Tomorrow is election day, here, for local offices so I won't be here tomorrow until late. Long day...5:30 AM to 7:30 PM. This time I wish I would have said no to being an election judge. April 16, 2007 6:26 PM ________________
toniD,
Appreciate you being an election judge! Good work!
----------- Bill Moyers returns to weekly television next week!
You can expect:
"Buying the War": "Bill Moyers Journal" kicks off on Wednesday, April 25 on PBS (check local listings) with a 90-minute documentary that explores the role of the press in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.
How the administration marketed the war to the American people has been well covered, but critical questions remain: How and why did the press buy it, and what does it say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?
----------------------------
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL:
Our new series begins in its regular time slot (check local listings) on Friday, April 27 and will include ideas, interviews, and analysis across an array of beats, including the environment, media, politics, religion, the economy, arts and culture, and issues facing democracy.
Two years after Ratu Aisea Katonivere, a traditional chief, imposed a no-take zone, “The fish are closer and bigger,” he said. “They are coming back; it’s a miracle.” Mr. Katonivere, who rules over 7,000 people in the Great Sea Reef, the world’s third-largest barrier reef, spoke in an interview during a conservation conference in Honolulu.
[snip]
But in the United States, marine protected areas are less than 1 percent of near-shore waters. In Hawaii, where the reefs are largely depleted of fish, a “right to fish” bill recently approved by the state house of representatives would make it almost impossible to create any protected areas by requiring unattainable scientific data.
Link to story here ------------------ Star Vox said... Bill Moyers returns to weekly television next week!
Sam, FYI- I am continuing with my daily calls/emails to AAR management to bring you back ASAP!!! Hope this helps. Doing what I can - I call on all others to do the same!
U.S. Gun Laws Draw Heat After Massacre By PAISLEY DODDS
LONDON - The Virginia Tech shootings sparked criticism of U.S. gun control laws around the world Tuesday. Editorials lashed out at the availability of weapons, and the leader of Australia — one of America's closest allies — declared that America's gun culture was costing lives.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the government hoped Monday's shootings, allegedly carried out by a 23-year-old South Korean native, would not "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation."
While some focused blame only on the gunman, world opinion over U.S. gun laws was almost unanimous: Access to weapons increases the probability of shootings. There was no sympathy for the view that more guns would have saved lives by enabling students to shoot the assailant.
"We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country," said Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who staked his political career on promoting tough gun laws after a gunman went on one of the world's deadliest killing sprees 11 years ago...
Sudan Defying Security Council on Darfur, U.N. Says Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print Single Page Reprints Share DiggFacebookNewsvinePermalink
By WARREN HOGE Published: April 17, 2007 UNITED NATIONS, April 17 — A confidential United Nations report says the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.
Skip to next paragraph Related Text: Interim Report on Sudan In one case, illustrated with close-up pictures, the report says the letters “U.N.” have been stenciled onto the wing of a whitewashed Sudanese armed forces plane parked on a military apron at a Darfur airport. Bombs guarded by uniformed soldiers are laid out in rows by its side.
The report says that contrary to the Sudanese government denials, the freshly painted planes are being operated out of all three of Darfur’s principal airports and used for aerial surveillance and bombardments of villages, in addition to cargo transport. The report was compiled by a five-person panel responsible for helping the Security Council’s sanctions committee monitor compliance with resolutions on Darfur, the war-ravaged region in Sudan. It was made available by a diplomat from one of the 15 Security Council nations, a nation that believes the findings ought to be made public.
More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.3 million have been uprooted from their homes, largely by repeated attacks from Arab militias supported and equipped by the Sudan government.
But while the report focuses much of its attention on the government, it says that rebel groups fighting the Khartoum government were also guilty of violating Security Council resolutions, peace treaty agreements and humanitarian standards. It recommends a tightening of the arms embargo imposed by the Security Council and other restrictions on activities involving illicit weapons, regardless of who is responsible.
The report covers recent conduct, from September 2006 to March 12, 2007, and emerges a day after Sudan announced it was dropping its objections to large-scale United Nations assistance to the overwhelmed African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.
The Khartoum government said Monday that it would agree to a force of 3,000 military police officers, along with six attack helicopters and other aviation and logistics support. Left uncertain is whether Sudan will ultimately drop its longstanding resistance to a proposed 21,000-member joint African Union-United Nations force to replace the 7,000-member African Union force that has said it cannot curb the continuing violence.
hey joe said... Did all the people that use to waste their time posting here go to their mental health counseling late this afternoon?
April 17, 2007 6:55 PM
Joe, since most of them don't work, they have plenty of time for the various government charity programs especially the ones for help with their mental health and drug/drinking problems. That is why most don't accomplish anything aside from lots of lazy whining online on meaningless insignificant back waters of the web like this.
I asked him why if he thought George Bush senior should have been held accountable for saying "no new taxes" during buchanan's failed 92 run, Why shouldn't bush jr be held accountable for lying to us about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
He said Bush had not lied about weapons of mass distruction in Iraq.
He, obviously was aware of Cheney's 91 "broken arrow" situation, which, at the thime, I was not.
So yea, we might be lazy ass lefty bloggers, but we'll be here fu**ing with you assholes til the end and holding you accountable for your crimes.
---- To the Fallen By U.S. Army Sergeant John McCary
Dear all,
We are dying. Not in some philosophical, chronological, ‘the end comes for all of us sooner or later’ sense. Just dying. Sure, it’s an occupational hazard, and yeah, you can get killed walking down the street in Anytown, USA. But not like this. Not car bombs that leave craters in the road, not jeering crowds that celebrate your destruction.
It’s never been a fair fight, and we haven’t always played nice. But not like this. No one leaves the gate looking to kill, or looking to die. No one wakes up in the morning and says, “I sure hope blowing up a whole group of Iraqis goes well today.” That’s for suckers and cowards, people afraid to delve into the melee and fight it out, to sort it out like soldiers... --------------------------------- That's for suckers and cowards...
Was that the name of the show that was on last night? If so, that show is worth making into a DVD and distributing far & wide...it was...(insert lots of descriptive words).....
British shed 'war on terror' language The term is considered too simplistic, and perhaps supportive of jihadist goals. By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent A new direction? In New York Monday, British MP Hilary Benn criticized the US-coined term, 'war on terror.' Daniel Berehulak/Getty ImagesLONDON - Britain is rapidly backpedaling on the "war on terror." Not the global effort to subdue jihadists, but the three-word phrase, much used by President Bush, which in the British establishiment now fear is ill-defined, oversimplistic, and excessively martial and Manichaean.
Government ministers were quietly instructed several weeks ago to avoid using the term, but matters were brought into the open Monday when a senior cabinet minister rejected the phrase during a speech in America.
Hilary Benn, the Blair government's international development secretary, told a New York think tank that the concept of a war on terror sends out the wrong message on two levels: It encourages terrorists by dignifying their cause, and it suggests that only military measures could be a useful response.
Massacre triggers world criticism of U.S. gun laws By Ralph Gowling
LONDON (Reuters) - World leaders and media commentators criticised what many called the gun culture in the United States on Tuesday after 33 people were killed in the country's worst shooting rampage.
Alice said... "America at a Crossroads" Was that the name of the show that was on last night? ---------------------------------- Yessiree Bobbette, it was (is) America at a Crossroads.
Tonight's installment will have Richard Perle explaining why the war in Iraq was and is a really nifty idea.
(Look up Richard Perle under "Neocon who hasn't yet figured it out. See Cheney.")
passiveconsumer said... been watching a lot of "frontline" lately groucho, one thing that stands out to me is that honor is easily blinded. the whole chomsky " people are not evil, but institutions they're involved in can be." still got a lot of alarm clocks to set. --------------------------------- Groucho responds:
In my humble-istimo opinion, any time that an individual gives himself or herself over to a cause marked by repetitive, organized, twenty-four hour training, that individual has accepted the notion that Free Will is a nuisance and submission to ideology is not.
bid on both items up for auction, but somebody has already outbid me. Forgot to even check when the auction's up, maybe I should bid just before they are.
America's founders understood the First Amendment would be worth little without a postal system that encouraged broad public participation in America's "marketplace of ideas." Thomas Jefferson called for a postal service that allowed ideas to "penetrate the whole mass of the people." Along with James Madison, he paved the way for a system that gave low-cost mailing incentives to small publications.
The postal policies that resulted have helped spur a vibrant political culture in the United States by easing the entry of diverse political viewpoints into a national discourse often dominated by the largest media organizations.
Now, this is all about to change, putting the future of The Nation, along with many other publications, at risk.
Postal regulators have decided to extend special favors to the nation's largest publishers, like Time Warner and Hearst, while unfairly burdening smaller and independent magazines with much higher postal rates--The Nation is being saddled with an unexpected increase of $500,000 in annual postal costs and many smaller publications could be forced to the brink of bankruptcy.
The only way to reverse the decision is if you - and many others - take a minute to sign a letter demanding that the rules are changed. This is not a right/left issue, which is why The Nation and William Buckley's National Review are teaming up in this instance to demand that the Postal Board of Governors reverse its decision.
Please join us in urging postal regulators and Congress to convene public hearings, determine how these rate increases were decided, and reverse the ruling. We only have until April 23--the end of the public comment period--to respond, so please take action today:
Write the Postal Rate Commission and Congress.
Learn more about the issue.
Help promote the campaign.
The Post Office should not use its monopoly power to favor the largest publishers and undermine the ability of smaller publishers to compete. With your help we can reverse this decision and salvage the postal system that has served free speech in America so well for so long.
just ignore them... That's what me and that other idiot, George, do. They yammer and jaw away all day long, always yappin' on about God, Country, and how great the whore (c'mon, you all know I mean Coulter) is, but we just ignore them. Once they vote for us, we don't really have much use for them.
Evening all. Just got home from the polls. Very tiring. Rvrtything went well this time.
The Repubs I worked with were very nice. We are going out for lunch. Too bad they are missled by their party.
But I got the idea from them that they weren't too happy with what was happening. And they weren't smug or arrogant like the trolls here. Two of them were history buffs and very interesting to talk to.
Crank, one of them taught at Benedictine University and he, like you, is very interested in the root of words. One Dem and one repub. Interesting day.
I heard, on the Malloy show, on the way home from the polls, that Rep. Dennis Kucinich is going to bring impeachment proceedings against Dick Cheney this week.
Tomorrow is election day, here, for local offices so I won't be here tomorrow until late. Long day...5:30 AM to 7:30 PM. This time I wish I would have said no to being an election judge. April 16, 2007 6:26 PM _________________________
You're phenomenal! Any chance you could teach a online course in effective time management. Thanks for everything you do!
Anti-gay conservative Christians to protest at VA Tech funerals by John Aravosis (DC) · 4/17/2007 12:14:00 PM ET
It's perhaps no surprise that their hate knows no bounds. No surprise that the gay-hating religious right finds kinship with the kind of hatred (and insanity) that took the lives of 33 innocents at Virginia Tech. Hate is universal, and to the religious right, it's next to godliness. More from Andy Towle.
These were local elections and referendums we voted for. We only got 20% of the voters out. And now we will hear, from everyone that did not vote, alot of complaints about how things were handeled.
Many people thanked us for being there this time. I thought that was very nice. It is a very long day though. People running for local office did not have to, nor was it posted anywhere, any party affiliation. There is a law in Illinois that local elections do not have to claim an affiliation so you have to go to the meetings to see what they are like and what they want to do.
Senate confirms ethics inquiry into Domenici. John Bresnahan reports:
The Senate, thanks a resolution it just adopted, has confirmed that Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) is the subject of “preliminary inquiry” over his involvement in the firing of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.
The Senate just adopted a resolution (S. Res. 153) stating that “for matters before the Select Committee on Ethics involving the preliminary inquiry arising in connection with alleged communications by persons within the committee’s jurisdiction with and concerning David C. Iglesias, then United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and the subsequent action by the committee with respect to that matter, if any, the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Salazar) shall be replaced by the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Brown).”
The passage of the resolution confirms that Domenici is being scrutinized by the Ethics Committee over a phone call he made to Iglesias, prior to the November election, inquiring whether Iglesias was going to indict some New Mexico Democrats. Up until this point, the Ethics Committee has refused to state whether it is actually investigating Domenici.
passiveconsumer said... Sudan Defying Security Council on Darfur, U.N. Says Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print Single Page Reprints Share DiggFacebookNewsvinePermalink
By WARREN HOGE Published: April 17, 2007 UNITED NATIONS, April 17 — A confidential United Nations report says the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft. ______________________________
Oh, how nice...taking a page out of the Bush-Cheney playbook.
Creating death, destruction and misery so everyone appreciates the after-life.
WH claims executive privilege over RNC emails. In a letter to the RNC, Emmet Flood, a special counsel to President Bush, “today again raised the possibility of an executive-privilege claim on e-mails and other documents from private e-mail accounts used by senior White House officials” but controlled by the RNC. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) called the request “extreme and unnecessary” and said it was “a clear attempt, on the Administration’s part, to delay this process and keep the wheels of Justice turning slowly.”
Military Analyst’s Firsthand Experience in Iraq Contradicts Right-Wing Rhetoric on Escalation Center for American Progress senior fellow and former Reagan Pentagon official Lawrence Korb recently returned from a 10-day visit to Baghdad to “assist the government of Iraq’s efforts to strengthen public administration in its civilian ministries” and uncovered results that only affirm that “the surge is not working.”
Korb noted that U.S. defense contractors, who have benefited heavily from the Iraq war, were curiously restrained in talking about the situation on the ground on the record. Major defense contractors, including those from Blackwater and Halliburton, were mum about the troop escalation only until Korb emphasized that he was not affiliated with the media:
The long wait did allow me to speak to some of the contractors about the situation on the ground. When I assured them I was not a member of the press, they were unanimous that the surge was not working. One of them said that members of Muqtada Al-Sadr’s militia have sold their guns and melted back into the population in Sadr City and will buy back their guns at the appropriate time (our own security guard said something similar).
