David,

I actually hope that "JackGate" includes enough Dems (or INDIES?) to show that such absolute corruption and hubris will not be tolorated by the American People, whatever the affiliation.

It is well past time for "We the Sheeple" to rise up against this nightmare of an establishment and begin the process to once again govern ourselves.

And "BigOilandEnergy, Inc." is NOT to be considered one of us!

Have a safe flight!

-T

With all this money being shoveled around, I wonder how much may have ended up in numbered accounts overseas.

David,

"Jackgate" will not destroy the GOP. It may hurt some politicians of all stripes, the most being Republican, but the Republican and Democrat parties will susvive. I believe both parties have been through rougher times and still survived. Kind of like roaches.

David,

When are you going to develop at least a little intellectual integrity? The Republicans who participated in this travesty should all be banished from office, but how about mentioning the fact that 40 of the 45 Democratic Senators also took funds from Abramoff and his cohorts.

Is there any intellectual integrity, reasoned honesty, anywhere on the left?

Joke
From previous thread. I needed that.

Bill,
Take the retread out of here.

Unless things change it is a case of "so what?" Crooks of all stripes abound in government, and expecting anyone that wants to be in "public service" for altruistic reasons is crazy. They are all crooks in varying degrees, need to be thrown out regularly like the trash they really are.

Mr. David Corn,

Great post!

Thanks - As Always

Stay safe and sane. Have a good and uneventful trip. Look forward to more from you when you are able.

Kirk

The reference to the Hurwitz case brings to mind the incident where non-violent protesters practicing civil disobedience were subjected to pepper spray administered directly into the eyes.

(I might add at this point that Alito allowed a strip search of a ten year old girl - think he cares about civil liberties, at all?)

Wonder why we don't see more civil disobedience now? Cindy Sheehan notwithstanding.

Then of course, the Headwaters issue reminds me of the FBI and the bombing of Judy Barry's car.

On June 11, a federal jury returned a stunning verdict in favor of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in their landmark civil rights lawsuit against four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers.

The jury clearly found that six of the seven FBI and OPD defendants framed Judi and Darryl in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer. That was evident in the fact that 80% of the $4.4 million total damage award was for violation of their First Amendment rights to speak out and organize politically in defense of the forests.

"The jury exonerated us," said Darryl Cherney. "They found the FBI to be the ones in violation of the law. The American public needs to understand that the FBI can't be trusted. Ten jurors got a good, hard look at the FBI and they didn't like what they saw."

From JudiBari.org.

Feeling safer yet about the NSA scandals, and the rush to aggregate power in the executive?

And just whose conversations was John Bolton trying to get ahold of?

Meanwhile, talking about another failed Savings and Loan...and the taxpayers being hit for $1.6 Billion...

Anyway, I was watching C-Span, and they were showing a town hall with Congresscritters Jack Murtha and Dan Moran...the loudest applause of the evening came when someone in the audience suggested impeachment, Moran countered that they need a Democratic majority before that is even an issue. But, one young woman stood and asked about the 2.3 TRILLION DOLLARS missing from the Pentagon.

Murtha & Moran denied that the Pentagon could possibly be missing 2.3 TRILLION DOLLARS, billions maybe.

Down the memory hole.

Down.

Whoops! Judi Bari, of course...

How can the FBI investigate at least 10,000 Abramoffs?

From the previous thread I believe that Bush is the greatest terrorist the world has ever known! He goes beyond Hitler, Napoleon, and Stalin!

I believe that Bush is the father of mass murders and war crimes!

Controversial lobbyist had close contact with Bush team

WASHINGTON (AP) In President Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other laws, records show.
The meetings between Abramoff's lobbying team and the administration ranged from Attorney General John Ashcroft to policy advisers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, according to his lobbying firm billing records.

Abramoff, a $100,000-plus fundraiser for Bush, is now under criminal investigation for some of his lobbying work. His firm boasted its lobbying team helped revise a section of the Republican Party's 2000 platform to make it favorable to its island client.

In addition, two of Abramoff's lobbying colleagues on the Marianas won political appointments inside federal agencies....

....The reception Abramoff's team received from the Bush administration was in stark contrast to the chilly relations of the Clinton years. Abramoff, then at the Preston Gates firm, scored few meetings with Clinton aides and the lobbyist and the islands vehemently opposed White House attempts to extend U.S. labor laws to the territory's clothing factories.

The records from Abramoff's firm, obtained by The Associated Press from the Marianas under an open records request, chronicle Abramoff's careful cultivation of relations with Bush's political team as far back as 1997.

In that year, Abramoff charged the Marianas for getting then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush to write a letter expressing support for the Pacific territory's school choice proposal, his billing records show.

"I hope you will keep my office informed on the progress of this initiative," Bush wrote in a July 18, 1997, letter praising the islands' school plan and copying in an Abramoff deputy.
---------------------------
The Democratic Party has its share of no good scoundrels but it does not compare to the Republican Party we have in office today. Will the Republican Party survive? It shouldn't. The reputation associated with the party has been too corrupted. Honest Republicans everywhere have been forced out of the party. The ones who were there trying to make a difference were smeared, were left with no backing, and were left with no influence.

The problems the Republican Party have brought to the white house and congress and also to most state governments are beyond what we can calculate. It is the worst this country has ever seen.

The NSA Spy Engine: Echelon
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Investigative Report Monday 09 January 2006

A clandestine National Security Agency spy program code-named Echelon was likely responsible for tapping into the emails, telephone calls and facsimiles of thousands of average American citizens over the past four years in its effort to identify people suspected of communicating with al-Qaeda terrorists, according to half-a-dozen current and former intelligence officials from the NSA and FBI.

The existence of the program has been known for some time. Echelon was developed in the 1970s primarily as an American-British intelligence sharing system to monitor foreigners - specifically, during the Cold War, to catch Soviet spies. But sources said the spyware, operated by satellite, is the means by which the NSA eavesdropped on Americans when President Bush secretly authorized the agency to do so in 2002.

[...]

Ironically, during the first Bush administration, a woman named Margaret Newsham, who worked for Lockheed Martin and was stationed at the NSA's Menwith Hill listening post in Yorkshire, England, told Congressional investigators that she had firsthand knowledge that the NSA was illegally spying on American citizens.

While a Congressional committee did look into Newsham's allegations, it never published a report. However, a British investigative reporter named Duncan Campbell got hold of some committee documents and discovered that Newsham was telling the truth. One of the documents described a program called "Echelon" that would monitor and analyze "civilian communications into the 21st century."

More.

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

Of course, if the Brits watch the US citizens, then they avoid that pesky domestic spying bit, don't they?

As far as the pathetic calls for inclusion of Democrats?

Please?

The real problem is not limited to either party nor is it limited to Jack Abramoff. It is lobbying, the mountains of money that has taken the "peoples" place at the table. It is a corrupt system with corruption at its core.

Jack Abramoff may have done more and gotten caught but to think that Jack is the one and only or that Jack is a lone criminal is just silly.

I hope that by investigating and convicting Jack Abramoff starts a domino effect that takes down all involved, Democrat and Republican.

