Coverage???? of Downing Street hearing #1

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

republican porn

Can you imagine if the Democratic Party invited a porn star to dine with president Clinton? Well, I guess red "family values" now contain porn, and who am I to complain. Porn star Mary Carey and Kick Ass Pictures executive, Mark Kulkis attended a recent GOP dinner. Where are pat robertson, jerry falwell, or concerned women for america on this one?

Warning: Some links contain the adult material produced by republican dinner attendees.

I am against and ashamed of the practice of Lynching

I said it. I would vote on it. Why won't they?

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Michael Crapo (R-ID)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Kay Hutchison (R-TX)
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
George Voinovich (R-OH)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)

Why not give them a call and ask?

UPDATE: Senators Voinovich, Murkowski and Crapo have now added their names to the co-sponsors. What took you "folks" so long?

Innocent until proven guilty.

I wasn't going to do this, but I just feel like I have to defend Michael Jackson. A man who obviously lives outside the "normal" box.

The phrase "innocent until proven guilty" did not seem to apply to Michael Jackson, or as his "normal" retractors refer to him "wacko jacko". Granted, sleeping in the same bed as minors is not something people are comfortable with, but it is legal. I wonder if a babysitter, nanny or someone watching their friend's child has ever done it. I know he made a habit of these "sleep-overs", but that still does not make him a child molester.

The case as I saw it, and we really didn't see that much of it, was based on the testimony of two boys, their mother, a questionable timeline, and previous allegations that produced no charges. The mother and the boys were the key to the case. The jury, who requested the boy's testimony again while in deliberations, did not believe them. Perhaps it was due to the mother's previous attempts at scamming people for money, or maybe it was because the brother couldn't remember exactly what his story was, or maybe the boys were seen as teen agers who found their own liquor and porn in Neverland. Who knows? What we do know is that to them, based on the evidence, there was reasonable doubt. Case closed.

And for all those equating the Trial of Michael Jackson to OJ's trial, there is a real difference. The DNA matched blood in OJ's car, in OJ's home, and on the rug of the murder is hard evidence. Sending former employees and other grudge holders to tell "their side" of the story is not as hard. You would think with 100 search warrants a DA on a mission would have found something.

"intelligence and facts were being fixed"

No, this is not another blog about the Downing Street minutes memo, or the host of recently "leaked" documents concerning the push for a War in Iraq.

No, the intelligence and facts that were fixed in this case had to do with global warming reports coming out of the White House. Former oil industry lobbyist philip cooney, whose latest job was chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, has resigned. White House mouth pieces are assuring everyone that it had nothing to do with the NEWS that cooney had been editing official White House environmental reports to favor the oil industry and administration interests and policies, or lack thereof. Mr. cooney "decided to resign and take the summer off to spend some time with his family".

Whew, I almost thought someone was going to be held accountable for something.

UPDATE: In case you were worried that Mr. cooney was going to add to the unemployment rolls, don't be. He'll be working at Exxon/Mobil this fall.

Let the hearings begin!

The Conyers Judiciary Crew is holding hearings on the Downing Street minutes memo this Thursday with new documents in hand. "None of the documents are as earth-shattering as the Downing Street minutes but all of them corroborate the accuracy of what it says.” I wonder if chairman sensenbrenner will even be there to turn off the microphones of elected US Congressmen and women like he did during the U.S.A.P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act hearing. If only it were bush and blair testifying.

The Smoking Gun

Back in 2002, I asked a lawyer friend of mine if willfully misleading the public was an impeachable offense. He never replied to my email.

The Downing Street Memo offers further evidence that:

(1) The president had "made up his mind to take military action" well before telling the public "We are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq". Well before asking the US Congress for the authority to use force, if necessary. In fact, the memo references "spikes in activity" that the US was already taking part in. Spikes that, according to the Sunday London Times, "dropped twice as many bombs on Iraq in the second half of 2002 as they did during the whole of 2001". The War in Iraq was not a "last resort" but a pre-determined end. The means of which, this administration continually attempts to justify. A means that has killed 1,674 United States soldiers and 10s of thousands of Iraqis.

