See Colbert chew up the Worst. President. (sic) Ever
Click here for the Correspondent's Dinner ripping of our Moron-in-chief
Hahahahahahahaha!
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Posted by vicki at 09:37 PM | Comments (8)
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April 30, 2006Stephen Colbert Rips Bu$h a New OneRep. Hal Rogers Controls Homeland Security BudgetBe very afraid! This Times article ties into the one below about slapping a "For sale" sign on every aspect of government spending by the GOP controled Congress and White House. We are SO screwed. I added the *bold* highlights in the article. U.S. Companies Object to Deal on Ports ID Cards WASHINGTON, April 29 — Executives from some of the nation's leading identity verification companies are pushing Congress to rescind a provision that they said could lead to a foreign-owned company handling sensitive personal records for as many as 750,000 port workers. The Department of Homeland Security, as part of the budget law passed last year, was ordered to hire the American Association of Airport Executives, an aviation trade group, to process applications for a new tamper-proof identification card for maritime workers. Representative Harold Rogers, a Kentucky Republican and chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the Homeland Security budget, had pressed for the language, saying that the trade association, a nonprofit group, could expedite the project because it had performed similar work for airport workers. But in recent days, documents have circulated in Washington showing that the association, before the budget bill became law, was offering prospective investors a role in future contracts in exchange for an investment totaling up to $25 million. While the prospectus mentioned the identity card contract, it made no reference to the legislation. The money would be used to set up a for-profit company that the group would hire as a subcontractor to handle the soon-to-be promised government work. The contracts with Homeland Security would produce $50 million in profits over three years for the new partnership, the business plan projected. Daon, an Irish biometrics company with offices in Reston, Va., ultimately bought 51 percent control of the new entity, said Andrew J. Sherman, a Washington lawyer who helped handle the transaction. Government records show that the new company, the Security Biometric Clearing Network, was incorporated last month in Delaware, as Homeland Security moved to start issuing the new contracts. That transaction, which was disclosed this week, is evoking protests. "We want to introduce a little more fair play into this whole process," said Jim Miller, chairman of ImageWare, a biometrics company in San Diego that is lobbying Congress to rescind the special treatment for the airport trade group. Echoing the debate over the Dubai ports deal earlier this year, several companies have also raised questions about a foreign-owned company handling information for background checks on American port workers. But Daon's board includes Tom Ridge, the former Homeland Security secretary, and the company has already sold its software to the government for some of these same programs. "Sensitive personal biometric and biographical data should more appropriately be managed and maintained by the government and housed in a federal facility," the International Biometric Industry Association said Friday in a written presentation for Congress. Posted by vicki at 10:06 AM GOP Slaps For Sale Sign On All US Policy
What hypocrits!First of all, McCain is NO moderate. And I don't think most of us realize the near total degree of corruption within the GOP and just how much corporate ownership of our current Congress there really is. McCain is as phony as they come and Shays is a major dissapointment. Just try to wrap your head around THIS: G.O.P. Moderates Rebuff Lobbyists, Then Woo Them WASHINGTON, April 29 — After appearing to falter Thursday, the House of Representatives is once again poised to pass a new package of lobbying restrictions, thanks largely to the efforts of an alliance of Republican moderates. Nothing in the bill, however, would stop those same Republican moderates from continuing to court corporate lobbyists with some unusually explicit invitations to lunch. Representative Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut, is a member of the Main Street Partnership. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, is also a member. For $5,000, a lobbyist can join lawmakers and staff members of the alliance, the Republican Main Street Partnership, for a lunchtime policy briefing by an outside expert. For $15,000, the lobbyist can attend four lunches, two of them with briefings by an outside expert and two with briefings from members of Congress. And for $25,000, the lobbyist can have three lunch briefings with lawmakers, not to mention V.I.P. seating for eight at a black-tie dinner for the moderates' coalition. Lobbyists who have contributed to the partnership say the lunches are worth it. "Whatever lobbying we would do on an issue, this just gives us a chance to see the members one more time," said Thomas Bruderle, a lobbyist for the National Association of Health Underwriters, which contributes to the group. "This just gives us a chance to reinforce whatever case we want to make." (Mr. Bruderle declined to say how much his organization gave. The partnership does not disclose its contributions.) Offering special access to lawmakers in exchange for financial contributions is hardly uncommon on Capitol Hill, and the Main Street Partnership is well within the law in seeking such donations. But under the reforms the group helped pass four years ago, soliciting corporate or unrestricted individual contributions is illegal for political candidates or the national political parties. The partnership can seek unlimited and undisclosed corporate donations because it is organized as a nonprofit advocacy group. Other groups of that type, like People for the American Way or the National Rifle Association, can do the same thing, but the partnership is a rare example of one that is dominated by elected officials and operates outside campaign finance rules to promote its agenda. Its fund-raising tactics are especially notable because the group includes Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Representative Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut, two lawmakers who have led the calls to tighten lobbying and campaign finance rules. The legislation Mr. McCain and Mr. Shays championed in 2002 banned corporate donations to political campaigns or political committees, imposed new caps on what they can receive from an individual, and required them to disclose all but their smallest donations. The House recently passed a bill sponsored by Mr. Shays to extend the same restrictions to so-called 527 groups — independent political operations named for a section of the tax code — that were a force in the 2004 campaign. Mr. Shays called them the "one exception" to the earlier reforms. Critics of the campaign finance legislation accuse the Republican Main Street Partnership of hypocrisy. "It is reformers on parade," said Jan Witold Baran, a Republican campaign finance lawyer who opposed some recent campaign finance restrictions as curbs on free speech. "All of these moderate Republicans who support all this campaign finance reform and lobbying reform have this convoluted organization that basically raises a variety of corporate funding and apparently pays for pajama parties with lobbyists." [/end snip] Gee, ya think? Makes you want to holler.
Posted by vicki at 08:20 AM | Comments (1) April 29, 2006Wingnut Uniform101st Fighting Keyboarder Uniforms by digby
They are big on gun stuff and death and violence but I just can't help but notice that with only a few exceptions, these t-shirts aren't about killing terrorists or fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here. This is what they're all about:
Posted by vicki at 10:46 AM | Comments (1) April 28, 2006Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat CrookRushbo was arrested in Florida for Dr. Shopping for his drug addiction. Hahahahahahahahah. Posted by vicki at 06:41 PM | Comments (1) Hear Neil Young's "Living With War" Free!Corrupt Mississippi Governor Haley BarbourAnother day, another corrupt republican politician! AP: Miss. governor helped implicated firm WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former Republican Party chairman, arranged the startup financing for a GOP telemarketing company implicated in two criminal cases involving election dirty tricks. Virginia corporation records show Barbour's investment company arranged a quarter-million dollar loan to GOP Marketplace in 2000 and also gave a promotional plug to the telemarketer several months later. A spokesman for the governor said Barbour had no idea the company would engage in criminal activity two years later. The lawyer for the now-defunct company's convicted president said Barbour was not consulted about its operations. "None of the creditors had any role in the management or activities of the company. In fact, the loan was not fully repaid," gubernatorial spokesman Buddy Bynum said. "There has never been any claim that Governor Barbour or any of the other creditors knew of any illegal conduct or did anything improper." The loan made Barbour and his Washington business partners part owners of the company, the incorporation papers show. By 2002, according to federal court records, GOP Marketplace president Allen Raymond and the Alexandria, Va.-based company were carrying out political dirty tricks in New Hampshire and New Jersey. Raymond, who once worked for Barbour at the Republican National Committee, is serving a three-month prison term after pleading guilty to arranging for hundreds of hang-up calls in New Hampshire in 2002. The calls jammed Democratic phone lines that were offering assistance in getting to polling stations in a close U.S. Senate race. In a New Jersey indictment, prosecutors implicated Raymond and his company in a separate scheme to make harassing calls to voters but did not charge either with crimes. Rather, the indictment charged the losing candidate who hired Raymond. Ex-candidate James Treffinger pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and mail fraud. GOP Marketplace's New Jersey operation preceded the New Hampshire phone jamming and used a different tactic, prosecutors said. Raymond arranged for annoying "attack ad" calls during the 2002 Super Bowl. The ads attacked a Treffinger opponent, but appeared to come from a third candidate. Treffinger served spent 13 months in prison. The Treffinger indictment did not name Raymond, but referred to a political consultant. Lawyers confirmed Raymond was the unnamed consultant mentioned in the indictment. Barbour's spokesman said Raymond "engaged in illegal conduct and was appropriately prosecuted and convicted" in the New Hampshire matter. Raymond's lawyer in New Hampshire said Barbour had no role in running the telemarketing company after arranging the financing. "Allen Raymond was in full control of all of the operations and did not look for guidance from any of his investors," lawyer John Durkin said. "The phone jamming was not reviewed or discussed, and permission was not sought or received, and there was no consultation with investors." Barbour is the latest prominent Republican to be connected to Raymond and GOP Marketplace. President Bush's former campaign chairman for New England has been convicted in the New Hampshire case and The Associated Press reported April 10 that key figures in the phone jamming had regular contact with the White House - and Republican officials - as the scheme unfolded. Records of the calls were introduced as court exhibits in New Hampshire and analyzed by the Senate Majority Project, a Democratic organization that is trying to help their party wrestle control of the Senate from the GOP. The White House political office, recipient of most of calls, was run in 2002 by the current Republican national chairman, Ken Mehlman. He denies any calls were related to the jamming, contending the discussions focused only on the close election won by John Sununu, R-N.H. GOP Marketplace was incorporated in Virginia on May 19, 2000, the Virginia records show. An investment company called Helm Partners, with the Washington address of Barbour's lobbying firm, lent GOP Marketplace $246,700. According to the operating agreement, the loan gave the investors a stake in the company. The agreement was signed by Barbour's lobbying partner, Edward Rogers, Raymond and Tommy Hopper, who worked for Barbour at the RNC and was a state Republican chairman in Tennessee. In a company news release from Aug. 7, 2000, announcing the agreement, Barbour praised the company's use of the Internet and described his own role. "I am convinced that GOP Marketplace will not only be a profitable business, but will also give Republicans an edge in the 2000 elections," he said. Are any Republicans NOT corrupt? Posted by vicki at 10:21 AM April 27, 2006Our Gay Bashing Governor. Disgraceful!
