Dear readers,
Write or phone the Democratic leadership of the House and Senate today and let them know how dissatisfied you are with their ill-conceived attempt to claim Mammoth Cave as the name future historians will use to describe the Democratic efforts in the 110th Congress.
Here is a sample letter you can personalize for greater impact:
Mammoth Cave is a jewel of our National Park system, beloved as a symbol of America's natural beauty, and is cherished by millions. Democrats control both the House and Senate.You MUST change course so that chroniclers of these times don't sully the greatness of a true national treasure by name association. Force them to use another name! Do not let it apply to you!
When the Republicans attempt to obstruct needed legislation-DON"T CAVE!
When they threaten to tie up the senate with filibusters, let 'em-DON'T CAVE!
When the Executive branch ignores subpoenas-DON'T CAVE!
When you need to stand up for America-DON'T CAVE!
In other words, if you just do what we elected to do, the name MAMMOTH CAVE will remain untarnished.
Thank you.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Cheney--The ultimate VP
VP, as it applies to Dick Cheney, means "Vicious Prick".
The Washington Post just published the last installment in a four part series on Cheney, a piece of investigative journalism all too rare for a major newspaper these days, that is an eye-opener for those people who were not already aware of Cheneys egregious abuses of power, his paranoid secrecy, and Stalin-like methods. Read the WaPo series carefully. This IS your government.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/pushing_the_envelope_on_presi/
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/a_strong_push_from_back_stage/index.html
l
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/leaving_no_tracks/
There is no law he won't break, no regulation he won't ignore, no agency he won't compromise, no secret document he won't leak, no report he won't have altered, no lie he won't tell, no Cabinet member he won't sidestep, and no bullying tactic he won't use to get what he wants for his neo-con and corporate friends.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
It is entirely fair to say that Dick Cheney is NOT the Vice President of the United States. That position is un-filled, and the Executive budget intended to fund the office of VP has been mis-appropriated. Those funds are instead being used to run a FOURTH branch of the Government, the six year old SUBVERSIVE branch, which Cheney heads.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Events may catch up with this evil dirty man. Maybe he'll be impeached. Maybe the Congressional Republicans, who moved in lockstep to carry out his policies, will throw him under the bus to save their own careers. Or maybe he'll just die when his doctors can no longer keep his heart pumping that black sludge through his body. When he does pass away, his pallbearers will need HAZMAT suits and his burial place will have to be declared a toxic waste dump.
I won't miss him.
The Washington Post just published the last installment in a four part series on Cheney, a piece of investigative journalism all too rare for a major newspaper these days, that is an eye-opener for those people who were not already aware of Cheneys egregious abuses of power, his paranoid secrecy, and Stalin-like methods. Read the WaPo series carefully. This IS your government.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/pushing_the_envelope_on_presi/
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/a_strong_push_from_back_stage/index.html
l
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/leaving_no_tracks/
There is no law he won't break, no regulation he won't ignore, no agency he won't compromise, no secret document he won't leak, no report he won't have altered, no lie he won't tell, no Cabinet member he won't sidestep, and no bullying tactic he won't use to get what he wants for his neo-con and corporate friends.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
It is entirely fair to say that Dick Cheney is NOT the Vice President of the United States. That position is un-filled, and the Executive budget intended to fund the office of VP has been mis-appropriated. Those funds are instead being used to run a FOURTH branch of the Government, the six year old SUBVERSIVE branch, which Cheney heads.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Events may catch up with this evil dirty man. Maybe he'll be impeached. Maybe the Congressional Republicans, who moved in lockstep to carry out his policies, will throw him under the bus to save their own careers. Or maybe he'll just die when his doctors can no longer keep his heart pumping that black sludge through his body. When he does pass away, his pallbearers will need HAZMAT suits and his burial place will have to be declared a toxic waste dump.
I won't miss him.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
New Orleans--"THE BIG IFFY"
New stuff is coming out all the time about Katrina and the Federal government's mis-handling of that disaster. Think Progress has an article detailing the latest revelations, namely that FEMA had a very comprehensive plan in placeway before the hurricane hit, but never used it. Key personnel didn't even have copies of the plan. Also, they awarded $2.4 billion in cost plus contracts, which are basically a license for the contractors to steal. Also, the EPA waited 8 months to warn residents of the dangers of exposure to asbestos resulting from the demolition of damaged housing. Here are links to the Think Progress article, the report from CREW (Citizens for Responsibilty and Ethics in Washington) detailing the FEMA plan and what went wrong, and a report from The Center for Public Integrity on the contracts. I'm also including a link to my last post on this freakin' genocide.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/27/katrina-investigations/
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/29201
http://www.publicintegrity.org/Katrina/report.aspx?aid=882
http://carpebaloney.blogspot.com/2007/06/new-orleans-link-dump.html
Between all of the links, there is enough evidence of incompetence, waste, fraud, and criminal disregard for the people of New Orleans, to bring felony indictments for an awful lot of people, and grounds for mass firings of hundreds more. As you see the way Katrina has been handled, and look at the current dismal conditions in New Orleans, you have to wonder--What if?
What if the Republican Congress hadn't cut the funding from Bill Clinton's budget that was supposed to go to the Corps of Engineers so they could finish rebuilding the levees?
What if the Bush administration hadn't replaced highly trained and competent experts heading various agencies (i.e. FEMA,EPA) with political appointees who had no training or real experience?
What if FEMA had not abandoned the disaster plan they had prepared? If they had even distributed it?
What if FEMA hadn't been folded into the Department of Homeland Security and lost much of its ability to act independently?
What if the executives in those agencies even gave a damn about their responsibilities?
What if FEMA had immediately notified the governments of Louisiana and New Orleans that Katrina had breached the levees, instead of waiting over a full day?
What if FEMA had any idea how to distribute all of the relief supplies that poured into the area?
What if the Federal Government had spent more than of the fraction of aid money they had promised?
What if the contracts that Fema awarded to their well-connected friends actually required accountability and performance?
What if the Federal Goverment had accepted the approx. $800 million in foreign aid offered in the aftermath of Katrina?
The list goes on and on, but my fingers are cramping.There's enough here to give you the idea.
If our government had done one damned thing right, New Orleans inhabitants would have been spared much of the pain and agony they have been forced to endure, and New Orleans would be well on the way to reclaiming its place as on of America's greatest cities.
Remember!
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/27/katrina-investigations/
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/29201
http://www.publicintegrity.org/Katrina/report.aspx?aid=882
http://carpebaloney.blogspot.com/2007/06/new-orleans-link-dump.html
Between all of the links, there is enough evidence of incompetence, waste, fraud, and criminal disregard for the people of New Orleans, to bring felony indictments for an awful lot of people, and grounds for mass firings of hundreds more. As you see the way Katrina has been handled, and look at the current dismal conditions in New Orleans, you have to wonder--What if?
What if the Republican Congress hadn't cut the funding from Bill Clinton's budget that was supposed to go to the Corps of Engineers so they could finish rebuilding the levees?
What if the Bush administration hadn't replaced highly trained and competent experts heading various agencies (i.e. FEMA,EPA) with political appointees who had no training or real experience?
What if FEMA had not abandoned the disaster plan they had prepared? If they had even distributed it?
What if FEMA hadn't been folded into the Department of Homeland Security and lost much of its ability to act independently?
What if the executives in those agencies even gave a damn about their responsibilities?
What if FEMA had immediately notified the governments of Louisiana and New Orleans that Katrina had breached the levees, instead of waiting over a full day?
What if FEMA had any idea how to distribute all of the relief supplies that poured into the area?
What if the Federal Government had spent more than of the fraction of aid money they had promised?
What if the contracts that Fema awarded to their well-connected friends actually required accountability and performance?
What if the Federal Goverment had accepted the approx. $800 million in foreign aid offered in the aftermath of Katrina?
The list goes on and on, but my fingers are cramping.There's enough here to give you the idea.
If our government had done one damned thing right, New Orleans inhabitants would have been spared much of the pain and agony they have been forced to endure, and New Orleans would be well on the way to reclaiming its place as on of America's greatest cities.
Remember!
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Griles,J Steven--prisoner # 69572
This man used to be the 2nd in command at the Department of the Interior, but like so many other officials in the crime-based Bush Administration, is going to jail for being a crook. Griles pled guilty to accepting payoffs from Jack Abramoff and lying to Senate about his relationship with the former lobbyist. Too damn bad, J Steven.
There are a series of links in this Think Progress article that you really should follow to get a better understanding of how all these bastards are connected. This one connects peripherally all the way to Disney Corp. Mickey must be ashamed to be associated with people who treat laws and fair dealing with such callous disregard, but it shows you that even such a venerable icon as he can be tarnished by association.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/breaking-abramoff-linked-bush-official-sent-to-prison/
Lobbyists, and Abramoff is just an example, represent the shadow government that really controls our nation, peddling influence, money, favors, and jobs to the venal crew who seem to be in power to make sure that the rich get richer at our expense.
There are now 25 registered lobbyists for every member of Congress. With so few, it's a wonder they have time to corrupt anybody in the Executive branch, but they do!
Griles' conviction is a good thing, but there are hundreds , if not thousands, more who have yet to be brought to justice in this most crooked administration in our history.
There are a series of links in this Think Progress article that you really should follow to get a better understanding of how all these bastards are connected. This one connects peripherally all the way to Disney Corp. Mickey must be ashamed to be associated with people who treat laws and fair dealing with such callous disregard, but it shows you that even such a venerable icon as he can be tarnished by association.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/breaking-abramoff-linked-bush-official-sent-to-prison/
Lobbyists, and Abramoff is just an example, represent the shadow government that really controls our nation, peddling influence, money, favors, and jobs to the venal crew who seem to be in power to make sure that the rich get richer at our expense.
