While the propaganda machine’s former fox “news” anchor mouth piece talks of “tar babies” and the president reduces Our citizenship to paperwork as he tells us that as long as you speak English you can go from "picking crops to opening a grocery from cleaning offices to running offices", one can’t help to sense a little racism, though I’m sure it wasn’t meant intentionally. I don’t think they even realize how racist they are, not to mention disconnected and disrespectful of working class CITIZENS that are legally in this country and doing those jobs.
Li’l bush’s “see I can please everyone/I’m a middle of the road guy” speech on immigration the other night stopped short of penalizing employers that employ people that are in this country illegally. Surprise! Surprise! He informed us that illegal immigrants can join the ranks of our armed forces. He also told us that people in this country illegally do the work that “Americans don’t do” (maybe that’s because the illegal immigrants are doing the jobs).
But is the “immigration crisis” real or is it a distraction from the United States Government illegally tapping the phones or compiling the phone records of its citizens and their “free” press ? And whether you, as a citizen, “don’t mind” the spying/prying or not, it is still an ILLEGAL action. Is the great immigration debate a distraction from bush’s war of choice in Iraq, where the violence continues, killing more people every day? Is it a distraction from the CIA leak investigation, which may see the indictment of the great satan, and may involve the greater satan (as does the whole spying thing)?
Speaking of the CIA, coming soon to a hearing near you, the man instrumental in the NSA “domestic surveillance” program, the existence of which former fox news anchor/press secretary “can not confirm or deny”. Michael Hayden is the man the failure-in-chief wants as the Director of the CIA, and for the same exact reason he wanted the last Director, porter goss. Big Brother could never take over in a country as free as ours, could it?
In this world, where a pope that wore humble, worn out, brown shoes is replaced by one that wears Prada. Where sky high gas prices increase the cost of living as big oil not only is making unprecedented profits (providing for $400,000,000.00 “golden parachutes” for former employees) but also gets tax breaks from the oil men in Our White House. Where the world’s “superpower” wants to enlarge its nuclear arsenal, while making threats and déjà vu like statements about a country that says its nuclear power will be used for energy, and is five to ten years away from being capable of having a nuclear warhead to match Our 7,000. Where reduction’s in Our Country’s revenue due to continued tax breaks for the rich and a $320,000,000,000.00 war of choice are off set by a Record Breaking debt, which future generations will still be paying foreign governments for. It's no wonder people care more about brittany's baby seat and American Idol. It's all so disheartening, disenfranchising, disgusting, and aggravating.
I guess I’ll just leave you with this from the very unlikely source of the president of Iran, in his letter to george w. bush:
"If billions of dollars spent on security, military campaigns and troop movement were instead spent on investment and assistance for poor countries, promotion of health, combating different diseases, education and improvement of mental and physical fitness, assistance to the victims of natural disasters, creation of employment opportunities and production, development projects and poverty alleviation, establishment of peace, mediation between disputing states and distinguishing the flames of racial, ethnic and other conflicts were would the world be today? Would not your government, and people be justifiably proud? Would not your administration's political and economic standing have been stronger? And I am most sorry to say, would there have been an ever increasing global hatred of the American governments?"
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
Does Politics Belong in Music?
Damn right it does.
Neil Young's latest CD, "Living with War", was written and recorded in 9 days (that's including a 100 person chorus singing "America the Beautiful"). The CD is available online, in it's entirety, FOR FREE. Oh and by the way, everyone that worked on "Living with War" was union. The Canadian that penned "Ohio" is back with avengence. And I for one can't wait. I mean with songs like "Shock and Awe", "Looking for a Leader", and "Let's Impeach the President" what's not to like. Neil is not alone in his dissent. Check out country legend Merle Haggard's "Rebuild America First". And I'm no Pink fan, but her "Dear Mr. President" is a solid, hard biting song that tells the liar in chief that he "don't know nothin' bout 'hard work'".
We've all heard, and continue to hear, the protest songs of the sixties. We find ourselves in a similar position lately, and the arts are starting to catch up. Whether it's Rolling Stone's latest cover story, a movie about a reality show president, or the latest venture of George Clooney, politics seems to be infiltrating our "Don't Worry Be Happy" apathy. Of course there's plenty of fluff out there, and you can't even rely on the news to give the news (most of the time). These pieces of artistic activism are welcome, and I think indicative of a society that is awakening to realize they have been bamboozled into thinking the president and his minions were honest, would keep us safe, or at least gave a shit about the common United States citizen and not just their CEO, "ownership society".
How much do I know?
To talk outta turn
You might say that I'm Young
You might say I'm unlearned
Well there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never forgive what you do.
-Bob Dylan "Masters of War"
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Scotty No Longer Here Captain.
Scott Mclellan will be leaving after a couple of "transition" weeks, and in more important news the great satan, karl rove, will get out of policy making and focus back on politics , watch out Democrats the snake's head is about to be back at full strength. All part of the bolten shake up to boost the president's pathetic numbers. But it's not really much of a "shake up" at all. It's more like a reshuffling of the same old faces.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Who can you believe?
I was planning on writing about the Actual grave, gathering, and unique threat of Global Warming, and the way Our government currently on the subject so they and their friends can sell the most possible oil and maintain their status atop the Fortune 500 while telling us they have to raise gas prices. But alas, this wasn't the slow news week I had expected.
First, there was Tom Delay's announcement that he was resigning from Congress (yes the Indicted "hammer" was still a Congressman) for what he claims are political reasons. The man thrice chastised by the Ethics Committee says that he is quitting to save his seat for the reds in November. Granted, there is a satisfaction in knowing that he feels the situation is that dire for the reds come election time, but if you believe his story I got one about a governor that resigned simply because he was gay. Delay's former deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, pleaded guilty on March 30th (five days before Delay's announcement) to conspiring with Jack Abramoff. With his guilty plea, Rudy joins former Delay press secretary, Michael Scanlon, and Jack Abramoff, who have already pleaded guilty. Thus, bringing the "bug man" ever closer to having to pay for all those plane trips and golf games that bought his support.
But who can you believe nowadays. Early readings of the "Gospel according to Judas" inform us that it was Jesus that told Judas to betray him, to fulfill his prophecy and eventually his soul. It would be like a sitting president telling a vice president's chief of staff it was ok to leak carefully "cherry picked" information because it smeared a critic and promoted that president's political policy and rush to war. You will be shunned by the Nation, but do this for me. OK, maybe it's a loosely fitting analogy, but it turns out that happened, too. According to Scooter Libby, the president of the United States gave him permission to leak information about the identity of a CIA operative, during war time, to the press. No wonder this president is sitting at a 36% approval rating. Maybe next this administration will preach on why countries should not be building a nuCLEar arsenal while looking to increase Our own "mushroom cloud" "weapons of mass destruction", which are already by far greater in number and strength than the rest of the world. Oh wait that is happening, too.
One last bit of bad news for bush's criminal turned "Christian", evolution hating base, it seems as though scientists have found a link from fish to land animal, a keystone to evolution. A fossil fish with leg like appendages. I wonder if it's anything like my old pet, Wada?
First, there was Tom Delay's announcement that he was resigning from Congress (yes the Indicted "hammer" was still a Congressman) for what he claims are political reasons. The man thrice chastised by the Ethics Committee says that he is quitting to save his seat for the reds in November. Granted, there is a satisfaction in knowing that he feels the situation is that dire for the reds come election time, but if you believe his story I got one about a governor that resigned simply because he was gay. Delay's former deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, pleaded guilty on March 30th (five days before Delay's announcement) to conspiring with Jack Abramoff. With his guilty plea, Rudy joins former Delay press secretary, Michael Scanlon, and Jack Abramoff, who have already pleaded guilty. Thus, bringing the "bug man" ever closer to having to pay for all those plane trips and golf games that bought his support.
But who can you believe nowadays. Early readings of the "Gospel according to Judas" inform us that it was Jesus that told Judas to betray him, to fulfill his prophecy and eventually his soul. It would be like a sitting president telling a vice president's chief of staff it was ok to leak carefully "cherry picked" information because it smeared a critic and promoted that president's political policy and rush to war. You will be shunned by the Nation, but do this for me. OK, maybe it's a loosely fitting analogy, but it turns out that happened, too. According to Scooter Libby, the president of the United States gave him permission to leak information about the identity of a CIA operative, during war time, to the press. No wonder this president is sitting at a 36% approval rating. Maybe next this administration will preach on why countries should not be building a nuCLEar arsenal while looking to increase Our own "mushroom cloud" "weapons of mass destruction", which are already by far greater in number and strength than the rest of the world. Oh wait that is happening, too.
One last bit of bad news for bush's criminal turned "Christian", evolution hating base, it seems as though scientists have found a link from fish to land animal, a keystone to evolution. A fossil fish with leg like appendages. I wonder if it's anything like my old pet, Wada?
