David Corn, please! GOP rogue's galley, or, if you must, GOP Dishonor List.

Since somewhere there must be one honorable Repulician?

Mr. Corn,

Your news on the jury in the Moussaoui is most disconcerting. I completely agree with your original assessment before the knowledge of the facts on the actual vote. But the lesson learned from this is indeed, one vote counts.

On the House-passed Pentagon budget bill: Jesus!

Moussaoui case, I meant.

Here's the skinny. George W. bush and dead-eye dick are going to be indicted. They're next. bush wasn't under oath, (except he was under his oath of office to uphold the Constitution), but he lied about Karl Rove's involvement in the outing of Valerie Plame. John Hannah and David Wurmser have given Fitzgerald information that indicates that georgie and dickie were involved in the Plame Affair up to their clavicles. Karl Rove will be indicted, too.

bush knows more about this deal than he has let on. Fitzgerald knows it. On Sept. 30, 2003 bush said, "I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information." He lied.

...and then I woke up and realized I was DREAMING!

Gee make ya wonder what the G-men would do with the GITMO POW's if they ever came to trial. The Mousie trial shows that evidence not hype sells a jury. If he (Mousie) had not made such a fuss he might not even faced life in prison.

I dislike having religion Jesus based or otherwise crammed in my face, not a problem for the repug zealots though. Being in the military means you are government property so you have no choices, you do what you are told, right or wrong.

Micki, I hate you. We're all waiting on pins and needles for Rove's indictment and just for a second, in that little girl excitment one gets, I thought you had an inside scoop.

Carol informs me that for the past few times my links are not working. That's because I lost the formula and was trying to do it from heart. She has come to my rescue once again. Here's the link on an important petition I tried to post yesterday.

Conress wants to let Internet providers block your access to information on the web

David,

That's why you couldn't link the article on antibacterial chemicals yesterday. I'll try to retrieve it again.

Brutus. "And Brutus is a honorable man." Was Brutus a Republican?

Alan, for someone who has said more then a few times that you don't want to debate this subject anymore,

Actually Sal, it's you that have said you "won't debate me on that subject" whenever I've posted something to prove your statement was incorrect. The last one was the "destroyed tapes of the flight controllers". It was one tape that they made amongst themselves a couple hours later. Remember? As for "one aspect" of the issue. I'd just point out that you can't say what you thought happened without an explanation of how it could be done. The NIST report is right there saying what happened. Scientists with no ulterior motive, just the science they've worked in all their career. You'll never convince anybody that they make shyt up to cover for bush. When you bring up your scientists, sometimes you guys haven't thought it through and found out more about him (ala an economist or a nuclear fusion guy) contradicting the scientists in the correct field. That 285-page .pdf by the way, was a point by point debunking of "Loose Change" by a one of those scientists. As for debating, it's all good. When one of your side makes a link, I like to counter it with one based on facts. I'll chill if you guys will tho.
I think you are right-on on many other topics. I luv'd that one last thread where you said "fk them, spy away!" or words to that effect.

Threat Seen From Antibacterial Soap Chemicals

LINK

I, for one, was very surprised at the verdict, in the first place. I'd have to read the court transcripts, but it seems that the only evidence against the schizophrenic little bastard was his own tall tales from his delusions of grandeur.

I was quite sure that the stalwart jury of god-fearin' Murkuns would hand the emasculated public the sacrificial lamb for vengence of getting kicked in nuts on 9/11.

I am hardly dissapointed, though. Now there's time, even though there seems little desire, to dig deeper into the questionable association of Moussaoui with those 19 magic boxcutters who miraculously foiled TSA, NORAD and the Pentagoons security systems as if they were all completely shut down that day.

-T

Oh my, Carey. The LATimes says "Sorry, that page is not available." Thanks for trying again.

Hajji, 'miraculously foiled': Maybe Allah was on their side that day. My reaction, however, is SNAFU. I have a hard time believing that the FBI, CIA, DoD, etc. are actually competent, do you?

Gerald --- I won't complain if you want to compare the current POTUS to parasites: fleas, mites, tick, bed-bugs, tapeworms, even athlete's foot. So how does 'flea brain' sound to you?

David, using Jesus in prayer in the military sounds like the ultimate irony to me. Do they think it makes their murderous ways acceptable?
DB #1, there is, his name is Ron Paul.
Alan, I have said I don't want to debate YOU! Just because I post a link or comment about 9/11 doesn't mean I am doing it with you in mind. As far as I can see you have yet to convincingly debunk anything I have said. Those tapes were destroyed against orders, they were made to help the people recall what happened, by the supervisor on duty, not for them to talk about their "feelings!" That sounds like a very logical thing to do, so that details from the moment can be preserved until such time as they are not needed anymore. Your last argument about a scientist used the anti-semite card, a particularly loathsome manuever, and DB sent me to a website called "McKinney Sucks." As I said, we will not solve anything this way, and I don't intend to try, so truce, OKAY?!
Hajji, they weren't shut down, just thwarted by fake simulations.

#11 Hajji

I was surprised by the verdict too. You'd have thought, with all of the prosecution's little harangues, complete with videos of 9/11 aftermath and testimonies of mourning family members, the jury would have been out for blood.

HERE'S A MOTHER'S DAY GIFT FROM THE HARRIS INTERACTIVE POLL OUT OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL;

29% think Bush is doing an "excellent or pretty good" job, 71% think "only fair or poor" job.

LINK

#12 David B.

That's really strange, because I just went to that site. Perhaps you didn't do the free register signup that most newspapers require.

David: Zacarias Moussaoui needs your friend the Snowman to explain why he `lied' on the stand...n teh meantime....

Snow stumbles during first meeting with White House press

Friday, May 12, 2006; Posted: 4:20 p.m. EDT (20:20 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- "It obviously at this point is just a mess," new White House press secretary Tony Snow said good naturedly, summing up his rocky first question-and-answer session with reporters.

During 23 sometimes-chaotic minutes Friday with the White House press corps in his West Wing office, Snow offered a half-dozen apologies for a less-than-smooth debut, pleaded ignorance on seven questions and ruled out all talk of international or currency issues.

"I do not wish to set off global tempests," he said, "because I frankly just don't know enough on those."

One of his don't-know answers (on President Bush's signing plans for the tax bill) even turned out to be wrong when Snow later recited next week's schedule. The signing ceremony was on the calendar for Wednesday.

"I should have read my own paper,"

more....

4 snafus in one day, roughly two hours apart. Another first. Bad day for NORAD and our multi-billion dollar Airforce. Maybe they were all at a big party and were inconveniently hung over, that's why they couldn't tell the difference between real and simulated!

Free "Republicans for Voldemort" buttons at tramlaw.info

Another Mother's Day gift to all and this is just wonderful. It's brief and has a mentions David Corn.

From Barak Obama

Carey #15, when I went to that link it was not available to me either and I'm signed up with them.

Oh gee that went well with the typos.

David and Carol,

Then I don't know what gives. Maybe the LA Times doesn't allow links? No, because I've linked them before.

WWJD

Carey, a SNAFU at LATimes? All sorts of little things might be going wrong there? (Are you listening in, Saladin?)

Carey’s Link

Here you go!

Carey,

Had to take off a "/" at the end of your URL in your link. FYI

capt

Carey #19, click on your Barak link and see if it comes up.

Warmongers and Whoremongers Make Me Puke

Carol,

The last "/" is likely the problem?

capt

Bushitler is a liar

THANKS Capt.

Let's try this.

Judge Suspends (California) 2006 High School Exit Exam

This is a Constitutional issue.

Bring our troops home

How do I make a hyperlink?

A link is done with something called the Anchor tag.

