Is Bush a Clear and Present Danger?

Oh, yeah!!!!

Consortiumnews.com:

Faced with George W. Bush's disastrous policies in the Middle East and his adamant refusal to change course, the question now arises whether the President has become a 'clear and present danger' to the security of the United States and, indirectly, to Israel.

Scoop: Lynn Landes Video: Caught On Tape, The Fix Is In

We can only hope the Dems are paying attention!!!

Can we make sure that everyone in Kings district sees this video several hundred times?

Scoop: Lynn Landes Video: Caught On Tape, The Fix Is In:

Aug 21: Philadelphia, PA -- Caught On Tape, The Fix Is In is a new online video about America's flawed voting process by freelance journalist Lynn Landes, producer of EcoTalk.org. In this 13-minute video Landes strongly urges all political candidates to not concede their races until they or their supporters have verified election results through the collection of voter affidavits or signed statements in some or all precincts. She calls these efforts, 'Parallel Elections'.

The video begins with a now-infamous clip of Congressman Peter King (NY-R) on the White House lawn just before the 2004 presidential election. ' The election is over. We won.' (Reporter's voice, ' How do you know that?') ' It's all over, but the counting. And we'll take care of the counting,' King boasts.

Let the Truth-Telling Begin

Firing Squad, I want an effing firing squad!!!!!

Let the Truth-Telling Begin:

Royal Masset, a Texas Republican political consultant who has been accused of being less than brilliant, recently had this to say about Karl Rove: 'I think we actually like Karl a lot more now than we did when he was more active locally.' He told the San Antonio Express-News he believed that Rove in Washington is remaining loyal to Bush while 'fighting the good fight. He's fighting budgets. He's fighting wars. He's doing conservative kinds of things.'

When Rove was in Texas, Masset continued, 'there was a real sense of him being a total self-centered [person] who didn't care about anybody. He would literally destroy people who tried to oppose him.'

Plenty of food for thought in that. But first we should maybe figure out how to smuggle Royal out of the country with a fake passport.

The Bushies are having the hardest time trying to un-lie now. For example, at his Monday press conference the president asserted, 'Nobody's ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the [Sept. 11] attack.'

How true: What Vice President Cheney in December 2001 said about links between 9/11 and Iraq was that it was 'pretty well confirmed' that hijacking ringleader Mohammed Atta had met with Iraqi intelligence. On June 17, 2004, Cheney said: 'We have never been able to confirm that, nor have we been able to knock it down, we just don't know. ... I can't refute the Czech claim, I can't prove the Czech claim, I just don't know.'

In July 2004, the CIA's own report stated the agency did not have 'any credible information' that the alleged meeting ever took place. The CIA said the whole concoction was based on a single source 'whose veracity ... has been questioned' and that the Iraqi official allegedly involved was in U.S. custody and denied the meeting ever took place....."

Bush Now Says What He Wouldn't Say Before War: Iraq Had "Nothing" To Do With 9/11

Now, could we please make the 50% of Americans who, for some odd reason (snark), believe the BS about Iraq being involved in 9/11, to watch this clip about 900 times, or until they get it?

Think Progress � Bush Now Says What He Wouldn�t Say Before War: Iraq Had �Nothing� To Do With 9/11:

President Bush was in the midst of explaining how the attacks of 9/11 inspired his 'freedom agenda' and the attacks on Iraq until a reporter, Ken Herman of Cox News, interrupted to ask what Iraq had to do with 9/11. 'Nothing,' Bush defiantly answered.

Calendars show Armitage met reporter - Yahoo! News

We always knew that Amritage was in this somehow, but he isn't the leaker-in-chief.

Calendars show Armitage met reporter - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON - The No. 2 State Department official met with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in mid-June 2003, the same time the reporter has testified that an administration official talked to him about CIA employee Valerie Plame.

Official State Department calendars, provided to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, show then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage held a one-hour meeting marked 'private appointment' with Woodward on June 13, 2003.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has investigated whether Bush administration officials intentionally revealed Plame's identity as a one-time CIA covert operative to punish her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for criticizing the administration's march to war with Iraq.