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Exterminated!!!
Tom Delay (alias the Bug Man, and The Hammer) has thrown in the towel. A Politcal Death by corruption and arrogance. Is he a sign of things to come? Like Card's resignation may lead to Snow, McClellan, or Rumsfeld. Actually Delay may be more like Norton's "Get out before the Abramoff trial kicks you out" resignation, not that Abrahoff was the only corruption connected to Delay.
Hey reds! THE LIBERALS TOOK DOWN ONE OF YOUR LEADERS! Deal with it!
Monday, April 03, 2006
Conspiracy or Coincidence?
Being a skeptic, I'm not usually one for "conspiracy theories", though some do raise very interesting questions. But what are the motives behind New York City officials releasing the recordings of dispatchers from September 11, 2001, as well as the coinciding timing of the 60 minutes where bin laden's "ex-bodyguard", with no further evidence, retells what osama told us in a recording months ago, adding "When Sheik Osama promises something, he does it". These reminders of fear seem to be coming at an interesting time. Is it just a coincidence that presidential poll numbers have yet to rebound (even with the new open press conference format) and the Pentagon has agreed to release "all" of its Abu Ghraib photos and videos while we were all remembering 9/11 again.
I will never forget what I saw and felt the day the Twin Towers fell across the river from me. This administration has consistenetly used this day for their own political gain. But like I said I am a skeptic.
I will never forget what I saw and felt the day the Twin Towers fell across the river from me. This administration has consistenetly used this day for their own political gain. But like I said I am a skeptic.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Resignations, rubber stamps, and campaign ideas
So bush’s chief of staff, andy card, has done what others (most recently secretary of the interior, gale norton) have done. He has resigned from the administration of bush, cheney, and rove. His replacement is Director of the Office of Management and Budget, joshua bolten. Under “yosh” the Federal debt has shot up $1.8 trillion (another failure promoted). Andy wasn’t the one responsible for what secretary of defense rumsfeld (the man whose resignation has been called for by both sides) has called a "D or D+" in the “war of ideas” in Iraq. It has been said that he was at the helm for the failed Social Security overhaul. But while we sit here and learn of new British memos that prove the president is currently LYING about what he was saying, thinking, and wanting during the rush to his war of choice in Iraq, and Our vice president is lying on TV about things he said on TV, its hard to believe card's is the right resignation. The bush family has profited from the war along with cheney’s buddies at halliburton who get paid for over charges and under producing. The bushies profited off Our Nation’s greatest natural disaster and its worst disaster response with Hurricane Katrina. At least there’s Afghanistan, right? Where opium production is way up and they prosecute their citizens for leaving Islam. That’s the government we’ve installed and paid for. I like to call it a democratically elected “leader” ruled by a Islamic theocracy. It almost makes one think of Iran.
It’s no wonder New Jersey’s red Congressional candidate refused to be pictured with cheney. This is an election year, and an important one. Under the rubberstamp red control of Our current no show House and Senate, no one has been held accountable for anything, from lying about costs for Medicare programs, to the pushing of propaganda, to the Katrina disaster, to the misleading of a Congress and a Nation into a war of choice in Iraq, to the mishandling of that war (after in the president’s ridiculous, misleading, or grossly incompetent words “major combat operations in Iraq have ended" 1,062 days ago). Just imagine if you will what we could do with the $250,000,000,000+ that this war has cost us. Maybe we wouldn't have to sell off 300,000 acres of National Forest. Not to mention the lives of almost 2,310 soldiers we've lost in Iraq. The Democrats need to win for there to be any accountability in this administration. It will take a Democratic Congress to put this “rich, privileged, arrogant, perennial cheerleader” under oath.
My advice to Democratic candidates stress words like responsibility, accountability, Our Democracy, the widening of the gulf between rich and poor, the lack of a response to the Katrina disaster, illegal spying on US citizens (and it was illegal, what they are debating is changing the law AGAIN), and of course IRAQ, IRAQ, IRAQ, the rush to, the case for, the lack of planning, the mistakes made prosecuting, the condoning of torture, deficiencies in equipment, the cost and where that money is or is not going. The relatively new hot button issue of immigration is also a good one for Democrat. No matter how you fall on this debate, the divide it creates for the reds is far greater than the one it creates for the Democrats.
My guess is we will see relatively significant troop withdrawals by election time 2006, however they try to spin it. Shiites in Iraq are beginning to demand it already, especially after what’s being called a massacre on Iraqis by US in a mosque in Baghdad. National Security has always been the strong suit of the reds, but the repeating of the fact that this administration wanted to give control of six of Our busiest port to a company Owned by the United Arab Emirates may have started to quell that blind faith, which is based primarily in rhetoric and the over use of fear by the officials in this White House. The recent successful attempt to bring a dirty bomb over the border may help as well. And who knows what the trials of Scooter Libby and Jack Abramhoff will bring. The “culture of corruption” angle is another good one for the Democrats this election cycle, after all power breeds corruption, and the reds have had all the power. One last thing the Democrats might want to think about doing is an absentee voter drive in places like Houston where Katrina victims were shuttled to and never left, mainly because they still have no home to go back to. Its just an idea.
A quick couple of updates:
1. The man who was being "prosecuted for leaving Islam" has been released after US pressure and being deemed "mentally unfit".
2. What was "being called a massacre" is now being refuted by US military as Shi'ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage such accusations". In related news, Shiite groups are now saying that bush opposes the Iraqi Prime Minister.
It’s no wonder New Jersey’s red Congressional candidate refused to be pictured with cheney. This is an election year, and an important one. Under the rubberstamp red control of Our current no show House and Senate, no one has been held accountable for anything, from lying about costs for Medicare programs, to the pushing of propaganda, to the Katrina disaster, to the misleading of a Congress and a Nation into a war of choice in Iraq, to the mishandling of that war (after in the president’s ridiculous, misleading, or grossly incompetent words “major combat operations in Iraq have ended" 1,062 days ago). Just imagine if you will what we could do with the $250,000,000,000+ that this war has cost us. Maybe we wouldn't have to sell off 300,000 acres of National Forest. Not to mention the lives of almost 2,310 soldiers we've lost in Iraq. The Democrats need to win for there to be any accountability in this administration. It will take a Democratic Congress to put this “rich, privileged, arrogant, perennial cheerleader” under oath.
My advice to Democratic candidates stress words like responsibility, accountability, Our Democracy, the widening of the gulf between rich and poor, the lack of a response to the Katrina disaster, illegal spying on US citizens (and it was illegal, what they are debating is changing the law AGAIN), and of course IRAQ, IRAQ, IRAQ, the rush to, the case for, the lack of planning, the mistakes made prosecuting, the condoning of torture, deficiencies in equipment, the cost and where that money is or is not going. The relatively new hot button issue of immigration is also a good one for Democrat. No matter how you fall on this debate, the divide it creates for the reds is far greater than the one it creates for the Democrats.
My guess is we will see relatively significant troop withdrawals by election time 2006, however they try to spin it. Shiites in Iraq are beginning to demand it already, especially after what’s being called a massacre on Iraqis by US in a mosque in Baghdad. National Security has always been the strong suit of the reds, but the repeating of the fact that this administration wanted to give control of six of Our busiest port to a company Owned by the United Arab Emirates may have started to quell that blind faith, which is based primarily in rhetoric and the over use of fear by the officials in this White House. The recent successful attempt to bring a dirty bomb over the border may help as well. And who knows what the trials of Scooter Libby and Jack Abramhoff will bring. The “culture of corruption” angle is another good one for the Democrats this election cycle, after all power breeds corruption, and the reds have had all the power. One last thing the Democrats might want to think about doing is an absentee voter drive in places like Houston where Katrina victims were shuttled to and never left, mainly because they still have no home to go back to. Its just an idea.
A quick couple of updates:
1. The man who was being "prosecuted for leaving Islam" has been released after US pressure and being deemed "mentally unfit".
2. What was "being called a massacre" is now being refuted by US military as Shi'ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage such accusations". In related news, Shiite groups are now saying that bush opposes the Iraqi Prime Minister.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Hold them Accountable
After watching the repeat of Harper’s forum on the Case for Impeachment on C-Span 2, I got to thinking. There are two items of immediate concern. One is holding the people responsible for the predicament we find our country in (i.e. Iraq, Middle East, North Korea, vanishing jobs, etc.) accountable. The other is to reaffirm Our government as the three separate branches by, for, and of the people that Our Founders put in place to defend a Nation and its people against despotism. The despotism of what Louis Lapham refers to as bush’s “tyrannical executive” becomes more apparent as the weeks and in fact days go by.