Korb noted several other problems facing the country, much of which has yet to even be noted by the mainstream media:
In their video conferences, Maliki and Bush do not really communicate. The official also noted that in his discussions with visiting members of Congress there is really not much dialogue, with both sides giving canned presentations.
The other thing that struck me was the lack of American soldiers patrolling the neighborhoods. In fact, in my whole time here I did not see one American soldier outside the Green Zone.
Most people speaking off the record believe that the insurgents will shift to other areas and lay low for a while in Baghdad.
But if one uses the reports of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and pushes the briefers, a different picture emerges. The place is a mess and despite the almost heroic efforts of some Americans and some Iraqis it is not getting better. One of the consultants told me not to believe anyone who says that the situation is getting better.
The real issue is if the latest surge will work. The most optimistic projection was “maybe temporarily.”
Korb’s multiple meetings with top Iraqi officials and his firsthand experience in Iraq last week provide further evidence that the rosy claims about progress in Iraq are simply a desperate attempt to spin an increasingly unpopular war.
UPDATE: Kevin Drum notes some additional details from Korb’s trip.
Byrd sheds light on earmarks. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV) announced new rules today requiring that “all earmarks — the footnotes in bills that lawmakers use to deliver federal bacon to their states — be clearly identified in documents accompanying appropriations bills. The requesting senator, the recipient of the earmark and its purpose would have to be made public and posted on the Internet. Senators would also be required to certify that neither they nor their spouses would benefit financially from any earmark.”
Cole On Virginia Tech Shootings: ‘In Iraq, This Is A Daily Event’ The profoundly tragic events at Virginia Tech yesterday have produced sorrow and grief across the country. While this massacre deserves the nation’s attention, it is also worth noting that such grief rips apart Iraqi lives nearly every day in the same manner.
University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole pointed out last night on PBS’s Newshour:
Remember that we’re all concerned, as we should be, about these events at Virginia Tech today. In Iraq this is a daily event. Imagine how horrible it would be if this kind of massacre were occurring every single day. And the people of Iraq feel that either the Americans are not stopping it or they’re actually causing it.
Watch it:
Echoing Cole, Iraq Slogger published a post today recounting the brutal scenes of violence that Iraq’s universities have witnessed in recent months:
On Monday, the same day as the Virginia Tech mass shooting, two separate shooting incidents struck Mosul University, one killing Dr. Talal Younis al-Jelili, the dean of the college of Political Science as he walked through the university gate, and another killing Dr. Jaafar Hassan Sadeq, a professor from the Faculty of Arts at the school, who was targeted in front of his home in the al-Kifaat area, according to Aswat al-Iraq.
In January, Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University sufferred a double suicide bombing in January that killed at least 70 people, including students, faculty, and staff. A month later, another suicide bomber struck at Mustansiriya, killing 40.
Kidnappings of students and faculty are another all-too-common occurrence on Iraq’s campuses. Members of the univerisity community have been abducted and murdered for sectarian reasons, or simply held for ransom. […]
In January, students reported that violent events had threatened students that attendance rates at Baghdad University had dropped to six percent.
Earlier this month, the Dr. Qais Jawad al-Azzawi, head of the Geneva-based Committee International Committee of Solidarity with Iraqi Professors said that 232 university professors were killed and 56 were reported missing in Iraq, while more than 3,000 others had left the country after the 2003 invasion.
Articles of Impeachment to be filed on Cheney Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the most liberal of the Democratic presidential candidates in the primary field, declared in a letter sent to his Democratic House colleagues this morning that he plans to file articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney.
Two Secret Service officers injured at White House Two Secret Service officers were injured on Tuesday after a gun held by another Secret Service officer accidentally fired inside the White House gate, according to a spokesman, Darrin Blackford.
Threats rattle 3 universities, 2 schools Campus threats forced lock-downs and evacuations at universities in Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee and two public schools in Louisiana on Tuesday, a day after a Virginia Tech student's shooting rampage killed 33 people.
passiveconsumer said... LONDON (Reuters) - World leaders and media commentators criticised what many called the gun culture in the United States on Tuesday after 33 people were killed in the country's worst shooting rampage. April 17, 2007 7:35 PM
Just demonstrating what a "Christian Nation" is all about. Bush-Cheney and all those who support their efforts know GOD - Guns-Oil-Drugs.
A confidential United Nations report says the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.
Here we go again another school shooting. And the media response is the same. The echo chamber of mainstream media will torture us for the next week. There will be the endless interviews. The celebrity FBI profiler will be called for an assessment. Of course, it will be wrong. There will be vigil after vigil. Then comes the fake piety. There will be the gratuitous prayers. Someone will write a song. Some celebrities might show up for the funerals. The Pat Robertsons and Falwell's will chime in. They will attribute the tragedy to the last days or the deeds of Liberals. Since the shooter is Asian, the Matt Drudges will throw in some racism.
And what will we have learned from it all? Well, not a damn thing. Americans never look introspectively. We blame the other. So we will continue to bomb the world. And! We will continue to have school shootings.
toniD said... Two Secret Service officers injured at White House Two Secret Service officers were injured on Tuesday after a gun held by another Secret Service officer accidentally fired inside the White House gate, according to a spokesman, Darrin Blackford. April 17, 2007 10:59 PM
The beginnings of an insurrection? Add to my list of "things that make you go hmmmmmmm."
Edna...I reread that Jason Miller article just now..Why? Because I love it...therefore..I'm spreading it... :) I guess we cannot judge libertarians on Lionel....
I've always been attracted to that "Little Eichman's" comment...I'm glad someone brought it to the forefront again.. *
Morfin Calls for a Runoff in the 25th Ward. Aldermanic candidate Cuahutemoc Morfin is trying to force incumbent Danny Solis into a runoff, charging in a federal lawsuit that Solis didn't actually get the 50% margin needed to win. He claims that 283 votes cast for Ambrosio Medrano should be counted, since 178 early votes had been cast for Medrano before he was removed from the ballot the Friday before the election.
Let's look at other folk's emails today (April 17th).
Riley: 0 Young Turks: 27 Hartmann: 15 (4/13) Randi: about 300 on message board Maddow: 16 Politically Direct: 0 (4/16) Eco-talk: 0
April 17, 2007 11:25 PM
Blogging isn't necessarily the best way to gauge the show's audience.
Riley's got a different sort of audience and it's only on for a hour, so I wouldn't discount him because of a lack of blogging. (I can't remember a time when they even promoted the blog on the show.)
The Turks and Thom Hartmann each have their own websites so their blogging numbers at AAR don't accurately reflect their popularity. (Not that I'm a fan of the Turks!)
Rachel's blog is up to 40 now. (btw, they don't promote her blog either.) And because her show airs at different times throughout the country people come to visit during their own airings.
And PD isn't a blogging kind of show. Again, Bender doesn't promote his blog.
However, it does say a great deal about the loyalty of Sam's fans that this blog is so durned busy even now.
edna ellen poe said... And what will we have learned from it all? Well, not a damn thing. Americans never look introspectively. We blame the other. So we will continue to bomb the world. And! We will continue to have school shootings. April 17, 2007 11:38 PM
Well when you think about it, these people (young adults and children) who have been the actors in these tragedies have grown up during Republican/conservative administrations and congresses. They have experienced the "new american way" ---bullying, aggression, acceptance of personal destruction, the demeaning of hard work, irresponsibility, non-accountability, greed, extreme competition for little opportunity, conformity, selfishness, devaluation of human life (this side of the womb), cronyism, instant gratification, abandonment, misrepresentation, injustice. Unfortunately and misguided, they may be retaliating against those (educators)who well-intentioned for the most part make them believe in the promise that they eventually come to find out has been stolen and maintained by those who have little regard for anyone but themselves. Parents are overworked; schools are performing social services, not necessarily qualified but nevertheless required to do,in addition to educating under-staffed and under-funded; and the children are fending for themselves at an earlier age with minimal, if any guidance, while Bush-Cheney and the chosen few are in gated communities.
That's sweet, SJ! If I could just remember to send my Nonv more herbs when the season is ripe, I'll be happy..I think when I sent you yours I sent her her last batch too..she's been waiting...
Barbara Walters of Television's 20/20 did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan, several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked 5 paces behind their husbands.
She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. From Ms. Walter's vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even further back behind their husbands and are happy to maintain the old custom. Ms. Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, "Why do you now seem happy with the old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?"
The woman looked Ms. Walters straight in the eyes, and without hesitation said, "Land Mines."
MORAL OF THE STORY: BEHIND EVERY MAN IS A SMART WOMAN
Jenise! Oh cool! Maybe you were thinking of me cuz I was thinking of you! I got some old Japanese/English translation books dvy before yesterday & I'm sending them to you...ok? :)
Seeing Sam and Janeane together on air last time last week, recalling back to that very first Majority Report where Sam mainly screamed a lot...
The feeling of Monday without a show was... well the first analogy turned out to be NFL-related, of all things. For it was not unlike the first 49er preseason game without Steve Young -- sidelined at the end of his career with concussion problems. A whole new, lame 49er team took the field. End of an era-ish and all that.
I can hardly wait till the Sunday brings you back, Sam. Not to mention with the possibility of seeding this blog-powered journalism proposal I'm writing up to send soon...
Meanwhile, the Young Turks + re-runs from my iTunes playlist will have to do.
hey edna, did you see where president custer is going to bring shame and disgrace on the budding metropolis of tipp city when he brings his fight them over there show to town?
The Air America website is so poorly designed, I'm not surprised that few people even find the comments sections.
If the Greens really wanted to get serious, they would turn the homepage into something all blog addicts would want to check every day. With the enormous resources and archives AAR has, and the number of other blogs associated with the shows, the site should be a huge vortex of knowledge.
Close friend Australia condemns gun culture in US The Virginia Tech shootings sparked criticism of U.S. gun control laws around the world Tuesday. Editorials lashed out at the availability of weapons, and the leader of Australia — one of America's closest allies — declared that America's gun culture was costing lives.
4 bombs kill 127 people in Baghdad By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago
Four large bombs exploded across Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 127 people and wounding scores as violence climbed toward levels seen before the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital began two months ago.
In the deadliest of the attacks, a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the Sadriyah market in a mostly Shiite area of central Baghdad, killing at least 82 people and wounding 94, said Raad Muhsin, an official at Al-Kindi Hospital where the victims were taken.
A police official confirmed the toll, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Several cars were set afire at the market, where a car bombing in February killed 137 people.
About an hour earlier, a suicide car bomber crashed into an Iraqi police checkpoint at an entrance to Sadr City, the capital's biggest Shiite Muslim neighborhood and a stronghold for the militia led by radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The explosion killed at least 30 people, including five Iraqi security officers, and wounded 45, police said.
Black smoke billowed from a jumble of at least eight incinerated vehicles that were in a jam of cars stopped at the checkpoint. Bystanders scrambled over twisted metal to drag victims from the smoldering wreckage as Iraqi guards staggered around stunned.
Earlier, a parked car exploded near a private hospital in the central neighborhood of Karradah, killing 11 people and wounding 13, police said. The blast damaged the Abdul-Majid hospital and other nearby buildings.
The fourth explosion was from a bomb left on a minibus in the northwestern Risafi area, killing four people and wounding six others, police said.
Also in Baghdad, four policemen were killed Wednesday afternoon when gunmen ambushed their patrol south of the city center, police said. Six pedestrians were wounded in the gunfire.
U.S. officials had cited a slight decrease in sectarian killings in Baghdad since the U.S.-Iraqi crackdown was launched Feb. 14. But the past week has seen several spectacular attacks on the capital, including a suicide bombing inside parliament and a powerful blast that collapsed a landmark bridge across the Tigris River.
"We've seen both inspiring progress and too much evidence that we still face many grave challenges," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman, told reporters Wednesday. "We've always said securing Baghdad would not be easy."
But there's another security story that's not mentioned in this article. The part of the story that unfolded before Cho bought the guns and ammunition. He exhibited antisocial, threatening behavior for quite some time before he packed up weapons and killed 32 people. Much of that threatening behavior was directed at women. One female teacher reports being afraid for her safety when tutoring him alone. Cho is reported to have obsessively, persistently stalked a number of female students who lived on campus. By accounts now surfacing in the news, police came to speak with victims in one case (maybe more? maybe not), but no charges were ever filed, no further action taken, and the behavior continued to escalate. If even a misdemeanor charge had been on record, would he have been able to obtain those weapons so easily? Did nothing happen because the law enforcement system involved -- no, really, all of us -- just don't take violent crime and threatening behavior against women as seriously as we should?
Send foreign peacekeepers - US 18/04/2007 07:20 - (SA)
N'Djamena - US deputy secretary of state John Negroponte on Tuesday urged the deployment of foreign troops in volatile Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic which have been wracked by fighting.
"We fully support the deployment of two international peacekeeping forces in the region: the first is a hybrid United Nations-African Union force in Darfur," in Sudan, Negroponte told reporters in the Chadian capital N'Djamena.
The second, Negroponte said, was "a United Nations peacekeeping force for eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic".
"These robust international forces are required to improve the security of affected populations, and are the subject of continued bilateral discussions between Chad and the United States," he said.
---------
I would be so excited if it were anyone beside Negroponte, but, to him, peacekeepers means execution squads.
A CNN poll finds most Americans (72%) say they are closely following the ongoing dispute over timetables for Iraq withdrawal. “Six in ten think that they would wind up siding with the Democrats in this dispute; 37% say they are more likely to take the President’s side.”
In a speech today at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum, President Bush will “announce a new set of sanctions on Sudan in an attempt to pressure the Khartoum government to allow a peacekeeping force into the turbulent Darfur region.”
