sssssh, don't tell a soul

Bush 2007 budget quietly omits impact of policies on deficit

--source

what's up with the whitehouse lately?

they're shifting all over the place:

The Los Angeles Times leads and others go inside with the White House doing a sudden switch and agreeing to brief congressional committees on some details of the warrantless spying.

and

The Washington Post leads with, and nobody else fronts, President Bush boldly stating that the violent anticartoon protests are bad. It was his first public statement on the issue. The last time the administration made significant comments was on Friday when the State Department condemned ... the cartoons. The WP describes Bush's comments as part of "a shift in White House strategy."

they lied again

The Post fronts a frankly confusing piece saying that the warrantless spying might have been used to get national security warrants, a move the administration had promised top judges on the national security court wouldn't happen. Worried that the spying might be unconstitutional, the judges insisted that the snooping, in the Post's wording, "not form the basis for obtaining a warrant."

Joke of the Day

as someone else said, it's an emanuel goldstein plot from a deluded dictator.

US President George W Bush has detailed what he said was a foiled al-Qaeda plot to fly a commercial airliner into the tallest building on the US west coast.

Mr Bush said the plotters, detailed in 2002, planned to use shoe bombs to storm the plane cockpit.

The attackers wanted to fly the plane into Library Tower in Los Angeles, California, renamed the US Bank Tower.

Mr Bush said al-Qaeda recruited the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) to carry out the attack.

Arrests

The president said the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was behind the west coast plot.

Mr Bush said that instead of using hijackers of Arab origin, as in the attacks on New York and Washington, Sheikh Mohammed recruited "young men from South East Asia whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion".

Planning began in October 2001, but it was derailed in early 2002 "when a South East Asian nation arrested a key al-Qaeda operative", Mr Bush said.

It was finally thwarted in the summer of 2003, when the suspected head of JI, an Indonesian known as Hambali, was arrested in Thailand.

The Bush administration disclosed the existence of the plot last October, saying it was among 10 disrupted al-Qaeda plots.

--bbc

what really pisses me off about the bushites

is that they feel they have to infiltrate every ounce of government there is, and corrupt it.

Louis Fisher, a 36-year veteran of the agency and an expert on the separation of powers, said his superiors wrongly punished him for giving interviews and publishing scholarly articles under his own name that contained criticism of the White House. Top officials deny those allegations, saying they were simply trying to protect the agency's reputation for nonpartisanship and objectivity.

The dispute has thrust the research service, a branch of the Library of Congress, into a debate about whether the Bush administration is trying to control the flow of information to lawmakers and the public. Earlier in the week, a political appointee resigned from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration after coming under fire for limiting access to an expert on global warming. The White House also faces accusations that it misled lawmakers about the true cost of the new Medicare drug benefit.

--source

so all this shit coming out as "proof" ...

was gleened from prisoners who were tortured.

so says cbs news.

what really pisses me off about the bushites

is that they feel they have to infiltrate every ounce of government there is, and corrupt it.

Louis Fisher, a 36-year veteran of the agency and an expert on the separation of powers, said his superiors wrongly punished him for giving interviews and publishing scholarly articles under his own name that contained criticism of the White House. Top officials deny those allegations, saying they were simply trying to protect the agency's reputation for nonpartisanship and objectivity.

The dispute has thrust the research service, a branch of the Library of Congress, into a debate about whether the Bush administration is trying to control the flow of information to lawmakers and the public. Earlier in the week, a political appointee resigned from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration after coming under fire for limiting access to an expert on global warming. The White House also faces accusations that it misled lawmakers about the true cost of the new Medicare drug benefit.

--source

Joke of the Day

as someone else said, it's an emanuel goldstein plot from a deluded dictator.

US President George W Bush has detailed what he said was a foiled al-Qaeda plot to fly a commercial airliner into the tallest building on the US west coast.

Mr Bush said the plotters, detailed in 2002, planned to use shoe bombs to storm the plane cockpit.

The attackers wanted to fly the plane into Library Tower in Los Angeles, California, renamed the US Bank Tower.

