Point Relief, Not Fingers...

Yesterday, since I had the day off from work, I took some time to call and e-mail FEMA, Rep. Heather Wilson, Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici, and non-curious George to let them know how I feel about their combined lack of a plan and action they need to focus on. The "Five Minutes for Democracy" is a great resource for an action plan. Also, I liked it when Judge Stanwood R. Duval (Eastern District of Louisiana) said FEMA was "numbingly insensitive" and "unduly callous" regarding the efforts in the Gulf Coast region.

To WildSalmon from the previous thread:

Yes, you are absolutely correct - it's about POWER - and them that's got the $$$$$$$$ have the POWER (per the PNAC web site statements). I just wonder how many Dems who have disappointed us so badly by acting like DINOs are getting PAC money from neoCons to vote in their favor and for that stupid war and that horrible torture.... I can't think about that without literally getting sick to my stomach.

Time to throw the DINOs out of office, replace them with solid Dems who will repeal all that bad legislation that's been passed (and repeal those stupid secret executive orders) since the Selection of 2000 and get our Constitutional rights and privileges back to where they were before Nov. 2000.

Um, yeah. My rep (a Dem) has an office in town, and I have both the phone number and email address of the guy who answers the phone... and while I've expressed my extreme displeasure before when he voted in favor of the "compromises" for the current Patriot Act II (House version), they'll be hearing from me within the next two hours, and I'll find out if he once again voted in favor of the danged thing or not. He can be voted out of office, even if he has had the position for many years....

I'm sad to report, Ohio Republicans have furthered their attack on the poor by their passage of voting act HB3.

Read this:

The alert that follows originated as a Daily Kos post by Dan Hrkman

Republicans, suffering from dismal approval ratings and sensing there is no way they will retain control of Ohio's legislature in 2006 unless they prevent actual votes from being counted, have come up with an incredibly corrupt "election reform law."

A divinity student is continuing his prayer vigil and hunger strike at the Ohio Statehouse despite heavy snow and brutally cold winter temperatures.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/10/212745/46

More about Ohio (from my email):

Brad Friedman has written about it in BradBlog:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002139.htm

Here is an email I received this morning from a friend who is an
advocate for the homeless:

Thanks. I work with homeless and low income people at Trinity Church on Capital Square. My main mission is to help people get ID's. On Dec. 1 I had almost $400 to assist with ID's at $8.50 a crack. By the next morning my funds were gone and I have turned away untold #s of people since then who are in need of an ID to get services. When I heard about the voting ID debacle I knew it was to eliminate the vote of poor people. One more way to disenfranchise them. Makes me sick.
(name edited)

Efforts were made to fight off the passage of this bill. This information below came from CASE and tells the story of their efforts:

The passage of OH HB 3 is an affront by a party to further disenfranchise low income voters. It is the modern day equivalent of a poll tax. This bill is an abuse of power to further control the outcome of elections in Ohio. Ohio is being ridiculed for it's many scandals, and broken election system. Please cover the vote on HB 3 Tuesday Dec 13. Election Reform advocate will begin arriving to protest at 11:30 am. The vote is scheduled for 1:30pm. Here is the

CASE press release:

Ohio Senate Rules Committee Ignores all Citizen Input in Passing ID Requirement in H.B. 3:
CASE Warns of Increased Voter disenfranchisement, the Dangers of Privately Run Elections, and the Unconstitutionality of Denying the Right to Challenge Election Results.

http://www.caseohio.org/

My City Was Gone
by The Pretenders

I went back to ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
A, o, way to go ohio

Well I went back to ohio
But my family was gone
I stood on the back porch
There was nobody home
I was stunned and amazed
My childhood memories
Slowly swirled past
Like the wind through the trees
A, o, oh way to go ohio

I went back to ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride
The farms of ohio
Had been replaced by shopping malls
And muzak filled the air
From seneca to cuyahoga falls
Said, a, o, oh way to go ohio

Press Release from CASE (Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections) in Ohio:

http://www.caseohio.org/Documents/HB%203%20Nov%202005/CASE%20PR.html

COLUMBUS, OH - The Rules Committee of the Ohio Senate approved H.B. 3 December 7, 2005, despite two days of strong opposition testimony. The four Democratic committee members refused to take part in the final vote as a protest to the Republican steamrolling the public and their colleagues as well.

