Story of the Day

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060305/OPINION01/603050319/1035/OPINION

on gitmo:

Hegland pored over the court files of 132 detainees. She then spent Christmas vacation with her family in Ames, studying the redacted transcripts of another 314 cases that had been heard by military tribunals.

The files show most of the detainees were not captured in Afghanistan, and most are not accused of any hostile acts. They are accused of "associating" with terrorists, often based on implausible accusations from fellow inmates or on admissions of having done things such as sleeping in a Taliban house or seeing Osama bin Ladin on television.

Some of the prisoners were captured by Pakistani or Afghan warlords, who were paid large bounties for each "terrorist" turned over. Attorney Thomas Wilner, writing in the Los Angeles Times, described one of his clients as a young Kuwaiti who was teaching in Pakistan. He and four other Kuwaitis were invited to dinner by a Pakistani tribal leader, then sold into captivity.

being republican means being above the law

or so it would seem with this round of republican klansmen:

from josh marshall:

Doesn't this break military regulations and probably several laws?

A few weeks ago we discussed the fact that the RNC was apparently working with the White House to send active duty members of the military in uniform to speak on behalf of the president's policies at Republican political events. That's against the law and military regulations. And for good reason since that's a could ride to making the military -- or factions or individuals in the military -- tools of one or the other political party.

Now we seem to have an example in practice.

This is exactly what appears to have happened yesterday at a political event with Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO). This article in the Fort Collins Coloradoan shows a picture of Musgrave doing just that with the caption: "Marilyn Musgrave introduces Marine Sergeant Brandon Forsyth on Friday during the Larimer County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner."

A look at the picture shows pretty clearly that Forsyth was in uniform. Yet those regs linked above say clearly that military personnel can attend partisan events only as spectators and not in uniform. What am I missing?

welfare for the rich

what else would you call it?

President Bush's budget would increase the federal deficit by $35 billion this year and by more than $1.2 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported on Friday.
--source

welfare for the rich

what else would you call it?

President Bush's budget would increase the federal deficit by $35 billion this year and by more than $1.2 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported on Friday.
--source

and speaking of which....

also from that same page:

Which political daughter gave a recent interview to a sports Web site that had to be chopped to ribbons because of her repeated hostile references to her famous father, who, she said, never came to her events when she was growing up?

gah, who would that possibly be?

"condi, stop smokin that crack"

that should make Quote of the Day, but the whole article is worth reading. excerpted:

"People say, 'She's so successful' and 'Look at her position as a black woman.' She is a black woman who grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and said that she never experienced a day of racism in her life," Lee tells the April issue of Stuff magazine.

"Condi, stop smoking that crack!"

"I know you love your Ferragamo shoes, but come on. While people were drowning in New Orleans, she was going up and down Madison Ave. buying Ferragamo shoes. Then she went to see 'Spamalot.'"

Quote of the Day

"They can't have it both ways," said Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont). "It would be like Consumer Reports investing trust fund money in Chrysler and then promoting Chrysler cars. You can't claim to be a disinterested advocate if you're peddling insurance to make a profit and pay your overhead."
--attribution

Quote of the Day

"They can't have it both ways," said Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont). "It would be like Consumer Reports investing trust fund money in Chrysler and then promoting Chrysler cars. You can't claim to be a disinterested advocate if you're peddling insurance to make a profit and pay your overhead."
--attribution

FARPOINT.FACTOID

One Sunday afternoon I forced myself, with stopwatch in hand, to keep track for one hour the advertising interruptions. I counted 21 minutes and eight breaks to sell something.
--SOURCE

ask and ye shall be answered

from a letter to the editor in the des moines register:

"What has come about in a civilized society?" asks Rep. Danny Carroll, R-Grinnell ("House Committee Endorses Death Penalty Bill," Nov. 24).

One thing that has come about is Representative Carroll's call for Iowans to resume the practice of capital punishment. This is an appeal, not to civilization, but to barbarity.

