Becuase I like donuts, I support George W Bush.

Mr. David Corn,

Great Post!

What do the rich and ultra-wealthy have to worry about?

Thanks for all of your work.

Kirk

The perpetual campaign, originating with Lee Atwater, has been the only consistent policy of the bush administration.

Everything bush touches turns to crap -- unrestrained growth of government, enormous domestic spending with little to show for it, the ill-planned prescription drug program, the Katrina fiasco, his failed wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, so on and so forth...

bush has not vetoed a single bill. He is a failure as a leader, yet many still view him as strong. If I were Hillary, I'd pass in '08. Two years from now, this country and the world could be in shambles -- at the hands of the busheviks.

I haven't seen bush at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry this a.m. -- but, what pure Rovian theatrics!  The anti-science pResident holding a staged press conference at a prestigious bastion of learning! Pure politics! No policy.

If Johnny Depp is a Republican, General Rove will lure him into holding a side-by-side photo-op with bush.  Boy, that would improve bush's ratings!

Fuck bush.

David you were great on the Diane Rehm show today. Hitting the nail on the head on all of the topics brought up. Thanks.

David brought up the "disconnect" between what the Bush administration continues to tell the American people and what actually taking place in Iraq and the reality on the ground for the Iraqi people.

You also asked whether the U.s. can claim any type of " moral posture" on what is taking place there.

This past week I drove my daughter to Chicago. On the 4th of July, I spent part of the day on the beautiful beachfront town of Evanston Illinois. Families were celebrating with picnics, barbecues, badmitton, all under the bright blue sky of Lake Michigan. It was festive. Yet all I could think about that day was (damn that Catholic and Union upbringing focused on Justice).. what this day was like for most people in Baghdad and in Iraq.

That evening I walked around the streets of Chicago around Logan Square with my daughter and one of her best friends. Fireworks were going off everywhere, the sounds were overwhelming. Again I thought about what it must be like to be in Iraq where bombs and violence daily fill the Iraqi peoples lives as a direct result of the U.s. invasion.

Through a great deal of interacting with folks from different walks of life I have become completely convinced that the majority of Americans are in a bubble of comfort and denial a complete "disconnect" having to do with the damage and suffering that we have caused the people of Iraq.

I know this is not positive or uplifting but I really believe most Americans are happy to stay in their bubble, with no "moral posture" pressing their pedals to the metal, burning massive amounts of oil and gas, going on vacations and malls?

People try to make excuses, "I am so busy"..or "I just can not relate"...How about some "new age fluff"..."oh I believe if I am nice to everyone directly around me that is enough". All of these responses sicken me. I have not gotten anywhere close to enlightenment, I judge these folks by their actions or lack of.

On the Rehms show today I especially appreciated when the topic of the possibility of Ken Lay's estate being "off limits" to those who were screwed by the Enron debacle. You said that "this would once again confirm that there are different rules for some" in this nation.

You can sure say that again David. Thanks again for using your laser like intellect and humour to cut through the hogwash.

“I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots.”

~ Johnny Depp

I saw his photo op on C-Span at the Dunkin Donuts. It amazes me that the leader of the free world gets so tripped up when speaking. He paid for someone's coffee all the while muttering something about the importance of paying. He sounded absolutely ridiculous.

John McCain and Hillary Clinton have something to worry about. The resources are stretched pretty thin and the next president will have to aspire to beef those resources up. (Not to mention the trade deficit, budget deficit and the national debt)

Politics and Politicians

I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots.

"America is dumb, it's like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you, aggressive. My daughter is four, my boy is one. I'd like them to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get this feeling and then get out."

(Johnny felt this was translated poorly and not what he really said to the German reporter - see next quote)

"Taken in context, what I was saying was that, compared to Europe, America is a very young country and we are still growing as a nation. It is a shame that the metaphor I used was taken so radically out of context and slung about irresponsibly by the news media. There was no anti-American sentiment. In fact, it was just the opposite. I am an American. I love my country and have great hopes for it. It is for this reason that I speak candidly and sometimes critically about it. I have benefited greatly from the freedom that exists in my country and for this I am eternally grateful."

"France, and the whole of Europe have a great culture and an amazing history. Most important thing though is that people there know how to live! In America they've forgotten all about it. I'm afraid that the American culture is a disaster."

All Johnny Depp.

I like the sugar donuts with red jelly inside.

Cheney behind turn toward dictatorship

In the winter of 1933, before Franklin Roosevelt's first inauguration on March 4, there was a clamor in the United States for a military dictatorship. The banks were closing, a quarter of Americans were unemployed, rebellion threatened on the farms.

Only drastic reforms, mandated by the president's power as commander in chief, would save the country. Something like the fascism of Mussolini's Italy, viewed benignly by many Americans in those days because it worked, or so everyone said, would save the country from communist revolution.

As Jonathan Alter reminds us in "The Defining Moment," his brilliant book about FDR's first hundred days, men as different as William Randolph Hearst, financier Bernard Baruch, commentator Lowell Thomas and establishment columnist Walter Lipmann argued for the necessity of dictatorship to reorganize the economy. Both the New Republic and the Commonweal (a Catholic liberal journal) advanced the same thesis.

The call for a military style dictatorship is the ultimate temptation to the greatest treason of a democratic society. Fortunately, FDR resisted the temptation and reformed the American economy by a mix of gradualist changes, like Social Security, and magical fireside chats. Unfortunately, years later he yielded to the temptation to a military dictatorship when he interned Japanese-Americans simply because they were Japanese. In the first case, he resisted the demands of the American people. In the second, he caved into their racist demands, just as Lincoln caved in to such demands and abolished habeas corpus during the Civil War.

More HERE

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

The power grab this time is based on the same lies and fabrications that started the illegal occupation of Iraq.

capt

An alcoholic in denial leading a nation in denial. That works, for American junkies.

Sure makes you wonder did the Bush administration come in with the idea to bankrupt the country both economically and morally? In the "Price of Loyalty" former Secretary of the Treasury Paul Oneil sure has me thinking so. Especially when he shares that he and Alan Greenspan had plans to turn a large part of the surplus from the last two administrations over to the projected Social Security shortfalls.

No instead of insuring the SS system, the BushBoys have lined their own oil pockets and killed thousands.

Did Bush "and some like to call them the elite, Bush likes to call them his base" move all of their investments to China? We know they were all ready neck deep in the middle east?

In Davids latest post the only thing I object to is putting the billions of dollars spent on the war before the thousands of lives (American and Iraqi's). It should also say "tens" of thousands of lives lost.

Colin Powell taken ill at Clinton dinner

ASPEN, Colorado (AP) -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was briefly hospitalized early Friday after he fell ill at a restaurant where he was dining with former President Clinton and others, police said.

Aspen police Sgt. Bill Linn said the four-star general told him it appeared to be a combination of altitude sickness and something he ate.

"He is conscious and in very good spirits," Linn said shortly before Powell was released from Aspen Valley Hospital at 1:45 a.m. Linn said Powell asked him to speak with reporters.

Powell's Alexandria, Virginia-based secretary, Peggy Cifrino, did not immediately return a phone call left at her office.

A nursing supervisor at the hospital, where former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay was rushed to and pronounced dead early Wednesday, refused to comment.

Powell, 69, was in Colorado for the Aspen Ideas Festival, a conference in its second year that invites some of the world's leading thinkers.

The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and chief strategist of the 1991 Persian Gulf War against Iraq served as President Bush's secretary of state from 2001 until January 2005, when he was replaced by Condoleezza Rice.

More HERE

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

Things that make me go: Hmmmmm

capt

Trust me!!! Sugar donuts are not good for the heart.

There are American workers to work if we raise the minimum wage and to attach a rider that says everytime the Nazis in Congress receive a raise the minimum wage is raised.

Bush's entire life has been one big screw up. Everywhere he goes, he leaves a big mess.

I forgot to say that employers who hire illegal immigrants are fined heavily and given stiff jail sentences.

"Things that make me go: Hmmmmm"

D O N U T S .... Hmmmmm

If leading thinkers attend the Aspen meeting, why was Colin Lapdog Powell invited? All he is is a parrot.

In response to the minimum wage not being touched by the Republican controlled Congress in over eight years.

While in Chicago my daughter and I found some great items in the dumpster before the garbage people or is the politically correct term "sanitary experts" arrived. Of course I had to ask the people what they were making an hour, and what they thought about the amount of perfectly good items that were endlessly thrown out instead of simply being taken to a second hand store. Ten dollars an hour is what they are making in Chicago for a city job, that is hard work. Ten dollars an hour. They were all older individuals. How does anyone live on 10 dollars an hour in the city of Chicago? Yet thousands do in Chicago and around our nation on far less, the minimum wage.

IT IS OVER TIME FOR A REGIME CHANGE HERE IN THE STATES...

WW III to start over a whole seven minutes

Serbia Deploys Peacekeeping Forces To U.S.

BELGRADE Serbian president Vojislav Kostunica deployed more than 30,000 peacekeeping troops to the U.S. Monday, pledging full support to the troubled North American nation as it struggles to establish democracy.

"We must do all we can to support free elections in America and allow democracy to gain a foothold there," Kostunica said. "The U.S. is a major player in the Western Hemisphere and its continued stability is vital to Serbian interests in that region."

Kostunica urged Al Gore, the U.S. opposition-party leader who is refusing to recognize the nation's Nov. 7 election results, to "let the democratic process take its course."

"Mr. Gore needs to acknowledge the will of the people and concede that he has lost this election," Kostunica said. "Until America's political figures learn to respect the institutions that have been put in place, the nation will never be a true democracy."

Serbian forces have been stationed throughout the U.S., with an emphasis on certain trouble zones. Among them are Oregon, Florida, and eastern Tennessee, where Gore set up headquarters in Bush territory. An additional 10,000 troops are expected to arrive in the capital city of Washington, D.C. by Friday.

More HERE

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

Add my name to the list of insurgents.

capt

Wow! Seven minutes! North Korea is a nuclear giant!

Nazi America has her share of idiots

Here are two more idiots!!!

# 13 Gerald. On Lou Dobbs several months ago he reported that three individuals had been fined in 2003, zero in 2004, and 2005. There had not been anyone jailed for the illegal hiring of "illegal' immigrants.

As David said on the Rehms show today "there are different rules for people" in this nation.

The Aspen Institute started out as a balanced think tank of sorts. It is in lock down in regard to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Never discussed honestly if, at all.

I have attended numerous conferences there when I lived and worked there and have continued to do so over the years

RE: Stumping for Joe Leiberman

Dear Senator Boxer,

Joe Leiberman is thoughtful man and a solid politician but he's on the wrong side of the Iraq war, permanent occupation, energy bill and social security privitization. While the DNC is a big tent, it's not big enough to embrace the entire Republican agenda. Please do not stump for or support Joe.

Thank you.

Neil

Write Sen. Boxer (HERE)

American Soldiers

2,848 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his lies.

18,500+ American soldiers have been maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his evil lies.

55,000+ of the 140,000 American soldiers are suffering from PTSD. Stress disorder has increased and the percentage is now around 40%.

Over 350,000+ Iraqis have been killed in Iraq since Bush declared shock and awe bombings on March 19, 2003.

Contamination from depleted uranium may have affected 125,000+ American soldiers and several million Iraqis.

Are you feeling more safe and secure with Bush in the WH and Cheney as his chief hatchet man overseeing Nazi America and her citizens?

Our military men and women are used as cannon fodder for a terrorist Nazi American government.

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, AND NEITHER DO WE. George W. Bush, August 5, 2005

Rigged elections doom American democracy. American soldiers are being killed and maimed TO PROMOTE A NAZI AMERICAN STATE.

Henry Kissinger says that military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.

Nazi America is a mirror image of Hitler Bush.

Nazi Americans continually justify sin.

Nazi Americans are accomplices with Bush for his murders and war crimes.

#21 kathleen, yes, there are different rules and justice for different people in our nation. People with the gold make the rules.

Welcome To T.G.I. Fridays! May I Annoy The Living Shit Out Of You?

Hi, welcome to T.G.I. Fridays! May I annoy the living shit out of you? My name is Jenni, and I'll be your incredibly irritating server tonight! So, how are you folks doing this evening? Great!

Thanks sooo much for waiting! It has just been completely insane around here! So if I seem a little brain-dead, please bear with me!

Can I start anybody off with one of our overpriced, stupidly named drinks? We've got a new Totally Tropical Pina Colada Smoothie that's totally amazing. No? Just waters all around? Not feeling very adventurous tonight, are we? Hey, no prob! I'll be back with your aguas in just two shakes!

I am sooo sorry that took so long! Like I said, it's just been nuts. So, can I start you folks off with some greasy, disgusting appetizers? I highly recommend the Mexicali Rose Tequila-Fried Buffalo Wings. My personal fave, though, is the Five-Alarm Chili-Pepper Quesadillas with a side of Sesame-Seed-Grilled Tostadas and Margarita-Flavored Monterey Jack Dip. No? Just entrees? Wow, you folks don't mess around, do ya?

More HERE

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

I read this and laughed out loud thinking of Pande's S.H.I.T! lolololol

Thanks for the funnies Pande! As always.

capt

Up until recently Ohio and I believe it was Kansas had passed legislation in the past ( I think Kansas can still pay less than minimum) that trumped federal minimum wage laws. They could pay less than the federal minimum based on what a company profitted.

This was based on the constantly used mantra of we need to protect small business. What I could never understand about this law, was if you can slide the scale one way, why not the other. Why not pass federal laws that corporations or business profitting over a determined amount were required to pay a living wage. You know places like McDonalds, DUNKIN DONUTS, Wal Mart etc..places that make millions I mean Billions.

Oh how could I be so rational. \

In Cold Blood: The Glory of Spreading American Democracy

We (in NM) have a "living wage" in Santa Fe. Only applies to businesses with 25 or more employees.

It seems to be working. Santa Fe is a costly/pricey area to begin with so it was easier to implement there than here in Albuquerque.

There are some very viable solutions. Just resistance to paying more by employers that think it will come out of their bottom line.

capt

The glory of spreading our American democracy!

"15 Afghan civilians killed in US strike"

By our correspondent

PESHAWAR: US-led coalition forces killed Afghan civilians in an air strike on a village in the Kajaki district of the Helmand province on Wednesday. Members of the affected families and witnesses told the private Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) that 15 civilians, including women and children, perished in the bombing by coalition aircraft. Earlier, the coalition forces had claimed that 35 Taliban fighters were killed in the air strike on a "known Taliban compound" in Helmand during the night of July 5-6. It had ruled out the possibility of civilians getting killed in the raid. However, villagers in the area said at least 11 and up to 15 civilians were killed when coalition planes bombed two homes in the Ghech Zar village in the Kajaki district. Village elder Haji Habibullah told AIP that Imam Abdul Hakim, his 50-year-old brother, Abdul Karim, six children and four women died in the bombing. According to Haji Habibullah, five members of the family of Abdul Ali, nephew of clergyman Abdul Hakim, were killed in the bombing of the second home in the village.

This is only the beginning that we face for Hitler Bush's lies

#27 Gerald..the word from some returning soldiers is that there are many more horrendous crimes taking place than the American press has access to.

These are moments that I begin to believe in the death penalty.

Fifteen things to remember about Ken Lay and Enron

#31 kathleen, the reports we receive may only be the tip of the iceberg.

Conduct Unbecoming

81 prior thread, jeanne, re: mexican election:
The election is still being disputed and there is expected to be a mass rally. There is change a comin. People are no longer tolarant. They are no longer putting up with the lies and all the damage of the insidious neocon movement brings to a nation.
---
mexican people may no longer be tolerant but it would seem that here in america the sheople couldn't care less...baaa!

What is there not to love about Cindy Sheehan? Go girl right to our hearts!!!

Actually, if you raised the minimum wage that would only serve to make illegal labor more attractive. And, since neither the Democrats nor the GOP really want to reduce the numbers of illegal aliens, that would have a disastrous effect on legal workers: they'd be trying to offer their labor at the legal price, while illegal aliens would be offering less. They'd either be unemployed or be forced to lower their prices below the legal rate. See where supporting illegal immigration gets you? As for the donut shop, if we started enforcing our immigration laws they'd be naturally forced to raise the salaries they're offering. Or, someone would invent an even more advanced donut making machine. To learn what's really going on in this issue, see my Illegal immigration introduction.

Bush Says Lay Was 'A Good Guy'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Thursday he hopes Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay's "heart was right with the Lord" when he died before he could be sentenced on fraud and conspiracy charges.

Bush called Lay, who was a friend of the Bush family and a large donor to the president's campaign, "a good guy." He said he was shocked to hear both about the Enron scandal and Lay's death this week from a heart attack at age 64.

"I was really surprised," Bush said on CNN's "Larry King Live." "You know, my hope is that his heart was right with the Lord and I feel real sorry for his wife. She's had a rough go and she's now here on earth to bear the burdens of losing her husband, a man she loved."

The president said he planned to write Linda Lay a letter expressing his condolences.

Lay faced life in prison after his convictions May 25 that ended a blockbuster trial stemming from one of the biggest business debacles in U.S. history.

Bush had nicknamed Lay "Kenny Boy" but pointed out they weren't always allied. He said Lay supported his opponent in his first Texas gubernatorial race, Democrat Ann Richards. When host King pointed out that Richards had told him earlier that she liked Lay, Bush responded, "Yes, he's a good guy."

"One of the things I respected him for was he was such a contributor to Houston's civil society," Bush said. "He was a generous person. I'm disappointed that he betrayed the trust of shareholders."

First lady Laura Bush, who joined her husband for the interview on his 60th birthday, said she didn't know Lay well. But she said she was acquainted with him and knew his wife and was sorry for her.

More HERE

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

Any question the elections are all "set"? No handler would let dick-tater big-mouth say anything about his "friend" (convicted and facing life in prison) not in a million years. The "FIX" is in.

A "good guy" compared to whom? The other felons that are still fleecing the public coffers?

capt

Go Girl Right to MY Heart

#38, Don't make me puke! Hitler Bush calls Lay a good guy. I know, I know, he looked into the eyes of Ken Lay an he saw the soul of a good guy. Here comes an upchuck! That was an unbelievable torrent of noxious fluids fom my stomach.

She should care

Good article, Mr. Korn!

Put a knife in the Democrats, they are done as a viable party in America!

Bush Has a New Top Career Patron

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2004 A small number of donations by employees of the credit card giant MBNA Corp. last month was enough to unseat Enron as President George W. Bush's top career donor.

The Delaware-based company has given Bush $605,041 over his career, while Enron ($602,625) slipped to second, according to a recent supplement to "The Buying of the President 2004," a book by the Center for Public Integrity detailing the financial interests behind each presidential candidate.

The Center's study found that investment companies continue to make staggering donations to Bush, driven by so-called bundlers. Nine of Bush's largest ten donors during October 2003 through January 2004 were financial services companies. All of Bush's ten largest donors from October through January are linked to bundlers who have pledged to donate $100,000 to $250,000 as part of the president's Pioneer and Ranger Programs.

More HERE

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

Enron - second by less than $2,500?

Yeah, barely knew him?

capt

Dude! he he, maybe those Iranians can't find anyone to work for them cuz there friggin Iranians. What a dumbass!he he

6). Mr. Lay met with Cheney to ask him to block the FERC from capping California's energy prices during the Enron-manufactured energy "crisis"

The electricty market manipulation perpetrated by ENRON cost CA customers MILLIONS of dollars. FERC exists to protect citizens from run-away rates when the markets are out of whack. Bush instructed his FERC chairman to not act. The intentional and illegal fleecing of california electricity customers was perpetrated by Lay and ENRON and supported by G W Bush. "He's a good guy." Right.

Signature - "There" versus "They're"?

Still tragic.

capt

Rovian Strategy

Fairy Tales for Nazi America!!!

Signature - Bunghole, still a bunghole!

Hand!

Rovian Strategy is a must read article!!!

Cuz there to friggin stupid. he he, dumbass

Biden's quip on Indian accents drawing scrutiny

WASHINGTON They say the main thing standing between Joe Biden and the White House is Joe Biden's mouth.

The would-be presidential candidate proved it again on a recent trip to New Hampshire, where C-Span cameras caught him telling an Indian-American activist that Indian-Americans are the fastest-growing immigrant group in Delaware.

In fact, Biden said, "You cannot go into a Dunkin Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent."

More HERE

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

Did Biden also throw in his support for Loserman?

THAT is what is wrong with the Democratic party - they no longer stand for progressive views, not in general. They do not seem to even try to be GOP-lite - why bother with any pretense.

capt

Chickenshit Bush talks about being a man. Here comes another upchuck. It was so long that it turned into the dry heaves. Dry heaves are terrible.

Too bad that Biden just had a good quote:

From ESCHATON

Biden on Blitzer:

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The worst possible thing we could do is what the Democrats are suggesting, and no matter how you carve it, you can call it anything you want, but basically, it is packing it in, going home, persuading and convincing and validating the theory that the Americans don't have the stomach for this fight.

BLITZER: All right. You want to respond to the vice president, Senator Biden?

BIDEN: No, I don't want to respond to him. He's at 20 percent in the polls. No one listens to him. He has no credibility. It's ridiculous.

That's a good response from Biden, and it's the same response Democrats should be making not just for anything that comes out of Dick Cheney's mouth but anything which comes out of George Bush's mouth. Dems seem to generally lack the understanding of how effective general dismissive disdain and contempt can be. Bush has been in the 30s for about 4 months now. No one except the people who write The Note listen to him or think he has any credibility. He is, indeed, ridiculous.

And, contra Joe Lieberman, undermining the credibility of the president is the best hope we have for improving the situation in Iraq and everywhere else in the world.

-Atrios 2:04 PM

capt

Jus' Stuff -- From the wife who loved her corrupt husband, Ken Lay

This is the lovey-dovey wife who opened a 2nd hand shop as a PR stunt to try to rev up some sympathy for the bastard and his family.

Why are Americans so gullible?

I don't know Lt. Ehren Wataba, but I know his mother and spoke at length with her back in May in Hawaii about how Ehren morally did not want to go to Iraq and how he was being harassed by other members of his unit for his beliefs that the war in Iraq was wrong and that he didn't want to kill innocent people for BushCo.

Ehren tried everything he could within regulations and legal means to be excused from going over to the war crime in Iraq and becoming a war criminal himself, but nothing worked, so he refused to be deployed with his unit.

Today he was charged with missing movement, contempt towards officials, and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman! Are they kidding me? Are they kidding the world and hiding behind an ancient code while they are pretending that anything about Iraq or our government is "gentlemanly?"

How about looking at the Commander in Chief of our armed forces, George Bush, for one? George Bush is a dry drunk who runs our country like he ran all of his failed businesses---with an attitude that if he screws up, his daddy, or his daddy's friends, will bail him out. He has already said that the problem of Iraq will be solved by "future presidents" which absolves and excuses him from cleaning up the murderous mess that he has made.

Cindy Sheehan @ Common Dreams

The top ten power brokers of the religious right

butt head self-identifies as a butt head; call's Gerald bunghole.

You've been warned about name-calling butt head.

Hand! yourself.

"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half." ~ Gore Vidal (1925 - )

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." ~ H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Why Conservatives Can't Govern

Mr Corn believes that if someone isn't willing to work for min wage then not working at all is somehow better? Good argument!

His solution is to force the Iranians to pay more and then the doors will be flooded with workers. David is insinuating that these Iraian brothers are too stupid to offer a higher wage on there own to fill the positions needed so the government must make them do it. Another good argument!

Who needs a free market when you've got big brother.

#55 Gerald,

Thanks for this list. It's amazing how much money they have been able to build up. I've known for sometime that the agenda is to Christianize America. It's disgusting. We can't all be like them.

George Bush is as freaking, friggen, fckn clueless as his father who bought 2 pairs of black socks to stimulate the economy.

I'm an Independant but I can see that this blog is going into the toilet! Comeon, can't we have a more civilized debate here based on the postings by Mr. Corn and PLUS post more news-worthy postings ourselves, NOT postings from the Onion and other B-grade news sites.

Lets SHAPE UP this discussion, provide newsworthy articles from MSNBC, FOX, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, and then base our arguments based on articles from major news sites.

Let's stop eating those red jelly donuts including Happy! Time to stop getting ourselves fat with B-grade discussions that are worthy of being flushed into the toilet or at least being scrolled by.

Rob

One more donut and then its off to the WSJ web site.

#56 . (dot), when people post on a website, they are open for a name call. It goes with the territory. If people call me a name, please say it with love. There are times when my wife calls me an old fart but she says it with love.

butt head self-identifies as a butt head; call's Gerald bunghole.

., Dude, I was calling you a bunghole, you bunghole!

Bernanke voices US deficit fears

US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke warns the increasing US budget deficit could put future living standards at risk.
story HERE

#60 Joe, who would want to be like the religious right? They are into hatred, murders, torture, war crimes, corruption, decadence, greed, and lies.

That's Mister . to you, Mr. B Head. Have a nice day.

Bernanke voices US deficit fears

Duh!!!

., dude, you must be really smart.

Mister dude!

he he

#60,

And this is with a conservative Congress. I've already felt my lifestyle going downhill. Things cost more than ever and wages are not increasing.

#67

I don't want to be anything like the religious right. They are nothing but pure scum in my book. Their agenda is to turn back the clock on everything. Things weren't better in the old days. Things are much better today with a more relaxed culture. I don't care what these rightists think.

Joe lies, when he cries

George Bush is as freaking, friggen, fckn clueless as his father who bought 2 pairs of black socks to stimulate the economy.

Ya, rightous! Jeanne, dudett, you've got such a trash mouth! That really excites Beavis to a shwing!

Lieberman will probably lose this election.

US foils 'New York tunnel plot'

Plotters are said to have talked of flooding New York's financial district. US authorities say they have disrupted the early stages of a plot to attack New York City's mass transit system.

The alleged plot was discovered during routine monitoring of internet chatrooms used by extremist groups.

One man has been arrested in Lebanon over the plot, but the FBI said it had no indication of imminent threats to New York's transport system.

A report in the city's Daily News tabloid said plotters discussed targets including the Holland Tunnel.

Intelligence was on top of its game and discovered the plot when it was just in the talking phase

But the FBI has not elaborated on the details, saying in a statement that it had "disrupted a terrorist network that was in the planning stages of an attack against the transportation system in the New York-New Jersey area".

Read MORE

Joe Lieberman is a guy who has really become comfortable with lying to his constituents. It's really true: Joe lies, and he especially lies when he cries like he did tonight about being challenged in a democratic election.

Veteran denies Iraq rape charges

A former US soldier has pleaded not guilty to raping and murdering an Iraqi woman and killing three family members.

Steven Green, 21, is accused of carrying out the rape and murders in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, in March, along with other soldiers.

Mr Green faces a possible death sentence if convicted of the killings.

The US ambassador to Iraq and the commander of US forces in the country have promised a vigorous investigation into the alleged rape and murder.

Read More

#71 Joe, I know that you have no intention of being like the religious right.

Joe cries?

Dude, is Joe a soccer player, cuz I thought just soccer palyers cried. he he. Soccers such a girly sport. he he

#3 Micki

Johnny Depp is no Republican. Rest assured.

Right on to your short outburst and to David Corn's post. Both are well written. Bush does physically sicken one, doesn't he, as I said earlier in the last thread.

Regarding David Corn's post, Richard Haas also mentioned, on Hardball last night, the fact that Bushco has done absolutely nothing on global warming. Zilch. He's leaving that legacy to the next President too. In two years, the problem will only be worse, much worse, at the rate the greenhouse gases are piling up.

I posted this in the last thread, but consider it important enough to post again.

Study Links Extended Wildfire Seasons to Global Warming

The number and size of large forest fires in the West have grown "suddenly and dramatically" a study released Thursday says.

The scientific paper, posted online by the journal Science says wildfire season in Western states has grown up to 2 1/2 months longer since 1987 because of warmer spring temperatures and earlier, faster melting of mountain snow. The timing of the annual snowmelt, a key source of the West's water, also helps gauge the severity of the wildfire season.

