I'm watching CSpan right now and Kennedy is giving it to him pretty good, but I haven't seen the whole thing.

Now it's Grassly's turn and he's kissing his butt.

David:

Welcome back! Eight hours is nothing! From TX, I crossed the Pacific 4 times last year over 4 months!

Anyway, A-Gate won't "Destroy the GOP", IMHO! Some of your Regulars seem to agree.

As for SC nominee's being barred based on what the Dems' prediction of how he/she will vote, why don't we extend that precedent down to the Appelate Courts and so on and so forth.... I wouldn't be "somewhat flattered" until some all-important polls are taken on this.

The Alito battle is a battle unworthy of being fought!

Oh Jeeeeezzzz.

Off this topic...but...

Just an observation: A certain happy fellow brags about his wise market "decisions" and excoriates those who don't amass wealth through the same means as he claims he does. (Lying bastard...oops, I digressed.)

Anyway, he also yaps about jobs and employment and how the busheviks are creating jobs, blah blah blah.

Well, it occurred to me that when slavery was still "legal" in the United States, ALL slaves were "fully employed." They had jobs! They were employed!

But, they didn't have much opportunity. Did they?

You bastard.

3 cheers for happy's opinion!

I keep hearing about Alito's confirmation hearing being "off the radar" for the general public. NPR extended its coverage for over 2 hours on the local channel for in-depth accounts. The Networks covered the opening statements, live. Still the sheeple sleep?

There is certainly something for John Q. to be paying attention to, here. I fully believe that this has been the plan all along. Bushco needs all the power they can muster to keep pulling the wool (flag) over the eyes of the taxpayers who feed the beast and need posterior coverage from the courts for their illegal actions.

Congress is feeling the heat from covering for the murderous pricks for the past 5 years, but with the SCOTUS firmly on the neoCon bench, even a congressional turnabout will be of little concern.

The drums beat more loudly today for action against Iran. Those who voice opposition will get "swiftboated" almost immediately. The (p)Resident signs congress's laws with attatchments outlining HIS interpetation.

Something's got to give...and soon!

-T

David, whether the Dems adopt the Corn Gambit or not it is too late, unless Alito has been caught on tape diddling altar boys in the vestibule.

The window of opportunity has closed on blocking this nomination for the Dems -- "scoring" points?? Fergitabout it! Close only counts in horseshoes.

While the Repugs were strategizing, duping their base, getting assistance from the Falwells, manipulating the media, etc., the Dems were trying to figure out how to wage a Marquis of Queensberry fight with snakes -- can't be done.

Pray for a miracle.

Mr. David Corn,

Welcome back and congratulations on the "Corn Gambit".

"nothing wrong with slugging it out over Supreme Court nominees on grounds of policy and legal substance."

But sadly, policy and legal substance is the last thing the neocons want to talk about.

Thanks for all of your work and the open forum.

Kirk

Fuckin' A!!! So we have a Repug Senator on the Judiciary Committee coaching Alito for his hearings! This stinks.

Of debt, deflation and rotten apples

Deflation is a problem that looms over the horizon when the US debt bubble bursts to slow down the economy. Yet investors are motivated to buy US bonds to lock in current high yields if they expect the Federal Reserve, the central bank, to cut short-term rates in the near future to stimulate a slowing economy.

When investor demand for bonds is strong, mortgage lenders can offer lower mortgage rates for homebuyers because high bond prices lead to lower bond yields. Thus a pending economic slowdown in its incubating phase actually fuels a housing bubble by the abundant availability of cheap money. But there is no escaping the fact that falling interest rates lead eventually to inflation, which discourages bond investment. Rising interest rates, on the other hand, while stimulating bond investment, lead to deflation.

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

A little dry but worth a read,

capt

what exactly IS the corn gambit in all of that? is this it?

So Democrats should be honest and blunt and declare they are opposing Alito because of how they expect he will vote. And they should explain‚in broad, values-laden language, not the rhetoric of process‚what they fear and how Alito's decisions could affect Americans.

Provided the neocreeps have been collecting domestic intelligence, surely on many in opposition politically, I wonder what they are sitting on.

I might be assuming too much but why would they pass up a chance to get the goods on Hillary or a few others that are thorns in their sides?

Warrantless wiretaps also means warrantless "sneak and peek" it only makes sense they would have something on someone. Kind of odd all of the legal heat is within the GOPhers circular firing squad.

It is starting to sound more than a little fishy to me. Could it be more kabuki theater and simple manipulation of the masses through mass media (MSM)?

I am reminded the MSM have been the propaganda wing of this misadministration. I often wonder if there is an opposition or just simulated strife?

capt

MoveOn.org Surrenders

Silence Is Complicity

It's a good thing for MoveOn.org that George W. Bush was reelected. If he hadn't been, the liberal troupe would have nothing to contest. Even if the bloody occupation had continued under a John Kerry presidency (it most certainly would have), the cowering office-chair activists would have ducked behind their computer screens awaiting the return of another brutal Republican administration. Activism should never be partisan, but MoveOn.org isn't about to hold the Democrats' accountable for supporting Bush's war agenda.

I'm not even all that sure MoveOn opposes the Iraq war. Sure, they rallied opposition during the lead-up to the invasion a few years back, but since then they've done little if anything that should garner the respect of the antiwar movement. Despite Kerry's grotesque position on the Iraq war in 2004, MoveOn implored their members to donate cash to his campaign, but said nary a word about his pro-war posturing. You can't support a candidate without putting demands on their candidacy, and MoveOn's breakdown has made them all but irrelevant as an antiwar club.

Case in point. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York has continued to support Bush's war in Iraq as well as his greater war on terror, yet MoveOn refuses to voice frustration. Instead, they support the war-hungry senator and admit they won't stand up to her during an election year.

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

Peace will not sell with the corporate masters and they will see to it that we end up no real choice. GOP or GOP-lite.

I will not vote for any candidate that does not oppose the illegal and unwise invasion of Iraq.

capt

Jake Gyllenhaal, Ain't he that homosexual? I would not be bragging about something like that.

BTW, I heard Mark Crispy Miller saying some pretty nasty things about David Korn on the radio. He more less said David Korn, Al Franken, "The Nation", and "Mother Jones" were not worth a shit.

He really had his undies in a wad. If I were you I would sue the bastard for defamation of character. I don't know but he probablly wrote something about you in his book he was peddling too.

National Security Agency mounted massive spy op on Baltimore peace group, documents show

The National Security Agency has been spying on a Baltimore anti-war group, according to documents released during litigation, going so far as to document the inflating of protesters' balloons, and intended to deploy units trained to detect weapons of mass destruction, RAW STORY has learned.

According to the documents, the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore, a Quaker-linked peace group, has been monitored by the NSA working with the Baltimore Intelligence Unit of the Baltimore City Police Department.

The documents came as a result of litigation in the August 2003 trial of Marilyn Carlisle and Cindy Farquhar. An NSA security official provided the defendants with a redacted Action Plan and a redacted copy of a Joint Terrorism Task Force email about the activities of the Pledge of Resistance activities.

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

I believe the WH and NSA have been collecting intelligence data on the opposition. We know they bugged/tapped the UN why would they take a pass? Am I to believe they would not tap or bug the political opposition because that would be immoral or against the rules of fair play? HA!

I predict the neocreeps are holding a few cards to play just before the next election.

capt

why the media is able to cover up scandals and issues, such as 911

Impeaching Bush

Enough is enough. Before George W Bush leads the world into greater catastrophes yet, he should be legally removed, writes Hassan Nafaa*

Who would ever have believed that a US president could so much as contemplate, even if he couched the thought as a joke, bombing a television station located in one of America's allies because he felt that that station was opposed to American policy? Would anyone have ever thought it remotely conceivable that security agencies in the US -- supposedly the bastion of individual, religious and political freedoms -- would raid Muslim houses of worship on the off-chance that they might find weapons of mass destruction? Regretfully, the impossible has become possible in the age of George W Bush, which is why he is more dangerous than Bin Laden, who is playing the same game, and why legal action should be taken now to remove him from power, before it is too late.

