PenDragn

We are moving to a new Beta Blog

2006-10-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Future postings will be found at Pendragn Beta (also named Pendragn)

Shimkus Blames Pages, Calls Families Unsafe

2006-10-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from Chicago Tribune article disingenuously labeled "Lawmaker defends page program"

The Illinois lawmaker who oversees the Congressional page program said Wednesday that teens who participate are "safer in our program than in a lot of homes."

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) defended his actions as chairman of the page board in an interview with the Tribune on Wednesday, saying he moved quickly to confront former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida based only on information about 2005 e-mail traffic that wasn't sexually explicit.

Shimkus acknowledged he did not ask Foley if there were any other electronic exchanges with pages, such as the sexually suggestive instant messages from 2003 that first surfaced on Friday and led to Foley's swift resignation.

See, even to give this guy the time of day you have to believe that though the pages knew about Foley in 1995, this didn't get around to other House members.

The thing that's frustrating to me is that I'm not the bad guy here," Shimkus said. "Leadership's not the bad guy. The bad guy is whoever had these explicit instant messages that were done in 2003 and held them. That's the bad guy.... because those instant messages are what put these kids at risk."

So the pages themselves are the 'bad' guys, because they are the ones that had the explicit messages. Good Going Shimpkus.

The head of the page board that didn't even notify the other members of the board about the disturbing emails from a former page from La., says that two Florida papers looked into the page program and couldn't find anything else.

But wait. Else came out because of the national outcry when the less disturbing emails were brought to the light of the nation. To do the same thing all by one's lonesome one would need access current and former pages. One would need to be... yes the head or a member of the page board. And the head of the page board kept the information from the other two members. Do you re-member the old saying. Two heads are better than one? Well, is Shimkus is too stupid to figure out how to check out what appears to be predatory behavior quietly among the pages then he should have at least told the other Republican on the board who might have had a real brain in his head.

But instead, Shimkus is blaming pages who received the predatory emails from Representative Foley.

Partial list of Illinois Republican Representatives:

Dennis Hastert
John Shimpkus
Henry Hyde (impeachment investigation head)

Lovely crew.

What Was the Responsibility of House Leaders?

2006-10-05T00:07:00.000-07:00

Let's play a little game. Let's pretend that people didn't know about Mark Foley's predation on the pages since 1995 as has been exposed. Because, except for one report on the same by each media source they are pretending that history doesn't exist (most likely at the order of the right wing media intimidation machine).

Really try hard to believe that no page (the pages warned each other about Foley) mentioned the problem to anyone in the Republican party who should have helped them in over 10 years.

Try very hard. And clap your hands.

Then maybe Hastertbelle will live!

Lets get some help from another self serving Republican :

A senior House Republican said Wednesday that Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a page - now at the center of an intensifying federal investigation - should have been thoroughly pursued at the time.

As conservatives debated whether House Speaker Dennis Hastert should resign over his handling of the complaint, the House majority whip, Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he would have done things differently if he'd known about it. He was the acting majority leader when the complaint was raised.

Funny, just like Boehner, Roy Blunt would have done things differently if he were two heartbeats away from the presidency. Why is it not a surprise to read that?

But Blunt is right. In fact you can almost hear Hastert tell his aides not to tell him anything so he will be able to claim that he didn't know.

That's how Hastert got so fat, I suppose, sitting around thinking of ways to increase his wealth and power, and ignoring the sexual predators in his party.

Hastert's like a Sheriff who tells his deputies not to tell him of a rapist in town so he won't be bothered having to catch him.

But then it turns out, according to a Washington Post article:

A longtime chief of staff to disgraced former representative Mark Foley (R-Fla.) approached House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's office three years ago, repeatedly imploring senior Republicans to help stop Foley's advances toward teenage male pages, the staff member said yesterday.

The account by Kirk Fordham, who resigned yesterday from his job with another senior lawmaker, pushed back to 2003 or earlier the time when Hastert's staff reportedly became aware of Foley's questionable behavior concerning teenagers working on Capitol Hill.

So Hastert's office knew, but Hastert must have walked around with fingers in both his ears singing la la la la la la la!

Funny, but that's not much of a surprise either.

ABC: Evidence That Foley Solicited Sex With Page

2006-10-03T23:55:00.000-07:00

Excerpt ABC Report "FBI Contacting Pages; Evidence Foley Solicited Sex":

At least one former page has reportedly offered evidence that Foley sought to solicit sex during instant message exchanges over the Internet.

The "preliminary investigation" appears to be heading towards a full field investigation, according to one official.

But the ABC report also notes:

Officials say Foley's extensive knowledge of child exploitation laws may have helped guide him as to how far he could go without violating the law.

and then finishes this part with:

Instant messages obtained by ABC News indicated Foley met or arranged to meet young men under the age of 18 who had been pages.

Either I'm putting 1 and 1 and 1 together and getting 13 or it seems like Foley did go over the edge of the law.

Another thing that should be a crime is found in the same article:

Despite the fact that Foley's attorney has said Foley admits to sending the "totally inappropriate" e-mails and IMs, the FBI has still not seized his computer and hard drive.

And in the Washington Post a former page notes in article titled "Some Say They Felt Uneasy About Representative's Attention":

...many people on Capitol Hill," including many Republican staffers, "have known for over 11 years about what was going on and chose to do nothing," he said.

This is completely unbelievable.

This is the party that claims to be protecting the American family.

What a bunch of hypocrites. They send our jobs overseas and insource labor so we have a harder time supporting our families, and while we are working they are working to let sexual predators legally get to our teens.

Cartoon: Just in Time for Halloween (Jeff Stahler

Bonus cartoon (on subject): Walk the Walk (A Scott Stantis 2fer) (link goes to Cagle's Foley's Foibles page containing two of SS's cartoons which I thought were about the most dead on of that batch. I don't know if Cagle ever changes a subject "collection". I do notice that today's cartoon by Stahler -- I have linked above -- wasn't added yet. Hopefully, this link will remain stable. (BTW don't give me guff about "liberal cartoonist" Stantis, according to Editor and Publisher and the strip itself does "Prickly City".

Bonus cartoon: Our Congressional Leaders Call Halt to President's Destruction of our Civil Rights until... (Ed Stein)

ABC: Foley Had Online Sex with Underaged Former Page During Floor Vote

2006-10-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

Excerpt ABC's The Blotter:

Former Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) interrupted a vote on the floor of the House in 2003 to engage in Internet sex with a high school student who had served as a congressional page, according to new Internet instant messages provided to ABC News by former pages.

ABC News now has obtained 52 separate instant message exchanges, which former pages say were sent by Foley, using the screen name Maf54, to two different boys under the age of 18.

This message was dated April 2003, at approximately 7 p.m., according to the message time stamp.

Washington Post is singlemindedly tracking how the GOP can sweep this under the carpet like they did the political ethics scandal last winter and spring.

Speak of the Devil (since Boehner was the fellow that told the House GOP they could ignore scandals and let Karl Rove's media intimidation machine get them to disappear).
Also John Boehner says Foley was Hastert's responsibility according to a Bloomberg report.

House Majority Leader John Boehner said House Speaker Dennis Hastert was responsible for how Mark Foley's sending of inappropriate e-mails was handled, creating a public split among the two top Republican leaders.

``I believe I had talked to the speaker and he told me it had been taken care of,'' Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told Cincinnati 700 WLW Radio this morning. ``In my position, it's in his corner, it's his responsibility.''

The Congressional Page Board and others overseeing the program, ``all report to the speaker,'' Boehner said.

Haster asserts he won't resign. (Basically what he meant was: Why would I care if you worms are outraged. I'm the effin' Speaker of the House! I'm two heartbeats away from the presidency! Who are you to question me?)

Next previous post on subject: Re: Foley's Foibles or scroll down it might be available on front still.

John Bolton is Responsible for Most of North Korea's Nuclear Weapons (if they have any)

2006-10-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

And BTW, the temporary UN ambassador's nomination will most likely come up again after the November election at which time Lincoln Chafee's objections should have melted like snow just like the Republicans' objections over CAFTA in 2004 did.

From an April 2005 article from the late Jude Wanniski (who died in late August of that year according to reports)

President Clinton had bilateral talks with Pyongyang that seemed to be bearing fruit, but as soon as the Bush administration began, an excuse was found to break off the talks, and ever since we have hewed to that policy.

...

at the outset of the Bush administration, Secretary of State Colin Powell seemed eager to continue those talks, but all of a sudden the Undersecretary of State for Non-Proliferation, John Bolton, threw a monkeywrench into that worthy diplomatic effort. The talks were suspended in March 2001, and in his State of the Union Address in 2002, the President labeled North Korea one of the three legs of the "Axis of Evil."

It was Bolton who was the source of the assertion that North Korea had secretly been enriching uranium in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and that it had admitted as much to an American diplomat at a cocktail party in Pyongyang.

I'm afraid Bolton had to know this was baloney, but it served his purpose. To this day, North Korea denies it had ever engaged in a uranium enrichment process and there is no evidence that it ever has. It has, though, openly acknowledged that it has been mining uranium, which it uses in its two nuclear power plants that use natural uranium as fuel, natural uranium having no use in a nuclear weapons program.
...

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is now digging away at reports Bolton behind-the-scenes manipulated the intelligence process in order to promote the right-wing foreign-policy agenda. Sure he did that. But the Committee has yet to take notice that over the years he has manipulated the press corps, including the Washington Bureau of the NYTimes, into spreading the word that the "Axis of Evil" is secretly working on nukes, when none of the three – Iraq, Iran or North Korea – were doing so.

Interestingly, Wanniski also notes:

while one of the easier things to make is a nuke with highly enriched uranium, one of the most difficult things in the world to make is a nuke with plutonium. Gordon Prather, the expert in this sort of thing, tells me to do so the North Koreans would have had to assemble the equivalent of the Manhattan Project team.

I didn't know that.

But now through John Bolton and the rest of the Bush administration loyalists NK either does have nuclear arms or is bluffing again, instead of negotiating.

Meantime, how long until NK in desperation sells some of their very real enriched plutonium from pre agreed framework? (Searching in the Congressional Record I found a speech by Pete Forney in March 1993 talking about NK's request to withdraw from the Nuclear nonproliferation treaty. That raised fears, not only of having diverted plutonium from their heavier than water nuclear plant, but also NK intending to make a nuclear weapon.

March 1993 was 6 weeks into Clinton's tenure, but the neocons have been trying to pin some secret new North Korea nuclear program on "Clinton" though there never was proven or admitted to be anything beside the plutonium created by the heavier than water plant built under Bush 41 (You woudn't know it from the pathetic mainstream news we get that pushed the Bush adminsitration's line about a second program until it has stuck in Americans' minds just like the neocons wanted). (That's mainstream news in general. Mostly newspapers are doing better than TV news especially local pablum offered up as such. Also, not being able to read every report on NK thoroughly in every paper, I'm not going to point fingers at any particular paper.)

More on that cocktail party chatter:

in October 2002, an anonymous State Department munchkin told a few media sycophants that some anonymous DPRK official had "admitted" to him at a cocktail party that the DPRK had a clandestine uranium-enrichment program, built right under the noses of the IAEA.

Result? We promptly canceled the fuel-oil shipments to DPRK, thereby abrogating the Agreed Framework. The DPRK then withdrew from the NPT and resumed operation of its plutonium-producing reactor and plutonium recovery facility.

From Gordon Prather's A Radical Change in North Korea Policy

The result a much more dangerous world where NK may be seeking to sell their plutonium to the highest bidder or developing nuclear arms themselves. And now they've announced that they will test a nuclear weapon.

I remember when we had competent people in government. It was nice. One could go fishing and not worry that some major threat or catastrophe would have happened by the time one got home.

BTW,

The United States called North Korea's statement a "provocative action" and an "unacceptable threat to peace and stability."

And the invasion of Iraq was?

Police: Amish School Gunman Said He Molested Relatives

2006-10-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

Fair use excerpt WBAY TV report:

Police say none of the girls at the Amish school was sexually abused by gunman Charles Roberts, who claims to have molested two young relatives 20 years ago.

That's what Roberts told his wife when he called her from the rural Pennsylvania school just before he opened fire, killing five children plus himself.

The state police commissioner says Roberts wrote in his suicide note that he was dreaming of molesting again. As for the relatives involved, police still haven't tracked everyone down but they say Roberts's wife and parents know nothing about any past molestation.

The wife also told investigators Roberts was still upset about a premature daughter who died soon after birth nine years ago.

Police say the killings apparently have nothing to do with the Amish. They believe Roberts considered the one-room school house an easy target.

You allow yourself to kill kids because you feel guilty and depressed and might molest again?

Who knew?

BTW, can we have some decent level of gun control? Why, because though, I guess with a knife the 'gunman' could have killed the girls, but it would have taken longer he couldn't have made the swat team take the delays they need to employ when confronting a suspect with an arsenal of guns if all he had was knives or even an ax.

WP has some pretty disgusting details showing that Roberts intended to molest the girls before killing them.

We need better gun control now!

Cartoon: That's Not a Good Sign

2006-10-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

by Mike Keefe

Burden of Housing Rising Throughout Nation

2006-10-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

File this under the Rich get Richer.

Excerpt New York Times article "Across Nation, Housing Costs Rise as Burden"

Nationally, the biggest increase in homeowners spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing occurred in an unincorporated area southeast of Los Angeles called Florence-Graham, where more than a third of residents live in poverty. There, the figure climbed to 43 percent from 17 percent. Other places with big jumps included Wyoming, Mich.; Round Rock, Tex.; and Plymouth, Minn.

In general, the places with the highest overall percentages of homeowners spending that level of income were poorer cities. El Monte, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb, had the highest percentage of mortgage holders, 73 percent, spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. In Newark, the figure was 72 percent; in El Cajon, Calif., east of San Diego, 69 percent; and in South Gate, Calif., 69 percent.

Jack Kyser, senior economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, said such cities are often the only places that people on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder can afford and they tend to stretch their resources to get in. He said El Monte and South Gate both are growing, largely because Latinos have been moving in.

Cartoon: ABC's 911 Miniseries (Nick Anderson)

Bonus cartoon: Birth Pangs of a New Middle East (Anderson again)

Bonus cartoon: Making the Big Decision (Anderson again)

RE: Foley's Foibles

2006-10-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

(Dont' blame me for that title. It's Daryl Cagle's. Too much class for one of mine.)

For the very latest cartoons from the most artists on the Foley scandal see Cagle's collection on the subject.

Next previous post on this subject: Washington Times Calls for Hastert's Resignation

RE: State Dept. Confirms Rice-Tenet Meeting

2006-10-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

Excerpt Washington Post article (Title indicated above)

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did receive a CIA briefing about terror threats just about two months before the Sept. 11 attacks, but the information was not new, her chief spokesman said.
...
A new book by reporter Bob Woodward of Watergate fame describes the White House meeting as an emergency wakeup call that Rice had brushed off. Rice was President Bush's national security adviser at the time and was promoted to the top diplomatic job last year.

Read rest at link under green or salmon print.

What Condi was doing during important wake-up call meeting.

Drinking 5th wake up latte. It's a hard life being a power Barbie political token.

Making sure there were no runs in her stockings.

Checking makeup.

Gazing out the window. (Why are these guys yammering on about danger. They're supposed to have fixed this by now. They don't expect me to do something do they?)

Announcing that she would go get Saudi Arabia to help out. (If they think I'm going to dirty my pretty hands in such hard work as coordinating something important. I guess they don't understand my position here.)

Planning next shoe shopping adventure, (Mmmm I'll take George. He can look at the cowboy boots and I can look for straps.)

Working out reassuring BS for a response. (Lets see something along the line of: "The great nation of the United States of American will maintain its resolve and will never waver or falter though smoking guns turn into mushroom clouds and nothing important will happen while I sit in the seat of National Security Chief." There that should please those little worms. Oh G**, is that lettuce between my teeth?)

Cartoon: Nation In Mourning (Ed Stein)

Bonus Cartoon: State of Denial (Bob Englehart)

Bonus Cartoon: A Card From Your Health Insurance Partners

Washington Times Calls for Hastert's Resignation

2006-10-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

Excerpt article in LA Times

"House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once," said the lead editorial posted Monday night on the Times Web site.

The Times, one of the most reliably conservative voices in the nation's capital, joined some Democrats in criticizing Hastert, R-Ill., for not doing enough to investigate questions about Foley's e-mail exchanges with teenage boys who had worked as House pages.

"Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations, or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away," The Times' editors wrote.

"Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance," The Times said.

I agree. The man is just two heartbeats away from the presidency and one of those pitta patterers doesn't work so well already.

Next previous post on this subject: LA Times: "Foley Was Long Known to Have Interest in Young Men, Some Say"

LA Times: "Foley Was Long Known to Have Interest in Young Men, Some Say"

2006-10-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

Excerpt:

Years before sexually explicit electronic messages sent by Rep. Mark Foley to teenage House pages became public last week, some on Capitol Hill say, the Florida Republican was known to have a special interest in younger men.

In interviews with the Los Angeles Times, several current and former congressional employees and others said they recalled Foley approaching young male pages, aides and interns at parties and other venues.

"Almost the first day I got there, I was warned," said Mark Beck-Heyman, a San Diego native who served as a page in the House of Representatives in the summer of 1995. "It was no secret that Foley had a special interest in male pages," said Beck-Heyman, adding that Foley, who is now 52, on several occasions asked him out for ice cream.

Another former congressional staff member said he too had been the object of Foley's advances. "It was so well known around the House. Pages passed it along from class to class," said the former aide, adding that when he was 18 a few years ago and working as an intern, Foley approached him at a bar near the Capitol and asked for his e-mail address.

Next previous post on this subject: Daily Foleys

Daily Foleys

2006-10-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

New York Times: RNC Refuses to Give Back Foley Contributions of Over Half a Million.

Many individual candidates are giving contributions back or to charity (What do you want to bet those charities like Tom Delay's are run by former staffers and work to re-elect the GOP candidates). Looking at the number of people in the Republican party that Foley had given a grand or more to, maybe we can see why they were willing to look the other way when rumors and hints came at them.

Washington Post: FBI Knew in July About Foley E-Mails to Teen Didn't think it was significant. Think you'd be given such leeway if this was brought to their attention about you? I doubt it.
Also in the WP report:

Many Democrats and some Republicans sharply criticized the decision by key House GOP members to handle the matter of the Louisiana e-mails so quietly that only one of the three lawmakers who oversee the page program knew anything about it. The other two -- one Democrat, one Republican -- expressed anger yesterday that they had been kept in the dark.

And more information from an ABC report is available at the Post link above. Don't miss Tony Snow calling Foleys missives "naughty emails". Hey, Tony when deep in the muck of the GOP propaganda spew it's easy to trip up on the tongue.

The St Petersburg Times says:

In talking with a small group of reporters after his news conference, Hastert said of the Louisiana e-mail, “I think that is apparent that would raise a red flag.”

Yet, beyond talking to Foley, nothing was done.

The Page Board, a panel designed specifically to care for pages, was not convened to investigate. House leaders did not contact other current or former pages to find out if Foley’s behavior went beyond a single incident. No one reported the correspondence to federal or state authorities.

“It’s such unusual, bizarre behavior you would think to ask questions,’’ said former federal prosecutor John Fitzgibbons, now a lawyer in private practice in Tampa. “It cries out for an investigation. It is so obvious.”

Foley, 52, a Republican from the West Palm Beach area, resigned after the public disclosure of sexually explicit e-mails and instant messages between him and former congressional pages that went back at least three years.

On Monday, ABC News released new instant messages that show for the first time that Foley, using the screen name Maf54, tried to meet with teenage boys, and it appeared in some cases that he might have.

In one message, he wrote: I would drive a few miles for a hot stud like you.

In another message, Foley appears to describe having been together with the teen in San Diego.

and

Matthew Loraditch, a page in the 2001-02 class, told ABC News and the Washington Post that he and other pages were warned five years ago about Foley by a Republican staff member.

Loraditch, the president of the Page Alumni Association, said Foley sent “creepy” messages to three 2002 classmates after the boys finished the House program.

“They became explicit and similar to what we are seeing on the Web sites right now,” said Loraditch, 21, a senior at Towson University in Maryland. Those who received them “didn’t do anything beside telling other pages about it.”

More at link above.

