Just How Soft has Obama's Coverage Been?Marshmallow soft.Down pillow soft.Baby's bottom soft.So no one should be surprised that Obama had a nightmare night. He finally got real questions for which he should have had ready answers. Over the last year Barack Obama has gotten a complete pass on his record, his life and everything associated to his political rise. In fact, if Senator Obama had been subjected to the scrutiny that Hillary Clinton has been subjected to he would have turned to ash by now. So forgive me if all the blogospheric bellyaching permeating Democratic circles is not impressing me much. In fact, it's a laugh out loud moment. Now don't get me wrong. I'm more than willing to blame the traditional media for piling on a Democrat, which they do often. But do these progressives now crying fowl really believe they could protect Mr. Obama, as his Democratic challengers did all last year, throughout the rest of this campaign? Asking a question about Rev. Wright? A question about William Ayers? The horror! Seriously, is Senator Obama so frail that he shouldn't be subjected to questioning that should have come a long time ago and will inevitably come in the general election? If nothing else and at the very least, everyone in the Democratic party should want to know how he's going to handle this stuff if he's our nominee. Because there can be no doubt that the wingnuts will lock and load Barack's greatest hits, then share them with the electorate in a cascade of negative gifts. Mind you, this is questioning I've been doing for a year and getting excoriated for it. So I feel Charlie and George's pain. Going for substance isn't easy amidst the Political Idol crowd.The facts are that the progressive community and Obama supporters have done their candidate no favors by the kid glove treatment they've applied to all things having to do with him and his record, including his associations. What happened last night is a result of one year of people ignoring reality. That's right, reality. Because the closer Obama got to the nomination and the general election, the curtain would eventually be pulled back on every event in his life, good, bad and horror show, which includes Rev. Wright. This is the reason we lose elections. What, did Obama's adoring fans think they could hermetically seal him and protect him from the meanies out there, then simply deliver him to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because "he's the one?" Good grief.If Obama would have been put through his paces last fall, he might have been past this by now. If his own campaign had faced up to his associations long ago, head on, he wouldn't be dealing with this now.Again, I'd blame Gibson and Stephanopoulos, but it's not their fault that someone, anyone finally asked questions that have been out there for months and months. It's not tabloid to ask about Ayers any more than it was tabloid to question Bill Clinton about his past. Hillary's been asked about everything more than once, as they reload to ask it all over again.Oh, and as for Keith He's No Edward R. Murrow Olbermann, don't send a sportscaster to do a political analyst's job. Talking to Howard Wolfson, with Olbermann whining about the questions about Ayers, isn't doing us any favors either. He's just giving Obama fans a false sense of security. It's as if the only people dealing with reality and preparing for the Republican attack machine is the Clinton campaign. Olbermann is on planet Zen if he thinks that Ayers won't be part of the dialogue come September. (You know, because you never roll out a new campaign in August.)We need a nominee that can walk through fire. Whoever we offer up should be able to withstand anything, and I do mean anything. Because that's what always comes at Democrats, with the traditional press inevitably having a thing for the guy on the other side. Considering that guy will be John McCain, the hero worship will be out in force. No Democratic politician in the last 20 years has gotten a softer introduction onto the national stage than Barack Obama. Nobody has gotten an easier ride to the top step of presidential politics either. He paid for it last night.
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Thursday, April 17, 2008
Monday, April 07, 2008
Karl in a Corner
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002812
Karl Rove likes to compare himself with Mark Hanna, the powerful industrialist and senator in the waning nineteenth century who is often credited with the transformation of American political campaigns. Hanna showed that money could be a powerful tool to sculpt the nation’s political course. He raised $3.5 million for the 1896 campaign of his friend, William McKinley–up to that point an unimagined sum–and he brought in a campaign staff of 1,400, crafted leaflets, did the first direct mailings, devised the notion of surrogate speakers, and refined the notion of political messaging. When I have spoken with Rove’s friends and his competito
rs in Texas, Alabama, and other states where he refined his skills, I usually hear a litany of praise. “Karl is a master tactician,” they say. They turn almost immediately to his uncanny ability to spot and target “his voters,” and his use of direct mailing and other techniques. One Texas philanthropist described bringing Karl Rove in to work with her board in raising money for a museum as the “smartest thing I ever did.”
But then we come, very quickly, to the dark side of the genius of Karl Rove. In 1970, Rove, using a fake ID card, entered the campaign office of Alan J. Dixon, a candidate for Treasurer of Illinois. He stole a box of Dixon’s campaign letterhead and used it to solicit homeless people to attend Dixon’s campaign events, promising free food and alcohol, and disrupting the events.
George H.W. Bush fired Rove after discovering that he had planted a story with his friend columnist Robert Novack attacking chief Bush presidential campaign fundraiser Robert Mosbacher.
But all of this is minor. The graver matters go to the tactics he embraces. In a strategy memorandum he wrote in 1986 for Texas Governor William Clement, Rove quoted Napoleon: “The whole art of war consists in a well-reasoned and extremely circumspect defensive, followed by rapid and audacious attack.”
But what were the elements of the “audacious attack?” As James Moore documents in his political biography of Rove, Bush’s Brain, politicians who faced Rove in election contests had recurrent problems.
One was rumor campaigns questioning their sexual orientation, adulterous liaisons and similar tawdry matters. Prime examples of this were the rumor campaign launched against Texas Governor Anne Richards suggesting she was a lesbian, and even more pointedly, the curious telephone push-polling during the decisive 2000 Republican primary in South Carolina, suggesting that John McCain had fathered a child in an adulterous relationship with a black woman (McCain and his wife have an adopted daughter from South Asia, whose photograph with her father was circulated in connection with these insinuations).
Second, Rove’s opponents would regularly find that they had suddenly become the target of a criminal investigation, and details concerning the investigation would be aggressively fanned to the press. Rove mastered this technique in a contest for the Texas Agriculture Commissioner’s post that he managed for now-Governor Rick Perry.
Third, and probably the most characteristic of the Rovian tools—“swiftboating.” Rove would cultivate groups which were arguably distant from the campaign proper which would run extremely well funded vitriolic ad hominem attacks on the adversary. The most vivid display of the technique, and indeed the case that produced a new verb for the English language, was the use of military veterans to attack John Kerry over his military record in Vietnam. For a candidate who abandoned his station as a Air National Guard Reservist, refusing to take a physical, and refusing combat service to launch a massive attack on a war hero with a silver star and host of other medals was, well, “audacious.” And ultimately very effective.
These days, Karl is taking a bit of heat over his involvement in the Siegelman case. As I noted in a recent on-air discussion with Dan Abrams, nearly every stone you overturn looking through this case reveals traces of Karl Rove. Rove was serving as campaign advisor to William Pryor, who, as a rabidly partisan Alabama attorney general, launched the investigation into Siegelman almost as soon as he was sworn in as governor. Rove’s close friend and associate William Canary was advising a Republican running against Siegelman, and busily raising money for him as his own wife, Leura Canary, pursued a criminal investigation against Siegelman as U.S. Attorney. A Republican campaign worker disclosed internal discussions about using a criminal prosecution to take out Siegelman, and Rove’s name appeared at every turn, uttered by a person close to Rove. And then the same source, Jill Simpson, described some of her own interactions with Rove in a 60 Minutes segment, followed by another interview on MSNBC’s Dan Abrams show. And we haven’t even begun to discuss the Washington angle…
Rove seems suspiciously concerned about the Simpson allegations, and he’s striking back. The curious thing is that he’s using many of his darker tactics to do so, a move which could well serve in the end to strengthen Simpson’s accusations.
As usual, the Rove approach involves surrogates in the media and the blogosphere. In what may be a sign of desperation, however, Rove is making many of the attacks himself, or is leaving a clear set of fingerprints behind.
Take Rove’s interview in the current issue of the men’s fashion magazine GQ. Here’s how Bush’s brain responds to a query about the Simpson allegations:
[rolls his eyes] Will you do me a favor and go on Power Line and Google “Dana Jill Simpson” [the Republican lawyer who told 60 Minutes that Rove asked her to take a picture of Governor Siegelman cheating on his wife]? She’s a complete lunatic. I’ve never met this woman. This woman was not involved in any campaign in which I was involved. I have yet to find anybody who knows her. And what the media has done on this… No one has read the 143-page deposition that she gave congressional investigators—143 pages. When she shows up to give her explanation of all this, do you know how many times my name appears? Zero times. Nobody checked!
Q: Then how did this happen?
Rove: Because CBS is a shoddy operation. They said, “Hey, if we can say ‘Karl Rove,’ ‘Siegelman,’ that’ll be good for ratings. Let’s hype it. We’ll put out a news release on Thursday and then promo the hell out of it on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.” And Scott Pelley—the question is, Did [60 Minutes correspondent] Scott Pelley say to this woman, “You say you met with him. Where? And you say that he gave you other assignments earlier. When did he begin giving you assignments, and what campaigns did you work with him in? What evidence? I mean, this woman, she said she met with him: Okay, you met with him—where? Did you fly to Washington?” Now she says that she talked to me on the phone and she’s got phone records. Of calls to Washington and Virginia. But what’s Virginia? I don’t live in Virginia. And it’s 2001. What is in Virginia? It’s not the Bush headquarters; that was in Austin, Texas. What is in Virginia? So—but look, she’s a loon.
Note Rove’s thematic line: Simpson is “a complete lunatic… a loon.” It apparently gets worse than this. In the original interview, as reported in at-Largely, Rove apparently made scurrilous insinuations about Simpson’s family life and her relationship with her children. GQ made the wise decision to strike them from the published text.
But we should keep one fact in sharp focus: the allegations that Jill Simpson makes are all things that Rove has done, and been caught at, in innumerable other campaigns. They belong to his established modus operandi. And vehement denials are another part of the Rove rapid response pattern.
Rove talks about telephone calls to Virginia and denies that they could relate to his dealings with the Bush campaign and transition team. But public records show that the Bush-Cheney transition effort was headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
Rove tells us that CBS, the nation’s leading news broadcaster, is a “shoddy operation.” But Powerline, a rightwing blog site with close ties to Rove, famous for its vicious political attacks, is the ultimate source for information. Powerline can, of course, be counted upon to come through for Rove in a pinch, and that’s exactly how they’re being used here.
It’s true that the deposition taken of Simpson did not include discussion of Simpson’s accounts of dealings involving Rove other than the now-famous discussion with Rove’s pal William Canary right after the 2002 Alabama gubernatorial contest. But as Rove knows, that issue was covered exhaustively in the investigator’s examination and by several national journalists, not just CBS.
Today, the editors of the Tuscaloosa News call this just right:
Rove can hardly afford to hurl around accusations of shoddy operation. Ethics and morals mean little to him. He has proven time and again that he will do anything to get his way in politics.
And John Mashek at U.S. News & World Report, looking at the evidence of Rove’s involvement in the Siegelman matter, put it this way:
Rove’s methods are a direct contrast to the conduct of two now deceased GOP consultants of the past, John Deardourff and Bob Teeter. Deardourff was the TV ad specialist, while Teeter did the polling and strategizing. As a team, they played to win, but they operated with class and integrity. Rove has neither.
What’s gotten Karl worked into a lather? It’s simple. Jill Simpson and the United States Congress are saying exactly the same thing: Karl, if you’re so clear about this, then certainly you will have no problem appearing in response to a Congressional subpoena, swearing an oath and answering questions–just as Simpson did. Moreover, Congress wants to ask him just the same questions that GQ asked, and that he happily answered. How does Rove explain agreeing to be interviewed by a fashion magazine, but refusing to answer the same questions when formally posed by Congress? And certainly Rove should also turn over documents and answer questions about them, just as Jill Simpson did. Rove’s conduct in chatting up the media but refusing to testify before Congress on the same subjects has certainly been audacious. It’s also been stupid.