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

I still cannot believe it has happened so fast and yet nothing will surprise me, not these days.

capt

Interesting link James, it's no wonder we're screwed! I saw mr. MBA has stocks in the RFID industry, a true patriot he! I'm certain he has already volunteered to receive the wonderful and amazing tracking chip in his hand. It will make life ever so much easier for Big Brother, why wait? Get your's TODAY!!

"So Democrats should be honest and blunt and declare they are opposing Alito because of how they expect he will vote."
David, you ARE kidding, right? Honest, blunt? Do any politicians in DC even remember the concept? BTW, what happened to abramhoff? Is he off the hook already? If so, what took so long?

From: Safe Haven
Linked by WRH

The Fed's Money Supply Armament is Underway
M-3 has been launched into outer space, up another $56.3 billion last week, up $92.4 billion over the past two. This is some real horsepower. Over six weeks, the meaningless figure, ahem, is up $177.8 billion. These annualized growth rates are 28.7 percent, 23.6 percent, and 15.3 percent respectively. Those are the seasonally adjusted figures. The raw, non-seasonally adjusted, figure is up $293.3 billion over the past 12 weeks, on a pace to add 1.2 trillion in money to the economy. Wow. There must be a need for this. Maybe the master Planners see a coming need to monetize our debt? To support markets? They tell us the economy is good, so clearly they cannot be stimulating our way out of a recession. There's a lot of money flooding the economy and it has to go somewhere. Right now it is lifting markets.
Posted Jan 10, 2006 09:08 PM PST

The printing presses are running 24/7, making the economy look good for the 2006 election year.
Where is mr. happy MBA when you need sound financial advice? How can I force the Fed. to cough up the now secret M3 info? Whatever shall we do?? :-(

#17----good article Capt

*warning - gag reflex
Abramoff intro's Delay

It's only 'bout a minute, so maybe you won't need a bucket to throw up in.

Monday, January 09, 2006
Swiss "Echelon" Catches Sniff of CIA Secret Prisons

Who knew that Switzerland - home of chocolate, clocks and singing nuns - had it's own version of the Echelon eavesdropping system? Well, it seems they do, it is called Onyx and it has caught up some very interesting stuff from the aether.

For instance about two months ago, according to the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick, it intercepted a fax transmission from Cairo to the Egyptian embassy in London concerning the much-denied CIA secret prisons in Europe:

The message was picked up by the secret service's Onyx satellite listening system on November 10, just three days after the Council of Europe launched its investigation into allegations that the CIA was running secret interrogation centres in Europe.

...The Egyptian fax stated that 23 Iraqi and Afghan citizens had been transferred to a Romanian military base near the port of Constanza for interrogation purposes. It added that similar detention centres had been set up in Ukraine, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria.
Ain't that eavesdropping a bitch when the shoe is on the other foot?
NewsHog

Frank Zappa was right

Lurching toward theocracy

Bill Berkowitz, WorkingForChange, 03.31.05

Are Milton Mayer's conversations with Germany's 'ordinary' Nazis, Frank Zappa's warning of a theocratic America, and the Christian right's 'Christian Nation' mantra signs of a nation drifting towards theocracy?

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

A good read. Of course Frank was right, you could say he nailed it.

capt

The Abramoff Scandal (R., Beltway)

It's the Republicans, stupid

Republicans are looking for "their" John McCain. The popular Arizona maverick is already a Republican, of course. But the GOP needs a McCain in the "Keating Five" sense. Back in 1990, Senate Democrats roped McCain into the scandal over savings and loan kingpin Charles Keating on tenuous grounds, just so not all the senators involved would be Democrats.

The GOP now craves such bipartisan cover in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Republicans trumpet every Democratic connection to Abramoff in the hope that something resonates. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), took more than $60,000 from Abramoff clients! North Dakota Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan used Abramoff's skybox! It is true that any Washington influence peddler is going to spread cash and favors as widely as possible, and 210 members of Congress have received Abramoff-connected dollars. But this is, in its essence, a Republican scandal, and any attempt to portray it otherwise is a misdirection.

Electoral Politics: What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us

What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us
By Dave Lindorff

There is an bill in Congress to investigate Bush for impeachable crimes. Did you know that? If not, maybe you should be asking your local media outlets why you don’¥ know about it.

Rome--There are now eight members of Congress who have put their names to a bill calling for a special committee of the House to investigate impeachable crimes by the Bush administration. To date, all of them are Democrats.

So far, you'd be hard-pressed to know about any of this--including the very fact that Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the low-key and soft-spoken but dedicated ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, had even submitted such a bill--as well as two companion bills calling for censure of both Bush and Cheney for abuse of power.

Apparently in the editorial cloister of our once proud Fourth Estate, where decisions as to what it is safe or appropriate for us in the public to know, it has been determined that we do not need to know that the notion of impeachment of the president is starting to grow.

Most of the major corporate media have yet to let the public know that several respected polls have shown a majority of Americans to favor impeachment if Bush lied about the reasons for going to war against Iraq, which if combined with polls showing that two-thirds of Americans or more think he did lie about those reasons, tells you all you need to know about the public attitude on impeachment.

The same paternalistic and pro-administration mindset was at work when the editor and publisher of the New York Times decided a year ago to squelch for a year a story they had about the NSA warrantless spying program. They felt that we the people didn't need to know about that story in a presidential election year, even if the target of that spying may well have been the administration’≥ electoral opponents, just as it was in the 1972 Watergate spying scandal.

There is a clear slide towards dictatorship taking place in America. The president, it turns out, has been signing executive letters along with many of the bills Congress passes, essentially asserting that as commander-in-chief in his fake "war" on terror, he reserves the right to ignore those bills. The latest such letter was signed by him as he signed the bill banning torture. In other words, he conceded to the bill, but then said he'll authorize torture anyway if he wants to, in his role as commander in chief.

The beauty of this presidential scam is that, since the "war" on terror will never end, neither will his self-claimed draconian powers. And what is the limit of those powers? Well, basically the limit is whatever Congress and the courts tell him those limits are. And are we seeing Congress and the courts setting any limits? No.

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

What will it take to wake up those that still support Bunnypants?

capt

For the life of me, I don't see the point of these confirmation hearings. Alito's not about to promise to rule one way or another on anything, nor should he shouldn't be expected to. And even if he did, he would be in no way bound to keep his promises.

Alito's documented statements have already given the Dems a good idea of how he's likely to rule on key issues. They should just give him the thumbs down in committee and get on with the filibuster -- if they have any guts.

And if they're having a hard time finding their cajones, maybe they should try to recall how they felt back in December 2000, when the filthy five soiled our highest court forever and set the stage for all the calamities that have ensued.

yes, there's nothing wrong with voting "no" on Samuel "Bork-without-the-beard" Alito. In 6, 12, or 18 months, will Americans remember who voted against him? Probably not. Who voted for Tortureboy Gonzales? Somebody needs to knock those dumbasses upside the head for voting to confirm the guy who advised King George the Clueless that it was OK to wipe his arse with the Constitution.

Capt saved me the trouble of linking the Lowry article that said the same thing that I said yesterday. Yes, it's a Republican scandal. Period.

And dems don't need to give the Indians back their money because it wasn't from the stash that Abramoff bilked out of them. And as I said before, Dems don't blindly vote the way the money tells them to. Even the Indian leaders have noted that. A Bushbutt's gotta lie though and say that it's a bipartisan scandal. How pathetic.

How much pork was in the transportation bill? Only a half dozen of the 231 Republicans didn't get their fingers into the kitty (in that bill). That's a lotta pork. And George Will ‚ô•s Boehner.

And Marc R. Gerecht, says it's good to buy propaganda. I guess the NeoCons are just too lazy to manufacture the lies themselves. Natch, they're Republicans.

If you weren't completely sure that Li'l Russ was full of shit, this'll seal it.

Watch out, the whistleblower cometh (no not the moron that makes an ass of himself on this blog regularly). One of the NSA whistleblowers is coming out and the spin by the REds has begun. They say he's loony. I guess cause he still thinks the Constitution is the law of the land?

And the British don't know how to impeach morons either. Oh well . . . .

I don't think I've ever seen such a high concentration of links on one page. The Republican Scandal Link-o-rama.

Poor Happy wants so desperately to find the cure to poverty now that he realizes that CHimpy is driving the MIddle class down that road. He thinks the problem is the left's design for beating it. Funny how poverty went down steadily during the Clinton years. The answer isn't in China. There's an inverse relationship between solving the problems of poverty in China and in the U.S. It's the leadership, stupid. ANd I get the feeling that those Chinese folks look down on us. How upfucked is that?