The anchor tag looks like this:

 < A HREF = "pagename.html" > Link Here < /A >

Anything that appears between the begin and end anchor tags will take you to the specified destination when clicked.

Now let's try this:

I'm not testing you guys, I truly think it was the extra "/" that Capt so astutely pointed out. God you're good at this stuff Capt.

HERE'S THE MOTHER'S DAY GIFT I PROMISED:

From Barak Obama

Re #31: Carey, that one I read without any problems.

#35 Oh fantastic David.

Okay, now here's this one. I'm so silly, it must be that it's Mother's Day.

Wall Street Journal article on poll

Re #34, #36: Read them both, Carey. (But don't get carried away, it's not Mother's Day until Sunday, isn't it?)

And the last one:

Antibacterial Soap Chemicals

Now I have to go be a Mom.

Re #38: Carey, now I get a 500 error. Definitely seems to be a SNAFU at LATimes...

Tackle Jesus

In Bonhoeffer's book, "The Cost of Discipleship," he said that we should be with Jesus or near Jesus, like only an arm's length away. When we distance ourselves from God, the distance may be so far away that we are unable to be saved upon death. Bonhoeffer does not want the distance from God to be far away. He has also said that at birth we are all saints but as we grow older, we start to distance ourselves from God.

I say to you do not be with God or near God in your life! I want you to tackle Jesus. Yes, I did say that I want you to tackle Jesus.

In a football game, the tackler wraps his arms around the runner's knees and with his shoulder he forces the runner to fall. That is what we should do with Jesus. We should tackle Him around His knees and force Him to fall. Once He falls, never let Him rise from the ground. If Jesus tries to get up, you just let your shoulder rest on His thighs or mid-section with your arms still around His knees. You have the leverage and God will never be able to leave your grip on Him.

You should not just touch Jesus; you should tackle Him!

DB,

A 500 series error is server related.

I do not get that error from here. Try again in a few the server will come back up.

capt

The Spies Who Shag Us

The Times and USA Today have Missed the Bigger Story –†Again

I know your shocked -- SHOCKED! -- that George Bush is listening in on all your phone calls. Without a warrant. That's nothing. And it's not news.

This is: the snooping into your phone bill is just the snout of the pig of a strange, lucrative link-up between the Administration's Homeland Security spy network and private companies operating beyond the reach of the laws meant to protect us from our government. You can call it the privatization of the FBI -- though it is better described as the creation of a private KGB.

More HERE

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

From Greg Palast. A good piece.

capt

Reach Out and Tap Someone

Just five months after the New York Times revealed that the Bush administration was conducting a domestic wiretapping program without court approval, USA Today reported an equally explosive story yesterday stating that the administration's reach into the private lives of Americans is more expansive than previously believed. Not only has President Bush's National Security Agency (NSA) been eavesdropping on domestic telephone conversations and e-mail messages, but it has "also induced telephone companies to turn over the records of billions that's with a 'b' of domestic calls." The new revelations engendered immediate bipartisan criticism. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) questioned "why it would be necessary to keep and have that kind of information." Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told the Fox News Channel: "The idea of collecting millions or thousands of phone numbers -- how does that fit into following the enemy?" More than 50 House Democrats signed a letter demanding an investigation by a special counsel. Bush's response was to politically demagogue the issue, claiming that the effort was part of an effort to track al Qaeda. "That turns out to be far from the whole truth. ...[The] surveillance program [is] of enormous magnitude, involving not just al-Qaeda suspects but also the presumptively private data of almost all Americans." Faced with legitimate concerns, Bush's response indicated he has a greater allegiance to Karl Rove's political playbook (which calls for politicizing the administration's domestic spying efforts) than to crafting and refining effective counterterrorism policies.

WHAT IS THE NEW PROGRAM?: USA Today reported yesterday, "The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth." The three telecommunications companies, who together provide local and wireless phone service to over 200 million Americans, are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. One major telecommunications company, Qwest, declined to participate in the program indicating that it was deeply troubled both by the expansiveness of the request and by the NSA's assertion that a court order was not needed. Although the telcos reportedly are not directly handing over customers’†names and addresses, the phone number records provided to the NSA "can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information." Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) remarked, "We've got a new slogan for the AT&T and NSA: Reach out and tap someone."

More HERE

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

I think the reason Bush both admitted to wiretapping and said he will continue to do so is because when you can listen in on anybody in the opposition you can take unfair advantage.

These slugs were all up in Kerry's phone calls I bet money on it.

Billions of calls? BILLIONS?

capt

Capt #29, yes the last / was indeed the problem. The formula I sent to Carey didn't have the / on the end. Just so ya know I'm innocent.

Re #38: Finally I can read the (revised) article. I suppose LATimes took the page off-line while fixing the errors in the piece. That would explain the earlier 'not available'. The 500 error always claims to be 'server related', but in this case might be due, in part, to the posting of the revision. Anyway, one little snafu and another...

Re #43: Yes, capt, billions. As in thousands of millions. Looking for suspicious calling patterns indicative of 'terriorist activity'. Yup.

Rove Informs White House He Will Be Indicted
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Friday 12 May 2006

Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him, according to sources.

ROVE TO BE INDICTED ACCORDING TO TRUTHOUT

My wife asked me what they would get from our phone records. OUR PRIVACY if nothing else.

Rachel Maddow on Air America Radio proposed the theory that

1. Three weeks ago Rove leaves his post in the WH to work on politics. (same job, same desk, same ass in the chair)

2. Mikey Hayden gets nominated to the CIA post.

3. Justice stops investigating NSA spying. Too sweet since Gonzales came up with the idea. "Any fox in this henhouse? I don't see any. Nothing here folks, just me and the hens."

4. USA Today come out with the story on AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth playing us for patsies for the past five years, giving away our expectation of privacy.

5. Three hours later Bush responds. "9/11, gotta keep Amerika safe. Nobody else can do it like us."

6. Dems set-up to go against the "Terror Card" to question this.

Was this a Rove leak to make the Dems look weak and a polislam for the election in six months?

These bastards want it all, so stay away from any major city on the 4th of July. A terrorist attack then will guarantee a Republican sweep in November....Unless, America wakes up and realizes that they are the man behind the curtain.

Missed you guys, my season is getting started and I'll be scarcely around.

By the way, high crimes and misdemeanors requires impeachment, not just a suggestion that it be considered. And treason requires hanging.

I am against capital punishment, but in this case it is mandatory.

Carey #7 -- I was sharing my dream and my "inside" info, which isn't always spot on. But, sometimes...

Feingold The Forthright

Is this man too smart to be president? When Russ Feingold talks about how national security and foreign policy intersect, you think this man might just know what he's talking about. His ideas don't sound canned or full of buzz phrases, nor do they appeal to fear. Plus, they make sense.

Speaking Monday at the National Press Club, Feingold described his vision for national security. The senator from Wisconsin said he believes that "battling al-Qaida and associated networks" should be the nation's national security priority. Thinking about the war on terror in exclusively military terms is short-sighted and insufficient. Instead, Feingold argued, the U.S. should be focusing on safe havens of Islamist activity (like Indonesia), rescuing failed states and supporting human rights. Put another way, Feingold seemed to be saying, where we consort with repressive leaders and ignore the human rights of their citizens, we sow the seeds of anti-American hatred. Sure, it would've been nice if he'd noted how large America's fossil fuel-dependency looms as a factor in U.S. foreign policy decisions and how the lack of a real energy plan undermines our national security (hat tip, my former colleague Patrick Doherty and Michael Klare). That aside, it was refreshing to hear a Democrat talk about national security strategies that transcend defensive, reactive postures, and are informed by principle, not polling.

More HERE

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

A nice piece.

capt

#48

I am getting happy feet - dancing!

An indictment of Rove will not fix everything but it beats the crap out of no indictment!

