Another White House Enemeies List

Talk about Deja vu all over again!

The Washington Note:

John Bolton when he served as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security was famous for pounding intelligence officials hard until they coughed up intel reports and 'frames' that fit the political objectives he had in mind.

The practice of politicizing intelligence in the Bush White House seems to be continuing with 'friends lists' and 'enemies lists' determining who should be rewarded or punished in the 'secrets-clearing process' in cases where former goverment officials publish materials on U.S. foreign policy debates.

In an unprecedented case, the White House National Security Council staff has insinuated itself into a 'secrets-clearing' process normally overseen by the CIA Publications Review Board which screens the written work of former government officials to make sure that state secrets don't find their way into the op-ed pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, or in other of the nation's leading papers, journals, and books.

'You' named Time's person of 2006

For Better or for Worse.

BBC NEWS Technology 'You' named Time's person of 2006:

You' have been named as Time magazine's Person of the Year for the growth and influence of user-generated content on the internet.

The US magazine praised the public for 'seizing the reins of the global media' and filling the web's virtual world.

Time has been giving its controversial awards since 1927, aiming to identify those who most affect the news.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Chinese leader Hu Jintao and North Korea's Kim Jong-il were 2006 runners.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, his wife Melinda and rock star Bono won the accolade last year and recent winners also include President George W Bush in 2004, and 'The American Soldier' in 2003.

US church splits over sexuality

Good Riddance!

BBC NEWS Americas US church splits over sexuality:

Two church congregations in the US have voted to break away from the Episcopal Church because of its decision three years ago to consecrate a gay bishop.

The Truro Church and the Falls Church voted to place themselves instead under the authority of the Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola.

He has called for the Episcopal Church to be expelled from the worldwide Anglican Communion.

He is a fierce critic of the ordination of gay priests.

The parishes of Truro and Falls in Virginia - founded in British colonial times - are two of the oldest and largest church congregations in the US.

Impeachment: 'It's Not Up to Pelosi,' Say Grassroots Leaders

It isn't up to Pelosi or any other elected official.

It is up to the peple to calll for impeachment in such a way that we cannot be ignored or marginalized.

Impeachment and trial by the Senate is not a joyous thing to contemplate for anyone I know. It certainly isn't to me.

It is a very serious matter to impeach a sitting President or Vice President, because it means that President or Vice President has committeed some very serious crimes; crimes against the Constitution and against the people, or he has broken internation laws and treaties to which we are a party.

As I have said before numerous times and on numerous forums, the movement to impeach should never come from any political party, but from the people. However, in such matters, our elected officials must listen to the people.

Our founding fathers (and mothers, no doubt) knew that there would be men elected (or not) who would sit in the White House, who would abuse the power of his office and worse. They gave impeachment to the people, as a remedy for just such a situation.

Impeachment should never be used by one party against the other simply for political gain. The continuing, endless investigations of Bill Clinton, resulting, finally, in his impeachment for committing perjury about adultery, which goes on in every courthouse in America, daily, I would think, is a very good example of using the impeachment process frivilously. The majority of the people in America were against impeaching Bill Clinton, not because they do not see the harm of perjury, but because we all know that lying about adultery is almost never prosecuted in any court anywhere, even though everyone knows it goes on constantly.

It was not a good reason to impeach a President. It was frivilous and nothing more than a political witch hunt, against the clearly expressed will of the people.

I hate the idea of yet another impeachment. But I hate what this administration has done to this country and to people outside of this country even more.

Never, Never, in my lifetime has a President and Vice President deserved it more, and that includes Nixon.

The people must insist on accountability or face the fact that they no longer live in an American Democracy, because if we do not insist on full accountability this time, we don't deserve the nation our founders gave us.

Impeachment: 'It's Not Up to Pelosi,' Say Grassroots Leaders:

When Democratic lawmakers return to Washington next month to take over Congressional leadership positions, many will be under heavy pressure from their supporters to start impeachment hearings against President George W. Bush.

From civil libertarians to antiwar groups, hundreds of grassroots organizations are currently engaged in a nationwide campaign for impeachment, even though some leading Democratic politicians have publicly said it's not an option.

Last Sunday, 'Impeachment for Change,' an umbrella group representing a wide array of grassroots organizations, arranged as many as 75 countrywide events to mobilize support for congressional hearings into the conduct of the Iraq war and the wiretapping of U.S. citizens.