Mr Bush said al-Qaeda recruited the militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) to carry out the attack.

Arrests

The president said the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was behind the west coast plot.

Mr Bush said that instead of using hijackers of Arab origin, as in the attacks on New York and Washington, Sheikh Mohammed recruited "young men from South East Asia whom he believed would not arouse as much suspicion".

Planning began in October 2001, but it was derailed in early 2002 "when a South East Asian nation arrested a key al-Qaeda operative", Mr Bush said.

It was finally thwarted in the summer of 2003, when the suspected head of JI, an Indonesian known as Hambali, was arrested in Thailand.

The Bush administration disclosed the existence of the plot last October, saying it was among 10 disrupted al-Qaeda plots.
--bbc

in an effort to keep the story alive

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert engineered a backroom legislative maneuver to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits, say witnesses to the pre-Christmas power play.

The language was tucked into a Defense Department appropriations bill at the last minute without the approval of members of a House-Senate conference committee, say several witnesses, including a top Republican staff member.
...
Beyond the issue of vaccine liability protection, some say going around the longstanding practice of bipartisan House-Senate conference committees' working out compromises on legislation is a dangerous power grab by Republican congressional leaders that subverts democracy.

"It is a travesty of the legislative process," said Thomas Mann, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

"It vests enormous power in the hands of congressional leaders and private interests, minimizes transparency and denies legitimate opportunities for all interested parties, in Congress and outside, to weigh in on important policy questions."

-source

will they ever get there?

The NYT off-leads word that about half the promised trailer homes for Katrina evacuees have yet to be delivered.

they lied again

The Post fronts a frankly confusing piece saying that the warrantless spying might have been used to get national security warrants, a move the administration had promised top judges on the national security court wouldn't happen. Worried that the spying might be unconstitutional, the judges insisted that the snooping, in the Post's wording, "not form the basis for obtaining a warrant."

--source

what's up with the whitehouse lately?

they're shifting all over the place:

The Los Angeles Times leads and others go inside with the White House doing a sudden switch and agreeing to brief congressional committees on some details of the warrantless spying.and

The Washington Post leads with, and nobody else fronts, President Bush boldly stating that the violent anticartoon protests are bad. It was his first public statement on the issue. The last time the administration made significant comments was on Friday when the State Department condemned ... the cartoons. The WP describes Bush's comments as part of "a shift in White House strategy."

now THERE's an idea i can get behind

Johnson County's top lawman urged state lawmakers Wednesday to decrease the criminal penalties for possessing a small amount of marijuana, a move that would essentially make penalties for such an offense comparable to getting a speeding ticket.

Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek suggested decreasing the crime from a serious misdemeanor to a simple misdemeanor and for a violation to result in a ticket.

The effect of such a change would mean that instead of getting booked at the county jail and possibly spending a night in lockup before seeing a judge, a violation probably would result in a fine.

--source

Letter Of The Day

While their companies are on the brink of bankruptcy, Ford Chairman William C. Ford Jr. and GM Chairman Rick Wagoner still don't get it.

Not one time while either of them was waxing eloquent about how they were going to turn their companies around while blasting thousands of Americans into unemployment lines has either of them mentioned cutting excessive executive compensation or building high-quality, trouble-free vehicles.

While my Oldsmobile was sitting at the dealership more than 10 times for an overheating problem, these executives were flitting all over the country, earning $10 million salaries, trying to get us to buy more of their junk.

The dealership never took my complaints seriously until the engine blew with 77,000 miles. I finally sold the car for $600 and was glad to get rid of it. In the two years I have had my Chevy S-10, the repair total is nearly $6,000. All this on a truck with less than 63,000 miles.

It is going to take longer than two years for these two companies to overcome 40 years of poor-quality vehicles.
- Jeffrey Smith, Clive.

attribution

the bushite people are taking over

and there goes competence.

