the feel-good story of the year.

wanna bet that the Hamanns aren't republican?

DesMoinesRegister.com: "It's the talk of the town: Richard and Donna Hamann will pay the December electric bill for every person, school and business within the city limits of Anthon.

The city clerk is busily calculating the final amount, but it's likely to be just under $30,000.

'My little philosophy is everything I have is a gift from God and what I do with it is my gift to God,' said Richard Hamann, a retired cattle farmer born and raised in the northwest Iowa community.
Hamann, 75, wanted to build a $1 million wind turbine on his land and donate it to Anthon. The turbine would have covered a third of the town's electrical needs, but the city's contract with its power provider, Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative, wouldn't allow it without a hefty penalty.

So Hamann figured the least he could do was pick up a month's tab for the town of 650."

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Democrats have the moral answers, Republicans only offer moral rhetoric.
-Bill Gluba,
Davenport."

we have not only leaders who are incompetent, but also journalists who are key to making sure we do.

Slate's Today's Papers: On Monday, USAT's lead say Army National Guardsman in Iraq were a third more likely to be killed than their active-duty brethren. Yesterday, USAT said—again on Page One—that the military gave the paper the wrong numbers, and couldn't provide new ones. This morning's USAT does have the revised numbers, which show that Army National Guardsmen are less likely to be killed than active duty GIs. That walk-back is stuffed on page two.

the perfect thing to see in the morning over coffee.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "To future generations: When you wonder how your elders could have allowed the federal deficit to skyrocket in just three years, question the integrity of the U.S. intervention in Iraq, don't understand why individual freedoms slowly eroded and can't afford to travel to Europe because of a weak dollar, remember one phrase: good moral values.
-Jane E. Brown,
Granger."

nauseating to say the least.

Medal of Freedom: "President Bush is awarding the nation's highest civilian honor today to three men who were central to his Iraq policy. At a White House ceremony, Bush will present the Medal of Freedom to former CIA chief George Tenet, former Iraq administrator Paul Bremer and retired General Tommy Franks. Tenet left the CIA in July after seven years as director. He's been criticized for intelligence lapses leading to Nine-Eleven, but provided the president with evidence to back his case for ousting Saddam Hussein. Bremer oversaw creation of the interim Iraqi government -- and disbanding of the Iraqi army. Just yesterday Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer called the army move a mistake. Franks was the four-star Army general who commanded the US invasion force. After retiring, he endorsed Bush for re-election and campaigned on the president's behalf. "

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: December 12, 2004 - December 18, 2004 Archives:

They seem to be stipulating to their knowing about and being untroubled by a) Kerik's long-standing ties to an allegedly mobbed-up Jersey construction company (see yesterday's piece in the Daily News and tomorrow's in the Times), sub-a) that Kerik received numerous unreported cash gifts from Lawrence Ray, an executive at said Jersey construction company (Ray was later indicted along with Edward Garafola, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano's brother-in-law, and Daniel Persico, nephew of Colombo Family Godfather Carmine "The Snake" Persico and others on unrelated federal charges tied to what the Daily News called a "$40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock swindle." b) that Riker's Island prison became a hotbed of political corruption and cronyism on his watch, c) that he is accused by nine employees of the hospital he worked at providing security in Saudi Arabia of using his policing powers to pursue the personal agenda of his immediate boss, d) that a warrant for his arrest (albeit in a civil case) was issued in New Jersey as recently as six years ago, e) that as recently as last week he was forced to testify in a civil suit in a case covering the period in which he was New York City correction commissioner, in which the plaintiff, "former deputy warden Eric DeRavin III contends Kerik kept him from getting promoted because he had reprimanded the woman [Kerik was allegedly having an affair with], Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero," or f) his rapid and unexplained departure from Baghdad.

as i am unwilling to land on the journal's site, i'll just take TP's word for it (they're rarely ever wrong). because everything about this administration is straight up bushit.

Diss-information By Eric?UmanskyThe Journal notices inside that six months after the White House disavowed a Justice Department memo that essentially justified torture, the administration has not gotten around to giving intel agencies and the military a new set of legal guidelines for interrogations. Apparently, some in the administration don't think it's worth the potential trouble. "The question is," said one official, "Why do people have to write opinions about how far you can go?"

the people are beginning to see why us 'leftists' were screaming.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Regarding the Dec. 9 article, 'Rumsfeld Encounters Some 'Friendly Fire' ': As a father of an Army soldier who put his life on the line for W's father in the Persian Gulf War and is still on active duty, it appalls me to hear this representative of our government tell our troops to more or less suck it up and go out and get killed because this administration has squandered the money that was supposed to be used to protect you.
The show of such low regard for their lives sure doesn't sound like they are supporting our troops. I hope Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld doesn't have one of those 'Support Your Troops' stickers on his armored vehicle.

