Friday, March 16, 2007

Friday Thread

Valerie Plame Wilson. Under oath. Covert. 'Nuff said?

Will Gonzo be gone-zo over the weekend? If so, it would seem that Maron wins the bet. Which means he would win a copy of his own book, in addition to Sam's book and Conason's book.

Whatever.jpg

[Thanks to Carol for the Gonzo pic]

780 comments:

1 – 200 of 780   Newer›   Newest»
Anonymous said...

Yoo-hoo! Comments, over here!

toniD said...

Zaid looks a little like Colbert!

Jenise said...

hey, not sam. thanks.

Anonymous said...

If that was Leonard on TV...he ain't that handsome!!

toniD said...

V-toe spinning toward blaming the CIA. Is she backing away from saying that Plame was NOT covert?

Using the blame of the CIA she will forgive herself for saying Plame was not covert.

Anonymous said...

AH-HA!

This time....yeah...THIS time, we're going to get Rove and Cheney and Dumbya and....uh....they'll be impeached...and uh....taken to The Hague for war crimes....and uh....President Nancy will pull all the troops out of Iraq....and uh....give us free health care...and uhh....neo-cons and Repubs will never hold power again....and uh....and...uh...stuff!

bibimimi said...

Toensing?!

roast this wench!

March 16, 2007 10:49 AM

hate her sorry bent face

bibimimi said...

V-toe

camel-toe

Anonymous said...

Hey...I looked up CUNT in the dictionary and this Toensing chick's picture came up!

toniD said...

Isn't she a piece of work, Jenise?

Her husband is just as bad. I think his name is deGenova.

She sounds like she is summing up a trial.

bibimimi said...

she's giving me a goddamn headache

Jenise said...

she's simply horrid. i hope they come down on her like they did on knodell.

Anonymous said...

Hey...the right wing dipshit just popped in!

High right wing dipshit!

Anonymous said...

Can I borrow all of Sam's old "Limbaugh drug addict" jokes?


NEW YORK (AP) - Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Friday he sought treatment for an addiction to the painkiller OxyContin months before wrecking his car outside the U.S. Capitol last year.
The Rhode Island Democrat told NBC-TV's "Today" show that he felt great in his recovery from substance abuse and was determined not to let the disease "take its toll on me ever again."

Kennedy checked into the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota last May after the car crash, saying at the time that he had also been at the clinic the previous Christmas. He said only that he was addicted to "pain medication" and did not name OxyContin.

Kennedy has been open about his struggles with mental illness, including bipolar disorder and addictions to alcohol and other substances. He said it didn't matter what substance he was addicted to.

GBC said...

Man her face... was she dropped on her head as a child? Why's she soooo... crooked?

Oh, she's a BushCo. shill... face goes with the job!

toniD said...

1:45 pm ET:

Mr. Zaid does classified legal matters as a day-today living. He is going through the regs and rules for clearance standards — but the fact is that the real world and anecdotal experiences with this, as opposed to what is said on paper, is a big difference. Implementation varies across the baord, agency to agency — there are numerous flaws within the system itself. Discusses the significant inconsistencies that exist across agencies, how security investigations are initiated or handled, how these inconsistencies can cause problems for employees and others. This is an area that cries out for vigorous Congressional oversight, to ensure accountability, efficiency and fairness from the Executive branch, no matter which party may be in power.

Ms. Toensing begins be talking about the IIPA, and Barry Goldwater. The press vigorously opposed IIPA — said it would have a chilling effect. Now discussing how they divided people to be prosecuted: journalists and employees who had access to classified information. Drafted the law in order to have an almost impossible standard to prosecute a journalist. (CHS says: Toensing brought her over-acting chops today, she's overplaying the maudlin tone and the air quotes.)

from firedoglake.com

CHS is Christie Hardin Smith, Atty

Anonymous said...

before wrecking his car outside the U.S. Capitol last year

uhhh, can we talk about current events, wingnut?

Anonymous said...

Oh and I need a copy of the transcript of JOHN CONYERS on Pacifica's Democracy Now where....


he said impeachment was off the table and would hurt the Democratic agenda.

(Going to read it and laugh and laugh and laugh at all the "threats" that the "damaging Plame testimony will cause!")

toniD said...

1:45 pm ET:

Mr. Zaid does classified legal matters as a day-today living. He is going through the regs and rules for clearance standards — but the fact is that the real world and anecdotal experiences with this, as opposed to what is said on paper, is a big difference. Implementation varies across the baord, agency to agency — there are numerous flaws within the system itself. Discusses the significant inconsistencies that exist across agencies, how security investigations are initiated or handled, how these inconsistencies can cause problems for employees and others. This is an area that cries out for vigorous Congressional oversight, to ensure accountability, efficiency and fairness from the Executive branch, no matter which party may be in power.

Ms. Toensing begins be talking about the IIPA, and Barry Goldwater. The press vigorously opposed IIPA — said it would have a chilling effect. Now discussing how they divided people to be prosecuted: journalists and employees who had access to classified information. Drafted the law in order to have an almost impossible standard to prosecute a journalist. (CHS says: Toensing brought her over-acting chops today, she's overplaying the maudlin tone and the air quotes.)

Frome firedoglake.com

CHS is Christie Hardin Smith, Atty

toniD said...

Sorry for the double post. I think we are taxing the blog today.

toniD said...

I think the dems are letting the repubs have their chance first so they can debunk everything.

GBC said...

she just said I've represented a covert officer, their called officer's... Plame was a covert officer... did you hear her spit all that out... she's contradicting herself! she said she wasn't and then she was! WTF?

bibimimi said...

turn the heat up on this beee---yotch!

Jenise said...

she's like a child. it's like she's on stage.

bibimimi said...

Waxman

hammer hammer hammer

Jenise said...

what did waxman just say? "you would have thought...." the stream cut out.

bibimimi said...

why is she there...just to argue?

bibimimi said...

"you would have thought...." the stream cut out.

'they would have investigated the leak but did not'

Anonymous said...

Noooooooooooooooo.......

Not smirky Victoria Toensing in all her "wicked witch in the west" glory

bestest friend Starr ever had

Is it just my total dislike for her or is she even sneakier and nastier looking and sounding than ever ....

Jenise said...

thanks, crank bait. i'll check that out. i guess the world was different so it's not really valid to compare. but i just can't help but wonder if the ball is rolling much slower than during watergate. it feels that way to me, but i was 6 years old at the time and i'm not known always for my patience.

Jenise said...

thanks, bibi.

she must just be a very lonely person.

Waiting for Cicero said...

Drive-by from the kollective:

Hiya bridge! I'm sorry if I pissed ya off the other day. Was not my intent.

Happy Plame Day!

bibimimi said...

v-toe has some sister-neck action coming

Jenise said...

"reclaiming my time" - there are a few people i'd like to use that with.

bibimimi said...

I didn't talk to VPW or CIA...I have no idea

credibility HOLE

GBC said...

Damn Watson is goooooood!

bibimimi said...

gawd, whadda box of rancid chocolates she is!

Anonymous said...

bibi,
Toensing is everywhere ... seems that she and husband must be heard ALL THE TIME ... YIKES!

... suffered thru all those hours of Toensing and Degenova (sp) during the Simpson trial

... then they did their very best to get rid of Bill Clinton cause his perjury was the worst crime ever in the history of the USofA

does it get any nastier? I don't think so.

bibimimi said...