Iraq is still a Muslim theocracy. We still don't have phase II of the intel investigation. Ney, DeLay, Pombo, Cunningham, Safavian, Libby. Republicans continue to get caught breaking the law. Plamegate rolls on (see firedoglake). So many scandals, so little time.

Time to make the donuts.

#22
Alan,
Ick. Festering open wounds are more pleasant than that. Everybody in the Republican Party wants to be Tom Delay when they grow up? Nice. And do they all want to go to prison too? Talk about gang mentality.

Not gang, cult, they think chimpy is the second messiah, and can lead them out of the wilderness, but to where? Hell if they aren't careful, but nothing will be done we have momentum and they are using it going from one disaster to another, one scandal to another before one can be cleared up or even publicized there appears another, is this deliberate? Keeping the sheeple numb to the disaster of shrub, and just keep on piling it on, soon we won't even care then the real agenda comes out. Watch your back. Besides let the repugs gather all the wealth into one place, guns still rule, and when they think they have it all corraled then it is easier to get it when it is all in one place. Money will soon be worthless for anything but toilet paper and electronic accounts can be erased.

25 Top Jobs for 2006

What's in store for the millions of professionals -- new and old -- who will be putting on their job searching hats in 2006? Will unemployment rates remain around the current 5 percent range? Will employment numbers continue to trend upward, as they did for most of 2005?

Many sources note the job market landscape will continue to improve in a number of areas. Coming in at No. 1 is retail salesperson -- which is projected to increase by 736,000 jobs from now through 2014, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

These 25 occupations account for 8 million new jobs and about 40 percent of total job growth over the next decade. They are from a broad range of industries requiring varying degrees of training and salaries. Here are the top 25 jobs for 2006, as reported by the BLS:

1. Retail Salesperson
What it pays: $22,880
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 736,000

2. Registered Nurse
What it pays: $55,680
Minimum training needed: Associate degree
New jobs by 2014: 703,000

3. Postsecondary Teacher
What it pays: $62,032
Minimum training needed: Doctoral degree
New jobs by 2014: 524,000

4. Customer Service Rep
What it pays: $29,350
Minimum training needed: Moderate-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 471,000

5. Janitor or Cleaner (except maids and housekeeping cleaners)
What it pays: $20,800
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 440,000

6. Waiter/Waitress
What it pays: $15,980
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 376,000

7. Combination Food Preparation and Serving Worker
What it pays: $17,850
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 367,000

8. Home Health Aide
What it pays: $19,200
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 350,000

9. Nursing Aid, Orderly, Attendant
What it pays: $21,890
Minimum training needed: Postsecondary vocational award
New jobs by 2014: 325,000

10. General and Operations Manager
What it pays: $93,580
Minimum training needed: Bachelor's degree plus work
New jobs by 2014: 308,000

11. Personal and Home Care Aide
What it pays: $17,560
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 287,000

12. Elementary School Teacher
What it pays: $46,350
Minimum training needed: Bachelor's degree
New jobs by 2014: 265,000

13. Accountant and Auditor
What it pays: $57,160
Minimum training needed: Bachelor's degree
New jobs by 2014: 264,000

14. Office Clerk
What it pays: $24,440
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 263,000

15. Hand Laborer and freight, stock and material mover
What it pays: $22,190
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 248,000

16. Receptionist and Information Clerk
What it pays: $22,900
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 246,000

17. Landscaping and Groundskeeping Worker
What it pays: $22,260
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 230,000

18. Truck Driver, Heavy and Tractor Trailer
What it pays: $34,920
Minimum training needed: Moderate-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 223,000

19. Computer Applications Software Engineer
What it pays: $78,570
Minimum training needed: Bachelor's degree
New jobs by 2014: 222,000

20. Maintenance and Repair Worker
What it pays: $32,290
Minimum training needed: Moderate-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 202,000

21. Medical Assistant
What it pays: $25,860
Minimum training needed: Moderate-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 202,000

22. Executive Secretary and Administrative Assistant
What it pays: $37,350
Minimum training needed: Moderate-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 192,000

23. Sales Representative, Wholesale and Manufacturing
What it pays: $54,500
Minimum training needed: Moderate-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 187,000

24. Carpenter
What it pays: $38,250
Minimum training needed: Long-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 186,000

25. Teacher Assistant
What it pays: $20,750
Minimum training needed: Short-term on-the-job training
New jobs by 2014: 183,000
-----------------
Notice the annual pay.
Happy how do you pay car and health insurance, pay the rent, eat and invest with those pay rates? Do you make money in your basement? That's illegal.

Alito has told us how he thinks. It's a job. He listens to the boss and does the job. If the boss (the president) wants to spy on Americans. Ok. Torture, not a problem.

Alito claims to be open-mined but his judicial record shows that he universally comes down on the side of those with power and against those without power. His rulings support the imperial presidency and undercut the Bill of Rights. With Roberts I could see a thoughtful legal mind that skewed conservative, which is OK by me. But with Alito I see a knee-jerk ideologue who interprets the facts and precedent to fit a worldview that often runs counter to Constitutional principles. His rhetoric does not match his record, which is to say, he's lying. Democrats should recognize this, articulate it and use it as their reason to vote against his confirmation.

I think it is a really good idea. Unfortunatley not sure we have the votes to pull it off.

A side benefit, if it worked, might be to de-polarize the nomination and appointment process in future administrations.

The Dots Connect Between Abramoff, Ohio 2004 Election Smokescreen and Ney's Former Staffer Revealed to be on Diebold's Payroll While Working for White House Law Firm

What happens when the nation finally figures out that Bush cheated his way to the white house? I mean really figures it out?

GM told: Cut every salary

Kerkorian's message: Fix must start at top, aide says

January 11, 2006

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian sent a stern message to General Motors Corp. on Tuesday -- cut wages from the boardroom to the factory floor, chop costs by selling the Saab and Hummer brands, and adopt a sense of urgency to survive.

With GM burning through $24 million of cash a day, the company will run out of money in 1,000 days or sooner unless executives make tough decisions now, Kerkorian aide Jerome York said in a speech delivered on GM territory at the Renaissance Center.

"This situation calls for the company's going into crisis mode, adopting a degree of urgency that recognizes if things don't break right, the unthinkable could happen, that time is of the essence," York told the Society of Automotive Analysts. The society represents those who advise stockholders on automotive investments.

GM Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson, the fast-rising executive who took over his current role Jan. 1, exchanged friendly remarks with York before the speech and applauded his remarks afterward.

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

Thing are going so swell - Pay cuts for everyone!

capt

It never ceases to amaze me that conservatives will vote against their own self interests - in elections and in supporting the courts. Alito is a corporate cronie - it's that simple. Yet, so many will call in support of this guy. I don't get it.

Bush planned war with Iraq long before 9/11 attacks

President George W. Bush began planning a war with Iraq before he took office on January 20, 2001, and long before the 9/11 terrorist attacks gave him the excuse he needed to push American intelligence agencies to fabricate "evidence" that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction or plotted with Osama bin Laden to attack American.

Bush knew from the get-go that he wanted to invade Iraq. It was on his mind before the election and campaign aides say he was obsessed with "getting Saddam."

"We’d be on the campaign plane talking about domestic issues and he’d change the subject and start rattling on about what a great evil Saddam Hussein was and how if he won the election he’d finish what he father failed to do – topple Hussein," says campaign worker Jerry Caufield who worked for the administration one year before leaving.

Other tell similar stories. The terrorist attacks weren’t the reason Bush invaded Iraq. They provided the excuse.

"We will confront weapons of mass destruction, so that a new century is spared new horrors," Bush said in his inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2001.

On January 21, Bush held his first meeting of the National Security Council in the White House. At that meeting he ordered the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to draw up plans for an invasion of Iraq as, he said, "a contingency."

On February 16, in a press conference with Mexican president Vicente Fox, Bush said:

"Saddam Hussein has got to understand that we expect him to conform to the agreement that he signed after Desert Storm. We will enforce the no-fly zone, both south and north. Our intention is to make sure that the world is as peaceful as possible. And we're going to watch very carefully as to whether or not he develops weapons of mass destruction, and if we catch him doing so we'll take the appropriate action."

