Potential terror jurors cite 9/11 doubts By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press Writer
MIAMI --Many potential jurors in the Jose Padilla terrorism-support case say they aren't sure who directed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because they don't trust reporters or the federal government.
"There are too many ifs, too many things going on," one male juror said. "I don't know the whole story."
Others say they just don't pay close enough attention to world events to be certain.
"I'm oblivious to that stuff," one prospective female juror said during questioning this week. "I don't watch the news much. I try to avoid it."
The doubts were noted by a significant portion of the more than 160 people who have been questioned individually since jury selection in the case began April 16.
Padilla and two co-defendants are charged with being part of a North American support cell for Islamic extremists. A jury is expected to be seated next week, with testimony to begin May 14.
Padilla, a U.S. citizen held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, is accused of applying for an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. He was previously accused of an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city, but that allegation is not part of the Miami case.
Before they came to court, each of the jurors filled out a 115-question form asking about a wide range of legal, political and religious topics, particularly their views of Arabs, Muslims and Islamic radicals. On question No. 60, which asks for an opinion about responsibility for the Sept. 11 terror attacks, many people said they don't know.
"I've been surprised at the number of our jurors who don't have an opinion about 9/11," U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who is presiding over the case and asks most of the juror questions, said Wednesday.
The questionnaires were used to weed out dozens of people with obvious biases or personal hardships before the face-to-face interviews began, meaning many potential jurors with strong views about Sept. 11 never made it to court because their ability to be impartial was in question.
A cottage industry of conspiracy theorists has sprung up among academics and others who claim such things as that the U.S. was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, or that explosives planted inside the World Trade Center towers brought the buildings down rather than the jetliners that crashed into them.
In the Padilla case, what's notable is not so much conspiracy theories as the lack of any views at all.
toniD said...100k Israelis march, urge PM to quit May 3, 2007 9:52 PM ---------------------------------- Yahweh help them if they torch a derelict ROTC building...
War Dog is the essence of the right wing nut case who believes that his posting of wingnut talking points on a Liberal blog will accomplish something other than making a complete ass of himself.
Why didn't Chris ask them: Do you think it was wise to terminate the ops unit that was supposed to hunt down and catch Osama Bin Laden?
//
The U.S. campaign to track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden did give the candidates a chance to take a clear-cut position. All who were asked said the mission was imperative, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who tried to clarify his previous statement that the war on terrorism “is more than about just one man.”
Romney repeated that “this is about more than Osama bin Laden,” but he said firmly, “He will have to pay, and he is going to die.”
McCain was equally blunt, promising, “We will bring him to justice, and I will follow him to the gates of hell.”
Australia Accused Of Helping Fund And Arm Tamil Tiger "Terrorists"
If it wasn't enough that the Howard government helped keep Saddam Hussein supplied with enough cash to buy more human shredding machines and testicle shock kits - by repeatedly turning many blind eyes to the flood of memos pouring across the desks of the prime minister and foreign minister all but screaming out "Pay attention morons! Your wheat contractor is bribing Saddam with hundreds of millions of dollars!" - now the very same government is accused of not only allowing the Tamil Tigers to raise funds in Australia to fight their insurgency in Sri Lanka, but also stand accused of helping them to arm up and put together their own air force as well (as minor as it is).
If this keeps up, Australia is going to become a prime target of the 'War on Terror'.
After all, it was John Howard's good mate President Bush who has often said that if you hide, feed, supply weapons to, or help fund, terrorists, then you are as bad as the terrorists.
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.
He didn't like the casserole And he didn't like my cake. He said my biscuits were too hard... Not like his mother used to make. I didn't perk the coffee right He didn't like the stew, I didn't mend his socks The way his mother used to do. I pondered for an answer I was looking for a clue. Then I turned around and smacked the shit out of him... Like his mother used to do.
Beelzebub: "Gates of Hell, Beelzebub speaking." John McCain: "John McCain here." Beelzebub: "The astronaut?" John McCain: "One and the same." Beelzebub: "Gee. This is quite an honor. What can I do for you?" John McCain: "I'm looking for Osama bin Laden." Beelzebub: "You and me both. He owes me a soul." John McCain: "Do you know where I can find him?" Beelzebub: "The last known address is Tora Bora but I don't have a forwarding." John McCain: "I thought that you knew about stuff like this?" Beelzebub: "I don't run around chasing them. They all come to me in due time."
I can't belive anyone takes McCain seriously. After his whole Iraqi market trip recently, it's amazing to me that he's still treated like a legitimate candidate. It's only because there's such a lame bunch of Republicans against him that he's still a contender at all.
looking back to 2002: HC did vote for the amendment which limited war authorization to one year - this was defeated; guess who voted against it ... check it out ... not at all a surprise there
---
"I supported the Byrd amendment on Oct 10, 2002 which would have limited the original authorization to one year and I believe a full reconsideration of the terms and conditions of that authorization is overdue," she said.
Go Hillary! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070503/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_iraq;_ylt=ArbPXAgTXrIMwwPcV99uLAWyFz4D
dada, I agree. Good post! I liked the following excerpt from the article.
Excerpt:
Ironically, General David Petraeus, the recently appointed commander of U.S.-led forces in Iraq, has in the past written of the failure of the senior military leadership to talk straight about the Vietnam War and its impact on subsequent U.S. civil-military relations.
Petraeus is himself now in a position to advise both the administration and the new Democratic-controlled Congress. In his confirmation hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Petraeus promised that he would give his "best professional military advice, and if people don't like it, then they can find someone else to give better professional military advice."
Hopefully, he will speak candidly -- and Gates will listen.
I'm a bit of a rable rouser, I'll admit to this. Although I did not attend the May 1st rallies in Los Angeles (because this city makes you oh so apathetic about anything other than traffic patterns), I am glad they happened. What surprised me was less the use of force on protesters, sadly this is not a shock anymore, but how the media was treated.
Being a troublemaker I am pretty anti-Fox News. I took a nearly obscene amount of joy in watching a Fox reporter in San Diego get punched last summer. However, in this circumstance I've got to hand it to them-- Fox's reporters literally took a beating and stood up to the atrotious treatment the media got during this protest. I understand that police, protesters, and the media need to find a way to coexist, but in my mind there is no excuse for hitting camera men or shoving reporters. And if you are going to do that, at least don't do it on film. At the risk of sounding just a little paranoid, it seems like a very bad sign when the police are willing to start hitting journalists.
If one good thing does come out of this event, it will be that the footage aired on a major network. Unlike Josh Wolf, who served 226 days in jail for refusing to turn over footage of a protest, this video aired in one of the country's largest media markets and on a network that (may be biased) but is certainly a "legit" news outlet.
dada said... I can't belive anyone takes McCain seriously. After his whole Iraqi market trip recently, it's amazing to me that he's still treated like a legitimate candidate. ------------------------------- It is difficult for me to understand how the "people" and the media coexist in modern times.
Time was, Fatty Arbuckle or Spiro Agnew could be ruined in one fell swoop.
Nowadays, a drug-deafened, anti-drug spokesman can be busted for illegally acquiring thousands of Oxycontin pills and continue his career as if nothing more serious had happened than shooting his beaver and shaving his head.
A few years ago I believed that Huckabee had a shot at appealing to the divide between Left and Right. He bucked his party on several issues as Governor of Arkansas, lost a lot of body weight and waged a campaign to fight obesity in children (which is a BIG problem in Arkansas).
But then he reverted to his preacher roots and began an effort to appeal to the Religious Right, which has become more of a liability for Republicans than the asset they were intended to be.
Arkansas has a population roughly that of Chicago. Even if they were all firmly behind Huckabee and his bible thumping, he would need to appeal to dozens of cities across the nation.
He should have stuck to his health talking points and the "little bit Left, little bit Right" swings on the remaining issues. He can be a compelling speaker when he isn't being a bible literalist nutjob.
three engines, 2- .049's one from the 1950's, one modern RC .10, .049 needing TLC, .10 RC nearly new. 3 sets of vintage multi plane plans with some RC, free flight and Ucontrol with a few of them beginner planes and some scale, a few racers, rubber free flight etc. 2 balsa wood glider kits, high performance hand or rubber band launch. a decade of 1969 Flying models mags and a few from 1949 when i was born.
and i've torn up my entire basement looking for a pamphlet on how to trim all of the above...
no ceegar yet on that.
send it now anyway? i can always talk him thru it later?
send it now anyway? i can always talk him thru it later?
May 3, 2007 11:09 PM
I vote yes...he's so damn sweet..always smiling...has been in twice & always says please and thank you..I just love him...so yeah...recalling Xmas day magic..this kid is going nuts...sooner the better..technicalities later.. :)
Thank you sooooooooooooooooo much!
*
What is going on with your littl girl who was raped?
one of the hood kids, doctor, sex counselor, everything good so far. strictly up to the kid so far as far as to where it goes, privacy intact, health wise looks good.
Invoking the name of Ronald Reagan was about as desperate one can get. With an average IQ accompanied by Alzheimer, Reagan was the Republican candidate's inspiration tonight.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman estimates that $4 billion in taxpayer money has so far been spent in Iraq on these armed "security" companies like Blackwater -- with tens of billions more going to other war companies like KBR and Fluor for "logistical" support. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of the House Intelligence Committee believes that up to forty cents of every dollar spent on the occupation has gone to war contractors.
With such massive government payouts, there is little incentive for these companies to minimize their footprint in the region and every incentive to look for more opportunities to profit -- especially if, sooner or later, the "official" U.S. presence shrinks, giving the public a sense of withdrawal, of a winding down of the war.
Even if George W. Bush were to sign the legislation the Democrats have passed, their plan "allows the President the leeway to escalate the use of military security contractors directly on the battlefield," Erik Leaver of the Institute for Policy Studies points out. It would "allow the President to continue the war using a mercenary army."
tell ya bout it sometime. kid appreciated blog input, helped on getting the kid in to see the doc and counselor. kid helped with the car wash and polish. think thst helped too. did'nt end up feeling like a charity case, gained some abilitym empowerment and experience. good deal so far.
few details to sort out, got a handle on that too.
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)...
May 3, 2007 9:23 PM
Reminds me of a song - "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me..."
Unfortunately for US and the world, the American electorate has not evolved to the maturity level necessary to elect Kucinich. Mostly into "Daddy" action heroes.
m the a-c said... Redheaded supermodel hangin' with a gnome ---------------
Yep, that's it. America is too shallow to vote for a man that looks like a gnome.
Conan O'Brien use to do a parody of Kucinich that was brutal. He had an image of Dennis with extremely large ears. The camera angle was pulled back to make Dennis face look very small. It enhanced the giant protruding ears. He spoke with a high pitched squeak.
In 1988, when Richard Gephardt first attempted to run for president, guess what they said about him?
He has no eyebrows.
This is the kind of nonsense is largely due to our Hollywood celeb culture.
The '08 Ticket will be Gore/Richardson, who will win the Presidential Election by the largest margin in US history, putting the Republican War Dog Plan in the ash heap of history along with Adolf Hitler.
------------ Sunshine Jim said... kid appreciated blog input, helped on getting the kid in to see the doc and counselor. kid helped with the car wash and polish. think thst helped too. did'nt end up feeling like a charity case, gained some abilitym empowerment and experience. good deal so far.
Why is it when Bush vetoes the bill to fund the war with a timetable, it's Congress and the Democrats that are said to be "not supporting the troops." Congress passed a bill that not only funds the troops, but takes into account the advice of top Generals and the American people to begin to reduce our presence in Iraq.
I blame the media. In fact, it seems to me that as if in response to the Bill Moyers special criticizing the lack of journalistic integrity leading up to the war, the press has been even more sycophantic toward the Bush administration, if that's possible.
I assume the Press is owned by the same folks who are lining their pockets from this "War"
It seems to me that it is never about the American People anymore: Give em just enough so they don't rise up and hang us from lampposts.
Every aspect of our Gov. (except law enforcement, which main duty is to protect capital) is failing us. We now learn that this toxic chemical in the pet food made it's way into the chicken feed. Our diets are killing us. Don't quote me, but I believe in 1900 the percent of deaths from heart disease was like 5% or so, and now it is like 35-40% ........ Global warming is no longer avoidable... Our edumacation system is going down the pooper. Disparities between the Rich and Poor are growing, the Mid class is shrinking. Traditional family structures are no longer the norm......
