I miss you Seder! This Barber guy sucks so bad it's unbelievable. Have you been watching your favorite show The View lately?! hee hee! It's fun to hear them talk about politics and see the conservative fake blonde woman worship Bush still... It's true there is no cure for conservatism. She thinks that if a dem becomes president another September 11 attack will happen. And Rosie said Excuse me but 9/11 happened under a REPUBLICAN PRESIDENCY. Rosie has shaken up the show and showed the factual politics to the masses love her or hate her(i guess you hate her even if you've never seen the show). I dont care who tells political facts I have no snobbery. Positive change has to be in the air the insanity i think will come to a close it has to people have had enough of this administations and republicans bullshit. yet there is a good chance that a republican president would happen since they've stolen presidential elections before and since they have so much power in influencing u.s. attorneys etc etc etc. THis shit must stop immediately! can't you feel it?!
still missing the sammyshow my days just aren't the same .... in fact i've resorted to listening to old shows on the ipod just to hear sammy's voice. too bad i'm still listening to -- when will Gonzo be gonzo, and the old fav "pokin' the bear..pokin' the bear" sam come back.........
I wanted to repost this on the new thread here so people could see it tonight. Sorry about the double post. Jim, RJ said to tell you that he thinks he may run up to Portland to see a friend, before he heads back to Kent. That's the farthest north he will be this time. We will be coming west again in October Jim.
To any of you bloggers here who may remember Reefer Jello, I have a message for you.
Reefer is in Baja and he tells me he is having a surprisingly good time, even at his age.
He did want me to remind you all that tomorrow is May 4th. Kent State Day.
This is the 37th anniversary and it will be the first time that old buzzard hasn't gone back to campus to cry.
Cindy Sheehan and Tom Hayden will be speaking on campus tomorrow.
Reefer asked me to ask you take a minute tomorrow to remember the four kids that gave their lives. They weren't even protesters. They were just kids on their way to class.
Kent State Massacre Tape: 'Get Set! Point! Fire!' Survivors of the 1970 massacre at Kent State are calling on officials to reinvestigate what happened on May 4 1970 when the National Guard shot four students dead at an anti-war rally. On Tuesday, one of the survivors – Alan Canfora – released an audio tape from the day of the shootings. Canfora said by closely listening you can hear a National Guard officer issue the command "Right Here, Get Set! Point! Fire!" Following the command, the sounds of shots being fired can be heard. The FBI has never determined whether an order to shoot was given. Eight members of the National Guard were acquitted of federal civil rights charges four years after the shootings. Canfora said the reel-to-reel audio recording was made by a student on campus.
... The evil Howie Mandel and Bobby's World. It is kind of weird and annoying when he does that baby voice. Now you know why. It's because he's triggering mind-control slaves with it. ...
Now Fritz has gone over the edge...I liked that show...How will I know if I'm an undetectable mind slave though? ;)
Political assassination as a strategy against liberation movements
The use of political assassination against liberation movements has changed the course of history in a number of countries in Africa and continues to devastate the Middle East, writes Victoria Brittain. The current power relations between the Third World and the dominant Western and imperialist powers, are a product of the war of attrition which the West has waged, particularly by political assassinations, which have robbed Africa and the Middle East of some of their great leaders, and weakened their important political organisations.
Since the Tricontinental era, in terms of self-confidence and intellectual freedom, of power relations with the West, of the gap between rich and poor, of optimism for justice, the legacy of the inspired liberation movements of the nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties has been deeply disappointing. All the material indicators are worse too in Africa and the Middle East, and the situation is compounded by a brain drain that runs directly contrary to the nationalist ideals of the earlier generations.
The Arab world is neither united nor free, much of it a series of shattered societies, headed by discredited and contested elites. Nothing illustrates this better than the current situation of the US occupation and destruction of a former regional giant - Iraq. Iraq’s great history and civilisation has come to its lowest ebb as one client government, manipulated from Washington, has succeeded another, and a new generation of resistance has been born. The daily diet of suicide bombings, carried out both by Iraqis and by jihadis of other Arab nationalities, has its roots in the depoliticisation imperialism worked so hard to produce in so much of the Third World, most notably by its political assassination policy.
"Services to be rendered are of a unique, extraordinary, irreverent, intellectual, topical, controversial, and personal character." Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin thinks that makes Imus's $40 million lawsuit against CBS a bit more plausible. [CNN]
Wow mmrules..I've plum been spun out of the room...how will the truth ever be known? Tell me whose court the ball is in now...I can't keep track anymore.. :)...all this rhetoric is....umm...yeah.
Hi Mrs. Reefer, do you know if he heard about the tape that was found with the guard giving the command to fire?
I know the answer to that, Alice. R.J. knows Alan Canfora pretty well. We have known about it for some time now. Oh, there's so much that has never come out. It is so sad.
* Government Feels the Heat at National ID Town Hall
Despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provided a mere eight days notice about the one and only national town hall on REAL ID, the public made its opposition loud and clear. Nearly every speaker at the four hour event on Tuesday in Davis, CA, criticized the privacy- invasive mandate, which would force states to standardize drivers' licenses and create massive, interlinked databases of your personal information.
We need to keep up the pressure. It's not too late to voice your opposition -- get your comments to DHS before the May 8 deadline:
http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=287
DHS still hasn't gotten the message that REAL ID is fundamentally flawed. Time and again during the meeting, officials defended REAL ID by saying it was necessary for national security. But participants at the meeting weren't buying it. As one computer science Ph.D. student pointed out in his comment, REAL ID "solves the wrong problem," because IDs do nothing to stop those who haven't already been identified as threats. REAL ID also won't prevent wrongdoers from creating fake documents. As the Cato Institute's Jim Harper explained in recent testimony before Congress, a basic analysis using even very generous assumptions shows that the benefit of REAL ID doesn't even come close to the cost:
http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-jh03262007.html
And we're not just talking about the more than 23 billion dollars that states and individuals will be forced to pay. REAL ID will also cost you your privacy. Once the IDs and databases are created, their uses will inevitably expand to facilitate a wide range of surveillance activities. Private entities will be able to collect and exploit data on the cards. States will have to collect and maintain vast amounts of personally identifying information, including birth certificates, documents containing Social Security numbers, and potentially utility bills and tax records. Your private information will have to be made available to all other states as well.
Perhaps we don’t encourage levity enough at Electronic Iraq. Here, today, finally, is a little levity courtesy of the Hometown Baghdad project. In this installment, Saif does nothing but talk hubbly bubbly – or hooka. You can’t help but laugh when he says hubbly bubbly, and you get to hear him say it over and over again. Enjoy.
By the way, while I'm posting here today....I urge evry one of you to go to this cartoon from today's Cleveland Scene. It will give you some soul searching perspective.
I won't tell Reefer Jello about this cartoon because it would drive him up a wall and he's busy unwinding.
Since 1991, more than 100,000 hate crime offenses have been reported to the FBI. In 2005 alone, there were at least 1,017 crimes based on sexual orientation, yet under the current law, "the federal government is not able to help in cases where women, gay, transgender or disabled Americans are victims of bias-motivated crimes for who they are." Today, the House is voting on the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (LLEHCPA), a bipartisan bill that would enable federal officials to work with state and local officials to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. Far right-wing groups are aggressively opposing this legislation, spreading baseless myths and shrill rhetoric. The last time the House passed this legislation in Sept. 2005, 223 lawmakers supported it, including 30 Republicans. Tell Congress to support LLEHCPA again today here .
MYTH #1 -- HATE CRIMES PROTECTION IS UNNECESSARY: "There are no crimes covered by the hate crimes bill, H.R. 1592, which are not already prosecutable under existing laws," wrote the Family Research Council (FRC) in its May 1 newsletter. Former chief counsel to President Nixon, Chuck Colson, argues, "Some say we need this law to prevent attacks on homosexuals. But we already have laws against assaults on people and property." Despite the right wing's rhetoric, LLEHCPA would give the federal government much-needed new authority to assist states in going after hate crimes in all categories. Under the current federal hate crime law enacted in 1969, the federal government has the authority to investigate and prosecute "attacks based on race, color, national origin and religion and because the victim was attempting to exercise a federally protected right." LLEHCPA would give the federal government the ability to help where women, gay, transgender or disabled Americans are also the victims of bias-motivated crimes. A 2006 Harris Interactive poll found that "64 percent of gays and lesbians are concerned about being the victim of a bias-motivated crime." While the FRC and Colson are right that physical attacks can already be prosecuted, hate crimes are especially pernicious. Eighty-five percent of law enforcement officials believe "bias motivated violence to be more serious than similar crimes not motivated by bias."
MYTH #2 -- LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS DO NOT NEED MORE RESOURCES TO COMBAT HATE: Earlier in the week, the National Review published an editorial arguing, "[T]here is no evidence that local law enforcement has a special need for federal resources to help it combat hate crimes." But as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) notes, "Too many local jurisdictions lack the full resources necessary to prosecute hate crimes. For example, when Matthew Shepard was murdered in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998, the investigation and prosecution of the case cost the community of 28,000 residents about $150,000, forcing the sheriff's department to lay off five deputies in order to save money." The new legislation would allow federal officials to get involved where local law enforcement is unwilling or unable to do so. It would also make grants available to train local law officers to go after hate crimes and help combat violent crimes committed by juveniles. It is endorsed by 31 state attorneys general and leading law enforcement agencies, including the National Sheriffs' Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Additionally, hate crimes continue to be a persistent problem. As HRC president Joe Solmonese notes, "Approximately 25 hate crimes are reported each day in our country. And more simply go unreported. One in six of these crimes is motivated by the victims sexual orientation." According to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups -- such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis -- have increased 40 percent since 2000.
MYTH #3 -- BILL WOULD CRIMINALIZE FREE SPEECH: "There's a vote coming up on some insidious legislation in the United States Congress that could silence and punish Christians for their moral beliefs," said Focus on the Family founder James Dobson on his Tuesday broadcast. "That means that as a Christian -- if you read the Bible a certain way with regard to morality -- you may be guilty of committing a 'thought crime.'" The Concerned Women for America put out a statement claiming that this legislation is meant to "grant official government recognition to both homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors, and to silence opposition to those behaviors." Colson wrote that "pastors who preach sermons giving the biblical view of homosexuality could be prosecuted." None of these statements are true. LLEHCPA goes after criminal action, like physical assaults, not name-calling or verbal abuse. The bill clearly states that "evidence of expression or associations of the defendant may not be introduced as substantive evidence at trial, unless the evidence specifically relates to that offense."
MYTH #4 -- BILL IS OPPOSED BY ALL RELIGIOUS GROUPS: Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition, recently said, "Liberal and homosexual extremists want to silence people of faith whose religious beliefs condemn homosexual behavior. This bill effectively adds a footnoted exception to the First Amendment of the Constitution -- 'none of these protections apply to Christians or other people of faith.'" But the bill before the House today ensures that all Americans are protected against hate crimes. Sheldon and other members of the radical right are in the minority. "According to a new poll conducted by Hart Research, large majorities of every major subgroup of the electorate -- including such traditionally conservative groups as Republican men (56 percent) and evangelical Christians (63 percent) -- express support for strengthening hate crimes laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity." In mid-April, more than "230 religious leaders representing congregations from every state in the union gathered on Capitol Hill to talk with lawmakers" about hate violence. Additionally, more than 210 law enforcement, civil rights, civic and religious organizations -- including the Presbyterian Church, Parents Network on Disabilities, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- support the passage of LLEHCPA.
Wow mmrules..I've plum been spun out of the room...how will the truth ever be known? Tell me whose court the ball is in now...I can't keep track anymore.. :)...all this rhetoric is....umm...yeah.
?
But I did sigh up for The About Book Mooch.Books wil set you free :)
As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus, says Arabs and Muslims in the United States are far from being united and are in a state of disagreement over many issues.
"Just as the Turkish lobby acts on behalf of one Turkish government, the Arab or Muslim lobbies can't mirror a single agenda that represents the interests of all Arab or Muslim governments," AbuKhalil says.
"Arab and Muslim governments often conspire against one another, and their rivalries, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, were mirrored in the competition and rivalries between Arab and Muslim organizations in the United States," he adds.
The deep divisions in the Arab world (along sectarian and ethnic lines) only impair the effectiveness of those groups. "In the case of the Arab and Muslim lobbies, there is a plethora of often competing groups and organizations, which do not seem to adhere to the same agenda," AbuKhalil remarks.
In late October 2001, former US ambassador to Egypt and Israel Edward Walker urged Arab governments to set up measures to counter Israel's influence in America's policy-making.
"But you, the Arabs, can no longer afford to just ignore Washington. Arab governments and institutions should start considering how to affect public opinion in the US," he told a political discussion forum hosted by the University of Jordan.
However, 5 years later, Walker's advice may have fallen on deaf ears.
What scant lobbying there is usually depends on the behest of individual Muslim governments.
"One can say that there never was a serious attempt to create an Arab or Muslim lobby, and that whatever organizations that exist today under that umbrella of a name have only succeeded in effectively representing the interests of ruling Arab dynasties," AbuKhalil says of Saudi Arabian initiatives to influence US foreign policy regarding the Kingdom.
"But those dynasties don't even rely on those loyal groups and organizations when they wish to advance a particular issue: Instead, they hire 'purely' American public relations and lobbying firms in order not to allow the Arab or Muslim stigma to hurt their lobbying efforts."
May 3, 2007 -- There is more interest in what kind of off-the-wall questions debate moderator Chris Matthews will ask the ten Republican candidates tonight during their debate at the Reagan Presidential Library. Texas Republican Representative Ron Paul may be the big surprise tonight. As a Libertarian, Paul may land some body blows on his rivals over the Bush administration's repeated violations of the Constitution.
Who is Basima Lu’ay Hassun al-Jadiri? According to Az-Zaman, this hitherto little-known adviser to al-Maliki holds the strings of power in the Iraqi state, and is responsible for much of the current ills in the country.
The name of al-Jadiri first appeared in a Washington Post story on Sunday; claiming that an office in al-Maliki's administration (under the direction of al-Jadiri) has been involved in the purging of “patriotic” Iraqi officers and their replacement with subservient ones who do not oppose al-Maliki’s “pro-Shi'a” agenda.
Az-Zaman, like much of the Arab media, picked up on the story, and devoted its front page today to discussing the Post revelations and the mysterious role of Basima Hassun. According to the newspaper, Iraqi parliamentarians are calling for a investigation to clarify the role and influence of the “iron lady” –- as az-Zaman called al-Jadiri -- “who makes the Iraqi military leadership tremble . . . after she executed a campaign to arrest and purge a group of high-ranking Iraqi officers.”
May 3, 2007 -- Refusing to be drawn into the hype over the GOP presidential debate tonight, this editor will be attending Greg Palast's speech tonight at 7:00 PM at the New York Ave. Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, a gathering that is sure to bring together a number of members of the Washington area's progressive community.