On February 23, in a press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush said:

"We spent a lot of time talking about our mutual interests in Iraq and the Persian Gulf, and from our perspective, as you know, I made the famous statement that our sanctions are like Swiss cheese. That means they're not very effective. And we're going to work together to figure out a way to make them more effective. But I think the Prime Minister and I both recognize that it is going to be important for us to build a consensus in the region to make the sanctions more effective. Colin Powell left today, after lunch, to move around the Middle East, collect thoughts and to listen, with a policy of strengthening our mission to make it clear to Saddam Hussein that he shall not terrorize his neighbors, and not develop weapons of mass destruction."

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

Those pesky non-existent WMD ‘ s. We became an aggressor nation because of poor intelligence. Not from a lack of information but because of a lack of clear leadership and the complete failure of this administration to tell the truth.

capt

Gavel Time!

Didn't get to read all the comments yet, but I did see the hearings...

Does a promise to the Senate Judiciary Committee made under oath hold any water, yes or no?

It is purely a political question. The Constitution says the Senate has the right to consent; which implies the right to withold said consent on any grounds Senators may chose.

Durbin up.

A House of Cards!

The ideological American right wing has at last fallen victim to its own ideology. A house built upon sand cannot stand; a political movement premised upon stealth ideology and fallacy will, at last, crumble. Two ideological pillars have at last been exposed as either false or meaningless.

One of them is "trickle down" theory, otherwise called "supply side" economics. More a rationalization than a valid justification, it is still found lurking beneath the Bush and Reagan tax cuts which have had the effect of enriching a mere one percent of the population while shifting the burden of waging war in Iraq upon the middle class and the working poor.

Bluntly: we fight the war for the benefit of the rich and pay for the privilege of doing so!

The other crumbling pillar of right wing ideology is religious in nature, the result of the usurpation of the movement by latter day theocrats like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. This is stealth ideology at its worst –§isingenuous, packaged, sold, and, worst of all, mis-represented by lies to the American people. It is typified by "Intelligent Design" touted to be an alternative to Darwin but, in fact, fails to address Darwin and raises more issues than it explains.

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

More of the same but I often wonder why "Intelligent Design" is always presented by unintelligent people?

It reminds me of the "white supremacists" claiming superiority through slack-jawed and missing teeth. The low IQ dolts claiming a lack of melanin makes them more than what they are and better than any non-whites. What a bunch of dolts.

capt

January 10, 2006 -- New Orleans: What the media is not reporting and what Congress and the Bush administration are ignoring. Yesterday, two New Orleans journalists, Jason Berry, who writes for New Orleans magazine, and Lolis Eric Elie, columnist for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, spoke at the National Press Club in Washington about the real nature of the situation in New Orleans and surrounding parishes.

The picture they painted of the city is sobering. Only some 100,000 people, out of a total population of 467,000, have returned to New Orleans, just a month and a half before the famous Mardi Gras celebrations. However, the national media and their corporate friends in the urban development business, will paint New Orleans during the next Mardi Gras celebration on February 28 as a city coming back from disaster. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Wayne Madsen

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

Paints a sobering picture indeed, which is quite the odd adjective considering the locale. But, I jest; the descriptions of the suicide rates and despair are heartwrenching.

Off-topic:

Cells That Read Minds
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
Published: January 10, 2006

On a hot summer day 15 years ago in Parma, Italy, a monkey sat in a special laboratory chair waiting for researchers to return from lunch. Thin wires had been implanted in the region of its brain involved in planning and carrying out movements.

Every time the monkey grasped and moved an object, some cells in that brain region would fire, and a monitor would register a sound: brrrrrip, brrrrrip, brrrrrip.

A graduate student entered the lab with an ice cream cone in his hand. The monkey stared at him. Then, something amazing happened: when the student raised the cone to his lips, the monitor sounded - brrrrrip, brrrrrip, brrrrrip - even though the monkey had not moved but had simply observed the student grasping the cone and moving it to his mouth.

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

An interesting study on brain fucntion.

jeanne #36 - great post! While I was aware that much subterfuge went into the 2004 election debacle, the depth and width of the conspiracy is incomprehensible. Ohioans should get out their pitchforks and torches and chase Ney from the state, then burn all of the Diebold machines.

Robert Schwartz - so that's how Bush does it.

OOOps, I forgot to link the above article.

Anyway this is a small excerpt fram a three page piece:

Social emotions like guilt, shame, pride, embarrassment, disgust and lust are based on a uniquely human mirror neuron system found in a part of the brain called the insula, Dr. Keysers said. In a study not yet published, he found that when people watched a hand go forward to caress someone and then saw another hand push it away rudely, the insula registered the social pain of rejection. Humiliation appears to be mapped in the brain by the same mechanisms that encode real physical pain, he said.

The media is going out of its way to misrepresent the Alito confirmation. Roves telephone must be smoking about now. His fat fingers must be so tired! On every T.V. only the right wing spin is getting out.

If the Democrats let this guy through, its the end. No more civil rights, workers rights, womens rights, voters rights, minorities rights, disabled peoples rights or voters rights.

Bush may declare himself Emporer for life and I believe that this new Supreme Court would not see any problem with it.

Hey geof01.

How George does it.

According to Wayne Madsen in the article referenced above:

The two journalists reported that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin muzzled themselves after at first criticizing Bush because the president threatened them with abandonment unless they stopped their criticism of the Federal response. They are apparently petrified of Bush after he threatened them with no assistance.

As these events unfold, Americans continue to go to work, pay thier corporate masters, and dutifuly buy the Chinese goods they do not need as if nothing was happening. The price we will pay for our apathy will be tremendous.

ok

Van #37,

Much is being made of Alito's previous comments re: Roe v. Wade, but it's a smokescreen. Alito's purpose on the court is to increase the power of both the military/industrial complex as well as that of the executive branch. Bob in ND, a true conservative who sometimes posts here, often points out that Roe v. Wade is cynically used by the Republicans to manipulate the right-wing Christian base. The gay marriage boogeyman is another issue they exploit. It's all about the consolidation of power.

Not even Orwell could envision how his Big Brother evolved

Inside Bay Area

IN the novel "1984," George Orwell imagined a world in which everyone was watched by Big Brother, the symbol of a brutal, totalitarian regime. It has taken another 20 years, but Big Brother has arrived. But with an irony that surely would have moved Orwell to smile, it turns out that Big Brother is us.

It can be fun, if a little chilling, to have the computers at Amazon recommend books based on a previous purchase, or for your subscription to Gourmet magazine to inspire a mailbox full of cooking-supply catalogs.

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

The Amazon thing is kind of cool. The catalogs in the mail are the way I go window shopping.

capt

Don,
I agree 100%. Thomas Frank wrote about this brilliantly in his book "What's the Matter With Kansas". The tactic of using these phantom "moral" wedge issues to get people to vote against their interests has long roots. George Wallace used race to do it, and Reagan nationalized it by couching the racism in "welfare queen" terms and adding "family" and "traditional American" values. Remember the obscene rock lyrics kerflufle that Capt refferenced earlier. Same deal.

Opiate of the people. Karl may have been wrong about some things, but he was right about religion being perverted for this means. Neocon politics has become a religion of it's own. Thus, all progressives become allied with "baby killers" and "permissive Hollywood queers".

Sad.

BTW- Thanks capt, for the Zappa link. I watched the video and it sent me back. I miss that man.

Solly

David:

A couple of thoughts came to me after posting My Comment #2 that was Atypical of me. It was a bit knee-jerky, but meshes w/your Regulars' style.

The first is that I need to give you credit for very Guttzily stating your position; surely, you were aware of its implications.

The second is the numerous battles the Left is fighting; most of which, I don't think, are worthy! Why fight battles that can't be won, like Dean's "unwinable War" the Dems voted for alongside the GOP.

The thought came to me is devilish! Is it possible the Right's strategists are allowing/enabling leaks like NSA spying, A-Gate, 9/11 inconsistencies, etc.. to get the Left `Running every which way but loose'? Meantime, important stuff like Iraq, Supreme Court, Iran are being worked on...Reminds me of the movie Absence of Malice: "Are the Right that smart?". Could be, human nature is pretty predictable; for good or bad.

