Sorry folks but I've been neglecting my blog to work for a Texas candidate for U.S. Senate 2006. As you can imagine, it is an uphill battle but our grassroots efforts are making extraordinary inroads. Naturally it helps to have a candidate who is principled, informed and passionate about serving. And one who is willing to give up a very high lucrative professional position, well before retirement age, to run for office. Imagine a politician who is not motivated by money. Such is a very rare breed, indeed. Ms. Radnofsky possesses the integrity and commitment to ignore the demands made upon her by big business and greedy lobbyists when they are in conflict with what is beneficial for the state and all Texans. Check out her web site if you don't believe me.
Barbara Ann Radnofsky; Texas Candidate for U.S. Senate 2006
MOVING ON FROM TEXAS
My friend Ken has been keeping me informed about national political events while I am busy with the campaign in Texas. Once again, thank you, Ken, for all that you do in sharing the news none of us would hear about or read in the mainstream media. We are all busy, overcommitted and multi-task way too much. The mainstream media hope we don't notice what an abysmally poor job they do, except where run-away-bride, Mel Gibson and JonBenet Ramsey type stories are concerned. LS
"LET'S LANDSLIDE"
Ken found this extraordinary article on the Huffington Post. LS
This guy knows his stuff. I've put his bio at the bottom.
His Iraq solution is a pip: "...candidates can propose that if Democrats win control of Congress our first act will be to name leaders on national security such as Senator Sam Nunn and General Zinni to meet with the Joint Chiefs and Iraq commanders and develop a rational exit strategy."
This allows every Democrat to repeat, over and over, what apparently the voters know already, that Bush has no exit strategy. It also gives candidates a party-wide Iraq strategy and allows them to not have to nail some date onto the wall for the GOPs to attack. -K
Brent Budowsky
08.23.2006
Lets Landslide: Memo to Democratic Senate and House Candidates and Staff
Mr. Budowsky's bio:
Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit.
BRENT BUDOWSKY: "LET'S LANDSLIDE"
BUSH IS AFRAID OF THE SUPREME COURT'S RULING ON PRISONER INTERROGATIONS AND TORTURE SO HE IS TRYING TO CHANGE THE RULES TO EVADE PUNISHMENT
Another great find from Ken from The Village Voice.com
Excerpt:
The interrogations of prisoners now condemned by the Supreme Court were ordered by policy makers at the highest levels of the administration˜who could be prosecuted under the U.S. War Crimes Act of 1996. - Scott Horton, chairman of the New York City Bar Association's Committee on International Law and adjunct professor, Columbia Law School.
"SUPREME COURT STRIKES FEAR" BY MR. NED HENTOFF
"FROM IRAN WITH LOVE"
Another great find from Ken by Joe Conason from Salon.com.
From the botched Iraq war to threatening Iran with "regime change," neoconservative policies have been a boon for Tehran.
Excerpts:
The most obvious example, of course, is the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, which has conveniently eliminated Iran's chief military rival in the region, and replaced Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime with a weak government dominated by Shiite Islamist parties friendly to Tehran. The only certain outcome of our misbegotten effort is that the Iranians have finally gotten what they could not achieve during eight years of war with Iraq, despite the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars. And we delivered the prize to them at no cost -- except what we have lost in thousands of dead and wounded U.S. troops and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Oddly enough, they don't seem any more grateful than the Iraqis.
Remember that the war's chief instigator, aside from the neoconservatives themselves, was their friend and collaborator Ahmed Chalabi, who has since proved to be a more reliable ally of the Iranians than of his former American sponsors. With much help from domestic propagandists, Chalabi oversaw dissemination of the disinformation about Saddam's "weapons of mass destruction" that served as the rationale for war. The original neocon plan was to enthrone him in Baghdad as a strongman ruler, at least on a temporary basis. He had promised, among other things, that the new Iraq would grant diplomatic recognition to Israel. Things haven't quite worked out that way.
Could the neocons truly have been so dense and clueless about the consequences of an American invasion of Iraq? Not if one believes their constant flattery of their own seriousness and sagacity. They did do an excellent job of misleading the American public about how the war would proceed, from their promises that the costs would be underwritten by Iraqi oil, to their predictions that a "new democratic Iraq" would radically improve the prospects for regional peace and progress, to their assurances that Shiite domination would prove benign. William Kristol, the Weekly Standard editor whose magazine so assiduously promoted war, brushed aside any concerns about empowering the Shiites during an April 2003 interview with National Public Radio's Terry Gross:
"And on this issue of the Shia in Iraq, I think there's been a certain amount of, frankly, Terry, a kind of pop sociology in America that, you know, somehow the Shia can't get along with the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq just want to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime. There's almost no evidence of that at all. Iraq's always been very secular." For a man who by then had spent almost 10 years arguing for war in Iraq, he was either stunningly ignorant or intentionally deceptive.
It would be easier to believe that Kristol and his fellow war enthusiasts were merely misinformed or stupid if all of their mistakes did not so consistently benefit Tehran. But consider the results of the policies pursued by the White House at their insistence.
"FROM IRAN WITH LOVE" BY JOE CONASON OF SALON.COM
FOR REPUBLICANS, PROFITS OF CORPORATE DONORS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN OUR NATIONAL SECURITY
The Republican Congress will gut the foreign ownership security bill. Remember the firm in Dubai who was/is to be awarded contracts to ensure the safety of our U.S. ports? Read where our Republican lawmakers stand on this issue. LS
By David Sirota of WorkingforChange.com
Excerpts:
Here are the details of the competing proposals in Congress:
"The House bill would force Cfius – which was lambasted for approving the sale of five US port terminals to Dubai-based DP World – to conduct mandatory 90-day investigations of all sensitive acquisitions by foreign state-owned companies. It would also require Cfius to notify relevant congressional committees once investigations into a deal are closed. The Senate proposal, backed by Richard Shelby, banking committee chairman, and criticised by some of his fellow Republicans, would require Congress to be notified of a deal following the initiation of an investigation – even if the deal was not yet public – and could extend an investigation from a maximum of 90 days to 120 days."
Republicans in Congress and the White House have made their position clear: the profits of their corporate donors are more important to them than national security, even in the post-9/11 world. No matter how many times George W. Bush stands behind a podium and babbles on about "freedom" and his supposed commitment to securing America against terrorism, all you have to do is look at what's actually going on in Washington to know that all of that rhetoric is a fraud. Let's hope that in the stretch run of the 2006 election season, Democrats pound this reality home.
"CONGRESS TO GUT FOREIGN OWNERSHIP SECURITY BILL
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Monday, August 21, 2006
AMERICANS FINALLY RECOGNIZE KING KONG WANTS TO DEVOUR THEM
AFTER 6 YEARS OF KING GEORGE W. REIGN, AMERICANS REALIZE RIGGED ELECTIONS ARE TRASHING OUR DEMOCRACY AND ARE FLUSHING JOE AND JANE AMERICA STRAIGHTAWAY INTO THE SEWER OF LACK OF OPPORTUNITY, IF NOT OUTRIGHT POVERTY.
According to the Zogby polls, a whopping 92% of Americans demand the right to see ballots counted. Hell, I vote in Texas so you can be sure I will vote absentee. LS
Found on Raw Story.com
Excerpts:
A new Zogby poll to be released on Tuesday will reveal that 92% of Americans, spanning every party and democraphic group, believe that the public has the right to view and verify the counting of votes, RAW STORY has learned.
When offered a choice between "Citizens have the right to view and obtain information about how election officials count votes" or "Citizens do not have the right to view and obtain information about how elections officials count votes," 92% of those polled agreed with the first statement. Only 6% agreed with the second, while 2% were unsure.
The issue of transparency has become particularly important due to the use of electronic voting systems, most of which employ secret, proprietary code and do not allow public inspection.
RAW STORY PIECE ON ACCOUNTABILITY IN ELECTIONS HERE
ROVE'S FEAR CARD HAS RUN OUT OF STEAM?
Let's hope so, though there are the 20% of greedy and obscenely wealthy, religious fundamentalist extremists, or really uninformed - no - truly stupid - folks who will allow themselves to be scared over and over and over. Rove is counting on them.
Wonderful piece by Mr. Frank Rich of the New York Times who essentially unmasks Rove.
Found on truthout.org
Excerpts:
The results are in for the White House's latest effort to exploit terrorism for political gain: the era of Americans' fearing fear itself is over.
