----------- Crank Bait said... ------------ Oh, baby, baby. I glide sugar like you can't believe. (This would be lot funnier if I could pull it off with a straight face.)
May 1, 2007 11:17 PM
Sheesh. I could accept "a lot funnier" or "a whole lot funnier" but "lot funnier" doesn't cut it. May 1, 2007 11:20 PM
Waxman to RNC: Get your answers ready now. House oversight chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) sent a letter today to Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan, urging him to be ready to answer questions about specific topics at his hearing on May 8. Among other topics, Waxman tells Duncan he will need to discuss the names of all White House officials who have used RNC e-mail accounts, the number of communications each White House official sent or received using RNC e-mail accounts each year, and the policies “relating to the preservation, storage, or destruction of communications transmitted using RNC e-mail accounts.”
For Turkophiles and all close observers of Turkey, another key development. The country's constitutional court has effectively blocked the presidential candidacy of the Justice and Development (PK) party's Abdullah Gul, who is currently the foreign minister, likely forcing early elections and a new showdown between the country's secularists and the soft Islamism of the PK.
Alice said... War Dog, Yakov Smirnov is playing in Branson ------------------------------- Sheesh. Get your celebrity war on, girl.
Yakov has his own theater in Branson and has had for years.
Here is what is being advertised of late---
Ackro's Bats: A gravity-defying, gyroscopic, gee-whiz extravaganza of God-fearing plain folk, just like you.
Mag And His Nets: From bumper ribbons to north-noodling needles, nothing will attract your patriotic attention as ironically as Mag and his Magnificent Nets.
Dolly Parton's Apollo Gees: Tiger Woods has bad lies, Oklahoma puts the sorry on top. but no one has the rock-hard, six-pack Apollo Gees like Dolly's giant pair of excuse me's.
Little Known Magic Guy: He may be little, but he's known now; he's the Magic Guy. It's family fun for all as he makes a Soccer Mom disappear and something more exciting appear in her place.
Dawn: Appearing mornings only, for the first time ever, is Dawn without Tony Orlando. Dawn sings everything that you always wanted to hear without Tony screwing up the harmony.
Boxcar Willy: Dead, but not forgotten, the original Boxcar Willy gives an encapsulated stardust show that you could never see before!
Paul Revere & the Raiders: Who? ---------- (Bait note: I saw Paul Revere & the Raiders before they used Flomax.)
Mag And His Nets: From bumper ribbons to north-noodling needles, nothing will attract your patriotic attention as ironically as Mag and his Magnificent Nets. ---------------------------------- I'm particularly fond of this one. I don't care if you like it or not.
What if War Dog were woefully motivating, or woefully satiracle? -----------------------------------
Well, War Dog loves to boast of his lovely life. I don't think anyone that is blissfully happy could love pictures of nuclear bombs. Perhaps if he were an artist, I could understand it. But War Dog isn't creative or free enough to be an artist.
Edna...you know I'm inclined to believe you...because any regular human would know that even pretending to think that killing people for toursim's sake would be just too silly...
President Kennedy, in calling for a test ban, said,
"Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.... The logical place to begin is a treaty assuring the end of nuclear tests of all kinds...."
Allow me to tell you all of the reasons for which I am happier than you could ever hope to be.
(Bait snickers, tries to keep a straight face.)
It is because (can you imagine?) I have made better choices than have you at every step in life.
It is because (Bait tries to stop rolling around on his floor) you failed to become a printing machine operator.
Had you recognized Nirvana, as I did when it was spewing fumes in my face, you would not be wondering how you could pay for heart surgery now.
You see, I worked very hard for twenty years to pay for a heart surgery BUT! I turned those twenty years of savings into an invested return of TWO heart surgeries.
So now, you can plainly see, if I need two heart surgeries, I have myself covered by twenty years of hard work and careful investment.
You, my dear, are a slacker. You should have known that no-down loans and credit card interest would eat up your avenue to cardiovascular salvation.
I, on the other hand, knew better. En route, I managed to avoid other medical maladies, so I am a fucking healthy genius!
(Parody terminated because I'm making myself too angry to continue.)
We are the music makers. And we are the dreamers of the dreams. :::::Wille Wonka
The cyberpunks did not originate their vision, but picked up bits and pieces of what was actually coming true, and fed it back to the readers who were already living in Gibson's Sprawl, whether they knew it or not. ::::::Steve Brown
Information wants to be free. Believe it, pal. ::::::Bruce Sterling
If only you could see what I've seen through your eyes ::::::Blade Runner
We've discovered Cyberotica!!!!! ::::::The Shamen at a Rave with RU Sirius
The techno-underground is a direct descendant of the hippy revolution. ::::::Select Magazine (April .92)
Cyberpunks use all available data input to think for themselves. ::::::Timothy Leary
Thus the most repressed sector of society acquires a paradoxical power through the myth of its occult and knowledge." [Hakim Bey]. Gibson & Burroughs & Lewis Shriner & Norman Spinrad & Bruce Sterling created the perfect term -- CYBERPUNK! The odd occult shadow still haunts" the civilized, industrial culture. Here is the marvelous paradox of VR/Cyberpunk: Big high-tech firms fighting the myth of "electronic LSD." Jaron Lanier as wizard with dreadlocks! Eric Gullichsen - student of Crowley! Mondo 2000! Gibson and his data rustlers! ::::::Timothy Leary
Cyberpunk is really about the present. ::::::Rudy Rucker
edna ellen poe said... egg nog said... I have a plan for whites only ******* Sure you do War Dog. May 2, 2007 12:33 AM ---------------------------------- Full disclosure: That was my joke...something about the semantic similarities between War Dog and Egg Nog struck my fancy. The "whites only" part of the joke came with the package.
I really miss the ability to sign myself as anyone or anything with the underlying identifier "Sister Resistor". It would obviate disclaimers such as this one.
Aztec Empire of Mexico: With the recession of the Ice and the return of peace, the Aztecs bundled up their toys, went home and bent their nimble hands to crafting an even grander civilization than they had raised before. Well, almost... they started on retooling their entire industrial base anyway, since someone in Sweden had decided to use a base-10 numbering system, rather than a perfectly reasonable base-16 count like civilized people used.
The city of Xochimilco in Tepanec was expanded just to provide a suitable venue for the biggest damn party this desert has ever seen! See Rebus Keneebus jump into the Hole that goes to the center of the Earth! Hmm... the GM is getting giddy. There was a huge Victory over the Ice party held in the floating gardens and no one went home unhappy.
The Imperial Police cleaned house, arresting the commander of the Smoking Sun Legion in Moache (he died soon after, hanged in his cell), and the Earthquake Legion commander in Odakyu was killed messing around with a ‘cool samurai sword.’ Those are sharp... The powerful Aztec garrison of Mesa Verde complained they were being ignored by the press. Which was true. Everyone had forgotten they were posted to an icy, howling wilderness filled with bad-tempered Frenchmen.
Two fleets were split off from the main armada at Odakyu, and they spent the next two years ferrying people (who should have brought their own boats) home. The Aztec crusaders (the Order of Tlahulli) were ordered back to Méxica, but they refused, which caused a mild crisis in the Nisei heartland. Worse, the Tlahulli did not leave on the fleet, and marched north into the wasteland of the Ice, looking for someone to smack.
They did not find anyone, even the Inuit having left the old Tatar domains. The Tlahulli marched through the snow and ice until they came upon a massive ruined city in newly growing forest. This place they recognized from the tales told by the Nisei aerocorps - Dread Hûkar, where so many had died to save the world. Chikietl, the leader of the Tlahulli declared this was the place they would stay, and so the crusaders settled among the pines and swift streams, finding the soil rich and the game plentiful
Alice said... You have the ability, you choose not to...IMO... ;) May 2, 2007 12:48 AM ------------------------------- ...can't...stop...self...because...don't...want...to...
"Burroughs told Kaye that, during the trance, it felt as though silent communication with a ghostly non-human companion had flashed him forward to his life as an old man, several decades in the future. Oppressed by ‘a crushing sensation of implacable destiny, as if fragments of a frozen time dimension were cascading into awareness,’ he ‘remembered’ writing 'The Ghost Lemurs of Madagascar' – ‘although it wasn’t writing exactly,’ and his writing implements were archaic, belonging to someone else entirely, in another place and time."
is the State's boundary classification you describe what Burroughs experienced as "invisible brothers ... invading present time", the "jail-house mind of the One God"?
The No. 1 rule of my blog is that there are no rules. I write about everything from movies I've seen to crazy observations that just pop into my head about Starbucks. And sometimes I'll just write, "Had a pretty boring day today," take a picture of myself eating cereal for dinner, and call it a night.
My blog is more of a hobby than anything else, something to do for fun when I get home from my bookstore job. I've never dreamed of making a living from it. Though hypothetically speaking, if The New Yorker—a publication that I'm sure pays top dollar—wanted to publish my August 9, 2005 post "Creative Thinking Spots" in its "Shouts And Murmurs" section, I'd consider it. Didn't cross my mind when I wrote that post, and that's certainly not why I wrote it, nor why I have a Google news alert set up for New Yorker editor David Remnick, but I can understand how someone on their staff might think the piece is a good fit for that section.
I'm listening to Lionel's Monday/April 30th, 2007 show and so far, the first 2hrs. has been devoted to the sex "crimes" in D.C. and the philosophy surrounding cheating, prostitutes, sexual differences with cheating, etc. These topics are gonna be replacing SamSeder's topical topics? Oh, my .... This is a person who didn't know Ron Paul was running for President last week. Peace.
P.S. I'm glad there were a couple of other SamSeder bloggers who thought the same as I did about Mr. Barber .... who is he? I didn't finish listening to his show, either. Hour 3 of Lionel: He's talking about Tenent. Whew! Peace
MAUREEN DOWD: Better Never Than Late Instead of George Tenet teaching at Georgetown University, George Tenet should be taught at Georgetown University.
There should be a course on government called “The Ultimate Staff Guy.” A morality saga about how much harm you can do as a go-along, get-along guy, spending so much time trying not to alienate the big cheese so he doesn’t can you that you miss the moment where you have to can him or lose your soul.
If Colin Powell and George Tenet had walked out of the administration in February 2003 instead of working together on that tainted U.N. speech making the bogus case for war, they might have turned everything around. They might have saved the lives and limbs of all those brave U.S. kids and innocent Iraqis, not to mention our world standing and national security.
It would certainly have been harder for timid Democrats, like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and John Edwards, to back up the administration if two members of the Bush inner circle had broken away to tell an increasingly apparent truth: that Dick Cheney, Rummy and the neocons were feverishly pushing a naïve president into invading Iraq with junk facts.
General Powell counted on Slam Dunk — a slender reed — to help him rid the speech of most of the garbage Mr. Cheney’s office wanted in it. Slam, of course, tried to have it both ways, helping the skeptical secretary of state and pandering to higher bosses. Afterward, when the speech turned out to be built on a no-legged stool, General Powell was furious at Slam. But they both share blame: they knew better. They put their loyalty to a runaway White House ahead of their loyalty to a fearful public.
Slam Dunk’s book tour is mesmerizing, in a horrifying way....
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: The Hail Mary Pass On Thursday there will be a regional conference in Egypt to discuss stabilizing Iraq, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will represent the U.S. President Bush should go instead and give this speech:
I want to take this opportunity to speak to the Arab and Muslim nations gathered here today and to the world at large. I begin with a simple message: I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I rushed into the invasion of Iraq. I honestly believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. I was wrong, and I now realize that in unilaterally launching the war the way I did, you all feel that I breached a bond of trust between America and the world. Not only did that alienate you from us, it made us less effective in Iraq. We had too few allies and too little legitimacy. I apologize — sincerely.
I’m most sorry, though, because my bungling of the war has prompted all of us to take our eye off the ball. I messed up the treatment so badly that people have forgotten the patient really does have a disease. Now that I’ve apologized, I hope you will stop fixating on me and look closely at what is happening in your backyard: the forces and pathologies that brought us 9/11 are still there and multiplying.
Friends, we are losing in Iraq. But whom are we losing to? Is it to the Iraqi “Vietcong” — the authentic carriers of Iraqi nationalism? No, it is not. We are being defeated by nihilistic Islamist suicide bombers, who are proliferating across the Muslim world. We are losing to people who blow up mosques, markets, hospital emergency wards and girls’ schools. They don’t even tell us their names, let alone offer a future.
Look at the past two weeks: On Thursday, at least nine Iraqi soldiers were found dead after a suicide car bomber rammed a checkpoint. Two suicide car bombers crashed into a Kurdistan Democratic Party office in Zamar. A day earlier, a suicide bomber killed four policemen in Balad Ruz. Two days earlier, nine U.S. soldiers were killed by a pair of suicide attackers driving garbage trucks packed with explosives. A few days earlier, five bomb attacks killed nearly 200 people in Baghdad. On Monday this week, a suicide bomber blew up a funeral in Khalis, killing at least 30......
"he ‘remembered’ writing 'The Ghost Lemurs of Madagascar' – ‘although it wasn’t writing exactly,’ and his writing implements were archaic, belonging to someone else entirely, in another place and time."
That's a fun one. Did I ever post that? I was saving it for a fun late night black magic/conspiracy time, but I don't remember if I did that one yet.
So much to do. Wanted to post some stuff today, but ran out of time. I'm late, I'm late.
Mary Ann, fetch me my gloves!
hee
...“Lemur People are older than Homo Sap, much older. They date back one hundred sixty million years, to the time when Madagascar split off from the mainland of Africa. Their way of thinking and feeling is basically different from ours, not oriented toward time and sequence and causality. They find these concepts repugnant and difficult to understand.”
Sam, miss you and the show SOOO-MUCH...it's truly like living in a different world...I knew this wan't going to be easy but it's worse than I imagined...and the Sunday show? well, you know we're all waiting for it but it's like getting relief from a continuing SEVERE migraine headache--- but ONLY for ONE day in a week...To All: maybe we can pressure the advertisers to get Sam back???
toniD said... Tom DeLay retreats, surrenders his PAC. DeLay’s political action committee, ARMPAC, “was quietly closed last week after a decade-long run as one of the most influential — and infamous — PACs run by members of Congress.” ARMPAC “helped precipitate DeLay’s fall,” receiving substantial contributions from Jack Abramoff’s clients. “In an 11-year run among GOP leadership ranks, no one in Congress used political money to maximize his own influence more than DeLay.”
Why isn't this piece of crap in jail yet?When does his trail start?What is taking so darn long??Just wondering!
House oversight panel may look past Rice, Tenet in inquiry into uranium By Helen Fessenden and Jackie Kucinich May 01, 2007 Following a subpoena to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a letter to former CIA Director George Tenet last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee may cast an even wider net in its probe into why the administration made false pre-war claims that Iraq was seeking to acquire uranium from Niger.
The panel’s chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), said last Thursday that the panel had not yet made a decision on how many more individuals it would contact, but indicated that he may consider it.
“We’ll take this one step at a time, and we’ll see,” he said. “I still think Rice will come in the end, but so far we’ve just gotten stonewalled.”
Regarding other names, a Democratic committee aide said “nothing is ruled out,” but added that “we’re just very early in the process.”
Rice has so far refused to meet with the committee on the matter and said on Sunday she would not comply with the subpoena. Through an aide, she has sent several letters to the panel, but Waxman has called those responses insufficient and vague. He has been sending letters to Rice regarding the uranium claim since spring 2003.
Some of the other names that have surfaced in this story include Alan Foley of the CIA and Robert Joseph of the National Security Council, who negotiated the language in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Africa. There is also Rocco Martino, the Italian free-lance operative who peddled the forged documents that were the genesis of this claim, which ultimately found its way into the State of the Union speech even though Tenet had previously intervened to take out similar language in an earlier speech.
Several members expressed strong interest in hearing from these individuals, and the panel’s ranking Republican, Tom Davis (R-Va.) said it would be “entirely appropriate to bring in others” even though he opposed the subpoena for Rice. On their part, Democrats expressed strong interest in broadening the probe.
“I’d love to talk to Martino in particular,” said panel member Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
“It’s important to bring in whoever can shed light on this,” agreed Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).
Davis and other Republicans argue that bringing in Rice would be a time-consuming distraction from her duties as secretary of state, and that two U.S. probes—under the Senate Intelligence Committee and the independent Silberman-Robb commission—have already looked into the question of faulty pre-war intelligence.
Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) said Thursday that this debate “is like the Clinton impeachment. I voted against it because there was no purpose. In this case, I understand why the Democrats want to kick Bush, but what would it achieve?”
Democrats counter that those two inquiries were Republican-run and avoided the question of why top officials used that intelligence to make their pre-war claims. The Senate Intelligence Committee is still working on the second part of its inquiry, which looks at the politicization of intelligence, but has not completed its work yet.
While the panel ponders its next move, Waxman has indicated that, at least for now, he is not yet ready to consider the more drastic option of invoking contempt to bring Rice before the panel.
“We’re not there yet,” said Waxman.
As of yesterday, a spokeswoman for Waxman said little has changed despite Rice’s remarks Sunday.
But the standoff could take an interesting twist if the two sides fail to reach an agreement.
If Waxman ultimately chooses to cite Rice for failure to respond to the subpoena, and a resolution to hold her in contempt passes the House floor, her case could land at the foot of embattled colleague Attorney General Albert Gonzales, according to House rules.
According to a Congressional Research Service report, if an individual refuses to comply with a House-issued subpoena, a committee could hold the individual in contempt of Congress, an offense punishable by up to one year in prison and/or a $1,000 fine. To enforce the contempt of Congress, the House must pass the resolution with a simple majority.
If the House approves, the resolution would be sent to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for prosecution.
According to congressional analyst Ilona Nickels, the U.S. attorney could then choose to call in a grand jury to decide whether to indict and prosecute.
Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said that it would be unfortunate that the oversight of a White House official could fall under the responsibility of another White House official.
“This is an unfortunate wrinkle in the separation of powers,” Lilly said. “I think the House would have the standing to get a court order for her to appear in civil court.”
Lilly added, “It makes the nature of this issue a little more dramatic, considering the problems of the attorney general.”
According to Nickels, Anne Gorsuch, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was the last administration official to be held in contempt. In 1982, the House voted to cite Gorsuch after she refused to provide requested documents concerning the Superfund to the Energy and Commerce Committee, then chaired by Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.).
But her case was never prosecuted because the Reagan White House eventually arranged an agreement to give the chairman access to the requested papers, Nickels wrote.
Bush finds someone new to do his job by Chris in Paris · 5/02/2007 04:02:00 AM ET
First it was a "war czar" though nobody was interested in being the fall guy for the failures of the President and now it's a food czar. What an amazing inability to accept any and all responsibility. Sounds like Return of the Wimp Factor, Bush II.
The Bush administration appointed a new "food safety czar" yesterday and directed him to develop a plan for addressing shortcomings exposed by recent scares in the human food supply.
Dr. David W.K. Acheson, a former University of Maryland medical school professor who had been chief medical officer at the Food and Drug Administration's food safety center, immediately stepped into the job.
The creation of the new position underscored the extent of public concern about the country's food safety system over a dangerous chemical found in pet food entering the human food supply, in addition to recent outbreaks of bacterial contamination in bagged spinach, Taco Bell lettuce and Peter Pan peanut butter. But Democrats said fears have intensified to a degree that a new appointment alone won't quell.
What is a czar going to do? Tell us that we need to get back to the original mission of the FDA and scrap years of GOP congressional damage? Uh, I think that much is obvious, so this is another diversion on the taxpayers dollar.
