"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
David, isn't that the same sort of BS statement they made when they claimed no one could have EVER imagined Arabs hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings even though a drill preparing for that exact same scenario was going on, coincidentally, on the very day it happened? They didn't know or can't remember, two of the lamest excuses ever!

I find it ironic that the lack of response to the Katrina disaster resulted in mass quanities of finger pointing. Brownie it seemed was not even qualified for the position. Bush gazed out Air Force One at the devastation. Someone was to blame for the obvious ineptitude of the government. We and the MSM held Brownie up as the Arabian horsey guy with NO experience in matters of national disaster. Later in testimony before congress Brownie cleared the air about his role in the disaster preparation. Well well what do ya know, maybe he wasn't THAT bad after all. The video tapes confirm that what he said was true. We need to apologize to Brownie and the worst part, the part that really sings, "Brownie, youre doing a helluva job". Words uttered by the President that were considered laughable. Perhaps we should be a bit more judicious about stringing somebody up before all the evidence is in. In the Presidents case no apologies can be made for his actions, repeatedly lying to the citizens of the US. Or Chertoff should not be let off the hook as he has taken to the lying game just like his boss. Ya did a helluva job Brownie, now if we could only do something about your HIGHLY INEPT bosses.

One has to wonder about George W. Bush...does he realize that Iraq is a lost cause? And if so...at some point will he just try to ride out his term, and dump the mess on someone else? One could argue that this is what LBJ did the last year of his administration.

Bob

David;
Brown's biggest crime to the Bushies was that he didn't follow the chain of command, and that he made his superiors look bad.

listed to Frances Fragos Townsend's remarks about finding a new FEMA director.

Brown may have been a fool, in many ways, but the pesky fact that the WH continued to pay his salary for months after his dismissal suggess that they wanted him to keep his mouth shut.

Negroponte: Iraqi Balkanization on Schedule

Kurt Nimmo | March 2 2006

John Negroponte, Henry Kissinger understudy and death squad ambassador to Honduras, has admitted the Straussian neocon and Jabotinsky Likudite plan to break all Arab states into smaller units is on schedule (a plan going back at least to Moshe Sharett, the second Israeli PM, according to Livia Rokach, daughter of Israel Rokach, Minister of the Interior in the Sharett government), thus implementing Balkanization and vassalization, as Rokach described it in her book, Israel's Sacred Terrorism and detailed in Oded Yinon's A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties.

A civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region's rival Islamic sects against each other, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said in an unusually frank assessment Tuesday, the Associated Press reports this morning. The consequences for the people of Iraq would be catastrophic, Negroponte told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Clearly, it would seriously jeopardize the democratic political process on which they are presently embarked. And one can only begin to imagine what the political outcomes would be.

Of course, the Straussian neocons who run U.S. foreign policy imagined long ago what the political outcomes would be-an easily manipulated Middle East, broken down into ethnically and religiously divided and antagonist components, led by dictators and monarchs answering to the United States and Israel, and acquiescing to harsh diktat and economic medicine passed down from international bankers and venal neolibs determined to suck up all natural resources and impoverish millions of people in the process.
-----------
Civil war, it's all part of the plan.

This video shakes my faith in the infallible leadership skills of George W. Bush. Now I wonder if other statements he has made might not be entirely truthful. I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked.

But big kudos to the mainstream media for uncovering this breaking news story in less than 200 days. Without their amazing diligence, I never would have known that Bush was informed of the threat in advance, except for the couple of dozen official and unofficial sources that have previously reported on this.

Like has been said the best laid plans often go awry. so no matter what he neocons think they won't be able to pull this off, for many reasons. Just going to be a hell of a time while things get sorted out and oh yeah, lots of people are going to die.

Bill Clinton helped Dubai on ports deal

Financial Times
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
Published: March 1 2006 23:50 | Last updated: March 1 2006 23:50

Bill Clinton, former US president, advised top officials from Dubai two weeks ago on how to address growing US concerns over the acquisition of five US container terminals by DP World.

It came even as his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, was leading efforts to derail the deal.

Mr Clinton, who this week called the United Arab Emirates a good ally to America advised Dubai's leaders to propose a 45-day delay to allow for an intensive investigation of the acquisition, according to his spokesman.

On Sunday, DP World agreed with the White House to undertake the lengthy review, a move which has assuaged some of the opposition from the US Congress.

However, Mrs Clinton remains a leading voice against the deal, and this week proposed legislation to block it, arguing that the US could not afford to surrender our port operations to foreign governments.

Mr Clinton's spokesman said: President Clinton is the former president of the US and as such receives many calls from world leaders and leading figures every week. About two weeks ago, the Dubai leaders called him and he suggested that they submit to the full and regular scrutiny process and that they should put maximum safeguards and security into any port proposal.

He added that Mr Clinton supported his wife's position on the deal and that ideally state-owned companies would not own US port operations.

Mr Clinton's contact with Dubai on the issue underscores the relationship he has developed with the United Arab Emirates since leaving office. In 2002, he was paid $300,000 (€≤52,000) to address a summit in Dubai.
------------
hillary is a little behind the times. 80% of our port security is already handled by foreign interests, doesn't she ever read the news? Bill actually turned over the old naval port in Long Beach CA. to the Chinese, maybe she forgot! This whole thing is a no win situation, if you're against it you're racist, if you're for it you're anti-semite, even though Arabs ARE semites. Me thinks this is just another stupid distraction for the gullible masses, and the clintons are part of it.

Brownie, you tried to do a heck of a job. Unfortunately, you have delusional idiots for bosses. They think they are royalty and we all suffer.

#6 With all due respect, until AP had the videotape in its hands they did not have the full story. The videotape is the "smoking gun" in this situation that shows bush was informed prior to Katrina hitting -- we assumed this earlier, now we know for certain.

The White House utilizes very secure encryption technology when it holds meetings via satellite videoconference -- the audio/video signal is "scrambled" to minimize the possibility that unauthorized "viewers" will pick up the signal from the satellite transponder being used.

It appears that someone "handed over" the videotape to AP and AP immediately reported. Perhaps AP was working its sources looking for the "smoking gun" (the videotape) for months and finally got the VT -- we don't know.

I know the press appears to sit on the collective butts, but sometimes they are working.

BTW, eggman, you were right to point out yesterday that PARADE Magazine does publich some solid, useful information. Thanks for pointing that out.

DU is killing more troops and Iraqis than was ever possible with conventional ammunition, so what does the Defense Dept. do? Order more of course!

David,
Read the piece at Tom Paine. Very good. By the time I was done reading it I decided the entire congress should be thrown out. We need people who represent the interests of the American people. That has not happened in a long time. The Feingolds and conyers are not backed up enough. How do you change the culture in Washington DC?

We’≤e Bringing the War Back Home (Marines blocking internet sites)
Source: Wonkette
URL Source: http://wonkette.com/
Published: Mar 1, 2006
Author: Wonkette

Folks, our fighting boys need your help. Here's the email we received today from one of them:

Just to let you know, the US Marines have blocked access to Wonkette along with numerous other sites such as personal email (i.e. Yahoo, AT&T, Hotmail, etc), blogs that don't agree with the government point of view, personal websites, and some news organizatons. This has taken effect as of the beginning of February. I have no problem with them blocking porn sites (after all it is a government network), but cutting off access to our email and possibly-not-toeing-the-government-line websites is a bit much.

Initially all web blocking was done locally at the hub sites in Iraq. If you wanted a site unblocked you just had to email the local administrator with a reason (like, I'd like to read my email, please, and if it wasn't porn or offensive, they'd allow it. Now, all blocking is done by desk-weenies at the USMC Network Operations Center in Quantico, VA, who really don't care if we get our email (or gossip) out here, as they get to go to happy hour after working 9 to 5 and go home to a nice clean, warm home with a real bed! (Sorry, I'm a little peeved.)
---------------
What are we over there fighting and dying for again? Oh yeh, freedom and democracy, I keep forgetting!

Sal, it has been the long established policy in the military that YOU ARE GOVERNMENT PROPERTY! Cases like soldiers on R&R getting a sunburn are courtmarshalled for damaging government property. It is no surprise to me that they would place restrictions on information. Four years of the USAF showed me the militarys indifferent attitude to what anybody thinks. They provided gas masks to military personnell in the event of chemical attack but left their families to fend for themselves, cruel? yes, unusual? no.

DEN, so basically you have to become a slave to fight for freedom? That makes perfect sense.

Sal, Thats a roger wilco over and out. Obedience to authority is the cornerstone to an effective military. Basic training beats your mind into submission to authority so the troops perform as one unit, hence the uniforms. Textbook sheeple.

The news out of Iraq is just heartbreaking. We knew, logically, that this was going to happen. Throughout history we have wreaked devastation on others, and money is usually the bottom line for what we do. Much of the history of American foreign policy is filled with this behavior.

About Bush and his ventures in India. First we ignore Iran and their nuclear doings, and now India, supposedly a friendly democracy? Bush is making a make-believe foreign policy move, "see what I did in India?" Ignore my poll ratings, I certainly do. I never make mistakes.

Den, I have to thank for all funnies you posted. Laughing is the best medicine. I think we can harness the energy I see put into this blog. How, I'm not sure of yet.

I watched Chertoff being spoofed by Jon Stewart of the Daily Show. He answered every other question with "thats classified I cannot go into it". What are they protecting us from? The great hurricane gods who will return if they know where the weak levees are? Its's classified because they do not want the public to know about their gross negligence and incompetence. Is it because they could be held liable?

The Bush administration's public relations tactic of "Simplify and Smear" has apparently backfired, with videotape evidence this time.

Carey, how are you?

A NEW GOLD SEIZURE: POSSIBILITY OR PARANOIA?

VERY important must read article.

...if a seizure of gold and silver could--and in a dire financial crisis probably would--be undertaken to save the Establishment's bacon, with what likelihood would it succeed, even to the limited degree that Roosevelt's gold seizure succeeded in the 1930s?

Unfortunately, the likelihood is not insignificant. The occasion for a seizure would be a monetary and banking crisis so severe that it threatened the continued existence of the Federal Reserve System, the solvency of the Treasury, and even the functioning of the entire domestic economy. In such a situation, a nationwide financial panic would ensue, probably worse than anything experienced during the 1930s. Unlike the 1930s, though, when millions of Americans possessed gold or silver coins and were familiar with the sound money that regularly passed from hand to hand as wages and salaries, and in the consumer economy, today relatively few Americans hold monetary gold or silver in any form, or understand anything at all about money and banking. So without personal experience, knowing nothing relevant to the problem facing them, and unable to evaluate the situation critically, in a severe crisis many Americans would likely believe anything they were told by public officials and the big media--especially if these sources of propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation emphasized that their prescriptions were the only way to restore the economic stability masses of people desperately desired.
-------------
Economic disaster waiting in the wings, KBR detention camps designed to hold millions, precious metal confiscation. 5 years ago I would have laughed at all this, not anymore. Robb, if you're out there be sure to read this, you too DEN.

War against the creatures of the earth continues, we dont need no stinking endangered species

#9 Great post Sal. I see the injury and meds have not dulled your astute intellect.

VVe are zee SS, vve moost zee yer papers, vee vvil make yoo give too us yer metallzz, zee golt, zee silva, eet ees beelong to SS. giv to us or vve schoot yer vamily, zee?

Micki #10

Point well taken on AP. It just galls me that nothing gets played up in the news unless there is visual evidence. In this case there have been plenty of credible reports that Bush was fully informed of the danger ahead of time, but these did not constitute a "smoking gun". The Abu Ghraib pictures are another example--there were plenty of credible reports of prisoner abuse before Abu Ghraib and there continue to be similar reports since then, yet these stories rarely hit the front page without visuals to go with the words. But I guess I shouldn't blame the MSM for something that's just a fact of life.

"Is the commander in chief afraid of real debate?"

No. Bush is not afraid of debate because he has no intention of having any debate about his policies.

What Bush does extremely effectively is conceal the motivation and objectives of his policies.

For example, what are the real reason(s) we're in Iraq? What citizens have been wiretapped without a warrant and why? Why caused the 2.1 seismic event 9 seconds before the WTC fell to the ground?

When you don't know the real agenda, you can't oppose it. Instead, critics are relegated to asking questions. Answers are rarely forthcoming.

Bush and Cheney know to control knowledge is to control power. They hoard it like never before and in the process; enable themselves to shred the first, fourth and eighth amendments (free press, prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure, prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.)

The stench coming from the executive branch is particularly un-American and its name is abuse of power.

O'Reilly, that wasn't me it was Jeanne. For a minute I thought I had an injury I was unaware of!

