Rickie Lee Don't Like Rightwingers

Nor does she like Repub-Lite Joe Lieberman, and neither do I.

"No good American can go out into the street today and not turn gray with nausea at the complacency of every single newspaper, financial institution, and influential individual in the conspiracy to keep this unqualified, uneducated, unelected criminal in office. Lieberman was an important candidate, and he, above all of them, is a turn coat who helped to nullify the potency of the left."
-Rickie Lee Jones
February 27, 2006
From an email to Down With Tyranny

Support the Troops

Poll: 72 percent of troops want out of Iraq
in a year
RAW STORY

Seventy two percent of U.S. troops in Iraq believe the United States should pull
out within one year, a column by Nicholas Kristof in Tuesday's New York Times
reveals. The poll was conducted by Zogby International and is the first poll to
examine the attitudes of those currently serving in the wartorn nation.
...
"The poll is the first of U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq, according to John
Zogby, the pollster. Conducted by Zogby International and LeMoyne College, it
asked 944 service members, "How long should U.S. troops stay in Iraq?"
Only 23 percent backed Bush's position that they should stay as long as
necessary. In contrast, 72 percent said that U.S. troops should be pulled out
within one year. Of those, 29 percent said they should withdraw "immediately..."
While the White House emphasizes the threat from non-Iraqi terrorists, only
26 percent of the U.S. troops say that the insurgency would end if those foreign
fighters could be kept out. A plurality believes that the insurgency is made up
overwhelmingly of discontented Iraqi Sunnis...
By a 2-1 ratio, the troops said that "to control the insurgency we need to double
the level of ground troops and bombing missions." And since there is zero chance
of that happening, a majority of troops seemed to be saying that they believe this
war to be unwinnable.
This first systematic look at the views of the U.S. troops on the ground suggests
that our present strategy in Iraq is failing badly. The troops overwhelmingly
don't want to "stay the course," and they don't seem to think the American
strategy can succeed.
Complete article at Raw Story.
Complete Poll is here.
Also at Suburban Guerrilla
and everywhere.

Unseen but unforgotten

Old photos from the civil rights era.
BIRMINGHAM, Feb. 26 -- Previously unpublished photographs from the civil rights era were discovered in an equipment closet at the Birmingham News and appeared for the first time Sunday in a special section of the newspaper.

The cardboard box with thousands of negatives, marked "Keep. Do Not Sell," was discovered in November 2004 by a photo intern, Alexander Cohn, who went through the files and interviewed people in the pictures to help produce the eight-page section, "Unseen. Unforgotten."
....

"The incredible box of photos recently discovered by the Birmingham News gives an amazing view of the civil rights movement in Alabama during the 60s. The photos are both eloquent and haunting, and the decision by the paper to suppress them at the time (they thought they would be "embarrassing" to the city's white community) is something history will most certainly judge them harshly for."
........
"Vigorous and illuminating treatment by the press of similar situations in the future will require it to dig below the public rhetoric and explore the actual bases for policy decisions, which may or may not match the rhetoric and may or may not come from intelligence. It also will require going beyond the issue of "flagrant fouls" in the intelligence-policy relationship and considering the more numerous and more subtle ways in which intelligence can be politicized, both publicly and privately.
The long-lost Birmingham photos were extremely moving and quite inspirational. They document the struggle of incredibly brave people with no money who banded together to fight a powerful elite that controlled the media and did everything possible to keep their message from getting through. But time has a way of unraveling those conspiracies, and history will judge journalists who currently collaborate with power to perpetuate war with lies that go unchallenged just as harshly as it did those who thought it was a good idea to stick that box of photos in a closet some forty years ago."
Stolen from:
Firedoglake: Go see them for more.

Smart Einstein

You can have Albert say whatever you want here

Barney's gone

Bye Barney, and Mister Furley.

Actor Don Knotts Dies at 81
Saturday February 25

Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show," has died. He was 81.

Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs "The Andy Griffith Show," and another Knotts hit, "Three's Company."

Unspecified health problems had forced him to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown in August 2005.

