Things More Politicians Should Do

Sorry so yesterday's news, but the press did pick up a bit on the World Can't Wait protest in Chicago.

See

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0511030231nov03,0,7091363.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Posted by Casey Morris at November 3, 2005 09:31 AM

Casey, speaking from the heart is difficult to do. It's not only the "thank you's" that matter, but it's the heartfelt communication between people who really care but just have some different view points.

I'm finding that I run into some neoCONs on my canvassing. (Ok...well, they call themselves Republicans, but I know that the neoCONS and neoCON supporters are not necessarily Republicans of old.) At anyrate, the seriously mean ones just yell at me, slam their door, or give me the finger.

But every once in a while, I can have a heartfelt conversation about our similarities as well as our differences. In many issues we're the same, but how can that be if our opinions are the same? So I try to leave each person with the idea of compromise, toning down the hate speech, and finding ways we're alike. I hope I make a difference even in a small way.

Especially, since I'm freezing my buns off wishing I was some place warm!

Wow

'Can I quit now?' FEMA chief wrote as Katrina raged

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/03/brown.fema.emails/index.html

Senate Democrats are vowing to make Alito's track record on rights a prominent theme of his confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It will be an issue. When it comes down to it, he's on the wrong side of civil rights," said Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a member of the committee.

And since Alito's nomination Monday, liberal interest groups -- including ones that promote women's causes, disability rights and racial justice -- have been plowing through his record feverishly, trading what they are unearthing. "In the course of his judicial career, he has opposed many of the goals of people who are trying to protect and expand rights and liberties," said William L. Taylor, chairman of the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights.

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) is introducing legislation to erect a statue of Rosa Parks and to place it in the U.S. Capitol in National Statuary Hall. Kerry's bill will be co-sponsored by Sens. Obama, Levin, Stabenow, and Kennedy.

JK still fighting for our values.

FROM THE AUSTIN-AMERICAN STATESMAN

BREAKING NEWS:

Earle challenges Republican judge

DA wants DeLay judge Schraub out and new judge to name replacement. More to come.

Help spread the word to your Senator to support Maria cantwell's legislation to delink the vote on Anwr to the budget.

Here is a sample letter:

I urge you in the strongest terms possible to vote against any budget reconciliation bill that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

I am deeply opposed to oil development in the Arctic Refuge. America's last unspoiled birthing ground for Arctic wildlife should not be sacrificed for the sake of a year's worth of national energy -- especially when we could save eleven times as much oil through an increase in fuel economy standards. Opening the Refuge to oil drilling will also wipe out the Porcupine caribou herd, on which the Gwich'in people depend for their survival.

I am especially outraged that congressional leaders are attempting to include Arctic drilling in the federal budget bill. I ask that you respect the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the American people who oppose this sneak attack. The fate of America's premiere wildlife refuge should be decided by an open debate -- not by a legislative ploy.

Again, I urge you to oppose drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in whatever manner the issue may arise: as part of the budget process or as a free-standing bill. Congress does not have a mandate to sacrifice the Arctic Refuge, and I plan to hold you accountable for your vote and your stewardship of this irreplaceable natural treasure.

Sincerely,

Fe it looks like DeLay will get everything he wants at trial a sympathetic Republican Judge and a sympathetic jury pool outside of Austin. They want the trial pool to be selected from an upscale community and Republican bastions of Ft. Worth. Again it looks like a Democratic Judge bending over backwards to show fairness/leniency towards DeLay. Why?

Posted by: Ira at November 3, 2005 11:33 AM

Are there any Republicans honoring Rosa Parks? I didn't get to see any of the funeral.

Too late on the ANWR stuff... evidently the vote already happened per kos poster emmasnacker:

Cantwell amendment fails 49-51. (none / 1)

Gee, thanks Akaka (D-HI) uh...50-50 ,Inouye (D-HI),uh...51-49, Landrieu (D-LA) 52-48. Asshats.
Bye-bye ANWR.

Thu Nov 03, 2005 at 08:18:59 AM PDT

that would be 11:18:59 AM EST

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/11/3/95825/7076/32#32

yea Dewine and Frist were in the rotunda yesterday, Dewine making a political gesture b/c he is up for re election next Nov. Let's see how many Republican cosponsors JK gets.

This is an awesome web showing the connections of the ties of corruption in the Bush administration.

http://www.tompaine.com/cabal/

Bookmark it because you may be referring back to it later.

dwahzon I felt sick over that vote months ago; faith1 had chimed in her displeasure. We need to find someone to run against Akaka and Inouye when they are up for re-election and should cut off ALL DNC funding. I certainly don't want my contributions in their campaign chest. Apparently they could care less about the values of the country or members of the Democratic Party. What a true disgrace. It is these kinds of maneuvers which make me ask what the hell is wrong with Democrats if we can't protect the environment. A Disgrace of major proportions.

Posted by: dwahzon at November 3, 2005 12:02 PM

Wow! That's very disappointing to see those 'crossover' votes.

Is this REALLY what their own constituents want? I'd be curious to know.

Courtesy of Fly by Night at D.U.

"What have we accomplished on election reform one year later?"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x399624

sparrow we spent hours blogging about the Anwr vote months ago with faith1 about a Hawaiin native recognition bill that was sold out by Akaka and Inouye for Anwr. faith1 told us that hawaiians are split over supporting that legislation but apparently Akaka didn't real care and thought it was good politics; the hell with the what the rest of the country wanted. Disgusting, plain disgusting. Its exactly why Democrats have problems with voters.

