Mis-representation

Alaska is blessed with untold bounty. No other state can compare with it's natural wonders and resources. The largest state in the union with ~572,000 square miles, it has the lowest population density – 1.1 people per square mile. Compared with MA at 810 people per sq mi, RI with 1000/sq mi, and NJ at 1,134/sq, Alaska is a quiet paradise. Considering their extremely low population, it is especially amazing how Alaskans can be doubly honored with having a US Representative like Don Young. Not only is Mr. Young their lone representative, he is apparently one of their premier scientists:

The world's leading climatologists may agree that burning fossil fuels is a significant contributor to global warming, but Alaska's congressman isn't buying it. "I am a little bit concerned when everything that is wrong is our fault, that the human factor creates all the damages on this globe," Rep. Don Young said during a debate on the U.S. House floor last week. "That is pure nonsense."

Young also told his colleagues that alarmists are too quick to blame America for the carbon emissions. "It is always the fault of the Americans," Young complained during the debate. "It is never the fault of the bigger countries that burn as many barrels of oil as we are doing today _ not per capita, but as many barrels of oil .... It is never their fault." It was unclear what other big oil-consuming countries he was referring to.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the United States burned 20.6 million barrels of oil a day last year. The second biggest consumer, China, burned just under 7 million.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wisconsin, suggested Young sounded like one of the "charter members of the Flat Earth Society."

Posted on The Human Stain

Hey – Not Us, Them!

Ah, spring is in the air. New life, new growth is sprouting outwards all around us. We are all rediscovering our gardens, coming up with new ideas for summer projects and vacations, on and on and on.

With that in mind, it's quite enjoyable to watch the new discoveries being made in Washington by our intrepid Senators and Congressmen. They have discovered the US Constitution and are even beginning to form a tiny kernel of understanding for what it means. Now I'm not saying that they are totally ignorant of the document, after all they swear to uphold it, but their knowledge probably doesn't exceed knowing how to spell the word. The Constitution is suddenly very important to Capitol Hill. One might ask, why? Well apparently our brave representatives have become united in a bipartisan concern about how one of their own had his offices searched by the FBI, on – of all times, a Saturday night! From the rotunda, our rotund, subservient, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert expressed great 'concern':

I am very concerned about the necessity of a Saturday night raid on Congressman Jefferson's Capitol Hill Office in pursuit of information.....The Founding Fathers were very careful to establish in the Constitution a Separation of Powers to protect Americans against the tyranny of any one branch of government. They were particularly concerned about limiting the power of the Executive Branch....... the independence of the Legislative Branch, and the protections afforded by the Speech or Debate clause of the Constitution must be respected in order to prevent overreaching and abuse of power by the Executive Branch.

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, sent an email to some colleagues titled "on the edge of a constitutional confrontation," calling the raid "the most blatant violation of the Constitutional Separation of Powers in my lifetime." He urged President Bush to discipline or fire "whoever exhibited this extraordinary violation." Some legal experts have called the raid "an intimidating tactic that has never before been used against the legislative branch."

Now here are guys who have sat silently, have also encouraged, and have calmly downplayed more than five years of violations against the constitutional rights of America's citizens. Now that the Bush thuggery is getting close to them, they are getting concerned. All of a sudden, when it's recognized that Georgie and his fascists might actually be dangerous to America's liberties and freedoms, they realize that the Constitution has a purpose.

Took a long time - didn't it?
Posted on The Human Stain

A Victory That Isn't

Americans know they can rely on Chimpie. He is a man of conviction, setting a straight consistent course – regardless of circumstances. He's “A Decider”, a man of action, a man's man, he's possessed of clear vision and certitude. He's doing God's work. The world is simple – set a direction and go. Why don't people see it like he does?

Victory in Iraq was so clear:

Mr Bush refused to set an "artificial deadline" to withdraw US troops, saying it was "not a plan for victory". Mr Bush said victory would come "when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can provide for the safety of their own citizens, and when Iraq is not a safe-haven for terrorists to plot new attacks on our nation"....."America will not run in the face of car bombers and assassins so long as I am your commander-in-chief," he said. "No war has ever been won on a timetable - and neither will this one,"......

Ooops. Guess that one didn't work out too well:

An old word is gaining new currency in Washington: containment.....Containment of Iraq’s low-level civil war, which shows every sign of persisting for years......Containment of Iran’s nuclear power, which may lead to a missile defense system in Europe. Containment of the Islamism revived by Hamas and Hizbullah, by the Sunni suicide bombers in Iraq.......

.......Indeed, few people in the Bush administration will even concede they are thinking in such terms, because the president has not permitted an honest reckoning of the difficulties he faces. On Monday, Bush again appeared to sidestep the realities, calling the new “free Iraq” “a devastating defeat for the terrorists.” Back in Iraq, however, it was just another typical day: some 20 Iraqis died in bombings and drive-by shootings, with few or no arrests.

So today’s containment is a furtive policy being developed willy-nilly behind the scenes, as Bush’s pragmatic second-term officials seek to clean up the vast Mideast mess left by the ideologues who dominated in the first term

So the very best that can be hoped for in Iraq, probably for many years to come, will be a non-bloodbath, a low-level civil war that doesn’t get worse than the current cycle of insurgent killings and Shiite death-squad reprisals.....

The U.S. military is already gearing up for this outcome, but not for “victory” any longer. It is consolidating to several “superbases” in hopes that its continued presence will prevent Iraq from succumbing to full-flown civil war and turning into a failed state.

Whoever becomes the next president will inherit most of these problems.....

Typical fun frat boy games – create a huge mess – get someone else to clean it up.
Posted on The Human Stain

Bully Boy

The recent comment by Mark Salter, an employee of Senator John McCain, that viciously denigrates Ms. Jean Rohe, is an example of what is grossly wrong with politics today – and Republican politicians in particular.

What did Ms Rohe do? My gosh, she had the gall to actually exercise her rights as an American citizen and speak truth to power – she caused one of our isolated, out of touch politicians to actually hear what a real American citizen thinks. She's not a palm greaser like most of McCain's associates – she is a young citizen who cares deeply about the phoniness of American politics and one who decries the lies told, the lives lost needlessly, and the uncaring use of people as cannon fodder to wage a war of choice.

John McCain is a courageous man, his experiences as a Vietnam POW, and the hardships he suffered are quite remarkable. That he survived the conditions encountered and then could forge an admirable career in politics is truly amazing. His actions during imprisonment were honorable and are emblematic of what each American believes a patriot would do. Bravo to Mr. McCain for that.