Since chancing on your blog with a Happy message and then `invited' in by snide knee-jerk remarks, I have become far too involved in political BS...My own fault! Got to run! Due @ my CPA's office soon!

Solly, I think the religion issue in general is used for the same purpose. I have read comments regarding the fear of a rule by theocracy taking control in this country. I had considered that to be a possibility, but I now believe that, like abortion and gay marriage, the claim by politicians to be Christian is just another ploy to consolidate power. It is evident by their actions that Christian is the last thing they are, but the gullible, bible thumping masses fall for it every time. The only religion they have is an oppressive corporate facism, I'm not sure which is worse.

Everybody and I mean everybody in this country needs to read this
and know that THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE. Chainy and Gonzo need to be held accountable. F**kin MSM won't report it. If Amnesty International has any guts THEY would put it on TV for everybody to see. DISGUSTING!!!!

DEN, unfortunately it isn't up to AI to decide what goes on TV. As mommy bush would say, "why should we worry our beautifl minds with thoughts of torture?" After all, we can't see it from our house.

News item you won't read in America:
From: AAI
Abram"off" His Rocker

Fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff has been the focus of hearings of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, chaired by Senator John McCain (R-AZ). Investigations into Abramoffs shady practices have resulted in the posting of hundreds of incriminating e-mail exchanges on the committee's website. Among the more bizarre exchanges, Abramoff refers to his clients, the Choctaw Indian tribe, as monkeys and implores Rabbi Daniel Lapin to appoint him a scholar of Talmudic Studies to gain entrance into a Washington, DC social club. Even more troubling are e-mails concerning Abramoff's funding of a sniper school for West Bank settlers. Settler leader Shmuel Ben Zvi writes, I will fax you a letter stating that I am purchasing this equipment for the IDF, then we just need end user clearance from the State Department. Upon hearing of Ben Zvi's progress, Abramoff later gloats, if only there were another dozen of you the dirty rats would be finished.
------------
He is just a disgusting racist. Why is it "politically correct" for zionists to make comments like this, but anyone who criticizes such obviously hateful remarks is instantly condemned as an anti-semite?

...not that I think Roe v. Wade should be the "deciding factor" but...

THEN AND NOW

Alito is asked if he considers Roe v. Wade to be "settled law."

Alito: "If 'settled' means it can't be reexamined, that's one thing. If 'settled' means it is a precedent entitled to respect as stare decisis, then it is a precedent that is protected and entitled to respect."

Clinton: "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is...If 'is' means is and never has been, that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement."

If Clinton's answer wasn't good enough for the Repugs then, why is Alito's answer good enough for the Repugs now? I hate hypocrisy.

there aren't any leaks of 911 inconsistencies by the GOP/right - the inconsistencies and blatant overt lies surrounding the official 911 fairytale have been there for all to see the whole time - it just takes men of integrity, like David Ray Griffin and Prof. Steven Jones to point them out in a logical manner, and websites such as 911blogger.com and letsroll911.org to post them for all to see.

micki,

Just as Alito can say that no man is above the law, without removing the principle of prosecutorial descretion, which in effect says prosecutors decide who is above the law, or presidential pardons which places persons beyond the law, Senators only have to please 51% of the counted votes in their states to remain in office, without using real evidence to back their votes.

How Many Iraqis Have Died Since The US Invasion In 2003?

The beneficiaries of September 11 were the Bush Administration itself, the Pentagon and the military-industrial complex, various intelligence agencies, and Israel. With every day of Bush misrule we learn of more corruption and deception. Is it all that difficult to contemplate that the whole Official Story of 9-11 is just another lie?

xymphora.blogspot.com

The painful truth from one of the only true conservatives left in the republican party willing to tell it like it is.

Will the US Need an IMF Bail Out?

Paul Craig Roberts | January 11 2006

President George W. Bush has destroyed America's economy along with America's reputation as a truthful, compassionate, peace-loving nation that values civil liberties and human rights.

Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard University budget expert Linda Bilmes have calculated the cost to Americans of Bush's Iraq war to be between one and two trillion dollars. This figure is 5 to 10 times higher than the $200 billion that Bush's economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, estimated. Lindsey was fired by Bush, because Lindsey's estimate was three times higher than the $70 billion figure that the Bush administration used to mislead Congress and the American voters about the burden of the war. You can't work in the Bush administration unless you are willing to lie for dub-ya.

Americans need to ask themselves if the White House is in competent hands when a $70 billion war becomes a $2 trillion war. Bush sold his war by understating its cost by a factor of 28.57. Any financial officer any where in the world whose project was 2,857 percent over budget would instantly be fired for utter incompetence.

In 2005 for the first time on record consumer, business, and government spending exceeded the total income of the country. Net national savings actually fell.

America can consume more than it produces only if foreigners supply the difference. China recently announced that it intends to diversify its foreign exchange holdings away from the US dollar. If this is not merely a threat in order to extort even more concessions from Bush, Americans' ability to consume will be brought up short by a fall in the dollar's value as China ceases to be a sponge that is absorbing an excessive outpouring of dollars. Oil producing countries might follow China's lead.

Now that Americans are dependent on imports for their clothing, manufactured goods, and even high technology products, a decline in the dollar's value will make all these products much more expensive. American living standards, which have been treading water, will sink.

The American Dream has become a nightmare for college graduates who cannot find meaningful work.

This fact is made abundantly clear from the payroll jobs data over the past five years. December's numbers, released on January 6, show the same pattern that I have reported each month for years. Under pressure from offshore outsourcing, the US economy only creates low productivity jobs in low-pay domestic services.

Only a paltry number of private sector jobs were created--94,000. Of these 94,000 jobs, 35,800 or 38% are for waitresses and bartenders. Health care and social assistance account for 28% of the new jobs and temporary workers account for 10%. These three categories of low tech, nontradable domestic services account for 76% of the new jobs. This is the jobs pattern of a poor third world economy that consumes more than it produces.

America's so-called first world superpower economy was only able to create in December a measly 12,000 jobs in goods producing industries, of which 77% are accounted for by wood products and fabricated metal products--the furniture and roofing metal of the housing boom that has now come to an end. US employment declined in machinery, electronic instruments, and motor vehicles and parts.

2,600 jobs were created in computer systems design and related services, depressing news for the several hundred thousand unemployed American computer and software engineers.

When manufacturing leaves a country, engineering, R&D, and innovation rapidly follow. Now that outsourcing has killed employment opportunities for US citizens and even General Motors and Ford are failing, US economic growth depends on how much longer the rest of the world will absorb our debt and finance our consumption.

How much longer will it be before "the world's only remaining superpower" is universally acknowledged as a debt-ridden, hollowed-out economy desperately in need of IMF bailout?
------------

Disclaimer: I am a regular reader of QandO internet magazine and comment there occasionally. In my own opinion and that expressed by other commenters I am not representative of other readers or commenters there.

Two points:
1) QandO is definitely NOT a neo-conservative internet magazine (as Mr. Corn blithely dismisses them).
2) I am not familiar with the Corn blog, other than the reference to the Corn Doctrine on QandO, but in reading today?s entries here and the comments on it (especially Knee-Jerk Capt., who doesn?t seem to have had an original thought for many years) it seems to be the typical liberal cocoon blog. I don?t read liberal cocoon blogs because once one is familiar with the liberal agenda and catechism, it is boring to watch liberal acolytes [posters and commenters] going through the liberal rosary beads to show off that they know how to apply the catechism to the issue de jour. Yes, I know that the same process occurs on many right wing blogs. I don?t read them either.
3) QandO, by the way, could use some better liberal commenters than those who now appear there. It doesn?t need the knee-jerkers who commented here today; it has its own set. It does need the type of commenter that are described on excellent blogs like Neo-neocon as ?principled leftists?. If you are of that ilk, please come over to QandO and enlighten us.

Here are two examples of why the Dems are just going through the motions on what is obviously an empty show, otherwise known as the confirmation hearings:

(1) Alito claimed to have no memory of having been active in Concerned Alumni of Princeton (opposed to affirmative action). Joe Biden said Alito's memory lapse "left some of us puzzled." LEFT YOU PUZZLED??!! For chrissakes, why didn't you nail him, Joe?

