Thursday, June 23, 2005
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
WE NEED TO FIGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM WITH THE VIGOR OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
According to Mr. Bill Moyers in an interview with Democracy Now this morning, we need to fight for our freedom with the vigor of the American Revolution. Yes, folks, that is how bad things have become for us. We know how hard, sometimes desperate and impossible a fight our founding fathers had. But they persevered and prevailed in the end. Mr. Moyers also said that the Bush Administration is trying to kill dissidence at every level, hence the changes toward "less biases" at PBS. Most disturbing, Mr. Moyers told Amy Goodman that FDR feared a government of money more than he did a government of a mob. We now have a government of money, according to him. That we do indeed.
I have given serious thought to throwing in the towel with my blog, wondering if it serves any purpose whatsoever. After hearing Mr. Moyers today I decided it would be a cold day in hell before I give it up.
AMERICA IN FUNK OVER BUSH INC. POLICIES
Of course we are! Two stolen elections in a row, a fabricated war, we are no safer now than we were on 9/11, the corporate media isn't holding Bush Inc. responsible for it's illegal dealings and blatant lying, criminals in our government and lobbyists shrug off their wrongdoings, nor are held accountable, and few lift a finger to incriminate them, or if one feebly attempts to, one is attacked viciously and ruthlessly, a fake journalist had access to the President's spokesperson, official logs showed he spent several nights at the WH and no one in the administration or press cares, an administration who wants to turn PBS and our news media into a propaganda machine, Bush, Inc. pays contractors to do some of the jobs normally done by our military, yet contractors are paid significantly more to do the same job, and they are not accountable for their behavior as our military are, the Bush drive to turn our social security funds over to his buddies the Wall St. Fat Cats, to name just a few troubling items.
President Clinton was impeached for lying about an affair. Bush faked a war, we bought into it, like a bunch of manipulated sheep and now it is a horrendous mess with over 1700 of us KILLED not to mention the tens and THOUSANDS Iraqis who have been killed, most of them innocent victims. Not to mention that we are going broke in the process. Flat broke. Dead broke. OF COURSE WE ARE IN A FUNK. Bush Inc. is literally getting away with murder and no one who can is doing anything about it. For a man who professes to be a fundamentalist Christian, under Bush, Inc. there probably hasn't been a time in our government when WH behavior has been more immoral, more unethical, more corrupted by greed and the will to hegemony, and probably more cynical and mean-spirited than this one. Can you think of any?
From USA Today via Buzz Flash
AMERICANS IN A FUNK OVER BUSH
This piece from SF Gate will put you into a funk all right. The writer explains why the media isn't screaming about Bush's war scams. Found via Buzz Flash
DOWNING STREET IS FOR LIARS
BUSH INC. SENDS OUT ITS HEAVY HITTER ROVE TO DO DAMAGE CONTROL
Interview with David Gregory and Karl Rove on MSNBC Hard Ball tonight. I suppose b/c Condi's and Dick's messages were a tad in conflict with one another this past weekend and Scott McClellen is running short on language deception, Big Brother Smooth Talking Karl had to come in to attempt to clean up the mess. Rove stays on message all right. Blames the Democrats for every Bush setback (it's all about politics and nothing else, where the Democrats are concerned, according to the smooth operator). Rove, very relaxed, smug and arrogant with typical Bush Inc. egotism proceeds to sell the Bush, Inc. goal of going to war with Iraq as crucially necessary to our national security and collective well-being. Re DSM, Rove said it was some Brits' interpretation of US policy.
Rove must think we Americans have extremely low IQ's. UH – Rove, dude, 61% of us want out of Iraq. We know you guys lied, i.e.you LIED big time.
I forgot to mention that Rove is dismissive of all poll stats not in lock step w/neocon policy.
BUSH INC HAS TO BRING OUT HEAVY HITTER ROVE TO DO DAMAGE CONTROL
DELAY COMPARES IRAQ TO HOUSTON!!!!!!!
Delay tries to pin the harsh realities and failures of Iraq on negative news coverage.
Delay must be snapping. His comments are so absurb and irrational that I am speechless.
Excerpt:
"You know, if Houston, Texas, was held to the same standard as Iraq is held to, nobody'd go to Houston, because all this reporting coming out of the local press in Houston is violence, murders, robberies, deaths on the highways," DeLay said
From the Houston Chronicle via Raw Story
DELAY COMPARES LIFE IN IRAQ TO LIFE IN HOUSTON
I have given serious thought to throwing in the towel with my blog, wondering if it serves any purpose whatsoever. After hearing Mr. Moyers today I decided it would be a cold day in hell before I give it up.
AMERICA IN FUNK OVER BUSH INC. POLICIES
Of course we are! Two stolen elections in a row, a fabricated war, we are no safer now than we were on 9/11, the corporate media isn't holding Bush Inc. responsible for it's illegal dealings and blatant lying, criminals in our government and lobbyists shrug off their wrongdoings, nor are held accountable, and few lift a finger to incriminate them, or if one feebly attempts to, one is attacked viciously and ruthlessly, a fake journalist had access to the President's spokesperson, official logs showed he spent several nights at the WH and no one in the administration or press cares, an administration who wants to turn PBS and our news media into a propaganda machine, Bush, Inc. pays contractors to do some of the jobs normally done by our military, yet contractors are paid significantly more to do the same job, and they are not accountable for their behavior as our military are, the Bush drive to turn our social security funds over to his buddies the Wall St. Fat Cats, to name just a few troubling items.
President Clinton was impeached for lying about an affair. Bush faked a war, we bought into it, like a bunch of manipulated sheep and now it is a horrendous mess with over 1700 of us KILLED not to mention the tens and THOUSANDS Iraqis who have been killed, most of them innocent victims. Not to mention that we are going broke in the process. Flat broke. Dead broke. OF COURSE WE ARE IN A FUNK. Bush Inc. is literally getting away with murder and no one who can is doing anything about it. For a man who professes to be a fundamentalist Christian, under Bush, Inc. there probably hasn't been a time in our government when WH behavior has been more immoral, more unethical, more corrupted by greed and the will to hegemony, and probably more cynical and mean-spirited than this one. Can you think of any?
From USA Today via Buzz Flash
AMERICANS IN A FUNK OVER BUSH
This piece from SF Gate will put you into a funk all right. The writer explains why the media isn't screaming about Bush's war scams. Found via Buzz Flash
DOWNING STREET IS FOR LIARS
BUSH INC. SENDS OUT ITS HEAVY HITTER ROVE TO DO DAMAGE CONTROL
Interview with David Gregory and Karl Rove on MSNBC Hard Ball tonight. I suppose b/c Condi's and Dick's messages were a tad in conflict with one another this past weekend and Scott McClellen is running short on language deception, Big Brother Smooth Talking Karl had to come in to attempt to clean up the mess. Rove stays on message all right. Blames the Democrats for every Bush setback (it's all about politics and nothing else, where the Democrats are concerned, according to the smooth operator). Rove, very relaxed, smug and arrogant with typical Bush Inc. egotism proceeds to sell the Bush, Inc. goal of going to war with Iraq as crucially necessary to our national security and collective well-being. Re DSM, Rove said it was some Brits' interpretation of US policy.
Rove must think we Americans have extremely low IQ's. UH – Rove, dude, 61% of us want out of Iraq. We know you guys lied, i.e.you LIED big time.
I forgot to mention that Rove is dismissive of all poll stats not in lock step w/neocon policy.
BUSH INC HAS TO BRING OUT HEAVY HITTER ROVE TO DO DAMAGE CONTROL
DELAY COMPARES IRAQ TO HOUSTON!!!!!!!
Delay tries to pin the harsh realities and failures of Iraq on negative news coverage.
Delay must be snapping. His comments are so absurb and irrational that I am speechless.
Excerpt:
"You know, if Houston, Texas, was held to the same standard as Iraq is held to, nobody'd go to Houston, because all this reporting coming out of the local press in Houston is violence, murders, robberies, deaths on the highways," DeLay said
From the Houston Chronicle via Raw Story
DELAY COMPARES LIFE IN IRAQ TO LIFE IN HOUSTON
GOP CONSERVATIVE ATTACK MACHINE GOES ON THE OFFENSIVE
WH in a panic b/c of DSM revelations and the ongoing nightmare in Iraq? When in trouble, set the attack dogs loose...
They're ganging up on Durbin of course, and then it will be Hilary Clinton. Hey attack studs, put your words into action and do something in which you could actually be useful. It might ease your pathological behavior. Pick up an AK-47, hitch a ride to Iraq and give our military a hand, won't you? Your ilk manufactured this war, after all. But you won't go will you? Because bullies are always cowards at heart. We know your breed.
This is the neocon Bush, Inc. strategy extraordinaire. When heat is headed their way the neonuts grab a person's (usually a Democrat's) statement or an issue, blow it well out of proportion with self-righteous and contrived outrage, then they spew their verbal sewage far and wide.
Moving out of hell's sewer and onward and upward to higher and finer ground....
Terrific article on Common Dreams News.org
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE WASHINGTON POST
By John Atcheson.
Mr. Atcheson writes to Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post reminding Mr. Hiatt that according to his very own assessment, it is time for Bush's impeachment to begin.
Last year in response to Ted Kennedy's charge that war with Iraq was driven by politics, Mr. Hiatt responded, "If Karl Rove – that is, politics... drove Iraq policy, then President Bush would merit not only defeat, but impeachment."
Excerpt:
Men and women of good faith cannot any longer deny that the preponderance of evidence points to one conclusion, and one conclusion only: The President of the United States and much of his cabinet are guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors against the US Congress and against its citizens, and those crimes were motivated by a deadly brew of political opportunism, and an arrogant and destructive neoconservative foreign policy.
GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT BY WAPO'S OWN STANDARDS
"THE BUSH DAM BREAKS"
Wonderful piece written by Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive. Mr. Rothschild applauds the efforts of Mr. Conyers and all of the grassroots people including the ACLU and Pacifica's Democracy Now in their uphill and nearly impossible effort to make the public aware of what Bush, Inc. is doing, with little or no help from the MSM.
BUSH DAM BREAKS
EVEN BUSH'S GOP ALLIES BREAKING RANK
According to the LA Times, even key party members are asking questions about Iraq. Found via Buzz Flash.com
UH OH. What will Cheney and Rove to do their party's "traitors?" Hang tight "traitors", we progressives and liberals will worship you on our blogs. Don't lose sight of the fact the Iraq war is based on one huge LIE and that 61% of us don't want to be there.
GOP SUPPORTS BREAKING RANKS WITH BUSH ON IRAQ
GAO FINALLY TO INVESTIGATE WH CONTRACTS WITH MEDIA.
Found on Raw Story.com. A big thank you to Rep. Louise Slaughter for making this happen. Now we'll know which news organizations and journalists are on the WH payroll. Maybe most of them are considering their lack of coverage on anything remotely critical to the Bush administration.
GAO TO INVESTIGATE WH CONTRACTS WITH MEDIA
MOVING BACK BRIEFLY INTO ONE OF HELL'S SEWERS.
"CONTRACT THAT SPAWNED GUANTANAMO PRISON AWARDED TO HALLIBURTON DURING CHENEY'S TENURE AS CEO"
ANOTHER SMOKING GUN?????
CONTRACT SPAWNING GITMO AWARDED TO HALLIBURTON WHEN CHENEY WAS CEO
CRAWLING OUT OF HELL'S OUTPOST OF NEOCON GREED AND CORRUPTION INTO A STARK RAY OF TRUTH
ACCORDING TO AFTER DOWNING STREET.ORG THERE IS INDEED A PANIC TAKING PLACE IN THE WH.
As I mentioned earlier, Rice and Cheney went off message on Sunday and actually gave statements that, in some respects, contradicted one another. Karl Rove and Karen Hughes must be losing their touch.
I must say, since Bush, Inc. does not invite dialogue or discussion with any living creature that is not ideologically married to his/their belief system and agenda, well, as they say in Texas, shit happens.
PANIC IN THE WH OVER DSM?
They're ganging up on Durbin of course, and then it will be Hilary Clinton. Hey attack studs, put your words into action and do something in which you could actually be useful. It might ease your pathological behavior. Pick up an AK-47, hitch a ride to Iraq and give our military a hand, won't you? Your ilk manufactured this war, after all. But you won't go will you? Because bullies are always cowards at heart. We know your breed.
This is the neocon Bush, Inc. strategy extraordinaire. When heat is headed their way the neonuts grab a person's (usually a Democrat's) statement or an issue, blow it well out of proportion with self-righteous and contrived outrage, then they spew their verbal sewage far and wide.
Moving out of hell's sewer and onward and upward to higher and finer ground....
Terrific article on Common Dreams News.org
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE WASHINGTON POST
By John Atcheson.
Mr. Atcheson writes to Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post reminding Mr. Hiatt that according to his very own assessment, it is time for Bush's impeachment to begin.
Last year in response to Ted Kennedy's charge that war with Iraq was driven by politics, Mr. Hiatt responded, "If Karl Rove – that is, politics... drove Iraq policy, then President Bush would merit not only defeat, but impeachment."
Excerpt:
Men and women of good faith cannot any longer deny that the preponderance of evidence points to one conclusion, and one conclusion only: The President of the United States and much of his cabinet are guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors against the US Congress and against its citizens, and those crimes were motivated by a deadly brew of political opportunism, and an arrogant and destructive neoconservative foreign policy.
GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT BY WAPO'S OWN STANDARDS
"THE BUSH DAM BREAKS"
Wonderful piece written by Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive. Mr. Rothschild applauds the efforts of Mr. Conyers and all of the grassroots people including the ACLU and Pacifica's Democracy Now in their uphill and nearly impossible effort to make the public aware of what Bush, Inc. is doing, with little or no help from the MSM.
BUSH DAM BREAKS
EVEN BUSH'S GOP ALLIES BREAKING RANK
According to the LA Times, even key party members are asking questions about Iraq. Found via Buzz Flash.com
UH OH. What will Cheney and Rove to do their party's "traitors?" Hang tight "traitors", we progressives and liberals will worship you on our blogs. Don't lose sight of the fact the Iraq war is based on one huge LIE and that 61% of us don't want to be there.
GOP SUPPORTS BREAKING RANKS WITH BUSH ON IRAQ
GAO FINALLY TO INVESTIGATE WH CONTRACTS WITH MEDIA.
Found on Raw Story.com. A big thank you to Rep. Louise Slaughter for making this happen. Now we'll know which news organizations and journalists are on the WH payroll. Maybe most of them are considering their lack of coverage on anything remotely critical to the Bush administration.
GAO TO INVESTIGATE WH CONTRACTS WITH MEDIA
MOVING BACK BRIEFLY INTO ONE OF HELL'S SEWERS.
"CONTRACT THAT SPAWNED GUANTANAMO PRISON AWARDED TO HALLIBURTON DURING CHENEY'S TENURE AS CEO"
ANOTHER SMOKING GUN?????
CONTRACT SPAWNING GITMO AWARDED TO HALLIBURTON WHEN CHENEY WAS CEO
CRAWLING OUT OF HELL'S OUTPOST OF NEOCON GREED AND CORRUPTION INTO A STARK RAY OF TRUTH
ACCORDING TO AFTER DOWNING STREET.ORG THERE IS INDEED A PANIC TAKING PLACE IN THE WH.
As I mentioned earlier, Rice and Cheney went off message on Sunday and actually gave statements that, in some respects, contradicted one another. Karl Rove and Karen Hughes must be losing their touch.
I must say, since Bush, Inc. does not invite dialogue or discussion with any living creature that is not ideologically married to his/their belief system and agenda, well, as they say in Texas, shit happens.
PANIC IN THE WH OVER DSM?
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
BUSH ADMINISTRATION MENDACITY AND MANUFACTURED INTELLIGENCE
One does not have to dig too deeply into the Internet anymore to find that many of us are beginning to awaken to the hard and sobering realization that we, and our allies, the so-called Coalition of the Willing have been royally had with regard to Iraq. Yes sir and yes ma'am. We've been had, and then some. Big time. Even the MSM must be feeling some angst of late, as they well should. (Except for Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, of course, who chooses the easy path of denial.)
That aside, it seems rather obvious that the Bush administration is in over its head. They have blown it big time. Iraq is a huge mistake. We are not liberators. Oh that we were! No, we are anything but. Condi Rice’s and Dick Cheney’s feeble attempts at damage control on the Sunday talk shows are pathetic and tragic.
They are not even staying on message anymore. A slam-dunk is now a generational war. Oh really! Since when?
People are dying daily b/c of Bush mendacity, miscalculations and manufactured intelligence. How does Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Pearle and Co. sleep at night?
Since none of the above ever-engaged in military service, perhaps they felt they had to wage a big one to buy themselves a few pages in the American history books.
Or, perhaps they wanted to conquor Iraq to set up a global free market place economy with unlimited access to oil so we could continue to drive cars the size of trains.
What a sorry lot.
From a Wisconsin newspaper:
WHY WE HAVE SEEN ENOUGH TO IMPEACH BUSH
WE'VE SEEN ENOUGH TO IMPEACH BUSH
ADDITIONAL REAL AND RIVATING NEWS FROM OUR BRITISH COUSINS.
Though our U.S. media are making a timid attempt at resurfacing from the black hole of non new coverage, they aren't quite there, yet.