I proudly point out that this study was co-conducted by my Alma Mater, the University of California at San Diego.

On David Corn's postulation that the guest-worker program so proudly trotted out by Bush can have the effect of keeping the minimum wage down, I fully agree. I brought that notion up before on the blog. When Bush proposes something, one always has to look at the economic benefits for the top of the wealth chain. He touts the guest-worker program by saying that, naturally, we can't return 12 million illegal immigrants to their home country. Which, of course, is true. But whoever said that a deeply right-wing House would ever see the light of reason? Obviously, the Senate's version of the immigration bill is better, but it's not nearly enough. This has to be an extrememly well-thought out legislation for an incredibly complex problem. Good luck, what with the current state of Washington politics.

#78 Gerald,

I suppose it isn't fair because I wouldn't know how to become one of them. It angers me that the religious right has so much pull in our government today. I suppose when you consider that there are 10 powerful arms of the religious right they are a big constituency.

Go-ahead for hacker's extradition

A US request to extradite a British computer hacker accused of the "biggest military hack of all time" has been granted by Home Secretary John Reid.

Gary McKinnon, who is accused of breaking into US government computer networks, has been fighting extradition since his arrest in November 2002.

Mr McKinnon was first arrested in 2002 by the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit for hacking into a series of computer networks used by the US army, navy, air force, and Department of Defense.

The US, in its case for extradition, said Mr McKinnon caused more than $700,000 (?375,235) of damage while exploring the computer networks at various US military institutions.

It said one attack at the Earle Naval Weapons Station took place soon after 11 September 2001 and made it impossible to use critical systems.

The US Department of Justice said it took a month to get systems working in the aftermath of this attack.

Mr McKinnon, who was born in Glasgow, has admitted that he spent almost two years exploring these networks but has said he was motivated by a search for what he called "suppressed technology".

Energy costs hit big US retailers

US retail sales for June were mixed, amid signs that high gasoline prices had curbed shopping by consumers.

The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, saw disappointing results, but some mid-priced chains, including clothes firm Ann Taylor, saw strong increases.

Overall sales rose less than expected, with 2.8% growth in like-for-like sales that strip out newly-opened stores.

Analysts are worried that higher energy prices, combined with rising interest rates, could dent economic growth.

"It's a mixed bag, but it is definitely slower," said analyst Jharonne Martis of Thomson Financial.

June is deemed the most important month

more here

June and Christmas are the retailers money times. Things have definitely slowed down. My own employer is giving me less hours due to budget constraints. Maybe, I'm about to be let go - not sure. I believe that our lifestyles are set to go downward in the near future. Hopefully, the trend won't last forever.

#4 Kathleen

How ya doing? I do think when the word truly gets out about the depth of the global warming crisis and what could actually happen to each and every one of us within a matter of ten years, people will come around. This is no Osama bin Laden threat. This is our planet and our children's and grandchildren's future. This whole shibang is going to blow up within my child's lifetime (he's ll years old). When he saw the movie, he told me to run for Congress. He's out there now beating the streets, telling everyone he meets what they each can do to cut the emmissions.

Once they realize just how big and how close the threat is, they'll have no choice. Either way, they'll have no choice. Nature is going to do that for them.

#7 Capt

Yes, that's the Johnny Depp I've heard and read in interviews.

No wonder Joe and George are joined at the hips! They are both liars.

Lieberman claims these deals have helped Connecticut - but to even make such a dishonest claim is to once again expose himself as totally out of touch with Connecticut, and totally focused on making Washington corporate lobbyists happy. Clearly, he hasn't taken a quick drive up the Connecticut River Valley or up the Connecticut coast through towns like New Haven, Bridgeport and New Britain. Because if he had, all he'd have to do is look out the window to see that the trade pacts he's been jamming down his state's throat have destroyed his state's economy. If he was too lazy to come back home to see the consequences of his selling out firsthand, he could alternative just go pick up a copy of The Disposable American by New York Times writer Louis Uchitelle and read the first chapter - it's all about Connecticut and how Lieberman-backed policies have crushed workers there.

More jelly donuts. . .

24 leads Emmy drama nominations
Thriller 24 and medical drama Grey's Anatomy are among the top candidates on this year's Primetime Emmy shortlist.

#81 Joe, the problem is that the religious right are not very religious. Deeds are more important than lip service.

Airbus orders fall behind Boeing
European aircraft maker Airbus falls behind arch US rival Boeing in the number of new orders for planes.

It's like the old saying: Don't judge by what he says but by what he does.

Not to completely change the subject but go into buzzflash.com today and read about the villification of the New York Times. It is very interesting about the 4th estate and how it is being undermined today.

The Treason Card
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
Published: July 7, 2006

The nature of the right-wing attack on The New York Times —†an attack not on the newspaper's judgment, but on its motives —†seems to have startled many people in the news media. After an editorial in The Wall Street Journal declared that The Times has what amount to treasonous intentions —†that it "has as a major goal not winning the war on terror but obstructing it" —†The Journal's own political editor pronounced himself "shocked," saying that "I don't know anybody on the news staff of The Wall Street Journal that believes that."

But anyone who was genuinely shocked by The Journal's willingness to play the treason card must not have been paying attention these past five years.

Read more HERE

How does one explain the Wall Street Journal?

To micki, Jeanne, and Cornposters, this is the first of my two letters that the Catholic News Service printed in their newspaper.

Dear Editor: The Catholic News Service had an article by John Thavis, "Vatican weighs in on U.S. strategy," May 19, 2006. It was a very good article to read. I only wish that this article would be printed in all the Church bulletins for Catholics to read. The Catholic News Service does reach many people but the church bulletins are more widely read by Catholics. The subheading of the article said, 'Opposes cuts to Palestinian authority, says intervention in Iran could be disaster.' Instead of the word could I would have used the word, "would." The reason that I say "would" is because Mr. Bush has repeatedly said that a nuclear war option is on the table against Iran. I believe that nuclear bombs dropped in Iran "would" kill people and not could kill people. Sincerely, Gerald

Are the Catholics returning to their former anti-war stance?

You are absolutely right - a nuclear bomb would kill the earth as well as the people. I sure hope that it is not on the table. There has to be a better way than attacking them militarily.

micki, Jeanne, and Cornposters, here is the second letter printed in the Catholic News Service newspaper.

Dear Editor: The Catholic News Service has a very appropriate article in the June 16, 2006 edition. The title is "Crisis for 46 million" by Nancy Frazier O’Çrien. Anthony R. Tersigni called the health care situation "a national disgrace" and asked, "Where is the outrage?" Outrage is an appropriate word for the health care problems in our country. What is in a number? We have 46 million uninsured Americans. What about the millions of Americans who are underinsured or the millions of Americans who are one catastrophic health care problem away from total financial ruin?

By 2010 we will have spent $2 trillion in Iraq on a war Secretary of State Rice says that both Afghanistan and Iraq may never have democracies. Why have so many human beings been killed and maimed in Afghanistan and Iraq? This $2 trillion dollars would have been better spent on health care and social programs in the United States of America and on other countries in the world. Is oil more of a priority than human life? Is the United States of America a truly pro-life country? What are the Americans true priorities? Are Jesus Christ and His words priorities in our life and in our nation? Or, do we only give Jesus Christ lip service so we can only leave the impression of being Christians and caring human beings? Sincerely, Gerald

#25 Capt

God. How many times has that happened to you? That's why I don't patronize those places anymore. It's just as well, too hard on the meager budget.

#37 TLB

That's where unions come in. And worker rights. It's all attainable if we elect the right people and stop the rollback. I've always argued the need to return to old-fashioned New Deal economics and politics.

Everyone!

Two threads back, I think at #265, Jeanne posted a link of an interview with Seymour Hersh. Here's the article he's just published this week in The New Yorker. As you all know, it's a must read. It is a follow-up to his first, most decidedly scary article on Bush's Iran intentions.

LAST STAND: The Military's Problem With the President's Iran Policy

...The U.S. Strategic Command, supported by the Air Force, has been drawing up plans, at the President's direction for a major bombing campaign in Iran.

Inside the Pentagon, senior commanders have increasingly challenged the President's plans, according to active-duty and retired officers and officials. The generals and admirals have told the Administration that the bombing campaign will probably not succeed in destroying Iran's nuclear program. They have also warned that an attack, could lead to serious economic, political and military consequences for the U.S.

Oh really? You mean oil? There are dire speculations that America could go dark if Iran responded by going at the soft targets all around the Persian Gulf, like Bahrain, Kuwait etc.

Furthermore, there is absolutely no intelligence on where any of the nuclear facilities the U.S. has alleged are in Iran except for those already known legitimately through the proper channels.

Military people call it "the son of Iraq."

I am being besieged to get off the computer. My older boys are both home today and they want the phone, so does my husband. (Their cells haven't been paid up. I don't even own one because of the cost. Can you spell resentment?) I am woefully behind here, and may not catch up--heavy schedule this weekend. Will certainly try. Adios.

#93
Way to go, Gerald!

#95
Gerald,
How long have you been sending letters to this publication? What has changed? Why are they now suddenly publishing your letters?

Bush or Keller?

Who do you trust?

When governments acquire emergency powers during wartime, it's with the understanding that the crisis is finite and that when the war ends the government will relinquish those powers. But what happens when a government defines its war as neverending, as the Bush administration has its so-called "war on terror"? As long as any jihadist anywhere threatens the West, the administration would have us believe, we must trust it and remain in a wartime crouch.

The current conflict will soon conclude its fifth year, making it longer than the war against Japan. Most of the temporary powers in the PATRIOT Act that had been scheduled for "sunset" were extended, and the administration has conjured secret powers not directly spelled out by legislation. The New York Times revealed one such example of administration overreach last December when it reported the secret NSA surveillance program. Two weeks ago the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times reported over administration objections the secret sifting of SWIFT bank transaction data by the CIA and Treasury Department, which the White House justifies under 1977 economic sanctions legislation.

In reporting the SWIFT story, both papers rejected the White House assertion that disclosure was improper. The president and the vice president condemned both papers, and an exploding carbuncle masquerading as a member of Congress called upon the attorney general to investigate the New York Times under the Espionage Act, the Comint Act, and "other relevant federal criminal statutes."

More HERE

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

Sure, the hypocrites get their underoo's in a wad over a story reported for years. The outing of an undercover NOC CIA officer is defended as a way to balance bad press? These slugs could not be more obvious. Tony Soprano would be a better more effect and honest chief executive.

I still think it is just more kabuki theater with the "old gray lady" playing her part as scripted. Mr. Corn did point out the fact that the NYT's could actually be a challenge to this WH.

capt

"If work at fast-food shops paid more, there would be more fast-food workers. Isn't that how the market works?"

Was this meant as a joke or is Corn serious (and thus economically ignorant) about this quote? Umm, if he is serious, it is more than a little scary. Mr. Corn, you are correct that as a general proposition, increasing the wage of a job will increase its demand in the labor market, but raising the minimum wage actually has the exact opposite effect. If we raise the min. wage to 9 dollars an hour, the current jobs that pay 9 dollars an hour loss significantly, drastically, incredibly their competitive place in the labor market. If you want more donut jobs, don't increase the wage to that of a car mechanics, it will only only get rid of the job entirely. Rather, lower the minimum and increase the options for the employer to be competitive.

With all due respect, how much do they pay you talk on all these little shows about policy?....

Here's an interesting segment on Democracy Now.

Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism

In her book, "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism," author Michelle Goldberg examines how gay marriage has become "the mobilizing passion for much of the religious right." The book also charts how Christian fundamentalism is supported by Republican patronage and how under the Bush administration, it is increasingly shaping many aspects of public policy.

...MICHELLE GOLDBERG: Well, actually, I think that there is -- there's two different aspects to this. In a certain way, there might be a tiny silver lining to what happened in New York, in that the Massachusetts decision and all of these decisions legalizing gay marriage or in support of gay marriage have been this kind of fantastic recruiting tool for the right, because the right -- the movement that I’≠ talking about, the Christian nationalists, they -- it's not just that they're opposed to homosexuality. They offer this narrative of a giant homosexual conspiracy. They call it the homosexual agenda, and they write these books about this kind of massive plot to undermine the nation. And it's very, very dark and frightening, but it's also very, very effective.

When I was in Ohio in 2004, you could see these marriage issues, these ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments, allowed the churches to move huge parts of a kind of electoral apparatus inside their walls, because although churches can’¥, or under IRS rules they're not supposed to, endorse political candidates, they can take a stand on supposedly nonpartisan issues. And so, these gay marriage fights, when they get into the ballot process, into the constitutional amendment process, you're able to have the churches move the petition drives inside, move the phone banking inside, move the get-out-the-vote drives inside. And it was very, very effective for the right.

It's a huge loss to them when gay rights victories are established through the legislature. And so, if there's a silver lining in the New York decision, it's that it could prove -- it could kind of spur activists and spur politicians to move this forward in the legislature in a way that doesn't lend itself to kind of demagogic posturing about activist judges.

....MICHELLE GOLDBERG: Yeah, I mean, if you look at all of the polls about religion in America, the two sections that are kind of increasing the most are people who claim no religion and evangelical or nondenominational Protestants.

And so, one of the things that I encountered in my book, especially, you know, when I traveled all around the country reporting this, is that in certain senses what we have is not even two different attitudes towards politics or policy. You have really two different realities. You know, and so there's broad parts of the country where the conviction that there truly is a homosexual conspiracy and that it, you know, has its tentacles in schools and corporate America and government is -- you know, it's taken completely for granted. It's almost -- you know, it's kind of just part of the general political atmosphere.

And you see it reinforced in these churches.
------------------
Peaple actually believe the BS. They actually believe the con. George Bush walks into their group and tells them we need to be in Iraq and the economy is crap because.....homosexuals are dangerous people. In the meantime their sons and daughters are sent to war because they can't find jobs here in the U.S of A.

Did someone say jelly donuts? mmmmm!

#100
Guy,
You live on minimum wage. This country is supposed to be about OPPORTUNITY, not just for you but for everyone who lives here. That opportunity is not supposed to come IF you work three jobs and have five people working in your household. You are not supposed to have to pray every night for a sliver of hope.
You live on minimum wage with no insurance.
I don't think David was joking.

I've been asking the NYT's for a cost of living wage increase since Clinton was president. Now those were some good times!

What is a more interesting fact about David's post is where our 'leader' chose to make his stop. Alexandria, Virginia is, if I'm not mistaken full of money. Who in that area is going to work for minimum wage and who is going to bus from Washington D.C. or area to Alexandria, Virginia to work for minimum wage in a donut shop?

Ms Jeanne,

Damn, I thought we had it bad. I'm confused though, how can you afford a computer and the internet if your so poor?

Neo-Nazi National Alliance leader indicted in civil rights conspiracy

June 9, 2006 -- A federal grand jury has indicted the top leader of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, once the most feared hate group in America, and charged him and two subordinates with conspiring to deprive non-white people in Salt Lake City of their civil rights, the U.S. Department of Justice announced today.

Alliance Chairman Shaun A. Walker, 38, was arrested at the West Virginia headquarters of the group on Thursday. On the same day, Travis D. Massey, 29, the Alliance's Salt Lake City unit coordinator, and Eric G. Egbert, 21, of Salt Lake City were arrested in Utah. Each man is charged with one count of conspiracy to interfere with civil rights and one count of interference with a federally protected activity.

"These arrests may mark the final stage in what has been a long decline in the National Alliance," said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which has monitored the Alliance since the 1980s. "What was once the most important hate group in America may soon be just a memory."

Prosecutors allege that the three engaged in a conspiracy between December 2002 and March 2003 to provoke fights with non-white persons "in order to make them afraid to appear in public, work and live" in Salt Lake City, prosecutors said. If the men are convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison apiece.

More HERE

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

This is where hate can take you. Start with some simple hate-speech - graduate to hate crimes - join the AB in prison.

"Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster. Your life will never be the same again." ~ Og Mandino, The Greatest Miracle in the World

"I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love." ~ Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997)

capt

#106
Did I say me, LHB?

I think the NYT's hasn't given me a raise since Clinton was pres is because their trying to make Bush look bad.

I know this because I got a .25 raise every four years when Clinton was pres. Man those were some good years.

Or, maybe, the times is just waiting for the government to tell them to be more responsible.

Nah! It's Bush!

Back to the night shift for me.

One question: Why is sharing information among ourselves not enough? You just HAVE to post to these jerks?

WHY?

Do you really expect a discussion?

You are posting to the same creepy creep:

Case in point:

"if your so poor"

"If YOU'RE so poor?

Not that the personal nature of the insult should give you a clue? Do not even try to tell me EVERY troll cannot form a contraction? That is - what - third grade English?

Ciao for now. More fun in the small hours of the morning. The children are safe in their beds.

capt

This also from Democracy Now headlines.

Pentagon Allowing Neo-Nazis, Extremists in Armed Forces
In military news, the Southern Poverty Law Center is warning the Pentagon's recruiting difficulties have allowed "large numbers of violent neo-Nazis and skinheads extremists" to join the armed forces. The Center says the numbers could reach into the thousands. Pentagon investigator Scott Barfield said graffiti advocating the Aryan Nations has appeared in Baghdad. He said commanders are not taking action even after being notified of the presence of extremists or gang members amidst their ranks. Barfield added: "They don't want to make a big deal again about neo-Nazis in the military because then parents who are already worried about their kids signing up and dying in Iraq are going to be even more reluctant about their kids enlisting if they feel they'll be exposed to gangs and white supremacists."
-------------
Wow, this is going to great things for our reputation abroad.

Hey, I would also like some of that free health care like Ms jeanne. How does that work exactly?

89
Airbus orders fall behind Boeing
---
that's what happens when boeing makes an aluminum plane with a composite plastic nosecone that can punch and slice thru hardened steel columns and steel reinforced concrete as if they weren't even there. i'd like to see an airbus try to do that!

"If your such a bunghole"

"If you're such a bunghole"

"If you are such a bunghole"

Dude, take your-you're-you are- pick!

Once a bunghole, always a bunghole!

hand!

You are right, Jeanne. Alexandria, VA is an affluent city/town. You can bet that the employees of that Dunkin Donuts do not live in the community.

Ms jeanne,

Are you saying that you just made up bullshit and this touching story wasn't from your own personal experience?

Enough BUNGHOLE conversation for me too. See you guys later.

Lots of talk no action. People in america are just too damn comfortable and need to get a little reality in their confused rushed life. If you think that sending your kids to a private school because the public schools have been starved of much needed funds then get ready for a change in lifestyles. In the immediate future you are all going to have a wake up call, not an easy one, but hey you will get through it, remember what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, huh? Hope that the majority of folks understand the term derivative and hedge fund. Those are your killers, and it will take away any confidence you have in our so called economy and the american way of life, that actually just perpetuates the oligarchs in charge. You have to break a few eggs to make an omelete. Of course if you and your family are on the wrong end of this stick then pay no attention to anything I just said, and remember to enjoy the new lifestyle. Maybe you can get a good paying job in Mexico, cleaning some mexican houses for a good wage that isn't provided in the US anymore. Ha.

Maybe you can get a good paying job in Mexico, cleaning some mexican houses for a good wage that isn't provided in the US anymore. Ha.

By Mr What the F**k

Now that conservatives have taken over the country this might just be possible.

Jeanne - My comment (#100) was directed towards Mr. Corn's economic assertion that an increase in minimum wage will increase the number of people willing to work for minimum wage. I said nothing about poor people, slivers of hope, insurance, 3 jobs, exc.. My position is empirically supported by a number of economic studies conducted after the two minimum wage increases in the 90's. I wasn't so much trying to prove an increase in min. wage is bad (although I think it is, particularly for poor people), but rather that Mr. Corn should be more careful in his economic statements when advocating certain positions. To be quite honest, though, your retort is fairly typical of the hyper-emotionalism (with the more than faintest wisp of envy & anger) of min. wage increase supporters.

Zarqawi death has 'little impact'
In Middle East

US envoy to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad admits the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has not reduced the violence.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5149806.stm

I only wish every American, and certainly every elected official, had access to what we just heard today from Gen. McCaffrey. He is just back from Guantanamo, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. While it is impossible and unfair to summarize his remarks (a marginally-cleansed version of the brief he has delivered to the president and secretary of state and others), and while I don't speak for the general, he painted Baghdad as a place more dangerous than any on earth. More dangerous than Saigon ever was. To paraphrase: An American, driving through Baghdad for a 24-hour period without security, would have no expectation of living through the experience. While he is confident as to our domestic safety (with the possible exception of an overdue spectacular attack or cluster of them), he paints a picture of entire societies "on the bubble" in the places where America has troops committed. He is as patriotic a man as I have ever known (upon retirement he was the most heavily-decorated four-star general in the Army). He is a hugely astute analyst of geo-politics, and a clear-eyed realist. He is the most vocal booster of the American volunteer fighting force that I know. He gestures often with the reconstructed hand of a badly-wounded combat veteran, and teaches at his alma mater, West Point, where his military maneuver (the famous "left hook" across Iraq) is taught by other professors in adjacent classrooms. He thus speaks with great credibility and honesty, and we are so fortunate to have him as a member of our family. I told one of our newsroom summer interns afterward that being able to sit in on today's briefing with Gen. McCaffrey might be the most valuable hour of his entire summer.

Nightly News' Brian Williams on Gen McCaffrey latest assessment

LBH,

I agree Zarqawi's death has "little impact" on Middle East, Waht the article should have said was:

Zarqawi's death has "huge impact" on progressives in the US.

You see this was a defeat to progressives not the terrorists. We have no one to root for in the defeat of the American military and the Bush administration. Now all we have is blaming our troops at large of being murders and rapist. Having Zarqawi was like the Clinton years for us progressives. Damn!

.

Thank you Joshua. Now, why don't you link those studies you speak of.

See, the difference between you and me is...I have lived through the fear of losing everything and you...I suspect, have never had a hard day in your life. It's probably exhilarating to figure out how not to give people a living wage. I prefer to just give them one. Hyper-emotionalism...it's called passion. I could describe what I think you are but that wouldn't get us very far would it?

Joshua, there was a time that I feared for my children's future. Do not...do not...call it hyper emotionalism. It is far more than that.

Bush does not have a clue. Not a clue. He and his group of fanatics are destroying this nation. I think it would be better to work to make our country stronger than going into an illegal war. Wouldn't it be better to find a solution to our oil dependence? Or perhaps find a solution to the health care crisis? Big business are asking for solutions in these areas too. I personally think there is a way to raise the minimum wage. When the worker being paid minimum wage is working at a 1955 year level it's time to look for a solution.

What the article should have said...

What the article should have said...

Zarqawi's death has "huge impact" on progressives in the US.

What the article should have said...

Zarqawi's death has "huge impact" on progressives in the US.

What the article should have said...

Zarqawi's death has "huge impact" on progressives in the US.

What the article should have said...

Zarqawi's death has "huge impact" on progressives in the US.

When the worker being paid minimum wage is working at a 1955 year level it's time to look for a solution.

Thanks Jeanne, Now why don't you link this study you speak of?

I personally think there is a way to raise the minimum wage.

Jeanne

Ya, I want $10.00 an hour with benefits!

And some free jelly donuts for mandatory breaks!

Yes, David Corn, the POTUS is going to need quite a thorough cleaning after George XLIII is done with it. Fortunately, tho', the cleaning crew is paid minimum wage...

I don't think Ken Lay ìwas a good guy." Lay was tried and convicted of the biggest corporate fraud and conspiracy in the history of the United States. Many Americans were victimized by his unethical and illegal business practices.

When California was enduring the ENRON manipulated energy crisis, Lay went to Cheney to call off FERC, which has the power to regulate energy costs. Cheney and Bush called off FERC and California Citizens paid exorbitant prices for electricity.

Ask the people who worked at Pacific Light and Power who lost all their retirement assets. Rank and file ENRON employees were locked-out of managing their 401k assets while corporate management, some of whom were recently convicted of fraud and conspiracy, were allowed to trade their shares.

When asked about the $182 million in stock shares Lay redeemed, his wife responded that it is all gone. Itís human to have compassion for a person who lost their husband. It's hard to have compassion for a person who lies to protect their ill-gotten wealth.

More than a few people are skeptical about the story of Ken Lay's death. I donít think there are more conspiracy theorists with access to Internet now than there used to be. I think over the last six years, we've become familiar with the character of the people we've elected to national office and we donít trust them to be honest or do the right thing.

#135
I agree. Lots and lots of secrets with the group in the white house. Very unhealthy.

Speaking of the White House...

Man indicted in phone jamming case will argue Administration approved election scheme

The fourth man indicted in a New Hampshire phone-jamming scheme -- in which Republican operatives jammed the phone lines of Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts in a 2002 Senate race -- will argue at trial that the Bush Administration and the national Republican Party gave their approval to the plan, according to a motion filed by his attorney Thursday.

Shaun Hansen, the former owner of the company that placed hang-up calls to jam Democratic phone lines, was indicted in March for conspiring to commit and aiding and abetting the commission of interstate telephone harassment relating to a scheme to thwart get out the vote efforts on Election Day, 2002.

His lawyer's motion signals that Hansen intends to argue that he was entrapped because the Administration allegedly told his superiors the calls were legal. The filing indicates, however, that Hansen does not have firsthand knowledge of Administration intervention.

....Phone calls lead to White House

Phone records show hundreds of phone calls from the New Hampshire Republican Party and convicted phone jammer James Tobin to the White House Office of Political Affairs during the time the scheme was being planned and carried out.

The Republican National Committee, which shelled out millions to defend Tobin, has said it is "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.
--------
Preposterous.

#98 Jeanne, I have been sending letters for about two years and nine months and about one in five or one in six letters are printed.

#94 Joe, just because the Catholic News Service may be concerned about Catholic Social Teaching does not mean that the lay persons are interested. Remember 54% of the Catholics voted for Hitler Bush and his murders and war crimes. G.K. Chesterton has said that the greatest stumbling blocs to Catholicism are Catholics.

I am a Catholic and I am a sinner but I do believe that I know what murders are and what war crimes are. 54% of the Catholics do not know the difference and that is why they are complicit in the murders and war crimes against the Iraqi people. They may know the Our Father prayer but they do not know that we are all brothers and sisters in God.

Daily intelligence brief: Baghdad's 'dreams and desires are shrinking'

"A daily intelligence brief on Iraq, prepared by a private contractor for the U.S. military and companies working in Iraq, paints a grim picture of life in Baghdad," according to the Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire.

An email to the paper went unanswered. RAW STORY is currently trying to obtain a copy of the brief.

Tpday's daily intelligence report documents a slew of attacks around the capital, the Journal says.

"The levels of torture and execution-style killings…†illustrate the increasing disregard for human life by the perpetrators for those not of their own grouping," the brief says.

Marked "official use only," the report describes Baghdad as a crestfallen metropolis.

"Baghdad looks so exhausted these days and so do her people; the relentless violence, the lack of basic services and the scorching heat abolishes human desire to do anything or to even think of anything," the report compiled by SOC-SMG Inc., a Nevada contractor, says. "Living for many Iraqis was reduced to existence a long time ago; dreams and desires are shrinking under the heavy shadows of the situation."
---------------
The Bush White House did this. The neocons demanded it. We all have different dreams I guess.

Point well taken, Gerald. Catholics are just as diverse as any other group.

The thing that always interests me is that I've heard that Catholics are supposed to accept the Pope's words without question. So, the anti-war stance should be Catholic in nature. But, you are one of them - so you know best.

President Bush's Job Record Since August 2003: Nothing To Brag About

The White House issued a fact sheet today on President Bush's economic record. The headline blares "5.4 Million Jobs Created Since August 2003." The sheet suggests recent job growth proves President Bush’≥ economic strategy is a smashing success.

