Time for a little ear candy
I still miss them .. the indie band Morphine .. smokin' sax ..
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Mostly politics, a few current events, a squirt of seltzer down yer pants .. a little blog for my rambles and rants.
2007/2/28
A Britney Spears Guide to Global Economy
I'm a ninny when it comes to Dow Jones .. sub-prime mortgages and Fannie Mae stuff goes right over my head. But I'm smart enough to understand that we have to stop spending money we don't have .. that for our country to remain strong we need a sound currency. Gold and silver have always backed us. What happened? How did we let the banks get such a strangle hold on us?
"Wall Street fell sharply Tuesday, joining a global stock decline sparked by growing concerns that the U.S. and Chinese economies are cooling and that U.S. stocks are about to embark on a major correction. The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 180 points.
A 9 percent slide in Chinese stocks earlier set the tone for U.S. trading, a day after investors sent Shanghai's benchmark index to a record high close.
Investors' confidence has been knocked down by a slew of data showing that the economy may be decelerating more than anticipated. [..]
Investors' confidence has been knocked down by a slew of data showing that the economy may be decelerating more than anticipated. [..]
Wall St. opened a few minutes ago .. so far things are looking better.
Chicken Littles are saying the Dow drop could be the harbinger of another Great Depression .. blaming it on the economic consequence of the "borrow and spend" Republicans.
It's a dang shame that we have gone from the biggest creditor to the biggest debtor nation. Talking heads on TV say reducing corporate taxes created this mess, and the answer to all of it is simple -- raise corporate taxes, stop borrowing money .. start repaying what is owed. Restoring proper taxation will rectify it.
I wish we weren't so danged dependent on others to loan us money to finance our deficits .. the declining dollar is causing other nations to move away from us. We need to get our spending under control.
NBC nightly news said the 500 pt drop was due to 3 factors -- the instability of the Middle East, the rise of Iranian influence since the fall of Saddam, and American debt tied to China.
How much of that could be Bill Clinton's fault?
The average Joe on the street doesn't have a clue about what is happening in the financial world .. and that's probably just what our government wants.
Congress continues to fund a war that's going no where .. but most people never stop to question where all this money is coming from. It ain't coming from collected taxes folks.
Our government needs 3 billion dollars a day from foreign investments just to make the interest payment on our debt. Last month we took in barely 15 billion. That's a hell of a gap.
Like I said, the stock market makes my head hurt .. but I'm trying to understand what happened yesterday. People are very nervous about how closely our economy is tied to China.
As the dollar continues to fall the Chinese will soon have us exactly where they want us .. they could say -- "We've got your economy under our heel America, invade Iran and we'll stomp it."
Shoot .. just when we were thinking about spending another 1/2 trillion to do just that ..
We have got to wean ourselves away from the oil! We have to stop sending battleships halfway round the world to seek control of oil.
There's a DVD out called "The End of Suburbia" .. part of it was about how when people started building out to a suburb, a railway was being built so people could commute from their jobs out to their homes. Then here comes the petroleum industry to buy out the railway and then dismantle it. Of course, they wanted people to buy their gas and drive their cars.
Some radicals even believe that the war with Iraq was actually started because US banks were getting nervous about Saddam selling his oil for Euros, not dollars.
And guess who began selling its oil for Euros last Monday? Yep, Iran.
This Dow Jones stuff scares me .. can we please get back to Anna Nicole and Britney's hair?
2007/2/27
No, not from me
"(Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney was whisked into a bomb shelter immediately after a Taliban suicide bomber struck the main American military base he was visiting in Afghanistan on Tuesday."
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2007/2/26
16 million Americans live in severe poverty
Just when all those big corporation CEO's are hitting obscene highs never seen before -- Morgan Stanley's CEO bonus just totaled $41.4 million .. Goldman Sachs' CEO received more than $54.3 million, setting a record for Wall Street CEO remuneration .. Exxon gave Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, worth $400 million.
(Not to mention all thoses billions in subsidies our government gives to the big oil companies.)
While millions of working poor are dropping to depths not seen in decades. US severe poverty reached 32-year high -- 16 million people. Will they soon be nearing third world status?
And it all accelerated during the Bush years.
From Yahoo news:
"WASHINGTON (AFP) - The gulf between rich and poor in the United States is yawning wider than ever, and the number of extremely impoverished is at a three-decade high, a report out Saturday found.
"WASHINGTON (AFP) - The gulf between rich and poor in the United States is yawning wider than ever, and the number of extremely impoverished is at a three-decade high, a report out Saturday found.
Based on the latest available US census data from 2005, the McClatchy Newspapers analysis found that almost 16 million Americans live in "deep or severe poverty" defined as a family of four with two children earning less than 9,903 dollars -- one half the federal poverty line figure.
....The surge in poverty comes alongside an unusual economic expansion.
"Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries," the study found.[..]
And my rightie friends are always bragging about how well the economy is doing .. the job market is great .. sure, if you want to work in fast food or at Wal-Mart.
Righties say even a full-time job at McDonald's would bring in $12,000 or so .. two adults doing it would double that.
Okay, say these two adults work for minimum wage .. but then McD's keeps them at less than full time. Less benefits are paid to part-time workers. So, McD's saves a ton of money that way .. by hiring only part-time workers. The laws are such that corporations can take advantage of the workers.
Also, that same $12,000 didn't account for taxes. FICA and SS being deducted .. leaving less than 10 grand (9300 seems about right). Then, for two people working, factor in child care costs. Any idea how much child care is? Then divide the rest by 4 people for food, housing, transportation, insurance, clothing, utilities.....
Wal-Mart was another culprit in the part-time worker scam .. and they used to require part-time employees to work 2 years before they qualified for the same health coverage as full-time workers get. Now they've changed that to *only* a year. There's one other catch for part-time Wal-Mart workers. They can get coverage for themselves and their children -- but not their spouse.
And what if dad gets laid off from his minimum wage job? Then mom gets sick or needs an operation? What if their prescription drug bill is $1,000 a month? Nothing can spiral you into the depths of poverty faster than a serious illness.
BTW -- wasn't it nice that Wal-Mart received 1.2 billion dollars in subsidies last year to build more stores?
There was a time in this country when someone with just a GED (or not even that) could get a decent paying job with decent benefits. I don't think those times were all that bad for the American consumer .. but then we didn't have the outrageous disparity between the wages of upper management and the workers as we do today.
The outsourcing of our jobs has nothing to do with providing the lowest price to the American consumer .. it has everything to do with upper management raping the company for all the loot they can squeeze out.
Look no further than Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, Dennis Kozlowski, etc. .. for each one of them there are hundreds of others taking hundreds of millions per year for average leadership.
That certainly could contribute to the increase in US poverty. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Wall Street might be booming .. but the poor working stiff on Main Street is struggling.
Wall Street might be booming .. but the poor working stiff on Main Street is struggling.
2007/2/25
Cheney validates al Qaeda
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that al-Qaeda wants nothing more than to keep us bogged down in Iraq while they enhance their propaganda and recruit a new generation of followers.
Anymore Dick Cheney lives in his own dream world and is getting downright Howard Hughesy about the war .. he'll soon be wearing Kleenex boxes on his feet.
What's up with all this sudden chest thumping? He laid low for months .. we didn't hear a peep out of him after the mid-term elections .. or when his good buddy Rummy got fired. Now suddenly we have to hear him bleating every day.
I fell off my chair when he said that the reason other countries were abandoning the US in Iraq was because the occupation was going so well.
Isn't it interesting that he's doing all this bloviating while he's OUT of the country?
I suspect that Cheney went to visit Howard in Australia because he's cut of the same cloth as Cheney .. they understand each other perfectly and belong to a right wing mutual admiration society.
BTW -- We should never forget that Cheney was initially asked to help Bush find a veep .. and golly gee whiz .. guess who Dick found?
It was Dick Cheney who helped turn our focus from Afghanistan to Iraq .. a brilliant war plan, diverting troops away from the hunt for Osama Bin Laden to go invade a country that Bush himself said had nothing to do with 911 .. can't wait to see what Dick Cheney has to say when the Taliban begins its spring offensive.
It was Dick Cheney who set Scooter loose on Valerie Plame, which has been conclusively proven, even if Deadeye Dick called the shots out of reach of the law.
It was Dick Cheney who helped keep Donald Rumsfeld at the DoD while our brave soldiers died one at a time, without proper body armor or Humvee armor.
