Darth disses Geneva and the bulk of what the U.S. stands for

wonderful... the vice president of the united states, a country that has always prided itself on its humanity, its respect for the rule of law, its impartial judicial system, and its respect for the inherent worth of human life, stands before the graduating class of the u.s. military academy in west point, new york, and implicitly tosses it all out the window...

"Capture one of these killers, and he'll be quick to demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States," the Vice President said in the Saturday morning speech. "Yet when they wage attacks or take captives, their delicate sensibilities seem to fall away."

so, what's the message here, dick...? they don't deserve the protections...? they shouldn't be offered the protections...? they should be treated as inhumanely as they treat us...? what, dick...? what's the take-away...?

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White House mind-f***

from think progress...

[White House] spokeswoman Dana Perino: “We, of course, would like to be in a position to bring down troop levels, but certain conditions, as assessed by senior military advisers and commanders on the ground, need to be met to warrant that.”

we are there for the oil, for the money, and to keep things in a constant state of turmoil, which, of course, makes it easier to keep the money flowing and to maintain control of the oil... we ain't leavin', not until the bought-and-paid-for republican, democratic, media, oil, defense and super-rich power structures are brought down and replaced with individuals who are actually dedicated to the common good... as atrios says, na ga ha pen...

[UPDATE]

although it should be perfectly obvious that my earlier educated guess (the troop withdrawal discussion was leaked by "official sources" in an effort to push george in that direction) was spot on, the cool treatment given by the white house to the idea all but nails it as fact...

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"From time to time, things have to change in order to stay the same"

i had seen david vest's article in counterpunch referenced in a couple of other blogs, but i hadn't clicked over there to read it myself... in a way, i'm sorry i did... democrats... republicans... what the hell difference does it make...?

For the corporate powers behind the candidates, the rule is as it ever was: from time to time, things have to change in order to stay the same.

[...]

Once upon a time, Bill Clinton filled the Interior Department with "environmentalists." Bush filled it with oil company hacks. Who was more honest?

Lo and behold, when they cut down the old growth forest, it didn't make much difference to the trees and the rivers and the critters, whether oil company insiders or professional environmentalists were sitting at the desks in Washington. Eight years of Clinton-Gore, two terms of Bush-Cheney: the toxic dumps remain, and only the rhetoric has changed, to protect the naïve.

Demonstrably now, it makes no difference to the war whether Republicans or Democrats control Congress. Do you suppose the shooting will end, on the day when a refined, well-spoken Democrat, who reads poetry perhaps and scorns the religious right, and who doesn't embarrass us when receiving foreign dignitaries, succeeds the bumbling oaf Bush?

Think so? Or do you suspect people will soon be wailing, "I don't understand these people! They control Congress, the White house, and the military! Why don't they stop the war?"

i think this may be one of the reasons why i'm finding it so hard to get any energy going today... i bounced out of bed on a beautiful morning and, not long afterward, felt the malaise slowly creeping in, accompanied by thoughts of "why bother" and "what the hell difference does it make..." i think most of us who spend time seriously keeping up with what's going on and putting ourselves out there through blogs and political action, would like to believe we can actually make a difference... while i don't deny that it's possible, sometimes the enormous power of our entrenched and incredibly powerful system seems just too overwhelming to tackle and our efforts too puny and too futile to continue to pursue... when does commitment and dedication turn to masochism...? today, it feels like masochism...

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A "first indication" of the White House bowing to political pressure in Iraq? 110% baloney

why anyone would even bother to print this drivel is totally beyond me...

The Bush administration is developing what are described as concepts for reducing American combat forces in Iraq by as much as half next year, according to senior administration officials in the midst of the internal debate.

It is the first indication that growing political pressure is forcing the White House to turn its attention to what happens after the current troop increase runs its course.

how many fracking "first indications" have there been...? lessee, "first indications" we've been promised for two unendurable presidential terms...

• compromise
• bipartisanship
• willingness to change course
• openness
• frank two-way dialogue
• facing reality
• flexibility
• working with congress
• working with our allies
• diplomacy
• seeking input from a wide range of sources
  

and, of course...

• troop withdrawal

and here's precisely why it's drivel...

reason #1...

So far, the concepts are entirely a creation of Washington and have been developed without the involvement of the top commanders in Iraq ... Those generals and other commanders have made it clear that they are operating on a significantly slower clock than officials in Washington...

reason #2...

The officials cautioned that no firm plans have emerged from the discussions.

and the biggest reason of all, reason #3...

The officials declined to be quoted for attribution because they were discussing internal deliberations that they expected to evolve over several months.

if we've learned anything over the past 6 1/2 years, it's that quoting anonymous sources means 1) it's most likely spin, and/or 2) somebody's trying to push the bush in a direction he has no intention of going... on this one, i'm leaning toward the latter... why...? well, gee, read these snippets and tell me i'm wrong...

• Officials say proponents of reducing the troops and scaling back their mission next year appear to include Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. They have been joined by generals at the Pentagon and elsewhere who have long been skeptical that the Iraqi government would use the opportunity created by the troop increase to reach genuine political accommodations.

• Any change of course “is going to be the president’s decision,” Mr. Gates said, but one greatly influenced by assessments from General Petraeus and the new American ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker, who are to provide an assessment of the situation in September.

well, then, if it's "the president's decision," nobody's going anywhere... and, if bush listens to petraeus, something i would highly doubt since petraeus was hired to listen to BUSH, we're definitely not going to see a pull-down... here's odierno, who reports to petraeus...

General Odierno, who has pushed for extending the troop increase into next year, noted that units were in place or available to continue that effort through next April.

gosh, i had no idea so much information could be gleaned between the lines of a wapo story... it's truly amazing what isn't said...

[UPDATE]

with thanks to atrios for pointing the way, you can go visit glenn greenwald who has a whole shitpot full of OTHER very good reasons why this is drivel...

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Larisa on the beginning of our national nervous breakdown

powerful... articulate... chilling... and written out of personal experience... here's some and here's some more...

The nation is tumbling toward pandemonium with each scandal and each lack of response from the other branches of government. With each outrage and abuse of power, more and more quiet disillusionment is turning into chaotic emoting.

Do you feel this as acutely as I do? Perhaps not, but I have the benefit of my own experience, living in a country of jackals who found themselves amidst a seething nation far too long abused, frightened, and angry. When the Soviet Union finally fell, it did not fall peacefully; and worse, it fell into chaos and into the hands of criminals. But it was still the oppressive regime that fell and the good guys - that is, us - who won the Cold War. What happens when the good guys fall, imploding under the weight of mass corruption and a populace teetering near deranged anger? Does it matter that Rosie and Elizabeth had a spat, when the rest of the nation is barely keeping a grip on its sanity, trying to cope in a fabricated reality in which 2 + 2 = whatever we are told?

What is next, then, in this land of mass media produced fuel for a fire that is already raging strongly in our national conscience? I am unsettled and fretting, because I have been here before and the smell of it frightens me... the smell of the desperations of those in power and the smell of "enough" from the powerless.

damn, she's good...

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The U.S.-Mexico domestic spying story: does anybody remember Echelon? how about Porter Goss and Bob Barr?

i posted last night and earlier today on the story the la times broke yesterday about the u.s. helping to fund mexico's domestic spying effort...

Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail using money from the U.S. government, a move that underlines how the country's conservative government is increasingly willing to cooperate with the United States on law enforcement.

the follow-up post today was due to not having read the times article as thoroughly as i should have and, on a re-read, i picked up on a couple of important points i had missed the first time...

information collected in either country can end up in any hands that either government should decide to put it in, whether it's inside or outside the country, governmental or private sector...

two, this is yet another way to bypass fisa and the 4th amendment and gain access to the the enormous volume of communications traffic between the united states and mexico...

but, still, the story has been nagging at me all day, and i suddenly remembered why... does anybody remember echelon (pdf)...? i've followed echelon off and on for some years and, given the current u.s. domestic spying issue, and now, with the u.s. helping fund mexico's newly-elected conservative president, felipe calderón, to get on the domestic spying bandwagon, it may be time to pay another visit to one of the scarier programs i've heard about...

i've posted several times on echelon in the past (here, here, and here)... here's a sampling...

first this from echelon watch, a site created by the aclu but no longer maintained...

Echelon is perhaps the most powerful intelligence gathering organization in the world. Several credible reports suggest that this global electronic communications surveillance system presents an extreme threat to the privacy of people all over the world. According to these reports, ECHELON attempts to capture staggering volumes of satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic traffic, including communications to and from North America. This vast quantity of voice and data communications are then processed through sophisticated filtering technologies.

This massive surveillance system apparently operates with little oversight. Moreover, the agencies that purportedly run ECHELON have provided few details as to the legal guidelines for the project. Because of this, there is no way of knowing if ECHELON is being used illegally to spy on private citizens.

Menwith Hill, UK

then this from the aclu, may 2001...

Previous inquiries by the European Parliament have resulted in reports detailing the existence of a surveillance system known as ECHELON, which is led by the NSA in conjunction with its counterpart agencies in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. According to the reports, ECHELON has communications receiving stations all over the world and attempts to capture all satellite, microwave, cellular and fiber-optic communications worldwide, including communications to and from North America. Computers then sort through conversations, faxes and emails searching for keywords and other triggers. Communications that include triggers chosen by the intelligence agencies are transcribed and forwarded for further investigation.

[...]

"It appears that the NSA is engaged in a surveillance system of epic proportions," Steinhardt said. "If these reports are true, ECHELON dwarfs the extensive surveillance of Americans already conducted by the FBI and other domestic law enforcement agencies."

and look who pops up back in 1999...

Following recent revelations in Australia and Canada on the international signals intelligence network known as ECHELON, Reps. Porter Goss and Bob Barr have requested access to National Security Agency files concerning the legality of the surveillance system. On May 13, Barr succeeded in attaching a requirement to the Intelligence Authorization Act that would require the National Security Agency, the CIA and the Justice Department to prepare a report on ECHELON for the Congress within 60 days of its enactment. The report would describe the legal standards employed by elements of the Intelligence Community in conducting signals intelligence activities, including electronic surveillance. This would include systems like ECHELON that eavesdrop on international telecommunications. As Barr explained, Congress

is concerned about the privacy rights for American citizens and whether or not there are constitutional safeguards being circumvented by the manner in which the intelligence agencies are intercepting and/or receiving international communications back from foreign nations that would otherwise be prohibited by the prohibitions and the limitations on the collection of domestic intelligence.

anyway, my point is this... IF echelon has been in existence for quite some time (and it appears as though it has), AND the uk, canada, australia, new zealand, and the u.s. are all in bed together, AND the 4th amendment does not prevent information gathered outside the country from being used inside the u.s., AND these five countries are all trading information, that confirms my suspicion that virtually every electronic transaction that any of us make on any network outside of our own personal control, is available for sniffing AND recording - if pattern analysis warrants kicking out a specific transaction to be further analyzed - and that this has been going on at least since the mid-90s...

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Send Scooter to the slam

fitz thinks it would be a good idea that the courts send a "message" about obstruction of justice and lying... i agree...

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby betrayed the public's trust and deserves to spend 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday.

Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and an assistant to President Bush, is the highest-ranking White House official convicted since the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago.

"Particularly in a case such as this, where Mr. Libby was a high-ranking government official whose falsehoods were central to issues in a significant criminal investigation, it is important that this court impose a sentence that accurately reflects the value the judicial system places on truth-telling in criminal investigations," Fitzgerald wrote in court documents.

yes, i know scooter's attorneys are going to ask for no jail time and, yes, i know that sentencing may be deferred until the appeals run out, but, as airtight a case as i believe fitz has, he wouldn't be calling for 2-3 years unless he thought the verdict would be upheld... his argument that the sentence should reflect the seriousness of the crime, while certainly cogent, wouldn't have much weight if it wasn't already in the cards...

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"We are, indeed, a one-party state"

i've been of this opinion for years, but i've tried nonetheless, very diligently, to convince myself that working through our two-party system was the only way to go... i agree with theyrereal at daily kos, the only ones we've been fooling is ourselves...

It's today that I realized that we are, indeed, a one-party state in this country. Oh, we have two official parties, but that's just for show. The reality is that they all work for the same people. Sure, there are different factions and personalities within this all-encompassing group, and granted there might be a few people here and there who doggedly fight the system and actually work for us, but they are VASTLY outnumbered, and more importantly, not taken seriously by the rest of the members of this theatrical group known as the U.S. two-party system.

[...]

I think the happenings of today will result in people finally escaping the fantasy of denial, and see the truth for what it is. That the Dems being an "opposition party" is as fictional as Santa Claus.

Our Democratic Party is a fraud. Our two-party system doesn't exist anymore. Oh, they'll try to tell you it does. Kerry will e-mail you a request to help end the war which links to his "donations" page. So will the others. They still want our money. It's all part of the smoke and mirrors.

[...]

The Democratic Party, by its actions today, has made it abundantly clear who is in charge of the Democratic Party: THE SAME PEOPLE WHO ARE IN CHARGE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

i do happen to believe that there are genuine, honest, authentic, principled people sprinkled in both parties, but that they are the great exception... and, even then, it's really hard to tell when you are seeing someone's true colors... all i know now is this, i don't trust a single goddam one of 'em... that doesn't mean i won't work for someone or something that i THINK may move us out of our morass, but i'm going to do it with my eyes wide open, prepared to bolt at the slightest hint of complicity and collusion... we've simply been burned too often...

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Caging and voter suppression - Greg Palast not only has the goods, he 'splains it all for ya

this is definitive background and most certainly falls into the category of "must-watch..."

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



(thanks to democracy now via les enragés via crooks and liars and courtesy of the brad blog...)

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U.S. Attorney firings - "The Immaculate Termination"

and here ya have it...

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More on joint U.S. and Mexico spying - another way around FISA

some important points i missed last night in my post on the la times article...

• [T]he contract specifications say the system is designed to allow both governments to "disseminate timely and accurate, actionable information to each country's respective federal, state, local, private and international partners."

• [T]he prospect of U.S. involvement in surveillance could be extremely sensitive in Mexico, where the United States historically has been viewed by many as a bullying and intrusive neighbor. U.S. government agents working in Mexico maintain a low profile to spare their government hosts any political fallout.

• Legal experts say that prosecutors with access to Mexican wiretaps could use the information in U.S. courts. U.S. Supreme Court decisions have held that 4th Amendment protections against illegal wiretaps do not apply outside the United States, particularly if the surveillance is conducted by another country, Georgetown University law professor David Cole said.

this tells me several things... one, information collected in either country can end up in any hands that either government should decide to put it in, whether it's inside or outside the country, governmental or private sector... two, this is yet another way to bypass fisa and the 4th amendment and gain access to the the enormous volume of communications traffic between the united states and mexico... and, three, yer goddam right u.s. officials in mexico have to "maintain a low profile..." the mexican people are very fond of americans and love the united states, but they draw a very strong distinction between our people and our government... VERY strong...

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"We do not have it within our power to make the will of America the law of the land"

a quote that will live in infamy...

a cursory glance at today's home pages of the washington post and the new york times show sparse coverage of the intense feelings of anger and disappointment burning through the liberal/progressive grassroots and blogosphere about the dismal performance of what we thought was "our" democratic congressional leadership, the people we elected to the majority in large part to halt the illegal war in iraq...