-Staff Sgt. Billy Dunbar,
Patterson.
***
When Donald Rumsfeld says, 'You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time,' he seems to have forgotten that the United States was not forced into action. We selected the time. We selected the place. We selected the equipment. Mistakes were made, and key figures in this administration continue to ignore or deny that fact. Rumsfeld often responds to questions from reporters with patronizing half-truths. That is annoying. When he does the same to questions addressed to him from soldiers in the field it is inexcusable.

-David Ketcher,
Des Moines.
***
The image of U.S. soldiers scavenging in trash dumps for makeshift armor is appalling. Donald Rumsfeld and other members of the administration chose to go to war pre-emptively with the Army they had. The United States had not been attacked. The administration could have chosen to wait until it did have the Army it wanted.

-Ruth Anne Petrak,
Des Moines.
***
If you think back, 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' ended with a cute "

wanna bet that the insurgency would disappear if only bush would announce an immediate withdrawal?

they're alllllll liars, cheats & thieves.

White House Puts Blame on Kerik (washingtonpost.com): "Giuliani, who recommended Kerik for the post, also called the White House yesterday and apologized. "

and then from the nytimes:

"I never had a conversation in which I vouched for him or was asked about this issue or any other issue," Mr. Giuliani said.

and there's more juice at the daily news where they delve into just how much of a crook this guy really is.

for future reference. the TP database

proof that those in control of our government will do whatever the hell they please, until someone finds out.

Citing Personnel Reasons By Sam?Schechner: "Everyone leads their final editions with what appears to be a classic late-Friday news dump: Bernard Kerik pulled the plug on his nomination to head Homeland Security last night, citing 'personal reasons' that he later clarified were of an illegal nanny variety. 'I personally apologize to you for not having focused on this earlier,' Kerik wrote President Bush in a letter the White House released. Later, Kerik released a statement in which he says he'd just discovered two days ago that a nanny under his employ may have been an illegal immigrant and that her payroll taxes had, uh, somehow gone unpaid.
The papers more or less swallow this two-day timeline, although the New York Times ominously notes that the nanny was sent packing to her unspecified home country two weeks ago, and the Washington Post says White House officials found it suspicious that Kerik was not aware of any potential problem. No word on whether they might have been aware.
In fact, the papers are shy about speculating that the nanny might be a smokescreen (as suggested by Slate's Mickey Kaus), but everyone winkingly recaps the growing list of news accounts that have been dogging Kerik in recent days?from his questionable relationship to a company that produces Taser guns to his less-than-stellar stint supervising police training in Iraq. The Los Angeles Times cites recent a Newsweek profile that mentions how he bought the NYPD four $50,000 security doors that were too heavy to be installed and later became an advisor to the company that sold them. Last night, Newsweek also reported that it had unearthed an old arrest warrant for Kerik and faxed it to the White House just a couple hours before the withdrawal announcement."

this should really be filed in the Quote of the Day series... but i'll keep it here since it basically sums it all up rather nicely:

Democratic Underground Forums - This is great. We can't take back our country until we take back our: "'Look, if a liberal is someone who wants clean air instead of subsidies for polluters, if a liberal is someone who thinks every child in America regardless of race, religion, or wealth deserves a free quality education, deserves free first rate health care, deserves economic opportunities, and safe neighborhoods, if a liberal believes that our government should stop rewarding corporations for polluting and tax evasion and fraud and outsourcing jobs and stealing from electric ratepayers in California and stealing worker's pensions, then YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I'M A LIBERAL.'"

SS reform, bushistista style, is a snowjob on the American people.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Borrow, Speculate and Hope: "If Mr. Bush were to say in plain English that his plan to solve our fiscal problems is to borrow trillions, put the money into stocks and hope for the best, everyone would denounce that plan as the height of irresponsibility. The fact that this plan has an elaborate disguise, one that would add considerably to its costs, makes it worse. "

the Dumbification Of America continues....

DesMoinesRegister.com: "A government investigation found the people who answer telephones for the Medicare help line gave inaccurate responses to questions from callers about one-third of the time. When customer-service representatives were asked about the $600 subsidy to help low-income people buy drugs, they gave the wrong answer 55 out of 70 times. One representative didn't understand that 'trunk strength' in the script he was reading from meant upper-body strength. So he told a senior Medicare would pay for a wheelchair only if he had adequate space to fit it in the trunk of his car."

this kid can't be 18. yet he writes as good, if not better than, 90% of the employed journalists i know.

