Dear President Bush

Venezuelan Thrives on Seeing Threats From 'Mr. Danger'

By JUAN FORERO

CARACAS, Venezuela - The White House may be focused on Iraq and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but in Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez's most pressing concern seems to be the Bush administration. Or, as he frequently puts it, the administration's grand plans to kill him and invade this oil-rich country.

The threats are so great, Mr. Chávez has said, that he has been forced to cancel numerous public appearances and create a civilian militia force that will make the Yankee hordes "bite the dust." And he warns that if the Americans are so foolish as to invade, "you can forget the Venezuelan oil."

"If the government of the United States attempts to commit the foolhardy enterprise of attacking us, it would be embarked on a 100-year war," Mr. Chávez told Ted Koppel in a "Nightline" interview in September. "We are prepared. They would not manage to control Venezuela, the same way they haven't been able to control Iraq."

Wherever he can - in speeches, interviews, inaugurations of public works projects, his weekly television show - Mr. Chávez rings the alarm bell. "If something happens to me," he warned in August, "the responsible one will be President George W. Bush."

With every warning about Mr. Danger - the Venezuelan government's title for Mr. Bush - American officials offer weary denials, a flurry of them coming after Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster and Bush supporter, suggested this summer on his television show that the United States should assassinate the Venezuelan president.

[On the CNN program "Late Edition" on Oct. 9, Mr. Robertson was back on the attack, citing unidentified sources who accused Mr. Chávez of sending "either $1 million or $1.2 million in cash" to Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11 attacks and asserting that Venezuela was trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capacity. The Venezuelan vice president, José Vicente Rangel, dismissed Mr. Robertson's remarks, saying, "He's crazy, at the very least."]

With each threat and criticism from the north, real or imagined, Mr. Chávez lashes back, seemingly thriving on the atmosphere of confrontation. In this, veteran observers of the Latin American left see history repeating itself, and not necessarily as farce.

Wayne Smith, a former American diplomat in Cuba, said he saw a parallel with the antagonistic relationship 10 American presidents have had with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who survived the C.I.A.-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion and several assassination attempts.

"He plays David to our Goliath in a way that reverberates splendidly in Latin America," said Mr. Smith, now a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington. "Now, Chávez is doing the same thing."

The whole war of words raises a question frequently asked in Caracas and Washington: Is Mr. Chávez paranoid or, as with Mr. Castro, is there some substance to his claim?

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/11/international/americas/11venezuela.html

Is Mr. Chávez paranoid or, as with Mr. Castro, is there some substance to his claim?

Posted by: Matthew Carnicelli at October 11, 2005 08:09 AM

I'm gonna guess and say "D", all of thee above.

P.S. Hey Condi, is it ok for Mr. Danger to go potty now?

Letters reveal Miers' profound admiration for Bush

BY JAY ROOT

Knight Ridder Newspapers

AUSTIN, Texas - (KRT) - Harriet Miers, President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, quickly developed a deep and almost gushing admiration for her boss from her earliest days in Texas government.

"You are the best governor ever - deserving of great respect!" she wrote in 1997, in a belated birthday note that was typical of the tone she used in her correspondence with then-Gov. Bush.

The letter was one of a handful of personal notes included in more than 2,000 pages of documents released Monday by the Texas State Library - most of them routine legal memos, press releases and transcripts. The letters offer a rare glimpse into the mutual admiration that sprung up between Miers and Bush after they began working together on Bush's first campaign for Texas governor in 1994.

Bush responded to her birthday wish in kind, and included a humorous, if baffling, postscript.

"I appreciate your friendship and candor. Never hold back your sage advice," he wrote. "P.S. No more public scatology." Whether Bush was referring to Miers' rough-and-tumble time as chairwoman of the Texas Lottery Commission or something else isn't clear. Scatology refers to "the study of or preoccupation with excrement or obscenity," according to Webster's dictionary.

Bush and Miers had met briefly at a banquet in 1989, but their political partnership began in late 1993, as Bush was preparing for a race against incumbent Texas Gov. Ann Richards.

Dallas businessman Jim Francis, then Bush's campaign chairman, had recommended that he hire Miers, a prominent lawyer and the first female president of the State Bar Association of Texas, to be his general counsel.

She took the job and has been at Bush's side ever since. Now Bush wants to elevate his devoted friend to the highest court in the land. Some critics have questioned whether Miers was nominated based on friendship and loyalty alone.

Francis, however, said the friendship flows from a professional relationship and Bush's trust in her ability as a skilled lawyer.

" It's a personal relationship, but it's based on a very professional business working relationship. She calls him `sir' and `Mr. President,'" Francis said. Asked if the two were friends, Francis said: "I think they have a friendship, but it's based on a professional relationship. It's obvious that he likes her and she likes him. If that's a definition of friends, I think the answer is yes. But they're not buddies."

Indeed, Miers oozes with deference and awe in her letters to Bush. In a 1995 note, she thanked Bush for a visit and called a ride in a plane with him "Cool!" When she wrote Bush a thank-you note for meeting with a lottery job applicant in 1997, she wrote, "You are the best!"

Likewise, in a 1996 letter thanking Bush and his wife, Laura, for serving as chairs of a Dallas luncheon honoring Miers, the future Supreme Court nominee spoke of a little girl who'd raved about getting Bush's autograph.

"I truly believe if the governor told her she should be an Astronaut, she would do her best to become one," Miers wrote. "I was struck by the tremendous impact you have on the children whose lives you touch."

more... http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/12868383.htm

Storm recovery will be in local hands, Bush says
In 'Today' show interview, president also defends Supreme Court pick Miers

COVINGTON, La. - President Bush pledged Tuesday that the federal government will not seek to dictate terms for rebuilding the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast but would allow state and local officials to make key decisions. He rejoiced in what he said is a spirit of revival there.

“I think we’ve seen the spirits change ... Local people are beginning to realize there’s hope,” Bush said in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show in which both he and his wife, Laura, defended his choice of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. Bush confidently predicted her confirmation by the Senate.

Bush and his wife were interviewed at a Habitat for Humanity work site, a town just north of New Orleans where the nonprofit organization is building houses for displaced people.

In response to the government’s initially slow response to Hurricane Katrina, Bush said, “If I didn’t respond well enough, I’m going to learn the lessons.” The federal government’s response to the second huge storm to slam the area, Rita, has gotten better reviews.

“The story will unfold. I mean, the facts of the story will come out over time, and the important thing is for federal, state and local governments to adjust and to respond,” Bush said.

First family pitches in
The president and his wife joined other volunteers, driving nails into a sheet of plywood with a hammer.

Bush rejected criticism from Democrats that his visits to the region — this was his eighth — were largely picture-taking opportunities for publicity and that his administration lacked a coherent reconstruction plan.

“I don’t think Washington ought to dictate to New Orleans how to rebuild,” he said. Bush said he had told Ray Nagin, the Democratic mayor of New Orleans, over dinner the night before that “we will support the plan that you develop.”

On other subjects in the NBC interview, Bush:

:Defended his Supreme Court choice against criticism by some members of the political right who feel let down because of Mier’s lack of a conservative record. “My answer is Harriet Miers is going to be confirmed and people will get to see why I put her on the bench,” he said.

* Predicted that the Oct. 15 Iraqi elections on a new constitution would be marked by violence from “a group of terrorists and killers who want to stop the advance of democracy.” And, Bush said, “I also expect people to vote.”

* Expressed confidence that the government would develop a plan “to handle a major outbreak” of bird flu if it spreads to this country.

* Declined to discuss a federal grand jury investigation that includes an inquiry into the role, if any, that top adviser Karl Rove played in disclosing the identity of an undercover CIA agent. “I’m not going to talk about the case. It’s under review. Thank you for asking,” Bush said tersely.

more...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9654536/

I think W loves being in uniform and standing in front of the military, pretending to be a general.