As I always say, crime is an equal opportunity activity and once a criminal - party is not a consideration. A criminal is a criminal regardless of their political leaning. All that are involved with funny money should be called to account.

It is my opinion that the problem is with the "system" of lobbying. Just as a conviction of Abramoff will not address the selling out of politicians in general to lobbyists. I hope the investigation takes on 535 crooks (if all are dirty) and convicts accordingly.

capt

Is there any intellectual integrity, reasoned honesty, anywhere on the left?

Speak for yourself, "righty." You're way behind on the talking points. Case in point: Howard Dean left Wolf Blitzer sighing in misery the other day when Dean blew him away on the suggestion that the Abramoff scandal was bipartisan. Is there the possibility that some Dems may be caught up in it? Sure. But the overwhelming majority appears to be Republican simply because the Democrats have had nothing to sell over the past decade. I'm looking forward to watching the unholy triumvirate of DeLay, Norquist, and Reed go DOWN!

Intellectual integrity indeed. I've never in my life seen a cult built around a president like the one we've seen over the past five years. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that Bush can do to shame his apologists.

Remembering Hugh Thompson Jr.

I found a great new term for the Chimperor over on Steve Gilliard's blog (stevegilliard.blogspot.com):

*The Preztard* (Props to Fast Eddy)

For an amusing look at the non-rich component of the Preztard's "base", check out www.elmerfudd.us
*BWAH HA HA HA!*

Wespectfuwwy youhs, Ivowy Bill Woodpeckah

David,
Jack Abramoff is probably not the juggernaut that will bring the repub hill crashing down. Or any other party for that matter. But it sure might shake em up.

Theres a whole lot a shakin goin on!

And the repubs do tend to eat their own. Let's see how many state reps will be devoured. In Colorado, there is already plenty of cannabalism in the repug ranks.

We ought to rename the repug convention "Alfred Packer Banquet" Yum

Hi Hajji,

What does "indie" mean? I hear that term for many things pertaining to music. Is it a 'ska' thing? Just wondering.
Thanks
th

as big as the abramoff inquiry could/should get, I will still be surprised if it destroys ANY of them, INCLUDING jack - it's just another outrageous scandal that john Q. will most likely allow the GOPhers to shrug off

I must admit the "Stop Elmer Fudd!" crew is a bit harsher than the Woodpecker likes, though the Monster from the Id loves it.--IBW

th, when applied to the music industry, the term 'indie' refers to independent - ie:: small independent mom & pop music labels, as opposed to conglomerates like SONY et al.

I know what you mean James...

Just do a 'where are they now?' inquiry of folks from the Iran-Contra scandal...

I wonder what ever happened to the convicted critters from abscam?

Making Reform from the Abramoff Scandal

The Abramoff scandal give the grassroots a chance to push for changing the way government works

The American system of pay-to-play governance has been thrown into a moment of turmoil by the perverse greed of Jack Abramoff and the lobbying network in which he played the ringmaster. This is a window of opportunity to talk about political reform. But, as citizens, we face three hazards: demanding too much, settling for too little and leaving the whole thing to the two dominant parties to deal with.

Without a grassroots effort putting heat on congressional members from their districts, the scandal may very well fade into pseudo reform.

What's needed is a one-two punch: graphically lay bare the infection of corruption among the current crop in Washington, while calling for realistic changes to the system itself.

Some will argue that pushing the Democrats' electoral advantage is all that matters. It's better to run against a corrupt party, they'll say, than it is to make repairs to a broken system. But by pushing the Democrats to call for political change that is at once focused and pragmatic -- and is also far more than the Republicans could ever accept, the grassroots can take the initiative.

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

I hope the opportunity is seized by "we the people" to change a corrupt system. We will all lose if this is limited in its scope or partisan in its application.

"Crime does not pay ... as well as politics." ~ Alfred E. Newman

capt

Thanks James Ha. I'm not good at syntax using abbreviations and intials.
Guess its cus I'm old.
Cheers,
th

stop elmer fudd! elmer fudd syndrome!
dog killing elmer gets shot by dog!

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that Bush can do to shame his apologists.

Nothing.

Nothin'

Elmer Fudds, oh great, I work with three Fudds, I have to dumb down my conversation and still can't communicate on the Fudd level for more than 5 minutes without wanting to slap-shyt-outa-em, yuk yuk.

Jesus of Nazareth

And, one Fudd was getting calls about a year ago from tom delays office, they wanted to give him a "good citizenship" award, barf!

I thought it was rovegate that was going to bring the neocons crashing down, or was it plamegate? What happened to gannongate, DSMgate, no WMD'sgate, nigergate, wilsongate, AIPAC spyinglarryfranklingate, spyingonUScitizensgate, 9/11gate??? Sorry if I've forgotten any, there have been so many gates I can't keep track. Did anyone from enron actually go to jail? Does anyone really think delay will suffer in the slightest?

Love

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
-- Dr. Joseph Goebbels, nazi propagandist

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
-- George W. bush

"If the people knew what we had done, they would chase us down the street and lynch us."
-- George H.W. bush

Alito is the Wrong Choice

The battle in the Senate over Samuel Alitoճ nomination to the Supreme Court has begun. Alitoճ potential appointment raises concerns in many areas, from reproductive and civil rights to the environment and corporate powers. Simply put, this manճ positions stand in stark contrast to the principles and vision that TrueMajority members stand for.

The fight to stop Alitoճ confirmation in the Senate is being led by our friends at People for the American Way, and you can join in by signing TrueMajorityճ petition (text below), which calls on senators to oppose his nomination. Use the form on the right to sign the petition.

We are pleased to be working with People for the American Way in this vital effort. This united front has the potential to keep the values and integrity of the Supreme Court intact for decades to come.

To see a message from People for the American Way and learn more about Alito, click the "Tell me more" link below.

Tell me more

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

More keyboard activism.

capt

Suffer in the slightest...

One wonders, will the Dukester be eatin' Grey Poupon with his bolonga sandwiches...

Jeanne #12, they are working working together in the name of compassionate conservatism! Which bushbot was it claiming that people in the US refuse to work for lower wages, claiming this as the reason jobs were being outsourced? I guess these happy meetings had nothing to do with any of those decision making get togethers. Stupid Americans, if they would just agree to work for a dollar a day they would have all the jobs they could cram into 24 hours! Another thought, since it is known that atta liked to party on one of abramoff's gambling boats, maybe bush knows him too!

Peace

He's not heavy

Help me

David:

"...Destroy the GOP?", a bit, Hyperbolic, don't you think? Marketing-wise, makes a good headline to get picked up in the bloggosphere, No? Tsk, tsk... too MSM-like....

This Gate wll naturally catch more GOP than Dem scums. Your Regulars and most on the Right recognize that. What, since 1994, the GOP has had the majority in Congress. Duh, ain't we smart?

Let's hope this probe goes back far enough to when the Dems were in control of Congress and let's see what the `ratio' might look like. Corruption in Government is forever and constant vigil is needed. Just don't get overly carried away that This Time, the GOP is likely to look worse than the Dems.

I do have faith that the Dem leaders, once again, will overplay this genuine `wrong' and end up scoring less than it could.