“The World Bank’s board of directors is scheduled to convene tomorrow and may try to figure out what to do about calls that the bank’s president, Paul Wolfowitz, resign because he gave a big raise and promotion to his girlfriend, Shaha Riza.”
The House yesterday passed the Taxpayer Protection Act, to protect taxpayers against “identity theft, deceptive Web sites and loan sharks.” It also makes it “easier for taxpayers to retrieve property lost as a result of a wrongful Internal Revenue Service levy and directs the IRS to notify lower-income people that they qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit.”
" we must continue our policy of sanctioning third world countries until enough people are desperate and sick enough that we can simply blow them over with the escaping oxygen from underneath our "emergency supplies"."
the words "Negroponte" and "Peacekeepers" become oxymorons when used in the same sentance.
Another scare rattles VA Tech campus Virginia Tech students still on edge after the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history got another scare Wednesday morning as police in SWAT gear with weapons drawn swarmed Burruss Hall, which houses the president's office.
A brutal truth: Massacre is 'part of everyday life in America' However exceptional the event, there is something formulaic, even routine, about the coverage. There is no soul searching, no wondering what might be wrong with a society where such things happen so frequently.
I called to cancel my XM service yesterday... they gave me 3 free months not to leave. Everyone else who listened to Sam on XM should do the same. If He's not back on daily in 3 months, it's bye-bye XM.
Foreclosure Filings in U.S. Increase 47 Percent as Housing Slump Persists U.S. foreclosure filings rose 47 percent last month from a year ago as the housing slump continued to take its toll on home owners.
I don't blog often but have taken some solace in lurking here since Sam's cancellation. It may be latent guilt over having done little but moan over Sedition and then MMS but I truly feel the need to try a bit more on Sam's behalf. Can you please share with me the numbers you're calling (I just get this dumb vm when I do) and whom you're emailing? I've commented on Green's stupid letter(s) numerous times and emailed programming but perhaps you're aware of others. Also, is anyone interested in trying to organize a real AAR sponsor boycott where we list all advertisers and in a collective fashion contact each with our grievances? Do you think this might be woth trying? Please comment and I'll check back.
"Cody Webb was jailed for calling in a bomb threat to his Hempstead Area high school (near Pittsburgh). He spent 12 days in lockup until the authorities realized that their caller-id log was off an hour because of the new Daylight Savings Time rules and that Cody had only called one hour prior to the actual bomb threat. Perhaps it took so long because of the principal's Catch-22 attitude about Cody's guilt — she said, 'Well, why should we believe you? You're a criminal. Criminals lie all the time.'"
Well, in the interest of fairness, I went to his site & tried to listen to a Lionel podcast - he lost me as soon as he repeated the stupid meme that a lot of people hate Al Sharpton coz of Tawana Brawley >= P
& he has a voice like Witchypoo = S
I have a terrible hunch that 'Lionel' will be another Springer on the Radio - just not as kind as Jerry......
i listen via xm and am suffering thru big ed. i think knitting needles in the ear would be less painful then his rant about the vt massacre.
the whole problem with having gun laws that filter out "unacceptable" individuals is that unacceptable is too subjective. who defines it? its sorta like porn, you know it when you see it, but still....
First, there’s shock, depression, identification with the victims and outrage that such a thing could happen here. Then comes the inevitable search for meaning, and the debate over gun laws, video games, values and more. All accomplished with a stunning lack of perspective.
For one thing, the Virginia Tech incident was not even remotely that nation’s worst mass shooting, as some media are claiming…unless, of course, you don’t consider Native Americans or African Americans to be real people. Try to recall the Indian massacres at Marias, Sand Creek, Wounded Knee and now-forgotten locales. And the death toll of black people in Tulsa in 1921 probably topped 300. Of course, soldiers are human, too, so the 3,600 or so dead at the Battle of Antietam also top the 33 dead yesterday in Blacksburg.
But let’s widen our view to the present and include the American-led war in Iraq, and then narrow it to Baghdad alone. In July 2006, 1,417 bodies wound up at the city morgue, many shot to death at point-blank range, other blown apart in a less personal manner. All dead. That’s 46 people a day murdered, day after day after day. All had families; all had immortal souls, if you believe that; all were human. While the death rate in Baghdad seems to have slacked somewhat, as Iraq Body Count blogger Lily Hamourtziadou’s weekly report concludes, “Violence in Iraq is rising at an ‘unbelievably rapid pace’, according to the Pentagon’s latest assessment of the security situation.”
None of this is supposed to belittle the horror of Blacksburg in the least. It can’t. Murder is murder, whether conducted by a deranged gunman or under the protective cover of war. Try, just try to identify with the victims at Virginia Tech and extend that to America’s minorities, America’s battered and murdered women, and to Iraq.
What is happening in Iraq is wrong. And the first response of a rational person who finds him or herself doing wrong is to stop doing it. We can’t stop everyone in the world from murdering their neighbors, but we can stop doing it ourselves.
* The world has become dramatically more peaceful since 1992. The number of wars, coup d'etats, and acts of genocide has declined by 40 percent. Weapons sales between countries have dropped 33 percent during the same time, and the number of refugees has diminished by 45 percent.
The cause of these shocking developments, according to the Human Security Report, which did the study, is the unprecedented upsurge of international activism, spearheaded by the United Nations.
* The violent crime rate has decreased 50 percent since 1993. Crime is now at its lowest level since it was first officially tracked.
* The average human life expectancy is 30 years more than it was a century ago, and is still climbing. Many scientists believe there is no absolute limit to the human life span.
* Levels of literacy and education and political freedom and wealth are steadily growing all over the world.
* Death rates from cancer are declining.
* Child abduction by strangers has dropped precipitously.
* In 60 years, there hasn't been a lower birth rate among teenage girls than there is now.
* The world's largest freshwater system, the Great Lakes, is dramatically purifying itself of the pollutants that human beings dumped into it.
* If forced to decide between having a bigger penis and living in a world where there was no war, 90 percent of all men would pick universal peace.
* The number of America's black elected officials has sextupled since 1970.
* Rising rates of intermarriage are helping to dissipate ethnic and religious strife worldwide.
* The rivers and bays of New York City are reborn, having been cleansed of raw sewage and industrial pollution in recent years.
* You have at least a million relatives as close as tenth cousin, and no one on Earth is any farther removed than your 50th cousin.
* The world's largest private bank, Citigroup, has agreed to stop financing projects that damage sensitive ecosystems.
* The giant timber company, Congolaise Industrielle des Bois, voluntarily agreed to stop cutting down trees in a virgin rain forest in the Congo.
* The miracle of your breathing transpires about 10 million times a year, even though you never have to think about it.
* Every second the sun generously transforms four million tons of itself into energy and bestows it on us free of charge.
* Diamonds rain from the sky on Uranus and Neptune.
* With every dawn, when first light penetrates the sea, many seahorse colonies perform a dance to the sun.
* The World Health Organization reports that over 100 million acts of sexual intercourse, involving more than 200 million partners, take place on the earth every 24 hours.
* Most HMO executives now believe prayer and meditation can expedite the healing process.
* Vast supplies of frozen natural gas lie beneath the oceans, harboring more potential energy than all the world's oil reserves, and could be mined with the right technology.
* Each of the 50 trillion cells in your body can be considered a sentient being in its own right, and they all act together as a community, performing an ongoing act of prodigious collaboration.
YES, I miss the sound of your voice! I can't believe some doofus gets on here and whines about your voice. It's adorable. I also miss your wit, brilliance, excellent commentary and excellent guests!
This morning, on AAR, I heard an ad, by you, for your weekly morning show, as if it still exists. Why?? Can AAR not get their act together enough to update the website, BY NOW, to stop advertising your weekly show like it still exists and also pull the radio ads for your weekly morning show which is such a cruel tease?
Have they just been injecting all their energy into getting this Lionel dude on the air that they can't keep up with basic housekeeping?
Can you tell we're all extremely emotional about this thing?!
hey joe said... Did all the people that use to waste their time posting here go to their mental health counseling late this afternoon?
April 17, 2007 6:55 PM
Joe, since most of them don't work, they have plenty of time for the various government charity programs especially the ones for help with their mental health and drug/drinking problems. That is why most don't accomplish anything aside from lots of lazy whining online on meaningless insignificant back waters of the web like this.
from Melanie: I work full-time, pay $600 a month in health insurance b/c I was diagnosed with cancer, go to radiation treatments 5 mornings a week and then straight to work, so stick it where the sun don't shine. And what the hell are you doing here then?
We're here because we care about our country and are not self-absorbed, spiteful dweebs who look down on other people who do so, apparently like yourself. You obviously don't listen to AAR so get off the site and go to Drudge or read the Limbaugh Letter or something.
blah, blah, blah: In a bad mood this morning, can ya' tell?
I share your feelings about Schultz. I am usually running my lunchtime errands when he's on. Gotta find something else to tune in to.
I have to remind myself that it's still better than what I had before I got XM, which was total local crap (stopped listening to radio altogether as a result). Just still mad about Sam's show, though. It only took me 2 weeks to get hooked.
Well, I guess I'd best get to work and stop whining like the troll said. Red State Mel
10 out of 15 countries believe that the United States cannot be trusted to “act responsibly in the world.” The new PIPA poll also finds that majorities in 13 out of 15 publics polled say the United States is “playing the role of world policeman more than it should be,” and majorities in all 15 of the countries polled reject the idea that “the US should continue to be the preeminent world leader in solving international problems.”
i don't know mel, i don't see a lot of whinin going on myself. what i do see is a lot of people fed up with six years of neocon b.s. toss in what feels like a shutdown of a media channel and this is what you got.
i'll bet very few people realize that the record for whining was set between 1992 and 2000 by the righties during that great run this country had with clinton. it was constant, incessant, and as gomer would say, surprise, surprise, it was funded by a bunch of rich f**ks that simply wanted to rape and pillage.
Breaking: Supreme Court Upholds ‘Partial Birth’ Abortion Ban In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has upheld a nationwide ban on “partial birth” abortion, “marking a shift on the high-profile issue and underscoring the impact of President George W. Bush’s two high court appointments.”
The justices “refused to invalidate the 2003 law even though it lacks an exception for cases posing a risk to the mother’s health. The court also rejected claims that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act is so vaguely worded it would force doctors to forgo a commonly used, constitutionally protected abortion technique for fear of prosecution. ”
UPDATE: In the majority were swing vote Anthony Kennedy, along with Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Scalia, and Thomas.
UPDATE II: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg penned a scathing dissent:
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking out in the courtroom for the dissenters, called the ruling “an alarming decision” that refuses “to take seriously” the Court’s 1992 decisions reaffirming most of Roe v. Wade and its 2000 decision in Stenberg v. Carhart striking down a state partial-birth abortion law.
Ginsburg, in a lengthy statement, said “the Court’s opinion tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. For the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception protecting a woman’s health.”
UPDATE III: Justice Clarence Thomas authored, and Justice Antonin Scalia joined, a 137-word concurring opinion, which appears to have the sole purpose of stating: “I write separately to reiterate my view that the Court’s abortion jurisprudence, including Casey and Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113 (1973), has no basis in the Constitution.”
UPDATE IV: The nation’s leading group of professionals providing health care for women, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, opposed this law because the banned procedure is often the best option for women:
The intact variant of D&E offers significant safety advantages over the non-intact method, including a reduced risk of catastrophic hemorrhage and life-threatening infection. These safety advantages are widely recognized by experts in the field of women’s health, authoritative medical texts, peer-reviewed studies, and the nation’s leading medical schools.
Gates Contradicts Bush, Cheney On Timelines Via Kevin Drum, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that Congress’ debate over a withdrawal timeline is having a positive impact:
Gates, on a Middle East tour, called for a range of efforts from inside and outside Iraq to speed up the formation of a broad-based government of Iraq’s majority Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions.
….”The debate in Congress…has been helpful in demonstrating to the Iraqis that American patience is limited,” Gates told Pentagon reporters traveling with him in Jordan. “The strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably has had a positive impact…in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended commitment.”
Gate’s argument contradicts President Bush’s claim that timelines “send the wrong message to the Iraqis,” and prove al Qaeda’s accusations that America is “weak,” “corrupt,” and “can’t stand it.”
Artificial timetable for withdrawal send the wrong message to the Iraqis, they’re seeing it’s not worth it. There’s a lot of Iraqis over there determined — trying to make up their mind whether they want to be a part of democracy, or whether or not they’re going to take to the hills and see what happens. Artificial timetable for withdrawal, an early withdrawal before this finishes sends the message to the enemy, we were right about America. That’s what they said. Al Qaeda has said it’s just a matter of time before America withdraws. They’re weak, they’re corrupt, they can’t stand it, and they’ll withdraw. And all that would do is confirm what the enemy thinks.
Likewise, Vice President Cheney said last week:
It is impossible to argue that an unconditional timetable for retreat could serve the security interests of the United States or our friends in the region. Instead, it sends a message to our enemies that the calendar is their friend, that all they have to do is wait us out — wait for the date certain, and then claim victory the day after.
Such hypocrisy isn’t confined to the Bush administration. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who regularly maligns timelines as a “date certain for surrender,” admitted he used those very calls for redeployment to “motivate the Maliki government” during a dinner last month with Prime Minister Maliki.
Breaking: 127 157 dead in Baghdad bombings. CBS News: “A parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at a Shiite marketplace in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 82 people, police and hospital officials said. The attack was one of four bombings in Baghdad on Wednesday afternoon, which killed at least 127 people in total, officials said.”
Sunshine Jim said... http://www.passablynews.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1175830780
"Cody Webb was jailed for calling in a bomb threat to his Hempstead Area high school (near Pittsburgh). He spent 12 days in lockup until the authorities realized that their caller-id log was off an hour because of the new Daylight Savings Time rules and that Cody had only called one hour prior to the actual bomb threat. Perhaps it took so long because of the principal's Catch-22 attitude about Cody's guilt — she said, 'Well, why should we believe you? You're a criminal. Criminals lie all the time.'"