Mr. Vice-President .. how long can you ignore that your plans and predictions regarding Iraq have been so utterly and completely wrong on every level? Is it any wonder that the majority of people in this country, YOUR country, do not trust you?
Just this week, we learned that Al Qaeda is back almost full force. Last fall we learned that our nation's 16 top intelligence agencies concluded that the Iraq war has hurt US efforts to fight terrorism .. while serving as a recruiting boon for jihadist terror networks.
Each day it becomes more apparent that the Iraq war is a crash-and-burn failure .. and there never was a real plan from the Bush/Cheney Administration to get us out of the quagmire.
So, what does Dick Cheney do? Runs to Australia and blasts Madam Speaker with an irrational and hysterical attack, questioning her patriotism and the patriotism of the entire Democratic Party and 70% of the American people by equating opposition to Bush/Cheney's ill-conceived escalation of the war with playing into the hands of al Qaeda.
Just a little reminder -- back when Cheney was dodging the draft, Murtha's priority was keeping his Marines alive.
Madam Speaker is saving for posterity (the 08 campaign) all of his outrageous pronouncements .. she wears his attacks as a badge of honor.
We really shouldn't bother about him .. his job is to toss raw meat to his right wing base periodically .. one can only hope he continues to devolve into a white minstrel show for the wingnuttery.
2007/2/24
1000 Soldiers Against the War
Hey Sunday TV fans, if you get tired of Anna Nicole's "and the body goes to" .. or tired of "and the Oscar goes to" .. try CBS' "60 Minutes." It will look at the U.S. soldiers who petitioned Congress to show they are against the war in Iraq. Lara Logan reported the piece, she talked to founders of Appeal for Redress, which has more than 1,000 members in the U.S. military.
"They say they are not disloyal. They say they are not shirking their duty and that they do not oppose war. But over 1,000 active-duty and reserve members of the U.S. military are against the war in Iraq and have said so in an unusually public way -- by petitioning Congress last month. Several of them appear to explain their actions in a Lara Logan report to be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday Feb. 25 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
"I'm not anti-war. I'm not a pacifist. I'm not opposed to protecting our country and defending our principles," says Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto, an Iraq war veteran who, along with another veteran, initiated the petition. A 1995 law called the Military Whistleblower act enables military personnel to express their own opinions about Iraq in protected communication directly to Congress. Hutto and others spoke with 60 MINUTES while off duty, off base and out of uniform as conscientious citizens. "But at the same time, as citizens, it's our obligation to have a questioning attitude about policy," Hutto tells Logan.
Marine Sgt. Liam Madden, who helped Hutto to found the organization they call Appeal for Redress that has attracted 1,000 other military members, is more blunt. "Just because we volunteered for the military doesn't mean we volunteered to put our lives in unnecessary harm and to carry out missions that are illogical and immoral."
This is how it was back during Vietnam. First it was just the young protesting the war, then parents and grandparents joined in, then many politicians, then much of the military started speaking out against it.
That left the then administration no option but to end the war .. hopefully this will have the same results. But it takes a long long time....
Way to go Obama!
Rather than attack each other, you and Hillary should go after the real enemies of this country -- the whole Bush fiasco. Remember that almost 70% of we the people are against the policies of this administration .. and Cheney is such an easy target for anyone with wit. Easy as shooting fish in a barrel .. or your friend in the face .....
From Yahoo news:
"Obama, speaking at a massive outdoor rally in Austin, Texas, said British Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision this week to withdraw 1,600 troops is a recognition that Iraq's problems can't be solved militarily.
"Obama, speaking at a massive outdoor rally in Austin, Texas, said British Prime Minister Tony Blair's decision this week to withdraw 1,600 troops is a recognition that Iraq's problems can't be solved militarily.
"Now if Tony Blair can understand that, then why can't George Bush and Dick Cheney understand that?" Obama asked thousands of supporters who gathered in the rain to hear him. "In fact, Dick Cheney said this is all part of the plan (and) it was a good thing that Tony Blair was withdrawing, even as the administration is preparing to put 20,000 more of our young men and women in.
"Now, keep in mind, this is the same guy that said we'd be greeted as liberators, the same guy that said that we're in the last throes. I'm sure he forecast sun today," Obama said to laughter from supporters holding campaign signs over their heads to keep dry. "When Dick Cheney says it's a good thing, you know that you've probably got some big problems."[..]
Obama is right. Dick Cheney has been wrong time after time about Iraq .. his "last throes" comment was his own personal Mission Accomplished moment.
Some people think if you're against this administration you're a Bush-hater, but I don't hate him at all .. he's just a doofus who thinks God wants him to bring democracy to the Middle East. But Cheney now, is another story -- his 5 time I've-got-other-priorities draft deferments .. his treasonous outing of an important CIA operation .. and now attacking Madam Speaker's patriotism while he's out of the country seems kind of chicken to me.
Anyway, I am more and more impressed with Obama .. he comes across as genuine and you can feel the electricity of a real human being speaking truth to power. People say he reminds them of Will Rogers or Mark Twain .. his excellent sense of humor might have something to do with that.
We haven't had a real leader in a long time that doesn't feel kind of dirty. I liked Bill .. but as smart a politician as he is, compassionate as he is about people, you just know there is a car salesman a few layers down.
Yet .. I don't know how "electable" Obama might be .. the media tries to do a job on him .. they sure overplayed the Hillary tiff.
To think the Democratic Party of Nevada is going to let Fox News broadcast the debates! Fox trashes Obama on a daily basis.
It may be just me, but I fear for him in the greater scheme of things. If you think back to MLK and RFK, the times then and now are eerily almost the same .. crooked White House .. severely divided country .. mired in a hopeless unpopular war....
2007/2/23
Let the stonings begin!
The following Glenn Beck argument appeals to righties because it's a way of sticking it to social liberalism .. but hey, strange bedfellows and all that.
From CNN's Glenn Beck Show:
BECK: You know, there`s a new poll out that Muslims, the higher educated Muslims in the Middle East are more likely to be extremists? More and more Muslims now hate us all across the world, and it really has not a lot to do with anything other than our morals.
BECK: You know, there`s a new poll out that Muslims, the higher educated Muslims in the Middle East are more likely to be extremists? More and more Muslims now hate us all across the world, and it really has not a lot to do with anything other than our morals.
The things that they were saying about us were true. Our morals are just out the window. We`re a society on the verge of moral collapse. And our promiscuity is off the charts.
Now I don`t think that we should fly airplanes into buildings or behead people because of it, but that`s the prevailing feeling of Muslims in the Middle East. And you know what? They`re right.
And one wonders what Beck would have us do? Establish some form of Taliban rules against sin in this country? Because according to his arguments, that would protect us from Islamic terrorists. Hmm....
B-b-but .. if we give up having all that sex, then haven't the terrorists already won?
And come on now .. which is it? Do the Islamofascist-terrorists hate us (as Bush repeatedly claims) for our freedom?
OR -- do they hate us because we're decadent, corrupt, promiscuous and pornographic?
Yes, let me get this straight. Muslims hate us and want to kill us because we are having too much sex?
Or because we all don't have Beck's conservative "morals" and are on the verge of "moral collapse"?
Do you think it could have something to do with the fact that we are killing Muslims by the thousands, our troops are praying on their soil, and our President is on the verge of invading Iran?
No .. must be all that sex.
2007/2/22
Next, a Medal of Freedom for the Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Wounded soldiers face neglect .. "five miles from the White House"...
Might as well be 5000 miles.
Talk about Support The Troops! In exchange for their service in the military these soldiers were promised -- and should be provided with -- the best medical care this country can give them.
"WASHINGTON - Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses. [..]"
Since the Washington Post shined a light on this travesty, officials are scrambling to announce that there will be "investigations" into conditions at Walter Reed. How insulting .. they should call for the immediate resignation of those responsible.
And now Press Secretary Tony Snow is tossing the blame to those who "work on the other side of the river" (the Pentagon) to get the bottom of the Walter Reed mess. Excuse me? These soldiers served in Iraq at the orders of the President -- the Commander in Chief. It's his responsibility to ensure that they are properly cared for before they fight, as they fight, and when they come home .. especially the wounded and traumatized.
Shame on the damned War Profiteers! Shame on the White House and the Pentagon! There is at least 10 Billion dollars unaccounted for in Iraq. Look at what just half that wasted money could accomplish if spent on returning wounded servicemen and women.