The Uninvited Witness By Elizabeth Warren | bio Congress held hearings today on the two-year anniversary of the Bankruptcy Code. Last night a woman who wasn't invited to the hearing talked about how lucky she was. She's a 72-year-old widow who filed for bankruptcy last month to try to save her home (more on the story below).
But here's why she felt lucky: The mandatory credit counseling session that will cost her $75 and for which she will have to drive 60 miles to attend has been scheduled for the day after her social security check will be deposited. That way, she explained, she can use her "food money to pay for gas and the counseling."
words can't describe the hell that poor lady is in. worse is that its a story being repeated across the nation. too bad we can't send the scraps from these rich fucks breakfast tables to feed the poor and elderly.
the systematic looting and raping of america is bushes real legacy. it will be many generations before the damage done in the last seven years is recovered from.
just think about the hate that the grandsons of grandsons of present day iraqi's will have for americans and for reasons they don't understand.
samcomebackclub - oh you are so right. I have been in a fog since Sam has been gone. This sucks so bad. I hate AAR totally. I am not renewing my XM unless Nova M comes on and I hope Sam is on there too - Nova is supposed to start on XM later this month
toniD said... The Uninvited Witness By Elizabeth Warren | bio Congress held hearings today on the two-year anniversary of the Bankruptcy Code. Last night a woman who wasn't invited to the hearing talked about how lucky she was. She's a 72-year-old widow who filed for bankruptcy last month to try to save her home (more on the story below).
But here's why she felt lucky: The mandatory credit counseling session that will cost her $75 and for which she will have to drive 60 miles to attend has been scheduled for the day after her social security check will be deposited. That way, she explained, she can use her "food money to pay for gas and the counseling."
Gosh, what a lucky woman.
-corporations and the rich are exempt -- seems to be a trend not only in the bankruptcy laws. Same "philosophy" is evident in tax collecting. I think it's because the small fish are easier to catch and fillet. If you're hurting for the gas money to even get you to the court, you're certainly not in a position to hire yourself a fancy lawyer to defend you..posted on Warren Reports.
blah blah blah said... mmrules, you profile says you're from california. are you up late or did you get up early?
Both!Insomnia.Meds&Chronic pain.Just too much fun.But,that's life....That poor lady in that Banckrupcy article.It's happening all over the country,unfortunately:That's me in about 5 years.The living in my car part.I don't have a house to lose.I grew up in California!Most Working class folks have to rent.
thats my widowed mother in law to. they actually owned their home and went out and got a huge 2nd with an arm to pay bills. all of a sudden rates changed and her payment has nearly doubled but her fixed income hasn't changed. chris farley's (may he rest in peace) livin in a van down by the river used to be funny.
The Democrats and moderate Republicans have been weighing several options: a "clean" bill with no strings attached, nonbinding bench marks for the Iraqi regime, and funding the war in smaller chunks.
The issue is particularly thorny for Democratic presidential front-runners Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill. They could alienate liberals by not demanding troop withdrawal or lose moderate support if they shift too far left.
Neither candidate suggested what to do after tomorrow's attempt in the House of Representatives to override the veto, which is likely to fall about 70 votes short.
Democratic leaders are determined to pass funding and seemed to be leaning toward softer benchmarks. "We will fund our troops," said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., a House deputy whip.
That could alienate more liberal members who wanted tougher withdrawal demands and only grudgingly voted for the measure that was vetoed Tuesday. "People like me swallowed very hard," said Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y. "I'm not going to go any further." Democrats may have to depend on moderate Republicans to replace defections in their party.
blah blah blah said... thats my widowed mother in law to. they actually owned their home and went out and got a huge 2nd with an arm to pay bills. all of a sudden rates changed and her payment has nearly doubled but her fixed income hasn't changed. chris farley's (may he rest in peace) livin in a van down by the river used to be funny.
How sad.Sorry to hear that..I loved Chris Farley's "Living a Van down by the river" too.But,like you said,it's not so funny anymore.Congress has to repeal,or at least rewrite that bill!
Iran pursues diplomacy, Israel threatens military action
Adam Robertson
As the European Union resumes diplomatic talks with Iran, urging the United States to follow suit and stressing that the Iranians are ready for such negotiations, Israel is recommending ways to destroy Tehran’s nuclear installations.
"It is impossible perhaps to destroy the entire nuclear program but it would be possible to damage it in such a way that it would be set back years," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview with Germany's Focus magazine. "It's technically feasible. It would require 10 days and the launch of a thousand Tomahawk missiles," he said in the interview, due to be published on Monday.
Olmert also said that "nobody could exclude" military action against Iran, echoing a position long held by the U.S., which doesn’t want to negotiate with Tehran unless it suspends its uranium enrichment program, a demand Tehran refuses to meet despite being slapped with two sets of UN sanctions.
Olmert’s suggestion that a rain of missile could degrade Iran’s nuclear program came as the EU’s foreign police Javeir Solana ended two days of talks with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani. After the talks, which have been described as constructive, Solana demanded Washington to open direct negotiations with Tehran, stressing that Iranian officials are ready for such unconditional talks.
"We have always said we are ready for talks if they have something new to say. We are fully prepared for talks without preconditions to reach a solution," Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said earlier this month.
But Olmert’s threat of military action against Tehran could hinder Iran and the EU’s diplomatic efforts
Folk singer and anti-war activist Joan Baez says she doesn't know why she was not allowed to perform for recovering soldiers recently at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as she planned.
In a letter to The Washington Post published Wednesday, she said rocker John Mellencamp had asked her to perform with him last Friday and that she accepted his invitation.
"I have always been an advocate for nonviolence and I have stood as firmly against the Iraq war as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago," she wrote.
"I realize now that I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam. Maybe that's why I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation to sing for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In the end, four days before the concert, I was not 'approved' by the Army to take part. Strange irony."
Baez, 66, told the Post in a telephone interview Tuesday that she was not told why she was left off the program by the Army. "There might have been one, there might have been 50 (soldiers) that thought I was a traitor," she told the paper.
I hear you about cronic pain! What causes yours? Mine is RA.
I sleep but 3-4 hours at a time. And there are days I go to work by pushing myself because the pain is so bad. But, I need the money to pay the doctors.
The Los Angeles Times describes yesterday’s immigration rallies as “a sea of U.S. flags, waved cheerfully by people asking to join a country conflicted about their welcome. Other than a Fourth of July on the Washington Mall, it’s hard to think of a more full-throated pledge of allegiance.”
Actor and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson arrives at the Capitol Hill Club on Capitol Hill in Washington. Photo by AP
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Advisers to Fred Thompson have begun exploring a range of staffing options -- including talking to potential campaign managers -- as the actor and former Tennessee senator firms up his plans to enter the Republican presidential contest, according to people involved in the conversations.
Thompson has not made a final decision but is on track to be ready to announce his candidacy in June or July, his advisers say. Thompson has already been polling better than some of the announced GOP candidates, and his entry would shake up a field that has left many Republican faithful dissatisfied
U.S. diplomats are returning from Iraq with with post-traumatic stress disorder and other “debilitating, stress-related symptoms that have afflicted many U.S. troops, prompting the State Department to order a mental health survey of 1,400 employees who have completed assignments there.”
Someone, I think on the Daily Show, said that Thompson has the face of a basset hound. So when this news story about him was on the news they showed a picure of him and damn if his face looked like a basset hound.
Sam-cum-back-club, you aint lying...i am so heart broken its like you just cannot imagine...tell me what to do to get sam back on the air, and your wish will be your comand...this guy is an utter joke for real...does anyone care about poor dewey who was secretly in love with sam???SAM TELL US WHAT TO DO TO GET YOU BACK PLEASE, THIS IS VERY VERY BAD...
Rudy Giuliani’s law firm “is perhaps the nation’s most aggressive lobbyist for coal-fired power plants, heavy emitters of air pollutants and carbon dioxide, a gas associated with global warming. Environmentalists say the firm played a significant role in persuading the Bush administration to roll back major provisions of the Clean Air Act.”
I hear you about cronic pain! What causes yours? Mine is RA.
Sorry to hear about your pain..Mine's nerve damage due to a on the job injury.After years of trying,I can't work anymore.Which sucks,but what are you going to do?I'm on S.S.disability..So now I just try to change the world via my laptop.I'm not doing a very good job.But at least I'm not war puppy! :)
That Barber sounds conservative. How are Lionel's politics? He seems to be a sort of a cynical libertariarian. South Florida type. Is he as funny as Lassiter?
Sorry to hear about your pain..Mine's nerve damage due to a on the job injury.After years of trying,I can't work anymore.Which sucks,but what are you going to do?I'm on S.S.disability..So now I just try to change the world via my laptop.I'm not doing a very good job.But at least I'm not war puppy! :)
I'm on S.S. disability also. But it doesn't pay enough so I am either forced to work or go on public aid. I don't want to go on public aid yet although I could if I quit my job.
There's alot of things they should change for people on public aid. A better system would not cost as much but still help the people who need it. There is much waste in the system.
“The inspector general of the Department of Commerce, the watchdog charged with rooting out wrongdoing at the agency, is himself the subject of three separate government investigations into allegations that he misspent his budget and retaliated against employees who raised concerns about his actions.”
WASHINGTON - The State Department has once again designated Iran as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, accusing the Islamic Republic of aiding extremists throughout the Middle East, particularly in Iraq.
The release of the department’s annual global survey of terrorism, with Iran topping the list again, comes just days ahead of a possible meeting between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iran’s top diplomat.
Rice could meet Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki when they both attend a weekend conference of Iraq’s neighbors aimed at boosting stability in a nation where the report says terrorist attacks, some backed by Iran, killed more than 13,000 civilians last year.
In a couple of hundred years, historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century as the Christian millennium approached. Then, as now, the doomsters identified human sinfulness as the propulsive factor in the planet's rapid downward slide.
Then as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church was a bank whose capital was secured by the infinite mercy of Christ, Mary and the Saints, and so the Pope could sell indulgences, like checks. The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning. Today a world market in "carbon credits" is in formation. Those whose "carbon footprint" is small can sell their surplus carbon credits to others, less virtuous than themselves.
toniD said... “The inspector general of the Department of Commerce, the watchdog charged with rooting out wrongdoing at the agency, is himself the subject of three separate government investigations into allegations that he misspent his budget and retaliated against employees who raised concerns about his actions.”
Is there anyone in this admin that is not under investigation for some wrong doing?
Amazing what juat alittle bit of Oversite will do!!Culture of Coruption!Greed.Just the GOP doing what they know best!
Bush officials say they will keep breaking the law to spy on Americans by Joe Sudbay (DC) · 5/02/2007 08:33:00 AM ET
No surprise here really. The loyal Bushies were lying earlier this year. We were told the Bush team would follow the law and obtain warrants when spying on Americans. Wrong. Instead, they'll keep breaking the law if they want to. Lying lawbreakers, that's who is running our country: Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January.
Rather, they argued that the president had the constitutional authority to decide for himself whether to conduct surveillance without warrants.
As a result of the January agreement, the administration said that the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program has been brought under the legal structure laid out in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court-approved warrants for the wiretapping of American citizens and others inside the United States.
But on Tuesday, the senior officials, including Michael McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said they believed that the president still had the authority under Article II of the Constitution to once again order the N.S.A. to conduct surveillance inside the country without warrants. George Bush doesn't have the authority to break the law. He just thinks he does
tonid said:But on Tuesday, the senior officials, including Michael McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said they believed that the president still had the authority under Article II of the Constitution to once again order the N.S.A. to conduct surveillance inside the country without warrants. George Bush doesn't have the authority to break the law. He just thinks he does
And my Congresswoman(D) doesn't think it's a good idea to Impeach Bush!Wake up congress!
US worker confidence down on financial concerns Confidence among U.S. workers fell in April on financial concerns and lower job satisfaction, the latest reading from the Hudson Employment Index showed on Wednesday.
World Bank ethics chief disputes Wolfowitz claims World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz broke staff rules when he intervened directly in the personnel matters of his girlfriend even though he said he wanted no part in a deal to transfer her outside the bank, the head of a bank ethics panel at the time said on Tuesday.
Renzi pays back taxes; FEC drops probe Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi avoided federal campaign penalties by paying $323,830 in back taxes last year to reassure regulators that loans to his political committee came from his own pocket.
Ethanol juggernaut moves through DC Nebraska hog producer Joy Philippi says livestock farmers "are having jitters" over ethanol, worried there won't be enough corn left for the pigs. She might as well be talking to a wall.
4,000 US Troops Arrive In Iraq AP | HAMID AHMED | May 2, 2007 09:02 AM
Nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers have arrived in Baghdad as a crackdown aimed at quelling the sectarian violence enters its 12th week. Meanwhile, bombings and shootings killed 10 people Wednesday, including three Sunni brothers who were shot to death in Baghdad.
The security efforts come as President Bush is engaged in a fierce debate with the Democratic-led Congress over the war in Iraq. Bush vetoed legislation to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq Tuesday night in a historic showdown with Congress over whether the unpopular and costly war should end or escalate.
Officials Say Texas Border Fence To Cut Off Farmers' "Access To Water...Just Going To Create Bedlam" AP | LYNN BREZOSKY | May 2, 2007 08:26 AM
A new map showing President Bush's planned border fence has riled Rio Grande Valley officials, who say the proposed barrier reneges on assurances that the river would remain accessible to farmers, wildlife and recreation.
City officials in the heavily populated valley had anticipated a "virtual" fence of surveillance cameras and border patrols.
No Kidding: Bush Declares Today American "Loyalty Day" Lost in the shuffle of losing American troops at a record clip in Iraq and George W. Bush itching to veto the bill that would bring our military men and women home, was the fact that King George has...
Today's Must Read By Paul Kiel - May 2, 2007, 9:13 AM And it gets even better.
The Justice Department has long argued that it fired the eight U.S. attorneys because of performance concerns -- a contention that's been so thoroughly discredited that it's a punchline now.
But it appears that we've reached a new level of DoJ ridiculousness.
One of the senior Justice Department officials involved in the firings is Bill Mercer, the U.S. Attorney for Montana who pulls double duty as the principal associate deputy attorney general in Washington, D.C. Well, I say double duty, but he really doesn't seem to spend much time as U.S. attorney: just three days per month, according to congressional testimony.
The chief judge in Mercer's district has been complaining about his absence for years, at one point berating him during a court hearing: "You have no credibility -- none.... Your office is a mess." And that judge did what he could to get Mercer thrown out, even writing to Alberto Gonzales in 2005 that Mercer was violating federal law by not living in the district of which he was supposedly U.S. attorney.
So what did Mercer do? He changed the law. From The Washington Post:
[In November of 2005] Mercer had a GOP Senate staffer insert into a bill a provision that would change the rules so that federal prosecutors could live outside their districts to serve in other jobs, according to documents and interviews Congress passed the provision several months later as part of the USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill, retroactively benefiting Mercer and a handful of other senior Justice officials who pull double duty as U.S. attorneys and headquarters officials....
...[T]he new legislation was added to the Patriot bill at the request of Mercer, who had been assigned the task of shepherding the provision through Congress, according to congressional aides and new statements from one of Mercer's colleagues.
(TPM reported on this provision last month, but we didn't know Mercer was responsible for it.)
This is, of course, the same Patriot Act that contained the provision that allowed the administration to indefinitely appoint interim U.S. attorneys. So it was full of treats for the administration.
The punchline here, of course, is that the Justice Department officials have straight-facedly claimed that U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias was fired because he was absent from the office one month out of the year (for his Navy reserve duty). He was, they claimed, an "absentee landlord." And yet one of the officials responsible for the firings had the law changed so that he could still be the U.S. attorney while being all but completely absent from his district. Funny, huh?
Note: For those of you who are suspicious that Mercer and others are drawing two salaries -- a Justice Department spokesman told The Washington Post that the U.S. attorneys continue to draw their U.S. attorney salary and are not paid extra for the executive positions.
Bush then goes on to urge all of us to demonstrate our loyalty to the United States "...by flying the flag, participating in our democracy, and learning more about our country's grand story of courage and simple dream of dignity."
It's funny, but he doesn't mention anything about how it demonstrates loyalty to lie your country into a war and go against the wishes of the vast majority of Americans by pledging to stay in that war indefinitely. The proclamation also doesn't say anything about this White House's loyalty to the families of almost 3,400 troops who have been killed in that war.
Bush also stays away from the subject of how it shows loyalty to American principles to shred the Constitution, spy on our citizens without required warrants and make the entire world lose respect for our nation.
I guess that would be kind of awkward to mention those things when trying to get people to ignore what's going on and simply wave the flag a bit more.
Now, in fairness to Bush, he didn't just make this up to give us all a huge laugh -- or sicken us -- on the fourth anniversary of him declaring that the war in Iraq was over. Public Law 85-529 officially designates May 1 of each year as Loyalty Day and all presidents are required to make this grand pronouncement.
But just this one year, under these circumstances, couldn't we let someone else do it?
I mean, what's next, Rush Limbaugh declaring tomorrow as National Drug Awareness Day?
The Daily Muck By Will Thomas - May 2, 2007, 9:35 AM Separate Trial, Transfer of Venue Sought By Foggo "Lawyers for former CIA official Kyle 'Dusty' Foggo, who is charged in a corruption case spun from the Randy “Duke” Cunningham bribery scandal, have asked a judge to move his trial to Washington, D.C., and to allow him to be tried separately from fellow defendant Brent Wilkes. In the request for a transfer, filed in federal court this week, lawyers reasoned that the case is centered mostly in the district that includes Washington, D.C., with most of the alleged crimes occurring there." (San Diego Union-Tribune)
The Rude Awakening Gaithersburg, Maryland Wednesday, April 18, 2007
How do you know when a government is lying? They report it. Scouring the government's stack for the REAL figures, Keeping an eye on the milkman and plenty more… ------------------------------
Eric Fry, reporting from Laguna Beach, CA…
"Information" and "insight" often seem like synonyms. Like, for example, when your neighbor says, "Hey John, I saw your wife kissing the milkman this morning." This particular bit of information contains a wealth of insight.
In other settings, however, "information" and "insight" can feel like antonyms. Like, for example, when a CNBC commentator remarks, "The stock market is acting well." This particular bit of information contains not a single scrap of insight. It is, therefore, "useless information."
A third category of information strays even farther from insight. It produces deception, or "anti-insight." This third category of information is called, "government data." Within this deceptive category we find items like the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The leaders of our government would prefer that the statistical portrayals of our economic health be as flattering as possible…and so they have become. Over the years - little by little - various government agencies have revised the processes andmethodologies that calculate important economic data like GDP. The government bean-counters continuously revise their processes, they say, to make their data more accurate. But somehow, each new methodology flatters our economy more than the preceding methodology. The new and improved numbers always become…well…new and improved.
A little nip here on the CPI, a little tuck there on the GDP - along with a bit of M-3 removal - and before you know it, you've got an economy that looks pretty darn good, even if its underlying health is suspect.
One man, John Williams, prefers insight to deception - so much so that he has created an entire business around producing truthful government statistics. His business, called "Shadow Government Statistics," exposes and analyzes the flaws in current U.S. government data and reporting, as well as in certain private-sector numbers.
"Have you ever wondered why the CPI, GDP and employment numbers run counter to your personal and business experiences?" Williams muses. "The problem lies in biased and often-manipulated government reporting…Despite minor changes to the system, government reporting has deteriorated sharply in the last decade or so."
