Beck is such a loser. He is so unappealing, even to the sadomasochistic fascists. I find it difficult to believe that he has 3 million listeners.
It's easy to count people as being listeners. It's kind of like this NY Sun paper that arrived at my door. The owner is a self-proclaimed neocon and he is just sending it free of charge to anyone whose name he can get, just so he can count it as readership and reach and charge more to his advertisers.
-- Former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was hanged early Tuesday for his role the 1982 killings of 148 men and boys in Dujail, a government official told The Associated Press.
--
Only 148? That sounds like a bad weekend now.
They had dictatorship, but the Bushies replaced it with anarchy, instead of democracy.
How is this guy going to go on Good Morning America. I mean the show sucks, but how are they going to have this guy next to Diane Sawyer, or even allow him to talk to any of their guests? I have boycotted that show for several years, but I know their format, and ... I can't imagine what they are going to allow him to say.
The tide is turning regarding the appeal of these hate-speech tirades by on air personalities. Beck missed the wave. Just like people have become increasingly numb to reality TV, and are turning the channel, they are also tired of the lets say anything just to stir up controversy. "Controversy sells" isn't a good format anymore.
The end of this story hasn't been told; but Marc Maron gave his side to BlatherWatch tonight. "They [Air America] made me an offer. Initially it was unclear what time slot I would fill."
Maron says he considered the offer.
His joy, no doubt was dampened when he learned that the new owners' plans for him were for Sam's 9-ta noon time slot.
He says they were going to switch out Seder into the evening.
Maron says, "Sam did not know this." And after thinking about it, he told Seder.
"I turned down the offer for a number of reasons. One of the reasons I turned it down was my respect for and my relationship with Sam."
He says, that as far as he knows, "Sam has not been fired."
This doesn't sound like such stable ground for Sam- we'll be waiting to hear what comes next.
(AAR never seems to stop delivering flaming bags of mellerdramer to the media... a piece of advice for the brave, new/old network: don't be fucking with our Rachel...)
Another regular show must have sounded pretty good to Marc Maron- especially with new AAR management.
This from his Wikipedia entry:
Maron co-hosted the progressive talk radio network Air America Radio's three-hour AM radio show Morning Sedition with Mark Riley. It became well known that his contract would not be renewed as of December 1, 2005 due to problems with then Air America executive Danny Goldberg. Goldberg reportedly did not "get" or agree with the comedy Maron and other writers (Jim Earl and Kent Jones) brought to the morning-drive time show. ... His last show and the previous incarnation of Morning Sedition was on December 16, 2005. On February 28, 2006, Maron began hosting an evening radio program for KTLK Progressive Talk 1150AM in Los Angeles called The Marc Maron Show from 10:00PM PST until midnight PST. The program was never nationally syndicated by Air America despite reported contractual clauses promising so. On July 5, 2006, it was announced that The Marc Maron Show's final show would air Friday July 14, 2006. ... Marc Maron guest hosted Air America Radio's Springer on the Radio on November 6th, 2006 and The Sam Seder Show on December 1st, 2006. Maron also guest hosted The Sam Seder Show for the entire week of December 18th-22nd, 2006. He has a regular guest appearance on the Sam Seder show on the 3rd hour on Fridays.
I gotta say that it is really sad that the Democrats would even consider going on Fox News. It just shows us how out of touch they are. Not all of them, of course, but a good number of them. Lame and stupid.
Before Air America, I monitored Beck and learned the following from his own statements:
1. Born Catholic; now a Mormon by remarrying one who took away his drug habit, much as Laura took George's bottle away.
2. Abused child; victim of father and/or stepfather.
3. Incomplete education highlighted by taking drama courses at Yale where he excelled in the dynamic presentation of the anger and resentment the right wing nuts require for on air entertainment of their constituents.
4. Opportunity struck on 9/11 when "conservative" talk radio needed another voice to dramatize America's latent fears and hatreds coming to the fore.
Before Air America, I monitored Beck and learned the following from his own statements:
1. Born Catholic; now a Mormon by remarrying one who took away his drug habit, much as Laura took George's bottle away.
2. Abused child; victim of father and/or stepfather.
3. Incomplete education highlighted by taking drama courses at Yale where he excelled in the dynamic presentation of the anger and resentment the right wing nuts require for on air entertainment of their constituents.
4. Opportunity struck on 9/11 when "conservative" talk radio needed another voice to dramatize America's latent fears and hatreds coming to the fore.
March 20, 2007 8:48 AM
***
I really should stop being surprised by this bio. It's Karl Rove's bio and just about every other neocon screwup's.
"The USDA published its first hardiness zone map in 1960 and updated it in 1965. The 1990 map was completely reorganized based on data collected between 1974 to 1986 in the United States and Canada and between 1971 to 1984 in Mexico. The 1990 map was created because "in North America, the ranges of temperature and moisture for the past decade were wider than those recorded for the 1940's through the 1960's," according to the USDA.
That trend seems to have continued. The USDA and the American Horticulture Society worked together to develop a newer map based on records from 1986 to 2002. This map shows many regions are approximately 10 F warmer than they were in the 1960’s."
The three ways this proves global warming without agenda:
1 - the whole point of collecting this data wasn't to prove global warming. It was purely for good farming. There's no point in trying to grow oranges in Ohio, unless it gets warm enough to grow oranges in Ohio. These studies were to let farmers know if their crops could stand a freeze, not to prove CO level increases or to show dying polar bears. In fact, the initial hardiness zone maps for the United States were developed during the 1920's and 30's.
Twenties and Thirties. A time when there wasn't an awful lot of discussion concerning global warming. So the data predates the argument, making it bias-free.
2 - plants don't care about the argument. Plants are sensitive to temperature changes, yet they don't choose where their progeny gets to grow. Either someone positions their seed deliberately (the farmers), or they have a method of distributing their seed that works (carried in a bird's belly and dropped with the crap, blown in the wind, dropped from a branch, etc.).
In the latter instance (random distribution): if the conditions are right for the seed where it lands, it can germinate. If not, it doesn't. This is why you have a tree-line on mountains - lower down, the tree can eke out a living. Higher up, it can't. So no trees above the tree line. Liberals didn't make it so, Al Gore didn't make it so ...it's HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS. You have a problem with that, go take it out on a priest or the Big Bang or whatever you believe!
That's all with random seed distribution. At least with the first option (someone positions the seed with forethought), the farmer can decide if he's pissing his money up against a tree by trying to grow oranges on his Ohio farm. So the fact (FACT!) that plants are able to survive in more northern (and higher) environments than before means..... anyone? Anyone? No, Billy, the plants aren't toughing it out to prove Rush Limbaugh right. Anyone?
3 - if you were going to fix the results, these are the wrong people to do it with. All data was taken from AMERICAN RURAL FARMING FOLK. So let me put it this way: IF you were going to start an international conspiracy that the earth was warming up, and IF you wanted to get information to prove your point, and IF you wanted to do this to prove American Conservatives wrong, would you go to RURAL AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES to get your made-up evidence? Because it seems to me that we have the ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE THAT WOULD BELIEVE THAT GLOBAL WARMING IS A LIBERAL MYTH, and for the past SIX DECADES these people have been systematically proving that their own land is slowly warming.
We have decades of information. Relating to life-forms that don't care what color tie the President wears (or what a President is). Taken from people that specifically do NOT have an agenda to prove global warming.
And yet they do. This makes it possibly the strongest type of evidence out there. The sort that proved the hypothesis decades before the hypothesis was invented!
Reprinted by permission of ShawnGBR on March 20, 2007 on AAR
saddam and all his cronies are getting hanged for offences they committed 20 years ago. it's a good thing bush is taking good care of himself so he can live to see his own hanging 20 years from now.
OMG....from my the newspaper about the radio station's fox news misinformation about the Iraqis wanting the US to stay there directly contradicting a USa today poll from yesterday...
Dear Alice: I appreciate your concerns. Simply put, we cannot monitor the radio station's news content for errors anymore than we can monitor Fox News for errors or unbiased reporting. Likewise, we do not expect the radio station to correct any errors that may appear in The Union Democrat.
We issue our own corrections, right on the front page, when necessary. I do not know how or whether the radio station deals with corrections.
As Iraqis mark the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, an unlikely critic of the occupation has emerged. Four years ago, images of a prize-winning Iraqi weightlifter named Kadhim al-Jubouri were broadcast around the world. He was videotaped using a sledgehammer to bring down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now al-Jubouri says he regrets his actions. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper he said, “The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day.” He said Saddam Hussein was like Stalin but the occupation is proving to be worse.
Ex-Iraqi Weightlifter Regrets Toppling Saddam Statue As Iraqis mark the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, an unlikely critic of the occupation has emerged. Four years ago, images of a prize-winning Iraqi weightlifter named Kadhim al-Jubouri were broadcast around the world. He was videotaped using a sledgehammer to bring down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now al-Jubouri says he regrets his actions. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper he said, “The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day.” He said Saddam Hussein was like Stalin but the occupation is proving to be worse.
MoveOn Criticized For Backing Additional War Funding
On Monday the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org publicly endorsed the Democratic House leadership's bill to approve $100 billion in additional funding for the war. On Thursday, the House is scheduled to vote on the bill that would fund the war for another year on the condition that American troops begin to withdraw by next March. Eli Pariser of MoveOn said, "While this measure doesn't go far enough, they know the choice is a war without end or a safe and responsible end to the war. This measure is an important step in the right direction." Several prominent anti-war advocates have criticized MoveOn for refusing to support the Iraq amendment from Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey and Maxine Waters, which calls for "a fully funded, and systematic, withdrawal of U.S. soldiers and military contractors from Iraq" by the end of 2007.
dada, the music from the other night is great stuff...the Djamchid Chemirani drumming I loved...I you know more links like that post them please...There were great international music videos on one of them too...
Among those escorted to three police vans was a woman in a wheelchair, a woman in a nun's habit and former Department of Defense official Daniel Ellsberg.
Ellsberg became famous for leaking the classified Pentagon Papers documents to the New York Times in 1971 that revealed the U.S. government had engaged in a pattern of deceiving the public about the number of Vietnam war casualties and the nation's ability to win the conflict.
"I spent this same day in jail in D.C. during 'shock and awe' four years ago, and I'm sorry to say that I did expect the war would still be going on this long," said Ellsberg, 75, moments after his release from San Francisco County Jail, where activists were cited and released.
Ellsberg became famous for leaking the classified Pentagon Papers documents to the New York Times in 1971 that revealed the U.S. government had engaged in a pattern of deceiving the public about the number of Vietnam war casualties and the nation's ability to win the conflict.
"The end of this story hasn't been told; but Marc Maron gave his side to BlatherWatch tonight. "They [Air America] made me an offer. Initially it was unclear what time slot I would fill."
Maron says he considered the offer.
His joy, no doubt was dampened when he learned that the new owners' plans for him were for Sam's 9-ta noon time slot.
He says they were going to switch out Seder into the evening.
Maron says, "Sam did not know this." And after thinking about it, he told Seder."
I thought it was "just a rumor"? Seems Maron is CONFIRMING the fact that ol' Sammy is getting moved...just denying that Marc is getting the slot.
BTW, how soon will you see that "Hillary as Big Brother" ad pulled from YouTube....and DEFINTELY from this blog (despite the reknown liberal hatred of censorship...hehe)...
the MOMENT Hillary wins the Dem nomination?
Would it be possible to measure it in pico-seconds?
Sam - Are you familiar with the old time vaudville clown/movie actor Ed Wynn? That's who Glen Beck sounds like to me. Wynn appeared in family-fare movies into the 1960's.
Congress Delves Into FBI's Patriot Act Use Justice Department Investigator Says FBI Abused Act
Hearings begin on Capitol Hill Tuesday into if the FBI abused the Patriot Act to improperly gather information on U.S. citizens.
Glenn Fine, the Justice Department investigator who revealed the abuses in a report last week, will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The panel also has also called the FBI's general counsel to testify.
Fine said the general counsel's office failed to adequately supervise the bureau's information-gathering activities.
Sunshine Jim said... gomes sounds pretty slippery. feds making him unwelcome at parties. a little bit of a whole lifestyle being looked at. guns and dope. just like cheney and co. the competition. March 20, 2007 12:00 PM
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
gomes is Cheney's son. gomes and the rest are Reagan and Bush's babies.
White House won’t allow Rove, Miers testimony. MSNBC’s Mike Viquiera: “Fred Fielding, he’s the White House counsel, he was just here meeting with the House Judiciary Committee. He made the following to the Congress, both House and Senate. He said Rove and Harriet Miers would be offered to the committees for their testimony in the Alberto Gonzales prosecutors scandal. However, it would be unsworn testimony, not under oath, behind closed doors, and no transcript would be permitted. Now, that is not what Congress is looking for.”
Congressional Report: Clinton Didn’t Do It Too Both President Bush and Karl Rove have argued that the administration’s U.S. Attorney purge is a “normal and ordinary” process that was also carried out by President Clinton. ThinkProgress has spent some time debunking this claim, but the Congressional Research Service has put the nail in the coffin.
A CRS report released yesterday examines the tenure of all U.S. Attorneys who were confirmed by the Senate between the years 1981 and 2006 to determine how many had served — and, of those, how many had been forced to resign for reasons other than a change in administration.
The answer:
– Of the 468 confirmations made by the Senate over the 25-year period, only 10 left office involuntarily for reasons other than a change in administration prior to the firings that took place in December.
– In virtually all of those 10 previous cases, serious issues of personal or professional conduct appeared to be the driving issue. Prior to December, for example, only two U.S. Attorneys were outright fired for improper, and in one case criminal, behavior. The CRS report identifies six other U.S. Attorneys who resigned during the 25-year period who were implicated in news reports of “questionable conduct.” For two others, the CRS was unable to determine the cause.
In other words, the Bush administration pushed out almost as many U.S. Attorneys in December as had been let go over the past 25 years.