DoD gets a budget of a half trillion dollars and they can't put our kids in decent housing? Can't even help the brain-injured find where they're supposed to go stand in line?
"Lost paperwork for new uniforms has forced some soldiers to attend their own Purple Heart ceremonies and the official birthday party for the Army in gym clothes, only to be chewed out by superiors."
I can't express how angry this makes me .. the entire article. It's tragic that our soldiers are treated this way .. especially after how much they have sacrificed.
And it's downright criminal for Bush to cut VA funding at a time when the system is overwhelmed with war casualties. And he and Cheney have the audacity to question other people's patriotism. Some patriots they are.
But, I guess you can't have tax cuts, corporate welfare and corruption without the money to pay for it coming from somewhere -- like public programs such as the VA .. public education .. FEMA.
I have heard of well-run VA hospitals, but that's not the norm .. because if you talk to Vets they'll tell you that VA hospitals in this country have shortages of everything from space to hospital gowns. Many have patients sleeping in hallways .. other vets turned away for care because there simply isn't enough space. And waiting 3 to 6 months for an appointment.
The grizzled old Vets from this Army town say VA hospitals have been underfunded and in trouble ever since Korea. But with the inordinate amount of wounded coming back from Iraq (we can save more lives than we used to) it has gotten so much worse.
Politicians sure can trail in and out of VA hospitals and Walter Reed for campaign stop/photo-ops .. and as long as they can use it for political leverage, and blame the other side, nothing will get done. Our soldiers will continue to suffer. The best thing we can do is work together to pressure our politicians .. regardless of our political leanings.
One solution to this problem could be to start a program where if you serve in the Military you are fully covered by the gov't with a major health insurance company. No more going to a gov't run hospital that will forever be underfunded and staffed by people who are burnt out and jaded by the system. That way they could go to much better hospitals and get much better care.
I mean, the idea of leaving psychologically wounded soldiers on 'death watch' over their suicidal comrades in arms is horrendous...
Between the cuts in the VA benefits, the deplorable conditions in this hospital, the lack of personal and vehicular armor, you can see a clear picture of just how little the powers that be support our troops.
"Support Our Troops" is little more than a bumper sticker to them.
We the people need to step up. We have indicated our discontent for the war in Iraq and now it's time for us to make clear our disgust with the way America treats service members.
"The President does not have the sense that God gave a duck, so it is up to you and me." Molly Ivins
2007/2/21
The Libby Trial Is Serious Business
Letter to the Editor of Washington Post .. and Brent Budowsky says -- "War is not a dinner party for ideologues. Espionage is not a 007 movie. The lives of covert operatives are not petty cash to be bartered for spin." so much better than I can.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007; Page A14
Shame on The Post for publishing Victoria Toensing's irrelevant opinings ["Trial in Error," Outlook, Feb. 18] as the case against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby goes to the jury.
My issue is not legal. My issue is the extreme damage that occurs when CIA identities are bandied about by political hacks and the newspapers that cheer them on.
These leaks violate the code of blood honor of the CIA, MI-6, Mossad and every clandestine officer. Real people die. Real heroes are exposed and murdered. Real intelligence is lost. Real sources lose trust in our honor and refuse to cooperate. Real wars are fought mistakenly. Real troops are endangered. Real damage is done to U.S. credibility throughout the world.
War is not a dinner party for ideologues. Espionage is not a 007 movie. The lives of covert operatives are not petty cash to be bartered for spin.
If Mr. Libby is acquitted, God bless him. If he is convicted, President Bush should immediately renounce a pardon. Our heroes deserve a standing ovation, not a stab in the back.
BRENT BUDOWSKY
Washington
The writer served as an aide to former senator Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), sponsor of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act
It raised $1.3 million and Hillary’s hackles.
Time for a Maureen Dowd fix .. but first, since Prez Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich is discussed, guess who was Rich's lawyer that worked so hard for years to get him pardoned? Scooter Libby! I heard it on C-SPAN this morning, has to be true.
Hillary is not David Geffen’s dreamgirl.
By Maureen Dowd (New York Times)
“Whoever is the nominee is going to win, so the stakes are very high,” says Mr. Geffen, the Hollywood mogul and sultan of “Dreamgirls,” as he sits by a crackling fire beneath a Jasper Johns flag and a matched pair of de Koonings in the house that Jack Warner built (which old-time Hollywood stars joked was the house that God would have built). “Not since the Vietnam War has there been this level of disappointment in the behavior of America throughout the world, and I don’t think that another incredibly polarizing figure, no matter how smart she is and no matter how ambitious she is — and God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary Clinton? — can bring the country together.
“Obama is inspirational, and he’s not from the Bush royal family or the Clinton royal family. Americans are dying every day in Iraq. And I’m tired of hearing James Carville on television.”
Barack Obama has made an entrance in Hollywood unmatched since Scarlett O’Hara swept into the Twelve Oaks barbecue. Instead of the Tarleton twins, the Illinois senator is flirting with the Dreamworks trio: Mr. Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who gave him a party last night that raised $1.3 million and Hillary’s hackles.
She didn’t stand outside the gates to the Geffen mansion, where glitterati wolfed down Wolfgang Puck savories, singing the Jennifer Hudson protest anthem “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going.” But she’s not exactly Little Miss Sunshine, either. Hillary loyalists have hissed at defecting donors to remember the good old days of jumping on the Lincoln Bedroom bed.
“Hillary is livid that Obama’s getting the first big fund-raiser here,” one friend of hers said.
Who can pay attention to the Oscar battle between “The Queen” and “Dreamgirls” when you’ve got a political battle between a Queen and a Dreamboy?
Terry McAuliffe and First Groupie Bill have tried to hoard the best A.T.M. machine in politics for the Missus, but there’s some Clinton fatigue among fatigued Clinton donors, who fret that Bill will “pull the focus” and shelve his wife’s campaign.
“I don’t think anybody believes that in the last six years, all of a sudden Bill Clinton has become a different person,” Mr. Geffen says, adding that if Republicans are digging up dirt, they’ll wait until Hillary’s the nominee to use it. “I think they believe she’s the easiest to defeat.”
She is overproduced and overscripted. “It’s not a very big thing to say, ‘I made a mistake’ on the war, and typical of Hillary Clinton that she can’t,” Mr. Geffen says. “She’s so advised by so many smart advisers who are covering every base. I think that America was better served when the candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms.”
The babble here is not about “Babel”; it’s about the battle of the billionaires. Not only have Ron Burkle and David Geffen been vying to buy The Los Angeles Times — they have been vying to raise money for competing candidates. Mr. Burkle, a supermarket magnate, is close to the Clintons, and is helping Hillary parry Barry Obama by arranging a fund-raiser for her in March, with a contribution from Mr. Spielberg.
Did Mr. Spielberg get in trouble with the Clintons for helping Senator Obama? “Yes,” Mr. Geffen replies, slyly. Can Obambi stand up to Clinton Inc.? “I hope so,” he says, “because that machine is going to be very unpleasant and unattractive and effective.”
Once, David Geffen and Bill Clinton were tight as ticks. Mr. Geffen helped raise some $18 million for Bill and slept in the Lincoln Bedroom twice. Bill chilled at Chateau Geffen. Now, the Dreamworks co-chairman calls the former president “a reckless guy” who “gave his enemies a lot of ammunition to hurt him and to distract the country.”
They fell out in 2000, when Mr. Clinton gave a pardon to Marc Rich after rebuffing Mr. Geffen’s request for one for Leonard Peltier. “Marc Rich getting pardoned? An oil-profiteer expatriate who left the country rather than pay taxes or face justice?” Mr. Geffen says. “Yet another time when the Clintons were unwilling to stand for the things that they genuinely believe in. Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it’s troubling.”
The mogul knows it’s easy to mock Hollywood — “people with Priuses and private planes” — and agrees with George Clooney that it’s probably not helpful for stars to campaign for candidates, given the caricatures of Hollywood.
I ask what he will say if he ever runs into Bill Clinton again. “ ‘Hi,’ ” he replies. And will he be upset if Hillary wins and he never gets to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom again?
“No,” he says with a puckish smile. “It’s not as nice as my bedroom.”
2007/2/20
Ain't politics fun?
"WASHINGTON - If Hillary Rodham Clinton wins the presidency, some top Democrats would like to see her husband, former President Bill Clinton, appointed to serve out Hillary’s unexpired Senate term.