File the next one under:"The Foley of Power" (Don't try to stop me. I'm on a roll.)

The New York Times in editorial "The Foley Matter" says:

History suggests that once a political party achieves sweeping power, it will only be a matter of time before the power becomes the entire point. Policy, ideology, ethics all gradually fall away, replaced by a political machine that exists to win elections and dispense the goodies that come as a result. The only surprise in Washington now is that the Congressional Republicans managed to reach that point of decayed purpose so thoroughly, so fast.

That House leaders knew Representative Mark Foley had been sending inappropriate e-mail to Capitol pages and did little about it is terrible. It is also the latest in a long, depressing pattern: When there is a choice between the right thing to do and the easiest route to perpetuation of power, top Republicans always pick wrong.

The news about Mr. Foley should have set off alarm bells instantly, even if the messages the leaders saw were of the “inappropriate” variety rather than the flat-out salacious versions that surfaced last week. But there was certainly no sense of urgency in their response, which seemed directed at sweeping the matter under the rug rather than finding out precisely what was going on.

The obvious first step — notifying the bipartisan committee that oversees the page program — was never taken, presumably because that would have meant bringing a Democrat into the discussions. After Mr. Foley assured everyone that he was simply engaged in mentoring, whatever leadership inquiry there was ended with telling him to stop e-mailing the youth who got the inappropriate letter.

It’s astonishing behavior for a party that sold itself as the champion of conservative social values. But then so was the fact that a party that prides itself on fiscal conservatism managed to roll up record-breaking deficits, featuring large amounts of wasteful pork earmarked to the districts of powerful legislators or the profit sheets of generous campaign contributors. So was the speed with which the party that billed itself as the voice of grass-roots exurban and suburban America turned itself into the partner of every special-interest lobbyist with a checkbook.

Read rest at link (under title of editorial above)

Eugene Robinson Says: "No Spinning Past This Scandal" (So I guess that makes it a no-spin ... oh forget it.) Here's Gene:

Even when damage control seems a lost cause, I suppose you have to follow the playbook. So Mark Foley resigns his House seat in a nanosecond, then explains those creepy electronic messages to young congressional pages by declaring himself an alcoholic, effectively blaming it all on demon rum. House Speaker Dennis Hastert promptly calls for a really thorough -- meaning really slow -- investigation. The rest of the Republican leadership declares itself shocked and/or saddened, but agrees that the time has come to move on, folks, nothing to see here.

Read rest at link above.

From an LA Times article "Foley Enters Alcohol Rehab Center" notes that Foley's latest contribution of $100,000

which the NRCC reported receiving on Aug. 7, came after Reynolds had acknowledged having learned about the Louisiana page's complaint.NRCC spokesman Carl Forti said the campaign donation had no impact on how Reynolds handled the matter, explaining that Reynolds told Hastert about the problem as soon as he learned about the e-mails.

"This is nothing more than pure politics at its worst," Forti said, dismissing the Democratic charge that Reynolds should have done more.

"Even to insinuate that is ridiculous."

(You know what that means)

Forti said Reynolds had not known about the explicit instant messages, in which Foley discussed sexual matters with at least one other former page.

But Reynolds did work closely with someone who knew Foley well.

Kirk Fordham, a veteran Republican legislative staffer who has worked on Capitol Hill for much of the last 17 years, served as Foley's chief of staff from 1995 to 2004. Fordham also managed Foley's first campaign for Congress, in 1994.

In 2005, Fordham went to work for DCI Group, a leading GOP political strategy group. The same year, he became Reynolds' chief of staff.

Next previous post on Foley problem. Politically savvy but independent Mickey Kaus penned a few thoughts on the case.

Iraqi Interior Police Cited in Human Rights Abuses

2006-10-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

Excerpt New York Times article, "Iraqi Police Cited in Abuses May Lose Aid"

American officials have warned Iraqi leaders that they might have to curtail aid to the Interior Ministry police because of a United States law that prohibits the financing of foreign security forces that commit “gross violations of human rights” and are not brought to justice.

The Interior Ministry, dominated by Shiites, has long been accused by Sunni Arabs of complicity in torture and killings.

The American ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said in an interview on Friday that “at this point” Iraq had not been formally notified that its national police were in violation of the legislation, known as the Leahy Law. He said he remained optimistic that Iraqi officials would “do the right thing” and resolve the matter. Nonetheless, he said American officials had begun reviewing programs that might have to be ended.

The issue centers on one of the most sensitive subjects within the Iraqi government: the joint Iraqi-American inspection in May and subsequent investigation of a prison in eastern Baghdad known as Site 4.

Within the prison there was clear evidence of systematic abuse and torture, including victims who had “lesions resulting from torture” as well as “equipment used for this purpose,” according to a human rights report later published by the United Nations mission in Iraq.

The prison, run by an Interior Ministry national police unit, had more than 1,400 prisoners crowded into a small area. An American officer said some had been beaten or bound and hung by their arms. At least 37 teenagers or children were in the prison.

Cartoons. RE: Mid term elections

2006-10-02T20:22:00.000-07:00

White House is with them all the way (Mike Keefe)

What "Is" Our Children Learning from Bushco Election Rhetoric? (RJ Matson)

We need more Republican election signs every year they're in control (Andy Singer)

GOP Campaign Tune (Pat Bagley)

Are you feeling safer now than you did 6 years ago? (Jeff Parker)

You want issues? We got issues! (Bob Englehart)

GOP Poster Children. (Now they could add Foley) (RJ Matson)

GOP Crafting Bills to Give Election Boost for their People

2006-10-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

Is this the kind of Congress you want?

Anything for a vote!

Is it fair? Who cares?

Is it good for the country?

Who cares?

Make it a law and put some Republican's name on it so the Rs can maintain control of the Congress and finish the process of putting our nation under the control of fat cats and big business. (They've done such a good job so far.)

What the Post is saying:

In a bid to help embattled incumbents win tough reelection campaigns in November, House Republican leaders last week muscled through more than 165 bills that their members can use to win over voters back home -- and deflect attention from the scandals they left behind in Washington.

...
Dozens of the made-to-order bills that flew through the House bear the names of the endangered lawmakers, from Pennsylvania Rep. Jim Gerlach's Open Space and Farmland Preservation Act to Connecticut Rep. Christopher Shays's reauthorization of the HOPE VI housing program, to measures to preserve Native American languages and assist in water planning for Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.).
"If you've got people with must-do pieces of legislation, you want to help them out," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), the vice chairman of the House Republican Conference.

Cartoon: Fill 'er up!

Bonus cartoon: With the proper nurturing the embryo will come to full term.

Bonus cartoon2: If every nation can define it's own Geneva Conventions

Lots of people want to kill Americans. Including Americans

2006-10-02T12:31:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry for the families of these children and everyone involved.

But, a few days ago we were told we need to give up our civil rights, and basically start a jihad on those kinds of Muslims that don't fit in with the new shopping, accumulation, and casual sex empire envisioned by big business and fat cats because some Muslims want to kill us.

But the fact is, that even some Americans want to kill Americans.

We can't control everything even if we do give up all our rights.

Well, I think both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in their prime did boast that they had complete control of their cities so street crime didn't happen, but if you think about it, people were so busy being killed in other ways, including the wars of expansion and deprivation. And I wonder, if they really could have controlled their streets and countrysides without their imperialism, and how much of that was just propaganda anyway.

Everytime I read a new article about the poor children in Lancaster Co., I grab my head as if I can keep the information I just read from being real.

We seldom get such up close and personal accounts of the children and families killed in Iraq. I guess that's by design. So we don't grab our heads and decide this must stop! And of course, now it won't stop there for a long long time. Though the most deaths may not be kids, it is their fathers. Most of us in the US haven't have the experience of losing a father at an early age. It can be quite horrible though, especially in a country with so few resources for the surviving families.

This is the kind of information that Barbara Bush said she wouldn't be bopthering her "beautiful mind" about.

Maybe we should.

Surely, today's tragedy is a 'imitative slaying' after the one in Colorado, but where does it start? Possibly when the president's men decide it's okay to kill hundreds of thousands of the inhabitants of a country that did not threaten us because Exxon Mobil (according to Republican insider Kevin Phillips) was salivating over the Majnoon oil fields.

Straight From Karl Rove to You More Phony Science: Iraq War Naysayers May Have Hindsight Bias

2006-10-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

Actually there were specific statements that said that invading Iraq would actually cause al Qaeda and anti-American (and other members of the Coalition of the Willing) terrorism to get a boost.

The president's own father wrote about how bad an idea invading Iraq would be.

But Vendantam puts his stamp of scientific approval on exactly what Karl Rove would like you to believe. That you didn't know you knew and you don't know much at all.

If that sounds like the sad comments you get on your blogs from neocons, you are getting smarter already.

Getting scientists to produce 'science' that validated the Third Reich was a specialty of Hitler's people.

In neo Stalinist Soviet Union those dissidents who were too famous to put in the Gulag, were deemed "crazy" and sent to asylyms.

But I have to admit, Rove's got them beat.

He just gets his psuedo scientists to declare all naysayers as mentally suspect.

And those racists and haters that see their great plan to control the US and the world to their liking no matter how many innocent people they have to slaughter to do so will repeat repeat and repeat this garbage and catapult the propaganda.

Like roaches they will take this special psuedo science validated by the Washington Post with them to make their pathetic comments on message boards and blogs, and even take it back to their families to bash over the heads of others who disagree with the Republican dream of empire for big business and fat cats.

Paid bloggers and posters will have a field day with this, never noticing as the responses come in about how people did see just such a scenario.

But we thought the Washington Post was taking itself out of the Republican campaign program. People were reading the Post and linking to it more. I guess we were wrong.

Bonus cartoon: Bush, Cheney, and Kissinger

Another Shady Deal in the Republican Controlled Congress

2006-10-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

Internet Gambling, Port Deals Reached

House and Senate negotiators reached agreement last night on legislation to tighten maritime and port security regulations and, in a last-minute move, added an unrelated measure that seeks to ban Internet gambling

.

Get it? An unrelated measure banning payments to off-shore Internet gambling sites suddenly gets popped into a "must pass" bill on port security just before the conference votes. (And important funding for rail and mass transit funds was slipped out, because we don't have to worry about those subways now do we?)

This last minute action is important because at it came at a point where there is little discussion or input from anyone except for Congressional leaders and those seeking backroom deals whether Congress members or lobbyists. Well, apparently American gambling interests had their lobbyists working overtime this weekend.

The Sydney Morning Herald writes:

THE US Government stunned the online gambling industry over the weekend by passing laws that effectively ban the services from their biggest market.

...

The US Senate, which was expected to block the legislation, sneaked the bill through early Saturday morning US time, following some last-minute manoeuvring ahead of the Senate break for mid-term elections.

The bill outlaws the processing of bets for online gaming companies, effectively preventing US banks and credit card companies from doing business with the operators. It could be signed into law by President Bush as early as this week.

The bill excludes US-based online betting on services like horse racing and lotteries and has no impact on American casinos and other gambling operations.

Uh, Boys and Girls can you say protectionism? What about all the garbage on how great World Trade is? Ha Ha! The American gambling industry has lots and lots of money to deliver to the slimy hands of Republicans doesn't it? Do you? So why do you think they'll protect your job?

And about the removal of funding for rail and transportation safety, the Post article notes:

The changes angered some Democrats, who helped craft the original port security legislation but were largely blocked from the final negotiations. The Senate had overwhelmingly approved the authorization of $3.5 billion for mass-transit security grants and $1 billion for freight and passenger rail programs, but House Republicans balked at the cost.

"If Republicans leave town [after] stripping out all the sections protecting major sectors of out transportation sector, God help us if there's an attack," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.

Political Savvy Mickey Kaus Asks RE: Mark Foley:

2006-10-02T08:39:00.000-07:00

Excerpt Slate:

did [the House leadership] really have no idea what Foley was up to? Don't these rumors get around the Hill pretty quickly?** It's not like Foley was co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Chil .... oh wait. Someone could maybe have called Foley in and given him the third degree--e.g. about what other emails might be out there. Hastert's aides could have asked Foley to permit a search of his computer. Maybe there were alternative methods of interrogation, or other ways to check out his story.

Like I've said before: In Washington, you only have to admit to knowing that which can be proven you knew.

Obviously the House leadership didn't want to know the extent of Foley's preditory behavior even though underage young people were involved.

Next previous post on this subject: Why did Foley keep child-protection job?

Why did Foley keep child-protection job?

2006-10-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

Excerpt post in the Chicago Tribune's "The Swamp" (same title as above).

One of the most troubling parts of the emerging scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley, the Florida Republican who sent sexually suggestive emails to teenaged congressional pages, is this: he chaired the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children.

Foley carved out a role for himself as a congressional leader on the issue of exploited children, and is credited with authoring important sections of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 which President Bush signed into law this summer.

He worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children whose website has pictures of him presenting awards to law enforcement officers and children who survived and or helped bring child predators to justice.

It would be a fascinating psychological study to try and understand how Foley could be both sending such emails to high schoolers while at the same time fighting against child predators. He is like the firefighter who turns out to also be an arsonist.

Next previous post on this subject: "Pageboy e-mails 'covered up to avoid a scandal'"

Rice Calls Woodward a Liar

2006-10-02T07:49:00.000-07:00

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Sunday vehemently denied that she ever received a special CIA warning about an imminent terrorist attack on the United States, angrily rebutting new allegations about her culpability in U.S. policy failures before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by al Qaeda.

She said it was "incomprehensible" that she would have ignored such explicit intelligence or appeals by senior CIA officials.

No, Ms Condi, I think you meant to say "incompetent" though it is actually pretty incomprehensible how a National Security Chief could be so "incompetent". I notice that the article submissively says Condi "vehemently" denied being an incompetent token in the Bush White House.

She'd be showing her bottom teeth like Cheney does, if she could ever find them.

Give us your war face, Condi!

Rice said her staff is now going back to check if there even was a meeting on July 10, 2001.

Read: Give them a few days. It's election season. And with the extra burden of the Foley scandal, Karl Rove's focus group mill has a backlog of grinding thought control messages out.

Cartoon: Someone has a breakout of truth zits right before the big dance.

Cartoon bonus: Cut and Run Drill in the House (Brand new Jeff Danzinger cartoon)

Pageboy e-mails 'covered up to avoid a scandal'

2006-10-02T07:38:00.000-07:00

It's always nice to go outside the country for news and get away from the controls on US mainstream media.

You might even get a headline that actually does an accurate analysis of the situation.

Right there in mainstream news.

Excerpt: Timesonline report:

REPUBLICAN leaders were defending themselves yesterday against claims that they had been more interested in avoiding political scandal than protecting an underage pageboy who was being bombarded with sexually explicit messages by one of their congressmen.

Mark Foley was forced to resign on Friday after the publication of suggestive e-mails and other lewd messages that he had sent to a 16-year-old congressional intern. In one message, the Florida Republican, using an AOL account name of Maf54, tells him to “strip down” and, when told the teenager is wearing a T-shirt and shorts, he replies, “love to slip them off of you”. Capitol police have sealed his office and criminal charges are expected. Mr Foley, 52, who had previously ducked rumours about his sexuality, pioneered legislation against adults who prey on vulnerable young people. He had even helped to set up a hotline for parents and teenagers to tell police about “online child sexual exploitation”.

As recently as July 27, President Bush had hailed Mr Foley and other legislators behind child protection laws as being part of a “SWAT team for kids”.

Democrats say:

House leadership was warned about Mr Foley’s activities months ago, alleging that it sought to cover them up for fear of losing his seat in November’s mid-term elections. The Democrats are linking the case to a “pattern of corruption” in the Republican Congress and have called for an inquiry.

Over the weekend Republican Thomas Reynolds admitted that he had told Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House, as long ago as last year that a page’s parents had complained about inappropriate messages being sent by Mr Foley. Mr Hastert said that he did not remember this conversation but his office had nonetheless referred the matter to the clerk of the House.

The clerk passed the issue on to John Shimkus, who oversees the 200-year-old congressional page programme, which allows 72 high school juniors to work in the House for a session, answering telephones and delivering mail....

Next previous post in this subject: Breaking: "FBI Investigating Foley E-Mail to Teen"

More quality analysis of Detainee Bill 'Compromise'

2006-10-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

Excerpt: New York Times editorial "Rushing Off a Cliff":

Here’s what happens when this irresponsible Congress railroads a profoundly important bill to serve the mindless politics of a midterm election: The Bush administration uses Republicans’ fear of losing their majority to push through ghastly ideas about antiterrorism that will make American troops less safe and do lasting damage to our 217-year-old nation of laws — while actually doing nothing to protect the nation from terrorists. Democrats betray their principles to avoid last-minute attack ads. Our democracy is the big loser.

Republicans say Congress must act right now to create procedures for charging and trying terrorists — because the men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks are available for trial. That’s pure propaganda. Those men could have been tried and convicted long ago, but President Bush chose not to. He held them in illegal detention, had them questioned in ways that will make real trials very hard, and invented a transparently illegal system of kangaroo courts to convict them.

It was only after the Supreme Court issued the inevitable ruling striking down Mr. Bush’s shadow penal system that he adopted his tone of urgency. It serves a cynical goal: Republican strategists think they can win this fall, not by passing a good law but by forcing Democrats to vote against a bad one so they could be made to look soft on terrorism.

Last week, the White House and three Republican senators announced a terrible deal on this legislation that gave Mr. Bush most of what he wanted, including a blanket waiver for crimes Americans may have committed in the service of his antiterrorism policies. Then Vice President Dick Cheney and his willing lawmakers rewrote the rest of the measure so that it would give Mr. Bush the power to jail pretty much anyone he wants for as long as he wants without charging them, to unilaterally reinterpret the Geneva Conventions, to authorize what normal people consider torture, and to deny justice to hundreds of men captured in error.

These are some of the bill’s biggest flaws:

Enemy Combatants: A dangerously broad definition of “illegal enemy combatant” in the bill could subject legal residents of the United States, as well as foreign citizens living in their own countries, to summary arrest and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal. The president could give the power to apply this label to anyone he wanted.

The Geneva Conventions: The bill would repudiate a half-century of international precedent by allowing Mr. Bush to decide on his own what abusive interrogation methods he considered permissible. And his decision could stay secret — there’s no requirement that this list be published.

Habeas Corpus: Detainees in U.S. military prisons would lose the basic right to challenge their imprisonment. These cases do not clog the courts, nor coddle terrorists. They simply give wrongly imprisoned people a chance to prove their innocence.

Judicial Review: The courts would have no power to review any aspect of this new system, except verdicts by military tribunals. The bill would limit appeals and bar legal actions based on the Geneva Conventions, directly or indirectly. All Mr. Bush would have to do to lock anyone up forever is to declare him an illegal combatant and not have a trial.

Coerced Evidence: Coerced evidence would be permissible if a judge considered it reliable — already a contradiction in terms — and relevant. Coercion is defined in a way that exempts anything done before the passage of the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act, and anything else Mr. Bush chooses.

Secret Evidence: American standards of justice prohibit evidence and testimony that is kept secret from the defendant, whether the accused is a corporate executive or a mass murderer. But the bill as redrafted by Mr. Cheney seems to weaken protections against such evidence.

Offenses: The definition of torture is unacceptably narrow, a virtual reprise of the deeply cynical memos the administration produced after 9/11. Rape and sexual assault are defined in a retrograde way that covers only forced or coerced activity, and not other forms of nonconsensual sex. The bill would effectively eliminate the idea of rape as torture.

•There is not enough time to fix these bills, especially since the few Republicans who call themselves moderates have been whipped into line, and the Democratic leadership in the Senate seems to have misplaced its spine. If there was ever a moment for a filibuster, this was it.

We don’t blame the Democrats for being frightened. The Republicans have made it clear that they’ll use any opportunity to brand anyone who votes against this bill as a terrorist enabler. But Americans of the future won’t remember the pragmatic arguments for caving in to the administration.

They’ll know that in 2006, Congress passed a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Yeah, What they said.

Why Torture Is Still An Option

2006-10-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

I know we've handled this subject below, but I couldn't resist such a clear and honest analytical headline, subtitle pair as Time Magazine has produced.

Are they sure they're part of the American mainstream media still?

Here are the Title and Subtite together (link to article is under the following quote as well:

Why Torture Is Still An Option
The compromise terrorism detainee bill limits interrogation abuses-and lets Bush set the limits

Rove is going to be furious.

