Saturday Sailboat Blogging

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Bush is spreading democracy in Iraq ...

An Iraqi cameraman working for CBS News when he was wounded and detained by the U.S. military will be tried next month, CBS officials said Wednesday.
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Charges against [Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein] have not been made public.
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CBS spokeswoman Sandy Genelius said Hussein has been held in Abu Ghraib prison just outside Baghdad and faces life in prison if convicted.

"All we are seeking is due process for Mr. Hussein," Genelius said.
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(Ann Cooper, executive director the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said) "So far, the handling of this case has been alarming. It's unacceptable that Hussein was held without charge or due process for so long."

Shiites Say U.S. Is Pressuring Iraqi Leader to Step Aside

Senior Shiite politicians said today that the American ambassador has told Shiite officials to inform the Iraqi prime minister that President Bush does not want him to remain the country's leader in the next government.
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"How can they do this?" (Haider al-Ubady, a spokesman for Mr. Jaafari) said. "An ambassador telling a sovereign country what to do is unacceptable."

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It's official

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Guess who said This:

"The people we're up against are vicious, and they lie," he said. "Obviously, they have media committees, they plan what they're going to do, they plan how they're going to manipulate the press, and they get out there fast and do it. And there's no penalty for that. Indeed, there's only rewards, because the information is around the world, while, as they say, truth is still putting its boots on."

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And so it begins...

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Word O' The Day

Scalia dismissed the idea that the detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions
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Challenged by one audience member about whether the Gitmo detainees don't have protections under the Geneva or human-rights conventions, Scalia shot back [...] "it's crazy."

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Innocent until ... proven innocent!?

The Bush administration is asking the Supreme Court to refuse to hear an unusual petition brought by two Muslims from China who are being held at Guantanamo Bay despite the American military's determination that the pair pose no threat to America.

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Intentional Harrisment

U.S. Senate candidate Katherine Harris slogged through another political morass Saturday when she suggested that one of her most senior advisers had fed embarrassing information to the press.

Appearing at a gun show in Orlando, Harris said that Adam Goodman, her longtime media consultant, had told the St. Petersburg Times that he and chief strategist Ed Rollins were leaving the campaign.

The story, Harris said, was wrong.

"Ed is not leaving my campaign," the Longboat Key Republican said. "Ed Rollins is very committed to my campaign."

The two-term congresswoman, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, then accused Goodman of spreading the story.

"That article basically came from Adam," Harris said, "and it was not accurate."

Asked whether Goodman was still with the campaign, she said: "He is, is, uh . . . heh . . . no comment."

Harris' remarks were surprising, because Goodman has worked with Harris for years and is considered one of her closest advisers. The candidate's words became puzzling when Harris phoned the Orlando Sentinel an hour later with a different story.

She said Goodman was still with the campaign and said "it was wrong" of her to say he leaked information.

"I shouldn't have said that," she said.

Harris could not explain the change or make clear why she had first refused to say whether Goodman was still working with her.

"I don't even know," she said. "That is so not like me."

Harris had hoped to get it back on track with her recent announcement that she would pour $10 million of her own money into the campaign. That money, she said on Fox News, was an inheritance from her late father.
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Harris now says she never intended to use money from her father; instead, she will sell existing assets. Saturday, she could not explain why she told Sean Hannity of Fox News that she would rely on her father's money.
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A source close to the campaign said Harris had planned to use inheritance money but discovered after appearing on Fox that it would not be readily available.

As Katherine Harris' rocky Senate campaign takes an increasingly evangelical Christian bent, her remaining top campaign staffers are preparing to jump ship.

Colleagues say Harris' closest confidante lately appears to be spiritual adviser Dale Burroughs, founder of the Biblical Heritage Institute in Bradenton.

"Dr. Dale," as she is known among campaign staffers, describes herself as a licensed clinical pastoral counselor who counsels in behavior temperament, career, crisis and disaster, among other things.

She is a spiritual adviser, for instance, to members of the Arlington Group, a coalition of religious conservatives that includes James Dobson of Focus on the Family, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Gary Bauer of American Values, Don Wildmon of the American Family Association and Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell.

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See what happens when Americans can't afford (mental) healthcare:

A Republican challenger to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is bizarrely claiming that the former first lady has been spying in her bedroom window and flying helicopters over her house in the Hamptons

"We at the Hillary campaign wish Ms. McFarland the best and hope she gets the rest she needs"

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Haven't we seen this movie before?

Hong Kong firm hired to help check U.S.-bound cargo

Company cited in 1999 as a potential risk for smuggling arms
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The Bush administration says it is finalizing a no-bid contract [Ed: WTF is it with Bushco and no-bid contracts?] with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. It acknowledged the deal is the first time a foreign company will be involved in running a radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present.
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While President Bush recently reassured Congress that foreigners would not manage security at U.S. ports, the Hutchison deal in the Bahamas illustrates how the administration is relying on foreign companies at overseas ports to safeguard cargo headed to the United States.
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But its billionaire chairman, Li Ka-Shing, also has substantial business ties to China's government that have raised U.S. concerns over the years.