Mr. Salter is just another arrogant, amoral inhabitant of what once was the Republican Party. Salter feels that McCain did not receive the proper level of respect that he deserves. By “respect” he apparently means that everyone did not sit there meekly, adoringly, obsequiously, and that they did not hang on every word uttered by All Mighty John. He compares Ms. Rohe and the students at the New School with those at Liberty University. The Liberty University audience was just the type of crowd that Mr. Salter likes – quiet, obedient, unquestioning, and listening robotically. This is what passes for public discourse in American politics nowadays – no answers, no debate, no questions, no truth – why it's much too hard to justify one's actions and positions to the electorate, so let's not. Duck, evade, run – that's the game being played.

Mr. Salter then goes on to insult young Ms. Rohe's integrity and intelligence stating:

“It took no courage to do what you did, Ms. Rohe. It was an act of vanity and nothing more....What, pray tell, have you risked? The only person you have succeeded in making look like an idiot is yourself.....Well, Ms. Rohe, and your fellow graduate's comical self-importance deserves a rebuke far stronger than the gentle suggestions he offered you......you might look back on the day of your graduation and your discourtesy to a good and honest man with a little shame and the certain knowledge that it very unlikely any of you will ever posses the one small fraction of the character of John McCain”.

Apparently Mr. Salter likes to think of himself as a big tough guy, beating up a young girl. By his comments, he reveals he's a cur – not a man. Ms. Rohe demonstrated courage – Mr. Salter demonstrated the abusiveness of weaklings. His co-writing of a book with Senator McCain titled 'Character is Destiny' must have slipped his mind. Rather than defending the honor of John McCain, he has besmirched him by association and he has damaged himself far more.
Posted on The Human Stain

A Timetable – For Someone Else

Famous Bushspeak: “America will not run in the face of car bombers and assassins so long as I am your commander-in-chief," he said. "No war has ever been won on a timetable - and neither will this one,"......

Then what's up with this:

British officials said they expected all foreign combat troops to withdraw from Iraq within four years, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair flew into Baghdad to show support to its new government yesterday.

It was the firmest statement yet from one of the two main allies in the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein on a date for pulling out troops from Iraq.....

Posted on The Human Stain

The Hate King

It's a well known fact to most of America that if one wants to know the truth about the Rethuglicans, Georgie, and the other sycophants around them, all you have to do is believe the exact opposite of what they say. “Things are going well in Iraq” - no way. “Tax cuts will benefit all Americans” - don't think so. “Oil company profits are just the result of supply and demand” - uh huh. “We are not spying on Americans” - oh sure. “No one ever thought terrorists would use a plane as a weapon” - yah right.

The latest example of this truth finding process is the loudmouth of Fox – Bill O'Reilly. The blowhard is currently trying to defame organizations who expose his lies and extremist slurs against honest criticism and calls for accountability:

O’REILLY: [T]he ombudsman for NPR recently lashed out a two dishonest far-left websites, Media Matters and ThinkProgress, for urging their readers to complain the National Public Radio because some of their contributors appear here on the Fox News channel. Jeffery Dworkin wrote, “The blogs encouraged people to complain to NPR and hundreds did, many with a surprising level of rancor and vituperation, which was shockingly intense, even in these times of take-no-prisoners-and-shoot-the-wounded political debate.” The ombudsman has learned firsthand how vicious the far left blogs are. All decent Americans should reject these haters.

Now, I wonder who is known for a “surprising level of rancor and vituperation”. Which haters should decent Americans really reject? Why – it appears to be Bill O'Reilly. Surprise, surprise.
Posted on The Human Stain

Must be Election Time

Whatever happened to Chimpie's rock solid determination? "These decisions about troop levels will be driven by the conditions on the ground in Iraq and the good judgement of our commanders, not by artificial timetables set by politicians in Washington,"......

United States President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are to discuss in Washington this week a programme of troop withdrawals from Iraq that will be much faster and more ambitious than originally planned.

In a phased pull-out in which the two countries will act in tandem, Britain is to begin with a handover to Iraqi security forces in Muthanna province in July and the Americans will follow suit in Najaf, the Shia holy city.

Other withdrawals will quickly follow over the remainder of the year.....

Posted on The Human Stain

Does the Press Care?

The silence is deafening. Here we have one of the pillars of democracy – the press, not saying boo to threats made by Bush's chihuahua, Attorney General Gonzales, that the government has the power to imprison any journalist with the temerity to reveal any actions the government wants to conceal. The Bush fascists are essentially claiming the power to hide any actions they want – just by classifying them. So if they commit illegal acts – just classify them. If there are any embarrassing personal acts committed – just classify them. Anything they don't want American citizens to know – just classify it.

Anyone who reveals the classified information will be imprisoned. Sounds just like the Soviet Union with their Gulags – doesn't it?

The founders of this nation intended that a “free press” serve as a check against presidential abuse – just as the judiciary and legislative branches are intended to be. Three co-equal branches and an independent press have served us well for hundreds of years. Bush and his minions are increasingly threatening this country's survival.

Glenn Greenwald has a post that is must reading:

It really is hard to imagine any measures which pose a greater and more direct danger to our freedoms than the issuance of threats like this by the administration against the press. If the President has the power to keep secret any information he wants simply by classifying it -- including information regarding illegal or otherwise improper actions he has taken -- then the President, by definition, has complete control over the flow of information which Americans receive about their Government.

Jefferson said: "If I had to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn't hesitate to choose the latter." The only reason the Founders bothered to guarantee a free press in First Amendment is because the press was intended to serve as a check against Government power.

It ought to go without saying that the press cannot serve as a check against the Executive branch if the only information it publishes is information which the President wants it to publish...... When the Government can control which information is disclosed and which information is concealed, newspapers become a government propaganda venue -- an arm of the Government -- rather than any meaningful check on it. I've cited this Jefferson warning several times before, and included it in my book, because it is so prescient and so self-evidently applicable to the Bush administration:

"Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues of truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is freedom of the press. It is therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions."

Posted on The Human Stain

Can't Stop Lying

Condoleeza Rice has a very nasty habit – or maybe it is an ingrained part of her personality, she just cannot be honest. Speaking with her irritating, condescending, and grating school marm manner, she continues to spout lie after lie about the war in Iraq. This past Sunday on Meet The Press, she got very confused with which lie should be used:

MR. RUSSERT: But Madam Secretary, you know the numbers as well as I do: 2,448 dead Americans, 18,088 wounded or injured....Less than one in three Americans support the president’s handling of the war in Iraq. What happened?

DR. RICE: I understand that Americans see on their screens violence. They continue to see Americans killed, and we mourn every death......But I would ask that people remember why we are there. We are there because we are trying to—having overthrown a brutal dictator who was a destabilizing force in the Middle East, we’re trying to help the Iraqis create a stable foundation for democracy and a stable foundation for peace.....

Hmmm – we were trying to create democracy? Then a little later in the interview:

MR. RUSSERT: ......you went before the world and said, “Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Our very best intelligence says that and that’s the rationale to go in.”And now the world and many in this country are saying, “What evidence do you have about Iran?......