Breaking: "FBI Investigating Foley E-Mail to Teen"

2006-10-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

Excerpt AP breaking news report at Seattle PI title same as portion contained within quotes above.

The FBI is examining former Rep. Mark Foley's e-mail exchanges with teenagers to determine if they violated federal law, an agency spokesman said Sunday.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the FBI is "conducting an assessment to see if there's been a violation of federal law." He had no further comment.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert requested Sunday that the Justice Department conduct an investigation into Foley's electronic messages to teenage boys — a lurid scandal that has put House Republicans in political peril.

"As Speaker of the House, I hereby request that the Department of Justice conduct an investigation of Mr. Foley's conduct with current and former House pages to determine to what extent any of his actions violated federal law," Hastert, R-Ill., wrote in a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The White House and Democratic leaders in Congress also called Sunday for a criminal probe. White House counselor Dan Bartlett called the allegations against Foley shocking, but said President Bush hadn't learned of Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a 16-year-old boy and instant messages to other boys before the news broke last week.

The extent of the White House's obsession with the president's image is astounding.

It's like they have nothing else to do and no concern in the world, but making the guy look good.

RE the FBI investigation The LA Times says:

FBI cyber sleuths are looking into the text of some of the Foley messages, checking to see how many e-mails and instant electronic messages were sent and how many computers were used, according to a law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

The FBI also was trying to determine if any of the teenagers who received messages are willing to cooperate with the investigation, the official said.

Ironically, Foley, who is 52 and single, could be found to have violated a law that he helped to write as co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus.

That excerpt was found in the Times article titled: Ex-Rep. Foley Checks Into Alcohol Rehab

Yeah, like the much more common and acceptable alcoholism is the main problem here.

It looks like Mark Foley (R-Pervert) is heading for the GOP rehabilitation farm to be recycled into inner party or privatized political work.

Next previous post on this subject: "Mark Foley Caught With Live Boy"

Isn't the White House Amazing?

2006-10-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love those guys and gals.

First they drain the American taxpayer to use for their political aides.

Then they bully witnesses and people involved with previous actions to say they didn't do what they did.

Then they bully news sources to release and release and release their side and their point of view.

Of course Republicans all over the country are doing the same thing.

They can control the mainstream news media because of the way they will do what big business wants. They also control half the blogosphere.

And then they use taxpayer money to use for focus groups etc. to make up their propaganda like we find in White House Lists Book's 'Five Key Myths'

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of seeing taxpayer money being spent big time to make the Bush administration and other Republicans look good. How about you?

To allow this to continue just vote Republican or don't vote at all.

Otherwise,

You know what ya' gotta do Cowboy (or girl).

Sunday Morning Political Funnies

2006-09-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

Selection of some of the funniest Political Cartoons available at semi static locations (may disappear within a few weeks though). Lets see if I can make this a regular feature.

Gas Prices. **Link Fixed** Jeff Stahler Gets It. I hope you do too. (Okay, figure it out. Big Oil does not want you to vote Democratic this year, because Democrats will stop them from raising gasoline prices whenever they want and are unlikely to go grab Iranian oil fields for them.) (And prices will start going up again by mid November with major spikes by January if all goes according to their desires.)

Poor Popeye (by Stahler again)

Wipe that smirk off your face. The NSA is taking down the name of everyone who even dares to laugh at this one. (by Lalo --banned by the lame a**ed editor at the LA Times-- Alcaraz)

Why would you say that? (by Robert Ariail)

Our Heroes. (by Tony Auth)

Bushies' "go to" guy. (by Bill Day)

The Torture Chamber gets another victim. (by Mike Luckovich)

Bush is not the Devil (Luckovich again)

Dubya Was Right (Rob Rogers)

All the President's Toys (By Rob Rogers)

Sheriff Dubya goes after another terrorist abetter (By Ben Sargent)

Kids at Play (Sargent has it right about how the mainstream news played this)

Ahh yep. We have confirmation on that "Devil" sighting. Over. (by Bill Schorr)

It's not your father's torture (Schorr again)

The Decider does his thing re: torture (By Ed Stein)

It's your duty but maybe not your priviledge (Stein again)

My My What a lot of news

2006-09-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

The John McCain Charade

I have to say I agree with the editorialist here after seeing the political game McCain played over detainee rights.

WATCH OUT for this fellow, John McCain. He manages to be both the anti-Bush within the Republican Party, and also Bush's enabler. This schizophrenic role, which his bipartisan fans somehow miss, happens to position McCain perfectly for 2008 as the guy untarnished by all the bad stuff Bush brought us, but who continues the same regime.

Read rest at source (link above under title).

Mark Foley Caught With Live Boy

You know the old saying: The only way he could lose this race is to be caught with a dead woman or live boy.

I don't care about Mr. Foley's sexual orientation. The fact was that he was targeting underage teens is the main factor.

And apparently he was warned many months ago about such conduct, the young man contacted his own representative who got the word (eventually) to John Shimkus [R-Ill.] head of the House Page Board. Shimkus to Foley to cut off contact with the young man. Too bad neither Shimkus nor Foley had the brains to realize the warning signs. (Also, note that Republican leaders knew about this a while ago and covered it up.)

Apparently the young man also told the St Petersburg Times last year, which held back the news until now.

You can read the above facts and more at link above.

The New York Times says there were other pages contacted by emails and IMs to one of whom Foley expressed a desire to slip off his t-shirt and shorts.

ABC News said it had read him [Rep. Foley] other messages that were far more graphic. Within hours, Mr. Foley resigned in a one-sentence letter to Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida. He left the Capitol without answering questions.

New York Daily News from Woodward's Book: Bush Cried When Told He'd Won 2004 election.
I kid you not. Like a freaking beauty queen the president cried and hugged people in the room when told he 'won' the election.

Dueling radio talks:

Bush:

"Five years after the 9/11 attacks, some people in Washington still do not understand the nature of the enemy. The only way to protect our citizens at home is to go on the offense against the enemy across the world."

(I think the USSR tried that one too, Mr. President. Look where they aren't now.)

Tammy Duckworth:

"Anyone who challenges our failed policies, or suggests the need for a new strategy, is accused of 'cutting and running,'" Duckworth said. "Well, I didn't cut and run, Mr. President. Like so many others, I proudly fought and sacrificed. ... And I believe the brave men and women who are serving in Iraq today, their families and the American people deserve more than the same empty slogans and political name-calling."

Legislating Violations of the Constitution
Do you think you know the ways that the Republican controlled Congress chopped some of your rights out of the constitution this week? But wait there's more. The House voted to whack off some more of the separation of church and state. .

BBC: Iranian Mullahs Mulled Developing "The Bomb" in 1988

2006-09-29T13:31:00.000-07:00

Without revealing the source of their information the BBC says a letter that has been circulated from Iran had a part that showed that the Ayatollah Khomeini wanted to develop a nuclear weapon.

Interesting, but I'd wait until the source of this secret information is revealed.

If it is true then war with Iran if Republicans control Congress is even more likely.

The US Cut and Ran From Vietnam

2006-09-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

Funny that Vietnam should pop back into the mind so much these days. In fact, Dick Nixon cut and run from Vietnam.

For many years Nixon talked like Bush does these days, sounding bitter and edgy and saying the Democratic party wanted to run away from Vietnam.

But when Nixon's political life was draining from him because of the lies he told, the cover ups his staff had committed, and the American civil rights he had breached, Dick Nixon himself cut and ran from the Vietnam battlefields in an effort to save his presidency.

But even before Nixon took office, we were promised for over a decade that if we "cut and ran" from the battlefields of Vietnam that the rest of South East Asia would fall like dominoes under the heal of Socialism. We had to win that war or continue to fight more and more deadly ones to keep the world safe for democracy as "intelligence sources, Dick Nixon and self righteous Republicans told us dumb young people as they got 50k Americans and 3 million Vietnamese killed.

Then, in a major irony, Dick Nixon himself ordered the pullout.

And what happened next?

For one thing those commies in Vietnam invaded communist Cambodia and stopped a terrible monster from ravaging the people who lived in those killing fields. They actually helped ease a major crisis in that part of the world according to all reasonable analysts.

Now both those nations have spent decades making reforms and working like mad to get into the WTO.

Some Dominoes.

What is interesting about that hisory, besides how psychotic Bush sounds, (much like Nixon did), is that the parts of the April 2006 NIE released contained the old Domino theory masked by reversal.

“Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves and be perceived to have failed,’’ the findings went on, “we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.’’

This is just changing the Dominoes so the background is white and the dots are black. If they win everyone around them collapses in a bow to their power, but if they lose then they and others will slink back to their holes.

Well, if the Domino theory had proven true in the past there might be something there, some reason to go on killing more and more Iraqis each week.

Even if Americans (including military officers) in Iraq and in our government know that the Iraqi government is corrupt, stealing from it's own people, and even allows death squads in their interior ministry and gives protection to Shiite militias while the latter are committing sectarian violence.

Even if most Iraqis want us to leave immediately

But we tested the Domino theory before, and upon losing we found that evil did not spread. Instead losing, and cutting and running allowed us to regain our economic strength and we eventually won the Cold War because of our economic strength in spite of and even because of the fact that we cut and ran from Vietnam.

Our major enemy the USSR "Stayed the Course" in Afghanistan. Yep, they were going to show how tough they were, make sure the world didn't mess with them in the future.

Instead they broke the back of their economy and lost the Cold War.

BTW, Democratic Congressionals in the great majority are not advocating leaving Iraq tomorrow, and running away. They want a more realistic appraisal of the situation there than Bush and the Republicans, do though, and want some kind of idea of when and how to extract ourselves from the area as most Iraqis would like us to do.

And, in fact, the Bush administration and the compliant Republican Congressionals will be ready to leave Iraq when one of two things happen: Bush gets into severe political danger like Nixon did, or it is time to invade Iran.

If one of those two conditions develops, it will not matter about terrorists in Iraq, or those who might want to kill us here.

(Heck there are thousands of Duane Morrison types, and others, that want to kill Americans. We don't have to wait for terrorists. What are we going to do? Should we all hunker down in plate metal boxes?).

The only thing that will matter is the Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld agenda that drives the Bush administration and how many of those rabidly loyal Republicans will still be in Congress next year when Bush wants to attack Iran (which we have shown before will lead to a "boots on the ground" total invasion requiring a draft).

Toon: Somewhere Deep in the Mountains of AfghaniPakistan

2006-09-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

Pat Oliphant

Sometimes it does seem that ol' Binny pops up repeatedly with just the message that the Republicans need to boost their ratings, doesn't it?

Ooo bonus.

Two of a kind? Another by Oliphant. And is that Condi Rice playing the part of Tinkerbell?

Abramhoff White House Contacts= 485? Don't you believe it says White House Spokeswoman, or else!

2006-09-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

Susan Schmidt who should be credited with breaking the Abramoff scandal is unsure about what over 400 alleged contacts with the White House mean.

After all White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, told the press that the emails and other evidence was just hearsay so, now we don't know what to think, apparently, until the White House tells us, what the ultimate truth is. (Why didn't Dick Nixon's team think of that gambit?)

I must say Susan Schmidt is doing an excellent job of making sure that evidence in front of her eyes does not keep her from maintaining strict journalistic balance.

Here's something from a slightly less balanced source (one that won't wait to be told "What is truth?" by the White House): Email: Rove Killed Interior Nomination [at Abramhoff's Request]. This is interesting seeing that the one person that Ms. Schmidt was able to prove did accept gift tickets from the lobbyist was Susan Ralston, a top aide to Karl Rove.

BTW, do your own muckraking here. Could even the smart people at TPM have gotten it all?

Most reports put the White House line that this is all hearsay up on top of their report. As mentioned before location is everything in report, in newspapers, etc.

But AP report at ABC notes:

Learning that Rove would appear at Abramoff's restaurant, the lobbyist wrote, "I want him to be given a very nice bottle of wine and have Joseph whisper in his ear (only he should hear) that Abramoff wanted him to have this wine on the house."

There is also a note about an email exchange with Ralston on NCAA basketball tournament tickets that Abramoff got for Rove (immediately next to Abramoff's seats for that game). Ralston wrote back that Rove would insist on paying for the tickets, but that alleged payment for the tickets, of course, is just "hearsay".

The New York Times Report adds things up, but remember the White House Spokewoman has told you not to believe this. You can only believe what they tell you to believe.

So maybe it's better you don't go to the Times article. You'll start to believe things you aren't allowed to believe and maybe even having a chuckle or two over Republican candidates and then you'll end up as an enemy combatant without Habeas Corpus.

(Or why don't we tell Dana, I wanna be the next Condi Rice, Perino where to stick her hearsay claims?)

Republicans (Mostly) in The House of Representatives Voted Your Judicial Rights Away.

2006-09-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

These weren't just "terrorist" rights. These were the rights of anyone accused of being an "enemy combatant". Rights for 'suspects' of all kinds were set up because anyone can be accused of a crime, but without habeas corpus, without the rights that Americans have come to expect in their courts then one cannot defend oneself from such charges.

Jose Padilla is a US citizen who was held as an enemy combatant. How long until the Republicans in the White House and Congress are having people picked up because they read the wrong news sites. The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times are held by our Secretary of Defense to be dangerous news sources. Now that everyone can choose their news sources via the web, what if it turns out that people who read these dangerous news sources are tarred as enemy combatants? Or maybe those who visit the wrong forums, not ones talking about Jihad, but ones passing on the funny stories coming out from Republican candidacies.

Now how would you defend yourself since you no longer have Habeas Corpus? You could no longer chose your own lawyer or represent yourself. You must have a lawyer chosen for you from the ranks of your prosecutors. You can't see all the evidence against you.

Justicial rights were created to protect citizens from their government because our forfathers knew they couldn't trust the government to get it right, and there has been no more dangerous administration in the United States than the Bush administration.

Check out who voted for this travesty.

Is your Congressional Representative in the list below? (Due to the overwhelming number of Republicans voting 'aye' for this terrible bill compared to Democrats, I have cut in the few Democratic names to the places where they belong alphabetically. Or you can see the vote results at the Post here. Click on the party names to see who voted which way and who abstained.

Maybe I should get that nifty refreshing javascript list program that some site offers for download and have these 253 names flash continually on the side. (If Eblogger had 3 columns that would sound like a good idea. I'm working on a third column and even have done it by inserting a table, but am working on a tableless version or a switch to a blog hoster with 3 columns.)

Voting for House Detainee bill:

Robert Aderholt, Todd Akin, Rodney Alexander, Robert Andrews, Spencer Bachus, Richard Baker, J. Barrett, John Barrow, Joe Barton, Charles Bass, Melissa Bean, Bob Beauprez, Judith Biggert, Brian Bilbray, Michael Bilirakis, Rob Bishop, Sanford Bishop, Marsha Blackburn, Roy Blunt, Sherwood Boehlert, John Boehner, Henry Bonilla, Jo Bonner, Mary Bono, John Boozman, Dan Boren, Leonard Boswell, Charles Boustany, Allen Boyd, Jeb Bradley, Kevin Brady, Henry Brown, Sherrod Brown, Ginny Brown-Waite, Michael Burgess, Dan Burton, Steve Buyer, Ken Calvert, Dave Camp, John Campbell, Chris Cannon, Eric Cantor, Shelley Moore Capito, John Carter, Steve Chabot, Ben Chandler, Chris Chocola, Howard Coble, Tom Cole, Michael Conaway, Bud Cramer, Ander Crenshaw, Barbara Cubin, Henry Cuellar, John Culberson, Artur Davis, Jo Ann Davis, Geoff Davis, Lincoln Davis, Nathan Deal, Charles Dent, Mario Diaz-Balart, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, John Doolittle, Thelma Drake, David Dreier, John 'Jimmy' Duncan, Chet Edwards, Vernon Ehlers, Jo Ann Emerson, Philip English, Bob Etheridge, Terry Everett, Tom Feeney, Mike Ferguson, Michael Fitzpatrick, Jeff Flake, Mark Foley, Randy Forbes, Harold Ford, Jeff Fortenberry, Vito Fossella, Virginia Foxx, Trent Franks, Rodney Frelinghuysen, Elton Gallegly, Scott Garrett, Jim Gerlach, Jim Gibbons, Paul Gillmor, Phil Gingrey, Louie Gohmert, Virgil Goode, Bob Goodlatte, Bart Gordon, Kay Granger, Sam Graves, Mark Green, Gilbert Gutknecht, Ralph Hall, Katherine Harris, Melissa Hart, J. Dennis Hastert, Doc Hastings, Robin Hayes, J.D. Hayworth, Joel Hefley, Jeb Hensarling, Wally Herger, Stephanie Herseth, Brian Higgins, David Hobson, Peter Hoekstra, Tim Holden, John Hostettler, Kenny Hulshof, Duncan Hunter, Henry Hyde, Bob Inglis, Darrell Issa, Ernest Istook, William Jenkins, Bobby Jindal, Sam Johnson, Nancy Johnson, Tim Johnson, Sue Kelly, Mark Kennedy, Peter King, Steve King, Jack Kingston, Mark Kirk, John Kline, Joe Knollenberg, Jim Kolbe, Randy Kuhl, Ray LaHood, Tom Latham, Jerry Lewis, Ron Lewis, John Linder, Frank LoBiondo, Frank Lucas, Daniel Lungren, Connie Mack, Donald Manzullo, Kenny Marchant, Jim Marshall, Jim Matheson, Michael McCaul, Thad McCotter, Jim McCrery, Patrick McHenry, John McHugh, Mike McIntyre, Buck McKeon, Cathy McMorris, Charles Melancon, John Mica, Michael Michaud, Jeff Miller, Candice Miller, Gary Miller, Dennis Moore, Tim Murphy, Marilyn Musgrave, Sue Myrick, Randy Neugebauer, Anne Northup, Charles Norwood, Devin Nunes, Jim Nussle, Tom Osborne, Butch Otter, Michael Oxley, Stevan Pearce, Mike Pence, Collin Peterson, John Peterson, Thomas Petri, Chip Pickering, Joe Pitts, Todd Platts, Ted Poe, Richard Pombo, Earl Pomeroy, Jon Porter, Tom Price, Deborah Pryce, Adam Putnam, Jim Ramstad, Ralph Regula, Dennis Rehberg, David Reichert, Rick Renzi, Thomas Reynolds, Mike Rogers, Mike Rogers, Hal Rogers, Dana Rohrabacher, Mike Ross, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Edward Royce, Paul Ryan, Jim Ryun, John Salazar, Jim Saxton, Jean Schmidt, Joe Schwarz, David Scott, Jim Sensenbrenner, Pete Sessions, John Shadegg, Clay Shaw, Christopher Shays, Don Sherwood, John Shimkus, Bill Shuster, Rob Simmons, Michael Simpson, Lamar Smith, Christopher Smith, Michael Sodrel, Mark Souder, John Spratt, Cliff Stearns, John Sullivan, John Sweeney, Tom Tancredo, John Tanner, Charles Taylor, Gene Taylor Lee Terry, Bill Thomas, Mac Thornberry, Todd Tiahrt, Pat Tiberi, Michael Turner, Fred Upton, Greg Walden, James Walsh, Zachary Wamp, Dave Weldon, Curt Weldon, Jerry Weller, Lynn Westmoreland, Ed Whitfield, Roger Wicker, Joe Wilson, Heather Wilson, Frank Wolf, Don Young, Bill Young

George Allen's Gropies Emerge

2006-09-28T00:21:00.000-07:00

Gropies first crawled out from the woodworks in the 2003 California Recall campaign.

After Arnold Schwarzenegger was exposed as a serial groper (a person who forces unwanted groping on another) many of his groupies started wearing T shirts asking the gubenatorial candidate to grope them so gropies. Ergo, anyone who would demean themselves to play politics so absurdly is a "gropie".

One of George Allens' gropies, Dan Cragg, says he had an interview with Webb in the eighties in which the candidate described riding around the Watts area of Los Angeles pointing (fake) guns out the window and yelling racial epithets.

But even weirder is that Cragg had a transcript of the interview in which the candidate told him, but that part must have slipped out becaues it isn't there anymore. I believe I've found Dan Cragg in Wikipedia as a sometimes science fiction writer. I guess it must have been aliens that zapped those words right out of the transcript.

