John Dean Predicts Wars on Capitol Hill

Rethugs plan to punish Democrats for winning back Congress.

In reality, that means they plan to punsih the voters who saw fit to elect a Democratic Congress. If the Rethugs want war with the Congress we elected, then they are picking a fight with us as well!

FindLaw's Writ - Dean: Are Congressional Wars Coming? Since Cheney Has Already Said He'll Ignore the Democratic Congress, It Seems Likely:

Rumblings on Capitol Hill suggest that Republicans may literally be 'out of control' as the minority party. Many Republicans in Congress are upset that they will lose their perks, and they want to punish the Democrats for winning. In addition, the White House believes its conservative base wants it to make life difficult for the Democrat Congress, so they will assist in doing just that.

The word on K Street is also that making life difficult for Congressional Democrats will help Republicans win the White House and Congress in 2008. As one well-connected Republican attorney in Washington told me: 'We see a war coming on Capitol Hill.' In fact, many Congressional Republicans believe they are better at being opponents than proponents, so they look forward to raising hell.
Since Democrats are going to encountering some major stonewalling, when they try to pursue oversight of the Bush Administration, this raises two key questions: What should the Democrats do in response to the stonewalling, and how should they do it?

The Word of John

If the Rethugs want a fight, they will get one!

The people have spoken. If the Rethugs do not listen, they will damned well regret it!


Dean: Are Congressional Wars Coming? Since Cheney Has Already Said He'll Ignore the Democratic Congress, It Seems Likely:

During the 2006 campaign, which actually started in 2005, President Bush and Vice President Cheney said remarkably ugly things about Congressional Democrats, describing the possibility that they would take control of Congress as an unmitigated disaster, or worse. For example, as the campaign came to a close, President Bush all but accused Democrats of committing treason: 'However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses,' Bush said.

It was Cheney who led the GOP's attack on Democrats to prevent them from winning control of Congress. In fact, the Vice President was more active in fighting to keep Republican control of Congress, than he was in seeking his own reelection in 2004. The Washington Post reported that Cheney was the star attraction at some 111 GOP fundraisers for the 2006 midterm campaign, in addition to actively campaigning for a slew of Republican candidates. As he traveled the country, Cheney accused Democrats of being soft on terrorism; he named names, and he called people names, as he warned of the end of civilization if Democrats won control of Congress. During the 2006 campaign, which actually started in 2005, President Bush and Vice President Cheney said remarkably ugly things about Congressional Democrats, describing the possibility that they would take control of Congress as an unmitigated disaster, or worse. For example, as the campaign came to a close, President Bush all but accused Democrats of committing treason: 'However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses,' Bush said.

Scarborough labels O'Reilly's attack on NBC over "civil war" decision "insane" and "insulting"

O'Lie-ly is a freakin' idiot.

Why anyone pays any attention to him is beyond me?

Media Matters - Scarborough labels O'Reilly's attack on NBC over "civil war" decision "insane" and "insulting":

On the November 29 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, host Joe Scarborough said that Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's criticism of NBC and MSNBC for deciding to use the phrase 'civil war' in describing the situation in Iraq, was 'insane,' 'insulting,' 'over the top,' and 'very disturbing.' On the November 28 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly said, '[T]he American media is not helping anyone by oversimplifying the situation and rooting for the USA to lose in Iraq.' After airing the clip, Scarborough said O'Reilly is 'suggesting that NBC is rooting for America to lose in Iraq' and asked: 'What is going on at Fox News? Why is Bill O'Reilly claiming that my network, NBC News, is rooting for terrorists? That's truly insulting to me.'

From the November 29 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, which featured Matthew Felling, media director for the Center for Media and Public Affairs: On the November 29 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, host Joe Scarborough said that Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's criticism of NBC and MSNBC for deciding to use the phrase 'civil war' in describing the situation in Iraq, was 'insane,' 'insulting,' 'over the top,' and 'very disturbing.' On the November 28 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly said, '[T]he American media is not helping anyone by oversimplifying the situation and rooting for the USA to lose in Iraq.' After airing the clip, Scarborough said O'Reilly is 'suggesting that NBC is rooting for America to lose in Iraq' and asked: 'What is going on at Fox News? Why is Bill O'Reilly claiming that my network, NBC News, is rooting for terrorist?

Key Rumsfeld aide resigns

Looks like all the Neocons, Chickenhawk, Pansies are running for their lives.

Don't be so sure that leaving now will save you! You are being watched and tracked.

Key Rumsfeld aide resigns - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Defense Department's top intelligence official will resign at the end of the year, the Pentagon announced.

Stephen Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, is the most senior Pentagon official to announce he is leaving since US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tendered his resignation last month.

Cambone, who came to the Pentagon with Rumsfeld in January 2001, has been a key player in his efforts to transform the US military into a lighter, high tech force and in carving out a larger role for US military intelligence.

The Defense Department expanded espionage and other covert intelligence gathering activities under Cambone, drawing criticism from some in Congress that it was intruding on turf traditionally dominated by the CIA.

General Michael Hayden, the CIA director, said in a radio interview November 22 that reports of tension between the CIA and the Pentagon over its intelligence gathering programs were exaggerated.

Maureen Dowd: What's in a Name, Barry?

Rogers is the biggest fairy going!

Wanna take me on, you sorry little whimp? Bring it on!

Welcome to Pottersville: Maureen Dowd: What's in a Name, Barry?:

If you call Barack Obama’s office to check the spelling of his middle name, the reply comes back: “Like the dictator.”

In the first rush of our blind date with the young senator from Illinois, we are still discovering things that are going to take some getting used to. Like his middle name: Hussein.

There were already a few top Democrats scoffing at the idea that a man whose surname sounded like a Middle East terrorist could get elected president. Now it turns out that his middle name sounds like a Middle East dictator. So with one moniker, he evokes both maniacal villains of the Bush administration. And to top it off, as Jennifer Senior noted in New York magazine, Barack rhymes with Iraq.

Republican wizards have whipped up nasty soufflés with far less tasty ingredients than that.

Quote of the Day: Gingrich Aide Admits Newt Has No Chance

Of course Gingrich doesn't stand a chance of a snow ball in hell.

We have a about all we can take of psychotic authoritarnism; orange alerts, lies and other scare tactics.

Screw you people!

Americans are not all cowards like Gingrich or the rest of the dastardly authoritarians of our day!

Quote of the Day: Gingrich Aide Admits Newt Has No Chance At Presidency TPMCafe: (read on)

—Rich Galen, strategist for Newt Gingrich, admitting his candidate doesn't stand a chance yesterday at a forum of GOP strategists. Galen spoke of Gingrich's potential role as a candidate who could pitch ideas and affect the debate, but had little optimism about an actual victory.

Bayh Running for 2008

Explore this Evan!

You don't stand a chance!

Ventura County Star: News:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a Democrat with a record of political success in a Republican-leaning state, intends to take the first official step toward a 2008 presidential campaign early next week, officials said Friday.

Bayh's plans include creation of a presidential exploratory committee, as well as appearances Monday in Iowa and next weekend in New Hampshire, two early states on the campaign calendar.