"Li Ka-Shing is pretty close to a lot of senior leaders of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party,"
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Three years ago, the Bush administration effectively blocked a Hutchison subsidiary from buying part of a bankrupt U.S. telecommunications company, Global Crossing Ltd., on national security grounds.

And a U.S. military intelligence report, once marked "secret," cited Hutchison in 1999 as a potential risk for smuggling arms and other prohibited materials into the United States from the Bahamas.
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"Giving a no-bid contract to a foreign company to carry out the most sensitive security screening for radioactive materials at ports abroad raises many questions," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York. [Ed: Duh! Ya think?]
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The Hutchison deal in the Bahamas was flagged in a report in October by ATS Worldwide Services, a Florida firm that identifies potential risks for private-sector and government clients. Company officials said they shared the report with some officials in Congress, the military and law enforcement.

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From the Booby Hatch

Spray on dress

Nip Guards

Menus on breasts are ogled

Asymmetrical breasts may be cancer risk

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Saturday Sailboat Blogging

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Things I've just learned

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The Family that does crimes together should do time together

Bush's Uncle Earned Millions in War Firm Sale
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The contracts, some awarded on a no-bid basis, include a $77-million deal to refit military vehicles with armor for use in Iraq.

Former first lady's donation aids son
Former first lady Barbara Bush donated an undisclosed amount of money to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund with specific instructions that the money be spent with an educational software company owned by her son Neil.

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Godwin, Meet Rummy

Rumsfeld - "Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis"

"The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq."

U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton [in charge of training Iraqi military forces from 2003 to 2004] calls the Defense Secretary incompetent and urges his resignation.
[...]"not competent to lead our armed forces and must therefore "step down."
[...]"First, his failure to build coalitions with our allies from what he dismissively called 'old Europe' has imposed far greater demands and risks on our soldiers in Iraq than necessary. Second, he alienated his allies in our own military, ignoring the advice of seasoned officers and denying subordinates any chance for input."

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It's true!

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Action Alert!

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Must sees

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Stuck in my craw

Excerpt: Stark called into Wilkow's show the other day and tried to pin him down on a hypothetical that touches on abortion rights and the moment that life begins: Imagine that you're in a burning fertility clinic with a 2-year-old baby and a petri dish containing five blastulas. You can't save both, so which do you save?

Their argument is based on a rational choice model, their argument is weak. Human action and behavior is not just of rational choice but also of emotion. They neglect human emotion. Also the argument is based on "what if." A what if argument is discredited before it begins. You cannot base an argument on an untruth.

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And in second place...

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Derivatives

Excerpt: Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, warned in a recent speech that the $300,000bn derivatives market had raced ahead of the infrastructure needed to support it. He said the plethora of new instruments may have led to a more dangerous concentration of risk.

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Hey I have an idea!

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Greasy stuff

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He said, she said.

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Dear Republicans ...

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Nobody is paying attention.

Excerpt: A congressional watchdog group filed a suit on Tuesday in federal court challenging the constitutionality of a $39 billion spending-cut law that passed each chamber of Congress in different forms.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the president signs into law only bills that are passed in identical form by both chambers.

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Ambivalence

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I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

Excerpt: "Bush is terrorist no. 1 on the planet," Lukashenko told reporters after voting in Belarus's presidential election.

"To crush a state openly and then to go ahead and kill presidents. What is there to say?"

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Starr Chamber: The Final Episode

Court Rejects Last Whitewater Appeal

"It has been drawn out a long time," said W. Hickman Ewing*, who was a chief deputy to Whitewater special prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr. "It just shows you people can keep things going."

Tucker has long argued that he would never have been pursued by prosecutors if not for Clinton. Ewing said Monday: "It's probably true."

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Cheney refuses parole and intends to serve out his sentence ...

Cheney says he won't resign, will serve out term
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"I made sure both in 2000 and 2004 that the president had other options. I mean, I didn't ask for this job. I didn't campaign for it. I got drafted," Cheney said on CBS television's "Face The Nation."

In the spring of 2000, Cheney’s two worlds—commerce and politics— merged. Halliburton allowed its C.E.O. to serve simultaneously as the head of George W. Bush’s Vice-Presidential search committee. At the time, Bush said that his main criterion for a running mate was “somebody who’s not going to hurt you.” Cheney demanded reams of documents from the candidates he considered. In the end, he picked himself—a move that his longtime friend Stuart Spencer recently described, with admiration, as “the most Machiavellian f***ing thing I’ve ever seen.”

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Usually it's the reporters who seem to act like Bush employees

Advance Workers for Bush Impersonated Reporters

A Mississippi couple whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina said two men who later identified themselves as Secret Service agents pretended to be Fox News journalists when surveying their neighborhood in advance of a March 8 visit from President Bush.
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"They didn't show any cards or anything," Akins said. "They just came up and said they were with the media, and then they said they were with Fox. They just talked to us and asked us about rebuilding our house. Then, after everything was over with, they approached us and they were laughing, and they said: 'You know, we really weren't with Fox. We're government, Secret Service men.' "
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Tom Mazur, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said he did not know who the men were but they were not Secret Service officials.
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The men eventually revealed their identities and displayed blue lapel pins bearing the presidential seal.
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Ken Lisaius, a White House spokesman, said the employees were out of bounds.