In each poll released since the foiling of the trans-Atlantic terror plot - Gallup, Newsweek, CBS, Zogby, Pew - George W. Bush's approval rating remains stuck in the 30's, just as it has been with little letup in the year since Katrina stripped the last remaining fig leaf of credibility from his presidency. While the new Middle East promised by Condi Rice remains a delusion, the death rattle of the domestic political order we've lived with since 9/11 can be found everywhere: in Americans' unhysterical reaction to the terror plot, in politicians' and pundits' hysterical overreaction to Joe Lieberman's defeat in Connecticut, even in the ho-hum box-office reaction to Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center."
It's not as if the White House didn't pull out all the stops to milk the terror plot to further its politics of fear. One self-congratulatory presidential photo op was held at the National Counterterrorism Center, a dead ringer for the set in "24." But Mr. Bush's Jack Bauer is no more persuasive than his Tom Cruise of "Top Gun." By crying wolf about terrorism way too often, usually when a distraction is needed from bad news in Iraq, he and his administration have long since become comedy fodder, and not just on "The Daily Show." June's scenario was particularly choice: as Baghdad imploded, Alberto Gonzales breathlessly unmasked a Miami terror cell plotting a "full ground war" and the destruction of the Sears Tower, even though the alleged cell had no concrete plans, no contacts with terrorist networks and no equipment, including boots.
What makes the foiled London-Pakistan plot seem more of a serious threat - though not so serious it disrupted Tony Blair's vacation - is that the British vouched for it, not Attorney General Gonzales and his Keystone Kops. This didn't stop Michael Chertoff from grabbing credit in his promotional sprint through last Sunday's talk shows. "It was as if we had an opportunity to stop 9/11 before it actually was carried out," he said, insinuating himself into that royal we. But no matter how persistent his invocation of 9/11, our secretary of homeland security is too discredited to impress a public that has been plenty disillusioned since Karl Rove first exhibited the flag-draped remains of a World Trade Center victim in a 2004 campaign commercial. We look at Mr. Chertoff and still see the man who couldn't figure out what was happening in New Orleans when the catastrophe was being broadcast in real time on television.
"FIVE YEARS AFTER 9/11 FEAR FINALLY STRIKES OUT"
WAL-MART IS BECOMING THE POSTER CHILD OF ALL THAT IS WRONG WITH A GOP RUN GOVERNMENT
Invent a fake war to make Halliburton and your buddies richer. Give generous tax breaks to the richest of the rich, most of whom are your family, relatives or friends. Slash all benefits for the poor. Endorse the outsourcing of jobs abroad. Vote against a minimum wage increase, unless, of course, it is tied to one that would allow estate tax "relief" for most wealthy. Vote for legislation that allows for a steady flow of slave laborers to U.S. firms, with no hope of permanent residency or citizenship, and, naturally endorse slave labor in countries where American corporations have a vital interest. The Grand Old Party of Greed, Corruption, and Evil. They are anti-democratic, anti-intellectual, and worst of all, anti-American.
WAL-MART A MIRROR OF GOP ECONOMIC POLICY. From The Boston Globe.com LS
Excerpts:
WAL-MART is usefully becoming the symbol of an America where tens of millions of hard- working families cannot make ends meet.
Its wages and health benefits are so dismal that in several states Wal-Mart displaces worker healthcare costs onto tax-supported Medicaid for the poor. Wal-Mart batters down wages not just in the United States, but in Third World countries, where it plays foreign suppliers against one another to demand the lowest possible wholesale price (and wage).
The New York Times reported recently that Democratic politicians from Senator Joseph Lieberman to his winning opponent in the Connecticut primary, Ned Lamont, are making Wal-Mart their nemesis. This focus is certainly helpful in spotlighting one mega-employer that is symbol and substance of an America where the middle-class dream is vanishing, but the problems go far beyond Wal-Mart.
"MORE THAN JUST WAL-MART" By Robert Kuttner
CONSERVATIVES WITH A BRAIN RENOUNCE BUSH
Too bad it took mayhem, carnage and an unmitigated human catastrophe in Iraq, not to mention the Taliban's regrouping in Afghanistan because our military is stretched too thin, thanks to Bush's sick and twisted fixation on Iraq, for the brainier conservatives to wake up and smell the rotted corpses. Shame, shame, shame. LS
From The Washington Post.com by Mr. Peter Baker.
Excerpts:
Lowry's magazine offers a powerful example. "It is time to say it unequivocally: We are winning in Iraq," Lowry wrote in April 2005, chastising those who disagreed. This month, he published an editorial that concluded that "success in Iraq seems more out of reach than it has at any time since the initial invasion three years ago" and assailed "the administration's on-again-off-again approach to Iraq."
"It is time for the Bush administration to acknowledge that its approach of assuring people that progress is being made and operating on that optimistic basis in Iraq isn't working," the editorial said. Lowry followed up days later in his own column, suggesting that the United States is "losing, or at least not obviously winning, a major war" and asking whether Iraq is "Bush's Vietnam."
Quin Hillyer, executive editor of the American Spectator, cited Lowry's column in his own last week, writing that many are upset "because we seem not to be winning" and urging the White House to take on militia leaders such as Moqtada al-Sadr. Until it does, he said, "there will be no way for the administration to credibly claim that victory in Iraq is achievable, much less imminent."
Bush aides were bothered by a George F. Will column last week mocking neoconservative desires to transform the Middle East: "Foreign policy 'realists' considered Middle East stability the goal. The realists' critics, who regard realism as reprehensibly unambitious, considered stability the problem. That problem has been solved."
"PUNDITS RENOUNCE BUSH"
According to the Zogby polls, a whopping 92% of Americans demand the right to see ballots counted. Hell, I vote in Texas so you can be sure I will vote absentee. LS
Found on Raw Story.com
Excerpts:
A new Zogby poll to be released on Tuesday will reveal that 92% of Americans, spanning every party and democraphic group, believe that the public has the right to view and verify the counting of votes, RAW STORY has learned.
When offered a choice between "Citizens have the right to view and obtain information about how election officials count votes" or "Citizens do not have the right to view and obtain information about how elections officials count votes," 92% of those polled agreed with the first statement. Only 6% agreed with the second, while 2% were unsure.
The issue of transparency has become particularly important due to the use of electronic voting systems, most of which employ secret, proprietary code and do not allow public inspection.
RAW STORY PIECE ON ACCOUNTABILITY IN ELECTIONS HERE
ROVE'S FEAR CARD HAS RUN OUT OF STEAM?
Let's hope so, though there are the 20% of greedy and obscenely wealthy, religious fundamentalist extremists, or really uninformed - no - truly stupid - folks who will allow themselves to be scared over and over and over. Rove is counting on them.
Wonderful piece by Mr. Frank Rich of the New York Times who essentially unmasks Rove.
Found on truthout.org
Excerpts:
The results are in for the White House's latest effort to exploit terrorism for political gain: the era of Americans' fearing fear itself is over.
In each poll released since the foiling of the trans-Atlantic terror plot - Gallup, Newsweek, CBS, Zogby, Pew - George W. Bush's approval rating remains stuck in the 30's, just as it has been with little letup in the year since Katrina stripped the last remaining fig leaf of credibility from his presidency. While the new Middle East promised by Condi Rice remains a delusion, the death rattle of the domestic political order we've lived with since 9/11 can be found everywhere: in Americans' unhysterical reaction to the terror plot, in politicians' and pundits' hysterical overreaction to Joe Lieberman's defeat in Connecticut, even in the ho-hum box-office reaction to Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center."
It's not as if the White House didn't pull out all the stops to milk the terror plot to further its politics of fear. One self-congratulatory presidential photo op was held at the National Counterterrorism Center, a dead ringer for the set in "24." But Mr. Bush's Jack Bauer is no more persuasive than his Tom Cruise of "Top Gun." By crying wolf about terrorism way too often, usually when a distraction is needed from bad news in Iraq, he and his administration have long since become comedy fodder, and not just on "The Daily Show." June's scenario was particularly choice: as Baghdad imploded, Alberto Gonzales breathlessly unmasked a Miami terror cell plotting a "full ground war" and the destruction of the Sears Tower, even though the alleged cell had no concrete plans, no contacts with terrorist networks and no equipment, including boots.