Is it just my total dislike for her or is she even sneakier and nastier looking and sounding than ever ....

March 16, 2007 11:12 AM

c'mon, she POURING on the charm, here!

toniD said...

Zaid says that he is stunned that further investigation and Administrative action has not been taken care of here.

Toensing says that some agencies do and some do not suspend clearance pending an investigation. Goes into questions that may arise of trying to interfere with a criminal investigation.

Toensing: "I have no problem with Ms. Plame, and I appreciate the service that she gave to her country." [CHS says: I don't even know what to say here.] And she's now going into her prosecutorial misconduct litany.

Rep. Cummings going into the Toensing Op-Ed issue — "foreign assignment" parsing of language and statutory authority. [CHS says: Toensing is fillibustering her answers with the Dems.]

Ex. Order 12958 — Hayden's approval of Waxman's statement that Ms. Wilson's status was classified, that she was a covert agent protected under the aforementioned Executive Order.

Rep. Watson going into the Toensing assertions in her WaPo Op-Ed now. "It seems to me that your remarks are contrary to Ms. Wilson's statement here. Do you still maintain that she was not a covert agent?" Toensing says "not under the law." Rep. Watson is very carefully guarding her time. Toensing says that she did not talk to either the CIA or Valerie Wilson about Valerie's employment status. Toensing says that under "her" statute, Valerie isn't what she would qualify as "covert" in her legal interpretation. Rep. Watson says she isn't asking about IIPA — in contrast, she's asking about Administrative rules under the Executive order.

Prohibits both reckless and negligent disclosures of classified information — and violates the executive order even though it does not violate the IIPA? Toensings stalls and tap dances and then asks for the question to be repeated. Yes, that is correct.

Firedoglake.com

bibimimi said...

bridge said...

Toensing is everywhere ... seems that she and husband must be heard ALL THE TIME ...


give 'em a sandwich board, a bullhorn and a stack o' bibles.

bibimimi said...

does she really wanna piss off the CIA?

Jenise said...

ooh. waxman.

toniD said...

Thank you Rep Waxman!!!

A snark at the end for V-toe

toniD said...

Thank you Ms. Toensing but we don't believe you!

bibimimi said...

vicky

yer fulla shit

ya might wanna check that

luv, henry

toniD said...

Ms. Toensing you are here to accommodate the minority!

Jenise said...

i do like him, tonid. and glad she's gone. blech.

it's way too late for me. time to get some sleep. have a great day, everyone. a real pleasure.

toniD said...

Ooooh! Look at the Market...

Dow 12091.91 -67.77 (-0.56%)
Nasdaq 2368.52 -10.18 (-0.43%)
S&P 500 1384.79 -7.49 (-0.54%)
10-Yr Bond 0.454% +0.00

bibimimi said...

toniD said...
Ms. Toensing you are here to accommodate the minority!

March 16, 2007 11:32 AM

leave yer knee pads in the laundry on the way out

Alice said...

http://www.13moon.com/cosmic_seed.htm

Hi 13ben, wherever you are....

toniD said...

About ten more points and it's under 12!!

bibimimi said...

this is the maj report blog news channel

GBC said...

Thank you Ms. Toensing but we don't believe you!

I was just gonna say that.

I can't wait for Randi to replay lots of this today, ya know she's gonna... it'll be the whole damn show I hope.

Alice said...

Interesting stuff, anonymous from two threads ago..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala

The hawala alternative remittance system and its role in money laundering

GBC said...

you too, jenise. go catch ya some shut-eye. :)

Anonymous said...

Say....when the Intell Identities Protection Act passed in 1982...

there were 32 votes against it in the House.

Wouldnt it be a HOOT to go back and read some of the Congressional Quarterly archives on those 32 House members who voted agains it?

except that nobody at AAR will!

guess why?

Alice said...

Victorian Tales of Cannabis,by Terence McKenna

Waiting for Cicero said...

I need a cigarette and a nap.

: )

No strike that, let's go again!

Anonymous said...

.... reclaiming my time, too ;-)


your forgot the gun, bibi

thumping the bible in one hand and holding the big gun a la Charlton Heston

smug compassionate Conservatives in action

P.S. Ms Plame is a beauty :)

toniD said...

GBC, we always seem to be on the same wavelength. Heh!

It's like you could be family, like the son I never had!

toniD said...

bridge said....

P.S. Ms Plame is a beauty :)


Isn't she!!! And there is something very appealing about her husband as well. He's not drop dead gorgeous, but there's some thing there!

toniD said...

Good Night Jenise!! Sleep well.

Still have lots of work to do.

Alice said...

toniD said...

bridge said....

P.S. Ms Plame is a beauty :)


Isn't she!!! And there is something very appealing about her husband as well. He's not drop dead gorgeous, but there's some thing there!

March 16, 2007 11:47 AM


Like Robert Wagner & Jill St. John ....who were on wait wait don't tell me this past Sunday...

Daver said...

fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

toniD said...

Head of CIA Says Valerie Wilson Was A Covert Officer
By Christy Hardin Smith @ 11:50 am

Apparently, Victoria Toensing still wants to argue what the meaning of "covert" is.

But according to Gen Hayden, current head of the CIA, Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA agent at the time that her name was published by Robert Novak. Rep. Henry Waxman read a prepared statement today — prepared with the express approval of the head of the CIA and reviewed therewith — that substantiated the fact that Valerie Plame Wilson was a covert CIA officer, working on classified WMD issues for the CIA and the national security fo the United States.

Valerie Plame Wilson was able to go into a little more detail in her own testimony today. If you missed Valerie Plame Wilson's testimony this morning, the wonderful folks at PoliticsTV have YouTube'd it so that we can all watch.

from firedoglake.com but here's the link to Politcs TV

GBC said...

Great minds, tonideeee. :)

Daver said...

Hello Bloggers, this is Bob.........

Damn, this blogger crap sux. It doesn't work in Opera..

I have been trying to get on here forever.

I guess you all heard about the withdrawl bill in the Senate being defeated. So what's next?

Dems have the votes to fillibuster funding. I think it is time for a showdown.

Bob26003 said...

Testing................

toniD said...

CIA Director Hayden: ‘Wilson Was Covert’ »
During House hearings today, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) announced that CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden recently told Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) that there was no doubt Victoria Plame Wilson was covert. Cummings — relaying what Waxman had told him — said that Gen. Hayden expressed clearly and directly, “Ms. Wilson was covert.”

Cummings also asked Wilson to respond to the specific claim, made by Victoria Toensing and others, that Plame had lost her covert status because she “had not been stationed abroad within five years.” Cummings asked, “During the past five years, Ms. Plame, from today, did you conduct secret missions overseas?” She answered, “Yes I did, congressman.”

Watch it:

LINK

toniD said...

Hey Bob!!!

We were wondering where you were. Glad to see you finally got here!

Alice said...

Hi Bob! :)

Bob26003 said...

And maybe I am wrong here, but when Clinton replaced all the attorneys, the new folks had to go through confirmation right?

I mean this is what it's all about right? Circumventing Senate approval?

Bob26003 said...

Hey Alice :)

That was a mighty fine link you posted up blog about the victorian audiobook. I am gonna call my library and see if they can get it for me.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So how has everyone been?

toniD said...