Webb replied correctly to Cragg's allegations that such an action would most likely lead to death. I've lived in the Los Angeles area for over 50 years. Let me assure you of that. I guess Dan Cragg thinks people in Watts were some kind of pussy cats you could scare. They weren't, they aren't, and they never will be.

And then there are spurious allegations by women of some vague harassment.

What is funny is that this whole gambit is so pathetic.

On the other hand allegations of racially charged language and actions from George Allen are picking up steam.

On Monday, a college football teammate, Ken Shelton, said Allen used the N-word referring to black people. He also said that he, Allen and Billy Lanahan, another teammate, once cut the head off of a deer and, at Allen's urging, stuffed the head into a black person's mailbox.

Lanahan is dead. But his former roommate came forward Wednesday to say that he recalls Lanahan telling him the story without mentioning that the mailbox was a black person's.

"He told me they went hunting," said George Beam, 53, who lives in Charlottesville. "All he said was we cut the deer head off and stuck it in somebody's mailbox."

More Details Emerge of How Iraqi Government is Acting Like a New Version of Saddam

2006-09-27T23:21:00.000-07:00

Who's laughing now? Saddam gloats: Look it took hundreds of corrupt politicians to replace me!

Excerpt New York Times article "Military Officials Add to U.S. Criticism of Iraq’s Government":

Senior American military officials are warning that time is growing short for Iraq to root out militias inside and outside the government and purge ministries of corrupt officials who are diverting large sums of money to their own political parties.

“We are now at a time when we have a little bit of influence there,” a senior military official said. Referring to the problem of militias, he added, “There is going to come a time when I would argue we are going to have to force this issue.”

The official said political parties who were plundering ministries were squandering chances to make progress that could reduce sectarian violence.

“I can tell you in every single ministry how they are using that ministry to fill the coffers of the political parties,” the official said. .

..

Read rest at source (link above).

I don't know what the senior military official actually means by "forcing the issue", but the Iraq Study Group also mentioned that the Iraqi government does not seem worthy of the amount of effort the US is investing in their nation.

That happened with South Vietnam. President Kennedy had a solution to that.

Unfortunately, he didn't live long enough to implement it and the Lyndon, "stay the course", Johnson took over.

I wrote about President's Kennedy's solution in this post.

Third Person Comes Forward Accusing Senator Allen of Racial Slurs in Past

2006-09-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

Excerpt New York Times:

Mrs. [Xxxxxx] is the third acquaintance in two days to recount hearing Mr. Allen use racist slurs. The accusations are the latest twist in events set off when Mr. Allen called a young Democratic campaign operative of Indian descent “macaca.” Critics said the term was a racial pejorative derived from the name of a monkey species. Mr. Allen apologized for any offense and said he had just made up the word.

A college football teammate, Dr. [Yyyyyyyy], has said Mr. Allen used racial slurs and engaged in a racist prank in college in the early 70’s.

An anthropology professor, [Zzzzzzz], said that as a graduate student at the University of Virginia he heard Mr. Allen use the epithet.

Names redacted because if anyone is going to smear these people (as thousands of neocons will) they might as well register at the Times or go find the copy they put up in their neocon sites.

These are brave people, but will it matter?

Arnold groped and called blacks names, but it never mattered.

Dueling ads. Is Steele a Lying Puppy?

2006-09-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

In a Washington Post article of dueling ads one part says:

Steele says he wants to legalize the importation of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, while Cardin voted against such a measure in Congress. He points out that Cardin has raised campaign cash from special interests, including pharmaceutical companies. Steele goes on to say that he would ban lawmakers from accepting gifts from lobbyists -- although he doesn't address campaign contributions.

"Want more of the same? I'm not your candidate," Steele says. "But if you're ready for change, then I'm your man."

Oren Shur, a spokesman for Cardin, called the assertions in the ad "blatantly hypocritical," noting that the Ehrlich administration did nothing to support Democratic efforts to import Canadian drugs and that Steele has taken gifts from lobbyists.

Both Cardin and Steele have raised campaign money from drug companies and collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from political action committees. Steele's fundraising efforts have also been helped by "Team Steele," a group of lobbyists assigned to bundle PAC contributions.

The important point is that Steele acts like his hands are clean of money from pharmaceuticals. That would be basically a lie given the history of his campaigns. And that makes a person wonder in what other ways Mr. Steele is lying.

Oops, I think someone's puppy just pee'd on his shoes.

Our Own Private Palestine: Young children fight U.S. troops in Iraq

2006-09-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

Read full report at USA Today. Interestingly there are many non lethal ways to control this.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Shiite militias are encouraging children — some as young as 6 or 7 — to hurl stones and gasoline bombs at U.S. convoys, hoping to lure American troops into ambushes or provoke them into shooting back, U.S. soldiers say.

Gangs of up to 100 children assemble in Sadr City, stronghold of radical anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army militia, and in nearby neighborhoods, U.S. officers said in interviews this week.

American soldiers have seen young men, their faces covered by bandanas, talking with the children before the rock-throwing attacks begin — and sometimes handing out slingshots so the volleys will be more accurate, the troops said.

Why is David Ignatius Ducking the Truth?

2006-09-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

David Inatius runs by the old BS that Democrats have no plans for changing the war in Iraq.

In the first place they've already tried to get changes by getting Rumsfeld out. Rumsfeld is well known as a big part of the problem in Iraq. The troops need competant leadership.

Secondly, Ingatius, ignores what Democrats have been saying because his neocon heart knows that the American press won't tell Americans what Democrats have been saying. So the Republicans can play the game that Democrats have no plans.

I suppose that the newspapers complicity with neocons in blocking Democratic arguments is so that political figures will be forced to buy advertising space, but it stinks like old garbage.

Thirdly, a group led by James Baker III and Lee Hamilton recently spent time studying the problem of what to do now. When they came back they only had one suggestion to offer and said they would be leaving the rest until after the election, thereby withholding vital information, of course, probably on the direction of the Bush administration.

Therefore, on the one hand the Bush administration is withholding information on the best way to go about winning peace in Iraq, and on the other Rove's favorite columnists are saying that the Democrats should already know what the best and brightest won't release. In fact though as we saw earlier, not even the NIE released in April made it to House members until this week because of a computer "snafu" if you believe that BS.

And finally, Ignatius repeats the old saw about Democrats wanting to leave tomorrow which is patently untrue. They want to get out as soon as decently possible but without leaving the incredible mess that Bush and Rumsfeld have so far created.

As we know, the same charges were lodged at John Kerry in 2004 by neocon writers and Rove thinks these lies will work forever now so his buddies use them over and over again.

But...

It was the Iraqi legislature that wanted the US to give them a timeline for withdrawal.

And according to The Hill, it's Curt Weldon (R PA)who

has drafted a resolution that would give military commanders — instead of President Bush or Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld — decision-making authority over when American troops should return home.

But lets not let the facts get in the way of advancing your career by playing the neocon game, right Mr. I?

BTW, check out Weyant's cartoon at The Hill.

BTW, I just noticed another WP article Mr. I.

Did you see this one? Most Iraqis Favor Immediate U.S. Pullout, Polls Show

...the invasion and occupation of Iraq had become a “cause célèbre” for jihadists

2006-09-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

That sentence came word for word from the NIE that the president said the news media was misrepresenting.

No, actually that sounds just like what the 'liberal press' said, Mr. President, but like in 2002 that kind of talk is banned in the press before elections.

Excerpt New York Times article:

The report, a comprehensive assessment of terrorism produced in April by American intelligence agencies, said the invasion and occupation of Iraq had become a “cause célèbre” for jihadists. It identified the jihad in Iraq as one of four underlying factors fueling the spread of the Islamic radicalism, along with entrenched grievances, the slow pace of reform and pervasive anti-American sentiment.

And the president made statements yesterday that virtually promise more invasions.

“My judgment is: The only way to protect this country is to stay on the offense.”

Yeah, because Iraq turned out so well. Funny, that "invasion as defense" was Hitler's philosohy. In fact, at Nuremburg the Nazi officials revealed that their aggression was in fact a defense against socialism.

We need to either validate the Nuremburg trials now or throw out all they stood for and say that, in fact, there is no truth and no basic measure of good and evil in this world. The strong and the victorious do indeed decide what was the right thing to do. Then we can sink back into the cesspool of a violent new dark age, though this one might have xboxes, etc. for the dominant society's masses and fancy cars for the 'wealthy'.

We must admit that the intelligence assessment also says:

that if jihadists who leave Iraq perceive themselves, or are perceived by others, to have failed, fewer fighters will be inspired to keep fighting.

That's rather like what they said of Vietnam. You know all those dominoes that were going to turn communist if Vietnam fell as Dick Nixon told us. We're fighting most of those dominoes now in the business world as they try to out capitalist us. And Vietnam is dying to get into the WTO!

All because we lost. We ran away and saved our strength, unlike the USSR in Afghanistan which "stayed the course" and wore down their strength.

In fact, you could say that running away helped us win the cold war.

I guess if you love war so much this could be a quite unpleasant fact. As Senator John Warner said, (paraphrased due to memory constraints) -- anti democratic leaders like war because it keeps the minds of their people off what is being taken from them at home.

Yeah, we should think about that when Bush keeps talking about remaining eternally on the offense.

With Iraq we just got a knee cap broken. Iran though has a real army and real weapons. What does it matter if you get to ride your snowmobile all over the forest (a Republican cause in Michigan) if your child comes home in a box?

You won't be celebrating electing Republicans when you or your loved ones and friends are drafted to be sent away in Bush's quest for glory thanks to his subservient Republicans in Congress.

The Washington Post report says that the NIE was available to legislators in April but ... wait ... some mysterious snafu kept it from the House members of the intelligence, armed forces, and foreign affairs committees. My my, an important intellligence document with embarassing conclusions in it disappeared for 5 months. This in the most technilogically advance nation in the world.

BTW, I think the common people of the United States have a right to information too. We are the ones who need to make up our minds before November.

And how about that snippy little speech Bush gave yesterday? I was looking for the cheese and crackers. He made Clinton sound like the former president was having a tea party with his biased buddy Chris Wallace.

In another article at the Post Michael Fletcher analyses the NIE.

Shows that the NIE also concluded:

terrorists with experience constructing roadside bombs and other deadly devices in Iraq "are a potential source" of leadership in attacks elsewhere

and of Bush's press conference:

"My judgment is, if we weren't in Iraq, they'd find some other excuse, because they have ambitions," Bush said. "They kill in order to achieve their objectives."

Hey, that's just like our neocons. Kill kill kill! Grab that empire! Resources, markets, cheap labor! Anything our big business buddies want.

Soon Every American Will Have Their Own Thought Handler Thanks to the Republican Party

2006-09-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

You won't even have to think for yourself.

A "friendly voice" (if you like someone handing you lies and telling you what to think about issues) will be guiding into the correct way to see things and telling you facts that cannot be verified via normal means. Not only will the Republicans spew their lies in their ads and in the news, but you will get nice little calls with "information" just for you based on the fact that the Republicans know what you put on credit card in the last few months.

You ask me where they got that information? I have no idea, but they have it.

This article in the Los Angeles Times ("GOP Mines Data for Every Tiny Bloc") shows that they are actually getting information from your credit card company on what you've bought recently.

Excerpt:

voters are identified from such diverse sources as credit card transactions...

Add this article in the Times ("Negative Ads a Positive in GOP Strategy") shows that the Republicans don't really care if the information they give people that they've data mined as to likes, dislikes etc is actually provable in court at any time, but especially 5 weeks before an election.

Now putting this together with this Washington Post article we find that yes, you will be contacted if you fall under their radar because you register Republican or Independent or for other reasons like attending churches who's records are scanned or meetings that might have Republicans collecting names from sign in lists, or even signing initiative petitions that are aimed at conservatives or independents.

There has been much information coming out in newspapers and other political sources that Republican data mining is actually as extensive as any the government has (which makes you wonder where they got all that information if not from their buddies in the federal government.) Read back in this blog. I've caught some of the reports here.

The Republicans in the Post article make it seem that they are only trying to get out the vote (so they can use big donations from fat cats, big businesses etc., but in fact they are using the donations to be able to spend millions of man hours being your Republicans Thought Police friend. Ring ring. Here they are calling now. Do you own a snowmobile (though they already know you do because they've seen your credit card records). Well, we have a nice lie for you over that.....

Put the dots together people and figure it out.

If we continue to just slide along in watching TV News instead of using our brain and at least reading a world class newspaper (Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times are the ones that worry Don Rumsfeld so I recommend them.) we are going to have a nice friendly member of the Republican thought police hanging out with us at our family meals, church services, etc.

Every year big business uses more and more money to re-elect Republicans as they now see that the GOP is even ready to invade multiple countries to get resources that fat cats want from them. And, next up, the GOP is already planning to put most of the tax burden on the middle class for doing those job for multinational companies.

We need to realize who the GOP is working for, because it isn't you and me.

Poor Bush

2006-09-26T13:38:00.000-07:00

The president has to give statements picked up by all news channels, wander around the White House, and wear expensive suits and trench coats all day while those lazy soldiers just have to work 10-12 hours a day in incredible heat and face death. Poor, poor, Mr. President.

Republicans in Congress Bend Over to Give Bush What he Wants in Detainee Bill

2006-09-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

The government has maintained since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that, based on its reading of the laws of war, anyone it labels an unlawful enemy combatant can be held indefinitely at military or CIA prisons. But Congress has not yet expressed its view on who is an unlawful combatant, and the Supreme Court has not ruled directly on the matter.

As a result, human rights experts expressed concern yesterday that the language in the new provision would be a precedent-setting congressional endorsement for the indefinite detention of anyone who, as the bill states, "has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" or its military allies.

Inadvertently give to the wrong charity? You're will be an enemy combatant with the approval of Congress once this bill passes. Help the wrong person set up a web site? Ditto!

Abandon all hope ye who enter

Republicans in Congress crippled counterterrorism

2006-09-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

Here's just a few ways in which the Republican control of Congress crippled Counterterrorism.

a) On page 105 or my copy of The 9/11 Commission Report it says that one of the causes of the terrorists successes pre 9/11 was:

In recent years, traditional review of the administration of programs and the implementation of laws has been replaced by a "focus on personal investigations, possible scandals, and issues designed to generate media attention."

Since this was re: pre 9/11 (though Curt Weldon's recently debunked "Able Danger" charade fits into the pattern very well too and possibly the commission writers were thinking of that as well) can we imagine who the members of Congress that were focusing on "personal" investigations were? Maybe those who were having Louis Freeh's agents investigate incredible amounts of spurious personal charges against the sitting president that used up over 70 million taxpaper dollars and up to 200 FBI agents ar any one time. Don't you think that might qualify? The Congressional Republicans created hundreds of ever increasing claims such as the idea that Bill Clinton was a rapist (and yes, as usual they had their bribed witness), and that Bill Clinton was a mass murderer that were proven beyond a shadow of a doubt except in the minds of the Fox News zombies and those who believe them to be patently untrue.

Other problems in the Clinton era:

b) George Tenet was less than qualified to run the CIA.

George Tenet was not Bill Clinton's pick for the job when it opened up. Anthony Lake, Clinton's NSC chief was.

George Tenet was chosen by the Republicans in control of the Senate as the only man they would vote into office.

Again it was the Republican control of Congress that hampered counterterrorism.

C)Louis Freeh was an incompetent a**.

He had worked impressively in New York and Clinton chose him for that reason, but he was one of those people who stop working and start grandstanding and collecting power when they get in to the spotlight. Clinton was ready to ditch the man in 1995, but something had changed by then.

We had a Republican controlled Congress who wanted to investigate the president and bring him down. So they made a deal with Louis Freeh. Freeh knew that a president being investigated by the FBI would not dare remove him or end up like Dick Nixon.

So he and the Republican controlled Congress cooked up ever more incredible allegations and used FBI resources to continually investigate the president (this, of course ties in with what the 9/11 commission found). Interestingly most news sources ignored the statement from the bipartisan 9/11 commission as too damaging to Republicans. (Well they are all owned by big businesses and fat cats aren't they? We are lucky that hungry reporters tend to go out and get news and newspapers hungry for material print it up before Rove can get to them and warn them or we might never hear anything.)

In fact, it turns out that the group that Clinton put together overcame those incredible obsticals and kept us safe from many attacks

Here's a good list of the attacks Clinton protected us from and the steps he took to do so.

But still with all the things that the Republicans in control of Congress did to cripple counterterrorism directly and by result of their scandalmongering it is a miracle that we did not suffer an attack on our homeland or airplanes during the Clinton administration.

And the head of that miracle team was Richard A. Clarke who had a cabinet level position and an incredible group working under him in the Counterterrorism Interagency Working Group.

Now look what happens right after Condi gets into the NSC position:

From National Secrurity Presidential Directive of Feb 13, 2001:

The existing system of Interagency Working Groups is abolished.

Excuse me? Ms. Condi just destroyed the one group still capable of keeping Americans safe. She demoted Richard Clarke to a small time functionary that she nor anyone else in the White House would listen to.

In addition the 9/11 transcripts brought out the fact (not reported in the book) that
the Bush administration had only a shell of real counterterrorism in place before the summer of 2001 after Rice gutted what was left over from the Clinton administration and in fact destroyed the miracle team that Clarke had built up.

I have to admit that alongside of Condi's very lame assertions, the AP article in the Washtington Post actually brings out some very important facts:
Rice took exception to Clinton's statement that he "left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy" for incoming officials when he left office.

"We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaida," she told the newspaper, which is owned by News Corp., which also owns Fox News Channel.

Actually Condi was left it, but she destroyed it as you can see via that paper dated February 13, 2001 that I excerpted above. So she wasn't left much of any counterterrorism strategy or group after she fired Richard Clarke from the cabinet level position, but it was because of her own decision. Again Condi is staying just at one side of a lie.

The right wing spin, and lies machine is one thing, but if mainstream news resists the tendency to get sucked into and start repeating only the right wing line then Americans have a chance to avoid the designs on invading Iran that the Bush administration has.

Republicans in Congress Bend Over to Give Bush What he Wants in Detainee Bill

2006-09-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

The government has maintained since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that, based on its reading of the laws of war, anyone it labels an unlawful enemy combatant can be held indefinitely at military or CIA prisons. But Congress has not yet expressed its view on who is an unlawful combatant, and the Supreme Court has not ruled directly on the matter.

As a result, human rights experts expressed concern yesterday that the language in the new provision would be a precedent-setting congressional endorsement for the indefinite detention of anyone who, as the bill states, "has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" or its military allies.

Can You Imagine If Democrats Had Stopped a Defense Bill?

2006-09-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

Republicans would have been screaming bloody murder about how they were supposedly putting our troops at risk if Democrats had tried to use this instance to promote some of their agenda.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R.-Ill.) -- in a showdown with Senate Republicans -- has vowed he will not bring a major defense policy bill to the chamber floor this week unless Senate negotiators add a federal court security bill and a controversial House anti-illegal-immigration measure, senior House leadership aides say.

The last-minute confrontation is pitting the House's most powerful member against Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.), who has said he will not add extraneous measures to the annual defense authorization bill unless they can garner unanimous support from Democrats and Republicans alike. House leadership aides are emphasizing the court measure, which would bolster the protection of judges in the aftermath of the shooting of a judge in Atlanta and the killing of a judge's family in Chicago.

Allegations of Racism from College Years Made About Senator Allen

2006-09-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

In an interview with The Washington Post on Sunday night, Shelton reiterated that Allen frequently used the "N word" and he also recounted an episode in 1973 or 1974 in which he and Allen and a third friend shot a deer while hunting. Shelton said Allen cut the deer's head off, asked directions to the home of the nearest black person, and shoved the head into that person's oversized mailbox.

"I have no doubt George was a racist in the early 1970s," said Shelton, who described himself as a former Democrat who is now registered as an independent. "I couldn't care less if George was a Democrat or a Republican. He shouldn't be in public office."

Allen, of course uses the Rovian categorical denial.

Like the senator has been so truthful to date.

Another lie that this article exposes is the idea that it is working class people who become racists. Here is a wealthy and priviledged son of a famous football coach with serious problems. Too bad there isn't a clinic he can check into.

It is people like Senator Allen that the Republicans' Southern Strategy gave comfort and support to when racism was on the ropes and on its way out in our nation.

With the gimic the Republican party gained millions of faithful voters which they then took advantage of to install the big business agenda.

