U.S. Military Academy Endures Dick Cheney Commencement Address

   First off, one of our best progressive website's turned 5 years old today.

That would be DailyKos, so Happy birthday!

   Vice President Dick Cheney gave the commencement address today at the U.S. Military Academy, which had to have sucked having to listen to this little wart.

 

Dick's Commencement Address

by BarbinMD Sat May 26, 2007   DKos

Today, after four grueling years of academic study and military training, the graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy were forced to endure one more moment of hell...a commencement address by Dick Cheney.  

After a few minutes of acting like he remembers what it was like to be in the military, September 11th, September 11th, and September 11th, Cheney explained exactly how we're winning the war on terror:

Our government has used every legitimate tool to counter the activities of an enemy that likely has cells inside our own country. We've improved our security arrangements [dug a deeper bunker for me], reorganized intelligence capabilities [repeatedly broke the law], surveilled and interrogated the enemy [tortured], and worked closely with friends [Great Britain] and allies [Great Britain] to track terrorist movements.

Cheney then spent a few moments waxing poetic about the Republican party, saying that they:

...know what they want and they will stop at nothing to get it. By force and intimidation, they seek to impose a dictatorship of fear, under which every man, woman, and child lives in total obedience to their ideology.

Oops, check that.  He was talking about terrorists, but hey, it's an easy mistake to make.  Anyway, back to the speech.  He reminded the graduates that a month ago:

General Pace, spoke to this class about each officer's duty to follow a moral compass in all of his or her actions.

...but in case anyone misunderstood where Cheney thinks their moral compass should be pointing, he followed up by saying:

Capture one of these killers, and he'll be quick to demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States.

How quaint.  

Cheney finished with:

And you will swear again today to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Can we put the emphasis on domestic?

Tags: U.S. Military Academy Dick Cheney republican party

President Bush and Hid Memorial Day Radio Address

"On Memorial Day, we rededicate ourselves to freedom's cause," the president said.

   On this Memorial Day weekend, I would like to ask Mr. Bush, freedom's cause for who? The people of Iraq's freedom or ours? I'm not speaking of the Republican's war on terror but on the Republican's war on it's own citizens. Our constitutional rights have been taken away from us for the most part so for who's freedom's are our troops fighting  and dying for?

On Wednesday, I met with some of the courageous young men and women who will soon take their place in the defense of our Nation: the graduating class of the United States Coast Guard Academy. Since its inception, the Coast Guard has patrolled and protected America's shores. And in this time of war, the Coast Guard has assumed new responsibilities to defend our Nation against terrorist infiltration and help stop new attacks. I was proud to stand with the Class of 2007 and thank them for their bold decision to wear the uniform.

  It takes a lot of balls to stand before a group of graduates of the United States Coast Guard Academy when you are yourself an AWOL resident of the National Guard and to then speak of the responsibilities that the group has when you ran and hid from your military responsibilities because you are a coward.

   Mr. Bush shouldn't even be allowed on this government property much less be allowed to speak of any type of responsibility.

   Next we have Mr. Bush going to Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath in honor of those who died for this country, which is a great thing to do, but Mr. bush, once again, shouldn't be allowed anywhere near such sacred ground.

One of those who gave his life was Sergeant David Christoff, Jr., of Rossford, Ohio. The day after the attacks of September the 11th, David walked into a recruiting station to become a United States Marine. Asked why he made the decision to serve, David said: "I don't want my brother and sister to live in fear." David eventually deployed to Iraq, where he fought street by street in the battle of Fallujah and earned a Purple Heart for wounds suffered in action.

While on leave back home, David learned his company was headed for combat in Afghanistan. But he knew there was also a job to finish in Iraq. So he asked to be reassigned to a unit headed for Iraq, and last May he died in Anbar province where the Marines are taking the fight to al Qaeda. When his family received his belongings, his mother and his father each found a letter from David. He asked that they pray for his fellow Marines and all those still serving overseas.

On Memorial Day, our Nation honors Sergeant Christoff's final request. We pray for our men and women serving in harm's way. We pray for their safe return. And we pray for their families and loved ones, who also serve our country with their support and sacrifice.       ( my emphasis )

  We do pray for all of our troops who are in harms way and for their safe return while you only pray for more troops to send out into harms way, Mr. Bush.

    If this president actually wanted our troops safe return, he wouldn't have vetoed his own funding bill when it had timelines and accountability in it. If Mr. Bush wanted our troops safe then he wouldn't continue to use them as political pawns and hostages in dealing with the United States Congress and the money for this debacle.