What makes the foiled London-Pakistan plot seem more of a serious threat - though not so serious it disrupted Tony Blair's vacation - is that the British vouched for it, not Attorney General Gonzales and his Keystone Kops. This didn't stop Michael Chertoff from grabbing credit in his promotional sprint through last Sunday's talk shows. "It was as if we had an opportunity to stop 9/11 before it actually was carried out," he said, insinuating himself into that royal we. But no matter how persistent his invocation of 9/11, our secretary of homeland security is too discredited to impress a public that has been plenty disillusioned since Karl Rove first exhibited the flag-draped remains of a World Trade Center victim in a 2004 campaign commercial. We look at Mr. Chertoff and still see the man who couldn't figure out what was happening in New Orleans when the catastrophe was being broadcast in real time on television.
"FIVE YEARS AFTER 9/11 FEAR FINALLY STRIKES OUT"
WAL-MART IS BECOMING THE POSTER CHILD OF ALL THAT IS WRONG WITH A GOP RUN GOVERNMENT
Invent a fake war to make Halliburton and your buddies richer. Give generous tax breaks to the richest of the rich, most of whom are your family, relatives or friends. Slash all benefits for the poor. Endorse the outsourcing of jobs abroad. Vote against a minimum wage increase, unless, of course, it is tied to one that would allow estate tax "relief" for most wealthy. Vote for legislation that allows for a steady flow of slave laborers to U.S. firms, with no hope of permanent residency or citizenship, and, naturally endorse slave labor in countries where American corporations have a vital interest. The Grand Old Party of Greed, Corruption, and Evil. They are anti-democratic, anti-intellectual, and worst of all, anti-American.
WAL-MART A MIRROR OF GOP ECONOMIC POLICY. From The Boston Globe.com LS
Excerpts:
WAL-MART is usefully becoming the symbol of an America where tens of millions of hard- working families cannot make ends meet.
Its wages and health benefits are so dismal that in several states Wal-Mart displaces worker healthcare costs onto tax-supported Medicaid for the poor. Wal-Mart batters down wages not just in the United States, but in Third World countries, where it plays foreign suppliers against one another to demand the lowest possible wholesale price (and wage).
The New York Times reported recently that Democratic politicians from Senator Joseph Lieberman to his winning opponent in the Connecticut primary, Ned Lamont, are making Wal-Mart their nemesis. This focus is certainly helpful in spotlighting one mega-employer that is symbol and substance of an America where the middle-class dream is vanishing, but the problems go far beyond Wal-Mart.
"MORE THAN JUST WAL-MART" By Robert Kuttner
CONSERVATIVES WITH A BRAIN RENOUNCE BUSH
Too bad it took mayhem, carnage and an unmitigated human catastrophe in Iraq, not to mention the Taliban's regrouping in Afghanistan because our military is stretched too thin, thanks to Bush's sick and twisted fixation on Iraq, for the brainier conservatives to wake up and smell the rotted corpses. Shame, shame, shame. LS
From The Washington Post.com by Mr. Peter Baker.
Excerpts:
Lowry's magazine offers a powerful example. "It is time to say it unequivocally: We are winning in Iraq," Lowry wrote in April 2005, chastising those who disagreed. This month, he published an editorial that concluded that "success in Iraq seems more out of reach than it has at any time since the initial invasion three years ago" and assailed "the administration's on-again-off-again approach to Iraq."
"It is time for the Bush administration to acknowledge that its approach of assuring people that progress is being made and operating on that optimistic basis in Iraq isn't working," the editorial said. Lowry followed up days later in his own column, suggesting that the United States is "losing, or at least not obviously winning, a major war" and asking whether Iraq is "Bush's Vietnam."
Quin Hillyer, executive editor of the American Spectator, cited Lowry's column in his own last week, writing that many are upset "because we seem not to be winning" and urging the White House to take on militia leaders such as Moqtada al-Sadr. Until it does, he said, "there will be no way for the administration to credibly claim that victory in Iraq is achievable, much less imminent."
Bush aides were bothered by a George F. Will column last week mocking neoconservative desires to transform the Middle East: "Foreign policy 'realists' considered Middle East stability the goal. The realists' critics, who regard realism as reprehensibly unambitious, considered stability the problem. That problem has been solved."
"PUNDITS RENOUNCE BUSH"
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
HARD RIGHT BUSH CHRISTIANS ARE ADDICTED TO PORN AMONG OTHER SINFUL ACTS?
DROP DEAD NEWS BUT NOT REALLY.
50% of Christian men and 20% of Christian women admit they are addicted to porn.
Interesting piece from Raw Story.com. One has to wonder about religious extremists and fanatics, not to mention pathological liars, here at home in the good ol' bush lovin' Texas, among other hard right red states. There is so much moral and ethical decrepitude to cover up that the self-righteous Christian sinners, especially the GOP politicians, had to find a fall group on which to transfer their sinful thoughts and deeds. Is this the rational for Bush's term 'Islamic Fascists?” We have our very own home grown terrorists like Timothy McVeigh. But no one called McVeigh a "Christian" terrorist when he blew up the federal building in Oklahoma and killed hundreds of Americans. And what about David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco? Remember? The GOP conveniently forgets. LS
Excerpts:
A poll conducted by what bills itself as "the world's most visited Christian website" indicates a surprising number of Christians are addicted to pornography, RAW STORY has learned.
"The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography," said Clay Jones, founder and President of Second Glance Ministries.
The group defines "addicted" as applied to pornography as use on an ongoing basis.
"We are seeing an escalation to the problem in both men and women who regularly attend church," said Bill Cooper, President of ChristiaNet.com.
The poll, conducted at ChristiaNet.com, used a self-selected sample, and is therefore not a scientific study. Over 1,000 users responded to the survey.
Additionally, 60% of the women who answered the survey confessed having "significant struggles with lust." 40% admitted to being "involved in sexual sin" in the past year.
"No one is immunized against the vice-grip clutches of sexual addictive behaviors," reads a release issued by the site. "The people who struggle with the repeated pursuit of sexual gratification include church members, deacons, staff, and yes, even clergy."
"There have been dynamic paradigm shifts in the behavior of Christians over the last four years," explained Jones. "Technology has allowed pornography to flood the market place beyond a controllable level." Jones' ministry provides intervention programs for churches and individuals.
BUSH REPUBLICANS ADMIT THEY ARE ADDICTED TO PORN
A DEEP AND MORTIFYING BLUSH OF FIRE ENGINE RED FOR THE MASTER OF LIES AND DISCEPTION.
Here is the… yikes...well,...hell's bells...piece on the dude who bashes gay marriage with a vengeance. I mean he built a political platform on pimping fear about gay marriage in both 2000 and 2004.
The dude doth protest too much?
Bad Karma, Rove?
Translation: A new book has been written about Rove and naturally he is trying to shut it down. He cannot file a lawsuit publicly because it would draw more attention to his close and deep relationship with Abramoff, (which Rove and the WH has publicly denied) among other inconvenient revelations in the book. And so, Rove naturally threatens and bullies the authors into having their publication lawyer meet with his attorney. Of course Rove found a way to get advanced copies of the book’s proofs and so he knows what is about to be published. But the authors won’t budge. Bring on a public lawsuit and out yourself, Turd Blossom. Make our day. LS
ROVE TAKES ISSUE WITH NEW BOOK WRITTEN ABOUT HIM AND HIS UM, ER, PROCLIVITIES
MOVING FROM TEXAS AND THE HARD RIGHT AUTHORITARIAN PARTY ACROSS THE POND TO ONE OF OUR FEW REMAINING ALLIES....
"BUSH IS CRAP" ACCORDING TO BRITISH DEPUTY P.M.
UH OH. We are in deep doo-doo now. We may become altogether isolated and have to literally go it alone. With Bush and the GOP at the helm, that only spells disaster for us at home. Thank you, Brits, for keeping us informed about how the rest of the planet views our fake President. From the UK Independent News. LS
Excerpt:
John Prescott has given vent to his private feelings about the Bush presidency, summing up George Bush's administration in a single word: crap.
The Deputy Prime Minister's condemnation of President Bush and his approach to the Middle East could cause a diplomatic row but it will please Labour MPs who are furious about Tony Blair's backing of the United States over the bombing of Lebanon.
The remark is said to have been made at a private meeting in Mr Prescott's Whitehall office on Tuesday with Muslim MPs and other Labour MPs with constituencies representing large Muslim communities. Muslim MPs wanted to press home their objections to British foreign policy and discuss ways of improving relations with the Muslim communities.