HB3 requires a current, government issued ID with a current address and this requirement alone will affect several hundred of thousand voters and disenfranchise many tens of thousands of them. Students, the elderly, youth, and recently moved families will have to produce alternate forms of ID. The result will be confusion, frustration, discouragement, and possibly anger directed toward the Ohio Senators who forced this bill into law.

HB 3 makes it impossibly difficult for voting advocacy organizations to register new voters by making the process extremely slow and expensive and punishing workers who make a mistake with the threat of a felony penalty. Workers who could be working state-wide are now required to register with every Board of Elections in the state, take a test from every board, and return any registration to the board of the newly registered voter. This makes registration drives at gatherings like the Ohio State Fair and similar events impossible.

HB 3 removes a process to audit the black box machines which are prone to errors and susceptible to hacking as recognized by the recent GAO report (see below)

HB 3 has canceled our right to challenge election results.

The Ohio legislature, while focusing their efforts on prohibiting access to voting, failed to address a more serious concern:

Electronic voting Machines. The General Accounting Office, (GAO) recently released a 107 page scathing report* on electronic voting machines in our country. The report supports what CASE has been claiming, that electronic voting machines are not secure, not accountable, not transparent, not accurate, and not certifiable. A bipartisan panel which included both Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Democratic Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) released a joint news release regarding this report. Most community news sources have not made these important findings widely available to the public yet.

* GAO 05-956 Federal Efforts to Improve Security and Reliability of Electronic Voting Systems Are Under Way, but Key Activities Need to Be Completed

Tomorrow the Ohio Senate will make history by making election fraud easy. I testified at and attended the hearings last week in the Rules Committee. All the Dems walked out on the vote (good for them), and as suspected the Senate Rules Republicans all voted this unconstitutional legislation out of committee for a full vote in the Senate tomorrow.

URGENT action is needed! please call your Senator today or tomorow morning as the Senate is rushing this past the public to go home for the holidays. After you have finished reading them some of the bullet points, tell them how much fun you'll have telling everyone in their district they voted for the last stolen election corrupt Republcians will ever need, should they vote for HB3.

If you can clear your schedule, come to the statehouse and attend this
session at 1:30.

OR, Come early with a sign and stand with many in protest on the sidewalks on the east side of the statehouse. Democracy in Ohio IS ON THE LINE HERE!

Stay after the vote to protest on the sidewalk!!! (OR celebrate! haha)

The following is a list of all Ohio's Republcian Senators, including their status on the Rules Committee (They all voted for sub-bill to HB3).

Following that are the bullet points on the legislation. Good Luck and HAVE FUN!

Ok, I'm sorry to smear the thread so far with this Ohio story, but these activists were out there fighting this in the bitter cold.

Here were their bullet points:

WHAT HB3 DOES TO HURT VOTERS IN OHIO:

• HB3's most publicized provision will require positive identification before casting a vote.

• But it also opens voter registration activists to partisan prosecution,

• exempts electronic voting machines from public scrutiny,

• quintuples the cost of citizen-requested statewide recounts

• and makes it illegal to challenge a presidential vote count or, indeed, any
federal election result in Ohio.

• would make it virtually impossible for homeless folks to vote,

• would make it virtually impossible for groups to register large numbers of voters,

• would eliminate oversight of voting machines,

• and would cancel our right to challenge election results."

• Although this poisonous bill, HB3, is Ohio state legislation, it has implications for the whole nation.

• The forces of one-party, authoritarian rule are placing the last bricks in the wall.

• Ohio was the decisive battleground in the stolen 2004 election. Now, it's the proving ground for the legislated end of democracy.

• HB3 will effectively outlaw recounts and shield Diebold

You're safe now; you may come out of hiding!

Now back to the attack on the minorities in New Orleans.

From Yahoo AP News:

Pentagon Subpoenaed for Katrina Documents By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Dec 15, 5:00 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The Republican chairman of a special House investigation panel has subpoenaed the Pentagon, and is considering sending another to the White House, to get documents detailing the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

The unusual legal action was the latest twist in the congressional inquiry of failures that occurred during the Aug. 29 storm that killed more than 1,300 people in Gulf Coast states. The investigation continues Thursday with a Senate hearing to examine New Orleans levees unable to withstand Katrina's might.

