Sooner Blue

Mostly politics, a few current events, a squirt of seltzer down yer pants .. a little blog for my rambles and rants.

2007/7/31

The Feds raid Ted

@ 07:25 AM (71 months, 20 days ago)

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy .. he is without a doubt the nastiest tempered man in the senate.
 
The Feds raided Alaskan GOP senator Ted Stevens' home with a search warrant .. note that the raid was carried out by FBI *and IRS agents* .. which means that Ted may soon have tax fraud problems.
 
The Republicans just aren't having a very good week. Here another one is probably involved in a crime.
 
We all remember ol' Ted Stevens, of course .. mostly from the Bridge to Nowhere .. or the Daily Show's favorite clip of him yelling "NO!", that nobody was going to take that bridge from Alaska. Also, he indignantly refused to put oil company executives under oath when they were called to testify before his committee.
 
My personal favorite is his explanation on C-SPAN of how the Internet works .. through a series of tubes, not trucks.
 
Stay tuned and ramp up Queens' "Another One Bites the Dust"....
 
From the Washington Post, Tuesday, July 31, 2007:
"Agents from the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service raided the Alaska home of Sen. Ted Stevens (R) yesterday as part of a broad federal investigation of political corruption in the state that has also swept up his son and one of his closest financial backers, officials said.
 
Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in history, is under scrutiny from the Justice Department for his ties to an Alaska energy services company, Veco, whose chief executive pleaded guilty in early May to a bribery scheme involving state lawmakers.
 
Contractors have told a federal grand jury that in 2000, Veco executives oversaw a lavish remodeling of Stevens's house in Girdwood, an exclusive ski resort area 40 miles from Anchorage, according to statements by the contractors.[..]"
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001427.html?hpid=topnews
 
Hmm .. that'd be the same home that was doubled in size by renovations in 2002, and I'm shocked, shocked, to learn that the contractor was Veco, the corrupt oil company whose former CEO has been convicted of bribing Alaska politicians. AND, as prosecutors have pointed out, was not in the business of residential construction or remodeling.
 
But hey, I'm sure that lots of oil companies suddenly decide to help someone remodel their home .. especially if that someone happens to be, say, the senior senator from an oil state or something.
 
The biggest stink will be about payment for the job. When asked about the investigation a couple of weeks ago, Ted said he paid every bill he received with his own money.
 
That's crooked politician talk for he paid a couple of the little bills .. but Veco did not bill him for ALL the services rendered.
 
Meanwhile, looks like the GOP still hasn't cleaned out its corruption closets yet.
 
Yeah, yeah .. I know, Democrats can be corrupt too .. just not as many lately. But just wait until they get into the White House and have better chances.
 
Sadly, with all these shady deals sometimes our government resembles the mafia.
 
...with all due respect to the mafia.
 

2007/7/30

W's reign of error turns R's into D's

@ 05:47 AM (71 months, 21 days ago)
 
Brothers and Sisters
By MAUREEN DOWD, New York Times columnist
 
W.’s odyssey is one of the oddest in history, a black sheep who leapt above expectations and then crashed back down. It must be a crushing burden for President Bush to have wrought the opposite of what he intended in so many profound ways.
 
For me, one of the most amazing reversals brought about by W.’s reign of error is this: He may have turned my sister into a Democrat.
 
As a girl, Peggy shivered in the bitter cold through a coatless John Kennedy’s inaugural speech, and when she saw W. “debone” Ann Richards in a Texas debate in ’94, she thought: “This guy will be the greatest president since J.F.K. He’s so good looking, bright. He’s got everything going for him.”
 
She volunteered at the Republican convention in 2000, toting a “W Stands for Women” sign. I snuck her into the press pen at a breakfast with George and Laura and had to tackle her when, to the consternation of reporters, she began cheering as if at a Redskins game. She flew to West Virginia to work a phone bank for W. She sat up all night election night (in vain).
 
She cut back on Christmas presents to give him money, and proudly displayed pictures of herself at fund-raisers, one with W., one with Dick Cheney. She canceled her Times subscription when I wrote about the rigged buildup to the Iraq war, and called “Bushworld” (my chronicle of W.’s warped reality) “that silly book.”
 
She once told a reporter that she couldn’t totally choose W. over me because she knew if she were dying “he won’t come and hold my hand, and I know Maureen will.” So imagine my surprise when she started talking about voting for Barack Obama or John Edwards, if they stop “pussyfooting” around Hillary.
 
“W.’s loyalty to Cheney has hurt his presidency,” she says sadly. “When Cheney picked himself as vice president, W. should have said, ‘Bug off.’ He could have made his own banquet instead of choosing leftovers. If only he had dialed his father or listened to Powell instead of Cheney and Rumsfeld on Iraq. Not only has W. brought himself down, he’s brought down John McCain, who I wanted to support but can’t because of the war.
 
“I grew up in the shadow of Walter Reed and was used to seeing servicemen without limbs. But recently after watching a special on soldiers coming home from Iraq with brain injuries, I picked up a picture of my four nephews and I know how I would feel if they had fought in Iraq and came home without limbs or in body bags.
 
“We are spending billions on this war, and yet veterans and their children are practically getting nothing. I’m no longer a Republican. I’m an American, and I will cast my vote for the person I believe will start the process to get out of Iraq — unless, of course, it’s Hillary.”
 
I knew my family’s cocky red state of mind had changed when one of my O’Reillyesque brothers used a mocking nickname for W., and expressed disgust about Iraq.
 
Another, Kevin, praises W. on the economy but not on immigration, noting that our father, who came from Ireland in steerage at 19, had to fight in World War I to win citizenship: “The secret key to the puzzle is the word illegal.”
 
He supports W. on Iraq but agrees that “one of the president’s greatest assets, loyalty, has turned into his Achilles’ heel. When I started my sales career, an older rep advised me: ‘Stay away from the mean drinkers in the bar. They start the fight but someone else always gets hit.’ George Bush is getting hit because he won’t move away from ‘the mean drinkers.’ ”
 
“The word neocon bothered me because I have an aversion to zealotry,” he continues. “An uncomfortable visual of Cheney, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld manning the Situation Room in a scene reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove and Gen. Buck Turgidson — ‘No more than 10 to 20 million killed, tops, uh, depending on the breaks’ — began to haunt me. How could we have underestimated the postwar situation in Iraq so badly? Is our intelligence that poor, or did the people making the decisions even care?
 
“The Republicans got exactly what they deserved in the last election. They fell on the same sword they had brilliantly wielded to gain power. Tom DeLay was as corrupt as Jim Wright, Dennis Hastert as inept as Tom Foley.”
 
Even in his demoralized state, Kevin warns Democrats: “Memo to Nancy and Harry — a default blind date to the prom is not the basis for a long-term relationship.”
 
My sister still has her picture of W. up. But Cheney is face down in the laundry room.
 

2007/7/28

Hackers make child's play of voting machines

@ 08:46 AM (71 months, 23 days ago)
 
What do I really worry about: Terrorists? No. Voter fraud? Hell, yes!
 
I am much more afraid of a Diebold voting machine than Osama bin Laden.
 
HBO had a show on voting machines a few months ago .. and actually set up a sequence where three people voted and a hacker hacked in and changed the votes .. BUT recorded that they had voted on a paper copy the way they actually had!
 
And now this from the NYTimes, July 28, 2007:
Scientists’ Tests Hack Into Electronic Voting Machines in California and Elsewhere
 
Computer scientists from California universities have hacked into three electronic voting systems used in California and elsewhere in the nation and found several ways in which vote totals could potentially be altered, according to reports released yesterday by the state.
 
The reports, the latest to raise questions about electronic voting machines, came to light on a day when House leaders announced in Washington that they had reached an agreement on measures to revamp voting systems and increase their security.
 
The House bill would require every state to use paper records that would let voters verify that their ballots had been correctly cast and that would be available for recounts.
 
.....The California reports said the scientists, acting at the state’s request, had hacked into systems from three of the four largest companies in the business: Diebold Election Systems, Hart InterCivic and Sequoia Voting Systems.

Thousands of their machines in varying setups are in use.[..]"
 
http://tinyurl.com/2t3ydm
 
A lot of Democrats think our elections have already been hi-jacked by Republicans .. by controlling resources and making sure that Afro-American and low income voters didn't have enough machines and voting precincts .. and by pressuring US Attorney Generals to participate in vote caging.
 
When Monica Goodling, with immunity in her hot little hand, recently testified before Congress about the US Attorney scandal, she made several references to caging. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) said she wasn't familiar with the term and asked Goodling to clarify. Goodling hemmed and hawed, finally said that caging is "a direct-mail term, that people who do direct mail, when, when they separate addresses that may be good versus addresses that may be bad."
 