April 18, 2007 11:31 AM
I don't know SJ but this story sounds suspect. I would think a bomb threat against a school and bringing charges may be a federal offense and would require law enforcement investigation and evidence other than the school's caller ID log and a ranting principal. I am at work but I'll get back to you later on this.
85 Die in Iraq; 17 Corpses Found in Ramadi Schoolyard
In other news, at least 85 people were killed or found dead across Iraq on Tuesday. 17 decomposing corpses were found buried beneath two schoolyards in Ramadi.
*
Group: 230 University Professors Killed So Far In Iraq
Two professors from Mosul University were murdered on Monday - the same day as the Virginia Tech mass shooting. The school's dean of political science was shot as he walked through the university gate. A second professor was killed in front of his home. The International Committee of Solidarity with Iraqi Professors estimates that over 230 university professors have been killed since the Iraq war started. 56 are reported missing and more than 3,000 others have fled the country. Schools in Iraq have also been targets of frequent attacks. In January at least 70 people died in a double suicide bombing at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University. Another suicide bomber struck the school in February killing 40 more students, faculty and staff.
FLASHBACK: Gonzales Couldn’t Name A Single Mistake He’s Made » On Nov. 27, 2006, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and at least five top Justice Department officials held a meeting to implement a five-step plan for carrying out the firings of several U.S. Attorneys.
Just three days later, on Nov. 30, Gonzales appeared on CNN and was asked if he could think of a single mistake he’s made during his service to President Bush during the last six years. He couldn’t do it.
“I think that you and I would — I’d have to spend some time thinking about that,” he said. Watch it:
Now that Gonzales is being held accountable by Congress, he’s changed his tune. Some excerpts from his opening statement he’ll read tomorrow before the Senate Judiciary Committee:
“I apologize” “I am sorry” “could have — and should have — been handled differently” “I made mistakes” “I would have handled this differently” “I should have done more” “at times I have been less than precise” “I misspoke” “That statement was too broad” “imprecise and overbroad” “I regret that” “management missteps” “should have been more rigorous” “should have been completed in a much shorter period of time” “owes them more respect than they were shown” “should have worked with them” “I should have communicated the concerns more effectively” “I should have informed them of my decisions in a more dignified manner” “could have been handled much better” “I want to apologize publicly”
Mr Seder formerly hosted the "Majority Power Hour of Truth" with Reverand Janeane Garefalo, who was fired due to her Tourette's Syndrome. He has written numerous books that all his friends have read. Mr Seder has, due to his massive ratings and popularity...been moved to Sundays on Air America Radio from 4:44pm to 4:48pm. He once shot a man in Reno...just to watch him die.
Subject: Tell Congress we need bold leadership on climate change
Hi,
I just took action on a petition asking Congress for bold leadership on climate change. We need big cuts in our greenhouse gas emissions and they have to happen soon. There were almost 1,400 events last weekend to ask for 80% reductions by 2050. You can add you voice to the call by clicking on the link below and signing the petition.
I'm sorry to say, but Thom Hartmann knows nothing about Zimbabwe.
Blaming everything that is going on in the economy on president Mugabe, is about as credible as blaming everything that is wrong in Iraq on Sadam Hussain.
In fact, the villification of Mugabe is very similar to the villification of Iraq under Saddam.
If he reallay wants to understand what is going on, he should examine the IMF sanctions against Zimbabwe, which basically cut off all access to foreign exchange. No country could survive that. And take a close look at the opposition. They are nothing but neoliberal stooges, who will restore IMF 'structural adjustment programmes' - selling of state assets to western corporations, return whites to the land and sell off the parastatals.
Vice President's office will look into impeachment report Michael Roston Published: Wednesday April 18, 2007
Vice President Dick Cheney's office was looking into news that Articles of Impeachment will be filed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich for crimes which have not yet been identified by the Democratic Congressman. The news appeared on a blog last night produced by the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.
"Cheney's deputy press secretary, Megan McGinn, said she couldn't comment on Kucinich's email because she hadn't seen it," wrote Sabrina Eaton at the Plain Dealer's blog Openers.
She added, "Asked whether Cheney had done anything he could be impeached for, McGinn replied: 'The vice president has had nearly 40 years of government service and has done so in an honorable fashion.'"
RAW STORY also contacted McGinn yesterday, and was told that the Vice President's office would look into the question.
Yesterday, the Washington Post's Mary Ann Akers at her blog The Sleuth revealed Kucinich's plans to file Articles of Impeachment against Cheney.
"This week I intend to introduce Articles of Impeachment with respect to the conduct of Vice President Cheney," Kucinich, who is running for president, wrote in a "dear colleague" letter to fellow Members of Congress. Kucinich noted that the actual charges themselves were "confidential" prior to their formal introduction to the House of Representatives.
VA Tech killer was admitted to mental heath facility in '05 Seung-Hui Cho had previously been accused of stalking and was admitted to a mental health facility in 2005 amid fears he might be suicidal, police said.
Senate blocks Medicare drug price bill By KEVIN FREKING 1 hour, 36 minutes ago
The Senate blocked legislation on Wednesday that would let the government negotiate Medicare drug prices. Democrats couldn't muster the 60 votes needed to bring the bill up for a vote.
Under the Medicare drug benefit, private insurance plans negotiate with drug makers over the price of medicine for their customers. About 22 million seniors and the disabled are enrolled in such plans. Some lawmakers, mostly Democrats, contend the government could use its leverage to drive a better bargain than individual insurers, which would lower the cost of the program for taxpayers and seniors.
But Republicans countered Wednesday that the program is costing much less than expected precisely because it's the private sector, not the secretary of Health and Human Services, conducting the negotiations. They successfully blocked a motion to proceed to the bill. The tally was 55-42, five short of the votes needed to move ahead.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record), R-Ky., said the program will cost about $265 billion less than anticipated over the coming decade.
"I doubt a single government program in modern history, let alone one this big and this important has ever, ever come in under budget," McConnell said. "So it's a mystery why our Democratic friends would want to tamper with this Medicare drug benefit. If it isn't broke, why fix it?"
Democratic lawmakers countered that they weren't aiming for a government takeover of the drug benefit, only to let the secretary of Health and Human Services intervene for particular kinds of expensive drugs that have no substitute, such as some of the drugs taken by cancer patients.
"This bill does not take over the role of the private plans," said Sen. Ron Wyden (news, bio, voting record), D-Ore. "The question is, should we make it possible for the secretary of Health and Human Services to complement the role, to go beyond it and say that there are some circumstances where we should negotiate?"
593 comments:
1 – 200 of 593 Newer› Newest»Sam I miss the sound of your voice. Also I am ignorant as to the events of the day. Get back on the air pleeeeeeeeease. Keiran (Waxman)
Some of the victims
-----------
toniD said...
Tomorrow is election day, here, for local offices so I won't be here tomorrow until late. Long day...5:30 AM to 7:30 PM. This time I wish I would have said no to being an election judge.
April 16, 2007 6:26 PM
________________
toniD,
Appreciate you being an election judge! Good work!
The Hello Man said hello!
-----------
Bill Moyers returns to weekly television next week!
You can expect:
"Buying the War": "Bill Moyers Journal" kicks off on Wednesday, April 25 on PBS (check local listings) with a 90-minute documentary that explores the role of the press in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq.
How the administration marketed the war to the American people has been well covered, but critical questions remain: How and why did the press buy it, and what does it say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?
----------------------------
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL:
Our new series begins in its regular time slot (check local listings) on Friday, April 27 and will include ideas, interviews, and analysis across an array of beats, including the environment, media, politics, religion, the economy, arts and culture, and issues facing democracy.
LINKS:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/about/airdates.html
Clean Elections:Berkeley Advocate on 3rd try for Clean Elections in Calf.
Check this out http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_5684886
No-Fishing Zones in Tropics Yield Fast Payoffs for Reefs
[snip]
Two years after Ratu Aisea Katonivere, a traditional chief, imposed a no-take zone, “The fish are closer and bigger,” he said. “They are coming back; it’s a miracle.” Mr. Katonivere, who rules over 7,000 people in the Great Sea Reef, the world’s third-largest barrier reef, spoke in an interview during a conservation conference in Honolulu.
[snip]
But in the United States, marine protected areas are less than 1 percent of near-shore waters. In Hawaii, where the reefs are largely depleted of fish, a “right to fish” bill recently approved by the state house of representatives would make it almost impossible to create any protected areas by requiring unattainable scientific data.
Link to story here
------------------
Star Vox said...
Bill Moyers returns to weekly television next week!
:) Thanks for the good news, Star Vox!
Sam, FYI- I am continuing with my daily calls/emails to AAR management to bring you back ASAP!!! Hope this helps. Doing what I can - I call on all others to do the same!
very very very few comments on the seder blog now. appropiately so as we are in the last throes of the far left air america radio.
-
U.S. Gun Laws Draw Heat After Massacre By PAISLEY DODDS
LONDON - The Virginia Tech shootings sparked criticism of U.S. gun control laws around the world Tuesday. Editorials lashed out at the availability of weapons, and the leader of Australia — one of America's closest allies — declared that America's gun culture was costing lives.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the government hoped Monday's shootings, allegedly carried out by a 23-year-old South Korean native, would not "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation."
While some focused blame only on the gunman, world opinion over U.S. gun laws was almost unanimous: Access to weapons increases the probability of shootings. There was no sympathy for the view that more guns would have saved lives by enabling students to shoot the assailant.
"We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country," said Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who staked his political career on promoting tough gun laws after a gunman went on one of the world's deadliest killing sprees 11 years ago...
Continued at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_eu/virginia_tech_world_view
-
We don't need no stinking handgun control!
National Rifle Association
know what I miss, Sammy? (can i call you Sammy?) I miss the "You, sir -- you're are a pretender. You do not know the Lord."
That was good stuff.
Did all the people that use to waste their time posting here go to their mental health counseling late this afternoon?
Sudan Defying Security Council on Darfur, U.N. Says
Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print Single Page Reprints Share
DiggFacebookNewsvinePermalink
By WARREN HOGE
Published: April 17, 2007
UNITED NATIONS, April 17 — A confidential United Nations report says the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.
Skip to next paragraph
Related
Text: Interim Report on Sudan
In one case, illustrated with close-up pictures, the report says the letters “U.N.” have been stenciled onto the wing of a whitewashed Sudanese armed forces plane parked on a military apron at a Darfur airport. Bombs guarded by uniformed soldiers are laid out in rows by its side.
The report says that contrary to the Sudanese government denials, the freshly painted planes are being operated out of all three of Darfur’s principal airports and used for aerial surveillance and bombardments of villages, in addition to cargo transport. The report was compiled by a five-person panel responsible for helping the Security Council’s sanctions committee monitor compliance with resolutions on Darfur, the war-ravaged region in Sudan. It was made available by a diplomat from one of the 15 Security Council nations, a nation that believes the findings ought to be made public.
More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.3 million have been uprooted from their homes, largely by repeated attacks from Arab militias supported and equipped by the Sudan government.
But while the report focuses much of its attention on the government, it says that rebel groups fighting the Khartoum government were also guilty of violating Security Council resolutions, peace treaty agreements and humanitarian standards. It recommends a tightening of the arms embargo imposed by the Security Council and other restrictions on activities involving illicit weapons, regardless of who is responsible.
The report covers recent conduct, from September 2006 to March 12, 2007, and emerges a day after Sudan announced it was dropping its objections to large-scale United Nations assistance to the overwhelmed African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.
The Khartoum government said Monday that it would agree to a force of 3,000 military police officers, along with six attack helicopters and other aviation and logistics support. Left uncertain is whether Sudan will ultimately drop its longstanding resistance to a proposed 21,000-member joint African Union-United Nations force to replace the 7,000-member African Union force that has said it cannot curb the continuing violence.
hey joe said...
Did all the people that use to waste their time posting here go to their mental health counseling late this afternoon?
April 17, 2007 6:55 PM
Joe, since most of them don't work, they have plenty of time for the various government charity programs especially the ones for help with their mental health and drug/drinking problems. That is why most don't accomplish anything aside from lots of lazy whining online on meaningless insignificant back waters of the web like this.
SPONNNNNNGGGGGG!!!
I met Pat Buchanan this year,
high as hell.
I asked him why if he thought George Bush senior should have been held accountable for saying "no new taxes" during buchanan's failed 92 run,
Why shouldn't bush jr be held accountable for lying to us about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
He said Bush had not lied about weapons of mass distruction in Iraq.
He, obviously was aware of Cheney's 91 "broken arrow" situation, which, at the thime, I was not.
So yea, we might be lazy ass lefty bloggers, but we'll be here fu**ing with you assholes til the end and holding you accountable for your crimes.
Hey Joe,Office worker-Blow Me!!
Taken from the website regarding the PBS series "America at a Crossroads:
http://www.pbs.org/weta/
crossroads/about/show_operation_
homecoming_writings.html#han
----
To the Fallen
By U.S. Army Sergeant John McCary
Dear all,
We are dying. Not in some philosophical, chronological, ‘the end comes for all of us sooner or later’ sense. Just dying. Sure, it’s an occupational hazard, and yeah, you can get killed walking down the street in Anytown, USA. But not like this. Not car bombs that leave craters in the road, not jeering crowds that celebrate your destruction.
It’s never been a fair fight, and we haven’t always played nice. But not like this. No one leaves the gate looking to kill, or looking to die. No one wakes up in the morning and says, “I sure hope blowing up a whole group of Iraqis goes well today.” That’s for suckers and cowards, people afraid to delve into the melee and fight it out, to sort it out like soldiers...
