Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Gonzo gone wild

from Josh Marshall

As you know, Gonzales is returning to Capitol Hill on Thursday to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. Time now reports that Kyle Sampson told congressional investigators "three times in as many minutes that Gonzales was angry with McNulty because he had exposed the White House's involvement in the firings had put it's (sic) role "in the public sphere," as Sampson phrased it, according to Congressional sources familiar with the interview."


Should be some fireworks thursday.

426 comments:

1 – 200 of 426   Newer›   Newest»
blah blah blah said...

morning sam and the gang.

mmrules said...

mmrules said...
Anonymous said...
Fairness Doctrine Must Be Re-Instated

-conbo

conbo:I signed!!9'er.You should post it again,later,when there's more people around :)

Anonymous said...

I encourage everyone to read Harold Meyerson's opinion article on the recent ruling on the Enron shareholder lawsuit. Along with some of the comments. The only way to hurt these companies and bullies like Gonzales is to start systematically pulling our money from the 401k's and investments. If these companies have no investors, they have no power. A crash is coming. It's these Funds that have created these monsters and our retirement accounts have fueled it.

blah blah blah said...

anybody listening this mornin? sounds like the terror cell in new jersey is a diversion...

Anonymous said...

Really miss ya, Sam!

Tuned in once last week, whatever idiot was on was saying he DID'T KNOW if there was any impropriety in the Jeff Gannon/Guckert situation!

AAR sure was cool while it lasted.

(grumble grumble grumble)

Anonymous said...

conbo:I signed!!9'er.You should post it again,later,when there's more people around :)

May 9, 2007 10:13 AM


People? Here? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Anonymous said...

Panel to urge parents to breast-feed, sing lullabies
TOKYO, May 9 KYODO

A government advisory panel on education reform will intrude into the private roles of parents by urging them to breast-feed and even to sing lullabies while looking into babies' eyes, its draft proposal showed Wednesday.

The panel, headed by Nobel Prize laureate chemist Ryoji Noyori, will also propose that parents turn off the TV during family meals or breast-feeding, while warning that the Internet and mobile phones will enable children ''to directly connect to evils around the world.''

mmrules said...

Anonymous said...
conbo:I signed!!9'er.You should post it again,later,when there's more people around :)

May 9, 2007 10:13 AM


People? Here? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

May 9, 2007 10:33 AM

Say What!

Sunshine Jim said...

mornin gang!

mmrules said...

Morning SJ!

Sunshine Jim said...

back in a few. busy morning here.

mmrules said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mmrules said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mmrules said...

Majority Of Iraqi Parliament Calls For Timetable For U.S. Withdrawal


Link

blah blah blah said...

Majority Of Iraqi Parliament Calls For Timetable For U.S. Withdrawal


what a bloody bunch of surrender monkeys. next thing you know, they'll be wanting to take a two month vacation...

Anonymous said...

Pelosi threat to sue Bush over Iraq bill
By Jonathan E. Kaplan and Elana Schor
May 09, 2007
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is threatening to take President Bush to court if he issues a signing statement as a way of sidestepping a carefully crafted compromise Iraq war spending bill.

Pelosi recently told a group of liberal bloggers, “We can take the president to court” if he issues a signing statement, according to Kid Oakland, a blogger who covered Pelosi’s remarks for the liberal website dailykos.com.

“The president has made excessive use of signing statements and Congress is considering ways to respond to this executive-branch overreaching,” a spokesman for Pelosi, Nadeam Elshami, said. “Whether through the oversight or appropriations process or by enacting new legislation, the Democratic Congress will challenge the president’s non-enforcement of the laws.”

GBC said...

"Last throes" Cheney is on an "unannounced" visit to Baghdad

The Dick is in Baghdad.
"Unannounced" visit, apparently they've stopped calling these jaunts "surprises":

Cheney's unannounced visit, part of a Middle East tour, may signal growing U.S. impatience at Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's failure to push through power-sharing agreements as American military commanders build up troops to secure Baghdad.

"There is a lot going on. It's an important time. There is a lot to talk about," Cheney said before meeting with General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq.


Guess Dick won't be strolling around Baghdad being greeted as a liberator, because that's what he said would happen back in March of 2003. And, in September of 2003, he said most Iraqis were greeting our soldiers as liberators:

MR. RUSSERT: We have not been greeted as liberat[ors].

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, I think we have by most Iraqis. I think the majority of Iraqis are thankful for the fact that the United States is there, that we came and we took down the Saddam Hussein government. And I think if you go in vast areas of the country, the Shia in the south, which are about 60 percent of the population, 20-plus percent in the north, in the Kurdish areas, and in some of the Sunni areas, you’ll find that, for the most part, a majority of Iraqis support what we did.


Yeah, sure, Dick. Liar.

mmrules said...

A key snippet from today's piece in The Hill about the DeLay portion of the Abramoff investigation ...TPM.

Link

blah blah blah said...

you suppose dick heard they had good buys on rugs there?

mmrules said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Still calling AAR daily to demand your return to the weekly line-up Sam. The fight wages on....

mmrules said...

Gonzales: Blame It on The Aide
By Paul Kiel - May 9, 2007, 10:30 AM


Link

blah blah blah said...

gonzales should use the flip wilson defense. "the devil made me do it"

Anonymous said...

Sunshine Jim said...

back in a few. busy morning here.

scratching ass and drinking coffee.

Anonymous said...

Fairness Doctrine Must Be Re-Instated
-conbo
May 9, 2007 9:20 AM

Sunshine Jim said...

eya anon!

good morning! FOAD!

what i was doing was finding out

what the rules and guidlines for confidetiality were in a canadian social service charged with protecting children prior to a discussion with the Minister of that agency (the head appointed muckity muck of that agency)later today.

IMO you need at least a couple of upgrades to reach the status of 'Asshole', though i believe you've achieved the state of cowardice rather well.

CSMF!

blah blah blah said...

mornin jim. sounds like you got your hands full.

mmrules said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sunshine Jim said...

nah

3 phone calls

coupla hours of web research.

i got em dead to rights. definite violation of their own policies.

my lawyer backs me up, and wants me to fix a panel on his vintage dodge fargo truck.

expecting a very good resolution with adequate smooching of my ass today or tomorrow.

i'll see if i can cut some of the catch 22 aspects of this out of the shituation and get some help for the kid.

mmrules said...

Hullabaloo



Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Too Busy Laughing

by digby
Hullabaloo is proud to present another episode of "Imagine If This Were A Democrat" this week starring Condoleeza Rice:
Link

Anonymous said...

HR 501: Fairness and Accountability in Broadcasting Act

This bill identifies an imbalance in the presentation of opposing viewpoints over the public airwaves, and aims to address it by requiring licensees to hold public hearings at which citizens can air their grievances and potentially petition for license non-renewal if the station fails to uphold its obligation to the public interest.
Current Status

In the Energy and Commerce Committee

Originally sponsored by Louise McIntosh Slaughter (D-NY).

http://www.mediaproblem.com/congress/billinfo.php?id=109

Jeffinator said...

Has anyone written to AAR to Thank them?

Personally, I'm grateful the Sam Seder Show is off the air. I used to make sure I was near the computer from nine to noon so that I could listen to his show. (There are no stations in Pennsylvania with a progress line up of talk) I even had wireless earphones set up so I could walk up to 150 ft from away from my computer, but NOW that Sam Seder has been sacked I can get so much more stuff done!

I'm no longer bound to my computer. I can leave its proximity to run errands. I no longer have to make sure I can hear anything so I can run noisy equipment. I can focus my attention better and that lets me read interesting books and articles from nine to noon.

So I want to Thank the Greens and Air America Radio for making all that possible!

Anonymous said...

DC-Based Reporter-Bloggers: TPM Media is hiring a Washington-based reporter-blogger(s) who will report and write for TPMmuckraker.com and be part of TPM's expanded news-gathering and investigative team. Applicants must live in the Washington, DC area. We have a strong preference for applicants with at least one year of professional journalism experience. However, we will consider applicants with alternative relevant professional experience. Salary based on experience and qualifications. Benefits included.

Send email to talk@talkingpointsmemo.com. Use the subject heading "TPMmuckraker Reporter-Blogger". Include a resume, names of two references, and a letter explaining your interest in the job, your background or any other relevant details you think would be helpful for us to know.

Anonymous said...

Neighbors debate proposed cell tower

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18313315&BRD=248&PAG=461&dept_id=462341&rfi=6

Sam Seder, whose property faces Blue Hill, asked, "How can construction of further towers be prevented" if this tower is allowed.

Towns have the authority to restrict the location of communications towers, but federal law prohibits outright bans on new tower construction.

Anonymous said...

Study: U.S. Hospitals Charging Uninsured More

...a new study shows U.S. hospitals are charging uninsured patients two and a half times more than patients with health insurance. The gap has steadily increased over the last two decades but has seen an even sharper jump since the Bush administration took office. The study appeared in the medical journal Health Affairs.

Anonymous said...

Sunshine Jim said...
i'll see if i can cut some of the catch 22 aspects of this out of the shituation and get some help for the kid.

May 9, 2007 1:00 PM

You are terrific. Thank you for being there and caring.

Crank Bait said...

Cheney: "If you go on vacation for two months, you're fucked."
al-Maliki: "No, when we go on vacation YOU'RE fucked. We're already fucked."
Cheney: "You'll be more fucked than we are."
al-Maliki: "Have you been reading the papers, Dick? Even the Green Zone is a dangerous place. How much more fucked do you think we could possibly be?"
Cheney: "The Democrats could force us to leave."
al-Maliki: "What a shame."
Cheney: "No, I really mean it. If you don't cooperate, the Democrats are gonna leave you high and dry."
al-Maliki: "Is that worse than dead? I'm not familiar with all of your American idioms."
Cheney: "It means that you will be on your own."
al-Maliki: "Does it mean that you won't be calling the shots anymore?"
Cheney: "When the Democrats cut off the money, I won't be able to help Iraq any longer."
al-Maliki: "Gee. That's too bad. What with your stellar record and all."
Cheney: "So you think that you can go it alone?"
al-Maliki: "I think that we can't do worse than killing each other."