Posted by: ira at November 3, 2005 12:21 PM

Ira,

As usual, I blame the media because remember how they 'framed' Al Gore as a "wacko environmentalist"? IT made people afraid to support environmental causes without getting labeled as a tree-hugger wacko too.

protecting the environment was supposed to be part of the DNC's '06 Values Campaign for taking back the Senate. Thank you Senators Akaka and Inouye for underminding that. The only Senator it might actually help is phony Lincoln Chaffee b/c the RNC gave him a free pass on that vote. Seems like we are always getting out maneuvered. Just don't get me started on the environment its one of the biggest sell outs of this adminsitration and to see Dems participate really gets under my skin. Why don't Dems ever retaliate against their own when they make stupid votes like that?

Here's a link to a news report on the ANWR amendment

U.S. Senate votes down proposal to protect Arctic wilderness from oil drilling

Canadian Press via Yahoo! News - 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (CP) - The U.S. Senate has rejected a final push to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20051103/ca_pr_on_wo/us_cda_arctic_oil_2

Here's the link to the Thomas Register page on the vote... gives who voted yeah and nay.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00288

Interestingly enough, McCain (R-AZ), Dewine (R-OH), Coleman (R-MN), Smith (R-OR), Snowe (R-ME) all voted for it.

Now if Landieu, Akaka and Inouye started acting like stewards of our country's resources, it would have passed.

Corzine (D-NJ) was a no-show.

WE'RE FIGHTING THEM THERE SO THEY CAN ESCAPE FROM US IN AFGHANISTAN

November 3, 2005
Qaeda Operative in Southeast Asia Has Fled U.S. Jail in Afghanistan
By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 - Omar al-Faruq, a confidant of Osama bin Laden who was one of Al Qaeda's senior operatives in Southeast Asia, escaped from an American military prison in Afghanistan in July, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

Military authorities acknowledged in July that four suspected Qaeda terrorists had escaped from the heavily fortified prison at Bagram Air Base, apparently by picking the locks of their cells and slipping past a careless Afghan guard. They remain at large.

Mr. Faruq was one of Mr. bin Laden's top lieutenants until he was captured in Indonesia in June 2002 and turned over to the United States. Pentagon officials confirmed that he was one of the fugitives only after the information was disclosed this week in Texas at a military trial of an Army sergeant charged with maltreating detainees in Afghanistan. Mr. Faruq was identified by an alias at the time of the jailbreak.

His disappearance, a major source of embarrassment to American officials at the base, came to light on Tuesday when defense lawyers for Sgt. Alan Driver demanded to know where he was so that he could testify at the trial.

Commanders in Afghanistan said security at the prison had been redoubled after the detainees escaped.

American intelligence officials say that they believe that Mr. Faruq set up the Qaeda network in Southeast Asia in 1998, and that they were convinced at the time he was captured that he knew a great deal about pending attacks. At the Central Intelligence Agency's interrogation center at Bagram, Mr. Faruq initially provided little useful information, intelligence officials said.

Most details of his interrogation are unknown, except that the questioning became prolonged, extending to around-the-clock sessions, American officials said. Some interrogation specialists have said he probably was left naked most of the time, with his hands and feet bound.

The military prison at Bagram was established as part of a broader network of American detention centers set up around the world after the Sept. 11 attacks. The most secret of the centers, in several foreign countries, are those run by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Those centers house about three dozen terror suspects, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, believed to be the mastermind of the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that among the sites were some in Eastern Europe, including one at a former Soviet air base. It was previously reported that the facilities used in the past by the C.I.A. had been located in Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia and in the Middle East.

The Post did not publish the names of the Eastern European countries involved, saying it was honoring a request from American government officials.

I am feeling ill and sad about the ANWR vote.

Not to mention really pissed off...

I have a question. Does the fact that Fitzgerald went before the grand jury and got the indictment mean that he'll be the one directly prosecuting the case when it comes to trial (IF it comes to trial?)
I was wondering if his office would handle the Libby case directly, or if it going to trial phase means someone else might prosecute?
I'm sure some of you on here have the answer- I'm just not knowledgable enough about the special prosecutor situation to know the answer.

Linda: I distinctly recall Fitzgerald saying in his press conference he would not be litigating the case but would be overseeing the trial through his what he called his able asssistant prosecutors.
Why do you ask?

SMALL TOWN AMERICA REPORTS:

From The Rock River Times in Rockford, IL via kos poster drummer55:

GAO report upholds Ohio vote fraud claims

By Joe Baker, Senior Editor

As if the indictment of Lewis “Scooter” Libby wasn’t enough to give the White House some heavy concerns, a report from the Government Accounting Office takes a big bite out of the Bush clique’s pretense of legitimacy.
This powerful and probing report takes a hard look at the election of 2004 and supports the contention that the election was stolen. The report has received almost no coverage in the national media.

The GAO is the government’s lead investigative agency, and is known for rock-solid integrity and its penetrating and thorough analysis. The agency’s agreement with what have been brushed aside as “conspiracy theories” adds even more weight to the conclusion that the Bush regime has no business in the White House whatever.

Almost a year ago, Rep. John Conyers, senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, asked the GAO to investigate the use of electronic voting machines in the Nov. 2, 2004, presidential election. That request was made as a flood of protests from Ohio and elsewhere deluged Washington with claims that shocking irregularities were common in that vote and were linked to the machines.

CNN said the Judiciary Committee got more than 57,000 complaints after Bush’s claimed re-election. Many were made under oath in a series of statements and affidavits in public hearings and investigations carried out in Ohio by the Free Press and other groups seeking to maintain transparent elections.

Online Journal.com reported that the GAO report stated that “some of [the] concerns about electronic voting machines have been realized and have caused problems with recent elections, resulting in the loss and miscount of votes.”

This is the only democratic nation that permits private partisan companies to count and tabulate the vote in secret, using privately-held software. The public is excluded from the process. Rev. Jesse Jackson and others have declared that “public elections must not be conducted on privately-owned machines.” The makers of nearly all electronic voting machines are owned by conservative Republicans.