Karl’s taunts hurled at CBS are designed to get CBS to put all its cards on the table before Karl goes out wading any further into what he obviously recognizes is a minefield. It’s not that he doubts that CBS did their investigation and confirmed Simpson’s credibility. He knows that they did. And he’s frantic to discover exactly what the evidence is.
Rove has a fundamental problem. His denials will not stand up under scrutiny. And worm and evade as he may, he can’t avoid that simple fact. Which is another reason for us all to say we’re dying to hear Karl Rove’s views about the Siegelman case—as soon as he’s placed under oath and agrees to submit to questioning about them.
In the meantime, tune in tonight for CBS 60 Minutes. (Full disclosure: I have been repeatedly interviewed for the program’s Siegelman coverage.) We’ll see a snippet or two from Scott Pelley’s recent interview with Governor Siegelman. And something tells me that Karl Rove will continue to figure prominently in this story.
Karl Rove likes to compare himself with Mark Hanna, the powerful industrialist and senator in the waning nineteenth century who is often credited with the transformation of American political campaigns. Hanna showed that money could be a powerful tool to sculpt the nation’s political course. He raised $3.5 million for the 1896 campaign of his friend, William McKinley–up to that point an unimagined sum–and he brought in a campaign staff of 1,400, crafted leaflets, did the first direct mailings, devised the notion of surrogate speakers, and refined the notion of political messaging. When I have spoken with Rove’s friends and his competito
rs in Texas, Alabama, and other states where he refined his skills, I usually hear a litany of praise. “Karl is a master tactician,” they say. They turn almost immediately to his uncanny ability to spot and target “his voters,” and his use of direct mailing and other techniques. One Texas philanthropist described bringing Karl Rove in to work with her board in raising money for a museum as the “smartest thing I ever did.”
But then we come, very quickly, to the dark side of the genius of Karl Rove. In 1970, Rove, using a fake ID card, entered the campaign office of Alan J. Dixon, a candidate for Treasurer of Illinois. He stole a box of Dixon’s campaign letterhead and used it to solicit homeless people to attend Dixon’s campaign events, promising free food and alcohol, and disrupting the events.
George H.W. Bush fired Rove after discovering that he had planted a story with his friend columnist Robert Novack attacking chief Bush presidential campaign fundraiser Robert Mosbacher.
But all of this is minor. The graver matters go to the tactics he embraces. In a strategy memorandum he wrote in 1986 for Texas Governor William Clement, Rove quoted Napoleon: “The whole art of war consists in a well-reasoned and extremely circumspect defensive, followed by rapid and audacious attack.”
But what were the elements of the “audacious attack?” As James Moore documents in his political biography of Rove, Bush’s Brain, politicians who faced Rove in election contests had recurrent problems.
One was rumor campaigns questioning their sexual orientation, adulterous liaisons and similar tawdry matters. Prime examples of this were the rumor campaign launched against Texas Governor Anne Richards suggesting she was a lesbian, and even more pointedly, the curious telephone push-polling during the decisive 2000 Republican primary in South Carolina, suggesting that John McCain had fathered a child in an adulterous relationship with a black woman (McCain and his wife have an adopted daughter from South Asia, whose photograph with her father was circulated in connection with these insinuations).
Second, Rove’s opponents would regularly find that they had suddenly become the target of a criminal investigation, and details concerning the investigation would be aggressively fanned to the press. Rove mastered this technique in a contest for the Texas Agriculture Commissioner’s post that he managed for now-Governor Rick Perry.
Third, and probably the most characteristic of the Rovian tools—“swiftboating.” Rove would cultivate groups which were arguably distant from the campaign proper which would run extremely well funded vitriolic ad hominem attacks on the adversary. The most vivid display of the technique, and indeed the case that produced a new verb for the English language, was the use of military veterans to attack John Kerry over his military record in Vietnam. For a candidate who abandoned his station as a Air National Guard Reservist, refusing to take a physical, and refusing combat service to launch a massive attack on a war hero with a silver star and host of other medals was, well, “audacious.” And ultimately very effective.
These days, Karl is taking a bit of heat over his involvement in the Siegelman case. As I noted in a recent on-air discussion with Dan Abrams, nearly every stone you overturn looking through this case reveals traces of Karl Rove. Rove was serving as campaign advisor to William Pryor, who, as a rabidly partisan Alabama attorney general, launched the investigation into Siegelman almost as soon as he was sworn in as governor. Rove’s close friend and associate William Canary was advising a Republican running against Siegelman, and busily raising money for him as his own wife, Leura Canary, pursued a criminal investigation against Siegelman as U.S. Attorney. A Republican campaign worker disclosed internal discussions about using a criminal prosecution to take out Siegelman, and Rove’s name appeared at every turn, uttered by a person close to Rove. And then the same source, Jill Simpson, described some of her own interactions with Rove in a 60 Minutes segment, followed by another interview on MSNBC’s Dan Abrams show. And we haven’t even begun to discuss the Washington angle…
Rove seems suspiciously concerned about the Simpson allegations, and he’s striking back. The curious thing is that he’s using many of his darker tactics to do so, a move which could well serve in the end to strengthen Simpson’s accusations.
As usual, the Rove approach involves surrogates in the media and the blogosphere. In what may be a sign of desperation, however, Rove is making many of the attacks himself, or is leaving a clear set of fingerprints behind.
Take Rove’s interview in the current issue of the men’s fashion magazine GQ. Here’s how Bush’s brain responds to a query about the Simpson allegations:
[rolls his eyes] Will you do me a favor and go on Power Line and Google “Dana Jill Simpson” [the Republican lawyer who told 60 Minutes that Rove asked her to take a picture of Governor Siegelman cheating on his wife]? She’s a complete lunatic. I’ve never met this woman. This woman was not involved in any campaign in which I was involved. I have yet to find anybody who knows her. And what the media has done on this… No one has read the 143-page deposition that she gave congressional investigators—143 pages. When she shows up to give her explanation of all this, do you know how many times my name appears? Zero times. Nobody checked!
Q: Then how did this happen?
Rove: Because CBS is a shoddy operation. They said, “Hey, if we can say ‘Karl Rove,’ ‘Siegelman,’ that’ll be good for ratings. Let’s hype it. We’ll put out a news release on Thursday and then promo the hell out of it on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.” And Scott Pelley—the question is, Did [60 Minutes correspondent] Scott Pelley say to this woman, “You say you met with him. Where? And you say that he gave you other assignments earlier. When did he begin giving you assignments, and what campaigns did you work with him in? What evidence? I mean, this woman, she said she met with him: Okay, you met with him—where? Did you fly to Washington?” Now she says that she talked to me on the phone and she’s got phone records. Of calls to Washington and Virginia. But what’s Virginia? I don’t live in Virginia. And it’s 2001. What is in Virginia? It’s not the Bush headquarters; that was in Austin, Texas. What is in Virginia? So—but look, she’s a loon.
Note Rove’s thematic line: Simpson is “a complete lunatic… a loon.” It apparently gets worse than this. In the original interview, as reported in at-Largely, Rove apparently made scurrilous insinuations about Simpson’s family life and her relationship with her children. GQ made the wise decision to strike them from the published text.
But we should keep one fact in sharp focus: the allegations that Jill Simpson makes are all things that Rove has done, and been caught at, in innumerable other campaigns. They belong to his established modus operandi. And vehement denials are another part of the Rove rapid response pattern.
Rove talks about telephone calls to Virginia and denies that they could relate to his dealings with the Bush campaign and transition team. But public records show that the Bush-Cheney transition effort was headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
Rove tells us that CBS, the nation’s leading news broadcaster, is a “shoddy operation.” But Powerline, a rightwing blog site with close ties to Rove, famous for its vicious political attacks, is the ultimate source for information. Powerline can, of course, be counted upon to come through for Rove in a pinch, and that’s exactly how they’re being used here.
It’s true that the deposition taken of Simpson did not include discussion of Simpson’s accounts of dealings involving Rove other than the now-famous discussion with Rove’s pal William Canary right after the 2002 Alabama gubernatorial contest. But as Rove knows, that issue was covered exhaustively in the investigator’s examination and by several national journalists, not just CBS.
Today, the editors of the Tuscaloosa News call this just right:
Rove can hardly afford to hurl around accusations of shoddy operation. Ethics and morals mean little to him. He has proven time and again that he will do anything to get his way in politics.
And John Mashek at U.S. News & World Report, looking at the evidence of Rove’s involvement in the Siegelman matter, put it this way:
Rove’s methods are a direct contrast to the conduct of two now deceased GOP consultants of the past, John Deardourff and Bob Teeter. Deardourff was the TV ad specialist, while Teeter did the polling and strategizing. As a team, they played to win, but they operated with class and integrity. Rove has neither.
What’s gotten Karl worked into a lather? It’s simple. Jill Simpson and the United States Congress are saying exactly the same thing: Karl, if you’re so clear about this, then certainly you will have no problem appearing in response to a Congressional subpoena, swearing an oath and answering questions–just as Simpson did. Moreover, Congress wants to ask him just the same questions that GQ asked, and that he happily answered. How does Rove explain agreeing to be interviewed by a fashion magazine, but refusing to answer the same questions when formally posed by Congress? And certainly Rove should also turn over documents and answer questions about them, just as Jill Simpson did. Rove’s conduct in chatting up the media but refusing to testify before Congress on the same subjects has certainly been audacious. It’s also been stupid.
Karl’s taunts hurled at CBS are designed to get CBS to put all its cards on the table before Karl goes out wading any further into what he obviously recognizes is a minefield. It’s not that he doubts that CBS did their investigation and confirmed Simpson’s credibility. He knows that they did. And he’s frantic to discover exactly what the evidence is.
Rove has a fundamental problem. His denials will not stand up under scrutiny. And worm and evade as he may, he can’t avoid that simple fact. Which is another reason for us all to say we’re dying to hear Karl Rove’s views about the Siegelman case—as soon as he’s placed under oath and agrees to submit to questioning about them.
In the meantime, tune in tonight for CBS 60 Minutes. (Full disclosure: I have been repeatedly interviewed for the program’s Siegelman coverage.) We’ll see a snippet or two from Scott Pelley’s recent interview with Governor Siegelman. And something tells me that Karl Rove will continue to figure prominently in this story.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Court of Appeals Sets Governor Siegelman Free
Court of Appeals Sets Governor Siegelman Free As Congress Calls Siegelman to Testify in Continued Probe of Political Prosecutions
Scott Horton March 27, 2008
Today was a news double-header for former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. In an order issued by the Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Siegelman’s request to be set free pending his appeal was granted. The court noting that it had reviewed the decision of District Court Judge Mark Fuller for “clear error” and had considered legal issues de novo stated that:
Siegelman has satisfied the criteria set out in the statute and has specifically met his burden of showing that his appeal raises substantial questions of law or fact.
Meanwhile in Washington, the House Judiciary Committee made clear that it was far from finished with its probe into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the Siegelman case.
