"Please let the government come down on the companies that hire them for cheap labor. Punish the companies, not the people!"
I agree 100%. I was just doing my rightwinger impersonation. Pretty good, right?
I'm in New York. I think it's difficult to get hysterical about the whole illegal alien thing in such a diverse place. But when I look at the rightwing stuff out there, I see some people are really up in arms about it.
Hi Alice! Hopefully I won't offend everyone with my views...at least I won't talk about penises! like AO! Living in Calif. for 25 years gave me a great experience of diversity and acceptance of such. Funny, we just moved to Maine two years ago....the whitest state in the country...figure that! I am not of the belief of sending people back, but highly support slamming companies that profit off of hiring low-low-paid illegal immigrants. A complicated situation....but I favor punishing the big companies that profit off of exploitation, rather than punishing people who are trying to make a better life for themselves.
kewl! He has a love of Herc's...I think C-130's...he's dangled out the back of them on a harness when they were doing food drops in Africa, on their off time...the id-jits!
he's a civvie, not a mil. he managed the cargo operations at the airport for a year in Basra in 2004, before we knew how fucked up the war was...i.e., we bought into the propaganda. Thank god nothing really bad happened to him. His admin. assistant (iraqi) got killed with her sister 2 weeks after starting to work with him....need I say more?
Sometimes, the truth is right in front of us, even if it comes in the form of a seemingly misspoken sentence.
During the political storm that erupted in early 2006 over the Bush administration’s plans to turn over port security to a United Arab Emirates-based company, the president was quoted on Fox News saying the following on March 12 of that year:
"People don't need to worry about security. This deal wouldn't go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America."
Apparently, if we are willing to heed the story of a former West Wing lead mailroom assistant, Laura C. Jones, the president’s gaff underscores another truth: that his staff isn’t concerned about White House security either.
Rather, the Bush inner circle seems more concerned with silencing individuals who threaten to expose politically embarrassing (and job-threatening) security breaches, even if those lapses pose a threat to the life of the president.
With friends like those, you have to wonder why Bush remains so focused on frightening the American people about foreign boogiemen. ...
(yum i loves strawberry preserves old style with lil chunks of homegrown strwberries ready to sweet talk yer taste buds and a fresh piece of buttered french roll!)
mab: "His admin. assistant (iraqi) got killed with her sister 2 weeks after starting to work with him....need I say more?" --------------------------------- Fuck. I was on a roll. Now I'm bummed. C'est la vie.
Okay. Back to earth. If you don't mind my asking, were the two ladies offed randomly or were they killed because of their association with Americans?
Crank Bait...They were sisters who worked at the Basra airport. I think they were killed because they were working for our "coalition" (the Basra airport was occupied/run by the Brits)...they were both gunned down as they got out of a car or taxi in front of their house when they got home from work. This happened only a few months after my husband got to Iraq, and he was devastated. His email to me read..."It has begun..." When I read this, my stomach just turned. I slept to the sound of the TV on CNN every night thru the year he worked there, out of anxiety. He has worked in many war-torn areas in the past 25 years. He did not work for Blackwater or KBR. He "just" managed the cargo operations of the Basra airport...not a super high-paid guy with a gun. Any questions are ok.
The former CIA chief is earning big money from corporations profiting off the war -- a fact not mentioned in his combative new book or heard on his publicity blitz.
By Tim Shorrock
May 7, 2007 | If you go by the book jacket of his new memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," George Tenet is enjoying the life of a retired government servant teaching at Georgetown University, where he was appointed to the faculty in 2004. The former CIA director played up the academic image when he kicked off the recent media blitz for his new book by doing an interview for CBS's "60 Minutes" from his spacious, book-lined office at the university. His academic salary, and the reported $4 million advance he received from publisher HarperCollins, should provide the former CIA director with more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his days and leave a substantial fortune to his children.
But those monies are hardly Tenet's entire income. While the swirl of publicity around his book has focused on his long debated role in allowing flawed intelligence to launch the war in Iraq, nobody is talking about his lucrative connection to that conflict ever since he resigned from the CIA in June 2004. In fact, Tenet has been earning substantial income by working for corporations that provide the U.S. government with technology, equipment and personnel used for the war in Iraq as well as the broader war on terror.
When Tenet hit the talk-show circuit last week to defend his stewardship of the CIA and his role in the run-up to the war, he did not mention that he is a director and advisor to four corporations that earn millions of dollars in revenue from contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. Nor is it ever mentioned in his book. But according to public records, Tenet has received at least $2.3 million from those corporations in stock and other compensation. Meanwhile, one of the CIA's largest contractors gave Tenet access to a highly secured room where he could work on classified material for his book.
... 'America can be more heavily criticized for subordinating Somali interests to its own desire to catch a handful of al- Qaeda men who may (or may not) have been hiding in Mogadishu,' said The Economist. 'None has been caught, many innocents have died in air strikes, and anti-American feeling has deepened. Western, especially European, diplomats watching Somalia from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya to the south, have sounded the alarm. Their governments have done little.' ...
... Up to 300 rioters, some wearing scarves around their faces, used bottles and stones in running attacks on police, who responded with baton charges, tear gas and water cannon.
"Police everywhere, justice nowhere," shouted some of the rioters, while others screamed "Sarko-fascist." ...
(Editor's Note: This stream of consciousness-style piece is excerpted from an ongoing online dialogue between Steppling and fellow radical, Guy Zimmerman. They are Co-Senior Editors of Arts and Culture at Cyrano's Journal Online. "A Revenge Tragedy" is but a small sampling of the brilliant conclusions drawn during the exchanges between these highly refined thinkers.) ... I believe Burroughs, circa Soft Machine, used to write about the typewriter writing us. This is the same dream dreaming the dreamer motif in a sense….but in advanced capital almost all media and Hollywood product is interchangeable. Not totally, yet, but close. The endless assault of MTV reality shows, network reality shows, and faux news-ertaintment, is now writing our lives. The system has colonized our unconscious to some degree……not as totally as it has colonized our ego, but its growing. The cyborg quality of people hence needs outlets of appropriate rage. ...
... History is full of beautiful lies and ugly truth.
******************************
2am in the morning stalking my thoughts through the high grass quietly as a leopard till I sense weakness then I lunge! ... But to answer my own question, what is hapiness?
Hey Sammy, once you get settled, how about letting the listeners organize to expand your weekend air time? You should have a show Saturday & Sunday like Laura Flanders, frankly you're much more listenable than her. Or you should at least be able a stretch out with a 4 hr show. 3 hrs a week is a ridiculous amount for someone with your talent. Your show is one of the most informative on the air. Well I'll be listening to every episode on Sunday whatever the case.
"" The cyborg quality of people hence needs outlets of appropriate rage.
Road rage is a useful one, but child predator hysteria and drug hysteria is even better.
Since 90% of all child abuse (sexual or otherwise) happens in the home and involves close family members, it sort of suggests that there aren’t guys lurking at every schoolyard with offers of candy.
Bush and his pals won’t address this because it flies in the face of *family values*.
...
So, Rove-Iago, a man of great hypocrisy, too. Funny how Hastert, Gingrich, etc etc etc, all have such rather obvious skeletons in their closets (sic).
...
The answer to creating a society that protects its people is not found in hysterical demands for punishment
...
and the endless list of destroyed families in these places, never seems to register on the moral radar.
You may not recognize him, but he’s been looking out for you.
Habeas Corpus has never had a very high profile, but for more than 700 years this quiet hero has stood watch over some basic principles of fairness and human dignity. When the Constitution was written, he was there. Since 1215, in fact, he’s been a humble, but unflagging, champion of justice and due process of law.
Most people don’t know what he looks like. There are only a few photos, a couple of early American paintings, and a handful of illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages.
Habeas Corpus — Habeas to his friends, which includes practically everyone who knows him — has never been interested in the spotlight. His face has never mattered, only what he stands for. Until now.
Something happened last year, and now Habeas Corpus is missing.
Some time on the morning of October 17, 2006, Habeas disappeared. Eyewitness accounts say he was last seen in Washington, D.C., walking down the Capitol steps in something of a daze. But where he went from there, or where he is now, is anyone’s guess.
The one thing we know for certain is why he went missing. October 17 was the day that Congress let the president declare Habeas Corpus — and other parts of the U.S. Constitution — null-and-void for certain individuals.
For centuries, Habeas has stood up for anyone who was accused of a crime, protecting us against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment.
Habeas has been looking out for you. Now, he needs us to look out for him, before the rights he has been protecting for centuries are lost forever.
Habeas is out there somewhere, and together we must find him, and restore him to his rightful place in our democracy.
I think this is worthy of discussion and sending suggestions in to MSNBC. Which means, a poll. Fire away. I would add BillinMaine but he would run away with the poll (and he will not do it) but that's another role model.
Poll Suggestions for MSNBC
Will Rogers type 0% 0 votes Teddy Roosevelt type 0% 0 votes Combo of the above 17% 2 votes Andy Stern 0% 0 votes RFK Jr 8% 1 votes Sam Seder 50% 6 votes Randi Rhodes 17% 2 votes other, solicit support in comments 8% 1 votes
Bush = Gilligan Cheney = The Skipper Bush, Sr. = Mr Howell Barbara Bush = Mrs Howell Condi = The Professor Gonzo = Marianne Rumsfeld was DEFINITELY Ginger
Your Hiatias was not a good move - unless you are scheduling a launch of something big.
We progressive have got to have our fix - You should have been doing get spots on Maddow and Randi and / or get more interviews on Oberman or something. To keep the pressure on AAR for their stupid decision. NOw you have let it die down and people will accept the change to Lionel. OMG - as I posted early - have you heard his promo? We'll talk about bullshit and you are going to like it?
“The rebuilding effort in tornado-ravaged Greensburg, KS, likely will be hampered because some much-needed equipment is in Iraq, said that state’s governor. Governor Kathleen Sebelius said much of the National Guard equipment usually positioned around the state to respond to emergencies is gone.”
“All of us believe that in the next 90 days, you’ll probably see an increase in American casualties,” Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army’s Task Force Marne, said yesterday. Eight American soldiers were killed in roadside bomb attacks Sunday, one of the highest single-day death tolls this year.
“The weekend blitz of tornadoes in Kansas and the Plains puts 2007 on track to be one of the busiest and deadliest tornado years in a decade, severe-storms meteorologists said Sunday. ‘Even if the year stopped right now, it would be the deadliest year we’ve had since 1999,’ said Greg Forbes, severe-weather expert for The Weather Channel.”
“The Army is fixing the doors of every armored Humvee in combat in Iraq because they can jam shut during an attack and trap soldiers inside, Pentagon records and interviews show.”
“Abandoning the business lobby’s traditional resistance to healthcare reform, a new coalition of 36 major companies plans to launch a political campaign today calling for medical insurance to be expanded to everyone along lines Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing for California.”
Conservatives and libertarians should fight back and challenge the myth that collectivist liberals care more about racism. Modern liberalism, however well intentioned, is a byproduct of the same collectivist thinking that characterizes racism. The continued insistence on group thinking only inflames racial tensions.
The true antidote to racism is liberty. Liberty means having a limited, constitutional government devoted to the protection of individual rights rather than group claims. Liberty means free-market capitalism, which rewards individual achievement and competence, not skin color, gender, or ethnicity. In a free market, businesses that discriminate lose customers, goodwill, and valuable employees – while rational businesses flourish by choosing the most qualified employees and selling to all willing buyers. More importantly, in a free society every citizen gains a sense of himself as an individual, rather than developing a group or victim mentality. This leads to a sense of individual responsibility and personal pride, making skin color irrelevant. Rather than looking to government to correct what is essentially a sin of the heart, we should understand that reducing racism requires a shift from group thinking to an emphasis on individualism.
Spread of parasitic disease in US tied to combat deployments A parasitic disease rarely seen in United States but common in the Middle East has infected US troops in the last four years because of massive deployments to remote combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, military officials said.
George Tenet cashes in on Iraq The former CIA chief is earning big money from corporations profiting off the war -- a fact not mentioned in his combative new book or heard on his publicity blitz.
Newspapers demand Democrats stand up to Bush on Iraq The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, for example, declared, "All Congress needs to do is show some courage and stand up to President Bush. Its ultimate service to our forces would be to see that no more of them lose their lives in a pointless war -- a great service indeed."
"individualism" taken to an extreme is just plain selfish. See how language can either conjure the myth (and I do mean myth) of the strong person who stands by themself - but nobody is an island. And a culture that does not have a sense of the commons is inhumane and primitive
Two U.S. soldiers shot dead at Afghan prison Mon May 7, 2:00 AM ET KABUL (Reuters) - A rogue Afghan soldier shot dead two U.S. soldiers at the high-security Pul-i-Charkhi prison on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, the U.S.
The Greatest Threat to Choice Chris Hedges — When it comes to abortion, the Christian right presents a false choice between self-condemnation and a life of struggle. Until the impoverished and imperiled, so frequently driven into the arms of demagogues, are truly cared for, the freedom of all women will be at risk.
PARIS, France (CNN) -- Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy greeted news of his election Sunday to a five-year term as France's president with a vow to serve as a leader for all people of France.
"The president of the republic must love and respect all the French," he told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. "I will be the president of all the French people."
Sarkozy won with 53 percent of the vote in Sunday's presidential runoff, according to preliminary results issued by the French Interior Ministry. Socialist Segolene Royal took 47 percent of the vote.
"The French people have called for change. I will carry out that change, because that's the mandate I have received from the French people."
Sarkozy added that he wanted to tell his "American friends that they can rely on our friendship ... France will always be next to them when they need us."
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday the country had no intention of suspending its nuclear programme in line with a Swiss plan aimed at ending a stand-off with the United Nations.
Diplomats have said Switzerland has put forward a staged plan leading to a simultaneous suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment work and of U.N. sanctions, which would enable talks between Iran and six world powers to begin.
"The red line is in suspension ... a suspension is not in our agenda," he told a news conference in the Swedish capital when asked about the Swiss proposal.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki seen during a news conference at the international conference on Iraq in Sharm el-Sheikh, May 4, 2007. Mottaki said on Monday the country had no intention of suspending its nuclear programme in line with a Swiss plan aimed at ending a stand-off with the United Nations. (REUTERS/Tara Todras-Whitehill) Apart from the suspension request in the Swiss proposal, "the remaining part is possible", he said after giving a speech to three Swedish international relations organisations.
He was met at the speech venue by about 100 protesters, who hurled eggs at the doors of the building.
The protesters were mostly Iranians living in Sweden who are opposed to the Islamic state.
Iran says Western fears that it harbours a secret atomic bomb project are unfounded and that it is enriching uranium in order to generate electricity.
Attempting to make a case for its plan to install a defensive missile system in Europe, the US State Department has warned that Iran could have the capability to launch intercontinental missiles with a range as far as Europe and the US within the next eight years, according to Defense News, and AFP.
American Intelligence officials claim that Iran could develop its own intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads by 2015. However, if Iran acquires the technology from North Korea it could have the range capability much sooner. Iran already has the capability of striking targets in Southern Europe using its medium range Shahab-3 missile.
Critics argue that the US is manipulating information about Iran's military capabilities in order to install a European defensive missile system that is really intended to counter Russian missiles. They also argue that the escalation of missile deployments by the US will actually make the US and Europe less safe.
Should Vice President Cheney be impeached? Consider the evidence and then vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll, and it will also send your personal message to Congress at the very same time.
NATIONAL CHENEY IMPEACHMENT POLL: http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php
You can vote yes. Or you can vote no. But we cannot remain silent.
In his appearance on Meet The Press yesterday, George Tenet AGAIN confirmed that the purpose of the now infamous "slam dunk" meeting was to assess if they could SELL the war without just cause in Iraq to the American public. In his book, Tenet confesses that he was NOT being asked at the time to vouch for the quality of the intelligence. They never cared whether there was any actual support for their arguments, only whether they could get away with bum rushing the rest of us. So, what Tenet MEANT by the words "slam dunk" was they were sure they would be able to stuff their cooked intelligence down our throats.
This is incredibly damning stuff. In his book Tenet has unleashed the intelligence community equivalent of "If I Helped Them Do It". They were not having a policy debate about the strength of the case against Iraq. They were having a sales meeting of con men to plot how far they could go in cheating the American people out of our lives and the contents of our treasury. And they had already decided to go all the way. "Slam dunk" was not an intelligence assessment, it was a SALES PROJECTION of their fraudulent product.
