Tuesday, May 23, 2006
MSNBC: Rove's legal team expects decision 'at any time'
Come on Fitz!
Make that announcement tomorrow!
( Watch Fitz get everyone for perjury and/or obstruction, and Cheney for being the mastermind behind the leaking.)
The Raw Story MSNBC: Rove's legal team expects decision 'at any time':
"MSNBC's David Shuster declared Monday evening that Karl Rove's legal team expects Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to announce a decision 'at any time' in the ongoing CIA leak investigation and that new documents put Cheney's former chief of staff in the hot seat.
Meanwhile, Rove spokesman Mark Corallo told TalkLeft, a progressive legal blog, the timing is still unknown.
'We have no expectation on timing anymore,' Corallo said.
Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, added that 'there has never been any discussion of any plea under any circumstances whatsoever.'
'As a defense lawyer,' Luskin told TalkLeft, 'you'll understand that if a prosecutor hasn't figured out whether or not he thinks a charge is appropriate, plea discussions are a bit premature.'
RAW STORY acquired a transcript of the MSNBC report, which follows."
The Watchful & the Wary
The Watchful & the Wary:
"From FBI and CIA headquarters to small-town police departments, the government is building a massive intelligence network designed to spy on terrorists -- and on everyday Americans. "
"From FBI and CIA headquarters to small-town police departments, the government is building a massive intelligence network designed to spy on terrorists -- and on everyday Americans. "
A 9/11 skeptic tells hs story
Zogby Poll: Over 70 Million American Adults Support New 9/11 Investigation:
"While the 9/11 Commission Report inquiry has its share of critics, Jonathan Gold's misgivings about the official findings go far beyond skepticism. In fact, the 33-year-old Plymouth Meeting resident is convinced the report is covering up Bush administration complicity in the deadly terrorist attacks.
Gold's unorthodox view has caused many jaws to drop and heads to shake. When asked for proof, he calmly rattles off a long list of like-minded people, and what he called a growing body of 'evidence' that the government orchestrated the attacks as a pretext for the global war on terror.
'There's so much evidence out there,' he said.
For those who scoff at him, he recommends comparing the official Sept. 11 account to the Cooperative Research Center's Sept. 11 times lines, reading David Griffin's 'The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions' and entries on 911Truth.org just for starters.
A quick glance at the Internet's voluminous material critical of the 9/11 Commission Report published in 2004 could be this generation's Warren Report.
Gold was not always a skeptic, admitting his conversion to Sept. 11 truth seeker was a gradual process. But by 2002, he was convinced the official story was a monumental cover-up."
"While the 9/11 Commission Report inquiry has its share of critics, Jonathan Gold's misgivings about the official findings go far beyond skepticism. In fact, the 33-year-old Plymouth Meeting resident is convinced the report is covering up Bush administration complicity in the deadly terrorist attacks.
Gold's unorthodox view has caused many jaws to drop and heads to shake. When asked for proof, he calmly rattles off a long list of like-minded people, and what he called a growing body of 'evidence' that the government orchestrated the attacks as a pretext for the global war on terror.
'There's so much evidence out there,' he said.
For those who scoff at him, he recommends comparing the official Sept. 11 account to the Cooperative Research Center's Sept. 11 times lines, reading David Griffin's 'The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions' and entries on 911Truth.org just for starters.
A quick glance at the Internet's voluminous material critical of the 9/11 Commission Report published in 2004 could be this generation's Warren Report.
Gold was not always a skeptic, admitting his conversion to Sept. 11 truth seeker was a gradual process. But by 2002, he was convinced the official story was a monumental cover-up."
Monday, May 22, 2006
Zogby Poll: Over 70 Million American Adults Support New 9/11 Investigation
YES! It's abou time this was polled!
Zogby Poll: Over 70 Million American Adults Support New 9/11 Investigation:
"Although the Bush administration continues to exploit September 11 to justify domestic spying, unprecedented spending and a permanent state of war, a new Zogby poll reveals that less than half of the American public trusts the official 9/11 story or believes the attacks were adequately investigated.
The poll is the first scientific survey of Americans' belief in a 9/11 cover up or the need to investigate possible U.S. government complicity, and was commissioned to inform deliberations at the June 2~4 '9/11: Revealing the Truth, Reclaiming our Future' conference in Chicago.
Poll results indicate 42% believe there has indeed been a cover up (with 10% unsure) and 45% think 'Congress or an International Tribunal should re-investigate the attacks, including whether any US government officials consciously allowed or helped facilitate their success' (with 8% unsure). The poll of American residents was conducted from Friday, May 12 through Tuesday, May 16, 2006. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/- 2.9. All inquiries about questions, responses and demographics should be directed to Zogby International.
According to Janice Matthews, executive director of 911truth.org, 'To those of us who have followed the mounting evidence for US government involvement in 9/11, these results are both heartening and frankly quite amazing, given the mainstream media's ongoing refusal to cover the most critical questions of that day. Our August 2004 Zogby poll of New Yorkers showed nearly half believe certain U.S. officials 'consciously' allowed the attacks to happen and 66% want a fresh investigation, but these were people closest to the tragedy and most familiar with facts refuting the official account.
Zogby Poll: Over 70 Million American Adults Support New 9/11 Investigation:
"Although the Bush administration continues to exploit September 11 to justify domestic spying, unprecedented spending and a permanent state of war, a new Zogby poll reveals that less than half of the American public trusts the official 9/11 story or believes the attacks were adequately investigated.
The poll is the first scientific survey of Americans' belief in a 9/11 cover up or the need to investigate possible U.S. government complicity, and was commissioned to inform deliberations at the June 2~4 '9/11: Revealing the Truth, Reclaiming our Future' conference in Chicago.
Poll results indicate 42% believe there has indeed been a cover up (with 10% unsure) and 45% think 'Congress or an International Tribunal should re-investigate the attacks, including whether any US government officials consciously allowed or helped facilitate their success' (with 8% unsure). The poll of American residents was conducted from Friday, May 12 through Tuesday, May 16, 2006. Overall results have a margin of sampling error of +/- 2.9. All inquiries about questions, responses and demographics should be directed to Zogby International.
According to Janice Matthews, executive director of 911truth.org, 'To those of us who have followed the mounting evidence for US government involvement in 9/11, these results are both heartening and frankly quite amazing, given the mainstream media's ongoing refusal to cover the most critical questions of that day. Our August 2004 Zogby poll of New Yorkers showed nearly half believe certain U.S. officials 'consciously' allowed the attacks to happen and 66% want a fresh investigation, but these were people closest to the tragedy and most familiar with facts refuting the official account.
An anti-Bush alliance
Hey, can we join?
An anti-Bush alliance - The Boston Globe:
"COUNTRIES large and small are rejecting President Bush's foreign policy by intimidation, and are banding together to counter the US superpower. The next example may come from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional grouping that is considering adding Iran to its membership.
The Bush administration pretended to ignore last year's organization summit, at which the members -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan -- called for the United States to withdraw the troops it had stationed in Central Asia for the war that toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan. But the organization's foreign ministers meeting in Shanghai last week discussed a plan to accept four new members: India, Pakistan, Mongolia, and Iran. After that meeting, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Iran's belligerent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be attending a summit meeting on June 15 in Shanghai, along with the leaders of China, Russia, and the four Central Asian member states. That should get the Bush administration's attention"
War on Iraq: The Great Iraq Oil Grab
AlterNet: War on Iraq: The Great Iraq Oil Grab:
"There's a story, perhaps apocryphal, that Pentagon planners wanted to name the invasion of Iraq, 'Operation Iraqi Liberation.' Only when someone realized that the acronym -- O.I.L. -- might raise some uncomfortable questions, was 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' born.
Supporters of the Iraq war airily dismiss chants of 'no blood for oil' as a manifestation of the antiwar crowd's naivete. They point out that Iraq's government still controls its oil and argue that we could have simply bought it on the open market.
Both of those claims are true on their face, but bringing Iraq's vast oil wealth under the control of foreign multinationals -- with U.S. firms the best positioned to develop it -- was always central to U.S. plans for Iraq. That Iraq's oil will continue to be 'owned' by the 'Iraqi people' is what differentiates classical 19th-century colonialism practiced by British officers in pith helmets from the neocolonialism the United States perfected in the second half of the 20th century.
The newer brand can be summed up like this: We'll respect your sovereignty and abide by your domestic laws - as long as we can help you right those laws to guarantee our firms profits."
"There's a story, perhaps apocryphal, that Pentagon planners wanted to name the invasion of Iraq, 'Operation Iraqi Liberation.' Only when someone realized that the acronym -- O.I.L. -- might raise some uncomfortable questions, was 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' born.
Supporters of the Iraq war airily dismiss chants of 'no blood for oil' as a manifestation of the antiwar crowd's naivete. They point out that Iraq's government still controls its oil and argue that we could have simply bought it on the open market.
Both of those claims are true on their face, but bringing Iraq's vast oil wealth under the control of foreign multinationals -- with U.S. firms the best positioned to develop it -- was always central to U.S. plans for Iraq. That Iraq's oil will continue to be 'owned' by the 'Iraqi people' is what differentiates classical 19th-century colonialism practiced by British officers in pith helmets from the neocolonialism the United States perfected in the second half of the 20th century.
The newer brand can be summed up like this: We'll respect your sovereignty and abide by your domestic laws - as long as we can help you right those laws to guarantee our firms profits."
Why aren't Americans more concerned they are being spied on?
Because they are stupid f-tards?
AlterNet: The NSA's Political Fiction:
"Here's what disturbs me: in light of recent revelations that the National Security Agency has been illegally collecting vast databases of information about every single phone call made in the United States since late 2001, only 53 percent of US citizens polled by Newsweek think the government has gone too far in its efforts to stop terrorism.
That's a majority, but not a very large one. And in the same poll, 41 percent said they thought spying on phone calls made to and from everyone in the country was necessary.
This arouses the same sinking feeling I got many years ago when I was a young graduate student at UC Berkeley, grading my very first set of papers. From that sample, and many others in subsequent courses, I learned that 70 percent of college students in an upper-division English course at a top university cannot construct a coherent argument using evidence taken from books they've read."
AlterNet: The NSA's Political Fiction:
"Here's what disturbs me: in light of recent revelations that the National Security Agency has been illegally collecting vast databases of information about every single phone call made in the United States since late 2001, only 53 percent of US citizens polled by Newsweek think the government has gone too far in its efforts to stop terrorism.
That's a majority, but not a very large one. And in the same poll, 41 percent said they thought spying on phone calls made to and from everyone in the country was necessary.
This arouses the same sinking feeling I got many years ago when I was a young graduate student at UC Berkeley, grading my very first set of papers. From that sample, and many others in subsequent courses, I learned that 70 percent of college students in an upper-division English course at a top university cannot construct a coherent argument using evidence taken from books they've read."
9/11: The Bush family Coup
village voice > news > Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway:
"The 9-11 attacks provided the rationale for what amounts to a Bush family coup against the Constitution. From the outset, President George Bush used 9-11 to reorganize the federal government and increase its reach far beyond any existing law to delve into the lives of innocent, ordinary people. The new powers allowed the government to arrest them at will and to subject them to endless incarceration without judicial review. Some people were sent abroad to be tortured for crimes they had nothing to do with. Who knows how many people have been tortured in American jails?
When government employees within the intelligence community sought to protest, the government fired them and made sure they could never get another job in their areas of expertise. This extraordinary program of spying on Americans, much of which was carried out in fishing expeditions under the Patriot Act, has the makings of a consistent and long-range policy to wreck constitutional government.
It is little wonder both left and right have come together to fight Bush and may yet jettison the Patriot Act. Revelations of the domestic spy operation, with its secret wiretaps, ought to supply sufficient evidence to impeach Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and launch criminal prosecutions of the top federal officials involved in carrying out the program. After all, these people are directly engaged in overthrowing constitutional government. How did this all come about? "
(Read On ^)
"The 9-11 attacks provided the rationale for what amounts to a Bush family coup against the Constitution. From the outset, President George Bush used 9-11 to reorganize the federal government and increase its reach far beyond any existing law to delve into the lives of innocent, ordinary people. The new powers allowed the government to arrest them at will and to subject them to endless incarceration without judicial review. Some people were sent abroad to be tortured for crimes they had nothing to do with. Who knows how many people have been tortured in American jails?