DR. RICE: Well, let’s remember, first of all, that the United States didn’t go and say Iraq is a, is a problem on the WMD side. There were resolutions within the U.N. Security Council that suggest everybody knew and believed there was a WMD problem with Iraq.....

MR. RUSSERT: But they didn’t have weapons of mass destruction.

DR. RICE: No. That’s—Tim , let’s, let’s remember that in 1991 we found that their weapons of mass destruction programs were far further developed than anyone knew......

So, I guess it was because of WMD's? And there was also the obligatory “oh well” moment that must be quite comforting to the families of the DEAD:

MR. RUSSERT: ......Would you not agree—accept the notion that Americans, who only 32 percent approve of the president’s handling, have seen some misjudgments: no weapons of mass destruction, a misreading of the level, intensity of the insurrection, whether we’d be greeted as liberators, sectarian violence, cost of the war? There were a lot of misjudgments made that the American people also witnessed.

DR. RICE: Undoubtedly, Tim, there are many things that could have been done differently, and I’m certain could have been done better. But when you’re involved in an enterprise this big and this complicated, there are going to be misjudgments.....

Posted on The Human Stain

Where's the Priorities?

Human beings are funny creatures. With minds capable of unparalleled might and power, they seem to focus on the less important, seemingly oblivious to the true needs of society and their fellow man. Why is that? For example, people have enormous time, energy, compassion, empathy, and money to care for, say – animals, while at the same time seem to be nonplussed about the suffering and depravity of humankind around them. Is it because animals receive unjudged and undiminished affection – but we critically evaluate our fellow man to see if they meet “our standards” for receiving concern?

Linda Swanson has a good post that wonders about how the media covers animal stories vs people stories. She was thinking about the recent accident suffered by the horse Barbaro at the Preakness this past Saturday:

There has been a bulletin about Barbaro and his condition at least once an hour since he was injured. There have been interviews with horse racing experts, veterinarians, trainers, etc. Diagrams have been created showing the extent of his injuries as well as precisely how the hardware was installed to try to hold his shattered leg together.

What I am about to say is in no way meant to diminish the significance and tragedy of what happened to that beautiful, spirited animal...... But here’s where I found my thoughts going: Why is so much attention being given to this horse when there are far greater tragedies occurring......Why do we not hear bulletins every hour about the grave wounds suffered by soldiers and civilians of every nationality in Iraq and Afghanistan? Why are there not diagrams in the papers showing the anatomy of each human whose body has been battered and torn by the war..... showing how their catastrophic wounds are being treated...?

Other than completely filling the newspapers and airwaves, what else might be the effect of treating each human casualty of war with the same respect, concern, and love that is being given to Barbaro?...

Here’s my challenge to the media: treat your fellow human beings of every nationality with the same concern, care, and respect you have shown to one very special horse. Give us all the details of each injury, physical or mental.....Take us home with men and women who are returned to their families in flag-draped caskets. Take us to hospitals here or abroad and show us the heroic efforts made by dedicated medical personnel to reconstruct shattered bodies with the full details of each injury and each treatment......Show us the individuals who took their own lives after returning from war, and explore what might have led to that tragic result. Show us those who are unable to get the treatment they need. Find the homeless veterans of these wars who are cast off by their government after they outlived their usefulness.

Posted on The Human Stain

Keystone Chumps

Chimpie and the boys are having a hard time lately, their incompetence has come home to roost. The formerly solid support they could count on from the dunderhead Rethuglican acolytes in Congress is disappearing. There doesn't appear to be anything they can do reliably – except do things wrong:

The White House's new press secretary, Tony Snow, says Bush believes English should be the national language. Attorney General Gonzales says Bush doesn't believe that. Oops – anyone know what's going on?

“In the latest indication of the crushing hardships weighing on the lives of Iraqis, increasing portions of the middle class seem to be doing everything they can to leave the country. In the last 10 months, the state has issued new passports to 1.85 million Iraqis, 7 percent of the population and a quarter of the country’s estimated middle class.”

Chimpie believes his dismal polling numbers are a result of people being “unsettled” because of the war in Iraq. Apparently it has nothing to do with his overall incompetence and his solid record of lying to the citizens, or his violations of their rights under the Constitution, or his following the same pattern of lies to fabricate a crisis with Iran.

“The head of a group of Federal Air Marshals says the service is badly broken”......it “cannot protect the public.” Apparently the management of the Air Marshal Service has “retaliat[ed] against him, with four separate investigations, including one for misuse of his business card.”

The past week, Afghanistan has had some of the “deadliest violence since the Taliban was supposedly driven from power in late 2001.” Up to 105 people were reportedly killed. Weren't we told they were defeated?

The United Nations Committee Against Torture issued a report last week calling for the U.S. to “close any secret ‘war on terror’ detention facilities abroad and the Guantanamo Bay camp in Cuba.”

The Travel Industry Association of America recently stated that high gas prices will add “$30 and $50 to the gasoline cost of a typical trip this summer.”

Friends in the drug industry are up to no good: “The Justice Department is accusing Abbott Laboratories of vastly inflating prices of its drugs as part of a fraudulent billing scheme alleged to have cost government health programs more than $175 million over 10 years.” But let's give more subsidies and tax breaks to them.

Wind up toy Gen Michael Hayden, who Bush says is “the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history” admits knowing NSA spying actions were illegal: During hearings, Hayden uncovered new information on the creation of NSA’s warrantless surveillance program, “noting that he was asked by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet to provide a list of NSA’s capabilities after the al-Qaeda attacks, even those that Hayden believed would not be permissible under the law. Hayden suggested the scope of the program may go beyond what is publicly known.” Hayden also slammed the former head of the CIA who Chimpie also said was “the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history” - “You get a lot more authority when the workforce doesn’t think it’s amateur hour on the top floor,” Hayden also said yesterday in a “not-so-veiled reference to since-disappeared CIA chief Porter Goss.”

Makes the mind reel.
Posted on The Human Stain

Perfect Candidate

General Michael V. Hayden is just what the Bushies want – a party man, someone who will toe the line, someone who cares little for the US Constitution, someone who cares even less for the rights of American citizens.

He's just what they want as head of the CIA, therefore he's not good for America.

More here.
Posted on The Human Stain

He's Insane

Contingency plans have to be made by the American military, no one really questions that. Questioning the motivations of an incompetent egotist with a messianic complex is totally justified. Bush is like a trapped animal – unthinking, irrational, with only one thing on his mind – how can he serve as the sword of God and smite the evil ones. Saying he represents an extreme danger to America understates the situation.

According the British newspaper The Herald:

THE US is updating contingency plans for a non-nuclear strike to cripple Iran's atomic weapon programme if international diplomacy fails, Pentagon sources have confirmed. Strategists are understood to have presented two options for pinpoint strikes using B2 bombers flying directly from bases in Missouri, Guam in the Pacific and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

The main plan calls for a rolling, five-day bombing campaign against 400 key targets in Iran, including 24 nuclear-related sites, 14 military airfields and radar installations, and Revolutionary Guard headquarters.

