Letter Of The Day

This CIETC scandal shows why we need term limits. The longer people stay in office, the easier it becomes for them to form the alliances that make them corruptible.
— Robert Turner, Waukee.

attribution

alice in wonderland

"The American policy has failed both in terms of politics and security, but the big problem is that they will not confess or admit that," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of parliament. "They are telling the American public that the situation in Iraq will be improved, they want to encourage positive public opinion (in the U.S.), but the Iraqi citizens are seeing something different. They know the real situation."

--story

FARPOINT.FACTOID

Since 2000, about 40,000 troops from all branches of the military have deserted, the Pentagon says. More than half served in the Army. But the Army says numbers have decreased each year since the United States began its war on terror in Afghanistan.

--SOURCE

now THAT's a great video

here

i wouldn't be a bit surprised

NBC: US Rushed Brits to Make Arrests in Terror Plot.

(from TPM)

the terrorists are getting cluster bombs

The NYT off-leads Israel asking the U.S. to speed up delivery of a cluster-bomb rocket system that Israel thinks could help against Hezbollah. State Department officials, who presumably tipped the Times, are opposing the delivery because of the likelihood of civilian casualties. As the Times puts it, the rockets "carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that scatter and explode over a broad area." The U.S. blocked the sale of cluster bombs to Israel back in the 1980s after concluding that Israel used them in civilian areas.
--today's papers

and as one put it on DU:

Qasam and Katyusha rockets -- bad
M26 antipersonnel rockets armed with cluster munition -- good

Civilians killed by Muslims -- bad
Civiliand killed by Israelis -- good (because they're really terrorists)

Nukes owned by Iran -- bad
Nukes owned by Israel -- good

Hotels blown up by Muslims -- bad
Hotels blown up by soon-to-be Israelis -- good

HYPOCRISY OF THE DAY

"Promoting transparent, accountable governance is a critical component of our freedom agenda,"
--GEORGE BUSH JUNIOR

source

Letter Of The Day

John K. Wilson would have us believe he is concerned only with the health of homosexuals when he suggests the government prevent them from being married. The fact is that every one of the health risks he identifies is equally true for heterosexuals.

I agree with the Register on civil unions, but I will go a step further and suggest the government get out of the business of marriage ceremonies and into the business of civil unions.

Separate the church marriage ceremony from the state legal contract and never mix them again.

Thomas Jefferson knew what he was talking about when he articulated the importance of the separation of church and state: “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God … legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”
— Carl E. Olsen, Des Moines.
attribution

how do you protect yourself from breaking the law?

changing the law and make it retroactively.

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that would retroactively protect policymakers from possible criminal charges for authorizing any humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees, according to lawyers who have seen the proposal.

--source

from the WELL, DUH files

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sixty percent of Americans oppose the U.S. war in Iraq, the highest number since polling on the subject began with the commencement of the war in March 2003, according to poll results and trends released Wednesday.

And a majority of poll respondents said they would support the withdrawal of at least some U.S. troops by the end of the year, according to results from the Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted last week on behalf of CNN. The corporation polled 1,047 adult Americans by telephone.
--source

and i whine when it hits 90

U.S. troops endure 125 degrees in Iraq

Column of the Day

Man spreads peace, one flier at a time
the kid, well, 50 year old activist, kept a log on all the churches he went to. some of the reactions he got from pastors is telling.

the democrat's answer to drudge

The Fudge Report

gay rights in iraq

there are none. in fact, it has gone from being tolerated to one of acceptance of honor killing.

There is growing evidence that Shia militias have been killing men suspected of being gay and children who have been sold to criminal gangs to be sexually abused. The threat has led to a rapid increase in the numbers of Iraqi homosexuals now seeking asylum in the UK because it has become impossible for them to live safely in their own country.

--source

here's a wiki account of gay rights under saddam:

Reports about the treatment of Iraqi homosexuals during the rule of the Ba'athist Party oftentimes seem to conflict with each other, and what little information does exist is from the 1990s.

In the 1990s the Iraqi representatives to the United Nations opposed having the body address gay rights concerns or give consultative status to international gay rights organizations, on religious grounds. Some recent reports from the United Nations have said that Saddam Iraqi security forces would often harass and abuse Iraqi gays, and that honor killings of gay family memberes were tolerated, and still are.
Yet, some reports from Iraqis have suggested that an active gay nightlife was tolerated by the Ba'athist government, including nightclubs and annual events with transgendered people, and that even homosexual prostitution was generally overlooked by the regime in the 1990s, at the most being something that incurred brief jail time and a small fine.[9]

--source

Headline of the Day

Israeli pilots 'deliberately miss' targets

Ad of the Day

is the dancing office supplies done for target stores. i like the beat.

when you think bush administration , you think liars

A front-page USAT piece reminds that Congress has set some particularly fuzzy accounting rules, and when more realistic number-crunching is done the federal deficit is—depending how you count it—twice the amount publicly reported or 10 times so.