(2) When asked his opinion on the 5-4 SCOTUS decision that awarded the 2000 prez election to bush, Alito said he had not given the case "enough attention" to offer an opinion. HADN'T GIVEN IT ENOUGH ATTENTION??!! Oy! I would vote against him for his apparent inability to give the proper attention to important issues facing the nation.
+++++
It'll take a while for the water to boil the frog, but the temperature is rising rapidly.

#60 Robert -- I sometimes ask rhetorical questions, already knowing the answers. But, I appreciate your explanation. ;-))

Thnx.

#64 for someone who doesn't read various blogs, you sure seem to be up-to-speed on what they espouse.

You're exposing yourself.

IRS move said to HURT THE POOR

Tax refunds sought by 1.6 million poor Americans over the last five years were frozen and their returns labeled fraudulent, although the vast majority appear to have done nothing wrong, the Internal Revenue Service's taxpayer advocate told Congress yesterday.

The advocate, Nina Olson, said the I.R.S. devoted vastly more resources to pursuing questionable refunds sought by the poor - which under the highest estimate is $9 billion - than to the $100 billion in taxes not paid each year by people who work for cash and either fail to file tax returns or understate their income.(like illegal immigrants who not only take american jobs, but send a large portion of $$ home to their own countries, after not paying any taxes)

oh, but the dow is above 11,000 so the economy is strong and the poor have nothing to worry about! right?

The economy in a nutshell, for dummies:

By Bill Bonner

Do people have any reason to think that the world's financial system is in danger? "Hasn't it always been this way?" they ask.

The answer is "no." The present international financial system is an experiment. It has only existed since 1971, when the United States cut the umbilical cord between the dollar and gold. Before that, gold almost always stood behind the dollar, and other paper currencies. Why? You might just as well ask us "Why do fools fall in love?" or "Why is there air?"

If central bankers could create "money" simply by printing paper currency on a printing press, the world would soon be full of paper currency. And everywhere and always, the price of a thing varies with its availability. The more there is, the cheaper it is. Generally, as the volume of paper money increases, its unit price falls. Always has; always will.

For the first time since the Great Depression, Americans are spending more than they earn. The savings rate is negative. This gap has to be filled with "money." The nation's trade deficit was $664 billion in 2004. In 2005, it rose to $806 billion. And the IMF estimates that it will hit $890 billion this year. These gaps, too, must be filled. Each deficit ends up in foreigners' hands as purchasing power. In three years time, more dollars are added to the world's supply than the current price of all the gold ever mined since the beginning of time.

Meanwhile, the U.S. federal budget deficits shoot up, too. During the two terms of George W. Bush alone, the feds have borrowed more money from foreign governments and banks than was borrowed by all other American administrations put together, from 1776 to 2000. So too will more debt be added to the national burden in the eight Bush years than in the previous 224.

According to the Bush-friendly Heritage Foundation, federal deficits are expected to rise to $1 trillion per year, by the year 2017, with a $16 trillion national debt, twice today's level. After that, deficits should grow to $2 trillion per year.

Money, money, money...the Fed is also recreating new money at the fastest pace in history. At the present rate, M3 is ballooning even more rapidly than the trade deficit.

The Dow ended 2005 lower than it began, but managed to scrape its way over 11,000 yesterday. The typical stock sells for about what it did six or seven years ago, with a current P/E ratio of about 20.

The lead stock is, of course, Google. We recall mocking the editor of Kiplinger magazine when he bought the stock at $200. Now the stock is over $400. Should we call him to apologize? Nah...

Unless you really do your homework, every stock is a speculation. We have run our own business for the last quarter of a century. Even so, we can never know in January how the year will turn out. Sales could be up...or down. Profits could be good, or terrible. Sometimes we hit our projections; sometimes we do not. Many businesses may be a lot more predictable. Still, unless you really understand the business as an insider would, you are just guessing. He guessed right, but this is not serious investing.

Well...finally...good news! "Wages growing fastest in 3 years," says a headline in USA Today. When the economy is really making progress...when people really are getting wealthier...we will see it in wages. Businesses can make profits in a number of ways, many of them short-term or fraudulent. The GDP, job growth, and productivity figures are all distorted. The judgments of economists and politicians tend to be self-serving swindles. But when ordinary working stiffs can earn more money for each hour they work, then you have real prosperity.

And here is the evidence in USAT. Wages per hour rose in 2005 by 3.1%. Glory hallelujah!

But wait, the official figure for inflation is 3.5%. Ooooh...another disappointment. The poor working stiff actually got poorer, not richer. How could America's dynamic, job-creating, super-productive, high-tech, hyper-capitalist economy actually reduce the value of the time that goes into it? Isn't the whole idea of economic progress to make people wealthier...making it possible for them to earn more money while working fewer hours? What kind of scam is this?

January 11, 2006

Kennedy just wanted to take the committee into closed executive session to vote on issuing a subpoena on C.A.P. records.

Spector witheld ruling.

Argument ensued...

Sal, I don't think the future of jobs is that bleak in this country and here's why. Corporate interest are similar to electricity, they follow the path of least resistance. While during the past ten years corporations moved their manufacturing jobs overseas because of cheap labor, it stands to reason if it gets too expensive to do business overseas they will bring their business back to the USA, why because it will be cheaper to do business here. Granted prices will be higher for the goods they produce, but I believe they will come back to the nest to roost. The question in my mind is will prices keep rising no matter what happens and what will be the result for the American people constantly needing to consume, will consumption slow? Will the result be more bankrupcy? And what effect will this cause. Economics is unpredicable and complicated, and am not an Economist, does it show?

notherbob, demeaning comment noted, superiority of your intellect noted, now STFU and get out of here!!

DEN, I'm just posting the numbers. The stats for the past 5 years don't lie. The price of goods will continue to rise as long as the fed keeps printing money. As the two articles I posted above pointed out, inflation is inevitable with too many dollars in circulation, you don't have to be an economist to know that as the availability of any given item increases, it's value decreases, the dollar is no different. Jobs will continue to be outsourced and foreigners on work visas will continue to be brought in as long as inflation continues, for one simple fact, no one in this country can survive on $50. a day if it costs $100. a day to maintain the very basics of survival, and corps., being entities of profit, will remain where it is profitable. What they don't seem to get is that they are contributing to the demise of this country with their treacherous policies. But why should they care? You can take to the bank that they are stashing gold, so if and when the dollar crashes, it won't affect them at all, the rest of us can rot.

#4 great comment! We have employed slaves in this country today! Judges are going before the judiciary committee to praise Alito. This opens the door for future hearings to have judges slam a nominee. America is a horseshit country that keeps piling up the horseshit. Horseshit happens!

Silence is complicity!

Bush should be impeached now!

Jackgate will implicate mostly Democrats and he gets immunity from being prosecuted for murder.

The chimp is a dictator!

The repugs are the hypocrisy party!

180,000 Iraqis have been killed since 2003 is a more accurate number.

From a previous blog comment Madeline Albright and the Carlyle Group are linked. That is the first I heard about it. Please confirm if it is true!

Please help to clarify what Zionists mean!

Hadn't given it enough attention? is a bullshit answer. One of the most important rulings the Supreme Court has ever rendered and a nominee hadn't given it enough attention? Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit!!!

Thank you for any help!

Sal, you brought up the gold issue, I am curious about the urge to trade in dollars for gold. If I trade all my money for gold, what increment of gold should a person buy? Having bought gold how would you spend it for goods? Who would determine what amount of gold it would cost to say fill up your gas tank? An ounce of gold is worth about $550, If you only have gold in ounce increments how do you make change? Just wondering.

Does exposing oneself mean the same thing as flashing oneself?

In 2050 America's population will be 600 million legal residents and 50 to 75 illegal residents. Where will be the jobs? That will really be a more definitive time of slave wages.

Dictatorship and a banana republic yummy, yummy for the tummy!!!

Gerald, Zionism is a religious and political ideology in which the pursuit and aquisition of the biblical borders of Israel takes precedent over the interests of all other residents. Zionism is not only practiced by some Jews, but there are many Christian Zionists as well who believe that Jesus cannot return until Israel gains back it's ancient lands given to Abraham by God. These two groups, both religious extremists, are using each other to accomplish a private agenda which the Palestinian people are being slaughtered for. What they are doing is illegal as well as immoral, but especially the Christian Zionists, whose goal is a literal Armegeddon.

