Joe and I would like to announce the beginning of a project that we believe has great potential to help Kentucky Democrats: BlueGrassWiki. (What is a wiki?) This community-based, collaborative effort to compile and organize information will empower Kentucky Democrats to engage their local Democratic Party organizations.
The immediate goal of BlueGrassWiki is to provide all the information Kentucky Democrats need to be involved in the party's reorganization process this April. Essential to that goal is providing as much contact information we can for the individual counties.
After the party reorganization, we hope to use BlueGrassWiki to help the county parties and activists hoping to get involved find each other. As a repository for collective knowledge and wisdom, many other potential uses exist for a wiki devoted to Kentucky Democratic politics--uses we will be exploring as BlueGrassWiki grows.
But for now, WE NEED YOUR HELP! Building a wiki is not a two-person effort—it takes a village. Kentucky has 120 counties—more than any other state except Texas. We need to create pages for each county (it’s easy) and enter in some basic information (also easy) to help Kentucky Democrats find the information they need to get involved.
Please, help us complete the initial phase of BlueGrassWiki's development ASAP! The party reorganization is less than two months away. Read the "How to Wiki" page to discover how easy contributing to a wiki is.
The big telecoms will never give up their quest to hijack the internets and control what you view. That's why we must keep one step ahead of them. Here's the latest outrage You can sign the petition there as well.
Late last year Comcast was caught secretly inspecting Internet traffic and crippling users' ability to share files, download video and use other popular Internet software.
This is a gross violation of Net Neutrality, the longstanding principle that protects free speech online and preserves an open Internet. SavetheInterent.com members filed a complaint, more than 23,000 people contacted the Federal Communications Commission, and the FCC is now investigating Comcast's blocking.
Thanks to people like you from around the country, the FCC is now holding a public hearing in Boston, Massachusetts, on Feburary 26. Although they are not making space for the public to speak at this hearing, you can still be heard. The FCC is inviting the public to make their voice heard about this vital issue. Fill out the form below and tell the FCC to stop all would-be Internet gatekeepers.
We need to keep the pressure on to ensure that the FCC takes decisive action.
Note: Information filed on this form will be publicly available, as FCC comments are considered a matter of public record. The FCC does not accept comments from outside the United States.
Wingnut hate radio talker, Bill Cunningham has gone after McCain with a vengeance because McCain had the gall to apologize for the hateful remarks he made about Barack Obama yesterday. Sorry McCain: You lie down with dogs like Cunningham and you get what you you deserve
Radio talk show host Bill Cunningham told listeners today that Mike DeWine, John McCain's Ohio campaign chairman, and county prosecutor Joe Deters asked him over lunch last week to speak at the McCain rally.
They wanted him “to throw some red meat to the crowd… To get the crowd on their feet and get them happy,” he said.
DeWine is a former U.S. senator and Deters used to run the Republican party in Hamilton County. Deters spoke at the rally.
Cunningham called Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama a "hack Chicago-style Daley politician" and used Obama's middle name -- Hussein -- twice. Cunningham also mocked the foreign policy in an Obama presidency. . . .
He again said that he isn’t supporting John McCain. And he backed off Tuesday’s on-air remarks that he would support Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“John McCain, I’m done with you. I may not vote for Hillary, but I’m done with Juan Pablo McCain,” he said. Then he declared: “McCain should lose the election.”
Last night, Cunningham burned up national TV time, getting about five minutes on CNN to give his side regarding his remarks.
"Get them fired up and give them some red meat. And I did. In fact, when I left, John, the crowd was cheering," Cunningham told host John Roberts.
"All was well. No problem whatsoever until about an hour later . . .when John McCain threw me under the bus, under the Straight Talk Express
What a buffoon! This is the kind of crap Republicans fill their heads with every day on hate radio.
In a tactic straight out of Soviet Russia, the CBS affiliate in Alabama suddenly went dark only during the segment about the highly dubious conviction of the former Dem. Governor. The FCC is stacked with *Loyal Bu$hies* so the chance that they'll have their license yanked is zip. Has this country been trashed, or what? From today's Times:
In 1955, when WLBT-TV, the NBC affiliate in Jackson, Miss., did not want to run a network report about racial desegregation, it famously hung up the sign: “Sorry, Cable Trouble.” Audiences in northern Alabama might have suspected the same tactics when WHNT-TV, the CBS affiliate, went dark Sunday evening during a “60 minutes” segment that strongly suggested that Don Siegelman, Alabama’s former Democratic governor, was wrongly convicted of corruption last year.
The report presented new evidence that the charges against Mr. Siegelman may have been concocted by politically motivated Republican prosecutors — and orchestrated by Karl Rove. Unfortunately, WHNT had “technical problems” that prevented it from broadcasting a segment (the problems were resolved in time for the next part of the show) that many residents of Alabama would no doubt have found quite interesting.
[. . .]
WHNT is owned by Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm whose lead investor is one of the Bass brothers of Texas. The brothers are former business partners of George W. Bush and generous contributors to Republican causes.
By extreme Bunning standards of crazy, this is tame. That doesn't mean he quit riding the crazy train-- far from it-- as Page One KY notes here:
Jim Bunning doubts there will be a recession. Seriously. We take back the semi-nice things we said about his crazy ass earlier. Cause, uh, let’s get real here: we’re in a damn recession.
