how do you know when a bushite lies?

his lips move.

thanks to TP for the lede:

The WP off-leads with a report that according to its own investigation, although the Bush administration claims that federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects and half as many convictions, only 39 people have been convicted of terrorism-related crimes. The WP analyzed the Justice Department's list of terrorism prosecutions and concluded that most people on the list had been convicted of minor crimes that had nothing to do with terrorism—making false statements and violating immigration law. According to the WP, among the 361 people charged as a result of terrorism probes in the three years after the 9/11 attacks, there was no found connection to terrorism or terrorist groups for 180 of them, and of the 39 convicted of terrorism-related crimes, only 14 had clear links to al-Qaida. The chief of the Justice counterterrorism unit explained that prosecutors often use lesser charges when they are not confident they can prove larger crimes, and that many defendants who were prosecuted for minor crimes provided valuable, nonpublic information. Watch this space as President Bush pushes for renewal of the Patriot Act.

ya, watch this space as i will endeavor to keep you abreast of all the latest regarding this Act.

Letter Of The Day II

it's sunday, we're bound to get a dual-winner.

"It's unethical to end one life in pursuit of helping others," writes U.S. Rep. Steve King (June 5 opinion).

The life King is writing about is a clump of cells that would be the size of the period at the end of this sentence. I am not taking either side on this debate, but I would like King to explain how he arrives at whose life should not be sacrificed.

He is among the many who see nothing wrong with sending a loving son, father or husband to "end their life in pursuit of helping others" in Iraq. The president has sent almost 2,000 Americans to die to help people who don't appear to want our help. How many cures for dreaded diseases will be found from those lives sacrificed in Iraq?

These were not 2,000 tiny clumps of cells. These were adults in the prime of their lives with wives and children who needed them. These were young men who were in their early years of adulthood, leaving parents who will never see what their son or daughter might have grown to be.

King says it is wrong to search for a cure with a tiny cluster of cells. But he is not against sending men and women to die in search of land that contains oil.

-Anna Louise Woods,
Ankeny.

--attribution

Letter Of The Day

U.S. Rep. Steve King's opposition to stem-cell research for possible cures of physical disorders because it might destroy potential life is proof that the right-to-life movement is interested only in the well being of the unborn and cares little about the well being of lives already born.

-Merlin Ackerson,
Keokuk.

--attribution

maybe bret could use a dictionary

in his letter today in the des moines register, bret argues that giving tax breaks is not a gift.

The Register needs a new dictionary. The newspaper doesn't know that a subsidy ("Tax Breaks' Costs, Benefits Elusive," June 5) is defined as "a grant or a gift." The story confused tax breaks for businesses in Iowa with a grant extended by the state at the taxpayers' expense. Allowing people to keep their own money is not the same as giving them a present.

-Bret A. Bartz,
Altoona.

doesn't bret understand that being a citizen has responsibilities, such as paying taxes. in so doing, taxes are no longer 'his' money.

IT'S PATHOLOGICAL

it's pathological with them. they can't help themselves. there is no truth in any, in ANY thing they say half the time, and the other half, well... just say it would be best if left unsaid.

but God, is there NOTHing in this world that is safe from these self-appreciated basturds? (that's no typo)?

Flanked by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Bush said that "federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half of those charged have been convicted."

Those statistics have been used repeatedly by Bush and other administration officials, including Gonzales and his predecessor, John D. Ashcroft, to characterize the government's efforts against terrorism.

But the numbers are misleading at best.

--source

misleading. the wimpy post comes out with 'misleading at best' and then LEAVES YOU HANGING. WHAT'S THE WORSE???

coverup? or bushite-business as usual?

why is nobody addressing this very issue: the bushites are working overtime to hide things. they want to operate in secret. the last time a political force operated in secret to the extent the bushites are, was that of the third reich.

Three Democratic lawmakers say the refusal of the White House and the Secret Service to disclose the identity of the man who booted three Denverites out of one of President Bush's town-hall meetings smacks of "disinterest or a cover up."

"The American people have an interest and deserve to know what transpired at the president's March 21, 2005, event in Denver and if someone impersonated a law-enforcement official," U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and U.S. Reps. Mark Udall and Diana DeGette wrote in a letter Thursday to Secret Service Director M. Ralph Basham.

The lawmakers criticized the Secret Service and the Bush administration for "unresponsiveness" to requests that they hand over details of an investigation of the incident at Denver's Wings Over the Rockies museum, where Bush held a public forum plugging Social Security reforms.

Before the event started, three Denverites who arrived in a car with a "No Blood for Oil" bumper sticker were booted from the museum by a man they believed was a Secret Service agent.