The West Virginia-born actor's half-century career included seven TV series and more than 25 films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him TV immortality and five Emmies.

The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the top: The others are "I Love Lucy" and "Seinfeld." The 249 episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.

As the bug-eyed deputy to Griffith, Knotts carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor."

More:

Damn, it's hard to be a crook!

Oops, did the corporate media say Dubai, Inc would be controlling 6 ports? Actually
it's more like 21(gasp), could they get something right, EVER?

-------
From The DAOU report:
"There Are Known Unknowns And Unknown Unknowns
The Dubai Ports deal is “temporarily on hold” as Bush and Rove try and tamp down the firestorm caused by trying to sneak this deal through the backdoor. And contrary to what's being said about it not being a “big deal”, it is much larger than was first reported. The figure of six ports was "slightly off. "The total number of ports Dubai would control is 21."

Quote

"Bush seems to be wrapped in bubbles, surrounded by sycophants. Bush was in Tampa today in front of one of those invited audiences he speaks to. The first question, this is not a joke, said the nation was blessed to have Bush as president. That was a question. The second one called Jeb 'your great brother.' You know, at least when Clinton got blown it was in private."
--Bill Maher
Bartcop

A kinder-gentler force feeding

More Winning Hearts and Minds..


"According to newly declassified interview notes, several detainees who had been
on hunger strikes told their lawyers during visits late last month that the military
had begun using harsher methods more widely in the second week of January.
One Yemeni detainee, Emad Hassan, described the chair to lawyers in
interviews on Jan. 24 and 25.
“The head is immobilized by a strap so it can’t be moved, their hands are cuffed
to the chair and the legs are shackled,” the notes quote Mr. Hassan as saying.
“They ask, ‘Are you going to eat or not?’ and if not, they insert the tube. People
have been urinating and defecating on themselves in these feedings and vomiting
and bleeding. They ask to be allowed to go to the bathroom, but they will not let
them go. They have sometimes put diapers on them.”
Another former hunger striker, Isa al-Murbati of Bahrain, described a similar
experience to his lawyer, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, in an interview on Jan. 28.
On Jan. 10, he said, a lieutenant came to his isolation cell and told him that if
he did not agree to eat solid food, he would be strapped into the chair and
force-fed. After he refused to comply, he said, soldiers picked him up by
the throat, threw him to the floor and strapped him to the restraint chair.
Like Mr. Hassan, Mr. Murbati said he had been fed two large bags of liquid
formula, which were forced into his stomach very quickly. “He felt pain like
a ‘knife in the stomach’ ” Mr. Colangelo-Bryan said.
Detainees said the Guantánamo medical staff also began inserting and
removing the long plastic feeding tubes that were threaded through the
detainees’ nasal passages and into their stomachs at every feeding, a
practice that caused sharp pain and frequent bleeding, they said. Until
then, doctors there said, they had been allowing the hunger strikers to
leave their feeding tubes in, to reduce discomfort.
Military spokesmen have generally discounted the complaints,
saying the prisoners are for the most part terrorists, trained by
Al Qaeda to use false stories as propaganda.
In a letter to a British physician and human rights activist, Dr. David
J. Nicholl, on Dec. 12, the former chief medical officer at Guantánamo,
Capt. John S. Edmondson of the Navy, wrote that his staff was not
force-feeding any detainees but “providing nutritional supplementation
on a voluntary basis to detainees who wish to protest their confinement
by not taking oral nourishment.”
From NYTimes
via:
SuburbanGuerrilla
Act:
Amnesty International

Tom Tomorrow | It's just that simple

Cheney gets another

Oh No! The latest victim Governor Ernie

The reason here.

Snatched from Bob Harris.