Al Qaeda bragged of infiltrating Emirates government, casting shadow on security of port deal

Al Qaeda bragged of infiltrating the United Arab Emirates government, according to a 2002 letter posted on a U.S. military site and discovered by ThinkProgress.

In the letter, dated in May or June of 2002 and translated by the U.S., al Qaeda declares that the Emirates is "committing acts of injustice" in order to "appease the Americans' wishes which include: spying, persecution and detainment." In return, the group says they have infiltrated the Emirate government. The letter can be seen here.

You are well aware that we have infiltrated your security, censorship and monetary agencies along with other agencies that should not be mentioned," the authors write. "Therefore, we warn of the continuation of practicing such policies, which do not serve your interests and will only cost you many problems that will place you in an embarrassing state before your citizens."

"Our policies are not to operate in your homeland and/or tamper with your security because we are occupied with others which we consider are enemies of this nation," they continue. "If you compel us to do so, we are prepared to postpone our program for a short period and allocate some time for you."

....The claim that al Qaeda had infiltrated the UAE government seems to raise serious concern as to whether a U.S.-backed plan to turn over 21 ports to a company owned by the country's governing monarchs is sound.

During the initial 30-day review of the port deal, the Coast Guard warned of gaps in intelligence as regards the Arab firm, saying, "There are many intelligence gaps, concerning the potential for DPW or P&O assets to support terrorist operations, that precludes an overall threat assessment" of the potential merger.

"The breadth of the intelligence gaps also infer potential unknown threats against a large number of potential vulnerabilities," the half-page assessment added.

Another assessment by the General Accountability Office -- which has received scant attention -- concluded that the Committee for Foreign Investment, the arm of the Treasury Department that approves such deals, could not possibly conduct a thorough intelligence review in 30 days. It adds that the U.S. has put pressure for the reviews to be conducted faster.

It hasn't dulled me either.

Saladin,

Sorry to learn that you had a an injury. I've been outta town so did not keep up on the Corn blog.

Hope you heal fast and well.

Warm regards,
th

#27 I must have suffered a head injury myself... but I don't remember... he he. sorry bout that.

What is truly amazing, we have Hitler Bush in the WH and he isn't even qualified to be in charge of FEMA. No wonder our country is headed into the abyss of hell! Normally I never look at Hitler Bush but I took a really close look at him walking on television and he seems to walk like he has shit in his pants. Since his shit is outside his colon, he can easily fling his shit at us.

th I'm fine, Jeanne slipped on the ice and whacked her head good and broke her arm. Jeanne I hope you are feeling better.

The Real Threat

Experts Call for Release of 9/11 Evidence

I posted this at the end of the last thread but want to post it once more. This article appears in Yahoo news which is very close to MSM coverage. David, I don't know how extensively you read the comments here but don't you think it's time you covered this story? The evidence for govt. complicity is overwhelming and the MSM will scoop you if you don't move on it. You asked us over a year ago to present evidence which we have been faithfully doing. The Scholars for 9/11 truth cannot be blown off as looney conspiracy theorists, they are being taken seriously by all sorts of media, time to wake up!

Bush hates needy people

Anyone know how to tell when chimpy is lieing? .............When his mouth is moving.

Sal, that would be the ticket to getting rid of the whole bunch. Lieing is one thing, but to create an event with the magnitude of 9/11 deserves no less than life in prison for the parties involved. Hey maybe thats why they are being so protective of the evidence. (lite bulb moment)

Thanks Sal,
Everyday is a little better.

David, PLEASE HELP!!!! Sal is right, someone needs to give this issue sunlight and it must come from "reliable sources". The country we all know and love has been duped by money grubbing, power hungry assholes and the longer we wait the farther we go from the freedoms we value.

Lobbyist's Credit Card Bill Outs DeLay Trip

March 2, 2006 - The paper trail seems so obvious it makes you wonder whether anyone ever worried about getting caught. When Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and his wife flew from Houston to a golf resort in Scotland in June 2000, the first-class airfare cost $14,001, a big-ticket item for a public servant. But someone else paid.

The American Express bills of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January, show he footed the bill for the tickets, in an apparent violation of House ethics rules.
-------------------
Our leaders are great aren't they?

#35 Sal, The Google "Emergency 911" video pushed me over the top.

WTC7 was not hit by an airplane but imploded like the two towers, as if they had been rigged for demolition.

The owner of WTC7, who is the same owner as WTC1 and WTC2, said "pull the building." The NYC Fire Dept. evacuated and the WTC7 imploded like it was rigged for demolition.

Why did WTC1 and WTC2 implode? Watching the tape you'll see two disturbing issues. The buildings collapses like they were rigged for timed demolition. The external steel frame explodes "outward" not just downward. Puffs of smoke are visible on the leading edge of the disintegration.

Scientists claim jet fuel does not burn at temperatures high enough to cause the steal reinforced core to disintegrate nor steel to melt. Both of which are facts in evedence.

A 2.1 seismic event was record 9 seconds prior to the "collapse" of WTC1. This is equivalent to an incredible amount of TNT, some 25 million sticks of TNT.

Check it out. You might find yourself questioning what we all accepted as common knowledge.

From an email sent be Moveon

This morning, Governor Bill Richardson will sign legislation to transition all of New Mexico to a paper ballot system. Governor Richardson successfully urged the legislature to pass this bill replacing all voting systems—including electronic voting—with more reliable, less expensive paper ballots counted by optical scanners. With paper ballots, voters can verify their votes are being recorded accurately.

*********

So I will be voting. Now they just need to show me a candidate that is not pro-war, pro-death, pro-NWO. . .

capt

A Most Lying Fellow

There once was a man known to lie,
Who did things to make people die.
He started a war,
On myths and false lore,
Jail is too good for this guy.

+++++++
Not as good as flan's poetry...but it just came to me.

Join our "72 Online" campaign: simple, powerful, inevitable

We invite Americans from all political perspectives to join our "72 Online" campaign. By Election Day, we will persuade Congress to post bills online for 72 hours before being brought up for floor debate. ReadtheBill.org was launched Jan. 17, 2006. We support the "72 Online" reform resolution, H.Res.688, sponsored by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA). Tell your member of Congress to: cosponsor his H.Res.688 -- Email sign up -- Tell a friend -- Donate -- Please donate -- we are startup! Thank you.

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

Smells like keyboard activism but tastes like chicken!

capt

#25 Eggman, somewhere along the line, without visuals nothing is "real" to Americans. It's almost as though w/o a picture, nothing is taken seriously.

(I remember that old admonishment when my parents would get exasperated with one of their six kids, "Do I have to draw you a picture?" But, we were kids!)

03/02/06 FOX Poll: Most Oppose Port Deal; Republicans Lose Ground
_______________

For only the second time of his presidency, the poll finds that President Bush’≥ overall job approval rating has fallen below 40 percent —†today 39 percent of Americans say they approve and a 54 percent majority disapproves. Late last year the president’≥ approval hit a record-low of 36 percent (8-9 November 2005).
_______________

et Tu, Rupert Murdoch? ...et Tu?

-T

Speaking of visuals... A friend just asked me (email) if I still had a link to that video comparing Doofus' speeches now, with what he sounded like 10 years ago. It's the 'pre-senile dementia tape'. Wow! I done a google search for her and found it.

campaign speech for Texas governor compared to his speeches now

Alan, I think chimpy could stand there with both eyeballs rolling in his head and propped up with a stick, the repugs would still treat him like an intellectual.

Baghdad official who exposed executions flees
_______________

Faik Bakir, the director of the Baghdad morgue, has fled Iraq in fear of his life after reporting that more than 7,000 people have been killed by death squads in recent months, the outgoing head of the UN human rights office in Iraq has disclosed.
"The vast majority of bodies showed signs of summary execution - many with their hands tied behind their back. Some showed evidence of torture, with arms and leg joints broken by electric drills," said John Pace, the Maltese UN official. The killings had been happening long before the bloodshed after last week's bombing of the Shia shrine in Samarra.
________________

Seven THOUSAND?!!! Get rid of that rag-head bastard. It can't be a "Civil War" until we SAY it's a "Civil War"! GET ME A REASON for a CIVIL WAR NOW!

"KaBOOM" goes the mosque!

-Rummydumbyaturdblossomdarthcheney, etc...

Alan, that is freakin' scary to see his mental/verbal decline! I heard a couple of bush's soundbites today from New Delhi -- he sounded as though he was struggling -- really struggling -- to string a complete sentence together.

GOP to hold 'mastering blogs' session with Stephen Colbert
______________

The seminar — covering everything from “What is a blog?” to strategies for pitching stories and ideas to bloggers — will feature discussions with bloggers from such conservative sites as TownHall.com and Human Events Online.

In addition, attendees will hear from some of Washington’s top blog watchers and from fellow House aides whose bosses are at the forefront of outreach to the blogosphere, including Ken Spain, the press secretary to avid blogger and podcaster Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), and Brad Dayspring, the communications director for Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) who last month helped organize the first-ever House hearing open to live blogging. RNC eCampaign Director Patrick Ruffini will also participate.

Comedian Stephen Colbert, who is planning to be on the Hill Friday taping interviews for “The Colbert Report’s” “Better Know a District” segment, is slated to drop by the event to pitch his Comedy Central show, which each week spotlights a different House Member and district. (Kingston, who sat for the first installment of Colbert’s series, invited the TV host.)
_______________

OK, so the "assign brown-shirt assholes to troll the 'bogs" strategy isn't workin' too good. Let's get serious about polluting the internet with Freeper blog clones!

-T

The sound clips from Dumbya in Indja remind me of someone who's taken too much Ativan (valium) and would rather just sit in the corner and watch the world go by than try to talk.

I see it almost every day. This guy's on something and they've been tweeking the dosages for quite some time. The heavier doping might have something to do with the hundreds of thousands of protesters outside his darkened windows calling for his removement from World Politics.

Those millions out there make the anti-Bush team here look like a frickin' Quilting Bee!

What the hell is WRONG WITH US!?

-T

Hajji,

Maybe they will discuss using a spellchecker?

They should spend a whole day on "your" versus "you're" - another day on how to make a link.

capt

India, Pakistan got atomic arms "legitimately": Bolton
__________________

Under a deal India and the United States agreed in principle in July 2005, New Delhi would commit itself to certain international nonproliferation standards including putting its civilian nuclear facilities under international inspection.

In return it would gain access to U.S. civilian nuclear technology, including fuel and reactors, that it was denied for 30 years. India's military facilities would not be subject to inspections under the deal.

At the same time, the U.S. administration is pressing Iran to turn its back on a program to enrich uranium on its own soil, a plan Tehran insists is intended only to produce electric power but which Washington insists aims to develop nuclear bombs.

Bolton noted that neither India nor Pakistan had ever signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, intended to contain the spread of atomic arms, while Iran had done so.
________________

Uhm...so if you SAY you're makin' NUKES and refuse to cave into pressure to stop (India, Pakistan) you're OK with US! However, if you say you're NOT makin' Bombs with the stuff, but we think you might someday intend to do so (Iran, Iraq) against all visible evidence to the contrary...we're gonna bomb you back into the STONE AGE!

Absolute BRILLIANT foreign policy!

-T

Thought this one was a good one; The Kennebunkport Hillbilly (sung to the tune of The Beverly Hillbillies Theme Song) Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy named Bush. His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush. He drank like a fish while he drove all about. But that didn't matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out. DUI, that is. Criminal record. Cover-up. Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale. He can't spell his name but they never let him fail. He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk. And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke. Blow, that is. White gold. Nose candy. The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam. Kin folks say, 'George, stay at home with Mom.' Let the common people get maimed and scarred. We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard. Cushy, that is. Country clubs. Nose candy. Twenty years later George gets a little bored. He trades in the booze, says that Jesus is his Lord. He said, 'Now the White House is the place I wanna be.' So he called his daddy's friends and they called the GOP. Gun owners, that is. Falwell. Jesse Helms. Come November 7, the election ran late. Kin folks said 'Jeb, give the boy your state!' 'Don't let those colored folks get into the polls.' So they put up barricades so they couldn't punch their holes. Chads, that is. Duval County. Miami-Dade. Before the votes were counted five Supremes stepped in. Told all the voters 'Hey, we want George to win.' 'Stop counting votes!' was their solemn invocation. And that's how George finally got his coronation. Rigged, that is. Illegitimate. No moral authority. Y'all come vote now. Ya hear?

Oh, yeah, and then there's Israel's nukes...

Patriot Act Vote in Senate 89-10

Nays:
Senators voting "nay" -

Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Byrd (D-WV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Murray (D-WA)
Wyden (D-OR)

Senator Inouye (D-HI) did not cast a vote.