The chief executive of Diebold, one of the major suppliers of electronic voting machines, Warren “Wally” O’Dell, went on record in the 2004 campaign vowing to deliver Ohio and the presidency to George W. Bush.

In Ohio, Bush won by only 118,775 votes out of more than 5.6 million cast. Honest election advocates contend that O’Dell’s statement to hand Ohio’s vote to Bush still stands as a clear indictment of an apparently successful effort to steal the White House.

Some of the GAO’s findings are: 1. Some electronic voting machines “did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected.” In short, the machines; provided a way to manipulate the outcome of the election. In Ohio, more than 800,000 votes were cast on electronic voting machines, some registered seven times Bush’s official margin of victory.

2: the report further stated that: “it was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks and works, so that the votes for one candidate could be recorded for a different candidate.” Very many sworn statements and affidavits claim that did happen in Ohio in 2004.

Next, the report says, “Vendors installed uncertified versions of voting system software at the local level.” The GAO found that falsifying election results without leaving evidence of doing so by using altered memory cards could easily be done.

The GAO additionally found that access to the voting network was very easy to compromise because not all electronic voting systems had supervisory functions protected by password. That meant access to one machine gave access to the whole network. That critical finding showed that rigging the election did not take a “widespread conspiracy” but simply the cooperation of a small number of operators with the power to tap into the networked machines. They could thus alter the vote totals at will. It therefore was no big task for a single programmer to flip vote numbers to give Bush the 118,775 votes.

Another factor in the Ohio election was that access to the voting network was also compromised by repeated use of the same user ID, coupled with easy-to-guess passwords. Even amateur hackers could have gotten into the network and changed the vote.

System locks were easily picked, and keys were easy to copy, so gaining access to the system was a snap.

One digital machine model was shown to have been networked in such a rudimentary manner that if one machine experienced a power failure, the entire network would go down. That is too fragile a system to decide the presidency of the United States.

Problems obviously exist with security protocols and screening methods for vendor personnel.

The GAO study clearly shows that no responsible business would operate with a computer system as flimsy, fragile and easily manipulated as the one used in the 2004 election.

These findings are even more damning when we understand the election in Ohio was run by a secretary of state who also was co-chairman of Bush’s Ohio campaign. Far from the conclusion of anti-fraud skeptics, the GAO’s findings confirm that the network, which handled 800,000 Ohio votes, was vulnerable enough to permit a handful of purposeful operatives to turn the entire election by means of personal computers using comparatively simple software.

One Ohio campaign operative, Tom Noe, a coin dealer, was indicted Oct. 27 for illegally funneling $45,400 to Bush by writing checks to others, who then wrote checks to Bush’s re-election campaign, allegedly dodging the $2,000 limit on contributions by an individual.

“It’s one of the most blatant and excessive finance schemes we have encountered,” said Noel Hillman, section chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s public integrity section, as quoted in the Kansas City Star.

In the 2000 election, Florida was the key; in the 2004 election, Ohio was the key.

From the Nov. 2-8, 2005, issue

http://www.rockrivertimes.com/index.pl?cmd=viewstory&cat=2&id=11529

Great posting at Ellen's blog...

http://ellenofthetenth.blogspot.com/

More info/analysis on the GAO vote fraud report:

Truthout: GAO Report Finds Flaws in Electronic Voting
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102105Q.shtml

More analysis from Free Press:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2005/1529

Link to the GAO report itself (in pdf format)
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05956.pdf

Fact Sheet about the GAO report from Rep. Henry Waxman:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102105Q.shtml

If you are FOR disrupting the enviorment.. EVER

Then you CAN NOT be called a 'conservative'

Proud to be a tree hugger. And a Liberal

Sparrow, you were in Ohio right. What do you think of all this? And also I was up in Wisconsin and my friend Steve got the call from the ACT folks in Ohio at around 7:00pm-ish Wisc time, we were all at the Union House for final debrief, and they said they were projecting Kerry won Ohio. Who of those who were in Ohio has an explanation for that? Was ACT just wrong or did something happen? Still bugs me one year later.

Latest Zogby polls...Man, don't we wish more people knew what we knew a year ago...

Rollercoaster! Bush Approval Rating Drops Again
Survey reflects troubled times for the President at home and abroad

After suffering what was perhaps the worst week of his administration, President Bush’s job approval rating has nosedived to a historic low, settling at 39%, a new Zogby America survey shows.

His poor rating mirrors pessimism people feel about the direction in which the nation is headed. Just 37% said things are going in the right direction, down 8% from less than two weeks ago.

Respondents were sharply divided by age in their opinion of the president. Just 18% of respondents under age 25 said they think Mr. Bush is doing a good job. 44% of those 55 to 69 approved of his overall performance, while 47% of those over age 70 gave him good marks.

A majority of respondents in every region of the country disapproved of the President’s performance, but he fares worst in the Midwestern and Great Lake states, and in the West. His support was strongest in the South.

Read more & see the numbers... http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1036

Second Judge Out for DeLay Trial
11 minutes ago

AUSTIN, Texas - Two days after U.S. Rep.
Tom DeLay won a fight to get a new judge in his case, prosecutors on Thursday succeeded in ousting the Republican jurist responsible for selecting the new judge.

Administrative Judge B.B. Schraub recused himself after District Attorney Ronnie Earle filed a motion asking for his removal from the case.

Schraub said he will ask the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court name a judge to preside over DeLay's conspiracy and money laundering trial.

From Yahoo... http://tinyurl.com/create.php

Slight change of topic.. I'm so glad this is a big tent....

This might be the most important interview you'll read all month. Jimmy Carter with Chris Matthews, yes, President Carter is selling a book, but this time it's serious, our changing values, and his views on it. In the interview he gives the best definition of Democrat vs Republican I"ve ever seen, something we can use.
Please read this link. Since we all seem to have at least one neocon relatve or friend maybe a copy of his book would make a great holiday gift!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9903864/

Schraub said he will ask the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court name a judge to preside over DeLay's conspiracy and money laundering trial.

