GOP Convention intruder nailed. Hard.

Apparently, there was a security breach at the Republican convention last night that no one seems free to talk about.

However, a reporter for Talon News was able to interview one delegate who was close to the action. Talon, noted for high journalistic standards, decided not to run this story because the account couldn't be corroborated, but passed it to me so you can decide for yourselves if it's valid. Here is a transcript of the tape:

Reporter: "OK. Mr Haggy, is it?"
Delegate: "Close enough, but just call me Johnny."
Reporter: "All right, Johnny, please tell me what you saw."
Delegate: " Well, I had just wolfed down a couple of them moose burgers they're handin' out and was feelin' kinda full, so I went 'n set down about 15 minutes before we was suppose ta start--thought I'd read some scripture fer a few minutes--settles my stomach down. I was only about 20 feet from the podium. Anyway, I was settin' there readin' Matthew and lookin' at that pretty flag they got up there, when some guy just showed up on the podium like he was Mr. High 'n Mighty hisself. You know--right outta thin air like.

All I can think was he musta been one of them peacenik hippie terrorists the cops missed outside. He had long hair and a beard, and he had on a robe like some kind of A-rab or somethin'. Oh, yeah, he had this little basket he set down, too. And he musta had some kinda trick light that made 'im look like he glowed. Real creepy like.

Anyway, he stood there lookin' around for a minute, and just when he opened his mouth to say somethin', musta been three dozen security guys rushed 'im. He went down right now. That sucker had so many Taser darts in his head, it looked like a crown. When everybody seen that, they all laughed 'n cheered to beat hell. Then,the security guys just grabbed a leg and hauled 'im out the back. A minute later, some mucky-muck with Homeland Security comes out and says 'Please keep quiet about this until we figure out how he got through security. Enjoy the convention and God bless America'. And that was it.

Oh, I almost forgot. That little basket he had? It got kicked and spilled down the steps. All it was was a loaf of bread an' one lousy fish. Musta been his lunch.

The damn fool shoulda went to Denver instead. Not to throw stones, but those librul idiots prob'ly woulda let 'im talk all night."

A WARNING TO KIDS EVERYWHERE

Nebraska is the last state to have enacted a "safe haven" law, which allows parents to abandon unwanted children at hospitals with no questions asked.

Most states have laws that permit abandonment within the first few days of birth, but Nebraska's law, in effect since July, is much broader in scope. It allows for the abandonment of all minor children--in Nebraska that's age 19--and doesn't specify that only a parent can do it.

If Nebraska's version of "safe-haven" works the way I think it will, other states will change their laws to match. And until that happens, you can bet that people will be traveling to Nebraska by the millions to rid themselves of troublesome brats, no questions asked. Our country will have the best-behaved kids in the world.

Kids, this may be your only warning, so pay attention! Your life just got a lot tougher. You now have to be perfect human beings, and be lucky, too, if you want to stay at home sweet home. Think on this and be afraid, be very afraid---

Mom and dad run out of diapers? Couldn't find a babysitter? Are they tired of your lip? Is your room a mess? Do you fight with your siblings? Are you a picky eater? Ever wreck dad's car? Do you ignore them when they talk to you? Insist on playing your music full blast? Do you change clothes five times a day and take 60 minute showers? See ya!

Won't stay off of the neighbors grass? Do you tease his dog? Come on to his daughter? Or his son? Bye-Bye!

How about school? Tardy or disruptive? Lousy grades? Late homework? Pass notes or make armpit sounds when the teacher isn't looking? Think it's funny to pull bra straps?-- even your teacher's? Sneak smokes in the restroom? Gone, Gone and Gone again!!

Parents ever catch you and the rest of the school using your house for a pot and booze social? Got news-you're all toast!

Starting to get the picture, ya little heathens? Better do the dishes--right after you finish your homework and send Grandma that thank you note you've owed her for a month--and right after you tell mom and dad how much you love them. And then cross your fingers for luck. Every day!

Oh, and one little piece of advice--on Halloween, don't ever say "trick or treat!" again.


Source:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Neb._safehaven_law_allows_abandonment_of_0822.html

BEWARE THE *ASTERISK*--JOIN THE BOYCOTT!

I'm considering calling for a boycott of all makers of computer keyboards, until the * as well as the !,@,#,$,%,&,and+ are eliminated from their product.

Asterisks and other seemingly harmless symbols that replace letters in words are not only useless, but diabolical. Writers routinely use this artifice under the erroneous assumption that they can disguise offensive language and thus avoid offending the tender sensibilities of the readers.

However, neither the writer nor the reader has gained anything, because when people see an ast*risked word, they assume that it's "bad", and will automatically stop and read it (several times if necessary), until they see the "bad" word they expect. This is particularly vexing for those of us who constantly strive to maintain absolute purity of thought, lest we be condemned to the eternal fires of damnation.

As dangerous as this convention is, it can be even worse, because an unscrupulous writer can use the conditioned reflexive response to the asterisk to lead readers to see offensive words where none actually exist.

The following examples are offered for your edification:

1. Harry Truman had a sign on his desk that read "the *uck stops here".

2. I'll never replace my old-fashioned bed, because I have sl*ts under the box springs.

3. To a baseball fan, the most exciting play is the "suicide squeeze", where the runner on third base races for home just as the pitcher releases the ball, and the batter lays a perfect *unt halfway between the mound and first base.

4.Agribusiness uses NAFTA to flood Mexico with their cr*p.

5.When your mouth is full of toothpaste, remember to s*it before you swallow.

6.Larry Craig is a senator from Ida**.

7. Why do women prefer men who wear Aqua V*lva?

8.When you're too tired to accept a friend's last minute dinner invitation, you should decline by saying "Sorry, but I've got to take a p*ss tonight".

This sort of chicanery not only assaults our morals, but makes it more difficult for our government's illegal spy programs to uncover the millions of terrorist plots being planned at this very moment. The asterisk and other symbols confuse the data-mining programs so badly that they can't see that this piece obviously contains instructions for weaponizing anthrax.

I'm sure you see the danger inherent in the use of these symbols. Would you be willing to support a boycott to save both our souls and our country?

War is the answer to our budget woes!

A friend, all upset, sent this article to me, which describes how the EPA arbitrarily lowers the statistical value of a life so a cost/benefit analysis of proposed regulations would show costs too high for the expected number of lives saved, and thus kill the proposal.

There's nothing especially new here --we already know that the Bush regulatory agencies work for the industries they're charged with regulating--and so there's nothing new to get upset about. Every detail that comes to light now is just another variation on a well-known theme, so what's the point of getting angry all over again--it's really bad for your health and doesn't fix a thing.

So what I decided to do is to use the information in the article to enhance your understanding of how we came to our present sorry pass by showing you how the government defends its egregious actions so successfully. They do so by filling their explanations with absurdity piled on absurdity, so that by the end, the dumbfounded listener can only dazedly nod his or her head. And it's worked for almost eight years.

I've transcribed a tape recording of an imaginary briefing given by Sedgewick "Chappy" Lipschitz, Interim Director of the White House Office of Obfuscatory Doublespeak. His remarks were delivered to the usual MSM stenographic pool, and were given to ease the publics discomfort at the growing perception that the government considers them less valuable than before. I'll skip the preliminaries and start here:

"OK, if you'll just follow along with me on this flip chart..

On average, the value of a life hasn't dropped at all. In fact, it has gone up. It's simply a matter of balancing numbers to reflect the value of a life from a broader viewpoint. For important budgeting purposes, the value of a life actually depends on whether we are saving it or taking it.

We are now using sophisticated accounting software developed for us by the Regent University School of Using Numbers to Multiply Fruitfully. It's quite complex, so I'll just give you a simple example to help you understand.

The value of any "given" life as figured in the EPA cost/benefit analyses has been lowered to $6.9 million from $7.8 million five years ago. Remember, that's a "saved" life. However, and this the good part, we invaded Iraq five years ago, and we've spent $1 trillion dollars to take one million lives--that's only $1 million per life "taken". Add that $1 million per life taken to the $6.9 million per life saved and you can easily see that the overall statistical value of a life today is $7.9 million, a slight increase from five years ago.

Factoring in the "give and take" in this manner also gives us proof positive that the Iraq war is more than paying for itself, and shows us a very clear path to quickly balancing the budget without raising taxes on our patriotic billionaires. It's obvious that we get more "bang for the buck" by funding war than by funding the EPA. The Iraq experience has proven that lives can be had through military action for only $1 million each, while the EPA number is nearly seven times that for any given life--it's not even close.

For that reason, we are immediately doubling military spending, and cutting the EPA's budget by 50%, and fully expect that this intelligent re-allocation of funds will result in a balanced budget within one year.

Any questions? No? Then thank you all for coming."

But will they do anything to fix it?

Is there any testosterone left in the "hollowed balls of Congress"?
If the Dems close this loophole, they'll win the election in a landslide. This could be a case where their self-serving ways actually serve us for a change.



From WSJ digital network--Market Watch (6/23/08)

Gas could fall to $2 if Congress acts, analysts say

Limiting speculation would push prices to fundamental level, lawmakers told

By Rex Nutting & Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch

Last update: 4:24 p.m. EDT June 23, 2008

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The price of retail gasoline could fall by half, to around $2 a gallon, within 30 days of passage of a law to limit speculation in energy-futures markets, four energy analysts told Congress on Monday.

Testifying to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Michael Masters of Masters Capital Management said that the price of oil would quickly drop closer to its marginal cost of around $65 to $75 a barrel, about half the current $135.

Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co., Edward Krapels of Energy Security Analysis and Roger Diwan of PFC Energy Consultants agreed with Masters' assessment at a hearing on proposed legislation to limit speculation in futures markets.

Krapels said that it wouldn't even take 30 days to drive prices lower, as fund managers quickly liquidated their positions in futures markets.

"Record oil prices are inflated by speculation and not justified by market fundamentals," according to Gheit. "Based on supply and demand fundamentals, crude-oil prices should not be above $60 per barrel."

Futures trading in London has not been a major factor in rising oil prices, testified Sir Bob Reid, chairman of the Chairman of London-based ICE Futures Europe. Rising prices are largely a function of fundamental supply and demand, not manipulation or speculation, he said.

"Energy speculation has become a growth industry and it is time for the government to intervene," said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the full committee. "We need to consider a full range of options to counter this rapacious speculation." It was Dingell's strongest statement yet on the role of speculators.

There has been much discussion recently about how big a role speculators have been playing in the sharp rise in energy prices, though no consensus has emerged on this point.

Dingell introduced a bill on June 11 that would ask the Energy Department to gather the facts on energy prices, including the role played by speculators. See full story.

There are two kinds of speculators in the futures markets, Masters said. Traditional speculators are those who need to hedge because they actually take physical possession of the commodities. Index speculators, on the other hand, are merely allocating a portion of their portfolio to commodity futures.

Index speculation damages price-discovery mechanisms provided by futures markets, Masters added

The committee will likely consider legislation that would rein in index speculation by imposing higher-margin requirements; setting position limits for speculators; requiring more disclosure of positions; and preventing pension funds and investment banks from owning commodities.

Both major presidential candidates have supported closing loopholes that encourage speculation in the energy markets. Read more on Election Blog.

However, other witnesses said that pure speculators have had little impact on energy prices, which have doubled in the past year to about $135 per barrel. Both Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman have dismissed the impact of speculators on prices paid by consumers.

Speculators now account for about 70% of all benchmark crude trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up from 37% in 2000, said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the investigations subcommittee. Stupak introduced a bill on Friday that would limit index speculation.

There has been much discussion recently about how big a role speculators have been playing in the sharp rise in energy prices, though no consensus has emerged on this point.

Congress, however, has grown increasingly concerned over speculative investors' role in the energy market in comparison with those buying futures contracts to hedge against risk from price changes. Lawmakers are expected to consider legislation to set strict limits -- or in some cases, an outright ban -- on speculative trading in energy futures in some markets.

Dingell is looking into any legal loopholes that may have contributed to speculation in energy markets. In 1991, according to documents provided by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to the committee's investigators, the agency authorized the first exemption from position limits for swap dealers with no physical commodity exposure. This began what Dingell said was "a process that has enabled investment banks to accumulate enormous positions in commodity markets."

Is Congress barking up the wrong tree?

Neal Ryan, manager at Ryan Oil & Gas Partners, said that if Congress develops regulations to cut back speculative trading, speculation will just find a new home.

"Speculation is the root of capitalism," he said. "If the speculation is forced out of the U.S. exchanges, it'll simply show up on other exchanges that are OTC like the ICE, or new exchanges will pop up to allow for the spec trades to continue functioning."

Ryan said he does see a reason for Congress to look at eliminating aspects such as allowing West Texas intermediate crude oil futures to trade on foreign markets and the "Enron loophole," but "these exchanges are currently functioning as they are supposed to in a free marketplace."

The creation of a comprehensive U.S. energy policy that tackles issues of increasing domestic supply and reining in consumer demand via conservation should be Congress' focus, Ryan said. "Instead we're on bended knee begging the Saudis to put more oil on the market and talking about shutting down spec trades."

Was it rape or consensual sex?

The following was reported by The Raw Story on 3/27/08:

NZealand court sentences man after wombat rape claim

A New Zealand man has been sentenced to community service after telling police he had been raped by a wombat and the experience had caused him to start speaking "Australian".

Arthur Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker from Motueka on South Island, rang police on February 11 to say he was being raped by the slow moving Australian marsupial at his home, The Nelson Mail reported.

He rang back soon afterwards to say he was withdrawing his complaint against the wombat, a court was told Wednesday.

"Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know," he told police in the second call.

Cradock pleaded guilty to using a phone for a fictitious purpose and was sentenced to 75 hours community work.

The article raises more questions than it answers. For example, did Mr Cradock already have a friendly relationship with the wombat, and invite it into his home simply to spend an evening socializing, with popcorn, tv, and beer? And did he lead the wombat on with suggestive flirting which got out of hand? Or was it more sinister--did the wombat break in while Mr Cradock was sleeping and have his way with an alcohol-addled victim?

Why did Cradock call back to the police and recant? Did the wombat threaten him, or did he realize that he really enjoyed the experience?

More important is the larger question of why the police charged him. Did they intentionally paint Mr Cradock as some kind of nutcase to keep an alarming rise in rape by wombat from being known to the general public? If so, other victims will be less likely to report these attacks, and the population of New Zealand will continue to be unaware of the danger they're in.

If anyone can supply additional information on these burning questions, please contact me, as I'm planning a trip to South Island and need to know more before I go.

Travesty of justice in Muncie, Indiana

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - A Muncie man has surrendered to face allegations he forced his 7-year-old daughter to kill the family cat by holding a knife in her hand and making her stab it.

Thirty-nine-year-old Danield J. Collins was being held in Delaware County Jail on $40,000 bond on charges of animal cruelty, battery and neglect of a dependent. The jail had no record of an attorney for Collins.

An affidavit filed today in Delaware County alleges Collins told his 11-year-old son and daughter he wanted them to "learn how to kill" and ordered them to kill the family's pet cat.

Detective Jami Brown of the Muncie Police Department says Collins forced his daughter to hold the knife and then held her hand tightly as he drove the knife into the animal.

The affidavit says the girl also said her father stabbed the cat himself and also strangled it.

This is ridiculous !! Here is a story of a concerned father doing his level best to teach his children how to survive in a dangerous world, and he is being charged with a crime for meeting his responsibility to his kids. For the government to intrude on the rights of a parent to instruct his children in life's important lessons smacks of the worst sort of interference, and should not be tolerated.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that our lives are fraught with danger. Disaster can strike from any quarter, and if we are not prepared to kill any threat we will certainly be victims. What Mr. Collins did was appropriate on more than one level.

Everyone knows that the greatest threat to our well-being comes from brown-skinned people from Mexico and the Middle East, and he chose his cat, a beautiful tan colored tom named "Raghead", to acclimate his kids to killing creatures of that color. With enough practice, when the time comes(as it surely must), his kids will react instinctively and be more likely to survive.

The other aspect of Mr. Collins' lesson is that guns, while expedient, are too impersonal, and they simply do not provide the same pleasure as killing something by hand. This is something we all know--who among you hasn't experienced the tremendous pleasure of killing a living, breathing creature with their bare hands. The experience becomes much more meaningful when done this way and you find yourself wanting to repeat it again and again. This is a lesson that Dick "Shotgun" Cheney has yet to learn, and he will be an incomplete human being until he does.

Mr. Collins should be applauded for what he did--certainly not prosecuted. There are profound Constitutional questions involved here. For that reason, I am starting a fund to provide for his defense. Please donate as much as you can--no amount will be rejected.

IRS nails 7 year old tax cheat

From AP 2/23/08, via The Raw Story:

Police in a Chicago suburb say the Internal Revenue Service has told a 7-year-old boy he owes back taxes on $60,000 because someone else has been using the youngster's identity to collect wages and unemployment benefits.

Officers in suburban Carpentersville said Friday the second-grader's identity has been in use by someone else since 2001.

Detectives have filed a felony identity theft charge against 29-year-old Cirilo Centeno of Streamwood, Ill.

They accuse Centeno of using the boy's personal information to collect more than $60,000 in pay and services while working three jobs. They say he also used the boy's ID to buy a truck, pay bills and even collect unemployment benefits.

I can only say it's about time the IRS began cracking down on these juvenile scofflaws. If they collected from all these kids who obviously have no regard for the laws of this land, then we'd have a budget surplus within six months! I'm sick and tired of paying more than my fair share of taxes and getting nothing in return! If little snots like this are forced to pony up we'd be in good shape and could even increase the size of the tax cuts for the super-rich without increasing the deficit. Do you realize how many kids there are in this country? Billions at least!

They need to make an example of this little creep.I hope he's hauled into Tax Court in shackles and ordered to forfeit his lunch money for the rest of his life. Any of you bleeding hearts that say it's not his fault--well, baloney--its everyone's responsibility to guard against identity theft, and since he obviously didn't, he's guilty of providing material support to a criminal enterprise. There's nothing in the statutes that lets kids off the hook. He really should do hard time for this, but he's probably related to Barack Hussein Obama.

The FDA has levied a $4.6 million dollar fine against the American Red Cross for the distribution of "unsuitable blood products".

From WashingtonPost.com (2/06/08)

FDA Fines Red Cross Another $4.6 Million

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration has fined the Red Cross an additional $4.6 million for the distribution of "unsuitable blood products," bringing penalties against the organization to more than $19 million in recent years.

The FDA issued a letter Wednesday stating that it reviewed 113 recalls of blood products by the Red Cross from April 2003 to April 2006. The recalls involved the release of an estimated 4,094 unsuitable blood components.

Agency officials noted that having to conduct a recall shows that safety protocols were breached. For example, a donor may not have been appropriately asked about international travel or intravenous drug use.

FDA spokeswoman Peper Long said the agency didn't find any evidence of serious health consequences as a result of the safety breaches.

Red Cross officials said it was taking several steps to find problems in the collection and distribution of blood supplies. It's increasing supervision at blood drives and consolidating processing facilities. Its goal is to meet the FDA's standards for quality and safety, officials said.

"It takes time and it takes resources, but we're committed to doing whatever's necessary to meet that goal," said Red Cross spokeswoman Stephanie Millian.

Millian stressed that the fine would not be paid through donations but through the operating fees that it charges those who get blood units, such as hospitals.

The latest fine is being added to a tally of nearly $15 million in previous FDA penalties for violation of blood-safety laws, regulations and the terms of a 2003 consent decree.

That settlement resolved charges that the Red Cross had committed "persistent and serious violations" of federal blood safety rules dating back 17 years.

In 2004, the Red Cross implemented a plan, with the FDA's blessing, to detect, investigate, monitor and correct the sorts of problems repeatedly cited by government investigators.

The Red Cross apparently has a lousy track record monitoring blood shipments, but they also seem to have poor judgement about the company they keep. In January, the Middle Atlantic region of the Red Cross gave a special award to Blackwater Worldwide and their owner Erik Princeofdarkness, for having collected 264 units of blood from their employees.

Jeremy Scahill at AlterNet (2/02/08)

Blackwater and Blood: Spilling it in Iraq, Donating it at Home

If there's one thing that can be said about Blackwater Worldwide, the Bush administration's favorite mercenary company, it is no stranger to blood -- its operatives have caused a lot of it to be spilled in Iraq. Last September, Blackwater forces gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square and wounded more than 20 others. It was reportedly one of 10 such deadly incidents involving the company in Iraq since June 2005. After all the carnage and death, Blackwater is now giving back. Not in Iraq, but right here at home.

This week, the company received an award from the American Red Cross -- not for its skill at making Iraqis bleed, but for Blackwater's recent blood drive, where company employees reportedly gave 264 units of blood. "That means that well over 600 lives have been saved in this region," said Georgia Donaldson of the Mid Atlantic region Red Cross.

The group presented Blackwater's owner, Erik Prince with a plaque, honoring the company. "I'm proud of the folks we have here. We have a great team, they constantly go above and beyond the call of duty, they give back and they're giving to their local community here," said Prince. But here's the money quote: Blackwater "saw a need for the community to receive more blood, so we made it available and our folks answered the call." Sort of like what they do in Iraq for Bush. Oh, and this blood must be mighty special. As Prince told Congress last year, his men "bleed red, white and blue."

This isn't the first time Blackwater and the Red Cross teamed up. After Hurricane Katrina, where Blackwater raked in over $70 million in federal "security" contracts, the company held a Red Cross fundraiser and pulled in $138,000 -- about $100,000 short of Blackwater's estimated daily take at the height of its Katrina operations. The keynote speaker at that event? L. Paul Bremer, the original head of the US occupation.

As for the recent blood drive, maybe the Red Cross should ship some of it over to Iraq for Blackwater's next victims.

It would come as no surprise to discover that the next fine the Red Cross pays will be for releasing 264 units of tainted blood, but they won't mind--hell, it's free money anyway.

JFK on WHAT IS A "LIBERAL" ?

Special thanks to the Liberal Party for having this on their website, and thanks also to Buzzflash for putting it out there for me to find. These are excerpts from a speech given by John F Kennedy as he accepted the nomination of the New York Liberal Party, on 9/14/60.

"What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

But first, I would like to say what I understand the word "Liberal" to mean and explain in the process why I consider myself to be a "Liberal," and what it means in the presidential election of 1960.

In short, having set forth my view -- I hope for all time -- two nights ago in Houston, on the proper relationship between church and state, I want to take the opportunity to set forth my views on the proper relationship between the state and the citizen. This is my political credo:

I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves.

I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind. I do not believe in a superstate. I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well. But I believe in a government which acts, which exercises its full powers and full responsibilities. Government is an art and a precious obligation; and when it has a job to do, I believe it should do it. And this requires not only great ends but that we propose concrete means of achieving them.

Our responsibility is not discharged by announcement of virtuous ends. Our responsibility is to achieve these objectives with social invention, with political skill, and executive vigor. I believe for these reasons that liberalism is our best and only hope in the world today. For the liberal society is a free society, and it is at the same time and for that reason a strong society. Its strength is drawn from the will of free people committed to great ends and peacefully striving to meet them. Only liberalism, in short, can repair our national power, restore our national purpose, and liberate our national energies. And the only basic issue in the 1960 campaign is whether our government will fall in a conservative rut and die there, or whether we will move ahead in the liberal spirit of daring, of breaking new ground, of doing in our generation what Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson did in their time of influence and responsibility.

Our liberalism has its roots in our diverse origins. Most of us are descended from that segment of the American population which was once called an immigrant minority. Today, along with our children and grandchildren, we do not feel minor. We feel proud of our origins and we are not second to any group in our sense of national purpose. For many years New York represented the new frontier to all those who came from the ends of the earth to find new opportunity and new freedom, generations of men and women who fled from the despotism of the czars, the horrors of the Nazis, the tyranny of hunger, who came here to the new frontier in the State of New York. These men and women, a living cross section of American history, indeed, a cross section of the entire world's history of pain and hope, made of this city not only a new world of opportunity, but a new world of the spirit as well."...

"Many of these same immigrant families produced the pioneers and builders of the American labor movement. They are the men who sweated in our shops, who struggled to create a union, and who were driven by longing for education for their children and for the children's development. They went to night schools; they built their own future, their union's future, and their country's future, brick by brick, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, and now in their children's time, suburb by suburb."...

"This is an important election -- in many ways as important as any this century -- and I think that the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party here in New York, and those who believe in progress all over the United States, should be associated with us in this great effort. The reason that Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson had influence abroad, and the United States in their time had it, was because they moved this country here at home, because they stood for something here in the United States, for expanding the benefits of our society to our own people, and the people around the world looked to us as a symbol of hope."...

In almost 48 years, no one has ever explained what liberal values truly are as eloquently as Kennedy did on that night. Indeed, I do not believe anyone can. He captured the essence of what a "liberal" stands for. The essence that even now guides our hearts and deeds. These are timeless, universal values that we hold in our souls, that will never be relinquished freely.

I would suggest that you link to Kennedy's speech and hand a downloaded copy to any of your right-wing name calling "friends". Help them to read it, if necessary, but don't try to make them feel foolish. They'll eventually get there on their own, when the truth sinks in.

The Republican game plan

On his radio broadcast today, Rush Limbaugh called for his listeners to donate to Hillary Clinton's primary campaign. They are desperate to have Clinton defeat Barack Obama and run against John McCain, because millions of voters will turn out just to vote against her.
From The Raw Story (2/07/08)

Limbaugh wants to raise cash for Clinton after Romney withdrawal

Says anti-Hillary fervor all that will unite GOP

Conservative talker Rush Limbaugh had an unorthodox solution to Mitt Romney's departure from the Republican race; he's thinking about raising money for Hillary Clinton.

Don't be mistaken: There's been no sudden change of heart on Limbaugh's part toward the woman who's been among his favorite targets for scorn over the last 15 years. Limbaugh is operating under the assumption that the Republican party -- now represented by presumptive nominee John McCain -- would have a better chance of retaining the White House if anti-Hillary fervor drives GOP voters to the polls in November.

"The reason I'm raising money for Hillary is because, apparently, my party, the Republican party, is relying on fear and loathing of Hillary to unite the party," Limbaugh said.

Limbaugh, who has been harshly critical of McCain throughout the primary, still sees maintaining GOP control as his primary goal. His endorsement, then, does not fall in the same column as fellow conservative Ann Coulter's recent insistence that she would vote for Hillary over McCain because she is the more conservative candidate.

Speaking on his daily radio show Thursday, just after Romney announced the end of his campaign, Limbaugh said he was "dead serious about considering" soliciting Clinton donations from his listeners. He worried that she was in danger of losing the nomination to Barack Obama, who doesn't inspire the same fervent rage among GOP voters. The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Here's the slogan" for the fundraiser, he said: "Keep her in it, so we can win it."