DEN, when I talk about trading paper dollars for gold and/or silver, I am not speaking of using these metals as daily currency, but rather keeping it as your savings instead of cash. I know not many can afford to save money with the cost of basic necessities constantly rising, but anything you can put away for the proverbial "rainy day" I recommend be in the form of precious metals. And I will reiterate, keep it out of the bank! If there is one thing economic history has proven time and time again, fiat currencies ALWAYS fail. Gold and siver are forever! If you get a chance to get over to my side of the "hill" my husband and I will be happy to take you on some fun gold hunting adventures where you will see some beautiful country.

Dear Cornposters:

Here is another open letter for you. Personally, I sense dire consequences and times ahead for the USA. Since we have children, I have some concern for my country. Actually, if we had no children, I could give a rat's ass what happens in this country. The reason for such feelings is that America is totally full of shit.

We have no Christianity, no Christian principles, no love, no mercy, and we have turned our backs on God.

With that kind of behavior America can be damned for all I care!!!

Sincerely,

Gerald

The Voice of the White House

January 9, 2006: I could probably send you an article, complete with nice pictures, of the President having sexual encounters with fat, wheezing Dick Cheney, Congoleeza Rice in a leather jump suit or his dog, Barney, and no one would either look at it or care.

I look at the Internet (it's part of my job) on a daily basis and there is enough concrete and believable material on it to cause a concerned Congress to immediately vote a Bill of Impeachment against the President.

They will not, unless and until they realize that the American public is growing increasingly and vocally restive about the perceived incompetence and utter corruption within the White House and the upper levels of the Republican administration, they will do nothing but make sure their Swiss bank accounts are safe and the bags and envelopes full of bribe money are still in their office safes..

This I can tell you, that Congress, specifically the Republicans, are becoming genuinely fearful lest they all be voted out of office come November. One Senator, a bug-eyed religious ninny, has even suggested, in my hearing, that Bush ought to fabricate a National Emergency, call out the military because of fictional terrorist attacks, and save Congress for the Jesus-Christ loving Republican Senators!

Of course such lunatic schemes will come to nothing and would, if promulgated, lead directly to civil war, like the big one now raging in Iraq (that our media is not going to talk about, they would rather shed crocodile tears about fat, nasty old Sharon’≥'s joyful departure from the scene) so we can basically forget about a fascist putsch. The weird Zell Miller weeps in frustration, no doubt.

The other, and best, solution for Republicans, eager to keep their seats and the unlimited opportunities for escalating graft and corruption, is to find someone harmless, make a huge fuss about them and go after them with much shouting, finger-waving and faked outrage, thus deflecting the attention of the public (so easily and often done with the cooperation of a slavish media) and once the sacrificial ram has had his throat cut by a self-righteous Congress, reelection will be so much easier. Who knows? Perhaps they might fix on George W. Bush for this purpose. A consummation devoutly to be wished indeed.!
----------
This column is always hysterical!

SHOCK VIDEO: WHO SHOT NEW 9/11 TAPES? AL QAEDA OR SOMEONE ELSE?

by: Justin Raimondo

I shivered, a little, as I watched Lisa Meyers' report on NBC the other night:

"New and threatening messages have been received from Al Qaeda. There's a videotape aimed at American and Saudi Arabian rulers and another that includes what appears to be well-produced footage of the 9/11 attacks - raising still other questions."

This new 9/11 footage sure does raise a lot of other questions, first and foremost: who shot the video? It was posted on what is described as "a known Al-Qaeda website" last Wednesday, although it was taken down after a few days. Aside from the usual militaristic gymnastics by jihadi commandos, Meyers reports:

"The tape also contains what U.S. counterterror experts say may be never-before-broadcast video of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York's World Trade Center shot from across the East River in Brooklyn. The FBI says it is familiar with the video, which was provided by a friendly bystander. But that raises the question - how did a tape that was not widely circulated end up on a known Al Qaeda site?"

It's sinister to contemplate. Video believed to have been in U.S. government hands somehow pops up on a website alleged to be an Al Qaeda mouthpiece, and U.S. government officials hold it up as a reason to cower in fear before the threat of another major terrorist attack on American soil. Meanwhile, the President avers that Iraq is the central arena in his "war on terrorism," and his supporters claim that we're battling them in the streets of Baghdad so we don't have to fight them in the streets of Boise - or whatever alliterative cliche first comes to mind.

The idea that Al Qaeda had additional agents in the area, who knew the attack was coming, would certainly explain the unflinching steadiness of the camera's eye as it recorded the terror of that moment. But instead of inventing additional elements and players, it's always best to stick with what we already know. So who else just happened to be videotaping the World Trade Center attack that day?

Hours after the terrorist struck, five people were arrested in New Jersey as they taped the WTC from their vantage point across the Hudson River in New Jersey. A witness identified only as "Maria" by ABC News said she saw:

"Three young men kneeling on the roof of a white van in the parking lot of her apartment building. 'They seemed to be taking a movie,' Maria said. The men were taking video or photos of themselves with the World Trade Center burning in the background, she said.

"What struck Maria were the expressions on the men's faces. 'They were like happy, you know ... They didn't look shocked to me. I thought it was very strange,' she said."

The apprehended Israelis claimed that they were merely "documenting" the day's events: police confiscated their photographic equipment, and whatever film they had taken. The new film shows the World Trade Center burning from the Brooklyn side of the East River, while the Urban Movers were filming from the vantage point of Liberty State Park, across the Hudson River in New Jersey. But whomever had foreknowledge of the attack on the World Trade Center could have taken that film - and Al Qaeda operatives are not the only possible suspects.

I have written at length about the five arrested Israelis in my new book, The Terror Enigma: 9/11 and the Israeli Connection, and I commend the attention of my readers to this modest little volume if they want to know more. I bring this up, not merely to plug my book, but to point out that we can't begin to understand the strange expropriation of this previously unknown footage outside the context provided by The Terror Enigma.

As I prove in my book, Al Qaeda did not carry out its plans for a major terrorist attack entirely undetected. The Israelis were hot on the trail of the 9/11 hijackers, and must have had some foreknowledge of what happened that fateful day.
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I'm willing to bet they had a lot more than foreknowledge. Is someone blackmailing the WH? Is Jr. pissing someone off? This is getting awful close the the MSM.

#77 Saladin, thank you for your help!!! I have had concern about the Christian Zionists before I even asked the question!

I believe

God will return on His time schedule!

God wants for us to create a heaven on earth before He returns!

When we greet or welcome the Supreme King, you want to prepare your home (world) with the finest example possible.

I beleive that a beautiful welcome sign would be a world of love, mercy, justice, and peace for all of God's children.

This is worth reading from a conservative perspective:

As Usual, Conservative Christians Don't Get It
By Chuck Baldwin

With confirmation hearings underway for Judge Samuel Alito,
many conservative Christians are focusing on the abortion issue. In
fact, many pro-life activists are hailing Alito as the man who
would overturn legalized abortion in America.

However, as is usually the case, most conservative Christians
cannot see beyond the abortion debate to look at the bigger picture.
Then again, myopia seems to be a permanent disorder affecting a
majority of conservative Christians today, so why should things
suddenly change now?

For the record, Judge Alito probably finds abortion personally
repugnant. It is certainly safe to say that Alito's opinions on
abortion seem to reflect greater respect for life than anything we
saw from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. However, that reality
alone will not make much difference. There is a greater reality at
work here that most conservative Christians deliberately choose to
ignore: the Republican Party has no intentions of ending legalized
abortion! Absolutely none!

To the vast majority of Republicans in Washington, D.C., the
abortion issue is merely a ready-made sugar-stick to hand out to
conservative Christians every election cycle in order to keep them
corralled in the GOP vote column.

As long as a Republican candidate can claim to be "pro-life," he or
she can count on receiving sizeable support from conservative
Christians. That simple statement, whether genuine or not, whether
followed with any substantive action or not, guarantees that most
Christian televangelists will spend countless hours pleading with
their supporters to vote "pro-life" by supporting the GOP ticket.