Snow on Bush involvement: ‘Anything’s possible.’ Just out from the AP:

The White House on Friday backed off its earlier contention that then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers first raised the idea of firing U.S. attorneys — an act that led to a firestorm of criticism of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

“It has been described as her idea but … I don’t want to try to vouch for origination,” said White House press secretary Tony Snow, who previously had asserted Miers was the person who came up with the idea. “At this juncture, people have hazy memories.” […]

Asked if Bush himself might have suggested the firings, Snow said, “Anything’s possible … but I don’t think so.” He said Bush “certainly has no recollection of any such thing. I can’t speak for the attorney general. I want you to be clear here: don’t be dropping it at the president’s door,” Snow said.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/16/snow-on-bush-involvement-anythings-possible/

toniD said...

Stephanopoulos Predicts Gonzales Will Resign To Deflect Republican Criticism »
This morning on Good Morning America, ABC’s Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos predicted that Alberto Gonzales will resign to end the criticism of the White House coming from some Republican members of Congress.

“He’s in the fight of his life,” Stephanopoulos said. “I think it will be very, very difficult for him to survive it.” He said the “key political question for the White House right now” is, “what will it take to get Republicans defending the White House again? And from all of my reporting, I don’t believe that’s going to happen until Alberto Gonzales resigns.”

Stephanopoulos added, “I spoke with a White House official this morning who said he doesn’t believe this will reach a head today. But this is a very fluid situation.” Watch it:

LINK

Bob26003 said...

Thus far, Edwards looks like the best candidate I think.

http://www.issues2002.org/John_Edwards.htm

Edwards on the issues.........

toniD said...

Well That Was Interesting…
By Jane Hamsher @ 11:59 am

I was so happy that Henry Waxman opened the hearing up with remarks from George Bush Sr. regarding how those who leak classified information should be punished. I've always felt there was a strong father/son rivalry that was an element to this case that has largely gone unexplored, and that should certainly get Junior's (Pet) Goat.

Valerie Plame was luminous and helped in no small part by the fact that she is smart, sincere, professional and articulate (not to mention gorgeous). The administration was not done any favors by the Republicans defending it on the panel, most spectaculalry by Congressman Lynn Westmoreland, who came out and admitted he'd never questioned a spy before and then proceeded to act like he was chatting her up at a bar. Westmoreland had already given us a demonstration of his intellectual acumen on the Colbert Report, when — as co-sponsor of the Ten Commandments bill — he couldn't name them. He was in his usual resplendent form today.

The big news of the day, however, came from Dr. James Knodell, who — as Director of the Office of Security at the The White House — admitted that there has been absolutely no investigation into the leaking of Plame's identity by employee Karl Rove. To say the response from the committee was shock would be an understatement.

Toensing's testimony was rife with what could charitably be considered "inaccuracies." She claimed knowledge of Plame's status she freely admitted she could not have had, having not spoken to either the CIA nor Plame on the topic, and she also claimed that Grenier had given her name as Valerie Plame (he hadn't). Waxman seemed to be aware of this as he closed out the proceedings, thanking the administration's spokesman (and ComPost contributor) for her time, promising that her statements would be fact checked. I'm sure Marcy will be doing much the same here tonight.

Curiosly, the juror who was dismissed from the Libby trial — a woman in a short blond bob — was at the hearings, and spent most of Toensing's testimony glaring at the back of her head. Toensing may have spent most of her time dissemgling at the request of the minority and trying to steal everyone else's time, but at least there was a nice visual metaphor about how the rest of us felt about the whole thing.

Alice said...

* Mother of Ailing Iraq War Vet Confronts Rep Obey Over U.S. Troop Withdrawal *

Over 1,000 protests, vigils and actions are scheduled over the coming days to mark the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war. Anti-war activists have also spent countless hours in recent months urging Democratic lawmakers to cut off funding for the war. Last week, Tina Richards, the mother of an Iraq war veteran, confronted the Chair of House Appropriations Committee Rep. David Obey in the halls of the Capitol. Richards joins us from Washington DC.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410244

Alice said...

* Veteran Dies After VA Refuses Treatment For Days *

As the Walter Reed scandal rocks Washington, what are the conditions at VA hospitals outside the Beltway? We look at the story of a 58-year-old Vietnam veteran named Willie Dougherty. He died in October after suffering two pelvic fractures. His family says he died because he was refused treatment by the VA. We speak with his widow, Jean Stentz, American Legion commander Harold Davis and Shay Everitt, the journalism student who first started investigating the story.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410250

Anonymous said...

tonid,

they make a stunning couple ... Ms. Plame has an amazing figure, too. Saw her in that beautiful dress at the press party. She looks like a movie star. Must drive the rightwingers nuts whose number one talking point is to belittle esp. Mr. Wilson. No matter the facts.

One of them, Poor miserable Imus, no wonder he disparages charming Mr. Wilson every time the subject of the leak case comes up on his show. Jealousy.


---
WaitingForCicero,

thanks a mil for telling me - I appreciate it. You are a sweetheart:)

--

Bob is back!

YAY!

Anonymous said...

I'd be willing to meat you,

half way!!!

toniD said...

The latest is they are now calling him Gone-zales

Alice said...

http://www.hafizonlove.com/fal.htm

Fal-e Hafiz

In the Persian tradition, whenever one faces a difficulty or a fork in the road, Or even if one has a general question in mind, one would hold that question in mind, and then ask the Oracle of Shiraz
Hafiz
for guidance.

More often than not,
Hafiz, in his own enigmatic way would sing to the questioner and through the song, would get the questioner to look in the mirror of his/her soul.
Upon reflection in the mirror of Hafiz's Ghazal one would be inspired with an answer, a guidance or a direction.

Traditionally,
the first line upon which the eyes of the reader fall, would give the answer to the direct question, and the rest of the Ghazal would give further clarification.

To try the guidance of
the oracle of Shiraz
Hold a question in your mind
&

Click on the button below
to have your Fal:

Anonymous said...

Anybody know who's script this is I just found lying on the floor?

Bob26003 said...

So who does everyone think is the best candidate?

And ToniD, Is there any way the Dems can stop this War?

**********************

Thank You bridge (big hug) :)

I tried for like a half hour to get logged in yesterday, I almost had a nervous breakdown :D

toniD said...

I like firedoglake live blogging better than Kos because FDL doesn't have red on their screen. My video card is going so red is hard to read.

Bob26003 said...

I am gonna get soooooooooo drunk tonight. LOL

Alice said...

Yes! Check with your library, Bob... :) If they don't have it, you can make a suggestion that they buy it, or they may be able to do an inter-library loan from somewhere else...

toniD said...

Olbermann should be very interesting tonight. I'll have to catch the late version because of work.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Say....when the Intell Identities Protection Act passed in 1982...

//

Call 'em up and make them talk about it ya asshat...

1.866.303.2270

My guess is you won't since you can't even produce a link.

Chickenshit troll.

GBC said...

toniD said...
Olbermann should be very interesting tonight.

~-~-~

I'm fleeing work a little early so I can catch the early show here.

I feel a Special Comment brewing... :)

Anonymous said...

Love that Mr. Waxman :)

re protected agents:

letting Toensing have it:

..."your knowledge is based on writing the law thirty years ago!"

toniD said...

White House Turns To Scandal Point Man
NY Times | SHERYL GAY STOLBERG | March 16, 2007 10:43 AM

It was hardly a social call when Fred F. Fielding, the new White House counsel, turned up Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill.

He had come to negotiate with Democrats, who are investigating whether politics played a role in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors and demanding testimony from Karl Rove and other top aides to President Bush. But Mr. Fielding's real task is even bigger and more delicate: to serve as the point man for the White House as it decides the future of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a longtime Texas friend and confidant of Mr. Bush.

LINK

toniD said...

The Seymour Hersh Mystery: A Journalist Writing Bloody Murder …
By Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch.com

Tuesday 13 March 2007

... and no one notices.

Let me see if I've got this straight. Perhaps two years ago, an "informal" meeting of "veterans" of the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal - holding positions in the Bush administration - was convened by Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams. Discussed were the "lessons learned" from that labyrinthine, secret, and illegal arms-for-money-for-arms deal involving the Israelis, the Iranians, the Saudis, and the Contras of Nicaragua, among others - and meant to evade the Boland Amendment, a congressionally passed attempt to outlaw Reagan administration assistance to the anti-communist Contras. In terms of getting around Congress, the Iran-Contra vets concluded, the complex operation had been a success - and would have worked far better if the CIA and the military had been kept out of the loop and the whole thing had been run out of the Vice President's office.

Subsequently, some of those conspirators, once again with the financial support and help of the Saudis (and probably the Israelis and the Brits), began running a similar operation, aimed at avoiding congressional scrutiny or public accountability of any sort, out of Vice President Cheney's office. They dipped into "black pools of money," possibly stolen from the billions of Iraqi oil dollars that have never been accounted for since the American occupation began. Some of these funds, as well as Saudi ones, were evidently funneled through the embattled, Sunni-dominated Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to the sort of Sunni jihadi groups ("some sympathetic to al-Qaeda") whose members might normally fear ending up in Guantanamo and to a group, or groups, associated with the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

All of this was being done as part of a "sea change" in the Bush administration's Middle Eastern policies aimed at rallying friendly Sunni regimes against Shiite Iran, as well as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Syrian government - and launching secret operations to undermine, roll back, or destroy all of the above. Despite the fact that the Bush administration is officially at war with Sunni extremism in Iraq (and in the more general Global War on Terror), despite its support for the largely Shiite government, allied to Iran, that it has brought to power in Iraq, and despite its dislike for the Sunni-Shiite civil war in that country, some of its top officials may be covertly encouraging a far greater Sunni-Shiite rift in the region.

LINK

Alice said...

Biggest Christian antiwar protest expected at White House

Iraq war protesters to converge at White House

by Nadia Teskrat 2 hours, 1 minute ago

Thousands of people are expected to converge at the White House Friday in the first of several demonstrations marking the fourth anniversary of the increasingly unpopular Iraq war, organizers said.

Christian Peace Witness for Iraq has organized a worship for Friday night at Washington's National Cathedral to be attended by 4,000 people who will then hold a candlelight procession to the White House, the anti-war group said.

A vigil will take place in front of US President George W. Bush's official residence and 700 people have indicated their readiness to be arrested in an act of civil disobedience, the group said.

The group has billed the event as the biggest Christian peace demonstration since the March 20, 2003, US-led invasion of Iraq, but rain and possible snow forecast for Washington could dampen attendance.

Anti-war activists have heavily mobilized since Democrats took control of Congress from Bush's Republicans in November elections marked by voter anger at the war.

Activists want the Democratic-led Congress to push hard for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, where more than 3,200 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died since the war began.
...

toniD said...

I'd just like to ask you Ms. Plame...are you a Democrat?

Westmorland is an ass.

I wonder if he is related to Gen. Westmorland.

toniD said...

Damn. Need to get ready for work.

Later

Bob26003 said...

This is a lecture, I think it is pretty new. The speakers are Amy Goodman, David Goodman and Noam Chomsky.

Media in Democracy

Anonymous said...

(Listening to Randi Rhodes...)

Repug: Would yous say you are a Democrat or a Republian?

Plame: That is between me and the Diebold voting machine, representative.

GBC said...

Let's see the rightwing call Gen. Hayden a liar now...

Chosen by Bush, confirmed by the Senate: SHE WAS COVERT.

Sunshine Jim said...

eya gang,

welcome back B3!

Anonymous said...

Wanna have some fun?

Take a walk around with a big, wet noodle, hanging out of the corner of your mouth!

Squint your eye shut at the same time!

Check out how people look at you!

It's harmless. It's legal and you won't believe the reaction it provokes in the super market line.

Bob26003 said...

Hey Jim! :)

Anonymous said...

A little name play.

I did not know the proper spelling of

Victoria Toensing, ... googled Tenzing, got

Tenzing and Hillary

http://imagingeverest.rgs.org/concepts/Virtual_Everest/-203.html

- jbenet

Sunshine Jim said...

say hey to unk an bro for me.

Bob26003 said...

Test.........

Hey that lecture is very good, Watching it now.

Anonymous said...

Randi's frothing at the mouth again....

guess Toensing must have hit home a few times!

Bob26003 said...

Will do Jim.................

Did you hear about the withdrawl vote in the Senate?

Wonder if there is anything legal the Dems could do to stop the War.

Anything they try to attach to the funding won't pass.

But they have enough votes to fillibuster anything. So in theory they could stall the funding forever right?

Anonymous said...

you can spin but you can't hide said...


March 16, 2007 12:29 PM

The link is the IIPA vote, do the research....the answer is...

ALL 32 who voted against it were Democrats and all liberal Dems to boot...hence no AAR concern over their opposition at that time!

Just like they aren't concerned over one of the people WHO WROTE IT saying Plame-game is a bunch of crap.

Waiting for Cicero said...

Either Toensig is stupid, or she has just lied to Congress.

Maybe both?

Bob26003 said...

I think a key is to get ppl away from the MSM media. Why do these ppl still have credibility.

Chomsky said something once that stuck with me. He said that Governments don't forget but ppl do. He was speaking in regards to methods of contol and methods to obtain freedom and all the struggles that took place.

In the mid to late 19th century a commonplace view was that working for someone else and making none of the decisions : the industrial model : was viewed as being highley degrading and an assault on a persons personal integrity.,

There were many Independant popular newspapers circulating with what would now be called socialist propaganda. Well, now days you would not even hear about it , as todays MSM tolerates no real dissidence.

The internet however is changing all this. And freedom of speech on the internet must be protected.

Anonymous said...

Just like they aren't concerned over one of the people WHO WROTE IT saying Plame-game is a bunch of crap.

Are you calling Gen. Hayden a liar then? Toensing lied under oath today, and you know it.

And regarding the actual vote in 1982:

Produce a link to the vote or STFU. Is it that hard for you to provide one?

Finally, considering I was twelve in 1982 I could really care less who voted against it back then. Stick to current events, shit for brains. Oh, that's right, if you did that, you wouldn't have a fucking leg to stand on.

Republicans are toast. That's current events baby.

Anonymous said...

Humiliation and Child Abuse at Israeli Checkpoints

Strip-Searching Children

By ALISON WEIR

Israeli officials have been regularly strip-searching children for decades, some of them American citizens.

