Drinking Liberally®

photo taken at the recent DC protest and attended by DLers

Good for you, Harold! You too, Carol.

Marchers defend country

In regard to the self-described combat veteran who criticized the war protesters in Washington:

As a retired military officer and Vietnam veteran (and my wife also is a veteran), we were proud to be there marching and doing the right thing.

The United States was wrong to go to Iraq and wrong to stay there. As veterans, we took an oath to defend the Constitution and our country, not George Bush and his politics.

HAROLD TRAINER

Posted by vicki at 07:57 PM

This is just sickening. McConnell, McCain and the oh-so-odious Joe Loserman are piously supporting Bu$h's troop increase out of party loyalty rather than any rational need for troop build up. These punks support sending poorly trained and equipted troops into a raging civil war with no clear objective. I got this off the TPM website which quotes a Buisness Week article. Tell me again why we should not impeach Bu$h? How many more will die for his vanity?

The Inspector General for the Defense Dept. is concerned that the U.S. military has failed to adequately equip soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially for nontraditional duties such as training Iraqi security forces and handling detainees, according to a summary of a new audit obtained by BusinessWeek. The findings come as the Pentagon prepares to send another 21,500 troops to Iraq and as Democratic leaders levy threats to restrict funding for a war that's already cost about $500 billion. The Army alone expects to spend an extra $70 billion on an additional 65,000 permanent troops from fiscal year 2009 through 2013. According to Army officials, $18 billion of that will be spent on equipment.

The Inspector General found that the Pentagon hasn't been able to properly equip the soldiers it already has. Many have gone without enough guns, ammunition, and other necessary supplies to "effectively complete their missions" and have had to cancel or postpone some assignments while waiting for the proper gear, according to the report from auditors with the Defense Dept. Inspector General's office. Soldiers have also found themselves short on body armor, armored vehicles, and communications equipment, among other things, auditors found.

Voters need to throw out every last one of these bums who support putting our military at undue risk.

Posted by vicki at 11:17 AM

The Republican controlled Congress had no interest in exploring Global Warming under Republican *leadership.* Bu$h and Cheney, true to form, put the energy giants (foxes) in charge of writing energy policy while the (hen house) Dems were crying foul. All to no avail until now. Al Gore was vilified for bringing the impending disaster of global warming to the fore, (he NEVER said he created the internetS) yet he was/is right, once again. How depraved is it that Bu$HCo puts corporate interests above the good of the planet? Enter Henry Waxman and the good guys: Bu$h Lied and the Planet Died

Federal scientists have been pressured to play down global warming, advocacy groups testified Tuesday at the Democrats' first investigative hearing since taking control of Congress. The hearing focused on allegations that the White House for years has micromanaged the government's climate programs and has closely controlled what scientists have been allowed to tell the public.

"It appears there may have been an orchestrated campaign to mislead the public about climate change," said Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. Waxman is chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a critic of the Bush administration's environmental policies, including its views on climate.

Duh! Ya think? My stinking head hurts again.

Posted by vicki at 11:00 PM

Carol in DC

Posted by vicki at 08:45 PM

Any sane president--seeing his polling numbers in the 28-30% zone--would be a little cautious about throwing his presidential weight around. Not King George. Packing his Cabinet with political hacks just didn't go far enough for Bu$h: He will now place political thugs in every regulatory agency. Bu$h has, in effect, done an end run around Congress. How's that for a new spirit of bipartisanship? Somebody hold me.

— President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.

In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.

This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats.

The White House said the executive order was not meant to rein in any one agency. But business executives and consumer advocates said the administration was particularly concerned about rules and guidance issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

In an interview on Monday, Jeffrey A. Rosen, general counsel at the White House Office of Management and Budget, said, “This is a classic good-government measure that will make federal agencies more open and accountable.”

No, asshole--this is more Orwellian than Orwell.

Posted by vicki at 09:32 AM

Well, well well. The NYT actually points out that the Washington Times and other "news" outlets are run by the cultist, Sun Myung Moon. (remember "moonies" at airports looking for converts?) After more than a decade of ignoring the corrosive, poisonous, fact free droolings of drug addict Rush Limpballs, Drudge, Faux News and certain anchors at MSNBC, the Times notices how certain media outlets spread false rumors as fact. In turn, these false reports wrecked politicians and campaigns. Thanks for nothing, NYTimes. You jumped on the Whitewater *story* as if it had any merit and never apologized when it came up empty and destroyed lives and reputations. Here's the dirt on how the first Swift Boating of both Obama and Clinton, in one fell swoop, occurred: Makes you wanna weep

Jeffrey T. Kuhner, whose Web site published the first anonymous smear of the 2008 presidential race, is hardly the only editor who will not reveal his reporters’ sources. What sets him apart is that he will not even disclose the names of his reporters.

But their anonymity has not stopped them from making an impact. In the last two weeks, Mr. Kuhner’s Web site, Insight, the last remnant of a defunct conservative print magazine owned by the Unification Church led by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, was able to set off a wave of television commentary, talk-radio chatter, official denials, investigations by journalists around the globe and news media self-analysis that has lasted 11 days and counting.

