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unitedforpeace.org asfc.org takebackthemedia.com osamaclock.com Icasualties.org http://www.youthdemocracy.net

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2006-12-20 Holiday Break with Homework

There are no links today. With a holiday break coming, everyone will need to become more independent. I will be on a break until after we enter the New Year, but world events and politics will not. Pay attention! Here are some recent stories to look into that may help get your curiosity flowing. Another mega-church pastor (Paul Barnes) steps down because of homosexual activity. A pentagon report indicates that the US was holding prisoners on ships off shore to evade any jurisdiction that might recognize prisoner’s rights, long before Abu Ghraib. Cheney is in a legal battle to hide his official visitor log from public freedom of information requests in an effort to keep us from knowing who in influencing him. Even though the Iraq Study Group says we don’t have much time to salvage the situation in Iraq, Bush says he won’t make any decision until after the first of the year. This being said, it seems that Bush has already made a decision to sent additional troops to Iraq, making him and John McCain the only 2 people on the planet that believe this will help. Our new Secretary of Defense has assumed his post and is supposedly off to Iraq to look into possible new strategies, but in reality it looks like the trip is to figure out how to implement what Bush has already decided. Colin Powell speaks negatively about our efforts in Iraq and in a Whitehouse press conference the next day, Tony Snow denies that some of Powell’s statements were ever said by him. In a related story, the press grew balls and did something unprecedented during the Bush administration when they challenged Show’s denials and forced him to later admit Powell’s statements were real. In another unprecedented move the Joint Chiefs have publicly spoken out against Bush’s idea of a troop “surge” in Iraq and are breaking military protocol by speaking in opposition to their commander.

I hope this is enough to keep everyone going, but if it isn’t, just start a conversation about Iraq policy with someone and slip in a seasonal reminder of “Peace On Earth an Good Will Toward Men”.

2006-12-15 Remember When

An interesting string of events involving the U.S., Iraq and Saudi Arabia is evolving before us. A newspaper article by a Saudi official, the removal of a Saudi ambassador to the U.S., the funding of Iraqi insurgents by Saudis and even the U.S. Vice President being summoned to a meeting by Saudis so they can lay out Iraq policy as they see it, are all part of a puzzle that seems to put U.S. policy in the hands of the Saudis. Bush has delayed any decision on Iraq after the “Study Group” report to officially gather more input from other sources, but I believe the Saudi influence is connected here. Bush finds himself in the awkward situation of trying to find a new Iraq policy that will satisfy both the American public and the Saudis.

http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20061215-082437-1115r

With all the bending Bush does to satisfy his oil buddies in Saudi Arabia, see if you remember this criticism from Senator Kerry in one of the 2004 debates. “I will never cede the authority of our country or our security to any other nation. I'll never give a veto over American security to any other entity -- not a nation, not a country, not an institution.”

http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004c.html

If your memory is short, and most are, I suggest everyone read the transcripts of both the 2000 and 2004 presidential debates. Armed with the more accurate information that has become public over the last year, the statements by Bush during these debates suddenly offer new insight into the Bush bull shit and display vividly what a huge liar he is.

http://www.debates.org/pages/debtrans.html

For some additional study, use the link below to check out The Bush Agenda.

http://www.thebushagenda.net/

2006-12-11 McCain’s New Idea?

As news of the Iraq Study Group report settles in, the talking heads on TV are now relating stories about a split in the republican party. Some republicans are satisfied with the report and are for the first time willing to discuss withdrawal strategies and timetables, although details are still in conflict. Others, however call the report a recipe for defeat, and refuse to take the recommendations seriously. One such person is John McCain, who suggests a “new” and completely opposite approach to that of the Study Group. McCain proposes increasing troop strength as a strategy for stopping the violence. I have seen several interviews with McCain, and none of the talking heads have reminded the Senator that this is the strategy we have been using for some time now. In fact, over the last 2 years, each time violence increased, Bush sent additional troops in an effort to calm the region. Often the increased deployment came shortly after an announcement that troop levels would be reduced, and hopes of troops enjoying family reunions were quickly squashed. So if Bush raised troop levels several times and each time the situation deteriorated even more, what makes McCain think that this time would be different?

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061211/A_OPINION0601/612110304/-1/A_OPINION06

2006-12-08 Iraq Study Group and the Media

After 3 days of media coverage and analysis of the Iraq Study Group report, There is one point I feel is under reported and may be the most important when it comes to public understanding of the situation. For several years now, I have been receiving email forwards from my friends on the right that criticize media coverage of the war. Each one includes a story with photos about the opening of a school or some other nice event, complete with a question about why the media doesn’t cover these events. The idea is that the media is biased, favors the left and only covers bad news in an effort to sway public opinion against our supposed well intentioned efforts in Iraq. Much of what we hear in the media is based on official statistical data collected by our own government and embellished by the newscaster. The number of attacks or events, number killed, locations affected and more comes from our government. Now that the “report” is in, let’s take a look at some quotes related to US government reporting and analysis of violence in Iraq.

“In addition, there is significant under reporting of the violence in Iraq.”…”For example, on one day in July 2006 there were 93 attacks or significant acts of violence reported. Yet a careful review of the reports for that single day brought to light 1,100 acts of violence.”

As one CNN reporter said recently after just returning from Iraq; “The place is a mess. It's an absolute mess. … The amount of death that's on the streets of Baghdad for U.S. forces and for the Iraqi people is at an astronomical level. … When you get there and you see it on a personal level, when you watch somebody die before your eyes, it gives you a much different perspective on it than it does being a half a world away, reading about it or watching it on television. Also, you know, the pictures on television are sanitized compared to what they are on the ground.”

These statements don’t support a left wing media bias, and in fact suggest just the opposite. Has the media been enabling the Bush administration?

You can use the link below to download the complete report.

http://www.usip.org/isg/iraq_study_group_report/report/1206/index.html

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003438513

After recent analysis of how the media has been manipulated throughout this conflict, I am forced to revisit some old events and ask some scary question like: Did military PsyOps play a role in the death or the exploitation of the death of Nick Berg? It doesn’t sound a far fetched as it once did.

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=2&contentid=1228

2006-12-06

The Iraq study group meets with Bush and the report describes the situation in Iraq as “dire, grave and deteriorating”. It says violence will increase if we leave or if we stay, so the Bush administration has created a no win situation. Star Trek fans know this as the Kobiashi Moru.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/world/middleeast/06isg_transcript.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-ex-excerpts120606,0,5954805.htmlstory?coll=la-home-headlines

http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/?p=854

Are we winning? At his confirmation hearing Gates says NO, while Bush says YES. We may not totally agree with Gates, but at least he doesn’t live in Fantasyland.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/world/161504,CST-NWS-iraq06.article

For another person who doesn’t live in Fantasyland, watch Al Gore on the Today Show.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=fa53f32f-459e-4ab7-a17d-63639c384d60&f=00&fg=copy

Remember that conspiracy theory about a missile hitting the Pentagon on 9-11 and not a plane? Well, here is some more fuel to feed the conspiracy fire about what happened to that American Airlines plane and the passengers. The daughter of the plane’s pilot was killed in a mysterious and suspicious fire. Did she know something? Is this just a coincidence? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to read some of the theories.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/nyregion/06fire.html

2006-12-05 Foreign Policy and People

The latest MUST READ article about the “war on terror” appeared Sunday. It is such a MUST READ that you should drop everything and read it now. Did I say it is a MUST READ? Use the link below.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1203-21.htm

Now that you’re done reading the article linked above, here are some other headlines.

The Iraq study group will soon release their findings, and from the leaked information we have so far, it sounds a lot like John Murtha’s plan. Remember, Murtha is the decorated ex-marine who was attacked by all republicans including Bush for simply recognizing and stating the obvious.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=859F151B-7553-45D8-ACC1-F9044AF224ED&f=00&fg=copy

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa12_murtha/pr_051117_iraqres.html

A memo from Rumsfeld written just before the election, calls for a drastic change in Iraq policy and also seems to confirm again that Murtha was right.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-12-04-voa59.cfm

And finally, just for fun I have a link to the Time Magazine Hugo Chavez page in their 100 People Who Shape Our World issue. I’m sure Bush hates the inclusion of Chavez in this list, and will hate it even more if rumors turn out to be true and Chaves is named Person of the Year.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187165,00.html

2006-11-30 Meet Where?

Just one issue today as Bush and Maliki meet to discuss the future of Iraq. When Maliki comes to see Bush, he goes to Washington, DC. When Bush goes to see Maliki, he goes to Jordan, not to Baghdad. Just one question comes to mind, if things are going well in Iraq, and conditions are improving, why Jordan? Could it be that Iraq isn’t safe? I say send Bush to Iraq, so for once he can see what he has been talking about.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113000067.html

2006-11-29 The Iraq Fantasy

As Bush heads to Jordan for talks with Iraq Prime Minister al-Maliki, Parliament members loyal to al-Sadr pull out of the government in protest, weakening the government even more and proving once again that everything Bush touches turns to shit.

http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2006/11/29/ap3213078.html

Bush says he has confidence in al-Maliki, but a leaked Whitehouse memo says just the opposite.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/29/hadley.memo/

Already the UK, Italy and Poland have plans to pull troops out.

http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2006/11/29/6599.shtml

And Bush still blames the violence on al Qaeda, even though the US government’s own statistics say only 3% or less is al Qaeda related.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/world/middleeast/28cnd-prexy.html?em&ex=1164862800&en=602d97b9553b2246&ei=5087%0A

Columnist Thomas Friedman was asked on the Today Show, if he thought the situation in Iraq could be called a civil war, and he said “It’s not a civil war; it’s something worse than a civil war”.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&t=s50&g=ffd37f07-ed80-47a8-8c3e-8aa453a72019,3808fb9a-ffdd-4b36-81c3-e1130adbc532,dce193f4-5fde-4e84-af67-f1ff145dff5b,cda4f9e7-58be-48e2-9aae-9e9ebf185481,72309482-d66c-4e92-804a-3e79848b51e8,af02c211-ea8c-4b84-beee-45217198f17b,b8809228-851f-4c50-89be-8a1581657d54,23796d41-38ae-4680-b89a-ae01274604c3

Elsewhere in the world, the Bush twins, Barbara and Jenna, seem to have been behaving even more poorly than their father. After local tabloid reports of the First Twins Gone Wild, the US embassy has asked them to leave Argentina, citing security issues.

http://news.bostonherald.com/international/view.bg?articleid=169350

Back at home, the Justice Department will finally begin looking into the NSA wiretap issue.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0611/S00496.htm

The Texas Ethics Commission creates a loophole that allows public officials to take bribes.

http://star.txstate.edu/content/view/2467/

And finally, a new study finds that the more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/44843/

Before I end today, imagine this headline from an 1865 edition of the Union Gazette:

L I N C O L N S E N D S T R O O P S S O U T H

Says must contain insurgency and violence

but denies current conflict is Civil War

2006-11-27 Going Out On A Limb

As of November 25^th, US involvement in Iraq has lasted longer than it did in WWII. Hopefully everyone will notice the irony in that speech Bush gave on the aircraft carrier when he announced that “major combat operations have ended”.

http://www.cfnews13.com/StoryHeadline.aspx?id=20601

Most Iraq war observers outside the Bush administration have noticed the increase in violence and sectarian fighting for some time and warned that the situation has evolved into civil war. Those in the Bush administration have worked long and hard to avoid the civil war label, with the mainstream media towing the party line like puppies being led around on a leash. Today, November 27^th however is different. This morning the opening headline on the NBC Today show was “Civil War”, as NBC announced that they have reclassified the conflict and will refer to it by this new term. This opening teaser was immediately followed by a long segment allowing NBC to justify and explain their use of the new term in a sheepish effort to fend off criticism from the Bush administration and their supporters. My reviews are both good and bad for NBC. First, it’s great that NBC news is finally recognizing what others have seen and reported for some time. If it looks like a civil war, it is a civil war. On the flip side, news is not something that needs to be justified. News events that happen around the corner or around the world exist regardless of who they may offend. If it looks like a civil war, it is a civil war. NBC needs to just report it and move on. If people want to change what they see on the news, they need to get involved and make a difference in their community, their government and the world around them, not just put pressure on news organizations to soften the reports so they are no longer truthful. I thought news was reality based. Go out on a limb and make it that again.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/11/27/BL2006112700491.html

2006-11-22

After the summit in Viet Nam, Bush visits Indonesia and doesn’t get a warm welcome. Why don’t we see more people speaking out against his abuse of power here in the US?

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/11/18/bush.indonesia.ap/

The title of the article linked below says it all. “Democracy in Iraq now out of reach, says Henry Kissinger”

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/world.aspx?ID=BD4A323719

2006-11-17 Terror and Gas Prices (Isn’t that the same thing)

Well, Turkey was victim to a terrorist attack in 2003 and they tried and convicted a man for the crime. Here in the US, we just lock people up for years randomly without charge or trial and sometimes even torture them before we decide if we will release them, or keep them a few more years under the same conditions. Aren’t we supposed to be the example for other countries?

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/14/europe/EU_GEN_Turkey_Al_Qaida_Trial.php

The price of oil is the lowest it has been all year, but now that the election is over, those falling prices have turned back up for the second week in a row. Some say politics aren’t involved, but I and others predicted that the price at the pump would bottom around Election Day before heading back up, and we were right.

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061115/BUSINESS06/611150303/1003

2006-11-15 Adjust Aim for 2008

Although the Democrats have won control of the House and Senate, Bush has done about 40 years worth of damage in his 6 years in office and it will not just be quickly cleaned up by congress in the next 2 years.

Lets look at what’s going on now:

As the Iraq Study Group meets to review our progress and suggest strategies for our future efforts as they relate to Iraq, Bush still tries to make America fearful of any path but “stay the course”. At this point, he and the others in his group of war mongers/profiteers know they have lost control and just want to keep their plan and profits going as long as possible.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1947560,00.html

In Iraq, 150 people were abducted in a mass kidnapping, but remember, conditions are improving.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/worldwide/story/0,,1947425,00.html

Outside Iraq, Rumsfeld and other Bushies are named in a 380 page complaint that alleges they condoned torture and should face war crimes charges. They should face charges, but sadly it will take years to sort out the mess they made and the exact charges they should face.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003431313_rumsfeld15.html

In congress, Nancy Pelosi says no impeachment for the president while others are pressing hard for it. I only partially agree with both sides. Pelosi is right in saying that congress has a lot of work to do without getting bogged down in impeachment proceedings. The country has serious problems and congress needs to head full steam on a course to fix them, but once their repair effort is up and running, the environment will change. This will be the point where we have turned the corner, our new direction is clear, the financial and policy healing has begun, additional information about past events has been gathered and it will become necessary to enter the impeachment or possibly criminal prosecution process to begin the emotional and diplomatic healing necessary to enjoy a healthy future for America.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,229155,00.html

Following these events into the 2008 election, Rudy Giuliani has taken the first steps in his bid to become the next republican presidential candidate. Many people have positive images of Giuliani as the strong NY leader on 9-11, but seem to have forgotten how unpopular he was before that day and how angry the public was when he suggested delaying the mayoral election after 9-11. The only person Giuliani cares about is himself, and being so full of himself he thought a post 9-11 NY couldn’t get along without him. We have done just fine thank you. He also ruled in the same style as Bush, where what Rudy wants is what Rudy will do regardless of opinions, suggestions, or evidence that another course of action might be more appropriate. The other immediately disturbing aspect of a Giuliani candidacy that comes to mind is in the area of family values. Rudy is the mayor who slept with his mistress in the mayor’s mansion while his children lived there and then announced to his wife on national television that he was going to divorce her. It this the man who should represent the so called “family values” party?

http://www.bayoubuzz.com/articles.aspx?aid=8836

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=259692002

And moving away from politics, an earthquake hits the island North of Japan.

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1692592006

2006-11-09 Gates and Predictions

Learn more about Rumsfeld’s replacement (Gates) and his relation to electronic voting, the Help America Vote Act and K-Street from BlackBoxVoting.

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/1954/45174.html

I was going to make a wild prediction today, but it looks like I have been preempted. My prediction was going to be that the Democrats get the official win in Virginia, taking the Senate 51 to 49 and then Joe Lieberman changes party affiliation to republican making it 50-50 and giving the GOP control of the Senate, because Cheney has the deciding vote. This would not only change the power structure, but also opens the door to legal action with charges of Lieberman misrepresenting his party affiliation as a candidate. This however has all changed with this morning’s announcement that Lieberman has negotiated with Democratic leaders to keep his seniority ranking in the Senate and become chair of the Homeland Security Committee, even though he ran as an independent. Looks like Lieberman used the threat of my prediction to negotiate a little power for himself. It’s all about politics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/nyregion/09conn.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=politics&adxnnlx=1163086901-gO9LTD8f2nmQU+RkaG5xfw

2006-11-08 The Morning After

Let me start with this morning’s latest highway overpass sign, which said:

TROOPS DEAD – 2800

IRAQ WAR COST – 320 BILLION

NOV 7^TH MID-TERM ELECTION – PRICELESS

The Democrats have taken the House in larger numbers than predicted, and although recounts are likely, it looks like they will take the Senate too. People have been talking all night about what this means and what the future will bring, but few have mentioned what I think is the biggest change of all. Congressman John Conyers, the next chairman of the House Judiciary Committee will have subpoena power and many issues that have been swept under the rug over the last few years WILL be investigated. Go Johnny.

Celebrate with one of these items and display it proudly.