---------------------------------
That's for suckers and cowards...
I can think of several.
Troll!!
Did Mark Maron's radio show also fail like most of the shows on bankrupt AAR?
"America at a Crossroads"
Was that the name of the show that was on last night? If so, that show is worth making into a DVD and distributing far & wide...it was...(insert lots of descriptive words).....
been watching a lot of "frontline" lately groucho,
one thing that stands out to me is that honor is easily blinded.
the whole chomsky " people are not evil, but institutions they're involved in can be."
still got a lot of alarm clocks to set.
British shed 'war on terror' language
The term is considered too simplistic, and perhaps supportive of jihadist goals.
By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent
A new direction? In New York Monday, British MP Hilary Benn criticized the US-coined term, 'war on terror.'
Daniel Berehulak/Getty ImagesLONDON - Britain is rapidly backpedaling on the "war on terror." Not the global effort to subdue jihadists, but the three-word phrase, much used by President Bush, which in the British establishiment now fear is ill-defined, oversimplistic, and excessively martial and Manichaean.
Government ministers were quietly instructed several weeks ago to avoid using the term, but matters were brought into the open Monday when a senior cabinet minister rejected the phrase during a speech in America.
Hilary Benn, the Blair government's international development secretary, told a New York think tank that the concept of a war on terror sends out the wrong message on two levels: It encourages terrorists by dignifying their cause, and it suggests that only military measures could be a useful response.
Massacre triggers world criticism of U.S. gun laws
By Ralph Gowling
LONDON (Reuters) - World leaders and media commentators criticised what many called the gun culture in the United States on Tuesday after 33 people were killed in the country's worst shooting rampage.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=592912007
Alice said...
"America at a Crossroads"
Was that the name of the show that was on last night?
----------------------------------
Yessiree Bobbette, it was (is) America at a Crossroads.
Tonight's installment will have Richard Perle explaining why the war in Iraq was and is a really nifty idea.
(Look up Richard Perle under "Neocon who hasn't yet figured it out. See Cheney.")
Right wingers give good blow jobs!
passiveconsumer said...
been watching a lot of "frontline" lately groucho,
one thing that stands out to me is that honor is easily blinded.
the whole chomsky " people are not evil, but institutions they're involved in can be."
still got a lot of alarm clocks to set.
---------------------------------
Groucho responds:
In my humble-istimo opinion, any time that an individual gives himself or herself over to a cause marked by repetitive, organized, twenty-four hour training, that individual has accepted the notion that Free Will is a nuisance and submission to ideology is not.
April 17, 2007 7:29 PM
Sam, I already have recorded many of your radio shows and have created interesting voice mails by juxtaposing your comments. I am selling on ebay
I hope this does not interefere with your little fundraising project.
-conbo
bid on both items up for auction, but somebody has already outbid me. Forgot to even check when the auction's up, maybe I should bid just before they are.
What's up bloggers?
Cathy in Seattle
Free Will is such a slippery lil' kuhli loach.
americans get the most use out of it during thier potato selection at t.g.i.fridays.
America's founders understood the First Amendment would be worth little without a postal system that encouraged broad public participation in America's "marketplace of ideas." Thomas Jefferson called for a postal service that allowed ideas to "penetrate the whole mass of the people." Along with James Madison, he paved the way for a system that gave low-cost mailing incentives to small publications.
The postal policies that resulted have helped spur a vibrant political culture in the United States by easing the entry of diverse political viewpoints into a national discourse often dominated by the largest media organizations.
Now, this is all about to change, putting the future of The Nation, along with many other publications, at risk.
Postal regulators have decided to extend special favors to the nation's largest publishers, like Time Warner and Hearst, while unfairly burdening smaller and independent magazines with much higher postal rates--The Nation is being saddled with an unexpected increase of $500,000 in annual postal costs and many smaller publications could be forced to the brink of bankruptcy.
The only way to reverse the decision is if you - and many others - take a minute to sign a letter demanding that the rules are changed. This is not a right/left issue, which is why The Nation and William Buckley's National Review are teaming up in this instance to demand that the Postal Board of Governors reverse its decision.
Please join us in urging postal regulators and Congress to convene public hearings, determine how these rate increases were decided, and reverse the ruling. We only have until April 23--the end of the public comment period--to respond, so please take action today:
Write the Postal Rate Commission and Congress.
Learn more about the issue.
Help promote the campaign.
The Post Office should not use its monopoly power to favor the largest publishers and undermine the ability of smaller publishers to compete. With your help we can reverse this decision and salvage the postal system that has served free speech in America so well for so long.
Thanks for your help.
Best Regards,
Peter Rothberg,
The Nation
http://action.freepress.net/campaign/postal
i've been playing Pressure Drop 6 times a day
Wow, Dick, thanks for having a little talk with your spawn.
just ignore them... That's what me and that other idiot, George, do. They yammer and jaw away all day long, always yappin' on about God, Country, and how great the whore (c'mon, you all know I mean Coulter) is, but we just ignore them. Once they vote for us, we don't really have much use for them.
Many ID's,same TROLL.
howza seattle?
shheeesh we got some wharf rats round here.
grrr.. yes.
angry. yes.
i get it.
Sam, come baaaaacckkkkk!!!! Soon
Dick Cheney I think,is the same Troll talking to himself.......Many ID's same troll.
I wonder if the Lesbians For Dick fan club has more than one member?
(Get it? One member? I kill myself.)
LOL
I ain't wearing no underwear!
C&L 30k question-Ann Coulter.
Check this out http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/17/the-30k-question/
Ignore those trolls i.e. Cheney's .... it brings luck. :) :) .... Peace
Sam,
I miss your show and your views. Tell me you're doing OK. OK?
Evening all. Just got home from the polls. Very tiring. Rvrtything went well this time.
The Repubs I worked with were very nice. We are going out for lunch. Too bad they are missled by their party.
But I got the idea from them that they weren't too happy with what was happening. And they weren't smug or arrogant like the trolls here. Two of them were history buffs and very interesting to talk to.
Crank, one of them taught at Benedictine University and he, like you, is very interested in the root of words. One Dem and one repub. Interesting day.
I heard, on the Malloy show, on the way home from the polls, that Rep. Dennis Kucinich is going to bring impeachment proceedings against Dick Cheney this week.
toniD said...
Tomorrow is election day, here, for local offices so I won't be here tomorrow until late. Long day...5:30 AM to 7:30 PM. This time I wish I would have said no to being an election judge.
April 16, 2007 6:26 PM
_________________________
You're phenomenal! Any chance you could teach a online course in effective time management. Thanks for everything you do!
BREAKING!
Gunman's Writings Were Disturbing
really? he was disturbed?
-conbo
Thanks CeeCee!
Not that great at time managment. Don't even think about things, just do it.
Hey Connie!!
hi ToniD
have you heard about the massacre at V tech?
lots of people have died
-conbo
SAY GOODNIGHT, DICK!
evening gang,
T how did the voting go?
i see you had the repub reaction
i've been encountering lately.
Anti-gay conservative Christians to protest at VA Tech funerals
by John Aravosis (DC) · 4/17/2007 12:14:00 PM ET
It's perhaps no surprise that their hate knows no bounds. No surprise that the gay-hating religious right finds kinship with the kind of hatred (and insanity) that took the lives of 33 innocents at Virginia Tech. Hate is universal, and to the religious right, it's next to godliness. More from Andy Towle.
LINK
Andy Mckee - The Friend I never met What is this instrument called?
*
2mex/Look Daggers - Call You Later Still...LOVE this....
Look Daggers
*
Peeping Tom - Mojo Mike Patton from FNM...
Evening Jim,
These were local elections and referendums we voted for. We only got 20% of the voters out. And now we will hear, from everyone that did not vote, alot of complaints about how things were handeled.
Many people thanked us for being there this time. I thought that was very nice. It is a very long day though. People running for local office did not have to, nor was it posted anywhere, any party affiliation. There is a law in Illinois that local elections do not have to claim an affiliation so you have to go to the meetings to see what they are like and what they want to do.
Senate confirms ethics inquiry into Domenici. John Bresnahan reports:
The Senate, thanks a resolution it just adopted, has confirmed that Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) is the subject of “preliminary inquiry” over his involvement in the firing of former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.
The Senate just adopted a resolution (S. Res. 153) stating that “for matters before the Select Committee on Ethics involving the preliminary inquiry arising in connection with alleged communications by persons within the committee’s jurisdiction with and concerning David C. Iglesias, then United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, and the subsequent action by the committee with respect to that matter, if any, the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Salazar) shall be replaced by the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Brown).”
The passage of the resolution confirms that Domenici is being scrutinized by the Ethics Committee over a phone call he made to Iglesias, prior to the November election, inquiring whether Iglesias was going to indict some New Mexico Democrats. Up until this point, the Ethics Committee has refused to state whether it is actually investigating Domenici.
LINK
passiveconsumer said...
Sudan Defying Security Council on Darfur, U.N. Says
Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print Single Page Reprints Share
DiggFacebookNewsvinePermalink
By WARREN HOGE
Published: April 17, 2007
UNITED NATIONS, April 17 — A confidential United Nations report says the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.
______________________________
Oh, how nice...taking a page out of the Bush-Cheney playbook.
Creating death, destruction and misery so everyone appreciates the after-life.
WH claims executive privilege over RNC emails. In a letter to the RNC, Emmet Flood, a special counsel to President Bush, “today again raised the possibility of an executive-privilege claim on e-mails and other documents from private e-mail accounts used by senior White House officials” but controlled by the RNC. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) called the request “extreme and unnecessary” and said it was “a clear attempt, on the Administration’s part, to delay this process and keep the wheels of Justice turning slowly.”
LINK
Kudo's to you T!
those are where the rubber meets the road.
was pondering what we need to continue to do.
Military Analyst’s Firsthand Experience in Iraq Contradicts Right-Wing Rhetoric on Escalation
Center for American Progress senior fellow and former Reagan Pentagon official Lawrence Korb recently returned from a 10-day visit to Baghdad to “assist the government of Iraq’s efforts to strengthen public administration in its civilian ministries” and uncovered results that only affirm that “the surge is not working.”
Korb noted that U.S. defense contractors, who have benefited heavily from the Iraq war, were curiously restrained in talking about the situation on the ground on the record. Major defense contractors, including those from Blackwater and Halliburton, were mum about the troop escalation only until Korb emphasized that he was not affiliated with the media:
The long wait did allow me to speak to some of the contractors about the situation on the ground. When I assured them I was not a member of the press, they were unanimous that the surge was not working. One of them said that members of Muqtada Al-Sadr’s militia have sold their guns and melted back into the population in Sadr City and will buy back their guns at the appropriate time (our own security guard said something similar).
Korb noted several other problems facing the country, much of which has yet to even be noted by the mainstream media:
In their video conferences, Maliki and Bush do not really communicate. The official also noted that in his discussions with visiting members of Congress there is really not much dialogue, with both sides giving canned presentations.
The other thing that struck me was the lack of American soldiers patrolling the neighborhoods. In fact, in my whole time here I did not see one American soldier outside the Green Zone.
Most people speaking off the record believe that the insurgents will shift to other areas and lay low for a while in Baghdad.
But if one uses the reports of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and pushes the briefers, a different picture emerges. The place is a mess and despite the almost heroic efforts of some Americans and some Iraqis it is not getting better. One of the consultants told me not to believe anyone who says that the situation is getting better.
The real issue is if the latest surge will work. The most optimistic projection was “maybe temporarily.”
Korb’s multiple meetings with top Iraqi officials and his firsthand experience in Iraq last week provide further evidence that the rosy claims about progress in Iraq are simply a desperate attempt to spin an increasingly unpopular war.
UPDATE: Kevin Drum notes some additional details from Korb’s trip.
LINK
Byrd sheds light on earmarks. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-WV) announced new rules today requiring that “all earmarks — the footnotes in bills that lawmakers use to deliver federal bacon to their states — be clearly identified in documents accompanying appropriations bills. The requesting senator, the recipient of the earmark and its purpose would have to be made public and posted on the Internet. Senators would also be required to certify that neither they nor their spouses would benefit financially from any earmark.”
LINK
>>marcmaronrules said...
Dick Cheney I think,is the same Troll talking to himself.......Many ID's same troll.
April 17, 2007 8:32 PM
nope. different person.
Cole On Virginia Tech Shootings: ‘In Iraq, This Is A Daily Event’
The profoundly tragic events at Virginia Tech yesterday have produced sorrow and grief across the country. While this massacre deserves the nation’s attention, it is also worth noting that such grief rips apart Iraqi lives nearly every day in the same manner.
University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole pointed out last night on PBS’s Newshour:
Remember that we’re all concerned, as we should be, about these events at Virginia Tech today. In Iraq this is a daily event. Imagine how horrible it would be if this kind of massacre were occurring every single day. And the people of Iraq feel that either the Americans are not stopping it or they’re actually causing it.
Watch it:
Echoing Cole, Iraq Slogger published a post today recounting the brutal scenes of violence that Iraq’s universities have witnessed in recent months:
On Monday, the same day as the Virginia Tech mass shooting, two separate shooting incidents struck Mosul University, one killing Dr. Talal Younis al-Jelili, the dean of the college of Political Science as he walked through the university gate, and another killing Dr. Jaafar Hassan Sadeq, a professor from the Faculty of Arts at the school, who was targeted in front of his home in the al-Kifaat area, according to Aswat al-Iraq.
In January, Baghdad’s Mustansiriya University sufferred a double suicide bombing in January that killed at least 70 people, including students, faculty, and staff. A month later, another suicide bomber struck at Mustansiriya, killing 40.
Kidnappings of students and faculty are another all-too-common occurrence on Iraq’s campuses. Members of the univerisity community have been abducted and murdered for sectarian reasons, or simply held for ransom. […]
In January, students reported that violent events had threatened students that attendance rates at Baghdad University had dropped to six percent.