There are now 25 registered lobbyists for every member of Congress. With so few, it's a wonder they have time to corrupt anybody in the Executive branch, but they do!
Griles' conviction is a good thing, but there are hundreds , if not thousands, more who have yet to be brought to justice in this most crooked administration in our history.
Demand a ban for Ann "the man"
Ann Coulter, the most famous in the troika of right-wing hate hags (the others being Michelle Malkin and "Dr" Laura Schlessinger), is given more airtime on tv than even a human being can get. She is a manure spreader, specializing in the dissemination of baseless, inflammatory, hate-filled slander, and why she is given mantle of respectability by supposedly reputable media outlets is beyond my understanding, Hell, I can't figure out why this bitch hasn't been kneecapped, at least sued for a billion dollars, over of her hate speech. I'm guessing it's all because she's a right-winger, and thus immune to prosecution or lawsuits.
Anyway, She has recently been on "Good Morning America" where she said that she wished John Edwards had been killed in a terrorist plot. She has a long record of such statements about Edwards, some worse than that one . On MSNBC yesterday, in an hour-long interview with Chris Matthews, she was called out by Elizabeth Edwards, who called in to the show and kicked Coulter right in the balls.
Was Coulter properly chastened? Nope. After a minute, she went right on with her slanders as if nothing had happened. She is one of millions of people in this country, predominately on the far right, who are not going to enjoy their afterlife.
Here's the link to a Think Progress article on the Coulter flap, and which also links to a video of Chris Matthews' interview:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/edwards-coulter/
At least Paris Hilton is relatively harmless compared to Coulter and her ilk.
Anyway, She has recently been on "Good Morning America" where she said that she wished John Edwards had been killed in a terrorist plot. She has a long record of such statements about Edwards, some worse than that one . On MSNBC yesterday, in an hour-long interview with Chris Matthews, she was called out by Elizabeth Edwards, who called in to the show and kicked Coulter right in the balls.
Was Coulter properly chastened? Nope. After a minute, she went right on with her slanders as if nothing had happened. She is one of millions of people in this country, predominately on the far right, who are not going to enjoy their afterlife.
Here's the link to a Think Progress article on the Coulter flap, and which also links to a video of Chris Matthews' interview:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/edwards-coulter/
At least Paris Hilton is relatively harmless compared to Coulter and her ilk.
DC Lobbyists- Too bad this shit's legal
Ken Silverstein, an editor for Harpers magazine, approached two of Washingtons largest lobbying firms a few months ago, and presented himself as representing someone with business interests in Turkmenistan, which is governed by one of the worlds most repressive dictatorships. He asked for the help of these firms to gain access to people within our government and to mount a public relations campaign to improve the image of the Turkmenistan regime.
The firms were only too happy to help, as you can see by watching Silverstein's 25 minute interview with Bill Moyers, here:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06222007/watch.html
Silverstein also wrote of his excellent adventure in Harpers, which is mentioned in this link to AlterNet:
http://www.alternet.org/story/54985/?page=1
If you want to read the Harpers piece, you have to suscribe, so just watch and pay close attention to the free Bill Moyers Journal video.
The lobbying firms, infesting DC like so many plague-carrying fleas on a rat, own access to nearly all of our elected and appointed government personnel, and unashamedly wield their influence and "good ol' boy" connections to help the worst dictatorships on the planet.
The Silverstein investigative work involved lobbyists who work on behalf of foreign governments. Can you imagine that those firms peddling favors and campaign contributions for domestic corporations and special interests are any less competent at their jobs, or have fewer connections, or have any more integrity? (think Jack Abramoff here)
Lobbyists are nothing but pimps, touting their client whores throughout the halls of power, getting what they want with impugnity ( and for a LOT of money), but it's always us that gets the clap. The day that I become emperor, lobbying will become a capital offense. This is one issue of social significance where I heartily endorse "abstinence only".
The firms were only too happy to help, as you can see by watching Silverstein's 25 minute interview with Bill Moyers, here:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06222007/watch.html
Silverstein also wrote of his excellent adventure in Harpers, which is mentioned in this link to AlterNet:
http://www.alternet.org/story/54985/?page=1
If you want to read the Harpers piece, you have to suscribe, so just watch and pay close attention to the free Bill Moyers Journal video.
The lobbying firms, infesting DC like so many plague-carrying fleas on a rat, own access to nearly all of our elected and appointed government personnel, and unashamedly wield their influence and "good ol' boy" connections to help the worst dictatorships on the planet.
The Silverstein investigative work involved lobbyists who work on behalf of foreign governments. Can you imagine that those firms peddling favors and campaign contributions for domestic corporations and special interests are any less competent at their jobs, or have fewer connections, or have any more integrity? (think Jack Abramoff here)
Lobbyists are nothing but pimps, touting their client whores throughout the halls of power, getting what they want with impugnity ( and for a LOT of money), but it's always us that gets the clap. The day that I become emperor, lobbying will become a capital offense. This is one issue of social significance where I heartily endorse "abstinence only".
"World Awaits Paris Hilton's Return"
The title of this post is actually the headline of an Associated Press article released last night.
CNN (Cranium Numbing News), has scored a real coup by scheduling an interview with the divine Miss Hilton for Wednesday night, when she will appear on Larry King live for the full hour. I can't wait to hear the pearls of wisdom sure to roll from her lips as she gives us her expert insights on the meaning of life and the quality of prison food. Larry King has no equal when it comes to getting the most out of a guest, and I'm sure that all of America will tune in for what will prove to be the best interview of the year.
Oh, I forgot to mention that in order to schedule the important Hilton interview, CNN cancelled Larry King's scheduled interview with Michael Moore, whose documentary on health care, SICKO, has received rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival and at sneak previews held at several dozen theaters last weekend. By all accounts, Moore's film is his best to date, full of humor and pathos, details the quality of the profit-driven health care system in the United States, and shows just how it compares to the health care systems of other industrialized countries. (The film opens nationally this weekend.)
The comparison isn't pretty. The health care industry has already begun spending millions of dollars to smear Moore, and to blunt the rising tide of outrage from the majority of people in this country, who are beginning to call for real reform, such as a single payer system and universal, portable health care coverage--something that won't ever happen unless the legislators in Washington become afraid for their electoral lives.
Anyway, after the Iraq war, health care is the issue of most concern to the American people,but CNN apparently thinks otherwise. They will play to the bottom feeders for rating points, because rating points affect their advertising rates, which affect their profits, which affect their stockholders and corporate bonuses, and what could be more important than that? I can just imagine the CNN producers deciding what to do-" Paris Hilton doesn't get out of jail every day, ya know, but we'll always have lousy health care to fill in when there's no real news ".
In fairness, I should point out that there really is a tie-in (sorta) between Hilton and health care. The health care in Paris, France is the best in the world.
Let's face it, CNN is in a race down the journalism/news ladder, hoping to knock Fox off of the bottom rung. With the Hilton interview, it looks as if they might just get there.
CNN (Cranium Numbing News), has scored a real coup by scheduling an interview with the divine Miss Hilton for Wednesday night, when she will appear on Larry King live for the full hour. I can't wait to hear the pearls of wisdom sure to roll from her lips as she gives us her expert insights on the meaning of life and the quality of prison food. Larry King has no equal when it comes to getting the most out of a guest, and I'm sure that all of America will tune in for what will prove to be the best interview of the year.
Oh, I forgot to mention that in order to schedule the important Hilton interview, CNN cancelled Larry King's scheduled interview with Michael Moore, whose documentary on health care, SICKO, has received rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival and at sneak previews held at several dozen theaters last weekend. By all accounts, Moore's film is his best to date, full of humor and pathos, details the quality of the profit-driven health care system in the United States, and shows just how it compares to the health care systems of other industrialized countries. (The film opens nationally this weekend.)
The comparison isn't pretty. The health care industry has already begun spending millions of dollars to smear Moore, and to blunt the rising tide of outrage from the majority of people in this country, who are beginning to call for real reform, such as a single payer system and universal, portable health care coverage--something that won't ever happen unless the legislators in Washington become afraid for their electoral lives.
Anyway, after the Iraq war, health care is the issue of most concern to the American people,but CNN apparently thinks otherwise. They will play to the bottom feeders for rating points, because rating points affect their advertising rates, which affect their profits, which affect their stockholders and corporate bonuses, and what could be more important than that? I can just imagine the CNN producers deciding what to do-" Paris Hilton doesn't get out of jail every day, ya know, but we'll always have lousy health care to fill in when there's no real news ".
In fairness, I should point out that there really is a tie-in (sorta) between Hilton and health care. The health care in Paris, France is the best in the world.
Let's face it, CNN is in a race down the journalism/news ladder, hoping to knock Fox off of the bottom rung. With the Hilton interview, it looks as if they might just get there.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
GEORGE BUSH TO DELIVER THE GREATEST SPEECH EVER!!
YES--IT'S CONFIRMED!!
In an exclusive chat today with Ms. Wanda, a representative from the Psychic Hotline, I learned that George Bush will deliver a farewell speech in the near future that will take its rightful place in the front rank of great Presidential speeches, a speech signifying a joyous renewal and healing of the American spirit that will last for a hundred years, and am pleased to quote it here, verbatim.
"HEY!- CAN'T DICK AND ME AT LEAST HAVE BLINDFOLDS?"
Warning--don't start celebrating in earnest until you see "film at 11".
