randallt

Circus movie you must see

2010-06-24T21:11:00.000-04:00

Asheville's Progressive Hope

2009-10-20T18:44:00.002-04:00

"All politics is local" observed Tip O'Neill, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Gordon Smith, from the gorgeous Western North Carolina city of Asheville, has taken the lessons of Tip O'Neill and has crafted a modern local campaign that is bold, inspiring, fun and accessible like none other I have ever seen. He is using social media, personal outreach and good old fashioned door to door politicking combined with energetic public events to reach thousands of people with his very progressive ideas.

Please follow me below the fold to learn more. Local politics. It all starts here.

John Blossom observed back in 2008 in his excellent piece on local politics and its changing dynamic, that citizens are making a profound difference on the political landscape through blogging, social media and interactive awareness never seen before. He uses Tip O'Neill as an early example before the modern tools we now enjoy arrived.

"All politics is local" observed Tip O'Neill, a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. O'Neill was a Congressman from Cambridge, Massachusetts who learned this maxim of politics when he lost his first political campaign - a race for a seat on his local city council - by only 150 votes. When O'Neill asked some of the people in his neighborhood why they hadn't voted for him, they told him "You didn't ask for my vote." Tip O'Neill never forgot this lesson and went on to a very successful career in politics in which he was known for his ability to lead and influence the most unlikely combinations of political allies to get their votes - and to get business done. The art of politics is indeed all local, based on building bonds of trust and delivering on personal promises to people who have entrusted someone with their personal political endorsement.

Gordon started this campaign back in the spring before announcing his intentions. He laid the groundwork by quietly building an organization of dedicated progressives while pouring himself into researching the issues that mattered most to Asheville voters. He had quite the head start in on that front as Asheville's premiere local political blogger. His blog turned five years old this year and it has covered every aspect of the local political scene. He is also one of the earliest Kossacks.

Breaking into politics, finally, was an obvious direction Gordon needed to take. And one that Asheville needed him to take.
Gordon wins primary

The arrival of a new era in Asheville politics was clearly demonstrated by the victories attained by Cecil Bothwell and Gordon Smith in the city council primary on October 6. These wins were built on hard and smart work by both candidates, sizeable teams of deeply committed volunteers and the grassroots organizing skills many of them gained working in President Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Here's why

As I write this, Gordon Smith has just earned his place on the November ballot for Asheville City Council. It is a tribute to the planning and long hours Gordon and the team he built devoted to this effort. But more, to the years Gordon has already devoted to building a better Asheville. Gordon Smith has proven himself a force for a smarter, more citizen-centered approach to city government. Of course, Gordon Smith is approachable, responsive, and a good listener – he’s a child and family therapist. As operator of a small business and as an engaged citizen, he has become a focal point for people interested in a building a sustainable, prosperous future for Asheville. He will be an excellent community representative on Asheville City Council.

Below are some links to the issues Gordon believes are essential to building a sustainable, progressive community here in the heart of Blue Ridge mountains. Asheville is a unique oasis of art, culture and beauty and Gordon Smith could use a little extra help to push him over the top and into the City Council where he can provide positive, progressive leadership and a strong voice for change and a sustainable future.

Affordable Housing
Economic Sustainability
Environmental Sustainability
Community Sustainability
Transparency
A balanced budget

Thanks for your time and please consider throwing a few bucks toward a progressive local voice.
And please come visit! The leaves are turning, the air is crisp and Asheville is alive with energy, beauty and progressive politics.

2009: The Nobel Hope-'n'-Hype Prize

2009-10-09T15:51:00.000-04:00

Wow. I think I was as shocked in my pre-coffee stupor this morning as Barack Obama must have been to discover that he'd won the million-+ dollar Nobel Peace Prize for nothing more than running a campaign on deception, cleverly labeled 'Hope'. Surely, thunk I to myself, they must be kidding! Since when did Alfred Nobel authorize his endowed prizes for great contributions in science, literature and politics to people who haven't done a damned thing other than maintain the bad old status quo?

I mean, it's not like the U.S. has turned Iraq over to the puppet government we installed there after invading the country for lies in the last administration, as if Saddam Hussein (who got hanged years ago) was responsible for 9-11 or was any threat after years of embargo that had hundreds of thousands of Iraqis starving after Daddy's bullshit mercenary war in the early '90s. Last I checked, which was this morning, ridiculously overstretched U.S. troops and well-paid mercenaries were still there and still dying.

Nor is it like the U.S. isn't still negotiating with warlords and drug kingpins in Afghanistan, or that the puppet government we installed there is in charge of anything other than the pallets of cash passed out to those drug lords. And yes, our troops and mercenaries are still dying every day there too. Why, last I checked - again this morning - Obama was still trying to get a troop surge there, despite not having any troops to work with after 8 years of decimating our vaunted "All-Volunteer" force.

Oh... and civilians by the multi-thousands in both countries are still being slaughtered wholesale, while our overstretched troops play the old game of "take this hill today, abandon it to the enemy tomorrow" that lost us Korea and Vietnam. Then there's Pakistan, which Obama is bombing regularly with drones and slaughtering thousands of innocent civilians we're not even at war with. And of course there's Iran, which Obama is threatening daily with carpet-nukes because he doesn't like their diminutive not-really leader's rhetoric as our troops surround his nation. Oh, and then there's Columbia, and Obama's troop build-up there to ostensibly take on the drug cartels he's supporting out in the open in Opium-Land.

The whole world is topsy-turvy crazy, and the Nobel committee is leading the pack. Wow. Just... wow.

Wake me up when Barack Obama does anything real in this world to end and/or prevent war. Until then, I've just got to consider this as being just what it is. The Nobel Hope-Against-Hope Prize.

Microcosm: Interesting Local Primary

2009-10-07T14:54:00.001-04:00

Cross-posted to People First Politics

As a microcosm of current American politics in an age of angry Teabaggers and motivated Progressives, the Western North Carolina city of Asheville has been providing some fine entertainment. The Mayoral/City Council races to be decided in November enjoyed their much-anticipated primary yesterday, and the results are quite promising.

Asheville has been described as a "New New Age Mecca" by CBS and "America's New Freak Capital" by Rolling Stone, and indeed hosts a large and thriving population of musicians, artists of all varieties, organic consumers, gays, pagans, hippies and activist vegans. It's got Code Pink and PETA and even a group of Quakers who pass out subversive literature promoting peace on earth. Its first Gay Pride parade marches this coming Saturday. But Asheville has also long been famous as a hard core Appalachian backwater for its notorious police force, its crooked magistrates, and its semi-official love of the KKK.

The Klan had a march a few years ago downtown, and the city ignored all loud protest and numerous petitions to allow them their march anyway. Their only restriction for the permit was "no guns." Before the march, the police confiscated numerous guns from the sheet-sters, then let them march anyway. Police brutality against citizens peacefully protesting the march to war in Iraq, officers who routinely violate citizen's rights and do things like shoot people's dogs inside fences... Things have been slowly getting better, could get a whole lot better if yesterday's primary statistics mean anything.

There are three seats on the City Council open this year, along with the mayoral race. The incumbent mayor, Terry Bellamy received a substantial majority of votes, challenger Robert Edwards, will have to work very hard to unseat her. It was the City Council race that has provided the biggest reality show yucks, though. Incumbent Carl Mumpower, who challenged Heath Shuler in the 2008 Congressional and hardly made a showing, has been busy playing his King of Teabagger role with relish, trying to garner national attention as a mover-shaker. His latest act was to label local schoolteachers "Nazis", leading to actual death threats against teachers and causing parents to become afraid for the safety of their children. And just to flesh that out, when chastized for it, Mumpower went on to liken our elementary school teachers to Communists, Castro, Hezbollah, and yes, Al-Qaeda.

So it was with some satisfaction to see when the primary votes came in, that more progressive challengers Gordon Smith, Cecil bothwell and Esther Manheimer (who happens to be married to a public school teacher) took the vast majority. This may be a reflection of the Democratic/Progressive activism that started making itself obvious in 2006 with the defeat of Rep. Charles Taylor (a.k.a. "Chainsaw Charlie") by Blue Dog Heath Shuler, and expanded in 2008 to swing toward Obama. The energized left is apparently still engaged and still willing to get out and vote, which is something that perhaps D.C. ought to be paying some attention to.

The way the votes break down is quite dramatic. The percentages don't look like much, but it's a primary (only 13% of voters turned out). I've listed below, with both measures to make it easy to parse. City offices are non-partisan, but the candidate positions are fairly clear even for those who aren't Carl "Nazi" Mumpower...

Challengers
• Cecil Bothwell: 19.63% - 52% of ballots cast.
• Gordon Smith: 18.87% - 50% of ballots.
• Esther Manheimer: 17.29% - 46% of ballots.
J. Neal Jackson: 6.71% - 18% of ballots.

Incumbents
Kelly Miller: 13.05% - 35% of ballots.
Carl Mumpower: 12.30% - 33% of ballots.

City Council member Robin Cape did not seek reelection, but following the filing deadline decided to run as a write-in candidate for the November general election, thus avoiding the primary. Three seats are open. If this trend continues through next month's general, the tenor of Asheville's City Council with change significantly toward issues the residents feel are most important - preservation, affordable housing, public transportation expansion, Green and environmental issues, education. On that last front, let's hope that city officials won't be calling our school teachers Nazis or terrorists again any time soon.

I think people in the area I live are beginning to turn on the ugly hate-politics of the hard-right WingNuts, even the more conservative contingents. This would certainly be a healthy thing to spring from the 'grassroots' of our own neighborhoods, cities, counties and regions to force a big change in the way politics is currently practiced in the isolated backwater of Washington, D.C. It's about damned time.

Nazi Is As Nazi Does

2009-10-02T17:35:00.002-04:00

[ cross-posted from Daily Kos ]

Carl Mumpower: a Danger to the Citizens He Claims to Serve

You'd think a fairly routine City Council race in a smallish city (~75,000 not counting tourists) in the sticks of Southern Appalachia would be off the radar screens of just about everybody else in the country. But alas, not so. One of the incumbents, a certain Carl Mumpower, has been busy making a claim for WingNut fame and fortune by egging on militia-style death threats against local schoolchildren and teachers. Mumpower is a hero of Teabaggers and hate-radio bloviators like Rush Limbaugh. So of course his more colorful antics this time around are getting national attention.

The latest is about a YouTube video showing a one-minute clip of students at a local elementary school participating in a 26-minute performance last February about famous Americans, and celebrating the election of the nation's first African-American President. While that program fully accorded with the North Carolina educational curriculum per teaching about civic leadership, American heroes, good citizenship, diverse cultures and such, the clip has led to some nasty charges and ramifications.

According to the Asheville Citizen-Times area resident Loren Lanter posted the clip to YouTube in late September, where it was picked up by national media and Rush Limbaugh as evidence of indoctrination in public schools. Limbaugh's old buddy Carl could of course be counted upon to exploit the situation to his dubious advantage. Mumpower announced:

"...That is ritual behavior and that's how you plug things into kids' heads. I'll come right out and say it. That's exactly how the Hitler youth were programmed prior to World War II."

This absurd grandstanding has led directly to death threats against teachers, threats of violence to the school, and has caused many parents to become very concerned about the safety of their children. One of the challengers for Mumpower's City Council seat, activist and blogger Gordon Smith responded, sounding a lot like a rational and civic-minded human being:

"Asheville's children and schoolteachers deserve our highest praise and encouragement. Instead we have a city leader insulting them and stoking the fires of violence. Carl Mumpower ought to apologize to the children, families, and school personnel for his dangerous comments and issue a statement condemning death threats against school officials."

Hear, hear. One wonders how Mumpower would characterize a one-minute clip of quick scenes showing public school students reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to a piece of cloth, chanting requisite prayers to the Christian godling, dressing up and parading around in uniforms, etc. from way back when I was a kid. And those ubiquitous Duck-and-Cover drills were not just pointless to public safety, they were specific to instilling mass fear in the nation's children of a doomsday technology they weren't allowed to learn anything about. This country's never been materially different from any of its enemies in the matter of mass public and childhood indoctrination, brainwashing and fear-peddling. Heck we're much better at it these days with FoxNews, Limbaugh and his clones, and crazy WingNuts like Mumpower and ilk ready to demonize and threaten the very lives their own neighbors for a single minute of nationwide infamy.

Gordon Smith wrote the above condemnation of Mumpower on September 30 on his blog. On October 1 City Councilman Mumpower wrote on his blog:

"The recent brouhaha over our school kids reciting President Obama's campaign slogans has had more legs than most would have anticipated. Liberal apologists, culture vultures, and their enablers are joining forces to minimize the impact of the event and those challenging it. With all due respect, I would rather not."

He goes on to reiterate his Nazi charge, again identifies the school and its location specifically, and further likens the February civics program to indoctrination methods used by "Communist China, Castro, Al-Qaeda, and Hezbollah." Anything to pump those crazies, maybe get a WingNut to show up with assault weaponry and open fire at the school, or just park a rental truck loaded with explosives out front. Then he personally thanks the guy who posted the video to YouTube, despite the fact that doing so without any sort of consent or waver of any of the parents or teachers may be actionable, particularly in that it has led to those rampant and ongoing threats of violence against the school, teachers and students.

It's probably redundant to mention that Mumpower is a holdover from the city's notoriously racist past, or that he spends time casing public housing projects for signs of illegal goings on (that as a Councilman you'd think he could assign to the actual law enforcement apparatus of the city). For those of us who live and/or work in Asheville, it would be nice if the City Council could reflect something of the true diversity and political leanings of its citizens, rather than the paranoid racist rantings of the seriously inbred corners of outlying rural incorporations. There are good liberal candidates running this year and turnout in early voting has set a record so far, promising a record participation when the votes are counted.

The City Council races are officially "non-partisan," but this of course doesn't prevent the parties from financing and politicking for their favored candidates. Buncombe County Republican Party Chair Robert Malt admits that high turnout tends to indicate the citizens are "dissatisfied" with the status quo and are looking to change things. Let's hope he's right, and the last of our notorious wannabe mind-tyrants - who lost a bid for the 11th district to Heath Shuler in 2006 - is finally put out to pasture where he belongs.

Carl Mumpower's quest for personal aggrandizement must stop threatening the lives of citizens he's supposed to serve. If he won't call off his vicious dogs, he needs to be tossed out like the bum he truly is. As unceremoniously as possible, please!

Scam of Ages

2009-09-21T16:06:00.001-04:00

Scam of Ages, aimed at me,
Let me hide myself from thee;
Let the sickness and the blood,
From my wounds and years of life,
Be by some miracle then cured,
Saved from bankruptcy assured.

In 1980 my brother died in one of those notorious one-car accidents that plague the nuclear whistleblower set. He'd arrived that afternoon with his wife and three children with U-Haul in tow to start a new life. He and my hubby drove into town to get formula and disposable diapers for his youngest, never made it home. By morning he was dead, hubby was in ICU.

It fell to me to deal with the car insurer and health insurer from his last job as health physics site coordinator at a nuke in Georgia, a job he'd quit two weeks before in order to move his family to New Mexico where we'd found refuge, had a job waiting for him building equipment consoles for radio and television stations. Because his insurance was through a rent-a-tech outfit out of Pittsburgh that often shuffled personnel around to different plants for outages and such, it covered him for a full 30 days between assignments and 30 days following termination. It came with a life insurance rider with a double indemnity clause if he died in an accident - $100,000 for his family.

It was the first time I'd lost someone very close, the first time I'd had to deal with reluctant insurers (we'd previously enjoyed purely socialist health care via the US Navy). I made a deal with the car insurer during a meeting in Santa Fe that if they'd go ahead and pay $1500 for his funeral expenses, they could fight it out with his health insurer for the hospital bills. This allowed his wife to pay for the cremation and an urn, which was only fair.

Hubby had no insurance, but the county of Taos had instituted a sales tax to cover the cost of indigent DFHs and mountain folk that ended up using the public hospital, so we didn't have to worry about that - we never received a single bill. Which was also fair, considering they'd done absolutely nothing for him other than put him in a bed and hook him to a monitor. I was the one who pulled the glass out of his head, cleaned out his holes and butterflied his cuts, the punctured lung reinflated itself, and what can you do for smashed ribs? They didn't even wash the blood off.

The life insurer for my brother balked, but by then we'd left New Mexico. We stayed only long enough for hubby to regain strength and get sis-in-law settled into a cabin, supplied with wood for the coming winter, and hooked up with food stamps and various support groups to help her transition to widowhood. In the end for my sister-in-law it took three lawyers in two states to get the life insurer to pay (how dead do you have to be?!), and they ate up $60,000 of the $100,000 that was supposed to go to his family.

So I got into the habit whenever life insurance salesmen called of asking if the policies they sold came with a legal rider to cover the cost of lawyers it would take to make them pay when we die. That was as effective at shutting them down as showing up to the door in a saffron robe when the JWs came calling!

My next experience with life insurance was as executor for my mother's estate when she died in 2002. She'd worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida before retiring, had a $125,000 life policy through their offerings that she'd been paying on faithfully even when she couldn't afford medicine. When the paperwork was done I was informed that BCBS's provider had sold the policy when she retired, and the new insurer would only honor $60,000 of it.

Her policy was clear in black and white, she'd never been informed that her coverage had changed, and her payments had never been adjusted. I informed my sisters that it was a complete scam, that we could hire a lawyer and handily win a lawsuit. But it would take at least 5 years and the lawyer would eat more than what the scammers were offering. So of course we had to settle for the $60K, even knowing it was a complete rip-off. That policy represented something my mother had counted on to leave us, so I was glad she wasn't around to deal with this. I reported them to the state Insurance Commissioner, who of course did nothing at all.

Health insurance is no better these days, nor has it been better for a long, long time. In 1992 our 21-year old son was injured in a car accident. We had a small business policy, $2500 deductible but a million overall. They pre-approved everything, including an air ambulance transfer from Louisiana (where the accident occurred) to Florida where we lived. Then, after his remaining injuries were identified and surgery was deemed necessary, the insurance company decided to rescind the policy and the doctors abandoned our son. Simply told us everything was fine and sent him home. He died two months later when the unrepaired rip in his internal carotid gave way and he bled to death. His doctors of record - five of them - refused to accept him into the hospital.

It took two lawyers two years to make the insurer pay the bills for what they'd approved, two more lawyers and seven years to get to trial in a malpractice suit against the doctors who abandoned him to his death for something that was entirely treatable. When it was all over the lawyers made out like bandits and we were out more than $50,000 for that small modicum of 'justice'. The practices that were blatantly unethical and in several aspects illegal in 1992 have since become standard operating procedure. Which is where we are today.

Now whenever someone tries to sell me health insurance coverage I ask the same question - does this policy come with a legal rider to pay for the lawyers it'll take to get you to pay a claim? None of them do, of course.

There's a lot wrong with our medical system in this country, including some extremely serious problems with the delivery system itself I wrote about previously. Rampant malpractice, medical errors, in-hospital prescription errors, iatrogenic disease, pure negligence, etc. And a lot of that is a result of a class-based rationing system that nobody likes to admit exists, but does. Medicare patients get a different quality of care than the well-insured, the marginally insured get less care as well, the Medicaid recipients get genuinely lousy care, and the uninsured get pretty much nothing. ERs don't even stitch cuts or set bones these days, they might butterfly your gash (or give you butterflies to do it with), dispense a pain pill, maybe offer a tetanus shot, and tell you to call a specialist who might fit you in in a month or so. The uninsured are routinely charged twice as much or more than anyone else. Nowdays even the insured are driven into bankruptcy by an accident or illness.

The only rational answer to this ever-worsening situation is universal, single-payer health care. Where everyone has the same necessary coverage and everyone receives what they need as best as can be provided. This is not what we'll get, of course. What we'll get are individual mandates for private scams and exactly zero oversight of the delivery system that all by itself is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., killing about 200,000 people a year who wouldn't have died if they'd simply stayed away from doctors and hospitals.

I read today that by the time "Health Care Reform" (whatever that turns out to be) takes full effect in 2019, things will be much, much worse. If insurers are free to continue raising their policy rates at 4 and 5 times the rate of inflation - as has become the annual norm over the past decade and more - a fair insurance policy from a private insurer for a family of 4 will cost as much as $30,000 per year. If subsidies are available so that premiums, deductibles and co-pays together don't account for more than 13% of Adjusted Gross Income, the government will be paying for all or some of this outrageous cost for every family whose AGI is less than $300,000 a year. How is that in any conceivable economic scheme "reform?" Where is the government supposed to get that much money? IRS fines of $3800 on the few who choose not to buy private $30,000 policies? That wouldn't pass muster in any 6th grade math class!

Insurers are in it for the profits, not to make medical care available to people who need it. They are corporate entities, profit and profit alone is their job. Politicians are owned by the corporate lobbyists who are spending millions every day to make sure their scam remains lucrative. We'll see no real reform. This is all just another huge heist and corporate bail-out, amounting to a $10,000-$30,000 tax increase plus a profits-bailout from the government for those who can't afford the price. Which is the vast majority of us whose income has remained flat for a decade or decreased in the last couple of years.

I am surely not the only person who sees that this is never going to work. So I have grown very impatient with the strange Kabuki that pretends it might.

I might live another seven years and finally get some of that Medicare I've been paying into faithfully since I was 16 years old. Then again, given my strong dislike and distrust of the Amerikan medical system, I might not. That's my karma, I'm okay with it and will take my chances. What I will NOT do is pay a huge chunk of my now nonexistent income so some insurance hack can get million-dollar bonuses for sentencing people to death. Nor will I have the government pay that same insurance hack his million-dollar bonuses FOR me. That might mean the IRS will charge me an extra $3800 on my taxes every year, but since I'm too marginal to pay that much in taxes, so what?

A friend of ours, Gordon Smith, has a good chance of getting elected this November. I'm thinking of trying to interest him in what Taos did way back in the late 1970s, of adding a penny sales tax on goods, a few cents on gasoline, a few bucks on tourists at local resorts and hotels, earmarked to the county hospital to pay for care to the uninsured. Lord knows we've got more than our share of DFHs and mountain folk here too (I'm one of 'em). It worked in Taos, the referendum passed handily even in those dark economic days. I think it would pass here. And it's a much better and fairer way of covering the actual cost of health care than anything D.C.'s been able to come up with.

Angry Letter to My Blue Dog CongressCritter

2009-09-16T12:01:00.002-04:00

Last week we (or "current resident") received a slick 4-color 6x10 card stock mailer that looks at first glance to have come from our NC-11 congressional rep, Heath Shuler. At the top the reverse-on-blue header reads:

"Congressman Shuler Is Fighting To Make Medicare Prescription Coverage Even Better"

and on the bottom reverse-on-red the italicized message reads:

"Call Congressman Health Shuler today at 202-224-3121. Tell him thanks for fighting to improve Medicare without making seniors pay more, and ask him to keep on fighting until we get the job done."

The wording struck me a little odd. Why would Heath tell me to thank him for his notably atrocious Blue Dog position on health care reform? I mean, it's not like he cares what Democrats in his district have to say about the issue. So I flipped the mailer over and read on the bottom of the address/postage space:

"Paid for by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America."

Whoa. Billy Tauzin's notorious PhRMA lobby. The one that got a secret back-room deal with Obama before this issue ever got to committees in the House and Senate. And who are now sending deceptive mailers like this all over the country as part of a $150 million PR campaign to promote their continued obscene profits on the backs of senior citizens, while the mandate to force all citizens to purchase junk policies from the for-profit insurance industry amounts to a ~$12,000 per year (plus steep annual hikes at four or more times the rate of inflation) tax increase on the middle class. Earmarked directly to the Murder-by-Spreadsheet crime syndicate, this porker is uglier than Hogzilla.

FACT: According to an analysis of the proposed Part D changes by the Wall Street Journal, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that any decrease in average spending on prescriptions by seniors will more than be made up for by an increase in premiums seniors must pay for Part D. CBS News reported that CBO has confirmed seniors will be paying 20% more for Part D coverage by 2019 under this giveaway to Big Pharma.

FACT: The Baucus plan also abets another huge giveaway to insurers by allowing them to charge older people (age 50-64) up to five times as much as younger people for the insurance policies everyone will be required to purchase.

FACT: The per capita (per person) cost of ALL health care in the U.S. per year comes to right about $3,750. That is all care, for all people, insured and uninsured, Medicare, VA, Medicaid, SCHIP and charity. Why would anyone want to pay $12,000 a year for what actually costs $3,750? A government-run single-payer system could be paid for by graduated taxation based on actual costs and those taxes would be far cheaper even to the richest of the rich than the cost of a single for-profit insurance policy.

Links:

NYT: Drug Makers to Back Baucus Plan With Ad Dollars

NYT: How Much Should Older Americans Pay for Insurance?

WSJ: Part-D Offsets

CBS: 20% increase in Part-D premiums

According to figures from the Center for Responsive Politics Shuler has received the following contributions from shady players:

$195,262 from the health sector employees and PACs.
$13,750 from health insurance companies.
$74,800 from Big Pharma.
$77,062 from health professionals.
$27,900 from hospitals.
$10,500 from the nursing home industry.

$399,274 in total. Now, the figures from CRP are what the Blue Dogs (individually) have received since 1989 from the PACs and pools of various health related industries, but Shuler's only been in office since 2007. So that's quite the hefty haul over less than three years!

Below is the letter I have written in response to this blatant insult from the Drug Pusher's Union Propaganda Squad...
__________

Dear Congressman Shuler;

The four registered voters in our NC-11 household were appalled by a slick mailer we received last week from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America urging us to "thank" you for working for them instead of us in the matter of health care reform. This letter is to lodge formal complaint and explain once again why we do NOT want either the insurers or the drug companies writing this necessary legislation.

Our formal complaint is to the information provided in this mailer that you work for Big Pharma and not for us, the constituents you were elected - by us - to represent. This lobby group actually expects us to congratulate you for serving out-of-state corporate donors instead of us. We most certainly do not congratulate you for succumbing to rampant D.C. corruption in record time.

The mailer talks about how Big Pharma's contribution to the reform effort will help close the Medicare Part D "donut hole" they themselves wrote into the original bill to ensure obscene profits and force American seniors on fixed incomes to pay more for necessary drugs than anyone else in the world. As well as prevent Medicare by law from negotiating lower drug prices, as all other first world nations (with universal, single-payer health care) do and have done so successfully for so long.

In fact, according to an analysis of the proposed Part D changes under HR 3200 by the Wall Street Journal Health Blog, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that any decrease in average spending on prescriptions by drug-dependent seniors will more than be made up for by an increase in premiums seniors must pay for Part D. CBS News reports that CBO determined seniors will be paying 20% more for coverage by 2019. 20% is very significant to a great many seniors in your district, Mr. Shuler.

Two of the voters in this household - myself and my husband - will be 68 years old in 2019. Thanks to the recent destruction of the nation's economy by greedy bankers and insurers (whom we and our children and grandchildren were forced to bail out to the tune of trillions in completely unaccountable dollars), our only income will be Social Security, and our only access to health care will be Medicare. So you are going to deliberately rob us further on orders from your corporate masters? That is completely unacceptable.

As proud long-time residents of WNC, registered Democratic voters and active participants in Democratic politics, we will be lobbying hard and very publicly beginning immediately in favor of a primary challenge to you next year from a candidate more committed to both the people of this district and the Democratic Party. You brought this on yourself, as we were all delighted when you were willing to run against Charles Taylor. We would have supported you for a very long career in politics if you'd just been less willing to sell us out in favor of corporations who do NOT vote in this district and cannot keep you in power.

Though they probably can make you rich, so you may wish to go ahead and apply for that post-Congress Big Pharma lobbying job now.

In Sincerely Sad Disappointment,

[the four of us registered voters, address in NC-11]
__________

Wanted: Dedicated public servant and Democrat with an understanding of policy issues that impact the residents of Western North Carolina, to vie for Heath Shuler's seat in Congress in the 2010 primary.

CNN at it's best (not)

2009-08-24T22:48:00.002-04:00

After Hoyer's conference call, an aide told CNN that the majority leader is in full agreement with the speaker about the need for a public option, and that a health reform bill will be hard to pass in the House without one.

And with the president vacationing in Martha's Vineyard, the tide may be turning against the public option idea.

"I'm afraid we've got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy's out of recession. There's no reason we have to do it all now," Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday. Also on Sunday, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said that "one of the fundamentals for any agreement would be that the president abandon the government option."

CNN engineering at it's best.

And hey quote Joe. How sad is that?

Good job Mr. President

2009-07-22T21:46:00.002-04:00

The President's opening statement during his health care centered news conference.

Three Mile Island

2009-04-26T12:12:00.006-04:00

I and my two compatriots are the subject of a story that's getting some wide recognition lately as a result of the 30th anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident. Sue Sturgis wrote the story for Facing South and it has since been published in a variety of online resources including Wikipedia, Alternet and Common Dreams. Links below.

It was April Fool's Day, 1979—30 years ago this month—when Randall Thompson first set foot inside the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pa. Just four days earlier, in the early morning hours of March 28, a relatively minor problem in the plant's Unit 2 reactor sparked a series of mishaps that led to the meltdown of almost half the uranium fuel and uncontrolled releases of radiation into the air and surrounding Susquehanna River.