Unknown said...

White House struggles to fill key posts. “The Bush administration is facing growing difficulties in filling a rising number of high-level vacancies following a recent spate of senior departures. In the last 10 days alone Mr Bush has lost four senior officials and more resignations are expected to follow. ‘I wouldn’t describe this as disintegration,’ said one senior official. ‘But there are worrying large gaps opening up and it is very hard to recruit high-quality people from outside.’

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3828401e-fd89-11db-8d62-000b5df10621.html

Running out of folks that know the secret handshake.

bibimimi said...

(the young boys are coming,
The young boys are coming.
They carry homemade weapons and a bazooka.
They say we have agreed to enter a place
That has never been entered before
By our parents or our ancestors
And they cry for us, for we do not have the right to vote.)

Hayiyaah!

The west is sleeping in a fragile freedom
Forgotten is the price that was paid
Ten thousand years of marching through a veil of tears
To break a few links in these chains
These things come to us by way of much pain
Don’t let us slip back into the dark
On a visible but distant shore -- a new image of man
The shape of his own future, now in his own hands -- he says:

Chorus:
One ’man, one vote -- step into the future
One ’man, one vote -- in a unitary state
One ’man, one vote -- tell them when you see them
One ’man, one vote -- it’s the only way

Bayeza abafana abancane
(the young boys are coming)

Hayiyaah!

In the east a giant is awakening
And in the south we feel the rising tide
The soul inside the spark that gives breath to your life
Can no longer be made to hide
These things come to us by way of much pain
Don’t let us slip back into the dark
On a visible but distant shore -- a new image of man
The shape of his own future, now in his own hands -- he says:

Chorus

in swahili:
Bayeza abafana bancane wema
Bayeza abafana bancane wema
Baphethe iqwasha, baphethe ibazooka
Bathi sangena savuma thina,
Lapha abazange bengena abazali bethu
Nabadala, bayasikhalela thina ngoba asina voti.

Johnny knew!

blah blah blah said...

fed should make an interest rate / economic announcement in a few minutes. starting around 12:30 market has been in a decline. starting about 10 minutes ago, the trend has reversed and it appears to be going towards the day high quickly.

Anonymous said...

U.S. Carrier Armada Aims At Iran

Michael T. Klare
May 09, 2007

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/09/us_carrier_armada_aims_at_iran.php

Looking down from the captain's deck some six stories high, the flight deck of the USS Nimitz is an impressive sight indeed: 80 sleek warplanes armed with bombs and missiles are poised for takeoff at any minute, day or night. The sight of these planes coming and going from that 1,100-foot-long flight deck is almost beyond description. I can attest to this, having sailed on the Nimitz 25 years ago as a reporter for Mother Jones magazine.

Today, the Nimitz is rapidly approaching the Persian Gulf, where it will join two other U.S. aircraft carriers and the French carrier Charles De Gaulle in the largest concentration of naval firepower in the region since the launching of the U.S. invasion of Iraq four years ago.

Why this concentration now? Officially, the Nimitz is on its way to the Gulf to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which is due to return to the United States for crew leave and ship maintenance after months on station. But the U.S. Central Command (Centcom), which exercises command authority over all U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf area, refuses to say when the Eisenhower will actually depart—or even when the Nimitz will arrive.

For a time, at least, the United States will have three carrier battle groups in the region. The USS John C. Stennis is the third. Each carrier is accompanied by a small flotilla of cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and support vessels, many equipped with Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles (TLAMs). Minimally, this gives modern meaning to the classic imperial term "gunboat diplomacy," which makes it all the stranger that the deployment of the Nimitz is covered in our media, if at all, as the most minor of news stories. And when the Nimitz sailed off into the Pacific last month on its way to the Gulf, it simply disappeared off media radar screens like some classic "lost patrol."

Rest assured, unlike us, the Iranians have noticed. After all, with the arrival of the Nimitz battle group, the Bush administration will be—for an unknown period of time—in an optimal position to strike Iran with a punishing array of bombs and missiles should the President decide to carry out his oft-repeated threat to eliminate Iran's nuclear program through military action. "All options," as the administration loves to say, remain ominously "on the table."

Wil said...

Crank Bait said... @ May 9, 2007 2:00 PM

Oh Piffle! Why ... things are great in Iraq!Bombs in school walls are merely hiccups in the drive to .. what was it we were driving for again? I forget .. WMD? Saddam being a bad man?? Bringing "Western-Style" Democracy to Iraq???

Damn! I hate it when I can't keep the talking points right!

blah blah blah said...

try this willow:

- fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here.

- we will be greeted as liberators because we wear scary uniforms.

- saddam hussein bailed out of the 767 right before it hit the twin towers

- nancy pelosi and harry reid were really born in a "special" nursery in manchuria.

see how easy it is to be a neo clown?

Anonymous said...

it makes me sick when people gloat when someone is sent to jail. I think it's wrong to enjoy seeing someone suffer, even if that person is terrible.

Anonymous said...

You are terrific. Thank you for being there and caring.

May 9, 2007 1:48 PM


[Rolling eyes]

mmrules said...

Keep up the Good work SJ!

Sunshine Jim said...

tanks cee cee,

think i made some progress.

did have a good discussion of the case specifics,

but an even better discussion of resolving the base issues of lack of control of the kids in the group homes.

turns out bored rebellious kids get in trouble. (duh...) turns out that there are no programs to address this (duh...)

my proposal is basically keep em busy, give em some money making skills, give em a adult presence as a role model and educator in lifestyle basics.

we'll see, there is an entrenched beaurocracy that is afraid of losing power that will oppose me but is vulnerable to an end run.

and i have a proven record of being a successful 'end runner'.

Wil said...

blah blah blah said... May 9, 2007 2:26 PM

ROTFLMFAO!! : D .. See! I knew there was more!!!

And Hey!! Guess what!! ... we are finding new ways to screw our Iraq War Vets! Join to pay for college .. well .. not so much!

Wil said...

Bibimimi troll'p said.. -our security demands we control the world's oil, bitch! @ Mayy9, 2007 2:41 PM ..

Yah .. that's not working out to good for us either ... : /

Wil said...

Bugger! I hate it when I futz my linkie!

Yah..that's not working out to good for us either ... : /

Anonymous said...

Networked Operational Being Optimized for Dangerous Yelling

Anonymous said...

mmrules said...

Keep up the Good work SJ!

May 9, 2007 2:41 PM


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Suckers!

mmrules said...

Media Ownership:
Stop Big Media

Anonymous said...

???? Is this our Sam???? said...

if it is, sounds like Sam oughta think about running for city council to change the statute-hey maybe this could be Sams entre'
into politics--i'd vote for him in a heartbeat.

Anonymous said...

White Light
Blazing
Finding only
Thoughtlessness
In the Void
The missing
Piece of me

Black Light
Polaring field
of
Eyes that make
Me Shiver
(Paralyze me seeing
Through me)
The Other Piece of me

II

Silver Moon
Spinning
Careful Father
(Skyfather watching, waiting)
Earthmother
Yielding to be
The Place where
We come togather
Ying-Yang like
And perfect
Protecting
Our Soul Union

Might we be
A duality
Of Light-Dark
Feeing
The other
Filling
Brimming
We were married in nature
Under the Skyfather
Earthmother

III

Do we need
Sanction of our
Duality
Completeness
And polarized beauty?
Do we need
Anything more
then
The blessing of
Our
Skyfather
Earthmother?

Union
Devine Through
nature's touch
the Lady's fingers
The Lord's touch...

mmrules said...

Anonymous said...
mmrules said...

Keep up the Good work SJ!

May 9, 2007 2:41 PM


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Suckers!



HeyAnonymous!

Anonymous said...

Sunshine Jim said...
my proposal is basically keep em busy, give em some money making skills, give em a adult presence as a role model and educator in lifestyle basics.
May 9, 2007 2:44 PM

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't get that or don't want to get that. What you are offering helps develop self-esteem and prepares them for the future--making them a productive member of society, if that is what a society wants. Wishing you all the success...and energy.

Anonymous said...

Listening to Randi Rhodes...

IRAQ IS AN OCCUPATION; THERE IS NOTHING TO WIN!

mmrules said...

Ban On Paperless Voting Machines Advances Out of Committee (Chris Bowers)
Fixing The Machines.


Link

Sunshine Jim said...

hee! cee cee!

oh deff an uphill battle.

it's a good match though, i've gotten some certification as a skills instructor, have great references, and a willingness to get involved. i'm gtting older and want to pass on the skills and attitudes without the normal frustrating BS.

the kids and i get along just fine when i do this on an individual basis. they're usually pretty gun shy at first, a lot of them in the middle of some fairly dysfunctional family scenes, but the trust comes pretty quick when we work together.

this has been good for the hood kids in general, but theres a bigger problem here in the community thats out of control.

seeing as i care, i'm going to contact a few other people that have indicated an interest in this and see how far we can take it.

Unknown said...

Anonymous said...

I encourage everyone to read Harold Meyerson's opinion article on the recent ruling on the Enron shareholder lawsuit. Along with some of the comments. The only way to hurt these companies and bullies like Gonzales is to start systematically pulling our money from the 401k's and investments. If these companies have no investors, they have no power. A crash is coming. It's these Funds that have created these monsters and our retirement accounts have fueled it.

May 9, 2007 10:20 AM

++++++

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050801582.html

It is a good article. And a smart recommendation, anonymous.

Anonymous said...