(2) Aside from the testimony of people like former treasury secretary Paul O'Neil, there has not been much evidence of suspect intelligence usage leading up to the War in Iraq. This memo, written by foreign policy aide Mathew Rycroft to Ambassador David Manning (cc: UK Defense and Foreign Secretaries, Attorney General, and others) states "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy". "Fixed around the policy". No wonder bush told UN weapons inspectors to leave Iraq after only a few months. He must have had the intelligence and facts right where he wanted them. There are those that say this administration was not the only administration, foreign or domestic, to believe that saddam had weapons of mass destruction (nucLEar included), but this administration was the ONLY administration to find this "intelligence" actionable enough to base a "shock and awe" war on.

Rep. John Conyers has demanded an investigation into the build up to the war in Iraq based on this Downing Street Memo. A letter to the president regarding questions arising from the Downing Street Memo is available for your signature at his website. He has also written defense secretary rumsfeld regarding the "spikes of activity" during late 2002. Senators Kennedy and Kerry seem to be following suit.

The mainstream media has been slow to pick up this story, but it does seem to have more teeth than the questionable election results in Ohio, or an administration paying actual journalists to praise presidential policies in their columns, or allowing a fake journalist to ask the president and his mouth piece soft ball questions for two years, or divulging the identity of an undercover CIA agent to the press. I could go on, but maybe it's better if you check them out for yourself. At least he didn't lie under oath about cheating on his wife, right? Maybe it's time we put him under oath, without cheney at his side, and see what comes out of that smirk.


To the Impeachment of George W. Bush!

DEEP THROAT!!!!

Deep throat, deep throat, deep throat, deep throat, deep throat! No, I'm not talking about deep throat or deep throat. I'm talking about the deep throat that is making every political talking head and talk show host say the sweet sweet words.....Deep Throat!

I got to tell you it has been making me smile, laugh and well nevermind.

McCain Boltin' Nukes

The 2008 primary of the reds started to heat up this week with Senator John McCain's neo-AuH2O (Bull Moose's term) power play over the Senate's red leader frist. 14 moderates, from both teams, united behind McCain in the name of sanity in the Senate. In doing so, Senators distanced themselves from the anti-filibuster circus the public neither likes, cares about, nor understands. A distance that might look good in the 2006 and/or 2008 elections. The Democrats, though lacking a leader outside of the elderly Senator Robert Byrd, seem to have found some unity, at least so far as john bolton is concerned. The recent decision to delay the vote on the UN Ambassador nominee, until the documents asked for are made available, is evidence of that.

More news that must have chaffed this president and his posse like a cheap pair of chaps, and it's starting to show.

In an attempt to brighten foreign policy headlines, the president sent the first lady to see if she could smile and praise her way through the Middle East. Maybe she would be met with the flowers and sweets we've all been waiting for. Nope. Unfortunately, she was "mobbed" by angry protesters. This is what we've become. Our image so tarnished, so infuriating that even our first lady is met with animosity. Not to worry though, we'll still have all of Our nuClear weapons to meet that animosity with, if the administration has anything to say about it. It's no surprise that the month long conference on the Non-Proliferation Treaty ended with little positive results. A lot of 'do as I say not as I do' policy going on there, with the US trying to keep the pressure on North Korea and Iran's nuClear prospects while avoiding it's own obligations when it comes to stockpiles of nuClear weapons and the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that President Clinton signed in 1996, but president bush has refused to since taking office. The real nuclear option is a far scarier prospect than the Senate's version is.


“They were immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, very, very dangerous in terms of accidental or inadvertent use, and destructive of the non-proliferation regime”.
-Robert McNamara on the US and NATO policy on their nuclear weapons policies

Unbelievable!