"This incident has been brought to our attention, and this is clearly not appropriate, nor is it part of our standard operating procedures," he said. "The individuals involved will be verbally reprimanded."

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The Dark Side of the Goon*

Court Rejects Bush Power Plant Pollution Rule

The court said the EPA's rule that has the 20 percent replacement cost trigger would require that Congress's definition of modification in the Clean Air Act include a phrase such as "regardless of size, cost, frequency, effect" or other distinguishing characteristic.

"Only in a Humpty Dumpy world would Congress be required to use superfluous words while an agency could ignore an expansive word that Congress did use. We decline to adopt such a world-view," the court said in its ruling.

Torture Is A Moral Issue

Torture violates the basic dignity of the human person that all religions hold dear. It degrades everyone involved --policy-makers, perpetrators and victims. It contradicts our nation's most cherished ideals. Any policies that permit torture and inhumane treatment are shocking and morally intolerable.

President Bush on Saturday braced Americans for more bloodshed in Iraq
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"In recent weeks, Americans have seen horrific images from Iraq: the bombing of a great house of worship in Samarra, sectarian reprisals between Sunnis and Shias, and car bombings and kidnappings," Bush said [...] "But the reaction to the recent violence by Iraq's leaders is a clear sign of Iraq's commitment to democracy."

Bush: Iran helping Iraq insurgents build bombs

WASHINGTON -- President Bush yesterday blamed Iran for helping kill American troops in Iraq, saying they are supplying some of the ever-more-lethal explosives that insurgents are using against coalition forces.
    
"Tehran has been responsible for at least some of the increasing lethality of anti-coalition attacks by providing Shi'a militia with the capabilities to build improvised explosive devices in Iraq," Mr. Bush said, adding that troops have seized IEDs "that were clearly produced in Iran."

US general says no proof Iran behind Iraq arms

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday the United States does not have proof that Iran's government is responsible for Iranians smuggling weapons and military personnel into Iraq.

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The Acme of Corruption ... or ... Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?

Army to Pay Halliburton Unit Most Costs Disputed by Audit

The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary for nearly all of its disputed costs on a $2.41 billion no-bid contract to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon's own auditors had identified more than $250 million in charges as potentially excessive or unjustified.
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Figures provided by the Pentagon audit agency on thousands of military contracts over the past three years show how far the Halliburton decision lies outside the norm.
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About $208 million of the disputed charges was mostly related to the cost of importing fuel [Ed: See 'the iraq war will pay for itself' AKA 'we will be greeted as liberators.']
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In answer to written questions, a spokesman for the Defense Contract Audit Agency, Lt. Col. Brian Maka, said the settlement of the disputed charges was based on "broader business case considerations" beyond just Pentagon audits.

more than $11 billion had been disbursed to Kellogg Brown & Root by mid-January, according to the Army Field Support Command

Hints of Corruption Lead Some to Urge Blair to Resign

LONDON — Compounding woes for Prime Minister Tony Blair, his Labor Party acknowledged Friday that it had received more than three times the amount it had previously reported in secret campaign loans.
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which contrast sharply with Mr. Blair's pledge when he took office almost nine years ago that his party would be "purer than pure." [Ed: See 'restore dignity to the White House.']
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In an editorial on Friday, a liberal daily, The Independent, said that of 23 people who had donated more than $175,000 to Labor, "17 have been granted a peerage or a knighthood."
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In The Daily Mail, whose politics are on the right wing, the columnist Max Hastings wrote Friday, "This is the world not of British politics but of Tammany Hall," adding that Mr. Blair's dealings "convey a stench that would cause an American congressman to hold his nose."

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The Sacred and the Newfane

Newfane residents voted Tuesday to call for the impeachment of President Bush.
ARTICLE 29
We the voters of Newfane would like Town Meeting, March 2006, to consider the following resolution:

Whereas George W. Bush has:

1. Misled the nation about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction;

2. Misled the nation about ties between Iraq and Al Quaeda;

3. Used these falsehoods to lead our nation into war unsupported by international law;

4. Not told the truth about American policy with respect to the use of torture; and

5. Has directed the government to engage in domestic spying, in direct contravention of U.S. law.

Therefore, the voters of the town of Newfane ask that our representative to the U.S. House of Representatives file articles of impeachment to remove him from office.

