seems that there's corruption at every level

in every corner, when it comes to oil & gas.

The NYT investigates what led the Bush administration to waive $7 billion in oil-industry royalties, employing an incentive that was meant to be used when energy prices were low. Instead, say Democrats, taxpayers are paying to subsidize oil companies at a time of record profits. The answer: "a law riddled with ambiguities," "crucial errors by midlevel bureaucrats under President Bill Clinton," "inducements from the Bush administration," and "shrewd lobbying and litigation" at every turn from oil and gas companies.

Quote of the Day

"Any definition of terrorism that would include someone throwing a bottle or rock through a window during an antiwar demonstration is dangerously overbroad."

--ACLU staff attorney Ben Wizner

attribution

well, there ya have it folks

bush was intent on invading iraq regardless... REGARDLESS.

The NYT discovers a British memo that seems to demonstrate that President Bush was determined to go to war with Iraq while the U.S. was still pressing for a second U.N. resolution. The memo, written by Tony Blair's then top foreign-policy adviser, reveals that even as President Bush was publicly offering Saddam Hussein a chance to disarm, he told the British PM that he was determined to invade Iraq even without a resolution and even if arms inspectors failed to find weapons.

Letter of the WeeQ

In explaining the vote to remove TouchPlay machines, House Speaker Christopher Rants said, “Iowans want them gone. They wanted them gone yesterday. They didn’t want them gone two years from now” (March 17).

I will expect him to act with equal speed and vigor in attacking the other nuisance that has proliferated in our state — hog factories.

Iowans want them gone. We wanted them gone yesterday. We don’t want them gone two years from now. I am thrilled that Rants is finally seeing the light, and I anxiously await his bill to ban hog factories.
— Carol Dupic, Emmetsburg.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

Chet Guinn’s articulate summary pointing out how peace activists’ predictions were right about the dire consequences of our invading Iraq (“Peace Activists Were Right About War, Could Help Now,” March 18 guest opinion) was in sharp contrast to Cal Thomas’ column describing activists who gave their life for a world of peace and justice as irrelevant (“Defeat Evil Before Attempting Peace,” March 15).

I, too, am waiting for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and yes, even David Yepsen, to admit that Pandora’s box has opened wider and evil inflamed around the world since our Iraq invasion. The world is less secure, we are buried in monumental debt, we grieve the lives of thousands and we are without respect in the world theater as the chaos of the last three years worsens.

Just as the peace activists predicted.
— Lloyd Kaufman, Des Moines.

attribution

Quote of the Decade

"...Our own editors back in New York are asking us the same things. They read the same comments. You know, are there positive stories? Can't you find them? You don't think that I haven't been to the U.S. military and the State Department and the embassy and asked them over and over again, let's see the good stories, show us some of the good things that are going on? Oh, sorry, we can't take to you that school project, because if you put that on TV, they're going to be attacked about, the teachers are going to be killed, the children might be victims of attack.

Oh, sorry, we can't show this reconstruction project because then that's going to expose it to sabotage. And the last time we had journalists down here, the plant was attacked. I mean, security dominates every single thing that happens in this country….So how it is that security issues should not then dominate the media coverage coming out of here?"

- Lara Logan

attribution
YOU GO GURL!! and i take back everything i wrote about you.

from the WELL DUH file

On top of other woes confronting Republicans, the continuing violence in Iraq and President Bush's message last week that the deployment would last several more years has heightened Republicans' concerns about how voters such as Larrison will view the party in the November elections.

--source

"i'll do what i damn well please" -george bush jr.

WASHINGTON -- When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.

--source

and people wonder why i hate this man.

are we TRYING to create civil war in iraq?

sounds like it to me:

"The American forces went into Mustafa mosque at prayers and killed more than 20 worshippers," Hazim al-Araji told Reuters news agency, citing a larger death toll than the 18 counted by medical sources.

--source

Quote of the Day

"Team Bush is entering the "just don't care" phase. Their mission has been largely accomplished with the transfer of over five trillion dollars into the protected accounts of their friends around the world, and a guarantee for trillions more during what will certainly be a traumatic economic upheaval accompanying the realization that energy will soon cost ten to twenty times as much as it has historically."

"In other words, they got theirs. With no sense of history, humanity, or fear of prosecution, they don't care."
--pigwidgeon

attribution

from the HOW IN HELL COULD THAT HAPPEN file

A U.S. Navy destroyer collided with an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf off Iraq, slightly injuring four people, the Navy said Sunday.

