Dana Milbank on Movement Analysis

Please don't mention him "physical connecting" with Laura! I have too active an imagination!
I think W also shows signs of ADD as a baseline.

Slightly other topic - here's what some young people are doing around here - this is a high school movement headed by a college student. The schools mentioned are heavily minority-attended. This group has been active at most public events I've attended and they plan a city-wide walkout soon.

Consider that the military is now going to start targeting also high school dropouts. There was a time in the US (WW1) when one could be arrested for any type of anti-recruitment activity.

Here's what the group is doing:

The final count is not yet in, but yesterday Youth Against War and Racism submitted nearly 300 Opt-Out forms from Cleveland, West Seattle, Chief Sealth Rainier Beach and South Lake high schools alone.

So many children are going to be protected from the military recruiters because of your dedication. Last week a student volunteer from UW said that she found the opt-out work deeply satisfying because it was like instant gratification--each signature was another
student the army couldn't touch.

But even as the opt-out part of the campaign is
winding down, it is time to transition to organizing full throttle for the walk out!

Karen, I still like your analysis of the moves and how they line up to a baroque dance best.

http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2005/09/the_code_of_del.html

It is amazing how much body language really does tell you.

WSJ has some interesting things to say about the CIA leak probe (and on page A3 of the printed version)...

Until now, Mr. Fitzgerald appeared to be focusing on conversations between White House officials such as Mr. Libby and Karl Rove, President Bush's senior political adviser, after Mr. Wilson wrote his op-ed. The defense by Republican operatives has been that White House officials didn't name Ms. Plame, and that any discussion of her was in response to reporters' questions about Mr. Wilson, the kind of casual banter that occurs between sources and reporters.

Mr. Rove, who has already testified three times before the grand jury and was identified by a Time magazine reporter as a source for his story on Mr. Wilson, is expected to go back to the grand jury, potentially as early as today, to clarify earlier answers.

Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion. The group likely would have played a significant role in responding to Mr. Wilson's claims.

Given that the grand jury is set to expire on Oct. 28, it is possible charges in this case could come as early as next week.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB112907415441266084-VDsI1ez92Qlr0_XPP5IbwfiUKHI_20051111.html

What God Really Told Bush

Apparently, it wasn't just "invade Iraq and Afghanistan in my name."

By Mark Morford

Scene: White House private residence, night, not long ago. President Bush present in his most favoritest guns 'n' bunnies PJs. Laura asleep, knocked out by a combination of too much Good Housekeeping and excessive hair-spray fumes. Suddenly, a burst of black smoke. A deep, resonant voice speaks:

"Psst! George! God here, taking a break from supervising the well-being of eight billion troubled souls along with infinite galaxies of unimaginable vastness to speak with you directly one more time because, well, you're special, aren't you, George? Yes you are! Yes you are! OK, stop giggling. I have more commands. Get off the damn hobbyhorse, George, and get a pen and a notepad. No, not a crayon. I don't care if blue is your favori-- George! Get a pen! OK? Good. Here we go:

"As you know, I'm not quite what everyone thinks. I am not all benevolence and love and light. In fact, I have a downright dark side, mean and nasty and cunning, and I want you, George, to continue to be my special right-hand man. My special little guy. In fact, you shall help enact my wrath, Dubya. Doesn't that sound fun?

"There are three things I love, George: war, revenge, suffering. Oh, and smiting the heathens. OK, four things. And kickboxing. Five things. There are five things I love, Dubya. You with me? And you and your demon monkeys are enacting the first four admirably, George. Don't be shy, go ahead and tell those Palestinian officials you were commanded by God to "restore peace" in the Middle East by bombing nearly defenseless, pip-squeak Iraq and Afghanistan to smithereens. They love that stuff. ...

(click here to read the rest)

(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/10/12/notes101205.DTL&nl=fix)

Somewhat on topic, but with a more amusing take on Bush's speech impediment:

http://www.badmash.org/videos/videos_flv.php?v=george_bush_512K_Stream

Funny stuff!

Karen,

I thought the same thing about that Today show interview - he was so out of his element, and holding on to Laura for dear life. And did you notice how she bolted at the end of the interview?

Think maybe he's realized the error of his ways? He only feels real when he's in New Orleans, but it also makes him realize what a failure he's been.

Don't let the WH & the media fool us into believing Americans want the SC to go further to the right...

What Americans Want In A Supreme Court Justice
Scott McClellan (10/7/05):

The President has a long record of appointing people to the bench who are strict constructionists. That’s what the American people want.

That’s not true.

53% believe the Supreme Court should base its rulings, in whole or in part, on the Constitution’s current meaning, rather than on the meaning of the document when it was originally written. (46% take the original intent view and 1% are unsure.)

63% of the public want a new Supreme Court justice who “will keep the court about the same as it is now” or will “make the court more liberal.” (30% want it more conservative.)

59% of the public are uneasy or unsure about Bush’s picks for the Supreme Court. (41% are confident.)

One more: 65% of the American public believe Bush’s priorities for the country are not the same as theirs.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/11/what-americans-want/

Posted by Karen at October 12, 2005 08:34 AM

Yes, Karen, he is having a panic attack. This is why he has to do his travelling carnival shows only infront of his base and can not have any dissenters there. For surely, he would be seen as crumbling, weak, and inept if that were to happen.

Also, one might equate Laura as being his security blanket. She's the only one left. Rove and Cheney are in hiding from Fitzgerald; his base is leaving him slowly but surely with his bag of broken promises and incompetence to remember.

And sadly you're right as well: he is suffering but then again, so are we. The difference is that after the last 5 years, two "undemocratic elections" and miscellaneous attacks on the middle class and poor we will be suffering long after he steps down; whereas, he, will go home to his unethically gained money and will squander the rest of his life away, as he should have done long ago!

Madame the source document that the ThinkProgress article above is drawn from is very interesting in itself; a compilation of polls from all different sources concerning Supreme Court nominations and Harriet Miers in particular.

check it out here:

http://www.pollingreport.com/Court.htm

Fortunately, the Ship of State is as cumbersome a beast as it is, therefore, unsteadiness at the helm by Clown President is minimized by the huge bureaucracy.

However, as in the case of FEMA where the leeching of funds and incompetence in management lead to disaster, how much longer can the Clown White House go without crashing?

Question is: Who is steering the ship?

Posted by: Fe at October 12, 2005 11:20 AM

Answer: Halliburton, CEO's, and Laura

I need to be "on my way",but if anyone can find the link to today's article in Wa. Post by David Ignatias it's well worth the read on Bush. The article deals with Bush camp betting on their base rather than Bush taking higher ground on the country as a whole. Now Bush is in the same place as his father,and he's in shambles.
Have a great day everyone,think HOPE for our future!!

Curious if any others here are following the very important Va. Governor's race.

It has turned extremely nasty and now the right are using the Hitler word to try and drive a wedge in moderate Virginians voting in a few weeks.

Let's see Willy Horton, Swift Boats,AntiWar Hippies, Gay Lovers, Baby Killers,Religious Demagogues,Bible Banners, Union Bosses, Peacenniks and now we are Hitler Lovers.

Hope others see this pattern and understand fully the Extremism we are confronting and the use by the right of Extremist Language in each and every election message across the country. Since most of the country rejects extremism from either side I hope that we can pursue the message that the RNC has embraced Extremism in their Political Lexicon.
Reject Extremism.
Reasoned Politics vs Extremism and Corruption.

"Rosenbluth is president of Virginians United Against Crime, an Arlington-based victims' rights group.

Rosenbluth (Kilgore supporter) says in the ad that Kaine's position is so extreme that he would not believe in the death penalty for Adolf Hitler."

Unfortunately while the public swears they reject such shock advertising, Kilgore is now trying to Swift Boat Tim Kaine. Stay tuned.