#51
Micki,
That's jet lag. (yeah right)

Students Walk Out Over Teacher's Suspension for Anti-Bush Comments
________________
March 2, 2006 — A Colorado school is in upheaval following the suspension of a teacher who was recorded comparing President Bush's rhetoric to that of Adolf Hitler.

More than 100 students at Overland High School in Aurora, Colo., walked out of class this morning to protest the decision to put geography teacher Jay Bennish on administrative leave.

On the tape, Bennish, who has taught in the Colorado district for five years, is heard quoting part of the State of the Union address: "It is our duty as Americans to use the military to go out in the world and make the world like us." Bennish continues: "Sounds a lot like what Adolph Hilter used to say."
________________

When I was in High School, we actually held a "Pray Out" (Catholic School, dontchaknow) on the lawn of the rectory, the Pastor's residence, to voice our dis-approval at the school's revoking a contract renewal for one of our teachers, the Coach, in fact! It seems he'd been the victim of rumors that he was at a party where students had been drinking or some such...

We appealed to the Diocesian Education Board, threatened legal action and brought HEAVY media coverage.

He got his contract and is still a very beloved teacher/coach in the area!

-T

#42 O'Reilly -

the 3 towers did not all collapse in the same manner - WTC7 imploded from the bottom up, just like a classic type of controlled demolition -
WTC's 1 & 2 somehow had all of their concrete rendered into powder and their steel beams broken into convenient short sections from the top downward, in some new kind of never seen before manner -

Vitamin-Packed Beer?
______________
March 2, 2006 — For beer lovers, it sounds too good to be true: vitamin-enhanced beer that not only increases your nutrient intake but also eases hangovers.

A Texas beer company says it has created a brew that fits the bill, although there is some skepticism.

Fred Matt, one of the brewers, says Stampede Plus is aimed at active, healthy consumers. However, the company is somewhat mum on its Web site about what is in its brew, noting that "the government doesn't let us tell you explicitly what the extra (plus) is."
_______________

Alan, Pande...get out in front of this story! NOW!

S.F. supervisors ask lawmakers to impeach Bush

San Francisco's supervisors jumped into national politics Tuesday, passing a resolution asking the city's Democratic congressional delegation to seek the impeachment of President Bush for failing to perform his duties by leading the country into war in Iraq, eroding civil liberties and engaging in other activities the board sees as transgressions.

The supervisors, in voting 7-3 for the resolution, ensured that San Francisco again will become grist for radio and TV talk shows. The city has appeared in the national media spotlight recently for voters' passage in November of a nonbinding measure banning military recruiters from public high schools and for Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval's recent comment on a Fox News show that the United States doesn't need a military.

Supervisor Chris Daly, one of the most progressive members of the board, sponsored the resolution, which also calls for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney. Daly said the measure is justified in light of the administration's case for and handling of the war in Iraq, the federal government's inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina and recent revelations about a domestic wiretapping program.

"I think the case is clear, and I think it's appropriate for us to weigh in," Daly said.
------------------
Hey, I'm going to my caucus next week. I'm going to put impeachment on the table.

Can you believe that the UAE has bought two ammunition plants, one in Georgia and the second in Colorado. Israel is buying a software plant that does business with the Defence Department in Maryland? YES, MY FELLOW NAZI AMERICANS, OUR NAZI GOVERNMENT IS OUTSOURCING OUR SECURITY.

WHY ARE OUR MEN AND WOMEN BEING KILLED AND MAIMED IN FORSAKEN LANDS?

DO YOU NOW KNOW WHY I PUKE SO MUCH?

Jeanne, how are you able to computerize with one hand?

I'm supposed to have my arm in a sling as we speak. Shhh. (when I'm away from the computer I always have it in the sling.)

In 2055 Nazi America will have 600 million people with 75 million illegal people. Nazi America will be totally controlled by foreign countries. We will probably have 50 to 75% of Americans unemployed. Foreign countries will bring in more and more workers to take over the jobs. Very similar to Indian owned companies in Nazi America!

Which reminds me.
Last Friday my husband was waiting for the doctor to ask me who the president was. John wanted to hear that question so bad because he knew how I would respond. What would the doctor have said if I replied dick with a small d Cheney?

Oh yea, the busybodies are hard at work in Mississippi. abortion will be a major crime!

Den,
On Talk of the Nation (I think) on NPR they had a segment on the religious rights new issue. Take away gays rights to adopt. They'd rather see hard to place children remain in foster care. This is simply a ploy to get Americans to vote republican again. I don't think it's going to work anymore. It's not working in MN. People are getting downright mad.

DEN, only Pre-birth abortion will be a crime, all the millions of war induced post-birth abortions are fine and dandy!

Hurricane Pam Exercise Concludes
Release Date: July 23, 2004
Release number: R6-04-093
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Hurricane Pam brought sustained winds of 120 mph, up to 20 inches of rain in parts of southeast Louisiana and storm surge that topped levees in the New Orleans area. More than one million residents evacuated and Hurricane Pam destroyed 500,000-600,000 buildings. Emergency officials from 50 parish, state, federal and volunteer organizations faced this scenario during a five-day exercise held this week at the State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge.

The exercise used realistic weather and damage information developed by the National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the LSU Hurricane Center and other state and federal agencies to help officials develop joint response plans for a catastrophic hurricane in Louisiana.

"We made great progress this week in our preparedness efforts," said Ron Castleman, FEMA Regional Director. "Disaster response teams developed action plans in critical areas such as search and rescue, medical care, sheltering, temporary housing, school restoration and debris management. These plans are essential for quick response to a hurricane but will also help in other emergencies."

"Hurricane planning in Louisiana will continue," said Colonel Michael L. Brown, Deputy Director for Emergency Preparedness, Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. "Over the next 60 days, we will polish the action plans developed during the Hurricane Pam exercise. We have also determined where to focus our efforts in the future."

A partial summary of action plans follows:

On NPR this evening they announced that this deal with India was a completely new policy for the U.S, that the U.s. had never dealt with a country ( sales of nuclear and military weapons)that had not signed the NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY.

When will this bullshit stop. We have been in the defense and nuclear weapon business with Israel for years. Israel continues to operate their stockpiles in the shadows, continually taunting their neighbors. When will this bullshit stop?

Im in the segment that believes that good parents are tough to find, so why not gays? I do see a problem in one area that needs addressing. That is the civil union area, notice I did not call it marriage. If a gay couple did adopt a child, what would happen if they split? Right now there is no legal method to tie two gays together legally. With a divorce comes child support, with a gay adoption without the benefit of civil union this would be a serious problem. I think it is way past time for people to get off the fence and allow civil unions. So many little kids in foster care now are not being adequately cared for now, two loving parents would be a great answer to that problem.

Jeanne #70, #73 was a response to your post, oops!

Sal, I second that!

"The debate hers isn't only how to protect the country. It's how to protect our values.". - "If cruelty is no longer declared unlawful, but instead is applied as a matter of policy, it alters the fundamental relationship of man to government. It destroys the whole notion of individual rights. The Constitution recognizes that man has an inherent right, not bestowed by the state or laws, to personal dignity, including the right to be free of cruelty. It applies to all human beings, not just in America--even those designated as 'unlawful enemy combatants.' If you make this exception the whole Constitution crumbles.": Alberto J. Mora, former Navy General Counsel - Source: Feb. 27, 2006 issue of The New Yorker, entitled "The Memo".

=
How we burned in the prison camps later thinking: What would things have been like if every police operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive? If during periods of mass arrests people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever was at hand? The organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt. - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

=
"It bothers me that the executive branch is taking the amazing position that just on the president's say-so, any American citizen can be picked up, not just in Afghanistan, but at O'Hare Airport or on the streets of any city in this country, and locked up without access to a lawyer or court just because the government says he's connected somehow with the Taliban or Al Qaeda. That's not the American way. It's not the constitutional way.": Laurence Tribe - Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard University - Source: interview on ABC's Nightline

=
"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.": Sir Winston Churchill - (1874-1965) Prime Minister of England - November 21, 1943

===

Thanks ICH Newsletter!

Psssssst! HOT INVESTMENT TIP THAT I'M "HAPPY" TO SHARE

According to those "in the know" it is time to invest in Iraqi currency. The story goes that, as things improve in Iraq, it would be a wise investment to buy up Iraqi dinar -- happy investors can buy brazillions of dinar on eBay or from their favorite speculator.

Be Happy! Go for it!

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh today, and he was on vacation with a guest host subbing.

Anyways, at one point during a call he referred to something as the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies(I think he was referencing the program as being some kind of intellectually filled material, it was not).

I thought, man, if only he changed "conservative" to "Republican" his acronym would have been L.I.A.R.S.

That would have been too perfect.

http://betoniraq.com/

The Deal

Dear Cornposters:

I would like to share with you some information. An Indian company that searches for jobs for Indian citizens has worked with Nazi American corporations. They struck a deal to have 200,000 American computer programmers lose their jobs and 400,000 Indian computer programmers were hired at half the pay and less fringe benefits. Yes, 200,000 American computer programmers lost their jobs and more Indian computer programmers are working and more Indian computer programmers will take away American jobs. That is what our Nazi government wants and that is what our Nazi corporations want.

Hitler Bush is in India and he struck a deal with the Indian government to permit more Indian engineers to enter Nazi America. India graduates 200,000 engineers every year. They will be hired for more jobs in Nazi America.

China is also another country that graduates 200,000 engineers every year. More and more Chinese will also enter Nazi America for jobs. The noose is tightening around Nazi Americans and their necks.

More and more Americans will be without jobs in the years to come. Nazi Americans will suffer more and more every year. More and more Nazi Americans will enter detention camps because to complain will give you a lifetime sentence to these detention camps. More and more pain and suffering will be upon Nazi Americans in the years to come. Yes, my fellow Nazi Americans, the pain and suffering are only beginning for Nazi Americans.

Sincerely,

Gerald

Bush, defending his administration's inadequate response, said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." There are three possible explanations for this false statement

You missed a fourth. You see, Annie Boddey was a White House aide who, the day before Katrina made landfall, told Bush, "Don't worry, George. Those levees will hold. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liberal liar." And wise King George, he solved the problem, he fired Ms. Boddey and she took a job with the National Review.

Sal,

I'm okay. I've got to say, reading this blog has been very informative. You get all kinds of news and interesting tidbits of information. I don't know who is more angry, the press or Bush. You have to sit back and enjoy his discomfort. How long did he think he could keep up his charade on Katrina? Look at what he's done and many more like him. Everyone wants a piece of that proverbial apple pie. It doesn't stop with which party one belongs to. It just doesn't stop!

Sal and Jeanne,

I hadn't read all the way through the thread. I haven't been reading a heck of alot. I'm so sorry. Being injured is just no fun.

Our local news station had a piece on our school chidren. They do not want to be challenged; they do not want to work in school; and they only want to be entertained. If they are not entertained, they become bored. Parents are becoming more useless in the education process.
What lies ahead for our babied and pampered children? A rude awakening lies ahead for these spoiled brats.

Our school children will become dump and stupid soldiers to fight Nazi America's endless wars. They will really be entertained on Nazi America's global battlefields.

I don't Carey. He's kept up a charade for 5 years. I keep wondering what it will finally take to bring him down. Will the truth about 9/11 do it? Or will he say he doesn't remember anything about it? Will America finally stand up and take the country back? Or will they be too busy watching American Idol and Desperate Housewives?

#21 Sal,

I'm still catching up. A very interesting piece. I can't believe that Congress actually passed the Bankruptcy Bill by which a person could loose their job, take a minimum-wage job and her son breaks a leg. Then, bankruptcy, with no place to turn. It was the ever-present lobbyists who saw to it that the bill was passed. And the irony is, it's not stopping the cheaters defrauding the government. We can't rely on the lost Congress anymore, we must try campaign reform.

Well, I think I've caught up Saladin. Sorry for the sorry about your non-injury. Good thing though, that you weren't.

#78
J-Dub,
Where a rubber band on your wrist. Whenever you have the urge to listen to Rush snap that rubber band. (Although I must say you were using your time constructively)

Democracy Now Headlines

New Iraq Reconstruction Funds Devoted Solely to Prisons

In other news, the State Department quietly announced this week it has requested $100 million dollars for Iraqi reconstruction –†all of it for prisons. The Bush administration initially promised $20 billion dollars to reconstruct Iraqi infrastructure. But much of the money has been diverted to security. State Department Iraq coordinator James Jeffrey said the $100 million dollar prison project was the lone new reconstruction effort the US government will undertake over the next year.