A Radical Youth Journal Based in the U.S.: "Right-wing ideology is mostly a game of smoke and mirrors. Outside the narrow segment of the very wealthy, it achieves its appeal by cleverly capitalizing upon the inchoate prejudices, suspicions, fears, and insecurities prevalent among the public. The method is simple but effective: for any given problem, introduce a few crucial codewords and phrases that both eject said problem's real dimensions and inject as many emotionally-loaded, jingoistic, and anxiety-inducing intimations as possible. These Trojan horses, once inserted into public discourse, arouse the appropriate psychological insecurities and pre-existing prejudices, and soon come to reshape the framework of public discourse itself. The trick is to recognize this game from the outset - and to reject and dismantle the imposed framework - instead of hopelessly banging on the walls from inside the asylum.
Take, for instance, the two pillars buttressing the much-touted 'moral values' platform that has demoralized many liberals: opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Bowing before the authority of the 'moral majority,' cowed liberals have simply accepted the supposed necessity of retreating on these social issues, of conjuring up candidates and platforms more amenable to a more conservative America. But why accept wooden horses as new deities? In reality, there is nothing majoritarian, moral, or authoritative about these political positions, derived as they are from politics shaped by fear, propped up by far-right financing, enabled by a deluge of liberal eulogizing and emboldened by a drought of leftist organizing. A closer look at conservative stances on both abortion and gay marriage reveal them as utterly hollow and inconsistent by any standard of judgment.
The great hue and cry over abortion, according to its pious opposition, is all abou"

WOW

The Blue Lemur - Progressive Politics and Media News ? In sworn affidavit, programmer says he developed vote-rigging prototype for Florida congressman; Congressman?s office silent: "In the vote fraud prototype that I created things are not what they seem. Hidden on the screen are invisible buttons. A person with knowledge of the locations of those invisible buttons can then use them to alter the votes of everyone before them. By clicking the correct order of invisible buttons the candidate selected by the user is compared to other candidates within that same race. If the candidate they selected is leading the race nothing happens. If the other candidate is leading the race the vote totals are altered so that the selected candidate is now leading the race with 51% of the vote. The other candidates then share the remaining 49% in exact proportion to the totals they had previously. In the prototype supplied to Feeney the vote totals show on the screen. In an actual application the user would receive no visible clues to the fraud that had just occurred. Since the vote is applied by race, any single race or multiple races can be altered. The supervisors or any other voter would never notice this fraud since no visible sign would appear. Additionally, the procedure could be repeated as many times as was necessary to achieve the desired results. No amount of testing or simulations would expose the fraud as its activation and process is completely invisible to everyone except the person programming the vote fraud routine."

The same procedure could be automated to activate without any user intervention whenever the machine detects a certain pattern of voting. The algorithm could also be altered from hidden keys or triggers that would allow the fraudulent user to manipulate both the margins and percentages of any particular race. In most national elections it is not necessary to win every area.

highlites of what just came at the top of the DU board:

MEDICAL experts have confirmed that Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine’s opposition leader, was poisoned in an attempt on his life during election campaigning, the doctor who supervised his treatment at an Austrian clinic said yesterday.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1393172,00.html

At approximately 3:30pm today, Ron Paul's press secretary Jeff Deist called Alex Jones to warn him that the legislation that encompasses the national ID card and Patriot Act 2 provisions was on the verge of passing the House tonight.

Deist stated that the bill and what it means for America could be described in a word as 'tyranny'.

Deist's tone was the most frantic that Alex had ever known in his years of communication with Ron Paul's office. Alex made it clear how upset Desit was and that the situation reminded him of a 'war room atmosphere'. Deist and Ron Paul are desperate to mobilize the alternative media before the bill reaches the Senate tomorrow.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2004/071204nationalid.htm



Bush Seeks to Boost Troop Morale for Iraq Fight
By Adam Entous

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Reuters) - President Bush sought on Tuesday to boost the morale of U.S. troops facing extended deployments in Iraq by promising to train Iraqi forces to replace them but acknowledged only mixed results so far.

As deadly insurgent attacks continued, claiming another American life in Baghdad and taking the U.S. combat death toll to 1,000 since last year's invasion, Bush made clear he expects a tough road ahead and stopped short of offering timetables.

While a recent offensive in Falluja "dealt the enemy a severe blow," Bush said the insurgents who used the city as their stronghold will "keep on fighting," and offered a more cautious assessment of Iraqi troops than he has in the past.

"Some Iraqi units have performed better than others," Bush told thousands of camouflage-clad Marines. "Some Iraqis have been intimidated enough by the insurgents to leave the service to their country."

But Bush said "a great many are standing firm," and the United States would continue training Iraqi security forces "so the Iraqi people can eventually take responsibility for their own security." He touted a new NATO training program and said efforts were underway to "develop a core of well-trained senior and mid-level Iraqi officers" to lead the new forces.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/2004...



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economic outlook dimmed on Tuesday after reports said business productivity grew more slowly in the third quarter than first estimated, labor costs rose and other indicators signaled softening activity.

Chain store sales fell in the crucial shopping period after Thanksgiving, planned job cuts climbed during November and a survey of consumer confidence waned in possible pointers that the economy tempered its pace in the final months of the year.

Outstanding U.S. consumer credit swelled to $2.093 trillion in October, the Federal Reserve (news - web sites) said.