But it also revived racism and hate as a major life outlook until today the Republicans can count on hate to fuel an entire empire built by killing hundreds of thousands of people in a nation that did not threaten us. American middle class people have even been voting to break their own families finances by national debt increases just to be able to pay for a massive war machine being used in Iraq.

And it all started because Tricky Dick realized that the Republicans could use racism to increase their voter base. But, of course, Tricky Dick is dead now.

The racism is carried on by other Republicans who sit in offices of power because bigots put them there.

US army’s kill-kill ethos under fire

2006-09-25T12:43:00.000-07:00

Excerpt London Sunday Times article (same title as above):

THE American army should scrap the Warrior Ethos, a martial creed that urges soldiers to demonstrate their fighting spirit by destroying the enemies of the United States at close quarter rather than winning the trust of local populations, according to senior US officers and counter-insurgency experts.

Soldiers are instructed to live by the creed, which evokes the warrior spirit of the modern US army. It begins with the stirring vow, “I am an American soldier”, and goes on to affirm that “I will never accept defeat. I will never quit . . . I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat”.

Admirable though this may be in the heat of battle, the Warrior Ethos’s emphasis on annihilating the enemy is inimical to the type of patient, confidence-building counter-insurgency warfare in which America is engaged in the Middle East, according to Lieutenant-General Gregory Newbold, former director of operations to the joint chiefs of staff at the Pentagon.

“The future crises that relate to Iraq and Afghanistan will be a struggle for hearts and minds,” Newbold said. “We’re in a different environment now and that requires different techniques.”

The Warrior Ethos replaced the Soldier’s Creed drawn up in the post-Vietnam era which stated: “I am an American soldier . . . No matter what situation I am in, I will never do anything for pleasure, profit or personal safety, which will disgrace my uniform. I will use every means I have, even beyond the line of duty, to restrain my army comrades from actions disgraceful to themselves and the uniform.”

The degrading treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and atrocities such as the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl in Mahmudiya have highlighted the conduct of individual American servicemen.

“A strategic corporal can have a lot more impact on the course of the war than a general, so it’s critical that soldiers and marines appreciate the consequences of their actions,” Newbold said. “The old Soldier’s Creed came down to ‘doing the right thing’. I like that.”

Andrew Garfield, senior fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia and former British intelligence officer, believes that the Warrior Ethos has encouraged American soldiers to respond to threats with overwhelming force, so creating new enemies, not friends.

“The United States army is phenomenal at conventional warfare, but soldiering — even in a Victorian sense — meant building roads and bridges, forging links with tribal leaders and very occasionally killing them,” said Garfield, who travelled to Iraq to canvass the views of more than 100 British officers and officials about American tactics.

Benedict Lords it Over Muslim Envoys.

2006-09-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Gee, couldn't he have made an effort to treat them as equals?

How obtuse is the man?

Excerpt BBC report:

n the space of just half an hour, the pontiff made a brief speech to envoys before greeting them individually, but there was no general discussion.

Muslim leaders had been demanding an unequivocal apology from the Pope for his words.

...

In a BBC interview, the ambassador of Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, pointed out that the Pope had not referred directly to the speech which sparked the controversy.

"We had hoped that there would have been a dialogue, but that was not the case," Bambang Prayitno said.

"There was no dialogue between the Pope and the guests... In general, we were actually a bit surprised that the meeting was a short one and just like that."

The amount of money and effort these teams took to get to Rome and Poof. Well, now I told you and even shook your hands, now go on your way and behave...

Retired Generals Accuse Defense Secretary Of Bungling War In Iraq

2006-09-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Excerpt CBS news report:

Retired military officers on Monday bluntly accused Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of bungling the war in Iraq, saying U.S. troops were sent to fight without the best equipment and that critical facts were hidden from the public.

"I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," retired Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste said in remarks prepared for a forum conducted by Senate Democrats.

A second military leader, retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, assessed Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically ...."

"Mr. Rumsfeld and his immediate team must be replaced or we will see two more years of extraordinarily bad decision-making," he added...

(And that's only if the next president has the smarts to give ol' Rummy the boot!)

More comments from the former generals and notes about the Democratic Policy Committee at Washington Post:

Batiste went further than the CBS report indicated:

"If we had seriously laid out and considered the full range of requirements for the war in Iraq, we would likely have taken a different course of action that would have maintained a clear focus on our main effort in Afghanistan, not fueled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe, and not created more enemies than there were insurgents."

Democrats revealed that they had to hold their meeting

outside the regular congressional process because of the Republican leadership's persistent "neglect" of oversight.

Funny, the 9/11 committee blamed the terrorists' success on that date partially on the lack of oversight of the Republican controlled Congress too. Could there be a connection?
Maybe incompetency is caught like the flu when Republican politicos are all snuggled up together sucking on the teats of corporate America.

And listen to Cheney:

"As we make our case to the voters in this election season, it's vital to keep issues of national security at the top of the agenda,

Keep Terra Terra Terra right in front of your eyes, people or the Republicans are going to (gulp) lose this election. And Cheney might lose some of his power to order people to be killed or at least locked up! Please, please don't start to use your brains and your hearts now! We have to kill kill kill or whatever will Halliburton do next year to earn its billions of dollars?

Army Top Officer in Mutiny

2006-09-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

Excerpt Los Angeles Times article "Army Warns Rumsfeld It's Billions Short":

The Army's top officer withheld a required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month after protesting to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the service could not maintain its current level of activity in Iraq plus its other global commitments without billions in additional funding.

The decision by Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army's chief of staff, is believed to be unprecedented and signals a widespread belief within the Army that in the absence of significant troop withdrawals from Iraq, funding assumptions must be completely reworked, say current and former Pentagon officials.

Okay, it's not much of a mutiny, but with the firm strictures against any refusal to follow orders, this is as much of a mutiny as we will see as long as the military brass think they can keep themselves clothed and fed, I imagine.

I also make a half serious forecast that General Schoomaker will soon be realizing he wants to spend more time with his family -- after a few talks with Rumsfeld and Cheney about life, the universe, everything, and keeping his head upon his shoulders --you know, putting it all in perspective.

Read rest of article at link under green or salmon print above.

I Love it When Krauthammer Thinks

2006-09-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

As opposed to when he's just passing on right wing talking points.

His column "Everybody's Jewish" got me thinking.

Well, as much as I am desperate to get some more verifiable ethnicity going, sorry Mr. K. I can't join those everybodies. I just can't find it in my blood lines anywhere. (It took me long enough to find the NA that was written in our family faces. Long story. We were disowned round the turn of the 20th century because great grandma ran away with her son and married a rich guy.)

But, foolish me, I had only read the top statements when I started thinking for myself.

Mr. Krauthammer means that everybody who matters has Jewish relations somewhere.

But he does that in an understandable way.

It is because of centuries of discrimination and persecution.

And from then on unfortunately, Mr. Krauthammer only focuses on the famous and the Jewish which is a shame, though also understandable since his "job" was to help repair and boost Senator George Allen's image. He is a neocon after all.

Lets talk about "discrimination and persecution" in a more general way, though.

There have been other people more recently discriminated against and persecuted in our nation through our dealings in the world.

And yet when they start winning we whiteys (well, in my case whitey-NA) start chattering in our beers that they're getting some kinds of unfair advantages, steroids, affirmative action, or money.

This works for Asians, Jewish people, Hispanics, and Blacks in our eyes.

In fact though, it is the very discrimination we've doled out to them. From the centuries we enslaved and then persecuted the blacks and Mexicans (through illegal immigration and earlier types of guest worker programs) to the wars we raised unnecessarily at East Asians that taught these people the only way out is to over achieve.

What is often hilarious, is that the white guys or gals moaning about the unfair advantages minorities might have often consider themselves evangelical Christians and the answer is right there in the Bible. In Proverbs as a matter of fact.

One of the verses says: (paraphrased) "If you persecute a people you will make them strong." People is used as opposed to person to indicate a group.

There's the answer. Now our nation does its best to extract everything from our minorities and it just makes them tougher. And now we are putting the Muslims under heavy persecution. Well, guess what happens then.

Rich and Powerful America needs to get a clue as the middle class that they think can be drained of resources to boost their own wealth and status and control is going to wake up one day and turn on them (politically mind you, not violently).

So Bush and his neocon buddies are telling Big Oil not to fret even though it will be many years before they can start draining the Iraqi oil fields. We now have something cooking so we can go in and grab some of the richest of Iran's fields to tide them by. All we need to do is to tap the middle class for troops and more money. (Yeah, that's "tap" as one does to a maple tree with a sharp metal object connected to a tube which funnels the vital juices out.)

Those who are working to support the neocons to get more wealth and power for themselves, really had better step easy, because they are making a lot of people strong. Strong enough to think for themselves finally. Then, well, it has actually started to happen, hopefully, so let's just enjoy the ride.

Maybe next time, fellow Christians, we can go into Bush's tax cuts and how Proverbs promises that they will weaken and impoverish the nation. I bet your pastor and Bible study leaders don't go into that lesson very often.

Howard Kurtz: Covering for the Right Wing Again

2006-09-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Whenever I read Howard's column and he's doing his job for Rove, I remember what I read about those media people who get the little inside stuff from the White House and GOP if they make sure to stick mostly to Rove's agenda. (They can even go off base a little, as long as it fits into the Rovian plan to make them appear 'balanced').

And Wow, Kurtz gets two articles out of it. Boy the Post must have been hit hard by Rove over the weekend.

RE: Iraqi Parties Reach Deal Postponing Federalism

2006-09-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

I read a report on this earlier, but couldn't figure out if this was good or not.
Excerpt of the Reuters report:

Iraqi political parties agreed on Sunday to delay the formation of any new autonomous federal regions for at least 18 months, putting aside an issue that has fuelled sectarian violence, parliamentary officials said.

"An agreement has been reached by all the political parties," an aide to Shi'ite deputy parliament speaker Khaled al-Attiya told Reuters.

"They agreed to hold the first reading of the bill on federal regions on Tuesday, but will not be able to implement it until 18 months after parliament approves it," he added.

He also said a committee would be formed on Monday to start reviewing possible amendments to the constitution -- a key demand of the Sunni minority.

Shi'ite and Sunni politicians confirmed the deal but some said they still had reservations on the proposed draft that will be given to parliament on Tuesday.

"We don't think this 18 month time-frame will do much to treat the problem, we need to agree on what the bill will say," said Hasan al-Shimmari, a spokesman for the small Shi'ite party, Fadhila.

I guess it's what the Sunni's wanted to stop the giveaway of the big oil fields to Shiites in the South, but it might not stop much violence.

It won't do much to stop Shiite violence, definitely, but one of the major concerns of the Sunnis, that of being left oilless has been dealt with.

The Post puts it much more clearly.

Sunni Arabs had threatened to boycott parliament over a proposal, introduced by a Shiite Muslim group this month, to create a mechanism that could carve out a predominantly Shiite region in southern Iraq, similar to the semiautonomous Kurdish zone in the north. Sunnis adamantly oppose that plan, which would leave them with a central area devoid of the oil reserves in other regions, and have pushed for a full review of the country's new constitution.

Under the compromise reached Sunday, parliament will form a 27-member committee on Monday to review the constitution and then introduce the Shiite measure on creating federal regions the following day, lawmakers said.

The federalism law would not take effect for at least 18 months after it is enacted, the parliament members said.

Still this will not do anything about the Shia in official Iraqi uniforms killing Sunnis that they claim they are taking in for interrogation. This is just one stipe... okay two steps in the direction of the Iraqi government proving it is worthy of American troop protection, though they still have a long way to go.

The other day the Iraq Study Group gave reporters only one clue to their findings over how to win this war. (The rest comes out after the election according to the co chairs.)

James Baker III and Lee Hamilton said that the Iraqi government needs to prove to the US that it's worthy of the tremendous effort. Of course, for Bush and his cohorts the oil makes it worth it, and I'm sure Karl Rove will supply Baker and Hamilton the right words for their final report. The troops have to stay there until it's time to slide on into Iran and 'slice' off those big oil fields next to Iraq's southern region.

If the Republicans are returned to the control of House and Senate, why not? Obviously, we the electorate will have proven ourselves too stupid to worry about anymore. Let the Draft begin!

Inquiry slows giving to Islamic charity

2006-09-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

I'm sure this plays well with the GOP's racist base.
Excerpt AP article at Seattle PI:

Just as the holy month Ramadan, which began Saturday, has many Muslims thinking about their religious obligation to give alms, the investigation of the prominent Islamic aid group (Life for Relief and Development) has prompted fears that giving to charity could bring scrutiny from the government.

FBI agents assigned to a terrorism task force last Monday searched Life's offices, taking computer servers, donor records and other financial documents. They have also searched the homes of the charity's chief executive, an ex-employee and two board members.

"After hearing this, I don't feel secure at all," said Mahfuz, a computer consultant and editor of a Bangladeshi community newspaper. He said he would still consider supporting the organization, but the investigation would force him to weigh that decision carefully.

No charges have been brought in the case, and Life has sought to reassure the community that it is perfectly legal to donate money to the organization, which was founded in 1992 by Iraqi immigrants.

Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Fuels Terror

2006-09-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

Excerpt Los Angeles Times:

The war in Iraq has made global terrorism worse by fanning Islamic radicalism and providing a training ground for lethal methods that are increasingly being exported to other countries, according to a sweeping assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies.

The classified document, which represents a consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, paints a considerably bleaker picture of the impact of the Iraq war than Bush administration or U.S. intelligence officials have acknowledged publicly, according to officials familiar with the assessment.

They conclude that the Iraq war has made it worse," said a government official familiar with the document who spoke on condition of anonymity because of its classified nature.

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney repeatedly have described the war in Iraq as the central front in the war on terrorism and argue that Americans are safer as a result of the administration's policies.

The report, titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States," was completed and described to U.S. government officials in April but not made public. The document is what is known as a National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE, which is designed to represent the U.S. intelligence community's most comprehensive treatment of a subject.

...
In public testimony and unclassified documents, U.S. intelligence officials have for several years been pointing to the more troubling consequences of the drawn-out conflict in Iraq. In particular, officials have highlighted the anger that Muslim extremists feel about the U.S. presence in the region — which has also been one of Osama bin Laden's rallying cries.

Intelligence officials have also pointed to the flow of Muslims from other countries, including Europe, to Iraq to join the insurgency. Those who survive the fighting often leave and return to their home countries with dangerous new experience in urban fighting, bomb-making and — perhaps most important — credibility with other potential Muslim recruits.

Last week, the House Intelligence Committee warned in a report that the danger from terrorists faced by the U.S. was "more alarming than the threat that existed" before Sept. 11. The document also warned that Iraq had become a breeding ground for terrorists who might target other countries.

The April intelligence estimate was produced under the direction of David B. Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats. Its conclusions were first reported by the New York Times on its website on Saturday.

I like the clarity with which the Washington Post noted the following:

the battlefronts intelligence analysts depict are far more impenetrable and difficult, if not impossible, to combat with the standard tools of warfare.

Although intelligence officials agree that the United States has seriously damaged the leadership of al-Qaeda and disrupted its ability to plan and direct major operations, radical Islamic networks have spread and decentralized.

Many of the new cells, the NIE concludes, have no connection to any central structure and arose independently. The members of the cells communicate only among themselves and derive their inspiration, ideology and tactics from the more than 5,000 radical Islamic Web sites. They spread the message that the Iraq war is a Western attempt to conquer Islam by first occupying Iraq and establishing a permanent presence in the Middle East.

and

The April NIE, titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States," does not offer policy prescriptions.

"What these guys at NIC are supposed to do is to lay it out in very clear, understandable terms," said the intelligence official. "It's not the role of the NIC to offer recommendations." Rather, it "basically states the conditions" as the intelligence community sees them, he said.

The second page of the WP report shows why the April 2006 NIE should be more accurate than the 2002 NIE that warned that Saddam had stockpiles and was developing more WMDs.

As part of the intelligence reforms enacted in 2004, control of the NIC was transferred from the CIA director to Negroponte's newly created office, with a mandate to cast a wider net for information throughout the 16-agency intelligence community and among nongovernmental experts.
(Plus the Bushies may have forgotten to round up a bunch of lying jerks to feed to our intelligence agencies for this latest one, but will Rumsfeld have a group collected for the next one already in the works according to the Post. Rumsfeld has set himself up as quite a propaganda master.)

Another ominous message of this NIE that I noted in April when the papers were reporting on Hayden's speech on the War on Terror as noted in the reports, is that they focus on web communication.

And indeed, later in India, the government asked public ISPs to block certain bloggers, and instead those ISPs which most people in the nation must use blocked entire blogging sites. Eblogger and Typepad were two of the blogging hosts banned. I believe that MySpace was another. Terrorists at My Space? Who knew? One might want to consider moving from those blog sites if they want to make sure to reach people with what they have there. Most blog hosters that you pay for will let you export your blog, But you would have to be able to reach your blog to export it. Private ISPs like the ones restricted to larger or more profitable companies because they cost quite a bit of money each month, were able to access blogs and some lucky bloggers from India took to blogging from their offices from personal reports I read.

So, yes, they can just shut us down, and you know how Rumsfeld hates usbloggers anyway for fouling up his lovely propaganda campaigns.
In fact, remembering this I'm wondering why I came back to Eblogger now. I do know some (even free) hosters that were not included in the ban (though no one can give guarantees as to future ones in our nation).

Editor and Publisher Reports that the Neocons are screaming about "liberal press" (again? Ho hum!) and President Bush (turning into his mother) pooh poohs the death of a quarter million brown people by saying that one day the Iraq war will look like "just a comma."

Will the Republicans stop this uncaring man, ever???

Things Saddam Kept in Check: Iraq: Some Bombers Aren't Volunteers

2006-09-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

Besides the numbers killed in our own invasion, we see these forces that Saddam kept in check, in fact, real Iraqis note that there was no sectarian strife in most Iraq under Saddam.

Neither were there insurgents causing other people to uwillingly become suicide bombers.

From CBS News:

Iraqi insurgents are no longer using just volunteers as suicide car bombers but are instead kidnapping drivers, rigging their vehicles with explosives and blowing them up, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

In what appears to be a new tactic for the insurgency, the ministry said the kidnap victims do not know their cars have been loaded with explosives when they are released.

The ministry issued a statement saying that first "a motorist is kidnapped with his car. They then booby trap the car without the driver knowing. Then the kidnapped driver is released and threatened to take a certain road."

The kidnappers follow the car and when the unwitting victim "reaches a checkpoint, a public place, or an army or police patrol, the criminal terrorists following the driver detonate the car from a distance," the Defense Ministry statement said.

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military. In the past, U.S. officials have said insurgents often tape or handcuff a suicide driver's hands to a car, or bind his foot to the gas pedal, to ensure that he does not back out at the last minute.

Although roadside bombs are the main weapon used by insurgents, suicide car bombers are designed to maximize casualties and sow fear among the population.

According to the Washington-based Brookings Institution, there have been 343 suicide car bombings causing multiple deaths in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Bin Laden Dead of Serious Water Born Ailment?

2006-09-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

Surely somebody fed him some US spinach instead. Look, Sir, it's distributed by "Dole". What could be safer than that? HA! HA! Our secret weapon. Agribusiness!

Washington Post (link above under green or salmon print) says that French intelligence agencies are now skeptical of Saudi report (and has some details).

Click Fraud Dragging Down Web Advertising Industry

2006-09-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

This is important to many bloggers who depend on the same kind of ads to generate some income.

Meanwhile, Google and Yahoo are allowing clicks from irrevelant countries (in fact, floods of clicks) to destroy the system if this report from Business Week is correct.

It sounds similar to many other internet scams I've seen.

More on Click Fraud (this from the New York Times). Even competitors get into the game.

Thanksin: Asia's Aristide?

2006-09-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

Does anyone actually think that US intelligence wasn't aware this was going to happen early enough to make some moves to stop it?

Even if they weren't involved with the groups that overthrew Thanksin (unlike in Haiti), our government must have known.

Thailand was a land of the kinds of excesses that unbridled capitalism causes. Desperate poverty and gluttonous wealth and even sex slavery. Then apparently Thanksin eased the suffering for the poor. So, of course he had to go.

Mostly our American press goes along with the neocon idea that this is just okay. I note, though, that WP's Anthony Faiola seems to be at least a little skeptical, and his article transmits the fact, that not everyone in Thailand is smiling over this.