The White House has said the man - whom it refuses to name - was a volunteer who rightly kicked out the "Denver Three" to avoid disruption.

Likewise, the Secret Service won't comment on its investigation or say who booted the three from the event.

doesn't it make sense to see that whatever it is that the bushites don't want known, is important enough that if you knew, you'd be causing a national security event?

/sarcasm

popping out in front of me already

this...

Ministers were told of need for Gulf war
‘excuse’

they had to think of an 'excuse' to invade iraq.

The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal.

--source

what can i say about this other than, had it been in any other point in history, we would be seeing war crimes trials by now. drip drip drip. all according to plan, aintit henry.

a new low

*giggle*

WASHINGTON - When it comes to public approval, President Bush and Congress are playing "how low can you go." Bush's approval mark is 43 percent, while Congress checks in at 31 percent, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll found. Both are the lowest levels yet for the survey, started in December 2003.

--yahoo

i give you joan vennocci, a joan of arc if you will

from the boston globe

DEMOCRATS ARE running against Howard Dean instead of George W. Bush and the GOP -- or, better yet, running for principles that matter to the country.

It makes little sense, unless the intent is to destroy what's left of their shell of a political party.

Dean, the head of the Democratic National Committee, is under attack by fellow Democrats who are allegedly upset at his partisan rhetoric. Critics such as Senators Joseph Biden of Delaware and former senator John Edwards of North Carolina are taking their shots at Dean, just as if they were sitting next to him during a debate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, or Manchester, N.H. They sound like they are positioning themselves for a future presidential campaign rather than working together to rebuild a party with a message for the future.

How shocking: Dean said, ''I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for" and defined the political landscape as ''a struggle between good and evil." Is that any worse than the comment by Harry Reid, the Democrats' Senate leader, who said of Bush, ''I think this guy is a loser." (Reid later apologized.) Is it worse than Senator Hillary Clinton of New York saying: ''There has never been an administration, I don't believe, in our history more intent upon consolidating and abusing power to further their own agenda."

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Dean's predecessor, Terry McAuliffe, was famous for personal attacks against President Bush. He described Bush as being AWOL, or absent without leave, during his stint in the National Guard and declared that ''George Bush continually lies."

But Democrats never cared what McAuliffe said; all that mattered was the money he raised, compliments of his vaunted schmoozing skills. Now a few hot-shot donors are upset that Dean isn't stroking them as constantly as McAuliffe, and suddenly he's a failure. According to a recent report in ''The Hill," during the first three months of this year, the DNC raised $14.1 million, ahead of the pace McAuliffe set in 2001. Dean is focusing on fund-raising in small increments through the Internet, as he did during his 2004 presidential bid, which revolutionized presidential campaign fund-raising. That's the big picture Democrats should focus on. Broadening the donor base from the bottom up is good for the Democratic Party.

If Democrats want to get outraged, why not get outraged over daily efforts by the Republican National Committee to marginalize Democratic opposition? The RNC dubbed Democrats ''the Party of No." The RNC is constantly spewing out press releases accusing Democrats of ''hypocritical and obstructionist" comments and ''baseless attacks." When liberal Democrats stand up to conservatives in Congress, they are derided as ''the Michael Moore branch of the Democratic Party."

Yesterday the RNC put out a ''Democrat Leaders' Report Card" which gave the Democrats an ''F" in communication skills, civics, and unity and an ''A" in obstruction. It is hard to argue with the assessment, and that -- not Howard Dean -- is the Democrats' problem.

Congress is a place where voters expect partisanship to yield to compromise. And Congress is where the Democrats have failed to convey a sense of mission and purpose, probably because too many are running around the country running for president.

For Democrats, running for president in 2008 apparently means running against Dean in 2005. It is so much easier to run against the former Vermont governor than to fight for real principles. Bush meets with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the two are finally forced to address a 2002 memo written by a British official suggesting that the United States had ''fixed " intelligence to justify the impending invasion of Iraq. Both leaders deny that the memo accurately reflects events. Case closed? Where are the Democrats brave enough to press the president on that issue?

General Motors announces it will eliminate 25,000 jobs, and its CEO complains that health benefits reduce profits. Where are the Democrats brave enough to say the burden falls on GM to design fuel-efficient cars people want to buy rather than on workers who produce those cars? Where are Democrats brave enough to say that the Bush mentality -- don't start thinking about tomorrow -- is wrong for the environment and the country's economic future?