From Yahoo... http://tinyurl.com/create.php

Posted by: madame defarge at November 3, 2005 01:53 PM

Gee ira:

They don't play very nice in Texas, do they.

Our friend David Swanson has requested support:

I'm going to chat about the war with talk show host and Right Winger Michael Medved
today from 4 to 5 p.m. ET. It's be nice if all the phone calls weren't from people
to the right of Mussolini.

Please call in and ask questions and try to persuade the dwindling minority of war
supporters to join us in a just cause: 1-800-955-1776

David Swanson

Who's in?

Posted by: madame defarge at November 3, 2005 01:51 PM

Hey - glad to see the mid-west and great lakes folks taking the lead here. I always thought it was we northeasterners. Could the country be waking up?

Posted by: Ladytechie at November 3, 2005 02:00 PM

I watched both the Hardball interview (where I thought Chris Matthews was fairly disrespectful to President Carter), and the Larry King interview.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0511/02/lkl.01.html

Both were excellent. He's a good man.

This morning on NPR:

Morning Edition, November 3, 2005 · Steve Inskeep talks with Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, about the influence of Vice President Dick Cheney's office over Iraq war policy. Wilkerson claims the vice president and others bypassed the rest of the government to control key decisions.

Have a listen:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4987598

defarge it seems like few people appreciate how absolutely ugly Mr. Delay's ReDistricting has been and what it put millions of Texans through. We are not a mean or ugly people here in Texas just a a few in our state like DeLay.
This is just the last shoe to drop before our Republican state Supreme Court I am sure there will be many other issues like change of venue that will end up there. I presume Mr. Jefferson our new Chief Justice will fairly weigh the right of the Defendant alongside the right of the citizens of Travis County and the State of Texas to have a compeletely fair trial of Mr. DeLay. One thing this delay will result in is to slow down the trial date, something DeLay has been whining about since his indictment.

Posted by: Ira at November 3, 2005 02:43 PM

Change of venue seems like a great idea...Let's try him up here in Illinois (where Patrick Fitzgerald is our US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois...) or in another blue state... (OK, I know that's impossible, but I can dream, can't I?)

But a slow (and painful for DeLay) process of dragging this out until 2006 elections is a good alternative...

change of venue will either be sought in the very wealthy jusrisidictions of Ft. Worth, Waco, College Station(Texas A.M.) or Ft. Bend (Sugarland) Texas where DeLay knows he will have a sympatehtic evangelical jury pool.

Now I know that USAToday isn't the most reliable news source, but lots of people do read it every day, and especially those business travelers who we need to reach. Today's edition has two articles that are pretty interesting and give me hope that we can reach these people:

Democrats target scandal-weakened DeLay
--snip--
The DeLay indictments also have crystallized Democratic attacks on the Republican "culture of corruption" around a high-profile individual viewed favorably by only 18% in a recent USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll. And they helped persuade congressional analysts that Democrats have at least a chance to win back the House and Senate majorities they lost 11 years ago.

"The environment is better and better for Democrats," says Stuart Rothenberg of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report.

A wave of investigations and indictments of GOP politicians and allies, from the White House to Congress to state government, is helping to create what even some Republicans say are conditions for a "change election" — a vote against whoever's in charge.

The people in charge are Republicans, and ethics aren't their only problem. There's also the high cost of gasoline, continuing violence in Iraq, federal bungling after Hurricane Katrina and President Bush's low job-approval ratings.

Read more about voter dissatisfaction from Republicans at the end of the article... http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-11-02-delay-challenger_x.htm

And then there's this one about Carter:

Breaking tradition, Carter rips Bush's policies

WASHINGTON — Former President Jimmy Carter said Thursday that "fundamentalism" under George W. Bush has resulted in a "dramatic and profound and unprecedented change" in American policy that threatens the United States at home and abroad.
Carter, who is promoting a new book critical of Bush, faulted the Bush administration for "an unprecedented and overt ... merger of the church and state, of religion and politics."
--snip--
He said the natural "arrogance" of second-term presidents is exacerbated by a fundamentalism under Bush that causes many of his supporters and those who work in his administration to believe that "I am right because I am close to God (and) anybody who disagrees with me is inherently wrong, and therefore inferior."
--snip--
"I don't have any doubt that he is very sincere about his Christian faith," Carter said of Bush. "There are some differences in interpretation. ... I have a commitment to worship the Prince of Peace, not the prince of pre-emptive war. I believe that Christ taught us to give special attention to the plight of the poor."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-11-03-carter-bush_x.htm

Posted by: Carol at November 3, 2005 02:32 PM

LOL -- Actually Carol, I think the northeasterners are quite out-numbered in this group. And though I've lived in CT for 2 years now, my Wisconsin / midwestern roots have not been replaced.

Very good commentary/statement of direction from Rahm Emanuel...a must read, IMHO

The Democrats stand for change
By Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.)

The 2006 midterm elections will be a referendum on the state of the nation and how satisfied the American people are with the direction of the country.

Republicans in Congress have replaced our national priorities with a special-interest agenda that the American people wholeheartedly reject. With Democrats as the party of change and Republicans as the party of a vastly unpopular status quo, the choice before the American people couldn’t be clearer.

Read the rest at ===>
http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/110305/rahm.html

DW - I was actually commenting on the Zogby poll results. Seems like those midwestern or northern states were either on the fence or went red a year ago.

I am happy there are so many of those strong voices here on the blog, as well!

Posted by: Carol at November 3, 2005 02:38 PM

Carol, I've decided that Chris Matthews is disrespectful to everyone. I have this overwhelming motherly urge to take him in a corner and say
"Use your inside voice please"

Posted by: ladytechie at November 3, 2005 03:34 PM

LOL! You're a much nicer mom than me... His behavior & lack of respect (for a real President!!!) warrants more severe punishment, IMHO...