The president, admittedly, broke the law. He signed off on over 30 warrant less wiretaps of American civilians. He did so without receiving approval within 72 hours immediately following the taps, as provided for by FISA. He did so without asking Congress. He did so without asking anyone. The president, despite what bush might believe, is not a monarch. Not yet at least. As Senator Robert Byrd has said "We are not a nation of men, but a Nation of law"
It is no surprise that the red suck ups, and pseudo-renegade suck-ups, will not buck this white house, whose support among the American Public has never been lower. Party trumps the United States Senate for them. Party trumps the American People for them. Party means power, campaign money and golfing jaunts to Scotland. And, of course, money and power trumps everything.
This administration’s recent push against whistleblowers, and the journalists they talk to, further illustrates a secrecy to rival Nixon or any other. They want no free press unless it presses their point of view. They want no free speech they can not tap without having to get approval of the court or anybody else. They want it their way and don't give a damn about what the public, the Congress, the Courts, or the Law has to say. Take the statements made by this president, just to quote a few.
"It's not a dictatorship in Washington, but I tried to make it one in that instance."
"I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."
What they want is a presidency that is above the law and without reproach, and because of an apathetic, fearful, and lapdog Congress that is what they have. And the courts? It was the Supreme Court that made the unprecedented appointment of a president back in 2000.
Power corrupts. And the red party in power is certainly no exception, leading the race for the most corrupt in this 109th Congress. Red representative Duke Cunningham was sentenced to eight years in prison for bribery. Ironically, red representative tom delay, indicted for corruption, won his primary this week in Texas (what a mess is Texas). It should be noted that he did so with a much slimmer margin than he has in the past. Ex-CFO of Enron, fasted, testified that bush’s friend “kenny boy” knew the company was defrauding so many. And speaking of pension yanking Enron, how about treasury secretary snow dipping into the federal civil service pension fund so bush’s spending policies won’t surpass the debt ceiling. Maybe instead of bush giving out tax breaks to the rich, he could ask them for a loan, instead of China. And now the former top domestic policy adviser of this president was arrested for shoplifting? In other news from bush’s “robust economy”, GM is cutting the pensions of 42,000 of its workers. Don’t you miss American manufacturing? But manufacturing's pension and job losses don't affect those that receive bush's tax cut for the rich. It affects regular, blue collar Americans. The current administration does not care about regular people. To quote, of all people, pat buchanan:
"But to Bush, it does not matter. That one in six manufacturing jobs has vanished during his tenure, that real wages of working Americans are falling, that trade deficits are reaching $800 billion, that dependency on foreigners for vital necessities of our national life is growing – none of this matters, as he mutters on his prayer rug the mantra he was taught: "Free trade good, protectionism bad."
Then there’s breaking of federal and international law by okaying the torture of prisoners captured during war. Of course the semantics are very important here. We, the United States, hold hundreds of people in places like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib without charge. Using dogs, sexual humiliation and brutal beatings as “interrogation”. Red Cross agents have said “between 70% and 90% of the person deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake”. Through extraordinary rendition, prisoners are being sent to countries like Syria where torture is allowed and is even more brutal than the pictures we've seen from United States prisons in Iraq. Yet no intelligence has lead to bin Laden who remains "wanted dead or alive", to be fair the search for him has been, at least partially, shelved since bush decided to invade Iraq. More terrorists are being created than destroyed, and we are in more of a quagmire in Iraq than we were before.
There are so many other scandals more worthy of censure or impeachment than lying about an extra marital affair or spying on your political rivals. Integrity is something bush tied his presidency to in the beginning and Iraq is what he tied his legacy to. He and his do not appear to have much in the way of integrity. And we are still waiting for the mission to be accomplished in Iraq. Hell, I'd settle for a consistent mission (with an "exit strategy") instead of more rhetoric like we've heard and will continue through this Third Anniversary of bush's Invasion of Iraq and beyond.
The president, admittedly, broke the law. He signed off on over 30 warrant less wiretaps of American civilians. He did so without receiving approval within 72 hours immediately following the taps, as provided for by FISA. He did so without asking Congress. He did so without asking anyone. The president, despite what bush might believe, is not a monarch. Not yet at least. As Senator Robert Byrd has said "We are not a nation of men, but a Nation of law"
It is no surprise that the red suck ups, and pseudo-renegade suck-ups, will not buck this white house, whose support among the American Public has never been lower. Party trumps the United States Senate for them. Party trumps the American People for them. Party means power, campaign money and golfing jaunts to Scotland. And, of course, money and power trumps everything.
This administration’s recent push against whistleblowers, and the journalists they talk to, further illustrates a secrecy to rival Nixon or any other. They want no free press unless it presses their point of view. They want no free speech they can not tap without having to get approval of the court or anybody else. They want it their way and don't give a damn about what the public, the Congress, the Courts, or the Law has to say. Take the statements made by this president, just to quote a few.
"It's not a dictatorship in Washington, but I tried to make it one in that instance."
"I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain -- I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."
What they want is a presidency that is above the law and without reproach, and because of an apathetic, fearful, and lapdog Congress that is what they have. And the courts? It was the Supreme Court that made the unprecedented appointment of a president back in 2000.
Power corrupts. And the red party in power is certainly no exception, leading the race for the most corrupt in this 109th Congress. Red representative Duke Cunningham was sentenced to eight years in prison for bribery. Ironically, red representative tom delay, indicted for corruption, won his primary this week in Texas (what a mess is Texas). It should be noted that he did so with a much slimmer margin than he has in the past. Ex-CFO of Enron, fasted, testified that bush’s friend “kenny boy” knew the company was defrauding so many. And speaking of pension yanking Enron, how about treasury secretary snow dipping into the federal civil service pension fund so bush’s spending policies won’t surpass the debt ceiling. Maybe instead of bush giving out tax breaks to the rich, he could ask them for a loan, instead of China. And now the former top domestic policy adviser of this president was arrested for shoplifting? In other news from bush’s “robust economy”, GM is cutting the pensions of 42,000 of its workers. Don’t you miss American manufacturing? But manufacturing's pension and job losses don't affect those that receive bush's tax cut for the rich. It affects regular, blue collar Americans. The current administration does not care about regular people. To quote, of all people, pat buchanan:
"But to Bush, it does not matter. That one in six manufacturing jobs has vanished during his tenure, that real wages of working Americans are falling, that trade deficits are reaching $800 billion, that dependency on foreigners for vital necessities of our national life is growing – none of this matters, as he mutters on his prayer rug the mantra he was taught: "Free trade good, protectionism bad."
Then there’s breaking of federal and international law by okaying the torture of prisoners captured during war. Of course the semantics are very important here. We, the United States, hold hundreds of people in places like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib without charge. Using dogs, sexual humiliation and brutal beatings as “interrogation”. Red Cross agents have said “between 70% and 90% of the person deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake”. Through extraordinary rendition, prisoners are being sent to countries like Syria where torture is allowed and is even more brutal than the pictures we've seen from United States prisons in Iraq. Yet no intelligence has lead to bin Laden who remains "wanted dead or alive", to be fair the search for him has been, at least partially, shelved since bush decided to invade Iraq. More terrorists are being created than destroyed, and we are in more of a quagmire in Iraq than we were before.
There are so many other scandals more worthy of censure or impeachment than lying about an extra marital affair or spying on your political rivals. Integrity is something bush tied his presidency to in the beginning and Iraq is what he tied his legacy to. He and his do not appear to have much in the way of integrity. And we are still waiting for the mission to be accomplished in Iraq. Hell, I'd settle for a consistent mission (with an "exit strategy") instead of more rhetoric like we've heard and will continue through this Third Anniversary of bush's Invasion of Iraq and beyond.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Like Rats off a Sinking Ship....
First, the rats or as I like to call them, the reds.
It seemed to start a couple of weeks ago, when the 520 page report entitled "A Failure of Initiative" was released from the almost completely red, House of Representatives, committee on the "national failure" that was the government's "Response" to Hurricane Katrina. "Passivity did the most damage," the report stated "The failure of initiative cost lives, prolonged suffering, and left all Americans justifiably concerned our government is no better prepared to protect its people than it was before 9/11, even if we are." The hearings that followed had reds like Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), the Congressman who led the inquiry, saying "It remains difficult to understand how government could respond so ineffectively to a disaster that was anticipated for years and for which specific dire warnings had been issued for days,".
Not since the ridiculous nomination to the Supreme Court of Harriet Myers, has the administration met with such opposition from its own party. A party that has controlled congress for eight years, the presidency for 5+, and the Supreme Court now more than ever. Why the change? Why the separation from the man "god" told to run for president? Maybe it's the new 34% approval rating of president george w. bush, or the 18% vice president cheney received. Maybe it's having a company, controlled by a country with a "checkered" past when it comes to al qaeda and the taliban, controlling six of our Major ports. Or maybe it's the increasing "sectarian" violence in the “neo-con”, “pre-emptive”, “bush doctrine”, war of choice in Iraq. For whatever reason, real or spun, reds seem to be distancing themselves in advance of the Congressional elections of 2006. But as much as I enjoy seeing the current administration hung out to dry, it's the sinking ship that has me worried.