“As a senator, he’d be a knockout,” said Harold Ickes, who was once a top White House aide to Bill Clinton and now gives behind-the-scenes advice to Hillary. “He knows issues, he loves public policy and he’s a good politician.”
Some Democrats and political analysts say Bill Clinton would thrive in the world’s greatest deliberative body, much like Lyndon Johnson did before he became president.
.....Such a scenario is not beyond the realm of possibility now that the governor's mansion in New York is occupied by a Democrat, Eliot Spitzer, who succeeded Republican Gov. George Pataki last month. If Hillary Clinton wins the White House, Spitzer would likely appoint a fellow Democrat to take over her Senate seat." [..]
Hey yeah .. why not? President Hillary and Senator Bill. We could have our very own 'War of the Roses' in the White House .. can't you just see Hillary hanging from that chandelier?
We could keep a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton thing going at the White House if Jeb Bush ran for President against or after Hillary .. and then .. and then .. when will Chelsea be old enough for the Senate? Or the Presidency? How many more Bush kids are coming along?
Our public offices could continue to alternate between Bushs and Clintons until the two families are eventually joined by marriage and the resulting offspring could be crowned king .. or queen, as the case may be.
Ain't politics fun?
2007/2/19
Democrats can't walk on water
Some people are griping about the non-binding resolution against a troop surge in Iraq that the Democrats have been pushing. What good does it do they ask? It was lame they say. They knew it would pass in the House and fail in the Senate. Why waste the time and energy?
But I just don't see it that way .. I don't know what's so bad about putting the Senate Democrats (and 7 Republicans) on the record against sending more American troops to the Iraq mess. I mean, headlines like -- "GOP blocks Senate vote on troop resolution" .. and "Republicans Block Senate War Debate" seem significant to me.
Ah .. one day those Republicans will have to hit the campaign trail to those small counties that have kids in the National Guard that should be coming home, but have just had their mission extended. These are 'heart of America' farm communties where people gather in local cafes to share email and letters from their kids in Iraq .. and they are not happy campers. They speak of soldiers who are just coming home and already have orders to go back .. their stuff hasn't even arrived from Iraq yet.
The resolution gave Democrats the opportunity to test the unity of the Democrats (excellent) and the resolve of the Republicans (signs of panic and disarray). The talking points memo that leaked from the Republicans revealed the tension they're feeling. All they've got is rhetoric and fear-mongering.
The resolutions also kept the debate in the headlines. Having both Houses take a stand and make a statement on record was a clever move .. sets the stage for the next moves.
And the Democrats cannot walk on water .. they have only been in power a month or so .. they've come far but have far to go. They have to keep showing the other side that they mean business and will keep looking for opportunities to do the people's will. Last Nov. voters sent a clear message to Wash. DC -- End This Stupid War!
Be patient people .. for six years the Republicans held both houses of Congress .. AND the Executive branch .. AND the Supreme Court .. and they ruled like they had a divine right. It will take many moons to undo their messes.
Democrats are taking baby steps to end the war without jumping into de-funding first thing .. which may be a smart political move. Jack Murtha's plan could be workable .. and maybe Democrats could also keep adding little amendments to bills that would hamper the White House. After all, Republicans were well known for slipping last minute amendments into bills, sometimes without even their majority members knowing about them.
Democrats will certainly have to whip up more public support before they start cutting funding for Bush's War. The country needs to be strongly behind them. With the numbers as they are in the Senate, Democrats will earn their keep by having to scare up some political savvy to win any battle.
So .. even non-binding solutions are better than nothing. Look at it as just a first step .. it will get tougher from here on out .. I hope. People who expect Democrats to stop the war and are complaining about the weakness of the resolution, just don't understand that Democrats never had the power either to stop the war or to phase it down. Even if every last one of them had voted against the 2002 resolution, Bush could go ahead and have his war.
Cheney told Wolf Blitzer recently -- "There's nothing they can do to stop us." Sent chills down my spine.
Let's face it, if this non-binding resolution had actually squeaked through the Senate .. the effect would be exactly the same. It is nothing more than a symbolic slap in the face to Bush. No effect at all on Bush's war.
But I like that it will be on record for future historians to see -- when they shake their heads and wonder at what a bunch of short-sighted idiots we were to open this Middle Eastern Pandora's Box and get our country into such a disaster -- they will see that some of us tried to stop it.
It would be very nice if someone in Congress could come up with a funding freeze that could pass Congress .. one that wouldn't hurt our troops already on the ground. But Bush would only veto it.
(However, that only applies to Iraq, not Iran. Watergate guy John Dean says Congress can stop Iran from being the next loop of Bush's inanity.)
Turning things around won't happen overnight .. remember Vietnam and how it takes a long time and a lot of effort to wind down a debacle as big as Iraq. We want Democrats to keep the passion and the energy to withdraw us from this mess .. and change the way our country functions in the world and at home.
I want some of those troops to go finish the job we started in Afghanistan .. and a good part of them to come here to help guard our broken borders and vulnerable ports, subways and airports.
And our food supply. I'll bet that's how they'll try to hit us next.
Bertrand Russell made sense when he said -- War does not determine who is right - only who is left. We can't kill them all.
2007/2/17
Murtha gears up to battle the surge
The majority of the American people support the troops but not the war. You hear it everywhere, standing in line at the grocery store, etc. .. just open your ears and listen.
Everybody supported the war in Afghanistan -- but we took our eye off Al Qaeda and emboldened the enemy when we invaded Iraq. And then we outsourced the job in Afghanistan to NATO. The Taliban are still there and getting stronger. Bin Laden is still at large. The Middle East has more 'terrorists' who want to kill us than ever before .. because of Bush's actions.
4 years later we're still falling behind in Iraq, in spite of this, Bush wants a FOURTH 'surge.'
If we keep doing the same thing expecting different results, we'll be sadly disappointed surge after surge .. and more deaths of Americans and Iraqis will be the only result we can expect. Our troops are having spit and rocks thrown at them by the very people they're trying to help.
The public AGREES with the Democrats .. Republicans lost the '06 elections based on the FUBAR Iraq war .. and Democrats were elected to do something to stop it. And now here comes John Murtha with a plan to derail the new surge strategy in Iraq.
"Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said he would seek to tie future deployments in Iraq to troops meeting high standards of training and getting enough rest between combat tours. Murtha said he believes the Army may have no units that can meet those standards, meaning that Bush's attempt to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq would be effectively thwarted.[..]"
George W. Bush is always trying to blackmail his political opponents by saying they must support him and his war funding or they are betraying the troops.
But I think it is George W. Bush who seems to have a problem supporting the troops. First he sends them into a war of his choice .. without the equipment they need .. in the hands of crooks like Halliburton, who have given them polluted water, out-dated food and other services on the cheap.
Then they are required to serve long after they were promised a little break .. some are on their third and forth deployments. They are supposed to have a year between .. but they don't get that.
And they don't get sufficient healthcare funding after they come home ..
George W. Bush is also putting the bill for his Iraq mess on the backs of their children and grandchildren .. while his cronies stuff their pockets with more and more of our taxpayer's dollars.
And then he carries on about how Congress must give him the emergency funding for his surge or they will be accused of not supporting the troops.
Well now, Rep. John Murtha has promised to put together a bill that will require George W. Bush to really support the troops with more than just empty words.
Murtha's bill will end the "stopgap draft." That's where the military reserves the right to "call up" .. or draft .. veterans who have served their time and earned honorable discharges .. but technically remain in what the Pentagon calls the Independent Ready Reserves. These people have served and chose to leave the military only to be pulled back in against their will. They make up an angry and very vocal group.
Murtha wants to end deployments extensions .. and end the deployment of troops without sufficient training (we've heard of kids being sent over after only 2 weeks of training!), without proper equipment or proper time between deployments.
Murtha wants to close Abu Ghraib. He wants to reduce the number of contractors that can be used .. and change the rules so contractors have to be more accountable to the American people about how they spend our money. One out of every six dollars charged by civilian contractors in Iraq has no documentation .. or is missing.
Murtha wants to withhold funding for permanent bases in Iraq, etc. In short, his bill will address all those Bush policies that have created such a mess in Iraq.
I know, his plan seems like a long shot, a rather indirect way of getting at the problem .. but without Republican support to actually directly end the occupation, this is probably the best way to go. Like Pelosi said about the non-binding resolution -- you have to start somewhere.