& here's another guy jockeying to be our next President

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles... /

Romney warns of theocracy danger

In remarks in N.C., says US under attack
By Seth Effron and Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff | October 11, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Venturing into foreign policy, Governor Mitt Romney yesterday told a largely Republican audience that Islamic terrorists ''want to bring down our government" and ''want to put in place a huge theocracy." ''We're under attack, as you know, militarily," Romney told about 150 people gathered at an exclusive Raleigh country club. ''They're not just intent on blowing up a little bomb here and there at a shopping mall, awful as that would be. They want to bring down our government, bring down our entire economy. They want to put in place a huge theocracy." ''Thank heavens we have a president of the United States who recognizes this for what it is and has declared war on it, and thank heavens we have a military that consists of the strongest and bravest and most able men and women in the world," Romney said.

Asked later by a Globe reporter about his remarks, Romney said he was referring to Islamic terrorists. ''Obviously, this is an extreme fundamentalist perspective," he responded. ''It's certainly not shared by the people of Islam generally, but is shared by some radical few." Then he was asked if he felt Islamic terrorists want to take over the United States. Romney said: ''No. No. No." ''I don't have any foreign intelligence that's any different than what you read in the various journals and so forth," the governor said. ''Among the various reports I've read -- and I think President Bush has described -- that there are some who wish to bring down the Western-leaning governments and put in a more fundamentalist, religious leadership. But that's not something I'm something I'm expert in."

WOW! I swear, when I read the headline "Romney warns of theocracy danger", I thought he was talking about our current government, not Islamic terrorists.

Pitchers Mitt

The irony ..

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, beginning a trip to Central Asia, urged the region's leaders on Monday to hold "elections that are free and fair" - like ours are?!!

In Iraq, an existing law means that detainees in prisons will be allowed to vote, even Saddam.

Meanwhile, in south Asia, 40,000 dead in the earthquake - isn't that a par with the tsunami?

Monkey

So did the person who sent me that (think from the title that the article was talking about our government)!

DailyKos's madhaus ties Ohio's coingate story together, based on an article in yesterday's Toledo Blade...

It gets even more interesting... "Noe moved money into his own personal bank account and subsequently made donations to Republicans, both in Ohio and for Bush's presidential campaign."
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/10/213156/97

Conservatives have already used the storm for causes of their own, like suspending requirements that federal contractors have affirmative action plans and pay locally prevailing wages. And with federal costs for rebuilding the Gulf Coast estimated at up to $200 billion, Congressional Republican leaders are pushing for spending cuts, with programs like Medicaid and food stamps especially vulnerable.

"We've had a stunning reversal in just a few weeks," said Robert Greenstein, director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal advocacy group in Washington. "We've gone from a situation in which we might have a long-overdue debate on deep poverty to the possibility, perhaps even the likelihood, that low-income people will be asked to bear the costs. I would find it unimaginable if it wasn't actually happening."

This is an excellent article worth reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/11/politics/11poverty.html?th&emc=th

Here's what we can expect this week from Boy George...

Bush Goes on the PR Offensive
Bird Flu, Harriet Miers and Katrina recovery: How the President will try to answer his critics on multiple fronts this week
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1115739,00.html?promoid=rss_top

And here's an interesting article...
Where fear can't take us
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GJ07Aa01.html
--snip--
The prospect of really making things better gives people a reason to think and act together. It makes them feel empowered. Once set loose, hopeful attitudes and actions build on each other. That's when genuine change begins - whether in relation to wetlands, poverty, global warming or any other issue, including the "war on terrorism".

You hardly have to be as well educated as the average al-Qaeda activist (who, it turns out, is pretty well educated) to see that present American efforts to "make the world better" are mainly efforts to protect US power and interests. The president and the power brokers can hide that truth behind a verbal smokescreen, using phrases like "protect America", "keep our nation safe" and "defend our homeland against foreign enemies". It's an easy rhetorical trick.

Once you start talking the language of "protecting and defending", though, you're on your way into the land of self-fulfilling prophecies. To make the smokescreen work, the administration then has to turn everyone who disagrees into "the enemy". It's a natural next step to set out to destroy them, which, of course, turns them into genuine enemies.

But suppose the US had spent the past six decades letting other people decide what "a better world" means to them and then helping them achieve their own goals. That's so far from the pattern of our foreign policy that it takes a wrenching effort just to imagine. Try to make that effort; then ask what kind of "terrorist threat" we would have. There's no way to know for sure. But it seems a reasonable bet that we'd be a lot safer than we are today.

It makes sense to join the liberal chorus of "end the war in Iraq so we can protect ourselves against terrorists" as long as it's just a first step, as long as we go on to say things like: "Instead of draining our national treasury for endless war, we demand that our tax dollars be used to repair the damage done to Iraq and to fund services in our communities." Those words, from the United for Peace and Justice website, echo the sentiment of hundreds of groups that are imagining a better future.

Many demand that our tax dollars be used to fund services and repair damage all over the world. After all, that's actually the best way to begin to protect ourselves from danger. But even that won't work if we do it simply because we are scared. We'll never be safe if we make safety our ultimate goal. We'll be safe only if we let safety be a by-product of a society working together to improve life for everyone.

Posted by: oncall at October 11, 2005 09:55 AM

Trying to put a ballot initiative on the Michigan ballot to raise the minimum wage here (since the Federal gov't failed to do it) and here are some revealing comments from admitted Republican foes:

1. I think the Federal Government should raise the minimum wage, not each state.

2. The minimum wage should be market driven.

AND...to save the best for last...

3. I think the minimum wage should be lowered.

Let's call it what it is! Slave labor!

more on boy george's major miscalculation...

Al Qaeda's Golden Opportunity

By Fawaz A. Gerges, AlterNet. Posted October 11, 2005.

The American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq has provided Al Qaeda with a new lease on life, a second generation of recruits and fighters, and a powerful outlet to expand its ideological outreach activities to Muslims worldwide. Statements by Al Qaeda top chiefs, including bin Laden, Zawahiri, Zarqawi and Seif al-Adl, portray the unfolding confrontation in Iraq as a "golden and unique opportunity" for the global jihad movement to engage and defeat the United States and spread the conflict into neighboring Arab states in Syria, Lebanon and the Palestine-Israeli theater.

The global war is not going well for bin Laden, and Iraq enabled him to convince his jihadist followers that Al Qaeda is still alive and kicking despite suffering crippling operational setbacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and elsewhere.

read more...
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/26460/

Oncall et al...

The truth of it is, in New Orleans right now, there is NO WORK FORCE.

Illegal immigrants have travelled to NOLA to be paid $10 an hour for clean up or to wash dishes in restaurants or as movers.

There are no locals to do the jobs. Jesse Jackson is trying to bus in able bodied survivors and native New Orleaneans so they can have the opportunity to get the jobs and to rebuild their lives...but there are no places for them to live if their houses were destroyed or are unsafe due to the toxic flood waters saturation of their homes.

The Bush Immigration Plan is in full swing...cheap endentured servants from Mexico and South America.

New Orleans may have been built upon this system 200 years ago, but today no one in their right mind wants to see this happening.

I will be arriving in New Orleans ahead of schedule...my employers saw what was happenening and decided we needed to be there as soon as possible.

I think they want to let me loose on the Mayor to talk some sense into him...he did say if anyone had any better ideas to come forward...well, on Monday I will be home and testifyin'!

I'll be able to give you all a better idea of the TRUTH of what is happening in New Orleans next week.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is calling on all
those GOP Representatives who have taken money from the now-indicted Tom
DeLay to give back the money. There are still several MI Representatives
who have not given back the money--including our local Joe Schwarz. Sign
the DCCC's pteition calling on all MI's Representatives to return the
money.

Or, if you live in the 7th CD, call Congressman Schwarz directly and tell
him to give the money back.

Call 517-783-4486

I think they want to let me loose on the Mayor to talk some sense into him...he did say if anyone had any better ideas to come forward...well, on Monday I will be home and testifyin'!