While organizations that focus on Israel-Palestine have long been aware that Israeli border officials regularly strip search men and women, If Americans Knew appears to be the first organization that has specifically investigated the policy of strip searching women. In the course of its investigation, If Americans Knew was astonished to learn that Israeli officials have also been strip searching young girls as young as seven and below.

According to interviews with women in the United States, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli border officials periodically force Christian and Muslim females of all ages to remove their clothing and submit to searches. In some cases the children are then "felt" by Israeli officials.

Sometimes mothers and children are strip-searched together, at other times little girls are taken from their parents and strip-searched alone. Women are required to remove sanitary napkins, sometimes with small daughters at their side. Sometimes women are strip searched in the presence of their young sons.

All report deep feelings of humiliation. Many describe weeping at the degradation they felt....

read on
http://counterpunch.org/weir03152007.html

Anonymous said...

Wingnuts:

On your mark,

Get set,

...

SPIN!

GBC said...

Best line of the day so far...

Rep. Westmorland (R) Georgia to Valerie: "Are you a Republican or Democrat?"

That's your important question?

It's McCarthyism all over again! 'Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the... Democratic Party?'"


Randi rocks.

ciao~

Bob26003 said...

SPIN!

March 16, 2007 1:42 PM

Saddam was an evil dictator, he has WMD, He gassed his own ppl, He was trying to purchase yellowcake.

Those US attorneys were fired for performance reasons.

Good Enough?

Anonymous said...

Plame rails senior officials over leak By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Valerie Plame, the CIA operative at the heart of a political scandal, told Congress Friday that senior officials at the White House and State Department "carelessly and recklessly" blew her cover to discredit her diplomat-husband.

Plame, whose 2003 outing triggered a federal investigation, said she always knew her identity could be discovered by foreign governments.

"It was a terrible irony that administration officials were the ones who destroyed my cover," she told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"If our government cannot even protect my identity, future foreign agents who might consider working with the Central Intelligence Agency and providing needed intelligence would think twice," Plame said in response to a question.

Click on my name for the story link...

-

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
I don't agree with valerie tinsing but we all know that you are far stupider & lazy with no accomplishments mr waiting for pissero.

March 16, 2007 2:07 PM

Hey! I resemble that remark!

Anonymous said...

I think cicero/pissero is always pissed off while he is sitting around doing next to nothing.

Whoever coined him pissero was right on. ;)

Anonymous said...

Hi whoever might see this.

I noticed that this backup blog only gets a veru small fraction of the people reading it that Sam Seder's show blog used to get.

What is the big problem with having comments on his old blog or even putting a little content on samseder.com ?

Alice said...

*Sighs*

Anonymous said...

Its almost april 2007 already said...
Hi whoever might see this.

I noticed that this backup blog only gets a veru small fraction of the people reading it that Sam Seder's show blog used to get.

What is the big problem with having comments on his old blog or even putting a little content on samseder.com ?

March 16, 2007 2:27 PM

Hi It's almost 2007 already.

The short answer is that with the bare bones cutbacks from Air America Radio, there is no one left that knows the software on the old blog. This blog is just a quicky cut & paste every day then people are on their own without hardly any feedback or response from Sam or AAR people. So it's a free for all blog.

Anonymous said...

A Pissero is never cool.

Anonymous said...

blog mother said...
Its almost april 2007 already said...
Hi whoever might see this.

I noticed that this backup blog only gets a veru small fraction of the people reading it that Sam Seder's show blog used to get.

What is the big problem with having comments on his old blog or even putting a little content on samseder.com ?

March 16, 2007 2:27 PM

Hi It's almost 2007 already.

The short answer is that with the bare bones cutbacks from Air America Radio, there is no one left that knows the software on the old blog. This blog is just a quicky cut & paste every day then people are on their own without hardly any feedback or response from Sam or AAR people. So it's a free for all blog.

March 16, 2007 2:31 PM

That is too bad that hardly anyone cares anymore about a few blogger fans. :(

Oh well, it was fun for a couple years.

Alice said...

jesus tried to escape this planet in an airplane of his own design

Anonymous said...

Sandy said...
A Pissero is never cool.

March 16, 2007 2:32 PM

So very true, no one likes a whining pissero.

Cheer up though, spring is coming.

Anonymous said...

You stole my heart, dissolved my soul, but

Anonymous said...

I am hot!!!

Alice said...

XXXVIII

I CEASE not from desire till my desire
Is satisfied; or let my mouth attain
My love's red mouth, or let my soul expire,
Sighed from those lips that sought her lips in vain.
Others may find another love as fair;
Upon her threshold I have laid my head,
The dust shall cover me, still lying there,
When from my body life and love have fled.

My soul is on my lips ready to fly,
But grief beats in my heart and will not cease,
...

Alice said...

Each curling lock of thy luxuriant hair
Breaks into barbed hooks to catch my heart,
My broken heart is wounded everywhere
With countless wounds from which the red drops start.
Yet when sad lovers meet and tell their sighs,
Not without praise shall Hafiz' name be said,
Not without tears, in those pale companies
Where joy has been forgot and hope has fled.

Alice said...

Great video, Bob...

Sunshine Jim said...

the blog is us, we are the blog.

think in terms of community.

we persist despite

adversity.

Sunshine Jim said...

i'm feeling better myself,

nice to cozy up with the puppers and read.

shot off a letter to CB yesterday, and had a hoot with the post office ladies.

nice bunch a gals, known em for years. got a table restoration job there! some relaminating.

Alice said...

ZAPATISTA & CHIAPAS NEWS SUMMARY

Catharine said...

Dietl to imams: "Call your cousin up there, Ali Baba Boo, and go by cab"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703150013

On the March 14 edition of Fox News' Your World With Neil Cavuto, Richard "Bo" Dietl, a private investigator and former New York City Police Department detective, asserted that a recent lawsuit filed by six imams who were removed from a US Airways flight in 2006 could be a deliberate attempt to pressure the travel industry to employ laxer security measures, facilitating terrorist acts on airplanes. Dietl also suggested that instead of flying, passengers such as the aforementioned imams should "call their cousin up there, Ali Baba Boo, and go by cab."

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Brooklyn: Arrests In Post Office Robbery

Catharine said...

Imus' McGuirk on "young colored fellah" Obama "pretty much deckin' the old bag from New York"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703160007

On the March 16 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, executive producer Bernard McGuirk, performing as his character "Cardinal Egan," said that "the whole nation is talking about" reports of a "young colored fellah pretty much deckin' the old bag from New York and takin' away some of her money." McGuirk continued: "I'm speaking, of course, about [Sens.] Barack Obama [D-IL] and Hillary Clinton [D-NY]."

Catharine said...

Hannity falsely claimed Clinton "blamed" Bush for mugging of 101-year-old woman

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703160011

On the March 13 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity falsely claimed that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) said during a March 13 speech that the recent "mugging of a 101-year-old should be blamed on the Bush administration's cuts for community policing programs." In fact, there is no indication that Clinton attributed the March 4 attack on a 101-year-old Queens, New York, woman to President Bush. As co-host Alan Colmes pointed out later in the program, Clinton noted the mugging as an example of why, she said, people are "feeling unsafe again in [their] communities" and highlighted the need to make "crime reduction a No. 1 objective" and "reinstate and fund the COPS [Community Oriented Policing Services] program."

Catharine said...

Crank Bait said...