Fletcher is the laughingstock of the entire country. Makes you want to holloer! Suit filed after Ky. college boots gay man By JOE BIESK FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A gay-rights group sued Gov. Ernie Fletcher on Tuesday for not vetoing $11 million in state funds earmarked for a Baptist college that expelled an openly gay student this month. Legislators included in the budget $10 million for a proposed pharmacy school and $1 million for scholarships at the University of the Cumberlands. The college expelled Jason Johnson after he posted details of his dating life on the Web site MySpace.com. The Kentucky constitution prohibits the use of state tax money to support religious institutions or entities that discriminate against citizens, according to the lawsuit. "We're asking that the governor uphold the constitution and not allow the funding of the University of the Cumberlands," said Christina Gilgor, executive director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, which filed the lawsuit. Fletcher declined to veto the funding because, he said, it came from coal severance taxes paid by companies, not by individual taxpayers. [Editorial comment: Bullshit! He's a coward and a gay basher.] Fletcher said he also welcomed the advocacy group's lawsuit. "We certainly would like for them to have their day in court," Fletcher said. "I think it's important that both sides are argued vigorously so that the courts can decide on this constitutional issue." Posted by vicki at 03:51 PM | Comments (1) Go To Horneforcongress.com And Have Your Head ExplodeHttp://horneforcongress.com Jeepers H. Christmas! The minimum wage law gives workers below poverty level wages and yet Congress reliably vilifies these same workers as "Welfare Queens." Nobody can get by on minimum wages, or for that matter even a couple of dollars above it, with gas, healthcare and all other prices rising rapidly. Every candidate running against Northup should hammer her HARD about her failure to protect working people. The GOP is all about corporate greed and zero about the rest of us. Posted by vicki at 03:35 PM | Comments (1) Need Another Excuse To Drink Liberally?
This creature has got to go. How much more dammage to America's reputation can we afford? Posted by vicki at 11:44 AM | Comments (2) More Stale Hypocrisy From The WHFrom www.Americasdemocrats.org Excuses me, but there is a huge difference between the Presidend and Vice outing a covert CIA agent and the very PATRIOTIC duty to expose criminal activity at the highest levels of government. *Black ops,* secret prisons, torture and domestic spying on US citizens need to be exposed and whistleblower protection for those who do so should be rewarded, not criminalized. DOUBLE STANDARD ON LEAKERS Let's see if we have this right: It's OK if President Bush and Vice President Cheney leak national security secrets to their cronies in the media. But it's a firing offense -- or worse! -- if anyone else does it, right? Is this what President Nixon meant at the height of Watergate when he said that "if the President does it, that means it's legal"? As the Washington Post reports: "Key Democratic legislators yesterday joined Republicans in saying they do not condone the alleged leaking of classified information that led to last week's firing of a veteran CIA officer. But they questioned whether a double standard exists that lets the White House give reporters secretly declassified information for political purposes. 'I don't know this woman, and I do not condone leaks of classified information,' said Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, referring to the firing of Mary McCarthy. Harman added that 'while leaks are wrong, I think it is totally wrong for our president in secret to selectively declassify certain information and empower people in his White House to leak it to favored reporters so that they can discredit political enemies,' she said on Fox News Sunday. Harman was referring to White House staff members disclosing the classified identity of CIA case officer Valerie Plame in 2003. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) echoed Harman, saying, 'A CIA agent has an obligation to uphold the law, and clearly leaking is against the law. And nobody should leak.' But he added: 'If you're leaking to tell the truth, Americans are going to look at that, at least mitigate or think about what are the consequences that you ... put on that person.' Posted by vicki at 08:47 AM | Comments (2) April 26, 2006LIAR!
Incredible! Bush envokes God, church all while lying through his teeth. Whew! Read the entire article here if you have the stomach after reading the last paragraph on this page. Bush Says He Tried to Avoid War 'To The Max,' Explains How God Shapes His Foreign Policy By E&P Staff Published: April 24, 2006 4:45 PM ET NEW YORK President Bush today said he had tried to avoid war with Iraq "diplomatically to the max." Speaking to a business group in Irvine, Ca., he admitted mistakes were made in planning for the Iraq invasion, but he defended the troop level, saying "it was the troop level necessary to do the job," and he would commit the same number if given a second chance. The remarks came as another former general joined seven others who in recent days have called for the resignation of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, saying he had mismanaged the planning and execution of the war. Bush also explained, in unusually stark terms, how his belief in God influences his foreign policy. "I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true," he said. "One, I believe there's an Almighty. And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free. "I believe liberty is universal. I believe people want to be free. And I know that democracies do not war with each other." A new CNN poll released today shows Bush with his lowest approval rating in any poll so far, at 32%. Taking questions from members of the Orange County Business Council, Bush said the United States erred in attempting large reconstruction projects soon after the invasion was completed. This "didn't make any sense," he said, because they "became convenient targets for the enemy." Bush said he'd sat in a California church on Sunday near a mother and stepfather grieving for their son who had been killed in Iraq. "I also want to let you know that before you commit troops that you must do everything that you can to solve the problem diplomatically," he commented. "And I can look you in the eye and tell you I feel I tried to solve the problem diplomatically to the max and would have committed troops both in Afghanistan and Iraq, knowing what I know today." Emphasis added Posted by vicki at 04:03 PM | Comments (4) Educate Yourself Before You Vote!DL friend, Ann sent, me this excellent link. After the disasterous results from the election of Gov. Fletcher and Rep. Anne Northup, it helps to know who you are voting for and why. Stay away from the commercials and get the facts! http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=NEWS0106 Posted by vicki at 11:57 AM Our Quivering Titty Baby Governor
From the Courier Journal: Here Fletcher's bow to bias Gov. Ernie Fletcher needs a new desk sign: The Buck Stops Elsewhere. That's a reasonable inference from his quivering avoidance of a hard decision on the legislature's appropriation of $11 million to build a new pharmacy school and provide scholarships at the private, Baptist-affiliated University of the Cumberlands. The Governor declined to veto the measure. But he said Monday that he won't allow the money to be spent -- at least not until the courts can say whether it's legal in Kentucky to provide taxpayer funding for a private, religiously affiliated school. He claimed it was a "difficult issue" on which he has "mixed feelings" -- with no apparent recognition that high-ranking public officials are supposed to make tough calls. Actually, vetoing the funds should have been easy. Giving state money to faith-based colleges is an obvious problem. How does government decide which schools and religions are to be favored? Why not pay to develop the pharmacy school that Bellarmine University, a Catholic school, intends to start? But in this case, of course, the constitutional issues of church and state have been overshadowed by anti-gay bigotry at the University of the Cumberlands. The university recently expelled a student for being gay. To underscore the ugliness of its action, it even intended to give the "A" student all "F's" for the semester, though it retreated in the face of protests. The university's legislative supporters apparently think it would be fine to deny gay students the right to learn to be pharmacists at the proposed school or to receive its scholarships. The Governor, however, should be clear that such discrimination is intolerable in any state-funded enterprise. He wasn't. The Governor should leave no doubt that treating all citizens fairly trumps narrow political calculations or his own religious beliefs. He didn't. Gov. Fletcher will get the court test he seeks. A gay-rights group filed suit yesterday. But he has lost his chance to act as a strong leader with a principled sense of decency.