When government employees within the intelligence community sought to protest, the government fired them and made sure they could never get another job in their areas of expertise. This extraordinary program of spying on Americans, much of which was carried out in fishing expeditions under the Patriot Act, has the makings of a consistent and long-range policy to wreck constitutional government.
It is little wonder both left and right have come together to fight Bush and may yet jettison the Patriot Act. Revelations of the domestic spy operation, with its secret wiretaps, ought to supply sufficient evidence to impeach Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and launch criminal prosecutions of the top federal officials involved in carrying out the program. After all, these people are directly engaged in overthrowing constitutional government. How did this all come about? "
(Read On ^)
Scott Ritter's Iraq Confidential by James Ridgeway
village voice > books > Scott Ritter's Iraq Confidential by James Ridgeway:
"Many people find the ongoing debate over weapons of mass destruction so confusing that they despair of ever understanding what's going on. That's why Iraq Confidential, by Scott Ritter, an American who helped lead the United Nations effort to get to the bottom of the mess, is so helpful. A major player in the search for WMDs, Ritter lays out the tale of what actually took place. Ever since the Gulf War, the U.S. had been seeking regime change in Iraq, under both the Clinton and Bush administrations. To that end it sought to use the U.N. weapons inspections as a facade behind which the different American intelligence agencies tried to run covert operations aimed at toppling Saddam. When those efforts failed, and it began to look like the U.N. inspections might not find any WMDs, the U.S. intelligence community set out to sabotage the U.N. program. "
"Many people find the ongoing debate over weapons of mass destruction so confusing that they despair of ever understanding what's going on. That's why Iraq Confidential, by Scott Ritter, an American who helped lead the United Nations effort to get to the bottom of the mess, is so helpful. A major player in the search for WMDs, Ritter lays out the tale of what actually took place. Ever since the Gulf War, the U.S. had been seeking regime change in Iraq, under both the Clinton and Bush administrations. To that end it sought to use the U.N. weapons inspections as a facade behind which the different American intelligence agencies tried to run covert operations aimed at toppling Saddam. When those efforts failed, and it began to look like the U.N. inspections might not find any WMDs, the U.S. intelligence community set out to sabotage the U.N. program. "
In case you missed it...
village voice > news > Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway:
"WASHINGTON, D.C.: A group of 25 former federal employees directly involved in the government's counterintelligence and counterterrorism programs held a press conference here this morning to lambaste both the 9-11 Commission and the Bush administration for failing to hold government officials accountable for failures leading up to 9-11.
The ex-employees, from the FBI, CIA, FAA, Customs, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, had firsthand knowledge of their agencies' activities in counterintelligence and counterterrorism. Bogdan Dzakovic, a former special agent at the FAA, said he repeatedly sought to warn his superiors of mismanagement and the dangers of terrorism, but to no avail. He was a leader of a 'Red Team' at FAA, engaged in preparing for terrorist attacks. But he said the security measures in his agency were 'little more than window dressing,' and quoted one frustrated colleague as saying, 'The FAA is so screwed up I don't know where to begin.' "
"WASHINGTON, D.C.: A group of 25 former federal employees directly involved in the government's counterintelligence and counterterrorism programs held a press conference here this morning to lambaste both the 9-11 Commission and the Bush administration for failing to hold government officials accountable for failures leading up to 9-11.
The ex-employees, from the FBI, CIA, FAA, Customs, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, had firsthand knowledge of their agencies' activities in counterintelligence and counterterrorism. Bogdan Dzakovic, a former special agent at the FAA, said he repeatedly sought to warn his superiors of mismanagement and the dangers of terrorism, but to no avail. He was a leader of a 'Red Team' at FAA, engaged in preparing for terrorist attacks. But he said the security measures in his agency were 'little more than window dressing,' and quoted one frustrated colleague as saying, 'The FAA is so screwed up I don't know where to begin.' "
VIDEO OF THE BILDERBERG GROUP
VIDEO OF THE BILDERBERG GROUP:
"The Bilderberg Group is an informal, secretive and international association of powerful people that meet every year. The Bilderberg Group is named for the hotel in the Netherlands where the group first met in 1954. The group's founding members were Denis Healey, Joseph Retinger, David Rockefeller and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Mainstream media has covered-up the secret meetings for 45 years.
Past and current attendees to the annual Bilderberg Meetings: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; -Former US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; -Henry Kissinger who helped found the Group; -U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright; -Dean Acheson (Secretary of State under Truman); -President Johnson's Under Secretary of State, George Ball -Nelson Rockefeller -David Rockefeller -Kennedy's Secretary of State Dean Rusk -Gerald Ford -Prince Philip -Lord Louis Mountbatten -Robert S. McNamara -Margaret Thatcher -Lester Pearson -Helmut Schmidt -Donald S. MacDonald (former Canadian Defence Minister) -Henry Ford III -Gen. Walter Bedell Smith (former CIA Director) -Gen. Alexander Haig -Michael Dukakis -Bill Clinton -Vice President Dan Quayle -Conrad Black -Raymond A.J. Chretien -Stephane Dion -Preston Manning -Frank McKenna -Paul Martin (while Minister of Finance) -Stephen Harper (while Leader of The Opposition in 2003)
"The Bilderberg Group is an informal, secretive and international association of powerful people that meet every year. The Bilderberg Group is named for the hotel in the Netherlands where the group first met in 1954. The group's founding members were Denis Healey, Joseph Retinger, David Rockefeller and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. Mainstream media has covered-up the secret meetings for 45 years.
Past and current attendees to the annual Bilderberg Meetings: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; -Former US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; -Henry Kissinger who helped found the Group; -U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright; -Dean Acheson (Secretary of State under Truman); -President Johnson's Under Secretary of State, George Ball -Nelson Rockefeller -David Rockefeller -Kennedy's Secretary of State Dean Rusk -Gerald Ford -Prince Philip -Lord Louis Mountbatten -Robert S. McNamara -Margaret Thatcher -Lester Pearson -Helmut Schmidt -Donald S. MacDonald (former Canadian Defence Minister) -Henry Ford III -Gen. Walter Bedell Smith (former CIA Director) -Gen. Alexander Haig -Michael Dukakis -Bill Clinton -Vice President Dan Quayle -Conrad Black -Raymond A.J. Chretien -Stephane Dion -Preston Manning -Frank McKenna -Paul Martin (while Minister of Finance) -Stephen Harper (while Leader of The Opposition in 2003)
Bliderbergers to meet in Ottawa in June
Someone needs to send a strong message to this bunch of yahoos that they do not control the world.
They need to know, that there over-fed, fat portolios can be burned badly by the people of the world.
They need to know that all the security they can buy will not save them from the wrath of the people.!
Disinformation :: The gateway to the underground - news, politics, conspiracy and weirdness.:
"The secretive group known as Bilderberg will hold its annual secret meeting at the posh Brook Street Resort a few miles from Ottawa, Canada, June 8-11.
The location and part of the agenda was disclosed to American Free Press by a source inside Bilderberg's inner circle.
High on the Bilderberg's secret agenda this year are oil prices and the political upheaval in Latin America. When meeting last year in Rottach-Egern, Germany, Bilderberg called for dramatic increases in the price of oil. Oil prices started climbing immediately from $40 a barrel to $70.
Whether Bilderberg will call for still higher prices is unclear, but Henry Kissinger and others had gleefully anticipated ultimate prices at $150 a barrel a year ago. Bilderberg is certainly concerned about supply, which is related to the 'Latin American problem,' as one insider said.
Approximately 120 international leaders in politics and finance will also discuss the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has caused a rare breach between American Bilderbergers and their European counterparts since the United States Iraq invasion in 2003. Whether the United States should invade Iran is also high on the agenda.
Bilderberg is especially concerned about Venezuela, where as part of a plan to increase revenues from its petroleum industry President Hugo Chavez said May 7 he would impose a new tax on companies that extract oil from his country. Big Oil is represented at Bilderberg by Jeroen van der Veer of The Netherlands, chairman of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Franco Bernabe of Italy, vice chairman of Rothschild Europe, among others." (Check it out ^)
A Nation of Suspects
But suspected of what?
Ties with Osama bin Laden, whom Bush seems to have lost interest in long ago?
Being in cahoots with 'whats-his-name' in Iraq, who no one is even sure exists?
What are we all supected of, exactly?
We want an answer to that, even though we are pretty sure we already know the answer.....
We are supected of sedition, treason and God only knows what all else, because we disagree with the Bushites; because we see the war for what it is and we will not be a party to war crimes and the destruction of democracy in our country.
What we are supected of, is not the same thing as being disloyal to a president, any president.
Patriotism is keeping faith with our country, our Constitution and our fellow citizens; not with any president, especially one who violates the law anytime he pleases in the name of national security, which has been used in the past as an excuse and a cover-up for illegal acts against the people of this country.
A Nation of Suspects:
"In an interview that never actually ran on any NBC affiliate and which the network quickly scrubbed from its Web site, Mitchell asked Risen if he knew anything about reporters being swept up in the NSA's domestic surveillance operation. He said he didn't know.
She pressed harder, asking pointedly if he had any information showing that CNN's Christiane Amanpour had been eavesdropped upon by the Feds. Risen again claimed ignorance. But the questions, and the fact that NBC pulled the transcript from their Web site, ignited a small storm of controversy in the blogosphere that ended up fading from public view almost as fast as it had erupted.
A few days later, an unnamed 'senior U.S. intelligence official' would tell CNN that the 'National Security Agency did not target CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour or any other CNN journalist for surveillance. and that seemed to be good enough for the rest of the mainstream media. " (It shouldn't have been; read on ^)
Demonstrations Expected as Rice Speaks at Boston College
Protest, protest, protest...shut the lying, mushroom-cloud- painting, bitch down.
Demonstrations Expected as Rice Speaks at Boston College:
"BOSTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she understands why students and faculty at Boston College are preparing to protest as she receives an honorary degree, and she embraced their right to object even as she defended the war in Iraq.
'People have the right to protest, but I hope when they protest they realize also that people now have a right to protest in Baghdad and Kabul, and that's a very big breakthrough for the international community,' Rice said Monday before the BC commencement.
'I think it's just fine for people to protest as long as they do so in a way that doesn't try to have a monopoly on the conversation,' Rice told WBZ-AM in an interview. 'Others have right to say what they think as well.'
Ever since Boston College announced earlier this month that Rice would speak at the school's graduation and receive an honorary degree, reaction has ranged from outrage to enthusiasm.
'We are very concerned as Catholics that Boston College has invited Condoleezza Rice, who is an architect of this foreign policy and war. ... That is hardly something to honor,' said Brayton Shanley, a BC alumnus and co-founder of Agape, a lay Catholic organization that has been working with students to organize the protests."
Demonstrations Expected as Rice Speaks at Boston College:
"BOSTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she understands why students and faculty at Boston College are preparing to protest as she receives an honorary degree, and she embraced their right to object even as she defended the war in Iraq.
'People have the right to protest, but I hope when they protest they realize also that people now have a right to protest in Baghdad and Kabul, and that's a very big breakthrough for the international community,' Rice said Monday before the BC commencement.
'I think it's just fine for people to protest as long as they do so in a way that doesn't try to have a monopoly on the conversation,' Rice told WBZ-AM in an interview. 'Others have right to say what they think as well.'
Ever since Boston College announced earlier this month that Rice would speak at the school's graduation and receive an honorary degree, reaction has ranged from outrage to enthusiasm.
'We are very concerned as Catholics that Boston College has invited Condoleezza Rice, who is an architect of this foreign policy and war. ... That is hardly something to honor,' said Brayton Shanley, a BC alumnus and co-founder of Agape, a lay Catholic organization that has been working with students to organize the protests."
In Search of Political Courage
The question, it seems to us, is:
Is there a rule of law anymore, or are we fools just abiding by what we think is the rule of law, while our own governmet shelved it all in 2001?
In Search of Political Courage:
"It takes a lot of courage these days for a government official to stand up for the rule of law.
On Dec. 17, 2002, Alberto Mora received information from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that prisoners at the Guantanamo Naval Base were being abusively interrogated. Mora, a loyal conservative, had been appointed by President Bush in 2001 to serve as general counsel of the Navy. Since the Navy had no responsibility for Guantanamo interrogations, Mora could have referred the report to others in the Pentagon, or simply decided to ignore it. Instead, he chose to investigate. What he discovered was deeply disturbing.