Quote of the Day

"Nobody wants us here, so why are we here? That's the big question,. If we leave, all the attacks would stop, because we'd be gone."
--Maj. Brent Lilly.

--source

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

when you think bush administration , you think liars

A front-page USAT piece reminds that Congress has set some particularly fuzzy accounting rules, and when more realistic number-crunching is done the federal deficit is—depending how you count it—twice the amount publicly reported or 10 times so.

this must be stopped in its tracks

doesn't this remind you of germany in the 1930's?

A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such "commissions" to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the proposal.

The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction. The two provisions would be likely to put more individuals than previously expected before military juries, officials and independent experts said.

--source

i didn't know this

The Post says inside that Pentagon officials seem to have lied to the 9/11 commission about whether fighter planes scrambled in time to chase any of the hijacked planes. (They didn't: The military didn't even know about Flight 93 until after it crashed.) Some commission staff members were so ticked off about the whole thing they wanted to refer it to the Justice Department for potential prosecutions. "We to this day don't know why [the military] told us what they told us," said the Republican chair of the commission. "It was just so far from the truth."

Letter Of The Day

It’s shocking that another taxpayer-funded director would get caught funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into his wallet. But, according to Clark Kauffman’s July 23 article, “Anti-Drug Charity Gave $315,732 to Its Boss,” that’s exactly what is happening.
Rock In Prevention (RIP), a taxpayer-funded, nonprofit organization, gave its director, Pat McManus, more than $315,000, $123,000 of which was salary; the remaining $192,000 McManus used to pay his own for-profit company for CDs produced for RIP last year.

RIP would be worth every penny — even the inflated salary — if it worked to keep kids off drugs. But a federal study more than five years ago failed to find any scientific data to back up RIP’s claims and also resulted in the federal funding being pulled from the organization.

Since then, the state has been the largest supporter of RIP. The largest private donor to RIP has been Don Lamberti, founder of Casey’s General Stores and father of state Senate Republican co-president Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny. It is no surprise that Lamberti pushed the state Legislature to give $600,000 to RIP. It is his father’s favorite charity.

Lamberti’s actions allowed RIP to avoid the usual state grant-application process — which likely would have provided the state with the information to make a more informed decision about its investment. Thirty-nine percent of the entire annual budget of Rock In Prevention was spent on one person. The Register knew this, why didn’t Lamberti?
— Ben Foecke, Des Moines.
attribution

it's magic i tell ya

HERE

ahhhhh, so now we know why rice left abruptly

Rice had been scheduled to travel on from Israel to Beirut, but after the bombing the Lebanese prime minister told her not to bother coming.

--source

the massacre of Qana

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called on Sunday for an international investigation into an Israeli air strike in the village of Qana that killed at least 40 Lebanese civilians, including 23 children.

--source

i hope what happened in Qana is investigated by the UN.

go figure

the timing of this just seems weird:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is abruptly breaking off her diplomatic mission in the Mideast and returning to Washington after Israel's deadly attack on a Lebanese village, a U.S. official said Sunday. Rice, who planned to head back to the United States on Monday morning, had hoped to leave the region after concrete progress on ending the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon. But her work was hampered severely by Israel's missile strike early Sunday that killed more than 50 people, including many children.

--source

and then this:

JERUSALEM, July 31 (Reuters) - Israel has agreed to suspend its aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon for 48 hours, starting immediately, to allow for an investigation into Sunday's bombing that killed 54 civilians, a U.S. State Department official said on Monday.

--source

what's going on?

my daily meds

1 bactrim
2 epivir
2 viramune
2 ziagen
3 neurontin
45 methadone
9 senna
1 zyprexa
1 xanax

talk about a mouthful, no wonder i run a blog called fields of poopy.

Quote of the Day

"Clearly, the Republican Party is the party of common sense. After all, if you give a few hundred dollars a month to the poorest of the working poor, it's only fair that you also give several million dollars to the richest of the idle rich."

--Kevin Drumm

on the bill that saw a miniscule increase in the minimum wage that also included estate tax cuts

remember the nazis did this in the 1930's

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A field representative for Gov. Ernie Fletcher said in a memo to him in May 2004 that the replacement of Democrats in state civil service jobs was progressing, according to documents filed by prosecutors yesterday.

"Constituents are ready to fill vacant merit positions and replace Democrats in both merit and non-merit positions," according to the report to Fletcher that Attorney General Greg Stumbo filed yesterday in Franklin District Court.

--story

extrication by party affiliation. nazi-ness has arrived.

from the "well DUH" files

Unable to agree on major lobbying and ethics legislation, Senate and House leaders have made plans to adopt vastly scaled-back versions of the measures as part of their rules so that lawmakers can claim that they responded to recent congressional scandals.