Thanks

capt

DB 24, yes indeedy I am listening in! LA Times snafus, just like the ones with NORAD and the Airforce, a great comparison!
Carey 31, what ISN'T a constitutional issue these days?!

I saw the movie Chicken Little last night, very cute, but somehow reminded me of all these lame terrorist alerts. "Watch out, the big, bad freedom hating, osama possessed muslims are gonna gitcha!" Put down the Constitution and step away from the Bill of Rights, slowly, it's for your own good dontcha know?

If you think that wiretapping is bad, wait until our population swells to 600 million people in the next 15 years because we will have open borders for anyone who wants to enter. Plus, they will be granted immediate citizenship. The good times are not that far away for the Nazis to torture and murder American citizens for anything that they can dream up. That will be American democracy Nazi-style.

Re #53: The LATimes was a snafu. 2001 Sep 11 was a SNAFU! Even worse was the FBI over the previous summer, but I don't have any larger type, so I'll have to write S-N-A-F-U!!

Re #53: The LATimes was a snafu. 2001 Sep 11 was a SNAFU! Even worse was the FBI over the previous summer, but I don't have any larger type, so I'll have to write S-N-A-F-U!!

Nazi America

Here are the fourteen characteristics that are necessary for a Nazi nation. America currently possesses all fourteen characteristics.
1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism
5. Rampant sexism
6. A controlled mass media
7. Obsession with national security
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together
9. Power of corporations protected
10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated
11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections

There should be no doubt in anyway in the people's minds that America is a fascist nation. Rapidly the self-implosion and destruction of America are starting to take hold. America is no longer America but she is now called Nazi America.

bush already has plans to try to change the subject for the news cycle on Monday -- he's gonna have a prime-time TV snakeoil show on immigration.

The message managers must be scared shitless that Fitz is gonna indict on Monday -- and they are scrambling to change the subject.

#48 micki, if rover is indicted, let us hope that Chainey comes next under investigation. After he is indicted, let us hope that the big turd, Bushitler, comes under investigation and he is indicted for being a lying scurvy rat.

But it was impossible to save the Great Republic. She was rotten to the heart. Lust of conquest had long ago done its work; trampling upon the helpless abroad had taught her, by a natural process, to endure with apathy the like at home; multitudes who had applauded the crushing of other people's liberties, lived to suffer for their mistake in their own persons. The government was irrevocably in the hands of the prodigiously rich and their hangers-on; the suffrage was become a mere machine, which they used as they chose. There was no principle but commercialism, no patriotism but of the pocket : Mark Twain

=
Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort: Marshall McLuhan - Source: The Mechanical Bride (1951)

===

Thanks ICH Newsletter!

Just sign and date the following Posner Waiver:

I, ___________________,

hereby waive any rights of privacy in my person, property, association, thought and/or expression that I have, had or claim to have under the federal and state constitutions, statutory law or regulation of the United States or any political subdivision thereof, decisional law, common law and/or any other source of authority, real or imagined, to the extent the waiver of such rights is, in the sole judgment of any military, law enforcement or national security employee of the United States, deemed necessary to prosecute the war on terror.

This waiver applies both retroactively and prospectively.

_____________________________
(Signed)

_____________________________
(Dated)

Dr. B -- "fouled up" may be more appropriate in certain situations, but SNAFU certainly does seem to fit those situations you referred to.

* SNAFU - Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.
* SUSFU - Situation Unchanged, Still Fucked Up.
* FUMTU - Fucked Up More Than Usual.
* FUBB - Fucked Up Beyond Belief.
* TARFU - Things Are Really Fucked Up.
* TOFU - Things Ordinary: Fucked Up.
* GFU - General Fuck Up.
* SAMFU - Self Adjusting Military Fuck Up.
* BOHICA - Bend over, here it comes again.
* TUIFU - The Ultimate In Fuck Ups.
* FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair/Reason/Redemption.
* FUGAZI - Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In; Refers to out-of-control situation such as a chaotic jungle warfare combat environment
* JANFU - Joint Army/Navy Fuck-Up; apparently used by British troops in WWII.
* JAAFU - Joint Army-Air Force Fuck-Up; the use of JANFU combined with a radical increase in joint-forces operations since 1989, has led to the rare but increasing use of JAAFU.

#60 Gerald, I hope dead-eye dick is already under investigation.

Is there a prayer for that? Would it be okay if I just made one up?

Re #63: micki, I actually chuckled. Tell me about the scence inside the beltway this Mother's Day weekend. Is it TARFU or TUIFU or even FUBAR?

Re #66: Err, 'scene', not 'scence'. I think I should leave now before I really FU.

Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism

Across the United States, religious activists are organizing to establish an American theocracy. A frightening look inside the growing right-wing movement.

Editor's note: This is an excerpt from senior writer Michelle Goldberg's new book,

A teenage modern dance troupe dressed all in black took their places on the stage of the First Baptist Church of Pleasant Grove, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. Two dancers, donning black overcoats, crossed their arms menacingly. As a Christian pop ballad swelled on the speakers, a boy wearing judicial robes walked out. Holding a Ten Commandments tablet that seemed to be made of cardboard, he was playing former Alabama Supreme Court justice Roy Moore. The trench-coated thugs approached him, miming a violent rebuke and forcing him to the other end of the stage, sans Commandments.

There, a cluster of dancers impersonating liberal activists waved signs with slogans like "No Moore!" and "Keep God Out!! No God in Court." The boy Moore danced a harangue, first lurching toward his tormentors and then cringing back in outrage before breaking through their line to lunge for his monument. But the dancers in trench coats -- agents of atheism -- got hold of it first and took it away, leaving him abject on the floor. As the song's uplifting chorus played -- "After you've done all you can, you just stand" -- a dancer in a white robe, playing either an angel or God himself, came forward and helped the Moore character to his feet.

The performance ended to enthusiastic applause from a crowd that included many Alabama judges and politicians, as well as Roy Moore himself, a gaunt man with a courtly manner and the wrath of Leviticus in his eyes. Moore has become a hero to those determined to remake the United States into an explicitly Christian nation. That reconstructionist dream lies at the red-hot center of our current culture wars, investing the symbolic fight over the Ten Commandments -- a fight whose outcome seems irrelevant to most peoples' lives -- with an apocalyptic urgency.

More HERE

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

This is enough to send a chill right through me. These people are nuts!

" The believing mind is externally impervious to evidence. The most that can be accomplished with it is to induce it to substitute one delusion for another. It rejects all overt evidence as wicked." ~ Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) U. S. Editor and Critic.

capt

#49 geof01

Veeery interesting speculation on the Rove connection to all of this. I loved your comment on capital punishment--made me laugh hard.

#57 Saladin

This is true, what isn't Constitutional these days.

#31
Wow, how many rosaries were said to have that happen?

so many snafus, so little evidence. Maybe we should just get rid of NORAD and our military, they are obviously worthless. That just goes to show, having a drill the same day a real freedom hating terrorist is planning on hijacking 4 airplanes is a really bad idea.

well the bushco excuse for not releasing the fbi confiscated surveillance camera tapes that would reveal what actually hit the pentagon was that they would taint the mooseowie trial. so now that that convenient excuse has ended the fbi has still not seen fit to release them.

kick down pentagon! you have nothing to hide, right?

US TROOPS PREPARED TO ATTACK IRAN
William Thomas 11 May 2006 05:08 GMT

In April 2006, the US National Command Authority issued orders for more than 20,000 US soldiers to prepare to deploy to the Persian Gulf within 48 hours of receiving an execute order from either GW Bush or Donald Rumsfeld. Generals fear "Persian Gulf Incident" trigger.
US TROOPS PREPARED TO ATTACK IRAN

Bush Said To Be Seeking Persian Gulf Incident.

by William Thomas

In January 2006, a major military base located in the western United States received voice instructions from National Command Authority (NCA) to get their logistics train underway and train up their troops for desert warfare.