It was the single worst disaster ever to befall the U.S. nuclear power industry, and Thompson was hired as a health physics technician to go inside the plant and find out how dangerous the situation was. He spent 28 days monitoring radiation releases. Today, his story about what he witnessed at Three Mile Island is being brought to the public in detail for the first time; and his version of what happened during that time, supported by a growing body of other scientific evidence, contradicts the official U.S. government story that the Three Mile Island accident posed no threat to the public.
"What happened at TMI was a whole lot worse than what has been reported," Thompson told Facing South. "Hundreds of times worse."

Wikipedia
Alternet
Common Dreams
Indy Week
Oxdown Gazette/Firedog Lake
Undernews Progressive Review
concerned citizens for Nuclear Safety
Online Educational Resources
Millinium Ark

The story is now getting some attention on the air waves as well. David Bear, whom we enlisted to help investigate the accident during the first month following the meltdown, appeared Friday, April 24th, on San Francisco's largest News/Talk radio station KGO AM 810 with host Pat Thurston. You can listen to the one hour audio HERE.

It's a great interview and David covers a lot of ground in the short time he had. It also includes a call from a retired nuclear aircraft carrier Captain who challenged David, only to be handed the cruel reality of the difference between military and commercial reactors.

Losing Lucy

2009-04-17T21:06:00.003-04:00

We had a rough day. Our dear dog Lucy passed away this afternoon. We just returned from the bottom of the garden to lay her to rest with the many other fine animal friends who have owned our hearts through all our years here.

Lucy was about 11 years old and will go down in history as the most loyal of all our doggie wonders. Joy found her at the mailbox with a too large collar. We guessed her to be maybe six weeks old and was tiny enough to fit in a coat pocket. She grew to be quite the lady. Amanda did change her name for awhile after she chewed up her new sandals, but other than that, she was pretty wonderful.

She had also helped raise many other dogs and cats and kept them in line with an iron paw. Well, more than an iron paw actually. She was in fact, quite the Dom bitch to all her charges. But to her humans, she was all sweetness and innocence. She herded many a child away from harm, kept a sharp ear and eye out for danger and could run like the wind.

We are still blessed by the cooing of our 16 year old magical white dove Noel, so we're not without an animal friend, but it feels pretty empty nonetheless.

Bye Lucy Loo, we're sure going to miss you. Thanks for being such a great friend and protector.

Tea Baggin

2009-04-14T14:01:00.003-04:00

Dear Jane,
I think the most disingenuous thing about the tea bag day, is that it is far right Republican show off escapade being painted as spontaneous and grass roots. It is not and everyone knows it.

Digby has the scoop, and as usual, the reasoning. Corporate grassroots.

Now, none of this means that the people who show up at the rallies don't actually believe in what they're rallying for. It's primarily a team sport for them, and this is the conservative team's play. But most of them probably don't realize (and wouldn't believe if you told them) that they are rallying on behalf of a major media conglomerate and other vastly wealthy interests to support rich people and corporations at the expense of people like themselves. Of course, that is the organizing principle of the Republican Party in general, but it is spectacularly arrogant at a time like this.

If the press were to do its job, it would inform the public of this instead of regurgitating professional beltway press releases and pretending that these tea bagger parties are even coherent much less representing a legitimate grassroots anti-tax movement.

Save the Rich has become the most comprehensive site for understanding the truth about this gimmick. Below are some highlights for all you gentle seekers of the truth.

• Corporate lobbyists and their consultants are organizing behind the scenes.
• Fox News is encouraging turnout, sponsoring, and covering "Tea Parties" across the country.
• Republican officials are driving turn out.
• Protesters have no idea what they're talking about. At Tea Parties that have taken place over the last few days, attendees are more concerned with Obama's birth certificate than high taxes or government spending. Fringe gun groups, secessionists, anti-immigration activists and neo-Nazis are out in force.

I too applaud the efforts of Americans everywhere, regardless of political affiliation, to make their voices known. Fox News however is not a news organization. It is a propaganda device, nothing more. It is the primary media mover here.

Freedom Watch is a right wing Republican corporate activist organization led by the notorious Dick Armey. There is nothing spontaneous or even remotely non-partisan here. That's the truth.

Hope and Habitat for Humanity: Tough Times Holiday Report

2008-12-16T19:10:00.005-05:00

20th Annual Christmas Jam Report

Warren Haynes and John Paul Jones

Season's Greetings, Earthlings! Warren Haynes' (Allman Bros., Government Mule, lots of etc's.) 20th Anniversary Christmas Jam this year had the usual "pre-jam" in local pubs - locals mostly - and the main event went to 2 nights due to the all-star lineup. More musicians than you can shake a stick at, and more participants than any one venue could hold. So this year there were art exhibits, a film festival, day-jams at those local pubs, and two long, long nights at the A-ville Civic Center Arena - big enough to park all the tour buses, Winnebegos and Priuses before you even got to the curtained-off green room & bar or the musician's dinner, drinks and rehearsal area. I'm guessing this is where they park the lions, tigers and elephants when the circus is in town...

The Citizen-Times covered the full event in all its glory from the starting gate - we love our Warren, just as we loved our Mr. Moog. We started early on as well, back when Warren was just beginning his long career in charity and memorial concerts/jams, which he figured he could do because... he's Warren Haynes. In 1990 we did our first Haynes jam at the Jacksonville Beach Pavillion, a memorial for Lynard Skynard / Rossington-Collins guitarist Allen Collins. Entertained the young'uns before the show with the basic juggling and magic. Not exactly respectable musicianship (we have no musical talent at this end of the family), but it does get us in free. Mostly because there IS (or, sadly, was) musical talent at other ends of the family.

Johnny Winter

Brother Chuck was a guitarist - Jimmy Hendrix, both Winters Brothers, Zappa and Captain Beefheart were his heroes. Little Sis sang backup for Skynard since before the air crash, provided harmony and backup for our short-lived Tulsa band the Honky Dreads (America's Premier Third World White Guy Band), sang for and promoted Derek Trucks when he was starting out at the ripe old age of 11, and was Alpha-Fowl of those notorious Hens (3-sister backup for Jacksonville's Roosters). Jax had more truly great, hard-working but starving musicians in those days than Nashville! Did what we could...

Anyway, enough about that. Other than yes, we did get into the Jam's Opening Night for free (the only way we ever get to go to such things). Just called up Derek's father and he put us on the "family" list. Took 18-year old grandson Jahsh who thinks all these crazy old guys (like Warren and Government Mule as well as those dottering Allmans) and their weird music are just plain hippie-pitiful. Yet who looks EXACTLY like an 18-year old Derek, but with purple-tipped dreadlocks. Heck, he looks more like Derek than either of Derek's brothers (Duane was there for drums, David-who-is-incredibly-good-looking, was not). Derek was a safe 15 when our grandson was born, but grandson turned more than a few heads in the green room and on the floor, someone I am pretty sure was Tom Petty (not booked but having a lovely time backstage) was pretty sure Jahshua was a Trucks. You'll have this with all these rapidly aging hippies. Who are these old guys? Who are the young upstarts?

Travis Tritt

Here's the C-T Report on the second night of the Jam. Some of the artists did a two-fer, which is no doubt why opening night when we were there lasted so late we had to walk out in the middle of the Allman Brothers' set because they didn't start until 2:30 a.m., way past my bedtime because I'm an old fart too. Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones had done a great mandolin to Warren's guitar and singing on "Going to California," during which Warren managed to hit every one of those high notes (some surprise and appreciation from all, including Warren).

Night #1 hosted the bluegrass/country set, and Travis Tritt literally shocked everyone with his guitar chops, rocked the house on more than a couple of serious blues jams with various members of various groups. He shared a mike with Dell McCourry and Joan Osborne on a fine bit of down-home Bluegrass Gospel, did a semi-passable tenor version of "I Walk the Line" that since I'm related to and grew up with Johnny Cash, I didn't much like. Travis did finished up with a solo acoustic 'pickin' that floored even determined-to-be callous grandson. Who wasn't nearly so callous after he got picked up by a sweet young thing who'd driven up from SC just for the weekend's jam, and thought he was the coolest thing since sliced bread. Sigh. You'll have this with those up-and-coming hippies...

Guitar Master Derek Trucks

Derek and Susan were their sweet selves even in that crazy environment, so I guess it's kinda nice to be so far inside the clique that John Paul Jones isn't any more impressive than Eric Clapton or Bob Dylan (with whom Derek has played semi-regularly). We asked about the kids (home with Grandma), promised to stop by next time we're in town, Derek was taken a bit aback by Jahsh. Last time they'd hung out together much Jahsh was about 8. Now he's 18, that too-serious munchkin is 6 foot 2, has those purple-tipped blonde-blonde dreadlocks, and I'm sure Susan is asking her hubby all over again exactly how old he was when that particular baby was born to the notorious jealosy-bait Sally Saphire (in whose jam backup band Derek played on the Riverwalk all those years ago)...

There were multiple recording and floating camera enclosures on the floor, taking up about a third of the room. I know they produce Jam CDs for sale for Warren's charity (Habitat for Humanity), and beaming a live feed into a big-screen TV in the green room surrounded with comfy overstuffed couches for the REALLY old set - parents and grandparents of the aging hippies onstage. I expect they could edit and market a video of all that great music by great stars to HBO or some other pay-per-view outlet and triple the charity take. Definitely worth the price (whatever it is), for music lovers all over the world.

Joan Osborne

So for the 20th year, kudos to you dear friend Warren. You're finally getting the HUGE attention your ample efforts (and the willing participation of your many friends) have always deserved. And we'll be there again next year with bells on (not kidding), to thank you yet again. Not that many people understand how much of a serious performing artist's work is given away for free, even when they're Big Stars. We always called it the 'Donate Portion' of what would have been annual income, and it can run more than the usual 10% tithe.

I still believe in Santa Claus. Of course, we're elves, so that's not exactly a surprise. This year, as for 19 previous years, Santa *is* Warren Haynes (among so, so many others). That is always something to celebrate - even in hard times - and hope this year is running higher than it's run for way, way too long!

Thanks, Warren. And thanks to all your so-talented friends, too.

* Photos from the Asheville Citizen-Times, because our picture-taking ability is minimal. Check out their Jam galleries, they've hundreds of great pictures and videos too!

The Hard Times Begin...

2008-09-24T14:28:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to get this up from the blog Life on a Shoestring Budget, because it's scary as hell...

Survive the '08 Meltdown: Part 1:

Beginning on October 1st - next week - the US Army's Third Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team - all 6500 to 8000 troops - will be re-deployed within the borders of the United States for various police functions. Regular police forces are being deployed for crowd control and peacekeeping functions as well, in managing protests, gas lines and runs on banks, grocery stores, etc. Expect to be challenged every time you go out, be thankful when it doesn't happen.

Holy Moley, Batman!

Moses Meets the Burning Bush

2008-09-23T17:16:00.003-04:00

What happened today on Capitol Hill:

Secretary of the Treasury and ex-CEO of Goldman-Sachs Henry Paulson called Congressional leadership for a get-together. He tells them something - no doubt using charts and graphs - so horrifying, so absolutely terrifying that they all come out looking like Moses (er... Charlton Heston) after meeting the burning bush. Hair's grown a foot and is stark white, their beards fall to their bellies, they've all got that far-away look in their red-rimmed eyes, and their hands are shaking. None dare breathe the edict: Set My People Free!

So. What was it, exactly, that Paulson told them? Gee, we dunno. Nor are we allowed to know. Just as if this were top secret intelligence pinpointing WMDs that don't exist right in Saddam's palace, we don't get to find out. Even though it's supposedly OUR trillion or three or four they MUST have right now to bail themselves out. With a laughable "emergency" plan that, Deputy Admin press secretary Tony Fratto said just today, was drawn up over the course of months.

Months. Not days or even weeks. They sure as shit knew it was coming, and simply waited for just the right moment of panic to spring it on us as if the end of the world is mere hours away. Ah, the lively tune reverberates in my mind...

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine!"

If that's not a scam just waiting on the Greek chorus to sing the dirge I sure don't know what is. They don't care what I have to say about it, but I say "No." If it turns out that nobody's bothered to keep track of where all the paper went, then nobody really owns the lien on my house. It's mine, free and clear (if they can't produce the lien, they've got no claim). Except for the annual taxes I pay to my LOCAL government. Which I don't mind paying at all since it supports the fire department, rescue squad, county hospital, roads, bridges, schools and libraries.

Looks to me like they're trying to salvage the prime and just slightly sub-prime mortgage market by putting in a claim to the Treasury because if we were ever to figure out that our actual loans have been so fragmented and bundled and bought and sold that nobody bothered to keep the dead trees anywhere, we ALL own our properties free and clear and nobody who thinks they own the paper gets paid!

Which, btw, is just fine with me. Wall Street can crash, I don't mind. I'm sure there are capable players just waiting in the wings to kick-start things when the wind dies down. Real estate's still a good income investment and can be had cheap right now. Hold the liens yourself on just two or three houses and you're guaranteed steady income for the entire life of the loans - even at straight interest of 8-10% non-compounded, you're still earning the premium. And if they default, the property goes back to you and you just sell it all over again. Wall Street may fall, but Main Street will survive. For the most part, anyway...

[cross-posted at People First Politics]

As the Cookie Crumbles...

2008-09-21T23:25:00.003-04:00

Financial news of Wall Street meltdowns, Fed takeovers of big insurers and mortgage giants, and some serious death and destruction on the Texas coast from Hurricane Ike (which we're finding out about piecemeal after 6 days of "Heckuva Job, Skeletor"), it has become more and more obvious that the country is in such terrible trouble that this will be one of the most important Presidential elections of our lifetimes.

So perhaps it's not so surprising that both friends and enemies of Republican candidate John McCain are beginning to become alarmed at what appears to be some sort of serious mental decline that has taken hold and accelerating rapidly. What's going on?

Since McCain - a 72-year old man who has survived four bouts with malignant melanoma - has refused to release the results of his most recent medical check-ups and testing, we aren't likely to find out what's actually wrong during this election cycle unless (God forbid) he suddenly becomes gravely ill. In which case it'll still be All About Palin, since the ballots are already printed. John Ashcroft, it must be remembered, lost an election to a man who died during the campaign. So yes, that CAN happen in this country, on this level of politics.

Now, I don't want to have to live through either a McCain or a Palin presidency. I think they're both more dangerous than Junior Moron, and Palin's definitely in line as heir to the Cheney "Imperial Vice-Presidency." But I also don't relish the thought of anything awful happening to any of the candidates, or having to watch as McCain painfully slides into some kind of overt dementia. This is a guy who really has had a long and storied career of public service, and who really has had a strong grasp of various foreign policy issues on a much higher level than merely being able to see Russia from the kitchen window. He's looking sick, exhausted and is scarily losing his mental acumen - why have his handlers not checked him in for a few days of serious rest and medical attention?

It's more than just not remembering how many houses and condos he and his heiress wife own. That can be understandable if you're that rich and she's got her own games going. It's more than stupidly echoing failed Republican economic pablum on a day when the whole world suffered massive economic meltdown. Now McCain has lost touch so seriously he can't remember who is running Spain - a NATO member and strong ally of the US - and even confuses things so badly that he thinks Spain is a South American dictatorship!

That's just not right. And it's not John McCain, who (in his younger days and in his right mind) knows all about Spain as a European country and NATO ally.

If it's just jet lag and the stresses of hard campaigning, then he needs a few day's R&R and nobody in his corner needs to apologize for it. If it's more than that, they're risking his very life forcing him to keep going in his obvious state of ill health and mental confusion.

Somebody please do the right thing. Help this man - whatever he loses by being out of the loop for a few days isn't something that wouldn't have been lost anyway if he keeps on demonstrating that he's too old, sick and mentally unfit to be President. He deserves more just for having served so long. From his wife, his erstwhile "soul mate" in the Veep slot, his campaign lobbyists and his party.

Give him a rest. He obviously needs it.

Dirty Campaigns: American as Apple Pie

2008-09-17T17:31:00.006-04:00

Anything for a Vote by Joseph Cummins

We get a lot of insults these days when pundits, pontificators and political apologists for one side or the other toss accusations and innuendoes around like parade candy. If you disagree with Mister 22% (Bush) you're a traitor. If you're a soldier and you disagree with the way the war's being managed, you're a "phony soldier." If you're trying to get Democrats elected you're "soft on terror," and if you object to the shredding of the Constitution you're "Islamofascist" or "feminazi" or just the standard commie pinko hippie scum. It just never seems to get old.

My 85-year old Mother, who watches Fox News religiously (I don't know why) gets very upset lately whenever the subject of politics comes up among the brothers and sisters. Which is a shame, because we all love to talk politics, even if we don't agree about everything. It wouldn't be so bad if her blood pressure didn't rise so visibly just before she goes into the O'Reilly rant about "hate, hate, hate!"

So I've decided the best thing I could do for her at this stage of her life (besides go spend some quality time just being with her, taking care of things for her, and listening to her stories) is buy her a copy of a new book by Joseph Cummins, entitled Anything for a Vote.

Cummins traces political campaign name-calling and insults through the entire history of our nation, from George Washington to G.W. Bush, with lots of juicy stops in between. If politics is too mean and nasty to talk about in polite company, that means it's as American as Mom and Apple Pie! In other words, politics has always been thus.

In what Cummins calls "one of the top five dirtiest elections of all time" - Thomas Jefferson versus John Adams in 1800 - Jefferson's hired political hack called Adams "a repulsive pedant," a "gross hypocrite," and, strangely enough, "a hideous hermaphroditical character who has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." Whoa.

Not to be out-slimed, the Federalists attacked Jefferson right back in the most personal ways. "Jefferson is a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia Mulatto father." A Connecticut paper mentioned the excesses of the French Revolution against Jefferson: "Are you prepared to see your dwellings in flames ... female chastity violated, children writhing on the pike? Thomas Jefferson was just sure to bring the Reign of Terror to American shores! History, of course, demonstrates quite differently.

Which is the point of this book, and the point I think Mom needs to reconnect with if she can. It's just hype and hyperbole. How the game is played, and if you care to participate in the process you sure shouldn't be taking any of it too seriously. Other choice tidbits:

• Congressman Davy Crocket accused candidate Martin Van Buren in 1836 of wearing women's underwear: "He is laced up in corsets!"

• Teddy Roosevelt got shot in the chest while preparing to make a campaign speech in 1912, but decided to deliver it anyway: "I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot, but it takes more than that to kill a bull moose!" Very effective.

• Former President Harry S. Truman told voters in the 1960 campaign that "if you vote for Richard Nixon, you ought to go to hell!"

I figure it might give Mom a giggle, remind her of her love of politics, and reassure her that all is not lost just because politicians disparage each other and the people think they're all crooks and liars. That's traditional Americana raw, just as it is. Which is pretty much just what it's always been.

[reposted from People First Politics]

Pretty Little Pig Y'got There...

2008-09-11T20:39:00.001-04:00

[cross-posted to People First Politics]

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. An old adage of folk wisdom akin to not buying a pig in a poke, not happening until pigs fly, and teenager's bedrooms likened to a pig-sty. It's been a coon's age to a gnat's ass, he needs to buck up and take it like a man, you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

Republican John McCain's campaign flunkies are all over this observation about the situation in Iraq, claiming that Obama called VP hopeful Sarah Palin a "pig" because she likened herself to a "pit bull with lipstick" in her RNC acceptance speech. What a total load of hooey! Looks to me like John McCain's campaign thinks of Sarah Palin as a pig wearing lipstick, and wants everyone to notice.

When Joe Biden talked about funding for stem cell research in hope of treatments and cures for genetic diseases, the McCain campaign insisted the subject of people with 'special needs' is off the table because Palin has a baby with Downs Syndrome. Huh!??! That's like saying the subject of health care is off the table because Sarah Palin flew 2,000 miles and drove an hour across the tundra after her water broke so she could have a baby with Downs Syndrome at her local stitch-em-up. Or...

The subject of sex education is off the table because Sarah Palin's 17-year old daughter is pregnant. The subject of co-mingling church and state is off the table because Sarah Palin's a dominionist holy-roller. The subject of reproductive rights is off the table because Sarah Palin can't keep from getting pregnant. The state of the union is off the table because the Palins have secessionist ties. Science education is off the table because Sarah Palin believes Adam and Eve rode to church on a dinosaur. The subject of family law is off the table because Sarah Palin's in the middle of a blood feud with her ex-in-laws...

Wow. Who'd have thought at the beginning of the summer that the Republicans would succeed in taking all issues of national concern and policy off the table just by picking a whiny, self-described pit bull wearing lipstick as Vice-Presidential running-mate? Thaaaaat's some clever new 21st century Politics!

There is hope that the Tabloid Press can manage to reach the millions of low-information voters at the grocery checkout lines with lurid details of the Palin family's dysfunctional soap operas in the not-so frozen northland. But then, those same low-information voters might vote for McCain/Palin just to keep themselves in cheap entertainment for the next four years. There is hope that Americans with 3-digit IQs will wake up and smell the frying bacon... er, mooseburgers, vote the nation's best interests this fall instead of their own boredom.

You never know... we might be pleasantly surprised.

It Doesn't Get Any Weirder than This

2008-09-03T20:27:00.003-04:00

Cross-Posted at People First Politics

Well, I was going to report on the St. Paul RNC this week like I did the DNC in Denver last week, but it never quite caught my attention. Hardly anybody went (including the President and Vice-President of the United States, who are the party's figureheads), Weather was lousy in Louisiana so the first day got put off altogether, and Fred Thompson makes me go to sleep.

But I've honestly gotta say, this whole Alaska Momma mooseburger beauty queen thing with Sarah Palin has me utterly and completely befoozled. Bamboozled. Conundrumated. WTF???

First thing out of the gate was that she's been governator for less than two years, and before that was mayor of a town the same size as Wilburton, Oklahoma (where Granny lives). Then she violated military regulations and operations security by telling everybody her 18-year old son is deploying on September 11. Then she lied about her close relationship with indicted AK senator Ted Stevens and his "bridge to nowhere", and 'forgot' to tell anyone that her own state Senate has her under current investigation for abuse of power. Oops.

Then she threw her pregnant 17-year old daughter under the bus to 'prove' the Downs Syndrome baby is really her son and not her grandson, even though just showing his birth certificate would have done the trick fine. Then she denied ever being a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, but only addressed their conventions occasionally as some sort of 'courtesy'. Before it came out that her hubby indeed was a member of AIP - and its "plastic explosives deal gone bad" characters until 2002. Then... then...

It's just a scandal a minute, I can't keep up! Obviously, no one from McCain's campaign - or the government - ever vetted Ms. Mooseburger. Well, there's a reason for that too, now that the mainstream media's awake and paying attention. Turns out she was vetted by James Dobson & Crew, who apparently got carte blanche from the McMansions campaign to pick the V.P. And I'm guessing the only vetting CNP did was to call her hometown preacher. Just... Wow.

So. Since I'm too fascinated by this soap opera to bother with the RNC, here's the icing on the cake:

Via NRO, Enquirer reporting Palin Adultery

Another incredible allegation emerging from the family war is that Palin, a mother of five, had an affair with a former business associate of her fisherman husband, Todd.

"Todd discovered the affair and quickly dissolved his friendship and his business associations with the guy," charges an enemy. "Many people in Alaska are talking about the rumor and say Todd swept it under the rug."

Who knows if that one's true? It *is* the Enquirer, which isn't noted for its journalistic standards. But then again, they're the ones who busted John Edwards, so it might be. I'm not taking any odds at this point, given how completely bizzaro this whole thing is so far.

And it's been less than a week since we first heard of her. Just... Wow.

Barack's Historic Speech and... Palin???

2008-08-30T13:28:00.001-04:00

The Democratic National Convention wrapped up last night with the most inspiring, detail-filled, well-delivered acceptance speech ever, and I can remember all the way back to Ike's. Obama looked, as usual, cool and collected as he ran down the list of what needs doing, while hitting hard on the past 7+ years of failed leadership, insane paranoia of the American people, legalized torture, and their bid for a third term with Lt. Commander McMansions.

Presuming that readers wouldn't have missed it for anything, the speech needs no quoting here. I'd just like to remind everyone that on the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream speech, Barack Obama amply underlined his soaring rhetorical skills in front of 84,000 people in Mile High Stadium and millions worldwide. The Repuglicans are right to be afraid of him. The dream lives on, might even become a reality in November.

As if to attach yet another exclamation point to that piece of serious history, John McCain announced his Veep pick - it's Alaska governor Sarah Palin. I know, I know. You've never heard of her, have you? She's a real piece of work, probably chosen by McCain's 'handlers' rather than he himself in a desperate bid for the PUMA plants, all dozen of 'em having spent all week whining that the 'Pug's first opponent choice didn't get the nomination. Who is this person, you ask? Well...

Palin is a 44-year old anti-choice Mom of five with a newborn son who has Downs Syndrome and another son soon being deployed to Iraq. That will probably work to blunt attacks on her wingnut positions, but she's got another problem too. She is under current investigation by the Alaskan legislature's Joint Legislative Council for abuse of power after she summarily fired Walt Monegan from his job as Public Safety Commissioner, apparently because he refused to fire Palin's ex-brother in law Michael Wooten. Palin's sister and Wooten had been through a "messy divorce," and the Council is unanimous in its suspicion that the firing came as retribution.

Now that she's the Veep nominee, though, we can all be reassured that the DOJ will probably move in to quash the investigation by late this afternoon. Here's some juicy tidbits from a KTVA story dated Thursday [8-15] entitled Governor and staff's latest explanations leave more questions. In the left hand sidebar are links to various documents pertinent to the investigation.

I suppose she's lucky that John McCain has offered her another, better job just as this situation threatened to explode and end in her own summary firing by impeachment. Hahaha!!! Oh, my. Maybe there simply aren't any honest Republicans to choose from. Sort of makes me feel a little sorry for McCain. This election is definitely not going to be close enough to steal.

Bill Is Still The Godfather

2008-08-30T13:26:00.001-04:00

I'll admit I was a little worried that Bill's baton-passing might be as empty of discernible passion as Hillary's, or that he just might express his personal pique at Democrats' rejection of his wife's bid for power. So I was greatly relieved to once again experience Bill Clinton's utter mastery of the art of political rhetoric - his legendary ease with the forum, his self-assured ability to speak his heart effectively, and his sometimes magical talent for drawing trust and confidence from his listeners. Best speech of the convention so far, though John Kerry hit some righteous points as well.

Here are some particularly good quotes from the speeches thus far that definitely should be replayed regularly in You Tube viral clips, in television and radio ads, and in print campaign literature through November...

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid:

"For over a quarter of a century, the Republicans have sold their magic beans with a promise of a giant beanstalk and gold over the horizon. Look what they've done to our country. Look what they've done to our planet."

Pres. Bill Clinton:

"And so, my fellow Democrats, I say to you: Barack Obama is ready to lead America and to restore American leadership in the world. Barack Obama is ready to honor the oath, to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States."

"People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power."

Hillary Clinton:

"How to we give this country back to them? By following the example of a brave New Yorker, a woman who risked her life to bring slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad. On that path to freedom, Harriet Tubman had one piece of advice: 'If you hear the dogs, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.'"

Sen. John Kerry:

"...the flag doesn't belong to any ideology. It doesn't belong to any political party. It is an enduring symbol of our nation, and it belongs to all the American people. After all, patriotism is not love of power or some cheap trick to win votes; patriotism is love of country."

Soon-to-be VP Joe Biden:

"Let me make this pledge to you right here and now. For every American who is trying to do the right thing, for all those people in government who are honoring their pledge to uphold the law and respect our Constitution, no longer will the eight most dreaded words in the English language be: 'The Vice President's office is on the phone.'"

Quite the nice build-up to tonight's Big Speech in Invesco Stadium by Barack Obama. I'm expecting some especially great quotes to come from that one, so again, stay tuned!

Posts to the DNC Series:

Stoopid Network Tricks and Dallying Dems
Assassination Plot Busted, Teddy's Speech
Hard-Hearted Hillary Made Me Cry
Bill Is Still The Godfather

Stoopid Network Tricks and Dallying Dems

2008-08-30T13:23:00.001-04:00

As I sit here listening to CSPAN pre-convention inanities and old speeches in the background while waiting for the kickoff (and a Teddy Kennedy cry-fest), I figured I'd go ahead and report the first Odd-News story of the '08DNC. It certainly gave me a giggle.

The DNC pool coverage this year is being provided by... of all possible sources... Fox News. Just about 12 hours exactly from the opening, the sprinkler system in a Fox skybox was set off, flooding the downstairs concourse and club areas so badly the fire department had to suck it up with shop-vacs. The massive amounts of lighting and broadcasting equipment - and attendant wiring - had to be hastily removed to prevent electrical fire. The link is from KSUA-TV 9 in Denver:

Part of Pepsi Center flooded by sprinkler system

Some immediate pointed asides occurred to me, so of course I perused the bored-as-me blogosphere to see what kind of speculations might be floating around. The best I've found so far for satirical or just plain humorous value are:

• Since it's the Pepsi Center, was it Aquafina?
• Their pants were on fire.
• Pundit hairspray meets Limbaugh's cigar.
• Hot air from Sean Hannity.
• Methane. Too much bullshit too close to hot lights.

