We WANT THE TRUTH, MR PRESIDENT

Today is Memorial Day in which there are parades, picnics, speeches and articles written nationwide to honor our country's heroes, the men and women who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend our country. Tragically, all too many of our heroes have made this sacrifice. They leave behind loved ones whose lives have been terribly and irrevocably changed.

Though it is painful to view the body bags of our fallen returning home, or see televised interviews with the maimed soldiers, many of them barely in their teens, it is absolutely critical that the citizens of this country know the reality of warfare. It is not TV. It is not a film. It's not about Rambo or "Make My Day” Clint Eastwood, or Robo Cop or any other fictional macho action character and overly romanticized situation. It is real, not make believe. It is horrible. It is terrifying. It is cataclysmic. It is life changing and life taking. It is hell in every way, shape and form. It should be avoided at all costs.

The administration's reluctance if not blatant refusal to grant us access to witness our fallen's return home should be telling.

War is so tragically devastating on all levels that it should be declared only when it is the final option available to avoid catastrophe, that is, real and imminent threat to our national security. That all other possibilities for negotiation and peace have been exhausted and have failed.

We know now, even before the Downing Street Memo, that the situation in Iraq did not pose an imminent threat to our national security. There is no justification for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. None whatsoever.

In all of the fanfare surrounding this sacred day to honor our fallen military, it would be nice if one member of the Bush Administration were to be forthright, step forward and explain the outrageous allegations contained in the Downing Street Memo. Did you or did you not, Mr. President, force the fixing of intelligence to suit your policy, that is, your unrelenting will to wage war with Iraq? Can you look at the graves of the our dead soldiers, some barely in their teens, and look into the eyes of their grief-stricken, heartbroken and devastated parents, their spouses, their siblings, their children, their relatives and friends and tell them that yes, it was absolutely imperative for us to go to war? That there were no other viable options left to us? Not one? Can you tell us that, Mr. President? LS

News dedicated to seeking the truth.

BUSH LIED AND WE LET HIM.
Yes, me most certainly did. All of us.

Found on Raw Story, a piece in the Star Tribune of Minneapolis hammers Bush on Memogate.

Excerpt:
It turns out that former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke and former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill were right. Both have been pilloried for writing that by summer 2002 Bush had already decided to invade.

BUSH LIED AND WE LET HIM

THE REAL CASUALTY
Found on the Baltimore Sun.com via Buzz Flash. Although this article does not address Memogate it takes Bush to task for the reckless and irresponsible way in which we went to war in Iraq.

THE REAL CASUALTY

A MOTHER'S WAR from the NYT.

I read this article the NY Times Magazine yesterday. It focussses on the day-to-day lives of mothers whose children are in Iraq. The piece will give anyone in love with the idea of war a well-deserved reality check.

The article is also posted on Truth out.org.

Excerpt:
Tracy's closest friends in the world right now are other parents whose sons and daughters have served in Iraq or are serving there now. Some of these parents think the war is righteous, some think it was wrongheaded from the outset and some, like Tracy, have made fierce internal bargains with themselves about what they will and will not think about as long as their children and their children's comrades remain in uniform and in harm's way. The women Tracy meets every week for dinner, each of whom has a son in the Marines or the Army, have a "no politics" rule around their table; this was one of two things I remember Tracy telling me the first time she took me to a gathering of the mothers. The other thing was that draped over a banister in Tracy's house was an unwashed T-shirt Derrick had dropped during his last visit home. I thought Tracy was apologizing for her housekeeping, which I had already seen was much better than mine, but she cleared her throat and said that what I needed to understand was that she hadn't washed the T-shirt because if the Marine Corps has to send you your deceased child's personal effects, it launders the clothing first. "That means there's no smell," Tracy said.

A MOTHER'S WAR"

WOUNDS HEAL BUT TRAUMA FROM COMBAT REMAIN. A returning soldier talks about his experiences in Iraq. Questions our role there.

Found on the Baltimore Sun.com via Buzz Flash

SOLDIER'S EXPERIENCES

INTERVIEW WITH THOM HARTMANN AND BRITISH MP GEORGE GALLOWAY
Found on Common Dreams.org via Buzz Flash.

Remember Mr. Galloway, the British MP who delivered scathing and outraged testimony to the Senate Hearing on his "wrongdoings" in Iraq? Mr. Galloway essentially called the Senators on U.S. hypocrisy and corruption in Iraq, not to mention our own home grown corrupted politics. LS

Excerpt:

From Mr. Galloway..... Well, you know, we're used to sending observers to third world countries and former banana republics to observe their elections. But the British election recently, and your election just a little more distantly, and the one in 2000 for that matter, really, if they had been observed by third world observers would have been declared bogus and deeply flawed.

Your president stole the presidency in Florida using his brother and his brother's close friends to cheat the people of the United States out of their freely elected president who was undoubtedly Al Gore. Even if you only counted the votes that actually made it through the hoops in order to be cast, the president was really Al Gore. And in Ohio, and I've read the stuff that Congressman Conyers is doing and I commend it, it's clear enough on the face of it that there was substantial fraud in that state and thus delivering the Electoral College vote for president Bush.

GEORGE GALLOWAY

WALL STREET JOURNAL BLASTS REPUBLICANS.
This surprising piece was found on Buzz Flash.com.

WALL STREET JOURNAL

BLACK BOX VOTING/US COUNTS VOTES Updates.
If you want to know what is going on behind the scenes with regard to voter fraud/voter reform, check out the site below. It does not make for exciting reading - au contraire some of it is quite tedious. But if you want to know what is going on in this realm, it is a must read.
BLACK BOX VOTING

CONYER'S LETTER TO BUSH ON DOWNING STREET MEMO

Rep. Conyers needs 100,000 signatures for a letter he has written to Bush about the infamous and underreported Downing Street Memo Inquiry. Please sign the letter and send it to everyone you know. The Bush people have ignored Conyers and 88 other lawmakers' previous request for an explanation about the Downing Street Memo. The Bush people naturally are arrogantly stonewalling as they always do. They hope it will go away. Don't let it go away folks. The media is tacitly supporting the WH policies and actions by their lack of coverage on anything critical of the Bush administration. It is up to we the people to get the news out there. Cancel your newspaper subscriptions, don't turn on cable news. Make the MSM pay for their betrayal and cowardice where it hurts them the most.

CONYERS NEEDS 100,000 SIGNATURES.

LETTER TO BUSH

SIGN THE PETITION TO IMPEACH BUSH

I am shaking with rage (or is it fear?) to the point I can barely type. I saw the piece below on Raw Story. When reading the comments I found the petition. As of this morning there were 1650 signatures. Read the comments after you sign the petition. People are furious, outraged, including some Republicans, as they well should be.

MEMO TO CONYERS FROM BONIFAZ WHO SEEKS RESOLUTION OF INQUIRY ON IRAQ.
The link to the petition is below the story link.

If this Resolution is not acted upon we will know for sure that we are indeed living in a Dictatorship as the posting below suggests. LS

INVESTIGATION TO MEMOGATE DEMANDED

IMPEACH BUSH PETITION

WE ARE SLOWLY BECOMING A DICTATORSHIP UNDER BUSH

HOW TO LOSE A COUNTRY IN SEVEN EASY STEPS By Eric Alterman

I found this chilling piece in the MSM of all places! It is posted on MSNBC.com (via Buzz Flash). There are links within the story, referencing articles supporting the author's view.

Oh My God. It is worse than we think. Much worse.

Excerpt:

Point Five:  In response to even the most carefully documented evidence, the White House simply refuses to engage and, instead, impugns the character of those who present it, like this:  “In response, Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said, 'I think the allegations are ridiculous, and unsupported by the facts.'"  They also take Orwellian doublespeak to a level that would have embarrassed Orwell. “'We've also - are leading the way when it comes to spreading compassion,’ Mr. McClellan said."

Point Six:  And one reason they get away with it is that many in the media, even alleged “liberals” are eager to help.  And I don’t mean just Fox, Rush, and the entire structure of the conservative echo machine. (See below)

BUSH DICTATORSHIP

GRASSROOTS TO INITIATE THE UNRAVELING

The Internet and Bloggosphere are bursting with news tonight. Lots of stories. Lots of outrage. Lots of activisit activity moving forward. Fasten your seat belts, friends, and get ready for a wild ride. As Howard Dean mentioned in his interviw on Sunday with Meet the Press, when 48% of people in this country did not vote for Bush (more like 51% in my view), that is a pretty huge minority. Yes, indeed, it is. We are in fact, the majority, really, and we are uniting.

FROM RAW STORY: "COALITION OF CITIZENS GROUPS SEEK FORMAL INQUIRY INTO WHETHER BUSH ACTED ILLEGALLY IN PUSH FOR WAR"

The MSM won't go there so the grassroots groups have to. Thank you, true patriots, for your courage, integrity and moral stamina to take this on. Steel yourselves for you know what will follow.

John Bonifaz, a constitutional attorney in Boston filed a formal Resolution of Inquiry Request on behalf of a group of citizen groups. He hopes that the grassroots' groups, who have a membership of several million, will begin a groundswell of protest, not only demanding accountability from the Bush people, but also from the MSM as well, for their role in underreporting, if not failing to report news critical of the Bush administration.

COALITION OF CITIZENS

KEEP SMELLING THE RATS. THEY ARE CRAWLING OUT OF EVERY NOOK AND CRANNY TONIGHT.