American Progress fellow Scott Lilly writes on the CRS report:
It is clear that of the four administrations that controlled the executive branch of government during the past quarter-century, only the current administration has held the view that U.S. Attorney can or should be removed absent serious cause. In no instance is there any indication of a removal because a U.S. attorney failed to meet certain political criteria, such as prosecuting cases that were considered too sensitive to partisan issues or failing to prosecute cases that would be helpful from a partisan perspective.
The innovative philosophy of the current Bush administration with respect to the service of U.S. Attorneys is worthy of the attention it is now receiving. Those eight forced resignations threaten the very basis of our justice system — to quote the words written above the pillars on the west front of the Supreme Court, “Equal Justice Under Law.”
Senate votes to limit Bush’s power on U.S. attorneys. In a 94-2 vote, the Senate today voted to “end the Bush administration’s ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ firing of eight federal prosecutors.” The bill will cancel “a Justice Department-authored provision in the Patriot Act that had allowed the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation.”
UPDATE: Gonzales was supposed to appear before a House committee on Thursday to discuss the Justice Department budget and other issues not related to the U.S. Attorney purge. He just canceled. (Via Atrios)
UPDATE II: House Judiciary Committee to meet tomorrow to authorize subpoenas against Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, Gonzales’ ex-chief of staff Kyle Sampson, Rove deputy Scott Jennings, and others.
toniD, just got in from the afternoon school pickup and saw the cnn breaking news about testifying but not being under oath. cnn wrote:
-- The White House will allow key presidential aide Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers to be interviewed by committees probing the firings of U.S. attorneys, but they will not testify under oath, Rep. Chris Cannon says.
I was furious when I read it but then just saw your post:
However, it would be unsworn testimony, not under oath, behind closed doors, and no transcript would be permitted.
-- The White House will allow key presidential aide Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers to be interviewed by committees probing the firings of U.S. attorneys, but they will not testify under oath, Rep. Chris Cannon says. --
So only Bill Clinton should appear under oath?
When are these people going to stop being exempt from the rules and regulations everyone else has to abide by?
(AP) Attorney General Alberto Gonzales speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in... Full Image
Google sponsored links Why Mommy is a Democrat - The book George Bush doesn't want your kids to read! littledemocrats.net
Hillary for President - Donate Today & Send a Fundraising Email to Friends & Family. www.HillaryClinton.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal prosecutors.
Amid calls from lawmakers in both parties to resign, Gonzales got a morale boost with an early-morning call from President Bush, their first conversation since a week ago, when the president said he was unhappy with how the Justice Department handled the firings.
With a 94-2 vote, the Senate passed a bill that canceled a Justice Department-authored provision in the Patriot Act that had allowed the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. Democrats say the Bush administration abused that authority when it fired the eight prosecutors and proposed replacing some with White House loyalists.
"If you politicize the prosecutors, you politicize everybody in the whole chain of law enforcement," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
(AP) Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate... Full Image
The bill, which has yet to be considered in the House, would set a 120-day deadline for the administration to appoint an interim prosecutor. If the interim appointment is not confirmed by the Senate in that time, a permanent replacement would be named by a federal district judge.
Essentially, the Senate returned the law regarding the appointments of U.S. attorneys to where it was before Congress passed the Patriot Act, including the unilateral appointment authority the administration had sought in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Did Sam and Daily Kous-kous get around to blaming Karl Rove for creating the "Hillary-1984" ad on YouTube and trying to "frame poor innocent Barack"?!?!?
New FBI phone record rules could elimate paper trail. The FBI, “which has been criticized for improperly gathering telephone records in terrorism cases,” has issued new rules for agents who want phone companies to voluntarily hand over their records. “The new instructions tell agents there is no need to follow up with national security letters or subpoenas,” the Washington Post reports. “The agents are also told that the new letter template is the preferred method in emergencies but that they may make requests orally, with no paperwork sent to phone companies.”
FACT CHECK: There Is No Precedent Barring White House Aides From Testifying To Congress Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) has called on Karl Rove and other top White House aides to testify under oath in front of Congress concerning their role in the U.S. attorney purge. A response from White House Counsel Fred Fielding is expected today, but in the meantime, the White House and its allies have put up a fight, arguing that presidential advisers have historically not testified in front of Congress:
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow: Well, as you know, Ed, it has been traditional in all White Houses not to have staffers testify on Capitol Hill. [3/13/07]
White House Counselor Dan Bartlett: I find it highly unlikely that a member of the White House staff would testify publicly to these matters. [3/13/07]
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH): No, I think you’re violating a precedent there that should not be violated. … I believe that under the separation of powers, there are limits to the extent to which Congress can subpoena or demand testimony from those who were closest to the president. [3/15/07]
But in reality, there is no such precedent. According to the Congressional Research Service, under President Clinton, 31 of his top aides testified on 47 different occasions. The aides who testified included some of Clinton’s closest advisors:
Harold Ickes, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff - 7/28/94
George Stephanopoulos, Senior Adviser to the President for Policy and Strategy - 8/4/94
John Podesta, Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary - 8/5/94
Bruce R. Lindsey, Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President - 1/16/96
Samuel Berger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs - 9/11/97
Beth Nolan, Counsel to the President - 5/4/00
In contrast, between 2000 and 2004, Bush allowed only one of his closest advisers, then-Assistant to the President for Homeland Security Tom Ridge, to appear in front of Congress. He has also refused three invitations from Congress for his aides to testify, a first since President Richard Nixon in 1972. Clinton did not refuse any.
CRS also notes that although “White House aides do not testify before congressional committees in a regular basis…under certain conditions they do. First, intense and escalating political embarrassment may convince the White House that it is in the interest of the President to have these aides testify and ventilate the issue fully. Second, initial White House resistance may give way in the face of concerted congressional and public pressure.”
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans and Democrats sternly warned the FBI on Tuesday that it could lose its broad power to collect telephone, e-mail and financial records to hunt terrorists after revelations of widespread abuses of the authority detailed in a recent internal investigation.
Their threats came as the Justice Department's chief watchdog, Glenn A. Fine, told the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI engaged in widespread and serious misuse of its authority in illegally collecting the information from Americans and foreigners through so-called national security letters.
If the FBI doesn't move swiftly to correct the mistakes and problems revealed last week in Fine's 130-page report, "you probably won't have NSL authority," said Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., a supporter of the power, referring to the data requests by their initials.
"From the attorney general on down, you should be ashamed of yourself," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. "We stretched to try to give you the tools necessary to make America safe, and it is very, very clear that you've abused that trust."
america has become severely fractionalized so it is surprising that a 3rd or 4th party hasn't caught on. that being said i still want to puke when i think about ralph nader and what he did to this country with his 3rd party.
The reason for impeachment is to send a message to future presidents that we will not stand for lying, cheating, and taking away our freedoms. Everything this admin has done in the past 6 years.
... Maybe we should talk for a moment about who he is and his background, because it has everything to do with the success of the company. Erik Prince comes from a very wealthy rightwing Christian dynasty in the town of Holland, Michigan. His father was a man named Edgar Prince, who was a sort of pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps capitalist. He built up an empire called the Prince Manufacturing Corp., and they manufactured auto parts, serviced the auto industry. And, in fact, what the company is perhaps best known for was for creating the now-ubiquitous lighted sun visor. So when you pull down the visor in your car and it lights up, that's the Prince family's invention. And it was a very profitable business.
And so, young Erik Prince grew up in this very heady atmosphere that mixed the sort of free-market gospel with the literal Christian gospel. His family, they were strict Calvinists. And Erik Prince was political at a very early age and watched as his father used his company as a cash-generating engine to fuel the rise of what we now know as the religious right in this country, as well as the Republican Revolution of 1994. His father gave the seed money to Gary Bauer to found the Family Research Council. Young Erik Prince was in the first crop of interns to serve at the Family Research Council. They gave significant funding to James Dobson and his group Focus on the Family, which is now sort of the premier evangelical organizing network in this country, the “prayer warriors.”
And what’s interesting is that Erik Prince’s sister Betsy married into another powerhouse Michigan family, perhaps the single greatest bankroller of the Republican Revolution: Dick DeVos’s Amway Corporation. ...
It is evident that Bush does not see the writing on the wall. Even the repubs are voting against him on some things. They must feel safer doing it now. 2 years ago very few would have voted against this admin.
This vote, today, to eliminate the article about States Attorneys should give a clue to him. 94-2!
At this point, this admin would have to try a coup to take over the government.
94 to 2 vote shows how radioactive Gonzales-US Attorneys issue is to GOP by John Aravosis (DC) · 3/20/2007 02:33:00 PM ET
My God. They didn't just revoke Bush's power to appoint US Attorneys without going through the Senate, they revoked it with a 94-2 vote. That's unheard of, short of voting on mom, apple pie, and Chevrolet. The GOP, the party that never met a filibuster it didn't like, is freaking. The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal prosecutors.
....the Senate by a 94-2 vote passed a bill that would cancel the attorney general's power to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. Democrats say the Bush administration abused that authority when it fired the eight prosecutors and proposed replacing some with White House loyalists....
Essentially, the Senate returned the law regarding the appointments of U.S. attorneys to where it was before Congress passed the Patriot Act, including the unilateral appointment authority the administration had sought in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. (Hat tip, ThinkProgress.)
As national security expert Stephen Flynn observes in his new book, The Edge of Disaster, America’s response to the devastation of New Orleans in 2005 pales in comparison to its response to a catastrophe of a similar scale nearly a century ago, the earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906. As Flynn notes the problems following Katrina weren’t logistical, they were political and bureaucratic.
A similar sclerosis has afflicted America’s efforts in Iraq. Poor intelligence, a dysfunctional national security decision-making process, Congress’ abdication of oversight, and a myriad of other institutional malfunctions have virtually doomed America’s mission in Iraq from the start. There is more at fault here than just Bush’s bad judgment. Breakdowns have occurred across many levels; corporate corruption, a poorly equipped military, and a compliant media that failed to challenge the rationales for war have all contributed to the mess in Iraq.
There is much tragedy in here. The performance of the U.S. Coast Guard was one of the few bright spots in America’s response to Katrina. Despite being pushed to its limit, the Coast Guard managed to help save thousands without losing a single Guard member. Nevertheless, the Guard manages to scrape by with ships and equipment that are anything but state of the art. Similarly, American troops in Iraq are facing an almost impossible situation – they are effectively trying to stop civil war in Iraq from becoming a region-wide conflagration – but have been shortchanged by an administration that believed it could wage war and do nation building on the cheap. To say that U.S. troops in Iraq have “fought like lions, but have been led by donkeys” -- a verdict ascribed to certain incompetent generals in WWI -- would not be entirely unfair.
Not the greatest editorial, but I liked that part. there's some other good ones down the side. "War Without Win: A White Paper On Iran by William John Cox" is a long one that makes some very salient points.
The reason for impeachment is to send a message to future presidents that we will not stand for lying, cheating, and taking away our freedoms. Everything this admin has done in the past 6 years.
i can't believe that monkey's arrogrance and disregard for democracy. let the subponeas roll. give em the fight they think they want. just make sure we hit them hard enough that they go down with the first punch.
Tancredo says time for Gonzales to ‘move on.’ “Gonzales’ legacy at the (Justice Department) has been one of misplaced priorities, political miscalculation, and a failure to enforce the laws which he has sworn to uphold,” Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) said in a statement. “I think that it is time for him to move on.”
Rove gets touchy. The Kansas City Star reports on President Bush’s visit to a GM plant today:
Besides his considerable security contingent, the chief executive was accompanied by Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Press Secretary Tony Snow.
A reporter approached Rove to ask him what he thought of rumors that former Missouri Sen. Jack Danforth could replace embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. “How about you go over there and do your job,” Rove replied, pointed back to the media pool.
White House Won’t Allow Rove, Miers To Testify » MSNBC’s Mike Viquiera: “Fred Fielding, he’s the White House counsel, he was just here meeting with the House Judiciary Committee. He made the following offer to the Congress, both House and Senate. He said Rove and Harriet Miers would be offered to the committees for their testimony in the Alberto Gonzales prosecutors scandal. However, it would be unsworn testimony, not under oath, behind closed doors, and no transcript would be permitted. Now, that is not what Congress is looking for.”
UPDATE: During a press conference, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also revealed that the White House is restricting the types of documents that it is willing to release voluntarily. Schumer said the White House is willing to turn over emails between the White House and the Justice Department, and between the White House and third parties, but not intra-White House emails. Schumer explained the problem:
So, if Karl Rove sent a communication to Harriet Miers and said, and this is purely hypothetical, “We have to get rid of US Attorney Lam. Come up with a good reason…” and the only communication we get is the good reason that Harriet Miers sent to the Justice Department.
Later, a reporter argued that Rove and Miers would still be legally compelled to tell the truth even if they weren’t technically under oath. Schumer pointed added by refusing to allow a transcript to be made, “it would be almost meaningless to say that they were under some kind of legal sanction.” Watch it:
UPDATE II: President Bush to speak on the U.S. Attorney purge at 5:30pm ET.
UPDATE III: Read the full White House letter laying out its offer.
Bush warns Dems to take offer in firings By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago
President Bush warned Democrats Tuesday to accept his offer to have top aides testify about the firings of federal prosecutors only privately and not under oath, or risk a constitutional showdown from which he would not back down.
Democrats' response to his proposal was swift and firm. "Testimony should be on the record and under oath. That's the formula for true accountability," said Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bush, in a late-afternoon statement at the White House, said, "We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants. ... I proposed a reasonable way to avoid an impasse."
He added: "There's no indication ... that anybody did anything improper."
Bush gave his embattled attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, a boost during an early morning call to his longtime friend and ended the day with a public statement repeating it. "He's got support with me," the president said.
The Senate, meanwhile, voted to strip Gonzales of his authority to fill U.S. attorney vacancies without Senate confirmation. Democrats contend the Justice Department and White House purged eight federal prosecutors, some of whom were leading political corruption investigations, after a change in the Patriot Act gave Gonzales the new authority.
Several Democrats, including presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barrack Obama, Joe Biden and John Edwards, have called for Gonzales' ouster or resignation. So have a handful of Republican lawmakers.
hahahahahahaha. With the body of Fitzmas past barely cold, you strike out on another worthless vendetta. When will you boneheads ever learn. It you want the White House, win an election. What a pack of fools. No wonder AAR is bankrupt and Sam fired!