Committee investigators express concern about the Justice Department’s continuous obstruction of efforts to investigate political influence in the Siegelman case and a group of others in which prosecutors have adopted unprecedented theories in an effort to take down prominent Democrats. In the Siegelman case, Justice Department officials have refused to provide evidence under oath, claiming privilege, they have answered written queries with misleading and openly false statements, and they have refused to turn over documents requested by the Committee. Attorney General Mukasey has been repeatedly asked by members of both the House and the Senate Judiciary Committee to examine the extraordinary evidence of misconduct by the U.S. Attorney’s offices in Montgomery and Birmingham, and he has declined to do so. The Justice Department’s stonewalling has thus been complete, top to bottom, and in view of the Justice Department’s refusal to engage in basic self-policing, Congressional oversight is urgently needed. The Judiciary Committee has now concluded that it has no alternative but to require that Siegelman appear before it. The Judiciary Committee has received tens of thousands of appeals from citizens around the country demanding that it take action to hold the Justice Department to account for its misconduct–much of this occurring after CBS News’s 60 Minutes and MSNBC’s Dan Abrams ran a series of exposes revealing extremely troubling misconduct in the course of the prosecution.
Here is the Associated Press’s account:
The House Judiciary Committee has asked the Justice Department to temporarily release former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman from prison to testify before Congress in early May about possible political influence over his prosecution.
A spokeswoman for the committee said Thursday that Siegelman, who is serving more than seven years in a Louisiana prison, would travel to Washington under guard of the U.S. Marshals Service. She said Committee Chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, wants to hear directly from Siegelman because lawmakers are having trouble getting information elsewhere, including from the Justice Department.
The AP also reported that Attorney General Michael Mukasey had indicated he would seek to block the Judiciary Committee’s efforts to have Siegelman testify. That was consistent with prior Justice Department decisions aimed at gagging Siegelman and preventing disclosure of Justice Department misconduct in his case. Mukasey’s opposition was mooted when the Court of Appeals directed his release.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002739
Scott Horton March 27, 2008
Today was a news double-header for former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. In an order issued by the Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Siegelman’s request to be set free pending his appeal was granted. The court noting that it had reviewed the decision of District Court Judge Mark Fuller for “clear error” and had considered legal issues de novo stated that:
Siegelman has satisfied the criteria set out in the statute and has specifically met his burden of showing that his appeal raises substantial questions of law or fact.
Meanwhile in Washington, the House Judiciary Committee made clear that it was far from finished with its probe into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the Siegelman case.
Committee investigators express concern about the Justice Department’s continuous obstruction of efforts to investigate political influence in the Siegelman case and a group of others in which prosecutors have adopted unprecedented theories in an effort to take down prominent Democrats. In the Siegelman case, Justice Department officials have refused to provide evidence under oath, claiming privilege, they have answered written queries with misleading and openly false statements, and they have refused to turn over documents requested by the Committee. Attorney General Mukasey has been repeatedly asked by members of both the House and the Senate Judiciary Committee to examine the extraordinary evidence of misconduct by the U.S. Attorney’s offices in Montgomery and Birmingham, and he has declined to do so. The Justice Department’s stonewalling has thus been complete, top to bottom, and in view of the Justice Department’s refusal to engage in basic self-policing, Congressional oversight is urgently needed. The Judiciary Committee has now concluded that it has no alternative but to require that Siegelman appear before it. The Judiciary Committee has received tens of thousands of appeals from citizens around the country demanding that it take action to hold the Justice Department to account for its misconduct–much of this occurring after CBS News’s 60 Minutes and MSNBC’s Dan Abrams ran a series of exposes revealing extremely troubling misconduct in the course of the prosecution.
Here is the Associated Press’s account:
The House Judiciary Committee has asked the Justice Department to temporarily release former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman from prison to testify before Congress in early May about possible political influence over his prosecution.
A spokeswoman for the committee said Thursday that Siegelman, who is serving more than seven years in a Louisiana prison, would travel to Washington under guard of the U.S. Marshals Service. She said Committee Chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, wants to hear directly from Siegelman because lawmakers are having trouble getting information elsewhere, including from the Justice Department.
The AP also reported that Attorney General Michael Mukasey had indicated he would seek to block the Judiciary Committee’s efforts to have Siegelman testify. That was consistent with prior Justice Department decisions aimed at gagging Siegelman and preventing disclosure of Justice Department misconduct in his case. Mukasey’s opposition was mooted when the Court of Appeals directed his release.
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002739
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
A closer look at McCain’s unearned credibility
Following up on John’s item from the weekend, NBC’s Chuck Todd conceded that the media gives John McCain a pass on his errors of fact and judgment, because he has credibility “in the bank.”
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Monday, March 03, 2008
Going to Jail for Being a Democrat: How Alabama Gov. Don Sie
Once a popular governor of Alabama, Siegelman was framed in a crooked trial and sent to prison by the corrupt Bush administration.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Saturday, March 01, 2008
An Open Letter to Powerline (and others): For the love Rove
In your open letter to CBS News about their 60 Minutes broadcast on the Don Siegelman case, you begin by readily admitting that you are a late-comer to the story. Yet despite not having the facts or apparently seen the investigative reports done well before the CBS broadcast aired, you feel capable enough to issue an opinion...
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Bush League Justice - The Don Siegelman Story
Siegelman's Daughter States That Her Father Knows Karl Rove Is Behind His Prosecution | Says Judge 'Trying To Keep Her Dad Hushed As Long As He Possibly Can'
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
The permanent Republican majority: Part one
The idea that a prominent politician -- a former state governor -- could be tried on charges that many observers consider to be trumped-up, convicted in a trial that involved numerous questionable procedures, and then hauled off to prison in shackles immediately upon sentencing would be almost unbelievable. Don Siegelman, governor of Alabama...
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Monday, January 28, 2008
State of the Union...The Speech Dubya Would Like to Give.
Good Evening!
Ms. Speaker ---Hi Sweetie. Hasn't it been a fabulous year? Vice Dick... Yo Dead Eye, thanks for keeping that squirmy little Dennis Kucinich and his impeachment resolution out of my face.
Waves and points to where members of the Supreme Court are sitting.... A special thanks to the fabulous Supreme 5 for putting me in this office. It's been fun guys! Good evening to you.
Anyway, I'm so thankful, and so gracious—I'm gracious that my brother Jeb was governor of Florida in 2000. AND Kat Harris....Damn I miss seeing that bitch in this grand audience.
Every time I come to this rostrum, I chuckle with glee that all you suckers have to bend over and kiss my ass for another year and what a year it's been! I recall one speech in this chamber when I told you that our differences in these two chambers will discussed in a civil manner.
Snicker...giggle.... I can't believe you Democrats and your damn fool bi-partisanship! Thanks DemoRats for a FABULOUS 7 yrs. Just watch what I have in store for you in my final year IF I decide that it is my final year.
I told you that I (ME... the Decider) will make choices that determine the future and the character of my country. Hehehehehe! You didn't have a clue when I talked about charting a different course. Sorry about that missing surplus but we had to fight against those terrorists over there so they don't come over here.
Pay down an unprecedented amount of the national debt? Did I say that? Oooops, sorry about that...hehehehe.... Well, you know those damn terrorists just messed up my grand plans. Thanks again Uncle Dick. Enjoying that off shore account in Dubai?? Money left over from paying down that debt... ho ho ho ROTFLMAO! What a speech!
Every year this speech just gets better & better!
Whew! What a trip! "I don't particularly like it when people put words in my mouth, by the way, unless I say it".
Oh boy ('scuse me Osama errrrr uh ah Obama...sorry about that. hehehehe) did I ever pursue those terrorists! Poor Osama (hehehehe) ........ sorry about that old bud. Enjoying my ranch in Paraguay? How about those weekenders at my favorite pig farm in Crawford, Texas? We've had some great times, eh? (snickering ) You still owe me for getting your family & friends out of the U.S. immediately after Uncle Dick's 9-11 adventure. You and Kenny Boy having a good time? YEAH! (Thumbs up)
Yep, I warned you about that radical Islam and called my best bud, Osama a terrorist. You didn't have a clue that it was my secret code to the 9-11 gang to get prepared did you? Too late now suckers. I own you body and soul thanks to those handy telephone tapping games!
As for those Iraqis, their population has been reduced to where they will have very little competition in their businesses. They can now sit back and enjoy their new found freedom under the protection of MY army for the next hundred years.
Hey, how do you like that great big embassy in Iraq? Oh, you don't know about that? Surprise! Surprise! It is the world's largest embassy. You didn't think that I, The Commander Guy, was going to do anything half-assed did you? Big! Big! Big! That's my motto as your commander in chief.
"My administration has been calling upon all the leaders in the—in the Middle East to do everything they can to stop the violence, to tell the different parties involved that peace will never happen." (Bushism) Yep... We're gonna be there a long, long time. Get used to it.
You get any ideas about messing with me, the Decider & you'll get a bad case of whoopass. Just ask Joe Wilson & Valerie Plame! They don't call me king george for nothing!
My secret government still bothering you? Tough! I'm the Decider, the commander guy & I make my own rules. If you don't believe it go to the White House web site and read all MY LAWS. I have a signing statement for every occasion.
Me, torture prisoners? Prove it suckers! You ain't got nothing on george bush that I don't have something on you that will overcome your silly accusations.
Now for the current situation. Damn, do I have to solve everything? While I was busy with my highly successful wars (Yes they are successful because I say so) somebody was screwing around with the economicals of this country. Now I have to solve this mess or at least cover it up till I get my comfortable, rich ass propped up in Paraguay. Hey, wanna buy a fabulous pig farm in Texas to help my economical situation?
Anyhow, I'm going to stimulate this mess caused by Wal Mart....er Wall Street by giving you a big fat check but first I have to get something on those damn Democrats so they don't stick that food stamp crap back in my fabulous bill. Of course they will try to take out my fabulous tax breaks for my rich buddies too. There really ought to be a law against being a DemoRAT.
So, you little old peons are going to get a big fat check....might be as much as $600... and I want to you to get off your welfare asses and spend that thing as fast as you can. Thanks to me you are going to be rich, rich rich so...Go shopping. Spend, spend, spend just like I do. Gotta get that money moving around to make it look like the economicals is rebounding in the remaining months of my term as your un-elected pRes.
Ha! ha! ha! Just popped into my head that some of you might still be pissed because those fabulous Supremes appointed me, when that damn Al Gore was counting and showing that he might win. Too bad losers!
The agenda I have set before you tonight is worthy of a great man like me. Just think when you walk through that Statuary's Hall in the Capitol building you can be visualizing what my statue will look like. Make it big and fabulous.
I came here for a reason. I have kept my promise to those fabulous corporations. I don't give a damn about you middle class & welfare queens. You will be working for my buddies for the rest of your miserable lives for minimum wage. If you want to crawl out of those crumbling huts & repossessed houses you will have to get your fat asses to Harvard or Yale like I did and get that "C' average.
Then you can be presudent, just like me! In the meantime here's to you dumb klutzes who will never be as importantical as me....
Praise the Lord and goodnight.
Exit podium with both middle fingers held high!
..................................................
Back at ya Dubya! And in old fashioned Southernese, Kiss my Grits!
May your last year in office be a living hell ....FOR YOU!
It's only fair after we were forced to tolerate your ugly, smirking ass for 7 long years, going on 8.
Ms. Speaker ---Hi Sweetie. Hasn't it been a fabulous year? Vice Dick... Yo Dead Eye, thanks for keeping that squirmy little Dennis Kucinich and his impeachment resolution out of my face.
Waves and points to where members of the Supreme Court are sitting.... A special thanks to the fabulous Supreme 5 for putting me in this office. It's been fun guys! Good evening to you.