When contacted at home Monday night, Woodward declined to discuss his meeting with Armitage or the identity of his source in the CIA leak case. Instead, he referred to his statement last year that he had a 'casual and offhand' discussion about Plame with an unidentified administration official in mid-June 2003.

Bush: Leaving Iraq now would be disaster - Yahoo! News

Right! Better to wait util we are all insane, like the NeoCons and their retarded cheerleader.

Bush: Leaving Iraq now would be disaster - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Monday the Iraq war is 'straining the psyche of our country' but leaving now would be a disaster.

Bush served notice at a news conference that he would not change course or flinch from debate about the unpopular war as he campaigns for Republicans in the fall congressional elections. In fact, he suggested that national security and the economy should be the top political issues, and criticized the Democrats' approach on both.

Many Democrats want to leave Iraq 'before the job is done,' the president said. 'I can't tell you exactly when it's going to be done,' he said, but 'if we ever give up the desire to help people who live in freedom, we will have lost our soul as a nation, as far as I'm concerned.'

Sirotablog: The Beltway's fear and loathing of democracy

Sirotablog: The Beltway's fear and loathing of democracy:

The Beltway's fear and loathing of democracy

You can tell how much Washington, D.C. is panicking by the rise of grassroots politics by looking at the now weekly declarations by politicians and pundits that they actually hate democracy. That's hyperbole, you say? Just take a look at a few comments that have come from the upper echelons of the political/media establishment - comments that finally admit to us how those who purport to legislate and report in our name really in their gut despise American democracy.

Two days after Ned Lamont beat Joe Lieberman in the primary, New York Times columnist David Brooks announced that voters shouldn't be allowed to decide elections. Yes, that's right - he wrote:
'Polarized primary voters shouldn't be allowed to define the choices in American politics.'

This week, New Republic editor Peter Beinart publicly celebrated the corporate-funded Democratic Leadership Council for its effort to insulate politicians from accountability to voters - actually claiming with a straight face that such insulation means politicians will better represent voters:

'The DLC remains an organization of politicians that believes the less beholden politicians are to grassroots activists, the better they will represent voters as a whole.'

Then, just a few days ago, the Bush administration quietly acknowledged it doesn't care about democracy in Iraq - that is, it doesn't care about the fake rationale the administration gave for the war after WMD were not found..'

Japanese warns of 'dangerous nationalism'

It's been over 60 years. Did anyone think Japan would be ever so compliant, forever?

Seems there is a group of wingnuts in every country.

United Press International - NewsTrack - Japanese warns of 'dangerous nationalism':

TOKYO, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A Japanese lawmaker whose house was burned down after he criticized the prime minister's visit to a World War II shrine has warned of dangerous nationalism.

Koichi Kato, a former secretary-general of the dominant Liberal Democratic Party, voiced concerns in an interview with Japan Times that diplomatic policies presented by Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe - considered a likely replacement for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi -- are 'too naive.'

In today's Japan, I see a kind of aggressive nationalism without repentance (of Japan's militarism before and during World War II), like, 'We did nothing wrong in the last war,'' Kato told the Times.

Police believe a member of a Tokyo right-wing group was responsible for torching the house in Tsuruoka, Kato's hometown in Yamagata Prefecture. It was the same day that Kato had appeared on television talk shows blasting Koizumi for visiting the shrine on the 61st anniversary of the end of the war, the Times said.

No one was injured in the fire.

Two Strange Deaths in European Wiretapping Scandal

Hummm. This is not good news....

AlterNet: Two Strange Deaths in European Wiretapping Scandal:

European investigators are tracking the mysterious deaths of two security experts who had uncovered extensive spyware in their telecommunications firms.

Apocalyptic Ahmadinejad rattles sabre | News | The Australian

The Religiously Insane are not going to be happy until everyone on earth is sick from radiation poisoning, or about to give birth to two-headed babies.