As he wrote in a recently declassified memo to the Navy's inspector general, Mora learned that his boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, had authorized interrogation techniques that ''could rise to the level of torture.' Mora told the Pentagon's general counsel, William Haynes, that Rumsfeld's memorandum ''could have severe ramifications unless the policy was quickly reversed.' He warned that the interrogation policy was ''unlawful' and that its consequences could be ''incalculably harmful to US foreign, military, and legal policies.'
When nothing happened, Mora set out to change the policy. He knew he had to find allies in the Pentagon, and he began to recruit them by openly debating the Rumsfeld memorandum with other officials. A small bureaucratic victory came when the Department of Defense created a ''Working Group' to develop new recommendations. But this process was overwhelmed by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which weighed in with its own memo expanding the original Rumsfeld policy. "
Is there a rule of law anymore, or are we fools just abiding by what we think is the rule of law, while our own governmet shelved it all in 2001?
In Search of Political Courage:
"It takes a lot of courage these days for a government official to stand up for the rule of law.
On Dec. 17, 2002, Alberto Mora received information from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that prisoners at the Guantanamo Naval Base were being abusively interrogated. Mora, a loyal conservative, had been appointed by President Bush in 2001 to serve as general counsel of the Navy. Since the Navy had no responsibility for Guantanamo interrogations, Mora could have referred the report to others in the Pentagon, or simply decided to ignore it. Instead, he chose to investigate. What he discovered was deeply disturbing.
As he wrote in a recently declassified memo to the Navy's inspector general, Mora learned that his boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, had authorized interrogation techniques that ''could rise to the level of torture.' Mora told the Pentagon's general counsel, William Haynes, that Rumsfeld's memorandum ''could have severe ramifications unless the policy was quickly reversed.' He warned that the interrogation policy was ''unlawful' and that its consequences could be ''incalculably harmful to US foreign, military, and legal policies.'
When nothing happened, Mora set out to change the policy. He knew he had to find allies in the Pentagon, and he began to recruit them by openly debating the Rumsfeld memorandum with other officials. A small bureaucratic victory came when the Department of Defense created a ''Working Group' to develop new recommendations. But this process was overwhelmed by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which weighed in with its own memo expanding the original Rumsfeld policy. "
Old Hands Against War
Old Hands Against War:
"IRAQ HAS become more savage (a rising tide of Iraqi blood, an air war escalating -- along with rates of American mortality); increasing numbers of US citizens have moved from dismay to action. (Only a few weeks ago, more than 300,000 people rallied in New York City, saying no.) On campuses, peace demonstrations have become more common, and when Bush administration figures have appeared at graduations recently, protests have been lodged.
But these manifestations have overwhelmingly been mounted by older people, with gray heads dominating the antiwar crowds. Faculty members have done more than students to spark university protests. Aging activists have taken the lead in ad hoc peace vigils, as well as on the Internet. Some younger people have emerged as charismatic leaders of the new movement (one thinks of fortysomething Amy Goodman, anchor of ''Democracy Now,' or of thirtysomething Frida Berrigan, daughter of Philip Berrigan), but the generation of those who are actually at war has mostly kept its distance from the public questioning. Why is that?
Ready answers are offered: There is no draft, and so young people, feeling no personal jeopardy, feel no pressure to confront the issue. An uncertain economy makes its newcomers risk averse. They are harried by pressures to achieve or their concerns are trumped by entertainment culture or they just don't care.
But explanations like these, in addition to smacking of intergenerational condescension, seem off. For one thing, as high school and college records show, today's young people are given to unprecedented levels of community service. They volunteer as tutors, raise money for charities, embrace programs like AmeriCorps, City Year, and Habitat for Humanity. Their teachers consistently testify to a marked seriousness of purpose. (Read On ^)
"IRAQ HAS become more savage (a rising tide of Iraqi blood, an air war escalating -- along with rates of American mortality); increasing numbers of US citizens have moved from dismay to action. (Only a few weeks ago, more than 300,000 people rallied in New York City, saying no.) On campuses, peace demonstrations have become more common, and when Bush administration figures have appeared at graduations recently, protests have been lodged.
But these manifestations have overwhelmingly been mounted by older people, with gray heads dominating the antiwar crowds. Faculty members have done more than students to spark university protests. Aging activists have taken the lead in ad hoc peace vigils, as well as on the Internet. Some younger people have emerged as charismatic leaders of the new movement (one thinks of fortysomething Amy Goodman, anchor of ''Democracy Now,' or of thirtysomething Frida Berrigan, daughter of Philip Berrigan), but the generation of those who are actually at war has mostly kept its distance from the public questioning. Why is that?
Ready answers are offered: There is no draft, and so young people, feeling no personal jeopardy, feel no pressure to confront the issue. An uncertain economy makes its newcomers risk averse. They are harried by pressures to achieve or their concerns are trumped by entertainment culture or they just don't care.
But explanations like these, in addition to smacking of intergenerational condescension, seem off. For one thing, as high school and college records show, today's young people are given to unprecedented levels of community service. They volunteer as tutors, raise money for charities, embrace programs like AmeriCorps, City Year, and Habitat for Humanity. Their teachers consistently testify to a marked seriousness of purpose. (Read On ^)
US Sets up 215m Deal for Afghan Arms - from Russia
So, they are preparing for a Democrat to take over the White House? Why the hurry? Are they expecting something to happen beforw 2009?
What the hell is going on, anyhow?
US Sets up �215m Deal for Afghan Arms - from Russia:
"American defence officials have secretly requested a 'prodigious quantity' of ammunition from Russia to supply the Afghan army in case a Democrat president takes over in Washington and pulls out US troops.
The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Pentagon chiefs have asked arms suppliers for a quote on a vast amount of ordnance, including more than 78 million rounds of AK47 ammunition, 100,000 rocket-propelled grenades and 12,000 tank shells - equivalent to about 15 times the British Army's annual requirements.
The Bush administration is said to want the deal because of worries that the next president could be a Democrat, possibly Hillary Clinton, who may abandon Afghanistan.
White House insiders fear that Afghanistan could 'drift' and consequently, they want heavily to arm President Hamid Kharzai's government before the 2008 US presidential election.
Diplomatic sources also believe that the US may be offering the estimated $400 million deal, including transport costs, to the Russians as an inducement to embargo its arms and nuclear technology exports to Iran."
Can Things Get Any Worse?
In a word, YES!
Can Things Get Any Worse?:
"AUSTIN, Texas: Looking at the wreckage of the Bush administration leaves one with the depressed query, 'Now what?' The only help to the country that can come from this ugly and spectacular crackup is, in theory, things can't get worse. This administration is so discredited it cannot talk the country into an unnecessary war with Iran as it did with Iraq. In theory, spending is so out of control it cannot cut taxes for the rich again; the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bushies is already among its lasting legacies.
As we all know, things can always get worse, and often do. I rather think it's going to be up to the Democrats to hold the metaphoric hands of this crippled administration until it limps off stage. The Republican National Committee has a new scare tactic for the faithful: You must give to the party, or else the Democrats will spend the next two years investigating the administration (horror of horrors). Those who recall the insanely trivial investigations of the Clinton years may indeed regard this as the ultimate waste of time and money (as even Ken Starr concluded, there never was anything to Whitewater), but in fact it could be a therapeutic use of the next biennium. In fact, the offenses are not comparable.
Suppose we really did stop to investigate why and how and who is responsible for the lies, the deformed policies and the inability to govern in this administration. There is a wealth of lessons to be learned about the dangers of ideological delusion and of contempt for governance. "
MSNBC: Rove's legal team expects decision 'at any time'
If this jackal cuts a deal, and gets off scott free, when the whole Wilson smear campaign was so obviously a Rovian Blue Plate Special, I think I shall go mad.
Don't let him get by with it, Fitz! Not even if he is giving you Cheney on a platter.
The Raw Story MSNBC: Rove's legal team expects decision 'at any time':
"MSNBC's David Shuster declared Monday evening that Karl Rove's legal team expects Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to announce a decision 'at any time' in the ongoing CIA leak investigation and that new documents put Cheney's former chief of staff in the hot seat.
RAW STORY acquired a transcript of the MSNBC report, which follows." (Read On^)
Whistle-Blower's Evidence, Uncut
Want to have nightmares?
Just read what Wired News has to say about surveillance on ordinary Americans.
Doesn't matter what service you have for phones and email, the entire Net is under surveillance
Wired News: Whistle-Blower's Evidence, Uncut:
"This is the infrastructure for an Orwellian police state. It must be shut down!"
Yep, another Goddamned blog: PAUL KRUGMAN: Talk-Show Joe
These DLC and DC Dems are asking for trouble from the Grassroots and Netroots.
If they manage to take back the House and/or Senate, they are going to find out that they cannot do any damn thing they pease anymore.
We are watching them!
They just really have no clue what our numebrs are.
Yep, another Goddamned blog: PAUL KRUGMAN: Talk-Show Joe:
"Friday was a bad day for Senator Joseph Lieberman. The Connecticut Democratic Party's nominating convention endorsed him, but that was a given for an incumbent with a lot of political chips to cash in. The real news was that Ned Lamont, an almost unknown challenger, received a third of the votes. This gave Mr. Lamont the right to run against Mr. Lieberman in a primary, and suggests that Mr. Lamont may even win.
What happened to Mr. Lieberman? Some news reports may lead you to believe that he is in trouble solely because of his support for the Iraq war. But there's much more to it than that. Mr. Lieberman has consistently supported Republican talking points. This has made him a lion of the Sunday talk shows, but has put him out of touch with his constituents, and with reality.
Mr. Lieberman isn't the only nationally known Democrat who still supports the Iraq war. But he isn't just an unrepentant hawk, he has joined the Bush administration by insisting on an upbeat picture of the situation in Iraq that is increasingly delusional."
A Restive Base Throws the GOP Off Balance - Los Angeles Times
Oh, they'll get it back together. What choice do they have?
Whatever we do, we cannot start thinking that this election will be easy, just because the wingers seem to be eating one another.
A Restive Base Throws the GOP Off Balance - Los Angeles Times:
"WASHINGTON: Republican leaders, worried that their party's conservative base is demoralized, lean hard on one reed of hope these days: Election day is almost six months away, leaving lots of time to get voters mobilized.
But there already are signs that the surly mood of the party's core supporters is taking a toll around the country; in morale, in fundraising and in early election contests."
Truthout vs. Team Rove: Round Two - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime
We have suspected this for sometime. It seems to us that, at least since the Libby indictment was handed up, there has been an on-going battle btween the Bush an Cheney forces.
Would Rove sell Cheney down the river to save his own pink butt? You bet he would!
Truthout vs. Team Rove: Round Two - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime:
"First, the Truthout article: Not only is Truthout not backing down, they are flat-out calling Rove spokesman Marc Corallo and Rove Lawyer Robert Luskin's denial false.
Truthout adds a new twist: Rove 'may' be cooperating and becoming a witness for Fitzgerald and Cheney may be in Fitzgerald's cross-hairs."
Would Rove sell Cheney down the river to save his own pink butt? You bet he would!
Truthout vs. Team Rove: Round Two - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime:
"First, the Truthout article: Not only is Truthout not backing down, they are flat-out calling Rove spokesman Marc Corallo and Rove Lawyer Robert Luskin's denial false.
Truthout adds a new twist: Rove 'may' be cooperating and becoming a witness for Fitzgerald and Cheney may be in Fitzgerald's cross-hairs."
Information Sharing on the Rove Indictment Story
t r u t h o u t Information Sharing on the Rove Indictment Story:
"Sun May 21st, 2006 at 11:58:26 AM EDT :: Fitzgerald Investigation
I'd like to break this posting into two categories: What we know, and what we believe. They will be clearly marked.
We know that we have now three independent sources confirming that attorneys for Karl Rove were handed an indictment either late in the night of May 12 or early in the morning of May 13. We know that each source was in a position to know what they were talking about. We know that the office of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald will not confirm, will not deny, will not comment on its investigation or on our report. We know that both Rove's attorney Robert Luskin and Rove's spokesman Mark Corallo have categorically denied all key facts we have set forth. We know we have information that directly contradicts Luskin and Corallo's denials. We know that there were two network news crews outside of the building in Washington, DC that houses the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm that represents Karl Rove. We know that the 4th floor of that building (where the Patton Boggs offices are located) was locked down all day Friday and into Saturday night. We know that we have not received a request for a retraction from anyone. And we know that White House spokesman Tony Snow now refuses to discuss Karl Rove - at all.