Click on any image to get yours or to see more designs.

2006-11-08 Update

Bush holds a press conference and announces Rumsfeld will be replaced by Robert Gates. This is directly opposite what Bush said only last week and Bush admits he said Rummy would stay to satisfy reporters and stop the questions. In other words, he lied, and today he said that the change had nothing to do with the election results. I think he also has a bridge to sell in Brooklyn. The Q & A part of this event was unlike any other, with the press actually asking real question, and even an over the shoulder camera shot showing Bush’s hand written notes. In the first 6 years of the Bush administration we have seen a very subdued press that was careful not to do anything that would upset the president, and this may be the beginning of a change. There were many mixed messages and attitudes, but you should judge for yourself.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061108-2.html

2006-11-07 Election Day

Well, it’s here, and although some news is temporarily blacked out, like exit polls, other stories march on.

Here goes.

So you thought the military supported their commanders. The Army Times just ran an editorial calling for Rumsfeld to resign. Bush says Rummy will stay and he’s doing a fantastic job. Now if the Army Times, whose editors would normally stay out of politics involving the Secretary of Defense, wants him out, he must be doing one heck of an awful job.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2632330&page=1

A study finds that the Justice Department did not bring charges in 87% of the terror cases referred to them by the FBI. This must be that new tough on terror policy that Bush instituted.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/05/fbi.prosecutions.ap/

The Justice Department however will have hundreds of workers around the country as election observers.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/06/election.observers/

Meanwhile, at the polls, problems start popping up in the predictable places like Ohio and Florida, forcing poll workers to switch to paper ballots. High tech quickly turns to low tech when the machines don’t work, and the paper ballot always works. I’ve never seen a broken paper ballot, and if there was one, a little tape would fix it in seconds.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/07/voting.problems.ap/index.html

2006-11-06 The Elections Are Coming

In his weekly radio address this past Saturday, Bush didn’t tell us about national or international affairs as he sees it, but instead chose to use the event for shameless campaigning, in an effort to keep a republican majority in Congress. He quotes some good sounding statistics as all presidents do in these addresses, and tried to convince us that his approach on the economy is working. No problem, right? Then he went over the line by flat out telling the listeners, “The last thing American families and small businesses need now is a higher tax bill, and that is what you'll get if the Democrats take control of the Congress.” In fact, this was the theme of the entire address, and all the niceties were just a ploy to expand on that same campaign message while still trying to sound a little presidential.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/11/20061104.html

I saw another great home made highway overpass sign this weekend;

ROVE RAGE

HBO has begun to air the documentary Hacking Democracy. Use the link to learn more and find out how electronic voting machines could mean an end to democracy as we know it.

http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/synopsis.html

Meanwhile the big news out of Iraq 2 days before the US election is the conviction and death sentence of Saddam. Now each time a news story broke last week that was unfavorable for republicans, the talking heads on TV all posed a question about the timing being suspect and potentially politically motivated. This story breaks which could be helpful to the republicans and the only one I’ve seen pose that same question is Wolf Blitzer of CNN. When he did ask Bush mouthpiece Tony Snow about it, Snow suggested the idea was supported only by the tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists. I have 2 problems with this immediate dismissal of the question. First, the ruling is not complete. The decision will come in the form of a very long and comprehensive document that will not be ready until after Tuesday’s US election yet without any political motivation we had a preliminary announcement this past weekend. Right, stick with that story. Second, why is it politically motivated when it’s bad news for republicans, and not politically motivated when it’s good news? Do I detect a double standard?

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15&entry_id=10601

2006-11-03 The Web, TV and Religion

“Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal” is a web site set up by the US government which displayed documents captured during the Iraq war. The site was just shut down when it was discovered that it contained “how to” information about building nuclear weapons. This info was pre 1991, the first gulf war and the weapons inspections, but it seems some republicans wanted it posted to help “smoke out” evidence of the dangers of Saddam and Iraq. OK, so the idea is, if you can’t find any evidence of WMDs or weapons programs, then post a “how to” web site and hope that some Iraqi takes the bait and tries to build something. Then you can discover what they have done and say “see, I told you they had weapons”. Are these republican manipulations of the truth getting more and more unbelievable, or is it me?

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-11-03T044918Z_01_N02171090_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-SECURITY-INTERNET-IRAQ.XML

This morning, the Today Show opened with news of the government’s Iraq documents web site (see story above) and then an interview with former Whitehouse Chief of Staff Andrew Card about the matter. The interview however wasn’t about this story at all, and just used today’s top story as a ploy. Lauer asked card, who will get the blame for this, then quickly transitioned to; is the timing politically motivated and will it have an impact on the election, before at 1 minute into the interview he moved to the John Kerry story that they have now brought into its forth news cycle. They stayed on the topic for over 2 ½ minutes (more that ½ the interview) before another transition to polls and Rumsfeld. So NBC News gave a gift to republicans wrapped up in the disguise of a story that makes them look bad, and devoted more than ½ the time to discussing the flub of a Democrat who isn’t even running, and has nothing to do with the original story. It also gave Card the opportunity to remind us about Kerry throwing away his service medals in an attempted tie in designed to make Democrats seem unpatriotic. The pace of the dialogue and the ease at which Card was able to insert talking points and political digs, made the entire interview seem rehearsed. Was this just a free air time give away from NBC to the GOP?

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=1e7db31d-aa5d-410c-b037-1a53906e3d9c&p=hotvideo_m_elex&t=c2276&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/?ta=y&fg=

In other political mis-speak; House Majority Leader John Boehner appeared to blame the Generals for the failures in Iraq. This isn’t much of a story, except as it relates to the Kerry story above. In a typical political double standard, the Boehner story isn’t getting nearly as much coverage as the Kerry flub. In fact, virtually zero coverage. It must be that so called “liberal” media again.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/11/did_boehner_mak.html

In other news, Ted Haggard who was until this story broke, the head of the National Association of Evangelicals and one of those religious right Bush advisors, has now confessed to some of the charges against him relating to paying for gay sex. If Ted wants to have gay sex with a willing partner, that’s fine with me, but don’t preach to others not to do it and claim some artificial moral high ground. The only thing this and hundreds of other similar stories over the last few years prove is that the religious right has the same issues as everyone else and that they also have no shortage of hypocrites.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15536263/

2006-11-02 Catching Up On The Headlines

The John Kerry story is now in its third news cycle yet I can give examples of huge Bush public speaking blunders that were never covered in the news at all. The other republican up side to this “liberal” news coverage of the Kerry story is what they are not covering while choosing to devote time to this instead.

US troops set up checkpoints around Sadr City after a soldier went missing there. Now, at the request of cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki ordered the US troops to with draw and shut down the checkpoints. Let’s recap, the big tough “cowboy” from Texas is going to let the prime minister of Iraq give orders to our troops at the request of an Iraqi cleric, to have them abandon the search and leave behind, a missing soldier. What are we going to have the military do next, bring them afternoon tea?

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/Navariednews.asp?dismode=article&artid=779114367

Meanwhile, the troop death count for October is 104, making it the fourth most deadly month in the war.

http://www.cdi.org/program/document.cfm?DocumentID=3705&StartRow=1&ListRows=10&appendURL=&Orderby=D.DateLastUpdated&ProgramID=37&from_page=index.cfm

This makes me remember a home made sign I saw hanging on a highway overpass.

FOR THE WAR? ENLIST

As Bush runs around the country stumping for republican candidates like a college cheerleader, – WAIT, he was a college cheerleader. The crowds scream like he is a rock star, not realizing they are cheering death, destruction, torture, budget deficits and the end of democracy as we know it. Just like supporters of O.J., Michael Jackson or others who believe that just because someone is famous and they idolize them, these celebrities are superhuman and therefore could never do anything wrong. Isn’t it like the in explicable and unbridled support that leaders of so called rogue nations get from their citizens? Doesn’t it look like we are becoming one of those rogue nations?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/us/politics/31bush.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Back in Iraq, companies like Bechtel and others are trying to complete their government contracts and get the hell out. The increased violence has caused many worker deaths, making the potential profits look less desirable.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4304135.html

At home, the media got their hands on a PowerPoint slide from a classified briefing that shows our government sees the situation in Iraq deteriorating. Oops, you’re not supposed to know that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/world/middleeast/01military.html

And getting away from the war, right wing crack pot Ann Coulter is under investigation for committing voter fraud, by knowingly voting in the wrong election district.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=nation_world&id=4720344

Also, Anti-abortion Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline has taken the concept of private medical records and thrown it right out the window. Sometimes medical records are opened to prosecutors if they relate to a specific crime and can aid in the investigation. Kline however is opening the records of 90 people from 2 clinics in a fishing expedition aimed at finding possible crimes to investigate. Why doesn’t he just read everyone’s medical records? While he’s at it, why doesn’t he listen to everyone’s phone calls? WAIT, the NSA already does that.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-kansas1nov01,1,1052402.story?coll=la-news-a_section

Finally, if you had any concerns about border or port security, now we have people trying to sneak into the US as stowaways on cargo ships. This time 3 were caught and 1 is presumed drowned, but it’s a sure sign that we have a long way to go in our quest for secure borders.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--stowawaychase1101nov01,0,867118.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey

2006-11-01 Iraq

I have several things to write about, but with the republicans attempting to change the debate to a discussion about what John Kerry did or didn’t say, I will throw my plans out the window and write about Iraq. What follows is an open letter about the Bush war in Iraq that I encourage everyone to freely distribute via email or any other means.

To all Americans,

The war in Iraq has become quite controversial, with people voicing support or opposition and the media analyzing different aspects of intelligence, strategy and exit plans. All this debate however, while focusing on details has overlooked an aspect of the big picture that seems very important to me.

First, we were told that Saddam was an evil dictator who abused his own people. This is true, but this statement however describes every dictator in the world throughout history. Dictatorship by its very nature, give one person unlimited power and there is a natural human tendency to become “drunk” with that power and abuse it. There are other dictators in the world today who can be described the same way and because of this, I will not include the statement in my analysis.

Second, humans are imperfect. People make mistakes and there will be, as suggested by the Bush administration, bad intelligence, information errors or other human issues that will cause a percent error between what we believe and what we later find out to be true. The Bush administration is correct in reminding us that a certain amount of error will always exist in the intelligence and the strategic projections. We know that the error rate can never be 0%, nor can it ever be 100% and we hope that the number is as close to 0% as possible.

Keeping in mind the 2 issues above, my question now becomes, how is it possible that the error percentage for the Bush administration as it relates to Iraq is 100%? This seems impossible, doesn’t it?

Let’s review:

There were no weapons of mass destruction

No chemical weapons stockpiles

No chemical belts around Baghdad

No mobile weapons labs (added)

No connection between Saddam and al Qaeda (added)

No connection between Iraq and the 9-11 attacks (added)

The troops were not greeted with chocolates and flowers

The troops were not greeted as liberators

(Remember, the toppling of the Saddam statue was staged.)

There were plans to attack Iraq, when Bush insisted that there were none

They were not at the end of major combat operations when Bush announced it

(More have died, more has been spent and more missions undertake since that time, than before.)

They do not know where the weapons are even though Rumsfeld said he did on National TV

They did have doubts about his weapons program unlike what Cheney said on National TV

Iraq did not purchase enriched uranium from Africa as Bush said on National TV

(Bush was told that this information was unreliable before he said it.)

The Abu Ghraib torture was not an isolated event

Conditions did not improve after the handover of power

Or after the elections

Or after the constitution was written

Or after that constitution was ratified

Or after the new government was in place

Or after we capture or kill Saddam (added)

Or Saddam’s sons (added)

Or Zarqawi (added)

They did not have enough troops even though we were told they did

Or enough equipment

Or enough body armor

They were not able to train Iraqi security forces as quickly as anticipated

They need more Iraqi troops than they anticipated

They were not able to finance the war with oil profits

They were not able to finance rebuilding with oil profits

The costs have exceeded expectations several times

They did not get the international support they anticipated

The war did not last “6 days, 6 weeks or I doubt 6 months” as Rumsfeld said on National TV

The insurgency was not in its last throws as Cheney said on National TV

They did not listen to the military leaders on the ground as we were told

The story we were told about Jessica Lynch wasn’t true (added)

The story about Pat Tillman wasn’t true either (added)

Iraq has not become a democracy, it is a democratic theocracy (added)

And the list goes on and on and on.

So again, how is it possible that the error percentage for the Bush administration as it relates to Iraq is 100%? The only explanation I can come up with is that it was intentional. No other explanation is statistically possible. WE WERE INENTIONALLY MISLED and there are still people in America who refuse to believe it. It’s time to take back our country. It’s time to let the Iraqis take back their country. It’s time to regain the trust of the world. It’s time to put a stop to this madness.

Make an effort,

Glen www.wwmeli.org/PostElection

2006-10-17 Appeal, Profits and Fences

The big news today that is under-reported in the main stream press is about some of out troops starting "An Appeal for Redress From the War in Iraq". This is the only way they could find to legally oppose the war in Iraq and ask for the troops to be withdrawn, while still active in the military. Here is there statement: As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq . Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/IraqCoverage/story?id=2609936&page=1

http://www.appealforredress.org/

I was not surprised as Exxon announced the second largest quarterly profits of any publicly traded company in history. By the way, the number 1 spot goes to Exxon as well.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/15862152.htm

On the immigration front, Bush signs a bill that includes the building of over 700 miles of fence along the US/Mexico border. It’s designed to make republicans look tough on immigration just before the mid-term elections, but fence plan is a failure before it even gets started. First, 700 miles of fence will not secure the entire border and there will still be vast unprotected areas, making the plan ineffective. Speaking of ineffective, some areas already have fences or walls, yet people still cross the border in these areas, making my second point, fences don’t work. Lastly, the bill calls for fences to be built, but provides no funding to do so, making the chances that this will ever happen slim at best. It’s all just part of a political show, with good sets and acting, but no substance or reality.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061027.ELECTIONSIDE27/TPStory/TPInternational/America/

2006-10-26 Playing Fair

Yesterday, I found myself in agreement with the President when he said: “the ultimate accountability, Peter, rests with me”. He was talking about the war in Iraq, but this applies to other issues as well. For years we have heard them blame the Clinton administration (9-11), the soldier in the field (Abu Ghraib) or others while the public has given the Bushies a free pass. Let’s have Bush be accountable and start playing fair.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/10/20061025.html

Many cried foul as CNN decided to air a video of snipers targeting US troops in Iraq. Face it, war is not pretty, and the Bush administration has done everything possible to shield the American public from less than flattering, idealistic images of war. We don’t see dead bodies coming home, funerals, news reports that don’t come from hotel roof tops or military press conferences in a secure part of Baghdad. War is death, destruction, mayhem and confusion, not a video game played in a freshly pressed military uniform where death just means you put in another quarter and start again. They have given us their image of war for several years, and it’s about time we played fair and saw the other side.

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2006/10/why-we-aired-sniper-video.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20061021-9999-1n21tape.html

Israel admits that they used white phosphorus weapons during the recent war with Lebanon and there is an uproar in the U.N. to impose sanctions for the use of this banned technology. While this debate rages, everyone seems to have forgotten that the US used white phosphorus in Iraq and no cries of sanctions surfaced. I don’t have a problem with the U.N. taking action against Israel, but shouldn’t there also be sanctions against the US? It’s only fair.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/israel-admits-use-of-phosphorus-in-lebanon-war/2006/10/23/1161455665489.html

The NJ Supreme Court has ruled that gay couples can’t be denied the same rights as heterosexual couples. Most media outlets say that they approved gay marriage, but let me be clear here about the ruling. The court gave the legislature 180 days to rewrite legislation so gay citizens have the same rights as others. They specified that the legislature could call it marriage, civil unions, or what ever designation they wanted, as long as the rights and protections are equal. This ruling is right in line with the US and NJ constitutions, because I don’t recall ever reading “EXCEPT GAYS” in either of those 2 documents. Isn’t the court just requiring the heterosexual community to play fair?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/26/AR2006102600106.html

2006-10-25 Selective Enforcement

As I had dinner last night while watching the news, I saw a segment on the NJ Senate race between Tom Kean Jr. and Bob Menendez. What made me jump up and grab a pen and paper was a statement made by Republican and former Governor Tom Kean Sr. while stumping for his son and defending Jr’s assertions about illegal activity by Menendez. Kean Sr. said: “If people have doubts about the integrity of our public officials, they will never have confidence in our government.” I have to agree with this republican, but is he listening to his own words. His words were about questionable activity by Menendez that is under investigation and may or may not amount to anything, but why don’t these same words apply to George W. Bush, who has admitted breaking the law in nationally broadcast public speeches and even says he will continue his illegal activity. Is this selective enforcement, a double standard, or what? Kean needs to listen to his own words, and everyone should apply their judgment of integrity equally.

(I couldn’t find the video of Kean’s speech.)