Posted by vicki at 11:46 AM | Comments (1) Our President in Exile, Al Gore
Check out the trailer for his new movie, "The Inconvenient Truth." Posted by vicki at 11:39 AM | Comments (2) April 25, 2006There Goes The InternetsLooks like our *public servants* in Congress are ready to turn the internets over the their corporate overlords. Read it and weep at TPM Cafe. Then call our wingnut Reps. and give them hell! Art Brodsky's Congress is going to hand the operation of the Internet over to AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. Democrats are helping. It's a shame. Don’t look now, but the House Commerce Committee next Wednesday is likely to vote to turn control of the Internet over to AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and what’s left of the telecommunications industry. It will be one of those stories the MSM writes about as “little noticed” because they haven’t covered it. On the surface, it may seem a stretch to think that those companies could control the great, wide, infinite Internet. After all, the incredible diversity of the Net allowed everything -- Web sites and services of all kinds to exist in perfect harmony. What’s more, they were all delivered to your screen without any interference by the companies that carried the bits to and fro. Until recently, they had to. It was the law. The telephone companies, which carried all of the Web traffic until relatively recently, had to treat all of their calls alike without giving any Web site or service favored treatment over another. The result was today’s Internet, which developed as a result of billions of dollars of investments, from the largest Internet company that spent millions on software and networking, to the one person with a blog who spent a few hundred dollars on a laptop. The Internet grew into a universal public resource because the telephone and cable companies simply transported the bits. Last fall, however, the Federal Communications Commission, backed by the U.S. Supreme Court, decided that the high-speed Internet services offered by the cable and telephone companies didn’t fall under that law, the Communications Act. Out the window went the law that treated everyone equally. Now, with broadband, we are in a new game without rules. Telephone and cable companies own 98% of the high-speed broadband networks the public uses to go online for reading news, shopping, listening to music, posting videos or any of the thousands of other uses developed for the Internet. But that isn’t enough. They want to control what you read, see or hear online. The companies say that they will create premium lanes on the Internet for higher fees, and give preferential access to their own services and those who can afford extra charges. The rest of us will be left to use an inferior version of the Internet. Admittedly, it hasn’t become a problem yet. But to think it won’t become one is to ignore 100 years of history of anti-competitive behavior by the phone companies. And it was a mere six weeks or so from the time the FCC issued its ill-fated decision to the time when Ed Whitacre, the CEO of (then-SBC) now AT&T issued his famous manifesto attacking Google and other Web sites for “using my pipes (for) free.” They don’t, by the way. Here’s the inside baseball: A couple of weeks ago, a courageous band of legislators tried to stop the madness in Subcommittee. Ed Markey, Rick Boucher, Anna Eshoo and Jay Inslee proposed some good language to protect the Internet. For their troubles, they just got four more votes, other than theirs. Just three Democrats, other than the sponsors, voted for it. Only one Republican voted for it. When we talk about special interest giveaways, this one will be at the top of the list. And we won’t have only Republicans to blame. Posted by vicki at 01:19 PM | Comments (1) Tuesday Afternoon Funnies
Posted by vicki at 12:47 PM The Times Notices New Albany And Putz SodrelI was in Bloomington last week, and on the drive there I saw exactly 2 signs supporting Sodrel. The vast majority of yard signs were pro Dem. Woo Hoo! By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK NEW ALBANY, Ind., April 22 — Fate has turned Representative Mike Sodrel's re-election campaign into a test case of the impact of public discontent with President Bush and the war in Iraq. Protesters stood outside the fund-raising event President Bush attended. Two years ago, Mr. Sodrel, a Republican and the owner of a trucking company, stood shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Bush in support of the invasion of Iraq, and his campaign featured a procession of appearances with Mr. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and several cabinet members. Mr. Bush won 59 percent of the vote in the district, and the Republican tide helped push him to victory by a few hundred votes over the Democratic incumbent, Baron Hill. This fall he faces a rematch against Mr. Hill, but like Republican incumbents around the country, Mr. Sodrel is running at a time when disillusionment with the war has turned association with Mr. Bush from a credential to a question mark in the eyes of many voters. "We have lost so many young men that I think it is time we need to make some changes," said Betty Robbins, a shopkeeper in Scottsburg, Ind., who said she voted for Mr. Bush in 2004 and then pulled the lever for every Republican on the ticket, including Mr. Sodrel. Ms. Robbins said that she now viewed Mr. Bush as "asinine," and that if she went to the polls this fall she was unlikely to vote again for Mr. Sodrel. "I would jump the fence," she said. Republicans around the country are openly debating how to distance themselves from voters' dissatisfaction with Mr. Bush and the war, but without further tarnishing their party and its public face in the process. For Mr. Sodrel, who won the razor-close race on Mr. Bush's coattails, the problem is especially acute. At a public meeting recently in Scottsburg, Mr. Sodrel said he stood by his support for the war and for the president, although he acknowledged that it was not always easy. "I know a lot of people have said they want to see the president or the vice president come in and raise money for them, they just don't want to get caught in public with them," Mr. Sodrel said, laughing at the awkwardness many Republicans feel toward the White House. "My attitude is, he is my president," Mr. Sodrel continued. "My wife and I have been married 38 years and we don't agree all the time. When there are things we don't agree on, I tell him so. But I am happy to have him come in here and stump for our campaign." Mr. Sodrel declined to say whether with the benefit of hindsight he would have supported the invasion of Iraq. "I don't think coulda-shoulda-woulda is very helpful right now," he said. But his tone has changed noticeably since he returned from a visit to Iraq last year with glowing reports of progress toward democracy. "Iraq doesn't have to be a safe place for us to bring the soldiers home," Mr. Sodrel said, a formulation he repeats often on the campaign trail. "It merely has to be a country that is well organized enough that it can deal with its internal problems. There is no place in that part of the world that there won't be a car bomb or a suicide bomber." In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 70 percent said they believed Mr. Bush lacked a clear plan to win the war in Iraq, and as support for his leadership on that subject has fallen Republican incumbents have become increasingly open in their criticism of the administration over other policies, including its domestic surveillance program and its management of the budget. Posted by vicki at 11:52 AM | Comments (2) Haliburton As Corrupt And Incompetent As Cheney
NY Times When Robert Sanders was sent by the Army to inspect the construction work an American company was doing on the banks of the Tigris River, 130 miles north of Baghdad, he expected to see workers drilling holes beneath the riverbed to restore a crucial set of large oil pipelines, which had been bombed during the invasion of Iraq.What he found instead that day in July 2004 looked like some gargantuan heart-bypass operation gone nightmarishly bad. A crew had bulldozed a 300-foot-long trench along a giant drill bit in their desperate attempt to yank it loose from the riverbed. A supervisor later told him that the project's crews knew that drilling the holes was not possible, but that they had been instructed by the company in charge of the project to continue anyway. The Money Pit The project, called the Fatah pipeline crossing, had been a critical element of a $2.4 billion no-bid reconstruction contract that a Halliburton subsidiary had won from the Army in 2003. The spot where about 15 pipelines crossed the Tigris had been the main link between Iraq's rich northern oil fields and the export terminals and refineries that could generate much-needed gasoline, heating fuel and revenue for Iraqis. For all those reasons, the project's demise would seriously damage the American-led effort to restore Iraq's oil system and enable the country to pay for its own reconstruction. Exactly what portion of Iraq's lost oil revenue can be attributed to one failed project, no matter how critical, is impossible to calculate. But the pipeline at Al Fatah has a wider significance as a metaphor for the entire $45 billion rebuilding effort in Iraq. Although the failures of that effort are routinely attributed to insurgent attacks, an examination of this project shows that troubled decision-making and execution have played equally important roles. The Fatah project went ahead despite warnings from experts that it could not succeed because the underground terrain was shattered and unstable. It continued chewing up astonishing amounts of cash when the predicted problems bogged the work down, with a contract that allowed crews to charge as much as $100,000 a day as they waited on standby. The company in charge engaged in what some American officials saw as a self-serving attempt to limit communications with the government until all the money was gone. And until Mr. Sanders went to Al Fatah, the Army Corps of Engineers, which administered the project, allowed the show to go on for months, even as individual Corps officials said they repeatedly voiced doubts about its chances of success. The Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, formerly Kellogg Brown & Root, had commissioned a geotechnical report that warned in August 2003 that it would be courting disaster to drill without extensive underground tests. "No driller in his right mind would have gone ahead," said Mr. Sanders, a geologist who came across the report when he arrived at the site. KBR defended its performance on the project, and said that the information in the geotechnical report was too general to serve as a warning. Still, interviews by The New York Times reveal that at least two other technical experts, including the northern project manager for the Army Corps, warned that the effort would fail if carried out as designed. None of the dozen or so American government and military officials contacted by The Times remembered being told of the geotechnical report, and the company pressed ahead. Once the project started going bad, senior American officials said, an array of management failures by both KBR and the Corps allowed it to continue. First, some of those officials said, they seldom received status reports from the company, even when they suspected problems and made direct requests. "Typically when you manage a project, you have people who can tell you that you've got so much of your project finished and this much money that has been spent," said Gary Vogler, a senior American official in the Iraqi Oil Ministry. "We couldn't get anything like that." Some warnings did in fact make their way to senior officials who could have stopped the project, said Donna Street, a Corps engineer who examined correspondence on the project after it failed. But neither the Corps nor the company seemed to act on them, Ms. Street said. "It seems to me that there was pretty much an absence of anything," she said. "The reports went out. The questions were asked. But there was just no response." Posted by vicki at 10:24 AM April 24, 2006Monday Morning FunniesCalifornia Becomes Second State to Introduce Bush ImpeachmentIn case you all missed this over the weekend. A clever Illinois congress-critter found a little known law called Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. Cool huh ??? If either the CA or IL house actually pass their resolution, the US Rethug Congress HAS TO BEGIN IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS.... Their are also other states that are ready to introduce similar Joint resolutions... This will effectively BYPASS the stonewalling Rethug commitee chaircriminals who have protected the war crimunals in the White House.... We could be looking at Impeachment BEFORE the Nov. elections... How do you think that would effect the Rethug chances of retaining either chamber ? read 'em and weep.. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/9249 Joining Illinois, California has become the second state in which a proposal to impeach President Bush has been introduced in the state legislature. And this one includes Cheney as well. California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of Los Angeles (where the LA Times has now called for Cheney's resignation) has submitted amendments to Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39, calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. The amendments reference Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. The resolution, in the words of Koretz's press release, "bases the call for impeachment upon the Bush Administration intentionally misleading the Congress and the American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional authority by Federalizing the National Guard; conspiring to torture prisoners in violation of the 'Federal Torture Act' and indicating intent to continue such actions; spying on American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and covering up the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American citizens without charge or trial." Posted by Mojo at 10:12 AM | Comments (1) Anne Braden Memorial
Will her grandchildren's generation step up to the plate? Anne Braden's legacy honored By Scheri Smith Hundreds of people gathered yesterday at Memorial Auditorium to honor civil-rights activist Anne Braden with songs, speeches and personal testimony. Braden died last month at age 81 and left a rich legacy of civil-rights activism that reached to the 1950s.