Star Vox said... ------------ Sunshine Jim said... kid appreciated blog input, helped on getting the kid in to see the doc and counselor. kid helped with the car wash and polish. think thst helped too. did'nt end up feeling like a charity case, gained some abilitym empowerment and experience. good deal so far.
May 3, 2007 11:50 PM
_________________
Sunshine Jim, Thanks for the update!
S.Jim-Good to hear.Glad things are going better. :)
Politics has been Hollywoodized. --------------------------------
Oh so true Bob. Did you see tonight's Republican debate? They had Nancy Davis Reagan, who was an actress before she married Reagan, and Arnuld (The Gropanator) sitting on the first row.
------------- Don Cheadle and John Prendergast On Their "Mission To End Genocide In Darfur And Beyond"
We speak with Academy Award-nominated actor Don Cheadle and renowned human rights activist John Prendergast about their new book, "Not On Our Watch: The Mission To End Genocide In Darfur And Beyond."
For the first time, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for crimes allegedly committed in the conflict in Darfur. Sudanese humanitarian affairs minister Ahmad Muhammad Harun and a Janjaweed militia leader known as Ali Kushayb are accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
ENOUGH, a joint project of Crisis Group and the Center for American Progress, is determined to help bring an end to the crimes against humanity being perpetrated in Darfur, northern Uganda and eastern Congo, and to prevent future mass atrocities.
''''''''''Oh so true Bob. Did you see tonight's Republican debate? They had Nancy Davis Reagan, who was an actress before she married Reagan, and Arnuld (The Gropanator) sitting on the first row.
I guess that's suppose to be progress.''''''''''''
No, I didn't see it. I don't think I could handle it to be honest :D
I mean it's like a bunch of empty suits saying nothing but things that will harm the people and trying to twist there words and presentations so it sounds like the opposite.
The corporate culture really disgusts me. The whole idea of "gain wealth forgetting all but self"........ I just can't relate. I don't want to.
You know wot was cool though, I was watching clips today on youtube: Rosie O Donnel view clips.... And I noticed that Elizabeth Gay said that in the past, the idea of capitalism was different and was centered much more on community. I can understand why OReilly is after her so hard. I think, like Chomsky said... These ideas of things like wage slavery and helping yer fellow man..... lie right below the surface of the Public concious. I know people are having these thoughts.
Its like, I just started group therapy today.... And seeing all these people in bad predicaments reaffirmed my understanding that America is leaving alot of people behind........
I also ran across some poll or study that measured the happiness of Nations populations....
Ive noticed Jim, that it seems in comparison, at least to the Forum I was visiting, that the regs on this blog are much more intellectual. Not in an official way.
But it seemed like I ran across a whole lot of recitation of what I could have turned to CNN to hear.
Sometime though I start to think, hey, maybe these guys really thought about it and this is what they believe (for example the guy who said the Kent state shooting was completely justified)....
And sometime I think other stuff...
Anyhoo, I think what I am trying to say is that it is a commodity to be questioning and able to think critically....... Cause I think the machine is running in high gear. Seems like pretty soon and theyll be burning books :/
------------- This week on "Bill Moyers Journal" -
British renaissance man — physician, author, and director of theater and opera — Jonathan Miller speaks about the hidden story of atheism, the subject of his series, "A Brief History of Disbelief."
With the help of the Innocence Project, Jerry Miller became the 200th person exonerated by DNA evidence and in his first television interview, talks about his path to freedom after serving 25 years.
As Congress investigates why the Administration made false pre-war claims, Italy’s foremost investigative reporter Carlo Bonini, takes viewers on the trail of the forged intelligence documents purporting that Iraq sought to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.
Bill Moyers on the cost of war.
___________________
"In wartime, your enemy is the lies, is the propaganda. No matter if it's the propaganda of your enemies, or if it's the propaganda of your government." - Carlo Bonini
Each week, video, transcripts, and further resources and investigations from Bill Moyers Journal is available online.
Anyway, I am off, gonna put on the audiobook and get some rest....
Nice talking to you all again even if only briefly. Ima gonna start posting again. My month or so off has allowed the stuff I need to bitch about to build up. :D
it's us and them respondintd to what we've learned.
ya cant think in level three when all ya know is level 1.
plus ya need to develop a lot of skill in a number of fields and attitudes, philosophies if ya want to describe it in a fancier way, that let you start to understand this on all the levels that this consists of.
Yes it does, I guess you can never truly relate until you've seen things from that angle.
But I stay open and try to "get" their side of the story..... Try to understand the motivation. And I can't.
It seems like I am not looking at this from the outside anymore but from the inside, so the things driving me are strong...... Maybe if I took a step back and tried not to be so passionate about what I think is right and wrong, I could gain a better perspective.
-------------- Sunshine Jim said... you gonna take off without responding to all my laborious typing? May 4, 2007 2:24 AM
Sunshine Jim said... gadamit! i'm to pissed off in general and impatient to talk to myself here. anyone understand what i'm talking about? May 4, 2007 2:29 AM
_____________________
Good evening, Sunshine Jim! Your typing is appreciated!
I can't post any faster at the moment. If I get too involved, I'll get caught not paying attention to cat, and get in trouble. I don't want to summon the wrath. You understand. *smiles*
"There is something mankind can never destroy in spite of an unreasoning will to destruction, and this is its own idealism, that integral part of its very being. The ageing and the cynical may make wars, but the young and idealistic must fight them, and thus there are bound to come quick reactions, blind impulses not always comprehended. Men will curse as they kill, yet accomplish deeds of self-sacrifice, giving their lives for others; poets will write with their pens dripped in blood, yet will write not of death, but of life eternal; strong and courteous friendships will be born, to endure in the face of enmity and destruction. And so persistent is this urge to the ideal, above all in the presence of a great disaster, that mankind, the willful destroyer of beauty, must immediately strive to create new beauties, lest it perish from a sense of its own desolation..."
Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness. Avon, 1981 at 284
"i'm thinking of all the things you can do and type at the same time."
“How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft. One would have to seek the highest type of free man where the greatest resistance is constantly being overcome: five steps from tyranny, near the threshold of the danger of servitude.”
The Harder They Come ... A Stock Market Post-Mortem By MIKE WHITNEY
"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class that's winning."
--Investment tycoon, Warren Buffett
The real estate market is crashing faster than anyone had anticipated. Housing prices have fallen in 17 of 20 of the nation's largest cities and the trend lines indicate that the worst is yet to come. March sales of new homes plummeted by a record 23.5% (year over year) removing all hope for a quick rebound. Problems in the subprime and Alt-A loans are mushrooming in previously "hot markets" resulting in an unprecedented number of foreclosures. The defaults have slowed demand for new homes and increased the glut of houses already on the market. This is putting additional downward pressure on prices and profits. More and more builders are struggling just to keep their heads above water. This isn't your typical 1980s-type "correction"; it's a full-blown real estate cyclone smashing everything in its path.
Tremors from the real estate earthquake won't be limited to housing--they will rumble through all areas of the economy including the stock market, financial sector and currency trading. There is simply no way to minimize the effects of a bursting $4.5 trillion equity bubble.
The next shoe to drop will be the stock market which is still flying-high from increases in the money supply. The Federal Reserve has printed up enough fiat-cash to keep overpriced equities jumping for joy for a few months longer. But it won't last. Wall Street's credit bubble is even bigger than the housing bubble---a monstrous, lumbering dirigible that's headed for a crash-landing. The Dow is like a drunk atop a 13,000 ft cliff; inebriated on the Fed's cheap "low-interest" liquor. One wrong step and he'll plunge headlong into the ether.
The stock market cheerleaders are ooooing and ahhing the Dow's climb to 13,000, but it's all a sham. Wall Street is just enjoying the last wisps of Greenspan's low interest helium swirling into the largest credit bubble in history. But there are big changes on the way. In fact, the storm clouds have already formed over the housing market. The subprime albatross has lashed itself to everything in the economy ---dragging down consumer confidence, GDP and (eventually) the stock market, too. The real damage is just beginning to materialize.
So why the stock market keep hitting new highs?
Is it because foreign investors believe that American equities will continue to do well even though the housing market is slumping and GDP has shriveled to the size of a California raison? Or is it because stockholders haven't noticed that the greenback getting clobbered every day in the currency markets? Or, maybe, investors are just expressing their confidence in the way the U.S. is managing the global economic system?
Is that it---they admire the wisdom of borrowing $2.5 billion per day from foreign lenders just to keep the ship of state from taking on water?
No, that's not it. The reason the stock market is flying-high is because the Federal Reserve has been ginning up the money supply to avoid a Chernobyl-type meltdown. All that new funny-money has to go somewhere, so a lot of it winds up in the stock market. Evergreen Bank's Chuck Butler explains the process in Thursday's Daily Pfennig:
While the established religions are obviously quite different in thier superficial dogmas, Huxley found a common core in all thier theologies - a shared implicate order, so to speak. He called called this the Perennial Philosophy, defined as the trancendental essence of all the main religions promulgated through their mystical traditions. The metaphysics of the Perennial Philosophy, Huxley says, is "immemorial and universal."
Erwin Schroedinger, who was interested in mysticism, commented on Huxley's Perennial Philosophy:
"It is an anthology from the mystics of the most various periods and the most various peoples. Open it where you will and you will find many beautiful utterances of a similar kind. You are struck by the miraculous agreement between humans of different race, different religion knowing nothing about each other's existence, separated by centuries and millenia, and by the greatest distances that there are on our globe."
While these trancendental traditions have obvious similarities we should not assume that there is absolute agreement among them. And while Perennial Philosophy is sometimes equated with the mystical experince from which it springs, each tradition has its own special insights and beliefs, and each individual's encounter with the unknowable is unique.
The mystic who has a direct experience of the divine "Ground" (or the mystery) cannot have that experience invalidated or validated by any of the sciences, or, for that matter, by any traditional religion. As soon as she/he describes the experience, however, a version of the Perennial Philosophy is created. The spoken or written description of the experience is a metaphor or a "map" of the territory, and, as a mental construct, is open to a rational critique. The difficulty lies in the fact that the ,ystic is conined to a language geared to a level of reality different from that of the experience. Huxley himself states this very well when he notes that a truly correct expression of the Perennial Philosophy is not possibl. He says:
"Nobody has yet invented a Spiritual Calculus in terms of which we may talk coherently about divine "Ground" and of the world conceived of its manifestation...
So far then, as a fully adequate expression of the Perennial Philosophy is concerned, there exists a problem in semantics that finally insoluble."
From that same counterpunch article about the stock market:
"The Fed may have quit publishing the M3 data, but they continue to publish all the data that goes into the calculation and our friends over at Shadow Government Statistics have a chart which demonstrates why the Fed decided to keep M3 under wraps. A look at the chart shows the Fed is pumping up broad money supply at an astounding rate of 11.8% per year! All of this rapid money supply growth is reflected in an increase in equity prices. The stock market needs to rise just to keep pace with all of this newly-created money. As long as the Fed doesn't rock the boat with another rate hike or by turning off the spigot of money flowing into the markets, the equity markets will continue to run."
Ah-ha! So the Fed gooses the money supply, stocks shoot up, and everyone's happy---right?
Wrong. Growth in the money supply should (closely) parallel growth in the overall economy. So if GDP is shrinking (which it is) and the money supply is increasing then--Viola!--inflation. ("11.8%" to be precise)
Every time the Fed prints up another batch of crisp $100 bills; they're confiscating the hard-earned savings of working class people and retirees. And, since the dollar has dropped roughly 40% since Bush took office in 2000; the government has absconded with 40% our life savings.
That's the truth about inflation; it is taxation without representation, but you won't find that in the government's statistics. In fact, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) deliberately factors out food and energy so the working guy can't see how the Fed is robbing him blind. The only way he can gauge his losses is by going to the grocery store or gas station. That's when he can see for himself that the money he works so hard to earn is steadily losing its purchasing power.
"In wartime, your enemy is the lies, is the propaganda. No matter if it's the propaganda of your enemies, or if it's the propaganda of your government." - Carlo Bonini
This week on Bill Moyers Journal (check local listings)
British renaissance man — physician, author, and director of theater and opera — Jonathan Miller speaks about the hidden story of atheism, the subject of his series A Brief History of Disbelief.