I've started a new blog column called Ask Sam. (Not the Seder kind. In this case, Sam is an acronym for Smart Alecky Maestro.)

***

I think this should be a regular feature.

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Hey Jim,

Armed Bandits Rob Brooklyn Post Office

James E. Davis

Catharine said...

For Fired Attorneys, Loyalty Was a One-Way Street (3/15)

Amid the ever-widening scandal surrounding the purge of several U.S. attorneys, now involving everything from subpoenas to bipartisan calls for Attorney General Gonzales’s resignation, one interesting bit of information has so-far gone unnoticed: the fact that several of the fired attorneys had previously been involved in supporting White House and Justice Department efforts to secure passage and renewal of the Patriot Act.

LINK

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Three officers indicted in Bell case

Catharine said...

Other Outrages

Hazleton Mayor Has Trouble Backing up Claims of Immigrant Crime Wave: 'The People in My City Don't Need Numbers' (3/16)

More Right-Wing Comments on Pace (3/15)

TVC’s Religious Test (3/15)

CWA’s Religion Test (3/14)

Club for Growth Takes Aim at McCain (3/14)

The “Maturing” Right-Wing Voters (3/13)



By the Issues

Politics


Right Wing

Immigration

Anti-Gay

Judiciary




Forward this e-mail

Not subscribed yourself?

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March 16, 2007

In this issue:

Best of the Blog

1. For Fired Attorneys, Loyalty Was a One-Way Street (3/15)

2. Top Military Leader’s Stand against Gay Servicemembers Draws Cheers from Religious Right, Brownback (3/14)

3. Coveting Religious-Right Support, Giuliani Deploys Promise on Judicial Nominations (3/13)







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



For Fired Attorneys, Loyalty Was a One-Way Street (3/15)

Amid the ever-widening scandal surrounding the purge of several U.S. attorneys, now involving everything from subpoenas to bipartisan calls for Attorney General Gonzales’s resignation, one interesting bit of information has so-far gone unnoticed: the fact that several of the fired attorneys had previously been involved in supporting White House and Justice Department efforts to secure passage and renewal of the Patriot Act.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2007/03/for_fired_attorneys_loyalty_was_a_one-way_street.html



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Top Military Leader’s Stand against Gay Servicemembers Draws Cheers from Religious Right, Brownback (3/14)

After the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Chicago Tribune that his support for barring gays and lesbians from openly serving in the armed forces was based on his belief, from his “upbringing,” that homosexuality is “immoral” and analogous to adultery, supporters of equality for gays were quick to criticize the nation’s top military officer for his prejudice-based promotion of public policy and for sending an inappropriate message to gays currently serving under his command. Not surprisingly, the Religious Right has come to the defense of Gen. Peter Pace, who has refused to apologize, and ambitious politicians are not far behind.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2007/03/top_military_le.html



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Coveting Religious-Right Support, Giuliani Deploys Promise on Judicial Nominations (3/13)

Last month, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention declared Rudy Giuliani’s campaign for president doomed, citing the former New York mayor’s reputation as a supporter of gay rights and a woman’s right to choose. He told The Hill that “If [Giuliani] wins, he’ll do so without social conservatives” – a result Land considered impossible. But less than two weeks later, Giuliani garnered a warm reception at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he side-stepped social wedge issues and emphasized his supposedly Reagan-like leadership qualities in the context of 9/11. Conservative columnist Bob Novak declared Giuliani “the big winner here,” and he came in second to Mitt Romney in the CPAC straw poll. Unlike Romney, noted Novak, “Giuliani had not stacked the crowd with supporters,” a strategy that casts doubt on Romney’s first-place showing. And Giuliani continues to top polls of primary voters.

LINK

Catharine said...

Oops!

I don't know how all of that got into the "copy and paste"

sorry

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

TB scare at Bronx hospital

More than 700 people -- including 238 infants -- are urged to get a tuberculosis screening because they may have been exposed to a city hospital health-care worker diagnosed with the illness, health officials said Thursday.

More >>

Sunshine Jim said...

eya Catharina!

was an interesting page!

how you doing?

Anonymous said...

James McCoy said...

Dammit Catharine!

I'm just an old country blogger not a copy editor.

Anonymous said...

Here's a BIG SHOUTOUT to all you people out there with Hare Lips!

We don't talk enough about you!

This next tune goes out to you, baby!

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

3 Teen Abduction Attempts Reported in Bronx

Sunshine Jim said...

sheesh NC.

the parallels between NYC and Baghdad are growing.

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

It's a friggen blizzard and...

Residents of Bronx building courtyard collapse stay out 2nd day

Anonymous said...

You don't hear much Be Bop in Baghdad!

Anonymous said...

Sunshine Jim said...
sheesh NC.
the parallels between NYC and Baghdad are growing.
March 16, 2007 4:13 PM

The place is fucked up.
NYC has green zones too
and it ain't Central Park...

*

FYI:
I met James Davis in passing once.
Seemed like an ok guy.
Pity he was killed...
(He was killed inside City Hall!)

Anonymous said...

I worry. People just don't eat enough turnips!

Alice said...

Viva Zapata!

Anonymous said...

Attention Miss Audrey Farber!

Miss Farber...we have located your script.

You can pick it up at the front desk.

Alice said...

My tolerance level is at an all-time low...

Alice said...

Colombians seek extradition of U.S. banana executives who supported death squads

Outraged Colombians called Friday for the United States to extradite American banana executives after the Cincinnati-based fruit giant Chiquita acknowledged making monthly protection payments for six years to illegal groups that killed thousands of people.

The chief federal prosecutor's office said it would ask the U.S. Justice Department for information on Chiquita's role in smuggling 3,000 assault rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition to far-right paramilitaries in the region where the company got its bananas.

Chiquita settled a U.S. Justice Department probe by agreeing Wednesday to pay a $25 million (€18.76 million) fine and acknowledging that its wholly owned subsidiary Banadex paid US$1.7 million (€1.35 million) to far-right paramilitaries labeled terrorists by the United States. Chiquita also admitted funding Colombia's two main leftist rebel groups, but the U.S. complaint offered no information about how much it paid them.
...

Anonymous said...

Crank Bait said...

they cut six inches off of the bottom of my cane. What should I do?

Go to court!

Change your name to Ileen!

Anonymous said...

New mainstream media talking point coming at you?

I just listened to LA Times pundit Ron Brownstein on Hardball repeat over and over that the Dems were pandering to the bloggers (yes, mentioned dkos, too) and the far left (as if, tells you what he knows) with their Plame leak investigation today.

RB said the Dems should not overdo it but select their battles wisely and not waste their time with investigations such as the Plame one today.

So here we got one congressional oversight investigation, finally, and the stenographers like RB are getting bored already and jerk their chains.

Ron Brownstein
Wanker of the Day

Anonymous said...

Alice said...
Colombians seek extradition of U.S. banana executives who supported death squads
March 16, 2007 5:06 PM

"NEWS CONSUMER"...

The global demand for a good Banana is insatiable.

(Chiquita = United Fruit Company = CIA)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company

"In 1969 Zapata Corporation, a company in which George H. W. Bush held significant interest, acquired a controlling interest in United Fruit. The president of Zapata was Robert Gow, a friend of the Bush family. Robert's father, Ralph Gow, was on United Fruit's board of directors."

Anonymous said...