Let's set aside for a moment that the 'fact sheet" conveniently ignores the 22 months of jobs losses that proceeded August 2003. Instead, let's put Bush's job record since August 2003 in perspective:

1. Monthly job growth since August 2003 is 50% lower than the average of President Clinton's entire term. Since August 2003, job growth has averaged 160,000 per month. During Clinton's eight years in office job growth averaged 236,000 per month.

2. Real wages have fallen since August 2003. The average worker's real wages were twenty cents lower in June 2006 than they were in August 2003.

Any way you slice it, Bush's economic policy has resulted in slower job growth and lower wages. That's nothing to brag about.

#139
Gerald correct me if I'm wrong...isn't the pope against the war in Iraq?

Jeanne - I shared your post with a few friends. Here in the neighborhood - we are feeling that things are stagnant at best. A couple of my neighbors have been laid off and are working at jobs that are less than what they had. I suppose because they work they don't fall into the unemployment totals. There seems to be an awful lot of people who have taken lesser jobs to replace better jobs that they were laid off of.

Where's the Outrage Over the Daily News Bomb Tunnel Story?

The FBI has uncovered what officials consider a serious plot by jihadists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in hopes of causing a torrent of water to deluge lower Manhattan, the Daily News has learned.

The News has learned that at the request of U.S. officials, authorities in Beirut arrested one of the alleged conspirators, identified as Amir Andalousli, in recent months. Agents were scrambling yesterday to try to nab other suspects, sources said. They didn?t indicate how many people were the target of the international dragnet but said they were scattered all over the world. "This is an ongoing operation," one source said.

#142
Joe,
My husband was laid off as a programmer in 2003. He found contract jobs, with no benefits, and a knowledge that the job could end the next day and it did twice. The company brought in workers from overseas because the company could pay them lower wages.
My husband finally found a permanent job a year later with good benefits but lower wages than he'd been making. With the cost of living we are working hard to keep up.
Tell your neighbors I am thinking about them. I feel for them. I know the pain. Somehow America lost interest in it's own people. America forgot how it works best.

When I say Bush doesn't have a clue, I mean it. He doesn't have a clue.

#143
That story is quite telling.

Especially, if you have to drive to work the cost of getting to work has gone up. It is difficult to explain to people that you just can't do the things you used to do.

I hope that there isn't more to the Holland Tunnel story. I heard this but then it was dropped. Do you think there really was a plan and the terrorists to carry it out? That would make me believe that our intelligence agents know what they are doing. There have been so many stories that one doesn't know what to believe.

#146
The hope is that our intellegence agents do their job and the press does it's job. We will be closer to the truth if that happens. Lots of good, hungry reporters in NY City. When the bush administration plays with the press and the American people the way it has the problem becomes a matter of trust. I don't believe a word that comes out of the White House and I suspect a majority of the population agrees with me. How can you believe a group that has broken the trust of the American people over and over and over again?

Well...I now have the entertaining job of letting my mother's dog out. I like dogs about as much as Pandemoniac likes his neighbor's dogs. I always manage to step in the....never mind.

#141 Jeanne

Yeah, that's what the official line is supposed to be, that Catholics should be against the occupation.

#110 Capt

I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion on trolls. I think Den is right, some are actually paid to harrass us. My sister wasn't surprised by that suggestion. And she's smart!

PROTECT INTERNET NEUTRALITY

Another petition, this one offered by Maria Cantwell, the senator from Washington who has a tough campaign fight this year due to a deliberate influx of mucho dinero by the Republican party.

Petition Link

Dropped by quickly to post this petition, thought it was important.

Facts first -- fun later....

Factless is back stomping his feet and waving his pacifier menacingly:
"Now, here is another quote from a guy who, unlike you and Dr. Mann, is not too stupid or too lazy to go back and actually find the data from a thousand years ago:"

"The Little Ice Age and Medieval Warm Period in the Sargasso Sea by Lloyd D. Keigwin"

"Sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, and flux of terrigenous material oscillated on millennial time scales in the Pleistocene North Atlantic, but there are few records of Holocene variability. Because of high rates of sediment accumulation, Holocene oscillations are well documented in the northern Sargasso Sea...."

Factless, what part of "GLOBAL" do you not understand?

The study you cited was done in '96. Keigwin published another paper in '99 showing that the Little Ice Age and Medieval Warming Period were LOCALIZED phenomena limited to certain parts of the Northern Hemisphere:
Keigwin (and Pickart) published a paper in Science just a few years later in 1999 (Mechanisms of global change at millennial time scales. American Geophysical Union:Washington, D.C. Geophysical Monograph Series 112, 394 pp1999) pointing that the appparent cooling in the Sargasso Sea is diametrically opposed by a substantial warming at the same time in the Laurentian Fan region of the North Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland. The pattern of cooling in the tropical North Atlantic and warming off Newfoundland, as Keigwin and Pickart note, is consistent with a dominant North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) signature to the climate variability in this region during the MWP/LIA alternation.

The climatologists note:
Medieval warmth appears, in large part, to have been restricted to areas in and neighbouring the North Atlantic. This may implicate the role of ocean circulation-related climate variability. The Bermuda rise sediment record of Keigwin (1996) suggests warm medieval conditions and cold 17th to 19th century conditions in the Sargasso Sea of the tropical North Atlantic. A sediment record just south of Newfoundland (Keigwin and Pickart, 1999), in contrast, indicates cold medieval and warm 16th to 19th century upper ocean temperatures. Keigwin and Pickart (1999) suggest that these temperature contrasts were associated with changes in ocean currents in the North Atlantic. They argue that the “Little Ice Age” and “Medieval Warm Period” in the Atlantic region may in large measure reflect century-scale changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation (see Section 2.6). Such regional changes in oceanic and atmospheric processes, which are also relevant to the natural variability of the climate on millennial and longer time-scales (see Section 2.4.2), are greatly diminished or absent in their influence on hemispheric or global mean temperatures.

Since the Keigwin's '99 paper and Mann's research, there have been several multi-study surveys of the literature on Global temperature change. There's Luterbacher, Dietrich, Xoplaki, Grosjean, Wanner's 2004 study. And in 2003, Bradley, Hughes, and Diaz in their paper "Climate in Medieval Time" noted that:
"...although the High Medieval (1100 to 1200 A.D.) was warmer than subsequent centuries, it was not warmer than the late 20th century. Moreover, the warmest Medieval temperatures were not synchronous around the globe.

Get it? The evidence of localized warming in the Sargasso Sea is not proof of warmer Global temperatures. Got any more Stossel quotes? Those are the easiest to trash.

"You folks never learn, do you?"
Posted by: factless at July 6, 2006 05:08 PM

That part was funny.

143:
Where's the Outrage Over the Daily News Bomb Tunnel Story?
---
where's the outrage? maybe people are not fooled any more by phony terror threats and false-flag terror attacks.. hmm, now that you mention it, where IS the outrage?

TomPaine.com is for people who want to keep in touch with the progressive community but don't have time to surf dozens of websites. We do it for you. It's also for people who care about the progressive cause and are looking for an online home. Each day we scour the countryófrom Capitol Hill to newspapers to think tanks and activist groupsóand highlight the news, ideas and actions that you need to stay fully informed. Because we're based in Washington, D.C., expect us to be obsessed with the workings of the nation's capitol.

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TomPaine.com is a project of the Institute for America's Future, a 501(c)(3) organization supported by grants and private donations. All donations to itóand to TomPaine.comóare tax deductible. The opinions expressed on TomPaine.com are those of the authors and do not represent the opinions of the Institute for America's Future.

(link)

This is from a friend of mine who just returned from Iraq. For those of you who say you support the troops but not their mission, are sorely missing out on news that you will never see in the MSM.

Here is some positive news about all that is going on
in Iraq. These are stories not picked up by the media,
but what is really happening inside the country. I
just thought that everyone should know.

Bill

Iraq UNREPORTED

Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the
United States in January 2005 for the reestablished
Fulbrite program?

Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational?!
They have 5 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller
vessels and a naval infantry regiment.

Did you know that Iraq's Air Force consists of three
operational squadrons, which includes 9
reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport
aircraft (under Iraqi operational control) which
operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1
helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers?

Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit
and a Commando Battalion?

Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over
55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?

Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq
that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?

Did you know there are more than 1100 building
projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools,
67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad
stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and
69 electrical facilities.

Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age
of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio
vaccinations?

Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were
enrolled in primary school by mid-October?

Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone
subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?

Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that
consists of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10
television stations?

Did you know that 47 countries have re-established
their embassies in Iraq?

Did you know that the Iraqi government currently
employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?

Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated,
364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are
now under construction and 38
new schools have been built in Iraq?

Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure
consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes or
colleges and 4 research centers, all currently
operating?

Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in
June of 2004?

Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi
presidential election had a televised debate recently?

If you are still supportive of the troops after reading this, try reading the Stars and Stripes. You will see the positive, as well as the negative that you get 24/7 from the American media.

Stars & Stripes

I doubt any of you on this site will bother to visit.

153 Propaganda bought and paid for with your US tax dollars.

The word is spelled 'Fulbright'

I was on the Start & Stripes website readingin letters to the editor yesterday.

Can you link to the source?

The source is Bill who just returned from Iraq. Ask him for the source or does good news happening in Iraq scare you more than the bad news? Funny you doubt a soldier serving but will believe any MSM news source of bad news when they do not go beyond the green zone themselves. Get real.

He wrote you? Cut and paste the email for us.

Funny, when I get a letter from a friend, he usually talks about things we have in common, rather than provide a list of accomplishments of a foriegn policy accomplished at gun point and initiated under false pretenses but that's just my friends.

I only wish every American, and certainly every elected official, had access to what we just heard today from Gen. McCaffrey. He is just back from Guantanamo, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. While it is impossible and unfair to summarize his remarks (a marginally-cleansed version of the brief he has delivered to the president and secretary of state and others), and while I don't speak for the general, he painted Baghdad as a place more dangerous than any on earth. More dangerous than Saigon ever was. To paraphrase: An American, driving through Baghdad for a 24-hour period without security, would have no expectation of living through the experience. While he is confident as to our domestic safety (with the possible exception of an overdue spectacular attack or cluster of them), he paints a picture of entire societies "on the bubble" in the places where America has troops committed. He is as patriotic a man as I have ever known (upon retirement he was the most heavily-decorated four-star general in the Army). He is a hugely astute analyst of geo-politics, and a clear-eyed realist. He is the most vocal booster of the American volunteer fighting force that I know. He gestures often with the reconstructed hand of a badly-wounded combat veteran, and teaches at his alma mater, West Point, where his military maneuver (the famous "left hook" across Iraq) is taught by other professors in adjacent classrooms. He thus speaks with great credibility and honesty, and we are so fortunate to have him as a member of our family. I told one of our newsroom summer interns afterward that being able to sit in on today's briefing with Gen. McCaffrey might be the most valuable hour of his entire summer.

LINK HERE

That is what I did or did you bother to read it?. I am not going to give his e-mail address but you can visit the website of his command. Again, I question what scares you most? I guess I have your answer.

Red Dragons

Sounds like some major cities in the U.S. Again, do you fear the good news more than you fear the bad?

Dear Emmerson,

Do you know this story about your friend named Bill writing you a letter and telling you about all the good things happening in Iraq is not credible?

Do you know its credibility does not rest upon what I fear or don't fear?

Do you know people don't believe you just because you say it is so?

Do you know people don't like to be lied to?

Do you know that your life as a troll makes you less credible?

Do you know people don;t write letters starting each phrase with 'Do you know'?

Visit the site, click on the promotions photos. Bill is the Commander pinning the promotions on the soldiers. Talk about pretending. His son is still in Iraq serving you and the rest of us. I may be a troll, but you are not, nor could have you ever been, a supporter of our military. So now I know, you do not support the soldiers, nor do you support their mission. Just so's I know where you stand.

Unless I know someone personally who's been in Iraq, I'll take Bill with a grain of salt. (that's an old email thing you posted) As it is, the mess George has made of everything he's touched is all I need to figure Iraq is a mess and a HUGE mistake. Can't trust this regime for one second so one has to believe the negative reports about the place. Hard to believe "they" are doing anything right over there. Maybe Emmerson could go to Iraq, the un-green zone, and check that list out? º¿carol

Pay my way Carol? I'm too old for re-enlistment
and I am sure, you being the liberal you are, would prefer that the taxpayers pay my way instead of putting your money where your mouth is. Thought so.

You want me to believe your story and then you tell me that becuase I don't, I don't support the miltary.

Am I missing something here?

I support our military. It's your sorry ass that I don't support.

This is not FOX TV so you can stop the 'I know where you stand, you're an unpatriotic person' bullshit.

John Amato had the sense to ban your drivel from his website. You and I are done with conversation.

Carol, I'll take up a collection.

So now I know, you do not support the soldiers, nor do you support their mission. Just so's I know where you stand. - - - WE HATE THEIR MISSION!!! HOW DOES THAT TRANSLATE INTO NOT SUPPORTING THE BOYS? {ò,ó}

This is what Snopes has to say about 'Bill':

Link here

Corndog!

Good to have you back in full asininity!

You question a soldier who has served two tours of duty in Iraq. I didn't say there were bad things happening, I said there were good as well as bad. You chose to question the soldier, not the things you hear in the MSM. You are the soldier hater, not me. I don't expect a response since you said you were through with me. So don't expect me to respond to snything you post.

Thanks, Rick. I was too lazy to go look for it. Dial-up, ya know. Gotta pick 'n choose what to do.

167 RicK, Carol, Do you think emmerson will apologize about lying to us about his friend 'Bill' and then telling me that I accusing me of not supporting the troops?

From Snopes:

Variations of these items chronicling U.S. accomplishments in rebuilding Iraq have been circulating since mid-2003 and have been forwarded under so many different names (most of them U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq) that it's difficult to determine who the original author was.

RicK, You're good.

then accusing me of not supporting the troops?

I read the Snopes link and a lot of it wasn't true when it was posted in 2003, or did any of you notice that? Bill returned from Iraq in March of 2006. Go ahead, question the soldier, not your "bow at the alter" MSM. At least I know where you stand.

Just google the shortest sentence: "Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?" and hit 'I'm Feeling Lucky.'

you're a liar emmerson. doesn't integrity mean anything to you people?

You people? That could mean a lot of things, especially offensive, politically incorrect things. Do you really want to go there?

O'Reilly,
Emmerson isn't lying to you. Bill, 'his friend' was lying to him. And with emmerson's trusting nature, he believed 'his friend' Bill.

How could emmerson know that Rick was 'feeling lucky'?

Didn't think he was feeling lucky. He posted a link, I read it. I often do when there is a view contrary to mine that is posted. I find the reverse of many on this site is not true. "Scroll Past" for those of you who don't wish to view opinions other than your own.

you people who come here and post bullshit and question the patriotism of we who call you on it; those are the 'you people' I'm referring to. . . and you know it.

while emmerson may plead ignorance about the actual source of the 'letter' from his friend 'Bill' it is he who decided to represent it as the truth and then call my patriotism into question. he has not earned my trust, he has earned my distrust.

Just another bushbot mouthing discredited talking points, if this so called soldier was anything other than some hack for the party let's see him. Bullet stoppers anonymous has a place for people that can't handle the truth. It is called Iraq, any brain dead soldier that believes that sadman had anything to do with 9/11 wins the grand prize FIVE tours of the sunny and pleasant Iraq doing the good things that shrub wants. Hell go over there and stroll the streets and watch what happens. Stupid people believe other stupid politicians. Keep on being brain dead and you will win the prize.

I like this ad.

It's Ok.

Bush Must Have Come Up with Today's "Aspirational Terrorist Scare" Because the Idea of the Hudson River Flowing UP Into Manhattan Defies the Law of Physics

Is it possible that Bush himself brainstormed with Rove about the latest 'Terrorist Aspirational Scare?"

The first 'reports' coming from the Rovian propaganda machine claimed that a vague group of suspected terrorists were planning to flood lower Manhattan by blowing up the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels.

There was just one major problem with this latest 'scare them into voting Republican for a third time' tactic: it defied the laws of gravity and basic physics.

You see, Manhattan is ABOVE sea level. A body of water, such as the Hudson River, won’¥ rise UP without a rather sophisticated plumbing system. In short, bombing the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels could not possibly, according to the law of physics, flood lower Manhattan and 'ruin the American economy by destroying Wall Street.'

There might be some basement flooding, but that's about it.

It's an idea so contrary to reality and the laws of physics that only Bush himself could have come up with it.
-------------
Were Rove's ideas always this cockeyed?

WTF, I agree totally with you!

IF YOU MEAN what you just posted, by calling 130,000 of our finest, in Iraq, "brain dead" and "can't handle the truth"!

An Encor for your military-bashing post:

"Bullet stoppers anonymous has a place for people that can't handle the truth. It is called Iraq, any brain dead soldier that believes that sadman had anything to do with 9/11 wins the grand prize FIVE tours of the sunny and pleasant Iraq doing the good things that shrub wants."

I am not a bushbot any more than you are a clintonbot. Where do you get off? I guess you just did with your spew.

#183
I would be embarrassed to be a Bush Republican. They sound like keystone cops. Here's more from above.
-----------

Some first media reports even dutifully noted that government sources told them that the alleged 'aspirational' terrorists got their idea of blowing up the tunnels from the Katrina disaster and the flooding of New Orleans. This is a sure sign that the idea came from the man who completely bungled Hurricane Katrina: George W. Bush. Only Bush could fail to realize that New Orleans is situated BELOW sea level, while Manhattan is ABOVE sea level.

How else do you explain the second-in-a-row crack-head scheme (after the Miami clown posse 'plot' that is so ludicrous, it couldn't make it past peer review in a class of idiots?

I apologize for going over my alloted time. I must continue my support of Cindy Sheehan with my "rolling fast" of blogs. Until next time, adieu.

183-
one major problem with this(#143 holland tunnel) latest 'scare them into voting Republican for a third time' tactic: it defied the laws of gravity and basic physics.
---
what else could've possibly defied the laws of gravity and basic physics? hmmm....oh ya!

Emmerson will end his rolling fast of this blog in T-8 hours. This has been a test of the emergency broadcast system. If there had been a real emergency, you would have been told to crouch under a desk and KYA goodbye. We now return you to your regular de-programming.

IS HE REALLY GONE? Nah, just like Happy he'll turn up again.

Jeanne #144, it's tough in the middle class. I don't understand why average people like you and I believe republicans, vote for the bastards, argue with liberals about how things should run when every one of us is a paycheck or two away from chaos. Or maybe a month's paychecks away from chaos. HOW ABOUT STOPPING ALL OUR JOBS FROM LEAVING THE COUNTRY SO WE CAN PURSUE THE AMERICAN DREAM???? Wasn't there a promise about that somewhere? Perhaps it was called pusuit of happiness? Can't find that if one can't earn a living, be self-sufficient and take care of a family. {ò,ó}

Bush is clueless. So very clueless. He has no clue how angry Americans are becoming. And he has two more years to get kicked around. Two more years of the American middle class being pissed off.

Why do you think he didn't go to the Dunkin Donuts in the heart of Washington DC? He could have gotten into his limo and just wandered into the heart of DC and told the people there that he was planning to give all the jobs to legal guest-workers. I'm sure there would have been plenty of applause. It would have made a great photo op.

How about this.
Go into a predominately black neighborhood and tell the folks there that they should vote for the Republican candidates because the Republican Party doesn't like homosexuals. And when someone shouts. "what about that damn illegal war you started Mr. Bush? What about our standard of living?" well President Bush can say. "The job ain't finished. I owe it to the fellas who died over there."

and maybe someone else would shout... "My nephews over there. The dead don't care. The living want to come home. He's on his third tour, Mr. Bush. He's tired."

Mr. Bush would then exit quickly. Mr. Bruener, who sells fresh produce at the farmers market would pull the tomato from his pocket and he would throw it. Mr. Bruener was in the minors as a young man. He was a very good pitcher. And then he went to Vietnam. Mr. Bruener would smile. The tomato would land on the window, splat...facing Bush.

If I lived in that neighborhood I would warn Mr. Bruener to behave. "Oh yes, Ms. Jeanne. You know I will."

184 is a spoof poster. As you know, I don't start my posts with the erxpression WTF... but I do know a troll that does.

White supremacists enlisting in military, watchdog report says
Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad

The SPLC is a reliable organization. I trust them to have their ducks in a row.

Gerald -- good for you that CNS is publishing your letters. Does CNS have its own publication, or is it solely a wire service/news-gathering organization?

I hope they distribute your letters to a wide variety of Catholic publications.

#139 Joe, that is why I am so upset at the 54% of Catholics who voted for Bush. John Paul II, when he was Pope, he repeatedly said that the Iraq war was wrong and immoral. Catholicism is a belief system and Chistianity is a value system and a way of life. To be a true Christian is to be fully alive in Jesus words. The 54% of Catholics who voted for Bush are apparently Catholics in name only.

#141 Jeanne, both John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI were and are against the Iraq war.

#195 micki, I send the letter to the Diocese office and the Editor of the Diocese newspaper will let the letter go to print or not.

CONDUCT UNBECOMING by cindy sheehan

Come on, Korn! Anybody that don't like doughnuts probably ain't American and don't belong here anyways. Quit putting doughnut eaters down, you commie.

General Faults Marine Response to Iraq Killings

WASHINGTON, July 7 — The second-ranking American commander in Iraq has concluded that some senior Marine officers were negligent in failing to investigate more aggressively the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians by marines in Haditha last November, two Defense Department officials said Friday.

The officer, Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, concluded that in the deaths, including those of 10 women and children and an elderly man in a wheelchair, senior officers failed to follow up on inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the initial reporting of the incident that should have raised questions.
=====================
On the left margins of the article is a flow chart of the chain-of-command. And for the resident troll, what we've heard of the report (public gets a redacted version in a day or two), jives exactly to Murtha was saying.

well, the flag amendment was just a start. Coming soon is the "American Values Agenda".

G.O.P. Agenda in House Has Moderates Unhappy

WASHINGTON, July 7 — Moderate Republicans say a planned summer push by the House leadership on conservative causes like gun rights and new abortion restrictions threatens the re-election prospects of embattled centrists, who are key to the party's drive to hold Congress.

Frustrated and angry, they say the leadership's new American Values Agenda, a list of initiatives heavy on ideological themes, seems short-sighted and ill-timed considering that few conservatives are at serious risk in November.

"The Sugar Bombs" WBAGNFARB!

I've often heard that Catholics generally don't believe their religion but follow due to the devotional prayers and mass. Something about the spirituality of it keeps them coming.

There are many Catholic women who have had abortions according to the statistics that are kept for example. These are those Catholics who report their religion. There are probably more who don't report their religion.

T-8 hours and counting in my support of Cindy Sheehan with a "rolling fast" of blogs. I'm on now. What a sacrifice she is making. I compare her to Mandela and Ghandi...not!

Paris Hilton declares she will refrain from sex for a year. Now that is a sacrifice. Sheehan probably hasn't had sex since she became impregnated with Casey. Looking at her on T.V. that is understandable.

Paris Hilton

Censorship bothers me. I agree with Mr. Kennedy:
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people."
~John F. Kennedy

I don't see the imminent physical danger posed by your racist epithets.

I also agree with Hazlitt:
"Prejudice is the child of ignorance."

Dennis Leary said it better:
"Racism isn't born, folks, it's taught. I have a two-year-old son. You know what he hates? Naps! End of list."

The only palpable outcome of your rather goofy form of extremism is the public manifestation of your ignorance.

Watching you and Clueless come undone by my jibes and jokes is quite revealing. Watching you two devolve into knuckledragging racists is illuminating to the readers of Mr. Corn's blog. They get to watch ME post and link facts all the while you guys sputter racist epithets as naturally as a dog licks its nutsack. Both instances (your racism and the dog's hygiene) are socially revolting to most people.

"It just goes to show that some people can dish it out, but they sure can't take it."

Lying again? Don't you even have the slightest bit of interest in maintaining that little speck of credibility you have remaining? Who can't take it? When have I made even the slightest peep about your racist asshattery? I have resolutely pleaded with Mr. Corn to keep you (and dimbulbs like Clueless) here to expose your silly talking points and reveal your foaming-at-the mouth imbecility.

"Now, as far as aspersions. I find it absolutely breathtaking that some liberals think some vituperations worse than others."

You conservatives have become so comfortable with your racism that you see nothing wrong in your behavior. Outstanding!

When I hear the immigration rhetoric emanating from the right, I find parallels in the words of your ideological progenitors:
“If I can send the flower of the German nation into the hell of war without the smallest pity for the shedding of precious German blood, then surely I have the right to remove millions of an inferior race that breeds like vermin”
--Adolf Hitler

For you to dismiss your words as mere vitupiration is further proof that the CornCOB (Cult of Bush) element on this blog is part of that underbelly of society that wants to destroy all of our country's accomplishments and take it back to the day when only wealthy, white landowners had the franchise.

"How do you know I don't think "factless" is every bit as painful as "wetback"? And yet I am called that - and much worse - every day."

As I told Clueless, if you don't want to be called a whiny titty-baby, quit whining. If you don't want to be called a liar, quit lying. If you don't want to be called Factless, find those relevant facts and check them.

As for the "pain" of being called a "wetback," I ascribe to the old Texan dictum that nobody can make you feel bad without your permission. Given that I have less respect for you and your opinions than I do for those of drooling imbeciles locked away in a padded room, NOTHING you say carries any weight. I'd be willing to wager that everyone (including emmerson) would echo that sentiment. As I noted before, your racist comments only serve to color the opinion of those who read your blather.

That said, most Americans would rather not put up with the racism, gay-baiting and red-baiting that you FlatEarthers engage in.

"It also goes to show that conservatives are all about ideas and liberals are all about emotions."

Conservatives are all about ideas like Torture, re-establishing a Plutocracy in America, Deficit Spending, the destruction of the middle class and rubber-stamping executive orders. And you're right, Conservatives aren't about emotions. It has become hilariously obvious that Conservatives just don't care about our country anymore.

"I guess you never learned the old childhood adage about sticks and stones."
Posted by: factless at July 7, 2006 10:37 AM

I guess the only adage you learned was "do as I say, not as I do." Funny stuff, dude -- even better than my Thursday Night Funnies.

Pande,

No, I disagree, the Thursday night funnies make me laugh. They are funny and unoffensive. The resident troll is the opposite, always has been.

I read #25 and all that came to mind was S.H.I.T.

(if anybody else doesn't remember S.H.I.T is: "Sorry Honey It's Thursday")

capt

Berlusconi to be tried for fraud

An Italian judge has ruled that former PM Silvio Berlusconi should stand trial over alleged fraud concerning his family's media company Mediaset.

He is one of 14 people sent for trial by Judge Fabio Paparella in the northern city of Milan.

It follows an investigation into claims of embezzlement, false accounting, tax fraud and money laundering in TV rights deals between 1994 and 1999.

The trial is set to begin in November. Mr Berlusconi denies any wrongdoing.

Mr Berlusconi, who headed a centre-right government for five years until he resigned after his defeat in April's general election, claims he is the victim of politically biased left-wing judges.

He has been before the courts in Italy at least six times on corruption charges.

More HERE

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

Six times on corruption? What a guy,eh?

capt

Wayne Madsen Reports On Bush Nazis

July 7/8, 2006 -- SPECIAL REPORT. Those who claim the Bush administration is a Nazi regime are not far from the truth. This story is a special investigation of Bush family slush funds, smuggling, and secret money conduits from and to various right-wing causes, including some that are extremely violent. The New York Times is running a story today about the U.S. military recruiting Aryan Nation, neo-Nazi, and other white supremacists into its ranks. The Times' report states that Neo-Nazi graffiti has sprung up in Baghdad, in quoting from a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The involvement of white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups with the Pentagon began in earnest during the administrations of Reagan and Bush I. According to informed sources who have tracked the neo-Nazis since the Reagan era, the surge in extreme right-wing elements in the Federal government was spurred on by the network of Nicaraguan Contra support activities created to facilitate going around the prohibitions enacted by the Congress. A key member of that strategy was Cheney's Chief of Staff David Addington, who was with the CIA, the Iran-Contra Committee in Congress, and then signed on as senior Vice President for the American Trucking Associations (ATA). WMR reported yesterday on the involvement of a foundation set up by McLean Trucking Co., a member of the ATA, with covert Contra support.