If the Dems don't pull together their case against Alito's confirmation, the bush administration's claims to inherent executive powers -- wiretapping w/o court orders, extraordinary renditions, torture of (alleged) terrorists (plus the use of military tribunals for their trials), etc. -- will become de facto law. The busheviks' unitary executive mode of governing will replace the checks and balances that have been the cornerstone of our nation's democracy.

Democrats and Republicans on the Judiciary Committee should be working in tandem to block Alito's confirmation -- if they do not, our country will be facing the constitutional crisis that will result in unchecked presidential powers. (Otherwise known as a dictatorship.) It would seem to me, that should be clear to members of the "co-equal" branch of government.

We should all inundate the Judiciary Committee and all elected officials, newspapers, TV outlets, newsmagazines, political blogs, etc. and let them know that Alito is not acceptable for the good of our country.

I'm not holding my breath that the Dems will rise to the challenge. (They could take a lesson or two from Howard Dean and pull it out of the fire! Go, Howard! I loved you sticking it to Blitzer!)
++++++++
PS If more Dems got their pusses on national TV and socked it to lightweight bush apologists such as the likes of Wolf Blitzer, a la Howard Dean's performance, the GOP would be toast! Jackgate won't be the demise of the GOP, unless the Dems grow some BIG ones!

To put it more bluntly, USA: R.I.P.

Alito will be confirmed. Our Constitution is dead.

From: Lew Rockwell
The Winter of Our Discontent
by Steven LaTulippe

So many things have gone wrong lately that one hardly knows where to begin. Every time I start a column, something else happens that begs for analysis and comment.

So, to keep things simple, I'll just hit the high points:

The Jack Abramoff Scandal:
Washington is all atwitter about super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff's recent plea-bargain in which he allegedly agreed to testify against several prominent beltway power brokers.

As best I can figure, Abramoff is accused of bribing various congressmen in return for "special favors" for his clients. He allegedly threw a lot of cash and luxury junkets around Capitol Hill in order to change policies concerning gambling interests and minimum wage laws.

I'm frankly mystified as to why anyone finds this newsworthy. After all, Washington DC is essentially nothing more than an enormous fencing operation. Every year, the government takes money from hard-working Americans, puts it into a giant pile, and then distributes it to a myriad of special interest groups using a shady, dishonest process involving favor swapping, backstabbing, and influence peddling.

This procedure is not an anomaly or a glitch, but is actually the core function and purpose of the system.

Jack Abramoff was not, philosophically speaking, doing anything out of the ordinary. He may have been a little more blatant and dishonest about it, but is that newsworthy?

No way.

Jack Abramoff is just one of many parasites slithering around in the large abscess that is Mordor on the Potomac. If he goes to the big house, virtually the entire city should go with him.

Either way, there's not a whole lot we can do about it. My only wish in the matter is that the Washington establishment would spare us the self-righteous indignation.
------------
My sentiments exactly. There is nothing new under the sun, they can't even come up with some INTERESTING distractions!

Everybody's Trying to Scrape it off the GOPs Guccis

But the Stench isn't gonna go away!

-T

I saw this in the comments section of the Smoking Mirrors blog. Anyone else heard this story? Who was it that suggested abramhoff watch his back? I don't care about the dirty money, I want to know about his connections to atta and 9/11.

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

A US grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor, and the probe ended soon after.
http://www.boston.com/news.

Abramoff has serious juice to get a favor like that from Bush. Is Abramoff blackmailing Bush over 9-11, given that Mohammed Atta was a guest on Abramoff's casino ship shortly before 9-11?

Well, that was damned nice of all of you to keep posting on the lengthy thread after several of us suggested we go to the shorter one. Saladin, you tried to steer them back. I managed to bring it up after a weekend of company and there was plenty to scroll thru so it didn't take very long to get caught up after all.

Milk from a mad cow. The Secret World of Jack Abramoff, Terrorists, Torpedoes and Republican "Muscle."

Wrestling with alligators

There remains a strong suspicion that Atta's terrorist cadre supposedly unknown and friendless and burrowing into the woodwork was able to call on the assistance, when necessary, of a friendly global network.

Could it be that this network is the same one being probed so gingerly today by investigators looking into Jack Abramoff?

What could a scandal involving Indian casinos and gambling boat cruises to nowhere & pay-for-play government officials have to do with the story of 19 hijackers planning a mass murder in supposed isolation in Florida?

Let's take a look.
-------------
Does anyone wonder why the MSM isn't touching this? Didn't think so.

Hurwitz and Abramoff together in the same scandal with Doolittle and Pombo?

I wonder if Humboldt County, CA prosecutor Paul Gallegos might want to subpoena some of those records? If Hurwitz had insider help hiding from California politicians, it no doubt had much to do with the acquisition and exploitation of Pacific Lumber and probably includes illegally cutting redwoods as part of cooking the books they are trying to hide from the scales of Justice.

May Justice prevail.

Her scales have been tampered with and She's mad as hell.

The "wide net" of investigation spread over this disgraceful use of public power should be at least as large as the web of lies and corruption that brought about the investigation in the first place.

And every time one of our agents gets a door slammed in their face, or the run-around on information and evidence being provided for them, they should make it very public, whistleblowing every time they get stalled, and let us all know who's stonewalling, and let us decide why.

One interesting fact; this story is old enough that we can already see the most important question being answered, the one that asks "cui bono".

Curious, how that list of beneficiaries seems to match Abramoff's rolodex.

Maybe we can thank Jack for the ultimate rogues' list, he called them his "friends." We can call them "The Corruptibles."

JEP

Carol, I noticed there wasn't a lot of posting going on in general yesterday. Sometimes, if I disable my proxy server that enables quicker surfing, I can pull up the 400+ comment threads, but I saw I wasn't missing much! I tried to stick with the shorter one anyway.

New Book, State of War, by NY Times's James Risen Gives Vital Background to Downing Street Memo
By Jonathan Schwarz
AfterDowningStreet.org

Also of interest, BushFellas meet The Soprano's

If the various Abramoff scandals are the brewing scandals Republicans fear most, what may be keeping Abramoff himself up late at night, we suspect, is the murder investigation now grinding forward in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

What makes this a candidate for most explosive scandal (in a Dramatic Category) since Watergate?

First, because Jack Abramoff and his friends are the players in the conservative revolution that took over Congress, the White House, and the lobbying industry...

Second, because Abramoff has been charged with fraud in connection with a gambling ship deal in Florida which ended in a gangland-style killing of the man Abramoff is alleged to have defrauded...

And third... because The Washington Post (and practically everyone else writing about it) can't resist describing it as a gangland-style hit straight out of Goodfellas.

Congressional Quarterly called the Abramoff-DeLay scandal The Slow Decline of a GOP Godfather.

How much of this isn't in jest? Have we truly become what much of the rest of the world sees us as: Gangster America?
----------
What sort of plea bargain will he get? bush got him off the hook at least once before. Now that the big fish are the target, will the sharks begin to circle in ernest?

David says,
Is Jack Abramoff the gift that will keep on giving? And will he destroy the Republican Party?