In the Gonzales situation, one of the White Houses many secrets was exposed to the public. Perhaps more time should be spent “exposing” the secrets of the White House. For instance the members of the government agreed to fund and support the Millennium Development goals that will help bring an end to global poverty. However while the white house spends $300 billion a yea in Iraq, $19 billion is missing from the funding to end starvation and malnutrition worldwide. Groups such as the Borgen Project are working to bring government attention to see that the U.S. government holds up their end of the agreement.

Anonymous said...

There are plenty of real conspiracies in America. Why make up fake ones? Every few years, property czars and city government in New York conspire to withhold fire company responses, so that enough of a neighborhood burns down for the poor to quit and for profitable gentrification to ensue. That's a conspiracy to commit ethnic cleansing, also murder.

It's happening today in Brooklyn, even as similar ethnic cleansing and gentrification is scheduled in San Francisco. Bayview Hunters Point is the last large black community in the Bay Area, sitting on beautiful bay front property. So now it's the time to move the black folks out. As Willie Ratcliff, publisher of the Bay View newspaper writes, "If the big developers and their puppets, the mayor [Democrat Gavin Newsom] and his minions win this war, they'll have made what may be the largest urban renewal land grab in the nation's history: some 2,200 acres of San Francisco, the city with the highest priced land on earth."

That's an actual conspiracy, even as many in the Bay Area left meander through the blind alleys of 9/11 conspiratorialism.

Machiavelli points out that every conspirator you add to the plot has less chance of preserving secrecy than the previous one. The 9/11 group in fact did tell people about their plans in various ways but the prevailing belief that Arabs couldn't do it prevented any of the revelations from being taken seriously. The view that a bunch of Arabs with box cutters couldn't do it was precisely the cover they needed...(Alex Cockburn)

Alice said...

Willow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


:)

Welcome back...!!

*

Nice poem, anonymous...

*

The Flaming Lips "Pompeii Am Götterdämmerung"

Alice said...

Spencer Tunick: ¡Fuera ropa! y la desnudez cubrió al Zócalo

mmrules said...

Bush threatening yet another veto, he wants all the money NOW
by John Aravosis (DC) · 5/09/2007 01:36:00 PM ET


Link

Unknown said...

How to sanctify mass murder.

...the category of civilians appears to be suffused with racist sentimentality - the implicit claim is that any right they have to be exempted from high-tech slaughter is a sort of reward for passivity and acceptance of conquest. Even that right is imperiled if they manage to give the impression of being potential combatants, or protecting or otherwise aiding them, or even being in close proximity to them. One's rights as a civilian are so precarious that a bunch of enraged or deranged occupying troops can take them away with little prospect of discovery and a great effort at cover-up if someone does find out. This is an elemental condition of war and occupation. Indeed, it is a highly unsatisfactory right, since one is supposed to passively accept not only exposure to "collateral damage" - the inevitably widespread civilian deaths that occur from military strategies designed to wipe out the enemy ruthlessly, efficiently, and from a great cocooned distance - and not only the destruction of the infrastructure that enables life, and not only the constant disruption and fear: one is also expected to accept the political priorities of the aggressors, whatever they happen to be. Somehow, the slim chance that you will be among those given two grand by the occupiers for having had a family member certifiably killed by US troops, isn't adequate compensation.

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-sanctify-mass-murder.html

...the problem resides in the way the civilian/combatant distinction is made, and the way that it legitimises great harm to the communities under attack, always displacing the blame onto the opposing combatants (and eventually, onto the civilians too, since they have failed to live up to expectations). If they didn't fight, they would be civilians, thus protected: that is, if everyone does as they're told, no one will get hurt. This is the ethics of the bank robbery or the ransom note.

mmrules said...

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 5/9/2007 12:28PM
Details Released on CA's New, Unprecedented 'Top-to-Bottom Review' and Hack Testing of all Electronic Voting Systems
CA SoS Debra Bowen Names Teams and Methods to be Used for 'First-of-its-Kind in the Nation' Certification, Decertification Process...

Link

Unknown said...

Great stuff here, A.
thanks!

http://mexicana.nihilisten.com/?p=100

toniD said...

Hello Sederites!!

Anonymous said...

Who will truth-squad the "truth-squaders"?

Who will point out the nitwittery of the saintly Republican candidates? Its rarely your "liberal" press determined to elect Reps for the last 15 years. Its

The Daily Howler, thats who ...

---

SHUSTER: Actually, that’s not a course at all that George H. W. Bush or Ronald Reagan took. Both were consistent, George H.W. Bush particularly so, on the issue. He was always pro-life.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/

toniD said...

Gates Contradicts Bush, Says ‘I Don’t Know’ If 2002 War Authorization Is Still Valid »
During today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he doesn’t know whether the 2002 resolution authorizing force in Iraq is still valid, acknowledging that his view differs with that of President Bush.

During his questioning of Gates, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) noted that the authorization listed two purposes for the use of force: 1) to defend the United States against Saddam Hussein and 2) enforce U.N. resolutions against Hussein’s government. Byrd asked Gates, since Hussein’s government no longer exists, “do you agree that this authorization no longer applies to the ongoing conflict in Iraq?”

Gates responded: “I think the honest answer, Senator Byrd, is that I don’t know the answer to that question.” Gates admitted that his answer contradicts that of the President, who believes the resolution “still continues to authorize the actions that we are taking in Iraq.”

Watch it:

LINK

Fernando said...

Sorry... here is the link.

Unknown said...

I might miss this live, but here...

Dr. As'ad AbuKhalil, Arab-American scholar, professor of political science at California State University-Stanislaus, visiting professor at UC-Berkeley, and author of many books and articles (and angryarab.blogspot) will be interviewed live this evening at 5:00PM Pacific Time (you may listen live)

http://www.arabvoices.net/

Anonymous said...

Alan Dershowitz busy witchhunting Prof. Norman Finkelstein

-----

A Conversation with Norman Finkelstein

Target of a Witch Hunt

By KATHRYN WEBER

Norman Finkelstein is the target of a witch-hunt that could cost him his job teaching at DePaul University in Chicago.

An outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights as well as a renowned scholar with a reputation for exceptional teaching, Finkelstein is being considered for tenure at DePaul. He won strong support from the political science department and the personnel committee of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, but DePaul's dean refused to back his application for tenure.

Finkelstein's longtime adversary, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, has publicly campaigned against Finkelstein getting tenure at DePaul. DePaul's provost will make his decision before June, and the university president has until June 15, the last day of the quarter at DePaul, to issue his final word. ...

read on
http://counterpunch.org/weber05092007.html

Anonymous said...

Food for thought
---

Snatched from the Jaws of Victory

Feminism Then and Now

By PAULA ROTHENBERG

It was the summer of 2002 and I was traveling through a medium-sized town in Hungary when I looked up and saw a young woman coming toward me. Fifteen or sixteen years old, she wore a shirt that proudly proclaimed her to be a "Dirty Girl."

Six months later, in Philadelphia, I found myself speaking at a women's studies conference to an audience which included several young women wearing shirts with "Cunt" or "Bitch" written on their chest in an angry scrawl. Shortly after, I found myself in Panama watching a rotund 7 year old prance around in a hot pink tank top that shouted "Bling,.Bling." When I checked the web upon returning home, I discovered that "Dirty Girl" had been updated to "Stupid Dirty Girl" while another T shirt insisted "As long as I can be on top."

Are the young women wearing such T-shirts liberated women who have taken control of their own bodies and now reap the benefits of the women's movement or are they simply dupes? These experiences, and countless others like them, raise a broader question for me. ...

read on
http://counterpunch.org/rothenberg05092007.html

toniD said...

33 percent. President Bush’s approval rating, a record low, in a new WNBC/Marist poll.

LINK

Anonymous said...

Website of the Day
Posada Carriles: the Declassified Record

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB153/index.htm

toniD said...

Cheney overheard in Iraq: ‘Kick the press out.’ “Once safely ensconced in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, however, Cheney appeared to reserve his toughest language for his normal target — the press. Cheney held a lot of photo ops with key Iraqi leaders like Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, but was adamant about not taking questions. At one point, Cheney emphasized to the assembled journalists that ‘this is just a photo spray.’ Later in the day, as reporters filed into an embassy conference room for another photo of Cheney they overheard him tell his staff ‘then we kick the press out.’”

UPDATE: From a pool report: “Around 5:20 p.m. (local) there was a distant explosion that rattled windows at the building where the VP and the press corps are working today.”

LINK

toniD said...

Retired generals slam Bush policy in new ads. VoteVets.org has launched a series of ads featuring two retired Army generals who commanded U.S. forces in Iraq. The ads “are airing in states and districts of those Members of Congress who are very close to breaking with the President on Iraq, and joining the troops and American people.” Watch the first ad:

LINK

toniD said...

Majority Of Iraqi Parliament Calls For Timetable For U.S. Withdrawal
Today, the New York Times highlights a visit to Capitol Hill by Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie and reports that al-Rubaie is “trying to persuade American lawmakers who have all but run out of patience that still more patience is required.”

The Times piece fails to note that in June 2006, Rubaie was calling for a significant troop reduction. He wrote in the Washington Post, “We envisage the U.S. troop presence by year’s end [2006] to be under 100,000, with most of the remaining troops to return home by the end of 2007.”

Rubaie’s call for “more patience” is increasingly out of touch with Iraqi opinion. AlterNet reports a significant development that has yet to be noted in the U.S. media — a majority of Iraqi parliament members have signed a petition calling for a U.S. withdrawal:

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq’s parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

[…]

Reached by phone in Baghdad on Tuesday, Al-Rubaie said that he would present the petition, which is nonbinding, to the speaker of the Iraqi parliament and demand that a binding measure be put to a vote. Under Iraqi law, the speaker must present a resolution that’s called for by a majority of lawmakers, but there are significant loopholes and what will happen next is unclear.