Further, we know - and we want our readers to know - that we are dependent on confidential sources.
We know that a report based solely on information obtained from confidential sources bears some inherent risks. We know that this is - by far - the biggest story we have ever covered, and that we are learning some things as we go along. Finally, we know that we have the support of those who have always supported us, and that must now earn the support of those who have joined us" (Read On^)
"Sun May 21st, 2006 at 11:58:26 AM EDT :: Fitzgerald Investigation
I'd like to break this posting into two categories: What we know, and what we believe. They will be clearly marked.
We know that we have now three independent sources confirming that attorneys for Karl Rove were handed an indictment either late in the night of May 12 or early in the morning of May 13. We know that each source was in a position to know what they were talking about. We know that the office of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald will not confirm, will not deny, will not comment on its investigation or on our report. We know that both Rove's attorney Robert Luskin and Rove's spokesman Mark Corallo have categorically denied all key facts we have set forth. We know we have information that directly contradicts Luskin and Corallo's denials. We know that there were two network news crews outside of the building in Washington, DC that houses the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm that represents Karl Rove. We know that the 4th floor of that building (where the Patton Boggs offices are located) was locked down all day Friday and into Saturday night. We know that we have not received a request for a retraction from anyone. And we know that White House spokesman Tony Snow now refuses to discuss Karl Rove - at all.
Further, we know - and we want our readers to know - that we are dependent on confidential sources.
We know that a report based solely on information obtained from confidential sources bears some inherent risks. We know that this is - by far - the biggest story we have ever covered, and that we are learning some things as we go along. Finally, we know that we have the support of those who have always supported us, and that must now earn the support of those who have joined us" (Read On^)
Wired News Publishes Sealed AT&T Documents Online - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime
Way to go, guys!
Wired News Publishes Sealed AT&T Documents Online - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime:
"Wired Magazine today published the documents of whistleblower Mark Klein, the chief witness for EFF in its suit against AT&T for furnishing customer records to the NSA.
AT&T claims information in the file is proprietary and that it would suffer severe harm if it were released. Based on what we've seen, Wired News disagrees. In addition, we believe the public's right to know the full facts in this case outweighs AT&T's claims to secrecy.
As a result, we are publishing the complete text of a set of documents from the EFF's primary witness in the case, former AT&T employee and whistle-blower Mark Klein -- information obtained by investigative reporter Ryan Singel through an anonymous source close to the litigation. The documents, available on Wired News as of Monday, consist of 30 pages, with an affidavit attributed to Klein, eight pages of AT&T documents marked 'proprietary,' and several pages of news clippings and other public information related to government-surveillance issues." (Read On ^)
Wired News Publishes Sealed AT&T Documents Online - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime:
"Wired Magazine today published the documents of whistleblower Mark Klein, the chief witness for EFF in its suit against AT&T for furnishing customer records to the NSA.
AT&T claims information in the file is proprietary and that it would suffer severe harm if it were released. Based on what we've seen, Wired News disagrees. In addition, we believe the public's right to know the full facts in this case outweighs AT&T's claims to secrecy.
As a result, we are publishing the complete text of a set of documents from the EFF's primary witness in the case, former AT&T employee and whistle-blower Mark Klein -- information obtained by investigative reporter Ryan Singel through an anonymous source close to the litigation. The documents, available on Wired News as of Monday, consist of 30 pages, with an affidavit attributed to Klein, eight pages of AT&T documents marked 'proprietary,' and several pages of news clippings and other public information related to government-surveillance issues." (Read On ^)
The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime
The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush - TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime:
"The Cato Institute has published a report, Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush. You can read it online or they will mail you a free copy. My copy came in the mail last week, and I highly recommend it. It's eminently readable, in the format of a magazine. It addresses everything from the torture memos to searches and seizures, from wiretapping to habeas corpus.
Here's the conclusion:
.... far from defending the Constitution, President Bush has repeatedly sought to strip out the limits the document places on federal power. In its official legal briefs and public actions, the Bush administration has advanced a view of federal power that is astonishingly broad, a view that includes" (Please do read on ^)
"The Cato Institute has published a report, Power Surge: The Constitutional Record of George W. Bush. You can read it online or they will mail you a free copy. My copy came in the mail last week, and I highly recommend it. It's eminently readable, in the format of a magazine. It addresses everything from the torture memos to searches and seizures, from wiretapping to habeas corpus.
Here's the conclusion:
.... far from defending the Constitution, President Bush has repeatedly sought to strip out the limits the document places on federal power. In its official legal briefs and public actions, the Bush administration has advanced a view of federal power that is astonishingly broad, a view that includes" (Please do read on ^)
346 milion vulnerable to monster storms
...and when they hit, don't be surprised if you insurance man says something like: "You didn't really expect we would pay for this, did you?"
Don't believe me? Just get in touch with all the people slammed by Katrina.
BellSouth - NEWS:
"(AP) - A look at who lives in coastal areas from North Carolina to Texas, the areas most vulnerable to hurricanes:
_There were 34.6 million people living in coastal areas
stretching from North Carolina to Texas, about 12 percent of the nation's population.
_There were 10.2 million people living in those coastal areas in 1950, about 7 percent of the population at that time.
_Florida has the most people at risk: 17.3 million. Of those, about 10.3 million live along the Atlantic and 7 million live along the Gulf of Mexico.
_There are 180,155 square miles of coastal areas from North Carolina to Texas.
_Florida is the most densely populated, with 346 people per square mile."
Levy: Will Your Vote Count in 2006?
If there is no paper trail, you cannot be sure about whether your vote counted. It is as simple as that.
We cannot tolerate another election like the last two or three.
Write to your secretary of state, and mention 'no taxation without representation.'
Levy: Will Your Vote Count in 2006? - Newsweek Technology - MSNBC.com:
"'When you're using a paperless voting system, there is no security,' says Stanford's David Dill."
Yes, we are f-ing nuts
Ted Koppel: Time for U.S. to Form an "Army of Mercenaries"?:
"NEW YORK Little known to the American public, there are some 50,000 private contractors in Iraq, providing support for the U.S. military, among other activities. So why not go all the way, hints Ted Koppel in a New York Times op-ed on Monday, and form a real 'mercenary army'?
Such a move involving what he calls 'latter-day Hessians' would represent, he writes, 'the inevitable response of a market economy to a host of seemingly intractable public policy and security problems.'
The issue is raised by our 'over-extended military' and inability of the United Nations to form adequate peace forces. Meanwhile, Americans business interests grow ever more active abroad in dangerous spots.
'Just as the all-volunteer military relieved the government of much of the political pressure that had accompanied the draft, so a rent-a-force, harnessing the privilege of every putative warrior to hire himself out for more than he could ever make in the direct service of Uncle Sam, might relieve us of an array of current political pressures,' Koppel explains, tongue possibly in cheek. "
"NEW YORK Little known to the American public, there are some 50,000 private contractors in Iraq, providing support for the U.S. military, among other activities. So why not go all the way, hints Ted Koppel in a New York Times op-ed on Monday, and form a real 'mercenary army'?
Such a move involving what he calls 'latter-day Hessians' would represent, he writes, 'the inevitable response of a market economy to a host of seemingly intractable public policy and security problems.'
The issue is raised by our 'over-extended military' and inability of the United Nations to form adequate peace forces. Meanwhile, Americans business interests grow ever more active abroad in dangerous spots.
'Just as the all-volunteer military relieved the government of much of the political pressure that had accompanied the draft, so a rent-a-force, harnessing the privilege of every putative warrior to hire himself out for more than he could ever make in the direct service of Uncle Sam, might relieve us of an array of current political pressures,' Koppel explains, tongue possibly in cheek. "
Wash. Post quoted Gonzales defending termination of NSA spying investigation; ignored critics
Wash. Post quoted Gonzales defending termination of NSA spying investigation; ignored critics
http://mediamatters.org/items/200605190006
In a May 18 article, Washington Post staff writers Dafna Linzer and Charles Babington reported Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's defense of the Justice Department's decision to terminate an Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) inquiry into whether department lawyers acted properly in authorizing the National Security Agency's (NSA) warrantless domestic surveillance program without providing any indication of the nature or degree of criticism greeting that decision.
House Democrats, led by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), requested the investigation in January in order to determine, among other things, who initially authorized the warrantless program and if the Bush administration launched the program before getting Justice Department approval. But in a May 10 fax sent to Hinchey, OPR director and chief counsel H. Marshall Jarrett announced that the internal Justice Department inquiry had been closed, saying that "we have been unable to make meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program."
Linzer and Babington focused their May 18 Post article on the Senate confirmation hearings of Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, President Bush's nominee to head the CIA. Noting that Hayden defended the warrantless spy program as legal, Linzer and Babington then noted the terminated OPR investigation, reporting Gonzales's defense of that decision but not mentioning the criticism that decision has received from Democrats or former Justice Department officials:
An internal Justice Department investigation tried to determine whether lawyers who authorized the program may have acted improperly. But Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales suggested yesterday that secrecy concerns shut down the inquiry. The department's Office of Professional Responsibility notified lawmakers last week that it was forced to end its investigation because the office was denied security clearances to access information on the NSA program. Gonzales defended that decision yesterday and suggested that the probe was unnecessary because Justice issued a legal analysis supporting the effort.
"It's a very important program to the United States, and so certain decisions are made in terms of ... how much information should be shared throughout the federal government," Gonzales told reporters at a news conference. "We don't want to be talking so much about the program that we compromise the effectiveness." Gonzales declined to discuss who denied security clearances to OPR investigators or whether he was consulted on the issue.
The article reported that Gonzales "defended th[e] decision" to terminate the investigation but did not note the great criticism the decision has generated. According to the Associated Press, Hinchey asserted that "[t]his administration thinks they can just violate any law they want, and they've created a culture of fear to try to get away with that. It's up to us to stand up to them."
Moreover, on the May 12 broadcast of NPR's Morning Edition, former OPR director Michael Shaheen noted that "[n]o one in OPR for the 24 years I was there was denied a necessary clearance, ever, and much less one that brought to a conclusion an investigation." On the same program, Bruce Fein, a former Justice Department official under President Reagan, said of the decision:
FEIN: This is rather bizarre, with the one branch of the executive saying the other branch can't investigate it. Well, they're all beholden to the President of the United States. He decides what is to be unearthed, what is to be disclosed, and it's clear that Mr. Bush is deciding he won't permit any investigation as to the legal advice he received about the warrantless surveillance program of the NSA.
Further, Larry Sims, a former Justice Department official under Presidents Carter and Reagan, added:
SIMS: To say that an agency can block an investigation by refusing to give federal investigators here at the Office of Professional Responsibility the clearances they need is just astounding.
[...]
Would the head of NSA defy the attorney general? It's silly. The whole idea is silly. So what you have to do is you have to look at this as an order that came from the attorney general, with or without the actual knowledge of the president. This is an attorney general-slash-president issue.
| Contact: The Washington Post | Washington Post ombudsman: ombudsman@washpost.com 202-334-7582 Post e-mail directory The Washington Post 1150 15th St. NW Washington, DC 20071 |
ABC's Ross: Surveillance of Journalists: "Makes Me Feel" As If We Are Drug Dealers or Terrorists.
Well, welcome to the club, guys!
All we, activists, have been doing is exercising our First amenedment rights, and we have been targeted too, so don't feel like 'only the lonely.'
Since you are already considered an enemy of the state, maybe you will consider covering some Demonstrations against this corrupt, criminal admnistration?
What really fries my brain is that you are all so shocked?
Are you guys really this stupid?
Think Progress � ABC�s Ross: Surveillance of Journalists �Makes Me Feel�As If We Are Drug Dealers or Terrorists�:
"This morning on CNN's Reliable Sources, ABC's chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, who this week learned he was the target of federal surveillance operations, described the effect that unchecked spying is having on journalists:
All we, activists, have been doing is exercising our First amenedment rights, and we have been targeted too, so don't feel like 'only the lonely.'
Since you are already considered an enemy of the state, maybe you will consider covering some Demonstrations against this corrupt, criminal admnistration?
What really fries my brain is that you are all so shocked?
Are you guys really this stupid?