Williams provided the scintillating details of his analysis, during a recent face-to-face encounter with two members of the extended Rude Awakening family: Chris Mayer and Addison Wiggin.
interesting that you call out the disappearance of m-3 reporting. bush did that intentionally to hide how the cost of this evil war is destroying the value of our money. its a replay of the german ww1 scenario where the war was followed by hyperinflation.
Right now I'm still too stunned by what took place today in Los Angeles. I'll try and have something of my own thoughts on this incident maybe tomorrow. for tonight though if you don't know what I'm talking about please read the news item below and if you would like some historical context I also posted an account of the Haymarket tragedy, the reason working class people take to the streets every May 1st. It's with mourning and in solidarity that I make this post. God have mercy on us all that we would let the world be built around us with so much violence.
"The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today." -August Spies final words before his execution.
www.la.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/197834.php
MACARTHUR PARK, May Day
2007
Police stormed a workers' and immigrants' rally at 5:30 p.m. this afternoon in MacArthur Park, sending thousands of families running in terror as they cleared MIWON Immigrant rally and festival with foam and beanbag bullets, batons, and tear gas. The cops marched through the park in riot gear, indiscriminately clubbing down people in their wake. Young people formed the front line against the onslaught, running in retreat for a few yards at each thud-like explosion of a teargas canister and then turning back to the cops, while older and younger people ran through the single open exit in fear that it, too, would be barricaded.
A few moments before, children had been playing on the hillside and dancing with puppet dragons. A drum circle was beating out a rhythm, hot dog and shaved ice vendors strolled through the crowd, and speakers at the north end stage called out for solidarity among immigrant and and non-immigrant workers.
According to a witness, the melee began when someone in a crowd gathered on Alvarado Street between 7th and 8th Streets hurled something toward the police, as the Aztec danzantes performed for a group gathered on Alvarado. The witness reported that the motorcycle cops nudged the audience, then cops on foot split the crowd in the street and stormed them. ...
Former British defense secretary claims Cheney called shots in Iraq
According to former British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, Vice President Dick Cheney has been calling the shots in Iraq, and has even overridden decisions by President Bush and former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"A catalogue of errors over planning for Iraq after the invasion, and an inability to influence key figures in the US administration, led to anarchy in Iraq from which the country has not recovered, the British defence secretary during the invasion admits today," Patrick Wintour writes for The Guardian. "In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Geoff Hoon reveals that Britain disagreed with the US administration over two key decisions in May 2003, two months after the invasion - to disband Iraq's army and 'de-Ba'athify' its civil service. Mr Hoon also said he and other senior ministers completely underestimated the role and influence of the vice-president, Dick Cheney."
Hoon tells the paper, "Sometimes ... Tony had made his point with the president, and I'd made my point with Don [Rumsfeld] and Jack [Straw] had made his point with Colin [Powell] and the decision actually came out of a completely different place. And you think: what did we miss? I think we missed Cheney."
"Giving the most frank assessment of the postwar planning, Mr Hoon, admits that 'we didn't plan for the right sort of aftermath,'" Wintour continues.
Excerpts from Guardian article:
# "Maybe we were too optimistic about the idea of the streets being lined with cheering people. Although I have reconciled it in my own mind, we perhaps didn't do enough to see it through the Sunni perspective. Perhaps we should have done more to understand their position."
He said history would have to decide whether the coalition should have anticipated the Sunni-Shia violence. "Given what we know now, I suppose the answer is that we should, but we did not know that at the time."
Of the summary dismissal of Iraq's 350,000-strong army and police forces, Mr Hoon said the Americans were uncompomising: "We certainly argued against [the US]. I recall having discussions with Donald Rumsfeld, but I recognised that it was one of those judgment calls. I would have called it the other way. His argument was that the Iraqi army was so heavily politicised that we couldn't be sure that we would not retain within it large elements of Saddam's people."
so here's a great example of how out of touch aar is. dave fucking barber is talking about high speed police chases. earlier it was driving while black.
how can aar ignore whats going on with iraq and immigration and everything else?
The end of military blogs? “The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops’ online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.”
Rice Is Likely to Meet With Syrian Foreign Minister
Staff and Wire Reports Wednesday, May 2, 2007; 11:18 AM
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, May 2 -- A senior Iraqi official and a senior Arab diplomat say Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem in Egypt on Thursday or Friday, adding a potentially significant bilateral session to a regional meeting meant to help stabilize Iraq.
It would be Rice's first meeting with a Syrian foreign minister since she took over at the State Department in 2005, and comes at a time of tense relations between the two countries.
The two sources declined to be named. The United States has not confirmed that a meeting will take place, but on her plane en route to Egypt the secretary said she "wouldn't rule it out."
"This is, after all, a diplomatic confab and we'll see who's there and what conversations take place. But again, it's not -- this is not about U.S.-Syria, U.S.-Iran. This is an effort for everybody to help Iraq," Rice said. Though a U.S.-Iran meeting had seemed a possibility as well, both U.S. and Iranian officials now say that is not likely to happen.
A meeting between Rice and Moualem would mark a shift for the Bush administration. After failing to win his way with the Syrian government during his first administration, U.S. President George W. Bush decided that dialogue with Damascus was futile. The administration rejected the recommendation of a high-level panel on Iraq policy that called for direct talks between the U.S. and Syria and Iran, and sharply criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) when she visited Damascus last month.
It is unclear how extensive an agenda Rice and Moualem would pursue. The Bush administration has accused Syria of providing a gateway for arms and insurgent fighters into Iraq, and of sponsoring terrorism through its ties to Palestinian groups and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia. Syria and the United States also back opposing sides in a showdown over U.N. plans to try those responsible for assassinating former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005.
The religious right Republicans are simply obsessed with sex by John Aravosis
And really creepy sex at that. One of the lead religious right groups, the American Family Association, in addition to promoting a known hate group on its Web site (a group that is lumped together with neo-Nazis and the Klan in a report compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center), is now publishing on its site a list of what it calls "sexual orientations." The list is filthy, it's the kind of thing we would never publish on this blog under any circumstance. It's not child safe by any means, and the AFA's Web site should be banned by every child safety filter in the country (please report their site if you know how to do so). Basically, the AFA is flipping out that others groups in society, like gays and women and people with disabilities, will be included in the already-existing federal hate crimes law - a law that ALREADY covers the religious right. Yes, the religious "special" right doesn't want to share their special status under US law. So what is their latest tactic? To declare that the word "sexual orientation" in the proposed hate crime amendment will include sex with animals, feces and corpses (the following link is NOT work-safe - you can see their bizarre sex list here).
These people call themselves Christians. They're sick. Do check out the filth they published on their Web site. The religious right Republicans are simply obsessed with sex, obsessed with gays, obsessed with filth. They are simply obsessed.
Double Decoupling The rest of the world's major economies no longer depend on America's. Neither do America's own largest corporations. By Robert B. Reich Web Exclusive: 05.02.07
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I'm spending my spare time these days debating supply-siders who are convinced that the record-breaking Dow proves the correctness of the Bush tax cuts.
Yes, the Dow did reach a record high last week. But the Commerce Department also reported that economic growth slowed to its weakest pace in four years. How can investors do so well while the real economy is doing so poorly? My supply-side friends don't have an answer, but I do.
It's because of two great decouplings that have occurred in recent years. First, the rest of the worlds' major economies have decoupled from the United States economy. China, India, Japan, and Europe are now such large markets they can grow briskly even as America slows.
Second, America's largest corporations have decoupled from the United States. Their overseas subsidiaries are booming even as their American operations stagnate. General Electric expects more than half its revenue this year to come from outside the United States for the first time. More than half of Boeing's new orders are from overseas. Ford is struggling in America but doing well in Europe.
In other words, the president's supply-side tax cuts are great for America's global investors, who have been investing their extra money around the world -- either in foreign companies or in global American-based ones.
But little or nothing is trickling down to average working Americans. Half of U.S. households do own some shares of stock, usually through their IRAs or 401-Ks. But the vast majority own less than $5,000 worth. Their equity is in their homes, whose values have slumped. They're paying far more for health insurance and fuel. And their wages haven't kept up.
Bottom line: The Bush tax cuts have delivered for Wall Street but done zilch for America's Main Streets.
Robert Reich is a Prospect co-founder. This column is adapted from Professor Reich's weekly commentary on American Public Radio's Marketplace. His website can be found here and his blog can be found here.
And finally, for people wondering who the hell is doing the 9-Noon shift on Air America this week, that is Dave Barber, formerly of WPRO in Providence, as well as the Michigan Talk Radio Network. The Flint, MI native has also worked at WWCK and WFDF in his hometown. And yes, he knows Michael Moore, featuring him on his shows from time to time. And no, Barber will not be hired by the network. In fact, he just got rehired by WWCK for the same time slot. So a double congratulations to Dave Barber. He continues at Air America for the rest of the week.
Robert C. Byrd is the senior senator from West Virginia.
Four years ago, President Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare, "Mission Accomplished." For thousands of our soldiers and their families, and likely for the Iraqi people, it feels like a lifetime has passed. How wrong the president was then and how wrong he continues to be today.
By vetoing the supplemental legislation, the president has chosen to hold hostage $100 billion for our troops to a failed policy. He is once again demonstrating his detachment from the realities on the ground in Iraq, and his indifference to the will of the American people at home. The president's veto ensures that hundreds, maybe thousands more will die in Iraq without bringing that country any closer to peace.
Before the war began, I urged the president to think through the consequences. I was very concerned about the repercussions that would follow this country’s certain military victory. Tragically, the repercussions I feared all have come to pass.
No matter how hard the president hopes it will happen, sectarian violence will not be quelled with U.S. forces occupying the Iraqi nation. Cross your fingers. Rub your lucky rabbit’s foot. Nail a horse shoe over the door to the Oval Office. Hoping for luck will not change the deadly dynamic in Iraq. Peace demands an Iraqi-led diplomatic, economic and security effort, the kind of which, to date, the Iraqi government has been unable or unwilling to undertake. Our legislation could have motivated the Iraqi people to take more responsibility by instituting benchmarks and rewards for positive outcomes. Instead, the president has again chosen to have our troops go it alone in a centuries old sectarian war with no end in sight.
When he took office more than six years ago, George W. Bush issued a call for renewed responsibility in government. What is responsible about clinging to this failing course in Iraq? What is responsible about the president continuing to foster and manipulate the fears of the American people? Today, faced with the tragic consequences of his misjudgments in Iraq, the Bush administration is paralyzed, unwilling to even acknowledge, much less remedy, its catastrophic blunders.
You may have thought that organization and agitation helped bring about our hard won labor laws. But this full page ad for General Electric from The Atlantic, August 1938, will tell you the real reasons:
(Top half - picture of older man in a suit and fedora with moustache, sitting in a garden with young woman. caption reads "Jeanette and her grandfather, William H. Wright - two of four generations in one family to work for General Electric in Lynn, Mass.")
Bottom half begins, in large bold letters
"Better, Jean? Listen -"
". . . back in '96, when I started work for G.E., we worked 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. Eighteen cents an hour was pretty good pay. And in our shop we did almost everything by hand.
"Look at things now - eight-hour days and five-day weeks. I read the other day that the average factory pay is 67 cents an hour. That's a big improvement during one lifetime!"
It is a big improvement - between the time when Jeanette Wright's grandfather started work and a few months ago when Jeanette followed her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather and joined the General Electric organization. Hours reduced one third; factory wages increased nearly fourfold. What made this possible? What has brought about this progress?
The answer lies in the increase in the effectiveness of each workers labor. In 1896, the average factory worker had only one horsepower of mechanical aid. Today each factory worker has 12 horsepower of mechanical power to help him produce. And because he produces more, he has more. This progress has been steady, through good years and bad. And it has come about largely because electricity has been put to work to help create more goods for more people at less cost, more and better jobs at higher wages, and a higher living standard for all. General Electric, for sixty years, has been making electricity useful.
G-E research and engineering have saved the public from ten to one hundred dollars for every dollar they have earned for General Electric
+++++++++++++++
It's like magic.
See, if everyone would just increase their effectiveness with more horsepower, maybe our labor laws would improve.
The ink on the President's veto is barely dry, and already, a lot of Washington insiders - including some Democrats -- are saying Congress should just give in to the President. Never mind how hard people have pushed to bring Congress to this point, when we are finally standing up to the President's disastrous Iraq policy -- they want to give up on the binding language in the bill requiring the President to begin redeploying troops from Iraq.
But that's just letting the President have his way all over again. That's the kind of thinking that got us into this war in the first place, and it's not going to cut it anymore.
We can't keep giving in to this Administration on Iraq. Every time the Administration gets its way, it means that our troops will remain stuck in the middle of Iraq's civil war, and our national security will continue to be undermined. With so many Americans demanding that our involvement in this war come to an end, backing down is not the answer. No one else should die in Iraq to give political comfort to dealmakers in Washington.
Later today on May 2nd, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs will release its "Memorandum to the Press: Venezuela's Security Factors and Foreign Policy Goals." The report will discuss the foreign policy of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his willingness to befriend even the most ill-reputed of allies in order to strengthen the Venezuelan armed forces, as well as fortify the country's geo-political position. The author of the article, W. Alejandro Sanchez Nieto, a well-known defense analyst and COHA Research Fellow, has authored a number of previous studies regarding the Latin American military, which are available at our website.
Bush and Cheney are completely insane. Just about everybody in the world can see in. Our two top leaders are insane and they are the one's with their fingers on the red button.
This country is in the deepest shit it has EVER been in. Bankrupt and without moral conscience, we are only able to stand by and wait for the horrible fate that awaits us.
Bush and Cheney are completely insane. Just about everybody in the world can see it. Our two top leaders are insane and they are the one's with their fingers on the red button.
This country is in the deepest shit it has EVER been in. Bankrupt and without moral conscience, we are only able to stand by and wait for the horrible fate that awaits us.
We have been living in interesting times. A needless and selfish war of such massive destruction for a few to get wealthy. i wish it were all a bad movie cause thats what it has seemed like for over 6yrs... False election, an idiot/puppet president, ignoring terror briefs, 9/11 tragedies, destroying the country from within, blocking investigations into 9/11, losing our liberties, the use and abuse of torture, secret prisons, wrongly accused, scandals upon scandals. We have insance neocons running this country and destroying it. I hope the turning point comes soon. I hope our congress grew a soul and stop funding this war. I hope a lot of good can come out of so much bad that we actually learn from such huge mistakes.....
Wednesday, May 02, 2007 Cheney Awarded Purple Heart
Bethesda, Maryland - Vice President Cheney was awarded a Purple Heart at a bedside ceremony today. Mr. Cheney, recuperating from an emergency snarlectomy, received the Purple Heart from President Bush, with Mr. Cheney's family, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, the staff of Fox News and Heritage Foundation members attending the ceremony.
"Dick Cheney has been wounded by the comments of evildoers," declared President Bush." And people hurt his face, his mouth, his, you know, the smile thing. That's why he gets this Purple Heart. Because his smile hurts people."
Written for Assimilated Press by roving reporter pinko
posted by Virt at 1:35 AM | 1 comments
Tuesday, May 01, 2007 Cheney Rushed To Hospital For Emergency Snarlectomy
Bethesda, Maryland - Vice President Cheney is resting today after undergoing an emergency snarlectomy. The vice president was being interviewed by Brit Hume of Fox News and was discussing recent opposition to continued US presence in Iraq when the medical incident occurred.
Mr. Cheney was saying, "Brit, we know for a fact that all these people hate America and are working for Al Qaeda" when he suddenly found it difficult to speak clearly.
The Secret Service and employees of Fox News at first believed that the vice president was having a stroke, and he was rushed to Bethesda Naval Hospital. Doctors at the hospital determined that the vice president was not having a stroke but was unable to speak properly due to a facial snarl that refused to relax.
Hospital spokesman Dr. Milton Ostrowsky held a brief press conference giving some details of the emergency surgery to remove the vice president's snarl, "We have hope that the vice president's snarl is somewhat relaxed and lessened," said Dr. Ostrowsky. "In a case such as this it is of course impossible to remove all traces of the snarl, but it is our hope that the vice president will still be able to speak out of both sides of his mouth just as he did before."
Written for Assimilated Press by roving reporter pinko
Sorry, this is a republican rep from my State...What can I tell you, he has the (R) after his name!
Rep. Shimkus: Iraq War Is Like ‘My Beloved St. Louis Cardinals’ Facing ‘The Cubbies’ » Today on the House floor, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) compared the war in Iraq to a Major League Baseball feud, asking fellow members of Congress to “Imagine my beloved St. Louis Cardinals are playing the much despised Chicago Cubs.”
The Cardinals are up by five finishing the top of the ninth. Is this a cause for celebration? Is this a cause for victory? No. Unbelievable as it may seem, the Cubbies score five runs in the bottom of the ninth to throw the games into extra innings. There the score remains until 1:00 AM five innings later. However at the top of the 15th, the Cardinals fail to field a batter. The entire team has left the stadium. … Who wins? We know it’s the team that stays on the field.
Watch it:
The war in Iraq isn’t a baseball game. No one gets killed in a Cardinals v. Cubs game. U.S. troops need to withdraw from Iraq not because the other “team” is beginning to catch up, but because our presence there is helping to fuel the violence and forcing our troops to referee an intractable civil war.
To 2 Anonymous [sorry, just started viewing this blog since Sam's been away, not sure how to do responses to my comments]...I think we're somehow gonna have to identify the advertisers for the 9a-to-noon slot and then contact them...but the thought of having to go thru 9-12 without Sam makes me ill just to suggest it...THIs is SO bad, words are inadequate to describe it....It such a loss, I could just about cry...but let's each try to compile a list,for a start,and begin making some kind of contact... OR if someone has another idea, i'm all ears!!
Most May Be Excluded from GOP Debate Seven of ten Republican candidates may be exluded from a May 15 presidential debate in South Carolina because they do not meet the agreed upon terms set by Fox News and the South Carolina Republican Party, according to CNSNews.com.
Those in danger of not being allowed: Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS).
"All of these candidates hover around one percent in most national polls. That's the cutoff point for would-be participants... The network and the state party agreed on the one percent threshold, as well as on the requirements that candidates must have filed papers in South Carolina and paid the proper fees to be a candidate."
Thompson Says Rivals are Digging for Dirt Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) said "that his potential Republican opponents are trying to dig up dirt on him while he considers running for the White House," the AP reports.
He noted "opposition researchers were combing through public records in Tennessee."
Said Thompson: "I thought it would have maybe been a little early. I thought it might have come from the Democrats instead of Republicans, but that's the way it is nowadays."
Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern on CNN's Anderson Cooper UPDATE: Ray McGovern appeared on Democracy Now! today. Watch/listen/read transcript. McGovern's comments are priceless: "But what George Tenet doesn’t fess up to is that he was the manipulator-in-chief" ... "What he meant was that, 'Mr. President, we can make a slam dunk case for popular consumption with the public and with the Congress out of this evidence.' Now, he thinks that’s exculpatory? I mean, that’s worse ... He’s admitting to a more heinous offense than simply being wrong about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He doesn’t get it."
Last night, Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern jointly appeared at the top of both hours of the Anderson Cooper 360 show on CNN. Below are the transcripts of BOTH segments on George Tenet's new book and his interview statements:
sam-comeback-club said... To 2 Anonymous [sorry, just started viewing this blog since Sam's been away, not sure how to do responses to my comments]...I think we're somehow gonna have to identify the advertisers for the 9a-to-noon slot and then contact them...but the thought of having to go thru 9-12 without Sam makes me ill just to suggest it...THIs is SO bad, words are inadequate to describe it....It such a loss, I could just about cry...but let's each try to compile a list,for a start,and begin making some kind of contact... OR if someone has another idea, i'm all ears!!