Anyway, I'm so thankful, and so gracious—I'm gracious that my brother Jeb was governor of Florida in 2000. AND Kat Harris....Damn I miss seeing that bitch in this grand audience.
Every time I come to this rostrum, I chuckle with glee that all you suckers have to bend over and kiss my ass for another year and what a year it's been! I recall one speech in this chamber when I told you that our differences in these two chambers will discussed in a civil manner.
Snicker...giggle.... I can't believe you Democrats and your damn fool bi-partisanship! Thanks DemoRats for a FABULOUS 7 yrs. Just watch what I have in store for you in my final year IF I decide that it is my final year.
I told you that I (ME... the Decider) will make choices that determine the future and the character of my country. Hehehehehe! You didn't have a clue when I talked about charting a different course. Sorry about that missing surplus but we had to fight against those terrorists over there so they don't come over here.
Pay down an unprecedented amount of the national debt? Did I say that? Oooops, sorry about that...hehehehe.... Well, you know those damn terrorists just messed up my grand plans. Thanks again Uncle Dick. Enjoying that off shore account in Dubai?? Money left over from paying down that debt... ho ho ho ROTFLMAO! What a speech!
Every year this speech just gets better & better!
Whew! What a trip! "I don't particularly like it when people put words in my mouth, by the way, unless I say it".
Oh boy ('scuse me Osama errrrr uh ah Obama...sorry about that. hehehehe) did I ever pursue those terrorists! Poor Osama (hehehehe) ........ sorry about that old bud. Enjoying my ranch in Paraguay? How about those weekenders at my favorite pig farm in Crawford, Texas? We've had some great times, eh? (snickering ) You still owe me for getting your family & friends out of the U.S. immediately after Uncle Dick's 9-11 adventure. You and Kenny Boy having a good time? YEAH! (Thumbs up)
Yep, I warned you about that radical Islam and called my best bud, Osama a terrorist. You didn't have a clue that it was my secret code to the 9-11 gang to get prepared did you? Too late now suckers. I own you body and soul thanks to those handy telephone tapping games!
As for those Iraqis, their population has been reduced to where they will have very little competition in their businesses. They can now sit back and enjoy their new found freedom under the protection of MY army for the next hundred years.
Hey, how do you like that great big embassy in Iraq? Oh, you don't know about that? Surprise! Surprise! It is the world's largest embassy. You didn't think that I, The Commander Guy, was going to do anything half-assed did you? Big! Big! Big! That's my motto as your commander in chief.
"My administration has been calling upon all the leaders in the—in the Middle East to do everything they can to stop the violence, to tell the different parties involved that peace will never happen." (Bushism) Yep... We're gonna be there a long, long time. Get used to it.
You get any ideas about messing with me, the Decider & you'll get a bad case of whoopass. Just ask Joe Wilson & Valerie Plame! They don't call me king george for nothing!
My secret government still bothering you? Tough! I'm the Decider, the commander guy & I make my own rules. If you don't believe it go to the White House web site and read all MY LAWS. I have a signing statement for every occasion.
Me, torture prisoners? Prove it suckers! You ain't got nothing on george bush that I don't have something on you that will overcome your silly accusations.
Now for the current situation. Damn, do I have to solve everything? While I was busy with my highly successful wars (Yes they are successful because I say so) somebody was screwing around with the economicals of this country. Now I have to solve this mess or at least cover it up till I get my comfortable, rich ass propped up in Paraguay. Hey, wanna buy a fabulous pig farm in Texas to help my economical situation?
Anyhow, I'm going to stimulate this mess caused by Wal Mart....er Wall Street by giving you a big fat check but first I have to get something on those damn Democrats so they don't stick that food stamp crap back in my fabulous bill. Of course they will try to take out my fabulous tax breaks for my rich buddies too. There really ought to be a law against being a DemoRAT.
So, you little old peons are going to get a big fat check....might be as much as $600... and I want to you to get off your welfare asses and spend that thing as fast as you can. Thanks to me you are going to be rich, rich rich so...Go shopping. Spend, spend, spend just like I do. Gotta get that money moving around to make it look like the economicals is rebounding in the remaining months of my term as your un-elected pRes.
Ha! ha! ha! Just popped into my head that some of you might still be pissed because those fabulous Supremes appointed me, when that damn Al Gore was counting and showing that he might win. Too bad losers!
The agenda I have set before you tonight is worthy of a great man like me. Just think when you walk through that Statuary's Hall in the Capitol building you can be visualizing what my statue will look like. Make it big and fabulous.
I came here for a reason. I have kept my promise to those fabulous corporations. I don't give a damn about you middle class & welfare queens. You will be working for my buddies for the rest of your miserable lives for minimum wage. If you want to crawl out of those crumbling huts & repossessed houses you will have to get your fat asses to Harvard or Yale like I did and get that "C' average.
Then you can be presudent, just like me! In the meantime here's to you dumb klutzes who will never be as importantical as me....
Praise the Lord and goodnight.
Exit podium with both middle fingers held high!
..................................................
Back at ya Dubya! And in old fashioned Southernese, Kiss my Grits!
May your last year in office be a living hell ....FOR YOU!
It's only fair after we were forced to tolerate your ugly, smirking ass for 7 long years, going on 8.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Wake Up America: Dubya’s New and Unimproved Screw You America Scheme
GOOD MORNING AMERICA! Wake up and get your lazy ass out of bed. You are about to be the recipient of another george bush screwing in the form of a tax rebate.
Remember that magnificent tax refund/rebate check that you got early in 2001? I wonder how many of you had to repay that whopping "refund". I know a number of people who had to do just that.
Do you recall the screeches of righteous indignation coming from the little peons on the republican side of the isle when they learned they had been royally screwed. Those poor fools are still working minimum wage jobs & believing king george when he tells that they can be president just like him some day. Gosh, all it takes is a 'c' average. Dubya just leaves out that minor detail....that they must have someone with the money to buy the 'c' and then steal the election for them.
No big deal. Right? Yep.... they are going to be rich, rich, rich..... some day. They know that because king george told them so and we know george never tells a lie does he? (I actually typed that without ROTFLMAO).
But back to the george bush refund, rebate or whatever he is calling it.
The first figure I heard was an $800 rebate. Someone else mentioned $1000 and then later on I heard a figure of $250! Your guess is as good as mine as to which figure, if any of them are correct. What common sense tells "We the People" is that it's drop in the bucket..... some more of that trickle down economics which has kept us waiting for over 25 years for that windfall and........ still waiting. This magnificent rebate is just another dirty trick, an attempt to save themselves.... the mighty 1%!
That working person who lives paycheck to paycheck has a better grasp of economics than all those "professionals" who are being paid by us to handle the economic business of this country. All it takes is a little common sense to figure out that we cannot spend more than we have, that if we have a credit card we must keep it under control at all times.
Alan Greenspan, in an interview on Democracy Now, said that we Americans need to be paid less, that we make too much money. Now you don't think he was talking about those Wall Street CEO's who paid themselves over $32 BILLION in bonuses as the financial situation in this country continues to worsen do you?
I have an idea. Why don't we take back that 32 Billion+ and give it to those in minimum wage jobs? The people who have 'busted' their asses to make money for those greedy corporations....that elite 1%? By the way, why don't they pay Social Security on all their income, same as us little old peons? Seems to me that might help solve the national debt AND save Social Security!
Rebate? Economic stimulus? If you believe this once again, you deserve what's coming. If you believe Bush when he expresses concern then you should take a closer look at that ever present smirk. He's no more concerned about you than he is about one of the frogs that he tortured by shoving a firecracker up it's butt & watching it explode.
Did you ever notice how pained Dubya looks when he has to pretend to be concerned about something? Yep, people when you see that painful look on Bush's face don't believe for a minute that it's because he is concerned about you. He doesn't give a damn about you. He is in panic mode because his Wall Street buddies are in trouble.
He's panicking because "We the People" have reached the point where, because our jobs have been outsourced & tax breaks have gone to those who need it the least, that we can no longer support him, the wealthiest of the wealthy. He is panicking because the top 1% may have to start supplementing each other. (Now that might be fun to watch!)
So much for that great supply side economics! The bottom line for 'Bushonomics' is that it would be more appropriately named piss on people economics.
By the way, where is Dubya going to get the billions needed for this rebate? Why borrow it, of course & most likely from the Chinese!
And here we were worried about those big bad terrorists while Dubya & Dead Eye Dick have been selling out the country to the very people who most likely have the capacity to attack us. But then why should they attack when they own most of our national debt, they are selling us billions in crappy or poisonous manufactured goods & buying up businesses in the U.S.? They are taking over our country from the inside out. No need to sacrifice their goose stepping soldiers & all those pretty tanks.
Yeah..... Wake up America indeed. Impeachment is off the table according to Goddess Nancy Pelosi? Why would her Royal Do-Nothingness take impeachment off the table when these fools have done more than all the other administrations combined to destroy our country from the inside out?
Because she's one of them??
This picture & the positioning of Dubya in front of the sign in the back ground inadvertently says it all!
Remember that magnificent tax refund/rebate check that you got early in 2001? I wonder how many of you had to repay that whopping "refund". I know a number of people who had to do just that.
Do you recall the screeches of righteous indignation coming from the little peons on the republican side of the isle when they learned they had been royally screwed. Those poor fools are still working minimum wage jobs & believing king george when he tells that they can be president just like him some day. Gosh, all it takes is a 'c' average. Dubya just leaves out that minor detail....that they must have someone with the money to buy the 'c' and then steal the election for them.
No big deal. Right? Yep.... they are going to be rich, rich, rich..... some day. They know that because king george told them so and we know george never tells a lie does he? (I actually typed that without ROTFLMAO).
But back to the george bush refund, rebate or whatever he is calling it.
The first figure I heard was an $800 rebate. Someone else mentioned $1000 and then later on I heard a figure of $250! Your guess is as good as mine as to which figure, if any of them are correct. What common sense tells "We the People" is that it's drop in the bucket..... some more of that trickle down economics which has kept us waiting for over 25 years for that windfall and........ still waiting. This magnificent rebate is just another dirty trick, an attempt to save themselves.... the mighty 1%!
That working person who lives paycheck to paycheck has a better grasp of economics than all those "professionals" who are being paid by us to handle the economic business of this country. All it takes is a little common sense to figure out that we cannot spend more than we have, that if we have a credit card we must keep it under control at all times.
Alan Greenspan, in an interview on Democracy Now, said that we Americans need to be paid less, that we make too much money. Now you don't think he was talking about those Wall Street CEO's who paid themselves over $32 BILLION in bonuses as the financial situation in this country continues to worsen do you?
I have an idea. Why don't we take back that 32 Billion+ and give it to those in minimum wage jobs? The people who have 'busted' their asses to make money for those greedy corporations....that elite 1%? By the way, why don't they pay Social Security on all their income, same as us little old peons? Seems to me that might help solve the national debt AND save Social Security!
Rebate? Economic stimulus? If you believe this once again, you deserve what's coming. If you believe Bush when he expresses concern then you should take a closer look at that ever present smirk. He's no more concerned about you than he is about one of the frogs that he tortured by shoving a firecracker up it's butt & watching it explode.
Did you ever notice how pained Dubya looks when he has to pretend to be concerned about something? Yep, people when you see that painful look on Bush's face don't believe for a minute that it's because he is concerned about you. He doesn't give a damn about you. He is in panic mode because his Wall Street buddies are in trouble.