If Democrats in Congress did their job, Dean would be the chorus. Now he's the whole act. Dean's fellow Democrats would rather boo him than themselves.

the liars and the lies they tell

how can anybody expect to hear the truth, when you're aggressively lying about it?

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Special Operations Command has hired three firms to produce newspaper stories, television broadcasts and Web sites to spread American propaganda overseas.

The Tampa-based military headquarters, which oversees commandos and psychological warfare, may spend up to $100 million for the media campaign in the next five years.

The Pentagon backed away from a similar campaign in 2002.

The use of contractors in psyops is a new wrinkle. But psychological warfare expert Herb Friedman said he is not surprised.

With only one active-duty and two reserve psyops units remaining, Friedman said, "The bottom line is, they don't have the manpower."

Federal law prohibits sending propaganda to Americans, and some experts worry that psychological warfare messages, especially disinformation efforts, might blow back to American audiences via the Internet and satellite news channels.

"In this age of the Internet and instant access, it's of great concern," said Nancy Snow, a propaganda expert at California State University-Fullerton. "If you plant false stories, how can you control where that story goes? You can't."

Others question whether the money could be better spent.

So far, said defense analyst William Arkin, American propaganda efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have "produced nothing positive and nothing negative." He suggested the $100 million might be better spent on guns and bullets.

--source

i finally got my star!

i'm a star !! my 674th post, and i have a star next to it.

after what? three years of practically living on DemocraticUnderground's latest breaking news board, i finally went and subscribed to a $10/month donation. the first time i have ever donated to a political function. kinda makes me feel good. maybe you should do the same.

Quote of the Day

"Satire is protected free speech, even when the object of that satire doesn't get it."

--al franken

don't believe that republicons are nazis yet?

too often it is the house republicons who wear the swastika with pride.

WASHINGTON - The Republican chairman walked off with the gavel, leaving Democrats shouting into turned-off microphones at a raucous hearing Friday on the Patriot Act.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the panel, abruptly gaveled the meeting to an end and walked out, followed by other Republicans. Sensenbrenner declared that much of the testimony, which veered into debate over the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, was irrelevant.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., protested, raising his voice as his microphone went off, came back on, and went off again.

"We are not besmirching the honor of the United States, we are trying to uphold it," he said.

...

Nadler said Sensenbrenner, one of the authors of the Patriot Act, was "rather rude, cutting everybody off in mid-sentence with an attitude of total hostility."

...

Tempers flared when Rep. Mike Pence (news, bio, voting record), R-Ind., accused Amnesty International of endangering the lives of Americans in uniform by referring to the prison at Guantanamo Bay as a "gulag." Sensenbrenner didn't allow the Amnesty representative, Chip Pitts, to respond until Nadler raised a "point of decency."

Sensenbrenner's spokesman, Jeff Lungren, said the hearing had lasted two hours and "the chairman was very accommodating, giving members extra time."

--source

you can watch for yourself if sensenbrenner's mouthpiece was lying or not.

http://dembloggers.com/story/2005/6/10/54149/5115

keepin up with what's happenin in lodi california?

"Lodi is historically a strong conservative God-fearing church-attending community," said Larry Hanson, a city councilman and former police chief who arrived in Lodi in 1970.

Regardless, the probe has brought two Lodis face to face. Although police officials report no hate crimes, there has been plenty of name-calling. As shopkeeper Mohammad Shoaib stood near his store talking to a reporter this week, a woman walked by and loudly sniffed: "Must be Al Qaeda."

--attribution

are you a good marine or a bad marine

remember that lil' scuffle between some marines and private contractors had caused the contractors to be jailed? the latimes has a good followup

WASHINGTON — Matt Raiche knew he was in trouble when the Marines handed him an orange jumpsuit, a bottle to urinate in, a Koran and a Muslim prayer rug.

remember, a crooked E is a W

for those who still don't comprehend what enron was really about (other than the company bilked it's investors), the latimes has a good write up about citigroup's settlement.

The suit said Citigroup lent Enron $2.4 billion in a series of deals identified as "swaps" and nicknamed Delta transactions because they were conducted through Citigroup's Cayman Island unit, called Delta. Citigroup paid Enron hundreds of millions of dollars each time, obligating the company to repay the cash over five years.

Although the transactions were in fact loans, they were never disclosed as such on Enron's books. The plaintiffs alleged that Enron was seeking to conceal the full amount of its debt so that regulators and investors would be unaware of its precarious financial position.

Based on its investment grade rating at the time, Enron could have gotten credit at much lower rates, but it paid Citigroup and JPMorgan 6.5% to 7% for the "disguised loans," making the deals hugely profitable for the banks, the plaintiffs said.

