All governments are run by liars. Nothing they say should be believed. - I. F. Stone

Of course not.

The letter will be ignored or called a partisan attack.

SSDD

Thanks for keeping us updated.

capt

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.

All ~ H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

David, it'd be poetic justice if the Dems gave the Repugs in the WH a good case of "the shiverin' Fitz" but it'll take more people than Chuck Schumer and John Conyers to accomplish that.

A prompt response from Bush could come in many forms. Best be careful what one wishes for. It could come, for example, as an air attack on: A) Syria, B) North Korea etc.

I have faith...Bush will read Shumers letter . Yeah, just like he read all of mine.

"Faith may be briefly defined as an illogical belief in the occurance of the improbable."
H.L. Mencken

#5 Robert -- you make a very good point!
_____________________________________

Saladin, NY Daily News mentions WHIG here...their source says Judith Miller was a *charter member* -- someone who is so boring, sure generates a lot of interest!
_____________________________________

Prez Iraq team fought to squelch war critics

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/

story/357082p-304302c.html

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK and KENNETH R. BAZINET
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - It was called the White House Iraq Group and its job was to make the case that Saddam Hussein had nuclear and biochemical weapons...

......"There were a number of occasions when White House officials or Vice President [Cheney's] staffers or others, wanted to push the envelope on things," an ex-intelligence official said. "The agency would say, 'We just don't have the intelligence to substantiate that.'" ...

"People in the Iraq group then got very frustrated. It was a side show," said a source familiar with WHIG.

Besides Rove and Libby, the group included senior White House aides Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, James Wilkinson, Nicholas Calio, Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley. WHIG also was doing more than just public relations, said a second former intel officer.

"They were funneling information to [New York Times reporter] Judy Miller. Judy was a charter member," the source said.

Seems like Bunnypants is done fooling anybody on the Corn blog!

That gives my jaded perspective hope.

High fives all around!

All of you guys rock in my book.

capt

"I will no comment on an ongoing investigation"

There answers have more spin then Fox Bill Oreilly no spin zone. I trust fitzgerald to hold up the rule of law to these people. Dick Cheney and these others are not looking out for our interest, they were looking out for Halliburton!
Shame on these neocons... people will remember this for many years to come!

Of course he'll get a response from the White House. Spin master Karl Rove will write it.

The response will sound a little like:

Dearest Chuck;

The intertwined roots of the . . .

capt

Democracy Now has devoted the entire show to Avien Flu today. The researcher makes a complicated issue were very clear. He is very critical of the White House. Their actions have made the potential for this pandemic even more deadly.

Mike Davis on The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu

Mike Davis: wrote "The Monster at Our Door".

MIKE DAVIS: The principal concern in my book is that most of the world, the poor countries of the world, have absolutely no protection against the threat that most public health authorities consider to be an inevitable threat of an avian influenza pandemic. They don't have access to anti-virals. They don't have access to vaccine. Indeed, they don’¥ -- many of them don't even have the means of surveillance to detect the flu or monitor its progress once the flu pandemic were to reach the southern hemisphere, the poorest countries in South Asia or southern Africa. And right now probably the most worrying thing that's happening in the world is not that birds with avian flu have reached the doorstep of Europe, but the very same birds will imminently carry avian flu probably to East Africa and the Nile Valley and almost certainly into South Asia. And I think what we need to be most worried about is the combustion of avian flu, with its potential to become a human pandemic, with urban poverty.

AMY GOODMAN: Mike Davis, can we take a step back and explain what avian flu is?

MIKE DAVIS: Of course, because a lot of people would ask and ask with good reason, ‘óhy should we be so worried about a disease which has infected under 200 people, killed less than 100, when we live in a world where millions of people die every year of malaria, tuberculosis, H.I.V.?’†And the answer, of course, is the experience of humanity in 24 weeks in 1918, when between 40 and 100 million people died of a pandemic influenza. This is the greatest mortality event in human history. There have been two subsequent pandemics in 1957 and 1968. Neither were anywhere as deadly as 1918. And then, suddenly in 1997 this new flu emerged in Hong Kong, and scientists discovered to their horror that rather than being incubated in a pig or a human being who had been co-infected with several strains of the flu, it had jumped directly from birds to humans with a wild and extraordinary virulence that’≥ now -- probably half the people who we know have had this flu, die of it. And the concern is that if this flu were to acquire the few mutations that it would need to become transmissible in the same ways an ordinary flu or winter cold, and if it preserved any portion of its current virulence, it could be a catastrophe on a global scale comparable to 1918.

------
What does he think of military response

MIKE DAVIS: Well, boots on the ground seems to be the administration's one-stop solution to any problem, mainly because they lack the means or they have dismantled the capacities to act in other ways, as we saw with FEMA during Hurricane Katrina. Some people, very rightly, raised the question, ‘óell, is America going to become one single huge squalid Superdome under martial law if there were an avian flu epidemic?’†And indeed, this whole idea of militarizing response to a pandemic, of relying on the Pentagon and Homeland Security, rather than the Department of Health and Human Services, does raise this whole specter that is essentially a coup d’•t?t in the name of fighting pandemic.

But there's another question that I'm frankly more concerned with. This is this very limited stock of the antiviral Tamiflu. And right now there’≥ fierce debate going on exactly who should get Tamiflu. But the agreement is that the first priority should be immediate responders, critical medical personnel. However, the Pentagon has never signed on to this principle. And last year in a memo circulated through the Pentagon, the Pentagon asserted that it had first priority both to anti-virals and to potential flu vaccines. So if you militarize the response to a pandemic, if you federalize the National Guard, put the 82nd Airborne in the streets to enforce quarantines, obviously the Pentagon is going to insist that the priority for anti-virals go to the troops in the street. And this sets up a zero sum conflict with the critical medical personnel. The danger here is that you will take the anti-virals from the people who we should assure have first priority at it, and that poses further dangers of a collapse of the public health response to a potential pandemic.