The story of the brutal deaths of two inmates in US custody in Afghanistan should help to quell the Newsweek feeding frenzy, much like Galloway's testimony should silence the reds' lust for the UN oil for food scandal. At this point, even the first lady admits "you can't blame it all on" the infamously flawed report. After all, the Red Cross had warned the Pentagon of the disrespect shown the Quran at Guantanamo Bay after gathering "credible" reports from as far back as 2002. The images of saddam in his underpants certainly aren't helping the "coalition's" image as it pertains to the Geneva Conventions, and the US military knows it. That's why the Pentagon has condemned the publishing of the images. Like it or not, he is a prisoner of war and should be treated the same way we would want our generals treated should they ever be put on trial for crimes against humanity.

At least here at home Our "leaders" are operating in good, rational, democratic fashion. In the debate to end free and unlimited speech in the Senate, Senator Rick Santorum has been comparing Democrats to hitler. No, he couldn't be. Didn't he come out strongly against Senator Byrd when he referenced nazi Germany? It's no wonder Senator Lautenberg is comparing red leaders to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. It's just friggin' unbelievable! Maybe it's time we had a real protest. Screw your permits! Let's march on the White House lawn, the Pentagon, the steps of the Capitol, camp out and demand a government for the people. It worked to depose and replace the president of Ecuador, much to junior and the boys’ dismay. On the other hand, look at how our allies in Uzbekistan reacted to protestors, firing on the crowd and killing hundreds.

To be even handed, the president has become more tolerant of those of "questionable morals". He is having porn star Mary Carey and Kick Ass Pictures president Mark Kulkisover over for dinner. Unbelievable!


"So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause"
-Padmé from Star Wars Episode III (6)

It's all Newsweek's fault.

No really, it's that paragraph in Newsweek that made Afghanistan explode into the anti-US protests that claimed the lives of sixteen people. It wasn't Abu Ghraib. It wasn't the Downing Street Memo on fixing intelligence that lead to the invasion of Iraq. It wasn't the appointing of president Karzai, leaving all those outside of Kabul to govern themselves, not to mention fight Our battles (see bin Laden). It wasn't the hundreds kept in Guantanamo Bay for years without even being charged with a crime. It wasn't the other paragraphs in Newsweek that didn't use the word "flushed". It wasn't the "news" media's earlier reports alleging the same or similar desecrations.

No, this certainly isn't an attempt to stifle a news item a la the president's "service" record, by discrediting one of its messengers. This is not an attempt to pressure or force a news media outlet to write stories the administration likes without having to pay the journalist directly. And it certainly isn't a diversionary tactic to distract us from the fact that not only is Iraq getting more violent, but so is Afghanistan.

Ah sweet sarcasm...... eases the pain.

Sure some of the protesters in Afghanistan were waving copies of the Newsweek story. Maybe it was the straw that broke the camels back. Maybe it was used to further enrage and rally supporters of protests that were already beginning to occur. We got into this war, because of the use of forged documents, undocumented evidence, and minimally sourced Intel from the likes of Chalabi and Curveball. When will someone be held responsible for the damages this war has caused to their country and Ours?


QUESTION: Does it concern the President that the primary source for the intelligence on the mobile biological weapons labs was a guy that U.S. intelligence never every interviewed?

MCCLELLAN: Well, again, all these issues will be looked at as part of a broad review by the independent commission that the President appointed… But it’s important that we look at what we learn on the ground and compare that with what we believed prior to going into Iraq.
[White House Press Gaggle, 4/5/04]

QUESTION: He’s the president of the United States. This thing he told the country on the verge of taking the nation to war has turned out to be, by your own account, not reliable. That’s his fault, isn’t it?

MCCLELLAN: No.
[White House Press Briefing, 7/17/03]

Hey George, How's it going?