In an exclusive chat today with Ms. Wanda, a representative from the Psychic Hotline, I learned that George Bush will deliver a farewell speech in the near future that will take its rightful place in the front rank of great Presidential speeches, a speech signifying a joyous renewal and healing of the American spirit that will last for a hundred years, and am pleased to quote it here, verbatim.
"HEY!- CAN'T DICK AND ME AT LEAST HAVE BLINDFOLDS?"
Warning--don't start celebrating in earnest until you see "film at 11".
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Gen. Petraeus spinnin' like a top
General David Petraeus, the Bush shill running things on the ground in Iraq, has offered an observation that is so goddam insane that I can't wrap my little brain around it.
The following is reprinted from Think Progress, which published it on 6/21/07.
Petraeus: U.S. Has Occupied Iraq Long Enough That We Have ‘Become Liberators Again’
In an interview with the Times Online (UK), U.S. Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus was asked whether the troop escalation could mitigate the rising sectarian violence in Iraq.
Petraeus argued there was a “golden hour” of “omnipotence” in the early stages of the war where the U.S. was “viewed as a liberator.” He then claimed the U.S. is being perceived as “liberators” once again in Iraq, this time freeing them from the bloody civil war instigated as a result of the U.S. occupation:
Q: Is it not too late to halt the violence?
PETRAEUS: There is a period of omnipotence. There was a period in the beginning when there was a ‘golden hour’. Inevitably, it does not matter how much you were viewed as a liberator, over time you will be seen as an occupier. The interesting dynamic here is that we have been here long enough to become liberators again for certain sectors of the population, those that are affected by extremism.
Prior to the war, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and other administration officials claimed the U.S. would be welcomed as liberators in Iraq. Petraeus appears to be pandering to those fantasies.
In fact, the great majority of Iraqis do not perceive the U.S. as liberators. A poll taken in September 2006 revealed that seven in 10 Iraqis “want U.S-led forces to commit to withdraw within a year.” Furthermore, six in 10 approved of attacks on U.S. forces.
That was nearly four months before the escalation. Since the escalation officially began in February, violence “has increased in most provinces,” “[s]uicide attacks more than doubled across Iraq,” and civilian casualties rose to “more than 100 a day,” according to a recent Pentagon report. Recently, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution to try to force an end to the occupation.
Filed under: Iraq
Posted by Satyam at 3:40 pm
Did you read what that nutty bastard said? Here it as again--
PETRAEUS: There is a period of omnipotence. There was a period in the beginning when there was a ‘golden hour’. Inevitably, it does not matter how much you were viewed as a liberator, over time you will be seen as an occupier. The interesting dynamic here is that we have been here long enough to become liberators again for certain sectors of the population, those that are affected by extremism.
YES, General Goodspin actually said that we have occupied Iraq for so long that we're seen as liberators AGAIN! Gee whiz-I guess now we have to stay until we've liberated every last one of them from the pain of living. When we're done , Iraq will be the freest unpopulated democracy in the entire Middle East.
When the U.S. first invaded we were told that our troops would be greeted with flowers. Now , with all the flowers decorating graves of Iraqi's that have been killed, the survivors can only show their immense gratitude by painting flowers on the roadside bombs they plant for our soldiers. I guess they're doing the best they can, and I'm sure General Betrayus is appreciative of their efforts.
Bush must have plucked this S.O.B. right out of Alice in Wonderland. What a freaking nutcase.
The following is reprinted from Think Progress, which published it on 6/21/07.
Petraeus: U.S. Has Occupied Iraq Long Enough That We Have ‘Become Liberators Again’
In an interview with the Times Online (UK), U.S. Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus was asked whether the troop escalation could mitigate the rising sectarian violence in Iraq.
Petraeus argued there was a “golden hour” of “omnipotence” in the early stages of the war where the U.S. was “viewed as a liberator.” He then claimed the U.S. is being perceived as “liberators” once again in Iraq, this time freeing them from the bloody civil war instigated as a result of the U.S. occupation:
Q: Is it not too late to halt the violence?
PETRAEUS: There is a period of omnipotence. There was a period in the beginning when there was a ‘golden hour’. Inevitably, it does not matter how much you were viewed as a liberator, over time you will be seen as an occupier. The interesting dynamic here is that we have been here long enough to become liberators again for certain sectors of the population, those that are affected by extremism.
Prior to the war, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and other administration officials claimed the U.S. would be welcomed as liberators in Iraq. Petraeus appears to be pandering to those fantasies.
In fact, the great majority of Iraqis do not perceive the U.S. as liberators. A poll taken in September 2006 revealed that seven in 10 Iraqis “want U.S-led forces to commit to withdraw within a year.” Furthermore, six in 10 approved of attacks on U.S. forces.
That was nearly four months before the escalation. Since the escalation officially began in February, violence “has increased in most provinces,” “[s]uicide attacks more than doubled across Iraq,” and civilian casualties rose to “more than 100 a day,” according to a recent Pentagon report. Recently, the Iraqi parliament passed a resolution to try to force an end to the occupation.
Filed under: Iraq
Posted by Satyam at 3:40 pm
Did you read what that nutty bastard said? Here it as again--
PETRAEUS: There is a period of omnipotence. There was a period in the beginning when there was a ‘golden hour’. Inevitably, it does not matter how much you were viewed as a liberator, over time you will be seen as an occupier. The interesting dynamic here is that we have been here long enough to become liberators again for certain sectors of the population, those that are affected by extremism.
YES, General Goodspin actually said that we have occupied Iraq for so long that we're seen as liberators AGAIN! Gee whiz-I guess now we have to stay until we've liberated every last one of them from the pain of living. When we're done , Iraq will be the freest unpopulated democracy in the entire Middle East.
When the U.S. first invaded we were told that our troops would be greeted with flowers. Now , with all the flowers decorating graves of Iraqi's that have been killed, the survivors can only show their immense gratitude by painting flowers on the roadside bombs they plant for our soldiers. I guess they're doing the best they can, and I'm sure General Betrayus is appreciative of their efforts.
Bush must have plucked this S.O.B. right out of Alice in Wonderland. What a freaking nutcase.
How the religious right "love bombs" the suckers
Here is a "must read" article by Chris Hedges posted on TruthDig on 4/23/07. He describes in nauseating detail how the "caring" religious right frauds lie through their teeth to gain converts. Their pragmatic "whatever works" attitude could have been lifted right out of the Republican playbook, or the Nazi playbook, but certainly not from the "Good Book".
***
There is a false, but effective, fiction that one has to be born again to be a Christian. The Christian right refuses to acknowledge the worth of anyone’s religious experience unless—in the words of the tired and opaque cliché—one has accepted “Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.”
The meltdown, often skillfully manipulated by preachers and teams of evangelists, is one of the most pernicious tools of the movement. Through conversion one surrenders to a higher authority. And the higher authority, rather than God, is the preacher who steps in to take over your life. Being born again, and the process it entails, is more often about submission and the surrender of moral responsibility than genuine belief.
I attended a five-day seminar at Coral Ridge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where I was taught, often by D. James Kennedy, the techniques of conversion. The callousness of these techniques—targeting the vulnerable, building false friendships with the lonely or troubled, promising to relieve people of the most fundamental dreads of human existence from the fear of mortality to the numbing pain of grief—gave to the process an awful cruelty and dishonesty. I attended the seminar as part of the research for my book “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.” Kennedy openly called converts “recruits” and spoke about them joining a new political force sweeping across the country to reshape and reform America into a Christian state.
“I would always go in first, introduce myself, Jim Kennedy,” he told us. “I’m checking the lay of the land and I will look around the living room and see if there’s something there that I can comment about. Frequently, there will be a large picture somewhere and where did they put it, this picture ... why would they put it over the fireplace? Significant.”
“In Fort Lauderdale you don’t find too many fireplaces,” he added, smiling, “but there’s some kind of central focus. Maybe ... golf trophies ... I’m over here looking at these golf trophies ... painting ... I say… beautiful painting, did you paint that? The first rule about looking at trophies, don’t touch them ... did you win all those trophies? So we have a little conversation about golf, but I know enough about golf to have this conversation ... now what have I done? I’m making a friend.”
“Compliment them on whatever you can,” Kennedy said, “discuss what they do, you’re going to find out what are their hobbies, maybe right there in the living room. Then you’re going to ask them about what they do, where they’re from, how long they’ve been there ... something to discuss with them ... in doing this, you have made a friend.”
We are told to “emphasize the positive” and “identify with your prospect.” We are encouraged in the green “Evangelism Explosion” instruction manual to use sentences such as “It is wonderful to know when I lay my head on my pillow tonight that if I do not awaken in bed in the morning, I will awaken in paradise with God.” We are told to paint graphic pictures of personal tragedy that God has helped solve, such as: “I had a Christian son killed in Vietnam, yet my heart is filled with peace because I know he has eternal life. Even though he was killed by an enemy mortar, he has a home now in heaven, and one day we’ll be reunited there.” We are instructed to pepper our testimonies with words like love, peace, faithfulness, forgiveness, hope, purpose and obedience and remember to talk about how we have found, in our own conversion, “courage in the face of death.”
Kennedy warns us not to carry a large Bible, but to keep a small one hidden in our pocket, saying “don’t show your gun until you’re ready to shoot it.”
The conversion, at first, is euphoric. It is about new, loving friends, about the conquering of human anxieties, fears and addictions, about attainment through God of wealth, power, success and happiness. For those who have known personal and economic despair, it feels like a new life, a new beginning. The new church friends repeatedly call them, invite them to dinner, listen to their troubles and answer their questions. Kennedy told us that we must keep in touch in the days after conversion. He encouraged us to keep detailed files on those we proselytize. We must be sure the converts are never left standing alone at church. We must care when no one else seems to care. The converts are assigned a “discipler” or prayer partner, a new friend, who is wiser than they are in the ways of the Lord and able to instruct them in their new life.