With the help of the Innocence Project, Jerry Miller became the 200th person exonerated by DNA evidence and in his first television interview, talks about his path to freedom after serving 25 years.
As Congress investigates why the Administration made false pre-war claims, Italy’s foremost investigative reporter Carlo Bonini, takes viewers on the trail of the forged intelligence documents purporting that Iraq sought to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.
The Gipper Won't Win This One Robert L. Borosage May 03, 2007 Robert L. Borosage is the co-director of the Institute for America's Future. This article was first published in the Chicago Tribune.
As Republican contenders for the presidential nomination gather for their first debate Thursday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, they are caught between a rock and a hard place. The vast majority of Americans have given up on George Bush, the sitting conservative president. But the die-hards who still support him are loyal Republican primary voters that no Republican candidate can afford to offend.
How can the contenders distance themselves from Bush’s failures without alienating their own base? Expect them to invoke the conservative icon Ronald Reagan early and often. They’ll call for a return to the faith, pledge to follow in the footsteps of the Gipper and promise a new “Morning in America.”
But the Gipper can’t save them. Bush’s signature failures—the war in Iraq, Katrina, Enron and the corporate scandals, failed tax and trade policies, the attempt to privatize Social Security, the posturing around Terri Schaivo and stem cells – can be traced back not simply to the conservative ideology and ideologues that sired them—but to the core conservative doctrine that Reagan championed. The Gipper can’t lead Republican candidates out of the wilderness because, to paraphrase him, his conservatism is not the solution to their problem; his conservatism is the problem.
Over the last six years, with Bush in the White House, Tom DeLay ramrodding the Republican Congress, and Karl Rove focused on mobilizing the Republican base, conservatives have largely had their way. Bush pursued the core ideas of each strand of “movement conservatism” largely to catastrophic effect. In each case, he was simply walking in Reagan’s footsteps.
The neo-cons got the Iraq war they plotted for, and produced the worst foreign policy debacle in U.S. history. Their toxic mix of militarist unilateralism, scorn for allies and the United Nations, dismissal of international law, embrace of an imperial presidency above the law was Reagan’s opening act. In his first term, Reagan scorned détente, arms control, the U.N. and global accords. Reagan also fecklessly exposed U.S. troops in Lebanon—and had the intervention literally blow up in his face. He just had the good sense to cut and run, and then pick on a target easier to deal with—hapless Grenada in the Caribbean.
The New York Times today named its next public editor, Clark Hoyt, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor who oversaw the Knight Ridder newspaper chain’s coverage that questioned the Bush administration’s case for the Iraq war.
- Gee,it looks like someone besides us,was watching Bill Moyers on PBS,the other night!
read this article from cnn this morning and i defy anyone to tell me why we should spend another day in iraq. between the incompetence of our administration and the evil that permeates their society, its time to walk away and let them eat themselves.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- American soldiers discovered a girls school being built north of Baghdad had become an explosives-rigged "death trap," the U.S. military said Thursday.
The plot at the Huda Girls' school in Tarmiya was a "sophisticated and premeditated attempt to inflict massive casualties on our most innocent victims," military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.
The military suspects the plot was the work of al Qaeda, because of its nature and sophistication, Caldwell said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
The plot was uncovered Saturday, when troopers in the Salaheddin province found detonating wire across the street from the school. They picked up the wire and followed its trail, which led to the school. Once inside, they found an explosive-filled propane tank buried beneath the floor. There were artillery shells built into the ceiling and floor, and another propane tank was found, the military said.
The wire was concealed with mortar and concrete, and the propane tanks had been covered with brick and hidden underneath the floor, according to a military statement. Soldiers were able to clear the building.
"It was truly just an incredibly ugly, dirty kind of vicious killing that would have gone on here," Caldwell said.
Iraqi contractors were responsible for building the school, which was intended to bring in hundreds of girls.
"Given the care and work put into emplacing this IED, it is likely it had been planned for a long time" and it is thought that "the IED was not intended to be set off until the building was occupied," the military said.
Authorities intend to question the Iraqis involved in the school's construction.
i didn't watch the reagan seance last night but the turks are talking about it. did 3 of them actually raise their hand and say they don't believe in evolution?
blah blah blah said... i didn't watch the reagan seance last night but the turks are talking about it. did 3 of them actually raise their hand and say they don't believe in evolution?
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA OOOOOOHHHH HOOOOOOOO HA HA HOOOOOO HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
REAGAN MYSTIQUE HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seven out of ten Winger candidates for President believe in evolution. The other three think Jesus rode a Stegosaurus through Galilee smoke | Homepage | 05.04.07 - 7:38 am | #
It should be clear by now that for 12 years, from 1981-1993, the United States was governed by political leaders who merged the power of the state with criminality to a degree possibly unmatched in modern American history!
and the "crack" epidemic that devastated Los Angeles and other U.S. cities due to massive shipments of cocaine smuggled by elements of the CIA-organized Nicaraguan contra army in the early-to-mid 1980s.
Today is the fallout of the debate last night. Just like the Dems, the repubs will be over analysed.
Here's somthing from Crooks and Liars...
Republicans’ Round 1 goes to Reagan By: Steve @ 5:10 AM - PDT After any debate, the first and most natural question is “who won?” Last night, the winner was obvious: Ronald Reagan.
Look, I know Reagan is the only president of the 20th century that Republicans really like. And I know that the debate was being held at the Reagan Library in California. But over the course of 90 minutes, the candidates specifically referenced the 40th president 20 times. If you count more oblique references (Gilmore thanked “the president in whose name this library is named”), the number climbs to 25. If you include references to Reagan by debate moderator Chris Matthews, well, we get pretty close to triple digits.
This just isn’t healthy. If this was a drinking game, players would have been three sheets to the wind within the first half hour. Even Peggy Noonan, who is second to no one among Reagan worshipers, explained in her column today that enough is enough.
[T]he media’s fixation with which Republican is the most like Reagan, and who is the next Reagan, and who parts his hair like Reagan, is absurd, and subtly undermining of Republicans, which is why they do it. Reagan was Reagan, a particular man at a particular point in history. What is to be desired now is a new greatness. Another way of saying this is that in 1960, John F. Kennedy wasn’t trying to be the next FDR, and didn’t feel forced to be. FDR was the great, looming president of Democratic Party history, and there hadn’t been anyone as big or successful since 1945, but JFK thought it was good enough to be the best JFK. And the press wasn’t always sitting around saying he was no FDR. Oddly enough, they didn’t consider that an interesting theme.
They should stop it already, and Republicans should stop playing along.
Too bad no one thought to tell them this before last night.
and the "crack" epidemic that devastated Los Angeles and other U.S. cities due to massive shipments of cocaine smuggled by elements of the CIA-organized Nicaraguan contra army in the early-to-mid 1980s.
Ronald Reagan claimed that the Russian language had no word for "freedom." (The word is "svoboda"; it's quite well attested in Russian literature.) Ronald Reagan said that intercontinental ballistic missiles (not that there are any non-ballistic missiles—a corruption of language that isn't his fault) could be recalled once launched. Ronald Reagan said that he sought a "Star Wars" defense only in order to share the technology with the tyrants of the U.S.S.R. Ronald Reagan professed to be annoyed when people called it "Star Wars," even though he had ended his speech on the subject with the lame quip, "May the force be with you." Ronald Reagan used to alarm his Soviet counterparts by saying that surely they'd both unite against an invasion from Mars. Ronald Reagan used to alarm other constituencies by speaking freely about the "End Times" foreshadowed in the Bible. In the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan told Yitzhak Shamir and Simon Wiesenthal, on two separate occasions, that he himself had assisted personally at the liberation of the Nazi death camps.
There was more to Ronald Reagan than that. Reagan announced that apartheid South Africa had "stood beside us in every war we've ever fought," when the South African leadership had been on the other side in the most recent world war. Reagan allowed Alexander Haig to greenlight the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, fired him when that went too far and led to mayhem in Beirut, then ran away from Lebanon altogether when the Marine barracks were bombed, and then unbelievably accused Tip O'Neill and the Democrats of "scuttling." Reagan sold heavy weapons to the Iranian mullahs and lied about it, saying that all the weapons he hadn't sold them (and hadn't traded for hostages in any case) would, all the same, have fit on a small truck. Reagan then diverted the profits of this criminal trade to an illegal war in Nicaragua and lied unceasingly about that, too. Reagan then modestly let his underlings maintain that he was too dense to understand the connection between the two impeachable crimes. He then switched without any apparent strain to a policy of backing Saddam Hussein against Iran. (If Margaret Thatcher's intelligence services had not bugged Oliver North in London and become infuriated because all European nations were boycotting Iran at Reagan's request, we might still not know about this.)
One could go on. I only saw him once up close, which happened to be when he got a question he didn't like. Was it true that his staff in the 1980 debates had stolen President Carter's briefing book? (They had.) The famously genial grin turned into a rictus of senile fury: I was looking at a cruel and stupid lizard. His reply was that maybe his staff had, and maybe they hadn't, but what about the leak of the Pentagon Papers? Thus, a secret theft of presidential documents was equated with the public disclosure of needful information. This was a man never short of a cheap jibe or the sort of falsehood that would, however laughable, buy him some time.
The fox, as has been pointed out by more than one philosopher, knows many small things, whereas the hedgehog knows one big thing. Ronald Reagan was neither a fox nor a hedgehog. He was as dumb as a stump. He could have had anyone in the world to dinner, any night of the week, but took most of his meals on a White House TV tray. He had no friends, only cronies. His children didn't like him all that much. He met his second wife—the one that you remember—because she needed to get off a Hollywood blacklist and he was the man to see. Year in and year out in Washington, I could not believe that such a man had even been a poor governor of California in a bad year, let alone that such a smart country would put up with such an obvious phony and loon.
Sunshine said:the savings-and-loan plundering and a hundred other economic rip-offs that enriched the few and left the nation trillions of dollars in debt.
Oh ya!Neil BUSH!! The Culture of Coruption's been BIG with these GOP'ers for many a Moon!
“Deputy chief of staff Karl Rove participated in a hastily called meeting at the White House two months ago” to coach a top Justice Department official on what he should say to Congress about the prosecutorial purge. Investigators are suggesting that Rove’s attendance at the meeting shows that he may have been involved in an attempt to mislead Congress.
the elite of Washington seem content to turn a blind eye on the currupt history of the 1980s.
presumably, the sanitized history is safer for the careers of those Republican, Democrat, journalists and bureaucrats who protected an insane criminal enterprise at the very heart of national power.
that's you dogger, in your teeny tiny way is'nt it?
pay backs a bitch, i bet before this is all over you'll conveniently forget Reagan ever existed...
Michael Elston, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, made calls to the purged U.S. attorneys telling them to kept quiet about their dismissals. Elston recently told congressional investigators that those calls were placed at McNulty’s direction after he learned the prosecutors might testify before Congress about their dismissals.
Does every President try to screw you, or just the Republicans..???
interesting question. part 1 is that its true for republicans. i can't recall one (with the exception of gerry ford) that was good for the country. the closest might have been the elder bush who i basically recall as treading water.
as for dems, carter did a pretty good job of screwing things up, but it came from incompetence. in his heart, he was a good person.
Iran’s foreign minister walked out of a dinner of diplomats where he was seated directly across from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, complaining that the female violinist was dressed too revealingly. “I dont know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of state,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Why would they put someone like this Barber asshole on AAR--EVEN AS A FILL-IN??? He's repeatedly yelling at the New Yorkers who call in, telling them how great Giuliani was, and that they don't know what they're talking about if they criticize him. They are trying to give him facts and he's shouting them all down and being really hostile and pissy toward them. It's really making me sick. PLEASE PLEASSSSE get this crap off the air! He just said Guiliani was good because he "wasn't a 'pansy'". This bullshit is absolutely intolerable. It's not just about a bad decision (firing Sam) anymore: This kind of crap DOES NOT BELONG ON THIS NETWORK. Why are they doing this?!
A prosecutor from Washington state weighs in on today's Comey testimony ...
I've read TPM for years, and appreciate your work. I email you because I read something today about the firing of John McKay that finally put me over the edge. Apparently during Comey's testimony today he said that one of the reasons McKay got himself in hot water with the DOJ heavyweights was because he was pushing for additional resources to investigate the murder of Tom Wales, who was an Assistant US Attorney in Seattle. Tom Wales was shot and killed in 2001. What nobody has talked about, and what you may not be aware of, is the fact that Tom Wales was extremely active in attempting to get tighter gun control laws passed here in Washington.