David, I know you have never professed to be fair or balanced, but don't you think it is rather deceptive of you not to mention the fact that an equal amount, now starting to look like more, of Abramoff's hand outs went to Dems? I understand you have no trouble helping destroy the American way of life if it might make Repubs appear in a bad light, but shouldn't you at least try to be honest, just once?

And then there's THIS:

GOP, Osama agree: Heroin is King

Florida casino gambling insider Robb Tiller, one of the fathers of the Indian gambling industry (today another pillar of Abramoff's empire) pointedly referred us to the manner of the Boulis hit, stating, Boulis was murdered in the exact same way as Don Aronow, Bush's other partner.

Bush's other partner? We didn't even have to ask it. The question hung in the air.

Something is really going down bad here, Tiller continued. Don Aronow. Gus. Jim Shore, all tied in to Bush.

(Jim Shore was a top executive of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the state's preeminent casino operators.)

In our earlier story we asserted the belief that as the scandal embroiling House Major Domo Tom Delay and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff grows hotter, it will yield new revelations about the 9.11 attack.

What does a scandal involving Indian casinos, gambling boat cruises to nowhere in Florida & pay-for-play government officials have to do with the story of 19 hijackers planning a mass murder in supposed isolation?

Hint: Atta wasn't playing blackjack.

One clue: Ringleader Mohamed Atta made a still-unexplained visit onboard one of Abramoff's casino boats less than a week before the attack.

A bigger clue: the man who owned the flight school favored by Atta and so many other terrorists had his Lear jet surrounded by DEA agents brandishing submachine guns on the runway of Orlando Executive Airport in July of 2000, the same month Atta began "training" at his flight school. They found 43 pounds of heroin onboard. For flight school owner Wally Hilliard, it was a 'blemish,' though not as yet one for which he has been asked to go to prison.

Several of the principals in the Boulis hit also have heroin trafficking backgrounds. What a surprise. Most of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan, which used to known as OsamaLand.

So we believe our Abramoff/9.11 prediction will prove accurate. We suspect this may be one reason we don't get asked to appear on Hardball (or almost anywhere else.) We groused once about this "invisible" status once to a lifetime member of our nation's clandestine forces.

"Look at it this way," he responded with equanimity. "At least they let you live."

Its a better deal than poor Gus Boulis got.
----------
So much corruption, so little time.

First, I'd like to propose we find another catchy phrase to characterize this fiasco. The '...gate' thing is overused, isn't it?
Howsabout the Jackoff Massacre. Many double entendres intended, or....

I read a piece by 'the eye' over at dailykos (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/8/151449/3154) this weekend that digs up an insidious link between Bush and Abramoff. Seems that when Jackoff worked for Greenberg Traurig in 2000 he helped skunk the Gore recount in Florida. The bill was never completely paid. Over $300,000 was left outstanding. On purpose, ya think?!!

Few years later Bush ousts the prosecutor in the Guam investigation of Jackoff's shenanigans there, thereby skunking that investigation entirely.

If it looks like quid pro quo, smells like quid pro quo, it seems to me likely to be yet another slimey bribery trail oozing from these scumbag sluggers.

I do hope Alice Fisher isn't in Bush's pocket entirely or this could just drop into another cover up void.

Hoping for a real massacre on K street.

Dianna

Dow Jones hits 11,000

Damn, good thing I own all that Haliburton, HMO & pharmaceutical stock, I just made a killing!!!

fair,
why don't you show us where an equal amount, now starting to look like more, of Abramoff's hand outs went to Dems?? - I would like to see that! - and David wrote a book titled "The Lies Of George W. Bush" - that pretty much sez it all right there, doesn't it?

James Ha #56

James you need to read a paper once in awhile. If you had, you would know that I have already given back $2,000 of the $12,900 that Jack has given me. Charles Rangel, Barbara Mikulski and Tim Johnson have also all given part of there contributions. Now I know that Howard Dean said on CNN that not one Dem took money, but well, we all know that Dean isn't the brightest light bulb of the bunch which is why I put him in that position. This is how I plan to control all the money going into the DNC for my presidential run next year. I have to fool all the NYer's first into thinking that I will be there Sen. for four more years, ya right!! Now James don't make me come and kick your ass like I did Billy when he was President. That was kinda fun though.

Noting all the "gates" which have come up, I suddenly have a lump in the pit of my stomach, that this Jack Abramoffgate may, also, go the way of-------.

I know it's a third rail, but there is a DVD, "A Call To Reopen The September 11 Investigation-Confronting The Evidence" which consists of two panels of experts who claim, at the outset, that the 9-11 Commission Report was a beautiful work---of fiction!
If enough people looked at this, all hell would REALLY break loose, and it couldn't, as so many others "gates" have come up, be swept under the rug.
The challenge is to bring to light what
REALLY happened 9-11, and who was REALLY responsible!

Saladin

I am glad to see that you are a Jew hater like myself. There just isn't enough of us bigots to stand up for what we really believe in.

James Ha,

The GOPhers are conflating the money Abramoff gave with the money that Indian tribes have given. If that tribe was a client of Abramoff's, the argument goes, then the tribe's money is equally tainted.

So it depends on the definition of Abramoff money.

I don't think the trolls posting the "Dems are guilty, too!" get it yet. (One deluded individual above suggests that there are more Democrats involved than Republicans!)

It's this simple:

1 - Campaign contributions do not equal bribes.

2 - No Democrat took money directly from Abramoff anyway.

3 - No Democrats have been indicted.

4 - If any Democrats are indicted and are found guilty, every regular who posts here will want the bum thrown out on his or her ass along with the rest of the whores.

Got it? Good. Now please stop wasting bandwidth.

#42 micki, it is over! USA: R.I.P.

#44 Hajji, the GOP stench is so bad that even heaven had to move and left no forwarding address.

Halliburton made a killing on Wall Street and on the streets of Iraq.

"If any Democrats are indicted and are found guilty, every regular who posts here will want the bum thrown out on his or her ass along with the rest of the whores."

No doubt about it!

Let the indictments fly. I would add the investigations are being done while the neocons control all three branches of government, you can bet if they have the goods on non-GOPhers we would have already had the Democrats in front of a judge.

The only reason for the pffle posts is to goad a response.

Hate speech, insults, and this non-logic is too silly to post to.

capt

What I Heard about Iraq in 2005
By Eliot Weinberger
The London Review of Books
Thursday 05 January 2006

Trolls Beware! The feds are watching!

CNN LATE EDITION WITH WOLF BLITZER

BLITZER: Should Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, who has now pleaded guilty to bribery charges, among other charges, a Republican lobbyist in Washington, should the Democrat who took money from him give that money to charity or give it back?

DEAN: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true.

BLITZER: But through various Abramoff-related organizations and outfits, a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.

DEAN: That's not true either. There's no evidence for that either. There is no evidence...

BLITZER: What about Senator Byron Dorgan?

DEAN: Senator Byron Dorgan and some others took money from Indian tribes. They're not agents of Jack Abramoff. There's no evidence that I've seen that Jack Abramoff directed any contributions to Democrats. I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They're scared. They should be scared. They haven't told the truth. They have misled the American people. And now it appears they're stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this.

BLITZER: Unfortunately Mr. Chairman, we got to leave it right there.

Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic Party, always speaking out bluntly, candidly.

Appreciate your joining us on "Late Edition."

DEAN: Thanks, Wolf. Safe flight back.

BLITZER: Thank you very much.

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

NO, thank YOU very much Dr. Dean.

My only fear is that a conviction for Abramoff will distract from the simple fact that all lobbying should be illegal (just my opinion) and they "culture of corruption" will march along as if the system is not corrupt.

capt

Vice is evil

Bush's Botched War on Terror

Peering ahead into what will certainly be a lively New Year: One aspect of the President's generally poor polling numbers -- which bumped up modestly thanks to a holiday propaganda onslaught about democracy, progress, and victory in Iraq (and, in the first poll to arrive in January, are already sinking again) -- remains striking. What "approval" George Bush now retains seems to rest largely on a single strand of popular feeling: the belief in the President's special aptitude for conducting his global war on terror and keeping Americans safe. Even taking a mid-December ABC/Washington Post poll (scroll down) that had anomalously high positives for the President, in no other area -- health care (37%), Iraq (46%), the economy (47%) and "ethics" (48%) -- did his approval ratings hit the 50% mark. On "terrorism," however, he was at 56%. In other polls, where the rest of those mediocre numbers aren't even matched, his "handling" of terrorism still continues to hover just above or close to 50%. For example, the latest Time magazine poll (scroll down) in early December, had the President's approval rating on terrorism at 49%. Last spring, however, the same poll had it reaching a high for the year of 63%; and let's not forget that, in early 2002, it rested at about 90%. Recent polls also seem to indicate that Americans are coming to believe either political party could handle terrorism equally well.

This is perilous territory for the President to be entering. If, as Michael Klare, author of the ever more indispensable book, Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependence on Imported Petroleum, indicates below, Americans truly come to believe that Bush has botched his war on terrorism at every level and has made Americans less secure in the world, then this year and the coming elections could prove uncomfortable indeed for the President and his associates.

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

Too bad we do not have a government that is concerned with our dependence on imported petroleum. Reducing our dependence could win the war against American consumers waged by big oil and the wealthy elite. That would be a war against the Busheney base - so - not going to happen.

capt

Devvy is a fox

Corporate Greed and the Religion of Wealth: In the temple courts [Jesus] found men selling cattle,
sheep and doves and other sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords,
and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money
changers and overturned their tables. [John 2:14 & 15.] Watch out! Be on your guard against all
kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. [Luke 12.15.]
Truly, I say unto you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 19:23]
You cannot serve both God and Money. [Matthew 6:24.]

Don, Capt

Would you please stop defending me. Like I said, I already gave the money back!! If I had not been charged with that damn FEC violation for hiding $1,000,000 in contributions recently, then I would have kept it.

US troops make a major coup in Iraq: The War Is Won

Capt

Would you quit asking people to focus on alternative energy. I don't want anymore windmills put up offshore by one of my mansions that has a heating bill of $25,000 a year. Those damn windmills make my view look like shit!!

Capt

Would you quit asking people to focus on alternative energy. I don't want anymore windmills put up offshore by one of my mansions that has a heating bill of $25,000 a year. Those damn windmills make my view look like shit!!

Capt

Capt, I agree with you about the Dems hiding campaign contributions through the Indian tribes, this is what I tried doing through my PAC and now I might go to jail for doing the same slimy things that Byron Dorgan and Harry Reid have done. Please write more about this because the more you defend them the better it is for me to say I did what they did so I am innocent.

Losing the War on Terrorism

Our Incompetent Commander-in-Chief

President Bush has lost the support of most Americans when it comes to the economy, the environment, and the war in Iraq, but he continues to enjoy majority support in one key area: his handling of the war on terrorism. Indeed, many analysts believe that Bush won the 2004 election largely because swing voters concluded that he would do a better job at this than John Kerry. In fact, with his overall opinion-poll approval ratings so low, Bush's purported proficiency in fighting terror represents something close to his last claim to public legitimacy. But has he truly been effective in combating terror? As the war on terrorism drags on -- with no signs of victory in sight -- there are good reasons to doubt his competency at this, the most critical of all his presidential responsibilities.

Consider, for a moment, the President's view of the global war on terror. While the White House keeps trying to stretch this term to include everything from the war in Iraq to the protection of oil pipelines in Colombia, most Americans wisely view it in more narrow terms, as a global struggle against Muslim zealots who seek to punish the United States for its perceived anti-Islamic behavior and to free the Middle East of Western influence through desperate acts of violence. These zealots -- or "jihadists" as they are often termed -- include the original members of Al Qaeda along with other groups that claim allegiance to Osama bin Laden's dogmas but are not necessarily in direct contact with his lieutenants. It is in fighting these adversaries that the public wants Bush to succeed, and it is in this contest that he is failing.

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

Failing because Busheney playing two sides against the middle. We are the middle and we need to realize we are at war, not in opposition to these neo-fascists.

capt

If anyone didn't get to actually see the CNN interview capt excerpts in #66, they should go to Crooks and Liars and check out the video. Blitzer actually audibly sighs at the end of the interview! He fucking sighs! He is so exasperated by Dean he can't help himself from being so unprofessional. I guess it just drives him crazy that he can't fluster Dean into agreeing with or screaming or something. I love it! More of this from the opposition party, please.

Jackgate: The Democrats Downfall

This has been one of my predictions.

I agree with you about the Dems hiding campaign contributions through the Indian tribes

This post is pretty stupid for obvious reasons.

A Former NSA Officer on Domestic Spying

The Squawkers Should be Congratulated

From my days in the Army Security Agency in Vietnam, a branch of the National Security Agency, I learned one clear lesson: "Top Secret" keeps everyone involved, except the very few at the top, completely in the dark.

In such a classified world it is essential that each cog in the wheel be kept completely ignorant of the workings of the other cogs and wheels. Only the "masters" of the system get to see the big plan. Assigning all communications, memos and briefs as "Top Secret" is the perfect way to run a dictatorship.

No one squawks when all they can see is one small piece of the pie being baked. If the pie happens to be a naked grab for power at the cost of liberty, and freedom from government intrusion and intimidation, the cogs never know, until the pie is baked.

Thank goodness that there are men and women with courage and scruples at the top who will "squawk" when the see such a pie being baked. And thank goodness there are reporters and newspapers with the courage to expose such poisonous pies to the people.

The very nature of government is power and control. In times of great fear and trembling and fear mongering to hand over individual power to the state for the sake of "national security" seems prudent. Yet, once taken up, those holding the reins seldom relinquish their new power. It is as if the lust for power, like any dark addiction, only breeds more lust.

To prosecute the "squawkers," to kill the messengers of such ill tidings, is not the choice of a free people.

Dr. John Bomar, a veteran of the Vietnam War, is a Catholic Lay Minister in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. He can be reached at: johnrbomar@hotsprings.net

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

An interesting perspective from a NSA guy!

capt

Hi everyone, did you see how I dodged the question about giving back the campaign contributions to Democrats from Jack Abramoff? Wolf is such a moron. I purposely said that Dems took no money from Jack so we wouldn't have to give it back, even if it does look and smell bad. Well, you know that I have not been the best DNC chairman out there. I cannot raise money legally worth a darn and we need to keep this cash to compete with those evil Repubs. Please keep defending me like you have been, this really helps keep the FEC off me.