Faux News fines ways to misinform about their own ratings plummet

More and more people are catching on every month. Only the most ignorant, or people who are hard-up for entertainement, keep watching

mediabistro.com: TVNewser:

FNC's November ratings release headlined the fact that 'Fox News Channel retains largest share of audience post midterm elections.' But in an e-mail to TVNewser, a cable competitor calls it a pathetic claim:

'Fox's fancy number crunching is a day late and a dollar short. They are desperate to mask the fact that Fox News was the ONLY cable network to lose viewers this month over last November. And when they say they 'retained more' since the midterms, this actually means they didn't have as high of a peak on election day from which to fall. Seems that Fox News' continuous slide in the ratings just keeps going on and on...'

> Update: 5:51pm: A Fox News spokesperson responds: 'Between falling off a cliff after election night and losing the demo race to MSNBC, we can't blame CNN for being a little bitter.' (God, what a a bitch!)

U.S. gov't terror ratings draw outrage

Oversight, my ass, these data banks need to be destroyed, forthwith!

U.S. gov't terror ratings draw outrage - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON - A leader of the new Democratic Congress, business travelers and privacy advocates expressed outrage Friday over the unannounced assignment of terrorism risk assessments to American international travelers by a computerized system managed from an unmarked, two-story brick building in Northern Virginia.

Incoming Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont pledged greater scrutiny of such government database-mining projects after reading that during the past four years millions of Americans have been evaluated without their knowledge to assess the risks that they are terrorists or criminals.

'Data banks like this are overdue for oversight,' said Leahy, who will take over Judiciary in January. 'That is going to change in the new Congress.'

The Associated Press reported Thursday that Americans and foreigners crossing U.S. borders since 2002 have been assessed by the Homeland Security Department's computerized Automated Targeting System, or ATS.

Reyes to head House intelligence panel

Hey, someone who couldn't speak a word of English could do a better job than the cover-up Intel. Committees we have had, both in the House and the Senate.

Reyes to head House intelligence panel - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON - Silvestre Reyes was unable to speak English until he was 6 years old. Now the Texas congressman must master the lingo of the nation's spy agencies and the politics of the war in Iraq.

The son of West Texas cotton farmers, Reyes was held back in school along with other Mexican-American children because of limited English. Both Reyes' parents were born in the U.S. His father was a successful farmer and both parents were avid readers who instilled a love for reading in him.

'I always look back and am amused,' Reyes said, recalling his school days. 'I was tagged as (one day) being a chicken farmer (and) a high school counselor said I was good with my hands and could be a welder.'

Instead, he became a combat soldier, a Border Patrol agent and chief and then was elected to Congress. This week, he added one more achievement: chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Powell says U.S. should talk to Iran, not attack

Of course, you are right Colin, but it is too late for you.

You sold your credibility for the criminals in the White House and their hidden agenda.

Are you now willing to tell all you know, about everything, from 9/11 on?

Powell says U.S. should talk to Iran, not attack - Yahoo! News:

LONDON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell does not believe the United States will attack Iran and says Washington should speak to Tehran and Syria.

Powell, who said Iraq was in a civil war on Wednesday, was speaking to the Leaders in London Business Forum on Thursday.

Answering a question from Reuters, Powell said: 'Iran is a regional power and it will have to be dealt with. We should find ways to speak to them and also speak to the Syrians.'

Both Iran and Syria have been accused by the U.S. government of sponsoring terrorism and fomenting violence in Iraq. Iran has also been accused of trying to build nuclear weapons. Both countries deny the accusations.

Crisis Intensifies in Lebanon As Hezbollah Takes to Streets

So, Hizbollah want's to reorient Lebanon....we could stand some reorienting over here, as well.

Try an election first, guys. Then, if that doesn't work, well, have at it!

Crisis Intensifies in Lebanon As Hezbollah Takes to Streets - washingtonpost.com:

BEIRUT, Dec. 1 -- Hezbollah and its allies escalated Lebanon's month-long political crisis into a popular confrontation Friday, sending hundreds of thousands of supporters into the streets, parking lots and sidewalks of downtown Beirut, vowing to topple the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and reorient the country.

Iraq Panel to Urge Pullout Of Combat Troops by '08

It's Nixon's Vietnam all over again!

We can't afford another year of this bullshit!

Iraq Panel to Urge Pullout Of Combat Troops by '08 - washingtonpost.com:

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group plans to recommend withdrawing nearly all U.S. combat units from Iraq by early 2008 while leaving behind troops to train, advise and support the Iraqis, setting the first goal for a major drawdown of U.S. forces, sources familiar with the proposal said yesterday.
The commission plan would shift the U.S. mission in Iraq to a secondary role as the fragile Baghdad government and its security forces take the lead in fighting a Sunni insurgency and trying to halt sectarian violence. As part of major changes in the U.S. presence, sources said, the plan recommends embedding U.S. soldiers directly in Iraqi security units starting as early as next month to improve leadership and effectiveness.

Poll: Only 14% Agree with Bush That Iraq Conflict Is Not a Civil War

Polls have changed, dramatically, against Bush and his idiotic pronouncements, just since the election.

Could it be that Americans feel somewhat safer to express their real views now that Dems are in power in, at least, one branch of government?

Or could it be that the MSM have, finally, been telling more of the truth?

Pensito Review » Poll: Only 14% Agree with Bush That Iraq Conflict Is Not a Civil War:

After months of polls that show around 30 percent of Americans — let’s call them “Dead-Enders” — approve of or agree with the president, there is a new poll out that indicates that no more than 14 percent of Americans believe that the crisis the president and his team have created in Iraq is not a civil war. And the poll is from no less a conservative bastion than the Wall Street Journal:After months of polls that show around 30 percent of Americans — let’s call them “Dead-Enders” — approve of or agree with the president, there is a new poll out that indicates that no more than 14 percent of Americans believe that the crisis the president and his team have created in Iraq is not a civil war. And the poll is from no less a conservative bastion than the Wall Street Journal:

Man burns himself alive to protest war

I have actually thought if doing something similar....

I admire this man's courage and conscious.

Man burns himself alive to protest war:

CHICAGO (AP) -- Malachi Ritscher envisioned his death as one full of purpose. He carefully planned the details, mailed a copy of his apartment key to a friend, created to-do lists for his family. On his Web site, the 52-year-old experimental musician who'd fought with depression even penned his obituary.

At 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 3 -- four days before an election caused a seismic shift in Washington politics -- Ritscher, a frequent anti-war protester, stood by an off-ramp in downtown Chicago near a statue of a giant flame, set up a video camera, doused himself with gasoline and lit himself on fire. 'Here is the statement I want to make. ... 'If one death can atone for anything, in any small way, to say to the world: I apologize for what we have done to you, I am ashamed for the mayhem and turmoil caused by my country.'

'This man killed himself in such a painful way ... to get our attention...,' said Jennifer Diaz, a grad student researching Ritscher's life. 'I'm not going to sit by, and I can't sit by, and let this go unheard.'

Kissinger to Serve As Papal Adviser?