In late 2001, after revelations about Enron's accounting made headlines, Citigroup and JPMorgan unsuccessfully sought to arrange the company's sale to rival Dynegy Inc. so they could split a $90-million investment banking fee and stave off its likely bankruptcy. The suit said calls to credit rating firm Moody's Investors Service by Robert E. Rubin, a former Treasury secretary who was then Citigroup's vice chairman, and by JPMorgan Chairman William Harrison were attempts to "strong-arm" the firm to prevent it from downgrading Enron before a sale could be completed.

--source

Enron settlements

Citigroup's $2-billion payment to settle claims by Enron shareholders is the largest yet in a series of deals with investors and regulators in connection with the energy trader's 2001 collapse.

August 2002: Andersen Worldwide, parent of auditor Arthur Andersen, says it will pay $32 million to settle lawsuits from Enron investors and employees.

February 2003: Merrill Lynch agrees to pay $80 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of its Enron dealings.

July 2003: Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase agree to pay more than $300 million to settle government charges that they helped Enron and Dynegy defraud investors.

December 2003: Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce says it will pay $80 million to settle SEC allegations that it helped Enron inflate profit and hide debt.

July 2004: Bank of America says it will pay $69 million to settle a lawsuit by Enron investors over its role as underwriter for some debt offerings.

October 2004: Lehman Bros. says it will pay $222.5 million to settle a suit by the University of California and other investors over its role as an Enron underwriter.

January: Enron's insurance firm says it will pay $155 million to UC and other investors to settle a shareholder lawsuit. Ten former Enron directors say they also will pay $13 million out of their own pockets.

Friday: Citigroup agrees to pay investors $2 billion to settle a lawsuit that accused the bank of fraud in its work for Enron.

Letter Of The Day

Investors beware. President Bush has nominated a Republican congressman from California, Christopher Cox, to replace William Donaldson as chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission. Cox is a pro-business member of Congress who believes too much regulation is harmful to the interests of our nation and the interests of business.

Donaldson had supposedly angered business interests with his strict enforcement of the stiffer regulations put in place after the corporate scandals of Enron and WorldCom.

With the confirmation of Cox as the new SEC chairman, it will be back to unchecked corporate greed.

-Rob Robinson,
Des Moines.

--attribution

Sign The Petition!

A bill just introduced in the House could destroy universal, affordable Internet access everywhere.

The “Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act” (H.R. 2726) would let big cable and telecom companies shut down Community Internet and municipal broadband projects being planned across the country.

The bill would prevent state or local governments from providing “any telecommunications service, information service or cable service” anywhere a corporation offers a similar service.

This outrageous legislation was introduced by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) — a former SBC executive — and is a blatant effort by the telecom and cable companies to cement their monopoly control of communications at the expense of innovation, competition, and local choice.

SIGN HERE

regarding the dean scream II movie

i hope they portray dean for what he is: A TRUTH TELLER.

why are the republicans spending so much time trying to recruit in jewish areas, then scream bloody hell about their party being predominately white christian? the fact of the matter is, the republican party IS a party dominated by people who are white and christian.

and of course, we got dinos like joe lieberman (who in my opinion outta be shown the door) siding with members of the christian coalition, which makes this whole thing a topsy turvy situation that nobody in their right minds would want to unravel for fear of seeing what lies underneath this facade of civility.

dean's doing exactly what should be done. root out those DINOS, and make republicans get defensive (however, that second matter takes such a minute amount of effort). it's time they're put on the defensive.

and tHEN, to bring racisim into the mix.... scriptwriters better be paying attention.

playing along the way republicons want you to play, only means you'll lose. as skylarme mentioned on DU:

[this is what cost kerry the] election. He wouldn't get down and dirty with the scum tactics of the right and unfortunately the masses in general seem to miss the point opting for sensationalism and plain outright lies. How else could a war hero be made to look like a weak, lily-livered fraud???

if dean changes, i will lose all hope for the democratic party.

Quote of the Day

Surveying the crowd of about 60, (Joe Weinroth, the GOP candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh) Weinroth joked, "We didn't know that there were that many Jewish Republicans."

--attribution

60 jewish republicans, in a town of what? 1.5 MILLION?

Joke of the Day

no wonder fox news is so hated by so many people. look at what works there:

AMERICAblog hears someone went batshit-crazy today at the Harry Reid/Howard Dean meeting, but it wasn't who the MSM would like to think.