Rates are being by the Fed every five seconds and everyone we know has lost their McMansion. Everything under the sun is 100% more expensive than it was a year ago. No one has a sweet job anymore.
Hello, inflation like woah. Hello, recession. We have it. Right now.
Good Lord! Bunning is not only crazy, he's stupid, too. Hacktacular!
Lurita Doan, head of Government Services Agency, has broken the Hatch law, intimidated employees and made a general wreck out of her agency. And instead of being fired for breaking the law, she's still at it with Bu$h's blessing. This WH continues to load up cronies with taxpayer money and violate every "good business" practice unchecked. Heck of a job!
What if Alberto Gonzales were still attorney general?
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The independent investigations, congressional hearings and growing media outrage seemingly doomed Gonzales. But what if he had refused to resign and President George W. Bush, who had begun working with him long ago back in Texas, had continued his support? Gonzales would now preside over a huge bureaucracy that was collectively holding its breath until Bush left the White House.
The scenario is not too hard to envision —because it’s happening right now at the General Services Administration under Administrator Lurita Doan.
In May, a White House Office of Special Counsel report found that Doan had violated the Hatch Act, the law that prevents federal employees from engaging in partisan politics. Investigations from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and also Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Ia.) laid out charges that she intimidated employees, awarded a no-bid contract to a friend and inappropriately interfered in approving a contract where the government was overcharged by millions of dollars.
Yet Doan still leads GSA— to the surprise and dismay of a number of congressional investigators and GSA employees. That she hasn’t resigned and the White House’s hasn’t told her to raises a broader question: What does it take before a government official leaves for the good of her agency?
"Working in the negative atmosphere that Doan’s created is hard," said Ted Stenchey, a 28-year GSA veteran in the office of Inspector General. "Hopefully, the next 11 months will go quickly."
We can't wait that long. Get off the dime, Congress!
It is utterly heartbreaking to witness the tragic lack of planning, understanding of the culture and "what comes next" the Bu$h administration unleashed on our military in sending troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. Tens of thousands of US personnel are dead, injured, and mentally wrecked. Hundreds of thousands (millions?) of civilians are dead, displaced and deeply bitter in Afghanistan and Iraq for no discernible reason. It is a nightmare we can't seem to wake up from. Read this NYTimes Magazine account of the hellish missions in Afghanistan that war evaders Bu$h/Cheney unleashed and weep. And weep. And weep some more. Bu$h and his enablers have wrecked untold lives and created new depths of misery that can never be undone. All parties who condoned this furious hell are to be condemned for life and run out of office in well earned shame. Their lack of judgment is unforgivable.
It's no secret that Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao is hostile to the very workers her office is charged with protecting. Right here in KY, coal miners have been seriously harmed by her failure to enforce safety laws that Big Coal hold in contempt. She's down with Corporate America and workers can go Cheney themselves. Have a look at this and let your moral compass be your guide Thanks to DLer Jack for this important alert.
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao has done horrible damage to workers' rights by gutting safety regulations, promoting a big business agenda, and undermining workers and their unions at every turn. But if she thinks no one is watching in her last months in office, she's wrong.
Let Elaine Chao know you're one of thousands of Americans ready to hold her accountable. We'll deliver your letter in person at her office in Washington, DC.
She's not even shy about seeing her own family benefit from her dreadful policies. "Conflict of interest" does not exist in Bu$hworld.
We've all heard the wingnut talking points that Obama is a Muslim, that he refuses to wear an American flag lapel pin because he hates America and that he will not say the Pledge of Allegiance. It's all bullshit, of course, but you would think that a reporter "investigating" the accuracy of such nonsense would, well, ask hard questions and actually investigate. Not so for disgraced but still employed AP *reporter* Nedra "Pickled" Pickler. You may remember some of her best *work* from the run-up to the Iraq invasion, where she literally typed up WH and Fox Newz talking points that ran on the AP wire service and was picked up by major newspapers. With that in mind, get a load of this:
Does Obama have a patriotism problem?
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The AP's Nedra Pickler asks disgraced Republican dirty-trickster Roger Stone for his opinion. Stone you'll remember is the guy who got caught making threatening phone calls to New York Gov. Spitzer's (D-NY) elderly father and last month set up an anti-Hillary group with the acronym C-U-N-T.
Her column is an utter disgrace. She makes a brave showing of seeming to knock down some of the libel, only to add more confusion by giving Stone and his ilk an ounce of undeserved credibility.
60 Minutes To Air Political Imprisonment Story Sun.
It's about time! The story of the former governor of Alabams's inprisonment has yet to be told in a compelling way. Political dirty tricks by the Justice Department, Rove and others landed the Democratic Governor in jail on the flimsiest of charges. Follow the links on the Think Progress site for more detail
CBS 60 Minutes to run Siegelman story on Sunday.
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On Sunday, CBS’s 60 Minutes will air its long-awaited report on Alabama’s incarcerated former governor Don Siegelman, reportedly one of its “best pieces of domestic exposé journalism.” Justice Department prosecutors opposed the Siegelman investigation, in which Bush administration political operatives — including Karl Rove — allegedly interfered.