Limbaugh's plea came on the heels of an announcement by Clinton that she had loaned her campaign $5 million to keep it afloat after having spent so heavily to defeat Obama in this weeks primaries. After all of that she emerged virtually deadlocked in the race for delegates, and Obama looks to have a good chance at the nomination.

Were that to happen, it would seriously hurt GOP prospects because not nearly as many people hate Obama as hate Clinton. She has more negatives, in the eyes of conservatives, than Adolph Hitler, and the mere mention of her name evokes a visceral reaction beyond all reason. Most of this stems from the unrelenting years-long smear campaign directed at her and her husband that started with his election and continues to this day. The Republicans are banking on that intense hatred alone to pull enough voters to the polls to swing the election to them. They know full well that wide majorities of the electorate are disgusted with every aspect of Republican rule, and a Clinton candidacy can only help them.

But promoting Clinton is only part of a two-pronged strategy. By attacking John McCain as being too liberal, they hope to blur the differences between the two presumptive candidates and mitigate the backlash of anger the voters hold for the Republicans. They expect to be able to sow enough confusion that Republicans who would vote for a Democrat this election cycle will not see a clear choice, and either sit out the election or vote for McCain because he's not a "true Republican". This would compound the effect of the "Clinton hater" vote.

Add the fact that many short-sighted liberals may not vote for Clinton on principle, because of her voting record and support for the Iraq war/occupation, and you see that that the Republican game plan could work.

A Clinton candidacy would also drag down the rest of the Democratic ticket, and make it much more difficult for the Democrats to expand, or even keep, their Congressional majorities. And even a close vote in any of these races might make it possible for the Republicans to switch a loss into a win through electronic voting machine fraud.

As if this isn't enough, there's even more-- every talking head and every journalist throughout the entire right wing controlled media will be working overtime to make this strategy work, and thanks to some huge legal loopholes, the Republicans have a war chest of over $250 million to run attack ads. Despite the edge the Democrats have this year in traditional fundraising, they can't come close to the "loophole funds" raised by the GOP.

The implication is ominous--The GOP can smear Clinton so often and so thoroughly that any effort to paint McCain as the war-lover that he is will be overwhelmed.

Keep in mind that this potential disaster would be moot if Barack Obama were to win the nomination. Work for it.

Alas, is there no honor among thieves?

To some, anyone is fair game--even their own. Shocking? Not when it involves Republicans.

From The Raw Story (2/06/08)

FBI probing figure linked to 2004 Swift Boat Veterans for Truth; Accused of forging campaign auditMichael Roston
Published: Wednesday February 6, 2008

The Politico revealed on Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had initiated a probe of a former treasurer of the National Republican Congressional Committee over the forging of a 2006 election audit. But it left out an important detail: the official in question served as a partner at a firm that was retained by the Swift Boat Veterans and Prioners of War for Truth in 2004 to perform legal compliance work.

A report in Wednesday's Politico from Patrick O'Connor and John Bresnahan reveals that the NRCC, which raises funds for the political campaigns of House Republicans, is auditing its own books due to what may be an FBI fraud investigation of Christopher J. Ward, who served as NRCC treasurer until Aug. 2007.

While the Politico report noted that Ward had been serving the NRCC as a private contractor since last year, it failed to note that he was also at one time a partner with the Fairfax, Virginia-based Political Compliance Services, Inc., a firm that specializes in filing reports with the Federal Election Commission on behalf of political candidates and campaigns.

PCS, Inc., according to earlier reports, was retained by the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth in the run-up to the 2004 presidential election.

"Since the spring of 2004, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth paid Ward’s firm nearly $230,000 for services ranging from database management to website consulting, according to disbursements archived at PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan website that tracks fundraising," according to a July 2007 report in The Hill.

Reporter Alexander Bolton also noted that Ward did not directly handle the Swift Boat Vets' work which was carried out by another Political Compliance Services, Inc. partner.

The Swift Boat Vets played a powerful role in the 2004 presidential election. The group raised tens of millions of dollars, much of it from major Republican Party donors, and paid for commercials and mailings questioning Democratic Senator John Kerry's military service record, as well as his anti-war activities after his return from Vietnam.

The group was led by John O'Neill, who had been tasked by figures close to President Richard Nixon in 1971 to publicly challenge peace advocates like Kerry in public settings in the form of the group "Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace." The Swift Boat Vets relied on claims of Vietnam veterans who claimed they knew Kerry and that he was exaggerating his service record, many of which did not hold up to truth.

In Dec. 2006, the Federal Election Commission levied an almost $300,000 fine against the group for breaking federal election laws.

A call to PCS on Wednesday morning confirmed that Ward recently left the firm. RAW STORY was awaiting further comment from the company.

Bush will never pardon this guy--there's treason and then there's real treason. Fraud against the National Republican Campaign Committee? By a "Swift Boater"? Karma ! Poetic justice ! Couldn't happen to nicer people ! HA HA HA HA HA !!!! I hope he lost every dime in investing in sub-prime mortgages. Serves 'em all right.

Uncle Benedict needs YOU !!!

Pope Benedict XVI, has called for the formation of "exorcism squads"to fight demonic possession, as explained in the following reprint from The Raw Story (2/05/08) :

Pope backs surge of exorcism squads 'to fight the Devil head on'David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday February 5, 2008

The Vatican has never given up belief in the reality of demonic possession, but the practice of actual exorcisms has waned over the last few centuries. Now, however, the Vatican's chief exorcist has revealed that Pope Benedict XVI takes the problem very seriously and is "setting up exorcism squads to deal with the rampant growth of Satanism."

Father Gabriele Amorth is both the senior exorcist of the diocese of Rome and the founder of the International Association of Exorcists. He has condemned the Harry Potter novels as containing "the signature of the Prince of Darkness" and recently warned that diabolical influences can reach even into the Vatican.

Amorth told IBN that "the action of the Devil is a lot more widespread than in the past, not because he has more strength, but because he is given more space." He went on to complain that these days "priests and bishops know nothing about the subject. ... They believe in the Devil, but they don't believe much in the actions of the Devil, so they prefer to send everyone to psychiatrists."

Pope Benedict, who "is said to be a firm believer in the existence of evil," has called for hundreds of priests to be trained as exorcists and made available to every Bishop. "Thank God there is a pope who wants to fight the devil head on," Amorth told IBN.

Personally, I believe in demonic possession, and that it is indeed widespread. How else to account for all of the evil we see in the world today? I believe that the Pope is on the right track here, but is naive if he thinks that mere squads will suffice when it is obvious that at least two armies are needed for an overwhelming "shock and awe"campaign.

If those possessed can be identified their evil acts, then it is clear to me that massive well- organized armies must be quickly mobilized and equipped, and must carry out coordinated attacks to drive the demons out of their unwitting victims all at once, or else the demons are likely to find other vulnerable hosts to take over without even having to leave the room.. The devil and his minions will not be easily dismissed.

There are areas in our country where demonic activity is concentrated. These "nests of evil" must be attacked and cleared out simultaneously, and then the armies can be split into squads or platoons to fan out and clear the smaller nests which abound.

The two main infestations are large enough to pose logistical issues, and may well require small water purification plants to ensure a sufficient supply of holy water, and tank sprayers for the exorcists to use both offensively in group situations and as a defensive weapon against the inevitable vicious counter-attacks.

Once every branch of government has been "dis-possessed"(starting with the Executive), and the financial centers in New York brought back into the light, the squads can go to work on the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and fan out to corporate boardrooms across the country, stopping at several conservative "Christian" churches and organizations on the way.

You can see that this is a massive undertaking, and the Vatican will surely need all the help it can get. Finally, we progressives are presented with a golden opportunity to quit bitching and actually do something to set our country aright.

I'm sure that the Pope will appreciate your help, so get ready--you'll need a heavy-duty crucifix, a dependable tank sprayer, holy oil (Valvoline will do in a pinch), and either this or this prayer--and join the fight!

Godspeed!

Speaking of "vast wastelands".....

In 1961, Newton Minow, then Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, famously referred to television as a "vast wasteland". I wonder how he would feel about the efforts of EnergySolutions to turn the United States into a "vast radioactive wasteland".

From CommonDreams.org (2/04/08)

US Company Seeks Permit to Import Nuclear Waste

WASHINGTON, DC - Bart Gordon, the Tennessee Democrat who chairs the House Committee on Science and Technology, does not want the United States to receive low-level radioactive waste from Italy, process it in Tennessee and dispose of it in a Utah waste site.

He says acceptance of the waste would put the U.S. on a path to becoming “the world’s nuclear garbage waste dump.”

On Friday, Gordon asked the Northwest Interstate Compact for Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management to withhold its support for a license application to accept the Italian waste filed by EnergySolutions, the company that operates the only private Class A low-level radioactive waste disposal in the United States.

This application marks the first time in the history of the NRC that a company has asked to dispose of large amounts of foreign-generated low-level radioactive waste in the United States.

“The U.S. already faces capacity issues and other challenges in treating and disposing of radioactive waste produced domestically,” said Gordon. “We should be working on solving this problem at home before taking dangerous waste from around the world.”

Low-level radioactive waste consists of contaminated protective shoe covers and clothing, wiping rags, mops, filters, reactor water treatment residues, equipments and tools, luminous dials, medical tubes, swabs, injection needles, syringes, and laboratory animal carcasses and tissues, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The radioactivity can range from just above background levels found in nature to very highly radioactive in certain cases such as parts from inside the reactor vessel in a nuclear power plant, the NRC says.

Gordon has long said that the application did not appear to represent a “one-time” event because EnergySolutions, which became a publicly traded company in November, has made clear its intent to pursue decommissioning work in both the United States and Europe.

“It is highly likely that this is the first application with a string to follow,” Gordon said.

On November 16, 2007, EnergySolutions’ CEO and Chairman of the Board Steve Creamer rang the bell to open trading at the New York Stock Exchange where EnergySolutions’ stock (NYSE: ES) began trading publicly.

EnergySolutions operates waste processing and disposition facilities in Tennessee, South Carolina, and Utah. The company also operates low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities, vaults, and landfills on the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee and Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

U.S. low-level waste is typically stored on-site by licensees, according to the NRC, either until it has decayed away and can be disposed of as ordinary trash, or until amounts are large enough for shipment to a low-level waste disposal site in containers approved by the Department of Transportation.

To obtain a permit to send waste to a law-level radioactive waste depository, federal regulations require the approval of the state and the Compact in which the disposal site is located.

EnergySolutions disposes of more than 90 percent of the low-level radioactive waste generated in the U.S. through a license granted by the State of Utah and with the permission of the Northwest Compact.

The Compact allows EnergySolutions to take low-level radioactive waste from outside the Compact because it serves “an important national purpose” and has reserved the right to “modify or rescind” its authorization at any time.

My God, the very idea of importing radioactive waste into the U.S. is simply insane. We can't process and dispose of what we already have, and this idiotic proposal comes along from a company called EnergySolutions (???). They're sure not solving any problems for us, are they?

The only problem they're trying to solve is how to win the admiration of the" investor" class for their imaginative approach to "bottom-line" health. And it that class, neither consequences nor methods matter, only profit. Money is King, and that's all that counts. Long live the King!

Wall Street--unrestrained and untouchable

This is a mind-blowing essay by Pam Martens, posted on AlterNet (2/04/08). There are literally no limits to the criminal sleaze of our bankers and investment houses, and they were formally given free rein last year by our Supreme Court. Read it and weep--it's unbelievable.

Bankers Gone Bonkers: Global Financiers Should Make Insanity Plea

With Wall Street capital disappearing as fast as foreclosures are climbing, one foreign head of state had an epiphany. French President Nicholas Sarkozy advanced the idea recently that the global financial system is "out of its mind."

To develop this theory further, I've reconstructed below some of the mileposts on our journey to this financial loony bin.

Exhibit One: Commit-a-Felony-Get-a-Bonus Contract

Back in 2002, Mark Belnick, who had previously been one of the legal go-to guys for Wall Street as a rising star at corporate law firm Paul,Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, found himself transplanted as General Counsel at fraud-infested Tyco International. Mr. Belnick inked a retention agreement for himself and it was duly filed without fanfare at the top corporate cop's web site, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The agreement guaranteed Mr. Belnick a payment of at least $10.6 million should he commit a felony and be fired before October 2003.

Very prescient fellow, Mr. Belnick was indeed charged with a few felonies like grand larceny and securities fraud by the Manhattan District Attorney's office. Mr. Belnick was acquitted of those charges and the SEC let him off the hook for aiding and abetting federal violations of securities laws with a $100,000 penalty payment and a prohibition against serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years. Mr. Belnick agreed to the SEC settlement without admitting or denying the charges. Mr. Belnick did not lose his law license and continues to practice law.

While Mr. Belnick was drafting his "felony bonus" agreement with Tyco, he was also teaching a law course at Cornell on ethics. Today, his agreement is available at the FindLaw.com web site as a "sample business contract," raising the suspicion that we as a society have become desensitized to financial insanity.

Exhibit Two: Supreme Insanity

On December 7, 2006, Wall Street was elated to learn that the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to hear its case requesting that a no-law zone be drawn around its financial borders for acts of collusion and commercial bribery, such as those so well documented in the issuance of new stock offerings during the tech/dotcom bubble. Calling the matter an alleged "epic Wall Street conspiracy," the U.S Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had earlier turned down Wall Street for its requested grant of immunity.

The Wall Street firms and their legions of lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the SEC (which, by the way, has no criminal powers) should have sole authority to regulate it and, therefore, it should be immune from other U.S. laws governing collusion and commercial bribery. (Credit Suisse First Boston Ltd. v. Billings.)

On June 18, 2007, the Supreme Court issued its opinion giving Wall Street everything it wanted, concluding that the SEC was doing a good job. The Court wrote: "...there is here no question of the existence of appropriate regulatory authority, nor is there doubt as to whether the regulators have exercised that authority."

The sweeping ignorance of that statement is breathtaking. Whether it was Wall Street firms price fixing on NASDAQ for decades or the orchestrated rigging of the market for new stock issues in the late 90s or the current institutionalized system of credit fraud, the SEC always has its lens fogged until some college professors or investigative reporters publish a step by step playbook, disseminate it widely, and force the SEC to take action to save face.

Worse yet, when the SEC finally does take action, it imposes fines of millions for stealing billions, making crime one of the most productive profit centers on Wall Street.

This 2007 decision from the Supreme Court comes exactly 20 years and 10 days after the 1987 Supreme Court decision in Shearson/American Express Inc. v. McMahon. Under this ruling, Wall Street has been able to run a private justice system called mandatory arbitration to hear the cases of the investors or employees it defrauds (with the exception of class actions). The instruction manual for this private justice system explains that adherence to the law is not required; arbitration panel members, many on Wall Street's payroll, can just go with their gut.

In other words, the highest court in our land is telling Americans that the reward for serial lawlessness is immunity from the law.

Exhibit Three: Banks' Secret Profit Center: Your Death

Few Americans are aware that for at least 16 years big business and banks have been secretly taking out millions of life insurance policies on their rank and file workers and naming the corporation the beneficiary of the death benefit without the knowledge of the worker. The individual policies are frequently in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the employee leaves the company, no problem; big business is still allowed to collect the death benefit and they track the employee through the Social Security Administration to keep tabs on when they die. These policies are commonly known as "dead peasant" or "janitor" policies because they insure low-wage earners including janitors. Some of the largest corporations in America have been boosting their income statements by including cash buildup in the policies as well as receiving the death benefit tax free.

In 2003, the General Accountability Office (GAO) released a study with the startling findings that companies were taking out multiple policies on the same individual and that 3,209 banks and thrifts had current cash values in these policies totaling $56.3 Billion.

But instead of a congressional revolt against this revolting practice, it remained in place for at least 16 years after Congress first learned about it. Then along comes the worker-friendly sounding Pension Protection Act of 2006 submitted by our Congress and signed by the President. Buried deep within this massive document was the grandfathering of the millions of previously issued policies with a little tinkering at the edges of tax and reporting issues on newly issued policies.

Exhibit Four: They Keep the Money; You Get the Slogan

Around the time the stock market was in the process of losing $7 trillion of investor wealth in ill-conceived techs, dotcoms and telecoms, aided and abetted by Citigroup and its Wall Street cronies, I was driving on Charles Lindbergh Blvd. in Uniondale, Long Island when a bizarre billboard caught my eye. The giant billboard read:

He who dies with the most toys is still dead.
Live Richly.

(Citigroup logo: "Citi" and angelic red halo.)

I had never worked on Madison Avenue but I knew a lot of ad folks and I was pretty sure advertisements typically involved children, pets or other warm and fuzzy things. Citigroup telling me to ponder my own death seemed, well, "out of its mind."

I knew there had to be more behind this campaign. According to Citigroup's web site, the "Live Richly" campaign was meant to communicate "that Citi is an advocate for a healthy approach to money. Citi is an active partner in achieving perspective, balance, and peace of mind in finances and in life for its customers."

The ad agency was Fallon Worldwide and it clearly had Citigroup confused with a social responsibility fund, not the firm that named its trades after its real motives like the "Dr. Evil" trade that disrupted the European bond markets or the "Black Hole" mechanism associated with the bankrupting of Italian dairy giant, Parmalat.

Here's a sampling of the insanity taking place inside Citigroup as they spent millions extolling the public to evolve as better human beings and, more subtly, pay no mind to the $7 trillion of investor wealth that's evaporating behind our curtain of kindness.

Citigroup slogan: People with fat wallets are not necessarily more jolly.

Citigroup reality: Sandy Weill, Citigroup's CEO, earned "$785 million in total compensation over five years: more than any chief executive in America, and by a wide margin." Dan Ackman, Forbes, April 26, 2001.

Citigroup slogan: Holding shares shouldn't be your only form of affection. Citigroup reality: "A recently unearthed 'highly confidential' Citigroup memo openly discussed the 'pressures' keeping research analysts from providing investors with honest research. In the 2002 memo, John Hoffman, then global research chief for Citi's Salomon Smith Barney division, advised Salomon Smith Barney CEO Michael Carpenter of the internal view that 'implementation and enforcement of clearer and more accurate ratings is in conflict with certain paramount goals of our firm'-namely, maximizing underwriting fees." Peter Elkind, Fortune, November 23, 2005

The memo was obtained as a Florida law firm attempted to get restitution for what Salomon Smith Barney clients were increasingly holding: worthless shares.

Cumulatively, all of these examples suggest that a strong argument could be made that unfettered greed finds its ultimate expression in systemic corruption which is frequently indistinguishable from insanity.

Please note just how much of this insanity can be placed at the doorstep of self-regulation.

Any of us could be sent to jail for years if we stole a loaf of bread to feed our starving families. Think about that.

Suspicions confirmed

Here are two short post reprinted from Think Progress (2/04/08), which I can't help but believe confirms my opinion of Republican politicians in general.

The first:

Rep. Brown-Waite calls Puerto Ricans 'foreign citizens'.

In a press release last week, Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL) attacked the new economic stimulus bill for sending “hundreds of millions of dollars” to “foreign citizens,” including “residents of Puerto Rico and territories like Guam.” Calling her comments “infuriating and contradictory,” the Puerto Rican House of Representatives demanded “a public apology” today from Brown-Waite for referring to Puerto Ricans as “foreign citizens.” Puerto Ricans were made American citizens in 1917.

And the second:

Sex workers get ‘more business’ at GOP conventions.

This summer’s political conventions are expected to be “a boom in business” for “the sex and adult entertainment industries,” but according to one veteran sex worker who spoke to the Rocky Mountain News, the GOP conventions are “a lot better for the sex workers.” “We get a lot more business,” Carol Leigh told the paper. “I don’t know if they’re just frustrated because of the family values agenda.

There you have it, folks. Even a confirmed skeptic has to admit, with only two dots to connect, these are proof positive that Republicans are indeed stupid f**kers.

Calling "Captain Trips"

Remember "The Stand", Stephen King's great classic from several years ago? A virus, which came to be known as "Captain Trips", escaped from a top-secret germ warfare lab and quickly wiped out the population of the United States except for a few thousand people.The premise was similar to Michael Crichton's thriller movie, "The Andromeda Strain", and both served as cautionary tales about the consequences of "playing" with deadly agents. And both serve as reminders that regardless of the care taken to insure against accidents, it is inevitable that sooner or later, "shit happens".

Keep that in mind as you read this:
San Francisco Chronicle (2/02/08)

Top-secret Livermore anti-germ lab opens

A high-security laboratory where deadly microbes are being grown by scientists seeking defenses against terrorist attacks began operating in Livermore last week without public announcement, and opponents said Friday that they will go to federal court in an effort to close the facility down.

Built inside the closed campus of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the facility has been controversial ever since it was first proposed by homeland security officials more than five years ago. Tri-Valley CARES, the East Bay watchdog group that has long fought nuclear weapons research there, has led the fight against it with protests and legal actions.

The facility is known as a Biosafety-level 3 laboratory where highly trained workers, high-tech airlocks and extremely rigorous safety measures are required by federal rules in order to contain any of more than 40 potentially lethal disease-causing bacteria, viruses and fungi stored inside.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, an agency of the Energy Department, which oversees the Livermore site, announced Monday only that it had "granted approval" for Livermore to begin operating its new biosafety laboratory.

But the announcement did not disclose that the facility had already opened and that its scientists had begun working there the previous Friday - a fact that immediately outraged the lab's opponents.

Robert Schwartz, the staff attorney for Tri-Valley CARES, said he will file suit in federal District Court next week to shut down the facility on the grounds that the final environmental impact statement published by the lab's oversight agency was inadequate and that another supporting document was released without public hearings in violation of the Energy Department's own rules.

In October, the Ninth District Court of Appeals in San Francisco had overruled an earlier federal court decision in support of the operation of the Livermore facility. The appeals court required officials to prepare a new environmental statement, including an assessment of the possibility that a suicide attack by terrorists could breach the facility's walls and allow killer germs to spread beyond the lab.

In response, the security agency filed a document that said such an attack would be "highly unlikely," and that it "found no significant impact" on the public or the environment from operations at the germ research facility.

A spokesman for the Energy Department's nuclear security agency at Livermore told The Chronicle that its office manager approved the final revised environmental documents on Jan. 25, and that scientists began work at the lab the same day.

Asked why the press release on Monday did not disclose that the facility was already operating, the spokesman said "because we needed the time to physically copy the documents and place them in the public reading rooms as well as post them on the Web."

Eric Gard, director of the new facility, said Friday his staff is now growing live cultures of many disease-causing organisms that could be used by terrorists in enemy biological warfare attacks and for which laboratory scientists will seek to develop countermeasures. Understanding the phenomenon of resistance to antibiotics is a high priority, he said.

Among the microbes held in the laboratory are bacteria that cause such highly dangerous and often deadly diseases as bubonic plague, anthrax, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Q fever, tularemia and brucellosis or undulant fever, Gard said.

But scientists in his lab will also be researching other microbes unlikely to be used in terror attacks and that pose such major public health problems as tuberculosis, flu, and SARS, the severe acute respiratory syndrome that proved so deadly among elderly people in China, he said.

The scientists are barred by federal rules from conducting any research using germs for "potentially offensive use or purposes," nor for the production of any bio-warfare weapons, according to the Energy Department.

Continuing its opposition to the Livermore facility by Tri-valley CARES, Marylia Kelley, the organization's executive director, charged in a statement Friday that the lab and its sponsors "are jeopardizing the health and safety of the local community and the surrounding Bay Area." Live anthrax germs grown in the lab and released into the air from the facility, even if it were only "lightly damaged" in a terrorist attack, for example, "could result in up to 9,000 deaths, depending on wind patterns," Kelley maintained.

Despite all the laws, rules, and regulations, and despite the tremendous dangers inherent in such research, the lab opened anyway, ostensibly to find defenses against biological attacks.

They're prohibited for doing any research that could lead to the manufacture of weapons. Do for believe for a second that laws would stop them? This government has ignored every law on the books for the last seven years--every law that would put a check on their agenda, and this will be no different.

Our government has once again put us in peril with aggressive policies disguised as "Homeland Security" issues. Isn't it about time to make them stop?

Helping Bush with FOIA requests

A letter to President Bush--

Dear Mr. President:
I understand that your Executive branch has been having serious difficulties filling FOIA document requests.

I am sure that this is causing you some distress, as it is commonly known that the free flow of information through the Freedom of Information Act is one of your highest priorities, so am offering an idea on how FOIA requests can be handled in a more expeditious manner.

In a word, Mr. President--consolidate!-- the system you now use is simply too cumbersome , with documents hidden on thousands of different computers, and timely retrieval is almost impossible.

I, for example, find it necessary to maintain only one file, of less than one terabyte, with a few thousand carefully cross-referenced sub-files which allows for instantaneous retrieval of any documents I wish to view, simply by entering a key word. I named the master file "High Crimes and Misdemeanors of the Bush Administration".

To illustrate how this simplified system can be used for FOIA requests, I pulled up at random a six page document ( an opinion piece with 250 million co-signers), converted it easily to a FOIA format, and am sending it along for your perusal. What follows is exactly what someone requesting this document would see, and it only took a minute.

"What We Think of President Bush"

We, the undersigned, being concerned about the future of our democracy, do hereby declare that George W. Bush has committed [redacted] acts, and as irrefutable evidence offer [5 pages redacted]

For his deeds, we recommend [redacted], since [redacted] is too good for the likes of him. [redacted]

In closing, we say unanimously "[redacted], and the horse you rode in on!"

(Names withheld for personal security reasons)

Hope this helps, Mr. President. Let me know if I can be of further service.

Your faithful constituent

Hillary sends a message

It seems like ages ago now since Dennis Kucinich was forced from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He was silenced by the media and their corporate controllers for speaking in clear terms about the need for real social reform in this country--programs that would provide real benefit to the citizens--like health care reform. Kucinich, who along with Mike Gravel were/are the only populists in the race, was very clear that the only solution to the health care crisis in this country would be to institute a universal single-payer government-run system that would eliminate the enormous profits of the pharmaceutical companies and health insurers. And because of positions like that, he is no longer around to be heard.

You'll notice, however, that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are still here, vying for the nomination with the blessing of big business, at least in part because they have not espoused any solution to our broken health system that addresses the real cause of the problem. Both candidates have put forth their own versions of a fix, but each promises to be only a sop to the public, as they pointedly insist that the root causes of the problem are left intact. Profit, in the industry that determines who dies because they can't afford to pay what is required to live, shall not be denied.

Clinton has been talking the populist talk all along the campaign trail, trying to convince people that she is the best qualified to find real, meaningful solutions to the problems that confront our country today, and she has met with some success, despite occasionally having to defend her voting record.

Obama has made tremendous inroads into Clinton's lead recently, as most of the supporters of John Edwards, a quasi-populist at least, seem now to be gravitating toward Obama.