— D.A. Smith, Grinnell.

mason city email addys

this is for my reference later. shouldn't be of any use to those outside of north iowa.

Mayor Roger Bang:

mayor@masoncity.net.

Councilman Max Weaver:

atlargea@masoncity.net.

Councilman Scott Torn- quist:

atlargeb@masoncity.net.

Councilman Jeff Marsters:

wardone@masoncity.net.

Councilman Al Zook:

wardtwo@masoncity.net.

Councilman Don Nelson:

wardthree@masoncity.net.

Councilman John Jaszewski:

wardfour@masoncity.net.

McGarvey's e-mail address is: pmcgarvey@masoncity.net.

from our local newspaper board

that's run by fascist pigs.

Do You Suffer From Bush Derangement Syndrome?

Created by Erik Axelson

If you think you might have Bush Derangement Syndrome, or BDS, just take this simple self-administered test:

1. Do you interject non sequiters about President Bush, Vice President Cheney or Karl Rove into ordinary conversations without warning?

2. Is the Kerry-Edwards sticker still affixed to your car?

3. Did you replace a faded Kerry-Edwards sticker or an Al Gore/2000 sticker with a new one?

4. Did you vote twice in the 2004 election, once from your primary residence and once from your country home?

5. In the past 60 days, have you engaged in one or more heated arguments about the War against Islamist terror?
a. Once (1 point)
b. Twice (2 points)
c. Three times (3 points)
d. More than three times (5 points)

6. Have you found yourself yelling at members of the Bush administration when they appear on your television?

7. Have you found yourself yelling at Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos, Bob Schieffer or other network anchors for not being tough enough on Bush?

8. Have you marched with Cindy Sheehan or with Code Pink?

9. Did you send a political donation to Paul Hackett in his campaign for a special election to the U.S. House, even though you don't live in Ohio?

10. Have you demonstrated your "support for the troops" by pushing for the Murtha Amendment, which would have authorized an immediate withdrawl from Iraq?

11. Do you secretly welcome hearing bad news from Iraq because you assume it will hurt President Bush's standing in opinion polls?

12. Are you disappointed there have not been any further terrorist attacks since 9/11?

13. Do you still think the discredited memos typed on Microsoft Word broadcast by CBS's "60 Minutes" were legitimate historical documents from 1972 proving George W. Bush shirked his duty in the Texas Air National Guard?

14. Do you believe that Karl Rove actually produced and leaked these documents to discredit Dan Rather?

15. Do you obsessively try to figure out how a "war for oil" has resulted in much higher oil and gasoline prices?

16. Do you support Harry Belafonte's judgement, stated at an anti-American rally in dictator Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, that George W. Bush is a bigger terrorist than Osama Bin Laden ("if Bin Laden actually did that which he is accused of doing")?

17. Do you, like the New York Times editorial page, frequently try to reconcile the fact that the crime rate has gone down at the same time the prison population has increased?

18. Does President Bush's religiosity drive you bonkers?

19. Do you object to President Bush's support of tuition tax credits and vouchers so that poor families can send their children to private schools? Give yourself 2 points if you believe this AND send your own kids to private schools.

20. Do you find that you are avoiding friends who do not share your vitriolic disdain for President Bush?

21. In your computer dating profile do you feature your loathing for Bush and the Republican Party and warn that you will not date Republicans or Bush supporters?

22. Are you convinced that Scooter Libby outed Valery Plame on orders from Dick Cheney and Karl Rove?

23. Do you support the immediate impeachment of President Bush?

24. Do you think that the United Nations should supervise future U.S. elections?

25. Do you wonder how it is possible for the U.S. economy to grow so strongly in the past 3 years while Bush has cut income and business taxes?

26. When you are planning a vacation, do you avoid going to red states?

27. Did you make jokes about Dick Cheney’s quail-shooting incident, such as saying that it was really a warning to Scooter Libby or that Bush should have been in his friend Harry’s place?