The mistakes, poor decisions, incompetence, and dishonesty of this administration affect all of Us. How can an administration that failed to plan for an oncoming category 4 hurricane plan for the climatic change due to global warming, illustrated again last week by reports of rapid ice melts in Greenland? How can an administration that failed to plan for their war to continue passed it’s “shock and awe” campaign be expected to plan for Our security as a people, Our future as a Nation, or the re-establishment of Our place among the industrialized and civilized nations of the world. Our nation's reputation has never been as bad, especially in the "Muslim" world we have been taught to fear, as it is today. And at home, by typing the word al Qaeda into the text of this rant, the NSA is now allowed to tap my phones and read all my emails without a warrant, even one received 72 hours after the tap. And when they arrest me, they can arbitrarily call me an "enemy combatant", send me to Guantanamo Bay, and hold me without charge or lawyer for as long as they like. Adherence to the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions or the Army field manual as it pertains to torture (or anything else) is not something this president, this attorney general, this vice president, or this secretary of defense give a good god dam about, except to give lip service to when they're backed into a corner while avoiding being put under oath.
This president and his administration act as if there is no law they can not usurp, under the auspices of National Security or their undeclared war. They are dangerous to Our system of government, Our treasury, and Our values as Americans. The person in charge of and responsible for this administration and all of its actions is the president of the United States. Onward pushes the impeachment movement.
"We have before us in the White House a thief who steals the country's good name and reputation for his private interest and personal use; a liar who seeks to instill in the American people a state of fear; a televangelist who engages the United States in a never-ending crusade against all the world's evil, a wastrel who squanders a vast sum of the nation's wealth on what turns out to be a recruiting drive certain to multiply the host of our enemies. In a word, a criminal-known to be armed and shown to be dangerous"
- Lewis Lapham “The Case for Impeachment" Harper's (March 2006 issue) Read it here or in a barnes & noble lobby near you.
It seemed to start a couple of weeks ago, when the 520 page report entitled "A Failure of Initiative" was released from the almost completely red, House of Representatives, committee on the "national failure" that was the government's "Response" to Hurricane Katrina. "Passivity did the most damage," the report stated "The failure of initiative cost lives, prolonged suffering, and left all Americans justifiably concerned our government is no better prepared to protect its people than it was before 9/11, even if we are." The hearings that followed had reds like Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), the Congressman who led the inquiry, saying "It remains difficult to understand how government could respond so ineffectively to a disaster that was anticipated for years and for which specific dire warnings had been issued for days,".
Not since the ridiculous nomination to the Supreme Court of Harriet Myers, has the administration met with such opposition from its own party. A party that has controlled congress for eight years, the presidency for 5+, and the Supreme Court now more than ever. Why the change? Why the separation from the man "god" told to run for president? Maybe it's the new 34% approval rating of president george w. bush, or the 18% vice president cheney received. Maybe it's having a company, controlled by a country with a "checkered" past when it comes to al qaeda and the taliban, controlling six of our Major ports. Or maybe it's the increasing "sectarian" violence in the “neo-con”, “pre-emptive”, “bush doctrine”, war of choice in Iraq. For whatever reason, real or spun, reds seem to be distancing themselves in advance of the Congressional elections of 2006. But as much as I enjoy seeing the current administration hung out to dry, it's the sinking ship that has me worried.
The mistakes, poor decisions, incompetence, and dishonesty of this administration affect all of Us. How can an administration that failed to plan for an oncoming category 4 hurricane plan for the climatic change due to global warming, illustrated again last week by reports of rapid ice melts in Greenland? How can an administration that failed to plan for their war to continue passed it’s “shock and awe” campaign be expected to plan for Our security as a people, Our future as a Nation, or the re-establishment of Our place among the industrialized and civilized nations of the world. Our nation's reputation has never been as bad, especially in the "Muslim" world we have been taught to fear, as it is today. And at home, by typing the word al Qaeda into the text of this rant, the NSA is now allowed to tap my phones and read all my emails without a warrant, even one received 72 hours after the tap. And when they arrest me, they can arbitrarily call me an "enemy combatant", send me to Guantanamo Bay, and hold me without charge or lawyer for as long as they like. Adherence to the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions or the Army field manual as it pertains to torture (or anything else) is not something this president, this attorney general, this vice president, or this secretary of defense give a good god dam about, except to give lip service to when they're backed into a corner while avoiding being put under oath.
This president and his administration act as if there is no law they can not usurp, under the auspices of National Security or their undeclared war. They are dangerous to Our system of government, Our treasury, and Our values as Americans. The person in charge of and responsible for this administration and all of its actions is the president of the United States. Onward pushes the impeachment movement.
"We have before us in the White House a thief who steals the country's good name and reputation for his private interest and personal use; a liar who seeks to instill in the American people a state of fear; a televangelist who engages the United States in a never-ending crusade against all the world's evil, a wastrel who squanders a vast sum of the nation's wealth on what turns out to be a recruiting drive certain to multiply the host of our enemies. In a word, a criminal-known to be armed and shown to be dangerous"
- Lewis Lapham “The Case for Impeachment" Harper's (March 2006 issue) Read it here or in a barnes & noble lobby near you.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
It's not about the birdshot.
The problem isn't the vice president's accidental shooting of his republican donor friend at a bush pioneer/lobbyist 's private ranch. It isn't the fact that the victim had a "mild" heart attack from shrapnel (or should I say birdshot) shot from the gun of the vice president. Nobody wants an involuntary manslaughter or negligent homocide charge, and it would never happen for a hunting accident in Texas. The problem isn't the fact that the vice president wasn't interviewed by police until the next day. And it isn't the fact that he didn't have the neccesary open bird stamp on his license to make the hunt "legal". The problem is the decision of the vice president (and not, at least for the first hour, Our "elected" president) to withhold information from the citizens of the United States of America. The owner of the "farm" releasing information to a small local paper does not a national public announcement make. It is this administration's love of secrecy and disdain for the press. That is the problem. An angry scott mclellan dodging, in no subtle way, questions while there is no word/explanation from the vice president is not the way you run a country by and for the people.
A lot is being made of this hunting accident. The jokes are funny. Letterman and Stewart have a lot of material. But more importantly, it sheds light on the secracy of this administration, and vice president cheney in particular. It further opens the door to questions into all that they withhold from US.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
I don't believe you (he acts like we all forget)
From a president, whose load of a State of the Union speech had fellow conservatives PO'ed, comes a budget proposal that not only significantly cuts funds to medicare, education and public broadcasting, but also sneaks in the president's social security private accounts program, and omits the ongoing cost of the wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Hard to believe, not really.
It is hard for me to believe that the riots in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere in the “Muslim” world are the result of cartoons and cartoons alone, even if those cartoons depict the holy religious icon, Mohammad, with a bomb in his turban. Pardon the Pun but was this editorial just the “straw that broke the camel’s back”? Muslims in the region are more orthodox and devout than most, if not all, of us in "money is god" America, but aren't the recent "protests" more a pot that has been boiling for years finally boiling over. Ignited, and arguably incited by these images, but this anger is deep and has been building for years. Almost equally as hard to believe was the “preemptive strike” “shock and awe” president of the United States calling on the nation’s of the world to “stop the violence”.
But how can we be expected to believe a man who says “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breech of the levies” after being told (in Crawford, TX) the morning of the storm that the levies were breaking. This is in addition to computer model Hurricane Pam, and other warnings given months, weeks, and days, before the hurricane hit, and claimed at least 1,417 lives. The federal FEMA scapegoat passing the buck to the Department of Homeland Security in front of Congress last week may get us closer to where the buck actually stops, at the president of the United States.
A president who once said that anyone connected to leaking classified information would be fired. Maybe Halliburton will take you back, Dick.
We’d love to believe that the president wants us to use “75%” less of the foreign oil we get from the “middle east”, but how can we when the day after he proposes it his minions are out denying it.
An ex-CIA chief coming out saying the administration “cherry picked” intel to push their Iraq policy is just more proof that what this administration believes in is not the truth. It is all politics, and no policy with these campaigners in charge. They are secretive, manipulative and continue to avoid being placed under oath. Whether it’s divulging classified information pertinent to our National Security, having a “pioneer” lobbyist sell access to the president for $25,000 a pop, using fake “journalists” or paying “real” ones to push their propaganda, or selling off Our Nation’s public lands, this president and his administration continue to treat their position as that of a monarchy and not as one of the Three Branches of Our government, using the US Treasury as a way to make their friends and, quite possibly their future selves, richER while they bankrupt every government program that does not perpetuate violence.
Oh yeah, and the vice president shot a man while hunting birds at a private "farm" in Texas, lodging "bird shot" in the man's face, neck, chest and heart. No it wasn’t Justice Scalia. It was 78 year old lawyer and major red contributor Harry Whittington. Maybe cheney could have used some military training instead of all those deferments after all.