Here's a blurb about what and where this month's Science Cafe has to offer:
PLEASE JOIN US ON THURSDAY February 28th 2008
BETWEEN 5:30 PM & 7:30 PM AT
BLUE MOUNTAIN COFFEE HOUSE WINE & TAPAS BAR,
400 E. Main at Preston Street
[opposite Slugger Field and Browning's Brewery] Speaker: Dr. Paul Cappiello [Executive Director Yew Dell Gardens]
Topic: “The Great Native Debate; native and exotic plants and the evolution of our “natural” and planned ecosystems”
Time: 6:00 PM
Date: February 28, 2008 Admission: No Charge
http://cafescientifique.org/Louisville.html
What is a Science Café?
For the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. Meetings take place in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, but always outside a traditional academic context. One branch of this trend began in Great Britain and is called Cafe Scientifique. ‘Blue Mountain’ has joined this worldwide network in its attempt to advance science, to move discussion into the public arena – academics going to the public, not the public going to academics. Science Cafés have no brief to defend science at all cost. People are therefore welcomed to debate and ask awkward questions in a face-to-face contact with scientists at a community level in a ‘bottom up’ non-organizational manner.
The Café Scientifique Network does not have a narrow purpose, be it political, educational or scientific, rather it is helping bring science back in culture. A typical evening is spent in a cultural examination of science, from which each member of the audience draws their own conclusion and from which such discussion are an end in itself.
All the mis-informed McCain admirers, who talk endlessly of his "integrity" and his "honorable" political positions look mighty foolish after the press digs deeper into exposing St. McCain's long record of unethical and dishonest behavior in Congress. Remember the Keating 5 episode? How about more recent history where McCain, after repeatedly denouncing the US' use of torture in interrogations, just voted against a ban on torture in the Senate. As you read this NYTimes article--the first in a series about presidential candidates--it appears that the alleged romantic affair is the least of his problems. It is his relationship with lobbyists that looks more sleazy to me.
Early in Senator John McCain’s first run for the White House eight years ago, waves of anxiety swept through his small circle of advisers.
A female lobbyist had been turning up with him at fund-raisers, visiting his offices and accompanying him on a client’s corporate jet. Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.
When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.
Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship. But to his advisers, even the appearance of a close bond with a lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee Mr. McCain led threatened the story of redemption and rectitude that defined his political identity [my bold] . . .
Mr. McCain’s confidence in his ability to distinguish personal friendships from compromising connections was at the center of questions advisers raised about Ms. Iseman.
The lobbyist, a partner at the firm Alcalde & Fay, represented telecommunications companies for whom Mr. McCain’s commerce committee was pivotal. Her clients contributed tens of thousands of dollars to his campaigns.
Mr. Black said Mr. McCain and Ms. Iseman were friends and nothing more. But in 1999 she began showing up so frequently in his offices and at campaign events that staff members took notice. One recalled asking, “Why is she always around?”
That February, Mr. McCain and Ms. Iseman attended a small fund-raising dinner with several clients at the Miami-area home of a cruise-line executive and then flew back to Washington along with a campaign aide on the corporate jet of one of her clients, Paxson Communications. By then, according to two former McCain associates, some of the senator’s advisers had grown so concerned that the relationship had become romantic that they took steps to intervene.
The entire affair, if you will, is sleazy. 10 year after the Keating 5 mess, he was deep into corporate slaeze again. By the way, McCain voted to give immunity to the telecom giants this week, just like all his GOP Senate colleagues. Way to go, Mr. Ethics.
George W. Bush's overall job approval rating has dropped to a new low in American Research Group polling as 78% of Americans say that the national economy is getting worse according to the latest survey from the American Research Group.
Among all Americans, 19% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 77% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 14% approve and 79% disapprove.
Among Americans registered to vote, 18% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 78% disapprove.
So tell me why Congress keeps letting him bully THEM.
Oh, brother! Another Loyal Bu$hie, who is on leave from his job in the Justice Department and worked in counter-terrorism, is spinning "success in the *war* on terroism prosecutions. Problem is,
he' lying.
Mr. Breinholt, who is now director of national security law at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, a Washington research group, conducted his study by plugging words into a database of judicial decisions. After eliminating cases in which Islam figured tangentially and 280 cases brought by Muslim prisoners claiming violations of their religious rights, about 500 pretty interesting cases remained. Most of them involved garden-variety crimes, requests for asylum and claims of employment discrimination. Relatively few concerned terrorism.
Mr. Breinholt’s methodology was more impressionistic than scientific, as relatively few cases result in published decisions from judges. Guilty pleas, jury verdicts and settlements, for instance, do not generally appear in such databases.
In an interview, Mr. Breinholt said that his conclusions about terrorism were even stronger once guilty pleas were included. Over all, he said, the Justice Department wins terrorism cases 10 times as often as it loses them.
But David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown and the author, with Jules Lobel, of “Less Safe, Less Free: Why America is Losing the War on Terror,” said Mr. Breinholt’s numbers were misleading, as most of the prosecutions he counted as victories did not involve actual terrorists.
“Virtually all of their ‘terrorism’ cases are material support cases,” Professor Cole said. It is fairly easy to prove that someone provided material support to terrorists, he added, as it requires no evidence of involvement in or intent to support terrorism. Writing a check to the wrong organization to support its charitable work is enough.
“When you have a broad guilt-by-association statute,” Professor Cole said, “it’s very easy to get convictions.”