I'm game.Even though it probably won't do much good..But,ya never know.......Does anybody here know how to get a list of advertisers for the Sammy time slot??Or like sam comeback club said:Any other ideas??Or,is denial just a river in Egypt?
Democratic senator: Impeachment 'sucks all of the oxygen out of the air' Miriam Raftery Published: Wednesday May 2, 2007
Gravel: Impeachment 'will come, in due course'
At last week’s debate, Democratic Presidential candidates were asked to raise their hands if they would support impeachment. Other than Rep. Dennis Kucinich (who introduced impeachment papers against Cheney), not a single candidate raised their hand. So RAW STORY decided to find out why.
At the California Democratic Convention in San Diego over the weekend, RAW STORY obtained responses directly from Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CONN), and 2008 candidates New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel, then elicited help from a blogger present to pose the question to Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) did not host a press conference and was not available to the media. The question was posed slightly differently for various candidates, depending on availability.
The most detailed response came from Gravel during a press conference. RAW STORY listed several potential grounds for impeachment, including starting a war on apparently false premises, issuing signing statements that ignore the will of Congress, abolishing habeus corpus, and declaring the "right" to spy on Americans’ e-mails even as the White House itself "loses" thousands of e-mails now requested by Congress.
“Don’t worry about impeachment,” Gravel said in a reassuring tone, adding that he has held discussions with House Judiciary Chair John Conyers (D-MI). “That will come, in due course.”
Gravel plan could land Bush 'behind bars' Gravel criticized the President as a “lousy and immoral” commander in chief, but also levied criticism at Democrats for only passing a non-binding resolution to end the war. Nor does the former senator believe simply cutting off funds would work. “I filibustered to end funding in the Vietnam War, but it was not successful,” he recalled.
Instead, Gravel revealed a novel plan to bring about an end to the Iraq War, impeachment, or possibly both—and perhaps even land the President 'behind bars.'
“I have drafted a law that says we must get troops out of Iraq in 60 days,” he said. “Leave all the equipment behind…The President must certify that he took troops out. If he violates this law he should go to jail for five years with no parole, and pay a $1 million fine. It says so right in the law.”
He believes he could muster enough support in the House to pass the bill. If the Senate filibusters, he would urge Reid to call for a cloture vote daily. “The media will feed on this like maggots,” said Gravel, who predicts the measure would pass and that a veto could ultimately be overridden. If the President and Vice President then refuse to enact the law, he concluded, “once you have them breaking the law, now you impeach.”
Hours after 9/11 attacks, Rumsfeld allegedly said, 'My interest is to hit Saddam' RAW STORY Published: Wednesday May 2, 2007
According to NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that his "interest is to hit Saddam Hussein" just hours after the attacks on September 11, 2001, "even though all indications pointed at al-Qaida as the guilty party," a Rhode Island newspaper reports.
At the annual Business Expo at the Rhode Island Convention Center Tuesday, NBC's Jim Miklaszewski "advanced a theme garnering attention since former CIA director George J. Tenet made his public revelations last week," writes Tom Mooney for the Providence Journal.
"Some things are right on the mark, when he says the Bush administration appeared predisposed to attack Iraq," Miklaszewski says of Tenet's book At the Center of the Storm.
The NBC correspondent's "information" comes from "off the record" notes given to him from an unidentified person who was "in the White House situation room in the hours after the attacks."
"However, the notes describe, Miklaszewski said, then-Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld vowing to avenge the terrorist attacks by voicing frustration that attacks against the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983 and the attack on the Cole, in 2000, had gone unavenged," Mooney writes. "Reading from his notes, Miklaszewski quoted Rumsfeld as saying five hours after the terrorist attacks: 'My interest is to hit Saddam Hussein at the same time we go after al-Qaida.'"
Excerpts from article:
# "We ought not to look only" at Osama bin Laden, Rumsfeld allegedly said before holding a conference call with President Bush. During the conversation, "Rumsfeld says not to focus solely on al-Qaida, consider all those range of options. And the president's response was yes."
Said Miklaszewski: "So there is no question that Tenet got the time wrong [with meeting Perle in the White House] but there is no question in my mind, and with subsequent conversations I had with officials in the Pentagon, that the Bush administration had their sights set on attacking Saddam Hussein and Iraq long before there was even an effort to gather any evidence ... that Saddam Hussein was involved in the attack. And all the evidence says quite the opposite."
# FULL REGISTRATION REQUIRED PROJO ARTICLE CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK
BREAKING: 3 US Reps Support Cheney Impeachment By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor, Atlanta Progressive News (April 29, 2007)
(APN) ATLANTA – H Res 333, the bill introducing Articles of Impeachment against Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, now has two co-sponsors, for a total of 3 current total supporters, including sponsor US Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Atlanta Progressive News has learned.
The two cosponsors are US Reps. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO) and Janice Schakowsky (D-IL). APN currently has press requests in to both Offices since this morning but has not heard back yet; check back here for updates on their comments.
US Reps. Clay and Schakowsky were early cosponsors of US Rep. Conyers’s (D-MI) former bill, H Res. 635, in the last, or 109th, Congressional Session. Conyers’s bill had been introduced December 18, 2005. The first round of cosponsors appeared on December 22, 2005. Clay and Schakowsky had been part of the second round of cosponsors appearing on January 31, 2006.
The cosponsorships are significant for a number of reasons. First, it shows there is more than one Member of Congress willing to entertain real accountability for the Bush Administration, despite the insistence of US Rep. Pelosi that impeachment is off the table.
Also, this bill is calling for actual Articles of Impeachment for Cheney, unlike the last bill which not only was related to Mr. Bush, but created an investigative committee to look into possible impeachment rather than providing for actual possible impeachment.
Rice loses another aide as top Arab-American diplomat resigns
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice lost yet another senior aide on Wednesday when Dina Habib Powell, the highest-ranking Arab-American in the US government, announced her resignation to join a Wall Street investment bank.
The departure of Powell, key architect of a Rice initiative to improve the United States' image abroad, was the third senior diplomat to quit in the past five days and the sixth so far this year -- an exodus that is expected to continue in the final 20 months of the Bush administration.
Powell, who at 33 is also one of the youngest senior State Department diplomats, is taking up a job at Goldman Sachs Group, department spokesman Tom Casey said. She is due to leave her State Department job in about two months.
Powell, whose parents emigrated from Egypt to Texas when she was a child, followed Rice to the State Department two years ago from the White House, where she directed the presidential personnel office.
As the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, Powell also served as the deputy to Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, President George W. Bush's former media guru who has been leading a "public diplomacy" campaign to counter anti-Americanism in the Arab world since the US invasion of Iraq.
Powell said her decision to leave government at this time was personal.
"It's the right time for me and my family," Powell told The Washington Post.
"I'm really sorry to lose her. She is fantastic," Rice told the Post of Powell's resignation.
"She had so many ideas. There are people who have ideas but can't execute them. She really executed them," Rice said.
Powell was notably instrumental in creating public-private partnerships to help fund relief efforts, notably in Lebanon following the July-August 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese militia, Hezbollah -- a conflict which fuelled anger in the region against the United States for its backing of Israel.
"Dina's really done a remarkable job for us in helping to build and expand our educational and cultural programs, particularly in working on developing public and private sector partnerships," Casey said.
Powell also managed to resurrect people-to-people exchanges with Iran at a time of high tension between the two states due to Tehran's nuclear program and alleged support for militants in Iran, Lebanon and the Palestinian areas.
Huh. I didn't know he was even running. I got a call last night from my fat blowhard of a Rep. Rob Bishop, who's actually now agreed with me on ONE issue: Luis Posada Carriles
I guess Bishop co-signed something drafted by Hunter regarding Posada's extradition... but I can't seem to find anything related to this yet.
It was a bit surreal getting that call from my Rep. in Congress: "Hello, this is Rob Bishop, is this Mr. so-and-so?"
"Uhh... yeaah...? And what in the gay hell are you calling me for?"
President George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
Today, in your veto message regarding the bipartisan legislation just passed on Operation Iraqi Freedom, you asserted that you so decided because you listen to your commanders on the ground.
Respectfully, as your former commander on the ground, your administration did not listen to our best advice. In fact, a number of my fellow Generals were forced out of their jobs, because they did not tell you what you wanted to hear -- most notably General Eric Shinseki, whose foresight regarding troop levels was advice you rejected, at our troops' peril.
The legislation you vetoed today represented a course of action that is long overdue. This war can no longer be won by the military alone. We must bring to bear the entire array of national power - military, diplomatic and economic. The situation demands a surge in diplomacy, and pressure on the Iraqi government to fix its internal affairs. Further, the Army and Marine Corps are on the verge of breaking - or have been broken already - by the length and intensity of this war. This tempo is not sustainable - and you have failed to grow the ground forces to meet national security needs. We must begin the process of bringing troops home, and repairing and growing our military, if we are ever to have a combat-ready force for the long war on terror ahead of us.
The bill you rejected today sets benchmarks for success that the Iraqis would have to meet, and puts us on a course to redeploy our troops. It stresses the need for sending troops into battle only when they are rested, trained and equipped. In my view, and in the view of many others in the military that I know, that is the best course of action for our security.
As someone who served this nation for decades, I have the utmost respect for the office you hold. However, as a man of conscience, I could not sit idly by as you told the American people today that your veto was based on the recommendations of military men. Your administration ignored the advice of our military's finest minds before, and I see no evidence that you are listening to them now.
I urge you to reconsider your position, and work with Congress to pass a bill that achieves the goals laid out above.
World to Watch Rocky Anderson Debate Sean Hannity on Impeachment on Friday Night Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-05-02 04:05. Impeachment Utahns Looking Forward to Upcoming Rocky-Hannity Debate KSL.com
KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM will broadcast the full debate beginning at 8:30 p.m. You can also watch the debate live on http://www.ksl.com
Richard Piatt Reporting
It's been promoted like a boxing match: Rocky vs. Hannity. But Friday night's Sean Hannity-Rocky Anderson face-off will be dealing with serious national political issues. The question is: Will it spark a larger national debate?
The rich, classical voices normally on stage at Kingsbury Hall will be replaced by loud debate on Friday night.
The debate is gathering a lot of attention, but mostly in Utah, among the politically astute and within the U of U.
ASUU President Spencer Pearson says, "I've talked to a lot of people who are in the middle on some of those issues but are more interested in going and hearing what's said."
But in the larger picture, there is another question: How will what comes up contribute to the larger political debate? According to Kirk Jowers of the Hinckley Institute of Politics, "No, this is not a debate. This is really a forum for both of them to spew, really."
The hot button issues of the war in Iraq and presidential impeachment create a wide chasm of differences. Both Hannity's and Anderson's positions are well known.
Daily Show: Eerie Similarities Between Israeli PM Olmert and Bush By: SilentPatriot @ 11:45 AM - PDT
On Monday, the Commission charged with investigating Israel's military campaign against Lebanon last summer issued its scathing report to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Last night on "The Daily Show," Jon broke down the contents of the report and noticed some staggering parallels between the conduct of Olmert and Bush.
Download (657) | Play (688) Download (245) | Play (493)
On a more serious note, Glenn wrote about the report yesterday:
All of this underscores a fundamental difference between Israel and the right-wing faction in the U.S. For Israel — whatever else you might think about its policies and government — war is an extremely serious matter. They don't send other people's children off to fight the wars they cheer on; their own children fight the wars. During the invasion of Lebanon, missiles continuously landed deep in Israeli territory, killing killing or wounding hundreds and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes or live in bomb shelters.
You might want to start by tryin to save your Radio Network...
It's seems to be failing...
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
May 2, 2007 3:34 PM
I've been telling you what an asshole doggie is for years. If this post doesn't lay it out for you, nothing will. He's been laughing at all of you for three years and you've been chatting with him.
496 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 400 of 496 Newer› Newest»I going to turn Malloy off tonight. He's too crazy tonight. Where's my Xanax?
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Crank Bait said...
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Oh, baby, baby. I glide sugar like you can't believe.
(This would be lot funnier if I could pull it off with a straight face.)
May 1, 2007 11:17 PM
Sheesh. I could accept "a lot funnier" or "a whole lot funnier" but "lot funnier" doesn't cut it.
May 1, 2007 11:20 PM
________________
Quite funny! I was counting on you, Crank Bait!
Night, sugar glider!
oh man..I DO know that 32% is not majority..I meant """""election"""" wise..
edna ellen poe said...
I going to turn Malloy off tonight. He's too crazy tonight. Where's my Xanax?
May 1, 2007 11:48 PM
too crazy? did he bite off a live chicken's head?
what is "too crazy" for Mike Malloy?
Alice said...
a guy said
----------------
Alice,
either we are that stupid, or, we're just evil.
For example, War Dog. He is either woefully ignorant or woefully evil.
Look at the picture he post on this blog. That's the clue.
what is "too crazy" for Mike Malloy?
May 1, 2007 11:53 PM
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He was extremely angry. Lately, it seems to be less phone calls and more ranting.
Waxman to RNC: Get your answers ready now. House oversight chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) sent a letter today to Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan, urging him to be ready to answer questions about specific topics at his hearing on May 8. Among other topics, Waxman tells Duncan he will need to discuss the names of all White House officials who have used RNC e-mail accounts, the number of communications each White House official sent or received using RNC e-mail accounts each year, and the policies “relating to the preservation, storage, or destruction of communications transmitted using RNC e-mail accounts.”
LINK
I don't know edna..other people I know of like those types of pics too..suppose everyone thought I liked ....well..you know what I'm saying...
What if War Dog were woefully motivating, or woefully satiracle?
For Turkophiles and all close observers of Turkey, another key development. The country's constitutional court has effectively blocked the presidential candidacy of the Justice and Development (PK) party's Abdullah Gul, who is currently the foreign minister, likely forcing early elections and a new showdown between the country's secularists and the soft Islamism of the PK.
-- Josh Marshall
LINK
Alice said...
War Dog,
Yakov Smirnov is playing in Branson
-------------------------------
Sheesh. Get your celebrity war on, girl.
Yakov has his own theater in Branson and has had for years.
Here is what is being advertised of late---
Ackro's Bats: A gravity-defying, gyroscopic, gee-whiz extravaganza of God-fearing plain folk, just like you.
Mag And His Nets: From bumper ribbons to north-noodling needles, nothing will attract your patriotic attention as ironically as Mag and his Magnificent Nets.
Dolly Parton's Apollo Gees: Tiger Woods has bad lies, Oklahoma puts the sorry on top. but no one has the rock-hard, six-pack Apollo Gees like Dolly's giant pair of excuse me's.
Little Known Magic Guy: He may be little, but he's known now; he's the Magic Guy. It's family fun for all as he makes a Soccer Mom disappear and something more exciting appear in her place.
Dawn: Appearing mornings only, for the first time ever, is Dawn without Tony Orlando. Dawn sings everything that you always wanted to hear without Tony screwing up the harmony.
Boxcar Willy: Dead, but not forgotten, the original Boxcar Willy gives an encapsulated stardust show that you could never see before!
Paul Revere & the Raiders: Who?
----------
(Bait note: I saw Paul Revere & the Raiders before they used Flomax.)
Crank Bait said...
Alice said...
War Dog,
Yakov Smirnov is playing in Branson
-------------------------------
Sheesh. Get your celebrity war on, girl.
Yakov has his own theater in Branson and has had for years.
OMG!! Really?!!! & here I thought rock bottom was DLR playing at the Jackson Casino!
Mag And His Nets: From bumper ribbons to north-noodling needles, nothing will attract your patriotic attention as ironically as Mag and his Magnificent Nets.
----------------------------------
I'm particularly fond of this one. I don't care if you like it or not.
Alice:
www.yakov.com
Don't do it! Don't! Don't try to say I didn't warn you.
What if War Dog were woefully motivating, or woefully satiracle?
-----------------------------------
Well, War Dog loves to boast of his lovely life. I don't think anyone that is blissfully happy could love pictures of nuclear bombs. Perhaps if he were an artist, I could understand it. But War Dog isn't creative or free enough to be an artist.
I have a plan for whites only.
http://fuckforforest.com/bilder/isalogo.jpg
Edna...you know I'm inclined to believe you...because any regular human would know that even pretending to think that killing people for toursim's sake would be just too silly...
egg nog said...
I have a plan for whites only
*******
Sure you do War Dog.
edna ellen poe said...
Sure you do War Dog.
May 2, 2007 12:33 AM
I don't know..it's the moon or you edna... funny... :)
President Kennedy, in calling for a test ban, said,
"Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us.... The logical place to begin is a treaty assuring the end of nuclear tests of all kinds...."
Alice said...
Edna...you know I'm inclined to believe
----------
Indeed Friend.
edna ellen poe,
Allow me to tell you all of the reasons for which I am happier than you could ever hope to be.
(Bait snickers, tries to keep a straight face.)
It is because (can you imagine?) I have made better choices than have you at every step in life.
It is because (Bait tries to stop rolling around on his floor) you failed to become a printing machine operator.
Had you recognized Nirvana, as I did when it was spewing fumes in my face, you would not be wondering how you could pay for heart surgery now.
You see, I worked very hard for twenty years to pay for a heart surgery BUT! I turned those twenty years of savings into an invested return of TWO heart surgeries.
So now, you can plainly see, if I need two heart surgeries, I have myself covered by twenty years of hard work and careful investment.
You, my dear, are a slacker. You should have known that no-down loans and credit card interest would eat up your avenue to cardiovascular salvation.
I, on the other hand, knew better. En route, I managed to avoid other medical maladies, so I am a fucking healthy genius!
(Parody terminated because I'm making myself too angry to continue.)
We are the music makers. And we are the dreamers of the dreams.
:::::Wille Wonka
The cyberpunks did not originate their vision, but picked up bits and
pieces of what was actually coming true, and fed it back to the
readers who were already living in Gibson's Sprawl, whether they knew
it or not.
::::::Steve Brown
Information wants to be free. Believe it, pal.
::::::Bruce Sterling
If only you could see what I've seen through your eyes
::::::Blade Runner
We've discovered Cyberotica!!!!!
::::::The Shamen at a Rave with
RU Sirius
The techno-underground is a direct descendant of the hippy revolution.
::::::Select Magazine (April .92)
Cyberpunks use all available data input to think for themselves.
::::::Timothy Leary
Thus the most repressed sector of society acquires a paradoxical
power through the myth of its occult and knowledge." [Hakim Bey].
Gibson & Burroughs & Lewis Shriner & Norman Spinrad & Bruce Sterling
created the perfect term -- CYBERPUNK! The odd occult shadow still
haunts" the civilized, industrial culture. Here is the marvelous
paradox of VR/Cyberpunk: Big high-tech firms fighting the myth of
"electronic LSD." Jaron Lanier as wizard with dreadlocks! Eric
Gullichsen - student of Crowley! Mondo 2000! Gibson and his data
rustlers!
::::::Timothy Leary
Cyberpunk is really about the present.
::::::Rudy Rucker
edna ellen poe said...
egg nog said...
I have a plan for whites only
*******
Sure you do War Dog.
May 2, 2007 12:33 AM
----------------------------------
Full disclosure: That was my joke...something about the semantic similarities between War Dog and Egg Nog struck my fancy. The "whites only" part of the joke came with the package.