Ira--As we drive around NOVA, we see the sign wars too--Kilgore's signs are huge, massive, and generally in front of McMansions.

We see more bumper stickers for Kaine, however.

It's definitely a class war there.

October 12, 2005
G.O.P. Aides Add Voices to Resistance to Miers
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

As the White House seeks to rally senators behind the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet E. Miers, lawyers for the Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee are expressing dissatisfaction with the choice and pushing back against her, aides to 6 of the 10 Republican committee members said yesterday.

"Everybody is hoping that something will happen on Miers, either that the president would withdraw her or she would realize she is not up to it and pull out while she has some dignity intact," a lawyer to a Republican committee member said.

All the Republican staff members insisted on anonymity for fear of retaliation from their supervisors and from the Senate leaders.

At two stormy meetings on Friday - the first a planning meeting of the chief counsels to Republican committee members and the second a Republican staff meeting with Ed Gillespie, the former Republican Party chairman who is helping to lobby for the nomination - committee lawyers were unanimous in their dismay over Ms. Miers's qualifications and conservative credentials, several attendees said.

Many lawyers were critical or hostile, these people said, although Michael E. O'Neill, chief counsel to the committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, tried to remain relatively neutral. Mr. O'Neill could not be reached for comment.

"You could say there is pretty much uniform disappointment with the nomination at the staff level," another Republican on the committee staff said. "It is clear there is quite a bit of skepticism, and even some flashes of hostility."

Another Republican aide close to the committee said, "I don't know a staffer who approves of this nomination, anywhere. Most of it is outright hostility throughout the Judiciary Committee staff."

In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Specter emphasized that the senators would make their own decisions.

"I think those staffers, like anybody else, have a right to their opinions and to express them," he said. "Senators will make independent judgments. You have some pretty strong staffers on the committee, but you have got some stronger senators."

Of the 10 Republicans on the panel, Senators Sam Brownback of Kansas and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma have expressed the most skepticism about Ms. Miers. Most decline to commit themselves.

Don Stewart, a spokesman for supporter on the committee, Senator John. Cornyn of Texas, said: "I think that the staff are all very well versed in the process and in this particular nominee, but so are the senators. I think you will see, and already have seen, quite a lot of support out of the senators."

The resistance among the panel lawyers reflects the challenge facing Mr. Bush in unifying his party and the conservative movement behind Ms. Miers.

On Tuesday, James C. Dobson, founder of the conservative evangelical group Focus on the Family, explained previous comments about confidential information that had influenced him to support Ms. Miers, a mystery that led some senators to threaten to call him to testify before the Judiciary Committee.

According to a transcript of his radio broadcast today, Mr. Dobson said he was referring to a confidential telephone conversation with Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, about Ms. Miers that occurred two days before Mr. Bush announced her selection. Mr. Rove gave Mr. Dobson permission to discuss the call, and much of the information has now become public, Mr. Dobson said.

In addition to telling Mr. Dobson about her membership in a conservative evangelical church and her past support for an anti-abortion group in Texas, Mr. Rove assured him that Ms. Miers was the kind of conservative jurist that the president had promised to appoint, and that "the president knew her well enough to say so with complete confidence," Mr. Dobson recounted.

Republican staff members on the Judiciary Committee usually research and prepare arguments to defend the president's nominees. But Republican staff members on the panel said committee lawyers were doing research to rebut the "talking points" the White House has provided for senators to support Ms. Miers's nomination.

For example, committee lawyers said, the White House has told senators and conservative activists that Ms. Miers, as White House counsel, deserves credit for helping Mr. Bush select many strongly conservative federal judges. But lawyers for the committee say Ms. Miers, who became White House counsel last year, had no role in the most significant nominations.

People at the meeting on Friday of the judiciary panel lawyers said Mr. O'Neill, Mr. Specter's chief counsel , argued that Ms. Miers deserved a chance to speak for herself, especially because staff members were unacquainted with her legal work.

The George W. Bush "Days Left in Office" Countdown

http://www.backwardsbush.com/includes/publicClock.php

Cost of the War in Iraq:

http://costofwar.com/embed.html

1.Shoot Self In Foot
2.Reload
3.Shoot Self In Other Foot
4.Repeat

WHAT THE HELL IS HE THINKING!

I was all for him bringing back NATIVE New Orleaneans, but he is just shipping MORE people who do not belong in New Orleans to New Orleans!!!

THERE IS NO HOUSING FOR THESE PEOPLE!

BAD move Jesse...BAD BAD BAD STUPID MOVE!

Jesse Jackson busload of workers includes few New Orleanians

06:45 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 11, 2005

WWLTV.com

Reverend Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition brought about 200 people to town Tuesday to find jobs reconstructing New Orleans, but most of those talked to by Eyewitness News were not displaced residents.

Jackson organized the bus tour, which began in Chicago Monday, as an attempt to bring displaced residents back to participate in the rebuilding of the city. When pressed as to how many of the job seekers were from the New Orleans area, Jackson said he didn’t know.

“I thought it would be more New Orleanians,” said Councilwoman Renee Gill Pratt, who nevertheless welcomed those looking for work. “Since we have jobs available and since people are looking for an opportunity, we welcome them.”

The bus arrived at the Piccadilly in Metairie around 2 p.m. and the workers were greeted with a hot meal and people waiting to take job applications. Eyewitness News talked to about half the room and said very few said they were from the city.

Woodrow and Shantall Alford were two of those who did live in New Orleans. They lost their Ninth Ward home in Katrina, said they were in New Orleans to find a place to live and a job.

“We’d like to get a home, that’s priority one,” said Shantall. “We have six children and need a place.”

“I see plenty of work in construction and I’m not afraid to sweep a broom or nail a roof,” said Woodrow.

Organizers said the group was headed to the Convention Center after the initial session to get tetanus and hepatitis shots and find a place to stay.

Posted by: Cyrano at October 12, 2005 12:01 PM

Shocking.

A friend sent me this obit fronm the Chicago Trib:

http://www.legacy.com/chicagotribune/LegacySubPage2.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=15361018

Theodore Roosevelt Heller

Theodore Roosevelt Heller, 88, loving father of Charles (Joann) Heller; dear brother of the late Sonya (the late Jack) Steinberg. Ted was discharged from the U.S. Army during WWII due to service related injuries, and then forced his way back into the Illinois National Guard insisting no one tells him when to serve his country. Graveside services Tuesday 11 a.m. at Waldheim Jewish Cemetery (Ziditshover section), 1700 S. Harlem Ave., Chicago. In lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans.

WASHINGTON -- "Some of the advocacy groups that are concerned about Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers's lack of a record on social issues are favoring a new approach to thwarting her nomination: Asking the nominee, who has no judicial experience, complex questions about constitutional law and hoping she trips up.

Breaking News Alerts Groups are circulating lists of questions they want members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to ask Miers at her confirmation hearings. The activists' thinly veiled hope is that Miers will reveal ignorance of the law and give senators a reason to oppose her.

''We are trying to establish that there are thousands of questions that law students routinely deal with . . . and if she can't get to that level, it doesn't matter if you're for the left or the right, at that point it's a fait accompli that she is not fit for the office," said Eugene DelGaudio, president of Public Advocate, a conservative profamily group.

Last week, for example, former senator Dan Coats, an Indiana Republican chosen by the White House to shepherd Miers's nomination through the Senate, drew ridicule when he appeared to suggest to CNN that Miers would give a voice on the court to nonintellectuals.

''If great intellectual powerhouse is a qualification to be a member of the court and represent the American people and the wishes of the American people and to interpret the Constitution, then I think we have a court so skewed on the intellectual side that we may not be getting representation of America as a whole," Coats said."