Knight Ridder reports that the State Department has "sidelined key career weapons experts and replaced them with less experienced political appointees." The changes have come during a reorganization of various offices and created something of an uproar among career bureaucrats. "The process has been gravely flawed from the outset, and smacks plainly of a political vendetta against career Foreign Service and Civil Service (personnel) by political appointees," said a "group of employees" in a rare letter of complaint to superiors late last year.

CARTOON WATCH

i think what i'm gonna do is keep track of how much gets blown up with those cartoons of mohammed in a bomb headress. i can't seem to track down the actual cartoon that set everything off, but there seems to be a little war going on.

Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons
Bush calls Danish PM with support in cartoon row
Muslims picket U.S. newspaper over reprinting of cartoon
Iran paper plans Holocaust cartoons
Four killed in cartoon protests
and that was just on one page over at DU.

try THIS

where will it end?

Dutch Islamists post cartoons depicting Anne Frank, Hitler in bed

i'd say it would be worthy of Quote of the weeQ

from josh marshall:

"This administration reacts to anyone who questions this illegal program by saying that those of us who demand the truth and stand up for our rights and freedoms somehow has a pre-9/11 world view. In fact, the President has a pre-1776 world view. Our government has three branches, not one. And no one, not even the President, is above the law."

That's from Sen. Feingold's post on the Gonzales' testimony that just went up on TPMCafe.

the republicans want to filter everything

ever notice how the only ones wanting to filter something, be it free speech, or free text, are republicans? it's like everything has to be a circle with them. they run in circles, they expect that turn about, and generally just are ignorant otherwise.

Letter Of The Day

George Bush let me down in his State of the Union speech when he talked about Iraq and the detractors about going into the war under the pretext of searching for WMD.

He could not simply admit that he sent us there with info he believed to be correct but turned out not to be, but tried to sound wise with the "hindsight is not wisdom" crack.

We are there now, so we need to do our best to establish a stable and western- friendly Iraq. But no, he cannot admit he was wrong.

And every time he infers that anyone who disagrees with his policy in Iraq is un-American, I want to puke. Disagreeing with our elected officials is about as American as it gets.

We are addicted to oil. As I drive to and from work and to the grocery store and to church on weekends, I revel in my conspicuous consumption (please note sarcasm) as he and his friends get rich off oil. How dare I drive.

He didn't talk about it much but his solution to the health care crisis is for us to use it less. As someone who has a disorder that is not caused by diet or lifestyle and will probably require maintenance medicine until the day I am dandelion fertilizer, I am frightened by his talk.

I voted for George Bush twice. Man, I wish life had do-overs; two is all I would need.

DONALD C. HUGHSTON, Mason City

attribution

the thing about this wiretapping thing?

what else has this administration been up to that we know not of? and perhaps it would be better if we did.

Quote of the Day

“Why did we do that? The only logical answer that comes to mind is they didn’t want to capture Bin Laden because if they captured Bin Laden and wiped out the Taliban, which they could have done at that moment, there would have been no justification for going to war in Iraq, and they wanted to use that as a justification for attacking Iraq."

--(NY)Congressman Maurice Hinchey

attribution

talk about ego manifestation of the highest order

Asked why the White House didn't chat with Congress before it decided to bypass the whole warrant thing, Gonzales said, "The short answer is that we didn't think we needed to, quite frankly."

dictatorships act like that, not democracies.

FARPOINT.FACTOID

another factoid by another letter writer:

According to Business Week, the average CEO in major U.S. companies makes 400 times what the average worker is paid in the same company. That ratio in Europe, according to the same article, is 45 to 1.

a new idea on campaign finance reform?

from letter writer, Helen Ackerson of Keokuk Iowa:

Assuming "legislators who received money say political contributions don't sway their stances on issues" (sure!), then maybe all these generous donors should just put their contributions into a general fund. It could be divided evenly among all congressional or legislative aspirants so each would have a fair chance and time to concentrate on, study and present the real issues.

FARPOINT.FACTOID

When Greenspan took over as federal chairman in 1987, outstanding U.S. debts were near $10 trillion. According to the latest available figures, these same debts now total well over $40 trillion. It now takes more than $2 billion a day from foreign investors to finance our deficits.