The current National Command Authority is comprised of a Commander-In-Chief who deserted his post during the Vietnam War, and a Secretary of Defense who, despite never having donned a uniform in defense of his country, did succeed in cashiering and countermanding enough combat-experienced generals to engineer the current debacle in Iraq.

Which desert? the commander wanted to know.

You don't need to know, he was told by the NCA.

With their mission unstated, infantry staff officers presumed that this redeployment of more than 10,000 combat-tested troops, as well as supporting armor, artillery and air reconnaissance would soon be heading back into Iraq, with enough force, as my source put it, to finally go in and do it right.

In preparation for this combat operation, all upcoming leaves between January and September 2006 were either cancelled or expedited. To insure that essential personnel would remain integrated throughout their units, military operational specialists nearing their end of duty commitments were either replaced or retained under stop loss provisions beyond the end of their contracts. Hot action would be coming soon, no later than September 2006.

As the troops began intensive training for desert combat during this 1st phase spin up to war, a complete inventory was taken of the bullets, beans and bodies required to initiate, sustain and complete a combat mission of unspecified duration in an as yet unspecified Theater of Operations, still assumed to be Iraq.

In February 2006, the 2nd phase of war preparations began as US personnel in Defense Data Management began tapping keypads and arranging rides for a still unspecified destination. Orders went out to various air, land and sealift commands to coordinate logistical support for an upcoming combat deployment to the most likely desert environment, the Persian Gulf.

All units involved had to prepare to deploy overseas on just 48-hours notice...
-----------
All we need now is just one more Pearl Harbor type incident, a SNAFU if you will, to get this ball rolling. And then DB and his cohorts can reassure us that it was simply the famous bushco bumbling that is to blame, allowing us to bomb the shit out of Iran, which, as we all know, is chock full of freedom hating terrorists! GOGOGOGOGOGO!!

#67
OMG. Those people need to get a life.

More

The JCS is headed by General Richard B. Myers, the man rewarded with command over all US forces after failing to launch routine (more-than-once-weekly) intercept scrambles, or re-route fighters already airborne within easy flying distance of Manhattan and Washington DC on the morning of September 11, 2001. [AFD The Politics of Mass Persuasion; Stand Down; Day Of Deception (June 2006) –†by William Thomas]

Then as now, answers were not immediately forthcoming.

By the end of February 2006, retired generals with careers no longer at risk began going more ballistic than ICBMs cooking off in their silos. According to sources inside the Pentagon and close to the JCS, their logic and comments went roughly like this:

You're not even telling your own troops where you're going to deploy them. How stupid is that? If they don't know the terrain, how can they arrange appropriate transport?

How can medical facilities know whether to prepare for wounds by bullets, chemicals, or nuclear flash burns? Besides, all necessary material for combat operations in Iraq is already in country.

Once again, the White House told the commanding officers involved in this unpublicized mobilization: shut up and do what you're told.

But staff officers are capable of reading newspapers, as well as orders. They started putting two and two together, my source reported, when headline news began reporting threats from National Command Authority to invade and/or nuke Iran over its legitimate intentions to build nuclear power plants for its rapidly growing and modernizing citizenry.

This action had to be taken, the American press parroted, in order to pre-empt the possibility that a country already titling toward the democratic wishes of its overwhelmingly young population might seek to counter repeatedly threatened US aggression, and Israel's 400-plus nuclear bomb arsenal with its own eventual bomb.

By April 2006 it was clear to combat veterans preparing once again for war that they would not be helping out their buddies in Iraq. When an additional division of 10,000 to 15,000 seasoned troops specializing in rugged terrain was also ordered to prepare for redeployment in the Persian Gulf Theater, enough red flags went up to stop the game.

Iraq is mostly flat.

Iran is mostly mountainous.

WE DON'T THINK SO
As Pulitzer-winning journalist Seymour Hersh has confirmed, the generals performed their sworn duty by rendering their professional opinion to the National Command Authority, to wit: You're out of your frickin minds! [Democracy Now! Apr 12/06; New Yorker Apr 17/06]

US commanders pointed out that their tanks were not going to be taking any scenic drives through Persian peaks exceeding 7,000 feet, and occasionally topping out over 10,000. The missing oxygen required to sustain life would also not be enough to sustain heavy-lift helos attempting to chopper in all those bullets and beans well above their rated service ceilings.

Bad idea, they said. The Soviet Red Army had conclusively and catastrophically demonstrated what happens when troops attempting to assault unfamiliar mountain defiles without armor and adequate air support confront homeland defenders armed with anti-air and anti-vehicle rockets fighting from good cover. Especially when said shooters are not afraid to die...
-------------
A veritable bottonless PIT of SNAFUS! Shut up and do what you're told grunt!

And in conclusion

With the Strait of Hormuz, and most of the world's oil supplies temporarily shut down, and the US fleet in the Persian Gulf presumably sinking fast under swarms of 2,000 mph Iranian “ìunburn anti-ship missiles and 200 mph torpedoes, naval logistics and air support would have to be provided from the Caspian Sea.

Don't the Russians own that? the generals asked the NCA.

The White House had already offered to cut Putin in on the spoils, if the Russian president would facilitate US attacks on an allied country where he'd been forced to transplant Russia's considerable oil and industrial investments in advance of Bush's aggression on Iraq.

The NCA neglected to mention that their own Nuclear Emergency Search Team assessment had warned that if nukes were used, or a single nuclear power plant bombed, the entire region would be uninhabitable for at least a decade. Once made radioactive, NEST added, the world's third biggest oil fields would be permanently unusable. [ http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/doctrine/doe/o5530_2.htm]

Bush and Rumsfeld ignored NEST. Putin gave Bush the diplomatic finger.

It was Putin's pugnacious Nyet to Washington that provoked dead eye Dick Cheney to unlimber his trusty rhetorical blunderbuss and start blasting Russia's lack of democracy.
-------------
Guess we'll have to bomb Russia too, the uncooperative traitors!

More fun with the bush clan
From Buzz.Yahoo.com

the buzz log What the world is searching for...
Skullduggery
Fri, May 12, 2006, 10:58 am PDT

Geronimo Skull and Bones, the oldest and most notorious of Yale University's secret societies, stole the skull of the great Apache warrior Geronimo and hid it inside its clubhouse, or so the rumor went. But it was just that, rumor, until Monday, when Yale Alumni Magazine's web site published excerpts of a 1918 letter that presents the tale as truth.

Is it really true? Who knows? It's an old letter from one Bonesman to another. And the secrets buzz around this club like flies at a pigsty. We've also heard that Bonesmen smooch skulls, mud wrestle, and converse with the devil. Well, that last part was a lie, but we did read the kissing stuff, and, frankly, that's weird.

Regardless, the spooky allure of Skull and Bones thrills the Buzz every time. Searches on "skull and bones society" vaulted into our top 10 movers, while "geronimo" leapt 307%. "Skull pictures," "skulls," and "yale university" also rose.