So, now this Pope, who, quite frankly gives me the creeps, is asking advise from a war criminal; a man who dare not enter ceratin countries, because he would be arrested on the spot?

The Roman Catholic Church seems to be heading for hell in a hand basket.

Kissinger to Serve As Papal Adviser?:

VATICAN CITY — Over the course of his long and controversial career, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has had many titles. Now he reportedly has one more — adviser to the Pope.
According to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, Pope Benedict XVI has invited the 83-year-old former adviser to Richard Nixon to be a political consultant, and Kissinger has accepted.

Quoting an “authoritative” diplomatic source at the Holy See, the paper reported Nov. 4 that the Nobel laureate was asked at a recent private audience with the Holy Father to form part of a papal “advisory board” on foreign and political affairs.

As the Register went to press, Kissinger’s office was unable to confirm or deny the report. La Stampa stood by its story, although the Italian press is less rigorous in its authentication of stories as is the United States Press.

The EU's Shame

To the people of Europe:

Buck up, Friends. We know how you must be feeling. These are shameful times for us all.

The Blotter:

The CIA flew 1,245 secret flights into European airspace, according to a European Parliament draft report obtained by ABC News.

The report is the result of a year-long investigation into secret CIA 'extraordinary rendition' flights and prisons in Europe.

No European country has officially acknowledged being part of the program.

Happy birthday, Iran-Contra!

Why wasn't the anniversary of Iran/Contra covered by the MSM?

Probably because most of the twits who (dis)grace the news rooms of today probably are to young to even remember that it was a big deal, let alone have a clue how that goofy chapter in presidential/vice presidential history plays into today's catastrophe in the Middle East.

Happy birthday, Iran-Contra! - By Timothy Noah - Slate Magazine:

This anniversary fixation makes it all the more baffling that one particularly significant anniversary recently went unnoticed: the 20th anniversary, on Nov. 25, of the Iran-Contra scandal. On that day in 1986, Attorney General Ed Meese confirmed press reports that the Reagan White House had sold arms secretly to Iran and, defying legislation passed by Congress and signed by the president, gave the proceeds to a group (the 'Contras') that was trying to overthrow the government of Nicaragua. An independent prosecutor was promptly assigned to the case, and Congress created a joint investigative committee that many believed would lead to the impeachment of President Reagan. That didn't happen, of course. But Iran-Contra was a hugely significant political event.

Why no anniversary coverage? It certainly wasn't because that date was crowded with other news. Nov. 25 fell this year on a Saturday during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Newsrooms were half-empty, and front pages were padded out with stories like 'Cities Compete In Hipness Battle to Attract Young' (New York Times). Yet apart from an AP story about the National Security Archive's document-rich commemoration, I found precisely zero newspaper or magazine articles when I checked the Nexis and Google News databases for recent stories containing the words Iran, Contra, anniversary, and 20. (The Nation magazine covered the anniversary via David Corn's 'Capital Games' Web log, but even that came three days late.)

Litvinenko Radiation Attack: A Warning for the U.S.

Especially U.S. disidents, we would say.

Political Cortex: Litvinenko Radiation Attack: A Warning for the U.S.:

It's sometimes hard to tell if the British government's handling of a radiation poisoning case is inept or just poorly reported, but it certainly could be improved. The difficulty of the UK's response to a radiological attack on an individual demonstrates, on a much smaller scale, the kind of challenge Americans would face if terrorists used radioactive substances to inflict mass casualties in the United States.

By the time British government authorities publicly identified polonium-210 as the likely cause of Alexander Litvinenko's death, thousands of people had been exposed to cross-contamination as they passed through each of the places visited by the former Russian spy, and possibly his assassin, before he fell ill on November 1. It is unclear if doctors failed to quickly diagnose the cause, or if officials intentionally withheld the diagnosis for investigative purposes.

Letters 'revealed secret hit squad'

The world just keeps getting scarier by the day!

Letters 'revealed secret hit squad' | UK Latest | Guardian Unlimited:

Detectives are investigating letters smuggled out of Russia purporting to show the existence of a secret squad set up to target poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko and others.

Scotland Yard has been passed copies of two letters apparently penned in jail by former Russian intelligence officer Mikhail Trepashkin, in one of which Mr Litvinenko is warned that both he and his family are at risk.

Mr Litvinenko's London friend Alex Goldfarb said scans of the letters came into his possession on Thursday and he passed them to Scotland Yard.

Editorial: Bush talks nonsense about situation in Iraq

If there ever was a time for the 25th Amendment to be considered, it is now. The President is clearly out of touch with reality and is scaring the entire world.

Unfortunately, it is up to his own cabinet to bring up the 25th amendment. How likely is that?

I wonder, can they be held accountable for not doing the responsible thing?

Editorial: Bush talks nonsense about situation in Iraq:

When President Bush pronounced Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki 'the right guy for Iraq' Thursday, it recalled Bush's infamous 'heck of a job' comment about FEMA Director Michael Brown's incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina. Both comments say more about Bush than Brown or Al-Maliki: On Iraq, as on Katrina, Bush has completely slipped the moorings of reality.

Even as the president was speaking to Al-Maliki in Amman, Jordan, rival Shiite and Sunni groups in Baghdad -- including those controlled by Al-Maliki's patron, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- were massing for all-out battle. Bloodshed in the capital has reached its highest level since the American invasion. Whatever happens now in Iraq will have little to do with what the United States wants to happen.
Bush showed the clear unreality of his views during a stop in Latvia earlier in the week. He refused to acknowledge the civil war that is plain to see; pronounced, incredibly, that Al-Qaida is the major threat in Iraq, and pledged, again, that he would 'not pull American troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete.'

U.S. rates travelers for terror risk

If I am denied the ability to fly because of my past travel, I am going to sue the hell out of them! By them I mean Bush, Cheney, and the grim reaper that heads up the DHS.

As an American, born and raised, who has never posed a threat to my country, I am sick to death of being spied on as if I am a criminal. These paranoid bastards had better knock it the hell off.

Which brings a quesstion to mind: If we are really in a global war of somekind, why do the Bushites inist on making so many enemies for themselves at home?

U.S. rates travelers for terror risk - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON - Without their knowledge, millions of Americans and foreigners crossing U.S. borders in the past four years have been assigned scores generated by U.S. government computers rating the risk that the travelers are terrorists or criminals.

The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments, which the government intends to keep on file for 40 years.

The government calls the system critical to national security following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Some privacy advocates call it one of the most intrusive and risky schemes yet mounted in the name of anti-terrorism efforts.

Virtually every person entering and leaving the United States by air, sea or land is scored by the Homeland Security Department's Automated Targeting System, or ATS. The scores are based on ATS' analysis of their travel records and other data, including items such as where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered.

Gore takes a swipe at Justice Scalia on 'Jay Leno'

Good for Al.

Thank you, President Gore!

Scalia is a Opus Dei weirdo who should be impeached, along with his Charlie McCarthy-like-dummy Clarence Thomas.

Gore takes a swipe at Justice Scalia on 'Jay Leno':

Former Vice President Al Gore took a swipe at Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Wednesday, referencing the conservative jurist's recent skepticism in a global warming case and role in the 2000 presidential election.