--source

the story doesn't go into how, which makes me wonder why they even print the thing.

corruptions DEFINED

and the liars that define it:

The Washington Post leads with news that Edwin Buckham, a former chief of staff and political adviser to Tom DeLay, collected over a million dollars in payments from a pro-family nonprofit organization. Buckham set up the U.S. Family Network – a group whose revenue came mostly from clients of lobbyist Jack Abramoff—while in DeLay's employ. Although DeLay claimed the USFN was a "nationwide, grass-roots organization," the 3 million dollars it collected in five years was mostly funneled to DeLay's advisers or used to fund ads attacking Democrats. In addition, the money was spent on costly art as well as lavish travel and entertainment for Buckham. The WP also notes that "Abramoff, for his part, once boasted that he had invested a million dollars in Buckham."

another repuke program that has backfired

The New York Times leads with a report that in order to comply with the testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind education law, schools nationwide are ratcheting up the amount of time students spend on reading and math—to the exclusion of other courses. Because the law only requires annual tests in those two subjects, schools are ditching history, science, art, and music and concentrating on their test scores. At one school in California, some students spend five of their six class periods on math, reading, and gym, with only 55 minutes reserved for another subject; the school's lowest performers don't even get that extra class. There's a split among experts as to whether such intense focus on math and reading will eventually help underperforming students, or will, as some suggest, lead to student burnout.

caught in a lie

this should become a new thread. God knows how many republicans (and probably a few democrats) in its web. but to start it off, we have chris rants, iowa's house speaker:

First, House Speaker Christopher Rants created headlines by accusing the lottery of misleading lawmakers. A week later, TouchPlay was back in the news when a review of legislative records revealed that lottery officials had regularly kept elected officials updated about the program — and even had provided photos of the machines that showed how similar they were to slot machines.

--source

how can you tell someone listens to too much foxnews

they write stupid letters like this:

Another typical liberal thought process was given by Diane Lansink (“Who Are Bush Fans?” March 16 letter).

Even Saddam Hussein’s generals didn’t know he destroyed the weapons of mass destruction.

There is no “civil chaos” in Iraq — the insurgents get all the attention from the liberal media.

“Loss of our best in the military”? These people signed up voluntarily, and it is better to have the fight over there than here.

Wiretapping of U.S. citizens is not illegal, no matter what the liberals say. Her letter is just another sample of how a liberal speaks and writes without having all the facts.

I don’t claim to have all the facts, but I would rather trust our generals in Iraq and our president at home to keep us safe, not the Tom Harkins, Harry Reids, Al Frankens and other liberals speaking without all the information being considered.

— Gordon D. Tjelmeland, Clive.

attribution

it was all i could do to keep from laughing my ass off.

Letter of the Year

boy, i should have probably waited before printing the other letters, but hell. it was a good day for LOT* today.

Watching President Bush’s press conference on March 21, a sense of shame overtook me. How is he able to laugh and joke when asked questions about war? And how can the reporters sit there and laugh along with his jokes during a time so many people are dying every day?

The only person in the press corps who seemed ready and willing to ask Bush a tough question was Helen Thomas. She asked Bush why we really went to war. No one came to her defense when Bush gave her an evasive answer, and TV newscasts later called her hostile.
How can those reporters sit there in silence and not scream out “liar” when Bush says he never linked 9/11 to Saddam Hussein?

I am embarrassed by this president every time he opens his mouth. I wonder, what happened to America? America doesn’t torture. America doesn’t let people rot in jail for years without due process. America doesn’t stifle science. America doesn’t conduct massive, secret spying on its own citizens. America doesn’t believe the individual is an annoyance, an impediment to supreme government power.

Has the American public become so isolated, ill-informed about the world and drugged by consumerism that it can’t be bothered to turn off its big-screen TVs and find out what has happened to their country?

They seem to care more about Tom Cruise, American Idol and Starbucks than about innocent civilians being killed in our name.

I hope that someday we will all wake up and find our missing America. If not, we are in for a rough ride ahead.

— William C. Stosine. Iowa City.

attribution

Letter of the WeeQ

I applaud Senator Tom Harkin’s assessment of the war in Iraq (“3 Years Later, What Next in Iraq? Pull Out Troops Caught in a Sectarian Fight,” March 13 guest editorial). He states that it is the ongoing presence of United States forces that prevents Iraq’s leaders from resolving their political differences and forming a true national-unity government.