A new Gallup poll finds a majority of Americans — roughly 60 percent — are united with the Iraqi parliament.

LINK

Anonymous said...

tonid,

I thought the latest Bush approval rating was 28 %. Can't remember where I read it. It was a few days ago.
Article pointed out that J. Carter had been down to 28 % as well.

toniD said...

Gonzales to Congress: Move on. In his opening statement to be read at tomorrow’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales challenges Congress to “move on” past the U.S. Attorney scandal and allow “the Justice Department to focus on its mission: fighting crime.”

Pretty bold words for someone who is on his last legs or can be impeached!

toniD said...

bridge, That was the CNN poll. There are several polls, some more favorable to Bush, but all are in the low thirties except the CNN poll.

This poll, today, the WNBC/Marist poll, this is the lowest Bush has been on that particular poll, which is saying alot.

toniD said...

Cheney’s last visit to Iraq: ‘We’ve turned the corner.’ Today was Vice President Cheney’s second trip to Baghdad. Dan Froomkin reminds us of his first, in December 2005, when a Marine corporal told Cheney during a Q&A session: “From our perspective, we don’t see much as far as gains. I was wondering what it looks like from the big side of the mountain — how Iraq’s looking.”

“‘Well, Iraq’s looking good,’ Cheney responded. ‘It’s hard sometimes, if you look at just the news, to have the good stories burn through. Part of it is that what we’re doing here, obviously, takes time. From our perspective, looking back, as I say, to a year and a half ago, I think it’s remarkable progress. I think we’ve turned the corner, if you will. I think when we look back from 10 years hence, we’ll see that the year ‘05 was in fact a watershed year here in Iraq.‘

“Cheney…also discussed the possibility of American forces eventually withdrawing ‘to a few locations’ in Iraq, which would ‘reduce the total number of personnel we need here.’

“‘I think you will see changes in our deployment patterns probably within this next year,’ he said.”

LINK

toniD said...

Benedictine nuns may protest Bush. “Finding fine speaking venues at graduation is never easy for late-second-termers, as President Bush is learning. Whereas he once spoke at Ohio State or the University of Texas, now he’s left with Florida community colleges or small schools in rural areas that are run by former aides.”

But it looks as if it won’t be smooth sailing Friday, even when Bush speaks at Saint Vincent College, a small Benedictine school in Latrobe, Pa., run by Jim Towey, former head of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives. […]

Thirty current and former faculty members, in an open letter to Bush last week, said “in the spirit of Benedictine hospitality” they would “welcome” him to the campus “as we would any visitor” as 1,600 students graduate. And they said they will “welcome those who protest your visit” and hope the college doesn’t “turn them away” on Friday. […]

Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that Benedictine nuns from Erie may be going down to Latrobe to take part in some sort of protest.

LINK

Anonymous said...

ok, tonid, thanks :)

Anonymous said...

mmrules said...
Anonymous said...
Fairness Doctrine Must Be Re-Instated

-conbo

conbo:I signed!!9'er.You should post it again,later,when there's more people around :)

:)

Fairness Doctrine Must Be Reinstated

-conbo

Anonymous said...

Bill Richardson

has a fun ad

scroll down a bit
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/

toniD said...

I signed it too Connie!!

toniD said...

DoJ Releases Gonzales' Secret Hiring Order
By Paul Kiel - May 9, 2007, 12:26 PM
Well, here it is, so you can read it yourself, the secret order signed by Alberto Gonzales in March of last year that gave Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling, two young aides with close ties to the White House, the power to hire and fire junior political appointees at the Justice Department (click to enlarge):


You can expect to hear a number of questions about the order tomorrow.

Update: Marty Lederman has a helpful dissection of the order's meaning and motivation over at Balkinization.

LINK

Anonymous said...

now that sammy has shown us how low Glenn Becks ratings are(yesterdays blog)
I say CNN should ax Beck and recruit Sammy for that time slot -
damn that would be good!
I say put pressure on CNN and MSNBC for a Sam Seder Show

Save Sammy Save the World

toniD said...

MO U.S.A. Is Ninth Purged Prosecutor
By Laura McGann - May 9, 2007, 12:19 PM
Another red flag in the ongoing U.S. Attorney scandal is waiving over at The Kansas City Star.

It looks like former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves was fired and quickly replaced by frequent TPMmuckraker subject Bradley Schlozman. Schlozman is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee this coming Tuesday.

Graves himself hasn’t said definitively whether he got the ax, but, in a statement released last night, he did say it was better to leave his post and “take a graceful exit than to do something that you should be ashamed of.” It's not immediately clear what shameful act he's referring to.

Read on below for his full statement.

Continue reading...

LINK

Anonymous said...

ITA with digby .... re women's rights ... this is a bad trend:

--
The Kennedy Doctrine

by digby

Without delving into the issue too deeply (because, you know, I'm too tired) I have been struck by one aspect of Garance Franke-Ruta's proposal to criminalize flashing on camera for 18-21 year old women. (For the best take on it, IMO, see Avedon.)

Anyway, what jumped out at me when I read Garance's piece a few days ago was that it was the second time in the last month or so that I've heard the same startling rationale used in an argument about women's rights: that some women come to regret their decisions after they make them so all women must be protected from that possibility. The earlier version of this argument, of course, was in Anthony Kennedy's opinion in the "partial-birth" abortion case. ...

read on

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

toniD said...

Today's Must Read
By Paul Kiel - May 9, 2007, 9:00 AM
Hell hath no fury like a lawmaker searched!

Or something like that.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) is furious that the FBI is thoroughly investigating him, issuing subpoenas for documents, and interviewing a number of his former aides.

For one thing, the Justice Department just won't stop asking questions about his wife's work for two organizations controlled by Ed Buckham, a lobbyist and close associate of Jack Abramoff. Here's DeLay speaking with reporters yesterday:

“They’re going after other people and they’re questioning the other people about whether they know anything I may have done. And we’ve given them all the records and that’s the problem they’re having.... [My wife] did her work and she was underpaid for the work she did and they can’t make the case. It’s a Justice Department that is running amok. Fish or cut bait. Do something.”
Yeah, bring 'em on!

It's at this point that DeLay's defense lawyer, Richard Cullen, steps in to moderate. You can hear the soothing tone: “When Tom DeLay said that [about Justice], it reflected frustration that many people feel when they are involved in an investigation... We are very comfortable that the Justice Department is proceeding properly and expeditiously."

Investigators have reportedly been probing whether DeLay's wife actually did any work at those jobs, but that's far from their sole focus. Abramoff and DeLay were key allies; a bond forged by millions of dollars. It's no coincidence that two of DeLay's former aides have pled guilty in the Abramoff scandal, and a third, Buckham, is in danger of being indicted.

But DeLay isn't the only lawmaker who's outraged (outraged!) by the FBI's tactics. Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA), who is also in investigators' sights for his ties to Abramoff, just can't believe that the FBI searched everything in his house:

“The agents systematically searched our home, removing every book, turning over every couch cushion and every pot and pan, and rummaging through every drawer, file cabinet, cupboard and closet...”

The nerve.

LINK

Anonymous said...

toniD said...
I signed it too Connie!!

May 9, 2007 6:00 PM

yay! do you know what to do after you get enough signatures?

-conbo

Anonymous said...

bridge said...
Bill Richardson

has a fun ad

scroll down a bit
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/

hahaha! that is actually an EXCELLENT AD

i was going to vote for Richardson before I decided all the candidates sucked

bill richardson's add

-conbo

toniD said...

Connie, I wish I could say I did but I don't.

Maybe contact another organization that sends out these petitions!

How about True Majority?

Anonymous said...

I think I am going to vote for the Keebler elf, Kucinich.

He is actually progressive and not posturing, and I think its cool he lives in a tree.

Very sensitive to the environment.

-conbo

Anonymous said...

Connie, I wish I could say I did but I don't.

Maybe contact another organization that sends out these petitions!

How about True Majority?

thanks. googling

-conbo

Anonymous said...

check out this Glenn Greenwald piece - don't miss

"Edsall blinks and looks perplexed. "David Broder is the voice of the people," he replies matter-of-factly. Gravel starts to smile, assuming Edsall is making an absurdist joke. But Edsall is not joking."

----

All you need to know about the Beltway journalist mind

Radar Online has a new profile of presidential candidate Mike Gravel. The article recounts what happened when the reporter, Jebediah Reed, basically followed Gravel as he was profiled by The Today Show.

The article is amusing in general, but Reed recounts this unbelievably revealing incident along the way:

Beaming after the Columbia event, Gravel walks with [Newsweek's Jonathan] Alter to a nearby Cuban restaurant for a late lunch. On the way they encounter a gray-haired gentleman in owlish glasses. Alter greets him very respectfully. "This is Tom Edsall," he says. Edsall was a senior political writer for the Washington Post for 25 years. He retired from the paper in 2006 and now writes for the New Republic and teaches at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

Gravel smiles broadly and says, "Hey, can you straighten out David Broder?" ...

read on
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/05/09/broder/index.html

Anonymous said...

This administration has been nothing but marred by corruption. From this US attorney scandal, the corruption of the leaders selected by Bush to the Iraq War. It's definitely time for new leadership that will be more responsive to the American people and the rest of the world. This administration is exactly why the Republican party is failing.

The Borgen Project states that we have spent over $340 billion on the war, yet it takes just $19 billion annually can end starvation and $23 billon annually can reverse the spread of Malaria and AIDS. With these issues being so easily addressed, it is no wonder that a war-touting political group that doesn't believe in humanitarianism isn't doing well in the polls or with the American people.

Anonymous said...

speaking of petitions!

here is a good one:

GI's Petition Congress to end war

-conbo

Anonymous said...