28. Are you still trying to figure out how Karl Rove and Mr. Diebold rigged the election in Ohio, giving Bush the victory in that crucial state by 119,000 votes?

Now to score yourself, just award one point for each "yes" answer. Make sure you correctly calibrate your response to the sliding scale responses for questions 5 and 19.

Here's how you rate on the Bush Derangement Syndrome scale:

• 0-5 points Pretty normal; just another mildly partisan Democrat
• 6-10 points In the orange zone; ask a friend to monitor your outbursts
• 11-15 points Could be trouble; might want to consider voluntarily not watching TV
• 16-20 points Go immediately to your psychiatric practioner
• 21-34 points You have full-bore BDS; check in NOW to St. Elizabeth's Hospital

With prompt treatment BDS can be abated, though full cures are rare. Early detection and treatment are vital to recovering your faculties.

--source

pakistan needs osam alive to get American money?

cbs news just reported that without osama, we wouldn't need pakistan.

reminds me of when pakistan was so close to nabing him

either he's lunar, or we're being sold a can of tuna

from voice of america:

The American commander of coalition forces in Iraq says the crisis caused by the bombing of a Shi'ite mosque in Samara 10 days ago has passed, and that the violent reaction to the bombing was not as extensive as some reports indicated.

General Casey was concise in his assessment of the current security situation in Iraq.

"I do believe that the crisis part of this has passed," he said.

attribution

i wonder what he's going to say next week.

duke cunningham

he's being faced with taking $2Mil in bribes.
and only $1Mil in evading taxes.

did he pay tax on a million dollars worth of bribes?

forgive the formatting

ecto is being a bitch with her formatting today. actually, it's a bug in the system, and as soon as there is a fix, we'll be one of the first to have it. so please forgive some of the formatting errors you may notice in some of the poists. it seems that whenever there's an insert of a url, or boldinng attribute, things get moved to other lines. as i said, as soon as there's an update, we'll have it installed.

headline of the day

XCLUSIVE: FBI WHISTLEBLOWER SIBEL EDMONDS IS READY TO TALK!

--source

one can only hope this is a joke

Press reports from India following a meeting between President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggest the US is considering outsourcing some HIV/AIDS care to that country.

--source

given my propensity toward indian tele-support-persons, i don't think this will be a good thing. but then given the bushites way of handling matters, i know it will not be a good thing.

why don't they just use GMAIL???

from the journal's washington wire:

Among other woes at Homeland Security, the inspector general's office says it can't widely distribute electronic announcements of new watchdog reports. A spokeswoman explains the department lacks capacity to create a mass email list, and "We don't have a fix at this point."

it just astounds me the utter lack of simple intellect of some of these people.

gitmo is bushites' play pen

and it just rips the very fabric of American compassion. also from today's papers:

The WP reefers lawyers for a Gitmo detainee telling a judge that the force-feeding of their client amounts to abuse under the McCain anti-torture amendment. What's particularly interesting is the administration's response: They argued that Gitmo detainees have no real right to invoke the McCain amendment . That's because the much-less-noticed Graham-Levin amendment says detainees aren't allowed to go to the courts in the first place. As one human-rights lawyer put it,

"The law says you can't torture detainees at Guantanamo, but it also says you can't enforce that law in the courts."

they're breaking the law AGAIN

also from today's papers:

the (indian nuke) agreement with India "marked a significant break from decades of U.S. nuclear policy." That's because under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the U.S. and other nuke-holding countries are supposed to give nuclear know-how and fuel only to countries that sign on the treaty and promise to skip making weapons. Indiahasn't exactly done either. Slate's Fred Kaplanr ecently detailedhow the coming dealviolates the NNT, U.S. law, and may be unwise to boot.

as one analyst told the NYT: it's Santa Clause negoitating

the numbers

teehee from today's papers:

The story (on the ports deal) also touts an in-house poll with opposition to the ports deal running nearly 4-1. President Bush's approval rating fell to 38 percent and his approval on terrorism issues fell to 47 percent, a record low and a seven point drop from a month ago. The LAT fronts a poll with similar findings:
the president's disapproval rating clocked in at 58 percent.