You'd think that Clinton, feeling the heat from the suddenly close race, would take particular care to avoid alienating the lower income and working class Democratic base, but this makes you wonder: excerpted from Yahoo News (2/03/08)--

In a day dominated by familiar stump speeches, Hillary Clinton made news by saying she might allow workers' wages to be garnisheed if they refuse to buy health insurance. She has criticized Obama for pushing a health plan that she says would not require universal coverage.

Pressed on how she would enforce her mandate, Clinton said: "I think there are a number of mechanisms" that are possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment."

She said such measures would apply only to workers who can afford health coverage but refuse to buy it, which puts undue pressure on hospitals and emergency rooms. Under her plan, she said, health care "will be affordable for everyone" because she would limit premium payments "to a low percent of your income."

Obama has said he would require parents to buy health insurance for children, and possibly fine them if they refused. But he would not insist that all adults buy insurance.

I hope you caught that. She said she would consider garnisheeing wages of anyone who didn't buy in to her health insurance plan, if it determined they could afford it. That is exactly the wrong thing to say to millions of lower income wage-earners struggling to make ends meet.

Perfect--if you can't baffle 'em with bullshit, threaten to hit 'em where it hurts the most. That'll make you a lot of friends when you need them the most.

And just wondering, what specific criteria will be used to make the decision on affordability, and who will make the determination? The insurance companies? Will they also be granted authority to initiate the garnishment actions in order to collect their premiums?

Of course none of these questions would even be necessary if Kucinich's program was brought back into play. It should be the main plank of the Democratic platform, but that would require standing up for the people against the establishment, so you can forget it.

Anyway, I think that Clinton's comments really were a message to conservatives that she's a friend of big business and they don't have anything to worry about if she wins the nomination. We'll see if that bites her in the ass.

Another "shocker" from Taser International

Taser International has announced that it will offer a pump-action Taser shotgun that will allow people to be "subdued" from a distance of 65 feet.

This latest addition to their product line gives police and other law enforcement officers the ability to safely electrocute their victims from far enough away that they won't be emotionally stressed by hearing the agonized screams of people writhing helplessly on the ground.

The law enforcement community is sure to hail the introduction of this new weapon to an ever-growing arsenal of "humane" alternatives to guns, which includes the old standby tear gas as well as the new "vomit inducing flashlight".

Additionally, the shotgun Taser may fit neatly into the critical needs of the U.S. Forest Service, which will soon find itself hard-pressed to defend our national parks.

Taser, for their part, seems to be following the standard business model. They created their niche, and are expanding it incrementally by continually introducing "new and improved" versions of their original product. It's the way good business is done in America.

With that in mind, we can expect to see, in succession:
1. Darts filled with depleted uranium, able to pierce the heaviest clothing and the toughest hide.
2. Foot long darts for sure stopping power in case the "electric don't work".
3. Elimination of the wires because they're "too limiting".
4. Exploding darts.
5. Night vision capabilities.
6. Sniper scopes.

Remember how this all started? The Taser was introduced as a non-lethal means by which police officers could subdue mentally impaired, irrational people in situations where they posed a danger to themselves or others and who could not be calmed down by negotiation. It sure seemed like a good idea at the time, didn't it? Except it didn't stay restricted to those situations for which it was intended.

It was only a short time before the Taser was distributed to entire police departments with guidelines, of course, outlining when it could be used, but it quickly became the weapon of choice to be used in any situation where an officer simply would not allow anyone to question his authority. With the "non-lethal" option of forcing compliance in hand, the need for restraint disappeared, as did the need for a reasoned response to a perceived threat.

Couple that with the fear-mongering of the Bush government, which results in everyone being viewed as an enemy, police agencies no longer see the people they encounter as human beings, and no longer have qualms about using excessive force. They have become as paranoid as the rest of the population, and thus have become the very people on which the Taser was originally intended to be used.

And make no mistake, the proliferation of these types of weapons, and the "improved" capabilities of them, means that they are no longer intended for their original stated use. It is clear beyond doubt that they are to be used for "crowd control", to quell any peaceful demonstration or protest, by any group with a grievance, for any reason our government chooses.

Your right to assemble, your right to air grievances, and your right to free speech are being ground to dust under the boots of the thugs now in control of our country.

The money train rolls on

Exxon made $40.6 billion in 2007, on sales of $404 billion.
Chevron earned $18.7 billion
Shell made $31 billion

Excerpts from NYT article (2/01/08)

"By any measure, Exxon Mobil’s performance last year was a blowout.The company reported Friday that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices. The company’s sales, more than $404 billion, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries.Exxon Mobil earned more than $1,287 of profit for every second of 2007."...."Like most oil companies, Exxon benefited from a near doubling of oil prices, as well as higher demand for gasoline last year. Crude oil prices rose from a low of around $50 a barrel in early 2007 to almost $100 by the end of the year — the biggest jump in oil prices in any one year."..."Oil companies have all reported strong profits in recent days. Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, said Friday that its profits rose 9 percent to $18.7 billion last year; Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday reported net income for 2007 of $31 billion, up 23 percent and the largest figure ever for a British company."..."Given the darkening prospects for the American economy, which may be headed toward a recession, some analysts said oil company profits might soon reach a peak. Oil prices could fall this year if an economic slowdown reduces energy consumption in the United States, the world’s biggest oil consumer."..."Exxon also spent a total of $35.6 billion for share buybacks and dividends last year, $3 billion more than in 2006.Separately, the OPEC cartel, which was meeting in Vienna on Friday, decided to leave its production levels unchanged, resisting pressure from developing nations to pump more oil into the global economy.The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is set to meet again next month, and the cartel signaled it would be ready to cut production then to make up for a seasonal slowdown in demand in the second quarter. OPEC’s actions mean the cartel is determined to keep prices from falling below $80 a barrel, according to energy experts."...

And why should we applaud Exxon for the huge profits they have earned? Because without them, they would not be in a position to fund many important programs, such as this:

Global Warming Denier Group Funded By Big Oil Hosting Climate Change Denial Conference

From March 2-4, right-wing climate-denier group The Heartland Institute will host what it calls a ‘Climate Skeptics’ Conference. Heartland President Joseph Blast boasted that his conference would feature climate change deniers: “This is their chance to speak out.” The online poster for the conference declares, “Global Warming is not a crisis!”

Heartland’s environmental stance is completely out of the mainstream. The debate over human contribution to global warming is long over. Even as all three top GOP presidential candidates recently endorsed California’s effort to reduce auto greenhouse gas emissions, Heartland ridiculed the idea, calling California and its allies “environmental extremists.”

Heartland’s extreme anti-environmentalism no doubt spawns from its supporters. Between 1998 and 2005, oil giant ExxonMobil gave nearly $800,000 to Heartland. The group’s Board of Directors also explains the group’s climate change denials:

– Thomas Walton is the Director of Economic Policy at General Motors.

–James L. Johnston is a former senior economist for oil company Amoco Corporation.

–Walter F. Buchholtz is a former member of Heartland’s board of directors and worked as ExxonMobil’s Senior Issues Advisor.

–James M. Taylor is editor of Heartland’s weekly Environment & Climate News and wrote an op-ed criticizing Gore’s “Assault On Reason” insisting that “global warming threats they should not be deliberately exaggerated as a means of building support for a desired political position.”

RealClimate quips, “Normal scientific conferences have the goal of discussing ideas and data in order to advance scientific understanding. Not this one.”

OPEC, for it's part, is determined not to let the price of crude oil fall below $80/bbl. This of, course will protect the enormous profits of the OPEC members as well as Exxon, Shell and the rest.

President Bush won't mind, he likes the idea of excessive profits and, despite the show of concern he put on recently when he begged the Saudis to cut the price of oil, knows full well why it won't happen.

And so the money train rolls on, despite the consequences for the rest of us, and won't stop until every last dollar of profit is squeezed out of the world economies by the energy producers. And this will be so regardless of who becomes our next President, because even if he or she wanted to switch the money train to a siding, it won't be permitted by the real rulers of this country.

UPDATE (2/04/08) : Look what showed up today at Huffington Post.

Avert your eyes and keep walking

This is absolutely chilling.

From AP News via Raw Story (2/01/08)

NYC subways adding dogs, armed officers

Teams of Armed Officers, Bomb-Sniffing Dogs Being Added to New York City Subways

Teams of police officers armed with submachine guns and bomb-sniffing dogs will soon be patrolling the busiest parts of New York City subways as part of a major increase in regional security funding.

The subway initiative is one use of the $151.2 million in new grant money from the Department of Homeland Security to transit systems in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. Last year, they received $98 million.

Explaining the increase, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said law enforcement officials in the three states "have to deal with vulnerabilities and threats in this region that are really second to none."

New York's subways have long been considered a potential terror target; police already randomly check riders' bags, and the tunnels and ventilation systems are searched for explosives. Hidden cameras register any suspicious action.

Officials said the daily patrols will begin within three weeks. The teams of six police and a dog will circulate on platforms and trains, focusing on busy stations such as Grand Central Terminal, Penn Station and Herald Square.

"You'll see officers with automatic weapons, you will see additional bomb-sniffing dogs funded by this program," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said after the news conference with Chertoff and Gov. Eliot Spitzer where the security grants were announced.

Similar police units have patrolled above ground at landmarks such as Wall Street and the Empire State Building as part of the New York Police Department's security efforts since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Chertoff said the new security grants would be divided to address the most significant vulnerabilities, as identified by federal and regional law-enforcement and anti-terrorism authorities.

Their collaboration to pinpoint security risks and take action is "a model for the entire country," Chertoff said.

Officials didn't specify how much of the new grant money would fund the subway initiative.

How many people will be attacked and killed now because they didn't "look right" or didn't hear the order to "stop" or didn't have their identification papers when ordered to produce them? How many citizens will now go about their day in mortal fear that they will come to the attention of a police officer toting a submachine gun, or be standing in the line of fire of some deaf guy who keeps on walking, unaware he is about to be shot to protect the HOMELAND?

This is what Homeland Security is all about--spreading fear and terrorizing the population into cowed silence.

Our government has become exactly what we have been taught to fear most--terrorists who prey on the innocent.

"If you've got it--flaunt it!"

Marin County is the wealthiest county, by far, in the state of California. Its residents are strongly Republican, and by no coincidence, have a high percentage of residents who derive their income from something other than wages (read "work").

But, not content to sit back smugly and enjoy their wealth, they occasionally feel the need to "rub our noses" in it. You know--show the rest of us what they're made of. Sometimes in a very conspicuous way.

From NBC11.com (2/1/08)

MARTINEZ, Calif. -- The California Department of Fish and Game has confirmed to NBC11 that a 2.7 million gallon sewage spill has been stopped from leaking further.

Officials with the department said the clean-up operation had been finished by 10:30 a.m. This was after millions of gallons had already flowed into the bay.

State Office Of Emergency Services announced Friday that the partially-treated sewage had spilled along the Marin County shoreline.Marin County officials say the spill occurred when rainwater overwhelmed the South Marin Sanitation District's water treatment plant and an emergency alarm failed to alert operators. The facility is located at 450 Sycamore Avenue in Mill Valley.

The State Office of Emergency Services said it began alerting Bay Area cities and counties Friday morning.Chopper11 flew over Richardson Bay and showed a slick of what appeared to be oil in the water.The spill happened Thursday night between 5:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. -- and was reported shortly after 11 p.m.Both the California State Water Resources Control Board and the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board have been actively involved in this incident and are monitoring water quality in the Bay, a statement from the office said.

Sanitation officials said none of the spill contained chlorine used to treat sewage and the communities of Mill Valley, Sausalito, Tiburon and Belvedere were notified of the spill.

googlemaps

There have been no reports of wildlife affected by the spill, according to Marin County sheriff's Lt. Doug Pittman.The public is being advised not to come in contact with the water, Pittman said.Officials have posted signs warning of possible contamination at beaches and waterfronts along Richardson Bay.The San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board reported that commercial fishing was unaffected by the spill and that it is safe to swim in Contra Costa County waters.The spill has not affected the Golden Gate Ferry system, spokeswoman Mary Currie said.

Environmental groups are outraged. A spokesman is quoted as saying "This is over the top even for them. It's the most outrageous display of effluence I've ever seen!".

Sunday boredom fighter

It's Friday, I'm lazy, and I'm overstocked on things to post, so I'm gonna help us both out--I get to reduce my inventory and you have something to read on Sunday while waiting for commercial breaks in the Super Bowl game.

Please note the brilliant segues.

Senators Pat Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) both accuse the Bush crime family of trying to eliminate the FOIA office, which is responsible for complying with citizen requests for government documents. With no impeachment in sight though, it doesn't matter much what they think, does it?They won't do squat.

And because they won't take the time away from the"nations business"to actually save the nation, Arlen Spector has time to to devote to browbeating the NFL over something really important.

In the meantime, Attorney General Mukasey screwed up at a senate hearing and admitted that George Bush would have been the "go to guy" to authorize waterboarding. (h/t-Progressive Daily Beacon) Again, so what? They've all got a free pass.

So, over at "Neocon Central", John Bolton has come up with yet another absurd slander, claiming the Mullahs in Iran want a Democratic President to win the election because they'll be more "pliable". Now there are only two ways Bolton could get that information--NSA wiretaps or diplomatic back-channels never closed after the Iran-Contra scandal( smart money is on the latter--the NSA sucks when it matters) Or, he's just full of shit as usual.

Speaking of Iran, everyone knows by now that Bush is determined to start a war with Iran, and has consistently painted Iran as the "greatest threat" in the world, but this essay might put his statements in their proper light--all lies.

Furthermore, it would appear that the new "greatest threat", at least to the U.S., may not be Iran at all, but Brazil! Carnival is getting underway, that annual revel celebrating wanton immorality (Jenna--you listening? Maybe you can hitch a ride on some televangelists jet--they're all heading down on to "spread the word". And some legs).

But that's only the "moral" threat--the real one--the one that could lead to a preemptive nuclear strike-- is this --Brazil is embarking on a program to add a nuclear submarine to its fleet! The implications are staggering. The clear threat to the security of the U.S. screams for a decisive response of the type that only George Bush isn't afraid to make. Of course, Brazil won't have its sub for years (about when Iran could pose a threat), but not attacking now, before the threat is real, is the worst sort of folly (at least if you apply Bush's Iran arguments). However, if Bush does wait to attack, the Mach 7 electromagnetic railgun under development may be ready for deployment, to blast that Portuguese (speaking) Man o' War out of the water before it can unleash death and destruction on our peace loving nation.

OK, there's no way I can segue into the rest of these gems, so it's "hopscotch" from here--

The Democrats are raising a lot more campaign cash than the Republicans, and that's a good thing, but this, and read it carefully, is a bad thing.

Here are a few articles shedding light on how our "populist" ex-President has been spending his time since leaving the White House. I will call them "The Making of a Profit" and "Hobnobbing With the Rich and Slimy". Can't wait to see him as First Lady.

And to close the show, ladies and gentlemen, I offer this, which is disturbing but rife with possibilities. If they can get away with this crap, then by God, so can we! Just think about it.

Dear Hillary, it's time to reap what you've sown

MoveOn.org has just endorsed Barack Obama. The endorsement was prompted by a poll of their 3.5 million members, who broke for Obama by 70%-30%. Here is their press release:

For Immediate Release: Friday, February 1, 2008

MoveOn Endorsement Throws Progressive Weight
Behind Barack Obama

3.2 Million Members Nationwide Mobilize to Get Out the Progressive Vote for Senator Obama

Group Has Over 1.7 Million Members In Super Tuesday States

In a resounding vote today, MoveOn.org Political Action's members nationwide voted to endorse Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President. The group, with 3.2 million members nationwide and over 1.7 million members in Super Tuesday states, will immediately begin to mobilize on behalf of Senator Obama. The vote favored Senator Obama to Senator Clinton by 70.4% to 29.6%.

Senator Obama accepted the endorsement stating:

"In just a few years, the members of MoveOn have once again demonstrated that real change comes not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up. From their principled opposition to the Iraq war - a war I also opposed from the start - to their strong support for a number of progressive causes, MoveOn shows what Americans can achieve when we come together in a grassroots movement for change. I thank them for their support and look forward to working with their members in the weeks and months ahead."

Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org's Executive Director, issued the following statement on the group's endorsement:

"Our members' endorsement of Senator Obama is a clear call for a new America at this critical moment in history. Seven years of the disastrous policies of the Bush Administration have left the country desperate for change. We need a President who will bring to bear the strong leadership and vision required to end the war in Iraq, provide health care to every American, deal with our climate crisis, and restore America's standing in the world. The enormity of the challenges require someone who knows how to inspire millions to get involved to change the direction of our country, and someone who will be willing to change business as usual in Washington. Senator Barack Obama has proved he can and will be that President.

"With 3.2 million members nationwide and over 1.7 million members in states that vote next Tuesday, we'll be able to immediately jump into action in support of Senator Obama's candidacy. We've learned that the key to achieving change in Washington without compromising core values is having a galvanized electorate to back you up. And Barack Obama has our members 'fired up and ready to go' on that front.

"We congratulate Sens. Clinton, Dodd and Biden, former Senator Edwards, Governor Richardson, Congressman Kucinich and former Senator Gravel on running tremendous campaigns. We thank them for their contributions to the important debate that has gripped our nation and for their ongoing engagement with our members. We're looking forward to working together to bring progressive values to the nation's capitol and to end this disastrous war in Iraq. MoveOn members are committed to putting a Democrat in the White House in 2008 and ushering in a new era of progressive values no matter who wins the nomination."

MoveOn members' comments in the vote reflect the reasons they support Senator Obama:

"Obama's grassroots organizing experience and unifying message combine to show he will work for working people and speak to a broad cross section of the American public. We need this," said Linda Blong of Penngrove, CA.

"There are defining moments in our nation's political history and this is one of them. Barack Obama appeals to the very BEST of the American Spirit," said Estina Baker, Hackensack, NJ

"Barack Obama represents CHANGE in so many levels. He brings HOPE that America can, again, be respected by the rest of the world and that Americans can be proud, again, of our leaders!" Isabelle Mollien, Denver, CO

"Obama has the ability to draw people to him, to energize people who generally don't vote, to create an atmosphere of long-overdue possibility around himself and what he could bring to the office. It is my belief that he can re-establish the lost connection between the American people and their leader, and put our country back on course to be a positive force in the world." Matthew Smith in Columbus, OH

MoveOn's endorsement means a fresh infusion of people-power for Obama in the critical days before Super Tuesday. MoveOn will immediately connect thousands of progressive activists into the Obama GOTV volunteer operation. It will also use the same cutting-edge computer-based phone program that made 7 million GOTV calls for Democrats in 2006 to allow MoveOn members to call other MoveOn members in Feb. 5 states and encourage them to vote for Obama.

Today's endorsement is the first time MoveOn.org has endorsed a candidate for President in the Democratic primary. Over the past year, MoveOn surveyed a rotating sample of 30,000 members each week to determine their membership's preference in the Democratic presidential primary. For months, MoveOn members were divided among many candidates -- as many waited to see who would take bold progressive positions on the issues. As the primary race has gained momentum, the polling showed a consensus forming and, with Senator John Edward's withdrawal from the race, members made their decision in favor of Senator Obama. The vote took place from Thursday, January 31st to Friday, February 1st.

###

You can take this as a sign that Barack Obama is the clear choice to save America, but I see it more as a repudiation of Hillary Clinton's record. Given what we know about Clinton-- her voting record, her refusal to shy away from supporting the interests of "big business, and the level to which her campaign has sunk attempting to smear Obama-- it's clear that she is a "known" we don't want to see in the White House if there's another choice. As much as anything, it's a character issue, and she's lagging badly in that race.

With both Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards having been forced from the race, progressives are left with Obama by default, as the "Great White Hope" to turn our country away from the brink of the abyss.

This is a case of supporting the "devil you don't know", but if you want to know a little more about the devil you do know, read this. Ann Coulter, of all people, flatly stated that if John McCain were the Republican nominee, she would actively campaign for Hillary Clinton, because she sees Clinton as more in tune with conservative values.

Coulter is an attention-grabbing conservative whore given to outrageous statements, and it's clear that she is bashing McCain, but for her to claim Clinton is more likely to govern the way conservatives want, is indeed "damning with faint praise". That's the way most progressives see Clinton, too.

So here's what we have --Barack "Kennedy Hope" Obama or Hillary "Bush Lite" Clinton-- and now you know why.

Rove on schedule--Dems,too

Karl Rove, who resigned last August as George Bush's political advisor, is following the schedule I predicted for him, here.

I said then that it wouldn't be long before he started doing analysis for Fox News, and guess what? Think Progress reports that Rove will be joining Fox as an "on-air" contributor through the "Super Tuesday" primaries.

I am at risk of doing serious injury to myself from patting myself on the back for my prescient observation.

I had also stated that Rove's real work would be advising the Democratic Leadership Council in ways to permanently fracture the Democratic party, suck up money from the really big donors, help with voter suppression tactics, and generally assist the total takeover of the political process by the Republican party and big business.

Look at what the Democrats have done so far this election cycle, including but not limited to: alienated Dem voters of two whole states (Florida and Michigan), effectively barring them from participating at the nominating convention, because their primaries were too early; didn't lift a finger to protest when the only true populist in the race, Dennis Kucinich, was shut out of several debates at the whim of the sponsoring networks; are raking in money hand-over-fist from the biggest special-interest donors they can sell out to; are backing all the "blue dog" Dems up for re-election; and are giving in to Bush on every legal and legislative front, to blur any distinction that voters might make between the two parties.

Considering that the top Democrats are doing their best to give the Republicans a good chance at retaining the Presidency, I'd have to say that Rove is right on schedule there, too.

It bothers me that I'm always right.

Hell on Earth is for the rest of us.

The headlines are full of the the looming "economic disaster" caused in part by the sub-prime lending fraud--"The Sky is Falling!","Markets in Turmoil"--but don't be fooled. It's not our economy they're talking about, but their economy.

Their economy is the economy of the bankers, financiers, hedge funds and investment firms, and their economy isn't suffering any more than a self-induced muscle spasm, which will disappear with a nice "money massage" from our government.

Our economy is the real disaster. Our economy is the one in which the rest of us live-- the one with decreasing jobs, increasing unemployment, higher costs for every basic necessity-food, energy and health care. The one will lowering income and a higher debt burden. The one with lowering educational standards and increasing hunger and homelessness. The one with a collapsing infrastructure and environmental degradation. Our economy is the one that heading into a death spiral, taking our quality of life and hopes for the future along with it, with little hope of recovery because the occasional bones thrown our way have already had the marrow sucked out. The one that is a stressful Hell on Earth for those struggling to cope.

And our economy, the one not mentioned in the headlines, is precisely the one created by their economy.

But there is no Hell on Earth awaiting these financiers and tycoons. It's a place they'll never visit--it's just an unimportant by-product of their activities--a place for the little people to stay, out of the way while the rich accumulate uncountable wealth. They don't care about their actions because they are immune to the consequences. There is no Hell on Earth for these people, because there is no law enforced, no governance, no check on their power and control. When their frauds and predations reach a crisis point (as now) and begin to affect their personal wealth, they have only to turn to the government(which they control) to give them enough tax breaks to ease their discomfort, and to the Federal Reserve(which they control) to increase the money supply to protect their personal fortunes, and to the Supreme Court (which they control) to protect them against any legal liability for the Hell on Earth they created for the rest of us.

The closest any of them will get to Hell on Earth will be to view it from afar, like Bush flying over New Orleans looking for business opportunities.

Congressional theocracy pushers still at it

This is a battle that may never end. The quasi-religious leaders in this country who are relentless in their efforts to deny historical truths by claiming that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation, are using their right-wing friends in Congress to legitimize their false claims. These legislators, unmindful of the oaths they took to uphold and defend the Constitution, have been pushing a series of thinly-disguised resolutions to force our lawmakers on record to make it seem as if they are in agreement that we are a Christian nation.

For God only knows what reason, they have met with some success, and are seizing on those successes to redouble their efforts. They will not stop unless and until they are so soundly rebuked that they dare not continue. But until then......

Here is a post reprinted from Crooks and Liars (1/21/08) describing the latest attempt in their quest to establish a national religion, with links you should follow for more background.

Last December, Republicans in Congress introduced a resolution noting the significance of Christmas and the Christian faith, which eventually passed, blurring the lines between church and state — and they’re at it again, attempting to rewrite American history and further the lie that America is a Christian nation.

Via Secular Coalition for America:

Jan. 11 - Flush with last year’s success in passing H.Res. 847, “Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian Faith,” Christian nationalists — those who would have the United States be governed as a Christian theocracy — are pushing H.Res. 888, another resolution which promotes a false and distorted Christian nation reinterpretation of our history. Generally, we do not take action regarding resolutions because they are ceremonial in nature and express the non-binding opinion of one chamber. They do not have the force of law. Read on…

The resolution, which is supported by the likes of Reps Patrick McHenry, John Doolittle and Mean Jean Schmidt, calls for an “American Religious History Week” and rejects any attempt to remove religious messages or teachings from our public buildings and educational resources. There can be no doubt that during an election year, Reps voting against the resolution will be labeled anti-religion, but we can’t let them be bullied into signing this flawed resolution that goes against the very principles our country was founded on. Contact your Representatives and tell them to say no to H. Res. 888, (corrected) which further blurs the separation between church and state.

This simply cannot be permitted to continue. The danger to our democracy from these insidious attacks is simply too great.

Mike Gravel spoke out recently (the only presidential candidate to do so), generally on this topic, and spoke in a wonderfully blunt, candid and honest way about the dangers of "creationism" and correctly said that efforts to legislate morality indicated a failure of religion to teach morality . The following is from Wired.com (1/27/08) Video link to Gravel here.

While the rest of the raft of presidential candidates are busily proclaiming their firm belief in a Christian God, former Alaska senator Mike Gravel has recorded a delightfully frank denouncement of religion in politics.

The quirky Democratic presidential candidate says what's obvious to any student of history: That aligning specific religious views with politics is a dangerous exercise.

"I am deeply insulted that in some areas that not only is evolution is shunned but efforts are made to substitute it with creationism and all other kinds of teachings, which corrupt our youth," he says in a YouTube video recorded on Saturday. "There’s no foundation for this. I think it’s unfortunate. We’re regressing in these areas, and so I think we have responsibility to our children to provide them with the greatest scientific information available to all of us, and that begins with respect to evolution."

Gravel goes on to talk about morality, and how trying to legislate morality reflects a failure of the religious community.

Clearly pointing to former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican who recently suggested that we ought to amend the constitution to be brought in line with "God's standards," Gravel said: "I ... really exhort as public policy that we concentrate on keeping religion out of politics, and keeping a very, very strong separation between church and state. Otherwise you will take the oppressive nature of the state and marry it with the oppressive nature of religion, and that is the ultimate oppression of human beings."

I have never heard a public figure make comments as straightforward as these on this subject. Mike Gravel should be applauded for speaking out so clearly.