Body Language, cont.

http://webpages.charter.net/micah/mem/9.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/micah/mem/10.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/micah/mem/13.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net/micah/girl.jpg

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/f/flags/20.us.oncoffins.04.jpg

FEMA restricts evacuee data, citing privacy
Families, police protest agency’s stance

By John Pomfret

Updated: 11:58 p.m. ET Oct. 11, 2005
SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 11 - The Federal Emergency Management Agency is restricting the release of information on Hurricane Katrina evacuees, complicating efforts by families to find loved ones and by law enforcement officials searching for parolees and convicted sex offenders.

Citing privacy concerns, FEMA has rejected a request by Texas officials for access to its database of the more than 100,000 evacuees who have registered for state aid, according to the governor's office. FEMA has also declined requests from five states to cross-check a database of convicted sex offenders and parolees against a list of evacuees requesting federal assistance, law enforcement officials said.

FEMA officials have started prohibiting workers at a large shelter here from sharing information about evacuees even with family members unless the evacuees had signed release forms. In many cases, relief workers said, such forms were lost or never presented in the chaos of the exodus. FEMA authorities made similar restrictions last week when they took over management of shelters in Beaumont, Tex.

"If we find someone, we've been instructed to tell family members, 'He or she is alive and well in San Antonio,' and that's it," said Rene Gauna, a San Antonio city employee working at a FEMA-managed shelter at the old Kelly Air Force Base. "We're no longer allowed to release new addresses or telephone numbers or tell people where their loved ones have moved."

Jack Heesch, a FEMA spokesman in San Antonio, said it is standard agency policy not to release "any information on anyone" in order to protect a person's privacy, a position generally supported by civil liberties groups. He said FEMA is prohibited from releasing information on Katrina's victims even to prevent "double-dipping" -- the abuse of federal aid by victims -- or to facilitate family reunification.

Federal privacy law is intended to protect people from identity theft and other violations of their personal information, but state aid officials say it should be balanced against the scope of Katrina's impact.

FEMA is beginning to take over more shelters to lessen the financial burden on states and communities, prompting concern that it will become even more difficult for families to find loved ones.

Edwin Coleman's family has already run into obstacles. Coleman, 80, a retired inventory clerk, was rescued from his New Orleans home four days after Katrina flooded the city. His daughter, Edwina Coleman, had been looking for him ever since and heard from friends that he was in San Antonio. When she contacted the city's biggest shelter, officials refused to release any information on her father, saying they could not find proof that Coleman had signed a privacy waiver.

Article Continues :

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9666836/

Anyone Have A Ouija Board To Select Our Next...

Cookies ‘n Change
To blunt charges of cronyism, President Bush names a man he just met to run the Federal Reserve.

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Andy Borowitz
Newsweek
Updated: 5:27 p.m. ET Oct. 11, 2005
Oct. 11, 2005 - Still smarting from criticism of his nomination of Harriet Miers to the United States Supreme Court, President George W. Bush today nominated a man he described as "a guy I met at the mall" to succeed Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan.

At a White House ceremony, a beaming President Bush stood at the side of the guy he met at the mall and explained how he came to choose a total unknown to replace Greenspan, who has served at the Fed since 1987.

Bush said that the two men met while they were waiting in line at a David's Cookies store: "I was very impressed with the way he counted his change, and I am confident he will bring that same understanding of money to his new role as head of the Federal Reserve."

While the president said he did not yet know the name of the guy he met at the mall, he added, "All of that will come out during the confirmation process."

After being accused of cronyism in the nomination of Miers, the president may be trying to blunt such criticism by nominating someone he barely knows to run the Fed, some in Washington believe.

But Davis Logsdon, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, has a different theory about Bush's recent appointments: "He may be surrounding himself with lousy people in the hopes that he'll be graded on a curve."

Elsewhere, the New York Yankees fell to the Los Angeles Angels despite a ninth-inning attempt by George Steinbrenner to buy the L.A. team.

© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9665550/site/newsweek/

I must be dreaming... check this from ThinkProgress and they have a link to the video of Bill O'Reilly saying this:

You know things are getting bad when Bill O’Reilly is predicting the downfall of the Bush administration:

Transcript below:

O’REILLY: And then you have Libby, vice president’s chief of staff.

SAMMON: Right.

O’REILLY: And you have Rove, all right, both linked into these two reporters.

Now the two reporters are saying one thing to the grand jury. And Rove and Libby are saying another thing.

And now what looks like is Fitzgerald trying to figure out who’s telling the truth and who isn’t. And if Rove gets indicted, that could bring down the Bush administration, I think.

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/12/oreilly-rove/

Securities fraud charge for ex-Refco CEO
Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:02 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday said they have charged former Refco Inc. (RFX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive Phillip Bennett with securities fraud over hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions owed to the company by an entity he controlled.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York made the announcement.

New York-based Refco announced Bennett's removal as chairman and chief executive on Monday, and said its financial statements since 2002 should not be relied upon.

Data as of 12 Oct 2005 1:13 PM ET
Symb Company Last Chg Chg %
RFX.N Refco 10.85 -3.00 -21.66

Reporter testifies again in CIA case
Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:08 PM ET

By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A New York Times reporter, under pressure to explain a previously undisclosed conversation with a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, made a second appearance on Wednesday before the federal grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

Times reporter Judith Miller answered questions before the grand jury for more than an hour after turning over notes detailing her June 23, 2003, conversation with Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby. An entry in her notes referred to Joseph Wilson, covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's diplomat husband.

That conversation could help federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald establish whether the White House started targeting Wilson and possibly his wife in the weeks before Wilson publicly accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence on Iraq.

During that period, reports had surfaced of a CIA-funded trip Wilson took in which he investigated administration charges that Iraq tried to buy nuclear materials in Africa and found the allegations had little foundation.

The leak investigation has spotlighted freedom-of-press issues and the Bush administration's aggressive efforts to defend its Iraq policy against critics.

President George W. Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, has also been summoned to make a fourth appearance before the grand jury, most likely on Friday, and prosecutors have told him they can make no guarantees he will not be indicted.

In a memo to New York Times staff on Tuesday, Executive Editor Bill Keller said Miller, who first testified before the grand jury on September 30 after spending 85 days in jail, may not yet be clear of legal jeopardy.

During her September 30 grand jury appearance, Miller testified about her two previously disclosed conversations with Libby -- on July 8 and July 12, 2003.

It was unclear how Fitzgerald learned about the June 23, 2003, conversation.

Legal sources close to Miller said she discovered the notes after she testified.

Miller was tight-lipped as she left the federal courthouse. "No comment today," her attorney, Robert Bennett, said. Continued ...

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-10-12T160747Z_01_DIT182810_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-LEAK.xml

Some high court candidates withdrew: White House
Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:37 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some Supreme Court candidates withdrew from consideration but that had nothing to do with President George W. Bush's eventual selection of White House lawyer Harriet Miers, the White House said on Wednesday.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed what conservative Christian leader James Dobson told his radio program about an October 1 telephone conversation he had had with top White House aide Karl Rove, in which Rove tried to convince Dobson to support Miers for the Supreme Court.

A senior administration official said it was "just a couple" of candidates who had withdrawn from consideration.

Many conservatives, who have been among Bush's strongest supporters, are outraged that the president picked a White House insider who lacks judicial experience instead of a judge with clear-cut conservative credentials who could be counted on to move the high court firmly to the right.

Bush and his team are scrambling to save the nomination amid calls from some conservatives that he withdraw Miers from consideration.

McClellan said Rove told Dobson that "some individuals, when the list was longer, well into the double digits, had said that they preferred not to be considered" because they did not want to deal with "the ordeal of going through the confirmation process."