--source

i'm going to have to take jeff's word for it since, like he said, the media has been all adulatory with him.

Letter Of The Day

I have never owned a credit card. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., introduced a bill that would require credit card companies to let you know how long it would take to pay off your credit card debt if you made the minimum payment each month. If the debt is large, probably the rest of your life. The Republican-controlled Congress responded by voting it down and then passing a bill making it much harder to file for bankruptcy. Bush then signed it into law.

I’m sure these congressmen will look you in the eyes and tell you that by making it harder to declare bankruptcy, the banks will in turn lower interest rates on credit cards. This, of course, is after they have been given money by the bank lobbyists. A question you might ask yourself is how many lobbyists do you think work for the poor and the middle class?

Even a good lawyer has a hard time understanding the fine print on a credit card agreement. Credit card interest is legalized loan-sharking. Miss a car loan payment or have a water bill past due and your interest rate on your credit card may soar. Credit card companies love to add on late fees. They hate people who pay the cards on time, calling them freeloaders. If a person is deep in credit card debt, the best thing to do is to see if you can get a bank loan to pay it off. Then take a scissors to the credit card. Eight percent interest is far better than 16 or 30.

Now, if only we could get rid of the best Congress money can buy. Chuck Grassley works, but for whom? Dittos for Jim Nussle and Tom Latham. And what about our state government? Do you think corporate farm lobbyists have any influence over local control of hog lots? Then there is George Bush. Darn, I’m running out of space. In a way, we deserve who we vote for.

--MARK VANHEEL, Mason City

attribution

from the good news dept, and i do mean good news

By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,216 U.S. adults from January 9-12.

--source

wanna bet that we don't see telecom-friendly legislation soon?

USAT reports that AT&T, MCI, and Sprint are cooperating with the NSA's warantless wiretapping program. Anonymous telecom execs confirmed their cooperation, but the telecom giants officially had no comment. Until this program, phone companies required court orders before cooperating with a wiretap. USAT acknowledges that the NYT originally broke the news of the telecoms' cooperation in December but takes credit for digging up the company names. Absent warrants, the telecoms are granting access to their systems on the basis of "oral requests from senior government officials."

Letter Of The Day

I find it very interesting that a majority of voters in Palestine chose Hamas to lead them. Isn't this democracy at work? Yes, just not the way the Bush administration would want. Well, democracy doesn't guarantee that the best idea, or man, wins. Just that one side gets more votes than the other. Is democracy right for all people?

-J. E. Yungbluth, Rossie.

attribution

how many daves do you know?

http://davidjohns.blogspot.com/2005/06/my-camera-6-20-05.html

listen to the podcast.

and the process begins....

NEW YORK, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- As President Bush tours the country to promote the agenda he laid out in last week's State of the Union Address, key members of his campaign team are being poached by wanna-be candidates of 2008, reports Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe in this week's Newsweek. "This is the first time in a long time where a lot of those people who have been out there for the president are free agents," says one important member of Bush's team. "This is the courtship period, and some are courting aggressively."

--source

aggressively? why does it take an aggressive offer for bushites? the way they defend the man, you'd think they'd put their money where their mouths are.

5000 tarists are in our midst

Intelligence officers who eavesdropped on thousands of Americans in overseas calls under authority from President Bush have dismissed nearly all of them as potential suspects after hearing nothing pertinent to a terrorist threat, according to accounts from current and former government officials and private-sector sources
with knowledge of the technologies in use.
...
Fewer than 10 U.S. citizens or residents a year, according to an authoritative account, have aroused enough suspicion during warrantless eavesdropping to justify interception of their domestic calls, as well. That step still requires a warrant from a federal judge, for which the government must supply evidence of probable cause.

The Bush administration refuses to say -- in public or in closed session of Congress -- how many Americans in the past four years have had their conversations recorded or their e-mails read by intelligence analysts without court authority. Two knowledgeable sources placed that number in the thousands; one of them, more specific, said about 5,000.

--WaPo
i think Americans are starting to notice that they've been conned once too many times, and they're not going to put up with it any more. the only ones who don't give a damn about democracy and our freedoms, are those who side with this nazi.