Here's where the story gets even juicier. You know President Bush was a Bonesman. So was his father, his granddaddy Prescott Bush, and his 2004 presidential challenger John Kerry. Don't tell Karl Rove, but grandfather Bush is believed to be among the group of pillagers who stole away with Geronimo's cranium. Just when things are getting tough at work for the commander-in-chief, his relative is outed as a grave robber. Now that hurts.
----------
Maybe kerry will shed some light on this scandalous matter!

letter from roger silverstein (larry's son) re: wtc.

excerpt: For your information, the correct story is that 7 WTC came down as a result of a massive fire that was ignited from fuel tanks located within the Building's base floors, in turn causing the steel to melt and buckle upon a number of hours of burning. Following the collapse of the Towers, 7 WTC became fully ablaze shortly thereafter.

oh, i see! it's all so clear now! it really is a shame that none of this massive fuel fire burning for a number of hours was caught on film by the cameras that were trained on it all day, though. oh well, we must content ourselves with photos of a spanish high rise and a venezuelan high rise fires that actually were on fire for a good number of hours and still remained standing. oh that's right, they weren't built on a scaffold. LOL my bad!

(just between us, i believe that wtc7 was simply overcome with grief at the loss of it's 2 companions.)

Majority of Israelis Want Govt to Encourage Arabs to Leave
17:52 May 09, '06 / 11 Iyar 5766
by Ezra HaLevi

Almost two-thirds of Israelis want the government to encourage Arabs to leave the country, according to a study by the Israel Democracy Institute.

According to the preliminary summary of the 2006 Democracy Index, 62% of Israelis would like to see the government actively encourage Arabs to leave Israel. Last year, only 50% supported such a policy. During the Netanyahu administration of 1996-99, when terror casualties dropped drastically, the lowest percentage of Israelis supporting Arab population transfer was recorded: 48%. At the outbreak of the Arab Intifada in December 1987, support for population transfer of Arabs was at its height: 69%.

The full report by the left-leaning Israel Democracy Institute will be released Wednesday.

National Union Chairman MK Rabbi Benny Elon, whose Moledet Party advocates offering incentives for Arabs to emigrate, said the results were not surprising. "It is illustrative of a desire on both the right and the left - and sometimes more of the left than the right," he told Arutz-7's Hebrew radio. "The Disengagement was even based on this desire to separate from the Arabs."

"What is more," added Elon, "offering the Arabs assistance in leaving willingly is much more humanitarian than the incessant killing of the Arabs of the Land of Israel."
---------
Left leaning eh? We're not anti-semite or anything, but here's the deal, ya'll leave and we'll stop slaughtering you!
Think of it as the Arab "Trail Of Tears." We like it here and are planning on staying, so you guys can just move on, after all, God gave US this particular piece of desert so you really have no business here anyway. And as the Europeans of old proved, might makes right. So, GET THE FUCK OUT!

Now wait James, I thought it was all those electrical explosions that FEMA and the NIST never talked about, that made that building turn to dust? I guess they forgot to install the circuit breakers. I'm SO confused!

SCO: RUSSIA'S NEW NATO

On April 18 the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation announced that India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia would be accepted as full members. The SCO, said to be interested only in promoting mutual security and economic well being, is, nevertheless, the political horse pulling the cart of military cooperation between China and Russia. With full membership being accorded to the above countries, Russia will have completed something that the czars and Leonid Brezhnev only dreamt of, the creation of an unbroken link from the Arctic in the north to the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean in the south. An Iranian spokesman spoke of creating an Iranian-Russian gas and oil arc.
-----------
More reasons to be thankful to bushco, aligning the entire world against us.

If you want to see something REALY gross watch this. Over the top.

Puny Little Traitors

I knew it. I just knew it. This administration literally does not undertand what boundaries are. Thank goodness we have a congress that stops them...not.

NSA Whistleblower To Expose More Unlawful Activity: 'People...Are Going To Be Shocked'

CongressDaily reports that former NSA staffer Russell Tice will testify to the Senate Armed Services Committee next week that not only do employees at the agency believe the activities they are being asked to perform are unlawful, but that what has been disclosed so far is only the tip of the iceberg. Tice will tell Congress that former NSA head Gen. Michael Hayden, Bush's nominee to be the next CIA director, oversaw more illegal activity that has yet to be disclosed:

A former intelligence officer for the National Security Agency said Thursday he plans to tell Senate staffers next week that unlawful activity occurred at the agency under the supervision of Gen. Michael Hayden beyond what has been publicly reported, while hinting that it might have involved the illegal use of space-based satellites and systems to spy on U.S. citizens...

[Tice] said he plans to tell the committee staffers the NSA conducted illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of U.S. citizens while he was there with the knowledge of Hayden. ..." think the people I talk to next week are going to be shocked when I tell them what I have to tell them. It's pretty hard to believe," Tice said. "I hope that they'll clean up the abuses and have some oversight into these programs, which doesn't exist right now..."

Dr. B -- May I call you doctor? ;-)

Regarding the situation inside the Beltway: I would suggest that it is all of those -- TARFU, TUIFU, FUBAR, but it is also BOHICA because the situation affects all of us, hundreds and even thousands of miles from the Beltway

Perhaps, Gerald should edit his essay on "Little Difference" that he posted the other day. He could incorporate BOHICA in his thesis.

#81 Jeanne -- that is incredible, even for Fox! But, I guess that's where we are with SRT, , aka Faux News.

Ventriloquist Act

--------------------
Napping again.

oh sal you shouldn't be confused! my theory that wtc7 was simply overcome with grief at the loss of it's 2 companions is simply more logical than suspecting that despite ny's no doubt very stringent building codes they would build a giant building on a sub-par foundation of scaffolding and that after silverstein suggested that they
"made the decision to pull it and then we pulled it and then we watched it fall" they would then build a bigger building on that same scaffolding foundation in record time. but my "simply overcome with grief theory" (more logical by far) will never see the light of day until one Prof. Steven E. Jones (traitor to freedom!) is publicly called to account for his foolish prattle!

Jeanne, do you remember when that guy died on the Dick Cavett show or whatever it was? Is Dead-Eye DEAD???

It's like those horrible golf jokes, hit the ball and drag dick; hit the ball and drag dick.

Oops...referring to jeanne @ 85. Take a look!

James, that just meant that they decided to pull "it" meaning firefighters that were SO overwhelmed with those out of control fires that "it", I mean, they, that is, them, well obviously it is they, had to be pulled! Really, what would you do? Leave "it" in there to collapse with the building? What kind of barbarian ARE YOU???!!!

The Finale of my posted article above

Remember the Maine? Remember the Maddox? US military leaders now fear that a copycat Cuban or Tonkin Gulf incident will be either faked or provoked sometime soon in the ship-clogged Persian Gulf.

Once an Iranian attack on a US-flagged tanker or warship is announced, US commanders could be ordered to counter-attack with all available force, including nuclear weapons. Even if they suspected a ruse, no serving soldier can fail to protect his or her comrades. Any grunt or general who refused such a go command would risk immediate courts-martial, and charges of treason in a time of war.

Once again, the real treason would have come from a White House under siege from Congress, its own generals and an awakening populace, and increasingly desperate to fast-track the apocalypse God has personally commanded them to sponsor. As Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice recently reassured the homeless and hungry in Louisiana, The Lord Jesus Christ is going to come on time.[www.reopen911.org]

After Armageddon.

It will be another Gulf of Tonkin, my source reported. They want it. They'll have it. Even if they have to make it.

Unless Congress and the American public back their courageous generals, and stop religious fundamentalists who may or may not command more weaponry than all other nations combined.

Troops keyed up for combat cannot be held on 48-hour alert indefinitely. And with the Iran bourse set to begin trading oil in euros next week, ending the dollar's dominance in that universal commodity, denial is no longer an option.
-------------
My stand all along. Stand up people, don't wait for the traitorous reps to do the right thing, it is going to be a lot more work than a black box vote. The question again arises, prophecy, or man made fulfillment? Goodnight, and God help us.

Those tapes were destroyed against orders, they were made to help the people recall what happened, by the supervisor on duty, not for them to talk about their "feelings!"