Our sources tell us that a photo-op took place today with Howard Dean and Senator Harry Reid in Reid’s private office (these are usually secreted away in the Capitol Building itself, near the Senate floor). FOX News's Brian Wilson reportedly spent the photo op angrily interrupting reporters and shouting questions out of turn. After an initial swarm, reporters squeezed out the door. FOX's Brian Wilson was apparently wearing no credential of any kind (that wasn’t a red flag to anyone) and behaving "bizarrely angry" so the Washington Post's Mark Leibovich asked who he was.

We hear that Wilson "went nuts," responding to the Post reporter (whose credentials were clearly on display):

"Who the fuck are you?"

Gee, Brian, do you kiss Rupert with that mouth?

The Post reporter then responded that he was from the Washington Post and didn’t see credentials on Wilson and because of his incredibly pointed questions wondered whether or not he was a rogue Republican staffer!

As they raced down the hall outside the austere Senate chamber, we're told that Wilson displayed an impressive knowledge of four-letter words, and was incredulous that he would either not be recognized without proper ID or would be called out on being completely one-sided and working from GOP talking points.

See, and folks thought things wouldn't be nearly as interesting now that Jeff Gannon is history.

--Americablog

Headline of the Day

Biden calls on Bush to `level with the American people' about Iraq

--source

ROFLMAO

the boy king "work"???

WACO, Texas — President Bush's aides contend that he hasn't thought much about what he will do when he leaves office in January 2009. But there are indications that plans are underway.

Bush has named a close friend, former Commerce Secretary Don Evans, to head the search for the location of his presidential library. Evans said he was being assisted by one of the president's brothers, Marvin Bush, and by Craig R. Stapleton, the husband of a Bush cousin and the nominee to be ambassador to France.

And in comments to the Los Angeles Times, Bush said that his return to private life probably would include work with Texas faith-based organizations that performed social services. He did not elaborate

--source

and as javaman on DU puts it rather succinctly:

This is the boy king, he doesn't work, when the world is in flames, he reads, "My Pet Goat", when a "terrorist flies over Washington", no one tells him, when he speaks to an audience, they have to be hand picked, when he is in a debate, he needs a ear microphone to coach him.

mwahahaha

a good read

BAIJI, Iraq -- An hour before dawn, the sky still clouded by a dust storm, the soldiers of the Iraqi army's Charlie Company began their mission with a ballad to ousted president Saddam Hussein. "We have lived in humiliation since you left," one sang in Arabic, out of earshot of his U.S. counterparts. "We had hoped to spend our life with you."

But the Iraqi soldiers had no clue where they were going. They shrugged their shoulders when asked what they would do. The U.S. military had billed the mission as pivotal in the Iraqis' progress as a fighting force but had kept the destination and objectives secret out of fear the Iraqis would leak the information to insurgents.

--read on

Letter Of The Day III

and lastly (i promise, it's the last letter i'm reading):

Regarding the death of former NFL player Pat Tillman by friendly fire in Iraq: The lies about Tillman's death pale next to the lies about why our military is in Iraq in the first place.

-Mark Lindahl,
Des Moines.

--attribution

Letter Of The Day II

we get two winners today (from the same source)

In much of Iowa, we have no contrasting viewpoints in our radio programming. Of all our statewide radio stations, we have nothing but right-wing, conservative-talk radio. You can find Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh on three or four stations at any time during the day in metro Des Moines.

We do have National Public Radio, which is predomi- nately middle of the road; however, almost three-quarters of its programming is unrelated to news. Where are all the contrasting views to the conservative talking points being thrown at us all day?

The Davenport area recently acquired "Air America" radio programming. While this is geared to a more liberal audience, it at least provides listeners a chance to hear the other side of the story, a chance to get a bigger view of the picture.

I want a station to broadcast the other side of the story and form my own opinion on who is right. How can we claim to be informed if we are hearing only half the story?

-Kelly Ratcliff,
Des Moines.

Letter Of The Day

It's very alarming that several steps toward media control have been taken by our government. One such step is the practice of "news stories" from the White House or other government agencies given to the media and printed or shown without identifying the source, thus implying they have come from independent journalists. Once considered illegal, it is now allowed by a recent Justice Department ruling.

Kenneth Tomlinson, the chairman of the Republican-dominated eight-member board at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), has begun a sweeping campaign to monitor public broadcasting for liberal bias and to turn it more to the right ("PBS Head Wards Off Liberal Bias Accusation," May 25). He paid a contractor $10,000 last year to monitor "Now" with Bill Moyers.

Conservative meddling was seen when the widely admired Bob Edwards was fired from his job as host of the NPR "Morning Edition" news program. The GOP majority on the board are said to be planning to redirect money from news coverage to music programming and are preparing an "examination" of National Public Radio's Middle East coverage for evidence of bias.