Separately, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it would comply with a judge's ruling that FEMA keep paying for hotel rooms for hurricane evacuees until Feb. 7. The agency also agreed to extend the program for eligible storm victims who have not been helped by that deadline.

The subpoena against Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, issued Wednesday evening by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., demands internal records and communications about the Pentagon's response, efforts to send supplies to victims, stabilize public safety and mobilize active duty forces in the Gulf Coast. It requires the Pentagon to deliver the documents, spanning from Aug. 23 to Sept. 15, from Rumsfeld and eight other top military officials by Dec. 30.

Pentagon spokesman Army Maj. Paul Swiergosz said the panel's requests for information have been "very far-reaching and very broad, and we're doing everything we can to answer them as quickly as we can."

"We're going to provide the documents as fast as we can," Swiergosz said. "No one has been dragging their feet on these things."

Davis rejected, for now, legal action against the White House, but left open the possibility of a future subpoena. He asked lawmakers to wait until after a private briefing Thursday at the White House before deciding whether to go ahead with a subpoena.

The committee, which plans to issue its findings Feb. 15, requested hundreds of thousands of documents more than two months ago from the administration and Gulf Coast state and local officials.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said lawmakers would be briefed by a high-level administration official and that he did not immediately anticipate a subpoena against the White House.

"I'm not expecting anything of that nature at this point," McClellan said. "What we have done is work to make sure that they get the information they need to do their job. We've worked in good faith."

The Pentagon subpoena was issued shortly after FEMA pledged to continue paying for hotel rooms for evacuees still unable to find apartments, trailers or other stable housing by Feb. 7, a month beyond the agency's cutoff date.

A federal judge in New Orleans this week set the February deadline in a ruling to give victims more time in hotels as FEMA processes aid applications.

FEMA's acting director, R. David Paulison, did not cite an end-date for the hotel payments, but said "it won't be indefinite." He said FEMA will pay hotel bills for up to two weeks after evacuees receive temporary housing assistance because "sometimes it's tough to find an apartment."

An estimated 40,000 families still are living in hotels, compared with a peak of 85,000 two months ago.

"We are going to be flexible, we will make changes to our plan as we move along," Paulison said. "And we are going to continuously work to make sure nobody falls through the cracks. And if they do fall through the cracks, we are going to find them, locate them and get them back into our system."

___
http://tinyurl.com/cg584

From the Huffington Post:

Bush Isn’t the Problem: The Weakness of our Thin Democracy (17 comments )
READ MORE: George W. Bush, Global Warming, Hurricane Katrina
As Iraqis go to the polls this week in their starter-kit democracy, maybe we should do a gut check here at home. How is our democracy doing?

The picture isn’t pretty. Washington scandals, a broken voting system, a timid media, and a costly, increasingly unpopular war creating as many enemies as it kills.

It’s no surprise that seven out of ten of us believe our country is headed in the wrong direction or that three-fourths of us believe that our “government is run by a few big interests looking out only for themselves.”

Something is seriously off.

http://tinyurl.com/afmq4

Activist Judge Cancels Christmas:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43438

House Defies Bush and Backs McCain on Detainee Torture
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/121505Z.shtml
In an unusual bipartisan rebuke to the Bush administration, the House on Wednesday overwhelmingly endorsed Senator John McCain's measure to bar cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners in American custody anywhere in the world. Although the vote was nonbinding, it put the Republican-controlled House on record in support of Mr. McCain's provision for the first time, at the very moment when the senator, a Republican, is at a crucial stage of tense negotiations with the White House, which strongly opposes his measure.

---Remember---the more laws, procedures etc. we get that are against the flow of public opinion, the less this is a democracy & the more like a dictatorship. I think that's why the govt is openly trying to sway public opinion, since it seems to have gotten rather good at it. There have got to be limits though, but I do think of all the nations who have had despots hated by the populace, who couldn't do much about it. A start is to boycott corporate media & support with our money worthwhile things when possible (preferably noncorporate too, if it's a part of the so-called military-industrial complex).

Chuck in Doha for Marc Trager:

Marc, you son of a gun, I've been thinking about that Pretenders' song so much the last couple of days. I love the bass on it too. And the drums. And I don't even know the names off the drummer and bass player (not that it matters -- the music is the name).