Letter Of The Day

Discussion among state legislators to allow Iowa student athletes to fail classes and still compete is ironic considering its source. It undermines the Iowa Board of Education’s attempts to increase standards and improve student achievement.

The irony is that this is coming from the same people who have been telling us for some time now that although Iowa ranks near the bottom in teacher pay, any increase in teacher compensation must be tied to improved student performance.

Insisting on increased achievement on the one hand while taking away a tool that educators could use to help achieve improvement at the same time is counterproductive and an example of micromanaging by politicians at its worst.
— Dennis Miller, Des Moines.

attribution

is "believer" the new politically corect term now?

i'm seeing it more and more. "believer" this, "believer" that.

what's up with that? are those who 'believe' in God call believers now? or are anybody who professes to be better than you called that now?

and if as wolf just said, he flaunted it all
how come it took this long to bring him to justice?

THEY LIED!! and they're hoping you don't remember

from the national journal:

Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, according to records and knowledgeable sources.

The first report, delivered to Bush in early October 2002, was a one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate that discussed whether Saddam's procurement of high-strength aluminum tubes was for the purpose of developing a nuclear weapon.

Among other things, the report stated that the Energy Department and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research believed that the tubes were "intended for conventional weapons," a view disagreeing with that of other intelligence agencies, including the CIA, which believed that the tubes were intended for a nuclear bomb.

The disclosure that Bush was informed of the DOE and State dissents is the first evidence that the president himself knew

of the sharp debate within the government over the aluminum tubes during the time that he, Cheney, and other members of the Cabinet were citing the tubes as clear evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program. Neither the president nor the vice president told the public about the disagreement among the agencies.

--source

so when do we get to start IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS?

and look what i found:

Joke of the Day

anytime there's the word "BOLTON" tied to it, it's bound to be a joke.

An unpopular punctuality drive launched in the U.N. Security Council last month by U.S. Ambassador John Bolton came to an abrupt end on Thursday when Argentina took over the council's rotating presidency.

Bolton had cracked the whip while presiding over the 15-nation U.N. body in February, starting meetings precisely on time, even with empty chairs in the room, as part of a plan to modernize council operations.
--source

so they KNEW

The LAT and Post front a newly leaked video of top federal officials in the immediate hours before and after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The obviously selective excerpts show Hurricane Max and former FEMA man Mike Brown warning of a big disaster—including the possibility of overtopped levees—while the president tried to buck up spirits and declared "we are fully prepared."

--

today's papers

the devil is in the details

According to late-night news reports caught by a few of the papers, there were two near-simultaneous bombs exploded next to the U.S. consulate in Karachi, killing four people and injuring about 20. Speaking early this morning in India, President Bush said one U.S. diplomat was killed. He also announced a long-expected deal to help India with civilian nuclear reactors. Bush is heading to Pakistan later on the trip.

--today's papers

the intellect column of the day

http://www.slate.com/id/2137208/nav/tap1/

if you didn't understand neocons before, you will after reading that.

Letter Of The Day

there were several letters that could have made today's tribute, but this one stood out.

Who is running our country? If the president didn’t know until after the fact about management of U.S. ports being turned over to a Middle Eastern country, who is the big decision maker?

I feel really comfortable now with the leadership and security of our nation.

Is that what went wrong with the government’s response to Katrina?
— Judy Paulson, Ogden.

attribution

imagine working for 9 years and never getting a raise

that's how iowa republican leaders think you should be. they're refusing to raise the minimum wage a buck.

God i really REALLY hate republicans.

want proof of the bullying tactics used by repukes?

Legendary entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte on Tuesday explained his absence from Coretta Scott King's funeral.

Belafonte told reporters before a speech at Case Western Reserve University that President Bush influenced the King family to disinvite him from the funeral in suburban Atlanta on Feb. 7.