At least 75 targets in underground complexes would be attacked with waves of bunker-buster bombs. Iranian radar networks and air defence bases would be struck by submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles and then kept out of action by carrier aircraft flying from warships in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.

The alternative to an all-out campaign is a demonstration strike against one or two high-profile targets such as the Natanz uranium enrichment facility or the hexafluoride gas plant at Isfahan.

America needs some grownups in the White House.
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Big Oil Buffoonery

The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a front group funded by ExxonMobil and other big oil companies. It has created two advertisements in a ham-handed attempt to beat back the common sense and the science that will be displayed by Al Gore’s new movie, An Inconvenient Truth. The arrogance of these oil companies is there for all to see – do they really think so little of America's intelligence?

In the first ad, they attempt to say that global warming science, the work of hundreds of respected scientists – worldwide, is some type of smear campaign against – get ready for this – carbon dioxide gas. Woooo – scary stuff. The ad stupidly states that people should not fear carbon dioxide gas because after all, it is “essential to life” and we “breathe it out”. Gee thanks for the lesson. Animals produce carbon dioxide – plants consume it as part of the photosynthesis process. The problem isn't with what we breathe out – the problem is that an imbalance has been created in the environment between what the plants consume and the animals produce. That imbalance is caused by the burning of fossil fuels – oil, gas, coal, wood, and peat.

Everyone knows that excessive amounts of anything can be harmful - except the oil companies. Wake up guys. Oops, silly me – how will the executives get all those huge salaries and pensions if they stop polluting the environment?? America would also be expecting far too much to think American companies might actually direct a tiny portion of their obscene profits towards the development of “clean energy”.
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Thru Spies Eyes

Michael Scheuer is a 22-year CIA veteran. He served as the Chief of the bin Laden Unit at the Counterterrorist Center from 1996 to 1999. He resigned from the CIA in 2004. Scheuer is now known to be the anonymous author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror and the earlier anonymous work Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America.

In this interview from Foreign Policy magazine, Scheuer discusses the shake-up underway at CIA and what's wrong with US intelligence.
Posted on The Human Stain

C'est La Vie

Judy's dirty hands come to the forefront again. Now telling us she regrets being so careful about her reporting, she reveals that sources informed her before July 4, 2001 that an attack on America or a major American target was planned by Al Qaida. One would think that a threat of death or destruction like this would cause a major investigative reporter of her caliber to – you know, do something, like report the story to the American public. This wasn't the typical cat stuck in the tree incident – it seemed a trite more significant. Why didn't she go all out on this?

....It was going to be a large, well-coordinated attack. Because of the July 4 holiday, this was an ideal opportunistic target and date for Al Qaida.

My sources also told me at that time that there had been a lot of chatter overheard -- I didn't know specifically what that meant -- but a lot of talk about an impending attack at one time or another. And the intelligence community seemed to believe that at least a part of the attack was going to come on July 4.

"Everyone in Washington was very spun-up in the CT world at that time. I think everybody knew that an attack was coming -- everyone who followed this. But you know you can only 'cry wolf' within a newspaper or, I imagine, within an intelligence agency, so many times before people start saying there he goes -- or there she goes – again!

"You know, sometimes in journalism you regret the stories you do, but most of the time you regret the ones that you didn't do."

Miller's transgressions have been well documented regarding the WMD fiasco and to be fair to her, she was only another piece of the “what if” puzzle that, if placed properly, may have been able to help create a different outcome. The rap on her now is the seeming indifference in attitude, the seeming “oh well” of her tone. Appearing to separate herself from the history she was involved in and dismissing the possibility that a report from her may have had even the slightest chance of preventing thousands of deaths, is an indicator of a sadly cavalier character.

Let them eat cake?
Posted on The Human Stain

What Other Think

France:
Christians in the East are in danger. This is not a new thing, but the rise of Islamism, the increasing tension between Sunnis and Shiites and the growing sectarianism of Arab societies generally, has led to increasingly vulnerable Christian minorities being pushed into exile. This is one of the adverse effects of the George W. Bush Administration's "crusade" in favor of Democratic values. Under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, Christians in Iraq were treated no worse than anyone else......Christians could practice their religion out in the open and without fear, and as long as they renounced politics like all other citizens. The American intervention swept away the dictatorship, but did nothing to improve the plight of Christians........ Islamization and the rise of extremism has pushed them into a clandestine existence....

Brazil:
It's no surprise that President George W. Bush has drifted off course on the question of immigration. That's what happens when officials look to solve complex problems by thinking of their own survival rather than the people's interests. Faced with a divided Congress, under the weight of public opinion that demands serious action, and cornered by gigantic demonstration by immigrants that feel threatened, Bush is in search of common ground. And in his effort to please everyone, he is making Democrats, religious voters and the Latin American electorate unhappy.

Pakistan:
As has recently been reported in the international press, yet again the incumbent President of the United States is planning a massive bombing campaign against a sovereign country. This time that country is Iran, and the plan, which is almost sure to move forward, is to use bunker-busting nuclear bombs to destroy key Iranian nuclear weapons facilities. Given the tenor of the present U.S.-Iran stand-off, it seems highly likely that America will use nuclear weapons in the upcoming conflict.....Were America to use these weapons on any country today, it would have devastating consequences for humanity and the environment, not only in the country attacked but in the surrounding countries as well. Therefore, principally speaking, even a madman should shirk from inflicting such a nuclear attack on the human race.

Great Britain:
Call it the Great Wall of America.......something has snapped in one part of the American psyche....there’s something else at work here: an unease, a panic, a sense of helplessness and being beleaguered that has plagued the American psyche since 9/11. On that day, the pristine separation between America and the rest of the world was abolished......Mass deportations? Some clearly want them. As one writer put it on a right-wing website last week: “Not only will (mass deportation) work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take. If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of 6m Jews . . . it couldn’t possibly take more than eight years to deport 12m illegal aliens.....” This is the hidden racial and cultural subtext of the current debate. This is what fuels the emotion. And as grassroots Republicans lose faith in their own president’s response to 9/11, they naturally reach to a solution as simple as it is draconian.
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Idiotic

Our members of Congress are homo sapiens. Walking erect, they supposedly have 'superior' brains. But why is it so hard to use them?

The Senate just approved the construction of hundreds of miles of new fences and vehicle barriers along the border even as polls show a majority of Americans are against the idea.