Of course, anyone who's been honestly and fairly paying attention has known at least since the exposure of the Downing Street Minutes that we were misled into the Iraq quagmire, by an executive branch that could not be bothered with either the actual facts or a serious policy debate about them. They were determined to "fix the facts around the policy", and that's exactly what they did, as we only learned far too long after the fact. And Tenet is yet another primary percipient witness to confirm the heavy hands of the vice president in leaning on CIA analysts to deliver the intelligence he had specifically ordered.
You remember how Cheney has always argued that the president shouldn't have to produce for Congress (or anyone else) records relating to White House deliberations, because according to him that's the only way he can get frank, confidential advice. Executive privilege is their incessant mantra. So how is it that details of the "slam dunk" incident were LEAKED from a meeting attended only by those in the innermost of circles? Tenet was STUNNED that the White House should betray his confidence, especially for the sickeningly cheap purpose of trying to lay all blame on him, when he was just going along for the ride.
Apparently that's what so galled Tenet enough for him to spill the beans on his own complicity (beside an O.J. size book advance). Dick Cheney, in its typical coward's fashion, was trying in the media to hang their entire wrong-headed strategic debacle around Tenet's neck, like a medal of blundering incompetence to go with his medal of freedom. "Tenet told us it was a slam dunk," Cheney shot back on TV when challenged on their decision to attack Iraq, as the five time military deferment king again tried to duck public responsibility.
Dick Cheney has a long history of planting leaks of information and then trying to use them as supporting evidence for his own purpose. In the run up to the Iraq War he would leak stories to the New York Times which were then slavishly published verbatim. Remember how his chief of staff Scooter Libby would spoon feed them to Judith Miller. Then Cheney would get on the Sunday talk shows quoting those same stories, pointing to them as credible confirming sources. We also now know he was the mastermind behind the exposure of Valerie Plame, permanently crippling one of our best REAL intelligence assets, because he was afraid he husband would blow the cover off their phony war. And there are even strong suggestions that contacts from his office were directly involved in the forgery of the Niger documents themselves, which were at the heart of the flimsy casus belli.
As courageously drafted by Dennis Kucinich in H.Res. 333, the first and most central ground stated for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney was that he led the charge in fabricating a case for invasion of Iraq, based on phony weapons of mass destruction. Now almost as if it were timed to coincide with that initiative, former CIA head George Tenet reveals they was NO hard evidence for war, but that Cheney just kept exaggerating the threat anyway. And even now Tenet offers nothing more compelling than a Ouija board or Miss Cleo to back even his assessment up. This is without question the most momentous issue of our time, and whether you agree that Cheney should be impeached, or not, your voice is needed to speak out now, and tell Congress what they should do about it.
Tenet was neither the victim of a bad rap, nor the unwitting excuse for invasion. Instead he was a willing co-conspirator, happy enough to play along with the war fever and collect his ill-gotten medal of freedom. But the criminal kingpin of the whole sordid affair was none other than Richard B. Cheney. And that truth can no longer be hidden by even this most secretive of administrations. What will it take for Congress to impeach him and put him on trial in the Senate for highest of all high crimes, launching a war of immoral and unjustifiable aggression, that has cost more Americans their lives than died on 9/11 (and upwards of a million Iraqis), based on NOTHING but deliberate and calculated lies?
May 7, 2007 -- Nicolas Sarkozy (whom are French intelligence sources have referred to a the "little French Hitler") will govern France with the help of two Silvio Berlusconi- and Rupert Murdoch-like billionaire neo-con French media moguls, Martin Bouygues and Arnaud Lagardere. Bouygues owns the TF1 television channel, which can be expected to act as Sarkozy's own version of the U.S. Republican Party's Fox News Channel. Lagardere's media group owns the Europe 1 radio network, Paris Match, several French regional newspapers, and is a major stakeholder in the French television network Canal+. Sarkozy is known to censor any news reports that are unfavorable to him and pressure publishers and editors to fire wayward journalists. With much of the French media in his pocket, expect the Franco-Hungarian Sarkozy to institute a new era of Janos Kadarist-style censorship in his nation.
The French election, from the start, has been plagued by election fraud -- bogus polling data, false exit polls, and electronic voting machine and machine counting irregularities were hallmarks of the first presidential election round. ES&S's I-Votronic machines were used in both elections across France. Only Sarkozy's party was supportive of the machines, with all the other political parties calling for a moratorium on their use. Turnout in the French election was 85 percent. With large turnouts historically favoring the left in France, the exit polling and actual polling were at odds with the turnout -- an indication of massive election fraud.
Similar polling irregularities were experienced in recent elections in Scotland, Wales, and England. In Scotland, 100,000 ballots, thought to mostly be cast for the pro-independence Scottish National Party, were declared "spoiled" in Scotland's election. That "glitch" cost the Scottish Nationalists a larger majority in the Scottish Parliament. Irregularities in Wales and England similarly affected larger margins for Welsh and Cornish nationalists. As the Bretons and Corsicans will soon discover with Sarkozy, regional nationalism is anathema to the globalist neo-con agenda, particularly the international bankers who want strong centralized control and minimal devolution of power to local and regional governments.
The electoral malfeasance of neo-cons in manipulating elections in France, Britain, Canada, the United States, Italy, Australia, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, and other countries will remain a problem until the people, acting through the power of progressive, anti-globalist, and anti-capitalist governments, seize control, via whatever means necessary, of the media, the voting and vote counting process, and the opinion polling mechanisms.
Consider the evidence and then vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll, and it will also send your personal message to Congress at the very same time.
May 7, 2007 -- On May 4, WMR reported on DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey's client list and Friday night's ABC 20/20 report on it: "ABC News has reportedly scaled down the number of clients who we be outed, possibly as a result of pressure from some of the clients' attorneys." ABC caved to intense political pressure from the White House, Palfrey's clients' attorneys, and members of Congress and their staffs not to air any additional names from the list. It merely recycled the story about two individuals already named, recently-resigned US Agency for International Development chief Randall Tobias and Pentagon "Shock and Awe" originator Harlan K. Ullman.
ABC's chief investigative reporter Brian Ross saw his story spiked by senior ABC News executives under pressure from Disney Chairman George Mitchell and CEO Bob Iger, as well as White House officials, including Karl Rove. Anticipating that the DC Madam scandal would name additional Bush administration officials, including what WMR was told is an extremely high-level official in the White House, the Bush administration went to "General Quarters" and sought to kill the story. After reporting that Palfrey's list contained a senior official at the World Bank, the head of an Air Force Intelligence squadron, the CEO of a major corporation, a White House economist (later said to be an official at the Office of Thrift Supervision across the street from the White House), and the head of a neo-con think tank, Ross said none of the names on Palfrey's list were "newsworthy." WMR has been informed that the CEO of a major corporation is a former CEO but, nonetheless, the aforementioned extremely high-level official of the Bush administration. The individual, who is definitely "newsworthy," reportedly engaged the services of Palfrey's escort firm while he was the CEO and maintained a residence off Chain Bridge Road in the Ballantrae neighborhood in McLean, Virginia, a few blocks from the headquarters of the CIA. A number of phone calls on Palfrey' s phone bills are said to have originated from the Ballantrae area of McLean during the time of the CEO's liaison with the Pamela Martin & Associates escort.
Good moring tonid and all. tonid:Thanks for the cartoon.I'm going to send it off to my wingnut brother-in law.He will start off his day pissed.So be it..heh,heh....
There is now an attempt to shift focus by some neo-con journalists in Washington away from the former CEO to officials of the Clinton administration who were also reportedly Palfrey clients. The White House spin machine is also a work. This editor noticed the top-level White House official was seated conspicuously next to his wife in the back seat of a Secret Service Crown Victoria executive black sedan minus the hallmark tinted windows but with the standard accompanying Secret Service motorcade vehicles traveling east on New York Avenue Thursday evening. In other words, the White House wanted pedestrians along H Street and New York Avenue to see this individual sitting with his wife in the vehicle, something unusual in the post-9/11 era.
ABC/Disney caved on Hookergate as many seasoned observers predicted. Ross has a history of having sensitive stories spiked. In 1998, his four month investigation on pedophiles being hired at Disney theme parks, including a puppet salesman at Disney World, was spiked on the direct orders of then-ABC CEO Michael Eisner.
The Washington elite began to push back in force on the Palfrey story during the middle of last week. The Washington Post started the push back with its hit piece on Montgomery Blair Sibley, Palfrey's attorney.
A U.S. government source told WMR that he believes there is a definite link between Palfrey's Pamela Martin & Associates and the Duke Cunningham/Dusty Foggo-connected Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Services, under federal investigation for allegedly helping to arrange for prostitutes to attend CIA contractor-arranged poker parties at the Watergate and Capitol Hill's Westin Grand Hotel. Unlike its role during the Watergate scandal, the Post is part of the criminal conspiracy to cover up "Hookergate." A public health nurse told WMR that it is irresponsible and a public health menace not to report cases of contacts with prostitutes in Washington, DC to public health authorities. The reason: With 152.2 AIDS cases per 100,000 people, Washington, DC has the highest AIDS rate in the United States.
One person was killed and another was hurt Monday in an explosion in a parking lot outside a Las Vegas Strip resort, authorities said. A man removing a backpack from atop his car died of injuries he received when the pack exploded a little after 4 a.m. on the second floor of the parking structure behind the Luxor hotel-casino, said Officer Bill Cassell, a police spokesman. The second person was taken to an area hospital. Aerial video from news helicopters showed no apparent damage to the parking structure, where entrances were blocked while police, firefighters and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents investigated around a vehicle. The Luxor is a pyramid-shaped hotel at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip. -- Las Vegas Sun
May 4-6, 2007 -- World Bank sources emphasize that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz's attempt to extort a $400,000 bonus from the bank before he resigns comes with a nice fringe benefit. As an international civil servant, Wolfowitz's bonus, as well as his salary, are exempt from US income taxes. Ditto the $193,590 salary for Wolfowitz's girl friend Shaha Riza. It is the neo-con way: the neo-cons start the wars and tax the poor and middle class to pay for their wars while they enjoy the best tax-avoidance schemes neo-con politicians can contrive. The French revolutionaries beheaded their king and queen for much less perfidy.
May 4-6, 2007 -- On Wednesday, US federal Judge Peter Messitte decided not to break with the precedent set by US Judge T. S. Ellis in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Espionage Act case and ruled that federal prosecutors must make sanitized court transcripts from the trial of former NSA analyst Ken Ford, Jr. available to Ford's defense attorney. The Ford defense argued that the transcripts are necessary for Ford's appeal of his conviction for allegedly possessing classified materials at his Waldorf, Maryland home. Ford was the target of an FBI/NSA set up by a vindictive White House unhappy that his SIGINT analysis report on Saddam Hussein's government's communications failed to reveal the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Messitte gave the CIA two weeks to redact classified portions of the transcripts and make them available to Ford's defense attorney. Assistant US Attorney David Salem, a key player in the set up of Ford, said that classified portions of the transcript would never be made available to Ford's defense attorney.
Gingrich To Conservatives: Don’t Talk About Iraq, Katrina, Walter Reed, Attorneys, Or Bush » This morning on CBS’s Face the Nation, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich advised fellow conservatives not to talk about President Bush’s record. “President Bush is not the future. He’s not a solution. He doesn’t solve Social Security. He doesn’t solve Medicare. He doesn’t solve the economy. He doesn’t solve the environment. He doesn’t solve education. He’s a current fact,” Gingrich said.
It’s also a “current fact” that the conservative agenda has failed to “solve” these important issues over the past six years.
Gingrich went on to say that conservatives “have to say, this is not what we want to debate. It’s not in Baghdad, it’s not in Katrina, it’s not at Walter Reed, it’s not with the U.S. attorneys, but I have a better plan for a better solution that fits your values.” When Host Bob Schieffer suggested that Gingrich seemed to advocating steering clear of President Bush, Gingrich responded, “Well, I think that’s clear.”
t posted this last night and i think its worth seeing one more time. i find it frustrating that they will successfully get away with pinning the inherent failure of conservatism on bush and that people will believe them.
May 7, 2007 -- The US Army is requiring its men and women to ask for permission from the Commanding Officers before they post anything to blogs, chat rooms, e-mail back home, or web sites like this one. WMR will continue to keep faith with its military correspondents and post their information on WMR and protect their anonymity. The Army's directive has no applicability in this small part of the Blogosphere. What the Army does not understand about its censorship policy is that like the Chinese government, which has adopted the same censorship policy, the Internet is a dynamic network with many workarounds and anonymity functionality. The Army is afraid that information into Iraq will let our military men and women know what is happening back in the United States and that they are, in reality, dying and shedding blood for a wilting Bush regime and its oil company financiers. That is why the Army blocks access to certain web sites like this one. The Army also does not want our troops to act as independent media sources and report on what is actually occurring in Iraq. Hence, the new policy on posting information to the Web.
WMR's podcast today, without commentary, is dedicated to our brave troops in Iraq who are not only fighting an insurgency and in a bloody civil war but also the censors in their own chain of command.
*** mmrules said... Monday May 7, 2007 09:23 EST A hit job on Keith Olbermann Joan Walsh-Salon
Link
May 7, 2007 10:59 AM
***
"Having Olbermann anchor -- as he will continue, with [Chris] Matthews, for big political nights throughout the campaign -- is the MSNBC equivalent of Fox News Channel assigning the same duties to O'Reilly. Fox has never done that, perhaps mindful of the immediate controversy that would result."
***
The joke of it is, that Olbermann so played it down it was sad. Also, it is really Matthews who is the direct equivalent of O'Reilly. For the same team no less.
Giuliani is a wuss, by the way. He was just lucky that he survived the WTC.
i followed one of catharine links to waynemadsen... and found the following article which is truly chilling:
May 7, 2007 -- WMR has been reporting on the covert U.S. intelligence operation to steal personal data to populate the databases of a renewed Total Information Awareness surveillance system. Even the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has not been immune to this covert operation. A computer hard drive containing the Social Security Numbers, dates of birth, and financial information on 100,000 employees of TSA who worked for the agency between January 2002 and August 2005 was stolen from a secure area within the TSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
The theft of personal information over the past few years has included personal information on millions of Americans, Britons, Canadians, and Australians (four of the five members of the secret UKUSA signals intelligence sharing alliance). Some of the funding for the joint National Security Agency-Department of Homeland Security "black bag" project, according to our sources, is laundered through classified contracts at the Department of Energy.
if i read it correctly, our own government is breaking into places and stealing laptops with personal information and loading it into their uber secret data mining machine.
May 7, 2007 -- WMR has learned that its reports on the connections between the former Sun Company shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania, renamed Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company after a shady deal in 1982 turned actual control of the shipyard over the CIA via interlocutors such as Mellon Bank and Fidelity Bank, are solid on the role of the SS Poet played in secretly shipping CIA arms to the Ayatollah Khomeini in a pre-1980 election deal worked out between George H. W. Bush and Iran to hold the U.S. hostages until after the election. The Chester facility's secret dealings with the CIA went back to the construction between 1973 and 1974 by Sun Shipyard of the SS Glomar Explorer, a Howard Hughes' Summa Corporation mining ship used for the CIA's Project Jennifer to recover part of the sunken Soviet submarine K-129, lost in the Pacific in April 1968.
Re: Comment on Devastating Letters to George Tenet and Rudy Giuliani by Lawrence Ray by Cin on Tue 01 May 2007 03:19 PM CDT | Profile | Lawrence Ray, Hero.
i followed one of catharine links to waynemadsen... and found the following article which is truly chilling:
May 7, 2007 -- WMR has been reporting on the covert U.S. intelligence operation to steal personal data to populate the databases of a renewed Total Information Awareness surveillance system
***
Yeah bbb... I was about to post that. WMR has been following that for years. It is incredible how many thefts there have been. Take a look at his table:
Re: Comment on Devastating Letters to George Tenet and Rudy Giuliani by Lawrence Ray by Cin on Tue 01 May 2007 03:19 PM CDT | Profile | Lawrence Ray, Hero.
Link
May 7, 2007 11:08 AM ****
WOW!
Read on...