DEPUTY PM IN BRITAIN SAYS BUSH IS CRAP
50% of Christian men and 20% of Christian women admit they are addicted to porn.
Interesting piece from Raw Story.com. One has to wonder about religious extremists and fanatics, not to mention pathological liars, here at home in the good ol' bush lovin' Texas, among other hard right red states. There is so much moral and ethical decrepitude to cover up that the self-righteous Christian sinners, especially the GOP politicians, had to find a fall group on which to transfer their sinful thoughts and deeds. Is this the rational for Bush's term 'Islamic Fascists?” We have our very own home grown terrorists like Timothy McVeigh. But no one called McVeigh a "Christian" terrorist when he blew up the federal building in Oklahoma and killed hundreds of Americans. And what about David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco? Remember? The GOP conveniently forgets. LS
Excerpts:
A poll conducted by what bills itself as "the world's most visited Christian website" indicates a surprising number of Christians are addicted to pornography, RAW STORY has learned.
"The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography," said Clay Jones, founder and President of Second Glance Ministries.
The group defines "addicted" as applied to pornography as use on an ongoing basis.
"We are seeing an escalation to the problem in both men and women who regularly attend church," said Bill Cooper, President of ChristiaNet.com.
The poll, conducted at ChristiaNet.com, used a self-selected sample, and is therefore not a scientific study. Over 1,000 users responded to the survey.
Additionally, 60% of the women who answered the survey confessed having "significant struggles with lust." 40% admitted to being "involved in sexual sin" in the past year.
"No one is immunized against the vice-grip clutches of sexual addictive behaviors," reads a release issued by the site. "The people who struggle with the repeated pursuit of sexual gratification include church members, deacons, staff, and yes, even clergy."
"There have been dynamic paradigm shifts in the behavior of Christians over the last four years," explained Jones. "Technology has allowed pornography to flood the market place beyond a controllable level." Jones' ministry provides intervention programs for churches and individuals.
BUSH REPUBLICANS ADMIT THEY ARE ADDICTED TO PORN
A DEEP AND MORTIFYING BLUSH OF FIRE ENGINE RED FOR THE MASTER OF LIES AND DISCEPTION.
Here is the… yikes...well,...hell's bells...piece on the dude who bashes gay marriage with a vengeance. I mean he built a political platform on pimping fear about gay marriage in both 2000 and 2004.
The dude doth protest too much?
Bad Karma, Rove?
Translation: A new book has been written about Rove and naturally he is trying to shut it down. He cannot file a lawsuit publicly because it would draw more attention to his close and deep relationship with Abramoff, (which Rove and the WH has publicly denied) among other inconvenient revelations in the book. And so, Rove naturally threatens and bullies the authors into having their publication lawyer meet with his attorney. Of course Rove found a way to get advanced copies of the book’s proofs and so he knows what is about to be published. But the authors won’t budge. Bring on a public lawsuit and out yourself, Turd Blossom. Make our day. LS
ROVE TAKES ISSUE WITH NEW BOOK WRITTEN ABOUT HIM AND HIS UM, ER, PROCLIVITIES
MOVING FROM TEXAS AND THE HARD RIGHT AUTHORITARIAN PARTY ACROSS THE POND TO ONE OF OUR FEW REMAINING ALLIES....
"BUSH IS CRAP" ACCORDING TO BRITISH DEPUTY P.M.
UH OH. We are in deep doo-doo now. We may become altogether isolated and have to literally go it alone. With Bush and the GOP at the helm, that only spells disaster for us at home. Thank you, Brits, for keeping us informed about how the rest of the planet views our fake President. From the UK Independent News. LS
Excerpt:
John Prescott has given vent to his private feelings about the Bush presidency, summing up George Bush's administration in a single word: crap.
The Deputy Prime Minister's condemnation of President Bush and his approach to the Middle East could cause a diplomatic row but it will please Labour MPs who are furious about Tony Blair's backing of the United States over the bombing of Lebanon.
The remark is said to have been made at a private meeting in Mr Prescott's Whitehall office on Tuesday with Muslim MPs and other Labour MPs with constituencies representing large Muslim communities. Muslim MPs wanted to press home their objections to British foreign policy and discuss ways of improving relations with the Muslim communities.
DEPUTY PM IN BRITAIN SAYS BUSH IS CRAP
Monday, August 14, 2006
THE NIGHTMARE THAT WON'T GO AWAY
Must we wait another two years for this to end? Can't someone talk W. and Cheney into early retirement? Where is mother Barbara when we need her? All mothers know when their children are making whopping disastrous and dangerous mistakes. Mother dearest, um, the planet is about to explode.
Everyday I pick up a newspaper, log on to on line news sources, blogs or turn on the TV, I see nothing but a world gone insane because of the Bush/Cheney Administration and its rubber stamping, cowardly and lazy (5 weeks vacation after working a mere 80 days?) Congressmen and women.
See BEST RUBBER STAMP IN D.C., SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON. Her profile will pretty much tell you how a lawmaker can make promises to voters, but when back inside the Beltway, will turn around and vote the complete opposite. Lawmakers bank on our not reading their voting records. It will also tell you that most of our lawmakers represent big business and lobbyists, not their constituents. And like sheep, they all blindly follow Bush, even if it means taking the planet straight to hell.
The only reprieves available to us to escape from this hideous reality are immersion in work and sleep. Alas flight from reality is not really possible, I’ve learned, because of the endless chatter by the water cooler about our current state of national and global affairs. Everyone is now talking about the King Kong sized elephant in the room. At night dreams can easily become nightmares. Does W. have his finger on the red nuke button while Americans toss and turn at night?
I read that Bush's closest buddies, after Blair and the Brits, the Israelis, are upset with W. Some are blaming their not so successful military assault on Hezbollah on Bush. Olmert will most likely suffer politically from taking advice from one of the most disingenuous, deceitful and cynical leaders in U.S. history. LS
Mr. Robert Parry wrote a piece in The Consortium News: “Israeli Leaders Fault Bush on War” Found on Truthout.org
Excerpts:
Amid the political and diplomatic fallout from Israel's faltering invasion of Lebanon, some Israeli officials are privately blaming President George W. Bush for egging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into the ill-conceived military adventure against the Hezbollah militia in south Lebanon.
Bush conveyed his strong personal support for the military offensive during a White House meeting with Olmert on May 23, according to sources familiar with the thinking of senior Israeli leaders.
Olmert, who like Bush lacks direct wartime experience, agreed that a dose of military force against Hezbollah might damage the guerrilla group's influence in Lebanon and intimidate its allies, Iran and Syria, countries that Bush has identified as the chief obstacles to U.S. interests in the Middle East.
As part of Bush's determination to create a "new Middle East" - one that is more amenable to U.S. policies and desires - Bush even urged Israel to attack Syria, but the Olmert government refused to go that far, according to Israeli sources.
One source said some Israeli officials thought Bush's attack-Syria idea was "nuts" since much of the world would have seen the bombing campaign as overt aggression.
ROBERT PARRY ON TRUTHOUT.ORG. HERE
BUSH WANTED THE ISRAEL/HEZBOLLAH CONFLICT TO BE A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR A WAR BETWEEN U.S. AND IRAN
A war with Iran when we are mired down in Iraq and the Taliban are resurfacing in Afghanistan? With what for troops? This is utterly mad.
Mr. Seymour Hersh wrote a brilliant and well-researched piece for The New Yorker. Top officials in both Britain and Israel are sources for this article. The piece can be found on Truthout.org and on Buzz Flash.com. LS
Excerpts:
According to a Middle East expert with knowledge of the current thinking of both the Israeli and the U.S. governments, Israel had devised a plan for attacking Hezbollah - and shared it with Bush Administration officials - well before the July 12th kidnappings. "It's not that the Israelis had a trap that Hezbollah walked into," he said, "but there was a strong feeling in the White House that sooner or later the Israelis were going to do it."
The Middle East expert said that the Administration had several reasons for supporting the Israeli bombing campaign. Within the State Department, it was seen as a way to strengthen the Lebanese government so that it could assert its authority over the south of the country, much of which is controlled by Hezbollah. He went on, "The White House was more focussed on stripping Hezbollah of its missiles, because, if there was to be a military option against Iran's nuclear facilities, it had to get rid of the weapons that Hezbollah could use in a potential retaliation at Israel. Bush wanted both. Bush was going after Iran, as part of the Axis of Evil, and its nuclear sites, and he was interested in going after Hezbollah as part of his interest in democratization, with Lebanon as one of the crown jewels of Middle East democracy."