Erecting a fence is an admission that America is not willing to do anything constructive or intelligent to solve the immigration issue. We take the easy route, the unthinking route. We show our incapacity for generating a rational, well thought out plan. This is a damn stupid idea by a lazy group of people.
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Not Credible

When USA Today came out with it's report of the NSA gathering information on customer calling data from the telecommunications industry, there was only one company who clearly had refused to go along. All the other big companies - Verizon, BellSouth, and AT&T were reported to have cooperated with this illegality. Well now, like the reliable sunrise, come the denials of complicity:

Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp., facing consumer lawsuits seeking massive damages, have issued carefully worded denials of a report that they turned over millions of customers' calling records to a U.S. spy agency. BellSouth and Verizon denied the part of the USA Today report that said the companies had received a contract from the NSA and that they turned over records. However, Verizon declined to comment on whether it provided access to the NSA......"Verizon cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has a relationship to the classified NSA program," the company said.

BellSouth said on Monday that "based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA." A BellSouth spokesman was not immediately available for further comment.

AT&T has been more circumspect, saying it has an obligation to assist law enforcement and other government agencies but has refused to comment specifically on national security matters.

Electronic Privacy Information Center Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said the statements by government officials and phone carriers were "legal hair splitting.......There's a tremendous amount of parsing going on," Rotenberg said.

Realizing they are now experiencing a serious public relations disaster with their customer base, the companies issue their “nope – we didn't do it” defense. The problem is, if they didn't – why issue denials immediately when the news broke? Because they did cooperate and are lying now.
Posted on The Human Stain

Molly's Right On

Molly Ivins has had the low-down on our low-down White House inhabitant because of her years of observation on his shenanigans in Texas. Continually skewering Chimpie where the sun don't shine, she has laced into his hypocrisy, silliness, illegalities, and good old boy backroom deals with a clear but humorous style. She now has a commentary that questions whether his recent 'immigration plan', tax cuts, and inactions in Iraq are politics or insanity:

Plan to militarize Mexican border is sheer madness or blatant pandering. I hate to raise such an ugly possibility, but have you considered lunacy as an explanation? Craziness would make a certain amount of sense. I mean, you announce you are going to militarize the Mexican border, but you assure the president of Mexico you are not militarizing the border. You announce you are sending the National Guard, but then you assure everyone it's not very many soldiers and just for a little while.

I suppose politics could explain it, too. It's quite possible that lunacy and politics are closely related.

Meanwhile, further proof that the entire party is cuckoo comes to us with the passage of another $70 billion tax cut for the rich. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the average middle-income household will get a $20 tax cut, while those making more than $1 million a year will get nearly $42,000. Both President Bush and Veep Cheney are still going around claiming if you cut taxes, your tax revenues increase. No, they don't. Now we're just in whackoville. It's not true. Their own economists tell them it's not true, but they go about claiming it is with the same desperate tenacity they clung to false tales of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. How pathetic.

Speaking of lunacy, the saddest report from Iraq is that American soldiers showing signs of psychological distress and depression are being kept on active duty, increasing the risk of suicide. The Hartford Courant reports that even soldiers who have already been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome are kept on duty. This has led to an increase in the suicide rate.....And as I have reported before, the military is unprepared to deal with the flood of head cases coming back from Iraq. How many ways can we mistreat our own soldiers, while the right makes this elaborate show of devotion to "the troops"?

Posted on The Human Stain

Set an Example

Well, well – isn't this interesting about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. It appears that Bush's chihuahua has a little secret. Maybe he and his family should set an example as to how illegal immigrants should be handled by voluntarily going back to Mexico.

BLITZER: Give us your — tell our viewers who aren’t familiar your personal story, how you got to where you are, your grandparents, your parents. They struggled, they came here. I don’t know if they came here legally or illegally. But give us the story.

GONZALES: Well, three of my grandparents were born in Mexico. They came to Texas. My parents — both my parents were born in Texas extremely poor. My mother…

BLITZER: When they came to Texas, were they legally documented, were they un-legally documented?

GONZALES: You know what? It’s unclear. It’s unclear. And I’ve looked at this issue, I’ve talked to my parents about it and it’s just not clear.

Now does anyone really believe that he doesn't know if the grandparents were here illegally?

Gonzales must now have some trouble brewing with the racist, extremist Rethuglicans in the US House. They apparently think that 140 years of Constitutional law can be thrown out by submitting an amendment to an immigration bill that would end birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. It states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” This amendment provides any child lucky enough to be born in the United States (hmmm-just like Alberto's parents) with American citizenship.
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Congress Destroys America

If one still needs more evidence of how our 'elected representatives' in Congress have abdicated their sworn duty to the Constitution and have even committed treasonous acts against the United States of America, then read this...

The FBI acknowledged late Monday that it is increasingly seeking reporters’ phone records in leak investigations. “It used to be very hard and complicated to do this, but it no longer is in the Bush administration,” said a senior federal official.

Officials say the FBI makes extensive use of a new provision of the Patriot Act which allows agents to seek information with what are called National Security Letters (NSL). The NSLs are a version of an administrative subpoena and are not signed by a judge. Under the law, a phone company receiving a NSL for phone records must provide them and may not divulge to the customer that the records have been given to the government.

The monster Congress created – one that has no oversight, one that has no reason to hold back its' power, the one now gaining reckless speed, that monster is about to consume freedom in this country.

It's getting ugly people. Be afraid, be very afraid.
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Our Little Adventure

These images are not sanitized and represent the terrifying reality of brutality in war. Not for the faint of heart - don't view them if you are not prepared for gruesome sights of mutilated bodies and parts. It's easy to sit in a nice, comfortable room and decide to 'send in the troops' - this is the resulting carnage that can result.

From AfterDowningStreet.org

This first page is the worst. Some of these are posed war trophy photos.
Here are photos, uncensored, from Abu Ghraib.
Here are more torture photos from an unknown location.
Here are photos of the war taken between 2003 and 2005.
And these are early Iraq War photos.
Here are photos from Fallujah.
And, finally, a few assorted photos.
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Bush Made This Hellhole

Not one to listen to rational advice, Chimpie went ahead with his little Iraq adventure anyways. He always wanted to be a war president and would not be dissuaded. Colin Powell tried to tell him with with the pottery analogy – “if you break it, you own it” - “You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people. You will own all their hopes, aspirations and problems. You'll own it all” Powell told Bush. Apparently Bush doesn't know what an analogy is – so why would he listen?

Well he got to play warrior, even got to fly onto an aircraft carrier – that was really cool. It's hard to remember all the moments of fun – but it's easy to dismiss the costs – he may not even care. After all, frat boys don't look back. So how is it going in Iraq:

If the old saying that things need to get worse before they get better applies to Iraq, it's hard to imagine how much worse it can possibly get before that country returns to minimum normality. As leaders bicker and bargain over who should assume what ministry in the government.....the streets of Baghdad and other cities across Iraq are being littered with dead bodies.

A suicide bombing here leaves dozens dead and maimed. Trigger-happy assassins there riddle holes in people for reasons only the shooters and their employers know. Dozens of corpses turn up daily in alleys, handcuffed and shot execution style, with signs of torture on their bodies.