Let the rather tragic trolls follow along. They cannot form an original post that says anything. It is very telling when all they are able to do is offer some pathetic critique of one of our posts.

Seems all they can do is yip-yap and snipe at a word or phrase.

Piffle, piffle, piffle.

Just sayin'

capt

capt,

You're right - it's pointless. The idiot posting as various pols has absolutely no understanding of the issue, and it is obviously not interested in engaging in any substantive discussion.

The mouse wheel is my friend!

Even if so many Dems were not themselves financially involved in the scandal, expecting Dems to go after Reps is an unwholesome unrealistic expectation. You might as well believe in the tooth fairy, or Santa Claus...

Even after George W. Bush repeatedly publicly acknowledged being connected to people with specific prior knowledge of the very beginning of the supposedly-secret, supposedly-terrorist attacks of 9/11, Dems have remained mute.

Even after Prescott Bush had his companies taken away from him by Congress in 1942 under the Trading With The Enemy Act (Prescott helped Nazis kill American troops during WW II!!!), Dems once again were complicitly silent by failing to mention that "little detail" during Prescott's subsequent U.S. Senatorial election campaigns!!!!!!

David Corn "gatekeeps" the hard cold truth that Dems-vs-Reps is a staged fake phony kind of 'opposition'. But how many times do you need to see a 'fighter' pull his punches before you recognize a fake fight?

I love it! Jackgate plea bargains himself away from a murder case and the Democrats are going to go to jail. Leave it to the Democrats to screw themselves.

Antiwar rally reflects changing attitudes

People driving by an anti-war protest in Lincoln Saturday showed both support and disagreement by sticking their fingers out the window.

Thumbs up.

Thumbs down.

Two fingers for peace.

One finger for ɠthe opposite.

But to the surprise of Adam Brown, a protester with a cardboard cutout of President Bush, most of the response was positive.

"Weնe seen a lot more two fingers (out of windows) than one," the 17-year-old said.

Nebraskans for Peace endorsed the Lincoln rally, one of more than 100 events scheduled nationwide for "National Day of Out of Iraq."

The idea for the day originated with After Downing Street, a national group advocating the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

About 50 protesters in Lincoln stood holding signs at Woods Park, 33rd and O streets, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

The Nebraskans for Peace signs said, "U.S. OUT/U.N. IN."

Other people held homemade signs.

"War is not pro-life," one read.

Another asked, "What plan?"

Brown and his brother, Daniel, brought the cardboard Bush, placing a red cowboy hat on its head and holding a conversation bubble reading "Iխ a crook" by its mouth.

Many of the supportive honks from drivers were directed at the brothers.

Maribeth Milner also said she noticed more positive than negative reaction to the rally.

"Some of itճ been covert, like a thumbs-up on the steering wheel," she said. "But itճ there."

Tim Rinne, state coordinator of NFP, said more people seem to support the anti-war movement because the political mood of the nation is changing.

NFP received hostile reactions to its anti-war events after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Rinne said.

"Questioning government policy at that point was probably not a popular thing to do," he said.

But Saturdayճ event garnered the most positive response to a political issue Rinne has ever seen, he said.

Patrick Jones, an assistant history professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said a growing number of people are becoming wary and skeptical of the situation in Iraq.

"Thereճ no end in sight," he said.

Milner said she is concerned U.S. troops are increasingly being targeted.

"The Iraqis donմ want us there," Milner said. "We need to find some way to get our troops out."

Milner said she believes Bush "lied us into war" and has "essentially become a dictator.

"Weղe in desperate need of good leadership."

Rallies and other forms of protest help send an important message to political leaders, Rinne said.

"Itճ important for stuff like this to happen so politicians know youղe getting a sizeable part of the electorate willing to speak up," he said.

Thatճ what citizenship is all about, Jones said.

"We are responsible ultimately for the actions of our government," he said.

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

Jeeze, you would think none of the anti-war activists have ever heard of Clinton? HA! (It is all Billճ fault)

capt

Don

My heavy sigh was due to the fact that I would love to see the Democrats take back control of congress. I was trying to hint to Howard that it might look better to the public that they give back this money even if it wasn't directly from Jack.The public knows that there are ways around these direct connections and this will taint the Dems even if it weren't true. Back to my heavy sigh, after giving Howard all the signals, he still goes on to put his head up his ass like he alway's does and it was just a little frustrating for me. Can't you see this? Please be nice, I am on your side.

evelyn goodman #58 -
are you some kind of wacko conspiracy nut? ha -
click my name to order the FREE DVD:
'CONFRONTING THE EVIDENCE: Reopen 911'
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Capt,

I thought I told you- "NO MORE LONG ASS POSTS!!!"

What do I have to do to get it through your noggin - keep it short!!

Sheehan Urge Supporters to Take Action

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Activist Cindy Sheehan told supporters at a peace forum Saturday that troops would get out of Iraq if millions of U.S. citizens took the simple step that she did outside President Bush's vacation home last summer.

"Anybody could do what we did in Crawford, Texas. We just went down and sat down," Sheehan told the crowd of several hundred people, with Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn in the front row.

She urged them to lose their apathy and do something. "We have to get so freakin' fed up with what's going on that we all go and sit down," Sheehan said.

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

I am with Cindy 100%!

I was completely fed up some time ago.

capt

Jackgate was the GOP's trump card!!! They are brilliant. They are assholes but they are still brilliant.

Dems Charge GOP Has Corrupted Congress

WASHINGTON - Democrats accused Republican congressional leaders of corrupting the government, claiming on Saturday that their party has higher ethical standards.

"Under Republican guidance, America has truly been put up for sale to the highest bidder," Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., said in her party's weekly radio address.

Congress was consumed this week by the corruption scandal around lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty and is cooperating in a wide-ranging probe that could involve up to 20 members of Congress and their aides.

Politicians from both parties have rushed to unload donations from Abramoff or his clients, while others have decided to keep such donations, insisting they did nothing wrong.

Slaughter painted the Abramoff case and an earlier guilty plea by former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., as part of a broader pattern of misconduct by Republicans under the sway of highly paid lobbyists.

"Sadly, the legacy of Republican rule has been the fundamental degradation of our democratic institutions and the abandonment of our core principles," Slaughter said.

"Lobbyists are now writing the bills passed by Congress," she contended. "They have infiltrated every aspect of our government. Their money and donations shape the opinions of corrupt lawmakers in a way that public opinion no longer does."

Slaughter said the unethical influence of lobbyists has affected everything from the Iraq war to energy policy to the new Medicare prescription drug plan.

The 10-term congresswoman said her party will "uphold the highest standards of integrity."

Repeating a Democratic tag line, Slaughter said, "Together, America can do better."

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

Together or separately, we can do far better! The rest of the article is mostly funny but I have an odd sense of humor.

capt

This comment from one of the more `socialistic' Regulars caught my eyes:

"...dependence on imported petroleum......war against American consumers waged by big oil and the wealthy elite."