The Labor Department (news - web sites) said nonfarm business productivity, or worker output per hour, grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the July-to-September period -- the slowest clip since the fourth quarter of 2002. It also nudged up growth in unit labor costs to a 1.8 percent pace in a potential boost to inflation.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=1&u=/nm/20041207/bs_nm/economy_usa_dc



The bitter battle over the stolen November 2 election in Ohio has turned into a rapidly escalating all-out multi-front war with the outcome of the real presidential vote count increasingly in doubt.

In Columbus, major demonstrations on Saturday, December 4, have been followed by an angry confrontation between demonstrators and state police at the office of Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, the Bush-Cheney state chairman who is also officially in charge of certifying the election, at least for now. Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson has called on Blackwell to recuse himself from dealings with the election, saying his role as Bush-Cheney chairman has compromised his objectivity in delivering fair election results.

New revelations about voting machine allocations in Franklin County emerged on Tuesday, December 7. William Anthony, Chair of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told WVKO radio listeners that the Board begins “stationing voting machines four weeks out” before Election Day. Security questions were raised after a machine in Gahanna Ward 1B at the New Life Church recorded 4258 votes for Bush where only 638 voters cast ballots.

Cornell McCleary, former minority director of the Republican Party of Ohio, argues that it would easy for computer hackers to hack directly into the machines: “The two points of vulnerability are setting up a computer and hacking directly into the machine, or the line that goes directly down to the Board of Elections.” He dismissed the Gahanna incident as a “prank.” Prank or not, Kerry’s decision to concede early on November 3 was based in part on these imaginary votes that were either a prank, a computer glitch, or a deliberate effort to boost Bush’s total in Ohio.

Anthony also conceded that some voters in Franklin County waited up to “five or six hours’ in order to vote. He admitted that the Board of Elections usually holds back “a truckload of voting machines"--- 75---in case there’s a truck accident." He blamed this on the lack of machines and the fact that 77 voting machines malfunctioned on Election Day. Two affidavits from voters obtained by the Free Press report that voting machine maintenance people came out to fix machines and their technique seemed to be to continually plug and unplug, or reboot, the electronic machines until the machines functioned again.

Anthony also confirmed that the Board only delivered 2741 of its 2866 machines at the opening of polls on Election Day. He said Board of Elections workers later placed an additional 44. This would put the total number in use at the “close of polls” at 2785, leaving 81 machines sitting unused. Anthony further said Election Day problems were the result of utilizing essentially 4800 volunteers with minimal training, paid a small stipend. Some poll workers have testified they repeatedly called the Board of Elections for additional machines as lines stacked up at their inner city precincts but got no response.
In addition, new evidence has continued to surface of widespread voter fraud throughout the state. Among other things, a letter from Shelby County election officials dated December 2 confirmed that the county discarded "tabulator test deck reports" from the November 2 vote count "to reduce paperwork and confusion with official results." As this county's response is the first of 88 to come from Freedom of Information Act filings, it seems likely other controversial practices could surface.
Moreover, new computer tabulation errors – first reported locally after Election Day – have resurfaced, and are of a magnitude suggesting Bush’s margin over Kerry---now 118,775 votes or 2 percent of the total votes cast in the state, according to Blackwell---could easily have been manipulated.

One precinct in Youngstown, Ohio, recorded a negative 25 million votes (that's not a typo) on an ES&S Votronic voting machine, which was discarded from official results, according to a Nov. 3 report in Youngstown’s Vindicator newspaper http://www.vindy.com/basic/news/281829446390855.php. Machine malfunctions combined with human error to create the massive negative vote count. “That led to some races showing votes of negative 25 million, Munroe said,” quoting Mark Monroe, the Mahoning County election chief. "The numbers were nonsensical so we knew there were problems." The website www.VotersUnite.org lists dozens of voting machine errors, voter intimidation reports and other problems – from the very large to very small – that were reported in the Ohio press. At the very least these errors, many of which are detailed below, add up to a scathing indictment of a statewide election. On December 6 White House Spokesman Scott McClellan called the election “free and fair.”

But even the www.VotersUnite.org list does not contain some of the biggest errors that will be cited in an election challenge filed Tuesday, December 7 by the Ohio Honest Elections Campaign in Ohio Supreme Court. It does not cite two non-partisan Election Day exit polls, by CNN and Zogby, which found Kerry leading by mid-afternoon. The Ohio Honest Election Campaign filing also describes abnormal patterns in the votes for statewide Democratic candidates – with Kerry receiving fewer votes than obscure candidates – could point to computer vote shifting. The Honest Election Campaign is seeking to investigate these abnormalities.

On Wednesday, Dec. 8, Rev. Jesse Jackson and many people associated with recounting the Ohio vote and challenging the election returns, will brief Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee in Washington.

Rev. Jackson has repeatedly traveled to Ohio, demanding at packed, angry rallies that the Ohio Supreme Court consider setting aside Bush's victory in Ohio and that Congress should investigate how Ohioans voted. Among other things, the call for a re-vote as in Ukraine has become a consistent theme among disgruntled Ohio voters.