Guns don’t shoot people, the vice president shoots people.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
How did Our Union get into such a State?
For the 80% of the American workforce whose salary (adjusted for inflation) has decreased as prices (adjusted for inflation) have increased, the economic outlook is not the rosy, robust one being seen by likes of exxon/mobile. Who, under the current regime's corporation based tax cut and spend economic policy, has made Record Profits. It's no wonder so many people feel the need to buy the cheapest Chinese products they can at their global wal-mart. Not that there is much surprise that the new regime's current policies do little to help those that need help.
The lack of action in both preparing for and reacting to a natural disaster in New Orleans, despite estimations known to this presidential administration, was an appalling dereliction of duty. And saying your responsible for mistakes made, only to turn around and refuse to release documents or testify under oath concerning the "response" to Hurricane Katrina, is beyond even that. An extra marital affair and real estate deal from before you took office, and the president is made to TESTIFY UNDER OATH. Incompetence that leaves 1,200 people to die and thousands more stranded then displaced, and we get a shrug, a smile and a "heck of a". Mr. president, if you visit New Orleans before your next State of the Union speech, maybe you could leave the Garden District and walk where the flood waters raised, people scurried to rooftops and waited for Days. I guess the City of New Orleans and its police department didn't have a fleet of helicopters to swoop in from aircraft carriers sitting in the Gulf.
As Al Gore said, before he was made to refute more red lies, "A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government,” 72 HOURS. That's how long the administration, NSA, CIA, ETC. have to obtain a secret court's order AFTER performing an emergency warrant-less wiretap under the current Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Why are they still not getting these secret court orders? What judge or secret court would not grant such an order for a tap on al qaeda or someone legitimately "linked" to al qaeda? Who exactly are they tapping? Are there "fishing" expeditions going on? One can only hope they are not spying on the same peaceful activist groups that the FBI is. But don't bother asking the president, he'll just tell you, to ask is to help the enemy?
At least there is this administration's "shock and awe", "you're with us or you're against us" foreign policy. At the forefront of which is Iraq. Iraq, where cheney's friends at halliburton are giving our troops water contaminated with sewage. Iraq, where "rebuilding" funds have gone untraced, and at times were stored in footlockers and bathrooms. Iraq, where even US reports say reconstruction has hit delay after delay. Iraq, where the president's pre-emptive war of choice is "straining" Our Army. 2,245 American soldiers have been killed. 16,420 American Soldiers have been seriously injured. $240,000,000,000.00 has been spent. And for what? The "trial" of saddam hussein? The spread of democracy, in hopes that it won't be the wrath of democracy like that felt from Palestinians voting hamas into power or the less recent election of the current president of Iran? And now there are reports of a case of bird flu in Iraq. Let's hope the human to human mutation of the virus doesn't start there.
In 2000, george w. bush said “I will restore honor and integrity to the White House.” I guess, the powerful, lifelong republican, K Street lobbyist and "pioneer" for the Bush/Cheney campaign, jack abramoff must have been a "means" to justify those "ends". With ties to numerous elected officials, not the least of which is former majority leader tom delay, ohio congressman bob ney, speaker of the house dennis hastert, and the pres., who is trying to keep images of himself and abramhoff hidden better than the images of torture he let slip through rummy's hands. As reds and blues scramble to smell less like corrupt dung, and the reds claim that "they did it too", consider this. Jack Abramoff was and is a republican, the republicans currently have the power to buy, and the number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 (the year the current regime Took office) to more than 34,750.
So as the red rubber stamped, litmus tested, federalist socialite, sam alito, gets voted into his life term seat on the highest court in the land, the president's buddy "kenny" lay goes to trial, al-qaeda's "number two" man rises from the dead to thumb his nose at us again, and a failed oil man takes center stage for a prime time speech that he has rehearsed for days, but will still have to read word for word, all we can do is wonder. How did Our Union get into such a State?
The lack of action in both preparing for and reacting to a natural disaster in New Orleans, despite estimations known to this presidential administration, was an appalling dereliction of duty. And saying your responsible for mistakes made, only to turn around and refuse to release documents or testify under oath concerning the "response" to Hurricane Katrina, is beyond even that. An extra marital affair and real estate deal from before you took office, and the president is made to TESTIFY UNDER OATH. Incompetence that leaves 1,200 people to die and thousands more stranded then displaced, and we get a shrug, a smile and a "heck of a". Mr. president, if you visit New Orleans before your next State of the Union speech, maybe you could leave the Garden District and walk where the flood waters raised, people scurried to rooftops and waited for Days. I guess the City of New Orleans and its police department didn't have a fleet of helicopters to swoop in from aircraft carriers sitting in the Gulf.
As Al Gore said, before he was made to refute more red lies, "A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government,” 72 HOURS. That's how long the administration, NSA, CIA, ETC. have to obtain a secret court's order AFTER performing an emergency warrant-less wiretap under the current Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Why are they still not getting these secret court orders? What judge or secret court would not grant such an order for a tap on al qaeda or someone legitimately "linked" to al qaeda? Who exactly are they tapping? Are there "fishing" expeditions going on? One can only hope they are not spying on the same peaceful activist groups that the FBI is. But don't bother asking the president, he'll just tell you, to ask is to help the enemy?
At least there is this administration's "shock and awe", "you're with us or you're against us" foreign policy. At the forefront of which is Iraq. Iraq, where cheney's friends at halliburton are giving our troops water contaminated with sewage. Iraq, where "rebuilding" funds have gone untraced, and at times were stored in footlockers and bathrooms. Iraq, where even US reports say reconstruction has hit delay after delay. Iraq, where the president's pre-emptive war of choice is "straining" Our Army. 2,245 American soldiers have been killed. 16,420 American Soldiers have been seriously injured. $240,000,000,000.00 has been spent. And for what? The "trial" of saddam hussein? The spread of democracy, in hopes that it won't be the wrath of democracy like that felt from Palestinians voting hamas into power or the less recent election of the current president of Iran? And now there are reports of a case of bird flu in Iraq. Let's hope the human to human mutation of the virus doesn't start there.
In 2000, george w. bush said “I will restore honor and integrity to the White House.” I guess, the powerful, lifelong republican, K Street lobbyist and "pioneer" for the Bush/Cheney campaign, jack abramoff must have been a "means" to justify those "ends". With ties to numerous elected officials, not the least of which is former majority leader tom delay, ohio congressman bob ney, speaker of the house dennis hastert, and the pres., who is trying to keep images of himself and abramhoff hidden better than the images of torture he let slip through rummy's hands. As reds and blues scramble to smell less like corrupt dung, and the reds claim that "they did it too", consider this. Jack Abramoff was and is a republican, the republicans currently have the power to buy, and the number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 (the year the current regime Took office) to more than 34,750.
So as the red rubber stamped, litmus tested, federalist socialite, sam alito, gets voted into his life term seat on the highest court in the land, the president's buddy "kenny" lay goes to trial, al-qaeda's "number two" man rises from the dead to thumb his nose at us again, and a failed oil man takes center stage for a prime time speech that he has rehearsed for days, but will still have to read word for word, all we can do is wonder. How did Our Union get into such a State?
Friday, January 13, 2006
What am I hearing.
The demonizing/canonizing that was the hearings of bush nominee to the US Supreme Court, samuel alito, seemed little more then senators putting question marks on the end of their own opinions. Every question was loaded, not that alito would have given a straight answer to a straight question anyway.
Whether they were trying to educate the public with their soliloquies, or deflect the "discussion" from what the qualifications and/or predispositions of a Supreme Court nomineeee, there were points when alito was little more than a spectator as senators threw jabs at each other. And the crying of alito's wife, though enough time and text has been wasted on this already, whether planned or not, was covered to the point of being important to a nominee's chances of be confirmed a life term member of the highest court in the Country. A truly bizarre scene in a hearing that left a bad taste in the mouths of many.
With an executive drunk with power and a desperate legislature, Our judiciary needs to be more than a permanent fixture of a sitting president's positions. Unfortunately, this branch of Our government is losing my faith right along with the others.
I didn’t expect this president to nominate someone that would oppose his view on abortion. I didn’t expect the nominee to be anymore transparent than he absolutely had to be. I did expect more then senators and others coaching the nominee on how to answer confirmation hearing questions. And I did expect more from the Democrats then pin pointed attacks on two decade old statements and the use of statements made by wing nuts, other than alito, against him.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
2006, Democracy, and Hope
2006 has begun with the deaths of 200 people, including 11 US soldiers, in Iraq, 11 coal miners in West Virginia, and the "extensive" stroke of Israeli President Ariel Sharon. How sad a start. After a period of realization and mourning, how will Israel react to the absence of Ariel Sharon? How will the Palestinians, whose "democracy" has put more Hamas in the government then ever, react?