Over 400 liberated Iraqis have been killed in the past two weeks by an increasing number of car bombers, who are now targeting civilians as well as US and Iraqi police forces and recruits. That number does not include the casualties from the on-going US offensive along the Syrian border that recently brought about the demise of a squad of United States Marines. Even so the carnage seems to have barely interrupted the major networks "news" coverage of Michael Jackson's trial or the shop lifting charges of a "runaway bride's" past. You don't need go any further than ABC's The Note from May 12th to see that yes "the death and carnage is staggering" but "the biggest story every day in the world will get almost no coverage." Maybe the latest, paid for by the administration, "journalist" will put it in future articles while he trumpets the benefits of the Natural Resources Conservation Service programs on behalf of the Department of Agriculture. At least Halliburton and Ahmed Chalabi are profitting from the neo-con War on Iraq. Halliburton with a bonus, despite their over charging scandals, and Ahmed Chalabi by having the King Jordan pardon his $300,000,000.00 bank fraud.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's deadly protests against the United States, though downplayed by president Karzai as a product of democracy, doesn't bode well for that other war we are still fighting across the Atlantic. All this while the president pats Putin on the back,just before going to Georgia to flip him the bird.

Then, with hatred towards America still on the rise, a plane gets within 3 miles of the White House. If that doesn't make you scratch your head, how about the fact that the panic (a code red that even Tom Ridge would have agreed with) that wisked the first lady and the vice president to undisclosed bunkers wasn't important enough to interrupt the president's bike ride. Protocol or not, a "Mr. President we have a situation" or a "don't worry, your wife is fine" seems to have been in order.

Of course this isn't what Our government is focusing on right now, there are more important things on their mind. For instance, there's a social security program that won't be in crisis until 2042. There's the changing of the Senate rules to end free and unlimited debate so the reds can get 10 judges through that the president has seen fit to send back for a second time. The Senate has approved 205 of 215 judges already. And lastly, of course, there's John Bolton. My problem with Mr. Bolton isn't so much his gruff nature with others as it is his stretching of intelligence and his distaste for diplomacy and the US State Department. Do the reds really believe that this chad counter from 2000 is the best candidate for the "scandal ridden" UN. Will he in any way help the world's view of the "scandal ridden" bush administration for that matter? I don't think I need Larry Flynt to answer that one.

Arianna Online

Arianna's new blog/news site is up and running. It's a somewhat strange mix of celebrities, talking heads, and political leaders. The site's "bloggers" range from Walter Kronkite to Bill Maher, Rob Reiner to Larry David, Jon Corzine to Jerry Brown. The only real problem I have with the "Huffington Post" is the inability of it's reader to comment on the blogs of the stars. It would serve as further evidence of Tom Friedman's "flattening" to be able to have a dialogue with the stars on politics, a subject which neither they nor I have much professional experience in. Here's what I had to say via her "scoop" space. "Is there a particular reason that I can't comment on the 'Blogs of the stars'? I just wanted to tell Larry David that it's Bolton's handling of intel on Syria that makes me nervous about his nomination. I wanted to tell Joe Scarborough that he should come down on the "axis of evil" president as hard as he does on the UN for Darfur, and Mr. Kronkite, I agree a forum is needed in which the Democratic Party can form the policy base from which campaigns could be launched.

The Huffington Post could be a high profile non-Drudge political/news site that could find it's way into more servers than say, Raw Story. It certainly has some real growing pains to go through before doing that though.

When not as I do starts to take over for do as I say.