Nina Simone - If you Knew - To Ellen, Mechelle and Brittany

Belated Valentine - If you knew

You'll shoot someone's eye out

Scary but I couldn't resist:

Stolen from greg at thetalentshow

Barbarian Nation | Bloody dubya wins

I grieve for what my country used to be. I know we always had our faults, that
we wronged people, killed people, mistreated people for many times indefensible reasons. We coddled the rich and kicked the poor. Many things were not perfect
but at least we tried. It just seemed there was a time when -at least- the American people wanted to do the right thing and it was the government that acted many
times in an evil fashion. Today the Bushco government attacks countrys of no threat to us, for corporate greed, oil and imperialism. Shredding our constitution, torturing innocents, killing innocents, laying waste to the environment, soiling everything they touch with greed and cronyism, and the majority of Americans can't be bothered to care. As long as they have their corporate, "he said, she said" news, their latest sports news, the latest I-pod, etc. They give a collective yawn to the horrors this collective of thugs does to the world and to it's own. I grieve for what my country used to be.

Torture. Photomontage. 1999.


Here's Once upon a time on the latest:

---------------------------------------------------------
Barbarian Nation: The Torturers Win
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

A federal judge has tossed out a civil rights lawsuit filed by a Syrian-born Canadian man who claimed U.S. counterterrorism officials deported him so he could be tortured in Syria.Maher Arar had sued the officials in 2004 in what was believed to be the first case challenging extraordinary rendition - the policy of transferring foreign terror suspects to third countries without court approval.U.S. District Judge David G. Trager rejected arguments that Arar was protected by the Torture Victim Prevention Act, which allows U.S. courts to assess damages for human rights abuses committed abroad.Trager said that as a non-citizen, Arar couldn't demonstrate that he has a viable cause of action under that statute.Citing "the national security and foreign policy considerations at stake," the judge said Arar had no grounds in a U.S. court to claim his constitutional right to due process was violated....Justice Department officials were pleased with the judge's ruling, spokesman Charles Miller said.Attorneys for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which filed the lawsuit on Arar's behalf, said the ruling set a disturbing precedent."To allow the Bush administration to evade accountability and continue to hide behind a smoke screen of 'national security' is to do grave and irreparable damage to the Constitution and the guarantee of human rights that people in this country could once be proud of," attorney Maria LaHood said.

Bob Herbert, "The Torturers Win" (fair use for educational purposes):
Terrible things were done to Maher Arar, and his extreme suffering was set in motion by the United States government. With the awful facts of his case carefully documented, he tried to sue for damages. But last week a federal judge waved the facts aside and told Mr. Arar, in effect, to get lost.We're in a new world now and the all-powerful U.S. government apparently has free rein to ruin innocent lives without even a nod in the direction of due process or fair play. Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen who, according to all evidence, has led an exemplary life, was seized and shackled by U.S.authorities at Kennedy Airport in 2002, and then shipped off to Syria, his native country, where he was held in a dungeon for the better part of a year. He was tormented physically and psychologically, and at times tortured.The underground cell was tiny, about the size of a grave. ...Mr. Arar's captors beat him savagely with an electrical cable. He was allowed to bathe in cold water once a week. He lost 40 pounds while in captivity.This is a quintessential example of the reprehensible practice of extraordinary rendition, in which the U.S. government kidnaps individuals ­presumably terror suspects ­ and sends them off to regimes that are skilled in the fine art of torture. In terms of vile behavior, rendition stands shoulder to shoulder with contract killing.If the United States is going to torture people, we might as well do it ourselves. Outsourcing torture does not make it any more acceptable.Mr. Arar's case became a world-class embarrassment when even Syria's torture professionals could elicit no evidence that he was in any way involved in terrorism. After 10 months, he was released. No charges were ever filed against him....In a ruling that basically gave the green light to government barbarism, U.S. District Judge David Trager dismissed Mr. Arar's lawsuit last Thursday. Judge Trager wrote in his opinion that "Arar's claim that he faced a likelihood of torture in Syria is supported by U.S. State Department reports on Syria's human rights practices."But in dismissing the suit, he said that the foreign policy and national security issues raised by the government were "compelling" and that such matters were the purview of the executive branch and Congress, not the courts.He also said that "the need for secrecy can hardly be doubted."Under that reasoning, of course, the government could literally get away with murder. With its bad actions cloaked in court-sanctioned secrecy, no one would be the wiser.As an example of the kind of foreign policy problems that might arise if Mr. Arar were given his day in court, Judge Trager wrote: "One need not have much imagination to contemplate the negative effect on our relations with Canada if discovery were to proceed in this case and were it to turn out that certain high Canadian officials had, despite public denials, acquiesced in Arar's removal to Syria."Oh yes, by all means, we need the federal courts to fully protect the right of public officials to lie to their constituents."It's a shocking decision," said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. "It's really saying that an individual who is sent overseas for the purpose of being tortured has no claim in a U.S. court."If kidnapping and torturing an innocent man is O.K., what's not O.K.?
Once upon a time
This is the "democracy" and "freedom" that the United States seeks to impose on other nations by means of military force, bombing, death and devastation, even on nations that represent no threat to us.