National Vote--pros and more pros

Progressive States Network (please sign up for their e-newsletter) believes that positive change in this country is best achieved at the state, rather than the national, level, and they have been doing a tremendous job attempting to get important legislation passed in state legislatures across the nation.

They also do excellent analytical work, designed to both educate the electorate and bolster their chances of legislative success.

Here is a link to their compelling analysis which describes all of the reasons why Presidential elections should be decided on the national popular vote rather than the electoral college. They also describe an initiative introduced in 47 state legislatures (and passed by two, so far), which would require that states electors give their votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote.

This plan, if enacted, would correct many of the ills of our present system.

Please--get on this bandwagon with your full support. Call your state reps and senators, write the papers, tell your friends--all of it. This is too important to ignore.

Why Bush laughs

George Bush is comfortable enough to crack hilarious jokes concerning his illegal war and the dismantling of our democracy. His humor is legendary, and his audiences roll in the aisles at his wit, laughing uproariously while he make light of the very things for which he should be impeached.

These will serve as examples: one new, and one older (video). Be sure to check out the link to the Alfalfa Club (can we join?). And for more on paper shredding, see this.

Former Representative Elizabeth Holtzman wrote an op-ed for the Philadelphia Inquirer (1/27/08), laying out (again) the reasons why Bush and Cheney should be impeached, and dismantles all of the reasons given why it isn't practical. Nothing new there, except it's a useful summary of things we already know.

Congressmen Dennis Kucinich and Robert Wexler have been laboring mightily to bring an impeachment resolution on Cheney to the House floor, but will never succeed because Nancy Pelosi, for reasons she will never tell, has steadfastly refused to allow it. I would love to know what kind of Faustian bargain she struck. Kucinich is also planning to introduce an impeachment resolution against Bush prior to his last State of the Union address, which will also go nowhere. Not only Pelosi, but other Democrats like Jerrold Nadler are blocking the efforts of Wexler and Kucinich.

Despite the clear evidence of numerous impeachable offenses, despite innumerable hearings in the House and Senate and lies and stonewalling at every turn, despite threats of contempt citations, nothing happens. It's all theater, and the decision to do nothing was made long ago in a place far away from the instructions in our Constitution and the will of the American people. It's so bad that it's pointless to worry about any more damned hearings. I guarantee you nothing will come of them.

So Bush laughs and jokes contentedly in full knowledge that he has a free pass. Neither he nor Cheney will ever be called to account for their treasonous acts.

And so the Bush starship "Illegal Enterprise" goes where no man in America has gone before--into a bankrupt country with no freedoms and citizen slaves--manned by helpful Democrats enjoying the ride.

Government for the people? No, definitely not.

Framing for the dupes

I've had this for almost two weeks, and every time I looked at it, didn't know if I should laugh or cry.Well, I finally figured it out--now when I see it, I'm pissed.

Re-printed from Think Progress (1/16/08)

Bachmann: I’m ‘Proud’ That ‘We Have People Working Two Jobs’ And ‘Longer Hours’

Topping Congress’s agenda as it returns this week is a plan to “jump-start the economy and try to shorten the slowdown that many economists say has already begun to take hold.”

Today, Rep. Eric Cantor (VA), the chief deputy Republican whip in the House, unveiled his proposal to stimulate the economy. His legislation — the so-called Middle Class Job Protection Act — does nothing for the middle class. Instead, it reduces the corporate tax rate by 28 percent.

At a press conference today unveiling the stimulus proposal, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) justified the conservative plan to give tax breaks to corporations — instead of working Americans — by arguing that people actually like working long hours:

I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota. We’re the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs.

Bachmann’s version of the American Dream is apparently working two full-time jobs and struggling to get by.

Yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that corporate tax cuts, such as the one proposed by Cantor, “may be less cost-effective in the short term” and less effective than a stimulus plan consisting of “tax rebates, extended unemployment benefits and a temporary increase in food stamps.”

Bachmann may be taking her cues from her bosom buddy President Bush, who on Feb. 4, 2005, told a divorced mother of three: “You work three jobs? … Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.”

The name of the bill, The Middle Class Job Protection Act, is another masterpiece of Republican naming and framing. They have a gift for naming legislation to imply that it is intended to do the exact opposite of what it really does. The Help America Vote Act flies to mind as another example. The hypocrisy is infuriating, because it is so hard to see through for some people, who will assume that the Republicans are helping them and will unthinkingly support everything they do. These same dupes and gulls would support a Republican bill called "The Taking Care of Our Elderly Act"even if it called for the summary execution of everyone over 65 (unless they're rich).

The other thing that gets to me, aside from the corporate giveaway, is the absurd statement by that ditz from Minnesota. Do you know anybody-- anybody at all-- that likes to work two jobs, or three, to make ends meet? Do you know anyone in that situation that thinks it's a good thing? And yet the Republican base, glassy-eyed and slack-jawed, will nod robotically in agreement with her without giving it a thought. They will never consider why it should be necessary to work longer and longer hours to scrape by, and that's the most disheartening thing of all.

McDonalds helps cops nab Florida granny

Thanks to alert employees of a McDonalds in Clearwater, Florida, police were able to remove a potential terrorist from the streets for a short while, until she was released by a liberal judge or somebody. They didn't even have time to use any "enhanced interrogation techniques"to get a confession.

Here are the stunning details as reported by Clearwater's Local6.com (1/21/08)

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- A 75-year-old woman was arrested at a Clearwater McDonald's drive-thru, because police say she wouldn't pull her car forward.

Authorities said Jean Merola, a grandmother of eight, was arrested for disorderly conduct after she refused an officer's orders to move her car while she waited for the coffee and fries she ordered at the drive-through window. Merola said the McDonald's employees told her to wait there for her food. Merola was handcuffed behind her back and put in the cruiser. Another officer arrived and took her to the Pinellas County Jail . Merola said she was searched, photographed and fingerprinted. Jail records show she was released about 90 minutes later on her own recognizance.

Just her good luck she escaped back into obscurity before the Guantamo shuttle could get there. This is another case of a heavy-handed response to an incident that shouldn't have been an incident, except for the complete lack of brains and tact by the McDonalds employees. Or maybe I'm wrong. It's possible that someone went out to talk to her, but when they saw she was elderly, decided to call in law enforcement, fearing that if she actually got her order she might spill her coffee in her lap.

In truth, it demonstrates the damage the pervasive "fear culture" does to innocent people. And it is becoming more and more common to hear of similar incidents of overreaction to simple problems. How sad for America. How sad for her, and all the other victims of irrational fear.

GET RID OF YOUR PET !

Relax, I don't mean your cat, dog, hamster, Kimodo dragon, snake, bunny, parakeet, narwhal or girl friend. I mean your PET--the chemical, Polyethylene terephthalate, from which all those plastic water and soda bottles are made. Quit buying anything that comes in that type of container.

Why, you ask indignantly? Because not only are the bottles themselves an environmental nightmare and health hazard( the PET leaches into the liquid inside), the manufacturers of this chemical are among the worst polluters on the planet. They're petroleum based, you see--every container requires about 1/3 it's volume in oil to manufacture--and every time you buy one you are contributing to the bloated profits of Shell, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, and BP, to name a few. And contributing to global warming. All for products you don't need anyway, but buying them in "convenient" plastic bottles takes "don't need" to a whole new level.

To give you an idea of the manufacturing and distribution chain, so that you know who's making the profits, the Polaris Institute published an in-depth study for you to well, study.

Now please feel free to disregard my admonition about using PET bottles, especially if you don't mind supporting the profit margins of these companies. However, if you care about the environment and your health even a little, maybe you'll find it within yourself to just tell these PET pushers to "can it".

Found--Cheney, Jr--The Saga Continues

This guy is a natural--he has every quality the Republican party cherishes. He's the Dick without the money, and the Republicans will miss a sure bet if they ignore his obvious appeal to their base. This man should be offered a spot on the ticket as the VP nominee.

He's a bona fide asshole and general prick. He's arrogant beyond belief, and a shady businessman to boot. He carries a Bible and prays, and exudes toughness. Look in the dictionary and his picture is next to "charisma". He bowls people over when he speaks.

This man is the hope, past and future of the Grand Old Party, and I pray he gets all the attention he deserves. Yea, I say unto you, it's not only the GOP that needs the services of this man, but our great nation as well, to maintain the status quo in these perilous times.

Tell the Republicans to DRAFT DOUGLAS BRUCE FOR VICE PRESIDENT ! Start calling today!

Exxon, "religious" hucksters,and the Supreme court

God only knows where Exxon be without the multi-billion dollar tax breaks? It is undoubtedly true that without those tax breaks promoting additional exploration (at precisely the time when we need to wean ourselves off of hydrocarbons), there would be mass suicides among their stockholders. As it is, however, Exxon is poised to announce record profits yet again. They are expected to announce 2007 earnings of $39.2 billion, or $75,000/minute. I am grateful that my fuel expenditures, coupled with the wisdom of the tax cuts, is actually saving lives.

The United States Supreme Court, in a backbreaking ruling, protected the profits of the banks who made fortunes colluding with Enron to defraud Enron's stockholders and customers of over $30 billion, when they dismissed a lawsuit brought by injured parties seeking the right to sue the banks. This Supreme Court, now dominated by hard-line right-wingers, is all pro business, all the time. Everyone else--you know, the ones who pay taxes-- can go screw themselves.

In an unrelated story, except that the perpetrators of this continuing fraud are tax-exempt, the televangelist "prosperity gospel" hucksters are raking in hundreds of millions to support truly lavish personal lifestyles by suckering the gullible and desperate out of their last dollars. And their free will. Here is an article from AlterNet that gives you an inside look at how they work.

Remember, tax free. No tax liability for these millionaires-- They're churches after all. And every dollar they don't pay in taxes is money that doesn't go into our treasury to reduce the deficit, or pave roads, or fund social programs. No sir, those are things that the rest of us have to pay for.

Government for the people? No, definitely not.

Just gimme a dollar and we'll call it square

That is, basically, what the U.S. department of Education told a state-owned Pennsylvania company that makes and guarantees student loans. The Inspector General of the Department of Education found that the company had received improper subsidies of $34 million, and the Ed. Dept. not only ignored the findings of their own I.G., they decided that the amount was only about $15 million, and then told the state company to repay whatever they thought they owed.

From the New York Times (1/26/08):

The Education Department has brushed aside a finding by its own inspector general that a student lender improperly received $34 million in federal subsidies, and is instructing the lender to decide for itself how much money it should pay back.

In a letter sent Friday to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a state-owned company that makes and guarantees student loans, the department said it had estimated the overpayment at only $15.1 million, and said in a separate letter that it agreed with only some of the findings of the inspector general. But it told the agency to calculate for itself the amount it thought it had overbilled the government. Any final payment would require the approval of the Education Department.

The agency “must provide a detailed explanation of its plan to identify affected loans and to calculate overpayments,” which would be deducted from future reimbursement requests, wrote Patricia Trubia, a department official, in the letter.

Keith New, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania agency, said it was “very pleased” with the department’s letter, and that it would continue to negotiate with the department over any repayment obligation.

“We could wind up with zero liability,” Mr. New said. (emphasis mine)

Department officials declined to comment on what the resolution of the case could be.

The Education Department’s inspector found in November that the Pennsylvania agency overbilled the government by $34 million under a subsidy program enacted in the 1980s to make issuing loans to students more attractive at a time of high interest rates. Congress tried to rein in the program in 1993, as rates fell, but the loans ballooned as lenders exploited a loophole to keep receiving the subsidies.

Michael Dannenberg, director of the education policy program at the New America Foundation in Washington, sharply criticized the department’s decision to seek less than the amount identified in the audit.

“The department’s going after less than half of a fraction of the larger amount of improper billing that the Pennsylvania lending agency engaged in,” Mr. Dannenberg said. “The Department of Education’s failure to aggressively police the student loan industry has hurt taxpayers and students, and this is the latest example.”

Representative George Miller, the California Democrat who is the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee and a critic of the department’s oversight of student lending, also lashed out.

“Today’s action doesn’t erase the administration’s failure last year to recover hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars misspent by Nelnet,” Mr. Miller said Friday in a statement, referring to the large student lender based in Nebraska. Last year the department allowed Nelnet to keep $278 million in subsidies that its inspector general had concluded were improper.

“While I am disappointed that the department is not seeking to collect the full amount recommended by the inspector general,” Mr. Miller added, “I hope that this decision is a sign that the department is finally starting to take its role as the steward of our nation’s federal student aid programs seriously.

This is another example of a seven-year-long pattern of government agencies disregarding the findings and advice of their own employees to render decisions that fly in the face of reason. Can someone please explain to me why this is so? Couldn't be politics, could it? Or payback? Or the buddy system? Or just mind-numbing incompetence?

Government for the people? No, definitely not.

the plural of "stimulus" is "stimulies"

I can't say that my personal huge extra government check won't be appreciated--after all I've got bills to pay--but the boon I'm about to realize from the economic stimulus package that Congress passed, in one week with strong bi-partisan support, is a con that doesn't begin to address the underlying causes of the recession that we are now undeniably in.

Sure, we're all getting some cash to spend, and we're expected to spend it the day we get it, because the markets are in trouble. The problem is that that spending jolt will have little or no effect on the forces driving the financial markets into the ground. It is too little an amount to make a difference, although it could have a real impact if the entire amount of the stimulus package was distributed to the "little guys" (us), but the bulk of that $150 billion giveaway is going to the very people whose shady, shoddy, unethical, and criminal dealings precipitated this mess.

As usual, I'm posting links to several good articles on this subject:

Here, and here, and here.

And why the sudden rush to action, when all of us "commoners" have been in a recession for months and years? As David Sirota explains, it's the people and corporations who control our government that are the ones feeling pinched now, and when they snap their fingers, our legislators sit up and pay attention.

And who do you suppose is going to finance this addition to our budget deficit?? Can you say "China"?

Last, but not least, here's a really good rant. I like this guy!

Government for the people? No, definitely not.

Kucinich forced out of race

The only true "voice of the people", the only presidential candidate who advocated for the 99% of the citizens of this country who are suffering from a government serving the interests of "big money", has had to halt his quest to be the Democratic nominee for President.

Dennis Kucinich had been shut out of yet another debate (CNN), and lacking the funds to air enough ads to get his voice heard, has called it quits for this election cycle. Damn it!

When our government allows a candidates voice to be kept off of the public airways by the media outlets sponsoring the endless phony debates, so that only candidates whose positions don't threaten the corporate control of America are heard, we lose our right to informed choice.

Five major corporations control almost all of the news that we are allowed to hear. A vigorous free press disseminating information , serving the public by acting as watchdogs on the government, and exposing corporate wrongdoings, is only a memory. They now have the apparent right to control our elections by controlling the information flow. Our democracy, which depends on a free press, is much weaker for it's lack.

Private control of the public processes vital to our democracy can lead to only disaster for our freedom.

UPDATE: I just wrote this post, then this showed up. You might find it interesting.

TREASON AND COVERUP

There are a few people, known to me personally, who tend to depend on my blog for their news. This is for them. To anyone else who learns something here, you're welcome.

Sibel Edmonds was a translator for the FBI just long enough to have uncovered a long-running operation involving the sale of nuclear secrets to other countries. The operation involved high-level State Department officials and others including members of Congress, and the coverup has been phenomenally efficient. Edmonds has been gagged by the government for the last five years from telling what she knows, and the media won't even acknowledge that she exists.

Edmonds finally has told her story to the UK Sunday Times, who broke it a few weeks ago. I'm going to post links to various articles about Edmonds and her revelations. Study them thoroughly and you will see a compelling case for treason against the United States of America. And no, it wasn't just the Bush administration involved here--it goes back farther than that, but they are covering it up for all they're worth.

I know that this is a cheesy way to post this story, but the information that we have to date is all here, and I can't expand it by putting it into my own words.

I'm not sorting these to establish a time line, and remember the links within the links:

Here, here, here, here, and here

Here, here, here, and here

Here, here, and here

Remember, this story is just beginning to unfold. Everyone in government who has a hand in this should be charged with treason and punished to the fullest extent of the law, regardless of station, status, position or reputation.

Government for the people? No, definitely not.

Virginia guns down reform, while arms race heats up in national parks

Remember Virginia Tech? C'mon- it wasn't that long ago. A troubled student bought some guns (one from a pawn shop and one from a licensed dealer) and murdered 32 students, which led to a public outcry to eliminate the loopholes in the laws regarding gun sales and purchases. Imagine that! Some people actually thought that guns shouldn't be made available to nutball sociopaths.

Well, their voices were heard loud and clear , and the Virginia legislature responded by referring the matter to the House Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee, which, after due deliberation, killed legislation that would have required unlicensed sellers to conduct background checks on people buying weapons at gun shows. The reason?-- The killer didn't buy his weapons at a gun show. Oh, OK then. I'm thinking that maybe Virginia isn't a good place to attend school. Or visit.

Meanwhile, it seems we have an arms race about to spiral out of control in our national parks.In September, I reported that the National Park Service had placed an order for 700 Tasers, and speculated why the Park Service would need such weapons. (I still don't know)

Now we find that Tasers may not be sufficient for whatever nefarious purposes the Park Service has in mind, because 47 (!?!) Senators have written to the Secretary of the Interior asking him to lift the ban on carrying ready-to-fire weapons in national parks and wildlife refuges.

If, beyond all reason, this is allowed, poor Ranger Bob with his puny little Taser is going to be hopelessly undergunned. In order for the good Rangers to keep our national parks a safe, enjoyable destination for families, they will be forced to upgrade their weaponry to include Hand grenades, CS gas, howitzers, Tech 9's, and anything else required to win a firefight with the gun-toters. The gun contingent, of course, will not cede superiority to the Rangers, and will respond in kind. And so the race is on.

The insanity is making me crazy.

The military budget and the bankrupting of America

Chalmers Johnson, Tomdispatch.com, 1/23/08, via AlterNet.

A critically important explanation of how our bloated defense expenditures are bankrupting our country. The statistics alone will stagger and sicken you.

Going Bankrupt: Why the Debt Crisis is America's Greatest Threat

Read it and send it on.

Iraq-- new news--old news-- new lies--old lies

I save too much stuff. Articles and essays I want to write just don't get written, at least not quickly enough to keep up with with the volume of things I save for reference. So instead, I'm just going to pass the links on to you. At least this way, I can tell myself that I did something.

You'll need four things--time, snacks, blood pressure pills, and a barf bag (large). The saga continues-- Let's here it now:

Here, here, here, and here for Petraeus's reward.

Here, and here just to piss you off some more. Oh, and how many of these men and women can we add to the casualty figures? And this is going on all over the country.

And the rest, for gravy on the cake--Here, here, here, here, and here.

Murder by any other name is still murder

Just as "enhanced interrogation technique" is a euphemism devised to make torture sound acceptable, just as the phrase "national interests" is used to con you into feeling that you have a stake in what are actually economic interests from which you cannot possibly benefit, so too is the innocuous sounding phrase "collateral damage" used to keep you from understanding that innocent victims of war have been murdered.

By no standard of morality is it possible to justify the death of even one person who was a non-combatant in an armed conflict, for they had certainly done nothing to deserve their fate, and yet the bodies pile up-- over a million just in Iraq, so far--innocent men, women, and children who had no part to play in our invasion and occupation, except to be killed as "collateral damage".

Michael Boldin, for populistamerica.com, has penned a powerful essay on the subject of "collateral damage"which I strongly recommend that you read, here.

And for a harsher perspective, to make you aware that the death of innocents isn't always accidental, but sometimes set in policy, read this.

"To the victors go the spoils".

Maybe to victors won't want the spoils when they realize that the "spoils" aren't the land, the wealth of the conquered, or the profits made in the enterprise, but are the spoiled rotting corpses of all the human beings murdered on the way to "victory". They may not want them, but they'll deserve them.

Does the USO have a dual mission?

Intergalactically renowned right-wing talk show host Michael Savage is perhaps the most egregiously offensive hate-spewer on right-wing radio. His diatribes cannot be construed as anything but hate speech, most recently aimed at Muslims. He is divisive and encourages attitudes among his listeners that lead to hate crimes, and support for punitive legislation that discriminates against minorities.

Like Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter, Glenn Beck and all the rest, Savage openly fans the flames of racist hatred, and has not been called to account, until now.

CAIR, the Council for American Islamic Relations, posted some of Savage's rants on their website, and used them as examples of the inflammatory messages directed against Muslims in America, and posted a "donate" button so that concerned citizens could help CAIR counter Savage's diatribes. So what does Savage do? He sued them claiming they had no right to use his speech to solicit money, as it is copyrighted material.

Here is an article on Savage from the NYT, and a link to the lawsuit against CAIR. This seemingly frivolous lawsuit, which CAIR is forced to defend, has brought other organizations to the fore, to fight back against Savage and his message by calling for the major advertisers on his show to withdraw their ad support. It's had good results so far, but not all advertisers seem to care that they are buying time on, and thereby support, a radio show filled with the vile filth for which Savage is noted. Links with audio is here, on No Savage.org.

Among those advertisers still buying time on Savage's show is our very own United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Someone should tell them that government-sponsored hate speech is a serious violation of at least one serious law. But why would they care?

But just as troublesome is the participation of the USO (United Service Organizations) who get free advertising, and apparently don't care who spreads their message. They have responded to the complaints about their connection with Savage (albeit free) with not only a refusal to pull their ads, but have also hinted that Brave New Films (a major organization that picked up CAIR's fight) could be hit with a lawsuit if they didn't remove all mention of the USO from their website.

Which gets me to my point.

The USO is a very highly respected private non-profit charity whose mission for over 60 years has been to provide entertainment and "a touch of home" for our armed forces personnel here and around the world. They have been universally admired for their work, and the morale boost they provide for the men and women of our military.They operate with a small paid staff and primarily depend on over 20,000 volunteers. The CEO earned $312,000 for his services in 2004, the last year for which figures are available, and that doesn't appear to be out of line for his responsibility(at least until you realize he's got all those folks who donate their time). All well and good so far.

In the never- ending quest for financial help, however, USO has partnered with a diverse group of corporations, who provide financial support either in the form of free advertising of public service announcements or in cash. All of these "partners" have something to gain, of course--either goodwill or possibly greater profits for themselves, and that is where I can see a potential conflict with the stated mission of the USO.

Two of the "partners and sponsors" of the USO are BAE Systems and DRS Technologies. Both these companies are defense contractors, that by the very nature of their businesses stand to make a lot more money in a lengthy armed conflict that would be more likely to occur if anti-Muslim sentiment was successfully played into continuing war. That scenario would of course lead to the injury and death of many of the same service men and women that the USO was formed to help.

I'm not charging USO with a conflict of interest, but the fact that they are financially dependent on companies like these raises valid ethical questions, especially considering their somewhat vehement refusal to pull their free ads from Savage's show. How much influence , if any, did this symbiotic relationship have to do with their refusal?

The questions become even more relevant considering the discrepancy between USO's website and the stated response of a spokesman when discussing the ads --Their website states that it would be impossible for a charity of their size to monitor ad placement, but their spokesman said that the organization could ask that their psa's be taken off of Savage's program, but wouldn't.

Which is it? They can't, or they can but won't?

If the answer is that they won't, then it is safe to say that in the interest of fairness, they would also refuse to pull advertising from any program--- from the "KKK Hour of White Power" to "Al Qaida Tonight"to (gasp!) Brave New Films. It would be an interesting thing to monitor.

Achilles was a mutant octpus

Grist, the environmental organization (please get their e-newsletter), just ran a piece on the nuclear industry and how they might be forced to shut down many of their plants due to increasing chronic water shortages. Read it below.

Use the Forethought, Nuke

Nuclear power plants in U.S. Southeast may face shutdowns due to drought

Nuclear reactors across the U.S. Southeast could be forced to slow production or shut down in the near future due to the effects of continuing drought in the region. Nuclear power plants require massive amounts of water to cool steam that turns the generators; the water usually arrives via large intake pipes from nearby rivers and lakes. However, with water levels at drought-induced lows, a growing number of reactors are inching closer and closer to the water levels that would hamper plant operation. Pumping water from shallower depths, even when available, can also lead to forced shutdowns due to the water's increased temperature. "You need a lot of water to operate nuclear plants," said Jim Warren, executive director of a North Carolina green group. "Water is the nuclear industry's Achilles' heel." By our count that makes at least four such heels: water, the legacy of radioactive waste, nuke plants' appeal as terrorist targets, and the enormous costs of nuke plant construction.

Grist, as good as they are, only counted four "Achilles heels" for the nuclear industry. They actually forgot several others--the companies and contractors who push and profit from this deadly technology--GE, Bechtel, Fluor, etc.etc. Grist's Achilles would require only four pedal appendages (like conjoined twins)--the "nuclear" Achilles, to be a appropriate analogy, would require many more-- like a mutant octopus.

All lies--all death--all the time--and the butchers bill is still being tallied

One, two, three....NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE lies!! And that's just for Iraq. An in-depth study by the Center for Public Integrity, working with The Fund for Independence in Journalism, has documented 935 outright lies, distortions, and misleading statements by members of the Executive branch which made the case for the preemptive invasion of Iraq.

Take those lies, multiply them by at least a thousand as they were repeated endlessly by an unquestioning, adoring, compliant, sometimes colluding, fawning press and media, and we are where we are now-- nearly destroyed as a nation, both economically and morally.

Take those lies, and figure each of them is worth over 1,000 deaths so far. That's a pretty good return on the investment, don't you think? And every one of the people who told them, and everyone who helped spread them, and everyone who voted to invade, and everyone who has profited from our invasion built on lies, is a murderer or an accessory to murder. That will be for God to sort out.

Take those lies, and you will see that each of them has pulled over two billion dollars from our treasury, so far, estimating the true costs of this invasion, which costs will be borne by us and future generations of Americans, for the immediate profit of a few.

Take those lies, and look at the fruits of what we have sown-- our freedoms are gone, our government is more controlled by the moneyed elite than ever, our standard of living is dropping like a rock, and since the invasion, our overall quality of life has diminished dramatically.

Take those lies, and how they were so feverishly disseminated to a frightened population, and you will see the deaths of us all, and of our morality, and our standards of decency and empathy and basic goodness, which have been our hallmark for over 200 years.

"Take those lies and use them as a model" will be the instructions for any group in the future seeking to utterly destroy a country.

For the curious, synopses of the lies can be found here, and here, and the full detailed list is here.
The Bush "Murderers Row" of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Powell, Fleischer, Rumsfeld, et al, makes the 1927 Yankees look like amateurs--all they did was beat their opponents, not kill them.

Of course, the liars themselves are contemptuous and dismissive of the facts (nothing new there!), and here and here are just a few examples of their blatant "ass-covering" rhetoric.

And where are we now? Perhaps Cindy Sheehan says it best.

Is there any hope for justice?