The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows that 57% of the 1008 people polled think that the War on Iraq is/was NOT worthwhile. It's not surprising when even the mainstream news seems to be reporting increased violence there. The 360 photos of flag draped coffins the Pentagon has recently been forced to release make any decline in the percentage of dissent doubtful. The capture of what is said to be al Qaeda's #3 man in Pakistan further typifies where Our War on Terrorism should be, if anywhere. Imagine if we took the $200,000,000,000.00 we've spent in Iraq and maintained our forces in Afghanistan (the Pakistani border in particular). Imagine Our eyes trained on the hunt for al Qaeda and its leaders and not distracted by the "evil" dictator no one thought was a threat worthy of invasion, except for the neo-conmen in charge of Our government. Unlike a coalition that seems to be forming in Venezuela, Our "coalition" is so strained that the struggling Italian government is using discrepancies in the story about Our troops killing their agent to showcase their ability to disagree with the current US administration. Reports of "fake interrogations" at Guatanamo Bay certainly haven't helped confidence. Lynndie England can't even plead guilty to the crimes committed at Abu Ghraib prison without a fight.

Maybe international relations will improve after the UN's month long conference on the Nonproliferation Treaty. I doubt it. We, especially this administration, like Our nucLEar options, literally and figuratively, intact. Don't believe me? Take it from President Jimmy Carter or better yet the current secretary of defense. The conference has been given about thirty more seconds of coverage than the "thousands" of anti-nuke, anti-war protestors that marched on the UN just prior to the meeting. So don’t worry about something interrupting the coverage of some cold footed bribe faking her own abduction or Macaulay Culkin’s testimony. After all, we do live in a place and time where the President of the United States gets cut off for Paris Hilton and Donald Trump.

Acting Minister of Oil

Ladies and Gentlemen!
One of the new Deputy Prime Ministers of Iraq and Acting Minister of Oil, the criminal friend of the neo-cons that was essential to the misleading of America to War and stands accused of giving US secrets to Iran,

Ahmed Chalabi

Iraq and Options of Governmental Destruction

With "elected" Iraqi's finding it hard to agree on a cabinet, there's is little hope of Iraqi oil barrels rolling in to help the supply driven side of our fuel price predicament any time soon. And even if drilling in ANWR was passed today (one of the keys to this administration's "energy policy"), it wouldn't provide its 3% of our oil needs for another 10 years. So its no wonder the president had the Saudi prince over for ribs at the "Western White House" (their words not mine). Maybe the fact that they're eating ribs and dogs at Camp Crawford will be enough to calm oil markets that reached record highs in April ($58.28 per gallon). Or maybe, just maybe, we should all start buying hybrids, a trend that seems to be taking off.

There seems to be no help from Iraq on the reasons we invaded, either. US inspectors, aka The Iraq Survey Group, found "no evidence" the weapons of mass destruction, that there was no evidence saddam had possession of, were moved into Syria. So much for that reason to invade Syria, which is a good thing considering the Syria national army's numbers will no doubt increase with the removal of troops from Lebanon. Once again, the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq has been declared over. Will the people responsible for the misleading Us into this horrible mistake of a war ever be held responsible for their deeds or will they just continue to be allowed to make more mistakes? $300,000,000,000.00 invested and soldiers still have to complain, in public, for more armor. To quote Senator Robert Byrd "Shame.... What a shame."

What Lott, Delay, Frist and the boys have found, in lieu of WMD, are OGD (Options of Governmental Destruction). Going against public opinion, the red army continues its threats to destroy the last check a minority party has against a president whose party is in the majority. At issue, currently, the 10 judicial nominees out of 215 that have not been approved by the Senate. 205 judges have been approved already. Seven of the ten are being sent back to the Senate for a second time. There was the fleeting hope of a compromise between Senators Reid and Frist, but the president's deputy chief of staff was the first righteous red to set that record straight. The "nuCLEar option" could turn future judicial nominees into presidential appointments. With an ailing and aging Supreme Court, the anti-choice, anti-gay, pro gun reds see this as a real opportunity to stack the life term courts. Maybe that's what gannon/guckert has been working on during his visits to Our White House when no press events were scheduled, the president wasn't home and without the knowledge of the Secret Service. We may never know the truth, but we should never stop asking for it.