Global Warming is real, however, the theory of human produced CO2 being at cause is false. Water Vapor is by far the largest green house gas at approx. 95% of all the gases in the atmosphere. But I would implore everyone to look at the Sun as the possible cause of Global Warming. And if you have time view this video on google.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4520665474899458831&q=the+great+global+warming+swindle

Anonymous said...

On hot days, men's testicles frequently become stuck to the inner thigh. This is known as "batwings."

"Batwings" make walking painful and difficult.

If you are a man with testicles that suffers from "batwings," here's
Doc. Johnson's tip to alleviate the problem.

After showering and before going out, gently massage Castor Oil into the skin of the testicles.

Works every time!

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Detectives May Have Found Elderly Attacker

Police reportedly have a suspect in the robbery and attack of two elderly women.

A police source tells the Daily News that investigators are eying a mental patient as the prime suspect in the attack.

But investigators haven't been able to question him because he voluntarily checked himself into a psychiatric ward.

They're hoping he'll check himself out so that police can interrogate him.

The March 4th attack on 101-year-old Rose Morat was caught on this surveillance video. On the same day, 85-year-old Solange Elizee was also attacked and robbed.

The crimes have led to calls for harsher penalties for attacks on seniors.

Anonymous said...

Dear Doc. Johnson,

Why can't I just rub the castor oil on my inner thighs?

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Next time rob someone younger..

Anonymous said...

has anyone seen audrey farber around?

toniD said...

Hello, anybody home?

blah blah blah said...

hey toniD,

slow friday night. just waiting for bill maher to come on. dan rather, chris rock, and jason alexandar should be a pretty potent combination.

quite a day with the congressional hearings. waiting to see what the papers report as the real news (sic) tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Hi toniD,

Ice storm.
Making tea.

toniD said...

Evening Fellas!!

Yep, quite a day.

What happened to my cane, ask Sam?

Alice said...

A monastery in Germany is replacing its collection boxes with machines that accept payments from debit and credit cards.

toniD said...

Sorry to hear about your ice storm, NC. We had a few of those this year. They can be brutal. I tried not to go outside.

Tea is a good idea.

toniD said...

Gonzales Gave Kyle Sampson New Justice Dept. Office After His Supposed ‘Resignation’ »
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales planned to install his former aide Kyle Sampson as a lawyer in the Justice Department’s environment division even after Sampson’s “resignation,” NPR reported today.

Media outlets have reported this week that Sampson, Gonzales’ ex-chief of staff, resigned over the U.S. Attorney scandal on Monday. But as ThinkProgress noted, Gonzales on Tuesday made vague remarks during his press conference indicating that Sampson was still on the department payroll. “His transition — as a technical matter, he is at the Department as he transitions out and looks for another employment.”

In fact, Gonzales “started to set up a new office for Sampson” in the Justice Department, and Sampson only resigned on Tuesday when “the scandal surrounding eight fired U.S. Attorneys continued to grow.” A Justice official told NPR that “there were discussions about whether or not he would be detailed elsewhere as he was transitioning out and ultimately it was decided not to go that direction.”

LINK

Alice said...

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) stressed Monday that African countries must develop library facilities to give impetus to economic development."

toniD said...

Sadr rallies Shiites against U.S. presence. “After weeks of cooperation with a new security plan, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr decried U.S. forces as occupiers Friday and called on his followers to ’shout “No, No America!”‘ in a sign of resurgent anger and opposition. Thousands of Shiites flooded from the mosque where al-Sadr’s statement was read by a preacher at Friday prayers, spilling into the streets of the Sadr City slum to protest the two-week-old American military presence there.”

LINK

toniD said...

It's slow here so I'll get some needed sleep.

Later guys.

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Goodnight toniD.

Hey Alice,

You hanging in? :)
How's the little ones?

Alice said...

Hi NC...Yep..I'm hanging in...

Here's Piggy, he climbed up on one of our enclosed gardens the other day...

The vet gave him a good report card at his last visit...he has something that causes his teeth & gums to flare up...so they give him a steroid shot once a month...

Anonymous said...

Pet Food Maker Announces Huge Recall Amid Reports of Pet Deaths

http://www.1010wins.com/pages/306082.php?contentType=4&contentId=376374

Catharine said...

Crank Bait said...

Watergate taught us that there should be a fourth branch of our government; the Hearing branch.

The press was supposed to be the Fourth Estate that protected the interests of the Common Man, but as happens when enough time passes, the press has evolved into just another corrupted institution.

The problem with having another branch of government designed to ferret-out abuses of power is twofold; first, it would eventually, itself, be corrupted and second, it would need to be staffed with people who have no political motives other than attacking and exposing and punishing abuses of power. Their motives must be nothing but patriotism in the sense that any abuse of power is an attack directed at the Republic and its people.

*******

Well put.

I just got back from seeing the first play in the Coast of Utopia trilogy (for the second time).

Your thoughts are echoed in Alexander Herzen's thoughts.

As you mention, these are not new thoughts, and yet we keep repeating the same mistake. We continue to make an authoritarian government that, no matter in what guise [even Marx's Communism] is doomed because it transfers the power to a higher authority.

Alice said...

Mexico City embraces gay unions

The first civil partnerships among same-sex couples in Mexico City have been celebrated under new legislation.

The law, which came into effect in the capital on Friday, gives gay couples similar social and inheritance rights as heterosexual couples.

Civil unions were approved by the city council in November despite opposition from the Roman Catholic Church.

Some MPs of President Felipe Calderon's conservative party are filing a court challenge against the gay unions.

They argue that the partnerships violate constitutional protection of the family.
...

Cat Chew said...

Dang! I missed his centenary birthday, and I almost missed this one, too.

Henny Youngman (Henry Youngman, March 16, 1906 – February 24, 1998) was a British-born American comedian and violinist famous for "one-liners," short, simple jokes usually delivered rapid-fire. His best known (and oft misquoted) one-liner was "Take my wife—please".

Unknown said...

The Arabesques series of ten LPs of 1979, and the Recitalbum re-issue in LP format of 1984, were the monumental project of Dr. Jean-Claude Chabrier, an esteemed Doctor of Medicine, and an emminent musicologist at the Institut National Des Langues Et Civilisations Orientales of the Sorbonne, Paris. The series presented solo performances of 'ud, nay, qanun, santur, and buzuq, all by the finest musicians, and according to the highest technical standards using the best equipment available in the 1970s, at locations in several countries.

http://www.mikeouds.com/rare.html

Munir Bachir was born in 1930 in Mosul, Iraq to a Syrian-Iraqi family that had been involved in music for many generations.

The first recording, Meditations sur le maqam Chedd-Araban (22:30) is based upon a Turco-Arab maqam constituted of Hijaz-Hijaz. In the course of this composition he modulates through Hijaz-Kar-Kurdi, Rast on Fa, Nahawand on Fa, and Bayati on Do, with occasional returns to different themes in his unique style.

In the second recording, Meditations sur des Nagham-s Traditionnels d'Iraq 22:00 (Meditations upon traditional songs of Iraq), he develops a half-dozen improvisations. The first is Panjukah (Rast and Rast-Nahawand), then Mansuri & Na'il (the lower tetrachord of which represents Saba), then Awchar (Rast and Sikah), Mukhalef & Awj (Sikah-Hijaz-Rast), Dacht (Bayati and Busalik), and finally Lami (Kurdi-Kurdi).