After Victory on Hill, President Shifts Tone on Iraq

House, Senate Pass Iraq War Funding Measure

Congress Passes War Funds Bill, Ending Impasse

instead, most of the stories seem to take this tack...

[P]arty leaders vowed it was only a temporary setback in their efforts to bring home American troops.

[...]

[B]ackers said the bill's provisions -- including benchmarks for progress that the Iraqi government must meet to continue receiving reconstruction aid -- represented an assertion of congressional authority over the war that was unthinkable a few months ago.

how many times is it possible to hear statements like that before they cease to have any meaning whatsoever...? before, during and after the 2006 elections, the democratic leaders have consistently failed to demonstrate their understanding that the bush presidency is destroying our country, and it's not just about iraq... the actions taken by bush and his criminal colleagues in the past 6 1/2 years call for responses that reflect the utmost urgency but that is never what we hear... instead, we get this...

"We do not have it within our power to make the will of America the law of the land," [Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.)] said.

and there ya have it... the country we've been assured all of our lives was governed "by the people, for the people, and of the people", is nothing of the kind...

and, oh, yeah, opposition did get a few mentions...

• Antiwar groups demanded that Democrats continue pressing for withdrawal dates and bombarded congressional offices with angry phone calls and e-mails in the hours before yesterday's votes.

• Antiwar groups warned lawmakers who supported the spending bill that they could become election targets.

• "We are moving backward," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), a war opponent.

isn't it interesting how "antiwar" can be made to sound like a disparaging epithet rather than something noble...?

and then the unkindest cut of all...

The votes yesterday marked a rare moment of bipartisanship in an otherwise contentious and emotional debate.

i've grown to truly detest that word... it's become synonomous with "complicit..."

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Exporting warrantless spying to Mexico and why Obrador lost the election

amlo (andrés manuel lópez obrador) wouldn't have given the u.s. the time of day on a issue like this... in fact, he probably would have had the u.s. officials who proposed it bodily removed, but i'm sure felipe calderón just rolled over... and, in case anyone had any doubt, THIS is the reason amlo "lost" the mexican presidential election last july (here, here, here, here, here, and here), the reason you can be SURE the u.s. had a hand in his defeat, and WHY the u.s. was so intent on installing a conservative mexican president...

Mexico is expanding its ability to tap telephone calls and e-mail using money from the U.S. government, a move that underlines how the country's conservative government is increasingly willing to cooperate with United States on law enforcement.

The expansion comes as President Felipe Calderon is pushing to amend Mexico's constitution to allow officials to tap phones without a judge's approval in some cases.

Mexican authorities for years have been able to wiretap most telephone conversations and tap into e-mail, but the new $3 million Communications Intercept System being installed by Mexico's Federal Investigative Agency would expand its reach.

The system would allow authorities to track cell-phone users as they travel, according to the contract specifications. It would include extensive storage capacity and allow authorities to identify callers by voice. The system, scheduled to begin operation within the next month, was paid for by the U.S. State Department and sold by Verint Systems Inc., a politically connected company based in Melville, N.Y., that specializes in electronic surveillance.

Documents describing the upgrade suggest that the U.S. government could have access to information derived from the surveillance. Officials of both governments declined to comment on that possibility.

disgusting...

(thanks to talkleft...)

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I am not a sports fan, never have been, never will be, but this says it for me

dear democratic leadership...



best regards,

profmarcus

(thanks to crooks and liars...)

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Calling patriotic Americans of good will

i'm going to go out on a limb here, but, hey...!

here's a list of issues i compiled during a random, 15-minute stroll through four progressive/liberal blogs i read regularly...

Think Progress

Iraq
ethics
truth in media
intelligence
immigration
women
health care
judiciary
terrorism

TPMmuckraker

U.S. Attorneys
George Bush
Monica Goodling

AMERICAblog

Iraq
George Bush
gay
insurance
U.S. Attorneys
consumer protection
FDA
Mary Cheney

Daily Kos

Iraq war
Iraq supplemental
Democrats
Racism
Fox News
Black Caucus
2008 elections
primaries
debate

only ONE person on ONE site talked about this...

general strike
moratorium
protest

and NOBODY on ANY site mentioned this...

The United States Constitution

i'm going to make a radical proposition... since we - meaning those of us who are seriously concerned with the direction of our country as charted by the bush administration - are scattered all over the map issue-wise, and our efforts are likewise no doubt seriously splintered, i propose that we unite behind something that we ALL share as an overriding priority - THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION... the constitution, more than anything else, is the guts of who we are as a nation, and it has been under unrelenting attack, not only for the past 6 1/2 years of the bush administration, but, truth be told, for far longer than that... if we would all pull together with the constitution as our rallying cry, accept that it's the single most important, most urgent thing we could possibly be fighting for, and that bringing it back to life would make addressing all those other issues ever so much easier, wouldn't that be worthwhile...?

i envision a cross-country march, starting at the golden gate bridge, citizens joining at every stop, working our way across country, city-by-city, state-by-state, with nothing but copies of the constitution in our hands, until, numbering in the hundreds and hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of people, highways and byways literally choked with masses of humanity, we arrive in washington d.c., where we demand a return to the principles embodied in that precious document, and where we won't leave until the unconstitutional practices of torture, extraordinary rendition, warrantless domestic wiretapping, waging of illegal wars, manipulative signing statements, and the like are formally renounced, and the perpetrators hounded from office...

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The Iraq bill passes both houses - a pox on both of them

a twin disgrace of epic proportions...

first in the house...

In a 280-142 vote, the House passed a $120-billion Iraq war funding bill that contains no timeline to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.

then in the senate...

[T]he Senate has passed the $100 billion Iraq war spending bill 80-14.

commenter...

HUGE miscalculation on these military complex enabling Dems. They grieviously misunderstood they are complicit in the crime of our generation and no amount of drivel and rationalization can erase that cold hard fact.

not that i didn't expect it, but i'm ill nonetheless...

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Very cool...! Ron Paul prepares a reading list for Rudy

it's one thing to say something, be attacked for it, and then refute the attack... it's another thing entirely to refute the attack AND provide a solid, irrefutable stack of reading material to back up your original statement...

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on Thursday gave front-runner Rudy Giuliani a list of foreign-policy books to back up his contention that attacks by Islamic militants are fueled by the U.S. presence in the Middle East," Andy Sullivan reports for Reuters. "I'm giving Mr. Giuliani a reading assignment," the nine-term Texas congressman said as he stood behind a stack of books that included the report by the commission that examined the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

[...]

The "Reading for Rudy" list includes Chalmers Johnson's Blowback, Robert A. Pape's Dying to Win, and Michael Scheuer's Imperial Hubris, along with the 9-11 Commission Report.

paul also prepared brief excerpts from each as a kind of "executive summary", or, as paul termed it, "cliff's notes", in case rudy found himself short of time...

if i was in rudy's shoes, i would be thoroughly humiliated, but i would imagine his ego probably prevents him from even recognizing the depth of the insult... maybe paul could provide some humility guidelines to go along with the books and the cliff's notes...

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Help Russ end the war? Sure, why not.

nothing ventured...

Dear Friend,

The latest version of the Iraq Supplemental Appropriations Bill is scheduled to come to a vote this week and I will not support it. It is a toothless measure that gives a blank check to the President and does nothing to end our involvement in Iraq.

We've made great strides in recent weeks and months in our combined effort to end one of the biggest mistakes in the history of our country and redeploy our brave men and women out of Iraq. That said, the President and some members of Congress, from both sides of the aisle, still haven't acknowledged the message the American people sent last November.