Judith Miller -- getting attention again. I just got this email from fair.org. Some of it is old stuff, but....
___________________________

Media Advisory

SPJ Undercuts First Amendment With Miller Award

10/19/05

The Society of Professional Journalists' decision to give its prestigious "First Amendment Award" to embattled New York Times reporter Judith Miller is a blow to freedom of expression. By rewarding a reporter who was apparently collaborating with and protecting a powerful official in an effort to punish the free speech of a government critic, the SPJ is undermining, not advancing, the principles of the First Amendment.

The award, coming two days after details of Miller's involvement in the CIA leak story and her grand jury testimony were revealed by the New York Times (10/16/05), was defended by SPJ board member Mac McKerral, who told Editor & Publisher (10/17/05), "It's not a lifetime achievement award.... I could understand people being upset if we were recognizing her work over a period of time, but this is an award for being willing to not reveal a source, willing to spend so many days in jail, and that is how we distinguish it…. Issues raised in the past couple of days really had no bearing on the award."

But why wouldn't new information about the case be relevant to a journalism group? For months, Miller claimed a journalistic privilege to protect Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis Libby. Miller would eventually tell the grand jury that Libby had identified Valerie Plame Wilson--the wife of White House critic and former Ambassador Joseph Wilson--as a CIA employee (New York Times, 10/16/05). Miller seemed to have little doubt about what motivated this disclosure: Asked why she agreed to Libby's request to identify him only as a "former Hill staffer," Miller told the grand jury, "I assumed Mr. Libby did not want the White House to be seen as attacking Mr. Wilson."

In other words, Miller understood that Libby was not a whistleblower but was someone out to punish a government critic. Not only was it unethical for her to agree to identify Libby in a misleading way, but promising him any kind of anonymity in this case violated the Times' rules against allowing unnamed sources to make partisan attacks.

SPJ's case rests on the belief that Miller was not wavering on the principle of not revealing a confidential source. But Miller's refusal to testify doesn't in the end seem as principled as either she or her paper originally claimed--which is the whole reason SPJ deemed her worthy of an award. Instead, the Times' October 16 report suggests that Miller was seeking a suitable waiver from Libby all along, and eventually based her decision not to testify in part on the feeling that she would harm Libby if she testified:

Once Ms. Miller was issued a subpoena in August 2004 to testify about her conversations with Mr. Libby, she and The Times vowed to fight it. Behind the scenes, however, her lawyer made inquiries to see if Mr. Libby would release her from their confidentiality agreement. Ms. Miller said she decided not to testify in part because she thought that Mr. Libby's lawyer might be signaling to keep her quiet unless she would exonerate his client.

The form that "signaling" took, according to Miller, was Libby's explaining that he had testified about their conversations in ways that in Miller's view were false. In other words, she refused to testify because she didn't want to expose her friend as a perjurer. Is this really a journalist that SPJ wants to hold up as an example to others?

There is much that is inexplicable and contradictory in Miller's account of her behavior. But even taking her story at face value, she is a reporter who violated the standards of professional journalism to work with a top White House official to get revenge on a government critic--and then declined to testify to protect him from the criminal consequences of his lies. This context has an obvious bearing on Miller’s qualifications for an award celebrating freedom of expression.

The story on Democracy Now is a devastating view of the Bush administration. Mike Davis talks about the CDC and the health organizations and how they are being run by incompetents and how the best people are leaving the agencies.
The health care system is breaking down in this country and the country he sees as becoming prepared is Canada with its National Health Care. They have preventative health care and have the resources to take care of many people. The HMO revolution in this country has caused many problems for the healthcare industry. Hospitals and clinics are closing. We don't have enough beds to take care of huge numbers of sick. And we have commercialized the industry. People are sent home before they should be. His example was a woman being sent home a day after the birth of a child.
Finally he states that the world economy is helping to create the potential for this pandemic. The US poultry producers have exported the industry to Asia. By industry I mean the Poultry plants where huge numbers of chickens are placed in confined areas and the diseases are able to spread among the birds.
This is a very deadly disease that our actions are helping to create. It is a disease that the Bush Administration, with its lack of real initiative is helping to incubate.

Texas Court Issues Warrant for DeLay

By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

A Texas court issued a warrant Wednesday for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to appear for booking, where he is likely to face the fingerprinting and photo mug shot he had hoped to avoid.

Bail was initially set at $10,000 as a routine step before his first court appearance on conspiracy and money laundering charges. Travis County court officials said DeLay was ordered to appear at the Fort Bend County jail for booking.

The warrant was "a matter of routine and bond will be posted," DeLay attorney Dick DeGuerin said.

The lawyer declined to say when DeLay would surrender to authorities but said the lawmaker would make his first court appearance Friday morning.