More On Torture

Neil Young: Heart of Gold

This one I gotta see:

Soon
"WHEN the curtain opens, Neil Young is standing onstage, his
face full of years. Dressed in a gray western suit, with a
plainsman's hat and a well-used acoustic guitar, he looks
like an old-time cowboy crooner, but somehow scruffier.
The hair curling over his collar seems greasy and the
way he ducks his head you might think he hadn't spent
much time indoors; he probably needs to knock the dust
off his boots before he enters the parlor. It's a
fanciful fiction, this gent with the hat, the suit
and the aw-shucks reserve, and part of the beautiful
story Jonathan Demme tells in his concert film.."
"Neil Young: Heart of Gold."
More here.

or here:

"Dead"Eye Dick

(graphic by Jose G.)

I'm a little veep-pot
Short and stout
Step to me
and I'll shoot your lights out.
(323)

A fine entry in Firedoglake's new contest "Dickfest" which in their own
words are, well here in Jane's own words is the lowdown:
"..In Dickfest, the poetic musing of our readers about the honor of our
Vice President. The choices are hard so please deliberate carefully, the
winner will be awarded a copy of Bill Maher's new book -- many thanks
to Bill for donating it. Remember to vote only once and please cast your
vote by number:"

The "News" Media today in one photo

Jesus our media is Pravda from the 1970's
I'd just like to know what Whittington got out of this deal? Oh, and where are the missing white women from this little tame bird slaughter?

I just hope "Dick" will forgive this guy for making him shoot
him in the face.
Josh Marshall at TPM says it better than I could and shorter:
Once again the Corporate news has returned to script.

More photos from Abu Ghraib

More snaps from Abu Ghraib … some of the photographs the US Government has been fighting to keep secret of the prison in Iraq.
Photo: SBS/Dateline

The photos America(Bushco) doesn't want seen
By Matthew Moore
February 15, 2006


MORE photographs have been leaked of Iraqi citizens tortured by US soldiers at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Tonight the SBS Dateline program plans to broadcast about 60 previously unpublished photographs that the US Government has been fighting to keep secret in a court case with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Although a US judge last year granted the union access to the photographs following a freedom-of-information request, the US Administration has appealed against the decision on the grounds their release would fuel anti-American sentiment.

Some of the photos are similar to those published in 2004, others are different. They include photographs of six corpses, although the circumstances of their deaths are not clear. There are also pictures of what appear to be burns and wounds from shotgun pellets.

The executive producer of Dateline, Mike Carey, said he was showing the pictures leaked to his program because it was important people understood what had happened at Abu Ghraib.
Continue at: The Sydney Morning Herald

The looting and pillaging continues

From too saucy
More wonderful news out of Washington. The federal government is going to give up collecting many billions of dollars of royalty payments from oil companies over the next few years. This at a time when oil is at record prices.

In the same vein of their move to open the nation’s old growth forests to timber companies, and working feverishly to allow drilling for oil in the pristine Alaskan wilderness, now comes the next step – the feds will stop collecting the royalties imposed on oil companies for drilling on public land.

According to The Times:

"The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government.

Continue at too saucy
or go to:
The New York TImes

The Enemy Within

Iraqi Insurgents at work - Warning Very graphic

This also could be called what a foreign occupation and religous
intoxication will do to you.