Anonymous said... hahahahahahaha. With the body of Fitzmas past barely cold, you strike out on another worthless vendetta. When will you boneheads ever learn. It you want the White House, win an election. What a pack of fools. No wonder AAR is bankrupt and Sam fired!
March 20, 2007 3:40 PM
Today, what you say is empty. It has no bearing on what is happening at all because we will win the election this time unless Bush tries a coup. People are fed up and it's not just the Libs.
How funny! hahahahahahahaha. This place is a shambles. Nothing buy skin, bones, and pretend. And you still don't know why. Well it makes for great entertainment. Do you have a name for this next vendetta? Fitzmas was cute, and it fit up your ass nicely!
“We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants. The initial response by Democrats unfortunately shows some appear more interested in scoring political points than in learning the facts. It will be regrettable if they choose to head down the partisan road of issuing subpoenas and demanding show trials. And I have agreed to make key White House officials and documents available. I proposed a reasonable way to avoid an impasse, and I hope they don’t choose confrontation. I will oppose any attempts to subpoena White House officials.”
UPDATE: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said, “I don’t accept [the White House’s] offer. It is not constructive and it is not helpful to be telling the Senate how to do our investigation, or to prejudge its outcome. … Testimony should be on the record, and under oath. That’s the formula for true accountability.”
Ex-Milan CIA chief goes into hiding over kidnapping of Muslim cleric RAW STORY Published: Tuesday March 20, 2007
Robert Lady, the former CIA chief in Milan, has gone into hiding, the German newspaper Der Spiegel reports Tuesday. But "to this day, he continues to pay his $4,000 mortgage."
How About a Little Democracy for a Change? By Jason Miller 03/20/2007 02:06:17 PM EST "Revolution is the Solution"
Shaken to its very core by the ravages of Military Keynesianism, neoliberal economic policies, crony capitalism, corporatism, corruption, and wanton disregard for the Constitution, international law, and standards of human decency, our Constitutional Republic is hanging by a very slender thread.
Even before plutocrats, corporations, lobbyists, and the rest of the malevolent cabal (who together represent a very small percentage of the populace in the United States) acted in concert to further their mutual interests by eviscerating the law of the land, the United States was far from being a democracy. Our Constitution, unique and progressive as it was prior to reactionary forces gutting it, was written as a framework for a limited form of representative democracy.
Like many activists, writers, Leftists, populists, and enraged US Americans of virtually all political stripes, occupations, and races, I have been longing to find a viable means of inciting or collaborating with a mass movement that will force the plutocracy to yield their stranglehold on wealth and power. I have come to the conclusion that dedicated and sustained individual efforts by tens of millions coupled with multiple collective actions carried out by substantial numbers of people will eventually reshape the political and socioeconomic landscape of the United States. If that fails, the increasingly hubristic, avaricious, and emboldened ruling class will most likely face a violent insurrection.
As he will tell you in the interview, Joel Hirschhorn has provided those of us in the "lower classes" with a tangible means of acting in unison to attack the entrenched power structure. His suggested strategy is peaceful, legal, and practical.
in a late-afternoon statement at the White House, "We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants. ... I proposed a reasonable way to avoid an impasse."
He added: "There's no indication ... that anybody did anything improper." --------------------------------- Crank Bait says that one small advantage to being older than some is that he can clearly hear Richard Nixon's words being echoed in the above statements by George W. Bush.
Nixon defended his team even as he was sacrificing several of them. His most famous sentence, "I am not a crook" sounds a lot like "There's no indication...that anybody did anything improper."
Recently I have heard Tom DeLay hawking his new book. He stands firm on his belief that creating a permanent Republican majority, by hook or by crook, was and is his priority goal.
When party power trumps all other concerns, the political shit hits the subpoena/indictment/impeachment fan.
Tricky Dick resigned in disgrace as a result of an illegal Republican party power play. (Think of it as the political equivalent of a Mafia murderer going down for tax evasion.)
Bush, like DeLay and Nixon before him, is playing with fire. It is more likely that politicians will get away with illegal horse shit when they are not already in the Popularity Poll dumpster and up against the multiple-accusation wall.
Crank Bait says, "Let Bush and his ilk stonewall the demands of Congress. The Bush administration has their shovels. Let them keep digging a deeper and deeper hole."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower also supported an Article V Convention saying: "Through their state legislatures and without regard to the federal government, the people can demand a convention to propose amendments that can and will reverse any trends they see as fatal to true representative government."
Yet fears remain and the myths persist. The antidote for any fear is knowledge, and education is the reason why FOAVC exists. Our goal is to inform all citizens about the convention clause in the Constitution and to provide an electronic town hall where the people can discuss the various issues pertaining to a convention in a calm and rational manner. Our ultimate objective is to generate the 'critical mass' necessary to convene an Article V convention.
We invite you, all patriots and concerned Americans, to carefully review the articles, documents and discussion presented in these pages. If upon careful consideration you conclude, as we have, that an Article V Convention is necessary to preserve the Constitutional Republic - and to prevent Congress from vetoing the will of the people - we invite you to join FOAVC.
Schwarzenegger Calls Rush Limbaugh Irrelevant "All irrelevant. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant." - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning on the "Today Show," speaking to Campbell Brown.
During the one-on-one interview, the Republican-registered California governor was asked about criticism from Limbaugh and other conservatives that he has become a Democrat in disguise for supporting stem-cell research, mandatory curbs on carbon dioxide emissions and universal health care. Schwarzenegger said he is "the people's servant of California. What they call me - Democrat or Republican or in the center, this and that - that is not my bottom line. This is for them to talk about."
And so Crank, I remind you of my ongoing argument with War Dog that Bush will go down just like Nixon. I told him this two or three years ago and he called me mad!
No man is above the country is what I said and what I say now. Once they start the slippery slide...it's amazing watching them go down!
Duh! What law did Bush/Gonzo break? Back to Fitzmas with you until you learn. One must first break a law. Ooops, ya keep forgetting that! Damn the details!
Conyers, Sànchez to Issue Subpoenas for White House Officials
(Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sànchez called a meeting to authorize subpoenas for five current and former White House and Justice Department officials. The Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (CAL) will meet TOMORROW, March 21st at 10:15 am in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building to consider subpoenas for Kyle Sampson, Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, William Kelley, and Scott Jennings, as well as White House and Justice Department documents, which have not been provided to date.
That's just a little part of the train wreck unfolding.
I remember when people thought Nixon could just do anything and get away with it. We knew he was a cheesy hustler...just like Bush...but nobody believed he'd go down.
Then, it started to unravel. There were people just like you who ranted and raved that he hadn't broken any law....nothing to see here...move on!
May the good belong to all the people in the world. May the rulers go by the path of justice. May the best of men and their source always prove to be a blessing. May all the world rejoice in happiness. May rain come in time and plentifulness be on Earth. May this world be free from suffering and the noble ones be free from fears
The glory days for the left wing have nothing to do with Gonzo. No laws have been broken and that is was the key to Fitzmas as well. Scooter tell it straight everyone goes home to dinner.
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. You will be walking all the way to 2009!
Love the thing about bringing together the phoniness of American Patriotism and the reality of the need for decent health care for all in an enlightened society.
Damn those details, if only Bush would try to cover-up a break-in. Bam you'd have him! But is didn't happen in Plame, and didn't happen with Gonzo. Dream on dreamers. It has nothing to do with Nixon. This place is for pretend and wishing, it is good place for that.
Straws said... Damn those details, if only Bush would try to cover-up a break-in. Bam you'd have him! But is didn't happen in Plame, and didn't happen with Gonzo. Dream on dreamers. It has nothing to do with Nixon. This place is for pretend and wishing, it is good place for that.
That's why you're here. You're pretending and wishing what you say is true.
Reefer's right. The die is cast so sit back and watch. You may not like what you see.
Spiro Agnew and the Watergate gang and the Irangate gang all learned that the spotlight is a little too bright to hide every shenanigan.
---
You ignorant left wing slut. The Watergate burglars were caught in the act. Duh! Tough case to prove huh? Nixon and the boys ran a cover-up. Duh! Bush has broken no law. Your daily bonehead accusations hold no water at all. You try to bend the facts to fit your needs and in the end you looking like morons over and over.
Get a clue, this is nothing like Nixon and Watergate, but that is all you have. A one trick pony. You guys never learn a damn thing.
You all were singing the same tune for a year with Fitzmas. Duh! Same fucking mistake every time!
American Freedom Agenda Four prominent conservative thinkers are set to launch a campaign "to restore checks and balances and civil liberties protections under assault by the Executive Branch," arguing that, "since 9/11, the President has acquired too much power."
that us from a post on huffington by Melinda Henneberger. nobody else is talking about it.
If I could change the way I live my life today I wouldn't change a single thing Cos if I changed my world into another place I wouldn't see your smiling face
Honey don't you worry, there's nothin to worry for Cos If I didn't love you I wouldn't be here now And Iif I didn't want you I would have turned around by now.
You've got to believe me babe, believe that I love you so Cos if I didn't love you, I would have turned around And if I didn't wnat you, then I would want you out.
This love, this love has filled me up Ooh my love I'll never give you up Cos I'll always want your love
Believing is the answer, the answer to all your fears When I first said I loved you, I want in for the kill Now when I say I love you, I mean I always will
This love, this love has filled me up Ooh my love I'll never give you up Cos I'll always want your love
If I could change the way I live my life today I wouldn't change a single thing Cos if I changed my world into another place I wouldn't see your smiling face
You are all like children. Simple, unsophisticated, and wishing for miracles. Well this is the real world kids, there ain't no Santa, no Fitzmas, and no second Watergate. You need to grow up!
Teenage use of alcohol and drugs dropped significantly in New York City in 2005 compared with past years, and is lower than the national rate, but it remains disturbingly high, city officials said today, citing the results of a recently released survey.
The city’s biennial survey found that in 2005, fewer students at the city’s public high schools were drinking or smoking marijuana than at any time since the surveys began in 1997. Use of most harder drugs was roughly unchanged.
But 1.8 percent of students surveyed in 2005 said they had tried heroin at least once, triple the number in 2001.
Lorna Thorpe, a deputy city health commissioner, said it was not clear why there had been an overall drop in drug and alcohol use, but that it might be connected to a decline in teenage smoking. People who smoke are more likely to use other substances, as well.
She said officials were equally unsure of the cause of the rise in heroin use, but that it coincided with a rise in emergency room visits and Emergency Medical Service calls involving heroin.
“That has raised a flag for us, and we’re watching it,” she said. She added that while the data are usually compiled slowly, over more than a year, officials will pay particular attention to the heroin figures as they conduct the 2007 survey.
The change could be tied to the fact that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan greatly curtailed the trade in opium, the raw material for heroin. But the drug became more readily available and cheaper after the regime was overthrown in late 2001.
You are all like children. Simple, unsophisticated, and wishing for miracles. Well this is the real world kids, there ain't no Santa, no Fitzmas, and no second Watergate. You need to grow up!
Understanding Empire: Hierarchy, Networks and Clients James Petras
The imperial system is much more complex than what is commonly referred to as the “US Empire”. The US Empire, with its vast network of financial investments, military bases, multi-national corporations and client states, is the single most important component of the global imperial system (1). Nevertheless, it is overly simplistic to overlook the complex hierarchies, networks, follower states and clients that define the contemporary imperial system (2). To understand empire and imperialism today requires us to look at the complex and changing system of imperial stratification.
Hierarchy of Empire
The structure of power of the world imperial system can best be understood through a classification of countries according to their political, economic, diplomatic and military organization. The following is a schema of this system:
"You ignorant left wing slut. The Watergate burglars were caught in the act." ------------------------------- The Watergate burglars were caught in the act of a burglary. It was one burglary among thousands in the country at that time. It was written-up in the petty crime section of the local newspaper.
One of the burglars talked. Further investigation ensued.
The rest is history.
If I was your history teacher, you'd be taking my class again next semester. ------------------------------- Would you like a current day analogy? Tom DeLay; trial delayed (pun intended) because additional charges have been added by the prosecution.
How about another one? Abramoff.
Want another? Gonzales; charges yet to be filed.
Another? Libby. Cheney and Rove implicated, yet to be charged.
Are you beginning to see how this works?
Probably not. Let me make it clearer.
Clinton was impeached based on his lie under oath about a blow job. The legal investigative process went no further because there was nothing further to be learned.
Abramoff? Investigations continue based on information gathered during the effort to obtain his conviction.
The chancellor of Uruguay, Reinaldo Gargano, expressed on Saturday his refusal at the possibility that his country would sign a Free Trade Aggreement(TLC) with the United States, and has reinforced, however, to strengthen ties with the Mercosur. "I am not in agreement that Uruguaygo forward with a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. I am in favor of a better Mercosur; it is necessary for the integration in the region. We have already obtained that Venezuela join and now we want Bolivia to also join", reported Gargano. In declarations before that Ansa agency in Santiago, Chile, the diplomat commented that the Uruguayan government "is progressive and has its five fundamental programmatic axes, and one of them is integration". For Gargano, "there is no way to solve the poverty of the region if it is not with progressive policies and regional integration". The possibility of a TLC between Uruguay and the U.S.A. has been shuffled back and forth for months, after the past year Tabaré Vázquez signed two commercial agreements with his counter part George Bush, who many considered a waiting room to another more total agreement.
Tauscher Blasts Bush For ‘Criminal’ Management Of Military, Stands Behind Support For Regime Change Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) has become a controversial figure in the blogosphere. Yesterday, ThinkProgress sat down with her to discuss her stance on Iraq, among other issues. Tauscher began by telling us that she does not support the Bush strategy of escalation, noting that it is the fourth surge the administration has tried to effect without any success.
Referring to the current state of the strained and overstretched armed forces, Tauscher said, “I think this is a significant criminal dereliction of duty by the Commander in Chief.” She added that classified reports on military readiness are “chilling.”