I'm having a slow but good day; hoping the DOW clears 11,000 at the finish. Waiting for the market to close, I want to toss in some bits of real world finances related to the above quote.

If there are viable and economical alternatives to oil & gas, your despised `wealthy elite' would have poured money into them. While not yet in the `wealthy elite', I did lose my ass investing in fuel cells years ago.

As an oil stock owner of long standing, my position on ANWR should be `support', right? Not necessarily! Yes, ANWR would reduce our trade deficit; but only marginally reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But when ANWR, east Gulf near Florida, off California coast, etc..are all added together, is it any surprise we are evermore dependent on foreign oil? Even without a drop of domestic oil, Big Oil will still make some profits refining, transporting and marketing the products. From the perspective of well-informed industry investors, I would just assume these companies abandoned sourcing oil in the US; but if they did that, the Left will scream `outsourcing' of well-paying exploration/production jobs! Dilemmas? You bet.

Oil/Consumers/OPEC/Environmentalists/Investors/Politics/.../... No other issue is more complex and least-understood!

Capt,

Thinks for your support now get off your lazy ass typing and get to a protest. All talk no action is pathetic. Saladin, I agree with you 100% about the jews,Isreal needs to go down, which is why I have established a fund for the freedom fighters we all know are not terrorists. Please make a donation as soon as possible( I also need a new bus, please help).

Time to cut and run: Beazley

THE US, Australia and its allies must now seriously consider pulling their forces out of Iraq, because their presence is undermining the chances of peace in the country, the Federal Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley, has said.

In his toughest remarks yet on the vexed reconstruction of Iraq, Mr Beazley said foreign forces - including Australian troops - were causing more problems than they were solving.

But while Mr Beazley hardens Labor's "troops out" stance for Iraq, the Federal Government is heading in the opposite direction. It is sending an extra 110 troops and two helicopters to Afghanistan and could even add to the 1350 Australian military personnel in and around Iraq.

Following discussions with the Afghan Government, the Defence Minister, Robert Hill, has agreed to boost Australia's presence in Afghanistan, which is almost 200 SAS troops.

The numbers could be bolstered further if as expected the Government also sends a 200-strong military reconstruction team. Government sources said last night that the deployment would be announced as early as today.

In an interview on 2UE yesterday, Mr Beazley said: "I think that you've got to the position now where the US and Britain and us have to think through very carefully the consequences of still being there [in Iraq]."

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

A little from the war-hawks down-under. Always interesting to hear from a fresh perspective. "Staying the course" sounds more dumb by the day. As long as the only plan Busheney has is "It is going to get worse, see that means we are winning" we will see that every other country on the planet does not agree.

Any "plan" would must have some improvement not continued increases in violence.

capt

Milton and David Friedman on Military Intervention

David Friedman writes:

"The weak point in the argument [for an interventionist foreign policy] is its assumption that an interventionist foreign policy will be done well Рthat your foreign minister is Machiavelli or Metternich. In order for the policy to work, you must correctly figure out which countries are going to be your enemies and which your allies ten years down the road. If you get it wrong, you find yourself unnecessarily blundering into other people's wars, spending your blood and treasure in their fights instead of theirs in yours. You may, to take an example not entirely at random, get into one war as a result of trying to defend Japan (and Korea, and Vietnam, ɩ from China, then finally discover that the Chinese are your natural allies against the Soviet Union." (pp. 213-214)

How likely is it that a foreign policy will be right much more often than it's wrong? David Friedman again:

"The problem with an interventionist foreign policy is that doing it badly is much worse than not doing it at all. Something which must be done well to be worth doing is being done by the same people who run the post office Рand about as well." (p. 214)

David Friedman does make an important qualification to his argument. He writes:

"To say that our foreign policy is badly run is in a sense misleading. Perhaps when we [sic Рsee my "Who is 'We'"] support dictators who contribute very little to the defense of the U.S., the reason is that they contribute instead to the profits of American firms who do business in their countries, and the American firms in turn contribute to the politicians who make our foreign policy. If so, what we are observing is not the incompetence of the people making our foreign policy but their competence at achieving objectives other than the defense of the U.S. Рmost notably their own wealth and power." (p. 214)

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

Always good to know just how screwed up the neo-creeps thinking is. They indict their own misleadership. Funny!

capt

Will Jackgate reveal who offed Paul Wellstone? This inquiring mind wants answers.

Today, 1-9-06, the DOW broke 11,000 for the first time in 4 3/4 years. Life just sucks. What terrible, poverty stricken, times we live in.

Today, 1-9-06, the DOW broke 11,000 for the first time in 4 3/4 years. Life just sucks. What terrible, poverty stricken, times we live in.

65 Den
Trolls Beware the Feds are watching

anyone with a computer and ISP can watch, you ignorant moron.

I suspect we have a fudd impersonating Gerald in "Gerald"'s last few posts. BTW, I remember some time ago, maybe a year or so, we tried to find a substitute for "troll". Cap suggested "trog" from "troglodyte", and I suggested "yahoo" from "Gulliver's Travels". Neither one caught on. I notice the Elmer Fudd label seems to be catching on with some of our friends, so how about calling our neocon posters "fudds"?

I notice the fake Duke and the fake Sheehan (probably the same fudd) is/are using the neocon definition of "anti-Semite": any US citizen who opposes sacrificing his/her country's blood and treasure to the cause of Israeli expansionism.

Go and boil your bottoms, fudds! I blow my nose at you, sons of a silly person! I fart in your general direction! I wave my private parts at your aunties! Your mothers were all hamsters, and your fathers smelt of elderberries! Now go away or I will taunt you a sec-AWWNN time! I would catapult sheep at you, but you'd probably employ them for carnal purposes!

Now where did I put the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?

The Acting Deputy Minister of Silly Walks, Ivory Bill Woodpecker

ya, beat it elmers!

mr. "duke", 59, I would like to say something I rarely say and reserve for true idiots like yourself, FUCK OFF! And take your blind racism with you.

New call to impeach Blair over Iraq

Tony Blair should be impeached over the Iraq war, according to one of Britain's most senior former soldiers.

General Sir Michael Rose, who commanded UN forces in Bosnia, accused the prime minister of taking the country to war on what turned out to be "false grounds", saying it is something "no one should be allowed to walk away from".

Despite publicly insisting that his aim was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, Mr Blair "probably had some other strategy in mind", said Gen Rose.

He makes the call for Mr Blair's impeachment in a documentary by the former BBC correspondent and former independent MP Martin Bell.

Gen Rose told Bell he would have resigned his commission rather than take troops to war on the flimsy basis offered by Mr Blair.

And he said: "The politicians should be held to account, and my own view is that Blair should be impeached.

"That would prevent politicians treating quite so carelessly the subject of taking a country into war."

He added to that criticism on the Today programme, saying: "Certainly from a soldier's perspective there can't be any more serious decision taken by a prime minister than declaring war.

"And then to go to war on what turns out to be false grounds is something that no one should be allowed to walk away from."

The general described Mr Blair's actions in the run-up to war as "somewhere in between" getting the politics wrong and actually acting illegally.