2006-10-24 Change the Course

Suddenly 2 weeks before the midterm elections and in the path of a landslide of falling poll numbers , the Whitehouse is trying to make the move from “Stay the Course” to “Change the Course. There is talk of time tables and bench marks, which up to this point only produced cries of “We Will NOT Cut And Run” from the Bush administration. Here is the first example I found (and it is one of many) from July 4^th of this year, when Bush said: ”Setting an artificial timetable would be a terrible mistake. At a moment when the terrorists have suffered a series of significant blows, setting an artificial timetable would breathe new life into their cause. Setting an artificial timetable would undermine the new Iraqi government and send a signal to Iraq's enemies that if they wait just a little bit longer, America will just give up. Setting an artificial timetable would undermine the morale of our troops by sending the message that the mission for which you've risked your lives is not worth completing.”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060704.html

How about bench marks? Weren’t we told that the situation in Iraq would improve (listed in no special order) after the handover of power, after the Elections, after the new government is formed, after the constitution is ratified, after we capture Saddam, after we get Iraqi police trained, after we secure certain cities, or any of dozens of other bench marks? Well, nothing has improved, and in fact this month has seen the most US troop deaths since November 2004. Bench marks my ass. They have just used bench marks as a tool to string us along, and every time we reach one, they just move to a new one. It’s like those electronic highway traffic signs where is says “Delays to Exit 52”. It says this because exit 52 is where the next sign is, and it now tells us that the delays continue, usually to the next sign location where we repeat the process.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15831167.htm

So is all the new talk just that? Are these just new words to play politics 2 weeks before an election?

http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=163924

In another change Democratic Senator Obama now says he may consider a run for the presidency in 08 which is a change from his previous position. The talk show hosts are all chewing the fat on this one and I have given it little thought except this 1 point. Obama is more qualified to be president than Bush ever was, or Bush currently is, even after almost 6 years experience. This however doesn’t mean that Obama is our only choice, because there are probably millions of Americans who are more qualified than Bush.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/realclearpolitics/20061023/cm_rcp/obama_answers_sort_of

In another course change, the House Appropriations Committee has an investigative staff that looks for fraudulent claims or appropriations. Without warning, republican Appropriations Committee chairman Jerry Lewis (no joke) fired 60 investigators. I guess finding fraud isn’t important.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001847.php

2006-10-20 Voter Intimidation & Headlines

In a typical GOP move, a republican in a California congressional race is caught sending threatening letters to keep Hispanics from voting. The candidate says it was a staffer who has been fired, the mailing service says the candidate himself was involved, and the CA GOP quickly tries to distance themselves by asking him to drop out of the race. We have suspected foul play in the last few election cycles, but this is the first case to be taken seriously by the national media. They should look more closely at other charges in other races.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/socal/la-me-letter20oct20,0,868353.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Speaking of the media, the big lead story on the news this morning was an apology by North Korea to China for the recent nuclear test. This story was based on an article in 1 insignificant foreign newspaper that cannot be confirmed by anyone in North Korea, China or the United States. How does this qualify as a lead story? There are reporters who break stories without corroboration who are taken seriously, but these are writers with a proven track record, who have never been wrong, like Seymour Hersh who broke the Abu Ghraib story. Was this lead story just another smoke screen so we won’t notice some other item that should be in the news?

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15806516.htm

2006-10-19 Fair Elections

We read conspiracy theories and conspiracy news daily on blogs, and although some are hoaxes, a frightening number of these turn out to be true. Below is a link to a story about voter registration purges in 4 states, in an effort to sway the 2006 elections. Looking at the tactics used in recent elections, this doesn’t seem like much of a stretch, but the more people who are aware and on the lookout, the better our chances of proving or disproving this story. If it is true, widespread awareness is the key to stopping it.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/18/85915/109

Also as Election Day draws near, LET THE TERROR THREATS BEGIN. After months of quiet, suddenly we hear about a plot to attack football stadiums. The announcement is bold, while the disclaimer (this is based on sources with no credibility at all) is just a quick tag line to the story. The scare game worked well in 2004, but I expect less success in 2006.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/18/football.threats/index.html

As I listened to political reporter Tim Russert this morning, he told viewers how all the polls a turning in favor of the Democrats with unprecedented margins. All but one, that is. Russert pointed out that Bush has a favorable number on the economy, and in fact it has gone up 1 point. Do I have to travel the country and personally remind Americans about the National Debt? Things always look good when you board that new yacht for a month long vacation, hopping from port to port, dining out and being served by the crew while underway. It’s great until next month, when the bill comes. OUCH! Well Bush has the country livin’ large, while the National Debt (the bill) soars. He practices fiscal responsibility like an irresponsible teenager with their first credit card. And this makes his numbers go up? I don’t get it.

http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm

2006-10-18 Torture and more

Bush signs the Military Commissions Act, ending the right of habeas corpus, legalizing torture, promoting kangaroo courts, removing prisoner’s rights, allowing anyone to be labeled a combatant and more. Who is becoming the brutal dictator now? I say it’s Mr. Bush.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/10/18/18321207.php

James A. Baker III says the Commission on Iraq will not release their report until after the November elections because they don’t want the report to have any political impact. Baker who is a long time pal of the Bush family and served in George H.W’s cabinet seems like a very friendly plant to have on this commission, so if he wants to hold the report, the news can’t be good for Bush and the Republicans. The Whitehouse is already preparing for the worst, saying that they may not accept the report.

http://www.cfr.org/publication/11743/change_the_course_in_iraq.html

Speaking of Iraq, a new study puts the number of Iraqi casualties at over 650,000. The Bush administration and others on the right dispute this figure, but the methodology used to arrive at this number looks sound.

http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20061018.092653&time=09%2049%20PDT&year=2006&public=0

As Condi went to Iraq 2 weeks ago on a fact finding mission, she found out right away that things aren’t going so well. In fact here plane had to delay landing because of mortar fire. Keep in mind that the airport is in the “secure” area.

http://practipro.blogspot.com/2006/10/condis-dilemma.html

McCain and others blame Clinton for Nukes in North Korea, but in other countries around the world, most people don’t see it that way. Check out this very short example from The Japan Times.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/rc20061018a4.html

Next up on the GOP scandal list - Kurt Weldon.

http://boards.historychannel.com/thread.jspa?threadID=700004140&tstart=0&mod=1161038730667

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jeff_dee_061016_my_childhood_memorie.htm

Finally, just when you were enjoying a little break in gas prices, OPEC will meet to finalize a plan to cut production and keep prices up. It seems to be politically important for prices to dip around election time and then go right back up afterwards.

http://www.arabesquespress.org/international/opec-ministers-will-work-out-details-of-a-1-million-barrels-per-day-186010

2006-10-13 Habeas Corpus

Not much time today, but I did find this very amusing report on Countdown by Keith Olbermann.

ENJOY

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=9279a784-db37-42fd-a786-058a1226f2ab&f=00&fg=copy

2006-10-11 Five and ½ Years

Well it has taken less than 1 news cycle of the North Korea nuclear test story for republicans to start blaming Clinton. I had a nice argument this morning on the radio with Armstrong Williams as he went along with today’s blame Clinton talking point. Bush has been in office 5½ years, yes that’s 5½ years, and there seems to be no time limit for the expiration of Clinton’s responsibility and the beginning of Bush’s responsibility. Bush only takes credit for things that go right (not much) and anything bad is Clinton’s fault. Clinton was in office for 30 days when the first World Trade Center bombing took place, and did he and all the Democrats start blaming George H.W. Bush, or Reagan. NO! Why doesn’t Bush blame, Carter, Kennedy or even John Adams for his failures? Is everything Clinton’s fault? There are several animals that are extinct and we had widespread disease in the Middle Ages, is that Clinton’s fault too? When is this man going to take responsibility for his own actions? Bush has spent the budget surplus and run up the largest debt in US history, he attacked an unarmed nation, justifying it with false information, while causing terrorist activity to increase as he tells us it is decreasing, and presided over the biggest intelligence failure in US history, leading to the largest terrorist attack on our soil, yet the republicans want us to believe it’s all Clinton’s fault. It has been 5½ years now that the Bushies have been negotiating with these foreign governments, not Clinton, 5½ years of Bush foreign policy, 5½ years of Bush neo-con imperialism, 5½ years of frightening the other peoples of the world, and 5½ years for Bush to start taking responsibility for his actions. It’s like me having an accident in a rented car, and trying to blame it on the last person who rented that car just before I did. If I wasn’t watching where I was going, that’s my fault, not the previous driver. So to anyone who tries to blame Clinton, just keep saying: 5½ years.

http://kabobfest.blogspot.com/2006/10/mccain-on-north-korea-its-clintons.html

Speak out with this new design. Click on any of the images to get yours.

2006-10-10 Foreign Policy Debates

I had a list of topics for today, but I will set them aside for the one below.

North Korea announces the successful underground test of a nuclear device. During the 2004 presidential debates there were many questions about Iraq, North Korea and other countries with talk about working through the UN and other types of multi-level negotiations to deal with these countries. Several times Bush tried to mock Kerry’s concept of how to deal with foreign policy. On the Iraq issue he used quotes like:

“I will never turn over our national- security decisions to leaders of other countries.”

(Kerry wanted to work through the UN)

http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004d.html

And on the North Korea front, Bush used snappy lines like:

“He wants to unravel the six-party talks”

(Kerry wanted several levels of negotiations to run simultaneously.)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/10/20041001.html

Looking at the situation in Iraq and North Korea today, I don’t think the bush plan is working out so well.

Additionally, as I searched through debate transcripts, I ran across the Bush gems listed below which are from the 2000 debates with Al Gore. Pay special attention to the last one as you recall the denials we hear each time someone suggests that the Bushies always planned to attack Iraq, even before 9-11, and they just needed to find an excuse to sell the idea to the public.

“Peace in the Middle East is in our nation's interests.”

“Our military's meant to fight and win war. That's what it's meant to do. And when it gets over extended, morale drops.”

“the mission needs to be clear, and the exit strategy obvious.”

“I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say, "This is the way it's got to be.”

“The coalition against Saddam has fallen apart or it's unraveling, let's put it that way. The sanctions are being violated. We don't know whether he's developing weapons of mass destruction. He'd better not be or there's going to be a consequence, should I be the president.”

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/debates/transcripts/u221011.html

Me on the left, protesting with the group on the right,

along Rt.25 here on Long Island, October 5^th 2006.

http://news.webshots.com/album/554624503cdPQch

2006-10-04 Trouble in Paradise

Several Amish children in Pennsylvania were victims of a tragic schoolhouse shooting by someone from outside their community. You no doubt have heard way too much about this on the news, but my story has to do with the news commentary related to this event. Several times I had to endure “newscasters” refer to the Amish with terms that tried to explain their “backwards” or “old world” lifestyle. I applaud those who did not do this, but it reminds me of the way some in the media and our government talk about people in the Middle East. People tend to belittle cultures that are not like their own, simply because they don’t understand them. I have spent time in “Amish Country” and have met both Amish and Mennonite people. With all the modern day distractions and problems that we face, we may have something to learn from them, not the other way around.

http://www.800padutch.com/amish.shtml

In football, Tennessee Titans’ Albert Haynesworth, at the end of a play, pulls off the helmet of Dallas Cowboys’ Andre Gurode and stomps on his face with his cleats, causing severe injury. The NFL gave Haynesworth a 5 game suspension, but this is a criminal act and he should be charged with assault. Let me explain. People get hurt playing football all the time, it’s a violent game. A player can’t be charged criminally if he causes injury to another player during normal play, but this event happened after the play ended, with Haynesworth knocking off Gurode’s helmet and stomping more than once. If the play ended with Gurode’s helmet flying off and Haynesworth landed on him, there is no crime, but this act had nothing to do with game play, was deliberate, and was specifically done to cause injury, by a man with a history of violent outbursts. It’s a crime, and if we think our sports heroes should set an example for our children, that example should exist for their successes as well as their failures. The example here would be to show what happens to a person who commits a violent act, and it’s not a suspension, its criminal charges.

http://web.dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=d793a7a8942fdff2

In politics, Congress approves the Safe Ports bill, sending it to the Whitehouse for presidential approval. Please keep in mind the title of this bill as I tell you about 2 changes that were made before the bill was passed. First a provision was removed that would prevent convicted felons from working in port operations and second, a section was added that would prevent internet gambling web sites from receiving payment via credit cards from US patrons. I have 2 questions: Why would I want criminals working in port operations when that could be a security issue and, even if I don’t like internet gambling, what the hell does that have to do with port security? It sounds like we can’t separate politics and security once again.

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=October&x=20061003174753berehellek0.843487

Bob Woodward released a new book called “State of Denial” which questions or contradicts much of what the Bush administration has told us about Iraq and 9-11. One issue in the news this week is Woodward’s claim that Condi Rice was briefed about the threat 2 months before 9-11. Condi immediately denied this, but after documentation was produced and the State Department checked their records, Condi has no choice but to admit that it was true. In fact, Condi, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft were all briefed long before 9-11 and before they all made post 9-11 public statements indicating that the attack could not be anticipated. Is there anyone in the Bush administration who is capable of telling the truth? I heard one Washington insider this week say that the Bushies didn’t follow through with the Clinton anti-terror plan, because they had their own “ABC” plan. ABC stands for Anything But Clinton, and the idea was that if Clinton did it, it was bad, no matter how successful or unsuccessful it was.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2387256,00.html

And the biggest political news this week is about Congressman Mark Foley. Foley was caught sending sexually improper emails and IMs to underage congressional pages. This is bad enough, but in a connection the media hasn’t made, it’s very similar to the Catholic Church abusive priest scandal. How you might ask? It seems that some congress members knew about the problem, including Speaker of the House Hastert, and did nothing about it. In fact, they actively worked to conceal it from their Democratic colleagues and the public in an effort to put politics before the safety of these underage pages. The republican head of the page program was notified, but his Democratic counterpart was not. Foley immediately resigned and blamed alcohol abuse for his bad behavior even though his family and friends say there was no drinking problem. Then he checked himself into a rehab program. Next, when that didn’t work we started to hear that he is a known homosexual in some political attempt to sooth their religious right base by blaming deviant behavior on homosexuality. Now in an amazingly fast progression through the first steps of his 12 step program, a message sent through is lawyer tells us that his behavior is because he was abused by a member of the clergy when he was young and apologizes for his actions. Everyone knows that all these statements and excuses are just political repositioning in an attempt to soften the blow, but many on both sides are calling for everyone who knew and did nothing, to step down. If the polls don’t turn around, I can’t wait to see what’s next – Aliens?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20061004/cm_thenation/15127152

I live in a reality based world where I call things what they are, but unfortunately few others live here with me. Although Brooklyn and Queens are part of the city of New York, they are on Long Island which is a body of land surrounded by water. This is a geography lesson that seems to be lost in the NY public schools, which produce graduates that will argue to the death that these 2 boroughs are not on Long Island. Similarly, New York’s East River is not a river at all, but a tidal strait and George W. Bush is not, nor has he ever been a successful Texas businessman. If it’s a crime, call it a crime, if it’s a political cover-up, call it one, we have reality TV which is anything but reality, and it’s about time we all tried some actual, no spin attached, reality.

2006-09-28 Legislative Terror

Yesterday, the House passed the “president’s” bill on “interrogation” and “trials” for terrorists. We have laws to deal with these issues, but Bush wants special rules, just for him, and proposing this legislation can only be considered a terror attack on our existing laws. A New York Times editorial gets into the subject more deeply and you can use the link below to read it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/28/opinion/28thu1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

2006-09-27 General Speaks Out & So Does Olbermann

Use the link below to read a transcript of the entire testimony of retired Major General Batiste before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee on September 25, 2006. Every American should be forced to read this, because the media will not run it – and they should.

http://polstate.com/?p=4925

Now watch Keith Olbermann’s report about the Clinton/Rice terrorism debate.

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Countdown-Bush-Pre911.wmv

2006-06-26 People in the News

Two senior military commanders in Iraq have been reassigned. Ordinarily, this would not be news, but it occurs to me that we have seen a steady stream of command changes, retirements and reassignments since this war started. In the first Gulf war there were some minor changes, as there always will be, but most of the brass remained in place throughout the conflict. There was some continuity. Does Rumsfeld want to keep the military off balance in an effort to secure his own power? I’d like Schwarzkopf to weigh in on this one.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/25/AR2006092500996.html

Speaking of Rumsfeld, several recently retired military leaders testified at a Senate hearing saying what many have suspected for a long time. They told everyone that Rumsfeld is incompetent, he did not take advice or recommendations from commanders in the field (as Bush said he and Rumsfeld did), he did not provide adequate supplies for the troops, and much more, saying he completely bungled the war and was incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically. DUH!

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/09/26/retired_generals_say_rumsfeld_is_bungling_war/

That war in Iraq by the way has fueled terrorism according to the new National Intelligence Estimate. This is a document that the US government produces about its own analysis that completely contradicts what the Bush administration has been telling us. Iraq has made the problem worse, not better. Negroponte says its not true, even though he approved the document before he knew information in it would leak to the public.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/26/washington/26intel.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1821

And what about that “Coalition of the Willing” that supported our attack on Iraq? Pakistan’s Musharraf says that after 9-11 the US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage gave Pakistan an ultimatum saying; “that we had to decide whether we were with America or with the terrorists, but that if we chose the terrorists, then we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age”. Armitage denies it.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15610492.htm

While all this was happening, the Bush administration decided to blame everything on Clinton. Well Clinton like all ex-presidents, has been biting his tongue, but that ended Sunday during a Fox interview. Those on the right say Clinton lost his cool, but after 13 years of attacks, I think he was quite reserved. Clinton said that at least he tried to chase down the terrorists, but in the first 8 months of the Bush administration before 9-11, they did NOTHING. He mentioned Richard Clarke who was in charge of counter-terrorism for Clinton and Bush. In Clarke’s book “Against All Enemies”, which I have read and recommend, he says that he went from a respected and trusted member of the administration under Clinton to someone who couldn’t even get a meeting with any senior member of the Bush administration prior to 9-11 under that administration.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215397,00.html (Transcript)

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/player06.html?092506/092506_fns_clint_redo1&FNS&Clinton&acc&Politics&-1&News&435&&&exp (Video)

At the start of the Bush administration, Condi was the National Security Advisor and according to Clarke, Rice was completely out of touch with the whole terrorism issue. Now in a 60 Minutes interview, Couric doesn’t ask tough, hard news questions, but turns the extended segment into a Condi Love Fest. This is the fluff we get now from CBS News and Couric while Condi gets a free ride.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/21/60minutes/main2029782.shtml

Can it be long before we have a military coup here in America?