Five country biometric database in the works

The U.S. is spending $1 billion to develop the worlds largest biometrics database, and is in talks with four other countries to cross-share information. Involved in these talks are the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The database will contain information such as fingerprints, palm prints, facial features and irises on millions of known and suspected criminals and terrorists.

Here are links to two articles supporting this subject, from Guardian UK (via CorpWatch), and ZDNet.

Thank God the FBI is smart enough to include New Zealand, which is a known haven to flocks of terrorists who roam the mountains disguised as sheep.

Seriously, my beef with this is that it represents yet another intrusion into our privacy rights, which are disappearing so quickly it's unbelievable. Our government has so many surveillance programs either up or in development that I've lost count. I doubt that the government knows either. They only know they can never have too many.

The problem with this particular database is the same as all of the other databases--they always expand the data gathering way beyond the stated intent, either accidentally or on purpose, and it's a sure bet that millions of people will be included who have no legitimate reason to be in it.

In all the years that the United States has been in existence, we have never had to destroy any of our Constitutional rights and freedoms to meet an external threat. And it's certainly not necessary now. Face it, the greatest threat to the U.S. in not external, but internal.

Fighting terrorism and crime is just an excuse to gather information on your life and your movements, even the bowel variety. It's not about terrorism--it's all about controlling whole populations of innocent citizens. Make no mistake, our government fully intends to have every shred of information on every man, woman, child and fetus in this country. They will know the due date of a baby before the mother knows she's pregnant.

Enjoy your police state while you can folks, because "They're coming to take you away, ha ha!".

When money rules we're played for fools

Larry Beinhart has written an essay for AlterNet titled The Fraud of Bushenomics: They're Looting the Country
(1/19/08)

Beinhart deftly shreds the voodoo economics of the Bushites. He has written it in a way that explains the lies and fallacies and the inevitable disastrous consequences, so that even fuzzy-minded idiots like myself can make perfect sense of it. I recommend that you read it a few times and then send it to all the fuzzy-minded idiots that you know, that they might benefit as I have.

OLIO n.- a miscellaneous collection,as below

AH, where to start? Let's begin here, an interview done last month by Chris Hedges with Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich has been treated very badly by the media--dismissed as "irrelevant" and a "tin hat nut case", and denied any meaningful time to have his positions heard. Read this interview and then decide if he sounds "nuts" and "irrelevant" to you. I say screw the media--vote your conscience! Do you agree?

One thing Dennis did recently, that the msm has used to belittle him, is to admit that he has seen a UFO. Now, it seems that he's "not alone out there". Dozens of people in Texas reported seeing a very strange phenomenon last week. I haven't heard any right-wingers claim that the UFO was just Kucinich's campaign transportation-- not yet, anyway.

And speaking of Texas, seems those old boys will put any guy on their Supreme Court so long as he wears an elephant lapel pin. Here's one that was just charged with tampering with an arson investigation. Seems his wife burned down their house.
From AP

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas Supreme Court justice has been charged with tampering with evidence in a fire that destroyed his home, a blaze the judge's wife is accused of setting, a television station reported Thursday.
Justice David Medina was indicted in the June fire at the couple's home in the Houston suburb of Spring that also damaged a neighbor's house, Medina's attorney Terry Yates told KHOU-TV. It caused a total of nearly $1 million in damage.
It was the second fire at the home in 10 years, and both blazes started in the garage.
Francisca Medina, the judge's wife, was charged with arson, the station reported.
Medina, 49, is a former district judge in Harris County, which contains Houston, and was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Rick Perry in 2004.
The Harris County prosecutor told the station he will move to dismiss the case for lack of evidence.

Hell yes there's a lack of evidence--it burned up. And if the case goes to the Texas Supreme Court, he'll throw it out.

Also from Texas, but even richer than the last one-- I'm still chuckling. Delicious irony.
From AP

Creation Museum Selling Mastodon Skull

DALLAS (AP) — A Texas museum that teaches creationism is counting on the auction of a prehistoric mastodon skull to stave off extinction. The founder and curator of the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum, which rejects evolution and claims that man and dinosaurs coexisted, said it will close unless the Volkswagen-sized skull finds a generous bidder.

"If it sells, well, then we can come another day," Joe Taylor said. "This is very important to our continuing."

Heritage Auction Galleries says the skull is estimated to be 40,000 years old, and projects it will fetch upward of $160,000. The artifact discovered in La Grange in 2004 is believed to be the largest of its kind, Heritage spokesman David Herskowitz said.
The auction will be held Sunday in Dallas, with bids accepted on the Internet until Saturday night.
"We're trying to reach out to someone who would buy it, then reach out to a museum in Texas," Herskowitz said.
Taylor said he would love to keep the skull of the elephant-like mammal as the centerpiece of his tiny museum just outside Lubbock, which includes creationist exhibits.
Claims on the museum's Web site include that Noah took dinosaurs aboard his ark. The prevailing scientific wisdom is that humans and dinosaurs missed each other by tens of millions of years.
Taylor said he's been financially crippled by about $136,000 he's been ordered to pay in a legal dispute over finder's rights to an Allosaurus skeleton unearthed in Colorado. About $141,000 has also been put into the mastodon skull's restoration, he said.
If the mastodon auction doesn't cover the judgment, Taylor said local authorities will seize his 10-year-old museum and sell off its contents in February.
"We've struggled so long here just to keep this thing going," Taylor said. "We're kind of losing interest. You can just tread water for so long." (...)

God will split His sides laughing at the fools who think the skull could be more than 6,000 years old. Serves 'em right if they buy it.

Now, we're leaving Texas and going to other foreign lands.

Canada has just put the U.S. on a "Torture Watch List".
Damn, now we'll have to kill them.

Zimbabwe has issued a $10 million bill.
They have a little problem with inflation. Don't laugh, we could be next.

Belize has a more honest election system than the U.S.
Read this really marvelous essay and you'll understand.

Informative? Entertaining? Thought provoking? A little odd? I tried.

UPDATE: 1/19/08) Canada has just issued a semi-quasi-half-baked apology for including the U.S. on their "Torture Watch List. (but we're still on it)

"Massey's in de coal, coal ground" (apologies to Stephen Foster)

Since the satirical piece I did several days ago on "big coal" vs. the Kroger Co. drew some fire, I thought I'd follow up with another, more serious piece. Not too lengthy, but it paints a picture of how far big coal spreads its influence, and how they spread it.

For starters, Bush stuck his finger in the eye of the Senate again a few weeks ago when he appointed Richard Stickler Acting Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, bypassing Senate confirmation as he has done so many times already.

Secondly, the Massey Energy CEO and a West Virginia Supreme Court justice "accidentally" met several times in Monte Carlo while both men were "coincidentally" vacationing there at the same time in 2006. "Coincidentally", Massey Energy was appealing a $50 million judgement (other sources cite a figure of $76.3 million) against them in a suit brought by a defunct coal company, and the appeal "just happened" to be in front of the W VA Supreme court at the time. Not long after the two met, the jurist "coincidentally"voted with the majority in a 3-2 decision overturning the judgement. Pays to have friends in high places, huh?

Thirdly, Massey Energy only yesterday agreed to pay a $30 million fine after negotiating with the EPA over 4,500 waste discharge violations committed over a seven year period. Really a pittance, considering the liability could have been as high as $2.4 billion. That fine was nothing more than a empty gesture.

Coal is a dirty form of energy, but the business practices of the mine owners are even dirtier. The miners themselves depend on their jobs to earn a living, and God bless 'em all for working in the conditions they do, but they don't have much choice as long as their crooked bosses are allowed to carry on with impunity. We need a government which will finally act in the interests of the miners and force the owners to either abide by the law or go away forever.

Cluster bombs--safe if taken as directed

From Reuters UK (1/16/08)

U.S. insists cluster bombs not bad if used right

By Robert Evans

GENEVA (Reuters) - Cluster bombs, which nearly 100 countries are seeking to ban, should not be considered bad as long as states involved in conflicts use them responsibly, a senior United States official said on Wednesday.

The official, who declined to be identified, also told a background briefing that Washington was planning to create a "quick reaction force", or QRF, to handle threats to civilians from remnants of war, like cluster bombs.

The official's remarks, which could not be quoted directly, clearly confirmed that Washington -- like Russia, China and some other powers -- remained opposed to banning the weapon.

He spoke as negotiators on updating a 1981 international agreement on especially dangerous conventional weapons (CCW) met in Geneva to prepare for "expert discussions" on cluster weapons next year under the United Nations umbrella.

Cluster munitions include a variety of weapons that can spread up to hundreds of bomblets over a target area. Up to 30 percent fail to explode, posing a threat to civilians for many years after a conflict.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says some 400 million people in countries and regions like Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Russia's Chechnya live in effective minefields, under daily threat of maiming from cluster bombs.

Other campaigners say at least 13,000 civilians are known to have been killed or injured by the bombs -- used heavily most recently by Israel in its 2006 war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon -- in recent years...... (click here for rest or article)

Personally, I find it reprehensible that a bomb which kills thousands of innocent people years after being dropped, should be characterized as "not bad". And how is it remotely possible to use something like a cluster bomb "responsibly"? What the hell does that mean?

Well, naturally it's the kind of rationalization you'd expect from a country with an armaments industry as big as ours-- we have the singular honor of being by far the largest exporters of death in the world. More bucks for the bang than any other country.

Why haven't our lawmakers in DC put a stop to this--at least stop the manufacture and export of weapons like cluster bombs and land mines which kill and maim civilians for decades? It's not as if we don't have hundreds of other ways of killing people that are "safer". Perhaps you should ask Hillary Clinton, whose record in the Senate puts her squarely on the side of the death merchants.

Maybe it has something to do with the buying power that the super-profitable arms industry has in Washington. Yeah, probably something like that.

Rigged? Hacked?Crooked?Inept? Ya suppose?

This post promises to be a mess-- there's too much to cover-- but stay with it, because it all concerns the ongoing problems plaguing every aspect of our voting system. There's not much new here for those who are already aware of what's happening, and why, but more details are coming to light almost daily about the concerted efforts still underway to undermine our elections. Give yourself time to follow all the links here and you might gain a better understanding (if you need it).

A few of my recent posts on this subject are here, and here (for background)

The New Hampshire recount is underway, and it's a mess so far, with a lot of missing data that no one can seem to find. I can't imagine how that would happen, except I read this, and this. The connections and cronyism are plain to see, and when you consider that an executive of LHS Associates, which controls all these voting machines (and their source codes) is a convicted felon , and the head of Diebold, who foisted these machines onto us, said in 2004 that he was"committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes" to President Bush, can there still be a doubt in any sane persons mind that our elections are being stolen? Oh, and they are all Republicans. Every one. (another good website for up-to-the-minute info is BlackBoxVoting.org)

And then there's the problem of "vote caging", an illegal form of voter disenfranchisement that the Republicans deny any knowledge of-- maybe they never heard of it, but the Republican party was caught in the act back in the 1980's and signed a consent decree promising not to do it again. Well, it never stopped, and since Bush first ran for election, has been a full time operation in states controlled by Republicans. Investigative reporter Greg Palast wrote Armed Madhouse, a very well-documented expose of caging operations, and you should read it. Now, though, somebody really screwed up, and "plausible deniability" may now be impossible. . The question remains if this specific admission will be addressed by the government officials in Kansas.

In Washington, however,House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers introduced a bill on 1/17/08 that both confirms vote caging as illegal and adds serious fines and prison time for offenders. We'll see how far it gets.

This a only a scratch on the boil, and I'll leave voter ID laws for another time.

Jenna set the date - details sketchy

News reports have it that Jenna Bush will be married on May 10th to fiance Henry Hager in a "small" wedding at the family ranch in Crawford, Texas.

That's it - all we know at the moment - leaving me the responsibility of providing interesting details solely from my imagination.

Security will be tight. The public will be escorted from Texas for the duration of the festivities, and air space restricted except for Fox News helicopters and Blackwater gunships.

There is, of course, speculation that this is a "shotgun"wedding. If that is true, expect Dick Cheney to lurk close behind the groom, waiting (or not) for him to make a break.

Officiating will be the Reverend Fred Phelps of the famous Westboro Baptist Church, but the bonds of matrimony will be sealed with Gorilla Glue, which paid handsomely for the privilege.

An informal reception at the ranch is planned, to begin immediately after the wedding. The guests will be encouraged to attend and participate in any of several fun activities, including a demonstration of "enhanced interrogation" techniques down at the lake. (Actually a charity fund-raiser for the families of indicted politicians, and the money is expected to flow in for such a good cause.) Other activities will include caged dove shooting, the ever popular"chainsaw the armadillo" event, and an SUV engine-revving competition.

Of course food will be plentiful, buffet style. Exotic endangered species from around the world, barbecued to perfection. Doesn't it sound wonderful? And the needs of everyone in attendance will be met by a staff of several hundred "guest workers"brought in to the U.S. just for the day, circulating through the crowd with drinks and drugs.

Guests will be able to leave their wedding gifts at any of several tractor-trailers and Brinks trucks parked discreetly on the grounds for the purpose.

At the close of the day, and as the time draws near for the newlyweds to take their leave, expect President Bush, determined to make a favorable impression on his new son-in-law, to put his arm on the young mans shoulder and whisper "Hey Henry, when you get back from the honeymoon, lemme know if she's as good as I think she is. Heh heh".

Jenna and Henry will fly to Paraguay for their honeymoon, but plan to make a "compassionate flyover" of New Orleans on the way. Isn't that swell?

Good luck, kids!!

Voting integrity--vital and doable--so demand it!

I've posted on this before, as have 10 million other bloggers, and most readers are familiar with the ways a persons right to vote has been suppressed, and with the ways that votes cast have been tampered with. Progress toward correcting vote tabulation problems is being made slowly and unevenly, in states like Ohio and California, even while attempts at voter suppression continue to proliferate. I'll not elaborate on the caging schemes and voter ID laws - if you're not aware of them by now, you've got a lot of homework to do.

Although the problem of vote-rigging is national, it has been particularly severe in Ohio, and Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman have worked tirelessly to expose and catalogue the problems. They also offer some workable solutions, as you will see from their article at Smirking Chimp.com

Bob and Harvey's 3-Step "Ohio Plan" for fair and reliable voting and vote counts

America is awash in suspect and stolen elections. Since January, 2001, the nation has been saddled with an unelected chief executive. The consequences have been predictably horrific.

Along the way, three US Senate contests in 2002 and numerous other Congressional and local elections have been subjected to partisan disenfranchisement of qualified voters, and vote counts that smack of theft and fraud.

Even now the primary in New Hampshire is rightly being challenged to do an expensive but necessary recount procedure that could and should have been avoided.

As has been shown in the Free Press and elsewhere through the stolen 2000 and 2004 presidential contests, there are scores of ways by which elections can and have been rigged and ripped off in this new century. And there are scores of cures that can be put forth.

But we believe they can boil down to a basic three:

1. AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION, WITH SIGNATURE VERIFICATION:

Since the beginning of the American republic, more than 200 years ago, voters have signed their registration forms, then signed again when they came to vote. Falsifying a signature is a felony. All studies indicate that the number of people who vote fraudulently is miniscule.

In recent years, Republican operatives have attempted to hype so-called voter fraud into a major issue. The Bush Administration has fired nine US Attorneys for their failure to find large numbers of people committing this crime.

Nonetheless, the GOP and its minions in the media have hyped this non-problem into a national crisis, whose "solution" is to demand photo ID at the polling stations.

It's well-known that the impact of this demand would be to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of elderly, indigent, homeless and other citizens, most of whom happen to vote Democratic. A lower court has rightly labeled this requirement to be a "poll tax" which is specifically barred by the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution.

But the US Supreme Court now has at least four members who will vote for anything that serves the partisan interests of the Republican Party. There is a widespread feeling the Court will approve this requirement, with adoption in many states run by the GOP.

During Ohio 2004, and in New Mexico and other swing states, the GOP also found ways to prevent many thousands of voters from registering at all. The list of dirty tricks is too long and insidious to report here. More are being unearthed every day.

The one most likely to surface in a big way in 2008 is the practice of disqualifying voters if the spelling of their name or their middle initial (or lack thereof) somehow varies from the one in the computer-generated registration books. Since the voter rolls in some counties and states have already been privatized, and are being run by partisan for-profit vendors, we can expect widespread, systematic disenfranchisement if this system remains in tact.

Our "Ohio Plan" solution is simple: everyone in the United States should be automatically registered to vote upon turning 18 years old. Forms addressed to election bureaus, with free postage, should be made available in high schools and colleges, at motor vehicle bureaus, social security offices, post offices, union halls, in military recruiting offices and barracks and numerous other locales throughout the nation.

All registration forms, and all polling places, can be festooned with signs warning that fraudulent voting is a felony. No photo ID shall be required at any voting place, only a signature that matches the one on file, and a wide range of less intrusive ID. Innumerable federal, state and government entities from school districts to the IRS know when US citizens turn 18. Ohio allows some 17 different documents to serve as suitable identification at the polls.

Voting is a basic American right. It should be the affirmative duty of the state to promote universal registration and end the bizarre practice of purging voters in a computer age. Short of a death certificate, the few questionable voters can easily be moved to an inactive status instead of purged from the computer database.

2. UNIVERSAL HAND-COUNTED PAPER BALLOTS:

It is by now a public article of faith that electronic voting machines are perfectly designed to steal elections. A recent $1.9 million study for the Ohio Secretary of State has confirmed that an electronic voting machine can be flipped with a magnet and a Blackberry. After reports by the Carter-Baker Commission, the Brennan Center, Princeton University, the Government Accountability Office, the Conyers Committee and many more, even the come-lately New York Times has now deemed touch-screen machines to be eminently hackable.

The country owes a huge debt of gratitude to the grassroots uprising of independent researchers and bloggers that has campaigned so bravely and effectively in the face of a mainstream media intent on ignoring the issue.

Now the Times and others seem to want a "middle ground" with Optiscan machines that run paper ballots through a reader, and even worse, feed them into computerized central tabulators.

We oppose this hackable non-solution. At least two Optiscan scams come quickly to mind. In Toledo, Ohio, inner city wards, Optiscan ballots were improperly calibrated causing a higher rate than normal to be rejected by the reader. Scores of them remain uncounted from the 2004 Ohio presidential election. In fact, most of the 93,000 or so uncounted ballots in Ohio fell under the label “machine rejected.”

In Miami County, Ohio, an Optiscan machine produced phantom votes that couldn't be explained in the final tabulation. See the Free Press article: http://freepress.org/departments/display/19/2006/2209.

Yet Ohio's Secretary of State is poised to order Cuyahoga County (Cleveland)---which overrode citizen objections against spending $20 million on touchscreen voting machines---to now spend an additional $11 million on Optiscan machines to replace them. How long will it take before those Optiscan machines are, in turn, rejected?

The real solution is obvious: use paper ballots, and count them by hand. This is not, of course, fool proof. But it works beautifully in places like Germany and Switzerland, where official vote counts regularly conform to within 0.1% of exit polls.

Hand counted paper ballots could and should work here. In particular, we should reach out to high school and college students in the tradition of democratic public service to facilitate the vote count process.

The "revolutionary concept" of all of us voting on ballots that have the actual name of the candidates on them, with the opportunity to put a visual, tangible "X" next to those we choose, has the merit of obvious simplicity. These ballots can be counted and recounted, with high reliability and no dependence on source codes or incomprehensible computer glitches.

To be sure, ballots can be stolen and manipulated. But there is every indicator the possibility of fraud is still far less than with electronic machines. One can stuff ballots one at a time, so to speak, at the retail level. But computerized voting and tabulation allow for the far more dangerous wholesale shifting of votes and the deadly pre-programming of election results.

It should also be noted that federal law now requires that all election records be retained for 22 months after a federal vote. In Ohio, 56 of 88 county election boards ignored federal law---and a court injunction---and destroyed all or some of their records from the 2004 election, making a meaningful recount essentially impossible. Thus far, no state or federal official has indicated any willingness to do anything about this blatant abuse of federal law.

So meaningful reform will require that federal election laws actually be enforced.

As part of the King-Lincoln civil rights lawsuit (in which we are attorney and plaintiff) extensive research into Ohio 2004 makes it clear that nearly all the electronic records were virtually worthless anyway, and could have been easily manipulated had they been retained.

That would not have been the case had the election been conducted entirely on paper ballots. They are thus the worst alternative we have---except for all the other ones.

3) A THREE-DAY NATIONAL VOTING HOLIDAY, WITH BALLOTS HAND-COUNTED BY STUDENTS:

The current practice of voting on Tuesday was adopted in the 1700s because that was when Americans came to market. We are no longer a farm society, and we need not vote on the first Tuesday following a Monday after final harvest. Today this practice discriminates against working people and is nothing more than an inappropriate, anti-democratic anachronism.

Ohio's Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has proposed a two-week window for voting. We think three days should suffice. They should be the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nearest to November 11, Veteran's Day. The polls should be staffed by high school and college students, who will then be given that Monday off to count the paper ballots.

The current demand for electronic tabulating has no basis other than the demand by the media for quick results and the demand for great profits (at public expense) by the companies who make these easily hackable machines.

We believe the American public can wait for election results to be accurate and reliable. We also see in this a great civics lesson for our young people. And a reliable way to get a true, democratic outcome from our most critical means of keeping the government accountable and under public control.

Universal voter registration, a ban on electronic voting machines and the requirement for hand-counting of paper ballots can all be done with simple legislation. The three-day voting process is more complex. The requirement that we vote the first Tuesday after November's first Monday is embedded in the Constitution. Changing that would require a Constitutional Amendment. (Voting on Saturday through Tuesday, with vote counting on Wednesday---a five-day process---would not).

Overall, simple as they are, these three simple, practical steps could revolutionize our democratic process and restore control of our government to the people. Which is precisely why we expect the mainstream media, voting machine manufacturers and major parties to heap scorn on them.

We have not addressed the problem of money in politics, proportional voting, or of the corporate media's undemocratic domination of the campaign process.

But this administration has certainly taught us the consequences of having an unelected executive. We must start somewhere.

These three steps will help us at least regain control of the voting process. From there, anything is possible.

Let's vote on it!

I would like to add a few things to their suggestions. Transparency in the counting of the ballots is critically important - therefore it should be a legal requirement that all of the ballots be counted in the open, not behind closed doors, in the location where the ballots were cast, in view of election monitors or interested citizens, and should be videotaped from start to finish.

And regarding the obvious need for transparency - Ohio has 88 bi-partisan county election boards, but called a closed-door meeting for only Republican election board members, and when a member of the Ohio Democratic party showed up, he was thrown out. Here is an article and video from Cliff Schecter.

Why would the Republicans do that? Why, indeed. And rest assured that if the mainstream press picks it up, the right-wing rags will blare a headline like "Republicans hold secret strategy meeting - vow to stop Democrat vote tampering".

Why Bush licks Saudi camel toes- and more!

Greg Palast does a masterful job explaining one of the last mysteries of the universe.

George of Arabia: Better Kiss Your 'Abe' Goodbye (1/16/08)

Bend over, pull out your wallet and kiss your Abe ‘goodbye.’ The Lincolns have got to go - and so do the Hamiltons and Jacksons.

Those bills in your billfold aren’t yours anymore. The landlords of our currency - Citibank, the national treasury of China and the House of Saud - are foreclosing and evicting all Americans from the US economy.

It’s mornings like this, when I wake up hung-over to photos of the King of Saudi Arabia festooning our President with gold necklaces, that I reluctantly remember that I am an economist; and one with some responsibility to explain what the hell Bush is doing kissing Abdullah’s camel.

Let’s begin by stating why Bush is not in Saudi Arabia. Bush ain’t there to promote ‘Democracy’ nor peace in Palestine, nor even war in Iran. And, despite what some pinhead from CNN stated, he sure as hell didn’t go to Riyadh to tell the Saudis to cut the price of oil.

What’s really behind Bush’s hajj to Riyadh is that America is in hock up to our knickers. The sub-prime mortgage market implosion, hitting a dozen banks with over $100 billion in losses, is just the tip of the debt-berg.

Since taking office, Bush has doubled the federal debt to more than $5 trillion. And, according to US Treasury figures, on net, foreign investors have purchased close to 100% of that debt. That’s $3 trillion borrowed from the Saudis, the Chinese, the Japanese and others.

Now, Bush, our Debt Junkie-in-Chief, needs another fix. The US Treasury, Citibank, Merrill-Lynch and other financial desperados need another hand-out from Abdullah’s stash. Abdullah, in turn, gets this financial juice by pumping it out of our pockets at nearly $100 a barrel for his crude.

Bush needs the Saudis to charge us big bucks for oil. The Saudis can’t lend the US Treasury and Citibank hundreds of billions of US dollars unless they first get these US dollars from the US. The high price of oil is, in effect, a tax levied by Bush but collected by the oil industry and the Gulf kingdoms to fund our multi-trillion dollar governmental and private debt-load.

The US Treasury is not alone in its frightening dependency on Arabian loot. America’s private financial institutions are also begging for foreign treasure. Yesterday, King Abdullah’s nephew, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, already the top individual owner of Citibank, joined the Kuwait government’s Investment Authority and others to mainline a $12.5 billion injection of capital into the New York bank. Also this week, the Abu Dhabi government and the Saudi Olayan Group are taking a $6.6 billion chunk of Merrill-Lynch. It’s no mere coincidence that Bush is in Abdullah’s tent when the money-changers made the deal just outside it.

Bush is there to assure Abdullah that, unlike Dubai’s ports purchase debacle, there will be no political impediment to the Saudi’s buying up Citibank nor the isle of Manhattan.

So what? I mean, for the average American about to lose their job and their bungalow it doesn’t matter a twit whether it’s Sheik bin Alwaleed who owns Citibank or Sheik Sanford Weill, Citi’s past Chairman.

It’s the price paid to buy back our money from abroad that’s killing us. Despite the Koranic prohibition on charging interest, the Gulf princes demand their pound of flesh, exacting a 7% payment from Citibank and 9% from Merrill. That hefty interest bill then pushes adjustable rate mortgages into the stratosphere and pushes manufacturing into China by making borrowing and energy costs impossible to overcome. Forget the cost of health care: General Motors’ interest burden quintupled in just two years.

As the great economist Paddy Chayefsky wrote in the film The Network:

“The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. … It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity…. There are no nations, there are no peoples. There is only one vast and immense, interwoven, multi-national dominion of petro-dollars. … There is no America. There is no ‘democracy.’ The world is a business, one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work.”

In 2005, the US consumer paid Arab and OPEC nations a quarter trillion dollars ($252 billion) for oil - and the USA received back 100% of it - and then some ($311 billion) via Gulf nations’ investment in US Treasury bills and purchases of US businesses and property. Bush’s trip to Abdullah’s tent is all about this vast business of keeping this petro-dollar treadmill spinning.

The Bush Administration, rather than tax Americans to cover our deficits or make the banks suffer the consequences of their predatory lending practices, is allowing the Saudis to charge us big time at the pump with the understanding they will lend it all back to us - so the party never has to stop.