Reagon, who is originally from Georgia, said Braden was an inspiration for blacks and whites alike. "Every once in a while there is an act that takes place in your world that is so outside the boundaries that it actually raises the question in you of 'what can you do?' " Reagon said. "Anne Braden was very important to me in a lot of different ways." The ceremony, which was organized by the Carl Braden Center and the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, began at 2 p.m. and lasted well beyond its original end time of 5:30. Personal testimonies from audience members were often tearful and met with approval from the crowd. In addition to prominent civil-rights leaders, family members also spoke. Beth Braden, Anne's daughter, said her mother was dedicated to fighting three things: racism, poverty and war. Posted by vicki at 09:54 AM McConnell Does Something Right For A ChangeOMG. Every decade or so, our wingnut Senator manages to do something for his constituents and not just his special interest pals who feed his money machine. How sad is it that this is a Red Letter Day? read it in disbelief:
By James R. Carroll WASHINGTON — Billy Piper had had enough. His calls to an official at the White House's National Security Council weren't being returned. He wanted to talk about the chemical weapons at the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Ky., and an international treaty setting a deadline for their destruction. "Hang on!" Williams growled to Piper. "Well, we're here to serve," Williams said, chuckling when reminded of Piper's call, during the Clinton administration. Williams, who has done many similar things over the years, will be honored today with an award for grass-roots environmentalism. In 2001, Williams testified before Congress about internal Pentagon documents he had obtained that showed the military wasn't accurate about costs and schedules for chemical-weapons destruction. The Congressional Research Service later backed him up. For more than two decades, Williams has used that kind of credibility to build relationships with staffers and officials in the White House, members of Congress and their aides, civilians and soldiers in the Pentagon, contractors, consultants and federal regulators. Combining his network with an acute political sensibility and an encyclopedic knowledge of chemical weapons, Williams has been the driving force behind big changes at Blue Grass. Today, Williams, 58, is scheduled to receive one of this year's Goldman Environmental Prizes, the world's most generous monetary prize for grass-roots environmentalists. Williams said a community meeting with Defense Department officials in 1984 launched his advocacy for the safe destruction of chemical weapons at Blue Grass, across the nation and around the world. "I remember telling the powers that be that their approach to this thing, of waltzing in here and telling people what they're going to do, that has the potential to impact all of these people in this audience and my family -- without engaging the community in the decision-making process -- is not going to work," he said. Posted by vicki at 09:32 AM April 23, 2006What Stinking Victories?
The great victories of the Worst Governor In The World! Just read it and laugh yourself silly. Posted by vicki at 10:25 AM Thunder!
Thunder bursting See more cool pictures and stories here Posted by vicki at 10:13 AM | Comments (1) April 21, 2006This Is The Best Video Ever! Bu$h Is The EggmanOpportunity KnocksLast night several of you asked what volunteer opportunities were open to Andrew Horne supporters. Low and behold, this popped up in the mail. Here you go! Join the Horne campaign this weekend for some Derby fun! On Saturday, the annual Audubon Park Dogwood Festival will be in full bloom, and Horne volunteers will take to the neighborhood distributing literature to frequent Democratic voters. Meet at Horne headquarters (640 Barrett Ave) at 9:30 a.m., and we’ll all head down as a group. Concurrently, the campaign will hold a meetup on Broadway & 28th Street, starting at 10:00 a.m., and then we’ll increase Andrew’s name recognition with a Honk for Horne rally from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. on the same street corner. For those of you heading down to Thunder Over Louisville, we’ll meet at headquarters starting at 2:00 p.m. and then carpool down to the waterfront. And a reminder, when you attend Derby festivities, wear your Horne t-shirt and buttons and keep spreading the word about the man called “Anne Northup’s Worst Nightmare!” Posted by vicki at 02:12 PM Fletcher May Get To Pack The Court
OMG. The worst governor in the world may get the chance to pack the courts. Read it and weep lFetcher may get to name judges By Andrew Wolfson As many as 20 Kentucky judges, including three Supreme Court justices, may retire by July 1 to qualify for a cost-of-living adjustment that would provide thousands of dollars a year in extra retirement pay over their lifetimes. The early retirements would give Gov. Ernie Fletcher the opportunity to make an unprecedented number of appointments and to name the majority of the Supreme Court, albeit for a short time. The replacements would serve for the rest of the year.
The opportunity to appoint three justices would briefly give Fletcher unique power over the high court, said University of Kentucky law professors Robert Lawson and Paul Salamanca. One Fletcher appointee, John Roach of Lexington, already sits on the court. Among four justices who are not seeking re-election, Justices Martin Johnstone and Bill Graves said they are considering leaving early, and Justice William Cooper declined to return several phone calls. Justice Donald Wintersheimer said he will complete his term. Though new justices will be elected in November and seated in January 2007, Attorney General Greg Stumbo said he is concerned that Fletcher appointees could control the court until then. "In the unfortunate event that this comes to pass, it would be a sad day for Kentucky and the judicial system," Stumbo said, "given the governor's history of trying to pack the court with his cronies." Posted by vicki at 12:06 PM Get The Scoop On Neil Young's New Album
Mike F. sent me to an excellent website operated by a former Reprise Records executive. Get all the latest on Young's upcoming album, including some of the lyrics Here I can't wait! Posted by vicki at 11:50 AM | Comments (1) Did Rove Lose His Security Clearance?