The intense interest by a group of three or four evangelists in a potential convert, an essential part of the conversion process, the flattery and feigned affection, the rapt attention to those being recruited and the flurry of “sincere” compliments are a form of “love bombing.” It is the same technique employed by most cults, such as the Unification Church or “Moonies,” to attract prospects. It was a well-developed tactic of the Russian and Chinese communist parties, which share many of the communal and repressive characteristics of the Christian right.
“Love bombing is a coordinated effort, usually under the direction of leadership, that involves long-term members flooding recruits and newer members with flattery, verbal seduction, affectionate but usually nonsexual touching, and lots of attention to their every remark,” the psychiatrist Margaret Thaler Singer wrote. “Love bombing—or the offer of instant companionship—is a deceptive ploy accounting for many successful recruitment drives.”
The convert is gradually drawn into a host of church activities by his or her new friends, leaving little time for outside socializing. But the warmth soon brings with it new rules. When you violate the rules, you sin, you flirt with rebellion, with becoming a “backslider,” someone who was converted but has fallen and is once again on the wrong side of God. And as the new converts are increasingly invested in the church community, as they cut ties with their old community, it is harder to dismiss the mounting demands of the “discipler” and church leaders. The only proper relationship is submission to those above you, the abandonment of critical thought and the mouthing of thought-terminating clichés that are morally charged. “Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior” or “the wages of sin are death” is used to end all discussion.
Rules are incorporated slowly and deliberately into the convert’s belief system. These include blind obedience to church leaders, the teaching of an exclusive, spiritual elitism that demonizes all other ways of being and believing, and a persecution complex that keeps followers mobilized and distrustful of outsiders. The result is the destruction of old communities, old friendships and the independent ability to make moral choices. Believers are soon encased in the church community. They are taught to emphasize personal experience rather than reasoning, and to reject the reality-based world. For those who defy the system, who walk away, there is a collective banishment.
There is a gradual establishment of new standards for every aspect of life. Those who choose spouses must choose Christian spouses. Families and friends are divided into groups of “saved” and “unsaved.” The movement, while it purports to be about families, is the great divider of families, friends and communities. It competes with the family and those outside its structure for loyalty. It seeks to place itself above the family, either drawing all family members into its embrace or pushing those who resist aside. There were frequent prayers during the seminar I attended for relatives who were “unsaved,” those who remained beyond the control of the movement. Many of these prayers, including one by a grandmother for her unsaved grandchildren, were filled with tears and wrenching pain over the damnation of those they loved.
The new ideology gives the believers a sense of purpose, feelings of superiority and a way to justify and sanctify their hatreds. For many, the rewards of cleaning up their lives, of repairing their damaged self-esteem, of joining an elite and blessed group are worth the cost of submission. They know how to define themselves. They do not have to make moral choice. It is made for them. They submerge their individual personas into the single persona of the Christian crowd. Their hope lies not in the real world, but in this new world of magic and miracles. For most, the conformity, the flight away from themselves, the dismissal of facts and logic, the destruction of personal autonomy, even with its latent totalitarianism, is a welcome and joyous relief. The flight into the arms of the religious right, into blind acceptance of a holy cause, compensates for the convert’s despair and lack of faith in himself or herself. And the more corrupted and soiled the converts feel, the more profound their despair, the more militant they become, shouting, organizing and agitating to create a pure and sanctified Christian nation, a purity they believe will offset their own feelings of shame and guilt. Many want to be deceived and directed. It makes life easier to bear.
Freedom from fear, especially the fear of death, is what is being sold. It is a lie, as everyone has to know on some level, even while they write and rewrite their testimonies to conform to the instructors’ demands. But admitting this in front of other believers is impossible. Such an admission would be interpreted as a lack of faith. And this too is part of the process, for it fosters a dread of being found out, a morbid guilt that we are not as good or as Christian as those around us. This dread does not go away with conversion or blind obedience or submission. This unachievable ideal forces the convert to repress and lose touch with the uncertainties, ambiguities and contradictions that make up human existence.
We were instructed to inform potential converts that Jesus came to Earth and died “to pay the penalty for our sins and to purchase a place in heaven for us” and that “to receive eternal life you must transfer your trust from yourself to Jesus Christ alone for eternal life.” We were told to ask the convert if he or she is willing “to turn from what you have been doing that is not pleasing to Him and follow Him as He reveals His will to you in His Word.” If the covert agrees to accept a new way of life we are to bow our heads and pray, with the convert repeating each line after us.
“Lord Jesus, I want You to come in and take over my life right now. I am a sinner. I have been trusting in myself and my own good works. But now I place my trust in You. I accept You as my own personal Savior. I believe you died for me. I receive You as Lord and Master of my life. Help me to turn from my sins and to follow You. I accept the free gift of eternal life. I am not worthy of it, but I thank You for it. Amen.”
And when it is over the new believers are told “Welcome to the family of God.” They are told to read a chapter a day in the Gospel of John and that they will be visited again in a week to talk about the Bible. They are encouraged to pray, because God “promised to hear and answer our prayers.” They are told to find “a good Bible-believing church and become a part of it.” They are told to join a Christian fellowship group. They are told to witness to those in their family. With this, the process of deconstructing an individual and building a submissive follower, one who no longer has any allegiance to the values of the open society, begins.
***
Chris Hedges, who graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School, is the author of “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.” He is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and a Lannan Literary Fellow.
***
Jim Jones, the "Kool-Aid King", must be smiling in Hell, knowing that others are still using his techniques.
***
There is a false, but effective, fiction that one has to be born again to be a Christian. The Christian right refuses to acknowledge the worth of anyone’s religious experience unless—in the words of the tired and opaque cliché—one has accepted “Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.”
The meltdown, often skillfully manipulated by preachers and teams of evangelists, is one of the most pernicious tools of the movement. Through conversion one surrenders to a higher authority. And the higher authority, rather than God, is the preacher who steps in to take over your life. Being born again, and the process it entails, is more often about submission and the surrender of moral responsibility than genuine belief.
I attended a five-day seminar at Coral Ridge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where I was taught, often by D. James Kennedy, the techniques of conversion. The callousness of these techniques—targeting the vulnerable, building false friendships with the lonely or troubled, promising to relieve people of the most fundamental dreads of human existence from the fear of mortality to the numbing pain of grief—gave to the process an awful cruelty and dishonesty. I attended the seminar as part of the research for my book “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.” Kennedy openly called converts “recruits” and spoke about them joining a new political force sweeping across the country to reshape and reform America into a Christian state.
“I would always go in first, introduce myself, Jim Kennedy,” he told us. “I’m checking the lay of the land and I will look around the living room and see if there’s something there that I can comment about. Frequently, there will be a large picture somewhere and where did they put it, this picture ... why would they put it over the fireplace? Significant.”
“In Fort Lauderdale you don’t find too many fireplaces,” he added, smiling, “but there’s some kind of central focus. Maybe ... golf trophies ... I’m over here looking at these golf trophies ... painting ... I say… beautiful painting, did you paint that? The first rule about looking at trophies, don’t touch them ... did you win all those trophies? So we have a little conversation about golf, but I know enough about golf to have this conversation ... now what have I done? I’m making a friend.”
“Compliment them on whatever you can,” Kennedy said, “discuss what they do, you’re going to find out what are their hobbies, maybe right there in the living room. Then you’re going to ask them about what they do, where they’re from, how long they’ve been there ... something to discuss with them ... in doing this, you have made a friend.”
We are told to “emphasize the positive” and “identify with your prospect.” We are encouraged in the green “Evangelism Explosion” instruction manual to use sentences such as “It is wonderful to know when I lay my head on my pillow tonight that if I do not awaken in bed in the morning, I will awaken in paradise with God.” We are told to paint graphic pictures of personal tragedy that God has helped solve, such as: “I had a Christian son killed in Vietnam, yet my heart is filled with peace because I know he has eternal life. Even though he was killed by an enemy mortar, he has a home now in heaven, and one day we’ll be reunited there.” We are instructed to pepper our testimonies with words like love, peace, faithfulness, forgiveness, hope, purpose and obedience and remember to talk about how we have found, in our own conversion, “courage in the face of death.”
Kennedy warns us not to carry a large Bible, but to keep a small one hidden in our pocket, saying “don’t show your gun until you’re ready to shoot it.”
The conversion, at first, is euphoric. It is about new, loving friends, about the conquering of human anxieties, fears and addictions, about attainment through God of wealth, power, success and happiness. For those who have known personal and economic despair, it feels like a new life, a new beginning. The new church friends repeatedly call them, invite them to dinner, listen to their troubles and answer their questions. Kennedy told us that we must keep in touch in the days after conversion. He encouraged us to keep detailed files on those we proselytize. We must be sure the converts are never left standing alone at church. We must care when no one else seems to care. The converts are assigned a “discipler” or prayer partner, a new friend, who is wiser than they are in the ways of the Lord and able to instruct them in their new life.
The intense interest by a group of three or four evangelists in a potential convert, an essential part of the conversion process, the flattery and feigned affection, the rapt attention to those being recruited and the flurry of “sincere” compliments are a form of “love bombing.” It is the same technique employed by most cults, such as the Unification Church or “Moonies,” to attract prospects. It was a well-developed tactic of the Russian and Chinese communist parties, which share many of the communal and repressive characteristics of the Christian right.