Think Progress � ABC�s Ross: Surveillance of Journalists �Makes Me Feel�As If We Are Drug Dealers or Terrorists�:
"This morning on CNN's Reliable Sources, ABC's chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, who this week learned he was the target of federal surveillance operations, described the effect that unchecked spying is having on journalists:
ROSS: [I]t makes me feel, in a way, and this is, I think, the disturbing part,as if we are drug dealers or terrorists trying to traffic in information, and
should we be using bags full of quarters like old Mafia capos to avoid having
our phone calls traced?I don't think I'm doing anything wrong; I don't think any other reporter is, either. We're trying to cover these stories, which are difficult, but which are very important. "
Elections Are Crux Of GOP's Strategy
Will Osama help his buddy, Bush, out and allow himself to be arrested?
Elections Are Crux Of GOP's Strategy:
"Confronting the worst poll numbers seen in the West Wing since his father went down to defeat, President Bush and his team are focusing on the fall midterm elections as the best chance to salvage his presidency and are building a campaign strategy around tax cuts, immigration and national security.
Modern history offers no precedent of a president climbing from a hole as deep as the one Bush finds himself in, and White House strategists have concluded that no staff shake-up or other quick fix will alter their trajectory. In the sixth year of his tenure, they said, Bush cannot easily change the
minds of voters whose impressions are fully formed."
Climate Scientist To CEI: Stop Misrepresenting My Research
Big Oil tries to sabbotage Gore's Documentary with lies and confusing statements about research.
Think Progress � Climate Scientist To CEI: Stop Misrepresenting My Research:
"On Wednesday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a front group funded by ExxonMobil and other big oil companies, launched two advertisements in response to Al Gore's new movie about global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.
One of the advertisements attempts to show that the scientific evidence for global warming is in dispute, claiming a study found the 'Antarctic ice sheet is getting thicker, not thinner.'
The primary author of that study, Curt Davis, has issued statement blasting CEI's use of his study. Here's an excerpt:
These television ads are a deliberate effort to confuse and mislead the public
about the global warming debate. They are selectively using only parts of my
previous research to support their claims. They are not telling the entire story
to the public."
ABC News: 1,000 Incarcerated Per Week From '04-'05
"This is not a sign of a healthy community."
No shit, Sherlock.
Experts say that the problem stems from sentencing guidelines, removing judicial discretion, and drug laws.
It is time to stop the ridiculous war on drugs!
ABC News: 1,000 Incarcerated Per Week From '04-'05:
"WASHINGTON May 21, 2006 (AP): Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer.
The total on June 30, 2005, was 56,428 more than at the same time in 2004, the government reported Sunday. That 2.6 percent increase from mid-2004 to mid-2005 translates into a weekly rise of 1,085 inmates.
Of particular note was the gain of 33,539 inmates in jails, the largest increase since 1997, researcher Allen J. Beck said. That was a 4.7 percent growth rate, compared with a 1.6 percent increase in people held in state and federal prisons.
Prisons accounted for about two-thirds of all inmates, or 1.4 million, while the other third, nearly 750,000, were in local jails, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. "
Bush lies about Tax cuts
The man couldn't tell the truth if his rotten, failure of a life depended on it!
But then why should he? Lying has worked so well, with the Rethug, do-nothing but cover-up Congress at his beck and call.
Sirotablog:
"Knight Ridder has a terrific piece today on how President Bush is very publicly lying about the effects of his tax cuts. Bush is 'suggest[ing] that his tax cuts are behind a surge of new revenue into the Treasury, and he implied that it's enough to offset the revenue lost by these reductions,' the news service notes. For instance, at a ceremony on the White House lawn, Bush said his tax cuts had helped the economy grow, 'which means more tax revenue for the federal Treasury.' But as the news service points out, 'That's just not true.' The article subsequently quotes Bush's own former economists to prove the president is lying. Go check it out. "
2006: The Year of the Progressive Movement
The D.C. Establishment wants to deny it, but they will not be able to deny it much longer. It is a gathering danger to their corrupt and/or 'gooey rot' lifestyles.
The perfect political storm is gathering force and it will have effects way beyond the November election.
The DC establishment will look like New Orleans before we are through.
Sirotablog:
"There are many reasons to be optimistic these days if you are a progressive. A look accross the 2006 campaign landscape shows that our movement is no longer theoretical - it is very real, and increasing in power every single day.
But as the Denver Post today notes in a piece about our growing movement, progressives also face stiff opposition in the form of a corrupt political Establishment desperate to preserve the status quo. The confrontation brewing between this new movement and the Establishment is not to be downplayed - it is escalating, and it will have profound results that go far beyond just one election.
The Denver Post notes that those defending the status quo are, to be sure, entrenched. 'Political corruption comes in two varieties,' the Post notes. 'There are brazen payoffs, and then there is a kind of gooey rot: the venal abandonment of principles, spurred by the favors of corporate lobbyists and the need for campaign cash.' Ultimately, 'All but the toughest pols and pundits get seduced, and over time, the party establishment starts to stipulate: globalization is a blessing, free trade is sacred, billionaires need tax breaks, job loss is inevitable, workers are expendable, wages will decline, the war in Iraq is necessary.'"
A New Iraqi Government Takes Office
Angry Sunnis walk out.
A New Iraqi Government Takes Office - Los Angeles Times:
"BAGHDAD : Iraq's battling communities came together Saturday to approve their first full-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein, placing a nation fractured from three years of war into the hands of a diverse but potentially weak Cabinet.
In a stuffy chamber tucked deep inside rings of blast walls, barbed wire and bomb-sniffing dogs, parliament voted in favor of a 36-member Cabinet cobbled together by new Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. In the heart of the Green Zone, far from the reach of ordinary Iraqis, lawmakers raised their hands to vet each member."
Not just receiving Data, government is getting total access to aall date
Sy Hersh
The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town:
"Last December, the Times reported that the N.S.A. was listening in on calls between people in the United States and people in other countries, and a few weeks ago USA Today reported that the agency was collecting information on millions of private domestic calls. A security consultant working with a major telecommunications carrier told me that his client set up a top-secret high-speed circuit between its main computer complex and Quantico, Virginia, the site of a government-intelligence computer center. This link provided direct access to the carrier's network core, the critical area of its system, where all its data are stored. 'What the companies are doing is worse than turning over records,' the consultant said. 'They're providing total access to all the data.'
'This is not about getting a cardboard box of monthly phone bills in alphabetical order,' a former senior intelligence official said. The Administration's goal after September 11th was to find suspected terrorists and target them for capture or, in some cases, air strikes. 'The N.S.A. is getting real-time actionable intelligence,' the former official said."
The New Yorker: The Talk of the Town:
"Last December, the Times reported that the N.S.A. was listening in on calls between people in the United States and people in other countries, and a few weeks ago USA Today reported that the agency was collecting information on millions of private domestic calls. A security consultant working with a major telecommunications carrier told me that his client set up a top-secret high-speed circuit between its main computer complex and Quantico, Virginia, the site of a government-intelligence computer center. This link provided direct access to the carrier's network core, the critical area of its system, where all its data are stored. 'What the companies are doing is worse than turning over records,' the consultant said. 'They're providing total access to all the data.'
'This is not about getting a cardboard box of monthly phone bills in alphabetical order,' a former senior intelligence official said. The Administration's goal after September 11th was to find suspected terrorists and target them for capture or, in some cases, air strikes. 'The N.S.A. is getting real-time actionable intelligence,' the former official said."
Sunday, May 21, 2006
The BEAST: The Police State
TOP TENS SIGNS OF IMPENDING POLICE STATE
The BEAST: America's Best Fiend:
"The Internet Clampdown
One saving grace of alternative media in this age of unfettered corporate conglomeration has been the internet. While the masses are spoon-fed predigested news on TV and in mainstream print publications, the truth-seeking individual still has access to a broad array of investigative reporting and political opinion via the world-wide web. Of course, it was only a matter of time before the government moved to patch up this crack in the sky. Attempts to regulate and filter internet content are intensifying lately, coming both from telecommunications corporations (who are gearing up to pass legislation transferring ownership and regulation of the internet to themselves), and the Pentagon (which issued an 'Information Operations Roadmap' in 2003, signed by Donald Rumsfeld, which outlines tactics such as network attacks and acknowledges, without suggesting a remedy, that US propaganda planted in other countries has easily found its way to Americans via the internet). One obvious tactic clearing the way for stifling regulation of internet content is the growing media frenzy over child pornography and 'internet predators,' which will surely lead to legislation that by far exceeds in its purview what is needed to fight such threats. " (read On ^)
The BEAST: America's Best Fiend:
"The Internet Clampdown
One saving grace of alternative media in this age of unfettered corporate conglomeration has been the internet. While the masses are spoon-fed predigested news on TV and in mainstream print publications, the truth-seeking individual still has access to a broad array of investigative reporting and political opinion via the world-wide web. Of course, it was only a matter of time before the government moved to patch up this crack in the sky. Attempts to regulate and filter internet content are intensifying lately, coming both from telecommunications corporations (who are gearing up to pass legislation transferring ownership and regulation of the internet to themselves), and the Pentagon (which issued an 'Information Operations Roadmap' in 2003, signed by Donald Rumsfeld, which outlines tactics such as network attacks and acknowledges, without suggesting a remedy, that US propaganda planted in other countries has easily found its way to Americans via the internet). One obvious tactic clearing the way for stifling regulation of internet content is the growing media frenzy over child pornography and 'internet predators,' which will surely lead to legislation that by far exceeds in its purview what is needed to fight such threats. " (read On ^)
An Interview with John Dean
Dean: That the VP of the U.S. was on the Hill lobbying for torture is unbelievable; just unbelievable.
You can say that again, John.
An Interview with John Dean The Progressive:
"Q: I'm very interested in the comparisons you make between Nixon and Bush.
Dean: Both mean learned about the Presidency from men they greatly respected: Richard Nixon from Dwight Eisenhower, George Bush from his father. When both men became President, you got the very distinct impression that they don't feel that they quite fit in the shoes of the person from whom they learned about the Presidency. Nixon would constantly be going down to Key Biscayne, San Clemente, or Camp David, he just didn't like being in the Oval Office. I saw this same thing with George Bush, who is constantly away.
The other striking similarity is that both men talk in the third person about the office of the President. It's like the royal we. You look at other Presidents, like Reagan and Clinton, who clearly filled that office. You almost had to pry Clinton out at the end of his term. And Reagan, despite whatever weaknesses he had intellectually, filled the role of President and played it to the hilt. So Bush has a Nixonian distance from the White House.
And I was stunned at the secrecy of this Administration. I knew that there's no good that can come out of secrecy. So I began looking closely at Bush and finding the striking Nixonian features of this Presidency: It's almost as if we'd left an old playbook in the basement, they found it, dusted it off, and said, 'This stuff looks pretty good, we ought to give it a try.' As I dug in, and still had some pretty good sources within that Presidency, I found the principal mover and shaker of this Presidency is clearly Dick Cheney, who is not only reviving the Imperial Presidency but expanding it beyond Nixon's wildest dreams.
The reason I wrote a book with the title 'Worse than Watergate,' and I was very cautious in using that title, is because there was a real difference:"
Attorney Gen.: Reporters Can Be Prosecuted - Yahoo! News
...and you, Sir, can be prosecuted for lying to Cogress.
Attorney Gen.: Reporters Can Be Prosecuted - Yahoo! News:
"WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday he believes journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, citing an obligation to national security.
The nation's top law enforcer also said the government will not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal leak investigation, but officials would not do so routinely and randomly.
'There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility,' Gonzales said, referring to prosecutions. 'We have an obligation to enforce those laws. We have an obligation to ensure that our national security is protected.'"
ABC News: Edwards: Bush Worse than Nixon
ABC News: Edwards: Bush Worse than Nixon:
"May 21, 2006 : Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., says George W. Bush is the 'worst president of our lifetime,' and 'absolutely' worse than Watergate-tainted President Richard M. Nixon.
In an exclusive appearance on 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos,' the former presidential and vice presidential contender said of Bush, 'He's done a variety of things, things which are going to take us forever to recover from.
'You have to give Bush and Cheney and gang credit for being good at politics, you know, good at political campaigns,' Edwards added. 'They're very good at dividing the country and taking advantage of it. What they're not good at is governing, and it shows every single day in this administration. And the country is paying a huge price for that.'"
"May 21, 2006 : Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., says George W. Bush is the 'worst president of our lifetime,' and 'absolutely' worse than Watergate-tainted President Richard M. Nixon.