May 3, 2007 -- French Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal dealt right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy a series of tough political attacks in last night's televised debate. Royal accused Sarkozy of being immoral in his policies toward the weakest members of French society, particularly handicapped school children. Royal said Sarkozy wants to dismantle France's public education system. As a further indication that Sarkozy's neo-con media friends, especially those at Le Figaro, are skewing the opinion polls, Sarkozy is still running ahead of Royal although a clear majority of centrist candidate Francois Bayrou's supporters are favoring Royal in the May 6 run-off and far right-wing candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen has urged his supporters to abstain in the run-off. Bayrou said that he will not vote for Sarkozy. The real political math of French Left + majority of Bayrou supporters and majority abstentions by Le Pean supporters equals no significant net gain for Sarkozy in the second round and should reflect a sizeable jump in the numbers for Royal. As with the U.S. and Mexican presidential elections, the polls are being artificially fixed to reflect the upcoming skewed exit polls, a major component of the neo-cons' main contrivance to maintain political control -- "election engineering."
May 3, 2007 -- Locals say no to Blackwater USA. Residents of Illinois and southern California are up in arms over the setting up of private mercenary firm Blackwater operations in their home towns. Mount Carroll, Illinois residents are steamed that Blackwater has set up shop in their town and the story is receiving attention from Chicago's Channel 7 ABC affiliate. Local residents are upset that county officials never held public gearings on the establishment of "Blackwater North."
Blackwater also plans to set up a military training center, called "Blackwater West," in Potrero, a small town 45 miles to the east of San Diego. More than half of the registered voters of Potrero signed a petition opposing Blackwater's plans and the county planning commission's preliminary approval for the Blackwater facility. Blackwater pressured local officials to use local police and sheriffs to intimidate protestors attending a county planning commission meeting on the project. Democratic US Representative Bob Filner is looking for ways to block the project.
Blackwater is headquartered in Moyock, North Carolina on an expansive former military base. Blackwater is owned by the Prince Group, headed by Erik Prince, whose sister is married to former Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate and Amway heir Dick DeVos. Blackwater and Prince Group are a bevy of Christian right wingers, including General Counsel Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon Inspector General and the son of the late racist GOP and John Birch Society congressman John Schmitz, Sr. and brother of convicted Washington state school teacher pedophile Mary Kay Letourneau. Joseph Schmitz's brother, John Schmitz, Jr. is married to the sister of Columba Bush, the wife of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Gary Jackson, Blackwater's president, steered Blackwater campaign contributions to three GOP congressmen who have been embroiled in major ethical scandals: former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, former House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, and former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis.
Blackwater and Prince Group are a bevy of Christian right wingers, including General Counsel Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon Inspector General and the son of the late racist GOP and John Birch Society congressman John Schmitz, Sr. and brother of convicted Washington state school teacher pedophile Mary Kay Letourneau!!!!!
***
What's up with that??!!
Makes you wonder what might have been going on in that weird "Christian" family.
May 2, 2007 -- Cheney the brains behind the boy king? Not quite. There is something that George Tenet forgot to put in his book. During one CIA briefing for Vice President Dick Cheney on suicide bombings in Iraq just after the U.S. occupation, Cheney was confused as to the reason why people would blow themselves up with bombs. According to our Langley sources, the CIA briefer went into an explanation of Islamic extremists who believe that martyrdom in a Jihad instantly puts them into an exalted status in an after-life paradise. Cheney, however, was having nothing of it. He repeatedly insisted that the suicide bombers in Iraq must be "on drugs" or "hypnotized." The CIA briefer got the impression that Cheney did not believe there was any significant religious angle to the violence in Iraq.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
********
I always said that these people are absolute dopes. They're just maniacally determined. That's all. Not smart. Neither is Rove.
The car bomb was invented in the US and was used to devastating effect by Mario Buda, an anarchist who exploded his horse-drawn wagon on Wall Street in 1920, thus prompting the title to Buda’s Wagon, a new book by often controversial and politically radical Mike Davis. Buda was the first car bomber, his progeny are many.
The Zionist Stern Gang used car bombs in the late 1940’s to blow up buildings in Palestine in an attempt to drive out the British and terrorize Palestinians. The Irgun and Haganah, underground Zionist groups labeled as terrorists by the British, quickly followed suit. The use of car bombs by Zionists represented a major step forward both in the lethality of the bombs and their use as political weapons.
However, Palestinians and Arabs soon learned the technology and responded with the same, prompting one of the founders of Israel, Ben-Gurion, to say after the bombing of a Haganah headquarters, “I couldn’t forget that ‘our’ thugs and murderers had blazed this trail.”
Davis makes it clear that car bombs, while sometimes achieving short-term gains, generally lead to increased violence from the the other side (or sides) thus creating ever more mayhem and dead innocents. Using Iraq as an example, some car bombs are aimed at US forces, others are specifically used to create Sunni-Shia divisions. Islamic hardliners use car bombs to reinforce sectarian divisions because they do not want nationalism to occur because that would mean they’d then have no power base. Doubtless many other players there don’t want nationalism either.
Davis closes by saying "All sides, moreover, now play by Old Testament rules and every laser-guided missile falling on an apartment house in southern Beirut or a mud-walled compound in Kandahar is a future suicide truck bomb headed for the center of Tel Aviv or perhaps downtown Los Angeles. Buda’s wagon truly has become the hot rod of the apocalypse."
Former Deputy Attorney General Comey Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee Yet Another Former DoJ Official Revealed to Have Nothing to Do with the U.S. Attorney Firings
(AP) - SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico-Lawyers envision more suicides and despair at Guantanamo Bay if the U.S. Justice Department succeeds in severely restricting access to detainees by defense attorneys, virtually the only contact inmates have with the outside world.
I think the two-state solution is gone and apartheid is at the door. I do not see any way that "finessing" will liberate enough qualitative land for a viable Palestinian state to emerge. But if we are stuck with it for the meantime, I would then contend that three absolutely indispensable criteria have to be met to give any two-state solution at least a shot at success: (1) the Palestinians must obtain Gaza, 85-90% of the West Bank in a coherent form (including its water resources) and an extra-territorial land connection between them; (2) they must have unsupervised borders with Arab States (the Jordan Valley and the Rafah crossing in Gaza), plus unrestricted sea- and airports; and (3) a shared Jerusalem must be an integral part of a Palestinian state with free and unrestricted access.
I fear that the Livni-Rice plan falls far short of this. I don't doubt Livni's sincerity (something unusual for me to say about any politician, let alone one from Likud-Kadima), but I fear she, like almost all Israelis who seek peace, minimize what the Palestinians can accept beyond what they are capable of. And when they don't accept, they are, of course, to blame. Thus Livni herself has said tellingly: "Abbas is not a partner for a final-status agreement, but he could be a partner for other arrangements, on the basis of the road map's phased process."
Can Livni pull it off? It all depends on her sincerity, her ability to maneuver an extremely right-wing Olmert government onto a path of true peace or, failing that, to get elected Prime Minister on her own and then establish a government that could take the momentous decisions a true and just peace with the Palestinians would require. A pretty tall order, but keep Tzipi Livni, not a name most people recognize today, in mind.
The inspector general who uncovered cases of waste, fraud and abuse in the U.S.-led reconstruction effort in Iraq is under investigation by a presidential panel, according to the White House.WaPo.
"strategery" in vetoing the appropriations bill with timelines for withdrawal Bush declares, "It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather their strength -- and begin plotting how to overthrow the government and take control of the country of Iraq...". Now since he's so SURE about what exactly will happen in the future and he knows exactly what the enemy will do wouldn't that also mean he(or his generals) could develop a strategy based upon what they KNOW the enemy will do and prevent such an occurence i mean isn't that how you bait the enemy? by taking an action upon which the enemy's response is known ahead of time?- wouldn't that be basic "strategery? That seems to be a common thread among all rightwingers they seem to KNOW exactly what the enemy will do, yet they cannot seem to make any progress in their war
Before Democrats can begin to reverse a generation of laissez-faire policy dominance that has put corporations and CEOs ahead of working families, they must debunk Rubinomics, which makes the budget deficit the central focus of economic policy. This focus rests on faulty economics and stands to lock Democrats into confused policy messaging and a path of fiscal austerity that leaves no room for spending on infrastructure, alternative energy or education, among other needs.
"It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather their strength -- and begin plotting how to overthrow the government and take control of the country of Iraq..."
I say that sounds like the perfect scenario for the Iraqi's to then "stand up" if you will, In fact isn't that the stated endgame of the war of this administration that we can leave, or "stand down" once the iraqi's "stand up" what better time for them to stand up?
3 WITCHES played by Condoleeze Rice, Hillary Clinton, Ann Coulter
FIRE HYDRANT played by Alberto Gonzalez
2 ROTTWEILERS played by themselves
ATTENDANTS played by Senators, media pundits and various sycophants
ACT 1 Scene 1: Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.
Condoleeza: When shall we three meet again?
Hillary: When the hurlyburly’s done. When the battle’s lost and won.
Coulter: Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Enter McBush and Pax.
McBush: So foul and fair a day I have not seen!
Pax: (Noticing the Witches--) What are these, so withered and so wild in their attire, That look not like the inhabitants of the earth? You should be women, and yet your beards Forbid me to interpret that you are.
Coulter: All hail McBush, that shalt be Prez hereafter! ...
I'm going to sign up or that book thing too, mmrules... sounds cool & I do have quit a few duplicates, with others I could live without...I'm running out of shelves...
"It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather their strength -- and begin plotting how to overthrow the government and take control of the country of Iraq..."
I say that sounds like the perfect scenario for the Iraqi's to then "stand up" if you will, In fact isn't that the stated endgame of the war of this administration that we can leave, or "stand down" once the iraqi's "stand up" what better time for them to stand up?
Sorry,can't "stand up"right now..Were on Vacation!
War Dog said... ++++ Question for Jello, he says he was there.. ++++ Who was burning down buildings and what did they think they were going to accomplish..??? IF they had peaceful protests there would have been no armed Guardsmen on campus.. It's always the innocent that have to pay for the assholes who cause trouble.. Just like in LA the other day..!!!! ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------- Some would say that it is always the assholes with guns who cause the trouble, but enough with the facts. I came here to discuss simpletons.
A simpleton is uncomplicated, never well-read and prone to platitudes.
A simpleton spends a lot of time smiling because, well, because that's what idiots do. They will smile while standing in the middle of a busy street. Their smiling is not an indicator of their well-being or cognizance of their surroundings.
A simpleton will say really stupid and indefensible stuff like, "War protesters forced the National Guard to shoot students."
That's what makes them simpletons. They are really, really stupid. --- For those of you who are reading this and who are not also simpletons, the ROTC building that was torched at Kent State was scheduled for demolition.
But the fact that it was scheduled for demolition isn't the important fact that exposes the War Dog simpleton as a simpleton.
The boarded-up ROTC building was torched TWO DAYS before the students were shot by National Guardsmen.
If you want to know about the first few days in May of 1970, Google "Kent State killings" or "Kent State massacre", read what you find and decide for yourself.
My bet is that you will conclude that War Dog is a simpleton who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.
No one knows who torched the ROTC building on May 2, 1970. For that matter, no one knows who threw bottles in a drunken melee on May 1, 1970.
Everyone knows that the National Guard shot unarmed students on May 4, 1970.
The National Guard should not have been on campus at all. It was a knee-jerk reaction by the Governor in response to drunk-and-disorderliness on the night of May 1. There has never been a connection made between war protest and drunks throwing bottles on May 1.
The reason for the war protest was Nixon's incursion into Cambodia. There were protests all across America.
Using War Dog's non-existent logic, there should have been shootings all across America, too.
"When fireman arrived students threw rocks at them, slashed their hoses with machetes, took away hoses and turned them on the firefighters. The police finally stopped the riot with tear gas. The National Guard was called in by the governor on May 2 and student rioters pelted them with rocks, doused trees with gasoline, and set them afire. Students attempted to march into town on May 3 but were stopped by the National Guard, the Kent city police department, the Ohio highway patrol, and the county sheriff's department. The protesters shouted obscenities and threw rocks
The Guard, consisting of a hundred men surrounded by rioters shouting obscenities and chanting "Kill, kill, kill," were under a constant barrage of rocks, chunks of concrete and cinderblock, and canisters. Fifty-eight Guardsmen were injured by thrown objects
A professor who watched the arson later told the Scranton commission, which investigated the shooting and the events leading up to it, 'I have never in my 17 years of teaching seen a group of students as threatening, or as arrogant, or a bent on destruction.'
You are asking the wrong guy. I agonize forever over this kinda stuff. It is impossible for me to make a pronouncement after spending ten minutes looking it over.
However, the basic info indicates what you already know. It's trading right in the middle of its 52 week spread (I would look into why this is? I mean, why isn't it at its high or at its low?). It could be that it isn't particularly volatile (beta?).
The dividend is good. It is difficult to go wrong with a long-term hold that pays 7.4%.
I would (probably will) look further into the years-long history of the stock...to see how stable it has been for how long, who owns big blocks of shares, etc.
Fat, safe, steady dividends are not easy to find. I own PVX for that reason...but just when I thought that it was safe to go back into the water, the Canadian finance minister decided to fuck up a good thing...which may or may not be favorably resolved.
I never should have mentioned this to the kid but now he keeps asking me when the airplane stuff is coming.....Sorry to bug you..but were you still intending to send it?
Matthews: "Who would win a street fight ... Rudy Giuliani or President Ahmadinejad"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200705030007
On the May 2 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked Mike DuHaime, campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani: "Who would win a street fight ... Rudy Giuliani or [Iranian] President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, who would win that fight?" Matthews said that the fight would take place "over in Queens somewhere ... a dark night, it's about 2 in the morning. Two guys are out behind the building, right?" DuHaime responded, "I am putting my money on Rudy on that one." Matthews added, "If [Giuliani] wins that notion, he is the next president."
Although this assertion was conditional upon Giuliani "win[ing] that notion," Matthews has previously touted the viability of Giuliani's candidacy without equivocation. On the July 18, 2006, edition of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Matthews predicted that "the next president of the United States will be Rudy Giuliani."
Throughout the interview, Matthews left unchallenged various claims by DuHaime that Giuliani has a "tremendous
May 2, 2007 -- On March 30, 2007, WMR opined the following about the annual media-White House "love in" dinners: "This editor is never found anywhere near the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner, held Wednesday night at Washington's "Hinckley Hilton," or the White House Correspondents Association dinner. These are yearly fetes where supposed independent members of the Fourth Estate drink, eat, and swap jokes with members of the administration. Socializing with such rogues and cheats clouds the judgment of journalists who are supposed to be looking out for the public's interest."
WMR welcomes the New York Times to the ranks of those of us in the press who abhor the annual media coddling of White House luminaries and Cabinet officers. Last Sunday, Times' columnist Frank Rich wrote in his column that the White House Correspondents' Dinner "illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows."
You won't miss the rubber-like banquet food at the Hinckley Hilton, Frank. As a matter of fact, during next year's navel gazing White House Correspondents Dinner, I'll buy you a hamburger at Five Guys. The food is better and there is no George W. Bush or Karl Rove to spoil the meal.
Fineman: ‘A Lot Of Voters’ Find ‘Hierarchical’ ‘Male’ Qualities In Politicians ‘Reassuring’ » Tonight, prior to the first Republican presidential debate, MSNBC showed footage of all 10 participating candidates holding a “regal,” coronation-esque walk-through of the Reagan Library, where the debate is being held.