The controversy started with a quickly discredited Jan. 17 article on the Insight Web site asserting that the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was preparing an accusation that her rival, Senator Barack Obama, had covered up a brief period he had spent in an Islamic religious school in Indonesia when he was 6.

(Other news organizations have confirmed Mr. Obama’s descriptions of the school as a secular public school. Both senators have denounced the report, and there is no evidence that Mrs. Clinton’s campaign planned to spread those accusations.)

In an interview Sunday, Mr. Kuhner, 37, said he still considered the article, which he said was meant to focus on the thinking of the Clinton campaign, to be “solid as solid can be.”

My head hurts.

Posted by vicki at 10:40 PM

Our great DL friend, Marine Lt. Col. (and former Congressional candidate) Andrew Horne is in the new Vote Vets ad. Watch it here! Keep up the good work Andrew, and hurry back to DL for a beer some Thursday.

UPDATE: The New York Times has a good article on Vote Vets and what they represent. It features link to the ad where Andrew made an appearance. Here you go!

Posted by vicki at 02:49 PM

This is what Hillary Clinton and John Edwards voted for in 2002.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.
(a) AUTHORIZATION. The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to

(1) defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and

(2) enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions regarding Iraq.

When Congress (including Hillary Clinton & John Edwards) gave Bush the authorization to declare war on Iraq, they "assumed" many things, which made an ass out of you and me. They assumed that what Bush was saying was true, that the U.S. was in grave and imminent danger of an attack by Saddam Hussein. They assumed that the so called evidence of Iraq's WMD and pursuit of WMD was factual and not forged, fabricated and cherry-picked as Joe Wilson and others kept telling everyone. They failed in their constitutional authority to prevent a President from taking our country into an unnecessary and illegal war. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have both "taken responsibility" for their vote on this war authorization, whatever that means. But, they both continue to say they were "misled" by the President. This is true, but they also failed to fully scrutinize the "evidence" and make sure the inspectors had time to finish their search for the elusive WMD. Starting a war is too grave and serious a matter to simply "trust the President." Either Hillary Clinton or John Edwards may end up getting the democratic nomination for the Presidency. So, what will I do on Election Day in November of 2008? Do I hold my nose and vote for the enablers of one of the most tragic debacles in U.S. history? . . . .a tragedy that didn't have to happen and caused immeasurable pain and suffering, ruining hundreds of thousands of lives? . . .or do I follow my conscience and vote for a Liberal Third Party candidate (if there is one) or not vote at all and help the Republicans win?

Posted by Maria at 01:25 PM

The Socialist Senator

By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: January 21, 2007
When Bernie Sanders visits a high-school class, as he does regularly, students don’t hear a speech, a focus-grouped polemic, a campaign pitch or, heaven forbid, practiced one-liners. Nor, in all likelihood, do they hear Sanders tell stories about his family, childhood or some hardship he has endured. He makes no great effort to “connect” emotionally in the manner that politicians strive for these days, and he probably doesn’t “feel your pain” either, or at least make a point of saying so. It’s not that Sanders is against connecting, or feeling your pain, but the process seems needlessly passive and unproductive, and he prefers a more dynamic level of engagement.
“I urge you all to argue with your teachers, argue with your parents,” Sanders told a group of about 60 students at South Burlington High School — generally liberal, affluent and collegebound — one afternoon in mid-December.

The newly elected senator whipped his head forward with a force that shifted his free-for-all frizz of white hair over his forehead. (Journalistic convention in Vermont mandates that every Sanders story remark on his unruly hair as early on as possible. It also stipulates that every piece of his clothing be described as “rumpled.”)

To continue article, click here.

Posted by Maria at 08:18 PM

Bush's SOTU: Nixon Would Have Been Proud
by Joshua Holland | Jan 24 2007 - 9:42am |

With 500 members of Congress packed into the peanut gallery, the attention of the nation's political and media establishments and millions of Americans hanging on his every word, the president of the United States gave his State of the Union address last night.

He does it every year -- it's in the Constitution!

Earlier yesterday, when asked by reporters what the best part of the speech was going to be, White House Spokesman Tony Snow replied, "You know, it's difficult to say. It's like looking in a drawer full of diamonds."

But those who were expecting some glittering bling-bling would have been disappointed; what made last night's SOTU noteworthy is that George W. Bush simply had nothing to say. It might have been the first time in American history.

To continue reading this article, click here: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/5006

Posted by Maria at 07:12 PM

'Nuff said. Done. Toast. Over. Worst pResident Ever.

Posted by vicki at 02:44 AM

Al Gore finally receives the praise he so richly deserves. Read more here:

This is a big day for Al Gore: this morning his global warming movie, An Inconvenient Truth, was nominated for two Academy Awards -- and in the evening, he will learn how the guy who got the job Gore always wanted will address climate change in his State of the Union address. (And look who's sighing now, laughing boy...)