“Love bombing is a coordinated effort, usually under the direction of leadership, that involves long-term members flooding recruits and newer members with flattery, verbal seduction, affectionate but usually nonsexual touching, and lots of attention to their every remark,” the psychiatrist Margaret Thaler Singer wrote. “Love bombing—or the offer of instant companionship—is a deceptive ploy accounting for many successful recruitment drives.”
The convert is gradually drawn into a host of church activities by his or her new friends, leaving little time for outside socializing. But the warmth soon brings with it new rules. When you violate the rules, you sin, you flirt with rebellion, with becoming a “backslider,” someone who was converted but has fallen and is once again on the wrong side of God. And as the new converts are increasingly invested in the church community, as they cut ties with their old community, it is harder to dismiss the mounting demands of the “discipler” and church leaders. The only proper relationship is submission to those above you, the abandonment of critical thought and the mouthing of thought-terminating clichés that are morally charged. “Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior” or “the wages of sin are death” is used to end all discussion.
Rules are incorporated slowly and deliberately into the convert’s belief system. These include blind obedience to church leaders, the teaching of an exclusive, spiritual elitism that demonizes all other ways of being and believing, and a persecution complex that keeps followers mobilized and distrustful of outsiders. The result is the destruction of old communities, old friendships and the independent ability to make moral choices. Believers are soon encased in the church community. They are taught to emphasize personal experience rather than reasoning, and to reject the reality-based world. For those who defy the system, who walk away, there is a collective banishment.
There is a gradual establishment of new standards for every aspect of life. Those who choose spouses must choose Christian spouses. Families and friends are divided into groups of “saved” and “unsaved.” The movement, while it purports to be about families, is the great divider of families, friends and communities. It competes with the family and those outside its structure for loyalty. It seeks to place itself above the family, either drawing all family members into its embrace or pushing those who resist aside. There were frequent prayers during the seminar I attended for relatives who were “unsaved,” those who remained beyond the control of the movement. Many of these prayers, including one by a grandmother for her unsaved grandchildren, were filled with tears and wrenching pain over the damnation of those they loved.
The new ideology gives the believers a sense of purpose, feelings of superiority and a way to justify and sanctify their hatreds. For many, the rewards of cleaning up their lives, of repairing their damaged self-esteem, of joining an elite and blessed group are worth the cost of submission. They know how to define themselves. They do not have to make moral choice. It is made for them. They submerge their individual personas into the single persona of the Christian crowd. Their hope lies not in the real world, but in this new world of magic and miracles. For most, the conformity, the flight away from themselves, the dismissal of facts and logic, the destruction of personal autonomy, even with its latent totalitarianism, is a welcome and joyous relief. The flight into the arms of the religious right, into blind acceptance of a holy cause, compensates for the convert’s despair and lack of faith in himself or herself. And the more corrupted and soiled the converts feel, the more profound their despair, the more militant they become, shouting, organizing and agitating to create a pure and sanctified Christian nation, a purity they believe will offset their own feelings of shame and guilt. Many want to be deceived and directed. It makes life easier to bear.
Freedom from fear, especially the fear of death, is what is being sold. It is a lie, as everyone has to know on some level, even while they write and rewrite their testimonies to conform to the instructors’ demands. But admitting this in front of other believers is impossible. Such an admission would be interpreted as a lack of faith. And this too is part of the process, for it fosters a dread of being found out, a morbid guilt that we are not as good or as Christian as those around us. This dread does not go away with conversion or blind obedience or submission. This unachievable ideal forces the convert to repress and lose touch with the uncertainties, ambiguities and contradictions that make up human existence.
We were instructed to inform potential converts that Jesus came to Earth and died “to pay the penalty for our sins and to purchase a place in heaven for us” and that “to receive eternal life you must transfer your trust from yourself to Jesus Christ alone for eternal life.” We were told to ask the convert if he or she is willing “to turn from what you have been doing that is not pleasing to Him and follow Him as He reveals His will to you in His Word.” If the covert agrees to accept a new way of life we are to bow our heads and pray, with the convert repeating each line after us.
“Lord Jesus, I want You to come in and take over my life right now. I am a sinner. I have been trusting in myself and my own good works. But now I place my trust in You. I accept You as my own personal Savior. I believe you died for me. I receive You as Lord and Master of my life. Help me to turn from my sins and to follow You. I accept the free gift of eternal life. I am not worthy of it, but I thank You for it. Amen.”
And when it is over the new believers are told “Welcome to the family of God.” They are told to read a chapter a day in the Gospel of John and that they will be visited again in a week to talk about the Bible. They are encouraged to pray, because God “promised to hear and answer our prayers.” They are told to find “a good Bible-believing church and become a part of it.” They are told to join a Christian fellowship group. They are told to witness to those in their family. With this, the process of deconstructing an individual and building a submissive follower, one who no longer has any allegiance to the values of the open society, begins.
***
Chris Hedges, who graduated from seminary at Harvard Divinity School, is the author of “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.” He is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and a Lannan Literary Fellow.
***
Jim Jones, the "Kool-Aid King", must be smiling in Hell, knowing that others are still using his techniques.
BILL RICHARDSON REALLY NAILS IT
Richardson, currently Governor of New Mexico, and a Democratic Presidential candidate who has a very impressive record from his years in Government service, has flat out adopted the views of Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel, and has stated that as President, he will withdraw every one of our troops from Iraq. That, assuming our present Congress hasn't done it first(a safe assumption).
The following is excerpted from a press release. Thanks to Crooks and Liars.com--
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today drew a sharp distinction between his views on the war in Iraq and the views of the other major candidates running for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. Governor Richardson addressed the Take Back America Conference in Washington, DC, and clearly showed why his plan to end the Iraq is bold and the best course of action.
“I applaud my fellow Democratic candidates for taking on President Bush in the Congress,” said Governor Richardson.”But there is a fundamental difference in this campaign — and that’s how many troops each of us would leave behind. I would leave zero troops. Not a single one.”
Governor Richardson reiterated his call for Congress to use its constitutional authority to de-authorize the war and bring all American troops home by the end of this calendar year."
(end)
With this unequivocal stand, Richardson, who is far more electable than Kucinich or Gravel, sounds like a savior to me, and I'm sure to many progressives and others who are sick to death of the carnage we are sponsoring in Iraq. We elected the Democrats in 2006 to do this job for us, but it looks like "no dice" from those wimpy weasels. Richardson will have my vote unless Jesus Christ leaves the Republican party and runs as an Independent.
For those of you who are too lazy to check out Richardson's bona fides, watch this short campaign video for a good synopsis of his record:
http://action.richardsonforpresident.com/page/s/jobinterview
All he needs is money and media recognition, because he can walk all over the field of candidates based on his accomplishments. Care to join me with a show of support?
The following is excerpted from a press release. Thanks to Crooks and Liars.com--
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson today drew a sharp distinction between his views on the war in Iraq and the views of the other major candidates running for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. Governor Richardson addressed the Take Back America Conference in Washington, DC, and clearly showed why his plan to end the Iraq is bold and the best course of action.
“I applaud my fellow Democratic candidates for taking on President Bush in the Congress,” said Governor Richardson.”But there is a fundamental difference in this campaign — and that’s how many troops each of us would leave behind. I would leave zero troops. Not a single one.”
Governor Richardson reiterated his call for Congress to use its constitutional authority to de-authorize the war and bring all American troops home by the end of this calendar year."
(end)
With this unequivocal stand, Richardson, who is far more electable than Kucinich or Gravel, sounds like a savior to me, and I'm sure to many progressives and others who are sick to death of the carnage we are sponsoring in Iraq. We elected the Democrats in 2006 to do this job for us, but it looks like "no dice" from those wimpy weasels. Richardson will have my vote unless Jesus Christ leaves the Republican party and runs as an Independent.
For those of you who are too lazy to check out Richardson's bona fides, watch this short campaign video for a good synopsis of his record:
http://action.richardsonforpresident.com/page/s/jobinterview
All he needs is money and media recognition, because he can walk all over the field of candidates based on his accomplishments. Care to join me with a show of support?
"Special ops" forces requested for work in the U.S.
All in the name of homeland security, of course.
This is an article written by Rowan Scarborough for Examiner .com, posted on 6/21/08
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military command in charge of protecting the homeland asked the Pentagon earlier this year for a contingent of special operations officers to help with domestic anti-terrorism missions.
Military sources told The Examiner that U.S. Northern Command, established at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado in 2002, requested its own special operations command similar to ones assigned to overseas war-fighting commands, such as U.S. Central Command.
A spokeswoman for NorthCom this week issued a statement to The Examiner saying, "This capability resides in every other geographical combatant command and would allow the commander of U.S. Northern Command to deploy these unique capabilities for homeland defense and civil support operations."
The request was approved six months ago by the then-commander of NorthCom, Adm. Timothy Keating, who has since moved to U.S. Pacific Command.
But now, the new NorthCom commander, Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, is reviewing Keating's decision.
On Wednesday, Lt. Col. John Cornelio, a NorthCom spokesman, told The Examiner:
"U.S. Northern Command is currently reassessing our requirement for special operations forces to accomplish our homeland defense and civil support missions. While the initial request for a small element of SOF staff for planning and command and control purposes was requested under the previous commander, the new commander ... has not made a decision on this issue."
Keating's request to the Pentagon raised some eyebrows because of the sensitivity of deploying commandos domestically. Under U.S. Special Operations Command, covert warriors are playing a key role in fighting terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas.
"The possibility for military operations in the U.S. is something that we have to plan for in the age of international terrorism," said Daniel Gallington, a former policy adviser to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The Bush administration created NorthCom, one of the military's nine war-fighting commands, after the Sept. 11 attacks revealed deep flaws in the military's procedures for repelling an attack on American soil.