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Authorities Describe Ring That Included 12-Year-Old Sex Slave

Anonymous said...

Alice said...
The vet gave him a good report card at his last visit...
March 16, 2007 8:52 PM

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Top of the world ma!

Anonymous said...

Visualize getting bent.

Catharine said...

Beck smeared ABC colleague Rosie, claimed "I never said that Hillary Clinton was a bitch"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703160014

On the March 16 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, in reference to comments documented by Media Matters for America in which he called Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) "the stereotypical bitch," Glenn Beck said: "Hillary Clinton sounds like the biggest nag on the planet ... I never said that Hillary Clinton -- excuse the language -- I never said that Hillary Clinton was a bitch. I said she sounded like one." He went on to say, "It has nothing to do with her policies, it has nothing to do with her personality, it has nothing to do with what she's actually saying."

On his March 15 show, Beck had said: "Hillary Clinton cannot be elected president because ... there's something about her vocal range," and went on to say, "There's something about her voice that just drives me -- it's not what she says, it's how she says it," adding, "She is like the stereotypical -- excuse the expression, but this is the way to -- she's the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?"

Catharine said...

In the March 16 broadcast, Beck also compared Clinton to Rosie O'Donnell, co-host of ABC's The View, claiming, "Now, here's somebody who I don't think sounds like a nag, but is one, and that's Rosie O'Donnell." He then played an audio clip in which O'Donnell said that alleged 9-11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed "has been in the custody of the American government in secret CIA torture prisons and Guantánamo Bay, where torture is accepted and allowed, and he finally is the guy who admits to doing everything," to which Beck replied: "She has more contempt for the United States of America than the guy who is the number-two guy of Al Qaeda." Later in the program, Steve Burguiere, the executive producer of Beck's radio show who is known on-air as "Stu," stated, "Rosie O'Donnell's just stupid. She's out there blabbing her mouth at 100 million miles per hour, and she has no idea what she's talking about," adding, "I mean, Rosie O'Donnell's just crazy. I don't think -- that's why they have ratings on that show, because she's nuts."

Catharine said...

Rosie O'Donnell is more popular and has more money than Beck.

That's what it is isn't it, Beck?

And you're holding onto her coattails hoping and praying you can turn that into a career.

Way to go.

Catharine said...

GOP strategist falsely claimed Plame appeared in Vanity Fair before being outed

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703160015

In a discussion of the House committee testimony of outed CIA operative Valerie Plame on the March 16 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, Republican strategist Edwina Rogers falsely claimed that Plame "had been in Vanity Fair before any of this came out, sitting in a Jaguar, and she did not get permission from the CIA, which is required." Rogers said that posing in such a photo "was unacceptable for the CIA." Rogers also claimed that Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who went to Niger to discover whether or not Saddam Hussein had sought to purchase uranium there, "had come back and didn't give the report to the CIA, but he turned it over in an op-ed to The New York Times." According to Rogers, because of these alleged transgressions, Plame "was already in the hot seat with the CIA." In fact, Plame's photos appeared in Vanity Fair several months after syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak's July 14, 2003, column disclosed her identity, and Wilson's July 6, 2003, Times op-ed appeared long after he delivered his report on Niger to the CIA. Host Neil Cavuto asked: "But she was in the hot seat -- she was in the hot seat after she was in the hot seat, right? I mean, after this stuff came out, right?" But he did not otherwise attempt to correct Rogers' timeline.


***

These people are boring me.

Anonymous said...

diz cordia said...
Visualize getting bent.

March 16, 2007 9:09 PM

I use a beat frequency oscillator coupled to a hetero dyne tuning modem while confined in a Faraday Cage.

Catharine said...

ABC's Tapper gushed over the return of McCain's "Straight Talk Express"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200703160010

During a March 15 report on 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), in which ABC News senior national correspondent Jake Tapper is seen interviewing McCain aboard McCain's campaign bus, the "Straight Talk Express," Tapper asserted that, now that the "bus is back," so is "McCain's willingness to entertain any question." In fact, McCain has reportedly "steered clear of offering opinions on two of the biggest issues on the political landscape this week," in the words of New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney in a March 16 article. Specifically, according to the Times:


He declined to say whether he agreed with the assertion by Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that homosexuality is immoral, or whether he thought Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales should be ousted for his handling of the firing of federal prosecutors.

During his interview with McCain, Tapper also asked the senator: "Do you have the fire in the belly -- to win this -- like you did last time?" and noted during the report that McCain "appreciates irony in literature."

Anonymous said...

"NEWS CONSUMER" said...

Sleet, snow, high wind and cold.

I'm going to bed!

Catharine said...

March 16-18, 2007 -- WMR's foreign intelligence sources report that the Khalid Shaikh Mohammed "confessions" to over 30 different terrorist attacks and attempted plots is a laughable U.S. psychological operation (Psyop) attempt. Most intelligence professionals around the world do not believe Mohammed's contentions and a number believe Mohammed's false confessions are a result of torture.

Two members of the German Bundestag have ridiculed the Mohammed confessions. Hans-Christian Ströbele, (Green Party) and Herta Däubler-Gmelin (Social Democrats, and Minister of Justice in the Gerhard Schröder government who was forced to resign when she compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler) said the Mohammed confession is not very credible given the circumstances of his imprisonment. “He might as well have confessed to being the Satan himself”, Ströbele told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Däubler-Gmelin said, “The [U.S.] military authority publishes whatever it wants to publish.” They both mentioned the “torture factor” and the dubious status of the Guantanamo tribunal.

Almost every major European terrorism expert does not believe the Mohammed confession and they have been on state-owned and private news networks in Europe stating that the confession has more to do with Bush's failures in Iraq than in any credible connection with the three dozen terrorist plots claimed by Mohammed.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

Alice said...

Reclaiming What Makes Us Human

By Barbara Ehrenreich
In These Times
March 9, 2007

The enemies of festivity have argued for centuries that festivities and ecstatic rituals are incompatible with civilization. In our own time, the incompatibility of festivity with industrialization, market economies and a complex division of labor is usually simply assumed, in the same way that Freud assumed--or posited--the incompatibility of civilization and unbridled sexual activity. In other words, if you want antibiotics and heated buildings and air travel, you must abstain from taking hold of the hands of strangers and dancing in the streets.

Through the ages, the killjoys of governing elites have been threatened by public expressions of collective joy
...

Unknown said...

Ostad Djamchid Chemirani

http://www.globalbeatschool.ru/music/DjamchidChemirani.mp3

Persian Zarb drum master. Turn it up

Alice said...

Good night, NC...go get cozy & warm...xoxo

Catharine said...

March 16-18, 2007 -- WMR has learned from former UN peacekeeping sources that some of the contract Arabic speaking interrogators and torturers used by the U.S. military in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay were likely war crimes suspects who worked as interrogators for Israeli occupation forces in South Lebanon. In 1991, after Lebanese prisoners and hostages were released from the Israeli-run prison prison at El Khiam, UN medical personnel noticed the prisoners had been exposed to significant torture. During the medical examinations, the released prisoners revealed the names of a number of the prison leaders and interrogators to UN authorities. The interrogators and prison leaders were mostly South Lebanese, both Christian and Muslim, all working for the Israeli Defense Force.

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