He's panicking because "We the People" have reached the point where, because our jobs have been outsourced & tax breaks have gone to those who need it the least, that we can no longer support him, the wealthiest of the wealthy. He is panicking because the top 1% may have to start supplementing each other. (Now that might be fun to watch!)
So much for that great supply side economics! The bottom line for 'Bushonomics' is that it would be more appropriately named piss on people economics.
By the way, where is Dubya going to get the billions needed for this rebate? Why borrow it, of course & most likely from the Chinese!
And here we were worried about those big bad terrorists while Dubya & Dead Eye Dick have been selling out the country to the very people who most likely have the capacity to attack us. But then why should they attack when they own most of our national debt, they are selling us billions in crappy or poisonous manufactured goods & buying up businesses in the U.S.? They are taking over our country from the inside out. No need to sacrifice their goose stepping soldiers & all those pretty tanks.
Yeah..... Wake up America indeed. Impeachment is off the table according to Goddess Nancy Pelosi? Why would her Royal Do-Nothingness take impeachment off the table when these fools have done more than all the other administrations combined to destroy our country from the inside out?
Because she's one of them??
This picture & the positioning of Dubya in front of the sign in the back ground inadvertently says it all!
End of conversation? Not if you don't want it to be. Not if you care about your country. Rebate my arse! It's impeachment time!
Please Cut the Crap! George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney must be impeached, and the process must start now. There are no excuses left. It doesn't matter if the process gets dragged out until we're into the next election cycle. It doesn't matter if Bush and Cheney are thrown out on their asses on January 19, 2009, and Nancy Pelosi only has one day as a caretaker president. This is no longer about process, and it's no longer about political expediency. This is about our Founders’ most precious gift to us. It's about the rule of law, and justice for all.
Impeach The Crawford SOB and his corrupt administration!
Congress -- 800-828-0498, 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803 Tell them to impeach those crooked SOB's
Monday, January 21, 2008
Ronald Reagan: Fiscal Disaster
I have to chuckle at the fact that Huffington Post moderating posts before they are allowed to show. I was reading through the comments already posted and several were full of the "F" word not to mention the fact that the writer of this article called Reagan an asshole. So what do they moderate???
Ronald Reagan: Fiscal Disaster
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hale-stewart/ronald-reagan-fiscal-dis_b_82370.html
Several interesting charts at above link
Does anyone notice a pattern? In case you have a hard time figuring it out, let me provide some clarity.
-- Reagan -- the fiscal conservative -- never balanced a budget.
-- Reagan -- the fiscal conservative -- never came close to balancing a budget.
-- Reagan -- the fiscal conservative -- never even came remotely close to even thinking about balancing a budget.
So, how did Reagan pay for this? He mired the country is a mammoth explosion of Federal debt.
The fiscally conservative party -- at least in theory -- have indebted this country since 1980 with a mammoth amount of debt.
Saint Ronnie -- the great Saint who many are praising in one form or another -- nearly tripled the national debt. St. Ronnie -- the fiscal conservative who we all should bow down and worship -- paid for his massive expanse of the federal government (because he never balanced a budget) by pawning off the expense on the next generation. St. Ronnie used his great communication skills to tell us this was all somehow OK.
St. Ronnie was an asshole.
magginkat I'm a fan of magginkat)
This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.
I'm not sure which is crazier, those trying to bestow sainthood on Reagan or the rabid right religious rapture nuts. (Perhaps they are the same)
However for any Democrat or Independent to quote Reagan is total insanity. I was trying very hard to like Obama but when he started quoting Reagan I threw in the towel.
What the hell will it take for this country to wake up & get rid of all the nut cases & the common thugs who have taken over the government? Most days, I just want to crawl back in bed and forget the whole damn thing.
Ronald Reagan: Fiscal Disaster
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hale-stewart/ronald-reagan-fiscal-dis_b_82370.html
Several interesting charts at above link
Does anyone notice a pattern? In case you have a hard time figuring it out, let me provide some clarity.
-- Reagan -- the fiscal conservative -- never balanced a budget.
-- Reagan -- the fiscal conservative -- never came close to balancing a budget.
-- Reagan -- the fiscal conservative -- never even came remotely close to even thinking about balancing a budget.
So, how did Reagan pay for this? He mired the country is a mammoth explosion of Federal debt.
The fiscally conservative party -- at least in theory -- have indebted this country since 1980 with a mammoth amount of debt.
Saint Ronnie -- the great Saint who many are praising in one form or another -- nearly tripled the national debt. St. Ronnie -- the fiscal conservative who we all should bow down and worship -- paid for his massive expanse of the federal government (because he never balanced a budget) by pawning off the expense on the next generation. St. Ronnie used his great communication skills to tell us this was all somehow OK.
St. Ronnie was an asshole.
magginkat I'm a fan of magginkat)
This comment is pending approval and won't be displayed until it is approved.
I'm not sure which is crazier, those trying to bestow sainthood on Reagan or the rabid right religious rapture nuts. (Perhaps they are the same)
However for any Democrat or Independent to quote Reagan is total insanity. I was trying very hard to like Obama but when he started quoting Reagan I threw in the towel.
What the hell will it take for this country to wake up & get rid of all the nut cases & the common thugs who have taken over the government? Most days, I just want to crawl back in bed and forget the whole damn thing.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
NBC Rewrites its Own Rules to Prevent America from Hearing Kucinich
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/73530/
NBC Rewrites its Own Rules to Prevent America from Hearing Kucinich
As a political writer, I have to follow these endless primary-season debates. But when it comes to NBC's Democratic show-down in Vegas next Tuesday, I'll read the transcript and check out the highlights on YouTube, but I won't tune into NBC's live broadcast.
Would you consider joining me in letting NBC know that we're just sick of this nonsense?
If so, indignant-but-polite is, I've found, the best tone to take when griping to the media about their all-too-frequently-crappy political coverage.
NBC Political Director Chuck Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that, although Kucinich had met the qualification criteria publicly announced on December 28, the network was "re-doing" the criteria, excluding Kucinich, and planning to invite only Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former senator John Edwards.
Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that the network had decided to change the criteria and limit participation in the debate to only three candidates.
NBC News contact form letters@msnbc.com
MCNBC Feedback GeneralComments@feedback.msnbc.com
Meet the Press mailbox http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872152/
Dateline - - Dateline@NBCUNI.com
ctodd@nationaljournal.com
Another one for MSNBC viewerservices@msnbc.com
***
Update: Here's what I sent to Todd [Update: it bounced back] and the other NBC addresses:
Dear Mr. Todd,
I’m writing to express my dismay about NBC’s decision to re-write its own previously announced criteria in order — specifically, it seems — to exclude Dennis Kucinich, the fourth-place finisher in at least one major national poll, from the Las Vegas debate.
I am not of the belief that Rep. Kucinich has a chance to win the nomination, but that's beside the point. It appears to me that our political press corps, yourself included, are simply blind to the intense feelings of frustration among many of us “out here” in America every time the media tries to narrow the ideological spectrum and limit our political debates. I am among almost 300 million people who have not had an opportunity to cast my vote in the primary, and it is the height of arrogance for you and NBC to tell me, in effect, that only 3 of the 4 candidates who met your announced criteria are acceptable choices, or that only the views of 3 of the 4 are acceptably “mainstream.”
His "viability" is not an issue; Kucinich is not in this race to win. He’s in it to influence the political discourse within the Democratic party, and as a Democratic-leaning independent, I would like to see the full spectrum of Democratic opinions aired and debated. It is maddening to have NBC deny us that process, especially so many months before the convention and with only a few small states having gone to the polls.
But even that isn't nearly as infuriating as the egregious disrespect shown to a member of the House of Representatives who’s been sent back to Washington by his constituents five times. I’ll be frank: to extend the invitation, and then rewrite your own rules in order to withdraw it makes it difficult for me to even maintain a civil tone.
I won’t be watching your debate — it will be the first one I skip — because I don’t want to support the idea that the media decides these elections and the voters are merely an afterthought. I will also write about your network’s hubris on my blog and urge my friends and acquaintances to boycott the debate as well. Hopefully, General Electric will receive a lot of correspondence like this one, see a smaller-than-expected audience and finally figure out that while it has its hands in many businesses, electing a president isn’t one that We the People will accept.
NBC Rewrites its Own Rules to Prevent America from Hearing Kucinich
As a political writer, I have to follow these endless primary-season debates. But when it comes to NBC's Democratic show-down in Vegas next Tuesday, I'll read the transcript and check out the highlights on YouTube, but I won't tune into NBC's live broadcast.
Would you consider joining me in letting NBC know that we're just sick of this nonsense?
If so, indignant-but-polite is, I've found, the best tone to take when griping to the media about their all-too-frequently-crappy political coverage.
NBC Political Director Chuck Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that, although Kucinich had met the qualification criteria publicly announced on December 28, the network was "re-doing" the criteria, excluding Kucinich, and planning to invite only Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former senator John Edwards.
Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that the network had decided to change the criteria and limit participation in the debate to only three candidates.
NBC News contact form letters@msnbc.com
MCNBC Feedback GeneralComments@feedback.msnbc.com
Meet the Press mailbox http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872152/
Dateline - - Dateline@NBCUNI.com
ctodd@nationaljournal.com
Another one for MSNBC viewerservices@msnbc.com
***
Update: Here's what I sent to Todd [Update: it bounced back] and the other NBC addresses:
Dear Mr. Todd,
I’m writing to express my dismay about NBC’s decision to re-write its own previously announced criteria in order — specifically, it seems — to exclude Dennis Kucinich, the fourth-place finisher in at least one major national poll, from the Las Vegas debate.
I am not of the belief that Rep. Kucinich has a chance to win the nomination, but that's beside the point. It appears to me that our political press corps, yourself included, are simply blind to the intense feelings of frustration among many of us “out here” in America every time the media tries to narrow the ideological spectrum and limit our political debates. I am among almost 300 million people who have not had an opportunity to cast my vote in the primary, and it is the height of arrogance for you and NBC to tell me, in effect, that only 3 of the 4 candidates who met your announced criteria are acceptable choices, or that only the views of 3 of the 4 are acceptably “mainstream.”
His "viability" is not an issue; Kucinich is not in this race to win. He’s in it to influence the political discourse within the Democratic party, and as a Democratic-leaning independent, I would like to see the full spectrum of Democratic opinions aired and debated. It is maddening to have NBC deny us that process, especially so many months before the convention and with only a few small states having gone to the polls.
But even that isn't nearly as infuriating as the egregious disrespect shown to a member of the House of Representatives who’s been sent back to Washington by his constituents five times. I’ll be frank: to extend the invitation, and then rewrite your own rules in order to withdraw it makes it difficult for me to even maintain a civil tone.
I won’t be watching your debate — it will be the first one I skip — because I don’t want to support the idea that the media decides these elections and the voters are merely an afterthought. I will also write about your network’s hubris on my blog and urge my friends and acquaintances to boycott the debate as well. Hopefully, General Electric will receive a lot of correspondence like this one, see a smaller-than-expected audience and finally figure out that while it has its hands in many businesses, electing a president isn’t one that We the People will accept.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Dear Congressman Wexler
I cannot believe that this Congress has sat on it's ample backside and allowed these thugs to destroy this country from the inside out for this length of time. What will it take to impeach both Cheney and Bush and remove them from office & bring them to trial for the crimes they have committed?
Why are you wasting your time just impeaching Cheney? Bush may act like a dumb country clod but he is mean, vindictive, vile & corrupt to the depths of his rotten soul. Why are you ignoring the facts that are shoved down our throat every day of the week? Are you afraid of this smirking little punk?