'In the arguments, Justice Scalia said, 'I'm not a scientist, I don't want to deal with global warming.' I just wish he felt that way about presidential elections,' Gore joked on 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.'

Responding to the audience's cheer, he quipped: 'I think 51 percent of the audience clapped for it.'

In his monologue, Leno made references to the Supreme Court's controversial vote to end ballot recounts in Florida that led to President Bush's victory in the close race. Scalia voted to stop the recount.

'Well you know there's talk that Vice President Gore could win an Oscar for his global warming movie, 'An Inconvenient Truth.' If he does get it, it would be his first win since the presidency in 2000,' Leno said. Former Vice President Al Gore took a swipe at Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Wednesday, referencing the conservative jurist's recent skepticism in a global warming case and role in the 2000 presidential election.

15 Brigades Would Gradually Stand Down Under Plan

Just as everyone suspected, Poppy is trying to clean up after his moron son, again.

Why the hell didn't he save us all the heartache and headache and just tell us not to vote for the family imbecile in the first place?

Exile the Bushies!

15 Brigades Would Gradually Stand Down Under Plan - New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 — The bipartisan Iraq Study Group reached a consensus on Wednesday on a final report that will call for a gradual pullback of the 15 American combat brigades now in Iraq but stop short of setting a firm timetable for their withdrawal, according to people familiar with the panel’s deliberations.

Newtie the Nympho

Newtie, Please, Pease run for president, you perveerted bastard.

We can't wait!

Gerald Plessner:

Newt Gingrich is certainly not the only Republican who has cheated on more wives than Bill Clinton, but he has to be at the top of the list. Newt's brazen serial adultery and pathetic sexual addiction are almost beyond belief. Here's the full story in chronological order, perhaps for the first time.

Newt's callousness is legendary. Like telling his first wife that he was dumping her as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from cancer surgery. It is also absolutely true. But it is only one example of Gingrich's self-centered arrogance and his rampant sexual addiction. There is a long string of stories about how he has used women over the years.

As you read this keep in mind that this guy has a pass to the Bush White House. He is the man neo-colonialists who control America's foreign policy want for our next secretary of state after they get rid of Colin Powell.


THE NEWT GINGRICH SEX STORY ^^^^

MPs call for inquiry into government's role in CIA flights | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics

Oops! Seems like our Brit partners in crime are raising hell again about mor Blair government criminal misbehavior!

Rave on, our beloved motherland. Help us out and we will help you.

MPs call for inquiry into government's role in CIA flights Special Reports Guardian Unlimited Politics:

Opposition parties today called for a full public inquiry into 'extraordinary rendition' following a scathing EU report that accused the British government of obstructing investigations into the controversial flights.

The Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National party jointly attacked the government for its 'complicity' with the US government over the practice, whereby secret CIA flights transferred detainees to locations where they risked being tortured.

The Lib Dems' foreign affairs spokesman, Michael Moore, said: 'It is damning to learn that the Foreign Office believes using information extracted under torture is not banned under international law, particularly when the House of Lords has ruled otherwise.

Yet another Republican Christianist pedophile (though not yet in rehab) | CorrenteWire

Some really sick tickets in the Republican party, not to mention the christo-fascists.

Let the Pope burn them all at the stake. Popes used to be good at that.

Yet another Republican Christianist pedophile (though not yet in rehab) CorrenteWire:

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office claims that sex-crime prosecutions are a top priority. So why is one accused serial child molester still free and awaiting trial after nearly four years? One answer might be connections. Jeffrey Ray Nielsen is not merely a former intern in the DA’s office. He’s a prominent Republican activist in a county controlled by the Republican Party, a man with close ties to the former and current heads of that party; Huntington Beach Congressman Dana Rohrabacher; and Michael Schroeder, adviser to the county’s top law enforcement officials, DA Tony Rackauckas and Sheriff Mike Carona. Nielsen preached the Bible, and berated liberals and homosexuals alike.
Naturally. I can't quote the letters to 'Billy.' Twisted, sad, pathetic, manipulative, and, also naturally, very authoritarian.

“He tried to brainwash me,” says Billy, who is now married. “He was very controlling.” as authoritarians do tend to be.

Another case of Winger Projection Syndrome.

NOTE Say, how's that Ethics Committee report on the Foley Affair coming? Or is that another Republican mess the Dems are going to have to clean up?The Orange County District Attorney’s Office claims that sex-crime prosecutions are a top priority. So why is one accused serial child molester still free and awaiting trial after nearly four years? One answer might be connections. Jeffrey Ray Nielsen is not merely a former intern in the DA’s office. He’s a prominent Republican activist in a county controlled by the Republican Party, a man with close ties to the former and current heads of that party; Huntington Beach Congressman Dana Rohrabache

Defense eyeing more deployments to Iraq - Yahoo! News

Let's draft all Bush voters in the last election, under the age of 45, and send them.

We think that is a spendid idea!

Defense eyeing more deployments to Iraq - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is developing plans to send four more battalions to Iraq early next year, partly to boost security in Baghdad, defense officials said Wednesday. Meanwhile, a commission studying Iraq policy said it would make its report next week.

The extra combat engineer battalions of reserves, likely to be sent to Baghdad, would total about 3,500 troops, officials said. They said the units, coming from around the United States, have already done tours in Iraq but there has been no final decision on which will go.

The moves come as violence continues to rise in Baghdad, and President Bush is under growing pressure to craft an exit strategy that would withdraw a substantial number of U.S. troops from Iraq while shifting more responsibility to the Iraqi government. The Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission looking into Iraq war policy, said it will release its report to the president, Congress and the public on Dec. 6.

Senate leader-elect sets agenda

No surprise here. Irresponsible Rethugs. What the hell else is new?

Read on for more of Reid's agenda

Senate leader-elect sets agenda - Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid said Tuesday he's doing away with the 'do-nothing Congress' that Democrats campaigned against and plans to keep senators working long hours — focusing first on ethics, the minimum wage and stem cell research.

The Nevada Democrat said he would tackle those priorities after cleaning up the 'financial mess' the outgoing Republican Congress is leaving behind, a reference to nine long-overdue spending bills covering 13 Cabinet departments for the budget year that began Oct. 1.

'They're just leaving town, it appears,' Reid said during an interview with The Associated Press in his Capitol office. 'And so we're going to have to find a way to fund the government for the next year.'
The must-pass legislation totals more than $460 billion and could divert time from other items on the Democratic agenda. 'It's certainly not going to help it,' Reid said.

Are Bush Voters Nuts? Apparently.

The rest of us didn't need a study to know this, but it is damn good that someone decided to do one.

NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE - NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE:

A collective “I told you so” will ripple through the world of Bush-bashers once news of Christopher Lohse’s study gets out.

Lohse, a social work master’s student at Southern Connecticut State University, says he has proven what many progressives have probably suspected for years: a direct link between mental illness and support for President Bush.

Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

Top court rebuffs paper in leak case

Hell, I don't even remember this leak.

Curious why someone would have leaked this?