"WMD CLAIMS WERE TOTALLY IMPLAUSIBLE"
WMD CLAIMS TOTALLY IMPLAUSIBLE
HOUSTON NEWSPAPER ON IRAQ
From the Houston Chronicle
TERROR LINK UNCONVINCING
Despite what Condi lying Rice and Dick Puppeteer Cheney have to say about Iraq, language spewing from their mouths is just blither blather and has nothing to do with the reality of the Iraq nightmare.
Au contraire, we must be getting rather desperate in Iraq as we are using the horrific and illegal napalm as we did in Vietnam. The British are understandably quite upset over this, as they claim we lied to them about its usage. I must say, under Bush, it seems that we have become a nation of lies, lies, lies, fabrication, stonewalling and arrogance. Most of us at home are fed up with Bush. Imagine how our allies must feel. We are stuck with him. They are not, lucky devils.
Napalm is ugly stuff. According the article, it carries a kerosene-based jet fuel and polystyrene so that it sticks to structures and to its victims. Which means people slowly burn to death. Great. We are burning people now. I've run out of adjectives........
Did our American press cover this? I don't think so. It seems we need to rely on the British press to keep us informed.
WE ARE LYING TO THE BRITISH ABOUT NAPALM
SPEAKING OF OUR PATHETIC AND JOINED AT THE HIP WITH THE WH PRESS, WAPO MILBANK TRASHES CONYERS' HEARINGS
Maybe, if illicit sex could be tied to someone in the press and someone in the WH, the mainstream media would wake up and cover Bush's dirty global and domestic dealings. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about having sex with an intern. Bush misled the American people and the world to war and no one in the press is interested. Is illicit sex the determinant for investigation and accountability?
Conyers hammers the reprehensible Milbank. Milbank, you are a poor excuse for a human being. Make yourself useful and go to Iraq to fight the enemy you tacitly allowed to be manufactured.
CONYERS RESPONSE TO WAPO'S MILBANK'S INSULTING ARTICLE ON THE HEARINGS YESTERDAY
FROM THE NYT: "ANTI WAR GROUP SAYS LEAKED BRITISH MEMOS SHOWS BUSH MISLED PUBLIC ON HIS WAR PLANS"
I have a problem with the term "anti war group" when some of us who are questioning Bush's motivations were not necessarily "anti-war" in the beginning of the Iraqi war. Some of us truly believed the President when he said that there were real reasons for attacking Iraq. We believed there were weapons of mass destruction, weapons that would be used to ultimately attack us at home. We believed that were ties between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. Now that we know we have been lied to and royally screwed. I suppose the realization has made us quite angry and therefore "anti war." Frankly, I myself never believed Bush, but when Tony Blair jumped on board, I took pause......surely he wouldn't lead his country willingly into an illegal and unjust war, I reasoned with myself. Now I know better.
DSM HEARINGS COVERED IN NYT
That aside, it seems rather obvious that the Bush administration is in over its head. They have blown it big time. Iraq is a huge mistake. We are not liberators. Oh that we were! No, we are anything but. Condi Rice’s and Dick Cheney’s feeble attempts at damage control on the Sunday talk shows are pathetic and tragic.
They are not even staying on message anymore. A slam-dunk is now a generational war. Oh really! Since when?
People are dying daily b/c of Bush mendacity, miscalculations and manufactured intelligence. How does Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Pearle and Co. sleep at night?
Since none of the above ever-engaged in military service, perhaps they felt they had to wage a big one to buy themselves a few pages in the American history books.
Or, perhaps they wanted to conquor Iraq to set up a global free market place economy with unlimited access to oil so we could continue to drive cars the size of trains.
What a sorry lot.
From a Wisconsin newspaper:
WHY WE HAVE SEEN ENOUGH TO IMPEACH BUSH
WE'VE SEEN ENOUGH TO IMPEACH BUSH
ADDITIONAL REAL AND RIVATING NEWS FROM OUR BRITISH COUSINS.
Though our U.S. media are making a timid attempt at resurfacing from the black hole of non new coverage, they aren't quite there, yet.
"WMD CLAIMS WERE TOTALLY IMPLAUSIBLE"
WMD CLAIMS TOTALLY IMPLAUSIBLE
HOUSTON NEWSPAPER ON IRAQ
From the Houston Chronicle
TERROR LINK UNCONVINCING
Despite what Condi lying Rice and Dick Puppeteer Cheney have to say about Iraq, language spewing from their mouths is just blither blather and has nothing to do with the reality of the Iraq nightmare.
Au contraire, we must be getting rather desperate in Iraq as we are using the horrific and illegal napalm as we did in Vietnam. The British are understandably quite upset over this, as they claim we lied to them about its usage. I must say, under Bush, it seems that we have become a nation of lies, lies, lies, fabrication, stonewalling and arrogance. Most of us at home are fed up with Bush. Imagine how our allies must feel. We are stuck with him. They are not, lucky devils.
Napalm is ugly stuff. According the article, it carries a kerosene-based jet fuel and polystyrene so that it sticks to structures and to its victims. Which means people slowly burn to death. Great. We are burning people now. I've run out of adjectives........
Did our American press cover this? I don't think so. It seems we need to rely on the British press to keep us informed.
WE ARE LYING TO THE BRITISH ABOUT NAPALM
SPEAKING OF OUR PATHETIC AND JOINED AT THE HIP WITH THE WH PRESS, WAPO MILBANK TRASHES CONYERS' HEARINGS
Maybe, if illicit sex could be tied to someone in the press and someone in the WH, the mainstream media would wake up and cover Bush's dirty global and domestic dealings. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about having sex with an intern. Bush misled the American people and the world to war and no one in the press is interested. Is illicit sex the determinant for investigation and accountability?
Conyers hammers the reprehensible Milbank. Milbank, you are a poor excuse for a human being. Make yourself useful and go to Iraq to fight the enemy you tacitly allowed to be manufactured.
CONYERS RESPONSE TO WAPO'S MILBANK'S INSULTING ARTICLE ON THE HEARINGS YESTERDAY
FROM THE NYT: "ANTI WAR GROUP SAYS LEAKED BRITISH MEMOS SHOWS BUSH MISLED PUBLIC ON HIS WAR PLANS"
I have a problem with the term "anti war group" when some of us who are questioning Bush's motivations were not necessarily "anti-war" in the beginning of the Iraqi war. Some of us truly believed the President when he said that there were real reasons for attacking Iraq. We believed there were weapons of mass destruction, weapons that would be used to ultimately attack us at home. We believed that were ties between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. Now that we know we have been lied to and royally screwed. I suppose the realization has made us quite angry and therefore "anti war." Frankly, I myself never believed Bush, but when Tony Blair jumped on board, I took pause......surely he wouldn't lead his country willingly into an illegal and unjust war, I reasoned with myself. Now I know better.
DSM HEARINGS COVERED IN NYT
Friday, June 17, 2005
OPEN LETTER TO ELECTED OFFICIALS ON DSM
June 17, 2005
This is the letter I sent earlier to Texas U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn. I suggest everyone do likewise. Conyers and 122 Democrats can't fight this battle alone. Republicans need to be brought on board.
Dear U.S. Elected Officials:
You have failed us. You have failed the people and the country you were elected to serve. You have failed the world at large.
I heard the Democrat’s hearing on the Downing Street Minutes on Thursday, June 16. I have also read the memoranda (6 of them) posted on the Internet. Various media have authenticated the documents. Members of the British intelligence have not denied the veracity of them.
Evidence strongly suggests that the Downing Street Minutes are credible.
The minutes are derived from meetings attended by highest officials in Britain in the summer of 2002 and their contents make it clear that President Bush was determined, in one way or another, to take down Saddam Hussein, no matter what. Indeed, this was true early in Mr. Bush’s first term as witnessed and reported by two former high-ranking officials, Mr. Richard Clarke and Mr. Paul O’Neill.
According to the Downing Street Minutes, in the summer of 2002, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair pressured their intelligence officers and British lawyers to fix the intelligence to fit their desired policy, i.e. find a way to get rid of Saddam Hussein. Additionally, one of the witnesses at the hearing yesterday, Mr. McGovern, a 27 year CIA veteran analyst, testified that Vice President Cheney would visit CIA analysts frequently, with Mr. Tenet in tow, pressuring them to look for links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. When analysts couldn’t find evidence supporting any linkage, Mr. Cheney would tell them to keep looking.
Intelligence fixed to fit the policy? We are fighting a war based on fictitious and manufactured “facts?”
I am deeply and profoundly disturbed by the fact that we Americans may have been misled into an unnecessary and geo-politically devastating war. A war that has been so unexpectedly costly in terms of American lives, our allies’ lives, Iraqi lives, many of them innocent victims, as well as the financial cost to our nation. Millions and millions of our hard earned dollars are going into the war at the expense of just about everything else here at home. There are cuts in just about every budget not related to war. To name a few, cuts in funding for education and services for the needy and impoverished. Health benefits have been slashed for our military – the men and women we put in harm’s way to protect us.
Tragically, we have lost credibility worldwide. We have lost our honor, our stature in the global community – we are no longer perceived as the beacon of light and ray of hope in the darkness of oppression. We were once known as the model of Democracy. It is glaringly apparent that this is no longer the case. Now the world asks us if we engage in torture. And our own President will not answer questions posed to him by his own American people. Instead, he attacks or ignores those seeking answers to questions he deems hostile to his neo-conservative agenda.
Fix the intelligence to fit the policy?
Such a realization makes me not only physically ill, but also deeply mortified. Does it mean that over 1700 of our nations military (our children, our husbands, our wives, our parents, our friends, our relatives, our colleagues, our acquaintances, our neighbors) have been killed for a fabricated and therefore illegal, not to mention immoral war?
Did Mr. Bush lie to us when he said military action was the last option in 2003 when it appears he was determined to attack Iraq in the Summer 2002?
Mr. Bush is required to answer the questions posed to him by Mr. Conyers, 122 members of Congress and over 500,000 citizens. He must explain his role in the Downing Street Minutes to the American people. We do not want to hear explanations from Mr. Bush’s PR people or from his appointed officials. We want the President to look us straight in the eye and tell us the truth. Mr. Bush is not above the law and must be honest with the American people.
As an elected official it is your duty to insist that Mr. Bush address the questions posed to him by the American people and our representatives. He should and must be held accountable for his actions. You gave him your approval to go to war with Iraq and you are therefore answerable as well. Why did you not ask harder questions, probe the motivations for war more deeply? Why couldn’t you divorce yourselves from politics, special interests and instead revert to principle, just for 30 seconds? We depended upon you to represent us and to do our bidding. If the Downing Street Minutes are indeed true, you have failed us, your constituency, miserably and horrendously.
This issue will not go away. Too many of us are in shock because our collective view of ourselves as a people has been shattered. If our concerns about the Downing Street Minutes are summarily dismissed, the shock will slowly but surely foment into rage. We will express our rage in the Internet, the media and at the voting polls. We will ask ourselves, who had the courage and integrity to ask our President about the Downing Street Minutes? Who did not? Who instead stuck to party line ideology and rallied around the President, refusing to hold him accountable for a potentially illegal and immoral war? Who attacked those posing the questions at hand?
According to the CBS/New York Times Poll on Thursday, June 16, 2005, President Bush’s approval ratings are:
Only 39 percent approve of his handling of the economy.
Only 39 percent approve of his handling of foreign policy.
Only 37 percent approve of his handling of the war in Iraq.
Only 25 percent approve of his handling of Social Security.
That should tell you something.
We are watching and we are waiting. We expect and insist upon an investigation into President Bush’s role in the Downing Street Minutes. Our patience is running thin.
The USA has blood on its hands. Rivers and rivers of blood.
We demand to know the truth.
Sincerely yours,
Libby Shaw
Houston, TX
This is the letter I sent earlier to Texas U.S. Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn. I suggest everyone do likewise. Conyers and 122 Democrats can't fight this battle alone. Republicans need to be brought on board.
Dear U.S. Elected Officials:
You have failed us. You have failed the people and the country you were elected to serve. You have failed the world at large.
I heard the Democrat’s hearing on the Downing Street Minutes on Thursday, June 16. I have also read the memoranda (6 of them) posted on the Internet. Various media have authenticated the documents. Members of the British intelligence have not denied the veracity of them.
Evidence strongly suggests that the Downing Street Minutes are credible.
The minutes are derived from meetings attended by highest officials in Britain in the summer of 2002 and their contents make it clear that President Bush was determined, in one way or another, to take down Saddam Hussein, no matter what. Indeed, this was true early in Mr. Bush’s first term as witnessed and reported by two former high-ranking officials, Mr. Richard Clarke and Mr. Paul O’Neill.
According to the Downing Street Minutes, in the summer of 2002, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair pressured their intelligence officers and British lawyers to fix the intelligence to fit their desired policy, i.e. find a way to get rid of Saddam Hussein. Additionally, one of the witnesses at the hearing yesterday, Mr. McGovern, a 27 year CIA veteran analyst, testified that Vice President Cheney would visit CIA analysts frequently, with Mr. Tenet in tow, pressuring them to look for links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. When analysts couldn’t find evidence supporting any linkage, Mr. Cheney would tell them to keep looking.
Intelligence fixed to fit the policy? We are fighting a war based on fictitious and manufactured “facts?”
I am deeply and profoundly disturbed by the fact that we Americans may have been misled into an unnecessary and geo-politically devastating war. A war that has been so unexpectedly costly in terms of American lives, our allies’ lives, Iraqi lives, many of them innocent victims, as well as the financial cost to our nation. Millions and millions of our hard earned dollars are going into the war at the expense of just about everything else here at home. There are cuts in just about every budget not related to war. To name a few, cuts in funding for education and services for the needy and impoverished. Health benefits have been slashed for our military – the men and women we put in harm’s way to protect us.
Tragically, we have lost credibility worldwide. We have lost our honor, our stature in the global community – we are no longer perceived as the beacon of light and ray of hope in the darkness of oppression. We were once known as the model of Democracy. It is glaringly apparent that this is no longer the case. Now the world asks us if we engage in torture. And our own President will not answer questions posed to him by his own American people. Instead, he attacks or ignores those seeking answers to questions he deems hostile to his neo-conservative agenda.
Fix the intelligence to fit the policy?
Such a realization makes me not only physically ill, but also deeply mortified. Does it mean that over 1700 of our nations military (our children, our husbands, our wives, our parents, our friends, our relatives, our colleagues, our acquaintances, our neighbors) have been killed for a fabricated and therefore illegal, not to mention immoral war?
Did Mr. Bush lie to us when he said military action was the last option in 2003 when it appears he was determined to attack Iraq in the Summer 2002?
Mr. Bush is required to answer the questions posed to him by Mr. Conyers, 122 members of Congress and over 500,000 citizens. He must explain his role in the Downing Street Minutes to the American people. We do not want to hear explanations from Mr. Bush’s PR people or from his appointed officials. We want the President to look us straight in the eye and tell us the truth. Mr. Bush is not above the law and must be honest with the American people.
As an elected official it is your duty to insist that Mr. Bush address the questions posed to him by the American people and our representatives. He should and must be held accountable for his actions. You gave him your approval to go to war with Iraq and you are therefore answerable as well. Why did you not ask harder questions, probe the motivations for war more deeply? Why couldn’t you divorce yourselves from politics, special interests and instead revert to principle, just for 30 seconds? We depended upon you to represent us and to do our bidding. If the Downing Street Minutes are indeed true, you have failed us, your constituency, miserably and horrendously.
This issue will not go away. Too many of us are in shock because our collective view of ourselves as a people has been shattered. If our concerns about the Downing Street Minutes are summarily dismissed, the shock will slowly but surely foment into rage. We will express our rage in the Internet, the media and at the voting polls. We will ask ourselves, who had the courage and integrity to ask our President about the Downing Street Minutes? Who did not? Who instead stuck to party line ideology and rallied around the President, refusing to hold him accountable for a potentially illegal and immoral war? Who attacked those posing the questions at hand?
According to the CBS/New York Times Poll on Thursday, June 16, 2005, President Bush’s approval ratings are:
Only 39 percent approve of his handling of the economy.
Only 39 percent approve of his handling of foreign policy.
Only 37 percent approve of his handling of the war in Iraq.
Only 25 percent approve of his handling of Social Security.
That should tell you something.
We are watching and we are waiting. We expect and insist upon an investigation into President Bush’s role in the Downing Street Minutes. Our patience is running thin.
The USA has blood on its hands. Rivers and rivers of blood.
We demand to know the truth.
Sincerely yours,
Libby Shaw
Houston, TX
Thursday, June 16, 2005
LIFE UNDER KING W RULE
Some of us in our local Dem group (including me) are in slow recovery today - emerging with profound relief from our collective states of stunned shock and drop dead fear- after seeing the piece on Buzz Flash about the GOP's attempt to change the Constitution to install Bush for a third term. I know, I know, you are dropping dead as you read this. Not to worry! Don't die! Stop the heart attack or stroke this second. Your votes are needed, for one thing......
To change the Constitution it takes:
2/3 of the Congress
2/3 of the Senate
3/4 of the states must ratify.
It ain't going to happen, any time soon, even with the GOP vote cheating mechansims and Blackwell type characters in place. Besides, we know from the happiness polls that more of us disapprove of King W than approve....Many in his own party don't even want King W anymore.
Tonight's news is dedicated to King W's resounding successes and accomplishments as our leader.
GOP WORRIED ABOUT BUSH'S PROBLEMS.
UH OH. Trouble in paradise.