Boy, the righties are bursting a blood vessel over Murtha's plan. But, if he were a Republican and the shoe on the other foot, righties would be screaming about how unpatriotic Democrats are for questioning his patriotism. When they have the utter gall to smear a military man such as Murtha .. they are sinking faster than the Titanic.
I'll respect a highly decorated career Marine any day over the draft dodgers currently in the White House.
Murtha cares deeply about our troops in harms way .. he visits the wounded and the maimed in the Walter Reed Military Hospital every week. He talks to them, he listens to what they say.
When you join the military you basically waive your constitutional rights as an American -- including the right to free speech. Active-duty soldiers can’t show disrespect for the president or their commanding officers. But an anonymous Military Times poll of US service personnel in Iraq showed a majority of active duty troops want us out of Iraq .. and only one-third of them approve of Bush's handling of the war.
Sometimes I think that the chickenhawk righties are using the troops as mere props .. like the flag they wrap themselves in.
Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled Muslims .. yearning to breathe free
It seems the United States will accept a small number of Iraqi refugees after all ..7,000. A very small number, because since we invaded Iraq, 3.8 million Iraqis have been displaced .. have taken their families and fled their country. There are almost 2,000,000 Iraq refugees in Syria .. which is why it closed its borders last week.
From CNN:
"The Bush administration hopes to resettle about 7,000 Iraqi refugees to the United States this year, the State Department said Wednesday.
....[U.S. Undersecretary of State Paula] Dobriansky said the United States also is working to develop special provisions for resettlement of thousands of Iraqis who work for the United States in Iraq and are still there, but face increased threat because of their cooperation with the coalition.[..]"
Well .. we should do something for all the Iraqis who have risked their lives, and their family's lives, to act as guides and translators for us. Staying in Baghdad after we leave would be like signing their death warrants.
We whine and complain about defending ourselves from terrorism .. but we don't deal with one iota of what the Iraqis have had to deal with on a daily basis. Not only the violence, but their children still drink from mud puddles .. can't attend school.
I hope the refugees feel welcome .. but they don't know that for a lot of people here, just being Muslim is an overt act of war against our country.
Rush Limbaugh and the Righties (good name for a rock band?) don't like this policy one bit. Bringing scary brown people into this country means importing terrorists. These Iraqis need to stay home .. put on the Iraqi uniforms and help the Blossoming Democracy in their own country.
Rush, you never know, they might be guys from the oil industry and friends of Chalabi .. they could come here, get citizenship and vote Republican.
And we have flack from the other side as well. Lookee here how a Democrat reacted -- Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland said any plan to relocate thousands of refugees uprooted by the Iraq war to the US better not include Ohio .. that Ohioans cannot be expected to have open arms for Iraqis because more than 100 Ohioans have been killed since the war began.
Hey Ted .. I thought Democrats were supposed to be humanitarians?
Well, we have hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in the US already .. a lot are in Michigan I think .. these expat communities will help to welcome and settle the new refugees.
But there must be caution -- maybe Sunnis and Shi'ites still won't like each other over here. Will we have to put ourselves in the middle of a civil war over here to keep from being in the middle of a civil war over there? Just kidding...sort of...
I sure hope Iraq has a tasty cuisine .. because Iraqi restaurants might be all we're going to get out of Bush's Excellent Mesopotamian Misadventure.
2007/2/15
Weapons of mass disTRACTion
It wasn't for nothin' that Bush chose to have his first press conference of 2007 when Congress is having a 3-day debate about sending more troops to Iraq.
The Bushies like to seek distractions -- like carping about Nancy Pelosi's desire to fly nonstop -- anything to take attention from the Iraq war squabble .. and how more and more of his party are crossing over to the Dem side.
During his press conference Bush said that it doesn't matter if the Iranian government knew, or didn't know, that some Iranian nationals were helping distribute IEDs in Iraq.
And I quote:
"Here's my point, either they knew or didn't know. What matters is, is that they're there. What's worse, that the government knew, or that the government didn't know?"
"Here's my point, either they knew or didn't know. What matters is, is that they're there. What's worse, that the government knew, or that the government didn't know?"
Well duh George, if you're threatening to declare war on the Iranian government for actively helping the insurgents .. then yes, it's far worse if the government knew because that would mean they were actually helping the insurgents.
He cut off the guy from CNN who was trying to ask about the contradictions between what Bush is now saying about Iran and what was said by Gen. Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in Baghdad recently. Pace said he has seen no intelligence showing that the Iranian government is supplying Iraqi militias with explosives for use against Americans.
Bush is suggesting that it doesn't matter if the government of Iran is to blame .. we're going to blame them anyway. What's the difference? That's like asking "what's the difference if Saddam didn't really have any ties to Al Qaeda?"
Could be that the White House is intentionally trying to send mixed messages about Iran? Partly to tell Iran to Whoa Nelly with the nukes .. partly to tell our Sunni allies (especially the Saudis) that we will be sticking around for a long time with the big guns.
But I've seen articles claiming that Saudi civilians are sending money, arms, etc. to Sunnis in Iraq .. are we going to try and bomb them too?
I waited for someone to ask about the Pentagon selling military equipment to Iran. And about those Saudi-made shoulder-fired missiles found in Iraq.
Bush talks like he is explaining to a 4 y/o .. maybe because that's how things are explained to him.
Follow us home? So now the insurgents are like stray dogs? The Commies in Vietnam didn't follow us home .. despite the fact that the war hawks in Washington kept scaring people with those thoughts ..
Or .. maybe he really means the terrorists who followed us *there*.
If he's afraid "they" will follow us home .. then we can never come home again, can we? So we'll build 8 military bases and the largest Embassy in the world. We ain't leavin' Iraq, folks.
"All your oil are belong to us."
I wanted someone to ask him about all the criminals and felons being waivered into the Army because nobody wants to enlist anymore.
He says he will do what is necessary to protect our troops. How about proper equipment?
He wants Iraq to share its vast resources equally among the people .. hmm, I wonder if that would work here?
He doesn't know if it's a civil war because he isn't there. "Living in this beautiful White House its hard to tell if its a Civil War in Iraq." I guess it's true that he never talks to the boots on the ground.
Money trumps peace. Did he really say that? Is that a new Rightie slogan? He said it in response to a question about European allies who do business with Iran. The Iraq War has been a boon to companies like SAIC, Halliburton, KBR and Blackwater .. so he should know.
The stock market went up 83 pts .. the war machine is salivating...
At least he said that you can be against the war and still support the troops .. he should tell his Rightie buddies that.
If you missed it, you can go to www.whitehouse.gov to get the transcript of this press conference.
BTW .. where was Helen Thomas? Did the White House goons have her tied up in the basement?
Is it 2008 yet?
2007/2/14
Support our felons?
Just when you thought boot camp couldn't get any scarier .. how about over 100,000 waivers for new recruits with criminal backgrounds over the last three years?
Yeah .. American gays can’t fight openly but we welcome felons and criminals -- convicted burglars, muggers, wife-beaters and drunk drivers who have killed pedestrians -- to join up. Uncle Sam Wants You .. but if you're gay, and speak Arabic and have experience in constructing neighborhood health clinics .. get out! See Ian Finkenbinder, Army Arabic linguist.
Next, the Army will be eyeing those 2 million inmates in our national prison system.
From news.yahoo.com:
"WASHINGTON - The Army and Marine Corps are letting in more recruits with criminal records, including some with felony convictions, reflecting the increased pressure of five years of war and its mounting casualties.
According to data compiled by the Defense Department, the number of Army and Marine recruits needing waivers for felonies and serious misdemeanors, including minor drug offenses, has grown since 2003. The Army granted more than double the number of waivers for felonies and misdemeanors in 2006 than it did in 2003. Some recruits may get more than one waiver."
Doesn't this lowering of standards put undue strain on the troops that have met the higher standards .. and may cause their deaths?
I've long thought that this is the reason some of our soldiers are fingered for those horrible atrocities against Iraqi children and civilians. The rape and brutal murder of that 14 y/o girl and her entire family, children included .. sounds like something criminal recruits could do. And then there's the torture done in the Abu Ghraib prison...
But .. I guess the Army has no choice. It has to keep its ranks filled with the soliders it needs to meet worldwide obligations. It can't simply downsize if the ideal labor pool is not available. It's just so sad that it can’t maintain its necessary size without resorting to employing criminals.