Last night finally convinced me that the former vice president really isn't running for anything in '08; he was funny in public again, for one thing, in a way that those truly in the hunt never are. Yet the public has never been more interested in what Gore has to say. Even here in solidly Republican Idaho, Gore not only packed the 10,000-seat Taco Bell Arena, but sold out the joint "faster than Elton John," in about five hours, said Garry Wenske, executive director of the Frank Church Institute, who helped organize the event. "We all know how he did as a political candidate, but this is something else."

Posted by vicki at 01:55 PM

Good grief! Ever since Hilary announced she was running for Prez on Sat., the press and pundits have all but declared her the Democratic primary winner. Every beltway reporter and pundit, left and right, are declaring her the front runner on the basis of polls that reward name recognition only this early on. This HuffPo column gets it How many LIBERALS do you know that support Hillary? Only wingnuts and the press seem pleased.

For example, a recent San Francisco Chronicle news report (headlined "Obama Emerges as Clinton's Rival for Dems' Left") asserted that Hillary Clinton was "widely regarded as the left's most influential voice inside the now-revered Clinton White House."

Widely regarded? Actually, progressives see Hillary Clinton as having been consistently wrong on the war and a host of other issues, especially trade. Her absurdly bureaucratic healthcare proposal in 1993 - shaped by and for big insurance companies - was a slap in the face of unions, Congress members and grassroots forces who'd built a movement for simple, nonprofit national health insurance: in effect, enhanced Medicare for All. She helped set back the cause of universal coverage for years.

And far from being "revered," many Democratic activists see the Clinton era as one of decline in which Democrats lost their strong majorities in the U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governorships and state legislatures. It's simple math .

The 2008 presidential election is shaping up as a test of the power and capacity of new independent media vs. old conglomerate-dominated media. And a test of grassroots/netroots politics vs. corporatized Democratic politics.

Howard Dean, as Democratic Party chairman is doing a fantastic job at the grassroots level. The so-called New Dems have lost election after election running "mushy middle" candidates like Clinton and Lieberman. We need to be very actively against that tired, losing strategy.

Posted by vicki at 08:29 PM

"Sorry State of the Union" LPAC Responds

Posted by vicki at 10:03 AM

I like the way Rev. Todd talks. Here is your Sunday Service: The voice of reason.

Who Says “Father Knows Best?”

The Strict Father vs. The Nurturing Parent
By Todd F. Eklof

February 12, 2006

Many of us still remember the popular TV series, “Father Knows Best,” starring Robert Young and Jane Wyatt that ran from 1954 to 1963. Although the sitcom portrayed a father who clearly didn’t always know best, and at times had to yield to the wisdom of his spouse and children, the name of the show itself demonstrated a common attitude of the day that the father, as head of the household, wielded an authority that should not be questioned. In a way typical TV series like this, depicting idyllic families with a wise, though dominant, father, a loving and dutiful mother, and a couple of kids happily and obediently learning the ways of the world, were themselves a challenge to the social and political male dominated hierarchy that was reflected in the basic family unit. When “Father Knows Best” first debuted on radio in 1949, for instance, its title ended with a question mark.

Perhaps this is why, as TV sitcoms have evolved, men have been increasingly depicted as buffoons. In his book about men, Iron John, for instance, Robert Bly complains that the positive male image has increasingly been lampooned in popular culture since the 1920’s and 30’s during which men were portrayed as weak and foolish in comic strips like Maggie and Jiggs, and Blondie and Dagwood. “The father in contemporary TV ads never knows what medicine to take.” He writes, “And in situation comedies… men are devious, bumbling, or easy to outwit. It is the women who outwit them, and teach them a lesson, or hold the whole town together all by themselves.”[1] Psychologist, James Hillman also discusses this phenomenon in his book, The Soul’s Code, in which he writes, “When we watch Dad on TV sitcoms and the accompanying ads, he’s a rather foolish man. He’s not quite with it, a piece of him is astray.”[2]

Although Bly takes these kind of portrayals as an affront to men, and blames it on what he calls, “…young Hollywood writers [who], rather than confront their fathers in Kansas, take revenge on the remote father by making all adult men look like fools,”[3] Hillman argues more positively that “Maybe Dad’s true task is not knowing about coffee, bleach, and mouthwash or how to resolve pubescent dating dilemmas, and maybe his dumbness shows that this is truly not his world. His world is not shown in these sets, for it’s offstage, elsewhere and invisible. He must keep one foot in another space, one ear cocked for another message. He must no lose his calling and forget obligations to his heart’s desire and the image that he embodies.”[4]

Posted by vicki at 09:40 PM

This is too Nixonian for words. Below the radar, Bu$h and Abu Gonsales have been purging the courts of federal judges/prosecuters who are overseeing investigations into massive GOP corruption. Attny. General Abu Gonsales makes John Mitchell look like a piker. Get a load of this news item

In other Abramoff news, an indictment of former Bush Interior official Steven Griles appears imminent. Griles has resigned from the lobbying firm of Lundquist, Nethercutt & Griles LLC and from the Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission. He has also beefed up his legal defense team.

