Republicans play politics with
American justice
Republican Senator asked
Bush to fire Iglesias| |
Excerpt: In the spring of 2006, Senator Pete Domenici told Gonzales he wanted Iglesias out. Gonzales refused. He told Domenici he would fire Iglesias only on orders from the president.
At some point after the election last Nov. 6, Domenici called Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and told him he wanted Iglesias out and asked Rove to take his request directly to the president.
Domenici and Bush subsequently had a telephone conversation about the issue. The conversation between Bush and Domenici occurred sometime after the election but before the firings of Iglesias and six other U.S. attorneys were announced on Dec. 7. |
House subpoenas DOJ over
missing attorney-firing documents| |
Excerpt: Democrats in the US House of Representatives served a subpoena on Tuesday demanding all previously undisclosed documents relating to the firings of eight US attorneys in 2006. The Senate is considering a similar action. The subpoena requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to turn over all documents pertaining to the Congressional investigation.
The DOJ voluntarily provided more than 3,000 pages of emails to Congress in March. But instead of satisfying critics of the attorney firings, these documents raised new questions. The documents had many sections blacked-out, and while referencing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Presidential Adviser Karl Rove, the documents did not include any of their correspondence. The release also excluded any emails during the 18-day stretch from November 15 to December 4, 2006 leading up to the week the firings took place.
The subpoena requires the DOJ to turn over complete, uncensored versions of the previous emails as well as any emails or other correspondence that might have occurred during the 18-day gap. |
Gonzales is undergoing
intense prep for his testimony| |
Excerpt: Gonzales kept contradicting himself and "getting his timeline confused," said one participant who asked not to be identified talking about a private meeting. His advisers finally got "exasperated" with him, the source added. "He's not ready," Tasia Scolinos, Gonzales's public-affairs chief, told the A.G.'s top aides after the session was over, said the source.
Comment: Of course, it doesn't take any preparation or practice, any drills or studying up, to answer questions truthfully. |
4 years of Rove emails "missing";
White House used RNC accounts
to keep email secret| |
Excerpt: A lawyer for the Republican National Committee told congressional staff members yesterday that the RNC is missing at least four years' worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought as part of investigations into the Bush administration, according to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The disclosures helped fan the controversy over what the White House has acknowledged to be the improper use of political e-mail accounts to conduct official government business. Democrats are suspicious that Rove and other senior officials were using the political accounts, set up by the RNC, to avoid scrutiny from Congress. E-mails already in the public record suggest that at least some White House officials were mindful of a need not to discuss certain matters within the official White House e-mail system.
"Lost" White House emails,
my dimpled chads
Excerpt: As an IT guy, I know all too well that most emails are nearly impossible to "lose," especially if one really wants to find them. In fact, if the emails in question really are gone for good it probably means that there was a tremendously expensive, concerted effort to destroy them (and, if so, it should be very easy to prove that they were intentionally destroyed).
The presumption of wrongdoing
Excerpt: As an attorney who deals with subpoenas and requests for electronic documents on a regular basis, I can tell you that if a private entity--particularly one subject to legally mandated record keeping requirements--were to inform government investigators seeking such documents that they had been "mishandled" and were now "lost," that entity would immediately find itself in a world of hurt and would be lucky if it survived the aftermath. No amount of talking would be enough to convince the authorities that there was an innocent explanation for the missing documents. They would be absolutely convinced that the "mishandled" documents were intentionally destroyed in order to cover up wrongdoing.
First White House response to
email inquiry was, of course, a lie
Excerpt: On March 27, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that the RNC had been archiving all emails being sent through their accounts. Perino underscored that the archiving had not begun in response to Chairman Henry Waxman's request to the RNC to preserve all emails, but rather "this has been something that was in place long before that." She added, "The archiving that would have been for any of these -- over the past few years, of emails that had been going back and forth between people that would have these accounts to the outside."
When pressed on how many White House staffers use political email accounts, Perino claimed, "I think it's a handful, I don't think it's a lot." |
Which US Attorneys didn't get
fired -- and did Rove's bidding?| |
Excerpt: The real story of the U.S. Attorneys scandal that has so endangered the tenure of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is not that of the eight fired prosecutors. It is that of the 85 U.S. Attorneys around the country who were not let go.
There is mounting evidence that the Bush administration was pressuring U.S. attorneys to politicize their prosecutions prior to the 2006 elections, on the apparent theory that stirring up trouble for Democrats in battleground states might ease concerns about abuses by White House aides, former House Majority Leader Tom Delay, former California Congressman Duke Cunningham and the various and sundry GOP solons who had been linked to no-longer-so-super lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
And it certainly looks as if some of the U.S. Attorneys who refused to bow to the pressure to mount prosecutions that might embarrass Democrats were removed from their positions because of their regard for the rule of law.
But what about the U.S. Attorneys who were not fired? |
Did U.S. Attorney manufacture
a crime out of thin air to
smackdown Wisconsin Democrats?| |
Excerpt: The state of Wisconsin is evaluating bids for travel agencies. Under the scoring system used by the evaluation committee, the two top candidates are Adelman and Omega. Adelman scores 1026.6 and Omega scores 1027.3 out of 1200. That's a difference of .06%. However, Adelman is an in-state company, and one member of the committee, a civil servant named Georgia Thompson, says something along the lines of "our bosses won't like it if we choose Omega." Since Adelman is in-state, and also the low bidder, and the scores were essentially tied, why not choose Adelman?
That's it. That's all that happened. Now, suppose you're the U.S. Attorney for Wisconsin and someone brings this case to your attention. What would you do?
U.S. Attorney's Wisconsin
prosecution smells corrupt
Excerpt: Feeling the political pressure, U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic first tried to find the massive voter fraud that the Republican Party and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, along with their talk-radio friends, screamed was rampant in the city of Milwaukee. They even provided hundreds of names of "illegal voters" that Biskupic attempted to track down. After spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars, he found that there was no rampant voter fraud.
So Biskupic, in an attempt to satisfy his bosses, then went after state travel office manager Georgia Thompson. To destroy an innocent woman's life was no problem for Biskupic if it could be used to help defeat [Democratic] Gov. Jim Doyle. Once Georgia Thompson was charged, the Republican Party, the Journal Sentinel and the right-wing talk-show hosts used this indictment to try to make Doyle look corrupt.