Sorry to offend your eyes! Salon.com wonders if Rove lost his security clearance over his role in outing CIA agent Valerie Plame. Will Rove return his second salary to the taxpayers who foot the bill for his campaign dirty tricks? Yep. He gets paid $161,000 as deputy chief of staff and $161,000 as political advisor. The WaPo has this to say on the matter. Rove Gives Up Policy Post in Shake-Up By Peter Baker and Jim VandeHei President Bush's new chief of staff accelerated his election-year White House shake-up yesterday as Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove surrendered the policy management duties he assumed last year and press secretary Scott McClellan resigned as the public face of an administration under fire. Rove, who steered Bush to two national election victories, will retain his title but focus on broad strategy and politics, while Joel D. Kaplan takes over as deputy White House chief of staff running the day-to-day policy process. To replace McClellan, Republican strategists said the White House is considering Fox News radio host Tony Snow and former Iraq occupation spokesman Dan Senor. After serving almost three years as White House press secretary, Scott McClellan announced his resignation on April 19, 2006. "I have given it my all sir...," McClellan told President Bush during an appearance at the White House. The moves effectively diminished or eliminated the roles of the two presidential aides most familiar to the general public, as newly installed White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten seeks to rescue the remainder of Bush's presidency. Coupled with other changes already announced and still in the works, Bolten hopes to demonstrate to the public and the Republican-led Congress that it will no longer be business as usual in a White House afflicted by political defeats, an overseas war and shrinking public support. [End Snip] Hahahahahahaha. *Snort* Hahahahahahahaha Posted by vicki at 10:31 AM April 20, 2006Northup Isn't The Only One With Spies.Liberal Candidates
Northup shares her political doner list with Tom DeLay, votes in near lockstep with every rotten policy the current administration and Republican controlled Congress has hoisted upon us. She favored intervention in the Terri Shiavo matter, privatizing Social Security, the draconian bankruptcy law just passed and the disastrous Medicare legislation dumped on Seniors. Never mind that she still supports Bu$h's handling of the Iraq invasion and its aftermath. She also votes to confirm radical judges and Cabinet members who will further wreck our environment and limit our freedoms at all levels. It's long past time we educate ourselves about who our members of Congress really are and who they are looking out for. Check out Anne Northup's voting record at www.bluegrassreport.org or on any number of Google sites. It should be an eye opener. Then check out her Liberal opponents. Although they have no voting record, their positions on the issues are clear: Http://horneforcongress.com Http://Jameswmooreforcongress.com Http://yarmuthforcongress.com Posted by vicki at 11:57 AM | Comments (2) April 19, 2006Rigid Conservative Northup Stands By Bu$h. Dems Have Her Seat For The AskingHorne, Jimmy, and Yarmuth are finally getting some ink in the Courier-Journal. Woo Hoo! Here's the CJ article Jimmy also made news in the Bluegrass Report Democratic candidates for the U.S. House seat in the 3rd District criticized the Iraq war at a forum last night and said U.S. troops need to leave as soon as possible. However, they expressed some differences on when and how that should happen. The candidates were speaking at a forum at the First Unitarian Church, at Fourth and York streets, sponsored by peace activist Sam Avery and his wife, Bonnie Avery. Candidate John Yarmuth, 58, founder and executive editor of the weekly newspaper LEO, told the audience of about 150 people that he thinks U.S. troops should begin leaving immediately to get them "out of harm's way." But they could be stationed nearby as a safeguard, he said. He said the American people no longer support the war because of the way the Bush administration has conducted it. The example set "has made it easier for other nations" to claim pre-emptive rights if they want to engage in acts of aggression, he said. Andrew Horne, 45, a lawyer who served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves in Iraq, said mismanagement of the war has injured the United States' moral influence and "alienated moderate Muslims who could have helped us." Horne, who has made his war experiences a focal point of his campaign, said, "We have a moral obligation to Iraqis." He said that a plan needs to be developed with Iraqis before U.S. troops pull out and that a significant number of forces could leave this year. Candidate James Moore, 49, is an engineer and owner of a software and database consulting company who was a technical adviser on cruise missiles for the Air Force, Navy and NATO in the 1980s and early '90s. He claimed that the Bush administration justified the war by drawing conclusions and then "seeking evidence to support" them. He said no weapons of mass destruction were found. He agreed with Horne that it would be a mistake to set a rigid timetable but said pressure should be applied to end the war. He suggested troops should be out of Iraq before Bush leaves office. The fourth Democrat, Burrel Charles Farnsley, 59, the son of a former mayor, said Congress doesn't have much clout to get troops out, but he likes the idea of pressuring the administration. The winner of the May 16 primary will face Republican Rep. Anne Northup in the Nov. 7 general election. Northup, who is in her fifth term, said in a phone interview last night that she is opposed to pulling out troops immediately and to setting a timetable for withdrawal. "I think great changes and opportunities for democracy are achieved from painful experiences, often war," she said, noting that events in Iraq could change the "course of lawlessness" and terrorism that "has come to dominate the Middle East."
Posted by vicki at 08:33 PM | Comments (1) Gore "Getting the Band Back Together"
This is a real possibility folks. I know Al has been doing lots of great work trying to open peoples eyes to the impending impact of global warming and all of the doom that will follow, BUT. We need him in the White House. It is gratifying to hear that he is at least making the preliminary plans and laying the groundwork for an '08 run. All I hear from rethuglicans is that Hillary will run in '08'. That's only because they WANT her to. That is their ONLY CHANCE to keep the white house, they think that there are enough BIGOTS out there that would refuse to vote for a woman president, that McCain (or other rethug) would win. Well wait till they get a load of the NEW AL, he's gonna' take it out a whole new door !!!
http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/4/17/165450/305 Gore's new movie and book are raising his profile as the nation's leading voice of warning about a coming climate crisis, but Feldman told The Daily Politics Neel's role is not connected to the book or film, but to a broader agenda. "Roy is going to be coordinating a bunch of the former Vice President's activities focused specifically on an increasingly high-profile role he's going to be taking on issue of climate change," he said. Gore has said he's not thinking about 2008 at the moment, but putting a political staff back together inches him that much closer toward being able to run for President. (Also reported today, his campaign committee has also written a check to a pollster, though they say it's a debt from 2000.) Posted by Mojo at 09:54 AM | Comments (2) Sen. Williams Is A Horse's Ass
Sen. Williams wants to use $10 million of taxpayer money to fund a private, so-called Christian school's pharmacy program. This fine Christian school expelled a student a mere 3 weeks before the end of the term for the "sin" of being gay. And get this: the school has not even applied for accreditation for the pharmacy program and would not be eligable for it under federal law. In keeping with an animal theme, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig My apologies to all the fine pigs out there. Posted by vicki at 07:31 AM | Comments (4) April 18, 2006Finally! Reporter Has Nothing But Praise For Gore
Thanks to June for sending this item. A must read about Al Gore and the new movie he is the star of, opening in May. It is a horrifying look at the environmental disaster that awaits us in the very near future. Be VERY Afraid! We miss you, Al! Plan on a DL field trip in May to see this together. Posted by vicki at 07:45 PM | Comments (1) Buh-Bye, GOP Don't Let The Door Hit You The AssLooks like Anne, Ernie, and all the other GOP office holders in this country are the last straw for this man of integrity. I hope there are more Republicans like him everywhere. This was in today's Letters To The Editor in the CJ. A life-long Republican bids GOP farewell
They taught me to vote for the best person for the job, the person who, in their estimation, was most likely to reflect their ethics of honest government, low taxes, responsible spending, provision of necessary government services, a strong defense, maintenance of a social safety net, fresh ideas for dealing with current needs, and civil rights for all. With the exception of Nixon, nearly everyone they voted for fit these standards. However, I became uncomfortable with the GOP's move to the right, and began to question its candidates' judgment. Reagan's huge deficits bothered me greatly, as did George H.W. Bush's continuation of them. In 1992, I chose to vote for Perot, ended up very happy with Bill Clinton's performance in office, as well as Brereton Jones' and Paul Patton's gubernatorial terms (with minor exception made for Patton's extramarital problems). I have lobbied Congress a number of times in the 1990s and 2000s, as an unpaid citizen lobbyist, on the subject of civil rights. To say that I am most displeased with the quality of government we, the people, are receiving from the GOP, is the understatement of the century. The GOP is basically owned lock, stock and barrel by the DonaldWildmons, James Dobsons, Chuck Colsons and Pat Robertsons of the world, people with whom most Americans do not share a worldview, and people who want to impose their morality on the entire nation. Anne Northup was supported by George W. Bush long before he ever ran for president, [my emphasis] while he was still running up huge deficits in Texas as governor, deficits that have crippled that state's ability to deal with the problems of their schools, roads and infrastructure, not to mention the influx of hurricane refugees from Louisiana. Bush has continued that record as president, running huge deficits, starting a costly war on a false pretense and actively depriving people of civil rights to please his fundamentalist Christian friends. I am proud to state that I never voted for him. Which brings us to the issue of Ernie Fletcher, and his rewriting of Paul Patton's executive order, removing protections for sexual orientation and gender identity in state employee hiring. It is another in a long line of attempts by fundamentalist Christians to use GOP-led government to impose their morality on citizens who do not agree with it. The failure of Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in the last decade, the failure of Congress to pass a significant hate-crimes bill, the creation of hysteria surrounding gay marriage that resulted in the GOP victories of 2002 and 2004, and the repeated attempts here in Kentucky to void local Fairness laws with acts of the state legislature, are testament to that. Fletcher's removal of protection for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Kentuckians in state hiring, along with the support of many in the state legislature for the odious bills that would have erased the Fairness laws, mean that the GOP is bigoted, mean-spirited and tied to an ideology that should have died with the old century. So, with this, I bid farewell, permanently, to the GOP at all levels. Yes, they once fielded candidates for office who were honorable, who did good jobs. But no longer will they gain my vote. I cannot vote for bigots, for candidates who look to decrease, not increase and broaden, civil rights. I cannot vote for candidates who start wars with lies. The current federal tax code and levels of deficit spending are the very definition of irresponsible government. We have a state legislature that is more concerned with erasing local laws it doesn't like, than in assembling fair and well-considered state budgets, which should be the first job of each state legislative session, not the last. And, finally, with his cutting of state employees' rights, on Diversity Day of all days, Ernie Fletcher has revealed himself to all to be a tool of the fundamentalists, a sellout to manna, and unfit, in my opinion, to govern. A. G. CASEBEER Louisville 40220 Posted by vicki at 02:39 PM | Comments (1) Ernie Fletcher. Worst Governor In The World!
He wants to continue his crime spree without the paper trail. Did this doofus get his medical degree at the Papa Doc school of medicine? Fletcher says he's given up e-mail By Elisabeth J. Beardsley While the world plunges headlong into the digital age, Gov. Ernie Fletcher says he's reverted to ye olde pen and paper. Fletcher said yesterday that four or five months ago he quit using e-mail for work and in his private life.