Paragraph of the Day

The WP fronts the administration's wiretapping program yielding few potential terrorism suspects. (Didn't the NYT lead with this story three weeks ago?) The Post's convoluted piece focuses on the technical aspects of the program, specifically the role automated filters play in selecting leads. Turns out these filters ain't so good at picking out possible terrorists from innocent bystanders.

--from today's papers

encronomics is alive an well at the whitehouse

But kudos to the Post for pointing out that Bush "continues a pattern of leaving substantial military expenditures out of the budget." Last week the Pentagon said it would ask for an additional $120 billion outside of the budget for its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's over a quarter of the president's proposed defense spending.

imagine if 25% of your budget didn't have to be part of the budget. my how rich we'd all be. until the time came for those payments to be made.

Letter of the WeeQ

Did I miss something? How can you run a lead editorial on the latest lobbying/money/corruption scandal in Congress and then print no letters to the editor in response ("At Least Try To Reform Congressional Ethics," Jan. 23)? Am I to believe that my letter to the editor on this subject was the only one you received on the ethics mess in Congress?

If true, that's another story waiting to be told. As you are not bound by past editorial board opinions, perhaps the current editorial board could do a re-examination of the whole campaign-spending mess in Congress and at the state level. This should include a rejection of the Register's past view that money in politics cannot be regulated.

Examine what a number of other leading newspapers and commentators have been saying about the latest scandal in Congress. In short, the consensus is that until Congress does something about public campaign financing to remove the need to raise large amounts of campaign funds, any other so-called "reform" will do little to remove the link between private money and public policy.

If the Register does not accept the fundamentally corrupting nature of money in politics, then you should at least tell readers why and explain how "ethics reform" will accomplish anything new.

—Jon Euchner, Indianola.

attributioni

Letter Of The Day

I have a suggestion to offer Gov. Tom Vilsack's task force studying the issue of TouchPlay machines in Iowa. Create a 2,000-foot buffer zone between TouchPlay machines and any school or day-care center. This out-of-sight, out-of-mind law-making would effectively have the same impact on the gambling problem in Iowa as it has had in dealing with the sex-offender problem: none.

We can stuff all the sex offenders and TouchPlay machines together and just pretend that they are not there. I predict that our lawmakers will draft more feel-good legislation, like roping off the machines and using surveillance cameras, which all looks good, while never dealing with the real issue of gambling in Iowa.

—Mike Arndt, Norwalk.

attribution

watching MTP

and boehmer is as aloof as it gets. he has no concept of reality. none.

the republicans did us a favor by electing him. thanks boys.

one thing you'll never hear democrats do

is silence dissent. from san jose mercury news:

The ejection of two women from the U.S. Capitol for wearing message T-shirts during President Bush's State of the Union speech this week was the latest incident in a growing trend of stifling dissent.

Capitol Police later apologized for ejecting the women -- after one of them, the wife of a congressman, complained bitterly, as did her husband. The police acknowledged they'd acted overzealously.

But their actions weren't atypical in today's overheated political climate. Protesters outside political conventions are herded behind razor wire far from the action, citizens wearing a rival candidate's stickers are forcefully ejected from presidential campaign rallies on public property, and those who heckle the president or broadcast issue ads within 60 days of an election can be prosecuted.

Silencing dissent isn't unique to the national government. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani once ordered city buses to remove an ad for the New Yorker magazine that made fun of him.

Rest In Peace Grandpa!

NEW YORK Feb 4, 2006 (AP)— Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of "The Munsters" whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.

--source

Joke of the Day

bolton threw a party, and nobody showed up. from CNN:

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- John Bolton, Washington's U.N. ambassador, tried to open his first meeting as head of the Security Council at 10 a.m. sharp on Thursday -- and was irked to find no other diplomats showed up.

"I brought the gavel down at 10. I was the only one in the room," Bolton said. The United States has just assumed the rotating presidency of the 15-nation council for the month of February.