On the fact that some fundamentalists were out front praying for rain...

• Proof positive prayer works.
• Proof that one needs to word prayers carefully.

Hahaha!!! Whew! Presuming Fox's lighting crew figured out they can't put those hot spots within a foot of the heat sensors for the sprinkler system, I've also been idly watching the interactions between people and groups of people wandering through the convention center. If you thought the YKos and NetrootsNation conventions were regular hotbeds of rampant orgy-like partying, the DNC has to take the cake! Never been to one, but judging from PCUSA General Assemblies I've attended, there's definitely a bunch of hanky-panky going on...

I'm sure there's an equivalent amount of close encounters that take place during the RNC too, so I'm not saying only one side of the aisle still has some libido. It's just that at the RNC it's chemically-enhanced (Viagra/Cialis) and happening mostly in the men's rest rooms. [rim shot]

Hehehe!!! Okay, I think I'm prepared to spend the next four days glued to all-day platform committee hammering, all-evening speechifying and all-night partying - on CSPAN, sans commercials. Should be a magical memory maker this time around!

Yes, we can use the "C" word now

2008-07-14T19:01:00.003-04:00

bonddad lays the reality out pretty starkly today in this post on Daily Kos. He was clear with the title. It's a Very Serious Banking Crises

This comes on the heels of being struck with the Wall Journal's 7/12 story entitled Crises Deepens as Big Bank Fails.

IndyMac Bank, a prolific mortgage specialist that helped fuel the housing boom, was seized Friday by federal regulators, in the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history. IndyMac is the biggest mortgage lender to go under since a fall in housing prices and surge in defaults began rippling through the economy last year -- and it likely won't be the last. Banking regulators are bracing for a slew of failures over the next year as analysts say housing prices have yet to bottom out.

The fall of IndyMac and the increasing use of the word "Crisis" by financial media are painting a clear picture that we are in for some deep trouble. How far and how deep is the only remaining question.

Today, the WSJ followed up with an even graver warning. Bank Fears Spread After Seizure of IndyMac

The federal government's seizure of IndyMac Bank is deepening worries among executives, regulators and consumers about the U.S. banking industry, which is in a tightening bind following a long run of prosperity. Banks and thrifts are struggling against a rising tide of bad loans, and it is becoming increasingly clear that some lenders won't be able to escape. While fewer banks are expected to fail than the 834 that went under from 1990 to 1992, it will likely take several years for battered financial institutions to work through their bad loans and replenish their depleted capital.

Further down, this WSJ article focuses on the problem with insured vs. uninsured deposits and raises issues facing more than just middle class Americans. The chart above reflects this looming issue. Well worth the read.

Catholic Compassion

2008-07-13T16:29:00.002-04:00

I caught this moving and deeply inspiring piece by tristero at digby's Hullabaloo . I've only known one transgendered person and had the privilege to work with her over the course of three years. As a male, he had served in the Persian Gulf as a soldier during the first Iraq war. His photo journal revealed a 6'2" beefcake body in fatigues and boots.

This "striking" woman that I had the pleasure to know, was able to transform not just her body, but her whole self. She was confident, pretty, smart and big. I doubt the thugs in the story below would be inclined to attack her like they attacked their victim.

The story is about the traditional Catholic ethos. Read the whole thing. It was moving enough to get my ass in gear and post to my blog for a change.

Via pastordan, comes this moving story of Catholic behavior at its best courtesy of NC's Pam's House Blend. Here's a link to the original article at the New York Daily News.

Some excerpts:
Four punks spewing hateful language at a transgender woman outside a shelter for gay and transgender young people in Queens beat up a priest who attempted to thwart their tirade, police said...

..the boys came back armed with metal poles, empty paint cans, belts and a miter saw. "Father was trying to make peace with them, but then one of them hit him in the back of the head with a paint can," Carver said. "He fell to the ground, and they kept hitting him."

The other residents fended off the attackers, and when the teens finally fled, they ran past Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officers, who nabbed them and charged all four with assault as a hate crime, gang assault, weapon possession and harassment...

[Reverend Louis Braxton, the beaten priest], who shrugged off the attack after being treated for cuts and bruises at Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens, said men are often threatened by transgender women. "I think that young men see these striking girls, and they're attracted," he said. "And when they find out they are male, they don't know how to handle it and act out in rage."

The author then goes on to pick gems of understanding from Father Braxton.

He refused to make himself the center of the story. Just as important, he refused to turn this story into a cynical "teaching moment" on the abject state of young transwomen. Instead, he focused on the kids who attacked the woman and him. Astonishingly, he reacted not with anger, but with empathy and compassion, trying to make sense of their rage and hatred.

Picking apart the words, the author also noticed something pretty extraordinary. The Priest easily pulled together and delivered compassion to all involved.

When I think of what I admire about the Catholic ethos, this is what I have in mind. This deeply-felt loving care for others, demonstrated both in attitudes and deeds, may not be unique to Catholics, but it is a striking feature of so much Catholic charity. Sure, anyone can think of numerous counter-examples of clergy and laity behaving very badly - their attitude towards reproductive rights and women as clergy, the dreadful scandals - but along with those, it is only right to bring up the image of a priest who's been hit over the head with a paint can, beaten up, gone to the hospital for treatment, and who still has the strength of character to show his attackers compassion, and comfort and compliment a frightened young woman.

Scary 80-Year Old Terrierist

2008-04-07T21:21:00.001-04:00

[Cross-posted from People First Politics

Police arrest anti-war protester, 80, at mall

Mr. Zirkel

Oooohhh, scary! Don Zirkel, an 80-year old church deacon was arrested last weekend in the food court of Smith Haven shopping mall in Lake Grove, where he was drinking coffee with his 77-year old wife. His offense was that he was wearing a t-shirt that had the death tolls of American military and Iraqis in the war, saying "Enough."

He'd been passing out protest pamphlets when mall security told him to stop and to turn his t-shirt inside out. He stopped passing out the pamphlets, but didn't turn his t-shirt inside out before stopping at the food court. So the mall security goons placed him under "civilian arrest" and called police. When they arrived and Zirkel refused to stop drinking his coffee they picked him up, put him in a wheelchair, and wheeled him out. He was arrested for criminal trespassing and resisting arrest.

"Eighty years, and I have never been arrested before for fighting injustice," said Zirkel. During those 80 years he had served in the U.S. Army, edited The Tablet, the Diocese of Brooklyn's newspaper, and worked for the state Division of Human Rights under Governor Mario Cuomo.

A PR company representing Simon Property Group, owners of the mall, said in a statement to the press -

...In keeping with our Code of Conduct, it is our corporate policy not to allow protests or demonstrations of any kind to take place on mall property regardless of the topic.

Unfortunately for Simon, there were two opposing protest groups at the mall that day, vocally sparring with each other - one anti-war, one pro-war. Zirkel said he wore the shirt to show his support for the anti-war protesters. None of the protesters in either of the two groups were arrested.

Maybe they were young and fit, and the mall security goons were afraid of enforcing policy on them. I'm sure an 80-year old looked like a much safer target...

Oy!

Links:

USAToday On Deadline Blog
Raffello Network
CommonDreams

Yet Another Bush Power-Grab

2008-04-07T20:44:00.003-04:00

[Cross-posted from People First Politics]

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson

It seems the recent recognition by Wall street's overzealous speculators that the nation is in deep recession (something they've ignored for years despite it being a regular big deal out amongst the real people who do real work when they can find it) has led to yet another opportunity for the Bush Administration to make an unprecedented power-grab. And predictably, they've leapt at the chance.

From the New York Times:

The Bush administration on Monday rolled out the broadest overhaul of Wall Street regulation since the Great Depression, presenting a series of proposals that would, for the first time, create a set of federal regulators with authority over all players in the financial system.

But the proposal will do almost nothing to regulate the alphabet soup of sophisticated financial products that have fueled the current financial crisis. And it will not rein in practices that have been linked to the mortgage crisis, like packaging risky loans into securities carrying the highest ratings.

[Emphasis mine] Well. There you have it. The overwhelming greed of the financial sector has led to serious financial troubles, so the Bushies want to claim more power while at the same time doing nothing at all about the greed that will by summer (if projections are correct) have millions of hard working Americans homeless in the streets.

Don't be fooled. The administration was seriously at work on this power grab last year, well before the current crisis. They have just seized upon the current crisis - that had the Federal Reserve (NOT a government agency) bailing out a bankrupt Wall Street investment bank in an unprecedented action just weeks ago - as a good excuse to put the plan into action.

What the plan does is make legal actions such as what the Fed did for Bear Stearns, offering to back 30 billion dollars' worth of bad debt in their portfolio in order to enable JP Morgan to purchase the bank for pennies on the dollar. Additionally, the plan aims to 'merge' the Securities and Exchange Commission with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the already existing ineffectual and lazy federal regulators of Wall Street) and de-regulating both. In other words, turning over regulation and oversight of the financial markets to the financial markets!

This should work as well as the FDA allowing drug companies to regulate themselves, genetic engineers to decide what is safe for the world to eat, letting the Chinese decide to poison pet food and use lead paint in cheap toys, and allowing nuclear power plants to determine their own safety regulations. Doesn't that make us all feel much better about how much government cares for the citizenry that always gets screwed by Big Business?

The overhaul will simply put American taxpayer's money at risk for the financial markets to use and abuse as they see fit. If they make money, it goes into private pockets. If they lose money, We the People bail them out.

The administration expects a long fight in Congress in getting their plot approved into law, but fully expects the next administration - whether Republican or Democrat - to go along because it's such a great idea. It might actually be approved, given how many regular citizens' retirement savings have been decimated by the recent 'liquidation'. The players get bailed out, citizens will have to live on much less than they saved.

Keep a close eye on this one, as it could send the entire system into default and eradicate the dollar as a benchmark for world markets. The welfare of the American people has no role to play in this farce. Hyperinflation is a real danger (on top of massive homelessness), and not just for the price of gasoline to fuel the cars families will be living in. The food we need in order to live at all is quickly becoming unaffordable due to commodity speculation - there are already food riots in Asia over the price of rice, which isn't rising as fast as the price of wheat or corn.

It's time for Victory Gardens and a return to doing for ourselves. In the end - if we come out the other side at all and this isn't just more right-wing attempts to bring Armageddon - it may have taught the current generations valuable lessons.

Ahh, the national pastime

2008-03-30T21:18:00.000-04:00

Happy 5th Anniversary, BushCo

2008-03-19T20:00:00.001-04:00

What did they do to us, again? I forget...

Two "Unknown" Iraqi Casualties

American Dead: 3,990
American Casualties: 40,229
Iraqi Dead: Unknown
Iraqi Casualties: Unknown
Cost to the US: $504,000,000,000.00

A Swashbuckling Musical Interlude

2008-03-08T23:15:00.001-05:00

A toe-tapping Austin Lounge Lizards take on the health insurance industry, only this time instead of Guido and the Goons, we get Cap'n Kaiser and his notorious crew of murder by spreadsheet bottom-feeders!

Enjoy!

Hillary Makes It Hard to Like Her

2008-03-08T23:07:00.001-05:00

Hillary Clinton Claiming "Experience" She Doesn't Own

I have a framed, surprisingly personal letter of thanks on the office wall signed - not stamped - by President Bill Clinton. It came in reply to a short email we sent one Christmas when he was being perpetually impeached for lying and obfuscating about his large "bimbo problem." We sent holiday greetings from our family to his, along with a post script asking him please not to resign. Hillary didn't respond or add her signature to the letter, even though the email was to them both and all four of us attached our names. Just not all that involved in White House life or her own personal life, I supposed at the time.

I personally wondered during those times what the deal was with her. Protecting the privacy of your dysfunctional marriage is one thing, but private is not something Bill's amorous adventures were. Had she no pride? No ambitions for herself? No common sense?

This last year has informed me that she's turned Bill's bad behavior into a debt "owed" to her, and she's projected that onto America in general too. News flash to Hillary Clinton: I don't owe you a darned thing.

Hillary used Bill to purchase a senate seat in a state where she'd never lived, and New Yorkers bought it (I don't know why). She used him to set herself up for a Presidential run, and has been using him as attack dog throughout the primary season so far. And now she's using him to pretend she has Presidential "experience" and is magically "qualified" to be CiC - while at the same time telling the world that Republican candidate John McCain is more qualified for that job than Barack Obama, the challenger who is beating her soundly in the Voter's Choice Awards.

Now, just to inject a little bit of FACT into this ridiculous scenario, Barack Obama has been an elected legislator since 1996. Hillary's first elected job began in 2000. This gives him a full 4 years of actual electoral governmental "experience" on her. If merely occupying a bedroom in someone else's mansion counted, John McCain would be fighting for the Republican nomination with Laura Bush.

The only thing Hillary was ever officially in charge of when her hubby was Prez was health care reform, which went precisely nowhere and is still not done all these years later. Her health care plan if she wins the nomination this year is no better, and will again sell us out to the death by spreadsheet industry. [To be fair, Obama's isn't materially better]. So now she says she'll be there when "The Phone" rings in the middle of the night...

Hillary's "Red Phone" Ad

Insulting, n'est ce pas? Note to Hillary: Phones have been around for a few generations already. Most people have heard a phone ring in the middle of the night, and most don't have "operators standing by" at a switchboard (plus whole squadrons of aides and secretaries) to screen those calls first. Most of us have answered our own phones, even in the middle of the night, and even when the news was bad. This does not count as Presidential-level "leadership experience" or specific qualification to be Commander in Chief. Honestly.

More on Going Negative:
TNR: Go Already!

It's Been a Weird Week

2008-02-28T20:52:00.000-05:00

Golly, it's been an exciting week, hasn't it? Well, I didn't really think it was all that exciting when it began Just 8 days ago (as I write this) with the not entirely unexpected formal resignation of an ailing and elderly Fidel Castro. There were a few days of speculation in the press and among the talking heads about whether Raul Castro would be appointed successor or if Fidel would choose someone younger.

Some wondered if this would mean a softening of US relations with Cuba (none to speak of). Others wondered aloud whether the Cuban people might revolt against their 'Communist Overlords' at this opportunity. George W. Bush said very clearly that Castro's resignation ought to spark "a democratic transition" [CNN, 2/19] and called for free and fair elections. Cuba apparently didn't hear him, or care what he had to say. US allies repeated calls for democratic reforms that aren't likely to occur, so others called for actual revolution in Post-Castro Cuba.

I'm pretty jaded about the whole Cuba thing. I simply figured Raul would get the crown and nothing much would change at this point in history. Turned out I was right, as Raul received the succession crown on Sunday [Feb. 24]. I wasn't surprised, neither were the Cubans. Ho, hum.

Beginning on Monday and continuing through Tuesday [the 25th and 26th of February] The predictable accolades poured in. China and North Korea were among the first to congratulate Raul Castro and re-emphasize their ideological ties with the government of Cuba. And the Vatican wasted no time getting its Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, to Havana for official talks with Cuban officials including Raul and his two VPs on Wednesday [Feb. 27].

As all this was going on, two groups of Cuban 'migrants' (that's what we call Cuban boat people who make it onto US soil before getting picked up, thanks to the "wet foot/dry foot" policy) landed south of Miami on Monday [Feb. 25]. One group of 24, including 16 men, 6 women and 2 young children, landed at Soldier Key. This island is the northernmost in Biscayne National Park. These 'migrants' were ferried to a marina for processing by the Miami-Dade fire department and the US National Parks Service, smiling and waving. Their picture is up top.

At the same time, the other group of Cuban 'migrants' landed at the Turkey Point nuclear plant 24 miles south of Miami. It was not reported how many were in this second boatload of Cubans, or the makeup of the group. They were being dealt with by the US Border Patrol, and you can bet your bippy there were some Homeland Security, FBI, NRC and a few other unnamed agencies on hand to welcome them to America as well.

I did slightly chuckle at the synchronicity of it all for those Cubans. They speed all the way across the strait, skip the Keys entirely (where their "dry foot" claim would have come many hours sooner, and chances of being stopped while still having wet feet that much lower), only to beach their craft right smack dab in the shade of the cooling towers for a double reactor nuke supplying much of south Florida.

What, thought I quite sardonically, they couldn't SEE the darned things? Didn't KNOW it was Turkey Point (or some sort of nuke)? C'mon. Anyway, there was no further news on this second set of 'migrants' that I could find, I expect they'll be darkening some agency's secure cellar somewhere for a bit longer than their compadres who landed on Soldier Key. Duh.

On Tuesday, February 26, I was engaged in a semi-real time computer conversation with my baby sister in Florida. She's a patient care admin at a good hospital, we hadn't talked since before Christmas. It was her lunch hour, I was here working my fingers to the usual bone, so we went back and forth on family matters, the various kids and grandkids, etc., etc. About 1 p.m. she stopped responding, so I went back to work (figured she had to do that too).

Then I heard, just a minute or so later on my NPR station, that there had been a massive blackout in Florida stretching from Key West to Jacksonville, including Orlando and Tampa in the central and west. No biggie. Electricity does that sometimes (some places more than others, of course). There was no immediate analysis or reports of cause, havoc being spread, or anything like that. By the 2 o'clock news break it was reported that both reactors at Turkey Point had scrammed, along with the standard "no danger to the general public" line that always follows reports of anything at any nuclear plant.

I wondered vaguely if Turkey Point had caused the blackout, then was immediately stumped by why both plants would scram at the same time. Must have been a grid failure, not much to worry about (if you weren't in Florida). Sure enough, the problem was quickly isolated to a malfunction in a single electrical substation at Turkey Point. That malfunction turned out to be "equipment failure and fire." Turns out that two coal-fired generating plants at Turkey Point had automatically shut down as well. Took the entire station off line!

No danger, no attack, nothing to worry about (if you weren't driving in Florida). Weird.

Invitations Sent, Date to Be Announced...

2008-02-28T20:30:00.000-05:00

Will the Candidates Show?

Government leaders, university presidents, leading scientists, engineering leaders, business executives, American innovators have been making the call loudly and with some help from NPR, MSNBC, the New York Times and Time Magazine as well as increasing numbers of other media outlets. Now that both the Democratic and Republican fields of potential Presidential candidates are down to two apiece, it's time for Science Debate 2008 to happen.

The invitations to the candidates have been sent, the debate will be held at the Franklin Institute before the Pennsylvania primary on April 22. Thus far none of the candidates have responded that they will commit. While we all know that issues of science and technology are usually handled by advisors who have knowledge of the subjects, it would be nice to get a feel for whether the candidates for our country's highest office have a basic grasp of those issues and a defensible position on policy. Or find out if all they're good for is to mouth sound bites their handlers feed them.

If you're interested in what you may be able to do to help convince them, visit the Science Debate 2008 website and sign on. And it wouldn't hurt to write to the campaigns and request the candidates' participation while you're at it.

Link:
Science Debate 2008

[Cross-Posted to Science News Review]

Hate: When is Enough Enough?

2008-02-28T20:29:00.000-05:00

On the last day of November, 2007, a tense standoff in Rochester, New Hampshire occurred when a man walked into Hillary Clinton's local campaign headquarters, claimed he had a bomb strapped to himself with duct tape, and took two campaign volunteers hostage. It lasted for hours before he finally allowed the hostages to leave and walked out to unstrap the "bomb" to turn himself in.

There has been quite a lot of talk in the political blogosphere about how hate speech in the 'normal' course of politics as usual can incite unstable people to commit terrible crimes. And as people living near the economic edge begin to fall off, we aren't seeing any slowdown of bizarre acts and mass murders. But in politics, the hate is just getting warmed up.

On the right (RedState and FreeRepublic) the denizens were hoarding popcorn and speculating that Clinton had arranged for this attention-grab herself, liberally (ha!) salted with the usual right-wingnut hate speech we're so used to from that corner. Fox's Bill O'Reilly has of course embraced "The Politics of Hate" as his theme for the election season.

On the left there is also no shortage of hate, and it's not all directed at G.W. Bush. Hillary Clinton, whom many progressives believe to be just another puppet of the status quo of cowards and shrinking violets that comprise the Democratic leadership gets more than her share.

Things haven't gotten any better since the start of the primaries and caucuses, though many of the wannabes have dropped out. Republican front-runner John McCain comes in for regular trashing from the talking heads of his own party's hate machine (Rush Limbaugh, et al.). Though no one should take the threats of suicide should he win the nomination seriously. More interesting are the threats to vote for Hillary instead!

Meanwhile, Hillary is still distrusted by many. First for her macho posturing - an attempt to be more of a hawk than the chickenhawks to prove a woman can be Commander In Chief - and secondly for the confusion her hubby keeps slinging into the race. As if Hillary's quest for the White House is just a way to get him a third term.

Obama hasn't really encountered the worst of the Hate Machine yet, but things are picking up from the usual racist front as well as the religious bigot front. So long as things remain essentially tied, we can expect the hate speech to get louder and louder.

Perhaps as things go forward to the conventions America will have overdosed on the Politics of Hate enough to change the station. We can always hope!

"Justice is Meant to Serve the Party"

2008-02-28T20:25:00.000-05:00

Kangaroo Trials for Gitmo prisoners

The Pentagon announced on February 11 that it is charging six detainees at Guantanamo Bay with war crimes, and will be seeking the death penalty for all. According to ex-JAG officers, it has already been decided that all will be convicted, and all will die. The highlights will be secret evidence and confessions gathered under torture from people who have been held for years sans habeas corpus.

Ross Tuttle's Rigged Trials at Gitmo appears online from The Nation. Looks like BushCo are fixing to compound their own war crimes. Col. Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor for Gitmo's military commissions detailed a conversation with Pentagon general counsel William Haynes, who now oversees the tribunal process for the Department of Defense...

"[Haynes] said these trials will be the Nuremberg of our time," recalled Davis, referring to the Nazi tribunals in 1945, considered the model of procedural rights in the prosecution of war crimes. In response, Davis said he noted that at Nuremberg there had been some acquittals, something that had lent great credibility to the proceedings.

"I said to him that if we come up short and there are some acquittals in our cases, it will at least validate the process," Davis continued. "At which point, [Haynes's] eyes got wide and he said, 'Wait a minute, we can't have acquittals. If we've been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them off? We can't have acquittals, we've got to have convictions.'"

Corporate Media versus John Edwards

2008-01-17T20:42:00.000-05:00

[Cross-posted at People First Politics]

We in the political blogosphere who have a low opinion of the various celebrity puppets, talking heads and pompous clowns of the major news organizations used to call it "Mainstream Media" - MSM for short. Not really wondering why they always echoed right-wing talking points, or make bad attempts to pass off blatant propaganda, disinformation and Britney's latest pantyless booze-binge as real news.

Now the buzzword is "Corporate Owned Media" - COM - for short. COM is actually more accurate, given the major media's heavy-handed attempts to control the 2008 primaries (as well as which Democrat we'll get for President in November, since Republicans don't have a prayer). But these last couple of weeks definitely take the cake.

I am complaining about the decision of the COM to pointedly ignore John Edwards as a viable candidate for the Democratic nomination and pretend that the only ones running are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Despite the FACT that after 1 primary and 1 caucus (of 49, Michigan doesn't count), John Edwards BEAT Hillary Clinton in Iowa and the delegate count is very close. The split works out thusly:

Obama: 25
Clinton: 24
Edwards: 18

That's close enough to be a horse race, folks. Yet Edwards has been dropped from Survey USA's election polls, even in Oregon where he is running strong (and getting more money than the others) because Survey USA has made a "Judgment Call" [h/t sarahlane @ DKos] that he is not a viable candidate.

Excuse me? I think there's something entirely else afoot here. Consider, for instance, how Edwards rated in a recent CNN poll on how the top Democratic contenders would stack up against John McCain - the only realistic Republican candidate. It looks like this:

[Graphic by RedJet]

Hmmm... John Edwards BEATS McCain by 8%, while Obama ties and Hillary loses. Might I suggest that this is why the COM has decided to withhold polling and coverage for Edwards? Who, by the way, is no great friend of the Corporatocracy, and you can bet your bippy the Corporatocracy knows it.

There's really nothing anyone can do to make the COM offer fair coverage, or include any candidate they don't like in their polls. But that doesn't mean John Edwards won't win enough delegates in the primaries to be a real contender in the balloting in Denver this summer, or at least be a "kingmaker" who can send either Obama or Hillary to the White House - on his terms. That's real power. And every Democrat paying attention (after 7 years of Bush-Cheney, an awful lot of 'em are paying attention) knows who's running. The names are on the ballots, the activists are on the ground canvassing daily, the fund-raisers are raising funds, and the activists are activating. Ignoring him will not make him go away.

The campaign has put up a new video web feature called Media Perception Vs. Reality that should be viewed by anyone honestly concerned about these campaigns and the future of America. Citation from that feature:

The new web feature also includes a graph comparing news coverage of Obama, Clinton and Edwards from January 6th through 11th based on data from the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The graph shows that while 25 percent of campaign news stories by major outlets mentioned Clinton and more than 15 percent mentioned Obama, Edwards was mentioned less than three percent of the time.

"For the better part of a year the media has focused on two celebrity candidates," John Edwards for President communications director Chris Kofinis said. "And they continue to act as if there were only two candidates in the race, even after John Edwards beat Senator Clinton in Iowa and poll after poll show competitive races in Nevada, South Carolina and other key states.

"John Edwards has led the field with the boldest agenda for change and he's the only candidate who has the strength and courage to stand up to the powerful entrenched interests and fight for the middle class families," Kofinis continued.

On Friday, January 18 (that's tomorrow when I post this, today if you're just now reading it), Edwards campaign activists are hosting "Go For The Gold," a push to reach $7 million in one day. I have given my small shares previously (as I could afford it), but saved up for this one. Instead of my usual $10, he'll be getting $100 from me and another $300 from friends I've lobbied mercilessly on his behalf. That's a lot for us, and we want it to count.

Since we all know this is how to make our contributions to public radio count for more during their interminable fund-raisers, here's a chance to do it for someone willing to fight for the poor and middle class in this country against our wannabe (and actual) corporate slave-owners. Dig deep!

Health Insurance as Criminal Enterprise

2008-01-12T22:45:00.000-05:00

[Cross-posted to People First Politics]

"...insurers are just like shoplifters, they devise a new scheme a day."
Michael A. Sedrish, M.D.
Director of Utilization Management
MediSys Health Network

In comments to other posts on the subject of the health care crisis in America, I have been asked to list some of the practices of health insurers that require rectification, and asked if doing away with health insurance altogether might be the best option for the country.

It is difficult to use examples from other people's health insurance horror stories or even my own - though such horror stories are common enough - as objective justification for my belief that insurers need to be stripped of their excessive profits retroactively for at least a decade and a half (by means of punitive fines), and that a complete realignment of health care in America to single-payer, universal care is the best possible option for our society in the 21st century.

So instead of simply re-telling horror stories people find too easy to ignore, I will instead offer some facts and testimony related to current lawsuits against major insurers, their subsidiaries and partners in New York State. The suits were filed in February of 2007 for violations of the RICO Act [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations] by Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, the Flushing Hospital Medical Center in Queens (1) and the Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center (2) against United Health Group, United Health Care and other of their subsidiaries in one suit, and HIP, Cogent, Central Brooklyn Medical Group, P.C., HealthCare Partners, LLC and others in the other, for implementing a "pattern of racketeering activity" to deny coverage, and implementing a "rogue business plan" on a "national level."

United-Oxford Racketeering Complaint

HIP-Cogent Racketeering Complaint

The suits are particular to New York State, but allude to nationwide practices in hopes that a favorable judgment will allow punitive actions in all other states against the racketeers conspiring to loot and destroy the nation's health care system entirely. To take it specifically apart from New York, the record notes that the State of Nebraska Department of Insurance filed a petition charging that UHG and several of its subsidiaries (including the United Health Care parent of United-NY) of "flagrantly and in conscious disregard of Nebraska insurance Statutes and Rules and Regulations" violated more than ten Nebraska laws governing the conduct of HMOs and their insurers.

The list of New York statutes in the RICO suit is lengthy, taken from among hundreds of violations found in the different hospitals' records. There are an even dozen violations of law listed in one complaint.

The Associated Press reported on United Healthcare's nationwide scam back in October of 2006 with the story United Healthcare's Stock Options Problems, when UH fired its then-current CEO for violations of SEC law. A problem the AP reported extended well beyond United to hit "at least" 135 companies who disclosed that their stock options practices were under investigation by the SEC or Department of Justice.

In testimony before the New York State Assembly Committees on Health and Insurance on December 1, 2006, David Rosen, M.D. (President and CEO of MediSys Health Network) accused United Health of some serious violations, including...

-- Wrongful denial of coverage, often after services have been provided to patients whose admission to the hospitals was approved by United and oxford for their members, "in intentional and systemic violation of the Public Health Laws and Insurance Laws (and thereby breach their contracts with the Hospitals) in order to reduce their financial responsibilities to hospitals and increase their own profits at the direct expense of the institutions."