The bottom line here is that there is so little support for the way the Army is being used in Iraq .. young men and women just walk on by those recruitment tables. Their parents beg them not to join .. bribe them with money and cars.
I come from a military family and have been around the Army all my life. We need men and women who are smart, motivated and honest -- in other words -- people who had other options in life and still chose the Army.
And yes, I know that our military still has these fine men and women .. just not enough of them.
And I am also aware that a few of these criminal recruits could prove they can make something of themselves .. have a second chance to change for the better and put their past behind them. But what percentage?
These men and women with substantial criminal records, while they may not rise to high ranks of influence in the Army, will probably damage its reputation. And more importantly -- combat effectiveness.
So .. this is a terrible development .. but, we have to sleep in the bed Bush made.
Or do we?
Maybe if Congress called for a draft immediately .. so our Army could have more college graduates, engineers, etc., instead of crooks. It just might awaken the young middle class that this war is going to affect them -- and not just those in need of govt subsidy for a college education.
Personally I would like to see a draft on all eligible men and women whose parents earn more than 200,000 dollars a year .. with no exemptions. Then we might see a change in this administration’s appetite for war instead of diplomacy.
But now I'm just being snarky.
Seriously, a draft would definitely bring the American people out in numbers sufficient to end this madness.
2007/2/13
Someone needs to holler Uncle .. Bucky
Now to be fair, Uncle Bucky Bush has not been accused of any wrongdoing personally .. but it is sadly ironic that a Bush is making millions of bucks from illegal acts by defense contractors.
Ya think that's why they call him 'Bucky?'
"WASHINGTON -- President Bush's uncle William H.T. "Bucky" Bush was among directors of a defense contractor who together reaped $6 million from what federal regulators say was an illegal five-year scheme by two company executives to manipulate the timing of stock option grants, court documents show.
The youngest brother of former President George H.W. Bush, he is the second Bush family member whose name has surfaced in stock options scandals this month.
He was an outside, nonexecutive director of Engineered Support Systems Inc. of St. Louis, a supplier of military equipment and electronics that financially benefited from the Iraq war. It was acquired last year by another defense contractor and has been under federal investigation on suspicion of options backdating.[..]"
Well .. isn't that special? .. that a 66 year old uncle would get a prime job with a firm like Engineered Support Systems Inc, at about the same time that his favorite nephew would become President of the United States?
Who and how many in the Bush White House have financial holding in companies making profits off the Iraq Civil War Quagmire?
Uncle Bucky, go forth and campaign for the Republicans in 08 .. do our nation a service.
Obama says put up or shut up
I haven't really started paying much attention to the 2008 prez race--much too soon, they're going to burn themselves out, and us too--but I must say I was impressed with how Sen. Barack Obama handled the harsh comments from Australian Prime Minister John Howard regarding Obama's position on Iraq.
Obama--who gave a speech opposing the war in 2002--has introduced a bill to prevent President Bush from increasing troop levels in Iraq and to remove US combat forces by March 2008.
Then last Sunday, Bush's conservative Oz buddy played the terrorists-love-Democrats card on a news program, singling out Obama in particular. Howard said:
"If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats."
Well, Obama called his bluff ..
"Senator Obama said he was flattered by the attack by "one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world", and belittled Mr Howard's commitment to the war.
"Senator Obama said he was flattered by the attack by "one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world", and belittled Mr Howard's commitment to the war.
"I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1400," he said.
"So if he is to fight the good fight in Iraq I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq - otherwise it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."[..]"
Yeah PM Howard .. walk the talk. If the war's so dang important, why hasn't Australia sent more than a token commitment of troops? Maybe he thinks this bullshit posturing gains him extra cred in Australia.
But really, Howard's sin was not his opposition to a US withdrawal--he has the right to think it would be seen as a victory for terrorism--it was poking his nose into domestic US politics with such inflammatory language, which he has no business doing.
From what I've heard about Obama, he doesn't hide from things like this and is a pretty straight talker .. I hope he isn't penalized for having a pair.
And Obama can talk circles around what we have now in the White House .. it would be so nice for a change to have a leader who is not intellectually challenged .. a leader who knows history and geography .. a leader who can parse a sentence in American English all by himself.
Obama is a very worthy candidate, but I don't really think he has a chance of winning the Democratic nomination -- he's either too black or too white from what I hear on the news. He has a better chance to start out taking Vice Prez, then go for Prez .. he'd be more seasoned too. And people would be used to him.
Anyway, I respect him even more for the way he responded to Howard's chickenshit statement.
From what I've read, Obama calls for a phased withdrawl and redeployment consistent with the Iraq Study Group plan. No Democrat has called for a mad-dash retreat.
We just need to get our troops out of the civil wars crossfire .. and it won't be instantaneous. If you're going to withdraw from a war, you can either phase your troops out gradually .. or gather on an embassy roof hoping for space on a helicopter.
It would be interesting if Howard answered Obama by sending more Aussie troops .. but Howard's already in trouble for lying to the Aussies on the pre-war intel .. and 70% of his country oppose the war. So, he's not sending any troops.
But .. if by some miracle Howard was shamed into sending 20,000 Aussie troops and it allowed some of our troops to avoid a 4th tour of duty, I'd appreciate that.
2007/2/12
Dixie Chicks 5 .. Rednecks 0
“Not Ready to Make Nice” .. Hey, maybe it should be the new Democrat theme song.
The Grammys sucked for the most part .. but the Dixie Chicks winning five awards made up for it all .. even for that horrible six-inch-away camera shot of Justin Timberlake's nostrils, upside down…
Five Grammys -- count 'em -- for the trio that Bushies love to hate .. including best album, record and song of the year. They won everything they were nominated for.
When Chick Natalie made her remarks about being ashamed that Bush was from Texas -- that's all she said (and he isn't even!) -- it immediately made the band targets of hate mail, boycotts and talk-radio shouters. Bushies made death threats and requested everybody call and ask for the Chicks to be banned from radio and for people to boycott their music.
And country radio did just that. And the Chicks' record sales plummeted. TV news showed a parking lot of Chicks CDs being run over by a steamroller .. people cheering .. trying to destroy a group because they exercised free speech .. the very thing our boys are over there fighting for the Iraqis to have.
How great that Joan Baez introduced The Dixie Chicks .. said she'd been told to shut up and sing too.
So sweet. If anyone deserves this, the Chicks do. "Taking the Long Way Home" is a great album .. first rate. After what they were put through, I'm really pleased to see these artists being acknowledged for their talent above all .. and plowing ahead under duress. These awards could also be an affirmation of the universal opposition to the war ..
I can just hear the whining from Fox News now, about how music has a pure librul bias. And I say to that--country music artists vote for these awards too.
Nope .. the Chicks got vindicated .. they deserved the awards and it proves they were right .. look at Bush's popularity in the polls. Now two-thirds of us are ashamed that he's even from *this country.*
Shoooot .. the Chicks were anti-Bush before anti-Bush was cool..
Here it is, the winning song -- “Not Ready to Make Nice” .. written by all three Chicks alongside Dan Wilson, it speaks directly to the political controversy that surrounded them for the past three years:
The look in Natalie’s eyes as she sings about "liking" the controversy is wonderful .. simultaneously whimsical and defiant.
I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and I don’t have time to go ’round and ’round and ’round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and I don’t have time to go ’round and ’round and ’round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should
[in criticism of the death threats the women (particularly Maines) received]
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter sayin’ that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter sayin’ that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over
2007/2/11
A Few Words in Defense of Our Country
Randy Newman with a little light entertainment .. sort of...
Read the rest of this entry ... (1 words left)
2007/2/10
Just a big case of "jet envy" I'd say
"GOP makes much ado about the size of Pelosi's plane
The House speaker has had the use of a government jet since the Sept. 11 attacks
(02-08) Washington -- The way Speaker Nancy Pelosi will travel home to San Francisco and on official business is the latest tempest to hit the House of Representatives.
(02-08) Washington -- The way Speaker Nancy Pelosi will travel home to San Francisco and on official business is the latest tempest to hit the House of Representatives.
The speaker of the House has been provided a jet from the government fleet to use for official business since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks because of security concerns.
Former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert used a military 12-seat jet to carry him mainly from Washington's Andrews Air Force Base to airports near his home district in Chicago's suburbs. [..]