Posted by: Indy at October 11, 2005 10:31 AM

I guess I should register that www.bail4indy.net site now, huh? ;-)

ReNew Orleans

Investigator of CIA leak seen as relentless
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — When defense attorney Ron Safer heard that Patrick Fitzgerald would lead an inquiry into the leak of a CIA operative's name, his first thought was that, from the Bush administration's perspective, "they could not have picked a worse person."

"He ... goes where the facts lead him": CIA leak investigator Patrick Fitzgerald.
By Charles Rex Arbogast, AP

Safer, a Chicago lawyer who has watched Fitzgerald since he was named U.S. attorney there in 2001, says the prosecutor "will bring to this the same energy and aggression that he does to every other project he undertakes."

Fitzgerald's official biography says he was named special counsel in December 2003 to investigate "the alleged disclosure of the identity of a purported employee of the Central Intelligence Agency."

That bland description understates the drama and stakes of the investigation. New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for refusing to testify. The inquiry led to interviews of President Bush and Vice President Cheney and to grand jury subpoenas for White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis Libby and at least a dozen other officials.

Fitzgerald is to meet with Miller today to discuss newly discovered notes on her conversations with Libby. Rove will testify this week before the grand jury for a fourth time.

Fitzgerald wants to know who leaked the identity of Valerie Plame to reporters. Her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, says her cover was blown in retaliation for an op-ed article he wrote in 2003 that accused Bush of "twisting" intelligence to justify the Iraq war.

Perspectives

The inquiry has roiled Washington for months, and tensions are rising because Fitzgerald's grand jury expires Oct. 28. But the man in charge is not a Beltway celebrity. He doesn't hold news conferences in Washington or appear on TV. Friends say he's brilliant and apolitical. Defense lawyers say he can be cold and sometimes surprises them by boldly challenging judges.

Friends and critics agree that his integrity is unassailable and that he is relentless. The list of people he has prosecuted — including al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, former Illinois governor George Ryan and New York mobsters — shows he has no qualms about going after the powerful.

Fitzgerald's politics, motivations and style have prompted debate.

"He has no agenda," says David Kelley, former U.S. attorney in New York and a longtime friend. "He looks at the facts, uncovers the facts and goes where the facts lead him."

Mary Jo White, who was Fitzgerald's boss when she was U.S. attorney in Manhattan, says she knows nothing about his political views — "if he has any, and he may not."

Fitzgerald, who declined interview requests, is registered to vote with no party affiliation.

Defense lawyers have a different perspective. Scott Mendeloff, a Chicago lawyer who specializes in corporate fraud cases and formerly tried and supervised public corruption prosecutions in the U.S. attorney's office, says Fitzgerald demonstrates "a more black-and-white view of the world" that is "reductionist in disregarding nuances beyond what it will take to prevail." Some defense lawyers, he says, believe Fitzgerald is "not prone to consider what some would term humane factors in charging and sentencing decisions."

"To say that he is extremely aggressive is, I think, a gross understatement," Safer says. When he's arguing a motion, Safer says, Fitzgerald is "not disrespectful, but he's a lot less deferential than I bet most judges are accustomed to."

History

Fitzgerald, 44, was born in Brooklyn. His Irish immigrant father, Patrick Sr., worked as a doorman at a building in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Fitzgerald went to Regis High School, a Jesuit preparatory school, then worked on its maintenance crew to pay his way through Amherst College. He majored in math and economics, then went to Harvard Law School.

He worked in a New York law firm before joining the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan in 1988. He stayed for 13 years, convicting Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and indicting bin Laden in a conspiracy that included the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

In Chicago, Fitzgerald has indicted two aides to Mayor Richard Daley on mail-fraud charges after an investigation into bribery and hiring abuses. Ryan is on trial on charges of racketeering conspiracy, mail and tax fraud and false statements during his terms as governor and Illinois secretary of State.

Dick Simpson, a former Chicago alderman who teaches political science at the University of Illinois-Chicago, says Fitzgerald is "almost universally admired ... for telling the truth and prosecuting these cases." He isn't suspected of political motives, Simpson says, because he came to Chicago with no ties to its top politicians and keeps a low profile. "He's doesn't do lunches at the important clubs or make rah-rah speeches," Simpson says.

Even lawyers who question Fitzgerald's tactics say they don't doubt his character. "Pat is driven by iron-tight integrity and a tireless work ethic," Mendeloff says.

Safer, who also once worked in the U.S. attorney's office, faults Fitzgerald for "trying to expand the reach of the mail fraud statutes in ways that are unprecedented" in his government corruption cases. Some errors by politicians, Safer says, "are punishable at the ballot box and not in criminal court." He says Fitzgerald "is impervious to political pressure. ... I've seen no evidence that he has anything but the purest motives."

White says it's unfair to suggest that Fitzgerald is too aggressive. "He's going to pursue matters ... with dedication and thoroughness," she says, "but overzealous? Certainly not."

Miguel Estrada, who worked with Fitzgerald in New York and represents Time reporter Matthew Cooper in the leak inquiry, says Fitzgerald, who is single and a workaholic, is "the picture of what the public would think is an earnest prosecutor. He's a boy scout."

Chuck Rosenberg, a Fitzgerald friend who is U.S. attorney in Houston, was asked recently why Fitzgerald is going after reporters. "I said to them, 'Pat isn't going after journalists, he is after the truth,' " Rosenberg says. "He's exactly the kind of person you'd want doing something like this."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-10-10-fitzgerald_x.htm

(Can you believe it's from USA Today?)

As soon as USA Today got rid of media consolidatio threat, JK, they started to question the war. I also think many are seeing a trend, and will ultimately go with the best GOP, regardless, but until then, this is a juicy story.

I guess I should register that www.bail4indy.net site now, huh? ;-)
Posted by: monkey at October 11, 2005 10:53 AM

Will you accept PayPal? It's going to be a high bail.

Speak truth Indy.... and be safe....

Possible breaking story that the NY subway attack was a hoax. Don't see official link yet, so I'm in a wait for confirmation mode.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1841853

Ok..guess it's breaking news for CNN but not on the blogosphere. K.O. has a show on tomorrow evening about it. and there's this:

SUBWAY THREAT A RAIL HOAX

By MURRAY WEISS and ZACH HABERMAN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 11, 2005 -- The feds now believe that the tip about a supposed terror plot on the city's subways was nothing but a two-bit hoax, law-enforcement sources told The Post yesterday.
An informant — who is believed to be from Pakistan — had told authorities that three men in Iraq were plotting to bomb the subways via remote-controlled devices hidden in baby strollers and briefcases.

One source said the snitch has even admitted to interrogators he made it up. But authorities said they're now satisfied that the three suspects, arrested in Iraq last week, are not al Qaeda members, as the informant...

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/29318.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/opinion/10kelley.html?incamp=article_popular

Op-ed in yesterday's NYTimes quietly sounds the alarm:

Bush's Veil Over History

SECRECY has been perhaps the most consistent trait of the George W. Bush presidency. Whether it involves refusing to provide the names of oil executives who advised Vice President Dick Cheney on energy policy, prohibiting photographs of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq, or forbidding the release of files pertaining to Chief Justice John Roberts's tenure in the Justice Department, President Bush seems determined to control what the public is permitted to know. And he has been spectacularly effective, making Richard Nixon look almost transparent.
snip

But perhaps the most egregious example occurred on Nov. 1, 2001, when President Bush signed Executive Order 13233, under which a former president's private papers can be released only with the approval of both that former president (or his heirs) and the current one.
snip

Unless one of these efforts succeeds, George W. Bush and his father can see to it that their administrations pass into history without examination. Their rationales for waging wars in the Middle East will go unchallenged. There will be no chance to weigh the arguments that led the administration to condone torture by our armed forces. The problems of federal agencies entrusted with public welfare during times of national disaster - 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina - will be unaddressed. Details on no-bid contracts awarded to politically connected corporations like Halliburton will escape scrutiny, as will the president's role in Environmental Protection Agency's policies on water and air polluters.

Posted by: sparrow at October 11, 2005 11:32 AM

It's all becoming a comic farse.

It's as though the Three Stooges, Abbot and Costello and Luci Ricardo are running our country....