In an exclusive appearance on 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos,' the former presidential and vice presidential contender said of Bush, 'He's done a variety of things, things which are going to take us forever to recover from.
'You have to give Bush and Cheney and gang credit for being good at politics, you know, good at political campaigns,' Edwards added. 'They're very good at dividing the country and taking advantage of it. What they're not good at is governing, and it shows every single day in this administration. And the country is paying a huge price for that.'"
Pian and shock for Liieberman
Lieberamn's chickenhawks are coming home to roost, big time.
Eschaton:
"Discomfort turned to pain for the Lieberman campaign when the first town in the 1st Congressional District began the roll call: Barkhamsted cast its two votes for Lamont. The challenger received votes in town after town, sometimes one at a time, sometimes considerably more. When once Lieberman-friendly Windsor cast 13 of its 17 votes for Lamont, a roar of surprise filled the hall. Lamont would sail past the crucial 15 percent threshold before reaching his 4th Congressional District stronghold. Lieberman ought to be grateful it was not a secret ballot. If it had been, some of the 100 missing delegates might have found the backbone to vote.
Delegation leaders revealed more than they may have intended with the tributes to home that preceded the casting of votes. East Haddam reminded the crowd that it's Dodd's hometown and then cast three of its five votes for Lamont. Lebanon announced that it's Dodd's birthplace and tossed three of its four votes for Lamont. If anyone thinks saving the sub base (and one can't fail to mention 30,000 jobs) will rescue Lieberman in southeastern Connecticut, take a look at the roll call. Yes, Groton went for Lieberman 9-4, but neighboring New London stuck the shiv in with six of 11 for Lamont.
The darkest omens for Lieberman came near the end of the night when Southbury, nearly the last to vote, announced it was still waiting for a response to a winter invitation to Lieberman to meet. Until he does, Southbury cast five votes for Lamont, three abstentions and zero for Lieberman. One of the night's loudest cheers rang out.
Will he bolt the party?" (Does anyone give a damn?)
A Nation of Suspects
Creating a nation controlled by fear; until it's not.
A Nation of Suspects:
"Ross and Esposito also reported that 'other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.'
Shocking, to be sure, but when you recall Mitchell�s cryptic questioning of Risen back in January, one wonders what is really known and by whom. In the paranoid and secretive style of the Bush administration, it requires little imagination to progress to a program such as warrantless telephone surveillance or an aggressive leak investigation aimed at the enemy press.
What is surprising is how little follow up we've seen and heard from the rest of the media and how little outrage we're observing from the potential victims. While the story itself may be difficult to advance, where, for goodness sakes are our nation's leading editorial pages?
The Washington Post has offered up a single editorial on the subject, calling on the president to 'stop stonewalling his critics or playing for partisan advantage and work with Congress to create legal means to fight terrorism compatible with American values and democracy.' The New York Times, editorial board, usually much tougher toward the administration than that of the Post, has yet to address the issue at all, an odd, almost shocking silence. "
"The ''Moderate'' Arlen Specter - Bush and GOP Front Man"
If Arlen Apector is a moderate, so was Martin Borman.
The Progressive Daily Beacon: "The ''Moderate'' Arlen Specter - Bush and GOP Front Man":
"In Republican and media circles, Specter is considered a 'moderate,' which is coded language for a GOPer willing to do and say whatever it takes to appear to be mainstream, while in reality furthering the most stygian policies of the Party. As a so-called moderate, Specter has become adept at straddling both sides of every subject and choosing one over the other only when political expediency requires him to do so. Republicans like Specter are the equivalent of a political Rorschach test: people see in Specter whatever they hope to see. Their perception, however, is never linked to reality.
Arlen Specter's 'moderate' Republican nature allows him to adopt any political shape, take any side on an infinite number of issues and, most of all, cut dark and unholy deals. In the era of the Rove-Bush Republican Party, no one is more abhorrent than GOP members who aren't fully committed to the most extreme elements of the Party's agenda. The Party is not comfortable with so-called moderates because they have a tendency to sell out their Dear Leader when they need to save their own political hides. Uncomfortable with those who are able to step around unpalatable items on the extremist agenda, Bush and Rove want party members to be faithful zealots.
This reality of the Republican Party makes one wonder just how much of his soul Specter had to sell in order to get Bush, Rove, and the likes of Santorum to come to his political rescue in 2004. The permanent senator from Pennsylvania must have prostrated himself so as to convince his ideologically-driven masters to save him; it shows in nearly everything Specter does. "
The Progressive Daily Beacon: "The ''Moderate'' Arlen Specter - Bush and GOP Front Man":
"In Republican and media circles, Specter is considered a 'moderate,' which is coded language for a GOPer willing to do and say whatever it takes to appear to be mainstream, while in reality furthering the most stygian policies of the Party. As a so-called moderate, Specter has become adept at straddling both sides of every subject and choosing one over the other only when political expediency requires him to do so. Republicans like Specter are the equivalent of a political Rorschach test: people see in Specter whatever they hope to see. Their perception, however, is never linked to reality.
Arlen Specter's 'moderate' Republican nature allows him to adopt any political shape, take any side on an infinite number of issues and, most of all, cut dark and unholy deals. In the era of the Rove-Bush Republican Party, no one is more abhorrent than GOP members who aren't fully committed to the most extreme elements of the Party's agenda. The Party is not comfortable with so-called moderates because they have a tendency to sell out their Dear Leader when they need to save their own political hides. Uncomfortable with those who are able to step around unpalatable items on the extremist agenda, Bush and Rove want party members to be faithful zealots.
This reality of the Republican Party makes one wonder just how much of his soul Specter had to sell in order to get Bush, Rove, and the likes of Santorum to come to his political rescue in 2004. The permanent senator from Pennsylvania must have prostrated himself so as to convince his ideologically-driven masters to save him; it shows in nearly everything Specter does. "
Rights-group chief, detainee lawyer sue AT&T
Chron.com Rights-group chief, detainee lawyer sue AT&T:
"AUSTIN - The director of a civil rights group and a lawyer who represents a Guantanamo Bay detainee are among plaintiffs who sued AT&T in federal court Friday about the release of customer phone records to the National Security Agency.
Last week, USA Today reported that AT&T Inc. and other phone companies complied with a security agency request for millions of customer phone records after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks."
"AUSTIN - The director of a civil rights group and a lawyer who represents a Guantanamo Bay detainee are among plaintiffs who sued AT&T in federal court Friday about the release of customer phone records to the National Security Agency.
Last week, USA Today reported that AT&T Inc. and other phone companies complied with a security agency request for millions of customer phone records after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks."
Rights-group chief, detainee lawyer sue AT&T
Chron.com Rights-group chief, detainee lawyer sue AT&T:
"AUSTIN - The director of a civil rights group and a lawyer who represents a Guantanamo Bay detainee are among plaintiffs who sued AT&T in federal court Friday about the release of customer phone records to the National Security Agency.
Last week, USA Today reported that AT&T Inc. and other phone companies complied with a security agency request for millions of customer phone records after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks."
"AUSTIN - The director of a civil rights group and a lawyer who represents a Guantanamo Bay detainee are among plaintiffs who sued AT&T in federal court Friday about the release of customer phone records to the National Security Agency.
Last week, USA Today reported that AT&T Inc. and other phone companies complied with a security agency request for millions of customer phone records after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks."
Nagin wins New Orleans election
Why do I get the feeling that Nagin is for sale to the highest bidder.
God, I hope I am wrong, because I have always loved New Orleans.
CNN.com - Nagin wins New Orleans election - May 20, 2006:
"NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Mayor Ray Nagin, whose shoot-from-the-hip style was both praised and scorned after Hurricane Katrina, narrowly won re-election over Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu on Saturday in the race to oversee one of the biggest rebuilding projects in U.S. history.
With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Nagin had 52.9 percent, or 56,068 votes, to Landrieu's 47.1 percent, or 49,884 votes.
Results from Louisiana's Secretary of State's Office signaled the Nagin victory. Absentee and early votes went slightly for Nagin. And while the results showed Nagin carrying majority black precincts and Landrieu winning in majority white ones, Nagin pulled a significant crossover vote in some heavily populated predominantly white precincts in Uptown New Orleans."
Franks: Soldiers' deaths cost of security
Tommy Franks is an idiot, good soldier type, who is up to his eyeballs in the crimes of this administration.
Where are those WMD? Where is Osama?
Until you can answer those very basic questions, just shut the hell up!
cleveland.com: NewsFlash - Franks: Soldiers' deaths cost of security:
"MILWAUKEE (AP) : Those who count the increasing number of American soldiers killed in Iraq are missing the bigger picture, retired Gen. Tommy Franks said Saturday night.
'
What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives,' Franks said at the National Rifle Association's annual banquet. 'Terrorism is a thing that threatens our way of life. It doesn't have anything to do with politics.'
More than 2,400 soldiers have died since the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, the plan for which Franks developed and executed. He also oversaw combat in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
'I watched as America changed,' Franks said. 'That's not near done. We have to secure ourselves. We have to secure our Constitution.'
During his 30-minute speech, Franks took an occasional jab at the media and fellow generals for attacking Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
'We haven't got any generals here. They're all in front of TV cameras complaining about Don Rumsfeld,' Franks deadpanned. 'Difference is, I know what I'm talking about.'"
That's a damn lie!
Where are those WMD? Where is Osama?
Until you can answer those very basic questions, just shut the hell up!
cleveland.com: NewsFlash - Franks: Soldiers' deaths cost of security:
"MILWAUKEE (AP) : Those who count the increasing number of American soldiers killed in Iraq are missing the bigger picture, retired Gen. Tommy Franks said Saturday night.
'
What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives,' Franks said at the National Rifle Association's annual banquet. 'Terrorism is a thing that threatens our way of life. It doesn't have anything to do with politics.'
More than 2,400 soldiers have died since the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, the plan for which Franks developed and executed. He also oversaw combat in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
'I watched as America changed,' Franks said. 'That's not near done. We have to secure ourselves. We have to secure our Constitution.'
During his 30-minute speech, Franks took an occasional jab at the media and fellow generals for attacking Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
'We haven't got any generals here. They're all in front of TV cameras complaining about Don Rumsfeld,' Franks deadpanned. 'Difference is, I know what I'm talking about.'"
That's a damn lie!
2 GOP Seats Unusually Competitive
Californians were stupid enough to elect Ahnuld.
Will they be nutso enough to re-elect these corrupt bastards?
Come on California! You guys should be leading the way in getting rid of the horrid corruption in Congress.
2 GOP Seats Unusually Competitive - Los Angeles Times:
Ties to the Abramoff scandal have opened Reps. Doolittle and Pombo to attack. But they're well-defended among constituents.
RIPON, Calif.: When reports came out that U.S. Rep. Richard W. Pombo had rented a luxury camper at government expense and taken his family on a 'working vacation' to several national parks, the common reaction in this San Joaquin Valley town was: So what?
'Most people thought, 'Well, at least he didn't take a Lear jet,' ' said Ripon City Atty. Tom Terpstra, one of Pombo's many avid supporters in this almond- and walnut-growing center just north of Modesto."
Libby Denies Seeing Cheney's Notes on Newspaper Column
Fitz does not plan on calling Cheney.
Why not?
Could it be because Cheney is a target or subject of his investigation?
Libby Denies Seeing Cheney's Notes on Newspaper Column:
"Lawyers for I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the indicted former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, said in a court filing late Friday that Libby did not see the notes Cheney inscribed on a key newspaper column criticizing the administration's rationale for invading Iraq until he was shown the annotations in the course of an FBI investigation.
The lawyers raised the issue to cast doubt on a claim by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in a court filing a week ago that the annotations 'serve both to explain the context of and provide a motive for' Libby's statements and actions that brought about his indictment.
The annotations by Cheney on the opinion column, written by former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, raised the possibility that a report by Wilson questioning Iraqi efforts to buy material in Niger for a nuclear weapon was instigated by Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, whose position at the CIA was classified."
Why not?
Could it be because Cheney is a target or subject of his investigation?
Libby Denies Seeing Cheney's Notes on Newspaper Column:
"Lawyers for I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the indicted former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, said in a court filing late Friday that Libby did not see the notes Cheney inscribed on a key newspaper column criticizing the administration's rationale for invading Iraq until he was shown the annotations in the course of an FBI investigation.