What that means in straight talk is vote caging is an illegal trick to get rid of minority voters -- who tend to vote for Democrats -- by getting them knocked off the voter rolls.
 
It's a fact that in 2004 the Bush/Cheney camp sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked "Do not forward" to certain voters' homes. Letters returned --"caged"-- were used as evidence to block these voters' right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses.
 
Who were these evil fakers? Students, homeless people .. and, you have to love this, American soldiers on duty in Iraq .. all in predominantly African American and Democratic areas.
 
One of the things Congress wants to know in this US Atty investigation is whether senior officials at the White House and the Justice Department tried to reward Karl Rove's protege -- Timothy Griffin of Arkansas -- with a US Attorney position because Griffin had engaged in "illegal voter suppression tactics."
 
And did these same officials hope to cover it up by bypassing the confirmation process?
 
All that could help explain the White House's role in the US Atty firing purge.
 
THIS is why senators are so hot on this investigation.
 
Ah well .. we may never have a totally tamper-proof voting system of ANY kind .. it's just too huge of a task with too many stages of transferring information.
 
No electoral system is absolutely tamper-free, but Paper and Pencil, locked and sealed ballot-boxes, and hand-counted votes .. that's the best way to go. Thank goodness we still vote this way in Oklahoma.
 
This shouldn't be partisan folks .. our democracy is at stake.
 

2007/7/27

Gonzales got some 'splainin to do

@ 08:03 AM (71 months, 24 days ago)

"Mommy, why is the lying man still in charge of the law?"
...as Jon Stewart asked.
 
Let's make this fun .. everytime Attorney General Gonzales lies, we have to take a drink.
 
Oh my poor liver...
 
"WASHINGTON - The head of the FBI contradicted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' sworn testimony and Senate Democrats requested a perjury investigation Thursday in a fresh barrage against President Bush's embattled longtime friend and aide.
 
...On Tuesday, Gonzales repeatedly and emphatically denied that the dispute was about the terrorist surveillance program."
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070726/ap_on_go_co/congress_gonzales
 
CNN said a Gonzales spokesman maintained that the attorney general stands by his testimony.
 
From what I hear, witnesses are given the chance to review and correct their testimony. This guy won't even do that? Is he that dumb? He could just say that he was mistaken or something.
 
Or that he just can't keep track of so many lies and slipped up.
 
Yet .. why would he bother changing his testimony with Commutation Guy sitting in the Oval Office?
 
Much ado about nothing you say? You say that US Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president and can be fired at any time for any reason?
 
Sorry bucky, but serving "at the pleasure of the President" is NOT to say that they can be fired for any reason at all.
 
Say .. what if aides of a top leader of one party hinted -- in a period of time shortly before the election -- that attorneys need to prosecute politicians from the other party as much as possible .. AND to prosecute politicians from the same party as little as possible?
 
And what if just hinting was not successful, so to put a little pressure on the attorneys, said aides created a list of attorneys to be fired .. the very ones who had failed to prosecute politicians from party A and not prosecute those of party B.
 
Then they were fired ILLEGALY .. period.
 
But hey, even if you think US Attys can be fired at the pleasure of yada yada ..  do you still think that the Attorney General can perjure himself during Congressional hearings without fear of repercussions?
 
Sorry .. lying to Congress is a crime no matter why he chose to lie.
 
Incoming! Here comes some Bush polyps chucking a Bill Clinton deflection grenade!
 
"Oh Yeah .. well Bubba lied!"
 
Who could've guessed that the greatest threat to America today is what Bill Clinton did 15 years ago?
 
My bet is that Gonzales and the White House are covering up other crimes .. the firing of the attorneys is the tip of the ice berg. Dana Millbank said the other night that there are so many scandals in the DOJ under Gonzales that Democrats are having a hard time focusing on just one.
 
Getting a Special Prosecutor to issue subpoenas is a sure way to circumvent Executive Privilege .. but that could be a long road. It took Ken Starr almost two years before he could issue criminal subpoenas .. but then he was on a fishing expedition and got lucky finding Lewinsky. This time they know what they're going after.
 
Wouldn't it be great if -- for just this once, regardless of political persuasion -- we could all just agree that this Gonzales guy is an incompetent lackey who has no business whatsoever leading an organization as important as DOJ?
 
I won't hold my breath....
 

A little Friday music

@ 05:18 AM (71 months, 24 days ago)
 
Arctic Monkeys
 
A very interesting British guitar band. Yep, silly name .. but one time people thought "The Beatles" was a silly name.
 
Anyway this video is too cool .. and don't try this at home...
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knx9zcZ-amI
 

2007/7/26

China and US duke it out for Iraq's oil?

@ 05:36 PM (71 months, 24 days ago)

Ooops, the latest oil deal fell through.

No wonder Cheney's frantically trying to hang in there.

What a mess they've gotten us into -- just before the invasion, oil was trading at around $30 a barrel .. last I heard it was more than $76 a barrel.

From NYT: "BAGHDAD, July 22 — Efforts to achieve national reconciliation in Iraq received a double blow on Sunday.

Lawmakers acknowledged that there were still many differences on a proposed law to manage oil revenue, the country’s most lucrative resource, making it unlikely they would approve a law before September, when the Bush administration must report to Congress on Iraq’s progress toward meeting certain legislative benchmarks. The report is expected to have an impact on whether Congress continues to support the Iraq war. [..]"

http://tinyurl.com/ynw5tw

Boy they'd better hurry -- looks like US oil companies may have to fight the Chinese for a cut of all that lovely oil. According to the Financial Times, the Iraqi government has "revived a contract signed by the Saddam Hussein administration allowing a state-owned Chinese oil company to develop an Iraqi oil field."

"Iraq wants Chinese firms to bid for oil exploration contracts and hopes to revive the frozen oil exploration contract...."

http://www.iraqupdates.com/p_articles.php/article/18549

With everyone and his brother competing, China will take on political risks in Iran and security risks in Iraq .. just to get an oil share before US firms hog it all up.

And what's this about China writing off Iraq's 8 billion dollar debt?

"Chinese Commerce minister Bo Xilai and three Iraqi ministers signed a deal Thursday to cancel Iraqi debt owed to China's government, and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was set to meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Friday.

...According to Iraq's finance minister, Iraq owes China about $8 billion -- part of the roughly $60 billion in foreign debt accumulated during the Saddam Hussein era."

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070622/china_iraq_debt.html?.v=1

There are already Chinese firms in Iran .. not many competitors there, so they have the opportunity to get involved in super giant oil fields. Iran's oil equipment is old and ready to fall apart .. it needs China's investment to keep the oil flowing.

Iran could give such sweet oil deals to China that it might persuade them to look the other way when the subject of backing sanctions against Tehran comes up .. you know, over all that silly nuclear business.

Iraq has the third largest reserves in the world and only 10 percent of the country has been explored for oil. Since US laws prohibit American firms from investing in the Islamic Republic, Iraq's oil becomes all the more important.

Heck, that could be the main reason we invaded. <coff coff>

Here's the secret Republican plan to bring the troops home from Iraq:

Delay until Cheney and his Big Oil buddies get the oil deal they want .. delay until September .. delay until October .. delay until November .. delay until the spring of 2008 .. delay until the spring of 2009.

Cheney will be out of office in January 2009 .. so spring may come a bit earlier that year.

 

Glad you're OK, now shut the hell up

@ 06:59 AM (71 months, 25 days ago)

Yesterday, Bush held a quick news conference and gave a tepid acceptance of the Walter Reed Commission report...
 
Read about it here:
 
...anyway, ABC's Bob Woodruff was in the press gallery .. and Bush's prepared speech recognized Woodruff’s personal journey back from near-fatal injuries he'd suffered in Iraq:
 
"I also want to recognize Bob Woodruff here. He is a — he himself was wounded, severely wounded, and went through the system, to a certain extent. And we welcome you back, and we’re glad you’re with us. And we would hope that any wounded soldier, any person in uniform would receive the kind of care and the ability to return to work, just like you have done. And so we’re glad you’re with us, Bob. Congratulations on the will to recover…"

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070725.html
 
Nice little nod to Bob, huh? Compassionate, huh? But wait a minute .. there’s more to the story I heard on NPR radio.
 
Everything would have been fine, had Woodruff not had the temerity to actually ask a question .. about whether the government was moving fast enough to help families.
 
The preznit declined to answer .. and not just the smile-and-nod-and-not-answer routine. He gave that snarky little laugh and said, “Just because I recognized you, Bob, doesn’t mean I’m going to answer your questions here.”
 