By Professor Cole’s count, there has been only one conviction of someone who tried to commit a terrorist act linked to Islam after Sept. 11, that of Richard C. Reid,
Hahahaha. Mr. "Straight Talk Express" has a lot of 'splainin' to do. This towering hack is next to Bob Dole in his buffoonery. Both performed honorably at war but are/were flops as candidates. Has there ever been a more depressingly, ultra white, mind numbingly hypocritical candidate than McCain? I don't think so. He makes my head hurt
As The Washington Post reported on Saturday, John McCain's campaign struck a canny deal with a bank in December. If his campaign tanked, public funds would be there to bail him out. But if he emerged as the nominee, there'd be no need for public financing, since the contributions would come flowing.
It's an arrangement that no one has ever tried before. And it appears that McCain, who has built his reputation on campaign finance reform, was gaming the system. Or as a campaign finance expert who preferred to remain anonymous told me, referring to the prominent role that lobbyists have as advisers to his campaign, "This places McCain’s grandstanding on public financing in a new light. True reformers believe public financing is a way to replace the lobbyists’ influence, not a slush fund that the lobbyists use to pay off campaign debts."
Here's the back story. As of December, McCain was still enrolled in the public financing system, but had yet to actually receive any public matching funds. The Federal Election Commission had certified that the campaign would be receiving $5.8 million in public funds. But they wouldn't get that money for a couple more months. In need of even more cash beyond the $3 million loan he'd already secured from a Maryland bank (he'd taken out a life insurance policy as collateral), the McCain campaign was stuck in a bind. They needed more money, but the bank needed collateral.
This old white guy is toast. He's a loser and a hypocrite. Nothing says "loser" more than having Babs and Big Georgie standing by your candidacy. Buhh bye, loathsome John.
It's apparent after reading this TruthDig article why Bu$h and the telecom whores in Congress desperately want to give these giant corporations immunity from breaking the law even before 9/11. Our National Security Agency and the telecom giants are so intertwined that neither side can seem to get along without the other. By any standard, both are massive lawbreakers.
Upon reading an article in USA Today alleging government spying on American communications, Philadelphia resident Norman LeBoon wondered if communications on his Verizon land line were being shared with the government. After a string of e-mails, LeBoon says he finally reached “Ellen” in customer service, who had this to say: “I can tell you, Mr. LeBoon, that your records have been shared with the government, but that’s between you and me. ... They [Verizon] are going to deny it because of national security. The government is denying it and we have to deny it, too. Around here we are saying that Verizon has ‘plausible deniability.’ ”
LeBoon is part of a class-action suit against the major telecommunications companies brought by lawyers Bruce Afran and Carl Mayer. Their case is remarkable not only in that it references such blatant admissions by Verizon employees, but also because the two lawyers claim to have evidence that AT&T was approached by the National Security Agency before 9/11 as part of the aforementioned Project Groundbreaker, which gave the government access to an unprecedented amount of the personal data of American citizens.
The data-mining program has been aided in no small part by the recent spree of telecommunications mergers that have gone through with little or no regulations thanks to cursory reviews by the Department of Justice.
Apart from the instances in which Verizon employees told customers of the program’s existence, the size of the program and the number of businesses involved make it impossible for it to be completely obscured from the public. The technology installed in cooperative telecommunications companies is designed to sift through massive quantities of consumer communications. One such provider of data-mining technology to the government is Narus. The company puts AT&T at the top of its list of customers, but Narus has also been publicly connected directly to the NSA. Whistle-blower Mark Klein, a retired AT&T employee, has provided documents showing that Narus’ technology was to be installed in a San Francisco facility at the behest of an NSA agent.
This morning on NBC’s Today Show, President Bush denied that the there’s any link between the faltering U.S. economy and $10 billion a month being spent on the Iraq war. In fact, according to Bush, the war is actually helping the economy:
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CURRY: You don’t agree with that? It has nothing do with the economy, the war — spending on the war?
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BUSH: I don’t think so. I think actually the spending in the war might help with jobs…because we’re buying equipment, and people are working. I think this economy is down because we built too many houses and the economy’s adjusting.
OK, I'm not a parinoid person, but this is the 3rd time I've posted this and it has "dissappeared" from this site every time.. I "previewed" it and checked the site to make sure it was posted. I've been having internet "issues," but this is ridiculous.
Many DLers and other citizens went to Frankfort last week to protest the devastating effects of mountain top removal--the method used to get at the coal buried there--and then dumping the remains into valleys and streams. This dangerous, hugely polluting practice is a boon to Big Coal and a bust for everyone else. "We the People" are up in arms about it. When over a thousand people showed up to raise their voices to lawmakers in the Capitol last Thursday, they were met with stony silence by their elected officials. That great, towering fool, Rep. Jim Gooch, was nowhere to be found. State Senator Julie Denton hurried past protesters with her fingers in her ears and eyes straight ahead. We are truly ruled by childish hacks.
But what happens when over 1,000 people show up to petition their government and no one from our local media is there to cover it? Nothing was on the evening news about it or the following morning. The C-J made no mention of it at all. Amazing! It's as though it never happened and the public will be thought to not care about this issue.
Thankfully, we have real citizen activists and bloggers who were there to document the activity that our intrepid press corp could not be bothered with. We can thank the folks at Bluegrassroots for taking the picture I'm using here (more great pics on their site) and our friend Jim has video on his excellent Hillbilly Report site Hats off to them! We owe them our gratitude.