*****end of clip*****

Oh my!

capt

David,

In August you wrote about the AIPAC indictments and how they spelled trouble in the Plame case as as well. This may be over the top, but last night on Hard Ball a discussion between Pat Buchannon and David Gurgen turned to whether the WHIG group had anything to do with the forged documents re: Niger and yellowcake and whether Fitz was investigating that possibility. Both agreed that of the countries likely to participate in forging the docs, Isreal was at the top of the list. Today Raw Story reports today that Wurmser has flipped. The WAPO reported that Wurmser was also questioned in connection with the AIPAC investigation. Could Fitz have connected the WHIG's with the forged docs through AIPAC connections (think of the people that were involved in both Feith, Hadley, etc). Chris Matthews kept asking "why did the Veep's office care so much that Wilson said he had ordered the Niger trip?" "why did they go to so much trouble to deny such a seemingly benign piece of info?" Just a thought but could the WHIG group have arranged for the forged docs through the AIPAC connections? Maybe Fitz uncovered this through Hannah and Wurmser (both former Bolton aides). I'm just saying. . . DCW

David,

In August you wrote about the AIPAC indictments and how they spelled trouble in the Plame case as as well. This may be over the top, but last night on Hard Ball a discussion between Pat Buchannon and David Gurgen turned to whether the WHIG group had anything to do with the forged documents re: Niger and yellowcake and whether Fitz was investigating that possibility. Both agreed that of the countries likely to participate in forging the docs, Isreal was at the top of the list. Today Raw Story reports today that Wurmser has flipped. The WAPO reported that Wurmser was also questioned in connection with the AIPAC investigation. Could Fitz have connected the WHIG's with the forged docs through AIPAC connections (think of the people that were involved in both Feith, Hadley, etc). Chris Matthews kept asking "why did the Veep's office care so much that Wilson said he had ordered the Niger trip?" "why did they go to so much trouble to deny such a seemingly benign piece of info?" Just a thought but could the WHIG group have arranged for the forged docs through the AIPAC connections? Maybe Fitz uncovered this through Hannah and Wurmser (both former Bolton aides). I'm just saying. . . DCW

Now that all those scandals are beginning to emerge, isn't indentured slavery unlawful? At what legal level could Halliburton be indicted for this practice? And also for all of the straight on corruption associated with this company? Read this: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1017-25.htm

Political Girl, some of us have been ranting about AIPACs involvement from the beginning, but others insist on concentrating on the traitors way down on the pecking order, like miller, who is just another bought off schill, and a useless one who can't remember anything, haha! And it seems to me the invasion of Syria has already begun, I keep reading about "skirmishes" between US and Syrian troops on the border, so what the hell does that mean anyway? Just like when we started bombing Iraq long before official war was declared or permission was even granted. This birdflu is just another panic mode distraction.

David speculates as to whether Fitzgerald "wants" to issue a report. As I've said before, this guy is not political. He will follow the trail wherever it leads, but it's nothing personal, he's just following the trail.

He'll turn in a report if that's what the law calls for; otherwise he won't, regardless of who places what pressures on him. For a while it was rumored in Illinois (where he's been following the trail toward Democratic Mayor Daley for four years) that Bush would fire him is he got too close to the White House. The rumor was meant to scare him, but his response was typical for him: "I'm going to do my job until they tell me to stop."

From SebiMeyer.com

Bill Gates dumps dollar for euro

The dollar's downward trend has not been broken since I wrote a column about the subject in December. (link) In fact, the trend seems to be accelerating. Bill Gates openly stated yesterday he is pulling out of the dollar and is instead investing in euros. Microsoft's co-founder has made many mistakes in the past (I write this on an Apple computer, so I may be biased), but this is a wise move, indeed. He's probably not the last one to pull out of the U.S. currency.
--------------
That's just great. To Robert, I would love to correspond with you regarding gold's history as currency, this is a subject I am very interested in. Feel fre to write to me at my e-mail address.

American Soldiers

2,225 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush's evil lies.

Watch for the BIG DISTRACTION. The desperate weasel can get nasty when cornered.

The neocons appear to have picked thier next divisive issue. Immigrants. If you know any immigrants, tell them to get thier papers in order. They will soon become a political football.

Check out Kieth Olbermans blog about phony terror alerts on MSNBC. It is very good.

WHAT'D YOU MEAN BY THAT, SCOTTIE?? Either way, it's not reassuring.

What was Scottie saying yesterday? Sounds like he could have been saying, "Hey, she was just using the say-anything-to-get-elected campaign ploy." Or, "She expressed her view. Deal with it."

Q: Scott, the material that the White House sent to the Senate today about Harriet Miers’ nomination included a 1989 questionnaire that said that she supported a constitutional amendment to ban abortion except to – when the life of a mother is at stake. Do you take that 1989 statement to be a conclusive statement of her position on abortion?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Well, what we take that to be is a candidate expressing her views during the course of a campaign.

(Miers ran for Dallas city council.)

More distraction from this white house. We don't have any future it is gone down the tubes to china. so if the economic tsunami hits think the government will freeze bank accounts, confiscate gold, and generally act like a despotic dictatorship? It will no doubt, and if there is any semblance of civil rights left they will just legislate them out of existence, send in the troops and let you get ready to enjoy your new lifestyle, as a wage slave without the wages, and stuggle to feed yourself and family. Yep, going to be real fun and forget about gated communities they are just store houses of supplies for the mobs, 300 million firearms in the US, feeling confident now? Yep, comfort level getting pretty tattered these days. Indict them all it isn't going to slow the debacle that is on our doorstep. One more hurricane and another Cat 5? Three in a row, and there is no global warming, what is making these storms so powerful? Wal-Mart must be.

Spanish Judge Issues Warrant for Three GIs
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- A judge has issued an international arrest warrant for three U.S. soldiers whose tank fired on a Baghdad hotel during the Iraq war, killing a Spanish journalist and a Ukrainian cameraman, a court official said Wednesday.

************

Let's see now - Italy wants to prosecute X number of CIA folks for kidnapping on their soil. Spain wants to prosecute 3 of our soldiers. And these are both countries that sent troops to Iraq in the limited coalition, although Spain did finally pull out after the Madrid bombings and the failure of Aznour to gain reelection. But, what does it say about our handling of this conflict when our allies want prosecute our warriors?