In other words -- “Thanks for letting me use you as a prop, Bob, now shut the hell up.”
 
How do you like that? Upstaging a guy who had half his head blown off.
 
And I'd bet my life on one thing -- that the 'system' civilian Bob Woodruff went through once he was back stateside isn't the same one that our similarly wounded vets are put through.
 
If only Bob would do a special segment on how he was USED as a prop at Bush's event .. on how Bush snubbed him.
 
If only we lived in a democratic society and were free to ask our president questions .. or not have him run like a thief in the night when we ask a tough question.
 
Oh to have a president who can think on his feet and speak spontaneously and coherently without a written speech.
 

2007/7/25

Gates can cry but Hillary is no sob sister

@ 05:35 PM (71 months, 25 days ago)

Tough enough to smack around dictators

MoDo's latest take on Hillary. I used to think Hillary was unelectable (and she may be) because of the negative press she gets .. especially from right wing radio. But then, that machine will slime any Democrat, whoever gets the nomination. I still don't know who I'll vote for, but it might be worth seeing Hillary win because it will drive the Rabid Righties absolutely insane.

By MAUREEN DOWD, NYT columnist, July 22, 2007, WASHINGTON

A Woman Who’s Man Enough

Things are getting confusing out there in Genderville.

We have the ordinarily poker-faced secretary of defense crying over young Americans killed in Iraq.

We have The Washington Post reporting that Hillary Clinton came to the floor of the Senate in a top that put "cleavage on display Wednesday afternoon on C-SPAN2."

We have Mitt Romney spending $300 for makeup appointments at Hidden Beauty, a mobile men’s grooming spa, before the California debate, even though NBC would surely have powdered his nose for free.

We have Elizabeth Edwards on a tear of being more assertive than her husband. She argued that John Edwards is a better advocate for women than Hillary, explaining that her own experience as a lawyer taught her that "sometimes you feel you have to behave as a man and not talk about women’s issues."

We have Bill Clinton, who says he’d want to be known as First Laddie, defending his woman by saying, "I don’t think she’s trying to be a man."

We have The Times reporting that Hillary’s campaign is quizzical about why so many women who are like Hillary — married, high income, professional types — don’t like her. A Times/CBS News poll shows that women view her more favorably than men, but she has a problem with her own demographic and some older women resistant to "a lady president" from the land of women’s lib.

In a huge step forward for her, The Times said that "all of those polled — both women and men — said they thought Mrs. Clinton would be an effective commander in chief."

So gender isn’t Hillary’s biggest problem. Those who don’t like her said it was because they don’t trust her, or don’t like her values, or think she’s too politically expedient or phony.

There is a dread out there about 28 years of Bush-Clinton rule. But most people are not worried about Hillary’s ability to be strong. Anyone who can cast herself as a feminist icon while leading the attack on her husband’s mistresses, anyone who thinks eight years of presidential pillow talk qualifies her for the presidential pillow, is plenty tough enough to smack around dictators, and other Democrats.

John Edwards and Barack Obama often seem more delicate and concerned with looking pretty than Hillary does. Though the tallest candidate usually has the advantage, Hillary has easily dominated the debates without even wearing towering heels.

When she wrote to Bob Gates asking about the Pentagon’s plans to get out of Iraq, it took eight weeks for an under secretary, Eric Edelman, to send a scalding reply, suggesting that she was abetting enemy propaganda. But Mrs. Clinton hit back with a tart letter to Secretary Gates on Friday and scored something of a victory, since he issued a statement that did not back up his own creep.

Maybe Hillary has had her tear ducts removed. If she acted like a sob sister on the war the way Mr. Gates did, her critics would have a field day.

Even in an era when male politicians can mist up with impunity, it was startling to see the defense chief melt down at a Marine Corps dinner Wednesday night as he talked about writing notes every evening to the families of dead soldiers like Douglas Zembiec, a heroic Marine commander known as "the Lion of Falluja," who died in Baghdad in May after giving up a Pentagon job to go on a fourth tour of Iraq. "They are not names on a press release or numbers updated on a Web page," he said. "They are our country’s sons and daughters."

The dramatic moment was disconcerting, because Mr. Gates, known as a decent guy who was leery of the Bushies’ black-and-white, bullying worldview, has clearly been worn down by his effort to sort out the Iraq debacle. He and Condi, who worked together under Bush I, have been trying to circumvent the vice president to close Gitmo without much success, while the president finds ingenious new ways to allow torture.

Mostly, though, it was moving — a relief to see a top official acknowledge the awful cost of this war. The arrogant Rummy was dismissive. The obtuse W. seems incapable of understanding how inappropriate his sunny spirits are. And the callous Cheney’s robo-aggression continues unabated. (What could be more nerve-racking than the thought of President Cheney, slated to happen for a couple of hours yesterday while Mr. Bush had a colonoscopy? Could it be — a Medal of Freedom for Scooter?)

Mr. Gates captured the sadness we feel about American kids trapped in a desert waiting to be blown up, sent there by men who once refused to go to a warped war themselves.

Listen to the fed up majority of the American public

@ 07:29 AM (71 months, 26 days ago)

I know that We The People don't underwrite your paychecks, but no matter what you columnists and TV talking heads say, here are the important opinions.
 
We The People don't like the war, don't trust Bush to manage it, and don't think Democrats have gone too far in opposing it. Is that clear?
 
From the latest Washington Post poll:
 
78% think George Bush is too unwilling to change policies in Iraq.
 
55% support legislation to withdraw from Iraq by next spring.
 
55% trust congressional Democrats on the war (only 32% trust Bush).
 
62% think Congress should have the final say about when to withdraw troops.
 
49% think Democrats have done too little to get Bush to change his Iraq policy (only 17% think they've done too much).
 
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/ssi/polls/postpoll_072307.html
 
Wouldn't it be nice if someone competent would try to manage US foreign policy and the war for a change? How many people has Bush appointed through the years that were supposed to "manage" the war .. like, where's the LATEST War Czar guy .. and by the way, didn't Condi used to be in charge of something or other?
 
It's clear from the (non)results that the incompetence of the Bush administration is unparalleled in modern history.
 
A prime example is Osama bin Laden, the evil genius that must be destroyed at all costs. First, he was allowed to escape .. then became "unimportant" .. but now he's back at the top of the evil genius list. Talk about bloody flip-flops .. and that's real blood by the way.
 
The only thing this Bush administration has accomplished has been the destruction of the reputation and future and soul of America.
 
According to Righties like Bill Kristol the public's feelings about the war are twisted because the nasty wiberal media reports only bad news.
 
Last weekend on Fox News Sunday Kristol and Brit Hume said the war was turning in Bush's favor .. that there was a glimmer of some peace in Anbar Province.
 
What they failed to mention is Anbar Province is overwhelmingly Sunni while the rest of Iraq -- where most of the killings of US troops and all the car bombings are taking place -- is a hotbed of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite militants.
 
I've got a great idea for a new reality show:
 
War cheerleaders Bill Kristol and Brit Hume are dropped off at the edge of Anbar Province and have to race to the Baghdad Green Zone without any aid from the US military.
 

2007/7/24

"It was Gladys Knight and the Pips"

@ 08:09 AM (71 months, 27 days ago)

...to quote CNN analyst Jeffery Toobin about the YouTube presidential debate .. and he said Hillary looked like someone who could become president.
 
"LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The first question in presidential debate history to not come from a moderator came courtesy of Chris, a thin white man sitting at a small table at his home in Portland, Ore.
 
In his video, he wore a goatee, baseball cap, two small earrings and tattoos were visible on his arms. Using what could possibly be the first ironic air quotes in presidential debate history, he asked the candidates to please do something "revolutionary" and answer questions directly instead of "beating around the bush." Then he leaned toward the screen and cut his Webcam off.
 
Cut to CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, brow handsomely furrowed, who offered, "We have no idea if this is going to work."[..]
 
http://www.reuters.com/article/televisionNews/idUSN2439421320070724
 
I napped off and on through a repeat of the You-Tube debate, but from what I saw I think it was a success. I wondered if the quality of the questions would be up to snuff and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the questions were mostly thoughtful .. and inspired some nice moments in the debate.
 
First impression? Edwards was doing pretty good -- though I didn't agree with some of his answers -- until he included Hillary's dress in his 'critique' of her. I mean how telling is that .. about his view of women, I mean. It was silly .. would be like Hillary commenting on his tie in her assessment of him.
 
Hillary was strong and made a good showing .. but certainly didn't run away with the thing. I still don't know if she can win, but she impresses me. She is so damn smart, acts reasonable, tough as hell, has freaking nerves of steel. She would be a good president IF she would do what she thinks is right, and not do the bidding of her corporate donors. That's what worries me.
 