REPLACING SWING VOTE

But he said that had nothing to do with Bush's eventual nomination of Miers to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate conservative who had often been a swing vote on the closely divided court.

"The president made a decision to nominate Harriet Miers. That was his choice, his only choice," McClellan said.

McClellan would give no names of candidates who withdrew but federal appeals court judge Priscilla Owen of Texas was reportedly one of them.

Democrats had blocked Bush's nomination of Owen to the appellate court during his first term, and they had warned she would have trouble getting confirmed by the U.S. Senate if he nominated her to the Supreme Court.

Bush says Miers shares his conservative judicial philosophy but so far there has been little paperwork to document her views on abortion and other divisive legal issues. Continued ...

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-10-12T163641Z_01_SCH258336_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-COURT-BUSH.xml

US reduces protection of waters, wetlands: report
Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:40 PM ET

By Alan Elsner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In the past four years, the United States has drastically cut back on its protection of waterways and wetlands, whose erosion was cited as a factor in the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, according to a report issued on Wednesday.

The report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, examined how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency assert jurisdiction over many of the nation's waterways and wetlands.

Environmental groups criticized government practices discussed in the report.

"Losses of wetlands in many areas in the United States are unprecedented, yet the corps is allowing many of the remaining wetlands to be destroyed, in violation of its Clean Water Act obligations, without even trying to figure out why," said Christy Leavitt of environmental group U.S. PIRG.

Navis Bermudez of the Sierra Club said, "The GAO's report confirms the administration is secretly pursuing a policy that favors developers and other industrial interests."

Before 2001, the corps asserted jurisdiction over most waters, including isolated, nonnavigable waters, if migratory birds could use them. That meant that anyone wishing to build homes, shopping malls, offices or golf courses in such environments first had to obtain a permit from the corps.

However a Supreme Court decision in January 2001 concluded that the corps had exceeded its powers by seeking jurisdiction over such waters solely based on their use by birds.

The GAO report found that under the Bush administration the corps and the Environmental Protection Agency had used that ruling as a reason to scale back its jurisdiction over waterways and wetlands much further than was required by the court decision.

NOT ASSERTING JURISDICTION

"The corps is generally not asserting jurisdiction over isolated, intrastate, nonnavigable waters using its existing authority," the report said.

Many scientists believe the loss of wetlands along the Gulf of Mexico to building and development contributed to the extent of the destruction wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Wetlands soak up and slow storm water. Paving them over leaves the excess water with no place to go and exacerbates flooding. Continued ...

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-10-12T163918Z_01_SCH256039_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-WATERS.xml&archived=False

An Active Duty Soldier Calls for Withdrawal...

Rational Disengagement: An Exit Policy Proposal

As there is little national discussion on “Rational Disengagement” occurring in this country, Sgt. Nicholas Pulliam stationed in Iraq and Brian T. Hart, both from Massachusetts, have decided to start a discussion of their own.

We encourage others to join us. Perhaps a rational grass roots discussion will turn into a grass fire.

As American’s we embrace the opportunity to advance the Nation’s consciousness together.

Sincerely,
Brian T. Hart
October 10, 2005

Here is the letter I received today from Sgt. Nicholas Pulliam.

read more here...
http://minstrelboy.blogspot.com/2005/10/rational-disengagement-exit-policy.html

And here's a newspaper article with more background on the soldier and his family:

http://www.lowellsun.com/ci_3109293

I haven't read any of the other posts in this thread and this may have already been mentioned.

George Bush displays an addict's behavior. He never successfully dealt with his alcohol addiction other than stopping-we are told-his use of alcohol and claiming that his born again status delivered him from his dependency. When faced with challenges he can not deal with them on an immediate basis (something absolutely required in a President), rather he retreats and considers his next steps. He is in a constant state of retreat, emotionally speaking. Intellectualy he fails to understand how incapable he is of dealing with problems. He had used alcohol as a means for coping, but that is no longer a realistic option. Therefore his behavior is characterized by his anxiety of not being able to rely on the single substance that helped him cope in the past.

BUSH HAIKU
This is a poem made up entirely of actual quotations from George W.
Bush, arranged for "aesthetic" purposes, by Washington Post writer
Richard Thompson. A wonderful poem like this is too good not to share.

Ah, yes! A testament to literacy in the age of Every Child Left Behind!

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER!
I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
And potential mental losses.
Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet
Become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?
They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being
And the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope,
Where our wings take dream.
Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher!
Make the pie higher!

Some Haiku I spotted on Daily Kos yesterday:

Haiku response (4.00 / 9)
A river of lies
Indictments fall like snowflakes
light through iron bars

"It is a common delusion that you make things better by talking about them." - Dame Rose Macaulay
by Zackpunk on Mon Oct 10, 2005 at 10:46:02 AM PDT

Ed Schultz says its in the bank that Miers will be confirmed. His words; Bush has hit the tifecta with an Evangelical supported by the Chamber of Commerce who will protect Executive Powers in the event any criminal actions are taken against the whitehouse.He says it was intended and has accomplished defanging the Dems with all of the faux complaints by George Will, Krauthammer, Coulter and other conservative activists. He calls Brownback and Dobson statements head fakes; they know they have gotten their dream nominee come true. I agree.
Regarding threats by the right to make Bush backdown and withdraw this nomination or ask her to withdraw; Schultz says name one wrong headed thing that in 5 years Bush has backed off on?

tifecta

Posted by: dwahzon at October 12, 2005 01:13 PM

Plus now we have Dobson and Robertson saying they have gotten information from Rove. Oh, that's right, so far only Dobson has fessed up to who his source was. If it ever went so far as to go to court, Dobson would at least be honest about his source in a deposition or court of law.

Dobson, Robertson, and the whole religious right have been used, mah' brothas.

Karen's post this morning hit a nerve with me, though. Can you imagine what this must be doing to George W. Bush, if he realizes that he has been used, and that on top of that, his legacy is gone forever?

I hope they keep him away from any buttons if he has a full blown nervous breakdown.

'trifecta'
boy my typing stinks

for further amusement:

http://www.big-boys.com/articles/presidential.html

Posted by: Ira at October 12, 2005 03:24 PM

Ira,

You know that I agree with Ed Schultz. After reading the following article, I would say her confirmation is in the bag.

Bush cites religion as reason for picking Miers
Court nominee attended anti-abortion fundraiser, pro-life group says

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Wednesday his advisers were telling conservatives about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers’ religious beliefs because they are interested in her background and “part of Harriet Miers’ life is her religion.”

“People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers,” Bush told reporters at the White House. “They want to know Harriet Miers’ background. They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers’ life is her religion.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9673338/

Interesting reading thanks to tip from Deanna Zandt at AlterNet:

Doris "Granny D" Haddock gave a rousing speech at Orchard House in Concord, MA last week. It's way too long to post here, so let me leave you with the following excerpt, and nudge you really hard to go read the rest of it:

The political issues that divide the American people are great issues, with severe consequences for the moral life of the nation and the fate of the planet. These are issues equal to the issues that divided us in 1860, and we should fear the historical similarities.

In some ways the conflict of the Civil War was not resolved, but rather accommodated, in the same way that smoldering coals under ashes are but a fire asked to bide its time. Do not the sparks now swirl up fresh? Is the heat and danger we feel not the old conflict between those who believe that authority comes from above: from an Old Testament God, delivered through husbands, presidents, preachers, ayatollahs and plantation overseers to people arranged in layers according to their worth--is it not a conflict between those authoritarians and those others who instead believe that all men are created equal, and that the authority to govern issues forth from them, upward to their government--their common vessel of community--and not downward? Is this not the divide of 1860 and also of our own time?

rest of her speech is here...
http://www.grannyd.com/speeches/orchardhouse.htm

Alternet link: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/themix/26740/

Posted by: karen at October 12, 2005 03:29 PM
Posted by: Carol at October 12, 2005 09:52 AM

Same funny video - different link!