Congress promised fast action on lobbying reforms in January, but the two chambers cannot agree over a number of provisions, including one in the House bill that would rein in independent organizations that have spent millions of dollars, mostly on behalf of Democrats, to sway federal elections. House Republicans are insisting that the groups, nicknamed 527s, be curtailed, but Democratic senators and a handful of Senate Republicans have vowed to oppose the change as part of the lobbying bill.

--story

like we don't need arabic linguists

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.

Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

"I knew the policy going in," Copas said in an interview on the campus of East Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing a master's degree in counseling and working as a student adviser. "I knew it was going to be difficult."

An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 — less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country.

Copas now carries the discharge papers, which mention his awards and citations, so he can document his military service for prospective employers. But the papers also give the reason for his dismissal.

He plans to appeal to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.

--source

the latest numbers

RACE AR-GOV	POLL Rasmussen	DATE July 27	RESULTS Beebe (D) 47%, Huchinson (R) 40%
CT-GOV	Rasmussen	July 27	Rell (R) 56%, Malloy (D) 31%
CT-GOV	Rasmussen	July 27	Rell (R) 54%, DeStefano (D)32%
VA-05	Survey USA	July 27	Goode (R) 59%, Weed (D) 35%
MI-GOV	EPIC-MRA	July 27	Granholm 47%, DeVos 44%
VA-SEN	Zogby (tel.)	July 27	Allen 47%, Webb 37%
VA-SEN	Zogby (int.)	July 27	Allen 52%, Webb 41%
Congress	NPR	July 27	Incumbents 29%, Challengers 46%
Congress	NYT/CBS	July 26	Democrats 45%, GOP 35%
Congress	WSJ/NBC	July 26	Democrats 48%, GOP 38%
Congress	NYT/CBS	July 26	Approve 28%, Disapprove 58%
Bush	NYT/CBS	July 26	Approve 36%, Disapprove 55%
MI-SEN	Str. Vision (R)	July 26	Stabenow 53%, Butler 33%
MI-SEN	Str. Vision (R)	July 26	Stabenow 52%, Bouchard 36%
MI-SEN	Str. Vision (R)	July 26	Bouchard 43%, Butler 37%
MI-GOV	Str. Vision (R)	July 26	DeVos 48%, Granholm 44%
Nation	WSJ/ABC	July 26	Right direction 27%, Wrong track 60%
Congress	WSJ/ABC	July 26	Approve 25%, Disapprove 60%
Bush	WSJ/ABC	July 26	Approve 39%, Disapprove 56%
NV-GOV	HRA (D)	July 26	GOP Prim: Gibbons 36%, Beers 28%, Hunt 14%
NV-GOV	HRA (D)	July 26	Dem Primary: Titus 42%, Gibson 29%
Bush	ARG	July 26	Approve 35%, Disapprove 59%
FL-SEN	Miami Herald	July 26	Nelson (D) 57%, Harris (R) 29%
FL-GOV	Quinnipiac	July 26	Dem Primary: Davis 47%, Smith 19%
FL-GOV	Quinnipiac	July 26	GOP Primary: Crist 55%, Gallagher 32%
KY-04	SurveyUSA	July 25	Lucas (D) 50%, Davis (R) 41%
AZ-SEN	Rocky Mountain	July 25	Kyl (R) 45%, Pederson (D) 27%

--thanks to TPM

Quote of the Day

"Many left-wing bloggers are struggling to survive financially and would love to begin earning salaries as political operatives. "

--source

this is something very disturbing

Lebanon is investigating reports from doctors that Israel has used weapons in its 15-day-old bombardment of southern Lebanon that have caused wounds they have never seen before.

"We are sending off samples tomorrow, but we have no confirmation yet that illegal weapons have been used," Health Minister Mohammed Khalife said.

The Israeli army said it had used only conventional weapons and ammunition in attacks aimed at Hizbollah guerrillas and nothing contravening international law.

Blackened bodies have been showing up at hospitals in southern Lebanon two weeks into the war between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas that has seen at least 418 people, mostly civilians, killed in Lebanon and at least 42 Israelis.

--source

if, and i mean IF, israel is so dumb as to be using chemical weapons, then i hope the hague war crimes tribunal will get involved and prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent possible.

FARPOINT.FACTOID

Since DHS was created in 2003, there have been "significant overcharges, wasteful spending or mismanagement" on contracts worth a total of $34 billion.

--SOURCE

FEMA getting the job done?

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. — For nearly a year now, the ubiquitous FEMA trailer has sheltered tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. But there is growing concern that even as it staved off the elements, it was exposing its inhabitants to a toxic gas that could pose both immediate and long-term health risks.