OTOH, when I listen to Biden discuss how we get out of Iraq -- he has the best solution of all the people on that stage.
 
I guess Barrack is my favorite so far .. but I don't know if his lack of experience will matter. We might end up with a Clinton/Obama ticket. Anyway, he more than held his own .. but boy is he ever going to be sorry he said that young school kids should be taught about sex enough to know if they are being abused. The Righties are jumping on that like ducks on June bugs.
 
Those two good ol' boys from Tennesse nearly stole the show with their Gore question. “This here question is for all you candidates: Mainstream media seems awful interested in Al Gore these days. Is he losing weight, what’s he say in his book, is he still worrying about ‘ol lies. They interpret all these as signs…if he may or may not run…they really want to know if Al Gore is gonna run again. What we wanna know is, does that hurt ya’ll’s feelings?”
 
Maybe I slept though it, but I didn't hear a single question addressing the immigration issue, and surely there were questions submitted about it!
 
The scariest moment was that guy brandishing an automatic weapon, calling it his baby, asking the candidates' position on gun control. Biden responded "...that guy needs help. I hope he doesn't come looking for me!"
 
A big shout out to Anderson Cooper for making the candidates answer the questions asked .. and kudos to the candidates for answering as well.
 
But, I'm sorry Dodd, Gravel and Kucinich -- because I really agree with a lot you say -- but at some stage you have to leave these formats. Nice guys or not --you have ZERO chance.
 
Bottom line, I would approve of every person on that stage for POTUS before any one of the GOP candidates .. even Newt Gingrich calls them "pathetic pygmies."
 
Anyway .. the next President will probably be a Modern Progressive .. unless Dick invites GW to the next quail hunt. Then all bets are off.

2007/7/23

Maybe this is what's eating Chertoff's gut

@ 08:25 AM (71 months, 28 days ago)

Black pepper with salmonella from India .. crabmeat from Mexico that is too filthy to eat .. not to mention all that contaminated crap from China.
 
And the way these countries self-regulate is by body count.
 
"China’s not the sole source of tainted imports, U.S. rejected more than 3,000 shipments from Mexico, India in last year.
 
MEXICO CITY - Mexican cantaloupe irrigated with water from sewage-tainted rivers. Candy laced with lead. Chinese toothpaste is not the only concern for U.S. consumers wary of the health risks posed by imported goods.
 
Producers in other developing nations are big violators of basic food safety standards, even as they woo consumers with a growing appetite for foods like pickled mangoes from India and winter-season fruits and vegetables from Mexico.
 
....China, already under suspicion as the source of tainted toothpaste, contaminated fish and toxic medicine, had the largest number of violations in the past 12 months, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejecting 1,901 shipments of food or cosmetics. But India and Mexico weren’t far behind, with inspectors rejecting 1,787 and 1,560 shipments, respectively.
 
The biggest reasons? Foods that are unapproved or contain poisons and pesticides. Some are simply dirty, with inspectors finding that the shipment “appears to consist in whole or in part of a filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance or be otherwise unfit for food.”
 
And those are just the problems that are caught. FDA inspectors only have the money and resources to check about 1 percent of the 8.9 million imported food shipments a year.[..]"
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19875319/
 
The article says that Bush has set up a task force to look into the problem.
 
Well, big hooray .. the same guys who helped create the problem of tainted food coming into the US, and lax regulations *inside* the US, will now put together a master plan to solve the problem.
 
Yep, the party of small government (coff coff) just makes government bigger and bigger and bigger.
 
To hell with the panel .. quit underfunding the FDA! Show me the money needed to inspect a lot more than just 1 percent of our imported food. They only have money to inspect 1 percent!
 
This is important .. it means life and death. Don't forget how Mexican green onions caused an outbreak of hepatitis A in people who dined at a Chi-Chi’s .. four people died, more than 600 people were very ill. Not to mention our domestic spinach killers.
 
I saw a government guy on TV say it’s our fault because we want cheap food .. but I have yet to see people rioting in the streets for cheap food. But we certainly need to start kicking up a fuss for safe food.
 
No, it's Big Business who buy crap so they'll make more profit .. and then when their crap begins to sicken and kill pets and people, it’s China’s fault .. or it’s Mexico’s fault .. or India’s fault .. or the consumer’s fault. And they just roll merrily along, with Bush's FDA and USDA to cover their backs.
 
That's why Bush is so against giving poor children health care. It interferes with insurance companies.
 
How many times in the past 50 years -- before this administration took over our government -- did Americans have to worry about the food they were eating?
 
How many times did we have to wonder if the food we were getting from the grocery store was going to give us E Coli, or salmonella, etc.?
 
This administration does not seem to believe in a government FOR the people .. or that the government's job is to protect the general welfare of our citizens. No, the neo-cons want to protect and provide for mega-corporations before they do we the people.
 
Look what greed has done to this country. We were once a great food-producing nation to be proud of .. we loved our farmers. Then during the Reagan years mega-corporations started taking over our food-growing .. farms were lost .. farmers committed suicide.
 
I need to get serious about a garden....
 
 

2007/7/22

No jokes about the Preznit's colonoscopy

@ 06:24 AM (71 months, 29 days ago)
 
Well .. maybe just a teensy one .. like, what did they find up there? .. WMD? .. his head?
 
See .. not so bad. Certainly mild considering what you Righties would say about Clinton's colon.
 
Okay, that out of my system, now I'll share a MoDo column:
 
Hey, W! Bin Laden (Still) Determined to Strike in U.S.
 
By MAUREEN DOWD, NYT columnist, 7/18/2007, WASHINGTON
 
Oh, as it turns out, they’re not on the run.
 
And, oh yeah, they can fight us here even if we fight them there.
 
And oh, one more thing, after spending hundreds of billions and losing all those lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re more vulnerable to terrorists than ever.
 
And, um, you know that Dead-or-Alive stuff? We may be the ones who end up dead.
 
Squirming White House officials had to confront the fact yesterday that everything President Bush has been spouting the last six years about Al Qaeda being on the run, disrupted and weakened was just guff.
 
Last year, W. called his “personal friend” Gen. Pervez Musharraf “a strong defender of freedom.” Unfortunately, it turned out to be Al Qaeda’s freedom. The White House is pinning the blame on Pervez.
 
While the administration lavishes billions on Pakistan, including $750 million in a risible attempt to win “hearts and minds” in tribal areas where Al Qaeda leaders are hiding and training, President Musharraf has helped create a quiet mountain retreat, a veritable terrorism spa, for Osama and Ayman al-Zawahiri to refresh themselves and get back in shape.
 
The administration’s most thorough intelligence assessment since 9/11 is stark and dark. Two pages add up to one message: The Bushies blew it. Al Qaeda has exploded into a worldwide state of mind. Because of what’s going on with Iraq and Iran, Hezbollah may now “be more likely to consider” attacking us. Al Qaeda will try to “put operatives here” — (some news reports say a cell from Pakistan already is en route or has arrived) — and “acquire and employ chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear material in attacks.”
 
(Democrats on cots are ineffectual, but Al Qaeda in caves gets the job done?)
 
After 9/11, W. stopped mentioning Osama’s name, calling him “just a person who’s now been marginalized,” and adding “I just don’t spend that much time on him.”
 
This week, as counterterrorism officials gathered at the White House to frantically brainstorm on covert and overt plans to capture Osama, the president may have regretted his perverse attempt to demote America’s most determined enemy.
 
W. began to mention Osama and Al Qaeda more recently, but only to assert: “The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th.” His conflation is contradicted by the fact that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, as the Sunni terrorist group in Iraq is known, did not exist before 9/11.
 
Fran Townsend, the president’s homeland security adviser, did her best to put a gloss on the dross but failed. She had to admit that the hands-off approach used by Mr. Musharraf with the tribal leaders in North Waziristan, which always looked like a nutty way to give Al Qaeda room to regroup, was a nutty way to give Al Qaeda room to regroup.
 
“It hasn’t worked for Pakistan,” she conceded. “It hasn’t worked for the United States.”
 
Just as we outsourced capturing Osama at Tora Bora to Afghans who had no motive to do it, we outsourced capturing Osama in Pakistan to Mr. Musharraf, who had no motive to do it.
 
Pressed by reporters on why we haven’t captured Osama, especially if he’s climbing around with a dialysis machine, Ms. Townsend sniffed that she wished “it were that easy.” It’s not easy to launch a trumped-up war to reshape the Middle East into a utopian string of democracies, but that didn’t stop W. from making that audacious gambit.
 