-- By backdating its contract with Jamaica, (which they subsequently admitted in a sworn statement) fraudulently requiring Jamaica Hospital to remain in the United/Oxford network at the time Jamaica Hospital attempted to remove itself from the Oxford network.

-- Using economic pressure that Oxford fraudulently created to coerce Jamaica Hospital and Flushing Hospital to "strong arm" a group of anesthesiologists who practiced at Flushing Hospital to joint the Oxford network.

-- Wrongful denial of coverage at Flushing Hospital by falsely telling their members that flushing Hospital was "not a network provider," thus "allocating a greater share of the costs of the medical services as the patients' responsibility."

So you see, it's not just the middle class insured who are being screwed into going bankrupt because the expensive insurance they've been paying for (often for many years) refuses to cover their health care. It's also the poor, and the taxpayers of the states who pay for coverage for them from insurers like UHG. The public and teaching hospitals charged to provide care to these people sometimes must wait years to be paid for services - if they are ever paid at all - and it is of course the taxpayers who must make up the shortfalls in order to keep those hospitals open.

Read some of the complaints, press releases and testimony linked above and below if you have any doubts at all as to just how insidious the situation really is, or just how desperate the screwed health care providers are becoming. Fact is, the health insurance scam is bankrupting our entire nation's health care system - on purpose, for profit - while the taxpayers end up having to pay for the care twice or three times as these billionaires laugh all the way to the Caymans.

This is THE MOST EXPENSIVE, LEAST EFFECTIVE, MOST INEFFICIENT method of providing what amounts to universal health care in America. We can simply outlaw the scammers, fine them the illegal profits they haven't already hidden away in Swiss bank accounts, and use that money to cover the necessary immediate switch-over to more efficient, less expensive single-payer health care.

Any questions remaining on whether or not there's a "real" crisis in this country? Is anybody ever going to ask the Republican candidates for President why they've chosen to pretend otherwise? Any defense of Democratic candidates' band-aid plans that do nothing more than force everyone to purchase junk insurance that won't pay for their health care needs?

Denial is not just a river in Egypt. We must deal with this situation sooner, not later. And in our current age of "Greed Is Good," there's really only one sane way to deal with it. It's called Single-Payer, Universal Care. Once we are not being robbed blind by white collar criminals, we CAN afford it!

Links:

United-Oxford Racketeering Complaint

United-Oxford Racketeering Suit Press Release

HIP-Cogent Racketeering Complaint

HIP-Cogent Racketeering Suit Press Release

Hospitalists' role at center of racketeering lawsuit

Testimony by David P. Rosen, President & CEO, MediSys Health Network

Testimony by Michael A. Sedrish, M.D., Director of Utilization Management, MediSys Health Network

Hospital execs slam UnitedHealth: "sociopathic willingness to ignore laws"

United Healthcare's Stock Options Problems

AHIP: America's Health Insurance Plans (lobbyists for industry)

US National Security for Sale

2008-01-10T12:28:00.001-05:00

The Insane World of Nuclear Spies and Counter-Spies

[Cross-posted at People First Politics]

FBI translator Sibel Edmonds

Britain's Sunday Times published an article on January 6 entitled For Sale: West's deadly nuclear secrets, detailing the extraordinary claims of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds about how corrupt US government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to 'steal' nuclear weapons secrets. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a real "bombshell" that ties together many years' worth of nefarious dealings in the Middle East by officials charged specifically with the task of protecting those nuclear weapons secrets from theft by the very people who were allowed to 'steal' them!

Edmonds, a Turkish language translator before turning whistleblower, listened to hundreds of sensitive communications intercepted by the FBI while she was stationed at the FBI's D.C. field office, described to the Sunday Times how foreign intelligence agents enlisted the support of US officials to establish a network of 'moles' inside sensitive US military and nuclear installations. The officials involved included one well-known senior official in the US State Department, whom Edmonds says was being paid by Turkish agents in D.C. Those Turks then sold the information to black market buyers, including Pakistan.

The Times did not reveal the name of that State Department official, but did contact him about Edmonds' allegations which he denied strongly. Yet according to Edmonds, who is currently forbidden from speaking about her knowledge in the US by judicial gag order...

"He was aiding foreign operatives against US interests by passing them highly classified information, not only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money, position and political objectives."

Edmonds further claims that the FBI was gathering evidence against senior Pentagon officials - including some well-known to the public - who were also aiding foreign agents. Her revelations illustrate just how much US officials aided countries such as Pakistan to acquire nuclear weapons technology. In turn, Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan sold nuclear weapons technology to rogue states like Libya, Iran and North Korea - violating every sense of nuclear non-proliferation treaties and protections. US-backed military dictator Pervez Musharraf (lately implicated in the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto) pardoned Khan, who is seen as a national hero in Pakistan for his contributions to their nuclear weapons program.

For those who have not been following Edmonds' case, she has given testimony and evidence in closed sessions of Congress and to the 9-11 commission, with key testimony remaining secret. She is now divulging some of that information in defiance of the gag order after becoming disillusioned with US authorities' failure to act.

Political blogger Chris Floyd writes a fine overview of how Edmonds' latest revelations ties in with the notorious activities of BCCI [Bank of Credit and Commercial International], which a US Senate investigation called "one of the largest criminal enterprises in history." BCCI was a prime vehicle for clandestine nuclear proliferation (among other things), while also being used by the CIA and the Reagan and Bush-I White House as cover and financier for covert operations including military and financial support for Saddam Hussein back when he was our ally instead of our worst enemy. On a side note, BCCI also once gave G.W. Bisj $25 million to bail him out of one of his many business catastrophes.

Floyd's article, The Bomb in the Shadows: Proliferation, Corruption and the Way of the World is a worthy read for background and historical information linked to the revelations of ongoing US involvement in nuclear proliferation from Edmonds.

The ties are myriad and twisted, the implications very serious. The full report of the Senate's 1992 investigation of BCCI (which left several big boulders unturned) is available in full from the Federation of American Scientists. If you're fond of spy skullduggery, plot twists ala Ludlum (where it's never a good idea to trust anybody) and shady characters that just won't stay dead, click on some of these informative links and let your head start spinning. Caution: Be careful not to let your spinning head explode. This has been known to occur...

Links:

For Sale: West's deadly nuclear secrets

The Bomb in the Shadows: Proliferation, Corruption and the Way of the World

The Atlantic: The Wrath of Khan

No Quarter: Check Out Sibel Edmonds

Those Very Strangely "Missing" Nukes

The Iowa Surprise Package: Analysis

2008-01-04T13:36:00.000-05:00

Obama! ...and Huck?!?

The Dems

For those of us who weren't thrilled with the idea of revolving political dynasties - the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton mantra - Iowa's caucuses came as a refreshing surprise. Given Hillary's "brass balls" approach to belligerent foreign policy, obvious ties to Big Business and business as usual, and her penchant for dirty politics, I think she got what she deserved - a sound slap-down.

It's not that I like Barack Obama that much either, or that the mostly rural, stoically rustic population of Iowa is a particularly good representative of America in general (or the political leanings of the nation). But when Hillary Clinton set her staffers on Obama with repeats of already established lies and smears, it's gratifying that Iowans turned against her in droves. The *last* thing this country needs is just another dirty politician in a bad suit.

All that said, Obama is going to have to learn some things quickly that my personal favorite - John Edwards - had to learn the hard way back in 2004. Like Edwards then, Obama is a relative rookie. He's mostly an unknown factor for the country at large, and while young and energetic and extremely well-spoken, he's got some serious deficits.

His health plan is weak, though so is everyone else's now in the arena save for Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich could still weild some power and contribute single payer as a platform plank at the convention if he can stay afloat through the early primaries. Obama's tried hard to out-balls Hillary for so long that now Democrats must wonder who will finally do their expressed bidding - reflected in the '06 voting - and get us the hell out of Iraq.

Obama's never faced the Republican slime machine either, at least not in as significant of ways as Hillary and Edwards have. Still, if his middle name, ethic heritage and kindergarten transcripts are the best that Hillary's minions could dish out he may be a shoo-in.

Edwards beat Clinton for second place by a mere nose, but New Hampshire should come in a little differently. There I'll be brave and suggest that Edwards and Clinton will be neck and neck for the top spot, with Obama bringing up the rear. Looks to me like the real race is between these three, even though I'd really like to see Kucinich and Richardson show well in at least one of the early primaries.

Possibly the most gratifying thing about the caucuses was the turnout. Independents overwhelmingly caucused with Democrats, bringing in 236,000 participants. In 2000, all the Dems could pull for the exercise was 59,000. This should be telling ALL the candidates something. People are upset that their Congressional votes in '06 didn't manage to sway the leadership into doing what We the People want done. Now we want an administrative leader who will.

Both Joe Biden and Chris Dodd used the opportunity to bow out of the race gracefully. While we know that the fields have to be trimmed by the process, I'm a little sorry to see them go. Our Democratic field this cycle is the best I've ever seen in all my long years, and any of them could have beaten any Republican in the race. Here's hoping that the best ideas among them end up in the platform when the Convention's final bell has rung!

The Reps

Republicans drew around 115,000 participants in the caucus, compared to a mere 87,000 in 2000, a 30% increase. So it's clear that the citizenry is more than ready for a big change in D.C. and the country after 8 years of depression and anxiety from Bush and the 'Borg.

Mike Huckabee, another former Arkansas governor, soundly defeated the strong Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, an upset that has the campaigns re-thinking strategy a little bit. Particularly in regards to the notorious "Base" of reliable voters that come from the megachurches of the Religious Right. Huckabee's sudden surge appears to have come based on his rather radical theocratic rhetoric in the past few weeks, while other Republican candidates have been downplaying ties to the RR base of Bush voters.

As a Democrat I'd love to see a Romney-Huckabee horse race deteriorate into savage inter-religious back-biting, which would disgust mainline Christian voters - and possibly whole branches of the once-independently minded Baptists - enough to start looking elsewhere for national leadership.

Rudi Guiliani, the arguably mob-connected ex-mayor of New York City running on the "Hero of 9-11" platform, came in #6 with just 3% of the caucus support. His organization had pretty much ignored Iowa and had no active on the ground campaign going there, so this result isn't too surprising.

John McCain, who is possibly the strongest real-life candidate for his party's nomination, will have an opportunity to turn Romney's loss and Guiliani's poor showing to his advantage in New Hampshire. In Iowa, however, McCain lost third place to Fred Thompson, a latecomer to the race. Not a very good showing, though he's still a favorite in New Hampshire.

To tell the truth, I think that either Huckabee or Romney would be excellent candidates against any Democratic ticket we could put together. The issue of religious oppression and wannabe theocrats who have been trying for decades to usurp our national charter - that pesky Constitution - for establishment of their own version of Sharia Law - must play a large role in the 2008 elections. I am hoping that sensible religious people are finally waking up to our national nightmare and all these radical end-timers so eager to launch Armageddon in the Middle East over oil instead of simply invent our own ways of fueling our country. Tuesday should be very interesting!

Links:

NYT: Obama Takes Iowa in a Big Turnout

Kos: The Iowa Results

David Brooks: The Two Earthquakes

The Big Winner: Democrats

NYT Analysis: 2 Newcomers Jolt Parties' Status Quo

Lieberman's journey to the dark side

2007-12-17T12:40:00.000-05:00

Joe Lieberman, (I) announces his support for John McCain. The first thing that popped into my head was the Emperor's words to Luke in Return of the Jedi.

"I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon! Strike me down with all your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete."

This will be short with the highlights, all from this morning's CNN story.

"Being a Republican is important. Being a Democrat is important. But you know what's more important than that? The interest and well-being of the United States of America," Joe

Lieberman, the Democrats' vice presidential nominee in 2000, said the next president needs to "break through the reflexive partisanship that is poisoning our politics today and stopping us from getting anything done in Washington."

Lieberman and McCain co-sponsored the 2002 resolution that authorized the U.S. invasion of Iraq the following March, and Lieberman has remained a supporter of the nearly 5-year-old war in Iraq at a time when Democratic leaders are trying to bring the conflict to an end.

Too bad Joe isn't like Luke huh?

State of Denial

2007-12-15T19:09:00.000-05:00

Torture as U.S. Policy and Practice

The recent hoopla about videotapes of the torture of 'War on Terror' prisoners Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri by CIA interrogators has drawn some odd denials from people who ought to know better by now. White House press spokesbot Dana Perino kept insisting to all questions that the US does not torture. Period, end of discussion.

What American with an IQ of over 75 believes this garbage, or the George W. Bush "doesn't remember" knowing about those torture tapes - or ordering their destruction? Anyone who doubts US involvement in torture (and, too often, murder) should read Jennifer Hardbury's Interview with Buzzflash for realistic background on this issue.

We have a president who holds the record for executions in the state of Texas, who exhibited signs of psychopathic personality disorder as a child (blowing up frogs) and who as drunken frat boy publicly defended branding of pledges with hot wire hangers. He has enlisted in his administration almost some of the most infamous American orchestrators and enablers of the torture-and-murder regimes in Central America Harbury documented so well in her book Truth, Torture and the American Way.

This time Bush appears to have finally made enough actual patriots mad that he just might might soon find that the whole world is watching. Which could have serious consequences for his planned retirement in Paraguay - if World Court operatives catch up with him first.

Ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson dares to publicly ask, Did Bush Eat Popcorn While Watching the Torture Tapes? This is a very scary article, more for its plausibility than for its audacity. There are rumors circulating that there were copies made of those torture tapes, and that at least one (likely more than one) national news source is in possession of them right now. Even if these rumors are off-base, we can be fairly sure copies were made, and that they have not all been destroyed. Such things do have a way of bubbling to the surface eventually.

It is not a stretch to surmise that we haven't heard the last of this episode yet, so stay tuned!

Links:

Did Bush Eat Popcorn While Watching the Torture Tapes?

Truth, Torture and the American Way

Jennifer Hardbury's Interview with Buzzflash

The Investigations of the Destruction of CIA Torture Tapes: How an ACLU Lawsuit Might Force the Bush Administration to Reveal What Actually Happened

NYT Editorial: On Torture and American Values

What Olbermann's NIE Special Comment Missed

2007-12-07T14:16:00.000-05:00

by Aileen, at People First Politics. and cross posted to DailyKos

Many years ago during the worst of the paranoid breakdown of "Tricky Dick" before his forced resignation, and again during the sneaky, behind-the-scenes horrors being brought to light in those infamous Iran-Contra hearings that made Ollie North such a wingnut hero, I used to console myself with the thought...

"As long as Frank Zappa is running around free, this is still America!"

Today, as we enter year number 8 of the most damaging and destructive American administration of my [Truman+] lifetime, Frank Zappa is dead and the steady erosion of our rights and standing in the world is worse than I've ever seen it. But I do have another true hero of freedom to console myself with...

"As long as Keith Olbermann is running around free, this is still America!"

Maybe it's because I was born into the US Navy (NIS planning officer) where courage and resolve and honesty and patriotism were a way of life my siblings and I were fed along with mother's milk. Qualities completely expected and always encouraged, a reflection of total dedication to defending and preserving that which was most noble about our nation's aspirations as a beacon of freedom in the wider world. We were proud of that even if we were always "the new kid" in our classes for moving around the country/world a lot, always picked on by the bigger kids for being outsiders or having funny accents or just for being 'military brats'.

So when Keith Olbermann looked right into the MSNBC camera this past Wednesday and said to the current occupant of the White House that...

"The Chicken Little of presidents is the one, sir, that you see in the mirror."

...I just had to laugh out loud. If that idiot child at 1600 was watching, the whole thing no doubt went right over his pin-sized head. I have no doubt he has no idea who the heck Chicken Little is, and hasn't the IQ to find out. Why, as this nation was being attacked on 9-11 he was having real trouble following along with the kindergartners reading "My Pet Goat," and was far more interested in how that story turned out than in what was happening in New York City.

God bless you, K.O., and keep you free!

I do have to take minor issue with one of the statements in Olbermann's special comment, for reasons of historical accuracy and to explain just a little bit about how we ended up with a certifiable moron in the White House. Because if we don't understand the history we're bound to get saddled with this type of situation regularly in the future. For so long as there is a future, which is questionable if this sort of thing is allowed.

Olbermann said, just two sentences after the Chicken Little remark...

"It is nearly forgotten today, but throughout much of Ronald Reagan's presidency, it was widely believed that he was little more than a front-man for some never-viewed, behind-the-scenes string-puller."

Because there is direct pertinence to the situation in which we find ourselves today, I think it's important to set the record straight. The behind-the-scenes string-puller for the "Great Communicator" was in plain sight, spending much less time in secret bunkers than the current string-pulling cyborg. His name, as CIA baggage handler Eugene Hasenfus confessed to his Sandanista captors after parachuting out of a C-123 shot down over Nicaragua in October of 1986, was George Bush. The ex-DCI [Director of Central Intelligence] who was at that time Vice President of the United States.

Yet there was a Master of Puppets behind that not-invisible string-puller. Dick Cheney invented the presidential puppet show back when he was Chief of Staff to president Gerald Ford (who got the job after Nixon's resignation). Arrange for a certifiable idiot to occupy the oval office, use him as cover for all sorts of nefarious, traitorous deeds. It was Cheney - with help from Ford's SecDef Donald Rumsfeld - who arranged to have our current president's father appointed by Ford to head the CIA, and got himself appointed Secretary of Defense for the elder Bush's single term. It was Cheney who managed the coverup of Iran-Contra from Congress (and defense of Ollie North). It was Cheney who pulled VP George H.W. Bush's strings for the entire operation.

Senior Bush was no genius, but he was a whole lot smarter than his #1 son. Getting #1 son elected in 2000 was Dick Cheney's self-appointed task, and he's had a puppet ever since with real sawdust for brains, his dream tool. It was Cheney who orchestrated Gulf War-I for the father, and Cheney who orchestrated the Iraq war for the son. It is Cheney who intends to attack Iran and scripts the puppet's badly delivered macho posturing. He's been the Puppet Master for decades, and has almost single-handedly pulled the strings of US intelligence and military policy during all that time (with a little sabbatical in between to be CEO of Halliburton).

But the generations changed while he was hiding in his bunker picking and choosing strings to pull. His deliberate outing of Valerie Plame and the entire CIA Brewster-Jennings counter-proliferation operation pissed some real patriots off big time. They have now turned en masse against him - all 16 intelligence arms of government including all military intelligence branches. They've told the truth and Cheney can't get any more sympathy by conveniently traipsing off to Bethesda to have his cyber-heart recalibrated. His time is up.

It's time to impeach ventriloquist Cheney and his puppet, before this master of puppets makes good on an extremely suspicious violation of absolute fail safes for the US nuclear stockpile to start an unauthorized, unimaginably damaging nuclear war.

Stopping the Next War Before It Starts: The Latest NIE

2007-12-05T22:01:00.000-05:00

from Aileen at People First Politics

16 US Intelligence Agencies agree, for a change...

With Bush and his cadre's recent hyperbolic rhetoric introducing "World War III" in the same sentence with Iran, it looks to me like the various US intelligence agencies don't plan to be made scapegoat once again for Bush/Cheney's delusions of Hitlerian grandeur. They all got together this time and reported in the most recent National Intelligence Estimate that Iran does not have nuclear weapons and is years away from having nuclear weapons even if it tries really hard. CNN reported that...

A declassified summary of the latest National Intelligence Estimate found with "high confidence" that the Islamic republic halted an effort to develop nuclear weapons in the fall of 2003.

Worse, this report was prepared in December of 2006. Which explains why Cheney and the boyz were so anxious to keep a lid on it while they beat the drums toward a opening a new front in their forever-war. Ex-CIA counter-terrorism expert Larry Johnson offered this observation:

There are some unsung heroes in the National Intelligence Council who insisted on the integrity of the product. In the face of enormous political pressure to tailor information and pull punches that undermine Bush Administration talking points, the intelligence professionals did their job. They told the truth based on the facts in hand.

If Johnson is right - and he probably is - we should consider that the recent incident of six nuclear-tipped ACMs being wrongly loaded onto the pilings of a B-52 headed to Barksdale may have motivated some end-runs around the stone walls the Bush Administration had erected against releasing any portion of this NIE.

The incident, combined with the infiltration of the USAF Academy by hard-right wing fundamentalist evangelicals and their placement of hand-picked junior and senior officers in sensitive positions, is indeed a serious concern. Particularly if any of those people were involved in this gross breach of fail safes for our nuclear weapons stockpile.

Despite Bush's insistence that the NIE won't change a thing about his policy toward Iran, Democratic contender John Edwards scored some points against Hillary Clinton on the subject during the Tuesday NPR debate. Edwards castigated Clinton for her support of the Kyl-Lieberman amendment that designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "terrorist organization," thereby justifying war whenever the shrub cares to launch one.

I do expect that seasoned pros at the State Department (in trouble of late for its use of mercenary guards in Iraq), the intelligence services and the military are all wondering where Bush and Cheney think they're going to get the manpower to launch another front in their war. Our troops are stretched too thin, and the nation simply doesn't have enough money to fight a proxy war with hundreds of thousands more paid mercs. If they launched a draft they'd be courting some serious civil disobedience and the homeland's not all that secure these days due to drastic cuts (and more on the way) for first responders, Guard and police. Heck, they've hired mercenaries to patrol the Mexican border!

The economy is tanking. Millions of Americans are going to lose their homes, their jobs, and now Bush is cutting payments to teaching hospitals so the indigent won't even have the ER when they're sick or injured. The rich don't like taxes, and Bush has arranged things to their liking. Where is he planning to get the money for further adventures? China? They're starting to balk at the costs so far. India's got its own problems we're not helping with, since we're officially on Pakistan's 'side'.

If we had a Congress full of actual public servants Bush and Cheney could be bridled by impeachment hearings. That would at least keep them from screwing things up worse before January of '09. Unfortunately, we don't have a Congress full of actual public servants, so we're on our own. We'll need more than luck to make it through the next year.

Links:

U.S. report: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003

NPR's Iowa Debate

Right Wing Claims Iran NIE a CIA Plot Against Bush

John Edwards Wins NPR Debate

Waterboarding: Torture or Not?

2007-11-07T17:15:00.001-05:00

by Aileen at People First Politics

It's just so darned hard to get a straight answer out of policy makers and policy hacks. Though, interestingly enough, it's not that hard to get opinions from warriors (or prisoners) who have been subjected to it.

Yes, it's torture. It's labeled such, known as such, practiced as such. The fact that we subject our SEALs and Rangers and other special forces operatives to it to give them an idea of what torture *is* and how to resist it, tells us that it's legitimately, objectively classifiable as TORTURE.

So, you might ask with wonder in your eyes, why are Senators and Congresscitters and administration hacks arguing about it in public? Why is it "important" on somebody's scale of things to make this long-ago made distinction? Why won't AG candidate Michael Mukasey lend us his views on the issue? It's a fair question, let's ask it...

Unless you happen to be a member of the National Association of Waterboarders and Controlled Drowners, this whole debate probably makes no sense at all.

Not to worry, Waterboarders of Amerika! Darth Cheney is solidly on Your Side. Speaking to reporters this past week, his resolve was clear...

Braving chilly November temperatures to make their point about the media's negative stereotyping of them, the angry torturers got some moral support when one of their most prominent supporters, Vice President Dick Cheney, emerged from his secure undisclosed location to address them.

The vice president received a thunderous ovation from the crowd when he proposed that the government earmark $1.6 billion to improve the media image of waterboarding and waterboarders.

"There's nothing wrong with waterboarding that a little public relations makeover wouldn't fix," the vice president told the crowd. "For starters, why not call it dunking?"

"Dunking" has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Reminds one of the glory days of Witch Hunts and general persecution and genocides of the Middle Ages.

This is such a travesty. Surely even the defenders recognize that. Are we not all human?

Links:
TPMemo: How Low Can We Go?

Andy Borowitz: Waterboarders Protest Negative Media Stereotypes

Those Very Strangely "Missing" Nukes

2007-11-01T08:28:00.000-04:00

by Aileen at People First Politics

Way back in early September I posted about a strange incident at Minot AFB in North Dakota, where 5 (now increased to 6) stockpiled nuclear warheads were taken out of storage, armed, attached to supposedly decommissioned Advanced Cruise Missiles, loaded onto the pilons of a B-52 strategic bomber, and flown to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana - a forward staging base for deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

My analysis at that time was that the whistleblowers who reported the incident to The Army Times - which then broke the story - were just doing their job, which had to do with some rather obvious "Saber-Rattling" by the Bush administration against Iran. In that post I noted that ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson> agreed with my analysis on his blog.

On Halloween investigative reporter Dave Lindorff posted a diary on DKos based on his article for The American Conservative [October 22 issue online]. He titled his diary The Air Force Cover-Up of that Minot-Barksdale Nuclear Missile Flight and it's full of little tidbits of information from the Air Force's investigation report on the incident.

There is also some excellent information in an article by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya entitled Missing Nukes: Treason of the Highest Order.

Not only must service members who handle nuclear weapons or warheads follow a very strict chain of command (with lots of backup paperwork), they must be specifically certified for that task. The weapons, particularly those in storage or scheduled for decommissioning, are marked, they are sealed (seals must be broken). they carry tracking 'tags' and can be found anywhere on the planet by military GPS, and direct written orders from senior military officials as well as the base commander is required before the weapons could be loaded on a plane or flown off the base.

Thus it is clear that in the case of these particular 'missing' nukes, highest-level orders were given, procedures double-checked and triple-checked, flight permission was granted. This is not just standard procedure, it's REQUIRED procedure no single person can get around.

According to a number of military experts, intelligence analysts and ex-military members of high rank, there are way too many large holes in the story for it to be anything but a whitewash coverup of a deliberate act authorized by the office of the President and the entire nuclear chain of command, in clear violation of US law and international treaty.

But it gets much worse. Nazemroaya reports that there have been a number of mysterious deaths of USAF personnel shortly before and shortly after the incident...

Airman 1st Class Todd Blue. Attached to the 5th Security Forces Squadron at Minot AFB, specifically the Weapons System Security section responsible for the security of all "priority ressources" - including all the nukes. Went home on leave immediately after the incident and died on September 10th at the age of 20.

USAF Captain John Frueh. Attached to the USAF Special Operations Command. Last seen with a GPS device, camera and camcorder in a backpack. Found dead on September 8 in Washington State, last call from his cell at 12:28 p.m. on August 30, the day of the Minot incident. The Air Force refused to allow Washington state police to investigate his disappearance as a missing person case until they had completed a military investigation. Did they know he was dead?

Clint and Linda Huff. Clint Huff was attached to the 26th Operational Weather Squadron at Barksdale AFB. He and his wife were killed on their motorcycle September 15th after an SUV they were passing turned hard left into them.

First Lieutenant Weston Kissel. B-52H Stratofortress Bomber pilot. Also died in a motorcycle accident on July 17, less than two months before the Minot incident.

Adam Barrs and Stephen Garrett. Attached to the 5th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, responsible for loading and unloading weaponry on the B-52H Stratofortresses at Minot. They were killed in a single vehicle accident on July 3.

The Huffs, Kissel, Barrs and Garrett died before the incident. But if there was advanced planning - and any significant operation takes advanced planning - they might have been involved.

But wait! There's more...

Charles D. Reichers, USAF, Retired. Previous member of the Senior Executive Service of the AF, Principle Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition and Management. Also a master navigator and electronic warfare specialist. Found dead of apparent suicide on October 14.

However, Russian Intelligence analysts reported in Pravda (The Russian news service) that the ruling of suicide was a coverup, that Reichers was murdered because of his involvement in the Minot affair. According to the Pravda article, the incident was linked to an operation to smuggle nuclear weapons away from the US military in connection to launching a war against Iran. Principles in that operation were said to be Daniel Richard DeVos, Who runs the Commonwealth Research Institute, a non-profit organization working for the Pentagon.

Anybody remember Iran-Contra?

General Russell Elliot Dougherty. Former commander of Strategic Air Command and director of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff. Reported dead of suicide on September 7.

In June of this year the command staff at Minot was rotated. Incoming officers were...

Colonel Robert D. Critchlow, transferred from the Pentagon to become commanding officer for the 91st Operations Group at Minot.

Colonel Myron L. Freeman, transferred from Japan to Minot to take over as commander of the 91st Security Forces Group, responsible for securing Minot's nuclear arsenal.

Colonel Gregory S. Tims, appointed deputy commander of the 91st Space Wing.

Colonel Bruce Emig, transferred from Ellsworth in South Dakota to Minot to become the base commander.

Colonel Cynthia M. Lundell, transferred from NATO in Western Europe to command the 5th Maintenance Group (responsible for loading weaponry on the B-52s). Now assigned elsewhere.

Read the article for other juicy tidbits that may start putting the belligerent threats, September's "Vigilant Shield 2008" war games on US soil and Russia's war games response, and all this talk of World War III into some perspective. I have doubts that Bush will allow elections in 2008, as he does not plan to leave power. I do believe he's psychotic, thus extremely dangerous to the US and the world.

I no longer think the Minot "oops" was clever saber rattling. I think they were really trying to start a nuclear war.