Nope, it was just the opposite. It was your posted link for gawd's sake! I read it and corrected your 'interpretation', and now I'm correcting it again. The 'guys' got together and made that tape a couple hours later while discussing it amongst themselves (feelings/thoughts) and the supervisor took and destroyed it. Something about 'not official tapes' and all that, I suppose. The supervisor didn't have them make it. , just the opposite. They were ordered to keep the official tapes of the communications with the plane and they did. I heard a little of it myself.

But yeah, by all means a truce.

Your last argument about a scientist used the anti-semite card, a particularly loathsome manuever,

Wait wait, say wha?? Don't drag me into all that. Some people on here accuse you of being that way and that is just absurd and I know better. It's absurd if someone accuses me of it too. The only thing I said about your scientists is, that the last two cited weren't in the proper field. An economist and a nuclear fusion guy... how do you bring anti-semite into that?!!

"it" meaning "a fast one" of course!
---------
Remember the Maine? Remember the Maddox? US military leaders now fear that a copycat Cuban or Tonkin Gulf incident will be either faked or provoked sometime soon in the ship-clogged Persian Gulf.

Once an Iranian attack on a US-flagged tanker or warship is announced, US commanders could be ordered to counter-attack with all available force, including nuclear weapons.

i wont be surprised if a scenario such as that plays out. nor will i be surprised when the sheople herd including certain investigative journalists once again knowingly fall directly in the bend over line. "damned iranians! look what THEY did because they hate our freedumbs! payback time! GRRR! the whole world knows that THEY'RE evil!"

Light's Most Exotic Trick Yet: So Fast it Goes ... Backwards?

In the past few years, scientists have found ways to make light go both faster and slower than its usual speed limit, but now researchers at the University of Rochester have published a paper today in Science on how they've gone one step further: pushing light into reverse. As if to defy common sense, the backward-moving pulse of light travels faster than light. Confused? You're not alone.

15. What does "prior knowledge" mean when high ranking government officials were warned not to fly domestic flights on or before 9-11?
a. They were simply being cautious
b. They knew terrorists could strike anywhere, anytime
c. Some government officials just needed to be reminded, since they couldn't remember the exact hijacking timeline.
d. Prior knowledge indicates nothing
e. Prior knowledge, like Put Options, indicates government conspiracy

16. Was the Kean Commission Report truthful and honest?
a. Yes, 110% honest
b. Mostly yes.
c. Yes, except for most minor and major details
d. No--Total Lies wrapped around statistics and footnotes
e. Yes, As truthful and honest as the Warren Report

TEST YOUR TERROR IQ
i scored only 149 - jha

oh, i see! it's all so clear now! it really is a shame that none of this massive fuel fire burning for a number of hours was caught on film by the cameras that were trained on it all day

Now James, you've misinterpreted your own post too! Look again at this part...
a massive fire that was ignited from fuel tanks located within the Building's base floors,

Notice where it says "the base floors"? Were the cameras you mentioned in the basement underground? Their main diesel tank was underground, and once again, WTC 7 was very much built on a moment frame across the top of some of the Con-Ed power station.
You gotta do better'n that my man.

I guess they forgot to install the circuit breakers.

heehee @ circuit breakers... like at your house, huh? The building's own transformers were most likely 4160 volts, so what'dya guess the big azz transformers supplying them in Con-Ed were?? Hey Joe, go flip that breaker, man.
That's cute.

#82 Dammit man, I wish some of the agents in the 9/11 conspiracy would leak. The ones that know about illegal spying feel bad, but the one's that killed Americans are zipped up tight.
That's a shame, ya know?

"made the decision to pull it and then we pulled it and then we watched it fall"

Yeah, they watched it fall hours later.

yeah, Jones. I knew of him, but couldn't remember if it was him or Griffin that was in the right field. What I know of Jones is... none of his colleagues agree with him, not one.
His own dept doesn't. No other scientist in that field, at any organization... but not even his own department!.
I dunno, but on the other blog they said he thinks Jesus was reborn again in America.
hahaha

fools engaged in a battle of wits
everyone else feels that both fools are twits
a real investigation and then we would see
until then i admit that one fool is me

the proof is in the pudding if it ever gets mixed
problem is all the ingredients were fixed
proof's in the pudding if it ever gets made
one plane is shadowed while it's not in the shade

- ha. out.

Ezekiel 25:17.
"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."

I like your Christ. I don't like your Christians, your Christians are nothing like your Christ.

...Ghandi

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER DRURY: I'm Assistant
Commissioner James Drury. I'm present in Chief of the Department Daniel Nigroís office on
October 24, 2001. It is 3:54 p.m.

(a few snips from the interview)

At some point after our arrival and after we
had moved to the west side of West Street, I heard a loud roar of a jet, looked up and saw the second plane impact the south tower. At that point it was clear to me it was a terrorist attack.
----
We stepped over small airplane aviation parts, on Vesey, continued west, continued looking at the building. I looked up at the south tower and could see that it was more heavily damaged than we could tell from our west vantage point. That the second plane had - although it hit from the south, it also did a great deal of damage to the north part of the building.
----
The most important operational decision to be made that afternoon was the collapse had damaged 7 World Trade Center, which is about a 50 story building, at Vesey between West Broadway and Washington Street. It had very heavy fire on many floors and I ordered the evacuation of an area sufficient around to protect our members,so we had to give up some rescue operations that were going on at the time and back the people away far enough so that if 7 World Trade did collapse, we wouldnít lose any more people.
---
We continued to operate on what we could from
that distance and approximately an hour and a half after that order was given., at 5:30 in the afternoon, World Trade Center collapsed
completely I continued to operate at the scene until...

Hurrah! I haff waited years and years for this, comrades! At long last, I hear interfering accursed imperialist moose and squirrel are goink to prison--what's that? Ees not moose and squirrel? Ees some nobody named Moussaoui? AWWW, %&^*$#@$%$%! and *%^&$#@$#@@^ and even }{+)*&%$@#%$!&*^!!!!!

Chief Cruthers

"Early on, there was concern that 7 World Trade Center might have been both impacted by the collapsing tower and had several fires in it and there was a concern that it might collapse. So we instructed that a collapse area -- (Q. A collapse zone?) -- Yeah -- be set up and maintained so that when the expected collapse of 7 happened, we wouldn't have people working in it. There was considerable discussion with Con Ed regarding the substation in that building and the feeders and the oil coolants and so on. And their concern was of the type of fire we might have when it collapsed." - Chief Cruthers

Someone must have watched Pulp Fiction on Showtime last evening....

Captain Chris Boyle

We were told to go to Greenwich and Vesey and see what’s going on. So we go there and on the north and east side of 7 it didn’t look like there was any damage at all, but then you looked on the south side of 7 there had to be a hole 20 stories tall in the building, with fire on several floors. Debris was falling down on the building and it didn’t look good.
---
So we gathered up rollups and most of us had masks at that time. We headed toward 7. And just around we were about a hundred yards away and Butch Brandies came running up. He said forget it, nobody’s going into 7, there’s creaking, there are noises coming out of there, so we just stopped. And probably about 10 minutes after that, Visconti, he was on West Street, and I guess he had another report of further damage either in some basements and things like that, so Visconti said nobody goes into 7, so that was the final thing and that was abandoned.

KARL ROVE is next: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051206Y.shtml

IF YOU CAPITALIZE WHILE USING "BOLD" IT WOULD BE EVEN LOUDER!

Condoleezza Rice at Boston College? I quit

An open letter to William P. Leahy, SJ, president of Boston College.

DEAR Father Leahy,

I am writing to resign my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College.

I am doing so -- after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret -- as a direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year's graduation.

Many members of the faculty and student body already have voiced their objection to the invitation, arguing that Rice's actions as secretary of state are inconsistent with the broader humanistic values of the university and the Catholic and Jesuit traditions from which those values derive.