"The fact is that Rudy Giuliani is a criminal and a member of a criminal enterprise. Others involved in the enterprise are President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Bernard Kerik and too many to mention in this letter. They did not want to stop 9/11 they intended to let it happen, then profit from it. Giuliani is one of those who made enormous profits in the first Twenty Four Hrs. Those involved already effectively owned the stock of select companies, which would be selling technology and related products/services post attack. Members in “The Criminal Enterprise” had been paid well before 9/11. Americans were sold out in a sinister plot, which transacted its early deals in the Middle East by Dick Cheney and others, years before the Clintons stepped foot in the White House. Bernard Kerik and I met in what seemed unintended in 1995 in a Luncheonette in N.J. It was not an accident on the part of Kerik and others. By 1998 Kerik asked me to be his best man. An important step in their plan in 1998, which has now failed. Their advance planning techniques are effective to most. “Plausible deniability” being the single most frequent trait in a simple pattern. A common calling card when any bright prosecutor is an active criminal disguised as a prosecutor. When they could not buy me or my services they decided to ruin my credibility, starting by framing me in a Federal indictment in March 2000, based on a report by Bernard Kerik’s best friend special agent Gary Uher who I briefed on their criminal activity in 1998. ..."
sorry but this letter that mmrules posted is fascinating and I am almost worried that it will disappear, so I am posting some more of it just in case:
I agreed to work with the New York City Department of Investigation on the Kerik/Giuliani investigation Dec 20, 2004. Walter Arsenault had contacted me after I put out the news in Nov/Dec 2004. It seems D.O.I.was actually a “Trojan Horse” intending to do damage control, find out what evidence I had, secure it, bury the investigation, bury me and I can prove exactly that. Where were they before I gave it to the Daily News? These criminals fleeced New York on the watch of The First Deputy Commissioner of New York City’s Dept. of Investigation Walter Arsenault. During the 2 yr investigation Walter Arsenault was in regular communication with the Bush White House. Being that Kerik had to step down after being nominated by President Bush to head America’s office of Homeland Security, why hadn’t the F.B.I. launched a thorough investigation? After all, it involved National Security, it involved the President of the United States, it crossed state lines and it happened in the White House. I believe the jurisdiction belonged to the F.B.I. Seems Federal to me. Why wasn’t the president outraged and responsible enough to order the F.B.I. to investigate? What was the Attorney General of the United States thinking ? Is Antonio Gonzales even allowed to think ? How come Gonzales did not take action? What about Vice President Cheney’s take charge personality? Cheney may have been to busy, maybe aboard the Sequoia with Greenspan as his guest.
The F.B.I. is the best Investigative Law Enforcement Agency in the entire world in my opinion. I have worked with the F.B.I. on and off for twelve years and have experience with different agencies in various parts of the world for twenty-six years. The men and women I have worked with are honorable, bright, dedicated and well trained. They were told to stand down regarding Giuliani/Kerik. Not what these men and women wanted to do. Instead an agency in N.Y.C. did the investigation.
Had the D.O.I. done their job in the nineties, Giuliani and Kerik would have never been thru the gates at the White House, they would have been behind the gates of a prison. If others and I were aware, so was Walter Arsenault.
We had been working in the Eastern European Region and in 1994 it became clear to me that there existed a very dedicated effort to execute a large scale terrorist attack on the United States. None of us knew at the time in 1994 the attack would come to be known as 9/11. My effort since to expose the truth has been unnaturally difficult, unnaturally long and unnaturally costly. The American Terrorists; the very corrupt Bush/Cheney White House, and many corrupt politicians and officials such as Gonzales, Chertoff, Giuliani/Kerik , and Wolfowitz to only name a few. The ENEMY WITHIN.
Red State Update: Everybody's mad at George Tenet Jackie and "War Dump,or his brother"?? at Red State Update consider the controversy stirred by ex-CIA director George Tenet's tell-all of the Bush administration -- and the meaning of the term "slam dunk."
My two little girls and I have paid an unimaginable price and still are. Hurting my children is more painful than every other tactic they used to discourage and /or stop me in their effort to make sure I did not expose what I discovered in my work in Eastern Europe during the Bush Sr. Presidency regarding activities of Dick Cheney and others.
N.A.T.O. I had been brought in to the Kosovo Crisis in an effort to avoid the senseless casualties to come in a ground offensive. I feel the Pentagon very accurately estimated anticipated casualties if a ground assault commenced. After I listened to the intelligence briefing the first night I was in Belgium at N.A.T.O. Headquarters, based on my analysis I presented a recommendation, which I believed to be the only available option. All in the room with the exception of Colonel Sponbeck agreed with me and asked how do we implement. I designed and submitted my tactical plan as I saw it. The necessary steps were completed over the next two days and I was then authorized. My first stop in the operation was Moscow. I accomplished both objectives, the cessation of the bombing campaign and mitigate the need for a ground offensive, thus avoiding the senseless loss of ground troops.
I am confident Mr. Giuliani and others will soon be charged, arrested and in jail awaiting trial for more than just witness tampering. I know, since I am one of the witness’s Giuliani has tampered with.
They are guilty of Treason.
I have recently contacted the office of Hillary Clinton since she wants to question Rudy Giuliani in an open forum regarding the removal of the World Trade Center debris. I have not heard back from her.
I have supportive evidence and can prove any of the above. I am willing to speak with you further if you like. You can contact me by email nisacray@gmail.com or can always ask Chuck Pitman, or Jim Jones, two very honorable friends.
John Bruhns, a former sergeant in the Army, stuck his neck out when he went to Iraq and now he's doing it again, by speaking out against the president.
He's the subject of a new TV ad made by Oliver Stone—the culmination of our VideoVets project.
Right now, the president is trying to bully Congress into submission over the Iraq Accountability Act by slamming them for "not supporting the troops." John's voice—and other Iraq veterans' voices—can counter that. They can tip the debate toward ending the war.
Please click below to watch the ad and contribute to air it.
Erasure? Just A Coincidence In Timing, I’m Sure… By Christy Hardin Smith @ 8:18 am
A very observent reader sends along these links from the Government Computer News service website.
Shhh! A Data Scrubber They Don't Want You To Know About: (dated 4/30/07)
Thoroughly removing data from a hard drive doesn’t always require an expensive degausser. There are techniques for permanent erasure that involve only software, if you’re willing to do a little preparation….
The advantage of Secure Erase is that it can wipe a disk clean in a matter of hours, much less time than the multiple passes required by a Defense Department 5220-style block erase.
Wow, that would be handy if, say, Congressional investigators were coming over to your office to do a scan copy of your hard drive for investigative purposes, now wouldn't it? What a useful tip in today's Beltway environment for some who might have something to hide from oversight. Or something. But wait, there's more.
Handling The Tail End Of The IT Life Cycle: Hints From NIST (dated 4/30/07):
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has some advice for agencies getting rid of digital storage media: Shred. Disintegrate. Pulverize. Incinerate. Melt.
Um…okay. Thanks, because I'm certain that folks who are responsible for, say, taking care of classified material disposal and such weren't altogether familiar with how to deal with the daily contents of the "burn bag" and all. So, golly, all of this information suddenly coming up in the most recent issue of the Government Computer News sure will come in…um…handy. Just a coincidence in timing that Congress happens to be doing some oversight on e-mails and other materials that had been ignored for the last six years, and that folks like Rep. Henry Waxman have requested that such materials not be destroyed…and then these articles appear, I'm sure. Whatever the reader may think, it is worth a reminder that the destruction of evidence sought in a Congressional investigation could subject the person destroying said evidence — and the person giving the order to do so — to felony charges. I'm just saying.
Deal Or No Deal? By Christy Hardin Smith @ 7:00 am
I see the talented and discreetly applied behind-the-scenes negotiating skills of Bob Bennett at work for his client, and some public pushback by disgusted World Bank employees and supporters who think that the rules — all the rules — should apply to their ersatz boss. Via NYTimes:
Bank officials said the committee was also preparing a recommendation on what the full board should do in light of its finding but would not be disclosing that to Mr. Wolfowitz.
The committee is considering whether to recommend an outright removal or some kind of no-confidence vote that may persuade him to resign. That part of the conclusion is not likely to become known until later, bank officials said.
The committee’s delay in drafting its conclusions made it likely that deliberations over Mr. Wolfowitz would be delayed at least until the end of the week. Mr. Wolfowitz has rebuffed suggestions that he resign and has accused critics of waging a “smear campaign” to force him out….
It was not clear why the committee missed its target, but bank officials said they understood it was because of difficulties in drafting the particulars against Mr. Wolfowitz, not because there were any negotiations to arrange for him to resign voluntarily before the draft was completed.
Bank officials said that there were such discussions about a voluntary resignation three weeks ago, but that there was no evidence they were under way this weekend. (emphasis mine)
A good lawyer knows how to keep his mouth shut until the deal is concluded and inked, and then will present that "best face forward" publicly once the handshake is struck. I have that Bob Bennett press conference feeling for this week — and am wondering if it will be on Thursday, while AG Gonzales is providing a useful distraction with his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
I would say that Bennett is trying to allow some way for Wolfowitz to leave the World Bank with his dignity intact, some face-saving maneuver, but it is much to late for that with the farce that his tenure has become in so short a time at the helm. The Village Voice has more, as does Al Kamen at the WaPo. And McClatchy had a great editorial on this (via the Fort Wayne News-Sentinal), including my favorite line which pretty much sums up the whole Bush Administration and their rampant cronies in a nutshell:
Apparently Wolfowitz forgot that the same standards he demands would also be asked of him.
As with all the folks in the insular Bush sphere of malignance and ruin, in their minds the rules only apply to others outside their fetid little bubble. More on that coming up in a bit…
Will Doolittle do time? Does the downfall of a local congressman mean something more than the latest corruption of a politician?
Whatever the ultimate outcome of the U.S. Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation into Congressman John T. Doolittle and his wife, Julie--and it’s been going on for three years now--clearly his political career is over. Even if he and his wife unexpectedly locate some loophole to avoid indictment or imprisonment for the two corruption cases in which their fund-raising activities are inextricably entangled, the Doolittles’ unsavory skimming of campaign contributions and personally pocketing more than a quarter-million dollars have forever finished off their reputations among their own conservative kith and kin. From Sacramento to Washington, the only discussion of the Doolittle case by political insiders from both parties regards strategy over when and how and by whom he should be replaced.
Reflective of this reality are two headlines about the man recently published on the conservative editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal: “Doolittle, Too Late” and “Republican Residue.” The point repeatedly made there is that the FBI could have raided Doolittle’s home, as they did on April 13, “only after a judge has issued a search warrant in response to government claims that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed.” California Democratic Party strategist Bob Mulholland has little doubt about what’s happening. “I think the Republican Party will try to throw Doolittle to the wolves,” he said in an interview. “Once you get a 'Dear John’ letter from the FBI, no one returns your phone calls.”
Doolittle’s fall from being a member of the ruling Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to becoming a target in a U.S. Department of Justice corruption investigation follows a pattern similar to that of his Republican congressional brethren who are already in jail or might soon be. Doolittle’s wife set up a company--Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions--of which she was the only officer and employee. Suddenly Julie Doolittle had the “expertise” to obtain clients for “consulting” and “fund raising.” Most clients had business before committees on which her husband sat. (We don’t know for certain because the Doolittles refuse to release a list of her clients.) So far, over $150,000 from Doolittle’s campaign contributions has been paid out to his wife’s company. And his committee statements claim she is owed more than another $120,000. With California’s community-property law, it is the equivalent of Doolittle putting the campaign cash into his own bank account.
BERLIN, May 7 (Reuters) - He is combative and outspoken. She is conciliatory and deferential.
But few leaders in Europe have as much in common where it really counts as Nicolas Sarkozy, the winner of Sunday's French presidential election, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Born within six months of each other, Sarkozy and Merkel are outsiders who overcame strong opposition from within their own parties to reach the pinnacle of European politics -- she as a pastor's daughter from communist East Germany and he as the son of a Hungarian immigrant who fled communism.
The two conservatives are united in their support for closer ties with Washington and in their opposition to Turkey's bid to join the EU -- clear departures from the stances of their predecessors Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder.
Both are advocates of reforming the European welfare state, although Merkel has been limited by her "grand coalition" in Berlin and Sarkozy has raised questions with his protectionist support of French national champions.
Together, they are ideally positioned to restart the Franco-German motor that has driven the European Union forward for the past five decades but stalled when French voters rejected a draft constitution for the bloc two years ago.
"He wants to get European integration on track again and does not define Europe as a counterweight to the United States," Andreas Schockenhoff, a leading conservative in parliament told German television. "These are the very principles on which our foreign policy is based."
Re: Comment on Devastating Letters to George Tenet and Rudy Giuliani by Lawrence Ray by Cin on Tue 01 May 2007 03:19 PM CDT | Profile | Lawrence Ray, Hero.
Link
May 7, 2007 11:08 AM ****
WOW!
Read on...
I know! Wouldn't it be Great to see one of the GOP frontrunners Doing The PERP WALK!! :)
DOES ANYBODY CARE?……SOMEONE? WHAT SECRET IS SO HORRIFYING THAT RUDY GIULIANI ORDERED AND BERNARD KERIK CARRIED OUT THE TORTURE AND CHILD ABUSE OF TWO LITTLE GIRLS
I am aware of Mr. Kerik as the primary source of the shamelessly blatant corruption in my “complicated” or “special” case,
... is the simple fact that my mother told me of Bernie’s involvement. Threatened me with it, I should say.
My mother, Teresa Ray, told me in an argument we had some time around my freshman year of high school (2003 – 2004) that the judge would not allow me to live with my father,....
When I questioned her apparent certainty ... she retorted in an overly confident tone that the judge was going to do whatever she wanted the judge to do.
Wolfowitz’s top aide resigns. Kevin Kellems, a key Wolfowitz aide at the World Bank who served previously as an adviser at the Pentagon in the run-up to the war and as Dick Cheney’s communications director, told Reuters he was “leaving for other opportunities.” “Given the current environment surrounding the leadership of the World Bank Group, it is very difficult to be effective in helping to advance the mission of the institution,” Kellems said
****toniD said... Is Karl Rove An Atheist? By Eric Kleefeld | bio Could the "architect" of the political success of George Bush and the GOP — which relied heavily on cultivating the support and loyalty of Evangelicals, Christian conservatives, and megachurches from coast to coast — actually be an atheist?
So says none other than Christopher Hitchens, a sometimes-admirer of the White House's Iraq policies and the author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. And he claims to have it straight from Rove himself. Asked in an interview with New York magazine if anyone in the Bush administration had ever confided in him about "being an atheist," Hitchens replied:
Well, I don’t talk that much to them — maybe people think I do. I know something which is known to few but is not a secret. Karl Rove is not a believer, and he doesn’t shout it from the rooftops, but when asked, he answers quite honestly. I think the way he puts it is, "I’m not fortunate enough to be a person of faith."
I know what Karl Rove Worships!Link Below....Not that theres anything wrong with it.PC. By the way,what were you guys smoking last night??
does anyone know what the regular army strenght is and how much of its deployed to iraq?
context is that its being reported that kansas is being hampered in tornado recovery efforts because the national guard and its equipment is in (surprise) iraq.
this seems to be an altogether common occurrence when disasters happen, which leads to the question, whats the army up to? do we still have an army?
To MMR--that was a great observation...actually, i think the best thing to do is to page-dwn fast as soon as spam enters...after all who needs to read spam? ...works for me.
Report: Saudis, US sponsoring covert action against Iran Michael Roston Published: Monday May 7, 2007
The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United States are working with other states in the Middle East region to sponsor covert action against Iran, according to a report in this month's edition of The Atlantic. The report also suggests that covert attacks may occur against Iran's oil sector.
David Samuels, in a lengthy article on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, reports that the US is promoting a campaign against Iran that includes covert action.
Since last Fall, he writes, "Rice and her colleagues in the administration decided to embark on a daring and risky third course: a coordinated campaign, directed with the help of the intelligence services of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates....The bill for the covert part of this activity, which has involved funding sectarian political movements and paramilitary groups in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, is said to amount to more than $300 million. It is being paid by Saudi Arabia and other concerned Gulf states, for whom the combination of a hasty American withdrawal from Iraq and a nuclear-armed Iran means trouble."
Samuels suggests that Iran has already faced a variety of internal attacks as a consequence of this covert program.
"They pointed to an upsurge in antigovernment guerrilla activity inside Iran, including a bomb in Zahedan, the economic center of the province of Baluchistan, that killed 11 soldiers in the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on February 14; the mysterious death of the Iranian scientist Ardashir Hosseinpour, who worked on uranium enrichment at the Isfahan nuclear facility; and the defection of a high-ranking Iranian general named Ali Asgari, a former deputy minister of defense who was also the Revolutionary Guard officer responsible for training and supplying Hezbollah during its war against the Israelis in southern Lebanon in the 1980s," Samuels notes.
More than that, Samuels warns that these covert actions may soon target Iran's petroleum sector.