I have long held that even if our cause is just (which it is not) our method of warfare is criminal. From the use of cluster munitions and depleted uranium to the targeting of civilians and journalists, we have been brutal occupiers.

Senate Fails to Raise Minimum Wage
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

**********************

Have you seen the little piggies...

Here's an interesting bit on the Plame outing and investigation. I'm printing what I see. I don't know how reliable this blog site is.

The Plame Affair
From my secret source, the following:

"Plamegate coming to conclusion. The investigation has focused mostly closely on Vice President Cheney and his staff, as well as US Ambassador to the UN (and former undersecretary of state for arms control) John Bolton and his staff. We are told that eight indictments have already prepared, with the possibility of another ten. These indictments include senior white house staff, most notably Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, Fred Flights (special assistant to John Bolton), and--very surprisingly--national security adviser Steve Hadley. apparently, Libby and Hadley have both been told by their lawyers to expect indictments. the indictment of senior bush political advisor Karl Rove seems highly probable.

Most critically, a plea bargain process has evidently been opened with Vice President Cheney's lawyer. that does not mean that an indictment is coming. but i've some critical background around the issue.

In the past several days, former Secretary of State Colin Powell had a meeting with Senator John McCain (R-AZ), primarily about the McCain-sponsored amendment on inserting a rider prohibiting torture onto the us defense budget (a bill which Powell has himself been lobbying heavily for, against objections of president Bush).

During the meeting, Powell recounted to the senator that he had traveled on air force one with Bush and Cheney, and brought to their attention a classified memorandum about the issue of whether there was indeed a transaction inolving Niger and yellow cake uranium. the document included Ambassador Joe Wilson's involvement and identified his wife, Valerie Plame, as a covert agent. the memorandum further stated that this information was secret. Powell told McCain that he showed that memo only to two people--president and vice president. according to Powell, Cheney fixated on the Wilson/Plame connection, and Plame's status.....

....One interesting point though--it is worth noting that a parade of senior republican senators have evidently been privately pushing McCain to lobby to be Cheney's replacement. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has also been mentioned. meanwhile, the White House has already been developing countermeasures--notably including senior White House officials privately voicing president bush's disappointment in Karl Rove's involvement in the case, calling it "misconduct." an urgent search for a rove replacement is already underway."

Jeanne -

If Rove is "Bush's Brain" then wouldn't a "Rove Replacement" be the same thing as a "Brain Transplant"?

Anyway, I was thinking, as many probably were, that if Cheney were to step aside, a very big if, and one do totally to health reasons of course, that McCain would be the likely pinch hitter. Wouldn't that be just delicious? Not that I'm a big McCain fan, just knowing the animosity between he and Bush though...

My prediction:

Overwhelming proof that Cheney started the ball rolling after seeing the "s" memo on Air Force One.

Cheney cuts a deal with Fitzgerald.

Part of that deal is to STEP DOWN.

#28 Jeanne, I think that might be bogus, at least in part. I recall (I think) that Colin Powell said he showed the memo to Ari Fleischer (others, too, apparently). Also, I think Cheney was NOT on that trip.

I cannot fathom the neocons picking McCain as Cheney's replacement, if he were to resign. That makes no sense to me. But...these are crazy times! Who knows?

David's update sez:

"UPDATE: The White House, according to CNN, is claiming the Daily News story is inaccurate."
_______________________________
I thought oh-oh, they may be getting themselves into deeper doo-doo. The tangled webs they weave...

Come to think of it, the president & veep don't travel together on AF1, do they?

I've heard that, but I am not certain that it is accurate -- but it makes sense.

Re: #28

If you read the comments on the link provided, you will read a number of posts saying this is not true. But come right back to David Corn's blog y'hear?

Stan

If wishes were fishes we'd all be swimmin'

There once was a fellow named Cheny
Who got friendly with Bush's Brainy
They cooked up a sham
to out Valerie Plam(e)
But in the end got thrown in the slamm(er)

Yeah, I know, that was bad.

"The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment." -Bertrand Russell

But those bull-dog conservatives hold on to notions that do not stand the test of time, not even when the truth to the contrary is smelling up the room.

And 51% of Americans vote for the Conservative approach. Yeah I'd say America is on the brink of doom, unless we can turn it around right quick.

I hear the drum beats...maybe it's coming after all.

Ah, and to prove my point...

The land of Republican perfection
Where the only mistake you can ever make is to confess your sins.

By Garrison Keillor

Rove is laying all the blame on Scooter. From the AP:

>Rove told grand jurors it was possible he first heard in the White House that Valerie Plame, wife of Bush administration Joseph Wilson, worked for the CIA from Libby's recounting of a conversation with a journalist, according to people familiar with his testimony.

As I wrote yesterday...Scooter has been selected to be the human sacrifice. All blame will be put on him.

Bob in North Dakota

An aid to Powell has come out against Cheney.
--------
Cheney 'cabal' hijacked foreign policy

Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.

In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: "What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.

"Now it is paying the consequences of making those decisions in secret, but far more telling to me is America is paying the consequences."

Stan,
I like your limerick.

Of all the questions Jeb Bush could ask, he asks "Why us?"
Hello, Jeb...your brother George thinks global warming doesn't exist. Maybe you ought to have a chat with him.
----
Wilma: US and Cuba prepare for worst-ever storm

Wilma will be the seventh major hurricane to hit the state in the past 16 months. There have been 150 deaths and some $20bn (?11.4bn) in damage, a battering even by Florida's standards.