Comment: The punchline is that Democrat Georgia Thompson was acquitted by an appeals court in less than an hour. As a Wisconsinite myself, I can add that Madison's ABC affiliate was running promos for its news department as recently as a month ago bragging that Georgia Thompson had been convicted after "THEIR" investigation of her. Funny, those ads stopped running right around the time her conviction was overturned.
What the evidence shows about
Rove and Wisconsin U.S. Attorney
Excerpt: Rove was clearly interested, circling words (like Milwaukee) in the piece and scribbling in the margin "Discuss w/ Harriet" (see image on the right) -- Harriet presumably referring to White House counsel Harriet Miers. So as early as February of 2005, Rove was paying close attention to Milwaukee.
House seeks Republican emails
on Wisconsin prosecution
Excerpt: House Democrats asked the Republican National Committee Thursday to hand over e-mails about U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic of Milwaukee prior to his decision to indict former Wisconsin state worker Georgia Thompson.
Comment: Will these emails be "lost" too? |
Despite denials, Gonzales DID have Republican replacements in the wings| |
Excerpt: A Justice Department e-mail message released on Friday shows that the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales proposed replacement candidates for United States attorneys nearly a year before they were dismissed in December 2006. The department has repeatedly stated that no successors were selected before the dismissals. |
All attorneys ranked on a "Bush-loyalty" chart| |
Excerpt: The Justice Department weighed political activism and membership in a conservative law group in evaluating the nation's federal prosecutors, documents released in the probe of fired U.S. attorneys show.
The political credentials were listed on a chart of 124 U.S. attorneys nominated since 2001, a document that could bolster Democrats' claims that the traditionally independent Justice Department has become more partisan during the Bush administration. |
Dozens of DoJ lawyers do "double duty"
as Republican Party lawyers, too| |
Excerpt: According to the group's Web site, Adams is one of dozens of Bush administration appointees or civil servants who are members, including at least 25 in the Justice Department, nine in the Department of Defense and others in the Labor and Commerce departments, the White House and the Office of Special Counsel, which oversees investigations into allegations of ethical misconduct by government employees. |
U.S. Attorney firings
reveal deeper malfeasance| |
Excerpt: The White House and Justice Department, under the reign of attorneys general Ashcroft and Gonzales, have encouraged over the past half decade an atmosphere that sullies the coin of the realm under our rule of law -- the perceived legitimacy and authority and objectivity and neutrality and professional competence of the men and women who are tasked with enforcing our laws uniformly, fairly and without fear or favor. Without that legitimacy, the legal system devolves down into Third World status, perceived by those within and without it as subject to manipulation for political purposes.
When you populate an office with ideologues and partisans and underachieving talent, you get an ideological and partisan office with underachieving results. And if there is any department in our federal system that can least afford to be ideological and partisan and underachieving, it is the Justice Department. This sorry state is true today, regardless of how and when the scandal over the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys is resolved. Of all the dismaying legal legacies left by this administration, this one surely ranks near the top.
Comment: This is a solid overview of the 'big picture' at the Justice Department. This is the article I'll recommend to the next victim of Rush Limbaugh's "This is just politics as usual" lie. |
Justice Department's independence
'shattered,' says former DOJ Attorney| |
Excerpt: "Alberto Gonzales continued a trend of career/non-career separation that began under John Ashcroft, yet even Ashcroft brought in political aides who in large measure were experienced in government functioning. Ashcroft's Justice Department appointees, with few exceptions, were not the type of people who caused you to wonder what they were doing there. They might not have been firm believers in the importance of government, but generally speaking, there was a very respectable level of competence (in some instances even exceptionally so) and a relatively strong dedication to quality government, as far as I could see.
"Under Gonzales, though, almost immediately from the time of his arrival in February 2005, this changed quite noticeably. First, there was extraordinary turnover in the political ranks, including the majority of even Justice's highest-level appointees. It was reminiscent of the turnover from the second Reagan administration to the first Bush administration in 1989, only more so. Second, the atmosphere was palpably different, in ways both large and small. One need not have had to be terribly sophisticated to notice that when Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey left the department in August 2005 his departure was quite abrupt, and that his large farewell party was attended by neither Gonzales nor (as best as could be seen) anyone else on the AG's personal staff.
"Third, and most significantly for present purposes, there was an almost immediate influx of young political aides beginning in the first half of 2005 (e.g., counsels to the AG, associate deputy attorneys general, deputy associate attorneys general, and deputy assistant attorneys general) whose inexperience in the processes of government was surpassed only by their evident disdain for it." |
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U.S. spy chief wants more powers, of course| |
Excerpt: President Bush's spy chief is pushing to expand the government's surveillance authority at the same time the administration is under attack for stretching its domestic eavesdropping powers.
National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell has circulated a draft bill that would expand the government's powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, liberalizing how that law can be used.
Comment: Seriously, rabid authoritarians like Mike McConnell present a much clearer and more present danger to America than the worst al Qaeda has to offer. |
Bush-Cheney wants more
eavesdropping powers, of course| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration asked Congress on Friday to expand the number of people it can subject to electronic surveillance in the United States. |
U.S. currently supports at least three terrorist groups| |
Excerpt: ABC News has reported that the United States is funneling money to Jundullah, a Sunni terrorist group based in western Pakistan. The New York Times has reported that the United States allows arms deliveries from North Korea to flow to Ethiopia. And now, via Ken Silverstein, CNN's Michael Ware is reporting that the U.S. military provides protection for the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), an Iraqi-based group listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department ... |
White House considers war overseer| |
Excerpt: The White House is considering naming a high-powered official to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and report directly to President Bush and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Comment: That is what the "Commander-in-Chief" is supposed to be doing! The WH is attempting to outsource the presidency...
Or maybe they're looking for a fall guy. But with Bush bouncing around the country doing photo-ops it is clear that he is not devoting any significant amount of brain-power to fulfilling his duties as "war president".
Back in the day, FDR and Churchill spent a lot of time being actively involved in management. Bush on the other hand, aside from loving to dress up as a military man, has no measurable level of participation in Operations... or strategy or tactics... At best he is a cheer leader. Liar-in-Chief. Head Bullshit Artiste. Loserman...