Impeachment: 'It's Not Up to Pelosi,' Say Grassroots Leaders

Got that right! Impeachment should always be a grassroots movement

OneWorld U.S. Home / Today's News - Impeachment: 'It's Not Up to Pelosi,' Say Grassroots Leaders:

NEW YORK, Dec 14 (OneWorld) - When Democratic lawmakers return to Washington next month to take over Congressional leadership positions, many will be under heavy pressure from their supporters to start impeachment hearings against President George W. Bush.

From civil libertarians to antiwar groups, hundreds of grassroots organizations are currently engaged in a nationwide campaign for impeachment, even though some leading Democratic politicians have publicly said it's not an option.

Last Sunday, 'Impeachment for Change,' an umbrella group representing a wide array of grassroots organizations, arranged as many as 75 countrywide events to mobilize support for congressional hearings into the conduct of the Iraq war and the wiretapping of U.S. citizens.

'It's time for Democrats to do the right investigations,' said David Swanson, director of Democrats.com, a Web-based campaign group that has been pushing for impeachment since May 2005 when the leakage of a British secret report suggested that Bush manipulated intelligence to justify the military occupation of Iraq. NEW YORK, Dec 14 (OneWorld) - When Democratic lawmakers return to Washington next month to take over Congressional leadership positions, many will be under heavy pressure from their supporters to start impeachment hearings against President George W. Bush.

From civil libertarians to antiwar groups, hundreds of grassroots organizations are currently engaged in a nationwide campaign for impeachment, even though some leading Democratic politicians have publicly said it's not an option.

Christians Rebuke Dr. Dobson

Rebuke, hell.......
He needs to be flogged in the town square!

Christians Rebuke Dr. Dobson:

Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and one of the most powerful political voices for the Christian Right, has been officially rebuked and rebutted by a voice from within the Christian ranks. The Institute for Progressive Christianity (IPC), a recently christened research institute founded by a diverse group of moderate and progressive Christians, issued a crisp and confrontational reply to Dobson's remarks made during the 11/22/06 interview on Larry King Live. This action has drawn the ire of such high profile conservative media icons as Rush Limbaugh and the Townhall think tank.

During the course of the King interview Dobson said, 'But it's interesting to me that those, again, on the more liberal end of the spectrum are often those who have no value system or at least they say there is no moral and immoral, there is no right or wrong. It's moral relativism.' (no it isn't, you Jackass!

It is immoral to send other people's kids into an illegal war, a war of aggression, with deception and fear-mongering. We are pretty damn clear on that. Are you, Mr. Dobson?

"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." Remember that? It is immoral to say and do things that bring out vengeance-seeking in people. "Woe be unto him who causes one of these little ones to stumble." Telling lies and stirring up undue hatred;a pretty big stumbling block, wouldn't you say? Or do you even know? Guess, not, because you have made a profession of it.

Most real Christians think you are a big fool. You only have the ears of the christianists, who do not know any better than to listen to you. God help them!

Will Republicans Find the Courage to Tell Bush and Cheney It Is Time To Go?

Only if it finally dawns on them that they might wind up in the dock right beside Bush and Cheney; or that if they don't do something the Party of Lincoln will end with Bush.

Will Republicans Find the Courage to Tell Bush and Cheney It Is Time To Go?:

I know it will be terribly difficult to face the fact that their control of the Whitehouse must end, even harder to let go of that control.

But if the Republican party is to survive, it must face the fact that Bush and Cheney have been the worst executive team ever to hold office. The Republicans must face the reality that their party could literally become extinct if they passively sit by and allow Bush and Cheney to continue the incredibly destructive job of leadership they have been doing the past six years.

It is not just about saving their party. It is about saving the nation. The US is no longer tumbling down an economic and diplomatic fall. It is plummetting down, losing economic viability, losing allies, becoming the planetary pariah that was once the role of Bush.

Bush is already among the walking dead. His secretary of state is one of the most ineffective, useless ever. His appointees have, deservedly, earned the mistrust of the world. Why would anyone trust ANY of the appointees Bush has chosen?

Every day the Republicans in the congress continue to allow Bush to stay in office, they violate their duty to their constituents, to the nation, to the constitution, to international laws.

Experts Optimistic About Senator's Recovery

We are all pulling for you Tim!

Hang in there, big guy, for youself, your family and....Your Country.

Experts Optimistic About Senator's Recovery - washingtonpost.com:

The experience of other people who have suffered bleeding from arteriovenous malformations inside the brain suggests that Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), who underwent emergency surgery for that condition Wednesday night, has at least a 50-50 chance of full recovery.

The 59-year-old senator may need another operation or other procedure to completely defuse the abnormal tangle of blood vessels inside his head that he was born with. But statistics suggest that his chance of suffering another bleeding episode in the near future is less than 10 percent and that his brain function is likely to improve from now on.