The idea of giving NorthCom a commando unit shows how the military increasingly looks at the U.S. homeland as a target for more terrorist attacks and how it may need elite counter-terrorism forces to deal with the threat.
(end)
The military is now re-considering this proposal, but whether or not it ends up being approved, the mere fact that the request was made indicates that some people are perfectly willing to turn our own military against us. Goodbye freedom, damn but we're gonna miss ya. U.S.A.-R.I.P.
This whole idea is a waste of time and money. If the aim of having Special ops commandos operating within our borders is really to fight terrorism, I am perfectly willing to donate my expertise in this area and point them to the White House and to Cheney's bunker.
This is an article written by Rowan Scarborough for Examiner .com, posted on 6/21/08
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military command in charge of protecting the homeland asked the Pentagon earlier this year for a contingent of special operations officers to help with domestic anti-terrorism missions.
Military sources told The Examiner that U.S. Northern Command, established at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado in 2002, requested its own special operations command similar to ones assigned to overseas war-fighting commands, such as U.S. Central Command.
A spokeswoman for NorthCom this week issued a statement to The Examiner saying, "This capability resides in every other geographical combatant command and would allow the commander of U.S. Northern Command to deploy these unique capabilities for homeland defense and civil support operations."
The request was approved six months ago by the then-commander of NorthCom, Adm. Timothy Keating, who has since moved to U.S. Pacific Command.
But now, the new NorthCom commander, Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, is reviewing Keating's decision.
On Wednesday, Lt. Col. John Cornelio, a NorthCom spokesman, told The Examiner:
"U.S. Northern Command is currently reassessing our requirement for special operations forces to accomplish our homeland defense and civil support missions. While the initial request for a small element of SOF staff for planning and command and control purposes was requested under the previous commander, the new commander ... has not made a decision on this issue."
Keating's request to the Pentagon raised some eyebrows because of the sensitivity of deploying commandos domestically. Under U.S. Special Operations Command, covert warriors are playing a key role in fighting terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere overseas.
"The possibility for military operations in the U.S. is something that we have to plan for in the age of international terrorism," said Daniel Gallington, a former policy adviser to former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The Bush administration created NorthCom, one of the military's nine war-fighting commands, after the Sept. 11 attacks revealed deep flaws in the military's procedures for repelling an attack on American soil.
The idea of giving NorthCom a commando unit shows how the military increasingly looks at the U.S. homeland as a target for more terrorist attacks and how it may need elite counter-terrorism forces to deal with the threat.
(end)
The military is now re-considering this proposal, but whether or not it ends up being approved, the mere fact that the request was made indicates that some people are perfectly willing to turn our own military against us. Goodbye freedom, damn but we're gonna miss ya. U.S.A.-R.I.P.
This whole idea is a waste of time and money. If the aim of having Special ops commandos operating within our borders is really to fight terrorism, I am perfectly willing to donate my expertise in this area and point them to the White House and to Cheney's bunker.
Stem cell veto--Bush just loves pain and suffering
Pain,suffering, misery, death-Bush is really gettin' off on this stuff. This is something he thrives on and he embraces visions of "Bush the God King" in the deepest recesses of his psyche like a boa constrictor with a potential meal. Holding the power of life and death over millions of people must give him enough of a head rush to turn his smirk into a rictus-like grin. This stem cell stuff is just like war for him, the only difference being that he's dealing death on behalf of the religious far right instead of the war profiteers.
Over 2/3 of the American people support embryonic stem cell research, and the bill he just vetoed was passed by a vote of 247-176 in the House. Even the director of the National Institute of Health testified in support of this bill, but Bush "The Death God" decided it was far more important to bow to the will of his only remaining voting bloc than to allow funding for research with the potential to save millions of lives, and to alleviate the suffering of millions more. The bill very carefully spelled out that new stem cell lines could only be developed from embryos already stored by the millions in fertility clinics across the country, and that would never be used for implantation. In other words, they would otherwise be thrown out like so many provisional ballots.
Here's a CNN video discussing different type of stem cell lines, and how they differ.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/20/cnn-discusses-what-stem-cell-research-is/
This is a video of Bush's staged (think "Mission Accomplished") "dog and phony" show announcing his veto.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/20/bush-vetos-stem-cell-bill-video/
Here is a very good fact-check on Bush's lies from the Dems.
http://democrats.senate.gov/journal/entry.cfm?id=277367&
If you are so inclined, you might want to take a look at the House roll call on the stem cell bill, so you can update your "friends and enemies" list.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll443.xml
And lastly, a video of Tony Snow's press conference defending the veto. In a stunning bit of hypocrisy, even better than usual from this shameless mouthpiece, he turns truth on its head and claims that "This is a case of the President putting science before ideology."
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/20/snow-veto-ii/
LEARN AND REMEMBER. SOONER OR LATER,MR PRESIDENT,PEOPLE ARE GOING TO PISS BACK.
Over 2/3 of the American people support embryonic stem cell research, and the bill he just vetoed was passed by a vote of 247-176 in the House. Even the director of the National Institute of Health testified in support of this bill, but Bush "The Death God" decided it was far more important to bow to the will of his only remaining voting bloc than to allow funding for research with the potential to save millions of lives, and to alleviate the suffering of millions more. The bill very carefully spelled out that new stem cell lines could only be developed from embryos already stored by the millions in fertility clinics across the country, and that would never be used for implantation. In other words, they would otherwise be thrown out like so many provisional ballots.
Here's a CNN video discussing different type of stem cell lines, and how they differ.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/20/cnn-discusses-what-stem-cell-research-is/
This is a video of Bush's staged (think "Mission Accomplished") "dog and phony" show announcing his veto.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/20/bush-vetos-stem-cell-bill-video/
Here is a very good fact-check on Bush's lies from the Dems.
http://democrats.senate.gov/journal/entry.cfm?id=277367&
If you are so inclined, you might want to take a look at the House roll call on the stem cell bill, so you can update your "friends and enemies" list.
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll443.xml
And lastly, a video of Tony Snow's press conference defending the veto. In a stunning bit of hypocrisy, even better than usual from this shameless mouthpiece, he turns truth on its head and claims that "This is a case of the President putting science before ideology."
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/20/snow-veto-ii/
LEARN AND REMEMBER. SOONER OR LATER,MR PRESIDENT,PEOPLE ARE GOING TO PISS BACK.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Bush names himself "Emperor"-no kidding!
This happened five weeks ago, and I've been sitting on this for a month, but I have yet to see any mention in the mainstream media. Yes folks, in what may be the ultimate power grab in our nations history, George Bush on 5/09/07 issued two Presidential Directives stating that His Royal Eminence Himself will take over the entire government in a" catastrophic" emergency. I am absolutely not making this up. Read this article--
http://progressive.org/mag_wx051807
Here is how the directives define "catastrophic" emergency"--
It defines a “catastrophic emergency” as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function.”
This could mean another 9/11, or another Katrina, or a major earthquake in California, I imagine, since it says it would include “localized acts of nature, accidents, and technological or attack-related emergencies.”
The document emphasizes the need to ensure “the continued function of our form of government under the Constitution, including the functioning of the three separate branches of government,” it states.
But it says flat out: “The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government.”
A slightly careful read of this section makes it plain that with such broad and nebulous parameters in the definition of "catastrophic" emergency, Bush can pretty much choose for himself when his directives take effect.
A hurricane, tornado, forest fire, bridge collapse, drought, an extra-inning loss by the Texas Rangers? Crop failure, more indictments aimed at his criminal enterprise? People starting to tell the truth under oath? An election coming up? Any of these things could qualify as an emergency in the eyes of The Supreme God of The U.S. of A.
I really wonder why this has gotten no notice. Is everyone so used to his illegal unconstitutional power grabs that they pass it off as nothing new? This isn't "just George doing his thing", but everybody just sits there like frogs in a kettle while the water heats to boiling. You should be out building a guillotine for this bastard.
http://progressive.org/mag_wx051807
Here is how the directives define "catastrophic" emergency"--
It defines a “catastrophic emergency” as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function.”
This could mean another 9/11, or another Katrina, or a major earthquake in California, I imagine, since it says it would include “localized acts of nature, accidents, and technological or attack-related emergencies.”
The document emphasizes the need to ensure “the continued function of our form of government under the Constitution, including the functioning of the three separate branches of government,” it states.
But it says flat out: “The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government.”
A slightly careful read of this section makes it plain that with such broad and nebulous parameters in the definition of "catastrophic" emergency, Bush can pretty much choose for himself when his directives take effect.
A hurricane, tornado, forest fire, bridge collapse, drought, an extra-inning loss by the Texas Rangers? Crop failure, more indictments aimed at his criminal enterprise? People starting to tell the truth under oath? An election coming up? Any of these things could qualify as an emergency in the eyes of The Supreme God of The U.S. of A.
I really wonder why this has gotten no notice. Is everyone so used to his illegal unconstitutional power grabs that they pass it off as nothing new? This isn't "just George doing his thing", but everybody just sits there like frogs in a kettle while the water heats to boiling. You should be out building a guillotine for this bastard.
Monday, June 18, 2007
RNC-- Real Nasty Criminals
You just thought RNC stood for the Republican National Committee, but you thought WRONG. For months, the House and Senate committees investigating the politicization of the Department of Justice have been after e-mails sent to and from White House employees using RNC servers instead of the authorized government e-mail accounts. The Bushies claimed that they were inadvertantly lost. Now they have them, but have refused to turn them over to the committees.
Meanwhile, the Office of Special Counsel, in an entirely separate investigation into violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity on government propery or time, has ordered 18 Federal agencies to retain all documents, phone records, hard drives, and e-mails back to 2001. Both investigations lead straight to Karl Rove.