Commenting on the candidates, Fineman said, “There is a hierarchical, there is, dare I say it, male, there’s an old-line quality to them that some voters, indeed a lot of voters, find reassuring.” Watch it:
Maybe Fineman is projecting. A CBS News/New York Times poll last year found that 92 percent of Americans would vote for a qualified woman for president.
May 2, 2007 -- Neo-cons and "smear campaigns." Although neo-cons have no problem smearing their opponents, they have real problems when they believe they are being "smeared." Scandal-plagued World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz claims he and his gal pal are victims of a smear campaign. It does not matter that Wolfowitz has engaged in unethical practices as World Bank President. Now Arizona Republican Representative Rick Renzi, under an FBI investigation for dubious land deals, claims he is the victim of a Justice Department "smear campaign." Former Florida Republic Representative Mark Foley claimed that the release of salacious e-mails he sent to underage male congressional pages was part of a "smear campaign" by his political opponent. Katherine Harris, the former Florida Secretary of State and Congresswoman claims to have been the victim of a Democratic "smear campaign." Arch neo-con Richard Perle consistently uses the term "vicious smear campaign" when his name pops up in some negative regard. Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, wanted by Moscow for fraud, claims he is the victim of a Kremlin-orchestrated "smear campaign."
The same right-wing mind sets that have brought this country political witch hunts, purges, and "swift boating" now claim to be the victims of "smear campaigns." File that in the irony category.
Bush and the Generals Michael C. Desch From Foreign Affairs
It is no secret that the relationship between the U.S. military and civilians in the Bush administration has deteriorated markedly since the start of the Iraq war. In 2006, according to a Military Times poll, almost 60 percent of servicemen and servicewomen did not believe that civilians in the Pentagon had their "best interests at heart."
Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold, former JCS director of operations, wrote, in a searing piece in Time, that it was his "sincere view ... that the commitment of [U.S.] forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions -- or bury the results."
In the fall of 2006, the White House and influential hawks outside of the administration finally conceded that the United States did not have the troop strength to secure contested areas in Iraq. But by then, senior U.S. military commanders in Iraq had come to believe that U.S. forces were part of the problem, rather than the solution, as the insurgency had morphed into an interconfessional civil war. So instead of asking for more troops, as they did in the run-up to the war, many senior commanders in Iraq began to argue that the United States needed to lower its profile and reduce its footprint. Less than 40 percent of troops supported an increase in force levels, the Military Times found. General John Abizaid, the current head of Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in November that he did "not believe that more American troops right now is the solution to the problem" in Iraq. In response to prodding from Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), Abizaid explained that he had "met with every division commander, General [George] Casey, the corps commander, General [Martin] Dempsey [head of the Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq]. ... And I said, 'In your professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq?' And they all said no."
Anti-war planes buzz debate. “Two planes are circling the sky above the GOP presidential candidates’ debate tonight, dragging anti-war banners.” Funded and organized by Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, the small aircraft have banner’s reading “Mission Accomplished.”
The same right-wing mind sets that have brought this country political witch hunts, purges, and "swift boating" now claim to be the victims of "smear campaigns." File that in the irony category.
Conservatives Are Cracking On Iraq » President Bush has emerged from the recent veto battle more politically isolated on Iraq than ever.
Despite spending weeks using his bully pulpit to blister war critics with rhetoric about “abandoning troops” and “timetables for retreat,” public opinion has shifted further away from his position, and conservatives in Congress are breaking ranks.
This is a major success. A key to bringing an end to this war is for Bush’s supporters to finally demand a change. We’re getting closer every day:
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME):
“Obviously, the president would prefer a straight funding bill with no benchmarks, no conditions, no reports,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). “Many of us, on both sides of the aisle, don’t see that as viable.” [LA Times, 5/3/07]
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-WA)
A likely sticking point is whether to include penalties if the Iraqi government fails to meet the benchmarks. Democrats, and some Republicans such as Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, insist that there be consequences for falling short, such as a loss of U.S. financial support or the withdrawal of some coalition forces.
“We can’t be there in an open-ended fashion,” Snowe said. “We have to say: how long does it really take to pass the benchmarks?” [Bloomberg, 5/2/07]
Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE):
Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.), a leading moderate, said many Republicans are looking for a way out of Iraq, and he hopes that the Democrats will work with them after Bush likely vetoes the $124 billion war supplemental this week. “I think a lot of us feel that the time has come for us to look for solutions to bring this war to a close,” Castle said. “And I don’t think that’s just a feeling among moderate Republicans but among Republicans in general.” Castle said Republicans of all stripes “are very reluctant to put in dates on our Army” but said that other ideas, including Blunt’s talk of a “consequences package” for the Iraqi government, could bring the parties together. [Roll Call, 4/30/07]
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN):
“I think we’re still in a fairly toxic political environment,” said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who opposed the president’s troop buildup but voted against the Democratic withdrawal plan. “And I think it will continue like this for a while. That’s the reality.” [LA Times, 5/3/07] expand post »
Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC):
But a new dynamic also is at work, with some Republicans now saying that funding further military operations in Iraq with no strings attached does not make practical or political sense. Rep. Bob Inglis (S.C.), a conservative who opposed the first funding bill, said, “The hallway talk is very different from the podium talk.” [Washington Post, 5/3/07]
Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA)
“We have to be engaged developing our own proposals and not just going along with what the executive branch is doing,” said Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., a Louisiana Republican who voted against the Democratic plan to force Bush to start withdrawing troops. [LA Times, 5/3/07]
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA):
Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican who has supported Bush’s war strategy even as the public has turned against it, said, “The marketplace has become ripe for a new idea.” [LA Times, 5/3/07]
May 2, 2007 -- Homeland Security Gauleiter Michael Chertoff says he wants British citizens of Pakistani origin to apply for a visa before they visit the United States. Currently, all British citizens are covered by a visa waiver program to visit the United States. Perhaps Mr. Chertoff might consider having British Pakistanis wear a sewn yellow crescent on their outer garments to make them more identifiable. Chertoff should also consider what constitutes a "British Pakistani." If a British citizen has one Pakistani grandfather, does that mean that he or she is a "Pakistani?" Perhaps Chertoff should create a British "racial purity" scheme to determine what makes one a Pakistani under US law. Do Punjabis, Baluchis, Sindhis, Baltis, Kashmiris, and Pashtuns all qualify equally under Chertoff's "British Pakistani" racial laws? When a British Pakistani receives a US visa perhaps it would be a good idea if Mr. Chertoff orders the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement tattoo their US visa number on his or her arm to make them more trackable. Oh, one more thing Mr. Chertoff. How many Pakistani hijackers were aboard the four passenger planes commandeered on 9/11?
May 1, 2007 -- The DC Madam's client list has official Washington on pins and needles. There is much speculation about the identities of the clients of Deborah Palfrey's Pamela Martin & Associates escort service now said to include a White House economist, the head of a neo-con think tank, Pentagon officials, a corporate CEO, and at least one member of the House of Representatives. Reports that some clients enjoyed "spanking" from the house calling masseuses will certainly increase the scandal factor ten-fold.
May 1, 2007 -- Former Pennsylvania GOP legislator Jeffrey Habay was sentenced yesterday by a state judge to four to eight months in prison to be followed by 14 months of house arrest and two years of probation. Habay was convicted of 21 criminal counts, including the theft of services for using legislative staffers to conduct opposition research against his political opponents. Habay was also convicted of using his staff to perform campaign activities. Habay's crimes are no different from what Karl Rove has done with White House staff, US Attorneys, and political appointees in federal departments and agencies. The difference is that Rove, unlike Habay, has President Bush protecting him at every turn.
May 1, 2007 -- George Tenet wants everyone to know he was acting honorably as CIA Director when he told George W. Bush the case for war against Iraq would be a "slam dunk." Tenet claims he did not actually say "slam dunk" in the context of ginning up a pretext for war. What is a slam dunk is that when Tenet put together a "Worldwide Attack Matrix" after 9/11 that called for the assassination of individuals without regard to their status, he was violating Executive Order 12333 of Dec. 4, 1981, which amended Executive Order No. 12036 of January 24, 1978. The orders were enacted to prohibit the assassination of foreign leaders, especially in the wake of CIA involvement in the assassinations of leaders in Chile, Congo (Kinshasa), and other countries and repeated attempted assassinations of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
May 1, 2007 -- WMR has learned that the Iron Mountain storage facility in Pennsylvania does store election software for the Ohio Secretary of State. Iron Mountain is an Escrow Agent for the Secretary of State's source code for Diebold and ES&S voting machines. The Congress is looking for a number of deleted e-mails between the Republican National Committee, the White House, and Justice Department concerning the firing of a number of US Attorneys for political reasons. Smartechcorp, a Chattanooga web hosting service with close links to the GOP, was discovered to be the hosting service for the Republican National Committee, the Bush-Cheney 04 campaign, and the Ohio Secretary of State's election night live results "Dashboard."
April 30, 2007 -- A TALE OF TWO TRIALS: INFLUENCE PEDDLING, JUDGE SHOPPING, AND DIRTY PROSECUTORS
On May 2, US Federal Judge Peter Messitte will again take up the case of Ken Ford’s request for access to government documents, including trial transcripts, in order to facilitate his appeal for conviction of possessing classified National Security Agency documents at his Waldorf, Maryland home. The government, through US Attorney for Southern Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and the original prosecuting attorney, Assistant US Attorney for Southern Maryland David Salem, is arguing that release of the transcripts contain classified information and, therefore, must be withheld under the provisions of the Classified Information Procedures Act.
Ford was set up in a clumsy Justice Department, FBI, and NSA Security Division operation to punish him for his May 2003 signals intelligence (SIGINT) analysis report that concluded, based on intercepts of Iraqi communications, there was no truth to the Bush administration’s claim that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Ford’s report, with his name and that of his supervisor on it, ended up on Vice President Dick Cheney’s desk. From that time on, Ford was a marked man for the neo-con cabal operating within the White House, Justice Department, Pentagon, and US Intelligence Community senior staff.
New HHS deputy secretary is Bush’s former debate prepper. Tevi David Troy’s main qualifications: “Troy had primary responsibility for debate preparation in President Bush’s re-election campaign. He also has served as the president’s liaison to the Jewish community. He began working in the Bush administration at the Labor Department.” He has also written for National Review and the Weekly Standard.
VA officials receive five-figure bonuses. “Months after a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall that put veterans’ health care in peril, Veterans Affairs officials involved in the foul-up got hefty bonuses ranging up to $33,000.” In total, the VA dealt out “more than $3.8 million in payments by a financially strapped agency straining to help care for thousands of injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.”
NYT chooses pre-war skeptic as public editor. Clark Hoyt, who was the Washington editor at Knight Ridder through 2006, will become the New York Times’s third public editor. In an “unusual step,” New York Times executive editor Bill Keller noted to his staff that Hoyt “presided over a body of aggressive reporting in the run up to the war in Iraq — journalism that has been widely praised for sometimes being more skeptical about the pre-war intelligence than bigger news organizations, including our own.”
Former Deputy AG Comey: None of the fired U.S. Attorneys should have been let go for performance-based reasons:
SANCHEZ: OK, but in your view and to the best of your knowledge were there valid performance-based reasons to terminate any of these six US Attorneys?
COMEY: Not in my experience with them.
Watch it:
UPDATE: Comey adds that “he had ‘heard rumors‘ that Justice Department White House Liaison Monica Goodling was using political criteria in making personnel decisions among non-political, career staff.” The Justice Department has launched an investigation to Goodling, alleging that she potentially violated federal law.
UPDATE II: Comey disparaged Kyle Sampson’s desire for “loyal Bushies,” saying “that the DoJ had to be ’seen as the good guys — not as this administration or that administration.’”
UPDATE III: Comey rips Patrick Fitzgerald?
Asked about his reaction to a now-infamous listing of U.S. attorneys in which Fitzgerald was ranked mediocre, Comey replied: “I’ve never thought much of him.”
One beat…two beats…Comey grinned and said, “No, I’m just kidding.”
Acknowledging that Fitzgerald is a close friend, Comey described the Chicago prosecutor as “one of the finest federal prosecutors there is…maybe has ever been.”
U.S. military: Masri not dead. U.S. military spokesperson Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has not been killed. On Tuesday — the anniversary of Mission Accomplished — speculation spread that Masri had been killed. Instead, the military announced the death of a separate al-Qaeda in Iraq leader who helped orchestrate the kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll. After checking extensively, U.S. officials said they have no indication that other high-profile targets have been killed in recent days.
Chris Matthews is such an ass; totally out of his element in this format. He STILL interrupts everyone. Although given the lameness of this 'debate' I'll let it slide this time.
I'm going to drive over to Kent State tomorrow to see Cindy Sheehan and Tom Hayden and go to the spots where the students were assassinated by the Guard.
Post bungles report on Iraq negotiations. The Washington Post reports today that House and Senate leaders have made “the first major concession” in the Iraq debate: “an agreement to drop their demand for a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq.” It turns out the report is false.
Bush threatens hate crimes veto. “The White House issued a veto threat Thursday against legislation that would expand federal hate crime law to include attacks motivated by the victims’ gender or sexual orientation. The hate crimes bill, with strong Democratic backing, is expected to pass the House Thursday. Similar legislation is moving through the Senate.”
House passes hate crimes bill. By a vote of 237-180, the House approved the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill that would enable federal officials to work with state and local officials to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. Twenty-five Republicans joined to pass the legislation. (Read more about the legislation in today’s Progress Report.)
UPDATE: ACLU has more.
UPDATE II: Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), the only one of two openly gay members of Congress, announces the passage:
I've just been reading over a lot of the web sites about the Kent State Massacre. It must have been scary to have been there that day. I can see why it freaded r. jello out so bad. I will be there tomorrow.
WD, "That is Typical Left Wing Crazy Talk...I am pointing the finger at the first person in the chain of events... The FIRST illegal ACTION.." May 3, 2007 7:53 PM --------- The FIRST illegal ACTION was the bombing of Cambodia by Nixon.
(This is like shooting a simpleton fish in a barrel.) --------------------------------- WD, "Same thing as Kent State..Who is it who is killing hundreds of innocents a day..?? The Terrorists..!!!!! May 3, 2007 8:07 PM --------- Total number of suicide bombings in Iraq prior to the invasion by the U.S. = Zero.
(This "cause and effect" stuff is too tricky for a simpleton to grasp.)
I was recently debating on a forum, and the Conservatives were trying to say that the soldiers who murdered those kids at Kent state were "in the right"
And on top of that. The savage beating of Rodney King was completely justified as well!
Something scary is or has been happening with our right wingers in this Country.
I think you point the dangerous ones out. I would reckon they would still be your Bush supporters.
I really get scared when I start to think about that mentality. :/
as seen on tv said... I've just been reading over a lot of the web sites about the Kent State Massacre. It must have been scary to have been there that day. I can see why it freaded r. jello out so bad. I will be there tomorrow.
May 3, 2007 8:41 PM
I remember that day well. I was with friend watching it on TV and we were all sitting there in disbelief and crying.
I also remember a day in Chicago that was similar to what happened to the immigrants on May day. Maybe a little worse. I wasn't there that day but I almost went to the protest. Some of my friends were clubbed by the police and dragged away by an arm, or their hair.
I never thought I'd see a replay of those days and we are getting close. Too much to take twice in one lifetime.