GOP WORRIED ABOUT BUSH PROBLEMS
ER - Back to a state of shock, UH - I'll believe it when I see it happen.
GOP SENATOR WHO RENAMED FRENCH FRIES FREEDOM FRIES WILL BE A PLAYER IN THE DSM HEARINGS
Found on Raw Story.
FREEDOM FRY GUY WILL CO SPONSOR DSM INVESTIGATION
ABDUCTIONS A DAILY EVENT IN IRAQ
Iraqi families have to pay up to $50,000. to save their loved ones' lives.
The Iraqis must be so grateful to Bush for liberating them.
DAILY ABDUCTIONS IN IRAQ
TWENTY THREE IRAQI SOLDIERS KILLED IN SUICIDE BOMBING IN MILITARY RESTAURANT
From NYT via Truthout
23 IRAQI SOLDIERS KILLED TODAY
NAIL IT TO THE WHITE HOUSE DOOR
Writes William Rivers Pitts of Truthout concerning the DSM. As always, Will is awesome.
NAIL IT TO THE DOOR
DEFINITION OF INSANITY
Molly Ivins says it all. A Texan, Ms. Ivins fully appreciates the wheelings and dealings from one of the most politically corrupt states in the U.S.
MOLLY IVINS ON THE BUSH PEOPLE
CRACKS IN THE IRAQ STORY
This is rather surprising. CBS NEWS.com posted a piece on DSM from The American Prospect.
By Matthew Yglesias
Excerpt:
But what were they thinking? Lowballing the likely costs of war to build public support makes sense in a cynical-scumbag kind of way, but how is it that these lowballs seem to have become the actual basis for real-world policy? Nobody knows. Nobody knows because all the memos we've seen are British; but the United States surely produces memos of its own. Plenty of Republican senators -- including key members of the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees -- have gotten positive reviews in the media and even from liberals for breaking at times with the White House line that all is well in Iraq. But where have the investigations been? A hearing here, a subpoena there, some kind of indication that the Republican Party stands for something other than the greater glory of President George W. Bush could bring this all to light. Clearly, what we do in Iraq from here is more important than rehashing how we got there in the first place. But we can't even begin to formulate an Iraq policy without confidence that the policymakers are telling us something resembling the truth about what they're trying to do and why.
CBS NEWS ON DSM
NEWSPAPERS COVERING IRAQ
FOUR OF THE BIG 5 REMAIN SILENT: USA TODAY, WALL STREET JOURNAL, NEW YORK TIMES, LA TIMES
What is their problem?
Interesting to note that a lot of so-called Red State newspapers are demanding answers on DSM.
WHO IS COVERING DSM AND WHO IS NOT
To change the Constitution it takes:
2/3 of the Congress
2/3 of the Senate
3/4 of the states must ratify.
It ain't going to happen, any time soon, even with the GOP vote cheating mechansims and Blackwell type characters in place. Besides, we know from the happiness polls that more of us disapprove of King W than approve....Many in his own party don't even want King W anymore.
Tonight's news is dedicated to King W's resounding successes and accomplishments as our leader.
GOP WORRIED ABOUT BUSH'S PROBLEMS.
UH OH. Trouble in paradise.
GOP WORRIED ABOUT BUSH PROBLEMS
ER - Back to a state of shock, UH - I'll believe it when I see it happen.
GOP SENATOR WHO RENAMED FRENCH FRIES FREEDOM FRIES WILL BE A PLAYER IN THE DSM HEARINGS
Found on Raw Story.
FREEDOM FRY GUY WILL CO SPONSOR DSM INVESTIGATION
ABDUCTIONS A DAILY EVENT IN IRAQ
Iraqi families have to pay up to $50,000. to save their loved ones' lives.
The Iraqis must be so grateful to Bush for liberating them.
DAILY ABDUCTIONS IN IRAQ
TWENTY THREE IRAQI SOLDIERS KILLED IN SUICIDE BOMBING IN MILITARY RESTAURANT
From NYT via Truthout
23 IRAQI SOLDIERS KILLED TODAY
NAIL IT TO THE WHITE HOUSE DOOR
Writes William Rivers Pitts of Truthout concerning the DSM. As always, Will is awesome.
NAIL IT TO THE DOOR
DEFINITION OF INSANITY
Molly Ivins says it all. A Texan, Ms. Ivins fully appreciates the wheelings and dealings from one of the most politically corrupt states in the U.S.
MOLLY IVINS ON THE BUSH PEOPLE
CRACKS IN THE IRAQ STORY
This is rather surprising. CBS NEWS.com posted a piece on DSM from The American Prospect.
By Matthew Yglesias
Excerpt:
But what were they thinking? Lowballing the likely costs of war to build public support makes sense in a cynical-scumbag kind of way, but how is it that these lowballs seem to have become the actual basis for real-world policy? Nobody knows. Nobody knows because all the memos we've seen are British; but the United States surely produces memos of its own. Plenty of Republican senators -- including key members of the Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees -- have gotten positive reviews in the media and even from liberals for breaking at times with the White House line that all is well in Iraq. But where have the investigations been? A hearing here, a subpoena there, some kind of indication that the Republican Party stands for something other than the greater glory of President George W. Bush could bring this all to light. Clearly, what we do in Iraq from here is more important than rehashing how we got there in the first place. But we can't even begin to formulate an Iraq policy without confidence that the policymakers are telling us something resembling the truth about what they're trying to do and why.
CBS NEWS ON DSM
NEWSPAPERS COVERING IRAQ
FOUR OF THE BIG 5 REMAIN SILENT: USA TODAY, WALL STREET JOURNAL, NEW YORK TIMES, LA TIMES
What is their problem?
Interesting to note that a lot of so-called Red State newspapers are demanding answers on DSM.
WHO IS COVERING DSM AND WHO IS NOT
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
ON DSM, BLATANT ABUSE OF POWER AND SOMETHING ROTTEN IN OHIO
Isn't living in a Dictatorship just grand? Don't you just love it? I mean, we have to spend our free time going underground, so to speak, in searching for and finding news, real news, not the idiotic blither and blather about the pathetic lives of needy and twisted humans, i.e. MJ. Forget about our media. I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but the lack of coverage of real facts and information concerning Iraq and our foreign policy in general is frightening and appalling to me (how many times have I used the word APPALLING of late, by the way?). Fortunately, there are numerous alternatives to our stupid and dumb news coverage, meant only for those who prefer to live in the twilight zone of misinformation and who crave entertainment instead of hard news. Fortunately for those of us do want a shot of hard and harsh reality on a daily basis, there are numerous alternatives, thanks to the Internet and to the British press. A big thanks to our British cousins for bringing us a ray of sunshine in the darkness that enfolds us under the Bush Administration. Perhaps our own lame media will take your lead.
JUDICIARY GOP PULLS PLUGS ON CONYERS HEARINGS
See what I mean by a dictatorship? The extremist wing of the GOP will get even more aggressive, ruthless and hard hitting when the DSM info starts seeping deep into the population' consciousness. The neocon crazies won't be able to stop the flow so they'll try to spin it as "conspiracy theory' and will attack with a vengeance the sources and messengers. Rant, rave and vent, scream and holler all you want to sissy bully boys. You ladies are protesting all to much and too loudly. Go to Iraq and fight the enemy you created, not your own people at home who simply want to know the truth. Attacking the messengers of facts is unamerican and unpatriotic.
On to a higher and finer ground - news about a man with principle and integrity.
Conyers has to scramble to find a venue for his hearings on the Downing Street Memos on Thursday, June 16 since the GOP refuses to allow the hearings to take place in the Capitol Building.
Not to worry, a resourceful Conyers found a place. PLEASE CALL OR WRITE TO CSPAN TO REQUEST THEY COVER THE HEARINGS SINCE YOU KNOW WHO WILL NOT events@c-span.org
Found on The Hill via Raw Story
GOP WON'T LET CONYERS HOLD DSM HEARINGS IN THE CAPITOL BLDG.
FINALLY! MSM VERIFIES DOWNING STREET MEMOS - ALL OF THEM
NBC VERIFIES DOWNING STREET MEMOS
If you want to read the individual memos they are posted on Raw Story.com
RAW STORY.COM
ON TO THE PATRIOT ACT HEARING FIASCO OF FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2005
Congressman Nader (D-NY) files resolution rebuking GOP Chair of Judiciary Committee, Sensenbrenner, for his appalling and unacceptable shut down of the Patriot Act Hearings. Found on Raw Story
RESOLUTION REBUKING SENSENBRENNER
SOMETHING ROTTEN IN OHIO
Sent from Ken Today
I am posting Gore Vidal's extraordinary piece in its entirety in order to preserve it for the Internet archives.
The Conyers Report, mentioned below, can be downloaded in PDF format at
CONYERS REPORT
Something Rotten in Ohio
By Gore Vidal, The Nation
Posted on June 14, 2005, Printed on June 14, 2005
SOMETHING ROTTEN IN OHIO
Outside the oil and gas junta that controls two and a half branches of our government (the half soon to be whole is the judiciary), there was a good deal of envy at the late British election among those Americans who are serious about politics. Little money was spent by the three parties and none for TV advertising. Results were achieved swiftly and cheaply. Best of all, the three party leaders were quizzed sharply and intelligently by ordinary citizens known quaintly as subjects, thanks to the ubiquitous phantom crown so unlike our nuclear-taloned predatory eagle. Although news of foreign countries seldom appears in our tightly censored media (and good news, never), those of us who are addicted to C-SPAN and find it the one truly, if unconsciously, subversive media outlet in these United States are able to observe British politics in full cry.
I say "subversive" not only because C-SPAN is apt to take interesting books seriously but also because its live coverage of the Senate and the House of Representatives is the only look we are ever allowed at the mouthpieces of our masters up close and is, at times, most reflective of a government more and more remote from us, unaccountable and repressive. To watch the righteous old prophet Byrd of West Virginia, the sunny hypocrisy of Biden of Delaware -- as I write these hallowed names, I summon up their faces, hear their voices, and I am covered with C-SPAN goose bumps.
At any rate, wondrous C-SPAN has another string to its bow. While some executive was nodding, C-SPAN started showing us Britain's House of Commons during Question Time. This is the only glimpse that most Americans will ever get of how democracy is supposed to work.
These party leaders are pitted against one another in often savage debate on subjects of war and peace, health and education. Then some 600 Members of Parliament are allowed to ask questions of their great chieftains. Years ago the incomparable Dwight Macdonald wrote that any letter to the London Times (the Brits are inveterate letter writers on substantive issues) is better written than any editorial in the New York Times.
In addition to Question Time, which allows Americans to see how political democracy works, as opposed to our two chambers of lobbyists for corporate America, C-SPAN also showed the three party leaders being interrogated by a cross section of, for the most part, youthful subjects of the phantom crown and presided over by an experienced political journalist. Blair was roughly accused of lying about the legal advice he had received apropos Britain's right to go to war in Iraq for the US oil and gas junta. This BBC live audience asked far more informed and informative questions than the entire US press corps was allowed to ask Bush et al. in our recent election. But Americans are not used to challenging authority in what has been called wartime by a President who has ordered invasions of two countries that have done us no harm and is now planning future wars despite dwindling manpower and lack of money. Blair, for just going along, had to deal with savage, informed questions of a sort that Bush would never answer even if he were competent to do so.
So we have seen what democracy across the water can do. All in all a jarring experience for anyone foolish enough to believe that America is democratic in anything except furiously imprisoning the innocent and joyously electing the guilty. What to do? As a first step, I invite the radicals at C-SPAN who take seriously our Constitution and Bill of Rights to address their attention to the corruption of the presidential election of 2004, particularly in the state of Ohio.
One of the most useful members of the House -- currently the most useful -- is John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat who, in his capacity as ranking minority member of the Judiciary Committee, led the committee's Democratic Congressmen and their staffers into the heart of the American heartland, the Western Reserve; specifically, into the not-so-red state of Ohio, once known as "the mother of Presidents."
He had come to answer the question that the minority of Americans who care about the Republic have been asking since November 2004: "What went wrong in Ohio?" He is too modest to note the difficulties he must have undergone even to assemble this team in the face of the triumphalist Republican Congressional majority, not to mention the unlikely heir to himself, George W. Bush, whose original selection by the Supreme Court brought forth many reports on what went wrong in Florida in 2000.
These led to an apology from Associate Justice John Paul Stevens for the behavior of the 5-to-4 majority of the Court in the matter of Bush v. Gore. Loser Bush then brought on undeclared wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the greatest deficits in our history and the revelations that the policies of an Administration that -- much as Count Dracula fled cloves of garlic -- flees all accountability were responsible for the murder and torture of captive men, between 70 percent and 90 percent of whom, by the Pentagon's estimate, had been swept up at random, earning us the hatred of a billion Muslims and the disgust of what is called the civilized world.
Asked to predict who would win in '04, I said that, again, Bush would lose, but I was confident that in the four years between 2000 and 2004 creative propaganda and the fixing of election officials might very well be so perfected as to insure an official victory for Mr. Bush. As Representative Conyers's report, Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio (see link at top of email), shows in great detail, the swing state of Ohio was carefully set up to deliver an apparent victory for Bush even though Kerry appears to have been the popular winner as well as the valedictorian-that-never-was of the Electoral College.
I urge would-be reformers of our politics as well as of such anachronisms as the Electoral College to read Conyers's valuable guide on how to steal an election once you have in place the supervisor of the state's electoral process: In this case, Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, who orchestrated a famous victory for those who hate democracy (a permanent but passionate minority). The Conyers Report states categorically, "With regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State Kenneth J. Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio." In other words, the Florida 2000 scenario redux, when the chair for Bush/Cheney was also the Secretary of State. Lesson? Always plan ahead for at least four more years.
It is well-known in the United States of Amnesia that not only did Ohio have a considerable number of first-time voters but that Blackwell and his gang, through "the misallocation of voting machines led to unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters."
For the past few years many of us have been warning about the electronic voting machines, first publicized on the Internet by investigator Bev Harris, for which she was much reviled by the officers of such companies as Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S, Triad; this last voting computer company "has essentially admitted that it engaged in a course of behavior during the recount in numerous counties to provide 'cheat sheets' to those counting the ballots. The cheat sheets informed election officials how many votes they should find for each candidate, and how many over and under votes they should calculate to match the machine count. In that way, they could avoid doing a full county-wide hand recount mandated by state law."
Yet despite all this manpower and money power, exit polls showed that Kerry would win Ohio. So, what happened?
I have told more than enough of this mystery story so thoroughly investigated by Conyers and his Congressional colleagues and their staffers. Not only were the crimes against democracy investigated but the report on What Went Wrong in Ohio comes up with quite a number of ways to set things right.
Needless to say, this report was ignored when the Electoral College produced its unexamined tally of the votes state by state. Needless to say, no joint committee of the two houses of Congress was convened to consider the various crimes committed and to find ways and means to avoid their repetition in 2008, should we be allowed to hold an election once we have unilaterally, yet again, engaged in a war -- this time with Iran. Anyway, thanks to Conyers, the writing is now high up there on the wall for us all to see clearly: "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin." Students of the Good Book will know what these words of God meant to Belshazzar and his cronies in old Babylon.
Gore Vidal is a contributing editor to The Nation, and a novelist, playwright and essayist. His recent books include Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta and Imperial America, out in paperback this September (Thunder's Mouth/Nation Books).
© 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
JUDICIARY GOP PULLS PLUGS ON CONYERS HEARINGS
See what I mean by a dictatorship? The extremist wing of the GOP will get even more aggressive, ruthless and hard hitting when the DSM info starts seeping deep into the population' consciousness. The neocon crazies won't be able to stop the flow so they'll try to spin it as "conspiracy theory' and will attack with a vengeance the sources and messengers. Rant, rave and vent, scream and holler all you want to sissy bully boys. You ladies are protesting all to much and too loudly. Go to Iraq and fight the enemy you created, not your own people at home who simply want to know the truth. Attacking the messengers of facts is unamerican and unpatriotic.
On to a higher and finer ground - news about a man with principle and integrity.
Conyers has to scramble to find a venue for his hearings on the Downing Street Memos on Thursday, June 16 since the GOP refuses to allow the hearings to take place in the Capitol Building.
Not to worry, a resourceful Conyers found a place. PLEASE CALL OR WRITE TO CSPAN TO REQUEST THEY COVER THE HEARINGS SINCE YOU KNOW WHO WILL NOT events@c-span.org
Found on The Hill via Raw Story
GOP WON'T LET CONYERS HOLD DSM HEARINGS IN THE CAPITOL BLDG.
FINALLY! MSM VERIFIES DOWNING STREET MEMOS - ALL OF THEM
NBC VERIFIES DOWNING STREET MEMOS
If you want to read the individual memos they are posted on Raw Story.com
RAW STORY.COM
ON TO THE PATRIOT ACT HEARING FIASCO OF FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2005
Congressman Nader (D-NY) files resolution rebuking GOP Chair of Judiciary Committee, Sensenbrenner, for his appalling and unacceptable shut down of the Patriot Act Hearings. Found on Raw Story
RESOLUTION REBUKING SENSENBRENNER
SOMETHING ROTTEN IN OHIO
Sent from Ken Today
I am posting Gore Vidal's extraordinary piece in its entirety in order to preserve it for the Internet archives.