The Enemy Within

Found at Screenhead

Dubya and Abe

More photos of dubya and his pal Abramoff

Dick's Top 10 Shooting Excuses

I couldn't resist. This is from DailyKos:
----

Dick Cheney's Top 10 Excuses for Shooting That Guy:

10. Sure, like you've never seen seen giant game birds wearing day glo orange vests

9. Warrantless domestic spying revealed he was getting phone calls from al Queda

8. If the Vice President does it, its not against the law

7. Hoping to put him in a persistent vegetative state so the GOP could pass a law to keep him
alive

6. Thought he was hunting Dan Quayle

5. The love between them could not survive back in Washington

4. Birds, Cows, People-- with my eyesight I'm lucky I hit anything

3. Positive the guy's family will welcome him as a liberator

2. Pheasants? I thought we were hunting peasants

and the number one Cheney excuse for shooting that guy:
1. Open season on liberals started early this year

Geodesic Dome out of Cardboard

Need shelter quick? I may need this myself someday.

From Here:

Build a Geodesic Dome out of Cardboard
These domes have served as an effective shelter against wind, extreme heat
and, once painted, rainfall. The largest of the three domes in the picture
opposite measures approximately 12' 7" in diameter and is about 6' 3" high
at its center. We recommend building the largest one. All the measurements throughout this web site relate to the largest size.
They are fairly inexpensive to build as recycled cardboard is the main
component and, if water-based paint is used, can be burned. The domes are
strong enough to attach decorative pieces and lighting components to the
inside. Assembly time, on site, is 3 to 4 hours for 3 people constructing
one dome with the appropriate tools.

MP3 Spapshot - My top ten

Mundane trivia The Top Ten
MP3 Spapshot-The first ten songs on my MP3 player

Right now:
Winter - The Rolling Stones
Harlem Country Girl - Olu Dara
The Parting Glass - Sinead O'Conner
Going Back to Harlen - Emmylou Harris
Talk - Coldplay
Santa Fe/Beautiful Obsession - Van Morrison
Wavelength - Van Morrison
Heroes - David Bowie
By my Side - INXS
Suicide Blonde - INXS

Be very afraid...Did I stress afraid?

"it is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left. Our job is to remove them from power permanently."
--Jack Abramoff, LATimes

Old article but very interesting.

----- Forwarded Message -----
Foundations are in place for martial law in the US
By Ritt Goldstein
July 27 2002

Recent pronouncements from the Bush Administration and national security initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see internment camps and martial law in the United States.

When president Ronald Reagan was considering invading Nicaragua he issued a series of executive orders that provided the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with broad powers in the event of a "crisis" such as "violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition against a US military invasion abroad". They were never used.

But with the looming possibility of a US invasion of Iraq, recent pronouncements by President George Bush's domestic security chief, Tom Ridge, and an official with the US Civil Rights Commission should fire concerns that these powers could be employed or a de facto drift into their deployment could occur.

On July 20 the Detroit Free Press ran a story entitled "Arabs in US could be held, official warns". The story referred to a member of the US Civil Rights Commission who foresaw the possibility of internment camps for Arab Americans. FEMA has practised for such an occasion.

FEMA, whose main role is disaster response, is also responsible for handling US domestic unrest.

From 1982-84 Colonel Oliver North assisted FEMA in drafting its civil defence preparations. Details of these plans emerged during the 1987 Iran-Contra scandal.

They included executive orders providing for suspension of the constitution, the imposition of martial law, internment camps, and the turning over of government to the president and FEMA.

A Miami Herald article on July 5, 1987, reported that the former FEMA director Louis Guiffrida's deputy, John Brinkerhoff, handled the martial law portion of the planning. The plan was said to be similar to one Mr Giuffrida had developed earlier to combat "a national uprising by black militants". It provided for the detention "of at least 21million American Negroes"' in "assembly centres or relocation camps".

Today Mr Brinkerhoff is with the highly influential Anser Institute for Homeland Security. Following a request by the Pentagon in January that the US military be allowed the option of deploying troops on American streets, the institute in February published a paper by Mr Brinkerhoff arguing the legality of this.

He alleged that the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which has long been accepted as prohibiting such deployments, had simply been misunderstood and misapplied.