Those kids at Kent were only a couple of hundred feet from those gas mask wearing soldiers when they opened fire. I would have shit my pants right on the spot. I wonder if reefer crapped his pants?
McCain speaking... Chris Matthews cuts him off [as he is prone to do as he feels it] ... McCain finally says something... "I thought I had a yellow light, Chris" [Chris still talking] Chris doesn't care... keeps talking....
Ya know, we do celebrate faith in this country, all faiths... and even gay people have faith. I know it's hard to wrap your teeny, narrow-minded neanderthal brains around, guys, but it's true! Sheesh.
In her most dramatic statement on the Iraq war since officially entering the 2008 presidential race, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) called for ending the 2002 authorization resolution for the war.
Clinton joined with Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), a leading war opponent, in offering a proposal to "sunset" the 2002 use-of-force resolution by Oct. 11, 2007, the fifth anniversary of the Senate vote allowing President Bush to take military action against Saddam Hussein. Under the Byrd-Clinton plan, Bush would then have to return to Congress to seek new authority to conduct the war.
Clinton supported the 2002 resolution but has now turned against the war. Byrd was a vocal opponent of the war then and remains so to this day.
"The American people have called for change, the facts on the ground demand change, the Congress has passed legislation to require change," Clinton said on the Senate floor today. "It is time to sunset the authorization for the war in Iraq. If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him."
Charlie...what is up with the thing about so many Repubs being very closeted gays, like David Drier, while being so monstrously homophobic at the same time?
dada said... War Dog, I want you to think about this... You're defending the killing of unarmed college students. May 3, 2007 7:31 PM --------------------------------- It's the Limbaugh syndrome. I have learned to hear the news on one day and predict Limbaugh's and his dittoheads' response on the next.
Example: Pelosi speaks with Syria. Dittohead response: Traitorous! Unpatriotic! Surrender monkeys! Eventuality: Rice speaks with Syria.
Example: Deadlines demanded. Dittohead response: Traitorous! Unpatriotic! Surrender monkeys! Eventuality: Bush sets September deadline for surge success.
Example: Reid, "This war is lost." Dittohead response: Traitorous! Unpatriotic! Surrender monkeys! Eventuality: Generals, pundits, public agree that winning is not possible. Bush states that "less violence" is goal.
So clearly Giuliani's tactic is to steer every question back to the claim he makes that he reduced crime in New York; a very misleading statement to begin with.
Chris Matthews is fucking it up. I guarantee, someone from the RNC gives him a little ringy dingy call when this debate is over. He will shape up and start doing shows that are meant to atone for his performance here tonight.
I find it odd that it seems like dem voters want no war & impeachment..yet their weight doesn't seem to be behind Dennis...? (and yes I think his wife is smart & pretty)...
These guys are delusional. They keep talking about problems with the federal government. Until this January, the Republicans controlled all branches of the federal government for six years. The GOP ran Congress since 1995. They never did any of the things they are talking about. Ever. Just blathering talking points.
as seen on tv said... I've just been reading over a lot of the web sites about the Kent State Massacre. It must have been scary to have been there that day. May 3, 2007 8:41 PM --------------------------------- My opinion? I'm so glad you asked.
1.) The Governor should not have called in the National Guard. 2.) The National Guard (unlike today) had zero training in riot control and should NEVER fire into a crowd of students (they shot kids going to class, not protesters). 3.) It is worth noting that whomever torched the ROTC building two days prior to the massacre chose a boarded-up building that was unoccupied and slated for demolition, which implies that it was a symbolic gesture, and chose a former ROTC building, which also implies that it was a symbolic gesture. (I don't agree with the torching but it is obvious that the arsonists chose a target that minimized the risk to life and limb...unlike the choice made by the National Guard.)
Students world-wide are ALWAYS at the forefront of protest against bad actors in government. Chalk it up to youthful idealism, a youthful sense of immortality, and youthful awareness that they can exercise a say in how the world operates.
Dittoheads are quick to tout a student standing before a tank in Tiananmen Square but not so quick to support their own young people when they protest illegal warfare in Cambodia.
(Thousands were killed during the 1989 protest in and around Tiananmen Square. I wonder if the Dittoheads blame their deaths on the protesters or the government's heavy-handed response?)
Very interesting. And especially interesting that she has Byrd on her side - that's a big deal, and makes this far more than just a simple go-nowhere stunt. Well, that assumes she pursues this vigorously. If she does, she'll get my kudos.
Presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday sought to force another showdown with President Bush — and her Democratic rivals — over the Iraq war.
Sens. Clinton, D-N.Y., and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., announced they would introduce legislation that would require the president to seek a reauthorization from Congress to extend the military effort in Iraq beyond October 11, 2007.
Chavez threatens to nationalize banks 1 hour, 21 minutes ago CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday warned he would nationalize the country's banks and largest steel producer if they persist with what he described as unscrupulous practices.
WD: It is worth noting what drives a guy nuts...What is it that gets under his skin...??? May 3, 2007 9:07 PM ---------------------------------- Uneducated fools who have a vote, for one thing. Willful ignorance, for another. But I repeat myself.
The Vietnam war was a failed attempt to impose democracy at the point of a gun on a culture poorly understood by U.S. policy makers.
The Iraq war is a failed attempt to impose democracy at the point of a gun on a culture poorly understood by U.S. policy makers.
Most of the people in this country and across the globe have figured this out. It isn't rocket science. It's purely clinical; observe, take notes, reach obvious conclusion.
Hillary wants Bush to seek a new war authorization vote by John Aravosis (DC) · 5/03/2007 07:15:00 PM ET Discuss this post here: Comments (62) · digg it · reddit · FARK · · Link
Very interesting. And especially interesting that she has Byrd on her side - that's a big deal, and makes this far more than just a simple go-nowhere stunt. Well, that assumes she pursues this vigorously. If she does, she'll get my kudos. Presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday sought to force another showdown with President Bush — and her Democratic rivals — over the Iraq war.
Sens. Clinton, D-N.Y., and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., announced they would introduce legislation that would require the president to seek a reauthorization from Congress to extend the military effort in Iraq beyond October 11, 2007.
"If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him," Clinton said in a speech on the Senate floor.
GBC said...Shit. And I'm not drinking tonight either. ;-p May 3, 2007 9:43 PM --------------------------------- Shit. Now what am I gonna do with this Kahlua and Jägermeister?
482 comments:
1 – 200 of 482 Newer› Newest»Good afternoon Seder.
sammy, in case nobody told you, we really really really miss you.
Commander Guy Finds Grace
Link
Sammy's the Man!!Marc Maron too!
What's happening?Thow us a bone!
I miss you Seder! This Barber guy sucks so bad it's unbelievable. Have you been watching your favorite show The View lately?! hee hee! It's fun to hear them talk about politics and see the conservative fake blonde woman worship Bush still... It's true there is no cure for conservatism. She thinks that if a dem becomes president another September 11 attack will happen. And Rosie said Excuse me but 9/11 happened under a REPUBLICAN PRESIDENCY. Rosie has shaken up the show and showed the factual politics to the masses love her or hate her(i guess you hate her even if you've never seen the show). I dont care who tells political facts I have no snobbery. Positive change has to be in the air the insanity i think will come to a close it has to people have had enough of this administations and republicans bullshit. yet there is a good chance that a republican president would happen since they've stolen presidential elections before and since they have so much power in influencing u.s. attorneys etc etc etc. THis shit must stop immediately! can't you feel it?!
a level of violence that people can feel comfortable with...
and somebody actually voted for this guy?
still missing the sammyshow my days just aren't the same ....
in fact i've resorted to listening to old shows on the ipod just to hear sammy's voice.
too bad i'm still listening to -- when will Gonzo be gonzo, and
the old fav "pokin' the bear..pokin' the bear"
sam come back.........
blah blah blah said...
a level of violence that people can feel comfortable with...
and somebody actually voted for this guy?
Pic
say eya to reefer jello for me!
I wanted to repost this on the new thread here so people could see it tonight. Sorry about the double post. Jim, RJ said to tell you that he thinks he may run up to Portland to see a friend, before he heads back to Kent. That's the farthest north he will be this time. We will be coming west again in October Jim.
To any of you bloggers here who may remember Reefer Jello, I have a message for you.
Reefer is in Baja and he tells me he is having a surprisingly good time, even at his age.
He did want me to remind you all that tomorrow is May 4th. Kent State Day.
This is the 37th anniversary and it will be the first time that old buzzard hasn't gone back to campus to cry.
Cindy Sheehan and Tom Hayden will be speaking on campus tomorrow.
Reefer asked me to ask you take a minute tomorrow to remember the four kids that gave their lives. They weren't even protesters. They were just kids on their way to class.
room to crash, good food and talk
anytime for both of you
whenever you make it
mrs. r.j.! )
D.C Madam,Faux News,Must be a lot of Republican's on The List.
Link
Hi Mrs. Reefer, do you know if he heard about the tape that was found with the guard giving the command to fire?
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/02/1426246
Kent State Massacre Tape: 'Get Set! Point! Fire!'
Survivors of the 1970 massacre at Kent State are calling on officials to reinvestigate what happened on May 4 1970 when the National Guard shot four students dead at an anti-war rally. On Tuesday, one of the survivors – Alan Canfora – released an audio tape from the day of the shootings. Canfora said by closely listening you can hear a National Guard officer issue the command "Right Here, Get Set! Point! Fire!" Following the command, the sounds of shots being fired can be heard. The FBI has never determined whether an order to shoot was given. Eight members of the National Guard were acquitted of federal civil rights charges four years after the shootings. Canfora said the reel-to-reel audio recording was made by a student on campus.
...
The evil Howie Mandel and Bobby's World. It is kind of weird and annoying when he does that baby voice. Now you know why. It's because he's triggering mind-control slaves with it.
...
Now Fritz has gone over the edge...I liked that show...How will I know if I'm an undetectable mind slave though? ;)
Political assassination as a strategy against liberation movements
The use of political assassination against liberation movements has changed the course of history in a number of countries in Africa and continues to devastate the Middle East, writes Victoria Brittain. The current power relations between the Third World and the dominant Western and imperialist powers, are a product of the war of attrition which the West has waged, particularly by political assassinations, which have robbed Africa and the Middle East of some of their great leaders, and weakened their important political organisations.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/37899
Since the Tricontinental era, in terms of self-confidence and intellectual freedom, of power relations with the West, of the gap between rich and poor, of optimism for justice, the legacy of the inspired liberation movements of the nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties has been deeply disappointing. All the material indicators are worse too in Africa and the Middle East, and the situation is compounded by a brain drain that runs directly contrary to the nationalist ideals of the earlier generations.
The Arab world is neither united nor free, much of it a series of shattered societies, headed by discredited and contested elites. Nothing illustrates this better than the current situation of the US occupation and destruction of a former regional giant - Iraq. Iraq’s great history and civilisation has come to its lowest ebb as one client government, manipulated from Washington, has succeeded another, and a new generation of resistance has been born. The daily diet of suicide bombings, carried out both by Iraqis and by jihadis of other Arab nationalities, has its roots in the depoliticisation imperialism worked so hard to produce in so much of the Third World, most notably by its political assassination policy.
Alice said...
Hi NEWS CONSUMER! I sent you a Coltrane song link in email...
May 3, 2007 12:52 PM
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
I got it. :)
http://gawker.com/news/media-bubble/the-40-million-question-define-nappy-257358.php
Don Imus' contract with CBS said:
"Services to be rendered are of a unique, extraordinary, irreverent, intellectual, topical, controversial, and personal character." Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin thinks that makes Imus's $40 million lawsuit against CBS a bit more plausible. [CNN]
Pelosi And Reid's Offices Deny WaPo Story Saying Congressional Dems "Backed Down" To White House On Withdrawal
Link
"How will I know if I'm an undetectable mind slave though?"
If you think Marc Maron is funny, you're probably a mind slave of the illuminati.
Look what my crazy guy can do...
George Green shows Simple Free Energy Magnetic Rotation
*
--dada said...If you think Marc Maron is funny, you're probably a mind slave of the illuminati.--
K...I'm cool then... :)
mmrules said...
Wow mmrules..I've plum been spun out of the room...how will the truth ever be known? Tell me whose court the ball is in now...I can't keep track anymore.. :)...all this rhetoric is....umm...yeah.
Alice said...
Hi Mrs. Reefer, do you know if he heard about the tape that was found with the guard giving the command to fire?
I know the answer to that, Alice. R.J. knows Alan Canfora pretty well. We have known about it for some time now. Oh, there's so much that has never come out. It is so sad.
The mainstream spin on this troop funding-plus-timetable veto is typical.
The truth is, Bush was willing to deny funds for his own political interests. Reckless and irresponsible, as usual.
And the media is unforgivable in their faliure to be honest, once again.
* Government Feels the Heat at National ID Town Hall
Despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) provided a mere eight days notice about the one and
only national town hall on REAL ID, the public made its
opposition loud and clear. Nearly every speaker at the four
hour event on Tuesday in Davis, CA, criticized the privacy- invasive mandate, which would force states to standardize
drivers' licenses and create massive, interlinked databases
of your personal information.
We need to keep up the pressure. It's not too late to voice
your opposition -- get your comments to DHS before the May
8 deadline:
http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=287
DHS still hasn't gotten the message that REAL ID is
fundamentally flawed. Time and again during the meeting,
officials defended REAL ID by saying it was necessary for
national security. But participants at the meeting weren't
buying it. As one computer science Ph.D. student pointed
out in his comment, REAL ID "solves the wrong problem,"
because IDs do nothing to stop those who haven't already
been identified as threats. REAL ID also won't prevent
wrongdoers from creating fake documents. As the Cato
Institute's Jim Harper explained in recent testimony before
Congress, a basic analysis using even very generous
assumptions shows that the benefit of REAL ID doesn't even
come close to the cost:
http://www.cato.org/testimony/ct-jh03262007.html
And we're not just talking about the more than 23 billion
dollars that states and individuals will be forced to pay.
REAL ID will also cost you your privacy. Once the IDs and
databases are created, their uses will inevitably expand to
facilitate a wide range of surveillance activities. Private
entities will be able to collect and exploit data on the
cards. States will have to collect and maintain vast
amounts of personally identifying information, including
birth certificates, documents containing Social Security
numbers, and potentially utility bills and tax records.
Your private information will have to be made available to
all other states as well.
http://www.eff.org/
AFGHANISTAN: Some 1,600 displaced after US air raids
*
Video Diary: Hubbly Bubbly
Perhaps we don’t encourage levity enough at Electronic Iraq. Here, today, finally, is a little levity courtesy of the Hometown Baghdad project. In this installment, Saif does nothing but talk hubbly bubbly – or hooka. You can’t help but laugh when he says hubbly bubbly, and you get to hear him say it over and over again. Enjoy.
By the way, while I'm posting here today....I urge evry one of you to go to this cartoon from today's Cleveland Scene. It will give you some soul searching perspective.
I won't tell Reefer Jello about this cartoon because it would drive him up a wall and he's busy unwinding.
http://news.clevescene.com/php/comics/thecity/index.html
The president's new nickname: 'I'm the commander guy'
Video Diary: Hubbly Bubbly
(not especially funny...) :(
*
Ok Mrs. Reefer...& you're right, that is sad...