I really miss the ability to sign myself as anyone or anything with the underlying identifier "Sister Resistor". It would obviate disclaimers such as this one.
Aztec Empire of Mexico: With the recession of the Ice and the return of peace, the Aztecs bundled up their toys, went home and bent their nimble hands to crafting an even grander civilization than they had raised before. Well, almost... they started on retooling their entire industrial base anyway, since someone in Sweden had decided to use a base-10 numbering system, rather than a perfectly reasonable base-16 count like civilized people used.
The city of Xochimilco in Tepanec was expanded just to provide a suitable venue for the biggest damn party this desert has ever seen! See Rebus Keneebus jump into the Hole that goes to the center of the Earth! Hmm... the GM is getting giddy. There was a huge Victory over the Ice party held in the floating gardens and no one went home unhappy.
The Imperial Police cleaned house, arresting the commander of the Smoking Sun Legion in Moache (he died soon after, hanged in his cell), and the Earthquake Legion commander in Odakyu was killed messing around with a ‘cool samurai sword.’ Those are sharp... The powerful Aztec garrison of Mesa Verde complained they were being ignored by the press. Which was true. Everyone had forgotten they were posted to an icy, howling wilderness filled with bad-tempered Frenchmen.
Two fleets were split off from the main armada at Odakyu, and they spent the next two years ferrying people (who should have brought their own boats) home. The Aztec crusaders (the Order of Tlahulli) were ordered back to Méxica, but they refused, which caused a mild crisis in the Nisei heartland. Worse, the Tlahulli did not leave on the fleet, and marched north into the wasteland of the Ice, looking for someone to smack.
They did not find anyone, even the Inuit having left the old Tatar domains. The Tlahulli marched through the snow and ice until they came upon a massive ruined city in newly growing forest. This place they recognized from the tales told by the Nisei aerocorps - Dread Hûkar, where so many had died to save the world. Chikietl, the leader of the Tlahulli declared this was the place they would stay, and so the crusaders settled among the pines and swift streams, finding the soil rich and the game plentiful
You have the ability, you choose not to...IMO... ;)
(Parody terminated because I'm making myself too angry to continue.)
May 2, 2007 12:40 AM
-----------------------------------
I'm just gonna slit my wrist, right now, War Dog.
Nite All.
Alice said...
You have the ability, you choose not to...IMO... ;)
May 2, 2007 12:48 AM
-------------------------------
...can't...stop...self...because...don't...want...to...
Oh now I'm confused...Crank is War Dog?
This place is like a Magical Mystery Tour...
Goodnight 6 (or less) other people who blog here... oxo
edna,
We could be a hot item except for the part about me driving you crazy while you are driving me crazy.
Other than that, it would be smooth sailing.
"Burroughs told Kaye that, during the trance, it felt as though silent communication with a ghostly non-human companion had flashed him forward to his life as an old man, several decades in the future. Oppressed by ‘a crushing sensation of implacable destiny, as if fragments of a frozen time dimension were cascading into awareness,’ he ‘remembered’ writing 'The Ghost Lemurs of Madagascar' – ‘although it wasn’t writing exactly,’ and his writing implements were archaic, belonging to someone else entirely, in another place and time."
is the State's boundary classification you describe what Burroughs experienced as "invisible brothers ... invading present time", the "jail-house mind of the One God"?
Posted by: gwendolyn at April 21, 2005 10:17 PM
If Someone Wanted To Publish My Blog Entries For Money, I Wouldn't Say No
The No. 1 rule of my blog is that there are no rules. I write about everything from movies I've seen to crazy observations that just pop into my head about Starbucks. And sometimes I'll just write, "Had a pretty boring day today," take a picture of myself eating cereal for dinner, and call it a night.
My blog is more of a hobby than anything else, something to do for fun when I get home from my bookstore job. I've never dreamed of making a living from it. Though hypothetically speaking, if The New Yorker—a publication that I'm sure pays top dollar—wanted to publish my August 9, 2005 post "Creative Thinking Spots" in its "Shouts And Murmurs" section, I'd consider it. Didn't cross my mind when I wrote that post, and that's certainly not why I wrote it, nor why I have a Google news alert set up for New Yorker editor David Remnick, but I can understand how someone on their staff might think the piece is a good fit for that section.
I'm listening to Lionel's Monday/April 30th, 2007 show and so far, the first 2hrs. has been devoted to the sex "crimes" in D.C. and the philosophy surrounding cheating, prostitutes, sexual differences with cheating, etc. These topics are gonna be replacing SamSeder's topical topics? Oh, my .... This is a person who didn't know Ron Paul was running for President last week. Peace.
Sorry..I thought that was funny too..I really need to get this moon thing under control..
Now..goodnight.
Figure this one out.
My dad loved boxing. He was a ringside physician for local boxing and wrestling matches.
My dad hated the military. He was a WWII Navy officer pilot and often stated that idiots accidentally won the war.
My dad hated Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali. The boxer was too brash and draft dodgerish to suit dad.
My brother announced that he had joined ROTC on campus.
My dad went berserk. No son of his was going to go fight in a stupid war when he could draft dodge with a college deferment, by god.
And dad loved Nixon.
toniD said...
Evening all. Good news for me today. I got a 3.5% raise. I know it's not much but I work part time so I guess they like me.
May 1, 2007 7:09 PM
Congradulations!Who could not like you? :)
"...Nations will be judged by the
standards of the individual.."
P.S. I'm glad there were a couple of other SamSeder bloggers who thought the same as I did about Mr. Barber .... who is he? I didn't finish listening to his show, either. Hour 3 of Lionel: He's talking about Tenent. Whew! Peace
Ha...all of you have been wrong from the beginning..
and I've always been right..
I've come to this blog for four years..
and turned it into a kiddie blog..
Ya gotta love that !!!
MAUREEN DOWD: Better Never Than Late
Instead of George Tenet teaching at Georgetown University, George Tenet should be taught at Georgetown University.
There should be a course on government called “The Ultimate Staff Guy.” A morality saga about how much harm you can do as a go-along, get-along guy, spending so much time trying not to alienate the big cheese so he doesn’t can you that you miss the moment where you have to can him or lose your soul.
If Colin Powell and George Tenet had walked out of the administration in February 2003 instead of working together on that tainted U.N. speech making the bogus case for war, they might have turned everything around. They might have saved the lives and limbs of all those brave U.S. kids and innocent Iraqis, not to mention our world standing and national security.
It would certainly have been harder for timid Democrats, like Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and John Edwards, to back up the administration if two members of the Bush inner circle had broken away to tell an increasingly apparent truth: that Dick Cheney, Rummy and the neocons were feverishly pushing a naïve president into invading Iraq with junk facts.
General Powell counted on Slam Dunk — a slender reed — to help him rid the speech of most of the garbage Mr. Cheney’s office wanted in it. Slam, of course, tried to have it both ways, helping the skeptical secretary of state and pandering to higher bosses. Afterward, when the speech turned out to be built on a no-legged stool, General Powell was furious at Slam. But they both share blame: they knew better. They put their loyalty to a runaway White House ahead of their loyalty to a fearful public.
Slam Dunk’s book tour is mesmerizing, in a horrifying way....
--MORE--
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN: The Hail Mary Pass
On Thursday there will be a regional conference in Egypt to discuss stabilizing Iraq, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will represent the U.S. President Bush should go instead and give this speech:
I want to take this opportunity to speak to the Arab and Muslim nations gathered here today and to the world at large. I begin with a simple message: I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I rushed into the invasion of Iraq. I honestly believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. I was wrong, and I now realize that in unilaterally launching the war the way I did, you all feel that I breached a bond of trust between America and the world. Not only did that alienate you from us, it made us less effective in Iraq. We had too few allies and too little legitimacy. I apologize — sincerely.
I’m most sorry, though, because my bungling of the war has prompted all of us to take our eye off the ball. I messed up the treatment so badly that people have forgotten the patient really does have a disease. Now that I’ve apologized, I hope you will stop fixating on me and look closely at what is happening in your backyard: the forces and pathologies that brought us 9/11 are still there and multiplying.
Friends, we are losing in Iraq. But whom are we losing to? Is it to the Iraqi “Vietcong” — the authentic carriers of Iraqi nationalism? No, it is not. We are being defeated by nihilistic Islamist suicide bombers, who are proliferating across the Muslim world. We are losing to people who blow up mosques, markets, hospital emergency wards and girls’ schools. They don’t even tell us their names, let alone offer a future.
Look at the past two weeks: On Thursday, at least nine Iraqi soldiers were found dead after a suicide car bomber rammed a checkpoint. Two suicide car bombers crashed into a Kurdistan Democratic Party office in Zamar. A day earlier, a suicide bomber killed four policemen in Balad Ruz. Two days earlier, nine U.S. soldiers were killed by a pair of suicide attackers driving garbage trucks packed with explosives. A few days earlier, five bomb attacks killed nearly 200 people in Baghdad. On Monday this week, a suicide bomber blew up a funeral in Khalis, killing at least 30......
--MORE--
Senators wary of Bush's wiretap proposal....Do ya Think?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070502/ap_on_go_co/domestic_spying
"he ‘remembered’ writing 'The Ghost Lemurs of Madagascar' – ‘although it wasn’t writing exactly,’ and his writing implements were archaic, belonging to someone else entirely, in another place and time."
That's a fun one. Did I ever post that? I was saving it for a fun late night black magic/conspiracy time, but I don't remember if I did that one yet.
So much to do. Wanted to post some stuff today, but ran out of time. I'm late, I'm late.
Mary Ann, fetch me my gloves!
hee
...“Lemur People are older than Homo Sap, much older. They date back one hundred sixty million years, to the time when Madagascar split off from the mainland of Africa. Their way of thinking and feeling is basically different from ours, not oriented toward time and sequence and causality. They find these concepts repugnant and difficult to understand.”
Break on thru to the Lemur side, eh...
//fun late night black magic/conspiracy time//
I knew there was a reason I felt suddenly drawn to the blog...
Just warning you dada, I have a giant crufix. It is as big as my head. I am actually peeking through Jesus's armpits at the computer
-conbo
Crank Bait said...
Figure this one out.
i dunno, he seems pretty normal for a member of the greatest generation.
toniD said...
Evening all. Good news for me today. I got a 3.5% raise.
allright.
Sam, miss you and the show SOOO-MUCH...it's truly like living in a different world...I knew this wan't going to be easy but it's worse than I imagined...and the Sunday show? well, you know we're all waiting for it but it's like getting relief from a continuing SEVERE migraine headache--- but ONLY for ONE day in a week...To All: maybe we can pressure the advertisers to get Sam back???
toniD said...
Tom DeLay retreats, surrenders his PAC. DeLay’s political action committee, ARMPAC, “was quietly closed last week after a decade-long run as one of the most influential — and infamous — PACs run by members of Congress.” ARMPAC “helped precipitate DeLay’s fall,” receiving substantial contributions from Jack Abramoff’s clients. “In an 11-year run among GOP leadership ranks, no one in Congress used political money to maximize his own influence more than DeLay.”
Why isn't this piece of crap in jail yet?When does his trail start?What is taking so darn long??Just wondering!
Free Democracy:Dick Cavett..When the Press Broke Down.
http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/05/dick-cavett-when-press-broke-down.html
House oversight panel may look past Rice, Tenet in inquiry into uranium
By Helen Fessenden and Jackie Kucinich
May 01, 2007
Following a subpoena to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a letter to former CIA Director George Tenet last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee may cast an even wider net in its probe into why the administration made false pre-war claims that Iraq was seeking to acquire uranium from Niger.
The panel’s chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), said last Thursday that the panel had not yet made a decision on how many more individuals it would contact, but indicated that he may consider it.
“We’ll take this one step at a time, and we’ll see,” he said. “I still think Rice will come in the end, but so far we’ve just gotten stonewalled.”
Regarding other names, a Democratic committee aide said “nothing is ruled out,” but added that “we’re just very early in the process.”
Rice has so far refused to meet with the committee on the matter and said on Sunday she would not comply with the subpoena. Through an aide, she has sent several letters to the panel, but Waxman has called those responses insufficient and vague. He has been sending letters to Rice regarding the uranium claim since spring 2003.
Some of the other names that have surfaced in this story include Alan Foley of the CIA and Robert Joseph of the National Security Council, who negotiated the language in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Africa. There is also Rocco Martino, the Italian free-lance operative who peddled the forged documents that were the genesis of this claim, which ultimately found its way into the State of the Union speech even though Tenet had previously intervened to take out similar language in an earlier speech.
Several members expressed strong interest in hearing from these individuals, and the panel’s ranking Republican, Tom Davis (R-Va.) said it would be “entirely appropriate to bring in others” even though he opposed the subpoena for Rice.
On their part, Democrats expressed strong interest in broadening the probe.
“I’d love to talk to Martino in particular,” said panel member Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.).
“It’s important to bring in whoever can shed light on this,” agreed Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.).
Davis and other Republicans argue that bringing in Rice would be a time-consuming distraction from her duties as secretary of state, and that two U.S. probes—under the Senate Intelligence Committee and the independent Silberman-Robb commission—have already looked into the question of faulty pre-war intelligence.
Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) said Thursday that this debate “is like the Clinton impeachment. I voted against it because there was no purpose. In this case, I understand why the Democrats want to kick Bush, but what would it achieve?”
Democrats counter that those two inquiries were Republican-run and avoided the question of why top officials used that intelligence to make their pre-war claims. The Senate Intelligence Committee is still working on the second part of its inquiry, which looks at the politicization of intelligence, but has not completed its work yet.
While the panel ponders its next move, Waxman has indicated that, at least for now, he is not yet ready to consider the more drastic option of invoking contempt to bring Rice before the panel.
“We’re not there yet,” said Waxman.
As of yesterday, a spokeswoman for Waxman said little has changed despite Rice’s remarks Sunday.
But the standoff could take an interesting twist if the two sides fail to reach an agreement.
If Waxman ultimately chooses to cite Rice for failure to respond to the subpoena, and a resolution to hold her in contempt passes the House floor, her case could land at the foot of embattled colleague Attorney General Albert Gonzales, according to House rules.
According to a Congressional Research Service report, if an individual refuses to comply with a House-issued subpoena, a committee could hold the individual in contempt of Congress, an offense punishable by up to one year in prison and/or a $1,000 fine. To enforce the contempt of Congress, the House must pass the resolution with a simple majority.
If the House approves, the resolution would be sent to the Office of the U.S. Attorney for prosecution.
According to congressional analyst Ilona Nickels, the U.S. attorney could then choose to call in a grand jury to decide whether to indict and prosecute.
Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, said that it would be unfortunate that the oversight of a White House official could fall under the responsibility of another White House official.
“This is an unfortunate wrinkle in the separation of powers,” Lilly said. “I think the House would have the standing to get a court order for her to appear in civil court.”
Lilly added, “It makes the nature of this issue a little more dramatic, considering the problems of the attorney general.”
According to Nickels, Anne Gorsuch, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was the last administration official to be held in contempt. In 1982, the House voted to cite Gorsuch after she refused to provide requested documents concerning the Superfund to the Energy and Commerce Committee, then chaired by Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.).
But her case was never prosecuted because the Reagan White House eventually arranged an agreement to give the chairman access to the requested papers, Nickels wrote.
LINK
Bush finds someone new to do his job
by Chris in Paris · 5/02/2007 04:02:00 AM ET
First it was a "war czar" though nobody was interested in being the fall guy for the failures of the President and now it's a food czar. What an amazing inability to accept any and all responsibility. Sounds like Return of the Wimp Factor, Bush II.
The Bush administration appointed a new "food safety czar" yesterday and directed him to develop a plan for addressing shortcomings exposed by recent scares in the human food supply.
Dr. David W.K. Acheson, a former University of Maryland medical school professor who had been chief medical officer at the Food and Drug Administration's food safety center, immediately stepped into the job.
The creation of the new position underscored the extent of public concern about the country's food safety system over a dangerous chemical found in pet food entering the human food supply, in addition to recent outbreaks of bacterial contamination in bagged spinach, Taco Bell lettuce and Peter Pan peanut butter. But Democrats said fears have intensified to a degree that a new appointment alone won't quell.
What is a czar going to do? Tell us that we need to get back to the original mission of the FDA and scrap years of GOP congressional damage? Uh, I think that much is obvious, so this is another diversion on the taxpayers dollar.
LINK
My new t-shirt says "For 500 Billion I Can Fuck Up a Country Too".
The Uninvited Witness
By Elizabeth Warren | bio
Congress held hearings today on the two-year anniversary of the Bankruptcy Code. Last night a woman who wasn't invited to the hearing talked about how lucky she was. She's a 72-year-old widow who filed for bankruptcy last month to try to save her home (more on the story below).
But here's why she felt lucky: The mandatory credit counseling session that will cost her $75 and for which she will have to drive 60 miles to attend has been scheduled for the day after her social security check will be deposited. That way, she explained, she can use her "food money to pay for gas and the counseling."
Gosh, what a lucky woman.
More here:
LINK
Matthews is at it again.His man crush on Bush.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200705010007?f=h_latest
Tonid:Good Morning!Hope your doing well. :)
mornin toni.
words can't describe the hell that poor lady is in. worse is that its a story being repeated across the nation. too bad we can't send the scraps from these rich fucks breakfast tables to feed the poor and elderly.
the systematic looting and raping of america is bushes real legacy. it will be many generations before the damage done in the last seven years is recovered from.
just think about the hate that the grandsons of grandsons of present day iraqi's will have for americans and for reasons they don't understand.
samcomebackclub - oh you are so right. I have been in a fog since Sam has been gone. This sucks so bad. I hate AAR totally. I am not renewing my XM unless Nova M comes on and I hope Sam is on there too - Nova is supposed to start on XM later this month
mmrules, you profile says you're from california. are you up late or did you get up early?
toniD said...
The Uninvited Witness
By Elizabeth Warren | bio
Congress held hearings today on the two-year anniversary of the Bankruptcy Code. Last night a woman who wasn't invited to the hearing talked about how lucky she was. She's a 72-year-old widow who filed for bankruptcy last month to try to save her home (more on the story below).
But here's why she felt lucky: The mandatory credit counseling session that will cost her $75 and for which she will have to drive 60 miles to attend has been scheduled for the day after her social security check will be deposited. That way, she explained, she can use her "food money to pay for gas and the counseling."
Gosh, what a lucky woman.
-corporations and the rich are exempt -- seems to be a trend not only in the bankruptcy laws. Same "philosophy" is evident in tax collecting. I think it's because the small fish are easier to catch and fillet. If you're hurting for the gas money to even get you to the court, you're certainly not in a position to hire yourself a fancy lawyer to defend you..posted on Warren Reports.
blah blah blah said...
mmrules, you profile says you're from california. are you up late or did you get up early?
Both!Insomnia.Meds&Chronic pain.Just too much fun.But,that's life....That poor lady in that Banckrupcy article.It's happening all over the country,unfortunately:That's me in about 5 years.The living in my car part.I don't have a house to lose.I grew up in California!Most Working class folks have to rent.
thats my widowed mother in law to. they actually owned their home and went out and got a huge 2nd with an arm to pay bills. all of a sudden rates changed and her payment has nearly doubled but her fixed income hasn't changed. chris farley's (may he rest in peace) livin in a van down by the river used to be funny.
It's going to be another Happy Doggie Wednesday....
This is really a great time of year..
Everything is green and alive..
It's not too hot outside..
A great time for bike rides..!!!
yup. sure is nice out. wasn't it also real nice the early morning of september 11th?