2006-09-25 “Good German” syndrome

A co-worker left a paper on my desk titled The “Good German” syndrome. I find it appropriate to reprint here with a link to the web site where it originated.

The "Good German" syndrome

People still blame the Germans for allowing Hitler to do the evil that he did, and

in particular for pretending not to see the Holocaust as it occurred around them.

Germans at the time thought:

* I didn't vote for him

* most people don't support him

* I engaged in some forms of protest

* although the forms of protest I engaged in were mocked and derided by the government and by those in the media, I did everything I could do and I sure felt good about myself as I protested

* if it weren't for the fact that the government would arrest and possibly kill me, I would have done more

* I didn't see anything directly, so I wasn't sure of how bad it actually was

* people in positions of high authority convinced me that whatever they were doing was for the best

* I live in a civilized, democratic country, certainly the most civilized and democratic that has ever been, and my country wouldn't do evil things

* these people were going to destroy our country, so what we had to do was just self-defense

* why do you blame us when we're the victims?

* there are many people in my country who support our government with a radical fervor, many of them my neighbors and relatives, and I want to get along with them or I fear their reaction should I dare to express dissent

* anyone who expresses the least amount of dissent faces the general hatred of the public

* anyone who expresses the least amount of dissent may lose his or her job or livelihood

* anything I might have done wouldn't have made any difference

* the people who are doing the work of the government are 'our troops', and must be supported in whatever they have to do on our behalf

* the alleged victims of my government aren't fully human, and their lives aren't worth even the slightest inconvenience or risk to our lives

* the alleged victims of my government have a false and evil religion, and my true religion gives me the right to eliminate them

* after the sufferings we've faced, no one can dare tell us what to do

* what my country is doing is actually for the improvement of the lives of what busybodies describe as its 'victims'

* my country right or wrong (no, sorry, that is someone else - the Germans weren't that stupid)

* our leaders are particularly blessed and wise, with a direct line to God, and would never do the wrong thing.

Can Americans today see the similarities between Hitler's Germany and Bush's America?

Of course, the Germans said that they couldn't have known the evil that the Third Reich was capable of.

It is perhaps unfair to say that every American who isn't doing everything possible now

to stop the insanity is personally morally responsible for the death of every Iraqi.

However, there is an immoral crime of the highest order being committed in America,

and somebody is morally responsible. History teaches us lessons if we care to learn them.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Good_German_Syndrome.html

2006-09-22 Warning, Political Smoke Screen

For the last week, the news has been dominated by the debate in Washington over the president’s proposed legislation on interrogation and torture. I will say right here on this page, that the whole debate has been nothing more than political theatre in what amounts to a well scripted effort to support the Bush political agenda on several fronts simultaneously. It was political genius, and I have yet to hear any of the supposedly savvy commentators expose it. I’ll explain. The president proposes legislation to sidestep the Geneva Conventions and includes a retroactive clause in an attempt to keep his ass and others out of jail. House and Senate members voice opposition to legalized torture and even republicans break party ranks to oppose Bush. An agreement is reached and everyone lives happily ever after – or at least that’s what they want you to think. This morning, I watched an interview with John McCain on the Today Show and there was one line that gave me that internal feeling I get when I know I’m listening to BULL SHIT. First McCain kept referring to interrogation and torture as “questioning”, and then he said; “The ACLU and others don’t want the president to be able to question these people. We think that the program is legitimate.” He also kept saying that we have preserved the Geneva Conventions over and over, but also stealthily stated that the agreement doesn’t ban anything, but just requires that the interrogation techniques used must be noted so that Congress has an opportunity to voice an objection and then mentioned the ACLU again. Now that everyone has that warm fuzzy feeling and the Washington power brokers are getting along, let me tell you what they have achieved. The president gets the bill he wanted with just a few wording changes to make it look like he compromised. This essentially says it’s OK to use torture and gives Bush additional powers to decide unilaterally what we can and can’t do in the future. The members of the republican party who have to run for reelection and are seen as blindly supporting Bush policies, now have the opportunity to declare that they don’t always support him and have the strength to take a stand. The republicans get the less than flattering news about the Iraq war completely out of the headlines for a full week. The spin artists attempt to change the wording in the media discussions from the offensive sounding “interrogation” and “torture” to the benign “questioning”. And finally, they attempt to turn the whole debate which questions their support of offensive behavior into an attack on the ACLU or anyone else who opposes their plan. They bet on this strategy and may have hit a political quintfecta as we move one step closer to a dictatorship. Meanwhile, a UN report says that torture in the new Iraq may be worse than it was under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Is this progress? I have several selected links below, but you can also find many more on your own.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060922/cm_thenation/15123781

http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2006/09/22/torture-the-law-of-the-land-torture-mastermind-reviewed/

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=855&Itemid=138

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060921/cm_huffpost/029915

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=c99ea65d-97b1-4b5d-aa48-57621133c0d2&p=hotvideo_m_edpicks&t=m5&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/&fg

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0922/dailyUpdate.html

2006-09-20 Torture, Terrorism and More

Bush pushes hard to get his torture bill passed. He says it just more clearly defines what torture is and that certain techniques are necessary for national security and to protect America. The real reason he wants the retroactive bill to pass, is to keep his ass out of jail. Just like the wiretap issue and holding prisoners without charge or trial or using military tribunals, the courts have said these practices are illegal yet they continue them. Now they want to pass retroactive laws to make it all legal and avoid prosecution. After I received a ticket for going 70mph in a 55 zone, wouldn’t it be nice if I could just go change the limit to 75 retroactively so I wouldn’t have to pay the fine?

http://www.casavaria.com/sentido/usnews/law/2006/06-0916-GOP-revolt.htm

Even Colin Powell breaks his silence to oppose the Bush torture plan.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/detail.asp?ID=90849&GRP=D

Did the Whitehouse force JAG officers to sign a letter supporting the president’s plan?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/washington/16jags.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1158379200&en=a866528fffc9b846&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

Bush works hard to sell the legislation using questionable reasoning. It seems OK on the surface, but if you research the details, you will find many flaws. Watch the video and see how hard he works to sell FEAR at the beginning of the Q & A segment. Just remember the bottom line of this Bush sell; if we don’t do everything Bush says, we WILL be attacked. I could write for hours about this one conference.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060915-2.html#

Elsewhere in Washington, republican Bob Nay pleads guilty,

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-ney16sep16,1,2535243.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

HBO premiers a film about the father of the conservative movement Barry Goldwater. What most people learn is that modern day politicians who call themselves “conservatives” have little in common with the man who started the movement.

http://warrenreports.tpmcafe.com/blog/joseph_hughes/2006/sep/20/betraying_barry_goldwater

After hearing over and over again for the last year that we should be able to lower Iraq troop levels in 2006 and then watching the levels rise, General Abizaid finally admits that the levels will not drop and may even rise more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/20/world/middleeast/20military.html

Around the world, the Pope angers Muslims by quoting a medieval text saying Mohammed brings evil.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/September/theworld_September671.xml&section=theworld

A retired general says orders for the US to conduct military operations in Iran have already been given and are already under way.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/41887/

There is a military coup in Thailand.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2006/09/21/oped/bong.o..wenceslao.html

The US keeps a photographer imprisoned in Iraq without charge.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-09/18/content_691329.htm

Back in the US, Ford announces more layoffs.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.upclose20sep20,0,3589584.story?coll=bal-business-headlines

Bush addresses the UN with the same old we were attacked so we can do what we want attitude.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060919-4.html

Bush addresses the UN Global Conference on Literacy and somehow manages to connect illiteracy to terrorism, saying; “I am deeply concerned about the spread of radicalism, and I know you are, as well. We long for the days when people don't feel comfortable or empowered to take innocent life to achieve an objective. One reason radicals are able to recruit young men, for example, to become suicide bombers, is because of hopelessness. One way to defeat hopelessness is through literacy, is to giving people the fantastic hope that comes by being able to read and realize dreams.”

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060918-9.html

Venezuela’s Chavez addresses the UN and refers to Bush as “the Devil” Go Chavez.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/20/chavez.un/

2006-09-15 Sudden loss of Cabin Pressure

If you have ever had the pleasure or displeasure to experience air travel you have heard an announcement something like this: In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will descend from the ceiling. Pull it down to fully extend the tubing, place the mask over your nose and mouth, and place the strap around your head. If you are traveling with a small child, secure your mask first before assisting with theirs. I could not stop thinking about these instructions over the past few days as my thoughts reviewed the efforts of the Bush administration. The last part of the statement is the most important; If you are traveling with a small child, secure your mask first before assisting with theirs. The basic idea here is that if you are choking, it is very hard to help someone else, but if you breathing freely, helping others will be easy. How does this relate to the Bush administration? The Bushies are very quick to tell other countries in the world how they should run their governments, practice democracy, preserve human rights and much more, while we have some very serious problems here at home. Wouldn’t we be a better example to the world and be better equipped to assist and show them how to do it, if we got our own act together first?

2006-09-12 Catching up on the Headlines

Seven members of Parliament resign as a protest to the reign of Tony Blair.

http://english.people.com.cn/200609/07/eng20060907_300306.html

Israel lifts the naval blockade of Lebanon.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2410804

For years the Bush administration denied that there were secret CIA prisons and now suddenly Bush admits there are secret prisons and tells us about prisoner transfers. I must have forgotten that in Bush opposite land when they say they don’t exist, that means they do exist.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1735685.htm

Many new al Qaeda video and audio recordings surface.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060907/binladen_message_060907/20060907?hub=CTVNewsAt11

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0912terror-tape0912.html

After hearing what a great help Pakistan is in the “War on Terror” over and over from the Bush administration, now Pakistan has agreed to give sanctuary to militant groups including the Taliban and al Qaeda.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=515455&category=OPINION&newsdate=9/10/2006

One day Giuliani says the EPA isn’t to blame for 9-11 air quality issues, but after the EPA blame the city, Giuliani has what one network news show called a “change of heart” and blamed the EPA. Why is it that when a republican changes their mind it’s a “Change of Heart”, but when a Democrat does it it’s a “Flip-Flop”?

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_254020348.html

In a new low for network news and offering proof that Katie Couric should not hold the anchor position, she asks former EPA head Christine Whitman; “Does the EPA bear any responsibility that some of those first responders refused to wear respirators?” The question itself places blame on the responders and any interviewer including Couric should be smacked and then fired for such a question. This is not news. In the court room they call this “leading the witness”. You NEVER imbed an answer or excuse within the question because it undermines the whole idea of asking a question in the first place. The person being interviewed must offer an answer, not the interviewer. Couric gets an F.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/07/60minutes/main1982332_page3.shtml

How about some nice commentary from the Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinel titled

“Commemorating 9-11 by Impeaching the President”

http://baltimorechronicle.com/2006/091106LINDORFF.shtml

After republican requests that the anniversary of 9-11 not be used for political gain, Bush addresses the nation on national TV and attempts to use the event for political gain.

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=72197

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_full_060912_what_war_3f.htm

ABC airs “The Path To 9-11” amid criticism from both sides. I have only seen portions of the first night so far, but I do have comments. They focused quite a bit on conflicts within the Clinton administration about how to react to and deal with terrorism. I’m sure there were some conflicts as there would be in any administration when dealing with such a complex issue, but it seemed overplayed. The other issue that really jumped out at me happened near the end of the first night. The story jumped from January 2001 at the end of the Clinton administration to September 2001 as the hijackers boarded planes during the Bush administration. If this implies that nothing happened in counterterrorism for the first 8.5 months of the Bush administration, then according to Richard Clarke who left the administration for exactly that reason, they are correct.

http://abc.go.com/movies/thepathto911/index.html

And finally, the US embassy in Syria is attacked.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1870464,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

2006-09-11 Patriot or Patriots

Although I have a long list of issues to address, I will use today, Patriot Day, to focus on remembering those who were, killed, injured, later became ill as a result of the attacks and how George W. Bush can’t even name a holiday without screwing up. It is a day to remember, but it also reminds me what an idiot this president is. There are many ceremonies and TV specials about the remembrances, so I will focus on the reminder. As someone who enjoys studying history to learn the lessons and understand the traditions, one of my favorite holidays is Patriots Day. On the morning of April 19, 1775 the British marched into Lexington MA and the first battle of the American Revolution was fought. This was the “shot heard round the world”, the “midnight ride of Paul Revere” (and 2 other men who many have forgotten – look them up yourself), and the battle on the bridge at Concord that happened immediately after Lexington. In New England, this important event in American history has been observed for a very, very long time as Patriots Day and frankly is so important in our history, that I can’t understand why it isn’t a national holiday. Enter George W. Bush, who after the attacks of September 11, 2001, decides that there should be a national holiday to remember this day and declares it Patriot Day. Was this an attempt by the “Texan” to stick it to New England (Bush was born in CT), was there a sudden shortage in available holiday names, or is he just an idiot? I’m going with idiot. Meanwhile, remember the victims of 9-11 today, and be sure to also observe Patriots Day on the traditional April 19, or the next official observed Monday Patriots Day celebration on April 16, 2007.

http://www.battleroad.org/events.html

2006-09-06 Health, Death, Media, Politics & More

The big news story on all the networks this morning was the final release of a medical study indicating that 70% of 9-11 rescue workers suffer health problems from exposure to toxins at the site. I mentioned this study on 2006-08-25 below, before its official release with the hope that people would look forward to its eventual release. The networks gave the story significant air time, but missed the boat on one major related point. None of them read statements released by the EPA in the days following 9-11 or replayed the nationally broadcast public statement made by Christine Todd Whitman (the EAP director at the time) a few days after that, which assured the public that the air was safe, tests were conducted and that appropriate equipment would be available and steps taken to insure continued safety. The reality was that the air was not safe, few if any test were conducted or completed and appropriate amounts of safety equipment was not available. These statements by the EPA and Whitman were lies! I will not include a link to the medical research report below, but instead I have a link to a February 2006 news report detailing a judges ruling about these events. The judge stated that "No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws," and would not grant Whitman or the EPA immunity from any legal action initiated by victims of this environmental attack. By the way, this story never made it into the main stream news.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200602%5CNAT20060206a.html

In other news, the world morns the death of environment and animal advocate Steve “The Crocodile Hunter” Irwin. His web site has been so flooded is has temporally crashed, but the link is below.

http://www.crocodilehunter.com/

The media is all a buzz about the premier of Katie Couric as the host of the CBS Evening News. Many wondered if the infotainment star could adjust to doing had news, but what we found instead is that the hard news show has adjusted to the infotainment star. What a disappointment.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=reviewsNews&storyID=2006-09-06T074751Z_01_N06413652_RTRIDST_0_REVIEW-TELEVISION-COURIC-DC.XML

Bush Compares bin Laden to Hitler in a speech designed to re-ignite support, but scholars of Hitler’s political techniques would probably conclude that the Bush political strategy is more similar to Hitler’s than bin Laden’s. I don’t have time right now to elaborate.

http://www.itv.com/news/world_af50e82c8d30455a7c74b1ff2c598867.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_randolph_060905_a_case_of_history_ab.htm

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_paul_jac_060905_fascist_fiction.htm

In an effort to silence critics, the Pentagon releases a new field manual that specifically bans torture by any military personnel or at any military installation and eliminates the “secret list of interrogation tactics”. All that glitters is not gold however, because the new rules do not apply to CIA interrogations that take place at non-military locations. They will simply have to be more careful about who does the torturing and where it takes place.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-torture6sep06,0,7581942.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Bill Ford steps down as leader of the slumping Ford Motor Company. All that investment in big SUVs and the short term lame move of re-introducing old models (see 2006-08-11 below) didn’t pay off. Having their leader Bill Ford stuck in the past wasn’t helping the company move into the future.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-ford0606sep06,0,7274424.story?coll=orl-business-headlines

And finally, a nicely timed announcement of a new oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico should ease supply fears and prices just in time for the midterm elections.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/15450144.htm

2006-08-31 The pot calling the kettle

Rumsfeld gave a speech where he equated those who question the war in Iraq with Nazi supporters during the rise of Hitler. It upset many people that he would have the nerve to even make this comparison and most wondered what type government he thinks we have here in the US. I will focus more on a statement by Bush where he was speaking about the war and said; “These are important times, and I seriously hope people wouldn't politicize these issues…” How can we take this man seriously when he and the dozen or so members of his administration have used terrorism and war for political gain more than the entire remainder of the world’s population combined? I am disappointed that members of the audience and media in attendance didn’t immediately leap from their seats and challenge the president’s statement by reminding him how he politicized issues or at least asking him if he would pledge to set an example. The poll numbers show that the public is beginning to wake up, but it is way too late.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/08/31/national/w082713D49.DTL&type=politics

2006-08-29 Katrina Anniversary & More

One year ago today Katrina came ashore and it was not just a natural disaster, but a political and social one as well. This event made it clear to America that all the Bush talk of improved disaster management was bull and with all the administration officials continuing vacations and photo ops., it was obvious that they just didn’t care.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/08/29/18304342.php

Bush even told us that “no one could have anticipated the breach of the levees”, and soon after we saw a video of Max Mayfield briefing the Bushies and warning them about that exact scenario. Now Mayfield is going to retire and everyone fears Bush influence will be used to replace him with an unqualified political appointee.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/25/storm/main1935706.shtml

Meanwhile, it seems Richard Armitage was one of the leakers of Valerie Plame’s identity.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001425.php

New figures show that wages are not keeping up with inflation or increased productivity. This hasn’t happened since WWII. Thanks, Mr. President.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/57149/bush_becomes_first_president_since.html

In Iraq, Alberto Gonzales makes a visit,

http://www.forbes.com/business/energy/feeds/ap/2006/08/29/ap2980466.html

control of Abu Ghraib prison is given back to Iraq, but all the prisoners have been moved to a new US prison

http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=8/30/2006&Cat=4&Num=003

and even after adding more troops to police Baghdad and releasing reports of lower violence there , new reports show violence throughout actually increasing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/world/middleeast/28cnd-iraq.html?ex=1156910400&en=068e9e6a12dfecd2&ei=5087%0A

In more amusing news, Iran’s president Ahmadinejad challenges Bush to a debate

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525967104&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

and after a full week of media saturation about suspected JonBenet killer John Mark Karr, his DNA doesn’t match the DNA found at the scene. The media has devoted a full week of round the clock coverage to this story before the evidence was checked and suppressed other stories that were both more important and true.

http://origin.denverpost.com/jonbenet/ci_4253409

2006-08-25 Lies, Troops and Health

My second favorite quote from Bush’s Monday press conference is:

(My favorite is included below under 2006-08-22)

“We're not leaving, so long as I'm the President.”