Carol--great minds are amused by similar things...

Posted by: Ira at October 12, 2005 03:24 PM

...defanging the Dems with all of the faux complaints by George Will, Krauthammer, Coulter and other conservative activists...

Ira,

I totally agree with Ed Schultz on this. I think we are being played, and there is nothing we can do about it. If Dems vote for her, we're basically screwed, and, if the conservative complaint is real and we all vote against her, we'll get something worse. This is a no win - no two ways about it.

I know... more long reading but this one is so nice!

MotherJones has a great feature article on Paul Hackett, the former Marine major who ran for office in the reddest part of Ohio in a special election in August 2005.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/11/paul_hackett.html

weren't we being told that Robert's Catholisism should not be considered at his confirmation and in fact those who did were anti christian. I believe that Bush, Hatch, Roberts, Brownback and Allen made a very big deal about that at Robert's confirmation hearing oncall and even became acusatory of those who raised that issue. Maybe we could play back some of those comments.
I guess they belive in the axiom of consistency being the hobgoblin..

"Bush cites religion as reason for picking Miers"

Posted by: oncall at October 12, 2005 03:44 PM

Can they get any more obvious about it? Why don't they just wear sandwich boards?

TSP:
As you know:
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Be careful not to make a show of your religion before men (Matthew 6:1)." And later in Matthew (7:21), "Not everyone who calls me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of Heaven."

Posted by: Ira at October 12, 2005 04:07 PM

We can point out all their inconsistencies till the cows come home Ira, but it never made a difference to them in the past and it wont now. The only benefit from highlighting their hypocrisy is for prior elections.

Republican Congressman Slams Bush On Militarized Police State Preparation
Ron Paul says indictment story is far more damaging than media is portraying, avian flu martial law provisions aimed at gun confiscation

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | October 12 2005

Congressman Ron Paul has accused the Bush administration of attempting to set in motion a militarized police state in America by enacting gun confiscation martial law provisions in the event of an avian flu pandemic. Paul also slammed as delusional and dangerous plans to invade Iran, Syria, North Korea and China.

Ron Paul represents the 14th Congressional district of Texas. He also serves on the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, and the International Relations committee.

Paul appeared on the Alex Jones show yesterday and raised some interesting points about the possibility of imminent indictments of top Bush administration figures.

"I think there's a lot more excitement coming and it's not going to be good for the Republicans," stated Paul.

"The things that I hear have to do with Karl Rove and Abramoff and that's much much worse than anybody would believe and it involves DeLay as well."

"And that type of an indictment will be much more serious than the indictment of shifting campaign funds around.....there's some political infighting which could make that really interesting."

On the subject of the police state, Paul stated,

"If we don't change our ways we will go the way of Rome and I see that as rather sad.....the worst things happen when you get the so-called Republican conservatives in charge from Nixon on down, big government flourishes under Republicans."

"It's really hard to believe it's happening right in front of us. Whether it's the torture or the process of denying habeas corpus to an American citizen."

"I think the arrogance of power that they have where they themselves are like Communists....in the sense that they decide what is right. The Communist Party said that they decided what was right or wrong, it wasn't a higher source."

Paul responded to President Bush's announcement last week that he would order the use of military assets to police America in the event of an avian flu outbreak.

"To me it's so strange that the President can make these proposals and it's even plausible. When he talks about martial law dealing with some epidemic that might come later on and having forced quarantines, doing away with Posse Comitatus in order to deal with natural disasters, and hardly anybody says anything. People must be scared to death."

Paul, himself a medical doctor, agreed that the bird flu threat was empty fearmongering.

"I believe it is the President hyping this and Rumsfeld, but it has to be in combination with the people being fearful enough that they will accept the man on the white horse. My first reaction going from my political and medical background is that it's way overly hyped and to think that they have gone this far with it, without a single case in the whole country and they're willing to change the law and turn it into a military state? That is unbelievable! They're determined to have martial law."

Paul opined that the martial law provisions now being promoted by the Bush administration were a direct response to people's unwillingness to relinquish their firearms, as was seen in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

"I think they're concerned about the remnant, the remnant of those individuals who don't buy into stuff and think that they should take care of themselves on their own, that they should have their own guns and their own provisions and they don't want to depend on the government at all and I think that is a threat to those who want to hold power. They don't want any resistance to their authoritarian rule."

Paul opined that the government was on a delusional power trip that threatened the country.

"These guys are ready to start a war with Iran, Syria, North Korea or China. They can't possibly do that, it's so insane, we don't have the money, we don't have the troops, we probably don't even have the ammunition."

"But, if they are truly delusional they just might do something that's totally irrational."

Paul expressed his hope that finally some conservatives are waking up to the fact that the Bush administration is a trojan horse, especially after arch-liberal Harriet Miers was chosen by Bush to supposedly move the Supreme Court to the right, even though her record is atrocious and she has been involved in the past covering up for the Bush crime family's activities.

AP: Frist Accumulated Stock outside Trusts
By Larry Margasak and Jonathan M. Katz
The Associated Press

Tuesday 11 October 2005

Washington - Outside the blind trusts he created to avoid a conflict of interest, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist earned tens of thousands of dollars from stock in a family-founded hospital chain largely controlled by his brother, documents show.

The Tennessee Republican, whose sale this summer of HCA Inc. stock is under federal investigation, has long maintained he could own HCA shares and still vote on health care legislation without a conflict because he had placed the stock in blind trusts approved by the Senate.

However, ethics experts say a partnership arrangement shown in documents obtained by The Associated Press raises serious doubts about whether the senator truly avoided a conflict.

In that case, the HCA stock was accumulated by a family investment partnership started by the senator's late parents and later overseen by his brother, Thomas Frist. The brother served as president of the partnership's management company and as a top officer of HCA. Sen. Frist holds no position with the company.

The senator's share of the partnership was placed in a Tennessee blind trust between 1998 and 2002 that was separate from those governed by Senate ethics rules. Frist reported Bowling Avenue Partners, made up mostly of non-public HCA stock, earned him $265,495 in dividends and other income over the four years.

Edmond M. Ianni, a former Wilmington, Del., bank executive who established blind trusts for corporate executives, questioned why the senator's brother was able to manage assets "when the whole purpose of a blind trust is to ensure lack of not only conflict of interest - but appearance of conflict of interest?"

Kathleen Clark, a government ethics expert at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, said she doesn't believe the Senate trusts or the Tennessee trust insulated Frist from a conflict because the senator or his brother were advised of transactions and could influence decisions.

"What I find most appalling is the Senate calls it a qualified blind trust when it's not blind," Clark said. "Since the Senate says it's OK, the Senate has made it a political question. It's up to the voter. But there's no doubt it's a conflict of interest."

Frist's interest in Bowling Avenue Partners and the Tennessee blind trust were listed on the annual disclosure reports he filed with the Senate. Thomas Frist's ability to influence HCA stock decisions in the partnership was detailed in separate trust and partnership documents obtained by the AP.

Those documents show Thomas Frist was listed as the "general partner" and "registered agent" of Bowling Avenue Partners. He also was listed as president of the partnership's management company.

Thomas Frist founded HCA, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, with his and the senator's father. He currently is the company's chairman emeritus.

Frist advisers confirmed the senator's brother could influence investment decisions in the Bowling Avenue partnership and said the partnership was placed in a Tennessee trust because Senate ethics rules didn't allow the non-public HCA shares to be included in Senate-approved trusts.

"His interests in the family partnership were not held by his Senate blind trusts because Senate rules did not permit it. Senator Frist did not control the assets in this partnership and he annually disclosed his interests to the public as required," Frist spokesman Bob Stevenson said.