DU poster WilliamPitt has a great list here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5245866

Newsweek continues to cover the fight of courageous soldiers to speak out about and against the use of torture...

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9865301/site/newsweek/

I have a motherly urge too when it comes to Matthews.... as in, "Look Motherf******, wouldja PUH-LEEZ let someone finish a sentence after you've asked them a question???"

Speaking of Mommie Dearest, idea for a commercial to fight Alito ... use the clip of Faye Dunaway portaying Joan Crawford screaming the famous line "No more wire hangers... EVER!"

Which reminds me, how's Barbara these days? Still having the shoe removed from her gaping pie-hole?

Mater Dei! All the dots connect!

THK is a class act, and she would have made a fabulous first lady.

Her letter is just like she is. Honest, sincere, and no bull**it.

Thank you right back, THK and JK.

William Cohen is killing the Bush Administration on CNN. He tells Blitzer that the Clinton Administration thought that containment was working with Hussein, but that if they had to go in, their plan involved the deployment of at least 350,000+ troops – both for the invasion and the subsequent occupation.

Chris Matthew has become a legend in his own mind.

FROM HUFFPO:

Big Bird's Stalker Resigns

GOP Operative Kenneth Tomlinson Resigns from CPB Board During Closed Door Review of Inspector General Report (1 comments )

Former Corporation for Public Broadcasting board Chairman and GOP operative Ken Tomlinson resigned from the CPB board today after delivery of an investigation by CPB Inspector Kenneth Kontz. The report has not yet been made public.

Tomlinson was under investigation for hiring outside consultants to monitor perceived liberal bias on PBS programs like NOW with Bill Moyers and other shows.

He also enlisted a White House staffer to write rules for two new ombudsmen, one a former Reader’s Digest colleague of Tomlinson’s.

The investigation of whether Tomlinson violated the Public Broadcasting Act followed a request by Reps. David Obey (D-Wis) and John Dingell (D-Mich) that was prompted by over one million irate petitions and phone calls from the public several months ago.

When Tomlinson’s term as Chairman was up, he moved to a regular board position, named Cheryl Halpern, a major GOP donor, as chairman, and tapped Gay Hart Gaines, also a prominent Republican, as vice chair. In addition, amid howls of protest, he earlier named Patricia Harrison, former Republican National Committee co-chair, as CPB’s president.

Harrison promptly hired several GOP operatives to senior staff positions, all of whom previously worked with Harrison at the State Department when she served as assistant secretary for educational and cultural affairs and acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. They followed close behind when she joined the CPB:

Tim Isgitt, now CPB's vice president for government affairs, was a driving force behind a campaign to place pro-American propaganda in Arabic media worldwide to win Arab support for the war on terror. Under Isgitt's direction, the State Department produced Arabic-language television and radio ads that were widely ridiculed for attempting to package U.S. policy as a commercial "brand."

Mike Levy, the new CPB vice president of communications, served as Harrison's chief of staff when she headed the RNC. At the State Department, Levy developed "pro-active media strategies" to increase support for U.S. counter-narcotics initiatives in more than 100 countries as part of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. He also previously worked as special assistant to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and as press secretary to several GOP congressional campaigns.

Helen Mobley, hired as CPB's senior director of corporate communications and planning, worked closely with Harrison to manage the State Department's efforts to bring Afghan women to America to showcase new freedoms after the downfall of the Taliban regime. Mobley also was deputy director of scheduling during George W. Bush's first presidential run and has been active in GOPUSA.com, Bobby Eberle's Texas-based campaign "to spread the conservative message throughout America."

Public interest groups are now pushing to make the CPB report public and investigate partisan meddling by CPB's new leadership.

Fe,

I just heard that story on NPR as well - woohoo!

Good does triumph over evil - especially on Sesame Street!

CNN is beginning to report a bit more fairly. You can tell the tide is turning and some pundits at CNN are cracking on the Bush administration more than ever before.

I am going to write a few letters to the management at CNN tonight and tell them how much I dislike a couple specific pundits who were so mean to John Kerry last year during the campaign.
I am going to write and tell the management how annoying those talking heads are. (Leaving last year's campaign out of it, of course.)

Heh, heh. Schadenfreude.

Family Loses Home to Katrina, Son to War

By HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 1 minute ago

JACKSON, Miss. - Just as she was trying to rebuild her own life after Hurricane Katrina, Elaine Oneto was told by military officials that her soldier son lost his in Iraq.

1st Lt. Robert C. Oneto-Sikorski, 33, of Bay St. Louis was on a foot patrol Monday near al Haswah, an area west of Baghdad, when he was killed by a roadside bomb, military officials said.

"He was devoted to his children. He is so much more than any of us could say," Oneto said. "He was a wonderful man who loved everyone and his loss is going to devastate this whole community."

Oneoto-Sikorski was serving in Iraq with the 155th Brigade Combat Team with the mother of his children, Clare Ranger. The 155th, which is made up of about 3,500 Mississippi National Guard soldiers and others from more than a dozen states, is scheduled to begin returning in waves from Iraq by the end of the year.

While in Iraq, storm surge from the hurricane flooded both his mother's home and his own. But in one of their last phone conversations, they looked to the future and talked about his homecoming.

"I told him, 'Please be careful, you just have two more months. You just have two more months,'" Oneto said.

The back-to-back tragedy has fueled anger for some in Oneto-Sikorski's family. Like other hurricane victims, the family has had a difficult time getting relief and his mother is still waiting for a trailer from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said his aunt, Eloise Kindja.

"What more does she have to give to the country?" Kindja asked. "She gave her only son."