Now, House investigators have confirmed that the RNC has destroyed many thousands of these e-mails.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/16/counsel-hatch-probe/
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/18/emails-waxman/
First, the government denied that any servers other than authorized by law to conduct government business were ever used, then said that sometimes they used RNC accounts by mistake, then said that only about 20 people had access to those accounts, then revised that to 55 people.Now we know that 88 people had access. Now we know that the RNC has destroyed the e-mail records of at least 51 government employees from RNC servers, and God only knows how many more.
The use of RNC e-mail servers is a clear violation of the Presidential Records Act, which is meant to ensure that government records are open and transparent, and can be recovered at need for investigations such as the ones now going on.
Given the blatant disregard for nuisances such as laws that the Bush Administration has demonstrated, and the stated aim of the RNC that they were working to ensure a "George Bush empire", can you have any doubt that the Bush team and the RNC have colluded in destroying damning evidence?
The RNC and the Bush administration are partners in what is, by any definition, an ongoing criminal enterprise, and should be prosecuted en masse under the RICO statutes, and then tried for sedition. Or am I being too soft?
6/19/07--just found this one.
This is good! Keith Olbermann's Countdown segment from 6/18/07 regarding this .
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/18/countdown-white-house-rnc-e-mail-scandal-bigger-than-originally-thought/
Meanwhile, the Office of Special Counsel, in an entirely separate investigation into violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity on government propery or time, has ordered 18 Federal agencies to retain all documents, phone records, hard drives, and e-mails back to 2001. Both investigations lead straight to Karl Rove.
Now, House investigators have confirmed that the RNC has destroyed many thousands of these e-mails.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/16/counsel-hatch-probe/
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/18/emails-waxman/
First, the government denied that any servers other than authorized by law to conduct government business were ever used, then said that sometimes they used RNC accounts by mistake, then said that only about 20 people had access to those accounts, then revised that to 55 people.Now we know that 88 people had access. Now we know that the RNC has destroyed the e-mail records of at least 51 government employees from RNC servers, and God only knows how many more.
The use of RNC e-mail servers is a clear violation of the Presidential Records Act, which is meant to ensure that government records are open and transparent, and can be recovered at need for investigations such as the ones now going on.
Given the blatant disregard for nuisances such as laws that the Bush Administration has demonstrated, and the stated aim of the RNC that they were working to ensure a "George Bush empire", can you have any doubt that the Bush team and the RNC have colluded in destroying damning evidence?
The RNC and the Bush administration are partners in what is, by any definition, an ongoing criminal enterprise, and should be prosecuted en masse under the RICO statutes, and then tried for sedition. Or am I being too soft?
6/19/07--just found this one.
This is good! Keith Olbermann's Countdown segment from 6/18/07 regarding this .
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/18/countdown-white-house-rnc-e-mail-scandal-bigger-than-originally-thought/
What did Tony Blair see when he looked into Bush's eyes?
Here's a scary little article that quotes the former British ambassador to Washington as stating that Britain joined the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan because Tony Blair was afraid that George Bush was going to nuke the Taliban unless someone was able to stop him.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Britain_feared_US_would_nuke_Afghan_06172007.html
Given the way that the Bush Armageddon Machine has acted and spoken ever since 9/11, I have no reason whatsoever to doubt the accuracy of this allegation. Wasn't it Bush who said "There's nothin' purtier than watchin' the sun settin' behind a cloud of radioactive ash"? Wasn't it Bush who named H-Bomb Ferguson as his top advisor? Just asking.
Anyway, if this story is true, I will definitely change my opinion of Mr. Blair.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Britain_feared_US_would_nuke_Afghan_06172007.html
Given the way that the Bush Armageddon Machine has acted and spoken ever since 9/11, I have no reason whatsoever to doubt the accuracy of this allegation. Wasn't it Bush who said "There's nothin' purtier than watchin' the sun settin' behind a cloud of radioactive ash"? Wasn't it Bush who named H-Bomb Ferguson as his top advisor? Just asking.
Anyway, if this story is true, I will definitely change my opinion of Mr. Blair.
GAY BOMB?-Sheer genius at work
In 1994, the Department of Defense requested $7.5 million to develop a "gay bomb", a chemical weapon loaded with aphrodisiacs, designed to be dispersed over enemy troops and cause uncontrollable homosexual behavior among those who came in contact with it. The idea was that an army thus attacked would be unable to function as a cohesive fighting force, and would be easy pickings for our own soldiers.
The Pentagon has said that the idea was rejected immediately, but in fact it was still being considered as recently as 2002. The "gay bomb" project had one good result--The Pentagon's own research proved that sexual orientation is determined biologically and is not a lifestyle choice.
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/06/18/pentagon-planned-to-turn-enemy-troops-gay/
I truly don't know what was running through the minds of the people who thought this one up, but I imagine that they envisioned a kind of "Brokeback Army"scenario, where insatiable homosexual lust would lead to an enemy army attacking our defensive positions stuck together, pee-pee to butt cheek in a sinuous conga line and singing "YMCA" as a battle cry. The next step in this misguided atrocity would have been the development of a "homophobe bomb" for use on our troops, so that they didn't die of laughter at what they saw.
Our military strategists and planners leave no stern untoned in their never-ending quest to refine the art of warfare, do they?
The Pentagon has said that the idea was rejected immediately, but in fact it was still being considered as recently as 2002. The "gay bomb" project had one good result--The Pentagon's own research proved that sexual orientation is determined biologically and is not a lifestyle choice.
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/06/18/pentagon-planned-to-turn-enemy-troops-gay/
I truly don't know what was running through the minds of the people who thought this one up, but I imagine that they envisioned a kind of "Brokeback Army"scenario, where insatiable homosexual lust would lead to an enemy army attacking our defensive positions stuck together, pee-pee to butt cheek in a sinuous conga line and singing "YMCA" as a battle cry. The next step in this misguided atrocity would have been the development of a "homophobe bomb" for use on our troops, so that they didn't die of laughter at what they saw.
Our military strategists and planners leave no stern untoned in their never-ending quest to refine the art of warfare, do they?
FBI-defending our freedom from privacy
The Federal Bureau of Total Intrusion is requesting $12 million in fiscal year 2008 to establish a data mining operation to "fight terrorism", which they estimate will have 6 BILLION records by fiscal year 2012. This amount of data is enough for 20 records for every person in the U.S., and it's fairly safe to assume, given the FBI's predilection for exceeding their mandate, that every person in the U.S. WILL be included. So much for privacy rights. This information gathering system is just another in a long string of similar programs whose aim is to know virtually everything about you, whether or not you're guilty of any wrongdoing. Building dossiers on the citizenry is one of the hallmarks of a totalitarian state, and is done so that the government can gain total control over you. Such dossiers include personal information , gossip about you, unfounded allegations and rumor. An easy way to illustrate the dangers of this government effort is simply to think of the former East Germany and their secret police, the Stasi. That's exactly where we're heading in this country. We will live our lives under the constant threat of imprisonment for any reason, if we aren't "good citizens" and do the bidding of our government masters without complaint.
Follow the links in this article for more information:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/13/fbi-database/
I would suggest that you read our Constitution while it is still legal to do so, and decide if you're really OK with the fact that it's being dismantled before your very eyes.The Constitution?--You know-that's that old document that George Bush called "just a goddamned piece of paper".
Oh, and just to give you an idea of how efficiently our Federal BIG EYE uses the data it collects, here is an article about the infamous Terrorist Watch List used by airport screeners, who as you know, have already stopped billions of terrorists from boarding planes .
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/06/13/are-you-on-the-terror-list-509000-people-are/
Remember that plaque inside the Statue of Liberty that has the line about "huddled masses yearning to breathe free"? IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO APPLY TO US!!
Follow the links in this article for more information:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/13/fbi-database/
I would suggest that you read our Constitution while it is still legal to do so, and decide if you're really OK with the fact that it's being dismantled before your very eyes.The Constitution?--You know-that's that old document that George Bush called "just a goddamned piece of paper".
Oh, and just to give you an idea of how efficiently our Federal BIG EYE uses the data it collects, here is an article about the infamous Terrorist Watch List used by airport screeners, who as you know, have already stopped billions of terrorists from boarding planes .
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/06/13/are-you-on-the-terror-list-509000-people-are/
Remember that plaque inside the Statue of Liberty that has the line about "huddled masses yearning to breathe free"? IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO APPLY TO US!!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
IRAQ--The lowdown on the runup
I have found, and am providing here for your edification, a marvelously well-written timeline , offered without opinion by Professor David Michael Green, that details the events leading up to the preemptive invasion of Iraq. Commit this to memory (quiz tomorrow!) so you aren't fooled by the lies and deceptions that are still being peddled as fact.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/8128
Using this timeline, you can easily judge the worth of anyone in the media who spouts the neocon lies.
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/8128
Using this timeline, you can easily judge the worth of anyone in the media who spouts the neocon lies.