The radical project led by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela can’t be understood through the distorting lens of its inveterate opponents, says Julia Buxton. This is a politics for the future with emancipation, participation – and popular support - at its heart. ... In 2006, legislation was introduced recognising community councils as a principle form of political organisation. The councils complement and bring coherence to the multiple networks of social organisations that deliver the misiones programmes and organise political activities, such as the water committees, land committees, health committees, electoral battle-units and endogenous development groups. Based on 200 to 400 families in urban areas and twenty to thirty in rural settings, the councils are governed by citizens' assembles and their financial affairs overseen by public auditing processes. By the end of 2006, there were 16,000 communal councils across the country.
With the injection of $5 billion in funding for 2007, the government aims to increase this to over 25,000, allowing communities to become the new "eye" of political power in a radical, bottom up vision of democracy in which national government is balanced by grassroots power. ...
President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuela's largest steel maker, Sidor, will not be allowed to make any more exports until it meets domestic needs, and threatened to expropriate the Argentine-controlled company if it resists. Chavez has criticized Sidor for selling the bulk of its production overseas and forcing local producers to import from elsewhere, saying Venezuelan industry should be given priority.
Re MMR cmmnt on Cath-- said... To MMR--that was a great observation...actually, i think the best thing to do is to page-dwn fast as soon as spam enters...after all who needs to read spam? ...works for me.
Catherine:Thank you.It gets frustrating though.As everone knows.Thanks again....I still want to see a Giuliani PERP WALK.It would be Too Cool!! :)
John Pilger is an award-winning journalist, author and documentary filmmaker, who began his career in 1958 in his homeland, Australia, before moving to London in the 1960s. He has been a foreign correspondent and a front-line war reporter, beginning with the Vietnam War in 1967. He is an impassioned critic of foreign military and economic adventures by Western governments.
“It is too easy”, Pilger says, “for Western journalists to see humanity in terms of its usefulness to ‘our’ interests and to follow government agendas that ordain good and bad tyrants, worthy and unworthy victims and present ‘our’ policies as always benign when the opposite is usually true. It’s the journalist’s job, first of all, to look in the mirror of his own society.”
Pilger also believes a journalist ought to be a guardian of the public memory and often quotes Milan Kundera: “The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” ...
[The War on Democracy will be released in British cinemas on June 15. It will be released in Australia in September 2007. For more information visit http://www.johnpilger.com or http://www.warondemocracy.net. Reprinted from Venezuelanalysis.com.]
From: Comment & Analysis, Green Left Weekly issue #708 9 May 2007.
T-minus 1 minute til the library opens...I slept wrong somehow and cut off circulation in one hip...so now the back of my leg is sore...today is gonna suck!
Shell, here's a photo I took from a tour bus in Caracas. It's the memorial of Simone de Bolivar in Caracas on a street ( Costera ) Called Costera Simon de Bolivar.
It's a little out of focus because I was on a bus but not bad.
Catharine said... May 7, 2007 -- WMR has learned that its reports on the connections between the former Sun Company shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania, renamed Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company after a shady deal in 1982 turned actual control of the shipyard over the CIA via interlocutors such as Mellon Bank and Fidelity Bank, are solid on the role of the SS Poet played in secretly shipping CIA arms to the Ayatollah Khomeini in a pre-1980 election deal worked out between George H. W. Bush and Iran to hold the U.S. hostages until after the election. The Chester facility's secret dealings with the CIA went back to the construction between 1973 and 1974 by Sun Shipyard of the SS Glomar Explorer, a Howard Hughes' Summa Corporation mining ship used for the CIA's Project Jennifer to recover part of the sunken Soviet submarine K-129, lost in the Pacific in April 1968.
May 7, 2007 11:05 AM
Catherine:Good post. WoW! That's another one that should be in Jail.Bush Sr.
Thompson Flops Robert Novak says former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) bombed in his first major speech since he started contemplating a White House run.
"The excitement aroused in melancholy Republican ranks by the politician-commentator-actor will not be doused by one lackluster performance. Nevertheless, his first speech since his unexpected presidential boom began suggests that Thompson needs preparation if he does take up this daunting burden. The deeper concern by some supporters is whether the tepid reaction in Orange County will shake what had seemed his clear resolve to make the race."
The Hotline: "Thompson entered and exited to standing ovations, but as club members queued up to retrieve their cars, it was clear that he had not made the sale to all of them – although perhaps he wasn’t really selling anything yet."
Bush Supporters Defecting to Democrats "Disillusioned supporters of President George W Bush are defecting to" Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "as the White House candidate with the best chance of uniting a divided nation," reports the Sunday Times of London. Among them are Tom Bernstein, who "went to Yale University with Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with him. In 2004 he donated the maximum $2,000 to the president’s reelection campaign and gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee."
"Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton has many Republican defectors of her own, including John Mack, chief executive of Morgan Stanley, who helped raise $200,000 for the president’s reelection, qualifying him as a 'Bush ranger.' He said last week that he was impressed by Clinton’s expertise."
Meanwhile, Newsweek notes "the sons and daughters of some iconic Republicans (Ike! T.R.!) are contemplating crossing the aisle."
David Sirota: Would you rather get your news from those who admit their biases or those who claim they have none?
CBS 60 Minutes' piece on Lou Dobbs last night told us a lot more about traditional journalism's biases than it did Dobbs' on any given issue he covers. Throughout the interview, CBS correspondent Leslie Stahl (who I actually think is quite a decent reporter) seems appalled at the entire concept of "advocacy" journalism, essentially asserting that a reporter having any opinion whatsoever offends the Principles of Journalism sent down from Mt. Olympus. Not only does her surprise display a stunning lack of basic education about the history of the very journalism profession she works in (Leslie - please google the terms "muckraker" and "penny press"), her own 60 Minutes piece about Dobbs displays her own very subjective opinions. The only difference is that while Dobbs is honest and admits to his biases, Stahl - and other traditional journalists - mask their very subjective world views in the veneer of objectivity, making their own advocacy far more devious than Dobbs could ever be.
Take, for instance, this line in the 60 Minutes piece, delivered as an authoritative, nonpartisan, objective fact:
"Dobbs is full of contradictions: he’s pro-abortion rights, but against gun control; a fiscal conservative who supports government regulation."
Stahl would have us believe that believing the consistent libertarianism inherent in the dual beliefs that government shouldn't dictate decisions between a woman and her doctor nor decisions about who should own a gun is a "contradiction." She would also have us believe that being a fiscal conservative (aka. for less government spending and balanced budgets) is a "contradiction" for someone who supports government regulation (aka. consumer protections, environmental laws, etc.). She offers no proof of these claims. Factually, of course, they are absurd, meaning at best such claims are Stahl's own (very odd) opinions. Yet, her opinion is portrayed as non-partisan objective fact akin to stating that water is wet.
Plato's parable of the cave is a metaphor for ignorance and knowledge. Imagine, says Plato, a cave in which prisoners are chained in such a way that all they can see are shadows thrown on a wall in front of them. All they know of life are these shadows. They would think that these shadows were reality, having known nothing else. If one of them were freed, and allowed to emerge into the daylight, he would see things as they are, and realize how limited his vision was in the cave. He would be quite unwilling to return:
And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?...you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell. (Republic VII, 516)
Yet to his fellow-prisoners, he would seem the fool, not they:
And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady...would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending. (Ibid, 517)
I suggest that the lethal text may not in fact destroy the mind, but rather cause it to move up to a higher level of consciousness, which would seem "weak" to the people left behind. He might have a direct apprehension of Plato's world of Ideal Forms. Instead of having been destroyed, such a person might simply have transcended the body and no longer have need of it. (Such a fate is implied in Macroscope.)
I further suggest that the person who enters cyberspace has, in a metaphorical sense, left the cave. She has entered an abstract dataspace—a world of Ideal Forms—and has no need of the physical body. Indeed, the person wearing a bodysuit and VR goggles seems vaguely ridiculous to anyone watching her twist and turn in response to no apparent stimulus. She is, in a literal sense, a visionary.
Bush unwittingly makes crack about the Queen's age by John Aravosis (DC) · 5/07/2007 01:05:00 PM ET
He really is an idiot. Then he follows it up with what one might call a sexist comment as well. She is, after all, a head of state. Then again, I guess we should be thankful he didn't give her a neck massage.
732 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 401 – 600 of 732 Newer› Newest»Buck buck buck, like a chicken heah!""
that's why god invented horse crazy kids...
suprised thay have'nt showed up yet.
hood kids here are car and music jammers. think this is the fifth bunch i've ruined by my bad example.
or vice versa.
i can never remember
companies that hire them for cheap labor.
who spend a tiny part of what they rip off from all of us to keep the game going.
how many time we yakked migrant issues dada?
"Please let the government come down on the companies that hire them for cheap labor. Punish the companies, not the people!"
I agree 100%. I was just doing my rightwinger impersonation. Pretty good, right?
I'm in New York. I think it's difficult to get hysterical about the whole illegal alien thing in such a diverse place. But when I look at the rightwing stuff out there, I see some people are really up in arms about it.
Wow, do my eyes deceive me...a new person on The Blog?
Hi Mab!
:)
Sunny J: "how many time we yakked migrant issues dada?"
Bait: "He won't respond until you call him El Dada."
sigh,
it's complicated mab
to fix the prob we need to take risks and organise in a way thats being invewnted by us as we type.
Hi Alice!
Hopefully I won't offend everyone with my views...at least I won't talk about penises! like AO! Living in Calif. for 25 years gave me a great experience of diversity and acceptance of such. Funny, we just moved to Maine two years ago....the whitest state in the country...figure that! I am not of the belief of sending people back, but highly support slamming companies that profit off of hiring low-low-paid illegal immigrants. A complicated situation....but I favor punishing the big companies that profit off of exploitation, rather than punishing people who are trying to make a better life for themselves.
"how many time we yakked migrant issues dada?"
We've yakked about every kind of alien you can think of here.
Martians, Venetians, Cubans... you name it.
Dogpeople from Sirius...
eya A.!
she's a pip!
mab meet mz Alice.
we smuggle aircraft engines.
hey sunshine jim,
i know it's complicated...
hey my husband flies air cargo...for real!
dada: "...Dogpeople from Sirius..."
Bait: "You can't be Sirius. Your ears are too small."
"at least I won't talk about penises! like AO!"
how are your penises hung? honestly, suzy! said...
A Show of Penises
http://tinyurl.com/3xc337
May 6, 2007 10:15 PM
mab: "hey my husband flies air cargo...for real!"
-------------------------------
A loving wife would buy him a seat in coach.
crocheted no less!
hilarious artist, wicked sense of humor too.
Thank you. Tip the waitrons. I won't be here all night.
Yeah right! He takes an air mattress on his flights with who knows what they're transporting.
I will not acknowledge the penis art. And I am not a prude, to be sure.
Maybe I'll be kicked out for this???
what kind of aircraft?
tell him i have every model airplane magazine from 1929 up and full size flight magazines from 1920 up as well.
want to blow him away? i probably have a magazine the exact same age as him. want one? trade ya for a jar of jelly!
mab: "He takes an air mattress on his flights..."
-------
Air Mattress! This could be my big airline start-up break!
kewl! He has a love of Herc's...I think C-130's...he's dangled out the back of them on a harness when they were doing food drops in Africa, on their off time...the id-jits!
he's not doing "glamorous" stuff like that now, tho
"In the unlikely event of a water landing, your mattress may be used as a party barge."
"Maybe I'll be kicked out for this???"
(lmao!!!)
if you only knew how funny that is here.
this is liberty hall sis!
you reallllllly have to be A PAIN IN THE ASS before we ban ya!
SJ...I will purposely grow some strawberries to make some jam! Mark's birthday is 8-16-52.
what a hoot!
i'd do it too!
mil or civvies?
"Should the cabin experience a sudden loss of pressure, your mattress will look like Snoopy in the Macy's parade."
model airplane mag or actual aircraft mag?
or one of each?
he's a civvie, not a mil. he managed the cargo operations at the airport for a year in Basra in 2004, before we knew how fucked up the war was...i.e., we bought into the propaganda. Thank god nothing really bad happened to him. His admin. assistant (iraqi) got killed with her sister 2 weeks after starting to work with him....need I say more?
White House employee fired for trying to protect president's life
Sometimes, the truth is right in front of us, even if it comes in the form of a seemingly misspoken sentence.
During the political storm that erupted in early 2006 over the Bush administration’s plans to turn over port security to a United Arab Emirates-based company, the president was quoted on Fox News saying the following on March 12 of that year:
"People don't need to worry about security. This deal wouldn't go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America."
Apparently, if we are willing to heed the story of a former West Wing lead mailroom assistant, Laura C. Jones, the president’s gaff underscores another truth: that his staff isn’t concerned about White House security either.
Rather, the Bush inner circle seems more concerned with silencing individuals who threaten to expose politically embarrassing (and job-threatening) security breaches, even if those lapses pose a threat to the life of the president.
With friends like those, you have to wonder why Bush remains so focused on frightening the American people about foreign boogiemen.
...
so....I guess, one of each!
we could work out a sweet deal on a whole year!!!
(yum i loves strawberry preserves old style with lil chunks of homegrown strwberries ready to sweet talk yer taste buds and a fresh piece of buttered french roll!)
dam it now i'm drooling...
time for coffee!
Well, SJ, I needs to get ma strawrberrah plants!
SJ, you must be on the west coast, no?
mab: "His admin. assistant (iraqi) got killed with her sister 2 weeks after starting to work with him....need I say more?"
---------------------------------
Fuck. I was on a roll. Now I'm bummed. C'est la vie.
Okay. Back to earth. If you don't mind my asking, were the two ladies offed randomly or were they killed because of their association with Americans?
Crank Bait...They were sisters who worked at the Basra airport. I think they were killed because they were working for our "coalition" (the Basra airport was occupied/run by the Brits)...they were both gunned down as they got out of a car or taxi in front of their house when they got home from work. This happened only a few months after my husband got to Iraq, and he was devastated. His email to me read..."It has begun..." When I read this, my stomach just turned. I slept to the sound of the TV on CNN every night thru the year he worked there, out of anxiety. He has worked in many war-torn areas in the past 25 years. He did not work for Blackwater or KBR. He "just" managed the cargo operations of the Basra airport...not a super high-paid guy with a gun. Any questions are ok.
yup
up in BC canuckistan with my sweet canuckistan lady Bgurl.
sofrajones@telus,net
(pay attention to crnkr's jokes or he'll get serious on us. we've all followed the murder and rape over here too closely to be apathetic about it.)
George Tenet cashes in on Iraq
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/05/07/tenet_money/
The former CIA chief is earning big money from corporations profiting off the war -- a fact not mentioned in his combative new book or heard on his publicity blitz.
By Tim Shorrock
May 7, 2007 | If you go by the book jacket of his new memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," George Tenet is enjoying the life of a retired government servant teaching at Georgetown University, where he was appointed to the faculty in 2004. The former CIA director played up the academic image when he kicked off the recent media blitz for his new book by doing an interview for CBS's "60 Minutes" from his spacious, book-lined office at the university. His academic salary, and the reported $4 million advance he received from publisher HarperCollins, should provide the former CIA director with more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his days and leave a substantial fortune to his children.
But those monies are hardly Tenet's entire income. While the swirl of publicity around his book has focused on his long debated role in allowing flawed intelligence to launch the war in Iraq, nobody is talking about his lucrative connection to that conflict ever since he resigned from the CIA in June 2004. In fact, Tenet has been earning substantial income by working for corporations that provide the U.S. government with technology, equipment and personnel used for the war in Iraq as well as the broader war on terror.
When Tenet hit the talk-show circuit last week to defend his stewardship of the CIA and his role in the run-up to the war, he did not mention that he is a director and advisor to four corporations that earn millions of dollars in revenue from contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. Nor is it ever mentioned in his book. But according to public records, Tenet has received at least $2.3 million from those corporations in stock and other compensation. Meanwhile, one of the CIA's largest contractors gave Tenet access to a highly secured room where he could work on classified material for his book.
oops,
sofrajones@telus.net
without the comma, sheesh!
Making Money from a war I never started said...
heh!
tanks for the article, good catch.
tenet is about as warped as the rest of them.
"Those are my principles.
If you don't like them,
I have others."
-Groucho Marx
http://www.capitalism.org/
My favorite commenters on various subjects based on AAR interviews:
Fascism - Hedges
Elections - Mark Crispin Miller
Economics - Krugman
Conspiracies - Palast
Media - James Wolcott
Blogs - Bill Scher
Hegemony - Chomsky
Pointed Barbs - Gore Vidal
Cats & Food - Maron
Religion - Milfington
Everything else - Joe Conason
Comment by WebHubbleTelescope — May 6, 2007 @ 11:46 pm
Somalia: The Other (Hidden) War for Oil
...