MORE ON THE COALITION OF CITIZENS ON BRAD'S BLOG.

Brad Friedman also has a piece on a HBO/NBC commentator, Jim Lampley, who continues to beat the 2004 Presidential Election Theft Drum. Bang on that drum, Jim, until the willing deaf have no choice but turn on their hearing aids. LS

BRAD'S BLOG

OHIO VOTE 2004 RELATED SCANDALS NOT GOING AWAY. MORE ELECTION CORRUPTION SEWAGE SPEWING FROM OHIO. It seems that the chair of the Bush/Cheney Northwestern Ohio campaign is a sleeze. What else is new? Buzz Flash calls him Mr. Coingate. Ohio sues NOE, a prominent GOP fundrasier, to get control of rare coin funds.

Excerpt:
The Blade has reported that as many as 121 state-owned coins valued at about $400,000 are missing or stolen.

(How shocking and appalling. Another Republican thief. I've lost track of how many there are. Too many, it seems. LS)

OHIO'S COINGATE

THE HEAD RAT IS GETTING OBESE.

Mon Dieu! I just saw this piece on DeLay. There is a new "ethics cloud" over the head rat. Another! How many does that make? I've lost count. A Texas judge found today that one of Delay's committees failed to disclose $600,000. in corporate donations. Democrats are awarded $196,660. Thank you, Judge, we sure could use the cash to run the RAT out of Congress and Texas, too.

MORE DELAY ETHICS VIOLATIONS

MORE ON THE FAT RAT: The guy has to be toast, even in Texas where it takes a lot to be, well, nevermind.

WEB OF CORRUPTION SURROUNDING DELAY IS GETTING BIGGER. Interview with Chris Bell, former congressman from Texas, (For those not in Houston, Bell was ousted by the DeLay premature redistricting of the state), and John Byrne of Raw Story. According to Bell, the ruling on DeLay's political action committee is evidence that DeLay's case for innocence is hemorrhaging. It's time to retire, Tommy Boy.

CASE FOR INNOCENCE HEMORRHAGING

DEMOCRATIC BLOGGERS
I stumbled up this blog via Buzz Flash. It is a great site, giving details of daily Senate business. You can view talks given by the various Senators, see polls taken, you know, all of the relevant and important day to day information the MSM should be covering butisn't because they won't.

DEM BLOGGERS

"EXPLOIT THE RIFT"

While the silly MSM must be abuzz tonight with happy talk, spin, screaming and whatever, the Internet is an oasis in a desert of news and reflective opinion.

Once again, I post an article written by William Rivers Pitt. The title speaks for itself. From Truthout.org

EXPLOIT THE RIFT

NOT NEWSWEEK'S FAULT.

ho hum. It seems that FBI documents reveal that guards at "GITMO" abused the Koran. Alas, it is the WH policies, not Newsweek who is responsble for the rage in Afghanistan. Surprise, surpise.

Found on the Washington Post.com via Buzz Flash.

PIN IT ON NEWSWEEK

By Susan Lenfestey of Common Dreams.org "THE STENCH OF DECEIT."

Her piece focusses on the lame MSM and comatose public in regard to Chalabi, our best buddy, then enemy now back in our most grateful graces.

Excerpt:

It seems the tiny sensor in the nose that picks up pheromones has become largely inactive in humans. It barely connects to the brain at all.

What else could explain why the pungent smells emanating from the Bush administration, though certainly not sex attractants, get such a little rise out of the celebrity-sniffing media or the comatose public?

Conclusion:

Something is rotten, yet the cowed press ignores it and will continue to do so in light of the thrashing given to Newsweek. The rest of us, either beaten down by a government without scruple or no longer able to feel, drift through one day of deadly deception after another. What will it take to reawaken the sensors to our brains?

Maybe the long fingers of the draft, plucking over the children of the rich and sending them into war -- or into hiding --just as it did 40 years ago to feed the last big bloody American mistake.

STENCH OF DECEIT

COLLECTIVE NEED FOR REHAB IN U.S. FOR CURE OF DEPENDENCIES (OIL FOR ONE. PROPAGANDA FOR ANOTHER) WROUGHT UPON US BY WH

Perhaps (perhaps? get real LS) Bush/Cheney and Co. so obviously profit greatly from our devastating dependence on oil, thus the lack of pro-active and government sponsored and funded research and development projects on alternative sources for energy. Oh sure, we hear this and that about coal or "NUclear" sources and quite frankly, yaddy ya ya, blah, blah, blah, whatever, spin, spin until your are dizzy with misinformation and surrealism.....you know the mindless drill. Don't get on the merry-go-round of lies. If you are on it, jump off.

Ken found this extraordinary piece by Greg Plast in Harper's Magazine

BAGHDAD COUP D'ETAT FOR BIG OIL
Monday, March 28, 2005

Harper's Magazine investigation reveals how Big Oil vanquished the neo-cons .. and OPEC is the winner.

"For months, the State Department officially denied the existence of this 323-page plan for Iraq's oil ...."

Some conspiracy nuts believe the Bush Administration had a secret plan to control Iraq's oil. In fact, there were TWO plans. In a joint investigation with BBC Television Newsnight, Harper's Magazine has uncovered a hidden battle over Iraq's oil. It began right after Mr. Bush took office - with a previously unreported plot to invade Iraq.

From the exclusive Harper's report by Greg Palast:

Within weeks of the first inaugural, prominent Iraqi expatriates -- many with ties to U.S. industry -- were invited to secret discussions directed by Pamela Quanrud, National Security Council, now at the State Department. "It quickly became an oil group," said one participant, Falah Aljibury. Aljibury is an advisor to Amerada Hess' oil trading arm and Goldman Sachs.

"The petroleum industry, the chemical industry, the banking industry -- they'd hoped that Iraq would go for a revolution like in the past and government was shut down for two or three days," Aljibury told me. On this plan, Hussein would simply have been replaced by some former Baathist general.

However, by February 2003, a hundred-page blue-print for the occupied nation, favored by neo-cons, had been enshrined as official policy. "Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to Sustainable Growth" generally embodied the principles for postwar Iraq favored by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and the Iran-Contra figure, now Deputy National Security Advisor

News Dedicated to the The Beginning of the Unraveling

Thank you to all area Dems who could attend the Meet and Greet event with Barbara Radnofsky (Texas candidate for US Senate 2006) on Friday night. One awesome lady, right? It was both an honor and a privilege for Barbara to spend so much time with our group. THANK YOU BARBARA! There is hope, friends, yes, hope. We have a tough road to hoe ahead but together we can do it. Yes, we can do it with perseverance and endless hours of hard, hard work. The end result will be well worth our efforts. We have no choice, really, do we?

There has been so much in the news today about the "nuclear option," aka the filibuster and last night, as you know, in the final hour, a compromise of sorts was reached in the Senate. According to the MSM (Who? What? OH! The Irrelevant group!) there has been little interest shown on the part of Americans in this regard. Well, media, I say to you, yaddy ya ya ya, blah, blah, blah, whatever, trash talk, happy and pathetic talk during miserable times, and spin, spin and spin all you want until YOU are dizzy, b/c many of us aren't listening. You can dumb yourselves down but you can't dumb down all of us. Please take a long vacation and give us a rest. PLEASE. OH PLEASE. We don't need you anymore. Get it? We gave up on you.

On CSPAN’s Washington Journal this morning I watched and listened to callers, both Republicans and Democrats, who were more or less choked on rage over their party's "sell out." I personally don't see compromise as a sellout. I view the filibuster compromise as a desperate attempt on the part of moderates, be they R's or D's, to slow the WH right wing extremism and drive to impose neo-conservative policy, under the pretense of national security and "patriotism" on us, we the people. The WH and their loyalists were stalled...momentarily perhaps, but stalled. If the extremist's are reflective and patriotic, the compromise should give them pause. If they are radically obsessed with imposing their will at any or all costs and are essentially more interested in advancing special (including religious) and corporate interest groups, they will fight back even more viciously, if that is possible. I fear the latter. Batten down the hatches, big time, and friends, steel yourself for a really rough ride. But, you can take hope. As Winston Churchill counseled, during WW2 and the some of the worse bombing of England "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Hang tough and hard. Remember, bullies are cowards at heart.

The Howard Dean interview on Meet the Press probably caused apoplexy and yet more future strategies for revenge and character annihilation from the GOP dirty, no filthy, tricks wing, i.e. Rove and co. Howard calls it like he sees it. Funny that the media finds Dean hard-edged and angry when lunatics like Frist and DeLay can shriek self-righteously for retribution for judges who don't agree with their extremist policies. No press commentary or TV interviews on those crazies. One has to wonder what on earth has happened to our press and media. I think I know. Forget about MSM. What a pathetic lot.

At any rate, here is a piece on Dean's interview from the NYT.
DEAN INTERVIEW

CONYERS WORRIED ABOUT BUSH'S DICTATORIAL PRACTICES CONCERNING FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND HIS MANIPULATION OF INTELLIGENCE TO WAGE WAR WITH IRAW. Found on Raw Story.com

CONYERS WORRIED


TAKE THE LONG WAY HOME

From one of my favorite journalists and writers, William River Pitt, on Truthout.org. A heartbreaking and painfully thought provoking piece. I must admit I have a problem with a military draft, but I totally and completely understand Will's point. Keep on writing Will. We need you to make us face and come to terms with issues we would rather forget about and immerse ourselves instead in the stupidity of television culture, i.e. desperate housewife type shows and the american idiot, I mean idol. I beg your pardon for the slip.