But for Oneto, coping with the loss of her home has taken a backseat for now. Her grandchildren — ages 6, 8 and 11 — are staying with relatives near Memphis, Tenn., where they evacuated from the hurricane. She wants to make sure they remember their father.

"I'm going to do my best to make sure his kids never want for anything, and they remember him for the honorable and brave man that he was," she said.

http://tinyurl.com/co5rd
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051103/ap_on_re_us/katrina_soldier_killed

Do you think brownie would make a fashion statement in a prison jumpsuit?

I say yes.

Brownie: Fashionably Late

Christy and Monkey:

Imagine Brownie in an orange jumpsuit.

Or if he's in a Fed Pen, Prison Industrial Complex denim blue.

Your chuckle for the day, posted at HuffPo:

"Will somebody please give Bush a blowjob so we can impeach him??!!"

If you are among those, like me, who attended World Can't Wait rallies yesterday, this post at the Huffington Post blog might interest you:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-lappe/the-world-cant-wait-for_b_10042.html

snip

"Frankly, I’ve lost faith in the power of street protests to bring about change, especially ones with vague and, if taken literally, completely impossible goals. And that may be my problem here. I joined the mob in Union Square, as I’ve been at almost every major anti-war protest in NYC for the last three years. But I wish we had new ideas about how to fight the power."

I felt exactly the same way when I was there.

Amy - would that question be directed to Miers or Condi?

Speaking of Condi -

She sure is keeping a low profile these days. I wonder what/who she's hiding from?

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/051107ta_talk_collins

Deeelightful article!

"Libby has a lot to live up to as a conservative author of erotic fiction."

Well, well, well, who knew? Libby wrote a book of erotica, about a young girl, age ten, and .... some bears?

"The book is brimming with quasi-political intrigue and antique locutions — “The girl who wore the cloak of yellow fur”; “one wore backward a European hat” — that make the phrase a “former Hill staffer,” by comparison, seem straightforward."

LOL

co-joined aspens and all. Quite a man, our Scooter.

How dirty???

VERY DIRTY....

Rep. Tom DeLay filed a report with the Clerk of the House of Representatives indicating he received free travel valued at $13,998.55 from Fox News Sunday for "officially connected travel" on October 1-2, 2005

http://politicalmoneyline.com/

Amy - would that question be directed to Miers or Condi?

Posted by: abqjohn at November 3, 2005 09:04 PM

I don't know for sure John, but I find myself wishing I'd said it first. Sigh....

But I wish we had new ideas about how to fight the power."

I felt exactly the same way when I was there.

Posted by: Amy at November 3, 2005 08:25 PM

Tell him to ask me.

I've had a few ideas all along.

First line of attack...

BLOCKADE THE WASHINGTON POST

Don't scream at the Secret Service through the gates of the White House.. Go surround the WaPo and do not let them come or go without waving orange banners in their faces.

Second line of attack.. do the same to the media headquarters in New York City, starting with FOE news.

If you can infiltrate their buildings and chain yourself to a desk.

Third... Get EVERY dem representative to find a camera and say DOWNING MEMOS loudly and often.

Fake a stutter just to get it in one more time.

Four....

Let gravity take over.

Velocity is a bitch.

Posted by: Christy at November 3, 2005 09:57 PM

LOL

Good ideas, Christy. Mind if I share them around? I think you're absolutely right about being physically in their faces at media offices. In large numbers. I love the chaining to the desks idea.

More! More!

From DailyKos

Top Ten Dumb Guy Tips For Avoiding The Bird Flu

10. Before eating chicken, soak it in Lysol

9. Don't lick unfamiliar pigeons

8. Frighten birds by constantly meowing

7. Stay away from basketball great Larry Bird

6. Anti-bacterial smoothies

5. Move to a place where there are no birds...like the moon

4. Avoid birds that look like they're up to something

3. Go back to the old Y2K bunker, start drinking

2. Fill birdfeeder with Sucrets

1. If you have a chicken, check for swelling in the McNuggets

Posted by: Amy at November 3, 2005 10:03 PM

Please do share.

The WaPo wants to PLAY war. Fine.

Lets Us Blockade Them.

As for more...give me a minute, Im thinking.

Posted by: DiAnne at November 3, 2005 10:03 PM

LOL Are these from Letterman or just made up by a poster? They're too funny to be letterman...

Christy, what about WaPo in particular has you fired up?

Actually there is not much more we CAN do without a vast left wing conspiracy involving Senators and Congressman

But actually there is no BETTER move we can make than to confront the media face to face. It is time to show them they are surrounded, outnumbered, and we know EXACTLY where they are to bring our unresolved problems too.

Bring ANYTHING orange. Bring miles of orange cloth. wrap their buildings in it. Tie orange ribbons onto anything vertical or just in-antimate.

Remember the Orange Revolution was actually about a PRESS revolt.

Foe News will see orange and understand instantly.

So will CBSNBCABCCNNMSNBC.. ALL of them

Everyone has a message, screw that. One Color. One Banner. One purpose.

If we do not turn the media now then our entire nation will be lost.

And soon.

PRESS JOIN THE PEOPLE

PRESS JOIN THE PEOPLE

PRESS JOIN THE PEOPLE

what about WaPo

Hehehe

War is all about Real Estate. Real Estate is all about...

Location Location Location.

They are RIGHT THERE.

WE are RIGHT THERE. It is ALL going down RIGHT THERE.

First DC.. Then NY City, where the rest of all major media headquarters are located.

The two Cities most affected by 911. I think that is fitting.

If you need a NAME or THEME for the Blockade...

Citizens ORANGE Alert

Posted by: Ellen Beth at November 3, 2005 01:36 PM

Ellen,

I hope you see this. Sorry I didn't respond earlier but I was canvassing today and I just got back.