Think about that for a second. A pro-gun control federal prosecutor was shot and killed. John McKay was agitating for more resources to bring his killer to justice. That pissed off DOJ, who apparently thought that McKay should spend his time going after bogus voter fraud prosecutions rather than solve the murder of a guy who was in favor of gun control. If you don't think the fact that Tom Wales' political views weren't taken into consideration by the higher ups at DOJ when they decided to punish McKay for fighting to find his killer, you haven't been paying attention to the way these guys have operated for the last 6 years. Every single thing they do is about politics, and the political views of those they help or hurt.
The bottom line of this whole McKay firing could be summed up in this way: try to catch killers, you get fired. File BS charges of voter fraud, you keep your job.
It's a slap in the face to every prosecutor in the country. It's our job to seek justice for those that aren't able to seek it for themselves. None of us should give a damn what the political views are of the victims we try to protect. It's beyond reprehensible for them to punish McKay for doing this. But for this administration, it's par for the course.
One quick note: the point about Wales was actually brought up first by Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) while Watt was questioning Comey.
The rest of the reader's comments, I think, speak for themselves.
no offense taken. my awareness of politics goes back to about 59. i was only 8 but i remember the excitement of kennedy. then it seems like a long dry spell till we had clinton.
i'm probably blind to it because i choose to be, but my life has always been better with a dem in the white house and dems controlling congress. when the republicans are in control, everything seems to go against the middle class and it seems like the ruling elite come out and feast on blood.
Fake family-values cloak lifted from GOP President Bush's budget-busting, spendthrift tactics have robbed the GOP of its claim to the title, "Party of Fiscal Conservancy." Now the perverse antics of some high-level Bush appointees and his party's power elite are lifting the cloak of "family values" from the GOP, too.
Moreover bankruptcy isn't a product of AAR's politicical stances. It's a product of beginning something new in a hostile market where right-wing lunatics have had a lock on everything for years. Refresh my memory, when did Fox start turning a profit?
482 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 400 of 482 Newer› Newest»100k Israelis march, urge PM to quit
Shit. Now what am I gonna do with this Kahlua and Jägermeister?
May 3, 2007 9:50 PM
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Ugg.
Add some milk. Blech. Curdle. Vomit.
Potential terror jurors cite 9/11 doubts
By CURT ANDERSON
Associated Press Writer
MIAMI --Many potential jurors in the Jose Padilla terrorism-support case say they aren't sure who directed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks because they don't trust reporters or the federal government.
"There are too many ifs, too many things going on," one male juror said. "I don't know the whole story."
Others say they just don't pay close enough attention to world events to be certain.
"I'm oblivious to that stuff," one prospective female juror said during questioning this week. "I don't watch the news much. I try to avoid it."
The doubts were noted by a significant portion of the more than 160 people who have been questioned individually since jury selection in the case began April 16.
Padilla and two co-defendants are charged with being part of a North American support cell for Islamic extremists. A jury is expected to be seated next week, with testimony to begin May 14.
Padilla, a U.S. citizen held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant, is accused of applying for an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan. He was previously accused of an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city, but that allegation is not part of the Miami case.
Before they came to court, each of the jurors filled out a 115-question form asking about a wide range of legal, political and religious topics, particularly their views of Arabs, Muslims and Islamic radicals. On question No. 60, which asks for an opinion about responsibility for the Sept. 11 terror attacks, many people said they don't know.
"I've been surprised at the number of our jurors who don't have an opinion about 9/11," U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who is presiding over the case and asks most of the juror questions, said Wednesday.
The questionnaires were used to weed out dozens of people with obvious biases or personal hardships before the face-to-face interviews began, meaning many potential jurors with strong views about Sept. 11 never made it to court because their ability to be impartial was in question.
A cottage industry of conspiracy theorists has sprung up among academics and others who claim such things as that the U.S. was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, or that explosives planted inside the World Trade Center towers brought the buildings down rather than the jetliners that crashed into them.
In the Padilla case, what's notable is not so much conspiracy theories as the lack of any views at all.
LINK
toniD said...100k Israelis march, urge PM to quit
May 3, 2007 9:52 PM
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Yahweh help them if they torch a derelict ROTC building...
War Dog is the essence of the right wing nut case who believes that his posting of wingnut talking points on a Liberal blog will accomplish something other than making a complete ass of himself.
I.e., he is a complete loser.
I'm with cath on this one, crank. blech.
Why didn't Chris ask them: Do you think it was wise to terminate the ops unit that was supposed to hunt down and catch Osama Bin Laden?
//
The U.S. campaign to track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden did give the candidates a chance to take a clear-cut position. All who were asked said the mission was imperative, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who tried to clarify his previous statement that the war on terrorism “is more than about just one man.”
Romney repeated that “this is about more than Osama bin Laden,” but he said firmly, “He will have to pay, and he is going to die.”
McCain was equally blunt, promising, “We will bring him to justice, and I will follow him to the gates of hell.”
Republicans walk tightrope over war in Iraq
Australia Accused Of Helping Fund And Arm Tamil Tiger "Terrorists"
If it wasn't enough that the Howard government helped keep Saddam Hussein supplied with enough cash to buy more human shredding machines and testicle shock kits - by repeatedly turning many blind eyes to the flood of memos pouring across the desks of the prime minister and foreign minister all but screaming out "Pay attention morons! Your wheat contractor is bribing Saddam with hundreds of millions of dollars!" - now the very same government is accused of not only allowing the Tamil Tigers to raise funds in Australia to fight their insurgency in Sri Lanka, but also stand accused of helping them to arm up and put together their own air force as well (as minor as it is).
If this keeps up, Australia is going to become a prime target of the 'War on Terror'.
After all, it was John Howard's good mate President Bush who has often said that if you hide, feed, supply weapons to, or help fund, terrorists, then you are as bad as the terrorists.
LINK
I wonder how many Closet Doors Sammy had to Close During this debate?
Well, time for me to wrap this up, folks. You all have a marvelous evening.
Oh, and... I MISS SAM.
ciao~
GBC and Catharine,
I gave some thought to devising an awful drink combination, then it hit me; Jägermeister and anything.
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.
May 3, 2007 9:45 PM
=========================================================================================================
That is not what I heard on the Debate tonight..
That is not what the President says..
That is not what Congress voted yesterday..
It does not look like the facts support your opinion..
Oh, that's not what Rush says...
hahahahahahaha..
Maybe you should have your own Radio Show...
Crank Bait's view of the World..
What do you think..
Radio is easy... Ask Sam..!!!
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It's gonna be real tough for the Weak Dems to stand up to Hillary and the GOP...
You know they are going to be asking the Iran question for next 18 months..
And what if we get hit again..???
I see National Defense as the key to the 2008 election..
He didn't like the casserole
And he didn't like my cake.
He said my biscuits were too hard...
Not like his mother used to make.
I didn't perk the coffee right
He didn't like the stew,
I didn't mend his socks
The way his mother used to do.
I pondered for an answer
I was looking for a clue.
Then I turned around and smacked the shit out of him...
Like his mother used to do.
Brrriiinnng. Brrriiinnng.
Beelzebub: "Gates of Hell, Beelzebub speaking."
John McCain: "John McCain here."
Beelzebub: "The astronaut?"
John McCain: "One and the same."
Beelzebub: "Gee. This is quite an honor. What can I do for you?"
John McCain: "I'm looking for Osama bin Laden."
Beelzebub: "You and me both. He owes me a soul."
John McCain: "Do you know where I can find him?"
Beelzebub: "The last known address is Tora Bora but I don't have a forwarding."
John McCain: "I thought that you knew about stuff like this?"
Beelzebub: "I don't run around chasing them. They all come to me in due time."
I can't belive anyone takes McCain seriously. After his whole Iraqi market trip recently, it's amazing to me that he's still treated like a legitimate candidate. It's only because there's such a lame bunch of Republicans against him that he's still a contender at all.
All in all, that was a pretty sad showing.
Brilliant Hillary Clinton move!!!
looking back to 2002: HC did vote for the amendment which limited war authorization to one year - this was defeated; guess who voted against it ... check it out ... not at all a surprise there
---
"I supported the Byrd amendment on Oct 10, 2002 which would have limited the original authorization to one year and I believe a full reconsideration of the terms and conditions of that authorization is overdue," she said.
Go Hillary!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070503/ap_on_el_pr/clinton_iraq;_ylt=ArbPXAgTXrIMwwPcV99uLAWyFz4D
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dada said...
I'm reposting this because it's a good read:
Link:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070501faessay86309/michael-c-desch/bush-and-the-generals.html
May 3, 2007 7:53 PM
______________________
dada,
I agree. Good post! I liked the following excerpt from the article.
Excerpt:
Ironically, General David Petraeus, the recently appointed commander of U.S.-led forces in Iraq, has in the past written of the failure of the senior military leadership to talk straight about the Vietnam War and its impact on subsequent U.S. civil-military relations.
Petraeus is himself now in a position to advise both the administration and the new Democratic-controlled Congress. In his confirmation hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Petraeus promised that he would give his "best professional military advice, and if people don't like it, then they can find someone else to give better professional military advice."
Hopefully, he will speak candidly -- and Gates will listen.
All in all, that was a pretty sad showing.
=========================================================================================================
That is pretty much going to be the theme of the 08 elections..
Hillary is going to be 3 clicks left of Center..
And the GOP candidate is going to be 3 clicks right of center..
No Radicals need apply...
I thought Rudy look strong..
I wonder if anyone took note who raised their hands to "no evolution"...??
I think Brownback was one..
That will thin the crowd by 3 pretty quick..
I notice we use the word 'hope' a lot when talking about the government....
"I see National Defense as the key to the 2008 election.."
If the 2006 election was any indication, obeying the will of the American people is the key to the 2008 election.
dada said...
Mrs. Kucinich probably thinks Dennis' political positions are sexy.
May 3, 2007 9:31 PM
"Hillary is going to be 3 clicks left of Center..
And the GOP candidate is going to be 3 clicks right of center..
No Radicals need apply..."
By radical, I suppose you're referring to the majority of the American people.
Hope Sam is working on the new blog
I'll be checking and hoping ... and checking and hoping ... that he will clean up trollmania in the process
Hello Sam?
in the meantime I'll brush Velvet so she looks shiny black - and that will save you from my riproaring GOPdebate rant lol ;-)
see ya all
GO Dems!
http://www.thedailyreel.com/spotlight/politics/archive/2007/05/03/traditional-media-takes-a-hit-for-a-free-press?gnewsid=1178237248.22
Traditional Media Takes a Hit for a Free Press
By Ashley Bowen
I'm a bit of a rable rouser, I'll admit to this. Although I did not attend the May 1st rallies in Los Angeles (because this city makes you oh so apathetic about anything other than traffic patterns), I am glad they happened. What surprised me was less the use of force on protesters, sadly this is not a shock anymore, but how the media was treated.
Being a troublemaker I am pretty anti-Fox News. I took a nearly obscene amount of joy in watching a Fox reporter in San Diego get punched last summer. However, in this circumstance I've got to hand it to them-- Fox's reporters literally took a beating and stood up to the atrotious treatment the media got during this protest. I understand that police, protesters, and the media need to find a way to coexist, but in my mind there is no excuse for hitting camera men or shoving reporters. And if you are going to do that, at least don't do it on film. At the risk of sounding just a little paranoid, it seems like a very bad sign when the police are willing to start hitting journalists.
If one good thing does come out of this event, it will be that the footage aired on a major network. Unlike Josh Wolf, who served 226 days in jail for refusing to turn over footage of a protest, this video aired in one of the country's largest media markets and on a network that (may be biased) but is certainly a "legit" news outlet.
dada said...
I can't belive anyone takes McCain seriously. After his whole Iraqi market trip recently, it's amazing to me that he's still treated like a legitimate candidate.
-------------------------------
It is difficult for me to understand how the "people" and the media coexist in modern times.
Time was, Fatty Arbuckle or Spiro Agnew could be ruined in one fell swoop.