Although CPB funding in 2004 was about 15 percent of public broadcasting's funds, the public contributed a great deal more for public radio and TV. Contributors expect the CPB to be bipartisan and the programming free of government interference or political party bias.

The myth of a liberal press is being exchanged for Big Brother dictating what we can see and hear.

-Betty Krueger,
Washington.

--attribution

bush did say he was a uniter

As Shi'ites and Kurds fought for three months to come up with an Iraqi cabinet, it is emerging from Baghdad that soon a broad front will emerge on the political scene composed of politicians, religious leaders, clan and tribal sheikhs - basically Sunni but with Shi'ite participation - with a single-minded agenda: the end of the US-led occupation.

--source

will there EVER be a gate in the bush (mis)administration?

if so, then the one i propose getting tagged is DSMgate.

The Prime Minister is convinced that he was right to invade Iraq. To do so, he needed the backing of Labour MPs. Two years on, Panorama tells the story of what Mr Blair did not reveal to them, and us, before sending British troops into battle.

This timeline includes the key documentary evidence used in the film, along with links to the Prime Minister's speeches. The leaked secret documents were obtained and published by The Daily Telegraph.

see the video @
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/4336727.stm

faulting the fbi for 9/11 'missed chances'

The FBI missed at least five opportunities before the September 11 attacks to uncover vital intelligence information about the terrorists, and the bureau didn’t aggressively pursue the information it did have, the Justice Department’s inspector general says in a newly released report.

The IG faulted the FBI for not knowing about the presence of two of the September 11 terrorists in the US and for not following up on an agent’s theory that Osama bin Laden was sending students to US flight training schools.

The agent’s theory turned out to be precisely what bin Laden did.

--source

ya, blame the fbi. asscroft knew, and stopped taking commercial flights earlier.

um, because that's how the bushite people work

they manipulate you.

Chud Vault's Chudgoo points to today's story about the arrest of five men in Lodi, Calif., who may be linked to al-Qaida and asks cattily, "What better way to convince the American people that they need these drastic anti-privacy laws than to arrest a terror suspect the same day a statement calling for the expansion of the 'PATRIOT' act is released by the White House."

thanks to today's blogs over at slate for the heads up

from the whiskey bar

Tobacco industry lobbying budget, 1999 to June 2004: $113 million

Tobacco contributions to the Republican Party candidates 1990 to 2004: $41 million (75% of total)

Tobacco PAC contributions to Republican candidates 1997 to April 2005: $7 million (75% of total)

Tobacco soft dollars for the RNC 1997-2002: $6.3 million

Tobacco donations to GOP conventions and Bush-Cheney inauguration celebrations 2000 - 2005: $1.5 million

Having the President on your side in a major litigation battle with the Justice Department: Priceless.

--source

that was priceless.

great thread over on DU

about obama coming out against dean. really pisses me off that this dean's dozen had to speak to the media like this instead of being private. but i made a comment about how we need to ditch the old dlc and make the new democratic party much more forceful. it worked for the republicons by golly, it'll work for us even better.

but the thread is an interesting one. some were on obama's side, which surprised me. just goes to show, you can't satisfy everybody, all of the time. and rarely can you even satisfy one all the time. but you sure as hell can satisfy a lot of people, a lot of the time. and i think dean's the perfect man for the job.

headline on yahoo

Bush: Patriot Act Helped to Nab Terrorists

COLUMBUS, Ohio - President Bush on Thursday credited the Patriot Act with helping to convict more than 200 terrorists and dismissed accusations that the law has violated civil liberties.

Bush described scary scenarios that he said were thwarted by law enforcement and intelligence officers working together with powers granted by the law he signed six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Bush used the examples to pressure Congress to make permanent the provisions of the law that would otherwise expire at the end of the year. But he faces oppositions from civil libertarians who tell their own stories of law-abiding citizens dogged by secret probing of their private affairs.

once again, he's using scare tactics to achieve what he wants. i call that bullying. but others may call just call it politics as usual.

and that's what is wrong with this country. scaring the population as a "normal" way of getting something done is pathetic. it's how the nazi regime came to be in power.

the Misinformer Of The Year award goes to....

bill o'reilly, of fox news.