More HERE

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

I have been saying for a long time things are far worse than most people imagine.

capt

Pandemoniac wrote...

For you to dismiss your words as mere vitupiration is further proof that the CornCOB (Cult of Bush) element on this blog is part of that underbelly of society that wants to destroy all of our country's accomplishments and take it back to the day when only wealthy, white landowners had the franchise.

----------
What these clever followers do not understand is that they will never, ever, ever be part of the 'only wealthy, white landowners group. This group is there to be used and then tossed.

This group will be, if Bush succeeds, and he won't, they will be the white trash at the bottom of the hill, living in the slew where the white landowners sewer pipe runs to. That's how it works.

#207
Wow! That's huge. Two years ago he was Italy. Nobody could touch him. Amazing what can happen in two years.

Tax dollars to fund study on restricting public data

The federal government will pay a Texas law school $1 million to do research aimed at rolling back the amount of sensitive data available to the press and public through freedom-of-information requests.

Beginning this month, St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio will analyze recent state laws that place previously available information, such as site plans of power plants, beyond the reach of public inquiries.

Jeffrey Addicott, a professor at the law school, said he will use that research to produce a national "model statute" that state legislatures and Congress could adopt to ensure that potentially dangerous information "stays out of the hands of the bad guys."

More HERE

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

It would only make sense if only the "good guys" were really good guys. Human nature, being as it is, guarantees corruption without oversight. This is not new and the whole totalitarian thing has been tried and it always fails.

capt

205
NOTHING you say carries any weight. I'd be willing to wager that everyone (including emmerson) would echo that sentiment.

Posted by: Pandemoniac

Ahhhh! I get to UN-echo first! Factchecker's posts are biased to the right and = to what Pandemoniac posts/links that are biased to the left. P has an edge in style but NOT substance!

Pandemoniac = Jessie Jackson

Both love attention & play to their constituents by pointing accusing fingers at the powerful.

Now, I'd be willing to wager that most moderates would echo my representative observations here.

Powell: Close Guantanamo Now

That was one headline out of this morning's session with Colin Powell, Justice Stephen Breyer, Senator Bob Bennett, and Mike McConnell.

"Guantanamo ought to be closed immediately," Powell said. He said the value of holding prisoners there was unclear, but the price we were paying around the world for doing so was obvious. He said we should not release the prisoners and dismissed the objection there was no other alternative. "We have ways of dealing with this population" that do not require Gitmo, he said.

More later. Our Internet service is down here at the Aspen Ideas Festival (can't one of the geniuses here solve that one??) so I'm filing from a Blackberry and my thumbs hurt.
--------------
How do they deal with them?

Italian Pay-off From Niger Forgery?

What did the Italian government, under then-Prime Minister Berlusconi, get in return for providing Bush with a smoking gun to attack Iraq?

Italian journalists and parliamentary investigators are hot on the trail of how pre-Iraq War Italian forged documents were delivered to the White House alleging that Saddam Hussein had obtained yellowcake uranium ore from Niger.

New links implicating Italian companies and individuals with then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi now raise the question of whether Berlusconi received a payback as part of the deal -- namely, a Pentagon contract to build the U.S. president's special fleet of helicopters.

The yellowcake story in the United States has long been linked to the ongoing investigation into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Plame's diplomat husband Joe Wilson had probed the Niger connection and concluded that the Bush administration was twisting intelligence reports to fit its case for war.

More HERE

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

Dot, let me introduce you to Dot. AAANNNDDD CONNECT!

capt

Why Conservatives Can't Govern

Bush's presidency and Congress are imploding, not despite their conservatism, but because of it.

Search hard enough and you might find a pundit who believes what George W. Bush believes, which is that history will redeem his administration. But from just about everyone else, on the right as vehemently as on the left, the verdict has been rolling in: This administration, if not the worst in American history, will soon find itself in the final four. Even those who appeal to history's ultimate judgment halfheartedly acknowledge as much. One seeks tomorrow's vindication only in the context of today's dismal performance.

More HERE

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

It really is not conservatives per se. It is the neocons. No traditional conservative would condone the crud this WH has pulled.

capt

Sources say no serious plot for NYC, just hate chatter

One former intelligence field officer says, and two other CIA officials confirm, that the alleged plot by Muslim extremists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in New York City was nothing more than chatter by unaffiliated individuals with no financing or training in an open forum already monitored extensively by the United States Government, RAW STORY has learned.

"The so-called New York tunnel plot was a result of discussions held on an open Jihadi web site," said Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer and contributor to American Conservative magazine, in a late Friday afternoon conversation. Although Giraldi acknowledges that the persons involved "three of whom have already been arrested in Lebanon and elsewhere - are indeed extremists," their online chatter is considerably overblown by allegations of an actual plot.

....Two other intelligence officials with experience in the field on extremist operations concurred--and expressed concern that what could have been an operation to eventually track known extremists (should they eventually make actual contact with funds and training,) seems to have been exposed for political gain.

Some see this latest "ploy" as a direct challenge to a New York Times report this week of the disbandment of Alec Station, the CIA unit responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden since before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Moreover, the article contends that officials say the unit was "disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center."
-------------------
The Bush administration is CLUELESS!!!! And they are running the country.

micki, you may have been the person who asked me how long I have been sending letters to CNS. It will be three years in early November, 2006.

capt is right things are far worse than anyone can imagine. Please remember the saying that people get what they deserve. If you vote for a Nazi, you will elect a Nazi. Yes, people in Nazi America are electing and deserving the Nazis that they have elected. There will be a ton more of Nazis elected in 2006 through our rigged elections.

#214
What surprises me the most about that story is that it's happening. I could see it coming out ten years from now when the dust has settled but now? Very interesting. Berlusconi is/was very powerful. So what has changed. This is a gigantic story.

American Soldiers

2,851 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his lies.

18,500+ American soldiers have been maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his evil lies.

55,000+ of the 140,000 American soldiers are suffering from PTSD. Stress disorder has increased and the percentage is now around 40%.

Over 350,000+ Iraqis have been killed in Iraq since Bush declared shock and awe bombings on March 19, 2003.

Contamination from depleted uranium may have affected 125,000+ American soldiers and several million Iraqis.

Are you feeling more safe and secure with Bush in the WH and Cheney as his chief hatchet man overseeing Nazi America and her citizens?

Our military men and women are used as cannon fodder for a terrorist Nazi American government.

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, AND NEITHER DO WE. George W. Bush, August 5, 2005

Rigged elections doom American democracy. American soldiers are being killed and maimed TO PROMOTE A NAZI AMERICAN STATE.

Henry Kissinger says that military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.

Nazi America is a mirror image of Hitler Bush.

Nazi Americans continually justify sin.

Nazi Americans are accomplices with Bush for his murders and war crimes.

#217
Gerald,
The American people got what they didn't deserve. The first election was stolen and the second was...well...stolen.

Bush was voted OUT of office the second time and who do we have sitting in the White House? The keystone cops.

What is a Hillary Clinton?

#220 Jeanne, good points!!!

#221
That picutre of Clinton on the Time Mag is funny.

Pandemoniac,

I find it mildly amusing that this blog villifies the President of the United States with every possible pejorative, but recoils at an allegedly ethnic slur.

I find it amusing that you say it doesn't bother you personally, but then proceed to spend the better part of your post going off like a Roman candle.

Your problem is that you keep getting bitch-slapped by your own links, and you don't like it. I quote verbatim from one of your own links, and then you spend the next five posts trying to show that what was said verbatim in the link wasn't really said verbatim in the link.

If you folks weren't so tragically inept, it would be really funny. Fortunately, because you folks are all talk and no action, the country is still safe.

So, Pandespic, what say you now?

KARL ROVE, MICHAEL LEDEEN SPIES PROCURED FORGED NIGER DOCUMENTS

KARL ROVE and VARIOUS SPIES HE IS LINKED TO

Karl Rove's only full-time foreign-policy advisor is Michael Ledeen, a rabid anti-Arab, pro-Israel activist. The FBI is investigating Ledeen for procuring forged documents (shown here) on nonexistent WMD, which George Bush used to justify his war on Iraq. When Joseph Wilson exposed the farce, Rove helped "out" Wilson's CIA wife. Did Ledeen procure the documents for Rove, and how might he have done that? The story includes multinational stool pigeon Rocco Martino, Italian spy Francesco Pazienza, wanted CIA spy Robert Seldon Lady, and Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, who's under charges of giving US secrets to Israel.

Karl Rove's foreign-policy advisor, Michael Ledeen, proclaimed "the rightness of the fascist cause" in 1972. In 1984 he got George Bush Sr to appoint Iranian arms merchant and Iranian/Israeli double-agent Manucher Ghorbanifar as a middleman in the scandalous Iran-Contra affair. Ledeen has been a fixture in Washington and Israel ever since, advocating a modern version of the Crusades against Islamic nations. Based on what he has said and written, I believe Ledeen is insane.

Michael Ledeen, Rove's "brain," is one of the leading advocates for a US attack on Iran. The Washington Post quoted Ledeen as saying that Rove told him, "Anytime you have a good idea, tell me." I guess that means we can look forward to the Bush team drumming up a war with Iran. [For more, see articles by Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post -- the main man of the mainstream media pursuing the Rove Scandal.]

More HERE

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

Birds of a feather?

capt

Cornposters, LewRockwell.com has at eight articles to read. The website out did itself today!

"Factless's posts are biased to the right and = to what Pandemoniac posts/links that are biased to the left. P has an edge in style but NOT substance!"

ah, yes. The "liberal" bias. Given that Factless posts legal analyses written by legal scholars posing as Assistant Profs of English at a 2-yr. College in Podunk Indiana (or was it an English scholar at a 2-yr. college posing as a legal scholar -- yep, that's it), I can see why Right-wing dingbats would consider Factless' posts to be "factual." And given that he posts comments about Climate Change penned by the noted amateur Climatologist, John Stossel, I can see why you reactionaries would be swayed by Factless' drivel.

And given that I post links to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, The Federal Reserve, The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Justice, and Climatologists (with a background in Science, no lesss) I can see why "moderates" would consider them biased to the left. Reality does have a liberal bias, afterall.

"Now, I'd be willing to wager that most moderates would echo my representative observations here."
Posted by: Hapless' Sockpuppet at July 8, 2006 10:38 AM

I bet you couldn't tell a "moderate" from a hole in a stocking, especially one draped fancifully over your grungy little fingers. You oughta wash the sock before you dress it up as a "moderate," Hapless. LOL.

factchecker:
So, Pandespic,
---
again with the racial epithets? even after whining about your feelings being hurt from insults?
you truly are a jerkoff factless.

Thank you for proving my Point, Factless. Again.

And don't feel so bad about having Stossel's nonsense shredded. I guess you didn't read either of Keigwin's articles or you'd realize what a nutter you're making yourself out to be. Keep proudly crowing over your snotbubbles, you are making quite an impression.

for Democratic losers

I guess I can't really blame you for showing your ignorance (again!!), but several months ago, I made a pronouncement that I would forswear calling my President any of the names that were commonly used in reference to his simian and / or fascistic tendencies. If you look at my posts, I almost always refer to him as "Mr. Bush" or "Bush."

Again, why bother "checking" the "Facts," eh? LOL.

Emmerson, I recently got a letter in my internets from an Iraqi named "Ahmed Kharrufa" that addressed each of the points that your dear pal "Jim" or "Dan" or "BIll" sent you. I'd copy and paste it; but you can read the contents of it here.

#225
God, would I love to see that article in the NY Times.

this blog villifies the President of the United States with every possible pejorative

really? make a list. you are imagining them foolcharacter.

"My position is empirically supported by a number of economic studies conducted after the two minimum wage increases in the 90's."

Please cite them because there are just as many empirical studies showing that raising the minimum wage is good for small business. A recent study found that States with Minimum Wages above the Federal Level have had Faster Small Business and Retail Job Growth:
"employment and payrolls in small businesses grew faster in the states with minimum wages above the federal level than in the remaining states where the $5.15 an hour federal minimum wage prevailed. This report also found that total job growth was faster in the higher minimum wage states. Faster job growth also occurred in the retail trade sector, the sector of the economy employing the most workers at low wages, in the higher minimum wage states."

That study was aptly titled: "States with Minimum Wages above the Federal Level have had Faster Small Business and Retail Job Growth" (careful, it's one of those pdf jobbies)

I wasn't so much trying to prove an increase in min. wage is bad (although I think it is, particularly for poor people)...."

And you come to this conclusion because....? If you want to see the effects of raising the minimum wage on poverty, check out the poverty stats.

"To be quite honest, though, your retort is fairly typical of the hyper-emotionalism (with the more than faintest wisp of envy & anger) of supporters of Big Money Corporatism."
Posted by: JoshuaHarden at July 7, 2006 04:32 PM

There. Fixed your post.

"If we raise the min. wage to 9 dollars an hour, the current jobs that pay 9 dollars an hour loss (sic) significantly, drastically, incredibly their competitive place in the labor market."

You can go hump your $9 and hour straw man someplace else. Around here, most folks think it's pathetic.

'With all due respect, how much do they pay you talk on all these little shows about policy?...."
Posted by: JoshuaHarden at July 7, 2006 03:37 PM

Lord help the person who hires you to tell them about minimum wage policy. They'd be buying a load of hokum.

Pande,
Your poverty stats link didn't work. Can you punch it in again?

As long as you post to them, they will come.

capt

Spy, watch yerself. Asking Factless to go back and check the actual facts is cause for him to call you a pickaninny or darkie or any of the deplorable little names that Conservatives have for brown people.

Emmerson, I got another letter in my internets that talks about the minimum wage. It's from a friend named "Christy." I'm printing it here to save you the trouble of having to click on a link.

America's Working Poor by the Numbers (don't your friends give their emails catchy titles?)

Did you know that 4.3 million is the Number of Americans who have fallen into poverty since President Bush took office?

Did you know that $5.15 is the Federal minimum wage?

Did you know that 26% is How much the inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage has eroded since 1979?

Did you know that 0 is the Number of times minimum wage has increased since 1997?

Did you know that 7 is the Number of times Congress has increased its own pay since 1997? (Jeanne, you asked about that one, sorry it took so long to get back to it)

Did you know that $0 is How much more a year people earning minimum wage earn today compared to 1997?

Did you know that $28,500 is How much more a year members of Congress make today compared to 1997?

Did you know that $10,700 is the Amount a person making minimum wage will earn in a year?

Did you know that $5,000 is the Amount below the poverty level working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year at minimum wage will leave a family of three?

Did you know that 7,300,000 is the Number of workers who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage?

Did you know that 1,800,000 is the Number of parents with kids under the age of 18 who would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage?

Did you know that 11 million is the Number of jobs added to the economy in the four years after the last minimum wage hike? (Compare that to the measly number of jobs added after the Bush tax cuts for Billionaires)

Did you know $8.70 is the amount minimum wage would have to be today to have the same purchasing power it had in 1968? Stagflation is a bitch.

Did you know that 2.5 years is the Amount of health care for two children which could be bought by raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25?

Did you know that 86% is the Percentage of Americans who support raising the federal minimum wage?

Sincerely,
Christy

I must say "Christy" is quite sincere and fond of helping the lower and middle class in America.

Try finding that information in your so-called moderate media.

Ooops. Sorry, Jeanne, again. Where's that dadgum preview button?

#239
And people wonder why I get so stinkin mad...I mean hyper emotional.

Did you know that 4.3 million is the Number of Americans who have fallen into poverty since President Bush took office?

hooray for the upper 1%! down with the working class!

Pandemoniac @ 205:

It's censorship only when the government is controlling the content. Regardless, 'right to' does not equal 'ought to.'

I applaud your outlook and your retraint.

I check your links 99% of the time Pandemoniac. If I don't, it is usually because I am in a hurry or just plain tired.

Russia and China will not back U.N. against North Korea. Once again, the U.N. has been proven worthless. We need to withdrawl from the U.N. and let those who want to be part of a worthless organization, fund it and pay for moving it to Brussells. What a waste of time, effort and money.

So the new campaign starts.

or 'restraint.' Take your pick.

Ann Coulter update:

Associated Press reports on Coulter plagiarism allegations as syndicator probes charges

"The syndicator of Ann Coulter's newspaper column is looking into allegations that the right-wing pundit has lifted material from other sources," reports Hillel Italie for the Associated Press.

Aside from two reports in the New York Post, this is the first major media article to note the allegations and report that Coulter's syndicator is conducting a probe.

The A.P. also gave credit to the Websites that first reported on Coulter's possible plagiarism.

"The New York Post and the Web sites Raw Story and the Rude Pundit have raised numerous questions about Coulter's columns, and her best-selling 'Godless,'" writes Italie.

...The Rude Pundit first blogged about the apparent plagiarism in a June 2005 column by Coulter last summer, and RAW STORY followed up on the blogger's work, revealing that the column was little more that a cut-and-paste repetition of points authored by conservative religious groups in the early 1990s.
------------------
Wouldn't you like somebody like Ann Coulter stealing your words, using them out of context, and claiming credit for them?

Agent who led Bin Laden hunt criticises CIA

-Closure of unit 'wasted 10 years' experience'
-Al-Qaida reasserting its influence, says ex-chief

The man who led America's hunt for Osama bin Laden has said the CIA was wrong to disband the only unit devoted entirely to the terrorist leader's pursuit - just at a time when al-Qaida is reasserting its influence over global jihad.
Shutting down the Bin Laden unit squandered 10 years of expertise in the war on terror, said Michael Scheuer, who founded the unit in 1995 and arguably knows more about Bin Laden than any other western intelligence official. He believes the unit was dismantled because of bureaucratic jealousies within the CIA, and that the closure delivers a further setback to a pursuit that has been squeezed for resources for the past two years.

"What it robs you of is a critical mass of officers who have been working on this together for a decade," he told the Guardian. "We had a breed of specialists rare in an intelligence community that prides itself on generalists. It provided a base from which to build a cadre of people specialising in attacking Sunni extremist operations, who sacrificed promotions and other emoluments in their employment in the clandestine service, where specialists were looked on as nerds."
---------------------
Ok...we have this story. And we have the right wing fanatics trying desperately to destroy the UN. The question is.....why?

Every decision has a motive. What is the motive?

#136 Jeanne

First, obviously I'm way behind everyone, so please forgive.

Things will come to a head, won't they? You can't go on this long doing so very much wrong, especially toying with our elections, that it could continue. Let us pray and fervently hope that people (Dems, Independents & Greens) will stand up to the abuse of our democracy and join together as one. That always was and is Saladin's goal. These trials are just the beginning. We already know Bush and Co. don't really care a wit about history. They live for the moment.

So f**k global warming. Someone said to me the other day, "just look at his daughters." They're off galavanting and he's the President! No respect for civil behavior, even when you're Dad is the President. Point being that Bush doesn't worry about his children's or grandchildren's future. Is that a sign of humanity? No.

A couple of nights ago Larry King interviewed Mr. and Mrs. Bush. This was just after the alleged death of Ken Lay. (Come on, Lay faked his death.) Suddenly, Bush did know him. Yeah, we were great friends in Texas. Etc. etc. It made me gag. Suddenly he's your friend again? How does Bush get away with this press?

A piece Capt posted a few threads back called something like The Destabilzation Game, I can't quite remember, but it was important enough that I'm going to repost it when I have time, concluded with the supposition that global warming is a gamble that Bush/Cheney are willing to take, just like everything else they've so mishandled. They'll just go to their ranches and drink out their days enjoying their air conditioning.

The author's (Tom Cavanaugh I think) right you know. Since when has any compassion for the planet or anyone else for that matter been exhibited by the most selfish administation in history? When has anyone ever sought the Presidency solely concerned with such selfish goals? Oh, they're gonna eat shit when they meet with God.

Speaking of eating shit in heaven, and please don't try to accuse me of anti-Semitism, (if you knew my history....) Israel is at it once again.

Israel Rejects Palestinians Offer of Truce

The death count is 40-1 Palestinians. No offer to even consider the issues that were supposed to be on the table. Just brutalizing and killing. Need I say more.

227

Bureau of Labor and Statistics, The Federal Reserve, The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Justice, and Climatologists (with a background in Science, no lesss) I can see why "moderates" would consider them biased to the left.
Posted by: Pandemoniac

Hello, Pandeeeeeee, pay attention! NO, Not just the "moderates"! Most folks of intelligence know that unelected or unappointed Government employees are left-of-center!

How many Bill Gateses or Mr. Googles are dying to go to work at the Census Bureau, the Fed Reserve or the DOJ? Career types in these Big Gov't organizations are biased toward Bigger, not smaller, Government. Your using Gov't links/stats totally prove my observations of your left-biased links/sources.

Quite elementary, my dear Pumbo!

#53 Micki..Lay's wife should demonstrate some integrity and conscience and reduce her millions down to a few (we know she can survive on that) by giving back the $$$$$$$$$ that her husband and his band of theives stole from Enron employees. Maybe they could provide time shares in their Aspen home for those who lost their Enron retirement funds.

#85 Carey. Great to hear a story about your son all ready out there trying to stir up hope and conscience acts. Let him know many of us appreciate his awareness, his parents are doing a great job. Thanks

#93 Gerald. Would be great to witness the Catholic Church and people who call themselves Catholics or Christians pay more than "lip service" to their supposed core beliefs.

#214...#225 Capt..Thanks for linking. I had read that second article just after it came out.
I have read a fair amount about Ledeen, and as I have said on other post, I heard him speak on a panel here in Athens Ohio several years ago. He is truely creepy. He lies constantly without conscience...you know a socio/psycho- path I really believe he is a very troubled and dangerous person.

He studied Italian Fascist documents in Italy during the 70's. I believe he did research for his Ph.D on these documents. It certainly appears that he incorporated fascist thinking in his actions and his influence with Iran/Contra, Rove and U.S. foreign policy.

If the Aipac trial is not dismissed and actually goes to trial in August ( the date for this trial has been changed 4 times). I have read that Ledeen was involved with some of the transfer of classified documents in the Aipac/Rosen/Weissman/Franklin spy case.

Washington Monthly
September 2004
Iran-Contra II?
Fresh scrutiny on a rogue Pentagon operation.
By Joshua Micah Marshall, Laura Rozen, and Paul Glastris
On Friday evening, CBS News reported that the FBI is investigating a suspected mole in the Department of Defense who allegedly passed to Israel, via a pro-Israeli lobbying organization, classified American intelligence about Iran. The focus of the investigation, according to U.S. government officials, is Larry Franklin, a veteran Defense Intelligence Agency Iran analyst now working in the office of the Pentagon's number three civilian official, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.

The investigation of Franklin is now shining a bright light on a shadowy struggle within the Bush administration over the direction of U.S. policy toward Iran. In particular, the FBI is looking with renewed interest at an unauthorized back-channel between Iranian dissidents and advisers in Feith's office, which more-senior administration officials first tried in vain to shut down and then later attempted to cover up.

Franklin, along with another colleague from Feith's office, a polyglot Middle East expert named Harold Rhode, were the two officials involved in the back-channel, which involved on-going meetings and contacts with Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar and other Iranian exiles, dissidents and government officials. Ghorbanifar is a storied figure who played a key role in embroiling the Reagan administration in the Iran-Contra affair. The meetings were both a conduit for intelligence about Iran and Iraq and part of a bitter administration power-struggle pitting officials at DoD who have been pushing for a hard-line policy of "regime change" in Iran, against other officials at the State Department and the CIA who have been counseling a more cautious approach.

Reports of two of these meetings first surfaced a year ago in Newsday, and have since been the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Whether or how the meetings are connected to the alleged espionage remains unknown. But the FBI is now closely scrutinizing them.

The Italian Job

The first meeting occurred in Rome in December, 2001. It included Franklin, Rhode, and another American, the neoconservative writer and operative Michael Ledeen, who organized the meeting. (According to UPI, Ledeen was then working for Feith as a consultant.) Also in attendance was Ghorbanifar and a number of other Iranians. One of the Iranians, according to two sources familiar with the meeting, was a former senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who claimed to have information about dissident ranks within the Iranian security services. The Washington Monthly has also learned from U.S. government sources that Nicolo Pollari, the head of Italy's military intelligence agency, SISMI, attended the meetings, as did the Italian Minister of Defense Antonio Martino, who is well-known in neoconservative circles in Washington.

Alarm bells about the December 2001 meeting began going off in U.S. government channels only days after it occurred. On December 12th 2001, at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, America's newly-installed Ambassador, Mel Sembler, sat down for a private dinner with Ledeen, an old friend of his from Republican Party politics, and Martino, the Italian defense minister. The conversation quickly turned to the meeting. The problem was that this was the first that Ambassador Sembler had heard about it.

Pandemoniac

You seeing Happy shadows? Whatever makes you paranoid or Happy!

The fourth man indicted in a New Hampshire phone-jamming scheme -- in which Republican operatives jammed the phone lines of Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts in a 2002 Senate race -- will argue at trial that the Bush Administration and the national Republican Party gave their approval to the plan, according to a motion filed by his attorney Thursday. - rawstory.com

The commander of the Utah Highway Patrol's drunken driving unit has been cited for driving under the influence of alcohol after crashing his cruiser into a concrete barrier, authorities said.

#250 Carey. Larry King's interview with President Bush was a complete sham. After a few sentences into the interview, this is how King began the talk about Iraq,

"LARRY KING: But, also, Mr. President, you're into taking the lead on things. Iraq was an example. You took the lead on Iraq. The United Nations went along.

G. BUSH: Right.

LARRY KING: You got other countries to go along. Why not take the lead here?"

Larry King knew exactly what he was doing. He fed the lies once again to the American people, that the UN went along with the Bush administration. This is a complete an utter LIE, and Larry King should get called out on the carpet for this.

King takes his last name to seriously.

IAEA'S Mr. El Baradei on March 7, 2003 the UN.

"At this stage, the following can be stated:

One, there is no indication of resumed nuclear activities in those buildings that were identified through the use of satellite imagery as being reconstructed or newly erected since 1998, nor any indication of nuclear-related prohibited activities at any inspected sites.

Second, there is no indication that Iraq has attempted to import uranium since 1990.

Three, there is no indication that Iraq has attempted to import aluminum tubes for use in centrifuge enrichment. Moreover, even had Iraq pursued such a plan, it would have encountered practical difficulties in manufacturing centrifuge out of the aluminum tubes in question.

Fourth, although we are still reviewing issues related to magnets and magnet-production, there is no indication to date that Iraq imported magnets for use in centrifuge enrichment program."

LARRY KING IS FULL OF SHIT, AND SHOULD RETRACT HIS STATEMENT THAT THE UN WENT ALONG WITH THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION... THIS COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH AND LARRY KING KNOWS THIS. HE IS A LIAR.

LARRY KING "THE UN WENT ALONG"...BULLSHIT LARRY BULLSHIT....YOU LIAR

Transcript of ElBaradei's U.N. presentation
Friday, March 7, 2003 Posted: 12:39 PM EST (1739 GMT)
International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei presents his report Friday to the U.N. Security Council.

(CNN) -- Following is a transcript of International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei's March 7 presentation to the U.N. Security Council on the progress of the inspection effort in Iraq.
ElBaradei: Thank you, Mr. President.
Mr. President, my report to the council today is an update on the status of the International Atomic Energy Agency's nuclear verification activities in Iraq pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1441 and other relevant resolutions.

Hey Larry (LIAR) King....Remember the Un Weapons Inspector Hans Blix. He sure did not support the Bush administration or go along.

Iraq invasion violated international law: Blix
August 7, 2003 - 4:10PMWith unusual candour, the former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix today denounced the US-led war on Iraq as a violation of international law, and questioned Washington's motives for the invasion.