Attacking Hate
Since 1991, more than 100,000 hate crime offenses have been reported to the FBI. In 2005 alone, there were at least 1,017 crimes based on sexual orientation, yet under the current law, "the federal government is not able to help in cases where women, gay, transgender or disabled Americans are victims of bias-motivated crimes for who they are." Today, the House is voting on the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (LLEHCPA), a bipartisan bill that would enable federal officials to work with state and local officials to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. Far right-wing groups are aggressively opposing this legislation, spreading baseless myths and shrill rhetoric. The last time the House passed this legislation in Sept. 2005, 223 lawmakers supported it, including 30 Republicans. Tell Congress to support LLEHCPA again today here .
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2005/pressrelease.htm
http://www.hrc.org/Template.cfm?Section=Security&CONTENTID=36518&TEMPLATE=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm
http://www.hrc.org/Content/NavigationMenu/HRC/Get_Informed/Federal_Legislation/Hate_Crimes_110th_Factsheet/The_Local_Law_Enforcement_Hate_Crimes_Prevention_Act.htm
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/hate_crimes.html
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/12875/MEDIA/freedom/index.htm
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=3055
http://www.citizenlink.org/CLtopstories/A000004525.cfm
http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=9283
http://dissentnetzwerk.org/node/2198
Make Capitalism History
MYTH #1 -- HATE CRIMES PROTECTION IS UNNECESSARY: "There are no crimes covered by the hate crimes bill, H.R. 1592, which are not already prosecutable under existing laws," wrote the Family Research Council (FRC) in its May 1 newsletter. Former chief counsel to President Nixon, Chuck Colson, argues, "Some say we need this law to prevent attacks on homosexuals. But we already have laws against assaults on people and property." Despite the right wing's rhetoric, LLEHCPA would give the federal government much-needed new authority to assist states in going after hate crimes in all categories. Under the current federal hate crime law enacted in 1969, the federal government has the authority to investigate and prosecute "attacks based on race, color, national origin and religion and because the victim was attempting to exercise a federally protected right." LLEHCPA would give the federal government the ability to help where women, gay, transgender or disabled Americans are also the victims of bias-motivated crimes. A 2006 Harris Interactive poll found that "64 percent of gays and lesbians are concerned about being the victim of a bias-motivated crime." While the FRC and Colson are right that physical attacks can already be prosecuted, hate crimes are especially pernicious. Eighty-five percent of law enforcement officials believe "bias motivated violence to be more serious than similar crimes not motivated by bias."
MYTH #2 -- LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS DO NOT NEED MORE RESOURCES TO COMBAT HATE: Earlier in the week, the National Review published an editorial arguing, "[T]here is no evidence that local law enforcement has a special need for federal resources to help it combat hate crimes." But as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) notes, "Too many local jurisdictions lack the full resources necessary to prosecute hate crimes. For example, when Matthew Shepard was murdered in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998, the investigation and prosecution of the case cost the community of 28,000 residents about $150,000, forcing the sheriff's department to lay off five deputies in order to save money." The new legislation would allow federal officials to get involved where local law enforcement is unwilling or unable to do so. It would also make grants available to train local law officers to go after hate crimes and help combat violent crimes committed by juveniles. It is endorsed by 31 state attorneys general and leading law enforcement agencies, including the National Sheriffs' Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Additionally, hate crimes continue to be a persistent problem. As HRC president Joe Solmonese notes, "Approximately 25 hate crimes are reported each day in our country. And more simply go unreported. One in six of these crimes is motivated by the victims sexual orientation." According to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups -- such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis -- have increased 40 percent since 2000.
MYTH #3 -- BILL WOULD CRIMINALIZE FREE SPEECH: "There's a vote coming up on some insidious legislation in the United States Congress that could silence and punish Christians for their moral beliefs," said Focus on the Family founder James Dobson on his Tuesday broadcast. "That means that as a Christian -- if you read the Bible a certain way with regard to morality -- you may be guilty of committing a 'thought crime.'" The Concerned Women for America put out a statement claiming that this legislation is meant to "grant official government recognition to both homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors, and to silence opposition to those behaviors." Colson wrote that "pastors who preach sermons giving the biblical view of homosexuality could be prosecuted." None of these statements are true. LLEHCPA goes after criminal action, like physical assaults, not name-calling or verbal abuse. The bill clearly states that "evidence of expression or associations of the defendant may not be introduced as substantive evidence at trial, unless the evidence specifically relates to that offense."
MYTH #4 -- BILL IS OPPOSED BY ALL RELIGIOUS GROUPS: Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition, recently said, "Liberal and homosexual extremists want to silence people of faith whose religious beliefs condemn homosexual behavior. This bill effectively adds a footnoted exception to the First Amendment of the Constitution -- 'none of these protections apply to Christians or other people of faith.'" But the bill before the House today ensures that all Americans are protected against hate crimes. Sheldon and other members of the radical right are in the minority. "According to a new poll conducted by Hart Research, large majorities of every major subgroup of the electorate -- including such traditionally conservative groups as Republican men (56 percent) and evangelical Christians (63 percent) -- express support for strengthening hate crimes laws to include sexual orientation and gender identity." In mid-April, more than "230 religious leaders representing congregations from every state in the union gathered on Capitol Hill to talk with lawmakers" about hate violence. Additionally, more than 210 law enforcement, civil rights, civic and religious organizations -- including the Presbyterian Church, Parents Network on Disabilities, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- support the passage of LLEHCPA.
Alice said...
mmrules said...
Wow mmrules..I've plum been spun out of the room...how will the truth ever be known? Tell me whose court the ball is in now...I can't keep track anymore.. :)...all this rhetoric is....umm...yeah.
?
But I did sigh up for The About Book Mooch.Books wil set you free :)
Is There a Muslim Lobby in the US?
As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus, says Arabs and Muslims in the United States are far from being united and are in a state of disagreement over many issues.
"Just as the Turkish lobby acts on behalf of one Turkish government, the Arab or Muslim lobbies can't mirror a single agenda that represents the interests of all Arab or Muslim governments," AbuKhalil says.
"Arab and Muslim governments often conspire against one another, and their rivalries, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, were mirrored in the competition and rivalries between Arab and Muslim organizations in the United States," he adds.
The deep divisions in the Arab world (along sectarian and ethnic lines) only impair the effectiveness of those groups. "In the case of the Arab and Muslim lobbies, there is a plethora of often competing groups and organizations, which do not seem to adhere to the same agenda," AbuKhalil remarks.
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=44680
In late October 2001, former US ambassador to Egypt and Israel Edward Walker urged Arab governments to set up measures to counter Israel's influence in America's policy-making.
"But you, the Arabs, can no longer afford to just ignore Washington. Arab governments and institutions should start considering how to affect public opinion in the US," he told a political discussion forum hosted by the University of Jordan.
However, 5 years later, Walker's advice may have fallen on deaf ears.
What scant lobbying there is usually depends on the behest of individual Muslim governments.
"One can say that there never was a serious attempt to create an Arab or Muslim lobby, and that whatever organizations that exist today under that umbrella of a name have only succeeded in effectively representing the interests of ruling Arab dynasties," AbuKhalil says of Saudi Arabian initiatives to influence US foreign policy regarding the Kingdom.
"But those dynasties don't even rely on those loyal groups and organizations when they wish to advance a particular issue: Instead, they hire 'purely' American public relations and lobbying firms in order not to allow the Arab or Muslim stigma to hurt their lobbying efforts."
(As'ad AbuKhalil's blog is angryarab.blogspot)
Sunshine said...
//maybe you can eat your car and furniture.//
May 3, 2007 1:08 PM
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Pets or Meat.
***
May 3, 2007 -- There is more interest in what kind of off-the-wall questions debate moderator Chris Matthews will ask the ten Republican candidates tonight during their debate at the Reagan Presidential Library. Texas Republican Representative Ron Paul may be the big surprise tonight. As a Libertarian, Paul may land some body blows on his rivals over the Bush administration's repeated violations of the Constitution.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
Iraqi Papers Wednesday: "The Iron Lady"
Who is Basima Lu’ay Hassun al-Jadiri? According to Az-Zaman, this hitherto little-known adviser to al-Maliki holds the strings of power in the Iraqi state, and is responsible for much of the current ills in the country.
The name of al-Jadiri first appeared in a Washington Post story on Sunday; claiming that an office in al-Maliki's administration (under the direction of al-Jadiri) has been involved in the purging of “patriotic” Iraqi officers and their replacement with subservient ones who do not oppose al-Maliki’s “pro-Shi'a” agenda.
Az-Zaman, like much of the Arab media, picked up on the story, and devoted its front page today to discussing the Post revelations and the mysterious role of Basima Hassun. According to the newspaper, Iraqi parliamentarians are calling for a investigation to clarify the role and influence of the “iron lady” –- as az-Zaman called al-Jadiri -- “who makes the Iraqi military leadership tremble . . . after she executed a campaign to arrest and purge a group of high-ranking Iraqi officers.”
http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php/post/2594/Iraqi_Papers_Wednesday_The_Iron_Lady
May 3, 2007 -- Refusing to be drawn into the hype over the GOP presidential debate tonight, this editor will be attending Greg Palast's speech tonight at 7:00 PM at the New York Ave. Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, a gathering that is sure to bring together a number of members of the Washington area's progressive community.
[Wayne Madsen]
Damn. This is what I meant to post:
***
May 3, 2007 -- French Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal dealt right-wing candidate Nicolas Sarkozy a series of tough political attacks in last night's televised debate. Royal accused Sarkozy of being immoral in his policies toward the weakest members of French society, particularly handicapped school children. Royal said Sarkozy wants to dismantle France's public education system. As a further indication that Sarkozy's neo-con media friends, especially those at Le Figaro, are skewing the opinion polls, Sarkozy is still running ahead of Royal although a clear majority of centrist candidate Francois Bayrou's supporters are favoring Royal in the May 6 run-off and far right-wing candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen has urged his supporters to abstain in the run-off. Bayrou said that he will not vote for Sarkozy. The real political math of French Left + majority of Bayrou supporters and majority abstentions by Le Pean supporters equals no significant net gain for Sarkozy in the second round and should reflect a sizeable jump in the numbers for Royal. As with the U.S. and Mexican presidential elections, the polls are being artificially fixed to reflect the upcoming skewed exit polls, a major component of the neo-cons' main contrivance to maintain political control -- "election engineering."
May 3, 2007 -- Locals say no to Blackwater USA. Residents of Illinois and southern California are up in arms over the setting up of private mercenary firm Blackwater operations in their home towns. Mount Carroll, Illinois residents are steamed that Blackwater has set up shop in their town and the story is receiving attention from Chicago's Channel 7 ABC affiliate. Local residents are upset that county officials never held public gearings on the establishment of "Blackwater North."
Blackwater also plans to set up a military training center, called "Blackwater West," in Potrero, a small town 45 miles to the east of San Diego. More than half of the registered voters of Potrero signed a petition opposing Blackwater's plans and the county planning commission's preliminary approval for the Blackwater facility. Blackwater pressured local officials to use local police and sheriffs to intimidate protestors attending a county planning commission meeting on the project. Democratic US Representative Bob Filner is looking for ways to block the project.
Blackwater is headquartered in Moyock, North Carolina on an expansive former military base. Blackwater is owned by the Prince Group, headed by Erik Prince, whose sister is married to former Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate and Amway heir Dick DeVos. Blackwater and Prince Group are a bevy of Christian right wingers, including General Counsel Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon Inspector General and the son of the late racist GOP and John Birch Society congressman John Schmitz, Sr. and brother of convicted Washington state school teacher pedophile Mary Kay Letourneau. Joseph Schmitz's brother, John Schmitz, Jr. is married to the sister of Columba Bush, the wife of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Gary Jackson, Blackwater's president, steered Blackwater campaign contributions to three GOP congressmen who have been embroiled in major ethical scandals: former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, former House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, and former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis.
Laydee!
Oh Dean, Oh!
***
Blackwater and Prince Group are a bevy of Christian right wingers, including General Counsel Joseph Schmitz, former Pentagon Inspector General and the son of the late racist GOP and John Birch Society congressman John Schmitz, Sr. and brother of convicted Washington state school teacher pedophile Mary Kay Letourneau!!!!!
***
What's up with that??!!
Makes you wonder what might have been going on in that weird "Christian" family.
May 2, 2007 -- Cheney the brains behind the boy king? Not quite. There is something that George Tenet forgot to put in his book. During one CIA briefing for Vice President Dick Cheney on suicide bombings in Iraq just after the U.S. occupation, Cheney was confused as to the reason why people would blow themselves up with bombs. According to our Langley sources, the CIA briefer went into an explanation of Islamic extremists who believe that martyrdom in a Jihad instantly puts them into an exalted status in an after-life paradise. Cheney, however, was having nothing of it. He repeatedly insisted that the suicide bombers in Iraq must be "on drugs" or "hypnotized." The CIA briefer got the impression that Cheney did not believe there was any significant religious angle to the violence in Iraq.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
********
I always said that these people are absolute dopes. They're just maniacally determined. That's all. Not smart. Neither is Rove.
Lawyer: DoJ Release "Smacks of Retribution"
Link
Buda’s Wagon. A Brief History of the Car Bomb
The car bomb was invented in the US and was used to devastating effect by Mario Buda, an anarchist who exploded his horse-drawn wagon on Wall Street in 1920, thus prompting the title to Buda’s Wagon, a new book by often controversial and politically radical Mike Davis. Buda was the first car bomber, his progeny are many.
The Zionist Stern Gang used car bombs in the late 1940’s to blow up buildings in Palestine in an attempt to drive out the British and terrorize Palestinians. The Irgun and Haganah, underground Zionist groups labeled as terrorists by the British, quickly followed suit. The use of car bombs by Zionists represented a major step forward both in the lethality of the bombs and their use as political weapons.
However, Palestinians and Arabs soon learned the technology and responded with the same, prompting one of the founders of Israel, Ben-Gurion, to say after the bombing of a Haganah headquarters, “I couldn’t forget that ‘our’ thugs and murderers had blazed this trail.”
http://polizeros.com/2007/05/01/buda%e2%80%99s-wagon-a-brief-history-of-the-car-bomb/
Davis makes it clear that car bombs, while sometimes achieving short-term gains, generally lead to increased violence from the the other side (or sides) thus creating ever more mayhem and dead innocents. Using Iraq as an example, some car bombs are aimed at US forces, others are specifically used to create Sunni-Shia divisions. Islamic hardliners use car bombs to reinforce sectarian divisions because they do not want nationalism to occur because that would mean they’d then have no power base. Doubtless many other players there don’t want nationalism either.
Davis closes by saying "All sides, moreover, now play by Old Testament rules and every laser-guided missile falling on an apartment house in southern Beirut or a mud-walled compound in Kandahar is a future suicide truck bomb headed for the center of Tel Aviv or perhaps downtown Los Angeles. Buda’s wagon truly has become the hot rod of the apocalypse."