"hahaha! that is actually an EXCELLENT AD"

----

it is, conbo

I always liked Bill Richardson but couldn't believe it when he said alberto gonzales was a good person and a good friend ... he really blew it IMO :(

toniD said...

Shameless blog plug time...

LINK

Anonymous said...

P.S.

the taking a bite from the sandwich bit was really brilliant

sort of bonding with the voters thru food ;-)

Wil said...

This would be funnier that crap ... if it wasn't real.

...Hamas militants have suspended a TV program that featured a Mickey Mouse lookalike urging Palestinian children to fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination, the Palestinian information minister said Wednesday.



[The following is a joke .. lest you forget my style after all this long time away ...]

The Israeli government refused to comment on news reports that they were planning their own "Faux Mickey" .. Moshe Mouse. "Hey Kids! Let's bomb Rammallah!!"

Anonymous said...

You sound really nice.

I wish I could meat you.

Anonymous said...

your pic is great, too, Will :)

really nice to see you post again

missed you

bbl

mmrules said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mmrules said...

Conbo:Try This..

Link

Wil said...

: / .. I just changed the pic because I thought it was too fuzzy! (Ah! A Pun .. cat pic ... fuzzy!!) Ah .. anywhoozle .. I just change it to another of Nick. Hopefully it will also be appealing!

Anonymous said...

Willow said...
This would be funnier that crap ... if it wasn't real.
//
...Hamas militants have suspended a TV program that featured a Mickey Mouse lookalike urging Palestinian children to fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination, the Palestinian information minister said Wednesday.//

hahahaha! I still say it is funny real or not!

Willow! :)

hi !

-conbo

Anonymous said...

//Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said the character _ a giant black-and-white rodent with a high-pitched voice _ represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

He said that the program was pulled from Hamas-affiliated Al Aqsa TV at his ministry's request and "placed under review."

The character, named "Farfour," or "butterfly," but unmistakably a copy of the Disney character, preached against the U.S. and Israel each Friday on the show called "Tomorrow's Pioneers."//

Hahahaha

Mickey Mouse and Farfour should duke it out. Whomever wins gets all the oil in the Middle East.

It would save the hassle of wars

-conbo

Alice said...

Toni, did you get the email that had the address I found for you in it?

Alice said...

An Incarcerated APPO Counselor Reports Receiving a Death Threat from the State Governor

To the reactionists of today we are revolutionists, but to the revolutionists of tomorrow our acts will have been those of conservatives.” -Ricardo Flores Magon

At 24-years-old and as a clever, honest and articulate young man, David Venegas Reyes has all his life in front of him, and before falling prey to the state repressive machinery everything seemed to indicate a bright future for the Oaxaqueno. After all, he was at the point of completing his studies as an engineer in agronomy, specializing in zoology at the national university in Chapingo, when he chose to join his people in the growing social movement. He had heard of the battle of the 14th of June and was moved. He joined in Oaxaca’s struggle and emerged from the conflict more or less unscathed. He ended up as the chosen representative of the Brenamiel barricade, one of the biggest ones, and as a Counselor in the APPO (Assembly Popular of the People of Oaxaca).
...

*

dada said...
May 9, 2007 4:59 PM

Yep, that site's going to keep me busy, dada....I will be at lunch @ 5 so I can listen to the angry arab...

&

http://toryanarchist.wordpress.com/2007/05/09/ronald-reagan-reviewed/

*

Cool Posada Carriles link, bridge...

toniD said...

Hi Wil!!!!!!

Shell I was on the phone. I'll go look now!

Thank you , Thank you Thank you!!!

XOXOXOXO!!!!

toniD said...

MSNBC is showing a Breaking News story about a meeting at the White House this afternoon at 2:30 PM about Iraq!!

toniD said...

NBC: 11 Republicans Berate Bush Over Iraq In Private White House Meeting »
In a sign of the growing fissure between the White House and its congressional allies over the war, NBC News reports tonight that 11 Republican members of Congress pleaded yesterday with President Bush and his senior aides to change course in Iraq.

The group of Republicans was led by Reps. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Charlie Dent (R-PA), and the meeting included Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, and Tony Snow. One member of Congress called the discussion the “most unvarnished conversation they’ve ever had with the president,” and NBC’s Tim Russert said it “may have been a defining pivotal moment” in the Iraq debate.

Russert described the conversation:

[O]ne said “My district is prepared for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty, Mr. President.” The president responded, “I don’t want to pass this off to another president. I don’t want to pass this off, particularly, to a Democratic president,” underscoring he understood how serious the situation was.

Brian, the Republican congressman then went on to say, “The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There is no longer any credibility. It has to come from Gen. Petraeus.” The meeting lasted an hour and 15 minutes and was, in the words of one, “remarkable for the bluntness and no-holds-barred honesty in the message delivered by all these Republican congressmen.”

Watch the report:

LINK

mmrules said...

Reality Check!!

About Frigging Time!!

toniD said...

Keith Olbermann just covered this whole thing.

If you didn't see him...watch the repeat later.

This is big news!!

mmrules said...

Miserable Failure!!

toniD said...

Former Commanding General In Iraq Releases Ad: "Protect America, Not George Bush"

LINK to video

Anonymous said...

Everyone has been expecting
Cheney to be the one who would have a fatal heart attack but it is surprisingly going to be Bush that it happens to.

I just took a short ride in my new time machine and I hadn't gone very far when I saw that Bush has a coronary and croaks...

on Air Force One.

It's comin' up soon.

toniD said...

mmrules, your photo link isn't working!

mmrules said...

Yes it is....Try it again :)

toniD said...

Iraqi Parliament Speaker slams Pelosi, says two-month vacation will go ahead
by John Aravosis (DC) · 5/09/2007 08:25:00 PM ET

Not very smart.

Iraq's maverick parliament speaker [Mahmoud al-Mashhadani] on Wednesday rejected U.S. criticism of the 275-seat legislature over its summer break plans, saying it amounted to unacceptable interference in Iraqi affairs as Vice President Dick Cheney was expected to take up the issue during a visit to Baghdad....

In a barb at the Bush administration, he said those behind the criticism of Iraq's parliament would make better use of their time trying to counter criticism by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who is leading a campaign against U.S. President George W. Bush's handling of the war in Iraq.

"You had better try and control Nancy Pelosi rather than Mahmoud al-Mashhadani," the speaker said....

A recess starting from July may leave several crucial pieces of U.S.-supported legislation unfinished, including a bill for distributing oil revenue and another designed to cement national reconciliation....

"Certainly taking a two-month vacation will have an effect on passing some important laws," Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker, said last week. "We can stay if we feel that this is very important, but I think that the worries by the congressmen are premature. Moreover, they themselves take vacation."
Yeah, well we're not in the middle of a civil war being financed by someone else's blood and money, you ungrateful ass.

LINK

toniD said...

mmrules, it doesn't work for me.

I get a square with a red x in it and (one) bush.miserablefailure.jpeg

toniD said...

Defense bill will not include habeas protections. House Armed Services Committee Ike Skelton (D-MO) “dealt a blow to the human-rights community by failing to include provisions to overhaul GOP legislation governing military tribunals in the 2008 defense authorization bill. The chairman’s move is attracting criticism from some who say Democrats’ dedication to the issue is wavering.” Skelton (D-MO), with the support of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), says he plans to bring a stand-alone habeas bill to the floor.

LINK

toniD said...

11 GOP Congresspersons Lecture Bush on Iraq
By Big Tent Democrat, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Wed May 09, 2007 at 07:35:40 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)
'You have no credibility on Iraq Mr. President.'

'My district is ready for defeat.'

-GOP Congresspersons in meeting with President Bush Tuesday.

MSNBC reports that 11 GOP Congresspersons met with the President and told him they are not happy with the Iraq Debacle. They say General Petraeus must tell them things are getting better. Presumably in September.

We'll see if this means anything. I do not think it means much of anything personally. These are 11 GOP Congresspersons who are probably facing tough races and want some cover. 11, 20, or even 30 GOP defections won't overcome a veto.

For this to matter, you have to believe Bush will listen to these folks. I do not. I think this is, as Craig Crawford describes it, more rope a dope:

While some Republican lawmakers seem sincere in calling for a quality check in September for President George W. Bush’s war surge, there is a familiar pattern here. Back in December, when Bush announced his new Iraq strategy, his GOP war supporters — and even the White House itself — had pinpointed this summer as the soft deadline for determining whether it is working. But early last month the president announced that the troop boost would not even be completed until June, thus buying a few more months. . . .
This is more of the same imo.

LINK

mmrules said...

tonid:Try This..

Miserable Failure

toniD said...

Thanks mmrules! That one worked.

Heh! Like the cap!!!

Anonymous said...

breaking:
News 11 Republicans go to WH and tell W he is not credible on war


-conbo

this is High Showtime (elections)

I'm sure the republicans gave Mr. Bush a good what for

toniD said...

Um! Connie...you're a little late, look up blog!

Anonymous said...

ToniD ! you are quick!

-conbo

Anonymous said...

:)

-conbo

I can't believe they think this will change public opinion

hahahaha

morons

and the war will go on

-conbo

toniD said...

Connie read this post from Talk Left

May 9, 2007 9:00 PM

LINK

Anonymous said...

toniD said...
Connie read this post from Talk Left

May 9, 2007 9:00 PM

LINK

May 9, 2007 9:29 PM

he is right on

hahahaha!

no one is buying this stuff

except Russert who is apparently orgasiming over it.

someone said he was so happy on Olberman's show that they felt embarresed for him

-conbo

Crank Bait said...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/09/cheney.iraq.btsc/

Cheney's 'bad cop' act in Iraq: What's really going on

POSTED: 8:03 p.m. EDT, May 9, 2007
-----------------------------------
...might as well go for the bad cop thingy. The bad Vice-President thingy isn't panning out.