Last week the Feingold-Reid bill that would use Congress's 'power of the purse' to end the war in Iraq was voted on in the Senate. The procedural vote was another step forward in our effort. It put the majority of Senate Democrats on record calling for a firm end date for this misguided war, and I'm already looking for the next opportunity to push this important legislation forward. I'm continuing to fight every step of the way and today I'm asking you once again to help spread the message that the time for the war in Iraq to end is now.

Today, the Progressive Patriots Fund is launching a new online effort to promote awareness of my legislation and encourage individual initiative in reversing the reckless leadership President Bush has demonstrated through his Iraq policy.

[...]

Together, we can harness the power of the online community and force Congress to use its constitutional power to end this disastrous war.

Thank you for all of your support and for standing with me time and time again.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

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A Brief Word on Immigration

I have been accused, by people who have asked my opinion on this extremely sensitive issue, of being a pro-business NeoCon.
People who know me know otherwise.

Why?

I can't think of this subject without the following fourteen lines coming into my mind first:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Only a great Republic could live up to these words.Thanks to Emily Lazarus for writing The New Colossus in 1883. You can read a little about her at this site.

When I see all the bad things happening around the world and so much of originates from our own govt, I sometimes lose faith. That's when I read this and I am filled again with pride in America.

I first read this at the feet of the Great Lady when I was a boy.

Whenever I read it, I am also reminded why so many want to come here. We need them. They are Americans that haven't made it home, yet.

All they really need to do is knock on the door first and introduce themselves, and I think we would all welcome them. We are, after all, a warm welcoming people.
Remember, the Constitution must apply to all of us, or it applies to none of us.

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Subpoenas! Now with IMMUNITY!

a good laugh is definitely in order...

I've been forgetting that I've forgotten things which means I was remembering things that hadn't happened yet! It's starting to freak me out!

(thanks to john at americablog...)

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Obstruction of justice and perjury: a two-fer for Gonzo?

obstruction of justice and perjury were the two thoughts that kept circulating in my head while watching monica’s testimony yesterday… (of course, both have been circulating in my head for months about damn near every stonewalling action undertaken by the criminals that call themselves our country’s leaders…)

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) ... said “it is surprising how often a whiff of obstruction of justice has reared its head in the course of this investigation,” adding that the “standard of impropriety that Kyle Sampson and the attorney general and the Department of Justice, through its public spokesmen, have defined is, in effect — tracks almost exactly the standard for criminal obstruction of justice.”

[...]

Gonzales may also be guilty of lying under oath. His conversation with Goodling took place on either March 14 or 15, a week after Goodling found out that she was going to testify before the House committee. Yet on May 10, Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had “not gone back and spoken directly with…others who are involved in this process.”

here’s hoping the damn congress will start to move expeditiously and stop their goddam pussyfooting around…

(thanks to think progress...)

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“See, people have got to understand..." Earth to George: we DO understand

i think the american people very clearly understand the situation in iraq, and, moreover, are also coming to understand the massive criminal undertaking that has characterized the bush administration's 6 1/2 years in office...

Americans now view the war in Iraq more negatively than at any time since the war began, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Six in 10 Americans surveyed say the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, and more than three in four say that things are going badly there — including nearly half who say things are going very badly, the poll found.

Still, the majority of Americans support continuing to finance the war, as long as the Iraqi government meets specific goals.

President Bush’s approval ratings remain near the lowest point of his more than six years in office. Thirty percent of poll respondents approve of the job he’s doing overall, while 63 percent disapprove. Majorities of those polled disapprove of Mr. Bush’s handling of the situation in Iraq, of foreign policy, of immigration, of the economy and of the campaign against terrorism.

but our president is not going to budge... no sirree...

At a news conference in the Rose Garden this morning, President Bush seemed to acknowledge the erosion of public support for his administration’s policy in Iraq, even as he defended the policy. “Failure in Iraq affects the security of this country,” he said. “And it’s hard for some Americans to see that. I fully understand it. I see it clearly.”

Mr. Bush said he saw a need for “more of a national discussion” on “the consequences of failure in Iraq.”

“See, people have got to understand that if that government were to fall, the people would tend to divide into kind of sectarian enclaves much more so than today,” he said. “That would invite Iranian influence and would invite Al Qaeda influence, much more so than in Iraq today.”Beyond the war issue, the poll found widespread concern over the nation’s overall direction. More Americans — 72 percent — now say that “generally, things in the country are seriously off on the wrong track” than at any time since the Times/CBS News poll began asking the question in 1983. The figure had been in the high 60’s earlier this year.

i believe that, more than any other time in our nation's history, american citizens - you, me and everyone else who truly cares about our country - must rise up and be heard... it's obviously not enough to express ourselves in polls, blogs, letters to the editor, faxes, phone calls, emails, or, as we are finding out to our horror, in the voting booth... the country is crying out for a leader to step forward, someone who can command a national platform, someone with credibility, someone untarnished, someone who can serve as a catalyst, someone willing to galvanize the nation into action... we can't wait... is anybody out there...? please...?

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I believe that the Bush administration welcomes terrorism

there could be no other explanation for the strategy the administration has consistently followed... fanning the flames of anti-american sentiment through the continuing occupation of iraq serves many objectives - keeping the fear threshold high, running the defense and armaments machine at full speed, retaining the prerogatives of a wartime commander-in-chief, allowing the construction of military bases and the embassy complex to move forward, staying in control of iraqi energy resources, and insuring that swollen rivers of cash are flowing into the right pockets...

Thursday morning CBS News's Early Show criticized President Bush's latest justification for the Iraq War as being the first line of defense against al Qaeda, by citing an upcoming Senate Intelligence Committee report which states that the administration was warned before the invasion that a US presence in Iraq would actually increase terrorist influence.

[...]

When asked directly, "Is the United States winning the war on terror?" [analyst Paul Kurtz] immediately responded, "without a doubt no" and added that "our continued engagement in Iraq is spawning more terrorist activity."

in bushco's view, what's NOT to like about an ever-increasing threat of terrorism...?

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A glimpse into the daily life of Baghdad

US Army soldiers from D Company of the 2-12 Cavalry from Fort Bliss, Texas, conduct house to house reconnaissance in the most dangerous city in the world.

put yourself in the place of that woman and her children... this is the kind of perspective most of us never get and, now that riverbend and her family are leaving the country (most likely have already left), those of us who try to get more are left with the tremendous vacuum our bought and paid for media maintain on descriptions of REAL iraqis living their lives...

spiegel offers up a series of narrative snapshots compiled by four iraqis and describes a day in the world's most dangerous city through their eyes... here's one of them...

It's Sunday, May 13 -- 1,496 days after the US military invaded the country. Another day begins for the 5 million residents of a city that was once the most advanced in the Arab world. Those days are long gone. Today Baghdad is a nightmare -- the world's most horrible city.

According to press reports, at least 35 people died in Baghdad on May 13, 2007, and dozens were injured. But no one will ever know exactly how many people have died since March 2003, when the war began. Baghdad is a city in which life lost its value long ago, a place where no one really knows how many murders, kidnappings and rapes the war has in fact brought to the city.

[...]

6:00 a.m., ISKAN

Imad, the body collector, is awakened by the sun. He unrolls his small rug and says his morning prayers, then he reads from the Koran. It is important to him to know that God is at his side because his work could cost him his life at any time. Imad, a former taxi driver, now makes a living driving bodies. He finds them and recovers them when their families are unable to. It's a good business. He is 39, a thin, nervous-looking man with a black beard and coarse hands. He lives in Iskan, a poor, crowded neighborhood near downtown Baghdad. Since Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi militia assumed control, only Shiites live in the district. Imad's house is tiny: four rooms on two floors. He sleeps in one of the upper rooms and his mother and two sisters sleep in the other one. Imad is single and says he is too busy to look for a wife.

it's worth reading the whole thing...