On Memorial Day, we rededicate ourselves to freedom's cause. In Iraq and Afghanistan, millions have shown their desire to be free. We are determined to help them secure their liberty. Our troops are helping them build democracies that respect the rights of their people, uphold the rule of law, and fight extremists alongside America in the war on terror. With the valor and determination of our men and women in uniform, I am confident that we will succeed and leave a world that is safer and more peaceful for our children and grandchildren.

     I'm not to sure about Afghanistan, but I know that the freedom that the Iraqis are looking for is the freedom from the United States occupation and it's bullshit war which has not given any real sense of freedom to anyone.

   The freedom to starve, the freedom to have no electricity for most of the day, the freedom to be shot at or blown up or tortured and then beheaded and dumped into the streets. That is Mr. Bush's idea of a free Iraq.

On Memorial Day, we also pay tribute to Americans from every generation who have given their lives for our freedom. From Valley Forge to Vietnam, from Kuwait to Kandahar, from Berlin to Baghdad, brave men and women have given up their own futures so that others might have a future of freedom. Because of their sacrifice, millions here and around the world enjoy the blessings of liberty. And wherever these patriots rest, we offer them the respect and gratitude of our Nation.

Radio Address

 

This his the only part of his radio address that he has gotten right for the most part.

   Somebody made the statement somewhere that maybe it is a good thing that Bush went AWOL from service and didn't make it to Vietnam or we would all be speaking Vietnamese. Maybe we should all take up a middle eastern language?

   On Memorial Day, REMEMBER THE HEROES

Tags: Memorial Day George Bush U.S. troops freedom Iraq

Dems Say Fight Has Just Begun

      I like the news headline on the Yahoo News page this morning.

   " Dems:Fight Over Iraq War Has Just Begun " is the headline. Maybe somebody needs to slap the Democrats up besides their heads because they lost the fight over the Iraq war yesterday when they voted to give Bush a blank check for this crap. The Democrats now not only have Bush to put up with, but come this weekend when they go home, they have the people who voted them into office waiting for some answers.

   I'm no political science major but I do know that this bill should not have been introduced, much less passed. The Democrats caved in much to easily and that minimum wage increase that they are now touting means nothing to those troops who will not make it back home from Iraq.

  Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both voted against this bill which is a shift from their earlier position that against troop withdrawal from Iraq so I wonder if they just voted this way because they knew that this bill was going to pass anyway? A vote just to get a little friendly publicity for the public?

  Here's a funny one for you.

Thursday's legislative action capped weeks of negotiations with the White House, which agreed to accept some $17 billion more than Bush had requested as long as there were no restrictions on the military campaign.    Yahoo News

  Let me get this right, okay? Bush would not have taken the additional $17 billion if there were a few restrictions in the bill? What kind of horseshit is that? For that matter, why did the Congress give him the additional money in the first place if they are attempting to stop this fiasco? None of this makes any sense and the Democrats must be made to answer for this .

"This debate will go on," vowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

"Senate Democrats will not stop our efforts to change the course of this war until either enough Republicans join with us to reject President Bush's failed policy or we get a new president," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

  Senator Reid, Speaker Pelosi, you just lost the debate you idiots!

 

Tags: Democrats Nancy Pelosi Harry Reid Iraq

Democrats Kissed Bush's Ass!

    Needless to say, after the Democrats went ahead and gave President Bush all of the money that he has wanted for the war in Iraq, and then some more, I'm not so happy with these spineless cowards at the moment.

   The Democrats have been laying with the Republican dogs for four months and it seems that they have caught their fleas from them. I could go on about how the pigs have come home to roost, but I'll let that one pass, for now.

  There are many of us out here in blog land who are VERY, VERY pissed off with the Democrats tonight for sending Bush another check with infinite zero's at the end of it. As if that wasn't bad enough, these Democrats are under the illusion that they have been victorious over Bush with this bullshit bill.

  I'll tell you who the Democrats are winners over and that would be both you and I, the American citizens who re-elected and also elected the Democrats to stop this lousy war, not put it off until after they have won 2008. At the rate that the House leaders are going, they might as well hand the GOP the White in 2008 because the majority of Americans who puts these clowns in office are not to happy with  this group and their bullshit.

  On to bigger things here.

  Over at Daily kos, Rep Louise Slaughter posted one of her diaries trying to explain why this bill went forward and I do take exception to some of her comments, starting out with the previous bill which Bush vetoed.

As you know, President Bush vetoed it. What is more, the Republicans in this Congress willfully and deliberately ignored public opinion and supported that veto. They made it impossible for us to overturn it. They kept this war going between 2003 and 2006, and they kept it going again with that vote.

As such, we had a choice. We could send Mr. Bush the same bill, or allow something to pass that wouldn't be vetoed. And we elected to let something pass - to let Republicans, if they so choose, fund their own war.