The Conyers Report, mentioned below, can be downloaded in PDF format at
CONYERS REPORT
Something Rotten in Ohio
By Gore Vidal, The Nation
Posted on June 14, 2005, Printed on June 14, 2005
SOMETHING ROTTEN IN OHIO
Outside the oil and gas junta that controls two and a half branches of our government (the half soon to be whole is the judiciary), there was a good deal of envy at the late British election among those Americans who are serious about politics. Little money was spent by the three parties and none for TV advertising. Results were achieved swiftly and cheaply. Best of all, the three party leaders were quizzed sharply and intelligently by ordinary citizens known quaintly as subjects, thanks to the ubiquitous phantom crown so unlike our nuclear-taloned predatory eagle. Although news of foreign countries seldom appears in our tightly censored media (and good news, never), those of us who are addicted to C-SPAN and find it the one truly, if unconsciously, subversive media outlet in these United States are able to observe British politics in full cry.
I say "subversive" not only because C-SPAN is apt to take interesting books seriously but also because its live coverage of the Senate and the House of Representatives is the only look we are ever allowed at the mouthpieces of our masters up close and is, at times, most reflective of a government more and more remote from us, unaccountable and repressive. To watch the righteous old prophet Byrd of West Virginia, the sunny hypocrisy of Biden of Delaware -- as I write these hallowed names, I summon up their faces, hear their voices, and I am covered with C-SPAN goose bumps.
At any rate, wondrous C-SPAN has another string to its bow. While some executive was nodding, C-SPAN started showing us Britain's House of Commons during Question Time. This is the only glimpse that most Americans will ever get of how democracy is supposed to work.
These party leaders are pitted against one another in often savage debate on subjects of war and peace, health and education. Then some 600 Members of Parliament are allowed to ask questions of their great chieftains. Years ago the incomparable Dwight Macdonald wrote that any letter to the London Times (the Brits are inveterate letter writers on substantive issues) is better written than any editorial in the New York Times.
In addition to Question Time, which allows Americans to see how political democracy works, as opposed to our two chambers of lobbyists for corporate America, C-SPAN also showed the three party leaders being interrogated by a cross section of, for the most part, youthful subjects of the phantom crown and presided over by an experienced political journalist. Blair was roughly accused of lying about the legal advice he had received apropos Britain's right to go to war in Iraq for the US oil and gas junta. This BBC live audience asked far more informed and informative questions than the entire US press corps was allowed to ask Bush et al. in our recent election. But Americans are not used to challenging authority in what has been called wartime by a President who has ordered invasions of two countries that have done us no harm and is now planning future wars despite dwindling manpower and lack of money. Blair, for just going along, had to deal with savage, informed questions of a sort that Bush would never answer even if he were competent to do so.
So we have seen what democracy across the water can do. All in all a jarring experience for anyone foolish enough to believe that America is democratic in anything except furiously imprisoning the innocent and joyously electing the guilty. What to do? As a first step, I invite the radicals at C-SPAN who take seriously our Constitution and Bill of Rights to address their attention to the corruption of the presidential election of 2004, particularly in the state of Ohio.
One of the most useful members of the House -- currently the most useful -- is John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat who, in his capacity as ranking minority member of the Judiciary Committee, led the committee's Democratic Congressmen and their staffers into the heart of the American heartland, the Western Reserve; specifically, into the not-so-red state of Ohio, once known as "the mother of Presidents."
He had come to answer the question that the minority of Americans who care about the Republic have been asking since November 2004: "What went wrong in Ohio?" He is too modest to note the difficulties he must have undergone even to assemble this team in the face of the triumphalist Republican Congressional majority, not to mention the unlikely heir to himself, George W. Bush, whose original selection by the Supreme Court brought forth many reports on what went wrong in Florida in 2000.
These led to an apology from Associate Justice John Paul Stevens for the behavior of the 5-to-4 majority of the Court in the matter of Bush v. Gore. Loser Bush then brought on undeclared wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the greatest deficits in our history and the revelations that the policies of an Administration that -- much as Count Dracula fled cloves of garlic -- flees all accountability were responsible for the murder and torture of captive men, between 70 percent and 90 percent of whom, by the Pentagon's estimate, had been swept up at random, earning us the hatred of a billion Muslims and the disgust of what is called the civilized world.
Asked to predict who would win in '04, I said that, again, Bush would lose, but I was confident that in the four years between 2000 and 2004 creative propaganda and the fixing of election officials might very well be so perfected as to insure an official victory for Mr. Bush. As Representative Conyers's report, Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio (see link at top of email), shows in great detail, the swing state of Ohio was carefully set up to deliver an apparent victory for Bush even though Kerry appears to have been the popular winner as well as the valedictorian-that-never-was of the Electoral College.
I urge would-be reformers of our politics as well as of such anachronisms as the Electoral College to read Conyers's valuable guide on how to steal an election once you have in place the supervisor of the state's electoral process: In this case, Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, who orchestrated a famous victory for those who hate democracy (a permanent but passionate minority). The Conyers Report states categorically, "With regards to our factual finding, in brief, we find that there were massive and unprecedented voter irregularities and anomalies in Ohio. In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State Kenneth J. Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio." In other words, the Florida 2000 scenario redux, when the chair for Bush/Cheney was also the Secretary of State. Lesson? Always plan ahead for at least four more years.
It is well-known in the United States of Amnesia that not only did Ohio have a considerable number of first-time voters but that Blackwell and his gang, through "the misallocation of voting machines led to unprecedented long lines that disenfranchised scores, if not hundreds of thousands, of predominantly minority and Democratic voters."
For the past few years many of us have been warning about the electronic voting machines, first publicized on the Internet by investigator Bev Harris, for which she was much reviled by the officers of such companies as Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S, Triad; this last voting computer company "has essentially admitted that it engaged in a course of behavior during the recount in numerous counties to provide 'cheat sheets' to those counting the ballots. The cheat sheets informed election officials how many votes they should find for each candidate, and how many over and under votes they should calculate to match the machine count. In that way, they could avoid doing a full county-wide hand recount mandated by state law."
Yet despite all this manpower and money power, exit polls showed that Kerry would win Ohio. So, what happened?
I have told more than enough of this mystery story so thoroughly investigated by Conyers and his Congressional colleagues and their staffers. Not only were the crimes against democracy investigated but the report on What Went Wrong in Ohio comes up with quite a number of ways to set things right.
Needless to say, this report was ignored when the Electoral College produced its unexamined tally of the votes state by state. Needless to say, no joint committee of the two houses of Congress was convened to consider the various crimes committed and to find ways and means to avoid their repetition in 2008, should we be allowed to hold an election once we have unilaterally, yet again, engaged in a war -- this time with Iran. Anyway, thanks to Conyers, the writing is now high up there on the wall for us all to see clearly: "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin." Students of the Good Book will know what these words of God meant to Belshazzar and his cronies in old Babylon.
Gore Vidal is a contributing editor to The Nation, and a novelist, playwright and essayist. His recent books include Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta and Imperial America, out in paperback this September (Thunder's Mouth/Nation Books).
© 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
Monday, June 13, 2005
DOWNING STREET MEMO EXPANDING AND EXPLODING
BUSH'S MISSION TO ATTACK IRAQ GOES BACK TO 1999.
An astonishing and a well documented historical time line put together by Raw Story.com When one reads the entire document, it is glaringly apparent that the Bush people created a fictional scenario to enable their quest to wage war with Iraq, in concert with the willing cooperation of the Blair people. If proven true, both the American and British citizens have been so obviously and disastrously misled.
These revealations go well beyond impeachment.
I must admit that I am a little weak in the knees and a tad short of breath after reading the chronicle of events. Though many of us sensed the facts are as they play out in Raw Story’s time line, it is nonetheless frightening to fully appreciate the implications for us as a nation.
It would be so much easier to slide into denial and into the world of the mindless entertainment machine at hand, i.e., the TV, including our so-called cable news networks. In the realm of our daily tabloid news tonight, naturally it’s all about Michael Jackson’s verdict of innocence. Zip on Raw Story’s time line. That should tell you something about what we have become and where we are headed.
IRAQ WAR TIME LINE
MORE SMOKING GUNS
MEMO ON FINDING AN EXCUSE TO GO TO WAR WITH IRAQ FOUND ON UK TIMES ON LINE
via Raw Story
UK TIMES ON LINE
CHECK OUT RAW STORY.COM TO FIND THE OTHER 6 MEMOS ON IRAQ
RAW STORY HAS RAW MEMOS
MOVING ACROSS THE POND WHERE NEWS COVERAGE RESEMBLES THAT FOUND IN THE TABLOIDS
NYT TRIES TO KILL DOWNING STREET MEMO.
Randi Rhodes of Air America Radio railed against the NYT story today, insisting that the article made no sense. I had read it rapidly this morning and did not understand it either. "What are they saying?" I asked myself. It is as if the NYT very reluctantly covered the story and confused it to the point that it wouldn't be called "THE LIBERAL NYT" by the Bush spinners of lies. Get a grip and find your courage, NYT. You are on thin ice with those of us who know the truth.
NYT TRIES TO KILL DSM
An astonishing and a well documented historical time line put together by Raw Story.com When one reads the entire document, it is glaringly apparent that the Bush people created a fictional scenario to enable their quest to wage war with Iraq, in concert with the willing cooperation of the Blair people. If proven true, both the American and British citizens have been so obviously and disastrously misled.
These revealations go well beyond impeachment.
I must admit that I am a little weak in the knees and a tad short of breath after reading the chronicle of events. Though many of us sensed the facts are as they play out in Raw Story’s time line, it is nonetheless frightening to fully appreciate the implications for us as a nation.
It would be so much easier to slide into denial and into the world of the mindless entertainment machine at hand, i.e., the TV, including our so-called cable news networks. In the realm of our daily tabloid news tonight, naturally it’s all about Michael Jackson’s verdict of innocence. Zip on Raw Story’s time line. That should tell you something about what we have become and where we are headed.
IRAQ WAR TIME LINE
MORE SMOKING GUNS
MEMO ON FINDING AN EXCUSE TO GO TO WAR WITH IRAQ FOUND ON UK TIMES ON LINE
via Raw Story
UK TIMES ON LINE
CHECK OUT RAW STORY.COM TO FIND THE OTHER 6 MEMOS ON IRAQ
RAW STORY HAS RAW MEMOS
MOVING ACROSS THE POND WHERE NEWS COVERAGE RESEMBLES THAT FOUND IN THE TABLOIDS
NYT TRIES TO KILL DOWNING STREET MEMO.
Randi Rhodes of Air America Radio railed against the NYT story today, insisting that the article made no sense. I had read it rapidly this morning and did not understand it either. "What are they saying?" I asked myself. It is as if the NYT very reluctantly covered the story and confused it to the point that it wouldn't be called "THE LIBERAL NYT" by the Bush spinners of lies. Get a grip and find your courage, NYT. You are on thin ice with those of us who know the truth.
NYT TRIES TO KILL DSM
BREAKING THROUGH THE NO NEWS BARRIER
My husband and I spent the day in the Texas Hill Country yesterday so I missed a great part of some very new and exciting breaking news.
Below is an enormous amount of information covered in the Washington Post sent this morning by my friend Ken in Calif. Finally, a piece in the mainstream press that takes an indepth and critical look at what we Dems have known all along, i.e. the Bush administration is a nightmare on all levels. Also, I took at peek at some of my news sources this morning. There is a lot of information blasting through the no news barrier on the Downing Street Memo. More memos are being revealed about Iraq. The issue is not being shuffled under the carpet. I am convinced this is only happening because of the intense pressure from bloggers and lawmakers like John Conyers....More on that tonight... LS
From Ken:
This piece takes an in depth look at just what a lousy job Bush is doing altogether, the refusal to answer very important questions (and - tacitly - the press' ongoing refusal to demand answers when non-answers are given over and over). Good stuff.
I am delighted with the White House response to the new smoking gun: "We DID plan for the post-war period." Okay, I guess they did. Good job, then. Tops.
Even the Houston Chronicle, pro-Bush as it can be, is demanding answers on Smoking Gun 1. The London Times continues to get hundreds of thousands of hits on the SG1 page.
All the Bushies can do is cup their hands on their ears and go 'lalalalalala I can't hear you!!' -K
The Increasingly Unpopular President
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, June 10, 2005; 12:57 PM
When President Bush says "polls go up, and polls go down," he's about half right.
Two new public-opinion surveys show Bush's poll numbers are dropping into solidly negative territory.
In the just-outAssociated Press/Ipsos poll , Bush's job approval ratings and the public's confidence in the direction he's taking the nation are both at their lowest levels ever.
A whopping 55 percent of those polled actually disapprove of the job he's doing, compared to 43 percent who approve.
Bush's "favorability" ratings have consistently been higher than his "approval" ratings, but even there, for the first time, there is trouble. This week'sWashington Post/ABC News poll finds that 51 percent of respondents said they had an unfavorable impression of the president.
Pollingreport.com lets you track and compare all the variousjob approval and favorability ratings over time.
And the more you dig into the results, the worse it gets.
Will Lester writes for the Associated Press: "While Bush has gotten generally low scores for his handling of domestic issues for many months, most Americans have been supportive of his foreign policy. Not any more."
In fact, as with The Post's poll, the AP poll shows there is no longer a single area in which the public approves of the job Bush is doing.
On the economy, the approve/disapprove split in the AP poll is 43/54; on health care, education and the environment, 40/57; on foreign policy issues and the war on terrorism, 45/52; on the situation in Iraq, 41/56; and on Social Security, 37/59.
When is it time to start referring to Bush as an unpopular president? When his approval ratings are solidly below 50 percent for at least three months? Check. When his approval ratings on his signature issues are in the red? Check. When a clear majority of Americans say he is ignoring the public's concerns and instead has become distracted by issues that most people say they care little about? Check.
And a Reality Check
Here's how Bush described his plan for Iraq, at hisjoint press availability with Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday: "We'll support Iraqis as they take the lead in providing their own security. Our strategy is clear: We're training Iraqi forces so they can take the fight to the enemy, so they can defend their country. And then our troops will come home with the honor they have earned."
Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru write from Baiji, in northern Iraq, with a chilling and gripping tale about the U.S. military's attempt to train the Iraqi army's Charlie Company.
They put it bluntly: "The reconstruction of Iraq's security forces is the prerequisite for an American withdrawal from Iraq. But as the Bush administration extols the continuing progress of the new Iraqi army, the project in Baiji, a desolate oil town at a strategic crossroads in northern Iraq, demonstrates the immense challenges of building an army from scratch in the middle of a bloody insurgency."
Here's what one of the training officers -- Lt. Kenrick Cato, 34, of Long Island, N.Y., who sold his share in a database firm to join the military full time after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- tells Shadid and Fainaru:
"I know the party line. You know, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, five-star generals, four-star generals, President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld: The Iraqis will be ready in whatever time period. . . . But from the ground, I can say with certainty they won't be ready before I leave. And I know I'll be back in Iraq, probably in three or four years. And I don't think they'll be ready then."
Time to Level with the Public?
Carl P. Leubsdorf writes in the Dallas Morning News: "A top congressional Democratic supporter of U.S. action in Iraq said Thursday that President Bush should make a nationally televised speech and 'level with the American people' about the long road ahead there.
"Faced with declining public support, Mr. Bush needs to tell Americans 'it's going to take a lot more time . . . at least through the end of 2006,' and explain what still has to be done there, Sen. Joe Biden told reporters after returning from his fifth visit to Iraq.
"The Delaware senator, senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he gave his suggestion Tuesday to Stephen Hadley, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, after finding 'a total disconnect' between the situation in Iraq and optimistic statements by Mr. Bush and his top aides. . . .
"A White House aide acknowledged the Biden-Hadley meeting but had no comment on the senator's proposal, noting that Mr. Bush often speaks about the situation in Iraq."
Every Question Is an Opportunity
White House Communications Director Nicolle Davenish, in an interview on CNN withDana Bash yesterday, modeled classic White House non-responsiveness to tough questions. Briefly knocked off the talking points, she explained the rationale.
"BASH: I want to ask you about Guantanamo Bay, the prison camp there. The president said in an interview yesterday that the government was looking at all alternatives regarding Guantanamo and terror prisoners. The press secretary, Scott McClellan, essentially said the same thing today.
"The defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that no one in the U.S. government is looking into the possibility of closing Guantanamo. So, who's right?
"DEVENISH: Well, look, I think that the president of the United States is always looking at the best way to accomplish our objectives here. Now, we remain a country at war. It's important to keep in mind who the prisoners are that are at Guantanamo. These are enemy combatants who were picked up on the battlefields of Afghanistan primarily, and when the president talks about looking at alternatives and the best ways to get -- to meet our objective, that objective is keeping America safe, so of course, the president of the United States is always looking for the best way to keep America safe.
"BASH: So, it sounds like there's a formal review underway.
"DEVENISH: I'm not aware of that, but, you know, I think the president spoke clearly and plainly and you heard from the White House, as well.
"BASH: You're the communications director. Has this been a bit of a PR nightmare for you?
"DEVENISH: Oh, there are no PR nightmares in Washington. It's always an opportunity to get to talk about the president's vision for getting things done."
Reporters also fruitlessly tried to get Scott McClellan to clear up the administration's position on the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba at yesterday'sgaggle .
A short excerpt:
"Q So the bottom line is --
"MR. McCLELLAN: And that's all the President was saying, is that we're always looking at all alternatives.
"Q Bottom line is he's completely ruled out closing down Guantanamo?
"MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?
"Q The bottom line is that he's completely ruled out --
"MR. McCLELLAN: I would leave it -- I would say what the President said, that we're always looking at all alternatives for dealing with detainees. That's what he said yesterday and that's where we are."
Downing Street Memo Watch
A potpourri of Downing Street Memo items:
Philippe Naughton writes from London in the Times Online: "It is not that often, we have to admit, that an item posted one night on Times Online is still getting hundreds of thousands of hits six weeks later, especially when what bloggers like to call 'the mainstream media' have largely ignored its existence.
"But that is what happened to the now infamous secret Downing Street memo, posted on the site on May 1 alongside a story by Michael Smith of The Sunday Times. And if the document has taken on a life of its own it is largely because of the bloggers and their web-savvy allies on the US Left."
A red-state paper that endorsed Bush comes out for disclosure. Here's today'sHouston Chronicle editorial : "Intelligence agents' observations can be inaccurate. The head of the CIA at the time, George Tenet, erroneously thought the case for Iraqi WMD was a slam dunk. But the Downing Street memo accurately foresees the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the administration's attempts to link Saddam to al-Qaida and weapons of mass destruction -- links that were found after the invasion not to exist. The memo's observation that U.S. intelligence would be shaped to policy might be mistaken, but the administration did wind up using flawed analysis to justify its war policy to the American people. . . .
"In the interest of the nation and the administration, the source and content of the Downing Street Memo need to be fully explained."
Former New York Times ombudsman Daniel Okrent tellsTerrence Smith on PBS that he is convinced that the American media is pursuing other stories on the memo. "My . . . thought is that something is coming, that it is a story that calls for a great deal of reporting, and sometimes the absence of something in the newspaper doesn't mean that it's not being reported, but they're waiting until they have it right. I hope that's the case.
"TERENCE SMITH: Do you have any evidence that it is?
"DANIEL OKRENT: No."
Allegre , who keeps a diary on the liberal Daily Kos blog, reprints the e-mail she got in reply to her note about the Downing Street memo from John Walcott, Washington bureau chief for Knight Ridder newspapers:
Writes Walcott: "Knight Ridder was, in fact, the first American news organization (more than a week before our local paper here in Washington) to write about the Downing Street memo and the light it shed on the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq.
"And almost six months before the memo was written, in early February 2002,we reported that the President had decided to oust Saddam Hussein and ordered his advisors to begin preparing plans for doing so. To read this and all our other Iraq coverage (we were the only news organization to consistently challenge the administration's assertions about Iraq's WMD programs and ties to al Qaida, go to Iraq intelligence and preparations for war buttons. Please feel free to share that link with anyone else you think might be interested."
Also on the Daily Kos blog,Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), author of this petition , writes: "[O]n Thursday, a week from today, I will be holding a hearing with my Democratic colleagues to begin to hear evidence about the [Downing Street Memo]. We will have a number of witnesses, including Joe Wilson, who frequent readers here already know is a WMD expert and former Ambassador; Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA analyst; Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq; and John Bonifaz, a renowned Constitutional attorney. At the conclusion of the hearing, we will go to Lafayette Park and I will personally deliver your signatures to the White House.
"This hearing is just one step in an investigation that I am commencing that will literally span the Atlantic. I am in touch with British officials and former U.S. intelligence officials and I am determined to get to the truth."
Social Security Watch
Mike Glover writes for the Associated Press: "U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Thursday he is pushing ahead with a plan to ensure solvency of Social Security, even if personal accounts aren't included.
"This follows lengthy meetings with White House advisers, including top political adviser Karl Rove, said Grassley. . . .
"Grassley said he will not discuss the substance of his meetings with White House officials and was delicate in his general descriptions.
" 'I see these meetings as fully supportive of my efforts to get a bill out of committee,' said Grassley."
David E. Rosenbaum writes in the New York Times about how Republican legislative leaders are dropping hints that action on Social Security may not be in the cards this year, an indication that "the top item on the president's domestic policy agenda is faltering."
CAFTA Watch
Edward Alden writes in the Financial Times: "The White House yesterday offered to negotiate with congressional Democrats over enforcing labour rights provisions in a trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic, the latest sign that the administration fears the proposed deal is in jeopardy.
"President George W. Bush met more than a dozen Democrats who had raised concerns that weak labour standards in the region could undercut US workers. It was his fourth meeting with members of Congress to try to build support for the Central American Free Trade Agreement."
Patriot Actor
Judy Keen writes in USA Today from Ohio: "President Bush said here Thursday that unless Congress makes permanent the provisions of the USA Patriot Act that are set to expire on Dec. 31, efforts to stop future terrorist attacks would be imperiled. . . .
"Bush's speech lasted 23 minutes, and he spoke to 150 law enforcement officers. It was a much smaller audience than is usually assembled for a presidential visit, and his speech was about half as long as most speeches he gives on overhauling Social Security.
"But Bush's target audience wasn't the cops in the room; it was members of Congress who are deciding whether to extend and expand the law that was passed hurriedly by big margins weeks after 9/11 to give law enforcement more power to pursue terrorists."
Jennifer Loven writes for the Associated Press: "During Bush' 2004 re-election campaign, he made preserving the law a common refrain, but he has rarely spoken of it since. His renewed focus came as Congress has begun working on the act's renewal amid fresh criticisms -- from members of both parties -- that it undermines basic freedoms."
Edwin Chen writes in the Los Angeles Times: "On Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to expand the Patriot Act, approving a provision that would allow the FBI to use 'administrative subpoenas' to obtain medical, financial, library and other records without a judge's approval in terrorism cases.
"The president Thursday did not mention expansion of the act, but White House spokeswoman Dana Perrino said Bush supported such efforts."
Here's thetranscript of Bush's speech:
"Over the past three-and-a-half years, America's law enforcement and intelligence personnel have proved that the Patriot Act works, that it was an important piece of legislation. Since September the 11th, federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted."
Can someone get me a run-down on those 400 suspects, and what they were accused of doing?
Today's Calendar
Bush visited the National Counterterrorism Center in Tysons Corner this morning and tapped retired Vice Admiral John S. Redd to be its director.
Redd most recently served as executive director of the White House's WMD Commission. Here's the White Houseannouncement .
Bush also spoke again about the Patriot Act. Here's thetranscript .
Korea Watch
Anthony Faiola and Joohee Cho write in The Washington Post: "South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun will press President Bush in a meeting in Washington on Friday to reaffirm the United States' commitment to a diplomatic resolution of the North Korean nuclear standoff, according to South Korean officials familiar with Roh's plans. Roh intends to underscore Seoul's position that any military option is 'unacceptable.' "
Ambassador Picks
Peter Wallsten writes in the Los Angeles Times: "President Bush has nominated two wealthy California supporters and Republican fundraisers for two of the government's most coveted overseas postings.
"If the Senate gives its approval, Los Angeles venture capitalist Ronald Spogli will become U.S. ambassador to Italy, and Orange County automobile dealership executive Robert H. Tuttle will become ambassador to Britain."
Edward Alden writes in the Financial Times: "Other countries typically send their most experienced and skilled diplomats to head missions in Washington, such as Sir David Manning, the current British ambassador to the US who has more than 30 years of diplomatic experience and is one of Prime Minister Tony Blair's closest foreign policy advisers. But US presidents have frequently rewarded political loyalists with ambassadorial appointments in the most glamorous European capitals."
Where's Osama?
James Gordon Meek writes in the New York Daily News about his exclusive interview with Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmoud Kasuri.
"Kasuri met privately with President Bush yesterday, but the subject of Bin Laden didn't come up, he said."
Obnoxious Pop-Up Ad
No one likes pop-up ads. But the Secret Service might take issue with this one:Punch Out George W. And Get a FREE* XBOX 360 .
Cavuto Redux
FishbowlDC bloggerGarrett M. Graff reports that Neil Cavuto's interview with Bush on Fox News on Wednesday (See yesterday's column ) was the talk of A-list media parties last night.
Reports Graff: " 'Is it any wonder that the President will sit down for an interview with Fox News?' one reporter asked at the Atlantic event last night. '[The White House] couldn't come up with easier questions themselves.' "
© 2005 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
Below is an enormous amount of information covered in the Washington Post sent this morning by my friend Ken in Calif. Finally, a piece in the mainstream press that takes an indepth and critical look at what we Dems have known all along, i.e. the Bush administration is a nightmare on all levels. Also, I took at peek at some of my news sources this morning. There is a lot of information blasting through the no news barrier on the Downing Street Memo. More memos are being revealed about Iraq. The issue is not being shuffled under the carpet. I am convinced this is only happening because of the intense pressure from bloggers and lawmakers like John Conyers....More on that tonight... LS
From Ken:
This piece takes an in depth look at just what a lousy job Bush is doing altogether, the refusal to answer very important questions (and - tacitly - the press' ongoing refusal to demand answers when non-answers are given over and over). Good stuff.
I am delighted with the White House response to the new smoking gun: "We DID plan for the post-war period." Okay, I guess they did. Good job, then. Tops.
Even the Houston Chronicle, pro-Bush as it can be, is demanding answers on Smoking Gun 1. The London Times continues to get hundreds of thousands of hits on the SG1 page.
All the Bushies can do is cup their hands on their ears and go 'lalalalalala I can't hear you!!' -K
The Increasingly Unpopular President
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, June 10, 2005; 12:57 PM
When President Bush says "polls go up, and polls go down," he's about half right.
Two new public-opinion surveys show Bush's poll numbers are dropping into solidly negative territory.
In the just-out
A whopping 55 percent of those polled actually disapprove of the job he's doing, compared to 43 percent who approve.
Bush's "favorability" ratings have consistently been higher than his "approval" ratings, but even there, for the first time, there is trouble. This week's
Pollingreport.com lets you track and compare all the various
And the more you dig into the results, the worse it gets.
In fact, as with The Post's poll, the AP poll shows there is no longer a single area in which the public approves of the job Bush is doing.
On the economy, the approve/disapprove split in the AP poll is 43/54; on health care, education and the environment, 40/57; on foreign policy issues and the war on terrorism, 45/52; on the situation in Iraq, 41/56; and on Social Security, 37/59.
When is it time to start referring to Bush as an unpopular president? When his approval ratings are solidly below 50 percent for at least three months? Check. When his approval ratings on his signature issues are in the red? Check. When a clear majority of Americans say he is ignoring the public's concerns and instead has become distracted by issues that most people say they care little about? Check.
And a Reality Check
Here's how Bush described his plan for Iraq, at his
They put it bluntly: "The reconstruction of Iraq's security forces is the prerequisite for an American withdrawal from Iraq. But as the Bush administration extols the continuing progress of the new Iraqi army, the project in Baiji, a desolate oil town at a strategic crossroads in northern Iraq, demonstrates the immense challenges of building an army from scratch in the middle of a bloody insurgency."
Here's what one of the training officers -- Lt. Kenrick Cato, 34, of Long Island, N.Y., who sold his share in a database firm to join the military full time after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks -- tells Shadid and Fainaru:
"I know the party line. You know, the Department of Defense, the U.S. Army, five-star generals, four-star generals, President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld: The Iraqis will be ready in whatever time period. . . . But from the ground, I can say with certainty they won't be ready before I leave. And I know I'll be back in Iraq, probably in three or four years. And I don't think they'll be ready then."
Time to Level with the Public?
"Faced with declining public support, Mr. Bush needs to tell Americans 'it's going to take a lot more time . . . at least through the end of 2006,' and explain what still has to be done there, Sen. Joe Biden told reporters after returning from his fifth visit to Iraq.
"The Delaware senator, senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he gave his suggestion Tuesday to Stephen Hadley, Mr. Bush's national security adviser, after finding 'a total disconnect' between the situation in Iraq and optimistic statements by Mr. Bush and his top aides. . . .
"A White House aide acknowledged the Biden-Hadley meeting but had no comment on the senator's proposal, noting that Mr. Bush often speaks about the situation in Iraq."
Every Question Is an Opportunity
White House Communications Director Nicolle Davenish, in an interview on CNN with
"BASH: I want to ask you about Guantanamo Bay, the prison camp there. The president said in an interview yesterday that the government was looking at all alternatives regarding Guantanamo and terror prisoners. The press secretary, Scott McClellan, essentially said the same thing today.
"The defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that no one in the U.S. government is looking into the possibility of closing Guantanamo. So, who's right?
"DEVENISH: Well, look, I think that the president of the United States is always looking at the best way to accomplish our objectives here. Now, we remain a country at war. It's important to keep in mind who the prisoners are that are at Guantanamo. These are enemy combatants who were picked up on the battlefields of Afghanistan primarily, and when the president talks about looking at alternatives and the best ways to get -- to meet our objective, that objective is keeping America safe, so of course, the president of the United States is always looking for the best way to keep America safe.
"BASH: So, it sounds like there's a formal review underway.
"DEVENISH: I'm not aware of that, but, you know, I think the president spoke clearly and plainly and you heard from the White House, as well.
"BASH: You're the communications director. Has this been a bit of a PR nightmare for you?
"DEVENISH: Oh, there are no PR nightmares in Washington. It's always an opportunity to get to talk about the president's vision for getting things done."
Reporters also fruitlessly tried to get Scott McClellan to clear up the administration's position on the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba at yesterday's
A short excerpt:
"Q So the bottom line is --
"MR. McCLELLAN: And that's all the President was saying, is that we're always looking at all alternatives.
"Q Bottom line is he's completely ruled out closing down Guantanamo?
"MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?
"Q The bottom line is that he's completely ruled out --
"MR. McCLELLAN: I would leave it -- I would say what the President said, that we're always looking at all alternatives for dealing with detainees. That's what he said yesterday and that's where we are."
Downing Street Memo Watch
A potpourri of Downing Street Memo items:
"But that is what happened to the now infamous secret Downing Street memo, posted on the site on May 1 alongside a story by Michael Smith of The Sunday Times. And if the document has taken on a life of its own it is largely because of the bloggers and their web-savvy allies on the US Left."
A red-state paper that endorsed Bush comes out for disclosure. Here's today's
"In the interest of the nation and the administration, the source and content of the Downing Street Memo need to be fully explained."
Former New York Times ombudsman Daniel Okrent tells
"TERENCE SMITH: Do you have any evidence that it is?
"DANIEL OKRENT: No."
Writes Walcott: "Knight Ridder was, in fact, the first American news organization (more than a week before our local paper here in Washington) to write about the Downing Street memo and the light it shed on the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq.
"And almost six months before the memo was written, in early February 2002,
Also on the Daily Kos blog,
"This hearing is just one step in an investigation that I am commencing that will literally span the Atlantic. I am in touch with British officials and former U.S. intelligence officials and I am determined to get to the truth."
Social Security Watch
"This follows lengthy meetings with White House advisers, including top political adviser Karl Rove, said Grassley. . . .
"Grassley said he will not discuss the substance of his meetings with White House officials and was delicate in his general descriptions.
" 'I see these meetings as fully supportive of my efforts to get a bill out of committee,' said Grassley."
CAFTA Watch
"President George W. Bush met more than a dozen Democrats who had raised concerns that weak labour standards in the region could undercut US workers. It was his fourth meeting with members of Congress to try to build support for the Central American Free Trade Agreement."
Patriot Actor
"Bush's speech lasted 23 minutes, and he spoke to 150 law enforcement officers. It was a much smaller audience than is usually assembled for a presidential visit, and his speech was about half as long as most speeches he gives on overhauling Social Security.
"But Bush's target audience wasn't the cops in the room; it was members of Congress who are deciding whether to extend and expand the law that was passed hurriedly by big margins weeks after 9/11 to give law enforcement more power to pursue terrorists."
"The president Thursday did not mention expansion of the act, but White House spokeswoman Dana Perrino said Bush supported such efforts."
Here's the
"Over the past three-and-a-half years, America's law enforcement and intelligence personnel have proved that the Patriot Act works, that it was an important piece of legislation. Since September the 11th, federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted."
Can someone get me a run-down on those 400 suspects, and what they were accused of doing?
Today's Calendar
Bush visited the National Counterterrorism Center in Tysons Corner this morning and tapped retired Vice Admiral John S. Redd to be its director.
Redd most recently served as executive director of the White House's WMD Commission. Here's the White House
Bush also spoke again about the Patriot Act. Here's the
Korea Watch
Ambassador Picks
"If the Senate gives its approval, Los Angeles venture capitalist Ronald Spogli will become U.S. ambassador to Italy, and Orange County automobile dealership executive Robert H. Tuttle will become ambassador to Britain."
Where's Osama?
"Kasuri met privately with President Bush yesterday, but the subject of Bin Laden didn't come up, he said."