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The NYT op-ed conclusions on Monica's testimony: "an odd witness"

three strikes, YER OUT...!

• Ms. Goodling admitted to politicizing the Justice Department in ways that certainly seem illegal;

• [S]he made clear that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lied at a critical point in the investigation;

• [S]he gave Congress all the reason it needs to compel Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, to testify about what they know.

and, oddly enough...

Ms. Goodling was an odd witness. She was one of the most powerful officials in the Justice Department, but claimed to be a minor player who barely knew what was going on around her. “At heart, I am a fairly quiet girl, who tries to do the right thing and tries to treat people kindly along the way,” said the 33-year-old Ms. Goodling. She presented herself as an innocent, yet testified only under immunity and admitted to apparently illegal practices.

The only people odder than Ms. Goodling were the House Republicans who rushed to praise her. Even in these partisan times, a Justice Department official who admitted to her level of wrongdoing ought to draw bipartisan condemnation.

the part of her testimony i found most peculiar is when she denied speaking with karl rove or harriet miers about the u.s. attorneys while holding the position of doj liaison to the white house,...

To the best of my recollection, I’ve never had a conversation with Karl Rove or Harriet Miers while I served at the Department of Justice. And I’m certain that I never spoke to either of them about the hiring or firing of any U.S. attorney.

as think progress points out...

Alberto Gonzales instituted the White House Judicial Selection Committee in the first weeks of the administration. Harriet Miers chaired the meetings once Gonzales left for the Department of Justice. Karl Rove is a member of the committee.

odd indeed...

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The return of the ugly (and stupid) American

i don't ordinarily post on silliness or voyeurism (unless it concerns our elected officials, of course), but i couldn't pass this one by...

A naked American tourist raised eyebrows when he went for a walk through a German city and told police he thought this was acceptable behavior in Germany.

"We have been having unusually hot weather here lately but, all the same, we can't have this," a spokesman for police in the southern city of Nuremberg said Tuesday. "The man said he thought walking around naked was tolerated in Germany."

Many Germans enjoy nude sunbathing which is allowed in public parks. The 41-year-old was carrying his clothes in a bag when police stopped him Monday evening after complaints from pedestrians.

the fact that i would even be familiar with the term "ugly american" is a dead giveaway to my advancing age... it was widely used in the 60s and even into the 70s as an expression of derision... in my travels, it invariably comes to mind as i watch the antics of some of my fellow countrymen interacting with foreign cultures... fortunately, it's nowhere near the problem it used to be, and, in fact, japanese tourists seem to be the present-day heirs to the behavior it describes...

Ugly American is an epithet used to refer to perceptions of arrogant, demeaning, unthoughtful behaviors of Americans abroad. The term originated as the title of a 1958 book by authors William Lederer and Eugene Burdick, reprinted in 1999, The Ugly American. The film adaptation of the novel came out in 1963, directed by George Englund and starring Marlon Brando. Englund was nominated for a Golden Globe award as director of the film.

obviously, the gentleman (and i use the term loosely) never bothered to find out where and when nudism would be appropriate in germany, and the fact that he would consider it ok on a city street suggests either profound ignorance or flasher tendencies - or both...

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Paulson, Wu Yi, Strategic Economic Dialogue on China, and press spin

here's reuters' take on the strategic economic dialogue meetings between treasury secretary henry paulson and chinese vice premier wu yi...

The United States and China struck civil aviation and financial sector access deals on Wednesday but they made no headway on the divisive issue of Chinese currency reform, stoking anger on Capitol Hill.

Lawmakers said they would move ahead with proposals to slap tariffs on Chinese imports because of Beijing's reluctance to redress the huge trade imbalance between the economic giants with a revaluation of the yuan.

The anger in Congress overshadowed U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's claim of "tangible results" in the second leg of a "strategic economic dialogue" with Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi.

Wu, for her part, said the "complicated" relations between Washington and Beijing needed careful handling and cautioned against retaliatory steps.

[...]

The most concrete outcome of the talks was a deal committing China to remove a bar on new foreign securities firms and resume issuing licenses for securities companies, including joint ventures, in the second half of 2007.

That was a coup for former Goldman Sachs chairman Paulson, who has made gaining greater access to the Chinese financial sector a key objective.

other than reporting on "no headway on currency reform", a reference to "anger in congress", and quoting madame wu yi's statement that relations were "complicated" and commenting on not taking "retaliatory steps", there was no mention of this...

Wow. Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson just about did everything wrong but spit on Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi today at the premature wrap-up of the Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) meeting in Washington.

that was steve clemons in the washington note who then offered this from chris nelson's subscription-only nelson report...

"Results", with one or two exceptions, either were minimal, or not what Secretary Paulson seemed to expect. And at the closing press conference, the Chinese didn't even pretend they had had a good time. Madam Wu Yi read her statement, and walked off. No pretence of a friendly hug for the US side.

[...]

One normally hesitates to ascribe too much to the theater of body language, but here's something that just bashes you right between the eyes: Paulson, the guy with 72 private trips to China, all that hands-on experience, he who told the White House, State and USTR not to worry, that he would be the China Guy in this Administration...at the closing press conference, Paulson stalked in, well ahead of Wu Yi, and then started reading his statement before she even reached the podium.

Excuse me? An American or European would have cold-cocked the President for such calculated rudeness! In China (Japan, Korea, etc.) you watch older married couples walk into someplace. . .the husband is 10 feet in front, and the subservient wife is dutifully plodding behind. You think for one minute that elderly maiden lady Wu Yi didn't catch the insult here?

Or, are you telling us Paulson didn't mean it, that he was so focused on reading his prepared statement he didn't think? NONSENSE. This was a calculated act of rudeness which told everyone in the room, and anyone watching on TV, that a major failure had taken place.

Further evidence of a Paulson snit. . .he seemed to go out of his way to be rude to an Asian journalist, who had to ask him four times, in very good english, something about the N. Korea/Macao money problems Treasury is having with State (see separate item in tonight's Report). Paulson pretended not to be able to understand what everyone else in the room got the first time.

why does this sound so familiar...? could it be that high-handed, boorish arrogance is REQUIRED for bush administration high-level political appointees...? what else seems to ring a bell...? oh, yeah... no mention of paulson's boorishness in the media...

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Repub Writings Justify Impeachment

I ran across this some years ago (1/99). It was an argument written to justify the impeachment of Clinton. I find it a compelling argument for the impeachment of Bush, although I doubt it was intended for this use by the author or his quoted sources, as you will read.

(Original courtesy of Jon Roland, The Constitution Society)

[...]

The problem is that the grounds for impeachment specified in the Constitution at Art. II Sec. 4, "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors", is not limited to criminal offenses against which there are laws. The phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors", as explained by Ann Coulter in her recent book entitled "High Crimes and Misdemeanors", is a term of art that includes many offenses that are not criminally or civilly actionable but are, nevertheless, grounds for impeachment and removal from office.

For once, Ann Coulter says something useful and not offensive. The next part is very useful today.

[...]

He is ultimately responsible for any failures of his subordinates or for their violations of the Constitution and the rights of persons committed by them.
(emphasis added)

Gonzales and the Senate, this part is just for you. Legal or not, Little Georgy is the Captain of this sinking ship and he must bear the responsibility.

[...]

It is sufficient to show, on the preponderance of evidence, that the president was aware of misconduct on the part of his subordinates, and failed to do all he could to remedy the misconduct, including termination and prosecution of the subordinate and compensation for his victims or their heirs. His subordinates include everyone in the executive branch, and their agents and contractors. It is not limited to those over whom he has direct supervision. And he is not protected by "plausible deniability". He is legally responsible for knowing what everyone in the executive branch is doing.