"if they insist on persisting with these filibusters, I'm perfectly prepared to blow the place up. No problem."
- Senator Trent Lott

Sounds like a threat to a Federal Building to me. Book 'em Homeland Security.

Boycott of the Week: Microsoft

Whether it's for Microsoft's recent change of stance on the rights of homosexual Americans or the $20,000.00 a month Microsoft is paying righteous red Ralph Reed's consulting group, consequences should be felt by the mega-company. Now I know switching from windows is a lot to ask, but changing from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox is a snap, and worth it.

Ideology not theology!

Tell senator frist what you think of preaching politics in church. One wonders if this is how the mullahs and iyatollahs do it.

Hypocrisy, Earth Day and Tom Delay

In yet another "THE FACT THAT HE RELIES ON FACTS..." policy move, the administration has eliminated a 19 year old annual international terrorism report after the top terrorism center found that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than any year since the report's inception back in 1985. Maybe it was those wacko lefty groups, like the Environmental Liberation Front, who have recently been added to the Homeland Security's terrorist watch list. It certainly couldn't be the right wingnut "domestic terrorists" that the Department of Homeland Secutrity have left off. Anyone remember timothy mcveigh's? Ah the hypocrisy of it all, or as Mikhail Gorbachev put it recently "I think the United States is sick." A comment that probably got about as warm a reception from the administration as current Russian President Vladimir Putin received from it's Secretary of State. Poor Vlad, I hope he didn't think that truck rides and hot dogs at Camp Crawford would last. Governor Ahnold changed his mind about people this week as well. After stating that California borders should be closed (if only they were before he got there), Ahnold came back with this retraction "Yesterday was a total screw-up in the words I used," "Because instead of closing, I meant securing. I think maybe my English, I need to go back to school and study a little bit." Uh, you're the Governor now Ahnold. You damn well better know the difference between close and secure. Who am I kidding? The man who so elequently stated "Our children is learning" is the president.

Today is Earth Day. This year it has been marked/marred by yet another ridiculous "energy policy", which includes drilling in ANWR, tax breaks for energy companies whose profits are rising as I type, and protections for the polluters by weakening things like the Clean Air Act, just to name a few provisions. Why be surprised? These are the "folks" who continue to argue the existence of global warming, despite news that continues to surface from scientists around the globe. It has gotten to the point that legislators in California are thinking about having a gas tax by the mile instead of the gallon, giving hybrids more of a tax burden (per gallon) because of their better mileage. Maybe we all should get up, leave our computers, go outside, take a deep breath, plant a tree and reconnect to a planet we seem to be in a constant battle for. If you can't make it away from your monitor there are some ways you can do something for Mother Earth. Give an elected official a call, email, or fax thanking for the work he/she has done on behalf of the Earth or curse him/her out for working against her. Me, I'm gonna go plant some basil.


"The time has come that the American people know exactly what their representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special-interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents? The people, the American people, have a right to know. I say the best disinfectant is full disclosure."
The scandal plagued Tom Delay (R)- Floor of the House November 1995

Just relax congressman, this probe won't hurt a bit.

Holy Crap! Is that republican dissent I smell?

I watched a good chunk of this last night on C-Span, but turned it off before the surprise ending. Go Senator George V. Voinovich of Ohio Go! A republican politician actually listened to what Democratic Senators Biden and Dodd had to say, and voted to postpone the sending of the nomination of John Bolton to the full Senate, while we all watched Senators Hagel and Chafee for their possible defection from the president's wishes.

"I don't know if I've ever seen, in a setting like this, a senator changing his mind as a result of what other senators said," Mr. Chafee said. "The process worked. It's kind of refreshing."

In other dissent news the republican-dominated Utah legislature passed a bill Tuesday that orders state officials to ignore provisions of the federal "No Child Left Behind" law. This in addition to the ethically challenged Congressman Delay attacking Reagan appointed Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and other republican appointed "judicial activists". Are the walls of the red fortress starting to crack?