Cash for the War Dog Plan... !!!
Ya gotta love that...
The outcomes we are seeing today were clear to me even after the election last November..
That was why I laughed at those who thought that Congress would Impeach anyone, or Cut-N-Run in Iraq..
=========================================================================================================
Democrats weigh their options after veto
The Democrats and moderate Republicans have been weighing several options: a "clean" bill with no strings attached, nonbinding bench marks for the Iraqi regime, and funding the war in smaller chunks.
The issue is particularly thorny for Democratic presidential front-runners Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill. They could alienate liberals by not demanding troop withdrawal or lose moderate support if they shift too far left.
Neither candidate suggested what to do after tomorrow's attempt in the House of Representatives to override the veto, which is likely to fall about 70 votes short.
Democratic leaders are determined to pass funding and seemed to be leaning toward softer benchmarks. "We will fund our troops," said Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., a House deputy whip.
That could alienate more liberal members who wanted tougher withdrawal demands and only grudgingly voted for the measure that was vetoed Tuesday. "People like me swallowed very hard," said Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y. "I'm not going to go any further." Democrats may have to depend on moderate Republicans to replace defections in their party.
In the end..
The Democrats and Republicans produce the same Outcomes..
They just take different paths..
As a Blue Dog Democrat and Hillary Supporter, I am quite pleased with the New Congress...
blah blah blah said...
thats my widowed mother in law to. they actually owned their home and went out and got a huge 2nd with an arm to pay bills. all of a sudden rates changed and her payment has nearly doubled but her fixed income hasn't changed. chris farley's (may he rest in peace) livin in a van down by the river used to be funny.
How sad.Sorry to hear that..I loved Chris Farley's "Living a Van down by the river" too.But,like you said,it's not so funny anymore.Congress has to repeal,or at least rewrite that bill!
in
[this'll cheer you guys up]
war-dog had a hilarious cameo in adam sandler's "billy madison"
he was put on a bag, set alight & stomped on
anyway...
listen to it yourselves
: )
take-2: //in a bag//; not "on"
Did you see the Dem Debate..??
Who do you think will lead the Battle of Iran..???
=========================================================================================================
Iran pursues diplomacy, Israel threatens military action
Adam Robertson
As the European Union resumes diplomatic talks with Iran, urging the United States to follow suit and stressing that the Iranians are ready for such negotiations, Israel is recommending ways to destroy Tehran’s nuclear installations.
"It is impossible perhaps to destroy the entire nuclear program but it would be possible to damage it in such a way that it would be set back years," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview with Germany's Focus magazine. "It's technically feasible. It would require 10 days and the launch of a thousand Tomahawk missiles," he said in the interview, due to be published on Monday.
Olmert also said that "nobody could exclude" military action against Iran, echoing a position long held by the U.S., which doesn’t want to negotiate with Tehran unless it suspends its uranium enrichment program, a demand Tehran refuses to meet despite being slapped with two sets of UN sanctions.
Olmert’s suggestion that a rain of missile could degrade Iran’s nuclear program came as the EU’s foreign police Javeir Solana ended two days of talks with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani. After the talks, which have been described as constructive, Solana demanded Washington to open direct negotiations with Tehran, stressing that Iranian officials are ready for such unconditional talks.
"We have always said we are ready for talks if they have something new to say. We are fully prepared for talks without preconditions to reach a solution," Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said earlier this month.
But Olmert’s threat of military action against Tehran could hinder Iran and the EU’s diplomatic efforts
hmmm, [aka, take-3]
maybe try the wave format below
the wave format
: )
//Who do you think will lead the Battle of Iran//
oh, i know this one
now if my american history is any guide...
um, general cluster-bomb
p.s. it's the "burning poop" scene
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha..
=========================================================================================================
Joan Baez Banned at Walter Reed Medical Center
Folk singer and anti-war activist Joan Baez says she doesn't know why she was not allowed to perform for recovering soldiers recently at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as she planned.
In a letter to The Washington Post published Wednesday, she said rocker John Mellencamp had asked her to perform with him last Friday and that she accepted his invitation.
"I have always been an advocate for nonviolence and I have stood as firmly against the Iraq war as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago," she wrote.
"I realize now that I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam. Maybe that's why I didn't hesitate to accept the invitation to sing for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In the end, four days before the concert, I was not 'approved' by the Army to take part. Strange irony."
Baez, 66, told the Post in a telephone interview Tuesday that she was not told why she was left off the program by the Army. "There might have been one, there might have been 50 (soldiers) that thought I was a traitor," she told the paper.
mmrules
I hear you about cronic pain! What causes yours? Mine is RA.
I sleep but 3-4 hours at a time. And there are days I go to work by pushing myself because the pain is so bad. But, I need the money to pay the doctors.
i fail to see the humour, war-chicken
The Los Angeles Times describes yesterday’s immigration rallies as “a sea of U.S. flags, waved cheerfully by people asking to join a country conflicted about their welcome. Other than a Fourth of July on the Washington Mall, it’s hard to think of a more full-throated pledge of allegiance.”
LINK
Ono, WD entertains himself. His little peabrain doesn't understand real humor.
I would like to see Fred get in the race...
He has the Reagan appeal to him...
Ya gotta love "Ronaldus Mazimus"..!!!
=========================================================================================================
Fred Thompson mulling summer decision
By: Mike Allen
April 30, 2007 05:04 PM EST
Actor and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson arrives at the Capitol Hill Club on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Photo by AP
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Advisers to Fred Thompson have begun exploring a range of staffing options -- including talking to potential campaign managers -- as the actor and former Tennessee senator firms up his plans to enter the Republican presidential contest, according to people involved in the conversations.
Thompson has not made a final decision but is on track to be ready to announce his candidacy in June or July, his advisers say. Thompson has already been polling better than some of the announced GOP candidates, and his entry would shake up a field that has left many Republican faithful dissatisfied
U.S. diplomats are returning from Iraq with with post-traumatic stress disorder and other “debilitating, stress-related symptoms that have afflicted many U.S. troops, prompting the State Department to order a mental health survey of 1,400 employees who have completed assignments there.”
LINK
we're forever in gratitude to you, toni
♥
War Dog is the epitome of the right wing talking points. I just heard what he wrote about Thompson on the news, so I was expecting this.
well, toni
i'm disappointed that war-dog would find joan baez being treated so shabbily so funny
i thought he had more class
as it turns out a cockroach has more heart
Someone, I think on the Daily Show, said that Thompson has the face of a basset hound. So when this news story about him was on the news they showed a picure of him and damn if his face looked like a basset hound.
Sam-cum-back-club,
you aint lying...i am so heart broken its like you just cannot imagine...tell me what to do to get sam back on the air, and your wish will be your comand...this guy is an utter joke for real...does anyone care about poor dewey who was secretly in love with sam???SAM TELL US WHAT TO DO TO GET YOU BACK PLEASE, THIS IS VERY VERY BAD...
Things have been goin really well lately..
Everything is unfolding just as I predicted..
Tax cuts have the economy boiling..
The War On Terror just keeps rolling along..
Hillary is taking charge..
Now we get a new Strong Republican on the stage..
The Left Wing of MY Democrat Party has been marginalized again..
I am losing weight and getting stronger as bike season nears..
Business as usual..!!!
(oh, well)
early to bed, early to rise
have a great day toni & blog
oxo
Rudy Giuliani’s law firm “is perhaps the nation’s most aggressive lobbyist for coal-fired power plants, heavy emitters of air pollutants and carbon dioxide, a gas associated with global warming. Environmentalists say the firm played a significant role in persuading the Bush administration to roll back major provisions of the Clean Air Act.”
LINK
toniD said...
mmrules
I hear you about cronic pain! What causes yours? Mine is RA.
Sorry to hear about your pain..Mine's nerve damage due to a on the job injury.After years of trying,I can't work anymore.Which sucks,but what are you going to do?I'm on S.S.disability..So now I just try to change the world via my laptop.I'm not doing a very good job.But at least I'm not war puppy! :)
Kali Nichta ono. Onira pola!
Hillary and Fred..
I can work with that..
That little incident in the 2004 primary when Howard Dean stuck his nose under the tent taught everyone a lesson..
Ya gotta eliminate the Crazy Talkers early...
That Barber sounds conservative. How are Lionel's politics? He seems to be a sort of a cynical libertariarian. South Florida type. Is he as funny as Lassiter?
mmrules said...
Sorry to hear about your pain..Mine's nerve damage due to a on the job injury.After years of trying,I can't work anymore.Which sucks,but what are you going to do?I'm on S.S.disability..So now I just try to change the world via my laptop.I'm not doing a very good job.But at least I'm not war puppy! :)
I'm on S.S. disability also. But it doesn't pay enough so I am either forced to work or go on public aid. I don't want to go on public aid yet although I could if I quit my job.
There's alot of things they should change for people on public aid. A better system would not cost as much but still help the people who need it. There is much waste in the system.
Tonid:you are sooo right..Hang in there :)
“The inspector general of the Department of Commerce, the watchdog charged with rooting out wrongdoing at the agency, is himself the subject of three separate government investigations into allegations that he misspent his budget and retaliated against employees who raised concerns about his actions.”
Is there anyone in this admin that is not under investigation for some wrong doing?
This is why we have a War Dog Plan..!!!
=========================================================================================================
Report: Iran tops list of terror sponsors
By Associated Press
Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - Updated: 02:21 AM EST
WASHINGTON - The State Department has once again designated Iran as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, accusing the Islamic Republic of aiding extremists throughout the Middle East, particularly in Iraq.
The release of the department’s annual global survey of terrorism, with Iran topping the list again, comes just days ahead of a possible meeting between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iran’s top diplomat.
Rice could meet Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki when they both attend a weekend conference of Iraq’s neighbors aimed at boosting stability in a nation where the report says terrorist attacks, some backed by Iran, killed more than 13,000 civilians last year.
In a couple of hundred years, historians will be comparing the frenzies over our supposed human contribution to global warming to the tumults at the latter end of the tenth century as the Christian millennium approached. Then, as now, the doomsters identified human sinfulness as the propulsive factor in the planet's rapid downward slide.
Then as now, a buoyant market throve on fear. The Roman Catholic Church was a bank whose capital was secured by the infinite mercy of Christ, Mary and the Saints, and so the Pope could sell indulgences, like checks. The sinners established a line of credit against bad behavior and could go on sinning. Today a world market in "carbon credits" is in formation. Those whose "carbon footprint" is small can sell their surplus carbon credits to others, less virtuous than themselves.
Alex cockburn
toniD said...
“The inspector general of the Department of Commerce, the watchdog charged with rooting out wrongdoing at the agency, is himself the subject of three separate government investigations into allegations that he misspent his budget and retaliated against employees who raised concerns about his actions.”
Is there anyone in this admin that is not under investigation for some wrong doing?
Amazing what juat alittle bit of Oversite will do!!Culture of Coruption!Greed.Just the GOP doing what they know best!
Anyone listening to Barber?
Bush officials say they will keep breaking the law to spy on Americans
by Joe Sudbay (DC) · 5/02/2007 08:33:00 AM ET
No surprise here really. The loyal Bushies were lying earlier this year. We were told the Bush team would follow the law and obtain warrants when spying on Americans. Wrong. Instead, they'll keep breaking the law if they want to. Lying lawbreakers, that's who is running our country:
Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January.
Rather, they argued that the president had the constitutional authority to decide for himself whether to conduct surveillance without warrants.
As a result of the January agreement, the administration said that the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program has been brought under the legal structure laid out in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires court-approved warrants for the wiretapping of American citizens and others inside the United States.
But on Tuesday, the senior officials, including Michael McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said they believed that the president still had the authority under Article II of the Constitution to once again order the N.S.A. to conduct surveillance inside the country without warrants.
George Bush doesn't have the authority to break the law. He just thinks he does
LINK
666
GOP = Get out of Politics
Methcouver-89 said...
Anyone listening to Barber?
No. 6 minutes, yesterday, cured me.
i have barber on, but its painful. i miss getting pissed off at morons like dewey and hr.
The beast within the corrupted system.
GOP Rules! Business Rules!
No. 6 minutes, yesterday, cured me.
May 2, 2007 9:52 AM
Bring back Springer.
i have barber on, but its painful. i miss getting pissed off at morons like dewey and hr.
May 2, 2007 9:53 AM
You could probably stream Tyger Thom on KPOJ.
was anyone else ticked off that bush debased the memory of jefferson with his theatrics last night?
hint: they positioned the camera and podium so that there was a window behind bush and to bush'es left you could see the jefferson memorial.
tonid said:But on Tuesday, the senior officials, including Michael McConnell, the new director of national intelligence, said they believed that the president still had the authority under Article II of the Constitution to once again order the N.S.A. to conduct surveillance inside the country without warrants.
George Bush doesn't have the authority to break the law. He just thinks he does
And my Congresswoman(D) doesn't think it's a good idea to Impeach Bush!Wake up congress!
The Queen of photo ops,Rove,probably set that one up.
Beast Within said...
666
Looks like something is happening about the Iraq bill...
CNN just announced that Pelosi will have a news conference and also the president. It's to be within the hour.
US worker confidence
down on financial concerns
Confidence among U.S. workers fell in April on financial concerns and lower job satisfaction, the latest reading from the Hudson Employment Index showed on Wednesday.
LINK
World Bank ethics chief
disputes Wolfowitz claims
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz broke staff rules when he intervened directly in the personnel matters of his girlfriend even though he said he wanted no part in a deal to transfer her outside the bank, the head of a bank ethics panel at the time said on Tuesday.
LINK
Renzi pays back taxes;
FEC drops probe
Arizona Rep. Rick Renzi avoided federal campaign penalties by paying $323,830 in back taxes last year to reassure regulators that loans to his political committee came from his own pocket.
LINK
Ethanol juggernaut
moves through DC
Nebraska hog producer Joy Philippi says livestock farmers "are having jitters" over ethanol, worried there won't be enough corn left for the pigs. She might as well be talking to a wall.
LINK
Ethanol is not the ned all. We need a real alternate to oil that won't use up a food source.
4,000 US Troops Arrive In Iraq
AP | HAMID AHMED | May 2, 2007 09:02 AM
Nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers have arrived in Baghdad as a crackdown aimed at quelling the sectarian violence enters its 12th week. Meanwhile, bombings and shootings killed 10 people Wednesday, including three Sunni brothers who were shot to death in Baghdad.
The security efforts come as President Bush is engaged in a fierce debate with the Democratic-led Congress over the war in Iraq. Bush vetoed legislation to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq Tuesday night in a historic showdown with Congress over whether the unpopular and costly war should end or escalate.
LINK
Officials Say Texas Border Fence To Cut Off Farmers' "Access To Water...Just Going To Create Bedlam"
AP | LYNN BREZOSKY | May 2, 2007 08:26 AM
A new map showing President Bush's planned border fence has riled Rio Grande Valley officials, who say the proposed barrier reneges on assurances that the river would remain accessible to farmers, wildlife and recreation.
City officials in the heavily populated valley had anticipated a "virtual" fence of surveillance cameras and border patrols.
LINK
Tonid said:Ethanol is not the end all. We need a real alternate to oil that won't use up a food source.
You are Correct again!Why can't these people think outside the box,just once!
No Kidding: Bush Declares Today American "Loyalty Day"
Lost in the shuffle of losing American troops at a record clip in Iraq and George W. Bush itching to veto the bill that would bring our military men and women home, was the fact that King George has...
read more here
Today's Must Read
By Paul Kiel - May 2, 2007, 9:13 AM
And it gets even better.
The Justice Department has long argued that it fired the eight U.S. attorneys because of performance concerns -- a contention that's been so thoroughly discredited that it's a punchline now.
But it appears that we've reached a new level of DoJ ridiculousness.
One of the senior Justice Department officials involved in the firings is Bill Mercer, the U.S. Attorney for Montana who pulls double duty as the principal associate deputy attorney general in Washington, D.C. Well, I say double duty, but he really doesn't seem to spend much time as U.S. attorney: just three days per month, according to congressional testimony.
The chief judge in Mercer's district has been complaining about his absence for years, at one point berating him during a court hearing: "You have no credibility -- none.... Your office is a mess." And that judge did what he could to get Mercer thrown out, even writing to Alberto Gonzales in 2005 that Mercer was violating federal law by not living in the district of which he was supposedly U.S. attorney.
So what did Mercer do? He changed the law. From The Washington Post:
[In November of 2005] Mercer had a GOP Senate staffer insert into a bill a provision that would change the rules so that federal prosecutors could live outside their districts to serve in other jobs, according to documents and interviews
Congress passed the provision several months later as part of the USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill, retroactively benefiting Mercer and a handful of other senior Justice officials who pull double duty as U.S. attorneys and headquarters officials....
...[T]he new legislation was added to the Patriot bill at the request of Mercer, who had been assigned the task of shepherding the provision through Congress, according to congressional aides and new statements from one of Mercer's colleagues.
(TPM reported on this provision last month, but we didn't know Mercer was responsible for it.)
This is, of course, the same Patriot Act that contained the provision that allowed the administration to indefinitely appoint interim U.S. attorneys. So it was full of treats for the administration.
The punchline here, of course, is that the Justice Department officials have straight-facedly claimed that U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias was fired because he was absent from the office one month out of the year (for his Navy reserve duty). He was, they claimed, an "absentee landlord." And yet one of the officials responsible for the firings had the law changed so that he could still be the U.S. attorney while being all but completely absent from his district. Funny, huh?
Note: For those of you who are suspicious that Mercer and others are drawing two salaries -- a Justice Department spokesman told The Washington Post that the U.S. attorneys continue to draw their U.S. attorney salary and are not paid extra for the executive positions.
LINK
Change the law to hide the crime.
tonid said:No kidding.
Bush then goes on to urge all of us to demonstrate our loyalty to the United States "...by flying the flag, participating in our democracy, and learning more about our country's grand story of courage and simple dream of dignity."
It's funny, but he doesn't mention anything about how it demonstrates loyalty to lie your country into a war and go against the wishes of the vast majority of Americans by pledging to stay in that war indefinitely. The proclamation also doesn't say anything about this White House's loyalty to the families of almost 3,400 troops who have been killed in that war.
Bush also stays away from the subject of how it shows loyalty to American principles to shred the Constitution, spy on our citizens without required warrants and make the entire world lose respect for our nation.
I guess that would be kind of awkward to mention those things when trying to get people to ignore what's going on and simply wave the flag a bit more.
Now, in fairness to Bush, he didn't just make this up to give us all a huge laugh -- or sicken us -- on the fourth anniversary of him declaring that the war in Iraq was over. Public Law 85-529 officially designates May 1 of each year as Loyalty Day and all presidents are required to make this grand pronouncement.
But just this one year, under these circumstances, couldn't we let someone else do it?
I mean, what's next, Rush Limbaugh declaring tomorrow as National Drug Awareness Day?
You can read more from Bob at BobGeiger.com.
The Daily Muck
By Will Thomas - May 2, 2007, 9:35 AM
Separate Trial, Transfer of Venue Sought By Foggo
"Lawyers for former CIA official Kyle 'Dusty' Foggo, who is charged in a corruption case spun from the Randy “Duke” Cunningham bribery scandal, have asked a judge to move his trial to Washington, D.C., and to allow him to be tried separately from fellow defendant Brent Wilkes. In the request for a transfer, filed in federal court this week, lawyers reasoned that the case is centered mostly in the district that includes Washington, D.C., with most of the alleged crimes occurring there." (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Continue reading...