Another SCHIP Update

2007-10-18T00:41:00.000-04:00

Joy Busey People First Politics

Republican Slime Machine Targets Injured 12-Year Old

Graeme Frost speaking to reporters after delivering the Democratic radio response to Bush's SCHIP veto.

Just when you thought Mister 22% and his Brownshirts couldn't go any lower in their efforts to prevent millions of children from accessing health care through the State Children's Health Insurance Program [SCHIP], they managed to find yet another sub-basement cesspool from which to spew slime.

When Bush vetoed the SCHIP legislation passed by both the House and Senate, the Democratic response was delivered by courageous 12-year old Graeme Frost of Baltimore, Maryland. Graeme and his parents, who earn ~$45,000 a year but get no employer-provided health care and with 4 children cannot afford $1,200 a month for private coverage, went public with how the SCHIP program helped them after a 2004 auto accident left Graeme and his younger sister seriously injured and hospitalized for five months.

The Frosts expected to draw some ire from Republicans, but they did not expect the level of hatred aimed their way. As reported by The Baltimore Sun, right wing bloggers and talking heads went wild. Typical offerings went something like this, from the wingnut website RedState:

"If federal funds were required [they] could die for all I care. Let the parents get second jobs, let their state foot the bill or let them seek help from private charities... I would hire a team of PIs and find out exactly how much their parents made and where they spent every nickel. Then I'd do everything possible to destroy their lives with that info."

...not to mention threatening phone calls, physical harassment and other published threats too crude to reprint here. All that 'Compassionate Conservatism' sort of gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling, doesn't it? The New York Times' Paul Krugman put it this way:

All in all, the Graeme Frost case is a perfect illustration of the modern right-wing political machine at work, and in particular its routine reliance on character assassination in place of honest debate. If service members oppose a Republican war, they're "phony soldiers"; if Michael J. Fox opposes Bush policy on stem cells, he's faking his Parkinson's symptoms; if an injured 12-year old child makes the case for a government health insurance program, he's a fraud.

Graeme in the hospital following the 2005 accident that injured him and his little sister Gemma.

Vicious. Hateful. Disgusting. It's not hard to come up with adjectives for this sort of low-life garbage, even though Americans have become quite used to the fascist tendencies of today's Neocons and their Fearless (but moronic) Leader.

A new poll from NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health demonstrates that 70% support expansion of SCHIP as passed by the House and Senate.

The override vote takes place tomorrow (October 18), and Democrats acknowledge they do not have enough votes to get the 2/3 majority needed. If it were up to the Senate SCHIP would already be a done deal. Hopefully this travesty will translate directly into votes next November to replace Republican legislators who refuse to represent their constituents, which would give Democrats a veto-proof majority at the time a Democratic administration takes office.

There's a lot of clean-up work to do after 8 years of greed, profiteering, destruction of the Constitution and impoverishment of the middle class. At least we can be fairly sure that history will record the Bush-II administration as the anti-democratic force it really is. By then GWB should be safely ensconced at his retirement estate in Paraguay, safe from extradition.

Limbaugh’s Dittoheads vs. U.S. War Veterans

2007-10-16T22:35:00.000-04:00

Joy Busey peoplefirstpolitcs.com

Recent Wingnut Madness

My goodness! The war between Rush Limbaugh’s chickenhawk dittoheads and veterans of the current U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has certainly lit up the airwaves and internet for the past couple of weeks! It’s getting so heated that it just might be time to buy some popcorn futures (or take up dealing OxyContin…).

In case you’re one of the few who missed it when the fireworks started, right wing hate pundit Limbaugh (who got out of military service during the VietNam draft due to boils on his fat ass) created quite a stir when he libeled some Iraq war veterans on his daily radio show [date] by calling them “phony soldiers” and likening them to “suicide bombers.”

His beef wasn’t that they hadn’t volunteered to serve, or didn’t serve at the front for more time than they’d bargained for, or that some of them were badly injured. It was that they started speaking out against the war once they got home.

VoteVets, an activist organization of veterans against the war, produced an ad in response to Limbaugh’s smears and aired it on Fox News as well as on Clear Channel radio, though they refused to air it during Limbaugh’s show.

The ad features Iraq war veteran Brian McGough, who was awarded the Purple Heart for traumatic brain injury he received as the result of a suicide bomber. You can view the ad at the VoteVets link above, and read the latest of Limbaugh’s self-righteous defenses (the transcripts have been edited quite regularly) on his link given above.

But for me, the most entertaining part is the hate mail Limbaugh’s loyal dittohead fans have been sending to VoteVets vice-chair Brandon Friedman as well as to the wounded veteran Brian McGough himself. Both Briedman and McGough posted some of their hate mail on DKos at the links in this paragraph, and they have to be read to be believed.

Just a few choice tidbits to whet your whistle…

To McGough:

You aren’t the lying asshole Liberal Poster Boy veteran on tv are you?

and…

…I am not a fan of Rush but you guys are the pits. ?You are just liberal ass holes who hear what they want to hear. ?Just looking to smear who ever you don’t like. ?Like I said.. Ass-Holes. That means you mother was an ass-hole because the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. ?In your case, you’re hanging on your mother dress. What a ass hole baby you are.
Remember, Liberalism is a disease. ?Maybe that metal in your head is making you stupid. NO wait “An Ass Hole”

Friedman has received some really colorful hate mail from Limbaugh’s most loyal (and badly educated) fans. My pick of the litter is from “Chuck in Allentown, PA,” and it takes the cake…

YOU PEOPLE HAVE BEEN EXPOSED AS CLEARLY A LEFT WING GROUP WHO WILL STOOP AT NOTHING TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS ….A WEAKER AMERICA , AND A WEAKER MILITARY. YOU AND YOUR GROUP ARE DOING THIS COUNTRY A DISHONORABLE SERVICE . MC GOUGH IS NOW THE NEW POSTER BOY JOHN KERRY LOOK AND ACT ALIKE ! RUSH NEVER CALLED MC GOUGH A SUICIDE BOMBER AND YOU KNOW IT ! IT’S JUST ALL SAD POLITICAL GAME WITH YOU PEOPLE …YOU VETS HAVE CHOISEN TO GET POLITICAL …YOUI ARE FAIR GAME TO BE TAKEN OUT AS A DANGEROUS LEFT WING GROUP …THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE ….THE MILITARY VERSION OF CODE PINK !!!!!! AND MOVE ON !!!! SHAME ON YOU ! BE AGAINST THE WAR IN AN HONORABLE FASHION….YOU PEOPLE ARE NOW IN THE GUTTER WITH OTHER EXTREME LEFT WING GROUPS WHO USE ANY DIRTY AND DECEITFUL TACTIC TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS ! WHEN YOU START PLACING PAWNS LIKE MC GOUGH ON SHOWS LIKE KEITH OLBERMAN’S LEFT WING DIATRIBE SHOW COUNTDOWN TO DISTORTB AND LIE ABOUT THE FACTS , YOU HAVE EXPOSED YOURSELVES AS TO WHO AND WHAT YOU TRULY ARE ….AN EXTREME LEFT WING ARM OF THE OTHER NUT JOBS IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY . CHUCK……ALLENTOWN PA. PA. HOME OF THE BUM JACK MURTHA ….WHO ACCUSED OUR MARINES , YOUR BROTHERS, FALSELY OF MURDER IN IRAQ…FACT ! RUSH LIMBAUGH IS NOT YOUR ENEMY….THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS YOUR TRUE ENEMY……THE THINGS THAT YOUR DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN AND SENATORS HAVE SAID FAR OUTWEIGH ANY DISTORTIONS THAT YOU HAVE TRIED TO CREATE ABOUT RUSH ….. CHECK OUT THE COMMENTS OF KERRY , DURBIN , MURTHA , KENNEDY , REID, BOXER AND OTHER DEMOCRATIC LAWMAKERS HAVE SAID ABOUT ….YOU ……THE AMERICAN SOLDIER ! YOU ARE BEING LIED TO BY THE VERY SAME PEOPLE YOU SUPPORT ….SAD ….TRULY SAD ….YOU ARE DOING LOND TERM DAMAGE TO THIS COUNTRY JUST LIKE VETS LIKE JOHN KERRY DID MABOUT VIETNAM …REMEMBER WHAT KERRY SAID ABOUT YOU …IN NSO MANY WORDS….IF YOUR STUPID ENOUGH YOUR STUCK IN IRAQ…HE CALLED YOU STUPID….YOU LIKE BEING CALLED STUPID BY A UNITED STATES SENATOR ?…. YOU LIKE BEING COMPARED TO NAZI’S ?LIKE SEN DURBIN DID ON THE SENATE FLOOR !!!!!! YOU LIKE WHEN OBAMA SAYS YOU PEOPLE ARE AIR RAIDING VILLAGES ????? YEH , I KNOW …YOU IGNORE ALL OF THESE HARD FACTS BUT YOU GO AFTER RUSH ….WHY ??? HE’S BIGGER ON THE RIGHT ,THAN ANYONE YOU HAVE ON THE LEFT ….ANYONE !!! IT’S JUST A DIRTY POLITICAL GAME YOU ARE TRYING , BUT GUESS WHAT ??? YOU ARE INCREASING RUSH’S VIEWING AUDIENCE AND YOU ARE LOSING YOUR BATTLE AGAINST THE CHARACTER OF RUSH . YOU AND YOUR POLITICAL CRONIES LIKE HARRY REID , WHO SAID THAT THE WAR IS LOST !!!! ANOTHER U.S SENATOR WAR IS LOST ?????? YOU HAVE NO SHAME ….YOU TRULY DON’T AND YOUR POLITICAL TRICK HAS EXPOSED YOUR ORGANIZATION AS A FAR LEFT WING DISGRACEFUL ORGANIZATION !

Well, there you have it! Ain’t politics fun?

Talk Like a Pirate! Arrrr

2007-09-19T10:05:00.000-04:00

Arrr ye Mateys,

Back from a year in the bilges not talkin to ye and all, I'd like to offer me humble apologies for not faring thee here, but Talk Like a Pirate Day comes only once a year ye landubbers! So for ye get yer sails all a bind, let yerself ponder how a pirate might view some recent news.

Blackwater. Arrr, a name after me own liking I must say. Rebounds of saber's clashes and cannon ball ruin! Long known, these players of independent means have had their way in this waaar, providing the security that the King's men could not. Not so unlike pirates, this community aaarmed mercenaries thrives on the occupation, reaping the spoils and the bounty of the bloody conflict.

Follow me below to the bilges if ye dare....

The King's General Petraeus. Arrr, an untrustworthy soul if for no other reason than he's not a sailor. Blow me down mateys, how can these landlubbers expect respect when they've never ridden the seas? On the other hand me hardys, there be a certain Admiral Fallon who I might lean a little closer to in regaaards of a clear eye in these spoken matters. Seems the good Admiral thinks the General is akin to parrot poop when it comes to being an upstanding man worthy of military abides.

Rats fleeing the sinking ship. Arrr, it seems that the pace of Republicans leaving the governing wing of the Good Ship America to find their way into its underbelly is apace beyond anyone's expectations.

Arrr, the good Captain Reid of the Senate seems to have calculated his cannon balls with good reason mateys as he is now showing himself to be quite the cutlass bearing scallywag that we had been praying for all along. Now if the good lady Pelosi would set her eye on a similaaaar position, we might be seeing some movement here mateys.

So thaaar you have it ye scallywags, a gang plank you can use to to set sail on yer own news of interest to the pirates of the Kossac Seas. Ahoy mateys! And don't forget to toast to the future where victory is only over the horizon. Drink what ye may, but this pirate would suggest a PBRrrrrrrrrr!

Live bloggiing Panthers vs Texans

2007-09-16T13:25:00.000-04:00

1st Quarter
•Carolina is off to a real strong start here with a solid seven point scoring drive followed by a fumble recovery and return by Ken Lucas down to the Texan's 17 yard line. Play was challenged but stood.
•Jake just hooked up with Steve Smith for their second touchdown. 14-0.
•Texans shred the safety for two plays and a TD. 14-7.
2nd Quarter
•Texans have the ball, momentum is pretty even though the ball is moving in Houston's favor.
• Ken Lucas just picked off a long pass. This is his second involvement in a turnover. Certainly making a statement. Panther's ball on their own four yard line.
• Oops, not going to happen, called back, Houston's ball on Carolina 29. Now down to the 13.
• Texans score, 14-14
• Ouch, first sack of the year.
• Momentum firmly Houston. Texans 17 Panters 14
3rd Quarter
• Starting as the other one ended. Sounds like a clinic. 31-14
,4th Quarter
• 4th quarter starts with Panthers with the ball, possible change of winds?
• No
• Final 31-14

Panthers strong and balanced in win

2007-09-10T00:40:00.000-04:00

The Carolina Panthers excelled in many areas of the game today and came out of their first opening day road trip in six years with a decisive 27-13 victory over the St. Louis Rams.

Look for analysis and follow up later including some impressive individual and team stats including coach John Fox's 50th Panther victory.

It Starts!

2007-09-09T13:22:00.000-04:00

The Carolina Panthers start the regular season against the St. Louis Rams.

The Carolina Panthers (0-0), who closed last year with back-to-back road wins, open the regular season away from home for the first time since 2001 when they play the St. Louis Rams (0-0) at the Edward Jones Dome. A lot of has changed for Carolina since defeating Atlanta and New Orleans to complete the 2006 season with an 8-8 record, but a nucleus of returning players comprise the corps that will try to upend St. Louis.

Foremost are wide receiver Steve Smith and defensive end Julius Peppers, both coming off consecutive Pro Bowl seasons. A year ago, Smith missed the first two games with a hamstring injury but he still caught 83 passes for 1,106 yards. His last reception at St. Louis was a memorable 69-yard touchdown to give Carolina a 29-23 overtime victory in the 2003 NFC Divisional Playoffs. Peppers, whose 34.5 sacks are second in the NFL over the last three seasons, anchors a defense that has ranked in the top 10 four of the last five years. He is coming off a 13-sack season in which he also forced three fumbles and recovered two.

There are also a number of other familiar faces:

* Jake Delhomme, starting his fifth season at quarterback.
* DeShaun Foster, returning as the starting running back.
* Mike Rucker, coming back off knee surgery to start his 92nd game at defensive end.
* Jordan Gross, starting his 65th consecutive game at tackle.
* John Kasay, the last original Panther, again handling the kicking duties.

However, there are significant changes as well. Not starting at safety for the first time since Week Two of the 2001 season is Mike Minter, who retired during the training camp. Last year's second leading receiver, Keyshawn Johnson, has also retired, leaving Keary Colbert and Drew Carter to handle the receiving duties opposite Smith as they did in 2005.

The additions include the return of tackle Travelle Wharton, center Justin Hartwig and linebacker Dan Morgan, all of whom were lost for the year with injuries in the opening game last season. Morgan is joined at linebacker by first-round draft choice Jon Beason, who enjoyed a productive preseason and is one of 10 rookies on the youthful Carolina roster. Aside from Kasay and long snapper Jason Kyle, guard Mike Wahle is the only player on the Panthers roster with 10 years of NFL experience.

Only a dozen players remain from the roster that last played at St. Louis, and head coach John Fox says that the newcomers are in for a substantial challenge.

"We are playing a very good football team at their place in the regular season opener," said Fox. "Any time you go inside you know it is going to be loud, and given the circumstances, this will be a very difficult environment."

Saber-Rattling 101:

2007-09-05T20:27:00.000-04:00

How to Scare the Bejesus Out of Tyrants and Tin-Horns
by Joy Busey from People First Politics

The buzz on the left has been insistent for a couple of weeks now about what the Bush administration is planning to do about Iran’s apparently insane Shi’ite political leader and his nuclear ambitions. The carrier fleet and their escorts have been deployed to the Gulf, the rhetoric has kicked up a few notches about how accessible Iran’s nuclear facilities are to air and sea strikes, there’s even been some talk of a draft. Because Iran’s got a heck of an army and they could march it into Iraq if it felt the need.

There are of course many reasons to doubt that our current war-loving band of chicken-hawk miscreants in Washington are really dumb enough to attack Iran, particularly since Israel issued a statement on Wednesday that they’d be willing to live with a nuclear Iran. So long as it’s just power, of course, as opposed to weapons.

Thus it was with a wry smile and a roll of the eyes that I saw the several news reports about 5 ACMs - Advanced Cruise Missiles - mounted with 5-150 kiloton nuclear warheads (these qualify as tactical nukes as opposed to strategic ones on ICBMs that boast multiple megaton warheads) that were ‘accidentally’ flown from Minot AFB in North Dakota to Barksdale AFB in Louisiana on August 30. Oops.

The ACMs were reported to be among a stockpile of 400 destined to be decommissioned, so the warheads were supposed to have been removed at Minot before the cruise missile bodies were transported to Barksdale. According to The Army Times story, the Air Force insists that they had total control of the warheads at all times, even though they didn’t exactly know where they were for the duration of the 3 1/2 hour flight.

It’s all okay. They were “safely mounted to the B-52’s wing pylons,” right where they should be if the Air Force were planning to launch them from high altitude against a target. We have to figure these 400 tactical ACMs are part of that redundant overkill portion of our national stockpile, as both the Navy and Air Force have plenty of tacticals (and their delivery missiles) in or near the current theaters of operation. So it’s not like we should suspect a bombing attack on Iran doesn’t already have all the bombs it needs.

Yet having had a little contact and familiarity with military nuclear programs over the years, I’ve just gotta say this whole comedy of errors strikes me more as deliberate saber-rattling than as a legitimate oops. You just don’t oops these things. The fail safes are too stringent, the procedures too tight, the sign-offs at all levels of command and oversight too foolproof. You just can’t ‘lose’ these things. Maybe in some god-foresaken corner of old Soviet colonialism, but not right here in the heartland.

I figure Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has plenty of underlings doing nothing but following the debates in the U.S. press and cable news about whether or not we’ll be attacking Iran to prevent its completion of nuclear ambitions. I also figure they won’t be predisposed to believe this was a complete oops, any more than I am. There is certainly a threatening undercurrent to the fact that advanced, tactical nuclear-tipped cruise missiles (can be launched from sea or air) are being shuffled around from the deep northern midwest to active forward deployment stations such as Barksdale in Louisiana.

Perhaps it will work. It might just scare Ahmadinejad enough to settle his overactive dog and pony act, as well as serve to keep his troops within his own borders instead of marching into Iraq to wreak havoc on our troops there. In which case this intriguing episode of fine-tuned disinformation will have served its purpose well.

But in the meantime, shouldn’t we do a little investigating to find out if lax procedures and a cavalier attitude at our nuclear stockpiles might make them into targets for terrorist designs? I mean, if they won’t miss a warhead when it’s gone, we’ve something to worry about. Rattling sabers at ‘the enemy’ is one thing. Rattling them at We the People is something else entirely.

UPDATE: Looks like ex-spy Larry Johnson had the same take as I did, just a few hours (and inside contacts) later. Check it out at Staging Nukes for Iran?

Signs of hope amid the disgust

2007-08-29T00:49:00.000-04:00

A run through the blogs today reveals some interesting and hopeful language. It is a veritable smorgasboard of Rethuglican horror, from the Attorney General to the profiteering in Iraq, to anti-gay gay Senators, to the shocking revelation that Bush new about the levees breaking many, many hours before local authorities did. And didn't tell them. The stories are beyond creepy, they reek of evil.

So let's start with the evil shall we?

Brent Budowski has an excellent blog I want my brother to read. It looks past Senator Craig's recent gay sex bust and puts the real face of evil on this President and the policies that foment actual, real, bona-fide evil in this world as we know it. Starting with the premise of "hypocrisy" being the the least of the evils, the author weaves a very convincing opinion.

The problem is the hypocrisy of those who preach God yet violate God’s rules and use God to direct hate toward their political opponents and toward groups they deem as vulnerable. The problem, though, is not only the hypocrisy but the corruptions and the crimes that involve evil, with or without the hypocrisy.

But he goes on to say that this isn't the true problem. The problem is the depth of depravity that this President and his policies have inflicted on humankind.

But the problem is not only the hypocrisy, but the corruptions and abuses themselves. In Iraq, war profiteering his reached epidemic and disgusting proportions while wounded troops suffer and homeless veterans rise in numbers.

Now the Petraeus weapons scandal expands into a major criminal investigation, and while he is no doubt personally honest, he is guilty of incompetent and negligent management that allowed criminals during his watch to make vast sums of money while our weapons disappeared and no doubt ended up in the hands of those killing our troops.

Brent nails this with the truth that any thinking Christian must address.
________________________

Speaking of evil, let's revisit Katrina .

Greg Palast has been working hard on the realities of Hurricane Katrina and has just revealed a bombshell for those that are paying attention.

"How the White House Drained New Orleans"

The story really requires a strong stomach if you are a caring human being. I would think if you are a Christian, it would require some soul searching along with the Tums.

_______________________

More great reads

A powerful and hopeful revolution within the American Psychological Association to reject torture as a tool of the United States of America.

Robert Parry reveals in a reflection of his own new book, Neck Deep , that Al Gore has been right about so many things for so long that it is downright undeniable. The popularly elected president is spot on when you look at recent history.

_______________________

Current Events: Conservatives teach Dems a lesson

David Sirota makes an astute observation. The most conservative newspaper in the nation thinks that spying on Americans and Executive privilege are not Conservative principles. Who knew?

_____________________

A little dustup

We've all been non-plussed by Hillary's odd statement that a terrorist attack would be good for the Republicans. Naomi Wolf has an excellent take on this whole thing, daring to bring conspiratorial politics into the limelight where it deserves to dwell.

_____________________

Speaking of conspiracy. WTF?! Have fun!

Witnesses In Army Trial Killed In Crash

Bringing back the blog....

2007-08-19T20:13:00.000-04:00

Welcome back! Stay tuned as we wake this project back up and give it the attention it deserves. Thanks to Gordon at Scrutiny Hooligans for the inspiration.

As I was was scrolling down my poor, neglected blog, I found it rewarding that I had given SH credit for the cool Colbert widget. I also remembered with an ironic chuckle that I had investigated why state candidates in the area rarely advertised their party alliance. With the recent drive for and backlash against pinning party affiliation to local candidates, I see I need to look down this avenue again.

Thanks for reading, I'll be back.

What's up?

2006-12-04T22:26:00.000-05:00

Carolina Panthers Football is back!

2006-09-10T16:59:00.000-04:00

Atlanta at Carolina
Sunday, September 10, 1:00 PM EST
Bank of America Stadium

I'm bringing back weekly Carolina Panthers football to this blog. This is how my entry into the blog world began two years ago. With high hopes for a Democratic renewal to take back the country, I am also inclined to place high hopes for my team to take back the title and go to the Super Bowl again. This time to win it.

We have a real solid core of veterans from the last few years and have added some outstanding talent. Questions of adjustments surround every team, but what I see as an important barometer is that the Panthers went 4-0 in the preseason, largely without their starting lineup. Others didn't start them either I'm sure, but it is hard to argue with 4-0,and the way they played in the last game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Down two points with less than two minutes left in the game, the Panthers marched promptly down the field for a John Kasey field goal to seal the 4-0 preseason deal for the second year running. It seemed almost predictable or something. 'Ok, we've toyed with these guys long enough and have made it exciting. Now let's close the deal".
This could be a very, very good team.

The Panthers website,click above, gives some history about Sunday's contest with the Falcons.

The two teams that have represented the NFC South in the last three conference championship games open the 2006 regular season against each other when the Carolina Panthers (0-0) take on the Atlanta Falcons (0-0) at Bank of America Stadium on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EST. The Falcons advanced to the conference final in 2004, and the Panthers played in the conference title game last year and in 2003. The core players of those teams remain and are joined by a host of new faces as the squads strive for a quick start in one of the NFL's most competitive divisions.

That said, stay tuned for comments after the game.

Blogging the game

Well, this isn't going so well so far. The Panthers are being outplayed in every category. The first half stats tell the story. 275 to 89. Those are the Falcons net yards vs. the Panthers net.

The second half is starting a little better. We've tacked on a field goal and have completed some passes. Still, Atlanta looks strong,

Atlanta's new defensive end, John Abraham is causing all kinds of problems for the Panthers. Two sacks through the middle of the third quarter. Carolina has a lot more penalties than Atlanta as well. Atlanta's RB Warrick Dunn is relentless and the penalties just keep on piling up for Carolina. Vick gets a touchdown through the air from the 1 yard line to Crumpler in traffic. Panthers have the ball at the start of the 4th and start with a first down after Delhomme connects with Cris Mangum for 12 yards.

336 to 126 yards starting the 4th.

Carolina's newest receiver Keyshawn Johnson is starting to make things happen. Never mind. Jake Delhomme just got intercepted at the Atlanta 20. Atlanta is moving the ball again thanks to consistent misdirection from Michael Vick and consistent missed plays from Carolina's Shawn Williams.

With 10 minutes left, Carolina starts at their own eight after an Atlanta punt. Drew Carter is picking things up with two receptions for two first downs. Less the eight minutes left. Carter gets another first down with a reverse. The drive stops with poor throwing and/or poor choices by Delhomme. Seven minutes left.

Atlanta is not moving the ball well after a rare penalty. Panthers should get the ball back and will try to make some magic happen. Panthers will start at their own thirty. They haven't had a big play all day. We start with the quarterback getting sacked again by Abraham. Fourth down and we will be going for it. Kerry Colbert catches the pass but the referees call him out of bounds. That's probably the game. Coach John Fox is protesting the spot but the replay looks like it was the right call. The play stands, Atlanta's ball., 4 min, 12 sec left. Atlanta tries on 4th and 1 at the 2 minute warning. Panther's ball.

Delhomme continues to throw poorly as the game winds down to a loss. Terrible gap control, terrible tackling and lethargic defense all adds up to a loss at home to start the season. The stats tell the story, and they were, well, terrible. Better luck next week as we travel to Minnesota and try to shake off our third consecutive year with an opening loss.

Final Score: Atlanta Falcons 20, Carolina Panthers 6

National Blog Spotlight on NC

2006-08-29T11:59:00.001-04:00

Daily Kos election roundup includes NC 08 and NC 11

I just stumbled on this roundup over at Daily Kos and was delighted to see that my diary on raising money through ActBlue for Heath Shuler and Christopher Walker's excellent diary on Larry Kissell were included in the roundup of state race pieces posted.

Please visit the Kos diary roundup and see how other states are being represented. The diarist will apparently be doing these roundups through the election. Then write a diary! The more attention we can bring to our state races through non traditional media, the more traditional media will pay attention. The netroots are driving the bus right now, let's open the windows and shine as much light as possible on North Carolina.

As Kos posted yesterday about John Edwards, HE gets it.

During Edwards' campaign stop in Connecticut with Lamont, he blew off the traditional media (including the once all-important editorial boards). But he didn't blow off the bloggers.

NC 11: Shuler YES Taylor NO

2006-08-27T16:31:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Scrutiny Hooligans
for the link to the On Notice Generator.

Thanks to my last excursion into local and state politics, I am growing more and more aware of how important things are here down on the ground, so to speak. And how fun and energized.

I was inspired this week by a Netroots fundraising Drive on Daily Kos to start my own fundraising page for Heath Shuler. I had been to ActBlue once to donate during a Lamont net drive, but didn't realize at the time that people could create their own page, for their own candidate. What a great idea. I know, I know, I'm a little slow but I try.
My Heath Fundraising Page

Give it a try, it's fun and it can show the fine folks of your district that there is a netroots campaign going on, that there is an unnofficial, loosely associated and energetic movement in the party at its roots. Its enough to get anyone's attention.

At the ActBlue Heath Page you can see all eight of the Shuler fundraising pages. As of this posting we've had 14 donors for a total of $310.01. Over at Larry Kissell, NC 08 you see a far different picture.

Across ActBlue
Donors: 987
Total: $37,822.76

The reasons are many and and this is the most obvious:
MyDD, DailyKos & Swing State Project: 656 donors, $11,250.53.

I don't know if we need that much support, but the Shuler vs Taylor battle should be doing better than $310.00. If I remember right, the latest smear from Taylor is that Shuler is taking in "big money" or something. We should be raising small money to make a statement and make a difference.

Does Party Affiliation Matter in State Races?

2006-08-18T00:49:00.000-04:00

Cross posted at DailyKos

I ran across an ad for a State Representative candidate the other day in my local newspaper's online edition. I noticed right away that there was no party affiliation listed in the ad, just a nice picture, a few words and a link to his web site. His name is Charles Thomas (R) and he is running for a seat in the General Assembly representing North Carolina's 116th District.

I decided to ask if my suspicions were true, that he has been hiding the fact that he is a Republican, and wrote him an e-mail which generated the following excerpted exchanges. They include his Democratic opponent, Douglas Jones' comments along with a contribution from an Editor for a North Carolina local newspaper. What I discovered was pretty interesting I think. It turns out that both candidates for NC 116 were sticking to the same formula. DO NOT reveal party affiliation on your web site. I was shocked. So I did a little research on the subject and found that these two candidates seem to be shopping the 20% or so of voters identified as unaffiliated. It turns out there are more. My research was based on a simple metric. Could you identify the candidate's affiliation on their home page?