#44 "Not as good as flan's poetry...but it just came to me."

Wow...Thanks Micki! You're not so bad yourself - what are you talking about?

It makes me feel bad I haven't written anything lately. Things have been so hectic at work that I haven't had much time to think let alone read all the comments AND write some good ditties.

I'll have to tell my sister, a published author of short stories and poems, that I'm going to give her some competition some day.

Not bad for a computer analyst!

ADMINISTRATION
What Bush Was Told About Iraq
By Murray Waas, National Journal
? National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, March 2, 2006

"On at least four earlier occasions, beginning in the spring of 2002, according to the same records and sources, the president was informed during his morning intelligence briefing that U.S. intelligence agencies believed it was unlikely that Saddam was an imminent threat to the United States. "

LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!!!

Very interesting Democracy Now today.

http://www.democracynow.org/

U.S. Enters New Nuclear Age as Bush Seeks Funds for New Generation of Nukes

AMY GOODMAN: You are saying that the new generation of nuclear weapons that the Bush administration is pushing forward violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?

GREG MELLO: Absolutely. And in that treaty, we are required to successfully negotiate complete nuclear disarmament. This has been a U.S. law since 1970. As recently as 2000, the United States -- well, in a consensus statement at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference, we agreed to proceed with nuclear disarmament in a series of 13 steps that would actually implement that disarmament requirement. The Bush administration has repudiated those 13 steps, and the subject of nuclear disarmament and our Article 6 requirement to do so under the N.P.T. is not something the Bush administration wants to talk about, especially in the context of Iran. And the -- what we would like, we would like to hold Iran to a very high standard under the N.P.T. Ourselves, we would not want to talk about what we're doing there.

AMY GOODMAN: Greg Mello, who runs Los Alamos? Who runs the national lab?

GREG MELLO: Right now, it's the University of California, but a consortium of four companies -- well, three companies and the University of California just won the contract, and so we are in a transition phase. I think it's June 1, the transition is to be complete. So, soon, Bechtel, Washington Group International --

AMY GOODMAN: These are corporations?

GREG MELLO: These are corporations, yeah. BWXT and the University of California will run Los Alamos National Laboratory. They have what could be a 20-year no-bid contract. It's about -- right now, it's about $2.2 billion per year, so it's a $40 billion no-bid contract if they do what they are told.

AMY GOODMAN: And what's the significance of this?

GREG MELLO: Well, we've never seen this kind of profit motive in the nuclear weapons business up to now. They can make more than -- well more than $1 billion, more than $1.5 billion, in fees in management awards. Plus they get an entree or leg up in the nuclear power business, which they expect to be growing. Los Alamos has for years, along with Sandia National Laboratory here, had a program to promote nuclear power worldwide. And it sounds quite similar to what was incorporated in the President's State of the Union address.
------------------
There is absolutely no accountability with this administration. Laws mean nothing. The more that time goes by the more I wonder what will be here for my kids.

Yea thats right!! Bush could have fixed those peskie leeves in 2 days!! That Bum

Republican senator plans foreign divestiture bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee said on Thursday he would introduce legislation requiring foreign companies to divest any holdings of U.S. infrastructure critical to national security.
Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, also vowed to "kill" with legislation a pending deal to allow a state-owned Arab company to manage terminals in major U.S. ports.

He said infrastructure such as ports, electric grids and power plants should not be owned by foreign firms. Under his legislation, "Any foreign companies that own critical infrastructure would be required to divest so it's owned by Americans," Hunter told reporters.

#94
Or he could have had help to get the people without transportation out of the city. If you recall, Noel, (perhaps you don't) that there were Navy people trying to save citizens of NO and were turned away. There were boats from Florida and other states who came to help transport survivers. They were turned away. This administration is in charge. The buck stops with Bush. He let people die while he played guitar.

Death of a Professor
by Haifa Zangana

In a letter to a friend in Europe, Abdul Razaq al-Na'as, a Baghdad university professor in his 50s, grieved for his killed friends and colleagues. His letter concluded: "I wonder who is next!" He was. On January 28 al-Na'as drove from his office at Baghdad University. Two cars blocked his, and gunmen opened fire, killing him instantly.

Al-Na'as is not the first academic to be killed in the mayhem of the "new Iraq". Hundreds of academics and scientists have met this fate since the March 2003 invasion. Baghdad universities alone have mourned the killing of over 80 members of staff. The minister of education stated recently that during 2005, 296 members of education staff were killed and 133 wounded.

Not one of these crimes has been investigated by the occupation forces or the interim governments. They leave that to international humanitarian groups and anti-war organisations. Among them is the Brussels Tribunal on Iraq, which has compiled a list to persuade the UN special rapporteur on summary executions to investigate the issue; they do so with the help of Iraqi academics, who risk their lives in the process. Their research shows that the victims have been men and women from all over Iraq, from different ethnic, religious and political backgrounds. Most were vocally opposed to the occupation. For the most part, they were killed in a fashion that suggests cold-blooded assassination. No one has claimed responsibility.

Like many Iraqis, I believe these killings are politically motivated and connected to the occupying forces' failure to gain any significant social support in the country. For the occupation's aims to be fulfilled, independent minds have to be eradicated. We feel that we are witnessing a deliberate attempt to destroy intellectual life in Iraq.

Dr al-Na'as was a familiar face on al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya TV. He had often condemned the continued presence of US-led troops in Iraq, and criticised the sectarian interim governments and their militias. His case echoes the assassination of the academic Dr Abdullateef al-Mayah. A prominent human rights campaigner and critic of the occupation, Mayah was killed only 12 hours after he had appeared on al-Jazeera denouncing the corruption of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.
----------------------
It is one thing to reduce Iraq to rubble, it is another to destroy the intellectual communitity. What are we doing in Iraq?

First of all it was at a state level the feds can't just come in and take over. the Gov and Mayor did'nt want it. Also After the people could noy help because the thugs with thier 9 MILs would'nt let anyone in while the local police were looting wal-mart!

Hajji,

Below is a link to the official site of the beer you mentioned. The photo gallery is worth a visit as well.

S+ampede Beer Beer Plus

Warning to OU students in Athens, Ohio. Keep this up and there could be another Kent State!

Bike, aka a Pipe Bomb!

Jeanne..carey....I hope both of you are taking care of yourselves. Individuals with your spirits are generally quick to heal.

Saladin.. congrats once again on your grandchild. I have three daughters 18,26 and 28. Just got the youngest off to college. Not quite ready for grandchildren now that I have some time for myself...but I know it is not my choice when it happens.

Did anyone hear the piece on NPR this evening they announced that this deal with India is a completely new policy for the U.S, that the U.s. had never dealt with a country ( sales of nuclear and military weapons)that had not signed the NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY.

When will this bullshit stop. We have been in the defense and nuclear weapon business with Israel for years. Israel continues to operate their stockpiles in the shadows, continually taunting their neighbors. When will this bullshit stop?

#100
Israel continues to operate their stockpiles in the shadows, continually taunting their neighbors

YEA JUST LIKE IRAN RIGHT? WIPE THEM OFF THE MAP.

you know, I should have mentioned that a very progressive community owned radio station now web streams- WORT FM 89.9 (wort is commonly thought to mean "the worlds oldest transmitter " or perhaps that proccess involved in the brewing of GOd's own elixer) check out the bluegrass tu/fri 9-noon- Amy Goodman 1-2 (fri @4;30) public affairs programing with surprisingly relavant topics and guest;s (we've gotten Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn) oh and they are having a fundraiser just now_ well worth the listen very left leaning grass roots radio (seat of the pants) you can donate on the web and help speak truth to power check it out

don't miss Mel and Floyd fridays @ 1

From blogsite Today In Iraq

'Terra' means 'Earth' in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian; so for us speakers of these languages there's an added chill whenever we hear Bush say 'War on Terra' - zig]

Chip,
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now is great.

Saladin wrote:

>VERY important must read article.

...if a seizure of gold and silver could--and in a dire financial crisis probably would--be undertaken to save the Establishment's bacon, with what likelihood would it succeed, even to the limited degree that Roosevelt's gold seizure succeeded in the 1930s?

Of all the things to worry about, this is the least of my worries. The national debt is over $27,000 per PERSON. I doubt that any of us here have $2700 in gold coins lying around, let alone $27,000. The government could sieze every Kruggerand and Gold Eagle in the USA, and probably not pay for one day's operation of the government.

Bob

If Brokeback Mountain wins the Oscar, look out for the sequel:

Swordfight at the K-Y Corral!

Our country is being run by idiots.

Good point BOB, actually the paper money alot of people owe banks and other institutions is made up out of thin air ex: a bank has $10,000 it can now electronicly barrow $90,000 to people with interest. So my point is that banks are making money out of thin air then expect average joe to pay it back it's been a corupt system for years

as i deal with teenager or 2 and read this site I wonder if we here are not in a similar position to that of my kid's wondering where all this power comes from and why does'nt it make any sense _in our case of course we are adults applying reason to this conundrum but feel stilted in our screams-- powerless until we take control for ourselves

Joe Scarborough: "There are kids who are still watching"

Joe got into a heated debate with Henry Rodriguez, President of St. Bernard's Parrish over the Federal response to Katrina. When Henry got a little colorful with his language, Joe pulled the "kids" card. I'm just wondering how many kids were actually watching the show.
------------------

Watch Scarborough pretend to be a human being.
I would rather my child hear Rodriguez swear defending his community than listen to the host yell at a man who had been through hell. How dare Scarborough show such a lack of respect. What an asshole.

Striking a NUKE deal with India is just telling China, Russia, Japan and Russia that we're more than willing to broker a regional nuclear terror!

Vaporize them "over there" so we don't have to vaporize them in our OWN cities and towns!

Fuckin' idiots!

-T

oh, did I mention Russia, too?

Why Should Anyone Worry About Whose Communications Bush and Cheney Are Intercepting, If It Helps To Find Terrorists?
By JOHN W. DEAN
----
Friday, Feb. 24, 2006

Although the Bush Administration does not encourage public debate over decisions it has made regarding how to govern, more and more people are asking questions about the ways and means employed during this presidency.

In my last column, I addressed the seemingly irresolvable issue of the allocation of government powers - among the president, Congress and the federal courts - regarding matters of national security. Since then, the debate about the Bush Administration's refusal to comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - and its parallel insistence on defending its warrantless wiretapping -- has only continued.

Both Republicans and Democrats have raised questions about the administration's defiance of the law in the name of fighting terrorism. One organization at the forefront of concern about this blatant lawbreaking is the ACLU - which recently convened a panel in Washington to discuss this subject. This broad-based dialogue, in which I participated, certainly added to my understanding. Not surprisingly, it raised issues that need further attention.

One, in particular, that has been gnawing at me, is the question why anyone should worry about the government listening in on conversations if they are doing nothing wrong. This is an old question that often arises in issues relating to privacy. Yet frankly, it still annoys me every time it is asked.

The Why-Should-I-Worry Question

The NSA surveillance program seeks to uncover persons in the United States who are conversing internationally and by telephone or email with known al Qaeda organization or operative abroad, or with affiliates of such organizations and operatives.

"I am not personally worried about the government listening to any of my conversations, for not only do I not know anyone even remotely connected with terrorism," one questioner said to me after the panel, "But furthermore, I would be happy to give up my privacy," she said, "if it helps to find terrorists." This young lady wanted to know why others were so concerned about the government's using the latest technology to find terrorists.

Let's set aside the issue of whether the President can simply ignore the FISA law validly enacted by Congress - and signed by a prior president. I will return to that in another, later column, for it is an important question that is not going to go away. Here, I will look only at the issue of whether the average American has anything to truly be worried about, as NSA electronically sifts through endless digital exchanges to find the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack.

One Reason Americans Should Worry: Data Mining Makes Mistakes

Column continues below ↓
The details of the NSA surveillance program remain cloaked in secrecy. None of the experts with whom I spoke had any knowledge of its operations, other than what has been leaked, principally to New York Times reporter James Risen. In his book, State of War: the Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration - a fascinating and alarming read because it reveals ongoing incompetence within the intelligence community - Risen himself provides some details.

"The NSA is now eavesdropping on as many as five hundred people in the United States at any given time," Risen writes, "and it potentially has access to phone calls and e-mails of millions more." He adds that "NSA is now tapping into the heart of the nation's telephone network through direct access to key telecommunications switches that carry many of America's daily phone calls and e-mail messages."

Experts believe the way NSA is handling such masses of digital traffic is probably by what is called "data mining" - the use of computer algorithms to search automatically through massive amounts of data.