LINK
Here's an interesting article Blah 3...
Figures Don't Lie, Liars Figure
The Rude Awakening
Gaithersburg, Maryland
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
How do you know when a government is lying? They report it.
Scouring the government's stack for the REAL figures,
Keeping an eye on the milkman and plenty more…
------------------------------
Eric Fry, reporting from Laguna Beach, CA…
"Information" and "insight" often seem like synonyms. Like, for example, when your neighbor says, "Hey John, I saw your wife kissing the milkman this morning." This particular bit of information contains a wealth of insight.
In other settings, however, "information" and "insight" can feel like antonyms. Like, for example, when a CNBC commentator remarks, "The stock market is acting well." This particular bit of information contains not a single scrap of insight. It is, therefore, "useless information."
A third category of information strays even farther from insight. It produces deception, or "anti-insight." This third category of information is called, "government data." Within this deceptive category we find items like the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The leaders of our government would prefer that the statistical portrayals of our economic health be as flattering as possible…and so they have become. Over the years - little by little - various government agencies have revised the processes andmethodologies that calculate important economic data like GDP. The government bean-counters continuously revise their processes, they say, to make their data more accurate. But somehow, each new methodology flatters our economy more than the preceding methodology. The new and improved numbers always become…well…new and improved.
A little nip here on the CPI, a little tuck there on the GDP - along with a bit of M-3 removal - and before you know it, you've got an economy that looks pretty darn good, even if its underlying health is suspect.
One man, John Williams, prefers insight to deception - so much so that he has created an entire business around producing truthful government statistics. His business, called "Shadow Government Statistics," exposes and analyzes the flaws in current U.S. government data and reporting, as well as in certain private-sector numbers.
"Have you ever wondered why the CPI, GDP and employment numbers run counter to your personal and business experiences?" Williams muses. "The problem lies in biased and often-manipulated government reporting…Despite minor changes to the system, government reporting has deteriorated sharply in the last decade or so."
Williams provided the scintillating details of his analysis, during a recent face-to-face encounter with two members of the extended Rude Awakening family: Chris Mayer and Addison Wiggin.
LINK
i can't think of a better day than loyalty day to introduce articles of impeachment. what a grand way to participate in DEMOCRACY.
thank god or whatever you believe in that he didn't accuse people who don't believe in bush of not being loyal.
interesting that you call out the disappearance of m-3 reporting. bush did that intentionally to hide how the cost of this evil war is destroying the value of our money. its a replay of the german ww1 scenario where the war was followed by hyperinflation.
Good Morning, Blog.. :)
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The More things change; Los Angeles and Haymarket
Right now I'm still too stunned by what took place today in Los Angeles. I'll try and have something of my own thoughts on this incident maybe tomorrow. for tonight though if you don't know what I'm talking about please read the news item below and if you would like some historical context I also posted an account of the Haymarket tragedy, the reason working class people take to the streets every May 1st. It's with mourning and in solidarity that I make this post. God have mercy on us all that we would let the world be built around us with so much violence.
"The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today." -August Spies final words before his execution.
www.la.indymedia.org/news/2007/05/197834.php
MACARTHUR PARK, May Day
2007
Police stormed a workers' and immigrants' rally at 5:30 p.m. this afternoon in MacArthur Park, sending thousands of families running in terror as they cleared MIWON Immigrant rally and festival with foam and beanbag bullets, batons, and tear gas. The cops marched through the park in riot gear, indiscriminately clubbing down people in their wake. Young people formed the front line against the onslaught, running in retreat for a few yards at each thud-like explosion of a teargas canister and then turning back to the cops, while older and younger people ran through the single open exit in fear that it, too, would be barricaded.
A few moments before, children had been playing on the hillside and dancing with puppet dragons. A drum circle was beating out a rhythm, hot dog and shaved ice vendors strolled through the crowd, and speakers at the north end stage called out for solidarity among immigrant and and non-immigrant workers.
According to a witness, the melee began when someone in a crowd gathered on Alvarado Street between 7th and 8th Streets hurled something toward the police, as the Aztec danzantes performed for a group gathered on Alvarado. The witness reported that the motorcycle cops nudged the audience, then cops on foot split the crowd in the street and stormed them.
...
Invader Violence At LA March
The media is downplaying the violence that occured today in Los Angeles.
Former British defense secretary claims Cheney called shots in Iraq
According to former British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon, Vice President Dick Cheney has been calling the shots in Iraq, and has even overridden decisions by President Bush and former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
"A catalogue of errors over planning for Iraq after the invasion, and an inability to influence key figures in the US administration, led to anarchy in Iraq from which the country has not recovered, the British defence secretary during the invasion admits today," Patrick Wintour writes for The Guardian. "In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Geoff Hoon reveals that Britain disagreed with the US administration over two key decisions in May 2003, two months after the invasion - to disband Iraq's army and 'de-Ba'athify' its civil service. Mr Hoon also said he and other senior ministers completely underestimated the role and influence of the vice-president, Dick Cheney."
Hoon tells the paper, "Sometimes ... Tony had made his point with the president, and I'd made my point with Don [Rumsfeld] and Jack [Straw] had made his point with Colin [Powell] and the decision actually came out of a completely different place. And you think: what did we miss? I think we missed Cheney."
"Giving the most frank assessment of the postwar planning, Mr Hoon, admits that 'we didn't plan for the right sort of aftermath,'" Wintour continues.
Excerpts from Guardian article:
#
"Maybe we were too optimistic about the idea of the streets being lined with cheering people. Although I have reconciled it in my own mind, we perhaps didn't do enough to see it through the Sunni perspective. Perhaps we should have done more to understand their position."
He said history would have to decide whether the coalition should have anticipated the Sunni-Shia violence. "Given what we know now, I suppose the answer is that we should, but we did not know that at the time."
Of the summary dismissal of Iraq's 350,000-strong army and police forces, Mr Hoon said the Americans were uncompomising: "We certainly argued against [the US]. I recall having discussions with Donald Rumsfeld, but I recognised that it was one of those judgment calls. I would have called it the other way. His argument was that the Iraqi army was so heavily politicised that we couldn't be sure that we would not retain within it large elements of Saddam's people."
#
FULL GUARDIAN ARTICLE CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK
sure sounds like a police riot. its surprising that its been kept quiet.
so here's a great example of how out of touch aar is. dave fucking barber is talking about high speed police chases. earlier it was driving while black.
how can aar ignore whats going on with iraq and immigration and everything else?
The Wall Street Journal reports extensively Wednesday on Rupert Murdoch's "surprise" $5 billion bid for Dow Jones Co., which publishes the Journal, the nation's largest financial newspaper.
mornin gang,
MACARTHUR PARK, May Day,
SOS, DD.
same thing was going on in 1967,
not suprising at all that it was "kept quiet".
what's suprising is that "we" have'nt learned how to organise a better response to it.
The end of military blogs? “The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops’ online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say.”
LINK
Hey Jim, where've you been?
You get more news on this little blog Then AAR today. It's a shame AAR has come to this.
Mornin T!
Back later!
Rice Is Likely to Meet With Syrian Foreign Minister
Staff and Wire Reports
Wednesday, May 2, 2007; 11:18 AM
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, May 2 -- A senior Iraqi official and a senior Arab diplomat say Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem in Egypt on Thursday or Friday, adding a potentially significant bilateral session to a regional meeting meant to help stabilize Iraq.
It would be Rice's first meeting with a Syrian foreign minister since she took over at the State Department in 2005, and comes at a time of tense relations between the two countries.
The two sources declined to be named. The United States has not confirmed that a meeting will take place, but on her plane en route to Egypt the secretary said she "wouldn't rule it out."
"This is, after all, a diplomatic confab and we'll see who's there and what conversations take place. But again, it's not -- this is not about U.S.-Syria, U.S.-Iran. This is an effort for everybody to help Iraq," Rice said. Though a U.S.-Iran meeting had seemed a possibility as well, both U.S. and Iranian officials now say that is not likely to happen.
A meeting between Rice and Moualem would mark a shift for the Bush administration. After failing to win his way with the Syrian government during his first administration, U.S. President George W. Bush decided that dialogue with Damascus was futile. The administration rejected the recommendation of a high-level panel on Iraq policy that called for direct talks between the U.S. and Syria and Iran, and sharply criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) when she visited Damascus last month.
It is unclear how extensive an agenda Rice and Moualem would pursue. The Bush administration has accused Syria of providing a gateway for arms and insurgent fighters into Iraq, and of sponsoring terrorism through its ties to Palestinian groups and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia. Syria and the United States also back opposing sides in a showdown over U.N. plans to try those responsible for assassinating former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005.
LINK
http://www.savenetradio.org/
Rev. McGhee and The Church of God in Christ - No Condemnation (1941)
The religious right Republicans are simply obsessed with sex
by John Aravosis
And really creepy sex at that. One of the lead religious right groups, the American Family Association, in addition to promoting a known hate group on its Web site (a group that is lumped together with neo-Nazis and the Klan in a report compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center), is now publishing on its site a list of what it calls "sexual orientations." The list is filthy, it's the kind of thing we would never publish on this blog under any circumstance. It's not child safe by any means, and the AFA's Web site should be banned by every child safety filter in the country (please report their site if you know how to do so). Basically, the AFA is flipping out that others groups in society, like gays and women and people with disabilities, will be included in the already-existing federal hate crimes law - a law that ALREADY covers the religious right. Yes, the religious "special" right doesn't want to share their special status under US law. So what is their latest tactic? To declare that the word "sexual orientation" in the proposed hate crime amendment will include sex with animals, feces and corpses (the following link is NOT work-safe - you can see their bizarre sex list here).
These people call themselves Christians. They're sick. Do check out the filth they published on their Web site. The religious right Republicans are simply obsessed with sex, obsessed with gays, obsessed with filth. They are simply obsessed.
LINK
Don't forget that this coming Friday, May fourth, is Kent State Day.
The anniversary of the day our military murdered four kids on the way to classes and nobody was ever held accountable for it.
May fourth, is Kent State Day...
i think it was worse than murder. it was a last ditch attempt by nixon and his thugs to turn back the tide of humanity against his war in viet nam.
bush finally said something i can agree with:
"lets put politics behind us"
i'll finish the rest of it with:
"and let the impeachment hearings begin"
Damn we need Sam back on the Radio. DAILY!!!!!!
Double Decoupling
The rest of the world's major economies no longer depend on America's. Neither do America's own largest corporations.
By Robert B. Reich
Web Exclusive: 05.02.07
Print Friendly | Email Article
I'm spending my spare time these days debating supply-siders who are convinced that the record-breaking Dow proves the correctness of the Bush tax cuts.
Yes, the Dow did reach a record high last week. But the Commerce Department also reported that economic growth slowed to its weakest pace in four years. How can investors do so well while the real economy is doing so poorly? My supply-side friends don't have an answer, but I do.
It's because of two great decouplings that have occurred in recent years. First, the rest of the worlds' major economies have decoupled from the United States economy. China, India, Japan, and Europe are now such large markets they can grow briskly even as America slows.
Second, America's largest corporations have decoupled from the United States. Their overseas subsidiaries are booming even as their American operations stagnate. General Electric expects more than half its revenue this year to come from outside the United States for the first time. More than half of Boeing's new orders are from overseas. Ford is struggling in America but doing well in Europe.
In other words, the president's supply-side tax cuts are great for America's global investors, who have been investing their extra money around the world -- either in foreign companies or in global American-based ones.
But little or nothing is trickling down to average working Americans. Half of U.S. households do own some shares of stock, usually through their IRAs or 401-Ks. But the vast majority own less than $5,000 worth. Their equity is in their homes, whose values have slumped. They're paying far more for health insurance and fuel. And their wages haven't kept up.
Bottom line: The Bush tax cuts have delivered for Wall Street but done zilch for America's Main Streets.
Robert Reich is a Prospect co-founder. This column is adapted from Professor Reich's weekly commentary on American Public Radio's Marketplace. His website can be found here and his blog can be found here.
LINK
And finally, for people wondering who the hell is doing the 9-Noon shift on Air America this week, that is Dave Barber, formerly of WPRO in Providence, as well as the Michigan Talk Radio Network. The Flint, MI native has also worked at WWCK and WFDF in his hometown. And yes, he knows Michael Moore, featuring him on his shows from time to time. And no, Barber will not be hired by the network. In fact, he just got rehired by WWCK for the same time slot. So a double congratulations to Dave Barber. He continues at Air America for the rest of the week.
http://ltradio.blogspot.com/
Pentagon study says Oil Dependance strains Military.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/05/01/pentagon_study_says_oil_reliance_strains_military/
I was looking for something unrelated & stumbled on these Zappa pics...1, 2, 3
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Radio Universidad Reoccupied in Oaxaca City
Link to XEUBJ Radio Universidad de Oaxaca
Did someone say Zappa??
Zappa
I dig me!
Sealing His Eyes And Ears
Robert C. Byrd
May 02, 2007
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/02/sealing_his_eyes_and_ears.php
Robert C. Byrd is the senior senator from West Virginia.
Four years ago, President Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to declare, "Mission Accomplished." For thousands of our soldiers and their families, and likely for the Iraqi people, it feels like a lifetime has passed. How wrong the president was then and how wrong he continues to be today.
By vetoing the supplemental legislation, the president has chosen to hold hostage $100 billion for our troops to a failed policy. He is once again demonstrating his detachment from the realities on the ground in Iraq, and his indifference to the will of the American people at home. The president's veto ensures that hundreds, maybe thousands more will die in Iraq without bringing that country any closer to peace.
Before the war began, I urged the president to think through the consequences. I was very concerned about the repercussions that would follow this country’s certain military victory. Tragically, the repercussions I feared all have come to pass.
No matter how hard the president hopes it will happen, sectarian violence will not be quelled with U.S. forces occupying the Iraqi nation. Cross your fingers. Rub your lucky rabbit’s foot. Nail a horse shoe over the door to the Oval Office. Hoping for luck will not change the deadly dynamic in Iraq. Peace demands an Iraqi-led diplomatic, economic and security effort, the kind of which, to date, the Iraqi government has been unable or unwilling to undertake. Our legislation could have motivated the Iraqi people to take more responsibility by instituting benchmarks and rewards for positive outcomes. Instead, the president has again chosen to have our troops go it alone in a centuries old sectarian war with no end in sight.
When he took office more than six years ago, George W. Bush issued a call for renewed responsibility in government. What is responsible about clinging to this failing course in Iraq? What is responsible about the president continuing to foster and manipulate the fears of the American people? Today, faced with the tragic consequences of his misjudgments in Iraq, the Bush administration is paralyzed, unwilling to even acknowledge, much less remedy, its catastrophic blunders.
You may have thought that organization and agitation helped bring about our hard won labor laws. But this full page ad for General Electric from The Atlantic, August 1938, will tell you the real reasons:
(Top half - picture of older man in a suit and fedora with moustache, sitting in a garden with young woman. caption reads "Jeanette and her grandfather, William H. Wright - two of four generations in one family to work for General Electric in Lynn, Mass.")
Bottom half begins, in large bold letters
"Better, Jean? Listen -"
". . . back in '96, when I started work for G.E., we worked 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. Eighteen cents an hour was pretty good pay. And in our shop we did almost everything by hand.
"Look at things now - eight-hour days and five-day weeks. I read the other day that the average factory pay is 67 cents an hour. That's a big improvement during one lifetime!"
It is a big improvement - between the time when Jeanette Wright's grandfather started work and a few months ago when Jeanette followed her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather and joined the General Electric organization. Hours reduced one third; factory wages increased nearly fourfold. What made this possible? What has brought about this progress?
The answer lies in the increase in the effectiveness of each workers labor. In 1896, the average factory worker had only one horsepower of mechanical aid. Today each factory worker has 12 horsepower of mechanical power to help him produce. And because he produces more, he has more. This progress has been steady, through good years and bad. And it has come about largely because electricity has been put to work to help create more goods for more people at less cost, more and better jobs at higher wages, and a higher living standard for all. General Electric, for sixty years, has been making electricity useful.
G-E research and engineering have saved the public from ten to one hundred dollars for every dollar they have earned for General Electric
+++++++++++++++
It's like magic.
See, if everyone would just increase their effectiveness with more horsepower, maybe our labor laws would improve.
Russ Feingold: After the Veto
The ink on the President's veto is barely dry, and already, a lot of Washington insiders - including some Democrats -- are saying Congress should just give in to the President. Never mind how hard people have pushed to bring Congress to this point, when we are finally standing up to the President's disastrous Iraq policy -- they want to give up on the binding language in the bill requiring the President to begin redeploying troops from Iraq.
But that's just letting the President have his way all over again. That's the kind of thinking that got us into this war in the first place, and it's not going to cut it anymore.
We can't keep giving in to this Administration on Iraq. Every time the Administration gets its way, it means that our troops will remain stuck in the middle of Iraq's civil war, and our national security will continue to be undermined. With so many Americans demanding that our involvement in this war come to an end, backing down is not the answer. No one else should die in Iraq to give political comfort to dealmakers in Washington.
LINK
Reefer Madness
Zappa interviewed by a Pennsylvania state trooper, 1981.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1x3tc9BnDg&mode=related&search=
The cop is a big Zappa fan. Frank tells it like it is.
COHA:
Media Bulletin: Venezuela
Later today on May 2nd, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs will release its "Memorandum to the Press: Venezuela's Security Factors and Foreign Policy Goals." The report will discuss the foreign policy of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his willingness to befriend even the most ill-reputed of allies in order to strengthen the Venezuelan armed forces, as well as fortify the country's geo-political position. The author of the article, W. Alejandro Sanchez Nieto, a well-known defense analyst and COHA Research Fellow, has authored a number of previous studies regarding the Latin American military, which are available at our website.
young guitar prodigy rocks it
The second part of the Frank interview is really good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioRDXkxHXhg&NR=1
Mind the music and the step, And with the girls be handy
Bush and Cheney are completely insane. Just about everybody in the world can see in. Our two top leaders are insane and they are the one's with their fingers on the red button.
This country is in the deepest shit it has EVER been in. Bankrupt and without moral conscience, we are only able to stand by and wait for the horrible fate that awaits us.
Bush and Cheney are completely insane. Just about everybody in the world can see it. Our two top leaders are insane and they are the one's with their fingers on the red button.
This country is in the deepest shit it has EVER been in. Bankrupt and without moral conscience, we are only able to stand by and wait for the horrible fate that awaits us.
We have been living in interesting times. A needless and selfish war of such massive destruction for a few to get wealthy. i wish it were all a bad movie cause thats what it has seemed like for over 6yrs... False election, an idiot/puppet president, ignoring terror briefs, 9/11 tragedies, destroying the country from within, blocking investigations into 9/11, losing our liberties, the use and abuse of torture, secret prisons, wrongly accused, scandals upon scandals. We have insance neocons running this country and destroying it. I hope the turning point comes soon. I hope our congress grew a soul and stop funding this war. I hope a lot of good can come out of so much bad that we actually learn from such huge mistakes.....
War puppy after a long bike ride,shows his love!
War Puppy
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Cheney Awarded Purple Heart
Bethesda, Maryland - Vice President Cheney was awarded a Purple Heart at a bedside ceremony today. Mr. Cheney, recuperating from an emergency snarlectomy, received the Purple Heart from President Bush, with Mr. Cheney's family, the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, the staff of Fox News and Heritage Foundation members attending the ceremony.
"Dick Cheney has been wounded by the comments of evildoers," declared President Bush." And people hurt his face, his mouth, his, you know, the smile thing. That's why he gets this Purple Heart. Because his smile hurts people."