Crank Bait said...

conbo: "...except Russert who is apparently orgasiming over it..."
May 9, 2007 9:34 PM
-------------------------------
...or organisming...oreganoing...originating...ogreing...

Alice said...

"WE, THE PEOPLE of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

New Owner said...

>>conbo: "...except Russert who is apparently orgasiming over it..."
May 9, 2007 9:34 PM
-------------------------------
...or organisming...oreganoing...originating...ogreing...
======

What a great moment to show up on the blog...

Alice said...

So incredibly beautiful

toniD said...

National guard equipment levels lowest since 9/11. “The Pentagon, bearing the brunt of criticism for shortfalls in National Guard supplies in the wake of last week’s devastating tornado in Kansas, acknowledged Wednesday that Army National Guard units currently had only 56 percent of their required equipment,” down from 75 percent prior to Sept. 11.

LINK

Anonymous said...

The 23 Phenomenon
With the release of The Number 23 earlier this year we paid tribute to the late, much lamented Robert Anton Wilson by reprinting this 1977 article from (you guessed it) Fortean Times 23.
http://forteantimes.com/articles/221_twenty-three_1.shtml

Unknown said...

"Hamas militants have suspended a TV program that featured a Mickey Mouse lookalike urging Palestinian children to fight Israel and work for global Islamic domination, the Palestinian information minister said Wednesday."

+++

Well really, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Mickey is anti-semitic. That's was joke. You know, Walt Disney... forget it.

Of course, we would never use cartoons to indoctrinate children.

Can you imagine the bonehead that thought this show was a good idea. As if it wouldn't have exactly opposite the intended result. Good thinking, guy.
You know, if Mossad Mouse had a show, he couldn't have done it any better.

I'm just saying...

toniD said...

Putin compares US to Third Reich
Russian president seems to imply US foreign policies resemble those of Nazis.

LINK

Anonymous said...

Approximately 10 days ago, it was John Boehner and the Republicans who repudiated Democrats for putting a time line on the war. Our trifling media of course, echo their diatribe. They accused the Democrats of micro managing the war. They also declared that the Democrats were trying to undermine the Generals.

Now that the Republicans are running scarred and demanding a different strategy, what is the media response? Well they certainly are not saying that the Republicans are trying to micro manage the war. I didn't hear a peep about the Republicans trying to ambush the Generals. This kind of media hypocrisy infuriates me. In spite of the massive failures of Republican governance, the media continues to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Oh you can blame the Democrats for some of this. In 1992, they could have reinstated the fairness doctrine. They did nothing. Instead Bill ,(I wasn't born rich, but I like to kiss old money's ass) Clinton, signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Now we have Goebbels's dream of a media.

The Conservative Republican ideology has devastated this country. It's been dead for years. The Democrats never made them accountable. Neither did the citizenry. The Democrats are too cowardly to called these cretins the incompetent yokels that they are. The American People are watching American Idol and Paris Hilton.

And I'm still pissed, because Sam is gone!

Alice said...

http://vitaworks.org/skin.jpg

Anonymous said...

The "I Like Ike" animated television commercial,
produced by Roy Disney and Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon at The Internet Archive


"The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal
is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process."

-Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson, 1956

Alice said...

Sing it, edna...

Anonymous said...

Hello.

mmrules said...

Bush Worst Disaster Ever

Crank Bait said...

Study: Cervical cancer vaccine less effective in sexually active

By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY

A vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer significantly cut the risk of precancerous changes in women who had not already been infected with the cancer-causing virus types targeted by the vaccine, a study reports today.
The Gardasil vaccine, which has been sold in the USA since last summer, was not as effective in women who had been infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 or 18, thought to cause 70% of cervical cancer cases...
---------------------------------
Uh-oh. The Bible Thumpers are gonna have a tough time with this one.

Fundy Mom: "She vowed an oath of abstinence."
Dr. Bait: "Some day she will have sexual intercourse. After then it will be too late for the vaccine to have full effect."
Fundy Mom: "I don't want to talk about it."
Dr. Bait: "Your daughter. Sweat. Panting. Exchanges of body fluids."
Fundy Mom: "Stop it. STOP IT!"

Anonymous said...

"The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal
is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process."
-Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson, 1956

crazy talk

crazy talk doesn't make money or the blog run

-conbo

Anonymous said...

Today will live on in history.

11 Republicans walked into the White House and took back the country from the uhm, OTHER REPUBLICANS. the bad ones.

I am so proud and misty eyed I can't stand it.

And Russert was there to cover it all...

sweet lord can life get any better?

"My country 'tis of thee

Sweet Land of Liberty

Of thee I sing..."

-conbo

Alice said...

I've never liked these every drink things..like the red bull & all that...but someone @ work talked me in to trying this one called XS Energy...it gets the Oompf from Bvitamins & not caffeine or sugar...I had on @ 730 tonight...on 1 on Monday night...They taste good, & they work...
B vitamins have always worked like magic on me..not sure if that has to do with it..but I looked @ all the ingredients & it seems pretty good...

Cat Chew said...

Senate Approves New Power for F.D.A. on Drugs

[cut to the scary part]

Billy Tauzin, president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the main trade group for brand-name drug companies, applauded passage of the bill, saying it “will preserve and even strengthen the F.D.A.’s ability to do its job.”

Crank Bait said...

Big Eddy (points to the wall map): "And after we cut the heads off of the Northside mob, the whole city will be our oyster."

Rhonda Polsway (shaking head violently, swinging pin curls): "That's crazy talk, Big Eddy. You're talkin' crazy talk!" (Buries face in hands.)

Big Eddy (squares his stance, places hands on hips): "Crazy, you say? Crazy like a fox. In a few weeks, the bunko squad will be asking me for permission to show up for work." (Slaps fist on chest for emphasis.)

Rhonda Polsway (rushes to Big Eddy, grabs his forearm with both hands, looks up at him, distressed): "But Big Eddy; you'll be a marked man. Marked, I tell ya. Your life won't be worth a nickel! You're talkin' crazy talk."

Big Eddy, sotto voce: "(You should turn the page on your script. You're starting over...)"

Anonymous said...

Why can't Nancy Pelosi do things that?

Why can't Pelosi, Reid, and [insert name here-some other democrat running for office]
march on over to the white house and give W what for?

The Gang of Two plus one constituent. Thats what they would call it. And Russert could march behind them barking incoherently.

-conbo

Cat Chew said...

Kool-Aid Dills

Alice said...

Must be their "big plan" to turn things around and look like saviors...they probably set the whole thing up or a big show...maybe so th Tard could try to save face (ha)....

It'll work on the 28% that still love Bush..

Anonymous said...

What kind of Mickey Mouse game is the news playing?

-conbo

mmrules said...

‘Consumer’ Group Hides Verizon Link, Fails Smell Test

Link

Sunshine Jim said...

another weird cat pic

http://www.stuffonmycat.com/media/2/20070508-JERRY.jpg

Alice said...

The Democrats: A Ruling Class Party Unable and Unwilling to End the War

Despite protestations by leading Democrats like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (who claims, “make no mistake: Democrats are committed to ending this war”), the bill they sent to Bush and their response to his veto illustrate that their position on the war is a thoroughly imperialist one, making them unwilling and unable to really end the war.

First, the appropriations bill they drafted never called for a complete withdrawal from Iraq—much less the Middle East. It called for a phased withdrawal of most combat forces, but envisioned leaving thousands of soldiers in Iraq indefinitely to fight “terrorists,” protect U.S. installations, and train Iraqi forces. And U.S. forces redeployed to other countries in the region would be available to re-invade Iraq and/or be used to attack other countries in the region. It is also very exposing that the Democrats refused to include language in the bill requiring Bush to consult Congress before attacking Iran .

Second, the logic of the bill was to threaten troop withdrawals to force the Iraqi government to meet U.S. “benchmarks” such as passing an oil bill, building their armed forces, disarming militias, and curbing the civil war/sectarian violence dynamic now gripping Iraq. These are the same goals Bush spelled out in his January 10 address to the nation, aimed at creating a stable, pro-U.S. government in Iraq. The Democrats also want to cut U.S. losses, preserve the military, and regroup to defend broader U.S. regional interests.

When Bush vetoed the bill, and the Democrats failed to override it, they immediately began talking about concessions: giving Bush the money he wanted and removing any timetables for troop withdrawals. Simply refusing to fund the war (including by filibustering) wasn’t considered. (For more, see “No Good Choices in the Halls of Power: Democrats Vote $100 Billion to Continue the War,” by Larry Everest, Revolution #83, http://revcom.us/a/083-special/toolempire-en.html)

This whole dynamic of riding the anti-war vote to power, then voting to fund an ongoing war while claiming to be ending it, reflect the conflicting necessities the Democrats face. As representatives of U.S. imperialism, they are committed to maintaining U.S. global dominance. Yet they fear the U.S. is sliding toward a strategic debacle of epic proportions and may already have lost the war in Iraq. So they’re trying to find a way to extricate most U.S. forces and reposition and strengthen the U.S. in the region.

And they’re trying to carry out this “redeployment” while making clear to the world and the powers-that-be in the U.S. that they can be just as tough and ruthless as Bush. At the first Democratic Party candidates debate, both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards forcefully responded to a question about terrorist attacks with declarations that they’d act “swiftly” and “strongly.”

At this debate Sen. Mike Gravel briefly spoke some unwanted truth when he condemned the other candidates for refusing to rule out an attack on Iran, exposing that “no options off the table” is imperialist-speak for a preemptive nuclear strike. He said: "And I got to tell you, after standing up with them [the other Democratic candidates for President], some of these people frighten me—they frighten me. When you have mainline candidates that turn around and say that there's nothing off the table with respect to Iran, that's code for using nukes, nuclear devices…

"I got to tell you, I'm president of the United States, there will be no preemptive wars with nuclear devices. To my mind, it's immoral, and it's been immoral for the last 50 years as part of American foreign policy."