the Dubai port deal
the Iraq war
the boneheaded plan to restructure Social Security
the Katrina debacle
the confusing Medicare bullshit
the huge and growing national debt
the Japanese sub incident
The Chinese spy plane incident
Ignoring the Aug 2001 PDB 'Bin Laden to attack inside the US'
Continuing to read My Pet Goat after Bin Laden attacked the US
'Lucky me, I hit the trifecta'
Letting Bin Laden escape at Tora Bora
Opposing the 911 Commission investigation
Opposing the creation of the DHS
NYC air 'fine' after 9/11
Stiffing the first responders
'Fuck Saddam! He's going down!'
'Weapons of mass destruction program related activities'
You're either with us or with the terrists
Abu Ghraib torture
Gitmo torture
Outsourcing torture
Outsourcing jobs
Outsourcing jobs a 'good thing'
Calling the Constitution a 'Goddamned piece of paper'
'If I were a dictator it would be a hell of a lot easier'
'Catapulting the propaganda'
'Oh, do you have blacks too?'
McCain's black baby
Terri Schiavo
'Mission Accomplished'
Looking for Iraq's missing WMDs under his sofa
'No one could have imagined terrorists flying planes into buildings'
'No one could have anticipated a breach in the levees'
'Bring 'em on'
Still no armor for troops
Botched anthrax investigation
The Moussoui trial
'You work three jobs? Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." - to a divorced mother of three.
Gas prices
Home heating prices
We'll be greeted as liberators
Most vacation time ever
Jeff Gannon
Armstrong Williams
Judith Miller
Fake news videos
Aluminum tubes
Yellow-cake from Niger
Censoring government scientists
Our vanishing liberties
Spying on the Quakers
Secret energy meetings
'Saddam involved in 9/11'
Swift-boating critics
Hiring incompetent cronies
First Amendment Zones
'There ought to be limits to freedom'
Plastic turkey photo-op
Fake teleconference interview with troops in Iraq
Lying about firing any leakers
Plot to bomb Al Jazeera
Chalabi
No-bid Halliburton contracts
Conducting illegal NSA wiretaps
Raising terror alert status when poll numbers dropped
Kenny-boy who?
Abramoff who?
'Heckuva job, Brownie!'
Harriet Miers
No-talent assclown John Bolton
Iran-Contra criminal John Negroponte
'Slam Dunk' Tenet's Medal of Freedom
Dick 'dick' Cheney
Wiretapping the United Nations
Calling Pakistanis 'Pakis'
Calling Pakistanis 'Arabs'
Trying to escape press conference through locked door
Mars, bitches
Nooculer
Supporting teaching 'Intelligent Design' in public schools
Arsenic in drinking water
Kyoto
'Clear Skies'
'Healthy Forests'
Stiffing No Child Left Behind
Stiffing troops and veterans
Stiffing the poor and middle-class
Stiffing homosexuals - well, you know what I mean
Firing everyone who disagreed with him
Those stupid backdrops
Karl Rove still under investigation, still has security clearance
Arrest/charging of WH Procurement Chief David Safavian
Arrest/charging of Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby
Arrest/charging of Claude Allen

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Freedom of Religion?

Pentagon Hired Contractor to Advise on Collecting Information on Churches, Mosques, Other US Sites

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon intelligence agency that kept files on American anti-war activists hired one of the contractors who bribed former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., to help it collect data on houses of worship, schools, power plants and other locations in the United States.

MZM Inc., headed by Mitchell Wade, also received three contracts totaling more than $250,000 to provide unspecified "intelligence services" to the White House, according to documents obtained by Knight Ridder. The White House didn't respond to an inquiry about what those intelligence services entailed.

MZM's Pentagon and White House deals were part of tens of millions of dollars in federal government business that Wade's company attracted beginning in 2002.
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MZM was to "assist the government in identifying and procuring data [on] airports, ports, dams, churches/mosques/synagogues, schools (and) power plants," said the statement of work.
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CIFA recently has come under fire following disclosures that it maintained information on individuals and groups involved in peaceful anti-war protests at defense facilities and recruiting offices.
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In a March 8 letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a senior Pentagon official said that a review of the Cornerstone database had identified 186 "protest-related reports" containing the names of 43 people that were mistakenly retained in the database.
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The administration's domestic eavesdropping program and FBI monitoring of environmental, animal rights and anti-war groups have also fueled such fears.

The administration contends that its programs are legal and insists that they're designed to ensure civil liberties while protecting national security.

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Freedom of the Press?

Pa. Prosecutors Seize Paper's Hard Drives

State prosecutors seized four computers from a newsroom as part of a grand jury probe into whether a county coroner gave reporters his password to a secure law enforcement Web site, the newspaper said Wednesday.

The Intelligencer Journal of Lancaster had offered to provide the information sought through less intrusive means or to search the computers in the newsroom, newspaper officials said. But prosecutors won a court battle to take the hard drives.
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Prosecutors have pledged to limit their search [Ed: Yeah, right.] to items related to the Lancaster County-Wide Communications' Computer Assisted Dispatch Web site, which contains details about criminal investigations.
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Investigators believe reporters used information from the Web site to write stories or help them ask specific questions.

Lancaster Coroner G. Gary Kirchner has denied giving reporters access to the Web site. No criminal charges have been filed in the case.

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Freedom of Speech?

Olean resident escorted away

Olean resident Brenda Snyder went to Canandaigua on Tuesday to talk to President Bush about health care. What she got was a lesson in message control.

Mrs. Snyder said no one at the meeting was given an opportunity to speak to the president and many, including herself, were prevented by security at the event from talking to the press after the president’s town meeting.
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“We were answering questions and this big guy in a suit came along and said, ‘move along,’” she said. “I said, ‘Why can’t we answer questions?’ And he said, ‘I have been given my orders.’” [Ed: Does 'just following orders' sound familiar?]

Mrs. Snyder said she felt threatened by the security officer.