Duke Cunningham briber Mitchell Wade, founder of the now defunct defense contractor MZM, is still singing like a canary. His sentencing will reportedly be delayed for another six months so that his cooperation with the feds can continue. That investigation will continue without the involvement of Carol Lam, we learned this week. The San Diego U.S. Attorney whose office was leading the Cunningham investigation and its various outgrowths was pushed out of office by the Bush Administration for reasons which are still unclear and therefore suspicious.

While the criminal justice side of the scandals ground slowly onward, the political house-cleaning swept along in ways large and small. In Washington, the Senate, after the usual jockeying and gamesmanship, passed an ethics reform bill that was tougher than many had expected and than Majority Leader Harry Reid may have wanted. In Texas, the state canceled controversial lobbying contracts with two Tom Delay-connected lobbying firms, vestiges of the headier days of GOP dominance.

For my money, though, the best antiseptic was a return to congressional oversight.

Duh. Ya think?

Update: Jane Ann Morison of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, yesterday:

A GOP source said [Sen. John Ensign (R-NV}] was told that the decision to remove U.S. attorneys, primarily in the West, was part of a plan to "give somebody else that experience" to build up the back bench of Republicans by giving them high-profile jobs.

Posted by vicki at 12:11 AM

Whew! Sen. Leahy came out swinging at Attorney Gen. Gonsales over the extrodinary rendition program. He was more than a little pissed that the US sens suspects to foreign countries famous for their tourture tactics. Then the little matter of by-passing the FISA court and spying on US citizens. Here's an amusing exchange:

At issue is how the secret panel of judges will consider evidence when approving government requests to monitor suspected al-Qaida agents' phone calls and e-mails between the United States and other countries.

Until last week, the National Security Agency conducted the surveillance without a court warrant. But the Justice Department announced Wednesday that the FISA court, as it is known, began overseeing the program with a Jan. 10 order.

Gonzales, testifying Thursday front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he may not be able to release details of the order.

"Are you saying that you might object to the court giving us a decision that you publicly announced?" committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., asked. "Are we Alice in Wonderland here? "

Why yes, Senator. Yes we are.

Posted by vicki at 04:04 PM

It seems everyone but Mitch McConnell and his boy, " W" have gotten the message that an escalation of troops in Iraq is an exceedingly bad idea. Please contact your STATE members of Congress as well as the national members to tighten the screws on them to act for the good of our military. Tell them sending our troops off to die for the disasterously bad Bu$h invasion of Iraq was bad enough, but adding to the misery must not be allowed.

Every State in the Union has National Guard units. They are vitally needed AT HOME. Our State legislators need to protect them from harm and keep them here--not "over there." The Progressive State Network is hard at work on this issue, and Ted Kennedy is showing real, courageous leadership.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/progressivestates/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=6499

Please notify your reps on where you stand. Sign the petition and save lives.

Thank You!

Posted by vicki at 03:34 PM

Let's go see/hear Lucy perform! Save the date.

. . . to Clifton's, go straight to Clifton's . . . do not pass GO, do not collect $200. Spend your money (what's left of it after the holiday spending spree) on some of the best pizza in town and cold swill to wash it down.

Of course, The Bickett-Davis Duo will be there to entertain you with some new jazz tunes, for those who couldn't make it to the Jazz Factory earlier in the month.

The Bickett-Davis Duo
Clifton's Pizza
7:00 p.m. Sunday, January 21, 2007

Posted by vicki at 02:30 PM

Drop by Eric Alterman's Blog and read Nick Pinto's excellent post on DL

Check it out.

Posted by vicki at 01:32 PM

I believe the term "rat bastard" was invented to describe Metro Councilman Jim King. His viscious rants about the youths in the Brooklawn program are a disgracful to Louisvillians at large and his constituents in particular. Did the Hikes Point folks know who they were getting when they voted for him? Regardless, he needs to be driven from office next election. Here's how today's CJ editorial describes him

Jim King's venom

If Louisville gave an award to the local politician who says the most hateful and ignorant things, Metro Councilman Jim King would have the 2007 trophy wrapped up early.

Mr. King's latest outrage is the despicable venom he has directed toward Brooklawn, a private residential center for abused, neglected and disturbed young people.

At issue is a five-bedroom home near Newburg Road that Brooklawn purchased last year to house up to eight teenage boys, ages 16 to 18, who will have completed treatment at Brooklawn and be making a transition to independent life.

Apparently, that doesn't fit with the personal plans of Mr. King, D-10th District. He lives near the proposed group home and has purchased additional property, on which he proposes to build new homes for family and friends.

His reaction has been disgraceful -- and ill-informed on every count.
Mr. King has warned Brooklawn to change its plans or face his full opposition. [ . . . ]

He responded to a flier handed out at a neighborhood meeting that called for a protest at Brooklawn's campus by breezily declaring: "Everybody has First Amendment rights."

Of course they do. But recognizing the right to speak does not require condoning cruelty. And it would be sheer viciousness to hold a rally on a campus of 107 rejected and neglected children to tell them they aren't wanted. (Fortunately, the organizer seemed yesterday to have called off the protest.)