  Sorry Rep. Slaughter, but that doesn't wash. In sending this bill to Bush for his signature you and the other Democrats chose to help the Republicans fund this war so it is now not only their war, but yours also. The Democrats in the Congress are now the proud co-owners of the Bush administration's mess in Iraq. I hope that you truly enjoy your purchase, Rep. Slaughter.

With this White House, and with this Republican minority, it is safe to say that a standoff with the Administration would have meant that our troops would be left in harm's way, only now with even less funding to back them up. I don’t think that would have been right to do - to make them do even more with even less. The President doesn't seem to care how much our troops suffer. All evidence indicates that he will make them fight if they have needed funding or not.

Secondly, a standoff would have allowed the President to keep using our soldiers as pawns, accusing Democrats of abandoning them while it is really his war that has left them to fend for themselves.

     Nothing but stale air in this comment, Rep. Slaughter. You politicians must think that the majority of the American citizens are stupid. While I can state with some certainty that at least 28% ( GOP ) may be stupid, I can also say that the other 72% aren't totally stupid. There may be many among both groups who are ignorant, but that 72% pretty much told this Congress that we wanted our troops out of Iraq NOW, not in 2 years or three years or whenever it is convenient for you.

    Our troops in harms way if you did not let this bill pass? Rep. Slaughter, you are either the stupid one or the ignorant one. Most of us know that our troops aren't going to be in harms way without that cash anymore than they are now. If anything, you and the rest of the Democrats have put them in harms way with  this bill. Less funding, or no funding, means less time for them to be over in Iraq. It does not mean that they are going to have to go from bullets to slingshots without the funds. Lack of funds does not mean that they would be going without anything, it means that they would be going home!

   The Democrats have let most of their supporters down on this and it will not be forgotten so easily. they can spin this all day long but it still comes down to them saying ' fuck the public ' and let's give Bush his money.

Tags: Representative Louise Slaughter George Bush Democrats war Iraq

Ron Paul Donates Educational Books To Giuliani

    We all know that Ron Paul is a very long-shot for the Republican presidential nomination, but he did do something useful today, very useful.  He gave contender Rudy Giuliani a list of foreign policy reading material ( books ) as proof of Paul's contention that the U.S. military presence in Iraq is what has been fueling the Islamic attacks country-wide.

   Ron Paul is one  of the few Republicans who thinks that we should not be in Iraq and he favors a limited U.S. foreign policy world-wide as well as a troop reduction level.     Source

Ron Paul: "I'm giving Mr. Giuliani a reading assignment.I don't think he's qualified to be president. If he was to read the book and report back to me and say, 'I've changed my mind,' I would reconsider."

   Paul has given Giuliani the books because of Giuliani attacking him during the Republican debate when Paul pretty much said that it was the United States foreign policy that got the towers attacked on 9/11, which Giuliani said is wrong. Can Rudy even read?

Giuliani: "I don't think I've ever heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th."

  On Paul's latest comments, Giuliani spokesperson Maria Comella, in an email to the A.P. said, "It is extraordinary and reckless to claim that the United States invited the attacks on September 11th."

"And to further declare Rudy Giuliani needs to be educated on September 11th when millions of people around the world saw him dealing with these terrorist attacks firsthand is just as absurd."

  This would be one of the GOP frontrunner's still stuck in that lovely state of denial. It would also be a bit more truthful if Giuliani's people would stop saying that he dealt with the terrorist attacks when he in fact dealt with the mess afterwards. That was not in a very good way, it would seem from the stories now coming out.

   Rudy Giuliani is no more a leader than George Bush is and I think we have had more than enough of that type of leadership.

   Tags: Ron Paul Rudy Giuliani 9/11 Iraq

Sectarian Violence Up In Baghdad

   HERE is the latest on the sectarian violence in Baghdad, which has gone back up once again.

  A month before Bush's troop surge went into affect, there were 321 bodies found littered throughout the Iraqi capitol. In this month of May, up until this past Tuesday, there were 321 unidentified bodies found with alot of them showing signs of having been tortured and executed.

   These stats come from an Iraqi Health Ministry official who is anonymous since he isn't supposed to release this information to the public, or anyone else for that matter.

Lt. Gen. Aboud Qanbar, the Iraqi commander overseeing the security plan, acknowledged in an interview that the number of unidentified corpses is rising and said there has been a spike in sectarian assaults by Shiite militias, especially elements of the Mahdi Army, the militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

In the 14 weeks preceding the start of the plan on Feb. 14, at least 821 people died in 11 attacks -- typically suicide car bombings -- that killed more than 20 people at a time, according to a Washington Post analysis. There have been at least 20 such attacks in the 14 weeks since the start of the plan, causing a death toll of at least 1,098, the analysis showed.     Washington Post

  Bush and his boys keep saying that the violence is down in hopes of the U.S. citizens supporting his ill-advised surge and to keep the money coming from Congress.