1. O'Reilly falsely claimed Bush didn't oppose 9-11 Commission…
2. O'Reilly falsely claimed Iraq had ricin…
3. O'Reilly repeated discredited claims on Iraq-Al Qaeda link…
4. O'Reilly fabricated "Paris Business Review" as source for success of French boycott…
5. O'Reilly cited phony stats to argue that taxes on rich are excessive…
6. O'Reilly confused on elementary economics…
7. O'Reilly doctored quotation to suggest Soros wished his own father dead…
8. O'Reilly questioned if Kennedy would show up to Democratic convention ... as Kennedy spoke behind him…
9. O'Reilly disparaged Democrats with trifecta of voter falsehoods. In a discussion about what went wrong for Democrats in the November 2 election, O'Reilly claimed that Democrats "lost votes from four years ago"; that "18- to 24[-year-old]s didn't go" to the polls; and that "[c]ommitted Republicans didn't carry the day for the president; independents did." All three claims are false.
10. O'Reilly on the radio: Three lies, one broadcast. Lie No. 1: Bush tax cuts didn't create the budget deficit. Lie No. 2: "Socialistic" French, Germans, and Canadian governments tax at 80 percent. Lie No. 3: Canadian, British, and French media are "government-controlled," but Italian media is free.

courtesy of mediamatters, via make them accountable

saving this part for when bush jr beats his monkey chest

and proclaims "he killed the taliban" in afghanistan:

KABUL, Afghanistan, June 8 -- Insurgents linked to the former Taliban regime have set off a wave of violence in Afghanistan, launching a string of almost daily bombings and assassinations that have killed dozens of U.S. and Afghan military personnel and civilians in recent weeks while spreading fear throughout the international aid worker community.

--source

from the Voice of the People

My roommate and I ordered Dish Network last week because we were excited by the prospect of being able to watch CNN for more in-depth news coverage. Much to my chagrin the first story I caught was about the Michael Jackson trial. Does anyone really care whether Jackson is guilty or innocent? I'm sorry for his plight, but I really don't think it's headline news. News stories should report real issues of the day. Stories should not be sugar-coated or fluffy. The public needs to hear real truth regardless of its severity. Society will change only if we are stirred into action by real issues. If I want entertainment I'll watch E!, but as for now I want my money back.
- Kelli Starcevich, Des Moines

--attribution

an open message to howard dean:

do not let these people intimidate you. and from what i saw tonite on cbs, they didn't. STAND UP AND TELL THESE MONEY MONKEYS: YELLOW-BELLY DEMOCRATS ARE NOT WELCOMED. LOOK WHERE IT GOT US SO FAR.

and do not worry. the power of being right far outweighs loyalty to the left. just keep that true blue American thing happening, and define yourself, do not let them define you.

maybe it's time to put DEANWATCH.US back up.

message to gloria bolger:

shut your republican trap. whoever injected you into cbs was either (1) completely out of their collective minds, or (2) subversive to the security of the United States of America.

i wish you would just sliver back into foxnews where you belong.

the push is on

for reporting "terrorist" and "united states citizen" in the same sentence, much less the same story. and certainly pushing the envelope in making the connection.

winner of the Hypocrite Of The WeeQ award

Bush told a press conference afterwards, "I've always said it's a serious long long-term issue that needs to be dealt with, and my administration isn't waiting around to deal with the issue.

"We lead the world when it comes to dollars spent, millions spent on research about climate change," the US president said. "We want to know more about it. It's easier to solve a problem when you know a lot about it."

--source

has there ever been a more solid reason to believe that george bush jr. is a hypocrite?

what exxon wants, exxon gets

courtesy of my friend josh marshall:

I don't think the Bush adminsitration needed a lot of convincing not to sign the Kyoto global warming treaty. But this is the lede in a piece just out from The Guardian: "President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries, according to US State Department papers seen by the Guardian."

Quote of the Day

it's a long one, but it sure hits the point on the head:

MR. PRESIDENT, YOU LIED THEN AND YOU CONTINUE TO LIE NOW. HAVE YOU NO SHAME?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Steve.

Q Thank you, sir. On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July 2002 says intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action. Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?

PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Well, I can respond to that very easily. No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all. And let me remind you that that memorandum was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that we were conducting as two countries at the time than me. And the fact is we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution, to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with international law. He didn't do so. And that was the reason why we had to take military action.

But all the way through that period of time, we were trying to look for a way of managing to resolve this without conflict. As it happened, we weren't able to do that because -- as I think was very clear -- there was no way that Saddam Hussein was ever going to change the way that he worked, or the way that he acted.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I -- you know, I read kind of the characterizations of the memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I'm not sure who "they dropped it out" is, but -- I'm not suggesting that you all dropped it out there. (Laughter.) And somebody said, well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal with Saddam. There's nothing farther from the truth.