It's as though the Three Stooges, Abbot and Costello and Luci Ricardo are running our country....

Posted by: Amy at October 11, 2005 11:53 AM

Nah...too grown up...

More like the kids from Southpark!

Respect my Authorit-aye!!!

Okay Cartman...time for bed...

CIA Leak: Karl Rove and the Case of the Missing E-mail

Newsweek
Oct. 17, 2005 issue - The White House's handling of a potentially crucial e-mail sent by senior aide Karl Rove two years ago set off a chain of events that has led special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to summon Rove for a fourth grand jury appearance this week. His return has created heightened concern among White House officials and their allies that Fitzgerald may be preparing to bring indictments when a federal grand jury that has been investigating the leak of a CIA agent's identity expires at the end of October. Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer, tells NEWSWEEK that, in his last conversations with Fitzgerald, the prosecutor assured Luskin "he has not made any decisions."

But lawyers close to the case, who asked not to be identified because it's ongoing, say Fitzgerald appears to be focusing in part on discrepancies in testimony between Rove and Time reporter Matt Cooper about their conversation of July 11, 2003. In Cooper's account, Rove told him the wife of White House critic Joseph Wilson worked at the "agency" on WMD issues and was responsible for sending Wilson on a trip to Niger to check out claims that Iraq was trying to buy uranium. But Rove did not disclose this conversation to the FBI when he was first interviewed by agents in the fall of 2003—nor did he mention it during his first grand jury appearance, says one of the lawyers familiar with Rove's account. (He did not tell President George W. Bush about it either, assuring him that fall only that he was not part of any "scheme" to discredit Wilson by outing his wife, the lawyer says.) But after he testified, Luskin discovered an e-mail Rove had sent that same day—July 11—alerting deputy national-security adviser Stephen Hadley that he had just talked to Cooper, the lawyer says. In the e-mail, Rove said Cooper pushed him on whether the president was being hurt by the Niger controversy. "I didn't take the bait," Rove wrote Hadley, adding that he warned Cooper not to get "far out in front on this." After reviewing the e-mail, Rove then returned to the grand jury last year and reported the Cooper conversation. He testified that the talk was initially about "welfare reform"—a topic mentioned in the e-mail—and that Cooper then changed the subject. Cooper has written that he doesn't recall a discussion of welfare reform.

Why didn't the Rove e-mail surface earlier? The lawyer says it's because an electronic search conducted by the White House missed it because the right "search words" weren't used. (The White House and Fitzgerald both declined to comment.) But the e-mail isn't the only belatedly discovered document in the case. Fitzgerald has also summoned New York Times reporter Judith Miller back for questioning this week: a notebook was discovered in the paper's Washington bureau, reflecting a late June 2003 conversation with Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, about Wilson and his trip to Africa, says one of the lawyers. The notebook may also be significant because Wilson's identity was not yet public. A lawyer for the Times declined to comment.

—Michael Isikoff

Sorry...forgot the link:

CIA Leak: Karl Rove and the Case of the Missing E-mail

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9630676/site/newsweek/

Education cuts, anyone?

CONTACTS FOR EDUCATION CUTS

These members are on the appropriation committees dealing with cuts in education funding. All members can be emailed by going to http://www.cspan.org and clicking 109 th conference. You may want to convey your opinion to your Senator or Representative as well. We need to express our opinion about the following talking points. I give you all of them, but you may choose several of special interest to you and concentrate on them. Please make your emails short and to the point.

1. H.R.3010 cuts federal contribution to education by 2.1% to states despite a 2.3% rate of inflation.

2. Eliminate $900 million in funding for Even Start, comprehensive school reform, smaller learning communities, and dropout prevention and sharply cut funding for education technology, safe and drug schools, innovative education programs, art in education and teacher quality enhancement grants.

3. Some are calling for a 5% across the board cut to offset relief aid and the budget deficit, a drastic $2.8 billion cut for education.

4. More than 3 million students would not be adequately served by the funding for title 1 of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Total funding cut by $750 million in Senate bill and by $806 million in the House bill.

5. Nearly 7 million students with disabilities would receive $4 billion less than recently promised under Individuals with disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

6. For the fourth year, the Senate bill freezes the Pell grant award for low income, post-secondary students at $4,050 and the House bill less.

7. Congress is poised to cut up to $11 billion in student loans.

Rep. Jerry Lewis
Rep. Nancy Pelosi
Rep J. Dennis Hastert
Senator Susan Collins
Senator Olympia Snowe
Senator Edward Kennedy
Senator Thad Cochran
Senator Harry Reid
Rep. Ralph Regula
Senator Arlen Specter
Senator Bill Frist
Senator Michael Enzi
Rep. Tom Delay

What?!!!

So a new President can not go in and release the information without GWB or his heir's permission?

That's GOT to be repealed or found unconstitutional!

Posted by: sparrow at October 11, 2005 12:44 PM

What the analysis above left off is that it was done by executive order which can be undone by an executive order from the next president.

If you read the whole oped piece you'll also see this line:

What can be done to bring this information to light? Because executive orders are not acts of Congress, they can be overturned by future commanders in chief. But this is a lot to ask of presidents given the free pass handed them by Mr. Bush.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/10/opinion/10kelley.html?incamp=article_popular

A poster on kos was discussing the "Reform Ohio Now" effort and the status of the 4 amendments; s/he is concerned about momentum. Another poster chimed in with some wisdom I thought worth sharing:

Please forgive the "sports metaphor"

but hey...whatever works, right?

Take any sports team...for my own kicks and giggles, I'm going to use college football:

It doesn't matter how good your team is. It is still an absolute necessity that your team play the entire 60 minutes of a game, lest they run the risk of losing.

I watched Michigan State (my Alma Mater) go up against Notre Dame not too long ago. With 11 minutes left in the game (4th qtr), they had a 3 touchdown lead, and they opted to run out the clock instead of playing tough and aggressively til the end. What happened? They lost the momentum and Notre Dame damn near came back to win! While the final score escapes me, I believe that MSU only won by a fieldgoal.

This game nearly got lost by MSU and for no other reason than they didn't want to play the entire game.

Politics can be no different! It doesn't matter how good or bad things may look now...it only matters what the "score" is at the END of the game!!!!!

Come on, OHIO DEMS!! Stay DETERMINED! Stay AGGRESSIVE! THIS IS YOUR GAME TO LOSE!!!!

REFORM OHIO NOW!!!

by Shaking the Tree on Tue Oct 11, 2005 at 07:42:29 AM PDT

PS... from another poster:

yard signs

are now available from

http://www.ReformOhioNow.org

Miers and Bush exchanged several birthday notes and general well-wishes during her lottery tenure.

In 1997, Miers sent Bush a belated birthday card featuring a sad-looking dog and the note: "Dear Governor GWB, You are the best Governor ever -- deserving of great respect!" She added, "At least for thirty days -- you are not younger than me."

Bush's birthdate is July 6, 1946; Miers' is August 10, 1945.

Bush wrote back to wish Miers a happy 52nd birthday, telling her that he appreciated her friendship and to "never hold back your sage advice." He ended with a postscript: "No more public scatology."

That October, Miers wrote Bush a note saying she hopes his twins, Jenna and Barbara, recognize they have "cool" parents.

Bush told Miers in a birthday note in 2000: "Have a great life!"

Homeland Security to be lead in flu crisis
But DHS will defer all medical response to Health and Human Services

By Brock N. Meeks
Chief Washington correspondent
MSNBC
Oct. 11, 2005

WASHINGTON - If the nightmare of an avian flu pandemic emerges from the dark chapters of doomsday scenarios, it will fall to the Department of the Homeland Security, not the medical establishment, to manage the crisis, according to federal documents and interviews with government officials.

The DHS lead role, however, seems at odds with operational plans that call for the Department of Health and Human Services to be the government’s go-to agency in such a crisis.

According to current documents outlining operational plans for public health and medical emergencies, HHS “is the primary Federal Agency responsible for public health and medical emergency planning, preparations, response, and recovery.”