The Bushies, who once mocked Bill Clinton for doing only “pinprick” bombings on Al Qaeda, now say they can do nothing about Osama because they can’t “pinpoint” him, as Ms. Townsend put it. She assured reporters that they were “harassing” Al Qaeda, making it sound more like a tugging-on-pigtails strategy than a take-no-prisoners strategy.
 
We’ve had it up the wazir with Waziristan. Surely there are Army Rangers and Navy Seals who can make the trek, even if it’s a no-man’s land. If it were a movie, we’d trace the saline in Osama’s dialysis machine, target it with a laser and blow up the mountain.
 
W. swaggers about with his cowboy boots and gunslinger stance. But when talking about Waziristan last February, he explained that it was hard to round up the Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders there because: “This is wild country; this is wilder than the Wild West.”
 
Yes, they shoot with real bullets up there, and they fly into buildings with real planes.
 
If W. were a real cowboy, instead of somebody who just plays one on TV, he would have cleaned up Dodge by now.
 

2007/7/21

Bush solves US Attorneys mess

@ 07:33 AM (72 months, 5 hours ago)

Well, thank goodness! Now Congress doesn't have to worry about that any more, and can especially forget about filing contempt charges against anybody in the White House.
 
Why? Because contempt charges have to be pursued by US Attorneys .. and the White House told the Justice Department that US Attorneys aren’t allowed to prosecute contempt cases when the preznit claims Executive Privilege.
 
Huh? When did the White House start telling the Justice Department what it could and could not do? I thought the two branches were supposed to keep each other at arms-length .. otherwise someone might get the impression that the White House has the Justice Department in its back pocket. <coff coff>
 
From The New York Times: WASHINGTON, July 20 — The Justice Department would be likely to block any efforts by Congressional Democrats to seek contempt charges against present and former White House officials for refusing to give information to Congress, a White House spokesman said Friday.
 
Congress and the White House have been moving toward a constitutional confrontation over the administration’s invoking executive privilege to prevent any testimony about its role in last year’s dismissal of federal prosecutors. [..]"
 
http://tinyurl.com/2j5a3j
 
So .. Bush is proclaiming that he is above all law. Sort of Putinesque isn't it?
 
Since we are no longer a nation of laws .. we might just as well pack it up and go hide out in the woods. Nixon was right when he said -- "When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal."
 
Too bad Clinton failed to realize this .. all that impeachment crap could have been avoided.
 
Has everyone gone crazy!? People of both parties need to rise up and defend our precious Constitution! .. STOP this administration in its tracks!
 
I rather like this part....
 
"Congress has another route to enforce its will, an inherent power of contempt. But that has not been used since early in the 20th century. It has long been deemed unwieldy in the modern era as it entails Congress stopping all work to hold its own trial and imprisoning any offenders in the basement of the Capitol."
 
Maybe they would sell tickets ....
 
We may have to impeach Gonzalez to combat White House claims of executive privilege .. he deserves it anyway. It would certainly get the media to pay attention .. and would show that Congress means business and won't be shoved around.
 
Please oh please let Bush continue to push the limits of executive authority .. he edges closer and closer to obstruction of justice .. and a weird sort of Catch 22. Because there is no way to determine if obstruction has taken place except through the process of law.
 
The ball is clearly now in Congress' court .. let's see what they are willing, or not willing to do.
 
The first step would be to exercise their contempt powers, which they should have already done last week when Harriet Meirs failed to appear.
 
Ugly Thought: If the Democrats don't fiercely challenge this executive privilege distortion, this declaration of dictatorship .. could it be because they want to inherit these same powers when they get back into the White House?
 
The Republicans really, really oughta think about that......
 

2007/7/19

Al Qaeda recovers, grows stronger on Bush's watch

@ 07:16 AM (72 months, 2 days ago)
 
Guess what? A new National Intelligence report came out Tuesday and said that al Qaeda has gone from an organization that was "seriously damaged" and "disrupted" to one whose capabilities are near the same level they were when they struck the US nearly six years ago.
 
Then Bush runs out to say that while that may be true, al Qaeda is still not as strong as it was on 9/11.
 
So, that's all he can say he has accomplished against the crazy bastards who attacked us .. the ones he said he would destroy?
 
This is why our kids died? He has had six years, and billions of dollars since 9/11 .. and we still aren’t any safer? And how many more NEW enemies do we have?
 
How brilliant of Bush to use America's military strength and numbers to invade Iraq, while drawing away from the far more important job of rooting out al Qaeda.
 
Bush is wrong, wrong, wrong when he claims that the people we are fighting in Iraq are the people who attacked New York and Virginia. "al Qaeda in Iraq" did not even exist until after we invaded Iraq.
 
And now we hear that al Qaeda is getting stronger in Pakistan .. their new safe haven across the border from the old hangout.
 
Isn't Pakistan supposed to be our ally in the war on terrorism? Haven't we given them more than $10 billion since 9/11 to kind of help us out?
 
Okay .. they did go after a couple of al Qaeda leaders who were holed up in their big cities .. but they also signed a written agreement that, in effect, created a sanctuary for terrorists in their northwest territory.
 
Bush's war in Iraq has both weakened the US and strengthened al Qaeda -- and it will continue to do so as long as we stay there grappling with a complex civil war.
 
This makes al Qaeda and copycat cells very happy .. see them dancing in the streets and shooting guns into the air. Their recruitment soars. What could be better for them than the Iraq War?
 
Bush says if we leave Iraq it might become a sanctuary for Al Qaeda.
 
Well Mr. Preznit, Pakistan already is.

 

2007/7/18

Another rat jumps ship

@ 06:45 AM (72 months, 3 days ago)

"A prescription for American suicide."
 
That's from an editorial in the "Pittsburgh Tribune-Review," and it's referring to Bush's policy in Iraq.
 
And guess who wrote it? No, not a Wascally Wibwul Bush Basher .. the newspaper is owned by conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife .. a loyal supporter of Republican politicians and many conservative causes. AND he spent beaucoup money funding a network of investigations into President Clinton's doin's in the 1990s .. paid for those sleazy documentaries that portrayed Clinton as a murderer and a drug runner.
 
The editorial goes on to say that if President Bush does not end this war, the people must do so .. and urges the Senate to follow the House's lead and vote to withdraw troops from Iraq. It says, the term "progress" no longer has any meaning.
 
"The fledgling Iraqi government -- how long can it reasonably be called that -- consistently has not stepped up to the plate. President Bush warns that U.S. withdrawal would risk 'mass killings on a horrific scale.' What do we have today, sir?"
 
Indeed sir .. what happened in Iraq yesterday could be called 'mass killings on a horrific scale'.. suicide bombers killed and wounded hundreds .. executions .. mutilated charred bodies all over the place. Rivers of blood literally ran in the streets.
 
"Quite frankly, during last Thursday's news conference, when George Bush started blathering about 'sometimes the decisions you make and the consequences don't enable you to be loved,' we had to question his mental stability."
 
And now with Bush leaning towards the Cheney position on Iran, there is serious reason to question Bush's mental stability and overall grasp of reality.
 
Wow .. it's getting pretty bad when Righties line up with Lefties to call Bush's Iraq policy a "prescription for American suicide" .. and questions his mental stability.
 
Here's the entire editorial:

"Perhaps Jack Murtha put it best: The Pennsylvania congressman, among the first to make the cogent argument that staying the course in Iraq was the exercise in futility that indeed the war has become, says President Bush is delusional.
 
Based on the president's recent performance, we could not agree more. "Staying the course" is not simply futile -- it is a prescription for American suicide.
 
We've urged for months to bring our troops home. Now is the time.
 
"Progress" has become such a nuanced, parsed and tortured term that it no longer has meaning.
 
The "fledgling" Iraqi government -- how long can it reasonably be called that? -- consistently has not stepped up to the plate.
 
President Bush warns that U.S. withdrawal would risk "mass killings on a horrific scale." What do we have today, sir?
 
And quite frankly, during last Thursday's news conference, when George Bush started blathering about "sometimes the decisions you make and the consequences don't enable you to be loved," we had to question his mental stability.
 
If the president won't do the right thing and end this war, the people must. The House has voted to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by April. The Senate must follow suit.
 
Our brave troops should take great pride that they rid Iraq of Saddam Hussein. And they should have no shame in leaving Iraq. For it will not be, in any way, an exercise in tail-tucking and running.
 
America has done its job.
 
It's time for the Iraqis to do theirs."
 
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/archive/s_517212.html
 
Look at me -- actually agreeing with a Rabid Rightie!
 