Obnoxious Pop-Up Ad
No one likes pop-up ads. But the Secret Service might take issue with this one:
Cavuto Redux
FishbowlDC blogger
Reports Graff: " 'Is it any wonder that the President will sit down for an interview with Fox News?' one reporter asked at the Atlantic event last night. '[The White House] couldn't come up with easier questions themselves.' "
© 2005 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
THE RELENTLESS QUEST FOR ACTUAL AND REAL NEWS
MORE ON SENSENBRENNER'S APPALLING ACTION ON FRIDAY
From Dem Bloggers
VIDEO OF SENSENBRENNER
From the AP via Truthout.org
SESENBRENNER HEARING SHUT DOWN
MILITARY FAMILIES IN BRITAIN AND THE U.S. ARE DEMANDING ANSWERS OF BLAIR AND BUSH ON MEMO GATE
From Truthout.org
ANSWERS ON MEMO GATE
GALLUP POLL REVEALS THE PUBLIC HAS LOST CONFIDENCE IN THE MEDIA
The plunge in numbers has been downward since 2000. Surprise. Surprise. Lack of news coverage is why I became a blogger - LS
From Editor & Publisher
LOSS OF CONFIDENCE
"MEET TEAM DELAY, TAMMANY FALL"
This is the most comprehensive analysis I've seen written recently on Tom DeLay. The author reveals how DeLay has amassed enormous power and influence on the lobbyist groups in Washington, mostly by bullying and intimidation. For example, Delay would threaten and badger companies not only to REPLACE Democrat with Republican staff members, but the R replacements HAD to be DELAY'S staff members. If lobbying firms would not comply with Tyrant DeLay's wishes, he would retaliate, for example, by holding up bills whose passage was important to a non-cooperative firm.
Aren't you proud of your elected official, Sugarland? (SL, DeLay's district, is a suburb of Houston and this comment is directed to its major who wrote an article in support of DeLay in the Houston Chronicle yesterday, not that the mayor would read this blog.) LS
The article can be found on The New Republic on line. You will have to register to read the article, but there is no cost involved and it takes only a minute or two.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050620&s=judis062005
MORE ON THE DOWNING STREET MEMO
Britain Ministers warned in 2002 of EXCUSE for War with Iraq
Found on the UK Times on line from a blogger for the AfterDowningStreet.org
Excerpt:
MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.
The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.
EXCUSE FOR GOING TO WAR WITH IRAQ
SUBURBAN NEWSPAPER IN UPSTATE NEW YORK RAILS AGAINST BUSH AND DSM
Found the piece via Buzz Flash this morning.
RECORD ON LINE
From Dem Bloggers
VIDEO OF SENSENBRENNER
From the AP via Truthout.org
SESENBRENNER HEARING SHUT DOWN
MILITARY FAMILIES IN BRITAIN AND THE U.S. ARE DEMANDING ANSWERS OF BLAIR AND BUSH ON MEMO GATE
From Truthout.org
ANSWERS ON MEMO GATE
GALLUP POLL REVEALS THE PUBLIC HAS LOST CONFIDENCE IN THE MEDIA
The plunge in numbers has been downward since 2000. Surprise. Surprise. Lack of news coverage is why I became a blogger - LS
From Editor & Publisher
LOSS OF CONFIDENCE
"MEET TEAM DELAY, TAMMANY FALL"
This is the most comprehensive analysis I've seen written recently on Tom DeLay. The author reveals how DeLay has amassed enormous power and influence on the lobbyist groups in Washington, mostly by bullying and intimidation. For example, Delay would threaten and badger companies not only to REPLACE Democrat with Republican staff members, but the R replacements HAD to be DELAY'S staff members. If lobbying firms would not comply with Tyrant DeLay's wishes, he would retaliate, for example, by holding up bills whose passage was important to a non-cooperative firm.
Aren't you proud of your elected official, Sugarland? (SL, DeLay's district, is a suburb of Houston and this comment is directed to its major who wrote an article in support of DeLay in the Houston Chronicle yesterday, not that the mayor would read this blog.) LS
The article can be found on The New Republic on line. You will have to register to read the article, but there is no cost involved and it takes only a minute or two.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050620&s=judis062005
MORE ON THE DOWNING STREET MEMO
Britain Ministers warned in 2002 of EXCUSE for War with Iraq
Found on the UK Times on line from a blogger for the AfterDowningStreet.org
Excerpt:
MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.
The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.
EXCUSE FOR GOING TO WAR WITH IRAQ
SUBURBAN NEWSPAPER IN UPSTATE NEW YORK RAILS AGAINST BUSH AND DSM
Found the piece via Buzz Flash this morning.
RECORD ON LINE
Saturday, June 11, 2005
WE LIVE IN A DICTATORSHIP: PROVEN TODAY
GOP CHAIR OF THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SHUTS DOWN HEARING. GAVELS WITNESSES TESTIMONY SO THEY COULD NOT CONTINUE TESTIFYING.....TURNS OFF MICS, WALKS OFF WITH GAVEL, UNPLUGS CSPAN'S COVERAGE.......
OUTRAGEOUS!
APPALLING GOP SHUT DOWN OF HEARING
Brad's Blog has complete coverage, too
(My aplogies, I had provided the incorrect URL yesterday for Brad Friedman's blog.) LS
NEW LINK TO BRAD'S BLOG
OUTRAGEOUS!
APPALLING GOP SHUT DOWN OF HEARING
Brad's Blog has complete coverage, too
(My aplogies, I had provided the incorrect URL yesterday for Brad Friedman's blog.) LS
NEW LINK TO BRAD'S BLOG
Thursday, June 09, 2005
"LIVES IN THE BALANCE"
It may help to understand and fully appreciate the seriously troubling and dark times in which we live within the context of poetry and song lyrics from difficult periods in the past. History has its way of repeating itself.
It is now evidently clear that the mission to hold the government accountable for its actions lies in the hands of political activists and concerned citizens using the tools of the Internet. LS
LIVES IN THE BALANCE
By Jackson Brown
http://www.jrp-graphics.com/jb/jbbio.html
I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war
And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs
On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends--
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire
There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can't even say the names
They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire
US HOUSE JUDICIARY INVOKE RULE, CALL FOR ADDITIONAL HEARINGS ON PATRIOT ACT ABUSE
Iniatiated by Congressman John Conyers, of course. Where on earth would be without Mr. Conyers, I wonder.
Found on Brad' Blog. Scroll down to June 9th
Excerpt:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 9, 2005
HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE TO HOLD OFFICIAL OVERSIGHT HEARING ON PATRIOT ACT ABUSES
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a rarely used procedural move, House Judiciary Committee Democrats invoked Rule 11 of the House Rules and requested an additional day of hearings on the Patriot Act and civil liberties implications of the Administration's terrorism related efforts. This will be the first hearing in which Members of the Committee will have the opportunity to address in detail, the horrific human rights abuses of detainees that occurred in the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons, as well as the ongoing problems of racial profiling and hate crimes that have plagued Muslim and Arab Americans since the passage of the Patriot Act in 2001. In addition, this will be the first time Amnesty International has testified before Congressional Committee since the publication of their 2005 Annual Report on human rights abuses throughout the world. The Committee will also hear testimony how the Administration has abused the immigration system to hold people without charge or bond, and have proceedings behind closed doors.
WHAT: House Judiciary Committee Democratic Oversight Hearing on Patriot Act Abuses
WHEN: Friday, June 10th @ 8:30am
WHERE: 2141 Rayburn House Office Building
WITNESSES:
Chip Pitts, Chair of the Board, Amnesty International USA
Dr. James J. Zogby, President, Arab American Institute
Deborah Pearlstein, Director, U.S. Law and Security Program, Human Rights First
Carlina Tapia-Ruano, American Immigration Lawyers Association
BRADS BLOG
CONYERS WILL HOLD DSM HEARING ON JUNE 17
(I mean, does Mr. Conyers ever sleep? Thank you for not sleeping, Mr. Conyers!)
Those who will testify are Joe Wilson, former ambassador whose wife, a CIA agent, was outed by someone in the WH (whom we know is either the master manipulator or the master puppeteer) and Robert Novak (yawn - a now irrelevant typical right wing media hack), Ray McGovern, a 27 year CIA analyst, Cindy Sheehan, a mother who lost her son in Iraq (what have you lost, Mr. President, Mr. manipulator, Mr. puppeteer and Mr. right wing media hack?) and John Bonifaz, Boston constitutional lawyer (finally, a man of principle) who has called for a resolution of inquiry into possible Bush impeachable offenses. Dear me! Even the manipulator and puppeter might not be able save your derriere or their's, for that matter, this time, Mr. P. Daddy's buddies will bail big time, you watch. Who will take the fall, I wonder? Interesting. LS
From Raw Story
CONYER HEARINGS ON DSM
A MEDIA OF "DEAF EARS"
After 5 weeks of silence on the Downing Street Memo, the U.S. media now has its collective tails between its legs, after a reporter finally had the courage to do his job and question Their Royal Majesties Bush and Blair about the memo at a briefing the other day.
Found on Raw Story
DEAF MEDIA
PICKING AWAY AT THE WALL OF ARROGANCE, DECEPTION AND CORRUPTION.
Interview by Buzz Flash with Congressman John Conyers.
TAKING DOWN THE WALL
WILLIAM RIVERS PITT ON DOWNING STREET MEMO
As usual, Will says it all, insightfully, artfully and to the point.
Excerpt:
The record is clear, the evidence piled before us, treachery after stacked treachery. Plenty of powerful people would like this document to go away, not excepting the folks in the news media, because the document provides a capstone exposure of just how flawed, biased, shabby and ultimately deadly their coverage of this issue has been. Don't doubt for a second that the scions of our journalistic realm would like the Minutes to fade, because as long as the document stands in the light, their complicity in this catastrophe is all too clear.
It isn't going away. A massive coalition of activist groups have come together to form the After Downing Street Coalition, which seeks coverage of this issue in the media and accountability on this issue from Congress and the administration. Rep. John Conyers and 88 other House members have delivered a letter to Bush demanding answers, and nearly 200,000 Americans have signed their support for this letter. The number of signatures grows by the day.
AFTER DOWNING STREET
MOVING ON TO NEWS FROM OUR FAVORITE STATE OF LATE: OHIO
OHIO MISSING MILLIONS $$$ SCANDAL SEWAGE SPEWING TOWARD PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2004
(geeze oh pete...are you as drop dead stunned as I am? LS)
Found on Raw Story
OHIO SCANDAL AND ELECTION 04
AND.....
FORMER AID TO BUSH THE FIRST ONCE KEY PLAYER IN FIRM TIED TO OHIO SCANDAL
(yawn...what else is new...house of bush..house of saud...you know the drill...house of get it all for yourselves, your loyal buddies and willing servants eager to do the dirty work at hand. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the average Janes and Joes of Ohio will suffer the consequences of the financial loss in one way or another. Big time. But who in the WH gives a rat's derriere? Not a one, I am sure.)
Excerpt:
The massive hedge fund loss is the newest tentacle of the scandal that's become known as "Coingate," because the workers' fund may be missing $10-12 million in assets in an investment with a rare coin dealer. The dealer, Tom Noe, also is a key GOP figure and major fundraiser for President Bush in Ohio, the state that narrowly gave him the final 20 electoral votes for his narrow re-election.
BUSH TIES TO OHIO FIRM TIED TO SCANDAL
It is now evidently clear that the mission to hold the government accountable for its actions lies in the hands of political activists and concerned citizens using the tools of the Internet. LS
LIVES IN THE BALANCE
By Jackson Brown
http://www.jrp-graphics.com/jb/jbbio.html
I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that you've seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war
And there's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs
On the radio talk shows and the T.V.
You hear one thing again and again
How the U.S.A. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends--
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire
There's a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we can't even say the names
They sell us the President the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire
US HOUSE JUDICIARY INVOKE RULE, CALL FOR ADDITIONAL HEARINGS ON PATRIOT ACT ABUSE
Iniatiated by Congressman John Conyers, of course. Where on earth would be without Mr. Conyers, I wonder.
Found on Brad' Blog. Scroll down to June 9th
Excerpt:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 9, 2005
HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE TO HOLD OFFICIAL OVERSIGHT HEARING ON PATRIOT ACT ABUSES
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a rarely used procedural move, House Judiciary Committee Democrats invoked Rule 11 of the House Rules and requested an additional day of hearings on the Patriot Act and civil liberties implications of the Administration's terrorism related efforts. This will be the first hearing in which Members of the Committee will have the opportunity to address in detail, the horrific human rights abuses of detainees that occurred in the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay prisons, as well as the ongoing problems of racial profiling and hate crimes that have plagued Muslim and Arab Americans since the passage of the Patriot Act in 2001. In addition, this will be the first time Amnesty International has testified before Congressional Committee since the publication of their 2005 Annual Report on human rights abuses throughout the world. The Committee will also hear testimony how the Administration has abused the immigration system to hold people without charge or bond, and have proceedings behind closed doors.
WHAT: House Judiciary Committee Democratic Oversight Hearing on Patriot Act Abuses
WHEN: Friday, June 10th @ 8:30am
WHERE: 2141 Rayburn House Office Building
WITNESSES:
Chip Pitts, Chair of the Board, Amnesty International USA
Dr. James J. Zogby, President, Arab American Institute
Deborah Pearlstein, Director, U.S. Law and Security Program, Human Rights First
Carlina Tapia-Ruano, American Immigration Lawyers Association
BRADS BLOG
CONYERS WILL HOLD DSM HEARING ON JUNE 17
(I mean, does Mr. Conyers ever sleep? Thank you for not sleeping, Mr. Conyers!)
Those who will testify are Joe Wilson, former ambassador whose wife, a CIA agent, was outed by someone in the WH (whom we know is either the master manipulator or the master puppeteer) and Robert Novak (yawn - a now irrelevant typical right wing media hack), Ray McGovern, a 27 year CIA analyst, Cindy Sheehan, a mother who lost her son in Iraq (what have you lost, Mr. President, Mr. manipulator, Mr. puppeteer and Mr. right wing media hack?) and John Bonifaz, Boston constitutional lawyer (finally, a man of principle) who has called for a resolution of inquiry into possible Bush impeachable offenses. Dear me! Even the manipulator and puppeter might not be able save your derriere or their's, for that matter, this time, Mr. P. Daddy's buddies will bail big time, you watch. Who will take the fall, I wonder? Interesting. LS
From Raw Story
CONYER HEARINGS ON DSM
A MEDIA OF "DEAF EARS"
After 5 weeks of silence on the Downing Street Memo, the U.S. media now has its collective tails between its legs, after a reporter finally had the courage to do his job and question Their Royal Majesties Bush and Blair about the memo at a briefing the other day.
Found on Raw Story
DEAF MEDIA
PICKING AWAY AT THE WALL OF ARROGANCE, DECEPTION AND CORRUPTION.
Interview by Buzz Flash with Congressman John Conyers.
TAKING DOWN THE WALL
WILLIAM RIVERS PITT ON DOWNING STREET MEMO
As usual, Will says it all, insightfully, artfully and to the point.
Excerpt:
The record is clear, the evidence piled before us, treachery after stacked treachery. Plenty of powerful people would like this document to go away, not excepting the folks in the news media, because the document provides a capstone exposure of just how flawed, biased, shabby and ultimately deadly their coverage of this issue has been. Don't doubt for a second that the scions of our journalistic realm would like the Minutes to fade, because as long as the document stands in the light, their complicity in this catastrophe is all too clear.
It isn't going away. A massive coalition of activist groups have come together to form the After Downing Street Coalition, which seeks coverage of this issue in the media and accountability on this issue from Congress and the administration. Rep. John Conyers and 88 other House members have delivered a letter to Bush demanding answers, and nearly 200,000 Americans have signed their support for this letter. The number of signatures grows by the day.
AFTER DOWNING STREET
MOVING ON TO NEWS FROM OUR FAVORITE STATE OF LATE: OHIO
OHIO MISSING MILLIONS $$$ SCANDAL SEWAGE SPEWING TOWARD PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2004
(geeze oh pete...are you as drop dead stunned as I am? LS)
Found on Raw Story
OHIO SCANDAL AND ELECTION 04
AND.....
FORMER AID TO BUSH THE FIRST ONCE KEY PLAYER IN FIRM TIED TO OHIO SCANDAL
(yawn...what else is new...house of bush..house of saud...you know the drill...house of get it all for yourselves, your loyal buddies and willing servants eager to do the dirty work at hand. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the average Janes and Joes of Ohio will suffer the consequences of the financial loss in one way or another. Big time. But who in the WH gives a rat's derriere? Not a one, I am sure.)
Excerpt:
The massive hedge fund loss is the newest tentacle of the scandal that's become known as "Coingate," because the workers' fund may be missing $10-12 million in assets in an investment with a rare coin dealer. The dealer, Tom Noe, also is a key GOP figure and major fundraiser for President Bush in Ohio, the state that narrowly gave him the final 20 electoral votes for his narrow re-election.
BUSH TIES TO OHIO FIRM TIED TO SCANDAL
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
"MASTERS OF WAR"
Bob Dylan, 1963
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead
Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music
http://www.columbiarecords.com/
MASTERS OF LIES
Bush/Blair deny Downing Street Memo
NYT Page A6, 6/8/05
MASTER LIARS
And, from the Washington Post: "DOWNING STREET MEMO STORY WON'T DIE"
MORE ON MASTER LIARS
More on the DSM from a suburban NJ paper, found via Buzz Flash
MASTERS OF FRAUD
MASTERS OF DECEIT AND THEFT
Missing $215 MILLION COVERUP IN OHIO
The Toledo Blade via Raw Story
MASTERS OF DECEIT
MASTERS OFINFLUENCE PEDALING
From Yahoo News via Raw Story
"LOBBYIST HELPED INDIAN LEADERS MEET BUSH"
BUYING FACE TIME
MASTER OF FAILURE
52% of us unhappy under Bush Rule. Three-fourths of us find the casualties in Iraq unacceptable. Did this guy really win the election?