   The Democrats in Congress are going to give Bush his money without a withdrawal timeline for this crap? I think that the Democrats just bought Bush's war from him.

 

Tags: Baghdad Bush Iraq Sunni Shiite

Keith Olbermann Blast Dem Leadership, Democrats, and Bush Over Funding Bill

  A scathing special comment from Keith Olbermann, to say the least.

  Keith tore out on Senator Reid, Nancy Pelosi and just about all of the rest of the Democrats over their compromise bill with Bush and his war funding. Compromise is an overstatement since Bush pretty much gets what he wants.

   From MSNBC:

SPECIAL COMMENT

By Keith Olbermann

Countdown

A Special Comment about the Democrats’ deal with President Bush to continue financing this unspeakable war in Iraq—and to do so on his terms:

This is, in fact, a comment about… betrayal.

Few men or women elected in our history—whether executive or legislative, state or national—have been sent into office with a mandate more obvious, nor instructions more clear:

Get us out of Iraq.

Yet after six months of preparation and execution—half a year gathering the strands of public support; translating into action, the collective will of the nearly 70 percent of Americans who reject this War of Lies, the Democrats have managed only this:

• The Democratic leadership has surrendered to a president—if not the worst president, then easily the most selfish, in our history—who happily blackmails his own people, and uses his own military personnel as hostages to his asinine demand, that the Democrats “give the troops their money”;
• The Democratic leadership has agreed to finance the deaths of Americans in a war that has only reduced the security of Americans;
• The Democratic leadership has given Mr. Bush all that he wanted, with the only caveat being, not merely meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government, but optional meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government.
• The Democratic leadership has, in sum, claimed a compromise with the Administration, in which the only things truly compromised, are the trust of the voters, the ethics of the Democrats, and the lives of our brave, and doomed, friends, and family, in Iraq.

You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions—Stop The War—have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you… for a handful of magic beans.
You may trot out every political cliché from the soft-soap, inside-the-beltway dictionary of boilerplate sound bites, about how this is the “beginning of the end” of Mr. Bush’s “carte blanche” in Iraq, about how this is a “first step.”
Well, Senator Reid, the only end at its beginning... is our collective hope that you and your colleagues would do what is right, what is essential, what you were each elected and re-elected to do.
Because this “first step”… is a step right off a cliff.

  Reading this does not cut it, you have to hear Keith do this one.

   So, go watch the video HERE

 Keith Olbermann Countdown Congress Reid Pelosi Bush Iraq  Democrats

John McCain Called To Resign By Az. State Rep. Russell Pearce For Not Doing His Job

  More of the Republican comedy show with a lot of truth in it.

State Rep. Russell Pearce has said that Senator John McCain should resign from his position if he keeps on missing votes because he'd rather be out campaigning for the presidential nomination.

Rep. Russell Pearce:" We need a senator. I think if McCain wants to be a full-time candidate and not be at the Senate, he ought to consider resigning."       Source

  The Washington Post reports that McCain has missed 43 votes thus far in the new Congress' voting. That is almost half of the voting whereas Hillary Clinton has missed not even 2% of voting and Barack Obama has missed 6.4 %.   

   So let us see here. Obama and Clinton, who are way more busy than John McCain is while chasing after their presidential nominations, can actually make it into Washington, D.C. to vote but dear old John can't? He isn't even doing so great to start with!

   His people ( Eileen McMenamin ) say that it isn't an issue because his votes weren't the deciding votes on the issues that he has missed. Were his other votes the deciding votes on those other issues? I seriously doubt it.

   Send the old has-been home for his retirement.

Tags: John McCain Russell Pearce Hillary Clinton Senate voting

Democratic War Fund Bill To Be Shot Down?

    “The anti-war Democrats have reached their tipping point,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), a leader of the Out of Iraq caucus. “It’s going to take Republican votes to pass it.”  

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) : “I’m on the edge,” he said. “I’m not liking this. A lot of people have bought into the notion that you have to fund the troops. Funding the troops means more troops are going to die.”
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) “Probably not. If it doesn’t have some sort of timeline, it’s going to be tough for me to vote for it.”  The Hill

    Rep. Ed Perlmutter said, “I don’t know,” when he was asked if he could support the new war funding bill that the Democratic leaders are now pushing that do not contain any timelines for withdrawing the troops from Iraq.

  Hopefully, this bill will go into the waste basket and a different one will emerge with the timelines included.

   Democratic leaders are saying that this bill is a victory of sorts but I don't see it that way. Bush gets what he wants and the democrats have to go back to square one to start all over again. They will be losing a lot of ground if this bill passes.