Our Constitution and laws were run through the shredder these last few days, aided by craven congressional cash cows, lack of repect for the laws of the land and fear mongering. Naturally, Ditch Mitch and all of the KY GOPers went enthusiasticly along. This column in Harper's Magazine says it best:
If things proceed on the course now set by the Bush Administration and its shortsighted collaborators, and the national surveillance state is achieved in short order, then future generations looking back and tracing the destruction of the grand design of our Constitution may settle on yesterday, February 12, 2008, as the date of the decisive breach. It hardly got a mention in the media, obsessed as it was with reports on the primary elections, the use of drugs in sporting events, and that unfailing topic, the weather. Yesterday the Senate voted down the resolution offered by Senator Dodd to block retroactive immunity for the telecoms and it voted for a measure which guts the Constitution’s ban on warrantless searches by extending blanket authority to the Executive to snoop on the nation’s citizens in a wide variety of circumstances, subject to no independent checks. On the key vote, the Republicans in the Senate continued to function in lock-step, as they have on almost all significant issues for the last seven years, while the Democrats fragmented. Their vote summed up everything that’s wrong with Washington politics today. Fear and hard campaign cash rule the roost, and the Constitution is regarded as a meaningless scrap of parchment, indeed, a nuisance.
This sort of thing has become routine in the GOP, but I despise the Demogratic "leadership" who let this abomonation ever see the light of day on the Senate floor. And to hell with every Democrat sold out the Constitution and their constituents. Shame!
McCain is a hacking clown and a flat out liar. For months he's been decrying torture and made claims that he wanted the CIA to follow the Army Field Manual guidelines (and Geneva Convention) that bans torture. Yesterday he had a chance to put his money where his mouth was and vote accordingly. " Think Progress notes the following:
Today, The Washington Times has a headline declaring, “McCain refuses to pander“
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Perhaps The Washington Times missed yesterday’s Senate floor action, when the straight talk express voted against a ban on waterboarding. McCain, a former prisoner of war, has spoken out strongly in favor of establishing a single interrogation standard as articulated in the Army Field Manual, which bans waterboarding. But yesterday, he joined his fellow hardline conservatives and voted “no.”
Click on the Think Progress link above for more phoney "Straight Talk Express."
Both Clinton and Obama have been a little cagey about foreign policy so far in their debates. This excellent article (I got it via TruthDig.org) lists both candidates' advisors and what this might bode for their positions on policy matters. Read the rest here
Contrasting Teams
Senator Clinton’s foreign policy advisors tend to be veterans of President Bill Clinton’s administration, most notably former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger. Her most influential advisor - and her likely choice for Secretary of State - is Richard Holbrooke. Holbrooke served in a number of key roles in her husband’s administration, including U.S. ambassador to the UN and member of the cabinet, special emissary to the Balkans, assistant secretary of state for European and Canadian affairs, and U.S. ambassador to Germany. He also served as President Jimmy Carter’s assistant secretary of state for East Asia in propping up Marcos in the Philippines, supporting Suharto’s repression in East Timor, and backing the generals behind the Kwangju massacre in South Korea.
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Senator Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisers, who on average tend to be younger than those of the former first lady, include mainstream strategic analysts who have worked with previous Democratic administrations, such as former national security advisors Zbigniew Brzezinski and Anthony Lake, former assistant secretary of state Susan Rice, and former navy secretary Richard Danzig. They have also included some of the more enlightened and creative members of the Democratic Party establishment, such as Joseph Cirincione and Lawrence Korb of the Center for American Progress, and former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke. His team also includes the noted human rights scholar and international law advocate Samantha Power - author of a recent New Yorker article on U.S. manipulation of the UN in post-invasion Iraq - and other liberal academics. Some of his advisors, however, have particularly poor records on human rights and international law, such as retired General Merrill McPeak, a backer of Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor, and Dennis Ross, a supporter of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
An unfounded fear of AIPAC is is driving this country's disastrous policies toward Israel.
It's a great dissapointment that Lt. Col. Andrew Horne has dropped out of the race for Ditch Mitch's senate seat. I am furious with Governor Beshear for meddling in this contest by encouraging the odious Bruce Lunsford to push Horne aside. Beshear just botched a seemingly sure thing in the 30th district (the seat Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo held) by backing the losing candidate there. He might want to look over our State motto and start uniting, not dividing his party. Bruce Lunsford is a 3 time LOSER. Joe Gerth at the C-J puts it this way
Lawyer and military veteran Andrew Horne announced yesterday that he will drop out of the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, leaving a field of seven others to fight for the opportunity to take on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in November. . . .
There have been questions for weeks as to whether or not Horne, with two millionaire opponents in Lunsford and Fischer, could afford to stay in the race. When Horne ran for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House seat won by John Yarmuth in 2006, he struggled to raise the money he needed.
While his campaign made assurances he would stay in the race, it was unhappy the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee appeared to be backing Lunsford.
Last week, Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the committee, said it doesn't usually say what candidates, if any, it is backing. But when asked whether Lunsford was telling the truth when he said the committee was backing him, Miller said, "I would never call Bruce Lunsford a liar."
Lunsford needs to explain (and deeply apologize for) why he consistantly donates to state Republican candidates and backed hack Governor and unconvicted criminal for the ages, Ernie Fletcher.