Earlier this month, the Dr. Qais Jawad al-Azzawi, head of the Geneva-based Committee International Committee of Solidarity with Iraqi Professors said that 232 university professors were killed and 56 were reported missing in Iraq, while more than 3,000 others had left the country after the 2003 invasion.
LINK
Hi toniD~
I'm suppose to be fixing up my resume, but instead I'm flipping through the internets, see what's new on those tubes.
Greetings:
When Mike Malloy is away, the conservatives come out to play.
Are y'all listening to this guy?
Articles of Impeachment
to be filed on Cheney
Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the most liberal of the Democratic presidential candidates in the primary field, declared in a letter sent to his Democratic House colleagues this morning that he plans to file articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney.
LINK
Two Secret Service officers
injured at White House
Two Secret Service officers were injured on Tuesday after a gun held by another Secret Service officer accidentally fired inside the White House gate, according to a spokesman, Darrin Blackford.
LINK
Why the resume, Cathy, areyou looking for a different job?
Threats rattle
3 universities, 2 schools
Campus threats forced lock-downs and evacuations at universities in Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee and two public schools in Louisiana on Tuesday, a day after a Virginia Tech student's shooting rampage killed 33 people.
LINK
passiveconsumer said...
LONDON (Reuters) - World leaders and media commentators criticised what many called the gun culture in the United States on Tuesday after 33 people were killed in the country's worst shooting rampage.
April 17, 2007 7:35 PM
Just demonstrating what a "Christian Nation" is all about. Bush-Cheney and all those who support their efforts know GOD - Guns-Oil-Drugs.
I am really, really tired now.
Love to stay and shat but I need sleep.
See you in the morning.
Keep up the emails and calls about Sam!
Later
A confidential United Nations report says the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/18/world/africa/18sudan.html?ex=1334548800&en=107076127d4d6c8b&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
78+ emails on a show that isn't on the air.
Let's look at other folk's emails today (April 17th).
Riley: 0
Young Turks: 27
Hartmann: 15 (4/13)
Randi: about 300 on message board
Maddow: 16
Politically Direct: 0 (4/16)
Eco-talk: 0
yum!
making chicken stew for dinner and listening to an eric clapton bootleg, "Same Old Blues"!
dam that boy is good! his side men and ladies are superb as well.
War Dog's New Best Friend...
eya Shell!
goodun!
Here we go again another school shooting. And the media response is the same. The echo chamber of mainstream media will torture us for the next week. There will be the endless interviews. The celebrity FBI profiler will be called for an assessment. Of course, it will be wrong. There will be vigil after vigil. Then comes the fake piety. There will be the gratuitous prayers. Someone will write a song. Some celebrities might show up for the funerals. The Pat Robertsons and Falwell's will chime in. They will attribute the tragedy to the last days or the deeds of Liberals. Since the shooter is Asian, the Matt Drudges will throw in some racism.
And what will we have learned from it all? Well, not a damn thing. Americans never look introspectively. We blame the other. So we will continue to bomb the world. And! We will continue to have school shootings.
toniD said...
Two Secret Service officers
injured at White House
Two Secret Service officers were injured on Tuesday after a gun held by another Secret Service officer accidentally fired inside the White House gate, according to a spokesman, Darrin Blackford.
April 17, 2007 10:59 PM
The beginnings of an insurrection? Add to my list of "things that make you go hmmmmmmm."
Hi SJ...!
Edna...I reread that Jason Miller article just now..Why? Because I love it...therefore..I'm spreading it... :) I guess we cannot judge libertarians on Lionel....
I've always been attracted to that "Little Eichman's" comment...I'm glad someone brought it to the forefront again..
*
http://www.chicagoist.com/archives/2007/03/21/hump_day_political_news_roundup.php
Morfin Calls for a Runoff in the 25th Ward. Aldermanic candidate Cuahutemoc Morfin is trying to force incumbent Danny Solis into a runoff, charging in a federal lawsuit that Solis didn't actually get the 50% margin needed to win. He claims that 283 votes cast for Ambrosio Medrano should be counted, since 178 early votes had been cast for Medrano before he was removed from the ballot the Friday before the election.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/304360,CST-NWS-ald20.article
evening eep, cee cee!
Bloppo said...
78+ emails on a show that isn't on the air.
Let's look at other folk's emails today (April 17th).
Riley: 0
Young Turks: 27
Hartmann: 15 (4/13)
Randi: about 300 on message board
Maddow: 16
Politically Direct: 0 (4/16)
Eco-talk: 0
April 17, 2007 11:25 PM
Blogging isn't necessarily the best way to gauge the show's audience.
Riley's got a different sort of audience and it's only on for a hour, so I wouldn't discount him because of a lack of blogging. (I can't remember a time when they even promoted the blog on the show.)
The Turks and Thom Hartmann each have their own websites so their blogging numbers at AAR don't accurately reflect their popularity. (Not that I'm a fan of the Turks!)
Rachel's blog is up to 40 now. (btw, they don't promote her blog either.) And because her show airs at different times throughout the country people come to visit during their own airings.
And PD isn't a blogging kind of show. Again, Bender doesn't promote his blog.
However, it does say a great deal about the loyalty of Sam's fans that this blog is so durned busy even now.
eya shelaghc!
well written, i agree with your thinking on the subject.
you getting perceptive in your old age or are you one of those smarty pants libruls who still looks for the truth?
Evening Jim.
Alice,
if you're still on the blog, please post the link to the Jason Miller article?
Omg..edna..I went back and looked and I never linked it last night..it's on something like american muslim...I'll find it..gimme one sec..
Oh cool I blogged it..
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/please_god_deliver_us_from_the_banality_of_evil/0013762
I'll totally cop to being a "little eichman", edna...
Thanks Alice.
eya A.!
just used some of those herbs you sent me years ago.
have then in glas and they're holding up perfectly!
every time i use them i send thankyou's and blessings your way.
Oh God Alice,
I want to be delivered from Eichmandom. Or. Is it too late. Oh no! I'm getting that facial tick. You know that crocked mouth like Eichman and Cheney?
You're a Spiritual Goddess, Alice, help me?
edna ellen poe said...
And what will we have learned from it all? Well, not a damn thing. Americans never look introspectively. We blame the other. So we will continue to bomb the world. And! We will continue to have school shootings.
April 17, 2007 11:38 PM
Well when you think about it, these people (young adults and children) who have been the actors in these tragedies have grown up during Republican/conservative administrations and congresses. They have experienced the "new american way" ---bullying, aggression, acceptance of personal destruction, the demeaning of hard work, irresponsibility, non-accountability, greed, extreme competition for little opportunity, conformity, selfishness, devaluation of human life (this side of the womb), cronyism, instant gratification, abandonment, misrepresentation, injustice. Unfortunately and misguided, they may be retaliating against those (educators)who well-intentioned for the most part make them believe in the promise that they eventually come to find out has been stolen and maintained by those who have little regard for anyone but themselves. Parents are overworked; schools are performing social services, not necessarily qualified but nevertheless required to do,in addition to educating under-staffed and under-funded; and the children are fending for themselves at an earlier age with minimal, if any guidance, while Bush-Cheney and the chosen few are in gated communities.
We do what we can do, but we have to do better.
Hi Sunshine Jim. It was good to hear you and what you said on Mike's program last week.
a good cat pix/story from pjsauter
http://pjsdesigns.com/kittens/
CeeCee,
you are so right.
"what you said on Mike's program last week"
hee! you heard that eh?
Mike was so bummed earlier i wanted to cheer him up.
I heard it also Jim.
Very good Sunshine.
Now I'm going to bed.
good nite all.
That's sweet, SJ! If I could just remember to send my Nonv more herbs when the season is ripe, I'll be happy..I think when I sent you yours I sent her her last batch too..she's been waiting...
Alice said...
Oh cool I blogged it..
http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/please_god_deliver_us_from_the_banality_of_evil/0013762
April 18, 2007 12:34 AM
Thanks Alice.
sweet dreams gang,
i'm fading fast myself.
love ya all!
!
Lilith said:Nope.Diferent person. Sorry,I didn't know.Just guessing.Just trying to help.
Barbara Walters of Television's 20/20 did a story on gender roles in Kabul,
Afghanistan, several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that
women customarily walked 5 paces behind their husbands.
She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind
their husbands. From Ms. Walter's vantage point, despite the overthrow of
the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even further
back behind their husbands and are happy to maintain the old custom. Ms.
Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, "Why do you now
seem happy with the old custom that you once tried so desperately to
change?"
The woman looked Ms. Walters straight in the eyes, and without hesitation
said, "Land Mines."
MORAL OF THE STORY: BEHIND EVERY MAN IS A SMART WOMAN
I am getting Sam's blow off voice message.
Don't even dare to outbid me1
Have I said tonight how much I hate the Green Bros?
I hate them.
There, done.
Go donn Go!I hope you get it.
Thanks marcmaronrules, I am very hopefull!
Good Luck!
bloppo,
thanks for your summary of each aar show the other day
and while i'm complimenting...
eya, donn
you're a welcome addition to the blog
oh, and shelaghc, way to set bloppo's stats straight...
and lol @ marcmaronrules' post about afghan women!
ok, the blog's in good hands
(cheers)
Thanks for the welcome air-ono, I have been a fan of Sam (and Jeanne, and marc) since I discovered them on AARgh in 2004.
I have just been blogphobic until now.
Now, I am pissed, therefore I blog.
I hope for a day when Malloy, Seder and Maron scrub the floor of the bloody corpse of AARgh with the mighty mop of NOVA-M.
Or something like that.
by "Jeanne" I mean "The way Ms Garofala" spells her first name. Which I understand is "Jeannine"
Jesus, I am blogphobic, a bad typist, and a poor speller.
F*ck.
Sounds good donn..I got pissed too.I too was very shy about blogging.But,now unfortunatley you can't shut me up:)
air-ono said...
April 18, 2007 2:53 AM
Oh look at Mister Welcome Wagon.. ;)
hey, shell. you still there?
and hello, air-ono and you other bloggers...
Today's educational segment:
How Feminists Intend to Destroy Humanity
-conbo
Jenise! Oh cool! Maybe you were thinking of me cuz I was thinking of you! I got some old Japanese/English translation books dvy before yesterday & I'm sending them to you...ok? :)
sure, shell. please send them. i love the old "figuring-things-out-still" translation references. did you look at fluxus by any chance?
If it's what I think it is..yes...But I'll know for sure tomorrow... :)
can't stick around. my last day here. lots of last cups of coffee to drink with friends.
see you when i get back. have a great one, shell (and air-ono...and everybody)
oly crap!
i just found some of cho seung huis 'plays'
very uhm
scary
this whole thing could have been avoided...the english teacher was concerned and complained to the school
wow
V tech screwed up muchly
-conbo
Seeing Sam and Janeane together on air last time last week, recalling back to that very first Majority Report where Sam mainly screamed a lot...
The feeling of Monday without a show was... well the first analogy turned out to be NFL-related, of all things. For it was not unlike the first 49er preseason game without Steve Young -- sidelined at the end of his career with concussion problems. A whole new, lame 49er team took the field. End of an era-ish and all that.
I can hardly wait till the Sunday brings you back, Sam. Not to mention with the possibility of seeding this blog-powered journalism proposal I'm writing up to send soon...
Meanwhile, the Young Turks + re-runs from my iTunes playlist will have to do.
-Christolecount
Did the winner of the last dailykos fundraiser, the person who had a one minute rant on Sam's show - ever rant? I never heard him/her.
dr will appreciate this.
Billmon is back. Not the Whiskey Bar (yet), but he's been hanging at kos for about the last month or so.
Here's to hoping for his return.
hey edna, did you see where president custer is going to bring shame and disgrace on the budding metropolis of tipp city when he brings his fight them over there show to town?
The Air America website is so poorly designed, I'm not surprised that few people even find the comments sections.
If the Greens really wanted to get serious, they would turn the homepage into something all blog addicts would want to check every day. With the enormous resources and archives AAR has, and the number of other blogs associated with the shows, the site should be a huge vortex of knowledge.
"Did the winner of the last dailykos fundraiser, the person who had a one minute rant on Sam's show - ever rant? I never heard him/her."
Yeah, it was a pretty forgettable 9/11 conspiracy rant(more like a statement, really)
I've stopped listening to daytime AAR. I now listen to NPR and podcasts of some of the evening shows and weekend shows.
Surprisingly, I am getting more done and I'm no longer tied to my morning stream.
-trentmannina
Close friend Australia condemns
gun culture in US
The Virginia Tech shootings sparked criticism of U.S. gun control laws around the world Tuesday. Editorials lashed out at the availability of weapons, and the leader of Australia — one of America's closest allies — declared that America's gun culture was costing lives.
LINK
i miss sam. its a time consuming searching the internet to find some of the infor i used to get from sam.
4 bombs kill 127 people in Baghdad By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago
Four large bombs exploded across Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 127 people and wounding scores as violence climbed toward levels seen before the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital began two months ago.
In the deadliest of the attacks, a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the Sadriyah market in a mostly Shiite area of central Baghdad, killing at least 82 people and wounding 94, said Raad Muhsin, an official at Al-Kindi Hospital where the victims were taken.
A police official confirmed the toll, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
Several cars were set afire at the market, where a car bombing in February killed 137 people.
About an hour earlier, a suicide car bomber crashed into an Iraqi police checkpoint at an entrance to Sadr City, the capital's biggest Shiite Muslim neighborhood and a stronghold for the militia led by radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The explosion killed at least 30 people, including five Iraqi security officers, and wounded 45, police said.
Black smoke billowed from a jumble of at least eight incinerated vehicles that were in a jam of cars stopped at the checkpoint. Bystanders scrambled over twisted metal to drag victims from the smoldering wreckage as Iraqi guards staggered around stunned.