Devastating Attack on Bush/Blairs excuse for invading Iraq

These two need to be at the Hague.

Independent Online Edition > UK Politics:

The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, 'at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests.'

Autopsy: No Arabs on Flight 77

This article is in two parts:

The first part covers the fact that not only were no Arab sounding names found on the manifest of American Flight 77, out of Dulles on the morning of 9/11, but no Arabs were found in the wreckage. nor autopsied.

The second part of the article gives a partial passenger list which may or may not show some very odd coincidences.

Let's face it folks: 9/11 is not going away! More and more Americans have come to the conclusion that something is terribly wrong with the official story.

Autopsy: No Arabs on Flight 77 - Sierra Times.com:

I am an ex Naval line officer and a psychiatrist in private practice in New Orleans, a Christian and homeschool dad. It troubled me a great deal that we rushed off to war on the flimsiest of evidence. I considered various ways to provide a smoking gun of who and why Sept 11th happened. Astute observers noticed right away that there were no Arabic sounding names on any of the flight manifests of the planes that “crashed” on that day.

Nothing is ever as it appears with the Bushies or the Saudis.

We were highly suspicious of this biy of news when it first appeared.

Something is sure as hell up, and it can't be good.

Consortiumnews.com:

The abrupt resignation of the Saudi ambassador to the United States and the postponement of George W. Bush’s new Iraq policy speech mark a troubling new chapter for a U.S. strategy for the Middle East that continues to spiral toward catastrophe.The abrupt resignation of the Saudi ambassador to the United States and the postponement of George W. Bush’s new Iraq policy speech mark a troubling new chapter for a U.S. strategy for the Middle East that continues to spiral toward catastrophe.

Who Cares What You Think?

Not the preznit from hell, that's for sure!

Dan Froomkin - Who Cares What You Think? - washingtonpost.com:

Despite polls consistently showing that a majority of Americans want American troops pulled out of Iraq in short order, President Bush is refusing to even consider that option.

In fact, signs are that he is leaning in the opposite direction, choosing to send yet more troops into harm's way.

'04 Pentagon Report Cited Detention Concerns

How the hell does one fight terrorism by making cruel treatment of prisoners policy?

'04 Pentagon Report Cited Detention Concerns - washingtonpost.com:

A previously undisclosed Pentagon report concluded that the three terrorism suspects held at a brig in South Carolina were subjected to months of isolation, and it warned that their 'unique' solitary confinement could be viewed as violating U.S. detention standards.

According to a summary of the 2004 report obtained by The Washington Post, interrogators attempted to deprive one detainee, Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a Qatari citizen and former student in Peoria, Ill., of sleep and religious comfort by taking away his Koran, warm food, mattresses and pillow as part of an interrogation plan approved by the high-level Joint Forces Command.

What We Leave Behind (More Death and Destruction)

It's stuff like this that just makes me want to scream!

Why can't every American, with even half a brain, jut take a few minutes and imagine, if you can, what it would be like to have these god-awful things strewn around the parks and school yards where your kids play.

What about all those places they shouldn't be playing, beacause you have told them not to thus pretty much assuring yourself that, sooner or later, they will.

We have got a shit-load of Karma in this country.

Frida Berrigan What We Leave Behind:

From Kosovo to Lebanon, cluster bomb casualties continue to mount.

In just one week in October, a series of bomb scares swept across Germany. Outside of Hannover, 22,000 people were evacuated when three bombs were discovered. A few days later in the same city, a weapons removal squad defused a 500-pound bomb found near the highway. Finally, a highway worker was killed when his cutting machine hit a buried bomb on the main highway into Frankfurt.
The bombs hadn't been planted by terrorists, and they weren't the opening salvos of the next war. The culprit was unexploded ordnance left over from a war fought more than 60 years ago. 'We'll have enough work to keep us busy for the next 100 to 120 years,' the owner of a bomb-defusing company told the New York Times.

The submunitions dispersed by cluster bombs are a lot smaller than 500 pounds, but their use in every major conflict since World War II ensures that bomb clearers the world over will have work for decades - even centuries - to come. From Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, to the countries of the former Yugoslavia, and onto Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon, modern battlefields are littered with bombs that continue to kill long after wars have ended. Ninety-eight percent of those killed or injured by cluster bombs are civilians. And yet international efforts to restrict the use of cluster bombs - modeled after landmine treaties of previous years - are being undermined by lack of U.S. participation. Worse, instead of destroying old cluster bomb stockpiles, the United States is exporting them to allies around the world.