Excerpt:

 I'm very tired. I am tired of hearing about democracy in Iraq when no such thing exists. I am tired of people like Bush using terms like freedom as an advertising pitch for actions that promote anything but freedom. The word itself sounds like a dead fish in his mouth. I am tired of dead soldiers, dead civilians, I am tired of our highest ideals being used to peddle profiteering by war, and I am so damned tired of trying to shake people into doing something about it before we all go over the cliff.

LONG WAY HOME

BACK TO THE OHIO ELECTION RIPOFF.

You have to hand it to Bob Fitrakis and Steve Wasserman who won't let go of the fact that the Ohio election was indeed stolen. They aren't caving in and lying dead and rolled over like the Florida folks in 2000. Bob and Steve are true patriots. Stay on it guys, like dogs on a bone. Relentless pressure will yield truth. I heard an expression today on CSPAN, by a radio host whose name escapes me. To quote: "Keep stirring the pot so the scum can't surface." Well, most unfortunately, the scum has surfacesd so now we need to skim it and toss it in the garbage disposal. From Free Press.org via Brad's Blog

ATTACKS ON OHIO WHISTLE BLOWER BY GUESS WHO You guess it.

MORE DATA FROM US COUNT VOTES

ELECTION REFORM NEEDED ASAP. Feel ripped off? Trust your instinct.

Those in denial will say, "Oh, those conspiracy theorists and sore losers are still agitating." Perhaps. Perhaps not. Read the numbers, because, in the end, it is really all about the bottom line, and the numbers, is it not? Or is it?

No more commentary here. Read the text and numbers. It is up to you to decide.

Received today from Kathy Dopp, President of US Counts Votes, a non-partisan, non-profit organization in which Ph.D mathematicians, statisticians and computer scientists volunteer their time and professional skills to do voter analysis.


Hello Everyone,

Significant revisions have been made to US Count Vote's newest analysis of the exit polls which contribute substantially to the science of exit poll analysis, and more strongly rebut the reluctant Bush responder hypothesis.

In particular, the derivation of the formula for exit poll discrepancy, WPE, caused by vote shift, and more accurate charts of the exit poll discrepancy patterns caused by vote shift were added today.

Now it can be stated that the exit poll pattern in the Edison/Mitofsky exit poll data is clearly more consistent with vote shift of 6% from Kerry to Bush + an exit poll response bias that is considered very normal (i.e. Kerry voters responding slightly more in Kerry strongholds, and Bush voters responding more in Bush strongholds) than it is with the reluctant Bush responder hypothesis of Edison/Mitofsky.

If you have done what we must all do to ensure that the correctly elected candidates are sworn into office in January 07, by forwarding a copy of our newest paper to your elected representatives to educate them, you may want to re-forward the revised copy, or plan on forwarding it as soon as it is finalized in a few weeks.

US COUNTVOTES ANALYSIS


Below is an excerpt from Steve Freeman's email today to Mitofsky, the exit pollster:
------------------------------------------
The fact that the original authors of the USCountVotes papers, myself
included, did not sign the current release does NOT imply that we no longer
believe the arguments, just that we lack time and resources to uphold our
end of a fruitless non-debate.

The recent fuss over WPE and alternative analyses is about whether the E/M
model proposed to account for unprecedented differences between their exit
polls and the recorded vote is impossibly implausible or just highly
implausible.

The bottom line remains that there is no evidence - or even theory - of
differential response. There has never been any. The E/M data itself fails
to substantiate the claim, and may, in fact, undermine the claim entirely.
Without access to the data, it's difficult to know.
The unexplained questions about the exit poll and the election have
certainly NOT been answered in Miami or anywhere else. In a system where
campaign managers serve as election supervisors, where voting machines
provide no assurance that votes are counted as cast, where a wide array of
other "irregularities" (a.k.a. vote manipulation and mistabulation) were
documented, and where counts and "recounts" are conducted in secret, the
exit poll results stand out as conspiciously suspicious. The exit poll data,
for all its limitations, is one of the only means to gain both national and
specific insights into whether, in fact, the official reported results of
the presidential election were even in the ballpark.

That this relevant data has not been made available for independent analysis
is an outrage for members of an organization that considers itself part of
the scientific community. It's an outrage for people that consider
themselves patriotic citizens of a democratic nation.

Indeed of all the multitude of unexplained questions, perhaps the most
puzzling is how highly intelligent, apparently decent men can take the stand
that the data must not be independently analyzed.
-----------------------

USCOUNTSVOTES

Anyone who may be able to help us obtain funding for USCV's National Election Data Archive Project, please email me.

Best,

Kathy Dopp
http://electionarchive.org

NEWS ABOUT OPENNESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Openness? Accountability?
What the hell is that? Key missing principles in the Bush Administration.

NYT editorial weighs in on the Newsweek fiasco. Writer says it is offensive for the Bush hacks to use the Newsweek case for political purposes. It is absurd and ridculous for spokespeople for the White House and Defense Department to offer saintly declarations about OPENNESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY, (give me a break, oh please -LS) when the Bush administration has consistently recoiled from both principles.

NYT EDITORIAL

CONSERVATIVE LIBERATARIAN CALLS FOR IMPEACHMENT

Priceless piece found by my friend and fellow patriot, Ken.

The writer, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, former contributing editor for National Review, and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. In other words, his Conservative papers are very much in order, and are in fact top drawer. This editorial appeared today in a libertarian website. -K

A Reputation in Tatters
by Paul Craig Roberts
http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts101.html
REPUTATION IN TATTERS

George W. Bush and his gang of neocon warmongers have destroyed Americaís reputation. It is likely to stay destroyed, because at this point the only way to restore Americaís reputation would be to impeach and convict President Bush for intentionally deceiving Congress and the American people in order to start a war of aggression against a country that posed no threat to the US. America can redeem itself only by holding Bush accountable.

As intent as Republicans were to impeach President Clinton for lying about a sexual affair, they have a blind eye for President Bushís far more serious lies. Bushís lies have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, injured and maimed tens of thousands more, devastated a country, destroyed Americaís reputation, caused one billion Muslims to hate America, ruined our alliances with Europe, created a police state at home, and squandered $300 billion dollars and counting.

Americaís reputation is so damaged that not even our puppets can stand the heat. Anti-American riots, which have left Afghan cities and towns in flames and hospitals overflowing with casualties, have forced Bushís Afghan puppet, "president" Hamid Karzai, to assert his independence from his US overlords. In a belated act of sovereignty, Karzai asserted authority over heavy-handed US troops whose brutal and stupid ways sparked the devastating riots. Karzai demanded control of US military activities in Afghanistan and called for the return of the Afghan detainees who are being held at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Abundant evidence now exists in the public domain to convict George W. Bush of the crime of the century. The secret British government memo (dated July 23, 2002), leaked to the Sunday Times (May 1, 2005), reports that Bush wanted "to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. . . . But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. . . . The [UK] Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorization. The first and second could not be the base in this case. Relying on UNSCR 1205 of three years ago would be difficult."

This memo is the mother of all smoking guns.

Why isnít Bush in the dock?

Has American democracy failed at home?

May 17, 2005

My sentiments exactly, Dr. Roberts. Maybe your colleagues and friends will read and act upon your message. We Democrats have been writing/blogging/calling about Bush's outrageous and deranged policies for years. Apparently no one is listening. Perhaps your group might take pause and action. LS

News Missing in Action in the Lame MSM

News today is dedicated to the heroes who are standing up to the Bush bullies and their corporate lackies who profit greatly while the Janes and Joes of our nation suffer the consequences. Joes and Janes, you have to stop voting for these thugs and bullies. Get a reality check, please. You (WE) are paying dearly and greatly.....It is all about money and greed. It has nothing to do with "family values" or any of the fabricated messages you hear daily. You have been had big time. Wake up.

On to the heroes who are trying to give us that reality check.

Conyers tears into White House over the administration's assault on Newsweek. Cites Bush for his administration's lies about the justification to go to war with Iraq, (remember? the fabricated WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?) the attendant 1600 dead U.S. soldiers, not to mention the tens of thousands dead Iraqis. Conyers also brings up the Memogate issue. He chastises Scott McClellen for the administration's attempts to intimidate and bully journalists and reporters when reporting news unfavorable to the WH.
Excerpt:

Moreover, your loquacious response to this matter stands in stark contrast to your response to a recently released classified memo comprising the minutes of a July 22 meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet which calls into question the credibility of assertions made by your Administration in its drive to war. Among other things the memo indicates that Administration officials were working to ensure that "the intelligence and facts were fixed around the policy," implying that intelligence was deliberately manipulated to prop up the case for war. The memo also indicates, contrary to contemporaneous statements to the American people and the Congress that the President had already "made up his mind to take military action." When asked about this memo, you claimed that you "don't know about the specific memo" - two and one half weeks after its release and ten days after receiving a letter detailing its contents from 89 Members of Congress (which has still not been answered).