Administration officials denied that they knew of Israel's plan for the air war. The White House did not respond to a detailed list of questions. In response to a separate request, a National Security Council spokesman said, "Prior to Hezbollah's attack on Israel, the Israeli government gave no official in Washington any reason to believe that Israel was planning to attack. Even after the July 12th attack, we did not know what the Israeli plans were." A Pentagon spokesman said, "The United States government remains committed to a diplomatic solution to the problem of Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program," and denied the story, as did a State Department spokesman.
The United States and Israel have shared intelligence and enjoyed close military coöperation for decades, but early this spring, according to a former senior intelligence official, high-level planners from the U.S. Air Force - under pressure from the White House to develop a war plan for a decisive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities - began consulting with their counterparts in the Israeli Air Force.
Seymour Hersh "Watching Lebanon"
WHILE BUSH AND CHENEY ARE TRYING FABRICATE AND RIG A WAR BETWEEN THE U.S. AND IRAN, A TOP MILITARY COMMANDER IN IRAQ SAYS THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT IRAN IS STIRRING UP TROUBLE IN IRAQ
I know who I believe and it certainly isn’t Bush or Cheney. LS
From Yahoo News.com
TOP MILITARY COMMANDER: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE IRAN IS INVOLVED IN THE CONFLICT WITH IRAQ
BUSH OBVIOUSLY THINKS HE IS KING GEORGE W.
Bush obviously doesn’t give a lick about opinion polls, no matter who conducts them. Clearly the majority – and that’s the mainstream of the American population – thinks the war in Iraq is a bad idea and we should pull out. Naturally Bush doesn’t want to hear this so he attacks the majority of mainstream America, saying we want to “cut and run.”
The reality is that Bush is cutting and running from the truth and the American people.
Joe Conason wrote a great piece below on how Democrats can counter the Bush/Cheney cut and run rhetoric. LS Found on Truthdig.com.
Excerpts:
To be “strong on national security” does not mean supporting the misconceived and incompetently executed policies of the Bush administration. American security in years to come will depend on undoing this government’s grave mistakes, which have weakened this country’s military posture and undermined support for us around the world. Terrorism experts across the spectrum, from conservative Republican to liberal Democrat, agree that the “struggle against violent extremism” has suffered from the foolish decision to invade and occupy Iraq.
Evidently, the neoconservatives hope to escape responsibility for their debacle by complaining that the rest of us lack sufficient zeal. So they now pretend that Democrats and progressives, who overwhelmingly supported the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban and still do, want to abandon that effort. This is another partisan lie invented by the likes of William Kristol, who will answer to history for his role in promoting the Iraq war.
There have been times in recent years when war was unavoidable, in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo. For the neoconservatives, however, the answer to every international conflict is shock and awe, so long as they remain safely distant from the carnage. The American people are turning away from that mindless and dangerous attitude, which is leading us toward disaster. Politicians of both parties should do likewise.
JOE CONASON: "War Critics Are Mainstream, Not Fringe"
Everyday I pick up a newspaper, log on to on line news sources, blogs or turn on the TV, I see nothing but a world gone insane because of the Bush/Cheney Administration and its rubber stamping, cowardly and lazy (5 weeks vacation after working a mere 80 days?) Congressmen and women.
See BEST RUBBER STAMP IN D.C., SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON. Her profile will pretty much tell you how a lawmaker can make promises to voters, but when back inside the Beltway, will turn around and vote the complete opposite. Lawmakers bank on our not reading their voting records. It will also tell you that most of our lawmakers represent big business and lobbyists, not their constituents. And like sheep, they all blindly follow Bush, even if it means taking the planet straight to hell.
The only reprieves available to us to escape from this hideous reality are immersion in work and sleep. Alas flight from reality is not really possible, I’ve learned, because of the endless chatter by the water cooler about our current state of national and global affairs. Everyone is now talking about the King Kong sized elephant in the room. At night dreams can easily become nightmares. Does W. have his finger on the red nuke button while Americans toss and turn at night?
I read that Bush's closest buddies, after Blair and the Brits, the Israelis, are upset with W. Some are blaming their not so successful military assault on Hezbollah on Bush. Olmert will most likely suffer politically from taking advice from one of the most disingenuous, deceitful and cynical leaders in U.S. history. LS
Mr. Robert Parry wrote a piece in The Consortium News: “Israeli Leaders Fault Bush on War” Found on Truthout.org
Excerpts:
Amid the political and diplomatic fallout from Israel's faltering invasion of Lebanon, some Israeli officials are privately blaming President George W. Bush for egging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into the ill-conceived military adventure against the Hezbollah militia in south Lebanon.
Bush conveyed his strong personal support for the military offensive during a White House meeting with Olmert on May 23, according to sources familiar with the thinking of senior Israeli leaders.
Olmert, who like Bush lacks direct wartime experience, agreed that a dose of military force against Hezbollah might damage the guerrilla group's influence in Lebanon and intimidate its allies, Iran and Syria, countries that Bush has identified as the chief obstacles to U.S. interests in the Middle East.
As part of Bush's determination to create a "new Middle East" - one that is more amenable to U.S. policies and desires - Bush even urged Israel to attack Syria, but the Olmert government refused to go that far, according to Israeli sources.
One source said some Israeli officials thought Bush's attack-Syria idea was "nuts" since much of the world would have seen the bombing campaign as overt aggression.
ROBERT PARRY ON TRUTHOUT.ORG. HERE
BUSH WANTED THE ISRAEL/HEZBOLLAH CONFLICT TO BE A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR A WAR BETWEEN U.S. AND IRAN
A war with Iran when we are mired down in Iraq and the Taliban are resurfacing in Afghanistan? With what for troops? This is utterly mad.
Mr. Seymour Hersh wrote a brilliant and well-researched piece for The New Yorker. Top officials in both Britain and Israel are sources for this article. The piece can be found on Truthout.org and on Buzz Flash.com. LS
Excerpts:
According to a Middle East expert with knowledge of the current thinking of both the Israeli and the U.S. governments, Israel had devised a plan for attacking Hezbollah - and shared it with Bush Administration officials - well before the July 12th kidnappings. "It's not that the Israelis had a trap that Hezbollah walked into," he said, "but there was a strong feeling in the White House that sooner or later the Israelis were going to do it."
The Middle East expert said that the Administration had several reasons for supporting the Israeli bombing campaign. Within the State Department, it was seen as a way to strengthen the Lebanese government so that it could assert its authority over the south of the country, much of which is controlled by Hezbollah. He went on, "The White House was more focussed on stripping Hezbollah of its missiles, because, if there was to be a military option against Iran's nuclear facilities, it had to get rid of the weapons that Hezbollah could use in a potential retaliation at Israel. Bush wanted both. Bush was going after Iran, as part of the Axis of Evil, and its nuclear sites, and he was interested in going after Hezbollah as part of his interest in democratization, with Lebanon as one of the crown jewels of Middle East democracy."
Administration officials denied that they knew of Israel's plan for the air war. The White House did not respond to a detailed list of questions. In response to a separate request, a National Security Council spokesman said, "Prior to Hezbollah's attack on Israel, the Israeli government gave no official in Washington any reason to believe that Israel was planning to attack. Even after the July 12th attack, we did not know what the Israeli plans were." A Pentagon spokesman said, "The United States government remains committed to a diplomatic solution to the problem of Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program," and denied the story, as did a State Department spokesman.
The United States and Israel have shared intelligence and enjoyed close military coöperation for decades, but early this spring, according to a former senior intelligence official, high-level planners from the U.S. Air Force - under pressure from the White House to develop a war plan for a decisive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities - began consulting with their counterparts in the Israeli Air Force.
Seymour Hersh "Watching Lebanon"
WHILE BUSH AND CHENEY ARE TRYING FABRICATE AND RIG A WAR BETWEEN THE U.S. AND IRAN, A TOP MILITARY COMMANDER IN IRAQ SAYS THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT IRAN IS STIRRING UP TROUBLE IN IRAQ
I know who I believe and it certainly isn’t Bush or Cheney. LS
From Yahoo News.com
TOP MILITARY COMMANDER: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE IRAN IS INVOLVED IN THE CONFLICT WITH IRAQ
BUSH OBVIOUSLY THINKS HE IS KING GEORGE W.