They also believe that the greatest threat that such non-human snooping has for the average American is that it frequently produces false positives. This is a point that was made by Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, during the ACLU's panel discussion.

Data mining's search tools, according to experts, are not particularly accurate at flushing out terrorists. Indeed, such electronic sleuthing frequently makes mistakes in who it tags as targets.

The government may claim data mining is accurate - but Americans ought to be wary: Even greater claims of accuracy are typically made for fingerprint identification, and that has already gone grievously wrong in one notorious war on terror example.

Fingerprints on a bag holding detonators involved in the 2004 Madrid subway terror attacks were supposedly linked to Portland, Oregon attorney Brandon Mayfield. As a result, Mayfield - also suspicious in authority's eyes because he'd converted to his wife's religion, Islam -- found himself in solitary confinement for two weeks as a "material witness." But in the end, the FBI was wrong; the prints weren't his.

With Data Collection Greatly Increased, Where Is All The Data Going?

Aside from the potential of mistakes, an even more serious problem is the remarkable increase in collection of data about Americans. While computers certainly make our life easier, and it is difficult now to imagine how we got along before the Internet, we pay a price in privacy for these marvels.

Literally gigantic amounts of digital data are being collected about almost every American: data that is connected to credit cards, airline tickets, motor vehicle licenses, health records, business records, satellite pictures of your home, and more. No organization gathers and hoards more private information than the federal government.

It was the mining of both privately-collected and government-collected data, that the Department of Defense's Total Information Awareness (TIA) program envisioned exploiting. Congress may have rejected the TIA program, but the technology has not been rejected. In fact, many believe it is being employed by NSA in its electronic surveillance of Americans. (If so, Congress may have been bypassed twice - with not only its passage of FISA, but its clear-cut rejection of the TIA program, ignored by the executive.)

With NSA listening to some five-hundred telephone calls at any given time and apparently potentially capturing millions others, mountains of digital information are accumulating. There is no oversight of the NSA program. And under the Patriot Act, the information NSA is gathering can be shared with other law enforcement authorities.

Many people trust the government not to abuse or misuse this information. Based on experience, I don't. But if you do, imagine what a hacker might do after cracking into all that private and government information - the kind of security breach that happens every day. Such hacking could trigger scenarios that range from blackmail to graymail to identity theft, to others knowing more about you and your life than even you may know.

If none of that bothers you, then you are an exception.

Americans Have Become Increasingly Concerned With Loss of Privacy

In 1970, only thirty-four percent of Americans were "concerned about threats to their personal privacy." By 1978, though, that number had reached sixty-four percent. In 1990, those concerned had risen to seventy-nine percent. In 1995, eighty-two percent of the American public was concerned, and the latest poll numbers for 2005 show close to ninety percent are concerned.

In short, if you are not concerned, you are a bit out of touch with reality. But not everyone believes there is wisdom in crowds.

Unable to find any breakdown by age, and taking into account the fact that mostly young people have raised this issue with me, I am inclined to believe it is the younger generation who are the ten percent who are unconcerned about their privacy. Indeed, one need only read some blogs, or view video blogs, that young people post to appreciate that we have spawned a generation of serious exhibitionists, who want to share their innermost thoughts (and personas) with the world. Maybe that is good, in an ironic way -- for personal privacy, and many other rights, may be on the way out. At least this one segment of the population won't feel the loss.

The jurisprudence of constitutional privacy is still relatively recent. And many scholars believe that rights such as the right of privacy - rights that we now take for granted -- although broadly embraced in the Bill of Rights, only acquired their current form following World War II - largely in reaction to the atrocities of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia.

For example, the Fourth Amendment - which is at the heart of the debate over the NSA surveillance and data collection focused on Americans - has merely reverted back to what Akhil Amar argues its language requires: that searches need only be "reasonable." It was not until 1948 that Justice Jackson wrote in Johnson v. United States that "reasonable" was not enough for a search; rather the standard should be higher - "probable cause."

Jackson perceptively added, "The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime." In other words, it's for the courts, not the executive branch, to judge whether a search is legal.

Why did Jackson reach this conclusion? "Any other rule would undermine 'the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects,'" he explained, "and would obliterate one of the most fundamental distinctions between our form of government, where officers are under the law, and the police-state where they are the law." These distinctions sting in an era where the NSA has refused to operate "under the law" - that is, under FISA and, indeed, under the Fourth Amendment itself.

Jackson's reaction to the police-state (read: the state hallmarked by totalitarianism or fascism) is indicative of the rights that grew from these negative histories. As Richard Primus writes in The American Language of Rights, "Reaction against Sovietism and Nazism helped bring about major shifts in the rights of free expression, racial equality, and individual privacy. A new vocabulary of 'human rights' arose to carry the content of those political commitments and to link them with a broader idea rarely seen in the generation before the war but ascendant thereafter: that certain rights exist and must be respected regardless of positive law." Needless to say, positive law - in the form of statutes, and Supreme Court precedents interpreting the Constitution -- followed.

To those who don't worry about giving up their rights, programs like the NSA's may seem fine. But others of us appreciate the blood and treasury this nation expended, both indirectly and directly, in securing those rights. And I am convinced my generation will fight to the end to prevent the zeal of good intention in fighting terror, from letting the terrorists win by permitting the government to take those rights.

John W. Dean, a FindLaw columnist, is a former counsel to the president.

Flan: "What Bush Was Told About Iraq"

This seems to me to be the biggest story in some time.

The reporter, Murray Waas, is claiming there's documentary evidence that Bush knew full well that he was lying* about the Iraq threat.

The problem, though, is that Bush has ensured that these presidential National Intelligence Estimate summaries remain classified, so I don't imagine Murray Waas could publish them even if he had them in hand. His only attributions are to "records and knowledgeable sources" and "sources familiar with the record." The "records" attribution suggests that he may indeed have copies of these summaries. Regardless, it looks as though some people with access to highly classified material are finally turning on these war criminals. This could get very interesting.

*lie (lì) noun
1. A false statement deliberately presented as being true; a falsehood.
2. Something meant to deceive or give a wrong impression.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition

Most americans fill up their tanks, press the gas pedal and go to the mall. They really do not give a fuck about how many Iraqi people have been murdered by our military..and so many of them hide behind the shield of christianity.

Burying The Lancet Report
By Nicolas J. S. Davies
Z Magazine

February 2006 Issue

Over a year ago an international team of epidemiologists, headed by Les Roberts of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, completed a "cluster sample survey" of civilian casualties in Iraq. Its findings contradicted central elements of what politicians and journalists had presented to the US public and the world. After excluding any possible statistical anomalies, they estimated that at least 98,000 Iraqi civilians had died in the previous 18 months as a direct result of the invasion and occupation of their country. They also found that violence had become the leading cause of death in Iraq during that period. Their most significant finding was that the vast majority (79 percent) of violent deaths were caused by "coalition" forces using "helicopter gunships, rockets or other forms of aerial weaponry," and that almost half (48 percent) of these were children, with a median age of 8.

When the team's findings were published in the Lancet, the official journal of the British Medical Association, they caused quite a stir and it seemed that the first step had been taken toward a realistic accounting of the human cost of the war. The authors made it clear that their results were approximate. They discussed the limitations of their methodology at length and emphasized that further research would be invaluable in giving a more precise picture.

A year later, we do not have a more precise picture. Soon after the study was published, US and British officials launched a concerted campaign to discredit its authors and marginalize their findings without seriously addressing the validity of their methods or presenting any evidence to challenge their conclusions. Today the continuing aerial bombardment of Iraq is still a dark secret to most Americans and the media present the same general picture of the war, focusing on secondary sources of violence.

Roberts has been puzzled and disturbed by this response to his work, which stands in sharp contrast to the way the same governments responded to a similar study he led in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2000. In that case, he reported that about 1.7 million people had died during 22 months of war and, as he says, "Tony Blair and Colin Powell quoted those results time and time again without any question as to the precision or validity." In fact the UN Security Council promptly called for the withdrawal of foreign armies from the Congo and the US State Department cited his study in announcing a grant of $10 million for humanitarian aid.

Roberts conducted a follow-up study in the Congo that raised the fatality estimate to three million and Tony Blair cited that figure in his address to the 2001 Labor Party conference. In December 2004 Blair dismissed the epidemiological team's work in Iraq, claiming, "Figures from the Iraqi Ministry of Health, which are a survey from the hospitals there, are in our view the most accurate survey there is."

This statement by Blair is particularly interesting because the Iraqi Health Ministry reports, whose accuracy he praised, have confirmed the Johns Hopkins team's conclusion that aerial attacks by "coalition" forces are the leading cause of civilian deaths. One such report was cited by Nancy Youssef in the Miami Herald of September 25, 2004 under the headline "US Attacks, Not Insurgents, Blamed for Most Iraqi Deaths." The Health Ministry had been reporting civilian casualty figures based on reports from hospitals, as Blair said, but it was not until June 2004 that it began to differentiate between casualties inflicted by "coalition" forces and those from other causes. From June 10 to September 10 it counted 1,295 civilians killed by US forces and their allies and 516 killed in "terrorist" operations. Health Ministry officials told Youssef that the "statistics captured only part of the death toll," and emphasized that aerial bombardment was largely responsible for the higher numbers of deaths caused by the "coalition." The breakdown (72 percent US) is remarkably close to that attributed to aerial bombardment in the Lancet survey (79 percent).

BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson, in another Health Ministry report covering July 1, 2004 to January 1, 2005, cited 2,041 civilians killed by US and allied forces versus 1,233 by "insurgents" (only 62 percent US). Then something strange happened. The Iraqi Health Minister's office contacted the BBC and claimed, in a convoluted and confusing statement, that their figures had somehow been misrepresented. The BBC issued a retraction and details of deaths caused by "coalition" forces have been notably absent from subsequent Health Ministry reports.

Official and media criticism of Roberts's work has focused on the size of his sample, 988 homes in 33 clusters distributed throughout the country, but other epidemiologists reject the notion that this is controversial.

Michael O'Toole, the director of the Center for International Health in Australia, says: "That's a classical sample size. I just don't see any evidence of significant exaggeration.... If anything, the deaths may have been higher because what they are unable to do is survey families where everyone has died."

David Meddings, a medical officer with the Department of Injuries and Violence Prevention at the World Health Organization, said that surveys of this kind always have uncertainty, but "I don't think the authors ignored that or understated. Those cautions I don't believe should be applied any more or less stringently to a study that looks at a politically sensitive conflict than to a study that looks at a pill for heart disease."

Roberts has also compared his work in Iraq to other epidemiological studies: "In 1993, when the US Centers for Disease Control randomly called 613 households in Milwaukee and concluded that 403,000 people had developed Cryptosporidium in the largest outbreak ever recorded in the developed world, no one said that 613 households was not a big enough sample. It is odd that the logic of epidemiology embraced by the press every day regarding new drugs or health risks somehow changes when the mechanism of death is their armed forces."

The campaign to discredit Roberts, the Johns Hopkins team, and the Lancet used the same methods that the US and British governments have employed consistently to protect their monopoly on "responsible" storytelling about the war. By dismissing the study's findings out of hand, US and British officials created the illusion that the authors were suspect or politically motivated and discouraged the media from taking them seriously. This worked disturbingly well. Even opponents of the war continue to cite much lower figures for civilian casualties and innocently attribute the bulk of them to Iraqi resistance forces or "terrorists."

The figures most often cited for civilian casualties in Iraq are those collected by Iraqbodycount, but its figures are not intended as an estimate of total casualties. Its methodology is to count only those deaths that are reported by at least two "reputable" international media outlets in order to generate a minimum number that is more or less indisputable. Its authors know that thousands of deaths go unreported in their count and say they cannot prevent the media misrepresenting their figures as an actual estimate of deaths.

Beyond the phony controversy regarding the methodology of the Lancet report, there is one issue that does cast doubt on its findings. This is the decision to exclude the cluster in Fallujah from its computations due to the much higher number of deaths that were reported there (even though the survey was completed before the widely reported assault on the city in November 2004). Roberts wrote, in a letter to the Independent, "Please understand how extremely conservative we were: we did a survey estimating that 285,000 people have died due to the first 18 months of invasion and occupation and we reported it as at least 100,000."

The dilemma he faced was this: in the 33 clusters surveyed, 18 reported no violent deaths (including one in Sadr City), 14 other clusters reported a total of 21 violent deaths and the Fallujah cluster reported 52 violent deaths. This last number is conservative because, as the report stated, "23 households of 52 visited were either temporarily or permanently abandoned. Neighbors interviewed described widespread death in most of the abandoned homes but could not give adequate details for inclusion in the survey."