The preface to the article also provided the revelation that the national plan he had worked on, under Mr Giuffrida, was "approved by Reagan, and actions were taken to implement it".

By April, the US military had created a Northern Command to aid Homeland defence. Reuters reported that the command is "mainly expected to play a supporting role to local authorities".

However, Mr Ridge, the Director of Homeland Security, has just advocated a review of US law regarding the use of the military for law enforcement duties.

Disturbingly, the full facts and final contents of Mr Reagan's national plan remain uncertain. This is in part because President Bush took the unusual step of sealing the Reagan presidential papers last November. However, many of the key figures of the Reagan era are part of the present administration, including John Poindexter, to whom Oliver North later reported.

At the time of the Reagan initiatives, the then attorney-general, William French Smith, wrote to the national security adviser, Robert McFarlane: "I believe that the role assigned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the revised Executive Order exceeds its proper function as a co-ordinating agency for emergency preparedness ... this department and others have repeatedly raised serious policy and legal objections to an 'emergency czar' role for FEMA."

Criticism of the Bush Administration's response to September11 echoes Mr Smith's warning. On June 7 the former presidential counsel John Dean spoke of America's sliding into a "constitutional dictatorship" and martial law.

Ritt Goldstein is an investigative journalist and a former leader in the movement for US law enforcement accountability. He revealed exclusively in the Herald last week the Bush Administration's plans for a domestic spying system more pervasive than the Stasi network in East Germany.


inworldreport:

Obscene tax cuts, rape the forests to pay for it.

Vast stretches of public forest land to feed dubya's cronys. No one understands corporate greed
and cronyism like these thugs. Bigger tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy, more war profiteering by "Dick's" Halliburton and the other corporate vampires. Shaft the poor, the veterans, and rape our dwindling forests to pay for it.

-----------------------------------------
Bush administration moves to sell national forest land
By Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder NewspapersWASHINGTON
- The Bush administration will unveil a proposal Friday to sell up to 200,000 acres of national forest land in "isolated parcels" ranging from a quarter of an acre to 200 acres, much of it in California.
The sale is part of a National Forest Service plan to raise $800 million over the next five years to pay for rural schools in 41 states, offsetting shrinking revenues from sale of timber from national forests. The Bureau of Land Management also plans to sell federal lands to raise an estimated $182 million over five years.
Environmentalists charge that the short-term gain would be more than offset by the loss of public land. Congress would have to approve the land sales, but it has rejected similar recent proposals.
"I am outraged, and I don't think the public is going to stand for it for one minute," said Wilderness Society policy analyst Mike Anderson. "It's a scheme to raise money at the expense of the national forests, the wildlife, recreation and all the other values that Americans hold dear. It's the ultimate threat to the national forest."
Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said the proposed land sales make sense.
"Private property will end up in the possession of those who value it the most," Taylor said. "That is an iron law of economics."
Details about what plots of land would be put up for sale are expected to be revealed at a noon press conference by Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey, a former timber industry lobbyist. The Forest Service owns 193 million acres of land and plans to sell about 175,000 to 200,000 acres, according to Forest Service spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevitch.
"They could be theoretically from every national forest," Valetkevitch said. "California has a lot on the list, I understand."
The lands in question aren't environmentally sensitive wilderness or protected scenic areas, Valetkevitch said. "It could be something that's in a neighborhood that people don't even know is forest land," she said.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., attacked the plan as "crazy," saying: "Here the administration wants to pass more tax cuts for the rich, and to pay the bill, they want to sell off public land - our nation's natural heritage."
Continue:

Commander-Cod-Piece, I mean Commander-Coo-Coo-Bananas, I mean Commander-In, Oh forget it!

Go to Dailykos for this whole article and it's imbedded links.
---------------------------
Commander-in-Thief
by georgia10

The blood they bleed is the blood of heroes. The men and women of our armed forces put their lives on the line for this country, and in doing so they earn our lifelong respect. Democrats realize that as a nation, we are indebted to those who are willing to die in its name. Republicans, on the other hand, don't understand the concept of being indebted to a soldier's sacrifice. Indebted to lobbyists for filling their campaign coffers? They understand that perfectly. Indebted to the families of those who return from battle in coffins? Never.