Seventy-two percent of U.S. troops believe we should get out this year. To those who say withdrawing too quickly would help terrorists, I say “staying the course” has resulted in a seemingly endless supply of terrorists.

After three years, the bombing and retribution killings are increasing, not decreasing. One of the Iraqi women touring the United States, Eman Khammas, told a packed audience of college students in Maryland, “The U.S. invasion has killed our people, ruined our lives and destroyed our country. It is responsible for the sectarian violence, and the sooner the foreign troops leave, the sooner we Iraqis can come together to rebuild our nation.”

— Delores Mulvihill, Grinnell.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

Congressman Jim Nussle’s office announced an April fundraising dinner featuring President George W. Bush for a paltry $200 a plate. For the many, many Iowans earning the minimum wage of $5.15, that’s dinner for 38.83 hours of labor, or 4.85 eight-hour work days. Not exactly a happy meal.

— Stan Beyerman, Des Moines.

attribution

oh GOD nooooo

gloria borger taking schieffer's spot on FTN. God help us.

why not ask hadley about the CIA spy in saddam's inner circle in the days up to the invasion?

Joke of the Day

But even here in the president's home state, in a region densely populated by energy and petrochemical industries with warm ties to the White House, consensus is that progress is being made in spite of the federal government, not because of it.

Dissatisfaction with what is seen as a heartless Bush administration recovery effort is widespread.

"We need some compassionate conservatism," said Mark Viator, a chemical company official who is chairman of the Southeast Texas Recovery Coalition, a group of area leaders that has been lobbying Washington for assistance.

"Make no mistake about it: They don't care about you, and they don't care about what is happening in our communities," said Chester R. Jourdan Jr., executive director of the Southeast Texas Regional Planning Commission. Jourdan made his comments at a public meeting last week less than two hours after returning from a fruitless lobbying trip to the nation's capital.

--source

katrina will have lasting effects for the bush administration. long after the houses are rebuilt, and long after bush is put out to pasture, his legacy will have a katrina labelling.

this fuckn mac is really bothering me today

first yahoo weather stopped reporting current temps ... not only for my town but for every town. that makes their widgets useless. weather.com, which provides their weather, is current, so its a matter of yahoo not reporting it. then i got mac crashing all over the place. safari. the thing jus pisses me off so much that i have to reboot every time i turn around it seems. i want my windows box back.

an open message to yahoo

what yahh hoo decided to drop the current temperature from the weather pages? what a dumb-ass idea. the one who made this decision should be fired. i rely on the yahoo weather widget to tell me what temperature it is outside. now i'm gonna have to buy a thermometer.

from the folks who should know better than anyone else

New York - As debate over the issue flares in several states, a major adoption institute says in a new report that it strongly supports the rights of gays and lesbians to adopt, and urges that remaining obstacles be removed.

--source

when will America rid itself of the bigotry of homophobia? i thought in my lifetime, but i don't know....

see dick sing, see dick hunt, see dick lie

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday rejected charges by Democrats that the Bush administration was mishandling Iraq and said: "If they are competent to fight this war, then I ought to be singing on American Idol."

--source

just like a bush.... keeping it all in the family

The LAT picks up the story that Barbara Bush donated money for Hurricane Katrina evacuees in Houston, and specifically instructed that part of the money be spent on buying educational software from her son Neil's company. Although the LAT does not mention it, the Houston Chronicle first reported this story on Thursday. The WP's Al Kamen mentioned the story in his column yesterday, and credited the Chronicle for the scoop.

from the GOOD NEWS file

seems the FEC finally has something we can brag about. from today's papers:

The Post goes inside with new rules proposed by the Federal Elections Commission that would pretty much extend the media exemption to the online world, thereby permitting Web sites and bloggers to attack or praise candidates. Campaign advertisement on the Internet will have to be paid with money regulated by federal campaign law and must carry a disclaimer. For the most part, bloggers and their advocates welcomed the new proposals.

why didn't russion join the coalition to invade iraq?

since they were very much a part of duping saddam in the early days of the invasion.

Letter Of The Day

To those who believe sexual orientation is a choice: Surely, then, you must remember the day you made your choice on such an important matter, don’t you?