“He kept saying ‘move along’ and kept blocking my way and I kept saying, ‘I’m a U.S. citizen I have a right to answer some questions,’” she said. “It felt like if you were out of order at all, someone was going to take you away. It was very threatening.”
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“I think America is going in a very scary direction. I felt like I was in a police state and that as a citizen I don’t have many rights,” she said.
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White House Spokesman Ken Lisaius [...] said it isn’t the White House’s policy to prevent people from talking to the press.
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Mr. Lisaius said he talked to members of the White House Press Office who were at the event and they assured him that standard procedures were followed and that no one was told to prevent people from talking to the press.

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Word O' the Day

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Saturday Sailboat Blogging

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Unnatural Causes, Update redux:

"My conclusion, based on more than a decade of practice, is that the exertion from exercise triggered Mr. Anderson’s sickle cell trait which caused Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC), resulting in hemorrhaging," Dr. Charles Siebert said in a statement.

The five guards shown on the surveillance video were involved in at least 63 other instances using knee strikes, hammer-fist blows, 'pressure point' restraints and other physical encounters with detainees, according to Florida Department of Juvenile reports filed in 2004 and 2005.

"I ordered offender Anderson to stop resisting and relax his arms. When (he) refused to comply with those instructions, I applied a knee strike to his left thigh and escorted him to the ground," Garrett wrote. "After reaching the ground, I applied a bent wrist to offender Anderson’s left wrist for approximately 7 seconds."
[...]
Garrett said the guards continued to "counsel" Anderson by applying knee strikes, pressure point blows and bending his wrists backward until he stopped responding.

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Do you feel safer punk, well do ya?

Airline screeners fail government bomb tests
[...]
In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials.

Detecting explosive materials and IEDs at the checkpoint is TSA's top priority.

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It takes one to know one.

Excerpt: "President Bush plans to issue a new national security strategy Thursday reaffirming his doctrine of pre-emptive war against terrorists and hostile states with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, despite the troubled experience in Iraq," begins a story slated for the front page of Thursday's Washington Post, RAW STORY has learned.

Excerpt: North Korea has the right to launch a pre-emptive attack against U.S.-backed South Korean forces because the two Koreas are technically still at war, the communist state's official media said on Tuesday.

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Dubaious Security

Dubai Firm Accused of Breaking Pledge to Divest Itself of U.S. Port Operations
[...]
Eller & Co., now a partner with DP World in a Miami operation after DP bought out a British firm last week, shared an e-mail that said the Arab company's sale of U.S. assets "would probably take a while."

The e-mail from Robert Scavone, a vice president for the port company now owned by DP World, also told managers in Miami to assume for now "ownership … is not going to change."

"It is the American people's understanding that Dubai Ports World promised to relinquish control of all U.S. ports," Schumer told the AP on Monday. "If that is not the case, we will move our legislation immediately and force them to do just that."

"I don't see how the deal would have to be canceled" Frist said."

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Good Golly Ms. Molly!

Enough of the D.C. Dems
By Molly Ivins
Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don't know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.
[...]
Take "unpatriotic" and shove it. How dare they do this to our country? "Unpatriotic"? These people have ruined the American military! Not to mention the economy, the middle class, and our reputation in the world. Everything they touch turns to dirt, including Medicare prescription drugs and hurricane relief.

We can raise our own money on the Internet, and we know it. Howard Dean raised $42 million, largely on the web, with a late start when he was running for President, and that ain’t chicken feed. If we double it, it gives us the lock on the nomination. So let’s go find a good candidate early and organize the shit out of our side.

This is not a time for a candidate who will offend no one; it is time for a candidate who takes clear stands and kicks ass.

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Free Advertising

Well, what a flame war that started. Someone responded:

The answer to your questions is "Yes." For example, if you make threats on the life of the President, you will most certainly be investigated and could face serious trouble. Even freedom of speech has its limits.

Is calling for the impeachment of Bush a threat? If you listen to Bill O'Reilly it is. The interesting part of the article is that the FBI had noted a group was handing out printed brochures calling for his impeachment. Any use of the FBI for political gain is easily a crime.

Then someone woman responded (and this is priceless)

find some local political party and get

involved. Or at least find some other way to grow up.

To which I responded:

Honestly, this board can get so out of hand. I would normally not venture into the fray here, but telling someone to "grow up" is inappropriate.

Yes, maybe he shouldn't be using a letterpress board to spout his political beliefs (I learned that myself the hard way), but at least he has a strong opinion, and is supporting that opinion with action, which is a great deal more than the majority of people in this country do. His activism, whether you agree with his political point of view or not, should be admired, not denigrated.

I wonder if you would've told Tom Paine to "grow up". He was a printer. He "postered". He had strong political beliefs and went around town talking about them to everyone he could. Childish? I think not.

Which led to much discussion as to how Tom Paine's postering was very different because he used words and didn't run from the police. (No, he didn't use images cause it was friggin' 1776 and he ran from the red coats for Pete's sake.)

Oy. Back and forth it went, with the righties using name calling as their weapon. Why is the right can only denigrate to win an argument? And the other frightening aspect of the whole flame war: This listserv, I suspect, is a decent cross section of white middle class. If they're still battling in Bush's defense, well, I can't begin to fathom how deep the well of ignorance runs in this country, especially its fly-over section.