Jackson’s involvement comes as other national public-interest groups are pursuing their own litigation. For example, People for the American Way is trying to stop the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections in Cleveland from rejecting 8,099 of the 24,472 provisional ballots cast there. The ballots were thrown out because voters did not properly complete them or cast them at polling places that were not their own.

(EDITOR’s NOTE: What follows is an excerpted list http://www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp of voting errors in Ohio compiles by VotersUnite.org. They are placed in the following categories: malfeasance, canvass anomalies, machine malfunction, vote suppression, provisional ballots, fraud, absentee ballot errors, and others. The link to the original news report follows.)

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/975

why is nobody talking about how much this new intel bill is going to cost? they're all whining about this and that, all which are fine to be screaming about, but there's a noticeable absence of discussion of the costs of these provisions.

time will tell.

what better logic could you have?

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Ex-felons leaving correctional facilities should automatically have voting rights restored, or they should be free from paying any taxes, surcharges, fees or other government-initiated financial burdens."
-Marty Ryan,
legislative director,
Iowa Civil Liberties Union,
Des Moines.

republicons can not exist when there is a middle class.

Retail, job data hint at a pinch for middle class - General News - Retail - Economy: "'The longer-term pattern is that the rich are getting richer,' said Standard & Poor's Chief Economist David Wyss. 'It's not so much that the poor are getting poorer, but there's a hollowing out of the middle class.'"

looks like something i should help spread:

For the holidays, naughty and nice. Dem donors and Repub: "With the holidays upon us, some of us might wish to be mindful of who we patronize relative to their Election Cycle political donations, as reported by the Center for Responsive Politics.

WITH US:
* Price Club/Costco donated $225K, of which 99% went to democrats;
* Rite Aid, $517K, 60% to democrats;
* Magla Products (Stanley tools, Mr. Clean), $22K, 100% to democrats;
* Warnaco (undergarments), $55K, 73% to democrats;
* Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, $153K, 99% to democrats;
* Estee Lauder, $448K, 95% to democrats;
* Guess ? Inc., $145K, 98% to democrats;
* Calvin Klein, $78K, 100% to democrats;
* Liz Claiborne, Inc., $34K, 97% to democrats;
* Levi Straus, $26K, 97% to democrats;
* Olan Mills, $175K, 99% to democrats.
* Gallo Winery, $337K, 95% to democrats;
* Southern Wine & Spirits, $213K, 73% to democrats;
* Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons (includes beverage business, plus considerable media interests), $2M+, 67% democrats.
* Sonic Corporation, $83K, 98% democrat;
* Triarc Companies (Arby's, T.J. Cinnamon's, Pasta Connections), $112K, 96% Democrats;
* Hyatt Corporation, $187K, 80% to democrats;


AGAINST US:
WalMart, $467K, 97% to republicans;
K-Mart, $524K, 86% to republicans;
Home Depot, $298K, 89% to republicans;
Target, $226K, 70% to republicans;
Circuit City Stores, $261K, 95% to republicans;
3M Co., $281K, 87% to republicans;
Hallmark Cards, $319K, 92% to repub"

remember when this story first broke and fox led the charge to make tillman the poster boy of how even rich kids sacrifice in times of war, and that he died a hero (well, he did, but not in the way we were led to believe).

Barrage of Bullets Drowned Out Cries of Comrades (washingtonpost.com): "It ended on a stony ridge in fading light. Spec. Pat Tillman lay dying behind a boulder. A young fellow U.S. Army Ranger stretched prone beside him, praying quietly as tracer bullets poured in.
'Cease fire! Friendlies!' Tillman cried out. "

kos on the flap with cbs and the ucc ads:

Daily Kos :: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.: "Where the hell are we, these days, when we don't run ads on television because they might possibly conflict with the President's religious notions? This isn't about gay marriage, or constitutional amendments. This is about a Church that welcomes all comers. That's it. That's the 'controversial' part of the ad. And apparently, CBS thinks that merely not being bigoted is enough to be 'controversial' given the current climate at the White House."

links on the taliban-u.s. relationship

Democratic Underground Forums - BBC: "US offers olive branch to Taleban": "If they disarm they won't be targeted.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4062191.stm

Sheesh, UnoCal and others offered them more for an oil pipeline when they were in Texas in 1997.
http://www.rememberjohn.com/talibantexas.html

The Afghan oil plans were highly touted.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/TAL111A.html

And I know I'll never forget that the US public relations person for the Taliban was former CIA Director Richard McGarrah Helms niece, Laili Helms.
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0124/ridgeway.php

Also many Taliban and al Queda got away to save some ISI operatives.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/HER206A.html

Afghanistan is a DYN CORP narco-state today imo."

from the guy who told the president it was a "SLAM DUNK" that iraq had wmd. now he wants to limit web surfing to a particular subset of the population.

when did America stop being the America i grew up to love?