"Why us?" lamented Governor Jeb Bush, echoing the mood of storm-weary Floridians. "How could the storm take a sharp, 90-degree turn to the east? It's something that we're going to have to live with and prepare for."

Mindful of the lessons of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and Mississippi's Gulf coast on 28 August, US authorities are taking no chances. It is now accepted that only the military has the resources to cope with a major hurricane and the Pentagon has already designated a command centre to handle the aftermath of Wilma.

Most meteorologists say the storm is likely to weaken slightly when a strong front from the north-west pushes it to the east. But even if it hits the US as a category 3 or 4 hurricane, with maximum winds of 130mph and 155mph respectively, it could cause substantial damage.

"This storm will become even larger," Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center in Miami said yesterday. "We are expecting a very high storm surge - possibly 15 to 20 feet, especially on the Keys.

"You could compare this to Katrina and Rita. I don't see how the Florida Keys can avoid a major impact."

----------
How about if we start taking issues like this and we start addressing them realistically? Things like global warming and health care and education. These guys in the white house should be indicted on the crime of being clowns. Time to enter the realm of reality. Even Jeb thinks so.

Bob, those chickenshit traitors, all they're good for is passing the buck! F**KERS!! I am pissed!

And now, for a very important issue!

Bill would keep dogs safer in cars, no ears flapping in the wind
Thursday, October 06, 2005

By Linda Wilson Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It's a common sight, dogs riding in cars with their heads out the window. Ears flapping in the wind. Tongues lolling. Expressions of pure bliss on their furry faces.

Those dogs' days of joy could be numbered.

Rep. Tom Stevenson, R-Mt. Lebanon, has introduced a bill that would require dogs and other pets to be buckled up or battened down in pet seat belts or in crates.

It would be illegal for an animal to put its head or even its nose out the window of a moving motorized vehicle.

"The General Assembly finds that pets riding in automobiles have caused distraction to drivers" which "sometimes results in automobile accidents and injury," says the opening paragraph of House Bill 1737.
--------------
WMD's? That ain't nothin compared to an unrestrained, non-strapped down, crate free dog riding in the back seat of your car, we're all gonna DIE!!! My god, we have the nanny state from hell.

Here's another example of how George Bush and Co. are supporting the troops.

-----
When a bonus isn’¥ a bonus, Murray fires

"The Pentagon has reneged on its offer to pay a $15,000 bonus to members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who agree to extend their enlistments by six years, according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle).
The bonuses were offered in January to Active Guard and Reserve and military technician soldiers who were serving overseas. In April, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs ordered the bonuses stopped, Murray said.

"This is outrageous," the senator said in a telephone interview. "It makes me angry that this administration has broken another promise to our troops."
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, confirmed the bonuses had been canceled, saying they violated Pentagon policies because they duplicated other programs. She said Guard and Reserve members would be eligible for other bonuses.

Krenke said some soldiers had been paid the re-enlistment bonuses, but she was unsure how many or whether the money would have to be repaid. Murray’≥ office said that as far as it knew, no active Guard or Reserve members had received the bonuses.

A Murray spokeswoman, Alex Glass, said Krenke’≥ explanation was unacceptable.

"They can spin it anyway they want," Glass said. "But this is a promise they are trying to explain away."
The bonus offer was part of the Pentagon’≥ effort to retain Guard and Reserve members at a time of declining enlistments in the regular Army...."

Wow, the 'Stros are going to the World Series. I'll be grillin' and swillin' on Saturday.

"Let me be very clear about this. Steroids ought to be banned from baseball."— Chimpy McFlightsuit, Washington, D.C., Oct. 4, 2005

What an Eeeeeediot!!

Mrs. Greenspan's pants are on fire. What is it with these lying liars?

And yes, these morons have lied themselves into a corner. With Chimpy's approval ratings in the mid 40s in most states and in the 30s in a few others. Once the indictments start rolling in, how low can they go?

It's time to start a new chant. "Bring the troops home" has settled comfortably into the hearts and minds of almost all Americans.

How 'bout:

"The time has come; impeach Bush now!"

"Impeach Bush before he destroys what's left of our beautiful country!"

End the misery, his and ours.

Another crony fuck up.

A Year Later, Goss's CIA Is Still in Turmoil
Congress to Ask Why Spy Unit Continues to Lose Personnel

A year later, Goss is at loggerheads with the clandestine service he sought to embrace. At least a dozen senior officials -- several of whom were promoted under Goss -- have resigned, retired early or requested reassignment. The directorate's second-in-command walked out of Langley last month and then told senators in a closed-door hearing that he had lost confidence in Goss's leadership.

The turmoil has left some employees shaken and has prompted former colleagues in Congress to question how Goss intends to improve the agency's capabilities and restore morale. The White House is aware of the problems, administration officials said, and believes they are being handled by the director of national intelligence, who now oversees the agency.

But the Senate intelligence committee, which generally took testimony once a year from Goss's predecessors, has invited him for an unusual closed-door hearing today. Senators, according to their staff, intend to ask the former congressman from Florida to explain why the CIA is bleeding talent at a time of war, and to answer charges that the agency is adrift.

"Hundreds of years of leadership and experience has walked out the door in the last year," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), "and more senior people are making critical career decisions as we speak."

Who Is Worse?

Bush or Saddam? Saddam is on trial. Bush is drinking Jack and Jim in comfort in-between temper tantrums. Let us look at Bush and his outright murders. Here is Bush's record.