The President's 2007 Budget boasts a 7% increase in defense spending, with billions poured into military operations overseas and programs here at home. You would assume that this President who prides himself on being a "War President" would take care of the thousands of men and women who fight that war for him, under his command. Instead, this Commander-in-Thief has sneaked in when the world is distracted by the faux outrage over funeral politics and the latest propaganda du jour, and he has robbed our heroes of what they earned the second they put on a United States uniform. Bush's defense budget proves that there isn't a yellow ribbon big enough to cover the huge, gaping wound that will form as a result of his cuts in troop benefits.

The military's health care program, TRICARE, supports some 9.2 million beneficiaries. Veterans from wars too soon forgotten depend on the program. From military families who have buried their husbands or wives, to those who dread a call in the middle of the night about those who currently serve, the program is designed to take care of those families--our families. First, Bush's plan would eventually cause some 600,000 retirees to be dropped from the military's healthcare program. Bush's budget also makes across-the-board premium increases to TRICARE retirees under the age of 65. Veterans will see an increase of 41% for single or family coverage within two years; senior enlisted and officer retirees will see increases of up to 204%. By 2009, healthcare premiums for our veterans will TRIPLE. (See PDF of TRICARE fee increases here).

Can our veterans afford it? Bush's budget also gives the military the smallest pay increase since 1994--a paltry 2.2%. The CEO President is clearly applying a Wal-Martesque framework to our national defense: rip off the ones doing the work because all that matters is that bottom line, right? That big, fat, bottom line.

Continue at DailyKos:

Happy Birthday Charles!

CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN
February 12, 1809 to April 19, 1882

The Evolution of a Global Celebration

Darwin's 200th Birthday will occur on February 12, 2009; it will also be the 150th Anniversary of the publication of his famous book On The Origin of Species. So, together we have time to evolve a truly International Celebration to show our appreciation for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity.

LINK

White House knew about levee failures early

White House learned of levee failure by email on night Katrina hit
This from NYT story by Eric Lipton:

.."In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.
But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight.

(...)"FYI from FEMA," said an e-mail message from the agency's public affairs staff describing the helicopter flight, sent Monday night at 9:27 to the chief of staff of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and recently unearthed by investigators. Conditions, the message said, "are far more serious than media reports are currently reflecting. Finding extensive flooding and more stranded people than they had thought — also a number of fires.."

Story Here

and
Here
and even
here

Dubya loves veterans so much that he ...

All you need to know to tell you how much Bloody Dubya
loves the American Vet.

-----------------------------------------
From A Liberal Dose
Via:
Skippy
"To offset his trillion-dollar tax cuts for the richest .01 percent
in the country, Bush cut veterans' medical care by $844 million in
2003, and has implemented policies to continue slashing it by an
eye-popping $9.7 billion over the next 10 years. Oh, and, he still
hasn't shown up for a single soldier's funeral."

Spying, Blackmail, High Crimes & Misdemeanors

From: Once Upon A Time

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under
Reagan, and he has held editorial positions at both the Wall
Street Journal and National Review. He has written a column
which points out what has become suspected. The Bush
administration is blackmailing opponents.

"Having eliminated internal opposition, the Bush administration
is now using blackmail obtained through illegal spying on American
citizens to silence the media and the opposition party."

"Before flinching at my assertion of blackmail, ask yourself why
President Bush refuses to obey the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act. The purpose of the FISA court is to ensure that administrations
do not spy for partisan political reasons. The warrant requirement
is to ensure that a panel of independent federal judges hears a
legitimate reason for the spying, thus protecting a president
from the temptation to abuse the powers of government. The only
reason for the Bush administration to evade the court is that
the Bush administration had no legitimate reasons for its spying.
This should be obvious even to a naif."

"The United States is undergoing a coup against the Constitution,
the Bill of Rights, civil liberties, and democracy itself. The
"liberal press" has been co-opted."