Meanwhile, the Democrats also have to try to maintain the loyalty of their supporters (to both the party and the system), millions of whom have turned against the war and are furious at the Democrats. So we get all the talk of carrying out the “will of the voters” and “moving to end the war”—while horrendous crimes continue to be carried out in Iraq and they do nothing to really put an end to the war.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=12788

mmrules said...

Hullabaloo



Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Lord Of The Rings

by digby


I think Rudy Giuliani may turn out to be the sleaziest presidential candidate ever, and that includes Nixon. This is just amazing:

Link

Sunshine Jim said...

Kool-Aid Dills!

hee hee hee! yarrrgh!

the very idea makes my toes curl!

BRING BACK THE WOODEN BRINE BARREL! (traditionalist pickeling rules!)

Anonymous said...

It'll work on the 28% that still love Bush..

May 9, 2007 11:38 PM

This is what I do not understand about that last 28%. I think I figured out the demographic, and as far as I can tell it only consists of two people:My Mother and the other person is a FOX news writer who Murdoch keeps locked in a room with pictures of Bush for company.

That is it. That is the whole demographic.

Everyone else is waiting patiently for Bush's term to expire.

-conbo

Anonymous said...

//hee hee hee! yarrrgh!

the very idea makes my toes curl!//

it probably tastes like sweet pickles sort of

-conbo

Anonymous said...

As soon as I heard that ABC had received the D.C. Madame's phone list, I knew the story was dead. Ross appeared on O'Reilly's television show, promoting the story. If you didn't smell a rat then, well, I don't know what to tell you. ABC Radio is the golden egg of the Right-Wing. Of course they were not going to expose any more Conservatives, even, if it meant exposing Democrats. They don't appear to have a single Progressive on any of their stations. O'Reilly works for them. So does Hannity, Larry Elder, Doug McIntyre, Melanie Morgan etc., etc.

A few years ago, while being interviewed by Charlie Rose, Brain Ross referred to Tim McVeigh and Ted Kaczynski as "Super Patriots". I haven't been able to take him seriously since.

Cat Chew said...

U.S. Lags World in Grasp of Genetics and Acceptance of Evolution

A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower.

Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say.

"American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalist, which is why Turkey and we are so close," said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.

More here

Alice said...

Anarchism versus Marxism

Sunshine Jim said...

eya Wil!

happy dance!

Sunshine Jim said...

we should open a chain of weird foods stores


"The names came fast: Ladarius, Fredericka and Kobreana, among others. So did the impressions: “It’s a candy pickle.” And “I like it the same as dipping hot Cheetos in ice cream.” And “Have you ever tried one with a watermelon Blow Pop?” followed by a pantomime of how the Blow Pop stick can be inserted so that the candy appears as a knob at one end of the pickle, allowing the eater to alternate between bites of sour-sweet pickle and licks of sweet-sour Blow Pop."

Cat Chew said...

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of Kool-Aid dills danced in their heads...

Mmmmm, sweet and sour. G'night!

Alice said...

...
Previously his best turnout had been 7,000 models in Barcelona in 2003.

"I just create shapes and forms with human bodies. It's an abstraction, it's a performance, it's an installation," Tunick said. "So I don't care how many people showed up. All I know is that I filled up my space."

The heart of this city since it was founded by the Aztecs in 1325, the Zocalo measures about 21,000 square yards ¡Âª the size of five football fields.

Men and women from a broad cross section of ages and social classes began arriving before dawn, although most volunteers were young men.

"The important thing is not that it's your body or someone else's but that you participate in something as a society," said Oscar Roman Munoz, a 25-year-old engineer. "This reflects the need for change and integration in world trends."

For Tunick's first photo, the models stood upright and gave a military-like salute to their national flag. In another, they lay down to form a blanket of flesh around a naked man in a wheelchair. Between shots, they burst out into verses of Mexican folk songs such as "Cielito Lindo."

Public nudity is hardly a novelty in Mexico City, where protesters often march through the streets wearing only their underwear or nothing at all.
...

Alice said...

http://www.aspendailynews.com/article_19564

On Saturday, May 5, Anthony Mitchell died in the crash of Kenyan Airways Flight 507, which killed all 114 people onboard. Based in Nairobi, he was an Associated Press reporter who had recently broken a story on secret prisons in Ethiopia and the U.S. involvement in the detention and interrogation of prisoners there. The world has lost another journalist, one who was taking the necessary risks to get at the heart of the complex and often ignored story of Africa.
...
Our exchange with Africa must involve more than oil, guns and secret prisons. Once people know, they care. Shining a light, journalists provide a bridge of understanding. We need more coverage of Africa, from African journalists and from reporters like Anthony Mitchell.

Alice said...

* "It Takes an Enormous Amount of Courage to Speak the Truth When No One Else is Out There" -- World-Renowned Holocaust, Israel Scholars Defend DePaul Professor Norman Finkelstein as He Fights for Tenure *

The battle over political science professor Norman Finkelstein to receive tenure at DePaul University is heating up. Finkelstein - one of the country¹s foremost critics of Israeli policy - has taught at DePaul for the past six years. Finkelstein¹s two main topics of focus over his career have been the Holocaust and Israeli policy. We speak to two world-renowned scholars in these fields: Raul Hilberg, considered the founder of Holocaust studies, and Avi Shlaim, a professor of international relations at Oxford University and an expert on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Shlaim calls Finkelstein a ³very impressive, learned and careful scholar², while Hilberg praises Finkelstein¹s ³acuity of vision and analytical power.² Hilberg says: "It takes an enormous amount of courage to speak the truth when no one else is out there to support him."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/09/1514221

Alice said...

Goodnight, Cat Chew.. :)

Unknown said...

"What kind of Mickey Mouse game is the news playing?" -kos post

++++++

The feigned politeness of the comment section is nauseating.
What an oppressive attitude that site has.
Just my opinion, of course

Sunshine Jim said...

Aerial photos of Greensburg Tornado Damage

http://www.kansas.com/static/slides/050507tornadoaerials/

Alice said...

Hey edna...I think I heard that Bill Maher is in the audience of american idol tonight...

Anonymous said...

Be wary of strong drink.

It can make you shoot at tax collectors.

And miss.

Anonymous said...

Alice said...

* "It Takes an Enormous Amount of Courage to
------------

Alice,

all of our freedom, the soldiers are dying for (according to the Republicans) apparently, does not include freedom of speech.

Ajata said...

So... I called all of the companies that supported Glenn Beck. [see Sam's previous thread].


Well, when I got to Ford, after being transferred I spoke to some guy who actually tried to defend Glenn Beck by saying that Ford believes in "freedom of speech" and they try not to be "biased against" anyone.

I went about 5 minutes with this guy, and he got progressively worse. I wish I had taped the call. When I told him the comments that Beck had made and got to the one about using the word "faggot" on the air; that was the one that seemed to elicit a response. He said that they get a lot of calls from people who don't want them to advertise in "gay" publications. That, he seemed to proffer was his example of not being biased.

I exaplined that was ridiculous, and that Glenn Beck is the "biased" one, he's a racist for god's sake and a biggot in every possible way.

I also explained to him that this had nothing to do with "freedom of speech", that is a false argument commonly thrown around. I talked about the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine and said if that is your idea of free speech then where is my CNN show? These are public airwaves.

He still pulled the argument that this was about being biased; and the issue of people who are anti-gay calling on Ford to not support gay rights in any way.

I said, "This is ultimately an issue of morality and ethics, and if you and Ford think it's ok to affiliate yourselves with this despicable show, then good luck to you"

I also told him that Glenn Beck's numbers were tanking anyway, but it was only corporate sponsors who ultimately give this guy a soapbox. Many of us were boycotting Ford for it.

Anyone here thinking of buying a new car or truck, I hope you'll think twice about buying Ford.

Alice said...

Wow, great job, Catharine...! I would have gotten flustered...you sounded great...

Ajata said...

Thanks Alice. He really pissed me off. Everyone else I spoke with was really appalled when I told them what Glenn Beck had said on air. This guy at Ford, actually had the nerve to defend it. I don't think he was anyone important, frankly, but he was answering for them as they transferred me to him when I told the first 2 people at Ford why I was calling.

Amazing.

I met someone who is working at CNN [in the Time Warner building here in NYC] right now and he said he got out of the elevator when Beck got in. He couldn't stand the guy.

Anonymous said...

Catharine said...

So... I called all of the companies that supported Glenn Beck. [see Sam's previous thread].

... I explained that was ridiculous, and that Glenn Beck is the "biased" one, he's a racist for god's sake and a bigot in every possible way.

I also explained to him that this had nothing to do with "freedom of speech", that is a false argument commonly thrown around. I talked about the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine and said if that is your idea of free speech then where is my CNN show? These are public airwaves.

... Anyone here thinking of buying a new car or truck, I hope you'll think twice about buying Ford.

May 10, 2007 12:56 AM

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

Ford has a history.

Dear sweet Glenn is something of a sap-brained closet rapturists as well.

Big surprise.

Ajata said...

I really urge everyone to at least write to Ford and the other companies at the top of the last thread. Click on the link that Sam posted. His numbers are tanking, and if those corporate sponsors were to hear from enough people, it really would make a difference.

Ajata said...

Yes you are right... Ford has a terrible history regarding the holocaust and anti-semitism. The reason a good portion of the midwest is anit-semitic is because of Ford. In addition to funding the Nazis, Ford also bought up a lot of local newpapers [remind you of Murdoch perhaps?], and through those papers spread the anti-semitic message.

Propaganda 101.

Unknown said...