Earlier, a parked car exploded near a private hospital in the central neighborhood of Karradah, killing 11 people and wounding 13, police said. The blast damaged the Abdul-Majid hospital and other nearby buildings.
The fourth explosion was from a bomb left on a minibus in the northwestern Risafi area, killing four people and wounding six others, police said.
Also in Baghdad, four policemen were killed Wednesday afternoon when gunmen ambushed their patrol south of the city center, police said. Six pedestrians were wounded in the gunfire.
U.S. officials had cited a slight decrease in sectarian killings in Baghdad since the U.S.-Iraqi crackdown was launched Feb. 14. But the past week has seen several spectacular attacks on the capital, including a suicide bombing inside parliament and a powerful blast that collapsed a landmark bridge across the Tigris River.
"We've seen both inspiring progress and too much evidence that we still face many grave challenges," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a U.S. military spokesman, told reporters Wednesday. "We've always said securing Baghdad would not be easy."
LINK
But there's another security story that's not mentioned in this article. The part of the story that unfolded before Cho bought the guns and ammunition. He exhibited antisocial, threatening behavior for quite some time before he packed up weapons and killed 32 people. Much of that threatening behavior was directed at women. One female teacher reports being afraid for her safety when tutoring him alone. Cho is reported to have obsessively, persistently stalked a number of female students who lived on campus. By accounts now surfacing in the news, police came to speak with victims in one case (maybe more? maybe not), but no charges were ever filed, no further action taken, and the behavior continued to escalate. If even a misdemeanor charge had been on record, would he have been able to obtain those weapons so easily? Did nothing happen because the law enforcement system involved -- no, really, all of us -- just don't take violent crime and threatening behavior against women as seriously as we should?
Link
boing boing dot net:I Agree with you.
yar.
we need a focal point.
guess it might be time to head back to hounding the freepers,
info gathering,
freeper houndin,
apocalypse avoiding,
revolutionary koo & music makin,
toni praisin,
bibi missing,
a little hiking...
sounds like a good summer.
Crew cut, gun loving, right wing losers are going to get us all killed.
There isn't anything we can do about it.
well,
we con stop them,
I think thats the whole point.
we can stop them.
with bad spelling.
the majority of people don't want to be doing evil, they just never really get the full picture or have time to think about it.
Just posted to my blog. It's a rant warning but I think it is sorely needed.
Virginia Tech and Iraq
Send foreign peacekeepers - US
18/04/2007 07:20 - (SA)
N'Djamena - US deputy secretary of state John Negroponte on Tuesday urged the deployment of foreign troops in volatile Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic which have been wracked by fighting.
"We fully support the deployment of two international peacekeeping forces in the region: the first is a hybrid United Nations-African Union force in Darfur," in Sudan, Negroponte told reporters in the Chadian capital N'Djamena.
The second, Negroponte said, was "a United Nations peacekeeping force for eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic".
"These robust international forces are required to improve the security of affected populations, and are the subject of continued bilateral discussions between Chad and the United States," he said.
---------
I would be so excited if it were anyone beside Negroponte, but, to him, peacekeepers means execution squads.
A CNN poll finds most Americans (72%) say they are closely following the ongoing dispute over timetables for Iraq withdrawal. “Six in ten think that they would wind up siding with the Democrats in this dispute; 37% say they are more likely to take the President’s side.”
LINK
I'm listening to Stephanie Miller. I CAN'T STAND IT! I'd rather listen to "Dingo and the Baby!"
Ja, look at this from chimpy...
In a speech today at the National Holocaust Memorial Museum, President Bush will “announce a new set of sanctions on Sudan in an attempt to pressure the Khartoum government to allow a peacekeeping force into the turbulent Darfur region.”
LINK
“The World Bank’s board of directors is scheduled to convene tomorrow and may try to figure out what to do about calls that the bank’s president, Paul Wolfowitz, resign because he gave a big raise and promotion to his girlfriend, Shaha Riza.”
LINK
The House yesterday passed the Taxpayer Protection Act, to protect taxpayers against “identity theft, deceptive Web sites and loan sharks.” It also makes it “easier for taxpayers to retrieve property lost as a result of a wrongful Internal Revenue Service levy and directs the IRS to notify lower-income people that they qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit.”
LINK
Now updated.....
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Air_America
thanks toni.
" we must continue our policy of sanctioning third world countries until enough people are desperate and sick enough that we can simply blow them over with the escaping oxygen from underneath our "emergency supplies"."
the words "Negroponte" and "Peacekeepers" become oxymorons when used in the same sentance.
Another scare
rattles VA Tech campus
Virginia Tech students still on edge after the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history got another scare Wednesday morning as police in SWAT gear with weapons drawn swarmed Burruss Hall, which houses the president's office.
LINK
A brutal truth: Massacre is 'part of everyday life in America'
However exceptional the event, there is something formulaic, even routine, about the coverage. There is no soul searching, no wondering what might be wrong with a society where such things happen so frequently.
LINK
Another big event and no Sam to help us make sense of it all...
The Supreme Court voted 5 - 4 to uphold the partial birth abortion ban.
mornin gang!
I called to cancel my XM service yesterday... they gave me 3 free months not to leave. Everyone else who listened to Sam on XM should do the same. If He's not back on daily in 3 months, it's bye-bye XM.
Mr. Rayburn, I knew sam seder... he was a friend of mine... you sir, are NO Sam Seder!
(I know... it's not your fault)
Foreclosure Filings in U.S. Increase 47 Percent as Housing Slump Persists U.S. foreclosure filings rose 47 percent last month from a year ago as the housing slump continued to take its toll on home owners.
LINK
Hi all,
I don't blog often but have taken some solace in lurking here since Sam's cancellation. It may be latent guilt over having done little but moan over Sedition and then MMS but I truly feel the need to try a bit more on Sam's behalf. Can you please share with me the numbers you're calling (I just get this dumb vm when I do) and whom you're emailing? I've commented on Green's stupid letter(s) numerous times and emailed programming but perhaps you're aware of others. Also, is anyone interested in trying to organize a real AAR sponsor boycott where we list all advertisers and in a collective fashion contact each with our grievances? Do you think this might be woth trying? Please comment and I'll check back.
http://www.passablynews.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1175830780
"Cody Webb was jailed for calling in a bomb threat to his Hempstead Area high school (near Pittsburgh). He spent 12 days in lockup until the authorities realized that their caller-id log was off an hour because of the new Daylight Savings Time rules and that Cody had only called one hour prior to the actual bomb threat. Perhaps it took so long because of the principal's Catch-22 attitude about Cody's guilt — she said, 'Well, why should we believe you? You're a criminal. Criminals lie all the time.'"
has anynone realized the irony that for the greens to save aar they have to kill it?
Tom Tomorrow Comic "Then and Now"
Then and Now
eya blah3
yup, and zero response from the station management other than generic "air kiss" letters.
ignoring your customers strikes me as "bad management practice" in the extreme.
of course thinking this was about progressive radio is probably extremely naive of me.
goodun T!
thanks toniD. sometimes i forget to check the comics. i'm sure everyone's aware of them but just in case:
Get Your War On
Pat Oliphant
and for those that enjoy the tasteless :)
Ted Rall
i miss you too sam.
its friggin' grim out there, man
Well, in the interest of fairness, I went to his site & tried to listen to a Lionel podcast - he lost me as soon as he repeated the stupid meme that a lot of people hate Al Sharpton coz of Tawana Brawley >= P
& he has a voice like Witchypoo = S
I have a terrible hunch that 'Lionel' will be another Springer on the Radio - just not as kind as Jerry......
fop those who love to read:
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/nq/2007/nq070408.gif
i listen via xm and am suffering thru big ed. i think knitting needles in the ear would be less painful then his rant about the vt massacre.
the whole problem with having gun laws that filter out "unacceptable" individuals is that unacceptable is too subjective. who defines it? its sorta like porn, you know it when you see it, but still....
Along the lines of toni's rant...
Just An Ordinary Day In Iraq — In Virginia
First, there’s shock, depression, identification with the victims and outrage that such a thing could happen here. Then comes the inevitable search for meaning, and the debate over gun laws, video games, values and more. All accomplished with a stunning lack of perspective.
For one thing, the Virginia Tech incident was not even remotely that nation’s worst mass shooting, as some media are claiming…unless, of course, you don’t consider Native Americans or African Americans to be real people. Try to recall the Indian massacres at Marias, Sand Creek, Wounded Knee and now-forgotten locales. And the death toll of black people in Tulsa in 1921 probably topped 300. Of course, soldiers are human, too, so the 3,600 or so dead at the Battle of Antietam also top the 33 dead yesterday in Blacksburg.
But let’s widen our view to the present and include the American-led war in Iraq, and then narrow it to Baghdad alone. In July 2006, 1,417 bodies wound up at the city morgue, many shot to death at point-blank range, other blown apart in a less personal manner. All dead. That’s 46 people a day murdered, day after day after day. All had families; all had immortal souls, if you believe that; all were human. While the death rate in Baghdad seems to have slacked somewhat, as Iraq Body Count blogger Lily Hamourtziadou’s weekly report concludes, “Violence in Iraq is rising at an ‘unbelievably rapid pace’, according to the Pentagon’s latest assessment of the security situation.”
None of this is supposed to belittle the horror of Blacksburg in the least. It can’t. Murder is murder, whether conducted by a deranged gunman or under the protective cover of war. Try, just try to identify with the victims at Virginia Tech and extend that to America’s minorities, America’s battered and murdered women, and to Iraq.
What is happening in Iraq is wrong. And the first response of a rational person who finds him or herself doing wrong is to stop doing it. We can’t stop everyone in the world from murdering their neighbors, but we can stop doing it ourselves.
* The world has become dramatically more peaceful since 1992. The number of wars, coup d'etats, and acts of genocide has declined by 40 percent. Weapons sales between countries have dropped 33 percent during the same time, and the number of refugees has diminished by 45 percent.
The cause of these shocking developments, according to the Human Security Report, which did the study, is the unprecedented upsurge of international activism, spearheaded by the United Nations.
* The violent crime rate has decreased 50 percent since 1993. Crime is now at its lowest level since it was first officially tracked.
* The average human life expectancy is 30 years more than it was a century ago, and is still climbing. Many scientists believe there is no absolute limit to the human life span.
* Levels of literacy and education and political freedom and wealth are steadily growing all over the world.
* Death rates from cancer are declining.
* Child abduction by strangers has dropped precipitously.
* In 60 years, there hasn't been a lower birth rate among teenage girls than there is now.
* The world's largest freshwater system, the Great Lakes, is dramatically purifying itself of the pollutants that human beings dumped into it.
* If forced to decide between having a bigger penis and living in a world where there was no war, 90 percent of all men would pick universal peace.
* The number of America's black elected officials has sextupled since 1970.
* Rising rates of intermarriage are helping to dissipate ethnic and religious strife worldwide.
* The rivers and bays of New York City are reborn, having been cleansed of raw sewage and industrial pollution in recent years.
* You have at least a million relatives as close as tenth cousin, and no one on Earth is any farther removed than your 50th cousin.
* The world's largest private bank, Citigroup, has agreed to stop financing projects that damage sensitive ecosystems.
* The giant timber company, Congolaise Industrielle des Bois, voluntarily agreed to stop cutting down trees in a virgin rain forest in the Congo.
* The miracle of your breathing transpires about 10 million times a year, even though you never have to think about it.
* Every second the sun generously transforms four million tons of itself into energy and bestows it on us free of charge.
* Diamonds rain from the sky on Uranus and Neptune.
* With every dawn, when first light penetrates the sea, many seahorse colonies perform a dance to the sun.
* The World Health Organization reports that over 100 million acts of sexual intercourse, involving more than 200 million partners, take place on the earth every 24 hours.
* Most HMO executives now believe prayer and meditation can expedite the healing process.
* Vast supplies of frozen natural gas lie beneath the oceans, harboring more potential energy than all the world's oil reserves, and could be mined with the right technology.
* Each of the 50 trillion cells in your body can be considered a sentient being in its own right, and they all act together as a community, performing an ongoing act of prodigious collaboration.
YES, I miss the sound of your voice! I can't believe some doofus gets on here and whines about your voice. It's adorable. I also miss your wit, brilliance, excellent commentary and excellent guests!
This morning, on AAR, I heard an ad, by you, for your weekly morning show, as if it still exists. Why?? Can AAR not get their act together enough to update the website, BY NOW, to stop advertising your weekly show like it still exists and also pull the radio ads for your weekly morning show which is such a cruel tease?
Have they just been injecting all their energy into getting this Lionel dude on the air that they can't keep up with basic housekeeping?
Can you tell we're all extremely emotional about this thing?!
Melanie
anybody have an update on kucinich and his articles of impeachment?
seems like the timing for getting this out might be pretty good with all the news that is coming out this week.
hey joe said...
Did all the people that use to waste their time posting here go to their mental health counseling late this afternoon?
April 17, 2007 6:55 PM
Joe, since most of them don't work, they have plenty of time for the various government charity programs especially the ones for help with their mental health and drug/drinking problems. That is why most don't accomplish anything aside from lots of lazy whining online on meaningless insignificant back waters of the web like this.
from Melanie: I work full-time, pay $600 a month in health insurance b/c I was diagnosed with cancer, go to radiation treatments 5 mornings a week and then straight to work, so stick it where the sun don't shine. And what the hell are you doing here then?
We're here because we care about our country and are not self-absorbed, spiteful dweebs who look down on other people who do so, apparently like yourself. You obviously don't listen to AAR so get off the site and go to Drudge or read the Limbaugh Letter or something.
Melanie in Red State SC
blah, blah, blah: In a bad mood this morning, can ya' tell?
I share your feelings about Schultz. I am usually running my lunchtime errands when he's on. Gotta find something else to tune in to.