Still, I think the real story here is how freely the SCOTUS is willing to give prosecutors free reign when it comes to leaks, especially ones that may involve real whistle blowers.

Top court rebuffs paper in leak case Chicago Tribune:

"WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to shield The New York Times and two of its reporters from a prosecutor's probe into who leaked word of planned raids on two Muslim charities five years ago.

The decision clears the way for prosecutors to review the phone records of the two reporters for several weeks in autumn 2001. The prosecutor, U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago, says the records will help point to the source of the leak.

Bush's isolation portends even greater ugliness

Yep. No doubt.

p m carpenter's commentary: Bush's isolation portends even greater ugliness:

Good god. Now Bush has trouble even getting his friends to talk to him. (He doesn't have any freinds)

'The first meeting in a scheduled two-day summit between President Bush and Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq,' reported the NYT, 'was canceled at the last minute today, against the backdrop of threats by a radical Shiite cleric to boycott the Maliki government and the disclosure of a classified White House memo that was highly critical of Mr. Maliki.'

Some are saying the White House deliberately leaked the classified memo as a less than subtle shot over Maliki's bow prior to high-level discussions. That may be, but if true, the tactic was a spectacular flop on several fronts.

"Americans Can't Handle Another Impeachment" Is Republican Propaganda. Don't Be Deceived.

Americans must not only handle the truth; all of it, but they must demand it.

Some say that it is the truth that will set you free

In this case, it is the truth which will keep us free and seeking it is the responsibility of a truly free people.

"Americans Can't Handle Another Impeachment" Is Republican Propaganda. Don't Be Deceived.:

'Americans can't handle another impeachment.' So say the supporters of George W. Bush in their anti-impeachment propaganda.
The truth is Americans CAN handle another impeachment. They CAN handle the truth. In fact, if Americans don't bring Bush and Cheney to justice after the atrocities they've committed, this nation will never reclaim its moral authority. And the people of this nation will be despised for unleashing these dangerous men on the world.

'Americans can't handle another impeachment' isn't a truth. It's a device. Like 'weapons of mass destruction.' 'A mushroom cloud.' 'Gassed his own people.' 'Sought significant quantities of uranium from A-f-r-i-c-a.' These are the sound bytes, the parroted propaganda, which brought us to war. Each is a proven lie, told time and again by well-rehearsed pundits. Verbatim delivery. Robotic form. Repeated ad nauseam by grown-up children of the damned. It sounded good for Nicholson in 'A Few Good Men,' but rings pretty hollow here. Americans CAN handle and probe for the truth.

Scientists: Climate Change Clues in Sky

Excuse us for our lack of optimism, but we think we are already too far down the pike to be able to do much more than prevent a very devastating landing.

Even for that, we must begin today. How likely is that, with the fossel fuel guys in charge of the world?

Scientists: Climate Change Clues in Sky:

Scientists are peering into the clouds near the top of the world, trying to solve a mystery and learn something new about global warming.

The mystery is the droplets of water in the clouds. With the North Pole just 685 miles away, they should be frozen, yet more of them are liquid than anyone expected.

So the scientists working out of a converted blue cargo container are trying to determine whether the clouds are one of the causes — or effects — of Earth's warming atmosphere.

'Much to our surprise, we found that Arctic clouds have got lots of super-cooled liquid water in them. Liquid water has even been detected in clouds at temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 F),' said Taneil Uttal, chief of the Clouds and Arctic Research Group at the Earth Systems Research Laboratory of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

TV Blowhard Barks at Iran: Let’s Hold CNN Accountable

Let us point out that thre is a difference between a recovering alcoholic and a dry drunk.

Mr. Beck sounds like he fits the mold of the latter.

We would all be better off if he would either get some help or just simply drink.

TV Blowhard Barks at Iran: Let’s Hold CNN Accountable:

Turn on CNN Headline News – a supposed “news” channel – on weekday nights and you’ll be subjected to the lectures of a loudmouthed, factually-challenged, occasionally funny know-it-all whose shtick is that he’s “just a regular American schmoe.”

His name is Glenn Beck, a smiley-toothed monologist and proselytizer who is a recovering alcoholic, talk-radio host, convert to Mormonism and self-described “rodeo clown.” His crude rants would be easy to ignore except that CNN -- part of the Time Warner conglomerate – has chosen to give Beck a primetime platform which he uses day after day to cheer on a confrontation with Iran. (Imagine what an informed foreign policy critic could do with such a nightly forum.)

In Beck’s world, he and his endless parade of like-mindedly hawkish guests are the only ones who see the danger: “It’s Iran, stupid!” Most of U.S. officialdom and media are asleep at the wheel again, Neville Chamberlain-style appeasers.

'Neocons' Abandon Iraq War at White House Front Door

The Peacemakers never get credit. It has always been this way. We are despised and spoken of in degrading terms. Over the years, we have been jailed on the flimsiest of charges, beaten in the streets and harrased by the FBI and other federal agencies, not to mention local cops, who act more like thugs than peace officers.

John Kerry's antiwar activities over three decades ago, cost him the election two years ago (well, that and Diebold). Nevermind that he was right.

Yes, the crowds in the streets, while several times approaching a half million people, have been tame, in comparison to the 60s, the peace movement has been stronger than I have ever seen it; stronger and smarter.

As Joe Trippi said; "The Revolution will not be televised."

'Neocons' Abandon Iraq War at White House Front Door:

Although rarely credited, the anti-war movement has been a major factor in mobilizing a majority of the American public to oppose the occupation and killing in Iraq.

To many observers, the movement seems feckless and marginal, its rallies an incoherent bazaar of radical sloganeering. Yet according to Gallup surveys, a majority of Americans came to view Iraq as a mistake more rapidly than they came to oppose the Vietnam War more than three decades ago. So how could there be a peace majority without a peace movement?

Foreign Affairs, the journal of the foreign policy establishment, wondered about this riddle in a 2005 essay by John Mueller reporting a precipitous decline in public support for the war even though 'there has not been much' of a peace movement.

Iraq Panel's Real Agenda: Damage Control

Who the hell didn't know this?

Even a panel of experts, who knows everything about everything, could not salvage this mess.

As long as Bush is in the White House, nothing we do will be trusted. What's more, if the Bushites are not held accountable for their many crimes, both International and Constitutional, the U.S. will be a second rate power for years to come. (Given what we have done with power in the past as well as in the present, that is not an altogether bad thing)

It doesn't make one iota of difference how big and destructive our military is, economically we are sucking wind, and our credibility lies in shreds.

Unless we plan on nuking the world, and act of suicide, the people have to be responsible for what this administration has done and demand accountability and demand it in such a way that we cannot be ignored or refused.

Iraq Panel's Real Agenda: Damage Control:

Even as Washington waits with bated breath for the Iraq Study Group (ISG) to release its findings, the rest of us should see this gambit for what it is: an attempt to deflect attention from the larger questions raised by America's failure in Iraq and to shore up the authority of the foreign policy establishment that steered the United States into this quagmire. This ostentatiously bipartisan panel of Wise Men (and one woman) can't really be searching for truth. It is engaged in damage control.
Their purpose is twofold: first, to minimize Iraq's impact on the prevailing foreign policy consensus with its vast ambitions and penchant for armed intervention abroad; and second, to quell any inclination of ordinary citizens to intrude into matters from which they have long been excluded. The ISG is antidemocratic. Its implicit message to Americans is this: We'll handle things - now go back to holiday shopping.