White House can't find
anyone to supervise wars
Excerpt: The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation. At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the position, the sources said.
Comment: So what's the funniest part of this story: the fact that Bush is now looking for someone else to be in charge of the fiasco after six years of puffing his chest out about how Commander-In-Chief-ly he is, or the fact that Mr. Loyalty-Uber-Alles can't find one idiot willing to fall on a grenade for him anymore? Discuss. |
Menu Foods CFO sold $89k in company stock before announcement of poisoned food| |
Excerpt: The chief financial officer of Menu Foods sold about half his shares in the company just three weeks before a massive recall of its pet food products, Canadian insider trading reports show. CFO Mark Wiens sold 14,000 shares for $89,900 on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. The shares are now worth about $54,000.
"He feels just awful that this link has been made," company spokesman Sam Bornstein said Wednesday.
Tainted food may have hurt 39,000 pets
Excerpt: The hospital chain saw 1 million dogs and cats during the three months when the more than 100 brands of now-recalled contaminated pet food were sold. It saw 284 extra cases of kidney failure among cats during that period, or a roughly 30 percent increase, when compared with background rates.
Comment: Note that he doesn't feel awful about everyone's dead pets, he just feels awful that people have figured out he KNEW he was poisoning their pets.
By the way, we'll mention again that our local pet supply shop's website is a great resource for anyone trying to make smart decisions about what to feed their critters. |
Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
Iraqis' life "unbearable," says Red Cross| |
Excerpt: "The conflict in Iraq is inflicting immense suffering on the entire population," The International Committee of the Red Cross writes in a report issued Wednesday. The document, entitled "Civilians Without Protection" sketches major humanitarian issues facing Iraqi civilians and sounds a dire alarm about looming crises in infrastructural issues such as the food supply, clean water, medical care, electricity and fuel, as well as the effects of the war and security situation on civilians, including lack of protection from the war, and the suffering of families separated by displacement and detention. |
Lucky U.S. soldiers get to
stay in Iraq even longer| |
Excerpt: Stretched thin by four years of war, the Army is adding three months to the standard yearlong tour for all active-duty soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, an extraordinary step aimed at maintaining the troop buildup in Baghdad. |
Green Zone is no longer safe as suicide bomber strikes at heart of government| |
Excerpt: US officials admitted last night that the bombing of the Iraqi parliament shows that not even the heavily fortified Green Zone is safe any more, despite the security crackdown launched earlier this year in the Iraqi capital.
American and Iraqi security officials were last night investigating how a suicide bomber evaded a ring of security checks and blew himself up in the assembly's cafe, killing three MPs and five other people and wounding more than 20. |
Even 'secure' southern Iraq
erupts into protest| |
Excerpt: The eruption of demonstrations in the south of Iraq this week could rob the occupation forces of what was considered a critical bastion of support. The southern areas of Iraq have long been said to be secure, and people there peaceful towards the occupation forces. Iraqis living in the south were also believed to be cooperative with the occupation to the extent that they supported administrative steps taken by successive Iraqi governments. The majority of the population of the south are Shia Muslims, and Iraq has had Shia-dominated governments under the occupation.
But demonstrations against the occupation and the United States by hundreds of thousands of angry Shias in Najaf, Kut and other cities across the south Apr. 9 mark a sharp break from a policy of cooperation. Protesters demanded an end to the U.S.-led occupation, burnt U.S. flags and chanted "Death to America!" |
"Sorry we shot your kid,
but here's five hundred bucks" | |
Excerpt: What price (when we do pay) do we place on the life of a 9-year-old boy, shot by one of our soldiers who mistook his book bag for a bomb satchel? Would you believe $500? And when we shoot an Iraqi journalist on a bridge we shell out $2500 to his widow -- but why not the measly $5000 she had requested? |
Officials believe violence will unite Iraqis | |
BAGHDAD - Spokesmen for the Iraqi government and the U.S. military said Sunday that a recent string of terror attacks against city bridges, Iraq's parliament and a religious site in Karbala bore the earmarks of al-Qaida in Iraq, yet insisted that the violence would unite Iraqis instead of divide them.
"Terrorism has failed. I don't think these car bombs can stop the political process inside or outside the parliament," said Dr. Zuhair Chalabi, a spokesman for the Iraqi government.
"We see what was intended to divide and destroy as being a catalyst for unity," said Navy Rear Admiral Mark I. Fox. ...
Comment: This nonsensical propaganda leaves me flabbergasted. |
Iraq not invited to meeting of world's democracies| |
Excerpt: In an embarrassing setback for US efforts to support the embattled government in Baghdad, an international panel charged with selecting countries to attend a prestigious meeting of the world's democracies has deemed Iraq unfit to attend, officials said Friday.
Four years after US-led troops toppled Saddam Hussein with the stated goal of creating a haven of democracy in the Middle East, the blue ribbon committee said Iraq did not meet the criteria to attend the November meeting of the Community of Democracies. |
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Iranian diplomat released in exchange
for Brits says Americans tortured him| |
Excerpt:
An Iranian diplomat showed off wounds on his feet Wednesday, and said they were inflicted by drills during two months of detention in Iraq. He said he was harshly interrogated by an American official when he refused to cooperate. The comments by Sharafi came as Iran stepped up complaints over its personnel detained in Iraq, hinting that it might boycott an international conference on Iraq unless American forces release five Iranians detained in a January raid.
Comment: The U.S. is still lying about the fact that we captured this Iranian diplomat in the first place -- they blame anonymous Iraqi gunmen. U.S. officials also say, with a straight face, that the fact that this Iranian diplomat was released the day before Iran released those British hostages is a complete and total coincidence. So when U.S. officials claim that we never tortured Sharafi, you can pretty much assume we did. |
Bush allegedly unaware of DoD plan to extend soldiers' time in Iraq| |
Excerpt: White House officials on Thursday admitted that President Bush was unaware of defense plans to immediately extend Army combat tours when he criticized Democrats' budget plans as potentially forcing troops to spend more time in Iraq.
On Tuesday, Bush said that congressional delays in approving supplemental war funds "will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines."
But on Wednesday, Secretary of Defense announced all soldiers in Central Command will begin serving 15-month tours instead of the standard 12-month rotations. He said the move was a reflection of the demands on the service, and had been discussed by defense officials prior to the January "surge" of U.S. forces into Iraq.