Strikes in Egypt Spread from Center of Gravity

The longest and strongest wave of worker protest since the end of World War II is rolling through Egypt. In March, the liberal daily al-Masri al-Yawm estimated that no fewer than 222 sit-in strikes, work stoppages, hunger strikes and demonstrations had occurred during 2006. In the first five months of 2007, the paper has reported a new labor action nearly every day. The citizen group Egyptian Workers and Trade Union Watch documented 56 incidents during the month of April, and another 15 during the first week of May alone.[1]

From their center of gravity in the textile sector, the strikes have spread to mobilize makers of building materials, Cairo subway workers, garbage collectors, bakers, food processing workers and many others. Like almost all strikes in Egypt in the last 40 years, the latest work stoppages are “illegal” -- unauthorized by the state-sponsored General Federation of Trade Unions and its subsidiary bodies in factories and other workplaces. But unlike upsurges of working-class collective action in the 1980s and 1990s, which were confined to state-owned industries, the wave that began in late 2004 has also pushed along employees in the private sector.

http://www.merip.org/mero/mero050907.html

Unknown said...

The organized oppositional intelligentsia still has a long way to go before it establishes the necessary credibility and grassroots support to provide political leadership. The Egyptian left has long been dominated by a perspective that treated the “national question” and the “social question” as mutually exclusive arenas, even as leftists paid lip service to the organic link between the two. The result was the subjugation of the demands of labor and other social justice movements to the nationalist agenda of opposition to Western colonialism and Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians. There is a link between US domination of the Middle East in alliance with Israel and the current strike wave, which is in great measure a response to the US-sponsored neoliberal program for Egypt. But few opposition intellectuals have been able to translate their general opposition to Zionism and imperialism into concrete support for the one social movement in Egypt that has a mass base and a track record of measurable victories. Under these circumstances, the mere fact that a workers’ movement has persisted and achieved as much as it has is eloquent testimony that the struggle between labor and capital is alive and well -- and likely to intensify as the neoliberal project in Egypt advances.

+++++

Why is it that given the choice, the liberal intellectuals always choose imperialism over the workers movement?

"You don't need an emperor to make a tyranny - when property is threatened, social democrats will do the job!" (Stoppard's Herzen in Coast of Utopia)

Funny business.

Well, good night...

Anonymous said...

dada said...

Why is it that given the choice, the liberal intellectuals always choose imperialism over the workers' movement?

May 10, 2007 1:37 AM

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

Who knows?

I expect it's on account of they reckon a dishonest day's work is got the bulge over having to actually find a job.

Anonymous said...

--------------
Representative Hinchey was a former guest on The Sam Seder Show.
__________________

Media Ownership Reform Act (MORA)

The Media Ownership Reform Act seeks to restore integrity and diversity to America's media system by lowering the number of media outlets that one company is permitted to own in a single market.

The bill also reinstates the Fairness Doctrine to protect fairness and accuracy in journalism.

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

On July 14, 2005, he introduced legislation called the Media Ownership Reform Act (MORA).

This bill will restore fairness in broadcasting, reduce media concentration, ensure that broadcasters meet their public interest requirements, and promote diversity, localism, and competition in American media.



Link:

http://www.house.gov/hinchey/issues/media_ownership.shtml


Sign up for Media Ownership Issue Updates:

http://www.house.gov/hinchey/contact/email_form_signup.shtml

Anonymous said...

http://propagandamatrix.com/articles/may2007/090507Unconstitutional.htm

Unconstitutional Legislation Threatens Freedoms

Ron Paul, Prisonplanet.com
Wednesday May 09, 2007

Last week, the House of Representatives acted with disdain for the Constitution and individual liberty by passing HR 1592, a bill creating new federal programs to combat so-called “hate crimes.” The legislation defines a hate crime as an act of violence committed against an individual because of the victim’s race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. Federal hate crime laws violate the Tenth Amendment’s limitations on federal power. Hate crime laws may also violate the First Amendment guaranteed freedom of speech and religion by criminalizing speech federal bureaucrats define as “hateful.”

There is no evidence that local governments are failing to apprehend and prosecute criminals motivated by prejudice, in comparison to the apprehension and conviction rates of other crimes. Therefore, new hate crime laws will not significantly reduce crime. Instead of increasing the effectiveness of law enforcement, hate crime laws undermine equal justice under the law by requiring law enforcement and judicial system officers to give priority to investigating and prosecuting hate crimes. Of course, all decent people should condemn criminal acts motivated by prejudice. But why should an assault victim be treated by the legal system as a second-class citizen because his assailant was motivated by greed instead of hate?

Anonymous said...

http://loosechange911.blogspot.com/

A Statement From Louder Than Words and MercuryMedia.

We write to you as individuals listed by ‘Patriots Question 9/11’ and the producers of Loose Change 2 and Loose Change Final Cut with a message to fellow ‘truthers’ and interested media entities, that we will never submit to the demonic forces that seek to silence us.


Over the last few weeks a number of ‘newsworthy’ individuals and organizations connected with Loose Change and the 9/11 truth movement have been subjected to a campaign of vicious intimidation. The intimidators include presenters on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox, ‘Fair and Balanced’ News, disgraced former US House Majority leader Tom ‘Hot Tub’ Delay, Michele ‘put every Muslim in a concentration camp’ Malkin and Nick ‘Virgin, I promise you PR poison’ Rizutto.


Their targets: Mark Cuban’s 29/29 entertainment group and his NBA team the Dallas Mavericks; Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic; actor Charlie Sheen; and talk-show host Rosie O’Donnell. Their alleged crime is associating themselves or their companies with Loose Change and suggesting that people should be free to decide for themselves about 9/11 truth.


We wholeheartedly condemn the actions of the disgraceful rabble that are attacking our supporters, and put them on notice of our continued resolve to expose the biggest hoax in history.


Furthermore, we believe that in attracting the vilification of those who clearly don’t respect the 1st amendment of the US constitution means we have reached a point in our campaign from which there is no turning back. 400 leading professors, pilots, physicists, politicians, law enforcement officials, 9/11 victim’s families are all fighting for 9/11 truth. Crucially according to respected pollsters, ‘Zogby’ over 42% of the American population, now believe that there has been a cover up over 9/11. This is translating into practical problems for the US administration, which is now finding it difficult to recruit potential jurors in trials of terrorist suspects because so many ordinary people now no longer believe the official story.


We will release our new film Loose Change Final Cut on the weekend preceding September 11th 2007, with screenings planned in key cities in the United States. Where we can’t release theatrically we will release online through pay-per-view. Already distributors in the UK, Australia, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, France, Finland, Italy, and Japan are clamouring for rights to show the film in movie theatres and television stations are making bids to show the film soon after theatrical release.


To whet your appetites check out the one-minute teaser from the new film Loose Change Final Cut. The evidence we have collated for the movie has been fact-checked for accuracy by Dr. David Ray Griffin, and our message, that the official story of 9/11 cannot be true, will resonate around the world.


The attacks on our supporters in the entertainment business have only emboldened us. We know we are right, not just because of our evidence but because so much effort is going into frightening and silencing those that like us, dare to ask questions and demand answers about what really happened on that fateful day. Like Rosa Parks, Simon Wiesenthal, Winston Churchill, and Nelson Mandela, we will not veer from our course and we will not shut up. We will confront our enemies with the truth that they fear and counter the evil that they spout. This truth will shatter the illusion of the war on terror, and will expose the deceit of the incumbent American administration.


Be strong fellow ‘truthers’, the battles we have fought are just a foretaste of what is to come. We have not reached the end, not even the beginning of the end but perhaps the end of the beginning – the tipping point from which the momentum for 9/11 truth is gaining pace, sure in the knowledge that we have morality on our side. They can attack some of us, but they can’t attack all of us. They can smear us, they can intimidate us, but for each person they strike, one hundred more are there to take their place.


None of us chose 9/11 as our cause; it chose us. We didn’t want to believe the hoax of 9/11 but our heads and our hearts told us; that the official story just didn’t add up; that the laws of physics can’t lie; that 300 degree celsius fires can’t melt steel; that Building Seven, that 47 story steel and concrete edifice couldn’t just implode suddenly at 5.20PM on the afternoon of 11th September; and the BBC couldn’t have predicted and announced its implosion 20 minutes before it happened, unless forewarned.


Our movement has representatives from every country, every religion, every political strand, every income group, millions of us, all united in our conviction that the official story of 9/11 cannot be true. Our number is growing exponentially each day, as the clarity of our message gradually shines through - the fog of war promising to lift, with the dawn of the truth and a new day. We will expose the crime that was 9/11. We will prevail.

Tim Sparke, Dylan Avery, Korey Rowe, Jason Bermas

MercuryMedia Enquiries: 44 20 7221 7221
Tsparke@mercurymedia.org

Louder Than Words Enquiries: 1-607-267-4456
korey@loosechange911.com

Anonymous said...

------------
Join MoveOn Media Action -


Media Action is a new long-term campaign of MoveOn.org Civic Action empowering regular people to reform the media.

Members will have the opportunity to challenge news outlets who abandon their journalistic duty to be a vigilant watchdog for the public -- asking tough questions to those in power and getting to the bottom of stories.

And together, we'll get involved in important media policy fights such as saving NPR and PBS, stopping the FCC from allowing concentration of media power in fewer hands, and protecting our Internet freedom from companies like AT&T.

You can sign up to receive non-partisan Media Action alerts by clicking "Sign Up" below.

Link:

http://civ.moveon.org/mediaaction/join/

Anonymous said...

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

For more information on the Fairness Doctrine and media reform:

http://www.freepress.net/guide/

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2053

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

Join FAIR's e-mail list -- receive news and action alerts.

Activism resources:

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=6

Anonymous said...

http://www.savedarfur.org/page/content/divest_yourself/

http://www.sudandivestment.org/home.asp

http://www.socialinvest.org/

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