"I cannot see that the action, in the way it was justified, was compatible with the UN Charter," Blix said, adding that it had undermined the Security Council's authority

More of the UN going along..what a bunch of bullshit out of Larry King.

CNN...Iraq war wasn't justified, U.N. weapons experts say
Blix, ElBaradei: U.S. ignored evidence against WMDs

I don't think it is a lie that the UN went along with the US administration. They did so with pleasure. Only Iraq walked out of the room. Everyone else endorsed the words of the USA.

Joe can you read?
The fact is that Kofi Anan called the war "illegal". IAEA's Mr. El Baradei ripped through the Bush administrations claims, and Un weapons inspector Hans Blix said allow the inspections to continue.

And Larry King is a Liar on this issue ...THE UN DID NOT GO ALONG WITH THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

Kathleen, you're absolutely spot on -- Larry King is an enabler and a liar for the bush administration.

It is true that Iraq had previously defied the clear demands of the UN Security Council about its destruction & accountabiity for its weapons...But -- and this is a BIG BUT -- once Iraq allowed UN inspectors into the country for inspections and agreed to UN demands regarding aerial reconnaissance, interviews with Iraqi scientists, etc. Iraq appeared to be in compliance with most, if not all, of the resolutions at the time bush invaded Iraq!

Also, bush's War of Choice on Iraq was not at the behest of "international demands" to enforce the UN resolutions as they busheviks like to claim -- in fact, the UN Charter clearly states that only the UN Security Council has the ability to authorize military enforcement of its resolutions. The Security Council refused to authorize the United States to enforce those resolutions through military means despite enormous pressure by bush administration officials to do so.

So, you're right to call Larry King a big fat liar.

PS re #252 -- Those timeshares should be FREE! In fact, the Lays should wash the sheets, scrub the toilets, peel the potatoes, provide the wine, the ski lift tickets, airfare, and they should have to use the outhouse at 20 below zero!

"FASTER PLEASE"...OR "FAST PLEASE"

In regard to the invasion of Iraq and the push for pre-emptive military action against Iran, war monger and chicken hawk Micheal Ledeen says over and over again "FASTER PLEASE".

Cindy Sheehan who lost her son due to Micheal Ledeen's and the Bush administrations lies about WMD's in Iraq says "FAST PLEASE" to bring the troops home.
Troops Home Fast: Day One By Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t
Wednesday 05 July 2006
It is midnight of the 5th of July and 24 hours since thousands of us began the Troops Home Fast.

Some of us will be fasting completely until the troops come home; some will be on liquids only until the troops come home; some will fast for 2 weeks, 2 days; or like me, until at least September 21st.

Hundreds of peace-loving and dedicated people joined us organizers of the fast outside the White House during the past two eventful and event-filled days. The Granny Peace Brigade walked from NYC to DC in solidarity with the fast and with the people of Iraq and Afghanistan and our soldiers who are suffering so profoundly under the US-led occupations.

People joined us from as far away as Texas and California in person, and thousands were with us in spirit from all over the world. We are starting a historic and very meaningful action. We were honored by being joined by legendary fasters

I saw this on C-Span. The other members of the UN did not express any displeasure with Bush or Colin Powell. When things began to look wrong - a couple of UN members spoke against the USA's actions.

About Hans Blix - he definitely was not for an attack against Iraq as you say.

Corn,

Just watched your performance on Fox (with Mike Gallagher), and I have to say you're rather pathetic. You resorted to tactics of name calling because you couldn't formulate a decent argument.

Shame on you.

Corn folks...I just ran into Peggy Gish from the Christian Peace Maker Team. She has spent over three non sequential years in Iraq since before the "illegal"invasion and after. She and her group made some of the first contacts and interviews with prisoners of Abu Gharib detainees and family members of detainees. They have been persistent in handing in these reports to U.s. and International officials. Seymour Hersch did interview the CPT'ERS for one of his stories about Iraq. She was in Iraq when her fellow CPT members were kidnapped and one was killed.

I did not know that she was returning, I have been out of the loop for a month. I will be taking her to the airport in Columbus on MOnday. I will be audio taping an interview with her. I am obviously not a professional at this, but have done several interviews with her on our local university radio station.

I have been able to get her interviews ( by being persistent and politely pounding) on Diane Rehm show and with Seymour Hersch, and on the Talk of the Nation. Peggy is truely a humble person and a "walk the talk" Christian.
She does not promote what she does and does not try to get attention for her incredible work and service.

Does anyone have any ideas or contacts for her before her departure on Monday evening.

DAVID WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO A PHONE INTERVIEW WITH HER? I will be calling all of my previous contacts, but it is rather late notice.

Kathleen -- Not sure if this is what you have in mind, but you might try the Thom Hartmann Show:

Louise@ThomHartmann.com

thom@ThomHartmann.com

or try to contact him through KPOJ Radio in Portland, Oregon

Here you go Larry King and #61 Joe. The Un did not "go along" with the Bush administrations lies about WMD's or the invasion or Iraq. And Larry King is a liar about this issue and he should retract his statement immediately.

Positions of Security Council members
United States - The US maintained that Iraq was not cooperating with UN inspectors and had not met its obligations to 17 UN resolutions. The US felt that resolution 1441 called for the immediate, total disarmament of Iraq and continued to show frustration at the fact that months after the resolution was passed Iraq was still not disarming.
United Kingdom - Within the United Nations Security Council, the United Kingdom was the primary supporter of the U.S. plan to invade Iraq. Tony Blair, the British prime minister, publicly and vigorously supported American policy on Iraq, but was perceived by some to exert a moderating influence on the American president George W. Bush. British public opinion polls in late January showed that the public support for the war was deteriorating. It had fallen from 50% to 30% by March.

France - On January 20, 2003, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said, "We think that military intervention would be the worst possible solution," although France believed that Iraq may have had an ongoing chemical and nuclear weapons program. Villepin went on to say that he believed the presence of UN weapons inspectors had frozen Iraq's weapons programs. France also suggested that it would veto any resolution allowing military intervention offered by the U.S. or Britain, even if a majority of the U.N. Security Council members voted for it. Britain and the U.S. sharply criticized France for this position in March, 2003. De Villepin and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov garnered unusual applause inside the chamber with their speeches against the war.

Germany - On January 22, German chancellor Gerhard Schr?der at a meeting with French president Jacques Chirac said that he and Mr. Chirac would do all they could to avert war. At the time, Germany was presiding over the Security council.

Russia - On the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that "Russia deems that there is no evidence that would justify a war in Iraq." On January 28, however, Russia's opinion had begun to shift following a report the previous day by UN inspectors which stated that Iraq had cooperated on a practical level with monitors, but had not demonstrated a "genuine acceptance" of the need to disarm. Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated that he would support a US led war if things did not change and Iraq continued to show a reluctance to completely cooperate with inspection teams. However, Putin continued to stress that the US must not go alone in any such military endeavor, but instead must work through the UN Security Council. He also stressed the need for giving the UN inspectors more time.

China - The People's Republic of China supported continued weapons inspections. On January 23, the Washington Post reported that the Chinese position was "extremely close" to that of France.

Angola - Angola supported continued inspections, but had not taken a stand on disarmament by military action.

Bulgaria - Bulgaria suggested that it would support the use of military force to disarm Iraq, even without UN backing.

Cameroon - Cameroon encouraged the continued inspections, but had not taken a firm stand on whether the country would support a US led strike to invade Iraq.

Chile - Chile indicated that it would like inspections to continue, but had not taken a position on the use of military force to disarm Iraq.

Guinea - Guinea supported further inspections, but had not taken a position on the use of military force to disarm Iraq.

Mexico - Mexico supported further inspections, and indicated that it would support a US led military campaign if it was backed by the UN. The country hinted that it might consider supporting a military campaign without UN backing as well. President Vicente Fox heavily criticized the war when it started.

Pakistan - Pakistan supported continued inspections.

Syria - Syria seemed to feel that Iraq was cooperating and meeting its obligations under UN resolutions. Syria would have liked to see UN sanctions on Iraq lifted.

Spain - Spain supported the US's position on Iraq and supported the use of force to disarm Iraq, even without UN approval

Thanks Micki..you never know what will work.

Oh, kathleen. You answered my question about why the Bush administration wants to get rid of the UN. So they can start wars and take over countries.

Now...why did they shut down the Bin Laden unit. Al Qaida is still going strong and Bin Laden is still a threat is he not? I don't get it.

I'll be back. Must buy groceries.

Politically speaking, tribal nationalism always insists that its own people is surrounded by "a world of enemies", "one against all", that a fundmental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man: Hannah Arendt, from her book The Origins Of Totalitarianism p.227

=
"It is also in the interests of a tyrant to keep his people poor, so that they may not be able to afford the cost of protecting themselves by arms and be so occupied with their daily tasks that they have no time for rebellion.": Aristotle in Politics, J. Sinclair translation, pg. 226, 1962 -

=
Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests: George Washington (1732-1799) Founding Father, 1st US President, 'Father of the Country' -Source: Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, Ref: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (521)

===
Thanks ICH Newsletter!

#252 kathleen, I agree!

Father Groeschel is on EWTN, a Catholic Television Station, and he will tell it like it is. He does not give the priests a free pass. He is not silent or in a state of denial. His openness can be a great help to the Church. He has not been muzzled by the powers-that-be. Sweeping problems under the carpetting is no help or answer. Because of Father Groeschel, I feel better as a Catholic.

We just came back home from a high school graduation and my neocon in-laws were not there. I was able to inhale the clean air and not suck in the stench from their bullshit.

kathleen, thank you for speaking out on my sentiments regarding Larry King. I do not watch his show because he is a kiss ass repugnant.

Larry King is a notch above O'Reilly and Hannity and that is about it.

Yes! Yet another delusional bit of Korn's whining world view by someone who's grip on reality is so tenuous it defies description...:lol:

Note the following: "Bush's plan, though, is based on exploiting the low wages of Mexico. That is, let's bring in more low-wage workers who don't expect to make a living wage here and whom we don't have to treat as citizens. Use them and send them back"...

Korn knows this how?

Typical liberal moonbat that Korn is, he continues to pander to the wetbacks which obviously must mean that Korn endorses crime...

Then again which liberal moonbat hasn't endorsed crime of some sort?...

Note this bit of clueless drivel we've come to expect from someone like Korn, someone who doesn't even understand the most basic economic principles: "Yet the apparent election in Mexico of Felipe Calderon, a booster of NAFTA, is not likely to lead to policies in Mexico that produce higher wages"...

Well Korn, if you want the potential wetbacks to have higher wages then why don't YOU open your own wallet and pay these people what you think they are worth?

Funny but your grip on economics sort of mirrors that of that other raving moonbat, Krugman of the N.Y. Times...

Yes boys and girls, another typical liberal trait on display, long on the talk, short on the walk...

Good one Korn!

How do ya like this headline? - Lay to Be Buried in Colorado After Houston `Broke His Heart'

Something tells me from that headline Lay's wife will not be giving back any of the money he stole from the workers.

look at mr. sneaky man hating our freedoms! boo!

Seven Questions: Covering Iraq

Reporting from Iraq has become one of journalism's most difficult and dangerous jobs. FP spoke recently with Rod Nordland, who served as Newsweek's Baghdad bureau chief for two years, about the challenge of getting out of the Green Zone to get the scoop.

FOREIGN POLICY: Are Americans getting an accurate picture of what's going on in Iraq?

Rod Nordland: It's a lot worse over here [in Iraq] than is reported. The administration does a great job of managing the news. Just an example: There was a press conference here about [Abu Musab al] Zarqawi's death, and somebody asked what role [U.S.] Special Forces played in finding Zarqawi. [The official] either denied any role or didn't answer the question. Somebody pointed out that the president, half an hour earlier, had already acknowledged and thanked the Special Forces for their involvement. They are just not giving very much information here.

FP: The Bush administration often complains that the reporting out of Iraq is too negative, yet you say they are managing the news. What's the real story?

RN: You can only manage the news to a certain degree. It is certainly hard to hide the fact that in the third year of this war, Iraqis are only getting electricity for about 5 to 10 percent of the day. Living conditions have gotten so much worse, violence is at an even higher tempo, and the country is on the verge of civil war. The administration has been successful to the extent that most Americans are not aware of just how dire it is and how little progress has been made. They keep talking about how the Iraqi army is doing much better and taking over responsibilities, but for the most part that's not true.

Insantity Defense

As Suskind notes, it was Cheney who enunciated the certifiably paranoid principle that governs the regime's behavior: If there is even a 1 percent chance that some state or group might do serious harm to the United States, then America must respond as if that threat were a certainty -- with full force, pre-emptively. Facts, truth, law are unimportant; the only thing that matters is the projection of unchallengeable power. "It's not about our analysis, or finding a preponderance of evidence," Cheney said. "It's about our response."

This is plainly madness. Whether the insanity of the "doctrine" is genuine -- i.e., a pathological panic reaction by gutless, pampered fat-cats scared of the slightest murmur from the dusky tribes out there, beyond the iron gates and razor wire of privilege -- or if, more likely, it is simply the chosen rationalization for a gang of predators tired of the few restraints that constitutional government has placed on their lust for loot and domination, the end result is the same: The most powerful country in the history of the world is being run by moral degenerates in thrall to a lunatic policy.

A bit more from above.

Bush's sinister nod and wink were clearly understood. The wretched Zubaydah was "waterboarded," beaten repeatedly and threatened with death. He was battered with white noise and deprived of sleep, and his medication was taken away. His broken mind snapped completely. He began spewing out whatever his tormentors wanted to hear, fantastic tales of plots aimed at targets all over America -- meat for countless "terror alerts" whenever the political situation called for a nice, juicy scare to goose the rubes.

But perhaps the most revealing moment in Suskind's book is a brief vignette that captures the quintessence of Bush's callous disregard for the American people -- and the regime's strange, preternatural calm in the face of imminent attack. In August 2001, while Bush dawdled on his Texas dude ranch, the entire national security system was, in Tenet's words, "blinking red" in expectation of a major terrorist strike. On Aug. 6, a CIA official brought the infamous "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." memo to Crawford and read it out personally to the president. In response, he got nothing but a snide dismissal: "All right, you've covered your ass now."

That was it. Bush had nothing else to say about this stark threat of impending slaughter. He had no questions, no advice, no commands -- just smirking contempt. Even if we give Bush every benefit of the doubt, even if we put the most charitable construction possible on his behavior, the very best you could say of his reaction is that it represents a blood-curdling degree of depraved indifference and criminal negligence worthy of Nero.

Beyond this "best-case" scenario, you tumble into an abyss of ever-darker implications, a deep murk that may never be dispelled. But what we know, what is plain as day, is bad enough: Tyranny has come -- aggressive, remorseless, murderous, mad.
-------------------
I bring you, ladies and gentlemen, our president.

HAJJI what's up with this?

Artificial Blood Experiment Hits 27 U.S. Cities

Oh dear, Happy. I believe I shall have to replace you soon as you appear to be getting a bit chubby from feasting on corndogs and donuts. But wait!! I'll just add an eighth dwarf to my story. Happy no longer, you are now Chubby!

Quote of the day from Today in Iraq

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "There is no power so convinced of its own benevolence as the United States. The culture is delusional in its commitment to this mythology, which is why today one can find on the other side of the world peasant farmers with no formal education who understand better the nature of U.S. power than many faculty members at elite U.S. universities." -- Robert Jensen, a professor of journalism at UT Austin

Spy,

The product is real, the non-consent is legal, but all reasonable attempt for consent must be made. Quite frankly, if a patient is bleeding out, the assumption is that he'd wish to be saved. Consent for all medical treatment is implied until withdrawn, in an emergency situation. (unfortunately, that often includes the intubation of patients who probably wouldn't desire such, but never wrote it down.

Artificial blood-expanders, FFP (fresh, frozen plasma) and other non-type/antigen specific products have been in use for emergeny medicine and surgery for decades.

Consent for blood transfusions and/or any of these other products must be obtained from the patient, family or POA (power of attorney)if at all possible. Absent signed consent, the ER doc can make a life-saving decision, but he'll be putting his licsense to practice on the line if he ordered the administration of experimental product without every attempt at informed consent.

One interesting aspect of such a product would be possible acceptance by persons with religious aversions to recieving true blood products. Lactated Ringers (a blood volume expander) is often administered to such patients whose beliefs prohibit human or animal blood products or transplants.

There IS a huge battlefield and EMS application for such product, but I can't see anything to be gained from "sneaking it in" on a patient. There's plenty of willing (or unresponsive) test subjects, on battlefields, in MVA's in gang-shootings and industrial accidents. Subterfuge testing is highly unethical, undoubtably illegal and wholy uneccessary.

Any community taking part in the study should publicize the program as widely as possible. In a true emergency situation, however, if you're not wearing a Med-Alert ID, or have somebody nearby who is qualified to express your wishes...you're fair game!

That, of course, all goes away if you don't make it. Your organs CANNOT be harvested without prior consent or POA approval. Interesting twist, that...

That said, would such product satisfy the Vampire?

-T

(The above statements are stictly the opinions of a white-wine on ice swilling drunkard who sobers up enough, on occasion, to work in an ER and should not imply and legal or medical knowlege beyond what you'd get from a week-long Marcus Welby, MD marathon)

And on reading the blog, I'd say that any patient who "verbally" withdraws consent, would have his/her wishes granted immediately. Failure to do so would be a direct and gross violation of the patient's rights.

Continuation of ANY medicine or treatment specifically declined by a patient or POA would most certainly find the doctor, the facility and every single healthcare provider with their name on the chart AS WELL AS their supervisors in a courtroom before you could say "Chad Everett".

-T

279.

I heard a report on NPR about Lay's estate. They said his assets are about 9 million including real estate and his liabilities are about 9 million. When the executor is done, he dies broke, which is just fine for him and his family who are beneficiaries of a $10 million dollar insurance policy, which cannot be attached.

If you think the death was staged, then follow the $10 million insurance company death benefit because no insurance company would willfully pay a false claim unless someone is bought off. . . . with a LOT of dough.

Because Lay had not yet been sentenced and because we have a presumption of innocence as well as the right to defend ourselves through the appeals process, LAYíS CONVICTION IS STRUCK FROM THE RECORD

The government is interested in recouping about 48 Million in ill-gotten gains and restitution. They canít get it from Lay so theyíll try to get it Skillings.

DAMMIT, Spy!

You got me talkin' 'bout work when I'm not there. I'm gonna hafta bill you for my time. Just send photocopies of your guarrantor information...and I can submit a "consult" fee.

We DO take all major credit cards and cash!

now, goodnight!

-T

Blue moooon...dada da dedada dadedededeede...hmmm hmmm hmmm hmm hmm....without a love of my own.

"Without a dream in my heart"

Bearing Injustice

Blue moon
You saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own

Blue moon
You know just what I was there for
You heard me saying a prayer for
Someone I really could care for

And then there suddenly appeared before me
The only one my arms will hold
I heard somebody whisper please adore me
And when I looked to the moon it turned to gold

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that the New Testament beatitudes respond to our natural desire for happiness. "This desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it." (No. 1718)

Another clue to explaining our desire for happiness is the Christian virtue of hope. God has placed an aspiration to happiness in every person's heart and hope responds to this, explains number 1818 of the Catechism. The purification of our aspirations by means of the virtue of hope not only helps us avoid discouragement, but also preserves us from selfishness and leads us to a happiness that flows from charity.

In terms of material goods and happiness, the Catechism reminds the faithful of the words of Jesus who exhorted the disciples to renounce everything for his sake and that of the Gospel (Lk 14:33).

In a series of numbers (2544-47), the Catechism develops the theme of poverty of the heart, reminding Christians of how Jesus motivated his followers to renounce worldly riches and to place our trust in God.

True happiness does not come from riches, fame or power, explains No. 1723 of the Catechism. These things are beneficial, but lasting happiness only comes from God, the source of every good and all love.

These are lessons not always easy to remember.

Nazi America is a land of riches. But, her citizens suffer from the poverty of the heart. This poverty of the heart is destroying Nazi America.

Listen ('bout a minute) to this radio jock tell Ann the man to get lost and hangs up on her. haha

get lost

Here's another hint that the NYTimes is working on another 'hit' to the administration.

Ally Warned Bush on Keeping Spying From Congress

WASHINGTON, July 8 — In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters.

The letter from Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not specify the intelligence activities that he believed had been hidden from Congress.

But Mr. Hoekstra, who was briefed on and supported the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department's tracking of international banking transactions, clearly was referring to programs that have not been publicly revealed.

U.S. Military Braces for Flurry of Criminal Cases in Iraq

No American serviceman has been executed since 1961. But in the past month, new cases in Iraq have led to charges against 12 American servicemen who may face the death penalty in connection with the killing of Iraqi civilians.

Inside the anti-US resistance

Osama Bin Laden is ill and invisible, but five years after September 11, 2001, his al-Qaeda movement has become the fulcrum of a global, Islamic resistance against the United States.

Asia Times Online has learned from an operative close to the al-Qaeda leadership that bin Laden languishes on a dialysis machine, in rapidly declining health.

"Sheikh [Osama] was in a poor condition when my father last visited," said the operative, who uses the name "Abdullah". Abdullah's father, known as Sheikh Ibrahim, is number two after Tahir Yuldeshev in the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IUM), a group closely allied with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and operating in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan.

Sheikh Ibrahim's meeting with bin Laden took place "a few weeks ago", Abdullah told Asia Times Online in an interview at the end of June in a northern Pakistani city. Abdullah had traveled there from North Waziristan, a Pakistani tribal agency on the Afghanistan border, to meet this correspondent.

"He [bin Laden] asked all of us to pray for his health. For the past many months he has been on dialysis and just cannot move. My father never told me where he was when he met Osama but he was worried about his fast-waning health."

Nevertheless, said Abdullah, the al-Qaeda leadership remains in Afghanistan and still serves as the nucleus of the movement.

More HERE

Baghdad: City of Shrinking Dreams

A daily intelligence brief on Iraq, prepared by a private contractor for the U.S. military and companies working in Iraq, paints a grim picture of life in Baghdad. The daily report for July 7 documents a slew of sectarian attacks and car bombings around the capital and says that "the levels of torture and execution-style killings illustrate the increasing disregard for human life by the perpetrators for those not of their own grouping."

The report, marked "for official use only," also goes on to describe Baghdad as a city without spirit. "Baghdad looks so exhausted these days and so do her people; the relentless violence, the lack of basic services and the scorching heat abolishes human desire to do anything or to even think of anything," says the daily report, which is compiled by SOC-SMG Inc., a Nevada-based contractor. "Living for many Iraqis was reduced to existence a long time ago; dreams and desires are shrinking under the heavy shadows of the situation." Neil King Jr.

Update: Readers pointed out that certain parts of the report are nearly identical to posts on Iraq the Model, an Iraq blog. See an updated item.

More HERE

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

Not so rosy.

capt

Baghdad Report Update

A daily intelligence brief on Iraq, prepared by a private contractor for the U.S. military and companies working in Iraq, paints a grim picture of life in Baghdad. The daily report for July 7 documents a slew of sectarian attacks and car bombings around the capital and says that "the levels of torture and execution-style killings illustrate the increasing disregard for human life by the perpetrators for those not of their own grouping."

But the report, marked "for official use only," also goes on to describe Baghdad as a city without spirit in a long passage lifted straight from a popular Iraqi blog called Iraq the Model. "Baghdad looks so exhausted these days and so do her people; the relentless violence, the lack of basic services and the scorching heat abolishes human desire to do anything or to even think of anything," says the daily report, which is compiled by SOC-SMG Inc., a Nevada-based contractor. The language of this and several other passages mirrors almost exactly a posting for the July 6 edition of Iraq the Model. "Living for many Iraqis was reduced to existence a long time ago; dreams and desires are shrinking under the heavy shadows of the situation."

The company's interim CEO, Robert Shields, said he was unaware of the overlap and would look into it. But "we draw information from a variety of sources," he said. Neil King Jr.

More HERE

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The update.

capt

I don't doubt it. I wouldn't want to be an Iraqi citizen in Baghdad at this point in time. War is hell but you don't need me to tell you that. When are our leaders going to wake up and realize that at least electricity must be up and running and water service needs to be there. I've read that the kids all have belly aches from drinking the water. It's in the middle east. It's a sad situation. We broke it - we have to fix it. Instead, we are staying the course and waiting for the Iraqis to do it themselves. We have traumatized them in my opinion.

http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2006/07/09/430337.html

Here's a recent occurrence that highlights the misery in Baghdad.

Line of the year .... 'We get the donuts. They get the hole'. Mr. David Corn

Gore movie reaching the red states, too

Since the Al Gore global warming film, "An Inconvenient Truth," opened in the Bay Area five weeks ago, approving audiences have left the theater murmuring a similar refrain: "I hope the people who need to see it, see it."

In the region's politically blue vernacular, that translates as "red state audiences." And so far, those audiences are seeing it. The film is playing in the nation's top 185 markets, getting off-the-chart audience recommendations in conservative bastions like Plano, Texas, and Orange County. "Truth" is the third-highest-grossing political documentary of all time, behind Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" (which grossed $119 million) and "Bowling for Columbine" ($21 million).

More HERE

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Gore pop star?

capt

37 Sunni Arabs slain in Baghdad ambush

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Masked Shiite gunmen stopped cars in western Baghdad Sunday and grabbed people off the streets, singling out the Sunni Arabs among them and killing at least 37, police said.

The attack in the Jihad neighborhood apparently was retaliation for the car bombing of a local Shiite mosque the night before.

Police Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said 37 bodies were taken to hospitals and police were searching for more victims reportedly left dumped in the streets. He also said U.S. and Iraqi forces had sealed off the area.

Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie, a Sunni, called the attack "a real and ugly massacre."

He blamed Iraqi security forces that are widely believed to have been infiltrated by Shiite militia.

More HERE

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While Bush Dispenses the Rovian Fictional Propaganda, Here's the Macabre Reality. "37 Sunni Arabs slain in Baghdad ambush."

capt

India tests new ballistic missile

India has carried out a first test of its longest-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile, officials say.

The Agni-III surface-to-surface missile was test-fired off the coast of Orissa state. Reports say it can reach targets as far away as Beijing and Shanghai.

India says the test is routine and not aimed at unnerving arch-rival Pakistan. Both nations regularly test missiles.

Last week, North Korea sparked an outcry by test firing missiles without warning into the sea of Japan.

More HERE

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I wonder how consistent world reaction will be?

capt

Dear diary,

Forgive me this day for I am weak and lightheaded due to the rolling fast I have been on these past several days. I can't count the number of meals I have missed though I am certain my misery will catch the attention of the President and Secretary of Defense. Just in case I do not survive my rolling fast, I wish to post my last will & testicle. Please make sure that all my worldly possessions are given to the Widow Sheehan upon my untimely demise. She has squandered any goodwill she may have received by becoming a political prostitute. Once she can be of no service to those in the media, she will left to the gutter like a poorly thrown bowling ball. And, unfortunately for her, the ball return will be inoperable. Now I must go and miss another meal. So much sacrifice, so little time.

"The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people."

~ Justice Hugo L. Black - (1886-1971) US Supreme Court Justice - Source: New York Times v. Unites States (Pentagon Papers) 1971

The Fleeting Lights of Freedom

Indeed, for all its reputed obsession with secrecy, the Bush Regime has been remarkably open about its usurpations. "Extrajudicial killing," torture, indefinite detention, mass surveillance, defiance of court rulings and Congress, employment of death squads, an unprovoked war of aggression –†all have been carried out openly, readily apparent to anyone with access to mainstream media sources. That the Supreme Court has only now challenged the essence of Bush's claim to authoritarian power is poignant testimony to how deep the rot of tyranny has spread.

Bush's reaction to the ruling is more evidence of the decay. After a vague, haughty promise to "look at the findings" –†rather than simply obey them, as the law requires –†Bush declared: "One thing I'm not going to do, though, is I'm not going to jeopardize the safety of the American people. People have got to understand that." Thus in his mind the circular core of his authoritarian philosophy –†the voracious worm that is devouring the Republic, the very thing that the Court ruled against –†remains intact: any action that he arbitrarily declares necessary to ensure "the safety of the American people" cannot be restrained by laws or courts.