Tenet calls for Internet security -- The Washington Times: "Access to networks like the World Wide Web might need to be limited to those who can show they take security seriously, he said. "

ok, so here is jerry falwell, the stalwart of hypocrisy, puritan through and through, on chris matthews' show saying that he chose to be heterosexual, yet never had to 'decide that'.... in his own words:

MSNBC - 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Dec. 2: "MATTHEWS: How old were you when you chose to be heterosexual?
FALWELL: Oh, I don?t remember that.
MATTHEWS: Well, you must, because you say it?s a big decision.
FALWELL: Well, I started dating when I was about 13.
MATTHEWS: And you had to decide between boys and girls. And you chose girls.
FALWELL: I never had to decide. I never thought about it. "

i guess this is making the rounds. as such, /me gives it a lil' nudge.

The new George W. Christ version of Psalm 23: "Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want.
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the path of international disgrace for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war, I will find no exit, for thou art in office. Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me.
Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion.
Thou annointest my head with foreign oil. My health insurance runneth out.
Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term,
And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever"

within weeks after conyers asks GAO to investigate the election, look how the smear & destroy campaign gets started.

Conyers aide allegedly ordered politicking - (United Press International): "Detroit, MI, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- An aide to U.S. Rep. John Conyers allegedly ordered his staff to drop their normal workload in favor of campaigning, possibly violating congressional rules"

the next time you hear the limpbaugh critters squealing about the u.n.'s oil-for-food program, remind them of this:

MSNBC - What happened to Iraq?s oil money?: "But NBC News has learned that a draft government audit faults the United States for ?inadequate stewardship? of up to $8.8 billion in oil money, handed over to Iraq?s ministries but never fully accounted for."

MSNBC - Seven Days of Hell: "With fewer Western journalists covering the war-torn nation, the true grim picture of continued violence isn?t getting out. Our correspondent reports on the last week."

just to demonstrate the evil in bush's head.... i offer SLATE's Today's Papers: "According to early morning reports, a car bomb exploded in northern Baghdad, killing 14. Also this morning, guerrillas overran a Baghdad police station, killing 11 and apparently freeing prisoners inside.
Yesterday, a barrage of mortar rounds hit central Baghdad, killing one civilian and wounding about a dozen. A few rounds hit inside the Green Zone, though nobody was wounded. Also yesterday, a GI was killed in Mosul, where officials said they've discovered another dozen bodies, bringing the total there to about 60. A top Iraqi cop was beheaded in Baghdad. And two city councilmen were assassinated in Baquba.
The WP fronts Bush ruling out delaying the vote in Iraq. 'It's time for the Iraqi citizens to go to the polls,' he said."

the new pentagon paper.

Salon.com | The new Pentagon Paper: "A scathing top-level report, intended for internal consumption, says that Bush's 'war on terrorism' is an unmitigated disaster. Of course, the administration is ignoring it."

Gay News From 365Gay.com: "(Montgomery, Alabama) An Alabama state lawmaker is calling for legislation to ban gay speech from any institution which receives state money.
Representative Gerald Allen, a Republican, is preparing a bill that would bar any representation of homosexuality in schools, libraries, and state funded universities.
'We have a culture that's in deep trouble,' Allen said."

AND IT'S BECAUSE OF MORONS LIKE YOU ASSHOLE!

the Dumbification Of America (i.e., D.O.A.) continues in earnest.

Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says (washingtonpost.com): "The report concluded that two of the curricula were accurate but the 11 others, used by 69 organizations in 25 states, contain unproved claims, subjective conclusions or outright falsehoods regarding reproductive health, gender traits and when life begins. In some cases, Waxman said in an interview, the factual issues were limited to occasional misinterpretations of publicly available data; in others, the materials pervasively presented subjective opinions as scientific fact.
Among the misconceptions cited by Waxman's investigators:
? A 43-day-old fetus is a 'thinking person.'
? HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.
? Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.
One curriculum, called 'Me, My World, My Future,' teaches that women who have an abortion 'are more prone to suicide' and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion, the Waxman report said. "

the devil is in the details. notice how they tout that the increase now is only temporary, yet leave the back door open so they can escape when the truth bites 'em on the butt.

U.S. to Increase Troops in Iraq Before Election: "Pentagon officials expect troop levels in Iraq to fall below 140,000 once the elections are over, but Army planners are drawing up contingency plans in case the violence in Iraq requires that more troops remain.

The announcement was criticized by opponents of the war and some relatives of enlistees who questioned whether the increase would be effective.

'Bringing the troop levels up just puts more people at risk,' said Charley Richardson, cofounder of Military Families Speak Out, which represents 2,000 military families opposed to the war.

'We believe the troops need to be brought home, not increased. Increasing troop levels is not going to make the situation there any better, and increasing them for a short period of time so they can run their elections so the Bush administration can look good is not a good policy for Iraq and the world.'"

which will come true?