But I am not writing this letter simply because of an objection to the war against Iraq. My concern is more fundamental. Simply put, Rice is a liar.

She has lied to the American people knowingly, repeatedly, often extravagantly over the past five years, in an effort to justify a pathologically misguided foreign policy.

The public record of her deceits is extensive. During the ramp-up to the Iraq war, she made 29 false or misleading public statements concerning Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and links to Al Qaeda, according to a congressional investigation by the House Committee on Government Reform.

To cite one example:

More HERE

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

Thank goodness for people that still have principles.

capt

Telcos Could Be Liable For Tens of Billions of Dollars For Illegally Turning Over Phone Records

This morning, USA Today reported that three telecommunications companies AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth provided "phone call records of tens of millions of Americans" to the National Security Agency. Such conduct appears to be illegal and could make the telco firms liable for tens of billions of dollars. Here's why:

1. It violates the Stored Communications Act. The Stored Communications Act, Section 2703(c), provides exactly five exceptions that would permit a phone company to disclose to the government the list of calls to or from a subscriber: (i) a warrant; (ii) a court order; (iii) the customer's consent; (iv) for telemarketing enforcement; or (v) by "administrative subpoena." The first four clearly don't apply. As for administrative subpoenas, where a government agency asks for records without court approval, there is a simple answer the NSA has no administrative subpoena authority, and it is the NSA that reportedly got the phone records.

2. The penalty for violating the Stored Communications Act is $1000 per individual violation. Section 2707 of the Stored Communications Act gives a private right of action to any telephone customer "aggrieved by any violation." If the phone company acted with a "knowing or intentional state of mind," then the customer wins actual harm, attorney's fees, and "in no case shall a person entitled to recover receive less than the sum of $1,000."

(The phone companies might say they didn't "know" they were violating the law. But USA Today reports that Qwest's lawyers knew about the legal risks, which are bright and clear in the statute book.)

3. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act doesn’¥ get the telcos off the hook. According to USA Today, the NSA did not go to the FISA court to get a court order. And Qwest is quoted as saying that the Attorney General would not certify that the request was lawful under FISA. So FISA provides no defense for the phone companies, either.

In other words, for every 1 million Americans whose records were turned over to NSA, the telcos could be liable for $1 billion in penalties, plus attorneys fees. You do the math.

Peter Swire and Judd Legum

UPDATE: Many of you had questions about this legal analysis. Peter provides the answers here. We'll continue to address your questions as this story develops.

UPDATE II: Orrin Kerr agrees with our analysis in the New York Times:

Coming Soon...

Legislation to shield Telcos from "frivolous" lawsuits brought about by "cusotmers" who's expectation of privacy has been usurped?

Not a doubt in my mind.

-T

at least $1,000 per person whose records they disclosed without a court order.
___________________
Orin Kerr, a former federal prosecutor and assistant professor at George Washington University, said his reading of the relevant statutes put the phone companies at risk for at least $1,000 per person whose records they disclosed without a court order.

"This is not a happy day for the general counsels" of the phone companies, he said. "If you have a class action involving 10 million Americans, that's 10 million times $1,000 —†that's 10 billion."
__________________

Shredders workin' overtime this weekend!

Who's to blame? Why the people who are TALKIN' bout it, of course! Puny Traitors!

-T

RE: Connedya-lies-t'ya at BC.

Bravo, indeed, for this guy standing up for his principles. Boston College, however, will be a difficult place to keep the protesters out of camera's view. I'd also expect not a few of the students to "creatively" show distain at her filthy presence.

-T

David...so important to remind us that "one vote can count", although it is hard to believe these days.
It is so critical to respect other belief systems, at all times, but especially now. Instead of taking this opportunity to show respect for other religious beliefs and not force Christianity down peoples throats....what do the Republicans do...force it.

#4 Micki...Keep dreaming..DREAMS DO COME TRUE. One of my favorite songs when I was a kid was when Jiminiy Cricket would sing

When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind
She brings to those to love
The sweet fulfillment of
Their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true

Iraqi Army Units Square Off
__________________
Eight Iraqis died in violence Friday, including a soldier and a civilian killed in an armed confrontation between two Iraqi army units.

The clash near Duluiyah, about 45 miles north of Baghdad, raised questions about the U.S.-trained force's ability to maintain control at a time when sectarian and ethnic tensions are running high. The Americans hope the Iraqi army can take over security in most of the country by the end of the year.
______________

WHAT civil war?

The Blog of Doom
9/11 Opinion Lands Teacher in Hot Water.
Fri, 12 May 2006 10:26:04

A substitute teacher by the name of Tom Mustric was put on administrative leave for voicing his opinion about 9/11.

He was talking to another teacher in the lunchroom and said that he believes that there may have been U.S. Government involvement.

Apparently, the other teacher told this to the Principal of the school he was subbing at, and he was put on leave, pending a hearing on Monday, (May 15th, 2006), which may see him fired. (He is already on a blacklist of sorts, where other schools in his district are advised not to call on him for work.)

This news item was reported on the NBC affiliate in Columbus, Ohio, WCMH, and broadcast on the 11 o’£lock news, Wednesday, May 10th. The story has not been posted on the station website, so I called the reporter, David Wayne, to confirm details.

My phone call to Columbus Public Schools resulted in a dead-end. I was told that this information is not shared with the public.
-------------
By golly, if he won't shut up, we'll SHUT him up!

...and it isn't like he was teaching his beliefs to the class...this was a freekin' LUNCH ROOM DISCUSSION AMONG COLLEGUES!!!

They'll throw it out, but the damage has been done.

Now off to a birfday party for Allie Beaster Boo...who's only TWO!

-T

Hajji, things are going exactly as planned. On The Daily show I saw, I think he was a Marine, who wrote a book about Iraq, he thought it would end up being divided into 3 different mini-states, which has been the plan all along. I can't help but wonder, where are they going to get the troops to go after Iran?

Cleveland Women Put In
Gulag And Held For Psych Eval
For Trying To Put Up
Anti-Bush Poster
By Greg Szymanski
5-13-6

A Cleveland woman, manhandled by police and charged with two felonies for trying to display anti-Bush posters, was jailed in a Cuyahoga County psych unit last week in what her attorney called a "highly unusual and outrageous" decision.

Carol Fisher, 53, was ordered by state court Judge Timothy McGinty to undergo a psychological examination as a part of her pre-sentencing investigation in the anti-Bush poster incident.

From the onset of the case, Judge McGinty openly claimed Fisher suffered from "mental problems" for resisting a brutal encounter on Jan. 28 when Cleveland Heights police manhandled and arrested her even after complying with orders to not display the anti-Bush posters on a downtown Cleveland Heights street.

And during a last minute May 9 hearing, Judge McGinty said Fischer's opposition to the Bush administration makes her "delusional."

In response, Terry Gilbert, one of Fisher's attorney, said in more than 30 years of practicing law, he has never seen "anything remotely like this," adding legal challenges are ongoing, including a writ of habeas corpus.

"This is gulag stuff," said Gilbert. "Is this the kind of country you want to live in when dissidents are determined to be crazy?"

In a phone call after being put in the psych ward, Fisher said her eyeglasses were taken, she was put on suicide watch and if she doesn't comply with the psych examination, she will be sent to the North Coast Mental Institute for a 20 day evaluation.
-------------
UH, Delusional?

The WAR On US Is Here

The US is facing a cloak and dagger attack on all fronts by major corporations that have held their hidden agendas for over a hundred years. Corporate interests have been at stake in every war we've had since the First World War and the Corporatocracy has been funding both sides of all the major conflicts since about 1914. With this latest revelation it is clear that the USA was the original target all along. This is a war without principles or human values. It's being waged to establish unilateral control over everyone and everything and that needs to change!