For people sitting in the comforts of their homes in any other county but Iraq, the reports and television footage from that place resemble scenes from a horror film about people inflicted with mass hysteria on a violent rampage just before the Apocalypse.

For the ordinary Iraqis, it is no movie, but a nightmare reality that began with the U.S.-led invasion of their country in March 2003 and it is spiraling out of control.

The odds of not surviving in the country are high.

Oh well, guess it's time to cut more brush or do some fishing. Vacation anyone?
Posted on The Human Stain

Frist Gets Punked - Again

Oh, he's a tough talking man - a real man's man. Shrieking “marriage is under attack” Sen. Bill Frist is going all out in his efforts to defend against the evil efforts of judges that care nothing about the rights of men and women to marry. Why, this is obviously the work of Satan and Senator Bill is going to push the darkness back into the dark, dank realm from whence it came.

....Frist said he would defend the amendment even to Dick Cheney. "I basically say, Mr. Vice President, right now marriage is under attack in this country," Frist said on CNN. "And we've seen activist judges overturning state by state law, where state legislatures have passed laws defining marriage between a man and a woman, and that's being overturned by a handful of activist judges around the country. And that is why we need an amendment to come to the floor of the United States Senate to define marriage as that union between one man and one woman."

Well, little Billie just doesn't seem capable of learning. Most people would step back and re-evaluate their positions after creating fiascoes like Frist has in the past few months. No, our defender Bill is about to get his butt kicked again – by First Lady Laura Bush. She agrees with most sane people that little Billie's idea is wrong:

Asked Sunday about reports that White House political adviser Karl Rove and other Republicans want to use the issue to mobilize conservatives for the midterm election, she said she hoped "no one would think about trying to amend the Constitution as a political strategy."

"I certainly don't know what conversations have gone on between Karl and anybody up on the Hill," she said on Fox. "But you know, what I can say is look, amending the Constitution with this amendment, this piece of legislation, is a bad piece of legislation. It is writing discrimination into the Constitution, and, as I say, it is fundamentally wrong."

This will be great entertainment, seeing big tough Bill get smacked around by Laura.
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These Guys Know?

Was just watching a pair of Republican cocktail weenies, George Will and David Brooks on This Week with George Stephanopoulos talking about the NSA phone spying scandal. America has nothing to fear, rest easy. Brooks and Will have assured us that no privacies have been compromised and the program is legal.

Maybe I missed it – but when did these two bobble heads get their security clearances? Apparently they're higher clearances than all the members of the intelligence committees in Congress. These two mouthpieces are apparently more trustworthy than the US Department of Justice investigators who were just denied the necessary clearances needed to investigate the illegal spying.

Bush's cabal won't tell anyone about this – Will and Brooks are just foaming at the mouth.
Posted on The Human Stain

Catholic Silliness

OH dear – where are the kids? Hurry, find the members of our parish flock. Protect them from the heresy about to afflict us all. It's the attack of The DaVinci Code Movie. Run for the hills.

Cardinals, speaking with the authorization of the Vatican, have called for the Hollywood version of Dan Brown's bestselling novel to be boycotted. They say the theme of the film - that Jesus Christ had children with Mary Magdalene and that hardline Catholic movement Opus Dei covered up his secret life - is highly blasphemous.

Calls for Christians to boycott it have been led by Archbishop Angelo Amato, the number two official in the Vatican doctrinal office, which was headed by Pope Benedict until his election last year. Amato described the novel as "stridently anti-Christian" and called for believers to "reject the lies and gratuitous defamation" in the book.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian tipped to be Pope last year, went even further. He said: "Christians must not just sit back and say it is enough for us to forgive and forget. Sometimes it is our duty to do something practical. "Some know legal means which can be taken in order to get the other person to respect the rights of others."

Hell no – there will be no turning of the other cheek by us! We're going to sue your asses off. Pitiful really, the Catholic Church – lacking truly powerful influence in society, threatens legal action to make people respect them.
Posted on The Human Stain

Congressional Brownshirts

Who's protecting your privacy? Apparently no one on the Rethuglican side of the aisle in Congress. Siding with the neo-fascists in Chimpies gang seems to be their lot in life – their public pronouncements not withstanding about how enraged they were with abuses of phone record privacy.

Well isn't this interesting. Remember when I bought General Wesley Clark's cell phone records for under a $100 in order to prove that anyone's privacy could be violated?

Well, since that time there have been a number of bills in the House and Senate to address this problem. The House recently passed one bill unanimously, and a second bill was coming up in the House today. But it suddenly disappeared without a word right when the story broke about the Bush administration illegally spying on all of our phone records.

Coincidence? Not according to what Representative Markey may be hearing. He wrote to House Speaker Denny Hastert today asking what happened to the bill.....Which begs the question of whether the Republican Congress has now suddenly changed its mind on the value of protecting your phone records. The House was for it with NO DISSENTING VOTES only a few weeks ago. Now the legislation is utterly missing, and no word from the Republicans as to where it went.....

Posted on The Human Stain

Our Country - America

It's worth fighting for.
Get involved.

Click on the icons in the sidebar:
Register to Vote
Contact The Media
Contact Congress

End the darkness. Make the right choice - vote Democrat.
Posted on The Human Stain

Where's the Values?

Boston College is an esteemed Catholic University that draws upon Catholic and Jesuit traditions in it's efforts to educate students from a religious belief system. Founded in 1863, by the Jesuits, Boston College enrolls 9,000 undergrads with 4,700 graduate and professional students. It is currently ranked 37^th among national universities.

The Society of Jesus -- the Jesuits – are an order of religious men who did not choose monastic life but instead went out to encounter and transform the world, committed to "finding God in all things." In the educational area, they developed an approach seeking to integrate intellectual excellence and religious commitment, one concerned with character as well as mind, that valued knowledge, transcendent values, community, and service to others.

That being said, the college is currently embroiled in controversy over it's decision to invite Condoleeza Rice as the commencement speaker this year. Protests have broken out, voices have been raised, and one professor has even resigned because of the invitation.

.......Rice's actions as secretary of state are inconsistent with the broader humanistic values of the university and the Catholic and Jesuit traditions from which those values derive..... Simply put, Rice is a liar.......She has lied to the American people knowingly, repeatedly, often extravagantly over the past five years, in an effort to justify a pathologically misguided foreign policy.

The public record of her deceits is extensive...... Like the president whom she serves so faithfully, she refuses to recognize her errors or the tragic consequences of those errors to the young soldiers and civilians dying in Iraq. She is a diplomat whose central allegiance is not to the democratic cause of this nation, but absolute power.

This is the woman to whom you will be bestowing an honorary degree, along with the privilege of addressing the graduating class of 2006. It is this last notion I find most reprehensible: that Boston College would entrust to Rice the role of moral exemplar...... It is the content of one's character that matters here -- the reverence for truth and knowledge that Boston College purports to champion.