I sincerely believe that if one Democratic Congressman ever decides to quit being polite to these thugs & their enablers, the country will give you a standing ovation and will support you to the end. We are crying & pleading for you to stand up to these thugs. Impeachment of Cheney is a start but we need someone in Congress to grow some cajones and quit being nice to these criminal SOBs and impeach both of them.
Surely you can see by now that bipartisanship in this corrupt Congress means bending over for that smirking robber baron who squats in the Oval Office. What the hell makes an entire Congress give in to this common thug? Are some members of Congress being blackmailed with the material that Bush & Cheney have gathered via their illegal email intercepting/telephone tapping endeavors?
There is no other reason on earth, that I can think of, that would explain why anyone would want to support this corrupt administration and what they have done to the Constitution of the United States. Bush & Cheney should have been impeached, removed from office & prosecuted over 5 yrs ago for the multitude of violations of their oath of office & brazen incompetence? Add to that the war crimes and other crimes they have committed and these thugs should now be serving life prison sentences without parole.
A master in Business from Harvard? Pardon me while I ROTFLMAO (roll on the floor laughing my ass off)! It has been obvious to the country & to most of the world for a number of years that George Bush couldn't get a job at McDonalds without help from his family and his rich enablers. He is dumber than a rock & his time in office will require a whole new dictionary to provide definitions for the words corrupt, thuggery, lying and a whole bunch of other adjectives.
I believe that this country is thoroughly pissed off & fed up with these criminals. Get with Dennis Kucinich & re-introduce the call for impeachment & removal from office AND include Bush. The crimes that they have bragged about publicly & rubbed our noses in are enough to call for an impeachment at 8:00 am one morning, send it to the Senate by 10:00 am and have these thugs removed, arrested and in jail by noon. The Constitution allows for that.
Let Nancy Pelosi know that if she keeps pandering to the thugs who have aided and abetted this criminal administration that the same thing will happen to her. It's time to take our country back.
There is no need for a long drawn out investigation. I repeat, they have rubbed your noses (and mine) in their crimes for must of their time in office. They have been public and brazen.
It is way beyond time for this all elected officials to put their country first. I don't give a damn if we hurt the feelings of "poor little Georgie". I say the same thing to him and Cheney that they have been saying to us for seven long years. Go F*ck Yourselves!
Now do you want to hear about an idea that a friend and I concocted to aid in your impeachment efforts?
Write your own letter to Congressman Wexler:
http://www.wexlerforcongress.com/contact.asp
Why are you wasting your time just impeaching Cheney? Bush may act like a dumb country clod but he is mean, vindictive, vile & corrupt to the depths of his rotten soul. Why are you ignoring the facts that are shoved down our throat every day of the week? Are you afraid of this smirking little punk?
I sincerely believe that if one Democratic Congressman ever decides to quit being polite to these thugs & their enablers, the country will give you a standing ovation and will support you to the end. We are crying & pleading for you to stand up to these thugs. Impeachment of Cheney is a start but we need someone in Congress to grow some cajones and quit being nice to these criminal SOBs and impeach both of them.
Surely you can see by now that bipartisanship in this corrupt Congress means bending over for that smirking robber baron who squats in the Oval Office. What the hell makes an entire Congress give in to this common thug? Are some members of Congress being blackmailed with the material that Bush & Cheney have gathered via their illegal email intercepting/telephone tapping endeavors?
There is no other reason on earth, that I can think of, that would explain why anyone would want to support this corrupt administration and what they have done to the Constitution of the United States. Bush & Cheney should have been impeached, removed from office & prosecuted over 5 yrs ago for the multitude of violations of their oath of office & brazen incompetence? Add to that the war crimes and other crimes they have committed and these thugs should now be serving life prison sentences without parole.
A master in Business from Harvard? Pardon me while I ROTFLMAO (roll on the floor laughing my ass off)! It has been obvious to the country & to most of the world for a number of years that George Bush couldn't get a job at McDonalds without help from his family and his rich enablers. He is dumber than a rock & his time in office will require a whole new dictionary to provide definitions for the words corrupt, thuggery, lying and a whole bunch of other adjectives.
I believe that this country is thoroughly pissed off & fed up with these criminals. Get with Dennis Kucinich & re-introduce the call for impeachment & removal from office AND include Bush. The crimes that they have bragged about publicly & rubbed our noses in are enough to call for an impeachment at 8:00 am one morning, send it to the Senate by 10:00 am and have these thugs removed, arrested and in jail by noon. The Constitution allows for that.
Let Nancy Pelosi know that if she keeps pandering to the thugs who have aided and abetted this criminal administration that the same thing will happen to her. It's time to take our country back.
There is no need for a long drawn out investigation. I repeat, they have rubbed your noses (and mine) in their crimes for must of their time in office. They have been public and brazen.
It is way beyond time for this all elected officials to put their country first. I don't give a damn if we hurt the feelings of "poor little Georgie". I say the same thing to him and Cheney that they have been saying to us for seven long years. Go F*ck Yourselves!
Now do you want to hear about an idea that a friend and I concocted to aid in your impeachment efforts?
Write your own letter to Congressman Wexler:
http://www.wexlerforcongress.com/contact.asp
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Looking at America NY Times Style
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/opinion/31mon1.html?ref=opinion
Every citizen of this country should read this hypocritical editorial and ask why? Why would a newspaper that has been famous for it's 'investigative' reporting for years suddenly roll over for the most corrupt administration to ever get near the Oval Office. I am quoting a few paragraphs with my own added comments in brackets [ ].
1. It was not the first time in recent years we’ve felt this horror, this sorrowful sense of estrangement, not nearly. This sort of lawless behavior has become standard practice since Sept. 11, 2001. [ 9-11 had nothing to do with this sorryass administration. Everyone uses that as an excuse. This administration started lots of this stuff the as soon as they took office, perhaps before they were even sworn in. You know it. I know it. So stop using 9-11 as an excuse for a fraudulent administration that had every intention of doing exactly what they have been doing for the past 7 long years. Their only surprise has been at how gullible the mainstream media has been & how easy it has been to control them]
2. The country and much of the world was rightly and profoundly frightened by the single-minded hatred and ingenuity displayed by this new enemy. But there is no excuse for how President Bush and his advisers panicked — how they forgot that it is their responsibility to protect American lives and American ideals, that there really is no safety for Americans or their country when those ideals are sacrificed. [This was no panic. It was planned and carried out with the help of news media like the NY Times........... So why the hell are you hiring Kristol, one of the most prolific enablers of this corrupt, dictatorial administration? This administration has never given a royal hoot for American lives, ideals or the U.S. Constitution]
3. We have read accounts of how the government’s top lawyers huddled in secret after the attacks in New York and Washington and plotted ways to circumvent the Geneva Conventions — and both American and international law — to hold anyone the president chose indefinitely without charges or judicial review. [It's called a dictatorship. Honest to heavens, who in their right mind, would want george bush in charge of anything? We know who has been the real president (Dictator) in this administration. So why hasn't President Cheney been impeached, removed from office & prosecuted for crimes against the Constitution of the United States? Could it be because news sources like the NY Times have pandered to these thugs from day one?]
4. Those same lawyers then twisted other laws beyond recognition to allow Mr. Bush to turn intelligence agents into torturers, to force doctors to abdicate their professional oaths and responsibilities to prepare prisoners for abuse, and then to monitor the torment to make sure it didn’t go just a bit too far and actually kill them. [Do you know for a fact that no one was killed in this process? Of course not. The evidence was destroyed. AND the NY Times has been instrumental in covering the crimes of this shyster administration]
5. The White House used the fear of terrorism and the sense of national unity to ram laws through Congress that gave law-enforcement agencies far more power than they truly needed to respond to the threat — and at the same time fulfilled the imperial fantasies of Vice President Dick Cheney and others determined to use the tragedy of 9/11 to arrogate as much power as they could. [Now you are getting closer to the truth. The fear of terrorism is a figment of your (Bush's) imagination. 9-11 was a criminal act that should have been treated as such. The threat & fear came from this corrupt gang of thugs who were illegally installed in the White House. Dictator Cheney & his PNAC gang has been pulling the strings of the useless, know nothing, 'don't give a damn' puppet every step of the way. Why are you so afraid to speak the truth?]
6. Hundreds of men, swept up on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, were thrown into a prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, so that the White House could claim they were beyond the reach of American laws. [That should read, "Hundreds of men & boys, swept up on the streets of Afghanistan & Iraq..........]
7. In other foreign lands, the C.I.A. set up secret jails where “high-value detainees” were subjected to ever more barbaric acts, including simulated drowning. These crimes were videotaped, so that “experts” could watch them, and then the videotapes were destroyed, after consultation with the White House, in the hope that Americans would never know. [I'm betting that Bush & Cheney held their own private viewings of these films. Picture Boss Hawg, slapping his fat thighs as he laughs uproariously at the 'antics' on the screen]
8. We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America. [And we Americans can only hope that newspapers like the NY Times will do what they are supposed to do....... to investigate these criminal reports and help the American people find the truth when they demand investigation into the crimes of the top officials in this country, whether they are duly elected or not. American voters have the wisdom to call for the Constitutionally mandated checks & balances, but what chance do we have of actually accomplishing anything when the mainstream media (the fourth estate) caves to dictators and keeps the truth from the public? Will you have the integrity to do your job & not be neutered by a bully in the Oval Office?
By the way, one thing is glaringly missing from this editorial. Why is the NY Times so afraid of calling for impeaching & removing these criminals from office?
Every citizen of this country should read this hypocritical editorial and ask why? Why would a newspaper that has been famous for it's 'investigative' reporting for years suddenly roll over for the most corrupt administration to ever get near the Oval Office. I am quoting a few paragraphs with my own added comments in brackets [ ].
1. It was not the first time in recent years we’ve felt this horror, this sorrowful sense of estrangement, not nearly. This sort of lawless behavior has become standard practice since Sept. 11, 2001. [ 9-11 had nothing to do with this sorryass administration. Everyone uses that as an excuse. This administration started lots of this stuff the as soon as they took office, perhaps before they were even sworn in. You know it. I know it. So stop using 9-11 as an excuse for a fraudulent administration that had every intention of doing exactly what they have been doing for the past 7 long years. Their only surprise has been at how gullible the mainstream media has been & how easy it has been to control them]
2. The country and much of the world was rightly and profoundly frightened by the single-minded hatred and ingenuity displayed by this new enemy. But there is no excuse for how President Bush and his advisers panicked — how they forgot that it is their responsibility to protect American lives and American ideals, that there really is no safety for Americans or their country when those ideals are sacrificed. [This was no panic. It was planned and carried out with the help of news media like the NY Times........... So why the hell are you hiring Kristol, one of the most prolific enablers of this corrupt, dictatorial administration? This administration has never given a royal hoot for American lives, ideals or the U.S. Constitution]
3. We have read accounts of how the government’s top lawyers huddled in secret after the attacks in New York and Washington and plotted ways to circumvent the Geneva Conventions — and both American and international law — to hold anyone the president chose indefinitely without charges or judicial review. [It's called a dictatorship. Honest to heavens, who in their right mind, would want george bush in charge of anything? We know who has been the real president (Dictator) in this administration. So why hasn't President Cheney been impeached, removed from office & prosecuted for crimes against the Constitution of the United States? Could it be because news sources like the NY Times have pandered to these thugs from day one?]