  If the Democratic leadership thinks that they'll get more Republicans to back them at the end of September when we will have our latest report on the progress in Iraq, they are as delusional as Bush is because the GOP is looking at this bill as a sign of Democratic weakness. if it passes, and they will see no reason to cooperate with the Democrats.

   This bill is BULLSHIT !

Tags: Democrats war funding bill Iraq Congress

Wolfowitz and Shaha Ali Riza Break-up

  As if Paul Wolfowitz didn't have enough troubles he got another stake driven through his heart when his little whore ( Shaha Ali Riza ) dumped him. I must say that it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

  It has to suck to lose your job and your other half all in the past few weeks.

  Sources say ( gotta love the sources ) that Riza was upset about all of the publicity that dear old Wolfie was bringing down upon her and also the fact that it is being said that the only reason she got ahead in her career was with the help ( sleeping with ) of a powerful man. Source

  You know what? When you look at it, Wolfie had it made. Got him a cheap piece of ass while running the World Bank and he still has a legal wife even though they are legally separated.

  Maybe next up, his estranged wife ( Clare Selgin ) will file for divorce and take this punk to the cleaners. Clean his pockets out and leave him lying in the gutter where he belongs!

 

Tags: Paul Wolfowitz Shaha Riza Clare Selgin World Bank

Congress On OPEC, Spyware, and U.S. Attorney Appointment Bills

Fixing the US Attorney Appointment Process

May 22nd, 2007 by Jesse Lee  @ The Gavel

The House has just debated the Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007, which has already passed the Senate and would revoke the power of the President to appoint interim US Attorneys for extended periods, effectively bypassing Senate confirmation. On March 23, the House had passed a somewhat stronger bill (H.R. 580), which included the same repeal of the 2006 provision as the Senate bill, but also included a provision preventing the Administration from using the Vacancies Act to allow the Attorney General to make continuous interim appointments of U.S. Attorneys. The House passed H.R. 580 by a strong bipartisan vote of 329 to 78, but Republicans have blocked H.R. 580 in the Senate. Therefore, the House will pass S. 214 to get a bill to the President’s desk.

*****

 

Spyware bill gains momentum
Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch - May 2, 2007  The Gavel

Consumers may get federal protection from computer criminals who steal their personal information as Congress seeks to safeguard the growing Internet commerce market.

On Wednesday, members of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary approved by voice vote to favorably report the “Internet Spyware Prevention Act of 2007″ — without any amendments — to the House floor, pushing it one step closer to becoming law. A day before, the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security approved the bill.

“Spyware is a serious and growing problem for American consumers and businesses. Thieves are using spyware to harvest personal information such as Social Security numbers and credit-card numbers for use in a variety of criminal enterprises,” said U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., at the subcommittee hearing.

Spyware is a program placed in a computer through the Internet used to gather information about the computer’s user — without the user’s knowledge. In 2006, consumers spent $2.6 billion trying to block or remove spyware from their computers, according to testimony at the hearing.

The act would impose a prison sentence of up to 5 years for using spyware in committing another federal crime, and up to a 2-year sentence for hacking into a computer and altering its security settings or obtaining personal information with the intent to defraud or injure the person or damage a computer.

*****

  This one falls in to my " dumbest bill " of the day category.

NOPEC

May 22nd, 2007 by Jesse Lee

The House has just debated the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) Act of 2007, H.R. 2264, which will enable the Department of Justice to take legal action against foreign nations for participating in oil cartels that drive up oil prices globally and in the United States. This legislation does so by exempting OPEC and other nations from the provisions of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act when acting in a commercial capacity; by making clear that the so-called “Act of State” doctrine does not prevent courts from ruling on antitrust charges brought against foreign governments; and by authorizing the Department of Justice to bring lawsuits in U.S. courts against cartel members.

  Let me get this right. We are now going to make changes in a law so that we can sue OPEC? Think about this one folks. The government now wants to be able to sue the countries in the middle east for charging us to much for their oil! Maybe before the Bush administration does this, they should sue our United States oil companies for gouging the consumer at the pumps every time we buy their gasoline!

  Our government sues the OPEC members, who in turn cut back on oil production which in turn makes our gas prices go up even more and it also makes the oil companies a shitload of cash. Let us not forget that Bush and his clowns will also make a shitload of cash.

Tags: The House spyware OPEC U.S. Attorneys Bush

Democrats Offer Bush A Blank Check

   Party officials have said that the upcoming war spending bill will most likely be funding military operations in Iraq and the bill will not be demanding a timeline for bringing our men and women home.

   Once again, the Democrats have proven themselves to be nothing but a group of spineless, cowardly politicians who are concerned with nothing but their elections in 2008. Their fear of not looking week in regard to supporting our troops rings hollow.