To me it seems that instead of denying your party affiliation, you would want to proudly wave your flag for all those unaffiliated voters to see. That, it seems, is not always the case. I think in this day and time it should be. You can see the research results and candidate links at the bottom of this diary.

The Salvo

Greetings. I've looked through the website and cannot find a party affiliation. These days that usually means the candidate is a Republican. Is this true? Sincerely, Randall

The reply

Randall,
I am indeed a Republican and I am not intentionally attempting to hide that fact (I was chairman of the party for 2 years). However, I do want people to judge me based upon my platform first and party second. I hope this helps and feel free to contact me anytime.

My reply

Dear Charles,
Thanks for your reply. I've only got dial up so I haven't watched your
video yet, but thank you for your service to our country. I was a submarine sailor during Vietnam and am proud that I had the opportunity to serve my country during that time. My wife and I will have been married for 37 years this September. Her father was a Lt. Commander during WWII. My father served with the Army in the South Pacific during that war. We understand the sacrifice that service to our country involves and I so admire your and Amy's dedication in that arena.

That being said, I find it disturbing, especially considering your previous role in the party, that you aren't proud enough of that party to display the affiliation for all to see. I don't find any Democratic candidates that are not proud of their party, except maybe Joe Leiberman. You replied that you wanted people to look at your record and ideas first. This idea, that you might see as both noble and refreshing, is unfortunately naive and seemingly dishonest.

I vote a straight ticket usually. I do have an open mind however and am always looking for a reason to examine an individual candidate's qualifications, vision and motivation for seeking office. I admire your dedication to our region, our state and our country and I wish you and your family the very best. What I want to know is how ideologically bound you are to the President and his agenda and to the words of Mr. Cheney, Ann Coulter and their ilk.
Regards, Randall
emphasis mine post e-mail

I knew at this point that I wanted to blog this and that I should round out the picture by including the Democratic State Rep candidate from NC 116, Doug Jones (D). I went to the Jones web site only to find that he also did not mention party affiliation anywhere on his site. Boom. I felt like a total schmuck for accusing the Republican candidate Charles Thomas (R) of hiding his Republican affiliation just because it was Republican, only to find out that the Democratic candidate, Doug Jones was guilty of the same omission. I had cut off my own argument's legs through foolish supposition. Battered from my own non-researched words, I wrote the following to the Jones (D) campaign's Political Director, Bryan Freeborn.

Dear Bryan,
I can't find a party affiliation listed for Doug on the web site. I think this is a mistake. In fact, following an impulse, I wrote Charles Thomas Friday after seeing an ad for him in the Cit-Times. I had gone to his site because the ad didn't mention affiliation. Lo and behold, there was no party affiliation mentioned anywhere on the site. I asked him about this and I was told he wanted people to see his platform first, and his party second. I found that to be disingenuous and told him so. I am still waiting for a second reply. I am writing a blog on this subject that I hope will be up later this week and would appreciate your take on this. I will be linking Doug's site as well. In my admittedly snarky way I made the statement that he must not be proud of his party enough to display the affiliation. Now today, as I go to Doug's site to gather information and links for the blog, I find that your campaign is doing the same thing. What gives? Is this SOP for State House seats? Like Party doesn't matter? I'm confused, but am admittedly rather new to focusing on state politics. I would appreciate some guidance here.
Cheers, Randall

I received a prompt reply from Bryan, and that was followed by a very nice and educational response from Doug (D)

Randall,
Thanks for your comment.

In local races like this one, Party affiliation does seem to matter less than it would in a bigger race - say for US House or Senate. And it can even be a distraction in a district like this one where 27% of the voters are unaffiliated, and where significant shares of the Ds and Rs split tickets. My goal is to communicate with voters, and to the extent that Party affiliation (either D or R) can automatically turn off many voters, it becomes necessary to down-play partisanship generally.

I have been going door to door throughout my district this summer, and have had only a handful of folks ask me about my party affiliation. What they are more interested in is how, as the only public school teacher in the General Assembly, I'll be able to lead common sense, education reform efforts in our State. They are also interested in my plan to guarantee affordable healthcare to all North Carolinians by 2008.

I really enjoy talking to folks on their door steps about their concerns, and I am glad that the conversation does not simply end with "so, what's your party?"

If you're interested in how and why candidates make these kinds of choices, I would be glad to talk with you. Of course, I can only speak from my experience, but I imagine that the reasons I have indicated above would be widely echoed on both sides.

Regards, Doug Jones

I followed with this reply.

Hi Doug,
Thanks for your well-reasoned response to my concerns. I would like to speak with you or continue along this line of communication concerning my understanding of how state office candidates make these decisions. What I find puzzling is not that you place affiliation down on your list of attributes, but that your web site doesn't mention it at all. I find this disturbing for several reasons. Here are some thoughts.

1. Be proud of your party. It is days like these that we need more separation of identity, not less. Sure, let the voters judge you on your merits and your ideas first. But at least give them a base from which to start. I for one, would find voting for a Republican repugnant unless the candidate was simply a whole lot better than the alternative. I have indeed done this on occasion.
2. Give your party the identity it deserves by linking other Democratic sites from your site. Only if we work together to support the kinds of initiatives that you are proposing can we expect to grow the community of ideas we are all seeking as we go into November.
3. Make your site a clearinghouse for Dems to organize around
4. Present to moderate republicans your vision and don't be ashamed to loudly denote the difference between the basic values of the parties. They are wide and deep.
5. And finally, Bryan said that there is a (D) or other identification of affiliation on your bumper stickers and I assume yard signs. If it is there, I can't imagine why it is not on your site.

Thanks again for your time. I'll be blogging on this subject later in the week after I garner some more responses from people and do further research into other state candidates' approach to the question of identifying party affiliation during a campaign. It will probably hit Thursday or Friday.
Kindest regards, Randall

As I was working through this and getting ready to reply to Doug (D), I realized that I had never actually sent my original reply to Charles (R). It was still sitting in my draft folder. Dorf! I decided to go ahead and send it but immediately followed with this.

Dear Charles, Please accept my apology. I was very wrong to assume that you were alone in hiding your party affiliation from your web site visitors. It was a dumb supposition. I looked at Doug Jones's site and guess what? No mention of the word "Democrat" over there. I complained to their campaign and received a prompt explanation that was somewhat acceptable, even though I didn't agree. .
Regards, Randall

To which he promptly replied

Randall,
Indeed. I was going to point that out about Doug originally, however, I just didn’t feel that playing a “finger pointing” game was appropriate. As time for the election nears, the party affiliation will become clear (at least on my end). I applaud you on your effort to create a blog. The intelligent free exchange of ideas is important. As for Mr. Bush, I must say that I have been disappointed in a few things – particularly his stance on illegal immigration. I do not consider myself ideologically bound by any particular party leader’s beliefs If I can do anything to be of help to you in your endeavor to create the blog, please let me know. Sincere thanks to you and your family for your service to our nation.
Charles C. Thomas
Emphasis mine

I thanked him.

Hi Charles, thanks for your helpful and gracious reply. I am learning quite a bit through my research and communication with various state candidates. I hope you at least find it useful to your decision making when deciding whether or not to display your party affiliation. I'll be in touch before I post my blog.

Last night as I was working on this, I found a great reference in an editorial published by the Wilson Daily that described the balance of power struggle as being between loss leaders. Will undecided voters be swayed away from Democrats because of the corruption surrounding the state Dem leadership or will they be swayed away by the Repub's addiction to the war? From the editorial:

North Carolina politicians are beginning to line up for the fall campaign, and the fulcrum for the 2006 legislative campaign may be Speaker of the House Jim Black. Although unindicted, Black looks like a lost cause after former Rep. Michael Decker pleaded guilty to fraud last week, admitting that he traded his party affiliation and his vote for $50,000 in campaign cash. His part of the bargain was to support a "particular candidate" for speaker of the House.

Given the unpopularity of the Iraq war and President Bush, Republicans anywhere on the ballot may be in for a rough ride in 2006.

If Republicans can shift voters' focus from President Bush to Speaker Black, they will have a chance at winning additional seats, maybe even a majority, in the General Assembly. How receptive voters are may depend on whether Black is indicted and on how things go in Iraq.

It's just amazing. We have somehow found ourselves in the position of defending democracy based on what's less repugnant. Well guess what? This war and everything attached, including the corruption that drives it, are a whole lot more repugnant than than the controversy over inter-party corruption that drives nothing more than quests for power in North Carolina state governance. I for one, think it is time for Democratic state candidates to step up to the plate and display where they are coming from. "Healthcare, lower taxes and a strong commitment to schools" just doesn't cut it any more.

After reading the editorial, I called the newspaper because I couldn't find the on-line editorial to link to and had a great conversation with Hal Tarleon, Wilson Daily's Opinion Editor. He told me that his paper published a piece this year that showed an increase of voters who identify themselves as unaffiliated. In response, I wrote him the following.

Hi Hal, thanks for the conversation and help today. I appreciate your insight into the non-affiliated status of so many voters and it gives me a much clearer look into why some candidates don't make their affiliation obvious.

Hal responded with this

Our 3/14/06 story on the rise of unaffiliated voters indicated unaffiliated now comprise almost 12 percent of registered voters. There are a lot of factors, but the main one is that unaffiliated can now participate in either party primary they choose. Our story showed the number of registered Democrats and Republicans had declined the past couple of years while unaffiliated registration had grown exponentially since 1990. You should be able to find the article in the archives of our Web site. Thanks.

As you can see, I received good feedback from all involved here. My only regret is that the Democratic candidate, Mr. Jones (D), did not care to, or was unable to, engage me further.

To affiliate or not, that is the question. To the candidates running for State Representative in NC 116, the answer is not. So what about the others? I found my research to be revealing in a troubling way. A larger percentage of Republicans with web sites, running for State Representative, were proud to list their party.

Of the 31 Democratic candidates with web sites, only 16% displayed party affiliation.

Of the 13 Republican candidates with web sites, 61% displayed party affiliation.

And on top of that, the quality of the Republican web sites was generally much better than the quality of the Democratic sites. Very disappointing.

I think Democrats are missing a golden opportunity here. They should change their policy and proudly announce that they are Democrats. And they should get better websites! Thanks for following me on this convoluted journey. If I've learned anything from this little project, it is that pride in Democratic Party identity and thus its principles is sorely missing from the community of candidates that are running for office on November 7th in the great state of North Carolina.

NC HOUSE

Dems (via NC Dem Website)

Van Braxton - No; Alice Graham Underhill - Yes; Marian McLawhorn - No; Carnell Taylor - No; Larry D. Hall - Yes; Allen Dameron - No; Grier Martin - No; Jennifer Weiss - No; Greer Beatty - No; Ed Ridpath - No; Deborah Ross - No; Linda Coleman - No; Margaret Dickson - No; Rick Glazier - No; Lucy T. Allen - No; Bill Faison - No; Joe Hackney - No; Pricey Harrison - No; Maggie Jeffus - No; Alice Bordsen - No; Chuck Aldridge - No; Ray Warren - No; Ed Gambill - No; Cullie Tarleton - Yes; Judith Barlow Porter - No; Everett Passaly - No; Betsy Fonvielle - No; Marvin Eddie Wyatt - No; Susan Fisher - Yes; Doug Jones - No; Phil Haire - Yes.
________

Repub. (via NC Rep. website) - Much Slicker Sites

Joel Raupe - Yes; Michael Speciale - Yes; Rick Kaiser - Yes; Kyle Jones - No; Tony Moore - No; Ray Starling - Yes; Stephen LaRoque - Yes; Pat McElraft - No; Carolyn Justice - Yes; J.H. Ross - Yes; John Blackwell - Yes; Marilyn Avila - No; Joe Boylan - No; Alvin Reed - No (but especially scary); Jim Rumley - No; Susan Morris - Yes; Thom Tillis - Yes; Hal Jordan - Yes; Debbie Clary - Yes; Mike Harrison - No; Charles Thomas - No

Proof! The Tide Has Turned!

2006-08-16T20:16:00.000-04:00

Cross posted at DailyKos

Two things happened today that have convinced me that, almost overnight, The Change has come. THEY have turned on the President. These are two little stories that have seriously shocked me. First, I witnessed a big crack in Presidential support from a right wing coworker and then I heard of a near epiphany from my winger in-laws. Something has happened.

1. I just got home from the airport where I picked up my grandson who was returning from his stay with my rather extreme right wing in-laws. He's been there for three weeks. They had driven up for a visit and took him back with them for a vacation after they spent several days visiting us here at home. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law share a long history of political disagreement with me and my wife. We love each other dearly, but are so different politically that we generally do much better talking about baseball and family. We can't resist totally of course and during their visit we had a few engagements around the fire.

A mere three weeks ago, my in-laws were still shopping at the company store and buying into the whole agenda. On the way home from the airport my grandson informed me that they have now turned. Both of them are saying they are sorry they voted for him and that he really is a bad President. The nephew is openly calling him the worst ever and the adults are not arguing. It was only three weeks ago that they were saying he could turn out to be one of the best Presidents ever.

2.I have a coworker who I've always admired for his work, but not for his politics. For two years he has only expressed himself in FoxBot terms and has been very clear and unequivocal in his disdain for Hillary and the Democratic Party in general. He eats lunch in his car so he can listen to Rush. He has a Ronald Reagan calendar.

Today when I stopped by to talk work, the first thing he said to me was, " Now they're trying to link Hillary to support for Hezbollah. I may not like her that much, but that's just way over the top".

Huh? That's just way over the top? A week ago, you would have linked her to Vince Foster's murder!

Snow Job...the lies of Tony Snow

2006-04-26T22:34:00.000-04:00

Ok, ok, Josh, not ALL the lies, just a few recent ones.

Media Matters for America documented a number of Snow's false or misleading claims when it was reported that he was on the shortlist. Following are numerous additional claims advanced by Snow in print and on the air.

Warrantless domestic surveillance

Suggested Democrats objected to Bush's warrantless spying because they think the "government should not be able to listen to Al Qaeda": While speaking to Fox News political analyst Bob Beckel, Snow suggested that "Democratic opposition" to the warrantless domestic surveillance program arose from the belief that "the government should not be able to listen to Al Qaeda people talking to American citizens." Further, Snow claimed that the lack of additional domestic terrorist attacks was "a sign of [the program's] success." As Media Matters has noted, this false claim was first made by White House senior adviser Karl Rove during an address to the Republican National Committee at its winter meeting and was quickly spread as a talking point by numerous conservatives. But, contrary to Rove and Snow's assertion, no national Democratic figure -- member of the Democratic leadership in Congress, Democratic governor, or Democratic Party official -- has said that the United States should not be intercepting calls suspected to involve Al Qaeda. Moreover, Snow's claims about the program's effectiveness are not supported by the evidence.
Claimed that Carter and Bush both authorized warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens: Snow asserted that former President Jimmy Carter had "signed an executive order that authorized the attorney general to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information." Snow went on to claim that this represented "exactly what the president is doing." But Snow ignored a crucial difference: Carter, unlike Bush, prohibited such surveillance of U.S. citizens. Indeed, Carter's order specifically required the attorney general to certify that the surveillance will not contain "the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party." [Fox News' Weekend Live, 12/24/05]
Claimed that the FISA probable cause standard kept the FBI from inspecting Moussaoui's laptop: Snow said that FBI agents in possession of Zacarias Moussaoui's laptop "decided not to go ahead and look at the contents because they ... had no definite proof that the guy was a terrorist" and, therefore, couldn't meet the probable cause standard necessary for a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But Snow ignored the bipartisan finding by the Senate Judiciary Committee that the investigators had possessed sufficient evidence but that FBI attorneys had applied a too-stringent standard for establishing probable, preventing the investigators from petitioning the court for authorization. [Fox News' Weekend Live, 12/24/05]
Claimed that 2002 FISA review court opinion allowed for warrantless domestic surveillance: Snow stated that a 2002 opinion (In re: Sealed Case No. 02-001) by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review "says the president's inherent authority allows him" to eavesdrop on the international communications of U.S. residents. But the claim misrepresents the 2002 decision, in which the court said only that the president has inherent authority to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance without a warrant. The court did not rule on the question of whether a president has the constitutional authority to spy on people in the United States without a warrant, in apparent violation of FISA.

CIA leak investigation

Falsely claimed that Wilson said Cheney had sent him to Niger: Snow claimed in his July 15, 2005, column that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV said he "had been dispatched by [Vice President] Dick Cheney to conduct a secret mission to Niger." In fact, Wilson never claimed that Cheney sent him on the trip. To the contrary, he wrote in his July 6, 2003, op-ed in The New York Times that the CIA requested he go on the mission "so they could provide a response" to questions raised by Cheney regarding allegations that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium from the African country.
Claimed that Intel Committee "discovered" that Plame recommended Wilson for the Niger mission: In his July 15, 2005, column, Snow further claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee, in its 2004 "Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq," "discovered that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, did indeed recommend him for the trip" to Niger. But the committee did not officially conclude that she had been responsible for Wilson's assignment. Media Matters previously noted that Snow had falsely asserted that Wilson said his wife "wasn't covert for six years" before she was exposed as a CIA operative by syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

Terrorism

Falsely accused Clinton of rejecting bin Laden offer: Snow advanced the discredited claim that Sudan had offered to "hand over" Osama bin Laden to the United States in the 1990s, but that the Clinton administration responded, "Nah, don't want to do it." But this claim is derived from an August 11, 2002, article on right-wing news website NewsMax that distorted a speech Clinton made in 2002. Indeed, the bipartisan 9-11 Commission found (page 3) "no reliable evidence to support" the claim that Sudan offered bin Laden to the United States and determined that, based on Clinton's testimony, in "wrongly recounting a number of press stories he had read," Clinton had "misspoken" in his 2002 speech. [Fox News' Weekend Live, 2/25/06]
Claimed botched CIA attack on Ayman Al-Zawahiri "was a success": Snow claimed the January 13 CIA drone attack in western Pakistan targeting top Al Qaeda official al-Zawahiri "was a success." Further, Snow and guest Richard Miniter both claimed the attack "knocked off four to five key Al Qaeda" figures. In fact, the strike reportedly killed at least 18 civilians, sparking widespread Pakistani condemnation and protests. Initially, U.S. officials claimed that, at minimum, some high level Al Qaeda officials were among those killed in the attacks, but this claim was never officially confirmed. A January 20 Financial Times report (subscription required) noted: "Pakistani intelligence official confirmed the identities [of alleged Al Qaeda officals] were made on the basis of intelligence information and not 'facts gathered through DNA tests or any other means.' " [Fox News' Weekend Live, 1/21/06]
Deemed Gitmo "the most humane prisoner-of-war facility in history": In a June 15, 2005, column, Snow wrote that the Pentagon's military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, "may be the most humane prisoner-of-war facility in history."

Immigration

Called immigrants rights protestors "idiots": In response to Republican strategist Linda Chavez's claim that the flying of Mexican flags by Mexican-Americans at a 1994 protest led to the passage of California's controversial Proposition 187, Snow said, "So, to quote the famous movie Napoleon Dynamite --'idiots.' " [Fox News' Weekend Live, 4/1/06]

Dubai Ports Follow-Up

2006-02-27T21:14:00.000-05:00

(cross-posted on Daily Kos)

Just wanted to follow up on my Diary of last Friday, Dubai Deal-Making Timeline, which lists developments in the Sheik of Dubai's recent decision to "go global" in ports management as documented by sources in the shipping industry and corporate/investment press.

Today the AP reported that the Coast Guard - the US government agency in charge of American port security - Expressed Concerns About Intelligence Gaps to the bush administration weeks ago. These gaps mean that the Coast Guard could not determine if Dubai Ports World might support terrorist operations.

Administration officials said in a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing today [Monday] that those concerns had been addressed prior to CFIUS approval of the P&O takeover by DPW on January 17, but both the Congress and the American public are not convinced. I am not convinced either, for reasons that don't have a lot to do with the Bush administrations secret dealings with Dubai's royal house for strategic support within shooting distance of Iran...

First and foremost, it's important in the politics of sorting all this out that we understand the fact that the US government cannot yea or nay the sale of a British corporation to any other corporation they want. All CFIUS can do is yea or nay the buyer's takeover of P&O leases of American port facilities. We all know that CFIUS said 'yea' on January 27, but they forgot to tell the Congress or the port authorities in the states where the 21 ports are located... oops.

The states should pursue (by suit if necessary) their right to review all the information CIFUS considered, along with their duty to make the final determination about terminal leases in their ports. If DPW has to spin off yet another front company (through Carlyle) to handle operations in the US through a US-controlled subsidiary that's okay with me. Or P&O can decide to sell to one of the other bidders - AP Moller-Mearsk, for instance, which just purchased P&O's line division (ships and containers) in December. Or PSA's Temasek offer, though that would put the facilities in the hands of the Singapore government.

The container industry was a great idea in 1956 (when Sea-Land invented it). Allows door-to-door service, easily handled by truck/train in the interior, etc. The deep-water Port of Dubai, built by a Sheik-owned CSX spin-off in 1978, apparently handles trans-shipment of most of the containers in the world right now, so it's obviously a well-run operation. But in a world where terrorists with WMDs are a serious issue, the return of empties on the same ships with sealed containers presents a pretty darned tempting opportunity.

Check ILA [Longshoremen's Union] comments filed as part of the DOT/Coast Guard revamping of maritime security after 9-11:

"In addition, one of the most overlooked of potential security risks to terminals, ships and port infrastructures is the proper handling of empty containers. On any given day as much as forty percent of cargo delivered into any facility is comprised of empty containers. Containers marked as empty provide easier opportunity to house destructive devices and, therefore, present increased security risks warranting their inspection at port facilities.

In many ports throughout the world, the inspection of empty containers is a requirement for many of the reasons outlined above. For years, inspections of empty containers was regularly done in America's largest seaports; however this procedure was abandoned some years ago. Once again, if we truly are serious about creating safe and secure seaports, then the return to these inspections is a must."

A Tale of Docks and Mobsters is quite a fun read, with revelations like this...

"In a series of indictments, a reputed Genovese mob captain from New Jersey and three top ILA officials are charged with conspiracy to commit extortion and fraud. Prosecutors say the scheme was aimed at taking control of the 35,000-member dockworkers union — which represents 4,000 workers in the metropolitan area alone — while steering lucrative union-benefits contracts to companies that paid kickbacks to the mob."

Worse, the American mob isn't the only player. One can hope our mob wouldn't knowingly abet terrorists, but who can guarantee such a thing? We wouldn't put our national security in the hands of the Russian mafia or Chinese Triads. Americans are not being unreasonable or "racist" for not automatically trusting a Middle Eastern Emirate that has been notorious for smuggling people, drugs, arms and other contraband in the Middle East for 200 years.

But ultimately, my problem with this sneaky deal is that Dubai's international terminal operation is less than a year old (purchase of CSX WT in March of 2005) - the company we've been introduced to as DPW is just 5 months old. It was created solely so it could enter the bidding for P&O's terminals division and its operations in North America.

There's precisely ZERO history on which to base a rational decision about security threats to the US from this company or from a country with well-documented ties to the 9-11 terrorists.

Trading With the Enemy [Forbes, April 12, 2004] -

"If you want to get around export controls, just sell the product to a front company in Dubai. The middlemen will take it from there."

The Dubai Deal

2006-02-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

By Joy
(cross posted on Daily Kos)

The Dubai Ports deal we've heard so much about in the past week is a spectacular and sordid tale of robber barons, fancy business maneuvering over decades of time, of power-building and power-breaking. It's about long-term manipulations affecting nations politically all over the globe and aiming toward a single overarching goal - a 'New World Order' where a small group of people rules the world with an iron fist in a corporate-controlled (and corporation-controlling) oligarchy.

Whether the deal does in fact represent a significant threat of further terrorist attacks in the US - thus is a national security concern on the level of 9-11 - is debatable. To measure such threat it would be necessary to first answer questions still unanswered about the 9-11 attack, which the administration on whose watch it was allowed to occur has no intention of answering. Ever. And, ultimately, we'd have to get an answer to the question of whether there is any such thing as national security in the corporately globalized world our leaders have volunteered us to serve.

I have spent this most interesting week doing some net-surfing (I'm sure the NSA watchers are spinning their heads around) to see what there is to see out there. Bush's Tuesday reaction - to pitch a toddler-sized hissy fit and threaten to veto anything launched to stop this deal (that Scotty said on Wednesday the President didn't know about anyway, and the Sec. Treas. chair of CFIUS said Thursday he didn't know about either, wasn't really secret. That's just the spin to account for why this dirty deal got all the way to approval before anybody found out about it. There's months and years' worth of public information out there about both this deal and the deals that led up to it, released by the corporations themselves, by news media, and by government announcements.

I have put together a timeline and highlighted pertinent cross-connections with very brief references. Included are links to the material still available on the internet, so anyone interested can go to those sources and confirm information or gather further informational links. It's gotten unwieldy fast, so now (Friday) it's going to be pretty bare-bones to anyone who hasn't been following developments or wondering about certain connections. I am not a lawyer, not a congresscritter, and not a stockholder with a financial interest in any of this.

I'm just an American, and I think this travesty represents a unique opportunity to honestly examine our true current position and circumstance in the world. Only by putting it together in our minds can we rationally decide if it's a 'good' thing or a 'bad' thing and act accordingly.

Dubai's monarchy - an "Emirate" of Sheiks - is 200 years old, and the royal family controls or holds controlling interest in almost all significant economic activities in the kingdom, and holds important positions in the collective UAE's governance and military organizations. Before the discovery and exploitation of oil and gas in the Gulf region, the Port of Dubai enjoyed a storied past as a pirate port and smuggling center. Smuggling of opium/heroin, "re-export" of arms, gold to India (where trade in gold is illegal) are all still accomplished through Dubai. But now it's a financial and tourist center too, and UAE's wealth (actually the wealth of the royal families) is being invested in globalized industries as well.

1978 - 22-year old Jones Act container shipping company Sea-Land, a division of RJ Reynolds Industries, establishes a private, limited corporation responsible to the Ruler of Dubai for the design, operation and maintenance of a state-of-the-art, 66-berth, deep-water port and trucking operations center at Mina Jebel Alik, UAE. This is the largest port complex in the Middle East.

This spinoff company allows Sea-Land to maintain a non-Jones Act-regulated port facility in a strategic trading region, where shipping containers can be transferred around the globe on foreign-flag ships. The immensely lucrative business of "re-export" is established, answerable to (owned and controlled by) the Dubai royal house directly, a means of circumventing protectionist laws (like Jones Act), political embargoes, and trade restrictions. Container service expands to India in 1979 with bi-weekly service, and between the US and Shanghai in 1980.

Jones Act (Merchant Marine Act)
Horizon History

1984 - Sea-Land separates from RJ Reynolds to become an independent, publicly-traded company, and achieves its highest revenues and earnings in its history.

1986 - Richmond-based CSX Corporation buys Sea-Land, allowing CSX to combine rail, sea and overland cargo movement. The company retains its name, Sea-Land.

1990 - Sea-Land announces an agreement to pioneer containerization in the former Soviet Union, including development of the Trans-Siberian Land Bridge.

1991 - Sea-Land and Maersk [Rotterdam] announce a vessel-sharing agreement in trade between North America and Asia, John Snow becomes Chairman and CEO of CSX, a position he holds until being confirmed as Treasury Secretary by G.W. Bush in 2003.

Source Watch: John Snow

1994 - Sea-Land and Maersk announce a consolidation of their management alliance, with centers in Rotterdam and Charlotte. Sea-Land moves to occupy the Charlotte Tactical Planning Center in 1995.

1999 - CSX divides Sea-Land into 3 different companies: a Global liner division, a Domestic division, and a Terminals division in March. In July Maersk announces an acquisition bid for the Global liner division of $800 million US. The acquisition is completed in December of 1999. CSX maintained control of the Domestic and Terminals divisions.

Meanwhile, back in the UAE

2001 - CSX Lines [Domestic] announces the creation of Horizon Services Group [HSG] in a restructuring of the existing organization of CSX Lines. HSG operates separately from other existing CSX Lines operations.

2003 - In January, CSX Lines receives C-TPAT certification [Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism]. Sale of the CSX Lines to the Carlyle Group for $300 million US is completed two months later. Re-named Horizon Lines, the headquarters remained in Charlotte.

2004 - Horizon Lines sold by the Carlyle Group in July to Castle Harlan of New York for $650 million US. Horizon Lines is the largest domestic [Jones Act-regulated] ocean carrier in the United States.

CSX launches CSX World Terminals and announces plans to further develop operations in Hong Kong, Mainland China and the Asian Pacific under this name, then promptly sells CSX WT to Dubai Ports International, Terminals division [DPI Terminals]

Lots of CSX TW dealings

2005 - The Dubai royal family's spinoff (and control) portion of the Sea-Land/CSX empire, meanwhile, has been kept pretty quiet. Dubai Ports (apparently a separate royal-owned enterprise) had confined itself primarily to operations in the Persian/Oman Gulfs and Arabian Sea, servicing the ME region as it had traditionally done. In March of 2005 DPI "stunned" the shipping industry by announcing its acquisition of CSX TW "just days" after its late entry into the bidding (dominated by Singapore's Temasek PSR group), for $1.142 billion dollars US. Which, btw, is $8 million less than its original offer of $1.15b.