Does this insight into the Bush plan mean that over the last few years, every time a member of the administration said something like “we will stand down as soon as the Iraqi forces stand up” they were lying?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060821.html

Along with this, all the branches of the military have been recalling troops from the “ready reserve” back to active service except the Marines, until now. Even the Marines are having troop shortages and have no other choice but to reactivate “Ready Reserve” to fill the void. After using all the available troop resources, if Bush advances another conflict in Iran, Syria, Korea or elsewhere, where will he find the necessary troops? Does this mean we may have to start saying that dirty “D” word? DRAFT

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4135179.html

The threat of the draft seems more likely as Iran refuses to abandon their nuclear program.

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2006/s1723826.htm

As far as misuse of our military, you may have heard about an officer who refused to deploy as a protest to the actions of our Commander-in-Chief. Use the link below to learn more about him and you may even choose to support his defense fund.

http://www.thankyoult.org/

In other news, information surfaces about air quality health hazards after 9-11. Some information is from a whistle blower and more will be revealed in a soon to be released health study. The study found that 9-11 rescue workers are 5 times more likely to develop respiratory problems than the general public.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/25/nyregion/25toxic.html

2006-08-22 Distractions and More

After another long weekend, this time in Manhattan, lets catch up on the news.

More analysis and information from un-named sources lead us to the conclusion that the Bush administration to push British police into making the terror plot arrests before they were ready. The Bushies manipulated this event for maximum political and media gain, even if they had to sacrifice anti-terror intelligence efforts confirming my suspicions. Several related links below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/playing-politics-with-our_b_27085.html

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_nafeez_m_060822_the_truth_about_the_.htm

http://www.countercurrents.org/us-weiner160806.htm

As the terror plot fades in the news, another damaging story surfaces for Bush, this time it’s a judicial ruling declaring the NSA wiretap program in violation of the FISA law and the US Constitution. Those who support the wiretap program say the opposition is soft on terrorism, but they don’t understand one basic point; it’s not what you do, but how you do it. What I mean by this, is that there are legal ways to do surveillance and fight terrorism that work perfectly well, but the Bush administration has chosen to

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/281793_wiretaped.html

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/opinion/15328164.htm

The Bushies immediately began attacking the credibility of the judge, but when that didn’t have enough media impact, they prematurely advanced another story. What was it? The man accused of killing JonBenet Ramsey. The evidence was not fully developed, the arrest was rushed and the investigation would have benefited from following this man longer to see what other evidence would be revealed. The media however fell for this one hook, line and sinker as it has completely dominated the news for 5 days now. What happened to the NSA story? It’s all JonBenet all the time.

http://www.waltontribune.com/story.lasso?ewcd=9857e7566422d3e3

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060820/cm_huffpost/027626

Meanwhile, Lieberman wants Rummy out,

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/21/nyregion/21campaign.html?ex=1156305600&en=9b016046552b5eaf&ei=5087%0A

Hillary’s poll numbers rise,

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1229053,00.html

republicans McCain and Hagel split on the war,

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/20/ap/politics/mainD8JKCQDG0.shtml

a spray on virus is to be added to our food,

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17093490&BRD=1699&PAG=461&dept_id=46368&rfi=6

Iraq news focuses on arrests in an effort to make it all sound less like war,

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-22T172304Z_01_GEO743062_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml&archived=False

Israel (with US support) causes an environmental disaster on the Lebanon coast,

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m25981&l=i&size=1&hd=0

US crime rises as Bush proposes law enforcement budget cuts

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/15327041.htm

the IRS decreases their ability to detect high income tax cheats, but then unveils a plan to use private collection agencies at a higher cost and lower return to chase delinquent middle income taxpayers (which may be illegal because they will be sharing your tax information),

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6031126,00.html

and Bush has an unscripted press conference in an apparent effort to prove how big an idiot he is.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060821.html

You should read the entire question and answer part of the press conference linked above, but below I have included my favorite part.

BUSH: You know, I've heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and kind of "we're going to stir up the hornet's nest" theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.

QUESTION: What did Iraq have to do with that?

BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?

QUESTION: The attack on the World Trade Center?

THE PRESIDENT: Nothing, except for it's part of -- and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack.

This explains why 50% of Americans still believe that Iraq had some connection to 9-11, because the members of the Bush administration didn’t suggest a connection thousands of times.

2006-08-16 Terror, Media, Israel, States & Slogans

If you have been listening to the news, you heard many reports about several young men who purchased large numbers of throw away cell phones in a state where they do not reside, who were arrested because of suspected terrorism related activities. The media immediately bombarded us with stories about plans to blow up a bridge and how security for that bridge had been increased. Now that this story has fallen out of the news, let’s recap where it stands today. The men involved have no connection to any terrorist group, they had no plans to use the phones for terrorist activity, but rather to resell them in a state where they are not readily available, and there was never any plot to blow up the bridge that we kept seeing on the news. The media did however provide the Bush administration with several days of terror related headlines which always raises their poll numbers, and they provided the media blitz free of charge.

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060815-110345-8140r.htm

If you missed it, you should watch Keith Olbermann’s “The Nexus of Politics and Terror”. Olbermann makes a connection that I have been trying to point out for some time, the use of terror fear to manipulate politics, the media and polls. I have always called these “terror alerts” “media alerts”, because they always seem to come when they have completely lost control of the media stream, and the news of a “terror alert” makes the media instantly change direction. THIS IS A MUST WATCH!

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?f=00&g=ac210717-da8c-4c65-8ef4-

As the cease fire holds between Israel and Lebanon, Seymour Hersh (who has never been wrong) tells us that Israel planned the invasion before their soldiers were kidnapped, the US helped in that planning and it was all a test run for an invasion of Iran. Does this explain why the Bush administration had a completely different reaction to the conflict than the rest of the world did? By the way, Bush is blaming the entire conflict on Syria and Iran.

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060821fa_fact

Democratic and Republican governors alike have joined forces to oppose an unpublicized law attached to a spending bill your government tried to sneak through in the middle of the night. The first clue here is any law that pushes through during the night probably had something questionable hidden in it. In this case it allows control of any or all states National Guard to transfer to the federal government without the consent of the states governor. Face it; they just want control of everything. Isn’t this the party that always tells us to preserve state’s rights?

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2034528.php

“Stay the Course” is the phrase we have heard from the republicans millions of times and any deviation would be a “cut and run” anti-American action. Well, most Americans now admit that “Stay the Course” just won’t work, so Ken Mehlman slyly reveals the new slogan on Meet the Press. Ready, it’s “Win by Adapting”. If we adapt, then we aren’t “staying the course. I’m confused.

http://watchingthewatchers.org/story/2006/8/14/17251/3804

2006-08-11 Right Again, Crimes & Oldies

If you read my rant yesterday about the Bush administration timing terror news for maximum political gain, you might think I’m quite cynical. After seeing these media techniques used many times, I think I’ve gotten good at spotting these tricks and yesterday was no exception. The Yahoo News story linked below confirms my suspicion and details how the Bushies knew last Friday, using the time to manipulate stories before during and after the release of this terror news for maximum political impact.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060810/pl_afp/britainattacksairline_060810185330

As a follow up, most Americans don’t know about a similar terror plot to blow up 11 airliners over the Pacific in late 1994 or early 1995 that was discovered by Philippines investigators and followed up by investigations here in the US. Why doesn’t the public know about this? Under the Clinton administration, our government considered tracking and foiling terrorists as an ordinary part of their job, not a political tool. They did not exploit these events for political gain as the Bushies do. A politician can constantly try to convince everyone they are doing a good job, or they could actually just do a good job and hopefully everyone will notice. I prefer the latter.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A39166-2002May18&notFound=true

In other news, with the possibility of losing control of congress increasing, the Bush administration tries to get congress to retroactively redefine “War Crimes” so they can avoid prosecution if any real investigations ever happen.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/08/10/white_house_proposes_retroactive_war_crimes_protection/

On a lighter note, GM announces they will re-introduce the Camaro. Taking a play from Ford, who brought back the Mustang, this will do well with mid-life crisis baby boomers, but only in the short term. The US car companies will never move into the future until they stop living in the past.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060811/BUSINESS01/608110321/1014/BUSINESS

2006-08-10 Terror and more Lieberman

A new terror scare conveniently dominates the media, this time out of the UK. I’m NOT saying that this is a fake plot or scare, but what I am saying is that according to reports, this investigation has been going on for some time and the plot was not to be carried out immediately. The question now becomes; why did it hit the news today? Yesterdays CT primary news dominated the media with bad political forecasts for republicans. The release of the plot investigation and arrest news at this time has knocked the Lieberman story off the RADAR. How convenient is that? They could have used this any time and without the bad political news I believe it would have been held for another moment when its impact would be useful politically.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1224967,00.html

Getting back to the Lieberman story, there are some new developments that the story above may keep you from learning about.

Lieberman asks for the resignations of his entire campaign staff.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/08/lieberman_staff.html

Lieberman has $2,000,000.00 left in his campaign war chest.

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/08/wednesday_night.html

Chris Matthews works hard to get republican chair Ken Melman to endorse the republican candidate in CT over Lieberman and Melman won’t do it. Is Lieberman really the stealth republican candidate?

(I don’t have a link for this yet.)

And, an unconfirmed report of a Rove delivered pledge of Bush support for a Lieberman independent run.

(No link for this yet either.)

2006-08-09 CT, Elections, Theme Parks and More

I’m back, after a long weekend in Connecticut which had nothing to do with yesterday’s Democratic primary in that state. Speaking of the primary, The 3 term incumbent, former vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman is beaten by a political unknown. With party support, name recognition and an imported army of republican college students, Lieberman still can’t make the cut. This morning on the Today show, they tried to say he was smeared as a Bush puppet, but it couldn’t be true because he voted with the Democrats 90% of the time. They didn’t look at the votes divided into pre-Bush and post-Bush categories. During the Bush presidency he has been the leading Democratic Bush kiss ass, throwing constant support at Bush’s failed agenda and policies. Now Lieberman says he will run as an independent and I just offer the following line spoken many times by republicans after the 2000 presidential election – You lost, get over it.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/08/09/lieberman/index_np.html

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1224552,00.html

Also on the election front, Delay says he won’t run in Texas and after a court ruling that says he can’t be replaced on the ballot, it looks like that district won’t have a republican candidate.

http://www.law.com/jsp/tx/PubArticleTX.jsp?id=1155027925968

Then under the pressure of the Abramoff scandal, republican Bob Ney says he won’t run again and because of a unique Ohio law, the top leading republican replacement for Ney on the Ballot may be ineligible.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-ney9aug09,1,4217698.story?coll=la-news-politics-national&track=crosspromo

On other fronts, the American Bar Association officially condemns Bush’s misuse of signing statements.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/08/aba-condemns-bush-misuse-of-signing.php

Bush gives a press conference from Crawford that can only be categorized as the finest example of presidential Bull Shit I have ever seen.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060807.html

The army first entertains and later dismisses plans for a military theme park.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0608090135aug09,1,6752200.story?coll=chi-business-hed

BP takes some heat for recording record profits while avoiding expenses for pipeline repairs. That pipeline is now shut down and fuel prices rise even higher.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-09-voa47.cfm

The situation in the Middle East has not improved.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7F525035-8DE2-44D1-B974-4C7CF4E871EA.htm

And finally, one personal observation, as commercial radio becomes more dominated by large corporations who flood the country with pre-programmed, computerized broadcasts that all sound the same, we seem to be missing something. What we are missing is local content, with local input, by local DJs, that differ from area to area instead of one size fits all radio. We can thank all these large media giants and syndicated programs for what I call Stepford Broadcasting.

2006-08-02 What did happen on 9-11?

Vanity Fair magazine has published the transcripts and linked to recordings of NORAD tape from the morning of 9-11.

http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/060801fege01

Meanwhile, news surfaces that the Pentagon/NORAD officials who testified to the 9-11 commission may have intentionally tried to mislead (LIED TO) that panel. There are 2 investigations into the issue and to many this looks like a cover-up. "We to this day don't know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what they told us," said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who led the commission. "It was just so far from the truth. . . . It's one of those loose ends that never got tied."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101300.html

I can’t find the link, but yesterday I heard audio of a retired NORAD interceptor pilot telling a group they were wrong for saying the government did nothing on 9-11. He went on to say, that if they did nothing, the outcome would have been very different, because standard operating procedure would dictate the steps to be taken and there would have been activity to stop the planes. He asserts that they must have acted by ordering our forces to stand down. I don’t have this audio, but will include some interesting related links.

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/usaf_911.html

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/911stand.html

http://standdown.net/

Enjoy the C-Span American Perspectives broadcast of the American Scholars Symposium entitled Theories about September 11. This will only be on their site for a limited time.

rtsp://video.c-span.org/60days/ap072906_theories.rm?mode=compact

Back in Washington, after the Supreme Court ruled that the military tribunals for suspected terrorists are illegal, Senate committees are debating a proposal that would give the Secretary of Defense the power to use these tribunals for anyone accused of any crime. The rules for these proceedings are similar to third world kangaroo courts used by dictators to jail anyone who opposes them.

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/politics/index.ssf?/base/politics-10/1154532572301820.xml&storylist=washington

2006-08-01 Arms, War, Prisons and Iraq

In the answer to the question, which is more important, profits for big business or national security, the Bush administration quietly releases information that gives us a clear answer. The information is about a deal to sell $4,600,000,000.00 worth of arms to Arab states including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and others which answers the question and tells us that business is more important. The last time I checked, we had 9-11 hijackers that came from the UEA and Saudi Arabia, but surprisingly none from Iraq.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4CC856EA-FC28-4F38-9047-A678E7C94A9F.htm

Meanwhile, at the end of last week we heard talk of a cease fire between Israel and Lebanon, but with little US interest in a cease fire agreement, it has been the most violent in history. It never developed and the Bushies say it is worthless without a plan for lasting peace. The polls, public pressure and international pressure make the message change a little each day, but remember war is big business, and the Bushies like big business.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101292.html

We also saw the retirement of Major General Geoffrey Miller, who was in charge and ultimately responsible for the prisons at GITMO and Abu Ghraib and the abuse the occurred there. Not only did he retire honorably, but he also received special honors in a ceremony at the “Hall of Heroes”.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1976350,00.html

The UN says that US secret Prisons around the world are in violation of a UN treaty and wants them closed.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2289993,00.html

Back in Iraq, the USAID says the money for rebuilding the country is all gone and there are even cost over-runs and accounting tricks to hide the costs.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraqcosts30jul30,0,5813516.story?coll=la-home-headlines

And finally, Democrats unite to pressure Bush on getting troops out of Iraq. Everyone is required to keep reading about the Democrats plan from as many legitimate sources as possible until you realize that it is NOT the “Cut and Run” strategy the republicans want you to believe it is.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-dems1aug01,1,2712596.story?coll=la-headlines-world

2006-07-28 A World Turned Upside Down

In a follow up to 2006-07-26, not only will the US be sending more troops to Iraq after officials said levels would be drawn down, but they are also extending the length of all tours and canceling leaves. It’s like telling us a product has a new low cost which is available at a slightly higher price.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1095012006

Bush and republicans in the Senate try again to get approval for John Bolton as UN ambassador. Let’s recap. He doesn’t believe the UN has any value, his idea of negotiations and diplomacy involve beating your opponent into submission, he is rude, he alienates people, and during his temporary appointment has been part of only 1 agreement which is non-binding and worthless, while all other diplomatic efforts have failed. The Bush lemmings still think he is the man for the job.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1832171,00.html

Al Qaeda weighs in on the Israel/Lebanon conflict and it looks like the efforts to stop terrorism by Israel, just like the US efforts will only increase terrorist activity.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0607280214jul28,1,3751612.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

Meanwhile, while violence increases and world politics becomes more complex and more stressed by the hour, Bush will spend time today with the contestants from American Idol. Don’t we (the American public) pay this guy to do other functions besides, photo ops, tax giveaways to rich friends, long vacations, acts of war for personal or political gain, and giving speeches explaining all this in language that none of us can comprehend because it proves that English must be his second language.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4077889.html

On the up side, scientist Peter Doran has written a very strongly worded piece that appeared in the NY Times, asking politicians and others to stop misusing his research in an effort to deny the existence of Global Warming. “I WOULD LIKE TO REMOVE MY NAME FROM THE LIST OF SCIENTISTS WHO DISPUTE GLOBAL WARMING," he said. "I KNOW MY COAUTHORS WOULD AS WELL."

http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/10245/C396/L396/

And, in a personal moment to preserve free speech, the ticket I received for the political signs on my car has been dismissed. (see 2006-03-15)

2006-07-26 Back from Texas

I’m back from a trip to Texas and I didn’t even make a side trip to harass the president. Now for a quick recap of the madness while I was gone.