Nowadays, a drug-deafened, anti-drug spokesman can be busted for illegally acquiring thousands of Oxycontin pills and continue his career as if nothing more serious had happened than shooting his beaver and shaving his head.
"I wonder if anyone took note who raised their hands to "no evolution"...??"
Brownback, Huckabee and Tancredo
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/03/who-doesnt-believe-in-evolution/
yoo hoo!
Alice!
A few years ago I believed that Huckabee had a shot at appealing to the divide between Left and Right. He bucked his party on several issues as Governor of Arkansas, lost a lot of body weight and waged a campaign to fight obesity in children (which is a BIG problem in Arkansas).
But then he reverted to his preacher roots and began an effort to appeal to the Religious Right, which has become more of a liability for Republicans than the asset they were intended to be.
Arkansas has a population roughly that of Chicago. Even if they were all firmly behind Huckabee and his bible thumping, he would need to appeal to dozens of cities across the nation.
He should have stuck to his health talking points and the "little bit Left, little bit Right" swings on the remaining issues. He can be a compelling speaker when he isn't being a bible literalist nutjob.
too bad about your girl by the donnas mp3
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SJ?
Alice !
Model airplane care package:
three engines, 2- .049's one from the 1950's, one modern RC .10,
.049 needing TLC, .10 RC nearly new. 3 sets of vintage multi plane plans with some RC, free flight and Ucontrol with a few of them beginner planes and some scale, a few racers, rubber free flight etc.
2 balsa wood glider kits, high performance hand or rubber band launch. a decade of 1969 Flying models mags and a few from 1949 when i was born.
and i've torn up my entire basement looking for a pamphlet on how to trim all of the above...
no ceegar yet on that.
send it now anyway? i can always talk him thru it later?
Charo is appearing with Andy Williams in Branson, Missouri and Randy Newman is appearing in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.
Decisions, decisions...
The Boston Tea Party was peaceful & went well...hmmm....
http://www.ericblumrich.com/pl_lo.html
http://www.resurrectingliberty.com/Depleted%20Uranium.html
send it now anyway? i can always talk him thru it later?
May 3, 2007 11:09 PM
I vote yes...he's so damn sweet..always smiling...has been in twice & always says please and thank you..I just love him...so yeah...recalling Xmas day magic..this kid is going nuts...sooner the better..technicalities later.. :)
Thank you sooooooooooooooooo much!
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What is going on with your littl girl who was raped?
did'nt say it was a girl did i?
one of the hood kids, doctor, sex counselor, everything good so far. strictly up to the kid so far as far as to where it goes, privacy intact, health wise looks good.
kid bouncing back pretty good.
we'll deal with the perp.
send address for package.
he'll dig it guarenteed.
sofrajones@telus.net
Well! Well ! Well!
How pathetic it was.
Invoking the name of Ronald Reagan was about as desperate one can get.
With an average IQ accompanied by Alzheimer, Reagan was the Republican candidate's inspiration tonight.
Now that's sad.
I don't recall if you said girl or not...But if it was a boy...did he fight...?
I'll send it now, SJ...
"I don't recall"...
Ugh...I sound like a politician now...they've tarnished the good name of short term memory... :(
Good night, Blog... oxox
The Shadow War in Iraq
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman estimates that $4 billion in taxpayer money has so far been spent in Iraq on these armed "security" companies like Blackwater -- with tens of billions more going to other war companies like KBR and Fluor for "logistical" support. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of the House Intelligence Committee believes that up to forty cents of every dollar spent on the occupation has gone to war contractors.
With such massive government payouts, there is little incentive for these companies to minimize their footprint in the region and every incentive to look for more opportunities to profit -- especially if, sooner or later, the "official" U.S. presence shrinks, giving the public a sense of withdrawal, of a winding down of the war.
Even if George W. Bush were to sign the legislation the Democrats have passed, their plan "allows the President the leeway to escalate the use of military security contractors directly on the battlefield," Erik Leaver of the Institute for Policy Studies points out. It would "allow the President to continue the war using a mercenary army."
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/51276/
tell ya bout it sometime. kid appreciated blog input, helped on getting the kid in to see the doc and counselor. kid helped with the car wash and polish. think thst helped too. did'nt end up feeling like a charity case, gained some abilitym empowerment and experience. good deal so far.
few details to sort out, got a handle on that too.
Alice said...
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)...
May 3, 2007 9:23 PM
Reminds me of a song -
"Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me..."
Unfortunately for US and the world, the American electorate has not evolved to the maturity level necessary to elect Kucinich. Mostly into "Daddy" action heroes.
m the a-c said...
Redheaded supermodel hangin' with a gnome
May 3, 2007 9:25 PM
"It's not the size of the ship but the motion of the ocean."
I'd Just Like To Say Hello To My Uncle!
hee!
and anybody that thinks marriage is all about sex has a tremendous suprise ahead...
m the a-c said...
Redheaded supermodel hangin' with a gnome
---------------
Yep, that's it. America is too shallow to vote for a man that looks like a gnome.
Conan O'Brien use to do a parody of Kucinich that was brutal. He had an image of Dennis with extremely large ears. The camera angle was pulled back to make Dennis face look very small. It enhanced the giant protruding ears. He spoke with a high pitched squeak.
In 1988, when Richard Gephardt first attempted to run for president, guess what they said about him?
He has no eyebrows.
This is the kind of nonsense is largely due to our Hollywood celeb culture.
The '08 Ticket will be Gore/Richardson,
who will win the Presidential Election by the largest margin in US history, putting the Republican War Dog Plan in the ash heap of history along with Adolf Hitler.
------------
Sunshine Jim said...
kid appreciated blog input, helped on getting the kid in to see the doc and counselor. kid helped with the car wash and polish. think thst helped too. did'nt end up feeling like a charity case, gained some abilitym empowerment and experience. good deal so far.
May 3, 2007 11:50 PM
_________________
Sunshine Jim,
Thanks for the update!
'''''''This is the kind of nonsense is largely due to our Hollywood celeb culture.'''''''''
And the fact that Dennis poses threat to the power elite.
MSM has turned Politics into Entertainment ,as if it is inconsequential and we are supposed to treat it like a soap opera.
Politics has been Hollywoodized.
Anyway, I have posting on a few forums lately. We have quite a group here. Still the best read......... By Far
Why is it when Bush vetoes the bill to fund the war with a timetable, it's Congress and the Democrats that are said to be "not supporting the troops." Congress passed a bill that not only funds the troops, but takes into account the advice of top Generals and the American people to begin to reduce our presence in Iraq.
I blame the media. In fact, it seems to me that as if in response to the Bill Moyers special criticizing the lack of journalistic integrity leading up to the war, the press has been even more sycophantic toward the Bush administration, if that's possible.
I assume the Press is owned by the same folks who are lining their pockets from this "War"
It seems to me that it is never about the American People anymore: Give em just enough so they don't rise up and hang us from lampposts.
Every aspect of our Gov. (except law enforcement, which main duty is to protect capital) is failing us. We now learn that this toxic chemical in the pet food made it's way into the chicken feed. Our diets are killing us. Don't quote me, but I believe in 1900 the percent of deaths from heart disease was like 5% or so, and now it is like 35-40% ........ Global warming is no longer avoidable... Our edumacation system is going down the pooper. Disparities between the Rich and Poor are growing, the Mid class is shrinking. Traditional family structures are no longer the norm......
America is a failed State.
Something has to be done.
Star Vox said...
------------
Sunshine Jim said...
kid appreciated blog input, helped on getting the kid in to see the doc and counselor. kid helped with the car wash and polish. think thst helped too. did'nt end up feeling like a charity case, gained some abilitym empowerment and experience. good deal so far.
May 3, 2007 11:50 PM
_________________
Sunshine Jim,
Thanks for the update!
S.Jim-Good to hear.Glad things are going better. :)
Bob26003 said...
Politics has been Hollywoodized.
--------------------------------
Oh so true Bob. Did you see tonight's Republican debate? They had Nancy Davis Reagan, who was an actress before she married Reagan, and Arnuld (The Gropanator) sitting on the first row.
I guess that's suppose to be progress.
-------------
Don Cheadle and John Prendergast On Their "Mission To End Genocide In Darfur And Beyond"
We speak with Academy Award-nominated actor Don Cheadle and renowned human rights activist John Prendergast about their new book, "Not On Our Watch: The Mission To End Genocide In Darfur And Beyond."
For the first time, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for crimes allegedly committed in the conflict in Darfur. Sudanese humanitarian affairs minister Ahmad Muhammad Harun and a Janjaweed militia leader known as Ali Kushayb are accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Links:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/03/1357220
Take action:
http://www.notonourwatchbook.org/
http://action.savedarfur.org/dia/organizationsORG/darfur/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11210
----------
ENOUGH, a joint project of Crisis Group and the Center for American Progress, is determined to help bring an end to the crimes against humanity being perpetrated in Darfur, northern Uganda and eastern Congo, and to prevent future mass atrocities.
For more information:
http://www.enoughproject.org/
ya B3!
think the fact that we talk to each other quite a bit
instead of AT each other makes a real difference.
lately a few peeps have posted and been standing there wondering why nobody would talk to them...
not their fault. regulars just not picking up on it happening.
our "perceptive empathy" still a bit weak...
eya mmrules!
eya StarVox!
evening eep!
Frank Zappa - Jazz From Hell
http://tent.xs4all.nl/mediacontent/Frank%20Zappa%20-%20Jazz%20From%20Hell%20(1986).mp3
''''''''''Oh so true Bob. Did you see tonight's Republican debate? They had Nancy Davis Reagan, who was an actress before she married Reagan, and Arnuld (The Gropanator) sitting on the first row.
I guess that's suppose to be progress.''''''''''''
No, I didn't see it. I don't think I could handle it to be honest :D
I mean it's like a bunch of empty suits saying nothing but things that will harm the people and trying to twist there words and presentations so it sounds like the opposite.
The corporate culture really disgusts me. The whole idea of "gain wealth forgetting all but self"........ I just can't relate. I don't want to.
You know wot was cool though, I was watching clips today on youtube: Rosie O Donnel view clips.... And I noticed that Elizabeth Gay said that in the past, the idea of capitalism was different and was centered much more on community. I can understand why OReilly is after her so hard. I think, like Chomsky said... These ideas of things like wage slavery and helping yer fellow man..... lie right below the surface of the Public concious. I know people are having these thoughts.
Its like, I just started group therapy today.... And seeing all these people in bad predicaments reaffirmed my understanding that America is leaving alot of people behind........
I also ran across some poll or study that measured the happiness of Nations populations....
Finland was number one. the US was 23rd.
Eya Jim :)
Ive noticed Jim, that it seems in comparison, at least to the Forum I was visiting, that the regs on this blog are much more intellectual. Not in an official way.
But it seemed like I ran across a whole lot of recitation of what I could have turned to CNN to hear.
Sometime though I start to think, hey, maybe these guys really thought about it and this is what they believe (for example the guy who said the Kent state shooting was completely justified)....
And sometime I think other stuff...
Anyhoo, I think what I am trying to say is that it is a commodity to be questioning and able to think critically....... Cause I think the machine is running in high gear. Seems like pretty soon and theyll be burning books :/
I could be completely wrong though.
-------------
This week on "Bill Moyers Journal" -
British renaissance man — physician, author, and director of theater and opera — Jonathan Miller speaks about the hidden story of atheism, the subject of his series, "A Brief History of Disbelief."
With the help of the Innocence Project, Jerry Miller became the 200th person exonerated by DNA evidence and in his first television interview, talks about his path to freedom after serving 25 years.
As Congress investigates why the Administration made false pre-war claims, Italy’s foremost investigative reporter Carlo Bonini, takes viewers on the trail of the forged intelligence documents purporting that Iraq sought to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.
Bill Moyers on the cost of war.
___________________
"In wartime, your enemy is the lies, is the propaganda. No matter if it's the propaganda of your enemies, or if it's the propaganda of your government."
- Carlo Bonini
Each week, video, transcripts, and further resources and investigations from Bill Moyers Journal is available online.
Link:
http://pbs.org/moyers
Who Doesn’t Believe in Evolution?
Link
Star Vox said...
-------------
This week on "Bill Moyers Journal"
Thanks..Sounds very good.
Anyway, I am off, gonna put on the audiobook and get some rest....