Already, the lickspittle, lock-step Congress is preparing laws to retroactively "legalize" past Bush crimes and countenance future offenses. As legal scholar Mark Garber notes, this will likely satisfy at least one of the Court's wavering moderates when the next test of Bush's tyranny comes around, sinking the razor-thin majority for liberty –†which will soon disappear in any case when the ancient Stevens shuffles off this mortal coil. His bold stroke for freedom was magic indeed, but it may prove, in the corrupted currents of this world, to be such stuff as dreams are made on.

More HERE

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The SCOTUS was a joke back in 2000, now it is a parody of a joke that is not funny, not in the least part.

capt

Micki - read you early post from Friday about Bush, the political atmosphere, science and the Pirates. Rove wants an eye patch and the wig with a bandana. Saw the pic of Bush blowing out the candles on his cake. He should have been able to handle that one, but who knows. Yeh, Fuck Bush!

Kenny Boy does plan on taking it with him. His death makes it almost certain that the government won't get his money. Heard the coroner: 'Exhibits signs of coronary artery disease and there is evidence of a past heart attack' Sure, but what did he die from?

Lay was a liteweight. Enron lost 5,000 jobs. What about Ford and GM losing 75,000? The cumulative effect is a loss of 560,000 jobs across the country. Whats good for the DOW is good for America. "As GM goes, so goes the nation."

The tax cuts seem to be what is sustaining economic growth. Since it only matters that we give them to the top income earners, we should cut them for everyone over $150,000. This would heat things up to the point where the FED can raise interest rates another 17 times and the rest of us can pay $6.00 for gas and 45% interest on our credit cards. Since there won't be any consumers left in the market, we can outsource another million jobs and enter into two more wars. This will force China to own us outright and put a total end to those pesky freedoms that we only take for granted allowing total access to all we do.

And Dick Cheney accuses Lithuania of backsliding on democracy.

Capt. It's a hoot that the article in your last post #311 that it was Ford's chief of staff Dick Cheney that pushed through Justice Steven's nomination. That's funny.

Yes, the rest is not funny!

Was Bob Woodward Slam-Dunked?

However, in the two years since publication of Plan of Attack, other evidence has emerged suggesting that Woodward was acting less as an objective journalist than as a stenographer taking down the preferred history of Bush's inner circle. The legendary hero of the Watergate scandal may have been the one who was slam-dunked.

Conflicting Account

A contrary version of that Oval Office meeting appears in Ron Suskind's The One Percent Doctrine, which drew heavily from U.S. intelligence officials much as Woodward's book relied on senior White House officials.

According to Suskind, the two CIA officials –†Tenet and McLaughlin –†have very different recollections of the Dec. 21, 2002, meeting. They remember it more as "a marketing meeting" about how to present the WMD case, not a review of the quality of the underlying intelligence.

Both Tenet and McLaughlin say they don't even recall Tenet exclaiming the words "slam dunk," although Tenet won't dispute the version from Bush and his top aides, Suskind wrote.

"McLaughlin said he never remembered Tenet saying Slam dunk, Suskind wrote. "He doesn't recall Tenet ever, in any context, jumping up and waving his arms. The President's question, McLaughlin recalled, was whether we could craft a better pitch than this - a PR meeting - it certainly wasn't about the nature of the evidence.

More HERE

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A PR meeting to sell the Iraq lies sounds about right. I knew the "slam dunk" was BS.

The PR meetings were above top secret so Tenet cannot repeat what he did say. (my guess: "Selling this to the public will be a slam dunk")

capt

No Korea has made agreement after agreement and broken agreement after agreement. How can they be trusted?

They have short range missiles and nuclear weapons. How can they be trusted?

The threat of sanction rings hollow if China does't cooperate but how can they be trusted?

Isn't it time to use our military force becuause how can they be trusted.

Save Our Oceans

Few people understand how intricately critical are the oceans to life on the earth part of the Planet. Even fewer know how fragile a variety of conditions are in the Oceans which are daily being battered by man's effusions (e.g., plastic trash) and predations, (e.g., industrial overfishing).

One study concluded that the Big Fish in the oceans are down by 90%. They have been hunted or destroyed one way or another. The total ocean catch has been declining for several years.

Enjoy, enjoy the oceans, urges Helvarg. But do so with ecological wisdom, if only for the sake of your descendents. In his foreword to "50 Ways to Save the Ocean," Phillipe Cousteau writes "Each one of us has an earth echo, it defines our relationship with the planet and each other. . . . Begin creating an earth echo that you can be proud of."

More HERE

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I wish Nader had zeroed in on the "voting" issues but he has a unique voice and I enjoy reading what he writes.

capt

I woke up this morning with an idea. It would undoubtedly create an accounting challenge, but here it is:

Bill Gates, George Soros, and Warren Buffet pool their resources and raise -- and pay, of course! -- the minimum wage to $10.30. Voila! Double the current fed amount!

They cut to the chase, bypassing Congress, bush, and all the anti-groups. Oh, and they throw in benefits. Sounds good to me.

Okay, off to Seattle...

What's an Iraqi Life Worth?
________________

Gen. Tommy Franks, who commanded U.S. forces when they entered Iraq more than three years ago, famously declared: "We don't do body counts." Franks was speaking in code. What he meant was this: The U.S. military has learned the lessons of Vietnam -- where body counts became a principal, and much derided, public measure of success -- and it has no intention of repeating that experience. Franks was not going to be one of those generals re-fighting the last war.

Unfortunately, Franks and other senior commanders had not so much learned from Vietnam as forgotten it. This disdain for counting bodies, especially those of Iraqi civilians killed in the course of U.S. operations, is among the reasons why U.S. forces find themselves in another quagmire. It's not that the United States has an aversion to all body counts. We tally every U.S. service member who falls in Iraq, and rightly so. But only in recent months have military leaders finally begun to count -- for internal use only -- some of the very large number of Iraqi noncombatants whom American bullets and bombs have killed.

Through the war's first three years, any Iraqi venturing too close to an American convoy or checkpoint was likely to come under fire. Thousands of these "escalation of force" episodes occurred. Now, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the commander of U.S. ground forces in Iraq, has begun to recognize the hidden cost of such an approach. "People who were on the fence or supported us" in the past "have in fact decided to strike out against us," he recently acknowledged.

___

The insurance payout to the beneficiaries of an American soldier who dies in the line of duty is $400,000, while in the eyes of the U.S. government, a dead Iraqi civilian is reportedly worth up to $2,500 in condolence payments -- about the price of a decent plasma-screen TV.
____________________

Sickeningly amazing.

-T

North Korea, Bush Ally

Of course Bush is rejecting talks with North Korea. Why bother? To the delight of military contractors, he's playing Kim Jung Il perfectly. Another source of endless fear to stoke, another conveniently unprovable stash of supposedly deadly evidence, another vindication for seeing the world as an evil ax to grind, mostly to the benefit of the GOP's electoral strategies (but not without a few Strangelove stragglers from the Clinton years). Without fear as a trump card, Republicans have nothing to go on. But we had it coming. The war in Iraq is lost. Afghanistan is being lost. We needed a new front. Tee-up North Korea. And ring up those contractors. They have one hell of a Christmas bonus coming their way.

More HERE

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Sell a new boogeyman to the public? A slam dunk, eh?

capt

I would love to see the remake of Dr. Strangelove with the Bush lookalike playing the role that Slim Pickens played - riding the nuke down to earth and screaming 'yeah hah'!

Since 1897 and sinking of the USS Maine in Cuba, the Bush family and the Mlitary Industrial (WMD) Complex have been bedmates. Fuck Bush? Every day they say.

Race to Lower Corporate Taxes Hurting Governments' Bottom Lines - Report

Nearly one-third of the largest U.S.-based multinational corporations either failed to pay any taxes or managed to get a refund in at least one of the years between 2001 and 2003--a practice that adds to the burden of taxation for millions of working people--according to the study entitled, "Having Their Cake and Eating It Too - the Great Corporate Tax Break."

The statistical data used in the study shows that similar trends are prevalent in many countries in the industrialized world where governments are more than willing to lower corporate tax rates. Among others, they include Britain, Japan, Germany, and Italy.

In the past 20 years, industrial countries have witnessed a 15 percent decline in the rate of corporate tax, a trend that reflects increased official backing for corporate interests.

As for developing countries, where "tax havens" are created by governments to attract investment and exploited by companies often in violation of international labor standards, the amount of loss in corporate tax payment is estimated to be around $50 billion a year.

Many governments are engaged in a competition to lower the tax rates, according to the authors of the report , who note that if corporate taxation kept receding at the current rate, it would hit "zero" by the middle of the century.

More HERE

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There was a time when corporations paid to have access to the American markets, now we pay them to take our money so they can buy more influence to make certain the corporations paid to take our money, pollute our country, empower politicians that care more about their personal bottom line than representing the people.

The oligarchy are pleased as punch.

capt

Micki 317, or they could withold donations to congressmen that oppose a pay hike for our workers.This string of posts started with donuts and the need for immigrants vs a decent minimum wage. I heard on NPR yesterday that dishwashers in New Orleans are getting $10 per hour, double what they earned before Katrina.

One has to wonder, how many illegals are working at the Crawford Ranch and how much they get paid.? "To Decide and Protect."

Social Security battle reignites
By Amy Fagan

The seemingly dead issue of Social Security reform came to life again in recent weeks, with President Bush saying it should be high on the agenda and Democrats warning that Republicans are resurrecting their plan to privatize the system.

= = = =

Why should working stiffs pay for ole' bitties?

Why should the wealthy pay 9.5% of their income up to 95,000? We don't need social security handouts. This is another socialist program coddling the weak and making America soft. It's more compassionate to speak the truth.

Business doesn't need an additional 9.5% tax on wages. It's reduces business profits by at least that much. Hell, I started the business I should keep the profits.

The market can produce gains to solve all our problems. Privatize now!

Hajji. This is not logical: The US being forced to stay in a country where we don't belong and are not wanted only to provokes attacks from an insurgency, that without us would not exist. We are sold on this as a war, yet this does not fall under the defination of war or warfare.

It is a Police Action. It has no Foreign Policy goal yetIt has achieved four things: Death, Destruction, Chaos in Oil Pricing, and the total Erosion of our image as in intelligent and compassionate Nation.

Social Security privatization is dead in the water.

SS is another distraction issue, a trial ballon to distract the electorate from the abject failure of Bush adminstration policies, their failure to govern, the disasterous WAR policy and the never-ending corruption.

Had enough?

The Republicans DO Have a Plan - And it is Called FEAR

Since election 2004, America had faced few terrorist related threats. Suddenly, now that campaign 2006 is underway and Republicans are trailing in polls, barely a day passes without a new threat of some sort being blared across the airwaves. The threats are magnified and over-hyped by the media in a manner designed to instill fear in the hearts of the American people.

One week Iran is the face of "evil". The next it is Zarqawi. Then it is an amorphous thing called "homegrown terrorism", which was highlighted through the arrest of seven hapless fools in Miami. Suddenly the danger shifts and it is North Korea misfiring several harmless missiles. Yet, before the public can breathe a non-anxious breath, a plot to blowup tunnels in New York City is discovered and reported.

The Republican strategy of dividing the nation while inspiring their base through "culture war" issues has failed. Word has leaked out that Rove intends to run a national "Swift Boat" campaign in any district that might be close. Bush has all ready said Republicans will hold onto both Houses of Congress - apparently not concerned about what voters might decide.

327 - WE HAVE DEFINED THE FACE OF AL QAIDA. WE HAVE DESCRIBED IT IN THE TERMS OF FEAR UNTIL IT HAS A FACE. 7 DEADBEATS IN MIAMI LOOKING FOR A BUS TO CHICAGO BECOMES A THREAT TO THE SEARS TOWER. 6 'JIHADISTS' CHATTING ONLINE WORLD WIDE, WHO HAVE NEVER BEEN TO AMERICA OR EVEN KNOW EACH OTHER ARE A PLOT TO BLOW THE HOLLAND TUNNEL.

THERE IS NO AL QAIDA, THERE IS ONLY "TO DECIDE AND PROTECT"

#302 geofo1...New Orleans passed a living wage ordianance in 2002. Those dishwashers were making more than $5.25 an hour before Katrina unless they were illegal.

'Living wage' laws gain momentum across US
New study shows higher incomes from 'living wage' outweigh the cost in job losses.

By Daniel B. Wood | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
INGLEWOOD, CALIF. –†Three years ago, Juana Zatarin couldn't make ends meet. The mother of three, a baggage handler at Los Angeles International Airport, was subsisting on an income about half that of the federal poverty rate of $17,028 for a family of four.
Today, thanks to a "living wage" law requiring city contractors to pay employees a minimum of $8.97 per hour, Ms. Zatarin earns more than $24,000 a year. Now life is good. "I can make my payments on time now and even have a chance to take some time off," she says.
It is a story that is being repeated in dozens of cities across America as part of a trend that –†surprisingly –†has continued to spread even during the economic downturn.

When Baltimore in 1994 became the first American city to adopt a so-called living-wage ordinance, critics said it would reduce employment and hobble local businesses and contractors forced to pay higher wages.

But more than 60 municipalities have since passed such laws,
in 2002.

Living wage in Santa Fe NM - $9.15 an hour (not positive but sure it is close) the living wage only applies to businesses with 25 or more employees (protecting small business).

Seems to be working.

capt

Hume: A Preemptive Strike on North Korea Would Be a Successful Strategy

This morning on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume said North Korea's missiles are "sitting there like the Washington Monument" and "knocking the missiles out" would be "a successful possible strategy." Watch it:

Joe Cirincione explains why a preemptive strike on North Korea's missles would be a disastrous blunder.

Transcript:

WILLIAMS: I don't think you're suggesting in General Kristol mode that we start bombing the sites of their

HUME: That's what we could do.

WILLIAMS: If we do that, what are you inviting? What are you guys suggesting here is the hard line with North Korea?

HUME: The one thing about knocking the missiles out on the ground, they're sitting there like the Washington Monument, they can be struck. That is something we could do and would make a successful possible strategy.

More HERE

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Another Fox news armchair general. These warmongers make me sick.

capt

Bush Brags He Kept Campaign Promise on Global Warming, Forgets Pledge To Regulate CO2

On Larry King Live last night, President Bush suggested that he has followed through on campaign promises to deal with greenhouse gases. He cited his administration's investment in clean coal technologies:

We have done a lot to deal with greenhouse gases by advancing new technologies. You know, I campaigned against Al Gore. I said we're going to spend money for clean coal technologies, and we're in the process of doing that.

Bush neglected to mention that in 2000 he campaigned on a pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions as central component of his energy policy. On Sept. 29, 2000, while campaigning in Saginaw, MI, Bush said: "We will require all power plants to meet clean-air standards in order to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide within a reasonable period of time."

Shortly after being elected, Bush announced he was backing off his campaign pledge due to pressure from the oil industry. In a March 13, 2001 letter, Bush said: "I do not believe, however, that the government should impose on power plants mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide, which is not a pollutant under the Clean Air Act." Vice President Cheney said of Bush's campaign pledge, "It was a mistake because we aren't in a position today to cap emissions."

Last night, Bush brushed off Al Gore's criticisms of his failure to address global warming, saying, "I guess politics never stops." He's right about that.

More HERE

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Dollars to donuts - I bet Bush cannot remember what he campaigned for in 2004 let alone 2000. He is the decider so why should he care?

If it will make the people STFU he can have his GOP congress write it (anything) into law, then he can sign it (with an accompanying signing statement) and continue to do what he pleases. All legal and official.

All hail King Bunnypants!

capt

Watching FOX news Sunday is like watching Kabuki Theatre.

The alledgedly unbiased host remains on message playing tough guy and ignoring the experts complex and nuaned answers, repeatedly interupts the expert guest mid-sentance, and in effect rejects the well-informed state dept official's explanantion.

The host insists on defining the problem in simplistic terms and insinuates the only reasonable course of action is military because the North Koreans will not abide by any agreement.

The unbiased host is Joe Sixpack and he is afraid, yes, he is very afraid.

Washington Times ñ Front Page Photo

Packing It In

Surprise, surprise. In an interview with John King from CNN last Thursday, Dick Cheney said that withdrawing US forces from Iraq would be the "worst possible thing we could do."

Doing his best to stoke the always simmering fears of so many US residents (let us be careful how we use the word "citizen"), Cheney said of the terrorist groups in Iraq, "If we pull out, they'll follow us."

Because according to Cheney, "This is a global conflict. We've seen them attack in London and Madrid and Casablanca and Istanbul and Mombasa and East Africa. They've been, on a global basis, involved in this conflict. And it will continue - whether we complete the job or not in Iraq - only it'll get worse. Iraq will become a safe haven for terrorists. They'll use it in order to launch attacks against our friends and allies in that part of the world."

Lovely to watch how people like Cheney, and the minions who support his ilk, conveniently forget that there was no terrorism in Iraq prior to the US invasion/occupation. And one must love his "logic." For according to Cheney, "whether we complete the job or not in Iraq" his beloved "terrorism" will "continue" ... "only it'll get worse."

More HERE

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Pulling out is not the WORST thing we could do, sending our troops to occupy a country on a lies about WMD's is the WORST thing we could do. The second would be defending that pack of lies and warmonger fabrications.

Pulling the troops out is a good idea to all except Busheney and their moronic minions.

capt

Americans will be watching soccer today, while Iraqis will be avoiding being kidnapped, killed, or maimed, due to our invasion.

As Cheney said after 9/11 "the american lifestyle is not up for discussion."

Oh the AMERICAN DREAM

Living wage, minimum wage all other words you want to call it. If it goes up, so does the unemployment rate. It would at least be nice if some of you got it but many of you don't. I am employer of 20 people. I pay them based on the amount of profit I can generate as a business based on the market. A governmental law tells me I must pay my employees more and that I must comply. I comply by spreading the increase among 15 employees. I had to let go of 5 because of the increase. Why some of you goobers can't see this is beyond me. Kind of like you believe corporations pay taxes. They don't, you do. They just include the cost of their tax into their goods or services. Get a clue, goobers.

Screwed Up

Dear Cornposters:

Nazi Americans are a really screwed up people. I believe that the political parties have had a lead role in screwing up the minds of the people. Let us look at one issue that may help to explain.

The Repugnants say that they are a pro-life party and the Democrats are a pro-choice party. Actually, both parties are pro-life but they are in different time zones. The Repugnants are pro-life inside the mother's womb and outside they say to the mother and baby screw you. The Democrats say that they are pro-life outside the mother's womb and they say to the baby inside the womb screw you. Yes, both parties have screwed up our minds.

Where is a party that is pro-life from conception to natural death?

Sincerely,

Gerald

Police Abuses in Iraq Detailed

Confidential documents cover more than 400 investigations. Brutality, bribery and cooperation with militia fighters are common, a report says.

The report increased tensions between the Pentagon, which runs the police training program, and the State Department, which has been pushing to expand its limited training role in Iraq, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The report strikes contradictory tones, saying that the Interior Ministry continues to improve and that its forces are on track to take over civil security from U.S. and Iraqi military elements by the end of the year, while outlining shocking problems with corruption and abuse.

"The document basically shows that Interior Ministry management has failed," the U.S. official said. "The document didn't directly address U.S. policy failures, but I guess it does show that too."

Interior Ministry officials have taken steps to "improve detainee life," the report says. "However, there are elements within the MOI which continue to abuse detainees."

Referring to Sunni Arab insurgent groups and Shiite paramilitary organizations, the report says "these groups exploit MOI forces to further insurgent, party and sectarian goals. As a result, many Iraqis do not trust the police. Divisions falling along militia lines have led to violence among police.

"MOI officials and forces are widely reported to engage in bribery, extortion and theft," the report says. "For example, there are numerous credible reports of ministry and police officials requiring payment from would-be recruits to join the police."

The report's findings are borne out in hundreds of pages of internal investigative documents.

More HERE

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This should not be a surprise. This is what happens to the mentality of people when they have lived under the yoke of tyranny and oppression.

When "might makes right" violence is power.

capt

Saving Our Lifestyles

Dear Cornposters:

Saving our Nazi American lifestyles is very important. When Nazi Chainey talks about saving our lifestyles, he is really talking about saving the lifestyles of the rich and fancy. Saving the lifestyles of Paula Poverty and Michael Middle Class is not in the plan. The plan from the Nazis for Paula Poverty and Michael Middle Class is to screw them royally. It is BEND OVER HERE IT COMES AGAIN or B.O.H.I.C.A for short.

Never, ever believe that the Nazis have the interests of the poor and the middle class in mind. For the Nazis when it comes to the poor and the middle class, it is B.O.H.I.C.A.

Sincerely,

Gerald

Guess how many of those businesses now have 25 or fewer employees that were initially affected by the law. When will the legislature, in their impotent wisdom, declare that it must pertain to businesses with 20 or more? 15 or more? Until they drive small businesses out of business. That is the way of the liberal. Tax them to death, or at least force them into bankruptcy. Socialism anyone?

There has always been an upper class, a middle class and a lower class in America. It exists in all nations. Yet, in America, one has a chance to make it from the lower class to the upper class primarily through education and skill. In socialist or communist societies, one does not have such opportunity. I dare those of you who disagree to go try it in another country. Even the poor pay income taxes in other countries. Not here in America. Goobers!

We can never be fully alive and with God unless we help to bring about Shalom where all of God's children share in His gifts for the world.

Shalom

Here is what America and the world need in order to attain peace and justice on our planet for all of God's children. Here is also what I believe God wants for His children and His vision for the world.

Shalom translated means peace but it is much more than peace. Shalom is a vision of social wholeness; a state of well being for all, where everyone has access to the goods of creation intended to meet the needs of all. Shalom is the substance of the biblical vision of one community embracing all creation where all enjoy the resources that make communal harmony joyous and effective.

Shalom is nothing less than God's intended vision of the world, a dream of God that resists our tendencies for division, hostility, fear, lust, and misery. If there is to be well-being, it will not be just for the isolated and insulated individuals, it is security and prosperity granted to the whole community - the poor, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, the tax collector and the sinner, the despised and the rejected, young and old, the have and the have nots, the powerful and the dependent. We are in it together. Together we stand before God's blessings and together we receive the gift of life. Shalom comes only to the inclusive embracing community that excludes no one.

P.S. This is just a reminder. If wishes were horses, the poor would be able to ride.

An Epilogue for eggman:

A political battle Bush is winning
By Robert J. Caldwell
The San Diego Union-Tribune
July 9, 2006

So, what's the political score to date in what might be called the Bush vs. New York Times aftermath?

So far, Bush is winning, handily. An Opinion Dynamics Corp. poll: 70 percent of those polled in this nationwide survey conducted over two days at the end of June supported tracking terrorist financing. That 70 percent included 83 percent of Republicans, 67 percent of independents and 58 percent of Democrats.

Not much room there for doubting that the public endorses Bush's follow-the-money strategy. The until-now secret operation that tracks terrorist financing is a joint operation by the Treasury Department and the Central Intelligence Agency....

The same polling found that...Two of every three respondents –†84 percent of Republicans, 58 percent of independents and 55 percent of Democrats –†believe that those news organizations should "Face criminal charges".

...the poll results on this question stand as a stunning rebuke to a smug media elite that self-righteously cloaks itself in the First Amendment and, many believe, disdains its civic responsibility in time of war.

Most Americans recognize that stopping the next 9/11 before it happens requires aggressive intelligence gathering, and keeping those operations secret.

Bush is making that case persuasively to the public even if some in the press imagine that they know better.

We have often heard that God has a plan. I want say here that God also has a dream. His dream is that we would be brothers and sisters in Him where we love one another.

The downfall of planet, Earth, will be man's inhumanity toward man that is being led by Nazi America and her inhumane treatment of God's children.

Nazi America will not stop until the entire planet falls under Nazism and that is Nazi America's plan for the world's population.

Soon we will see the dark blue suits of Washington, D.C. being changed into brown suits and brown shirts. Brown symbolizes how full of shit are our politicians.

Why are Bush supporters celebrating today's leak of classified information?

The President is fully empowered to eavesdrop on the conversations of terrorists or monitor their banking transactions while complying with the law and with oversight, and nobody argues that he should not be allowed to do that. Thus, anyone arguing that this story illustrates the need for surveillance is fighting a strawman, since nobody is against surveillance.

Nobody is complaining that the President is eavesdropping or monitoring terrorists, only that he refusing to abide by the law and submit to oversight when doing so. Isn't that point well-established enough by now that people ought to be embarrassed to pretend not to know it, and instead to act on the blatantly false premise that Bush critics are opposed to surveillance itself?

More HERE

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No doubt. More very good reading at Greenwald’s.

capt

I just completed another puking episode after reading where the poor and the middle class have the same opportunities as the rich. For some reason I keep sensing that the rich want to do away with the middle class in order to enslave the people. Opportunities are not the smae. There are people who are born on third base and they believed that they hit a triple. The majority of Nazi Americans never get to bat.

@345-
the public endorses Bush's follow-the-money strategy. The until-now secret operation that tracks terrorist financing is a joint operation by the Treasury Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.

ya. and isn't it way-cool that right after 911 they had tracked a bunch of terror funding and when the follow-the-money strategy led directly to the saudibushpals and the pakibushpals and the israelibushpals and the wall-streetbushpals that very same follow-the-money strategy was suddenly quite inconvenient?
the public including yourself are a bunch of morons if you think the NYTimes has spoiled any follow-the-money strategies.
morons.

Favors increasing the minimum wage from five dollars and fifteen cents per hour to six dollars and sixty-five cents per hour

Minimum Wage

NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll conducted by the polling organizations of Peter Hart (D) and Bill McInturff (R). June 9-12, 2006. N=1,002 adults nationwide. Results below are among registered voters.

"I'm going to read you some positions that someone running for Congress could take. For each one, please tell me whether you would be more likely to vote for a candidate for Congress who takes this position, less likely to vote for this candidate, or would it not make a difference to you either way? Favors increasing the minimum wage from five dollars and fifteen cents per hour to six dollars and sixty-five cents per hour."

6/9-12/06 .

More Likely 54%

Less Likely 25%

No Difference 20%

Unsure 1%

More HERE

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54% is a solid landslide in favor of an increase.

(those pesky facts)

capt

Why right-wingers can't get it up

Let's face it. Right wingers are, for the most part, boring, unimaginative and unattractive people. No wonder Rush needs little pills to get horny.

Carlin also once asked: "Have you ever noticed that women who are opposed to abortion are ones you wouldn't want to screw anyway?" Again, mellowness requires that I substitute a five-letter word for a four-letter one.

George W. Bush probably wishes some White House intern would crawl under his desk and give him a blowjob while he chatted on the phone with some head of state or planned the bombing of Iran but he probably can't find one who's willing. Maybe George doesn't believe in oral sex. Given his claims of Christian rebirth, he may only allow the "missionary" position.

Perhaps the right-wing is so hung up on sex because they're not getting any. Or maybe what they're getting isn't all that good. God knows they're trying to purge all pleasure from sex from our culture. The FBI has a whole unit, created by former attorney general and Bible-thumper John Ashcroft, dedicated to wiping whatever they consider to be pornography off the earth.

The Republican-controlled Congress increased fines four-fold on any television or radio station that broadcasts whatever they deem to be "indecent." This came, of course, after Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl revealed a nipple-ring encrusted boob on national TV.

Which makes me wonder: C-Span broadcasts sessions of the House and Senate. Isn't that pornographic? Watching those boobs in action certainly makes me turn away in revulsion. And they don't even have nipple rings.

More HERE

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Makes sense to me!

capt

St. Therese of the Child Jesus

Dear Cornposters:

St. Therese of the Child Jesus has said, "UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD I WILL SPEND MY HEAVEN DOING GOOD UPON EARTH."