Regarding your question:

YES, YES, YES...Ohio was a MESS that day. I was there and I was calling headquarters right and left to tell them what was going on.

Long lines (out into the freezing cold rain!

People at noon saying they waited and waited and couldn't vote because polling places didn't have ballots. (Allegedly ran out!) (They were sent back to vote, but who knows if they were successful!)

Supression reported in many districts (polling places) by police storming into 'inner city polling places' with their lights ablaze and sirens wailing. They arrived about 45 min. or so before the polling places closed and 20 minutes later (though their sirens were off their lights were still on) they sat in their vehicle writing the police report of FALSE reports of fights breaking out. This same activity occured at NUMEROUS voting places--and all were FALSE! BUT...it may sound like nothing to someone, well, it wasn't. My group, even though we were doing nothing wrong, got so worried we took off too!

It was bad and to this day, I believe Kerry won Ohio and without the suppression and fraud would have crushed Bush in Ohio!

From Jon Stewart tonight...

"If you were going to jail, and your name was Scooter, wouldn't you think about changing your name?"

Monkey...

You've got mail.

listening to a song called "Seine Saint-denis" which happens to be the names of one of the burning Paris suburbs

what a resource is squandered when countries don't invest in their poor & immigrants - they are supposed to be our future, not a liability to be suppressed

by the way - our local public radio covered the students walkouts really well this morning

& meanwhile in South America,

(from the Guardian)

Cuba, Venezuela's closest ally, is banned from participating in the summit. But Cuban pariament speaker Ricardo Alarcon showed up in Mar del Plata anyway.

He mocked the summit, saying that ``even if they invited us, we would not have come.''

``They are going to take a good photo with Bush, have lunch, eat dinner, and gab some more. What is happening over there is a plan that does no good for the people of the Americas,'' he told Associated Press Television News.

As hundreds more protesters began pouring into the resort for Friday's protests, police with riot shields redoubled security. Navy ships patrolled offshore as helicopters clattered over the luxury hotel where leaders will meet.

``We're going to say 'No to Bush' and 'No to FTAA,''' said Argentine labor leader Juan Gonzalez. ``We don't have any confidence in anything he might propose here, whatever it is will only prolong hunger, poverty and death in Latin America.''

Hundreds of protesters - including Argentine soccer legend Maradona, who donned an anti-Bush T-shirt, and Bolivian presidential hopeful Evo Morales - boarded a train late Thursday to join the thousands who have already converged on this coastal resort.

Think about the parallels between the disenfranchised poor of Sao Paulo & Brazil, the suburbs of London & Paris, & New orleans.

What is the relative value of human life?
Someone here remarked the other day that some value a fetus more than a cannon fodder age youth. That got me thinking.

(soundtrack: Love & Peace or Else - US)
& ultimate irony - someone just emailed me to see if I wanted to join a Kerry MeetUp ??

"Love And Peace Or Else"
Lay down
Lay down
Lay your sweet lovely on the ground
Lay your love on the track
We're gonna break the monster's back
Yes we are...
Lay down your treasure
Lay it down now brother
You don't have time
For a jealous lover

As you enter this life
I pray you depart
With a wrinkled face
And a brand new heart

I don't know if I can take it
I'm not easy on my knees
Here's my heart you can break it

I need some release, release, release

We need
Love and peace
Love and peace

Lay down
Lay down your guns
All your daughters of Zion
All your Abraham sons

I don't know if I can make it
I'm not easy on my knees
Here's my heart and you can break it
I need some release, release, release

We need
Love and peace
Love and peace

Baby don't fight
We can talk this thing through
It's not a big problem
It's just me and you
You can call or I'll phone
The TV is still on
But the sound is turned down
And the troops on the ground
Are about to dig in

And I wonder where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Where is the love?
Love and peace

DeLay Asked Lobbyist to Raise Money Through Charity
By PHILIP SHENON
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 - Representative Tom DeLay asked the lobbyist Jack Abramoff to raise money for him through a private charity controlled by Mr. Abramoff, an unusual request that led the lobbyist to try to gather at least $150,000 from his Indian tribe clients and their gambling operations, according to newly disclosed e-mail from the lobbyist's files.

The electronic messages from 2002, which refer to "Tom" and "Tom's requests," appear to be the clearest evidence to date of an effort by Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican, to pressure Mr. Abramoff and his lobbying partners to raise money for him. The e-mail messages do not specify why Mr. DeLay wanted the money, how it was to be used or why he would want money raised through the auspices of a private charity.

"Did you get the message from the guys that Tom wants us to raise some bucks from Capital Athletic Foundation?" Mr. Abramoff asked a colleague in a message on June 6, 2002, referring to the charity. "I have six clients in for $25K. I recommend we hit everyone who cares about Tom's requests. I have another few to hit still."

The e-mail was addressed to Tony Rudy, who had been Mr. DeLay's chief of staff in the House before joining Mr. Abramoff's lobbying firm. Mr. Abramoff said it would be good "if we can do $200K" for Mr. DeLay.

The e-mail traffic was released this week by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which has conducted a yearlong investigation into whether Mr. Abramoff and a business partner, Michael Scanlon, Mr. DeLay's former House press secretary, defrauded Indian tribe clients and their gambling operations out of tens of millions of dollars. There was no immediate comment on the e-mail from spokesmen for Mr. Abramoff or Mr. DeLay, who has stepped down as House majority leader because of an unrelated criminal indictment in his home state.

The Justice Department signaled last month that it was investigating the propriety of Mr. DeLay's ties to Mr. Abramoff, including trips that the lobbyist organized for Mr. DeLay and his wife. Mr. Abramoff is under indictment in a separate federal fraud investigation in Florida.

more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/politics/04lobby.html

Ira:

Sending out moral support from Doha on the DeLay mess and the Virginia thing, for what it's worth (which, together with a quarter, used to get a cup of coffee)! Go Virginia! Go Commonwealth!