The lawyers raised the issue to cast doubt on a claim by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in a court filing a week ago that the annotations 'serve both to explain the context of and provide a motive for' Libby's statements and actions that brought about his indictment.
The annotations by Cheney on the opinion column, written by former U.S. ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, raised the possibility that a report by Wilson questioning Iraqi efforts to buy material in Niger for a nuclear weapon was instigated by Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, whose position at the CIA was classified."
|Americans don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either
Home-spun, corn-pone just isn't working anymre, and that is the only act he has.
We have yet to figure out why anyone bought this act to begin with, but there is a fool born every minute, and there is always a con-man like Bush to exploit there foolishnes.
KR Washington Bureau 05/19/2006 Americans don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either:
"WASHINGTON - It's not just the way he's doing his job. Americans apparently don't like President Bush personally much anymore, either.
A drop in his personal popularity, as measured by several public polls, has shadowed the decline in Bush's job-approval ratings and weakened his political armor when he and his party need it most.
Losing that political protection - dubbed 'Teflon' when Ronald Reagan had it - is costing Bush what the late political scientist Richard Neustadt called the 'leeway' to survive hard times and maintain his grip on the nation's agenda. Without it, Bush is a more tempting target for political enemies. And members of his party in Congress are less inclined to stand with him.
'When he loses likeability, the president loses the benefit of the doubt,' said Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University in Iowa. 'That makes it much harder for him to steer.' "
Congress Faces Multiple Criminal Probes - Yahoo! News
Power corrupts...that has always been true.
That is why we need to be constantly vigilant about the men and women we elect to represent us, and if they are found to be corrupt, they should be recalled immediately and not allowed to take any job having to do with Washington, D,C, including lucrative lobbying jobs.
Congress Faces Multiple Criminal Probes - Yahoo! News:
"WASHINGTON - For the first time since the Abscam scandal a quarter-century ago, multiple lawmakers face criminal and ethics investigations that are tarnishing Congress, already low on public approval.
Three separate bribery investigations by the Justice Department were bad enough news for lawmakers. But the woes only increased last week when the House ethics committee broke a 16-month partisan gridlock and announced investigations into the same matters.
'We have an entire generation who imagines their member of Congress in an orange jumpsuit,' said Paul Light, a New York University professor of public service, referring to the common prison uniform. 'It's like members of Congress don't have any shame.'" (They don't)
That is why we need to be constantly vigilant about the men and women we elect to represent us, and if they are found to be corrupt, they should be recalled immediately and not allowed to take any job having to do with Washington, D,C, including lucrative lobbying jobs.
Congress Faces Multiple Criminal Probes - Yahoo! News:
"WASHINGTON - For the first time since the Abscam scandal a quarter-century ago, multiple lawmakers face criminal and ethics investigations that are tarnishing Congress, already low on public approval.
Three separate bribery investigations by the Justice Department were bad enough news for lawmakers. But the woes only increased last week when the House ethics committee broke a 16-month partisan gridlock and announced investigations into the same matters.
'We have an entire generation who imagines their member of Congress in an orange jumpsuit,' said Paul Light, a New York University professor of public service, referring to the common prison uniform. 'It's like members of Congress don't have any shame.'" (They don't)
Clinton says we need to get off our butts and do more about Global Warming.
Too bad you didn't do more when you were president, Bill
My Way News:
"AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Former President Bill Clinton said on Saturday global warming is a greater threat to the future than terrorism and that the United States and other countries must 'get off our butts' and do something about it.
Clinton, speaking to the graduating class at University of Texas' Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, said the United States must pursue policies that make 'more partners and fewer enemies' and use 'institutionalized cooperation' before there is catastrophic damage from global warming.
'Climate change is more remote than terror but a more profound threat to the future of the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren I hope all of you have,' Clinton said.
'It's the only thing we face today that has the power to remove the preconditions of civilized society,' he said."
My Way News:
"AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Former President Bill Clinton said on Saturday global warming is a greater threat to the future than terrorism and that the United States and other countries must 'get off our butts' and do something about it.
Clinton, speaking to the graduating class at University of Texas' Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, said the United States must pursue policies that make 'more partners and fewer enemies' and use 'institutionalized cooperation' before there is catastrophic damage from global warming.
'Climate change is more remote than terror but a more profound threat to the future of the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren I hope all of you have,' Clinton said.
'It's the only thing we face today that has the power to remove the preconditions of civilized society,' he said."
Gen. Hayden admits the Administration knew it was violating FISA
So, in other words, Gonzales lied his ass off, to Congress.
Isn't that against the law, or are there any laws left?
Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Gen. Hayden admits the Administration knew it was violating FISA:
"In his confirmation hearing yesterday, Gen. Hayden yesterday all but acknowledged that when President Bush ordered the NSA to engage in warrantless eavesdropping on Americans, the administration did not, at that time, rely upon any purported claim that Congress had authorized the President to engage in warrantless eavesdropping via its authorization to use military force against Al Qaeda. That legal theory justifying violations of FISA only came much later. The sole justification the administration had when the President ordered warrantless eavesdropping was its claim that the president has 'inherent authority' to violate the law.
Thus, when President Bush ordered warrantless eavesdropping, the administration did not believe that this eavesdropping was authorized by Congress as a result of the AUMF, nor did it believe that the eavesdropping was consistent with FISA. To the contrary, it knew that the eavesdropping it had ordered was criminally prohibited by FISA, and the sole legal justification it relied upon was its belief that the President had the power to order eavesdropping in violation of that law:"
Experts say report of badges for Jews in Iran is untrue
Another NeoCon Lie.
Experts say report of badges for Jews in Iran is untrue:
"Several experts are casting doubt on reports that Iran had passed a law requiring the country's Jews and other religious minorities to wear coloured badges identifying them as non-Muslims.
The Iranian embassy in Otttawa also denied the Iranian government had passed such a law.
A news story and column by Iranian-born analyst Amir Taheri in yesterday's National Post reported that the Iranian parliament had passed a sweeping new law this week outlining proper dress for Iran's majority Muslims, including an order for Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians to wear special strips of cloth.
According to the reports, Jews were to wear yellow cloth strips, called zonnar, while Christians were to wear red and Zoroastrians blue.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre and Iranian expatriates living in Canada had confirmed that the order had been passed, although it still had to be approved by Iran's 'Supreme Guide' Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect."
AP uncritically reported Sen. Hatch's claim that FISA judges did not object to warrantless surveillance
Reporters who do not challenge obvious lies, like this one Orrin Hatch told, ought to be fired!
Media Matters - AP uncritically reported Sen. Hatch's claim that FISA judges did not object to warrantless surveillance:
"Summary: The Associated Press reported without challenge Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) statement that at least two of the judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had been briefed on the National Security Agency's (NSA) domestic spying activities and that '[n]one raised any objections.' The AP article did not note that these two judges reportedly expressed serious concerns about the constitutionality of the NSA's warrantless domestic surveillance program."
Media Matters - AP uncritically reported Sen. Hatch's claim that FISA judges did not object to warrantless surveillance:
"Summary: The Associated Press reported without challenge Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) statement that at least two of the judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had been briefed on the National Security Agency's (NSA) domestic spying activities and that '[n]one raised any objections.' The AP article did not note that these two judges reportedly expressed serious concerns about the constitutionality of the NSA's warrantless domestic surveillance program."
Hawks for Withdrawal
The DLC and the Clintons do not represent me! I don't think they have ever had a clue what they stand for
Hawks for Withdrawal:
"Democrats are slowly but surely uniting around a plan for military withdrawal designed by the Center for American Progress, a think tank linked to Clinton-era Democrats and headed by former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta.
Not all the party leaders agree. Senator Hillary Clinton continues to posture as a military hawk. Senator Joe Biden wants to dilute and divide Iraq into three sectarian enclaves. Neither Senator Charles Schumer nor Representative Rahm Emanuel, who are charged with winning November's elections, have a coherent message on Iraq, preferring themes like 'corruption' and 'incompetence' to a straightforward alternative.
Despite the timidity and paralysis, however, Democrats on the campaign trail increasingly know they must address the war. Polls show that Iraq is dragging down ratings for the President and the Republican Party. Democrats prefer to simply criticize the Administration's handling of Iraq without discussing an exit plan of their own. This Democratic approach worked brilliantly on Social Security, where Bush could find no Democratic divisions to exploit. John Kerry's presidential campaign tried the same approach on Iraq but discovered that Kerry was losing both centrist and progressive voters. Today, the most common concern voters have about the Democratic Party is whether it stands for anything.
Late last September, Lawrence Korb and Brian Katulis first floated their plan for 'strategic redeployment.' The two authors have credible--that is, conservative--credentials; Korb was assistant defense secretary under Ronald Reagan, and Katulis is associated with the 'soft power' approach of promoting security through civic-society initiatives abroad. "
Ex-deputy secretary of state new figure in CIA leak probe
Well, well, we reported that this might be the case before Libby was indicted.
Here's why:
Armitage was responsible for rushing State Department files to Colin Powell on the Sunday that Wilson's oped appeared in the Newspaper. Powell took the file, which was marked secret onto the plane with the presidential entourage for a trip to Africa. The State Department file apparently pointed out that the Niger, Uranium, Saddam cennecton was a bunch of hoowee.
While in Africa, Ari Fleischer was given the task of announcing to the press that the now infamous 16 words did not rise to a level of certainty, where they should have been included in the SOTU.
Meanwhile, back at the White House, Rove and Cheney set about getting Tenet to take the fall, which he sort of did, but Hadley was the final scapegoat for the 16 words.
By the following Sunday, Condi was on all the talk shows defending the whole sordid mess, as usual.
It always made sense to us that Armitage knew plenty and that he would be a key witness, if he was not involved in the outing of Valerie Wilson or in the cover-up that ensued, which we did not believe that he he was.
If anyone at State was involved, it would be the Bolton cadre of jackasses
New York Daily News - World & National Report - Ex-deputy secretary of state new figure in CIA leak probe:
"Armitage's testimony could hurt Vice President Cheney's indicted former chief aide Lewis (Scooter) Libby, or President Bush's political guru, Karl Rove.
Two sources familiar with the case said Armitage, Rove and Libby all had contacts with the press about Plame. Unlike Rove and Libby, Armitage appears to have tried to dissuade reporters from writing about her.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald recently had to sneak Armitage into a Washington courthouse to get past reporters - a sign of his value in the case, according to one source.
'Rich has been cooperating with Fitzgerald since day one,' said another source, who has close ties to Armitage. 'He was one of the first people to offer his testimony.'"
Here's why:
Armitage was responsible for rushing State Department files to Colin Powell on the Sunday that Wilson's oped appeared in the Newspaper. Powell took the file, which was marked secret onto the plane with the presidential entourage for a trip to Africa. The State Department file apparently pointed out that the Niger, Uranium, Saddam cennecton was a bunch of hoowee.
While in Africa, Ari Fleischer was given the task of announcing to the press that the now infamous 16 words did not rise to a level of certainty, where they should have been included in the SOTU.
Meanwhile, back at the White House, Rove and Cheney set about getting Tenet to take the fall, which he sort of did, but Hadley was the final scapegoat for the 16 words.
By the following Sunday, Condi was on all the talk shows defending the whole sordid mess, as usual.
It always made sense to us that Armitage knew plenty and that he would be a key witness, if he was not involved in the outing of Valerie Wilson or in the cover-up that ensued, which we did not believe that he he was.
If anyone at State was involved, it would be the Bolton cadre of jackasses
New York Daily News - World & National Report - Ex-deputy secretary of state new figure in CIA leak probe:
"Armitage's testimony could hurt Vice President Cheney's indicted former chief aide Lewis (Scooter) Libby, or President Bush's political guru, Karl Rove.
Two sources familiar with the case said Armitage, Rove and Libby all had contacts with the press about Plame. Unlike Rove and Libby, Armitage appears to have tried to dissuade reporters from writing about her.
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald recently had to sneak Armitage into a Washington courthouse to get past reporters - a sign of his value in the case, according to one source.
'Rich has been cooperating with Fitzgerald since day one,' said another source, who has close ties to Armitage. 'He was one of the first people to offer his testimony.'"
New Face, Old Evasion
Can one person secede from the Union?
Well I don't care, I am have done it anyway, and if Bush doesn't ike it, he can jolly well bring it on!