4. Those same lawyers then twisted other laws beyond recognition to allow Mr. Bush to turn intelligence agents into torturers, to force doctors to abdicate their professional oaths and responsibilities to prepare prisoners for abuse, and then to monitor the torment to make sure it didn’t go just a bit too far and actually kill them. [Do you know for a fact that no one was killed in this process? Of course not. The evidence was destroyed. AND the NY Times has been instrumental in covering the crimes of this shyster administration]
5. The White House used the fear of terrorism and the sense of national unity to ram laws through Congress that gave law-enforcement agencies far more power than they truly needed to respond to the threat — and at the same time fulfilled the imperial fantasies of Vice President Dick Cheney and others determined to use the tragedy of 9/11 to arrogate as much power as they could. [Now you are getting closer to the truth. The fear of terrorism is a figment of your (Bush's) imagination. 9-11 was a criminal act that should have been treated as such. The threat & fear came from this corrupt gang of thugs who were illegally installed in the White House. Dictator Cheney & his PNAC gang has been pulling the strings of the useless, know nothing, 'don't give a damn' puppet every step of the way. Why are you so afraid to speak the truth?]
6. Hundreds of men, swept up on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, were thrown into a prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, so that the White House could claim they were beyond the reach of American laws. [That should read, "Hundreds of men & boys, swept up on the streets of Afghanistan & Iraq..........]
7. In other foreign lands, the C.I.A. set up secret jails where “high-value detainees” were subjected to ever more barbaric acts, including simulated drowning. These crimes were videotaped, so that “experts” could watch them, and then the videotapes were destroyed, after consultation with the White House, in the hope that Americans would never know. [I'm betting that Bush & Cheney held their own private viewings of these films. Picture Boss Hawg, slapping his fat thighs as he laughs uproariously at the 'antics' on the screen]
8. We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America. [And we Americans can only hope that newspapers like the NY Times will do what they are supposed to do....... to investigate these criminal reports and help the American people find the truth when they demand investigation into the crimes of the top officials in this country, whether they are duly elected or not. American voters have the wisdom to call for the Constitutionally mandated checks & balances, but what chance do we have of actually accomplishing anything when the mainstream media (the fourth estate) caves to dictators and keeps the truth from the public? Will you have the integrity to do your job & not be neutered by a bully in the Oval Office?
By the way, one thing is glaringly missing from this editorial. Why is the NY Times so afraid of calling for impeaching & removing these criminals from office?
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Once Upon a Time the Religious Right Demonized Christmas
Why it pays to know your history. How the religious right can be seen to sway in the wind rather than hold to the steadfast course they claim to be following. As strange as it may seem, when Religious Right legal groups go to court to battle the "War on Christmas," they may really be defending practices historically associated with the worship not of the son of God but the sun in the sky.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Friday, December 07, 2007
The Eyes Of A Madman
Look into Bush's eyes and then be afraid, be very afraid
By DOUG THOMPSON - Capitol Hill Blue
Hunters know all too well the look that spilled out of our television sets like political diarrhea Tuesday: The look of a cornered animal, the most dangerous time to face a desperate predator.
You saw it in the eyes of George W. Bush, America's too-often discredited President, caught in yet another lie.
Faced with a damning National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that destroyed his outlandish claims of a threat of World War III from Iran, Bush did what he always does - dug in and faced down his pursuers with bluster, anger and defiance.
But I watched his eyes as they darted back and forth during his press conference at the White House. As a hunter, I've seen that look before - at the moment I've faced a hunted animal and must make the decision to kill or be killed.
The George W. Bush that faced reporters and the television cameras Tuesday was a cornered, dangerous predator, determined to fight back until the bitter end even as time, and escape routes, run out.
Time may be running out for Bush's Presidency but America's most discredited and distrusted leader still has more than a year left in office and that is too much time given his long, sordid record of high crimes against the Constitution, the American people, and the world.
George W. Bush is no less than a traitor to his country. He is a man without honor, a leader without conscience and a human being without a shred of decency or humanity. He is a despot who considers himself above the law and a President who considers the Constitution he swore to uphold to be just "a goddamned piece of paper."
Yes, I know, no one has come forward publicly to confirm that meeting in 2005 where we reported Bush uttered those words but I trust the people who gave me the information and no one in the White House, Congress or the Republican Party has denied or publicly disputed the story. I believe he said it and I believe his actions have proven, many times over, that he holds that level of disrespect for the document upon which this nation was founded.
Bush is, I believe, a war criminal, a leader who invaded a nation that posed no immediate threat to the United States and lied to Congress, the American people and the world community to justify his illegal and immoral actions.
War criminals are, first and foremost, mass murderers and Bush's reprehensible actions have resulted in the deaths of not only close to 3,900 American men and women in uniform but also in thousands upon thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians.
His actions have killed more Americans than Osama bin Laden, damaged our relations with allies and destroyed our credibility at home and abroad.He wants, more than anything, to invade Iran before his term is up. Even now, with his ludicrous claims of a nuclear threat from that nation destroyed by his own intelligence community, he sticks to his saber-rattling rhetoric.
Watch replays of his press conference from Tuesday.
Watch his face, his actions and his body language.
Most of all look at his eyes.
They are the eyes of a cornered dangerous animal.
They are the eyes of a madman.
By DOUG THOMPSON - Capitol Hill Blue
Hunters know all too well the look that spilled out of our television sets like political diarrhea Tuesday: The look of a cornered animal, the most dangerous time to face a desperate predator.
You saw it in the eyes of George W. Bush, America's too-often discredited President, caught in yet another lie.
Faced with a damning National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that destroyed his outlandish claims of a threat of World War III from Iran, Bush did what he always does - dug in and faced down his pursuers with bluster, anger and defiance.
But I watched his eyes as they darted back and forth during his press conference at the White House. As a hunter, I've seen that look before - at the moment I've faced a hunted animal and must make the decision to kill or be killed.
The George W. Bush that faced reporters and the television cameras Tuesday was a cornered, dangerous predator, determined to fight back until the bitter end even as time, and escape routes, run out.
Time may be running out for Bush's Presidency but America's most discredited and distrusted leader still has more than a year left in office and that is too much time given his long, sordid record of high crimes against the Constitution, the American people, and the world.
George W. Bush is no less than a traitor to his country. He is a man without honor, a leader without conscience and a human being without a shred of decency or humanity. He is a despot who considers himself above the law and a President who considers the Constitution he swore to uphold to be just "a goddamned piece of paper."
Yes, I know, no one has come forward publicly to confirm that meeting in 2005 where we reported Bush uttered those words but I trust the people who gave me the information and no one in the White House, Congress or the Republican Party has denied or publicly disputed the story. I believe he said it and I believe his actions have proven, many times over, that he holds that level of disrespect for the document upon which this nation was founded.
Bush is, I believe, a war criminal, a leader who invaded a nation that posed no immediate threat to the United States and lied to Congress, the American people and the world community to justify his illegal and immoral actions.
War criminals are, first and foremost, mass murderers and Bush's reprehensible actions have resulted in the deaths of not only close to 3,900 American men and women in uniform but also in thousands upon thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians.
His actions have killed more Americans than Osama bin Laden, damaged our relations with allies and destroyed our credibility at home and abroad.He wants, more than anything, to invade Iran before his term is up. Even now, with his ludicrous claims of a nuclear threat from that nation destroyed by his own intelligence community, he sticks to his saber-rattling rhetoric.
Watch replays of his press conference from Tuesday.
Watch his face, his actions and his body language.
Most of all look at his eyes.
They are the eyes of a cornered dangerous animal.
They are the eyes of a madman.
No Iran Attack? Don't Be So Sure…
The release of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program has everyone breathing a sigh of relief. According to our best intelligence, the Iranians stopped their weapons program in 2003. The liberal pundits and the more reasonable Sullivanesque conservatives are shouting "Hallelujah!" War has been averted! My respo
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Friday, November 23, 2007
Bush Fulfills His Grandfather's Dream
Sunday, 29 July 2007
by David Swanson
It's remarkably common for a grandson to take up his grandfather's major project. This occurred to me when I read recently of Thor Heyerdahl's grandson taking up his mission to cross the Pacific on a raft. But what really struck me was the BBC story aired on July 23rd documenting President George W. Bush's grandfather's involvement in a 1933 plot to overthrow the U.S. government and install a fascist dictatorship. I knew the story, but had not considered the possibility that the grandson was trying to accomplish what his grandfather had failed to achieve.
Prescott Sheldon Bush (1895 to 1972) attended Yale University and joined the secret society known as Skull and Bones. Prescott is widely reported to have stolen the skull of Native American leader Geronimo. As far as I know, this has not actually been confirmed. In fact, Prescott seems to have had a habit of making things up. He sent letters home from World War I claiming he'd received medals for heroism. After the letters were printed in newspapers, he had to retract his claims.
If this does not yet sound like the life of a George W. Bush ancestor, try this on for size: Prescott Bush's early business efforts tended to fail. He married the daughter of a very rich man named George Herbert Walker (the guy with the compound at Kennebunkport , Maine , that now belongs to the Bush family, and the origin of Dubya's middle initial). Walker installed Prescott Bush as an executive in Thyssen and Flick. From then on, Prescott 's business dealings went better, and he entered politics.
Now, the name Thyssen comes from a German named Fritz Thyssen, major financial backer of the rise of Adolph Hitler. Thyssen was referred to in the New York Herald-Tribune as "Hitler's Angel." During the 1930s and early 1940s, and even as late as 1951, Prescott Bush was involved in business dealings with Thyssen, and was inevitably aware of both Thyssen's political activities and the fact that the companies involved were financially benefiting the nation of Germany. In addition, the companies Prescott Bush profited from included one engaged in mining operations in Poland using slave labor from Auschwitz . Two former slave laborers have sued the U.S. government and the heirs of Prescott Bush for $40 billion.
Until the United States entered World War II it was legal for Americans to do business with Germany , but in late 1942 Prescott Bush's businesses interests were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Among those businesses involved was the Hamburg America Lines, for which Prescott Bush served as a manager. A Congressional committee, in a report called the McCormack-Dickstein Report, found that Hamburg America Lines had offered free passage to Germany for journalists willing to write favorably about the Nazis, and had brought Nazi sympathizers to America . (Is this starting to remind anyone of our current president's relationship to the freedom of the press?)
The McCormack-Dickstein Committee was established to investigate a homegrown American fascist plot hatched in 1933. Here's how the BBC promoted its recent story:
"Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen. The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America , (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression. Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy."
Actually, if you listen to the 30-minute BBC story, there is not one word of so much as speculation as to why this story is so little known. I think a clue to the answer can be found by looking into why this BBC report has not led to any U.S. media outlets picking up the story this week.
The BBC report provides a good account of the basic story. Some of the wealthiest men in America approached Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, beloved of many World War I veterans, many of them embittered by the government's treatment of them. Prescott Bush's group asked Butler to lead 500,000 veterans in a take-over of Washington and the White House. Butler refused and recounted the affair to the congressional committee. His account was corroborated in part by a number of witnesses, and the committee concluded that the plot was real. But the names of wealthy backers of the plot were blacked out in the committee's records, and nobody was prosecuted. According to the BBC, President Roosevelt cut a deal. He refrained from prosecuting some of the wealthiest men in America for treason. They agreed to end Wall Street's opposition to the New Deal.