Found on Raw story.com
http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/conyers_newsweek_bush_517
CONYERS

WHY DO WE HAVE TO GO TO THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA SOURCES TO FIND OUT WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON?
This piece was found on Ireland.on line. The article discusses George Galloway 's plight. He is accused by one of our very own US Senators for aiding, abetting and profiting from Saddam Hussein. Galloway fights back, calling the U.S. on its blatant lies and hypocrisy in our role in Iraq. Very informative and insightful piece. Found on Buzz Flash.com

GALLOWAY CALLS IT AS HE SEES IT

FROM THE NASHUA ADVOCATE: 'FLAP OVER ALLEGEDLY INACCURATE NEWSWEEK STORY RAISES SERIOUS QUESTIONS"
A favorite site of mine. I admire and respect the way in which the writer argues logically, concisely and dispassionately about issues that are dumbed down in the press and media.

Excerpt of brilliant and reflective writing (something we are not accustomed to anymore, unfortunately).

For example, precisely what sort of harm does a man have to do to this country to be declared the worst President in the history of the nation? Is lying to the nation and the world about a conspiracy to engage in aggressive war in Iraq enough, or does the resulting conflagration need to result in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths to put Mr. Bush over the top? Does lying about a tax cut plan and gay-baiting homophobic Americans gain you the top spot for Most Inept Number One, or must we require leading the country into an entirely unnecessary and avoidable recession? How about a failed education plan, a failed missile defense plan, a plan to destroy Social Security, an Orwellian environmental "agenda," countless base closings, and no health care or anti-poverty programs to speak of? And can we really call a President the worst ever if he's never squandered the largest stock of pro-U.S. goodwill in the history of the world over a bogus military conflict with a nation no more threatening to the U.S. than Guyana?


NEWSWEEK FLAP

A SALUTE TO TRUE MAJORITY FOR MAKING A DIFFERENCE. True Majority is the organization that created the statue of Uncle Sam spanking Tom DeLay. They have been cited in some of the MSM, no small feat these days.

TrueMajority Members Made a Difference

TrueMajority in the news ...

TrueMajority activities were covered in the past few months by Newsweek, National Public Radio, the Associated Press, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fox, Salon.com, and many more.

On the lighter side, here’s what CNN said about our 12-foot statue of Uncle Sam spanking Rep. Tom DeLay for "abusing our trust":

"Actually, I think it's very funny. I think it's hilarious. I think Mr. DeLay could use a little spanking, a little discipline; he is never going to get it from his fellow Republicans in the House. ... These guys have a good sense of humor. And it's the Republicans who can't take the joke." -- CNN Crossfire, April 15, 2005

TrueMajority monitors Washington, and when your voice really matters, we give you the opportunity to do something. We don’t win all the time, but it’s worth reminding ourselves that we do have an impact.

Here are some things that the TrueMajority membership has accomplished recently:

Social Security Dismantlement Stalled

We call it a major victory that President Bush hasn’t had the confidence to offer any legislation on his plan to privatize Social Security. Why? Because Congress is overwhelmed by the voices of opposition, including yours. TrueMajority members contacting their representatives and our targeted "Frank and Marge" radio ads, generating millions of earned media impressions, made a difference. Check out the ad: 

mp3

or realaudio . "The White House claims that it’s gaining momentum in its never-ending quest to overhaul Social Security. But judging from the battle on the ground, it looks like the opposition can also claim to be on a roll. ...TrueMajority (a group founded by Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream) and several other groups who oppose Bush’s plan for personal accounts began running TV, radio, and newspaper ads on Monday in advance of Bush’s visit to Cedar Rapids." -- Newsweek, March 30, 2005


Ethics Rules Reinstated

The House of Representatives agreed with TrueMajority members that changing Congressional ethics rules to shield Majority Leader Tom DeLay was a bad idea. The House leadership reversed course and reinstated the old rules in April. Now we’ll press the House to hold DeLay accountable and to remove him from his leadership post.

Sudan Now before International Court

After an international outcry and steady urging by TrueMajority members, the Bush administration reversed itself and allowed perpetrators of genocide to be tried by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. Unfortunately, the murder and misery continue in Sudan, and we are pushing for sanctions backed up by force, if necessary, to stop the genocide.

Oil Companies Warned about Arctic Refuge

With our friend Sen. Barbara Boxer, TrueMajority members put the oil companies on notice that countless Americans will boycott their gas stations if they ever drill in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge. We’ll keep you informed as this issue develops, and we’ll keep an eye on Bush’s oil-friendly energy bill.

Bolton Squeaks out of Committee with No Recommendation

The Washington establishment was shocked that John Bolton, Bush’s
UN-hating nominee for UN ambassador, failed to gain a recommendation from the Senate committee that scrutinized his qualifications for the job. Though he may still get confirmed, TrueMajority members deserve credit for weakening his ability to harm the UN, as he’ll definitely be under media and congressional microscopes throughout his tenure.

Fundraising for Clergy Bus Tour

TrueMajority members donated $50,000 to help put a bus tour of progressive religious leaders on the road, bringing a moral and spiritual dimension to the call for ending the occupation of Iraq. This was a tremendous boost for the Clergy and Laity Network, and we’ll be supporting their tour along the way.

BB Animation

Last month, we used Ben’s celebrity and a bucket of BBs to explain how excessive America’s nuclear arsenal of 10,000 weapons is. The animation has been seen by 150,000 people and garnered over 10,000 new members in the little time it’s wandered the Web. See it at http://TrueMajority.Kintera.org/BensBBs.


Computer Voting

Although national media attention on election-scrambling computer voting machines has waned, the successful Computer Ate My Vote campaign rolls on at the state level.

Working with local activists in Colorado, TrueMajority members are pushing through a bill requiring voter-verified paper ballots, which prevent the loss of electronic votes. Together with our friends at Common Cause, we've gathered more than 1,300 signatures on a petition pushing for voter-verified ballots in North Carolina. TrueMajority members are also backing up local activists in Maryland and Connecticut to make the next election more trustworthy than the last.

So your TrueMajority staff has been busy keeping track of what’s going on in Washington, letting you know when issues come to a head and offering opportunities to make your voices heard. At over 500,000 strong, those voices were heard and acted upon in some important ways.

Of course, the times we’re living in mean these are uphill battles ... but we’re getting some results and will keep at it with you, and for you.

Proud to be in this together,

Duane Peterson and the entire TrueMajority gang

Contribute
If you like what you see, please click here to contribute to keep these messages going to more people!

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TrueMajority.org, 191 Bank Street, Third Floor, Burlington, VT 05401

Good Night. Adios. Bon Nuit.

WHY I BOTHER TO BLOG: MEDIA REFORM NEEDED ASAP

This piece from the Media Reform Conference in St. Louis says it all. Totally relevant and awesome piece. Well worth giving up viewing the boob tube and diving deep into the bloggosphere, which won't go away, any time soon, thank goodness.

WHY I BOTHER TO BLOG

IF NOTHING ELSE, MAYBE OUR FINANCIAL RUIN WILL REVEAL TRUTH

UH OH. WE MAY BE IN FOR A WHOLE WORLD OF HURT, HERE AT HOME. Found on Globe and Mail.com via Buzz Flash.
Maybe those who profit from the Bush Administration 's policies will take pause when their stocks and capitol plummet. Or maybe they won't because they are safe from all financial levels of destruction?

"FOREIGN NVESTORS SELL U.S. ASSETS"
DUMPING US ASSETS

DIEBOLD EMPLOYEES WHO DONATED TO 2004 BUSH CAMPAIGN? They are not the average Joe's and Jane's of despicable DIEBOLD.
Have any doubts about election corruption? You are a fool and idiot if you do. Save yourself. Stop watching the idiot box (aka TV).

Take a peek here:
STOLEN ELECTION NEWS

Totally awesome piece by Reid tonight on Truthout.org

Reid says it all. I don't feel qualified to comment on this great man's commentary.
DEMOCRATS STAND UNITED AGAINST REPUBLICAN ABUSE OF POWER
REID

News Dedicated to Commencement

Around the country this month and next, there will be hundreds if not thousands of Commencement exercises held in every city and town nationwide. High school students, undergraduates and graduate students receive diplomas and degrees after years of hard work, financial sacrifices in many, if not most cases along with attendant deep commitments to various programs of study. Most Commencement events involve well-known political, academic, religious or nationally or internationally distinguished speakers. Most of them will talk to the students about their new beginnings and how one must live ones' dreams and achieve ones' goals.

In honor of all students who will graduate this spring, I post news that is a reflection of my future hopes and dreams for their generations - that one day they will experience a national media that is not corrupted by political and corporate interests. Not to mention a government that is not based on unchecked greed, power, serving the interests of a few and the drive to annihilate of our Constitution, thanks to their accomplices, the media.

On to the news.

While Charles Gibson interviewed an actress from Desperate Housewives at Tiffany's in NYC (how pathetic you looked Charlie, you sell-out, though I sense you KNOW you are a sell-out) on Good Morning America and the MSNBC (whomever) anchor interviewed the author of a book on Frank Sinatra (yaddya ya ya, blah, blah blah) this morning, while CNN continued its obsession with Michael Jackson, (you guys have a REAL problem- how are your ratings, by the way,- F-?) here is what is happening in the real world of news today. News found, naturally on the Internet and in the bloggosphere. By the way, however, CSPAN did an excellent piece on border patrol in Arizona this morning.

News unfit to print or air because it doesn't stay on right wing nazi message.

MORE ON VOTING CORRUPTION IN OHIO FROM U.S. COUNT VOTES.