The group's composition gives the game away. Chaired by James Baker, the famed political operative and former secretary of state, and Lee Hamilton, former congressman and fixture on various blue-ribbon commissions, it contains no one who could be even remotely described as entertaining unorthodox opinions or maverick tendencies.Even as Washington waits with bated breath for the Iraq Study Group (ISG) to release its findings, the rest of us should see this gambit for what it is: an attempt to deflect attention from the larger questions raised by America's failure in Iraq and to shore up the authority of the foreign policy establishment that steered the United States into this quagmire. This ostentatiously bipartisan panel of Wise Men (and one woman) can't really be searching for truth. It is engaged in damage control.

Impeachment Hearings for Bush & Co.? How about War Crimes Tribunals :: Alternative Press Review :: Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream

Amen!

Impeachment Hearings for Bush & Co.? How about War Crimes Tribunals :: Alternative Press Review :: Your Guide Beyond the Mainstream:

While Bush administration members have made a sport of breaking the law, both domestically and internationally, their intransigence will come back to haunt—one way or another.

The Bush Doctrine of taking 'the battle to the enemy,' for example, is a direct repudiation of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the use of international force unless in self-defense (after an armed attack across an international border) or related to a UN Security Council decision. And that explains why Bush's 2002 National Security Strategy makes a point to 'protect Americans' from 'the potential for investigations, inquiry, or prosecution' by the International Criminal Court 'whose jurisdiction does not extend to Americans and which we do not accept.'While Bush administration members have made a sport of breaking the law, both domestically and internationally, their intransigence will come back to haunt—one way or another.

Judge strikes down Bush on terror groups - Yahoo! News

I'm sure the Quakers and Raging Grannies feel safer already.

This is great news. The Little Emperor is growing more iompotent and pathetic by the day.

Judge strikes down Bush on terror groups - Yahoo! News:

LOS ANGELES - A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutionally vague, according to a ruling released Tuesday.

Elizabeth de la Vega, Bringing Bush to Court

Elizabeth is doing the work for some other prosecutor in a not too distant time.

These people must not be allowed to walk free. Oh no, not after what they have done.

Either they will be prosecuted, or hunted down like beasts in the woods by the people. If I were them, I would take my chances with American jurisprudence, even after they have tried to destroy it.


TomDispatch - Tomgram: Elizabeth de la Vega, Bringing Bush to Court:

Elizabeth de la Vega, appearing on behalf of the United States. That is a phrase I've uttered hundreds of times in twenty years as a federal prosecutor. I retired two years ago. So, obviously, I do not now speak for any U.S. Attorney's Office, nor do I represent the federal government. This should be apparent from the fact that I am proposing a hypothetical indictment of the President and his senior advisers -- not a smart move for any federal employee who wishes to remain employed. Lest anyone miss the import of this paragraph, let me emphasize that it is a DISCLAIMER: I am writing as a private citizen.

Obviously, as a private citizen, I cannot simply draft and file an indictment. Nor can I convene a grand jury. Instead, in the following pages I intend to present a hypothetical indictment to a hypothetical grand jury. The defendants are President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. The crime is tricking the nation into war--in legal terms, conspiracy to defraud the United States. And all of you are invited to join the grand jury.

Reno Joins Criticism of Anti-Terror Strategy

Well, this is a blast from the past, and a welcome one.

Reno Joins Criticism of Anti-Terror Strategy - washingtonpost.com:

Former attorney general Janet Reno has taken the unusual step of openly criticizing the Bush administration's anti-terrorism strategy -- joining seven other former Justice Department officials in warning that the indefinite detention of U.S. terrorism suspects could become commonplace unless the courts intervene.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed in the case of alleged enemy combatant Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the former prosecutors assert that criminal courts are well equipped to prosecute terrorism suspects while guaranteeing the constitutional rights of defendants arrested on U.S. soil.

Pelosi readying a pre-emptive House agenda

Crack that whip, Mrs. Pelosi.

It is about time Congress was made to actually work, instead of just steal from us.

Pelosi readying a pre-emptive House agenda / She's not going to let State of the Union overshadow the state of the nation:

Pelosi plans to start the 110th Congress with a bang on Jan. 4 -- when the House holds its ceremonial swearing in and elects her as speaker -- by immediately setting off on a sprint of several weeks to enact the Democrats' ambitious 100-hour agenda.

Lawmakers usually return home between the swearing-in ceremony and the president's speech, but analysts say the hurried schedule gives Democrats a chance to show instant results. It could also put Bush on the defensive, forcing him to sign or veto a host of popular initiatives.

Egypt: Cairo’s women speak out against violence

Good on these courageous women!

We must all stand with them in demanding that violence against women and mothers stop!

Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Egypt: Cairo’s women speak out against violence:

In the run-up to the annual global campaign for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, Egypt’s First Lady, Suzanne Mubarak, addressing a meeting of the Arab Women’s Organisation, issued a heartfelt plea:
What shall we do to face challenges of discrimination, extremism and religious fanaticism?
It’s a vexing question - and one to which women back home in Egypt would have a very specific answer: stop ignoring violence against women even when it’s become an international scandal thanks to citizen video and the internet.

Ten Fallacies About the Violence in Iraq

Of the ten, the most laughable is that those committing violence in Iraq are doing so to help elect Democrats in this country. What a freakin' joke. Most people in the middle east don't trust any of our politicians, period.

bin Laden did his best to help Bush get re-elected in 2004, according to our own Intel. Agencies. Wonder why? Could it be because Bush was stupid enough to invade Iraq and thus save bin Laden from self-induced obscurity?

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Ten Fallacies About the Violence in Iraq:

The distortions about the violence in Iraq persist even as the mayhem increases. Here are ten of the worst myths being spread in the media.

Ten Fallacies About the Violence in Iraq

Of the ten, the most laughable is that those committing violence in Iraq are doing so to help elect Democrats in this country. What a freakin' joke. Most people in the middle east don't trust any of our politicians, period.

bin Laden did his best to help Bush get re-elected in 2004, according to our own Intel. Agencies. Wonder why? Could it be because Bush was stupid enough to invade Iraq and thus save bin Laden from self-induced obscurity?

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Ten Fallacies About the Violence in Iraq:

The distortions about the violence in Iraq persist even as the mayhem increases. Here are ten of the worst myths being spread in the media.

Wall Street Has Worst Day in 4 Months

We predicted an economic downswing, to put it mildly, to begin soon after the elections.

But who knew that it would be so bad that people wouldn't be able to afford to shop at Wallyworld?

With the two crushing defictis we now have, where can the dollar go but down?

My Way News - Wall Street Has Worst Day in 4 Months:

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street had its worst day in more than four months Monday as the dollar weakened and concerns about the strength of the retail industry arose following a rare sales decline at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) The Dow Jones industrials fell 158 points.