World Cargo News: Stop the Press
Business Journal
DPW].

In September of 2005, DPI reorganized into a single global business as Dubai Ports World [DPW]. The next month (November) the DPW board approved cash outlay for acquisition of British ports giant Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation [P&O]. DPW announced the acquisition in industry press on February 11, 2006, and the rest is history in the making. This is the deal for control of 6 (or maybe 21) US ports before us today, and the price now stands at $6.8 billion US.

DPI reorganization
DPW approves cash for P&O
P&O Bidding War
Gulf News

Wiki: Anti-Trust

...oh, yeah. Mersk bought P&O's shipping division (containers and ships) just this past Christmas - December 2005. So this is just about who controls the ports, not who sails into or out of them.

That's the timeline and connections I've traced thus far. There is much political hay being made, and dozens of further links following the public revelations this week, but there's not room for them here. I just wanted to give an overview. The fact that Sandborn went straight from DPW to a position to waive this deal through a process that other of the by-law principals (like Snow and Rummy) claim they knew nothing about is a more specific factor in the determination of whether or not this deal is strictly legal (or if legal corners were 'cut'). The strategic position of UAE in our current foreign adventures is also a factor no doubt considered, along with UAE (Dubai in particular, Kuwait as always) allowance for basing of US troops and military assets.

And the involvement of UAE in issues of national security to the US (both for us and against us) seems here to be overcome by simple cash investment and controlling ownership in the Sea-Land Global division from its very beginning.

It's all very twisted and complex, but what matters to Mom and Pop America is what hits them in the gut. Nothing about the shady and not-so shady business dealings of shifting monopolies (somewhat fluid, but always kept 'in-family') in the world's shipping industries justifies allowing compromise of vital US national security information - or even the "appearance of" possible question to be raised.

I'll wrap this up with a short statement. If we are indeed at war with Islamic extremists, and any countries that provide sanctuary or support to Islamic extremists, Dubai's well-documented connections to 9-11 disqualify it from even thinking about taking over operations of any port in this country. So long as Americans are fighting and dying in Iraq for what we were told were (even more tenuous) connections to 9-11, we won't turn over a single dock or pier. We must stand with the Stevedores and Longshoremen who have filed suit to block this deal. And our leadership in Congress must spotlight the shady dealings that led us here.

Making secret 'treaties' (agreements of national interest) with foreign nations/nationals which serves or could serve to transfer any strategic or national security defense information to the 'enemy', is the definition of treason.

Alito says presidents can violate law

2006-01-13T23:25:00.000-05:00

THIS IS A DANGEROUS MAN.
Please note the last sentence in this story. Borkscalito says the President can violate laws that are unconstitutional. Who decides this? The President? No, the Supreme Court does. And until the SCOTUS decides that the law is unconstitutional, the law is still the law! So what is he saying here? The President can decide ahead of a SCOTUS ruling that the law is unconstitutional and thus available for choice of enforcement?

Stewart M. Powell
Hearst Newspapers
Jan. 13, 2006 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, pressed on President Bush's controversial domestic spying policy, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday that a president has the constitutional authority on "very rare" occasions to violate federal law.

Alito responded to questions from Senate Democrats about Bush's decision to order secret domestic surveillance without getting the approval of a special court that Congress and President Jimmy Carter set up in 1978 to curb abuses by intelligence agencies.

Alito appeared receptive to Bush administration claims that a president has the authority as commander in chief under the Constitution to embark on a domestic surveillance program without getting approval of the court, as required by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Citing Bush's claim that the Constitution hands a president wide leeway to protect the country in time of war, Alito said: "I think it follows from the structure of our Constitution that the Constitution trumps a statute."

Alito added: "It would be a rare instance in which it would be justifiable for the president or any member of the executive branch not to abide by a statute passed by Congress. It would be a very rare example."

Bush has defended the super-secret program run by the National Security Agency by claiming the government was trying to eavesdrop on Americans and foreigners in the United States who were receiving telephone calls and e-mails from suspected al-Qaida operatives overseas.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said FISA gives presidents wide flexibility to spy on terror suspects inside the United States with approval by the special 11-member court. The FISA statute grants presidents emergency authority to spy on suspects for up to 72 hours before obtaining a court order.

The law makes violations a felony, subject to imprisonment and fines.

If Congress has "explicit authority under the Constitution to pass a law, and we pass that law, is the president bound by that law or does his plenary authority supersede that law?" Feinstein asked Alito.

"The president, like everybody else, is bound by statutes that are enacted by Congress," Alito said.

But he said a president could violate a statute "if statutes are unconstitutional because the Constitution takes precedence over a statute."

Dusting off the Impeachment handbook

2006-01-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman served four terms in Congress, where she played a key role in House impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon.

Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush--not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so.

I can still remember the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach during those proceedings, when it became clear that the President had so systematically abused the powers of the presidency and so threatened the rule of law that he had to be removed from office. As a Democrat who opposed many of President Nixon's policies, I still found voting for his impeachment to be one of the most sobering and unpleasant tasks I ever had to undertake. None of the members of the committee took pleasure in voting for impeachment; after all, Democrat or Republican, Nixon was still our President.

At the time, I hoped that our committee's work would send a strong signal to future Presidents that they had to obey the rule of law. I was wrong.

Like many others, I have been deeply troubled by Bush's breathtaking scorn for our international treaty obligations under the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions. I have also been disturbed by the torture scandals and the violations of US criminal laws at the highest levels of our government they may entail, something I have written about in these pages [see Holtzman, "Torture and Accountability," July 18/25, 2005]. These concerns have been compounded by growing evidence that the President deliberately misled the country into the war in Iraq. But it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)--and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws--that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate.

As a matter of constitutional law, these and other misdeeds constitute grounds for the impeachment of President Bush. A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law--and repeatedly violates the law--thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment and removal from office. A high crime or misdemeanor is an archaic term that means a serious abuse of power, whether or not it is also a crime, that endangers our constitutional system of government.

The framers of our Constitution feared executive power run amok and provided the remedy of impeachment to protect against it. While impeachment is a last resort, and must never be lightly undertaken (a principle ignored during the proceedings against President Bill Clinton), neither can Congress shirk its responsibility to use that tool to safeguard our democracy. No President can be permitted to commit high crimes and misdemeanors with impunity.

But impeachment and removal from office will not happen unless the American people are convinced of its necessity after a full and fair inquiry into the facts and law is conducted. That inquiry must commence now.

If I were not as patient

2005-11-07T22:49:00.001-05:00

If I were not as patient as I believe myself to be, I would begin to worry along with Joy that a token Libby indictment is all we are going to see from two years of Patrick Fitzgerald's work.

I finally, begrudgingly washed the "Merry Fritzmas!" finger paint from the back of my dusty Jeep window..a week after the indictment. It was getting silly.

On the other hand, each day is filled with speculation and optimistic inuendo.

If I were not as patient as I believe myself to be, I would begin to feel less confident. Robert Higgs isn't helping.

Coal In Our Stockings?

2005-10-30T12:32:00.000-05:00

Joy's Analysis

"The truth is the engine to the judicial system. If you compromise the truth, the system is lost."
Patrick Fitzgerald, Oct. 28, 2005 Press Conference

Well. Perhaps he should not have mentioned this odd belief that "justice" equals "truth." Much less speak about that belief as if it were more important than the acts of treason in the White House at the heart of this case. Had he done the right thing based on this belief, he'd have looked a little less like a high school debate loser and more like an actual official of the US Department of Justice circa 2005.

But then, there are way too many American citizens outside the beltway who already know that human "justice" has nothing much to do with "truth." Instead, it's purely a matter of who's got the most money, the broader interests, and the best liars... oops. I mean "lawyers." Maybe Fitz just hasn't lived an 'ordinary' enough life to yet realize that his ideals don't count as much on Main Street as they do on his resume.

Let's face it. Politicians, like lawyers, are professional liars. That is as much known and properly respected in the provinces as it is known and respected in the attorney's lounge outside courtrooms all over this nation. Deal is, your lies have to serve a specified purpose on both levels, and regular people have to generally agree with the specified purpose. For lawyers, it's the axiom (framed by the Bill of Rights) that even the guilty deserve the best defense that can be mounted. This can ensure fairness, but it can also render injustice. We the People know that. We live with it every day.

For politicians, we have the expectation (voiced through our votes) that our elected government's movers and shakers can keep our national security and policy interests close to the vest while telling gratuitous lies to our enemies without batting an eye. And keeping some things entirely secret outside "need to know" because the knowledge is dangerous. To real people, who devote their lives - not just 4 or 8 years - to defending American interests. Not to mention the danger to those interests, which in this case have to do with CIA's directorate of counterproliferation. For God's Sake, is there ANY collective security interest more important?

This case is about an in-house battle over the long-term national security interests of our nation. On one side were Neocon radicals in the White House - concentrated mostly through the puppeteer Veep's office, with Haliburton's recent CEO in that chair. On the other side were the lifers in CIA, DIA and British intelligence services, who became increasingly alarmed by Cheney's personal spooks' 'fixing' of intelligence in support of a war that didn't need fighting, and which the UN would not sanction.

We have known for awhile now that we went to war in Iraq based on lies about WMDs. And we know that among the evidences used to sell that lie to the American public (after it didn't work at the UN) were forged documents planted in files at the Niger embassy in Rome saying Saddam had a deal going in Niger to purchase uranium yellowcake. The plumbers came attached to Dick's spooks, Iran-Contra alumni among them. Italy even has arrest warrants out for some of 'em!

[speculative diversion] I have long suspected that this operation ran afoul of Plame's operation. Thus it would have been within reason for Plame to have been involved in high-level Ops planning and analysis about what was going on and whether it presented a threat to the kind of American interests divisions like counterproliferation exists to defend. There were concerned British analysts too, one of whom died under suspicious circumstances in July of 2003. The same month in which Joe Wilson's NYT Op-Ed was published and Robert Novak then outed Wilson's wife as a CIA operative.

According to the scenario Fitz described in such detail, the CIA said they sent Wilson because someone in Cheney's office (Libby?) initiated CIA interest in evidence that Saddam was trying to purchase yellowcake in Niger. That person asked CIA [through Tenet?] to "check into" information the White House had acquired that Saddam was trying to buy yellowcake in Niger.

Perhaps unknown to that person was the ongoing investigation Italian intelligence was engaging into the break-in at the Niger embassy in Rome. British intelligence deep-cover was working that investigation as was [in my imagination] Plame's outfit. Maybe they'd discovered the insertions to the specific files by then, maybe the tip from the Veep's man told them where to look. The forgeries were not good. My grandson could do better. They weren't hard to find if you knew where to look.

It wasn't until Cheney was told by Tenet that the anonymous "ex-diplomat" sourcing stories questioning the evidence used to justify the war was Joe Wilson that Cheney also learned that Wilson's wife was CIA and was attached to counterproliferation (a NOC-running ops outfit). For Cheney, it must have been infuriating to find that Wilson - who was certainly qualified to go public with what the CIA knew about the evidence - was married to the spook division least likely to be impressed with the lies used to take us into unnecessary war - and a far less stable world situation.

By outing Valerie Wilson, the Cheneys killed two birds with one stone, per their twisted logic. They could attack Wilson's credibility and take out the CIA's whole rival Brewster-Jennings NOC operation in one fell swoop. They were so focused on the Rove political play-book for undermining critics that they forgot to consider that Mrs. Wilson's position per finding out about the Rome break-in and forged Niger documents wouldn't be enough to convince concerned Americans that Joe Wilson wasn't qualified to speak about what he learned - even if he learned it as much through his CIA contacts as through personal interviews with officials and industry folks in Niger. A task he admitted up front all along that he undertook at the behest of the CIA because the Veep's office asked the question.

So I'm going with the 'retired' diplomats, generals, officials and spooks on both sides of the Atlantic on this one. The only way the Cheneys and Rove can pull this off is for American citizens to simply refuse to believe the truth when it's right in front of our faces. Only about 30% of people are Fox-News zombies. The rest of us still have some brain cells, and we're not blind (even if we are near-sighted). Outing a NOC operative, his/her cover, and all agents and contacts under that cover is an act of high treason. It cannot be anything less, unless evidence exists that the operation was rogue and against American interests. No such evidence concerning the counterproliferation operation once covered by Brewster-Jennings exists that we've seen or will ever be allowed to see. Which, in the spook world, means it doesn't exist. Fitzpatrick's judges have consistently upheld on redacted material that this situation is very, very serious. More serious than perjury or obstruction. [/speculative diversion]

I think this is what disappoints me most about Fitzgerald's back-door cop-out on the Real Story of what's wrong with the current administration in DC. A 5-count indictment for lying might have been a glorious first act in the final scene, except that Fitzy blew it by exposing to one and all his seemingly awesome naivete. No real, soul-sold professional liar old enough to have a touch of grey at the temples should come out as such a babe-in-the-woods. All that does is cut his own legs off at the knees - he's done. This is going no farther, and the reason it's going no farther is that Fitzy refuses to allow himself the courage to indict on the underlying charges even if the targets lie. A real prosecutor would have expected them to lie all the way to Sing-Sing. And would have taken 'em there anyway.

Nothing about prosecution of crimes has ever been or is ever expected to be a slam-dunk of self-incrimination and noble truth-telling. It's about sleazy liars who don't care whether what they do is legal or not, and don't really care if you bust 'em for it. This is "senior administration official" stuff - not only can they lie with straight faces and believe themselves blessed by God for it, they can always count on executive pardons before prosecution or after. They'll never do any time.

See, "senior administration officials" representing administrations with policy goals at serious odds with traditional American values and policies don't have to be constrained by those traditions. They ARE "American Policy" so it is THEIR policies that trump. That's what the whole intelligence "regime change" the Bushies have accomplished since 9-11 is all about. Any career diplomats, generals and/or spooks who get in the way are "fair game" (to quote the Cheneys).

If Fitz were the naif that he portrayed himself to be on national media this past Friday, he'd have been doing this whining AFTER he'd issued perjury and obstruction charges against Rove as well as Libby. He'd have charged Judith Miller with obstruction too, and another couple of reporters with aiding and abetting that crime. Heck, if Judith Miller actually has the security clearance she claimed to have in her NYT rendition of the saga, Miller is party to the act of treason too! And he would have charged Cheney, Libby, Rove, Hadley, Bolton and several other players with conspiracy to commit treason.

Then take it all to trial and see what sticks. All you have to do is schedule the trials properly and information learned in the early trials (as well as deals for 'flippers') could be used to shore up the material for later trials. Bush would be effectively crippled in his tireless efforts to turn this country into a Fascist Dictatorship, and several of these traitors would be headed to prison FOR treason. In fact, it would be reasonable to then launch impeachment hearings in the House for Bush (because he hired traitors to manage American foreign policy and got us into a tragic war for Haliburton based on lies). At which point we wouldn't have to worry that the traitors wouldn't ever go to prison. Bush would be stripped of his pardon power, and Dennis Hastert could go in on the promise NOT to issue blanket pardons for anyone but Bush.

But instead, we have a DoJ crybaby who just can't believe these people would lie to him. Waa-waa boy. Scooter will scoot right on off to happy retirement land without ever even having been tried, and Haliburton laughs all the way to the rest of our diminished treasury.

Randall of course disagrees with me on this. Which is good, because it is nice to be able to so carefully tend that diminishing ember of hope deep in the pit of my stomach. But I can't overtly believe Fitz is Big and Bad enough to have real weapons up his sleeve. I don't have any real expectation that he's smarter than the liars, since he's so whiny about them lying. I would love to be proved wrong, but only Fitz can provide that proof. I more strongly suspect he'll be back home in Chicago before Christmas, which is also going to be mighty slim this year.

That's a shame.

Traditional Fitzmas Feast

2005-10-27T14:16:00.000-04:00

For all you anxious Fitzmas Eve gourmands out there, I offer the

Traditional Fitzmas Feast

Menu includes the following taste treat sensations! Suggestions are geared toward the average family's guest list of at least 12 people...

Appetizers:
-- Frog-march legs.
-- Spicy-hot Jambalaya aspic, on crackers.
-- Texas-Mesquite Lamb Fries [steer testicles, breaded and deep-fried].

Dinner:
-- 1 Cooked Goose, roasted.
-- 1 Jumpsuit Orange glazed Lame Duck [comes with one drumstick].
-- 12 oz. bag of frozen Chicken-Hawk gizzards [for gravy].
-- 10 pounds Porked potatoes.
-- Large pot of Hopping John [Black-eyed peas, Brownie Rice, fresh Collared and Pokey greens].
-- Braised Leaks.
-- Sour Grape sauce [recipe on bag].

Dessert:
-- Nigerian Yellowcake Surprise*
-- Neopolitan Ice
-- imPeach Pie

* We have a lovely collection of tried-and-true Yellowcake recipes available upon request. These include such traditional favorites as -

-- Yellowcake Valerie Flame-beau (the volatile brandy glaze is perfect for those celebrating birthdays on or around Fitzmas!)
-- Grandma's Pineapple Upside-Down Yellowcake (always impressive at feasts!)
-- Yellowcake Ghosties (because Halloween is just days away from Fitzmas!)
-- Undercover Yellowcake (you'll love this cream cheese frosting!)
-- Yellowcake Cherry Cheesecake (so rich it's positively radioactive!)
-- Cream-filled Yellowcake Twinkies (perfect for school lunchboxes!)
-- Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Yellowcake Bars (these will keep in the fridge 'til Thanksgiving!)

There's more in our Yellowcake Cookbook, available at Amazon for just $24.95!

YUM, YUM!!!

Fitzmas Eve!!!

2005-10-26T12:01:00.000-04:00

Joy here...

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Oh, happy day! The anticipation is excruciating...

The grand jury is meeting today, the NYT, CNN and various denizens of left blogistan are actively speculating that this is the day sealed indictments will be handed down. The Special Counsel has scheduled a press conference for tomorrow, presumably to announce the names on those indictments and answer questions about seeking an extension for further investigation... possibly into direct participation by Haliburton's ex-CEO, chief lobbyist and occasional cyborg VPOTUS.

Now, I am not happy that traitors have occupied the People's House for these past 5 years. I'm not happy with the way they got into power. I'm not happy that they lied us into a disastrous war that has cost 100,000 Iraqi lives and 2,000 of our children (along with more than 43,000 who have lost significant parts of themselves). I'm not happy that they committed dastardly treason against the national security apparatus of the US of A, totally blowing the cover on a long-standing counter-intel operation in the Middle East dedicated to stopping terrorists and their state supporters from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. I'm not happy that by outing one of the high-level operatives in that operation (for the purpose of threatening the CIA not to reveal the lies that got us into war), at least one NOC in that operation has been killed.

I am happy that there are still Americans who detest treason. I am happy that "the rule of law" can still be applied to traitors, and that at least a few citizens remember that high treason in times of war is in fact a very, very serious crime - a capital offense when there are bodies to count. And I am happy that even the most brainwashed and deliberately blind among us have stopped paying attention to Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Loofa, et al.'s sleazy attempts to pass high treason and perjury off as nothing more serious than double parking.

Today is the day America begins to come back to herself, remembers that our highest ideals - that which we believe most strongly that we are or must try to become - do not condone or insist upon state-sponsored torture, illegal wars of aggression, mass murder of civilians, corporate corruption of our institutions, crony government, abandonment of our fellow citizens to drown in filth, and price gouging on necessities of life. They've tortured us, abandoned us, killed our children, and robbed us blind. It's well past time for a little comeuppance.

Now we will get to see how the strange child in the WH chooses to make good on the uncountable lies he's told us over the past few years, including the one about "knowing" Karl had nothing to do with the Plame leak, and the other one about firing anyone in his administration shown to have been involved. My guess is that he'll do just what his daddy did when he too was facing the high probability that cronies indicted in Iran-Contra would spill the beans during prosecution - he'll issue blanket pardons. For high treason.

At which point general strikes are the only proper response. We'll just have to shut everything down and put our bodies out there on the streets to 'just say no'. Wouldn't it be nice if we could bring our too-thinly stretched troops home in time for Christmas? Swear in Dennis Hastert before then and he can go humbly before the UN and request the world's help. The world, in acknowledgment of our late-but-heartfelt housecleaning, would probably oblige.

The Republican party won't survive this one, though. At least, not on a national level. That too is just comeuppance.

Answer to Obama

2005-10-01T00:40:00.000-04:00

I posted the following response to Barack Obama's diary post to Daily Kos, in which he argued for milquetoast to be the definition of Democratic [non]Pro-Activism in government. My Kos post got a 4.0 rating. Cool...

it reads -

Huh. Once again I'm perceiving a need for a genuine progressive party in this country. You don't see the neocon coup leaders allowing any centrist leanings or rational discussions in the ranks (or in the propaganda machine), nor can we expect them to give up the power they stole - stole, not 'won' - in 2000 and again in 2004 through utter corruption and destruction of the democratic institutions and processes they hate.

Meanwhile, the looting goes on unchecked because in 21st century Amerika it's perfectly okay for VPs to be on the payroll of corporations being handed no-bid multi-billion dollar taxpayer funded contracts, for "high-level government officials" to commit blatant treason just to politically punish truth-tellers, for whole useless departments of gub'ment to be created just so cronies can steal hundreds of billions more, and for wars of greed and aggression (on behalf of yet more cronies) to be sold to the paying public with scary bedtime stories and outright lies.

And where are the Democrats during all this? Cowering under their covers at night and making 'wish lists' during the day for what they'll buy when their corporate payoff for "playing the game" comes in.

As has been demonstrated graphically by recent 'terrorist' weather patterns, WE the People are on our own. If WE the People had any real representatives in this government, they would not be playing kissy-kissy with the devil's golden ass while our nation's once noble ideals are hijacked and flown straight into the Pentagon, then marooned to drown in a delta cesspool while the whole world watches in horror.

This has got to stop. Now, not "someday."

An act of God?

2005-09-08T01:29:00.000-04:00

Was God just fed up with Bush? You can't help but wonder.

Help Katrina Victims

2005-09-06T18:05:00.000-04:00

Hastert for President in 2007

2005-08-14T22:08:00.000-04:00

From Hastert for President 2007

We all know the midterm Congressional elections happen in November of 2006, and there's not a Presidential election until 2008. So, why NOT Hastert in 2007? I mean, if Democrats were to re-take the Senate and maybe even the House in next year's midterms, we could expect very significant issues to be addressed when the new Congress convenes in January of 2007.

The most significant issues have to do with "high crimes and misdemeanors" involving the current administration's senior power structure. Which, as we all understand, includes both President and Vice President in this White House. Should Republicans experience the anti-Iraq and MASS [Mad About Social Security] backlash some are beginning to fear in 2006, there may be enough interest in January of 2007 to actually begin impeachment proceedings. Against both Bush and Cheney.

Presuming of course that by the midterm elections of 2006 Karl Rove will be in jail (or trying hard to keep himself out of jail) for treason. Which in time of war (need anyone be reminded), is certainly considered a "high crime." Coverup may be a misdemeanor (for Bush and Chaney), or maybe not. Depends on who knew what when, as such criminal matters do. Nixon's cover-up was felonious, and he knew he didn't stand a chance in the Senate. So when it looked like the House would vote to send it up, he was officially outta there.

Of course, that particular "War President" had made some powerful enemies in the intelligence community, the diplomatic community, and yes, the military. He lied a lot, abused the rights of American citizens, and insisted on prosecuting an unpopular war for years after it was known that it could not be won. If he were being channeled from the grave, he'd probably tell Shrub and his ventriloquist they're toast.

According to the official list for Presidential succession, the Speaker of the House is #3 in the lineup. That is, if he is re-elected in his district in 2006. And right now, Dennis Hastert of Illinois is the Speaker of the House.

This is why I am for Dennis Hastert for President in 2007. It would be a short Presidency, but likely not a particularly damaging one. He can serve as #44 until January of 2009, when We the People swear in the 45th President of the United States.

Moms Rule!

2005-08-13T16:20:00.000-04:00

by Joy

According to Zogby a majority of Americans now believe the war in Iraq was ill-conceived - the Shrub comes out with just a 38% approval rating, even while overall approval hovers at around 44%. While reading through Cindy Sheehan's Blog on Kos today [Saturday, August 13] and sending just a short note of encouragement (mother to mother), I got to thinking what these polls really mean, in terms of actual human beings.

I mean, you read about 'this' percentage versus 'that' percentage, and we all know nobody from the polling organizations ever calls our houses to ask what WE think. Still, they supposedly extrapolate out across the heartland board as some kind of real indicator of what's going on.

So I took the 38% figure from the latest Zogby, which was taken and released well before Cindy Sheehan took up residence in a ditch next to the road outside Shrub's snake-infested scrub near Crawford, Texas. That ditch, by the way, has now sprouted a veritable garden of little white crosses bearing the names of soldiers killed in Iraq, planted by family members who have traveled to be with Cindy in that ditch. Now called "Camp Casey" after Cindy's son.

So. How does a 38% "approval" rating for Shrub's handling of the war [oops... I mean "post war," if NPR's new take on the situation has any meaning - and it doesn't] extrapolate? Why, it extrapolates out to about 186 MILLION citizens if we go ahead and take the estimate of ~300 million as our population minus tourists and illegals as of 2003.

So. Shrub's got his attack dogs on the job - called Mrs. Sheehan a "whore" yesterday. I wonder what his attack dogs would do if 186 MILLION American citizens decided to come camp out on the road leading to his 'compound'. Ya think he'd "drive by really, really fast - twice" or just stay home abusing his real dogs? He could always send Karl out to talk to the folks. I'd bet there are more than a few who know the traditional punishment for treason in time of war.

The whole thing is ultimately disgusting. But then, it's been ultimately disgusting all along. Osama bin Laden attacked us on 9-11-01, but Shrub lost interest in him quickly. Let 'im get away scott free! Now he's getting ready to launch against Iran. Since he tells us we can't withdraw any tired troops from Iraq, who's going to fight this war? Laura and Jenna? Somehow, I doubt it...

A nice draft would spread the grief around a bit, though. If he can get Rummy to go along, and when has Rummy not? Jahsh and Mike (my precious grandsons) are 15. I've got an adopted and a nephew in this fight already. They'll take my grandbabies over my dead body... and I've dared 'em along these lines before and they backed way down. Could be time to try it again!

Evil, Evil, Evil!

2005-07-23T23:20:00.000-04:00

Joy Busey

"Luke," Darth Vader intones in his deep baritone, "you don't know the power of the dark side."

Well, I've come across it a few times, and certainly appreciate its power. Take for instance a threat this week by Darth W [our erstwhile CinC] threatening in his whiney alto to wield the very first VETO of his [p]residency against next year's Military Appropriations Bill because of amendments offered by John McCain and Lindsey Graham to regulate the treatment of detainees and set up a commission to investigate abuses at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and other military prisons.

According to Reuters -

The White House on thursday threatened to veto a massive Senate bill for $442 billion in next year's defense programs if it moves to regulate the Pentagon's treatment of detainees or sets up a commission to investigate operations at Guantanamo Bay prison and elsewhere.

Now, you may ask "Why?" It's just a few 'bad apples', isn't it? Well, apparently not. Just yesterday (July 22) the Center for Constitutional Rights denounced the Bush administration's latest efforts to block compliance with FOIA requests by the center, the ACLU, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Peace, and Veterans for Common Sense for release of photographs and videos of abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib. Photos and videos that we already know (because Lindsey Graham told us back in 2003) show beatings, rape of women detainees, sodomy of child detainees, desecration of dead bodies, etc. Now the gub'ment is claiming that they are exempt from FOIA because the material is "law-enforcement related" and violates the "privacy" of the detainees (or maybe just the rapists/torturers).

Given that our military (such as it is) is currently deployed to two war zones, spending a billion dollars a week in just Iraq, getting "supplemental" appropriations of $85 billion every six months (that rich folks aren't paying because they got nifty tax cuts) just so I can no longer retire at 65 and get the money I've been paying into SS all my life, I'd actually LIKE to see the Shrub veto the appropriations bill because of these amendments. It might force 'Middle Amerika' to wake up and start the impeachment proceedings against the whole damn lot of 'em.

Bushie does claim that not allowing torture or rape, or allowing investigations of torture and rape, will undermine his "authority to protect Americans from terrorist attack." But since child sodomy and gang rape are large among the abuses cited, I suspect it's just the same old same old same from the Bush enclave at the Bohemian Grove, where all the richest, most powerful Satanists go every summer to sodomize children and murder babies for the banquet [see Gannongate threatens to expose huge GOP pedophile and male prostitution ring].

At what point do we here on the primary synchronized world of the Evil Empire say "ENOUGH!!!" and get the opportunity to rebel against Darth and the evil Sith Emperor by joining the Alliance? Where are Luke and Leah? Are there no Jedi left, Yoda?

Evil genius going down? II

2005-07-12T03:16:00.000-04:00

Back on July 2, I posted that I thought the dam had actually cracked in regards to the Rove-Plame affair. Scott McClellan's White House news conference today looked more like the signs of a dam about to burst. The White House press corp has been burned one too many times it seems. From WMD to Jeff Gannon to a universal world loathing of the press "toadies" as they are referred to by much of the world's media, this press corp may just be saying, "We've had enough". One can only hope.