Former Deputy Attorney General Comey Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee
Yet Another Former DoJ Official Revealed to Have Nothing to Do with the U.S. Attorney Firings
Link
Guantanamo Lawyers Predict More Suicides
David McFadden Associated Press Writer
(AP) - SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico-Lawyers envision more suicides and despair at Guantanamo Bay if the U.S. Justice Department succeeds in severely restricting access to detainees by defense attorneys, virtually the only contact inmates have with the outside world.
http://news.findlaw.com/ap/i/630/04-30-2007/fc48002e19d0a455.html
I think the two-state solution is gone and apartheid is at the door. I do not see any way that "finessing" will liberate enough qualitative land for a viable Palestinian state to emerge. But if we are stuck with it for the meantime, I would then contend that three absolutely indispensable criteria have to be met to give any two-state solution at least a shot at success: (1) the Palestinians must obtain Gaza, 85-90% of the West Bank in a coherent form (including its water resources) and an extra-territorial land connection between them; (2) they must have unsupervised borders with Arab States (the Jordan Valley and the Rafah crossing in Gaza), plus unrestricted sea- and airports; and (3) a shared Jerusalem must be an integral part of a Palestinian state with free and unrestricted access.
I fear that the Livni-Rice plan falls far short of this. I don't doubt Livni's sincerity (something unusual for me to say about any politician, let alone one from Likud-Kadima), but I fear she, like almost all Israelis who seek peace, minimize what the Palestinians can accept beyond what they are capable of. And when they don't accept, they are, of course, to blame. Thus Livni herself has said tellingly: "Abbas is not a partner for a final-status agreement, but he could be a partner for other arrangements, on the basis of the road map's phased process."
Can Livni pull it off? It all depends on her sincerity, her ability to maneuver an extremely right-wing Olmert government onto a path of true peace or, failing that, to get elected Prime Minister on her own and then establish a government that could take the momentous decisions a true and just peace with the Palestinians would require. A pretty tall order, but keep Tzipi Livni, not a name most people recognize today, in mind.
Jeff Halperin
Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) obtained earmarks that benefited his business partner-CREW
Link
It's too bad you surrnder monkeys give up so easily in this War on Terror...
You Hate-Americkers don't have the will to stick it out and fight for this Great Country...!!
We have the Invasion of Iran comin with Hillary, and none of you are in shape..
I'm in shape..
My wife and I are planning a 500,000 mile round trip bike ride to the moon and back this summer...
Do you like to have fun...?
I know I do...!!!
The inspector general who uncovered cases of waste, fraud and abuse in the U.S.-led reconstruction effort in Iraq is under investigation by a presidential panel, according to the White House.WaPo.
Link
You tell’em, Speaker Pelosi.
Link
"strategery"
in vetoing the appropriations bill with timelines for withdrawal Bush declares,
"It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather their strength -- and begin plotting how to overthrow the government and take control of the country of Iraq...".
Now since he's so SURE about what exactly will happen in the future
and he knows exactly what the enemy will do wouldn't that also mean he(or his generals) could develop a strategy based upon what they KNOW the enemy will do and prevent such an occurence i mean isn't that how you bait the enemy?
by taking an action upon which the enemy's response is known ahead of time?- wouldn't that be basic "strategery?
That seems to be a common thread among all rightwingers they seem to KNOW exactly what the enemy will do, yet they cannot seem to make any progress in their war
The Flaws in Rubinomics
Before Democrats can begin to reverse a generation of laissez-faire policy dominance that has put corporations and CEOs ahead of working families, they must debunk Rubinomics, which makes the budget deficit the central focus of economic policy. This focus rests on faulty economics and stands to lock Democrats into confused policy messaging and a path of fiscal austerity that leaves no room for spending on infrastructure, alternative energy or education, among other needs.
Link
Bush states,
"It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather their strength -- and begin plotting how to overthrow the government and take control of the country of Iraq..."
I say that sounds like the perfect scenario for the Iraqi's to then
"stand up" if you will,
In fact isn't that the stated endgame of the war of this administration that we can leave, or "stand down" once the iraqi's "stand up"
what better time for them to stand up?
http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/2007/05/mcbush.html
McBush
Cast of Characters:
LADY LIBERTY played by herself
PAX played by himself
JUSTICE played by himself
McBUSH played by George W. Bush
LADY CHENEY McBush’s wife; played
by Dick Cheney
3 WITCHES played by Condoleeze Rice, Hillary Clinton, Ann Coulter
FIRE HYDRANT played by Alberto Gonzalez
2 ROTTWEILERS played by themselves
ATTENDANTS played by Senators, media pundits and various sycophants
ACT 1
Scene 1: Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.
Condoleeza: When shall we three meet again?
Hillary: When the hurlyburly’s done. When the battle’s lost and won.
Coulter: Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Enter McBush and Pax.
McBush: So foul and fair a day I have not seen!
Pax: (Noticing the Witches--)
What are these, so withered and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants of the earth?
You should be women, and yet your beards
Forbid me to interpret that you are.
Coulter: All hail McBush, that shalt be Prez hereafter!
...
I'm going to sign up or that book thing too, mmrules... sounds cool & I do have quit a few duplicates, with others I could live without...I'm running out of shelves...
Anonymous said...
Bush states,
"It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather their strength -- and begin plotting how to overthrow the government and take control of the country of Iraq..."
I say that sounds like the perfect scenario for the Iraqi's to then
"stand up" if you will,
In fact isn't that the stated endgame of the war of this administration that we can leave, or "stand down" once the iraqi's "stand up"
what better time for them to stand up?
Sorry,can't "stand up"right now..Were on Vacation!
War Dog said...
++++
Question for Jello, he says he was there..
++++
Who was burning down buildings and what did they think they were going to accomplish..???
IF they had peaceful protests there would have been no armed Guardsmen on campus..
It's always the innocent that have to pay for the assholes who cause trouble..
Just like in LA the other day..!!!!
-----------------------------------
-----------------------------------
Some would say that it is always the assholes with guns who cause the trouble, but enough with the facts. I came here to discuss simpletons.
A simpleton is uncomplicated, never well-read and prone to platitudes.
A simpleton spends a lot of time smiling because, well, because that's what idiots do. They will smile while standing in the middle of a busy street. Their smiling is not an indicator of their well-being or cognizance of their surroundings.
A simpleton will say really stupid and indefensible stuff like, "War protesters forced the National Guard to shoot students."
That's what makes them simpletons. They are really, really stupid.
---
For those of you who are reading this and who are not also simpletons, the ROTC building that was torched at Kent State was scheduled for demolition.
But the fact that it was scheduled for demolition isn't the important fact that exposes the War Dog simpleton as a simpleton.
The boarded-up ROTC building was torched TWO DAYS before the students were shot by National Guardsmen.
If you want to know about the first few days in May of 1970, Google "Kent State killings" or "Kent State massacre", read what you find and decide for yourself.
My bet is that you will conclude that War Dog is a simpleton who doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.
Crank, I'm wondering what your impression is of this... please.
--Addendum to previous post.--
No one knows who torched the ROTC building on May 2, 1970. For that matter, no one knows who threw bottles in a drunken melee on May 1, 1970.
Everyone knows that the National Guard shot unarmed students on May 4, 1970.
The National Guard should not have been on campus at all. It was a knee-jerk reaction by the Governor in response to drunk-and-disorderliness on the night of May 1. There has never been a connection made between war protest and drunks throwing bottles on May 1.
The reason for the war protest was Nixon's incursion into Cambodia. There were protests all across America.
Using War Dog's non-existent logic, there should have been shootings all across America, too.
Do we really want to watch a bio about Stan Lee every time a new piece of waste Spiderman movie is released? The Spiderman movies are god awful.
"When fireman arrived students threw rocks at them, slashed their hoses with machetes, took away hoses and turned them on the firefighters. The police finally stopped the riot with tear gas. The National Guard was called in by the governor on May 2 and student rioters pelted them with rocks, doused trees with gasoline, and set them afire. Students attempted to march into town on May 3 but were stopped by the National Guard, the Kent city police department, the Ohio highway patrol, and the county sheriff's department. The protesters shouted obscenities and threw rocks
========================================================================================================
As ususal when Crank Bait is wrong, he resorts to play ground Name Calling..
He is wrong a lot..
He calls names a lot..
=========================================================================================================
But that is nothing new...
So who got the kids killed...???
Who's criminal actions ended the deaths of the innocent students..??
Who was the trigger..
Burning a building...???
Why...?????
=========================================================================================================
The Guard, consisting of a hundred men surrounded by rioters shouting obscenities and chanting "Kill, kill, kill," were under a constant barrage of rocks, chunks of concrete and cinderblock, and canisters. Fifty-eight Guardsmen were injured by thrown objects
=========================================================================================================
Now the Arson had a point of some kind, perhaps you could see some Outcome other than death...
=========================================================================================================
A professor who watched the arson later told the Scranton commission, which investigated the shooting and the events leading up to it, 'I have never in my 17 years of teaching seen a group of students as threatening, or as arrogant, or a bent on destruction.'
=========================================================================================================
Who was it set the stage for death..??????
Actions lead to consequences....
alice,
You are asking the wrong guy. I agonize forever over this kinda stuff. It is impossible for me to make a pronouncement after spending ten minutes looking it over.
However, the basic info indicates what you already know. It's trading right in the middle of its 52 week spread (I would look into why this is? I mean, why isn't it at its high or at its low?). It could be that it isn't particularly volatile (beta?).
The dividend is good. It is difficult to go wrong with a long-term hold that pays 7.4%.
I would (probably will) look further into the years-long history of the stock...to see how stable it has been for how long, who owns big blocks of shares, etc.
Fat, safe, steady dividends are not easy to find. I own PVX for that reason...but just when I thought that it was safe to go back into the water, the Canadian finance minister decided to fuck up a good thing...which may or may not be favorably resolved.
SJ
I never should have mentioned this to the kid but now he keeps asking me when the airplane stuff is coming.....Sorry to bug you..but were you still intending to send it?
War Dog, I want you to think about this... You're defending the killing of unarmed college students.
think? Wardog think?
He's not even a real person.
wait for it ...
here it comes ...
he's so excited you paid attention to him....
will he see the post before he posts his?
I bet not. He's working on his reply... he's SO excited....!
Evening all!!
I understand that Obama is getting Secret Service protection now. I was afraid of this. All these crazies here.
*******
Matthews: "Who would win a street fight ... Rudy Giuliani or President Ahmadinejad"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200705030007
On the May 2 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked Mike DuHaime, campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani: "Who would win a street fight ... Rudy Giuliani or [Iranian] President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, who would win that fight?" Matthews said that the fight would take place "over in Queens somewhere ... a dark night, it's about 2 in the morning. Two guys are out behind the building, right?" DuHaime responded, "I am putting my money on Rudy on that one." Matthews added, "If [Giuliani] wins that notion, he is the next president."
Although this assertion was conditional upon Giuliani "win[ing] that notion," Matthews has previously touted the viability of Giuliani's candidacy without equivocation. On the July 18, 2006, edition of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Matthews predicted that "the next president of the United States will be Rudy Giuliani."
Throughout the interview, Matthews left unchallenged various claims by DuHaime that Giuliani has a "tremendous
******
You have got to be kidding me.
toniD said...
Evening all!!
I understand that Obama is getting Secret Service protection now. I was afraid of this. All these crazies here.
War puppy.Have you been calling the Feds again??Down boy.Just kidding.
One Day After Law Day, The WSJ Advocates Usurping the Rule of Law
Link
You tell’em, Speaker Pelosi.
Whoa! I hadn't seen that yet.
Even though the outcome was already known, I'm impressed by her passion.
Thanks Crank...I will check it out better when I get home..thanks for your first impressions...
May 2, 2007 -- On March 30, 2007, WMR opined the following about the annual media-White House "love in" dinners: "This editor is never found anywhere near the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner, held Wednesday night at Washington's "Hinckley Hilton," or the White House Correspondents Association dinner. These are yearly fetes where supposed independent members of the Fourth Estate drink, eat, and swap jokes with members of the administration. Socializing with such rogues and cheats clouds the judgment of journalists who are supposed to be looking out for the public's interest."
WMR welcomes the New York Times to the ranks of those of us in the press who abhor the annual media coddling of White House luminaries and Cabinet officers. Last Sunday, Times' columnist Frank Rich wrote in his column that the White House Correspondents' Dinner "illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows."
You won't miss the rubber-like banquet food at the Hinckley Hilton, Frank. As a matter of fact, during next year's navel gazing White House Correspondents Dinner, I'll buy you a hamburger at Five Guys. The food is better and there is no George W. Bush or Karl Rove to spoil the meal.
Fineman: ‘A Lot Of Voters’ Find ‘Hierarchical’ ‘Male’ Qualities In Politicians ‘Reassuring’ »
Tonight, prior to the first Republican presidential debate, MSNBC showed footage of all 10 participating candidates holding a “regal,” coronation-esque walk-through of the Reagan Library, where the debate is being held.
Commenting on the candidates, Fineman said, “There is a hierarchical, there is, dare I say it, male, there’s an old-line quality to them that some voters, indeed a lot of voters, find reassuring.” Watch it:
Maybe Fineman is projecting. A CBS News/New York Times poll last year found that 92 percent of Americans would vote for a qualified woman for president.
What Fineman said insults me in two ways. He doesn't know which side he wants to be on
May 2, 2007 -- Neo-cons and "smear campaigns." Although neo-cons have no problem smearing their opponents, they have real problems when they believe they are being "smeared." Scandal-plagued World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz claims he and his gal pal are victims of a smear campaign. It does not matter that Wolfowitz has engaged in unethical practices as World Bank President. Now Arizona Republican Representative Rick Renzi, under an FBI investigation for dubious land deals, claims he is the victim of a Justice Department "smear campaign." Former Florida Republic Representative Mark Foley claimed that the release of salacious e-mails he sent to underage male congressional pages was part of a "smear campaign" by his political opponent. Katherine Harris, the former Florida Secretary of State and Congresswoman claims to have been the victim of a Democratic "smear campaign." Arch neo-con Richard Perle consistently uses the term "vicious smear campaign" when his name pops up in some negative regard. Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, wanted by Moscow for fraud, claims he is the victim of a Kremlin-orchestrated "smear campaign."
The same right-wing mind sets that have brought this country political witch hunts, purges, and "swift boating" now claim to be the victims of "smear campaigns." File that in the irony category.
I'm reposting this because it's a good read:
Bush and the Generals
Michael C. Desch
From Foreign Affairs
It is no secret that the relationship between the U.S. military and civilians in the Bush administration has deteriorated markedly since the start of the Iraq war. In 2006, according to a Military Times poll, almost 60 percent of servicemen and servicewomen did not believe that civilians in the Pentagon had their "best interests at heart."
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070501faessay86309/michael-c-desch/bush-and-the-generals.html
Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold, former JCS director of operations, wrote, in a searing piece in Time, that it was his "sincere view ... that the commitment of [U.S.] forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions -- or bury the results."
In the fall of 2006, the White House and influential hawks outside of the administration finally conceded that the United States did not have the troop strength to secure contested areas in Iraq. But by then, senior U.S. military commanders in Iraq had come to believe that U.S. forces were part of the problem, rather than the solution, as the insurgency had morphed into an interconfessional civil war. So instead of asking for more troops, as they did in the run-up to the war, many senior commanders in Iraq began to argue that the United States needed to lower its profile and reduce its footprint. Less than 40 percent of troops supported an increase in force levels, the Military Times found. General John Abizaid, the current head of Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in November that he did "not believe that more American troops right now is the solution to the problem" in Iraq. In response to prodding from Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), Abizaid explained that he had "met with every division commander, General [George] Casey, the corps commander, General [Martin] Dempsey [head of the Multi-National Security Transition Command in Iraq]. ... And I said, 'In your professional opinion, if we were to bring in more American troops now, does it add considerably to our ability to achieve success in Iraq?' And they all said no."