It’s funny how democracy works. The people of Iraqi voted for an Iraqi National Assembly last month, and now that results are mostly in, the Iraqi "government" is trying to figure out how to put more Sunnis in, despite all the votes against them. Chalabi has worked his way back in, in spite of the democracy that's “on the march”. In Bolivia, Chavez friend and bush foe, Evo Morales was elected president and got there by being anti-bush.
And in our democracy, the little king is bypassing the advice and consent of the United States Congress with more controversial recess appointments of his cronies and crooks. And while we wait for the Fitzgerald's next shoe to drop, we have a HUGE red lobbyist whose agreed to turn state's evidence for a deal that will cost him $26.7 million and up to 11 years in prison. Makes you wonder what the prosecutor has on him, if that's the best deal he could get. Palm greaser jack abramoff has red capos falling over themselves trying to give donations, the mafia style stoolie gave them, away but what about all the money he Raised for them. One can only hope that this scandal can really cleanse Our government of its status quo, everyday corruption. They say Democrats are involved too. But before you jump on that band wagon take a look at the dollar totals paid and raised for reds and compare that to what kickback jack did for the Democrats. Why would he be greasing down the minority anyway? But when it comes down to it, if they're dirty they don't belong there, red or blue. Watching the hearings on how abramoff and his associates fleeced Native Americans, a long standing American tradition, and used his connections to get his influence into the US Department of the Interior, I couldn't help but think, the FBI has files on PETA, follows the Mormons and the Catholic league around and has Nothing on the Conservative Republicans for the Environment's connection to lobbyist turned deputy secretary of the interior turned lobbyist, steven griles. I guess spying with these guys is focused on terrorism….. and liberalism. Spying you say?
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows wiretaps on international calls without warrant in emergency circumstances, as long as a judicial order of approval is obtained from the secret FISA court within 72 hours. So if the administration needed to wiretap an individual who they suspected was plotting against the US, they need not wait for a warrant. They could get authorization afterward, within the 72 hour period. This law was usurped by a president who knew he could not get support from congress to change the act in favor of completely warrant less searches. He did so as an "exercise of executive discretion", to quote Solicitor General Paul D. Clement on the somewhat related recent transfer of 3 year enemy combatant Joseph Padilla. The administration also sited in their first round of reasoning that it was the "resolution that authorized the use of force in Iraq" that gave him said powers, though it states nothing about altering or completely ignoring existing law. So what do We the People get to explain whether or not the president is above the law? We get an investigation into who told the public that the administration was conducting warrant less wiretaps on Americans, not the legality of those taps. Why would this administration be held accountable for anything?
The President of the United States should be made to answer questions that have been raised of him, the administration and the policies for which He is responsible. President Clinton was put under oath, without the vice president by his side, to answer questions about an extra marital affair. In a lapse of judgment and intelligence, he lied about this affair and was impeached in the name of National Security. The current administration's list of scandals out stretch that of President Clinton or President Nixon for that matter and their ability to avoid any accountability is almost as astonishing as the lack (for the most part) of outrage seen America's citizenry and the traditional or "mainstream" media.
Maybe 2006 will bring enough indictments against the bush administration and the folks that run with them that the Country will stand up and take notice. Maybe the 2006 elections will see enough votes for Democratic and Independent senators and congressmen (and women) that the balance of power will sway from the rubber stamping right to the left of center. Maybe 2006 will see more good news that's not just bad news for the other side. I’m a hopeful man.
If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
It’s funny how democracy works. The people of Iraqi voted for an Iraqi National Assembly last month, and now that results are mostly in, the Iraqi "government" is trying to figure out how to put more Sunnis in, despite all the votes against them. Chalabi has worked his way back in, in spite of the democracy that's “on the march”. In Bolivia, Chavez friend and bush foe, Evo Morales was elected president and got there by being anti-bush.
And in our democracy, the little king is bypassing the advice and consent of the United States Congress with more controversial recess appointments of his cronies and crooks. And while we wait for the Fitzgerald's next shoe to drop, we have a HUGE red lobbyist whose agreed to turn state's evidence for a deal that will cost him $26.7 million and up to 11 years in prison. Makes you wonder what the prosecutor has on him, if that's the best deal he could get. Palm greaser jack abramoff has red capos falling over themselves trying to give donations, the mafia style stoolie gave them, away but what about all the money he Raised for them. One can only hope that this scandal can really cleanse Our government of its status quo, everyday corruption. They say Democrats are involved too. But before you jump on that band wagon take a look at the dollar totals paid and raised for reds and compare that to what kickback jack did for the Democrats. Why would he be greasing down the minority anyway? But when it comes down to it, if they're dirty they don't belong there, red or blue. Watching the hearings on how abramoff and his associates fleeced Native Americans, a long standing American tradition, and used his connections to get his influence into the US Department of the Interior, I couldn't help but think, the FBI has files on PETA, follows the Mormons and the Catholic league around and has Nothing on the Conservative Republicans for the Environment's connection to lobbyist turned deputy secretary of the interior turned lobbyist, steven griles. I guess spying with these guys is focused on terrorism….. and liberalism. Spying you say?
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows wiretaps on international calls without warrant in emergency circumstances, as long as a judicial order of approval is obtained from the secret FISA court within 72 hours. So if the administration needed to wiretap an individual who they suspected was plotting against the US, they need not wait for a warrant. They could get authorization afterward, within the 72 hour period. This law was usurped by a president who knew he could not get support from congress to change the act in favor of completely warrant less searches. He did so as an "exercise of executive discretion", to quote Solicitor General Paul D. Clement on the somewhat related recent transfer of 3 year enemy combatant Joseph Padilla. The administration also sited in their first round of reasoning that it was the "resolution that authorized the use of force in Iraq" that gave him said powers, though it states nothing about altering or completely ignoring existing law. So what do We the People get to explain whether or not the president is above the law? We get an investigation into who told the public that the administration was conducting warrant less wiretaps on Americans, not the legality of those taps. Why would this administration be held accountable for anything?
The President of the United States should be made to answer questions that have been raised of him, the administration and the policies for which He is responsible. President Clinton was put under oath, without the vice president by his side, to answer questions about an extra marital affair. In a lapse of judgment and intelligence, he lied about this affair and was impeached in the name of National Security. The current administration's list of scandals out stretch that of President Clinton or President Nixon for that matter and their ability to avoid any accountability is almost as astonishing as the lack (for the most part) of outrage seen America's citizenry and the traditional or "mainstream" media.
Maybe 2006 will bring enough indictments against the bush administration and the folks that run with them that the Country will stand up and take notice. Maybe the 2006 elections will see enough votes for Democratic and Independent senators and congressmen (and women) that the balance of power will sway from the rubber stamping right to the left of center. Maybe 2006 will see more good news that's not just bad news for the other side. I’m a hopeful man.
If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
On the second day of Fitmas.....
Nevermind the Christmas vs. Holidays vs. Chanukah vs. Kwanzaa debate. The second day of Fitmas is coming! Decorate your Fitmas tree with all your indictment wishes.
For those of you who are really annoyed by the whole made up "War on Christmas", why not send an email to the concerned women for america (mail@cwfa.org). It was one of their spokesMen who recently compared people that say Happy Holidays to nazis.
Here's the text from my email (short and to the point):
Happy Holidays!
How's you're War on Chanukah going?
peace on earth
goodwill towards men (and women)
For those of you who are really annoyed by the whole made up "War on Christmas", why not send an email to the concerned women for america (mail@cwfa.org). It was one of their spokesMen who recently compared people that say Happy Holidays to nazis.
Here's the text from my email (short and to the point):
Happy Holidays!
How's you're War on Chanukah going?
peace on earth
goodwill towards men (and women)
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
An outline for an UnHoly war
Balled up in the Fetal position, I watched as the campaigner in chief made his first in a series of "stay the course" and "progress in Iraq" speeches and read the bush pamphlet "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" or as I like to call it "An outline on nation building". There were a couple of new twists. The word "insurgents" has morphed, like so many rationales for war, into "the enemy" (rummy ran blocker on this one) and made up words like "rejectionists" and "saddamists". The no responsibility president almost admitted mistakes with statements like "we've faced some setbacks" and that "we learned from our early experiences." But most striking to me was the display of emotion when quoting a victim of his War in Iraq. The president held back the tears when quoting a letter left "on the laptop" of Corporal Jeff Star, getting choked up on the words "I'm here helping these people so they can live the way we live".
"I'm here helping these people so they can live the way we live."