After waiting and hoping for so long for this Rightie switch-over to occur, I am actually surprised to see it. Maybe it took a big mouth like O'Reilly to get the conservative ball rolling:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZWKxK-fqxg
 
Don't cry Georgie, at least there is one Rightie who's sticking like glue -- Bill Kristol still thinks you are a great president.
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/13/AR2007071301709.html
 

2007/7/17

"I took the W off my car today"

@ 06:30 AM (72 months, 4 days ago)

Remember Peggy Noonan, the conservative GOP speech writer? Well, she's worried about the preznit just like everybody else .. and seems to suggest that we just run out the clock for the rest of Bush’s presidency and just hope for the best.

She says other Presidents in great enterprises that are going badly seem to suffer -- Lincoln, LBJ with his head in his hands. Why doesn’t Bush?

From The Wall Street Journal:
American Grit
BY Peggy Noonan
Friday, July 13, 2007

We can't fire the president right now, so we're waiting it out.

It's been a slow week in a hot era. I found myself Thursday watching President Bush's news conference and thinking about what it is about him, real or perceived, that makes people who used to smile at the mention of his name now grit their teeth. I mean what it is apart from the huge and obvious issues on which they might disagree with him.

I'm not referring to what used to be called Bush Derangement Syndrome. That phrase suggested that to passionately dislike the president was to be somewhat unhinged. No one thinks that anymore. I received an email before the news conference from as rock-ribbed a Republican as you can find, a Georgia woman (middle-aged, entrepreneurial) who'd previously supported him. She said she'd had it. "I don't believe a word that comes out of his mouth." I was startled by her vehemence only because she is, as I said, rock-ribbed. Her email reminded me of another, one a friend received some months ago: "I took the W off my car today," it said on the subject line. It sounded like a country western song, like a great lament.[..]"

http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110010326

This president has had terrible calamities (9/11, Iraq, Katrina, etc.) and he should appear to have the weight of the world on his shoulders .. or at least look a little worried.

And yet, he brags about how well he sleeps. He takes more vacation time than any president in history .. and he’s constantly smirking, as if he hasn’t a care in the world.

This was especially true in last week's press conference. He seems to be almost amused, especially when he talks about threats against the US. He's probably smiling because he thinks, "These idiots don’t understand the world the way I do" .. but it comes across as a detached president who smirks at crises.

He has failed time after time all his comfortable life and it never really mattered .. he suffered no consequences that mere mortals would face. His rich politician daddy got him out of scrapes with the law, the military and bad business deals.

Some people say he gets his serenity the old-fashioned way -- through chemistry. Legal of course. Say, anti-depressants. When you stop and think about it, he has had a “What? Me worry?” attitude ever since he took office .. even after 9/11 ...

Or, he may think he has a special entitlement as a Born-Again .. who thinks his thoughts come straight from God.

Maybe God promised him that the Rapture will happen before 1/20/2009.

Naw .. he thinks if he just stalls long enough he'll get to hand the messes he's made over to the next president.....
 

2007/7/16

Used up and spit out

@ 06:06 AM (72 months, 5 days ago)

I recently saw, and was sickened by, Bob Woodruff's ABC report on Personality Disorder Discharges, the military's way of dumping soldiers who suffer psychiatric damage during war by claiming that their problems are merely pre-existing conditions that they'd had all along.
 
Discharged soldiers are denied all future benefits and VA care, and in some cases are even required to pay back re-enlistment bonuses they've previously received.
 
Yep, you read right. Soldiers who are suffering from PTSD and traumatic brain injuries -- TBI, the signature injury of this Iraq war and one Woodruff suffered himself -- have been discharged from service under Regulation 635-200, Chapter 5-13: “Separation Because of Personality Disorder.”
 
According to the Department of Defense, since 2001, more than 22,000 servicemen and women from all branches of the military have been separated under the personality disorder discharge.
 
They suffered brain injuries in combat, and our glorious troop-loving-and-supporting government uses 5-13 to just kick them out. Even when they have received service commendations like Purple Hearts .. even when they have been allowed to re-enlist, and received re-enlistment bonuses, they find out when they are out-processing that they will have to repay thousands of dollars of their re-enlistment bonuses.
 
See .. these bonuses carry with them a commitment to serve the entire enlistment. If it isn't served, they leave with NO benefits, NO care for their injuries, and in debt for the portion of their bonus that the military paid for and the soldiers didn't serve out.
 
Thank you Bob Woodruff and ABC for bringing this to light .. for showing what goes on when the GI's come home after daring to get wounded. TBI and PTSD are wounds. To say they aren't facing a lifetime wound because of the trauma they received in combat is the equivalent of telling a GI with his legs blown off it was his fault he drove over an IED.
 
And how many soldiers are afraid to seek treatment because they don't want to be kicked out for being mentally deficient?
 
I am fuming mad and have called and written my Congress critters.
 
Here .. a video is worth a thousand words:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVLOz7xQlE0
 
After serving our country honorably and going to war, they are simply thrown away.
 
Doesn't it make you proud to be an American?
 

2007/7/13

They call these guys brave? Hah!

@ 06:01 AM (72 months, 8 days ago)

"Seven gored at Pamplona bull run"
 
From news.bbc.co.uk: "Seven people have been gored by bulls during the sixth day of this year's annual bull-running festival in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona.
 
Local authorities said three people were in a serious condition and had undergone operations in hospital.[..]"
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6295300.stm
 
Running with the Bulls in Pamplona is for wimps. They wanna prove how brave they are? I've got a better idea. It's called Runnin' With Al Qaeda .. through narrow casbah-like streets in 117 degree heat, loaded down with full gear .. all the while dodging bullets, IEDs and missiles .. don't forget suicide bombers, beware of those flying bone fragments.....
 
This amazing feat of courage and strength is performed everyday in Afghanistan and Iraq by American military men and women and their allies. That's true bravery.
 
Not some silly men in red kerchiefs swatting bulls on the butt.
 

2007/7/12

Harriet Miers tells Congress "Bite me"

@ 07:22 AM (72 months, 9 days ago)

Will they really jail a sweet little old lady?
 
Yesterday afternoon, based on no law that anyone knows about, the White House ordered former WH Counsel Harriet Miers to disobey a congressional subpoena from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her successor, Fred Fielding, insisted that Miers has “absolute immunity.”
 
Anything about this remind you of Nixon's Last Days?
 
It's hard to imagine Miers giving a worse performance than former WH political director Sara Taylor .. but apparently the lawyers for the WH mob thought she would. Surely a woman considered to be US Supreme Court Justice material would be able to hold her own before a House Committee.
 
At least Taylor showed up -- but declined to tell what she knew about the firing of nine US attorneys last year. Turns out her memory is as lousy as that of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales .. who told the committee he "couldn't recall" 64 times.
 
These people took an oath to be loyal to the CONSTITUTION .. NOT the President.
 
From Yahoo news.com: "WASHINGTON - The Bush administration says the president's immediate advisers are absolutely immune from having to appear before Congress, but legal scholars say the issue isn't that clear cut.
 
The question grew more pressing Wednesday as President Bush ordered former White House counsel Harriet Miers to defy a congressional summons in the controversy over the administration's dismissals of federal prosecutors.
 
The Democratic chairmen of the Senate and House judiciary committees have said they would consider introducing contempt of Congress citations against any subpoena recipients who resist.
 
....George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said the White House "could not have picked worse ground" on which to fight executive privilege.[..]"
 
http://tinyurl.com/yqhgq4
 
I don't see how a case can be made that the scandal being investigated touches on "military, diplomatic, or sensitive national security secrets."
 
The need for a criminal investigation should outweigh the privilege itself .. didn't Nixon find this out the hard way?
 
Lawyer friends tell me no one has "absolute immunity" .. that the concept simply doesn't exist in the law. "No one can claim that executive privilege entitles you to ignore the body that subpoenas you."
 
If the Bushies keep pushing this, eventually the Democrats will have no choice but to push back harder.
 
Barring the terrorist attack the Bushies are setting us up for (Chertoff's 'Gut Feeling'), I'll bet we won't recognize the political landscape of this country by next summer.
 
Time to hire a special prosecutor? There's no reason to believe Gonzales will allow an investigation any more than there was reason to believe Mitchell would allow one when Nixon was in trouble.
 
Could ordering a person to disobey a lawful subpoena from a co-equal branch of government be impeachable conduct?
 
Bring me some more popcorn, I will enjoy watching the GOP stonewall this .. bound to play well in Peoria. Just like it did for Nixon.
 

2007/7/11

Top Doc says he was muzzled in Bush's War on Science

@ 08:12 AM (72 months, 10 days ago)

I'm shocked .. shocked to discover that decisions about public health are based on politics and theology, not science .. that the White House manipulates non-partisan government agencies for political gain!

