scary like a halloween movie, on halloween in a cemetary

a good thread to watch on negroponte's meteoric rise in power, and the implications of such.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1819633#1819640

heard of bill bennett?

ya, THAT guy. lookie what cropped up:

When I was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (1993-97), I asked Bill Bennett to visit my office so that I could ask him for help in seeking legislation that would pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country. Eventually Senators Olympia Snowe and Jay Rockefeller, with the White House leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, put that provision in the Telecommunications Law of 1996, and today nearly 90% of all classrooms and libraries do have such access. The schools covered were public and private. So far the federal funding (actually collected from everyone as part of the phone bill) has been matched more or less equally with school district funding to total about $20 billion over the last seven years. More than 90% of all teachers praise the impact of such technology on their work. At any rate, since Mr. Bennett had been Secretary of Education I asked him to support the bill in the crucial stage when we needed Republican allies. He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers,charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education. Well, I thought, at least he's candid about his true views. The key Senate committee voted almost on party lines on the bill, all D's for and all R's against, except one -- Olympia Snowe. Her support provided the margin of victory. On the House side, Speaker Gingrich made sure the provision was not in the companion bill, but in conference again Senators Snowe and Rockefeller, with White House support, made the difference. The Internet has been the first technology made available to students in poorly funded schools at about the same time and in about the same way as to students in well funded schools.

--source

so much for values and bill bennett. we know where his lie.

Letters Of The Day

a whole slew of 'em today about iowa's embarrassment in congress, steve king.

Fifth District Congressman Steve King recently admonished a speaker to brush up on her history and then noted that "Joseph McCarthy was a great American Hero."

I've read my history, and Joseph McCarthy was a delusional, deceitful, self-aggrandizing, manipulative, career- and life-ruining monster whose infamous political ascent was knowingly abetted by the collective cowardice of the House and the Senate.

Some hero. Some congressman.

-Dave Swenson, Ames.

I hope U.S. Rep. Steve King gets his wall built. Around himself.

-Barbara Moore, Boone.

When Rep. Steve King runs out of stupid pills, don't let him renew his prescription.

-Ron Shoop, Urbandale.

Congressman Steve King's remarks about Joe McCarthy being a great American hero don't surprise me. They are very consistent with other things he's had to say, such as the torture of Iraqi prisoners being no worse than a frat-house hazing, America needing an "official" language, and the best way to stop terrorism in this country is to build a fence between us and Mexico.

What does surprise me is that the Register endorsed him in his last campaign. Maybe you thought he could bring home some federal bacon, but, while he is popular in his local base, that base is crumbling on a national level, as evidenced by the Bush numbers going into free-fall over Iraq and Katrina, and the Republican leaders of both bodies coming under federal indictment.

-Roy Applegate, Spencer.

So, the late Sen. Joe McCarthy is Rep. Steve King's "great American hero." What a surprise! I don't know what history King is reading, but my history identifies the real heroes as the men who brought McCarthy down, men like CBS correspondent Edward R. Murrow and Army counsel Joseph N. Welch who, at the Army-McCarthy hearings blistered McCarthy with the simple remark: "Have you no sense of decency?"

For those too young to remember, I lived through the McCarthy era and believe me, he was no great American hero.

-Douglas W. Hansen, Storm Lake.

There are many reasons why I am glad that I live in the Des Moines area. Chief among them today is that I am in a congressional district that is NOT represented by Steve King.

-Clint Davis, Des Moines.

If Rep. Steve King considers Joe McCarthy a "great American hero," citing a historical perspective, I'm sure he would also have supported slavery and the Salem witch-hunts as the "American values" of their time. We should be looking to history to learn from our mistakes, not applaud them.

-Kathi Stanfield, Indianola.

--source

prediction time

what will happen in iraq next month? from slate's today's papers:

The NYT has a slightly different takeaway from the generals' chat. It inexplicably skips the state of the Iraqi army and instead offers: "OFFICIALS FEAR CHAOS IF IRAQIS VOTE DOWN THE CONSTITUTION." Which is true enough; what it misses, and the story doesn't mention, is that many independent analysts—including Slate's Fred Kaplan—"fear chaos" if the constitution is approved.

iraq is heading towards national chaos, otherwise known as civil war. we have been predicting that for months, and october is going to be the month that determines our accuracy.

the judy miller saga

judy miller, that nytimes reporter who was a mouthpiece for the dark side, was released yesterday from jail. she had the opportunity to be out long long ago, but wanted to play victim for as long as she could stroke the sympathy band.

she makes my skin crawl.

Letter Of The Day

today's winner comes from a town just south of where i am.

In a Sept. 21 Register story about Social Security, Sen. Charles Grassley said, "I'm the guy saddled with the responsibility of saving Social Security for our grandchildren." Senator Grassley, your responsibility is much broader than that. It includes saving America's entire economy for our grandchildren.

The Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina go on our national credit card. A prescription-drug bill and massive spending on pork projects slide through Congress despite record deficits. Interest payments to Japan, China and other lenders climb steadily upward. Wages are stagnant. Energy and health costs soar. Our ability to compete in a global economy seems to be eroding.

Meanwhile, Congress will continue to negotiate over tax cuts.