Apocalyptic Ahmadinejad rattles sabre News The Australian:

IF some Iran-watchers in the US are to be believed, we could be 24 hours away from the day of judgment. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's President, has promised to deliver tomorrow his response to international demands that Iran stop enriching uranium for nuclear use.
Video: Iran holds wargames

By the Islamic calendar, Tuesday is also a holy date: the night when Mohammed rose to heaven from the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on a 'buraq', a fabulous winged beast with the body of a horse and the face of a woman, and reappeared in Mecca. Will Ahmadinejad seize the moment to unveil the possession of some new fissile material or weapons system - perhaps a nuclear-tipped one?

Bernard Lewis, the West's foremost scholar of Islam, has even warned that on such a symbolic date it would be wise to bear in mind the possibility of a 'cataclysmic' event such as a strike on Israel.

Congress Poised to Unravel the Internet

In addition to calling and writing reps and senators, it would be very good to see the companies, themselves punished; like, with a boycott.

Congress Poised to Unravel the Internet:

Lured by huge checks handed out by the country's top lobbyists, members of Congress could soon strike a blow against Internet freedom as they seek to resolve the hot-button controversy over preserving 'network neutrality.' The telecommunications reform bill now moving through Congress threatens to be a major setback for those who hope that digital media can foster a more democratic society. The bill not only precludes net neutrality safeguards but also eliminates local community oversight of digital communications provided by cable and phone giants. It sets the stage for the privatized, consolidated and unregulated communications system that is at the core of the phone and cable lobbies' political agenda.

In both the House and Senate versions of the bill, Americans are described as 'consumers' and 'subscribers,' not citizens deserving substantial rights when it comes to the creation and distribution of digital media. A handful of companies stand to gain incredible monopoly power from such legislation, especially AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon. They have already used their political clout in Washington to secure for the phone and cable industries a stunning 98 percent control of the US residential market for high-speed Internet.

Brittish Police hit out at FBI over leaks

When will the Brits get it? How many times does this have to happen?

Bush and Cheney would leak the whereabouts of their own wives to Osama bin Laden, himself, if it would help the GOP politically.

The Observer Politics Police hit out at FBI over leaks:

Anti-terror police in Britain have made an angry request to their US counterparts asking them to stop leaking details of this month's suspected bomb plot over fears that it could jeopardise the chances of a successful prosecution and hamper the gathering of evidence.

The British security services, MI5 and MI6, are understood to be dismayed that a number of sensitive details surrounding the alleged plot - including an FBI estimate that as many as 50 people were involved - were leaked to the media.

FBI sources confirmed to The Observer that the bureau had been ordered to stop briefing at the request of the British authorities. 'The shutters have come down,' a bureau source said. 'We have been told not to discuss the case any more.'

92% of Americans want WHAT? (updated)

Open election monitoring and vote counting, that's what!

Diary at Kos.

Daily Kos: 92% of Americans want WHAT? (updated)

Mass murder in the skies: was the plot feasible?

Or, just how stupid do they think we are?

Mass murder in the skies: was the plot feasible? [printer-friendly] The Register:

Binary liquid explosives are a sexy staple of Hollywood thrillers. It would be tedious to enumerate the movie terrorists who've employed relatively harmless liquids that, when mixed, immediately rain destruction upon an innocent populace, like the seven angels of God's wrath pouring out their bowls full of pestilence and pain.

The funny thing about these movies is, we never learn just which two chemicals can be handled safely when separate, yet instantly blow us all to kingdom come when combined. Nevertheless, we maintain a great eagerness to believe in these substances, chiefly because action movies wouldn't be as much fun if we didn't.

Now we have news of the recent, supposedly real-world, terrorist plot to destroy commercial airplanes by smuggling onboard the benign precursors to a deadly explosive, and mixing up a batch of liquid death in the lavatories. So, The Register has got to ask, were these guys for real, or have they, and the counterterrorist officials supposedly protecting us, been watching too many action movies?

We're told that the suspects were planning to use TATP, or triacetone triperoxide, a high explosive that supposedly can be made from common household chemicals unlikely to be caught by airport screeners. A little hair dye, drain cleaner, and paint thinner - all easily concealed in drinks bottles - and the forces of evil have effectively smuggled a deadly bomb onboard your plane.