— Kathy Collins Reilly, Des Moines.

attribution

today's GEM:

I and some other journalists had lunch with Senator Joe Lieberman the other day and we listened to him talking about Iraq. Either Senator Lieberman is so divorced from reality that he's completely lost the plot or he knows he's spinning a line. Because one of my colleagues turned to me in the middle of this lunch and said he's not talking about any country I've ever been to and yet he was talking about Iraq, the very country where we were sitting.

--atrios

tee hee

HYPOCRISY ALERT

President Bush, trying to regain his political footing ahead of this year's critical midterm elections, asserted Friday "the difference is clear" between the two parties on how to sustain the U.S. economic recovery.

"If you want the goverment in your pocket vote Democrat," Bush said. "If you want to keep more of your hard earned money vote Republican."

--source

if i want the government in my pocket, i'll buy a senator. the only record he has to stand on is a broken one, one of deficits so high you could walk to the moon on the money.

watching cspan

listening to josh conlangelo-bryan, of the dorsey & whitney law firm, on the treatment of detainees at gitmo.

that our government is behind the abuses down there of human beings should boil the blood of every red-blooded American.

listening to ex-prisoner shafiq rasul.

GITMO MUST BE SHUT DOWN!! we can no longer allow our government to operate in this fashion. this is not what America is about.

bush looked at putin and saw his soul

i wonder if he saw the soul of a friend or foe, as one has to wonder after reading this:

The Russian government provided Saddam Hussein with intelligence on U.S. military movements and plans during the opening days of the war in 2003, according to a Pentagon report released Friday.

--yahoo

caught this image over on DU and thought i'd share

because it demonstrates exactly how i feel, and why i hate this man so.

why do we even bother to have a congress?

WASHINGTON -- When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.

The bill contained several oversight provisions intended to make sure the FBI did not abuse the special terrorism-related powers to search homes and secretly seize papers. The provisions require Justice Department officials to keep closer track of how often the FBI uses the new powers and in what type of situations. Under the law, the administration would have to provide the information to Congress by certain dates.

Bush signed the bill with fanfare at a White House ceremony March 9, calling it ''a piece of legislation that's vital to win the war on terror and to protect the American people." But after the reporters and guests had left, the White House quietly issued a ''signing statement," an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law.

In the statement, Bush said that he did not consider himself bound to tell Congress how the Patriot Act powers were being used and that, despite the law's requirements, he could withhold the information if he decided that disclosure would ''impair foreign relations, national security, the deliberative process of the executive, or the performance of the executive's constitutional duties."

--source

signing statements had been used about 70 times before bush. bush has some 200 of 'em, and we're not even half way through his second term. no wonder he's got tortureman gonzales as his attorney general.

FARPOINT.FACTOID

There are thought to be about 20,000 non-Iraqi civilian contractors supporting a range of U.S. efforts, including about 6,000 security contractors. According to Department of Labor statistics, more than 400 U.S. civilians have died there.

--SOURCE

from the smoking gun, cheney's a foxnews-aholic

talk about a man living in a bubble.

The WP and NYT report that when Vice President Dick Cheney stays in a hotel, his staff faxes over a list of requirements for the "downtime suite." The document was posted online by The Smoking Gun, which publishes accommodation demands of big names and elebrities. Unlike some stars, however, the vice presidential requirements aren't too grand and include things like diet caffeine-free Sprite, and that all television channels be tuned to Fox News. Cheney's office also requests certain newspapers: NYT, USAT, WSJ, WP, and a local paper. Interestingly enough, the NYT's story on the document fails to mention the WP in the list of reading material.

ya think? the NYT has a bias.

a job half-assed done - the bush legacy

The United States is winding down its rebuilding programs in Iraq, which, according to one expert, have been a "dismal failure" that have "left a legacy of half-built projects." One of the goals was to create jobs for 1.5 million Iraqis, but USAID said last week they've only managed to get to 77,000.

--source

Letter of the WeeQ

As a gay United Methodist minister, I applaud Leonard Pitts Jr. admonishing those who draw on selective Scripture to support their bias against homosexuals (“Commandment for Literalists: Thou Shalt Not Quote the Bible Selectively,” March 11).

It is particularly annoying when these folks misquote the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), as though it has anything to do with a person’s homosexual orientation. This is a story of heterosexual men desiring to rape other men to assert their power over them.