Claim that Able Danger Program Identified 9/11 Hijackers Before the Attack, Shot Down. by Pentagon IG

2006-09-23T15:26:00.000-07:00

NY Times does a good job on this (Article abridged here. Read entire report at link):

The Defense Department’s inspector general on Thursday dismissed claims by military officers and others who had insisted that a secret Pentagon program identified Mohamed Atta and other terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks before the attacks occurred.
...
The report found that the recollections of most of the witnesses appeared to focus on a “single chart depicting Al Qaeda cells responsible for pre-9/11 terrorist attacks” that was produced in 1999 by a defense contractor, the Orion Scientific Corporation.

While witnesses remembered having seen Mr. Atta’s photograph or name on such a chart, the inspector general said its investigation showed that the Orion chart did not list Mr. Atta or any of the other Sept. 11 terrorists, and that “testimony by witnesses who claimed to have seen such a chart varied significantly from each other.”

The report says that a central witness in the investigation, an active-duty Navy captain who directed the Able Danger program, had changed his account over time, initially telling the inspector general’s office last December that he was “100 percent” certain that he had seen “Mohamed Atta’s image on the chart.”

But in an interview this May, the report said, the officer, Scott J. Phillpott, changed his story, telling investigators that he had been confused and was now “convinced that Atta was not on that chart” but that, instead, the terrorist’s photograph was reproduced on a separate document that he was shown by an intelligence analyst on the Able Danger team in June 2000.

The inspector general’s report suggests that the independent federal commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks was right to dismiss Captain Phillpott’s initial claims about Able Danger.

The Sept. 11 commission acknowledged last year that the Navy captain had come to its investigators in July 2004, only days before it issued its final report.

The inspector general’s report also rejected claims by another of the witnesses, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, a veteran military intelligence officer, that he had faced reprisals for having make disclosures about Able Danger, including revocation of his security clearance.

Josh White's article at Washington Post on same subject shines light on the surrounding controversies better though. I can't begin to excerpt that one. You ain't seen office politics until your office is actually Washington DC.

Most Iraqi Troops are "No Shows" in Baghdad

2006-09-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from and comments on LA Times article:

Only a quarter of the Iraqi army forces that had been designated more than a month ago to work on security improvements in the capital have arrived, a sign of continuing problems with the Iraqi government's ability to command and move its troops.

But wait! The Republicans have been assuring us that the new Iraqi military was a major success. They wouldn't lie about something like that would they? WOULD THEY?

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. James Thurman, who is in charge of military forces in Baghdad, said Friday that he had requested 4,000 additional Iraqi troops to help secure Baghdad and had received only 1,000 of them.

"Some of these battalions, when they were formed, were formed regionally," Thurman said in a video news conference with reporters at the Pentagon. "And some of the soldiers, due to the distance, did not want to travel into Baghdad."

Thurman's comments came on a day of continued violence in the country, including the execution-style slayings of nine Sunni Arabs dragged from a wedding dinner east of Baghdad by armed men who reportedly were wearing Iraqi uniforms.

"Three civilian cars and one minibus came to our house with armed men wearing Iraqi army uniforms," the groom's father, Mohammed Dulaimi, 61, told police. "They raided the house and asked to take some of the guests for routine investigations."

Police later found the bodies of nine wedding guests on Baghdad's outskirts. Each had been shot several times.

Morning Quick News Saturday September 23, 2006

2006-09-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

Oops, failed to notice it's afternoon. Saturday chores came first. (BTW, one can't change the title of a blogger post without destroying the link to it.)

Evangelicals Notice They're Being Used by Republicans

Of course the Republicans rollover for the Bush administration and then lie about it. They've gotten the word from Karl Rove that this is all they have to do to win in November. They really need to cut the umbilical cord with the Bush White House. When will we see that happen? Read: GOP Upbeat on Terror-Trial Bill and then read the posts I have here on the deal.

The White House "Won" On Detainee Abuse , Editorialists Agree

Republicans Ready to Cave on Bush Administration Desire for Torture

Congress passed a national ID act? I thought Republicans hated that idea.

The administration threatens to bomb them back to the stone age, then threatens to invade their country and now Bush wants to make nice and gain cooperation from Pakistan. Of course, we need that, but the bullying way he goes about this can't be for the best.
Here's a mainstream report verifying the fact that a few weeks ago Bush did threaten to invade Pakistan, though apparently the administration is completely denying that they threatened to bomb Pakistan back to the stone age. (And if they did, they say that it was just Armitage again. He's their Homer Simpson, I guess. Doh!)

I have moved my comments about the supposed or not death of bin Laden to it's own post. If you are looking at only one post click on title at top of page (when it turns gold) to see the rest of it.

Headless Troops in Iraq.

2006-09-23T13:07:00.000-07:00

No, not beheaded.

What is beheaded is the US military command.

Of course there are Bush, Cheney (the puppet CIC's master), and Rumsfeld, but er well that's my point and slyly the point of a WP editorial "The Troops Stay On"

Excerpts and comments:

Mr. Bush deserves some credit for being true to his word: He said that in deciding on troop reductions, he would be guided by conditions in the two countries and his commanders' recommendations rather than by the political calendar -- and he has been. The administration put this news out weeks before the election, even though the failure to bring troops home will add to the negative pull Iraq already exerts on Republicans in many congressional races.

Well , actually guys, not so much. He basically had to do this to use the spin that the Democrats were cut and runners and start the lies that Democrats wanted to leave now. In fact, the ones asking for the time table were the Iraqi Legislature, until the Bush administration got to them and made them delete that request from an important bill. That's "purple thumb democracy" for you. It seems like the Republicans in Congress have those same purple thumbs.

But we have to agree with the next paragraph:

The president's steadfastness would be much more impressive if it seemed to be attached to a winning strategy. Sadly, the events of the past several weeks suggest otherwise, at least in Iraq. Gen. Abizaid candidly described the progress of a U.S. military campaign in Baghdad, where additional American forces have been concentrated in the hope of stopping rampant sectarian bloodshed, as slight. Asked by reporters if the war could be won, he replied, "Given unlimited time and unlimited support, we're winning the war."

Whoa, bring in the infinite monkeys!

(and the Post article seems to note the irony in the general's statement, too. Use link (under green or salmon text above) to read article.

But in the end the this editorial actually points the finger at another group, the Iraqi administration and legislature.

The US government sent over a bipartisan group to figure out a Plan B on how to win this war. I read the other day a headline saying that the group of preeminent American analyst headed by James Baker III and Lee Hamilton (the 9/11 commission co-chair) had come up with no options. (I intended to, but forgot to get back and read it and other articles on the matter.) But this article does say that the Iraq Study Group did come up with something:

The same day Gen. Abizaid spoke, the chairmen of a bipartisan Iraq study group set up by Congress delivered a blunt message to the four-month-old Iraqi coalition government, which has been slow to take desperately needed steps toward national reconciliation. "The government of Iraq needs to show its own citizens soon, and the citizens of the United States, that it is deserving of continuing support," said former representative Lee H. Hamilton, who chairs the group along with former secretary of state James A. Baker III.

Unless that message is heeded, the sacrifice involved in holding U.S. troop levels steady for another six months -- in lives, above all -- is likely to be wasted.

This fits with history. President John F. Kennedy had signed papers on his desk when he was killed that called for the removal of 1000 of the advisorial troops in Vietnam because the South Vietnamese government was not sufficiently democratic. He also had told associates he had every intention of removing the rest of the American troops from the Asian country in 2005 after his re-election. Even in those days the warmongers had too much control of our nation though their raging maniac groups and business for even Kennedy to be able to pull out troops before an election year.

James Baker III--John F. Kennedy. Both have come down in favor of a truly fair democracy, which we are even losing in the US.

And what are the Congressional Republicans doing about this. Lining up behind Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rove.

The White House "Won" On Detainee Abuse , Editorialists Agree

2006-09-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Though headline writers who seem to have a special connection with Karl Rove have been pretending that the Republicans in Congress got substantial concessions from the Bush administration. That is not the case according to analysts willing to say what they believe.

Washington Post Editorial: The Abuse Can Continue: Senators won't authorize torture, but they won't prevent it, either.

The Post had a great piece the other day which I wrote about in "Republicans Ready to Cave on Bush Administration Desire for Torture" which you should be able to read about in the sidebar.

NYTimes Editorial notes:

In recent decades, women’s advocates and human rights activists have made huge progress on the issues of rape and sexual assault — in the United States and globally. Both crimes are now more powerfully defined in state and federal laws. In international law, where rape and sexual assault have long been classified as torture and war crimes, the world has begun to accept the importance of enforcement. In 1998, a tribunal convicted a paramilitary chief for watching one of his men rape a woman in Serbia. A year ago, the world rose up in outrage when United Nations peacekeepers raped women in Congo.

You’d think this was a settled issue. But it’s been opened up again in the bill on jailing, interrogating and trying terror suspects that President Bush is trying to ram through Congress in a pre-election rush. Both the White House and Senate versions contain provisions on rape and sexual assault that turn back the clock alarmingly. They are among the many flaws that must be fixed before Congress can responsibly pass this legislation.

Well, I'm sorry guys, but the Republican controlled Congress does not have to do anything, as long as TV news, which does such a good job of passing on the Bush administration's spin on everything, keeps it up. I've even seen some newspaper headlines indicating that Bush caved when nothing of the sort happened. The Republicans once again bent over to the Bush administration showing they will not check this administration in any of its fondest desires.

From the New York Times again. This time Adam Liptak's "Detainee Deal Comes With Contradictions"

“The only thing that was actually accomplished,” said Eric M. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University and the author of a book on habeas corpus, “was that the politicians got to announce the existence of a compromise. But in fact, most of the critical issues were not resolved.”

Martin S. Lederman, who teaches constitutional law at Georgetown, said the bill continued to allow the harsh treatment of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency.

“They appear to have negotiated a statutory definition of cruel treatment that doesn’t cover the C.I.A. techniques,” Professor Lederman said. “And they purport to foreclose the ability of the courts to determine whether they satisfy the Geneva obligations.”

The bill would allow, and perhaps require, the president to issue regulations concerning “the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions,” and it calls for them to be published in The Federal Register.

Legal experts differed about whether that bargain, trading power for transparency, was sound.

Changes to the procedures for the military commissions established to try terrorism suspects for war crimes also met with mixed responses. Revisions that would let defendants see the evidence against them were welcomed by military defense lawyers and human rights groups.

But some voiced concern that using statements obtained through coercion, even coercion forbidden by the McCain Amendment to Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, would still be allowed in many circumstances. So would be hearsay evidence, as well as a combination of the two.

“You create a situation,” Ms. Daskal said, “in which someone could be convicted based on a second- or third-hand statement from a detainee during an abusive interrogation.”

The issue that most engaged administration critics was the new bill’s aggressive and possibly constitutionally suspect efforts to keep the courts from hearing many detainees’ challenges or claims based on the Geneva Conventions. Though people charged with war crimes would receive trials before military commissions that largely resemble courts-martial and criminal prosecutions, the administration has announced plans to use just a score of those.

About 430 people are being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and there is no guarantee that they will ever be tried. The legislation, unchanged by the compromise, would prohibit habeas corpus challenges to these indefinite detentions.

“You’re creating a system,” Ms. Daskal said, “where Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,” called the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, “will have more rights than the low-level detainee who was sold into U.S. custody by bounty hunters.”

This is the terrible deal that even the supposed rebel Republicans worked with the Bush administration!

What I want to say, I can't right now. I've always striven to keep my blogs clean and I actually have a deal with one of my hit counters to do so now.

But we need to ask ourselves if we want to re-elect these roll over Republicans so that they allow the Bush administration to continue with their anti-civil rights agenda.

AP Propaganda About Iraq

2006-09-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

It is important to note that the board of directors of AP is composed of 22 newspaper and media executives that include the CEOs and presidents of ABC, McClatchy, Hearst, Tribune and the Washington Post. Two of the directors are members of very conservative policy councils that include the Hoover Institute. The Hoover Institute is a Republican policy research center that has been referred to as "Bush's brain trust." Its fellows include Condoleezza Rice and Newt Gingrich, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow, along with George Shultz.

Douglas McCorkindale, also on the board of directors at AP, is on the board of Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense contract company. One does not require crystals to see that the board of AP displays a clear tilt toward right-wing conservative views, and comprises representatives of a huge corporate media network of the largest publishers in the US.

It is not difficult to demolish the myth of the liberal media and its prominent arms like AP.

Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
- George Orwell

Read rest of article which explains the real facts behind one particular report by the AP at Truthout

Morning News and Thoughts September 22, 2006

2006-09-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

Once Again Krauthammer Spews His Thoughts
Why does this guy get paid for repeating lame overused right wing hate?

You can get the same thing sitting next to a drunk in a bar.

Even if you agree with Krauthammer, you have to admit he can't change reality with his nasty personality. What is, is. And the more you whack the hornets nest, the more they're going to sting you, and -- well er -- us too. Those who must stand behind these warmongering leaders (at least in the eyes of Muslims. The Pope has already gotten one nun killed. Our president has gotten 2600+ Americans killed.

EJ. Dionne: Good News for Republicans?

Americans falling for Bush and Cheney's Booga Booga?

Think about this. Which is More Likely to Get you or a Loved One Killed.

A terrorist attack on US soil
A draft after an invasion of Iran gets stuck in an even worse quagmire that Republican Congressionals will let Bush get us into.

Even if you chose the second selection you should realize that Bush's actions are just asking for a terrorist attack. Well, it worked well to boost the Republicans vote numbers last time, so why should they want to stop the next big one? There are too many stupid, bigotted, and hate filled Americans and the Republicans are the party of hate and bigotry.

Bali bombers 'request beheading'

Three Indonesian militants facing execution for the 2002 Bali bombings want to be beheaded rather than killed by firing squad, their lawyer has said.

The three - Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra - are expected to include the request in an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Their lawyer, Muhammad Mahendradatta, said beheading was a more humane form of punishment than firing squad.

Their execution was postponed last month to allow for a final appeal.

"Our clients would seek to have a more humane capital punishment. It should be done in accordance with Islamic law, which is by beheading," Muhammad Mahendradatta told the Associated Press news agency.

He said death by firing squad was inhumane because the men would suffer for at least two minutes before dying, which he called "torture".

However Indonesian law insists capital punishment be carried out by a firing squad.

Hmm and what about the torture by needle method of execution we practice here in the US?

Why the Firebrands Get Heard

Because the US has lost its moral standing in the world.

Well said Mr. Robinson.

LA Times: Commanders warn that maintaining Iraq troop levels could cause lasting damage to the services unless an increase in forces is allowed.

Thank goodness, Bush had the Selective Service run tests showing he could call a draft within 75 days a couple of years ago. The Congressional Republicans will need that after they allow Bush to take US troops from Iraq to grab Iranian oil fields nearby.

As prospects fade for U.S. force reductions in Iraq, Army and Marine commanders have been stepping up their warnings that the pace of troop deployments is increasingly straining the military and threatening to cause long-term damage.

According to Pentagon officials, senior officers in the Army and Marine Corps in recent weeks have begun warning that without a reduction in Iraq, the present schedule of combat tours would be difficult to sustain without an increase in the number of forces.

Army officials had been counting on a gradual drawdown in Iraq starting later this year and accelerating over the following 12 months.

But the rising violence in Baghdad forced the Pentagon to shelve those plans at the end of July, and Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, acknowledged publicly Tuesday that force levels would remain around the current 145,000 through spring.

One senior Pentagon official involved in long-term planning said the concerns had reached such a level that top Army leaders broached the issue of changing deployment rules to allow for more frequent call-ups of National Guard and Reserve units to relieve pressure on the active duty Army.

Because the Army relied heavily on the Guard and Reserve early in the war, many units have hit legal deployment limits, which allow for two years overseas out of every five. But without a change in those rules to allow more frequent Guard deployments, the Army would be forced to consider a push for an expansion of its active duty force, which stands at 504,000, the official said.

Republicans Ready to Cave on Bush Administration Desire for Torture

2006-09-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

Once again, as usual the unthinkable becomes thinkable with Republicans as long as those poll numbers and campaign funds keep rolling in.

Deal allows president to continue to decide which interrogation methods are okay with the Geneva Convention.

"Well lets see here. We branded pledges at Yale. So that's got to be okay. " --W.

(According to a mainstream news report interviewing Doonesbury's G. B. Trudeau who went to Yale at the same time, Bush's fraternity burned brands into pledges and the president defended the practice.)
( I can't find that one report anymore, but here's a nearly current report on that part of Bush's history.)

And as before, the deal includes specially focus-grouped excuses and other BS for Republicans to use to explain why caving in is good for the country. The campaign contributions will be in the mail.

The Washington Post reports:

Yesterday's final marathon talks occurred in Vice President Cheney's little-known office on the second floor of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. McCain, Graham and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.), plus Hadley and Steven G. Bradbury, acting head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, met almost continuously from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.,..

.

Yeah, it takes time to select which one of Karl Rove's specially crafted excuses for giving in to the Bush administration's fondest wishes you will use.

We saw this with CAFTA. The Republicans suddenly came up with excuses for why they could support the onerous trade deal after the 2004 election when they had promised their constituency that they never would cave into the Bush administration before the election.

We'll see it again this year as those Republican Congressionals that are for closing the border now suddenly realize that "Guest Worker" program will be just fine after all. The post election campaign funds they will receive for doing so, will do nicely for reducing the debt encured while running on closed border promises.

The Republican party Congressionals really have little to run on if they have to do it on charades and lies, only to melt and cave in on little things like preventing torture.

Smith and Babbington at the Post do a good job of keeping their heads out from under Karl Rove's armpits and report (though near the end of the article):

A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in an interview that Bush essentially got what he asked for in a different formulation that allows both sides to maintain their concerns were addressed. "We kind of take the scenic route, but we get there," the official said.

A McClatchy News servive report notes:

The American Civil Liberties Union, however, urged lawmakers to reject the deal, saying it didn't protect due process and was "a compromise of America's commitment to the rule of law."

"The proposal . . . deliberately provides a `get out of jail free card' to the administration's top torture officials, " Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, said in a written statement. ". . .The president would have the authority to declare what is - and what is not - a grave breach of the War Crimes Act, making the president his own judge and jury. . . . These are tactics expected of repressive regimes, not the American government."

and

Eugene Fidell, the president of the National Association of Military Justice, which serves as a watchdog over military prosecutions, said details of the deal were too scant to render an analysis. He sharply criticized the closed-door negotiations, saying the terms should have been the subject of public Senate hearings.

Village Voice Reports on Bush Reality Check on the Streets of New York yesterday

2006-09-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

Excerpts Anti-War Crowd Dogs Bush at the U.N.:

Inside the UN, Bush pledged to the Iraqi people: "We will not abandon you in your struggle to build a free nation."
But outside, Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi activist now working with the U.S. peace group Global Exchange, accused the Bush administration of undermining Iraqi efforts to run their country. "Eighty-seven percent of the Iraqi population are requesting an end for this illegal occupation," Jarrar told the crowd, citing a recent poll. He noted that a majority of Iraq's legislators have also supported a timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal. But U.S. officials lobbied to strip that language from the "peace" plan approved by the Iraqi Parliament in June. "If this administration doesn't have any strategies to stay in Iraq or to leave Iraq, at least support the strategy that Iraqis are fighting and dying for," Jarrar complained.
"We don't need a babysitter to protect Iraqis from each other."
That sentiment was shared by Tim Goodrich, an Air Force pilot who flew bombing runs in Iraq in advance of the U.S. invasion. "I get emails all the time from military folks overseas who say keep doing what you're doing, because you guys are going to be the ones who bring us home," says Goodrich, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. "They don't know what they're fighting for. There's no definition of what success would be, or an exit strategy. All we get is one lie after another."

Iraq torture 'worse after Saddam'

2006-09-21T10:28:00.000-07:00

Excerpt BBC article:

Manfred Nowak said the situation in Iraq was "out of control", with abuses being committed by security forces, militia groups and anti-US insurgents.

Bodies found in the Baghdad morgue "often bear signs of severe torture", said the human rights office of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq in a report.

The wounds confirmed reports given by refugees from Iraq, Mr Nowak said.