I received this report from Kathy Dopp, President of US Count Votes this morning. A new scientific study is released revealing the hypotheses on voter fraud remain credible. How the Bushies stole another election? You know the hell they did.

For Immediate Release - Press Conference Today

2004 Presidential Election: Hypotheses of Fraud Remain Credible; New Scientific Study Released

Contact: Kathy Dopp, US Count Votes, President

(435) 608-1382 kathy@uscountvotes.org electionarchive.org

The persistence of credible hypotheses of election fraud, six months after the election, underscores the fragility of the U.S. electoral system. US Count Votes continues its systematic statistical study of the discrepancy between the Edison-Mitofsky exit polls and November's reported presidential election results.

Miami, FL. – Ron Baiman, Ph.D. of US Count Votes and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs of Chicago, will release the new results at the meeting of the American Association of Political Opinion Researchers today, Saturday at a 2:15 p.m. Press Conference in the Hotel Fontainebleau Hilton Resort lobby, 4441 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33140.

Peter Pekarsky, the lead attorney being sued by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, will be available to talk about what has happened in Ohio, and why the election needs to be investigated.

Mitofsky, of the Edison/Mitofsky group who released an analysis on January 19th of their November 2nd exit poll that had predicted a strong win for Kerry, will also be in attendance at the AAPOR conference.

The National Election Data Archive (NEDA) today has released a new report, demonstrating that data from the Edison/Mitofsky analysis is consistent with the hypothesis of a corrupted vote count, and inconsistent with the competing idea that Bush voters were under-sampled in the poll. Using numerical modeling techniques to simulate the effect of polling bias, NEDA scientists are able to reproduce signature patterns in the Edison/Mitofsky data by incorporating a general shift in the official vote tally in the model.

Most telling is the fact that the highest participation rates and the peak disparity between poll and official returns both occurred in precincts where Bush made his strongest showing. This feature of the data is inconsistent with the Edison/Mitofsky assumption that polling bias was responsible for the gap.

For the complete report, see
COMPLETE REPORT

This paper follows an earlier study released on March 31, 2005, by a group of statisticians for the National Election Data Archive Project, Analysis of the 2004 Presidential Election Exit Poll Discrepancies.

BILL MOYERS FIGHTS BACK. Bill Moyers, speaker at the Media Reform Conference in St. Louis this weekend, blasts the Bush administration lackies for their attacks on PBS. Moyers says he might come out of his rocking chair..PLEASE DO BILL. We need you more than ever now.
BILL MOYERS

Another piece about Moyers found on NYT Business via Buzz Flash. According to Buzz Flash, Moyers says Tomlinson paid a right wing hack $10,000 of our tax payer $$$ to view "NOW" and report back anything smacking of "liberal bias." This is utterly outrageous! As Conyers said on his blog today, why is it that we find news in the opinion sections of the newspapers.

MORE ON BILL MOYERS

BARBARA BOXER SLOWS DOWN BOLTON'S NOMINATION. Says she'll lift her hold on the nomination when information requested by the Judicial Committee on Bolton is released to them. (Rice had refused to turn over the information requested earlier by the Judicial Committee on Bolton). You go girl. Found on the San Francisco Chronicle via Buzz Flash.

BOXER SLOWS DOWN BOLTON

FINALLY, A PIECE ABOUT MEMO GATE FOUND IN NYT. I found this piece on Truthout.org
Paul Krugman asks "Stay What Course?" in Iraq. Couldn't have said it better, Mr. Krugman. The Bush Will to Power re doux.
KRUGMAN ON IRAQ

BUSH NAZI POLICIES: NATIONAL ID THAT WILL CAUSE MORE HARM THAN GOOD

Sent by Ken this morning - an article written by Bruce Schnier one of the most respected security experts in the U.S.

REAL ID
by Bruce Schnier
www.counterpane.com
Bruce Schnier is one of the most respected data security experts in the US. -K

The United States will get a national ID card. The REAL ID Act establishes uniform standards for state driver's licenses, to go into effect in three years, effectively creating a national ID card. It's a bad idea, and is going to make us all less safe. It's also very expensive. And it all happened without any serious debate in Congress.


I've already written about national IDs. I've written about the fallacies of identification as a security tool. I'm not going to repeat myself here, and I urge everyone who is interested to read those essays (links at the end). Remember, the question to ask is not whether a national ID will do any good; the question to ask is whether the good it does is worth the cost. By that measure, a national ID is a lousy security trade-off. And everyone needs to understand why.


Aside from the generalities in my previous essays, there are specifics about REAL ID that make for bad security.


The REAL ID Act requires driver's licenses to include a "common machine-readable technology." This will, of course, make identity theft easier. Already some hotels take photocopies of your ID when you check in, and some bars scan your ID when you try to buy a drink. Since the U.S. has no data protection law, those businesses are free to resell that data to data brokers like ChoicePoint and Acxiom. And they will; it would be bad business not to. It actually doesn't matter how well the states and federal government protect the data on driver's licenses, as there will be parallel commercial databases with the same information.


(Those who point to European countries with national IDs need to pay attention to this point. European countries have a strong legal framework for data privacy and protection. This is why the American experience will be very different than the European experience, and a much more serious danger to society.)


Even worse, there's likely to be an RFID chip in these licenses. The same specification for RFID chips embedded in passports includes details about embedding RFID chips in driver's licenses. I expect the federal government will require states to do this, with all of the associated security problems (e.g., surreptitious access).


REAL ID requires that driver's licenses contain actual addresses, and no post office boxes. There are no exceptions made for judges or police -- even undercover police officers. This seems like a major unnecessary security risk.


REAL ID also prohibits states from issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens. This makes no sense, and will only result in these illegal aliens driving without licenses -- which isn't going to help anyone's security. (This is an interesting insecurity, and is a direct result of trying to take a document that is a specific permission to drive an automobile, and turning it into a general identification device.)


REAL ID is expensive. It's an unfunded mandate: the federal government is forcing the states to spend their own money to comply with the act. I've seen estimates that the cost to the states of complying with REAL ID will be tens of billions. That's money that can't be spent on actual security.


And the wackiest thing is that none of this is required. In October 2004, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 was signed into law. That law included stronger security measures for driver's licenses, the security measures recommended by the 9/11 Commission Report. That's already done. It's already law.


REAL ID goes way beyond that. It's a huge power-grab by the federal government over the states' systems for issuing driver's licenses.


REAL ID doesn't go into effect until three years after it becomes law, but I expect things to be much worse by then. One of my fears is that this new uniform driver's license will bring a new level of "show me your papers" checks by the government. Already you can't fly without an ID, even though no one has ever explained how that ID check makes airplane terrorism any harder. I have previously written about Secure Flight, another lousy security system that tries to match airline passengers against terrorist watch lists. I've already heard rumblings about requiring states to check identities against "government databases" before issuing driver's licenses. I'm sure Secure Flight will be used for cruise ships, trains, and possibly even subways. Combine REAL ID with Secure Flight and you have an unprecedented system for broad surveillance of the population.


Is there anyone who would feel safer under this kind of police state?


Americans overwhelmingly reject national IDs in general, and there's an enormous amount of opposition to the REAL ID Act.


If you haven't heard much about REAL ID in the newspapers, that's not an accident. The politics of REAL ID was almost surreal. It was voted down last fall, but was reintroduced and attached to legislation that funds military actions in Iraq. This was a "must-pass" piece of legislation, which means that there was no debate on REAL ID. No hearings, no debates in committees, no debates on the floor. Nothing. And it's now law.


We're not defeated, though. REAL ID can be fought in other ways: via funding, in the courts, etc. Those seriously interested in this issue are invited to attend an EPIC-sponsored event in Washington, DC, on the topic on June 6th. I'll be there.


Text of the REAL ID Act:



Congressional Research Services analysis:



My previous writings on identification and national IDs:





Security problems with RFIDs:



My previous writings on Secure Flight:



Resources:




EPIC's Washington DC event:

Nuggets of Reality in World of Lies and Make Believe

Isn't it heartening to know that the MSM stopped all news yesterday to report relentlessly, like a bunch of circus clowns, without the hire wire act, on a pilot who got lost. Sigh. Also uplifting to know is that Bush didn't know about the "threat" until 40 minutes after the fact. That should tell you who is running this country. It ain't Bush. He was busy biking.

The United States is at t war on two fronts. Iraq is erupting into a civil war. I read on an Internet source today that a Marine platoon was wiped out. All were either killed or wounded.... The Pentagon isn't publishing the number of dead killed in Iraq. MSM isn't talking about the platoon.

Heart breaking, utterly heart breaking.

Our president was uninformed and riding a bike. Would would Jesus do, Mr. President?

Does anything give you pause?

On to Libby's News du Jour:

My apologies for some of the links that do not work. I am looking into this problem and until I resolve it, I will include the complete URLs as well as the abbreviations.

Before posting a few articles tonight: here is a quote received from a friend today, from Dwight D. Eisenhower.

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social
security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor
laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that
party again in our political history. There is a tiny
splinter group, of course, that believes that you can
do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil
millionaires, and an occasional politician or
businessman from other areas. Their number is
negligible and they are stupid."

----President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952

The quote should give any Republican pause. Maybe. Maybe not.