It doesn't matter that so-called "pro-life" Republican candidates
have had over 30 years to overturn Roe and are no closer now to
doing so than they were when Roe was first decided. It doesn't
matter that not a single "pro-life" Republican congressman has
introduced legislation under Article III, Section 2, of the U.S.
Constitution to remove Roe from the jurisdiction of the Court,
which is the prerogative of Congress to do. It doesn't matter that
after spending multiplied millions of dollars and electing hundreds
of "pro-life" Republicans, nothing has been done to overturn Roe.
It doesn't matter that the Republican Party has controlled the
White House for over 17 of the last 25 years and, accordingly, has
controlled appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court for all of those
years (not to mention the fact that it was a majority Republican-
appointed Court that passed the Roe decision), and nothing has
been done to overturn Roe. All that matters is that Republicans talk
"pro-life" during the election cycle.

How can any sensible person believe that the Republican Party
truly intends to overturn the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision
that legalized abortion on demand? It's beyond laughable: it's
hysterical!

Even if Judge Alito would vote to overturn Roe should the
opportunity present itself, it is almost certain that Chief Justice
John Roberts would not vote to overturn it. Therefore, the vote to
overturn Roe is 6-3 against-at best! In other words, we are no
closer to reversing Roe v Wade than we were before President
Bush was elected!

However, none of this matters to most conservative Christians.
After all, they can beat their chests, hobnob with Republican big-
shots, raise millions of dollars from gullible Christians, and
pretend to be "pro-life" every two years from now until the cows
come home without worrying about anything of substance actually
being done. What a racket! Yet, the situation is actually worse than
that.

Worse than most Christians' gullibility regarding the abortion issue
is the manner in which they give Republicans a pass on other
issues of immense importance. It seems that all a Republican has to
do to gain the confidence and support of the vast majority of
conservative Christians is say he is "pro-life" and opposed to
homosexual marriage. His or her position on virtually everything
else doesn't seem to matter.

It doesn't seem to matter to most conservative Christians that
President Bush has increased deficit spending beyond that of all
previous administrations put together. Yes, you read it right:
President Bush (with the aid of his fellow Republicans in
Congress) is a bigger debtor than all 42 of his predecessors
combined!

According to the McAlvany Intelligence Advisor, Dec. 2005,
"According to the Treasury Department, from 1776-2000, the first
224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined
$1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions,
but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed
$1.05 trillion." But that doesn't matter to a hill of beans to most
conservative Christians. Bush is "pro-life."

It doesn't matter to the vast majority of conservative Christians
that President Bush is attempting to accrue power to the executive
branch at the expense of constitutional government, that he is
championing extremely questionable, if not downright dangerous,
legislation that could result in the dismantlement of civil and
individual liberties. It doesn't matter that Bush is involved in the
most intense nation-building scheme in post World War II history.
It doesn't matter that he has done more to open the door of illegal
immigration than any president in modern memory. It doesn't
matter that he spearheaded (and continues to laud) the most
expensive and most intrusive expansion of the federal
government's role in public education in U.S. history. It doesn't
matter that Bush continues to promote ill-conceived trade deals
such as CAFTA and FTAA which weaken American independence
and sacrifice thousands of American jobs. Because President Bush
claims to be "pro-life," conservative Christians give him a pass on
virtually any and all other conduct.

Therefore, even if (a big if) Judge Alito would join Justices
Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas as being willing to overturn
Roe, the votes are still not there to actually do so.

Furthermore, President Bush could get at least one, and maybe
two, additional Supreme Court appointments. Two of the Court's
current justices are aged and in ill health. In other words, by the
time Bush leaves office, he could get as many as four appointments
to the High Court.

However, instead of overturning Roe v Wade, it is much more
likely that the Supreme Court will further advance the imperialistic
philosophy of the Bush administration resulting in an ongoing and
rapid demise of individual liberties for American citizens. In other
words, legalized abortion will still be intact but constitutional
liberties won't be, Bush's appointments to the High Court
notwithstanding. And, unfortunately, when it happens,
conservative Christians still won't get it.

Sal, thanks for the clarification, I will definitly take you up on the offer, spring/summer, good lord willin and the economy don't collapse.

Gerald,
I hear you, but having a nine year old (just turned 1/5/06) daughter, I have to hope for the best. I am at least trying to work for her physical health. As to the rest, it is always darkest before the dawn. I can only hope that the dirty dealings going on today, and people like us speaking out, can open the eyes of younger people. When I go and play/see music out, I meet a lot of kids who are pissed off but not that well educated as to the details. They are the hope. It lets me sleep at night.

Saladin,
I agree. I have kind of made a decision, though. Since I am an ahteist and prefer not to have religion shoved in my face, I should not shove my anti-religion in others. Beside pointing out where it is infringing on non-religious things, I am no longer criticizing peoples religion or questioning their faith. I will leave that to religious prople with sincere beliefs. I find what you and Gerald and others say about it interesting, I just do not believe it is fair of me to weigh in considering my views.

Solly

The Real Mysteries of 9/11

From: Descending Into Darkness: The Making of a Wartime President

TBR Ebooks
by Brian Harring

Between August 26 to September 11, 2001, a group of speculators, identified by the American Securities and Exchange Commission as Israeli citizens, sold “short” a list of 38 stocks that could reasonably be expected to fall in value as a result of the pending attacks. These speculators operated out of the Toronto, Canada and Frankfurt, Germany, stock exchanges and their profits were specifically stated to be “in the millions of dollars.”

Investigators from numerous government agencies are part of a clandestine but official effort to resolve the market manipulations There has been a great deal of talk about insider trading of American stocks by certain Israeli groups both in Canada and Germany between August 26 and the Sept.11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

September 6-7, 2001 -- 4,744 put options (a speculation that the stock will go down) are purchased on United Air Lines stock as opposed to only 396 call options (speculation that the stock will go up). This is a dramatic and abnormal increase in sales of put options. Many of the UAL puts are purchased through Deutschebank/AB Brown, a firm managed until 1998 by the current Executive Director of the CIA, A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard. [Source: The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal.]

September 10, 2001 -- 4,516 put options are purchased on American Airlines as compared to 748 call options. [Source: above]

September 6-11, 2001 -- No other airlines show any similar trading patterns to those experienced by UAL and American. The put option purchases on both airlines were 600% above normal. This at a time when Reuters (September 10) issues a business report stating, "Airline stocks may be poised to take off."

September 6-10, 2001 -- Highly abnormal levels of put options are purchased in Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, AXA Re(insurance) which owns 25% of American Airlines, and Munich Re. All of these companies are directly impacted by the September 11 attacks.

Ameicans receive contrived and fabricated information on an hourly basis.

Solly, I am one of those people who can positively say, "I don't know what is true!" I think about what Jesus said regarding rotten trees producing rotten fruit. I look at all the organized religions of the world and I can't recall even one that has not produced a veritable mountain of rotten fruit, so I wonder, was he warning us away from human religious institutions in general? Was he suggesting that we rely on our own innate goodness rather than the professed faith of hypocrites? From what I've seen, not one of his commercial followers has taken to heart anything he ever said! Maybe that is why we were warned "not to put our faith in the sons of men."

#85 Solly, please believe me when I say that I want the best for America and the world. I have serious concerns about the direction our country and the world is headed. I see America becoming more animalistic and cannibalistic and that frightens me for the present and for our future.

I truly believe that bushianity is America's religion.

My neoconevan family members are also very frightening. They have a Bible in one hand and an oozie in the other hand.

Saladin,
I really like your innate goodness concept. I like the idea of making yourdelf and the world around you better WITHOUT the faith in a post-death quid pro qho. To me, this signals that it sincerely comes from deep in the character rather than from fear of reprisal by and angry God. This is what turned me on about existentialist and atheist philosophical tracts like "Twilight of the Idols" by Nietzche and "The Denial of Death" by Becker. If people can do what is right and beneficial to the largest number even when it is no benefit, or even a detriment, to them, I think we would all be better off.

Solly

Solly,

Picking up on the innate goodness theme, did you check out the article I posted on "mirror cells" in the insula of the brain? Post #s 42 & 45.

I bring it up because it discusses the idea of empathy (as well as the impetus towards violence)and the biological causes thereof.

That's "Uzi", Gerald. Now, can you take a wild guess as to where they are manufactured?

I would never be a member of an organization that held those beliefs - Alito

Except, of course, he was...