My Republican associates rightly conclude the following....

[...]

The impeachment and removal process should be a debate on the entire field of proven and suspected misconduct by federal officials and agents under this president, and if judged to have been excessive by reasonable standards, to be grounds for removal, even if direct complicity cannot be shown.

Like I said, I don't think John Roland, Ann Coulter, or Ken Starr would appreciate having their work revisited at such an inconvenient moment. It was intended for a President who was only guilty of engaging in questionable personal behavior and having extremely questionable taste in the company he kept, and continues to keep. However, it is a powerful argument for impeachment.

I invite everyone to read the entire document and forward it to your respective Congressional Rep. The behavior and investigations Roland refers to seem so paltry compared to the crimes occurring today.

For my part, as of today, I renounce my affiliation with the Republican Party and I will not join the spineless Democratic Party. I have no respect left for either of these organizations after today's' events. I expect that neither of them will do a thing to save our Republic.

If you cast a vote for a Republican or Democrat, you are throwing your vote away.

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Stop The War

olbermann's special comment... extraordinarily powerful...



(click to play - wmv)

(thanks to crooks and liars...)

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Olbermann Special Comment tonight: "Compromised"

looks like he's going to tell it like it is...

Keith Olbermann will deliver a Special Comment tonight on the "compromise" struck between the Democratic leadership and the White House over the latest troop funding bill...

Here's a preview...

"The Democratic leadership has, in sum, claimed a compromise with the Administration, in which the only things truly compromised are the trust of the voters, the ethics of the Democrats, and the lives of our brave, and doomed, friends, and family, in Iraq.

You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions - Stop The War - have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you… for a handful of magic beans."

(from msnbc via think progress...)

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Conyers and Lee: remarks post-Monica

via cnn pipeline...

chairman conyers...

• We need to talk to Karl Rove.

• Possible obstruction of justice and perjury.

• Ms. Goodling was very helpful.

• My Republican colleagues say nothing has been done wrong. PLENTY has gone wrong!

• There's a lot of explaining for Mr. Gonzales and Mr. McNulty to do.

• It's imperative that we get Kyle Sampson before the House Judiciary Committee.

• It's very clear to us that without [Monica Goodling's] testimony, we wouldn't have all these other leads to follow-up. ... I find her credible.

• Stay tuned. This is the "breadcrumb theory" of investigation.
  

congresswoman lee...

• All roads lead to the White House.

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The christian fundamentalist extremist domestic terrorist

max blumenthal offers an in-depth analysis...

[Mark David] Uhl was an a devout evangelical Christian who advocated religious violence in the name of American nationalism. Uhl's blog, featured on his Myspace page, offers a window into the political underpinnings of his bomb plot. In one post, Uhl implores Christians to die on the battlefield for "Uncle Sam." He justifies his call to arms by quoting several Biblical passages and reminding his readers that the "gift of God" is eternal life.

"Christians, we have been given life after death and we should help others receive it and not sit here in our big buildings and sing to ourselves so we can go home and feel good about ourselves," Uhl writes. "Christians, fear of death, fear of death. The fear of death shows you don't believe."

Uhl concludes, "God needs soldiers to fight so his children may live free. Are you afraid??? I'm not. SEND ME!!! "

Uhl's imploration sounds eerily like the battle-cries of another, more notorious religious radical: Osama bin-Laden. Consider what bin-Laden told the Independent in 1993. "`I was never afraid of death... As Muslims, we believe that when we die, we go to heaven. Before a battle, God sends us... tranquility."

Christian right leaders from the late Falwell to James Dobson have turned Muslim-bashing into a cottage industry, using the words of bin-Laden and his acolytes to allege that Islam is an inherently violent religion that "breeds" terrorism.

THIS is a clear case study of domestic terrorism... had uhl been a muslim, all the resources of the media nationwide would have been dedicated to covering it non-stop for at least three days... but since it's a christian fundamentalist extremist, no-o-o-o-o-oooo...

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Suing the White House over the missing emails

this is good... this is very good...

CREW’s suit is based on a FOIA request filed with the OA on March 29, 2007 for records regarding the over five million missing emails. Although on April 27, 2007, the OA agreed to expedite CREW’s FOIA request, the OA has yet to provide CREW with so much as a single document.

According to confidential sources, the OA created documents that detail the exact dates for which the over five million emails are missing and that analyzed the scope of the problem. CREW has learned that there is also a political assessment of the harm to public perception of the White House if it became known so many emails had disappeared. In addition, the requested documents include plans CREW was told were presented almost two years ago to restore the missing emails, but were never acted on.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today, “This White House has decided to play an unlawful game of high-tech hide and seek with the American public. Thus far, CREW has learned that the Administration has both lost five million White House emails and pro-actively tried to cover up the loss. CREW has sued the Office of Administration to shine a spotlight on these reckless and possibly illegal activities and to restore these records for the benefit of future generations.”

keep pushing for accountability... keep pushing, pushing, pushing...

(thanks to raw story...)

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De-funding the troops is SUPPORTING them, not abandoning them

this is simply too good, too commonsensical, too articulate and too powerful not to grab whole cloth from meteor blades at daily kos...

glenn greenwald...

What does seem clear is that one of the principal factors accounting for the reluctance of Democrats to advocate de-funding is that the standard corruption that infects our political discourse has rendered the de-funding option truly radioactive. Republicans and the media have propagated -- and Democrats have frequently affirmed -- the proposition that to de-fund a war is to endanger the "troops in the field."

This unbelievably irrational, even stupid, concept has arisen and has now taken root -- that to cut off funds for the war means that, one day, our troops are going to be in the middle of a vicious fire-fight and suddenly they will run out of bullets -- or run out of gas or armor -- because Nancy Pelosi refused to pay for the things they need to protect themselves, and so they are going to find themselves in the middle of the Iraq war with no supplies and no money to pay for what they need. That is just one of those grossly distorting, idiotic myths the media allows to become immovably lodged in our political discourse and which infects our political analysis and prevents any sort of rational examination of our options.

That is why virtually all political figures run away as fast and desperately as possible from the idea of de-funding a war -- it's as though they have to strongly repudiate de-funding options because de-funding has become tantamount to "endangering our troops" (notwithstanding the fact that Congress has de-funded wars in the past and it is obviously done in coordination with the military and over a scheduled time frame so as to avoid "endangering the troops").

right on...

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Davis is nailing Gonzales to the wall

congressman artur davis of alabama - repeatedly...

Is that statement of General Gonzales accurate or inaccurate?

goodling - repeatedly...

Inaccurate.

so naturally, goodling's attorney tries to bring it to a halt, and now monica wants an attorney consultation...

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"Would an excess of loyalty be a reason to be fired?"

that was a question from adam schiff (d-ca)... goodling's answer...

That would not be my call to make.

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Listening to Bush's speech at the Coast Guard Academy

9/11, al qaeda, 9/11, al qaeda, 9/11, al qaeda, 9/11, al qaeda, 9/11, al qaeda, 9/11, al qaeda, taliban, 9/11, al qaeda, democracy, 9/11, al qaeda, guantánamo, taliban, 9/11, al qaeda, terrorists, 9/11, guantánamo, al qaeda, terrorists, 9/11, al qaeda, weapons of mass destruction in iraq, 9/11, al qaeda, democracy, 9/11, al qaeda, iran, iraq, iran, more troops, iraq, iraq oil law, peace, iraq, 9/11, al qaeda, democracy, 9/11, al qaeda, iraq, defeat al qaeda in iraq, war on terror in iraq, al qaeda, terrorists, bin laden, bin laden, al qaeda, iraq, guantánamo, al qaeda, bin laden, victory in iraq, iraq, follow us home, bin laden, follow us home, victory in iraq, zarqawi, bin laden, terrorists, al qaeda, terrorists, iraq, al qaeda, keep pressure on the enemy, al qaeda, dangerous, terrorists, iraq, al qaeda, high-profile attacks, increased risks to our troops, essential to our security, al qaeda, attack america, the enemy in vietnam couldn't follow us home, must fight them there or fight them here, al qaeda, will we do what it takes, we must win, al qaeda, public enemy number one, al qaeda, defeat al qaeda in iraq, 9/11 was downpayment on violence yet to come, al quada, danger hasn't passed, eye of storm, winds could reach our shores at any moment...