Are the MSM and press finally rousing from their lack/DENIAL of reality based and meaningful news coverage slumber? Are the producers, editors, journalists (mostly transcribers) and talking heads finally bored to tears with runaway brides and Michael Jackson et al sewage? Don't think so. It is we, the people, who are bored with and repelled by the mind numbing drivel. May as well be reading the tabloids in the grocery store check out lane. I would rather be doing something else...like reading and blogging.....

Stupid spin talk must be driving many of us who hunger for relevant information to alternative news sources.

I did not know what a blog was until November 3, 2004, when I knew something was horribly wrong with the Ohio vote count. MSM would not, or could not, cover it . That is the time MSM lost me.

FINALLY, from the L.A. Times and CNN of all places, i.e. the purveyors of Happy Talk.

MEMO GATE REVEALED
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051205A.shtml

This surprising piece was found on our very own Houston Chronicle.com via Raw Story.
O'Reilly tore into the Chronicle for one of its stories, totally misrepresenting the facts and quoting sources not found in the Chronicle's article. The Chronicle calls O'Reilly a liar and cautions readers to check out the facts before complaining to the Chronicle after listening to the commentary from the lying mad man of FOX. I saw somewhere tonight that O'Reilly's ratings are plunging.

O'Reilly LIES

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/3178313

Found on Media Matters: Where was the Wall Street Journal when GOP blocked Clinton's nominees? Guess. Guess again. You guessed it.

CHEERLEADERS FOR OBSTRUCTION

From the San Francisco Chronicle: Byrd and Frist Spar. I saw this on CSPAN today. Byrd was awesome. He held a pocket Constitution in his hand, held the floor and pointed his pocket version toward Frist who was naturally dismissive.

BYRD and FRIST

News Fit for Reflective, Reality Based Minds

Tired of the pretty Stepford anchors spewing mindless babble on the news at night? Psychically numbed by the press running scared of the truth, tail tucked neatly between legs? Both media emitting sewage to dumb us down to the lowest of the low, thinking, hoping that we are happy and stupid and prefer their silly and anti-intellectual chatter and "analysis"? Alas, turn to alternative news if you want to sharpen your critical thinking skills and engage your mind, not to mention learn about what is really happening in Washington and in the world. Trust me, all you will hear on the "news" tonight is the story about the pilot of the single engine plane that veered into Washington's airspace and how Bush was biking at the time in some park in Maryland, while the White House, Laura Bush, Nancy Reagan and Cheney, the Capitol and Supreme Court had to be evacuated. F16's chased the plane.....Saw it all on CNN, MSNBC and FOX while working out at the gym today. ho hum....2 minutes of information stretched into hours of endless blather and stupidity.
Alternative news is awash with information tonight.

Many, from all corners of everywhere in the U.S., are extremely frustrated by the MSM and press's lack of willingness (guts?) to tackle the Memo Gate Story. Here are a few articles in that regard.

From Newsday.com: "Memo Bush Manipulated Iraq intel" There is nothing here you haven't read in other articles I've posted, but, for the record, here is a MS press reporting the story.

INTEL MANIPULATION

Here is another piece, found on Common Dreams via Buzz Flash. Readers complain about Washington Post's failure to cover Memo Gate, but Washington Post is still unforthcoming (cowardly?)

MUM IS THE WORD

A Buzz Flash reader wrote to the NYT to find out why they would not publish Memo Gate story.

Excerpt:
How do you define High Treason? Would that include, oh, subverting the Constitution? Waging a war under false pretenses? Maybe lying under oath? Your paper sure was shocked, just shocked, at Clinton's lies. Is one semen-stained dress important, but 30,000 blood-stained American uniforms of no real consequence?

We need this story, above-the-fold, day after day, in all its details (remember Clarke, O'Neill, the October 2000 PNAC "global-dominance through war paper," all the testimony that Bush wanted Iraq, the "evidence" based on drunks and forged documents etc. etc). Cover it or watch your sales hit the trash-can, if appeals to honor and defense of America carry no weight with you or your paper.

Here's the link and the full text of the Downing Street minutes:


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.htm

LETTER TO NYT EDITOR

From Molly Ivins: "They Lied to Us."
"I thought it was time we moved past the now unhelpful, "How did we get into this mess?" However, I cannot let this astounding Downing Street memo go unmentioned.

THEY LIED TO US

From one of my favorite journalists, William Rivers Pitts on Truthout.

"One of These Days"

After writing his book on Iraq, in the fall of 2002, Will received a call from a MSNBC producer, essentially asking him to trash the weapons inspectors and to spin the White House line on the abudance of the "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq.

Excerpt:
So picture this moment. There I was, trying to drive down one of the worst roads in Cambridge with a cell phone the size of a gallon of milk stuck to my ear, and I have this MSNBC producer telling me that if I go on the show, I have to dump all over the inspectors who at that time had been in-country about a week. Coincidentally, that was exactly the same line of rhetoric being pushed by the White House at exactly that time. I'm sure the look on my face was priceless, and I'm lucky me, the car and the giant cell phone didn't wind up in the Charles River.

Will chronicles the White House efforts to fabricate the facts on Iraq, to match the intel to policy. He cites Richard Clarke, Paul O'Neill, Joe Wilson, as well as CIA experts and analysts.

He concludes by acknowledging that, while alternative news is absolutely crucial and available to some of us, it is simply not enough to reach the masses. Too many of Americans are left out of the info loop.

Will's solution:

"What we in the alternate media need to do, and what you media activists need to do, is advocate hard in your own communities for the providing of computers and internet access to poor and rural communities. In other words, we need to wire up the people who need this information, who get lied to by their televisions every day, who send their sons and daughters off to die so Halliburton and Exxon can line their pockets. I know this stuff, you know it, but too many others don't even have access to it. That has to change."

OK foks - we have our mission now. Let's get to work. LS.

One of These Days

Quickly, as I am out of time, check out Brad's Blog for info on the stolen election of 2004.

Scroll down to May 11 "ROUND 2: Jim Lampley's Election 2004 'Biggest Crime in History of Nation' Post Met With Timid Jab from National Review/Fox News' Byron York!

WOW!

STOLEN

"SMOKING GUN MEMO"

More great news and commentary from Ken. This is an extraordinarily important issue to be aware of and read about. LS

I don't expect that every email I send out gets read by every reader, so if you've missed this story, last week the London Times revealed a 2002 memo from high inside the Blair government that discusses how the Bush administration was cooking intelligence in order to go into Iraq.

The American media has completely ignored the story. It's worse than that. Several days after this story broke around the world -- well here's an abstract from the story below:

A May 8 New York Times news article asserted that "critics who accused the Bush administration of improperly using political influence to shape intelligence assessments have, for the most part, failed to make the charge stick."


Smoking Gun Memo?
Iraq Bombshell Goes Mostly Unreported in US Media
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2511
Media Advisory (5/10/05)

Journalists typically condemn attempts to force their colleagues to disclose anonymous sources, saying that subpoenaing reporters will discourage efforts to expose government wrongdoing. But such warnings seem like mere self-congratulation when clear evidence of wrongdoing emerges, with no anonymous sources required-- and major news outlets virtually ignore it.

A leaked document that appeared in a British newspaper offered clear new evidence that U.S. intelligence was shaped to support the drive for war. Though the information rocked British Prime Minister Tony Blair's re-election campaign when it was revealed, it has received little attention in the U.S. press.

The document, first revealed by the London Times (5/1/05), was the minutes of a July 23, 2002 meeting in Blair's office with the prime minister's close advisors. The meeting was held to discuss Bush administration policy on Iraq, and the likelihood that Britain would support a U.S. invasion of Iraq. "It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided," the minutes state.

The minutes also recount a visit to Washington by Richard Dearlove, the head of the British intelligence service MI6: "There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

That last sentence is striking, to say the least, suggesting that the policy of invading Iraq was determining what the Bush administration was presenting as "facts" derived from intelligence. But it has provoked little media follow-up in the United States. The most widely circulated story in the mainstream press came from the Knight Ridder wire service (5/6/05), which quoted an anonymous U.S. official saying the memo was ''an absolutely accurate description of what transpired" during Dearlove's meetings in Washington.

Few other outlets have pursued the leaked memo's key charge that the "facts were being fixed around the policy." The New York Times (5/2/05) offered a passing mention, and the Charleston (W.V.) Gazette (5/5/05) wrote an editorial about the memo and the Iraq War. A columnist for the Cox News Service (5/8/05) also mentioned the memo, as did Molly Ivins (WorkingForChange.com, 5/10/05). Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler (5/8/05) noted that Post readers had complained about the lack of reporting on the memo, but offered no explanation for why the paper virtually ignored the story.

In a brief segment on hot topics in the blogosphere (5/6/05), CNN correspondent Jackie Schechner reported that the memo was receiving attention on various websites, where bloggers were "wondering why it's not getting more coverage in the U.S. media." But acknowledging the lack of coverage hasn't prompted much CNN coverage; the network mentioned the memo in two earlier stories regarding its impact on Blair's political campaign (5/1/05, 5/2/05), and on May 7, a short CNN item reported that 90 Congressional Democrats sent a letter to the White House about the memo-- but neglected to mention the possible manipulation of intelligence that was mentioned in the memo and the Democrats' letter.

Salon columnist Joe Conason posed this question about the story:

"Are Americans so jaded about the deceptions perpetrated by our own government to lead us into war in Iraq that we are no longer interested in fresh and damning evidence of those lies? Or are the editors and producers who oversee the American news industry simply too timid to report that proof on the evening broadcasts and front pages?"