"The politics was wrong, that he rarely declared what his ultimate aims were, as far as we can see, in terms of harping continually on weapons of mass destruction when actually he probably had some other strategy in mind," he said.

"And secondly, the consequences of that war have been quite disastrous both for the people of Iraq and also for the west in terms of our wider interests in the war against global terror."

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

It would be a nice warm up for impeachment of Bunnypants and president Cheney.

capt

Fudd (or was it FFud?) was also the brand of beer Homer drank at the backwater redneck bar he found when he couldn't go to Moe's. Coincidence?

What is wrong with Cindy Sheehan?
How can she live with herself and her desire to promote herself off her heroic dead son's body. She is doing everything he asked her not to do. It is terrible she thinks more of her own fame than of the memory of the son she abandoned years ago. Oh sure, now that he died heroically defending freedom and Democracy, she wants to associate herself with his memory, but where was she when he needed her while growing up? What a disgusting old self promoting publicity whore Cindy Sheehan is. When Cindy Sheehan is gone, if she ever gets to meet her son in the hereafter, it would not be surprising for him to spit in her face.

What is wrong with the fudds?

Saladin 103
FUCK OFF! And take your blind racism with you.

Saladin is calling someone else a racist ... that's a hoot.

Homer drinks Duff, I think there was a "Fudd" but that was in the town next to Springfield or something like that!

capt

Will Jackgate reveal who offed Paul Wellstone? This STUPID & IGNORANT mind wants answers.

Trolls-O-Plenty, reich wing must be getting beat up somewhere.

I just thought the resemblance of the patrons of that bar and our own dear fudd(s) somewhat eerie.

By the way has anyone commented on this yet?

Vice President Hospitalized, Then Released

Who is Bush?

Evil & A Heathen

Words fall from our mouths
Like plates from shaking hands
Smash upon the silence
Of the smooth naked canal

I'm evil and a heathen
I'm a heathen and evil like you
There's not a lot I couldn't do

I like how you pretend
That the end will be the end
So fill your thirst
Drink a curse
To the death of death instead

I'm evil and a heathen
I'm a heathen and evil like you
There's not a lot I wouldn't do

Utrecht led me to the Sacre Coeur
Where the smoke curled round
Now the ice blows of Lake Michigan
When the Ice blows
The Ice Flow knocks you

Your teeth are black with wine
As you place those lips on mine
The moon hangs heavy and forbidden high
On the **** night of our lives

I'm evil and a heathen
I'm a heathen and evil like you
There's not a lot we couldn't do

~Franz Ferdinand

Album - You Could Have It So Much Better
(Kapranos, McCarthy, Hardy, Thomson)

"I just thought the resemblance of the patrons of that bar and our own dear fudd(s) somewhat eerie."

ME 2!

110 Well smart ass you try saying something even HALF intelligent before you critique others....FU-DD F**K-U-Dumb Dipshit

Today, 1-9-06, the DOW broke 11,000 for the first time in 4 3/4 years.

Awesome! I guess we've recovered from that "Clinton recession." Oh, wait...he wasn't in office then, was he?

Cheney is walking with a cane and had shortness of breath.

Sadly, that sounds like moer heart problems.

I predict as the noose tightens on the neo-creep lobbyists, I bet Cheney will resign due to "heart" problems (two sizes too small).

Neo-Condi will rise to VP and the Dubya chokes on a pretzel and voila! Neocon rule through 2012 and beyond.

*perish the thought*

capt

The Boulis murder trial is set for mid-January, why is the MSM completely ignoring this?

Abramoff Indictment

The SunCruz deal also led to the August 2005 indictment of Abramoff and his partner, Adam Kidan, on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud over a $60 million loan for buying the casino company in 2000. Prosecutors allege that Abramoff and Kidan made a phony $23 million wire transfer as a fake down payment.

In pursuing the casino deal, the Abramoff-Kidan group got help, too, from then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Rep. Robert W. Ney, R-Ohio, the Washington Post reported. Abramoff impressed one lender by putting him together with DeLay in Abramoff's skybox at FedEx Field during a football game between the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys.

Ney placed comments in the Congressional Record criticizing Boulis and later praising the new Abramoff-Kidan ownership team. [Washington Post, Sept. 28, 2005]

After the SunCruz sale, when tensions boiled over, Boulis and Kidan got into a fistfight. Kidan claimed that Boulis threatened his life. Two months later, however, Boulis was the one who was shot to death when a car pulled up next to him and a gunman opened fire. Lawyers for Abramoff and Kidan say their clients know nothing about the murder.

Abramoff's influence reached into George W. Bush's White House, too, where chief procurement officer David H. Safavian resigned in September and then was arrested on charges of lying to authorities and obstructing a criminal investigation into Abramoff's lobbying activities.

Rep. Ney and former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed were among influential Republicans who joined Safavian and Abramoff on an infamous golf trip to Scotland in 2002. Safavian is a former lobbying partner of anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, another pillar of right-wing politics in Washington and another longtime Abramoff friend. [Washington Post, Sept. 20, 2005]

Plea Bargains

The latest wrinkle in this melodrama appears to be the race to the courthouse between Abramoff and his casino co-owner Kidan, who is in the soup with Abramoff for the SunCruz money-laundering and wire-fraud charges. This is a classic race in that he who cuts the first deal wins.

If Kidan can offer up Abramoff and a few congressmen before Abramoff can rat out his congressional minions before Kidan inks a deal, he wins. Or, in the alternative, if they can collectively offer up a bevy of congressmen, Capitol Hill aides and fat-cat contributors, then they both can minimize possible jail time.
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I would not be a bit surprised if abramoff decided to commit suicide, if you know what I mean.

I recall lots of instances where it looked like things were only going to get worse and suddenly American democracy seems to correct itself and come back from the edge of its demise. I think that's what we're seeing here. Delay and party marched into Congress to "make it right", only to prove themselves members of the real party of curruption. They never had this anti-Republican fooled. Its all coming around now and I'll just be amused when this corrects the Bush problem even though popular belief still doesn't agree with me. I'll see you all at last laugh time.

Don, placing faith in the DOW is like throwing money down on the black jack table. They've got a fixed game and anyone with half a brain knows that.

Sal,

Of course, I take the whole Dow thing with a grain of salt. I just thought it was funny, considering one of our trolls referenced a "Clinton recession" the other day.

So you see, I do have a half a brain! ;)

Davol @119: You say: I recall lots of instances where it looked like things were only going to get worse and suddenly American democracy seems to correct itself and come back from the edge of its demise.

I admire you for your optimism -- seriously. But, I wonder "lots of instances" -- in my lifetime, the only time I even came close to thinking we, as a country, were at "the edge of its demise" was during the Nixon years. But even then, I never felt it was near hopeless.

I hope you're right...looking forward to that last laugh time you predict.

Bush changes succession hierarchy at Pentagon

Last week President Bush altered the line of succession over at the Pentagon. His action shuffled civilian positions higher than those of military positions.

Iնe written before about Rumsfeldճ War but this action right here is a beautiful illustration of the overall concept. After Vietnam there was a huge undertaking by the military (driven by Collin Powell!) to eliminate civilian control over milit