Friday, June 15, 2007
New Orleans link dump
No comments, no rants, no satire. Just some links here to articles that I've been saving like old magazines. Do your own homework. There are threads here that tell a tale of cronyism, corruption, mis/non/mal/feasance, criminality,bribery,greed, ineptitude, gross negligence, incompetence, collusion, callous disregard for life, and what amounts to the sanctioned murder of an American city and its inhabitants by our Federal government. This is by no means all of the ongoing story, but it's enough for now.
http://www.gregpalast.com/18-missing-inches-in-new-orleans/
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/us/07levees.html?ex=1336190400&en=51f2200b88b3940c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070506-orleans-levees.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/13/national/main2564674_page2.shtml
http://fixthepumps.blogspot.com/2007/06/bombshell.html
http://www.sunherald.com/218/story/77475.html
http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/06/fema_may_have_authorized_flood.html
http://www.gregpalast.com/18-missing-inches-in-new-orleans/
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/us/07levees.html?ex=1336190400&en=51f2200b88b3940c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070506-orleans-levees.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/13/national/main2564674_page2.shtml
http://fixthepumps.blogspot.com/2007/06/bombshell.html
http://www.sunherald.com/218/story/77475.html
http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/06/fema_may_have_authorized_flood.html
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Bush and Gonzo deliver another rousing "fuck you" to Congress
They are BASTARDS with no regard for even a veto-proof majority of lawmakers. They will do exactly what they want, when they want, to whom they want, for whatever reasons they have, and dare you to do something about it. This latest example is so over the top that I'm sputtering with rage and trying my best not to call them cocksucking motherfucking traitorous criminals who should be stuffed into a gasoline filled earthmover tire and lit off. I can't say things like that no matter how much I want to, because I'm a better person than that.
On June 4, after being passed by an overwhelming bi-partisan majority in the House and Senate, a bill was sent to Bush for his signature. The bill specifically repealed a provision of the Patriot Act reauthorization in 2006 that allowed the appointment of U.S. Attorneys indefinitely, on an interim basis, to avoid the Senate confirmation process.
Bush sat on this bill since receiving it without either signing it into law or vetoing it. Yesterday, Gonzalez announced the appointment of an acting U.S. Attorney in California to the position on an interim basis, once again pulling an "end around" on the Senate.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Gonzales_uses_Attorney_appointment_power_that_0614.html
That having been accomplished, Bush found the time to sign the bill into law today,6/14/07.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/15/bush-law/
I truly can't believe the fucking gall of these sons-of-bitches. They just don't give a shit about anything. What in the name of God will it take to get these people impeached? Will the Republicans who have supported this criminal enterprise for so long ever give it up and do the right thing? How much more of this shit do we have to take? Did Bush intentionally gut the EPA so that we have to keep taking this shit with no recourse?
On June 4, after being passed by an overwhelming bi-partisan majority in the House and Senate, a bill was sent to Bush for his signature. The bill specifically repealed a provision of the Patriot Act reauthorization in 2006 that allowed the appointment of U.S. Attorneys indefinitely, on an interim basis, to avoid the Senate confirmation process.
Bush sat on this bill since receiving it without either signing it into law or vetoing it. Yesterday, Gonzalez announced the appointment of an acting U.S. Attorney in California to the position on an interim basis, once again pulling an "end around" on the Senate.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Gonzales_uses_Attorney_appointment_power_that_0614.html
That having been accomplished, Bush found the time to sign the bill into law today,6/14/07.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/15/bush-law/
I truly can't believe the fucking gall of these sons-of-bitches. They just don't give a shit about anything. What in the name of God will it take to get these people impeached? Will the Republicans who have supported this criminal enterprise for so long ever give it up and do the right thing? How much more of this shit do we have to take? Did Bush intentionally gut the EPA so that we have to keep taking this shit with no recourse?
Libby has some justice doled out
Oh, happy day! Judge Reggie Walton has ordered Scooter Libby to start his jail term within 6 to 8 weeks while his planned appeal is pending. He considered every one of the arguments presented by the defense why Libby should remain free and rightly was not swayed by their bullshit rationalizations. Libby is to start serving his 30 month sentence for obstruction of justice as soon as they figure out which country-club prison he'll go to.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20070614_jail_looms_for_scooter_libby/
Judge Walton received a ton of letters written on Libby's behalf from every well-connected neocon scumbag power-broker, all attesting to what a truly fine person Libby is, but decided to actually give more weight to the gravity of Libby's offense. He lied repeatedly to both Federal investigators and the Grand Jury and effectively stopped an investigation into the illegal (possibly treasonous) outing of Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative. He took the fall for both Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. Whether it was done out of loyalty or promises of financial rewards, or both, who knows, but his bosses have yet to be charged in this case.
Judge Walton also received several letters threatening he and his family if he sent Libby to prison. Typical right-wing hate tactics. Walton has turned them over to the authorities.
Nearly the entire right wing is calling for a pardon for Libby, but Dear Leader Bush as yet is resisting. The following is a link from Editor and Publisher with a little more detail on the pardon chances.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003594429
As I have stated before, I do not believe that Bush has to trouble himself with a pardon, because the Appeals Court is stacked with partisan Republicans. See my blog post from 3/08/07 here:
http://carpebaloney.blogspot.com/2007/03/libby-appeal-fix-is-in.html
There will be more coming in this case and I'll update as necessary, but make no mistake--The outing of Valerie Plame along with all the lies , distortions, obfuscations and denials, and the absolute failure to admit guilt or show the slightest bit of remorse for what they did proves once more that the Bush/Cheney administration is a dangerous malignant tumor that if not excised quickly and completely will mean a sure death sentence to every ideal we ever laid claim to as a nation, and indeed to our democratic republic itself.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!! (6/16/07)
Here's an article by John Dean in Findlaw.com, in which he explains the bullying tactics of the Libby defense team and the right-wingers, and explains his concerns about the partisan appeals court. (Really, I taught him everything he knows).
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070615.html
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20070614_jail_looms_for_scooter_libby/
Judge Walton received a ton of letters written on Libby's behalf from every well-connected neocon scumbag power-broker, all attesting to what a truly fine person Libby is, but decided to actually give more weight to the gravity of Libby's offense. He lied repeatedly to both Federal investigators and the Grand Jury and effectively stopped an investigation into the illegal (possibly treasonous) outing of Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative. He took the fall for both Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. Whether it was done out of loyalty or promises of financial rewards, or both, who knows, but his bosses have yet to be charged in this case.
Judge Walton also received several letters threatening he and his family if he sent Libby to prison. Typical right-wing hate tactics. Walton has turned them over to the authorities.
Nearly the entire right wing is calling for a pardon for Libby, but Dear Leader Bush as yet is resisting. The following is a link from Editor and Publisher with a little more detail on the pardon chances.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003594429
As I have stated before, I do not believe that Bush has to trouble himself with a pardon, because the Appeals Court is stacked with partisan Republicans. See my blog post from 3/08/07 here:
http://carpebaloney.blogspot.com/2007/03/libby-appeal-fix-is-in.html
There will be more coming in this case and I'll update as necessary, but make no mistake--The outing of Valerie Plame along with all the lies , distortions, obfuscations and denials, and the absolute failure to admit guilt or show the slightest bit of remorse for what they did proves once more that the Bush/Cheney administration is a dangerous malignant tumor that if not excised quickly and completely will mean a sure death sentence to every ideal we ever laid claim to as a nation, and indeed to our democratic republic itself.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!! (6/16/07)
Here's an article by John Dean in Findlaw.com, in which he explains the bullying tactics of the Libby defense team and the right-wingers, and explains his concerns about the partisan appeals court. (Really, I taught him everything he knows).
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070615.html
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Dirty deeds Doan mean much anymore
Back in March, I posted about Lurita Doan, head of the General Services Administration, who is being investigated for violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity by government employees on government time or on government property. Here's the link:
http://carpebaloney.blogspot.com/2007/03/waxmanhatches-another-investigation.html
While hearings have been held by Rep. Henry Waxman(D-CA), Doan was also being investigated by an independent Federal agency, and guess what? Guilty,guilty, guilty!, and they have sent a letter to George Bush recommending that Doan be fired.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/12/special-counsel-calls-for-firing-lurita-doan/#comments
Since Doan serves "to pleasure the President", it's doubtful that he will fire her, as it's well known that Bush is fiercely loyal to those who pleasure him(i.e.-Gonzo and Rover). He might though, to protect Rove, who is involved in this up to his eyeballs.
Even if Bush doesn't act the House can impeach her, but the House and Senate have so many Republicans who do exactly as they're told that an impeachment is unlikely to succeed despite the evidence.
So, is this all a pointless exercise? Probably, and that's the saddest thing about the state of government these days.
Addendum: Waxman held another hearing yesterday starring the lovely Lurita, and flat out suggested that she resign. Here are some video clips from the hearing.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/13/waxman-tells-doan-to-resign/
Unfortunately, it's up to Bush to give the "heave" to this "ho", and he's no more likely to do that than the House is to start impeachment proceedings against her. I hope they surprise me.
http://carpebaloney.blogspot.com/2007/03/waxmanhatches-another-investigation.html
While hearings have been held by Rep. Henry Waxman(D-CA), Doan was also being investigated by an independent Federal agency, and guess what? Guilty,guilty, guilty!, and they have sent a letter to George Bush recommending that Doan be fired.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/12/special-counsel-calls-for-firing-lurita-doan/#comments
Since Doan serves "to pleasure the President", it's doubtful that he will fire her, as it's well known that Bush is fiercely loyal to those who pleasure him(i.e.-Gonzo and Rover). He might though, to protect Rove, who is involved in this up to his eyeballs.
Even if Bush doesn't act the House can impeach her, but the House and Senate have so many Republicans who do exactly as they're told that an impeachment is unlikely to succeed despite the evidence.
So, is this all a pointless exercise? Probably, and that's the saddest thing about the state of government these days.
Addendum: Waxman held another hearing yesterday starring the lovely Lurita, and flat out suggested that she resign. Here are some video clips from the hearing.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/13/waxman-tells-doan-to-resign/
Unfortunately, it's up to Bush to give the "heave" to this "ho", and he's no more likely to do that than the House is to start impeachment proceedings against her. I hope they surprise me.
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