Several weeks ago when the Bush poll numbers seemed to bottom out, they started to announce potential plans for an Iraq troop drawdown. As with every other time they hinted at bringing troops home, when you live in Bush’s world, or opposite land as my wife calls it, this means that we will soon be increasing troop strength. So we see the situation in Iraq improving with increased violence and more trained Iraqi troops, which means we need more American troops. Is that what they call improvement? The Bushies say that they are not sending more troops to Iraq, just redeploying the ones already in Iraq. Well, some of these troops are coming from Kuwait, and last time I checked, that’s not part of Iraq.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1830239,00.html

The last of the Japanese troops have pulled out of Iraq.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=July2006&file=World_News2006072634218.xml

“The Other Iraq” is the new ad campaign that Americans will be seeing, trying to tell us everything’s OK. It deals with the far northern part of Iraq, and is like showing us pictures of the beautiful estates in the Hamptons while trying to sell us an apartment in the Bronx.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=2235567&page=1

Meanwhile, a new Harris poll says 50% of Americans believe Saddam had WMDs when we invaded. This proves once again that truth doesn’t matter, but good marketing does. Well folks, put down your pet rock, take off your mood ring, pay attention to the man behind the curtain and start learning the truth.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200607260005

And Time magazine seems to be able to find and interview high ranking Saddam loyal insurgents, but the US military can’t find them.

http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=12901

Elsewhere in the Middle East, Israel bombs a U.N. observation post.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Mideast_Fighting_UN_Observers.html?source=mypi

Condi says it’s “time for a new Middle East” upsetting many in the existing Middle East. Is she affirming that that the Bushies (or the Project for a New American Century) have a plan for the Middle East and they aren’t really interested in the ideas of anyone else?

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=17077

The answer to the question above is yes. Cheney even mentioned the “Clean Break Plan” in a recent speech which is a 1996 document outlining the realignment of the Middle East. This document was the foundation for the Project for a New American Century documents that followed 2 years later. Read and Learn.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jane_sti_060722_clean_break_3a_why_the.htm

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EC20Ak07.html

http://www.iasps.org/strat1.htm

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

At home, record heat in California,

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1973407,00.html

while Senator Inhofe denies the existence of global warming,

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3273&src=QHA022

FEMA has Katrina victim interview blackout, then requires FEMA escorts for victim interviews,

http://www.rcfp.org/news/2006/0725-new-femabo.html

and NAACP offices receive letters with a mysterious white powder. Remember those anthrax letters a few years ago? Our justice department never solved those cases. They didn’t seem to have any interest in solving them.

http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=82465

2006-07-19 Late Addition

Before I head out of town for a few days (to Texas) here are some additions that just won’t wait.

Watch the link to see Bush enter the G8 and grab German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s shoulders from behind for a quick rub. She doesn’t seem amused.

http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Bush-Grope.wmv

I am not amused that Mr. Bush chose the stem cell research bill for his first veto ever. He has rubber stamped over 750 pieces of legislation that have damaged our economy, our environment, sent us to war, and damaged America, Americans and others in the world in many ways but today when faced with a bill that could advance science and have positive effects on millions of people for all eternity, he chose the veto. I don’t understand the parallel universe he lives in, where up is down, right is wrong, bad is good and hurting people helps them.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/260591fc-1752-11db-abad-0000779e2340.html

2006-07-19 Population Control

With the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah increasing, the Bush administration planning to wait until next week to send Rice for negotiations, Turkey talking about invading Iraq because of the violence spilling across the border, the Taliban gaining strength, and additional friction in the other countries of the region, I may have stumbled across the actual Bush / NeoCon plan. We have caused the problems in Iraq, enraged surrounding nations and caused enough fear for them to elevate extremists to positions of power, while avoiding the usual diplomatic steps designed to subdue these problems. Now Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, and others are involved in both national and international conflicts. So what is the NeoCon plan to take over the Middle East? It seems the idea is to ignite, incite end encourage enough conflicts to cause the people of the Middle East to annihilate themselves. Sure there are American lives being lost, but the ratio of Middle Eastern to American lives being lost has been fluctuating from 20:1 to 40:1 and overall it is steadily increasing. It’s a plan to cause enough conflict within your target, so the target starts to destroy itself. When they all become weak enough, the US should be able to just step in, clean the mess, pick up the pieces, and then claim it all as our own. This is imperialism at its best and Middle Eastern Population Control. They may have forgotten that there are other countries like China who might like to claim it as well. I go back to my headline from 2006-07-14, BE FRIGHTENED.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1182137.php/Rice_will_travel_to_Middle_East_when_appropriate

http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/19-07-2006/83398-Turkey-0

2006-07-18 Victory, Heat, the NSA and Shit

David Walker of the GAO testifies to Congress about progress in the Bush “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq”. You can read the Washington Post article linked below, but let me sum up the findings by saying, what ever the Bushies told us – that’s not what we got.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/16/AR2006071600774.html

Coast to coast heat warnings are posted, tsunamis, droughts, record yearly temperatures, unusual animal migrations, and oh, don’t pay attention to that global warming thing. If you don’t believe in the existence of global warming, I have a bridge for sale. I remember when we would set a few weather records each year. Now we set some new record every few days.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/18/national/main1812307.shtml

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

Remember that Department of Justice investigation into the NSA wiretap that was suddenly dropped? (2006-05-12 Below) Gonzalez testified to a Senate committee that Bush himself put a stop to that investigation. Is he a president or a dictator?

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/07/bush-blocked-doj-internal-probe-into.php

And the fun story was Bush talking to Blair in front of an open microphone and saying “shit”. Some cable news agencies ran the tape uncensored, all network news ran it censored and all but 1 newspaper censored the text. Fear of the FCC and the newly raised fines has helped to keep the press in line. If I were a network news producer, I would risk the fine in just a few large markets and run the uncensored version. Then, when the FCC came calling to levy a fine, I would challenge the fine saying, the president said it in public, all we did was replay it, and if there is a problem with what the president said, they should take it up with him.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/18/wreaction118.xml&pPage=/core/Matt/pcMatt.jhtml

http://www.itv.com/news/world_6d49e851c134d6429de556b5b1f14f08.html

Click on any of the images to get your Screwing Iraq products

2006-07-14 BE FRIGHTENED

Hezbollah, the Taliban, Hamas, the Palestinians and others were all considered terrorist groups, but have risen to hold positions of legitimate power while the Bushies distracted us in Iraq. Now let’s add a frightened, over-reacting Israel, an unstable Iraq in civil war, unchecked nuclear ambitions in several countries and incompetence by our leaders who should be keeping this all in check, to arrive at our present situation of global instability. Are those who prophesize the rapture working overtime to make sure it happens? Be frightened, not of terror attacks in our cities, but of our leaders in Washington. They are building a tower of blocks that is smaller on the bottom than it is on top and it won’t take much to send it all crashing to the ground.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=698506

Along with this, is an announcement by Arlen Spector that there is a compromise on the NSA spying issue. A slight change in rules will make Bush agree to follow those rules. Be frightened again and read the fine print. Everything bends toward Bush and Bush doesn’t agree to bend at all. This man thinks he’s a dictator, not a president.

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryID=20060713-045054-3807r

At least someone has the balls to challenge the Bushies. Valerie Plame files a law suit against Cheney, Rove and Libby. Good for her.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-071406leak,0,5782266.story?coll=la-home-headlines

If all this doesn’t make you upset enough, the cost of the Iraq war was just adjusted upward to $500,000,000,000.00 and instability in the Middle East has economists predicting Oil prices rising to $100.00 per barrel.

http://www.channel3000.com/politics/9516842/detail.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2192846

2006-07-13 The Conspiracy Continues

As George H.W. and Barbara Bush, James Baker and others attend the funeral of Ken Lay we all need to remember that the initial reaction of George W. Bush when Lay and Enron got in trouble was to say that he didn’t really know Lay. They were just casual acquaintances. That was before we found out that they were good friends, that Lay stayed at the Bush’s often, and the W even had a nickname for him. WAIT! Did I say funeral? All the news reports call these Lay death events “memorial services”. The descriptions are of photos, flowers, candles, tribute speeches, mourners and more, but not casket. No talk of a closed casket, definitely no talk of an open casket and no photographs of a casket open or closed. Where is the body? Didn’t the conspiracy theorists say they wouldn’t believe he was dead until they saw the body and if no body could be produced, Lay was just faking his death to avoid jail time? It seems the Lay family and the press has done nothing to discredit the conspiracy and in fact has fueled it by not producing any casket at all. Oh, by the way, Lay has already been, or is scheduled to be cremated. If you want to fake a death, that’s the way to go.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4043192.html

http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/07/news/newsmakers/enron_lay.reut/index.htm

In other news, the stability of the Middle East is displayed a Israel attacks Lebanon.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19785011-2,00.html

Giuliani considers running for president. His good performance on 9-11 seems to have made people forget they virtually every high ranking official in his administration has plead guilty or been convicted of corruption and the he moved his mistress into Gracie Mansion while he was still married, his children lived in Gracie Mansion with him and the mistress and he announced to his wife on national television that he would divorce her. So much for the republican moral high ground.

http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/07/13/ap2876808.html

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=259692002

In a moment of political conscience, the Whitehouse says they will follow Geneva Conventions.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/4043436.html

Meanwhile during congressional hearings on GITMO, we had this exchange;

LEAHY: Was the President right or was he wrong?

BRADBURY: The President is always right.

I guess you have to believe this to work in the Bush administration.

(Point of information: No one is always right.)

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/12/president-always-right/

The statement above must be the justification for the Homeland Security terror target list that was used to allocate funds. The Bushies have used this list as an excuse to distribute funds to areas that support them. People are starting to notice however, when a petting zoo makes the potential target list and the Statue of Liberty does not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/washington/12assets.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1152676800&en=6b0502da91a3d945&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20060711_DHS.pdf

2006-07-11 Politics after another long weekend

As the US get nervous about the Taliban rebuilding the British decide to send 900 more troops to Afghanistan. If we had only kept our focus on al Qaeda, the Taliban and Afghanistan instead of being sidetracked in Iraq, this wouldn’t be a problem.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-07-11T125242Z_01_L11545154_RTRUKOC_0_UK-AFGHAN-BRITAIN.xml

In Iraq, a video is released of mutilated US soldiers, and we are told it is retaliation for the rape of a young woman.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-07-11T150339Z_01_N11386877_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-VIDEO.xml&archived=False

Could all this be because the US insisted that UN give immunity protection to US soldiers for anything that may happen in Iraq? Now the US is upset that the “sovereign nation” of Iraq is asking the UN to rescind the immunity.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/7/11/worldupdates/2006-07-11T010252Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-259032-1&sec=worldupdates

Meanwhile, more and more people in the US government begin to admit that there is a civil war in both Iraq and Afghanistan while others deny it exists or say it could not have been anticipated. It sounds just like we couldn’t anticipate that Katrina would damage the levies – even though they received that exact warning, or that commercial planes could be used as weapons – even though we received that exact warning, or many others. They must think the public are fools? Some members of the public are.

http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-frank110706.htm

Elsewhere, India suffers a terrorist attack on their rail system.

http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=268879

Closer to home, Joe Lieberman gets the petitions to run as an Independent if he loses the Democratic primary. First off, Lieberman shouldn’t be in the Democratic primary, because he hasn’t been a Democrat for some time now. This man has been a total Bush suck-up for the past few years and the party should just kick him out. He has done more to undermine the Democrats than most republicans. If it talks, votes and smells like a republican; it’s a republican, no matter what letter you put next to the name.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-briefs11.5jul11,0,1736197.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

Oh, I almost forgot. Bush was proud to announce that the deficit would be $296,000,000,000.00, one of the highest ever. He was proud because they thought it would be even higher, so they are bragging about their economic success. So guess what, it’s only really bad instead of incredibly bad. Is that what he calls success?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/11/mg.tue/

2006-07-05 No Holiday Break for Politics

I took a break for the long weekend, but politics did not. Here is some of what you missed.

Convicted Enron CEO Ken Lay dies of fatal heart attack.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-07-05T152937Z_01_N05271279_RTRUKOC_0_UK-ENRON-LAY.xml

The Cunningham bribery investigation now implicates republican congressman Virgil Goode.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-72325

New Jersey begins to shut down government services because budget impasse. Many are upset at Governor Corzine and the NJ assembly as Corzine wants to increase sales tax to fill the budget gap and the assembly refuses. I’d like to take a moment to consider what would happen if the republicans were in power. Instead of slugging it out and trying to deal with the problem, republicans would just begin selling huge amounts of government bonds to fill the short fall which would simply delay the problem while adding interest to make it worse. This technique has been used successfully by republicans many times, and works best if they are conveniently not in power when the bonds are due for payment.

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-07-05T130730Z_01_N05263871_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-NEWJERSEY.XML

There is an actual “Impeach Bush” resolution in the house. It’s called HR635

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/8512

Bush didn’t say specifically to leak Plame’s name, but did tell Cheney to discredit Wilson for publicly challenging pre-war intelligence. Bush still has not followed through on any of his promises relating to this case.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=12423

North Korea fires 7 test missiles and we are still worried about Iraq.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-07-05T150719Z_01_N04227239_RTRUKOC_0_US-KOREA-NORTH-USA.xml

Now The Iraqi government is considering a plan to arm insurgent groups.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-07-04-insurgents-weapons_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

Bush makes a speech at Fort Bragg and says; “I'm going to make you this promise: I'm not going to allow the sacrifice of 2,527 troops who have died in Iraq to be in vain by pulling out before the job is done.” His plan is to continue with the present strategy which we know isn’t working. Causing more death seems to be less of a problem for him than admitting this isn’t going well and we might have to make some changes.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060704.html

Meanwhile, another Osama tape surfaces. This time it urges ethnic groups in Iraq to stop fighting each other and concentrate on fighting the Americans.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m24385&l=i&size=1&hd=0

Speaking of Bin Laden, the CIA has officially closed or shall I say disbanded a special group that had the sole task of tracking down Osama Bin Laden. The duties will be absorbed into other departments, because presumably tracking down the man we want “dead or alive” isn’t important enough to keep this specialized group intact.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,,1812598,00.html

From http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

In a partially related story, do you remember all that spying that started after 9-11? Bush told us that it was in the interest of national security, didn’t require warrants, and started shortly after 9-11 to prevent future attacks. Lies, lies and more lies. Well, it seems that the NSA program was started before 9-11. In fact it was started in February of 2001, just after Bush took office. How much more evidence does the American public need? How much can we endure?

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m24345&l=i&size=1&hd=0

2006-06-29 GITMO, Terror, Values, Voting and More

The Supreme Court rules that military tribunals for the GITMO detainees are not within US or international law. Many of us have been saying for some time, if they committed a crime, charge them and give them their day in court with a trail. After years if imprisonment, most have not been charged, and for those that have, the military tribunals are like Bush’s own kangaroo court. The administration response to this ruling is that they will take it under advisement and Bush himself hopes that he can work with Congress to get a new law passed that would declare these illegal proceedings legal. I guess we need special laws so Bush can do whatever he wants. Try getting a special law for yourself. I don’t think they would be very receptive.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-060629bush,1,6893998.story?coll=chi-news-hed

On the war front, a survey of national security experts says we are losing the war on terror because of the war in Iraq. Some people will never admit that these are two different conflicts, and one is hurting the other.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Most_national_security_experts_of_all_0628.html

Republicans in Congress launch the “American Values Agenda”. This is a series of issues that are not critical at this time, but with an upcoming election, they are issues they can use to stir their conservative support. They don’t actually expect these bills to pass, but the goal is to use them as a political tool.

Here is the list

Pledge Protection Act (HR 2389; Rep. Akin) Already failed in committee.

Freedom to Display the American Flag Act (HR 42; Rep. Bartlett)

The Public Expression of Religion Act (HR 2679; Rep. Hostettler)

Marriage Amendment (HJRes 88; Rep. Musgrave)

Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (HR 356; Rep. C. Smith)

Human Cloning Prohibition Act (HR 1357; Rep. D. Weldon)

Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms & Explosives Reform (HR 5092; Rep. Coble)

Internet Gambling Prohibition (Reps. Leach & Goodlatte):

Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act (HR 5013; Rep. Jindal)

Permanent Tax Relief for Families

There is also a Ban on Flag Burning amendment that is not on this list, but has already failed.