Anyway, they guy's rabid and tiresome, just like me so if you need something pretty printed on a letterpress machine, I'd say use this guy and tell him the vidiot sent you. (His stuff looks pretty damn good as well.)

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Picture=1,000,000 words

U.S. forces flattened a house during a raid north of Baghdad early Wednesday, killing 11 people — mostly women and children, while insurgent attacks elsewhere left four dead, police and relatives said.

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... Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall

Saying that President Bush misled Americans about the legality of his domestic-eavesdropping program, Sen. Russ Feingold said Sunday he would introduce a resolution to censure him.

Feingold introduced censure legislation Monday in the Senate but not a single Democrat has embraced it.

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... About a lucky man who made the grade ...

Police say Allen carried out similar transactions at other stores, receiving refunds to his credit cards of more than $5000 last year.

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I read the news today, oh boy ...*

The bodies of more than 85 men have been discovered across Baghdad in the past two days in both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods ...

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Unnatural Causes: Update on Florida boot camp death

A noted pathologist said Tuesday that results from a second autopsy seem to indicate a 14-year-old boy died from a beating by guards captured on videotape at a juvenile boot camp, not from a blood disorder as a medical examiner initially ruled.

Prosecutors confirmed Tuesday that the 14-year-old boy who was beaten and kicked by guards in a juvenile boot camp did not die of a blood disorder as a medical examiner initially ruled.

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Some links

How to deal with those telemarketers. My favorite: For persistent sales callers, ask them to talk like a pirate or Yoda or you won't buy anything.

Puh-leeze. Ok. Well. The doggy kimonos are cute.

Space is already weaponized.

What is it with me and robot pets?

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Crap!

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Feingold blocked...by his own party!

Excerpt: Democrats' hesitancy was a sign they remained reluctant to challenge Mr. Bush on some national security questions even as he was struggling in public opinion polls and set back on the transfer of some American port operations to an Arab company. Though polls on surveillance are mixed, Republicans say the public generally backs the idea of eavesdropping on people suspected of being in contact with terror suspects.

If I were the incredible hulk, I'd break out in some serious angry green, stomp on up to Capitol Hill and bash some freakin' heads in.

Jeebus! My head

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The new media darling.

Excerpt: In the interview, which has been viewed on the Internet more than a million times and has reached the e-mail of hundreds of thousands around the world, Dr. Sultan bitterly criticized the Muslim clerics, holy warriors and political leaders who she believes have distorted the teachings of Muhammad and the Koran for 14 centuries.

Here's the video. Decide for yourself.

(Though, notice one thing on the video. The conservative fellow has taken a page out of the GOP public debate handbook. When met with an argument you can't logically counter, label that person and declare that person unable to be reasoned with.)

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Kucinich was right.

Well, funny thing. He was right.

Excerpt: Maryland and District consumers angry at the record electric bills they will receive this summer might want to recall the promises made by proponents of deregulation seven years ago. If they do, they'll be even angrier.

Kucinich. He should've been president. Or at least speaker of the house.

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Word O' the Day

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Forget plastic and duct tape, our safety lies in a pork barrel ...

Homeland Security gives tiny town a lot of camera power
Dillingham is a quiet fishing village in Southwest Alaska, home to 2,400 people and not a single streetlight.
What it does have, however, is 80 surveillance cameras, focused on the port and the town, courtesy of a $202,000 Homeland Security federal grant.

Dillingham Police Chief Richard Thompson said the cameras could stop terrorism in Southwest Alaska someday. More to the point, they may also put an end to the drinking, deaths and drug deals.

“There are no jihadist sockeyes swimming into our bay, no militant moose, no bomb-bearing belugas"

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Haven't we seen this (disaster) movie before?

Former White House staffer named to head DHS policy committee
The department announced that a 28-year-old former White House staffer is heading a policy committee that gathers expert advice -- on behalf of the president and the Homeland Security secretary -- on key areas of homeland security, including threats to infrastructure and preventing terrorist attacks that use weapons of mass destruction.
[...]
Hoelscher has no management experience[...] He came to government in 2001 as a low-level White House staffer, arranging presidential travel
[...]
In 2004, Hoelscher worked for the RNC. [...] During Katrina, he helped deploy volunteers from the department to the Gulf Coast, she said. The congressional report on Katrina noted that some of those employees had trouble making it to the region because of departmental miscommunications.

One congressional staffer defended the appointment[...] "There's plenty of adult supervision" at the department.

Controversial political appointments at the department include Michael Brown, the former FEMA director, who was a longtime friend of Bush's 2000 campaign director, Joe Allbaugh; Julie Myers, who's married to Chertoff's chief of staff and heads the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau despite lacking law enforcement credentials; and Eduardo Aguirre Jr., a career Texas banker with Bush family ties, who was director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

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Fristed Ethics ... or ... The Doctor and his Hypocritic Oath

Frist Suspends Senate Ethics Debate After Losing on Dubai Vote
March 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist suspended debate on overhauling lobbying rules after the chamber refused to prevent a vote on blocking a state-owned Dubai company from taking over terminals at six American ports.
[...]
After the vote, Frist, a Tennessee Republican, said he would delay action on the lobbying and ethics legislation until the Senate sponsors approved a list of amendments and blocked unrelated proposals. He gave no date for resuming debate, and the sponsor of the ports amendment, Senator Charles Schumer, said he still wanted a vote on that issue.
[...]
Dodd said Schumer would withdraw his motion on the ports if Frist promised a separate vote later. Frist refused.