Chuck in Doha

PS: I won't be able to read or post much till I get back in six or seven weeks, I don't think

Christy-keep cooking!!

Safe travels, Chuck.

In case you missed this news yesterday... This is a huge victory for Public Broadcasting... I can only hope that Bill Moyers will consider coming back...

Broadcasting Ex-Chairman Is Removed From Board
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 - Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the former head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, was forced to step down as a member of its board on Thursday evening.

The move came after the board began reviewing a confidential report by the inspector general of the corporation into accusations about Mr. Tomlinson's use of corporation money to promote more conservative programming.

They included Mr. Tomlinson's decision to hire a researcher to monitor the political leanings of guests on the public policy program "Now" with Bill Moyers; his use of a White House official to set up an ombudsman's office to scrutinize programs for political balance; and secret payments approved by Mr. Tomlinson to two Republican lobbyists.

--snip--
Appointed to the board initially by President Bill Clinton in 2000, he has long been close with senior Republican officials, including Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser and the deputy chief of staff at the White House.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/04/politics/04broadcast.html?th&emc=th

(Guess it's just really not cool to be Rover's friend anymore!)

Missing soldier’s parents to meet Army officials
Family of only captured U.S. soldier in Iraq heading to Pentagon for briefing

WASHINGTON (AP)- The parents of the only soldier the Army lists as captured in Iraq are being flown to the Pentagon for a Friday meeting with senior Defense Department officials to discuss the search for their son.

Army Reserve Spc. Keith “Matt” Maupin of Batavia, Ohio, has been missing since April 9, 2004, when his fuel truck convoy was ambushed by insurgents west of Baghdad after leaving camp. A week later, Arab television network Al-Jazeera released a videotape showing Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men holding automatic rifles.

That June, Al-Jazeera released another tape purporting to show a U.S. soldier being shot. But the tape was dark and grainy and showed only the back of the victim’s head, and did not show the actual shooting.

The Army ruled it inconclusive, saying it could not determine if the man was Maupin or even if it was an American soldier.

Parents Carolyn and Keith Maupin will meet with Lt. Gen. James L. Campbell, director of the Army staff, and officials from the Casualty Assistance Office and the Joint Personnel Recovery Office. They will also have a video conference call with senior officers in Iraq, including officials from U.S. Central Command.

“We’re bringing the family to the Pentagon to provide them with a progress report on the ongoing search for their son,” said Army spokesman Col. Joseph G. Curtin. He said Maupin’s status is unchanged.

The Army is also paying for the family to stay in a hotel overnight. The Army has provided briefings by phone to the family in the past, but initiated the invitation to the Pentagon so the update could be done in person and officials could answer any of the family’s questions, said Curtin.

Thirty-two members of a Fort Drum, N.Y.-based Army unit spent seven hours Saturday searching for Maupin’s body in the Abu Ghraib section west of Baghdad. They were acting on a tip.

Generally quiet and supportive of the Army’s handling of her son’s case, Carolyn Maupin has lashed out recently, complaining to some Ohio news organizations that she heard about the weekend search from reporters and was having trouble getting updates from the Pentagon.

And here's another good headline this morning...above the fold in the printed WaPo & top headline online...

Bush's Popularity Reaches New Low
58 Percent in Poll Question His Integrity

For the first time in his presidency a majority of Americans question the integrity of President Bush, and growing doubts about his leadership have left him with record negative ratings on the economy, Iraq and even the war on terrorism, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.

On almost every key measure of presidential character and performance, the survey found that Bush has never been less popular with the American people. Currently 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office -- the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/03/AR2005110301685.html

Hey Ira...is the newest judge Pat Priest, assigned to the DeLay case, a good thing? From what I've read, it appears so, but I'd like your on-the-ground thoughts...

Retired Judge to Preside in DeLay Case
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/03/AR2005110302083.html

I just GOTTA know what the fundies think of this!

Military wants the weather on its side
Pentagon studies ways to predict or even influence storms

By Leonard David
Senior space writer

The one-two hurricane punch from Katrina and Wilma, along with predictions of more severe weather in the future, has scientists pondering ways to save lives, protect property and possibly even control the weather.

While efforts to tame storms have so far been clouded by failure, some researchers aren’t willing to give up the fight. And even if changing the weather proves overly challenging, residents and disaster officials can do a better job of planning and reacting.

In fact, military officials and weather modification experts could be on the verge of joining forces to better gauge, react to and possibly nullify future hostile forces churned out by Mother Nature.

While some consider the idea farfetched, some military tacticians have already pondered ways to turn weather into a weapon.

Harbinger of things to come?

The U.S. military reaction in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that slammed the U.S. Gulf Coast might be viewed as a harbinger of things to come. While in this case it was joint air and space operations to deal with after-the-fact problems, perhaps the foundation for how to fend off disastrous weather may also be forming.

Numbers of spaceborne assets were tapped, including:

*Navigation and timing signals from the Global Positioning System of satellites.

*The Global Broadcast Service, a one-way, space-based, high-capacity broadcast communication system.

*The Army’s Spectral Operations Resource Center to exploit commercial remote-sensing satellite imagery and prepare high-resolution images to civilian and military responders to permit a better understanding of the devastated terrain.

*U.S. Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellites that compared "lights at night" images before and after the disaster to provide data on human activity.

Is it far-fetched to see in this response the embryonic stages of an integrated military/civilian weather reaction and control system?

more... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9880231/

p.s. Just a thought, but if you want to influence the weather in a positive manner, instead of using the military, perhaps addressing the causes of global warming would be a good start.

Kyoto! God bless you.

Having grown up in Africa myself, I appreciated Teresa for all the richness of perspective and love she brought to John's campaign. I so wanted her to be First Lady.

Thanks for all your care and work, Teresa. It is not forgotten.