I ask and call upon all of us to spend our time on earth doing good deeds for all of our brothers and sisters in God.

I truly believe that if all of the world's population can share in God's gifts, we would not only feel good but we would also bring to earth justice and peace. Let us always strive to do good deeds for the world.

Sincerely,

Gerald

Living Wage Study Exposes Empty Threats by Business

President Bush and the Republicans in Congress keep resisting raising the minimum wage. But cities around the country are not sitting still.

In the last decade, more than 120 cities and counties have enacted living wage laws, which require private firms that do business with municipal governments (through contracts or subsidies) to boost pay and benefits for employees. Baltimore was the first, back in 1994. Others have followed suit, including Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Tucson, Ariz.

At least 13 other cities, including Albuquerque, N.M., Memphis, Tenn., Phoenix, Richmond, Va., and Syracuse, N.Y. , are considering living wage proposals.

While the federal minimum wage stagnates at $5.15 an hour, these living wage laws give workers a real boost. The Bozeman, Mont., law, for example, calls for $8.50 an hour with health benefits, or $9.50 without them. Cincinnati's scale is $8.70 an hour with benefits, or $10.20 without. And San Jose requires firms to pay workers $10.10 an hour with benefits or $11.35 an hour without them.

These laws came about because of grass-roots campaigns by churches, unions and community groups. And every time, business leaders warned that the living wage would cost jobs. They said it would hurt those who need the jobs the most, and it would create a hostile business climate.

But that has not happened.

More HERE

Troops Home Fast: Day 6

I hope and pray that one of my foxes doesn't have a death wish. Cindy can do more for Nazi America by staying alive.

I will continue to call America, Nazi Aerica until I see a change in the Nazi American people from a murders and war crimes pyche to a love and mercy personlity.

That should read a love and mercy PERSONALITY.

Published on Sunday, July 9, 2006 by the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (New York)
Political Scoundrels Hide Behind Terrorism
by David Rossie

"Patriotism," Samuel Johnson wrote, "is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

Were he with us today, Dr. Johnson might amend that observation, making patriotism secondary to terrorism or the threat of it.

For several months after Sept. 11, 2001, patriotism worked. We festooned our cars and trucks with bumper stickers and flags. Our lapels sprouted little enamel flags and Sheriff Bush promised to make short work of the man who caused it all, Osama bin Laden, aka "The Evil One."

"Gonna track 'im down, smoke 'im out an' bring 'im back dead or alive," the sheriff vowed on television.

Well, bin Laden's still out there, untracked, unsmoked, undead and unbrung. But that doesn't matter. As the sheriff subsequently pointed out, he's just one man. Turns out the real Evil One was living in Baghdad all the while. And he has been caught, jailed and put on trial, at the cost of 2,500 and counting American lives, ten times that number wounded in body and mind, and billions of dollars that might have been better spent on this country. But the evil lives on, and not just in Iraq.

We are now at war against terrorism, an amorphous, stateless foe that is lurking wherever the sheriff and his deputies decide it is, and it isn't going to go away any time soon, and certainly not before the next couple of elections.

As such, terrorism has proved useful to scoundrels who have found that wrapping themselves in the flag is no longer sufficient to hide their ethical nudity.

So 9/11 becomes an all-purpose excuse for trashing the Constitution, warrantless wiretapping, torture, rendition, lying and declaring war on the news media in general and The New York Times in particular, for finally finding the courage to meet their obligation to the people.

And it has become especially useful to politicians desperate to hold onto their jobs in the face of a public awakening to the fact that they are embarrassing clowns. Case in point: Rick Santorum, R-Pa. Santorum is No. 3 in the U. S. Senate's Republican hierarchy, which tells you all you need to know about that crowd.

He is also fighting for his political life against the son of the man who was largely responsible for his election in 1994. When then-Democratic Gov. Robert Casey was denied a prime time speaking spot at that year's Democratic National Convention, he spent the rest of the campaign sulking in his tent and refused to help the incumbent senator, Harris Wofford, an intelligent and honorable man -- everything that Santorum wasn't and isn't.

Today, Santorum is being challenged by the junior Casey, who is leading him in the polls. In desperation Santorum has done what Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith failed to do: He has found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And he has been joined by fellow Keystone Kuckoo Curt Weldon in telling America of that discovery.

Well, they didn't actually find them. What they found was a report that real weapons inspectors several years ago had discovered some deactivated or dud chemical artillery rounds left over from the Iraq-Iran War and the first Gulf War, that were found to be harmless. Or so said the Pentagon in response to the dynamic duo's "discovery."

That should have been enough to silence your average officeholder, but Weldon and Santorum are not your normal officeholders.

They are scoundrels.

It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.
Mother Teresa

Published on Sunday, July 9, 2006 by the Miami Herald
'Axis of Evil:' Times Call For Diplomacy -- But From Whom?
by Joseph L. Galloway

It was 4 ½ years ago, in his first State of the Union speech, that President Bush declared that North Korea, Iran and Iraq constituted an ''axis of evil'' arming themselves to threaten the peace of the world.

At that moment North Korea was the only one of the three rogue nations that was thought to have one or more nuclear weapons. Iran even then had nuclear ambitions and, of the three, was the only one with confirmed ties to international terrorist groups that posed a direct threat to the United States.

So what did this president do? He took direct aim at the least dangerous of the three -- Iraq -- and marched us off into the swamps of an unending war that revealed the weaknesses of both our target and ourselves.

The more threatening of the three -- Iran and North Korea -- were treated to years of benign neglect by Washington while our focus and national efforts were on toppling Saddam Hussein's brutal government and an amateurish quest to plant Jeffersonian democracy in some of the most infertile soil in the Middle East.

The United States has declared its anti-missile missile system is ready for use, but it hasn't been fully tested yet -- meaning it hasn't proved capable of intercepting and killing any missile in real-world conditions.

North Korea tested a long-range missile on Tuesday -- a provocation even if the missile did flop in less than 40 seconds. And Iran is continuing its program to enrich uranium, a process that could be used to make material for weapons if the processing is done at high enough levels.

For 4 ½ years the Bush administration steered clear of diplomacy, leaving negotiations over Iran's nuclear ambitions in the hands of European countries, which have their own economic interests in Iran.

And the six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programs haven't yielded much.

So let's review the bidding in this situation. We threaten to use our unproved missile defense system against a nonworking North Korean long-range missile even as we demand that Iran first shut down its uranium enrichment facilities before negotiations on the problem can begin.

Over in the Pentagon they are doing contingency planning for air strikes to knock out the Iranian nuke facilities. Air Force planners, singing a song almost as old as the one about the wild blue yonder, tell their bosses that they could knock out 85 percent of the Iranian facilities with pinpoint bombing. Or they could (if they knew where all of them were located) -- and by the way, would we mind if they used small nuclear bombs on those targets?

Wiser heads among the senior military leaders have cautioned that we would do well to consider the fallout, nuclear weapons aside, from such an attack on Iran. The Iranians could:

? Shut off their oil exports and kick the price of a barrel of oil more than $100 a barrel overnight.

? Sink a supertanker or two in the Persian Gulf and kick that price far higher.

? Intervene in Iraq, directly or indirectly through their Shiite brothers, and give our already hard-pressed soldiers and Marines a real nightmare situation to deal with on the ground.

? Signal their terrorist clients to launch all-out attacks on American interests wherever possible.

One would think that Bush and his people might have learned something in their time in power about the real world and the very real consequences of making threats and acting precipitously, and thinking about it later, if at all.

We have come upon perilous times, and they call for smart, skillful diplomacy of a sort that hasn't exactly been the strongest suit of those who are in charge of our fate and future.

I still strongly believe that Nazi America will nuke Iran. When the barrel of oil costs $100, Nazi America will say that it is Iran's fault for the price of oil and we will nuke Iran. For all present and future centuries Nazi America will have the title of BUSH'S BUTCHERS. I truly believe that Nazi America is a cold blooded killing machine nation that has accepted hell for her destination.

YES, NAZI AMERICA HAS ACCEPTED HELL FOR HER DESTINATION.

WTF!!!!!!! What a bunch of whiney titty-babies the world cup soccer players are. "He pushed me! He pushed me!"

How does this PK thing work?

Soccer is stupid. NASCAR is wear its at!

Just Online Chatter to Bring More Fear to Nazi Americans

Sheehan die from the rolling fast? Are you kidding? You're the biggest goober of them all.

Heil Mine Fuehrer

We will bring glory to the Fatherland!!!

In AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH, Neil Postman provides a brilliant
analysis of our TV-mutant society:

"We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn't, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever
else the terror had happened, we at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

"But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another -- slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities
to think.

"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one...."

Soccer is an impressive sport. You need to be present to really enjoy the full impact of the sport. You must be in great shape to play the sport. American soccer players cannot hold the jock straps of the European and Latin American soccer players.

Italy wins. France again, as usual, surrenders in Germany. Vows to surrender again in 4 more years.

Germany beat Portugal. Italy beat France.

1.Italy
2.France
3.Germany
4.Portugal

Too bad the facts don't support emmersons feeble 'man as warrior' and 'country as loser' humor.

If you can get through Corn's sloppy typing, you'll discover his hypocrisy. Bush inherited the messes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere.

The Clinton administration refused to deal with al Qaeda after bin Laden declared war on Americans. It was the Clinton administration that refused to take bin Laden from the Sudan and allowed him safe haven in Afghanistan in the first place.

In Iraq, Madeleine Albright herself acknowledged that the Clinton administration was handing off the problem of Iraq to the incoming Bush administration. See http://www.usembassy.it/file2001_01/alia/a1010903.htm

And the CFR itself played a role in supporting the invasion of Iraq. Clinton's top expert on Iraq, Kennth Pollack, wrote "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq" in 2002. Pollack made several claims that went beyond the Bush administration's case for invasion. See http://www.retroactiveimpeachment.com/pollack.html

On page 426, Pollack notes that his book was published with the imprimatur of the CFR.

IAVA Helps Get Lifesaving Bandages to Troops in Iraq

Three weeks ago, an email came into the general mailbox here at IAVA headquarters from an Army Lieutenant in Iraq whose unit was experiencing a shortage of bandages called "QuikClot," that have been crucial in preventing wounded Troops from bleeding to death on the battlefield.
A nine-month old Army order specified that all Soldiers were to be issued the bandages, but apparently someone didn't get the memo, and Troops were dying because of this latest example of military supply problems.

IAVA staff forwarded the email to Mike Zacchea, a Marine Reservist and IAVA member veteran who was wounded in Iraq and treated with those same bandages. Mike, in turn, contacted Dorine Kenney, a Gold Star Mother whose son Jacob was killed in Iraq in 2003. Dorine now runs the Jacob's Light Foundation, which sends supplies and care packages to Troops in Iraq. Within days, Dorine's group had mailed 200 packets of QuikClot to the Lieutenant in Iraq.

The latest news is that more than 100,000 QuikClot bandages have been ordered by the Army, and Senator Charles Schumer is sponsoring an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill providing $20 million for more of these critical bandages.

Click Here to read media coverage of the QuikClot issue.

IAVA, along with the Jacob's Light Foundation, was an important resource on this issue, generating critical media attention and connecting the dots to get the Troops what they need. Keep watching the IAVA website for further updates on this important issue, and please consider making a contribution to help support efforts like this one.

More HERE

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It chaps my hide that our troops would want for anything - lifesaving or not. IAVA (Operation Truth) is a great place to read what our troops are saying and whatnot.

capt

Supporting the Troops

The yearly cost of unemployment benefits for disabled military personnel has ballooned to $3 billion. Is the U.S. prepared for the oncoming wave of Iraq war vets?

Many former soldiers are finding it difficult to return to 9-to-5 America. The number of disabled vets from all wars deemed "unemployable" by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs tripled from 71,000 to 220,000 between 1996 and 2005. Unemployable vets receive about $2,393 a month, with the total cost of the program now $3.1 billion a year (up from $857 million in 1996). That staggering price tag doesn't include the bulk of recent vets from Iraq and Afghanistan who will enter the system over the next few decades.

Many of those now receiving benefits aren't able to work because of their disabilities, and a majority are over age 60. But some vets, like Ron Dickey, could and would work under the right circumstances. And, while it is easier than ever for disabled vets to go online and get information about receiving unemployment benefits, the options for those who want to get a job are more complicated.

More HERE

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We have to do better by our vets. We have no choice.

capt

372 -
what does bin laden have to do with anything? the fbi has said they have no evidence of his involvement with 911 and the cia has said they have stopped looking for him.

372-
i see! clinton admin are to blame and bushco are naive dupes! poor naive bushco just can't catch a break can they?

Yet, the Bushies never mention Osama anymore. If it is true that the CIA no longer wants to capture Bin Laden then we are at risk. Al Qaeda would be dealt a huge blow if Bin Laden were brought to justice or killed.

Frenchies are wusses by nature. The World Cup has nothing to do with it. It was a joke which happens to be true. Get over yourself.

There is no physical evidence, of course. But there is evidence Bin Ladin planned, financed and directed the 911 attack. I think it came from a video he recorded. Or are you saying he is a pigment of the Bush Administrations mind? I would say figment but your argument is full of bacon, mostly fat until it is cooked.

Has Bush gone beyond the powers of his office? Probably, and he's irked a major member of his party.

Tengo alergia a las papeleras contaminantes, vean mis sitios.
Evangelina.

Blog de evangelina carrozo y anti papeleras

Site de evangelina carrozo y lucha anti papeleras

Este es un sitio de una amiga:

Buy tshirts, mugs, caps, bags and more products on anti bush, anti cpe, linux, che guevara, protect seals , hollydays and ocassions and more ideas

anti bush blog

anti bush blog

And before you have a chance to regurgitate talking points, if Bin Laden is a figment of the Bush administration, google president Clinton and Bin Ladin. He existed long before Bush stole the election from your wimp Gore in 2000.

Eva,

Liberals don't buy anything. They think the government should buy it for them. You are on the wrong site to raise money for your cause. I will remind you that Bush isn't running in 2008. Why are you selling anti-Bush propoganda?

wusses

That's rich. Is this what you call passing for political dialogue? Merde alors.

Hey Emmerson, Goober. That's what you call me. Why? Let's examine that. All because I am a member of the lower class. All because I believe in a living wage. All because I believe that wages do need to keep up with the cost of living. Can I ask you a question? How does it feel having your head deep inside GWB Jr's ass? Have a great evening. Peace

Emmerson A video, you say? That's all you got? Weak

I didn't make you a member of the lower class any more than GWB Jr. did. Why blame me or him. Or does that help sooth your troubled mind? A video? Did Clinton have one in the '90's? I seem to remember that Bin Ladin was interviewed by a member of the liberal press long before 911. And long before GWB 43 became president. What a goober.

American Soldiers

2,852 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his lies.

18,500+ American soldiers have been maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush and his evil lies.

55,000+ of the 140,000 American soldiers are suffering from PTSD. Stress disorder has increased and the percentage is now around 40%.

Over 350,000+ Iraqis have been killed in Iraq since Bush declared shock and awe bombings on March 19, 2003.

Contamination from depleted uranium may have affected 125,000+ American soldiers and several million Iraqis.

Are you feeling more safe and secure with Bush in the WH and Cheney as his chief hatchet man overseeing Nazi America and her citizens?

Our military men and women are used as cannon fodder for a terrorist Nazi American government.

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, AND NEITHER DO WE. George W. Bush, August 5, 2005

Rigged elections doom American democracy. American soldiers are being killed and maimed TO PROMOTE A NAZI AMERICAN STATE.

Henry Kissinger says that military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.

Nazi America is a mirror image of Hitler Bush.

Nazi Americans continually justify sin.

Nazi Americans are accomplices with Bush for his murders and war crimes.

@emmerson:
There is no physical evidence, of course. But there is evidence Bin Ladin planned, financed and directed the 911 attack. I think it came from a video he recorded.

moron! the fbi has stated that they have no hard evidence of bin laden's involvement and the cia has stated that they are no longer looking for bin laden. did you not read any of the links that have been posted many times about that on this very blog?

a video he recorded?

right. here's 320,000 google results regarding that video.

I see the middle-school-mentality Bush cultists have not been banned from this blog yet, so I shan't waste time slumming here. This used to be a fine blog until the right-wing roaches moved in.

driftglass.blogspot.com shakespearessister.blogspot.com

Only rarely do the cucarachas post on either of those sites, and Shakesis links to quite an array of other blogs.

Still a proud member of the reality-based community, Kid Charlemagne

@moron:
I seem to remember that Bin Ladin was interviewed by a member of the liberal press long before 911.

and how does that equate to his culpability for 911 and the cia stating that they are no longer looking for him?

War made America

Nazi America is a cold blooded killing machine nation.

In order to build a unipolar world, the United States has struck out everywhere, resulting in an ever-growing battlefront and the accumulation of ever-more contradictions. If things go on this way, the U.S. will eventually prove the old Chinese adage: Becoming too large brings its own troubles. Biting off more than one can chew, the large will certainly decline.

Nazi Ameria is synonymous with murders and war crimes.

Yes, Nazi America will decline into hell.

For Nazi America the adage is big is better!!! However, that is a false adage. Love, mercy, justice, peace, and the common good are the correct adage.

You are funny. Now I must go and join my dear pal Cindy in her rolling fast. Why I do this, I do not know. It is such a waste of good food, and time.

When War Criminals Retire

Covering Iraq

ya that's what i thought. moron.

DU -- The Real Story

#398 has some sickening pictures showing Nazi America's inhumanity to man. We are probably in hell right now. The judgment may already be finalized for Nazi Americans.

All Hail Lt. Watada

Here Is Another Side

I Love It

It truly is over for American democracy. From Craig Paul Roberts above article!

The Supreme Court, like the Pope, hasn't any divisions or a police force with which to arrest Bush. Moreover, as one reader pointed out, the majority decision against Bush was written by an 86-year-old man. His decision shredded the incompetent and utterly ignorant ruling of the lower court written by John Roberts, the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

An 86-year-old man hasn't a lot of time left to protect our rights from executive power grabs. All Bush has to do is to appoint one more Federalist Society tyrant to the Court, and he will have a second rubber stamp of his dictatorial ways. He already has Congress, which has made it clear that it is perfectly comfortable with Bush's high-handed behavior. Democrats are too intimidated by 9/11 and the phony "war on terror" to offer any opposition.

With the electronic voting machines supplied by Republican firms and programmed by Republican operatives, Bush can control election results. Don't bet very heavily that Americans will regain the constitutional protections and democratic accountability that they enjoyed in the 20th century.

There will be no 2008 presidential election. I am firmly convinced of that fact.

Any dissent from Americans will bring carnage and slaughter to the dissenters by Bush's gestapos and his panzer divisions.

Blood will flow on the American streets like the Mississippi River.

Blood, Americans against Americans, and a fascist state is upon us.

Misery, pain, and suffering will be felt by most Americans. The end of the USA is near. The devil incarnate nation rises to kill any dissenters.

May America rest in torment for her cruel and ugly ways!!!

this guy is funny...

Turning the proverbial corner

Thomas Friedman has gained notoriety as of late for continually preaching the turning the corner mantra in regards to Iraq. In fact, in the blogosphere, a time period of 6 months has become known as one Friedman because about every six months Freidman comes out and says the next 6 months will be critical in how the occupation of Iraq turns out. This has been going on for nearly 7 Friedmans now.

This used to be a fine blog until the right-wing roaches moved in.

The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds: Will Durant

=
"Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct." -- Thomas Carlyle

=
" I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave." -- H. L. Mencken, "Why Liberty?" January 30, 1927

===
Thanks ICH Newsletter!

Distorted Morality: America's War on Terror?

America's post-9/11 war on terror is a logical impossibility

The U.S. government has been, and continues to be, a major supporter of state-supported terrorism, favoring retaliatory or preemptive aggression over mediation in the world court, and avoiding accountability by excluding itself from the globally accepted definition of terrorism.

The hypocrisy of the U.S. government is powerfully scrutinized in Distorted Morality, a scathing thesis presented by renowned scholar Noam Chomsky.

07/09/06

Runtime 55 Minutes - Lecture - Harvard University on February 6, 2002

More HERE

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A GREAT video - probably not as great if you are on dial-up.

capt

Closing In on the Niger Uranium Hoax

Who lied us into war? The answer may be forthcoming

The close-mouthed Fitzgerald and the voluble Italians could not be more different in their respective approaches: the former gives the media next to nothing, and the latter are all too forthcoming. The result is that public awareness of the implications is taking much longer to percolate in the U.S., while the real story of how we were lied into war is coming out on the front pages of the Italian media. Sooner or later, however, Americans will learn the full truth about the liars –†their crimes, their motives, and perhaps even their overseas connections.

The War Party is being slowly backed into a corner, and the Italian imbroglio gives us new hope that the process is quickening. The wheels of justice may be turning with frustrating laziness, but when they finally begin to move my guess is that the culprits in the great Niger Uranium Hoax are going to be crushed beneath their weight in very short order.

More HERE

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As always, Justin is rocking!

capt

The Rendition of Christ:

Winning the Battle for their Souls

"I am George W. Bush. I am President of the United States and the leader of the free world. Our spies at the NSA were monitoring your conversation in the alley. We know of your terrorist plot to destroy freedom and democracy in America. I am declaring you an enemy combatant."

Brimming with smug arrogance, Bush leans back in his chair and locks his fingers behind his head. He trains his gaze on Jesus with the air of one studying an insect and contemplating whether or not to squash such an inferior being.

Finally he returns his attention to the script laid before him. After several minutes of careful study, he gives Jesus, Cheney and Condoleezza a start by forcefully slamming his fist onto the rickety wooden table. Feeling triumphant because he is about to vanquish a tremendous threat to the established power structure, he begins speaking again,

"You are a threat to national security. Like that MLK bastard, your goal is to empower the poor, minorities, and the other groups we keep oppressed to protect our selfish interests. You would awaken the masses to our moral bankruptcy and to the foolish self-destructiveness of supporting us.

I cannot let that happen. My wealthy base has spent years selling Americans on the virtues of war, greed, free trade, free markets, tax cuts for the rich, cutting social programs, surrendering their rights for security, and mixing religion and government.

Millions of Americans need to remain indifferent to our wealth obtained by exploiting billions of people, the prison system we have used to replace slavery and Jim Crow, the millions we slaughter to feed the military industrial complex, and the torture of enemy combatants like you.

Many of my people believe that I have a personal relationship with you and that your Father guides me on a divine mission. They must continue believing these atrocious lies.

We learned from the mistake of the Roman and the Jewish leaders. You will not get a second chance at martyrdom. I have decided to rendition you. You will simply disappear and die anonymously in a torture dungeon in Syria."

Wearing a confident smirk, the self-satisfied little man fires a question at Jesus,

"Well, Jesus? What do you have to say?"

More HERE

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

This is a very interesting read.

capt

Cry havoc, and let slip the puppies of war

Dogs of war incline toward caution, which after all is how they grew up to be dogs. More worrisome are puppies, who do not know what danger is. Gavrilo Princeps, the Serbian gunman who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand dead in June 1914, was a puppy. So are the Hamas kidnappers, who at this writing still hold Israeli Army Corporal Gilad Shalit, and the Mehdi Army shooters who reportedly disposed of several dozen Sunni civilians in Baghdad on the weekend. The North Koreans, by contrast, are just nasty old dogs who long ago got loose from their leash.

Wars start because no one wants to disown his dog. If your dog bites a neighbor, your neighbor well might come after you with a shotgun. Nicholas II of Russia, I observed recently, did not want war in 1914 and until the end of July insisted that no war would break out. [1] But the Serbian puppies supported by his secret service dragged him into it willy-nilly. The past week's events in the Middle East have a disturbing feel of July 1914 about them.

More HERE

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

I hope Spengler is missing something.

capt

Hoekstra: Bush broke the law

The White House possibly broke the law by keeping intelligence activities a secret from the lawmakers responsible for overseeing them, the House Intelligence Committee chairman said Sunday.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., said he was informed about the programs by whistleblowers in the intelligence community and then asked the Bush administration about the programs, using code names. Hoekstra said members of the House and Senate intelligence committees then were briefed on the programs, which he said is required by law.

"We can't be briefed on every little thing that they are doing," Hoekstra said. "But in this case, there was at least one major _ what I consider significant activity that we have not been briefed on. I want to set the standard there that it is not optional for this president or any president or people in the executive community not to keep the intelligence committees fully informed of what they are doing," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

More HERE

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

Bush broke the law? Well I never.

We might have a Monday contender for the "DUH" award this week.

capt

capt @ 413:

Not so fast:

Hoekstra's Threat
by emptywheel

"I had a feeling there was something more--a lot more--to the Lichtblau-Shane story reporting a surveillance program that Peter Hoekstra hadn't been briefed on. Only I wasn't sharp enough to do what texas dem did--look for the letter referenced in the article. Thanks to texas dem, we can see clearly that Hoekstra's complaints about undisclosed surveillance programs are nothing more than a threat leveled in response to the Administration's departure from previous efforts to gut the intelligence agencies.

"The letter is a primarily a complaint about the nomination of General Hayden to be head of the CIA and--more important still--Hayden's determination to name Steven Kappes as Deputy Director of the CIA. Hoekstra describes Hayden's commitment to Kappes as a fundamental departure from previous collaboration between the White House and the House.

* * *

"I'm suggesting the following:

"Hoekstra is in no way advocating real oversight here--he's offering rubber stamp approval for Bush's programs in exchange for inclusion in them

"The Administration is now keeping programs secret from its own supporters, which might suggest those supporters are a target (or that, for some reason, the faction needed to be excluded)

"If I'm right about the factionalism involved, this is the Rummy-Cheney faction telling the Bush faction not to get too independent, because they can get him in legal hot water

"Hoekstra also seems to be fighting an implicit move away from supporting baseless intelligence claims (the outdated chemical weapons)--it's almost as if he's saying, 'you better support my baseless intelligence claims or I'll expose your illegal spying programs[.]'"

More at here: http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2006/07/hoekstras_threa.html

(My linking 'cheat sheet' is at a different computer.)

Intel agents have had it with Bush

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter to Bush back in May saying the President probably violated the law by not informing Congress of his secret intelligence activities against Americans.

"I have learned of some alleged intelligence community activities about which our committee has not been briefed," Hoekstra said in his letter to Bush. "If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the administration, a violation of the law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the members of this committee who have so ardently supported efforts to collect information on our enemies,"

News of the letter surfaced Sunday in The New York Times, the paper currently under fire for reporting Bush's super secret and legally-suspect spying activities - the same New York Times that other Republican reactionaries want charged with treason for telling the truth.

Hoekstra confirmed the letter in a talk show appearance Sunday but said he didn't learn of the intelligence activities from the Times but from whistleblowers within the intelligence community who are sick and tired of Bush's frequent and flagrant abuses of the law.

What the whistleblowers told Hoekstra pissed him off.

More HERE

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

I wonder when it will dawn on some of these slugs like Hoekstra that the prez is off the farm, constitutionally, and is unhinged mentally.

capt

"Not so fast:"

Not sure what was "so fast?"

Pete is just another slug promoting his agenda. I wish the Reich-wingnuts would destroy each other but they do not. Just as much puff and bluster as is considered politically expedient at the moment.

I am never trying to pull a "fast one" - I just post things I read that I find interesting or informative. Hoekstra comes under interesting by my account not informative.

This is more likely a process to disarm those that DO notice the illegality of the Bush WH. An old and proven formula. UGH!

capt

So, Who's a Conservative?

Civil liberties, the fundamental driving force of the American revolution, now are dismissed as a casualty of war, something not to be worried about, and the mention of which exposes a lack of backbone and grit in the protester. But in spite of their mindless acceptance by modern conservatives, these attributes of bloated government do not represent traditional conservative ideals.