Mr. King, in an e-mail to at least one constituent, recklessly stated that some of the teens in the group home will be "psychotic" and will pose a threat of sexual attacks on women and children.

Posted by vicki at 06:10 PM

Literally. Josh Marshall's excellent blog has this and much more

Okay, so we already know that the White House has now taken the unprecedented step of firing at least four and likely seven US Attorneys in the middle of their terms of office -- at least some of whom are in the midst of corruption investigations of Bush administration officials and key Republican lawmakers. We also know that they're taking advantage of a handy provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows the White House to replace these fired USAs with appointees who don't need to be approved by the senate

Given that these new USAs are being plopped into offices currently investigating Republicans and other administration officials and others into states with 2008 presidential candidates, there's certainly ample opportunity for mischief.
So we're looking into just who the White House is appointing. [. . . ]

So who's Griffin and what experience does he bring to the job?
Well, top of the list seems to be his stint at the White House where he worked for Karl Rove doing opposition research on Democrats. That was until late last year. According to this Arkansas Times report, for the last ten years -- with the exception of two one year stint -- he has always worked as a Republican party opposition researcher digging up dirt on Democrats. Deputy Research Director for the RNC from 1999-2000. Research Director for the RNC from 2002-2005. Oppo Research Director for Karl Rove 2005-2006. Prior to 1999? Well, he was associate independent counsel investigating Henry Cisneros from 1995-96.

Clearly, Bu$h had given the Congress, us and the Justice system the middle finge

UPDATE: Add a few more bodies to the pile. Click here It just gets worse.

Update II In his AP interview, Gonzales explained his expanded powers were necessary because federal judges -- who previously had appointed replacement U.S. attorneys -- were susceptible to cronyism and might appoint unqualified candidates Lying to the press and Congress is second nature to that hack.

Posted by vicki at 07:29 PM

So now we have the top Pentagon official in charge of Gitmo making official threats against pro bono lawyers? While Keith Olberman and the blogs are aflame over this latest WH outrage, the MSM has been all but silent. In a radio interview last week, Mr. Stimson read off a long list of corporate law firms (many are big contributors to the GOP) who are representing Gitmo defendants and spewed his bare-knuckled intimidations in an op-ed peice in the WaPo on Fri.. The USAToday finally offers this:

In the sorry mess that is the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba, one often-ignored element shows the American system at its best. About 500 U.S. lawyers have volunteered to represent terror suspects held there, surely an unpopular task. America can be quietly proud that, in our legal system, even those viewed as pariahs are receiving quality legal representation. So it's particularly appalling when a top Pentagon official derides these lawyers and encourages U.S. corporations to retaliate against their firms. In a radio interview last week, Charles "Cully" Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, brought up the issue, cited many of the law firms by name and suggested that corporate CEOs "make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms." It's easy to understand how annoying these pesky lawyers and their challenges must be to the Pentagon, which runs a prison camp that has given America an international black eye. Deriding their firms, many of which represent Fortune 500 companies, and trying to instigate retribution is certainly one way, albeit a pretty sleazy one, to discourage more challenges. Perhaps a few facts need to be called to Stimson's attention. While holding hundreds of prisoners in Kafkaesque legal limbo at the camp, the U.S. government has transferred or released about 380. After labeling prisoners the "worst of the worst," it has admitted that some pose no long-term threat. No doubt, defense lawyers helped bring about some of those just releases. But Stimson, a lawyer who should know better, doesn't seem much bothered by facts. In his interview with Federal News Radio, he suggested darkly that some of the firms "are receiving monies from who knows where, and I'd be curious to have them explain that."

Great. Just great. Fletcher is making news as one of the worst, most corrupt politicians in the country. Considering the competition out there, that's truly amazing--but we knew that already. Check this out:

A few days ago there was an online pissing contest about who has the worst governor (now that Taft, though still not in prison) is no longer running the crime ring formerly known as Ohio. Lotta votes for Blunt (MO), Daniels (IN), Perry (TX), Barbour (MS) but I was diggin' my heels in on Ernie Fletcher, Kentucky's one-man crime wave. He hasn't been put in prison yet either but as truly horrid as Blunt, Daniels, Perry and Barbour are-- no arguments from me on any of that lot-- Fletcher really could be the real bottom of the barrel.

Today's Washington Post acknowledges that he's in trouble. They claim he's "been hurt by a series of scandals centered on rewarding campaign contributors with state jobs. His cratering poll numbers have coincided with his fall from grace in the eyes of Sen. Mitch McConnell, the unquestioned godfather of the state's Republican politics."

Most people not from Kentucky don't realize that being indicted for 3 misdemeanors was not the start of Fletcher's problems. Within a year of his election in 2003 he was already losing popularity because his health care agenda had drastically increased the costs, particularly for state employees. By the time he gave a blanket pardon to members of his administration charged with serious crimes, his approval rating had started sinking until less than a quarter of those polled said they would vote to re-elect him. If not for Taft, who was tried and convicted, Fletcher would have been the most disapproved of governor in the U.S.

Makes you proud, don't it?