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Do as I say ....

Bush Warns Iran, Syria on Iraq Meddling
"If the Iranians are trying to influence the outcome of the political process, or the outcome of the security situation there, we're letting them know our displeasure," Bush said. "Our call is for those in the neighborhood to allow Iraq to develop a democracy, and that includes our call to Iran as well as to Syria."

Rice wants funds for democracy initiative in Iran
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Congress yesterday to fund a sweeping initiative to promote democracy inside Iran that would expand satellite broadcasts to enable Washington to ''engage" directly with the Iranian people. The initiative also would lift US restrictions to allow US funding for Iranian trade unions, political dissidents, and nongovernmental organizations.

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Saturday Sailboat Blogging

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Seeing the light

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Abortion privileges

First South Dakota, then Mississippi, now Tennessee. WTF?

I've had this ongoing discussion with Mr. Vidiot. He thinks, and rightly so, that there's no difference between the dems and the repugs. And up to a point, I agree with him. But I compare the difference to the butterfly effect (and I'm not necessarily talking about the Ashton Kutcher movie.) The difference between the two parties lies in the miniscule variants between them. Both parties are money whores. Both parties have ceased to represent anybody but their own institutions. Both parties suck. However, (and I hate starting a sentence with however, but there you have it), little things like the dems protecting the right to choose, and the repugs breaking down the wall between church and state, things like that are reflected in the judiciary. I believe that the real playing fields are not the legislative branch or the executive branch. No, the real playing field is the judiciary branch. It's like draft rounds in sports. Whomever does the picking, makes the team. And depending who's picking, that's the team you get. It's very simple. So, sure, you can blather on and on about the lack of difference between idiot one (dem) and idiot two (repug) but when it comes to picking the team that actually plays the game that effects our lives, there's a huge difference between them.

Does anybody think for an instant that if it were Gore or Kerry in the White House, and they got to pick a Supreme Court justice, that any of those states would even dare to THINK about challenging Roe v. Wade? Why would they run the risk of having SCOTUS re-affirm the decision? They wouldn't. But because Bush has appointed who he has appointed to SCOTUS, not to mention the myriad of conservative federal judges he's been able to appoint, that the playing field has been altered enough to allow a challenge to occur.

So to all those who didn't vote because they thought that there wasn't any difference between the two, and to all of those who voted for Bush because even though they're pro-choice, they always vote republican without thinking about, fuck you very much. Because of you, we've travelled back in time, to a place where women will have to take matters into their own hands.

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The Walocaust conspiracy

Wal-Mart In Court Fight Over 'Wal-ocaust' T-Shirts
ATLANTA -- A Georgia man has filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart in federal district court in Atlanta in a fight over his T-shirts that compare the retailer's business practices to the Holocaust.

Charles Smith has been marketing shirts that read, "I (heart) Walocaust" T-shirts. Wal-Mart filed a cease-and-desist order in an attempt to make him stop printing the shirts.

The company said Smith is engaging in trademark infringement.

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Computer Science 101 ...

Suffolk University professor accused of pornographic violation
BOSTON -- A Suffolk University professor is under investigation by university officials following accusations of alleged pornographic misconduct.

According to Emily XXXXXX, a student in the class, Professor XXXXXX, allegedly watched porn on his computer, which was unknowingly connected to a monitor that was behind him.

The class ended half an hour following the display, and the students never tried to intervene.

Finally the bell rang, and Emily was able to escape from the classroom and hurried back to her dorm to relive the hideous pressure that had built in her loins.

Horrors! Her roommate was home! She rushed to the showers, but they were occupied also! She knew she would be too loud to risk a stall, so she continued her subcutaneous search for haven, eventually leading back to her room.

Thank god! Her roommate was off the phone and grabbing her purse! Moments after the door shut Emily was under the covers and in touch with her inner self. "Oh, God" she ejaculated, and swooned with incredible pleasure.

But with incredible pleasure came incredible guilt. And the next day, realizing the cause of her evil thoughts, she ratted the prof out.

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Republicans support the troops ...

Cheney Tries to Reassure Veterans About Health Care Concerns

"The President and I came to office determined to enhance the quality of veterans' health care, to significantly increase the resources going to (Veterans Affairs), to modernize VA facilities, to improve service to veterans' families and to trim the backlog in processing disability claims," Cheney said.

The Associated Press reported Monday that under a White House budget proposal, tens of thousands of veterans with non-critical medical issues could see delays or even denial of care.

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Republicans are better on security ...

Homeland Security headquarters not secure, guards contend
WASHINGTON — The agency entrusted with protecting the U.S. homeland is having difficulty safeguarding its own headquarters, say private security guards at the complex.