Comment: Is Bush simply a lousy liar, or is he as clueless as he seems? And does it even matter which is the answer? |
FDA urges label change
from "irradiated" to "pasteurized"| |
Excerpt: The FDA has recently promoted a proposal relaxing the rules regarding how products that have been zapped with radiation to be labeled. The change calls for a shift from the term "irradiated" to "pasteurized."
This proposed rule, according to the Food and Drug Administration, would loosen regulations on labeling for certain meat products, among other foods, that have been treated with radiation, but are not changed material. Material change can refer to wither taste, texture, smell or shelf life.
Comment: Of course, this is a lie, unless you think Louis Pasteur invented irradiation and Marie Curie figured out how to kill bacteria in liquids. |
Immigrant tomato-pickers
score victory against McDonald's| |
Excerpt: Today, April 9th, at The Carter Center in Atlanta, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and McDonald's announced a landmark agreement to work together to improve the wages and working conditions of the farm workers who pick Florida tomatoes. After two years of escalating pressure by the CIW and its allies, McDonald's has agreed to all of the CIW's demands and more. Building off this tremendous momentum, the Campaign for Fair Food now surges ahead at full speed -- this time towards Miami-based Burger King. |
Bush's election panel downplayed voter intimidation, overplayed "voter fraud"| |
Excerpt: A federal panel responsible for conducting election research played down the findings of experts who concluded last year that there was little voter fraud around the nation, according to a review of the original report obtained by The New York Times.
Instead, the panel, the Election Assistance Commission, issued a report that said the pervasiveness of fraud was open to debate.
The revised version echoes complaints made by Republican politicians, who have long suggested that voter fraud is widespread and justifies the voter identification laws that have been passed in at least two dozen states. |
Halliburton wraps up Iran work| |
Excerpt: "Halliburton announced today that all of its contractual commitments in Iran have been completed and the company is no longer working in Iran," the firm said in a statement. The company, headed by Dick Cheney from 1995 to 2000 before he became US vice-president, added that its "prior business" in Iran was "clearly permissible under applicable laws and regulations".
Comment: A cynical observer might wonder whether Halliburton finishing its probably-illegal work in Iran clears the last obstacle to attacking Iran. ... |
Navy vet imprisoned,
tortured by U.S. officials| |
Excerpt: In a lawsuit now pending against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and "other unidentified agents," Vance and Ertel accuse their U.S. government captors of subjecting them to psychological torture day and night. Lights were kept on in their cell around the clock. They endured solitary confinement. They had only thin plastic mattresses on concrete for sleeping. Meals were of powdered milk and bread or rice and chicken, but interrupted by selective deprivation of food and water. Ceaseless heavy metal and country music screamed in their ears for hours on end, their legal complaint alleges.
They lived through "conditions of confinement and interrogation tantamount to torture", says the lawsuit filed in northern Illinois U.S. District Court. "Their interrogators utilized the types of physically and mentally coercive tactics that are supposedly reserved for terrorists and so-called enemy combatants."
Rumsfeld is singled out as the key defendant because he played a critical role in establishing a policy of "unlawful detention and torment" that Vance, Ertel and countless others in the "war on terror" have endured, the lawsuit asserts, noting that the former defense secretary and other high-level military commanders acting at his direction developed and authorized a policy that allows government officials unilateral discretion to designate possible enemies of the United States. |
Russians take to the streets,
show what might have once
been called 'American spirit' | |
Comment: Why should this be "newsworthy" in Amerika? Because, like the Russians, we don't have the right to hold marches or rallies without permits from the authorities.
The Russian police -- telling protesters where they can or can't gather, beating protesters with nightsticks and fists, arresting them by the hundreds -- aren't behaving like nasty Communists. They're living up to the proud standards of American freedoms ... they're like NYPD-lite! |
White House held meeting to pressure reporters on 'division' among war critics| |
Excerpt: Last week, Bush administration officials invited senior congressional reporters to the White House and pressured them to increase their coverage of how Iraq war critics are "divided" over legislative strategy, multiple sources have confirmed with ThinkProgress.
The sources say White House officials pointed to examples of national political reporters who have highlighted such "division" and pressed the congressional reporters to follow suit. |
Ford CEO forced to pretend Bush
didn't almost die from stupidity
Lawsuit forces prisons to let prisoners read Prison Legal News| |
Excerpt: The lawsuit by Seattle-based Prison Legal News alleges that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation violated inmates' free speech and due process rights by blocking inmates from receiving their paid subscriptions to the monthly publication. The newsletter covers legal news like court decisions and gives legal self-help advice to inmates.
The department is agreeing to provide the newsletter in each of the 157 prison legal libraries at all 33 adult prisons for five years. It's also updating its mail policy to eliminate several restrictions on publications. |
Guantanamo force-feeds detainees| |
Excerpt: Thirteen detainees on hunger strike at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay are being force-fed through tubes in their noses, the US Navy has said. The feeding is required to ensure the good health and nutrition of the detainees, navy Cdr Robert Durand said.
Lawyers for the prisoners said they were striking over harsh conditions at a new maximum-security prison. |
Lawyers say Bush can throw
people with anti-war bumper stickers
out of taxpayer-funded speech| |
Excerpt: "The president's right to control his own message includes the right to exclude people expressing discordant viewpoints from the audience," states the brief, filed by attorneys Sean Gallagher, Dugan Bliss and others representing [security guards].
The White House declined comment, citing the ongoing lawsuit. Three White House staffers have also been sued in the case for ordering the ouster. |
Professor who criticized Bush was
added to terrorist 'no-fly' list| |
Excerpt: "I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines. One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: "Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that." I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. "That'll do it," the man said." |
Democrats hire RIAA shill to
run public affairs for convention| |
Excerpt: Today, Jenni Engebretsen was named "Deputy CEO for Public Affairs," for the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver -- but she is better known as the Director of Communications for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The RIAA is the most hated "company" in America, according to a recent poll on the Consumerist. The RIAA's campaign of suing thousands of American music lovers has been the single biggest PR disaster in recent industrial history -- which is why Engebretsen's employer beat out Halliburton, Blackwater and Wal-Mart for the coveted "Worst Company" slot. |
U.S. threatened suspect's mother with rape| |
Excerpt: Don't worry, though: according to the official Army investigation, threatening to put a prisoner's mother in a situation where she is likely to be raped isn't "torture." Oh, no. (But then, neither is interrogating someone for 18-20 hours of every 24 for 48 of 54 consecutive days. It's not even "prohibited inhumane treatment.) The Army report elides the nature of the threat against the prisoner's mother by reporting that the fake letter: "The actual content of the letter simply indicates that his mother will be taken into custody and questioned," leaving out the implicit threat in saying that the mother would be the sole female prisoners among hundreds of males. |
Airman burned in test of
"crowd-control weapon"| |
Excerpt: An airman suffered second-degree burns during an evaluation of a non-lethal heat-ray gun this week in south Georgia, officials said.