'America can be more heavily criticized for subordinating Somali interests to its own desire to catch a handful of al- Qaeda men who may (or may not) have been hiding in Mogadishu,' said The Economist. 'None has been caught, many innocents have died in air strikes, and anti-American feeling has deepened. Western, especially European, diplomats watching Somalia from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya to the south, have sounded the alarm. Their governments have done little.'
...
http://www.capitalism.org/ said...
uh oh! i saw novelist Ayn Rand's name there!
"no matter how cynical i get, i just can't keep up!"
Police battle anti-Sarkozy protestors across France
...
Up to 300 rioters, some wearing scarves around their faces, used bottles and stones in running attacks on police, who responded with baton charges, tear gas and water cannon.
"Police everywhere, justice nowhere," shouted some of the rioters, while others screamed "Sarko-fascist."
...
Stoning to death of girl provokes wave of killings...
ya, saw that earlier.
what a waste, makes shakespeare's R & J look like he was writing a poof piece.
Well, thanks to you all for being so welcoming...maybe i'll check in again soon!
was a pleasure having you!
nite kiddoo
say hey to yer siggie other and wish em luck!
Tanks SJ...Good thing is that he's not in Iraq anymore!
A Revenge Tragedy By John Steppling
(Editor's Note: This stream of consciousness-style piece is excerpted from an ongoing online dialogue between Steppling and fellow radical, Guy Zimmerman. They are Co-Senior Editors of Arts and Culture at Cyrano's Journal Online. "A Revenge Tragedy" is but a small sampling of the brilliant conclusions drawn during the exchanges between these highly refined thinkers.)
...
I believe Burroughs, circa Soft Machine, used to write about the typewriter writing us. This is the same dream dreaming the dreamer motif in a sense….but in advanced capital almost all media and Hollywood product is interchangeable. Not totally, yet, but close. The endless assault of MTV reality shows, network reality shows, and faux news-ertaintment, is now writing our lives. The system has colonized our unconscious to some degree……not as totally as it has colonized our ego, but its growing. The cyborg quality of people hence needs outlets of appropriate rage.
...
_____
Stray Thoughts at a Late Hour
...
History is full of beautiful lies and ugly truth.
******************************
2am in the morning
stalking my thoughts through the high grass
quietly as a leopard
till I sense weakness
then I lunge!
...
But to answer my own question, what is hapiness?
A deep fried love twinkie, baby!
yup mav,
a very good thing!
Good Night, Mab... :)
eya A.!
REWRITE!
Hey Sammy, once you get settled, how about letting the listeners organize to expand your weekend air time? You should have a show Saturday & Sunday like Laura Flanders, frankly you're much more listenable than her. Or you should at least be able a stretch out with a 4 hr show. 3 hrs a week is a ridiculous amount for someone with your talent. Your show is one of the most informative on the air. Well I'll be listening to every episode on Sunday whatever the case.
Almost 18,000 men and women have stripped naked in the name of art in the centre of Mexico City...
18,000
"we all felt united!"
last late night doggie gran prix!
it 's hilarious! they're airborne as they go past the office door.
claws clicking away like a horde of exited castenet dancers.
witching hour!
i win! hahahahahahoo!
g'nite gang! love ya all!
Sunshine Jim said...
we have 336 regular posters
==
my local
http://www.iatse-336.org/
i'm winceing
i told the o.g. about my earlier shame
and he's chewing me up
: (
(rightly so)
hi ao
==
links to == http://www.afa.net/sexualorientations.asp
Don's list of sexual orientations
==
Sincerely,
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association
P.S. Please forward this e-mail message to your family and friends!
[especially the children.]
==========================
http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/2007/05/revenge-tragedy.html
""
The cyborg quality of people hence needs outlets of appropriate rage.
Road rage is a useful one, but child predator hysteria and drug hysteria is even better.
Since 90% of all child abuse (sexual or otherwise) happens in the home and involves close family members, it sort of suggests that there aren’t guys lurking at every schoolyard with offers of candy.
Bush and his pals won’t address this because it flies in the face of *family values*.
...
So, Rove-Iago, a man of great hypocrisy, too. Funny how Hastert, Gingrich, etc etc etc, all have such rather obvious skeletons in their closets (sic).
...
The answer to creating a society that protects its people is not found in hysterical demands for punishment
...
and the endless list of destroyed families in these places, never seems to register on the moral radar.
I'm severely jonesing for Seder.
Anonymous said...
Sam, turn the "comments" section OFF until you can moderate the SPAM on here. This is really tiresome.
May 6, 2007 6:10 PM
Comment deleted
This post has been removed by the author.
May 6, 2007 6:11 PM
teresa said...
Don't turn it off just throw certain parties out. Like they do on most of the blogs
May 6, 2007 6:12 PM
E-mail him:
samsedershow@gmail.com
Meet Habeas Corpus:
You may not recognize him, but he’s been looking out for you.
Habeas Corpus has never had a very high profile, but for more than 700 years this quiet hero has stood watch over some basic principles of fairness and human dignity. When the Constitution was written, he was there. Since 1215, in fact, he’s been a humble, but unflagging, champion of justice and due process of law.
Most people don’t know what he looks like. There are only a few photos, a couple of early American paintings, and a handful of illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages.
Habeas Corpus — Habeas to his friends, which includes practically everyone who knows him — has never been interested in the spotlight. His face has never mattered, only what he stands for. Until now.
Something happened last year, and now Habeas Corpus is missing.
Some time on the morning of October 17, 2006, Habeas disappeared. Eyewitness accounts say he was last seen in Washington, D.C., walking down the Capitol steps in something of a daze. But where he went from there, or where he is now, is anyone’s guess.
The one thing we know for certain is why he went missing. October 17 was the day that Congress let the president declare Habeas Corpus — and other parts of the U.S. Constitution — null-and-void for certain individuals.
For centuries, Habeas has stood up for anyone who was accused of a crime, protecting us against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment.
Habeas has been looking out for you. Now, he needs us to look out for him, before the rights he has been protecting for centuries are lost forever.
Habeas is out there somewhere, and together we must find him, and restore him to his rightful place in our democracy.
Link
Hamell-Values:
Vid Link
-------------
air-ono said...
i'd delete my posts, but i feel they should remain as shame
May 6, 2007 11:14 PM
________________
Please delete this one for me as a personal request:
air-ono said...
May 7, 2007 4:30 AM
Thanks in advance.
p.s. If you have something to say to me personally, please send me an e-mail.
Rangel: Ex-CIA chief Tenet has no 'credibility,' merits probe
Raw Story:
Link
the drama!
its so dramatic
I think the comments should be shut off until a moderator can get on here too
Though this may be an unpopular stance, I am sick of Wardog spam
It was tolerable the first year and a half
-conbo
Survey: Gas Prices Reach Record Average
AP:
Link
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/6/54638/25883
Video: Cheney continues claims of Saddam-Qaeda connection RAW STORY
Published: Friday April 6, 2007
Link to Fantasy Land
I think this is worthy of discussion and sending suggestions in to MSNBC. Which means, a poll. Fire away. I would add BillinMaine but he would run away with the poll (and he will not do it) but that's another role model.
Poll
Suggestions for MSNBC
Will Rogers type
0% 0 votes
Teddy Roosevelt type
0% 0 votes
Combo of the above
17% 2 votes
Andy Stern
0% 0 votes
RFK Jr
8% 1 votes
Sam Seder
50% 6 votes
Randi Rhodes
17% 2 votes
other, solicit support in comments
8% 1 votes
| 12 votes | Vote
Vote
http://assimilatedpress.blogspot.com/2007/05/president-bush-commander-guy-or-skipper.html
Let me offer this:
Bush = Gilligan
Cheney = The Skipper
Bush, Sr. = Mr Howell
Barbara Bush = Mrs Howell
Condi = The Professor
Gonzo = Marianne
Rumsfeld was DEFINITELY Ginger
Sammy, Sammy, Sammy
Your Hiatias was not a good move - unless you are scheduling a launch of something big.
We progressive have got to have our fix - You should have been doing get spots on Maddow and Randi and / or get more interviews on Oberman or something. To keep the pressure on AAR for their stupid decision. NOw you have let it die down and people will accept the change to Lionel. OMG - as I posted early - have you heard his promo? We'll talk about bullshit and you are going to like it?
Give Sammy a plug:
How do I contact and MSNBC TV?
viewerservices@msnbc.com
Morning Sederites!
“The rebuilding effort in tornado-ravaged Greensburg, KS, likely will be hampered because some much-needed equipment is in Iraq, said that state’s governor. Governor Kathleen Sebelius said much of the National Guard equipment usually positioned around the state to respond to emergencies is gone.”
LINK
China orders resettlement of thousands of Tibetans-McClatchy:
Link
“All of us believe that in the next 90 days, you’ll probably see an increase in American casualties,” Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army’s Task Force Marne, said yesterday. Eight American soldiers were killed in roadside bomb attacks Sunday, one of the highest single-day death tolls this year.
LINK
Lee Rayburn!
Revelation's right on time!
Posted on Sun, May. 06, 2007
IRAQ
U.S. casualties will rise in next 90 days, commander says
By Leila Fadel
McClatchy Newspapers
Link
“The weekend blitz of tornadoes in Kansas and the Plains puts 2007 on track to be one of the busiest and deadliest tornado years in a decade, severe-storms meteorologists said Sunday. ‘Even if the year stopped right now, it would be the deadliest year we’ve had since 1999,’ said Greg Forbes, severe-weather expert for The Weather Channel.”
LINK
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army’s Task Force Marne...
Is this the Third Infantry Division?
"Rock of the Marne!"
“The Army is fixing the doors of every armored Humvee in combat in Iraq because they can jam shut during an attack and trap soldiers inside, Pentagon records and interviews show.”
LINK
U. S. ATTORNEYS
Congress considers broadening Justice Department inquiry
By Greg Gordon and Margaret Talev
McClatchy Newspapers
Link
“Abandoning the business lobby’s traditional resistance to healthcare reform, a new coalition of 36 major companies plans to launch a political campaign today calling for medical insurance to be expanded to everyone along lines Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing for California.”
LINK
Spinning al Zawahri’s latest rant
By: Steve on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 5:08 AM - PDT
Oh Wart Dump?-Link
Conservatives and libertarians should fight back and challenge the myth that collectivist liberals care more about racism. Modern liberalism, however well intentioned, is a byproduct of the same collectivist thinking that characterizes racism. The continued insistence on group thinking only inflames racial tensions.
The true antidote to racism is liberty. Liberty means having a limited, constitutional government devoted to the protection of individual rights rather than group claims. Liberty means free-market capitalism, which rewards individual achievement and competence, not skin color, gender, or ethnicity. In a free market, businesses that discriminate lose customers, goodwill, and valuable employees – while rational businesses flourish by choosing the most qualified employees and selling to all willing buyers. More importantly, in a free society every citizen gains a sense of himself as an individual, rather than developing a group or victim mentality. This leads to a sense of individual responsibility and personal pride, making skin color irrelevant. Rather than looking to government to correct what is essentially a sin of the heart, we should understand that reducing racism requires a shift from group thinking to an emphasis on individualism.
RFK Jr.
4% 3 votes
Sam Seder
49% 33 votes
Randi Rhodes
28% 19 votes
666!
Spread of parasitic disease
in US tied to combat deployments
A parasitic disease rarely seen in United States but common in the Middle East has infected US troops in the last four years because of massive deployments to remote combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, military officials said.
LINK
666. Come out and play-ay-ay!
George Tenet cashes in on Iraq
The former CIA chief is earning big money from corporations profiting off the war -- a fact not mentioned in his combative new book or heard on his publicity blitz.
By Tim Shorrock
Link
Newspapers demand Democrats
stand up to Bush on Iraq
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, for example, declared, "All Congress needs to do is show some courage and stand up to President Bush. Its ultimate service to our forces would be to see that no more of them lose their lives in a pointless war -- a great service indeed."
LINK
"individualism" taken to an extreme is just plain selfish. See how language can either conjure the myth (and I do mean myth) of the strong person who stands by themself - but nobody is an island. And a culture that does not have a sense of the commons is inhumane and primitive
Two U.S. soldiers shot dead at Afghan prison
Mon May 7, 2:00 AM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - A rogue Afghan soldier shot dead two U.S. soldiers at the high-security Pul-i-Charkhi prison on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, the U.S.
LINK
The Greatest Threat to Choice
Chris Hedges — When it comes to abortion, the Christian right presents a false choice between self-condemnation and a life of struggle. Until the impoverished and imperiled, so frequently driven into the arms of demagogues, are truly cared for, the freedom of all women will be at risk.
LINK
Wolfowitz cartoon
mornin all. same stuff different day.
It's a Happy Doggie Branson Day...
Maybe...!
We been gettin rain...
Tons of Rain..
So we'll see..
Didn't you just love the election in France...!!!
I know I did..!!!
Everyone is moving to the RIGHT..
=========================================================================================================
Sarkozy: I have mandate for change
PARIS, France (CNN) -- Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy greeted news of his election Sunday to a five-year term as France's president with a vow to serve as a leader for all people of France.
"The president of the republic must love and respect all the French," he told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. "I will be the president of all the French people."
Sarkozy won with 53 percent of the vote in Sunday's presidential runoff, according to preliminary results issued by the French Interior Ministry. Socialist Segolene Royal took 47 percent of the vote.
"The French people have called for change. I will carry out that change, because that's the mandate I have received from the French people."
Sarkozy added that he wanted to tell his "American friends that they can rely on our friendship ... France will always be next to them when they need us."
*
*
Iran is racing toward a Nuclear Bomb...
You think Iran is hard to handle now...
Wait until they are sportin Nukes...
***
========================================================================================================
Iran foreign minister says no nuclear suspension
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday the country had no intention of suspending its nuclear programme in line with a Swiss plan aimed at ending a stand-off with the United Nations.
Diplomats have said Switzerland has put forward a staged plan leading to a simultaneous suspension of Iran's uranium enrichment work and of U.N. sanctions, which would enable talks between Iran and six world powers to begin.
"The red line is in suspension ... a suspension is not in our agenda," he told a news conference in the Swedish capital when asked about the Swiss proposal.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki seen during a news conference at the international conference on Iraq in Sharm el-Sheikh, May 4, 2007. Mottaki said on Monday the country had no intention of suspending its nuclear programme in line with a Swiss plan aimed at ending a stand-off with the United Nations. (REUTERS/Tara Todras-Whitehill)
Apart from the suspension request in the Swiss proposal, "the remaining part is possible", he said after giving a speech to three Swedish international relations organisations.
He was met at the speech venue by about 100 protesters, who hurled eggs at the doors of the building.
The protesters were mostly Iranians living in Sweden who are opposed to the Islamic state.
Iran says Western fears that it harbours a secret atomic bomb project are unfounded and that it is enriching uranium in order to generate electricity.
*
*
*
Ya take your intercontinental missile...
And ya tip it with a Nuclear Warhead...
=========================================================================================================
US WARNS OF IRANIAN MISSILE CAPABILITY
Monday, May 07, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com
Attempting to make a case for its plan to install a defensive missile system in Europe, the US State Department has warned that Iran could have the capability to launch intercontinental missiles with a range as far as Europe and the US within the next eight years, according to Defense News, and AFP.
American Intelligence officials claim that Iran could develop its own intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads by 2015. However, if Iran acquires the technology from North Korea it could have the range capability much sooner. Iran already has the capability of striking targets in Southern Europe using its medium range Shahab-3 missile.
Critics argue that the US is manipulating information about Iran's military capabilities in order to install a European defensive missile system that is really intended to counter Russian missiles. They also argue that the escalation of missile deployments by the US will actually make the US and Europe less safe.
***
This is from The Pen:
Should Vice President Cheney be impeached? Consider the evidence and then vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll, and it will also send your personal message to Congress at the very same time.
NATIONAL CHENEY IMPEACHMENT POLL: http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php
You can vote yes. Or you can vote no. But we cannot remain silent.
In his appearance on Meet The Press yesterday, George Tenet AGAIN confirmed that the purpose of the now infamous "slam dunk" meeting was to assess if they could SELL the war without just cause in Iraq to the American public. In his book, Tenet confesses that he was NOT being asked at the time to vouch for the quality of the intelligence. They never cared whether there was any actual support for their arguments, only whether they could get away with bum rushing the rest of us. So, what Tenet MEANT by the words "slam dunk" was they were sure they would be able to stuff their cooked intelligence down our throats.