He told journalists at a briefing in Geneva that he had yet to visit Iraq, but he was able to base his information on autopsies and interviews with Iraqis in neighbouring Jordan.

"What most people tell you is that the situation as far as torture is concerned now in Iraq is totally out of hand," the Austrian law professor said.

"The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein," he added.

E Coli Collected from Bag of Spinach

2006-09-21T09:59:00.000-07:00

Okay so it is the spinach.

USA Today says the bar code on the Dole baby spinach (which an AP report identifies specifically as "not organic") points the finger at one of nine farms in 3 counties in the Salinas valley. The counties, Monterey, Santa Clara, and San Benito grow 3/4s the California summer, fall crop of spinach. Growing would be done up there by mid October anyway and the western growing will shift to the desert fields of Arizona and Southern California.

The FDA says they will start on a system to identify spinach from areas, other than the Salinas Valley possibly starting today and people could soon see Spinach back in the markets with stickers identifying their origins.

An article at the San Fransisco Chronicle notes that Spinach farmers had been warned before about the possibility of contamination.

CBS mentions the unmentionable "f" word. Farmworkers defecating in fields. Each farm area is supposed to have restroom facilities, but notes that workers may not be able to use them.

Farm workers also must keep their equipment clean, use bathrooms and wash their hands with soap and water. California agricultural regulations require that toilet and handwashing facilities for farmworkers be located within one-quarter mile or a five-minute walk from the work site, with one toilet per 20 employees of each gender.

But pressure from farmers may keep workers from using those facilities, said Marc Grossman, spokesman for the United Farm Workers union.

The article describes conditions where farmers push workers to finish ever more amounts of work, leading to reduced time for 'breaks'.

I'm thinking a worker with an E Coli infection themselves is less likely to be able to make it a quarter of a mile to a restroom, and considering the poor state of public restrooms even in popular discount department stores, one can imagine the status of the restrooms that the workers are offered. If they do have constant hot water, fresh towels, and clean facilities then farmworkers are doing better than most shoppers. But I doubt that. Mostly farmworkers are used for ultra cheap piece work at a low enough rate that keeps many working until they cannot stand any longer. They are like slaves that don't even have to be purchased or cared for. When the crop is done the workers are dropped to make their way to 'houses' that resemble little more than enlarged versions of those John Steinbeck's characters used. See Summer of the Death of Hilario Guzman For what life is really like for immigrants. Usenet copy of last linked article

In an LA Times article mistitled "E. Coli Pervades Harvest Area" the papers notes that the natural streams and rivers of the area are all contaminated with E. Coli except for one stream that runs through a national park. It then notes that the dangerous version, E. coli 0157:H7, is found in many as well, but the article notes that this water is not used for farm irrigation.

Unfortunately, one can imagine how a traveling group of immigrants might use such water though.

Deep well water is used for irrigating the fields of Salinas and FDA recommendations are for drip watering on leafy greens instead of spray according to the CBS report.

You might think that summer storms can flood the fields, something the FDA wants you to think, but California is known for dry summers or at least less than 'flooding' rains which is why our farmers rely on irrigation. Winter and Spring floods are likely but the problem wouldn't be first showing up in August from a product that takes 35 days from seed to harvest.

The CBS article also exposes the lie that the chlorine wash given fresh vegetables will actually kill any bacteria on the product.

THE FACTORY: After harvesting, spinach goes to a packing plant, where it is washed and bagged.

The water used to clean the spinach should contain chlorine or a similar disinfectant, Means said, but those chemicals are not designed to kill bacteria already on the leaves. Instead, she said, the chlorine merely keeps water that touches a contaminated plant from passing bacteria on to other plants.

Studies have shown that the structure of spinach leaves make them especially hard to rid of germs, even when washed with treated water.

"It has a lot of places for them to hide," said Trevor Suslow, a food safety researcher at the University of California, Davis.

I know I'm fixated on this, but fresh spinach is particular favorite in our household. It is sad to see this happen.

Quick News and Views Thursday Morning September 21, 2006

2006-09-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

George Allen only learned about Jewish Heritage last month. That seems a little hard to believe, but more power to the family.

The most suspicious part of the report is the perfect little dialogue here:

When I told Georgie, I said, 'Now you don't love me anymore.' He said, 'Mom, I respect you more than ever.'

Please, this really didn't happen except in one of Karl Rove's focus groups unless the Allen family members think they're living in a soap opera.

Knowing George Allen's loose use of facts in the past... well you make up your own mind.

A twisted ad in Maryland disparaging Democrats on Civil Rights is even too dirty for Republican Senate candidate it favors.

You would think that after the revelations of the Republican Southern Strategy in which they promoted racism and other forms of bigotry and which are still being used today in some Congressional races and acknowledged by Ken Mehlman in front of black groups around the nation, they wouldn't dare tell lies like this.

Statement from the Michael S. Steele for Senate (opposing Democrat Benjamin L. Cardin) campaign.

"NBRA's current radio ad is insulting to Marylanders and should come down immediately," the statement says. "Although they may have had good intentions, there is no room for this kind of slash-and-burn partisan politics in the important conversation about how to best bring meaningful change to Washington, D.C. and get something done for Maryland."

And yet, Steele knows that a certain number will still fall for the lies.

House Panel Supports Tribunal Plan, 20 to 19

Look at this dirty work:

Republicans control the Judiciary Committee, 23 to 17. But early yesterday, three GOP members were absent and two others backed the rival legislation written by GOP Sens. John W. Warner (Va.), John McCain (Ariz.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). Had a couple of Democrats not also been absent at the time, the Warner bill might have won the panel's endorsement. It fell just short, but so did the Bush version, which was temporarily voted out of the committee with an "unfavorable report."
Democrats tried to end matters there and turn out the lights. But they narrowly failed to adjourn the meeting and deny the committee a quorum.

That gave Republican leaders time to round up two of their missing colleagues, Reps. Henry J. Hyde (Ill.) and Elton Gallegly (Calif.). Over strenuous Democratic protests and shouts of "point of order," the Republicans used a series of 20-to-19 votes to overturn the previous decision and to favorably report Bush's bill to the House floor. Republican Reps. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) and Bob Inglis (S.C.) joined all 17 Democrats in opposing the efforts.

But the Post assures us not to worry, because the Senate will take care of this.
But wait, Bill Frist is going to have his people fillibuster the Democratic version in the Senate even though he has maintained over and over again that the fillibuster is antidemocratic even when done by the Democratic Senators who actually represent more Americans. One asks what that means for a Republican fillibuster when the whole kit and kaboodle of them represent a minority of Americans. Well, I guess I can think it, even if I can't say it on a family friendly blog.
One thing I can say though:
More Democrats needed in House, Stat!
Voter, it's up to you!

David Broder comments on the civil rights issue that most of the Republicans are caving in to the Bush administration over:

but the moral scale of the issue -- torture -- and the implications for both constitutional and international law give it an epic dimension, even if it is ultimately settled by compromise.

Holes Examined in Bush's Freedom Agenda

What did your mama tell you about those holes in your briefs, Georgie.

World Applauded Chavez' Remarks. Are Bush and the Republicans Making the US a laughing Stock??

2006-09-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

According to a New York Times article after Chavez speech:

The loud applause...lasted so long that the organization’s officials had to tell the cheering group to cut it out.

I thought it was just a wild speech by the president of Venezuela. That has happened many times at the UN.

Kruschev used to harangue and berate us, but he didn't get loud and embarassingly sustained applause. They used to laugh at him.

Now they're laughing at us.

Thank you, Republicans. Thank you for being lapdogs to the Bush administration for the big campaign contributions that can be funneled your way.

You've made the US into a joke in the eyes of the world for that money.

House Passes Bill to Require Proof of Citizenship to vote

2006-09-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

Hidden in the Technology section and in such small print on the front of the web site that the report hasn't even hit the most read list in the slow technology section an hour and a half later.

That though this is one of the most important actions the House could take this year.

It should outrage true conservatives, too.

BTW, the whole voter identification should be nationalized if they do this.

Too many Republicans vote in more than one state as it is.

(But, don't think about that trick this year, people. If the Democrats take control of either House or Senate there is likely to be investigations of registering in multiple states and other voter and election machine fraud.)

But what can you expect from the party of dirty tricks?

Excerpt:

The legislation passed on a largely party-line vote of 228-196

Read rest at the Washington Post (Link above under green or salmon print)

Attorney General Calls on ISPs to Save User Data

2006-09-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

Oh nothing personal or political, no not at all.

This is just about child pornography.

(Which is the excuse they use when they find "Terra, Terra, Terra!" no longer works).

Read rest of article at Seattle PI (link above under green or salmon print).

Why Does This Fall Seem So Much Like Previous Election years?

2006-09-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Suddenly the Bush administration is verified by mainstream news sources as not having evil intentions over Iran after all.

They might even let the nation have nuclear energy, though the whole September 30th deadline was about stopping Iran from having nuclear energy.

This is a lot like the fall of 02 when mainstream news analysis promised us that the Bush administration really wouldn't invade Iraq trying to gain a "client state" in our world empire (including as Kevin Phillips, Republican insider, notes grabbing virtual control over massive oil fields for American big oil through grateful Shia proxies). No the Bush administration would work through the UN said mainstream.

I'm not saying that they intentionally mislead us, but they still haven't realized that this administration uses the kind of insider 'leaks' that they think they can trust to mislead and confuse them.

Deep Throat isn't in the garage anymore people.

Another thing no one is saying is that sanctions themselves could require war. It has been shown that India has become more dependent on Iranian oil since 2001 (Mostly due to the US failure to truly secure Afghanistan) leaving 3 huge countries that will not obey economic sanctions on Iran's biggest export, Russia, China, and India. Therefore, military action would have to be taken to impose any sanctions on the nation.

I've been reading many sources on this in the last few days. That's why the writing has been lower. Most war planning and outside analysis shows that any military action ends with an attempt to change the regime with boots on the ground. The smallest action would be retaliated by Iran in a way that would require it.

One has to wonder if the high troop strength in Iraq is just a ploy to keep a invasion level deployment one step away.

Most ominously, last night I read that some of Iran's most valuable oil fields lie right next to Iraq. Could the Bush administration actually think they could just slice a little of Iran off to feed to their Big Oil buddies? Again, remember no scenario ends without hundred of thousands of American troops (some drafted) dead.

I'll get links for you later, but I just wanted to jot this down while mainstream is promising us that the Bush people have suddenly become reasonable, just like they did in 2002 over Iraq.

Luckily there are oped minds like Dan Froomkins that understand some of the false front of the Bush administration.

"So That's Where I Left Her." Lucy's Baby Found.

2006-09-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Scientists are still looking for Mr. Lucy, who will probably be found in an Australopithecus afarensis dive drinking fermented fruit juice and ogling young female skeletons.

The 3.3-million-year-old fossilised remains of a human-like child have been unearthed in Ethiopia's Dikika region.

The female bones are from the species Australopithecus afarensis, which is popularly known from the adult skeleton nicknamed "Lucy".

Scientists are thrilled with the find, reported in the journal Nature.

They believe the near-complete remains offer a remarkable opportunity to study growth and development in an important extinct human ancestor.

Rest including a photo at BBC

Link to Washington Post article. Its headline makes it seem like Little Lucybelle is one long lived child.

John Kerry Derides Temporary Democrat in California

2006-09-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

While visiting our state in support of Democratic candidate Phil Angelides, John Kerry brought up a good point:

"We need a governor of the state of California who doesn't become a Democrat for a few convenient moments -- we need a real Democrat, a real leader," Kerry said.

I agree. The major comedy relief here in California the last six months has been watching Governor Schwarzenegger turn himself into a Democratic candidate to win this year's election (though as governor he will still be ripping affordable health care from our hands as he kills bill passed by the legislature for a universal plan. So he can't even keep up the charade for an entire campaign).

Quote from LA Times article.

Irrigation Water to Blame in E Coli Outbreak?

2006-09-19T11:58:00.000-07:00

That would fit a pattern if we can believe the federal government on anything these days.

(I've been reading an article this morning in which CBS mentions the "f" word in relation to this outbreak. I will have to wait until after work to finish and make quality post about it. I will tie into a report that shows what farm worker life has been reduced to, now that it is dominated by 'guest workers' and illegal aliens.)

From Mercury news:

Well contamination in Salinas Valley and elsewhere has been blamed for at least two other major outbreaks of disease due to produce contamination. In one of these cases, the well had not been shielded at the surface. The cause of bad well water was not identified in the second case.

In a third major outbreak, investigators found that lettuce fields had been flooded by water contaminated by cattle grazing in an adjacent field.

Underscoring the sensitivity of the investigations, Natural Selection Foods announced that early investigations have not found E. coli contamination in its organic spinach at this time. But the FDA quickly warned that it has not reached a final conclusion and said the investigation into both traditional and organic farming practices is ongoing.

Natural Selection Foods had said that because federal and state officials found manufacturing codes from spinach related to illnesses that didn't match those of the company's organic salads, those products were no longer suspected, but they are continuing the recall.

Read rest of long report at: Farm water is suspected in outbreak

Tortured Canadian was Falsely Fingered by Pressured Intelligence

2006-09-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

Maher Arar is a very good reason to abandon extraordinary rendition and the Bush administration's redo of Geneva Convention.

What has been noted about the Bush administration's bill is that most Congressional Republicans are ready and willing to pass it. It is only a small minority of Republicans and all the Democrats that want to defy Bush on his plans for more getting approval for torture methods (which will then no longer be allowed to be called torture). This small minority of Republicans and Democrats can pass an alternative bill that will stop the Bush administration but they do not have the numbers to override a veto.

More Democrats in Congress could fix that though.

If you care about human rights, I think you would care about this issue.

See post about Powell below.

Bush Detainee Plan Adds to World Doubts Of U.S., Powell Says

2006-09-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

Thank you Mr. Powell.

Now, I almost forgive you for that speech in front of the UNSC in February 2003.

Also:

Powell, elaborating on a position first expressed last week in a letter to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), also argued that the administration's plan to "clarify" U.S. obligations under the Geneva Conventions would set a precedent for other nations that would endanger U.S. troops.

"Suppose North Korea or somebody else wants to redefine or 'clarify' " Geneva Conventions provisions prohibiting "outrages against personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment" of prisoners, he said.

From Washington Post (link above)

E Coli Not Found in Bags of Spinach

2006-09-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

So much for the Zeitgeist News Service.

What do you know about the spinach E Coli crisis?

Don't eat raw spinach. Throw it away and any greens that contain the same.

So far so good maybe. It might not be the spinach at all.

But you've probably also heard that a California Natural Foods company Natural Selections, but the FDA now admits, as reported by the Los Angeles Times:

Since last week, Natural Selection has been the primary focus of the investigation into the source of the outbreak, because many of those sickened apparently ate its packaged spinach. However E. coli has not been found in the company's bags of spinach, and health officials have said others could be implicated.

Wow, the idea that they could be wrong after causing a company and the state of California hundreds of millions of dollars loss....

Across the Salinas Valley, the heart of spinach country, farmers are increasingly anxious. California produces nearly three-quarters of the nation's spinach.

Dale Huss, vice president of production at Ocean Mist, which does not grow for Natural Selection, was among the few spinach growers willing to speak openly about his plight.

At an Ocean Mist field in Castroville on Sunday, Huss pulled up a fistful of spinach leaves and took a bite.

"Nothing wrong with it," he said, chewing slowly. "Gorgeous, really. It's good."

Huss expects that in the next few days, he will dig up this 20-acre expanse, an $80,000 investment.

"We can't wait. We'll essentially have to put a disk in this," Huss said, referring to a machine that will chop the spinach and turn it back into the soil. "We can't hold on."

Huss may wait a few days, hoping against hope that the scare will pass, but time is against him. Within a week, the spinach will get long and dog-eared, and then start to yellow.

"We're running up against Mother Nature," Huss said.

He doubts he could sell his crop for freezing, since that market probably is inundated, he said

This is as terrible for the American diet as that horrid carb-bottomed food triangle.

And yeah, in essence, I'm saying that what if the current E. coli outbreak isn't due to that California hippy company at all.

Well, Enron and other energy suppiers ripped us off for billions in 2000-2001, and Scwarzenegger has take no action against any of the companies that helped and joined Enron in doing it. So go figure it out if Mr. Body Builder will stand up for the people of California or not on this.

Ellen Goodman: Vegetative Mind Games: Hope or Trap

2006-09-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

OF ALL the headlines on the story, this one took the prize for provocation: ``Woman in Vegetative State Plays Tennis in Her Head." I suppose this is what happens when science throws up a startling piece of new research and the media slams it into the court of public opinion.

In Britain, researchers have reported that a totally unresponsive 23-year-old woman showed signs of awareness on a brain-imaging test. When asked to imagine playing tennis, her brain lit up the same neural pathways as a healthy brain. When asked to imagine walking through her house, the MRI revealed changes in specific brain regions that mimicked healthy people.

The exuberant lead researcher, Adrian Owen, said the results ``confirmed beyond any doubt that she was consciously aware of herself and her surroundings." A colleague even raised the possibility that some vegetative patients have ``a rich and complex internal life." Tennis in her head.

What are we to make of this? An editorial in Science magazine, which published the research, was quick to warn that this case is nothing like that of Terri Schiavo. The British woman has something Terri did not have: a cortex. She suffered an injury, not a lack of oxygen. She was in her unresponsive condition for five months, not 15 years. She was not in a persistent vegetative state.

Nevertheless, those who play politics in their heads have found this research useful. Terri's father, Robert Schindler, declared game, set, match in the controversy: ``This new case is not surprising to our family."

But what about the rest of us ? What about those of us who believed all along that Terri was, ironically, one of the easy cases. Surely, as one bioethicist said, this research creates another shade of gray in the understanding of gray matter. And in decisions that revolve around life and death.

We don't know if similar patients will show the same level of awareness. Indeed, there are some who believe the British researchers overinterpreted what they saw. But an estimated 6,000 Americans are in a vegetative state and another 100,000 Americans exist in some state of partial consciousness. We know there is a bell curve of consciousness, a range of symptoms and prospects for recovery among such patients. A 23-year-old accident victim has a different prognosis than an 88-year-old stroke victim.

But we do not know whether the researchers who suggest that vegetative patients may be aware of themselves and their surroundings have given us a hopeful story line or a horror story.

As University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan says, ``It's not necessarily good news that someone might have some form of consciousness but not be able to interact emotionally, socially or communicate in any way shape or form. To spend your life dimly aware but unable to let anyone know you are in there is more the subject of Stephen King or Edgar Allan Poe than some sort of medical hope."

Read rest of article at source.

Insure CIA agents against a reckless administration, not terrorists' lawsuits or my subpoenas.

2006-09-17T01:36:00.000-07:00

Your Sept. 12 editorial "Jack Bauer Insurance" was a disservice not to me or to fictional characters like Jack Bauer, but to the very real CIA agents whose commitment to the truth didn't fit the administration's neoconservative agenda on Iraq, and to agents endangered by reckless administration policies.

It's been reported that CIA officers refused to be trained in the administration's controversial interrogation techniques, and in at least one instance these techniques yielded questionable information aimed at pleasing the interrogators. The Supreme Court, not Democrats, ruled administration detainee policies out of bounds, and it was the outrage of Republican senators that forced the administration to apply the Geneva Convention to enemy prisoners in order to best protect captured Americans.

Iraq has been an endless abuse of the CIA. CIA operative Tyler Drumheller said top White House officials simply brushed off the warning that "reliable intelligence" suggested Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, saying they were "no longer interested" in intelligence. Former CIA operative Paul Pillar wrote that "intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made."

Writer recently (2004) completed a tour of duty as Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

Iraq war 'disaster for Mid-East'

2006-09-17T01:32:00.000-07:00

The UN secretary general has said that most Middle East leaders regard the US-led invasion of Iraq and its aftermath as a disaster for the region.

Kofi Annan, speaking at a briefing following his recent tour of the region, said that the timing of any US withdrawal was now a key issue.

He said some leaders wanted the US to stay in Iraq and stabilise it, while others wanted an immediate withdrawal.

Read rest at BBC

Feared: Worst Election Fraud to Come this Fall

2006-09-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

Of course, since they will need it so badly.

As officials investigated the human errors that disrupted Maryland's primary election, there were renewed fears yesterday that electronic malfunctions could cause even greater problems in November.