I will not countenance torture by my government of any human being, I don't care what they have done.
...and these criminals call themselves Christian.
New Face, Old Evasion:
"AT THE SENATE intelligence committee hearing Thursday on Gen. Michael V. Hayden's nomination to head the CIA, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked the nominee a simple question: Is 'waterboarding' an acceptable interrogation technique? Gen. Hayden responded: 'Let me defer that to closed session, and I would be happy to discuss it in some detail.' That was the wrong answer. The right one would have been simple: No. Last year Congress banned cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment of detainees; one of its explicit aims was to stop the CIA's use of waterboarding, which induces an excruciating sensation of drowning and is considered by most human rights organizations to constitute torture. So why couldn't Gen. Hayden say clearly that the technique is now off-limits?
Few issues facing the next CIA director are more important than what to do about the agency's network of secret prisons, in which it is holding -- and has been abusively interrogating -- high-ranking al-Qaeda operatives. Gen. Hayden acknowledged in open session that the new law binds the CIA and made clear as well that it requires all federal agencies, including the one he is slated to lead, 'to handle detainees wherever they may be located in a way that is not cruel, inhumane or degrading.'"
Well I don't care, I am have done it anyway, and if Bush doesn't ike it, he can jolly well bring it on!
I will not countenance torture by my government of any human being, I don't care what they have done.
...and these criminals call themselves Christian.
New Face, Old Evasion:
"AT THE SENATE intelligence committee hearing Thursday on Gen. Michael V. Hayden's nomination to head the CIA, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked the nominee a simple question: Is 'waterboarding' an acceptable interrogation technique? Gen. Hayden responded: 'Let me defer that to closed session, and I would be happy to discuss it in some detail.' That was the wrong answer. The right one would have been simple: No. Last year Congress banned cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment of detainees; one of its explicit aims was to stop the CIA's use of waterboarding, which induces an excruciating sensation of drowning and is considered by most human rights organizations to constitute torture. So why couldn't Gen. Hayden say clearly that the technique is now off-limits?
Few issues facing the next CIA director are more important than what to do about the agency's network of secret prisons, in which it is holding -- and has been abusively interrogating -- high-ranking al-Qaeda operatives. Gen. Hayden acknowledged in open session that the new law binds the CIA and made clear as well that it requires all federal agencies, including the one he is slated to lead, 'to handle detainees wherever they may be located in a way that is not cruel, inhumane or degrading.'"
Fighting in Afghanistan at worst level since 2001
What was that Der Monkey wa saying about the war he won in Afghanistan?
What a total idiot.
Independent Online Edition > Asia:
"Two French special forces troops and a US soldier were among 34 combatants killed in Afghanistan in a fresh upsurge of the deadliest fighting since the removal of the Taliban in 2001. In the worst clash, militants hiding in a vineyard ambushed an Afghan army convoy, shooting dead four soldiers but losing 15 of their own.
Fears of a resurgence of the Taliban have been fuelled by a sharp rise in violence during recent weeks, much of it in Helmand province, where 3,300 British troops are deploying. Some 120 people died in 24 hours last week before a brief respite, but attacks resumed on Friday, claiming another 34 lives by Saturday afternoon.
The two French died yesterday while fighting the Taliban in Kandahar province, the French Defence Ministry said. It gave no further details. France has had 200 special forces officers in south-eastern Afghanistan since 2003 as part of the US-led coalition."
What a total idiot.
Independent Online Edition > Asia:
"Two French special forces troops and a US soldier were among 34 combatants killed in Afghanistan in a fresh upsurge of the deadliest fighting since the removal of the Taliban in 2001. In the worst clash, militants hiding in a vineyard ambushed an Afghan army convoy, shooting dead four soldiers but losing 15 of their own.
Fears of a resurgence of the Taliban have been fuelled by a sharp rise in violence during recent weeks, much of it in Helmand province, where 3,300 British troops are deploying. Some 120 people died in 24 hours last week before a brief respite, but attacks resumed on Friday, claiming another 34 lives by Saturday afternoon.
The two French died yesterday while fighting the Taliban in Kandahar province, the French Defence Ministry said. It gave no further details. France has had 200 special forces officers in south-eastern Afghanistan since 2003 as part of the US-led coalition."
More Robertson insanity
Make Me an Instrument of Peace:
"By Cindy Sheehan
05/19/06 --- Not too long ago, I was listening to Air America when a caller to the religious right of war supporter/evangelist Pat Robertson said it didn't bother him that George Bush doesn't follow the law of our land because when we have a man who is a 'Christian' in office, we don't need the rule of law! The caller and I am afraid too many more people in America are saved from the responsibility of democracy because they believe that George follows a higher law than our Constitution. The person who called in really meant that. I found that call disturbing for several reasons, but to think that a man who kills his pretend enemies and is a warmaker with wanton disregard for the teachings of Jesus Christ is a Christian flies in the face of everything that I was taught about Jesus of Nazareth and about the Christian faith.
Thinking about how unloving, punitive and unjust the brand of Christianity that George Bush practices is reminded me of an experience that I had in Assisi the first time I visited Italy in January of this year. The Franciscan model of Christianity is totally the opposite of Bushianity.
On that sunny but cold January day, when I awakened in the back seat of the silver BMW that picked me up from the airport in Rome, I was in a charming plaza in front of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. The Basilica was heavily damaged in an earthquake in 1997 but is now almost entirely restored. "
"By Cindy Sheehan
05/19/06 --- Not too long ago, I was listening to Air America when a caller to the religious right of war supporter/evangelist Pat Robertson said it didn't bother him that George Bush doesn't follow the law of our land because when we have a man who is a 'Christian' in office, we don't need the rule of law! The caller and I am afraid too many more people in America are saved from the responsibility of democracy because they believe that George follows a higher law than our Constitution. The person who called in really meant that. I found that call disturbing for several reasons, but to think that a man who kills his pretend enemies and is a warmaker with wanton disregard for the teachings of Jesus Christ is a Christian flies in the face of everything that I was taught about Jesus of Nazareth and about the Christian faith.
Thinking about how unloving, punitive and unjust the brand of Christianity that George Bush practices is reminded me of an experience that I had in Assisi the first time I visited Italy in January of this year. The Franciscan model of Christianity is totally the opposite of Bushianity.
On that sunny but cold January day, when I awakened in the back seat of the silver BMW that picked me up from the airport in Rome, I was in a charming plaza in front of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. The Basilica was heavily damaged in an earthquake in 1997 but is now almost entirely restored. "
MP to investigate Dr Kelly's death
There is more to this than anyone has said. Let's remember that one of the last e-mails Kelly wrote was to Judy Miller of the NYT in which he told her that "there are very dark forces at work."
MP to investigate Dr Kelly's death:
"05/19/06 'Guardian' -- -- A backbench MP is to investigate the 'unanswered questions' from the official inquiry into the death of weapons scientist Dr David Kelly.
The former Liberal Democrat environmental spokesman Norman Baker today revealed his decision to stand down from the shadow cabinet two months ago was based on a quest to establish the 'truth' behind Dr Kelly's death.
Mr Baker said he wanted to return to the issue because the 2003 Hutton inquiry had 'blatantly failed to get to the bottom of matters'.
He vowed to question ministers and to unearth new facts in a bid to establish the 'truth' of the case.
Dr Kelly was found dead on July 18 2003 after being named as the possible source of a BBC story on the government's Iraq dossier.
Later that month Lord Hutton was appointed head of an independent inquiry into the events surrounding Dr Kelly's death. After a two-month inquiry, Lord Hutton concluded the scientist had taken his own life.
Oxford coroner Nicholas Gardiner subsequently looked into the possibility of reopening the inquest into Dr Kelly's death, but after reviewing the evidence with the lord chancellor, decided that there was no case for doing so.
Mr Baker explained that he had decided to wait until he relinquished his environmental role before embarking on an investigation to find out the 'truth' that the Hutton inquiry had failed to deliver."
Brzezinski: Military Option not a Profitable Course of Action | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 19.05.2006
Not profitable?
Hell, it's insane!
Brzezinski: Military Option not a Profitable Course of Action Europe Deutsche Welle 19.05.2006:
"DW-WORLD: The Iranian President Ahmadinejad has ridiculed the European offer to provide a light-water reactor as an incentive to freeze uranium enrichment. Has diplomacy failed?
Zbigniew Brzezinski: One has to recognize that when one says President Ahmadinejad, one is using the title of president which means something entirely different in the West from what it means in the Iranian system. President Ahmadinejad is not the President of Iran in the sense that the President of the US is Mr. Bush, and the President of France is Mr. Chirac.
The position of the president in Iran is roughly a third-level position. His executive powers are quite limited.
What the West has done, and what the US in part has done, is to elevate him into an interlocutor, who then uses the debate with the West to enhance his domestic political power. So I don't consider his responses to be authoritative."
"
Hell, it's insane!
Brzezinski: Military Option not a Profitable Course of Action Europe Deutsche Welle 19.05.2006:
"DW-WORLD: The Iranian President Ahmadinejad has ridiculed the European offer to provide a light-water reactor as an incentive to freeze uranium enrichment. Has diplomacy failed?
Zbigniew Brzezinski: One has to recognize that when one says President Ahmadinejad, one is using the title of president which means something entirely different in the West from what it means in the Iranian system. President Ahmadinejad is not the President of Iran in the sense that the President of the US is Mr. Bush, and the President of France is Mr. Chirac.
The position of the president in Iran is roughly a third-level position. His executive powers are quite limited.
What the West has done, and what the US in part has done, is to elevate him into an interlocutor, who then uses the debate with the West to enhance his domestic political power. So I don't consider his responses to be authoritative."
"
War Pimp Alert: Isareli minister wants to strike Iran Now
Damn, crazy SOB.
Arutz Sheva - Israel National News:
"Aaron Klein, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for WorldNetDaily.com, reports that Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee member MK Effie Eitam believes that Israel and the international community should consider carrying out strategic strikes now against Iran's nuclear facilities."
Arutz Sheva - Israel National News:
"Aaron Klein, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for WorldNetDaily.com, reports that Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee member MK Effie Eitam believes that Israel and the international community should consider carrying out strategic strikes now against Iran's nuclear facilities."
Robert Fisk
Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk:
"All the while, new diplomatic archives are opening to reveal the smell of death - Armenian death
Published: 20 May 2006
A letter from the Turkish Ambassador to the Court of Saint James arrived for me a few days ago, one of those missives that send a shudder through the human soul. 'You allege that an 'Armenian genocide' took place in Eastern Anatolia in 1915,' His Excellency Mr Akin Alptuna told me. 'I believe you have some misconceptions about those events ...'
Oh indeedy doody, I have. I am under the totally mistaken conception that one and a half million Armenians were cruelly and deliberately done to death by their Turkish Ottoman masters in 1915, that the men were shot and knifed while their womenfolk were raped and eviscerated and cremated and starved on death marches and their children butchered. I have met a few of the survivors - liars to a man and woman, if the Turkish ambassador to Britain is to be believed - and I have seen the photographs taken of the victims by a brave German photographer called Armen Wegner whose pictures must now, I suppose, be consigned to the waste bins. So must the archives of all those diplomats who courageously catalogued the mass murders inflicted upon Turkey's Christian population on the orders of the gang of nationalists who ran the Ottoman government in 1915.
"All the while, new diplomatic archives are opening to reveal the smell of death - Armenian death
Published: 20 May 2006
A letter from the Turkish Ambassador to the Court of Saint James arrived for me a few days ago, one of those missives that send a shudder through the human soul. 'You allege that an 'Armenian genocide' took place in Eastern Anatolia in 1915,' His Excellency Mr Akin Alptuna told me. 'I believe you have some misconceptions about those events ...'
Oh indeedy doody, I have. I am under the totally mistaken conception that one and a half million Armenians were cruelly and deliberately done to death by their Turkish Ottoman masters in 1915, that the men were shot and knifed while their womenfolk were raped and eviscerated and cremated and starved on death marches and their children butchered. I have met a few of the survivors - liars to a man and woman, if the Turkish ambassador to Britain is to be believed - and I have seen the photographs taken of the victims by a brave German photographer called Armen Wegner whose pictures must now, I suppose, be consigned to the waste bins. So must the archives of all those diplomats who courageously catalogued the mass murders inflicted upon Turkey's Christian population on the orders of the gang of nationalists who ran the Ottoman government in 1915.
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