It's a joy to have a Representative in this State who gives a damn about reaching out to constituents. Rep. Dan Seum (R-Big Poulters) will not respond to any of my emails and my Metro Counsel member, Kelly Downard, (R-Bidnez only) simply sends me campaign lit in response to my questions. Oy. Here is Rep. Meeks' latest update to me (and YOU) Feel free to email him with any questions or concerns. Oddly, he will respond! Go here: reginald.meeks@lrc.ky.gov
And now, for This Week With Reggie
Ever been on a flight, squeezed in the middle seat between -- well, you
paint the picture....? You just know, "this is going to be one of those
flights!" With national politics heating up red and blue states like
grease in a hot skillet, the burgoo is fixin' to cook... What of those
divisive Senate bills? Do we really mandate the shots? And which
amendments will see the constitutional light? Throw in 1/2 cup of
chopped toll booths; one heaping tablespoon of immigration reform and
-- bon appetite!. "Ladies and gentlemen, sit back, relax and have a
good flight. We'll be serving lunch soon."
Reginald
You really cannot make this stuff UP! Democracynow.org has several bone chilling articles from the Progressive about Orwellian Bu$h administration (sit down!) spying and other secretive programs.
First up is the tale of the Bu$h admin using taxpayer dollars to undermine the socialist government of Evo Morales of Bolivia (can you say overthrowing a government you don't approve of that is none of your business?)
US Embassy in Bolivia Tells Fulbright Scholar and Peace Corps Volunteers to Spy on Venezuelans and Cubans in Bolivia
An American Fulbright scholar and Peace Corps volunteers in Bolivia say the US embassy told them to spy on Venezuelans and Cubans in Bolivia. We go to Bolivia to speak with the Fulbright scholar Alexander van Schaick and Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, the reporter who broke the story for ABC News. [includes rush transcript]
Report: Over 23,000 Business Leaders Working With FBI and Homeland Security
The Progressive magazine is reporting that more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The business leaders form a group known as InfraGard that receives warnings of terrorist threats directly from the FBI before the public does. We speak with the the reporter who broke the story and the editor of The Progressive, Matt Rothschild.
The report includes the presidential authorization for a "shoot to kill order" given to these deputized businessmen in cases of national emergency or a terrorist attack. Somebody hold me!
Army Hid Public Report Critical Of Iraq *Planning*
Or lack there of. Read the Times article here and marvel at the complete and utter lack of planning for anything other than the "shock and awe" campaign. Virtually everyone in the Bu$h administration comes under fire by the Rand Corporation's study. But I could have told you that.
After 18 months of research, RAND submitted a report in the summer of 2005 called “Rebuilding Iraq.” RAND researchers provided an unclassified version of the report along with a secret one, hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts.
But the study’s wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key.
A review of the lengthy report — a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times — shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war. That assessment parallels the verdicts of numerous former officials and independent analysts. . . . The study chided President Bush — and by implication Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served as national security adviser when the war was planned — as having failed to resolve differences among rival agencies. “Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff,” it said. [my bold]
The Defense Department led by Donald H. Rumsfeld was given the lead in overseeing the postwar period in Iraq despite its “lack of capacity for civilian reconstruction planning and execution.”
The State Department led by Colin L. Powell produced a voluminous study on the future of Iraq that identified important issues but was of “uneven quality” and “did not constitute an actionable plan.”
Gen. Tommy R. Franks, whose Central Command oversaw the military operation in Iraq, had a “fundamental misunderstanding” of what the military needed to do to secure postwar Iraq, the study said.
The regulations that govern the Army’s relations with the Arroyo Center, the division of RAND that does research for the Army, stipulate that Army officials are to review reports in a timely fashion to ensure that classified information is not released. But the rules also note that the officials are not to “censor” analysis or prevent the dissemination of material critical of the Army.
Barack Obama has won all the weekend primaries/caucuses by huge margins where voters in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington State, the US Virgin Islands and Maine have all gone decisively his way. The next set of primaries are in MD, VA and DC, which also look to be strongly in his favor. However; never, never count out the fighting Clintons in ANY race. They have an amazing record of pulling up their socks and marching on despite all obstacles. So, there you have it.
Big races still remain in Ohio, Pennsylvania and the dreaded state of TX , (home of the worst and most ignorant pResident EVER !) Voters on planet TX can only be seen as slightly more ignorant and backward than the Hillbillies of KY, who have consistantly voted against their own interests due to the fear and homophobia promoted by the GOP. But I live in the BIG CITY of Louisville, where all the dirty hippies and Liberals reside, so what do I know? Hahahahaha. Thanks, TX and all the small, narrow minds who brought us the Bu$H/Big Dick years. Heckuvajob! We're SO over you.
His statement sent over to MSNBC spokesperson Jeremy Gaines, responding to the Hillary campaign's sharp criticism of David Shuster's on-air Chelsea "pimp" remark:
On Thursday's "Tucker" on MSNBC, David Shuster, who was serving as guest-host of the program, made a comment about Chelsea Clinton and the Clinton campaign that was irresponsible and inappropriate. Shuster, who apologized this morning on MSNBC and will again this evening, has been suspended from appearing on all NBC News broadcasts, other than to make his apology. He has also extended an apology to the Clinton family. NBC News takes these matters seriously, and offers our sincere regrets to the Clintons for the remarks.
No word on the length of the suspension.
And well they should suspend him. More Olberman and less of that kind of crap they dish out every day.