"I'm frustrated" with the war, said Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., a member of the Blue Dog coalition, a group of conservative Democrats. "But we realize too we have a responsibility to fund our troops and make sure they have the right equipment."

  This line of bullshit does not hold water! Common sense, which Democrats lack, tells you that not giving Bush the money he wants can result only in him having to withdraw the troops. Case closed.

The bill also was expected to insist that U.S. troops meet certain standards before being sent into battle, out of concern from Democrats that some troops were going to Iraq without proper training. But the measure likely would give the President authority to waive this restriction.

  So what is the point in having the bill insist that the troops meet these standards of readiness if Bush can just waive them? wonder how much the taxpayers are shelling out for this waste of ink on this bill?

  The Democratic leaders are claiming a victory of Bush with this bill. How do they figure that they have won anything? For that matter, what have they won?  NOTHING! Absolutely nothing! That is what they have won.

   This bill is a weak bill and it has no business being okayed by the House or the Senate. Democrats need to get with the program and send Bush another bill that he can veto. Leave the consequences of his veto in his own damn lap.

   I think that I will move back to the independent group. the Dems and the GOP ain't shit.

 

Tags: Democrats Republicans Bush Iraq war funding bill

MSNBC Poll Says 88% Think Bush Needs Impeachment

    MSNBC has a poll going on right now that you may want to check out.

       This is not a scientific poll.

The question:

Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment?  

 * 437225 responses

   88% say yes at this time. Go vote your opinion.

 

   Prophetic point here from December 2005. On the illegal spying and our Constitution, Howard Fineman pointed out this:

As best I can tell — and this really isn’t my beat — the only people who knew about the NSA’s new (and now so controversial) warrant-less eavesdropping program early on were Bush, Cheney, NSA chief Michael Hayden, his top deputies, top leaders of the CIA, and lawyers at the Justice Department and the White House counsel’s office hurriedly called in to sprinkle holy water on it.

Which presents the disturbing image of the White House as a series of nesting dolls, with Cheney-Bush at the tiny secret center, sifting information that most of the rest of the people around them didn’t even know existed. And that image, in turn, will dominate and define the year 2006 — and, I predict, make it the angriest, most divisive season of political theater since the days of Richard Nixon.

Now the Bush foes will base their case on his having signed off on the NSA’s warrant-less wiretaps. He and Cheney will argue his inherent powers and will cite Supreme Court cases and the resolution that authorized him to make war on the Taliban and al-Qaida. They will respond by calling him Nixon 2.0 and have already hauled forth no less an authority than John Dean to testify to the president’s dictatorial perfidy. The “I-word” is out there, and, I predict, you are going to hear more of it next year — much more.

 

 

Tags: George Bush impeach MSNBC

Dems Issuing A Blank Check to Bush?

  You've probably all read it by now, hoe the Democrats are crafting a war funds bill that would have no timelines for troop withdrawal in it. I should note that they are also cutting back on the money for our domestic needs because King George doesn't like those either.

  The Democrats are pointing out that the federal minimum wage increase is in the funding bill, but so are some of the tax cuts for for small business's that hire low-skilled or handicapped workers.

   Of course, the usual anonymous sources are saying that the details of the bill are subject to change.  Sure they are, and George Bush is subject to an increase in his I.Q., and we know that isn't going to happen.

    So, military operations in Iraq will be funded through the end of the fiscal year, which is September 30, 2007.

   The Democrats will hope and pray that they can get enough Republicans to switch over to supporting the troop withdrawal when the imaginary September ' wait and see ' period comes around and things are no better in Iraq. Not gonna happen folks. The Republicans are playing a different version of ' bait and switch ' on the Democrats, who are falling over it like rocks in water.

   The Democrats say that they are pushing this currant bill forward because they want to avoid another Bush veto. Bush's veto's were the only thing that Congress had going in their favor and they just flat out trashed it. What a bunch of fucking idiots!  My pet ferret has more spine than these wussies.

     Sorry to say it people. Don't look for any kind of a withdrawal timeline for our troops or for any ' benchmarks ' with any bite for the Iraqis because it ain't going to happen until Bush and the rest of these clowns are all gone. I seriously doubt if it will happen even then.

   The Democrats are turning into ' Bush Lite.'

Tags: Democrats Congress Republicans Iraq war funding George Bush veto

Pork-barrel Spending Continues With Democrats In Control

   A Senate bill which was approved last week to authorize water projects has some 446 earmarks contained in it. 692 earmarks are in the House version of the bill.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.): Senator Boxer drafted this bill which runs at $14 billion. $1.4 billion goes to funding projects in her state. she got $25 million for the revitalization of the Los Angeles River, which is double what the Republicans where going to put into their bill. That bill met a death in the last Congress.              Source

 

Money for California water projects

Here are some major provisions for California in the Senate version of the Water Resources Development Act, whose chief sponsor is Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.:

-- Raising Folsom Dam for Sacramento-area flood control. Federal share, $444 million; other agencies, $139 million.