LOL! The righties will beat this drum until a Democrat makes a joke which they can twist into a racist remark or an insult for the troops. Another wag the dog so they can take our eyes off Iraq...
This is going to be SOP for Republicans for the next two years. They have the bloody war .. the deficit .. the treason .. the lying .. the $9 billion in missing funds. .. OMG what can we do to stop the bleeding?
NANCY WANTS A JUMBO JET! YES THAT'S IT!
Oh, and I heard on rightie radio that Pelosi attended a Madrasas when she was an embryo .. yes, I think her pregnant mother walked by one .. that surely explains why Nancy supports the terrorists and hates our freedom.....
$800 billion pissed away in Iraq and the GOP doesn't say a mumbling word, but suddenly worries about the size of Pelosi's .. plane. This whole deal is definitely orchestrated by Republicans to damage her.
If Hastert had needed to fly to CA instead of Chicago, the same Republicans would be crying National Security! .. would insist that he had a more suitable plane for the longer flight.
There already seems to be a very simple solution. Hastert had a 12-seat jet, and the article says there's a C-37 16-seat jet currently in the Air Force fleet that can fly to San Fran non-stop.
I don't think 4 extra seats is going to turn it into a lobbyist flying tour bus. It's silly that the GOP wants to whine about those 4 seats.
But, wait a minute .. if a plane that needs high security has to land to refuel, isn't this going to cost more money for a special security detail at refueling?
Look at the bottom line. What costs more, a slightly larger plane, or Secret Service having to go out to the Denver airport, background check the ground crew, inspect the fuel truck, probably have to test the fuel for tampering, station a guard, etc. .. then there's the airport fees (landing isn't free, right?) and the cost of a refueling crew.
It also takes much more fuel to land and take off again than to just stay in the air.
I'm willing to bet it costs a lot more to land in Denver to refuel than to use a slightly larger plane that the Air Force already has .. it's not like anyone has to go out and buy a brand new plane.
Speaker Pelosi insisted she has not requested a plane of any size, but rather asked about the option to fly non-stop. "That's really the issue," she said, "If they can have a plane that goes cross-country, then I'll take that plane. If they don't, I will go commercial."
I even heard that Bush himself said it is silly to be worrying about what kind of plane Nancy Pelosi uses .. Press Sec. Tony Snow said that Republican criticism was unfair and that the Bush administration sided with Pelosi.
Whoa .. hell must be gettin' ready to freeze over ....
Hey Turd Blossom, it's honest work .. unlike what you do
White House Red-Faced Over Rove Immigration Remark
February 09, 2007 ABC News' Karen Travers Reports: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove explained the Bush Administration's guest worker program and immigration policy at a luncheon Thursday by saying, "I don't want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas."
....White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino told ABC News that the White House does not deny that Rove made the remark but claims it has been taken out of context." [..]
Let’s put it in context then--Wouldn’t I be a clueless ass if I said, “I don’t want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas?” (paraphrasing The Great Jon Stewart)
"Well, y'all know that our blacks got all uppity and haven't really worked since we let them go free .. and these Mexicans don't seem to mind workin' all that much .. they keep comin' back for more .. they're friendly and don't bother the white folks too much with talkin' since they don't speak the lingo."
It's one thing to argue for immigrant labor on grounds that you think society is best served by cheap tomatoes and low hotel rates .. but what Rove seems to be doing is deriding the dignity of that work. Not only can immigrants do it cheaper than native workers, it's that native workers, or at least Rove's son, should be above doing it at all.
Surely, no one believes that Mexican laborers want THEIR kids to spend their lives picking tomatoes.
Oh, to live the life of a rich white fat cat in Karl Rove's America .. brown skinned people to mow the lawn, clean your house, cook your meals, tend your kids, make your drinks (and with none of that pesky minimum wage nonsense), pay the taxes and send their kids to war.
Wealthy white fat cat spawn *should* be picking tomatoes, busing tables and making beds .. they should see how it is to hustle for dollars just like poor people have to do for survival.
Seems like that's what the Kennedy's do -- their motto is something like 'For those to whom much is given, much is expected' -- that or having them serve in the Peace Corps.
That's what 17 year olds are supposed to do. How else is a kid supposed to learn how to hold a job, earn some money and be responsible. Those menial labor jobs used to be for kids, so they could save money for college. Tuition was so low, also living expenses, that kids could actually work their way through college.
At least Rove's statement was a refreshing change from the phony "they're stealing our jobs" crowd. The immigrants are here because they do work that Americans are unwilling to do. Period.
Well .. much ado about nothing. Soon, Rove will certainly be giving his son enlistment material so he can decide which branch of the military he wants to join. College can wait, unless you want the terrorists to win.
Good luck kid -- watch your back.
And about that White House red face -- Wait until the various congressional investigations get through with them .. we’ll see how red faced they’re going to be. Libby’s trial already exposed that they would stoop as low as outright “treason” to carry out their agenda.
2007/2/9
A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money
"WASHINGTON: A House committee report has questioned whether some of the billions of dollars in cash shipped to Iraq after the American invasion — mostly in huge, shrink-wrapped stacks of $100 bills — might have ended up with the insurgent groups now battling American troops.
The report was made public Tuesday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at a hearing when Democrats sharply questioned the former American civilian administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, about lax management of the nearly $12 billion in cash shipped to Iraq between May 2003 and June 2004.[..]
"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone?" ~ Rep. Henry Waxman
Rep. Waxman, D-CA, chairman of the committee, grilled Bremer about how he failed to establish any control over the money after 363 tons of cash was loaded onto airplanes and sent into the war zone in 2003. He said US officials had "no way of knowing whether the cash would wind up in enemy hands."
That's right .. we probably literally gave the enemy money so they could kill us.
Waxman said the total amount of Iraqi funds shipped to Iraq was $12 billion .. $8.8 billion of it can't be accounted for.
And Bremer tried (with little success) to explain what he did with a whopping 363 TONS of newly printed, shrink-wrapped $100 bills he had flown to Baghdad.
That'll be $12 billion in cold, hard American-taxpayer cash .. and no one, especially Bremer, seems to know what happened to it. He said a lot of the cash was delivered to ministries of the Iraqi government to meet payrolls. Turns out, fraudulent payrolls.
The Department of Defense's special Inspector General for Iraq, Stuart Bowen, said that an audit he conducted found that in some ministries the payroll was padded with up to 90 percent "ghost employees" .. people who didn't really work there or maybe didn't really exist.
Bremer told Capitol Hill that he decided to provide the money to meet those payrolls, even though he knew they were bogus, because he didn't want to start riots among the Iraqis.
Okay. But why didn't he at least get a reciept somewhere?
I can't remember any time in American history when we sat idly by while $12 billion just sort of disappeared .. poof .. without a paper trail .. without heads rolling .. without someone doing some hard time.
What really galls me is that this was all happening at a time in the war when US soldiers and Marines were going without properly armored vehicles .. without lifesaving body armor .. and even without some of the weapons they needed.
It's about time we the people stood up on our hind legs and did something. When will we realize that this is only the tiny tip of an iceberg of fraud, waste, abuse and corruption .. pulled off by the Bush White House, its military contractor buddies and their lackies on Capitol Hill?
The cost of this war will soon reach a trillion dollars. How much of that was skimmed off by crooked and inept contractors, greedy defense corporations and Iraqi government crooks that we created and installed?
I'm waiting for them to ask Bremer or the inspector general how much of that $12 billion in cash was handed out to American contractors in Baghdad ...
So far we've wasted $600 billion on a war that we're losing, day by bloody day .. and here our president comes with a federal budget that cuts Medicare, Medicaid, Education, Homeland Security and even hits Veterans up for higher health care enrollment fees .. all to find billions more for that war.
Fat cats and rich corporations still get tax breaks that they don't need. And meanwhile, instead of trying to right the wrongs, many of our congresscritters -- on both sides of the aisle -- jockey for campaign contributions they need for re-election by putting themselves in the vest pockets of the very robber barons they're supposed to be policing.
So.... wasn't it nice that President Bush awarded Bremer the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
For what you ask? Must be for being completely incompetent and totally screwing up the first two years of the Iraq war beyond belief.
Move over Diaper-Girl
There's a juicier tale for the media to tell .. and tell .. and tell ..