MASTER OF FAILURE
MASTER OF DISASTER
FALL OF THE HOUSE OF BUSH
Bush is taking us down the road to disaster and we are all willing passengers, writes Earnest Partridge, co-editor of the Crisis Papers.
MASTER OF DISASTER
MASTERS OF INSULT TO OUR COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND WELL-BEING
From the Democratic Underground:
MASTERS OF INSULT
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead
Copyright © 1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music
http://www.columbiarecords.com/
MASTERS OF LIES
Bush/Blair deny Downing Street Memo
NYT Page A6, 6/8/05
MASTER LIARS
And, from the Washington Post: "DOWNING STREET MEMO STORY WON'T DIE"
MORE ON MASTER LIARS
More on the DSM from a suburban NJ paper, found via Buzz Flash
MASTERS OF FRAUD
MASTERS OF DECEIT AND THEFT
Missing $215 MILLION COVERUP IN OHIO
The Toledo Blade via Raw Story
MASTERS OF DECEIT
MASTERS OFINFLUENCE PEDALING
From Yahoo News via Raw Story
"LOBBYIST HELPED INDIAN LEADERS MEET BUSH"
BUYING FACE TIME
MASTER OF FAILURE
52% of us unhappy under Bush Rule. Three-fourths of us find the casualties in Iraq unacceptable. Did this guy really win the election?
MASTER OF FAILURE
MASTER OF DISASTER
FALL OF THE HOUSE OF BUSH
Bush is taking us down the road to disaster and we are all willing passengers, writes Earnest Partridge, co-editor of the Crisis Papers.
MASTER OF DISASTER
MASTERS OF INSULT TO OUR COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND WELL-BEING
From the Democratic Underground:
MASTERS OF INSULT
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
"KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCKIN' ON HEAVEN'S DOOR"
Bob Dylan, 1973
Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is comin' down
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Copyright © 1973 Ram's Horn Music
http://www.columbiarecords.com/
"SENATOR KENNEDY SPEAKS TO THE SENATE ON DOWNING STREET MEMO: 'TWISTED INTELLIGENCE, DISTORTED FACTS'"
From Raw Story.com
KENNEDY ON DOWNING STREET MEMO
WH PLAYED DOWN EMISSONS LINKS TO GLOBAL WARMING
From the NYT via Raw Story
WH LIES ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING
KATHERINE HARRIS TO RUN FOR SENATE IN 2006
Yahoo News posting via Raw Story
HARRIS RUNS FOR SENATE
SOLDIER CHARGED WITH DESERTION AFTER TELLING THE TRUTH
From Salon.com
SOLDIER TELLS TRUTH AND IS PUNISHED
GARMENT WORKER CHALLENGES DELAY'S CLAIMS THAT HE FOUND NO VICTIMES OF SWEATSHOPS, SEX SLAVERY OR FORCED ABORTIONS in Saipan.
DELAY DENIAL OF SWEATSHOPS, SEX SLAVERY AND FORCED ABORTIONS CHALLENGED BY WORKER
"INTELLIGENCE AND FACTS ABOUT IRAQ FIXED BUT POST INVASION PLANNING WASN'T"
Found on the Village Voice
THE IRAQ FIX
THE BUSH ECONOMY
The NYT via Truthout
BUSH ECONOMY
WHEN THE RIGHT DOESN'T LIKE THE TRUTH, IT REWRITES HISTORY.
From Michael Tomasky of the American Prospect
RIGHT REWRITES HISTORY
Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is comin' down
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Copyright © 1973 Ram's Horn Music
http://www.columbiarecords.com/
"SENATOR KENNEDY SPEAKS TO THE SENATE ON DOWNING STREET MEMO: 'TWISTED INTELLIGENCE, DISTORTED FACTS'"
From Raw Story.com
KENNEDY ON DOWNING STREET MEMO
WH PLAYED DOWN EMISSONS LINKS TO GLOBAL WARMING
From the NYT via Raw Story
WH LIES ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING
KATHERINE HARRIS TO RUN FOR SENATE IN 2006
Yahoo News posting via Raw Story
HARRIS RUNS FOR SENATE
SOLDIER CHARGED WITH DESERTION AFTER TELLING THE TRUTH
From Salon.com
SOLDIER TELLS TRUTH AND IS PUNISHED
GARMENT WORKER CHALLENGES DELAY'S CLAIMS THAT HE FOUND NO VICTIMES OF SWEATSHOPS, SEX SLAVERY OR FORCED ABORTIONS in Saipan.
DELAY DENIAL OF SWEATSHOPS, SEX SLAVERY AND FORCED ABORTIONS CHALLENGED BY WORKER
"INTELLIGENCE AND FACTS ABOUT IRAQ FIXED BUT POST INVASION PLANNING WASN'T"
Found on the Village Voice
THE IRAQ FIX
THE BUSH ECONOMY
The NYT via Truthout
BUSH ECONOMY
WHEN THE RIGHT DOESN'T LIKE THE TRUTH, IT REWRITES HISTORY.
From Michael Tomasky of the American Prospect
RIGHT REWRITES HISTORY
GOP LIAR VS. ACTIVIST SEEKING GOP ACCOUNTABILITY
Transcript of GOP chair, Ken Mehlman, interview on Meet the Press yesterday.
GOP chair "respectfully disagrees" with every question about or criticism of Bush policy, posited by Tim Russett. (On a side note, I believe that Mr. Russett was far less harsh in his questioning of Mehlman than he was with Dean 2 weeks ago.)
Concerning the Downing Street memo, Kenny boy M blatantly lies. It was discredited by all who read it, according to KM.
LYING ABOUT THE DOWNING STREET MEMO
BRAD'S BLOG WRITES ABOUT ISSUES WE CAN DICUSS WITH THE NEW PUBLIC EDITOR OF THE NYT
Brad's Blog has a substantial amount of information tonight and I will therefore refrain from posting other news because Brad Friedman covers a myriad of issues so crucially important not only to our party, but to Democracy as we know it.
Brad's post today discusses the new Public Editor, Mr. Byron Calame, for the NYT. I read Mr. Calame’s column yesterday and am cautiously optimistic about his openness to discuss news of critical importance, news so obviously missing in the press and MSM.
But then, why has the NYT shrunk from its journalistic responsibilities of late and what role will Mr. Calame play in restoring its former image, I wonder. However, moving along…..
Brad urges us to write to Mr. Calame about the issues percolating if not erupting and exploding on the Internet and in the blogosphere. You know, critical events that have not been shown in the MSM or written about in the press. As Randi Rhodes of Air America Radio said very recently: “There is no news anymore.” Randi is right.
It is with caution, however, on my part, that we contact Mr. Calame. Should we trust his invitation to an open dialogue? The press and MSM are, after all, bottom line driven. That is the root of the problem, in my view, so while a tad cynical, I suggest we give it our best shot and blast Mr. Calame with our views. Hold his feet to the fire and demand results in exposure. We have nothing to lose after all, do we?
Brad’s suggested list of blacked out realities:
Election 2004
Election Reform
Help America Vote Act
Vote Rigging Software Whistleblower
Clint Curtis
American Center for Voter’s Rights
The Baker/Carter Commission
The Mitofsky/Edison Exit Polls
Libby Shaw’s List To Add to Brad’s:
The Downing Street Memo
Tom DeLay
Ohio Coingate
Isle of Man Billionaires
Jeff Gannon, the fake reporter
Prisoners of war abuse
Koran Abuse
Abuse of US military: shoddy protective gear, cutting already miserly benefits, why do those who send our children to war don’t send their children?
The 9/11 Commission: Why it had to reorganize into a private group to hold the Bush people accountable for national security.
Cheney and Halliburton's ripoffs
Rumsfeld's and Cheney's former role with Saddam and Iraq.
House of Bush, House of Saud
The No Child Left Behind Myth
Merging of church and state
Spending federal tax payer money to promote fake news and Bush propaganda.
Spending federal tax payer money to advance a fundamentalist Christian agenda (i.e. handing out Bibles in sex ed courses, dismisssing Darwin's theory of evolution).
The list will go on. To be continued.
BRAD'S BLOG JUNE 6 POST
GOP chair "respectfully disagrees" with every question about or criticism of Bush policy, posited by Tim Russett. (On a side note, I believe that Mr. Russett was far less harsh in his questioning of Mehlman than he was with Dean 2 weeks ago.)
Concerning the Downing Street memo, Kenny boy M blatantly lies. It was discredited by all who read it, according to KM.
LYING ABOUT THE DOWNING STREET MEMO
BRAD'S BLOG WRITES ABOUT ISSUES WE CAN DICUSS WITH THE NEW PUBLIC EDITOR OF THE NYT
Brad's Blog has a substantial amount of information tonight and I will therefore refrain from posting other news because Brad Friedman covers a myriad of issues so crucially important not only to our party, but to Democracy as we know it.
Brad's post today discusses the new Public Editor, Mr. Byron Calame, for the NYT. I read Mr. Calame’s column yesterday and am cautiously optimistic about his openness to discuss news of critical importance, news so obviously missing in the press and MSM.
But then, why has the NYT shrunk from its journalistic responsibilities of late and what role will Mr. Calame play in restoring its former image, I wonder. However, moving along…..
Brad urges us to write to Mr. Calame about the issues percolating if not erupting and exploding on the Internet and in the blogosphere. You know, critical events that have not been shown in the MSM or written about in the press. As Randi Rhodes of Air America Radio said very recently: “There is no news anymore.” Randi is right.
It is with caution, however, on my part, that we contact Mr. Calame. Should we trust his invitation to an open dialogue? The press and MSM are, after all, bottom line driven. That is the root of the problem, in my view, so while a tad cynical, I suggest we give it our best shot and blast Mr. Calame with our views. Hold his feet to the fire and demand results in exposure. We have nothing to lose after all, do we?
Brad’s suggested list of blacked out realities:
Election 2004
Election Reform
Help America Vote Act
Vote Rigging Software Whistleblower
Clint Curtis
American Center for Voter’s Rights
The Baker/Carter Commission
The Mitofsky/Edison Exit Polls
Libby Shaw’s List To Add to Brad’s:
The Downing Street Memo
Tom DeLay
Ohio Coingate
Isle of Man Billionaires
Jeff Gannon, the fake reporter
Prisoners of war abuse
Koran Abuse
Abuse of US military: shoddy protective gear, cutting already miserly benefits, why do those who send our children to war don’t send their children?
The 9/11 Commission: Why it had to reorganize into a private group to hold the Bush people accountable for national security.
Cheney and Halliburton's ripoffs
Rumsfeld's and Cheney's former role with Saddam and Iraq.
House of Bush, House of Saud
The No Child Left Behind Myth
Merging of church and state
Spending federal tax payer money to promote fake news and Bush propaganda.
Spending federal tax payer money to advance a fundamentalist Christian agenda (i.e. handing out Bibles in sex ed courses, dismisssing Darwin's theory of evolution).
The list will go on. To be continued.
BRAD'S BLOG JUNE 6 POST
Monday, June 06, 2005
WATERGATE TODAY, KILLING THE WHISTLE BLOWER, ON SELLING WASHINGTON AND MORE CHEERFUL NEWS IN A GOP CONTROLLED U.S.
First and foremost, if you haven't signed John Conyer's petition demanding answers from Bush on the Downing Street Memo, please do so. It is up to us to bring attention to this issue since the media is apparently missing in action or hiding and cowering in denial. Mr. Conyers had at first asked for 100,000 signatures, which he received in a matter of days. His goal is now 250,000 signatures so please sign it, if you haven't done so already. If so, ask your friends and family to do the same. Surely even sane and moderate Republicans must be appalled by the implications of the Downing Street Memo.
We must also pressure our Senators, especially those of us in the so-called RED states to respond to the implications of the Downing Street Memo. We must hold their feet to the fire. When they realize the truth, they might just start back pedaling away from Bush and his neo-con policies, which have little relevance to the well being and interests of the majority of the American population.
The response has been so overwhelming that Conyers site has crashed numerous times. He has therefore started an open thread. Below is the URL
CONYERS PETITION
ON TO NEWS NOT FOUND IN EITHER THE SUNDAY NYT OR HOUSTON CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE SECTIONS TODAY
IF WATERGATE HAPPENED TODAY, THERE WOULD BE NO HEARINGS AND NIXON WOULD STILL BE PRESIDENT.
Awesome and disturbing piece about what has become of our political system today under GOP rule by Jonathan Alter of Newsweek
This is absolutely true. Look at how the Downing Street Memo fails to gain momentum in the media. Look at how Gannongate disappeared with no consequences whatsoever. Look at how Newsweek got blamed for killings and riots in Iraq and Afghanistan when to this day, reports are emerging about Koran abuse, that have nothing to do with the Newsweek article. The WH blamed in on Newsweek and almost got away with it. A CIA agent was outed and zip happened. There is much much more.....LS
IF WATERGATE HAPPENED TODAY
PROOF THAT THE REPUBLICANS DEMAND ULTIMATE REVENGE
On CNN's Crossfire Former Secretary Lawrence Eagleburger, who served under Nixon, said that Nixon had at one point suspected Mark Felt as being Deep Throat. Eagleburger said he was surprised Felt didn't end up DEAD. By whom, hired Mafia hit men or Nixon loyalists' hired hacks? This gives me the horrors. In comparison to Bush and Cheney, Nixon was a softy.
Found on the Democratic Underground:
KILLING THE WHISTLE BLOWERS
Here's a piece about William F. Buckley, conservative writer for the National Review, and what he knew and didn't know about Watergate in the 1970's. Found via Buzz Flash.
WHAT BUCKLEY KNEW ABOUT WATERGATE
"SELLING WASHINGTON" by Elizabeth Drew of the New York Review of Books.
This is a bone-chilling piece. Only Republicans ideologues are invited to K Street. Get rid of each and every Democrat.
Excerpt:
The Republican purge of K Street is a more thorough, ruthless, vindictive, and effective attack on Democratic lobbyists and other Democrats who represent businesses and other organizations than anything Washington has seen before. The Republicans don't simply want to take care of their friends and former aides by getting them high-paying jobs: they want the lobbyists they helped place in these jobs and other corporate representatives to arrange lavish trips for themselves and their wives; to invite them to watch sports events from skyboxes; and, most important, to provide a steady flow of campaign contributions. The former aides become part of their previous employers' power networks. Republican leaders also want to have like-minded people on K Street who can further their ideological goals by helping to formulate their legislative programs, get them passed, and generally circulate their ideas. When I suggested to Grover Norquist, the influential right-wing leader and the leading enforcer of the K Street Project outside Congress, that numerous Democrats on K Street were not particularly ideological and were happy to serve corporate interests, he replied, "We don't want nonideological people on K Street, we want conservative activist Republicans on K Street."
The K Street Project has become critical to the Republicans' efforts to control all the power centers in Washington: the White House, Congress, the courts - and now, at least, an influential part of the corporate world, the one that raises most of the political money. It's another way for Republicans to try to impose their programs on the country. The Washington Post reported recently that House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, of Missouri, has established "a formal, institutionalized alliance" with K Street lobbyists. They have become an integral part of the legislative process by helping to get bills written and passed - and they are rewarded for their help by the fees paid by their clients. Among the results is legislation that serves powerful private interests all the more openly - as will be seen, the energy bill recently passed by the House is a prime example - and a climate of fear that is new. The conservative commentator David Brooks said on PBS's News Hour earlier this year, "The biggest threat to the Republican majority is the relationship on K Street with corporate lobbyists and the corruption that is entailed in that." But if the Republicans are running a risk of being seen as overreaching in their takeover of K Street, there are few signs that they are concerned about it.
K STREET MISSION TO GET RID OF DEMOCRATS
ALAN COLMES OF FOX NEWS AIRS THE DOWNING STREET MEMO ON HIS RADIO SHOW.
This is rather surprising if not shocking. Though Alan Colmes is the supposed liberal on the Hannity/Colmes Show he is not considered even remotely liberal as far as Al Franken and other "real" liberals are concerned. LS
News Hound writer said Colmes' Show on June 2 is one of the few fair and balanced pieces about Bush that he has heard on Fox.
COLMES AIRS DOWNING STREET MEMO
TWO MORE BUSH DONORS INVESTIGATED FOR FRAUD AND TAX EVASION
I am sure you are as shocked and appalled as I am. Yeah, right! LS
"US PROBES ISLE OF MAN SCHEME USED BY BILLIONAIRE BUSH DONERS"
Found on The Independent via Raw Story
Excerpt:
The duo, who made their money in computing and retailing, not only gave over $200,000 to President Bush's re-election campaigns, but also bankrolled TV adverts attacking his rivals, John Kerry and Senator John McCain.
BUSH DONOR BILLIONAIRE SCHEMES
BUSH DONOR SMALLER CHANGE FRAUD.
MORE ON THE SCANDAL RAGING IN OHIO OVER COINGATE.