-- Bel Marin Keys restoration at Hamilton Army Airfield. Federal cost $166 million; nonfederal $55.5 million.

-- Llagas Creek flood work in Santa Clara County. Federal share $65 million, nonfederal $40 million.

Among items in the bill without a price tag:

-- Flood control project review in St. Helena in Napa County, South San Francisco bay shoreline flood and salt ponds restoration study, study of San Pablo Bay watershed and a report on whether federal maintenance of the Larkspur Ferry Channel is appropriate.       SFGate

 

   There hasn't been a new water project bill in at least seven years so now is a good time to put some of that federal cash to a use for something other than the Iraq war. I'm sure that between the bridges and the levee's and many other things that have been neglected, most of this money will be put to good use. If not, the Democrats will answer for it in the next election cycle.

   Let's just hope that they don't get carried away with their new found authority.

 

Tags: Barbara Boxer Democrats Republicans water authorization bill

John McCain's Political Campaign Finance Reform? Not!

     U.S. News  has an interesting piece on John McCain and his straight talk about finance reform'

  You all know that for many of the past few years, Mr. McCain has pressed for campaigns that are run clear of the big cash inflows from special-interest groups. He has been particularly chasing after the " soft money "  coming in from lobbyist, corporations and given to the political parties.

   McCain is now running for the Republican presidential nomination so it begs the question, does all of his straight-talk now have a curve in it? Has it always?

McCain has positioned himself as a die-hard opponent of special-interest influence. But a U.S. News analysis of his 25-year legislative career shows he has been an avid seeker of special-interest money to support his campaigns and initiatives. The pattern goes all the way back to his first House race in 1982. Moreover, as the boss or No. 2 member of the Senate Commerce Committee, he has drawn heavy support from PACs and individuals associated with industries overseen by that committee-especially telecommunications, media, and technology firms. Between 1997 and June 2006, he collected nearly $2.6 million from such interests, according to the Center for Public Integrity, an independent watchdog group in Washington. In some cases, the review showed, McCain's positions mirrored those of his biggest supporters. Big corporate donors also have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Reform Institute, a tax-exempt organization-once closely affiliated with McCain-that was established to promote campaign finance reform.  U.S. News

  His aides claim that he has no other choice than to take the cash from big corporate donors and PACS if he wants to be president.

   So, McCain is selling his soul for the chance at running for president.

Tags: John McCain Reform Institute PACS

Morning News For Monday

   After helping to craft the new immigration bill, employers have decided that they do not like it.

WASHINGTON, May 20 — Employers, who helped shape a major immigration bill over the last three months, said on Sunday that they were unhappy with the result because it would not cure the severe labor shortages they foresee in the coming decade.

In addition, employers expressed alarm as they learned that the Senate bill would require them to check a government database to verify that all current and former employees — aliens and citizens alike — were eligible to work in the United States.         NYTimes

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Second Life for Study Group
Monday, May 21, 2007

After an initially tepid reception from policymakers, the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group are getting a second look from the White House and Congress, as officials continue to scour for bipartisan solutions to salvage the American engagement in Iraq.

With negotiations continuing this week on a new war funding bill, the administration is strongly signaling that it would accept the idea of requiring the Iraqi government to meet political benchmarks or else risk losing some assistance from the United States. That was one of the key proposals from the group headed by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former Indiana congressman Lee H. Hamilton, but it was initially dismissed by the White House when first proposed last December.       Washington Post

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Haniyeh Could Be on Israeli Hit List

GAZA CITY/RAMALLAH, 21 May 2007 — Israeli forces killed at least four Palestinians yesterday and an Israeli minister warned that even Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh could be targeted by his country.

Israeli Minister Ze’ev Boim said Israel must strike at Hamas leaders “with all our might.”

“There’s a list of them from the first of them to the very last,” Boim told Israel Radio. “Now, with Hamas saying openly that it is the one who is firing the Qassam rockets, we must strike at Hamas. There are people there who are launching them, there are their commanders there in the armed wing, and there is the political echelon, there is a prime minister.”

Arab News

 

Tags: immigration bill Senate Iraq Study Group Hamas Israel White House

White House Crying Over Jimmy Carter Speaking The Truth

  It's a good thing that I bought a new box of tissue as old George Bush and the boys at the White house may need them after they are finished crying about former president Jimmy Carter's remarks about Bush being the worst president ever so far as international relations are concerned.  

  As you all know by now, Carter told the  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that "as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history."  So I ask you reader, is Mr. Carter wrong in his statement? I think not.