Rice does not personify these values; she repudiates them. Whatever inspiring rhetoric she might present to the graduating class, her actions as a citizen and politician tell a different story.........what lessons do you expect her to impart to impressionable seniors?.......That it is acceptable to lie to the American people for political gain?

As stated by the President of Boston College, William P. Leahy, on the college website - “Boston College endeavors to educate a new generation of leaders for the new millennium - men and women who will be capable of shaping a new century with vision, justice, and charity--with a sense of calling, with concern for all of the human family.”

If that is so – how does Rice fit in? Seems like the professor has a good point.
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Cowboy Adventure #2

He's got an itchy trigger finger, he's just spoiling for a fight. Got a whole lot of testosterone fueled anger built up – things aren't going smoothly in the fatherland. Getting heavy criticism at home, we know Georgie doesn't like criticism, especially from his subjects – you know, the little people – Americans. He's pissed and someone is going to pay:

......it must be time to send the aircraft carriers to Iran and hope that no one notices. Except that our friend, retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner, who has already run a simulated Iran war game for the Atlantic magazine back in 2004, has heard the rumblings as have others, and says the pre-positioning of assets for a June attack may have begun.

How many more Americans need to die because of this chump?
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Political Christian Dangers

Giving Christ a bad name:

Christian nationalists believe in a revisionist history, which holds that the founders were devout Christians who never intended to create a secular republic; separation of church and state, according to this history, is a fraud perpetrated by God-hating subversives. One of the foremost Christian revisionist historians is David Barton, who , in addition to running an organization called Wallbuilders that disseminates Christian nationalist books, tracts and videos, is also the vice-chairman of the Texas Republican Party. The goal of Christian nationalist politics is the restoration of the imagined Christian nation.

In the Christian nationalist vision of America, non-believers would be free to worship as they choose, as long as they know their place. When Venkatachalapathi Samuldrala became the first Hindu priest to offer an invocation before Congress, the Family Research Council issued a furious statement that reveals much about the America they'd like to create:

"While it is true that the United States of America was founded on the sacred principle of religious freedom for all, that liberty was never intended to exalt other religions to the level that Christianity holds in our country's heritage...Our founders expected that Christianity -- and no other religion -- would receive support from the government as long as that support did not violate peoples' consciences and their right to worship. They would have found utterly incredible the idea that all religions, including paganism, be treated with equal deference."

At one rally at the statehouse in Austin, Texas, a banner pictured a fierce eagle perched upon a bloody cross. For a liberal, such imagery smacks of fascist agitprop. But plenty of deeply committed Christians also object to it as a form of blasphemy. It's important, I think, to separate their faith from the authoritarian impulses of the Christian nationalist movement.

Christianity is a religion. Christian nationalism is a political program, and there is nothing sacred about it.......the threat to a pluralistic society does not come from those who simply believe in a very conservative interpretation of Christianity. It comes from those who adhere to a political ideology that posits a Christian right to rule.

Posted on The Human Stain

What We've Come to

From AMERICAblog
Posted on The Human Stain

Doublespeak and Lies

While saying to the gullible American public that they support transparency and investigations into the legality of their spying program, the Bush fascists have conveniently engineered ways to effectively prevent any real determination as to whether the spying activities are lawful.

We continuously hear that the Bush administration has legal authority to do anything the President orders. Claims that he is acting illegally are just frivolous and the by-product of Bush hatred. And yet, as I detailed here, each and every time the administration has the opportunity to obtain an adjudication of the legality of its conduct from a federal court (which, unbeknownst to the administration, is the branch of our government which has the authority and responsibility to interpret and apply the law), it does everything possible to avoid that adjudication.

By proclaiming the power to ignore Congressional law and to do whatever it wants in the area of national security, it is seizing the powers of the legislative branch. But by blocking courts from ruling on the multiple claims of illegality which have been made against it, the administration is essentially seizing the judicial power as well. It becomes the creator, the executor, and the interpreter of the law. And with that, the powers of all three branches become consolidated in The President, the single greatest nightmare of the founders.

Amazingly, again and again, they don't even want their own Justice Department to know what they are doing because they are afraid that DoJ lawyers will tell them that it is against the law. They don't want to hear that it is against the law.....That is the same inherently corrupt motive which led the NSA to refuse to give DoJ lawyers security clearance to enable the DoJ to investigate whether their lawyers acted unethically in connection with the NSA illegal eavesdropping program. As intended, that refusal caused the DoJ to shut down its investigation.

But beyond that, when the NSA scandal first broke, the administration’s principal political defense was to continuously assure Americans that they were eavesdropping only on international calls, not domestic calls. Many, many Americans do not ever make any international calls, and it was an implicit way of assuring the heartland that the vast bulk of the calls they make – to their Aunt Millie, to arrange Little League practice, to cite just a few of the administration’s condescending examples – were not the type of calls being intercepted. The only ones with anything to worry about were the weird and suspect Americans who call overseas to weird and suspect countries....

That has all changed. We now learn that when Americans call their Aunt Millie, or their girlfriend, or their psychiatrist, or their drug counselor, or their priest or rabbi, or their lawyer, or anyone and everyone else, the Government is very interested. In fact, they are so interested that they make note of it and keep it forever, so that at any time, anyone in the Government can look at a record of every single person whom every single American ever called or from whom they received a call. It doesn't take a professional privacy advocate to find that creepy, invasive, dangerous and un-American.

As warned by James Madison in The Federalist #47:

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
Posted on The Human Stain

Cost of War

According to the Cost of War counter maintained by the National Priorities Project, the illegal war of choice in Iraq (Chimpies War) just passed the $280 Billion mark.

See the counter on this blogsite also.
Posted on The Human Stain

A Dearth of Real Men

This country was founded by men of principle, honor, reason, and integrity. Possessing brains capable of actually formulating intelligent thoughts, they devised a system of government that has been the wonder of the world for the past two centuries.

Their noble efforts are being squandered by a pea brained, tin plated moron – strutting around like some spoiled frat boy who just bagged the prom queen. As the worst disgrace to inhabit the office of United States President, Bush seems to be incapable of developing enough brainpower to comprehend the immense damage his actions are causing this nation. Surrounded by fascists, neo-cons, and crooked scoundrels, he is either too dumb to see what is going on – or he just doesn't give a damn.

There are still real men left in this country, there are still real Americans – why are they so silent? This country has to endure 2 ½ more years of this irresponsible bandy rooster. How many more people will he kill? How many more of our freedoms will he take away? How many more times will he disgrace our country and our ancestors? How much longer will our do nothing Congress let this happen? You can end it for your children – vote Democrat.
Posted on The Human Stain

Change to Qwest

The good news is there was an American telecommunications company that stood up against Chimpies minions and refused to knuckle under to intimidation and threats from the NSA and turn over their customer calling data. The bad news is there was only one.