1. Shock and awe bombings in a wrong and immoral war!
2. Killing of Iraqi civilians!
3. Torture of Iraqi citizens!
4. Use of deleted uranium bombs!
5. Chemical weapons in Fallujah!
6. Bush has the go ahead to use nuclear weapons against Iranians.
7. The purchase of tons of biological weapons to use in the Middle East!
8. Bush is undermining homeland security by permitting a flood of immigrants to enter the USA.
9. Bush is hoping to declare martial law to suspend national elections to keep him in the WH forever and to enslave American citizens.
10. Bush has parents with questionable values. Mother does not want her beautiful mind to worry about death and body bags and a father who says that if Americans knew what the Bushes have done to this country, the Americans would lynch them.

BUSH IS WORSE THAN SADDAM. BUSH IS A SADISTIC MURDERER AND A WAR CRIMINAL.

Grief

Americans have gone through the grieving process since 9-11. Since 9-11, the American government has placed fear in the minds and hearts of Americans. Our human and civil rights have been taken away from us.

Americans have gone through five stages of grief. At first Americans were in the denial stage and from there they went into the anger stage that our government would take away our rights. From there they entered the bargaining stage. Maybe being enslaved is not so bad. Most patriotic Americans fell into depression or the fourth stage. Now, all Americans have accepted our Nazi government and they have willingly given up their freedoms and rights.

Yes, acceptance is the fifth and final stage of grief. All Americans are accepting hatred, killing, torture, wars, corruption, greed, lying, our inhumanity, depravity, decadence, and loss of our freedoms and rights.

Our death as a nation is having Bush as an emperor and to have the neocons, fundamentalists, and evangelicals in complete power.

Everything this bush administration touches just crumbles. Everything. Amazing. It's systematic. It's insidious. It is going to take years if ever to recover from the damage these assholes have created.

Archbishop Oscar Romero

At one a.m. on November 16, 1989, 26 soldiers, 19 of them trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, stormed a Jesuit community in San Salvador, El Salvador. They killed six Jesuits and destroyed the house, word processors, Bibles, and filing cabinets. They also killed the cook and her daughter.

The deaths stunned the world. These good people were advocating the end of the brutal war within El Salvador and the daily $1.3 million in U.S. military aid that funded the war. These people were killed because they were speaking out on behalf of the poor and oppressed. They had encouraged negotiations between the government and the rebel forces as well as the U.S. embassy. They had preached the gospel and comforted the poor and they paid the price.

Archbishop Romero was a champion for the poor, oppressed, and justice. Archbishop Romero was assassinated in 1980 and the people who loved him picked up his works of solidarity, peacemaking, and truth-telling. Since 1980 countless thousands of people in El Salvador have joined Oscar Romero in martyrdom. Romero's life gave strength to the Jesuits. Since 1980, despite their most brutal efforts, the government and soldiers had one great problem: Romero, like Christ, refused to stay dead.

What the Salvadoran and U.S. government death squads did not know was that bullets cannot kill the spirit. They killed the bodies of 75,000 Salvadoran martyrs but they could not kill their spirits.

Perhaps the purveyors of death are beginning to learn a basic Christian lesson. CHRISTIANITY MAINTANS THAT THOSE WHO LOVE LIFE AND LIVE A LIFE OF LOVE, LIVE ON IN THE LOVE OF OTHERS. We Christians call this great truth, resurrection, the eternal spirit of nonviolent, revolutionary love that insists on justice and peace. It grows in the human community of love and truth that side with the poor in the nonviolent struggle for justice. Whoever dies in that nonviolent struggle lives on in the spirit of those who take up the struggle anew. Someone always picks up where the martyr leaves off. The spirit of love and truth lives on, the coming of God's reign of justice and nonviolence gets closer and closer. Peace and justice become reality. Such is the lesson of martyrdom, the practice of resurrection, the essence of Christian love.

ALTHOUGH THE MUSLIMS ARE NOT CHRISTIANS, THEY, TOO, MAY HAVE TAKEN UP THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY IN A WRONG AND AN IMMORAL WAR IN IRAQ.

Oscar Romero lived and died in that nonviolent struggle for justice. His life message was a call to conversion, solidarity with the poor, a speaking of truth to power. He proclaimed life when the system around him demanded death. He announced peace when the government and rebels waged war. He exuded hope when despair ruled the day. The message of the Christian community today is as dangerous as the message of Romero: Jesus live! The Salvadoran death squads, the Pentagon, and the U.S war makers know it too: Romero lives! The nonviolent struggle for justice continues.

Jesus lives and the spirit of Romero lives in a true Christian community!

Close the SOA

Hey hey, Pande musta stole a few minutes. Nice to hear from ya duuude! Another good post too, as usual, but I liked the "grillin' and swillin'" part the best. haha Go 'Stros

comment on #47...
Goss is to CIA, what Bolton is to UN, down to scathing comments from/about each. Looks like Goss is winning the race to destroy his institution first, so 'Boltie' or how 'bout "Bolthead" better git bizzy.
Good article, thanks for another one Jeanne.

*I nominate Pande for V-Prez (soon as dick gets his due) Can I get an amen?

" ...because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.": Ben Franklin's speech at the Constitutional Convention, Pennsylvania 1787

=
The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others: Adolf Hitler (German chancellor, leader of the Nazi party, 1889-1945)

===
I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe-I believe what I believe is right. George W. Bush: 43rd President of the United States

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Thanks ICH newsletter~!

capt

Good video at Crooks...
Chris Mathews on MSNBC clip

Penetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops.

-- Minority Report, 1956.

~ Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)
U. S. Editor and Critic.

I posted here, and it isn't showing up.