My simple brain just can't grasp the concept of cutting taxes while increasing spending. It keeps telling me that if you cut revenue you must cut spending. I have a credit card, too, but it will eventually max out. You can't spend what you don't have, at least not for very long.

Yet Congress continues to spend and ignores deficits while promoting even more tax cuts. I wish they'd explain this trick to America's household budgeters, farmers, businessmen and others who have to pay bills at the end of the month. And to my grandchildren.

-Dick Heimer, Sheffield.
--source

my first picture post

and i'm wondering if it'll come out. it's a picture i just took. *shhhh* don't tell anybody.

and this guy used to be the head of something in government

the headline over at mediamatters:

Bill Bennett: "[Y]ou could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down"

--mediamatters

you can ALWAYS tell a person who listens to limbaugh

like this one:

Lovell Beaulieu's Sept. 23 article on the tragedy in New Orleans made some valid points, but he left out the most glaring fact: the absolute failure of the welfare state. He also did not mention how inept and corrupt the local goverment officials are.

-Jerry Mundt, Cedar Falls.

--source

Letter Of The Day

we're BACK!

today's winner is a young adult, writing for the des moines register's young adult board:

It seems whenever there is a document, photograph, or report that reflects negatively on the Bush administration or obstructs its goal in some way, this administration instantly, instinctively suppresses it. Be the piece of information a photograph of coffins of soldiers arriving at Dover Air Force Base or a document providing information on the president's latest nominee to some important political post, the response is almost always to hide it from the public — usually under the fraudulent excuse of "national security."

This was seen again in the latest round of exigencies when reporters were told at gunpoint they could not film a corpse in New Orleans and senators were told they would not be given all the documents they desired while considering John Roberts.

These events put a cartoon published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel earlier this year in eerie context. The cartoon depicts a clean-cut Saddam Hussein reading a newspaper with the headline "Reporter Jailed" and a thought bubble reading "Now, that's my kind of Democracy!" It reminds us that it is not merely enough to call our country a "democracy" if the administration doesn't provide the public with one of the things most required for a democracy: information.

- Bryce Bauer, Audubon
--source

hey dan, you just keep on keepin on

September 28, 2005 -- DAN Rather wants to reopen the investigation into President Bush and the National Guard story that resulted in the Memogate scandal and led to his early departure from the anchor desk.

But his bosses at CBS have forbidden him to go back at it, he said.

"CBS News doesn't want me to do that story," Rather said during an interview that aired on C-SPAN Monday night.

"They wouldn't let me do that story," he said during the shockingly frank interview with former NBC newsman Marvin Kalb.

Rather continues to insist that the story was correct and suggested in the interview that he and the network may have been set up by some outsider.

--nypost

i KNOW who set him up. we allll know who set him up. i'll bet the only reason he doesn't say is because he can't yet prove it.

it's the bush way

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27 - An Army captain who reported new allegations of detainee abuse in Iraq said Tuesday that Army investigators seemed more concerned about tracking down young soldiers who reported misconduct than in following up the accusations and investigating whether higher-ranking officers knew of the abuses.

--source

it really sickens me the way those in control escape responsibility for their utter incompetence.

Quote of the Day

"A lot of the maintenance work we'd normally be doing has gone to KBR," Moody said, referring to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root. "We're trained by the military to do this job, and it's going to civilian employees."
--attribution

Quote of the Day

"No one disputes the right of the President to make his policy recommendations known to Congress and the public. Yet there is a vital line between legitimately informing the public, as the President did in his State of the Union address, and commandeering the vast resources of the federal government to fund a political campaign for Social Security privatization."
--Senator Henry Waxman in a letter to U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker

SOURCE

the only way this administration can sell its policies is to brainwash the populace. they do it with a lapdog media hungry for access.

HYPOCRISY ALERT

this was a series i did in I.T.M. and was used to exhibit the enormous hypocrisy of this administration.

here's the first of probably many, many ... many more displays of utter arrogance.

WASHINGTON President Bush is on his seventh trip to the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina hit a month ago. The visit comes even as he encourages Americans to save gas, and to cut out unnecessary travel. He says federal employees will do the same.

The president's spokesman says this trip is, in fact, essential -- so the president can get a look at recovery efforts.

Spokesman Scott McClellan says the president's motorcade of gas-guzzling vans and S-U-Vs is being shortened. But it's hard to make similar savings on Air Force One. The Air Force recently estimated that fuel costs on the presidential aircraft have risen past six-thousand-dollars an hour, up from just under four-thousand in the last budget year.

--source

the republicon politico machine

a good post by josh on how jack abramoff fits into washington's elite (read corrupt) money monster.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_25.php#006629

Joke of the Day

An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600 (£337), The Observer has learnt. Yet since the appeal was launched earlier this month, donations to rebuild New Orleans have attracted hundreds of millions of dollars.
...

It is understood to be the first time that a US government has made an appeal to taxpayers for foreign aid money. Contributors have no way of knowing who will receive their donations or even where they may go, after officials said details had be kept secret for security reasons.

USaid's Heather Layman denied it was disappointed with the meagre sum raised after a fortnight. 'Every little helps,' she said.

--source

ya, every little bit helps? helps what??