ThinkProgress asked her whether she still stands behind her statement in the summer of 2002, when she said: “I am convinced that a regime change in Iraq is in the best interest of the United States and also our allies.” “I still think that was true,” she responded. She said her position then and now was that the “appropriate thing to do was to recontain Saddam Hussein” so that “you didn’t have to constantly look over your shoulder.” She said she tried to “slow things down” and avoid the “rush to war,” alluding to her sponsorship of a resolution that tried to delay the war vote until after the November 2002 midterm elections.
Tauscher said, “My constituents at home, while they didn’t want to go to war and didn’t believe we needed to go that far, wanted to deal with Saddam in a kind of permanent way — permanent in the sense that you didn’t have to worry about him in the short term. And I think people generally wanted to have regime change, they wanted to have the Iraqis freed from him.” But “never in my wildest dreams did I believe that that the Bush administration would fabricate information about weapons of mass destruction, cherrypick intel and feed it to the American people and Congress on a silver platter and make the case so significant that it would be irresponsible not to do something.” Watch it:
if //(ew, you cut one)// is not in the top 10 political quotes of the year, or is given some outstanding acheivement award... then i'm afraid all is lost
If if if if if if if if if if if If if if if if if if if if if if If if if if if if if if if if if If if if if if if if if if if if If if if if if if if if if if if If if if if if if if if if if if
...if you had any common sense you would know how childish it is to create impeachment in your mind and twist events to support your goals. Why do you think you ended up in this sorry state? You have no concept of reality. Look around, everything you touch turns to shit!
Cheney’s office involved in global warming manipulation. E&E reports that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing into Philip Cooney’s editing of global warming reports revealed that Cheney’s office also played a role. Kevin O’Donovan, an aide in Cheney’s office, wrote a memo to Cooney suggesting they try to “reinvigorate debate on the actual climate history of the past thousand years.” Waxman said the Cooney-O’Donovan memo “suggests active coordination between [White House Council on Environmental Quality] and the office of the vice president.”
Jean Schmidt: Walter Reed scandal ‘overblown.’ A statement from Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH), who infamously called decorated Marine Corps veteran Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) a “coward“:
While I believe that this building is beneath the standard of what is acceptable, I think it is wrong to suggest that mold found behind an air conditioner somehow is an excuse to say that all of our veterans are receiving substandard medical care. […]
I found the situation at Walter Reed to be overblown by both politicians and the media.
As Josh Marshall noted, the Cincinnati Inquirer has a story HERE.
//If if if if if if if if if if if If if if if if if if if if if if If if if if if if if if if if if If if if if if if if if if if if If if if if if if if if if if if If if if if if if if if if if if//
The U.S. Attorney document gap. “In DOJ documents that were publicly posted by the House Judiciary Committee, there is a gap from mid-November to early December in e-mails and other memos, which was a critical period as the White House and Justice Department reviewed, then approved, which U.S. attorneys would be fired while also developing a political and communications strategy for countering any fallout from the firings.”
UPDATE: McClatchy and the AP reprint some noteworthy emails from the documents.
You all don't know the difference between politics and a crime. Dream on!
What are “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”?
Bribery and treason are among the least ambiguous reasons meriting impeachment, but the ocean of wrongdoing encompassed by the Constitution's stipulation of “high crimes and misdemeanors” is vast. Abuse of power and serious misconduct in office fit this category, but one act that is definitely not grounds for impeachment is partisan discord. Several impeachment cases have confused political animosity with genuine crimes. Since Congress, the vortex of partisanship, is responsible for indicting, trying, and convicting public officials, it is necessary for the legislative branch to temporarily cast aside its factional nature and adopt a judicial role.
Feinstein Suspicious Of Another U.S. Attorney's Exit Associated Press | March 20, 2007 08:17 PM
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record) said Tuesday she wants answers about the departure of the former U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, who resigned last October before the Justice Department's dismissal of eight other U.S. attorneys sparked controversy.
"I have questions about Debra Yang's departure and I can't answer those questions right at this time," Feinstein, D-Calif. and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters in response to a question. "Was she asked to resign, and if so, why? We have to ferret that out."
In which Mr. Lewis explains the global strategies of realpolitik from the point of view of a ten-year-old with a learning disability.
He reveals how "Imperialism" is really just a propaganda tool of the Muslim world.
And most importantly, why Cheney is justified in his crusade against Islam. (You see, a man named Cheney was kidnapped from Ireland by Barbary corsairs in 1631. It all makes sense now. Why didn't Cheney just tell us this before?)
Cheney’s office involved in global warming manipulation. E&E reports that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing into Philip Cooney’s editing of global warming reports revealed that Cheney’s office also played a role. Kevin O’Donovan, an aide in Cheney’s office, wrote a memo to Cooney suggesting they try to “reinvigorate debate on the actual climate history of the past thousand years.” Waxman said the Cooney-O’Donovan memo “suggests active coordination between [White House Council on Environmental Quality] and the office of the vice president.”
LINK
March 20, 2007 7:30 PM ***
I wonder if Cheney cooked the books at Halliburton, a la Enron, when he was CEO?
Why wouldn't he? Being the sort of 'great guy'... and 'smart businessman' that he is...
375 comments:
1 – 200 of 375 Newer› Newest»Boom boom boom. Hey hey. Hour 3.
We're back.
Big Ed is pounding his chest again. Nothing like a good winner.
Wow! A separate thread for Hour 3?!
What's the occasion?
Just trying to bury all the bad news about the show. It's a big job!
There's something rotten going on in Colorado Springs.
Beck is such a loser. He is so unappealing, even to the sadomasochistic fascists. I find it difficult to believe that he has 3 million listeners.
It's easy to count people as being listeners. It's kind of like this NY Sun paper that arrived at my door. The owner is a self-proclaimed neocon and he is just sending it free of charge to anyone whose name he can get, just so he can count it as readership and reach and charge more to his advertisers.
Don't believe the hype.
Sam!!
Great imitation of Beck!!!
Spot on!
Fish??!!!!
Is that you?
What is rotten in Colorado Springs?
Glen Beck sounds like Charlie-in-the-Box from the island of misfit toys!
Whatta Maroon!
If there is bad news coming down the pike create a detour and re-route traffic back into "Happy Talkland".
- The White House Press Office
Anonymous said...
Glen Beck sounds like Charlie-in-the-Box from the island of misfit toys!
Whatta Maroon!
March 20, 2007 8:21 AM
*********
Ohmigod!
You are so right.
Charlie-in-the-box.
Excellent!
"massive drug problem"; and a wimpy voice.
Beck actually has kids?
Hillary's "voice irritating"? Compared to what? Man Colter's voice purhaps? Get REAL! Just my "two sense"!
From CNN Breaking News:
-- Former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan was hanged early Tuesday for his role the 1982 killings of 148 men and boys in Dujail, a government official told The Associated Press.
--
Only 148? That sounds like a bad weekend now.
They had dictatorship, but the Bushies replaced it with anarchy, instead of democracy.
How is this guy going to go on Good Morning America. I mean the show sucks, but how are they going to have this guy next to Diane Sawyer, or even allow him to talk to any of their guests? I have boycotted that show for several years, but I know their format, and ... I can't imagine what they are going to allow him to say.
The tide is turning regarding the appeal of these hate-speech tirades by on air personalities. Beck missed the wave. Just like people have become increasingly numb to reality TV, and are turning the channel, they are also tired of the lets say anything just to stir up controversy. "Controversy sells" isn't a good format anymore.
Marc maron speaks: "sam has not been fired."
The end of this story hasn't been told; but Marc Maron gave his side to BlatherWatch tonight. "They [Air America] made me an offer. Initially it was unclear what time slot I would fill."
Maron says he considered the offer.
His joy, no doubt was dampened when he learned that the new owners' plans for him were for Sam's 9-ta noon time slot.
He says they were going to switch out Seder into the evening.
Maron says, "Sam did not know this." And after thinking about it, he told Seder.
"I turned down the offer for a number of reasons. One of the reasons I turned it down was my respect for and my relationship with Sam."
He says, that as far as he knows, "Sam has not been fired."
This doesn't sound like such stable ground for Sam- we'll be waiting to hear what comes next.
(AAR never seems to stop delivering flaming bags of mellerdramer to the media... a piece of advice for the brave, new/old network: don't be fucking with our Rachel...)
Another regular show must have sounded pretty good to Marc Maron- especially with new AAR management.
This from his Wikipedia entry:
Maron co-hosted the progressive talk radio network Air America Radio's three-hour AM radio show Morning Sedition with Mark Riley. It became well known that his contract would not be renewed as of December 1, 2005 due to problems with then Air America executive Danny Goldberg. Goldberg reportedly did not "get" or agree with the comedy Maron and other writers (Jim Earl and Kent Jones) brought to the morning-drive time show.
... His last show and the previous incarnation of Morning Sedition was on December 16, 2005.
On February 28, 2006, Maron began hosting an evening radio program for KTLK Progressive Talk 1150AM in Los Angeles called The Marc Maron Show from 10:00PM PST until midnight PST. The program was never nationally syndicated by Air America despite reported contractual clauses promising so.
On July 5, 2006, it was announced that The Marc Maron Show's final show would air Friday July 14, 2006. ...
Marc Maron guest hosted Air America Radio's Springer on the Radio on November 6th, 2006 and The Sam Seder Show on December 1st, 2006. Maron also guest hosted The Sam Seder Show for the entire week of December 18th-22nd, 2006. He has a regular guest appearance on the Sam Seder show on the 3rd hour on Fridays.
Posted by michael hood
Yeah Markos!!!!
....love ya SAM, but...
Charles Nelson Reilly had more of a LISP in his speech.
You guys are doing a spot on "Charlie-in-the-box" from the Island of Misfit Toys! Who's with me on this? PEACE BABY.
LOL your glenn beck impersonation is spot on. Do more of it.
I gotta say that it is really sad that the Democrats would even consider going on Fox News. It just shows us how out of touch they are. Not all of them, of course, but a good number of them. Lame and stupid.
Just say no!
Before Air America, I monitored Beck and learned the following from his own statements:
1. Born Catholic; now a Mormon by remarrying one who took away his drug habit, much as Laura took George's bottle away.
2. Abused child; victim of father and/or stepfather.
3. Incomplete education highlighted by taking drama courses at Yale where he excelled in the dynamic presentation of the anger and resentment the right wing nuts require for on air entertainment of their constituents.
4. Opportunity struck on 9/11 when "conservative" talk radio needed another voice to dramatize America's latent fears and hatreds coming to the fore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyfGnASlSJA
Judge Judy and Johnny Rotten
Anonymous said...
Before Air America, I monitored Beck and learned the following from his own statements:
1. Born Catholic; now a Mormon by remarrying one who took away his drug habit, much as Laura took George's bottle away.
2. Abused child; victim of father and/or stepfather.
3. Incomplete education highlighted by taking drama courses at Yale where he excelled in the dynamic presentation of the anger and resentment the right wing nuts require for on air entertainment of their constituents.
4. Opportunity struck on 9/11 when "conservative" talk radio needed another voice to dramatize America's latent fears and hatreds coming to the fore.
March 20, 2007 8:48 AM
***
I really should stop being surprised by this bio. It's Karl Rove's bio and just about every other neocon screwup's.
Sam, Markos, this may interest you.
Conservatives in the rural areas of America have been collecting information that proves global warming is happening. For decades!
Map changes
This map shows hardiness zones. A gardener site at
WIKI Hardiness Zone
says...
"The USDA published its first hardiness zone map in 1960 and updated it in 1965. The 1990 map was completely reorganized based on data collected between 1974 to 1986 in the United States and Canada and between 1971 to 1984 in Mexico. The 1990 map was created because "in North America, the ranges of temperature and moisture for the past decade were wider than those recorded for the 1940's through the 1960's," according to the USDA.
That trend seems to have continued. The USDA and the American Horticulture Society worked together to develop a newer map based on records from 1986 to 2002. This map shows many regions are approximately 10 F warmer than they were in the 1960’s."
The three ways this proves global warming without agenda:
1 - the whole point of collecting this data wasn't to prove global warming. It was purely for good farming. There's no point in trying to grow oranges in Ohio, unless it gets warm enough to grow oranges in Ohio. These studies were to let farmers know if their crops could stand a freeze, not to prove CO level increases or to show dying polar bears. In fact, the initial hardiness zone maps for the United States were developed during the 1920's and 30's.
Twenties and Thirties. A time when there wasn't an awful lot of discussion concerning global warming. So the data predates the argument, making it bias-free.
2 - plants don't care about the argument. Plants are sensitive to temperature changes, yet they don't choose where their progeny gets to grow. Either someone positions their seed deliberately (the farmers), or they have a method of distributing their seed that works (carried in a bird's belly and dropped with the crap, blown in the wind, dropped from a branch, etc.).
In the latter instance (random distribution): if the conditions are right for the seed where it lands, it can germinate. If not, it doesn't. This is why you have a tree-line on mountains - lower down, the tree can eke out a living. Higher up, it can't. So no trees above the tree line. Liberals didn't make it so, Al Gore didn't make it so ...it's HOW THE WORLD REALLY WORKS. You have a problem with that, go take it out on a priest or the Big Bang or whatever you believe!
That's all with random seed distribution. At least with the first option (someone positions the seed with forethought), the farmer can decide if he's pissing his money up against a tree by trying to grow oranges on his Ohio farm. So the fact (FACT!) that plants are able to survive in more northern (and higher) environments than before means..... anyone? Anyone? No, Billy, the plants aren't toughing it out to prove Rush Limbaugh right. Anyone?
3 - if you were going to fix the results, these are the wrong people to do it with. All data was taken from AMERICAN RURAL FARMING FOLK. So let me put it this way: IF you were going to start an international conspiracy that the earth was warming up, and IF you wanted to get information to prove your point, and IF you wanted to do this to prove American Conservatives wrong, would you go to RURAL AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES to get your made-up evidence? Because it seems to me that we have the ONE GROUP OF PEOPLE THAT WOULD BELIEVE THAT GLOBAL WARMING IS A LIBERAL MYTH, and for the past SIX DECADES these people have been systematically proving that their own land is slowly warming.