Miers Is Asked to Redo Reply to Questions

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - The Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers suffered another setback on Wednesday when the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked her to resubmit parts of her judicial questionnaire, saying various members had found her responses "inadequate," "insufficient" and "insulting."

'Do You Think He's Dead, Mom?'

October 20, 2005


by Dr. Teresa Whitehurst

The call came late at night. My youngest child called from college, her trademark perky voice suddenly tense, halting.

"I haven't heard from D. since last Tuesday. When I talked to him, he said he couldn't say much over the phone anymore, or on e-mail. He sounded strange, like something was wrong, but he wouldn't tell me what was up. I thought maybe he was just depressed –†he's depressed all the time now, and isn't allowed to tell me where he's being sent or how he's being used –†but he hasn't answered any of my e-mails, which he always does. So I wondered if you could –†do you think he's dead, Mom?"

The phone went silent. I visualized her, sitting on her dorm bed, trying not to cry. She's a girl who doesn't like to cry. She's always been that way. Even in preschool, for some reason she just didn't like to "give in" to tears. So I knew that she was really hurting.

*****end of clip*****

So many people fearing the potential pain of a great loss.

Thank goodness some are able to share the real fear this WH cultivates.

Bring the troops home.

capt

After learning the details of Judith Millers career, I'm nauseous.

I want to suggest that the best outcome I can think of, for Miller, is that she spends about ten years in a federal prison, and that her book gets wide circulation. On the internet. For free.

Let her bitch about not gettin paid while she is behind bars....
...and hopefully, no one will care.
Let her and Libby write notes to each other on toilet paper about Aspens and roots and leaves....

Niger Uranium Forgery Mystery Solved?

October 20, 2005
by Justin Raimondo

Amid all the brouhaha over whether I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Karl Rove, or any number of Bush administration insiders had a hand in leaking the name of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, the essential crime at the core of the investigation –†and its probable starting point –†often gets lost in the shuffle. The "outing" of Plame was not an end in itself: the outers didn't just one day decide that they were going to go after her and Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, her husband, because they were in a vindictive mood. They were out to get them because Wilson drew attention to the provenance of the infamous "16 words" uttered by President Bush in his 2003 state of the union address, in which Bush claimed that Iraq had sought out uranium in "an African country" in order to make a nuclear bomb. Perhaps without knowing it, Wilson –†in taking an interest in this subject –†was getting too close to the enormous fraud at the center of the War Party's propaganda campaign.

*****end of clip*****

Some real good information from antiwar.com.

capt

Cheney 'cabal' hijacked US foreign policy

By Edward Alden in Washington
October 20 2005 00:00

Vice-President Dick Cheney and a handful of others had hijacked the government's foreign policy apparatus, deciding in secret to carry out policies that had left the US weaker and more isolated in the world, the top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed on Wednesday.

In a scathing attack on the record of President George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Mr Powell until last January, said: "What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.

"Now it is paying the consequences of making those decisions in secret, but far more telling to me is America is paying the consequences."

*****end of clip*****

Seems like the MSM and talking heads are trying to give Bush an out as if he never knew what was going on?

I understand why it sounds plausible as nobody can trust a dry-drunk with a secret.

capt

Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost

by Ray McGovern

Indictments are expected to come down shortly as special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald completes the investigation originally precipitated by the outing of a CIA officer under deep cover. In 21-plus months of digging and interviewing, Fitzgerald and his able staff have been able to negotiate the intelligence/policy/politics labyrinth with considerable sophistication. In the process, they seem to have learned considerably more than they had bargained for. The investigation has long since morphed into size extra large, which is the only size commensurate with the wrongdoing uncovered –†not least, the fabrication and peddling of intelligence to justify a war of aggression.

The coming months are likely to see senior Bush administration officials frog-marched out of the White House to be booked, unless the president moves swiftly to fire Fitzgerald –†a distinct possibility. With so many forces at play, it is easy to lose perspective and context while plowing through the tons of information in this case. What follows is a retrospective and prospective, laced with some new facts and analysis aimed at helping us to focus on the forest once we have given due attention to the trees.

*****end of clip*****

A real good piece.

capt

If Schumer gets a response it will be written by Harriet Miers and may contain in large measure some of that mysterious public scatology she is noted for. Why ask a politician to lie to you? It is a mjor redundancy. Simply engaging in conversation insures several lies/distortions will spontaneously appear. Then you are stuck trying to figure out what if anything was true.

Chris Matthews kept asking "why did the Veep's office care so much that Wilson said he had ordered the Niger trip?" "why did they go to so much trouble to deny such a seemingly benign piece of info?"

Perhaps Chris is being obtuse. Despite their claiming to have done so, Cheney and his gang did not "go to so much trouble" simply in order to correct the record (about who ordered Wilson's trip). When have they ever shown any concern for the accuracy or completeness of the public record? They did "go to so much trouble" because they wanted to undermine Wilson's credibility in any way possible.

I'll keep this short and sweet. As Clinton said, "I did not have sex with that woman" Bush will say "I did not talk with that man".

Capt, #62, I have a feeling it wasn't just Plame they were looking to take down, but the entire Brewster-Jennings cover because of what they were doing. That gets in the way of fake terror bombings.
Jeanne #50, do you think what they have done was an accident?
RJ, that depends on what you mean by "talk!"

I love all this "Sources close to the investigation disclosed this or that". Or on condition of staying anonymous inside sources say this or that about Libbey, Cheney or Rove. The leakers are being leaked on!!!