"The TV networks mimic Fox News' faux patriotism. Anyone who
depends on print, TV, or right-wing talk radio media is totally
misinformed. The Bush administration has achieved a de facto
Ministry of Propaganda."

"The years of illegal spying have given the Bush administration
power over the media and the opposition."

Roberts knows a lot of highly-placed people in government and
the media. I seriously doubt he would mention blackmail in this
manner unless he had strong reasons to believe in the accuracy
of what he was saying.
--Arthur Silber at Once Upon A Time

Go read the whole column:
Who Will Save America?

Garrison Keillor, Join the government and see the world

Great new article from Garrison Keiller
--
Join the government and see the world

"The headline of the AP story was "Bush urges confidence in his leadership"--which is like "Author says memoir is true" or "FEMA offers contingency plan"--and I didn't bother to read further. The Old Brush Cutter never got the knack of urging, and whenever he tries, he looks small and petulant, like a cartoon of himself. He photographs well in formal situations, and he is good at keeping a low profile when necessary, which is a key to survival in politics, as in boxing, but when it comes to the hortatory, he gets all hissy and squinty."

Continue:

Tom Tomorrow - Right on - Again

From Tom Tomorrow, If you've got nothin' to hide.

Falsehoods About Guantanamo

Surprise! Bushco was lying again. This "administration" is the most despicable bunch of thugs I've ever seen. Worst President EVER!

-------------------------------------------------
From Buzz Columns:

Falsehoods About Guantanamo
By Stuart Taylor Jr.

"These are people picked up off the battlefield in Afghanistan. They weren't wearing uniforms ... but they were there to kill."-- President "Bloody" Bush, June 20, 2005

"These detainees are dangerous enemy combatants....They were picked up on the battlefield, fighting American forces, trying to kill American forces."-- White House press secretary Scott McClellan, June 21, 2005

"The people that are there are people we picked up on the battlefield, primarily in Afghanistan. They're terrorists. They're bomb makers. They're facilitators of terror. They're members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban....We've let go those that we've deemed not to be a continuing threat. But the 520-some that are there now are serious, deadly threats to the United States."-- Vice President Cheney, June 23, 2005

"These are people, all of whom were captured on a battlefield. They're terrorists, trainers, bomb makers, recruiters, financiers, [Osama bin Laden's] bodyguards, would-be suicide bombers, probably the 20th 9/11 hijacker."-- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, June 27, 2005

Continue:

An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore

"..Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Mr. Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. A longtime advocate for the environment, Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way. "Al Gore strips his presentations of politics, laying out the facts for the audience to draw their own conclusions in a charming, funny and engaging style, and by the end has everyone on the edge of their seats, gripped by his haunting message," said Guggenheim. An Inconvenient Truth is not a story of despair but rather a rallying cry to protect the one earth we all share. "It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly, and wisely," said Gore.."

A new film screened at the Sundance Film Festival with Al Gore in the starring role:
An Inconvenient Truth

From Grist:
"..One of the documentaries that seemed to generate the most buzz at Sundance was An Inconvenient Truth, a global-warming film starring Al Gore. The day before I saw it, I overheard two facts about the film: 1) it was so good, all the screenings had sold out; 2) it featured Gore giving a lecture with PowerPoint slides and charts.."

The last throes

"I think they're in the last throes, if you will,
of the insurgancy."
Dick "Dick" Cheney, May 2005

Huffington Post video shorts:

Love the Freeway Blogger

New clip from Freeway Blogger

Become a Republican | Eight kinds of Republicans

Become a Republican.
Thanks to Bart.

What Really Happened - by Cindy Sheehan

So who you gonna believe, Cindy or the DC Capital cop and
corporate rightwing "News" media? We already know how
Bushco deals with people wearing
unapproved t-shirts.
--------------------------------

From truthout

What Really Happened
Cindy Sheehan
t r u t h o u t





As most of you have probably heard, I was arrested before the State of the Union address last night.

I am speechless with fury at what happened and with grief over what we have lost in our country.

There have been lies from the police and distortions by the press (shocker). So this is what really happened:
Continue: