Wow David, You're up late. Great topic.

ya, great topic.
how many interesting and succinct summations of George W. Bush's power-grab are there by now? I wonder. hmmm. maybe someone will eventually write the definitive summation of bush. it can be titled "The Interesting And Succinct Summation To End All Summations Of George W. Bush's Power Grab".
someday the Revised History channel can do a program about the first years of the 21st century and people will say "gee, why didn't the 'investigative journalists' of the time put into print what was actually happening?" and "why didn't any media outlets with the exception of a very few websites point out to the people just how america was deceived, manipulated and lied into a war of aggression against a relatively powerless region that coincidentally holds the lion's share of oil resources?" -

this is pathetic and it is growing more so by the day.

2 Bush remembering 9/11 before he went in the classroom, I'll paraphrase: I saw the first plane hit the building and then someone came and wisked me away but I thought the pilot must have made a big mistake... then later Andy Card came in the classroom and told me a second plane hit the tower and I knew America was under attack."

Ask yourself, how was it that Bush was watching television and the channel had a camera trained on the WTC center BEFORE the first plane hit?

3wow he did say that didn't he? there are a bunch of possible answers to that, from having ringside seats to he was just talking out of his ass, and anything in between - looking at the idiot expression on his face after card whispered in his ear, I think that he was totally suprised but knew immediately what was up. and who, why, and how. I say inside job but he was out of the loop. plausible deniability -

When you contrast the current sitution to Madison’≥ theory of competing self-interest, the crisis becomes grave indeed. When the President and his allies control both Houses of Congress AND a majority in the Supreme Court, there is no longer competing self-interest, but consolidated self-interest. Power corrupts, absolute power…πou know the rest.

Interesting new post by Billmon on the rise and fall (selling out) of blogs. The part that interested me the most was this:
In that sense, it was a kind of funhouse mirror image of what the neo-Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse used to call "repressive tolerance" -- enforcing the ideological hegemony of the establishment not with totalitarian force, but by coaxing dissenters inside tolerable limits, and rewarding them for staying there.

Big words. But it sounds like the political and economic power class will allow blogs to exist as long as folks with a beef stay there (here). Once we start using it as a platform to promote widespread dissent, blogs might get shut down.

911 stuff from the Journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society. Comes with a flash animation. Skip or read, your choice.

And one from the ASCE that claims that there remain many questions to be answered (6 good points at the bottom -- and one throwaway point).

They both seem scientific, you know, peer reviewed. Just saying.

It's been a long time since I was this overwhelmed by information; but that PHysOrgForum is brimming with information that I am incapable of digesting.

When Dems get caught playing dirty, they oughta get strung up too. This sucks.

Micki, I remember you said what goes around comes around; but what if Dems become the criminal class that the Conservatives already are? There are signs of it already.

Time to hit the road.

Mr. David Corn,

Another great post. The problem is not with the people or their not noticing Bush and his extra-constitutional power grab, it is a simple fact that there has never been a majority to elect or support the tin-pot dictator.

He is the manifestation/personification of corporate governance and until the big multinational dollars are out of American politics we will have more of the same.

The "power grab" is not for Bush it is for whomever is the figurehead in a "anything for profit" mentality.

Bush was not selected in 2000 because the oligarchy had to tell him what to do, he was selected because he does so without being told.

If the voting is fixed and our voice (obviously) stolen, we will see them steal the 2006 midterm election. It will be a miracle and fly in the face of all polls (exit and otherwise).

The midterm will be portrayed as the mandate Busheney has been trying to fabricate from the whole cloth they wrap around themselves like a flag.

I hope I am wrong.

Thanks for all of your work.

Kirk

*sigh* rather than point out the quite a few fallacies in one from the ASCE, I'll just say "how 'bout those METS?"

P, I like your take on Marcuse:: But it sounds like the political and economic power class will allow blogs to exist as long as folks with a beef stay there (here). Once we start using it as a platform to promote widespread dissent, blogs might get shut down.
that makes perfect sense in light of the mcmedia's selective presentation of events and dissent.

because he does so without being told
Capt, that's very astute as well!

Film director Richard Fleischer dead at 89

WOODLAND HILLS, CA, United States (UPI) -- 'Doctor Dolittle,' 'Fantastic Voyage' and 'Soylent Green' director Richard Fleischer has died in Woodland Hills, Calif., at age 89.

The Oscar-winning director whose 47-plus films also included '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' and 'Tora! Tora! Tora!,' died Saturday at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital, The Los Angeles Times reported.

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

A movie maker that wowed us with some of the classics. RIP

capt

Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says

LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

"Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning," David Manning, Mr. Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote in the memo that summarized the discussion between Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and six of their top aides.

"The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March," Mr. Manning wrote, paraphrasing the president. "This was when the bombing would begin."

The timetable came at an important diplomatic moment. Five days after the Bush-Blair meeting, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was scheduled to appear before the United Nations to present the American evidence that Iraq posed a threat to world security by hiding unconventional weapons.

Although the United States and Britain aggressively sought a second United Nations resolution against Iraq — which they failed to obtain — the president said repeatedly that he did not believe he needed it for an invasion.

More HERE

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

More of the same. Bunnypants does whatever he wants to do. No law, no governing body has any authority over him. He has always done so and has gotten away with it.

UGH!

capt

An Update on President Bush's NSA Program: The Historical Context, Specter's Recent Bill, and Feingold's Censure Motion

The Nixon Precedent

No one can question President Bush's goal: Protecting Americans from further terror attacks. But every American should question his means: Openly defying a longstanding statute that prohibits the very actions he insists on undertaking, when done in the very manner he insists upon doing them.

In some two hundred and seventeen years of the American presidency, there has been only one President who provides a precedent for Bush's stunning, in-your-face, conduct: Richard Nixon. Like Bush, Nixon claimed he was acting to protect the nation's security. Like Bush, Nixon broke the law - authorizing, among other things, illegal wiretaps.

Ironically, a stronger case might be made for Nixon's warrantless wiretaps, than for Bush's. Nixon's were installed to track leaks of national security information relating to the war in Vietnam. (He never found the leaker.) He pursued domestic intelligence by illegal means because he believed - based on information from President Lyndon Johnson - that communists had infiltrated the anti-war movement. (No such evidence was ever found.) In addition, he believed that extreme measures were necessary to deal with domestic terrorists, who were responsible for hundreds of deadly bombings. (This is the same argument Bush makes today.)

Nixon also claimed he was only doing what his predecessors had done. That was not untrue - but what had, in the past, been the exception to the rule became standard operating procedure under Nixon.

Bush, however, can only claim one predecessor for his actions: Nixon. And, of course, he has not made this claim - for Nixon was forced from office because of his defiance of the law.

More HERE

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

An interesting read. Covers many topics but end with a question about the "October Surprise" so maybe we should weigh in with a few early predictions?

What will be the October surprise?

capt

Hello David, somebody spammed your blog archives. i guess u need to protect your blog.

My October surprise early prediction:

Obviously - another "terror" attack on Americans.

Nothing too big just enough to scare the lemmings.

Maybe they will find some of OBL’s DNA in some obliterated crater made by a missile launched from a drone. "All that is left is this tissue sample and we tested it"

capt

DEMOCRATS FINALLY GET BOLD — PASS CENSURE OF FEINGOLD

In a rare show of unity, the Democratic Caucus, by near unanimous vote, has passed a Resolution censuring Senator Russell Feingold, for his proposed censure of the President for violating the FISA law.

Addressing the press in the Capitol Rotunda, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid stated that Senator Feingold had violated the Democrats’ 11th Commandment. Unlike the GOP’s 11th Commandment, which bans speaking ill of another Republican, the Democratic version strictly prohibits taking a principled stand, or exploiting any weakness in your opponent.

While one Democratic insider defended this tactic as "rope-a-dope" or "playing possum," many grass-roots activists have expressed concern that it is more akin to "playing groundhog," given the Democrats’ propensity to see their shadow, and then to disappear for six years.

The Democrats are also considering a censure of Senator John Kerry, for his vote AGAINST funding for the Iraq war (after he voted FOR it).

While these controversial moves have created a significant rift between Democratic politicians and the liberal blogosphere, there appears to be universal support to censure Senator Joe Biden, for his donning of a Princeton cap during the Alito hearings. An unnamed Democratic staffer confided that Senator Biden’s transparent attempt to hide his thinning hair ordinarily would have been overlooked, but that it constituted his second offense, counting his infamous "hair-plug" affair almost two decades ago.

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

I could see this really happening, how sad is that!

capt

Mr. Corn, this is only half of the story. Combine Bush's claim of unlimited Executive power during war, PLUS PLUS PLUS his new doctrine of preemptive war....and you have the entire groundwork for a dictatorship. With preemptive war, you don't even need a resolution from Congress.

I think that, whatever scorn we harbor for Bush, we should harbor ten times as much towards Congress, for letting this happen.

Bob

Just a little old-fashioned karma comin' round

The right-wingers call it a "witch-hunt." The left-wing calls it "justice." Whatever you call it, blogger Ben Domenech and Washingtonpost.com both got what they deserved.
You have to wonder what the suits at washingtonpost.com were smoking when they decided to create a right-wing blog called "Red America" and then hire a 24-year-old wannabe book editor who brags about not being a journalist to write it. That was a shallow move by a so-called journalistic entity.

Domenech's short-lived tenure at the Post's web site came to an embarrassing end Friday when he resigned after the blogging community uncovered multiple cases of plagiarism by the youngster who works as an editor at the ultra-right-wing Regnary Press.. "Resigned" is Washington-speak for "fired."

"I want to apologize to National Review Online, my friends and colleagues here at RedState, and to any others that have been affected over the past few days," Domenech wrote Friday under his pen name "Augustine" on the RedState web site, the right-wing web diatribe he helped start. "I also want to apologize to my previous editors and writers whose work I used inappropriately and without attribution. There is no excuse for this - nor is there an excuse for any obfuscation in my earlier statement."

"Obfuscation." Domenech-speak for "I got caught and tried to weasel my way out of it." Didn't work. Now he tries contrition. Too little too late.

The apologists at RedState say Domenech will take some needed time off from the web site. That's their double-speak for banishment.

More HERE

Mostly noise and no substance, again. How much do we have to know? This crowd is criminal, no doubt, so outrage at a never ending series of outrages that pass and then the new one comes along and the old ones are forgotten, no one is punished. None are jailed, just wait for the next outrage, then get in line denouncing it and being outraged. But what does change? One more coil around the american people to strangle any form of dissent, or opposition. Our brain dead politicians are just fine with the way thing are going, just send the check. So we end up with the blogs screaming about crisis after crisis, but the juggernaut rolls on and over the sound of the people. When the powers that be don't obey their own laws, how can they expect the masses to obey them? Any of them? SO if ignoring law is the theme of this crowd isn't it good enough for the rest of the population? SOunds like is should be, even if we don't have pet lawyers around to say that we don't have to. This seems hopeless, our only hope is for the geological upheaval to get started in order to change this paradigm otherwise it is just a slope downward and the bottom isn't even in sight yet. Going to be interesting for sure.

March 27, 2006
America's Reign of
Terror in Iraq
Our Jacobins have blood on their hands
by Justin Raimondo
The U.S. is losing patience with the Iraqis, averred Sen. John McCain the other day in Baghdad, going into his favorite mode of self-righteous hectoring, warning them they had better get on with the business of forming a government. The senator cited polls showing declining support for the war, but the lack of a government is not uppermost in most Americans' minds when it comes to the war. Yes, we are increasingly cranky –†about the casualties, the cost, and the clear inability of American forces to make a dent in the insurgency –†and this impatient mood is no doubt shared, in spades, by the troops on the ground and their commanders, as reflected in the latest American atrocity coming out of that tortured land.

According to the Iraqi police, American soldiers recently executed 11 people in Abu Sifa, a village about 60 miles north of Baghdad. Among the victims: A 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old child. The villagers were herded into a single room, where they were all slaughtered without mercy. The Americans then burned three vehicles, went after the villagers' animals, and blew up the house: all of this is detailed in the Iraqi police report, a copy of which was obtained by Knight-Ridder News Agency and reproduced on their Web site.

This hellish scene was witnessed by Harat Khalaf, a security guard tasked with standing sentinel over oil pipelines, who saw a U.S. Chinook helicopter descend near his home and –†wisely –†hid in some brush. He watched as the soldiers stormed the house of his brother, Faiz Harat Khalaf, and heard women and children screaming in terror. As the London Times reports:

"'Then there was a lot of machine-gun fire,' he said last week. After that there was the most frightening sound of all —†silence, followed by explosions as the soldiers left the house."

Khalaf and the villagers pulled the bodies from the burning rubble, including "four women and five children aged between six months and five years." The police report states :"The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people." Here are some more details:

"Khalaf's account was confirmed by a neighbour, Hassan Kurdi Mahassen, who also heard the sound of the helicopters and saw the U.S. troops storming Fayez's home.

"After the soldiers left after apparently dropping several grenades that almost completely destroyed the house, Mahassen said, villagers went to the house searching in the rubbles were they 'found them all [Fayez's family] buried in one room. Women and even the children were blindfolded and their hands bound. Some of their faces were totally disfigured. A lot of blood was on the floors and the walls.'"

The Americans claim they were after a member

MORE AT ANTI-WAR.COM

For a blow-by-blow of and a somewhat inside look at the NeoConvict's grab of power, read Robert Byrd's "Losing America, Confronting a Reckless and arrogant Presidency".

It is a well-written (probably dictated) description of White House/Capitol Hill interractions from someone who is on record seeing it coming and speaking out to the mainly deaf ears of congress. The man suffered ridicule and scorn in the public for his precience on Iraq, and congress's unwillingness to carry out their duties of oversight.

Regardless of personal animosity many (I, included) might hold for him, he proves to be dead-on right about the constitutional precipice to which we've allowed ourselves to be driven.

When is America gonna demand to hear the voices of those who have proven to get it RIGHT, for a change?

-T

Avoiding the hard questions

I was 8 years old when President John Kennedy was shot to death in Dallas in 1963. If grace favors me, I'll be 62 when documents related to the assassination are released to the public, and 84 when the Warren Commission's investigative files into the tragedy are finally opened.

That's a long time to wait for a chance to evaluate the purported truth.

It's a blot on the presumed sophistication of the people of the United States that any aspect of an event so dramatic and shocking should be kept from us. Perhaps it's true, to abuse the line from A Few Good Men yet again, that we can't handle the truth. But there cannot be genuine resolution as long as such critical information remains concealed.

Transformed by 9/11

Since Kennedy's assassination, Americans have lurched between demanding to know and plugging their ears: The Pentagon Papers, My Lai, the King assassination, Watergate, Iran-contra, the savings-and-loan debacle, Monicagate. Lately, however, it would seem the public's verdict is in: Don't tell us. Keep us in the dark. We don't want to know.

This is the worst possible time for probe-ophobia to grip us. Our nation was irretrievably transformed by 9/11 -- and yet there remain troubling questions about what really happened before, during and after that day. Rather than demanding a full and fearless vetting to hone in on the truth and silence the conjecture about 9/11, many Americans remain unwilling to peer into the microscope.

An online cottage industry of theorists, theory debunkers and debunker debunkers has flourished since 9/11. Sometimes the flimsy theories are easy to spot -- come on, if the four passenger jets didn't crash where it appears they did, where did they go? More often, though, the cases aren't so obvious.

A group of experts and academicians 'devoted to applying the principles of scientific reasoning to the available evidence, `letting the chips fall where they may,' '' last week accused the government of covering up evidence that the three destroyed New York City buildings were brought down that day by controlled demolition rather than structural failure. The group, called Scholars for 9/11 Truth, has a website, www.st911.org.

Unanswered questions

The reflexive first reaction is incredulity -- how, one asks, could anyone even contemplate, never mind actually do such a barbaric thing? But before you shut your mind, check the resum?s -- these aren't Generation X geeks subsisting on potato chips and PlayStation. Then look at the case they present.

''I am a professional philosopher who has spent 35 years teaching logic, critical thinking and scientific reasoning,'' group co-founder and University of Minnesota professor James H. Fetzer told me. ``When I come to 9/11, it's not hard for me to determine what is going on. This is a scientific question. And it is so elementary that I don't think you can find a single physicist who could disagree with the idea that this was a controlled demolition.''

The group asks, for example,

"How did a fire fed by jet fuel, which at most burns at 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit, cause the collapse of the Twin Towers, built of steel that melts at 2,800 degrees? (Most experts agree that the impact of airliners, made mostly of lightweight aluminum, should not have been enough alone to cause structural failure.) How could a single planeload of burning jet fuel -- most of which flared off in the initial fireball -- cause the South World Trade Center tower to collapse in just 56 minutes?

"Why did building WTC-7 fall, though no aircraft struck it? Fire alone had never before caused a steel skyscraper to collapse.

"Why did all three buildings collapse largely into their own footprints -- in the style of a controlled demolition?

"Why did no U.S. military jet intercept the wayward aircraft?

"Why has there been no investigation of BBC reports that five of the alleged 9/11 hijackers were alive and accounted for after the event?

Our current probe-ophobia is due in part to the political landscape: When one party holds all the cards, any call to investigate an alleged abuse of power or cover-up -- no matter how valid -- will look like a partisan vendetta. Those in power never want to investigate themselves.

Maybe that's politics; he who holds the hammer drives the nails. But the outrage of 9/11 transcends party affiliation.

We need all the outstanding questions answered -- wherever the chips may fall.

*****End of Article*****

There are many more questions that are valid and substantial.

capt

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong." ~ Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

I would like to ask a favor? This morning on the Diane Rehm show Micheal Gordon and General Bernard Trainor who wrote the detailed history of American invasion of Iraq will be on the Diane Rehm show. The show starts at 10 a.m eastern standard time.

I have asked questions several times this month and will not be able to get through.

I am trying to get a question about THE CONTINUED EFFORTS OF REPUBLICAN SENATOR PAT ROBERTS TO SHUT DOWN THE THOROUGHNESS OF PHASE II OF THE SENATE SELECT COMMITTTEE ON INTELLIGENCE. HOW HE CONTINUES TO BLOCK ACCESS AS WELL AS DOUGLAS FEITH TO ACCESS ALL DOCUMENTS OF THE OFFICE OF SPECIAL PLANS. I HAVE SENT A QUESTION IN UNDER ANOTHER NAME AND IT MAY OR MAY NOT GET THROUGH. Here is what I have asked..but you of course could pose your own question about Phase II and how the american public deserves to have those responsible for the false intelligence held accountable.

THE NUMBER IS 1-800-433-8850...START DIALING ABOUT TWO MINUTES BEFORE 10 AND CONTINUE TO PUSH REDIAL...YOU WILL GET THROUGH.

To Micheal Gordon and General Bernard Trainor..
Much of the pre-war intelligence "allegedly" came out of the Office of Special Plans and the White HOuse Iraq Group. Yet the individuals and the pre-war documents from the OFFICE OF SPECIAL Plans and the WHIG have yet to be thoroughly investigated.

I believe that both of these offices and their work have been "off limits" to the ivestigations on pre-war intelligence the Silbermann/Robb report and Phase I of the SSCI (the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence).

Republican Senator Pat Roberts continues to Block PHASE II OF THE SSCI...the complete and thorough investigation of ALL of the pre-war intelligence and how it was used.

WILL WE SEE A COMPLETE AND THOROUGH INVESTIGATION OF ALL INDIVIDUALS INVOLVED WITH THE CREATION AND DESSIMINATION OF THIS PRE-WAR INTELLIGENCE, WILL WE SEE THESE INDIVIDUALS HELD ACCOUNTABLE??.

THIS IS THE VERY LEAST OUR REPRESENTATIVES AND OUR NATION OWE THE THOUSANDS OF INDIVIDUALS THAT HAVE LOST THEIR LIVES IN THIS "WAR OF CHOICE"

Meatpacker Sues Feds Over Mad Cow Test
A Kansas meatpacker sued the government on Thursday for refusing to let the company test for mad cow disease in every animal it slaughters.
Creekstone Farms Premium Beef says it has Japanese customers who want comprehensive testing. The Agriculture Department threatened criminal prosecution if Creekstone did the tests, according to the company's lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.
--------------
What the hell is going on here?? You know we have truly entered the Twilight Zone when you are threatened by an agency who should be insuring food safety for testing food for safety!

Get a free copy of the Wal-mart movie at tramlaw.info.

Wasn't the date of the Pentagon attack exactly 60 years after the building was begun-September 11, 1941? What an odd coincidence. And I believe exactly 11 years after bush sr. first spoke of his desire to bring about a New World Order. Very odd indeed.

forum.phsorg.com

well, there are no fewer than 600 pages with an average of 5 posts each, all devoted to WTC collapse. an entire gang of uber-eggheads:

egg) "my science is fully kicking your ass!"

huev) "no prof, my science is indeed pinching your head!"

all I have to say now is click my name.

James, if everyone were even half as dedicated as you we would not be in this sinking ship!

The economy is going great! (unless you work for a living!)

As GDP GROWS, WAGES FALL?

"A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police State Dictatorship it's going to get."
-- Ian Williams Goddard
-------------
Good and hard.

Things are going well in Iraq!

Today in Iraq

Astounding reaction, Hispanics gather by the thousands in the streets of LA to protest immigration laws making illeagles guilty of a felony.......Our American Constitution gets shredded and NO white bread Americans care, to busy at home watching Faux news and American Idol. PATHETIC!

Oil companies are hungry again.

GAS PRICES SURGE

Israel: One Racist Nation
Source: Haaretz
URL Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/698426.html
Published: Mar 26, 2006
Author: Gideon Levy
Post Date: 2006-03-26

Contrary to appearances, the elections this week are important, because they will expose the true face of Israeli society and its hidden ambitions. More than 100 elected candidates will be sent to the Knesset on the basis of one ticket - the racism ticket.

If we used to think that every two Israelis have three opinions, now it will be evident that nearly every Israeli has one opinion - racism. Elections 2006 will make this much clearer than ever before.

An absolute majority of the MKs in the 17th Knesset will hold a position based on a lie: that Israel does not have a partner for peace. An absolute majority of MKs in the next Knesset do not believe in peace, nor do they even want it - just like their voters - and worse than that, don't regard Palestinians as equal human beings. Racism has never had so many open supporters. It's the real hit of this election campaign.

One does not have to be Avigdor Lieberman to be a racist. The "peace" proposed by Ehud Olmert is no less racist. Lieberman wants to distance them from our borders, Olmert and his ilk want to distance them from out consciousness. Nobody is speaking about peace with them, nobody really wants it.

Only one ambition unites everyone - to get rid of them, one way or another. Transfer or wall, "disengagement" or "convergence" - the point is that they should get out of our sight. The only game in town, the 'unilateral arrangement," is not only based on the lie that there is no partner, is not only based exclusively on our "needs" because of a sense of superiority, but also leads to a dangerous pattern of behavior that totally ignores the existence of the other nation.

The fact that there are no real differences between the three main parties, with this one saying nearly the entire country is mine, and that one saying nearly the entire country is mine, is bad news for democracy. The coming elections have been decided already.

A massive majority will cast its vote for the racist arrangement that ignores the Palestinians, as proposed by Kadima, Likud and, to a large extent, Labor. None of them tried to propose a just peace; their leaders never said a word about the war crimes and suffering caused by Israel.

They'll be joined by the extreme right and the ultra-Orthodox, and there you have it: a nation in which racism is the real common denominator uniting us all. Nearly everyone will say no to peace, yes to the continuing occupation (even if it is in new camouflage) and yes to the total focusing on ourselves.

Morality has become a dirty work, and the worst corruption in the country's history, the occupation, was never mentioned. Only one-sided maps, similar to one another, all including the humongous "settlement blocs," a withdrawal based on "our needs," with a separation wall and the frightening air of indifference hovering above it all.
-----------
That sounds just like a country I know. And like that country, a tiny bit of truth accidently escapes.

DEN, they should just throw the gates wide open! After all, they're doing work America doesn't want to do, according to bush.

stocks struggle

David:

First, the important stuff: Basketball! 11th Seed George Mason's was inspiring though I didn't see the game. GW goes up against my home state's Gators! As much as I want to pull for a severe underdog, my FL buddies won't forgive me if I root for GW. As for LSU vs. UCLA, my call is LSU, then, an All-SEC Final.

As for Executive branch's power `grab', as a Conservative, I'm inclined to believe "George W. Bush and...Cheney and...Rumsfeld, entered office...to restore the authority of the presidency."

The checks & balances we have do NOT mean that all 3 braches are always finely balanced. As Conservatives and moderates know well, the Judicial branch had encroached heavily into the legislative branch, which is now beginning to reverse. God willing, Bush will have another SC nomination.

As for the Far Left's insistence that "...the public must wake up to this constitutional crisis." because of Bush's actions on Terroist wiretapping, your observation that..."no case is working its way towards a Supreme Court judgment" clearly and very FACTUALLY tells you that the Far Left's views are NOT well supported and that far more scholars/lawyers/legislators are on the side of Bush.

Having never seen Madison's

"...If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

I find this to be incredibly insightful. Not knowing if there is a followup phrase, I would like to add something along the line: "Since men are NOT angles but must govern men, there will FOREVER be conflicts between ideals and interests; thus, it is incumbent upon men to keep the government as small as possible to minimize such conflicts!"

Two very good articles.

Conspiracy and Closed Minds on 9/11
Morgan Reynolds

While more Americans doubt the 9/11 story every week, evidence abounds that many have a mental block against rational examination of the evidence about 9/11. The possibility that it was an inside job is a non-starter for them. Programmed cut outs insure that 9/11 doubts are consigned to the conspiracy closet.
Last June I was explaining the fuss over my 9/11 article to a family member who shall remain anonymous and he interrupted and said, I don't want to talk about it. Millions join him in that sentiment. By implication they might as well say: I'd rather cling to the official 9/11 myth= if mass murderers run free, I'm fine with that= if 9/11 was an inside job, then I'm ruled by monsters and I might have to do something about it, I'd rather watch Paris Hilton.
Where does this passive attitude come from? Causes are many but American indoctrination has two sides that figure prominently in the explanation:
* Belief in American Exceptionalism
* Disbelief in conspiracy

Refuting the Demolition Debunkers

Time for an update on the refutation of the controlled demolition hypothesis. My endeavours have been most instructive; most people apparently either think that you're a nutter promoting conspiracy theories, or somebody working for the CIA or such and trying to cover it all up, depending on which camp they belong themselves. Oh dear: what has happened to dispassionate but thorough scientific questioning?
----------
I give up, what happened to it?

"man is not free unless government is limited: as government expands liberty contracts."
Ronald Reagan

Lie # 876

"No President wants a war"
Liar in Chief, Emperor G.W. Bush

BUSH WANTED WAR REAL BAD

This is what conservatives are doing; waving the flag with one hand and shreding the U.S. Constitution with the other.

corky, an angry moderate American

This is what conservatives are doing; waving the flag with one hand and shreding the U.S. Constitution with the other.

corky, an angry moderate American

Shredding? It's already gone.

Is William H. Buckley Jr. from the far left? No I dont think so.

Everybody knows Bush is bad for America

Let's stick to the science. Show me the plane

Excellent and factual.

Arlen Spector and Bob Barr from the "far left". I dont think so.

POWER GRAB

Corky:

I know you are one of the sympathy-soliciting Cornnuts here who is often ashamed to post under your name. Fine, you have your motherly protector (as any good mother should even for convicted murderer-sons) as well as other Lefties here. Soemtime, you just need a slap in the face. Here it is: As far as I am concerned, you peaked way too early and ever since, has tried to live off your early `glory'.

Frankly, what the hell have you done with your life since biking? OK, you have diabetes which, if I'm not mistaken, is one of the most common of health issues. You have way too big of a chip on your shoulder and obviously feels insecure and inferrior. Do something about it and be honorable in doing so. You have been a pretender since your glory days, fairly evident on this blog!

I have a busy day but thought you needed more help!

Happy, you are always wrong about everything.

Could you imagine how much better the world would be today if the American people would have demanded that Al Gore, the man who won the election in 2000, would have rightfully claimed the presidency. He has been on fire lately.

AL GORE RISING

#47
"I know you are one of the sympathy-soliciting Cornnuts here who is often ashamed to post under your name."
Is your name actually Happy? Good lord, what was your mother thinking?

Bunnypants and his inner council planned the war before 9/11. Look at Whitehouse references to Iraq before 9/11. The Bush administration knew a second term would never happen without a war. Then 9/11 fell into their laps and they made hay with it. Now he has his "War on Terror" which could go on forever.With all this Executive branch power grabbing I am waiting to see what fiasco they pull to claim martial law and cancel the next elections. If Congress does not revoke the war powers act soon this weasel will go online as a fulltime despot.

David,
The column you posted should be sent to every senator and congress person in Washington. The democrats have an obligation to their constituents to take a stand. It's their duty.
WHAT ARE THEY WAITING FOR.

Anyway I'm sending the Hart/Appleby column to my people in Washington. Even Norm Coleman.

Big Brother is watching

I saw "V is for Vendetta" the other day. Great movie. Go see it.

Baghdad governor suspends cooperation with U.S. forces

From really really bad to much worse...

Roves latest wedge issue not helping Bush like he thought it would.

Immigration Disaster

Charlie Sheen's Statement to the London Guardian
Challenges Press to Stop Slinging Mud, Confront The Science

Prison Planet.com | March 27 2006

Charlie Sheen felt compelled to respond to one of many hit-pieces against him, a column written for the London Guardian and carried by British commonwealth newspapers worldwide. Sheen sent his statement to The Australian newspaper. This is his full statement minus a phone number to his manager so that the paper could confirm its authenticity. This is a direct challenge for them to debate the facts.

Sheen Challenge to Media

I dare you to print this email in it's entirety ...

The mere fact that you did a cut and paste job of the slanderous and idiotic Marine Hyde London Journal piece, speaks volumes about your credibility as a major media entity.

Like so many other mainstream outlets, domestically and abroad, no attention whatsoever is given to the questions I raise or the evidence that stimulated those very questions.

Instead, low-brow idiotic hit pieces are spewed forth in an effort to sway the readers' opinion of the messenger while blatantly disregarding any of the potentially valuable content of the story. It's transparent sandbox propaganda as dated and cheap as the paper it's printed on.

Do a little research on Building Seven. Building Seven lives at the epicenter of my entire debate. Prove yourself worthy of genuine investigative journalism. Look at the video evidence.

Observe the same data I have. Submit a formal request to the Pentagon or the DOD to release video PROOF that flight 77 did exactly as they claim. You will be stonewalled. You will be dismissed unconditionally. If there is nothing to hide - why are they hiding it?

To avoid any confusion - I reiterate:

Building Seven - Pentagon video documentation.

If any portion, or portions of this text is any way deleted or manipulated, you will only confirm what myself and countless others have suspected all along: Media complicity with no interest in the truth.

A CNN poll at the time of this writing currently sits at 84 percent IN SUPPORT of my views.

Say what you must about me - it means nothing.

Yet, if you continue to overlook the hard questions and physical evidence regarding 9/11 - you only confirm what so many of us "Conspiracy Idiots" have suspected all along - The Official Report is, at best, an insulting work of FICTION.

Respectfully,
Charlie Sheen
------------
The best thing about this is he knew what would come when he took this stand, and he didn't care. Slime the messenger, ignore the message.

Censure Bush

Send Cheney to the Cayman Islands

Impeach Rumsfeld

Outsource Rice

Guest WOrker Pass for Gonzales

Send the rest to Iran

Media complicity and no interest in the truth! Charlie gets it!

Alex Jones Comment on Sheen Statement and Challenge: Hundreds of positive and negative pieces have been written about actor Charlie Sheen's courageous stand for 9/11 truth.

The pro-Sheen pieces are well written and are brimming with facts, studies and in-depth investigations by concerned, caring people who know that the official fable of Septmeber 11 is a patent fraud.

Conversly, the snivelling hit-pieces are written at a snot-nosed 7th Grade level by jibbering establishment sychophants. These individuals refuse to challenge any of the facts that Charlie Sheen and others have raised concerning the 9/11 massacres.

There's a reason for that: they can't. If they look into that painful place where 3,000 Americans died, the place where the death of our Republic began, the tomb where the spectre of totalitarianism rose, they will be looking into the eyes of their masters -- those who caried out the attacks and those who seek in vain to hide the truth from the people that they would have as slaves.

Most people on the planet today know in their gut the truth about 9/11. Once you look at the facts, there is no denying the cold, hard data.

So, try as you may, establishment, the truth about 9/11 is coming out. The majority of you out there who are fighting to supress the truth about 9/11 may not have taken part in it, but by defending those who did you all become accomplices. So before you dismiss us, you had better investigate.

There are hundreds of prominent people in the US who have already gone public and there will be hundreds more. Charlie Sheen, no matter what mud you sling at him, is a hero for what he has done. He's the archetypal example of what a leader is.

The founding fathers were wealthy, successful men at the highest level of the British colonial government. They put it all on the line so their descendants could live in liberty. They knew what tyranny was when they saw it.

Do you?
-------------
The answer for many is "NO."

Saladin,

I have to admit, your "crazy conspiracy theories" are becoming very believable with each passing scandal. The truth is leaking out allover the place, even with a useless media and a spineless jellyfish democratic party.

corky, I wonder how many skeletons dangle in the closets of the pro-govt. conspiracy theory supporters? I'm willing to bet LOTS! They keep quiet, or else.

corky, read my link at 45, it is one of the best articles I have ever seen, and I've seen tons. No definite conclusions are claimed, which is good, but there are many unanswered questions.

Corky and Saladin, it has always amazed me how the Bush admin had just the right mix of people in place to respond to 911 without knowing it was going to happen.

And I changed my mind on Cheney, put him in a medical coma.

Rove turning on Cheney?

In the end, evil always turns on itself.

Corky, somehow those in power have never learned the lesson of 3/15. Never trust your closest firends and advisors.

ET TU Karl?

The Perils of Economic Ignorance

Last week in this column I wrote of a perfect economic storm facing America, caused by a federal government that spends, borrows, and prints so much money that our dollars are eroding in value at an alarming rate. Year after year our federal government spends beyond its revenues, prints new money to pay its debts, and borrows hundreds of billions abroad in the form of Treasury obligations that someday must be paid. With too many dollars and debt instruments in circulation, and no political will in Washington to cut spending, we've created a monster. Our perceived prosperity depends on keeping the great debt and credit engine pumping, but the only way to attract new lenders to fuel the engine is higher interest rates. At some point one of two things must happen: either the party in Washington ends, or the supremacy of the dollar as the world's reserve currency ends. It's a sobering thought, but a choice must be made.

How did this happen? How did we get to such a state? The answer is found in the nature of politics itself. The truth is that many politicians and voters essentially believe in a free lunch. They believe in a free lunch because they don't understand basic economics, and therefore assume government can spend us into prosperity. This is the fallacy that pervades American politics today.

More HERE

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

Ron Paul - always pretty good.

capt

Corky, somehow those in power have never learned the lesson of 3/15. Never trust your closet fiends and advisors.

ET TU Karl?

Sic, no sic.

CNN has taken down the Charlie Sheen poll (mentioned below.) For those who did not get a chance to see it, we've provided a screenshot of the results prior to it being taken down:

http://StopTheLie.com/sheen_poll_cnn.html

-From todays news:
This week, we are focusing mainly on the Charlie Sheen / Alex Jones / CNN story. The last time we checked, 84% of those polled Agreed with Sheen's assertion there has been a cover up surrounding 9/11.

How much vile shit can we deal with at one time?
This may prove to be the greatest test America has ever had to face. I hope the jellyfish get some spine soon.

Study: High Times Not A Gateway Magazine To Harder Readings

NEW YORK—Casual readers of the marijuana-enthusiast magazine High Times are no more likely than non-readers to develop a habit for harder forms of reading, according to a study released Monday by the National Institutes of Health.

High Times is not a catalyst for more serious book use.
The findings raise significant doubts about the so-called "gateway magazine" theory, which claims that High Times readers run a higher risk of moving on to harder-hitting titles such as Time and Newsweek, or even mind-expanding publications like Scientific American.

"The conventional wisdom is that High Times users go on to experiment with harder-cover reading materials, becoming 'book junkies' who rummage through street bargain bins for a fix," said Dr. David Kunkel, the study's chief author.

"Our study has determined this to be wholly false. In fact, many of our test subjects were discovered to be borderline illiterate."

Researchers tracked the daily reading habits of 120 occasional and regular High Times readers and found that by the end of the eight-month study, none of the subjects had any interest in reading National Book Award finalists, historical nonfiction, or political biographies.

"Our study subjects were in no apparent danger of a literary overdose," said Kunkel.

The study did report, however, that some participants occasionally used over-the-counter books and magazines to help them fall asleep.

More HERE

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

I had never considered the possibility.

capt

The closer we get to the 9/11 truth the closer we get to a BIG boom somewhere to divert the attention.

37
Pearls from pompous Hapless; straight up

- 11th Seed George Mason's was inspiring though I didn't see the game.

- As for Executive branch's power `grab', as a Conservative, I'm inclined to believe "George W. Bush. . . entered office...to restore the authority of the presidency."

Good answer, don't be troubled with evidence: Base your conclusions on ideology.

- You are becoming more Madison-esque every day. Pray tell, what would HE say?. . . "Since men are NOT angles but must govern men, there will FOREVER be conflicts between ideals and interests; thus, it is incumbent upon men to keep the government as small as possible to minimize such conflicts!"

You've got all the angles covered.

39 "Man is not free unless he is free to live in the bounds of ideology in the realm of ignorance."
Ronald Reagan-esque

DEN I thought that 911 was the BIG BOOM to divert the attention.

Not that there won't be another. The PNAC plan does call for attacking Iran next, and then nuking North Korea. We are already throwing South Korean farmers off their land to expand our military presence there.

If there is no Al Qaida, who's phone calls are being used as an excuse for the NSA spying?

99% of the terrorist threats since 911 have come from middle school children.

There is total proof that the MSM have all been required to sign on to the 911 conspiracy. The proof is that none of them have questioned what happened.

David, that includes you!

corky 70, don't hold your breath, you're bound to turn blue!

FMNN POLLS
President Bush reauthorized the USA Patriot Act with an addendum stating that the use of the act's expanded police powers was none of Congress' business. Is this position correct?

yes 6%
no 94%
------------
None of their business? And congress passed it? Since congress ostensibly represents "we the people" isn't he saying it's none of OUR business as well? That f**king psycho has GOT TO GO!

#75 geof, if the Israelis are complicit in 9/11 you can bet they are not done yet. Google "Israeli moving companies" and read what pos up.

50 His name is actually Hapless but the insecure, sympathy seeking idealogue is ashamed to post under its own name.

(video)

Go George Mason U.

Now maybe people will finally learn who George Mason was.

A contemporary of Madison, Jefferson and Monroe, and a neighbor of Washington. He impacted our development by his ill tempered opposition to the Federalist position, opposition to Washington D.C., his objection to the failure of a bill of rights and his opposition to slavery.

His memorial in Washington is one of my favorites, located near the Jefferson Memorial.

Justice Scalia flips the finger in church

BOSTON, March 27 (UPI) -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics.

A Boston Herald reporter asked the 70-year-old conservative Roman Catholic if he faces much questioning over impartiality when it comes to issues separating church and state.

"You know what I say to those people?" Scalia replied, making the obscene gesture and explaining "That's Sicilian."

The 20-year veteran of the high court was caught making the gesture by a photographer with The Pilot, the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper.

"Don't publish that," Scalia told the photographer, the Herald said.

He was attending a special mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and afterward was the keynote speaker at the Catholic Lawyers' Guild luncheon.

(link)

DEN 78 - very interesting and sinister.

He was attending a special mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and afterward was the keynote speaker at the Catholic Lawyers' Guild luncheon.
------------
Now THAT'S rich!! A special mass, LMFAO!

Liar in Chief

Israel's anti-Arab parties
By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank

Sunday 26 March 2006, 6:53 Makka Time, 3:53 GMT

Several parties who maintain anti-Arab platforms are running for seats in the upcoming Israeli general elections, with at least one having previously called for "relentless terror" against Palestinians.

The Jewish Front, headed by Baruch Marzel, is an offshoot of the Kach group, whose principles Israel's Supreme Court said incited racism.

Kach was outlawed by both the Israeli and US governments in 1994.

The Jewish Front advocates the forced expulsion of Arabs from "the land of Israel".

According to Beny Elyaho, a co-founder of the party, the expulsion of non-Jews would resolve all of Israel's political, economic and social problems.

"Our party calls for cleansing the region extending from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean from the goyim (non-Jews) and thus guaranteeing a Jewish majority of no less than 90% throughout the land of Israel," he was quoted as saying during a party meeting in West Jerusalem last year.

Marzel has called parties willing to negotiate with the Palestinians "traitors" and "criminals" and says the Israeli military should assassinate Uri Avnery, leader of the Gush Shalom peace activist movement.

Racism is alive and well in Israel
------------
Now, who wants to push who into the sea? The leaders of Israel are nothing but white supremicists hiding behind the holocaust. If the KKK pulled shit like this here they would be shunned by everyone.

Hail the Drunk in Chief
I cannot believe that idiot is the President.

Just finished reading Charlie Sheen's response to 9/11. I guess he saw "loose change" or "9/11 in plain site" too. I definitely think this current administration had its hand in this attack.

Hail the Drunk in Chief
I cannot believe that idiot is the President.

Just finished reading Charlie Sheen's response to 9/11. I guess he saw "loose change" or "9/11 in plain site" too. I definitely think this current administration had its hand in this attack.

84 In all fairness, Scalia DID swallow the communion wafer before telling the reporter to go f**k himself.

What are the chances the photographer from The Pilot who took the picture will publish it? I say less than 1%. Nonetheless, we live in free market economy. I wonder if Scalia's rich friends would pony up to buy the negative.

I used to think Dick "ElmerFudd" Cheney was the icon, the crystalline enduring metaphor for the Bush Presidency . . . but I have come to decide it is the "Fuck You" Icon that will be the enduring legacy.

Scalia's rendezvous with Cheney prior to the court case about secret energy policy meetings takes Scalia out of the realm of independent jurist and puts him squarely in the corner with the Busheviks. Even a One "L" student understands the "appearance of impropriety" concept. Scalia took the trip, risking the appearance of independence, to serve a higher purpose.

Keep your eyes open for more F**k Yous as the three ring circus comes to country near you.

Corky

Wow, Your momma really steps up to the plate for you man! How does it feel to have your mommy fight your battles? By the way, I'm also diabetic, but don't use it for sympathy.

Titchaba,

I am glad to see you stick up for your son and because of the explaination you posted, I will no longer hold Corky at-fault for his stupidity. I now hold you completely at-fault for raising such drain on society.

Also,

I have not posted all weekend, conservatives have real lives to live. So the imposter that keeps posting as me must be "more nonsense". I come to this conclusion because Nonsense posts about 70% of all Cornnut posts and doesn't get many responses so she pretends to be Happy or myself to get the much needed attention she thinks she deserves.

Moussaoui 9/11 bombshell;

Moussaoui confess to being one of the 9/11 hijackers and was going to hijack a fifth jet to fly into the white House. James Ha- how are you going to spin this one? I thought there were no arab hijackers?

CITIZEN ACTION STEPS: PHASE ONE (link)

The Rubber Stamp Republican Congress is about to get a wake-up call.

For Phase One: The Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding more hearings on the illegal domestic NSA spying without a warrant on Tuesday. They will also be holding hearings on Sen. Russ Feingold?s censure resolution on Friday. We?d like to get their attention, and let them know that illegal actions of the President and upholding the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are issues about which Americans care deeply.

So here is what we want you to do:

We?re headed back to the FAX machines this morning. Please take some time to FAX the members of the Judiciary Committee and let them know how you feel about this issue.

But start with the following header, in big type, across the top of your missive:

U.S. Constitution: Do Not Shred

Big thanks to Digby for brainstorming on that one. I love it ? it says everything in one neat, little phrase, doesn?t it?

Here are the FAX numbers for the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Arlen Specter, Chairman - Pennsylvania - Fax (202) 228-1229
Orrin G. Hatch - Utah - Fax (202) 224-6331
Patrick J. Leahy - Vermont - Fax (202) 224-3479
Charles E. Grassley - Iowa - Fax (515) 288-5097
Edward M. Kennedy - Massachusetts - Fax (202) 224-2417
Jon Kyl - Arizona - Fax (202) 224-2207
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. - Delaware - Fax (202) 224-0139
Mike DeWine - Ohio - Fax (202) 224-6519
Herbert Kohl - Wisconsin - Fax (202) 224-9787
Jeff Sessions - Alabama - Fax (202) 224-3149
Dianne Feinstein - California - Fax (202) 228-3954
Lindsey Graham - South Carolina - Fax (864) 250-4322
Russell D. Feingold - Wisconsin - Fax (202) 224-2725
John Cornyn - Texas - Fax (972) 239-2110
Charles E. Schumer - New York - Fax (202) 228-3027
Sam Brownback - Kansas - Fax (202) 228-1265
Richard J. Durbin - Illinois - Fax (202) 228-0400
Tom Coburn - Oklahoma - Fax (202) 224-6008

You can sign up for an eFax 30-day trial and fax for free here

That?s it ? just send out a FAX to these members telling them how you feel about the President?s illegal power grab, and the importance of them standing up for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the concept of balance of powers. Feel free to remind them about the President?s signing statement rejections of Congressional power. Or about their Constitutional responsibilities regarding the NSA mess.

But most of all, just tell them what you think about all of this. And that you are watching how they act ? and what they do and do not do on this. That you vote ? and so do your friends.

Don?t forget to start with U.S. Constitution: Do Not Shred. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in John Cornyn?s office when that came across the fax. Mwahahaha.

There is a lot more to come. This is just the first step. Thanks so much to everyone for taking it with us.

I skipped ahead to respond to the first very insightful posts on the blog.

#4 Mr. Ha:

Didn't it always seem to you watching that tape of Bush's reaction and coming to the realization of what 9/11 really was (as we have on this blog) that it was indeed "plausible denability"? He just wasn't informed as to the particular hour/day that it would happen.

PANDY: Your reading of Marcuse is spot on as it pertains to the course and importance blogs like this one will take. We must remain diligent and consistently write letters to our editors and congressmen/women.

#7 Capt.

First: The above leads into something I wanted to respond to from a previous thread. It is not the job of your congresswoman to instantly categorize her consituents, is it? They're not paid to ignore their constituents are they? WE PAY their salary. Although tiring, one must be persistent, as I know someone as wise as you already knew. It just bears repeating.

We all hope you're wrong about the election, but that's just wishful thinking. The plans for stealing the 2006 election are already in place, they solidified that in 2000. We as a "democratic" nation (I say that with dripping sarcasm) must insist on the safeguards that the international community insists on for other up and coming democracies. Did you read that a Floridian whistleblower who is an election official is now being boycotted by Diebold? He called them on the flaws in their system, and now he can't get the time of day from them, thus drumming him out of being an election official. It's happening everywhere and it's not surprising.

One thing we can do, like we did in 2004, is call on everyone to vote ABSENTEE, leaving a paper trail that cannot be tampered with.

As for your comments on Bush performing as nothing more than a tool of the desires of his surrounding cabal, absolutely. He's never been that smart on his own. That's obvious.

One more request Capt. Jeanne e-mailed me instructions on how to set up a link on this blog and I can't figure out somethings--like where do you find the numbers in the link? I sound confused and I absolutely am, a true novice. Could you possibly e-mail and explain it again?

Den, #32, if you watched the video or listened to the prostests on the radio, you'd hear the distinct pitch of female voices screaming in unison. A lot of PO'd Latina women is something that gives me the heebie-jeebies. They won't be blogging, that's for sure.

Jeanne, did you see Corky's post at 33? Remember?

I was more than a little amused by this statement of FACT:
"As for the Far Left's insistence that '...the public must wake up to this constitutional crisis.' because of Bush's actions on Terroist wiretapping, your observation that..."no case is working its way towards a Supreme Court judgment" clearly and very FACTUALLY tells you that the Far Left's views are NOT well supported and that far more scholars/lawyers/legislators are on the side of Bush."
Posted by: Happy, straight up at March 27, 2006 10:43 AM

Conservative legislators interested in preserving Republican Power -- Yes.
Lawyers and Scholars --- NO.

"if I'm not mistaken,"
Posted by: Hapless in Texas, again at March 27, 2006 11:32 AM

Facts should not be inferred. They should be observable, in plain view.

Those Louisianans did a number on Texas teams, eh. They knocked out the Horns and Aggies. Katrina Mojo?

Capt, you were right about the Coelacanth. It has a bigger brain than LBH, too.

Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip

The line between living organisms and machines has just become a whole lot blurrier. European researchers have developed "neuro-chips" in which living brain cells and silicon circuits are coupled together.

The achievement could one day enable the creation of sophisticated neural prostheses to treat neurological disorders or the development of organic computers that crunch numbers using living neurons.

To create the neuro-chip, researchers squeezed more than 16,000 electronic transistors and hundreds of capacitors onto a silicon chip just 1 millimeter square in size.

They used special proteins found in the brain to glue brain cells, called neurons, onto the chip. However, the proteins acted as more than just a simple adhesive.

"They also provided the link between ionic channels of the neurons and semiconductor material in a way that neural electrical signals could be passed to the silicon chip," said study team member Stefano Vassanelli from the University of Padua in Italy.

The proteins allowed the neuro-chip's electronic components and its living cells to communicate with each other. Electrical signals from neurons were recorded using the chip's transistors, while the chip's capacitors were used to stimulate the neurons.

More HERE

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

The first test on a human hybrid went terribly wrong. Everybody saw the lump under his suit. They hope to have the bugs worked out soon.

capt

Former Dem Sen Bob Kerry;

A bombshell Iraqi intelligence document detailinga 1995 pact between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden to conduct "joint operations" against the United States proves that Saddam Hussein "would collaberate with people who would do our country harm," former 9/11 commission member, Bob Kerry said Friday.

The sink hole is starting to spread Cornnut fans!!

Pande

Those Latino women might not be blogging, but they sure kicked your ass in showing Cornnuts how to protest. 500,000 in LA, how many peace protesters showed up a few weeks ago for that one? A couple thousand (I'm being nice)?

Hey Corky and Pande for that matter, these Latinos aren't complaining about not making enough money or government hand outs, maybe you could learn something from them

#50 Jeanne

Jesus that was funny.

I wrote you in the previous thread about the Oregon case asking if you thought it might be the same case that Keith Olbermann brought up in the Thurday or Friday night broadcast. He interviewed an Oregonian defense lawyer defending someone quite similar accused of terrorist ties. This lawyer (name forgotten) has a well-evidenced claim that he is the victim of NSA wiretapping and illegal search. Both his office and home have been searched with evidence of rearranged papers, files and computer tampering. It has to be the same case I'm sure. But he is one of the first to come forward with solid evidence of the overextension of NSA illegal wiretaping and search.

SALDIN:

I'm still catching up but don't you think Charlie Sheen is following in the grand footsteps of his father? A true, intelligent, no nonsense accepted, activist? We can be proud.

#72 Den

That big boom will be nicely timed to fit in with the October surprise.

96 Corky Pande. Throw the guy a bone. It tugs at my heart strings to see him beg.

Carey

Thanks for those kind words, I'm so embarrassed that I originally thought the twin towers was my hookers nickname until my brother set me straight, boy did she ever have a set of towers.

Now, remember, I was drunk as hell and on coke when 9/11 happened so when I heard about this conspiracy I thought ya! F**k Bush and go along with it!! So again, Thanks for all your support.

PS, if you ever want to hook up with twin towers, I still have her number?

101 First Harry, now Charlie. I'm writing a screenplay call "When Charlie met Harry." It's a romatic romp about a bicoastal romance. (No LBH, bicoastal is not a threatening sexual preference.) It's a little Corn-y.

Pande,
I remember, I remember.
Oh the pain. I also remember when $2.05 sent my blood boiling. It was $2.55 over the weekend. And soon I'll be saying I remember when $2.55 used to get my blood boiling.

We drive a lot less. And we shop less. Malls are now an exercise track. Bargains are no bargain. Colorful displays are merely a show of a change in culture. The fashions are too fickle to spend money on. Hear that wall street?

I believe this story has been linked in a previous thread.

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement
In addendum to law, he says oversight rules are not binding

I notice Saladin had a poll regarding the action by Bush to override the law. The overwhelming majority of those polled said bush was wrong.

Democracy Now had the author, Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe. He broke the story.

Bush Signs Statements to Bypass Torture Ban, Oversight Rules in Patriot Act

...AMY GOODMAN: How often have signing statements been used?

CHARLIE SAVAGE: Well, as I said, previous presidents have done this, going way back in time. The frequency really increased under the Reagan administration. And Clinton also issued a number of them. But President Bush has taken this to an unprecedented level. I think one study showed that through the end of 2004, there were more than 500 provisions of new laws that he had said that he would not consider himself bound to obey, just through the end of his first term. And so, he's really been aggressive about this, in a new way.
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500 provisions of new laws he would not consider himself bound to obey. I think the congress should just take a loooooong easter holiday. No reason to go back. The laws mean nothing.