From: www.SW-Asia.com

Page 24 Paragraph numbered 7of the AIPAC Spy Ring Indictment (see below)
http://news.findlaw.com/nytimes/docs/dod/usfrnklin80205ind.pdf

This is in reference to a meeting between FRANKLIN (Larry Franklin) and FO-3 (Naor Gilon) at the Pentagon Officers Athletic Club. The woman referenced is Judith Miller. Miller is a reporter for the New York Times who is as I write held in a Federal Facility in contempt of court. She wrote many now discredited stories on WMDs for the Times. The Charitable work was The Iraqi Jewish Archive which Judith Miller and Harold Rhode cooperated on with Ahmad Chalabi.

I have reason to believe that the conversation between Larry Franklin and Naor Gilon about Judith Miller included a reference to Valerie Plame. This case becomes a time bomb if it is revealed that Mossad had a part in the outing of CIA agent Plame.
--------------
Yet another twist. I think it's time to kick those traitors out of the country.

Why can't the left face the Stolen Elections of 2004 & 2008?

Election 2004
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
October 18, 2005

If some of its key publications are any indicator, much of the American left seems unable to face the reality that the election of 2004 was stolen. So in all likelihood, unless something radical is done, 2008 will be too.

Misguided and misinformed articles in both TomPaine.com and Mother Jones Magazine indicate a dangerous inability to face the reality that these stolen elections mean nothing less than the death of what's left of American democracy, and the permanent enthronement of the Rovian GOP.

That Kerry and the spineless Ohio and national Democratic Parties have been complicit is a crucial part of the problem much of the left also seems unwilling to face. But if you live in Franklin County, Ohio, and watch the Republican and Democratic Parties run joint tickets against progressive candidate, and cut backroom deals allowing incumbents of either party run unopposed, you may miss the full scope of the disaster.

And until the left faces the rot that defines the Democratic Party, there is no hope for a fair election in this country. In other words: those who think the White House can be retaken in 2008, but refuse to face the theft of the vote in 2004, should prepare to be ruled by the likes of Jeb Bush, now and forever.
---------------
This is one of three reasons I will never support those spineless, lying dems. Who do you choose, the thief robbing your house, or the neighbor looking out the window watching, and allowing it to happen? That is the lesser of the evils we get to choose from. This is a good article.

David, The obvious source, called "Presidential Advisor" in the article, is none other than George H. W. Bush, the current President's father. The reporter is an old friend of the former President Bush. So, we know what the current Bush was telling his father: that he knew about the campaign to out Plame over two years ago and that he read Karl the "riot act" when he found out how sloppy it was done. Any bets that he didn't actually bawl out Karl, and that this was just his story to his Daddy? This "Presidential advisor" needs to be outted, and do a star turn before another Grand Jury explaining what his son told him and when...

I just read where Rove is now putting the blame on Libby. What a pissant Rove is. Let's see if Libby has the grapes to tell on his boss, the real source behind this scandal. I just love this administration, if something goes right take all the credit, if something goes wrong blame someone else, hang them out to dry. What a bunch of scumbags.

Knocking the Vote
Diebold says its voting machines are bulletproof. Hackers say otherwise.
By James Renne

[...]In May, he gave Dr. Herbert Thompson access to an Accuvote 2000. As hackers go, Thompson doesn't quite fit the mold of a pasty-faced kid playing Warcraft in Mom's basement: He's the chief strategist at Security Innovation, a Florida tester of online security for IBM, Microsoft, Google, and other large businesses and government agencies. If anyone can uncover a problem, it's this guy.

But not even Thompson could have expected this: He was able to manipulate a memory card using homemade devices. When he inserted it into the Diebold machine, 10,000 votes were awarded to one candidate, and the Accuvote detected no sign of fraud.

In a later test coordinated by Sancho, another security expert was also able to manipulate results, this time with flair: He programmed the Leon County computer's LCD screen to read: "Are We Having Fun Yet?", an homage to the 1983 hacker movie WarGames.

When Sancho reported the problem to Diebold, he was told that technicians already knew about it, though no one had bothered to alert election officials. Since making the results of his hacker tests public, Sancho has received letters from Diebold's attorney, accusing Leon County of violating its licensing agreement. [...]

***********

Are we having fun yet, indeed.

Who authored the State Department Memo seen aboard US1?....................

Can you say..................Bolton?

Trace a leak to it's source, who's boy is Bolton?

We all know that Bolton is the resident knee capper..........who sent him? Again, and Again, and .............AGAIN. In spite of a vote of no confidence from Congress???????

I think Bolton............Is the Weakest Link. Id be willing to bet he was the author of that memo.

Time will tell, but I like the way Fitz is handling the investigation. Im hopeful for the first time in awhile.

People are begining to wake up.

I attend a chat room, If I see one more post about Clinton's member or Monica and the cigar I may go Postal.

How the hell did Clintons being a tomcat change life in America?

Bush's lies took us to an illegal war and killed our kids.

Clinton didn't even get laid.

Shut up about Monica.

Apples and Oranges.

Im 57 yrs old. I have seen mad crap, but I have to say, when I see Clintons transgretions viewed next to shrub boy's............Clinton never killed anyone with a cigar or a blue dress. No torture memo from Bill.

2000 dead, how many maimed?

Is the VA ready? Have they helped VietNam Vets that much? They sure as hell had little to offer WW2 vets like my dad.

Dave,

A blog is an interactive message board, the author is expected to contribute.

Are you too verclempt to do more than give us a topic?????????

Response in some form would be real nice.

Saladin,

Cool heads prevail. They wan't to rock us.

It's a tactic. Don't take bait.

Follow the facts and ignore the posers.

Our foes are never happier then when we take the bait.

Don't sink to their level.

Follow your convictions and do not be provoked.

This report of Bush talking to Rove is the rope to hang Bush with-----keep writing