Bush: It's 'Naive' to Believe the President Must Follow the Law - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime

Freakin' naive, my butt.

Junior is about to find out all about naive.

Bush: It's 'Naive' to Believe the President Must Follow the Law - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime:

Our ever-defiant president intends to continue wielding unbounded and unchecked executive power, regardless of what a court tells him about the law, and if you don't like it, you're naive.

'I would say that those who herald this decision simply do not understand the nature of the world in which we live,' Mr. Bush said in a question-answer session at Camp David, Md.

'This decision' refers to Judge Taylor's declaration that the NSA wiretapping program is unconstititutional (discussed here and here at TalkLeft). 'Those who herald the decision' understand the Constitution and the obligation of the president to obey the law. It's really pretty simple.

Sept. 11 plaintiffs wait for answers, resolution

Come to think of it, there were plenty of people not buying the official story of 9/11, early on.

From the families of the victims, to various witnesses from New York, Shanksville and D.C., to Americans around this country, plenty of them, who do not have a history of paranoia, are talking to their friends and are a little surprised when they finally come right out and say it, in a gathering of friends, and everyone agrees that something really stinks about 9/11.

I am talking about some of the most ordinary, down to earth people I have ever known, some with college degrees, others without one, some with money and people with much of it, across gender and race, Americans are questioning 9/11.

Why? Because when nothing makes any damn sense anymore, it is usually a very good idea to return to the place and time, with the gift of hindsight, when everything stopped making sense, especially the leaders of this nation.


Sept. 11 plaintiffs wait for answers, resolution - The Boston Globe:

'It was always about accountability,' Carie Lemack said of the lawsuit. Her mother, Judy Larocque of Framingham, died on Flight 11, which originated in Boston. (Jay Premack for the Boston Globe)


Sept. 11 plaintiffs wait for answers, resolution. Nearly 5 years later, lawsuits are stalled

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, a tiny percentage of people who lost loved ones or were injured in the attacks sued the aviation industry, spurning a federal compensation fund that ultimately distributed more than $7 billion to more than 5,500 victims.

GAO report stings Bush's faith-based initiative

Who the hell didn't see this coming?

This was as predictable as the NOLA levees breaking.

This is almost as bad as taxes going to kill innocents in Iraq and other places for a failed foreign policy that could only have come out of minds never touched by anything but theories of war and control.

It is against everything I believe, it is against my experience on this earth, it is against my consicous, the very fiber of my being, to, in any way, support fundamentalist evangelizing on the public dime.

WorkingForChange-GAO report stings Bush's faith-based initiative:

For years, President Bush has being going around the country touting his faith-based initiative, claiming that it has been achieving remarkable results delivering social services to the needy. Few reporters bothered to ask what the president he meant by 'results.'

Well, the results are in on the president's Faith-Based Initiative and it doesn't look good for Team Bush. A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has affirmed what many critics of President Bush faith-based initiative have long asserted: too many religious groups that have received government grants have been mixing religious activities with their social work; and the government has not yet established a concrete process to monitor grant recipients to see if they are being effective.

The Frank Rich Smackdown of Lieberman. Must. Read.

Frank Rich, as always, nails a lid on their coffins.

Daily Kos: The Frank Rich Smackdown of Lieberman. Must. Read.:

Tonight Frank Rich took a steak knife out of his kitchen drawer and sharpened it. Then he filleted the entire right wing support for Lieberman, laid it out on the table and read the entrails. As usual, Mr. Rich finds meaning few other do. Here's a sample:

A similar panic can be found among the wave of pundits, some of them self-proclaimed liberals... Whatever their political affiliation, almost all of
these commentators suffer from the same syndrome: they supported the Iraq war
and, with few exceptions (mainly at The Wall Street Journal and The Weekly Standard), are now embarrassed that they did. Desperate to assert their moral superiority after misjudging a major issue of our time, they loftily declare
that anyone who shares Mr. Lamont's pronounced opposition to the Iraq war is not really serious about the war against the jihadists who attacked us on 9/11.