Nice talking to you all again even if only briefly. Ima gonna start posting again. My month or so off has allowed the stuff I need to bitch about to build up. :D
my theory B3
it's us and them respondintd to what we've learned.
ya cant think in level three when all ya know is level 1.
plus ya need to develop a lot of skill in a number of fields and attitudes, philosophies if ya want to describe it in a fancier way, that let you start to understand this on all the levels that this consists of.
thats why theres "holes in the rhythm"
that make any sense to you?
O, one last thing, I guess Ann Coulter called all Rage Against the Machine fans Losers.......
well,
what i tell people working with me on one of my projects is:
You can snivel all ya want as long as you can work and snivel at the same time.
FZ - Apostrophe (') side A
http://tent.xs4all.nl/mediacontent/don't%20eat%20the%20yellow%20snow(full%20side).mp3
you gonna take off without responding to all my laborious typing?
Good news if True..
The Movement to Impeach Bush/Cheney May be Unstoppable
Link
ha dada!
perfect mood music...
that make any sense to you?''''''''
Yes it does, I guess you can never truly relate until you've seen things from that angle.
But I stay open and try to "get" their side of the story..... Try to understand the motivation. And I can't.
It seems like I am not looking at this from the outside anymore but from the inside, so the things driving me are strong...... Maybe if I took a step back and tried not to be so passionate about what I think is right and wrong, I could gain a better perspective.
Hell, I dont know :/
Bob26003 said...
O, one last thing, I guess Ann Coulter called all Rage Against the Machine fans Losers.......
Why.Was she having Roid Rage??
gadamit!
i'm to pissed off in general
and impatient to talk to myself here.
anyone understand what i'm talking about?
Aye Jim. Just stumbled on some Frank on my travels in the tubes
Its like, I realize I am no CEO or no Senator or no Hedge Fund manager.
But does that mean I should feel any less passionate?
Does that mean I am not justified in feeling passionate?
I think it's exactly the opposite.
problem with most of us is we have about 10 % of our brains engaged and our photographic memories are out of film.
AARgh!
Anyhoo, I am off......
See you all tommorow. :)
nah passion is fine
just passion alone though
is likewaving a paint brush around
without having drop of paint in sight.
"Maybe if I took a step back and tried not to be so passionate about what I think is right and wrong, I could gain a better perspective."
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.
Rumi
Sunshine Jim said...
gadamit!
i'm to pissed off in general
and impatient to talk to myself here.
anyone understand what i'm talking about?
Ah Um um?I finally fiqured out hot links thanks to you.
Pic
--------------
Sunshine Jim said...
you gonna take off without responding to all my laborious typing?
May 4, 2007 2:24 AM
Sunshine Jim said...
gadamit!
i'm to pissed off in general
and impatient to talk to myself here.
anyone understand what i'm talking about?
May 4, 2007 2:29 AM
_____________________
Good evening, Sunshine Jim! Your typing is appreciated!
I try to understand.
What would you like to talk about now?
eya voxxer!
yin and yang
male and female
skills coupled with
passion and emotion and
lifesaving for fun and profit.
what would you like to talk about?
Whatsa mada U?And,yes I'm Irish.That picture looks about right :)
eya voxxer we're old friends
SJ is easier to type.
i'm an honorary irishman
we can work it out.
i read really really fast and i keep forgetting that reading is a lost art.
sorry gang, the ol hot rodder im me does a lot of driving in traffic, but i like to open er up every once in a while to keep sane.
it's 3 Am for a lot of you.
you all must be tired and just about ready to crash.
tap tap...
this thing working?
I can't post any faster at the moment. If I get too involved, I'll get caught not paying attention to cat, and get in trouble. I don't want to summon the wrath. You understand. *smiles*
heh...
well
i'm thinking of all the things you can do and type at the same time.
---------------------
Sunshine Jim said...
eya voxxer!
what would you like to talk about?
May 4, 2007 2:43 AM
_________________
Well, I have been reading and listening to Moyers and Prendergast.
I find both of them inspirational and worth listening to -- when they have something to say.
However, I wanted to catch up on blog news tonight.
mutters to self.
thinks of alternatives.
i'm out, love ya all and G'nite!
nite voxxer,
i'm gonna slide down the road a bit.
raincheck on that rap?
dada said...
"Maybe if I took a step back and tried not to be so passionate about what I think is right and wrong, I could gain a better perspective."
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.
Rumi
May 4, 2007 2:38 AM
beautiful
SJ this might cheer ya up.
Link
--------------
Sunshine Jim said...
nite voxxer,
raincheck on that rap?
May 4, 2007 3:06 AM
___________________
How about on a sunny day?
Good night!
Twinkle like the stars!
"There is something mankind can never destroy in spite of an unreasoning will to destruction, and this is its own idealism, that integral part of its very being. The ageing and the cynical may make wars, but the young and idealistic must fight them, and thus there are bound to come quick reactions, blind impulses not always comprehended. Men will curse as they kill, yet accomplish deeds of self-sacrifice, giving their lives for others; poets will write with their pens dripped in blood, yet will write not of death, but of life eternal; strong and courteous friendships will be born, to endure in the face of enmity and destruction. And so persistent is this urge to the ideal, above all in the presence of a great disaster, that mankind, the willful destroyer of beauty, must immediately strive to create new beauties, lest it perish from a sense of its own desolation..."
Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness. Avon, 1981 at 284
Love is a rose but you better not
pick it It only grows when it's
on the vine. A handful of thorns
and you'll know you've missed it
You lose your love when you say
the word
"mine"
"i'm thinking of all the things you can do and type at the same time."
“How is freedom measured, in individuals as in nations? By the resistance which has to be overcome, by the effort it costs to stay aloft. One would have to seek the highest type of free man where the greatest resistance is constantly being overcome: five steps from tyranny, near the threshold of the danger of servitude.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nighty night
tanks MMR
dam i miss maron too!
nite!
The Harder They Come ...
A Stock Market Post-Mortem
By MIKE WHITNEY
"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class that's winning."
--Investment tycoon, Warren Buffett
The real estate market is crashing faster than anyone had anticipated. Housing prices have fallen in 17 of 20 of the nation's largest cities and the trend lines indicate that the worst is yet to come. March sales of new homes plummeted by a record 23.5% (year over year) removing all hope for a quick rebound. Problems in the subprime and Alt-A loans are mushrooming in previously "hot markets" resulting in an unprecedented number of foreclosures. The defaults have slowed demand for new homes and increased the glut of houses already on the market. This is putting additional downward pressure on prices and profits. More and more builders are struggling just to keep their heads above water. This isn't your typical 1980s-type "correction"; it's a full-blown real estate cyclone smashing everything in its path.
Tremors from the real estate earthquake won't be limited to housing--they will rumble through all areas of the economy including the stock market, financial sector and currency trading. There is simply no way to minimize the effects of a bursting $4.5 trillion equity bubble.
The next shoe to drop will be the stock market which is still flying-high from increases in the money supply. The Federal Reserve has printed up enough fiat-cash to keep overpriced equities jumping for joy for a few months longer. But it won't last. Wall Street's credit bubble is even bigger than the housing bubble---a monstrous, lumbering dirigible that's headed for a crash-landing. The Dow is like a drunk atop a 13,000 ft cliff; inebriated on the Fed's cheap "low-interest" liquor. One wrong step and he'll plunge headlong into the ether.
The stock market cheerleaders are ooooing and ahhing the Dow's climb to 13,000, but it's all a sham. Wall Street is just enjoying the last wisps of Greenspan's low interest helium swirling into the largest credit bubble in history. But there are big changes on the way. In fact, the storm clouds have already formed over the housing market. The subprime albatross has lashed itself to everything in the economy ---dragging down consumer confidence, GDP and (eventually) the stock market, too. The real damage is just beginning to materialize.
So why the stock market keep hitting new highs?
Is it because foreign investors believe that American equities will continue to do well even though the housing market is slumping and GDP has shriveled to the size of a California raison? Or is it because stockholders haven't noticed that the greenback getting clobbered every day in the currency markets? Or, maybe, investors are just expressing their confidence in the way the U.S. is managing the global economic system?
Is that it---they admire the wisdom of borrowing $2.5 billion per day from foreign lenders just to keep the ship of state from taking on water?
No, that's not it. The reason the stock market is flying-high is because the Federal Reserve has been ginning up the money supply to avoid a Chernobyl-type meltdown. All that new funny-money has to go somewhere, so a lot of it winds up in the stock market. Evergreen Bank's Chuck Butler explains the process in Thursday's Daily Pfennig:
LINK
While the established religions are obviously quite different in thier superficial dogmas, Huxley found a common core in all thier theologies - a shared implicate order, so to speak. He called called this the Perennial Philosophy, defined as the trancendental essence of all the main religions promulgated through their mystical traditions. The metaphysics of the Perennial Philosophy, Huxley says, is "immemorial and universal."
Erwin Schroedinger, who was interested in mysticism, commented on Huxley's Perennial Philosophy:
"It is an anthology from the mystics of the most various periods and the most various peoples. Open it where you will and you will find many beautiful utterances of a similar kind. You are struck by the miraculous agreement between humans of different race, different religion knowing nothing about each other's existence, separated by centuries and millenia, and by the greatest distances that there are on our globe."
While these trancendental traditions have obvious similarities we should not assume that there is absolute agreement among them. And while Perennial Philosophy is sometimes equated with the mystical experince from which it springs, each tradition has its own special insights and beliefs, and each individual's encounter with the unknowable is unique.
The mystic who has a direct experience of the divine "Ground" (or the mystery) cannot have that experience invalidated or validated by any of the sciences, or, for that matter, by any traditional religion. As soon as she/he describes the experience, however, a version of the Perennial Philosophy is created. The spoken or written description of the experience is a metaphor or a "map" of the territory, and, as a mental construct, is open to a rational critique. The difficulty lies in the fact that the ,ystic is conined to a language geared to a level of reality different from that of the experience. Huxley himself states this very well when he notes that a truly correct expression of the Perennial Philosophy is not possibl. He says:
"Nobody has yet invented a Spiritual Calculus in terms of which we may talk coherently about divine "Ground" and of the world conceived of its manifestation...
So far then, as a fully adequate expression of the Perennial Philosophy is concerned, there exists a problem in semantics that finally insoluble."
toniD said...
The Harder They Come ...
A Stock Market Post-Mortem
By MIKE WHITNEY
Well,there goes my 401K again :(
Robert Koehler | 'The Christian Taliban is Running the Department of Defense'
LINK
From that same counterpunch article about the stock market:
"The Fed may have quit publishing the M3 data, but they continue to publish all the data that goes into the calculation and our friends over at Shadow Government Statistics have a chart which demonstrates
why the Fed decided to keep M3 under wraps. A look at the chart shows the Fed is pumping up broad money supply at an astounding rate of 11.8% per year! All of this rapid money supply growth is reflected in an increase in equity prices. The stock market needs to rise just to keep pace with all of this newly-created money. As long as the Fed doesn't rock the boat with another rate hike or by turning off the spigot of money flowing into the markets, the equity markets will continue to run."
Ah-ha! So the Fed gooses the money supply, stocks shoot up, and everyone's happy---right?
Wrong. Growth in the money supply should (closely) parallel growth in the overall economy. So if GDP is shrinking (which it is) and the money supply is increasing then--Viola!--inflation. ("11.8%" to be precise)
Bush Wants Phone Firms Immune to Privacy Suits - (What Country does this guy think he lives in??)
Link
And more:
Every time the Fed prints up another batch of crisp $100 bills; they're confiscating the hard-earned savings of working class people and retirees. And, since the dollar has dropped roughly 40% since Bush took office in 2000; the government has absconded with 40% our life savings.
That's the truth about inflation; it is taxation without representation, but you won't find that in the government's statistics. In fact, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) deliberately factors out food and energy so the working guy can't see how the Fed is robbing him blind. The only way he can gauge his losses is by going to the grocery store or gas station. That's when he can see for himself that the money he works so hard to earn is steadily losing its purchasing power.
NEWSLETTER - Friday, May 4, 2007
"In wartime, your enemy is the lies, is the propaganda.
No matter if it's the propaganda of your enemies, or if it's the propaganda of your government."
- Carlo Bonini
This week on Bill Moyers Journal (check local listings)
British renaissance man — physician, author, and director of theater and opera — Jonathan Miller speaks about the hidden story of atheism, the subject of his series A Brief History of Disbelief.