That HHS planning document, currently under revision and circulating among federal agencies for comment, seemingly conflicts with the federal National Response Plan, a kind of overarching playbook for how to manage any number of national disasters, from terrorist events to hurricanes and floods. But under the National Response Plan, which also plans for actions in case of pandemics, DHS assumes top authority when an “incident of national significance” is declared.

Officials from DHS and HHS told MSNBC.com that the departmental statements outlining the chain of authority aren’t in conflict at all.

more... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9654456/

~ There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose that is unattainable.

~Howard Zinn

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at October 11, 2005 03:03 PM

That's an excellent quote. If only our faith-based President understood that.

Interesting combination: Rove and Kilgore.

Perhaps they could handcuff Rove on stage for Kilgore's next campaign stunt.

"He (Kilgore) also readied to share a stage in Fairfax County this weekend with President Bush's top adviser, Karl Rove, a central figure in the White House media-leak investigation.

"Kaine, Kilgore Oppose Higher Taxes But Leave Door Open for Increases."

and that makes sense how?

There is an amazing thread at kos by poster McJoan about her brother-in-law who's been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer and her research into what would happen if he had not been insured. The responses are incredible...

lots of education on universal health insurance...

http://www.dailykos.com/hotlist/add/2005/10/10/193525/99/displaystory//

Just FYI from indystar.com

Legislator drops controversial plan
By Mary Beth Schneider
October 5, 2005

A controversial proposed bill to prohibit gays, lesbians and single people from using medical procedures to become pregnant has been dropped by its legislative sponsor.

State Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, issued a one-sentence statement this afternoon saying: “The issue has become more complex than anticipated and will be withdrawn from consideration by the Health Finance Commission.”

Miller had asked that committee -- a panel of lawmakers who meet when the Indiana General Assembly is not in session to discuss possible legislation -- to recommend the bill to the full legislature when it meets in January.
Under her proposal, couples who need assistance to become pregnant -- such as through intrauterine insemination; the use of donor eggs, embryos and sperm; in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer or other medical means -- would have to be married to each other. In addition, married couples who needed donor sperm and eggs to become pregnant would be required to go through the same rigorous assessment process of their fitness to be parents as do people who adopt a child.

Miller had earlier acknowledged that the legislation would be "enormously controversial." It had already drawn fire from the Indiana Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood of Indiana.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051005/NEWS01/51005006

Posted by: dwahzon at October 11, 2005 04:14 PM

Thank you so much, dw.

Now let's shove it in front of the right wingers who say healthcare is not a right. THEY are the ones who deserve to get this cancer, and die swiftly from it when their HMOs (or lack thereof) refuse to cover them.

And remember, not all uninsureds are poor. Some are simply uninsurable because of preexisting conditions. That includes me. I have enough money to drive a luxury car, but I still can't get insured.

Posted by: dwahzon at October 11, 2005 04:21 PM

Let's note that this legislation was targeted at GAYS, LESBIANS and *SINGLE PEOPLE*.

That's why I always frame gay rights as singles' rights issue. So far, it's worked well with straights, even most of the homophobic Christian straight population. Only the most hardcore neocons were not swayed.

Ban gay marriage, and keep all these privileges for the marrieds - the losers will not just be gays, but the 86 million adult singles of America.

Posted by: AllyMcLesbian at October 11, 2005 04:29 PM

The amendement to the Texas constitution which we will vote in November bans gay marriage, and it ALSO does not recognize straight couples living together. Check it out...

Sec. 32. (a) Marriage in this state shall consist only of
the union of one man and one woman.
(b) This state or a political subdivision of this state may
not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to
marriage.

It's sad that people would not vote against this automoatically simply because it refuses to recognize gay marriage. However, if some Texans can be persuaded because of part B, then whatever works...

FEAR UP

YESTERDAY:
MD: Avian flu must mutate for it to sicken humans
Multiple mutations foster guesswork about possible pandemic

Monday, October 10, 2005

(CNN) -- A physician monitoring the threat of avian influenza says a key question is whether the strain of bird flu in Asia has mutated into a flu that could result in a human pandemic.

Dr. Marc Siegel, author of "False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear," said it's likely that such a pandemic could occur "over the next 50 years and maybe even over the next 10 or 20," but he said "it may very well not be this bug."

more... http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/10/10/birdflu.mutations/index.html

TODAY:
Bird flu pandemic risk 'very high'
U.S. official tours Asia to coordinate plans for outbreak

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- The likelihood of a human flu pandemic is very high, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said as he began a tour of Southeast Asia to coordinate plans to combat bird flu.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry populations in many parts of Asia since 2003 and jumped to humans, killing 60 people, mostly through direct contact with sick fowl.

While there have been no known cases of person-to-person transmission, World Health Organization officials and other experts have been warning that the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people. In a worst-case scenario, they say millions of people could die.

Three influenza pandemics have occurred over the last century and "the likelihood of another is very high, some say even certain," Leavitt said Monday after meeting with Thai health officials to review the country's preparations against the disease.

"Whether or not H5N1 is the virus that will ultimately trigger such a pandemic is unknown to us," he told a news conference.

"The probability is uncertain. But the warning signs are troubling. Hence we are responding in a robust way."

Leavitt, accompanied by the director of WHO and other top health professionals, also plans to visit Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to prepare for the anticipated public health emergency.

His tour comes after U.S. President George W. Bush last month established the "International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza" to coordinate a global strategy against bird flu and other types of influenza.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/10/10/birdflu.warning.ap/index.html

Native it definitely prohibits gay marriages I just don't see how you came to the conclusion of it prohibiting(ie doesn't recognize) straight couples living together. living together doesn't require legal protections unless couples hold themselves out to be in a common law marriage which has been long recognized in Texas by case and statute, Native.

just returned from a seminar at my law school on this very same ridiculous constitutional amendment and it definitely will preclude civil unions as well; their argument is that it it prohibits the instution of marriage but not benefits says their spokesperson from Brigham Young (which I confronted him but he denies). They argue it Protects the Institution of Marriage. When I asked what it protects marrioage from I didn't get much of an answer. I also suggested that the Federalist folks also seek to illiminate No Fault Divorce, which again they deny (curious if there is any research on that position).The amendment is overly broad and a joke b/c Texas conservatives fear how our state Supreme Ct. would rule for gay marriages. Yea right. Yea like Nathan Hecht would recognize Gay Marriages, what a stupid argument.

Congressman Kevin Brady gets charged with a DWI. That will probably put him in for a promotion and a better committe assignment with the RNC family values crowd.

Everybody seems to be talking about bird flu everywhere.

I've been following a debate with my Health Minister on TV, and for the time being there is only an antiviral called Tamiflu on the market.
He explained that we had some 13 millions of it ready for the domestic market (already in pharmacies) and that Roche had been asked some 140 millions worlwide.
But if a pandemic broke, it would take 3 months to get a vaccine ready, and 5 months to put it upon the market.
After?

Just an item of interest

Here Are The Results of SurveyUSA News Poll #7139

Geography Surveyed: 22nd Congressional District
Data Collected: 10/07/2005 - 10/09/2005
Release Date: 10/10/2005 9:30 AM ET
Sponsoring News Organization: KPRC-TV Houston

What Should Tom DeLay Do? 40% of constituents in Texas's 22nd Congressional District say their Congressman Tom DeLay should resign from Congress, according to a SurveyUSA tracking poll of 546 adults from DeLay's district, interviewed 10/07/05 to 10/09/05 exclusively for KPRC-TV in Houston.