Thomas Frist did not return repeated phone calls to his office at HCA seeking comment.

Bowling Avenue Partners' HCA shares became marketable securities when the estate of Frist's mother was settled in probate. Frist then began transferring those shares in stages from the Tennessee blind trust to the Senate-approved trusts in 2001 and 2002.

The value of all the transferred shares, calculated on the dates they went into the Senate trusts, was between $775,000 and $1.57 million, according to letters the trustees sent to Frist and the Senate. That stock was on top of millions of dollars in various investments Frist already owned in the Senate blind trusts.

With his background as a heart surgeon as well as majority leader, Frist has been at the forefront of legislation that would affect the hospital chain. Among the issues: a Medicare prescription drug benefit and limits on medical malpractice lawsuits.

Frist kept HCA stock in Bowling Avenue Partners and the Tennessee blind trust - but outside the Senate-approved trusts - between 1998 and 2002.

His investments in Nashville-based HCA are being investigated by federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission after an AP report that the senator had asked administrators of his Senate blind trusts to sell his HCA holdings.

Frist ordered the stock sold June 13 and all sales were completed by July 1. HCA stock peaked on June 22 and then gradually declined. On July 13, it dropped 9 percent.

Reports to the SEC showed insiders sold about 2.3 million shares of HCA stock worth at least $112 million from January through June 2005.

Frist has denied having insider company information when he ordered the stock sold in June. The profit the senator made from the sales is not known.

The Bowling Avenue name came from the street of the Frist family home in Nashville.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101205Z.shtml

Stem cells transformed into cancer killers at U
By boosting the body's natural killer cells, researchers hope eventually to find new treatments for cancer tumors.

Last update: October 11, 2005 at 7:04 PM

University of Minnesota researchers have turned embryonic stem cells into cancer-fighting cells in the lab.

The research at the Stem Cell Institute doesn't offer an immediate cancer treatment, but the findings suggest that stem cells eventually could be used to boost the body's ability to fight tumors.

Using one of the federally approved embryonic stem cell lines, scientists first coaxed the cells to turn into blood cells, including "natural killer cells." These naturally occurring cells produce proteins that attack tumors.

Then the research team mixed the killer cells with cancer cells in a culture dish and watched as the cancer cells died, according to a report in the Journal of Immunology.

"This is really the first evidence that we can harness human embryonic stem cells to make a cell population that is able to kill tumor cells," said Dr. Dan Kaufman, an assistant professor at the institute and coauthor of the report.

Researchers next plan to test whether stem cell-derived killer cells will attack tumors in mice, he said. Similar studies elsewhere using adult stem cells have successfully attacked cancer cells in lab animals, Kaufman said.

In theory, boosting the body's natural killer cells should help battle cancers. It remains unclear whether adult or embryonic stems cells will be more promising in such efforts.

Kaufman said researchers eventually may be able to target natural killer cells to attack tumor cells. For that to work, more embryonic cell lines may be needed, he said. Government rules now limit the number of such stem cell lines available for federally funded research.

DAVID SHAFFER

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1556/5663553.html

Focus of CIA Leak Probe
Appears to Widen

By JOHN D. MCKINNON, JOE HAGAN and ANNE MARIE SQUEO
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 12, 2005; Page A3

The New York Times reporter who went to jail to avoid testifying in the CIA leak case was quizzed by the special prosecutor again yesterday and has agreed to return to the grand jury today.

Judith Miller's additional testimony comes as the endgame is intensifying in the legal chess match that threatens to damage the Bush administration.

There are signs that prosecutors now are looking into contacts between administration officials and journalists that took place much earlier than previously thought. Earlier conversations are potentially significant, because that suggests the special prosecutor leading the investigation is exploring whether there was an effort within the administration at an early stage to develop and disseminate confidential information to the press that could undercut former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, Central Intelligence Agency official Valerie Plame.

Mr. Wilson had become a thorn in the Bush administration's side, as he sought to undermine the administration's claims that Iraq had sought to buy materials for building nuclear weapons from other countries, such as uranium "yellowcake" from Niger. Ultimately, his wife's name and identity were disclosed in a newspaper column, prompting the investigation into whether someone in the administration broke the law by revealing the identity of an undercover agent.

Ms. Miller, the Times reporter, was interviewed again yesterday to discuss conversations she had with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's chief of staff. She testified on Sept. 30 before a grand jury about conversations she had with Mr. Libby in July 2003.

Article Continues >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB112907415441266084-VDsI1ez92Qlr0_XPP5IbwfiUKHI_20051111.html?mod=blogs

Someone sent me an email with these great quotes that were posted on Daily Kos back in August, 2005.

Quotes from when Clinton committed troops to Bosnia:

Ahh, the good ol' days
by kos
Wed Aug 17th, 2005 at 11:47:32 PDT
Quotes from when Clinton committed troops to Bosnia:

"You can support the troops but not the president."
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years."
--Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"
--Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

"[The] President . . . is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."
--Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

"American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery. Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the world with a feel-good foreign policy."
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
--Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W Bush

"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning . . I didn't think we had done enough in the diplomatic area."
--Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

"I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our over-extended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today"
--Rep Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."
--Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/17/144732/740

I totally agree with Ed Schultz on this. I think we are being played, and there is nothing we can do about it. If Dems vote for her, we're basically screwed, and, if the conservative complaint is real and we all vote against her, we'll get something worse. This is a no win - no two ways about it.

Posted by: Carol at October 12, 2005 04:05 PM

That MIGHT depend on WHEN the vote is taken: before or after Fitzgerald's grand jury goes public with its findings....

IMHO, leave Sandra Day O'Connor where she is until after Jan 20, 2009....

October 12, 2005
Kennedy: I'll Support Kerry in 2008 Race
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 5:23 p.m. ET

BOSTON (AP) -- Sen. Edward Kennedy said Wednesday he would back fellow Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 -- even if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton also pursues a White House bid.

''If he runs, I would support him,'' Kennedy told The Associated Press in an interview at his Boston office.

While Kennedy has frequently entertained the New York senator and her husband, former President Clinton, he said his loyalty is to Kerry. Early polling shows Clinton and Kerry among the favorites for their party's nomination in 2008, but neither has said for sure whether they'll run.

Kennedy called Kerry, the 2004 nominee, an ''able, gifted and talented political leader.''

He criticized President Bush's leadership and said of the American people: ''Every day, I think they regret that John wasn't elected.''

''We haven't had accountability and we haven't had real leadership in dealing with these issues and problems,'' he said, ''and that's what I hear more than anything else.''

The White House had no immediate comment.

There was friction between Kennedy and Kerry in 2000, when Kennedy appeared to favor then-Sen. John Edwards as Al Gore's running mate, even though Kerry was also under consideration. Yet Kennedy campaigned vigorously for Kerry last year, especially before the candidate staged a come-from-behind victory in the Iowa caucuses.

IMHO, leave Sandra Day O'Connor where she is until after Jan 20, 2009....

Posted by: NonnyO at October 12, 2005 05:45 PM

I hope you're right.

Raise your hand if you think this avian flu thing is being hyped WAY, WAY out of proportion!

The local in-state news has had avian flu stories as #1, #2, or #3 in their national news segments, and it's getting really annoying. From what I've been able to gather via PBS/BBC on PBS, and a few national news clips on the in-state news, there are less than 50 cases of humans getting the flu from birds(!) in the entire world (no cases in the US), and no one even knows if it passes from human to human. The only known cases have been when it passed from a bird to a human. If it passed from human to human, I would think the outbreak would have started world-wide already from those few known cases....