COINGATE ONGOING
CIA SIDELINED DURING HIGH LEVEL MEETINGS
Talk about consolidating one's power. Perhaps Bush is worried that Deep Throat was a high level FBI official who took down a corrupt presidency. Few now, very few, are in the inner circle of power so if one of them squeals, the Darth Vadars of this admin. will know who it is. Maybe Bush and Cheney are getting as paranoid as Nixon. Well boys, that is what lies, corruption and power mongering engender. Good luck. If we, the people, don't get to you, your psyches will, and, in one way or another, you'll go off the deep end. LS
CIA SIDELINED
DEMOCRATS CRITICAL OF DEAN'S ATTACK ON THE GOP
It seems that a couple of leading Democrats, i.e. Biden and Edwards, have a problem with Dean's harsh language concerning the GOP. In my view, it is healthy, no, it is crucial for us to disagree. It is, in fact, actually, normal to have varying opinions on issues within a party. It is only because we live in radical and dark times under GOP rule that any divergence whatsoever within a party is perceived as unacceptable. Democrats are not extremists. Our party believes in conversation, debate and dialogue. We do not manufacture a message, then expect every soul in the party to repeat it like mindless puppets, marching in lock step, manipulated by the master puppeteer. We Democrats and the majority of Americans, for that matter, share values but we do not impose them on one another. We are diverse and we must celebrate our differences. Let’s continue to work together to wrest our society free of this oppressive and manipulative administration. LS
DEMOCRATS CRITICAL OF DEAN
We must also pressure our Senators, especially those of us in the so-called RED states to respond to the implications of the Downing Street Memo. We must hold their feet to the fire. When they realize the truth, they might just start back pedaling away from Bush and his neo-con policies, which have little relevance to the well being and interests of the majority of the American population.
The response has been so overwhelming that Conyers site has crashed numerous times. He has therefore started an open thread. Below is the URL
CONYERS PETITION
ON TO NEWS NOT FOUND IN EITHER THE SUNDAY NYT OR HOUSTON CHRONICLE FRONT PAGE SECTIONS TODAY
IF WATERGATE HAPPENED TODAY, THERE WOULD BE NO HEARINGS AND NIXON WOULD STILL BE PRESIDENT.
Awesome and disturbing piece about what has become of our political system today under GOP rule by Jonathan Alter of Newsweek
This is absolutely true. Look at how the Downing Street Memo fails to gain momentum in the media. Look at how Gannongate disappeared with no consequences whatsoever. Look at how Newsweek got blamed for killings and riots in Iraq and Afghanistan when to this day, reports are emerging about Koran abuse, that have nothing to do with the Newsweek article. The WH blamed in on Newsweek and almost got away with it. A CIA agent was outed and zip happened. There is much much more.....LS
IF WATERGATE HAPPENED TODAY
PROOF THAT THE REPUBLICANS DEMAND ULTIMATE REVENGE
On CNN's Crossfire Former Secretary Lawrence Eagleburger, who served under Nixon, said that Nixon had at one point suspected Mark Felt as being Deep Throat. Eagleburger said he was surprised Felt didn't end up DEAD. By whom, hired Mafia hit men or Nixon loyalists' hired hacks? This gives me the horrors. In comparison to Bush and Cheney, Nixon was a softy.
Found on the Democratic Underground:
KILLING THE WHISTLE BLOWERS
Here's a piece about William F. Buckley, conservative writer for the National Review, and what he knew and didn't know about Watergate in the 1970's. Found via Buzz Flash.
WHAT BUCKLEY KNEW ABOUT WATERGATE
"SELLING WASHINGTON" by Elizabeth Drew of the New York Review of Books.
This is a bone-chilling piece. Only Republicans ideologues are invited to K Street. Get rid of each and every Democrat.
Excerpt:
The Republican purge of K Street is a more thorough, ruthless, vindictive, and effective attack on Democratic lobbyists and other Democrats who represent businesses and other organizations than anything Washington has seen before. The Republicans don't simply want to take care of their friends and former aides by getting them high-paying jobs: they want the lobbyists they helped place in these jobs and other corporate representatives to arrange lavish trips for themselves and their wives; to invite them to watch sports events from skyboxes; and, most important, to provide a steady flow of campaign contributions. The former aides become part of their previous employers' power networks. Republican leaders also want to have like-minded people on K Street who can further their ideological goals by helping to formulate their legislative programs, get them passed, and generally circulate their ideas. When I suggested to Grover Norquist, the influential right-wing leader and the leading enforcer of the K Street Project outside Congress, that numerous Democrats on K Street were not particularly ideological and were happy to serve corporate interests, he replied, "We don't want nonideological people on K Street, we want conservative activist Republicans on K Street."
The K Street Project has become critical to the Republicans' efforts to control all the power centers in Washington: the White House, Congress, the courts - and now, at least, an influential part of the corporate world, the one that raises most of the political money. It's another way for Republicans to try to impose their programs on the country. The Washington Post reported recently that House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, of Missouri, has established "a formal, institutionalized alliance" with K Street lobbyists. They have become an integral part of the legislative process by helping to get bills written and passed - and they are rewarded for their help by the fees paid by their clients. Among the results is legislation that serves powerful private interests all the more openly - as will be seen, the energy bill recently passed by the House is a prime example - and a climate of fear that is new. The conservative commentator David Brooks said on PBS's News Hour earlier this year, "The biggest threat to the Republican majority is the relationship on K Street with corporate lobbyists and the corruption that is entailed in that." But if the Republicans are running a risk of being seen as overreaching in their takeover of K Street, there are few signs that they are concerned about it.
K STREET MISSION TO GET RID OF DEMOCRATS
ALAN COLMES OF FOX NEWS AIRS THE DOWNING STREET MEMO ON HIS RADIO SHOW.
This is rather surprising if not shocking. Though Alan Colmes is the supposed liberal on the Hannity/Colmes Show he is not considered even remotely liberal as far as Al Franken and other "real" liberals are concerned. LS
News Hound writer said Colmes' Show on June 2 is one of the few fair and balanced pieces about Bush that he has heard on Fox.
COLMES AIRS DOWNING STREET MEMO
TWO MORE BUSH DONORS INVESTIGATED FOR FRAUD AND TAX EVASION
I am sure you are as shocked and appalled as I am. Yeah, right! LS
"US PROBES ISLE OF MAN SCHEME USED BY BILLIONAIRE BUSH DONERS"
Found on The Independent via Raw Story
Excerpt:
The duo, who made their money in computing and retailing, not only gave over $200,000 to President Bush's re-election campaigns, but also bankrolled TV adverts attacking his rivals, John Kerry and Senator John McCain.
BUSH DONOR BILLIONAIRE SCHEMES
BUSH DONOR SMALLER CHANGE FRAUD.
MORE ON THE SCANDAL RAGING IN OHIO OVER COINGATE.
COINGATE ONGOING
CIA SIDELINED DURING HIGH LEVEL MEETINGS
Talk about consolidating one's power. Perhaps Bush is worried that Deep Throat was a high level FBI official who took down a corrupt presidency. Few now, very few, are in the inner circle of power so if one of them squeals, the Darth Vadars of this admin. will know who it is. Maybe Bush and Cheney are getting as paranoid as Nixon. Well boys, that is what lies, corruption and power mongering engender. Good luck. If we, the people, don't get to you, your psyches will, and, in one way or another, you'll go off the deep end. LS
CIA SIDELINED
DEMOCRATS CRITICAL OF DEAN'S ATTACK ON THE GOP
It seems that a couple of leading Democrats, i.e. Biden and Edwards, have a problem with Dean's harsh language concerning the GOP. In my view, it is healthy, no, it is crucial for us to disagree. It is, in fact, actually, normal to have varying opinions on issues within a party. It is only because we live in radical and dark times under GOP rule that any divergence whatsoever within a party is perceived as unacceptable. Democrats are not extremists. Our party believes in conversation, debate and dialogue. We do not manufacture a message, then expect every soul in the party to repeat it like mindless puppets, marching in lock step, manipulated by the master puppeteer. We Democrats and the majority of Americans, for that matter, share values but we do not impose them on one another. We are diverse and we must celebrate our differences. Let’s continue to work together to wrest our society free of this oppressive and manipulative administration. LS
DEMOCRATS CRITICAL OF DEAN
Saturday, June 04, 2005
TRUTH STRUGGLES TO EMERGE IN A WH WORLD PERVADED BY MENDACITY, DISSEMBLING, MORAL IMPOVERISHMENT AND FINANCIAL FRAUD
As we listen to the right choke on self-righteous outrage over Deep Throat and how the "traitor" betrayed his agency, the FBI, or as Pat Buchanan called it this morning on CSPAN "the secret police" by breaking ranks to take down a President by leaking inside information to a "liberal" newspaper, one has to wonder if the conservative right has taken leave of its senses. I know it left its morality in a sewer some time ago. Morality only applies to the liberals and Democrats, especially the Clintons. I was a young adult, fresh out of college during the Watergate years. This is what happened. In short, President Nixon committed a crime. Yes, President Nixon committed a crime. He was caught red handed even though he tried to erase the tapes that helped incriminate him. (Being paranoid, Nixon had taped himself and everyone else who met with him.) Repeat: President Nixon committed a crime and he was caught. Case closed. I am staying on message. I am not flip-flopping. I have nothing more to say except President Nixon committed a crime. Justice and our Democratic system were served by his removal.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, while the conservative right continues rail, vent and rant about this and that, carrying on like clowns in a three, no, one-ring circus, or bad actors in a porn flick, below is news of substance if you want to know what is really going on in real reality. The Internet and bloggosphere are exploding with news tonight. It is exciting, heady and almost hard to keep up with it all. Despite the challenges to read quickly and blog what I think is relevant, it is with cautious optimism and barely containable excitement that I do so. I perceive light, finally, in the darkness that has been pervading us. I can't imagine where we would be, in terms of meaningful information, without the Internet and the bloggosphere. LS
DOWNING STREET MEMO NOT GOING AWAY
KERRY TO BRING DOWNING STREET MEMO ISSUE TO SENATE. WILL PRESENT A CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT OF BUSH
I found this interesting piece on a conservative website, The Consevative Voice.com via Raw Story. It is very short and factual.
KERRY BRINGS DSM TO SENATE
PROTESTERS IN TAMPA INSIST THAT LOCAL TV STATION AIR DOWNING STREET MEMO
PROTESTERS DEMAND NEWS
The Downing Street Memo is percolating in the MSM press. Found on the Bangor Daily News.com via Buzz Flash. Naturally the piece is written in the "Viewpoints" section, not on the front page.
MEMOGATE
MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE PUBLISHES DOWNING STREET MEMO
This paper was the first large MSM press to write about the Downing Street Memo in its editorial section. Now they have published the memo.
SMOKING GUN PUBLISHED
Thank you to the heroes in the Northeast, the Midwest and in the South (Florida of all places!) for giving exposure to the Downing Street Memo.
MOVING ON TO OHIO FRAUD AND SLEAZE.
REVEALTIONS OF CORRUPTION IN OHIO EXPLODING
Money laundering scheme may have taken place in the Ohio Bush/Cheney fundraising efforts. A former top aide to two Ohio governors admits Mr. Noe asked him to donate $2,000. to the Bush/Cheney and he was then reimbursed by Noe. Isn't it uplifting and gratifying to know how many moral and honest characters the GOP attracts to do its biding.
Found on Cleveland's Plan Dealer via Raw Story.
OHIO GOP MONEY LAUNDERING SCHEME
DEAN SAYS BUSH SHOULD GIVE TAINTED OHIO CAMPAIGN DONATIONS BACK TO THE STATE
Bush will give back oh, maybe $4,000., perhaps, of the funds raised by Noe, but not the $100K in tainted funds; the amount suggested by Democrats. Meanwhile, as if Bush really cares, the people in Ohio have been royally ripped off to the tune of $10-12 million. Where oh where did the money go, where oh where could it have gone?
DEAN SAYS GIVE MONEY BACK
ABRAMOFF'S CORRUPTION SLIME OOZING CLOSER TO BUSH.
“THE PIMPING OF THE PRESIDENT,” by Lou DuBose of the Texas Observer
Abramoff and Norquest bill clients for face time with Bush.
PIMPING THE PRESIDENT
MOVING AWAY FROM OHIO FRAUD TO WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR A DEMOCRATIC AGENDA.
DEMOCRATS NEED TO SEIZE IRAQ AS ISSUE NO. ONE
Great piece and solid, hard edged and thought provoking advice for Democrats by Arianna Huffington. She gave a speech yesterday at the Take Back America conference. Hammer away relentlessly about the horrors and failures of Iraq so they won't be lost on the American psyche. Wrap morality into the deliberate and abject refusal of the Bush administration to address the needs of working Americans and those of our nation’s poor.
Arianna has also started a blog, The Huffington Post in which 400 bloggers blog 24/7 on Iraq. I saw her on CSPAN's Washington Journal yesterday. Republican callers actually quite supportive of her views on issues. Of course there were a few crazy extremist calling in, but what else is new.
Found on AlterNet
Excerpt:
And be bold and passionate enough to turn economic issues into moral issues. Because, remember one thing: although it hardly got any ink compared to the passage of gay marriage initiatives, voters in Florida and Nevada, both red states that voted for George W. Bush, also approved initiatives calling for big hikes in the minimum wage. These were the true moral values initiatives. Because it is a moral disgrace that low-wage workers with full-time jobs do not earn enough to lift their families out of poverty. And while the Bible says nothing against gay rights, it says an awful lot about our responsibilities to the poor. We shall be judged by what we do for the least among us, was Christ's admonition. Maybe someone can send that to Tom Delay.
IRAQ NO. 1 ISSUE
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, while the conservative right continues rail, vent and rant about this and that, carrying on like clowns in a three, no, one-ring circus, or bad actors in a porn flick, below is news of substance if you want to know what is really going on in real reality. The Internet and bloggosphere are exploding with news tonight. It is exciting, heady and almost hard to keep up with it all. Despite the challenges to read quickly and blog what I think is relevant, it is with cautious optimism and barely containable excitement that I do so. I perceive light, finally, in the darkness that has been pervading us. I can't imagine where we would be, in terms of meaningful information, without the Internet and the bloggosphere. LS
DOWNING STREET MEMO NOT GOING AWAY
KERRY TO BRING DOWNING STREET MEMO ISSUE TO SENATE. WILL PRESENT A CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT OF BUSH
I found this interesting piece on a conservative website, The Consevative Voice.com via Raw Story. It is very short and factual.
KERRY BRINGS DSM TO SENATE
PROTESTERS IN TAMPA INSIST THAT LOCAL TV STATION AIR DOWNING STREET MEMO
PROTESTERS DEMAND NEWS
The Downing Street Memo is percolating in the MSM press. Found on the Bangor Daily News.com via Buzz Flash. Naturally the piece is written in the "Viewpoints" section, not on the front page.
MEMOGATE
MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE PUBLISHES DOWNING STREET MEMO
This paper was the first large MSM press to write about the Downing Street Memo in its editorial section. Now they have published the memo.
SMOKING GUN PUBLISHED
Thank you to the heroes in the Northeast, the Midwest and in the South (Florida of all places!) for giving exposure to the Downing Street Memo.
MOVING ON TO OHIO FRAUD AND SLEAZE.
REVEALTIONS OF CORRUPTION IN OHIO EXPLODING
Money laundering scheme may have taken place in the Ohio Bush/Cheney fundraising efforts. A former top aide to two Ohio governors admits Mr. Noe asked him to donate $2,000. to the Bush/Cheney and he was then reimbursed by Noe. Isn't it uplifting and gratifying to know how many moral and honest characters the GOP attracts to do its biding.
Found on Cleveland's Plan Dealer via Raw Story.
OHIO GOP MONEY LAUNDERING SCHEME
DEAN SAYS BUSH SHOULD GIVE TAINTED OHIO CAMPAIGN DONATIONS BACK TO THE STATE
Bush will give back oh, maybe $4,000., perhaps, of the funds raised by Noe, but not the $100K in tainted funds; the amount suggested by Democrats. Meanwhile, as if Bush really cares, the people in Ohio have been royally ripped off to the tune of $10-12 million. Where oh where did the money go, where oh where could it have gone?
DEAN SAYS GIVE MONEY BACK
ABRAMOFF'S CORRUPTION SLIME OOZING CLOSER TO BUSH.
“THE PIMPING OF THE PRESIDENT,” by Lou DuBose of the Texas Observer
Abramoff and Norquest bill clients for face time with Bush.
PIMPING THE PRESIDENT
MOVING AWAY FROM OHIO FRAUD TO WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR A DEMOCRATIC AGENDA.
DEMOCRATS NEED TO SEIZE IRAQ AS ISSUE NO. ONE
Great piece and solid, hard edged and thought provoking advice for Democrats by Arianna Huffington. She gave a speech yesterday at the Take Back America conference. Hammer away relentlessly about the horrors and failures of Iraq so they won't be lost on the American psyche. Wrap morality into the deliberate and abject refusal of the Bush administration to address the needs of working Americans and those of our nation’s poor.
Arianna has also started a blog, The Huffington Post in which 400 bloggers blog 24/7 on Iraq. I saw her on CSPAN's Washington Journal yesterday. Republican callers actually quite supportive of her views on issues. Of course there were a few crazy extremist calling in, but what else is new.
Found on AlterNet
Excerpt:
And be bold and passionate enough to turn economic issues into moral issues. Because, remember one thing: although it hardly got any ink compared to the passage of gay marriage initiatives, voters in Florida and Nevada, both red states that voted for George W. Bush, also approved initiatives calling for big hikes in the minimum wage. These were the true moral values initiatives. Because it is a moral disgrace that low-wage workers with full-time jobs do not earn enough to lift their families out of poverty. And while the Bible says nothing against gay rights, it says an awful lot about our responsibilities to the poor. We shall be judged by what we do for the least among us, was Christ's admonition. Maybe someone can send that to Tom Delay.
IRAQ NO. 1 ISSUE
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