We have decades of information. Relating to life-forms that don't care what color tie the President wears (or what a President is). Taken from people that specifically do NOT have an agenda to prove global warming.
And yet they do. This makes it possibly the strongest type of evidence out there. The sort that proved the hypothesis decades before the hypothesis was invented!
Reprinted by permission
of ShawnGBR on March 20, 2007 on AAR
saddam and all his cronies are getting hanged for offences they committed 20 years ago. it's a good thing bush is taking good care of himself so he can live to see his own hanging 20 years from now.
So Markos isn't Stalin, you say?
I'm not convinced.
The internets are radically transforming politics. And Kos is at the Vanguard of the movement.
hmm...
"at the vanguard"
that's not right, is it. You say "Kos 'is' the vanguard." You're not 'at' the vanguard, you are the vanguard.
I'm not sure.
OMG....from my the newspaper about the radio station's fox news misinformation about the Iraqis wanting the US to stay there directly contradicting a USa today poll from yesterday...
Dear Alice:
I appreciate your concerns. Simply put, we cannot monitor the radio station's news content for errors anymore than we can monitor Fox News for errors or unbiased reporting. Likewise, we do not expect the radio station to correct any errors that may appear in The Union Democrat.
We issue our own corrections, right on the front page, when necessary. I do not know how or whether the radio station deals with corrections.
Ex-Iraqi Weightlifter Regrets Toppling Saddam Statue
As Iraqis mark the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, an unlikely critic of the occupation has emerged. Four years ago, images of a prize-winning Iraqi weightlifter named Kadhim al-Jubouri were broadcast around the world. He was videotaped using a sledgehammer to bring down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now al-Jubouri says he regrets his actions. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper he said, “The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day.” He said Saddam Hussein was like Stalin but the occupation is proving to be worse.
Ex-Iraqi Weightlifter Regrets Toppling Saddam Statue
As Iraqis mark the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, an unlikely critic of the occupation has emerged. Four years ago, images of a prize-winning Iraqi weightlifter named Kadhim al-Jubouri were broadcast around the world. He was videotaped using a sledgehammer to bring down a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdous Square. Now al-Jubouri says he regrets his actions. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper he said, “The Americans are worse than the dictatorship. Every day is worse than the previous day.” He said Saddam Hussein was like Stalin but the occupation is proving to be worse.
Sam,
your impression of Glen Beck sounds like a character (I forgot which) on one the Christmas specials (Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer?).
I'll post the character's name when I recall.
.
Oops...that's supposed to be a link to DN...they also talked about the moveon story...
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/20/1337212
MoveOn Criticized For Backing Additional War Funding
On Monday the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org publicly endorsed the Democratic House leadership's bill to approve $100 billion in additional funding for the war. On Thursday, the House is scheduled to vote on the bill that would fund the war for another year on the condition that American troops begin to withdraw by next March. Eli Pariser of MoveOn said, "While this measure doesn't go far enough, they know the choice is a war without end or a safe and responsible end to the war. This measure is an important step in the right direction." Several prominent anti-war advocates have criticized MoveOn for refusing to support the Iraq amendment from Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey and Maxine Waters, which calls for "a fully funded, and systematic, withdrawal of U.S. soldiers and military contractors from Iraq" by the end of 2007.
dada, the music from the other night is great stuff...the Djamchid Chemirani drumming I loved...I you know more links like that post them please...There were great international music videos on one of them too...
Magnetic Internet Words
*If
57 arrests, including ex-defense official, at anti-war rallies
Among those escorted to three police vans was a woman in a wheelchair, a woman in a nun's habit and former Department of Defense official Daniel Ellsberg.
Ellsberg became famous for leaking the classified Pentagon Papers documents to the New York Times in 1971 that revealed the U.S. government had engaged in a pattern of deceiving the public about the number of Vietnam war casualties and the nation's ability to win the conflict.
"I spent this same day in jail in D.C. during 'shock and awe' four years ago, and I'm sorry to say that I did expect the war would still be going on this long," said Ellsberg, 75, moments after his release from San Francisco County Jail, where activists were cited and released.
Die-Ins on Market and Civil Disobedience, photos
morfternoon gang!
it's lovely sleeping in!
looks like it might be a fairly nice day here.
we'll see what tomorrow brings on the first day of spring~
hey jim, nothing wrong with avoiding the harmful effects of the suns rays before noon...
Ellsberg became famous for leaking the classified Pentagon Papers documents to the New York Times in 1971 that revealed the U.S. government had engaged in a pattern of deceiving the public about the number of Vietnam war casualties and the nation's ability to win the conflict.
and somethings never change...
"The end of this story hasn't been told; but Marc Maron gave his side to BlatherWatch tonight. "They [Air America] made me an offer. Initially it was unclear what time slot I would fill."
Maron says he considered the offer.
His joy, no doubt was dampened when he learned that the new owners' plans for him were for Sam's 9-ta noon time slot.
He says they were going to switch out Seder into the evening.
Maron says, "Sam did not know this." And after thinking about it, he told Seder."
I thought it was "just a rumor"? Seems Maron is CONFIRMING the fact that ol' Sammy is getting moved...just denying that Marc is getting the slot.
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Brooklyn Janitor Arrested In Rape of 8-Year-Old
BTW, how soon will you see that "Hillary as Big Brother" ad pulled from YouTube....and DEFINTELY from this blog (despite the reknown liberal hatred of censorship...hehe)...
the MOMENT Hillary wins the Dem nomination?
Would it be possible to measure it in pico-seconds?
I'll post the character's name when I recall.
.
March 20, 2007 9:16 AM
I'm going with Herbie the Dentist
Sam -
Are you familiar with the old time vaudville clown/movie actor Ed Wynn? That's who Glen Beck sounds like to me. Wynn appeared in family-fare movies into the 1960's.
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Curse, not a Blessing: N.Y. man lands in jail on gun, drug charges
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Police: Bomb Threat Against NYPD Station Unfounded
What Now Toons is doing some professional quality tooning!
http://www.whatnowtoons.com/
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Nearly Two Dozen Arrested After Garden Basketbrawl
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Hey Jim,
Did you see these?
City Vows to Improve Aid to Homeless Families
Homeless - Emergency Assistance Unit
Mentally Ill Boy Kills Himself in Shelter Hotel
Something amazing is happening on cspan 2. Conservatives are finally speaking out about the attacks against the constitution.
Congress Delves Into FBI's Patriot Act Use
Justice Department Investigator Says FBI Abused Act
Hearings begin on Capitol Hill Tuesday into if the FBI abused the Patriot Act to improperly gather information on U.S. citizens.
Glenn Fine, the Justice Department investigator who revealed the abuses in a report last week, will testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The panel also has also called the FBI's general counsel to testify.
Fine said the general counsel's office failed to adequately supervise the bureau's information-gathering activities.
http://www.nbc30.com/news/11300970/detail.html
eya NC!
ya i caught em
and everything else.
i usually read everything
and got to all the links when i can.
working with a sculpture group here locally.
great people, they want some of my Maple blanks
breaking news,
horror of horrors, clinton fired the white house chef when he took over. details at 11.
podcasting yesterday's show.
podcasts here:
http://tinyurl.com/ykpysd
Sunshine Jim said...
eya NC!
working with a sculpture group here locally.
great people, they want some of my Maple blanks
March 20, 2007 11:10 AM
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
That's a beautiful thing.
ya, ain't it?
glad i saved a litle bit of that tree.
spring is about to kick off.
looking forward to it as usual.
found out that some of the heritage trees in the hood are staying.
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
See, that's how it works..
If for some reason you become
homeless you go to the Emergency Assistance Unit in the Bronx
where they torment you.
ya, basically running the same corp/gov line. destroy institutions and then privatize them.
'getting rid of the competition'
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Sounds like "Training Day".
Ex-NYPD Officer Pleads Guilty to Dealing Drugs
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Fed In Hunt For Rap-Pack Gangsta
gomes sounds pretty slippery.
feds making him unwelcome at parties.
a little bit of a whole lifestyle being looked at.
guns and dope. just like cheney and co. the competition.
glock sure making some nice compact auto's.
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Ex-doctor pleads guilty in steroid probe
Sam had krugman on yesterday, good interview. whole show pretty dam good. WTG Sammer!
Sunshine Jim said...
gomes sounds pretty slippery.
feds making him unwelcome at parties.
a little bit of a whole lifestyle being looked at.
guns and dope. just like cheney and co. the competition.
March 20, 2007 12:00 PM
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
gomes is Cheney's son.
gomes and the rest are Reagan
and Bush's babies.
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
They own the night. They
police the streets for the right while the citizens are on lock down.
"NC" said...
bbl -
ya,
sorta fun lately.
been a while since anyone mentioned my "tinfoil hat"
Afternoon All!
Just home from work.
White House won’t allow Rove, Miers testimony. MSNBC’s Mike Viquiera: “Fred Fielding, he’s the White House counsel, he was just here meeting with the House Judiciary Committee. He made the following to the Congress, both House and Senate. He said Rove and Harriet Miers would be offered to the committees for their testimony in the Alberto Gonzales prosecutors scandal. However, it would be unsworn testimony, not under oath, behind closed doors, and no transcript would be permitted. Now, that is not what Congress is looking for.”
LINK
Schumer says they talk under oath or they will be subpoenaed.
20th century genocides
Congressional Report: Clinton Didn’t Do It Too
Both President Bush and Karl Rove have argued that the administration’s U.S. Attorney purge is a “normal and ordinary” process that was also carried out by President Clinton. ThinkProgress has spent some time debunking this claim, but the Congressional Research Service has put the nail in the coffin.
A CRS report released yesterday examines the tenure of all U.S. Attorneys who were confirmed by the Senate between the years 1981 and 2006 to determine how many had served — and, of those, how many had been forced to resign for reasons other than a change in administration.
The answer:
– Of the 468 confirmations made by the Senate over the 25-year period, only 10 left office involuntarily for reasons other than a change in administration prior to the firings that took place in December.
– In virtually all of those 10 previous cases, serious issues of personal or professional conduct appeared to be the driving issue. Prior to December, for example, only two U.S. Attorneys were outright fired for improper, and in one case criminal, behavior. The CRS report identifies six other U.S. Attorneys who resigned during the 25-year period who were implicated in news reports of “questionable conduct.” For two others, the CRS was unable to determine the cause.
In other words, the Bush administration pushed out almost as many U.S. Attorneys in December as had been let go over the past 25 years.
American Progress fellow Scott Lilly writes on the CRS report:
It is clear that of the four administrations that controlled the executive branch of government during the past quarter-century, only the current administration has held the view that U.S. Attorney can or should be removed absent serious cause. In no instance is there any indication of a removal because a U.S. attorney failed to meet certain political criteria, such as prosecuting cases that were considered too sensitive to partisan issues or failing to prosecute cases that would be helpful from a partisan perspective.
The innovative philosophy of the current Bush administration with respect to the service of U.S. Attorneys is worthy of the attention it is now receiving. Those eight forced resignations threaten the very basis of our justice system — to quote the words written above the pillars on the west front of the Supreme Court, “Equal Justice Under Law.”
LINK
Bush to make statement on attorney scandal at 5:45 EST PM
Sen. Dodd breathes new life into GOP-rejected Pell Grant raise.
LINK
Senate votes to limit Bush’s power on U.S. attorneys. In a 94-2 vote, the Senate today voted to “end the Bush administration’s ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ firing of eight federal prosecutors.” The bill will cancel “a Justice Department-authored provision in the Patriot Act that had allowed the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation.”
UPDATE: Gonzales was supposed to appear before a House committee on Thursday to discuss the Justice Department budget and other issues not related to the U.S. Attorney purge. He just canceled. (Via Atrios)
UPDATE II: House Judiciary Committee to meet tomorrow to authorize subpoenas against Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, Gonzales’ ex-chief of staff Kyle Sampson, Rove deputy Scott Jennings, and others.
LINK
toniD, just got in from the afternoon school pickup and saw the cnn breaking news about testifying but not being under oath. cnn wrote:
-- The White House will allow key presidential aide Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers to be interviewed by committees probing the firings of U.S. attorneys, but they will not testify under oath, Rep. Chris Cannon says.
I was furious when I read it but then just saw your post:
However, it would be unsworn testimony, not under oath, behind closed doors, and no transcript would be permitted.
These bastards are as guilty as the day is long.
That's 20th Century...not just the Bush admin genocides...
From CNN Breaking News:
-- The White House will allow key presidential aide Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers to be interviewed by committees probing the firings of U.S. attorneys, but they will not testify under oath, Rep. Chris Cannon says.
--
So only Bill Clinton should appear under oath?
When are these people going to stop being exempt from the rules and regulations everyone else has to abide by?
Hi Shell, blah 3!
So they won't testify under oath. Schumer sasy subpoena then.
Now Bush will speak at 5:45 PM EST.
What will he say? If these people get subpoenas, they have to go to congress!! What will Bush try to do to avoid this?
lets hope war with iran doesn't start at 5:45 tonight...
seriously, i would expect gonzo to be gone by the end of the day.
Okay, Bush will use presidential privilege!
They were just discussing this on MSNBC. Time to change Stations...Tucker is on now.
Senate Limits Gonzales' Hiring Authority
Mar 20, 1:05 PM (ET)
By PETE YOST and LARA JAKES JORDAN
(AP) Attorney General Alberto Gonzales speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in...
Full Image
Google sponsored links
Why Mommy is a Democrat - The book George Bush doesn't want your kids to read!
littledemocrats.net
Hillary for President - Donate Today & Send a Fundraising Email to Friends & Family.
www.HillaryClinton.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal prosecutors.
Amid calls from lawmakers in both parties to resign, Gonzales got a morale boost with an early-morning call from President Bush, their first conversation since a week ago, when the president said he was unhappy with how the Justice Department handled the firings.
With a 94-2 vote, the Senate passed a bill that canceled a Justice Department-authored provision in the Patriot Act that had allowed the attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. Democrats say the Bush administration abused that authority when it fired the eight prosecutors and proposed replacing some with White House loyalists.
"If you politicize the prosecutors, you politicize everybody in the whole chain of law enforcement," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
(AP) Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate...