Depreciation Elimination - A guide to Bush's first tax hike. By Daniel?Gross: "So, there are two scenarios before us. The first, touted by the administration, is that thanks in large part to the expiration of the depreciation tax break, corporate profits will rise sharply from their current levels?despite the recent slowdown?and that companies will pay a higher percentage of their profits in taxes than in years past, thus bringing significantly more cash into federal coffers.
The second is that profits will grow at a slower pace in 2005 than they have in recent years, thus producing lower taxable profits than expected. And rather than simply pay the higher taxes that result from the end of the depreciation tax breaks, corporations will do what they always do: work with accountants, insurers, banks, lobbyists, and friendly congressmen to find new ways to reduce tax payments. As a result, the expected corporate receipts will fail to materialize. And instead of falling significantly in fiscal 2005, the federal deficit will stay at record-high levels."

DesMoinesRegister.com: "In the rejection slip sent to United Church of Christ headquarters in Cleveland, the network wrote: 'Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations, and the fact that the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast.'
A rejection letter from NBC to church officials declared the spot was 'too controversial.' NBC network officials did not return calls Wednesday from a Des Moines Register reporter.

The commercial, which can be viewed online at www.stillspeaking.org, features two muscular bouncers standing guard outside a church and choosing whom to allow into services. Among those rejected are people of color and a same-sex couple.

Written text interrupts the scene, announcing, 'Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we.' A narrator then proclaims the United Church of Christ's commitment to Jesus Christ's welcome: 'No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.'
The rejection of the ads is the 'height of hypocrisy,' according to the Rev. David Ruhe, pastor of Des Moines' Plymouth Congregational, United Church of Christ."

DesMoinesRegister.com: "During the election, Republican supporters of George W. Bush talked a lot about the importance of values. But TV executives remain unworried about any backlash to racy dramas in red states. Shows such as the sex-obsessed 'Desperate Housewives' do best in the so-called red states.

Other statistics throw doubt on red-state piety. The states with the three highest divorce rates are all red (Nevada, Arkansas, Wyoming), while Massachusetts has the lowest rate. Top three states for readership of Playboy magazine? Again, all red (Iowa, Wyoming, North Dakota), and they all top heathen New York by 2-to-1 margins. Suicide rate? Once again, all red (New Mexico, Montana, Nevada), with the lowest rates all-blue (New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts). Murder rate? Again, reds in the lead, with two of the three the worst (Mississippi, Maryland, Louisiana).

Blues hold two of the three with lowest murder rates (New Hampshire, Maine, South Dakota). Blue states also lead in percentage of people holding bachelor's degrees or higher.

Perhaps the real culture gap is between people in the blue states who act moral and red staters who talk a lot about morality and read Playboy in the back room.
-Jay Miller,
Hills."

this line says it all.

globegazette.com - North Iowa Local News Headlines: "Members of an HIV-AIDS panel talked about apathy on the eve of World AIDS Day Tuesday ? to an audience of fewer than 10 people"

Fredericksburg.com - If you read the Gospels, the Religious Right is most often wrong: "All this hype about the God talk swirling around in our culture prompted me to do a little research (a big departure from how I usually prepare for writing a column). I cracked open my Bible and started rereading the Gospels.
And you know what? I can't see what all this sanctimonious values rhetoric has to do with Jesus. I've compared what I read in Gospels with what I've been hearing from the Religious Right, and I've concluded that the holier-than-thous must have traded in their red-letter editions of the Good Book for red-state versions that omit most of Jesus' teachings.

The truth is, if you depend on the Christian right for your theological sustenance, you probably won't recognize the Jesus of the Gospels.

Jesus was quite a troublemaker. In fact, I'm thinking the Bush administration would have a special place for Jesus were the swarthy Nazarene to take up his ministry today in the U.S. of A.--in a cell with other Middle Eastern men awaiting deportation.

Let's recall what the Jesus of the Gospels espoused. 'When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you,' the sandal-wearing rabble-rouser was known to say.

one can only hope. hope to God that German law will prevail.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Lawyers acting for a U.S. advocacy group will Tuesday file war crimes charges in Germany against senior U.S. administration officials for their alleged role in torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

"German law in this area is leading the world," Peter Weiss, vice president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a human rights group, was quoted as saying in Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper's Tuesday edition.

According to the group, German law allows war criminals to be investigated wherever they may be living…

from the CCR:

The U. S. officials charged include Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Former CIA Director George Tenet, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Dr. Steven Cambone, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, Major General Walter Wojdakowski, Major General Geoffrey Miller, Brigadier General Janis L. Karpinski, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry L. Phillabaum, Colonel Thomas Pappas, and Lieutenant Colonel Stephen L. Jordan…

imagine if they did this in every county. oh dammm, they won't let it happen.