It has been reported that the President’s Secret Service men traveling with him seemed embarrassed by the eye-popping loads of diamond and gold gifts which they have to carry back for President Bush. They need not feel they have taken too much from their hosts: Bush has assured Abdullah that the King can suck it back out through our gas tanks.

***********

And here is a link to a very good essay by Robert Scheer, explaining why Bush enjoys a 12% favorable rating among the Saudis. It wouldn't surprise me to discover that the Muslims have more faith in "pork tartare" than in our "HeadCase of State".

Palast's article, and Scheer's appeared on the very same day that a friend sent me this short video. Watch the whole thing, even after the credits.

The video and articles showing up at the same time is much too odd to be a coincidence. I think that a "Higher Power" is finally taking an interest in Mr Bush. Hope so, anyway. And I hope it's usurious.

U.S. against the world-- Bush turns on our friends

Unbelievable! Our Administration has tipped over into insanity and is alienating our allies with heavy-handed allegations of incompetence and by claiming that Europe represents an increasing threat as a staging ground for terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates accused NATO allies of lacking competence to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan, and Michael Chertoff, head of Fatherland Security, said European travelers to the U.S. can expect much closer scrutiny, including pre-registering online and tighter security checks, because Europe is seen as an increasing threat.

If these claims are true, and if the Bush administration follows their doctrine of pre-emptive action against countries that pose a threat to our safety (remember Iraq?), then Bush will clearly feel he has no choice but to invade Europe. Probably through Normandy. And if the NATO forces are as bad as they say, it should be a cakewalk, right?

Lets see what God tells him to do.

What Bush and all of neocon friends need is Morgellons.It's the least they deserve.

Ever hear of Mark Deli Siljander? Chances are you won't

From Yahoo News(1/16/08) (H/T Cliff Schecter)

EX-LAWMAKER CHARGED IN TERROR CONSPIRACY

WASHINGTON - A former congressman and delegate to the United Nations was indicted Wednesday as part of a terrorist fundraising ring that allegedly sent more than $130,000 to an al-Qaida and Taliban supporter who has threatened U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan.

Mark Deli Siljander, a Michigan Republican when he was in the House, was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and obstructing justice for allegedly lying about lobbying senators on behalf of an Islamic charity that authorities said was secretly sending funds to terrorists.

A 42-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo., accuses the Islamic American Relief Agency of paying Siljander $50,000 for the lobbying — money that turned out to be stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Siljander, who served in the House from 1981-1987, was appointed by President Reagan to serve as a U.S. delegate to the United Nations for one year in 1987.

He could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday. His attorney in Kansas City, J.R. Hobbs, had no immediate comment.

The charges are part of a long-running case against the charity, which had been based in Columbia, Mo., and was designated by the Treasury Department in 2004 as a suspected fundraiser for terrorists.

In the indictment, the government alleges that IARA employed a man who had served as a fundraising aide to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader and mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The indictment charges IARA with sending approximately $130,000 to help Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whom the United States has designated as a global terrorist. The money, sent to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2003 and 2004, was masked as donations to an orphanage located in buildings that Hekmatyar owned.

Authorities described Hekmatyar as an Afghan mujahedeen leader who has participated in and supported terrorist acts by al-Qaida and the Taliban. The Justice Department said Hekmatyar "has vowed to engage in a holy war against the United States and international troops in Afghanistan."

The charges paint "a troubling picture of an American charity organization that engaged in transactions for the benefit of terrorists and conspired with a former United States congressman to convert stolen federal funds into payments for his advocacy," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said.

Siljander founded the Washington-area consulting group Global Strategies Inc. after leaving the government.

The indictment says Siljander was hired by IARA in March 2004 to lobby the Senate Finance Committee in an effort to remove the charity from the panel's list of suspected terror fundraisers.

For his work, IARA paid Siljander with money that was part of U.S. government funding awarded to the charity years earlier for relief work it promised to perform in Africa, the indictment says. Under the grant agreement, IARA was supposed to return any unused funds after the relief project was wrapped up in 1999.

Instead, Siljander and three IARA officers agreed to cover up the money's origins and use it on the lobbying effort, the indictment charges.

In interviews with the FBI in December 2005 and April 2007, Siljander denied doing any lobbying work for IARA. The money, he told investigators, was merely a donation from IARA to help him write a book about Islam and Christianity, the indictment says.

In 2004, the FBI raided the Islamic American Relief Agency-USA group's headquarters and the homes of people affiliated with the group nationwide. Since then, the 20-year-old charity has been unable to raise money and its assets have been frozen.

The charity has denied the allegations that it has financed terrorism. IARA in Columbia has argued that it is a separate organization from the Islamic African Relief Agency, a Sudanese group suspected of financing al-Qaida. A federal appeals court in Washington ruled in February that there was a link between the two groups.

In an indictment handed down in March, the charity and four of its officers were charged with illegally transferring $1.4 million to Iraq from March 1991 to May 2003 — when Iraq was under various U.S. and U.N. sanctions.

The indictment also alleges that on 11 separate occasions the defendants transferred funds from the United States to Iraq through Amman, Jordan, in order to promote unlawful activity that violated Iraq sanctions.

In all, Siljander, IARA and five of its officers were charged with various counts of theft, money laundering, aiding terrorists and conspiracy.

"By bringing this case in the middle of America, we seek to make it harder for terrorists to do business halfway around the globe," said John Wood, U.S. attorney in Kansas City.

Betcha you'll never hear a peep from the right-wing noise machine or the msm, because this guy is a REPUBLICAN. Do you hear me?--a REPUBLICAN!!

And, playing on the Google turned up this piece from 1992 by Frederick Clarkson, in which he reveals Siljanders ties to both Sun Myung Moon and extreme right-wing Christian fundamentalists.

Is there anybody this God-fearing patriot doesn't have ties to? How about the petroleum industry? Oops, he's got that covered, too, if only peripherally.

NACS, The Association of Convenience and Petroleum Retailing, has an annual convention, and guess who was the featured speaker in 2007 at their interfaith prayer breakfast? Read this bio and buildup for Mr. Siljander. If you appreciate irony, you will find this positively dripping with it. Given his indictment, it's hilarious.

Please--just take him off the air.

Damn this fat-assed, drug-addicted, slime-covered, hate-spewing racist pig. And damn all the stations that broadcast his divisive filth. Oh, sorry--I'm referring to Rush Limbaugh. And damn all of you who think he's just wonderful, because you're stupid.

Last April, Limbaugh aired a purely racist hit piece on Barack Obama--A parody song called "Barack the Magic Negro". My previous post is here.

Now he comes along with another "humorous" racist smear, here.

Obviously, he does have his fans--right-wing site Human Events (which apparently has a maggot fetish) just named Limbaugh "Man of the Year" for 2007. Think Progress article, here.

It's disgusting that he has what-13,000,000 listeners? And they think they're Americans? And they're proud?

I want my country back!!

Microsoft--"not just Windows any more"

Is it any wonder why so many people hate Microsoft? Not content with the bugs they already have, now they're going to bug you. Really.

From the Times Online (1/16/08)

Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software

Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.

The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees’ performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer’s assessment of their physiological state.

Technology allowing constant monitoring of workers was previously limited to pilots, firefighters and Nasa astronauts. This is believed to be the first time a company has proposed developing such software for mainstream workplaces.

Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a “unique monitoring system” that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read “heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure”, the application states.

The system could also “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”. Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker’s weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help.

The Information Commissioner, civil liberties groups and privacy lawyers strongly criticised the potential of the system for “taking the idea of monitoring people at work to a new level”. Hugh Tomlinson, QC, an expert on data protection law at Matrix Chambers, told The Times: “This system involves intrusion into every single aspect of the lives of the employees. It raises very serious privacy issues.”

Peter Skyte, a national officer for the union Unite, said: “This system takes the idea of monitoring people at work to a new level with a new level of invasiveness but in a very old-fashioned way because it monitors what is going in rather than the results.” The Information Commissioner’s Office said: “Imposing this level of intrusion on employees could only be justified in exceptional circumstances.”

The US Patent Office confirmed last night that the application was published last month, 18 months after being filed. Patent lawyers said that it could be granted within a year.

Microsoft last night refused to comment on the application, but said: “We have over 7,000 patents worldwide and we are proud of the quality of these patents and the innovations they represent. As a general practice, we do not typically comment on pending patent applications because claims made in the application may be modified through the approval process.”

BILL GATES--THE "BIG BROTHER" I NEVER WANTED.

In any other time in America the courts would shoot this down immediately. Not now, though--the die is cast.

"Straighten Up and Lie Right"

Two Iraqi officials say two very different things on the same subject. Read this and tell me who took the bribe from Bush, Inc.

From Think Progress (1/15/08)

Iraqi officials can’t get their stories straight.

Iraqi officials are divided on when their security forces will actually be able to secure the country. Just yesterday, two Iraqi officials gave two entirely different reports:

“Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iraqi forces would be ready to take over security responsibility for all 18 provinces by the end of 2008.”
– Financial Times, 1/15/08

VERSUS

“The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018.”
– New York Times, 1/15/08

That's "GREEN", as in the color of special interest money

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, sitting pretty with over $10 million in his campaign funds, has released a new re-election ad in which he claims he is the "Godfather of Green" and an "environmental champion". I never cease to be amazed at these shameless pricks.

From Think Progress (1/12/08)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has released a new ad for his 2008 re-election campaign, heralding himself as a “Godfather of Green” and an “environmental champion.”

McConnell’s environmental stewardship, according to the ad, consists of securing a $38 million earmark for city parks in Louisville and the creation of the Jefferson Memorial Forest, which features a Mitch McConnell Loop Trail.

McConnell may know how to bring home the pork for his constituents, but that hardly qualifies him as an “environmental champion.” McConnell had a zero percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters during the 109th Congress, and has earned only a 7% lifetime rating.

A look at some of his actions that have earned him such a dismal rating:

– McConnell helped to pass the 2005 Energy Policy Act, a bill the League of Conservation Voters called “the most anti-environmental piece of legislation signed into law in recent memory.”

– McConnell led the fight to block the renewable electricity standard and the green tax package from the 2007 energy bill, calling them “millstones.”

– McConnell has repeatedly voted to allow drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

– McConnell has repeatedly voted against Senate bills recognizing global warming, including a “sense of the Senate” amendment expressing “the need…to address global climate change through comprehensive and cost-effective national measures and through the negotiation of fair and binding international commitments.”

– McConnell helped notorious global warming denier Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) try to block Al Gore’s “Live Earth” concert in Washington, DC, by raising an objection to the resolution allowing the concert to take place on the capitol’s West Front.

McConnell’s anti-environmental stance means he faces the “the single biggest vulnerability for the Republicans,” in the words of Republican strategist Frank Luntz.

It would explain so much

UPI reports from London that a set of twins, separated from their mother at birth and raised in different families, met, fell in love, and married, entirely unaware that they were brother and sister. Upon discovering (I don't even want to know how) that they were so closely related, they had the marriage annulled.

This unfortunate incident points up the need for a free flow of information so that adopted children are protected from marrying accidentally.

The risks of recessive genes being passed to their offspring are well-known. There is a much greater likelihood of serious health problems, as well as mental deficiencies that could evidence later in life as low intelligence, schizophrenia, paranoia, anti-social attitudes, excessive aggression, or any combination of these.

I believe that, far from being an isolated rare incident, the problem of inbreeding is far more common than we would like to admit. As evidence, I would point out the current occupants of the Executive Branch of our government, as well as hundreds of members of Congress.

The people to whom I refer all exhibit traits associated with being the offspring of incestuous relationships, accidental or otherwise. I do not point a finger at them for what they have done to our country--they were, after all, victims just like we have become-- but to their parents.

I would hope that the incestuous behavior of this group of parents is nothing more than a generational anomaly, perhaps a fatalism precipitated by the threat of nuclear annihilation, but there is really no way to know. All we can do is be aware, watch for telltale signs, and take action to ensure that these people have no access to government.

There is no hard evidence to support my belief, but it would explain so much if, for example, Barbara and George H.W., were brother and sister. Do they know?

Feds to track your e-mails and web searches

I'm sure that I'm being monitored already, but now they want to make it legal.

From The Raw Story (1/14/08)

US drafting plan to allow government access to any email or Web search

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell is drawing up plans for cyberspace spying that would make the current debate on warrantless wiretaps look like a "walk in the park," according to an interview published in the New Yorker's print edition today.

Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act “will be a walk in the park compared to this,” McConnell said. “this is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”

The article, which profiles the 65-year-old former admiral appointed by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to oversee all of America's intelligence agencies, was not published on the New Yorker's Web site. (It can be read here in pdf).

McConnell is developing a Cyber-Security Policy, still in the draft stage, which will closely police Internet activity.

"Ed Giorgio, who is working with McConnell on the plan, said that would mean giving the government the autority to examine the content of any e-mail, file transfer or Web search," author Lawrence Wright pens.

“Google has records that could help in a cyber-investigation, he said," Wright adds. "Giorgio warned me, 'We have a saying in this business: ‘Privacy and security are a zero-sum game.'"

A zero-sum game is one in which gains by one side come at the expense of the other. In other words -- McConnell's aide believes greater security can only come at privacy's expense.

McConnel has been an advocate for computer-network defense, which has previously not been the province of any intelligence agency.

According to a 2007 conversation in the Oval Office, McConnell told President Bush, “If the 9/11 perpetrators had focused on a single US bank through cyber-attack and it had been successful, it would have an order of magnitude greater impact on the US economy.”

Bush turned to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, asking him if it was true; Paulson said that it was. Bush then asked to McConnell to come up with a network security strategy.

"One proposal of McConnell’s Cyber-Security Policy, which is still in the draft stage, is to reduce the access points between government computers and the Internet from two thousand to fifty," Wright notes. "He claimed that cyber-theft account for as much as a hundred billion dollars in annual losses to the American economy. 'The real problem is the perpetrator who doesn’t care about stealing—he just wants to destroy.'"

The infrastructure to tap into Americans' email and web search history may already be in place.

In November, a former technician at AT&T alleged that the telecom forwarded virtually all of its Internet traffic into a "secret room" to facilitate government spying.

Whistleblower Mark Klein said that a copy of all Internet traffic passing over AT&T lines was copied into a locked room at the company's San Francisco office -- to which only employees with National Security Agency clearance had access -- via a cable splitting device.

"My job was to connect circuits into the splitter device which was hard-wired to the secret room," Klein. said "And effectively, the splitter copied the entire data stream of those Internet cables into the secret room -- and we're talking about phone conversations, email web browsing, everything that goes across the Internet."

"As a technician, I had the engineering wiring documents, which told me how the splitter was wired to the secret room," Klein continued. "And so I know that whatever went across those cables was copied and the entire data stream was copied."

According to Klein, that information included Internet activity about Americans.

"We're talking about domestic traffic as well as international traffic," Klein said. Previous Bush administration claims that only international communications were being intercepted aren't accurate, he added.

"I know the physical equipment, and I know that statement is not true," he added. "It involves millions of communications, a lot of it domestic communications that they're copying wholesale."

Another nail in the coffin of democracy. Make no mistake--our government is our enemy. If we are to survive as a free people, it's come down to "us" or "them".

Jim Hightower--"The Dems Aren't Listening"

Boy, does that sound familiar.

Hightower's essay is here.

Nothing to add. If anything, it's worse than it was three months ago.

Tiff of the Titans!!

Kroger Co., the nations largest grocery chain, has incurred the wrath of the coal industry. This article showed up in my local rag today:


CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A Kroger Company fundraising program for charities has gotten the nation's largest traditional grocery chain in trouble with the coal industry.

The West Virginia Coal Association and Friends of Coal say it's shocking that Kroger allowed the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition to participate. Kroger operates 46 groceries in West Virginia, the nation's second-largest coal producer.

OVEC recently won a federal lawsuit that hakes it harder to get permits for mountaintop removal mines in West Virginia. That victory prompted a similar challenge in Kentucky and drawn the ire of coal companies.

OVEC Executive Director Janet Keating says the industry would be better off complying with mining laws and regulations than worrying about where people shop.


Now, "on the surface", it sounds like the coal industry is showing their "seamy" side by going after Kroger for allowing a successful environmental organization to participate in a charity fund-raising program. You might think the industry has reversed their usual practice of "making a mole hill out of a mountain", but I disagree. I think their resentment towards Kroger goes back a long way. I believe they hold Kroger partly responsible for breaking up the profitable old system of "company stores", where the miners in the early coal-producing states had to buy all of their food at exorbitant prices from stores owned by the mining operators. Remember "...another day older and deeper in debt"? That honorable practice worked well for years, until Kroger came in and plunked down superstores right outside the mine entrances. The coal industry has a long memory, and this latest insult simply pushed them too far.

The "coal"ition of mine owners is so upset that they are threatening to put lumps of coal into the Christmas stockings of the Kroger board members. Kroger might retaliate by sabotaging the wheels on the shopping carts used by coal executives, so that they skid or shake. You can see where this could get entirely out of hand.

Kroger needs to do something to defuse this situation--extend an olive branch to the coal operators to end this feud before it's too late. But what? Wait, I've got it! Kroger should offer something mutually profitable to both sides, and offer to develop and market a full line of organic mine-runoff health drinks. Yeah, that'd work!--Kroger customers will buy anything!

Sadly, if that doesn't bank the fires of outrage, the only hope will be a mediator skilled in old-fashioned scuttle diplomacy. Of course, if the health drinks are an unacceptable solution, Kroger could offer to do something similar with coal slaw. Stay tuned.

Miscellany on mortgage fallout and recession

Boy, stuff piles up pretty quickly, so I'm posting a bunch of links and articles somewhat related to the meltdown of the economy.

White House Spokesman: No one is 'Predicting a Recession'.( Both From Think Progress)
Paulson Contradicted by His Former Company Goldman Sachs on Economy.

Spokesman Tony Fratto having the nerve to lie so baldly is typical of the current administration.
They can just as glibly claim that "there is no evidence that the Sun goes down in the West". Bush, for example claims that the U.S. has a "resilient economy", and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that the "economy's going to continue to grow". As you saw, not everyone agrees with those guys.

Here's a little goody from the NYT:

Cleveland Sues 21 Lenders over Subprime Mortgages (01/12/08)

CLEVELAND — Cleveland is suing 21 of the nation’s largest banks and financial institutions, accusing them of knowingly plunging the city into a financial crisis by flooding the local housing market with subprime mortgage loans to people who could never repay.

The city is seeking “at least” hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, Cleveland’s law director, Robert J. Triozzi, said Friday. The list of defendants includes some of the most prominent firms on Wall Street, like Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial.

Mayor Frank G. Jackson said in an interview on Friday that the companies would be “held accountable for what they’ve done.”

“We’re going after them to get the resources we need to rebuild our city,” Mr. Jackson said.

The financial crisis has hit Cleveland especially hard, with more than 7,000 foreclosures in each of the last two years, Mr. Jackson said. Entire city blocks have been abandoned. The city’s budget has been strained by the effort to maintain thousands of boarded-up homes, and by the cost of responding to a rise in violent crime and arson.

The major banks involved did not return calls about the lawsuit. A spokesman for Merrill Lynch, Mark Herr, said, “We’re declining to comment right now.”

The Cleveland suit is separate from one filed Tuesday in federal court by the City of Baltimore against Wells Fargo, accusing it of violating fair-housing laws by singling out African-Americans for high-interest mortgages.

The Cleveland suit, filed Thursday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court under the state’s public nuisance law, asserts that the financial institutions created nuisances across broad swaths of Cleveland because their loans led to widespread abandonment of homes. “We’ve torn down 1,000 abandoned houses, and haven’t even made a dent,” Mr. Jackson said.

The drop in homeownership, and a steep decline in population — to 444,000 residents in 2007 from almost a million in 1950, according to census figures — has drained Cleveland’s budget. In December, Mr. Jackson announced that the city was unable to borrow money and would be forced to postpone or permanently shelve millions of dollars in public works projects.

“The strain on our budget is too much,” Mr. Jackson said. “These companies have knowingly created a public nuisance by exploiting the city of Cleveland.”

Several Cleveland suburbs have expressed interest in joining the case as a class-action suit, Mr. Triozzi said. Because the city is suing under a state statute, cities outside Ohio could not join. “This case is about what these Wall Street bankers did to Cleveland,” Mr. Triozzi said.

Instead of aiming at the banks that originally made subprime mortgage loans in the city, the lawsuit is against those firms that bundled the loans into securities to be divided into shares and sold on the stock exchange. This process, and the large fees the firms generated from the work, Mr. Triozzi said, drove their effort to make as many loans as possible during an era of low interest rates and a prolonged housing boom.

Hope they win big!

Also from the NYT (1/11/08)

Banks Plead They Can’t Follow Rules

When you are shoveling money, keeping track of the paperwork is an awful burden.

As the mortgage mess grows, we are learning more and more about just how sloppy things were in the mortgage-issuing business as loans were churned out, carved into securities and sold off.

Judges have blocked some foreclosures with rulings that purchasers of mortgages could not prove that they owned them. The buyers of the mortgages complain that it is unfair to ask them to have complied with detailed rules.

And now the banks are begging the accounting rule makers to allow them to ignore a rule that has been on the books for almost 15 years. They explain that they never had any idea that they would have to restructure a lot of home mortgages, and thus had no reason to develop systems to deal with the accounting for such restructurings.

“No one anticipated a day when potentially hundreds of thousands of residential mortgage loans would be modified,” said Alison Utermohlen, an official of the Mortgage Bankers Association who has led the effort to get the accounting rules relaxed.

She said many members of the association did not have computer systems adequate to comply with the rule, but she did not identify any specific banks.

Some may doubt that the issue really is a systems problem at the banks, given that the accounting the banks prefer would allow them to report smaller losses as they restructure loans — and thus make their financial statements look better. If the reverse were true, the effort being put into changing the rule might instead be directed at finding ways to comply with it.

But the plea that the banks never saw it coming does ring true. In this cycle, those who lent the money thought that they had no reason to concern themselves with whether it would be paid back.

Instead, they planned to sell the loans, usually to trusts that would then finance the loans by issuing securities. Such trusts have different accounting rules.

In any case, the banks seem to have shared the general belief that house prices would always go up, so anyone unable to meet mortgage payments could sell the house. If losses are never going to appear, why prepare to deal with them?

Now home prices are falling in many areas. The risks of owning mortgage securities began to become apparent last spring, and the securitization markets virtually shut down by summer. Banks now own loans they cannot sell. And many of those loans, made when lending standards were at historic lows, are likely to go bad and need to be restructured.

The accounting rule in question, Financial Accounting Standard 114, was adopted in 1993. Lynn E. Turner, a former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission, recalls that it was enacted because of abuses by financial institutions during the savings and loan debacle. Under the old rule, banks could avoid reporting losses so long as they expected to get the principal back eventually, even if the borrower did not have to pay interest on the restructured loan. The rule put an end to that.

Or at least it put an end to it for most types of loans. These banks live with F.A.S. 114 for their commercial mortgages and corporate loans, but according to Ms. Utermohlen, they don’t have systems in place to do the calculations for large numbers of restructured residential mortgage loans.

The calculations, it turns out, are not that complicated. You could do them with a decent financial calculator, or an Excel spreadsheet. But the banks argue that would take too much effort, given the volume of loans likely to be restructured. “This would be extremely time-consuming and would likely involve additional staff dedicated to this purpose,” Ms. Utermohlen said in a letter to the Financial Accounting Standards Board this week.

Will the banks win this argument? It appears to be one that they want to win without having to actually admit that any specific bank has a problem at all. I called five members of the Mortgage Bankers Association that are represented on the committee that Ms. Utermohlen said she worked with: Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Countrywide Financial and Washington Mutual. Countrywide said that its computer systems were adequate to comply with F.A.S. 114, but that it felt it would be “less burdensome from an operational standpoint” if the rule could be ignored. None of the other four told me whether their systems were adequate.

The decision by the accounting standards board could hinge on whether banking regulators push for such a change. It was banking regulators who originally asked for F.A.S. 114 to be adopted, but some now might prefer to minimize reported losses at a time when the banking system is under great pressure.

No one will admit that the goal is to fudge financial statements, of course. With investors already nervous, the excuse that complying with the rule would cost too much is preferable to an explanation that the reported losses would be too high.

What a choice for the banks to face: report big losses or claim that they are not sophisticated enough to comply with an accounting rule that has been on the books for more than a decade. It’s no wonder they would rather leave the argument to a trade association.

My God, but my heart bleeds for these poor put-upon bastards. They don't deserved to get dumped on like this, especially since their hearts have always been in the right place.

Oh, and to cap off, it seems that the head of mortgage giant Countrywide, who lost their asses in the subprime market, will ride off into the sunset with a whole lot of dough. When companies reach a certain size, their executives are always rewarded for failure--it's the way "business is done" these days.

From abcnews.go.com (1/11/08)

My blog isn't working right, so I can't re-print the article, but here's a very short summary--

Countrywide, the nations largest mortgage lender, bit the dust because of huge losses recently, and barely avoided bankruptcy when Bank of America agreed to buy them for $4 billion. Depending on whether Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide, stays or goes after the buyout is completed, he will get a package of cash and perks worth from $88 million and upwards of $115 million. Not bad for a frickin' failure, is it? Never let it be said that these crooks don't take care of their own.

KBR, Pisswater, and Bush- The saga continues

My previous post on the KBR rape case and the government cover up, here. The Pentagon has now announced they will not investigate the rape, stating that there is no need for them to do so, as it being investigated by the State Department. Helpful, aren't they? And the State Department will be sure to thoroughly examine all of the evidence, like the rape kit results the Army doctor handed to KBR to lose accidentally, and take swift and decisive action just like they did when Blackwater killed all those civilians back in September.

And speaking of Blackwater, we now find out that they repainted the vehicles involved in that massacre immediately after the September murders, making it impossible to examine them for evidence to prove or disprove Blackwater's contention that bullet holes in the trucks showed that they were attacked first. And, according to Think Progress, Blackwater said any such repairs "would have been done at the government's direction". If they're telling the truth for once, it makes our government culpable in impeding their own murder investigation. If Blackwater is lying, no one in our government gives a damn, because they'll never prosecute them anyway.

Blackwater, we also now discover, was involved in an attack on U.S. soldiers back in 2005, when they dropped CS gas on a checkpoint manned by our forces. That, in addition to endangering the lives of our troops is, according to the NYT, a serious violation of the Geneva Conventions. For some reason, they have not been hauled up before a war crimes tribunal.