The injured airman was taken to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta after the incident Wednesday. He was not identified. |
Vatican loses abortion battle in
Portugal, but pushes on in Poland| |
Excerpt: Portugal's president yesterday ratified a new law permitting abortion up until the 10th week of pregnancy but recommended a raft of measures that would discourage the procedure in the mostly Roman Catholic country. Parliament voted overwhelmingly last month to legalize abortion, scrapping previous tight restrictions and bringing Portugal in line with most of its European neighbors. The legislation came after a referendum in February that favored the change. ...
Meanwhile, The Catholic Church in Poland is pushing the government to have a complete ban on abortion written into the Polish Constitution. It hopes to get the constitutional amendment through quickly in order to thwart any EU directives that might force Poland to liberalize its draconian laws.
"In this matter of greatest importance for fatherland, nation and Church, we encourage and summon everyone to prayer," the head of the Church's Family Commission, Bishop Kazimierz Gorny, said in an appeal to members of Parliament. |
Maryland Pharmacy Board decides
pharmacists must fill prescriptions| |
Excerpt: Druggists who believe "morning-after" birth control pills are tantamount to abortion can't stand in the way of a patient's right to the drugs, state regulators have decided.
In a unanimous vote Thursday, the state Board of Pharmacy ruled that drug stores have a duty to fill lawful prescriptions despite an individual pharmacist's personal objections to any particular medication. |
Theocrats infiltrate U.S. government| |
Excerpt: The infiltration of the federal government by large numbers of people seeking to impose a religious agenda -- which is very different from simply being people of faith -- is one of the most important stories of the last six years. It's also a story that tends to go underreported, perhaps because journalists are afraid of sounding like conspiracy theorists.
But this conspiracy is no theory. The official platform of the Texas Republican Party pledges to "dispel the myth of the separation of church and state." And the Texas Republicans now running the country are doing their best to fulfill that pledge. |
Obama returns lobbyists' contributions| |
Excerpt: Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign has returned more than $50,000 in political contributions after discovering the donors were lobbyists.
Obama, who has pledged to change the ways of Washington, has repeatedly said he will not accept money from lobbyists or from special interest political action committees. |
Abstinence classes don't stop sex| |
Excerpt: Students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress.
Also, those who attended one of the four abstinence classes that were reviewed reported having similar numbers of sexual partners as those who did not attend the classes. And they first had sex at about the same age as other students -- 14.9 years, according to Mathematica Policy Research Inc. |
Israeli troops used
Palestinian as human shield| |
Excerpt: Sameh Amira was fast asleep when he was jolted awake by pounding at the front door. Israeli troops were on a manhunt for wanted militants in the West Bank and decided to draft help.
The terror-stricken 24-year-old Palestinian soon found himself forced onto the front lines of Israel's shadowy war against militants, a human shield as he led heavily armed soldiers from house to house. "I was afraid I would die," he said in a recent interview. |
Pelosi politely rips Bush a new one| |
Excerpt: "The president is not king, the president is the president of the United States. America is a democracy. We have to make decisions based on our judgment. Thus far, the president's judgment hasn't been good, in terms of say for example the war on Iraq. So with all due respect to the president and the role he has, we want respect for the role we have. And members of Congress have gone on fact finding trips since our country began. We're not going to stop because the president wants to avoid the facts and doesn't want to engage in dialogue. We had a bipartisan trip, interesting that the administration chose to ignore the trips of the Republicans who had been there in the week that we were there." |
Sao Paulo goes advertising-free| |
Excerpt: Back in December, 2006, the mayor of the 11-million-person Brazilian city of Sao Paulo banned all outdoor billboard advertising, citing advertisers' unwillingness to comply with the city's rules on what sort of billboards can be placed where. Now the rule is in effect, and Flickr user Tony de Marco has documented the eerie sight of a city stripped bare of commercial visuals. |
Neocon godmother Jeane Kirkpatrick
considered Iraq war a mistake| |
Excerpt: Jeane Kirkpatrick, best known as the combative UN ambassador during the Reagan administration who argued that the United States should be kind to authoritarian regimes that were partners in the crusade against communism, died last December. She had just completed a book entitled Making War To Keep Peace, which is being published next month. In the book, she reports -- apparently for the first time -- that she had "grave reservations" about George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq. She notes that at the time, "I was privately critical of the Bush administration's argument for the use of military force for preemptive self-defense." She does not say where and to whom she voiced her misgivings -- if she did. Most strikingly, she argues that the war -- with respect to bringing democracy to Iraqis -- did more harm than good. |
Washington Post gives Cheney's
daughter an op-ed column, without
identifying her as VP's daughter| |
Excerpt: And this has happened before, too. As Matthew Yglesias recently pointed out, the Post trotted out writer Robert Kagan to defend the "surge" without mentioning that his brother Frederick Kagan was one of the leading "surge" authors. |
Vatican offended by Vatican behavior in World War II| |
Excerpt: The caption in question said that during World War II, Pope Pius XII "abstained from signing the Allied declaration condemning the extermination of the Jews" and "maintained his neutral position throughout the war".
Archbishop Franco had protested that the caption was offensive to Catholics. |
Tests on Florida's rigged voting
machines were "essentially useless"| |
Excerpt: The testers examining the machines defined accuracy as a machine making a correct electronic copy of the review screen. Dill and Wallach say this ignores whether the review screen itself is correct. If a voter touched the machine to vote for a candidate and the vote showed up on the ballot page but not on the review screen, the machine would still be considered accurate, according to the Florida testers, if it copied the error on the review screen.