This is incredibly damning stuff. In his book Tenet has unleashed the intelligence community equivalent of "If I Helped Them Do It". They were not having a policy debate about the strength of the case against Iraq. They were having a sales meeting of con men to plot how far they could go in cheating the American people out of our lives and the contents of our treasury. And they had already decided to go all the way. "Slam dunk" was not an intelligence assessment, it was a SALES PROJECTION of their fraudulent product.
Of course, anyone who's been honestly and fairly paying attention has known at least since the exposure of the Downing Street Minutes that we were misled into the Iraq quagmire, by an executive branch that could not be bothered with either the actual facts or a serious policy debate about them. They were determined to "fix the facts around the policy", and that's exactly what they did, as we only learned far too long after the fact. And Tenet is yet another primary percipient witness to confirm the heavy hands of the vice president in leaning on CIA analysts to deliver the intelligence he had specifically ordered.
You remember how Cheney has always argued that the president shouldn't have to produce for Congress (or anyone else) records relating to White House deliberations, because according to him that's the only way he can get frank, confidential advice. Executive privilege is their incessant mantra. So how is it that details of the "slam dunk" incident were LEAKED from a meeting attended only by those in the innermost of circles? Tenet was STUNNED that the White House should betray his confidence, especially for the sickeningly cheap purpose of trying to lay all blame on him, when he was just going along for the ride.
Apparently that's what so galled Tenet enough for him to spill the beans on his own complicity (beside an O.J. size book advance). Dick Cheney, in its typical coward's fashion, was trying in the media to hang their entire wrong-headed strategic debacle around Tenet's neck, like a medal of blundering incompetence to go with his medal of freedom. "Tenet told us it was a slam dunk," Cheney shot back on TV when challenged on their decision to attack Iraq, as the five time military deferment king again tried to duck public responsibility.
Dick Cheney has a long history of planting leaks of information and then trying to use them as supporting evidence for his own purpose. In the run up to the Iraq War he would leak stories to the New York Times which were then slavishly published verbatim. Remember how his chief of staff Scooter Libby would spoon feed them to Judith Miller. Then Cheney would get on the Sunday talk shows quoting those same stories, pointing to them as credible confirming sources. We also now know he was the mastermind behind the exposure of Valerie Plame, permanently crippling one of our best REAL intelligence assets, because he was afraid he husband would blow the cover off their phony war. And there are even strong suggestions that contacts from his office were directly involved in the forgery of the Niger documents themselves, which were at the heart of the flimsy casus belli.
As courageously drafted by Dennis Kucinich in H.Res. 333, the first and most central ground stated for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney was that he led the charge in fabricating a case for invasion of Iraq, based on phony weapons of mass destruction. Now almost as if it were timed to coincide with that initiative, former CIA head George Tenet reveals they was NO hard evidence for war, but that Cheney just kept exaggerating the threat anyway. And even now Tenet offers nothing more compelling than a Ouija board or Miss Cleo to back even his assessment up. This is without question the most momentous issue of our time, and whether you agree that Cheney should be impeached, or not, your voice is needed to speak out now, and tell Congress what they should do about it.
Tenet was neither the victim of a bad rap, nor the unwitting excuse for invasion. Instead he was a willing co-conspirator, happy enough to play along with the war fever and collect his ill-gotten medal of freedom. But the criminal kingpin of the whole sordid affair was none other than Richard B. Cheney. And that truth can no longer be hidden by even this most secretive of administrations. What will it take for Congress to impeach him and put him on trial in the Senate for highest of all high crimes, launching a war of immoral and unjustifiable aggression, that has cost more Americans their lives than died on 9/11 (and upwards of a million Iraqis), based on NOTHING but deliberate and calculated lies?
*********
May 7, 2007 -- Nicolas Sarkozy (whom are French intelligence sources have referred to a the "little French Hitler") will govern France with the help of two Silvio Berlusconi- and Rupert Murdoch-like billionaire neo-con French media moguls, Martin Bouygues and Arnaud Lagardere. Bouygues owns the TF1 television channel, which can be expected to act as Sarkozy's own version of the U.S. Republican Party's Fox News Channel. Lagardere's media group owns the Europe 1 radio network, Paris Match, several French regional newspapers, and is a major stakeholder in the French television network Canal+. Sarkozy is known to censor any news reports that are unfavorable to him and pressure publishers and editors to fire wayward journalists. With much of the French media in his pocket, expect the Franco-Hungarian Sarkozy to institute a new era of Janos Kadarist-style censorship in his nation.
The French election, from the start, has been plagued by election fraud -- bogus polling data, false exit polls, and electronic voting machine and machine counting irregularities were hallmarks of the first presidential election round. ES&S's I-Votronic machines were used in both elections across France. Only Sarkozy's party was supportive of the machines, with all the other political parties calling for a moratorium on their use. Turnout in the French election was 85 percent. With large turnouts historically favoring the left in France, the exit polling and actual polling were at odds with the turnout -- an indication of massive election fraud.
Similar polling irregularities were experienced in recent elections in Scotland, Wales, and England. In Scotland, 100,000 ballots, thought to mostly be cast for the pro-independence Scottish National Party, were declared "spoiled" in Scotland's election. That "glitch" cost the Scottish Nationalists a larger majority in the Scottish Parliament. Irregularities in Wales and England similarly affected larger margins for Welsh and Cornish nationalists. As the Bretons and Corsicans will soon discover with Sarkozy, regional nationalism is anathema to the globalist neo-con agenda, particularly the international bankers who want strong centralized control and minimal devolution of power to local and regional governments.
The electoral malfeasance of neo-cons in manipulating elections in France, Britain, Canada, the United States, Italy, Australia, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, and other countries will remain a problem until the people, acting through the power of progressive, anti-globalist, and anti-capitalist governments, seize control, via whatever means necessary, of the media, the voting and vote counting process, and the opinion polling mechanisms.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
Should Vice President Cheney be impeached?
Consider the evidence and then vote in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll, and it will also send your personal message to Congress at the very same time.
=========================================================================================================
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
2004 it was the Kerry Crazy Talk...
2005 it was The Fitzmas Crazy Talk...
2006 is was the Supreme Court Crazy Talk...
2007 is the Impeachment Crazy Talk
2008 will be the Iran Crazy Talk..
May 7, 2007 -- On May 4, WMR reported on DC Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey's client list and Friday night's ABC 20/20 report on it: "ABC News has reportedly scaled down the number of clients who we be outed, possibly as a result of pressure from some of the clients' attorneys." ABC caved to intense political pressure from the White House, Palfrey's clients' attorneys, and members of Congress and their staffs not to air any additional names from the list. It merely recycled the story about two individuals already named, recently-resigned US Agency for International Development chief Randall Tobias and Pentagon "Shock and Awe" originator Harlan K. Ullman.
ABC's chief investigative reporter Brian Ross saw his story spiked by senior ABC News executives under pressure from Disney Chairman George Mitchell and CEO Bob Iger, as well as White House officials, including Karl Rove. Anticipating that the DC Madam scandal would name additional Bush administration officials, including what WMR was told is an extremely high-level official in the White House, the Bush administration went to "General Quarters" and sought to kill the story. After reporting that Palfrey's list contained a senior official at the World Bank, the head of an Air Force Intelligence squadron, the CEO of a major corporation, a White House economist (later said to be an official at the Office of Thrift Supervision across the street from the White House), and the head of a neo-con think tank, Ross said none of the names on Palfrey's list were "newsworthy." WMR has been informed that the CEO of a major corporation is a former CEO but, nonetheless, the aforementioned extremely high-level official of the Bush administration. The individual, who is definitely "newsworthy," reportedly engaged the services of Palfrey's escort firm while he was the CEO and maintained a residence off Chain Bridge Road in the Ballantrae neighborhood in McLean, Virginia, a few blocks from the headquarters of the CIA. A number of phone calls on Palfrey' s phone bills are said to have originated from the Ballantrae area of McLean during the time of the CEO's liaison with the Pamela Martin & Associates escort.
toniD said...
Wolfowitz cartoon
Good moring tonid and all.
tonid:Thanks for the cartoon.I'm going to send it off to my wingnut brother-in law.He will start off his day pissed.So be it..heh,heh....
*********
There is now an attempt to shift focus by some neo-con journalists in Washington away from the former CEO to officials of the Clinton administration who were also reportedly Palfrey clients. The White House spin machine is also a work. This editor noticed the top-level White House official was seated conspicuously next to his wife in the back seat of a Secret Service Crown Victoria executive black sedan minus the hallmark tinted windows but with the standard accompanying Secret Service motorcade vehicles traveling east on New York Avenue Thursday evening. In other words, the White House wanted pedestrians along H Street and New York Avenue to see this individual sitting with his wife in the vehicle, something unusual in the post-9/11 era.
ABC/Disney caved on Hookergate as many seasoned observers predicted. Ross has a history of having sensitive stories spiked. In 1998, his four month investigation on pedophiles being hired at Disney theme parks, including a puppet salesman at Disney World, was spiked on the direct orders of then-ABC CEO Michael Eisner.
The Washington elite began to push back in force on the Palfrey story during the middle of last week. The Washington Post started the push back with its hit piece on Montgomery Blair Sibley, Palfrey's attorney.
A U.S. government source told WMR that he believes there is a definite link between Palfrey's Pamela Martin & Associates and the Duke Cunningham/Dusty Foggo-connected Shirlington Limousine and Transportation Services, under federal investigation for allegedly helping to arrange for prostitutes to attend CIA contractor-arranged poker parties at the Watergate and Capitol Hill's Westin Grand Hotel. Unlike its role during the Watergate scandal, the Post is part of the criminal conspiracy to cover up "Hookergate." A public health nurse told WMR that it is irresponsible and a public health menace not to report cases of contacts with prostitutes in Washington, DC to public health authorities. The reason: With 152.2 AIDS cases per 100,000 people, Washington, DC has the highest AIDS rate in the United States.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
where are we supposed to be fighting them?
One person was killed and another was hurt Monday in an explosion in a parking lot outside a Las Vegas Strip resort, authorities said. A man removing a backpack from atop his car died of injuries he received when the pack exploded a little after 4 a.m. on the second floor of the parking structure behind the Luxor hotel-casino, said Officer Bill Cassell, a police spokesman. The second person was taken to an area hospital. Aerial video from news helicopters showed no apparent damage to the parking structure, where entrances were blocked while police, firefighters and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents investigated around a vehicle. The Luxor is a pyramid-shaped hotel at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip. -- Las Vegas Sun
Now you have to give France credit for at least HAVING a run with a Socialist Party...
Now Socialism Stinks...
As proven by the vote in France..
But at least they tried..
Or Socialists don't even try...
They just hang around outside the Democrat Convention and Crazy Talk...
At least France got to vote...
Our Socialists are too lazy to run their own party...
I guess that's why they are Socialists..!!!!
May 4-6, 2007 -- World Bank sources emphasize that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz's attempt to extort a $400,000 bonus from the bank before he resigns comes with a nice fringe benefit. As an international civil servant, Wolfowitz's bonus, as well as his salary, are exempt from US income taxes. Ditto the $193,590 salary for Wolfowitz's girl friend Shaha Riza. It is the neo-con way: the neo-cons start the wars and tax the poor and middle class to pay for their wars while they enjoy the best tax-avoidance schemes neo-con politicians can contrive. The French revolutionaries beheaded their king and queen for much less perfidy.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
May 4-6, 2007 -- On Wednesday, US federal Judge Peter Messitte decided not to break with the precedent set by US Judge T. S. Ellis in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Espionage Act case and ruled that federal prosecutors must make sanitized court transcripts from the trial of former NSA analyst Ken Ford, Jr. available to Ford's defense attorney. The Ford defense argued that the transcripts are necessary for Ford's appeal of his conviction for allegedly possessing classified materials at his Waldorf, Maryland home. Ford was the target of an FBI/NSA set up by a vindictive White House unhappy that his SIGINT analysis report on Saddam Hussein's government's communications failed to reveal the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Messitte gave the CIA two weeks to redact classified portions of the transcripts and make them available to Ford's defense attorney. Assistant US Attorney David Salem, a key player in the set up of Ford, said that classified portions of the transcript would never be made available to Ford's defense attorney.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
War Dog said...May 7, 2007 10:24 AM
That one should change his nickname to Chicken Little.
toniD said...
Gingrich To Conservatives: Don’t Talk About Iraq, Katrina, Walter Reed, Attorneys, Or Bush »
This morning on CBS’s Face the Nation, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich advised fellow conservatives not to talk about President Bush’s record. “President Bush is not the future. He’s not a solution. He doesn’t solve Social Security. He doesn’t solve Medicare. He doesn’t solve the economy. He doesn’t solve the environment. He doesn’t solve education. He’s a current fact,” Gingrich said.
It’s also a “current fact” that the conservative agenda has failed to “solve” these important issues over the past six years.
Gingrich went on to say that conservatives “have to say, this is not what we want to debate. It’s not in Baghdad, it’s not in Katrina, it’s not at Walter Reed, it’s not with the U.S. attorneys, but I have a better plan for a better solution that fits your values.” When Host Bob Schieffer suggested that Gingrich seemed to advocating steering clear of President Bush, Gingrich responded, “Well, I think that’s clear.”
t posted this last night and i think its worth seeing one more time. i find it frustrating that they will successfully get away with pinning the inherent failure of conservatism on bush and that people will believe them.
Monday May 7, 2007 09:23 EST
A hit job on Keith Olbermann
Joan Walsh-Salon
Link
May 7, 2007 -- The US Army is requiring its men and women to ask for permission from the Commanding Officers before they post anything to blogs, chat rooms, e-mail back home, or web sites like this one. WMR will continue to keep faith with its military correspondents and post their information on WMR and protect their anonymity. The Army's directive has no applicability in this small part of the Blogosphere. What the Army does not understand about its censorship policy is that like the Chinese government, which has adopted the same censorship policy, the Internet is a dynamic network with many workarounds and anonymity functionality. The Army is afraid that information into Iraq will let our military men and women know what is happening back in the United States and that they are, in reality, dying and shedding blood for a wilting Bush regime and its oil company financiers. That is why the Army blocks access to certain web sites like this one. The Army also does not want our troops to act as independent media sources and report on what is actually occurring in Iraq. Hence, the new policy on posting information to the Web.
WMR's podcast today, without commentary, is dedicated to our brave troops in Iraq who are not only fighting an insurgency and in a bloody civil war but also the censors in their own chain of command.
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
***
mmrules said...
Monday May 7, 2007 09:23 EST
A hit job on Keith Olbermann
Joan Walsh-Salon
Link
May 7, 2007 10:59 AM
***
"Having Olbermann anchor -- as he will continue, with [Chris] Matthews, for big political nights throughout the campaign -- is the MSNBC equivalent of Fox News Channel assigning the same duties to O'Reilly. Fox has never done that, perhaps mindful of the immediate controversy that would result."
***
The joke of it is, that Olbermann so played it down it was sad. Also, it is really Matthews who is the direct equivalent of O'Reilly. For the same team no less.
Giuliani is a wuss, by the way. He was just lucky that he survived the WTC.
i followed one of catharine links to waynemadsen... and found the following article which is truly chilling:
May 7, 2007 -- WMR has been reporting on the covert U.S. intelligence operation to steal personal data to populate the databases of a renewed Total Information Awareness surveillance system. Even the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has not been immune to this covert operation. A computer hard drive containing the Social Security Numbers, dates of birth, and financial information on 100,000 employees of TSA who worked for the agency between January 2002 and August 2005 was stolen from a secure area within the TSA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
The theft of personal information over the past few years has included personal information on millions of Americans, Britons, Canadians, and Australians (four of the five members of the secret UKUSA signals intelligence sharing alliance). Some of the funding for the joint National Security Agency-Department of Homeland Security "black bag" project, according to our sources, is laundered through classified contracts at the Department of Energy.
if i read it correctly, our own government is breaking into places and stealing laptops with personal information and loading it into their uber secret data mining machine.
May 7, 2007 -- WMR has learned that its reports on the connections between the former Sun Company shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania, renamed Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company after a shady deal in 1982 turned actual control of the shipyard over the CIA via interlocutors such as Mellon Bank and Fidelity Bank, are solid on the role of the SS Poet played in secretly shipping CIA arms to the Ayatollah Khomeini in a pre-1980 election deal worked out between George H. W. Bush and Iran to hold the U.S. hostages until after the election. The Chester facility's secret dealings with the CIA went back to the construction between 1973 and 1974 by Sun Shipyard of the SS Glomar Explorer, a Howard Hughes' Summa Corporation mining ship used for the CIA's Project Jennifer to recover part of the sunken Soviet submarine K-129, lost in the Pacific in April 1968.