"I believe in discipline. I think daily briefings constitute a form of intellectual discipline. Starting on time is a form of discipline," Bolton told reporters. "I failed today."

U.N. to john: FUCK YOU.

more good news

headline over at FT:

Republican hopes of regaining initiative fall flat

“The Republicans know that they have issues and the status quo isn’t good enough come November,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster. “There is a desire to change now, before voters make the change for them.”

But with Democrats consistently outscoring Republicans in opinion polls and growing evidence that voters are fed up with everyone in Washington, Republicans fear they may need to do far more if they are to hold on to their majority.

notice that last line:. what more is there other than another terrorist attack.

GOOD NEWS!

bush ratings from rasmussen:

Today: 45% Approve 54% Disapprove
Feb 3: 46% Approve 53% Disapprove
Feb 2: 47% Approve 52% Disapprove
Feb 1: 48% Approve 51% Disapprove

one can only hope they continue the trend.

what bush has done away from the public eye

most people aren't watching the EPA or NASA as the bush (mid)administration obliterates rules that fit their warped sense of design and purpose.

The NYT reports below the fold that NASA's chief called for "scientific openness" throughout the organization. The story updates the paper's earlier front-page scoop that some NASA scientists say they were being urged to tone down or edit reports to match Bush administration thinking on climate change and the big bang. The LAT reports inside that the EPA's internal advisory committee is furious that the agency's new rules on smog aren't tougher.

Letter(s) Of The Day

today we're treated to two, both on the same topic: democrat leadership? what leadership?

Molly Ivins, in her Jan. 21 column, perfectly describes my feelings about the Democrats in Congress ("Grow Some Spines, Democrats, and Maybe You'll Win"). I have been a lifelong Democrat and have never been so frustrated with politics and politicians.

Ivins is correct. The Bush administration has bullied its way through these past several years in office and shows no sign of stopping. The Democrats only seem able to stand around and wring their hands. The first person who stands up espousing the beliefs of the majority of Americans will get my support.

—Anne Webber, West Des Moines.

and

Yes, Molly Ivins, your call to Democrats to stand up and be heard is desperately needed. The "political center" is an illusion. It is where you go when you win an election based on your values. Then, you move toward center because you now represent your base and those who did not vote for you.

The current administration has not done that. It has divided the country by moving toward the right and not recognizing the needs of those who voted against it.

Democrats, silence is not golden. Shout out the outrage you must feel at what is happening to our America. Being careful lost two elections. We must not lose another one. "Liberal" is a good word.

Republicans, you were once a respected party. You must be aware of what is happening: lies about Iraq, allowing the the use of torture, destruction of the environment, spying on innocent Americans, the hate that other countries now feel about us, threats of further invasions. Where is your outrage?

—I. G. Shadduck, West Des Moines.

attribution

Joke of the Day

HEADLINE: Bush says he understands Americans' worries

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=73308084&p=733x8386&n=73308464

FARPOINT.FACTOID

Currently, the Defense Department says it is spending about $4.5 billion a month on the conflict in Iraq, or about $100,000 per minute.

Current spending in Afghanistan is about $800 million a month, or about $18,000 per minute.

--SOURCE

cop sues cop

from the nytimes:

Now the officers, through their union, are suing the city, charging that the police procedures at their demonstrations — many of them routinely used at war protests, antipoverty marches and mass bike rides — were so heavy-handed and intimidating that their First Amendment rights were violated.

remember, whatever the whitehouse says, think opposite

the White House's new commitment to alternative energies:

The Energy Department will begin laying off researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the next week or two because of cuts to its budget. ... The budget for the laboratory, which is just west of Denver, was cut by nearly 15 percent.

i guess the times today goes on with explaining that most of the responsibility lies with congress.

what happened to supporting the troops?

Nobody fronts Iraq, where the U.S. reported the deaths of four GIs and a Marine. And about a dozen Iraqis were killed by two closely coordinated car bombings in Baghdad. The NYT calls it the "worst attack in the capital in weeks."

--today's papers

i guess 'the worst attack in the capital in weeks' doesn't merit front page news any more .... how sad.