Wonder who won New Mexico? Well, you're going to have to wait a little longer
The results from each of the 184 precincts in New Mexico have been reported, but a winner in the Democratic caucuses there has not been declared, and there's no way of telling when that will happen. With all those results in, Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama by a count of 68,654 to 67,531. Clinton also holds a narrow lead -- 13 to 12 -- in New Mexico's pledged delegate count. (The state also has 13 unpledged delegates.) But 17,000 provisional ballots, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total vote, remain to be tallied. Rather than counting only the provisional ballots, the state Democratic Party, along with the candidates, has decided to hold a recount of all the votes cast.
Veterans have no legal right to specific types of medical care, the Bush administration argues in a lawsuit accusing the government of illegally denying mental health treatment to some troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The arguments, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, strike at the heart of a lawsuit filed on behalf of veterans that claims the health care system for returning troops provides little recourse when the government rejects their medical claims.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is making progress in increasing its staffing and screening veterans for combat-related stress, Justice Department lawyers said. But their central argument is that Congress left decisions about who should get health care, and what type of care, to the VA and not to veterans or the courts.
Stop It Already! These Vets shouldn't have to beg for treatment for even a paper cut, for crying out loud!
Hahahahaha. Several Liberal blogs, including OpenLeft (which features Living Liberally) are having a cow about Hillary's willingness to appear on the "Bu$h White House" channel. Here's a snip from TPM
It's starting. Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, Matt Stoller of OpenLeft, and Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog all blast Hillary for accepting an invitation to debate on Fox. She'll be taking a lot of criticism over this.
Obama won't say whether he'll be accepting the invite. "We'll figure out our schedule, including any debates, soon," Obama spokesperson Bill Burton tells me. What will Obama do? Nixing the debate gives Obama a big opening to outflank Hillary with the netroots, but Obama has already appeared on Fox, and this doesn't seem like the type of battle Obama likes.
First of all, what is left to debate? Secondly, why give an ounce of cred to the propaganda channel?
It's an interesting question. The author of this piece asks why the media seems to ignore the fact that Obama does very poorly among voters aged 65 and older. I'd like to hear more from older voters about why that is so.
According to the polling data for 16 of the 24 Super Tuesday states, as made public by CNN, Obama did not carry the 65 and older vote in a single state. His best turnout in this category was a 48%-48% tie with Clinton in Illinois -- Obama's home state. The opposite is also true. Obama trounced Clinton with voters 18-24 in just about every Super Tuesday state.
The key factor in these numbers, however, is the percentage of the overall vote represented by the two age categories. Here again, Super Tuesday revealed a pattern. In the overall turnout for Democrats, the 18-24 age group typically made up only 7%-8% of the overall vote, while the 65 and over age group typically made up 20%-22% of the vote.
Unfortunately, Feldman is a bit divisive in his reasoning. He fails to point out that voters between 18 and 59 years old favor Obama. The number of voters 18-24 is tiny but growing. You would hope that voters in that age group get off the dime and vote in huge numbers; after all, it's their future Bu$h and the GOP has put in peril with their horrible record on the environment and an extreme, expensive debt run-up. But I'd still be interested in finding out what is behind the lack of support for Obama among the oldest voters. It could be that older voters are the most resistant to change. Why not just ask them?
Where did all that money go already? She has raised over 120 million already. It's insane how long and expensive these campaigns are. I hope the next president will get serious about public financing.
This morning, Mark Halperin floated an intriguing question: Are the Clintons financing Hillary's campaign with their own money?
Now the Clinton campaign has finally answered: Yes, they are. Hillary spokesperson Howard Wolfson sends over the following:
Late last month Senator Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million.The loan illustrates Sen. Clinton’s commitment to this effort and to ensuring that our campaign has the resources it needs to compete and win across this nation. We have had one of our best fundraising efforts ever on the web today and our Super Tuesday victories will only help in bringing more support for her candidacy.
The revelation suggests another emerging dynamic in the race: Now that the campaigns are committed to grinding it out for weeks and weeks, perhaps all the way until the convention. The Hillary camp faces the prospect of being dramatically outspent by the Obama campaign, which has enjoyed huge fundraising success.
Woo Hoo! If you click this link you'll see that the GOP actually lost ground in some states.
Though the fate of the Democratic race to the nomination remains uncertain, one thing is for sure: voters are turning out for the Democratic primaries in number that absolutely shatter previous records — which may be a troubling sign for Republicans looking ahead to the general election.
CNN looked at six states: Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Missouri, and Arizona. Even with the votes not fully tallied yet, the turnout numbers are still substantially higher than in the past. Arizona already has nearly 80,000 more voters than it ever had before, with only 67% of the precincts counted.
The Republicans are also experiencing higher turnout in some places, though not nearly on par with the Democrats. For the same states, the numbers are far less dramatic (except in New Jersey, where both parties experienced significant jumps), and are lower in some cases.
People are really excited about voting in this election! I'm one of them.
It is unthinkable that we could be having deadly tornados in Feb. here in KY and elsewhere. How very sad
Seven people are confirmed dead in Kentucky after brutal storms raced across the state, leaving a wide trail of destruction, a state emergency official says.
We're fortunate in Louisville, in that we suffered only property damage. Our cedar fence was blown out for the third time this year, but I'm not gonna cry over it.
The new head of the Dept. of Justice is nothing more than Abu Gonzales with a brain. He is every bit as political as his predecessor and just as shifty and dishonest. Now, like Abu Gonzales before him, he wants to go after journalists. The far right and neocons have been calling for the scalps of journalists who uncover law breaking by the WH for years. Please click the above link and read the entire, chilling piece.