I'm thinking the avian flu scare is so much smoke and mirrors and something to divert the media's attention away from Fitzgerald's grand jury investigation (and DeLay and Frist, et al., not to mention Bu$hCo's war in Iraq, hurricane clean-up, earthquakes, floods, and famine, etc., worldwide)... and potential indictments that should be known about by Halloween, since the final day for the grand jury is Friday, Oct. 28.... I hear little or nothing about those topics on the news, but I'm becoming bored senseless about avian flu (which, IMHO, is not even a blip on the radar screen as far as illness world-wide goes...).

Oh, and PS... if you didn't read the Morford article on the link above, please do yourself a favor and go read it.... By the end of the article... Priceless!!! :-)

Posted by: sparrow at October 12, 2005 06:03 PM

She's got other plans, I think...

O'Connor named Chancellor
Date: Oct 04, 2005

Sandra Day O’Connor, who in July announced her intention to retire as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, has been named twenty-third Chancellor of the College by the College of William and Mary Board of Visitors. Justice O’Connor will succeed Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, former United States Secretary of State, who was appointed in 2000. The appointment is effective immediately.
http://www.wm.edu/news/index.php?id=5233

Posted by: madame defarge at October 12, 2005 06:08 PM

What?

Posted by: sparrow at October 12, 2005 06:03 PM

Well, IF our Senators had two gray cells to rub together between all 100 of them, they'd bide their time until AFTER the Fitzgerald's grand jury findings come out before voting on Miers' nomination.

Since 2000 I've only seen evidence of one-tenth of one percent of one gray cell working between all of them. I'm not holding my breath that they'll grow any new gray cells between now and the end of the month....

But if Fitzgerald's grand jury does come through with any indictments - and LameStream Media actually covers the story in depth and with some objectivity and no apologies for that conscience-less psychopathic megalomaniac in *our* White House - I will believe in Santa Claus by the Winter Solstice....

Posted by: madame defarge at October 12, 2005 06:08 PM

The O'Connor appointment as chancellor for William and Mary College was announced a week or more ago. It's a ceremonial post, and it does not require her presence. Kind of like being on the board of trustees for the college....

O'Connor named Chancellor
Date: Oct 04, 2005

She was appointed Oct. 4.....

Posted by: karen at October 12, 2005 04:29 PM

Jesus also said "You will know them by their fruits." (What is reaped from their sowing.)

Let's see......

A war that is causing death to innocent soldiers and civilians with no end in sight.

Rumors of more wars.

A homeland security system that can't withstand a large natural disaster.

A surplus gone and a deficit so large that we could spiral downward into a depression, or at the very least, that our children's children will have to pay for for years to come.

A chief advisor to the President with "loose lips", who schemes and slanders for power and position.

Hmmm. I was going to say He said "You will know them by their fruit(S)", but in this case, You will know them NOT by their Fruits and Nuts might be more appropriate.

Tweety has apparently seen God on the road to Damascus. Another night of tough stories on the Plame affair.

Posted by: Cyrano at October 12, 2005 07:04 PM

I remember last fall/early winter when it all looked so good for Tweety and the Gang.

I remember saying then, that how loud they use the "C" word depends on how things are going for them.

Sandwich boards, anyone?

Posted by: Cyrano at October 12, 2005 07:04 PM

P.S.

LOL!!!

As far as I'm concerned, if Fitzgerald comes in with indictments against Rove and Libby (as is looking increasingly likely), that becomes the basis for a political claim that the President and Vice-President were materially involved in a coverup during the years of 2003 and 2004, and hence defrauded the American people of their right to know all the relevant facts during the 2004 Presidential Election. Hence, any notion of Bush having a mandate to swing the balance of the Supreme Court towards the right is null and void.

Posted by: Matthew Carnicelli at October 12, 2005 07:24 PM

I quite agree.

Additionally, Miers was at the ranch Aug. 6, 2001 (there's a photo!) when Nitwit was shown the PDB about bin Laden, and she's been his "close personal advisor" through thick and thin throughout most of his time in office. Any case against individuals in the cabal, and Roberts (and Miers, if approved) would have to recuse themselves, since Roberts has already written a favorable opinion of Nitwit having dictatorial powers just four days before he was nominated, and Miers is a "close" friend. (Eeeeowww, those greeting card comments she wrote! Urge to hurl at such juvenile sentiments!!!)

As far as I'm concerned, if any indictments come down the pike, that renders the whole administration and any actions and decisions made since Jan. 2001 null and void, especially the Selection of 2000 and the (rigged) "election" of 2004....

I'm all for a primal scream (as in Portnoy's Complaint) and starting all over....

I can't remember...is today a day when Boy George believes in polls or not?

Bush approval dips below 40 percent
NBC-WSJ poll shows only 28 percent believe U.S. headed in right direction

By Mark Murray, Political reporter NBC News
Updated: 7:33 p.m. ET Oct. 12, 2005
WASHINGTON - It has been weeks since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast; since gas prices began spiking to record highs; and since Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, held her antiwar vigil outside President Bush’s Texas ranch. But, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, the fortunes of the Bush administration and the Republican Party have not yet begun to recover.

For the first time in the poll, Bush’s approval rating has sunk below 40 percent, while the percentage believing the country is heading in the right direction has dipped below 30 percent. In addition, a sizable plurality prefers a Democratic-controlled Congress, and just 29 percent think Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers is qualified to serve on the nation’s highest court.
--snip--
The poll shows that Bush’s approval rating stands at 39 percent, a new low for the president. In the last NBC/Wall Street Journal survey, which was released in mid-September, 40 percent approved of Bush’s job performance while 55 percent disapproved. In addition, just 28 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction, another all-time low in Bush’s presidency.

Strikingly, much has happened in the time between those two polls — many of them seemingly positive events for the White House. The president delivered a prime-time speech from New Orleans, in which he promised to rebuild the Gulf Coast. He also made several more visits to the region, to examine the damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Furthermore, he saw the Senate confirm John Roberts to the Supreme Court, and he nominated Miers, his White House counsel, to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
--snip--
In addition, with 13 months until the 2006 congressional elections, 48 percent say they prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress, compared with 39 percent who want the Republicans to control Capitol Hill. In fact, that nine-point difference is the largest margin between the parties in the 11 years the NBC/Journal poll has been tracking this question.

But Hart argues that Democrats aren’t necessarily responsible for this margin. "It is not that Democrats have done so well," he said. "It is that people are disgusted." McInturff puts it this way: "People are very turned off and unhappy with the state of play in American politics."
--snip--
Because of this generally sour attitude, the NBC/Journal pollsters doubt that Bush will be able to climb out of his standing anytime soon. "His trampoline [is] made of cement," Hart said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9672058

Posted by: madame defarge at October 12, 2005 06:08 PM
(and Karen's response)

---Well, I've got some connections to the William & Mary community, and I can't tell you how friggin' happy so many people are to have Sandra Day O'Conner as the Chancelor (yes, a ceremonial position, but it will bring her down a couple of times a year).

The last Chancelor was--get this--Henry Kissinger! Everytime he came to campus, a group of students would protest!! O'Conner--the first woman Supreme Court Justice is a welcome relief.

Once Margaret Thatcher was Chancelor at W&M. Apparently she loved it and found frequent excuses to come over from England.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101205Q.shtml

    Gore: I Don't Plan to Run for President
    By Mattias Karen
    The Associated Press

    Wednesday 12 October 2005

    Former Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday he had no intention of ever running for president again, but he said the United States would be "a different country" if he had won the 2000 election, launching into a scathing attack of the Bush administration.

    "I have absolutely no plans and no expectations of ever being a candidate again," Gore told reporters after giving a speech at an economic forum in Sweden.

    When asked how the United States would have been different if he had become president, though, he had harsh criticism for Bush's policies.