Qwest's lawyers were troubled by the expansiveness of the NSA request, the sources said. The NSA, which needed Qwest's participation to completely cover the country, pushed back hard. Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled. In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused. The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events.

Looks like my phone business will convert to Qwest. How about yours?
Posted on The Human Stain

Screw Off Brits

It's lovely how Chimpie and his cadre of hypocrites speak out of both sides of their mouths at the same time. We value our 'special relationship' with the British– but don't care what they think of us. We want and need their support – but don't give a damn if they criticize us. Please join us in invading a country – but don't expect us to listen to you. We want you to risk the honor and reputation of your country – but will ignore your concerns because we only care about ourselves.

US rejects Britain's call to close down Guantanamo Bay

The US state department today rejected the calls from the British government to close Guantanamo Bay in the near future, saying that it is a necessary evil in the War on Terror. Lord Goldsmith, the Government's most senior legal adviser, launched the most powerful attack yet on the military prison from a British minister.

In a speech to a terrorism conference he said: "It is time, in my view, that it should close," he said. "Not only would it, in my personal opinion, be right to close Guantanamo as a matter of principle, I believe it would also help to remove what has become a symbol to many – right or wrong – of injustice, told the London-based Royal United Services Institute. "The historic tradition of the United States as a beacon of freedom, liberty and of justice deserves the removal of this symbol."

Sean McCormack, spokesman for the State Department, said that although he would like "nothing better" than to shut the camp down, it was still essential to house a number of "dangerous people".

The camp which holds 490 detainees was opened on the south-eastern coast of Cuba in January 2002. Many of the men held at the facility have been there for three years without trial.

Posted on The Human Stain

Bush Logic

Chimpie to senior citizens:

President Bush has heard pleas for an extension of the deadline to sign up for new Medicare drug coverage from lawmakers, seniors advocacy groups and finally two women in his audience Tuesday. He's rejected them all. "Deadlines are important," the president said at a retirement community, less than a week before the last day for most seniors and the disabled to enroll in the program without facing higher prices. "Deadlines help people understand there's finality and people need to get after it."

Chimpie to Iraq critics:

In a major policy speech, Mr Bush refused to set an "artificial deadline" to withdraw US troops, saying it was "not a plan for victory". "These decisions about troop levels will be driven by the conditions on the ground in Iraq and the good judgment of our commanders, not by artificial timetables set by politicians in Washington.......

So suck it up Grandma and Grandpa - stop your whining.
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Thank Goodness

Rest easy America. Have no fear. Sleep soundly, snore loudly, all is well. The honorable, proud, courageous members of our very own United States Senate are here to keep us secure. Ever vigilant, with their finely honed senses attuned to detecting even the smallest danger, their supreme mission is to protect the country. Stay out of their way – they are determined to eliminate all threats to the republic.

The Senate approved a resolution late Monday evening stating that the national anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, the oath recited by immigrants when they are sworn in as citizens and other songs or statements symbolizing national unity should be spoken or sung in English.

"At the opening of the Senate each day, or at a football game, or at a Boy or Girl Scout meeting, we are free to sing or say our national symbols in any language we please, but we ought to sing and say them in our common language, English," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

Makes one proud to be an American – doesn't it?
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Tit for Tat

Seems like the kettle is now calling the pot black. People don't like being chastised by hypocrites.

President Vladimir Putin took a swipe at the United States in his state of the nation address Wednesday, bristling at being lectured by Vice President Dick Cheney and comparing Washington to a wolf who “eats without listening.” He also suggested that Washington puts its political interests above the democratic ideals it claims to cherish.

“Where is all this pathos about protecting human rights and democracy when it comes to the need to pursue their own interests? Here, it seems, everything is allowed, there are no restrictions whatsoever,” Putin said, smiling sarcastically in the address to both houses of parliament.

“We are aware what is going on in the world,” he said. “Comrade wolf knows whom to eat, he eats without listening, and he's clearly not going to listen to anyone.''

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Dumb and Dumberer

Please, make the nightmare end.

President Bush suggested Wednesday that he'd like to see his family's White House legacy continue, perhaps with his younger brother Jeb as the chief executive. The president said Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is well-suited for another office and would make “a great president.”

“I would like to see Jeb run at some point in time, but I have no idea if that's his intention or not,” Bush said in an interview with Florida reporters, according to an account on the St. Petersburg Times Web site.

The president said he had “pushed him fairly hard about what he intends to do,” but Jeb has not said. “I have no idea what he's going to do. I've asked him that question myself. I truly don't think he knows,” Bush said.

Race to your nearest voter registration office, register Democrat – vote Democrat. America needs you.
Posted on The Human Stain

Hillary - Are You Listening?

Thought it was appropriate to regurgitate a previous post that is still very much current. America needs new directions to be decided upon and fresh, young blood to lead the country into the future:

The next presidential election in 2008 is dawning very quickly upon us. Howard Dean is right in stating that the Democrats need to wage a 'national campaign'. “Instead of each candidate running on local issues within his or her district, Dean said, all Democrats should stress such issues as “honesty and openness in government.”

Rather than exhibiting the usual fractiousness and discord that has become commonplace, the party must unite, it truly needs to shed well worn ways and faces. An honest appraisal of what is needed to win the next election will be excruciatingly painful for the current crop of party leaders, but it will clearly present the ultimate test of whether the Democrats can live up to their words of doing what “is best for America.” Will the egos and self gratifying aspirations for glory and power cause another loss, or can they make the necessary personal sacrifices that they ask of others?

There is a lot of tiredness in the party, we continually view the same old faces, same old behind the scene power brokers, same old consultants. No one denies their depths of commitment and good intentions, but they reliably provide the same old result – they lose. Bob Schrum, Donna Brazille, John Kerry, Joe Biden, Al From, Susan Estrich, James Carville, Harry Reid, members of the disastrous Democratic Leadership Council...... the needs of America have passed them by - it's time to fade into history.

Hillary Clinton is a wonderful person, well respected, and she seems to truly care for the welfare of her constituents and America. The problem is she cannot win the election, she carries far too much baggage, and is an embarrassingly easy target for Rethuglican slime. Her greatest value to America would be in using her formidable organizing and cajoling skills to cement the chances for those candidates who can offer Americans new faces, ideas, and hopes that they desperately need. She needs to give up her quest for making history as our first female president - the time is not right.

Russ Feingold, Barack O'Bama, Wesley Clark, Eliot Spitzer. These are some of the new faces needed if the democrats want to win. Will the old, tired guard give way? Will they honor their high minded, noble words about serving the greater good, about taking back America for Americans? Or, will the needs of their countrymen be sacrificed to fulfilling petty personal insecurities? Time will tell.