With the help of the Innocence Project, Jerry Miller became the 200th person exonerated by DNA evidence and in his first television interview, talks about his path to freedom after serving 25 years.
As Congress investigates why the Administration made false pre-war claims, Italy’s foremost investigative reporter Carlo Bonini, takes viewers on the trail of the forged intelligence documents purporting that Iraq sought to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger.
Bill Moyers on the cost of war.
toniD said...
Robert Koehler | 'The Christian Taliban is Running the Department of Defense'
Now that's scary!
Evening,err,Morning tonid :)
really bad video games based on bible stories
-conbo
Morning MMrules!
Morning Connie!
I did get a little sleep but woke up and I'm wide awake now so I made myself some coffee.
Sometimes that makes me sleepy again.
The Gipper Won't Win This One
Robert L. Borosage
May 03, 2007
Robert L. Borosage is the co-director of the Institute for America's Future. This article was first published in the Chicago Tribune.
As Republican contenders for the presidential nomination gather for their first debate Thursday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, they are caught between a rock and a hard place. The vast majority of Americans have given up on George Bush, the sitting conservative president. But the die-hards who still support him are loyal Republican primary voters that no Republican candidate can afford to offend.
How can the contenders distance themselves from Bush’s failures without alienating their own base? Expect them to invoke the conservative icon Ronald Reagan early and often. They’ll call for a return to the faith, pledge to follow in the footsteps of the Gipper and promise a new “Morning in America.”
But the Gipper can’t save them. Bush’s signature failures—the war in Iraq, Katrina, Enron and the corporate scandals, failed tax and trade policies, the attempt to privatize Social Security, the posturing around Terri Schaivo and stem cells – can be traced back not simply to the conservative ideology and ideologues that sired them—but to the core conservative doctrine that Reagan championed. The Gipper can’t lead Republican candidates out of the wilderness because, to paraphrase him, his conservatism is not the solution to their problem; his conservatism is the problem.
Over the last six years, with Bush in the White House, Tom DeLay ramrodding the Republican Congress, and Karl Rove focused on mobilizing the Republican base, conservatives have largely had their way. Bush pursued the core ideas of each strand of “movement conservatism” largely to catastrophic effect. In each case, he was simply walking in Reagan’s footsteps.
The neo-cons got the Iraq war they plotted for, and produced the worst foreign policy debacle in U.S. history. Their toxic mix of militarist unilateralism, scorn for allies and the United Nations, dismissal of international law, embrace of an imperial presidency above the law was Reagan’s opening act. In his first term, Reagan scorned détente, arms control, the U.N. and global accords. Reagan also fecklessly exposed U.S. troops in Lebanon—and had the intervention literally blow up in his face. He just had the good sense to cut and run, and then pick on a target easier to deal with—hapless Grenada in the Caribbean.
LINK
Sunshine:Did you see this?? Darn he went to bed.
Honeybee Die-Off Threatens U.S. Food Supply
Link
The New York Times today named its next public editor, Clark Hoyt, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor who oversaw the Knight Ridder newspaper chain’s coverage that questioned the Bush administration’s case for the Iraq war.
- Gee,it looks like someone besides us,was watching Bill Moyers on PBS,the other night!
Link
You have to see this. MSNBC is doing a poll on the republican "Debate"
Vote on the California Republican debate
Who do you think did the best or worst in the following six categories?
Check out the results - Dr. Ron Paul did very well.
Audio: Rudy Giuliani's Ferret Freak-Out
Link
read this article from cnn this morning and i defy anyone to tell me why we should spend another day in iraq. between the incompetence of our administration and the evil that permeates their society, its time to walk away and let them eat themselves.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- American soldiers discovered a girls school being built north of Baghdad had become an explosives-rigged "death trap," the U.S. military said Thursday.
The plot at the Huda Girls' school in Tarmiya was a "sophisticated and premeditated attempt to inflict massive casualties on our most innocent victims," military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.
The military suspects the plot was the work of al Qaeda, because of its nature and sophistication, Caldwell said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
The plot was uncovered Saturday, when troopers in the Salaheddin province found detonating wire across the street from the school. They picked up the wire and followed its trail, which led to the school. Once inside, they found an explosive-filled propane tank buried beneath the floor. There were artillery shells built into the ceiling and floor, and another propane tank was found, the military said.
The wire was concealed with mortar and concrete, and the propane tanks had been covered with brick and hidden underneath the floor, according to a military statement. Soldiers were able to clear the building.
"It was truly just an incredibly ugly, dirty kind of vicious killing that would have gone on here," Caldwell said.
Iraqi contractors were responsible for building the school, which was intended to bring in hundreds of girls.
"Given the care and work put into emplacing this IED, it is likely it had been planned for a long time" and it is thought that "the IED was not intended to be set off until the building was occupied," the military said.
Authorities intend to question the Iraqis involved in the school's construction.
Going to try for more sleep now.
Later.
Alittle Morning Music
Spyro Gyra
Link
i didn't watch the reagan seance last night but the turks are talking about it. did 3 of them actually raise their hand and say they don't believe in evolution?
blah blah blah said...
i didn't watch the reagan seance last night but the turks are talking about it. did 3 of them actually raise their hand and say they don't believe in evolution?
YEP
Link
It's Happy Doggie Friday..
I almost always take it easy on Friday..
It a great day for a Bike Ride..
Or anything else for that matter.!!!
morning war dog. its gonna rain today so i'll skip the bike ride.
Didn't you love the debate last night...
LOTS of Conservatives...
I'm not sure Chris Matthews did too well..
I like him in a one on one..
But he interjects himself into the debate too much...
When it rains you still have the treadmill and trainer...
I have a Colorado Ride video I can put on tv..
It's the only time I do well climbing mountains...
War Dog said...
Didn't you love the debate last night...
skipped it. why waste time on crazy talk.
The best question last night was the evolution question..
Raise your hand if you don't believe in evolution..!!!
Wow..!!
Those three are toast..
The trouble is Chris flies right into the next question like he wasn't even thinkin...
The worst question was:
What do you hate about America..!!!
hahahahahahaha..
What dope asked that..???
so what do they hate about america?
Hillary is going to mop up the Dems..
But I think Fred Thompson is playin this right in the GOP..
This group last night was didn't show much..
Rudy did himself some good, as did Mitt. (Is Mitt short for Mitten? What the hell kind of name is that?)
But if Fred times his entry right..
He could make a big splash..!!!
Think Mitt got the Hate America question..
He said Nothing..
He could think of nothing..
Then went off into a long deal about the things he loved..
Asking people on the Internet to ask questions might not be a great idea..
Or at least wait for one that isn't foolish..!!
So right now I like Mitten..
Rudy..
Fred..
John McCain..
Mitten has the class..
Rudy has the guts...
John has the War Dog nature..
Fred has that Reagan mystique..
The trouble with starting this so early is ya gotta put up with these large fields for too long..
Ya need an early sort down that isn't gonna come..!!!
Fred has that Reagan mystique..
May 4, 2007 8:07 AM
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA OOOOOOHHHH HOOOOOOOO HA HA HOOOOOO HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
REAGAN MYSTIQUE HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA OOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Money will be the early measuring stick..
Problem is you don't need much money at this stage..
But that evolution question got rid of the 3..!!!
That was one of the funniest things I have ever seen written down.
Reagan mystique!
That is hilarious almost beyond human comprehension.
I see we have a Reagan fan..!!!
hahahahahahahahaha..
Funny what caused people to react..
Reagan..
Rush...
O'Reilly..
You see some folk react to Bill and Hill..
Now I am a Big Fan of everyone on that list...
Holy Jumping Jesus H. Christ...I'm going to be driving off the road all day over that one.
Great God almighty...that was fucking funny for this early in the morning.
I'm gonna print that one out and show it to everybody I talk to at work today.
Reagan mystique!!!!!!!
That is New York comedy writer stuff.
Bill O'Reilly is riding a big wave right now..
Rating through the roof..
And on the Radio he has been kick Soros Around..
And winning..!!!!
Ronaldus Maximus has been rated as one of the best Presidents in American History..
Something I feel is true..
Why do you think everyone, including Gore tries to point out how Reaganlike they are..???
No need to fear Reagan now..
But folks just can't help it..
But you might just want to keep the nite-light on when Fred Thompson joins the race..
He could be your next boogie man..
Seven out of ten Winger candidates for President believe in evolution. The other three think Jesus rode a Stegosaurus through Galilee
smoke | Homepage | 05.04.07 - 7:38 am | #
comments on Americablog
Ronald Reagen wasn't even Ronald Reagen.
lies | 05.04.07 - 7:51 am | #
Morning gang!
Reagan "mystery" moments is what i remember.
and a vicious ability to jump thru other peoples hoops on command.
ronnie had the presidential ability of a trained seal
Funny how everyone last night went after Hillary..
They do fear Hillary..
You attack what you fear most..
It should be clear by now that for 12 years, from 1981-1993, the United States was governed by political leaders who merged the power of the state with criminality to a degree possibly unmatched in modern American history!
That what your after?
Lots of folks still Fear their will be another Reagan..
Ronnie's wit and charm amazed this nation for the longest time..
It will happen again one day..
Maybe this year...
Jimmy your a funny duck...
And plot behind every tree..
hahahahahahaha..
dogger has forgotten the "Contra's"...
and the "crack" epidemic that devastated Los Angeles and other U.S. cities due to massive shipments of cocaine smuggled by elements of the CIA-organized Nicaraguan contra army in the early-to-mid 1980s.
One thing is for sure..
Those boys last night were strong on National Defense..
Well maybe not that Paul guy..
But no one knew who he was..
Morning all!
Today is the fallout of the debate last night. Just like the Dems, the repubs will be over analysed.
Here's somthing from Crooks and Liars...
Republicans’ Round 1 goes to Reagan
By: Steve @ 5:10 AM - PDT After any debate, the first and most natural question is “who won?” Last night, the winner was obvious: Ronald Reagan.
Look, I know Reagan is the only president of the 20th century that Republicans really like. And I know that the debate was being held at the Reagan Library in California. But over the course of 90 minutes, the candidates specifically referenced the 40th president 20 times. If you count more oblique references (Gilmore thanked “the president in whose name this library is named”), the number climbs to 25. If you include references to Reagan by debate moderator Chris Matthews, well, we get pretty close to triple digits.
This just isn’t healthy. If this was a drinking game, players would have been three sheets to the wind within the first half hour. Even Peggy Noonan, who is second to no one among Reagan worshipers, explained in her column today that enough is enough.
[T]he media’s fixation with which Republican is the most like Reagan, and who is the next Reagan, and who parts his hair like Reagan, is absurd, and subtly undermining of Republicans, which is why they do it. Reagan was Reagan, a particular man at a particular point in history. What is to be desired now is a new greatness. Another way of saying this is that in 1960, John F. Kennedy wasn’t trying to be the next FDR, and didn’t feel forced to be. FDR was the great, looming president of Democratic Party history, and there hadn’t been anyone as big or successful since 1945, but JFK thought it was good enough to be the best JFK. And the press wasn’t always sitting around saying he was no FDR. Oddly enough, they didn’t consider that an interesting theme.
They should stop it already, and Republicans should stop playing along.
Too bad no one thought to tell them this before last night.
Reagan wasn't God and I thought him to be not a great president
and the "crack" epidemic that devastated Los Angeles and other U.S. cities due to massive shipments of cocaine smuggled by elements of the CIA-organized Nicaraguan contra army in the early-to-mid 1980s.
=========================================================================================================
I thought that was Clinton ..??
Mena Arkansas and all that..
Hell, I can't keep all that straight..
Mornin T!
dogger is trying to sleaze out from his earlier "Reagan worship" episode this morning.
do you remember anything from the Reagan presidencies?
Reagan was a terrible president. One of our worst.
hahahahahahahaha..
Fear is a funny thing..
Reagan put the Left into a permanent state of shock..
They will never recover..
And It could happen again any day..!!!
Morning Jim,
What stands out most in my mind about Reagan is....
He took naps at important meetings and he liked jelly beans. He never impressed me aither as an actor or a president.
Well the whole currupt, criminal contra scam is fairly easy to dig up.
It was Reagans idea to drug out the Crips, the Bloods and their affiliated gangs with CIA supplied drugs.