Does that sound imperial to anybody else? Coupled with the old "you're either with us or you're against us" it sounds a little like the "god warrior" from trading spouses. Now, the bigger war of "ideologies" (AKA War on Terrorism) may have started with the attack on the US on September 11th, though it is argued that it started long before with previous attacks by "terrorists" or by US foriegn policies. Regardless of its beginning, the president of the United States seems to truly believe in its extension. He believes that the world would be better off if "they" lived like "we" do, or at least how we live ideally. Not how they are currently living along the US Gulf Coast or how the have nots and homeless live. But how we live to speak our mind freely without fear of retribution, unless of course you disagree with the president's policies (then it's watch your wife's covert status). It's, you know, Our freedom to choose Coke or Pepsi, Walmart or Target, Halliburton or Bechtel, protestant or evangelical.
It's hard to continue to argue about how bad an idea the hurried invasion/preemptive strike on Iraq was. An invasion "based on intelligence" that others believed, but no one was going to war over. Iraq was not a "urgent" threat to the United States. Before the sanctions on Iraq even started, back in Gulf War I, all they could try and hit us with were misguided scuds. Remember the surrendering Iraqi armyists? After getting beat back to Baghdad and over ten years of crippling sanctions, this was the greatest threat posed against us?
The argument that "we are fighting them there, so we don't have to fight them here" seems short sighted. What happens when it's over, assuming it ever will be? Where are the "terrorists" that attack our soldiers in Iraq today going to go when, and if, we leave? I understand that we will have men and women serving in Our multi-billion dollar bases there for a long time to come. But if Iraq does somehow, miraculously, stabilize, where will the "foreign fighters" turn. And then there are the "terrorist" attacks that have taken place in Europe and elsewhere while we were fighting "them in Iraq so we don't have to fight them at home".
This War in Iraq was not about saddam or the wounds left open from Gulf War I. WMDs were only a decent, at the time, enough excuse. Faux-patriotism and fear were used to ram a war through a, for the most part, gutless, rubber stamp congress and a confused and apathetic public who was bombarded with propaganda when it should have bombarded with discussion and debate. Last week the vice president came out of his undisclosed location to give a speech to American service men and women as part of the campaigner in chief's latest offensive. He said, among other things, that "The terrorists want to end American and Western influence in the Middle East." American influence in the Middle East. Now that sounds like the reason we are in Iraq. And why is that influence so essential. Oil! That's what this has always been about. We are building a nation and its military, for access to its oil and the contracts to drill and refine it.
This president, his administration, and Our toothless, rubberstamp congress have gotten us into this war (it is still a war and not "the peace"). We will not "cut and run", though I would be very surprised if troop levels don't come down significantly by the 2006 elections. As for leaving a "stable democracy" as a "model for the region", with the influence of "republics" like Iran on the Shi'ites, the continuous moves toward independence by the Kurds, and the assisinations and uprisings of the Sunnis, that's a little far fetched even to me.
We stopped when we did, and it was a unanimous recommendation on the part of the President's advisors, civilian and military, we stopped when we did because we had achieved our objectives. We had said from the outset that our purpose was to liberate Kuwait and destroy Saddam Hussein's capacity to threaten his neighbors, his offensive military capability, we did that. We destroyed about two-thirds of his army in that portion that he sent in to Kuwait and Iraq, and stripped him of most of his weapons of mass destruction.
Once we rounded up Saddam, then the question is what do you do? You're going to put a government in his place. Presumably, you're not just going to turn your back and walk away. You have to put some kind of a government in its place. And then the question comes is it going to be a Shi'a government or a Kurdish government, or maybe a Sunni government, or maybe it ought to be based on the old Baathist Party regime, or some combination thereof. How long is that government to be able to stay in power without US military support to keep it there? How long can we maintain the coalition?
How long could we have maintained that coalition of Arab states if we had been involved in the long-range occupation by the US in Iraq? I would guess if we had gone on to Baghdad I would still have forces in Iraq today. I don't know how we would have let go of that tar baby once we had grabbed hold of it.
How many additional American lives is Saddam Hussein worth? And the answer I would give is not very damn many.
-excerpts of then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney's 1992 speech to the Discovery Institute in Seattle
"I'm here helping these people so they can live the way we live."
Does that sound imperial to anybody else? Coupled with the old "you're either with us or you're against us" it sounds a little like the "god warrior" from trading spouses. Now, the bigger war of "ideologies" (AKA War on Terrorism) may have started with the attack on the US on September 11th, though it is argued that it started long before with previous attacks by "terrorists" or by US foriegn policies. Regardless of its beginning, the president of the United States seems to truly believe in its extension. He believes that the world would be better off if "they" lived like "we" do, or at least how we live ideally. Not how they are currently living along the US Gulf Coast or how the have nots and homeless live. But how we live to speak our mind freely without fear of retribution, unless of course you disagree with the president's policies (then it's watch your wife's covert status). It's, you know, Our freedom to choose Coke or Pepsi, Walmart or Target, Halliburton or Bechtel, protestant or evangelical.
It's hard to continue to argue about how bad an idea the hurried invasion/preemptive strike on Iraq was. An invasion "based on intelligence" that others believed, but no one was going to war over. Iraq was not a "urgent" threat to the United States. Before the sanctions on Iraq even started, back in Gulf War I, all they could try and hit us with were misguided scuds. Remember the surrendering Iraqi armyists? After getting beat back to Baghdad and over ten years of crippling sanctions, this was the greatest threat posed against us?
The argument that "we are fighting them there, so we don't have to fight them here" seems short sighted. What happens when it's over, assuming it ever will be? Where are the "terrorists" that attack our soldiers in Iraq today going to go when, and if, we leave? I understand that we will have men and women serving in Our multi-billion dollar bases there for a long time to come. But if Iraq does somehow, miraculously, stabilize, where will the "foreign fighters" turn. And then there are the "terrorist" attacks that have taken place in Europe and elsewhere while we were fighting "them in Iraq so we don't have to fight them at home".
This War in Iraq was not about saddam or the wounds left open from Gulf War I. WMDs were only a decent, at the time, enough excuse. Faux-patriotism and fear were used to ram a war through a, for the most part, gutless, rubber stamp congress and a confused and apathetic public who was bombarded with propaganda when it should have bombarded with discussion and debate. Last week the vice president came out of his undisclosed location to give a speech to American service men and women as part of the campaigner in chief's latest offensive. He said, among other things, that "The terrorists want to end American and Western influence in the Middle East." American influence in the Middle East. Now that sounds like the reason we are in Iraq. And why is that influence so essential. Oil! That's what this has always been about. We are building a nation and its military, for access to its oil and the contracts to drill and refine it.
This president, his administration, and Our toothless, rubberstamp congress have gotten us into this war (it is still a war and not "the peace"). We will not "cut and run", though I would be very surprised if troop levels don't come down significantly by the 2006 elections. As for leaving a "stable democracy" as a "model for the region", with the influence of "republics" like Iran on the Shi'ites, the continuous moves toward independence by the Kurds, and the assisinations and uprisings of the Sunnis, that's a little far fetched even to me.
We stopped when we did, and it was a unanimous recommendation on the part of the President's advisors, civilian and military, we stopped when we did because we had achieved our objectives. We had said from the outset that our purpose was to liberate Kuwait and destroy Saddam Hussein's capacity to threaten his neighbors, his offensive military capability, we did that. We destroyed about two-thirds of his army in that portion that he sent in to Kuwait and Iraq, and stripped him of most of his weapons of mass destruction.
Once we rounded up Saddam, then the question is what do you do? You're going to put a government in his place. Presumably, you're not just going to turn your back and walk away. You have to put some kind of a government in its place. And then the question comes is it going to be a Shi'a government or a Kurdish government, or maybe a Sunni government, or maybe it ought to be based on the old Baathist Party regime, or some combination thereof. How long is that government to be able to stay in power without US military support to keep it there? How long can we maintain the coalition?
How long could we have maintained that coalition of Arab states if we had been involved in the long-range occupation by the US in Iraq? I would guess if we had gone on to Baghdad I would still have forces in Iraq today. I don't know how we would have let go of that tar baby once we had grabbed hold of it.
How many additional American lives is Saddam Hussein worth? And the answer I would give is not very damn many.
-excerpts of then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney's 1992 speech to the Discovery Institute in Seattle
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Is ironic the right word?
Is ironic the right word for the US Supreme Court building falling apart right above where it says "Equal Justice Under Law"?
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Dear Mr. President,
"Throughout history, tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that murder is justified to serve their grand vision. And they end up alienating decent people across the globe."
That's an interesting choice of words Mr. President. You should applaud whoever wrote them for you to read. Amazingly enough I agree with this pontification. The difference is it makes me think of you. In the partisan attack/justification for your war speech, that you chose Veterans Day to give, you claimed that Congress "had access to the same intelligence" as the president of the United States of America. That's false. Hell, let's call it a lie. Congress does not have access to the President's Daily Brief, not to mention the 92-page NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) that was given to Congress just days before they were to vote did not include all of the doubts within the intelligence committee. The resolution, that everyone seems to equate with a declaration of war, has been spun just like the "mission" we must "stay the course" to "accomplish".