In 12 tracking polls conducted by SurveyUSA for KPRC over the past 5 months, the number of constituents who say DeLay should resign from Congress has hovered between 32% and 37%. Today, for the first time, the number reached 40%. DeLay was indicted on 9/28 and again on 10/3. On 10/07, the first day for the field period of this poll, DeLay asked that the indictments be dismissed. 25% of Republicans today say DeLay should resign. 69% of Democrats today say DeLay should resign. 40% of Independents today say DeLay should resign. When respondents are asked to give DeLay a letter grade (of A, B, C, D or F), and DeLay's Grade Point Average is calculated, on a 4.0 scale, DeLay gets a 2.2 today, statistically unchanged from the GPA he has been given over the past 5 months. When respondents are asked whether they approve or disapprove of the job DeLay is doing in Congress, 46% approve, 48% disapprove. These numbers show no movement, only drift, over the past 5 months. The number of Independents who disapprove of DeLay is slowly but steadily declining. DeLay's support among Republicans shows no erosion.

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReportEmail.aspx?g=cffe483e-b1c3-43ab-b014-f7db84609de8

October 11, 2005
Document Provides Glimpses Into Qaeda's Intentions
By DOUGLAS JEHL

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 - A senior American intelligence official said today that a document obtained this summer by American forces in Iraq had provided the United States with "a comprehensive view of Al Qaeda strategy in Iraq and beyond" that provided a revealing glimpse into "the intentions of the enemy."

A complete version of the 6,000-word document, a letter in Arabic from Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 leader in Al Qaeda, to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the top terrorist in Iraq, was made available for the first time today. In it, Mr. Zawahiri told Mr. Zarqawi that the American occupation of Iraq had provided Islamic militants with an historic opportunity to win popular support.

"Our planning must strive to involve the Muslim masses in the battle, and to bring the mujahed movement to the masses and not conduct the struggle far from them," Mr. Zawahiri said in the letter, dated July 9.

Officials at the Defense Department and other government agencies first revealed the existence of the letter last week, but at the time agreed to release only three sentences from the document, mainly dealing with Mr. Zawahiri's warning that Mr. Zarqawi's forces should concentrate their attacks on Americans rather than on Iraqi civilians, and should refrain from the kind of gruesome beheadings and other executions that have been posted on Al Qaeda Web sites.

In releasing the full text today, in Arabic and English, the office of John D. Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence, took the extraordinary step of posting it on his office's Web site, www.dni.gov.

The letter, written in calm, sophisticated language, included injunctions to Mr. Zarqawi to keep in mind the political as well as the military aims of the anti-American insurgency in Iraq, where Mr. Zarqawi leads the group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The American intelligence official said that a comprehensive review had left no doubt that it was sent by Mr. Zawahiri, a Egyptian physician who has served as Al Qaeda's principal strategist.

The letter alluded to difficulties facing the leadership of Al Qaeda, including what Mr. Zawahiri called "the real danger" posed by the Pakistani military in its searches for militants in northwestern Pakistan, near the Afghan border, where Mr. Zawahiri and Al Qaeda's leader, Osama bin Laden, are believed to be hiding.

But the American official said the letter also appeared to reflect an attempt by Mr. Zawahiri "to keep Mr. Zarqawi onside," most notably by warning him against staging additional attacks on Iraqi Shiites.

Mr. Zarqawi warned in a letter to Mr. bin Laden in January 2004 that he believed such a strategy was beneficial to his cause. But Mr. Zawahiri cast his July 9 letter as a reply, pointedly warning Mr. Zarqawi that such strikes amounted to "action that the masses do not understand or approve."

"As the English proverb says, the person who is standing among the leaves of the tree might not see the tree," Mr. Zawahiri wrote, adding, "I repeat the warning against separating from the masses, whatever the danger."

The letter was dated two days after the first wave of attacks on the London transportation system on July 7, but it made no mention of those strikes. In more recent communications, Mr. Zawahiri has described the attacks as being carried out by Al Qaeda. Whether or not that is true, American officials said it was possible that Mr. Zawahiri, who refers at several points to his difficulty in maintaining communications, had not received news of the London attacks by the time he wrote to Mr. Zarqawi.

In the letter, Mr. Zawahiri compared the fierce war of resistance that Iraqis and foreign fighters have waged in Iraq since March 2003 to the speedy fall of Afghanistan's Taliban government after the American-led invasion there in 2001.

"We don't want to repeat the mistake of the Taliban, who restricted participation in governance to the students and the people of Kandahar alone," Mr. Zawahiri wrote. "They did not have any representation for the Afghan people in their ruling regime, so the result was that the Afghan people disengaged themselves from them. Even devout ones took the stance of the spectator and, when the invasion came, the emirate collapsed in days, because the people were either passive or hostile."

He continued, "Therefore, I stress again to you and to all your brothers the need to direct the political action equally with the military action, by the alliance, cooperation and gathering of all leaders of opinion and influence in the Iraqi arena."

The American intelligence official would not say exactly when or how the document had been obtained, or whether it was believed to have been received by Mr. Zarqawi. The official said the United States government was releasing it "because we felt it important that the American public and the world be informed of the intentions of the enemy."

In the letter, Mr. Zawahiri wrote that Mr. Zarqawi might "ask an important question: What drives me to broach these matters while we are in the din of war and the challenges of killing and combat?"

"Things may develop faster than we imagine," Mr. Zawahiri wrote. "The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam - and how they ran and left their agents - is noteworthy. Because of that, we must be ready starting now, before events overtake us, and before we are surprised by the conspiracies of the Americans and the United Nations and their plans to fill the void behind them."

nationaljournal.com

WHITE HOUSE
Libby Did Not Tell Grand Jury About Key Conversation

By Murray Waas, special to National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2005

In two appearances before the federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA operative's name, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, did not disclose a crucial conversation that he had with New York Times reporter Judith Miller in June 2003 about the operative, Valerie Plame, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of his sworn testimony.

The new revelations regarding Libby come as Fitzgerald has indicated that he is wrapping up his investigation and making final decisions as to whether criminal charges will be brought in the case.

Libby also did not disclose the June 23 conversation when he was twice interviewed by FBI agents working on the Plame leak investigation, the sources said.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald apparently learned about the June 23 conversation for the first time just days ago, after attorneys for Miller and The New York Times informed prosecutors that Miller had discovered a set of notes on the conversation.

Miller had spent 85 days in jail for contempt of court for refusing to testify before the grand jury about her conversations with Libby and other Bush administration officials regarding Plame. She was released from jail after she agreed to cooperate with Fitzgerald's investigation. Miller testified before the grand jury on September 30, and attorneys familiar with the matter said that she agreed to be questioned further by Fitzgerald today.

Meanwhile, in recent days Fitzgerald has also expressed significant interest in whether Libby may have sought to discourage Miller-either directly or indirectly through her attorney-from testifying before the grand jury, or cooperating in other ways with the criminal probe, according to attorneys familiar with Miller's discussions with prosecutors.

During two interviews with FBI agents and in two subsequent grand jury appearances, Libby discussed at length a July 8, 2003, conversation about Plame that he and Miller had at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C., as well as a July 12 telephone conversation with Miller on the same subject four days later.

Although Miller would never herself write about Plame, it was two days after her last conversation with Libby that conservative columnist Robert Novak would reveal Plame as a CIA "operative" in his now-famous column of July 14, 2003.

The previously undisclosed June 23 meeting between Libby and Miller, their telephone conversations of July 8 and 12, and Novak's July 14 column occurred during an intensive period in which senior White House officials were scrambling to discredit Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, who was then publicly asserting that the Bush administration had relied on faulty intelligence to bolster its case for war with Iraq.

- more -

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2005/1011nj1.htm#

"Bush Denies Staging Photo Ops
By Warren Vieth | 3:08 p.m.
Working at a Louisiana home-building project, the president says his efforts are not politically motivated."

Good One. Wonder how many times in the last 5 years Jimmy Carter has seen him down at Habittat doing volunteer work?

An analysis released by a Democratic senator found that Vice President Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock options have risen 3,281 percent in the last year, RAW STORY can reveal.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) asserts that Cheney's options -- worth $241,498 a year ago -- are now valued at more than $8 million. The former CEO of the oil and gas services juggernaut, Cheney has pledged to give proceeds to charity.

The above graph released by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) charts the value of the Vice President's holdings in Halliburton in the past year.

More...

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheneys_stock_options_ros...