And theres a host of other Reagan-Bush South American crimes as well:
the support for Central American death squads;
the cover-up of the 1981 El Mozote massacre in El Salvador;
collaboration with Noriega;
protection for the heroin trade of another CIA-backed group, the Afghan mujahadeen;
Ferdinand Marcos's alleged multi-million-dollar pay-offs to Ronald Reagan;
the BCCI affair;
the savings-and-loan plundering and a hundred other economic rip-offs that enriched the few and left the nation trillions of dollars in debt.
I wonder if by this time next year..
You have the same Fear of Fred Thompson..
The only President I fear is Jimmy Carter..
That guy is still around screwing things up..
!!
How about the Trilateral Commission..??
Ya forgot that one..
Jimmy, you got a scam for every event...
You were born for the Internet..!!!
i think the main thing i remember was the stunning hypocrisy of the "just-say-no" crowd.
Christopher Higgins on Reagan:
Ronald Reagan claimed that the Russian language had no word for "freedom." (The word is "svoboda"; it's quite well attested in Russian literature.) Ronald Reagan said that intercontinental ballistic missiles (not that there are any non-ballistic missiles—a corruption of language that isn't his fault) could be recalled once launched. Ronald Reagan said that he sought a "Star Wars" defense only in order to share the technology with the tyrants of the U.S.S.R. Ronald Reagan professed to be annoyed when people called it "Star Wars," even though he had ended his speech on the subject with the lame quip, "May the force be with you." Ronald Reagan used to alarm his Soviet counterparts by saying that surely they'd both unite against an invasion from Mars. Ronald Reagan used to alarm other constituencies by speaking freely about the "End Times" foreshadowed in the Bible. In the Oval Office, Ronald Reagan told Yitzhak Shamir and Simon Wiesenthal, on two separate occasions, that he himself had assisted personally at the liberation of the Nazi death camps.
There was more to Ronald Reagan than that. Reagan announced that apartheid South Africa had "stood beside us in every war we've ever fought," when the South African leadership had been on the other side in the most recent world war. Reagan allowed Alexander Haig to greenlight the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, fired him when that went too far and led to mayhem in Beirut, then ran away from Lebanon altogether when the Marine barracks were bombed, and then unbelievably accused Tip O'Neill and the Democrats of "scuttling." Reagan sold heavy weapons to the Iranian mullahs and lied about it, saying that all the weapons he hadn't sold them (and hadn't traded for hostages in any case) would, all the same, have fit on a small truck. Reagan then diverted the profits of this criminal trade to an illegal war in Nicaragua and lied unceasingly about that, too. Reagan then modestly let his underlings maintain that he was too dense to understand the connection between the two impeachable crimes. He then switched without any apparent strain to a policy of backing Saddam Hussein against Iran. (If Margaret Thatcher's intelligence services had not bugged Oliver North in London and become infuriated because all European nations were boycotting Iran at Reagan's request, we might still not know about this.)
One could go on. I only saw him once up close, which happened to be when he got a question he didn't like. Was it true that his staff in the 1980 debates had stolen President Carter's briefing book? (They had.) The famously genial grin turned into a rictus of senile fury: I was looking at a cruel and stupid lizard. His reply was that maybe his staff had, and maybe they hadn't, but what about the leak of the Pentagon Papers? Thus, a secret theft of presidential documents was equated with the public disclosure of needful information. This was a man never short of a cheap jibe or the sort of falsehood that would, however laughable, buy him some time.
The fox, as has been pointed out by more than one philosopher, knows many small things, whereas the hedgehog knows one big thing. Ronald Reagan was neither a fox nor a hedgehog. He was as dumb as a stump. He could have had anyone in the world to dinner, any night of the week, but took most of his meals on a White House TV tray. He had no friends, only cronies. His children didn't like him all that much. He met his second wife—the one that you remember—because she needed to get off a Hollywood blacklist and he was the man to see. Year in and year out in Washington, I could not believe that such a man had even been a poor governor of California in a bad year, let alone that such a smart country would put up with such an obvious phony and loon.
LINK
Make the Christopher Hitchens.
Still sleepy this AM. Not feeling that great today. Must be getting a cold or something.
Dogger:
HO
HO
HO
face it dogger yer a slut.
Wardodder has a convenient memory lapse.
jolly war dog, so friendly on the surface.
so willing for you to die to fill his pockets with worthless trinkets.
Bedtime for Bonzo!!
Sunshine said:the savings-and-loan plundering and a hundred other economic rip-offs that enriched the few and left the nation trillions of dollars in debt.
Oh ya!Neil BUSH!! The Culture of Coruption's been BIG with these GOP'ers for many a Moon!
eya T,
figgered a long time ago i could'nt deal with Reagan personally or his pack of thieving murderous assholes.
but i could remember what he did and why,
and what they did and why.
the "cold" symptoms are a form of "hay fever" i'd bet. pollen and god knows what else in the air and less oxygen globally.
gonna get worse each year too from now on.
you read up on what Depleted Uranium signs are showing up?
hahahahahahahaha..
Your work is cut out for you on Reagan..
How long has it been..??
And he is still one the Most popular presidents in American History...
Remember his death..???
It was like hero worship...
Ronaldus Maximus set the Gold Standard for the Presidency in the United States..
eya mmrules,
that Maron clip was superb.
tanks!
you were around for the whole Reagan debacle were'nt you?
At least you make me smile Jimmy..
In every poll taken..
Reagan ranks right up there with the American People..
Does every President try to screw you, or just the Republicans..???
“Deputy chief of staff Karl Rove participated in a hastily called meeting at the White House two months ago” to coach a top Justice Department official on what he should say to Congress about the prosecutorial purge. Investigators are suggesting that Rove’s attendance at the meeting shows that he may have been involved in an attempt to mislead Congress.
LINK
the elite of Washington seem content to turn a blind eye on the currupt history of the 1980s.
presumably, the sanitized history is safer for the careers of those Republican, Democrat, journalists and bureaucrats who protected an insane criminal enterprise at the very heart of national power.
that's you dogger, in your teeny tiny way is'nt it?
pay backs a bitch, i bet before this is all over you'll conveniently forget Reagan ever existed...
Michael Elston, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, made calls to the purged U.S. attorneys telling them to kept quiet about their dismissals. Elston recently told congressional investigators that those calls were placed at McNulty’s direction after he learned the prosecutors might testify before Congress about their dismissals.
LINK
Does every President try to screw you, or just the Republicans..???
interesting question. part 1 is that its true for republicans. i can't recall one (with the exception of gerry ford) that was good for the country. the closest might have been the elder bush who i basically recall as treading water.
as for dems, carter did a pretty good job of screwing things up, but it came from incompetence. in his heart, he was a good person.
polls?
hahahahahahahaha!
you gotta be kidding right?
toni? you remember doggers last "Poll Quoting Binge"?
Iran’s foreign minister walked out of a dinner of diplomats where he was seated directly across from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, complaining that the female violinist was dressed too revealingly. “I dont know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of state,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
LINK
Well I have done very well under all presidents..
Even Jimmy..
He was just an embarrassment because I voted for him...
toni? you remember doggers last "Poll Quoting Binge"?
=========================================================================================================
You must be referring to the Polls that lead to the Election Of President Bush..!!!
I called that on didn't I..???
Yep Jim! Before and during the election. Non stop polls.
Gas here is $3.29.9 a gal. Headed up to $4. a gal.
In Cook County it's even more because of the tax there. $3.49.9 a gal.
War Dog forgets the election fraud going on at that time. Ohio and Florida were the most, though, it happened in every state that was iffy.
no offense Blah 3,
but theres been a takeover by the ruling elites here since before the constitution was written.
the peanut farmer was as big a fuck up as the rest of them in a hundred ways.
the Prez's have always been fronts for the corporate types.
fuck! i wish people actually examined their own national histories.
our own collective ignorance is what depresses me.
(on the other hand our growing awareness of all of these scams delights me immensely!)
I didn't know you were so Obsessed with President Reagan, Jimmy...
I always though you were a Ronnie Fan...
I guess our economy today bring back memories for you...
eya dogger.
what's your favorite pistol calibre?
Dep. National Security Advisor J.D. Crough leaving White House.
-- Josh Marshall
Another one leaving. Condi's office had 3 in one week!
Anonymous said...
What the fuck? Where has Barber been?
ha. the war dog plan is working. by the time barber is done, we'll be calling for rush...
It seems Capitalism is what bothers you Jimmy..
The free market..
The Profit Motive..
That sort of thing..
Why would they put someone like this Barber asshole on AAR--EVEN AS A FILL-IN??? He's repeatedly yelling at the New Yorkers who call in, telling them how great Giuliani was, and that they don't know what they're talking about if they criticize him. They are trying to give him facts and he's shouting them all down and being really hostile and pissy toward them. It's really making me sick. PLEASE PLEASSSSE get this crap off the air! He just said Guiliani was good because he "wasn't a 'pansy'". This bullshit is absolutely intolerable. It's not just about a bad decision (firing Sam) anymore: This kind of crap DOES NOT BELONG ON THIS NETWORK. Why are they doing this?!
A prosecutor from Washington state weighs in on today's Comey testimony ...
I've read TPM for years, and appreciate your work. I email you because I read something today about the firing of John McKay that finally put me over the edge.
Apparently during Comey's testimony today he said that one of the reasons McKay got himself in hot water with the DOJ heavyweights was because he was pushing for additional resources to investigate the murder of Tom Wales, who was an Assistant US Attorney in Seattle. Tom Wales was shot and killed in 2001. What nobody has talked about, and what you may not be aware of, is the fact that Tom Wales was extremely active in attempting to get tighter gun control laws passed here in Washington.
Think about that for a second. A pro-gun control federal prosecutor was shot and killed. John McKay was agitating for more resources to bring his killer to justice. That pissed off DOJ, who apparently thought that McKay should spend his time going after bogus voter fraud prosecutions rather than solve the murder of a guy who was in favor of gun control. If you don't think the fact that Tom Wales' political views weren't taken into consideration by the higher ups at DOJ when they decided to punish McKay for fighting to find his killer, you haven't been paying attention to the way these guys have operated for the last 6 years. Every single thing they do is about politics, and the political views of those they help or hurt.
The bottom line of this whole McKay firing could be summed up in this way: try to catch killers, you get fired. File BS charges of voter fraud, you keep your job.
It's a slap in the face to every prosecutor in the country. It's our job to seek justice for those that aren't able to seek it for themselves. None of us should give a damn what the political views are of the victims we try to protect. It's beyond reprehensible for them to punish McKay for doing this. But for this administration, it's par for the course.
One quick note: the point about Wales was actually brought up first by Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) while Watt was questioning Comey.
The rest of the reader's comments, I think, speak for themselves.
LINK
no offense taken. my awareness of politics goes back to about 59. i was only 8 but i remember the excitement of kennedy. then it seems like a long dry spell till we had clinton.
i'm probably blind to it because i choose to be, but my life has always been better with a dem in the white house and dems controlling congress. when the republicans are in control, everything seems to go against the middle class and it seems like the ruling elite come out and feast on blood.
Fake family-values cloak
lifted from GOP
President Bush's budget-busting, spendthrift tactics have robbed the GOP of its claim to the title, "Party of Fiscal Conservancy." Now the perverse antics of some high-level Bush appointees and his party's power elite are lifting the cloak of "family values" from the GOP, too.
LINK
no sweat Blah3,
i've forgotten who you were before the name change, but i remember that you're an old friend.
eya dogger.
what's your favorite pistol calibre?
"They are tryin to find the center.."
---
Giuliani is hardly "center"...
Moreover bankruptcy isn't a product of AAR's politicical stances. It's a product of beginning something new in a hostile market where right-wing lunatics have had a lock on everything for years. Refresh my memory, when did Fox start turning a profit?
Refresh my memory, when did Fox start turning a profit?
=========================================================================================================
Fox is a Cable Television network..
But Bill O'Reilly has made a Radio Profit from the start..
He is on over 400 stations..
No one is afraid to buy advertising on his show...
Help Restore Our Rights.
Invite your friends, family and colleagues to sign the petition today and help restore fundamental rights like
habeas corpus.
LINK
dogger,
you take unexact language to new heights of ridicule.
what's your favorite pistol calibre?
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