The gas is formaldehyde, the airborne form of a chemical used in a wide variety of products, including composite wood and plywood panels in the thousands of travel trailers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency purchased after Katrina to house hurricane victims. It also is considered a human carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

--MSNBC

USA today ...

... flags an in-house poll of Americans showing most respondents blaming Hezbollah for the fighting, but half also said Israel's response has "gone too far." Two-thirds said the White House doesn't have a clear Mideast policy.

--source

taking a page out of the west wing playbook?

BEIRUT, July 24 -- On an unannounced trip to ravaged Beirut, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice outlined a plan Monday to deploy an international force, possibly led by NATO, in a buffer zone just inside Lebanon for 60 to 90 days, after which it would expand its mission to help the Lebanese army regain control of the south, Lebanese and U.S. officials said.

--source
and it didn't end good for then, did it?

ahhhh SO

the ABA says bush is a "threat to the Constitution and to the rule of law" in his signing statements.

--story

pulling on the reigns of george bush jr.

much needed reigns. i hope that with the control of congress changing this fall, that we finally get to see some congressional guts and pull at the reigns on george bush's presidency.

George W. Bush did not invent the document known as the presidential signing statement; he inherited it. Franklin Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, and even James Monroe, in 1830, authored the statements, which spell out the president's sometimes controversial interpretation of the very law he's signing. But no president has used signing statements quite like Bush. Although the president has not issued more statements in total than any other president, he has challenged more than 750 laws in more than 100 signing statements.

And he has used them to, in effect, challenge parts of laws, and challenge them more aggressively, than any president before him. Bush's liberal use of those statements first attracted attention in December 2005, when he signed a torture ban—but then added a statement reserving the right not to enforce the ban, alongside his signature. Since then, Congress has held a hearing to investigate Bush's use of the statements, a bipartisan advocacy group has condemned their use, and Democratic Rep. Barney Frank has introduced a bill that would allow Congress to override content in them that contradicts signed legislation.Now, U.S. News has learned, an American Bar Association task force is set to suggest even stronger action. In a report to be released Monday, the task force will recommend that Congress pass legislation providing for some sort of judicial review of the signing statements. Some task force members want to simply give Congress the right to sue over the signing statements; other task force members will not characterize what sort of judicial review might ultimately emerge.

--source

the "well DUH" Story of the Day

Republican lawmakers losing positive tone on course of war

story HERE

imagine if iran was doing what the U.S. did?

from today's papers:

The NYT off-leads news that the U.S. is expediting a shipment of bombs to Israel, authorized as part of a 2005 arms package. Israel requested the precision-guided bombs a few days ago; an anonymous U.S. official says that weapons were rushed because of Israel's ally status.

the bush administration would be hypocrites to denounce iran if they shipped arms to hezbollah.

something to laugh about

HERE

wanna see what israwl is doing to beirut?

HERE

of 1,002 U.S. adults surveyed

With midterm elections less than four months away, the poll also asked respondents whether they would choose a Democratic or Republican candidate "if the election for Congress were held today." Forty-four percent of those surveyed said they would vote for the Democratic candidate, up from 41% in April, while 31% said they would vote for the Republican candidate, down from 37% in April.

from eschaton

what's up with tv tonite?

all three networks, and even fox, have contest shows on. i dont like watching amateurs. especially amateurs who got paid handsomely. i'm almost sure they all got paid. stands to reason they would have gotten paid. but the line up is certainly nothing i want to watch.

why this administration will never be able to get out of war

from today's papers:

The NYT and LAT front, and the Post stuffs, the latest from Iraq, where the U.N. announced about 100 civilians were killed per day last month, a much higher rate than earlier in the year. The U.N. got the numbers for the Iraqi health ministry and Baghdad's morgue. Nearly 60 people died yesterday when a suicide bomber hit day laborers in Kufa, a Shiite holy city. The bomb exploded across the street from cleric Moqtada Sadr's main mosque.

The LAT's conclusion: "IN IRAQ, CIVIL WAR ALL BUT DECLARED."

Or as visiting Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told the NYT while hanging in the Green Zone, "The situation seems far more stable than when I was here two or three years ago. The security seems better, people are more relaxed."

how do you define fascism?

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal probe of the warrantless eavesdropping program that monitors Americans' international calls and e-mails when terrorism is suspected.

The department's Office of Professional Responsibility announced earlier this year it could not pursue an investigation into the role of Justice lawyers in crafting the program, under which the National Security Agency intercepts some telephone calls and e-mail without court approval.

At the time, the office said it could not obtain security clearance to examine the classified program.

Under sharp questioning from Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, Gonzales said that Bush would not grant the access needed to allow the probe to move forward.

--story

the TPM grand ole docket

keeping tabs on the court cases of criminals related to GOP shenanigans.

HERE