The testers didn't test for latency issues with the screens. Numerous voters complained they had to touch the screens repeatedly or with extra pressure to get it to register their selection. The tests weren't designed to look for that, however. Dill and Wallach say that on videos of the state testing there were several instances when a tester had to touch the screen more than once to get it to register. That's not, however, reflected in the state's report.
The state didn't test for calibration errors, although there were voters who complained about selecting one candidate and having a vote for another candidate appear.
The testers examining the source code did not verify that the compiled binary executable code used on the machines during the election was consistent with the source code they examined. |
New Jersey Governor
wasn't wearing seat belt| |
Excerpt: Jon Corzine, the governor of New Jersey, was heavily sedated and breathing through a ventilator on Friday after sustaining serious injuries in a car crash in which he was apparently not wearing a seatbelt. |
|
Lightning round news
|
Survey says, most knowledgeable
Americans watch Jon Stewart
and Stephen Colbert, while most
ignorant audience watches Fox News
Deadly olives recalled
Over ten years, CEO pay
up 298%, workers' pay up 4%
Florida legislature forces
university to honor Jeb Bush
Grand Canyon Skywalk is a grand rip-off
Two missing hot dogs, two months in jail
Army's hallucinogenic weapons unveiled
Soldiers will speak like
gentlemen, for FCC's sake
Xerox patents demographic
compilation software
'Damaging' internal e-mails blast
State Farm on Katrina damage claims
Spirit-crushing 'McJobs' are
putting an end to upward mobility
Kindergartner arrested on felony
charges after "acting up" at school
Calling 9-1-1 really didn't help
Doctor sues hospital he says
kicked him out after Muslim ritual
20 endangered rabbits released;
14 promptly eaten
Man kicks foot through priceless
painting at Milwaukee Museum
|
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This is our future, like it or not
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Thanks to your silence, your willingness to sit back and do nothing, this is our future. Not even the slightest bit of dissent or public display of dissatisfaction, or any form of protest about anything will be tolerated. |
18 megabyte gap in e-mail tape backup
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: White House officials are scrambling to explain
the disappearance of email documents related to the controversy surrounding the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. An undeleted Justice Department e-mail message shows that the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales proposed replacement candidates for U.S. attorneys nearly a year before they were fired. You got alotta esplainen to do, Alberto. |
The Katrinians
by Cassandra, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The people from Louisiana and Mississippi are refugees of both a natural and a political disaster, and like most refugees before them, they're not welcome by the communities where they've washed up. |
No good deed left unpunished
by J.S. Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We love to casually assign the word "hero" to those that kill, yet we punish a man for doing a truly heroic deed that should have been celebrated rather than resulting in his termination from State employment. What a world we live in. Blech. |
War? What war?
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Although millions of Americans seemed to have been thoroughly brainwashed and desensitized, they manage to drive like lunatics, get mad because gas goes up 12 cents, and bitch that Don Imus said this or that. They take sides like their favorite team got dissed, but when it comes to anything relating to Iraq or the coming war with Iran, it might as well be Mars, because it's a non-issue to these people. |
Arsenic, Bush-Cheney, and hatred
by JR Mooneyham, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Please be careful about feeling hatred too much or too often. It's not good for your health. In general it seems best to try to somehow have fun while working against such awful entities and events. For me, it's sometimes looking at my actions as merry mischief upsetting the king's apple cart. Or looking at things as trying to shield the innocent and helpless from evil or accident, rather than hating the evil itself. |
Coyote comics #3 and #4
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Men, women, and children will be nuclear toast. |
Dark of heartness
by David Michael Green, Regressive Antidote| |
Excerpt: People hated Nixon, and for very good reason. You can even make a pretty compelling empirical argument that his depredations were more lethal abroad and more destructive at home than those of his profoundly stunted present-day successor and sociopath sidekick.
Still, somehow there were limits then that don't seem to exist today. Somehow there was a fundamental decency -- though hardly universal -- that has disappeared in our time.
It's hard to put your finger on, exactly, but there's a base meanness of spirit and a destructive indifference attached to the likes of Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Antonin Scalia or Karl Rove for which it is hard to find equivalents among the Gerry Fords or Nelson Rockefellers or Harry Blackmuns or even Barry Goldwaters of old (though high marks go to the likes of Spiro Agnew and Joseph McCarthy for representing their generations well in the Most Debauched Neanderthal competition). Something profound changed in the forty years preceding 2007.
Things are different now. Not only is the moderate wing of the GOP no longer dominant within the party, today it represents a nearly vanished species, and may be fully extinct after 2008. And no longer is there a lack of public support for the worst tendencies of the sickest Republican minds (though things have improved marginally in that regard in the last year or so). Nor are there any longer substantial limits on what the party is capable of doing. Nowadays the inmates are in charge of the asylum, and a very scary segment of the public has been applauding their reprobate policies and their noxious tactics. These are not good signs. This is not the mark of a healthy republic.
How did we get here? |
Blogger interviews Helen Thomas
by chicago dyke's blog| |
Excerpt: Ms. Thomas doesn't think there is any good reason for the war. "People are killing, and dying, for what?" Asked why she thinks the American people have accepted this war for so long, she said that 9/11, and the fear and uncertainty it engendered, kept people behind the war effort far longer than would've been possible otherwise. "Fear is a powerful weapon," she relates, and she notes how strong the urge is to support the president after an attack. She said that such fear caused people to accept not only the war, but also government intrusions on privacy, and the shifting rationale for the war. |
Why should the rich want to help the less fortunate?
by JR Mooneyham, WebFLUX Newz&Viewz
| |
Excerpt: You talk about the less fortunate trying to take by force from the rich what they could not get otherwise. But the truth is most of today's fortunes themselves were taken by force or deception from the lower class masses. Whether by the royal families of the Old World, or the Ken Lays (Enron, et al) of the New, the poorer folks typically had little choice in the thievery. |
Fear of Republicans trumping Republican fear agenda
by Chris Bowers, MyDD
| |
Excerpt: Throughout my life, until 2006, I saw Republicans win election after election through a constant drumbeat of fear on a variety of issues. We all know the Republican fear litany: communists, terrorists, immigrants, brown people, gay people, atheists, drugs, urban crime, etc. No matter the year, and no matter the latest issue, Republicans have a tailor made, non-economic fear plank of their platform they can trot out in order to stoke the fires of the battle of civilizations, and usually convince a majority of the country to vote against "those people." Starting in 1968, the Republican fear agenda has proven to be electoral gold time and time again.