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Turning to the U.N. for Iraq help

oh, man... after dissing the u.n. before, during and AFTER the illegal invasion of iraq, lying to the security council about iraq wmd, sending john "raging bull" bolton to take it down from the inside, and, in general, choosing to impugn the opportunities to engage in multilateral, global efforts, bush NOW wants u.n. help to fix the unparalleled disaster HE created...?

The Bush administration is developing plans to "internationalise" the Iraq crisis, including an expanded role for the United Nations, as a way of reducing overall US responsibility for Iraq's future and limiting domestic political fallout from the war as the 2008 election season approaches.

The move comes amid rising concern in Washington that President George Bush's controversial Baghdad security surge, led by the US commander, General David Petraeus, is not working and that Iran is winning the clandestine battle for control of Iraq.

actually, i think this is the first iraq option i've heard that actually makes some sense, if and only if it is accompanied by u.s. withdrawal... do i think it is going to happen...? read this and then ask the question again...

[A] former senior administration official who is familiar with administration thinking, predicted Mr Bush would instead ask Congress to agree a six-month extension of the surge after Gen Petraeus presented his "progress report" in early September.

and now that bush has a blank check, why would we expect anything different...?

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"I wanted to insure they were ideologically compatible."

i do believe i heard that right...?!?!

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"I have never attended a meeting of the White House Judicial Selection Committee."

oh, REALLY...!

The attorney general and Kyle Sampson attended those meetings. To the best of my recollection, I’ve never had a conversation with Karl Rove or Harriet Miers while I served at the Department of Justice. And I’m certain that I never spoke to either of them about the hiring or firing of any U.S. attorney.

Alberto Gonzales instituted the White House Judicial Selection Committee in the first weeks of the administration. Harriet Miers chaired the meetings once Gonzales left for the Department of Justice. Karl Rove is a member of the committee.

so, since you were white house liaison and DIDN'T have any conversations with Rove and Miers, who DID have the conversations...?

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She took the 5th Amendment on the very first question

good lord... is that simply procedural...?

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Monica's up

the hearing is just starting and i'm watching via cnn pipeline... let's see what happens...

you can also watch here on cspan 3...

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What's the only REAL difference between the Dems and the R's?

with the dems, there's no sand in the vaseline...

i expect to hear a lot more of this bullshit... but, you know what...? i don't give a crap... i've had it with sausage-making and political strategy... we're way past that...

The real issue is does the anti-war progressive base know what it is doing? Is it focused on making sure that Democrats win the White House in '08 and keep control of both houses of Congress? Or is it focused on a genuinely radical anti-corporate, anti-imperial, anti-globalization long term agenda for which the fate of Democrats in '08 is just an incidental tactical issue?

[...]

What House Democrats are trying to guarantee is this: the Iraq war belongs to Bush and the Republican Party now -- and so it must when the election of 2008 rolls around. That's what they want to guarantee above all else.

sorry... i don't care... sweeping the dems into office in '08 isn't going to accomplish a goddam thing... i've harbored my suspicions that the only difference between the dems and the r's was the amount of money paid for golf club memberships... now, i'm not so sure there's even THAT much difference...

and, no, the war does NOT belong to the r's now... the dems just bought a controlling share... we are in the middle of the worst constitutional crisis in the nation's history, trapped in an illegal war by an administration who's destroying the foundations of the republic in its headlong pursuit of power and money, and the democrats are throwing up their hands and saying, "gosh, what's a body to do...?" i can tell 'em what they can do, but it isn't fit to put in print...

oh, btw, did i mention that i'm INCREDIBLY PISSED...?

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Dontcha think it's time to act?

is THIS what we want...?



cuz, like it or not, it's what we've GOT...

in an earlier post i said, "the pot is starting to boil and, when it does, look out..." a commenter responded with this...

Look out for friggin' WHAT, exactly?? We're all in our seperate little holes looking at our screens and bitching and moaning. Back in the 60's before people had individual and seperate access to information, they had to COME TOGETHER. It looked a lot more impressive than a zillion comments on a blog.

HERE'S what the pot starting to boil looks like...

from opol on daily kos...

• We snoozed when we should have been marching. We voted when we should have been screaming. We dropped the ball, we swallowed too much bullshit, we allowed people to tell us to be patient and accept that all we’d ever be offered is the choice between two evils – the greater and the lesser. And all the while our world has predictably grown more and more evil.
• We’ve listened raptly to insincere politicians who only sought to manipulate us in the course of playing their little power games. We’ve selflessly volunteered our money, our time, and our talents only to be promptly betrayed once the critter gets into office. They just lie their asses off to us while doing the bidding of their corporate masters. They scarcely even try to hide it anymore.
• We’ve all seen America’s considerable promise sucked out of her by the greedheads and criminals who have infiltrated our government and subverted the people’s will. This nation is at a moment of crisis unlike any it has ever seen. This is the moment when we will either save our country or watch it go down the drain.
• It’s time to organize in opposition to the government. It’s time for non-violent revolution. It’s time to take it to the streets – like we did back in the day.
• There’s no point in discussing abandoning the Democratic Party – they’ve abandoned us. They’ve done nothing but screw us at every turn ever since we helped put them in power back in November.
• Let’s get it going. Let’s get organized. It’s time to rise up and take our country back.

from jim burke, a contributor to this blog...

I think we need to start some targeted civil disobedience aimed at the wallets of the fat cats. I have proposed in the past that on a local level, we can all have a tremendous economic impact with very minimal effort.

Only a couple of dozen dedicated Americans can shut down an Intermodal Shipping Terminal by just gathering at the entrances.

These terminals transfer freight from around the world via truck, train, and ships.
They exist everywhere now. Some just do two forms, say truck and train at inland locations. I live in the N.E. My problem is which one to chose, there are so many.

What is the point, I hear you ask.

The point is this. By spending just a few hours on a Saturday afternoon preventing trucks from moving freely in and out of the terminal, it will cost the shippers and their customers several hundred thousand dollars per terminal!

If you do this all over the country, the business community will go nuts and start to complain to the Gov't they own.

When they ask why we are doing this, simply say that we want the war to end. Unconditional surrender of the Administration and Congress to our demands. Otherwise, the next Saturday, bring a chair and a bottle of water and pretend your a hunk of granite in the road.

Don't be suprised if some of us eventually wind up getting arrested.

A small price to pay, to save our tax money.

A very small price to pay to save our Nation.

A very, very small price to pay, to save the life of a Soldier.

THIS is what the pot starting to boil looks like...

if not us, who...? if not now, when...?

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Wait, wait! According to the WaPo's David Ignatius, we're TALKING to Iran

help me, i'm so confused... this morning, i read this in the wapo op-ed by david ignatius about the "new" bush administration push to develop a "post-surge" policy in iraq...

The new policy would seek to anchor future Iraqi security in a regional structure that would be a continuation of the "neighbors" talks begun this month at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. To make that structure work, the administration is talking with Iran and Syria in what officials hope will become a serious dialogue about how to stabilize Iraq.

now, i read this...

This evening, ABC’s World News Tonight reported that the “United States has opened a new front in its showdown with Iran.” According to the report, President Bush has directed the CIA to carry out covert operations both inside and outside Iran “aimed directly at weakening the Iranian regime.”

and this...