Just when you think an astronaut driving 900 miles wearing a wig, trench coat and a diaper, to confront her romantic rival with pepper spray, a BB gun, a mallet and a knife, is bizarre enough ..
.. here comes the mysterious death of a former Playboy playmate, jeans model, widow of a 90 y/o oil tycoon and reality TV star .. who has a baby and two guys claiming to be the father .. and a paternity test will have to determine who will control the baby's ton of money, which is waiting in some Texas court.
Wouldn't it be even weirder if neither one fathered the baby?
The only people who will benefit from all this grief are the lawyers.
You can't make this stuff up .. and I see made-for-TV-movie written all over both these stories.
Yep, astronaut Nowak can relax, something even more tabloid-licious came along and knocked her off the headlines. No doubt the media will be full of Anna Nicole stories and every detail of her messed-up life will be picked over relentlessly for weeks to come.
And there goes another two weeks of coverage taken from Iraq .. which just ended its deadliest month. It says a lot about our current culture of celebrity that we're paying such attention to a love-crazed astronaut and a dead fame-crazed pin-up girl while our country slips further down the rathole.
It struck me how much Lisa Nowak and Anna Nicole Smith are such diametric opposites. Geekiness, meet sexiness. Nowak, the astronaut, was the woman who went into the male-dominated field of mechanical engineering, and then on to NASA -- Smith, the sex goddess exhibionist who rose from burger stand waitress to nudie queen in Playboy, and is famous only for her messy life and spilling out of her dress.
But, we should all remember that at the center of Anna Nicole's mess is an actual person, a child, who can’t even walk or talk yet .. and didn’t ask to be born into such chaos and controversy.
What an awful start in life for this little baby girl. Her brother died days after she was born, and now her mother is dead .. all before she turns a year old. What awaits her in life? Sadly she will be the focus of morbid curiosity and will probably be in the spotlight as much as her mother was .. certainly a pawn in a tug-of-war over all those millions of dollars. She might not even be safe ..
I also feel sorry for Nowak's children .. the saddest part of her story. Will they ever heal correctly with all the media coverage that's invaded their lives? Imagine them trying to go to school and act normal.
And speaking of sad .. don't think I have forgotten all the children who have had a parent killed in Iraq.
Anyway, Nowak won't be forgotten by the late-night TV hosts. As Jon Stewart said on "The Daily Show" .. things haven’t been this good for television comics since the vice president shot an old man in the face.
I don't think they'll make too many jokes about Anna Nicole's death ..
Will they?
2007/2/8
Houston, we reeeeeally have a problem
Gah! So many headline puns, so little time .. "Lust in Space" .. "Dark Side of the Loon" ..
Until recently, astronaut Lisa Nowak was best known as an award-winning Naval officer who flew on the shuttle Discovery .. she is now tabloid fodder as a love-sick woman embroiled in an alleged love triangle and charged with attempted murder.
# What I did for love....
"(CBS/AP) NASA said Wednesday it would review its psychological screening process after an astronaut's arrest on charges she tried to murder a woman she believed was her romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affections.
The space agency will review the selection process for astronauts and the amount of screening they get after they are chosen......[..]"
I am surprised that NASA feels the need to review their program. Are they worried about funding? Looks like the poor woman just snapped. Katie Couric asked some suit at NASA if there would be stricter emotional evaluations for its astronauts. Cracked me up.
Now, psychological screening for presidents is another matter .. after all, that job is a little bit more important than an astronaut.
And BTW, Nowak's "more than a work relationship, less than a romantic relationship" is code talk for adultery will get you kicked out of the Navy. Her lawyer got to her in time.
It's the diaper that does it .. makes it so titillating. The planned attack, well, we're used to that .. an attack would be worth about two days intense news coverage. But, when an incredibly smart accomplished woman puts on a wig and a trench coat and drives 900 miles in a diaper to confront a romantic rival ....
If you thought TV cable news was intoxicated with the "runaway bride" .. boy, you ain't seen nothin' yet. We'll be hearing about this one for a looooong time.
Another thing -- it's interesting that the news hounds refer to Nowak as a 'female astronaut' and not just an 'astronaut.' If she were a man, they wouldn't say 'male astronaut.'
Anyway, I'll bet they're cheering in the White House .. finally, a hot news story to deflect attention from the Libby trial, Bush's new budget and the Iraq mess.
CNN is bad enough, but I'm told Fox News and Sheppard Smith spent about 45 minutes on the astronaut story yesterday .. reporting very little other important news .. except for a bill being suggested in NY about not being able to talk on cell phones or listen to ipods while crossing a street ...
Well, the astronaut story does have sex, violence, and diapers.
But you know, maybe we all need a break .. maybe something bizarre, and let's face it, funny, is what we need to release a little tension from worrying about our country and world affairs.
Oh the jokes .. The New Depends Astronaut Series .. Commander Oefelein was just trying to get some Tang.....Poontang. Those late-night guys have no mercy.
But, funny as it is, this woman's strange fall from grace is an incredibly sad story. Here she spent years preparing herself for her career .. then lets love/sex get in the way and everything goes to hell.
There's an old saying about how women take too seriously what men shake at them in jest. Just goes to show .. women think with their brains and hope with their hearts while men do neither.....
2007/2/6
Beware Kristof .. don't go quail hunting
Kristof to Cheney: Answer These Questions on Libby Case -- Or Resign
Pulitzer winning NYTimes columnist Nicholas Kristof asked VP Cheney some interesting questions in his Tuesday column .. questions coming out of the Libby/CIA leak trial that Kristof thinks Cheney should answer.
Kristof said: "I’m not accusing you of committing a crime. But there are serious questions here, and you owe the nation not legalisms, but that 'stiff dose of truth' If you continue to stonewall, then you don’t belong in office and you should resign."
He kicked off with, "So, Mr. Cheney, now that the Scooter Libby trial is raising doubts about your own integrity, you owe the nation an explanation."
Here are three of the six questions posed by Kristof in urging Cheney to "come clean." The rest of the column is available behind the pay wall at www.nytimes.com.
-- Mr. Vice President, did you push Mr. Libby to dig into Joe Wilson’s background and discredit him? Mr. Libby made such a major effort to gather materials from the C.I.A. and State Department about Mr. Wilson — both before and after you told him on June 12, 2003, that his wife worked at the C.I.A. — that it seems likely that you commanded the effort. True?
-- What did you mean when you wrote, in a note to Scott McClellan that has been entered into evidence, “not going to protect one staffer + sacrifice the guy [[the Pres.]] that was asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of incompetence of others.”
First, you wrote that it was “the Pres.” who had asked Mr. Libby to do this, and then you crossed out those two words. Did President Bush indeed ask that Mr. Libby take charge of the effort to discredit Ambassador Wilson? And is it true, as was hinted at in the trial, that the White House tried to block the release of this document?
-- When you discussed Joe Wilson with Mr. Libby on Air Force Two on July 12, 2003, what instructions did you give him?
Trial testimony indicates that on that flight, Mr. Libby looked over some questions a reporter had sent in about Mr. Wilson and then said: “Let me go talk to the boss and I’ll be back.” After consulting with you, Mr. Libby later called reporters to feed them a skewed version of Mr. Wilson’s trip.[..]"
I have to keep reminding myself that this trial is *not* about the outing of Plame .. it’s about what Libby the Scapegoat knew, when he knew it, and whether he can make a jury think he forgot it.
But in a larger sense, it's an examination of how this administration has conducted itself on matters of national security .. and on Iraq, specifically.
Sworn testimony from inside Cheney's own office confirms that stickin' it to the Wilsons was a major preoccupation .. I'm so glad sunlight finally exposed that.
It boggles the mind to think that the VP used crass political schemes to blow the cover of a CIA front organization--which was working in nuclear nonproliferation--in order to cover up that the White House subverted actual intelligence .. and cherry-picked their way into a war.
Realistically, if there was a White House-led criminal conspiracy into the run up to the war, it won't be uncovered in the Libby trial .. we'll just have to wait for congressional hearings and see what they turn up.
Thank goodness this trial is providing ammunition by the truckload.
Yep, FBI agent Deborah Bond testified last week that Libby said that he may have talked with Cheney on July 12, 2003, about going after Plame.
And now the trial judge has ruled that the seven hours of audio tapes of Libby's grand jury testimony will be released to the media. Stay tuned...
"Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in tapes played Monday in the CIA leak trial, pressed Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff on whether Cheney