Fletcher said he abandoned his electronic mailbox out of concern over what people might say in their messages to him. "You can't control, you know, what's done on those things," Fletcher said. "Things can be taken out of context." The matter of Fletcher's e-mail account arose yesterday amid questions about whether he intends to comply with a court order to turn over e-mails from his state e-mail account, "Sadie@ky.gov." Sadie was a dog he had owned. Fletcher's administration had denied an open-records request by The Courier-Journal seeking the e-mails. He said he would give them to the court, which has ordered a case-by-case review of which ones should be released publicly. For Lyndee Mourn, a 23-year-old Lexington social worker, the inability to e-mail Fletcher directly is troubling. Mourn, a registered Republican, said Fletcher has taken away "the most convenient method" for people to get in touch. "Personally, if I was worked up enough, I would take the time to sit down and write a letter," Mourn said. "It would deter a lot of people, though, because they would have to put forth an extra effort to do it." But Adron Whitehead, a retired UPS worker who lives in Brooksville, said he doesn't care. Whitehead, 81, a registered Republican, said he doesn't know how to use e-mail, anyway -- and that hasn't stopped him from speaking his mind in periodic letters to political entities. "If I need anything from him, I'll respond to him by letter," Whitehead said of the governor. "I'll spend the 39 cents for that." Fletcher acknowledged there are drawbacks to reverting to old communication options. "It does impair our ability to use technology to operate efficiently," he said. A special Frankfort County grand jury has been investigating allegations that the Fletcher administration made personnel decisions on the basis of politics, a violation of state hiring laws. Investigators subpoenaed e-mails from the administration. Posted by vicki at 02:21 PM | Comments (2) Interesting View from our Canadian Friend...I really hope all you DLer's frequent the Firedoglake Blog (FDL) that I have linked on our page. It contains VERY insightful and informed commentary that us "lefties" should be fully aware of, especially in these precarious times... Here's an entry from FDL that I thought summarizes what the world view is of our current debacle of a Junta otherwise known as the "Bush Regime". Thanks to Ian for sharing his perspective with us. Here's the link to the full blog entry, including comments.. http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/04/17/oh-wow/#comments
Guest Post by Ian Welsh I’m in the odd position of being a Canadian who does most of his blogging on American politics for US blogs. It’s a kafkaesque exercise at times, and the recent Iran mess has reminded me yet again, that to a foreigner, the US really is “through the looking glass”. Because to me the conversation on Iran isn’t sane. In fact, the idea of bombing Iran, either large scale conventionally, or, even worse, with nukes, is one I’m astounded is even being considered. Let’s deal with the specifics from one Canadian’s point of view. First: bombing a country is a declaration of war and Iran will react to it as such. To meaningfully damage the Iranian nuclear effort will require massive bombing. This isn’t one pinpoint attack. Oil will soar to $150 a barrel or so, your economy will crater, so will everyone else’s, your allies will abandon you and you will be all by yourselves. And people won’t blame the Iranians, they will blame you. Second: Proponents of bombing Iran spend a lot of time talking about how Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. Iran doesn’t sponsor terror against the US, at least not recently. You do this, that’ll change. You do this, you will come to see 9/11 as the good ol’ days when you only lost a couple thousand people, because not only is Iran a State sponsor of terrorism – they are very very good at it and there is every reason to believe they have cells in the US. And we haven’t even talked about the fact that even if most Americans don’t know it, most foreigners are well aware that the US is, itself, a huge state sponsor of terrorism. Third: A lot of this is being driven by the fact that Iran does sponsor terrorism against Israel and that Iranian nukes will threaten Israel (note that they will not threaten the US directly.) Israel is the nation which spies most on the US. They are not your friend, whatever you may think. Of course, given the power of the Israeli lobby, and the specter of being called an anti-semite, no one is willing to say this. Let the Israelis deal with their own damn problems, it’s their bed, let them lie in it. Fourth: Bush brought this on America by invading Iraq. The lesson of Iraq is this: if you have nukes you won’t get invaded. If you don’t, the US will (compare and contrast: North Korea/Iraq). Iran is acting entirley rationally. Fifth: I think Canada should have nukes, because I know you invaded Iraq based on lies. I don’t want Iran to have nukes, but if I were the mullahs I’d be doing the exact same thing. The Mullahs aren’t nuts – they’re acting in self preservation. I know why they’re doing what they’re doing and it is perfectly 100% rational Sixth: I have to tell you, that from a foreigner’s point of view, and this is true even in your closest allies (the majority of Britains, for example) you are a rogue nation. You invade people based on lies. You have no credibility on Iran. You are the boy who cried Wolf. You don’t obey the Geneva conventions. You have secret prisons. You torture people, including the citizens of your allies. You have abolished habeas corpus for classes of people. You kidnap foreigners and secretly ship them off to be tortured. You have endorsed Bush’s war crimes – crimes for which Americans hung Nazis who had been in no way involved the with the Holocaust. You could produce pictures of nukes and missiles and half the world wouldn’t believe you. Even if we did believe you, we don’t care enough to endorse going to war with Iran.. There are only two nations in the world who constantly talk about how they’re willing to nuke people without even being attacked first: The North Koreans - and the UNITED STATES. You gave up the ability to stop countries like Iran from getting nukes when you invaded a country like Iraq which had no nukes and no real possibility of getting them. That was your wad, and you blew it. You chose to be weak. At this point, for you to stop Iran would involve you in a war you cannot win – or at least no victory worth having. You can’t occupy Iran, so are you going to really glass Tehran or the entire country? Do you know what the world reaction would be? Do you know what would happen to the dollar? Are you out of your minds? Why is this even being discussed? And why is it that I can’t simply dismiss it as diplomatic posturing? When did the US step through the looking glass? When did insanity become reasonable? Here's a comment on the FDL blog from Steve Clark.. Posted by Mojo at 09:06 AM | Comments (1) April 17, 2006AT&T Snooping Scandal
Maybe the Times will, like, INVESTIGATE? Editorial A former AT&T employee has come forward with documents suggesting that there may be a lot more domestic spying going on than President Bush has admitted. The AT&T documents suggest that telephone companies may be helping the government engage in wholesale interception of telephone calls, e-mail messages and Web surfing. If AT&T is violating its customers' privacy rights, it should come clean, and stop immediately. According to Mark Klein, a longtime AT&T technician who is now retired, AT&T maintained a room at its San Francisco Internet and telephone hub where its customers' data could be mined by keywords, e-mail addresses and other attributes. Mr. Klein says the National Security Agency was given access to the room and the data. He says other technicians have reported to him that similar rooms exist at other AT&T sites. Mr. Klein's assertions are the heart of a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which charges AT&T with helping the N.S.A. conduct an extensive and illegal domestic spying program. The government can legally intercept private communications only under limited circumstances, with proper judicial oversight. AT&T has refused to describe its cooperation with the N.S.A. The lawsuit seeks damages on behalf of a large number of AT&T customers, which could provide the company with a strong incentive to re-evaluate its policies. But even without the suit, AT&T has a reason to worry if it is participating in illegal domestic spying. In the age of unfettered communication, no company should want to get a reputation for allowing the government to listen in on its customers' phone calls, read their e-mail and monitor their Web activity without the requisite legal showing. Posted by vicki at 08:02 AM Time Magazine's "Worst Senator" List
Yep. Sen. Bunning is in the *Top* five worst US Senators. Not mentioned was that Bunning is a coward who refused to debate Dan Mongiardo face to face during their Senate "debate" and cheated with a teleprompter. Or that he barely won re-election by smearing Mongiardo as a fag. Indiana Senator Dick Lugar is listed as one of the top 5 US Senators. Here is the Courier Journal article in full. Read a snip below: Bunning is portrayed as ineffective, 'hostile' The Time story offers a much less flattering picture of Bunning, also a 74-year-old Republican, who narrowly won his second six-year term in 2004 by defeating Democrat Daniel Mongiardo. The story credits Bunning as an outstanding former pitcher who was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame but says he has "struck out in his seven years in the Senate." Citing congressional experts and colleagues, the story says Bunning is "hostile to staff members on the Hill and occasionally even other senators" and "shows little interest in policy unless it involves baseball." Yesterday, Bunning said he had not seen the story but said "everybody is entitled to their own opinion." Still, he defended his record. "I do everything I can to improve legislation whether it be in the finance committee, whether it be in the budget committee, whether it be in the energy committee or the banking committee," Bunning said. "Look at my record. Look at the legislation I've passed." He pointed to his work on a compensation package for workers at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant and his efforts to renew the federal flood-insurance program. He said he's also been active on Social Security. "I've got five laws hanging on my walls that I either originated or was a co-sponsor on," he said. "Whoever wrote that story didn't do their homework." Laurie Rhodebeck, a University of Louisville political science professor, told Time that Bunning's "lackluster performance has created strains between him and the GOP in Kentucky." Yesterday, Rhodebeck said in an interview with The Courier-Journal that she had not known the magazine was going to call Bunning one of the nation's worst senators. But she said she wasn't surprised. "He's not been engaged in policy-making, with the exception of mining issues," she said. "I don't think he's really done a lot in the Senate with Social Security, which was an interest of his in the House," where he served for 12 years. Rhodebeck also said she doesn't think Kentuckians will be surprised by the story. "There were a lot of cues during his re-election race that his record wasn't that strong," she said yesterday. "His public gaffes during the election, his unwillingness to talk to reporters -- all that indicates he was not particularly engaged." Kirk Randazzo, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, said he doesn't think Bunning has done anything bad. "I just think he hasn't done much at all," Randazzo said. "Now whether that's by design or not, I couldn't tell you. But as far as some of the other senators, Bunning's name isn't out there that much. That's probably why he made the list." Posted by vicki at 07:32 AM | Comments (1) April 16, 2006Bu$h Bubble, Part II