My conversation with the Prime Minister was, how could we do this peacefully, what could we do. And this meeting, evidently, that took place in London happened before we even went to the United Nations -- or I went to the United Nations. And so it's -- look, both us of didn't want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option. The consequences of committing the military are -- are very difficult. The hardest things I do as the President is to try to comfort families who've lost a loved one in combat. It's the last option that the President must have -- and it's the last option I know my friend had, as well.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/06/20050607-2.html

but isn't musharraf one of our allies?

The LAT's metro section says the FBI has arrested a father and son near Sacramento, accusing the son of having attended an "al-Qaida training camp" in Pakistan.

--courtesy of slate's today's papers

i just have one question here: if the fbi knows about an al-qaeda training camp IN pakistan, why is bush still in bed with musharraf? (like that's not a stupid question)

lets play war daddy

Snipers still regularly attack civilians and troops patrolling Fallujah, despite the fact that the US bombed the city heavily in April and November 2004 to flush out suspected rebels.

According to the Zapata contractors, one of their vehicles veered left on a road leading to a Marine checkpoint. It ran over the spike strip in the road near the guard house and the tire went flat. The anxious contractors jumped into action and put on a spare. Within minutes, they began rolling again.

A Marine captain brought the convoy to a halt. Had anyone in the convoy shot at the guard tower, he asked. Negative, said a convoy member.

But the captain was not convinced. Sixteen American and three Iraqi security contractors in the Zapata convoy were then taken into custody presumably on suspicion of shooting at the Marine tower. They were thrown in jail on the evening of May 28.

Earlier that day, May 28, the soldiers recounted, "receiving small arms fire from gunman in several late-model trucks and sport utility vehicles" at approximately 2 P.M. "Marines also say witnessed passengers in the vehicles firing at and near civilian cars on the street," the Marines' report continues.

According to a Marines press statement, "Three hours later, another Marine observation post was fired on by gunmen from vehicles matching the description of those involved in the earlier attack. Marines saw passengers in the vehicles firing out the windows." This second account coincides with the arrest of the Zapata men.

Today the contractors have been set free and each side tells a different story. Contractors and their families feel they were unfairly arrested and, once in the military prisons, they say they were treated with disrespect.

--corpwatch

there's a lot more of this interesting tale, that got reported in today's latimes.

Letter Of The Day II

Regarding the May 28 letters, "Majority Should Control Senate Confirmations": If the majority should always rule, it follows Al Gore should have been president.

-Jan Kerrigan,
Ankeny.

attribution

Letter Of The Day

President Bush strongly supports embryo adoption. The only way an adopted embryo can be brought to term is through implantation in a healthy woman. So, Bush should encourage his daughters to be surrogate mothers, or does he have others in mind? Maybe volunteer surrogates should get a free college education?

My point is that if he is serious that all those embryos are persons, then he has to propose a program to take care of all of them. Or maybe when he had his photo taken with all those parents and their embryo-implanted babies, he should have reminded them that they should not produce embryos unless they are willing to bring all of them to birth.

Embryos are not persons. As a test, give any of those parents at Bush's photo opportunity a "Sophie's Choice" between the life of a four-celled embryo and the life of an already-born child.

While they might not want to make any choice, they would choose the child. The child, unlike the embryo, is a person with full civil and economic rights.

-Jon Torgerson,
Urbandale.

attribution

and speaking of pensions....

The heads of three major airlines were called to appear Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee. Its leaders are alarmed that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. — the federal agency that insures private pension plans — already has a $23.3 billion deficit because of defaults.

More than half of the 100 largest plans had less than their promised benefits on deposit, which the committee's chairman blames on lax rules that are supposed to guarantee full endowment.

About 34 million people — roughly 20 percent of the nation's workforce — expect to receive payments from their employers through defined benefit plans.

--source

well, there ya go.

if they can't get it right (sic) with pensions....

how in the hell are they expected to get it right with social security???

Although the financial markets have been on the upswing recently from their post-boom low, many of the nation's private pension plans have been sinking deeper into the hole, according to new figures from the government's pension insurance agency.

The 1,108 weakest pension plans -- those whose assets are at least $50 million below the value of the benefits they promise -- were short by an aggregate $353.7 billion at the end of last year, figures from the government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. show. That was 27 percent more than the shortfall a year earlier, contrary to the hopes of many that funding would improve as the economy strengthens.

--source

to demonstrate how i can say the post and times aren't on the same page....

from slate's today's papers:

Meanwhile, the Post flags a suicide bombing at an Iraqi base in Baghdad. Five people were reportedly killed. (The NYT says none were killed and seven wounded.)

now how can a mistake of that proportion be made by papers that are supposed to be 'of record' quality?