Keep on keeping on all!

Friday - Lufthanse - Home!!!! (for all too short...)

Chuck in Doha

PS to NonnyO: Given your concerns about the Democratic Party, have you considered submitting those concerns on their website? Also, if your representative is voted out of office, who do you think would be voted in?

Posted by: chuck at December 15, 2005 09:53 AM

Considering this state is pretty conservative, it's a coin toss as to who would be voted in, but by and large MN is a blue state, with one or two exceptions (like our sleazy governor).

Next year's Senate race in MN to replace Dayton who is not going to go for a second term should be interesting. I'm hoping Amy Klobuchar (savvy prosecuting attorney from the Cities) will get the nod for Dayton's seat, although several Dems have thrown their hat in the ring (we also need a Dem to defeat that Slimeball Coleman in addition to needing a good Dem to replace Dayton). So far, Klobuchar is the only one (IMHO) who stands out so far (for me). Patty Wetterling got slaughtered by Mark Kennedy's sleazy campaign with imported Rovian tactics in -04 - Wetterling is good at children's issues since one of her sons disappeared and his body has never been found, but Wetterling doesn't know how to stand up to slime machines, so I don't think she would be a good senator. It's still very much a "wait and see" policy right now. I'll be watching to see what happens with all of them....

Heard this on NPR this morning. Some interesting takes on how various Democratic leaders are managing (or not) our position in Iraq and how Republicans might take advantage (or not).

Includes some views from the blogosphere and some from inside the beltway.

Listen to it here...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5054617

Just my $.02 in re today's threader topic...

[rant]

FEMA (as a federal agency that is huge, bloated, corrupt, and run by incompetents whose only claim to fame is being cronies of whatever frog is in the White House pretending to be a prince) is -- and quite legitimately deserves to be chided for so being -- an embarrassing mess o' pottage that has so completely and utterly failed in executing its sworn duties that it definitely deserves our collective scorn.

However... FEMA as a collective of genuine, dedicated, big-hearted and hard-working humans who are doing their best to help people in need, on extremely short notice and under what are usually unbelievably horrific conditions, definitely deserves our collective support.

Yes, the upper end of the food chain at FEMA is -- and I know it's very hard to believe this of yet another politically-oriented Washingtoonian golem, but trust me, it's true -- dominated by hacks, has-beens, former- and future- lobbyists, and political appointees of dubious if any merit.

But the real movers rather than the shakers at FEMA, though -- those rank-and-file FEMAns, or FEMAles, or FEMAniacs, or FEMArians, or whatever it is they're supposed to be called -- they are out there in the streets and in the trenches and slogging through the muck every day, doing everything they can do on behalf of the people they're helping.

And then when they've done all they can do, they take a deep breath... and then they go back out there and do some more.

This disastrously-managed disaster-management agency's armchair generalists and its hundreds of rear-echelon FEMAfakers aren't worth the sand it would take to bag up and pile up a worthless levee around them.

You know that, I know that, and about 800,000 still-scattered refugees from the Gulf Coast *definitely* know that.

But when it comes down to your basic, field-ops-level, boots-on-the-muck people who are out there doing what has to be done... they're a world away from Washingtoon, and se están rompiendo sus pelotas on behalf of those who still need their -- no, make that *our* -- aid and comfort, even this many months after a certain Mr. Bush falsely promised them immediate and effective assistance in rebuilding their homes and their lives and their cities.

Now, as for all those feeble feckless FEMAns sitting up there in high dry D.C., well... they can all go pound salt as far as I'm concerned. Better yet, they can all go bag sand instead.

But as for the thousands of tired, harried, muddied-but-not-unbowed folks out in the field who are wearing FEMA nametags -- and as for those tens of thousands who may not be wearing nametags, but are still slogging away right next to those who are (even though they don't have to be there, yet there they still are anyway) -- I have only one thing to say to them all:

Thank you.

Thank all of you so very, very much.

[/rant]

because they may be forgotten but they're not gone,
Otter

DiAnne, thanks for the Onion link. It provided a much needed laugh this morning.

I'm sure this has been posted, as it is from a while ago, but someone sent it to me and I thought I should pass it on in case anyone might have missed it.