Posted by vicki at 09:24 PM

The speech Bu$h gave on Weds. frightened a whole lot of people with good reason. He seemed to be laying the groundwork for attacking Iran and Syria. Over the last two days, against the objections of the Iraqi govenment, (such as it is) American G.I.s have raided 2 Iranian consulates and arrested the workers and confiscated computers and other asserts. This was in the Washington Note yesterday

Did the President Declare "Secret War" Against Syria and Iran?

Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran.

The President may have started a new secret, informal war against Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad discussion with the country. [. . . ]

Adding fuel to the speculation is that U.S. forces today raided an Iranian Consulate in Arbil, Iraq and detained five Iranian staff members. Given that Iran showed little deference to the political sanctity of the US Embassy in Tehran 29 years ago, it would be ironic for Iran to hyperventilate much about the raid.

But what is disconcerting is that some are speculating that Bush has decided to heat up military engagement with Iran and Syria -- taking possible action within their borders, not just within Iraq.

Some are suggesting that the Consulate raid may have been designed to try and prompt a military response from Iran -- to generate a casus belli for further American action.

If this is the case, the debate about adding four brigades to Iraq is pathetic. The situation will get even hotter than it now is, worsening the American position and exposing the fact that to fight Iran both within the borders of Iraq and into Iranian territory, there are not enough troops in the theatre.

Bush may really have pushed the escalation pedal more than any of us realize.

Posted by vicki at 08:57 AM

Be very afraid!

Posted by vicki at 03:24 PM

Bu$h is gambling with the lives and treasure of Americans to prolong the fiction that there is any hope for "victory" in Iraq. The Iraqis want us out. We the people want us out, but Bu$h plans to throw billions of taxpayer dollars and untold lives into the steaming heap of failure he has wreaked in Iraq. Congress needs to put the breaks on this NOW. Here is what Howard Fineman of Newsweek has to say: Kapow!

What the voters saw on TV just now was a man struggling to come to grips with his own unwillingness to face facts. It's still a struggle. His acknowledgement of mistakes was oblique and not as brave as it sounded at first blush. Mistakes were made, and he said. "The responsibility rests with me," he said. What he meant to convey was that others had made the mistakes, but that he was stepped up to take the hit. Hoo-aw! He said that he had "consulted" congressional leaders of both parties before he came to a decision on sending more than 20,000 additional troops. He didn't really consult with members of Congress, and certainly not with Democrats, unless you consider Sen. Joe Lieberman a Democrat. [my bold]

Forty years ago, another president from Texas escalated an unpopular war. A famous Washington columnist, James Reston, described Lyndon Johnson's leadership as "war by tantrum."

Posted by vicki at 10:09 AM

It's an hour before the Big Speech and already parts are being leaked to the press. I expect to hear a lot of "victory in Iraq" and terra! terra! terra! Here's the leaked parts from Josh Marshall's site

The changes I have outlined tonight are aimed at ensuring the survival of a young democracy that is fighting for its life in a part of the world of enormous importance to American security…The question is whether our new strategy will bring us closer to success. I believe that it will…Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved. There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship…A democratic Iraq will not be perfect. But it will be a country that fights terrorists instead of harboring them – and it will help bring a future of peace and security for our children and grandchildren.

On bringing our troops home:

[To]step back now would force a collapse of the Iraqi government…Such a scenario would result in our troops being forced to stay in Iraq even longer, and confront an enemy that is even more lethal. If we increase our support at this crucial moment, and help the Iraqis break the current cycle of violence, we can hasten the day our troops begin coming home.

Oh yeah? And then what?

Posted by vicki at 08:12 PM

Bu$h will do whatever he wants and voters and "commanders on the ground" be damned. Here's the latest deliberate leak

The latest draft of the new strategy for Iraq that President will Bush will lay out Wednesday calls for an increase of more than 20,000 troops, with most going to Baghdad and 4,000 to Anbar province, one senior official said Tuesday.

The first wave of additional U.S. troops will go into Iraq before the end of the month under Bush’s revised plan, said the official, who requested anonymity because the plans have not yet been announced.

The plan also calls for responsibility for security for all the country's provinces to be turned over to Iraqi forces by November, said another official, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

Did anyone really think he'd listen to the ISG or the combat generals? Hahahahahahaha.

Posted by vicki at 07:47 PM | Comments (2)

Ya know, when virtually every decision this WH makes (or makes no decision at all until too late) is a screaming disaster, you have to conclude that this is probably a really serious mistake. All I can say is, thank goodnness we have a Democratic Congress providing REAL oversight of this slow motion disaster of an administration. Looks like another rush job with little attention paid to consequences. How very Bu$h-like P.S. The price tag is at least 100 BILLION dollars

Posted by vicki at 05:26 PM

Our dear friend and DLer, Rev. Todd, kicks ASS with his sermons at Clifton Unitarian Church. It's worth gettng out of your fat pants and hauling your hippie butt over to his wonderful church (the pic here is his actual church--and his parishioners are awesome) to feel the love. Here's a passage from last week's sermon:

The paradox of self-exploration, however, is that the more we come to learn about ourselves, the less we know about ourselves, and the more mysterious life becomes. This is why contemplative people tend towards humility and quiet, particularly in how they relate to others. For if we can hardly know ourselves, who are we to judge or presume we can know what is best for others. “And so I warn you,” wrote the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, “think twice about passing judgment on the lives of [others]. In the privacy of your own conscience judge yourself as you see fit before God or before your spiritual [mentors], but do not meddle in the lives of others.”2 This unknown writer is the same one who said, “Just as the cloud of unknowing lies above you between you and your God, so you must fashion a cloud of forgetting beneath you, between you and every created thing.”3 In other words, there is little we can truly know about the hidden or manifest worlds and yet, nonetheless, as this mystical writer advises, we “must learn to be at home in this darkness.”

That's heavy. Could "thinking" be making a comeback? What a world! More here

Posted by vicki at 11:49 PM

This is your brain on Hillbilly politics.

Jeepers, you have to go to Hillbilly Report for the pics alone. Flashback:

September 23, 2005 Ron Lewis played politics with earmarks in letter circulated to all House colleagues, requesting a one year moratorium on all non-defense related earmarks for Fiscal Year 2006. Knowing full well his suggestion would go nowhere.

How did that work out for your Republican Congress, Mr. Lewis? Oy.

Posted by vicki at 11:06 PM

Jeepers H. Farkin' Christmas! Just try to wrap your head around Mr. "Law and Order, three strikes, you're out" Renquist --a severe drug addict--making law while breaking law. It is one more notch in the belt of the utter hypocrisy of wingnut "justice". This guy was trashed while writing opinions for the highest court in the land. Swoon!

The late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist took a powerful sedative during his first decade on the Supreme Court and grew so dependent on it that he became delusional and tried to escape from a hospital in his pajamas when he stopped taking the drug in 1981, according to newly released FBI files.

The files also show that during both of Rehnquist's confirmation battles -- when he was first named to the court by President Richard Nixon in 1971 and when President Ronald Reagan nominated him as chief justice in 1986 -- the Justice Department enlisted the FBI to find out what witnesses lined up by Senate Democrats were prepared to say.
[. . .]
At one point, a doctor told the investigators, Rehnquist went "to the lobby in his pajamas in order to try to escape." Ultimately, the doctors concluded that the withdrawal symptoms were so severe that they began giving Rehnquist the drug again and slowly lowered the dosage until he quit taking it entirely Feb. 7, 1982.

By 1986, the files show, all the doctors interviewed by the FBI said the former drug dependence should not affect Rehnquist's future work on the court, and it did not become an issue in his confirmation as chief justice.

Alexander Charns, a lawyer in Durham, N.C., who was among the scholars and journalists who received the documents this week, said that in his view, they contain evidence of "the ongoing use of the FBI for political purposes, not only in the sixties and seventies but well into the 1980s."

So much more. Read it here and weep.

Posted by vicki at 10:54 PM | Comments (1)

Here is the headline in the NY Dailey News: W pushes envelope on U.S. spying

New postal law lets Bush peek through your mail Ummmm, no it doesn't. He's simply breaking the farkin' law again.

WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

Bush's move came during the winter congressional recess and a year after his secret domestic electronic eavesdropping program was first revealed. It caught Capitol Hill by surprise.

"Despite the President's statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people's mail without a warrant," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who co-sponsored the bill.
[. . . ]
Most of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act deals with mundane reform measures. But it also explicitly reinforced protections of first-class mail from searches without a court's approval.

Yet in his statement Bush said he will "construe" an exception, "which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection in a manner consistent ... with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances."

Impeach this law/Constitution breaking criminal!

Posted by vicki at 01:27 PM

The details are expanded further down the blog entries, but here are the basics: First there is a commemoration for the 3,000+ US military Iraq war dead and a protest of the war itself

When: Saturday, January 6
12 noon to 2:00 pm (set up is
help is needed at 11:00 a.m.
if you are available.

Where: Hurstbourne & Taylorsville Rd
intersection

Then there is this from Louisville Peace Action the following night:

LPAC Vigil, Sunday Jan. 7th, 7:00-8:00, Douglass Loop, Candles & signs about the US and Iraqi Deaths

Posted by vicki at 08:02 PM

Crikey! Wolf Blitzer did offer a strong apology for the gaffe yesterday, but it is stunning how the network has jumped on the meme of right wing crazies in making hay over Barak Obama's middle name and comparing his casual dress style to an Iranian whack job. Salon gives us this little gem:

CNN's Obama troubles, continued: The blogosphere on Tuesday is on fire over CNN's latest Barack Obama-related goof -- when teasing a story on the search for Osama bin Laden on Monday, the network flashed a graphic with an unfortunate typo, naming the junior senator from Illinois instead of the world's leading terrorist. The timing couldn't have been much worse, as CNN is still smarting from a related gaffe. In early December, anchor Jeff Greenfield did a piece critical of Obama's fashion sense, arguing his sport jacket/no tie look is reminiscent of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's favored sartorial mode: "And maybe that's not the comparison a possible presidential contender really wants to evoke ... It's one thing to have a last name that sounds like Osama and a middle name, Hussein, that is probably less than helpful. But an outfit that reminds people of a charter member of the axis of evil, why, this could leave his presidential hopes hanging by a thread. Or is that threads?" (Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo)

Posted by vicki at 10:47 AM

Tonight Olberman mentioned the report by the BBC that has Bu$h planning an escalation of troops, or "surge" in Bagdad, so I visited the BBC News site and (even by my cynical standards) was stunned. Cowardly Bu$h is calling for 'sacrifice' in order to achieve victory in Iraq. Impeach the bastard before he kills again for his own vanity.