The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a “nonlethal presidential finding” that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran’s currency and international financial transactions.

i just don't know who to believe any more... what's a body to do...?

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On the dropping of the Iraq timelines

ooooooo... there are some REALLY, REALLY pissed off people out there, and who can blame them...?

from the nyt via think progress...

Congressional Democrats relented today on their insistence that a war spending measure sought by President Bush also set a date for withdrawing troops from Iraq. The decision to back down, described by senior lawmakers and aides, was a wrenching reversal for some Democrats, who saw their election triumph as a call to force an end to the war. A Democratic effort to include timelines prompted Mr. Bush’s veto of the original bill last month, producing a political impasse.

Senator Harry Reid of Nevada talked to reporters today about the Iraq spending bill.

“We don’t have a veto-proof Congress,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader.

Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the House Democratic majority leader, said the new bill was still being assembled, but he acknowledged the political reality facing Democrats. “The president has made it very clear that he is not going to sign timelines,” said Mr. Hoyer. “We can’t pass timelines over his veto.”

a sampling of some of the first comments to the think progress post...

• Pathetic. It’s time for IMPEACHMENT.
• I agree, it’s pathetic that Bush won’t accept the will of the people! ITMFA!
• To the leadership of the Democratic Party. “No Balls” You should’ve kept fighting. The people demanded it. You’re nothing but appeasers at this point.
• Ugh. All the MSM will talk about is this. Wonder if they’ll even mention THIS: Bomb Plot Thwarted at Falwell’s Funeral Aimed Towards Protesters.
• The city of Detroit voted over the last week to tell Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. So, too, did the Massachusetts Democratic Party and the Vermont Progressive Party. Here in Wisconsin, the Walworth County Democratic Party did the same, reminding us that even in the more conservative parts of this state, there are still believers in the rule of law.
• very very depressing…. But, this may cause the most anti war candidates to go to the top of the line.
• I feel Betrayed. I believe time has come for a Three Party political system in this country.
• That just SUCKS. What a f*cking waste–don’t they understand why they were elected in November? They might as well just shove their collective heads up Bush’s ass and have done with.
• God forbid the Dem leadership stand up to a politically weak and overwhelmingly unpopular President.
• That the Dem leadership pitched the libs over the side in order to suck up to the GOP leadership is vile beyond words. The Dem leadership is far too interested in the likes of what Joe Lieberman thinks about this war, as opposed to what their voters think of this occupation. At this point, anyone who still votes to give W whatever he wants is just as complicit in the needless deaths and maimings of US troops and Iraqi civilians, as surely as if they would have pulled the trigger or set off the IED’s themselves.
• “We don’t have a veto-proof Congress,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader…” So, you answer is to give up and send him exactly what he wants! LAME DEMOCRATS!! So what if you don’t have a veto-proof Congress. Keep sending him bills that ask for what you want. ONE AFTER THE OTHER. Let him keep vetoing them. Don’t give in so easily. This government is a total joke!
• The Democrats have betrayed the American people. Time to start getting serious or wer’e going to lose this country. I’m had it. No one is showing any b-lls. F–k the Demcrats and Harry Reid. It’s time for the people to step in and impeach the bastards. Obviously, it’s our only recourse. This is crushing. I am so angry.

yep... that about sums it up...

i'm watching grassroots/netroots confidence in the democrats wash away like a sand castle at high tide... they've got some very serious damage control to do over this and it can't come fast enough... the pot is starting to boil and, when it does, look out...

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"Americans cannot acknowledge their 'complicity' " in the crimes of the Bush administration

gary kamiya in salon makes a case for why we are not already impeaching our president...

"To impeach Bush would force us to directly confront our national core of violent self-righteousness -- come to terms with it, understand it and reject it. And we're not ready to do that."

Analogizing the relationship between President Bush and the American people to a failed marriage that is fighting against the inevitability of divorce, Kamiya says that most Americans cannot acknowledge their 'complicity' in the policies of the Bush administration.

i think it's more than that... from the time we were all little nippers, we've been soaked in a belief of united states exceptionalism*, that the u.s. is something unique and special in history, that we are on the side of goodness and truth, and, most importantly, that our elected and governmental officials are dedicated to the common good... beyond facing what kamiya believes we are avoiding - "our national core of violent self-righteousness" - we will also have to face that we are no longer the "shining city on the hill," nor have we been for quite some time...

otoh, kamiya gives voice to what i quietly pray for every day...

The culture of spin is also the culture of spectacle, and a sudden, theatrical event -- a lurid accusation made by a former official, a colorful revelation of a very specific and memorable Bush lie -- could start the scandal machine going full speed," Kamiya writes. "If everything happens just so, the downfall of the House of Bush could be shocking in its swiftness.

(thanks to raw story...)

* American exceptionalism (cf. "exceptionalism") has been historically referred to as the perception that the United States differs qualitatively from other developed nations, because of its unique origins, national credo, historical evolution, or distinctive political and religious institutions. The difference is typically expressed as some categorical superiority, to which is usually attached some rationalization or explanation that may vary greatly depending on the historical period and the political context. As Ross (1991) has argued, there are three generic varieties of American exceptionalism:

1. supernaturalist explanations which emphasize the causal potency of God in selecting America as a "city on a hill" to serve as an example for the rest of the world,
2. genetic interpretations which emphasize racial traits, ethnicity, or gender, and
3. environmental explanations such as geography, climate, availability of natural resources, social structure, and type of political economy.

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Susan Ralston takes the 5th on Abramoff and White House RNC email accounts

so, she's got some goodies on jack and his relationship with the white house and his bestest friend, karl rove...

"The subjects this morning that she will be unable to testify to...are the subjects of the relationship between Jack Abramoff and his associates and White House officials, including Ms. Ralston, and the subject of the use by White House officials of political e-mail accounts at the RNC," Ralston's lawyer, Bradford Berenson said, during the May 10 deposition. "She has material, useful information about both of those subjects."

[...]

"She is more than willing to provide it to the committee. However, she will, as we have previously discussed, require a grant of immunity before she is comfortable going forward," Berenson also said in the deposition.

give her immunity and then waterboard her until she tells us everything she knows...

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H-E-L-L-L-L-OOOO! Senators Leahy and Specter! The White House is NOT going to stop stonewalling

TPMmuckraker reports...

In a joint letter today, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Arlen Specter (R-PA) wrote to demand documents relevant to the administration's domestic surveillance program, specifically the the legal justifications and analysis for the program.

Noting that the committee has been seeking these documents for the last 18 months, the two wrote, "Your consistent stonewalling and misdirection have prevented this Committee from carrying out its constitutional oversight and legislative duties for far too long."

[...]

The two requested the documents by no later than June 5, 2007.

a commenter adds...

They've been seeking them for 18 months?! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! This "oversight" is such a freaking joke. Please tell me Monica Goodling is going to make it all okay because right now I don't have a lot of faith in justice being served.

so, ONE MORE TIME...

the white house is not going to stop stonewalling... here's the warning label that bushco prominently affixed to its post-2006 election plans last october...

(from time magazine...)

In fact, when it comes to deploying its Executive power, which is dear to Bush's understanding of the presidency, the President's team has been planning for what one strategist describes as "a cataclysmic fight to the death" over the balance between Congress and the White House if confronted with congressional subpoenas it deems inappropriate. The strategist says the Bush team is "going to assert that power, and they're going to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court on every issue, every time, no compromise, no discussion, no negotiation."

anybody who has been paying the slightest bit of attention can see that they are following their game plan to the letter... we have a clear, full-blown constitutional crisis... when are we going to start treating it that way...? enough of this pussyfooting around...

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