The man is losing it.

Justice Scalia flips the finger in church

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia startled reporters in Boston just minutes after attending a mass, by flipping a middle finger to his critics.

A Boston Herald reporter asked the 70-year-old conservative Roman Catholic if he faces much questioning over impartiality when it comes to issues separating church and state.

"You know what I say to those people?" Scalia replied, making the obscene gesture and explaining "That's Sicilian."

The 20-year veteran of the high court was caught making the gesture by a photographer with The Pilot, the Archdiocese of Boston's newspaper.

"Don't publish that," Scalia told the photographer, the Herald said.

He was attending a special mass for lawyers and politicians at Cathedral of the Holy Cross, and afterward was the keynote speaker at the Catholic Lawyers' Guild luncheon.

------------------
Don't publish that. Oh brother. Ok sir. How about this...don't flip somebody off just after attending mass.

This is the same guy who gave his opinion on the GITMO case that is coming before the supreme court. Recuse please.
The lawyers and the people involved in the case have the right to go before the courts and have it be an impartial hearing. He's ready to throw away the key because his son had been in Iraq as a soldier and had been shot at.
Ummmm, yeah but...what if the 'enemy combatants' are innocent?
Many of those men were given up for bounty money. They were barbers, shopkeepers, ordinary citzens. Now maybe some aren't the nicest group of people on the planet and maybe some are guilty but to throw away the key without a hearing? No. And to let the world know how you're going to vote before you've heard the evidence? No.

#101 HAPPY/LB

I e-mailed you to ask that you stop wasting the blog space. Please do so.

No Corky, Pande, don't throw him a bone. Why feed a wining, hapless dog when he's so fat already?

David Corn said: "(By the way, go GMU in the Final Four!...."

Couldn't disagree with you more on this one, but everyone loves the Cinderella team. Go Gators!

Regardless of the outcome, should be fun. GMU has proven itself with quality wins, to date.

Rick
UF BS '86

Here's a funny.

MAD TV- Bush Slump

Things are looking glum for our King.

UGLY TRUTH GREETS THE KING ON THE TARMAC

This week March 20th , 2006 Mr. Bush came to my town on the Third Anniversary of the War. He arrived at the Airport, no GOP Dignataries arrived to greet him or shake his hand. And Ohio is full of such GOP Strong Men, Mr Noe, Mr .Voinovich, Mr. DeWine.It was a striking moment watching him come down the stairs of the plane and search the empty tarmack with his eyes. It was a telling moment of the State That Susposedly Gave him this Presidency of 2004, now the Touchdown of a Failed Presidency.

The Protestors showed up by the 100 in the town center, and only a handful of his supporters showed up across the street dressed in Red, White and Blue and carrying small feeble signs. They huddled like lost soccer moms, and only held their signs waiste high, before they left quietly.

He gave a speech at the City Club to a echoey chamber of the Elite, another belly up to the Podium Moment.He rambled, he cajoled, he snickered and made strange inappropriate jokes. He seemed out of touch, like the Drunk Uncle at the Thanksgiving Dinner that no one wants to sit next to, much less get into a sparring match. The applause was tenative and polite like what you would hear at a Golf Tournament when an Old Timer makes a safe shot, but needs a Mulligan.

His speech was susposed to reassure and impress, but the problem is that the carnage from Iraq and the Katrina Zone outweigh his words and render him impotent. His poll numbers continue to sag like an old woman's dress drying in the breeze on a stormbent clothesline. His Blunders are now measured daily in dead bodies, and the whole world is watching.

He can't Drive the Podium, so the bigger question is should he be driving the Country ?
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He can override all the laws he wants but he has to have the will of the people. This blog says it all.

I do not agree with Hart and Appleby's defintion of terroist, "Terroism is a method, not an ideology, terroist are criminals, not warriors".

I agree that "terroism is a method". And while I do not agree with "terroism as a method" I have read and talked to enough older Palestinians about the brutal treatment and humiliation that they have suffered under Israels occupation and acquisition of land, to understand it.

I have read and talked to enough older Jews who survived the genocide of WWII, to understand why people might become terroist.

I can especially understand why people turn to terroism when they have been backed into corners.. all other methods have been tried, the abuse continues and they choose the last resort. I think that terroist can be warriors and also criminals at the same time.

The other issue I would add to the Bush administrations abuse of overreach is completely casting the Geneva convention aside calling prisoners detainees instead of prisoners of war, so that they can do as they please.

#65 Corky thanks for posting that article..I had not been to Raw Story today. I had read a few months after Fitzgerald's press conference that he had all ready acquired the retrievable back up system in Cheney's office.

I still think Fitzgerald was setting Rove up to flip over on Cheney and that Rove will still be indicted in the process.

I really hope that Fitzgerald meant what he said at that press conference "that truth is the engine of our judicial system". Truth may not be the engine of our judicial system but I do think it is the engine of Fitzgeralds belief system. Let's keep our fingers crossed that there is still time to watch these criminals "frog marched out of the White House".

Kathleen

I agree with you and Fitzgerald that "truth is the engine of our judical system", which is why Clinton had to be impeached (lying under oath). Funny how Ken Starr was ridiculed for the same thing that Fitzgerald is being praised for by liberals.

Is it just me, or does the whole "Mousaoi as Conspirator" thing stink of "you get life, I you repeat the official version"?

Nothing about today's testimony makes any since at all.

"Shoebomber Richard Reid" was his ONLY contact?

Give me a fucking break!!!

-T

LBH We know there is a difference between lying under oath about a blow job and the Bush administrations repetitive lies about WMD's in Iraq, and the tens of thousands of people who have died as a direct result of these lies. Somehow I see a difference

Sure wish we could force these Bushco. Liars to tesitify under oath about their crimes. But we know that will not happen as long as their is a Republican controlled congress that considers lying about a blow job more critical to the welfare of our nation than lies about WMD's, torture of prisoners, illegal Nsa wiretappings, secret energy policies, etc.etc.

Yeah these Republicans sure have their priorities straight.. straight in the filthy gutter.

March 27, 2006 Storm intensifies over Israel Lobby paper;Financial Times&The furore ignited by two eminent professors from Harvard and Chicago who have challenged the value of the US-Israeli relationship deepened on Monday as the head of the Brookings Institute forcefully rejected their claims that his prestigious Washington think-tank was part of the "pro-Israel chorus".

Professors Stephen Walt of Harvard and the University of Chicago's John Mearsheimer have kicked up a storm in academic and political circles with publication of an 83-page paper called "The Israel Lobby" in which they argue that the "unwavering support" of the US for Israel cannot be justified on strategic or moral grounds and is a result of a powerful and pernicious "lobby".

Part of that lobbying influence, they claim, extends deep into the US political system, namely the Washington think-tanks -- not only the neoconservative and right-wing institutions, but also liberal Brookings

"What was once a non-partisan policy institute is now part of the pro-Israel chorus," the professors wrote, taking aim at Brooking's Saban Centre for Middle East Studies and in particular its main donor, Haim Saban, an Israeli-American businessman, and its director, Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel

;Strobe Talbott, president of Brookings and a former senior official in the Clinton administration, told the FT on Monday that he had written to David Ellwood, dean of the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard which published the work, denouncing the "grotesque" and "objectionable" paper full of "invidious innuendo" and "unsubstantiated allegations" about Brookings.

Mr Talbott said he expressed his dismay that the paper had appeared under the logo of the JFK School, which later removed it. A shorter version was also published by the London Review of Books. Mr Talbott called Mr Saban a model donor who sat on the board and gave total academic freedom to Mr Indyk who "follows no one's agenda". Some scholars in Washington have suggested that the controversial paper was only published recently in part due to the abrupt resignation last month of Harvard's president, Lawrence Summers, who had taken a strong stance against anti-semit