You're defending the killing of unarmed college students.
=========================================================================================================
That is Typical Left Wing Crazy Talk...
I am pointing the finger at the first person in the chain of events...
The FIRST illegal ACTION..
The FIRST chance to prevent this chain of events..
The Riots and Arson served no purpose...
All that did was set the stage for violence..
And it is always the innocent that pay..
Anti-war planes buzz debate. “Two planes are circling the sky above the GOP presidential candidates’ debate tonight, dragging anti-war banners.” Funded and organized by Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, the small aircraft have banner’s reading “Mission Accomplished.”
UPDATE: Hotline has a photo.
The same right-wing mind sets that have brought this country political witch hunts, purges, and "swift boating" now claim to be the victims of "smear campaigns." File that in the irony category.
May 3, 2007 7:52 PM
*************
These people are the biggest 'wooses' alive.
Sorry, clicked to fast, here's the photo
LINK
"So who got the kids killed...???
Who's criminal actions ended the deaths of the innocent students..??
Who was the trigger.."
They were shot by the national guard. They pulled the trigger.
Conservatives Are Cracking On Iraq »
President Bush has emerged from the recent veto battle more politically isolated on Iraq than ever.
Despite spending weeks using his bully pulpit to blister war critics with rhetoric about “abandoning troops” and “timetables for retreat,” public opinion has shifted further away from his position, and conservatives in Congress are breaking ranks.
This is a major success. A key to bringing an end to this war is for Bush’s supporters to finally demand a change. We’re getting closer every day:
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME):
“Obviously, the president would prefer a straight funding bill with no benchmarks, no conditions, no reports,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). “Many of us, on both sides of the aisle, don’t see that as viable.” [LA Times, 5/3/07]
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-WA)
A likely sticking point is whether to include penalties if the Iraqi government fails to meet the benchmarks. Democrats, and some Republicans such as Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, insist that there be consequences for falling short, such as a loss of U.S. financial support or the withdrawal of some coalition forces.
“We can’t be there in an open-ended fashion,” Snowe said. “We have to say: how long does it really take to pass the benchmarks?” [Bloomberg, 5/2/07]
Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE):
Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.), a leading moderate, said many Republicans are looking for a way out of Iraq, and he hopes that the Democrats will work with them after Bush likely vetoes the $124 billion war supplemental this week. “I think a lot of us feel that the time has come for us to look for solutions to bring this war to a close,” Castle said. “And I don’t think that’s just a feeling among moderate Republicans but among Republicans in general.” Castle said Republicans of all stripes “are very reluctant to put in dates on our Army” but said that other ideas, including Blunt’s talk of a “consequences package” for the Iraqi government, could bring the parties together. [Roll Call, 4/30/07]
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN):
“I think we’re still in a fairly toxic political environment,” said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), who opposed the president’s troop buildup but voted against the Democratic withdrawal plan. “And I think it will continue like this for a while. That’s the reality.” [LA Times, 5/3/07] expand post »
Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC):
But a new dynamic also is at work, with some Republicans now saying that funding further military operations in Iraq with no strings attached does not make practical or political sense. Rep. Bob Inglis (S.C.), a conservative who opposed the first funding bill, said, “The hallway talk is very different from the podium talk.” [Washington Post, 5/3/07]
Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA)
“We have to be engaged developing our own proposals and not just going along with what the executive branch is doing,” said Rep. Charles Boustany Jr., a Louisiana Republican who voted against the Democratic plan to force Bush to start withdrawing troops. [LA Times, 5/3/07]
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA):
Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican who has supported Bush’s war strategy even as the public has turned against it, said, “The marketplace has become ripe for a new idea.” [LA Times, 5/3/07]
LINK
ribbet.
"That is Typical Left Wing Crazy Talk..."
Left wing crazy talk is what you call the opinion of the majorty of Americans.
May 2, 2007 -- Homeland Security Gauleiter Michael Chertoff says he wants British citizens of Pakistani origin to apply for a visa before they visit the United States. Currently, all British citizens are covered by a visa waiver program to visit the United States. Perhaps Mr. Chertoff might consider having British Pakistanis wear a sewn yellow crescent on their outer garments to make them more identifiable. Chertoff should also consider what constitutes a "British Pakistani." If a British citizen has one Pakistani grandfather, does that mean that he or she is a "Pakistani?" Perhaps Chertoff should create a British "racial purity" scheme to determine what makes one a Pakistani under US law. Do Punjabis, Baluchis, Sindhis, Baltis, Kashmiris, and Pashtuns all qualify equally under Chertoff's "British Pakistani" racial laws? When a British Pakistani receives a US visa perhaps it would be a good idea if Mr. Chertoff orders the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement tattoo their US visa number on his or her arm to make them more trackable. Oh, one more thing Mr. Chertoff. How many Pakistani hijackers were aboard the four passenger planes commandeered on 9/11?
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
"The FIRST illegal ACTION.."
How far back should we go? ...'The serpent, he did tempt me.'
Give it a rest, dog. Stop defending the murders at Kent State. Go back to your usual nonsense.
War Dog said...
You're defending
pay..
May 3, 2007 7:53 PM
************
Translation:
Woof woof woof.. arf arff woof... arf... woof woof arf... woof arf... arf.
May 1, 2007 -- The DC Madam's client list has official Washington on pins and needles. There is much speculation about the identities of the clients of Deborah Palfrey's Pamela Martin & Associates escort service now said to include a White House economist, the head of a neo-con think tank, Pentagon officials, a corporate CEO, and at least one member of the House of Representatives. Reports that some clients enjoyed "spanking" from the house calling masseuses will certainly increase the scandal factor ten-fold.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
May 1, 2007 -- Former Pennsylvania GOP legislator Jeffrey Habay was sentenced yesterday by a state judge to four to eight months in prison to be followed by 14 months of house arrest and two years of probation. Habay was convicted of 21 criminal counts, including the theft of services for using legislative staffers to conduct opposition research against his political opponents. Habay was also convicted of using his staff to perform campaign activities. Habay's crimes are no different from what Karl Rove has done with White House staff, US Attorneys, and political appointees in federal departments and agencies. The difference is that Rove, unlike Habay, has President Bush protecting him at every turn.
May 1, 2007 -- George Tenet wants everyone to know he was acting honorably as CIA Director when he told George W. Bush the case for war against Iraq would be a "slam dunk." Tenet claims he did not actually say "slam dunk" in the context of ginning up a pretext for war. What is a slam dunk is that when Tenet put together a "Worldwide Attack Matrix" after 9/11 that called for the assassination of individuals without regard to their status, he was violating Executive Order 12333 of Dec. 4, 1981, which amended Executive Order No. 12036 of January 24, 1978. The orders were enacted to prohibit the assassination of foreign leaders, especially in the wake of CIA involvement in the assassinations of leaders in Chile, Congo (Kinshasa), and other countries and repeated attempted assassinations of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
War Dog said...
The inocent (sic) Reap ...
May 3, 2007 8:03 PM
*********
hahahahahahha!
what?
War Dog said...
The inocent Reap what the Assholes of the world sow..
May 3, 2007 8:03 PM
That's why the Iraqi's are suffering at the hands of Bush.
I'm only into this debate two minutes and I feel like my head's gonna explode. Bad day to give up sniffing glue. *snark*
*
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*
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This is gonna be tough night for Nancy and Harry...!!!
May 1, 2007 -- WMR has learned that the Iron Mountain storage facility in Pennsylvania does store election software for the Ohio Secretary of State. Iron Mountain is an Escrow Agent for the Secretary of State's source code for Diebold and ES&S voting machines. The Congress is looking for a number of deleted e-mails between the Republican National Committee, the White House, and Justice Department concerning the firing of a number of US Attorneys for political reasons. Smartechcorp, a Chattanooga web hosting service with close links to the GOP, was discovered to be the hosting service for the Republican National Committee, the Bush-Cheney 04 campaign, and the Ohio Secretary of State's election night live results "Dashboard."
*transformed
That's why the Iraqi's are suffering at the hands of Bush
=======================================================================================================
Same thing as Kent State..
Who is it who is killing hundreds of innocents a day..??
The Terrorists..!!!!!
April 30, 2007 -- A TALE OF TWO TRIALS: INFLUENCE PEDDLING, JUDGE SHOPPING, AND DIRTY PROSECUTORS
On May 2, US Federal Judge Peter Messitte will again take up the case of Ken Ford’s request for access to government documents, including trial transcripts, in order to facilitate his appeal for conviction of possessing classified National Security Agency documents at his Waldorf, Maryland home. The government, through US Attorney for Southern Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein and the original prosecuting attorney, Assistant US Attorney for Southern Maryland David Salem, is arguing that release of the transcripts contain classified information and, therefore, must be withheld under the provisions of the Classified Information Procedures Act.
Ford was set up in a clumsy Justice Department, FBI, and NSA Security Division operation to punish him for his May 2003 signals intelligence (SIGINT) analysis report that concluded, based on intercepts of Iraqi communications, there was no truth to the Bush administration’s claim that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Ford’s report, with his name and that of his supervisor on it, ended up on Vice President Dick Cheney’s desk. From that time on, Ford was a marked man for the neo-con cabal operating within the White House, Justice Department, Pentagon, and US Intelligence Community senior staff.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
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That Mitt is as pretty as Edwards..!!!!
New HHS deputy secretary is Bush’s former debate prepper. Tevi David Troy’s main qualifications: “Troy had primary responsibility for debate preparation in President Bush’s re-election campaign. He also has served as the president’s liaison to the Jewish community. He began working in the Bush administration at the Labor Department.” He has also written for National Review and the Weekly Standard.
LINK
Oh my god... this is so boring... I think I will have to turn this MSNBC debate off. Send them a message.
VA officials receive five-figure bonuses. “Months after a politically embarrassing $1 billion shortfall that put veterans’ health care in peril, Veterans Affairs officials involved in the foul-up got hefty bonuses ranging up to $33,000.” In total, the VA dealt out “more than $3.8 million in payments by a financially strapped agency straining to help care for thousands of injured veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.”
LINK
McCain's blinking excessively.
I think he is sending code to his Iranian supporters.
NYT chooses pre-war skeptic as public editor. Clark Hoyt, who was the Washington editor at Knight Ridder through 2006, will become the New York Times’s third public editor. In an “unusual step,” New York Times executive editor Bill Keller noted to his staff that Hoyt “presided over a body of aggressive reporting in the run up to the war in Iraq — journalism that has been widely praised for sometimes being more skeptical about the pre-war intelligence than bigger news organizations, including our own.”
LINK
Tough it up, cath, I need your searing wit tonight. ;-p
For all you non-New Yorkers... have you ever noticed how badly Giuliani's dentures fit? I mean that lisp... !
GBC said...
Tough it up, cath, I need your searing wit tonight. ;-p
May 3, 2007 8:18 PM
***
Hee!
It is kinda fun... !
Former Deputy AG Comey: None of the fired U.S. Attorneys should have been let go for performance-based reasons:
SANCHEZ: OK, but in your view and to the best of your knowledge were there valid performance-based reasons to terminate any of these six US Attorneys?
COMEY: Not in my experience with them.
Watch it:
UPDATE: Comey adds that “he had ‘heard rumors‘ that Justice Department White House Liaison Monica Goodling was using political criteria in making personnel decisions among non-political, career staff.” The Justice Department has launched an investigation to Goodling, alleging that she potentially violated federal law.
UPDATE II: Comey disparaged Kyle Sampson’s desire for “loyal Bushies,” saying “that the DoJ had to be ’seen as the good guys — not as this administration or that administration.’”
UPDATE III: Comey rips Patrick Fitzgerald?
Asked about his reaction to a now-infamous listing of U.S. attorneys in which Fitzgerald was ranked mediocre, Comey replied: “I’ve never thought much of him.”
One beat…two beats…Comey grinned and said, “No, I’m just kidding.”
Acknowledging that Fitzgerald is a close friend, Comey described the Chicago prosecutor as “one of the finest federal prosecutors there is…maybe has ever been.”
LINK
That Mitt is as pretty as Edwards..!!!!
May 3, 2007 8:09 PM
***
Much prettier!
Too pretty.
A little saccharine.
"Who is it who is killing hundreds of innocents a day..??"
We do our fair share.
McCain will follow Osama to the gates of hell!
Uhhh... why haven't you been advocating just that for the past five years?
This is laughable! We don't even have to comment. Let them just speak for themselves.
U.S. military: Masri not dead. U.S. military spokesperson Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said that Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has not been killed. On Tuesday — the anniversary of Mission Accomplished — speculation spread that Masri had been killed. Instead, the military announced the death of a separate al-Qaeda in Iraq leader who helped orchestrate the kidnapping of American journalist Jill Carroll. After checking extensively, U.S. officials said they have no indication that other high-profile targets have been killed in recent days.
LINK
They are SO lame.
I am trying. But they are so bad.
In Reagan's memory?!
That's an oxymoron.
Ha.
Chris Matthews is such an ass; totally out of his element in this format. He STILL interrupts everyone. Although given the lameness of this 'debate' I'll let it slide this time.
Okay, I was in the kitchen, who was that one saying we have to move now now now on Iran? Wado, he's your man.
I'm going to drive over to Kent State tomorrow to see Cindy Sheehan and Tom Hayden and go to the spots where the students were assassinated by the Guard.
It is kind of funny Catharine!!
Out of the 10 contenders, how many are in the debate? I just counted. All 10.
Interesting. The next "debate" isn't going to have all 10.
Everyone here on Roe v. Wade. "OK" on repeal.
Fuckers. Literally. I am willing to bet that everyone of them who is straight also pushed some woman to abort their baby. Easy money.
Fuckers.
ding ding ding!
Right on, cath.
Post bungles report on Iraq negotiations. The Washington Post reports today that House and Senate leaders have made “the first major concession” in the Iraq debate: “an agreement to drop their demand for a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq.” It turns out the report is false.
LINK
Catharine said...
Everyone here on Roe v. Wade. "OK" on repeal.
Fuckers. Literally. I am willing to bet that everyone of them who is straight also pushed some woman to abort their baby. Easy money.
Fuckers.
May 3, 2007 8:30 PM
GBC said...
ding ding ding!
Right on, cath.
Catharine, that is exactly what is was thinking also. Especially Giuliani! He has that reputation already, doesn't he?
Bush threatens hate crimes veto. “The White House issued a veto threat Thursday against legislation that would expand federal hate crime law to include attacks motivated by the victims’ gender or sexual orientation. The hate crimes bill, with strong Democratic backing, is expected to pass the House Thursday. Similar legislation is moving through the Senate.”
LINK
Debate:Duncan Hunter?I thought you were in Jail? Oops,but it won't be long.Hopefully.!
Okay guys, try to sell this 'all life is precious' bs to the countless thousands of Iraqi souls you've participated in killing, you asshats.
Catharine, that is exactly what is was thinking also. Especially Giuliani! He has that reputation already, doesn't he?