Is it any wonder that Blackwater has decided it would be prudent to hire another lobbying firm--the third since October-- to make nice with Congress? From Think Progress:

Controversial private security firm Blackwater Worldwide “has ramped up its lobbying representation on Capitol Hill” by hiring the law firm Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice to “lobby the government on contracting and other issues.” “Womble Carlyle is the third lobbying firm to be hired by Moyock, N.C.-based Blackwater since October.” January 9, 2008

Personally, I feel Blackwater is wasting their money on lobbyists. I can't imagine a scenario where any of the Bush administration's favorite Iraq contractors will ever be brought to justice by our government, mostly because KBR and Blackwater are lawless pissant thugs, just like Bush and his boys.

Chamber of Commerce--not your BFF

Tom Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has vowed to do whatever it takes to ensure the defeat of any political candidates the Chamber suspects may push for legislation restricting the free hand that American businesses currently have to screw the American people. Donohue will not tolerate any attempt to restrict their profit margins to benefit the average citizens of this country. At last, The Chamber of Commerce admits they are your enemy.

Reprinted from LA Times 1/08/08

Chamber of Commerce vows to punish anti-business candidates

AP

“We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed,” chamber President Tom Donohue said.

The group indicates it will spend in excess of the approximately $60 million it put out in the last presidential cycle.

By Tom Hamburger, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 8, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business.

"We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," chamber President Tom Donohue said.

The warning from the nation's largest trade association came against a background of mounting popular concern over the condition of the economy. A weak record of job creation, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, declining home values and other problems have all helped make the economy a major campaign issue.

Presidential candidates in particular have responded to the public concern. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has been the bluntest populist voice, but other front-running Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, have also called for change on behalf of middle-class voters.

On the Republican side, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- emerging as an unexpected front-runner after winning the Iowa caucuses -- has used populist themes in his effort to woo independent voters, blasting bonus pay for corporate chief executives and the effect of unfettered globalization on workers.

Reacting to what it sees as a potentially hostile political climate, Donohue said, the chamber will seek to punish candidates who target business interests with their rhetoric or policy proposals, including congressional and state-level candidates.

Although Donohue shied away from precise figures, he indicated that his organization would spend in excess of the approximately $60 million it spent in the last presidential cycle. That approaches the spending levels planned by the largest labor unions.

The chamber president is scheduled to announce the broad outlines of the organization's plans for the 2008 election and beyond at a news conference here today. Donohue also plans to fire a rhetorical warning shot across the bow of candidates considered unfriendly to business.

"I'm concerned about anti-corporate and populist rhetoric from candidates for the presidency, members of Congress and the media," he said. "It suggests to us that we have to demonstrate who it is in this society that creates jobs, wealth and benefits -- and who it is that eats them."

In advance of today's news conference, Donohue told The Times of his plans to be active in 140 congressional districts this year, as well as the presidential contest.

At the state level, Donohue said his organization would be active in nearly four dozen contests for attorney general and state supreme courts. Both state courts and attorneys general are involved in decisions affecting business, including consumer protection and a wide range of litigation.

The chamber has become a significant force in state and national politics under Donohue's decade of leadership. Once a notably bipartisan trade association with a limited budget and limited influence, it has hugely increased its political fundraising and developed new ways to spend money on behalf of pro-business candidates.

Under Donohue, the organization has also frequently aligned itself with GOP priorities.

Since he took over the chamber, contributions by businesses have soared, often to pay for political advertising known as "issue ads," which are exempt from many of the Federal Election Commission limits.

Under a system Donohue pioneered, corporations contribute money to the chamber, which then finances attack ads targeting individual candidates without revealing the name of the businesses involved in the ads.

In 2000, drug companies paid the chamber to run advertisements in Michigan to help elect then-Republican Sen. Spencer Abraham. Pharmaceutical companies that year gave the chamber additional millions to run issue ads attacking mostly Democratic House candidates. And large corporations paid $1 million or more to support advertising campaigns against judges deemed too friendly to plaintiffs.

There has been pressure from lawsuits and government activist groups to require the chamber to reveal the source of its political funds and more details on its spending.

Donohue is not inclined to do so.

"I will disclose any funds I am legally required to disclose -- and not disclose any others," Donohue said. "We are exercising our constitutional right to petition the government and we will continue to do so."

In 2004, the chamber also helped defeat Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, flooding his home state of South Dakota with money, ads and more than 50 on-the-ground organizers.

This year that kind of ground tactic is going to be more prevalent, Donohue said, noting that the chamber plans to make use of its ability to communicate freely with its 3 million member companies located in every congressional district.

In the interview Monday, Donohue said he was unhappy with anti-corporate rhetoric coming from candidates in both parties and he wanted candidates to know about the chamber's ambitious plans.

Donohue is not likely to name names at his news conference, but there is no doubt he is unhappy about Huckabee.

The concerns Donohue expresses reveal apprehension that Republican pro-business candidates may lose favor with voters and that the GOP's important but fragile alliance between economic and social conservatives is showing signs of strain.

Even more than Republicans, Democratic candidates have boosted the volume of populist messages as the economy softens. Edwards, whose trial lawyer past has been openly criticized by Donohue for years, launched new advertisements that warn against the danger of replacing "corporate Republicans with corporate Democrats."

The middle class, Edwards says in the new ad, is "losing ground while CEOs pocket million-dollar bonuses and corporate lobbyists get their way in Washington."

Donohue, in effect the nation's leading business advocate, kicked back hard at some of the leading Democratic proposals on taxes, labor law and the courts.

If that agenda succeeds, he said, Democrats "will be gone from power for at least 40 years," though he acknowledged that the political rhetoric might moderate after the primary season.

"People on the other side have been very strong in the way they play in legislation and elections. We intend to do the same," he said.

tom.hamburger@latimes.com

You read it right here--any candidate who will not legislate or judge who will not rule for big business is in their sights. Gonna let 'em get away with it?

More on Kucinich and Rigged Elections

This is going to actually cover two subjects on which I have recently posted. Both concern Dennis Kucinich and the subversion of our system of elections.

As you know, Kucinich has been (along with a few other candidates) barred from appearing on several televised debates recently, (previous post here) and now NBC has announced that they will not let Kucinich appear on their debate scheduled for 1/15/08 in Las Vegas. This after they had previously invited him. Bless their rotten black hearts. Amy Goodman has a good take on how this forces the candidates harmed by this type of exclusion to rely more heavily on paid advertising to the benefit of the networks, and skews the number of ads in favor of the candidates with the most money.

This is truly dangerous stuff.

Also, Kucinich recently called for a recount of the New Hampshire primary results in light of statistical evidence showing that electronic vote rigging possible occurred. My previous post is here, along with another another opinion piece and more stats, here.

Kucinich's request for a recount has been granted, and he is paying for it, but as explained here, he may have walked into a "no-win" trap. Without full and complete knowledge of the ballot procurement history, and with lax ballot "chain of custody", a vote-rigging operation could easily cover its tracks, making it impossible to uncover.

And, to give you an idea of how Dennis Kucinich is demeaned and dismissed by the right wing press, here is a reprehensible hit piece by Ray Cooklis, a member of the editorial board of the Cincinnati Enquirer, posted on the blog "Today at the Forum".What does it tell you when these people are unwilling or unable to argue the legitimate points of an issue?

New Hampshire Vote Rigging?

The primaries are over in New Hampshire, and on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton pulled off an upset of Barack Obama, defying almost all of the pre-vote polls, which had showed Obama with a commanding lead.

The "talking heads" and "experts" had a million reasons why Clinton won, ranging from a backlash from women incensed at what they perceived as unfair treatment of Clinton on "sexist" grounds, to a sympathy vote from undecided voters for the same reason, to a racist anti-Obama vote, to whatever.

However, there is clear statistical evidence that Clinton may won New Hampshire, not for any of the stated reasons, but because she pulled a disparate advantage from precincts that used the Diebold voting machines.

Brad Friedman has the information, here.

Despite the evidence that Friedman presents, this vote disparity has not drawn comment from either the mainstream media or any of the Presidential contenders, except one.

Dennis Kucinich apparently is the only person running for President who is concerned enough about the integrity and accuracy of our elections to call for a hand recount of all the votes cast in the New Hampshire primary. Kucinich got 1.7% of the votes cast for Democrats, so he is fully aware that any recount will not hand him a victory, but that is not the point.

The point is that the voting public must be sure that their own personal vote has been counted exactly as and for the person intended. If there are irregularities, and God knows there have been thousands of documented instances of this happening, then it must be brought to light and steps taken to provide an accurate amended count and prevent similar occurrences in the future.

My own thought on this subject is simple-- to assume that electronic voter fraud is somehow limited to national election days is naive and shortsighted. If the Republicans (in fairness, it could be the work of space aliens) wanted to rig the vote counts to ensure a "win" for the candidate they would most like to run against, this would be a golden opportunity. And why not, given the circumstances. Clinton needed a boost after her loss in Iowa, and the momentum from a victory in New Hampshire could propel her to the candidacy.

I am not suggesting that the Clinton campaign was in any way involved in vote rigging, but that she was "set up" to benefit in a way that the Republicans (or space aliens) feel would most help them. Given their track record in New Hampshire, it seems likely that electronic vote rigging took place.

But wait, it gets better! Cliff Schecter reports that one man, John Silvestro, who heads up a company, LHS Associates, controls and programs not only the Diebold machines in New Hampshire, but also those in Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts.

Are these dots too hard to connect? Is it too hard to reach the conclusion that we will continue to be "screwees" unless this bullshit is stopped now?

The Fed--wolves guarding the wolf den

The following article illustrates the problem of bringing in people from the sectors they regulate. They will always take care of their friends, and the Federal Reserve is a classic case in point. The Fed exists solely to advance the interests of the Wall Street "money men", no matter what.

A Lesson From the Last, and Next, Recession

By Mark Weisbrot, AlterNet. Posted January 3, 2008.

This will be the second recession since 2001 that was caused by the bursting of an obviously speculative asset bubble.

In the baseball-and-sex classic "Bull Durham" Susan Sarandon accidentally calls out the wrong name in the heat of passion and makes a remarkably quick recovery. She asks her partner which he would rather have, her having sex with him and saying the other guy's name, or vice versa? In the movie, it seems to work; for the moment, at least, he doesn't seem to realize that these aren't the only two possibilities.

Former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan appears to have gotten away with a similar trick, as the housing bubble that bloated up on his watch continues to deflate, dragging the economy towards recession. Since the bubble was easily recognizable (and recognized) as early as 2002, he could very likely have prevented it from growing to dangerous proportions. But he has made it look as though his only choice would have been to raise interest rates, and thereby risk taking down the entire economy much earlier. In the numerous interviews he gave promoting his latest book of memoirs, the journalists neglected to ask him about a more logical option: simply explaining the bubble to the public, and thereby curbing the expectations of ever-rising prices that fed the speculative frenzy.

It is also now widely recognized that the Fed abdicated its responsibility to regulate against predatory, deceptive and abusive lending in the sub-prime mortgage market - although the bubble itself was still the main problem.

Greenspan himself recently put the odds of a recession at 50 percent. And that was before the latest data on house price declines (October, year-over-year) of 6.1 percent - the biggest in more than six years. Greenspan's prognosis was also made before this Christmas holiday shopping season came in at what looks like the worst in five years. But he was overly optimistic even with the data at hand.

It is difficult to imagine that a collapse of asset prices of the magnitude expected - probably on the order of $8 trillion - would not cause a recession. Most of the six-year recovery from the last recession, which ended in November 2001, was fueled by trillions of dollars of borrowing that consumers were able to take against their rising home values. That source of credit is now drying up as home prices fall, and the decline has only begun. It would take another 28 percent in real house price reduction just to bring house prices back to long-term trend levels.

Consumer spending is about 70 percent of the economy, and it is mainly debt-fueled consumption that has kept our economy afloat since the housing bubble began to burst last year. Over the last six months, exports have also expanded considerably - due to the fall in the dollar, which makes US products more competitive in world markets. But exports are only about 12 percent of our economy - so even fast-growing exports cannot compensate for a serious decline in consumer spending.

The international credit crunch, brought on by the collapse of subprime-mortgage-backed securities has added another source of drag and uncertainty to the economy. It could worsen as house prices decline, and losses in assets tied to the rest of the mortgage market - including prime mortgages - will add to the mess. A glut of homes on the market, the prospect of millions of foreclosures, declines in residential construction, a weak labor market, and rising food and energy prices also weigh upon the economy.

Since this will be the second recession since 2001 that was caused by the bursting of an obvious speculative asset bubble - the previous recession was induced by a stock bubble collapse - the question of what the Fed should do about such bubbles should be the subject of Congressional hearings. And we need something better than Bull Durham answers.

***

This mess could have been nipped in the bud, but honesty and forthrightness simply are not hallmarks of unbridled capitalism--Tends to interfere with the profits, don't you know? And the only thing trickling down from these greedy amoral bastards is not economics, but liquid from bladders voiding over fear of their own losses. If you're one of those victimized by their machinations, too bad--you're just "collateral, damaged".


UPDATE: From Think Progress 1/04/08

A delinquent nation.

“Late payments on a cluster of consumer loans, including those for autos, home improvement and certain home equity loans, climbed in the summer to their highest point since the country’s last recession in 2001.” Bush’s response? “This economy of ours is on a solid foundation,” the president said. 10:30 pm

Cleaning up Ohio voting--thank you, Dems!

Ohio (my state) Democrats, swept into all but one high State office in 2006, are showing they are determined to clean up one of the most corrupt, problem-plagued vote counting systems in the country. The Republican shenanigans (read: criminal acts) most evident in the 2004 Ohio election in which John Kerry's strong lead in the reliable "exit polls" mysteriously(?) disappeared and thrust George Bush into a second term have been so well documented that they will earn a special chapter in "Best Election Thefts of All Time", right behind Florida 2000.

It's no wonder that voters have no faith in the system. Voter confidence in the integrity of our elections is perilously low, and our whole system nationally is threatened as a result. However, we have a new sheriff in town, and Jennifer Brunner, the new Ohio Secretary of State, is kickin' ass and takin' names.

She realizes that the myriad schemes the Republicans employed to steal the 2004 election can't be solved at once, but she's trying her best. One of the biggest problems is with the reliability and security of electronic voting machines, which I have taken to calling VRE's (Votes Ready to Eat). Brunner commissioned a bipartisan study which proved that most, if not all, electronic voting systems used in Ohio can be easily altered to either wipe out votes cast or to swing votes from one candidate to another. Brunner recommends decertifying those machines, among other things.

Brunner has also issued a directive that paper ballots be made available to all voters who want one, as well as several other improvements in the vote handling and counting process. The only thing I take serious issue with is her recommendation that votes be tabulated in central locations rather than in the precincts where they were cast. That is a security weakness, because it will allow vote tampering while they are being moved to the central location. But overall, Brunner is making great progress in restoring voter confidence in our system.

If she keeps going like this, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend her head a new national Cabinet position as "Emporer of Election Integrity".

Lakota Indians try secession--we should, too!

This is beautiful! And who can blame them? Hope it works, because it might give us enough courage to follow suit. The Lakota Indians are severing ties with the government of the United States because the Feds have not met their treaty obligations and have continually run roughshod over the rights of the tribes.

Lakota Tribes: Stop This Country, We Want to Get Off!

Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet at 11:41 AM on December 21, 2007.

Well, well, well. This is certainly interesting....

The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means said.

A delegation of Lakota leaders has delivered a message to the State Department, and said they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the U.S., some of them more than 150 years old.

The group also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and would continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months.

Lakota country includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. [...]

The treaties signed with the U.S. were merely "worthless words on worthless paper," the Lakota freedom activists said.

The only thing that's surprising is that there hasn't been a more aggressive push towards self-determination for indigenous Americans. We're all familiar with the struggles of groups like the Kurds in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, or the Basque in Spain and Southern France, among others, but there are independence movements going on all over the world. That our own indigenous nations haven't struggled to secede -- with obvious exceptions like the AIM movement -- is, I suppose, a testament to just how thoroughly Europeans wiped out the natives. The Chechens, Nunavut, Palestinians and Papua New Guineans may have had some fight left in them, but America's indigenous people were well and truly decimated, and the fact that they remain living in squalid poverty in Bantustans called "reservations" -- and that everyone goes about their business like that's not a big deal -- really speaks to that unique American combination of extreme brutality and the exceptionalism that allows us to deny its existence.

The Lakota actually declared independence back in the mid-1970s, but that went nowhere. It's worth noting that a shifting perception of indigenous rights in general is part of the equation:

[The effort gained momentum] in September, when the United Nations adopted a non-binding declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples -- despite opposition from the United States, which said it clashed with its own laws.

"We have 33 treaties with the United States that they have not lived by. They continue to take our land, our water, our children,'' Phyllis Young, who helped organize the first international conference on indigenous rights in Geneva in 1977, told the news conference.

One note about the plan: the Lakota intend to issue their own passports and driver's licenses, and anyone within their territory would be eligible for citizenship. Citizens of the new state would live tax-free, and all a person has to do is renounce their allegiance to the United States.

I can see conservative heads exploding over that Sophie's Choice: On the one hand, you can live in Nebraska without ever paying taxes again, but on the other, you've got to become a dirty, rotten, un-American foreigner and can never mindlessly (but honestly) scream U-S-A! U-S-A! at a sporting event again.

***

And a map of the new nation of Lakota (H/T- Jazz From Hell)

***

Wow!! "Worthless words on worthless paper." Imagine if our government treated us like it has treated our indigenous peoples, lying and breaking treaties and promises to serve their own ends-- treating us like dirt and ignoring our pleas. Oh, wait--it does treat us exactly like that!

I stand in solidarity with the Lakota Nation, and would suggest that since our government has failed to meet its obligations to us, has lied to us repeatedly, and is unresponsive to the will of the people, that it would behoove us to do as the Lakota have done, and sever ties to the government of the United States.

We-- every state-- should secede from the Union, and leave our lying, corrupt government sitting in Washington in charge of nothing. They don't deserve us, and we certainly don't deserve them. We should take our beloved Constitution with us, and use it as a template for a new document, correcting all of the weaknesses that have been exploited to bring us to our sorry pass, and start anew.

Maybe, with selfless dedication like that so admirably demonstrated by our original Founding Fathers, we can forge what is truly a "more perfect union". And welcome the Nation of Lakota as our 51st state.

Corporate Takeover of Elections--No Film @ 11

"Free elections" is a concept that exists only in theory these days. They're free only in the sense that you don't have to pay to cast your vote, and that assumes you haven't been victimized by efforts in several "red"states to impose costly ID requirements to prove eligibility. And they're free in that you get to choose the candidate you feel best qualified for President. The big problem there is that the corporate media has taken it upon themselves to allow you to see only those candidates that they want you to see, so your best informed judgement will be from watching debates by candidates pre-approved by the media. This is their way of choosing the next President with your vote.

Why am I bitching? Because our elections are supposed to be made by an informed electorate, and that aint happening. It's bad enough that the regular political coverage of the candidates is totally biased and misleading, as reported by biased and misleading "reporters and "experts", but the debates-- which should be fair, open, and free of outside influence-- aren't. You can't be informed if you aren't fully exposed to the views of all the candidates, and what Fox News and ABC News and recently The Des Moines Register have done is to restrict access to the candidates. They have each, at least once, denied debate access to candidates who failed to meet their arbitrary "criteria". These articles will give you the idea.

Should Big Media Choose OurCandidates ?
(AlterNet 1/03/08)

ABC cuts three from presidential debate
(AP 1/04/08) (H/T- The Raw Story)
(Excerpt follows)
ABC News is eliminating Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter and Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from its prime-time presidential debates Saturday night because they did not meet benchmarks for their support.

The Des Moines Register had disqualified Dennis Kuchinich from an Iowa debate and used tortured excuses to do so.

There is something fundamentally wrong when big corporate owned media, whose income depends on advertising revenue from corporate sponsors, is allowed to sway the outcome of elections through censorship of information to which we have a right. There is no way our democracy can survive under these conditions. We are the ones who are supposed to decide who to vote for, not them.

If a candidate is worthwhile, it is supposed to be proven at the ballot box, by our informed vote. On the other hand, any candidate should be given the debate forum to expose him/herself as an idiot, and it's for us to see and decide.

Under these new rules of the game, when the media call all the shots, we don't have legitimate choice, and any election result is more likely to be badly skewed in favor of the debate sponsors and their backers.

Lest you think that I am more disturbed by the censoring of Democratic candidates, I assure you that I am not. Any candidate from any party has the right to and deserves equal time to express their ideas. Anything less in un-American and un-democratic.

Clear Federal guidelines should be put into place at once to ensure that the debate process is conducted under uniform guidelines by all sponsors , and that every candidate is afforded equal time.

If we're going to permit corporate control of our elections, it seems to me that the next logical step will be to sell naming rights to the polling places, and to permit pop-up ads on the voting machines, and coupons on the paper ballots. And the way it's looking, that's not too far-fetched. What the hell, we're coming to the time when our whole cumbersome system of elections can be eliminated entirely, and our leaders chosen by Fortune 500 CEO's and Wall Street tycoons. Look at the trouble we'll save.

WHITE HOUSE COVERS FOR RAPISTS

SEND THIS TO EVERY "VALUES VOTER"YOU KNOW !

From THINK PROGRESS 1/03/08


Bush Administration Misses Deadline to Respond to KBR Rape Questions

Last month, ABC News reported that a former Halliburton/KBR employee, Jamie Leigh Jones, had been gang-raped by her co-workers while working in Baghdad. She was then left by the company in a “shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water.”

Shortly after the news broke, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “requesting details on how many Americans in Iraq had reported being sexually assaulted or abused, how they were investigated, and if any had been recommended for prosecution.” He gave the State Department a deadline of Dec. 21 to respond. Yet according to Nelson’s office, the senator has not yet received any response:

He has not received a reply, a spokesman confirmed. … Nor has Nelson received replies from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates or Attorney General Michael Mukasey, to whom he also wrote asking for information and assistance, according to the lawmaker’s spokesman. […]

Asked about missing that deadline, a State Department spokesman told ABC News, “If the senator has asked questions, I’m quite sure we will provide answers. But it’s not something I could discuss with you.”

Former Halliburton/KBR employees have described an atmosphere of “rampant sexual harassment.” Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) has also confirmed that his office has heard from multiple other women who were victims of sexual assault while working for KBR in Iraq.

The refusal of the Bush administration to respond to Nelson’s request mirrors its foot-dragging on Jones’s case over the past two years. Despite Poe’s involvement in the case, the Justice Department has refused to bring criminal charges against anyone, and it appears that no “federal agency [is] investigating the case.”

Last month, the Justice Department also refused to send a representative to answer questions on the case before the House Judiciary Committee. “This is an absolute disgrace,” remarked chairman John Conyers (D-MI).

***

ASK ALL OF THE "VALUES VOTERS" HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION CONDONES RAPE. WHY ISN'T OUR GOVERNMENT EAGERLY HELPING CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATIONS INTO THESE CRIMES? DO YOU STILL BELIEVE EVERYTHING THEY HAVE TOLD YOU ALL THIS TIME? THIS SHOULD CONVINCE YOU THAT THEY HAVE LIED TO YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN. YOU HAVE BEEN USED! NOW, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT???

GOPs CROOKS and PERVS-- BEST of 2007

Two lists, compiled through the diligent efforts of TPM Muckraker here, and Pensito Review here.

Both lists are lengthy but edited, because after all, there are only so many electrons available.

Tips of the iceberg, both of 'em.

From the Department of Fatherland Security

Miscellany from the Internets:

Innocent Icelandic Woman Held, Chained, Tortured by Homeland Security at Airport
(AlterNet 12/21/07)

Chilling, in both the specifics of this woman's ordeal, but in the implications it has for all of us. I must surmise that the thuggish secret police tactics described here are used far more often than reported. Welcome to America, traveler! Did these stasi think they had Ingrid BinLadensdottir on their hands?

The Airport Security Follies
NYT 12/28/07

I don't know how long this link will be good, so I'm copying the full article, with added emphasis in parts:

By Patrick Smith

Six years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, airport security remains a theater of the absurd. The changes put in place following the September 11th catastrophe have been drastic, and largely of two kinds: those practical and effective, and those irrational, wasteful and pointless.

The first variety have taken place almost entirely behind the scenes. Explosives scanning for checked luggage, for instance, was long overdue and is perhaps the most welcome addition. Unfortunately, at concourse checkpoints all across America, the madness of passenger screening continues in plain view. It began with pat-downs and the senseless confiscation of pointy objects. Then came the mandatory shoe removal, followed in the summer of 2006 by the prohibition of liquids and gels. We can only imagine what is next.

To understand what makes these measures so absurd, we first need to revisit the morning of September 11th, and grasp exactly what it was the 19 hijackers so easily took advantage of. Conventional wisdom says the terrorists exploited a weakness in airport security by smuggling aboard box-cutters. What they actually exploited was a weakness in our mindset — a set of presumptions based on the decades-long track record of hijackings.

In years past, a takeover meant hostage negotiations and standoffs; crews were trained in the concept of “passive resistance.” All of that changed forever the instant American Airlines Flight 11 collided with the north tower. What weapons the 19 men possessed mattered little; the success of their plan relied fundamentally on the element of surprise. And in this respect, their scheme was all but guaranteed not to fail.

For several reasons — particularly the awareness of passengers and crew — just the opposite is true today. Any hijacker would face a planeload of angry and frightened people ready to fight back. Say what you want of terrorists, they cannot afford to waste time and resources on schemes with a high probability of failure. And thus the September 11th template is all but useless to potential hijackers.

No matter that a deadly sharp can be fashioned from virtually anything found on a plane, be it a broken wine bottle or a snapped-off length of plastic, we are content wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and untold hours of labor in a delusional attempt to thwart an attack that has already happened, asked to queue for absurd lengths of time, subject to embarrassing pat-downs and loss of our belongings.

The folly is much the same with respect to the liquids and gels restrictions, introduced two summers ago following the breakup of a London-based cabal that was planning to blow up jetliners using liquid explosives. Allegations surrounding the conspiracy were revealed to substantially embellished. In an August, 2006 article in the New York Times, British officials admitted that public statements made following the arrests were overcooked, inaccurate and “unfortunate.” The plot’s leaders were still in the process of recruiting and radicalizing would-be bombers. They lacked passports, airline tickets and, most critical of all, they had been unsuccessful in actually producing liquid explosives. Investigators later described the widely parroted report that up to ten U.S airliners had been targeted as “speculative” and “exaggerated.”

Among first to express serious skepticism about the bombers’ readiness was Thomas C. Greene, whose essay in The Register explored the extreme difficulty of mixing and deploying the types of binary explosives purportedly to be used. Green conferred with Professor Jimmie C. Oxley, an explosives specialist who has closely studied the type of deadly cocktail coveted by the London plotters.

“The notion that deadly explosives can be cooked up in an airplane lavatory is pure fiction,” Greene told me during an interview. “A handy gimmick for action movies and shows like ‘24.’ The reality proves disappointing: it’s rather awkward to do chemistry in an airplane toilet. Nevertheless, our official protectors and deciders respond to such notions instinctively, because they’re familiar to us: we’ve all seen scenarios on television and in the cinema. This, incredibly, is why you can no longer carry a bottle of water onto a plane.”