From The New York Times: WASHINGTON, July 10 — Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional committee today that top officials in the Bush administration repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.

....said White House officials would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues because of political concerns. Top administration officials delayed for years and attempted to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand tobacco smoke, he said in sworn testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.[..]"

http://tinyurl.com/236nss

Gah! Sitting on important information about secondhand tobacco smoke! How bad does it have to get before the media does its job!

This cuts to the bone of the need for our government to collect, analyse and dispense medical and public health information without political intervention.

It's sure a slam dunk indictment of the Bushies -- putting politics, ideology and theology over hard science.

But are we really surprised? No .. this is the way Bushies do business. They tell you to shut up and fall in line. Screw science and what's best for America .. just carry out the GOP agenda.

Regardless of the source of the scientific fact .. regardless of the scientific backing behind the fact .. it will be twisted and spun until it fits the needs of the Bush White House.

And hating the Special Olympics just because the Kennedys are involved?! How partisan and depraved can you be to try and stop someone from lending a helping hand to handicapped children?

And talk about a ‘Dear Leader’ administration .. I had to smile at the need to mention Bush three times on every page of every speech.

Okay, okay .. to be fair, Surgeons General C. Everett Koop and David Satcher, who served in the Reagan and Clinton administrations, also complained about political interference on issues such as sexuality or drug use. The Reagan administration didn't want Koop to even discuss the AIDS crisis. He did so anyway.

BUT .. Carmona said his predecessors told him they'd never seen it as partisan, as malicious, as vindictive, as mean-spirited as it is today.

Yep .. a perfect description of what the George W. Bush administration has brought to our White House.

Aside: On the same day these former Surgeons General were blabbing to Congress about the politicization of their office by the White House, China executed the former head of its food and drug organization for approving untested drugs in exchange for cash ...

Wow .. Executed!

... in the US he'd just be fired .. then become a lobbyist .. after Bush gave him a medal of course.

 

2007/7/10

More Republican dirty sex

@ 06:34 AM (72 months, 11 days ago)
 
"They're always coming and going, and going and coming, and always too soon." -- Lili von Schtupp in "Blazing Saddles"
 
Gosh, who's ready for another good old fashioned scandal with Republicans getting caught engaging in illegal sexual activity?
 
(BTW, what's the latest on Mark Foley? Is he still in Pedophile Rehab?)
 
Anyway, how 'bout a round of applause for the voters of Louisiana, particularly the First Congressional District of Louisiana ...
 
From Fox News: "Louisiana Sen. David Vitter apologized Monday for his telephone number showing up on the old phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates, the alleged prostitution ring run in the nation's capital by Deborah Jeane Palfrey.
 
"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in a statement.
 
"Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there --with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way," he wrote.[..]"
 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288740,00.html
 
Why do these creeps always find Jesus AFTER they've poked hookers ..  or snorted blow or stolen taxpayer's money? Why don't they follow His teachings BEFORE they do all that crap?
 
Oooh .. maybe because then they COULDN"T poke hookers, snort blow or steal taxpayer's money.
 
Uh .. there's also a House in New Orleans. Lest we forget, Vitter was once accused (by another Republican) of having an 11-month affair with a known prostitute named Wendy Cortez. He denied it of course .. the story came out just days after Vitter dropped out of the race for governor in June of 2002.
 
http://www.louisianaweekly.com/weekly/news/articlegate.pl?20040329m
 
I'll bet his wife was flattered .. her name is Wendy too. Here's a verrry interesting thing she said back then:

From salon.com: "Asked by an interviewer in 2000 whether she could forgive her husband if she learned he'd had an extramarital affair, as Hillary Clinton and Bob Livingston's wife had done, Wendy Vitter told the Times-Picayune: "I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me."

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2004/10/29/lousiana_race/index.html?pn=3

Sanctimonious Republicans seem to be sort of a tradition down in the First District. Remember Bob Livingstone?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Livingston#Resignation

"Although the Republicans claimed Clinton deserved impeachment because he lied about his sexual indiscretions, many Democrats felt the indiscretions themselves were the main issue.[citation needed] In response, Hustler Magazine publisher Larry Flynt placed an article in his magazine offering up to $1,000,000 for information on sexual indiscretions by Republican officials.

Flynt received evidence that Livingston had strayed outside of his marriage and he was preparing to publish this information. Livingston got word that the article was pending. During debate over the impeachment resolution on December 19, 1998, Livingston surprised everyone by stepping down as Speaker-elect and announced he would resign from the House in May 1999.

He was succeeded by David Vitter, who later went on to become the first popularly elected Republican senator from Louisiana. Vitter defeated Treen in a hard-fought special election runoff.[..]"

Well, I guess after a hard-fought special election runoff, a guy wants to unwind with a few hookers and a little Triple-X fun.

And poor Rudy Giuliani .. Vitter serves as his Southern Regional Chairman...

...right on top of Rudy's campaign chairman Thomas Ravenel being busted for possessing and distributing cocaine.

Sleazy Democrats are going to have to work hard to keep up in the scandal department ...

 

2007/7/9

Was it the 100 dead American kids a month?

@ 07:18 AM (72 months, 12 days ago)

Bush getting ready to 'Cut & Run'?
 
A NY Times article seems to indicate that the White House is looking to get ahead of the feared stampede of Republican Senators to defect from Bush's endless war .. changing Iraq strategy even before September 15th.
 
I love it when they turn on themselves.
 
Of course, such a face-saving move can't be called a "withdrawal" .. so they're calling it a "post-surge redeployment"...
 
One more meaningless phrase that will dominate our political discourse for the next few months. "Post-surge redeployment" will join "stay the course" .. "cut and run" .. "fight them there so we don't fight them here" .. and, of course, "surge."
 
From The New York Times, 07/09/2007:
"White House officials fear that the last pillars of political support among Senate Republicans for President Bush’s Iraq strategy are collapsing around them, according to several administration officials and outsiders they are consulting. They say that inside the administration, debate is intensifying over whether Mr. Bush should try to prevent more defections by announcing his intention to begin a gradual withdrawal of American troops from the high-casualty neighborhoods of Baghdad and other cities.
 
.....Four more Republican senators have recently declared that they can no longer support Mr. Bush's strategy, including senior lawmakers who until now had expressed their doubts only privately. As a result, some aides are now telling Mr. Bush that if he wants to forestall more defections, it would be wiser to announce plans for a far more narrowly defined mission for American troops that would allow for a staged pullback, a strategy that he rejected in December as a prescription for defeat when it was proposed by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.[..] "
 
http://tinyurl.com/2xhxzl
 
I don't believe it for a minute. This is one stubborn guy, Mister-my-way-or-the highway, remember? And look at the bottom of the article -- 3 weeks until the Congressional summer recess.
 
3 weeks to tread water .. and the preznit is going to cave on everything he's fought against for the last few years?
 
And give up the opportunity to pass this mess to the next president?
 
Nah!
 
 

2007/7/6

"You Know I'm No Good"

@ 07:22 AM (72 months, 15 days ago)
 
Can't get the dang song out of my head.
 
Still hung up on my new discovery, Amy Winehouse .. a 23 y/o tattooed Cockney Jew with a drinking problem ("Rehab") who swears like a trooper and sounds like everything from bluesy Dinah Washington to jazzy Billie Holiday .. to rock n' roll and funk .. to 60's do wop girl groups.
 
Her album "Back to Black" is her best yet .. especially the first 3 tracks, and the title track. If you get hooked, I recommend the explicit lyrics version, to get the true flavor of Amy.
 
Anyway, here's "You Know I'm No Good"....I shared it when she was remixed with Linda Ronstadt, but here's Amy by herself.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFVM5pVTwkM
 
Now The Arctic Monkeys cover it .. another hot Brit group:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NeSkcD1A3w
 

2007/7/5

Maybe he was just recharging the battery

@ 06:30 AM (72 months, 16 days ago)

The news says 24 y/o Al Gore III is busted on the 4th of July going 100 mph down a CA freeway in his Prius .. smoking pot .. with prescription drugs in the car.
 
Will he get the Paris Hilton treatment or the Scooter Libby treatment?
 
At least he was driving an environmentally friendly car.
 
The late-night comedians are dancing with glee.
 
And the pot I understand -- that could happen to a lot of people, the small amount he had is just a ticket in CA -- but who knew a Prius could even *go* 100 mph?
 
Seriously, it's good they caught him, now maybe he can get help before he kills someone or himself.
 
And now that we've had our fun, I hope the media and the rightie bloggers let this die down. The meaner righties are drunk on schadenfreude .. but the more sympathetic ones are making a point of not pointing it out by pointing out how sad the whole thing is. At least I think that's their point.
 