It appears that the angry, power-hungry conservatives of today may be losing their grip on Washington, just as the neoconservatives and their discredited foreign policies are fading from the seat of power. Empires imposed by force on others do not live forever and puppet governments are eventually overthrown. Runaway public debt, sooner or later, must be either repaid or repudiated, likely in the collapse of the value of the dollar. Civil liberties, once so easily and thoughtlessly surrendered, will be harder by orders of magnitude for our children and grandchildren to reclaim. All of these failed policies can be laid at the feet of today's ruling conservatives. If this is what conservatism has become, deliver me to libertarianism.

More HERE

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

Of course the label conservative no longer applies to much. We are on the other side of the looking glass and everything is topsy-turvy (or is it turvy-topsy?) HA!

capt

When I first read what you linked this weekend, my hopes were raised. After reading the post I linked, I realized that maybe the letter is not quite so hopeful, but may only be a power play between WH/Congressional factions. By "not so fast" I meant Hoekstra's letter may not be quite so helpful as it first appears.

("I am never trying to pull a 'fast one[.]'" If I thought you were doing that, I would come out and say it.)

"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them.... In every country these two parties exist.... Call them, therefore, liberals and serviles, Jacobins and Ultras, Whigs and Tories, republicans and federalists, aristocrats and democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same party still and pursue the same object."

Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826
3rd President of the United States (Democratic Republican, VA)
Letter to Henry Lee, 1824

Why, oh why, was Thomas Jefferson such a Bush-hater?

Rick,

I know you would! I have never thought you would beat around the Bush! (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

No doubt about your being direct and to the point. If I was trying to pull a "fast one" you would dress me down with grace, style and tact. I would accept all because you would right to do so.

I do apologize if my post gave a glimmer of false hope. That was not my intention. I am too cynical these days to anticipate or see that one coming.

capt

"Fascism is opposed to the interests of at least nine tenths of the people ... It cannot come to power when the working class is united and has cemented a strong alliance with the other strata of society whose interests would suffer from the open terrorist rule of the financial oligarchs ... Unity is the pressing need of all who hate fascism and war."

Abraham Bernard Magil, 1905-2003
Journalist and Political Pamphleteer
Editor and Official, American Communist Party
The Peril of Fascism: The Crisis of American Democracy, 1938

Courtesy: Eigen's Political & Historical Quotations. (same credit to the Jefferson quote above #419)

Refi loans could prove costly in foreclosure

Law allows lenders to go after personal savings as well as the house, unlike original mortgage.

Homeowners behind in their mortgage payments after hocking the house to pay for a major remodel or a new boat or car may be in for a rude awakening.

If they previously refinanced and their lender decides to foreclose, they may not only lose their house, but the bank also may be able to go after their other financial assets including stocks, savings and their paycheck.

And even if the bank doesn't go after their other assets, a foreclosure may mean a big tax bill from the IRS and state Franchise Tax Board for any shortfall between what the bank gets for the sale of the owner's home and the value of the loan.

"This is going to become a hot topic," predicts Bradford L. Hall, managing director of Hall & Co., CPAs in Irvine, who remembers the pain of foreclosures during the 1990s. "There's very little awareness of what can happen when you can't make your payments and are forced to sell your home for less than the mortgage balance or lose your home through foreclosure."

More HERE

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

I hope people read the fine print and made informed decisions about their refinance.

capt

Peter Hoekstra is a big fat hypocrite.

Too bad Peter Hoekstra's *concern* didn't compell him to inform Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking minority member of the intelligence panel, of those *concerns* regarding bush's secret intelligence programs. So, he writes a letter to bush, but doesn't inform the Dem committe members of his concerns -- politics as usual!

The law requires that the committees receive briefings on all intelligence programs of the government -- bush flouts the laws and Repugs keep the law-breaking activities to themselves!

If Peter Hoekstra was REALLY concerned about bush's flouting the law, he would grow a backbone and use his party's political power and aggressively go after the cheney/bush regime.

What good is a letter of complaint, when it's followed by a roll-over?

“I want to set the standard there that it is not optional for this president or any president or people in the executive community not to keep the intelligence committees fully informed of what they are doing.” – Rep. Peter Hoekstra said on Fox News Sunday.

Ha-ha-ha! Isn't he a card? Has he been asleep at the wheel for the last five years? Hey, Pete! This ain't anything new. The cheney/bush regime tells only what they want to tell.

Setting standards, are ya? Oy!

I no longer believe the breathless protestations of the more progressive politicians about the crimes of Busheney. For the most part they talk but do nothing. It is all so full of it - these days. There are exceptions on some issues but I would guess some Rovian back-channel has a purpose behind the show. That is what they do best.

They are likely setting up the "Hey, we have had some in our own party question the issue and all are satisfied except the partisan Democrats" or some such thing. You can bet Rove et al are driving the issue.

Pure conjecture on my part but it is very circumspect that Pete would do or say anything against this misadministration. They (Busheney) create the conditions to serve their purpose and are darn good at it.

capt

"If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the administration, a violation of the law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the members of this committee who have so ardently supported efforts to collect information on our enemies," - Peter Hoekstra

How, oh how, could an affront to the committee members be equally important as a direct violation of law, to a freakin' lawmaker?

How, oh how, could a direct violation of law NOT BRING IMMEDIATE IMPEACHMENT INQUIRIES?

Good morning, America.

Just got off the phone with Senator Boxer's office, explaining my displeasure with her support of Joe Lieberman.

I likened it to saying that LBJ should have been supported in '68 because of his support for civil rights; which would then ignore the issue of the Viet Nam debacle.

Also, there is this, which if already posted bears repeating:

U.S. reaps what the Army sows

"Most folks of intelligence know that unelected or unappointed Government employees are left-of-center! Your using Gov't links/stats totally prove my observations of your left-biased links/sources."
Posted by: Silent Sockpuppet at July 8, 2006 03:34 PM

It's not so much that you are Hapless as much as you are a Hapless sockpuppet. You have a habit of walking right into logic landmines.

You make this too easy. If you go on over to GOP.com and look at their headlines on the economy, you'll see that they're citing statistics from the same agencies that I use. I know that the Bush Administration is incompetent; but this is too funny for words. Notwithstanding your theories on the commies at The Fed , you have your tinfoil hat on inside out. Judging by the way that emmerson wears it, the shiny side goes on the outside.

Ah, that's a cute little corner that you've painted yourself into. I guess you have proof that the Governmental Agencies (DOJ, FBI, U.S. Census Bureau, The Fed, the BLS) are lying to us?

Let's see if I can think of anything more ridiculous....

Nope. I got nothing.

You win.

From an article on the Pissed on Politics website! Alan brought the article to my attention. We truly have an insane cabal in the White House.

The main problem with the Bush Administrations policies toward Iraq is that they insist on "staying the course" . They don't change what we are doing even when it has become clear that what they are doing is simply not working. They continue to view Iraq as one large city block. They seem to think that because each turn of the corner offers a slightly different scene that somehow they are making progress.

Iraq isn't a large city block, it's a Soveriegn Nation. And we aren't turning corners or Friedmans in Iraq; we are simply going round and round. We're not turing the corner in Iraq, we are turing the arc. We keep going around this cirlce of death expecting a different result. And that is just pure insantiy.

As Franklin and/or Einstein said:

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. "

How, oh how, could an affront to the committee members be equally important as a direct violation of law, to a freakin' lawmaker?

How, oh how, could a direct violation of law NOT BRING IMMEDIATE IMPEACHMENT INQUIRIES?

Perhaps because Hoekstra, like Pat Roberts and Arlen Specter are self-serviing and duplicitous in their public objection and complicit in private. (Someone explain this paragraph to the dullards from the right-wing that have infected this blog.)

Henri,

My questions were rhetorical, of course.

I had the good fortune many months ago, when Congresscritter Hoekstra was on C-Span's Washingtoon Journal one morning to be the first caller through, and had the opportunity to tell him to his face that we just didn't trust him or his committee.

The whole GOPher committee control of the legislative bodies has been to legitamize after the fact of executive lawbreaking the activities that had occured.

It would be the equivilant of Congress declaring perjury to be without penalty, after the Clinton affair, ex post facto, rather than dragging him through the impeachment and trial.

There are many dynamite posts this morning.

#409, 410, 411, and 415 have excptional articles and posts.

#425 micki, good post!

#427 Robert Schwartz, good post!

The NY Times has an article on mob violence in Baghdad. The trolls and the Nazis must be delighted to witness more murders and war crimes.

"Bush inherited the messes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere."

And Mr. Clinton inherited the disasters in Afghanistan, North Korea, and Iraq directly from the Republicans who were in charge before him. Your foaming-at-the-mouth hatred of Mr. Clinton is showing.

"The Clinton administration refused to deal with al Qaeda after bin Laden declared war on Americans."

If Republicans didn't fight him tooth and nail over every resource and every decision, it would've been easier for Mr. Clinton to deal with terrorism (Hezbollah, AQ, etc). Typical Conservatives, can't see the forest for the trees.

"It was the Clinton administration that refused to take bin Laden from the Sudan and allowed him safe haven in Afghanistan in the first place."

I know the rule of law means nothing to you guys (unless it is somehow related to blowjobs), but stories of the offers by the Sudanese were deemed worthless by the 911 Commission. Before the Bin Laden indictment in '99, the U.S. had no legal authority to make that extradition deal. Again, if the Republicans in Congress hadn't been fighting him over every scrap of authority in the war on Terror, it might've been easier to bring Bin Laden to Justice. Mr. Bush' attitude? Don't know where he is ... don't care ... Let's just shut down the CIA's Bin Laden unit. That's the same idiotic attitude that got all of our countrymen killed on 9-11.

"In Iraq, Madeleine Albright herself acknowledged that the Clinton administration was handing off the problem of Iraq to the incoming Bush administration."

Yes, Mr. Clinton defanged the moron that Field Marshal von Rumsfeld and the Republicans created. The Clinton Administration handed a defeated enemy over to Mr. Bush only for Mr. Bush to turn Iraq (or Western Iran as they consider themselves) into a training ground for folks who would later plan the bombings in Spain and UK.

"Pollack made several claims that went beyond the Bush administration's case for invasion."
Posted by: Kevin Groenhagen at July 9, 2006 06:16 PM

I guess it's a good thing that Pollack isn't president or we could blame him for getting our troops killed in Iraq. Lies are lies.

#318
Hajji,
We don't do body counts.

Is it any wonder we have the problems with the military raping and killing unarmed civilians? We don't do body counts doesn't even give the Iraqis a human, living quality. They are bodies, nothing more to the leadership so who are the Iraqis to the miltary on the ground? Leadership shapes everything.

"Forgive me this day for I am weak and lightheaded ...."
Posted by: emmerson at July 9, 2006 09:46 AM

Umm, dude, that seems to be a permanent condition for you. No need to explain.

I can understand why Factless refuses to face facts. That would undermine his chosen blogname. It seems that facts aren't your friend either, as Carrie showed you @#371.

"And before you have a chance to regurgitate talking points...."
Posted by: emmerson at July 9, 2006 08:51 PM
382

Funny that you should say that because you are the posterchild for Republican talking points.

"Living wage, minimum wage all other words you want to call it. If it goes up, so does the unemployment rate. It would at least be nice if some of you got it but many of you don't. I am employer of 20 people."
Posted by: emmerson at July 9, 2006 01:22 PM

As the statistics that Capt and I provided you show, in states and municipalities that raised the minimum wage, jobs were not lost. Unemployment did not follow. In fact on average those states with a high minimum wage have a lower unemployment rate than those other states who don't. I know you guys abhor inconvenient truths; but sheesh, you're taking it a bit too far.

Why complicate the contributing factors? Occam's razor, baybee! You are the employer for a dying business. We all know what the primary cause for that dying is ... no need to invoke outside causes like the minimum wage. Typical Conservative, blaming the government for his personal failures.

"Liberals don't buy anything. They think the government should buy it for them."
Posted by: emmerson at July 9, 2006 08:55 PM

Facts aren't on your side (again?!). If you look at revenues and outlays for Federal welfare programs, Red States take in way more than they pay in. Blue states pay in waaaay more than they take in Welfare. If Liberals don't buy anything, it's because Red States have sucked away all of our income to pay for their welfare programs. If Red Staters REALLY wanted to get rid of welfare, they'd just stop taking it. Hypocrisy being another hallmark of the conservative movement, I can see why you'd say otherwise.

Why don't you just admit that you are an apologist for the Big Money Corporatists that are destroying all of the small businesses in America? Their CEOs are getting rewarded for failure in the Millions, responsible for destroying the retirement plans set up for their coworkers. They don't have to shill for their tax breaks as long as they have willing dupes like you to spout their empty talking points.

#321

HELLO!!! KNOCK KNOCK.
If corporations don't pay taxes the states get less in....taxes. But we knew that didn't we? MN is feeling the pinch let me tell you and we have a gov who is trying to get the services like road maintainence and contruction on the cheap. "We'll pay you later."
And they say..."Pay us now or we don't work."

So we have multi corporations who want to pay less in wages, no benefits and no taxes and then have the nerve to want a tax refund. What BS. It's almost laughable in a monty python sort of way.

#214 Capt

I just saw your link on a possible payback to Italian Prime Minister Berlasconi (sp?). Yep.

He's so well-known for his righteous standards in Italy, isn't he? What surprises me, or maybe not, is that it took so long for Italian journalists to get hopping on this one. But, then again, isn't Berlasconi a media mogul? No pressure there.

#215 Capt.

I have culled some very interesting quotes from reading Carey McWilliams. I'll share them shortly. It has to do with just why neocons aren't that good at governing.

They don't recognize any other nation's history, including their own. Just too damn selfish. They gamble on never-ending resources. Just as your post on The Debalization of Nations, (I can't remember the title but I am going back to repost that most significant article), Bush is now gambling on the planet.

Seymour Hersh still contends that Bush is intent on leaving a legacy with his policies towards Iran. This is most frightening.

I enjoy reading Huffington Daily Briefs and the News Hounds comments. The News Hounds seem to watch Fox News as a pit bull watches the throat of a human being.

And Mr. Clinton inherited the disasters in Afghanistan, North Korea, and Iraq directly from the Republicans who were in charge before him. Your foaming-at-the-mouth hatred of Mr. Clinton is showing.
~~~

And he did nothing! No hatred, just discus.

If Republicans didn't fight him tooth and nail over every resource and every decision, it would've been easier for Mr. Clinton to deal with terrorism (Hezbollah, AQ, etc). Typical Conservatives, can't see the forest for the trees.
~~~

Just shows what a weak leader he was! MAKING EXCUSES WHY HE WAS A FAILURE ISN'T AN ARGUMENT. If Republicans hadn't fought him tooth and nail over every resource and decision we wouldn't have balanced the budget for him to take credit.

I know the rule of law means nothing to you guys (unless it is somehow related to blowjobs), but stories of the offers by the Sudanese were deemed worthless by the 911 Commission. Before the Bin Laden indictment in '99, the U.S. had no legal authority to make that extradition deal. Again, if the Republicans in Congress hadn't been fighting him over every scrap of authority in the war on Terror, it might've been easier to bring Bin Laden to Justice. Mr. Bush' attitude? Don't know where he is ... don't care ... Let's just shut down the CIA's Bin Laden unit. That's the same idiotic attitude that got all of our countrymen killed on 9-11.
~~

Same old talking points you've been blathering for the last year. Clinton did nothing after the world trade center attack in 93 or the Cole bombing. When he had a chance to show some leadership skills in Mogadishu he cut and ran then just like the lefties want to do now. I guess if you want to blame the Repubs in Congress for Clinton not having a dick (Oh wait, he used his dick for more important things)then go ahead. It's the progressive way to do nothing when attacked - we've known this since the sixties.

Yes, Mr. Clinton defanged the moron that Field Marshal von Rumsfeld and the Republicans created. The Clinton Administration handed a defeated enemy over to Mr. Bush only for Mr. Bush to turn Iraq (or Western Iran as they consider themselves) into a training ground for folks who would later plan the bombings in Spain and UK
~~

There you go again giving Clinton credit for what Bush 1 did. It was Bush1 that defanged Saddams militray might in the 1st Iraq war. Clinton was handed a fairly easy job of keeping Saddam in check but couldn't even do that so he had to go and bomb Saddam in 98 after Saddam kicked his ass out.

Get some new talking points, you make it too easy for us righties!

#406
Alan,
He's a swear word in my house.

Exhibit A for your viewing pleasure.

Number 7

The repugnants' stand is when in doubt blame Bill Clinton. Don't blame our idiot and insane Hitler Bush! Hitler Bush is sounding more like Reagan. Hitler Bush blame Clinton and Reagan blame Carter. Hitler Bush and Reagan are two chickenshit Nazis.

Is there any men with cajones or have they passed on their cajones to women?

Facts aren't on your side (again?!). If you look at revenues and outlays for Federal welfare programs, Red States take in way more than they pay in. Blue states pay in waaaay more than they take in Welfare. If Liberals don't buy anything, it's because Red States have sucked away all of our income to pay for their welfare programs. If Red Staters REALLY wanted to get rid of welfare, they'd just stop taking it. Hypocrisy being another hallmark of the conservative movement, I can see why you'd say otherwise.
~~

A liberal complaing about welfare? You're not even a good liberal. Dude, you need a new label which we all already know what the word is but won't say it because we know you'll cry to Mr Corn!

#433
Robert,
You are my hero.

As the statistics that Capt and I provided you show, in states and municipalities that raised the minimum wage, jobs were not lost. Unemployment did not follow. In fact on average those states with a high minimum wage have a lower unemployment rate than those other states who don't. I know you guys abhor inconvenient truths; but sheesh, you're taking it a bit too far.

I would have to agree somewhat with you on this one Pandy. In the blue state of Oregon (OR went blue by just a very small percentage) where I live, we have $7.25 as a min wage and our economy is raging forward under George W Bush. Our average home value has almost doubled under George W Bush and we are doing it with this high min wage. Now you have to keep in mind that not everyone is making this min wage. We also have a very high illegal alien worforce since our State is mostly agricultural. If you got rid of illegal aliens then the min wage would be a killer.

Blue states pay in waaaay more than they take in Welfare. If Liberals don't buy anything, it's because Red States have sucked away all of our income to pay for their welfare programs.

By Pandy

Hey Pandy, I thought you said you live in a red state? I live in the blue state. So the true statement would be: Pandy is sucking away all of my income to pay for his welfare program!

Dude, you're such a good liar!

Pandemoniac,
Can you explain this?

Time: Virginia resident DeLay may still run in Texas

A source close to the ex-Congressman tells TIME that DeLay is planning an aggressive campaign to retake the House seat he quit in June if an appeals court lets stand a ruling by a federal judge last week that his name must stay on November's ballot--even though he has moved to Virginia. "If it isn't overturned, Katy bar the door!" says a G.O.P. official.

...

But to run, DeLay would have to raise money fast: his campaign fund has well under $1 million left. At least he knows his would-be opponent well: ex-Congressman Nick Lampson's original district was eliminated in a redistricting engineered by DeLay.
---------------
I guess he's a citizen of the world.

NYT column: Many bloggers think Ken Lay still lives

I don't. I think he's at the front desk of Hotel Hell. No luggage.

Hitler Bush must think this test is grand

I can understand why Factless refuses to face facts. That would undermine his chosen blogname. It seems that facts aren't your friend either, as Carrie showed you @#371.

By Pandy with a link to hooded klansman.

Pandy, your buddies here might look the other way with the racist post you just linked but now we can all see why Factchecker called you a wetback. Which by the way, I realy doubt applies since you've never had to risk your life for anything. I mean lets be honest, you were born silver spoon in your mouth (most liberals were who never hadf to work for anything). It's still shameless and all the cornuts that were outraged over factcheckers comment should also be just as outraged over your post. I for one having a sister in law that is black find it highly offensive that you use racism like this to be funny.

This is the Bush Chainey plan

The "Ken Lay still lives" business just gives his sorry life too much press.

America: Government of Cowards

What is our brother or our sister's life worth?

This article warms the cockles of my heart

#419 Capt

That's a lofty quote from Jefferson. Still, in the end, it is all about economics. Those who have, want more. They want to keep it out of the hands of others. It's simple. One would like to think ideology and ethics/morality play a part, but for the wealthy, not so much. It's all for one not one for all, "ME! ME! ME!.

You could cite Darwin and claim it's the survival of the fittest theory that rules human behavior. In this day and age of civil law, it shouldn't. But that's only if we get rid of the crooks in power.

I just ready your link to Wayne Madsen. Oh my God! Although it shouldn't surprise me, oh my God! The criminality & racism are rampant.

F**k Bush and his Jesus pronounciations. It's all a ruse. He doesn't give a shit about Jesus, God or anything else moral at all. By golly, he was raised that way! Ms. Barbara, what a lovely Mother you are, instilling the family values in all of your sons. Arrgh!

#432 & 433 Henri and Robert

This is just the same thing all over again. Leading Republicans will flaunt their "suspicions" of Bushco in public. Then, they will go and vote legislation legitimizing Guantanamo and everything else abhorrent. Or they'll just turn the other way and not notice what's going down. All the while playing the low poll numbers Bush has accrued, but still maintaining Republican hegemony.

Jeanne,

I know you've probably already written about it, but I'd love to hear what you thought of Pirates II. Some critics have said it's a little over the top. I'm quite curious.

Ground commanders' questions about detainee treatment went unanswered

Newly-released documents reveal that requests by military commanders in Afghanistan for the Defense Department to clarify which interrogation methods could and could not be used against prisoners were ignored by the highest levels of the military, RAW STORY has learned.

The documents, obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under a Freedom of Information Act request, contain a report by Vice Admiral Albert T. Church, who was tapped to conduct a comprehensive review of Defense Department interrogation operations.

According to the Church report, military commanders in Afghanistan sought clarification from United States Central Command (Centcom) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in January of 2003. They described interrogation techniques being employed, and recommended that the techniques be approved as official policy in Afghanistan.

Unanswered questions

Some of the techniques described had already been approved by the Secretary of Defense exclusively for use at Guant?namo. Some had since been rescinded. When senior officials failed to respond as to whether those techniques were appropriate, the ground command in Afghanistan subsequently adopted their own techniques as policy, acting on the theory that "silence is consent."

More.

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Silence is complicity in war crimes...

This is really something -- here's Enron's "Code of Ethics" with a foreward by that stalwart paragon of virtue, Kenny Boy Lay --

pdf file - ENRON CODE OF ETHICS

No need to read the entire thing -- just look at the foreward and the first couple of pages. What a laugh!

#456 Gerald -- I see what you mean...

"...And since Congress enacted the Geneva Conventions, making them the law of the United States, any violations that Bush or any other American commits "are considered 'war crimes' punishable as federal offenses," as Justice Kennedy wrote.

George W. Bush in the dock facing a charge of war crimes? That's well beyond the scope of possibility … or is it?"

Carey,
Haven't seen it yet. I had to get my daughter off to a class at MCAD (Minneapolis College of ART and Design) It's a two week class. ALL of my kids saw it though. They all liked it. All thought Johnny Depp was great.

433 Bien sur que oui Robert!

451
447
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441

Who let the trolls out? Who, who, who?
Who let the trolls out? Who? . . .

Malveaux on North Korea with Bush

An interesting exchange between CNN's Suzanne Malveaux and Bush about North Korea from last week.

Video -WMP

Video -QT

Q Mr. President, if I could follow up, you say diplomacy takes time

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it does.

Q but it was four years ago that you labeled North Korea a member of the "axis of evil." And since then it's increased its nuclear arsenal, it's abandoned six-party talks and now these missile launches

THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you a question. It's increased it's that's an interesting statement: "North Korea has increased its nuclear arsenal." Can you verify that?

More HERE

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

Yes, Mr. President it is a fact.

capt

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

WASHINGTON, DC Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."

"My fellow Americans," Bush said, "at long last, we have reached the end of the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The time has come to put all of that behind us."

Bush swore to do "everything in [his] power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in the next four years.

"You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point during my administration," said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in military spending. "Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having a military?"

On the economic side, Bush vowed to bring back economic stagnation by implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession, which would necessitate a tax hike, which would lead to a drop in consumer spending, which would lead to layoffs, which would deepen the recession even further.

More HERE

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

So true it is more reality based than our piffle posters!

capt

Keep Haynes Off the Federal Bench

Bush appeals court nominee ÔøΩWilliam J. Haynes, II is many things ÔøΩ most notably, a key architect of the administrationÔøΩs torture, ÔøΩenemy combatantÔøΩ and military tribunal policies, and an important ally in Dick CheneyÔøΩs pursuit of expansive executive power. One thing he is not ÔøΩ thanks, in part, to the 37,000 PFAW activistsÔøΩwho rose up against his nomination in 2004 ÔøΩ is a judge on the influential 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
ÔøΩ
But the Rove-Cheney machine is making another run with Haynes, hoping that the white noise of election-year security messaging will help the nomination sail though. They, of course, are also hoping that the audacity of the Haynes nomination impresses their right-wing base. Dutifully, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is pushing Haynes' nomination in the Senate again, with the Senate Judiciary Committee set to hold a hearing on Haynes for a second time tomorrow.

This just in:

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has been charged with asking a hard question. The FBI has raided and searched her office where they found seditious and anti-American documents. Malveaux had copies of NYT's articles that revealed state secrets and were in clear violation of the "Patriot Act III" (the newest version is top secret so nobody can know what PA3 says).

The NSA, HSD, FBI, CIA and DOD are reviewing all content of all emails and phone calls made by Malveaux over the last 36 months. They have uncovered a network of reporters, newspapers, periodicals and mass media personalities that support terror and terrorism. Other arrests are expected.

"The die is cast"

capt

WTF???

Robert Novak writes, "Supporters of Sen. Joseph Lieberman promise he will continue as a member of the Senate Democratic caucus even if he loses the Democratic primary in Connecticut Aug. 8 and is elected as an independent..."

"Lieberman's Republican Senate colleagues privately despair of the GOP picking up the Connecticut seat. But they hope Lieberman, if elected as an independent, would be more inclined to vote with Republicans than he is now, even if he still caucuses with the Democrats."

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has been charged with asking a hard question. The FBI has raided and searched her office where they found seditious and anti-American documents.

Come on Capt, if the FBI reaaly wanted to find seditious Anti-American documents, they would be searching your apartment.

Supreme Court's Ruling in Hamdan Means Warrantless Eavesdropping is Clearly Illegal

Ever since the Supreme Court in the Hamdan case ruled that the Bush administration's Guantanamo Bay military commissions violate both federal law and the Geneva Conventions, the President has been paying lip service to his "willingness" to comply with that ruling. But the Court's ruling goes far beyond the limited question of whether military commissions are legal. To arrive at its decision, the Court emphatically rejected the administration's radical theories of executive power, and in doing so, rendered entirely discredited the administration's only defenses for eavesdropping on Americans without the warrants required by law.

Actual compliance with the Court's ruling, then, compels the administration to immediately cease eavesdropping on Americans in violation of FISA. If the administration continues these programs now, then they are openly defying the Court and the law with a brazeness and contempt for the rule of law that would be unprecedented even for them.

The starting point for any discussion of the illegal eavesdropping program should be the fact that the United States has had a law in place for almost 30 years now which makes it a criminal offense punishable by 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine to eavesdrop on Americans without judicial approval and oversight. And everyone, including the Bush administration, acknowledges that they are doing exactly what the criminal prohibits that is, eavesdropping on Americans without the warrants required by that law.

More HERE

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

Time for an impeachment?

capt

In this great country at the highest level of our government, a group called the The White House Iraq Group was formed and was led by the Vice President of the United States.

This WHIG decided to discredit an Iraq war critic, and in the process out his wife, a CIA agent with non-official cover and classified status. In addition, her non-official cover Brewster Jennings was destroyed at no small cost to Americans in time, taxes and intelligence capability in nuclear weapon proliferation.

The Republican noise machine is so loud and effective, they've got patriotic americans cheering for the corrupt government war policy, for the petty politics of destruction, for the reporter who published classified information; and against the victims, two lifetime public servants.