Here's an interesting twist... picked up from DU:

Atheist Group Files FOIA Action to Force White House Disclosure of “Dobsongate” Records

An Atheist civil rights group announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to force the release of any documents and other records released by White House senior advisor Karl Rove to James Dobson and other evangelical leaders in an effort to boost support for Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

Last week, Dobson – head of the “Focus on the Family” group – boasted that he was “privy” to “confidential” information that led him to support the Miers nomination, and that the insider information originated with administration operative Karl Rove. Rove is already the subject of a federal grand jury probe in another matter for his alleged leaking of the identity of a CIA agent.

Attorney Edwin Kagin filed the FOIA request on behalf of American Atheists. Kagin noted that ordinarily the president and the White House staff are exempt from FOIA actions. “By providing ‘confidential’ information to someone like Dobson, the White House has surrendered its executive privilege, and cannot hide behind a FOIA exemption to conceal this information from Congress and the American people,” said Kagin.

Ellen Johnson, president of American Atheists, said her group is supporting the efforts of legislators like Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado to find out exactly what “confidential” information was provided to religious right leaders, including Dobson.

More...

http://www.atheists.org

If I remember correctly, Dobson even said himself that he should not be in posession of said information....

It's looking more and more like Dubya's going have to eat this nomination, in the way that Barbara should have made him eat his vegetables.

ACVR's 'Non-Partisan' 'Voting Rights' Spokesman Now Working for Dick Cheney!

Tax-Exempt 'American Center for Voting Rights' Continues Their Scam on America!

http://www.BradBlog.com/ACVR.htm Last week, The BRAD BLOG reported that one of the co-founders of the self-described "non-partisan" group calling themselves the American Center for Voting Rights(ACVR), was "boning up on his non-partisan creds" by being employed by the White House to sell George W. Bush's Harriet Miers nomination to the American press and public.

This week, the great "non-partisan" voting rights champion, Jim Dyke, has been promoted according to a report from TIME magazine filed last week. His new job will be to "take up the slack" for Steve Schmidt, "counselor to Vice President Cheney and one of the White House's most aggressive strategists."

Track the rise in Cheney's stock options:

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheneys_stock_options_rose_3281_last_1011.html

Andree,

The US government was late to get in line for Tamiflu, so we are not anywhere near having enough here. W is trying to appear proactive on the bird flu issue, but he was actually slow to get involved.

Stunning New Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq

By a margin of 50% to 44%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if (like there's any doubt!) he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org and conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. 

http://democrats.com/bush-impeachment-poll-1

Chuck in Houston on a Previous Topic ("Reading Room" thing):

I thought many of you, particularly Ira, might be interested in a Poli Sci critique of "What' the Matter with Kansas." A write-up on the article from the Nation is at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20051011/cm_thenation/728262

and the report itself is at:

http://www.princeton.edu/%7ebartels/kansas.pdf

I haven't had time to look at it yet but it looked interesting.

Chuck in Houston, and not so much off-topic as on-topic late.

Chuck in Houston again on the Kansas Critique:

Well, so far, it's interesting reading. And I it already made me feel better about driving down to the San Jacinto to take my daughter fishing in my '93 Honda Civic with the Kerry bubmersticker. By the way, she caught her first Bluegill this last Saturday (and some undersized cats and even a crab).

Chuck in Houston

20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the US...

posted in forum at http://www.democracycellproject.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=882&view=findpost&p=3483

Read it & weep...and then work for Election Reform!

Oops -- bubmersticker = bumper-sticker in the above. Can't figure out how I mis-keyed that. Sorry.

Chuck in Houston

Dallas Gay/Lesbian newspaper, on Harriet Myers:

http://www.dallasvoice.com/articles/dispArticle.cfm?Article_ID=6701

DeLay launches media blitz to counter prosecutor, indictments
Fighting in the court of public opinion

Tuesday, October 11, 2005;

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Long before his criminal case gets a hearing in a court of law, Rep. Tom DeLay is fighting in the court of public opinion.

With his trademark zeal, he assails the prosecutor in one sentence and portrays himself as a victim in the next.

And the media -- often distrusted by fellow conservatives -- is his bullhorn.

"I know when you stand up for what you believe in, this kind of thing is going to happen," DeLay boasted on a Houston radio show. "It's part of the fight. I know Democrats hate me and they hate what I believe in and they hate the amazing things we've been able to accomplish ever since we've been in the majority."

Setting aside his own aversion to the media, DeLay has waged a blitz on radio, on TV and in print as he tries to shore up support in his suburban Houston congressional district while assuring fellow Republicans he plans to return to power.

Grand juries in Texas have indicted DeLay on charges of conspiracy and money laundering, forcing him to give up the No. 2 post in the House while the charges are pending.

Challenging the indictments
His lawyers have challenged the indictments in court, raising questions about the law and the prosecutor's motive.

But their filings in court -- which formally accuse prosecutor Ronnie Earle of misconduct -- pale in comparison to the verbal barrage DeLay launches every time Earle's name comes up in an interview. DeLay already has made more than 20 radio and TV appearances since the first indictment September 28.

Prosecutors accuse DeLay of engaging with colleagues in a conspiracy to launder corporate donations -- that are forbidden by Texas law -- through the Republican National Committee in Washington, sending them back to Texas state candidates.

The transactions occurred during the crucial 2002 election, which gave Republicans full control of the Texas Legislature.

DeLay argues the prosecutor, a Democrat who over the years has prosecuted members of both parties, is misrepresenting the facts and misapplying the law.

Earle answered DeLay's complaints by saying, "They often accuse others of doing what they themselves do." Put on the defensive, Earle has retreated to the secrecy of the grand jury.

more... http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/11/delay.fights.back.ap/index.html

Chuck in Houston to all Statistics Geeks out There (color me geekish):

I just quickly perused the article I mentioned above, which tries to empiricise the Kansas thesis, and if any of you feel like tacking it be advised the figures and tables are at the end (which I found disconcerting). Anyway, I recommend the article in the sense that I intend to give it a close reading. I think this sort of a critique is a key tactical weapon in that it helps us think out of the box. I posted a couple days back that I really appreciated the Progressive Principles approach I got in the DCP email (by the way, I much preferred the DCP bullet points to the actual petition) -- so I am not saying tactics are more important than principles. I would like to suggest that principles without strategies and tactics are doomed to failure barring a miracle or some other random act of fate.

Chuck in Houston, wannabe statistics geek.

PS: I had a college professor once that called statistics "Man's best guess as to the parameters of God." I'm not kidding. And he was once the Chief Economic Advisor to Nixon. and highly Teutonic in mannerisms. I really couldn't make that up....

I would like to suggest that principles without strategies and tactics are doomed to failure barring a miracle or some other random act of fate.

Chuck

Agreed.

(PS I can't do math but Statistics is actually pretty interesting!)

SIGNS LEAK INVESTIGATION IS EXPANDING.... PROSECUTOR EYES WHITE HOUSE IRAQ GROUP;
MAY PROBE 'BROADER CONSPIRACY...' MORE...

www.rawstory.com

Report: Lawyers say investigation into CIA leak widens to probe 'broader conspiracy' around Iraq

Chuck in Houston for DiAnne:

Statistics and probability really are fascinating. They start very intuitive but before you know it you are through the looking-glass. It's sort of an alchemist mix of logic and magic, except there is no magic (or so I've been told). Heteroskedasticity (wikipedia) and multicolinearity (just have to google it)
are enemies of civilization's advance! I would be showing off except I got killed in that statistics course.

But seriously, with so many hypotheses flying around about what tactics are best (yes I am guilty often of that), once in a while I find it useful to think about what can be shown with actual numbers from primary sources. That doesn't change my values (or discard hypotheses based on more subjective, or anecdotal, methodologies) but it does make me reconsider strategic and tactical options I may favor. It also doesn't change the need to build good organizations. Hope that is still going good back home! You and Amy used to post a lot of heartening news in that realm.

Hope that made sense. I'm back to my Red/Blue Willamette/Deschutes (i.e., Puget Sound/Tri-Cities) quandries again.

