon cogitators and agitators.
The PNAC was short on staff -- having perhaps a half-dozen employees -- but very long on heavy hitters. The founders included Richard B. Cheney , Donald H. Rumsfeld , Paul D. Wolfowitz , Jeb Bush , I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby , William J. Bennett, Zalmay Khalilzad and Quayle."

Rove headlining GOP fund-raiser

The Pink Frogman is at it agin!

What in hell is Fitz doing?

Rove headlining GOP fund-raiser - Boston.com:

"MANCHESTER, N.H. --Presidential adviser Karl Rove is the keynote speaker Monday night at the state Republican Party's annual dinner -- which Democrats say is to raise money to help the party pay legal fees in a phone jamming case.

State Party Chairman Wayne Semprini acknowledged Friday he would like to raise enough money so the suit 'represents a very small portion of our budget.'

But he said the case has nothing to do with Rove's appearance.
'He won't say boo about phone jamming,' Semprini said. 'There's absolutely no connection between his being here and phone jamming. Period. This is our annual dinner.'"

Truth Is for 'Liberals'

Every news show should employ a team of fact-checkers, so that dumbass, lying statements could be revealed to be deceptive before the show ends.

Let's say that Condi appears on MTP. Tweety would hae to inform Ms. Rice that her words would be fact-checked; kinda like a politician's miranda warning.

Something like: Good morning Madam Secretary, glad you could be with us this morning. Of course, I have to advise you that fact-checkers will be checking every assertion you make and their findings will be made public by the end of our show this morning."

Or better yet, wire up the politicians and the pundits to lie detectors, the graphs of which could be shown on screen, by an independent monitoring agency.


Truth Is for 'Liberals':

"Here we are, five and a half years into the Bush Administration, and the press corps still hasn't figured out how to handle the White House's primary tactic of media management: lying. "

Think Progress � Matalin Defends Coulter�s Attack on 9/11 Widows

Watch the Video for youself.

I don't think I could vote for a candidate who hires James Carville as long as he is married to this "harpie."

Think Progress � Matalin Defends Coulter�s Attack on 9/11 Widows:

"Yesterday on Imus, Mary Matlin, a former counselor to Vice President Cheney and an influential strategist for the White House, defended Ann Coulter's vicious attack on the 9/11 widows. (In a new book, Coulter says the widows are 'enjoying their husband's deaths.')

Matalin passed on multiple opportunities from Imus to condemn or distance herself from Coulter's comments. (Instead, Matalin said she agreed with Coulter's 'larger point.')

She also argued the outrage against Coulter was misplaced, saying 'She calls somebody a harpy and you'd think that the world was on fire.' Watch it:"

At Site of Attack on Zarqawi, All That's Left Are Questions

Questions, questions, questions...no one automatically believes pathological liars like the Bushites.

How many times has Zarqawi been killed ror maimed by now?

At Site of Attack on Zarqawi, All That's Left Are Questions - New York Times:

Along with the scraps, it was mostly questions that remained.

Chief among them was how Mr. Zarqawi, the terrorist leader killed Wednesday in the airstrike, could have survived for even a few minutes after the attack, as American officers say he did, when everything else around him was obliterated. Concrete blocks, walls, a fence, tin cans, palm trees, a washing machine: everything at the Hibhib scene was shredded or blown to pieces.

It seemed puzzling, too, given the destruction and the condition of the other bodies, how Mr. Zarqawi's head and upper body, shown on televisions across the world, could have remained largely intact."

Reid calls for more intelligence oversight - Yahoo! News

Harry Reid says, administrations to be held accountable for statements on Iran.

That's great, Harry, but when will they be held accountable for the lies about Iraq and 9/11?

Reid calls for more intelligence oversight - Yahoo! News:

"Because of you, no attack will go unanswered,' Reid told the audience. 'Because of you, no lie will avoid the truth.'"