Leaving aside this last factor, there were three possible interpretations of the results from Fallujah. The first, and indeed the one Roberts adopted, was that the team had randomly stumbled on a cluster of homes where the death toll was so high as to be totally unrepresentative and therefore not relevant to the survey. The second possibility was that this pattern among the 33 clusters, with most of the casualties falling in one cluster and many clusters reporting zero deaths, was an accurate representation of the distribution of civilian casualties in Iraq under "precision" aerial bombardment. The third possibility was that the Fallujah cluster was atypical, but not sufficiently abnormal to warrant total exclusion from the study, so that the number of excess deaths was somewhere between 100,000 and 285,000. Without further research, there is no way to determine which of these three possibilities is correct.

No new survey of civilians killed by "coalition" forces has been produced since the Health Ministry report last January, but there is strong evidence that the air war has intensified during this period. Independent journalists have described the continuing US assault on Ramadi as "Fallujah in slow motion." Smaller towns in Anbar province have been targets of air raids for the past several months, and towns in Diyala and Baghdad provinces have also been bombed. Seymour Hersh has covered the "under-reported" air war in the New Yorker and writes that the current US strategy is to embed US Special Forces with Iraqi forces to call in air strikes as US ground forces withdraw, opening the way for heavier bombing with even less media scrutiny (if that is possible).

One ignored feature of the survey's results is the high number of civilian casualties reported in Fallujah in August 2004. It appears that US forces took advantage of the media focus on Najaf at that time to conduct very heavy attacks against Fallujah. This is perhaps a clue to the strategy by which they have conducted much of the air war. The heaviest bombing and aerial assault at any given time is likely to be somewhere well over the horizon from any well-publicized US military operation, possibly involving only small teams of Special Forces on the ground. But cynical military strategy does not let the media off the hook for their failure to find out what is really going on and tell the outside world about it. Iraqi and other Arab journalists can still travel through most of the country and news editors should pay close attention to their reports from areas that are too dangerous for Western reporters.

A second feature of the epidemiologists' findings that has not been sufficiently explored is the one suggested above by Michael O'Toole. Since their report establishes that aerial assault and bombardment is the leading cause of violent death in Iraq and, since a direct hit by a 500 pound Mark 82 bomb will render most houses uninhabitable, any survey that disregards damaged, uninhabited houses is sure to underreport deaths. This should be taken into account by any follow-up studies.

Thanks to Roberts, his international team, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, and the editorial board of the Lancet, we have a clearer picture of the violence taking place in Iraq than that presented by "mainstream" media. Allowing for 16 months of the air war and other deaths since the completion of the survey, we have to estimate that somewhere between 185,000 and 700,000 people have died as a direct result of the war. Coalition forces have killed anywhere from 70,000 to 500,000 of them, including 30,000 to 275,000 children under the age of 15.

Roberts has cautioned me to remember that whether someone is killed by a bomb, a heart attack during an air strike, or a car accident fleeing the chaos, those who initiated the war and who "stay the course" bear the responsibility.

As someone who has followed this war closely, I find the results of the study to be consistent with what I have seen gradually emerging as the war has progressed, based on the work of courageous, mostly independent reporters, and glimpses through the looking glass as more and more cracks appear in the "official story."

Cancellation

Dear Cornposters:

Is Hitler Bush willing to hand over to foreign countries our infrastructures, such as ports, electric grids, and power plants? Yes, Hitler Bush is willing because through a CIA covert terrorist operations, he can say that terrorists attacked us and he cancels the 2008 election. Hitler Bush will blame some Muslim group that infiltrated a company and set off the terrorist attack. Frightened Nazi Americans will want Hitler Bush to strike back and they will have forgotten that it was Hitler Bush who gave his okay to the selling of our infrastructures.

Hitler Bush is not as dumb as he looks. He is a clever one. Again, I will predict that THERE WILL BE NO 2008 ELECTION. The cancellation of the election is Hitler Bush's takeover of our total government. An anemic Congress and internal henchmen of the Supreme Court will uphold Hitler Bush's coup d'etat upon the American people and the Nazi States of America. Hitler Bush will establish a banana republic where he is the despot dictator.

Sincerely,

Gerald

Navy QB Charged With Rape

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland - Lamar Owens, the quarterback and most valuable player of Navy's 2005 football squad, has been charged with raping a female midshipman in her dormitory room, the academy announced Wednesday.

@111
Dear Miss Jeanne:

Well, you've had a BOP on the head and I've had arrhythmia as a consequence of being shot in the face by the Vice President of the United States. That means we both have something in common with the young woman who died in Joe Scarborough's office a while back. (See below)

The only reason I bring up Mr. Scarborough is that I think of myself as a man with family values. Some of us do have real family values in Texas. My values would tell me to not let my children watch his television program. His program is not family viewing material. His program is extremely negative, no matter what one's particular point of view is. Oh, my! All that shouting and hectoring and belittling. It's really quite disgraceful that there are enough people who tune into that type of show to make it appealing to advertisers.

Miss Jeanne, maybe it's my age, but I just don't "get it" any more. Now, you take care of that arm of yours and keep it in the sling. I'm very glad that your head BOP is not causing any problems. I'm holding my own. Dick hopes that I stay alive long enough that he's not fingered, but that's about it.

When Republicans get together odd things can happen

"A very odd way to die. In the Klausutis case, Berkland's conclusions can -- and should -- be challenged. As described in the sidebar, he speculated that Klausutis' prolapsed mitral valve led to a severe arrhythmia, which in turn caused her to faint. When she fainted, her head struck a desk, cracking her skull. Further damage to the brain ensued. Bleeding into the skull, forming a subdural hematoma, caused death.This scenario is... well, not exactly bound by the truth. As explained in the second sidebar, it is extremely rare for a prolapsed mitral valve to lead to severe arrhythmia. A minor fall by a young woman is not expected to lead to a broken skull, nor is a minor fall likely to cause injury remote from the site of impact, nor is a head injury of this kind expected to lead to death. Berkland has, so to speak, proposed a four-bank carom, any one of which bounces is improbable enough, and that's even before we get to whether Klausutis was close enough to the desk to have hit it or why she was found face up."

All those deaths in Iraq. For what?

Maybe when Bush and cheney are in hell their job will be to pick up the exact number of grains of sand that corralate with the number of deaths they've caused. And the trick will be, they must pick up the grains of sand individualy with their teeth.

I love Helen Thomas!

Five Minutes With: Helen Thomas

Women journalists, comparing wars, and undying curiosity.

#120 Jeanne..With their teeth, yes, how about their gums.

#121 Alan..Helen Thomas is amazing.

Making Every Vote Count
Bill Richardson
March 02, 2006

On March 2, 2006, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico will sign legislation requiring a statewide system of voter verifiable paper ballots. The bill signing can be viewed via a live webcast, beginning at 11 a.m. MST, 1 p.m. EST. Click here for more information.

The hallmark of American democracy is one person, one vote.

The reason refugees and immigrants, students and professionals from around the world continue to flock toward our shores is because we fundamentally believe in the worth of each person. We believe ҡll men and all women are created equal.ӠWe believe that regardless of gender, race, class or creedѡll voices deserve respect; all voices deserve to be heard. And when it comes to elections, all votes deserve to be counted.

But is our democracy, is our hallmark principle of one person, one vote, on solid ground?

Recent elections would suggest that democracy, the greatest system of government in the world, can be broken. As the world witnessed in 2000, the sanctity of the ballot box and the integrity of our government are vulnerable. The people of the United States lost faith in the electoral process, and the covenant between citizens and elected officials deteriorated. Those national officials scrambled to pass legislation to restore voter confidence, but in 2004, inaccurate exit polls raised further doubts about electronic voting machines without a verifiable paper record.

In New Mexico, a coalition of concerned citizens demanded action. Working together with these citizens and the state legislature, I signed several laws which guarantee that every ballot is counted. New Mexico improved and standardized training for poll workers. We established statewide standards for provisional ballots to ensure that voters in low-income areas will not disenfranchised. We made absentee voting fair, simple and uniform.

And we took one more critical step to ensure one person, one vote.

On March 2, 2006, I will sign a bill that will transition New Mexico to an all paper-ballot system using optical scanners to count the vote. Paper ballots are the least expensive, most secure form of voting available. Having marked their votes with pen and paper, voters will walk out of the booth and know their voices have been heard. Optical scanners will quickly and accurately provide results, while in the event of a recount, the ballots themselves will be a permanent, verifiable record of the people’≥ directions to their government.

Some believe that computer touch screen machines are the future of electoral systems, but the technology simply fails to pass the test of reliability. As anyone who uses one can attest, computers break down, get viruses, lose information, and corrupt data. We know this to be the case, and so we back-up our files to ensure nothing important is lost. Paper ballots serve as the ultimate back-up for our elections, providing secure and permanent verification of the will of the people.

New Mexico has chosen paper ballots as the best system to secure our election process. With the new system in place, future elections will be secure, honest and verifiable. Every vote will count and the citizens of our state will know that their government belongs to them.

One person, one vote is in jeopardy if we do not act boldly and immediately. American citizens once took for granted that every vote mattered, but no longer. It is time that we, the elected state officials, work to restore American’≥ confidence in our electoral systems and undertake reform that moves to eliminate skepticism and uncertainty.

When a vote is cast, a vote should be counted. With paper ballots we will have a record. With paper ballots the fundamental principle of one person, one vote is safe.

GOLD STAR FAMILIES FOR PEACE

Veterans For Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Gold Star Families for Peace, at the call of the Mobile Veterans For Peace Chapter #130, will conduct a march between Mobile, AL, and New Orleans, LA, from March 14-19, 2006 -- the third anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

This historical event highlights the connections between the economic and human cost of war in the Middle East and the failure of our government to respond to human needs at home, especially the needs of poor people and people of color.

The government's negligent and often hostile response to hurricane survivors is mirrored by that same government's continued commitment to an illegal, immoral war fought at a staggering cost.

These are twin disasters, and the veterans of wars abroad along with the survivors of Katrina and Rita are joining together for this march and caravan to establish ties of material solidarity between those who oppose the war abroad and the social and economic costs for working people at home.

***ADVISORY: Spring Break corresponds to the march. If you plan to get plane tickets to Mobile and from New Orleans, book them early.

Bob 106, you obviously didn't read the article, which very succinctly pointed out that all the gold everyone in the US owns wouldn't make a dent in the deficit. Read the article before criticizing please. You've missed the big picture.
Noel at 109 is absolutely correct.
Kathleen 114, as much as I enjoy your posts you really need to learn how to link. I promise it isn't hard. Please e-mail me and I will send you fool-proof instructions I have learned from people here on how to make a hyperlink.

Dear Harry,
I've never seen Scarborough in action before. I was not impressed. He should remember that when people are watching him he is really a guest in their homes. Shouting is not appropriate. After reading the article you linked I wouldn't want him in my home.

I figured something out about my head. This is interesting. I couldn't figure out how I could have slammed my head back so hard and not have a lump or something. It was just weird. Well....as you probably know I live in a winter wonderland. When I fell my head landed in a small snowbank. I remember my hair being wet. It was full of snow. Pretty good huh? Maybe I should go down to Texas and investigate your case of being shot in the face by Cheney.

Well, as much as I dislike Mr. Cheney and would love for him to have to deal with the problems that shooting a man in the face can bring, I would rather you continue to have good health and continue to do good things for the state of Texas.

As you may have noticed in my post above, I believe the devil has plans. And the banshee is waiting in the wings. If I was dick, I'd start listening for the shrieking wind and looking for the shadow. The bells will toll empty for him.

THIS WAS AT RAW STORY.
For me the saddest part of the latest Zogby poll of U.S. service men and woman was the least reported:

"While 85% said the U.S. mission is mainly 'to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9-11 attacks,' 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was 'to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.'"

If Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld bothered to read this poll then they now go to sleep each night knowing that over 19,000 men and women (85% of the so-far approximately 23,000 dead and wounded) have lost their lives or their arms or their legs or their eyes not for their country but only for the lies that this administration has so carefully engineered.

wipe israel off the map

#127
Kathleen,
That figure bothered me too because someday they will realize or maybe accept the truth. And then what? How do the soldiers go through what they will have gone through in war only to be told it was all for nothing? And realize that they have been betrayed by their own president? It's very cruel, almost too cruel to imagine.

Folks may know I am obsessed with pushing the media to more accurately cover the news. I have been making suggesstions to Young Turks for show ideas and they have been very receptive, as I have always found Diane Rehms and c-span to be and sometimes Talk of the Nation.

If you have any suggestions for shows contact them.