"lionel takes his rightful place at air america"
give me a frikin break. lionel is a loser with a capital L
Re: Comment on Devastating Letters to George Tenet and Rudy Giuliani by Lawrence Ray
by Cin on Tue 01 May 2007 03:19 PM CDT | Profile | Lawrence Ray, Hero.
Link
blah blah blah said...
i followed one of catharine links to waynemadsen... and found the following article which is truly chilling:
May 7, 2007 -- WMR has been reporting on the covert U.S. intelligence operation to steal personal data to populate the databases of a renewed Total Information Awareness surveillance system
***
Yeah bbb... I was about to post that. WMR has been following that for years. It is incredible how many thefts there have been. Take a look at his table:
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/Datathefts.php
mmrules said...
Re: Comment on Devastating Letters to George Tenet and Rudy Giuliani by Lawrence Ray
by Cin on Tue 01 May 2007 03:19 PM CDT | Profile | Lawrence Ray, Hero.
Link
May 7, 2007 11:08 AM
****
WOW!
Read on...
"The fact is that Rudy Giuliani is a criminal and a member of a criminal enterprise. Others involved in the enterprise are President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Bernard Kerik and too many to mention in this letter. They did not want to stop 9/11 they intended to let it happen, then profit from it. Giuliani is one of those who made enormous profits in the first Twenty Four Hrs. Those involved already effectively owned the stock of select companies, which would be selling technology and related products/services post attack. Members in “The Criminal Enterprise” had been paid well before 9/11. Americans were sold out in a sinister plot, which transacted its early deals in the Middle East by Dick Cheney and others, years before the Clintons stepped foot in the White House. Bernard Kerik and I met in what seemed unintended in 1995 in a Luncheonette in N.J. It was not an accident on the part of Kerik and others. By 1998 Kerik asked me to be his best man. An important step in their plan in 1998, which has now failed. Their advance planning techniques are effective to most. “Plausible deniability” being the single most frequent trait in a simple pattern. A common calling card when any bright prosecutor is an active criminal disguised as a prosecutor. When they could not buy me or my services they decided to ruin my credibility, starting by framing me in a Federal indictment in March 2000, based on a report by Bernard Kerik’s best friend special agent Gary Uher who I briefed on their criminal activity in 1998.
..."
sorry but this letter that mmrules posted is fascinating and I am almost worried that it will disappear, so I am posting some more of it just in case:
I agreed to work with the New York City Department of Investigation on the Kerik/Giuliani investigation Dec 20, 2004. Walter Arsenault had contacted me after I put out the news in Nov/Dec 2004. It seems D.O.I.was actually a “Trojan Horse” intending to do damage control, find out what evidence I had, secure it, bury the investigation, bury me and I can prove exactly that. Where were they before I gave it to the Daily News? These criminals fleeced New York on the watch of The First Deputy Commissioner of New York City’s Dept. of Investigation Walter Arsenault. During the 2 yr investigation Walter Arsenault was in regular communication with the Bush White House. Being that Kerik had to step down after being nominated by President Bush to head America’s office of Homeland Security, why hadn’t the F.B.I. launched a thorough investigation? After all, it involved National Security, it involved the President of the United States, it crossed state lines and it happened in the White House. I believe the jurisdiction belonged to the F.B.I. Seems Federal to me. Why wasn’t the president outraged and responsible enough to order the F.B.I. to investigate? What was the Attorney General of the United States thinking ? Is Antonio Gonzales even allowed to think ? How come Gonzales did not take action? What about Vice President Cheney’s take charge personality? Cheney may have been to busy, maybe aboard the Sequoia with Greenspan as his guest.
***
continued...
The F.B.I. is the best Investigative Law Enforcement Agency in the entire world in my opinion. I have worked with the F.B.I. on and off for twelve years and have experience with different agencies in various parts of the world for twenty-six years. The men and women I have worked with are honorable, bright, dedicated and well trained. They were told to stand down regarding Giuliani/Kerik. Not what these men and women wanted to do. Instead an agency in N.Y.C. did the investigation.
Had the D.O.I. done their job in the nineties, Giuliani and Kerik would have never been thru the gates at the White House, they would have been behind the gates of a prison. If others and I were aware, so was Walter Arsenault.
We had been working in the Eastern European Region and in 1994 it became clear to me that there existed a very dedicated effort to execute a large scale terrorist attack on the United States. None of us knew at the time in 1994 the attack would come to be known as 9/11. My effort since to expose the truth has been unnaturally difficult, unnaturally long and unnaturally costly. The American Terrorists; the very corrupt Bush/Cheney White House, and many corrupt politicians and officials such as Gonzales, Chertoff, Giuliani/Kerik , and Wolfowitz to only name a few. The ENEMY WITHIN.
Red State Update: Everybody's mad at George Tenet
Jackie and "War Dump,or his brother"?? at Red State Update consider the controversy stirred by ex-CIA director George Tenet's tell-all of the Bush administration -- and the meaning of the term "slam dunk."
Vid Link
My two little girls and I have paid an unimaginable price and still are. Hurting my children is more painful than every other tactic they used to discourage and /or stop me in their effort to make sure I did not expose what I discovered in my work in Eastern Europe during the Bush Sr. Presidency regarding activities of Dick Cheney and others.
N.A.T.O. I had been brought in to the Kosovo Crisis in an effort to avoid the senseless casualties to come in a ground offensive. I feel the Pentagon very accurately estimated anticipated casualties if a ground assault commenced. After I listened to the intelligence briefing the first night I was in Belgium at N.A.T.O. Headquarters, based on my analysis I presented a recommendation, which I believed to be the only available option. All in the room with the exception of Colonel Sponbeck agreed with me and asked how do we implement. I designed and submitted my tactical plan as I saw it. The necessary steps were completed over the next two days and I was then authorized. My first stop in the operation was Moscow. I accomplished both objectives, the cessation of the bombing campaign and mitigate the need for a ground offensive, thus avoiding the senseless loss of ground troops.
I am confident Mr. Giuliani and others will soon be charged, arrested and in jail awaiting trial for more than just witness tampering. I know, since I am one of the witness’s Giuliani has tampered with.
They are guilty of Treason.
I have recently contacted the office of Hillary Clinton since she wants to question Rudy Giuliani in an open forum regarding the removal of the World Trade Center debris. I have not heard back from her.
I have supportive evidence and can prove any of the above. I am willing to speak with you further if you like. You can contact me by email nisacray@gmail.com or can always ask Chuck Pitman, or Jim Jones, two very honorable friends.
Warm Regards,
Lawrence Ray
Dear MoveOn member,
John Bruhns, a former sergeant in the Army, stuck his neck out when he went to Iraq and now he's doing it again, by speaking out against the president.
He's the subject of a new TV ad made by Oliver Stone—the culmination of our VideoVets project.
Right now, the president is trying to bully Congress into submission over the Iraq Accountability Act by slamming them for "not supporting the troops." John's voice—and other Iraq veterans' voices—can counter that. They can tip the debate toward ending the war.
Please click below to watch the ad and contribute to air it.
LINK
Erasure? Just A Coincidence In Timing, I’m Sure…
By Christy Hardin Smith @ 8:18 am
A very observent reader sends along these links from the Government Computer News service website.
Shhh! A Data Scrubber They Don't Want You To Know About: (dated 4/30/07)
Thoroughly removing data from a hard drive doesn’t always require an expensive degausser. There are techniques for permanent erasure that involve only software, if you’re willing to do a little preparation….
The advantage of Secure Erase is that it can wipe a disk clean in a matter of hours, much less time than the multiple passes required by a Defense Department 5220-style block erase.
Wow, that would be handy if, say, Congressional investigators were coming over to your office to do a scan copy of your hard drive for investigative purposes, now wouldn't it? What a useful tip in today's Beltway environment for some who might have something to hide from oversight. Or something. But wait, there's more.
Handling The Tail End Of The IT Life Cycle: Hints From NIST (dated 4/30/07):
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has some advice for agencies getting rid of digital storage media: Shred. Disintegrate. Pulverize. Incinerate. Melt.
Um…okay. Thanks, because I'm certain that folks who are responsible for, say, taking care of classified material disposal and such weren't altogether familiar with how to deal with the daily contents of the "burn bag" and all. So, golly, all of this information suddenly coming up in the most recent issue of the Government Computer News sure will come in…um…handy. Just a coincidence in timing that Congress happens to be doing some oversight on e-mails and other materials that had been ignored for the last six years, and that folks like Rep. Henry Waxman have requested that such materials not be destroyed…and then these articles appear, I'm sure. Whatever the reader may think, it is worth a reminder that the destruction of evidence sought in a Congressional investigation could subject the person destroying said evidence — and the person giving the order to do so — to felony charges. I'm just saying.
Yep. Nothing to see here. Moving right along…
LINK
Deal Or No Deal?
By Christy Hardin Smith @ 7:00 am
I see the talented and discreetly applied behind-the-scenes negotiating skills of Bob Bennett at work for his client, and some public pushback by disgusted World Bank employees and supporters who think that the rules — all the rules — should apply to their ersatz boss. Via NYTimes:
Bank officials said the committee was also preparing a recommendation on what the full board should do in light of its finding but would not be disclosing that to Mr. Wolfowitz.
The committee is considering whether to recommend an outright removal or some kind of no-confidence vote that may persuade him to resign. That part of the conclusion is not likely to become known until later, bank officials said.
The committee’s delay in drafting its conclusions made it likely that deliberations over Mr. Wolfowitz would be delayed at least until the end of the week. Mr. Wolfowitz has rebuffed suggestions that he resign and has accused critics of waging a “smear campaign” to force him out….
It was not clear why the committee missed its target, but bank officials said they understood it was because of difficulties in drafting the particulars against Mr. Wolfowitz, not because there were any negotiations to arrange for him to resign voluntarily before the draft was completed.
Bank officials said that there were such discussions about a voluntary resignation three weeks ago, but that there was no evidence they were under way this weekend. (emphasis mine)
A good lawyer knows how to keep his mouth shut until the deal is concluded and inked, and then will present that "best face forward" publicly once the handshake is struck. I have that Bob Bennett press conference feeling for this week — and am wondering if it will be on Thursday, while AG Gonzales is providing a useful distraction with his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
I would say that Bennett is trying to allow some way for Wolfowitz to leave the World Bank with his dignity intact, some face-saving maneuver, but it is much to late for that with the farce that his tenure has become in so short a time at the helm. The Village Voice has more, as does Al Kamen at the WaPo. And McClatchy had a great editorial on this (via the Fort Wayne News-Sentinal), including my favorite line which pretty much sums up the whole Bush Administration and their rampant cronies in a nutshell:
Apparently Wolfowitz forgot that the same standards he demands would also be asked of him.
As with all the folks in the insular Bush sphere of malignance and ruin, in their minds the rules only apply to others outside their fetid little bubble. More on that coming up in a bit…
LINK
good morning! I miss Sam!
This is a really strong article used as a comment on the Bush admin.
I reccommend that you read it.
How much longer can the Bush Administration live on lies?
9/11: Challenging ‘Loose Change’
by Mary MacElveen on Sun 06 May 2007 02:08 AM EDT
Link-Interesting
Sam
One day a week just isn't enough. We need our daily 'Seder Fix'! The radio is boring w/o you.
************
toniD said...
Erasure? Just A Coincidence In Timing, I’m Sure…
By Christy Hardin Smith @ 8:18 am
************
Good thing they backed up with any outside firm!
Ha!
nice job Catherine!
you totally outspammed that who shall remain nameless
:)
-conbo
you totally outspammed that who shall remain nameless
:)
-conbo
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Did someone say War Dog....
I was outside loading the Van when I heard my name..
I came running back inside just to see who has calling..
And wow...
It was Connie...
Good Morning Connie..
Unchained Goddess (1958) Scientists have known about global warming for 50 years
I may not be able to give you the attention you want today Connie..
We still hope to drive to Branson Today...
But if we stay in town I will try to Blog with you...
Let's see what the weather does..!!!
Radio Left:FLASHBACK: In 1999, Bush Demanded A Timetable
Link
Will Doolittle do time?
Does the downfall of a local congressman mean something more than the latest corruption of a politician?
Whatever the ultimate outcome of the U.S. Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation into Congressman John T. Doolittle and his wife, Julie--and it’s been going on for three years now--clearly his political career is over. Even if he and his wife unexpectedly locate some loophole to avoid indictment or imprisonment for the two corruption cases in which their fund-raising activities are inextricably entangled, the Doolittles’ unsavory skimming of campaign contributions and personally pocketing more than a quarter-million dollars have forever finished off their reputations among their own conservative kith and kin. From Sacramento to Washington, the only discussion of the Doolittle case by political insiders from both parties regards strategy over when and how and by whom he should be replaced.
Reflective of this reality are two headlines about the man recently published on the conservative editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal: “Doolittle, Too Late” and “Republican Residue.” The point repeatedly made there is that the FBI could have raided Doolittle’s home, as they did on April 13, “only after a judge has issued a search warrant in response to government claims that there is probable cause that a crime has been committed.” California Democratic Party strategist Bob Mulholland has little doubt about what’s happening. “I think the Republican Party will try to throw Doolittle to the wolves,” he said in an interview. “Once you get a 'Dear John’ letter from the FBI, no one returns your phone calls.”
Doolittle’s fall from being a member of the ruling Republican leadership in the House of Representatives to becoming a target in a U.S. Department of Justice corruption investigation follows a pattern similar to that of his Republican congressional brethren who are already in jail or might soon be. Doolittle’s wife set up a company--Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions--of which she was the only officer and employee. Suddenly Julie Doolittle had the “expertise” to obtain clients for “consulting” and “fund raising.” Most clients had business before committees on which her husband sat. (We don’t know for certain because the Doolittles refuse to release a list of her clients.) So far, over $150,000 from Doolittle’s campaign contributions has been paid out to his wife’s company. And his committee statements claim she is owed more than another $120,000. With California’s community-property law, it is the equivalent of Doolittle putting the campaign cash into his own bank account.
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Don't you just love it when Europe swings to the right...???
I know I do...!!!
Too much laziness over there, don't you think...????
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Europe readies for Sarko and Angie show
07 May 2007 11:50:10 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Noah Barkin
BERLIN, May 7 (Reuters) - He is combative and outspoken. She is conciliatory and deferential.
But few leaders in Europe have as much in common where it really counts as Nicolas Sarkozy, the winner of Sunday's French presidential election, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Born within six months of each other, Sarkozy and Merkel are outsiders who overcame strong opposition from within their own parties to reach the pinnacle of European politics -- she as a pastor's daughter from communist East Germany and he as the son of a Hungarian immigrant who fled communism.
The two conservatives are united in their support for closer ties with Washington and in their opposition to Turkey's bid to join the EU -- clear departures from the stances of their predecessors Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder.
Both are advocates of reforming the European welfare state, although Merkel has been limited by her "grand coalition" in Berlin and Sarkozy has raised questions with his protectionist support of French national champions.
Together, they are ideally positioned to restart the Franco-German motor that has driven the European Union forward for the past five decades but stalled when French voters rejected a draft constitution for the bloc two years ago.
"He wants to get European integration on track again and does not define Europe as a counterweight to the United States," Andreas Schockenhoff, a leading conservative in parliament told German television. "These are the very principles on which our foreign policy is based."
Branson?? What a Loser!!
HaHaHaHa
We have lots of lazy folks here in the states...
But that's ok...
Because over here if you are lazy you just hurt yourself...
But in socialism...
The lazy drag the whole system down....
That is why we are Capitalists..!!!!
Catharine said...
mmrules said...
Re: Comment on Devastating Letters to George Tenet and Rudy Giuliani by Lawrence Ray
by Cin on Tue 01 May 2007 03:19 PM CDT | Profile | Lawrence Ray, Hero.
Link
May 7, 2007 11:08 AM
****
WOW!
Read on...
I know! Wouldn't it be Great to see one of the GOP frontrunners Doing The PERP WALK!! :)
mmrules said...
Branson?? What a Loser!!
HaHaHaHa
May 7, 2007 12:01 PM
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Ya gotta love Branson....
http://www.baldknobbers.com/
Juan Cole
Can Sarkozy Uphold the Values of 1789?
and
8 US Troops Killed;
Major bombing at Shiite Market killes 35;
Boehner Favores Benchmarks
http://www.juancole.com/
I know! Wouldn't it be Great to see one of the GOP frontrunners Doing The PERP WALK!! :)
May 7, 2007 12:05 PM
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That's why I love this place...
The Crazy Talk...