  White House mouthpiece Tony Fratto had something to  say about it today, saying that Carter was " irrelevant ' in these kinds of things.

Fratto: "I think it's sad that President Carter's reckless personal criticism is out there. I think it's unfortunate. And I think he is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments."     WaPo

   Everyone is making a big deal out of this since it is generally a courtesy to not say to much about the president if you have been a president yourself. Get over it Republicans! You punks have changed the rules of the game to favor your immoral and illegal activities so now anyone, former presidents included, can take their best shots at Bush and the rest of you criminals for as long as they wish.

   The correct way to spell ' irrelevant ' is ' Bush.'

 Carter: "We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered."

Tags: Jimmy Carter George Bush Tony Fratto

Catholic League President Bill Donohue After Barbara Walters

    It would seem that ABC's The View has gotten the ire of Catholic League president Bill Donohue over a show on this past Friday.

  The discussion was on male nannies and Rosie O’Donnell had said that she would never hire one to take care of her adopted children, to which Barbara Walters asked her, “Are you worried about homosexual tendencies? Is that what you are saying?”

O’Donnell: “No, pedophilia has nothing to do with homosexual”

Walters: “Oh, pedophilia.”     Source

   Anyway, later on in the discussion O'Donnell asked Walters if she would have hired a male to watch her daughter as she was growing up. Before Walters could answer, the other  show host ( Joy Behar ) interrupted with the comment, “A priest perhaps?” It is said that O'Donnell just made a face and that the audience busted a gut over it.

  I guess that this just pissed little Bill off so he now will begin a public relations blitz against Barbara Walters since it seems that no one at Disney-ABC Television Group and others within the company has bothered to reply to his stupid rants in the past.

Bill Donohue:  “It is obvious that Barbara Walters is begging for a fight with Catholics.  Consider it done. Over the past year, the Catholic League has registered several complaints with Walters, who is co-owner of the show, executive producer Bill Geddie, and Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney-ABC Television Group. None has replied. While the anti-Catholic bigots have either been Rosie O’Donnell or Joy Behar (today’s culprit), the person most responsible for allowing this unrelenting assault on Catholic sensibilities is Walters.

“Accordingly, beginning in mid-June, we will commence a public relations campaign against Barbara Walters. When we’re finished, so too will be her once stellar reputation. Today was the last straw.”

  As is with the Christian Right, if this is what a Catholic does ever time they are criticized, we are all screwed.

Tags: Catholic League Bill Donohue The View Barbara Walters

Sinner Gingrich Speaks At Liberty University

  Not that I particularly care about anything that this creep has to say since it is mostly bull anyway, but I thought that I'd let you read some of his comments to the students of the graduating glass.

"A growing culture of radical secularism declares that the nation cannot profess the truths on which it was founded. We are told that our public schools can no longer invoke the creator, nor proclaim the natural law nor profess the God-given quality of human rights.

"In hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive and that public debate can only proceed on secular terms. 

  Speaking as a Christian and as a " liberal ", My problem personally is that those so-called Christians like Gingrich, Falwell, Robertson,Dobbs, and others are attempting to force us into believing their idea of Christianity, which is, our way is right and if you don't believe it then you are going to burn in hell. I don't need their version of Christianity shoved down my throat nor will I ever abide by their rhetoric. If there views and actions are what real Christians are, then God help us!

  One more thing though. I do believe that prayer, of any type, should be allowed in the school before class begins if that is what the students wish to do

  Gingrich also went on to rant about the Supreme Courts efforts to separate church and state.

"Too often, the courts have been biased against religious believers. This anti-religious bias must end."

   Once again, the courts have been right in their dealings on this. In case you haven't noticed for the past few years, Fundamentalist ( Christian Right ) have been invading our government in droves. The entire point is to make us a 'one religion view' society. This is why we need separation of church and state.

Falwell intended Liberty to be his most enduring legacy. He envisioned it as a "Protestant Notre Dame," projecting fundamentalist Christianity for generations. It was to be a training ground for conservative politicians, lawyers and judges _ warriors in what Falwell perceived as a cultural war against liberals, gay rights, legalized abortion and forces he saw as a threat to Christianity.

 

Gingrich: "Anybody on the left who hopes that when people like Reverend Falwell disappear that the opportunity to convert ( my emphasis) all of America has gone with them fundamentally misunderstands why institutions like this were created."     Huffington Post

     Convert? Into what, may I asked? It is amazing to me that any of these Republican Christians ( hypocrites ) actually have the nerve to stand up before a crowd of anybody and then speak about Christian values! It's just mind boggling, especially someone like Newt.

Tags: Newt Gingrich Liberty University Jerry Falwell Christian Right