#129 Jeanne..the other comment that really bothers me is when we hear people (especially parents or relatives of soldiers) say "they are fighting for the american peoples freedom".

What a bunch of crap, what a crime to use their lives like this.

I actually have always believed that Fitzgerald is ultimately going for their collective throats, and that their brutal lies will choke them .
I know I am naive...but I can pretend to be hopeful.

Kathleen,
History has taught me that every empire eventually evolves into something else. Cheney and his cabal are going to sink into the quicksand of their own making. I am watching their world dissolve. You know, when you look at those polls they tell you something. The American people are fed up. The religious right won't be able to work their magic anymore. It ain't working in MN and it won't work anywhere else. People are hurting bad. They don't care what two people do in the bedroom. They care about putting food on the table.

Peole are getting more and more and more angry with the lies and deceptions. This is going to be a looooong hot summer I think.

Well, well, well. Ain't facts a bitch?! I had considered coming back to this blog to present a kinder, gentler Pandemoniac. I don't ever remember being much of a Bush hater. He's such a dorky goofus that it seemed rather pointless to waste the emotion on someone who clearly was in over his pointy little head.

But how 'bout if we take a trip down memory lane to see what a gullible ultra-moron Pags-Happy is:

"wrt FEMA warnings on levee:
Generally speaking, how often would you say we are `warned' about something? Now, let's suppose that whoever received FEMA's warning on possible levee breach ALSO received other warnings about power, lack of elderly evac, wind speed, you name it... FEMA did what it thought was right to `warn' but presumably at that point in time, the WH was not directly in charge and whoever FEMA sent the warning to, may not have been standing by continuously to monitor the situation.
Posted by: Happy the Shameless Asskisser at February 10, 2006 02:58 PM

Whoever FEMA sent the warning to? What the fuck?

Even baf (in his prepubescent, starry-eyed adoration of the preznit) never wrote a mind-bendingly idiotic rationalization such as that.

And we're supposed to believe that this dingbat is a self-supporting member of the Houston bidness community?

If you aren't convinced that Happy is the biggest cretin ever to hit this blog, click here and check out comment #2. As Wolcott would say, it is to larf. That part about Iraqis smoking the peace pipe is probably the funniest shit I've ever read on this blog. Ever. Pendejo is as Pendejo does.

Play nice, Happy; and I'll leave you alone. Keep insulting the Cornposters, and I'll forever hound your azz. Selah.

Pande, PLEASE don't be kinder and gentler to the Happy Fools! I love it when you put them in their place (or cut them down to size is more like it). The links you provide are super. I'd never have the time to find all that stuff.

To Capt. You're lucky to have a governor who's concerned about honesty in voting. Do you think he'd talk to Jeb about doing the same here in FL? (I can dream, can't I?)

I'd like to wish Happy Birthday to all the March people. I'm a March person - March 19 to be precise, and it's been sad the last few years because that's the date this country began the war in Iraq.

Now, if any of you people are withholding Good News, I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT!

Pat

Years ago I thought whenever I lost hope in something a little piece of my humanity fell into the abyss. A little part of me died. Some good feeling was murdered by a harsh and uncaring realization that those good feelings of hope were misplaced, that I had erred in my anticipation. As a natural reaction to a perceived loss my subconscious rallied a defense, built a callousness to protect my other good feelings from such an invasion and possible defeat.

In time I grew to realize I do not keep good feelings and hope safe by keeping them. Hope, faith, religion, and all good feelings are not to he held close. They are not in a vessel within me, they are in a colander. They only live by flowing out, by sharing them and the colander always needs to be refilled by the conscience understanding that the good feelings must be spent, given, gifted to others and received from the eyes of a child or the beauty of an early dawn breaking, from the lifeforce of a wildflower.

It is right to pretend, to create your own hope. You must manufacture hope for yourself, daily and the way to gain hope is not by feeling it, it is in giving it. Showing hope to others who have been beaten down by the misconception that reality is a harsh and uncaring beast taking hope. That is all of us at times, it is only human.

Giving hope is a gift of humanity - for humanity - to humanity. Hope is always something to share, an example to set, a part of a peaceful and pleasant life.

Hope is like a wish. Some are unattainable but reaching for a star to grasp only air makes the stars light more beautiful.

We had a family friend that survived Auschwitz. He said those who lost hope died. He told a story about a wildflower growing between the fence lines. He saw hope in a wild flower.

Never lose hope. In the worst of times it may be the only good thing you have to share. People will always need you to give them hope, especially in the most hopeless times. It is a sense of community, a social contract, brotherly love. Hope is humanity.

"It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. " ~ Anne Frank (1929 - 1945), Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, July 15, 1944

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune
Without the words,
and never stops at all. "

~Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

capt

shhhh, this one's for Happy, so he'll know the talking point (ie. Katrina response video).
The proper wingnut response is:

We are investigating how this classified video was leaked. As you know, the leaking of classified video threatens this administrations ability to fight terrorists.

We cannot comment about an ongoing investigation.
==========
*cough*

Scum-sucking traitors to their country

The next time some loudmouth partisan puke Democrat gets in my face and starts yapping about how much better things would be if his party were running things in Washington, I'm going to pull out the vote tally sheet for the USA Patriot Act in Thursday's Senate session and ram it down his lying throat.

Where was his party when it came time to stand up and take a stand for freedom in this country? Hiding like a coward, that's where. Only nine Democrats and one independent - former Republican Jim Jeffords - had guts enough to vote against reauthorizing the fascist piece of crap called the USA Patriot Act.

The rest, including Harry Reid, that scum-sucking capitulator who claims to be the Senate Democratic leader, dropped their pants, bent over, grabbed their ankles and handed George W. Bush the k-y jelly and said "bung-hole me all you want sir. I like getting screwed by dictators."

What about the leading contender for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination, the so-called "gentle lady from New York," Hillary Rodham Clinton? Oh, she let Bush screw her like a frat boy in the back seat of his car. Too late to cry rape Hillary. You proved yourself a political slut like most of the rest of your party.

This is the opposition party? This is the party that partisans claim will save this country from the abuses and excesses of too many years of Republican domination? Christ, these losers couldn't lead a Cub Scout pack on an overnight camping trip in a suburban back yard.

I expected Republicans to fall in lockstep behind their power-mad President and sell out their country. That's what Republicans do in the name of power and control, even though a few make a token show of resistance last year by joining Democratic efforts to filibuster passage of the act. But I held out faint hope that the Dems wouldn't cave and join in the feeding frenzy on the Constitution. Serves me right, I guess, for trusting any politician -- Democrat or Republican.
]
Only these 10 voted against the act: Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Carl Levin (D-MI), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ron Wyden (D-OR), James Jeffords (I-VT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Robert Byrd (D-WV). The rest voted with Bush and against freedom.

More HERE

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

It is like Doug is channeling me at times.

capt

US and India seal nuclear accord

Speaking at a news conference after the talks, President Bush said: "It's a necessary agreement. It's one that will help both our peoples.

"Congress has got to understand that it's in our economic interests that India have a civilian nuclear power industry to help take the pressure off the global demand for energy."

car engine design breakthru

0-60 in 4 seconds. 50+ MPG. runs on soy bean oil.

links to other energy breakthrus that the oil companies will no doubt bury.

Video Shows Blanco's Assurances on Levees

WASHINGTON - As Hurricane Katrina loomed over the Gulf Coast, federal and state officials agonized over the threat to levees and lives. Hours after the catastrophic storm hit, Louisiana's governor believed New Orleans' crucial floodwalls were still intact.

Had to expect this.

Mangoes for nukes, what a deal?

Nukes and mangoes on Bush's mind in India

KOLKATA - Although US President George W Bush's India visit that officially started on Thursday is hardly expected to grab headlines in terms of business and economic deals between the two countries - rather, the nuclear separation agreement that the two nations have just announced will dominate coverage - both are looking forward to several new initiatives to boost bilateral commercial ties expected to be announced in the next few days.

"[The] Indo-US relationship will [reach a] strategic partnership level now, which will be underpinned by close trade and commercial ties," said Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath on the eve of Bush's arrival in India on Wednesday evening. "Today India is actively seeking foreign direct investment from the US, but India is also eager to invest in the US."

William Klein, US consul for political-economic affairs in India, said the US commitment to develop strong economic ties had begun well before the presidential visit. For instance, India and the United States have finalized a series of agreements to scrap non-trade barriers in a bid to double bilateral trade to US$40 billion in three years. The most significant feature of that agreement is that the two sides have also resolved the long-pending dispute over India getting entry into the US market, particularly its agricultural-commodities markets.

While the US has agreed to clear imports of mangoes, for instance, from India, the Indian side is finalizing plans to address US farmers' market access concerns on pulses (beans and peas) and almonds. The Indian step that could benefit the US the most is a relaxation of India's specifications for wheat imports. Imports of fruits and vegetables are also expected to be cleared during Bush's visit.

For several years, Indian mangoes have been facing non-trade barriers such as sanitary and phyto-sanitary (plant health) measures from the US side. "We are looking forward [to] Indian mangoes," Bush said in his public address to the country on Thursday.

More HERE

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I did not know we needed mangoes badly enough to trade nuclear technology for them, the whole thing sounds fruity to me.

capt

Republican Congressman Predicts Bush Impeachment
Says US close to dictatorship

Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | March 3 2006

Republican Congressman Ron Paul has gone on record with his prediction that the impeachment of George W. Bush is right around the corner but warned that in the meantime the US was slipping perilously close to a dictatorship.

Appearing on the Alex Jones Show and addressing the port sell-out, Paul stated that, "it probably will contribute to the Republican's failure in the next election."

Asked if the Democrats would use gains in the mid-term elections to set in motion impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush, Paul responded,

"I predict that would happen."

"I think he (Bush) has numerous things that the Democrats if they get a chance, not only will they be after him for that but it will be payback for the Clinton impeachment."

Paul was inclined to believe that the port sales would go ahead anyway but took a positive perspective in pointing out that it again highlighted George W. Bush's complete abandonment of conservative principles.

"At least this has awakened a lot of people and I think this is going to serve as a benefit," said Paul. "They're likely to pull this deal off but the American people are awakening now and I think there's going to be a payback period in the election."

The Congressman expressed his resignation at the passage of the Patriot Act and how it again underscores Bush's unchecked powers

"They had a few token changes which mean nothing and under the present system he (President Bush) just ignores what he doesn't like anyway."

Asked if the US was heading into a dictatorship, Paul responded,

"It's getting close to it, it's called usurpation of power and it's done in many ways with Congress just going along because they're sound asleep and this certainly is an attack on our Constitution and on our freedoms."
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Impeachment might feel good for awhile but in the long run all it will accomplish is to bring out in the open just how much damage this administration has done, starting with 9/11. They have purposely committed economic suicide and I am all but positive that we are screwed in that aspect.
Pat, I wish I could think of some good news but the last time I saw any was the re-discovery of the Ivory Bill Woodpecker.

good news can be seen at #139. sort of.

"9/11 was an inside job!! I have come to this conclusion about that."

- - - SAT radio channel 167, Air America Radio, The Majority Report, co-host Janeane Garofalo

uh-oh Mr. Corn, you're getting scooped by an idiot stand-up comic

Capt, good Thompson rant. He says exactly what I think. The excuse that they are not in control is BULLSHIT! I read an interview with John Conyers, he was asked why he was even bothering to present articles of impeachment to a republican controlled congress, his reply was that he felt it was very important for ALL the dems to go on record as a solid and united opposition against bushco. He said he didn't want future generations to ask where the hell the dems were while the country was being flushed down the toilet, to take away the excuse that they didn't know what was happening, just didn't see. He wanted to presnt the dems as totally against what was happening in America, even if they couldn't get enough votes to stop it, they at least tried. And that's my point too, most of them don't even try, and I consider them all traitors for it, lack of controlling power or not.

capt 137

The democratic party is 50 percent responsible for the gutting of our country. Jellyfish. I wish they would all retire or join the republican party. Except for Fiengold. It is sad seeing him desperately standing alone trying to defend the U.S. Constitution. Really pisses me off big time.

BLAIR EVEN LESS POPULAR THAN BUSH
Friday, March 03, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com

George Bush isn't the only world leader whose popularity is in the toilet. According to an Angus Reid Global Scan report, the American President's 34 percent rating is actually better than that of his British counterpart.

They cite an Ipsos-MORI poll that shows only 28 percent of the respondents considered Prime Minister Tony Blair's performance satisfactory. This represents a drop of nine points since the last poll in November.
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I suspect these poll numbers are more accurate for bush as well.

Blair and Cheney are both at 28% - Blair has never shot a lawyer. Makes one wonder how Blair got so high?