Written for Assimilated Press by roving reporter pinko
posted by Virt at 1:35 AM | 1 comments
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Cheney Rushed To Hospital For Emergency Snarlectomy
Bethesda, Maryland - Vice President Cheney is resting today after undergoing an emergency snarlectomy. The vice president was being interviewed by Brit Hume of Fox News and was discussing recent opposition to continued US presence in Iraq when the medical incident occurred.
Mr. Cheney was saying, "Brit, we know for a fact that all these people hate America and are working for Al Qaeda" when he suddenly found it difficult to speak clearly.
The Secret Service and employees of Fox News at first believed that the vice president was having a stroke, and he was rushed to Bethesda Naval Hospital. Doctors at the hospital determined that the vice president was not having a stroke but was unable to speak properly due to a facial snarl that refused to relax.
Hospital spokesman Dr. Milton Ostrowsky held a brief press conference giving some details of the emergency surgery to remove the vice president's snarl, "We have hope that the vice president's snarl is somewhat relaxed and lessened," said Dr. Ostrowsky. "In a case such as this it is of course impossible to remove all traces of the snarl, but it is our hope that the vice president will still be able to speak out of both sides of his mouth just as he did before."
Written for Assimilated Press by roving reporter pinko
Sorry, this is a republican rep from my State...What can I tell you, he has the (R) after his name!
Rep. Shimkus: Iraq War Is Like ‘My Beloved St. Louis Cardinals’ Facing ‘The Cubbies’ »
Today on the House floor, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) compared the war in Iraq to a Major League Baseball feud, asking fellow members of Congress to “Imagine my beloved St. Louis Cardinals are playing the much despised Chicago Cubs.”
The Cardinals are up by five finishing the top of the ninth. Is this a cause for celebration? Is this a cause for victory? No. Unbelievable as it may seem, the Cubbies score five runs in the bottom of the ninth to throw the games into extra innings. There the score remains until 1:00 AM five innings later. However at the top of the 15th, the Cardinals fail to field a batter. The entire team has left the stadium. … Who wins? We know it’s the team that stays on the field.
Watch it:
The war in Iraq isn’t a baseball game. No one gets killed in a Cardinals v. Cubs game. U.S. troops need to withdraw from Iraq not because the other “team” is beginning to catch up, but because our presence there is helping to fuel the violence and forcing our troops to referee an intractable civil war.
LINK
To 2 Anonymous [sorry, just started viewing this blog since Sam's been away, not sure how to do responses to my comments]...I think we're somehow gonna have to identify the advertisers for the 9a-to-noon slot and then contact them...but the thought of having to go thru 9-12 without Sam makes me ill just to suggest it...THIs is SO bad, words are inadequate to describe it....It such a loss, I could just about cry...but let's each try to compile a list,for a start,and begin making some kind of contact... OR if someone has another idea, i'm all ears!!
Most May Be Excluded from GOP Debate
Seven of ten Republican candidates may be exluded from a May 15 presidential debate in South Carolina because they do not meet the agreed upon terms set by Fox News and the South Carolina Republican Party, according to CNSNews.com.
Those in danger of not being allowed: Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, and Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS).
"All of these candidates hover around one percent in most national polls. That's the cutoff point for would-be participants... The network and the state party agreed on the one percent threshold, as well as on the requirements that candidates must have filed papers in South Carolina and paid the proper fees to be a candidate."
LINK
toniD said...
Sorry, this is a republican rep from my State...What can I tell you, he has the (R) after his name!
My Lord,what a Moron.He should be working at a Used Car lot,not Congress!!
Thompson Says Rivals are Digging for Dirt
Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) said "that his potential Republican opponents are trying to dig up dirt on him while he considers running for the White House," the AP reports.
He noted "opposition researchers were combing through public records in Tennessee."
Said Thompson: "I thought it would have maybe been a little early. I thought it might have come from the Democrats instead of Republicans, but that's the way it is nowadays."
A case of the repubs eating their own!
Gee,AAR needs advertising revenues right.So whats wrong with this picture??
No wonder were broke!
Amy Goodman interviews Ray McGovern
about George Tenet...
LINK
Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern on CNN's Anderson Cooper
UPDATE: Ray McGovern appeared on Democracy Now! today. Watch/listen/read transcript. McGovern's comments are priceless: "But what George Tenet doesn’t fess up to is that he was the manipulator-in-chief" ... "What he meant was that, 'Mr. President, we can make a slam dunk case for popular consumption with the public and with the Congress out of this evidence.' Now, he thinks that’s exculpatory? I mean, that’s worse ... He’s admitting to a more heinous offense than simply being wrong about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He doesn’t get it."
Last night, Larry Johnson and Ray McGovern jointly appeared at the top of both hours of the Anderson Cooper 360 show on CNN. Below are the transcripts of BOTH segments on George Tenet's new book and his interview statements:
HOUR ONE (full transcript link):
LINK
sam-comeback-club said...
To 2 Anonymous [sorry, just started viewing this blog since Sam's been away, not sure how to do responses to my comments]...I think we're somehow gonna have to identify the advertisers for the 9a-to-noon slot and then contact them...but the thought of having to go thru 9-12 without Sam makes me ill just to suggest it...THIs is SO bad, words are inadequate to describe it....It such a loss, I could just about cry...but let's each try to compile a list,for a start,and begin making some kind of contact... OR if someone has another idea, i'm all ears!!
I'm game.Even though it probably won't do much good..But,ya never know.......Does anybody here know how to get a list of advertisers for the Sammy time slot??Or like sam comeback club said:Any other ideas??Or,is denial just a river in Egypt?
Breaking: Bush veto override fails by 222-203 vote
Democratic senator: Impeachment 'sucks all of the oxygen out of the air' Miriam Raftery
Published: Wednesday May 2, 2007
Gravel: Impeachment 'will come, in due course'
At last week’s debate, Democratic Presidential candidates were asked to raise their hands if they would support impeachment. Other than Rep. Dennis Kucinich (who introduced impeachment papers against Cheney), not a single candidate raised their hand. So RAW STORY decided to find out why.
At the California Democratic Convention in San Diego over the weekend, RAW STORY obtained responses directly from Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CONN), and 2008 candidates New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel, then elicited help from a blogger present to pose the question to Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) did not host a press conference and was not available to the media. The question was posed slightly differently for various candidates, depending on availability.
The most detailed response came from Gravel during a press conference. RAW STORY listed several potential grounds for impeachment, including starting a war on apparently false premises, issuing signing statements that ignore the will of Congress, abolishing habeus corpus, and declaring the "right" to spy on Americans’ e-mails even as the White House itself "loses" thousands of e-mails now requested by Congress.
“Don’t worry about impeachment,” Gravel said in a reassuring tone, adding that he has held discussions with House Judiciary Chair John Conyers (D-MI). “That will come, in due course.”
Gravel plan could land Bush 'behind bars'
Gravel criticized the President as a “lousy and immoral” commander in chief, but also levied criticism at Democrats for only passing a non-binding resolution to end the war. Nor does the former senator believe simply cutting off funds would work. “I filibustered to end funding in the Vietnam War, but it was not successful,” he recalled.
Instead, Gravel revealed a novel plan to bring about an end to the Iraq War, impeachment, or possibly both—and perhaps even land the President 'behind bars.'
“I have drafted a law that says we must get troops out of Iraq in 60 days,” he said. “Leave all the equipment behind…The President must certify that he took troops out. If he violates this law he should go to jail for five years with no parole, and pay a $1 million fine. It says so right in the law.”
He believes he could muster enough support in the House to pass the bill. If the Senate filibusters, he would urge Reid to call for a cloture vote daily. “The media will feed on this like maggots,” said Gravel, who predicts the measure would pass and that a veto could ultimately be overridden. If the President and Vice President then refuse to enact the law, he concluded, “once you have them breaking the law, now you impeach.”
LINK
toniD said...
Breaking: Bush veto override fails by 222-203 vote
May 2, 2007 2:40 PM
=========================================================================================================
Like everyone didn't already know this months ago...
But the Dems wanted to toss ya'll a bone..
You should thank them....
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Gravel: Impeachment 'will come, in due course'
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
I noticed that War Dog forgets he's supposed to be a right-wing Democrat when he reads about the new Reagan.
Hours after 9/11 attacks, Rumsfeld allegedly said, 'My interest is to hit Saddam' RAW STORY
Published: Wednesday May 2, 2007
According to NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that his "interest is to hit Saddam Hussein" just hours after the attacks on September 11, 2001, "even though all indications pointed at al-Qaida as the guilty party," a Rhode Island newspaper reports.
At the annual Business Expo at the Rhode Island Convention Center Tuesday, NBC's Jim Miklaszewski "advanced a theme garnering attention since former CIA director George J. Tenet made his public revelations last week," writes Tom Mooney for the Providence Journal.
"Some things are right on the mark, when he says the Bush administration appeared predisposed to attack Iraq," Miklaszewski says of Tenet's book At the Center of the Storm.
The NBC correspondent's "information" comes from "off the record" notes given to him from an unidentified person who was "in the White House situation room in the hours after the attacks."
"However, the notes describe, Miklaszewski said, then-Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld vowing to avenge the terrorist attacks by voicing frustration that attacks against the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983 and the attack on the Cole, in 2000, had gone unavenged," Mooney writes. "Reading from his notes, Miklaszewski quoted Rumsfeld as saying five hours after the terrorist attacks: 'My interest is to hit Saddam Hussein at the same time we go after al-Qaida.'"
Excerpts from article:
#
"We ought not to look only" at Osama bin Laden, Rumsfeld allegedly said before holding a conference call with President Bush. During the conversation, "Rumsfeld says not to focus solely on al-Qaida, consider all those range of options. And the president's response was yes."
Said Miklaszewski: "So there is no question that Tenet got the time wrong [with meeting Perle in the White House] but there is no question in my mind, and with subsequent conversations I had with officials in the Pentagon, that the Bush administration had their sights set on attacking Saddam Hussein and Iraq long before there was even an effort to gather any evidence ... that Saddam Hussein was involved in the attack. And all the evidence says quite the opposite."
#
FULL REGISTRATION REQUIRED PROJO ARTICLE CAN BE READ AT THIS LINK
Go to the Raw Story link for the other link
Thom Hartmann is a Live! fan. Too cool.
They're among the best of the post-grunge wave. K's Choice is good too.
BREAKING: 3 US Reps Support Cheney Impeachment
By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor, Atlanta Progressive News (April 29, 2007)
(APN) ATLANTA – H Res 333, the bill introducing Articles of Impeachment against Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, now has two co-sponsors, for a total of 3 current total supporters, including sponsor US Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Atlanta Progressive News has learned.
The two cosponsors are US Reps. Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO) and Janice Schakowsky (D-IL). APN currently has press requests in to both Offices since this morning but has not heard back yet; check back here for updates on their comments.
US Reps. Clay and Schakowsky were early cosponsors of US Rep. Conyers’s (D-MI) former bill, H Res. 635, in the last, or 109th, Congressional Session. Conyers’s bill had been introduced December 18, 2005. The first round of cosponsors appeared on December 22, 2005. Clay and Schakowsky had been part of the second round of cosponsors appearing on January 31, 2006.
The cosponsorships are significant for a number of reasons. First, it shows there is more than one Member of Congress willing to entertain real accountability for the Bush Administration, despite the insistence of US Rep. Pelosi that impeachment is off the table.
Also, this bill is calling for actual Articles of Impeachment for Cheney, unlike the last bill which not only was related to Mr. Bush, but created an investigative committee to look into possible impeachment rather than providing for actual possible impeachment.
LINK
Rice loses another aide as top Arab-American diplomat resigns
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice lost yet another senior aide on Wednesday when Dina Habib Powell, the highest-ranking Arab-American in the US government, announced her resignation to join a Wall Street investment bank.
The departure of Powell, key architect of a Rice initiative to improve the United States' image abroad, was the third senior diplomat to quit in the past five days and the sixth so far this year -- an exodus that is expected to continue in the final 20 months of the Bush administration.
Powell, who at 33 is also one of the youngest senior State Department diplomats, is taking up a job at Goldman Sachs Group, department spokesman Tom Casey said. She is due to leave her State Department job in about two months.
Powell, whose parents emigrated from Egypt to Texas when she was a child, followed Rice to the State Department two years ago from the White House, where she directed the presidential personnel office.
As the assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs, Powell also served as the deputy to Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, President George W. Bush's former media guru who has been leading a "public diplomacy" campaign to counter anti-Americanism in the Arab world since the US invasion of Iraq.
Powell said her decision to leave government at this time was personal.
"It's the right time for me and my family," Powell told The Washington Post.
"I'm really sorry to lose her. She is fantastic," Rice told the Post of Powell's resignation.
"She had so many ideas. There are people who have ideas but can't execute them. She really executed them," Rice said.
Powell was notably instrumental in creating public-private partnerships to help fund relief efforts, notably in Lebanon following the July-August 2006 war between Israel and the Lebanese militia, Hezbollah -- a conflict which fuelled anger in the region against the United States for its backing of Israel.
"Dina's really done a remarkable job for us in helping to build and expand our educational and cultural programs, particularly in working on developing public and private sector partnerships," Casey said.
Powell also managed to resurrect people-to-people exchanges with Iran at a time of high tension between the two states due to Tehran's nuclear program and alleged support for militants in Iran, Lebanon and the Palestinian areas.
LINK
I noticed that War Dog forgets he's supposed to be a right-wing Democrat when he reads about the new Reagan.
=========================================================================================================
Both parties are the same to me..
I am a Conservative..
I support ideas... Not Parties...
I know how Ohioans think because I have massive panic attacks when I'm forced to live outside of L.A. or New York for more than two days.
Blah blah blah blah.
RE: Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Huh. I didn't know he was even running. I got a call last night from my fat blowhard of a Rep. Rob Bishop, who's actually now agreed with me on ONE issue: Luis Posada Carriles
I guess Bishop co-signed something drafted by Hunter regarding Posada's extradition... but I can't seem to find anything related to this yet.
It was a bit surreal getting that call from my Rep. in Congress: "Hello, this is Rob Bishop, is this Mr. so-and-so?"
"Uhh... yeaah...? And what in the gay hell are you calling me for?"
Imus prepares for legal showdown
Shock jock hires first amendment laywer, seeks last $40 million owed.
LINK
Usalone.com Impeach Cheney Poll.
Poll
Chavez's Not-So-Radical Oil Move
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
Today, in your veto message regarding the bipartisan legislation just passed on Operation Iraqi Freedom, you asserted that you so decided because you listen to your commanders on the ground.
Respectfully, as your former commander on the ground, your administration did not listen to our best advice. In fact, a number of my fellow Generals were forced out of their jobs, because they did not tell you what you wanted to hear -- most notably General Eric Shinseki, whose foresight regarding troop levels was advice you rejected, at our troops' peril.
The legislation you vetoed today represented a course of action that is long overdue. This war can no longer be won by the military alone. We must bring to bear the entire array of national power - military, diplomatic and economic. The situation demands a surge in diplomacy, and pressure on the Iraqi government to fix its internal affairs. Further, the Army and Marine Corps are on the verge of breaking - or have been broken already - by the length and intensity of this war. This tempo is not sustainable - and you have failed to grow the ground forces to meet national security needs. We must begin the process of bringing troops home, and repairing and growing our military, if we are ever to have a combat-ready force for the long war on terror ahead of us.
The bill you rejected today sets benchmarks for success that the Iraqis would have to meet, and puts us on a course to redeploy our troops. It stresses the need for sending troops into battle only when they are rested, trained and equipped. In my view, and in the view of many others in the military that I know, that is the best course of action for our security.
As someone who served this nation for decades, I have the utmost respect for the office you hold. However, as a man of conscience, I could not sit idly by as you told the American people today that your veto was based on the recommendations of military men. Your administration ignored the advice of our military's finest minds before, and I see no evidence that you are listening to them now.
I urge you to reconsider your position, and work with Congress to pass a bill that achieves the goals laid out above.
Respectfully,
Major General Paul D. Eaton, USA, Retired
LINK
War Dog is the crazy talker here. Pigs like War Dog are enablers of these insane pigs that are destroying the country and the world for profit.
War Dog is an insane pig who spouts insanity on this blog daily while accusong others of crazy talk.
I have dedicated my life to any legal thing I can to bring down pig enablers like War Dog.
Her's where I heard the Fred Thomson/Basset Hound Face quote...
Bill Maher's description of Fred Thompson as "basset hound face" cracks up Chris Matthews
Fred Thompson played the evil Knox Pooley on TV's "Wiseguy," back in 1988.
He was really good in that part as the terribly evil snakeoil salesman.
He would probably fit the part of the evil Republican
business first president quite well.
GBC...this is your Governor Rocky!
World to Watch Rocky Anderson Debate Sean Hannity on Impeachment on Friday Night
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-05-02 04:05. Impeachment
Utahns Looking Forward to Upcoming Rocky-Hannity Debate
KSL.com
KSL Newsradio 102.7 FM and 1160 AM will broadcast the full debate beginning at 8:30 p.m. You can also watch the debate live on http://www.ksl.com
Richard Piatt Reporting
It's been promoted like a boxing match: Rocky vs. Hannity. But Friday night's Sean Hannity-Rocky Anderson face-off will be dealing with serious national political issues. The question is: Will it spark a larger national debate?
The rich, classical voices normally on stage at Kingsbury Hall will be replaced by loud debate on Friday night.
The debate is gathering a lot of attention, but mostly in Utah, among the politically astute and within the U of U.
ASUU President Spencer Pearson says, "I've talked to a lot of people who are in the middle on some of those issues but are more interested in going and hearing what's said."
But in the larger picture, there is another question: How will what comes up contribute to the larger political debate? According to Kirk Jowers of the Hinckley Institute of Politics, "No, this is not a debate. This is really a forum for both of them to spew, really."
The hot button issues of the war in Iraq and presidential impeachment create a wide chasm of differences. Both Hannity's and Anderson's positions are well known.
LINK
Daily Show: Eerie Similarities Between Israeli PM Olmert and Bush
By: SilentPatriot @ 11:45 AM - PDT
On Monday, the Commission charged with investigating Israel's military campaign against Lebanon last summer issued its scathing report to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Last night on "The Daily Show," Jon broke down the contents of the report and noticed some staggering parallels between the conduct of Olmert and Bush.
Download (657) | Play (688) Download (245) | Play (493)
On a more serious note, Glenn wrote about the report yesterday:
All of this underscores a fundamental difference between Israel and the right-wing faction in the U.S. For Israel — whatever else you might think about its policies and government — war is an extremely serious matter. They don't send other people's children off to fight the wars they cheer on; their own children fight the wars. During the invasion of Lebanon, missiles continuously landed deep in Israeli territory, killing killing or wounding hundreds and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes or live in bomb shelters.
(Read the rest of this story…)
Good luck with that..
And while you work on that...
I will continue to take advantage of living in the Greatest Country in the World..
You should be very busy while I am having fun...
You might want to start by tryin to save your Radio Network...
It's seems to be failing...
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
I will continue to take advantage of living in the Greatest Country in the World..
Canada? Sweden? France?
You might want to start by tryin to save your Radio Network...
It's seems to be failing...
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
May 2, 2007 3:34 PM
I've been telling you what an asshole doggie is for years. If this post doesn't lay it out for you, nothing will. He's been laughing at all of you for three years and you've been chatting with him.
Sad.
I like my meat hot and I like it lean!!!
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