Ever since the President's illegal warrantless eavesdropping program was revealed by the New York Times' Jim Risen and Eric Lichtblau back in December, 2005, there has been a faction of neoconservatives and other extremists on the Right calling for the NYT reporters and editors to be criminally prosecuted -- led by the likes of Bill Kristol (now of the NYT), Bill Bennett (of CNN), Commentary Magazine and many others. In May, 2006, Alberto Gonzales went on ABC News and revealed that the DOJ had commenced a criminal investigation into the leak, and then "raised the possibility [] that New York Times journalists could be prosecuted for publishing classified information."
That was one of the more revealing steps ever taken by Bush's DOJ under Gonzales: the administration violated multiple federal laws for years in spying on Americans, blocked all efforts to investigate what they did or subject it to the rule of law, but then decided that the only real criminals were those who alerted the nation to their lawbreaking -- whistleblowers and journalists alike. Even Gonzales' public musing about criminal prosecutions could have had a devastating effect -- if you're a whistleblower or journalist who uncovers secret government lawbreaking, you're obviously going to think twice (at least) before bringing it to light, given the public threats by the Attorney General to criminally prosecute those who do.
Eighteen months have passed since Gonzales' threats, and while there have been some signs that the investigation continues -- former DOJ official Jack Goldsmith, for instance, described how he was accosted and handed a Subpoena by FBI agents in the middle of Harvard Square, demanding to know what he knew about the NSA leak -- there had no further public evidence that the DOJ intended to pursue Risen and Lichtblau. Until now.
Yesterday, the NYT reported that Jim Risen was served with a grand jury Subpoena, compelling him to disclose the identity of the confidential source(s) for disclosures in his 2006 book, State of War. The Subpoena seeks disclosure of Risen's sources not for the NSA program (for which he and Lichtblau won a Pulitzer Prize), but rather, for Risen's reporting on CIA efforts to infiltrate Iran's nuclear program. Nonetheless, Risen's work on State of War is what led to his discovery that the Bush administration was illegally spying on Americans without the warrants required by law.
The corruption in the Bu$h WH is complete. WTF was the Senate thinking by confirming that monstrosity?
You know you're living in a police state when cops arrest peace protesters and motorists who cheer them on. Fortunately, the ACLU sued and won on behalf of the protesters. I got this via The WashingtonIndependent.com
U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood has ruled in favor of a group of anti-war protesters in Ferndale who had been arrested for encouraging motorists to honk their horn in support of peace.
Starting in December 2002, protesters began holding a weekly vigil every Monday afternoon on the corner of Woodward Avenue and Nine Mile Road in the Detroit suburb, holding up signs with messages like "Honk For Peace" and "Honk If You Want Bush Out." Untold numbers of motorists had honked their horns to join in the protest, and the police did nothing in response for three and a half years.
In June 2006, the Ferndale police decided to put a stop to the protest and began arresting motorists who honked their horns for violating Section 257.706 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, which says in the relevant portion that "[t]he driver of a motor vehicle shall when reasonably necessary to insure safe operation give audible warning with his horn but shall not otherwise use the horn when upon a highway."
The good guys finally won one. I'd forgotten what that was like.
I found this in Harper's Magazine Online. It's an awesome source for overlooked or uncovered news. It's also a refreshing break from the corporate, stifled "journalism" we've sadly become accustomed to. The web is the future of REAL, unadulterated reporting, it seems
You can read the entire Salon article here As far as scandals go, this is a non-existant one. It does show poor judgement on Obama's part when he was newly elected to the Illinois Senate. Here's a snip:
Rezko was ecumenical in his largesse, doling out hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions. He served as an advisor to now-imprisoned Republican Gov. George Ryan, and co-chaired a reelection fundraiser for President George W. Bush. And, of course, he paid to have his photo taken with Bill and Hillary Clinton. (Chicago receiving lines can be so embarrassing: First lady Rosalynn Carter was once photographed with a precinct captain named John Wayne Gacy.)
It's clear that Rezko was always on the lookout for "a clout," Chicagoese for a political patron -- in Rezko's case, a patron who could give a Syrian immigrant the same opportunity to work the system as an Irish lawyer who'd gone to Catholic school with the mayor. In Obama's case, though, Rezko has asked for very little. He's only received one political favor, and it didn't benefit him financially: On Rezko's recommendation, the son of a campaign contributor served an internship in Obama's Senate office. It could be that Rezko was saving his chits until the senator achieved the one office unattainable to a machine pol.
Obama, on the other hand, seems to have derived some material benefit from his friendship with Rezko. During his first year in the Senate, flush with the book advance for "The Audacity of Hope," Obama and his wife decided to trade up from a condo to a bigger, more secure home in Kenwood, a South Side neighborhood of turreted, balconied piles popular with University of Chicago econ professors looking to blow their Nobel Prize loot. They found a $1.65 million house with four fireplaces, a wine cellar and a black wrought-iron fence. The doctor who lived there also owned the vacant lot next door and, although the properties were listed separately, wanted to sell both at the same time. Despite their new income, the Obamas could not have afforded both parcels. The Obamas closed on their house in June 2005. On the same day, Rezko's wife, Rita, purchased the vacant lot for $625,000. They later sold a portion of the lot to the Obamas, for $104,500, so the family could expand its yard. The Rezkos then paid $14,000 to build a fence along the property line.