I did not write one nasty word about the Bush twins when they made headlines .. I never made a joke about Mary Lynne Cheney.
 
My rule has been that the kids of politicians should be off limits .. ever since Limbaugh used to savage Chelsea Clinton just for her looks.
 
Because when our politicians are caught with their hand in the tax jar, or padding their expense accounts, or engaged in corruption or illegal activity .. that's one thing, heads *should* roll.
 
But it's quite another thing if their kids eff up .. unless the kid holds public office (Patrick Kennedy) it's just nobody's dang business.
 
The bright side is that lil' Al could run for Prez on the Republican ticket in 2032.. just throw in a couple more DUIs and a little AWOL ...
 

2007/7/3

Scooter skates! Democrats celebrate!

@ 09:12 AM (72 months, 18 days ago)

Law is for the little people.
 
A man who was convicted of a felony -- that would give the average Joe jail time -- just got his sentence commuted by the man for whom he did the dirty deed.
 
Now, remember Martha Stewart? She lied to federal investigators -- obstructing justice they call it -- same as Libby. She served jail time.
 
But she only lied about her stock market deals .. Libby lied to protect someone who outed a CIA agent. He compromised our national security. Don't our laws say such an outing is an act of treason? If so, he protected the treasoner.
 
Paris Hilton does jail time for driving with a suspended license .. but Scooter doesn't spend a single day in jail for helping to endanger our country.
 
Ah well .. at least it will still be on his Permanent Record (remember high school?) that he's been convicted of a felony. And he has to pay $250K and serve 2 years probation .. and lose his law license. At least that much .. until Bush grants him a full pardon 15 minutes before he leaves office.
 
Yes, it did quiet the raging Libby Lobby -- "law and order" conservatives are downright giddy. But the commutation *really* tickled Democratic presidential hopefuls .. big time! Gave them another arrow in their quiver.
 
72 percent of American people recently polled said NO to "Should President Bush pardon Libby?" .. 19 percent said "Yes." The distinction between pardon and commutation will be blurred by election day.
 
What you see circling the drain are more Republican Senate and House seats.
 
And for the record -- I didn't like Clinton's last minute pardon of scumbag Marc Rich either.
 
Boy, if anyone needed an argument for a constitutional amendment to strike this power from the Presidency, then here's another example. I doubt the Founding Fathers meant for it to be used as a Get Out Of Jail Free card for the president's cronies and campaign contributors.
 
Face it people, we have several justice systems in this country .. one for the well-connected and another for the rest of us.
 

2007/7/2

Who do you trust?

@ 06:50 AM (72 months, 19 days ago)

You wingnut righties seem to spend all your time bashing '08 Democrats, laughing at John Edwards, scoffing at Obama's strength .. all the while chanting your favorite Republican mantra (especially on Fox) -- "Terror today, terror tomorrow, terror forever!"
 
And yesterday I heard you wondering out loud if foiled terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow will help the Republicans in '08. You know .. because Republicans are so <coff> strong on national security.
 
Maybe you're trying to make all that noise to detract attention from the latest polls wot show Democrats ahead in the "global war on terror." Even a Fox poll shows more Americans trust Democrats to handle World War III against Islamofascists:
 
"If there is an all-out war between the United States and various radical Muslim groups worldwide, who would you rather have in charge — Democrats or Republicans?
 
Democrats 41%
Republicans 38%
Both the same
(not listed) 9%
Don't know
(not listed) 12%
 
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/062807_release_web.pdf
 
I'd like to see the results of the poll they threw out because that one was the best.
 
Yes, yes .. I know that the result is within the poll's three-point margin of error .. so  Dems can't be giddy. But really, this shows uneasy times for the GOP .. because the question of which party the people would trust more to lead a global war against Islamofascists *should* have been a gimme for the Republicans.
 
But they couldn't even manage to get a plurality. A sign of '08 things to come?
 
Maybe Fox should've worded the question -- "Who will better protect America,  freedom loving Republicans or freedom hating Democrats?"
 
Seriously though .. a better question would be -- "Who do you trust to keep us OUT of an all out global war with Islam?"
 
In case you forgot -- the Democrats have won two World Wars, the Republicans have Grenada and Panama.
 
Yes, we must give the Republicans credit for their glorious victory in Granada .. forever saving freedom loving medical students everywhere from having to live in fear of an international airport being built near them.
 

2007/7/1

Tears on W's pillow

@ 07:32 AM (72 months, 20 days ago)
 
Tears on My Pillow
By MAUREEN DOWD, New York Times, 6/30/2007
 
“I miss Albania!” W. wails. “They know how to treat a president there. Women were kissing me and men rubbed my hair. The crowd kept yelling, ‘Bushie!,’ and they almost grabbed the watch right off my wrist trying to get at me.”
 
The concerned group huddling outside the president’s closed-bedroom door in Kennebunkport can barely hear him. His voice is muffled because he has his face buried in his feather pillow, which the Secret Service has carefully transported from Washington to Maine for the weekend, knowing that it would be needed. They guard it so conscientiously that they have even given it a code name. Since the president’s Secret Service name is Tumbler, his agents christened his beloved pillow Slumber.
 
“Son, I know how you feel,” Poppy calls in to him, trying to sound positive. “Riding high in 2002, shot down in 2007. That’s life, as Sinatra says. You were a puppet and a pawn to King Dick and it screwed up your presidency and our party and the Middle East and the Atlantic alliance and the family legacy and Jeb’s future, not to mention the fate of the planet. But you can’t just roll yourself up in a big ball and die, George. Your friend Vlad the Impaler is here, and I think you should come out and talk to him. You invited him and he came all the way from Russia, and you don’t want to be rude.
 
“I’ve already taken him to Mabel’s Lobster Claw and out on the boat. He scared all the fish away. I don’t know what else to do with him, George. He brained the Filipino manservant, the little brown one, with a horseshoe.”
 
Putin steps forward. “Let me try,” he tells Poppy.
 
“George, hey, it’s me, Ostrich Legs, Pooty Poot. Remember when you gave me those nicknames? Come out, and I show you my real soul. Dark, dark, dark. I put the Putin back in Rasputin. Listen, Albania stinks. Maine much nicer. I saw Moose and Squirrel in the woods. Let’s throw horseshoes at them! I love this American sport.”
 
Tumbler burrows into Slumber. “Why doesn’t anybody like me anymore, Daddy?” he keens. “Man, I miss Tony. My Iraq poodle left me with a porcupine. And I can’t believe my own Republicans crossed me on the immigration bill. Now my Mexican buddies from Midland are saying, ‘Adiós, Jorge.’ Vice doesn’t even want to be in the same branch of government as me. Where is Dick, by the way?”
 
His mother steps briskly up to the door. “Now listen, Georgie,” Barbara says. “We didn’t invite Dick. He’s not our kind. He has utterly ruined your presidency. There’s a Washington Post series I want you to read. I’ve put it in the kitchen by your bowl of Cookie Crisps. It explains all about how Dick played you for a fool on everything from Iraq to capital gains. He set up the West Wing paper flow in a way that undermined your goals and advanced his. He let you act like you were the Decider, dear, when you were really just the Dupe.”
 
W. howls, “Dick promised me I would never be a wimp and now I’m a wimp!”
 
Putin intervenes. “No, George, don’t blame Dick,” he says. “Dick good man. Shoots friend in face. But Dick too soft. Friend lived. He needs put more people in your Gitmo gulag, shut down newspapers, kill more critics. I’ll send you some of my special polonium-210 pellets. They just like Altoids, curiously strong.”
 
Clarence Thomas rushes up to the door, black robes flapping. “I got here as fast as I could,” he assures Poppy, before yelling in to W.: “I’m sorry about the Guantánamo decision. I don’t know what my brethren were thinking, applying the Constitution to Cuba. What’s law got to do with it? I should have fought harder. I was a little distracted by our decision to stop race from being a factor in making schools racially diverse. I needed to make sure that black children all over America would have none of the advantages I had.”
 
Henry Kissinger oils his way across the floor. “Mr. President,” he rumbles through the door, “it’s not so bad bungling a war. I got to date Jill St. John.”
 
Condi joins the group, and wrinkles her nose at Putin. He puts his arm around her and gives her head a noogie. “When I said U.S. aggression is like Third Reich,” he tells her, with his most charming K.G.B. smile, “I meant it in a good way.”
 
Condi ignores him and coos to W.: “There’s bad news and good news, sir. Or maybe it’s Vice versa. Cheney’s going to pardon Scooter. And the Albanians have agreed to put your presidential library in Tirana.”