The guards have taken their concerns to Congress, describing inadequate training, failed security tests and slow or confused reactions to bomb and biological threats.
[...]
For instance, when an envelope with suspicious powder was opened last fall at Homeland Security Department headquarters, guards said they watched in amazement as superiors carried it by the office of Secretary Michael Chertoff, took it outside and then shook it outside Chertoff's window without evacuating people nearby.
[...]
"I had never previously been given training ... describing how to respond to a possible chemical attack," Daniels told The Associated Press. "I wouldn't feel safe nowhere on this compound as an officer."
[...]

Wackenhut President Dave Foley disputed the allegations, saying officers have a minimum of one year's security experience, proper security clearances and training in vehicle screening, identification of personnel, handling of suspicious items and emergency response.

"In short, we believe our security personnel have been properly trained, have responded correctly to the various incidents that have occurred ... and that this facility is secure," he said. He declined, however, to address any of the current or former employees who have become whistleblowers.

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Republicans believe in states' rights ...

House Votes to Dump State Food Safety Laws
WASHINGTON - The House approved a bill Wednesday night that would wipe out state laws on safety labeling of food, overriding tough rules passed by California voters two decades ago that require food producers to warn consumers about cancer-causing ingredients.
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Several critics argued that the bill was rushed through the House without complete hearings as a favor to a specific industry -- at the same time that members are talking about the evils of lobbying and proposing stricter ethical rules.
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The vote Wednesday was a sign of the tremendous power of the food industry in Congress. Corporations and trade groups that joined the National Uniformity for Food Coalition, which backed the bill, have contributed more than $3 million to members in the 2005-06 election cycle and $31 million since 1998, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
[...]
the House defeated an amendment by Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, that would have let states keep laws that warn consumers about exposure to substances that could cause cancer, birth defects, reproductive health problems or allergic reactions associated with sulfites.

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Practice makes perfect.

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Let Them Eat (Yellow)Cake

"The American dream begins with saving money and that should begin on the very first day of work [...] Too often, workers are living paycheck to paycheck and are not saving sufficiently"

Commerce Secretary Don Evans, said that a poll conducted for the lobby group found that nearly three out of five Americans between the ages of 35 and 49 are saving less than $10,000 a year. "For most, this will prove too little to support a comfortable middle-class retirement"

raising the minimum wage hurts the poor. It takes away jobs, keeps people on welfare, and encourages high-school students to drop out.

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Reality

Excerpt: News about GOP political corruption, inept hurricane response and chaos in Iraq has lifted Democrats' hopes of winning control of Congress this fall. But seizing the opportunity has not been easy, as they found when they tried to unveil an agenda of their own.

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Brain Damage...

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'Katrina, Katrina' ... or 'Another day, another lie'

Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, head of the Army Corps, told Bush in a private briefing that 100 miles of the 169 miles of levees damaged by the Aug. 29 hurricane have been restored.

Strock took issue with findings from two teams of independent experts who said the Corps was taking shortcuts and using substandard materials, leaving large sections of the system substantially weaker than before the hurricane.

The findings [...] were made by engineers on a National Science Foundation-funded panel and by a Louisiana team appointed to monitor the rebuilding.

"We are using the right kind of materials," Strock said. "There is no question about that."

"The Corps of Engineers is using modern design and construction methods, which have greatly improved the last four years, which is the time when those levees were originally built"

NEW ORLEANS (Feb. 24, 2006) - The HNTB Federal Services Corporation has been selected by the New Orleans District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide general design support services to assist in rebuilding critical infrastructure that was demolished during the twin punches of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

retired General Robert B. Flowers, who was the Corps' Chief of Engineers from 2000 until 2004, a period in which the Corps pursued questionable navigation projects in New Orleans at the expense of flood and hurricane protection. In addition, Flowers was the commander of Corps' Mississippi Valley Division from 1995 to 1997 which was directly responsible for construction, operation, inspection, and maintenance of New Orleans flood and hurricane protection projects.

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Turning a Corner ...

"I do not believe it has deep roots," Pace said of the insurgency. "I do not believe that they're on the verge of civil war."
[...]
"I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say they're going very, very well from everything you look at."
[...]
"No matter where you look at their military, their police, their society things are much better this year than they were last,"

The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, denied involvement in fighting in a Sunni mosque in west Baghdad that killed three people Sunday. Police had reported that commandos from the Shiite-led Interior Ministry stormed the mosque, leading to a 25 minute gunbattle.

"We have found one of the death squads. They are part of the police force," US Maj Gen Joseph Peterson said.

The number of Iraqi army battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one

A recent Pentagon assessment of Iraqi troop readiness concluded the country currently has no army battalions capable of standing up to insurgents and terrorists on their own

March 4, 2006 BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A mortar round killed seven people and wounded 15 others at a busy market in a southeastern Baghdad suburb early Saturday, said an emergency police official, one day after a daytime curfew brought relative peace.

Five other people were killed in bombings and shootings outside Baghdad, adding to the more than 500 lives lost in the wave of sectarian violence since the February 22 bombing of the Shiite Al-Askariya Mosque in Samarra.

Sunnis collaborated with the British, who supported the Sunni Arab monarchists. Shiite insurrectionists heeded the calls of their clergy and fought a jihad, or holy war, against the British, who crushed them and reaffirmed their second-class status. Kurdish nationalists unsuccessfully sought independence, first by diplomatic channels, later by the gun.

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