HA!

capt

I thought I saw cheney at 18%? Maybe I misread.

Saladin, I read 18% also

mmmmm....Nukulur Mangoes....mmmm

Global Eye; Party Hacks
By Chris Floyd Published: March 3, 2006

Two weeks ago, an obscure, unelected, Republican-appointed official in California decided the future of the world. That future -- at least for the next several years -- will be an accelerating nightmare of war, corruption, repression, atrocity and terror. That's because the loyal apparatchik has, with the stroke of a pen, guaranteed the perpetuation of the Bush faction in power in 2008 and beyond.

One of the few certainties in modern U.S. politics is that no Democrat can win the presidency without carrying California. Thanks to the Electoral College system set up by the Founding Oligarchs to keep the low-born rabble from voting directly for president, the big haul of California's electoral votes is crucial for Democrats to offset the multitude of small, sparsely populated states that reliably vote Republican. Bagging California doesn't guarantee Democratic victory, but without it, the cliffhanger electoral counts in the goosed elections of 2000 and 2004 wouldn't even have been close.

Thus, the sudden, hugger-mugger decision by California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to override the objections of his own experts and certify the eminently hackable voting machines of the politically partisan firm, Diebold, for use throughout the state means, quite simply, that the fix is in for 2008. It doesn't matter who the Democrats run -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, George Clooney or Jesus H. Christ in an Uncle Sam suit. It won't make a bit of difference. California is lost, the presidency is lost and the Bushists are in -- already. It's over.
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Very good article. I have an idea for peaceful rebellion. On election day everyone who finds any kind of hackable voting machines in use stage a sit-in. Refuse to vote or leave, be willing to stay for days if necessary until they get those machines out and bring in regular paper ballots. Make sure the local media hears about it and shows up. Imagine the impact this would have if the majority of America would participate in this one simple thing. It would bring the country to a standstill and force those assholes in DC to listen! But, I guess that's just a fantasy.

Just got an e-mail from Jill's ex, SgtKarl's dad (but not spec.Spank's. This Family tree's like a frickin' tumbleweed!) Anywhoo, Grant is certainly just as dear to him and his wife as though DNA were involved. He's concerned that some of the e-amil he's been sending is getting stopped.

Justin Raimondo had an article at Antiwar.com talking about marines' getting heavily censored e-mail and internet content.

Spank seems to be getting our e-mails just fine, but if anybody knows of any incidents of similar troubles for the troops, please drop me a line.

-T

New slogan for the democrats in 06:

We are slightly less awful! Vote jellyfish in o six!

I think voter turnout wil be about 3 percent.

Ethics Office For Hill Rejected

________________
A Senate committee yesterday rejected a bipartisan proposal to establish an independent office to oversee the enforcement of congressional ethics and lobbying laws, signaling a reluctance in Congress to beef up the enforcement of its rules on lobbying.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted 11 to 5 to defeat a proposal by its chairman, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and its ranking Democrat, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), that would have created an office of public integrity to toughen enforcement and combat the loss of reputation Congress has suffered after the guilty plea in January of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Democrats joined Republicans in killing the measure.
_______________

No branch of our government is interested in being held accoutable. Any attempt to change the status quo will be thwarted until the people rise up and demand to be HEARD as well as COUNTED!

-T

Hajji, it won't happen because the people would miss reruns of Friends and The Simpsons, and we can't sacrifice that for the ridiculous notion of rescuing the country from destruction.

I've read that mango allergies are on the rise. The incidence of severe allergies to mangoes -- even anaphylaxsis -- is up wherever people eat mangoes or live near mango groves.

Do you s'pose it's a plot for population control? Step away from the chutney....

From the above article.

After Diebold's machines failed miserably in a battery of tests last year, McPherson vowed to put their certification on hold until his own hand-picked panel of experts had fine-combed the system to a fare-thee-well, blogger Brad Friedman reports. The panel delivered their conclusions last month -- and the results were staggering, far beyond the worst fears of the most hard-core "conspiracy theorist." The panel found that Diebold's machines were riddled with curious built-in glitches that effectively "ceded complete control of the system" to hackers who could "change vote totals, modify reports, change the names of candidates and change the races being voted on."

What's more, "hackers wouldn't need to know passwords or cryptographic keys, or have access to any other part of the system to do their dirty work," the Los Angeles Times notes. "Voters, candidates and election monitors wouldn't necessarily know they'd been rooked." A more perfect vehicle for fixing an election can hardly be imagined. And it would require nothing more than a handful of high-tech zealots, not a vast conspiracy.

Naturally, after such a blistering condemnation, McPherson did what any official charged with guaranteeing the integrity and credibility of his state's elections would do: He approved the slipshod system by the dark of the moon, on a Friday before a holiday weekend, without any public hearings -- indeed, without waiting for the results of a pending federal review of Diebold's mole-infested code. Now, the Diebold contraptions, whose chronic "breakdowns" have featured in numerous contested elections and last-second "miracle" victories by Republican candidates across the country in recent years, will control California's pot of electoral gold.
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GODDAMMIT! Why isn't every dem in the country SCREAMING about this??? This was in the LA Times, they can't claim ignorance.

Saladin,

That is a hell of an idea! My state uses those crappy machines too. Like I keep saying, the thugs are not gonna let go of thier new found dictatorship, no matter what they have to do. The democrats are doing thier best to make sure that lots of disenchanted voters will stay home and watch American Idol, ensuring a low enough turnout for another easily stolen round of elections.

Now that the unconstitutional Patriot Act is about to be made permanent, get used to lots more stories like this one:

Paying off your credit card bill helps terrorists

The US's nuclear cave-in

The deal endorses and assists India's nuclear-weapons program. US-supplied uranium fuel would free up India's limited uranium reserves for fuel that otherwise would be burned in these reactors to make nuclear weapons. This would allow India to increase its production from the estimated six to 10 additional nuclear bombs per year to several dozen a year. India today has enough separated plutonium for 75-110 nuclear weapons, though it is not known how many it has actually produced.

The Indian leaders and press are crowing about their victory over the United States. For good reason: President Bush has done what Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and his own father refused to do - break US and international law to aid India's nuclear-weapons program. In 1974, India cheated on its agreements with the United States and other nations to do what Iran is accused of doing now: using a peaceful nuclear energy program to build a nuclear bomb. India used plutonium produced in a Canadian-supplied reactor to detonate a bomb it then called a "peaceful nuclear device". In response, president Richard Nixon and Congress stiffened US laws and Nixon organized the Nuclear Suppliers Group to prevent any other nation from following India's example.

Bush has now unilaterally shattered those guidelines, and his action would violate the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) proscription against aiding another nation's nuclear-weapons program. It would require the repeal or revision of several major US laws, including the US Nonproliferation Act. Nor has he won any significant concessions from India. India refuses to agree to end its production of nuclear-weapons material, something the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China have already done.

More HERE

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

Those mangoes must be mighty tasty.

This is BS and show. Bunnypants know this will never pass muster. Not even with the GOPhers. Makes me wonder why? Has the Busheney spin machine broken down? I do not believe they are this insane.

capt

corky, I guess my husband and I will be under investigation soon for that very reason! No getting out of debt, it's unpatriotic and a visible sign of terrorist activity!

Rumsfeld lamented that vast media attention about U.S. abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq outweighed that given to the discovery of " Saddam Hussein’s mass graves."

I Do Not Wish to Be Associated With Torture by Ray McGovern

Ray McGovern and 15 others took action Thursday in the halls of Congress. The 16 donned orange jumpsuits similar to those worn by detainees at Guantanamo Bay. They wore gags over their mouths decorated with one word, torture. Not another word needed to be said as they walked the halls of Congress. McGovern, a 27-year veteran of the CIA, also returned his Intelligence Commendation Award medallion, which was given to him for "especially commendable service." He delivered the medal to Congressman Pete Hoekstra along with the letter below...
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GO RAY!!

Helen Thomas is one of my foxes.

#159 Saladin, the Democrats do not want to govern. They have bailed out of their responsibilities.

Hajji,
I think Sal posted something yesterday from Wonkette or something. The guy was in the service and his stuff was being stopped. Do you remember Sal?

Jeanne, he said the Marines were blocking access to e-mail and various websites, especially those that posted opposition to bushco and the war.
Hajji, let me know if you want the link.

Midwest Oil fined for selling gas too cheaply
The state imposed a $140,000 penalty for what it called "willful, continuing, and egregious" violations of the price law.
Tom Ford, Star Tribune
Last update: February 24, 2006 –†1:05 AM

The Minnesota Commerce Department on Thursday announced plans to fine a gas station chain $140,000 for repeatedly selling gas below the state's legal minimum price.
The fine against Midwest Oil of Minnesota is twice as large as any imposed on a company since 2001, when the state established a formula based on wholesale prices, fees and taxes to determine a daily floor for gas prices.

The price law was intended to prevent large oil companies from driving smaller competitors out of business, but some critics argue it fails to protect consumers.

According to the Commerce Department, the Midwest-owned stations in Anoka, Oakdale and Albert Lea sold gas below the minimum price on 293 days in 2005.

Kevin Murphy, deputy commissioner of the department, called the violations "willful, continuing, and egregious and warrant a substantial penalty."

The company has 30 days to contest the fine by requesting a hearing.

In previous cases, companies were fined anywhere from $500 to $70,000 for selling gas too cheaply.
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It just gets better and better.

Cheney at 28% was a while ago, likely before the lastest problems.

I still wonder how Blair can get to 28% without shooting a lawyer.

capt

Thanx, all...I'll forward any and all links and info to him.

Latest Spec.Spank news is that he's back at his FOB near Tal Afar and is doing some building projects with the local population outside the camp.

Men of honor will always find a way to make a difference, for the better, no matter the maelstrom into which they are tossed.

-T

Nazi America is a disgraced nation

Antarctic ice sheet in 'significant decline': study

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Antarctica's mammoth ice sheet, which holds 90 percent of the Earth's ice, is showing "significant decline" as world temperatures heat up, according to a new study released.

As Earth's fifth largest continent, Antarctica is twice the size of Australia and contains 70 percent of Earth's fresh water resources. British research suggests the melting of the West Antarctic ice sheet alone would raise global sea levels by over 20 feet (six meters).

And now a team of US researchers at the University of Boulder in Colorado say they have discovered that the Antarctic ice sheet is losing up to 36 cubic miles (152 cubic kilometers) of ice annually.

....Using specialized data from two NASA satellites orbiting Earth in tandem, the Boulder researchers determined the Antarctic ice sheet has lost significant mass in recent years.

"This is the first study to indicate the total mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet is in significant decline," said Isabella Velicogna, of the university's Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

The bulk of the loss is occurring in the West Antarctic ice sheet, according to Velicogna.

"The changes we are seeing are probably a good indicator of the changing climatic conditions there," she said.
----------------------
I'd like to see bush on the committee discussing this. "Well I think you guys have it under control and everthing looks good. Thank you for doing a heck of a job."

You know Hajji,
It must be hard for hard working men to see things that have to be done and do nothing. Jill's son's work is benefiting him as much as the local people. I would like to see some progress in Iraq. Can he send pictures?

Senate GOP Faces Vote to Increase Debt

WASHINGTON —†Republicans in the Senate face a difficult but necessary vote in coming weeks to allow the Treasury to pad the $8.2 trillion national debt by another $781 billion.

The need to increase the legal limit on the debt has Democrats eager to use the debate to blast President Bush and his GOP allies in Congress for their fiscal stewardship.

"During this administration, America's debt, that is, the total of the deficits has increased by $3 trillion," said Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, top Democrat on the Finance Committee. "That's a 40 percent increase in the entire federal debt accrued by our country in its entire history."

Treasury officials briefed Senate staff aides Thursday and told them that without an increase in the government's ability to borrow, it would default on obligations for the first time in history sometime during the week of March 20. That is an unthinkable prospect that would roil financial markets and damage the government's credit rating.

Although Democrats recognize the need to avoid a default, they aren't likely to provide any votes to increase the borrowing limit. They are not responsible for the fiscal policies that produced it, Democrats argue, especially Bush's landmark $1.4 trillion 2001 tax cut bill.

"Every year that passes it becomes more and more apparent what a bankrupt strategy this is," said Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, top Democrat on the Budget Committee.

Traditionally, when one party controls Congress and the White House, it falls to its members to muster the votes to pass debt limit increases.

More HERE

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Next thing you know, Busheney will sign an executive order that does away with the debt limit. Why bother if it is just a futile exercise?

capt

I Love America!!! Do You???

My Name Is Gerald and I Oppose the IRAQ WAR

Pyromaniac