Well, well! Seems Jebby went to visit the troops his brother made moving targets of and was greeted with flowers and candy! Woo Hoo! More good news from Iraq: Posted on Sat, Apr. 15, 2006 You can read the whole sorry thing here Gov. Bush visits Florida troops in Iraq, Kuwait TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush planned to attend an Easter service in Iraq during a trip to the Middle East, where he spoke to troops and saw conditions there firsthand. Bush left the United States on Thursday night and stopped in Kuwait before going on to Baghdad. The trip was kept a secret until Saturday for security reasons. [My emphasis] "The most impressive part of the trip so far is just the great enthusiasm and the morale of the troops," Bush said by telephone. "These young men and women are pretty fired up." He said he had visited seven bases by Saturday night and met with Florida troops. Bush, whose brother is President Bush, traveled to Iraq with Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin. "I have taken more photos and shaken more hands than any time being governor," Bush said. The trip confirmed for him that the effort to train Iraqis to take over police and military operations is working. "It just validated the belief that it's important to lay out a strategy, and to communicate what that strategy is and to get regular updates on how that strategy is being implemented and successful," he said. While he saw some signs that infrastructure is being improved, he acknowledged there is a long way to go to stabilize the country. "This is a massive effort and it will take the implementation of a strategic plan that goes beyond just security, it goes to the democracy issues and it goes to economic issues. All of them need to work for Iraq to be free and democratic and a more peaceful place," Bush said. [End snip} Why don't these chicken hawks just piss on our legs and tell us it's raining? Posted by vicki at 07:14 PM | Comments (1) Here You Go, Peeps!Happy Easter
Christ Among the Partisans THERE is no such thing as a "Christian politics." If it is a politics, it cannot be Christian. Jesus told Pilate: "My reign is not of this present order. If my reign were of this present order, my supporters would have fought against my being turned over to the Jews. But my reign is not here" (John 18:36). Jesus brought no political message or program. This is a truth that needs emphasis at a time when some Democrats, fearing that the Republicans have advanced over them by the use of religion, want to respond with a claim that Jesus is really on their side. He is not. He avoided those who would trap him into taking sides for or against the Roman occupation of Judea. He paid his taxes to the occupying power but said only, "Let Caesar have what belongs to him, and God have what belongs to him" (Matthew 22:21). He was the original proponent of a separation of church and state. Those who want the state to engage in public worship, or even to have prayer in schools, are defying his injunction: "When you pray, be not like the pretenders, who prefer to pray in the synagogues and in the public square, in the sight of others. In truth I tell you, that is all the profit they will have. But you, when you pray, go into your inner chamber and, locking the door, pray there in hiding to your Father, and your Father who sees you in hiding will reward you" (Matthew 6:5-6). He shocked people by his repeated violation of the external holiness code of his time, emphasizing that his religion was an internal matter of the heart. But doesn't Jesus say to care for the poor? Repeatedly and insistently, but what he says goes far beyond politics and is of a different order. He declares that only one test will determine who will come into his reign: whether one has treated the poor, the hungry, the homeless and the imprisoned as one would Jesus himself. "Whenever you did these things to the lowliest of my brothers, you were doing it to me" (Matthew 25:40). No government can propose that as its program. Theocracy itself never went so far, nor could it. The state cannot indulge in self-sacrifice. If it is to treat the poor well, it must do so on grounds of justice, appealing to arguments that will convince people who are not followers of Jesus or of any other religion. The norms of justice will fall short of the demands of love that Jesus imposes. A Christian may adopt just political measures from his or her own motive of love, but that is not the argument that will define justice for state purposes. To claim that the state's burden of justice, which falls short of the supreme test Jesus imposes, is actually what he wills — that would be to substitute some lesser and false religion for what Jesus brought from the Father. Of course, Christians who do not meet the lower standard of state justice to the poor will, a fortiori, fail to pass the higher test. Posted by vicki at 10:23 AM April 14, 2006It's Official: The GOP of KY Is The Party Of Bigotry
Our pathetic Governor, Rev. Earnie, and the Republicans in the KY House and Senate make no bones about running their campaigns on a homophobic agenda. The overt and repulsive decision by Fletcher to abandon discrimination protection for gay folks on "Diversity Day" was nothing short of bizarre. And here's the really sad part: Jim Bunning, an incompetent hack narrowly won re-election to the US Senate by staging a whispering campaign against his liberal opponent by feigning a limp wrist every time his opponent was mentioned. Bunning and Fletcher are the epitamy of every nasty but true steriotype of KY being an ignorant, intollerant state. I have never been so ashamed of admitting I am from KY in my life. The only thing that gives me a bit of hope are the letters to the editor in today's CJ. Every last one of them blasts this admin for its disgusting bigotry. Http://courier-journal.com Peace! Posted by vicki at 11:03 AM | Comments (3) Jimmy's All Worked Up
Dear friend: Click here for a map: http://www.jameswmooreforcongress.com/images/eastermap.gif If you need to reach me, dial 412-4000 x211 - that'll reach my cell. Visit my blog page for other upcoming events: http://www.jameswmooreforcongress.com/news.htm Thank you, thank you for all of your support. Let's show all of these old-world, old-school fools what No-PAC / No-Lobbyist New Progressive Democrats can do... Posted by vicki at 10:11 AM April 13, 2006NOOOOOOoooooo!!!!!! Do NOT Crash DL.Somebody stick a fork in him. He's done. Presenting, His Royal High-ness, GWB.
Posted by vicki at 05:27 PM | Comments (1) April 12, 2006Another WH Attempt To Hide Its Dirty DealingsI found this on Think Progress: Now, thanks to the National Security Archive (a nonprofit based at George Washington University), we know how the reclassification scheme came about: The National Archives and Records Administration secretly agreed to a covert effort, led by the Air Force, the CIA, and other still-hidden intelligence entities, to remove open-shelf archival records and reclassify them while disguising the results so that researchers would not complain, according to a previously secret Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). As part of the secret agreement, the National Archives “agreed that the existence of the program was to be kept secret as long as possible” and that “the withdrawal sheets indicating the removal of documents would conceal any reference to the program and ‘any reason for the withholding of documents.’” Read more about the secret agreement HERE Posted by vicki at 07:25 PM The Man In The Mirror
Bush's Search for Leakers Leads to His Mirror: Margaret Carlson April 10 (Bloomberg) -- I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, former chief of staff and close confidante to the vice president, looked into the maw of a grand jury and disgorged words that few thought could be squeezed out of him. Libby told the grand jury, according to court documents obtained by the New York Sun, that he was authorized by President George W. Bush, through Vice President Dick Cheney, to spill classified information to New York Times reporter Judith Miller. This Libby did, on July 8, 2003, over drinks at the St. Regis Hotel, a few blocks north of the White House. At the time, the Bush administration was shaken by revelations undermining its carefully constructed justification for going to war with Iraq. The latest blow had come two days earlier from former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who wrote an op-ed piece disputing the White House claim that Saddam Hussein tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger. Wilson had been sent to Niger by the CIA to investigate the intelligence reports on which the claim was based. To strike back, the president wanted to reveal to the one reporter who had proved her willingness to serve as an administration scribe the section of the National Intelligence Estimate that said Saddam had ``probably'' tried to secure such fuel. No Denials By not denying Libby's bombshell, the White House last week more or less confirmed that the person the president swore would be punished for leaking classified information was himself, and that his oft-stated wish to find the leaker, in a bad parody of O.J. Simpson, had been achieved. Confronted with this revelation at a press briefing Friday, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan split hairs. The president didn't leak classified information, he ``shared information;'' ipso facto, information is no longer classified if the president leaks it. Secondly, McClellan said, by sharing information aimed at batting down ``wild accusations'' about weapons of mass destruction, the president is acting in the public interest, even if cynics might think he's really acting out of political interest. Secret Fiat Whether the president can leak anything classified at any moment by secret fiat while repeatedly vowing to track down and fire such leakers depends on what you mean by ``declassify'' and ``leak.'' The president didn't publicly report this information. Through Cheney, he sent a top aide off to ``share'' it with a reporter, demanding that she cite a Capitol Hill staffer as the source. There's a process for declassifying information outlined in the Executive Order on the subject, which the president followed 10 days later when he released the whole National Intelligence Estimate. What he did on July 8 was something quite different, according to Jeffrey H. Smith, a former CIA general counsel. ``Declassification is a formal act and the courts are clear on how it's done,'' Smith says. ``Instead, here selective portions of the NIE were released to a single reporter. That's not declassification, that's a leak.'' Prosecute Them The president has lots of authority, but it's not unlimited or without hoops to jump through. For instance, the president has the authority to pardon anyone he wants for any reason. But imagine if he'd told the veep to tell Scooter to tell the warden at the Alderson, West Virginia, prison to spring Martha Stewart early. He could never get away with such a thing. The president wasn't unaware of the leaks; he was on top of them. And he isn't just a leaker, but a hypocritical one. He calls leakers of intelligence treasonous and vows to prosecute them. There's at least one official investigation going on now to track down and punish whoever leaked the existence of Bush's warrantless wiretaps. McClellan repeatedly insisted that Bush's power to declassify on a whim was absolute on Friday, without citing any authority or expressing any need to. Of a Piece It's all of a piece. Since Sept. 11, Bush has acted as if he can do anything he wants because we're at war. How extensive are his war powers and when do they end? When Osama's captured? When the Iraqi Army ``stands up''? Before his term ends? He doesn't say. And what are those powers? As the president interprets them, he can round up anyone, hold and torture them as enemy combatants without benefit of counsel or trial. He can fudge the number of troops and amount of money needed in Iraq. He can wiretap anyone without a warrant, even though getting a warrant is swift, is nearly automatic, and can be sought retroactively. Domestically, he also has a free hand. He can ignore settled scientific judgments (and disband his science board, as he did last week) and make his own intuitive judgments about global warming, stem-cell research and the success of abstinence versus vaccines in reducing sexually transmitted diseases. He can get rid of any government employee who tells Congress or the public the true cost of the prescription-drug bill or his tax cuts. If there's justice in the world, the clip of Bush's promise to hold the leakers responsible will replace, or at least accompany, every replay of the tape of Bill Clinton's ``I didn't have sexual relations with that woman'' whopper. Bush joins Richard Nixon and O.J. Simpson and all the other Hall of Fame hypocrites who made such a to-do over searching far and wide for the miscreants they saw in the mirror each morning. Posted by vicki at 04:33 PM My Letter to the CJ About Hawpe's Sunday ColumnI sent the CJ a corrected version after noticing that I sent in my rough draft (and posted it here) Here is the corrected version: There's no telling if our so-called liberal paper will publish it or not, but I just couldn't let what Hawpe wrote stand unchallenged. I kept it short and to the point, although I had plenty more criticism rolling around in my head. Here it is: I found David Hawpe's column on the Democratic candidates insulting and his criticisms of them wildly off the mark. His assertion that "any honest observer" would find these candidates "not-ready-for-prime-time" was equally insulting. I am an honest observer of these candidates (and with the exception of Mr. Farnsley, who cannot be considered a serious candidate) and I take great issue with his account of the 3rd district candidate's event at Masterson's. First of all, Mr. Hawpe couldn't be bothered to spell candidate James Moore's name correctly and then mocks him for refusing to accept the corrupting influence of special interest money to his campaign. He then insults candidate Lt. Col Andrew Horne for being a nice guy and implies that he's a wimp. Nothing could be further from the truth. Then John Yarmuth gets singled out for not being a great orator. Good grief! All through the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns the media at large assailed Democrats for being too smart and too policy wonky while making hay about how Bush was seen as a nice guy that everyone wanted to have a beer with. All three of the Democratic candidates mentioned above are intelligent, decent and perfectly capable and competent to be our next member of Congress. Unlike Anne Northup, who votes in lockstep with Tom Delay, Speaker Hastert and the president on legislation that weakens the environment, burdens the working class and enriches Corporate America, these candidates propose taking our state and country in the opposite direction. That is my honest observation. Posted by vicki at 10:22 AM | Comments (5) Fletch the Wretch Discriminates Against Gays Again
Timing is everything. Ernie chooses Diversity Day to cut discrimination protection for gay workers. Rev. Fletcher should be ashamed of himself. WWJD? Gays cut from anti-bias policy By Deborah Yetter FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Gay state workers and job candidates have lost anti-discrimination protection as a result of an order that Gov. Ernie Fletcher issued yesterday as part of the state's "Diversity Day." Fletcher replaced the 2003 employment policy of former Gov. Paul Patton with one that bans employment discrimination because of "race, color, national origin, sex, age, religion, veteran status and disability." It makes no mention of sexual orientation. Patton's policy included protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Ryan LaFollette, 26, a gay state worker in Louisville, said the Patton policy was one reason he applied to become a researcher for the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. "I just started working for state government six months ago,'' LaFollette said. "In hiring and firing, I knew I would be protected." The new policy "doesn't protect me," said LaFollette, who said he was speaking personally and not on behalf of his agency. It also drew criticism from some lawmakers, including Sen. Ernesto Scorsone, D-Lexington, who is gay and said the policy amounts to "open season on gay state employees." But Fletcher spokesman Brett Hall said the governor has no intent to discriminate against gay workers. Rather, the new order mirrors federal affirmative action policy and is meant to prohibit all discrimination, he said. "This is in no way to discriminate against anyone," Hall said. Hall said the administration was concerned that the Patton policy on sexual orientation was too broad and extended to others, such as transgender people. That caused a dispute at the state Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet over which restroom an employee undergoing a sex change should use, he said. "These types of special privileges are not only difficult to comply with, but it's very expensive," Hall said, saying it could lead to lawsuits or require the state to build additional restrooms. Mark York, a spokesman for the environmental cabinet, said a question arose last year about which restroom a transgender employee should use, but it was resolved by setting aside a particular restroom for the worker. "We were able to work something out to everyone's satisfaction," he said. In an interview, Patton said yesterday he decided to adopt the policy in the final days of his administration to ensure that employees were evaluated strictly on their ability to do the job. "We just wanted to be sure that Kentucky government was sensitive to all Kentucky citizens," Patton said. He declined to comment on Fletcher's decision to rescind it. Fletcher was running for governor when Patton issued the order. At the time, Fletcher said he opposed discrimination in the workplace, but "I don't think we ought to initiate any special rights." Several lawmakers criticized the new policy, saying it takes Kentucky backward as some states and major employers extend anti-discrimination policies to include gay and lesbian workers. Indiana state government prohibits discrimination in hiring, advancement and firing based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Scorsone predicted the new policy would make gay and lesbian state workers fear disclosing their sexual orientation. And only recently have they begun to feel comfortable about acknowledging their sexual orientation at work through small gestures, such as displaying a photo of a partner on a desk, he said. Rep. Darryl Owens, D-Louisville, called Fletcher's action "Neanderthal" and said the governor is "taking the state back to the dark ages." Other lawmakers who joined Scorsone to denounce the new policy were Sens. Gerald Neal, Tim Shaughnessy and Denise Harper Angel, all Louisville Democrats, and Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington. Several accused Fletcher, a Republican, of trying to exploit the issue to appeal to conservative voters. "The governor is obviously playing to his base," Neal said. Hall rejected that suggestion, saying that was not a consideration. "I don't know how that plays with the Republican base," he said. Stein said it was ironic that Fletcher announced the change on a day he dedicated to diversity and said it reminded her of problems that led to the current investigation of his administration's hiring practices. "How many merit issues does he have to screw up on?" she asked. Fletcher's order came as he proclaimed yesterday "Diversity Day in Kentucky.'' In a speech to schoolchildren, he urged them to avoid discrimination. "It is our diversity that gives us strength," he said. He said the new policy is designed to improve state hiring of women and minority workers and protect employees from discrimination. Members of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, a gay rights organization, attacked the change. "It's actually a step backward for civil rights because it protects fewer people," said Wes Wright, the coalition's legislative liaison. Reporter Deborah Yetter can be reached at (502) 582-4228. Posted by vicki at 09:06 AM | Comments (2) April 11, 2006AT&T is routing ALL DOMESTIC communications through the NSA
Well folks, if you are an AT&T customer.... or ever CALL or EMAIL an AT&T customer, you no longer have to worry IF the Evil Empire's snooping. They are... It is interesting to note that this actually started in 2001, as soon as the Chimp seized power. Probably BEFORE 9/11.... Here's a little titbit for your consumption.. The lawsuit also alleges that AT&T has given the government unfettered access to its over 300 terabyte "Daytona" database of caller information -- one of the largest databases in the world. Moreover, by opening its network and databases to wholesale surveillance by the NSA, EFF alleges that AT&T has violated the privacy of its customers and the people they call and email, as well as broken longstanding communications privacy laws. " read 'em and weep ladies and gents.. http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/ Welcome to the United Snakes of Amerika.....
Posted by Mojo at 01:07 PM | Comments (4) Save The Date, May 10. Interesting Book EventI got this interesting email about a book tour for "Confessions Of A Former Dittohead." Let me know if we should have a field trip to the event and drink liberally with the author afterwards. I am the publisher of Ig Publishing, (www.igpub.com), an independent press based |