Signed, sealed, certified: Kerry wins Cuyahoga: "But while conceding that some mistakes were inevitable, the board of elections dismissed suggestions that systemic problems caused errors, which they characterized as minimal. At 10:43 a.m., it voted unanimously to send the county's tallies to the Ohio secretary of state, who is expected to certify statewide results on Dec. 6.
Officially, the count of provisional ballots stands at 16,750 accepted and 8,552, or 34 percent, rejected. Sen. John Kerry widened his margin over President George W. Bush in the county from 217,638 to 226,880 in the official count of the race that made Ohio a nail-biter.
But the discussions surrounding the certification focused primarily on procedures and their safeguards and potential flaws that determined whose vote was counted. A focus of Monday's testimony was three lists containing names and addresses of 495 voters whose provisional ballots were rejected, according to an analysis led by Dr. Norman Robbins, a neurosciences professor at Case Western Reserve University who volunteered for the Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition.
The first list held names of 32 rejected voters the coalition said it reliably registered and delivered to the elections board. The names never made it onto the rolls or were entered incorrectly, Robbins said.
The second list contained 201 rejected voters who were on county voter registration rolls Aug. 17 but had dropped off by Oct. 26. They may have inadvertently been dropped, perhaps during a September software change, Robbins said. Elections Director Michael Vu said he doubts that happened.
The third list contained 183 voters who were on rolls Oct. 26 but given provisional ballots and rejected as not registered. Another 79 were rejected because they didn't sign the provisio"

Wal-Mart's China inventory to hit US$18b this year: "'If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as China's eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada,' Xu said. "

and interesting tidbit on the BFEE, BCCI, and RIGGS.

Democratic Underground Forums - BCCI liquidators withdraw lying claim: "THIS DEVELOPMENT is not surprising given the intense amount of lobbying recently by both Margaret Thatcher and sources connected directly to former President George Herbert Bush.

Lest anyone forgets, Thatcher has just stumpted up a ?165,000 bail bon for her son who is in the dock accused of financing/masterminding the Equitorial Guinea Coup for which Simon Mann was given a 34 year jail sentence last week and former EG President Moto sentenced to 63 years in absentia.

Also not forgetting that Bush1 is not sitting too pretty at the moment as his brother Jonathan Bush is CEO of a subsidiary of the RIGGS BANK which is directly implicated on the coup.

From my own contacts I would say that there is a very fine line between persuasion and actually suborning of witnesses. In this case BCCI plaintiffs have no choice because the main witnesses who could have supported this allegation of deliberate misleading of the other international regulators over the 1975 Basel Concordat.

Standlen's comments in the second part of the article sound thin and desperate. The Bank of England knows that all it takes is for security/intelligence files from MI5 and MI6 on Thatcher, ex-Bank of England Governor Robin Leigh Pemberton and all the former London-based general managers of BCCI to be subpeonaed.

Also of great importance is the testimony of former BCCI general Manager John Hilberry, whose evidence started the domino effect.

For some time the official line is that he 'disappeared' after turning in evidence to the Met's fraud squad, was given a new identity and relocated until such a time as he could appear in a witness stand to put the record straight in the public domain.

I now understand that Hilberry was murdered "

why nobody wants to be on the bush economic team. instead of making policy (like they're supposed to), they're only going to sell bush's sick and twisted agenda. but one sums it up right nicely today:

Gutierrez Is Pick for Commerce Secretary (washingtonpost.com): "'Why would you want to take a job where you have no influence?' asked Bruce Bartlett of the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis. 'What's the point?' "

how many times have we been lied to again?

Terrorism & Security | csmonitor.com: "Late on the Wednesday afternoon before the Thanksgiving holiday, the US Defense Department released a report by the Defense Science Board that is highly critical of the administration's efforts in the war on terror and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
'Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate our policies [the report says]. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing, support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states. Thus, when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.'"

absolutely what i have been looking for. an open letter by jamesinca (on DU) to jerry falwell and rev. phelps of the god hates fags sewerbags:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's law. I have learned a great deal from you and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle,for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states, it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them:

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female,provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not to Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21: 7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1: 9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states that he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that, even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality.I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there "degrees" of abomination?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have an eye defect. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them (Lev.24:10-16)? Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws (Lev.20:14)

TheStar.com - Pakistani soldiers abandon search for bin Laden: "Pakistan will withdraw soldiers from tribal region considered hiding place for Al Qaeda leadership"

there's a wapo op-ed piece titled watch venezuela. condi's got her sights set on chavez.

Venezuelan Politicians, Ministers Define the Revolution within the Revolution: "Caracas, November 15, 2004?Mayors- and governors-elect joined ministers, the upper echelon of the Venezuelan military and President Ch?vez this weekend in a meeting designed to articulate a new stage in the ?Bol?varian revolution.? The meeting, entitled ?Bol?varian Revolution: New Stage, New Strategic Map?, was closed to the press, but Minister of Information Andr?s Izarra has since held a series of press conferences outlining ideas discussed during the forum."