Presidential Tyranny Untamed by Election Defeat

I doubt anyone in his/her right mind really believed that the November election would alter a 60 year old man who has not changed one iota since he was age 5.

Chris Floyd Presidential Tyranny Untamed by Election Defeat:

For those who hoped that November's elections might bring some essential alteration in our degraded estate, some repair of the broken strands, recent events have been dispiriting indeed. Two in particular stand out as exemplary of the ugly reality behind the bright rhetoric of 'change' and 'moderation' now twinkling in the Beltway air. Although apparently unrelated, they are in fact part of the same malignant process that has been devouring the structure - and substance - of the Republic for years.

Support for War Dives as Bush Seeks New Iraq Plan

Bush is an idiot, God Help us all!

NPR : Support for War Dives as Bush Seeks New Iraq Plan:

The White House on Tuesday pushed back until January a major policy address from President Bush on the war in Iraq. The delay comes as several major national polls on the war, all of which became public Tuesday, show plummeting public support.

The president's speech had been promised before Christmas; the delay until next month comes as Mr. Bush continues to debrief policy experts from inside and outside his administration and weigh his options on a new U.S. strategy for Iraq. But one consideration could have been the combined weight of the polls, which offered numbers sure to be disturbing to the president and his advisers.

Assclowns of the Week #53: “Junior, This is an Intervention” Edition.

Everyone who voted for this asshat in 2004, after we knew, essentially, everything we now know, should be horse-whipped!

Welcome to Pottersville: Assclowns of the Week #53: “Junior, This is an Intervention” Edition.:

'ISG' might as well stand for “Intervention of Sane Grownups” because the Iraq Study Group’s report, while a watered-down list of seventy-nine recommendations made by five Democrats and five Republicans who never protested or opposed the war, was nonetheless rooted in some much-needed, if belated and redundant, pragmatism.

It’s frightening enough when our bloated government can’t cull together enough qualified people to fight a ragtag band of insurgents in Iraq and have to outsource for solutions out of this mess. It’s even more frightening when, as I’d expected, James Baker’s august group worked for months to formulate initiatives that would be largely blown off by a Chief Executive who still thinks that victory is not only at hand but belongs to us.

Funny. I thought the only beneficiaries of victory would be the Iraqis themselves. You know, the “No more WMD’s in your back yard, no more terrorists hiding in your falafel, no more Saddam killing you in droves” brand of selfless foreign policy?

Saudi Ambassador Abruptly Resigns, Leaves Washington - washingtonpost.com

First Bandar (Bush) leaves because he is depressed, according the Saudis, now al-Faisal just ups and quits.

What the hell is really going on?

After-all, Cheney was "summoned" to the Kingdom just a few weeks ago. Did old Dead-eye piss off the Saudis?

Saudi Ambassador Abruptly Resigns, Leaves Washington - washingtonpost.com:

Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, flew out of Washington yesterday after informing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and his staff that he would be leaving the post after only 15 months on the job, according to U.S. officials and foreign envoys. There has been no formal announcement from the kingdom.

The abrupt departure is particularly striking because his predecessor, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, spent 22 years on the job. The Saudi ambassador is one of the most influential diplomatic positions in Washington and is arguably the most important overseas post for the oil-rich desert kingdom.

GHWB must be resting easier

Now that his good buddy, Pinochet, has finally sold the Ford and there will be no trials for his heinous crimes against his own people.

Consortiumnews.com:

Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s death on Dec. 10 means the Bush Family can breathe a little bit easier, knowing that criminal proceedings against Chile’s notorious dictator can no longer implicate his longtime friend and protector, former President George H.W. Bush.Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s death on Dec. 10 means the Bush Family can breathe a little bit easier, knowing that criminal proceedings against Chile’s notorious dictator can no longer implicate his longtime friend and protector, former President George H.W. Bush.

The Real Beijing Olympics, Or, Will It Be A Trade War

Straight from the Ironicles!

MediaChannel » The Real Beijing Olympics, Or, Will It Be A Trade War:

New York, New York: Who has real power over US decisionmaking?

If you think it is the White House, or even the Congress, think again. There has been a power shift underway for years and, believe it our not, our future and fortune rests in the hands of bureaucrats on the other side of the world. Sorry folks, but our red white and blue economy is afloat because of members of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.

Yes the Red Menace that we spent so many years fearing as a military threat now represents a far more serious economic threat. Mao must be turning in his grave with the news that no less than six U.S. Cabinet Ministers are on their way to the Middle Kingdom to beseech, beg, lobby and try to persuade the new mandarins not to sell off their vast rervoir of dollars.