Full Image
The bill, which has yet to be considered in the House, would set a 120-day deadline for the administration to appoint an interim prosecutor. If the interim appointment is not confirmed by the Senate in that time, a permanent replacement would be named by a federal district judge.
Essentially, the Senate returned the law regarding the appointments of U.S. attorneys to where it was before Congress passed the Patriot Act, including the unilateral appointment authority the administration had sought in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
LINK
Missed 3rd Hour....
Did Sam and Daily Kous-kous get around to blaming Karl Rove for creating the "Hillary-1984" ad on YouTube and trying to "frame poor innocent Barack"?!?!?
i said...
So only Bill Clinton should appear under oath?
When are these people going to stop being exempt from the rules and regulations everyone else has to abide by?
You've got that right i!
They think they are above the law!!
Secondary Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century.
tanks A, handy to have that.
good organization of data
an excellent nail in
their coffins.
re: testimony.
bush lied, people die.
remember, these are the same charecters that took down wellstone.
executive privilege = guilty
i don't know why we continue to screw around. its time to impeach the whole bunch of them.
New FBI phone record rules could elimate paper trail. The FBI, “which has been criticized for improperly gathering telephone records in terrorism cases,” has issued new rules for agents who want phone companies to voluntarily hand over their records. “The new instructions tell agents there is no need to follow up with national security letters or subpoenas,” the Washington Post reports. “The agents are also told that the new letter template is the preferred method in emergencies but that they may make requests orally, with no paperwork sent to phone companies.”
LINK
blah blah blah said...
executive privilege = guilty
i don't know why we continue to screw around. its time to impeach the whole bunch of them.
March 20, 2007 1:15 PM
I totally agree. It's way over time to impeach!
FACT CHECK: There Is No Precedent Barring White House Aides From Testifying To Congress
Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) has called on Karl Rove and other top White House aides to testify under oath in front of Congress concerning their role in the U.S. attorney purge. A response from White House Counsel Fred Fielding is expected today, but in the meantime, the White House and its allies have put up a fight, arguing that presidential advisers have historically not testified in front of Congress:
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow: Well, as you know, Ed, it has been traditional in all White Houses not to have staffers testify on Capitol Hill. [3/13/07]
White House Counselor Dan Bartlett: I find it highly unlikely that a member of the White House staff would testify publicly to these matters. [3/13/07]
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH): No, I think you’re violating a precedent there that should not be violated. … I believe that under the separation of powers, there are limits to the extent to which Congress can subpoena or demand testimony from those who were closest to the president. [3/15/07]
But in reality, there is no such precedent. According to the Congressional Research Service, under President Clinton, 31 of his top aides testified on 47 different occasions. The aides who testified included some of Clinton’s closest advisors:
Harold Ickes, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff - 7/28/94
George Stephanopoulos, Senior Adviser to the President for Policy and Strategy - 8/4/94
John Podesta, Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary - 8/5/94
Bruce R. Lindsey, Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President - 1/16/96
Samuel Berger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs - 9/11/97
Beth Nolan, Counsel to the President - 5/4/00
In contrast, between 2000 and 2004, Bush allowed only one of his closest advisers, then-Assistant to the President for Homeland Security Tom Ridge, to appear in front of Congress. He has also refused three invitations from Congress for his aides to testify, a first since President Richard Nixon in 1972. Clinton did not refuse any.
CRS also notes that although “White House aides do not testify before congressional committees in a regular basis…under certain conditions they do. First, intense and escalating political embarrassment may convince the White House that it is in the interest of the President to have these aides testify and ventilate the issue fully. Second, initial White House resistance may give way in the face of concerted congressional and public pressure.”
LINK
Lawmakers Threaten FBI Over Spy Powers
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans and Democrats sternly warned the FBI on Tuesday that it could lose its broad power to collect telephone, e-mail and financial records to hunt terrorists after revelations of widespread abuses of the authority detailed in a recent internal investigation.
Their threats came as the Justice Department's chief watchdog, Glenn A. Fine, told the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI engaged in widespread and serious misuse of its authority in illegally collecting the information from Americans and foreigners through so-called national security letters.
If the FBI doesn't move swiftly to correct the mistakes and problems revealed last week in Fine's 130-page report, "you probably won't have NSL authority," said Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., a supporter of the power, referring to the data requests by their initials.
"From the attorney general on down, you should be ashamed of yourself," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. "We stretched to try to give you the tools necessary to make America safe, and it is very, very clear that you've abused that trust."
LINK
Down with these thieves!
They ALL MUST GO, NOW!
remember, these are the same charecters that took down wellstone.
---
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Maybe if they never impeach, it would be just what's needed to overthrow the two parties & start making room for more choices...
america has become severely fractionalized so it is surprising that a 3rd or 4th party hasn't caught on. that being said i still want to puke when i think about ralph nader and what he did to this country with his 3rd party.
The reason for impeachment is to send a message to future presidents that we will not stand for lying, cheating, and taking away our freedoms. Everything this admin has done in the past 6 years.
Just got work to order the new Jeremy Scahill book about Blackwater...
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/20/1337226
...
Maybe we should talk for a moment about who he is and his background, because it has everything to do with the success of the company. Erik Prince comes from a very wealthy rightwing Christian dynasty in the town of Holland, Michigan. His father was a man named Edgar Prince, who was a sort of pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps capitalist. He built up an empire called the Prince Manufacturing Corp., and they manufactured auto parts, serviced the auto industry. And, in fact, what the company is perhaps best known for was for creating the now-ubiquitous lighted sun visor. So when you pull down the visor in your car and it lights up, that's the Prince family's invention. And it was a very profitable business.
And so, young Erik Prince grew up in this very heady atmosphere that mixed the sort of free-market gospel with the literal Christian gospel. His family, they were strict Calvinists. And Erik Prince was political at a very early age and watched as his father used his company as a cash-generating engine to fuel the rise of what we now know as the religious right in this country, as well as the Republican Revolution of 1994. His father gave the seed money to Gary Bauer to found the Family Research Council. Young Erik Prince was in the first crop of interns to serve at the Family Research Council. They gave significant funding to James Dobson and his group Focus on the Family, which is now sort of the premier evangelical organizing network in this country, the “prayer warriors.”
And what’s interesting is that Erik Prince’s sister Betsy married into another powerhouse Michigan family, perhaps the single greatest bankroller of the Republican Revolution: Dick DeVos’s Amway Corporation.
...
It is evident that Bush does not see the writing on the wall. Even the repubs are voting against him on some things. They must feel safer doing it now. 2 years ago very few would have voted against this admin.
This vote, today, to eliminate the article about States Attorneys should give a clue to him. 94-2!
At this point, this admin would have to try a coup to take over the government.
94 to 2 vote shows how radioactive Gonzales-US Attorneys issue is to GOP
by John Aravosis (DC) · 3/20/2007 02:33:00 PM ET
My God. They didn't just revoke Bush's power to appoint US Attorneys without going through the Senate, they revoked it with a 94-2 vote. That's unheard of, short of voting on mom, apple pie, and Chevrolet. The GOP, the party that never met a filibuster it didn't like, is freaking.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to end the Bush administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal prosecutors.
....the Senate by a 94-2 vote passed a bill that would cancel the attorney general's power to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. Democrats say the Bush administration abused that authority when it fired the eight prosecutors and proposed replacing some with White House loyalists....
Essentially, the Senate returned the law regarding the appointments of U.S. attorneys to where it was before Congress passed the Patriot Act, including the unilateral appointment authority the administration had sought in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
(Hat tip, ThinkProgress.)
LINK
Tim Griffin, Karl Rove and Kyle Sampson all look alike.
They've all got that big head, receding hair, chubby face and glasses. They could easily be brothers.
Remember that cartoon character, the Brain, with the big head with the lines and the veins of the brain?
Bush vs. The Second Law of Thermodynamics
As national security expert Stephen Flynn observes in his new book, The Edge of Disaster, America’s response to the devastation of New Orleans in 2005 pales in comparison to its response to a catastrophe of a similar scale nearly a century ago, the earthquake that hit San Francisco in 1906. As Flynn notes the problems following Katrina weren’t logistical, they were political and bureaucratic.
A similar sclerosis has afflicted America’s efforts in Iraq. Poor intelligence, a dysfunctional national security decision-making process, Congress’ abdication of oversight, and a myriad of other institutional malfunctions have virtually doomed America’s mission in Iraq from the start. There is more at fault here than just Bush’s bad judgment. Breakdowns have occurred across many levels; corporate corruption, a poorly equipped military, and a compliant media that failed to challenge the rationales for war have all contributed to the mess in Iraq.
There is much tragedy in here. The performance of the U.S. Coast Guard was one of the few bright spots in America’s response to Katrina. Despite being pushed to its limit, the Coast Guard managed to help save thousands without losing a single Guard member. Nevertheless, the Guard manages to scrape by with ships and equipment that are anything but state of the art. Similarly, American troops in Iraq are facing an almost impossible situation – they are effectively trying to stop civil war in Iraq from becoming a region-wide conflagration – but have been shortchanged by an administration that believed it could wage war and do nation building on the cheap. To say that U.S. troops in Iraq have “fought like lions, but have been led by donkeys” -- a verdict ascribed to certain incompetent generals in WWI -- would not be entirely unfair.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_scott_o__070319_bush_vs__the_second_.htm
Not the greatest editorial, but I liked that part. there's some other good ones down the side. "War Without Win: A White Paper On Iran
by William John Cox" is a long one that makes some very salient points.
The reason for impeachment is to send a message to future presidents that we will not stand for lying, cheating, and taking away our freedoms. Everything this admin has done in the past 6 years.
----
Dream on little dreamer. hahahahahahahaha
"he music from the other night is great stuff...the Djamchid Chemirani drumming I loved...If you know more links like that post them please."
+++++
I will.
Bush to fight the subpoenas!
i can't believe that monkey's arrogrance and disregard for democracy. let the subponeas roll. give em the fight they think they want. just make sure we hit them hard enough that they go down with the first punch.
Can't wait to hear the Dems on this.
Bush says it's a fishing expidition. Baloney! If they have nothing to hide, go to congress and testify under oath!!!!
Leahy rejected the offer from the White House. Subpoenas on the way!
Tancredo says time for Gonzales to ‘move on.’ “Gonzales’ legacy at the (Justice Department) has been one of misplaced priorities, political miscalculation, and a failure to enforce the laws which he has sworn to uphold,” Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) said in a statement. “I think that it is time for him to move on.”
LINK
Rove gets touchy. The Kansas City Star reports on President Bush’s visit to a GM plant today:
Besides his considerable security contingent, the chief executive was accompanied by Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Press Secretary Tony Snow.
A reporter approached Rove to ask him what he thought of rumors that former Missouri Sen. Jack Danforth could replace embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. “How about you go over there and do your job,” Rove replied, pointed back to the media pool.
LINK
White House Won’t Allow Rove, Miers To Testify »
MSNBC’s Mike Viquiera: “Fred Fielding, he’s the White House counsel, he was just here meeting with the House Judiciary Committee. He made the following offer to the Congress, both House and Senate. He said Rove and Harriet Miers would be offered to the committees for their testimony in the Alberto Gonzales prosecutors scandal. However, it would be unsworn testimony, not under oath, behind closed doors, and no transcript would be permitted. Now, that is not what Congress is looking for.”
UPDATE: During a press conference, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also revealed that the White House is restricting the types of documents that it is willing to release voluntarily. Schumer said the White House is willing to turn over emails between the White House and the Justice Department, and between the White House and third parties, but not intra-White House emails. Schumer explained the problem:
So, if Karl Rove sent a communication to Harriet Miers and said, and this is purely hypothetical, “We have to get rid of US Attorney Lam. Come up with a good reason…” and the only communication we get is the good reason that Harriet Miers sent to the Justice Department.
Later, a reporter argued that Rove and Miers would still be legally compelled to tell the truth even if they weren’t technically under oath. Schumer pointed added by refusing to allow a transcript to be made, “it would be almost meaningless to say that they were under some kind of legal sanction.” Watch it:
UPDATE II: President Bush to speak on the U.S. Attorney purge at 5:30pm ET.
UPDATE III: Read the full White House letter laying out its offer.
LINK
Lousiana's Governor, Kathleen Blanco, not running for re-election
by Joe Sudbay (DC) · 3/20/2007 05:26:00 PM ET
Blanco's out. She's not running again this year. Good thing cause she was a disaster. That clears the Democratic field for former Senator John Breaux.
LINK
Bush warns Dems to take offer in firings By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
3 minutes ago
President Bush warned Democrats Tuesday to accept his offer to have top aides testify about the firings of federal prosecutors only privately and not under oath, or risk a constitutional showdown from which he would not back down.
Democrats' response to his proposal was swift and firm. "Testimony should be on the record and under oath. That's the formula for true accountability," said Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bush, in a late-afternoon statement at the White House, said, "We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants. ... I proposed a reasonable way to avoid an impasse."
He added: "There's no indication ... that anybody did anything improper."
Bush gave his embattled attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, a boost during an early morning call to his longtime friend and ended the day with a public statement repeating it. "He's got support with me," the president said.
The Senate, meanwhile, voted to strip Gonzales of his authority to fill U.S. attorney vacancies without Senate confirmation. Democrats contend the Justice Department and White House purged eight federal prosecutors, some of whom were leading political corruption investigations, after a change in the Patriot Act gave Gonzales the new authority.
Several Democrats, including presidential hopefuls Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barrack Obama, Joe Biden and John Edwards, have called for Gonzales' ouster or resignation. So have a handful of Republican lawmakers.
LINK
We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants...
That seemed just fine with them when Clinton was in the White House. What could possibly be different now?
hahahahahahaha. With the body of Fitzmas past barely cold, you strike out on another worthless vendetta. When will you boneheads ever learn. It you want the White House, win an election. What a pack of fools. No wonder AAR is bankrupt and Sam fired!
sniff, sniff, anybody else smell something. oh, i know, it must be TROLL
Anonymous said...
hahahahahahaha. With the body of Fitzmas past barely cold, you strike out on another worthless vendetta. When will you boneheads ever learn. It you want the White House, win an election. What a pack of fools. No wonder AAR is bankrupt and Sam fired!