Read with an open mind. Anyone can see this story has absolutely nothing to do with the wholesome and holy beauty of gay people expressing love to one another. It is always sad when people select Scripture to support their bigoted bias instead of allowing Scripture to personally nourish them and lead them to a better Christian life.
— The Rev. David R. Holmes, Council Bluffs.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

Regarding who can be married, and who cannot: Churches should stay out of state business, and the state should stay out of church business. Who marries whom should be determined by each church denomination or synod and not legislated by politicians.

And one church, should not try to interfere with another church no matter how powerful it is.
— Milford J. Ludwig, Des Moines.

attribution

freedom on the march

except if you're gay

Following a death-to-gays fatwa issued last October by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, death squads of the Badr Corps have been systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution, gay Iraqis say. But when they ask for help and protection from U.S. occupying authorities in the Green Zone, the secure area officialdom has carved out within Baghdad, gays Iraqis are met with indifference and derision.

--source

i think i can see what bush means when he talks about progress in iraq. what with the taliban still very active in afghanistan, and now the badr corps in iraq, gays are once again targeted for killing.

the bush criminal enterprise continues to profit from war

WASHINGTON — As President Bush embarks on a new effort to shore up public support for the war in Iraq, an uncle of the chief executive is collecting $2.7 million in cash and stock from the recent sale of a company that profited from the war.

--source

there's a pic of him in the article. he looks like the town drunk.

from the GOOD NEWS file

WASHINGTON - The public backlash over gay marriage has receded since a controversial decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 2003 to legalize those marriages stirred strong opposition, says a poll released Wednesday.

--source

this should help democrats win this year.

Headline Of The Day

Afghan Christian convert may escape conviction due to 'insanity'

--source

one has to wonder, what took them so long

to CATCH the duke

"His personal style veered toward large, dark, wood Frenchy pieces, with lots of marble and mirror and stained glass, and a certain amount of decorative flourish," the Post assesses. "Was the man was just begging to be caught?"

the ground zero grassy knoll

http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16464/index.html

A new generation of conspiracy theorists is at work on a secret history of New York’s most terrible day.

...

There is “911truth.org,” "911forthetruth.com,” “911truthla.org,” “nakedfor911truth.com,” “911truthemergence.com,” “911citizenswatch.org,” “911research.wtc7.net,” “911review.com,” and hundreds more.

you know what they say about conspiracy theorists... somewhere in there something has to be true.

collateral damage my a$$

http://www.chris-floyd.com/march/

beware, graphic photos of children in war zone

HYPOCRISY ALERT

The U.S. military hit back on Wednesday at what it called a "pattern of misinformation" following Iraqi police accusations that its troops shot dead a family of 11 in their home last week.

Responding to comments by police and residents in the town of Ishaqi, north of Baghdad, that U.S. officers had failed to attend a meeting on Wednesday about the incident, Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson, a senior spokesman, told Reuters:

"There was no meeting scheduled with any Coalition investigators today. There appears to be a distinct pattern of misinformation surrounding this entire incident.

"This is another clear sign of that happening, making allegations for the sake of prompting media reporting and attempting to discredit Coalition operations. This is a pattern we‘ve seen the terrorist-backed insurgency use repeatedly."

--SOURCE

round 'em up for interrogation

saddam would be proud of george.

BAGHDAD, 22 March (IRIN) - Aid agencies say thay have been prevented from entering the city of Samarra, in central Iraq, where a major US and Iraqi military operation is underway.

"Our convoys sent on Sunday and Monday have been prevented from entering the city by US troops and our information from inside is that families are without food, power and potable water, particularly because they cannot leave their homes," noted Abdel Hameed, a spokesperson for the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS).

This, they say, has left hundreds of families without medical assistance and food supplies.

"Innocent people and especially children are suffering from a lack of supplies in and on the outskirts of Samarra," said Muhammad al-Daraji, Director of the Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq (MHRI).

<snip>

"We have been informed that they are taking the men for interrogation and leaving women and children alone in their homes afraid and desperate for supplies," al-Daraji added

--source

Quote Of The Day

"During Saddam's time we couldn't say a word. Now we scream and scream and nobody listens"
--defense attorney Thabit Zubeidi

attribution

"just show us some respect" --iran

this is what is wrong with the bush adminstration. they don't feel they need to respect anybody else. and look where it got us.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that Iran is willing to meet with Americans to discuss ways to stabilize Iraq. At the same time, progress on the country's uranium-enrichment program was reported, and Khamenei said that the United States must treated Iran with respect.