May 3, 2007 8:35 PM
He was for it [Roe v. Wade] before he was against it.
Funny. He is supposedly Chris Matthews' guy, but Chris just ran him over by pushing him to embellish on his comment about Roe v. Wade.
Chris is making this a terrible debate, because he does this rapid fire talking.
Bad choice on moderators MSNBC. Unless of course you secretly wanted to tank all of these guys.
If so... then way to go!
House passes hate crimes bill. By a vote of 237-180, the House approved the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill that would enable federal officials to work with state and local officials to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. Twenty-five Republicans joined to pass the legislation. (Read more about the legislation in today’s Progress Report.)
UPDATE: ACLU has more.
UPDATE II: Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), the only one of two openly gay members of Congress, announces the passage:
Yes, Barney!!!
I've just been reading over a lot of the web sites about the Kent State Massacre. It must have been scary to have been there that day. I can see why it freaded r. jello out so bad. I will be there tomorrow.
But Catharine, Brian Williams did the same to the Dems. Did you watch the debate? Williams was very stern also and pushed the Dems as well.
I think this time Mathews is paying back a little.
Let him roll over them!!
WD, "That is Typical Left Wing Crazy Talk...I am pointing the finger at the first person in the chain of events...
The FIRST illegal ACTION.."
May 3, 2007 7:53 PM
---------
The FIRST illegal ACTION was the bombing of Cambodia by Nixon.
(This is like shooting a simpleton fish in a barrel.)
---------------------------------
WD, "Same thing as Kent State..Who is it who is killing hundreds of innocents a day..?? The Terrorists..!!!!!
May 3, 2007 8:07 PM
---------
Total number of suicide bombings in Iraq prior to the invasion by the U.S. = Zero.
(This "cause and effect" stuff is too tricky for a simpleton to grasp.)
But Catharine, Brian Williams did the same to the Dems. Did you watch the debate? Williams was very stern also and pushed the Dems as well.
I think this time Mathews is paying back a little.
Let him roll over them!!
May 3, 2007 8:42 PM
********
I didn't see it. But, both Chris and Brian are Republicans (regardless of what they may claim).
Chris is just such a bad person for this kind of position. He's contributing to this looking like a farce.
I was recently debating on a forum, and the Conservatives were trying to say that the soldiers who murdered those kids at Kent state were "in the right"
And on top of that. The savage beating of Rodney King was completely justified as well!
Something scary is or has been happening with our right wingers in this Country.
I think you point the dangerous ones out. I would reckon they would still be your Bush supporters.
I really get scared when I start to think about that mentality. :/
as seen on tv said...
I've just been reading over a lot of the web sites about the Kent State Massacre. It must have been scary to have been there that day. I can see why it freaded r. jello out so bad. I will be there tomorrow.
May 3, 2007 8:41 PM
I remember that day well. I was with friend watching it on TV and we were all sitting there in disbelief and crying.
I also remember a day in Chicago that was similar to what happened to the immigrants on May day. Maybe a little worse. I wasn't there that day but I almost went to the protest. Some of my friends were clubbed by the police and dragged away by an arm, or their hair.
I never thought I'd see a replay of those days and we are getting close. Too much to take twice in one lifetime.
Those kids at Kent were only a couple of hundred feet from those gas mask wearing soldiers when they opened fire. I would have shit my pants right on the spot. I wonder if reefer crapped his pants?
McCain speaking... Chris Matthews cuts him off [as he is prone to do as he feels it] ... McCain finally says something... "I thought I had a yellow light, Chris" [Chris still talking] Chris doesn't care... keeps talking....
Ya know, we do celebrate faith in this country, all faiths... and even gay people have faith. I know it's hard to wrap your teeny, narrow-minded neanderthal brains around, guys, but it's true! Sheesh.
Total number of suicide bombings in Iraq prior to the invasion by the U.S. = Zero.
=========================================================================================================
Your writing is childish..
Worse than your jokes..
A Good writer does not call names..
The 2 things about which you boast need to mature..
===================================
How many suicide bombings took place in Israel..
Oh I know, Jews don't count to you...
But none the less..
The assholes of the world end up killing the innocents...
Accountability...
Why did the the building have to burn..??
What was the point..???
Honestly, I don't know why someone would hate someone else based on Sexual orientation. That makes no sense to me.
Ha ha! Roll right on over them all, Chris!
Watching this debate reminds me how that assimilated press spoof that says "The Republican party is a cult" is eerily accurate.
Oh NO! What will Wado do now?!?!!?!
Clinton calls for end to Iraq war authorization
In her most dramatic statement on the Iraq war since officially entering the 2008 presidential race, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) called for ending the 2002 authorization resolution for the war.
Clinton joined with Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), a leading war opponent, in offering a proposal to "sunset" the 2002 use-of-force resolution by Oct. 11, 2007, the fifth anniversary of the Senate vote allowing President Bush to take military action against Saddam Hussein. Under the Byrd-Clinton plan, Bush would then have to return to Congress to seek new authority to conduct the war.
Clinton supported the 2002 resolution but has now turned against the war. Byrd was a vocal opponent of the war then and remains so to this day.
"The American people have called for change, the facts on the ground demand change, the Congress has passed legislation to require change," Clinton said on the Senate floor today. "It is time to sunset the authorization for the war in Iraq. If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him."
Link
Charlie...what is up with the thing about so many Repubs being very closeted gays, like David Drier, while being so monstrously homophobic at the same time?
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War Dog said...
Your writing is childish..
********
Shut up!
How's that?
Too childish for you?
Arf arf ... arf.
How many suicide bombings took place in Israel..
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Soooo, it's Iraqi's blowing themselves up in Israel? I thought those were the Palestinians? Damn! Whaadaya know?
OOoh. Chris is steering them into a cul-de-sac on the embryonic stem cell debate by using Reagan...
Club them to death.
Wait. I'm supposed to be a pacifist.
Nah. Club 'em.
Shut up!
How's that?
Too childish for you?
Arf arf ... arf.
May 3, 2007 8:57 PM
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Oh,,hahahahahahaha....
The debate is getting under someones hide...
Don't you like the way they are playin to the Christians....
hahahahahahaha..
Will you feel better when Hillary does it..????
dada said...
War Dog, I want you to think about this... You're defending the killing of unarmed college students.
May 3, 2007 7:31 PM
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It's the Limbaugh syndrome. I have learned to hear the news on one day and predict Limbaugh's and his dittoheads' response on the next.
Example: Pelosi speaks with Syria.
Dittohead response: Traitorous! Unpatriotic! Surrender monkeys!
Eventuality: Rice speaks with Syria.
Example: Deadlines demanded.
Dittohead response: Traitorous! Unpatriotic! Surrender monkeys!
Eventuality: Bush sets September deadline for surge success.
Example: Reid, "This war is lost."
Dittohead response: Traitorous! Unpatriotic! Surrender monkeys!
Eventuality: Generals, pundits, public agree that winning is not possible. Bush states that "less violence" is goal.
"In Reagan's memory?!
That's an oxymoron."
hahahah!
Wait. I thought Mitt was gay. He's married? Of course, that doesn't mean anything.
Charlie...what is up with the thing about so many Repubs...
Textbook case of self-loathing.
Which they compensate with greed and warmongering.
//
Oh, Mitt... He's going back to HillaryCare? Timewarp alert.
Question for Wado: How many Mothers and Children have to die before we lose the supposed "moral highground"?
"""""""""Soooo, it's Iraqi's blowing themselves up in Israel? I thought those were the Palestinians? Damn! Whaadaya know?""""""""""
Their all the same when your a racist and you don't give a damn about other people.
HA! That was good, dada.
It's the Limbaugh syndrome.
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It is worth noting what drives a guy nuts...
What is it that gets under his skin...???
Ha ha ha ha ha..
That Paul guy.. Libertarian... he's kinda wacky. But, he actually makes the most sense. Sorta like Perot was. In the beginning.
Cloudy forecast for job market
A report says layoff announcements surged last month, and the report's author suggests more job cuts are on the way.
April was a busy month for pink slips.
Anybody think Kucinich stands a chance?
Hee... a comment over at Americablog...
I wonder if Matthews will ask a show of hands - "Which of you will be ready to be Commander Guy on day one as President?"
General Zod | Homepage | 05.03.07 - 8:17 pm | #
So clearly Giuliani's tactic is to steer every question back to the claim he makes that he reduced crime in New York; a very misleading statement to begin with.
GBC said...
Hee... a comment over at Americablog...
I wonder if Matthews will ask a show of hands - "Which of you will be ready to be Commander Guy on day one as President?"
That "Commander guy" comment had me cracking up when I heard him say it.
And my next thought was..."and this is our president!?!"
Commander Guy on day one as President?"
General Zod | Homepage | 05.03.07 - 8:17 pm | #
May 3, 2007 9:14 PM
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Commander Guy.
Ha.
Let's play army.
Bob26003 said...
Anybody think Kucinich stands a chance?
May 3, 2007 9:11 PM
Oh, sure... a .5% chance
..and then it would only be because men (including myself) want to stare at his wife as often as possible
Rep Ron Paul is a closeted Liberal!
Go Dr. Paul!!!
Absolutely against National ID card.
That couple is so mismatched it's hilarious.
Chris Matthews is fucking it up. I guarantee, someone from the RNC gives him a little ringy dingy call when this debate is over. He will shape up and start doing shows that are meant to atone for his performance here tonight.
m the a-c said...
That couple is so mismatched it's hilarious.
I have to agree with you there.
I ask myself if I could see her as the First Lady. Can you imagin the comments!
Bob26003 said...
Anybody think Kucinich stands a chance?
May 3, 2007 9:11 PM
I find it odd that it seems like dem voters want no war & impeachment..yet their weight doesn't seem to be behind Dennis...? (and yes I think his wife is smart & pretty)...
Redheaded supermodel hangin' with a gnome
Why were are there no national debates for third parties? or are there & I just haven't heard about them?
Mr. & Mrs Dennis Kucinich
LINK
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If Hillary is to be feared, what about the rest of the Democrat Pack..???
I think John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich should switch wives. The world needs balance.
War Dog, what is wrong with you?
Are you having problems with you keyboard or something?
Alice said...
Why were are there no national debates for third parties? or are there & I just haven't heard about them?
Unfortunately neither have I.
And I think that is wrong! If someone is running for president or any office, I'd like to know their stance on issues.
These guys are delusional. They keep talking about problems with the federal government. Until this January, the Republicans controlled all branches of the federal government for six years. The GOP ran Congress since 1995. They never did any of the things they are talking about. Ever. Just blathering talking points.
And it's all Bill Clinton's fault! Waaaaaaaaah!
Mrs. Kucinich probably thinks Dennis' political positions are sexy.
Thank god this is almost over [suddenly I'm religious].
BOOORing.
as seen on tv said...
I've just been reading over a lot of the web sites about the Kent State Massacre. It must have been scary to have been there that day.
May 3, 2007 8:41 PM
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My opinion? I'm so glad you asked.
1.) The Governor should not have called in the National Guard.
2.) The National Guard (unlike today) had zero training in riot control and should NEVER fire into a crowd of students (they shot kids going to class, not protesters).
3.) It is worth noting that whomever torched the ROTC building two days prior to the massacre chose a boarded-up building that was unoccupied and slated for demolition, which implies that it was a symbolic gesture, and chose a former ROTC building, which also implies that it was a symbolic gesture. (I don't agree with the torching but it is obvious that the arsonists chose a target that minimized the risk to life and limb...unlike the choice made by the National Guard.)
Students world-wide are ALWAYS at the forefront of protest against bad actors in government. Chalk it up to youthful idealism, a youthful sense of immortality, and youthful awareness that they can exercise a say in how the world operates.
Dittoheads are quick to tout a student standing before a tank in Tiananmen Square but not so quick to support their own young people when they protest illegal warfare in Cambodia.
(Thousands were killed during the 1989 protest in and around Tiananmen Square. I wonder if the Dittoheads blame their deaths on the protesters or the government's heavy-handed response?)
Oh wait. Keith Olbermann is on. I was just about to turn it off.
You got that wrong, WD, it's the rethugs that are the packs!
What's the matter WD, thought you were a "Democrat" now. Change your mind again?
Ah, WD, your a time waster!
S O S every day. Boring!!!
What's the matter WD, thought you were a "Democrat" now. Change your mind again?
Ah, WD, your a time waster!
S O S every day. Boring!!!
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I am a Conservative .....
I am a Democrat in order to support Hillary....
I hope you do not stand against Hillary..!!!!
Wado, you saw this, didn't you?
Very interesting. And especially interesting that she has Byrd on her side - that's a big deal, and makes this far more than just a simple go-nowhere stunt. Well, that assumes she pursues this vigorously. If she does, she'll get my kudos.
Presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday sought to force another showdown with President Bush — and her Democratic rivals — over the Iraq war.
Sens. Clinton, D-N.Y., and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., announced they would introduce legislation that would require the president to seek a reauthorization from Congress to extend the military effort in Iraq beyond October 11, 2007.
If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him," Clinton said in a speech on the Senate floor.
This may be one time when I will have to turn Olbermann off.
Blech.
It's not Keith; it's the other people.
My fave moment was still McCain: I'll follow him to the gates of hell!!!!
Well, we already you both have a one-way ticket there, bub.
Chavez threatens to nationalize banks
1 hour, 21 minutes ago
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday warned he would nationalize the country's banks and largest steel producer if they persist with what he described as unscrupulous practices.
LINK
ahem... "know" you both have...
Shit. And I'm not drinking tonight either. ;-p
Republican Debate Recap Open Thread / Vomitorium
WD: It is worth noting what drives a guy nuts...What is it that gets under his skin...???
May 3, 2007 9:07 PM
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Uneducated fools who have a vote, for one thing.
Willful ignorance, for another. But I repeat myself.
The Vietnam war was a failed attempt to impose democracy at the point of a gun on a culture poorly understood by U.S. policy makers.
The Iraq war is a failed attempt to impose democracy at the point of a gun on a culture poorly understood by U.S. policy makers.
Most of the people in this country and across the globe have figured this out. It isn't rocket science. It's purely clinical; observe, take notes, reach obvious conclusion.
Florida moves to paper ballots
FL to provide paper ballots to all voters by 2008, ban paperless voting by 2012.
LINK
Hillary wants Bush to seek a new war authorization vote
by John Aravosis (DC) · 5/03/2007 07:15:00 PM ET
Discuss this post here: Comments (62) · digg it · reddit · FARK · · Link
Very interesting. And especially interesting that she has Byrd on her side - that's a big deal, and makes this far more than just a simple go-nowhere stunt. Well, that assumes she pursues this vigorously. If she does, she'll get my kudos.
Presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday sought to force another showdown with President Bush — and her Democratic rivals — over the Iraq war.
Sens. Clinton, D-N.Y., and Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., announced they would introduce legislation that would require the president to seek a reauthorization from Congress to extend the military effort in Iraq beyond October 11, 2007.
"If the president will not bring himself to accept reality, it is time for Congress to bring reality to him," Clinton said in a speech on the Senate floor.
Link
GBC said...Shit. And I'm not drinking tonight either. ;-p
May 3, 2007 9:43 PM
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Shit. Now what am I gonna do with this Kahlua and Jägermeister?
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