The spin on these found at the link below doesn’t accurately describe what the real goal of the bill is or why they chose this issue. Be warned!

http://majorityleader.gov/News.asp?FormMode=Detail&ID=630

In a related issue, the house voted to overturn the law requiring gun trigger locks. The republicans that say they are going to keep us safe from foreign threats don’t seem to care about a little safety at home.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-06-29T031519Z_01_N28182425_RTRUKOC_0_US-CONGRESS-GUNS.xml&archived=False

If you want an opportunity to change leadership and correct this mess in the next election, try not to be discouraged by a new report about electronic voting machines. They can all be easily hacked and a single person can fix an election. Here are the major findings.

■ All three voting systems have significant security and reliability vulnerabilities, which pose a real danger to the integrity of national, state, and local elections.

■ The most troubling vulnerabilities of each system can be substantially remedied if proper countermeasures are implemented at the state and local level.

■ Few jurisdictions have implemented any of the key countermeasures that could make the least difficult attacks against voting systems much more difficult to execute successfully.

http://www.brennancenter.org/programs/downloads/Full%20Report.pdf

Here is a link to a newspaper article called “Tax Cuts Don’t Raise Revenues”. This paper had the balls to say what we all intuitively know, but the republicans keep saying anyway,

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ed/hc-mallaby0621.artjun21,0,3688710.story?coll=hc-headlines-oped

Many have challenged the accuracy of Al Gore’s film on global warming “An Inconvenient Truth” saying it only shows one side and doesn’t represent the truth, but real climate scientists questioned by the AP all agree that Gore is right on the money. See it now and take your friends.

http://www.volunteertv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5086198

Click an image to get your Sweep the House products.

2006-06-27 Shame on the Media

The big story everyone is talking about today is the Bush administration and specifically Bush himself scolding the NY Times for running the financial surveillance story and even calling for charges to be filed against the Times for damaging national security. I say shame on the Times and all the media, but not for the same reason Bush does. All these reporters are missing the obvious, major point of this story and they could shut the Bushies up real fast if they would just focus on the obvious. So what is it? We have the Plame case, GITMO, the NSA wiretap case, the financial surveillance case and others that have all caused a stir in the media and the administration when they surfaced. The common thread and bottom line on all these is that if the Bushies didn’t use national secrets for political gain, didn’t try to find legal black holes, obtained the proper warrants and just plain played by the rules, there would be no story to report at all. Problem solved. If you constantly bend or break the rules, then someone somewhere is going to report it. No one writes the headline “Nothing Unusual Happened”. Shame on the media for missing the point and not defending themselves by throwing it right back in Bush’s face. There are no links for this story, because if you are alive and awake, you have probably heard more than you need to hear about it already.

2006-06-26 A long list of political fun

A new uranium enrichment facility gets fast track approval in the US.

http://www.mineweb.net/sections/energy/597310.htm

GM planned job cuts, but has offered incentives to accelerate the process.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19596518-36375,00.html

After Taliban power rebuilds in Afghanistan and Hammas came into power among the Palestinians, now a terrorist from the US most wanted list comes into power in Somalia. US influence doesn’t seem to be working very well at keeping our friends in power around the world.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-06-26-voa23.cfm

Check out an eye opening article in Vanity Fair called The War They Wanted, The Lies They Needed.

http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/articles/060606fege02

Monitoring all our phone calls without a warrant isn’t enough, so now we find out that the government is also monitoring financial transactions without a warrant. Now Bush is upset that news of this leaked out, but if it’s legal, what’s the problem with people knowing about it?

http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2006/Jun/EEN44a014ebe63ac.html

Rove has put terror back in the news, this time with a plot to bomb Chicago’s Sears Tower. Seven are arrested who aren’t well organized, don’t have ties to any terror organization, don’t have a very good plan and don’t even have any explosives. So we arrested the 7 worst terrorists on the planet. Good going.

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/3687/1/193/

So General Casey (the general in charge of operations in Iraq) has a plan for troop withdrawal or draw-down in 2006-2007. His plan begins in September, which times well with the 2006 election. Speaking of politics, why is it OK to lower troop strength if it’s a republican or administration plan, but if it’s an idea promoted by Democrats, it’s “cut and run”? Can you say double standard?

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-06-26T154130Z_01_WAT005911_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ-USA.xml

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0626/dailyUpdate.html

Iraq has a 24 point plan for their country, but many US law makers don’t approve. Bush calls Iraq a “sovereign nation”, and the US and Iraq should be proud of that. Well, if they are a sovereign nation, it doesn’t matter what US law makers think about this 24 point plan. That is, unless the great and powerful OZ is standing behind the curtain working the controls, and Iraq isn’t so sovereign after all.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/26/iraq/main1749895.shtml

I had the opportunity this past weekend to see the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” for the second time. This is a must see for everyone in America, not only to learn about global warming, but also to see what we missed out on in the 2000 election - a man capable of clear intelligent thoughts and judgments.

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

2006-06-21 Iraq, Saddam, Profits & Propaganda

Busses full of factory workers were abducted in Iraq today. Remember, the Bushies are telling us things are getting better there, that we have turned the corner (again), yet now people are being abducted by the bus load.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5103358.stm

Also, another one of Saddam’s lawyers was murdered. It doesn’t seem to be a very safe job.

http://www.newswire.co.nz/main/viewstory.aspx?storyid=323018&catid=16

There was an effort to increase investigations into war profiteering in Iraq, but the Senate said NO.

http://www.swnebr.net/newspaper/cgi-bin/articles/articlearchiver.pl?158668

Here is a related story titled “Bush and Cheney are pigs”.

http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=2538

Halliburton is the fastest growing contractor, but let’s not forget about Lockheed Martin. They actually are listed as a line item in the federal budget and the dollar amount is greater than many actual government agencies.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13759

http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/daily_news/28780-1.html

Is the new “al-Qaeda in Iraq” leader real or made up? Do the Iraqis want US troops there? Is it all about the propaganda? Use the link to read some foreign commentary that talks about issues and asks questions that the US press won’t address.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m24012&l=i&size=1&hd=0

2006-06-20 Headlines

Japan announces they are pulling their troops out of Iraq.

http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/1664406.cms

Another election draws near and Karl Rove is up to his old tricks.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2006/06/16/iraq_war/index_np.html

Have you noticed the recent return of hard liquor ads to TV?

http://www.thejambar.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=ae2f9be9-bb71-4d82-bb86-6d578fe0508a

Forget science, the pentagon lists homosexuality as a mental disorder.

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-1771.html

Iraq and the Mexican border aren’t enough. Now the National Guard will police New Orleans.

http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/06/20/ap2828622.html

Bush campaigned that he would fix the national park funding problems.

Now under Bush, the short fall has doubled.

http://159.54.227.3/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060620/NEWS/606200348

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt used the CDC plane to travel around the country and sell the Bush prescription drug plan. The CDC had to quickly rent another plane for actual medical emergencies.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2085927

Two US soldiers captured, the search goes for days and then this morning (Tuesday), news leaks out that bodies have been found. Later we learn that they were found on Saturday. Is this another case of the US trying to manipulate the media and hold the story for a more planned propaganda impact?

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=4266cf8c-1533-46e7-9446-0d53f17dc15e&k=49720

2006-06-16 Milestones, Debate, GITMO, Tolls & the 4^th

Another sad milestone is reached as the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq reaches 2500.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article1089258.ece

Congress used the milestone above to have a “debate” on the war. Well, it wasn’t much of a debate, as republicans universally used the event to echo talking points in a well orchestrated election year attack on Democrats, or anyone else that has the nerve to question the policies of this administration. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a real debate?

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/14833427.htm

We can’t have reporters actually report. Can we? It seems not if the US military has to expel them from GITMO. Everything at and about GITMO is a secret, and they want it to stay that way. If these people are criminals, we should charge them with a crime.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002689011

Is Indiana trying to lease a toll road to a Spanish-Australian partnership? Will the road be run by a foreign corporation? Will I be paying my toll to them? What’s next? Will the US sell or lease the Whitehouse, or have we already done that?

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/14814773.htm

In a Fourth Amendment challenge, the supreme court rules that if the cops don’t knock and announce themselves when executing a search warrant, the evidence can still be used. The cops are on there honor. People will argue this from both sides, but regardless of you opinion; I see a safety issue in the future. The safety issue will surface when the first cop is shot by a resident of the building being searched, because with no “knock and announce” the resident thought the cop was an intruder. OOPS!

http://hammeroftruth.com/2006/06/15/bang-bang-bang-on-the-door-baby/

Click an image to get your Iraq plan products.

2006-06-14 Happy Flag Day

More on Zarqawi and how the US created and protected him.

http://www.counterpunch.org/vanbergen06132006.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/newscomment.html?in_page_id=1787&in_article_id=389828

$1,400,000,000.00 in Katrina/FEMA fraud. now that’s good disaster management.

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060614/NEWS0110/606140376

2006-06-13 Quick Links and Stories

Republicans kill legislation that would ban permanent bases in Iraq.

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20060610_republicans_permanent_bases_iraq/

Calls for troop withdrawal after the death of Zarqawi and the changes in the Iraqi government make Bush call a Camp David strategy meeting. Are they looking for a new Iraq strategy or a new spin and propaganda strategy?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/13/washington/13prexy.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1150171200&en=5704bd59dc999f79&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

The strategy meeting was immediately followed by a surprise Bush visit to Iraq. Is this part of the new sell?

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-13T133848Z_01_GEO347080_RTRUKOC_0_UK-IRAQ-BUSH.xml

GITMO prisoners commit suicide.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/06/10/guantanamo.suicides/

US Army officer will refuse to deploy to Iraq showing he is brave enough to take a stand.

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m23850&l=i&size=1&hd=0

Has the Iraq war disappeared from the front page?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0606110339jun11,1,4057419.column?coll=chi-news-col

More war spending – like there isn’t enough already.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-funding9jun09,1,1103016.story?coll=la-news-a_section

Arlen Specter lashes out at Cheney about the NSA but later gives into party pressure and backs down.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Senator_Specter_lashes_out_at_Vice_0607.html

No charges against Rove in the Plame case. Shouldn’t we be able to charge him with something?

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-06-13T122048Z_01_N13383762_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-LEAK-ROVE.xml

Violent crime way up in the US, especially murder.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DFF6BE04-F24E-4FE0-9F35-EDA0525886BA.htm

2006-06-08 I Smell a Rat

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi the leader of “al Qaeda in Iraq” was killed by US forces during an air raid in Iraq. Don’t get me wrong, tracking down a violent man like Zarqawi is a good thing, but I get this funny feeling when there is something else going on. The funning thing going on seems to be a new wave of media manipulation. With the low Bush poll numbers, a new press secretary and the Bush strong suit of “protecting us from terror” falling out of the headlines I have noticed some recent changes. I have been asking my wife for about a week now if she has noticed a sudden re-appearance of “terror” in the headlines and network news teasers. This media blitz started about 2 weeks ago, and in a less than coincidental occurrence, one of the US generals in Iraq indicated in a press conference that they have been close on Zarqawi’s trail for 2 weeks. When the Bush administration thought they would soon have a chance to get Zarqawi, did they immediately plan an overall media strategy in an effort to get maximum political impact from the impending event? Just today alone, it has been used to try and bolster the false impression that Iraq, al Qaeda and 9-11 are somehow connected. Anyone who actually keeps track knows this isn’t true. In fact, according to the military’s own statistics, al Qaeda in Iraq is only responsible for about 3 to 4 percent of the violence there, so don’t expect much change on the ground. There may even be an increase in violence from those energized by our actions. Remember, most of the attacks and violence there is from Iraqis who don’t want the foreign occupiers (us) in their country. Can you blame them?

http://www.cbc.ca/storyview/MSN/world/national/2006/06/08/bush-zarqawi.html

2006-06-07 Chicks, Marriage, Tax & Buckham

After a huge bounce back from the right wing boycott, the Dixie Chicks have the last laugh and are #1 for the second week. Take that Mr. President.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002649081

The Senate vote on the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage was 49 to 48, falling short of the 67 needed to pass. There is no way for this to pass, but the bill will be sent to the House anyway so members of congress have an opportunity to go on the record and play to their supporters in this election year. What occurred to me this morning is that if this is a “sanctity of marriage” issue and the national divorce rate is about 50%, with an even higher number for members of congress, the heterosexual community isn’t setting a very good example when it comes to the so called “sanctity of marriage”.

http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/14758903.htm

Next our congress wants to eliminate the estate tax. This is a measure that will benefit an infinitesimally small group of extremely wealthy people, fueled by propaganda like saving the family farm, even though no one seems to be able to find a family farm that was lost to the estate tax. Also, the supporters say that this money has already been taxed. If you have stocks, real estate or other assets and sell them, you pay tax on the profits. If you hold onto them and leave them to your heirs, you haven’t sold them and therefore haven’t paid the tax, so the estate tax is the only time tax is paid. Another big problem with this is that the party of “fiscal responsibility” wants to lower government revenue and push this through when we have a huge deficit and the government needs more revenue. It’s another way to redistribute wealth from the poor to the rich and ban the so called “death tax” in favor of a “birth tax” also known as the national debt.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/07/pf/taxes/estate_tax_debate/?cnn=yes

Ed Buckham is a name to watch that may soon appear on the indictment table.

Click an image to get yours.

2006-06-05 Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

You can’t escape it. Foreign affairs, domestic issues, war and everything else that is bad under the Bush administration should all vanish from sight as the great and powerful Oz distracts you with flashing lights, smoke, gay marriage and a flag burning. It’s the same old say something the base will like even if it’s the smallest issue we face and you have no intension of doing anything about it anyway. Be angry with this political ploy and then use the link to read an interesting story about the gay haters being guilty of exactly what they despise. There is no hard evidence, but the woman involved (a candidate for NV governor) confirms that she is the woman involved and the story is true. You decide.

http://bushssecretlifein84.tripod.com/

2006-06-02 Election-04, Condi, DHC$ & The Web

RollingStone publishes what should be called a term paper, not an article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the stealing of the 2004 election, complete with foot notes. Beyond description, just read.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen/1

Here is an interesting bit reprinted from the Wayne Madsen Report. Could it be true?

June 1, 2006 -- UPDATED -- Rocky shoals for Bush marriage? Informed sources Inside the Beltway report that First Lady Laura Bush has established temporary residence in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC as a result of a tiff with President Bush over an extramarital relationship involving her husband. Mr. Bush's tryst is said to involve Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It is not known how long Mrs. Bush plans to remain at the Mayflower, however, her security detail has been present at the hotel during hours when the First Lady would normally be residing in the White House. While she was National Security Adviser, Rice, who has never been married, referred to George W. Bush as "my husband" before she corrected herself and said, "President. Bush" Rice was speaking at a dinner hosted by New York Times bureau chief Philip Taubman when she made her "husband" remarks.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Homeland Security funds for NY were cut 40% because there are no targets of interest in NY. Try to tell anyone who was here on 9-11 that NY has no targets of interest. Should we change the name of the country from the United States of America to Fantasyland?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror2jun02,1,5324865.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&track=crosspromo

Not satisfied with collecting data on every phone call we make and listening in whenever they want, not the justice department wants to know every web site we visit. Remember the Bill of Rights? Is privacy just some concept we dream about? Is this the America I grew up in? Not with King George in charge.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/06/02/us_wants_user_data_from_web_firms/

2006-05-31 Less is More

After the mid-term election year political move of letting several administration members suggest troop draw-downs in Iraq, the pentagon releases a report that says violence in Iraq is increasing and the US sends more troops. In a case of less is more, I believe this is the second time they hinted at troop draw-downs (they can’t say withdrawal because that gets attacked as “cut and run”, so they just change the name to draw-down) and then did just the opposite by increasing troop strength. In a related story, several members of a CBS news team were killed or injured in a blast in Iraq’s increased violence. Also, both South Korea and Italy are pulling their troops out making us part of the “Coalition of what’s left”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1786431,00.html

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-05-31T095924Z_01_L31510372_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-CBS.xml

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/060530/w053062.html

2006-05-26 Cover-up Conspiracy & the Softer Side of Bush

Was there a conspiracy to cover-up information about Plame Gate between Rove and Novak? New information about these pillars of society leads us to believe that the pillars may be hollow and ready to crumble. Read and enjoy.

http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0525nj1.htm

Bush and Blair made a joint appearance yesterday and keeping in line with the preparation for midterm elections and the re-introduction of issues like a gay marriage amendment, it seems Bush is trying out a new attitude. For the first time we saw Bush and Blair admit mistakes and Bush even had an answer for a question he was asked a long time ago about his biggest mistake. Is this a play from the Sears marketing department showing us “The new softer side of Bush”? That big mistake he admitted to by the way was the use of the phrase “Bring em on” which just infuriated people around the world with Bush’s cowboy arrogance. There were many here in the US like me, who recognized the stupidity of using a phrase like this and spoke out about it at the time. For this accurate analysis many of us were criticized and even attacked by the lemmings that are content to follow Bush off the cliff into the abyss of failed policies that plague this administration. It’s time all of us who were critical of the mad cowboy received an apology!

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-05-26T014813Z_01_DAH518336_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ.xml

Click an image to get yours.