However, starting in 2005, something interesting began to happen in this country that has, for two years, made the Republican fear agenda utterly ineffective at winning elections, moving poll numbers, or shaping the national consciousness in any meaningful way. Americans are still afraid, but the nature of that fear has shifted. Instead of being afraid of what Republicans have traditionally told people to be afraid of, now most people are just afraid of Republicans. The devastation that is Iraq is at the root of this fear, but the attempt to destroy Social Security, the Terry Schaivo affair, the nightmare that is and was Hurricane Katrina, the revelations that everyone is being spied on, the drumbeat to war with Iran, and increasing awareness of global warming -- I think the last two years have combined to create a national mood where most Americans are literally afraid of the Republicans running their lives. |
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
by Lee Iacocca with Catherine Whitney, Borders| |
Excerpt: You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
Comment: I'm not a big fan of Lee Iacocca, but he's one of the icons of my father's generation. Good to hear him saying the right things, even if he's overslept by about six years. |
Will Congress finally cut off the Bush family's war profiteering?
by Evelyn Pringle, CounterPunch
| |
Excerpt: On December 11, 2003, the Financial Times reported that three people had told the Times that they had seen letters written by Neil Bush that recommended business ventures in the Middle East, promoted by New Bridges Strategies, a firm set up by President Bush's former campaign manager, who quit his Bush appointed government job as the head of FEMA, three weeks before the war in Iraq began.
Neil Bush was paid an annual fee to "help companies secure contracts in Iraq," the Times said.
But Neil Bush is by no means the only Bush profiting from the war on terror. The first President Bush is so entangled with entities that have profited greatly that it's difficult to even know where to begin. Bush joined the Carlyle Group in 1993, and became a member of the firm's Asian Advisory Board.
Comment: Oh how boring. Nobody wants to talk about how Prescott Bush made his fortune in Nazi Germany ... but the tradition goes on. George Sr. and Neil, Marvin and Jeb are making theirs in Iraq and Afghanistan. (With a little help from son and brother George W.) |
Trusting morons
by Jeff Purcell, The Cornell Daily Sun
| |
Excerpt: The people who say, "If we leave, Iraq will turn into chaos," assume the U.S. is a big bulletproof vest. But after four years of Occupation, the number of attacks on Americans and Iraqis continues to rise. And last month, The New York Times documented that U.S. forces have always been the target of the most attacks. Despite the carnage of market bombings, more than four times as many attacks are aimed at U.S. troops. This is why a majority of Iraqis believe the U.S. provokes more attacks than it prevents. In response, we hear that any withdrawal, or even timetable for withdrawal, would make the mission a "failure." Given the list of discredited reasons for the mission itself, it seems impossible to "win" and immoral to continue any "mission for success" that will kill more people.
Having to defend the indefensible, those who pretend to love Iraqis refuse to listen to Iraqis: for over two years, the majority of Iraqis have said they want the Occupation to end. The majority also said they favor withdrawal, even if security declines as a result. Bush says that the Iraqi government has not asked him to leave, so he'll stay, no matter how many Iraqis disagree. A study from the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes also found that six in 10 Iraqis support attacks on Americans, though they overwhelmingly reject Al-Qaeda. |
Campaign journalism is
back, more evil than '04
by Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
| |
Excerpt: God help us, the 2008 presidential election is already here; they are already murdering huge forests in South America so that Jonathan Alter and Karen Tumulty can tell us what the latest Scripps/Howard poll says "voters believe the next president's haircut should look like." Hell is much too good for all of us ...
Mainly in an attempt to preserve my own tenuous grip on sanity, I made it through this past weekend without reading much coverage of the campaign. The election, after all, is nearly a full Martian year away, with a Super Bowl and two World Series still to play out in between -- which means that the "urgency" of breaking campaign news is now and will remain for at least a year an almost 100% media concoction.
Like Seinfeld, the presidential campaign is essentially a "show about nothing," a prolonged prime-time character-driven drama crafted around a series of fake conflicts that always get resolved by the end of the program, in this case November, 2008. |
Hey, parents: Snap the hell out of it
by L. J. Williamson, Los Angeles Times
| |
Excerpt: Although statistics show that rates of child abduction and sexual abuse have marched steadily downward since the early 1990s, fear of these crimes is at an all-time high.
A child is almost as likely to be struck by lightning as kidnapped by a stranger, but it's not fear of lightning strikes that parents cite as the reason for keeping children indoors watching television instead of out on the sidewalk skipping rope. |
Who's next to get screwed?
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: First it was the steel industry, then it was textiles, then it was manufacturing, then the auto industry, then the high-tech sector, and now the housing bust. The North American Union is just another manifestation of "Free Trade," politically correct jargon for corporate fascism, with the ultimate goal of putting an end to the United States as a sovereign nation, instead leaving the U.S. an entity whose importance would be little more than that of a glorified trading post in a global economy controlled by multi national corporations. |
A man of extraordinary courage
Major Michael D. Mori, U.S.M.C.
by Robyn Shelly, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The United States can be very proud of Major Michael Mori. He stands for those "American" values that George Bush and his cronies trumpet long and loud, but rarely seem to uphold. He is proof that there are still people of integrity in the United States. |
The Decider's new clothes
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: This is the US Justice Department you're questioning. Would they lie to you? |
Just another day in my life
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: I find myself constantly shaking my head. One minute you read that 80% of Americans say they think the Government had something to do with 9/11, and you think to your self, good, they're waking up, it's a start ... And then something happens to diminish that little spark of hope, and you two steps back to where you were before. |
When the dark curtain finally closes
by Robert J., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The uncomfortable reality is that we are screwed. There are no good options available to us at this point. The only thing I can think to do is to help minimize the suffering of those that care enough to find a safe place to ride out the storm. I don't believe it will do any good to struggle against this. The snowball has picked up too much speed to be stopped now, even if you could reform our broken government into a compassionate and functional democracy. The economic, geopolitical damage has been done. |
Coyote comix #1 & #2
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: When in the course of human events, it becomes clear that governments have failed all the people ... |
Neither pinkos nor libertarians
by jodi d. and Albert C., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We received these two emails within about fifteen minutes of each other, and we've received dozens like these over the last eight years. Obviously, neither email has anything to do with the other, but it seems to me they belong together like a matched set of bookends ... |
What is the death toll now?