Belafonte, known to be a friend of Martin Luther King Jr., said he was told about the decision the day before the funeral, at which he had been scheduled to speak.

The King children made the final decision, Belafonte said, but they were "fiercely intimidated by the president's representatives."...
--source

and then there's this:

SAN DIEGO Mar 1, 2006 (AP)— Former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham bullied Defense Department officials as he worked to ensure deals for contractors who had bribed him with gifts and cash, federal prosecutors said in court papers Tuesday.

Cunningham, 64, a once-powerful member of the House Defense Appropriations Committee, is scheduled to be sentenced Friday for accepting $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering government work to defense contractors.

Prosecutor's said there was no way to distinguish between defense contracts funded through Cunningham's intervention or legitimate means, according to court documents.

They claim Cunningham berated Pentagon employees and tried to get them fired for withholding money from two contractors.
--source

ever since the election in 2000 where the bullying klan made their way south and intimidated officials there..... the coup has lasted 6 years. it's time for a REGIME CHANGE.

corruption defined

from the daily muck over at TPM:

In the latest court filing, federal prosecutors declared that Cunningham worked diligently to steer millions of federal dollars to [Mitchell Wade's] MZM and [Brent Wilkes'] ADCS. Justice Department documents say the two firms were his top priority for defense funding requests from the House Appropriations and Armed Services committees during 2003. Those firms, in turn, earned huge profits on those defense contracts, with profit margins exceeding 800 percent for some intelligence- related work, prosecutors charge. Part of that money was then returned to Cunningham in the form of bribes, a cycle that went on for more than five years.

When MZM and ADCS did not receive payments promptly from Defense Department officials, Cunningham personally intervened, calling or meeting with DOD officials to “browbeat” them into releasing the funds to MZM and ADCS and threatening to go to their superiors unless they moved quickly, according to the documents. In at least one case, Cunningham sought to have a DOD official fired because that official refused to respond to his demands.

Cunningham even “provided numerous blank sheets of his [C]ongressional letterhead to Wade” to enable Wade to draft letters on his behalf. Several of these blank sheets were seized during the search of MZM’s offices last year by federal agents, according to the latest government filing.

they say that now, but what will they tell us tomorrow?

from the nytimes' correction box:

The Istanbul Journal article on Feb. 14 about "Valley of the Wolves—Iraq," a popular Turkish-made film that depicts American soldiers in Iraq as tyrannical occupiers, referred imprecisely to scenes cited by the screenwriter as "inspired by real events." While two such scenes—the killing of Iraqis by American soldiers and the mistreatment of inmates at Abu Ghraib prison—have been documented, the scene depicting an American Jewish surgeon at Abu Ghraib removing organs from Iraqi prisoners for shipment to recipients in New York, London and Israel is fictional.

seems to me that if we were able to witness abu ghraib and other attrocities in iraq, why shouldn't we believe that organs were being transpoarted to new york?

from the "well DUH" file

The Bush administration is scaling back on audits of energy companies that pay billions of dollars for leases to produce oil and gas on federal property, state officials said.

--source

Quote of the Day

"People say climate change is something for our kids to worry about. No. It's now."
--Allan Carroll, a research scientist at the Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria, whose studies tracked a lock step between warmer winters and the spread of the beetle.

attribution

you mean they lied to us, part deux

The Post stuffs Attorney General Gonzales perhaps hinting that the

administration's extra-legal snooping is wider than known Gonzales previously told senators that the wiretapping "is all that [the president] has authorized." But in a recent letter to senators, he clarified, "I did not and could not address ... any other classified intelligence activities." "It seems to me he is conceding that there are other NSA surveillance programs ongoing that the president hasn't told anyone about," said one lawyer for previous Republican administrations.

you mean they lied to us?