"Whereas Iraq both poses a continuing threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region and remains in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations by, among other things, continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability, actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability, and supporting and harboring terrorist organizations;"
"Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;" text from the Joint Resolution (the Bold was me)
That is what they voted on. These claims have yet to be substantiated, and pulling out the UN inspectors, headed by Hans Blix, after only one month in Iraq certainly insured that those claims would not be refuted before we invaded. You rushed us into a war of your choosing. There was no "unique", "urgent" or "gathering" threat to Our National Security, our freedom, or Our way of life coming from Iraq like you told us there was. We did not "know where they [the WMDs}" were like secretary rumsfeld told us. When the vice president said "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." in his push for war, he either didn't have all the facts or was spinning/cherry picking what "intelligence" he did have. Like used car salesmen, you sold this Nation your war not on the "liberation of Iraq" or the "removal of saddam". It was on the "threat of unique urgency" that Iraq posed, which it turns out it didn't. It is not your critics that are rewriting history. It is you.
The hardest thing about all of this is the fact that Our soldiers are in harm's way for your grand vision of what the Middle East should be. You have created a new training ground for terrorists greater than Afghanistan ever was. You have given the terrorists more rationalizations for their hate. Your war is sending our country further into debt, which was recently illustrated by your red senators joining Democrats in dropping your tax cuts for the rich. You say you "protect the United States" while at the same time your Federal Emergency Management Agency is telling the poor people, who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina, that they will be evicted after December 1 with no where to go.
I am not alone in wanting a "exit strategy" that is "well defined" for our troops in Iraq. Democratic hawks and doves, as well as red senators are all clamoring for a plan that you should have had before we invaded.
And now with your national security advisor and/or vice president quite possibly involved in the Valerie Plame case, your administration seems even more corrupt and dishonest. Your presidency will be remembered as a failure, disastrous to Our country's reputation and standing in the world and our Government's reputation and standing here at home. I leave you with these words from red Senator Chuck Hagel:
"America must approach the world with a sense of purpose in world affairs that is anchored by our ideals, a principled realism that seeks not to re-make the world in our image, but to help make a better world."
"The Bush Administration must understand that each American has a right to question our policies in Iraq and should not be demonized for disagreeing with them. Suggesting that to challenge or criticize policy is undermining and hurting our troops is not democracy nor what this country has stood for, for over 200 years. The Democrats have an obligation to challenge in a serious and responsible manner, offering solutions and alternatives to the Administration’s policies."
Friday, November 11, 2005
The wheels on the wagon are not what they use to be.
What the hell's going on here?!?!? The campaigner in chief is "killing" campaigns? The US is using white phosphorous incendiaries (a weaponized chemical) on Iraqis? The man accused of giving classified intel to Iran, not to mention helping to mislead our "leaders" into misleading Us into war, ahmed chalabi, is the administration's friend again? Howlin' wolfowitz's World Bank is saying that their redevelopment efforts in Iraq are being blocked by the violence he failed to consider in his rush to war? Senate reds are grilling oil executives? Argentinians are protesting the little prince and his policies? Paris is on fire? Scandal ridden lobbyist abramhoff asked the president of a West African nation for $9,000,000.00 to meet with the scandal ridden president of the United States? And bucky bush is throwing around a baseball in Panama? Wow! It's been quite the ten days.
Election day saw Democrat, Senator John Corzine, win the governorship in New Jersey, despite the sandalous resignation of the last (D) in the State House. This was a particularly negative, non-issue campaign. I did like Corzine's bush/forrester ads, and it looks like they were effective. In Virginia's gubenatorial race, the Democrat won, despite a last minute bush visit to his challenger. Some say the bush visit actually hurt the red's chances. In Maine, an anti-discrimination law protecting homosexuals was passed. Ahnuld's four ballot initiatives got voted down in California. And my personal favorite came from Dover, Pennsylvania, where members of the Board of Education, who argued on behalf of "intelligent design", were voted out. The reds did have a victory or two, as well, but a "ban on gay marriage" in Texas.... I thought that was understood.
We all know that, with a few exceptions, the Democrats are toothless. What we're beginning to see now is the deCONstruction of the reds by the reds. The in fighting is evident. Senator mccain is arguing with vice president DICK cheney about America's use of torture, or as the legislation phrases it "cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment" of prisoners. The administration wants to exempt the CIA from such restrictions on abuse. Nine red senators voted against mccain's amendment, the other 42 joined with the Democrats in support of it. And if the US using incendiaries (though not banned by name) in Iraq, someone needs to to police the police of the world?
One of the biggest surprises for me this past week was the grilling of oil executives by Senators, both Democratic and red, for their record profits from charging record prices. Going against big oil is a direct affront to this oil soaked administration. An administration whose energy policy is to lessen environmental regulations, increase subsidies, and give tax breaks to energy companies who have seen profit increases over the past three years far greater than they have ever seen before. At least the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge has been temporarily taken off the drilling block by the House of Representatives, even before postponing the vote on the budget cutting bill that would have befouled it.
This wagon is starting to lose it's wheels and the Libby trial hasn't even started yet. You remember Libby, he is the author of the beastiality laden, incestual novel "The Apprentice". Oh yeah and he lied before a Grand Jury investigating leaked information classified for Our National Security.
"What a Country"
-Yakov Smirnoff
Election day saw Democrat, Senator John Corzine, win the governorship in New Jersey, despite the sandalous resignation of the last (D) in the State House. This was a particularly negative, non-issue campaign. I did like Corzine's bush/forrester ads, and it looks like they were effective. In Virginia's gubenatorial race, the Democrat won, despite a last minute bush visit to his challenger. Some say the bush visit actually hurt the red's chances. In Maine, an anti-discrimination law protecting homosexuals was passed. Ahnuld's four ballot initiatives got voted down in California. And my personal favorite came from Dover, Pennsylvania, where members of the Board of Education, who argued on behalf of "intelligent design", were voted out. The reds did have a victory or two, as well, but a "ban on gay marriage" in Texas.... I thought that was understood.
We all know that, with a few exceptions, the Democrats are toothless. What we're beginning to see now is the deCONstruction of the reds by the reds. The in fighting is evident. Senator mccain is arguing with vice president DICK cheney about America's use of torture, or as the legislation phrases it "cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment" of prisoners. The administration wants to exempt the CIA from such restrictions on abuse. Nine red senators voted against mccain's amendment, the other 42 joined with the Democrats in support of it. And if the US using incendiaries (though not banned by name) in Iraq, someone needs to to police the police of the world?
One of the biggest surprises for me this past week was the grilling of oil executives by Senators, both Democratic and red, for their record profits from charging record prices. Going against big oil is a direct affront to this oil soaked administration. An administration whose energy policy is to lessen environmental regulations, increase subsidies, and give tax breaks to energy companies who have seen profit increases over the past three years far greater than they have ever seen before. At least the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge has been temporarily taken off the drilling block by the House of Representatives, even before postponing the vote on the budget cutting bill that would have befouled it.
This wagon is starting to lose it's wheels and the Libby trial hasn't even started yet. You remember Libby, he is the author of the beastiality laden, incestual novel "The Apprentice". Oh yeah and he lied before a Grand Jury investigating leaked information classified for Our National Security.
"What a Country"
-Yakov Smirnoff
Monday, October 31, 2005
Happy Halloween!!!!
Well, a weekend has past since Fitzmas began with the indictment of the vice president's chief of staff, scooter libby. Scooter was indicted on one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements. It is almost amusing, though more often infuriating, to watch red congress people talking about perjury like it was a "technicality" or red pundits, like bill safire, talking about the fact that no one was found guilty of breaking the law that was being investigated, the outing of a CIA operative. Perjury is a crime, some may have once said a "high crime". Obstruction of justice is a crime. Making false statements to a grand jury, especially one investigatinging a breach in NATIONAL SECURITY, is a crime. And Mr. Safire, where the hell were you when President William Jefferson Clinton was being asked if he had sexual relations with an intern during an investigation of a real estate deal from back when he was a governor that he and his family lost money on. Give me a Fucking break people!
The other thing I would like to say to people like red rep. hutchinson and red talking head, safire, is FITZMAS ISN'T OVER. This trial may actually see the vice president of the united states take the stand UNDER OATH, something I don't think he or junior have done, for anything, in the past five years.
Nominating justice sc-alito to the Supreme Court may change the conversation in certain spheres, but headlines from a trial pertaining to the lead up to bush's war of choice, into which we have pour hundreds of billions of dollars and the lives of over 2000 men and women, may just sell a few more newspapers than...
Surprise, suprise!! Little george has nominated an activist, red, judicial insider, member of the Federalist Society to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, put the Ten Commandments on the White House lawn, and to make sure that the president, or vice president, never have to provide any documentation for anything.
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