Investors were uneasy after the dollar fell for the fifth straight day and after Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, reported a 0.1 percent drop in same-store sales, those from stores open at least a year. Same-store sales are the industry standard for assessing a retailer's strength, and while overall retail sales appeared strong last weekend, Wal-Mart's first deficit in a decade raised concerns about the strength of consumer spending during the holiday season.

Anbar Picture Grows Clearer, and Bleaker

What an incredible mess!

It's hard to believe that anyone could make such a mess, unintended.

Anbar Picture Grows Clearer, and Bleaker - washingtonpost.com:

The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq or counter al-Qaeda's rising popularity there, according to newly disclosed details from a classified Marine Corps intelligence report that set off debate in recent months about the military's mission in Anbar province.
The Marines recently filed an updated version of that assessment that stood by its conclusions and stated that, as of mid-November, the problems in troubled Anbar province have not improved, a senior U.S. intelligence official said yesterday. 'The fundamental questions of lack of control, growth of the insurgency and criminality' remain the same, the official said.

Froomkin: It's A Civil War, Stupid

Oh, good lord, it has been a civil war for over a year!

Just because the goofball in the White House is delusional, must the MSM enable him and continue to come-off appearing as stupid as he apparently is?

I guess NBC just couldn't handle it anymore. Good for them. Too bad they waited this long to state the obvious.

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

After nearly four years of letting the Bush Administration set the terms of the national debate over Iraq, some major news organizations are finally calling the conflict there what it is: a civil war. The White House is howling in protest.

Here's what Matt Lauer announced on NBC's Today Show this morning: 'As you know, for months now the White House has rejected claims that the situation in Iraq has deteriorated into civil war. And for the most part, news organizations, like NBC, have hesitated to characterize it as such. But, after careful consideration, NBC News has decided the change in terminology is warranted -- that the situation in Iraq, with armed militarized factions fighting for their own political agendas, can now be characterized as civil war.'

Bush's bizarre appointment

When will people learn?

It is a waste of time to listen to anything Bush says.

It only matters what he does, as his actions are usually diametrically opposed to what he says.

Bush's bizarre appointment - Los Angeles Times:

PRESIDENT BUsh made some winningly conciliatory remarks the day after his party's Nov. 7 electoral drubbing, saying he looked forward to governing in a more bipartisan fashion. Then he turned around and started naming kooky ideologues to key posts.

The latest recess appointment, Eric Keroack as head of the federal government's family planning office, is an extremist so out of line with scientific thought that it is difficult to describe his views without laughing.

Bush: Iraq violence part of al-Qaida plot

Is it just me, or does Bush sound more unhinged by the day?

Bush: Iraq violence part of al-Qaida plot - Yahoo! News:

TALLINN, Estonia - President Bush said Tuesday that the sectarian violence rocking Iraq is part of an al-Qaida plot to goad Iraqi factions into repeated attacks and counterattacks.

Bye-bye America: The legacy of Bush II and Reagan

Fuckers!

p m carpenter's commentary: Bye-bye America: The legacy of Bush II and Reagan:

The fix is in. The scam is on. And the suspense, as modest as it was, is prematurely over.

The Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group is expected to release a report that is heavy on regional talks but light on talk of withdrawal timetables. Anticipating this, the Bush administration has preemptively fabricated a presto of regional confabs -- Bush in Jordan and Cheney in Saudi Arabia -- while remaining characteristically mum on any talk of a timed, phased withdrawal. Hence when the report is officially released next month, the administration will tout, We're way ahead of you -- all that could be done is already being done.

As added cushion -- read 'cover' -- for doing what it planned on doing anyway, the administration by then will also have its 'independent' Pentagon and National Security Council reports on hand, saying much the same: Stage a diplomatic chat now and then, set no enforceable conditions, and pray like hell that things somehow work out.

Cheney has always been a Dick

....pun intended!

Hail to the chief - The Boston Globe:

ANN ARBOR, MICH. -- In July 1987, then-Representative Dick Cheney, the top Republican on the committee investigating the Iran-contra scandal, turned on his hearing room microphone and delivered, in his characteristically measured tone, a revolutionary claim.
President Reagan and his top aides, he asserted, were free to ignore a 1982 law at the center of the scandal. Known as the Boland Amendment, it banned US assistance to anti-Marxist militants in Nicaragua.

'I personally do not believe the Boland Amendment applied to the president, nor to his immediate staff,' Cheney said.

Most of Cheney's colleagues did not share his vision of a presidency empowered to bypass US laws governing foreign policy. The committee issued a scathing, bipartisan report accusing White House officials of 'disdain for the law.'

Cheney refused to sign it. Instead, he commissioned his own report declaring that the real lawbreakers were his fellow lawmakers, because the Constitution 'does not permit Congress to pass a law usurping Presidential power.'

The Iran-contra scandal was not the first time the future vice president articulated a philosophy of unfettered executive power -- nor would it be the last. The Constitution empowers Congress to pass laws regulating the executive branch, but over the course of his career, Cheney came to believe that the modern world is too dangerous and complex for a president's hands to be tied. He embraced a belief that presidents have vast 'inherent' powers, not spelled out in the Constitution, that allow them to defy Congress.

Democratic 'old bulls' to take charge

Whatever!

It is a freakin' relief!

Democratic 'old bulls' to take charge - Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON — When Rep. John D. Dingell was new to Congress, Buddy Holly ruled the charts, Rosa Parks refused to budge from her seat on a segregated bus and Dwight D. Eisenhower occupied the White House.

And on Capitol Hill, congressional committee chairmen ruled like feudal lords over federal policy, pursuing pet causes and waging vendettas with near impunity.

In time, Dingell became one of the most fearsome.

Now Dingell, the longest-serving member of the House, and other veteran Democrats are poised to take charge of the most powerful committees when Congress convenes in January.

In the four decades that Democrats were the dominant party, chairmen's foibles, however egregious, did not threaten the party's grip on power. But with narrower margins of control and an electorate willing to switch allegiances, there is no such assumption these days.

The question now is whether the 'old bulls' like Dingell know it, and if they know it, whether they can adjust.

'This majority is not the kind of majority that we used to have, and it remains to be seen whether they understand that,' said one senior Democratic staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Just as we predicted, US dollar 'will keep falling'

How the hell else can we mange the debt run up by Junior and company.

Effing idiots!

US dollar 'will keep falling' Business The Observer:

The US dollar has reached a 'tipping point' as foreign exchange markets wake up to the threat that the Federal Reserve will have to slash interest rates in the new year to stave off recession, analysts say. After a sharp sell-off on Friday took the greenback to 18-month lows against the euro, and pushed the pound to $1.93, economists warned that there was worse to come for the US currency.

'We are just at the start of what we think will be a downtrend for the dollar - a tipping-point has probably been reached,' said Tim Fox, currency strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, who expects sterling to hit $2 within the next three months.

Beware of McCain, the Authoritarian

He is the very worst nightmare of the Left and the Right, and we are not talking about a Centrist.

Imagine the worst of the nanny-state crap of the Left combined with the abusive paternalism of the Right. Talk about Nightmare on Mainstreet!