This new revelation of massive spying on everyone in the country just confirms the truth beneath the lies, read the financial particulars in the Patriot Acts, as they pertain to what government can do with your bank accounts. If they find "anything suspicious" in your life -- they can seize your bank accounts -- and there is nothing you can do about it, because of National Security. This is why they want to tap the phones of every American, so the government can build a profile and then arrange for that to match whatever they want to charge you with. The Corporatocracy has long-since become a law unto itself. Now they've added their own private armies, inside the war zones; without military or civilian oversight of their mercenary activities.
------------
Carey, I thought of your comment about identity theft when I read this article. This sheds a whole new light on the reasons behind the wiretaps. They won't need to steal our identities, but the end result will be the same. This article is important.

Damn, it takes a long time for Bush to read his mail!!!

============================================
My Dad Has A Gun!!! November 8th 2005

President Bush, my beloved president, my hero.

I look back these days, at 50 years of age, and think that I did have a happy childhood. I remember so well playing with building blocks and toy soldiers with Billy and Bobby across the street, and I played slot-cars at my home, while the TV aired the Beatles on the Ed Sulivan Show, with pooky, our dog, running about barking. It was a good time for me, warm and secure. But one day, my dad came home with a weapon, a long big shinny rifle, with boxes of ammo. I recall how he would point it out the window, in mock shooting of anyone coming uninvited. Then at night, the TV showed burning buildings, the city of Watts had exploded in flames, in race riots, and the riots were spreading across the nation. I distinctly recall viewing three national guardsmen on TV, in blood-spattered battle fatigues on the streets of Watts, pointing rifles in the air, standing next to a large sign, reading, "turn left or get shot". I ran across the street the next day, and exclaimed to Billy and Bobby, "MY DAD HAS A GUN!!!". My happy little home was now Fortress 238th Street, in Torrance California.

My grandparents and parents came to California in the 1950s, from on the demilitarized zone in Cleveland Ohio, separating the white and black communities. My grandpa would not watch NBA basketball because it had too many blacks playing. My parents did watch the NBA, but were not much better. I recall one time, while at a newspaper boys' rally, where I called a white boy the N-word, and a black boy looked at me in surprise. I immediately apologized, but in thinking about, I became ashamed of myself. I grew to hate my grandparent's bigotry, for contaminating my childhood parlance. My parents, now much guarded in their speech, still retain to this day residual bias, but at least conduct themselves civilly these days. I will certainly teach my children to judge people by the content of character and not the color of skin. It takes generations of social unrest, violence, and divisiveness to over come deep seated prejudices resulting from a mass immigration of peoples who are not readily assimilate into American culture.

The last slave ship, the Nightingale, destined for the slave market in the USA, was captured by Yankee cruisers off the west coast of Africa in 1861, yet it really took hundreds of blockading gunboats plying off the southern ports to finally shut down the slave trade. In 1863, when New York threaten to secede from the union, the large Irish population, from the migration from the Ireland potato famine, went on a draft riot, mostly sparked by fears of dying for freed blacks that would take their jobs, as poor blacks were then publicly lynched in the streets of New York. Our heroes from the battle of Gettysburg were called into New York to baby-sit the Irish as the blacks coward in fear for their lives.

North America effectively imported slaves until there were millions of blacks vastly outnumbering their white southern task masters. As a result, it has taken a civil war, and race riots, and 150 years hence of social unrest to substantially rid our society of that problem of importing, in mass, a race of peoples who were not immediately assimilated into the American culture. That mass importation of slaves directly lead to a devastating civil war and almost a divided nation. We can only absorb so many immigrants within a given span of time, without devastating consequences. We have been there and done that. And now, there are growing race tensions between blacks and Hispanics in Los Angeles when eyeing limited employment opportunities. The minute men on the southern border are getting close to armed vigilantism, and John Brown's treason of 1859. Have we not learned anything? Are we blind?

These days, we have a porous southern border where millions of uneducated, unskilled, illegal immigrates are invading the US homeland, with no end in sight. While the compassion for the low income people is admirable, the present expansion of the welfare state, creating huge deficits, is merely laying out more bait for continued illegal immigration. The US constitution, that directly authorizes a standing army to prevent invasion, is being ignored, in contradiction of sworn oaths by law makers to uphold the constitution, another national disgrace, tantamount to treason.

I was channel flipping TV the other day and came across channel 7, KABC in Los Angeles, and heard a commercial in Spanish, first one I have ever heard on mainstream network prime time broadcast. I cannot channel flip the AM radio at all any more, as at least 50% of the stations are Latino, so the Latinos have effectively captured one entire media outlet in the Los Angeles market, that I do not visit any longer. Maybe KABC, a major network is going Mexican as well. I can just see the KABC nightly news anchors all wearing sombreros, backed-up by the TJ brass. I hope Mr. Bill OReilly does not speak Spanish, I would not want to turn him off as well, though I bet he would look good in a sombrero. I can not eat the cafeteria work food any longer, as all of it is now saturated with salsa, despite recurring objections, and so I have to bring my sandwiches and fruit to work each day. The cashier does speak English very well, and communicating over charge errors creates complications, so in stead, I have to use my broken Spanish to make up for the lack of communication. In my liberal state, California is now publishing, under state imposed directives, multilingual literature, to the deprivations of poor Americans needing assistance or tax relief. We should spend our US tax dollars to only support Americans furthering American culture, while encouraging the display of various other ethics cultures only within moderation, to have a wide diverse mix furthering tolerance.

Yet, in spite of it all, I don't have a prejudicial bone in my body, but you know, every time I see a head scarf on the streets, I think of 3000 dead in NY, and get outraged. And now, there are riots in Paris, and I am shocked. An open border with a generous welfare state spells doom in the long run. There is little from the Muslim leaders condemning this outrage as 400 towns burn in France, and spreading to England, Denmark, Belgium, and Germany, all with the same immigration problem. What a mess that I don't want here in the US, yet Muslim immigration is also on the rise as well, and they to do not readily assimilate with their jihadist mentality, and their cultural disdain for the infidels. I see and hear it all clearly, now, the deafening blaring of Jihad singing coming from the local mosque in downtown Laguna Beach California, signaling all to join in state imposed mandatory mid-day four-hour siestas.

Mexicans are not coming here for all the right reasons. Sure, I respect the dignity of work, but vast uncontrolled illegal immigration goes way beyond that sympathetic view. The illegal immigrants come here in the first instance to violate immigration laws. Crime is not one of the right reasons to come here. The illegal immigrants come here, not to readily assimilate but to promote their mexicanism in this country with their special studies, their bilingual education, their salsa food, their bilingual literature, their capture of AM radio, their capture of weak minded politicians, their Mexican flags in downtown LA or in Georgia, and their Cinco De Mayo, inter alia. Sure I like a little foreign culture in the mix, but not one that dominate over US culture. The illegal immigrants come here to peddle their drugs, to join gangs, degrade property values, and effectively to generate resentment, that will ultimately result to racial riots in the out years, when the US cuts back the hand outs. The illegal worker immigrants come here to simply earn money, not generally with their families to relocate and assimilate and waive the US flag, but to send their money back to Mexico, damaging increased trade. President Fox should build industry in Mexico with cheap labor for the US to exploit, so as to lift their economy, as the way it has been done for centuries. The border must be closed, with a US offer of generous recurring temporary work visas, without any amnesty.

I do not want East Los Angeles, Santa Ana, San Diego, or other southern US cities, from El Paso TX, to Denver CO, to Albuquerque NM, to Phoenix AZ, to go up in flames in the out years. I am tired of the poor-me victimization political card, or race based affirm