Chuck in Houston

Bush To Appoint Someone To Be In Charge of Country

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/41444

Chuck

I need to get up to speed with what's happening with the grassroots groups here. They had every intention of outreach to the whole state.

That is on my list of things to do. I'll send you a photo of this place that I took from the air. It'll make you homesick.

Chuck in Houston for DiAnne:

See, if I was honest with myself, I'd have to admit that one huge reason I want to reform the tax system and the voting system and the economic regulatory environment is to remove heteroskedasticity, multicolinearity, and unincluded variable bias from our political and economic lives! Less "white noise" and more patterns! That was supposed to sound humorous .... I wonder, if I read it tomorrow morning will it sound humorous? Note to self: do not read this tomorrow. Note to everybody else: I still recommend that Poli Sci article examining the Kansas hypothesis and I think I am beginning to see a weakness in it.

Chuck in Houston

PS: DiAnne, does that Republican Relative of yours in the above post mean to say that someone may have to be appointed soon to replace Carl Rove?

Here is another interesting paper by Larry Bartels. It focuses on the question: Why do so many Americans favor the tax cuts when the cuts diproportionately favor the rich? It has the clever title Homer Gets a Tax Cut. Inequality and Public Policy in the American Mind.

http://www.princeton.edu/~bartels/homer.pdf

Delay's Lawyers Subpoena His Prosecutor

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5337907,00.html

Chuck, quick, fetch Ira!!

LooK LOOK LOOK LOOK LOOK LOOK

"The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg are working on stories that point to Vice President Dick Cheney as the target of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name. "

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2005/10/11/news-orgs-working-on-stor_n_8705.html

Hey Oncall:

Thanks! "Saved target as ..." to my Desktop, so now next to Kansas.pdf I have Homer.pdf! But first I'm going to take a look at Christy's post....

Chuck in Houston

PS to DiAnne: I hope Ira is following this. Actually, with a 95% level of confidence based on my subjective data set I am sure Ira is following this.

Chuck in Houston to Christy:

You have to subscribe to it, but it is interesting to look at the Daou Report (sp?) on Salon.com on this -- I looked at his "left-wing/right-wing" blogs today and read several of the right wing ones in particular. We'll have to wait and see. This is definitely a developing story and it's interesting to read the article on truthout.com by that ex-CIA guy that came to Ms. Plame's defense on this (Larry Johnson, I want to say). There is a bigger picture on this. This scandal goes right to the highest matters of state, even if technically, from a legal point of view, it is only about extremely poor judgement on the part of the Bush-Cheney political team in the use of tactics to destroy a whistleblower.

Chuck in Houston

DiAnne:

Man, I am not a lawyer but a supeona to a public prosecutor????? That seems like a desperation panic ploy to me. And very much in character -- "Hey, you punk prosecutor, you're nothin' but a gun and a badge.... You gonna take me down? YOU gonna take ME down? You know who I am?"

Chuck in Houston

"Badge? What badge? I OWN your stinkin' badge... I AM your stinkin' badge...."

Chuck in Houston

PS: It must be tough to be a screen-writer. Truth is so much stranger than fiction.

Yes Chuck i know dear..

Its that Im just excited to see them being named for it...

YEEEEHAAAWWWWWW

If Cheney is a target..then so is bush..

Mr. Fitzgerald is walking into the throat of the beast.

May God be with him.

Hey Christy/All:

Wasn't Daou (sp?) involved in the KE04 blog somehow? I want to say the debunking section.

Chuck in Houston

And on the DeLay thing, I just keep getting this Jimmy Cliff song in my head: you know "the harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all." At anyrate, that DeLay is sure a hard case.

Chuck in Houston

Oncall:

That Homer article is quite depressing, at least at a quick glance. On a related note, I don't know of any study that addresses this, but I woudl bet dollars to donuts that one of the best predictors, in a statistical sense, of a person's wealth, is the wealth of their parents. Or it reminds me of an anecdote once told to me by a friend in Baku. Back in the day, a guy emigrates to America, to New York, without a penny to his name. He ends up fabulously rich. His grandkids asked him, "tell us aain, papa, how you got so rich." He says, "Well, on my first day, a man asked me to hold his horse. I did, and gave me a penny. I took the penny and bought an apple. But, even though I was very hungry, I didn't eat the apple, but managed to sell it for two cents. With those two cents, I bought another two apples. And before I could eat one I met your grandma, who was fabulously wealthy...."

Chuck in Houston

Thanks, DiAnne. I remember at my daughter's school in Baku there was a picture on the wall of Cape Kiwanda. And all over town they sold posters of Mt. Shuksan and local street painters had version after version of it. Of course, if you took away the fresh ocean breeze and got rid of all the hills and replaced those old neighborhoods with Perry Home Subdivisions interspered with twelve-land asphalt traffic jams, it could be Houston! Or LA or Phoenix for that matter....

Chuck (ex-Portland) in Houston

PS: The fishing is better here though.

washingtonpost.com
Special Prosecutor Again Queries Reporter

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 12, 2005; A02

New York Times reporter Judith Miller answered questions yesterday about a previously undisclosed conversation she had with Vice President Cheney's chief of staff in June 2003 and is scheduled to testify before a grand jury today to answer more questions in the investigation of how a covert CIA operative's identity was leaked to reporters.

Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who has indicated he is nearing a decision about whether to charge anyone in the case, questioned Miller about notes she said she discovered last week involving a June 23, 2003, conversation with Cheney's top aide, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, according to a source familiar with Miller's account.

According to the source, the notes reveal that the two discussed Bush administration critic and former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV about three weeks before the name of Wilson's wife, covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, appeared in a syndicated column written by Robert D. Novak.

The publication of Plame's identity ultimately led to Fitzgerald's investigation of whether Plame's name was illegally leaked by administration officials in retaliation for Wilson's public criticism of the administration.

One source close to Miller said it appears that the notes were Fitzgerald's first indication that Miller and Libby had spoken in June.

Last year, Fitzgerald subpoenaed Miller's notes for discussions she had with Libby from July 6 to July 13 but included no mention of June, the source said.Previously, Fitzgerald was focused on a July 8 breakfast meeting Miller had with Libby and a phone call they had on July 12 or 13. Miller was questioned by the grand jury last month after spending 85 days in jail for initially refusing to testify about her conversations with Libby.

Libby's attorney, Joseph Tate, did not return calls yesterday seeking a comment on the implications of the notes and the conversation with Miller. Fitzgerald's office declined to comment, but New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller said in an e-mail to the newspaper's staff that Miller would appear before the grand jury today, delaying the newspaper's promised report about her evidence in the probe because she faces the threat of contempt of court until she finishes testifying.

"Judy has talked to our reporters already about her legal battle, but the story is incomplete until we know as much as we can about the substance of her evidence, and she is under legal advice not to discuss that until her testimony is completed. This may be frustrating to our armchair critics," Keller wrote.

Numerous lawyers involved in the 22-month investigation said they are bracing for Fitzgerald to bring criminal charges against administration officials. They speculated, based on his questions, that he may be focused on charges of false statements, obstruction of justice or violations of the Espionage Act involving the release of classified government information to unauthorized persons. The grand jury's term is to expire Oct. 28.

"This is not a guy who would walk away with nothing," said one lawyer involved in the case.

more... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/11/AR2005101101606_pf.html

Just as I expected... Unless they haul DeLay off to jail, he's still going to remain a player. (And I wouldn't be surprised if he figured out a way to still be involved from jail.) I suppose our only hope is to replace him in '06...and also to harp on the shame of any representative doing business with someone who is being indicted on criminal charges...

DeLay Is a King Without a Crown in the House
--snip--
While Mr. DeLay is officially out of his position as majority leader because of his indictment on criminal charges in Texas, he remains the go-to guy for many House Republicans. They say he is virtually indispensable as the party faces the daunting prospect of delivering $50 billion or more in spending cuts as well as an immigration measure in the coming weeks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/12/politics/12delay.html?th&emc=th