    "We would not have invaded a country that didn't attack us," he said, referring to Iraq. "We would not have taken money from the working families and given it to the most wealthy families."

    "We would not be trying to control and intimidate the news media. We would not be routinely torturing people," Gore said. "We would be a different country."

    Gore did not elaborate. But last year, he blamed Bush administration policies for the inmate abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

    Mike Feldman, Gore's spokesman, did not immediately comment on Gore's remark when reached by phone in Washington.

    Tracey Schmitt, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, called Gore's comments "fictitious rants that border on dangerous."

    "To accuse Americans of participating in 'routine torture' is absurd and reveals that while Al Gore may no longer be a leader in his party, he still embodies the maniacal anger that guides Democrat leaders in Washington today," Schmitt wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

    Gore also reiterated his criticism that the Bush administration was too slow in responding to the crisis in New Orleans after the city's levees failed during Hurricane Katrina. He said that should have been predicted.

    "There were specific warnings that the levees might break," he said. "But for whatever reason those warnings were not acted upon in a timely way."

    He said the United States and other countries are similarly ignoring the threats that global warning pose to the environment.

    "My country is extremely attentive to the slightest increase in a risk from terror, and that's appropriate," he said. "But why should we be so tolerant of risk where the future habitability of our planet is concerned?"

    Gore, who now runs a cable TV channel and is the chairman of an investment company, did not completely shut the door to future political endeavors.

    "I don't completely rule out some future interest, but I don't expect to have that," Gore said.

    He declined to comment on New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's possible run for the White House in 2008, but he said he believes the country is ready for a female president.

    "Of course a woman could get elected president," he said. "I am not going to make any comment on individual candidates. It's quite premature."

Pent-up Thoughts & Materials Accumulated While Being Stuck at Work

Gore: US Would Be "a Different Country" If I Had Won

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101205Q.shtml

Former Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday he had no intention of ever running for president again, but he said the United States would be "a different country" if he had won the 2000 election, launching into a scathing attack of the Bush administration.

======

Books suggested by readers on Elizabeth Edwards' site:

* Kremlin Rising, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser
* What's the Matter with Kansas, Thomas Frank
* The Game of School, Robert Fried
* The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman
* The New Ruthless Economy, Simon Head
* Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
* Poverty in America, John Iceland
* Health of Nations, Ichiro Kawachi and Bruce Kennedy
* Rachel and Her Children, Jonathan Kozol
* Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
* Walking with the Wind, U.S. Rep. John Lewis
* Three Billion New Capitalists, Clyde Prestowitz
* The End of Poverty, Jeffrey Sachs
* One Nation, Underprivileged, Mark Robert Rank
* God's Politics, Jim Wallis

__________

Excerpts from Gerhard Schroeder's speech marking his unfortunate (tragic?) departure from German politics, making way for the creepy Margaret Thatcheresque Angela Merkel.

Guardian, International Herald Tribune etc.:

"I will not belong to the next government, definitely not," said an emotional Mr Schröder, addressing a trade union conference in Hanover, his home town, to thunderous applause. He also managed a valedictory swipe at two of his biggest adversaries - Tony Blair and George Bush.

Describing Mr Blair ironically as "my British friend", the chancellor said that Mr Blair also had "other friends" too, a barbed reference to the prime minister's stalwart alliance with Mr Bush over Iraq.

The chancellor also attacked the more limited Anglo-Saxon model of the state, warning that Germany under Mrs Merkel should not try to emulate Britain or the US. "I can think of a recent disaster that shows what happens when a country neglects its duties of state toward its people.

"My post as chancellor, which I still hold, does not allow me to name that country. But you all know I'm talking about America," Mr Schröder said to laughter. "People do not want the state in their faces, but they want it at their side."
_____

Nice to read the piece about Kennedy & Kerry - emotional

Interesting story about Harvard Business School Grad Grover Norquist.... other alumni are not great fans, it seems. They responded to an article about the anti-tax guru in their alumni magazine.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/12/201643/78

"In the September issue, other HBS alums responded to the Norquist piece in their Letters to the Editor. The shocking verdict: an astonishing, nearly unanimous wave of revulsion about Norquist, his worldview and his impact.

Comparisons to Hitler, endorsements of inheritance taxes, concerns about increasing concentration of wealth, unvarnished blasts against Cheney and the war... You might think it was the Worker's World Daily, not an HBS publication."

The whole thing makes excellent, enlightening reading. I will keep repeating my 2005 mantra - Progressives need to learn more about economics and business.

Wondering why Norquist is soooo sure that Republicans will pic up seats at a specific rate....

Amy
I was just thinking - progressives need to track world affairs more. Economics/trade certainly do not happen with US in a vacuum. Also with Condi Rice globe trotting around South Asia & Rumsfeld speaking his piece in Central America, with the head of Germany who was antiwar quitting and speaking out about not only Blair but Bush, we need a better picture of what's happening behind the scenes. I've heard too many people say we need to focus on our own country and I don't buy it. I think that view is obsolete.

This is the third national poll showing Shrub is under 40 percent.
Looks like the MSM is actually close to calling him unpopular. Oooh it's so close...They're about to break. What pisses me off is that if this was a Dem prez they would have no problem using the dirty "U" word right about now. Heck, 5 points ago.

Anyhoo....Take a look. Merry Christmas kids!!!!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9672058/
Bush approval dips below 40 percent
NBC-WSJ poll shows only 28 percent believe U.S. headed in right direction

By WILL LESTER Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Oct 8, 2005 Critical elements in President Bush's political coalition have grown less enthusiastic about the job he is doing, an AP-Ipsos poll found. That's a troubling development for a president trying to firm up his base of support.

Evangelical voters, Republican men, Southerners and Protestants have lost some intensity in their support for the president since the beginning of this year.

The White House is already struggling to keep the Republican base from eroding because of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, hurricane-recovery spending projects, immigration and other issues.

~ snip

The number of people who strongly approve of Bush's job performance has eroded over the last year, most notably among key groups like evangelical voters, down from 49 percent who strongly approved in January to 33 percent now; Republican men, down from 57 percent to 42 percent; Protestants, down from 36 percent to 25 percent; and Southerners, down from 32 percent to 22 percent.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1195027

Stop This From Happening!

Hillarious...but scary...

http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

James Madison, while a United States Congressman

We usually think of a nation being controlled by a military dictatorship when a military leader seizes control through a putsch, as in the case of General Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan or Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The previous government is overthrown and a military strong man places himself in power with few if any constraints from judicial or legislative oversight.

But we must look for the essence of a military dictatorship, those features which are present whenever this form of oppression occurs. In essence, a military dictatorship is a form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in a repressive ruler or a small clique who use military and police power to dominate the people mentally and physically.

Taking this definition as our touchstone, in the United States we know we're living under a military dictatorship when we see:

Disaster aid deliberately withheld by White House and Pentagon to impose unfettered military control

A leader retaining power through stealing the election of 2004 and put into power in 2000 by a coup d'etat, not through democratic elections

The military used to control the civilian population in violation of the U.S. Constitution

The president ordering a US citizen held indefinitely by the military

A shadow government being set up consisting entirely of executive branch officials in violation of the Constitution

Government informants spying on fellow citizens

The highest amount of government funds going to military initiatives:

Taxpayer money being used to subsidize and fund domestic and foreign "defense" corporations

Taxpayer money being used to subsidize and fund domestic and foreign military operations: wars, embargoes, training, etc.

A dictatorial ruling clique creating unnecessary, homocidal wars as a way of remaining in power

The spread of militaristic values and the increasing power of the military in our society

All these conditions are now
present in the United States.

"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY."

Hermann Goering, President of the Reichstag,
Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief,
from Gilbert, G.M. (1947). Nurenberg Diary, New York: Signet