Bush obviously doesn’t give a lick about opinion polls, no matter who conducts them. Clearly the majority – and that’s the mainstream of the American population – thinks the war in Iraq is a bad idea and we should pull out. Naturally Bush doesn’t want to hear this so he attacks the majority of mainstream America, saying we want to “cut and run.”
The reality is that Bush is cutting and running from the truth and the American people.
Joe Conason wrote a great piece below on how Democrats can counter the Bush/Cheney cut and run rhetoric. LS Found on Truthdig.com.
Excerpts:
To be “strong on national security” does not mean supporting the misconceived and incompetently executed policies of the Bush administration. American security in years to come will depend on undoing this government’s grave mistakes, which have weakened this country’s military posture and undermined support for us around the world. Terrorism experts across the spectrum, from conservative Republican to liberal Democrat, agree that the “struggle against violent extremism” has suffered from the foolish decision to invade and occupy Iraq.
Evidently, the neoconservatives hope to escape responsibility for their debacle by complaining that the rest of us lack sufficient zeal. So they now pretend that Democrats and progressives, who overwhelmingly supported the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban and still do, want to abandon that effort. This is another partisan lie invented by the likes of William Kristol, who will answer to history for his role in promoting the Iraq war.
There have been times in recent years when war was unavoidable, in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kosovo. For the neoconservatives, however, the answer to every international conflict is shock and awe, so long as they remain safely distant from the carnage. The American people are turning away from that mindless and dangerous attitude, which is leading us toward disaster. Politicians of both parties should do likewise.
JOE CONASON: "War Critics Are Mainstream, Not Fringe"
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
MOST AMERICANS FINALLY GET IT: BUSH IS A NIGHTMARE
The rest of the country is catching up with something many well-informed folks have known for some time. The Bush Administration is a freaking nightmare and unmitigated disaster. And it may be likely that Bush is stark raving mad as is most of his rubber stamping enablers, specifically SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON
POLLS SHOW CONGRESS COULD CHANGE IN 2006
Of course the Republicans will try to rig the election as they always do. My advice, vote absentee. LS
Excerpts:
Most Americans believe the GOP-controlled Congress has been a failure and say they plan to vote for Democrats in November, according to a poll released Wednesday.
Fifty-three percent of registered voters polled by Opinion Research Corp. for CNN said they were supporting Democrats, while 40 percent said they were leaning Republican. The remaining 7 percent either planned to support another party or had no opinion.
AMERICANS FINALLY REALIZE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS A CATEGORICAL NIGHTMARE
ROVE MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT HIS JOB. HE HAS OFFERED TO HELP LIEBERMAN. LOL......
Enter the Rovian world of the sick and twisted. Of course he is trying to manipulate a civil war within the Democratic Party. In his desperation to be relevant, Rove will try to spin a fake "rift" in our party, scare us about another impending 9/11 attack, and blah, blah, blah, yawn and ho-hum, but sadly and cynically and contemptuously, at the expense of truth, our democracy, our national security and our stature in the world. Rove obviously possesses no morals, nor a shred of principle or integrity. He is merely fixated like a robot on winning. We need to get the Rove types out the political process. It should be rather obvious that his ilk represents a great threat to our democracy and national security. LS
Excerpts:
According to a close Lieberman adviser, the President's political guru, Karl Rove, has reached out to the Lieberman camp with a message straight from the Oval Office: "The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do."
But in a year where even some Republican candidates are running away from the President on the campaign trail, does this offer have any value to Lieberman? Still smarting from all that coverage of "the kiss" at last year's State of the Union, the Lieberman camp isn't looking for an explicit endorsement. That could create more problems than it solves.
TWISTED ROVE WANTS TO HELP LIEBERMAN
LOU DOBBS OF CNN CALLS BUSH ON HIS FAKE PLEDGE ON BORDER SECURITY
CNN DOBBS CALLS BUSH ON HIS FAKE PLEDGE ON NATIONAL SECURITY
UH OH! You know we are in deep you know what when James Baker enters the scene. Now we know for certain, not that many of us had a moment's doubt from Day One, that Iraq is an unmitigated disaster and human catastrophe.
“A Higher Power: James Baker Puts Bush's Iraq Policy Into Rehab.”
From Truthout.org via The Washington Monthly, written by Mr. Robert Dreyfuss.
Excerpts:
Since March, Baker, backed by a team of experienced national-security hands, has been busily at work trying to devise a fresh set of policies to help the president chart a new course in - or, perhaps, to get the hell out of - Iraq. But as with all things involving James Baker, there's a deeper political agenda at work as well. "Baker is primarily motivated by his desire to avoid a war at home - that things will fall apart not on the battlefield but at home. So he wants a ceasefire in American politics," a member of one of the commission's working groups told me. Specifically, he said, if the Democrats win back one or both houses of Congress in November, they would unleash a series of investigative hearings on Iraq, the war on terrorism, and civil liberties that could fatally weaken the administration and remove the last props of political support for the war, setting the stage for a potential Republican electoral disaster in 2008. "I guess there are people in the [Republican] party, on the Hill and in the White House, who see a political train wreck coming, and they've called in Baker to try to reroute the train."
The fact that Baker is involved has sent the Washington rumor mill buzzing with the theory that the commission is really a Trojan Horse for the views of Baker's friend and former boss, George H.W. Bush. It has been widely speculated that the former president never agreed with his son's decision to invade Iraq, and the son appears to have repaid that perceived dissent by largely refusing to reach out to his father for advice on national security, despite the elder Bush's knowledge and experience. In any case, for reasons that may be Oedipal or that may have to do with neoconservatives' disdain for realists associated with Bush 41, or both, Bush 43 has so far kept the 41 circle at arm's length - including Baker; his confrere Brent Scowcroft; and even, during his ill-fated tenure as secretary of state, Colin Powell. But with the situation in Iraq sliding towards irretrievable chaos, a moment of receptivity may have arrived.
It's hard to know what the commission is really up to because its inner workings are nearly as secretive as those of the White House. Baker has imposed an ironclad gag order on all of its participants. The 60 people involved in the effort have been instructed, in the strongest of terms, not to comment to reporters on the task force's work. Every one of the participants I spoke to flatly refused to comment for the record, and several did not want to talk even off the record. Some were palpably nervous. "We're not allowed to talk about it," said one person involved. "We get about every month a warning: 'Do not discuss in any context the substance of what is happening in this group.' You know how bad it is? Initially they wanted us to end all of our contacts with the media, make no statements, write no op-eds - in other words, become monks. Then they realized, how can you take the entire community of Iraq experts in the United States and have them all stop talking?"
Baker's commission - officially called the Iraq Study Group - was created in March by Congress at the instigation of Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican. After his third trip to Iraq last year, Wolf started contacting members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, urging the creation of a high-powered, private task force to take a fresh look at the mess in Iraq. "If you had a very serious illness...and you weren't completely comfortable that everything was going the way you hoped, you'd certainly want to get a second opinion," Wolf told me. At least 30 members of Congress supported the idea, including Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.). According to participants in the task force, a key silent partner with Wolf in putting it together was his Virginia Republican colleague, Sen. John Warner, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services committee.
THINGS ARE SO BAD FOR BUSH THAT BAKER IS CALLED IN TO FIX THE MESS IN IRAQ
POLLS SHOW CONGRESS COULD CHANGE IN 2006
Of course the Republicans will try to rig the election as they always do. My advice, vote absentee. LS
Excerpts:
Most Americans believe the GOP-controlled Congress has been a failure and say they plan to vote for Democrats in November, according to a poll released Wednesday.
Fifty-three percent of registered voters polled by Opinion Research Corp. for CNN said they were supporting Democrats, while 40 percent said they were leaning Republican. The remaining 7 percent either planned to support another party or had no opinion.
AMERICANS FINALLY REALIZE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS A CATEGORICAL NIGHTMARE
ROVE MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT HIS JOB. HE HAS OFFERED TO HELP LIEBERMAN. LOL......
Enter the Rovian world of the sick and twisted. Of course he is trying to manipulate a civil war within the Democratic Party. In his desperation to be relevant, Rove will try to spin a fake "rift" in our party, scare us about another impending 9/11 attack, and blah, blah, blah, yawn and ho-hum, but sadly and cynically and contemptuously, at the expense of truth, our democracy, our national security and our stature in the world. Rove obviously possesses no morals, nor a shred of principle or integrity. He is merely fixated like a robot on winning. We need to get the Rove types out the political process. It should be rather obvious that his ilk represents a great threat to our democracy and national security. LS
Excerpts:
According to a close Lieberman adviser, the President's political guru, Karl Rove, has reached out to the Lieberman camp with a message straight from the Oval Office: "The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do."