2006-05-25 Guilty, Business Week & the Border

Enron’s Ken Lay & Jeff Skilling found guilty in a victory for the little guy. For all the pro business at all cost people out there, let me explain. It is not illegal to have a company that fails. It is however illegal to have a company that fails while you cook the books in an effort to lie to the investors, telling them everything is great while sucking out as much money for yourself before the crash.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3893599.html

It’s an unlikely source, but Business Week had some interesting political stories. The first is Bush allowing Negroponte to exempt companies that fill classified government contracts from having to include any evidence of those contracts in SEC filings. The second is how the government is using a loophole that lets them collect data through a private company that the law prevents them from collection on their own.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8HQDS701.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_22/b3986068.htm

I don’t have time for links on this last one, but several memos have surfaced about using the National Guard on our southern border. The bottom line is that what the president specified in his speech, 6000 troops, 2 week rotations, 1 year of activity until the border patrol is up to speed and more, may not be exactly true. Did the president lie again?

2006-05-24 GITMO, Stamps and Osama Who?

Bush recently said he hopes to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, but was he just playing politics? If we are going to close it, why are we building “Camp VI” and expanding the facility. The link below tries to make GITMO sound like a resort hotel for the most dangerous people in the world, but it does spill the beans about the expansion.

http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=1802&cid=1&sid=27

The Postal Service has will soon allow corporate logos on stamps. In an age where we see advertisements everywhere, this isn’t much of a story, but it gives me an opportunity to rant about my advertising pet peeve. I hate calling Nextel phones! Almost every time I call, even if the person with the Nextel phone has a strong signal I have to hear “Please wait while the Nextel subscriber you are calling is located”. This is an advertisement that the “subscriber” is paying for and I am forced to hear. I have done some experiments, and although it doesn’t happen every time, it happens most times when calling from a non-Nextel phone, and almost never when calling from another Nextel phone. I have called Nextel to complain and I hope others will too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052301593.html

There is a new Osama audio tape. Remember him? Osama bin Laden, the guy we wanted to get dead or alive, before the president got distracted attacking Saddam with bombs and both foreign and domestic political opponents with words and legal maneuvers. Osama is alive and well and Bush doesn’t seem to care, except to use the new tape as a political tool to keep the public afraid so he can promote his agenda.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Bin_Laden_Tape_Text.html

2006-05-23 Democrats too, Frogs & McCain

Yes, Democrats screw up too, it’s just in recent years, republicans have been better at it. Democrat William Jefferson is under investigation for taking bribes and they say he has been caught in a sting. If it’s true he should step down like I would hope any member of congress would do regardless of which party they belong to. The interesting and even ironic part of this story however has to do with the investigation itself. In an unprecedented move, the FBI searched Jefferson’s congressional office and didn’t even appear to have a warrant. This angered Republicans and Democrats alike and in an ironic twist had Republicans shouting the loudest that the executive branch had overstepped their powers. I guess if you’re the president, you can wage war, divert funds, wiretap without warrants and even lie to congress, but when you start searching their offices, they notice.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/114846775650150.xml

http://www.progressiveu.org/095123-william-jeffersons-office-raided-by-fbi

I heard a great explanation of an expression and analogy the other day on AirAmerica. The expression is “boiling a frog”. The idea is that if you throw a frog in boiling water it will jump out, but if you put it in cool water and slowly bring it to a boil it won’t realize the water is getting hot and will not jump out. So it is with the NSA. When the warrant less wiretap scandal broke, we were told by the Bush administration that it was only on calls overseas, then it was; at least one party in the call was overseas, then it was; there might be some domestic calls involved, then it was; we are also tracking some domestic call records, but not listening in, then it was; we are monitoring the calling habits of tens of millions of Americans, but not listening in, and now a new article by Seymour Hersh says that yes they are (or at least their computers are) listening in. As I have said before, Hersh who broke the prison abuse scandal has never been wrong and it seems like the water is coming to a boil and the dumb frog isn’t jumping out.

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/060529ta_talk_hersh

McCain gave a commencement address at the New School in NY and received a less than flattering reception. The student speech before him and the comments from the audience have causes a stir, with statements and criticisms back and forth from both sides. I say good going, the time to be polite has long past.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2006/05/21/mccain_new_school_students_need_lesson_in_courtesy/

2006-05-22 OK to Shoot the Messenger, Surprise

In my favorite story of the weekend, Alberto Gonzalez in an interview said the justice department is considering prosecuting reporters using presumably the 1917 Espionage Act. The rational is that reporters are revealing classified information which is illegal. In the case of the NSA wiretap program which brings this to the surface, the program is classified, not because news of its existence could damage national security, but because news of its existence would reveal that the NSA is breaking the law. We have whistle blower laws in this country to protect people who reveal information about a crime and these should protect reporters by trumping the espionage charge. Gonzalez says they are not sure if charges will be filed and I can only assume that their hesitation is because bringing charges will return the wiretap scandal to the headlines and the Bush administration would prefer that it remain below the RADAR.

http://www.knx1070.com/pages/38156.php

My second favorite has me wanting to send a dictionary to every Coast Guard station. The United States Coast Guard must have forgotten the meaning of the word surprise, because they have begun notifying cargo ships in advance so they can be prepared for their random surprise inspection. It’s like saying; Make sure you get home from work on time Wednesday, because we are planning a surprise party for you and we don’t want to keep the guests waiting. Does this make any sense?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ports21may21,1,5010930.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

2006-05-18 A Few Laughs

How about this little exchange between Wolf Blitzer and Alberto Gonzalez?

BLITZER: Give us your -- tell our viewers who aren't familiar your personal story, how you got to where you are, your grandparents, your parents. They struggled, they came here. I don't know if they came here legally or illegally, but give us the story.
GONZALES: Well, three of my grandparents were born in Mexico. They came to Texas. My parents -- both of my parents were born in Texas, extremely poor. My mother...
BLITZER: But when they came to Texas, were they legally documented, were they unlegally documented?
GONZALES: You know, it's unclear. It's unclear. And I've looked at this issue, I've talked to my parents about it, and it's just not clear.

It’s unclear is a euphemism for “yes, they came here illegally”. Good example!

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/16/sitroom.02.html

With all the recent focus on Global Warming, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has decided to join the battle by denying Global Warming exists and releasing 2 commercials trying to tell us how wonderful carbon dioxide is. What they don’t understand is that CO2 always has been and will always be in our atmosphere, and the question is not its existence, but how much of it in our atmosphere can our planet support. I use this analogy; apples are good for you, but if you eat 100 pounds of apples every day, you will get sick. If there is too much CO2 in our atmosphere, our planet will get sick. Watch, enjoy, and laugh.

http://interface.audiovideoweb.com/lnk/ny60win16080/eresources/cei/Global_Warming_Energy-high.wmv/play.asx (#1 for MediaPlayer)

http://interface.audiovideoweb.com/lnk/avwebdsquick2235/eresources/cei/Global_Warming_Energy-high.mov/play.qtl (#1 for QuickTime)

http://interface.audiovideoweb.com/lnk/ny60win16080/eresources/cei/Global_Warming_Glaciers-high.wmv/play.asx (#2 for MadiaPlayer)

http://interface.audiovideoweb.com/lnk/avwebdsquick2235/eresources/cei/Global_Warming_Glaciers-high.mov/play.qtl (#2 for QuickTime)

2006-05-17 What happened to the news?

Once again I use the opening of the Today Show at my media barometer and this morning I was very disturbed. There are many news stories out there in the world, and for their opening today they chose; the president speaks about immigration (A political smoke screen to distract us from all the Bush administration scandals and failures.), American Idol (This is a fluff story to update us on a reality show that isn’t even on NBC.), and the premier of the Da Vinci Code movie (Why has the Today Show has designed a whole week of programming around promoting this movie?). The media is failing us and everyone should be outraged. Please send letters and emails to discourage this and ask them to return to reporting news.

today@nbc.com

In real news, Verizon, Bell South and AT&T have all denied that they released phone records to the NSA, but only after taking several days to craft some cleverly worded statements that are intentionally ambiguous and leave many holes to explain why the denials are still accurate, even if we find out that they are not true.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310AP_Phone_Records_Privacy.html

Also, thanks to yet another Freedom of Information request, the government has released video of the Flight 77 crash into Pentagon on 9-11. Many say that this will squash all the conspiracy theories about this event, but I see more questions than answers. Will the conspiracy theorists want to know why the government needed 4 ½ years to doctor the tapes when we saw World Trade Center video the day it happened or will they wonder why they should set aside their suspicions based on a poor quality video that doesn’t give us enough detail to settle anything. The screen captures below are from the 2 tapes. The left images are full screen of the frame before impact and the “plane” can be seen as a small blur on the right edge at ground level and in front of the trees. For the images on the right I have zoomed in on the “plane”, but this is low resolution video with little detail and it just appears as a blur. The next frame of each of these videos is the actual impact, and any detail is obscured by the huge explosion. I’m not big on conspiracy theories, but there are many unanswered questions and people should keep asking.

You can watch the video at http://www.judicialwatch.org/flight77.shtml

2006-05-16 Immigration and More

With the US officially re-opening relations with Libya,

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/democracy-the-loser-in-us-deal-with-libya/2006/05/16/1147545326595.html

and imposing sanctions on Venezuela,

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19162238-2703,00.html

while the “complete” list of GITMO detainees is released,

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=271903

and we learn that Cheney was involved in PlameGate,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/05/15/BL2006051500651.html

while the Feds were spying on reporters to discover their sources,

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/ABC_News_Top_federal_source_says_0515.html

the president decided to give a speech on immigration reform. It was a short speech with nice sounding catch phrases that gave few details, but was designed to make Bush look like the “uniter”, who would help opposing sides of this issue come to a compromise. He did give details about the use of the National Guard however, saying that 6000 troops would be used on a rotating basis. This is the most controversial part of his plan because the Guard are already spread thin with deployments in Iraq, and the rotation would involve over 100,000 troops. He said, the troops would not take part in policing activities, but would construct new fences, surveillance systems and more. In an age where the federal government is contracting out virtually everything, why would that National Guard be deployed to build fences? None of the talking heads addressed this question, but I will. The answer is simple – cheap labor. These Guard members who are willing to give up a few weeks of their time and substitute low military pay for their normal pay from their regular jobs to help with assignments like disaster recovery are being asked to act as cheap labor for the federal government and do a job that apparently none of the high priced contractors want to do. What’s wrong? Isn’t there enough profit in this project? Isn’t there enough room for fraud? We should ask Halliburton.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060515-8.html

2006-05-15 Distractions

The big story going into the weekend that outraged the public was the NSA collection of everyone’s phone records. The major network media was consumed by this story until the Bush administration came up with a distraction big enough to knock the NSA story off the RADAR. What did the Bushies come up with? They announced that the president will give a major policy speech that will air in prime time on all the major networks, Monday night May 15^th. This alone however was not enough to bump the NSA story, so they also said that Bush will propose using the National Guard to patrol the Mexican border. Now that little tidbit got everyone stirred up and the NSA story became history except for the Sunday talk shows which have a very limited audience. What will they think of next? As far as using the National Guard for border patrol, let me make a suggestion that none of the talking heads suggested this weekend. The Guard is already over extended in Iraq and Afghanistan, so using even more of them to patrol the border is ridiculous, unless we bring them back from Iraq to do it. I bet Bush won’t like that idea.

2006-05-12 “I’m mad a hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

Yesterday on CNN I heard the most outraged commentary I have ever heard on a national television network by any newscaster speaking about the Bush administration. This came after the story broke about the NSA attempting to get the phone records of every American. Congratulations to Jack Cafferty for becoming the Howard Beale of 2006.

Wolf Blitzer: "Let’s get some words of wisdom from Jack Cafferty. He’s in New York right now. Jack?"

Jack Cafferty: "I don’t know about wisdom, but you’ll get a little outrage. We better all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, cause he might be all that’s standing between us and a full-blown dictatorship in this country. He’s vowed to question these phone company executives about volunteering to provide the government with my telephone records and yours and tens of millions of other Americans. Shortly after 9/11, AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth began providing the super-secret NSA with information on phone calls of millions of our citizens. All part of the war on terror, President Bush says. Why don’t you go find Osama bin Laden and seal the country’s borders and start inspecting the containers that come into our ports? The President rushed out this morning in the wake of this front page story in USA Today and declared the government’s doing nothing wrong, and all this is just fine. Is it? Is it legal? Then why did the Justice Department suddenly drop its investigation of the warrant-less spying on citizens? Because the NSA said Justice Department lawyers didn’t have the necessary security clearance to do the investigation. Read that sentence again. A secret government agency has told our Justice Department that it’s not allowed to investigate it. And the Justice Department just says, okay, and drops the whole thing. We’re in some serious trouble here, boys and girls. Here’s the question: Does it concern you that your phone company may be voluntarily providing your phone records to the government without your knowledge or your permission? If it doesn’t, it sure as hell ought to. E-mail us your thoughts at CaffertyFile@CNN.com or go to CNN.com/CaffertyFile. Wolf?"

Blitzer: "Words of wisdom, as I said, Jack, outraged, as you clearly are. Thanks very much."

2006-05-11 Who are you calling and who pays the bills?

The justice department has given up on the investigation of NSA warrant less wiretaps, not because they don’t have a case, but because their investigators can’t get the security clearance needed to do their job. The NSA is using the cover of national security to hide evidence of a crime. This would be simple issue that many could accept, but not in light of new information. A new report tells us that although the Bush administration and the NSA keep talking about restricting their interest to international calls, Verizon, BellSouth and AT&T have turned over the call records of all their customers to the NSA which would include the records of tens of millions of Americans. The NSA issues a lame statement that the information is only for pattern analysis and doesn’t include subscriber names, but who are they kidding. If they want to figure out who you are, it wouldn’t be that difficult. Remember, we were told about the “limited scope” of the NSA program, which we now know is just another LIE.

http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/Hinchey_wiretap_probe-11May06.htm

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/05/nsa_has_collect.html

Click an image to get yours.

Elsewhere in Washington, the congress is hard at work passing/extending tax cuts while at the same time preparing to raise the debt ceiling. Let’s take the tax cuts first. There is a small loophole in the rules of congress than says if the amount of the tax change is less than a certain amount; it doesn’t get a full floor debate. This cut comes in under the wire so its exposure to the public is limited. Next, let’s look at the numbers. The family earning $50,000.00 gets $46.00 which is .092%, but the taxpayer earning over $1,000,000.00 gets $42,000.00 which is 4.2%. Once again, the cuts favor those who don’t need it and are yet another way to transfer money from the poor to the rich. If you want to try some right wing argument about the $42,000.00 being for the average tax payer over $1,000,000.00 in income, let’s take that .92% and apply it in reverse to that $42,000.00 and we get a tax payer who earns $45,652,000.00. Now that’s some average tax payer. On the flip side, The party of fiscal responsibility is set to raise the federal debt limit AGAIN while instituting this tax cut plan. In fact, they are dipping into Social Security, selling off government land including highways and getting more and more foreign financing because we don’t have enough money, but we seem to be able to cut taxes. Anyone who has even balanced a check book knows that this doesn’t make any sense. Imagine if you couldn’t pay your rent, so you went to the bank and got a loan, and gave that loan money to all your friends who have no problem paying their rent. Now your friends think that was a nice gesture, but you still can’t pay your rent and you now have a loan you can’t pay either. And they call this fiscal responsibility.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0605110192may11,1,4935844.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/14552121.htm

2006-05-10 CIA, NSA, DNI, FISA & EIEIO

I have held out for several days to see how the Porter Goss resignation pans out. Remember, Porter Goss was the one who was interviewed by Michael Moore, and when asked the hypothetical question about getting a job at the CIA, he replied; I’m not qualified. Here is the deal so far. Porter Goss, head of the CIA suddenly resigns and the official line is that there is a power struggle with John Negroponte the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Now this becomes suspect when one of his top aids Dusty Foggo also resigns and is implicated in the Duke Cunningham scandal. Bush quickly nominated General Michael Hayden to replace Goss. Hayden is not retired, but active military and will be heading the only non-military intelligence agency left in the federal government. Hayden is buddy-buddy with Negroponte and was also the architect of the NSA warrant less wiretap program that was used to bypass the FISA laws. Hayden has proven in a recent question and answer session that he doesn’t understand the fourth amendment, which is a typical Bush reason to promote him. Now is all this a way to make all intelligence military, or about the Cunningham scandal, or even the Abramoff scandal that is consuming everyone, or is it a way to give more power to that criminal Negroponte was formerly a Honduran Death Squad leader, or what? There are many questions and few answers. All we can do is sit on the farm with Old MacDonald singing EIEIO while we wait for this story to pan out.

(You can find thousands of stories on your own about this mess.)

2006-05-05 Cinco de Mayo hero is Ray McGovern

As the Mexicans remember their victory over the French in 1862, today Americans should celebrate a landmark in our war against the NeoCons that happened yesterday afternoon. Ray McGovern, a 27-year career analyst with the CIA and co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity was in the audience yesterday as Donald Rumsfeld took questions after a speech. Mr. McGovern pressed Rumsfeld about pre-war lies in what turned into a mini debate. McGovern even stated direct quotes from Rumsfeld’s pre-war national television appearances and Rumsfeld tried to deny them. This is the type of questioning that should happen at every public appearance of any Bush administration member by knowledgeable people in the audience, because the press just won’t do it. The only opportunity McGovern missed was to invite Rumsfeld onto a prime time national network newscast to view a tape of the statement he was denying and give him the opportunity to try and convince everyone in the world who just watched it that it never happened. They say whatever they want to serve their agenda and then deny it later. They must think we are all idiots.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002973173_rumsfeld05.html

http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2006/may/video/dnB20060505a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=7:10 (Video)

McGovern and Rumsfeld