I have to remind myself that it's still better than what I had before I got XM, which was total local crap (stopped listening to radio altogether as a result). Just still mad about Sam's show, though. It only took me 2 weeks to get hooked.
Well, I guess I'd best get to work and stop whining like the troll said.
Red State Mel
Miss you so much! Can hardly wait for Sundays with Seder!
Good Luck with the swimming lessons!
10 out of 15 countries believe that the United States cannot be trusted to “act responsibly in the world.” The new PIPA poll also finds that majorities in 13 out of 15 publics polled say the United States is “playing the role of world policeman more than it should be,” and majorities in all 15 of the countries polled reject the idea that “the US should continue to be the preeminent world leader in solving international problems.”
LINK
i don't know mel, i don't see a lot of whinin going on myself. what i do see is a lot of people fed up with six years of neocon b.s. toss in what feels like a shutdown of a media channel and this is what you got.
i'll bet very few people realize that the record for whining was set between 1992 and 2000 by the righties during that great run this country had with clinton. it was constant, incessant, and as gomer would say, surprise, surprise, it was funded by a bunch of rich f**ks that simply wanted to rape and pillage.
Breaking: Supreme Court Upholds ‘Partial Birth’ Abortion Ban
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has upheld a nationwide ban on “partial birth” abortion, “marking a shift on the high-profile issue and underscoring the impact of President George W. Bush’s two high court appointments.”
The justices “refused to invalidate the 2003 law even though it lacks an exception for cases posing a risk to the mother’s health. The court also rejected claims that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act is so vaguely worded it would force doctors to forgo a commonly used, constitutionally protected abortion technique for fear of prosecution. ”
UPDATE: In the majority were swing vote Anthony Kennedy, along with Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Scalia, and Thomas.
UPDATE II: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg penned a scathing dissent:
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking out in the courtroom for the dissenters, called the ruling “an alarming decision” that refuses “to take seriously” the Court’s 1992 decisions reaffirming most of Roe v. Wade and its 2000 decision in Stenberg v. Carhart striking down a state partial-birth abortion law.
Ginsburg, in a lengthy statement, said “the Court’s opinion tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. For the first time since Roe, the Court blesses a prohibition with no exception protecting a woman’s health.”
UPDATE III: Justice Clarence Thomas authored, and Justice Antonin Scalia joined, a 137-word concurring opinion, which appears to have the sole purpose of stating: “I write separately to reiterate my view that the Court’s abortion jurisprudence, including Casey and Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113 (1973), has no basis in the Constitution.”
UPDATE IV: The nation’s leading group of professionals providing health care for women, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, opposed this law because the banned procedure is often the best option for women:
The intact variant of D&E offers significant safety advantages over the non-intact method, including a reduced risk of catastrophic hemorrhage and life-threatening infection. These safety advantages are widely recognized by experts in the field of women’s health, authoritative medical texts, peer-reviewed studies, and the nation’s leading medical schools.
LINK
Gates Contradicts Bush, Cheney On Timelines
Via Kevin Drum, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that Congress’ debate over a withdrawal timeline is having a positive impact:
Gates, on a Middle East tour, called for a range of efforts from inside and outside Iraq to speed up the formation of a broad-based government of Iraq’s majority Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions.
….”The debate in Congress…has been helpful in demonstrating to the Iraqis that American patience is limited,” Gates told Pentagon reporters traveling with him in Jordan. “The strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably has had a positive impact…in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended commitment.”
Gate’s argument contradicts President Bush’s claim that timelines “send the wrong message to the Iraqis,” and prove al Qaeda’s accusations that America is “weak,” “corrupt,” and “can’t stand it.”
Artificial timetable for withdrawal send the wrong message to the Iraqis, they’re seeing it’s not worth it. There’s a lot of Iraqis over there determined — trying to make up their mind whether they want to be a part of democracy, or whether or not they’re going to take to the hills and see what happens. Artificial timetable for withdrawal, an early withdrawal before this finishes sends the message to the enemy, we were right about America. That’s what they said. Al Qaeda has said it’s just a matter of time before America withdraws. They’re weak, they’re corrupt, they can’t stand it, and they’ll withdraw. And all that would do is confirm what the enemy thinks.
Likewise, Vice President Cheney said last week:
It is impossible to argue that an unconditional timetable for retreat could serve the security interests of the United States or our friends in the region. Instead, it sends a message to our enemies that the calendar is their friend, that all they have to do is wait us out — wait for the date certain, and then claim victory the day after.
Such hypocrisy isn’t confined to the Bush administration. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who regularly maligns timelines as a “date certain for surrender,” admitted he used those very calls for redeployment to “motivate the Maliki government” during a dinner last month with Prime Minister Maliki.
LINK
Melanie-You Go Girl!!:)
Breaking: 127 157 dead in Baghdad bombings. CBS News: “A parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at a Shiite marketplace in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 82 people, police and hospital officials said. The attack was one of four bombings in Baghdad on Wednesday afternoon, which killed at least 127 people in total, officials said.”
UPDATE: The death toll rises to 157.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/18/breaking-127-dead-in-baghdad-bombings/
Chomsky on Democracy now today.
worth watching.
http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2007/april/video/dnB20070418a.rm&proto=rtsp
Melanie, That was great!!
What I've learned about these trolls is that they are punks who don't give a damn.
As long as it does not affect them they don't care. No brains, no feeling!
toniD wrote: UPDATE III: Justice Clarence Thomas authored...
not sure what that one meant. are they saying if they had their way they would toss roe v wade completely?
Sunshine Jim said...
http://www.passablynews.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1175830780
"Cody Webb was jailed for calling in a bomb threat to his Hempstead Area high school (near Pittsburgh). He spent 12 days in lockup until the authorities realized that their caller-id log was off an hour because of the new Daylight Savings Time rules and that Cody had only called one hour prior to the actual bomb threat. Perhaps it took so long because of the principal's Catch-22 attitude about Cody's guilt — she said, 'Well, why should we believe you? You're a criminal. Criminals lie all the time.'"
April 18, 2007 11:31 AM
I don't know SJ but this story sounds suspect. I would think a bomb threat against a school and bringing charges may be a federal offense and would require law enforcement investigation and evidence other than the school's caller ID log and a ranting principal. I am at work but I'll get back to you later on this.
CeeCee said...
Sunshine Jim said...
http://www.passablynews.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1175830780
P.S. If this is about the failings and inaction of law enforcement inaction based on the word of the principal, we are doomed.
85 Die in Iraq; 17 Corpses Found in Ramadi Schoolyard
In other news, at least 85 people were killed or found dead across Iraq on Tuesday. 17 decomposing corpses were found buried beneath two schoolyards in Ramadi.
*
Group: 230 University Professors Killed So Far In Iraq
Two professors from Mosul University were murdered on Monday - the same day as the Virginia Tech mass shooting. The school's dean of political science was shot as he walked through the university gate. A second professor was killed in front of his home. The International Committee of Solidarity with Iraqi Professors estimates that over 230 university professors have been killed since the Iraq war started. 56 are reported missing and more than 3,000 others have fled the country. Schools in Iraq have also been targets of frequent attacks. In January at least 70 people died in a double suicide bombing at Baghdad's Mustansiriya University. Another suicide bomber struck the school in February killing 40 more students, faculty and staff.
show mp3
FLASHBACK: Gonzales Couldn’t Name A Single Mistake He’s Made »
On Nov. 27, 2006, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and at least five top Justice Department officials held a meeting to implement a five-step plan for carrying out the firings of several U.S. Attorneys.
Just three days later, on Nov. 30, Gonzales appeared on CNN and was asked if he could think of a single mistake he’s made during his service to President Bush during the last six years. He couldn’t do it.
“I think that you and I would — I’d have to spend some time thinking about that,” he said. Watch it:
Now that Gonzales is being held accountable by Congress, he’s changed his tune. Some excerpts from his opening statement he’ll read tomorrow before the Senate Judiciary Committee:
“I apologize”
“I am sorry”
“could have — and should have — been handled differently”
“I made mistakes”
“I would have handled this differently”
“I should have done more”
“at times I have been less than precise”
“I misspoke”
“That statement was too broad”
“imprecise and overbroad”
“I regret that”
“management missteps”
“should have been more rigorous”
“should have been completed in a much shorter period of time”
“owes them more respect than they were shown”
“should have worked with them”
“I should have communicated the concerns more effectively”
“I should have informed them of my decisions in a more dignified manner”
“could have been handled much better”
“I want to apologize publicly”
LINK
blah blah blah said...
toniD wrote: UPDATE III: Justice Clarence Thomas authored...
not sure what that one meant. are they saying if they had their way they would toss roe v wade completely?
That is exactly what they meant.
Josh Wolf production...
Sam Seder
Mr Seder formerly hosted the "Majority Power Hour of Truth" with Reverand Janeane Garefalo, who was fired due to her Tourette's Syndrome. He has written numerous books that all his friends have read. Mr Seder has, due to his massive ratings and popularity...been moved to Sundays on Air America Radio from 4:44pm to 4:48pm. He once shot a man in Reno...just to watch him die.
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Air_America
I want my Seder DAILY
You must watch this Daily show clip on Wolfowitz:
LINK
This is a better link...
LINK
Subject: Tell Congress we need bold leadership on climate change
Hi,
I just took action on a petition asking Congress for bold leadership on climate change. We need big cuts in our greenhouse gas emissions and they have to happen soon. There were almost 1,400 events last weekend to ask for 80% reductions by 2050. You can add you voice to the call by clicking on the link below and signing the petition.
http://pol.moveon.org/stepuponclimatechange/
Thanks!
(Listening to Thom Hartmann...)
I'm sorry to say, but Thom Hartmann knows nothing about Zimbabwe.
Blaming everything that is going on in the economy on president Mugabe, is about as credible as blaming everything that is wrong in Iraq on Sadam Hussain.
In fact, the villification of Mugabe is very similar to the villification of Iraq under Saddam.
If he reallay wants to understand what is going on, he should examine the IMF sanctions against Zimbabwe, which basically cut off all access to foreign exchange. No country could survive that. And take a close look at the opposition. They are nothing but neoliberal stooges, who will restore IMF 'structural adjustment programmes' - selling of state assets to western corporations, return whites to the land and sell off the parastatals.
On Zimbabwe, Thom Hartmann has a lot to learn.
marcmaronrules said...
Subject: Tell Congress we need bold leadership on climate change
I got that email too. I answered it already.
Thanks for posting marcmaronrules!
Vice President's office will look into impeachment report Michael Roston
Published: Wednesday April 18, 2007
Vice President Dick Cheney's office was looking into news that Articles of Impeachment will be filed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich for crimes which have not yet been identified by the Democratic Congressman. The news appeared on a blog last night produced by the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.
"Cheney's deputy press secretary, Megan McGinn, said she couldn't comment on Kucinich's email because she hadn't seen it," wrote Sabrina Eaton at the Plain Dealer's blog Openers.
She added, "Asked whether Cheney had done anything he could be impeached for, McGinn replied: 'The vice president has had nearly 40 years of government service and has done so in an honorable fashion.'"
RAW STORY also contacted McGinn yesterday, and was told that the Vice President's office would look into the question.
Yesterday, the Washington Post's Mary Ann Akers at her blog The Sleuth revealed Kucinich's plans to file Articles of Impeachment against Cheney.
"This week I intend to introduce Articles of Impeachment with respect to the conduct of Vice President Cheney," Kucinich, who is running for president, wrote in a "dear colleague" letter to fellow Members of Congress. Kucinich noted that the actual charges themselves were "confidential" prior to their formal introduction to the House of Representatives.
LINK
In case you didn't know, Sam has a My Space Page...
Here's the link:
LINK
tonid:Your welcome.......Alice- Thx for the Uncyclopedia-Air America link.That was pretty damn Funny.
VA Tech killer was admitted to mental heath facility in '05
Seung-Hui Cho had previously been accused of stalking and was admitted to a mental health facility in 2005 amid fears he might be suicidal, police said.
LINK
Okay, the caller defending Star Wars and Darth Vader...?
Neeeerrrrd!
Senate blocks Medicare drug price bill By KEVIN FREKING
1 hour, 36 minutes ago
The Senate blocked legislation on Wednesday that would let the government negotiate Medicare drug prices. Democrats couldn't muster the 60 votes needed to bring the bill up for a vote.
Under the Medicare drug benefit, private insurance plans negotiate with drug makers over the price of medicine for their customers. About 22 million seniors and the disabled are enrolled in such plans. Some lawmakers, mostly Democrats, contend the government could use its leverage to drive a better bargain than individual insurers, which would lower the cost of the program for taxpayers and seniors.
But Republicans countered Wednesday that the program is costing much less than expected precisely because it's the private sector, not the secretary of Health and Human Services, conducting the negotiations. They successfully blocked a motion to proceed to the bill. The tally was 55-42, five short of the votes needed to move ahead.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record), R-Ky., said the program will cost about $265 billion less than anticipated over the coming decade.
"I doubt a single government program in modern history, let alone one this big and this important has ever, ever come in under budget," McConnell said. "So it's a mystery why our Democratic friends would want to tamper with this Medicare drug benefit. If it isn't broke, why fix it?"
Democratic lawmakers countered that they weren't aiming for a government takeover of the drug benefit, only to let the secretary of Health and Human Services intervene for particular kinds of expensive drugs that have no substitute, such as some of the drugs taken by cancer patients.
"This bill does not take over the role of the private plans," said Sen. Ron Wyden (news, bio, voting record), D-Ore. "The question is, should we make it possible for the secretary of Health and Human Services to complement the role, to go beyond it and say that there are some circumstances where we should negotiate?"
LINK
Hi GBC!
Yea, that was wierd.
" I loved the Darth Vader Character since I was a little girl"
Please!!
Post a Comment