Reading the transcript of this event is remarkable enough (whitehouse.gov) but the actual questions show the remarkable venom some of these reporters managed to find. I congratulate them. Now lets see them follow up.

From Bill from Portland Maine's post on kos, here a few of the best questions. The last one of course is the best.

QUESTION: Does the president stand by his pledge to fire anyone involved in a leak of the name of a CIA operative?
QUESTION: Scott, can I ask you this: Did Karl Rove commit a crime?
QUESTION: Do you stand by your statement from the fall of 2003, when you were asked specifically about Karl and Elliot Abrams and Scooter Libby, and you said, I've gone to each of those gentlemen, and they have told me they are not involved in this ?
QUESTION: Scott, this is ridiculous. The notion that you're going to stand before us, after having commented with that level of detail, and tell people watching this that somehow you've decided not to talk. You've got a public record out there. Do you stand by your remarks from that podium or not?
QUESTION: You're in a bad spot here, Scott... (LAUGHTER) ... because after the investigation began---after the criminal investigation was under way---you said, October 10th, 2003, I spoke with those individuals, Rove, Abrams and Libby. As I pointed out, those individuals assured me they were not involved in this, from that podium. That's after the criminal investigation began. Now that Rove has essentially been caught red-handed peddling this information, all of a sudden you have respect for the sanctity of the criminal investigation.
QUESTION: Well, we are going to keep asking them. When did the president learn that Karl Rove had had a conversation with a news reporter about the involvement of Joseph Wilson's wife in the decision to send him to Africa?
QUESTION: Can I finish, please?
QUESTION: Does the president continue to have confidence in Mr. Rove?
QUESTION: So you're not going to respond as to whether or not the president has confidence in his deputy chief of staff?
QUESTION: Scott, I think you're getting this barrage today in part because it is now clear that 21 months ago you were up at this podium saying something that we now know to be demonstrably false. Now, are you concerned that in setting the record straight today that this could undermine the credibility of the other things you say from the podium?
QUESTION: In your dealings with the special counsel, have you consulted a personal attorney?

Still Tied to the Mast

2005-07-04T18:53:00.000-04:00

Way back in 1973, I was stationed on a Submarine that was in the shipyard after we returned from a 3 month tour beneath the Atlantic. This was a time when President Nixon was starting to get into his Watergate mess and it was being finally revealed that the U.S. had been secretly bombing Cambodia since at least 1969.

Two fellow sailors and myself started keeping a log, or diary if you will, outlining our objections to this outrage and indeed to the war itself. We contributed to this diary on lonely nights when we were keeping watch at the top of the gang plank. Armed with a .45 and a mighty pen, we built quite a diary over a couple of months that we kept hidden deep under a pile of foul weather gear. We called it the "Top Side Graffiti Log".

Sure enough, an officer eventually discovered the unsigned entries and sent the log off to Fort Gordon Ga, where the Army's hand writing experts identified the culprits. The three of us spent the next several months being hounded by the Navy's legal system and the Secret Service and I ended ended up being convicted at a Captain's Mast, resulting in a demotion in rank and restriction to base.

I left the Mast unrepentant and walked directly to the Marine Headquarters at the shipyard and asked around until I found a Marine lawyer and told him my story. He was delighted I had sought him out and proceeded to build a case in my defense including an emergency appeal that lifted my on base restriction within 2 days because my wife and children lived off base. The charge on which I was convicted was "Insubordination to a Superior Commissioned Officer (Commander in Chief).

After months of work, we attended an elaborate appeals hearing with Admirals sitting in judgement. We won on the technicality that Nixon was not a "Commissioned" officer. But better yet, the Captain of my boat was publicly dressed down in front of the whole room for violating my rights of free speech. I got my stripe back, got all my back pay and was soon promoted to the next higher rank.

It's important to keep in mind that this particular Commander in Chief had grown increasingly unpopular with the rank and file of the armed forces. Similarities abound today. So to all the brave men and women of the United States military who feel the need to speak out against what they see as an unjust war, please take my story to heart and fear not being silenced, for you are truly the beacon of freedom for our great country, the United States of America. Happy Birthday!

Randall's DailyKos Diary

One Soldier's Predicament with Freedom of Speech

Happy Independence Day!

2005-07-04T00:58:00.000-04:00

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

(Click comment link below to see the complete text)

Evil Genius going down?

2005-07-02T03:33:00.000-04:00

For those following the Valerie Plame case, the obvious was made obvious TODAY when senior MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell came right out and said that Rove was the source for the outing of Plame, a CIA operative. Hubris and reckless abandon to ideology mark this administration, but neither can stand under the glare of a newly awakened media that has been shamed into action by the blogosphere.

The battle is truly engaged

2005-06-19T01:22:00.000-04:00

DSM is finally making waves in MSM.
This is significant considering that main stream media is really the most responsible party for getting us into this mess. From the New York Times' Judith Miller to the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, the run up to the war was glorified with abject abandon as they rushed to accept the administration's reason to rush to war. Such shame has never befallen the proud history of American media.

That being said, today was somewhat of a landmark. Consider this great diary on kos that describes the day's events. Downing Street Press Reaction

Two important events II

2005-06-17T02:21:00.000-04:00

John Conyers held a hearing today that publicly revealed the lies of the President in his run up for the war, and the right wing distortion machine went ballistic on Senator Durbin's remarks from yesterday that compared this administration's use of torture to the use of torture by governments we all abhor. So we as a nation are portrayed to the rest of the world as pro torture while the right revel in their history of lynching. We the people are not that nation. Sadly, we as a nation are those people.

Here they are

2005-06-14T12:30:00.000-04:00

Here are the 20 Senators who 1) refused to co-sponsor the anti-lynching resolution passed yesterday, and 2) refused a roll-call vote so they'd have to put their name on the resolution.

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Christopher Bond (R-MO)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Michael Crapo (R-ID)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
George Voinovich (R-OH)

19 Republicans and 1 Democrat, a real wall of shame.

Thanks to kos

Two important events

2005-06-14T02:46:00.000-04:00

No two events in recent memory strike me as this, well, striking. Representative John Conyers is holding Congressional hearings this coming Thursday on the Downing Street Memo and just tonight it has been discovered that the Senate finally got around to making lynching a federal crime.

Then the REAL SICKNESS IS REVEALED. Some 20 Republican Senators wouldn't agree to sponsor the bill.

We don't know who they are yet but stay tuned. DailyKos has it covered.

Special BuzzFlash

2005-06-11T02:47:00.000-04:00

The GOP Right Wing Junta in Congress Regularly Denies Minority Party Rights. Last Year They Violated Rules to Defeat a Bernie Sanders' Amendment to the Patriot Act and Illegally Extended the Voting Time to Twist Arms. Bill Thomas Wouldn't Allow Dems in a Bill Session. The Franco Party is Already in Power, As GOP Judiciary Chairman Shuts Down a Meeting Because It Was Revealing the Truth About the Busheviks. Joe Stalin is Smiling in Admiration. 6/11

The Key to Impeachment

2005-06-07T14:22:00.000-04:00

Norman Solomon
June 01, 2005

Norman Solomon's new book, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, comes off the press in June. For information, go to: www.WarMadeEasy.com
If you think President Bush should be impeached, it's time to get serious.

We're facing huge obstacles—and they have nothing to do with legal standards for impeachment. This is all about media and politics.

Five months into 2005, the movement to impeach Bush is very small. And three enormous factors weigh against it: 1) Republicans control Congress. 2) Most congressional Democrats are routinely gutless. 3) Big media outlets shun the idea that the president might really be a war criminal.

For now, we can't end the GOP's majority. But we could proceed to light a fire under congressional Democrats. And during the next several weeks, it's possible to have major impacts on news media by launching a massive educational and "agitational" campaign—spotlighting the newly leaked Downing Street Memo and explaining why its significance must be pursued as a grave constitutional issue.

The leak of the memo weeks ago, providing minutes from a high-level meeting that Prime Minister Tony Blair held with aides in July 2002, may be the strongest evidence yet that Bush is guilty of an impeachable offense. As Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote in late May:

"First, the memo appears to directly contradict the administration's assertions to Congress and the American people that it would exhaust all options before going to war. According to the minutes, in July 2002, the administration had already decided to go to war against Iraq."
"Second, a debate has raged in the United States over the last year and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that falsely stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was a mere 'failure' or the result of intentional manipulation to reach foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. The memo appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the United States the intelligence and facts were being 'fixed' around the decision to go to war."

Tom Paine
After Downing Street

We are the Evil Empire

2005-05-20T02:37:00.000-04:00

NYT
The story of Mr. Dilawar's brutal death at the Bagram Collection Point - and that of another detainee, Habibullah, who died there six days earlier in December 2002 - emerge from a nearly 2,000-page confidential file of the Army's criminal investigation into the case, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.
Like a narrative counterpart to the digital images from Abu Ghraib, the Bagram file depicts young, poorly trained soldiers in repeated incidents of abuse. The harsh treatment, which has resulted in criminal charges against seven soldiers, went well beyond the two deaths.

In some instances, testimony shows, it was directed or carried out by interrogators to extract information. In others, it was punishment meted out by military police guards. Sometimes, the torment seems to have been driven by little more than boredom or cruelty, or both.

In sworn statements to Army investigators, soldiers describe one female interrogator with a taste for humiliation stepping on the neck of one prostrate detainee and kicking another in the genitals. They tell of a shackled prisoner being forced to roll back and forth on the floor of a cell, kissing the boots of his two interrogators as he went. Yet another prisoner is made to pick plastic bottle caps out of a drum mixed with excrement and water as part of a strategy to soften him up for questioning.

New Nuclear Power Bid

2005-03-24T22:03:00.000-05:00

David Bear
Source
News Flash from Paris - Only by building more nuclear power stations can the world meet its soaring energy needs while averting environmental disaster, experts at an international conference said Monday.
Paris - We think we can cram the nukes down the throats of the public once again.
Energy ministers and officials from 74 countries were in Paris for the two-day meeting on the future of nuclear energy, as concerns about global warming and fossil fuel supplies renew governments' interest in atomic power.
The same old white guys in suits have decided to hand out some contracts.
"It's clear that nuclear energy is regaining stature as a serious option," said Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency - the U.N. nuclear watchdog - which organized the conference.
They're sure they can cram some nukes down their throats.
ElBaradei said the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, which commits governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, was focusing minds.
ElBaradei (also known as El KaBong!) is totally snowed under, and hasn't a clue. This has caused his mind to numb out, rendering it myopic, i.e., intensely focused.
Power plants fired by oil, coal and gas are major sources of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause global warming. The Kyoto accord will force plant operators to pay for their pollution, making nuclear power facilities more competitive by comparison.
The white guys in suits will cram the nukes down the throats of any country that doesn't voluntarily go along.
"In the past, the virtual absence of restrictions or taxes on greenhouse gas emissions has meant that nuclear power's advantage, low emissions, has had no tangible economic value," ElBaradei said. But the Kyoto Protocol "will likely change that over the longer term."
"In the past, white guys in suits have pocketed literally trillions of dollars by not trying to cram nukes down everyone's throats."
Fossil-Fuel Costs Worrisome
The Faked Out War in the Middle East, aka the Great Terrorism Scam, Seems To Be Working Just Fine, Thank You.
Soaring fossil fuel costs, including the historic highs charted by oil prices during the past year, are a more immediate worry for governments - and a reminder of the petroleum shocks of the 1970s that persuaded countries, including France, to intensify nuclear production.
The Faked Out War in the Middle East, aka the Great Terrorism Scam, Seems To Be Working Just Fine, Thank You.
But accidents at the Three Mile Island facility in Pennsylvania in 1979 and at Chernobyl, Ukraine, seven years later undermined public confidence in nuclear power.
Nothing actually happened at Three Mile Island, but it was a good scare tactic. Chernobyl never happened either, but it was an excellent opportunity to test out Bill Gates' new computer-generated graphics program. "Virtual Unreality," I think it was called.
Although there is still deep public concern about the risk of accidents and transportation and storage of radioactive waste, nuclear advocates say there also is a new awareness that relying on fossil fuels could lead to an even greater environmental catastrophe.
Those few individuals who still have enough neurons left to even contemplate the topic of long-term storage have been easily diverted by offers of month-long vacations in Las Vegas (close enough to the Nevada dump site to make it look like they actually inspected the facility, but far enough away for them to hit it big at the roulette tables).
"The climate will probably change no matter what we now do, but we should, at the very least, make every effort to slow it down," Donald Johnston, secretary general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said in a video statement. "We ignore its importance at our peril."
Even the white guys in suits admit we're basically toast.
When Finland begins construction of a new reactor later this year, it will become the first Western European country to do so since 1991. France plans to start building a new-generation reactor in 2007.
Finlanders will be getting hosed before the year is out. France, a perennial hosee, will get it stuck to them again in the near future.
Nuclear plants produce one-third of Europe's electricity, saving greenhouse emissions "equivalent to those of all of Europe's cars," French Industry Minister Patrick Devedjian said.
The white guys in suits have figured out that the best way to cram a nuke down a throat is to give the body to which the throat is attached a nifty, shiny, fast, new car! Zoom Zoom.
In a message to the conference, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman cited a University of Chicago study that showed nuclear power "can become competitive with electricity produced by plants fueled by coal or gas" because of new technologies delivering more efficient reactors.
The white guys in suits figure it will be easy to cram nukes down the throats of everybody in the whole world!
'Time to Start Building Again'
Let's Shut Off Them Alpha Scanners
Echoing recent comments by President Bush, Bodman said: "America hasn't ordered a new nuclear power plant since the 1970s, and it's time to start building again."
Bodman said, " It's time to shut off the Alpha Scanners."
Even in some countries that have been fiercely opposed to nuclear power, the mood is shifting. For example, Italians voted against the use of atomic energy in a referendum the year after Chernobyl, and the government began gradually decommissioning plants.
"Buono, buono, mia feddicci. We don'ta need any stinkin' Alpha Scanners!"
"Regarding nuclear power, we perceive a clear change in public opinion, notably by the young generations," Italian Industry Minister Antonio Marzano said.
"Hey dudes, like we don't even know what a freakin' Alpha Scanner is. And what's more, we don't wanna freakin' know. So buzz off. I gotta go shopping at the Mall."
Asia May Lead the Way
The Far Eastern Pinball Wizard -- Deaf, Dumb and Blind
The real boom in nuclear power is expected to focus on developing countries, particularly in Asia.
It's more fun than making won-ton.
China is expected to increase its nuclear production capacity from the current 6.5 gigawatts to 36 gigawatts by 2020, according to IAEA figures, while India plans to multiply its production capacity tenfold and Russia is expected to double its capacity to about 45 gigawatts. A gigawatt equals 1 billion watts.
Way more fun than making won-ton.
U.S. nuclear plant builder Westinghouse Electric Co. is among contenders for an $8 billion contract for four new Chinese reactors to be awarded by year's end.
Westinghouse? Hey! What about Kerr-McGee? And Bechtel? And all the other white guys in suits?"

Gannongate Update - It's Worse Than You Thought...

2005-03-16T22:06:00.000-05:00

Joy Busey
Holy Moley, Batman! In comments to this blog, Hunter S. Thompson and Gannongate, I wrote about the nefarious Thompson/Gannon-Guckert/Franklin Cover-Up connections precisely two weeks after HST met his maker - February 24, 2005.

Beloved Bartcop linked Randall's site on February 11, the day after HST's timely demise. Guess he liked the photos...

Randall's "Gannongate" post - complete with the really terrific before and after shots [thanx, Jahsh for the Orc photo] - was posted on the very day that HST checked out. There is something here, and it's good to see that the blogosphere hasn't missed the boat even if it's a bit slow.

On February 28th Rense.com published its 1st (in a series of 4) articles on "The Gannon Cannon," linking Gannon to the Franklin/Military/DC pedophile ring, and not-coincidentally, the Bushes. This story concerned one Johnny Gosch, a young paperboy for the Des Moines Register who was kidnapped at the age of 12, and who his mother and Franklin author/lawyer/ex-state senator John DeCamp claim is Gannon/Guckert.

By March 3rd the Online Journal was echoing charges they'd raised a few days previously. The fact that DeCamp has just released an updated edition of his book "The Franklin Coverup" that includes trial testimony and evidence in his successful 1999 lawsuit against Franklin principal Larry King (now out of prison) on behalf of one of the abused children, couldn't have hurt all this publicity.

On March 10th Propaganda Matrix published a story entitled "Ex-FBI Gunderson: Gannon is Gosch".

Heck, I've even heard rumors out there that Gannon/Guckert's going to write a book. I'll buy it, but only if he's still alive. THAT may be a crap shoot at the present moment, unless the Bushies somehow believe that this can all come out and Mr./Ms. Middle America won't care. That's the unpredictable thing about real, live EVIL. Though it loves to hide in shadows, it's also vainglorious to the max. Always its inevitable undoing, but only so long as there are at least some people left who aren't evil...

So, rather than gloat, I'll just offer a few more links for your reading pleasure...

Bless the Beasts and the Children

Gannongate threatens to expose huge GOP pedophile and prostitution ring

Self-Hating Gays: Welcome to the White House and Welcome to Commit Suicide

And now for a little good news

2005-03-03T01:42:00.002-05:00

New Poll Finds Bush Priorities Are Out of Step With Americans NYT
There is hope that the juggernaut of the right is not setting in well with those 5-10% of Americans who actually make up the real voting nexus of American politics. Everyone else has already decided which side they are on. Anytime this swing group shifts toward reason and away from the neocon cult of essential fascism, we have reason to hope that all is not lost.

Dems forcing committee vote on Gannon/Plamegate Raw Story
"House Democrats say they will force a vote in the House Judiciary Committee to put the Republican majority on the record with regards to investigating discredited White House correspondent Jeff Gannon who allegedly had access to confidential information, including a memorandum naming CIA operative Valerie Plame."
Keeping this story alive is very important, and one gets the feeling that Representative Conyers understands this all too well.

In Two Southern States, Outsiders Rise to Power on Grass-Roots Appeal Democrats.com
Two southern states, including our own wonderful North Carolina, are seeing grass-roots muscle flexing that can bring real change to the inside workings of the Democratic Party. Long kept in check by the established political environment in Raleigh and Little Rock, the rise of Dean inspired progressive action is giving real power to those that think outside the Boardroom.

Hunter S. Thompson on Bush

2005-02-23T05:43:00.000-05:00

Bankrate: You are neighbors with Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador and longtime Bush family friend featured in Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Hunter S. Thompson: I can see him from my front porch. He's been a pretty good neighbor; that counts for a lot out here. He will shoot some skeet now and then. I don't want to say anything really ugly about him. He's an enlightened plutocrat, I guess you call it. Michael Moore is dead right on that, and it's even worse than you think. Bandar. All kinds of roads cross out here. Networks and wires.

Bankrate: The Bush Administration seems to have lit your fuse. Are you angry again?

Hunter S. Thompson: Very angry. I'm very angry. That's why I guess I have to write this (campaign) piece for Rolling Stone. This is the darkest hour that I have seen in my long experience as an American. This is evil.

Complete interview...click here

"Gannongate" may prove to be pivotal in defining journalism as we know it

2005-02-10T23:37:00.000-05:00

This was the week that may have changed investigative journalism in our time. If you haven't been following the scandal, the links below will bring you up to speed.

It is an amazing story and it promises to just keep getting better as the layers of the rotting onion are peeled back and we are treated to the reactions from right wing media, Congress, and The White House. And it will just keep getting better because the new journalism of the blogosphere, supported by select progressive media, will keep spreading the word and uncovering the stench. At the core of this onion is the very betrayal of all we hold dear as humans and Americans, for the core reveals the mechanics behind the neoconservative power play that is designed to bring a new fascism into being.

Please take a few moments, follow these links, and become part of the movement to spread truth, dig dirt, and take our country back. It is NOT too late. This is as important as it gets. The first link is easily the most vital political site on the internet today. The second is the bomb. The third is a great clearing house for this gathering storm called "Gannongate".

Jump in, have fun, the water's fine.

Daily KOS
Daily KOS Gannon/Wilson story
AmericaBlog Gannon story lines

Most Senate Dems grow spines and take a stand against torture.

2005-02-04T00:27:00.000-05:00

Only a few weeks ago, it looked like Alberto Gonzales, referred to lovingly as "Torture Boy" by such noted writers as Maureen Dowd and Bart, would skate easily through the confirmation hearings to become the next Attorney General. I was already missing John Ashcroft. And despite the fact that I am indeed missing John because the whole Senate voted his evil replacement in today, Americans of good conscience should be celebrating the hope that some real opposition seems to be budding. 36 Democrats voted against Gonzales, which in anybody's book, is a very hopeful sign.

Considering this sweeping vote, one must challenge the Democrats who voted FOR torture as American policy. They have betrayed the party and indeed the nation by endorsing this behavior.
Here they are, don't forget their names. Oh, and don't forget that Bush actually KISSED Joe Lieberman as he left the stage. With friends like that, who needs enimas? And to think that Gore chose this man to be next in line for the Presidency. It's just the kind of madness that gives my friend Branmuffin the cause to believe that Dems and Repubs are of the same cloth. It is votes like today however that gives credence to the difference between rancid black sail cloth and heavy cotton with some stains.

(1) Senator Ken Salazar (Colorado).

(2) Senator Joseph Lieberman (Conn.).

(3) Senator Ben Nelson (Neb.).

(4) Senator Mary Landrieu (La.)

(5) Senator Pryor (Ark).

(6) Senator Bill Nelson (Fla.)

What do Vietnam and Iraq have in common?....happy voting stories

2005-02-01T23:06:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Tom Tomorrow, I found this amazing story. It needs no comment as it is just another reflection of our
political history, viewed through the complicity of manipulated media. How does that saying go? The more things change, the more they remain the same?

U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote; Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror

by Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 (1967)-- United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.

According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.

....A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam. The election was the culmination of a constitutional development that began in January, 1966, to which President Johnson gave his personal commitment when he met Premier Ky and General Thieu, the chief of state, in Honolulu in February.

The purpose of the voting was to give legitimacy to the Saigon Government, which has been founded only on coups and power plays since November, 1963, when President Ngo Dinh Deim was overthrown by a military junta..

Let's talk about creepy

2005-01-25T22:32:00.000-05:00

Diane Feinstein's (D-Cal) hubby gets $600m US Army contract. Are we the only ones creeped out by this? (BUZZ FLASH)

After reading this headline from Buzzflash, I read the article and then looked a little closer to make sure I knew who she was. I was sure she was a Democrat so I had added the "(D-Cal)" suffix to her name as I was quoting the headline. Then, in a moment of doubt before proceeding, I decided to go to her site to make sure she was indeed a Democrat.

The home page doesn't include the word Democrat. The Biography page doesn't either...hmmm. How about I just search the entire Diane Feinstein web site for the word? feinstein.senate.gov
Nice links to action by Democrats but never use of the word on her own site. Now I'm not jumping to conclusions or anything, it just took some work to make sure I knew who she was, especially after reading about some of her votes.

And now I read about her husband, and one just has to wonder.

Oh forget it, I'm being too kind. She votes for Gonzo, she votes for torture. She votes for Rice, she votes for the exteme of the right wing agenda. She votes for her husband getting a lucrative contract, she votes for the unnecessary death of innocent women and children and the heartbreak of thousands of American families built on the deaths of their sons and daughters which was all made possible through the lies of the administration and the gullible and complicit. Gullible is bad enough for intelligent, rich leaders who understand intimately the ways of government. Complicit is something much darker and with this news of Feinstein's relationship through her husband to the corrupt commerce of the Iraq defense scheme, one is obliged to cast her character in a very shady and oily light.

2005-01-05T23:08:00.001-05:00

TEN QUESTIONS...click here

Ten Questions for Alberto Gonzales

1. Are there any circumstances under which you believe the President of the United States could legally authorize torture?

Alberto Gonzales approved a now-infamous memo which contended the president "wasn't bound by laws prohibiting torture and that government agents who might torture prisoners at his direction couldn't be prosecuted by the Justice Department." Despite the fact that the United States ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture - which states "no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability, or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture" - the memo stated the president had the authority "to approve almost any physical or psychological action during interrogation, up to and including torture." Once the memo was made public, Gonzales backtracked, saying the memo contained "unnecessary, over-broad discussions" about "abstract legal theories." He also said the policy was "under review, and may be replaced, if appropriate, with more concrete guidance addressing only those issues necessary for the legal analysis of actual practices." The Justice Department recently released a new memo redefining the U.S. stance on torture. The new policy, however, does not address the question of whether the president is entitled to disregard laws and treaties.

Carolina's Season Closes With Loss to Saints

2005-01-02T19:24:00.000-05:00

The playoffs are not part of the story as Carolina finishes its season with a difficult loss to New Orleans. The Carolina Panthers made an amazing comeback in 2004, starting the season 1-7 before improving to 7-8 going into their final regular season game.

With 50 seconds remaining Sunday at Bank of America Stadium, they hoped they had one more comeback left in them. After driving 56 yards in five plays, kicker John Kasay attempted a 60-yard field goal attempt on the game's final play. But the kick was blocked, and the New Orleans Saints ended the Panthers season by a score of 21-18, knocking Carolina out of playoff contention in the process.

Stingy? It's much worse than that.

2004-12-31T15:02:00.000-05:00

How nice. The Bush Administration just announced that it will now pledge $350 million to the Asian disaster relief effort. This is an increase from the $35 million that was pledged a few days ago after being shamed by the world for their $15 million original offer. The arrogance the President displayed at his news conference three days into the aftermath was only a hint of this administration's disdain for any challenge to policy or display.

This stingy behavior, in the name of God actually, comes against the background of a $40 million inauguration ceremony that will resemble a coronation, followed by an $80 BILLION price tag for just the next 6 months in Iraq. And HALF the nation is ok with this?

Panthers Stay Alive with Resounding Win

2004-12-29T22:49:00.000-05:00

Jake Delhomme and Muhsin Muhammad showed how badly they want to return to the postseason. Delhomme passed for a career-high four touchdowns, including a pair to Muhammad, to lead the Carolina Panthers to a 37-20 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a battle of NFC South rivals.

The Panthers (7-8) appeared to be on their way to becoming the fourth straight NFC champion to miss the playoffs the following year. But despite a plethora of injuries, they have won six of their last seven games and remain alive in the playoff race.

Next week, Carolina will host New Orleans (7-8) in a game which could determine a wild card berth. However, both teams will need help. If the St. Louis Rams win their final two games and the Seattle Seahawks , who have already clinched a playoff spot, lose next week, then the Rams win the NFC West and the Seahawks get the wild card. The Minnesota Vikings could clinch the other wild card spot with a win at Washington next week.

Panthers Lose in OT to Falcons

2004-12-19T22:11:00.000-05:00

The Carolina Panthers fell to the Atlanta Falcons Saturday night in the Georgia Dome on Jay Feely's 38-yard field goal 2:25 into overtime. The NFC South champs defeated Carolina for the ninth time in 10 games in their building and dropped the Panthers to 6-8 on the season. The loss was a heartbreaker for a team vexed by Atlanta Quarterback Michael Vick, another horrible performance by Carolina's special teams on defending the kick, and consistent bad judgement on the part of the officals.

The Falcons led by 14 points in the fourth quarter, but the Panthers reeled off 21 straight points to take a 31-24 lead with 3:37 remaining in the game. But with 1:37 left, Michael Vick ran for a touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the 12-yard line, somehow keeping his knees from touching the ground as he extended to cross the goal line.

At 6-8, the Panthers are still mathematically alive for a wild-card berth, but their chances are severely dented. Their five-game winning streak snapped, the yeam will travel to Tampa Bay to play the Buccaneers next Sunday followed by the final game of the regular season at home against New Orleans.

Big Test on Saturday

2004-12-16T17:59:00.000-05:00

The Carolina Panthers (6-7) have lost their NFC South crown to the Atlanta Falcons (10-3), but the two division rivals will not be short of incentives when they meet on Saturday night at the Georgia Dome. The Panthers, who lost seven of their first eight games, will try to win their sixth consecutive contest after defeating St. Louis, 20-7, last week. The Falcons, who clinched the NFC South with a 35-10 victory over Oakland last week, will try to earn a first-round bye for the playoffs.

The rare prime time game can be seen on the ESPN television network Saturday, December 18, 8:30 p.m. and heard on The Carolina Panthers Radio Network with pre-game reporting beginning at 7:30.

Panthers Continue to Roll

2004-12-12T22:57:00.000-05:00

The Carolina Panthers continued their remarkable comeback today with a powerful win against last year's conference championship rivals, the St Louis Rams. Jumping to an early lead that built through the first half to 20-7, the Panthers turned it over to the defense in the second half and no more points were scored by either team.

Highlights included Nick Goings fourth 100 yd game in a row and Dan Morgan's two interceptions and nine tackles. Morgan's performance was particularily rewarding considering that he has missed the last three games due to a concussion.