Computer scientists at Princeton University released a study, including a video, that demonstrated how they were able to hack into the type of electronic voting machines used in Maryland and install malicious software that could sway an election. The machines' manufacturer swiftly denounced the study as "unrealistic and inaccurate."

Funny that's how all the other right wing voting machine makers react when people tell others how easily the machines can be hacked.

Pastor says 'Stop trying to Christianize America'

2006-09-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

The two things the Rev. Jan G. Linn was taught not to talk about are the two things he loves to talk about most: religion and politics.

So, of course, they are the topics of an address he'll deliver in Yakima on Sunday night.

Linn, a nationally known author and self-avowed liberal Christian evangelical minister, will be in town this weekend to talk about separation of church and state at a Sunday night dinner at the Harman Center. His talk is sponsored by the 14th Legislative District Democrats.

"The line between church and state needs to be firm," the 61-year-old said in a Friday morning cell phone interview en route to Yakima. "The blurring of the distinction between church and state is detrimental to both church and state."

"I think there's a myth about America being a Christian nation," he said. "It doesn't serve Christianity or the nation to perpetuate that myth."

Sunday morning, Linn is scheduled to preach at Wesley United Methodist Church, followed by a discussion of his latest book, "What's Right with the Religious Left," published earlier this year.

Read rest at source.

Connections and Loyalty Got Bush Cronies Positions in Coalition Provisional Authority

2006-09-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

A Report by Rajiv Chandrasekaran in the Washington Post says that the Bush administration chose people to serve in the CPA because of their political leaning instead of the necessary qualities for helping put the nation of Iraq back together wich wasted time and destroyed what goodwill the US had.

Whether an applicant voted for George W. Bush was more important than their expertise, and some claim they were asked their position on Roe v Wade.

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

The decision to send the loyal and the willing instead of the best and the brightest is now regarded by many people involved in the 3 1/2 -year effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq as one of the Bush administration's gravest errors. Many of those selected because of their political fidelity spent their time trying to impose a conservative agenda on the postwar occupation, which sidetracked more important reconstruction efforts and squandered goodwill among the Iraqi people, according to many people who participated in the reconstruction effort.

Read rest of article at source.

Happy News From Iraq Dept. Today: Trench Warfare for Baghdad

2006-09-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

Actually it's not so much real trench warfare as building a barrier around the city, using trenches, berms and other barriers.

Hey, it works for zoos!

The fervor with which the president has announced a new operation to control violence in Baghdad makes us wonder what he is up to. We can, of course, assume that Karl Rove has some plan up his sleeves. If nothing else, it's only about 6-7 weeks until the election. So it would be hard put for the news media to show Americans what a fiasco this turned out to be.

I'm thinking that, though insurgents are denied Baghdad targets they will just go somewhere else and kill. But then it's probably too dangerous for reporters to go outside Baghdad and get news, and Don Rumsfeld has promised us he will have progams in place to control the news within Iraqi media through planted propaganda. With the insurgents focusing outside Baghdad it will be more suicidal than ever to venture out. So Viola'! Happy news from Iraq and suicide bombings in Baghdad where all the reporters are hiding as if under seige will finally be reduced. At least until the election day with any luck. All the Bush people ask for is 6 weeks.

Now if they can get Kristol and Lowry to STFU until mid November about needing more troops, Iraq problems could disappear while the president purrs to the American people about how he and his Republicans are keeping our families safe from terrorism.

Excerpts following from Washington Post article (linked above under green print) on the subject:

A few dozen checkpoints will be placed along key arteries in and out of Baghdad to ensure that people move through "predictable paths" that can be controlled, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman, said late Friday night. Iraqi forces will man the checkpoints and patrol the terrain, with support from U.S. troops.

I'm betting 30 Americans with their mega lethal weapons supporting 5 Iraqis, but it's all good.

"We know there's a flow in and out of the city of those who are responsible for the violence," Johnson said. "The intent is to control Baghdad city."

President Bush immediately seized on the news to declare victory:"

The enemy is changing tactics, and we're adapting," President Bush said Friday in Washington. "The enemy moves, and we will help the Iraqis move. And so they're building a berm around the city to make it harder for people to come in with explosive devices, for example. . . . They got a clear-build-and-hold strategy."

Hmm, I suppose that when the president says that the enemy has changed tactics that he means tactics changed 7 months ago with the rise of sectarian bloodshed. And indeed General Chiarelli *** describes *** the new insurgent tactics as death squads and we first started hearing about "death squads" in the late winter after the bombing of the revered Shiite Golden Mosque. Well that wasn't the quickest adaptation, guys, but at least you're doing it now.

The Post article linked above notes that similar movement control schemes have been used in Fallujah and Samarra. (Last I heard Fallujah and Samarra didn't work out so well, and in fact, the Fallujah actions were both considered massacres with ten of thousands of civilians killed, but I'll check around other reports and see if anyone brings that up) And the Post questions if the tactic will work in the massive mixed city of Baghdad and notes that though blocking movement in and out is part of recommended counterinsurgency tactics, but the US is apparently leaving out the required tactics of a census and requiring id cards carried at all times.

Post also questions if the city of Baghdad isn't to big and complex for just trenches to work, and notes that Ramadan begins next month in a city already in gridlock.

And it goes without saying the subject of an AP report at the WP: Anbar Called Secondary to U.S. Efforts in Baghdad And I've explained above why I think that Baghdad is more important to the Bush administration than the terrorist training fields of Anbar.

Noteable in the report about Anbar is Bush using his Jedi Knight voice to tell us:

"This business about . . . 'Anbar is lost' is just not the case,"

Of course, if you've paid attention to what Mr. Bush has been saying about the insurgency allowing the US to kill terrorists (read anyone who might object to being the footstool for American empire) from many countries. You wonder how much success they even want. It's a even better platform for wailing about terrorist coming to get us if we don't "win in Iraq" (well, until it's time to rush the troops into Iran and do regime change there at which time those old do nothing terrorists in Iraq will be forgotten like the ones hiding in the the border mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan).

Again, as I said above I'll check other mainstream sources that often have details that the Bush administration would rather not be revealed, and some analysis sites to find out what they are saying (this is early in the news cycle for this sudden announcement)so check back later because this is ...developing....

Pope's comments on Islam unite Iraqis

2006-09-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

Way to go Pope!

Fair Use Excerpt AP report:

Often divided by religious differences, Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Arabs united Friday in anger over remarks by Pope Benedict XVI referring to Islam and holy war.

Clerics from both communities, which are locked in a vicious cycle of reprisal attacks that have killed thousands of Iraqis, called the pontiff's comments an insult to the Muslim faith and its founder, Prophet Muhammad.

"We denounce this slander made by the pope on Islam and the figure of the Prophet Muhammad," Sheik Salah al-Ubaidi said in a sermon to about 5,000 people in the Shiite Muslim-stronghold of Kufa, about 100 miles south of Baghdad.

"It is the second assault made on Islam and the prophet. Last year, and in the same month, the Danish cartoon assaulted Islam," he said, referring to caricatures of Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper that set off sometimes violent Muslim protests around the globe.

At the Abdul-Qadir al-Gilani mosque in central Baghdad, Sunni cleric Mahmoud al-Isawi's sermon described the pope's comment as a "Western aggressive attack" that was "clearly showing its hatred toward our Islamic religion."

Shiite cleric Sheik Abdul-Kareem al-Ghazi, in Iraq's second-largest city, Basra, said the pope's comments ran counter to the Christian faith.

"The pope and Vatican proved to be Zionists and that they are far from Christianity, which does not differ from Islam. Both religions call for forgiveness, love and brotherhood," he said in a sermon delivered at the offices of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, where many people gather for religious services.

Al-Ghazi challenged Benedict or any other senior Vatican official to a debate, saying he would be willing to convert to Christianity if the pontiff managed to convince him of his views.

Who's the Next Target in the Abramoff Probe?

2006-09-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

Excerpt Time Magazine:

Former Ohio Congressman Bob Ney has admitted his role in Washington's influence-peddling scandal, but prosecutors still have other politicians in their sights

You'll have to go to Time for the name. I'm just a blogger without deep pockets.

RE: CIA Learned in '02 That Bin Laden Had No Iraq Ties, Report Says

2006-09-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

According to the three Republicans, the CIA said it did not disseminate the intelligence about the lack of a Hussein-bin Laden connection because "it did not provide anything new."

But other information obtained at the same time from the same source that paralleled what administration officials were saying was immediately passed on to "alert" the president and other senior policymakers, the three Republicans said. A "highly restricted intelligence report" conveyed the source's claim that although Iraq had no nuclear weapon, Hussein was covertly developing one and had stockpiled chemical weapons, according to the committee members.

Hmmm hmm!

And that would be George Tenet's CIA that didn't pass the info on. (Though it wouldn't have been listened to anyway.

But the important point could be the Bill Clinton did not want George Tenet as CIA and Intelligence chief, he wanted Anthony Lake. The Republican controlled Congress told Clinton that George Tenet was the only name they would confirm. (From Richard A. Clarke "Against All Enemies")

RE: Senators Defying Bush's Terror Measure (II) Remember:This is still Pre-election

2006-09-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

Two more points:
1) Good post by The Seventh Sense on this. He points up the fact that the JAG lawyers (aka senior "Pentagon uniformed lawyers") disliked Bush's measure so badly, that after serious arm twisting (I think I heard them screaming on racks, Tony) all the could offer was that they did "not object" though the Bush administration is dancing around saying they got approval from the lawyers. (Only SS says it better and the he or she has webcams on his blog.)

and

2.I know what's been bugging me about that great stand against Bush's desire to change the current terror measure in the Senate.

I don't doubt that John McCain and a few others really do intend to stand against the president. But with some of the others you have to wonder if they will suddenly find renewed loyalty with after the election. Like the Republicans did over CAFTA, and the Bankruptcy bill. Americans have shown the Republicans that they will happily forget the last time they played the rebel game before the election, only to stab them in the back afterwards.

In fact, the whole rebellion and Bush administration frustration seems a little too stage managed.

Maybe, as the Washington Post says:

With virtually all Senate Democrats likely to back McCain, he appears to have enough Republican support -- for now, at least -- to fend off amendments on the Senate floor and to block passage of the House version if it emerges from a conference committee.

Still, as the Post notes it's not likely that the measure will pass before the Congress breaks for electioneering.

Even if McCain and others who stand up for McCain's version on this issue continue to fight for it after the election and get it passed before the election or afterwards... without more Democrats who will stand firmly behind it, apparently McCain's version will never override it's veto. (They need 2/3rds of House and Senate to oveturn a presidential rejection.)

So the answer is a) More Democrats in both chambers of Congress.

Problem solved.

Liquid Fertilizers Could be Source of E Coli on Spinach.

2006-09-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

Found that tidbit in the Washington Post article link below under slightly brighter printing

The FDA will not point the finger at any farm, distributor, or store.
Therefore:

"Based on what we know, we advise consumers that they not eat bagged fresh spinach at this time," Acheson told reporters during a telephone news conference last night.

E. coli resides in cattle intestines and could have infected the spinach through applications of liquified fertilizer (that I assume are manure and urine, collected by the beef and dairy industry. Yes, raw sewage from cattle is being sprayed on your spinach.)

My family eats a lot of this kind of greens and spinach has become the favorite for it's taste and digestibility.

Would washing the plant material help? That's not what the FDA says. The FDA says just don't eat it.

Seems to me that they could pasturize the liquid fertilizer to prevent something like this. Sure it would be more expensive, but the loss the farmers involved are seeing now and the human cost seems a lot worse.

Bush: The Most Important Job Is to Protect the Homeland...

2006-09-15T01:38:00.000-07:00

Funny, but in the Oath of office Bush didn't promise to protect the "Homeland".

He promised to protect the constitution.

Isn't that weird? Now we find that the constitution can go to h***, but every inch of 'der vaderland' must be protected at all costs.

Washington Post report on Thursdays has the best report on the subject I've seen It is important to read both pages (link under orange print below).

The sleaze coming from the Bush administration is breathtaking.

The Washington Posts article is the best of the ones I read for really explaining the behind the scenes manipulation of the government's supposedly unbiased advisers. And does a good quick once over the basic facts.

The NYT piece mirrored at IHT and the LAT article have quotes by Democrats. The Post piece was so well done though that there doesn't seem to be such a lack. If you want minutae on the process read these reports too. And I mean in addition to the Post, because I don't get the feel of the harassment of the military lawyers in these articles as I got from the Post. Read both pages of the Post article and you have the feel of just about everything if not every detail.)

The New York Sun (right wing paper) plays up the dueling letters from former SOS Colin Powell and from current SOS Condi Rice. (If you put that report together with the Post's you see that Powell got one letter and Condi got a letter and face time. As is typical the neocons again get more than two to one influence over Republican Congressionals. Now you know why Republican leadership of Congress is a mistake at the very least under the neocon Bush administration.) BTW, while at the 'Sun' I am looking at a flashing banner ad saying "Send Kofi Anna a Message" which switches to "Stop Iran From Getting the Nuclear Bomb" and urges you to sign a petition. Click on it to get your information into the GOP datamining system. Or is this an even more extreme neocon group gathering their own set of data?

And is anyone else as sick as I am of Tony Snow telling us what we think? It is a rude and slimy trick and is like being mentally battered when he tells us what we think and then makes fun of us.

Novak Calls Armitage a Liar. Former Deputy SOS's Role More Political Than Previously Exposed?

2006-09-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

In an unusual column that appears today, Novak says his initial source, former deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage, was more sure of Plame's ties to the CIA than the source has indicated. Novak adds that Armitage linked her directly to her husband's CIA-sponsored trip to Niger and suggested the disclosure would be a good item for Novak's column.
...
In his initial July 14, 2003, column, Novak wrote that Wilson "never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction." Novak also wrote that "two senior administration officials told me his wife suggested sending Wilson to Niger to investigate."

Let me just stop there and notice that not only did Novak out Plame, but he gave the nations of the world her exact function at the CIA. Why didn't he just hang a sign on her?

But if Armitage pushed Novak to use it, he looks more like a political tool than ever. I don't know if the former DSOS was a willing tool. Many in Washington and the news media find themselves to be cornered or tricked into doing things that are against their own interests and even just wrong and as Armitage said he didn't know that Ms. Plame was covert. Washington Post article on Novak's revelations

Then again it is known that Armitage did want a promotion and resigned when he didn't get it. So sucking up to the boss has never been known to hurt, right?

Lets go over the facts that have been revealed.

Wilson goes to Africa, Niger in fact and finds that Saddam had never sought Uranium from the country.

He makes a report on that. The report is ignored by the White House and assertions are made that Saddam did, in fact, seek Uranium from the African country even in the 2003 State of the Union speech.

Wilson is understandably and admirably irked by the distortion of facts he had checked for them and begins in the Spring of 2003 to mention around Washington that he had found just the opposite and reported that to the Bush administration.

It was at that point that Cheney asked Libby to have someone check out the facts behind the Wilson trip to Niger.

Libby apparently passed the job to Marc Grossman.

So, Cheney's chief of staff Lewis Libby requested a report on Wilson from Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, a neoconservative ally. In violation of the strict rules against jeopardizing the covert identity of CIA officers, GrossmanÂs report, dated June 10, 2003, tossed in a reference to ÂValerie PlameÂ as WilsonÂs wife.

The above quote is from a Consortium News report. I have seen the same info, probably from the great New York Times report of Sept 2, 2006 ("New Questions About Inquiry in C.I.A. Leak" was the original title, but it is changed in the archives though you can find it by using the title in NYT's search. It is the only article on the subject published there on September 2, 2006.)

More from Consortium News of facts I have also read in mainstream news:

CIA Director George Tenet also divulged to Cheney that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and had a hand in arranging Wilson's trip to Niger, information that Cheney then passed on to Libby in a conversation on June 12, 2003, according to Libby's notes as described by lawyers in the case. [NYT, Oct. 25, 2005]

So somehow a memo ends up on the desk of Armitage, a known "Washington gossip" if that's not just a convenient label exposing Valerie Wilson and then saying that she maneuvered her husband into the trip to Niger (which the Bush administration has been portraying as a 'junket'. Hmmm, which world class resort did Wilson stay at in Niger? Can the Cheney administration find out that fact? I didn't think so. In fact, Wilson did a great job at getting to the bottom of it all. I don't care if Wilson's mother was head of the CIA at the time. It wouldn't matter because Ambassador Wilson sought the truth and found it.)

Armitage told Woodward who often passes on inside stuff for the White House, though his name is mostly on books that make Bush and his co-administrators look near mythic rather than news reports.

Libby tried to get Judy Miller who often played the same role while doing articles at the New York Times to write a piece about it. As I recall, in Miller's case, the editors balked though she was willing.

Armitage's July 8, 2003 session with Robert Novak was set up by a former Reagan aide (according to the 9/2/2006 NYTs article) which the Washington Post describes as a 'friend'. Yeah, and the Washington press core described Linda Tripp as Monica Lewinsky's 'friend'. Novak confirmed the fact via Karl Rove.

Now Novak paints a picture that shows Armitage being more pushy that just offhand about Novak getting the Wilson point out.

(About this time the reporters traveling in Africa with Bush were pressed to find out who was the one that recommended Wilson for the fact finding mission to Niger accore to the NYT 9/2/06 report.)

Matt Cooper over at Time Magazine asked Karl Rove about Wilson's oped on July 11, 2003 and was given the warning (and if you know Rove this was with a capital "W") not to 'get too far out in front on this" because (paraphrased quote)here let me expose his wife but not say her name so I won't get arrested(/paraphrased quote).

Again the Bush administration was acting as if the identity of those who sent Joe Wilson on the fact finding trip he fullfilled so well was important! And in fact, Plame gave some advice to her superiors. Superiors. You know, the people who really make the decisions.

And in fact, though the Bush administration tries to play the nepotism card, but it was really about ruining the career of Valerie Plame Wilson, the wife of someone who exposed one of their lies.

In actuality, there were lots of people in Washington out to get the Wilsons and at least 2 with very clear motives to hurt the Wilsons did expose Plame.

And now Armitage's role is exposed as looking more politically inclined than ever whether he was a tool or purposefully helped the Bush people thinking that it might help him be selected as Secretary of State (at a time when Colin Powell was none to happy with the Bush administration).

One big happy family in DC isn't it?

BTW I have found a Usenet copy of the report I read about Sept 7 or 8, 2006 at the New York Times.

Here is the abstract of the only report the Times offers on the subject for September 2, 2006. You can see a changed title. I don't intend to pay to check out what else they've changed. There was new information, but also a noticeable effort to insert analysis that would cover up the political nature of the exposure of Plame by the Bush administration between the 7th and 9th when the article would have been put in pay per view archives.

Talk Radio Show Staff Downloads Governor's Speeches All the Time

2006-09-14T00:50:00.000-07:00

A conservative KFI radio show host says his staff cut off parts of url in the governors website and found the directory to the governors speeches.

And they use them all the time. (Until the spiels were taken out of the public area)

Another expert does not believe it is "hacking".

Read AP report at Mercury News

GOP Has Been Getting Data Mining Information on People Throughout the US. It's key to their GOTV!

2006-09-13T22:47:00.000-07:00

You are especially studied if you register Republican or Independent.

The Washington Post has an article in which the say the GOTV was the key to Chafee's win, and mentions the GOP's Voter Vault.

But the "Voter Vault" is really the result of data mining on Republican, Independents and "independent minded" Democrats and leads to harassment (as the Post article shows) of such voters during the political season.

Information on the Data Mining and the data base called Voter Vault was revealed in an LA Times piece called "The GOP Knows You Don't Like Anchovies".
It describes the kind of harassment Republicans and Independents get on election day and the massive data mining possible on all voters, but definitely on those of interest, Republicans, Independents and identified 'independently minded' Democrats.

And after you cooperate with them once do you think they will let you alone in the future?

Does the charity ever stop calling you for more if you've given them something in the past few years?

Does the church you visit for one Sunday forget to call or come by to make sure you wouldn't want to come again (and incidently drop in a nice donation when they pass the xxxxx).

Think about it.

Here's a post from another blog on that article. From there you can also get the link to the original LA Times piece that I see is still available for free.

Just remember that Big Oil gives 81% of it's donations to Republicans. The money they've been stealing from you is going to sponsor data mining, lies, and harassment on voters by the GOP.

Think about it. Should these people be in charge?