March 20, 2007 3:40 PM
Today, what you say is empty. It has no bearing on what is happening at all because we will win the election this time unless Bush tries a coup. People are fed up and it's not just the Libs.
So go away little troll. You are now useless.
So go away little troll. You are now useless.
---
How funny! hahahahahahahaha. This place is a shambles. Nothing buy skin, bones, and pretend. And you still don't know why. Well it makes for great entertainment. Do you have a name for this next vendetta? Fitzmas was cute, and it fit up your ass nicely!
But, no matter how much skin and bones....
no matter how few people visit here...
no matter how bad it gets in America....
YOU will still be HERE!
That's because we own you!
You can't stay away!
You are POSSESSED!
Bush lashes out. At a press conference moments ago:
“We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants. The initial response by Democrats unfortunately shows some appear more interested in scoring political points than in learning the facts. It will be regrettable if they choose to head down the partisan road of issuing subpoenas and demanding show trials. And I have agreed to make key White House officials and documents available. I proposed a reasonable way to avoid an impasse, and I hope they don’t choose confrontation. I will oppose any attempts to subpoena White House officials.”
UPDATE: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said, “I don’t accept [the White House’s] offer. It is not constructive and it is not helpful to be telling the Senate how to do our investigation, or to prejudge its outcome. … Testimony should be on the record, and under oath. That’s the formula for true accountability.”
Ex-Milan CIA chief goes into hiding over kidnapping of Muslim cleric RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday March 20, 2007
Robert Lady, the former CIA chief in Milan, has gone into hiding, the German newspaper Der Spiegel reports Tuesday. But "to this day, he continues to pay his $4,000 mortgage."
LINK
GOP lawmakers rip 'biased' NASA scientist on warming; 'Free speech is subject to policy'
LINK
Oh look! A GOP person wanting a correct answer on Global Warming!!
Kurtz & Beck seemed like a big mutual masturbation session for CNN/Beck's hugely failure of a show.
How About a Little Democracy for a Change? By Jason Miller
03/20/2007 02:06:17 PM EST
"Revolution is the Solution"
Shaken to its very core by the ravages of Military Keynesianism, neoliberal economic policies, crony capitalism, corporatism, corruption, and wanton disregard for the Constitution, international law, and standards of human decency, our Constitutional Republic is hanging by a very slender thread.
Even before plutocrats, corporations, lobbyists, and the rest of the malevolent cabal (who together represent a very small percentage of the populace in the United States) acted in concert to further their mutual interests by eviscerating the law of the land, the United States was far from being a democracy. Our Constitution, unique and progressive as it was prior to reactionary forces gutting it, was written as a framework for a limited form of representative democracy.
Like many activists, writers, Leftists, populists, and enraged US Americans of virtually all political stripes, occupations, and races, I have been longing to find a viable means of inciting or collaborating with a mass movement that will force the plutocracy to yield their stranglehold on wealth and power. I have come to the conclusion that dedicated and sustained individual efforts by tens of millions coupled with multiple collective actions carried out by substantial numbers of people will eventually reshape the political and socioeconomic landscape of the United States. If that fails, the increasingly hubristic, avaricious, and emboldened ruling class will most likely face a violent insurrection.
As he will tell you in the interview, Joel Hirschhorn has provided those of us in the "lower classes" with a tangible means of acting in unison to attack the entrenched power structure. His suggested strategy is peaceful, legal, and practical.
Here is Joel giving me the details:
http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2007/3/18/165847/197
Video: Veterans joining anti-war movement growing in number
LINK
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Hi toniD.
Hey Jim,
You around?
I'm thinking of buying a notebook
with an aircard for broadband
wireless internet access, dvd-r/w,
highspeed hd, etc.
Any suggestions?
in a late-afternoon statement at the White House, "We will not go along with a partisan fishing expedition aimed at honorable public servants. ... I proposed a reasonable way to avoid an impasse."
He added: "There's no indication ... that anybody did anything improper."
---------------------------------
Crank Bait says that one small advantage to being older than some is that he can clearly hear Richard Nixon's words being echoed in the above statements by George W. Bush.
Nixon defended his team even as he was sacrificing several of them. His most famous sentence, "I am not a crook" sounds a lot like "There's no indication...that anybody did anything improper."
Recently I have heard Tom DeLay hawking his new book. He stands firm on his belief that creating a permanent Republican majority, by hook or by crook, was and is his priority goal.
When party power trumps all other concerns, the political shit hits the subpoena/indictment/impeachment fan.
Tricky Dick resigned in disgrace as a result of an illegal Republican party power play. (Think of it as the political equivalent of a Mafia murderer going down for tax evasion.)
Bush, like DeLay and Nixon before him, is playing with fire. It is more likely that politicians will get away with illegal horse shit when they are not already in the Popularity Poll dumpster and up against the multiple-accusation wall.
Crank Bait says, "Let Bush and his ilk stonewall the demands of Congress. The Bush administration has their shovels. Let them keep digging a deeper and deeper hole."
It worked-out pretty well with Nixon.
Friends of the Article V Convention
http://www.foavc.org/index.htm
President Dwight D. Eisenhower also supported an Article V Convention saying: "Through their state legislatures and without regard to the federal government, the people can demand a convention to propose amendments that can and will reverse any trends they see as fatal to true representative government."
Yet fears remain and the myths persist. The antidote for any fear is knowledge, and education is the reason why FOAVC exists. Our goal is to inform all citizens about the convention clause in the Constitution and to provide an electronic town hall where the people can discuss the various issues pertaining to a convention in a calm and rational manner. Our ultimate objective is to generate the 'critical mass' necessary to convene an Article V convention.
We invite you, all patriots and concerned Americans, to carefully review the articles, documents and discussion presented in these pages. If upon careful consideration you conclude, as we have, that an Article V Convention is necessary to preserve the Constitutional Republic - and to prevent Congress from vetoing the will of the people - we invite you to join FOAVC.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Rose Mary Woods' acrobatics erased at least five minutes of an eighteen and one-half minute gap in the Nixon tapes.
I wonder who is erasing the White House emails?
If history repeats itself, it will be the fiercely loyal Harriet Miers.
Schwarzenegger Calls Rush Limbaugh Irrelevant
"All irrelevant. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant." - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning on the "Today Show," speaking to Campbell Brown.
During the one-on-one interview, the Republican-registered California governor was asked about criticism from Limbaugh and other conservatives that he has become a Democrat in disguise for supporting stem-cell research, mandatory curbs on carbon dioxide emissions and universal health care. Schwarzenegger said he is "the people's servant of California. What they call me - Democrat or Republican or in the center, this and that - that is not my bottom line. This is for them to talk about."
LINK
The bloody John Loftus show on Nova M Radio / Air America Phoenix.
A damned misinformation artist from Fox News hosting a show on Air America.
Who makes these decisions? He should be fired.
UPDATE: Limbaugh responds, calls the governor a nice guy and a sellout.
Sellout to whom? To Rush? California seems to like him!
US, Israel hold joint missile drill
Missile exercise held to improve "understanding and cooperation."
LINK
And so Crank, I remind you of my ongoing argument with War Dog that Bush will go down just like Nixon. I told him this two or three years ago and he called me mad!
No man is above the country is what I said and what I say now. Once they start the slippery slide...it's amazing watching them go down!
dell refurbished, nc.....
:)
Well, there's truth to that...but less when told so by the Doggie!
It worked-out pretty well with Nixon.
---
Once they start the slippery slide...it's amazing watching them go down!
---
This has been the left's standard response over the last 6 years. You never learn a thing. You only know one tune and it is way off key.
It doesn't have anything to do with the left or anything the left says.
Bush's tit is in the wringer the way Nixon's went in, by his own actions and behaivior.
Deflecting anything over to the left is nonsense.
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Thanks Alice.
I'll look into it.
I wonder if there are any refurbs
with Vista? I'll bet the ones with
XP are really cheap.
straws said...
~~
This has been the left's standard response over the last 6 years. You never learn a thing. You only know one tune and it is way off key.
~~
Oh, you mean like how you all talk about and blame Clinton?
Deflecting anything over to the left is nonsense.
---
Duh! What law did Bush/Gonzo break? Back to Fitzmas with you until you learn. One must first break a law. Ooops, ya keep forgetting that! Damn the details!
Park Ridge 47 is who made that Hillary Clinton Video.
She lived and grew up in Park Ridge, Il. Wonder if that has anything to do with it.
http://littledemocrats.net/
Why Mommy is a Democrat.....
Sorry Straws but I can't buy your premise. I wish I could get into it with you for argument's sake but I can't.
I can't stop it from happening and either can you. You might as well just sit back and watch with the rest of us.
It's all in motion now.
An announcement from the Judiciary Committee:
Conyers, Sànchez to Issue Subpoenas for White House Officials
(Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Jr. and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sànchez called a meeting to authorize subpoenas for five current and former White House and Justice Department officials. The Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (CAL) will meet TOMORROW, March 21st at 10:15 am in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building to consider subpoenas for Kyle Sampson, Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, William Kelley, and Scott Jennings, as well as White House and Justice Department documents, which have not been provided to date.
LINK
It's all in motion now.
---
You haven't learned a thing in the last month.
Fitzmas is coming, the goose is getting fat
Please put a penny in the old man's hat
Straws, what is it with you and Fitzmas?
That's just a little part of the train wreck unfolding.
I remember when people thought Nixon could just do anything and get away with it. We knew he was a cheesy hustler...just like Bush...but nobody believed he'd go down.
Then, it started to unravel. There were people just like you who ranted and raved that he hadn't broken any law....nothing to see here...move on!
But, Nixon went down! Deep down!
Now shit is unraveling for the Prince of Boob!
Sit back and watch!
May the good belong to all the people in the world.
May the rulers go by the path of justice.
May the best of men and their source always prove to be a blessing.
May all the world rejoice in happiness.
May rain come in time and plentifulness be on Earth.
May this world be free from suffering and the noble ones be free from fears
- - Traditional Vedic blessing
But, Nixon went down! Deep down!
Now shit is unraveling for the Prince of Boob!
Sit back and watch!
----
The glory days for the left wing have nothing to do with Gonzo. No laws have been broken and that is was the key to Fitzmas as well. Scooter tell it straight everyone goes home to dinner.
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. You will be walking all the way to 2009!
Straws baby...you're yapping!
I don't have time for that nonsense!
Bait...nice idea there.
Love the thing about bringing together the phoniness of American Patriotism and the reality of the need for decent health care for all in an enlightened society.
Gotta run to store.
BBL
Damn those details, if only Bush would try to cover-up a break-in. Bam you'd have him! But is didn't happen in Plame, and didn't happen with Gonzo. Dream on dreamers. It has nothing to do with Nixon. This place is for pretend and wishing, it is good place for that.
Straws said...
Damn those details, if only Bush would try to cover-up a break-in. Bam you'd have him! But is didn't happen in Plame, and didn't happen with Gonzo. Dream on dreamers. It has nothing to do with Nixon. This place is for pretend and wishing, it is good place for that.
That's why you're here. You're pretending and wishing what you say is true.
Reefer's right. The die is cast so sit back and watch. You may not like what you see.
A Million Deaths in Iraq
http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/2007/03/million-deaths-in-iraq.html
Spiro Agnew and the Watergate gang and the Irangate gang all learned that the spotlight is a little too bright to hide every shenanigan.
---
You ignorant left wing slut. The Watergate burglars were caught in the act. Duh! Tough case to prove huh? Nixon and the boys ran a cover-up. Duh! Bush has broken no law. Your daily bonehead accusations hold no water at all. You try to bend the facts to fit your needs and in the end you looking like morons over and over.
Get a clue, this is nothing like Nixon and Watergate, but that is all you have. A one trick pony. You guys never learn a damn thing.
You all were singing the same tune for a year with Fitzmas. Duh! Same fucking mistake every time!
Over and over and over right into bankruptcy!
American Freedom Agenda
Four prominent conservative thinkers are set to launch a campaign "to restore checks and balances and civil liberties protections under assault by the Executive Branch," arguing that, "since 9/11, the President has acquired too much power."
that us from a post on huffington by Melinda Henneberger. nobody else is talking about it.
I dreamt about my ex-boyfriend, (the fireman), last night...made me think of Lisa Stansfield today...she has a pretty voice...
*
http://www.zenin.ru/music/lisa'change.mp3
Change
If I could change the way I live my life today
I wouldn't change a single thing
Cos if I changed my world into another place
I wouldn't see your smiling face
Honey don't you worry, there's nothin to worry for
Cos If I didn't love you I wouldn't be here now
And Iif I didn't want you I would have turned around by now.
You've got to believe me babe, believe that I love you so
Cos if I didn't love you, I would have turned around
And if I didn't wnat you, then I would want you out.
This love, this love has filled me up
Ooh my love I'll never give you up
Cos I'll always want your love
Believing is the answer, the answer to all your fears
When I first said I loved you, I want in for the kill
Now when I say I love you, I mean I always will
This love, this love has filled me up
Ooh my love I'll never give you up
Cos I'll always want your love
If I could change the way I live my life today
I wouldn't change a single thing
Cos if I changed my world into another place
I wouldn't see your smiling face
http://www.zenin.ru/music/lisa_change.mp3
You are all like children. Simple, unsophisticated, and wishing for miracles. Well this is the real world kids, there ain't no Santa, no Fitzmas, and no second Watergate. You need to grow up!
I can't come up with a reason why my brother might not be dead-on-the-money with this one?
I can't either. It's smoke and mirrors with this admin. Always has been. Create another problem or crime so you cover the real crime.
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
New York Teenagers’ Substance Abuse Drops
Teenage use of alcohol and drugs dropped significantly in New York City in 2005 compared with past years, and is lower than the national rate, but it remains disturbingly high, city officials said today, citing the results of a recently released survey.
The city’s biennial survey found that in 2005, fewer students at the city’s public high schools were drinking or smoking marijuana than at any time since the surveys began in 1997. Use of most harder drugs was roughly unchanged.