As far as the media are concerned, the answer to Conason's second question would seem to be yes. A May 8 New York Times news article asserted that "critics who accused the Bush administration of improperly using political influence to shape intelligence assessments have, for the most part, failed to make the charge stick." It's hard for charges to stick when major media are determined to ignore the evidence behind them.

"Hidden Deep in the 'Real ID' Act"

An awesome piece from Ken, including his commentary

A difference between the Bush administration and all others in history is the delight these bastards take in inventing loopholes to limit the freedoms of the constitution.

For instance, they've wasted countless millions of our hours at the airports since 9/11 performing searches on grandmothers (while any local TV reporter seems to be able to smuggle anything they want onto an airplane), all in the name of your imaginary security. I'll bet some of those wasted hours belonged to you. Each time you left an hour earlier for the airport, that was an hour of your freedom paid for no extra security whatsoever. Think that's bad?

Well buddy, you ain't seen nuttin' yet. The national ID law that congress is about to pass, called the Real ID Act, which will do not much more than protect us all from anyone who can't afford a good fake ID (while forcing us all to carry papers that polls show huge majorities of Americans do not want to have to carry), contains provisions to allow the Secretary of Homeland Defense to override any judicial oversight on laws that he doesn't like. That's right, if the SHD likes a law that, say, prevents cops from arresting you sending you off to Guantanamo, never to be heard from again - the courts can't do anything about it. Even if Clarence Thomas himself says it's unconstitutional, tough toenails.

We have Ralph Nader to thank for spreading the brainless lie that there was no difference between the two major parties. We have GW Bush for thinking freedom is a bad idea. Read on. -K

Does the Real ID act contain a Constitution-busting Trojan horse?
5/9/2005 8:04:53 PM, by Hannibal

TROJAN HORSE

(Sorry the link does not work. Copy and paste http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050509-4886.html?55371 into your browser) LS

The big news of the past two days is the impending passage of the Real ID act. I'm going to spare you any kind of detailed analysis of the ID and database aspects of this bill for two reasons a) they're already covered very well in sources I'll list below, and b) this bill contains a truly bizarre provision that caused a run on tinfoil hats in the blogosphere when it was first introduced, but has now dropped out of all coverage of this bill that I've read so far. (You'd think a clause that uses an obscure and never-before-invoked part of the Constitution to place the secretary of DHS above both the Supreme Court and the Constitution itself would get more coverage, but more on that in a moment.)

First up, the database and "national ID" portion of the bill. Bill Scannell of JetBlue privacy scandal boycott fame has launched a new site, where you can go and get last-minute information on how to fight a bill that goes up for a Senate vote tomorrow. Realistically, there's not a lot we can do at this late hour, so just hit Bill's site if you're on a manic swing and you need to come down off of it. Also of interest is this Techdirt post, which contains a good, brief summary of what's wrong with the bill, along with a link to this article on the bill's worrisome implications for ID theft. Finally, there's the EFF homepage, where you can read up on the bill and email your senator about it. While you're at it, you'll also want to check out this summary and analysis of the bill, courtesy of the Congressional Research Service.

Now to the fun stuff. If you click on the last link above (the summary and analysis PDF), and you read through the document, you'll see that the bill contains the following, seemingly harmless provision (emphasis added):

II. Waiver of Laws to Facilitate Barriers at Border44
Section 102 of the IIRIRA generally provides for construction and strengthening of barriers along U.S. land borders and specifically provides for 14 miles of barriers and roads along the border near San Diego, beginning at the Pacific Ocean and extending eastward. IIRIRA § 102(c) provides for a waiver of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA)45 and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA)46 to the extent the Attorney General determines is necessary to ensure expeditious construction of barriers and roads...

H.R. 418 [the Real ID Act of 2005] would provide additional waiver authority over laws that might impede the expeditious construction of barriers and roads along the border. H.R. 418 would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive any and all laws that he determines necessary, in his sole discretion, to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads under IIRIRA § 102...

Section 102 of H.R. 418 would amend the current provision to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive any law upon determining that a waiver is necessary for the expeditious construction of the border barriers. Additionally, it would prohibit judicial review of a waiver decision or action by the Secretary and bar judicially ordered compensation or injunction or other remedy for damages alleged to result from any such decision or action.

To understand what this business about prohibiting judicial review means, you have to know two things. First, you have to know a bit about the contested history of judicial review. Depending on who you talk to, the Federal judiciary's power to overturn a law or to put a stop to an official act of government on the grounds that the law or act is unconstitutional and/or a violation of basic rights is either a core constitutional principle that ensures the rule of law and protects the rights of minorities from the "tyranny of the masses" (e.g. from Brown v. the Board of Education to Roe v. Wade) , or it's an affront to democratic governance and the chief enabler of left-wing "judicial activism."

The concept of judicial review is actually the very thing that's at stake in the current controversy over the Senate filibuster rules and Bush's judicial nominees, and it has been a major bone of contention in the culture wars for the past few decades. One side says that judicial review allowed five unelected officials in black robes to strip prayer from public schools, while the other side says it allowed the judicial branch to do its job by enforcing the constitutionally mandated principle of separation of church and state; Or, one side says that judicial review could potentially enable five unelected officials in black robes to force the states to recognize gay marriage, while the other side says that it will allow the judicial branch to enforce the "full faith and credit" clause of the Constitution that mandates that contracts made in one state (like, say, marriage contracts made in Massachusetts) be recognized in all fifty states; and so on and so forth.

So if judicial review is the basic mechanism that enables the Federal court system˜from the Supreme Court on down˜to rule on the constitutionality of laws and government actions, then how could it be possible for Congress to pass a law that includes language prohibiting judicial review for the law in question? In other words, if Congress could somehow exempt a law from judicial review, then the principle of judicial review would be completely gutted because they could just exempt from judicial review any law they wanted to, even if that law is blatantly unconstitutional or it violates basic human rights. Surely this isn't possible?

Opponents of the concept of judicial review appeal to an obscure and cryptic article of the Constitution, the (in)famous Article 3, Section 2 (A3S2 for short), which states:

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

That last sentence is the kicker, because it looks for all the world like language that would enable Congress to wave a magic A3S2 wand over any piece of legislation no matter how outrageous and have it be completely exempt from review by the courts. The implications for the system of checks and balances if Congress actually invokes this provision are about as profound as it gets, which is why no Congress in American history has ever opted to open that particular can of worms... until now.

You can read more on the tinfoil hat implications of this here if you're interested, but I'll sum it up for you: Congress has crafted a completely unprecedented provision that guts the principle of judicial review by granting the DHS secretary complete and total immunity from the courts when it comes to the construction of "barriers and roads" in this one specific geographical region, and they've buried this provision inside a national ID card act which is itself attached to a large military appropriations bill that no Congressperson in their right mind would vote against (money for the troops and all that).

Obviously, if this passes, it'll set a precedent. First, some obscure border region outside of San Diego, and then on to bigger and better things? As the present bill stands, if DHS built a road through an endangered wetland and committed four murders in the process, nobody could take the government to court over it. Is this the kind of unchecked power that we want Congress to have? The sky's the limit, once the A3S2 can of worms is opened tomorrow.

As a postscript, the icing on the cake of this whole thing has to be the way that the Republican sponsors of the bill actually voted down a proposed provision in the national ID card part of the law that would prevent the government from using the Real ID database as a national database of gun owners. (A national database of gun owners is a longtime nightmare scenario of the NRA. As a lapsed NRA member and lifelong hunter, I can't count the number of times I've seen a national gun registration database invoked as one of the first signs of the black helicopter apocalypse.)

Let the Real Reality Show Roll, Sans Hype, Sans Spin

OK princes and princesses of fabrication and to the GOP bullies, it is tit for tat time.

Democrats Reveal Names of Republicans who have blocked nominees. Found on Buzz Flash.

DEMS OPEN FIRE

Dear Mr. President ,
We are all not as dumb, stupid and as complacent as you would hope and dream. We are not fixated on reality shows or Desperate Houswives, as your wife said she enjoys when, apparently, she has never gotten around to viewing it. Unfortunately, we do possess critical thinking skills as well as principles. Who are we? We are the Janes and Joes of dreaded liberals and progressives that you obviously loath and fear. We are on to you and your act. Big time.

"The Final Insult" by Paul Krugman.
THE FINAL INSULT

UH OH! It seems that Tony Boy is in trouble. Although re-elected, his party wants him to "stand down" in 18 months because Tony's party lost so many seats. Americans need to do likewise 2006. Hold our leaders accountable for their pathological lies and lying. At our, The People's dire expense. Found on Truthout.

STAND DOWN

Mother's Day NEWS THAT IS NEWS

In honor of Mother's Day: No tall tales, no fabrication, no spin. News that is hard and real.

Simply stated and with a hard edge

Mothers demand truth from their children. Look me straight in the eye and say that again please. As a citizen and patriot I demand the same from those who are elected to represent us, or those who weren't "elected" to represent us.

The news posted today is what I believe is real news - not fabricated, Bush propganda, corporate interest or PR bought spin.

NY Post calls Republicans "Party of BLOAT." The Libertarian Cato Institute releases report that tells how how of control Bush spending is.

Excerpt:
Republicans who have stuck by the party's leadership mainly because of the War on Terror will begin to feel it in 2006 and 2008, when they realize that Big Government Conservatism is not a strategy or a philosophy — but a sellout.