Clearly the lack of accountability in Washington, D.C., did not begin with Nancy Pelosi taking Dubya's impeachment off the table, or with Congress' decision to avoid impeachment for President Ronald Reagan (a decision that arguably played a large role in installing Prescott Bush's son George H.W. Bush as president), or with the failure to investigate the apparent deal that George H.W. Bush and others made with Iran to not release American hostages until Reagan was made president, or with the failure to prosecute Richard Nixon after he resigned. Lack of accountability is a proud tradition in our nation's capital. Or maybe I should say our former nation's capital. I don't recognize the place anymore, and I credit that to George W. Bush's efforts to fulfill his grandfather's dream using far subtler and more effective means than a military coup.
Bush the grandson took office through a highly fraudulent election that he nonetheless lost. The Supreme Court blocked a recount of the vote and installed Dubya.
Prescott 's grandson proceeded to weaken or eliminate most of the Bill of Rights in the name of protection from a dark foreign enemy. He even tossed out habeas corpus. The grandson of Prescott, that dreamer of the 1930s, established with very little resistance that the U.S. government can kidnap, detain indefinitely on no charge, torture, and murder. The United States under Prescott Bush's grandson adopted policies that heretofore had been considered only Nazi policies, most strikingly the willingness to openly plan and engage in aggressive wars on other nations.
At the same time, Dubya has accomplished a huge transfer of wealth within the United States from the rest of us to the extremely wealthy. He's also effected a major privatization of public operations, including the military. And he's kept tight control over the media.
Dubya has given himself the power to rewrite all laws with signing statements. He's established that intentionally misleading the Congress about the need for a war is not a crime that carries any penalty. He's given himself the right (just as Hitler did) to open anyone's mail. He's created illegal spying programs and then proposed to legalize them. Prescott would be so proud!
The current President Bush has accomplished much more smoothly than his grandfather could have imagined a feat that was one of the goals of Prescott 's gang, namely the elimination of Congress.
by David Swanson
It's remarkably common for a grandson to take up his grandfather's major project. This occurred to me when I read recently of Thor Heyerdahl's grandson taking up his mission to cross the Pacific on a raft. But what really struck me was the BBC story aired on July 23rd documenting President George W. Bush's grandfather's involvement in a 1933 plot to overthrow the U.S. government and install a fascist dictatorship. I knew the story, but had not considered the possibility that the grandson was trying to accomplish what his grandfather had failed to achieve.
Prescott Sheldon Bush (1895 to 1972) attended Yale University and joined the secret society known as Skull and Bones. Prescott is widely reported to have stolen the skull of Native American leader Geronimo. As far as I know, this has not actually been confirmed. In fact, Prescott seems to have had a habit of making things up. He sent letters home from World War I claiming he'd received medals for heroism. After the letters were printed in newspapers, he had to retract his claims.
If this does not yet sound like the life of a George W. Bush ancestor, try this on for size: Prescott Bush's early business efforts tended to fail. He married the daughter of a very rich man named George Herbert Walker (the guy with the compound at Kennebunkport , Maine , that now belongs to the Bush family, and the origin of Dubya's middle initial). Walker installed Prescott Bush as an executive in Thyssen and Flick. From then on, Prescott 's business dealings went better, and he entered politics.
Now, the name Thyssen comes from a German named Fritz Thyssen, major financial backer of the rise of Adolph Hitler. Thyssen was referred to in the New York Herald-Tribune as "Hitler's Angel." During the 1930s and early 1940s, and even as late as 1951, Prescott Bush was involved in business dealings with Thyssen, and was inevitably aware of both Thyssen's political activities and the fact that the companies involved were financially benefiting the nation of Germany. In addition, the companies Prescott Bush profited from included one engaged in mining operations in Poland using slave labor from Auschwitz . Two former slave laborers have sued the U.S. government and the heirs of Prescott Bush for $40 billion.
Until the United States entered World War II it was legal for Americans to do business with Germany , but in late 1942 Prescott Bush's businesses interests were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act. Among those businesses involved was the Hamburg America Lines, for which Prescott Bush served as a manager. A Congressional committee, in a report called the McCormack-Dickstein Report, found that Hamburg America Lines had offered free passage to Germany for journalists willing to write favorably about the Nazis, and had brought Nazi sympathizers to America . (Is this starting to remind anyone of our current president's relationship to the freedom of the press?)
The McCormack-Dickstein Committee was established to investigate a homegrown American fascist plot hatched in 1933. Here's how the BBC promoted its recent story:
"Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen. The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America , (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression. Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy."
Actually, if you listen to the 30-minute BBC story, there is not one word of so much as speculation as to why this story is so little known. I think a clue to the answer can be found by looking into why this BBC report has not led to any U.S. media outlets picking up the story this week.
The BBC report provides a good account of the basic story. Some of the wealthiest men in America approached Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, beloved of many World War I veterans, many of them embittered by the government's treatment of them. Prescott Bush's group asked Butler to lead 500,000 veterans in a take-over of Washington and the White House. Butler refused and recounted the affair to the congressional committee. His account was corroborated in part by a number of witnesses, and the committee concluded that the plot was real. But the names of wealthy backers of the plot were blacked out in the committee's records, and nobody was prosecuted. According to the BBC, President Roosevelt cut a deal. He refrained from prosecuting some of the wealthiest men in America for treason. They agreed to end Wall Street's opposition to the New Deal.
Clearly the lack of accountability in Washington, D.C., did not begin with Nancy Pelosi taking Dubya's impeachment off the table, or with Congress' decision to avoid impeachment for President Ronald Reagan (a decision that arguably played a large role in installing Prescott Bush's son George H.W. Bush as president), or with the failure to investigate the apparent deal that George H.W. Bush and others made with Iran to not release American hostages until Reagan was made president, or with the failure to prosecute Richard Nixon after he resigned. Lack of accountability is a proud tradition in our nation's capital. Or maybe I should say our former nation's capital. I don't recognize the place anymore, and I credit that to George W. Bush's efforts to fulfill his grandfather's dream using far subtler and more effective means than a military coup.
Bush the grandson took office through a highly fraudulent election that he nonetheless lost. The Supreme Court blocked a recount of the vote and installed Dubya.
Prescott 's grandson proceeded to weaken or eliminate most of the Bill of Rights in the name of protection from a dark foreign enemy. He even tossed out habeas corpus. The grandson of Prescott, that dreamer of the 1930s, established with very little resistance that the U.S. government can kidnap, detain indefinitely on no charge, torture, and murder. The United States under Prescott Bush's grandson adopted policies that heretofore had been considered only Nazi policies, most strikingly the willingness to openly plan and engage in aggressive wars on other nations.
At the same time, Dubya has accomplished a huge transfer of wealth within the United States from the rest of us to the extremely wealthy. He's also effected a major privatization of public operations, including the military. And he's kept tight control over the media.
Dubya has given himself the power to rewrite all laws with signing statements. He's established that intentionally misleading the Congress about the need for a war is not a crime that carries any penalty. He's given himself the right (just as Hitler did) to open anyone's mail. He's created illegal spying programs and then proposed to legalize them. Prescott would be so proud!
The current President Bush has accomplished much more smoothly than his grandfather could have imagined a feat that was one of the goals of Prescott 's gang, namely the elimination of Congress.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
‘You people are really nuts’
Waitress tells campaign reporters: ‘You people are really nuts’
Posted November 9th, 2007 at 9:50 am
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It’s hard to say for sure when the “silly season” started in the media’s coverage of the presidential campaign. If there was a “serious season,” it was exceedingly short. I’m afraid I missed it.
But yesterday was unusually inane. A waitress at an Iowa diner noted that Hillary Clinton and her campaign aides had recently stopped by, but didn’t leave a tip. NPR picked up on the “story,” the New York Times called it a “potentially embarrassing mini-scandal,” and Drudge blared it above the fold. Soon after, NBC News and ABC News were trumpeting the story.
Clinton didn’t leave a tip? Does she hate working people? Is she out of touch? What does this say about her economic plan? What do her rivals think about this? Why won’t Barack Obama attack her over the issue? Is it too soon to put a poll in the field gauging the public’s reaction?
All of this breathless fascination was for naught. It turned out Clinton’s campaign did leave a tip with the manager for the entire serving staff. Clinton’s individual waitress didn’t know that, so there was a simple misunderstanding.
Reporters ended up contacting the waitress, Anita Esterday, at her home in Iowa yesterday.
Ms. Esterday said she did not understand what all the commotion was about.
“You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.”
Thank you, Anita Esterday. “You people are really nuts” may actually be the most helpful and poignant media criticism I’ve seen this year. It has the added benefit of being true.It’s also a reminder of just what it takes to get some political reporters excited. Last week, Rudy Giuliani unveiled a campaign ad in Iowa with an obvious, demonstrable lie. Many of us begged reporters to take it seriously, and give it the full-court press.
Some columnists noted the problem, but most outlets followed the AP’s lead: “No one argues that Rudy Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer, underwent treatment and survived. Yet there is a dispute about the statistics he quotes about his chances of survival.”
A “dispute,” as if there was some question about whether Giuliani had intentionally lied to voters in an ad.
Was there a media freak-out? Not even a little. A leading candidate deceiving the public about cancer just isn’t sexy enough.
And what is? In recent months, the most prominent media frenzies have dealt with John Edwards’ hair, Hillary Clinton’s laugh, Rudy Giuliani’s cell phone, and now Clinton’s approach to gratuities.
“You people are really nuts” sums the situation up nicely, doesn’t it?
Posted November 9th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Share This Spotlight Permalink
It’s hard to say for sure when the “silly season” started in the media’s coverage of the presidential campaign. If there was a “serious season,” it was exceedingly short. I’m afraid I missed it.
But yesterday was unusually inane. A waitress at an Iowa diner noted that Hillary Clinton and her campaign aides had recently stopped by, but didn’t leave a tip. NPR picked up on the “story,” the New York Times called it a “potentially embarrassing mini-scandal,” and Drudge blared it above the fold. Soon after, NBC News and ABC News were trumpeting the story.
Clinton didn’t leave a tip? Does she hate working people? Is she out of touch? What does this say about her economic plan? What do her rivals think about this? Why won’t Barack Obama attack her over the issue? Is it too soon to put a poll in the field gauging the public’s reaction?
All of this breathless fascination was for naught. It turned out Clinton’s campaign did leave a tip with the manager for the entire serving staff. Clinton’s individual waitress didn’t know that, so there was a simple misunderstanding.
Reporters ended up contacting the waitress, Anita Esterday, at her home in Iowa yesterday.
Ms. Esterday said she did not understand what all the commotion was about.
“You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip.”
Thank you, Anita Esterday. “You people are really nuts” may actually be the most helpful and poignant media criticism I’ve seen this year. It has the added benefit of being true.It’s also a reminder of just what it takes to get some political reporters excited. Last week, Rudy Giuliani unveiled a campaign ad in Iowa with an obvious, demonstrable lie. Many of us begged reporters to take it seriously, and give it the full-court press.
Some columnists noted the problem, but most outlets followed the AP’s lead: “No one argues that Rudy Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer, underwent treatment and survived. Yet there is a dispute about the statistics he quotes about his chances of survival.”
A “dispute,” as if there was some question about whether Giuliani had intentionally lied to voters in an ad.
Was there a media freak-out? Not even a little. A leading candidate deceiving the public about cancer just isn’t sexy enough.
And what is? In recent months, the most prominent media frenzies have dealt with John Edwards’ hair, Hillary Clinton’s laugh, Rudy Giuliani’s cell phone, and now Clinton’s approach to gratuities.
“You people are really nuts” sums the situation up nicely, doesn’t it?
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