Do we need another T.R.? - Los Angeles Times:

The first clue to McCain's philosophy lies in two seemingly irrelevant items of gossip: His father was a drunk, and his second wife battled addiction to pain pills. Neither would be worth mentioning except for the fact that McCain's books and speeches are shot through with the language and sentiment of 12-step recovery, especially Steps 1 (admitting the problem) and 2 (investing faith in a 'Power greater than ourselves').

Like many alcoholics who haven't quite made it to Step 6 (becoming 'entirely ready' to have these defects removed), McCain is disarmingly talented at admitting his narcissistic flaws. In his 2002 book 'Worth the Fighting For,' the senator is constantly confessing his problems of 'selfishness,' 'immaturity,' 'ambition' and especially 'temper,' though he also makes clear that his outbreaks of anger can be justifiable and even laudable when channeled into 'a cause greater than self-interest.'

'A rebel without a cause is just a punk,' he explains. 'Whatever you're called — rebel, unorthodox, nonconformist, radical — it's all self-indulgence without a good cause to give your life meaning.'

Elliott Abrams: The Last Neocon Standing; a convicted felon, pardoned by Poppy

God, what a mess this country is!

This god-awful nightmare should not only mean the end of the NeoCons, but the end of Republican hold on power in this country for generations.

Elliott Abrams: The Last Neocon Standing - Newsweek National News - MSNBC.com:

Dec. 4, 2006 issue - It's been a rough season for neoconservatives, the group that has dominated U.S. foreign policy since the attacks of September 11. They've been largely run out of the Bush administration, beset by infighting, and mocked by a foreign-policy establishment that hailed their power just a few years ago. Last month was particularly brutal. They looked on helplessly as Democrats took both houses of Congress. They had to grit their teeth when President Bush met with Washington dealmakers James Baker and Lee Hamilton, whose bipartisan group is charged with extricating America from the mess the neocon-influenced policy created in Iraq. Then, insult to injury: they watched their cold-war nemesis in Central America circa 1986, Daniel Ortega, rise again to be president of Nicaragua.

Calls for justice in fatal NYPD shooting - Yahoo! News

....and we wonder why things are going so badly in Iraq.

We cannot keep our own police from behaving with criminal over-kill!

Calls for justice in fatal NYPD shooting - Yahoo! News:

NEW YORK - An angry crowd shouted 'No justice, no peace!' Some called for the ouster of the city's police commissioner. Many counted off to 50, the number of rounds that are estimated to have been fired by police at three unarmed men, killing one on his wedding day. NEW YORK - An angry crowd shouted 'No justice, no peace!' Some called for the ouster of the city's police commissioner. Many counted off to 50, the number of rounds that are estimated to have been fired by police at three unarmed men, killing one on his wedding day.

Looky Here! The NYT is finally catching up on our electoral nightmare.

What the hell took them so long?

When will Florida finally get it together. When will the rest of the country?

Geeze Louise, we are truly living in the theatre of the absurd!

Déjà Vu in Florida - New York Times:

One of the great hazards of the way electronic voting has been introduced in the United States is that it could end up undermining democracy by producing unreliable election results that cannot be truly audited or corrected. This month, that nightmare became a reality. Voting machines in a Congressional race in Florida — where else? — may have swallowed about 18,000 votes, far more than the nominal winner’s razor-thin margin of victory. Because those votes were in the loser’s strongest county, if there was a computer glitch it probably changed the outcome of the race.One of the great hazards of the way electronic voting has been introduced in the United States is that it could end up undermining democracy by producing unreliable election results that cannot be truly audited or corrected. This month, that nightmare became a reality. Voting machines in a Congressional race in Florida — where else? — may have swallowed about 18,000 votes, far more than the nominal winner’s razor-thin margin of victory. Because those votes were in the loser’s strongest county, if there was a computer glitch it probably changed the outcome of the race.

Charges advised in oil-for-food probe of Bush ally in Iraq war! News

Well, isn't this special?

Wonder what the Goopers, who have spent years ranting about the corruption of the oil-for-food program, will have to say about Aussie corporate role?

Charges advised in oil-for-food probe - Yahoo! News:

CANBERRA, Australia - An Australian inquiry on Monday recommended police pursue criminal charges against 12 business officials in connection with multimillion-dollar kickbacks that the country's monopoly wheat exporter paid under the U.N.'s Iraqi oil-for-food program. CANBERRA, Australia - An Australian inquiry on Monday recommended police pursue criminal charges against 12 business officials in connection with multimillion-dollar kickbacks that the country's monopoly wheat exporter paid under the U.N.'s Iraqi oil-for-food program.

Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former U.S. general

Yeah, Yeah, we all know that.

The question is, what is going to be done about it and when?

Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former U.S. general News One Reuters.com:

MADRID (Reuters) - Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison's former U.S. commander said in an interview on Saturday.

Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told Spain's El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation.

Karpinski, who ran the prison until early 2004, said she saw a memorandum signed by Rumsfeld detailing the use of harsh interrogation methods.

'The handwritten signature was above his printed name and in the same handwriting in the margin was written: 'Make sure this is accomplished',' she told Saturday's El Pais.

Waxman has Bush administration in sights - Yahoo! News

Waxman is the Goopers worst nightmare and, therefore, our friend. We are with you, Mr. Waxman, every step of the way.

Give 'em hell Henry!!!

Waxman has Bush administration in sights - Yahoo! News:

LOS ANGELES - The lawmaker poised to cause the Bush administration's biggest headaches when Democrats take control of Congress may just be a grocer's son from Watts who's hardly a household name off Capitol Hill.

Rep. Henry Waxman has spent the last six years waging a guerrilla campaign against the White House and its corporate allies, launching searing investigations into everything from military contracts to Medicare prices from his perch on the Government Reform Committee.

In January, Waxman becomes committee chairman — and thus the lead congressional hound of an administration many Democrats feel has blundered badly as it expanded the power of the executive branch.

Waxman's biggest challenge as he mulls what to probe?

Year of bipartisan outrage on wiretaps bears little fruit

Something had damned well better be done about it!

The lame accusation that Democrats or Ameicans who voted for them this past election do not want Al Qaeda wiretapped is foolish in the extreme.

We just want to make sure that Al Qaeda and their bretheren are the only "enemy" who are being wiretapped and not other "enemies," like the Quakers, Raging Grannies for Peace and other dissenters and political opposition.

Year of bipartisan outrage on wiretaps bears little fruit:

WASHINGTON - When President Bush went on national television one Saturday morning last December to acknowledge the existence of a secret wiretapping program outside court supervision, the fallout was fierce.

Bush's opponents accused him of breaking the law, with a few even calling for his impeachment. His backers demanded that he be given express legal authority to do what he had done. Law professors talked, civil rights groups sued and a federal judge in Detroit declared the wiretapping program unconstitutional.

But as Democrats prepare to take over on Capitol Hill, not much has really changed in the last year: The National Security Agency's wiretapping program continues uninterrupted, with no definitive action by either Congress or the courts on what, if anything, to do about it, and little chance of a breakthrough in the lame-duck Congress.