But in a year where even some Republican candidates are running away from the President on the campaign trail, does this offer have any value to Lieberman? Still smarting from all that coverage of "the kiss" at last year's State of the Union, the Lieberman camp isn't looking for an explicit endorsement. That could create more problems than it solves.
TWISTED ROVE WANTS TO HELP LIEBERMAN
LOU DOBBS OF CNN CALLS BUSH ON HIS FAKE PLEDGE ON BORDER SECURITY
CNN DOBBS CALLS BUSH ON HIS FAKE PLEDGE ON NATIONAL SECURITY
UH OH! You know we are in deep you know what when James Baker enters the scene. Now we know for certain, not that many of us had a moment's doubt from Day One, that Iraq is an unmitigated disaster and human catastrophe.
“A Higher Power: James Baker Puts Bush's Iraq Policy Into Rehab.”
From Truthout.org via The Washington Monthly, written by Mr. Robert Dreyfuss.
Excerpts:
Since March, Baker, backed by a team of experienced national-security hands, has been busily at work trying to devise a fresh set of policies to help the president chart a new course in - or, perhaps, to get the hell out of - Iraq. But as with all things involving James Baker, there's a deeper political agenda at work as well. "Baker is primarily motivated by his desire to avoid a war at home - that things will fall apart not on the battlefield but at home. So he wants a ceasefire in American politics," a member of one of the commission's working groups told me. Specifically, he said, if the Democrats win back one or both houses of Congress in November, they would unleash a series of investigative hearings on Iraq, the war on terrorism, and civil liberties that could fatally weaken the administration and remove the last props of political support for the war, setting the stage for a potential Republican electoral disaster in 2008. "I guess there are people in the [Republican] party, on the Hill and in the White House, who see a political train wreck coming, and they've called in Baker to try to reroute the train."
The fact that Baker is involved has sent the Washington rumor mill buzzing with the theory that the commission is really a Trojan Horse for the views of Baker's friend and former boss, George H.W. Bush. It has been widely speculated that the former president never agreed with his son's decision to invade Iraq, and the son appears to have repaid that perceived dissent by largely refusing to reach out to his father for advice on national security, despite the elder Bush's knowledge and experience. In any case, for reasons that may be Oedipal or that may have to do with neoconservatives' disdain for realists associated with Bush 41, or both, Bush 43 has so far kept the 41 circle at arm's length - including Baker; his confrere Brent Scowcroft; and even, during his ill-fated tenure as secretary of state, Colin Powell. But with the situation in Iraq sliding towards irretrievable chaos, a moment of receptivity may have arrived.
It's hard to know what the commission is really up to because its inner workings are nearly as secretive as those of the White House. Baker has imposed an ironclad gag order on all of its participants. The 60 people involved in the effort have been instructed, in the strongest of terms, not to comment to reporters on the task force's work. Every one of the participants I spoke to flatly refused to comment for the record, and several did not want to talk even off the record. Some were palpably nervous. "We're not allowed to talk about it," said one person involved. "We get about every month a warning: 'Do not discuss in any context the substance of what is happening in this group.' You know how bad it is? Initially they wanted us to end all of our contacts with the media, make no statements, write no op-eds - in other words, become monks. Then they realized, how can you take the entire community of Iraq experts in the United States and have them all stop talking?"
Baker's commission - officially called the Iraq Study Group - was created in March by Congress at the instigation of Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican. After his third trip to Iraq last year, Wolf started contacting members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, urging the creation of a high-powered, private task force to take a fresh look at the mess in Iraq. "If you had a very serious illness...and you weren't completely comfortable that everything was going the way you hoped, you'd certainly want to get a second opinion," Wolf told me. At least 30 members of Congress supported the idea, including Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.). According to participants in the task force, a key silent partner with Wolf in putting it together was his Virginia Republican colleague, Sen. John Warner, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services committee.
THINGS ARE SO BAD FOR BUSH THAT BAKER IS CALLED IN TO FIX THE MESS IN IRAQ
Thursday, August 03, 2006
UNDER BUSH GOP - ADVOCATES OF TRUTH ARE ATTACKED
Republican Senator Hagel says Iraq is a replay of Vietnam and he is a Vietnam War veteran so he should know. But Karl Rove has most likely already called the Senator and has threatened him in one form or another. Alas, let us watch. Within a few days Senator Hagel will probably retract his statement, apologize and send a please don’t eat me, I didn’t mean it card to Bush.
THINK PROGRESS: HAGEL ON IRAQ
Radnofsky Democrats in Texas (folks with political leanings that range from moderate to progressive to liberal) are exchanging ideas with conservative Republicans on a Dallas blog. We have met a group of folks who refuse to understand truth. When the ideologues hear what they do not wish to hear, or if they cannot defend the facts about our abysmally underperforming Senator Hutchison, they go on the personal assault route, pretty much the same way as the Kerry Swift Boaters did.
Right now Murtha is being Swift Boated by a group of neonut vets. Why? Because he tells the truth about Iraq. A Gallup poll revealed today that 55% of Americans want out of Iraq. And yet, Murtha’s character is assassinated by ideologues that represent a small minority – most of whom are neoconservative. They sure as hell don’t swim in the mainstream pond with the rest of us.
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER: GALLUP POLL HERE
For information on Senator Murtha, check out the MSNBC Chris Matthews on Hardball archives for 8/3/06.
Two top Generals testified today that Iraq is possibly slipping into a civil war. Rumsfeld must be desperate because he told a huge whooper when testifying before the Senate. He said he has never been overly optimistic about Iraq. Really!? Well, who was it that told us we’d be greeted as liberators? And there were WMD in Iraq? And what about Saddam Hussein and his ties to Al-Qaeda? It was the media's fault for showing "the same vase being stolen over and over and over again" when the media's cameras revealed the infant stages of anarchy and the insurrection that lay ahead.
MY WAY: GENERALS WARN OF CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ
Um – why are we there? Anyone have a clue?
According to the BBC News today, Blair was warned that Iraq is headed toward a civil war. In public officials say all is peachy keen and AOK in Iraq. Privately they tell another story.
BBC NEWS: IRAQ CIVIL WAR WARNING FOR BLAIR
The Bush Administration does its best to shut down anyone who disagrees with its ideology. Those who veer off message or stray from the flock, especially if they hold office or positions in government, including the CIA and the military, are routinely attacked and their careers ruined. Hate groups raise millions of dollars to purchase TV ads to do their evil work. TV stations are all too willing to take their filthy dollars. This is one reason I do not watch much TV.
Never in my life have I witnessed such evil, criminal, cynical and calloused behavior on the part of our government and its enabling Republican Congress. Some Democrats share the blame, too. Never in our history has the characters of war veterans, CIA officers and elected officials been so routinely assassinated for merely disagreeing with an administration’s belief system. Never before has a Vice President outed a CIA agent because her spouse disagreed with party policy.
History will tell us we are inching toward fascism under the Bush Administration.
Change has never been so desperately needed to save the shreds of our democracy. LS
THINK PROGRESS: HAGEL ON IRAQ
Radnofsky Democrats in Texas (folks with political leanings that range from moderate to progressive to liberal) are exchanging ideas with conservative Republicans on a Dallas blog. We have met a group of folks who refuse to understand truth. When the ideologues hear what they do not wish to hear, or if they cannot defend the facts about our abysmally underperforming Senator Hutchison, they go on the personal assault route, pretty much the same way as the Kerry Swift Boaters did.
Right now Murtha is being Swift Boated by a group of neonut vets. Why? Because he tells the truth about Iraq. A Gallup poll revealed today that 55% of Americans want out of Iraq. And yet, Murtha’s character is assassinated by ideologues that represent a small minority – most of whom are neoconservative. They sure as hell don’t swim in the mainstream pond with the rest of us.
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER: GALLUP POLL HERE
For information on Senator Murtha, check out the MSNBC Chris Matthews on Hardball archives for 8/3/06.
Two top Generals testified today that Iraq is possibly slipping into a civil war. Rumsfeld must be desperate because he told a huge whooper when testifying before the Senate. He said he has never been overly optimistic about Iraq. Really!? Well, who was it that told us we’d be greeted as liberators? And there were WMD in Iraq? And what about Saddam Hussein and his ties to Al-Qaeda? It was the media's fault for showing "the same vase being stolen over and over and over again" when the media's cameras revealed the infant stages of anarchy and the insurrection that lay ahead.