But 1.8 percent of students surveyed in 2005 said they had tried heroin at least once, triple the number in 2001.
Lorna Thorpe, a deputy city health commissioner, said it was not clear why there had been an overall drop in drug and alcohol use, but that it might be connected to a decline in teenage smoking. People who smoke are more likely to use other substances, as well.
She said officials were equally unsure of the cause of the rise in heroin use, but that it coincided with a rise in emergency room visits and Emergency Medical Service calls involving heroin.
“That has raised a flag for us, and we’re watching it,” she said. She added that while the data are usually compiled slowly, over more than a year, officials will pay particular attention to the heroin figures as they conduct the 2007 survey.
The change could be tied to the fact that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan greatly curtailed the trade in opium, the raw material for heroin. But the drug became more readily available and cheaper after the regime was overthrown in late 2001.
More >>
Straws said...
You are all like children. Simple, unsophisticated, and wishing for miracles. Well this is the real world kids, there ain't no Santa, no Fitzmas, and no second Watergate. You need to grow up!
March 20, 2007 6:52 PM
*Prrrrrrrrrfffffffffffffffft*
(ew, you cut one)
Understanding Empire: Hierarchy, Networks and Clients
James Petras
The imperial system is much more complex than what is commonly referred to as the “US Empire”. The US Empire, with its vast network of financial investments, military bases, multi-national corporations and client states, is the single most important component of the global imperial system (1). Nevertheless, it is overly simplistic to overlook the complex hierarchies, networks, follower states and clients that define the contemporary imperial system (2). To understand empire and imperialism today requires us to look at the complex and changing system of imperial stratification.
Hierarchy of Empire
The structure of power of the world imperial system can best be understood through a classification of countries according to their political, economic, diplomatic and military organization. The following is a schema of this system:
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/03/20/p15321
Interesting little site.
St. Paddy's Parade Turns Ugly in Colorado Springs
I can't believe this!
-conbo
"You ignorant left wing slut. The Watergate burglars were caught in the act."
-------------------------------
The Watergate burglars were caught in the act of a burglary. It was one burglary among thousands in the country at that time. It was written-up in the petty crime section of the local newspaper.
One of the burglars talked. Further investigation ensued.
The rest is history.
If I was your history teacher, you'd be taking my class again next semester.
-------------------------------
Would you like a current day analogy? Tom DeLay; trial delayed (pun intended) because additional charges have been added by the prosecution.
How about another one? Abramoff.
Want another? Gonzales; charges yet to be filed.
Another? Libby. Cheney and Rove implicated, yet to be charged.
Are you beginning to see how this works?
Probably not. Let me make it clearer.
Clinton was impeached based on his lie under oath about a blow job. The legal investigative process went no further because there was nothing further to be learned.
Abramoff? Investigations continue based on information gathered during the effort to obtain his conviction.
Randy "Duke" Cunningham? Same thing.
It ain't over 'til it's over.
Uruguay rejects Bush Trade agreement
The chancellor of Uruguay, Reinaldo Gargano, expressed on Saturday his refusal at the possibility that his country would sign a Free Trade Aggreement(TLC) with the United States, and has reinforced, however, to strengthen ties with the Mercosur. "I am not in agreement that Uruguaygo forward with a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. I am in favor of a better Mercosur; it is necessary for the integration in the region. We have already obtained that Venezuela join and now we want Bolivia to also join", reported Gargano.
In declarations before that Ansa agency in Santiago, Chile, the diplomat commented that the Uruguayan government "is progressive and has its five fundamental programmatic axes, and one of them is integration".
For Gargano, "there is no way to solve the poverty of the region if it is not with progressive policies and regional integration". The possibility of a TLC between Uruguay and the U.S.A. has been shuffled back and forth for months, after the past year Tabaré Vázquez signed two commercial agreements with his counter part George Bush, who many considered a waiting room to another more total agreement.
Tauscher Blasts Bush For ‘Criminal’ Management Of Military, Stands Behind Support For Regime Change
Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) has become a controversial figure in the blogosphere. Yesterday, ThinkProgress sat down with her to discuss her stance on Iraq, among other issues. Tauscher began by telling us that she does not support the Bush strategy of escalation, noting that it is the fourth surge the administration has tried to effect without any success.
Referring to the current state of the strained and overstretched armed forces, Tauscher said, “I think this is a significant criminal dereliction of duty by the Commander in Chief.” She added that classified reports on military readiness are “chilling.”
ThinkProgress asked her whether she still stands behind her statement in the summer of 2002, when she said: “I am convinced that a regime change in Iraq is in the best interest of the United States and also our allies.” “I still think that was true,” she responded. She said her position then and now was that the “appropriate thing to do was to recontain Saddam Hussein” so that “you didn’t have to constantly look over your shoulder.” She said she tried to “slow things down” and avoid the “rush to war,” alluding to her sponsorship of a resolution that tried to delay the war vote until after the November 2002 midterm elections.
Tauscher said, “My constituents at home, while they didn’t want to go to war and didn’t believe we needed to go that far, wanted to deal with Saddam in a kind of permanent way — permanent in the sense that you didn’t have to worry about him in the short term. And I think people generally wanted to have regime change, they wanted to have the Iraqis freed from him.” But “never in my wildest dreams did I believe that that the Bush administration would fabricate information about weapons of mass destruction, cherrypick intel and feed it to the American people and Congress on a silver platter and make the case so significant that it would be irresponsible not to do something.” Watch it:
LINK
next on the evolutionary scale of talking, informing, educating, whatever with straw-head
is talking with monkeys
in other words, you're talking to an idiot
for no matter what you tell a monkey, his conclusion is always: "give me a banana"
if //(ew, you cut one)// is not in the top 10 political quotes of the year, or is given some outstanding acheivement award... then i'm afraid all is lost
*
BEAT THAT ONE!, DAILY/KOS
Randy "Duke" Cunningham? Same thing.
It ain't over 'til it's over.
March 20, 2007 7:09 PM
---
Wishin and hopin and thinkin and prayin
Plannin and dreamin each night of his crimes
That won't get him into your arms
---
If if if if if if if if if if if
If if if if if if if if if if if
If if if if if if if if if if if
If if if if if if if if if if if
If if if if if if if if if if if
If if if if if if if if if if if
...if you had any common sense you would know how childish it is to create impeachment in your mind and twist events to support your goals. Why do you think you ended up in this sorry state? You have no concept of reality. Look around, everything you touch turns to shit!
Cheney’s office involved in global warming manipulation. E&E reports that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing into Philip Cooney’s editing of global warming reports revealed that Cheney’s office also played a role. Kevin O’Donovan, an aide in Cheney’s office, wrote a memo to Cooney suggesting they try to “reinvigorate debate on the actual climate history of the past thousand years.” Waxman said the Cooney-O’Donovan memo “suggests active coordination between [White House Council on Environmental Quality] and the office of the vice president.”
LINK
Jean Schmidt: Walter Reed scandal ‘overblown.’ A statement from Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH), who infamously called decorated Marine Corps veteran Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) a “coward“:
While I believe that this building is beneath the standard of what is acceptable, I think it is wrong to suggest that mold found behind an air conditioner somehow is an excuse to say that all of our veterans are receiving substandard medical care. […]
I found the situation at Walter Reed to be overblown by both politicians and the media.
As Josh Marshall noted, the Cincinnati Inquirer has a story HERE.
LINK
just stopped by to have a quick cup'o'tea
and a quick pee on a troll's head
then i'll flee
on the back of a flea
(i pray he goes the right way for a change and doesn't make me jumpy'n'itchy)
I am kind of scared
Bush is acting like he has nothing to lose and everything to gain
scary time, it is here
-conbo
//If if if if if if if if if if if
If if if if if if if if if if if
If if if if if if if if if if if
If if if if if if if if if if if
If if if if if if if if if if if
If if if if if if if if if if if//
what!?
what then!?
what if!?
what's your point, pointy
//if you had any common sense you would know how childish it is to create impeachment in your mind and twist events to support your goals.//
Oh yeah...its so hard to come up with anything Bush has done that would merit impeachment
But I'm sure we'll manage
Creative folk that we are
:)
-conbo
Hey ono, Shell...
If this troll talking about himself? Seems like it to me.
conbo...when you said your kid liked the gif was it this one?
http://www.joepixel.com/common/images_blog/cool.html
The U.S. Attorney document gap. “In DOJ documents that were publicly posted by the House Judiciary Committee, there is a gap from mid-November to early December in e-mails and other memos, which was a critical period as the White House and Justice Department reviewed, then approved, which U.S. attorneys would be fired while also developing a political and communications strategy for countering any fallout from the firings.”
UPDATE: McClatchy and the AP reprint some noteworthy emails from the documents.
LINK
Bush's shadow army
The Bush Administration is increasingly dependent on private security forces to do its dirty work.
LINK
But I'm sure we'll manage
Creative folk that we are
----
Exactly!
You all don't know the difference between politics and a crime. Dream on!
What are “High Crimes and Misdemeanors”?
Bribery and treason are among the least ambiguous reasons meriting impeachment, but the ocean of wrongdoing encompassed by the Constitution's stipulation of “high crimes and misdemeanors” is vast. Abuse of power and serious misconduct in office fit this category, but one act that is definitely not grounds for impeachment is partisan discord. Several impeachment cases have confused political animosity with genuine crimes. Since Congress, the vortex of partisanship, is responsible for indicting, trying, and convicting public officials, it is necessary for the legislative branch to temporarily cast aside its factional nature and adopt a judicial role.
alice, that judge judy-johnny rotten vid!
johnny really was on her show!!!
i was expecting to see some juxtapostion of them
but no, there he was -- the kabuki stare in overdrive
conbo...when you said your kid liked the gif was it this one?
http://www.joepixel.com/common/images_blog/cool.ht
Yes! He asks to see the people playing and jumping on the computer.
And then he watches it like its a movie. He is trying to figure it out.
My roomates daughter likes it too
:)
-conbo
//scary time, it is here//
us brave aussies may have to come over & rescue you
and if we rescue enough of you, we may invade china & it's economic infrastructure, make heaps of money & holiday in france
Feinstein Suspicious Of Another U.S. Attorney's Exit
Associated Press | March 20, 2007 08:17 PM
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (news, bio, voting record) said Tuesday she wants answers about the departure of the former U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, who resigned last October before the Justice Department's dismissal of eight other U.S. attorneys sparked controversy.
"I have questions about Debra Yang's departure and I can't answer those questions right at this time," Feinstein, D-Calif. and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters in response to a question. "Was she asked to resign, and if so, why? We have to ferret that out."
LINK
//You all don't know the difference between politics and a crime.//
Sometimes the line is very thin, if it exists
But I applaud the newest propaganda in the wake of this obstruction of justice
The US Attorney's Serve At The Pleasure Of The President!
-conbo
//and if we rescue enough of you, we may invade china & it's economic infrastructure, make heaps of money & holiday in france//
hahaha!
-conbo
it's ok now, toni
he won't be sticking tound for long...
for once the big "o" jumps in, trolls shit themselves & flee
//tound for long//
hmmm...
maybe i meant "around town for long"
air-ono said...
March 20, 2007 7:40 PM
Wasn't that SO Great!!!!!
Man, I sort of wished she ruled against him to see him lay in to her... ;)
//Man, I sort of wished she ruled against him to see him lay in to her//
LMAO!
(you wanna see blood)
The 2007 Irving Kristol Lecture by Bernard Lewis
In which Mr. Lewis explains the global strategies of realpolitik from the point of view of a ten-year-old with a learning disability.
He reveals how "Imperialism" is really just a propaganda tool of the Muslim world.
And most importantly, why Cheney is justified in his crusade against Islam. (You see, a man named Cheney was kidnapped from Ireland by Barbary corsairs in 1631. It all makes sense now. Why didn't Cheney just tell us this before?)
http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.25815/pub_detail.asp
It's Western supremacist clash of civilization-style historical distortion at it's best.
his black white-pointer eyes remind me of robert morley's
robert morley's
March 20, 2007 7:56 PM
Yipes..now that you mention it..yeah...he scares me ...& now Robert Morely scares me too.. ! Thanks... :)
p.s. rob's eyes don't have the menace of john's
but, hey!
yes
has anyone written Chubby?
-conbo
//and Free The Rajah!//
i'll write that in, when i write him
: (
(ugh!)
"must write chubby" for the thousandth time
it's the same reason why i never entered those 25-words or less competitions... i'm lazy
---------------
Bush said...
March 20, 2007 4:52 PM
-------------------------
When did Bush start posting here?
More importantly, is Bush quoting Crank Bait?
Both Bush and Crank Bait are referred to in the third person here.
Then mysteriously an "I" appears soon after Nixon's line,
"I am not a crook" (which is quoted in the post).
Is this really the ghost of Nixon speaking?
For clarification, I plan to consult with Crank Bait.
Crank Bait would not go from third person/first person/third person (and switch tenses) in a post unless some type of unnatural phenomenon occurred.
I don't think Crank Bait would want to be quoted by the infamous Bush. However, he might not mind the ghost of Nixon.
//has anyone written Chubby?//
i'm going to
I'M GOING TO!...
ok!!
just give me some elbow room and it'll be on the plane tomorrow
toniD said...
Cheney’s office involved in global warming manipulation. E&E reports that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearing into Philip Cooney’s editing of global warming reports revealed that Cheney’s office also played a role. Kevin O’Donovan, an aide in Cheney’s office, wrote a memo to Cooney suggesting they try to “reinvigorate debate on the actual climate history of the past thousand years.” Waxman said the Cooney-O’Donovan memo “suggests active coordination between [White House Council on Environmental Quality] and the office of the vice president.”
LINK
March 20, 2007 7:30 PM
***
I wonder if Cheney cooked the books at Halliburton, a la Enron, when he was CEO?
Why wouldn't he? Being the sort of 'great guy'... and 'smart businessman' that he is...
Crank Bait said...
...and Free The Rajah!
March 20, 2007 7:57 PM
It's sickening to think of what he's enduring huh...?! I can't handle it...It's infuriating to think of someone like him in jail...
for crying out loud, connie
who do you think i am ?
star-vox!?
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