Knight Ridder reports that U.S. intel agencies warned the White House in the fall of 2003 that the Iraq insurgency was taking off and was made up mostly of locals— both contrary to the administration's assertions at the time. "Frankly, senior officials simply weren't ready to pay attention to analysis that didn't conform to their own optimistic scenarios," said one official who was then chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

if you think it's only iraq going down the drain

think again

The Post goes inside with the head of military intel telling senators things are going downhill in Afghanistan. Suicide attacks increased "almost fourfold" last year, and the number of roadside bombs, long the insurgent weapon of choice in Iraq, "more than doubled."

want drama?

read THIS

it's about anna nicole smith's day in the United States supreme court.

who hates who most?

take a gander at stephen colbert's latest

the shotgun cheney challenge

The vice president told an American Legion conference today that those who are against the war should make it known if they think the U-S should "break our word and abandon our Iraqi allies."

He also told the conference that the U-S must treat Iraq as the "central front on the war on terror."

--source

IRAN WATCH

A report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency shows there is no proof Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, Iran's foreign minister said Tuesday in Japan.

They could not find evidence which shows that Iran has diverted from its peaceful purposes of nuclear activities in Iran," said Manouchehr Mottaki, who was in Tokyo to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

A confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report made available to The Associated Press Monday said that a more than three-year probe has not revealed "any diversion of nuclear material to nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices."

--source

DELAY WATCH

The Austin nonprofit group whose complaint sparked U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's indictment on campaign finance charges accused one of his allies of dirty tricks, saying Monday that U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson of Plano used his influence to prompt a tax audit.

"It's intimidation," said Craig McDonald, founder and director of Texans for Public Justice, which was cleared this month after a 13-month inquiry into whether it violated a ban on partisan activity by tax-exempt groups. "The IRS has every right to audit nonprofit organizations, but we think this was an abuse."

--source

tom delay - the face of republiconism

cattle call for video enthusiasts

We are looking for cool, fun, funny, smart, sick, sublime, irreverent, crazy, disturbing, hip, erotic, important, trippy, and/or subversive, self-contained 3-5 minute video bits to show on this program.

contact rusirius@well.com & Jeff Diehl jeffdiehl@gmail.com

the numbers

from zogby

Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll shows just one in five troops want to heed Bush call to stay “as long as they are needed”

While 58% say mission is clear, 42% say U.S. role is hazy

Plurality believes Iraqi insurgents are mostly homegrown

Almost 90% think war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11, most don’t blame Iraqi public for insurgent attacks

Majority of troops oppose use of harsh prisoner interrogation

Plurality of troops pleased with their armor and equipment

the numbers

from zogby

• Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll shows just one in five troops want to heed Bush call to stay “as long as they are needed”
• While 58% say mission is clear, 42% say U.S. role is hazy
• Plurality believes Iraqi insurgents are mostly homegrown
• Almost 90% think war is retaliation for Saddam’s role in 9/11, most don’t blame Iraqi public for insurgent attacks
• Majority of troops oppose use of harsh prisoner interrogation
• Plurality of troops pleased with their armor and equipment

that's the way i like it, uh huh uh huh

AFL-CIO leaders on Monday approved an ambitious and expensive political strategy aimed at mobilizing their members to put Democrats back in control of Congress and several state legislatures.

While a few Republicans may get labor backing, the $40 million plan -- the biggest ever for the labor federation in a non-presidential election year -- would target 21 states and 40 congressional districts where union officials believe Democratic candidates can win in the November election.

--source

you mean we were lied to?

The Washington Post leads with a near-banner headline announcing that"more than" 1,300 Iraqis have been killed since last week's attack on a Shiite shrine. The WP got the number, which is about four times more than has been widely reported, from a visit to Baghdad's main morgue.

could this be why?

Open street-fighting and bombings are easy to spot. With late-night abductions and executions, it's hard to know they've happened ... until of course the bodies turn up at the morgue.

from the "well DUH" file

Republican governors are openly worrying that the Bush administration's latest stumbles — from the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina to those of its own making on prescription drugs and ports security — are taking an election-year toll on the party back home.

--source