Dictionary definition for sacrifice: noun the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of some material possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage.

US President George W Bush intends to reveal a new Iraq strategy within days, the BBC has learnt.

The speech will reveal a plan to send more US troops to Iraq to focus on ways of bringing greater security, rather than training Iraqi forces.

The move comes with figures from Iraqi ministries suggesting that deaths among civilians are at record highs.

The US president arrived back in Washington on Monday after a week-long holiday at his ranch in Texas.

The BBC was told by a senior administration source that the speech setting out changes in Mr Bush's Iraq policy is likely to come in the middle of next week.

Its central theme will be sacrifice.

Posted by vicki at 09:33 PM | Comments (1)

OK, there are now over 3,000 dead US military thanks to Bu$h's corrupt and incompetent fiasco of invading Iraq, unprovoked. This Canadian paper reported on Nowhere Man's new year's resolution, and it's typically delusional and dishonest.

President George W. Bush wants more consultation with Congress and the Iraqis before "coming to closure" on a plan for Iraq, he told reporters outside his Texas ranch on Thursday.

Emerging from talks with his national security team, Bush said one of his New Year's resolutions was to make sure U.S. troops would remain safe in Iraq and that the U.S. would "help this young democracy survive and thrive, and therefore write a new chapter of peace."

Bush offered no details about a new strategy on the war in Iraq, but declared they were "making good progress" on crafting a plan.

And then we get to the real meat of the matter from the amazing Glenn Greenwald's blog The entire enterprise in Iraq has been corrupt, illegal and incompently executed from the begining. This is a mess that cannot, under any circumstance be undone at this late date.

Or, put another way, the Iraqi Government -- revealingly "frustrated" by the need to pretend to operate within the law -- knew that hanging Saddam in this manner was illegal, but they did it anyway because they know there will be no consequences. No wonder the President praised their adherence to "due process" and the "rule of law" -- the President's followers and the Shiite militias ruling Iraq appear to share a similar understanding of those terms.

As Chris Floyd notes, many of the "facts" reported by the Times article are almost certainly rank fiction emanating from the White House with the intent of distancing itself from this grotesque affair -- hence, all of the oh-so-concerned Bush officials oh-so-worried about the need to adhere to legal constraints, urging the Iraqis to slow down and carry out the execution in a dignified, orderly and legal manner, and consenting only because the Iraqis asserted the prerogatives of their sovereignty.

But as Floyd also correctly observes, Saddam was in U.S. custody until the very last minute, and both the fact and the terms of the execution required the approval of Bush officials, which they gave -- implicitly, if not explicitly, by handing over Saddam for his middle-of-the-night noose fitting.

Over. Done. Lost. Disgraced.

Posted by vicki at 09:01 PM

Hi VVAW members and all peace loving people!
(from Carol Trainer)

Sadly, we are only 3 US military deaths away from the 3,000 mark. To commemorate (and protest the war & build-up) VVAW will join Louisville Peace Action Community in protest. Details below:

When: Saturday, January 6
12 noon to 2:00 pm (set up is
help is needed at 11:00 a.m.
if you are available.

Where: Hurstbourne & Taylorsville Rd
intersection

I will bring our new VVAW banner (compliments of VVAW national office). We will need VVAW members to hold this banner and other signs of your own that you may wish to bring.

Posted by vicki at 04:13 PM

This was on the front page of the Times on this first day of 2007. 3,000 dead for a pack of lies

On Dec. 4, Specialist Hess slipped onto the ever-expanding list of American military fatalities in Iraq, one that has increased by an average of more than three a day since Oct. 1, the highest three-month toll in two years. On Sunday, with the announcement of the death in Baghdad of Specialist Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring, Tex., the list reached the somber milestone of at least 3,000 deaths since the March 2003 invasion.

The landmark reflects how much more dangerous and muddled a soldier’s job in Iraq has become in the face of a growing and increasingly sophisticated insurgency. Violence in the country is at an all-time high, according to a Pentagon report released last month. December was the third deadliest month for American troops since the start of the war, with insurgents claiming 111 soldiers’ lives. October and November also witnessed a high number of casualties, 106 and 68 respectively, as American forces stepped up combat operations to try to stabilize Baghdad.

Posted by vicki at 02:58 PM

Let's hope 2007 is much, much better than '06. Peace On Earth!

Posted by vicki at 01:52 PM