The threat of liquid explosives does exist, but it cannot be readily brewed from the kinds of liquids we have devoted most of our resources to keeping away from planes. Certain benign liquids, when combined under highly specific conditions, are indeed dangerous. However, creating those conditions poses enormous challenges for a saboteur.

“I would not hesitate to allow that liquid explosives can pose a danger,” Greene added, recalling Ramzi Yousef’s 1994 detonation of a small nitroglycerine bomb aboard Philippine Airlines Flight 434. The explosion was a test run for the so-called “Project Bojinka,” an Al Qaeda scheme to simultaneously destroy a dozen widebody airliners over the Pacific Ocean. “But the idea that confiscating someone’s toothpaste is going to keep us safe is too ridiculous to entertain.”

Yet that’s exactly what we’ve been doing. The three-ounce container rule is silly enough — after all, what’s to stop somebody from carrying several small bottles each full of the same substance — but consider for a moment the hypocrisy of T.S.A.’s confiscation policy. At every concourse checkpoint you’ll see a bin or barrel brimming with contraband containers taken from passengers for having exceeded the volume limit. Now, the assumption has to be that the materials in those containers are potentially hazardous. If not, why were they seized in the first place? But if so, why are they dumped unceremoniously into the trash? They are not quarantined or handed over to the bomb squad; they are simply thrown away. The agency seems to be saying that it knows these things are harmless. But it’s going to steal them anyway, and either you accept it or you don’t fly.

But of all the contradictions and self-defeating measures T.S.A. has come up with, possibly none is more blatantly ludicrous than the policy decreeing that pilots and flight attendants undergo the same x-ray and metal detector screening as passengers. What makes it ludicrous is that tens of thousands of other airport workers, from baggage loaders and fuelers to cabin cleaners and maintenance personnel, are subject only to occasional random screenings when they come to work.

These are individuals with full access to aircraft, inside and out. Some are airline employees, though a high percentage are contract staff belonging to outside companies. The fact that crew members, many of whom are former military fliers, and all of whom endured rigorous background checks prior to being hired, are required to take out their laptops and surrender their hobby knives, while a caterer or cabin cleaner sidesteps the entire process and walks onto a plane unimpeded, nullifies almost everything our T.S.A. minders have said and done since September 11th, 2001. If there is a more ringing let-me-get-this-straight scenario anywhere in the realm of airport security, I’d like to hear it.

I’m not suggesting that the rules be tightened for non-crew members so much as relaxed for all accredited workers. Which perhaps urges us to reconsider the entire purpose of airport security:

The truth is, regardless of how many pointy tools and shampoo bottles we confiscate, there shall remain an unlimited number of ways to smuggle dangerous items onto a plane. The precise shape, form and substance of those items is irrelevant. We are not fighting materials, we are fighting the imagination and cleverness of the would-be saboteur.

Thus, what most people fail to grasp is that the nuts and bolts of keeping terrorists away from planes is not really the job of airport security at all. Rather, it’s the job of government agencies and law enforcement. It’s not very glamorous, but the grunt work of hunting down terrorists takes place far off stage, relying on the diligent work of cops, spies and intelligence officers. Air crimes need to be stopped at the planning stages. By the time a terrorist gets to the airport, chances are it’s too late.

In the end, I’m not sure which is more troubling, the inanity of the existing regulations, or the average American’s acceptance of them and willingness to be humiliated. These wasteful and tedious protocols have solidified into what appears to be indefinite policy, with little or no opposition. There ought to be a tide of protest rising up against this mania. Where is it? At its loudest, the voice of the traveling public is one of grumbled resignation. The op-ed pages are silent, the pundits have nothing meaningful to say.

The airlines, for their part, are in something of a bind. The willingness of our carriers to allow flying to become an increasingly unpleasant experience suggests a business sense of masochistic capitulation. On the other hand, imagine the outrage among security zealots should airlines be caught lobbying for what is perceived to be a dangerous abrogation of security and responsibility — even if it’s not. Carriers caught plenty of flack, almost all of it unfair, in the aftermath of September 11th. Understandably, they no longer want that liability.

As for Americans themselves, I suppose that it’s less than realistic to expect street protests or airport sit-ins from citizen fliers, and maybe we shouldn’t expect too much from a press and media that have had no trouble letting countless other injustices slip to the wayside. And rather than rethink our policies, the best we’ve come up with is a way to skirt them — for a fee, naturally — via schemes like Registered Traveler. Americans can now pay to have their personal information put on file just to avoid the hassle of airport security. As cynical as George Orwell ever was, I doubt he imagined the idea of citizens offering up money for their own subjugation.

How we got to this point is an interesting study in reactionary politics, fear-mongering and a disconcerting willingness of the American public to accept almost anything in the name of “security.” Conned and frightened, our nation demands not actual security, but security spectacle. And although a reasonable percentage of passengers, along with most security experts, would concur such theater serves no useful purpose, there has been surprisingly little outrage. In that regard, maybe we’ve gotten exactly the system we deserve.
***

It's all part of the grooming process to which we are being subjected by our government. Getting us used to the humiliation and inconvenience these capricious rules impose on us, to make us compliant when other, far more intrusive, policies are put into place. Speaking of which, see below.

Privacy groups blast new passport tech
AP/Yahoo (12/31/07)

Reprinted with emphasis added:

WASHINGTON - Passport cards for Americans who travel to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean will be equipped with technology that allows information on the card to be read from a distance.

The technology was approved Monday by the State Department and privacy advocates were quick to criticize the department for not doing more to protect information on the card, which can be used by U.S. citizens instead of a passport when traveling to other countries in the western hemisphere.

The technology would allow the cards to be read from up to 20 feet away. This process only takes one or two seconds, said Ann Barrett, deputy assistant secretary for passport services at the State Department. The card would not have to be physically swiped through a reader, as is the current process with passports.

The technology is "inherently insecure and poses threats to personal privacy, including identity theft," Ari Schwartz, of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a statement. Schwartz said this specific technology, called "vicinity read," is better suited for tracking inventory, not people.

The State Department said privacy protections will be built into the card. The chip on the card will not contain biographical information, Barrett said.

And the card vendor — which has yet to be decided — will also provide sleeves for the cards that will prevent them from being read from afar, she said.

A 2004 law to strengthen border security called for a passport card that frequent border crossers could use that would be smaller and more convenient than the traditional passport. Currently, officials must swipe travelers' passports through an electronic reader at entry points.

The technology change for passport cards was initially proposed in October 2006, and public comments closed on Jan. 7, 2007. The State Department received more than 4,000 comments, and most were about the security of the technology.

On Jan. 31, land and sea travelers returning to the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda will no longer be allowed to make an oral declaration of citizenship and must present a birth certificate, driver's license or passport.

To relieve a backlog at U.S. passport offices, the Bush administration recently delayed a requirement that Americans present passports when crossing the U.S. border by land or sea. The administration wanted to begin requiring passports or passport cards in mid-2008, but Congress mandates that the rule not go into effect until summer 2009.

***

How convenient. Now the government can track all of your movements throughout North America by remote scanning. Much easier to build those dossiers. (And God help anyone who drops their wallet overboard from a cruise ship--they'll probably be deported to Iceland if they're ever released.)

The right person in the Presidency could stop this madness on their first day in office. But the odds are against that person being elected. Way against. How very sad.

Oh, and don't forget the National ID Card that may be on the horizon. Sleep tight, y'all.

Dump Your Stereotypes!

The following should give you pause, as it points out the damage that our ingrained prejudices can cause even when we are not aware of them. This article, "Whites more likely to get ER narcotics", is by Carla K. Johnson @AP, via Yahoo News (1/02/08)

CHICAGO - Emergency room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, a new study finds. Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine less frequently than whites.

The analysis of more than 150,000 emergency room visits over 13 years found differences in prescribing by race and ethnicity in both urban and rural hospitals, in all U.S. regions and for every type of pain.

"The gaps between whites and nonwhites have not appeared to close at all," said study co-author Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California, San Francisco.

The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. Prescribing narcotics for pain in emergency rooms rose during the study, from 23 percent of those complaining of pain in 1993 to 37 percent in 2005.

The increase coincided with changing attitudes among doctors who now regard pain management as a key to healing. Doctors in accredited hospitals must ask patients about pain, just as they monitor vital signs such as temperature and pulse.

Even with the increase, the racial gap endured. Linda Simoni-Wastila of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Pharmacy said the race gap finding may reveal some doctors' suspicions that minority patients could be drug abusers lying about pain to get narcotics.

The irony, she said, is that blacks are the least likely group to abuse prescription drugs. Hispanics are becoming as likely as whites to abuse prescription opioids and stimulants, according to her research. She was not involved in the current study.

The study's authors said doctors may be less likely to see signs of painkiller abuse in white patients, or they may be undertreating pain in minority patients.

Patient behavior may play a role, Pletcher said. Minority patients "may be less likely to keep complaining about their pain or feel they deserve good pain control," he said.

Stricter protocols for prescribing narcotics may help close the gap.

A New York hospital recently studied its emergency patients and found no racial disparity in narcotics prescribed for broken bones. Montefiore Medical Center aggressively treats pain and is developing protocols for painkillers that dictate initial dosages and times to check with patients to see if they need more pain medicine, said Dr. David Esses, emergency department associate director at Montefiore.

Such standards may eliminate racial disparities, Esses said.

In the study, opioid narcotics were prescribed in 31 percent of the pain-related visits involving whites, 28 percent for Asians, 24 percent for Hispanics and 23 percent for blacks.

Minorities were slightly more likely than whites to get aspirin, ibuprofen and similar drugs for pain.

In more than 2,000 visits for kidney stones, whites got narcotics 72 percent of the time, Hispanics 68 percent, Asians 67 percent and blacks 56 percent.

The data came from a well-regarded government survey that collects information on emergency room visits for four weeks each year from 500 U.S. hospitals. The new study was funded by federal grants.

"It's time to move past describing disparities and work on narrowing them," said Dr. Thomas L. Fisher, an emergency room doctor at the University of Chicago Medical Center who was not involved in the study.

Fisher, who is black, said he is not immune to letting subconscious assumptions inappropriately influence his work as a doctor.

"If anybody argues they have no social biases that sway clinical practice, they have not been thoughtful about the issue or they're not being honest with themselves," he said.

Link to article in JAMA, here

***

Here's the deal--We all have fallen into the habit of automatically placing people in to groups based on any of a thousand criteria; black,brown, yellow, attractive, bald, tall, short, fat, thin, Southern, foreign, man, woman, gay, liberal, conservative, religious fundamentalist, Muslim, Arab, French, blond, or Hispanic, to name but a few. We then assign to each group an expected set of behaviors, and become predisposed to judge the members of a particular group according to our expectations.

As the above piece illustrates so well, this kind of lazy thinking is not only inaccurate but dangerous and harmful. We are all guilty, and we all carry within us dozens, if not scores or hundreds, of these "niches" for people, some of them buried so deeply as to preclude our awareness of them.

If we as "rational" beings are ever to advance our understanding and tolerance of others, we must constantly be aware of our prejudices and work to eliminate them entirely. It's not easy, but is necessary to achieve enlightened attitudes toward others. Failure to do so will continue to result in damages and injustices great and small to those who simply do not deserve them.

We must 1) always be aware of our tendency to preconceptions, 2) approach every news article, op-ed, speech, sermon and personal interaction with an open mind, and 3) LEARN TO TREAT OTHERS AS THE INDIVIDUALS THEY ARE.

You'd be amazed at how far this kind of self-awareness can go toward eliminating hate. Once you realize that Mexican men are no more likely than any other group to spray paint your virginal daughter as foreplay, or steal your car, you will understand that those who would have you believe such things deserve nothing but derision and contempt.

POPE: GAYS A THREAT TO WORLD PEACE

From Reuters (1/01/08) (H/T-PageOneQ.com)

"VATICAN CITY, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict ushered in the New Year on Tuesday by criticising policies that undermine the traditional family, saying they eroded one of the most important foundations for peace in the world.

The Pontiff, delivering a traditional New Year prayer for peace, appeared to take a swipe at efforts in several countries to grant legal recognition to gay and unwed couples -- although he did not single out any policies by name.

He said the traditional family led by a husband and wife instilled values that promote peace, and added it was an "irreplaceable" institution.

"Those who are hostile, even unknowingly, to the institution of the family ... make peace fragile for the entire national and international community," the Pope told crowds gathered in a sunny St. Peter's Square.

The German-born Benedict has made defending the traditional family a priority since being elected Pontiff in 2005 following the death of John Paul II, focusing much of his attention on Europe.

Gay marriage is legal in several European countries including predominantly Catholic Spain, where hundreds of thousands of Catholics rallied on Sunday in favour of the traditional family. The Pontiff had addressed the Spanish rally via a live video-link.

Speaking earlier on Tuesday at St. Peter's Basilica, the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics urged followers to reject challenges to the family "eclipsing the truth of man".

"I wanted to shed light on the direct relationship that exists between the family and peace in the world," the Pope said.

"The family is the primary agent of peace and the negation or even the restriction of rights of the family ... threatens the very foundations of peace."

Quoting from a message he issued in December to mark the Church's World Day of Peace on Jan. 1, Benedict said the family was "the first and irreplaceable educator of peace".

He also said that if the world wanted to live in peace, it would need to recognise those universal values that all people share as part of a single, "human family". (Editing by Keith Weir)

The German-born Benedict has made defending the traditional family a priority since being elected Pontiff in 2005 following the death of John Paul II, focusing much of his attention on Europe.

Gay marriage is legal in several European countries including predominantly Catholic Spain, where hundreds of thousands of Catholics rallied on Sunday in favour of the traditional family. The Pontiff had addressed the Spanish rally via a live video-link.

Speaking earlier on Tuesday at St. Peter's Basilica, the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics urged followers to reject challenges to the family "eclipsing the truth of man".

"I wanted to shed light on the direct relationship that exists between the family and peace in the world," the Pope said.

"The family is the primary agent of peace and the negation or even the restriction of rights of the family ... threatens the very foundations of peace."

Quoting from a message he issued in December to mark the Church's World Day of Peace on Jan. 1, Benedict said the family was "the first and irreplaceable educator of peace".

He also said that if the world wanted to live in peace, it would need to recognise those universal values that all people share as part of a single, "human family"." (Editing by Keith Weir)

**

The title of this blog post was copied from PageOneQ, and I have to say that while it may be an overreach to accuse the Pope of blatant anti-gay rhetoric, it is certainly accurate to say that his remarks are at least a back-handed slap at those among us who are genetically unprepared to live in a traditional nuclear family.

His remarks seem to legitimize efforts around the world to deny homosexuals the basic rights and respect due to all of God's children, and they raise several other issues as well.

I understand and agree with his position that the "family unit" forms the basis of society, but he's ascribing tremendous importance to an entity that exists only as a fond memory, at least in the U.S., where our economic system has destroyed the ability of families to live in the traditional way. How valuable to world peace is a family in which both parents have been forced into the workplace to make ends meet? How are parents in that situation to impart values to their children necessary to promote peaceful principles? How valuable is a traditional family when the divorce rate is over 50%? And, his Holiness ignores the fact that most families are dysfunctional, partly due to job pressures, but due more to the constant brainwashing of our citizens to be profligate consumers, which is antithetical to the empathy required for the development of anti-war attitudes. When we are pitted against one another in the race to the "good life", how can we possibly expect to show forbearance to anyone else competing for the last X Box on the shelf? Or to anyone else in the world who we perceive as a threat?

Nonetheless, I will concede that Benedict probably meant well, but his remarks were, in the end, misguided.

If the Pope were truly serious about the importance of the family to world peace, his arrows should have been loosed at the economic forces which promote war, and which destroy families, not those people who simply share a lifestyle outside of the "traditional" family.

Oligarchical decay--Glenn Greenwald

This may be the best essay ever from a consistently good author. You must read this masterpiece. No other comment is necessary. Quiz later.

Some tragic consequences of greed-Iraq is dying

Our nation is engaged in a years long occupation of Iraq following a pre-emptive invasion driven entirely by the profits to be made, and we are a nation of murderers. We have killed over 1,000,000 Iraqis and that shameful total will pale with the passage of time and the dead continue to pile up. The final death toll from our incursion may not ever be known, but it will assuredly be multiples of the figures we have today.

I have a question for all of the defense contractors, and the Pentagon brass, and the war profiteers, and the people who work for them, and the shareholders, and our fine legislators who enable this slaughter, and the media mouthpieces who screech the administration line--Does it bother you in the least that your money is soaked in human blood?

Food is becoming scarce in Iraq now, the doctors have fled in large numbers, simple sanitation is almost non-existent, and our continued presence exacerbates the problems. The factional fighting in and out of the government, coupled with rampant corruption, means that solutions to these problems will not be found or implemented until the divisions are healed. That will not happen as long as we are an occupying force.

But I digress. The last tally indicates that we started a chain of events that have made orphans of 5,000,000 Iraqi children so far. They will be lucky to live to adulthood, considering the conditions I have described. And what kind of people will they become if they do live?

And thanks to the nuclear industry, we will be spreading birth defects and cancer deaths for 4.5 billion years. Depleted Uranium (DU) is a byproduct of the process used to convert uranium into nuclear weapons and reactor fuel, and we have loads of this "low-level" radioactive waste just sitting around. Our weapons manufacturers, however, have discovered that this extremely dense material is useful in armor-piercing shells. The military loves the stuff, and although they treat it like the very essence of death in their internal policies, publicly defend it as harmless, and have gifted Iraq with over 2,000 tons of it since the first Gulf War.

Cancer deaths and serious birth defects will increase dramatically as the effects of the DU scattered throughout the now-radioactive Iraq soil work their inexorable magic.

Given the seriousness and diversity of the problems we have created, I cannot fathom how the Iraqi's can survive as a peoples, much less as a viable culture.

Murder, Inc. pays dividends into perpetuity. Hold onto your stock. Go shopping.

Don't adjust your radio, you're in "The Romney Zone"

There are some things happening that give rise to oddball speculation.

A private equity firm founded by Republican Presidential contender Mitt Romney is attempting to get regulatory approval to purchase Clear Channel Communications, which owns over 1,200 radio stations and 30 tv stations. Considering the makeup of the FCC, it shouldn't be a problem. Romney, who founded Bain Capital Partners LLC, no longer sits on their board of directors, but almost assuredly retains a financial interest. A media giant controlling 9% of the radio waves would be quite a tool for someone running for President, but maybe he has something else in mind for the long term.

As you may have heard, Romney is a devout Mormon, a church often described as a cult, and which has some very odd (to the uninitiated) beliefs. Beliefs odd enough that it wouldn't surprise me to learn that they are negotiating with the government of Guyana to build a huge temple and a Kool-Aid factory in Jonestown. And, they are very much into spreading the word through intense missionary work.

With that in mind, just imagine using Clear Channel's airwaves to broadcast the Mormon message to the masses 24 hours a day. Wouldn't that be educational? Now I'm sure that most of you don't have a Clear Channel station in your area, but I live in the Cincinnati, OH area, and the dominant station by far is Clear Channel affiliate WLW, a putrid 50,000 watt right-wing behemoth. I can just see their "personalities" reading from the Mormon scripture all day long, interspersed with public service announcements from the Chamber of Commerce and the Republican National Committee. That potential scenario would be worse (by a little) than what we have here now, and if repeated nationally, would be a disaster for anyone with a brain.

Yes, this is off-the-wall, but remember--in America anything is possible.

Almost totally off-subject, "someone" recently sent a holiday card, purporting to be from the Romney family and falsely claiming to have been paid for by the Boston Mass. Temple, to registered Republicans in South Carolina. The card contains passages from The Book of Mormon designed to give voters the "willies" before the primary. The Republicans have no, absolutely no, ethics and will stoop to any underhanded method they can dream of to smear an opponent. Whether the facts about Romney are accurate or not should not even be a consideration when judging the morality of these tactics. They are never justified. And they're just getting started. You can always spot the people who pull this crap--they're the ones who leave a slime trail.

In closing, I will defend Romney by saying that he is really no worse than any of the other GOP contenders--Every one of them is determined to turn the U.S. into either a fascist state or a theocracy or a combination of the two.

The ugly, the bad, and the ugly

Here are links to four sites and articles which are not really connected, but which I found to be interesting. Hope they're useful to you.

American Institute of Philanthropy
This website is worth checking out before you donate to any charity, especially since some that just sound wonderful only give as little as one per cent of the money they take in to the cause they espouse. It's the new American way-- profiting from others misery and sucking in the gullible.

Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes after Personal Use
(washingtonpost.com 12/30/07)
The egregiously greedy recording industry, already having filed about 20,000 lawsuits against people who download free music and share tunes, has now filed a suit against some poor guy who owns 2,000 CD's and downloaded them on to his own computer. They are claiming that the MP3 files he made from his legally owned CD's are "unauthorized copies".
How long before they claim that it's illegal to listen to the CD's themselves?

Circuit City reaps what it sowed
(The Agonist 12/26/07)
Several months back, Circuit City, in an admirable display of "corporate conscience", canned 3,000 experienced retail salespeople and replaced them with new workers who could be paid much less. That sort of thing is supposed to be good for the bottom line, and for shareholder equity. Well, HA HA HA!! Their stock, which was around $25.00/share last December, has dropped to $5.06/ per share as of Friday. Greed kills, and it couldn't have happened to a more deserving company. If all of the greedy corporations who pad their bottoms lines by screwing their employees suffered a similar fate, Costco would be about the only company left.

U.S. seen internationally as an "Endemic Surveillance Society"
(Think Progress 12/30/07)
Privacy International
(12/28/07)
I saved this one for the bottom of the list for a reason--It's where the U.S. stands in the world in protecting the privacy rights of its citizens. To earn this distinction, our government had to trample on a lot of Constitutional rights and break a shitload of laws, but nothing ventured- nothing gained, and the Bush administrations single-minded pursuit of its goal has brought us an honor reserved for what are commonly the most repressive regimes on Earth. Doesn't it give you a warm feeling? Makes you want to salute "Old Glory"? Want to whisper the good news to your neighbors?

ON NEW YEARS DAY--RE-CONNECT WITH YOUR VALUES

I'm as guilty as the next person about forgetting what it is that makes me "me". Liberals have lived for years now under assault by people who demonize our core values, and we tend to lose ourselves by lashing back at those who attack us. Instead of holding to the attitudes and values that define us as liberals, we often forget them in our outrage, and thereby lessen ourselves.

Our values are based on empathy, which begets caring, equality, justice, and generosity of spirit. It must be remembered that others, who demean these values, are not like us. Their values tend to be self-centered, and greedy, and punitive. We run the risk of becoming like them when we respond to them in kind. And it's hard not to when we see the the tremendous damage done to our country as well as the rest of the world by those who hate and those whose only goal is the accumulation of wealth and power.

And so it's important that step away from the"hate and rage" mode that we fall into and look within ourselves periodically to re-connect with our souls. We dare not lose sight of what it is that forms the base of our morality, lest we become like those we loathe.

One way that I do this is by watching "The Dash Movie" every so often. Many of you have seen this, but it is definitely worth watching again, and again. You might find it "sappy", but the basic simple truths so eloquently set forth resonate powerfully in me, and describe perfectly why I am a liberal.

A friend sent me an e-mail recently with an inspirational story, which was obviously a fiction designed to deliver the moral, which mirrors that of "The Dash Movie": "We will not be remembered by our words , but by our kind deeds. Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments which take our breath", and "It's not what you gather, but what you scatter that tells what kind of life you have lived".

And so, my friends, take a little time and rediscover what is truly important, so that your actions can be guided accordingly. Know your enemies, don't become like your enemy, and when you make that critical distinction, you can proceed to smite them soundly for what they have done, but for all the right reasons .

To Sen. Craig and the rest--"Sorry"

For the new year, I hereby resolve to "narrow my stance", if you will, on the hypocrisy of gay Republicans. I will soften my crude sophomoric criticism of the all the closeted (or water-closeted) Republican politicians who have been busted (and 2007 had a banner crop) for soliciting gay sex in restrooms and elsewhere, while loudly proclaiming their anti-gay beliefs and legislating accordingly.

Not that they don't deserve all the bashing they get, but I'm the wrong person to do it. I am ashamed to admit that I have a serious shortcoming that, when I compare my typing skills to their sexual needs, would make it hypocritical on my part to continue criticizing their hypocrisy. I am simply not in a "position" to continue my attacks.

To the victims of my acerbic wit:

Although your numbers are legion, I will address my apology to the foremost among you, Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), the "capo de capo frutti" of the Senate Republicans, and trust you will accept it as if it were given to each of you in person.

Senator Craig, I extend my deepest apologies for the unfair treatment I have visited upon you. In the spirit of the new year, and in keeping with my belief in giving a sucker an even break, you shall no longer suffer the slings and arrows of my outrageous keyboard. And why is that, you ask? It's very simple, Senator-- I can't type worth a damn, and that means we're both just "hunt 'n peckers".

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

THE GODMEN ? SWEET JESUS, WHAT NEXT?

Read this from The Raw Story, and watch the video.

What we have here is a group of guys who have decided that Christianity is "too soft". So many broads filling the pews that a manly man can't even fart in church, so they're taking their message on the road to show Christian men that Jesus had Him a tough side that churches don't want them to know about.

A real man's Jesus is the one that beat the crap out of the money changers. He don't take nothin' from nobody. He makes enemies so He can pray for them while He beats them to a bloody pulp. That Jesus belongs to the NRA and rules his house with His wife as a junior partner, and she better not forget it. That Jesus can cure his homosexuality, and screw any man who doesn't believe it. And so on.

These "GodMen" proudly proclaim they are not a church, but they sure seem like one-- if you watched the video, you'll have noticed that they raked in $68 apiece from 300 good Christian men. Let's see, that comes to a little over $20,000 in the collection plate.

I'm guessing they are going to use all of the proceeds to expand their ministry, and that before long you will see "GodMen Groups" performing at rodeos, car races, gun shows, hunting lodges, building implosions, Rambo movies and other manly venues.

A short prayer: "Thank you Jesus, for giving me the smarts to turn Your message on its ass".

To the "GodMen": Please be considerate-- when you die, look down and shout "INCOMING!".

Thompson blames Hispanics for mortgage disaster

It's not the fault of our honest, selfless, hard-working mortgage specialists, or the banks, brokers, hedge funds or their friends in the regulatory agencies that are responsible for the crisis in which well over 1 million people will lose their homes-- it's those Spanish-spiccin' dirty illegal brown-skinned under-educated "people"who couldn't understand that they were being talked into buying a house they couldn't pay for.

At least, that's what Fred "Joe Bob" Thompson said in "softer" language at an Iowa campaign stop.

You might be tempted to say that Thompson's dismally stupid remar