I love to go back in the Archives and read some of the Stupid Predictions that have been made..
No one would believe it..!!!
Juan Cole
I forgot about that dope...
He but out a lot of Crazy Talk Himself...
If I ever do a Best Of The MMR Crazy Talk, Cole will hold a place of honor...!!!!
wado wrote:
http://www.baldknobbers.com/
hey grandpa, whats for supper?
I wonder if Sam is out on Job Interviews this morning..
He's kinda late to hook up a new thread...
Maybe someone hired him...
Maybe Sam is "The New Guy" this morning..
Oh well I must get back to packing...
I hope we get to go..!!!!
mmrules said...
Re: Comment on Devastating Letters to George Tenet
===
further down a comment from m. Rays daughter
===
http://blog.radioleft.com/blog/_archives/2007/4/30/2914897.html#906881
DOES ANYBODY CARE?……SOMEONE? WHAT SECRET IS SO HORRIFYING THAT RUDY GIULIANI ORDERED AND BERNARD KERIK CARRIED OUT THE TORTURE AND CHILD ABUSE OF TWO LITTLE GIRLS
I am aware of Mr. Kerik as the primary source of the shamelessly blatant corruption in my “complicated” or “special” case,
... is the simple fact that my mother told me of Bernie’s involvement. Threatened me with it, I should say.
My mother, Teresa Ray, told me in an argument we had some time around my freshman year of high school (2003 – 2004) that the judge would not allow me to live with my father,....
When I questioned her apparent certainty ... she retorted in an overly confident tone that the judge was going to do whatever she wanted the judge to do.
Wolfowitz’s top aide resigns. Kevin Kellems, a key Wolfowitz aide at the World Bank who served previously as an adviser at the Pentagon in the run-up to the war and as Dick Cheney’s communications director, told Reuters he was “leaving for other opportunities.” “Given the current environment surrounding the leadership of the World Bank Group, it is very difficult to be effective in helping to advance the mission of the institution,” Kellems said
LINK
My my, these aides and their bosses are leaving in droves now.
"NEWS CONSUMER: said...
Mom dead, son critical in Brooklyn stabbing spree
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/05/04/2007-05-04_mom_dead_son_critical_in_brooklyn_stabbi.html
big eddie is saying the greensburg tornado was an F5.
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Woman dead after fire
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-fire0508,0,3456142.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
****toniD said...
Is Karl Rove An Atheist?
By Eric Kleefeld | bio
Could the "architect" of the political success of George Bush and the GOP — which relied heavily on cultivating the support and loyalty of Evangelicals, Christian conservatives, and megachurches from coast to coast — actually be an atheist?
So says none other than Christopher Hitchens, a sometimes-admirer of the White House's Iraq policies and the author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. And he claims to have it straight from Rove himself. Asked in an interview with New York magazine if anyone in the Bush administration had ever confided in him about "being an atheist," Hitchens replied:
Well, I don’t talk that much to them — maybe people think I do. I know something which is known to few but is not a secret. Karl Rove is not a believer, and he doesn’t shout it from the rooftops, but when asked, he answers quite honestly. I think the way he puts it is, "I’m not fortunate enough to be a person of faith."
I know what Karl Rove Worships!Link Below....Not that theres anything wrong with it.PC.
By the way,what were you guys smoking last night??
Link
does anyone know what the regular army strenght is and how much of its deployed to iraq?
context is that its being reported that kansas is being hampered in tornado recovery efforts because the national guard and its equipment is in (surprise) iraq.
this seems to be an altogether common occurrence when disasters happen, which leads to the question, whats the army up to? do we still have an army?
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Girl, 12, Injured by Gunfire Outside a Party in the Bronx
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/nyregion/07shot.html?bl&ex=1178683200&en=cecc98c0cc7228a3&ei=5087%0A
To MMR--that was a great observation...actually, i think the best thing to do is to page-dwn fast as soon as spam enters...after all who needs to read spam? ...works for me.
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Police Make Arrests in Bronx Triple Shooting
http://www.gothamist.com/2007/05/06/police_make_arr.php
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Man Wanted For Questioning In Fatal Bronx Stabbing
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=69448
Report: Saudis, US sponsoring covert action against Iran Michael Roston
Published: Monday May 7, 2007
The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United States are working with other states in the Middle East region to sponsor covert action against Iran, according to a report in this month's edition of The Atlantic. The report also suggests that covert attacks may occur against Iran's oil sector.
David Samuels, in a lengthy article on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, reports that the US is promoting a campaign against Iran that includes covert action.
Since last Fall, he writes, "Rice and her colleagues in the administration decided to embark on a daring and risky third course: a coordinated campaign, directed with the help of the intelligence services of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates....The bill for the covert part of this activity, which has involved funding sectarian political movements and paramilitary groups in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, is said to amount to more than $300 million. It is being paid by Saudi Arabia and other concerned Gulf states, for whom the combination of a hasty American withdrawal from Iraq and a nuclear-armed Iran means trouble."
Samuels suggests that Iran has already faced a variety of internal attacks as a consequence of this covert program.
"They pointed to an upsurge in antigovernment guerrilla activity inside Iran, including a bomb in Zahedan, the economic center of the province of Baluchistan, that killed 11 soldiers in the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on February 14; the mysterious death of the Iranian scientist Ardashir Hosseinpour, who worked on uranium enrichment at the Isfahan nuclear facility; and the defection of a high-ranking Iranian general named Ali Asgari, a former deputy minister of defense who was also the Revolutionary Guard officer responsible for training and supplying Hezbollah during its war against the Israelis in southern Lebanon in the 1980s," Samuels notes.
More than that, Samuels warns that these covert actions may soon target Iran's petroleum sector.
LINK
The deepening of Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution: why most people don’t get it
The radical project led by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela can’t be understood through the distorting lens of its inveterate opponents, says Julia Buxton. This is a politics for the future with emancipation, participation – and popular support - at its heart.
...
In 2006, legislation was introduced recognising community councils as a principle form of political organisation. The councils complement and bring coherence to the multiple networks of social organisations that deliver the misiones programmes and organise political activities, such as the water committees, land committees, health committees, electoral battle-units and endogenous development groups. Based on 200 to 400 families in urban areas and twenty to thirty in rural settings, the councils are governed by citizens' assembles and their financial affairs overseen by public auditing processes. By the end of 2006, there were 16,000 communal councils across the country.
With the injection of $5 billion in funding for 2007, the government aims to increase this to over 25,000, allowing communities to become the new "eye" of political power in a radical, bottom up vision of democracy in which national government is balanced by grassroots power.
...
blah blah blah said...
wado wrote:
http://www.baldknobbers.com/
hey grandpa, whats for supper?
Oh My God! It's a Wart Dump Feast!!
Link
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Police: Newborn Found Dead In Closet Of Queens Home
http://www.wnbc.com/news/13269231/detail.html
"NEWS CONSUMER" said...
Police Investigate Murders In Brooklyn and Queens
http://www.nysun.com/article/53929
'Diversity' under fire at Justice
Report: Only two black attorneys in Civil Rights Div. of Justice Dept.
LINK
Chavez to block exports of Venezuela's largest steel maker
President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that Venezuela's largest steel maker, Sidor, will not be allowed to make any more exports until it meets domestic needs, and threatened to expropriate the Argentine-controlled company if it resists. Chavez has criticized Sidor for selling the bulk of its production overseas and forcing local producers to import from elsewhere, saying Venezuelan industry should be given priority.
Re MMR cmmnt on Cath-- said...
To MMR--that was a great observation...actually, i think the best thing to do is to page-dwn fast as soon as spam enters...after all who needs to read spam? ...works for me.
Catherine:Thank you.It gets frustrating though.As everone knows.Thanks again....I still want to see a Giuliani PERP WALK.It would be Too Cool!! :)
And Alice:I like your new Picture.And,so does my guitar! :)
John Pilger: Washington’s war on democracy
Pablo Navarrete
4 May 2007
John Pilger is an award-winning journalist, author and documentary filmmaker, who began his career in 1958 in his homeland, Australia, before moving to London in the 1960s. He has been a foreign correspondent and a front-line war reporter, beginning with the Vietnam War in 1967. He is an impassioned critic of foreign military and economic adventures by Western governments.
“It is too easy”, Pilger says, “for Western journalists to see humanity in terms of its usefulness to ‘our’ interests and to follow government agendas that ordain good and bad tyrants, worthy and unworthy victims and present ‘our’ policies as always benign when the opposite is usually true. It’s the journalist’s job, first of all, to look in the mirror of his own society.”
Pilger also believes a journalist ought to be a guardian of the public memory and often quotes Milan Kundera: “The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
...
[The War on Democracy will be released in British cinemas on June 15. It will be released in Australia in September 2007. For more information visit http://www.johnpilger.com or http://www.warondemocracy.net. Reprinted from Venezuelanalysis.com.]
From: Comment & Analysis, Green Left Weekly issue #708 9 May 2007.
*blush*, thanks,mmrules...:)
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Hey ex-schmoopy...I'm not seeing where you were so terribly terrible yesterday...what did I miss?
T-minus 1 minute til the library opens...I slept wrong somehow and cut off circulation in one hip...so now the back of my leg is sore...today is gonna suck!
l8r.. xoxo
Shell, here's a photo I took from a tour bus in Caracas. It's the memorial of Simone de Bolivar in Caracas on a street ( Costera ) Called Costera Simon de Bolivar.
It's a little out of focus because I was on a bus but not bad.
LINK
Catharine said...
May 7, 2007 -- WMR has learned that its reports on the connections between the former Sun Company shipyard in Chester, Pennsylvania, renamed Pennsylvania Shipbuilding Company after a shady deal in 1982 turned actual control of the shipyard over the CIA via interlocutors such as Mellon Bank and Fidelity Bank, are solid on the role of the SS Poet played in secretly shipping CIA arms to the Ayatollah Khomeini in a pre-1980 election deal worked out between George H. W. Bush and Iran to hold the U.S. hostages until after the election. The Chester facility's secret dealings with the CIA went back to the construction between 1973 and 1974 by Sun Shipyard of the SS Glomar Explorer, a Howard Hughes' Summa Corporation mining ship used for the CIA's Project Jennifer to recover part of the sunken Soviet submarine K-129, lost in the Pacific in April 1968.
May 7, 2007 11:05 AM
Catherine:Good post.
WoW! That's another one that should be in Jail.Bush Sr.
Thompson Flops
Robert Novak says former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) bombed in his first major speech since he started contemplating a White House run.
"The excitement aroused in melancholy Republican ranks by the politician-commentator-actor will not be doused by one lackluster performance. Nevertheless, his first speech since his unexpected presidential boom began suggests that Thompson needs preparation if he does take up this daunting burden. The deeper concern by some supporters is whether the tepid reaction in Orange County will shake what had seemed his clear resolve to make the race."
The Hotline: "Thompson entered and exited to standing ovations, but as club members queued up to retrieve their cars, it was clear that he had not made the sale to all of them – although perhaps he wasn’t really selling anything yet."
The Tennessean has the text of Thompson's speech.
LINK
Bush Supporters Defecting to Democrats
"Disillusioned supporters of President George W Bush are defecting to" Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) "as the White House candidate with the best chance of uniting a divided nation," reports the Sunday Times of London. Among them are Tom Bernstein, who "went to Yale University with Bush and co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with him. In 2004 he donated the maximum $2,000 to the president’s reelection campaign and gave $50,000 to the Republican National Committee."
"Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton has many Republican defectors of her own, including John Mack, chief executive of Morgan Stanley, who helped raise $200,000 for the president’s reelection, qualifying him as a 'Bush ranger.' He said last week that he was impressed by Clinton’s expertise."
Meanwhile, Newsweek notes "the sons and daughters of some iconic Republicans (Ike! T.R.!) are contemplating crossing the aisle."
LINK
Lou Dobbs Challenges The Great Objectivity Scam
Posted by David Sirota at 7:09 AM on May 7, 2007.
David Sirota: Would you rather get your news from those who admit their biases or those who claim they have none?
CBS 60 Minutes' piece on Lou Dobbs last night told us a lot more about traditional journalism's biases than it did Dobbs' on any given issue he covers. Throughout the interview, CBS correspondent Leslie Stahl (who I actually think is quite a decent reporter) seems appalled at the entire concept of "advocacy" journalism, essentially asserting that a reporter having any opinion whatsoever offends the Principles of Journalism sent down from Mt. Olympus. Not only does her surprise display a stunning lack of basic education about the history of the very journalism profession she works in (Leslie - please google the terms "muckraker" and "penny press"), her own 60 Minutes piece about Dobbs displays her own very subjective opinions. The only difference is that while Dobbs is honest and admits to his biases, Stahl - and other traditional journalists - mask their very subjective world views in the veneer of objectivity, making their own advocacy far more devious than Dobbs could ever be.
Take, for instance, this line in the 60 Minutes piece, delivered as an authoritative, nonpartisan, objective fact:
"Dobbs is full of contradictions: he’s pro-abortion rights, but against gun control; a fiscal conservative who supports government regulation."
Stahl would have us believe that believing the consistent libertarianism inherent in the dual beliefs that government shouldn't dictate decisions between a woman and her doctor nor decisions about who should own a gun is a "contradiction." She would also have us believe that being a fiscal conservative (aka. for less government spending and balanced budgets) is a "contradiction" for someone who supports government regulation (aka. consumer protections, environmental laws, etc.). She offers no proof of these claims. Factually, of course, they are absurd, meaning at best such claims are Stahl's own (very odd) opinions. Yet, her opinion is portrayed as non-partisan objective fact akin to stating that water is wet.
More here
Plato's metaphor of the cave
Plato's parable of the cave is a metaphor for ignorance and knowledge. Imagine, says Plato, a cave in which prisoners are chained in such a way that all they can see are shadows thrown on a wall in front of them. All they know of life are these shadows. They would think that these shadows were reality, having known nothing else. If one of them were freed, and allowed to emerge into the daylight, he would see things as they are, and realize how limited his vision was in the cave. He would be quite unwilling to return:
And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?...you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell. (Republic VII, 516)
Yet to his fellow-prisoners, he would seem the fool, not they:
And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady...would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending. (Ibid, 517)
I suggest that the lethal text may not in fact destroy the mind, but rather cause it to move up to a higher level of consciousness, which would seem "weak" to the people left behind. He might have a direct apprehension of Plato's world of Ideal Forms. Instead of having been destroyed, such a person might simply have transcended the body and no longer have need of it. (Such a fate is implied in Macroscope.)
I further suggest that the person who enters cyberspace has, in a metaphorical sense, left the cave. She has entered an abstract dataspace—a world of Ideal Forms—and has no need of the physical body. Indeed, the person wearing a bodysuit and VR goggles seems vaguely ridiculous to anyone watching her twist and turn in response to no apparent stimulus. She is, in a literal sense, a visionary.
Beware the ghost of Ronald Reagan! [VIDEO]
Posted by Guest Blogger at 1:30 PM on May 4, 2007.
Rachel Maddow: Reagan's an obsession with these people ...
Rachel Maddow video here
Bush: Now I'm The Commander Guy!!
Link
just noticed this
collapse comments
..........expand a comment
......collapse it -- don't move that mouse
click and the next comment is expanded
collapse and click
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There once was a day trading fool,
Whose inner-life was a smelling cesspool.
He put shit on his skin,
To avoid looking within,
Yet convinced, some people are cruel.
buggery.
Schlozman.
I was just invited to join another group in my County, Turn DuPage Blue.
The other Dem that was an election judge told his wife about me and she just emailed me to join the group. That will be the third that I belong to.
you are not the only democrat on the block.
ya gotta like that group.
Poll
Is Rush Limbaugh's "Barack The Magic Negro" song racist?
http://cbs13.com/
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The folks just love Rush...
Ya know he just seems to reflect the American Spirit..
They way his show has grown is an example to anyone who wants to be in radio...!!!!
Bush unwittingly makes crack about the Queen's age
by John Aravosis (DC) · 5/07/2007 01:05:00 PM ET
He really is an idiot. Then he follows it up with what one might call a sexist comment as well. She is, after all, a head of state. Then again, I guess we should be thankful he didn't give her a neck massage.
LINK
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This was voted the favorite tune in Crank Bait's home town...:
http://mfile.akamai.com/5020/wma/rushlimb.download.akamai.com/5020/shanklin_archives/Thank_The_Lord.asx
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Buying the War on Palestinians: The US Media, The New York Times and Israel
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=21&ItemID=12742
Good article.
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toniD said...
I was just invited to join another group in my County, Turn DuPage Blue.
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http://www.turndupageblue.com/who.php
cool
an image
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