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Future historians will hold George Bush as one of the greatest mass murderers in history. He will be ranked alongside Stalin, Mao, Hitler and Mussolini. Corporate, church, and political leaders who backed him -- and continue to back him now -- should be prosecuted with him at the Hague, as accessories in his crimes against humanity. |
They learn it from us
by J.S. Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Children, like it or not, model their behavior on adult authority figures, and the authority figures haven't exactly been the picture of Christian kindness in respect to the Works of Mercy. |
Face the fear, people
by Sherri B., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: We're afraid of what might be coming to us if we act, and we're afraid of what we might do if we're confronted. Will we risk our kids to child services if we get arrested and go to jail? Will we give up our homes? Can we physically fight back against a cop if we're illegally threatened? Will we risk being killed for what we believe? Can we spend months, even years, in a courtroom or "holding cell"? |
Newspeak Project Management System
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: This classified document is code named 'Dictatorship for Dummies', and the manual is based on George Orwell's warnings in the book 1984 ... |
When will American soldiers refuse to take illegal, immoral orders?
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: As a practical matter, mutiny is refusal to follow orders to take the fight to the designated enemy. It can be explicit and organized, or tacit. In either case the officer corps finds that it is dealing with an "unreliable" force that is willing to fight only in self-defense including fighting against "loyal" units. |
The magical slickness of
"That's the way it is"
by HappySysiphus, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Business leaders are the way they are, but do we really have an accurate picture of the way they are? And does "the way they are" make sense the way we think it does, or in some other way perhaps? |
The only known cure for stupidity
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Dealing with frightened sick people is a wet dream for opportunist and con men. That is why it is traditional for doctors to take an oath to not take advantage of patients and their families and try to do as little harm as possible. |
Confront your local oppressors
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Face it folks, we are now in the opening stages of a civil war based largely on class. If you don't even know who in your community is calling down the dogs on you, what chance do you have? |
The future looks very bleak
by Leon Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: In reality, policy in Washington is not determined by the wants and needs of the American people, but by the whim of the wealthy and powerful elite whose seemingly inexhaustible riches and thirst for more riches supercedes everything else. These corrupt and treasonous individuals within the halls of power will stop at nothing, including war and murder, in order to attain their diabolical ends. |
I read the news today, oh, boy
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: To find out more I surfed the corporate national TV news network ABCCNNMSNBCFox. The limited number of sites were all covering a local 'Cub Scout lost in the woods' story. I tried the corporate national radio news network. They were all Rushing and gushing some slander about the far-left-wing wacko liberal radical Islamo-fascist threat and selling mattresses, dog food and miracle cures. |
Us and them
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Why are we so different? What part of our brain is turned on, while that part of their brain is turned off altogether? We comrades come from all walks of life, yet we are of like minds -- we see through the lies, but more importantly, we have the integrity to challenge the lies in the first place. |
The endless f***ing chess match
by Bob in CC and The Alchemist, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: It is difficult to discover that one's cherished ideals are less than true. We were all inculcated with the mythos of America the Beautiful. But she is riddled with vices, not least among them the propensity to shed innocent blood for the profit of a few privileged individuals. |
Is Air America Radio under CIA control?
by HappySysiphus, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Air America, the radio network, is there to establish "the line" so to speak of what people on the "Leftward Extreme" of the "Legitimate" political spectrum supposedly think. |
Walter Reed Hospital is paradise
by The Alchemist, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: Oh, our poor troops, all f*cked up in da head with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Well, try watching your infant bleed out in your arms after an American mortar attack. Or your 14-year-old daughter gang raped by some All-American sausage crew. Or your 5-year-old boy shot down like a dog. Poor, poor Americans? Give me a f*cking break. |
It's put up or shut up time, for Homo sapiens
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: As we do the work of replacing this Tyranny with a just order, we can expect every tool of oppression to be brought to bear. If it has happened elsewhere in the Imperium, it will happen here. |
Three rows of pawns and other new chess rules discovered
by Kevin Good, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Little known provisions in the PATRIOT Act and signing statements combined with Executive Orders now allows three rows of pawns to protect the unitary executive homeland row. |
Let's clear up our thinking a little on the "health care issue"
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Health care executives are not Rotarian business people practicing fair exchange of value. These are true gangsters hauling in vast amounts of loot, managing "the business of health care" with methods traditionally used to manage the illegal drug, prostitution, gambling and loan sharking "businesses." |
Me thinks the Dr. doth protest too much
by JS Magruder, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: CS's letter reminds me of people who blame the homeless for not pulling themselves together and getting a job, finding housing, etc. I'd argue that by the point someone is homeless, it hardly matters how or why they arrived at the condition. Rather, I have an obligation to try and do what I can without applying the absurd reasoning of "If I can do it, why can't they?" It hardly matters what I'm capable of, and it shouldn't be a criteria for determining whether or not to extend help to those in need. I'd expect the same approach from a physician. By the time someone has diabetes, it is sort of condescending to suggest what they might have done to prevent it. |
Lightning consumed the skies in every direction
by Kathy Fisher, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: People were panicking -- there was utter chaos and sheer madness. Everyone was fleeing to -- where? I don't know! |
In opposition to Tyranny, they who survive win
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News
| |
Excerpt: As paradoxical as it seems, I am convinced that those we oppose are actually very weak people, psychologically speaking. A big part of the reason that they are so dangerous is that they must do everything possible to cover up and deny the inner torments, insecurities and infirmities that define their beings. The lesson here is that if we not only merely survive but also create in the minds of our opponents that somehow, even at some distant time, we might overcome them, then we will win. They will self-destruct as a result of their paranoia. |
The real war criminals
by Rose and The Alchemist, Unknown News| |
Rose says To lump all the US soldiers -- soldiers who were certain, because it is what they were told by their superiors, that there was a tie between bin Laden and Iraq and that they were fighting an enemy that attacked us -- into the category of "war crim |
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