PARTY OF BLOAT

Found on Raw Story: 88 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS CALL ON BUSH FOR ANSWERS ON SECRET PLAN TO INVADE IRAQ.

John Conyers and 88 lawmakers sign petition demanding to know what happened in 2002 when Bush and Blair fixed intelligence to conform to their policy to get Saddam. (John, your mother must be so proud of you for you are a courageous man with principles and integrity - an apparent rare commodity inside the Beltway, as they call it in Washington).

TELL US ABOUT YOUR IRAQ FIX

The John Conyers demand for answers on secret plan to invade Iraq makes it to MSM - The Chicago Tribune. Thank you, Chicago.

"BUSH MEMO: US DATA MANIPULATED FOR IRAQ WAR" By Warren Strobel and John Walcott. You guys win the Mother's Day Award for Honesty and Courage.

Barbara, I know that we mothers can have a soft part in our hearts for our sons. But we must always hold our children, including our sons, accountable, responsible and honest. Our children cannot profess to be Christians, hard core Christians at that, and lie wily nily to the citizens of this country to promote their personal or special interest driven agenda. On National TV. In the national press. At the tragic cost of lives. What would Jesus say?

MANIPULATED DATA

"LAURA BUSH'S MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"

A priceless piece by Frank Rich in the NYT Op Ed today. Frank is all over the place in the world of journalism in this article. He writes about the state of journalism today, brilliantly and ironically - the fake news, the PR paid for news, the Gannon gate whore news as well as the behavior of those in attendance, i.e. the "journalists" at the White House Correspondents (i.e. transcriber) dinner. I read this today in the NYT but also found it on Buzz Flash.

Now, Laura, we understand that your role was scripted and you did what your husband asked you to do. But what kind of example are you setting for your daughters? You see, you lied. On national TV. You say you are a Christian, yet you lied. You said you watched Desperate Housewives while your boring husband went to bed, but it seems that you have never seen Desperate Housewives. Laura, I live in Texas and work with a few fundamentalist Christians, just like you and your husband. They would NEVER IN A DAY watch Desperate Housewives. They believe that it is an unacceptable and amoral show. You can't play it both ways, Laura. You can't pander to the religious right, then try tp pretend to be an average Jane watching a TV show. That is an un-Mother's Day thing to do.

LAURA'S LIE

"THE PRESS IS IN DECLINE" Great piece by Michael Kinsley of the Washington Post. Michael, you win the Mother's Day Award for positing sad realities in an amusing fashion.

Excerpt:

Newspapers are essential to every American, and none more so than the fools and ingrates who have stopped buying them. It is up to us, as members of the last generation that experienced life before computer screens, to make sure that future generations of Americans will know what to do when it says "Continued on Page B37." In a recent survey of Americans younger than age 30, only 26 percent said "Look in Section B," and a pitiful 13 percent chose the correct answer, which is "Look FOR Section B. It's around here somewhere." As a service to humanity and because I like my job, here is a seven-point plan to save the newspaper industry.

PRESS IN DECLINE

Another journalist wins the Mother's Day Award for his reflective and soul searching oberservations, honesty and courage in writing about his personal struggles and cultural conflicts and challenges in reporting news from Iraq. From the Courier-Journal of Louisville Kentucky

"Home from Iraq" ' Journalist urges Americans to search for truth, freedom'" Found on Buzz Flash.

Excerpt:

The intimidation to not work on this story was evident. Dexter Filkins, who writes for The New York Times, related a conversation he had in Iraq with an American military commander just before we left. Dexter and the commander had gotten quite friendly, meeting up sporadically for a beer and a chat. Towards the end of one of their conversations, Dexter declined an invitation for the next day by explaining that he'd lined up a meeting with a "resistance guy." The commander's face went stony cold and he said, "We have a position on that." For Dexter the message was clear. He cancelled the appointment. And, again, this is not meant as any criticism of the military; they have a war to win, and dominating the "message," or the news is an integral part of that war. The military has a name for it, "information operations," and the aim is to achieve information superiority in the same way they would seek to achieve air superiority. If you look closely, you will notice there is very little, maybe even no direct reporting on the resistance in Iraq. We do, however, as journalists report what the Americans say about the resistance. Is this really anything more than stenography?

SEARCH FOR TRUTH

MORE FAKE NEWS: Apparently Captured al-Qaeda Big Shot Case of Mistaken Identity

It seems that the Bush people and their lap dogs, i.e. the corporate compromised mainstream media, rallied to help out Tony Blair who was up against a wall with his re-election. Received this from Ken tonight. I suppose those choked on power believe we Joe and Jane Blows don't have any intelligence or critical thinking skills whatsoever. If this tidbit of news doesn't make you furious and insulted, you have a problem.

At least the British press is more likely to report relevant news than our pathetic American press is. And their intelligence people haven't been compromised, either.

OVERBLOWN CAPTURE

FINALLY! A PIECE ON THE BUSH BLAIR LIE FOUND IN THE MAINSTREAM PRESS

I found this piece on Buzz Flash. Andrew Greeley of the Chicago Sun-Times write a scathing article about the big Bush lie.

THE BIG LIE

More on the Blatant Corruption of the Bush Administration

I haven't turned on the idiot box tonight, yet, so I don't know if any of this made the news. I doubt it. Highly doubt it. Bush's shenangigans make Billy Boy Clinton look like a saint. Clinton lied to save his butt and shield his family from scandal. Bush lies and people get ripped off, or worse, they DIE. Thousands are DEAD, thanks to yours truly. Surely even Republican supporters must object to being used and abused by the Bush people.

Raw Story traces one of DeLay's scandals straight to you-know-where - The White House. Where else, really? This is mind numbing, daunting. I have run out of adjectives to describe the unabated corruption and peril to our democracy.

Oh, by the way, it seems that I was wrong in assuming that Blair is toast. It looks like he was re-elected. Maybe the Bush people taught the Brits how to steal an election. Good luck, UK, good luck.

DeLay Scandal Tied to White House

GOP, turning to turn the focus away from their scandal infested adminstration is hammering Nancy Pelosi. We must remind our Democratic lawmakers not to turn their backs on one of our very own. The GOP sticks together and has discipline. So should our party. Stay on message dudes and dudettes.

Pelosi Hammered

An inspirational piece by Naomi Kline. No commentary from me on this. Naomi is deep and reflective. My summary or commentary couldn't do her justice.

Excerpt:
We can have a very detailed, responsible agenda and we shouldn’t be afraid of it. We should be saying, “Let’s pull the troops out but let’s leave some hope behind.” We can’t be afraid to talk about reparations, to demand freedom from debt for Iraq, a total abandonment of Bremer’s illegal economic laws, full Iraqi control over the reconstruction budget—there are many more examples of concrete policy demands that we can and must put forth. When we articulate a more genuine definition of democracy than we are hearing from the Bush administration, we will bring some hope to Iraq. And we will bring closer to us many of the 58 percent who are opposed to the war but aren’t marching with us yet because they are afraid of cutting and running.

HOW TO END THE WAR

Finally, more opprtunities for news a la satire from the Daily Show is expanding. The guy who plays a fake correspondent will have his own show. Funny that we get our news from Comedy Central's spoofs on fake news.

DAILY SHOW NEWS

Bombshells You Won't Find in the Mainstream Media News. Where? Mainstream News? What is that?

More on Bush and Blair's Outrageous War Rigging Scheme.

Buzz Flash editorial by Greg Palast on the Bush/Blair plot to declare war on Iraq using fake, phony claims. Intelligence is "fixed" to match Bush's unrelenting determination and apparent need to wage war with Saddam. Mr. Palast writes that this revealation should be enough to impeach Bush. If Clinton got impeached for Monica and cigars, why not impeach a sick, twisted poor excuse for a human being who blatantly and appallingly lied. Thousands upon thousands are dead. For what? What have we done? Blair is probably toast in Britain. Where are our press and media on this one? Where the hell are they?

BUSH BLAIR LIE REVEALED

And, here's another choice tidbit you won't find about the Bush/Blair fix on run away bride news. From Tom Paine.com

BUSH BLAIR BAMBOOZLE

A jewel of a piece found deep in the Internet on Truthout. You won't find it on michael jackson obsessed TV.

Excerpt:

"Whensoever the general Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force."


 -- Thomas Jefferson


    May 10th is a national day of action for GI resisters. A newly formed group, Courage-To-Resist, is organizing veterans, military families, and community activists in a campaign to support military objectors. Demonstrations to support sailor Pablo Paredes, who faces a court martial in San Diego May 11th, are in the making.

Courage to Resist

Maybe our group should hold fundraisers to help defray the legal costs for these families????

Finally, tonight, to give you an idea of the real state of affairs in our government, an excerpt from "The Price of Loyalty" by Ron Suskind. Thoughts after a typical meeting with the "principles."
(Page 120, 4th paragraph)

"O'Neill like others who served with Cheney under different presidents, was almost always in the dark about his actual beliefs. But they'd sometimes pick up is method; quietly select an issue, counsel various participants, manufacture the exchange of seemingly impromptu letters or reports - the bureaucratic version of a media event - and then guide unfolding events toward the intended outcome. This was the puppeteers' craft, all done with strings and suggestions. In the end, there are no fingerprints. No accountability."

There you have it folks.

Don't despair. Put your anger to work instead.