MY WAY: GENERALS WARN OF CIVIL WAR IN IRAQ
Um – why are we there? Anyone have a clue?
According to the BBC News today, Blair was warned that Iraq is headed toward a civil war. In public officials say all is peachy keen and AOK in Iraq. Privately they tell another story.
BBC NEWS: IRAQ CIVIL WAR WARNING FOR BLAIR
The Bush Administration does its best to shut down anyone who disagrees with its ideology. Those who veer off message or stray from the flock, especially if they hold office or positions in government, including the CIA and the military, are routinely attacked and their careers ruined. Hate groups raise millions of dollars to purchase TV ads to do their evil work. TV stations are all too willing to take their filthy dollars. This is one reason I do not watch much TV.
Never in my life have I witnessed such evil, criminal, cynical and calloused behavior on the part of our government and its enabling Republican Congress. Some Democrats share the blame, too. Never in our history has the characters of war veterans, CIA officers and elected officials been so routinely assassinated for merely disagreeing with an administration’s belief system. Never before has a Vice President outed a CIA agent because her spouse disagreed with party policy.
History will tell us we are inching toward fascism under the Bush Administration.
Change has never been so desperately needed to save the shreds of our democracy. LS
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
9/11 COMMISSION SUSPECTS DECEPTION BY THE PENTAGON
This very disturbing piece was sent to me today from my friend Ken. I am glad he noticed it because the national media seems to be fixated solely on the Middle East, except for Iraq, of course, where the country seems to be engaged in a full scale civil war.
Excerpts from Washington Post piece today: (An explosive article on this issue also follows on Vanity Fair below.)
Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.
"We to this day don't know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what they told us," said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who led the commission. "It was just so far from the truth. . . . It's one of those loose ends that never got tied."
In fact, the commission reported a year later, audiotapes from NORAD's Northeast headquarters and other evidence showed clearly that the military never had any of the hijacked airliners in its sights and at one point chased a phantom aircraft -- American Airlines Flight 11 -- long after it had crashed into the World Trade Center.
Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold and Col. Alan Scott told the commission that NORAD had begun tracking United 93 at 9:16 a.m., but the commission determined that the airliner was not hijacked until 12 minutes later. The military was not aware of the flight until after it had crashed in Pennsylvania.
9/11 COMMISSION SUSPECTS DECEPTION FROM PENTAGON
THERE IS ALSO AN EXPLOSIVE ARTICLE IN VANITY FAIR ON THE 9/11 COMMISSION'S SUSPICION
VANITY FAIR ON 9/11 COMMISSION
BUSH WANTS TO EXPAND AUTHORITY OF MILITARY COURTS
HI HO, HI HO, CLOSER TO FASCISM WE GO
Another stunning and highly disturbing piece sent by Ken from the Washington Post today.
Excerpts:
A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such "commissions" to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the proposal.
The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction. The two provisions would be likely to put more individuals than previously expected before military juries, officials and independent experts said.
The draft proposed legislation, set to be discussed at two Senate hearings today, is controversial inside and outside the administration because defendants would be denied many protections guaranteed by the civilian and traditional military criminal justice systems.
Under the proposed procedures, defendants would lack rights to confront accusers, exclude hearsay accusations, or bar evidence obtained through rough or coercive interrogations. They would not be guaranteed a public or speedy trial and would lack the right to choose their military counsel, who in turn would not be guaranteed equal access to evidence held by prosecutors.
Detainees would also not be guaranteed the right to be present at their own trials, if their absence is deemed necessary to protect national security or individuals.
BUSH WANTS TO EXPAND POWER OF MILITARY COURTS
EDITORIAL BOARDS AROUND THE NATION CRITICIZE BUSH FOR VIOLATING THE SEPARATION OF POWERS
Found on the Washington Post.com via Buzz Flash.com. This article provides links to the various newspaper editorials throughout the country that have a huge problem with Bush's abuse of power. Newspapers rail against Bush in both red and blue states: Lexington, KY., Melbourne, FL., Appleton, WI., Yakima, WA., Huntsville, AL and Loveland, CO. to name a few.
Excerpts:
There's no doubt that President Bush's unprecedented use of signing statements to flout the will of Congress has fired up policy wonks, constitutional lawyers and other inside-the-Beltway types.
But is this one of those issues that the average voter couldn't care less about?
Well, judging from the recent outpouring of editorials at small- and medium-sized newspapers across the country, there may be something about violating the Constitution that riles up Americans no matter where they live or where they stand on the political spectrum.
Bush's use of signing statements finally -- and briefly -- made the headlines last week, when a bipartisan American Bar Association task force dramatically established how the president's assertion of his right to ignore certain statutes passed by Congress undermines the rule of law and the constitutional system of separation of powers.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) then proposed a bill that would give Congress the ability to challenge those statements in federal court.
"SIGNING STATEMENTS STRIKE A NERVE"
Excerpts from Washington Post piece today: (An explosive article on this issue also follows on Vanity Fair below.)
Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public rather than a reflection of the fog of events on that day, according to sources involved in the debate.
"We to this day don't know why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Command] told us what they told us," said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who led the commission. "It was just so far from the truth. . . . It's one of those loose ends that never got tied."
In fact, the commission reported a year later, audiotapes from NORAD's Northeast headquarters and other evidence showed clearly that the military never had any of the hijacked airliners in its sights and at one point chased a phantom aircraft -- American Airlines Flight 11 -- long after it had crashed into the World Trade Center.
Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold and Col. Alan Scott told the commission that NORAD had begun tracking United 93 at 9:16 a.m., but the commission determined that the airliner was not hijacked until 12 minutes later. The military was not aware of the flight until after it had crashed in Pennsylvania.
9/11 COMMISSION SUSPECTS DECEPTION FROM PENTAGON
THERE IS ALSO AN EXPLOSIVE ARTICLE IN VANITY FAIR ON THE 9/11 COMMISSION'S SUSPICION
VANITY FAIR ON 9/11 COMMISSION
BUSH WANTS TO EXPAND AUTHORITY OF MILITARY COURTS
HI HO, HI HO, CLOSER TO FASCISM WE GO
Another stunning and highly disturbing piece sent by Ken from the Washington Post today.
Excerpts:
A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such "commissions" to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the proposal.
The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction. The two provisions would be likely to put more individuals than previously expected before military juries, officials and independent experts said.
The draft proposed legislation, set to be discussed at two Senate hearings today, is controversial inside and outside the administration because defendants would be denied many protections guaranteed by the civilian and traditional military criminal justice systems.
Under the proposed procedures, defendants would lack rights to confront accusers, exclude hearsay accusations, or bar evidence obtained through rough or coercive interrogations. They would not be guaranteed a public or speedy trial and would lack the right to choose their military counsel, who in turn would not be guaranteed equal access to evidence held by prosecutors.
Detainees would also not be guaranteed the right to be present at their own trials, if their absence is deemed necessary to protect national security or individuals.
BUSH WANTS TO EXPAND POWER OF MILITARY COURTS
EDITORIAL BOARDS AROUND THE NATION CRITICIZE BUSH FOR VIOLATING THE SEPARATION OF POWERS
Found on the Washington Post.com via Buzz Flash.com. This article provides links to the various newspaper editorials throughout the country that have a huge problem with Bush's abuse of power. Newspapers rail against Bush in both red and blue states: Lexington, KY., Melbourne, FL., Appleton, WI., Yakima, WA., Huntsville, AL and Loveland, CO. to name a few.
Excerpts:
There's no doubt that President Bush's unprecedented use of signing statements to flout the will of Congress has fired up policy wonks, constitutional lawyers and other inside-the-Beltway types.
But is this one of those issues that the average voter couldn't care less about?
Well, judging from the recent outpouring of editorials at small- and medium-sized newspapers across the country, there may be something about violating the Constitution that riles up Americans no matter where they live or where they stand on the political spectrum.
Bush's use of signing statements finally -- and briefly -- made the headlines last week, when a bipartisan American Bar Association task force dramatically established how the president's assertion of his right to ignore certain statutes passed by Congress undermines the rule of law and the constitutional system of separation of powers.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) then proposed a bill that would give Congress the ability to challenge those statements in federal court.
"SIGNING STATEMENTS STRIKE A NERVE"
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