"In Defense of John Kerry"

http://www.emergingdemocraticmajorityweblog.com/donkeyrising/archives/001333.php

From checking around on the internets today, a long article on terrorism & torture from the (UK) The Sunday Times followed by an Andrew Sullivan comment on torture & honour and differences between the US & UK views.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-1919888,00.html

NonnyO- Do you think Al Franken would be able to defeat Coleman? I've heard enough of his statements to think he's definitely going to run next year. I'd love to have Al Franken in the Senate- can you imagine all the corrupt politicians he could expose if he were on the inside of that institutions. It'd be fantastic.

Posted by: Otter at December 15, 2005 10:21 AM

Thanks Otter, you said in a few quiet words what I've been screaming for a while.

Most of the FEMA pavement-pounders are paid volunteers, temp workers who are actually in a sort of reserve status and are called up from their regular jobs (like the National Guard) to respond to emergencies.

They are frustrated as heck too because they leave their families and jobs and are deployed to the middle of chaos only to be jerked around by an upper management that doesn't know what they're doing and keeps changing parameters on them.

Posted by: Otter at December 15, 2005 10:21 AM

Otter, thank you. So very well said... so glad your writing paws are back at the keyboard.

Just read this followup on yesterday's go-round on Dan Froomkin's column. Brad Delong (professor of economics and blogger) interviewed John Harris (national political editor of WaPo) and asked him specifically why he referred to Patrick Ruffini as a conservative blogger when he is so much more...

as in, he is (currently) "eCampaign Director for the Republican National Committee" and was "a Republican campaign operative in 2004"

read the rest here...
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/12/astroturf_vs_gr.html

What's really interesting is how little Harris tries to respond... and compare that to what he said in the WaPo live chat he did today at 11 am eastern.

Here's the transcript from the chat...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/12/08/DI2005120801368.html

(He didn't choose Casey's question.)

Casey tried to tell us about that event on short notice, but I guess it was a little *too* short. To which I could only reply...

Short? You call that *short*?

Why, when I was your age, our notice was so short we only found out at midnight that an election the pundits had already told us we'd won had been stolen by George Bush over an hour before!

And just to even be sure that he wasn't lying to us, we had to trudge all the way to the Supreme Court! Through knee-high bushit! In bare feet! And uphill, both ways!

Why, you pesky kids today, you got no respect! You got no understanding of what it feels like to have your own democracy ripped by executive fiat out of your warm, bleeding fingers!

Why? Because nowadays you sheeple think that this is just the way it has always been and always shall be! Well, lemme tell you what, kiddies:

It wasn't, it ain't, and you can bet your asterisks that it ain't gonna be any more, neither! Period!

*harrumph harrumph*

old fart bleeding heart leftist liberal peacenik and damn proud of it,
Otter

P.S. -- anybody see where I left my walker and my hearing aids? They were right here just a few minutes ago, I swear...

same old whine in a brand new bottle,
Otter

Time In A Bottle
by Jim Croce

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
Till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with

marc:

I see yours and raise you one...

----------

will we give them the election
when they keep filling our heads full of lies
can we trust in new directions
when their promises are in disguise
well someday the truth will catch us
I just hope it don't catch us all by surprise

we preach this thing religion
but we show no faith at all
we follow suit on sunday
but on monday forget it all
if the time should find us needing him
then my friend lord have mercy on us all

it's the same old wine
in a brand new bottle
it's the same old lies
in a brand new bottle

we teach our children virtue
then we send them off to war
then we ask ourselves the question
what the hell are we fighting for
if you suddenly find the reason
don't be afraid, open the door

it's the same old wine
in a brand new bottle
it's the same old lies
in a brand new bottle
don't drink the same old wine
from a brand new bottle

("same old wine", kenny loggins w/ jim messina, 1971)

----------

the more things change the more they remain insane,
Otter

Touche... En Guarde...

LIFE DURING WARTIME
by Talking Heads

Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons
packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites, out by the highway
a place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire, off in the distance
I'm getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstone, lived in the ghetto
I've lived all over this town

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
this ain't no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey dovey
I ain't got time for that now

Transmit the message, to the receiver
hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, couple of visas
don't even know my real name
High on a hillside, trucks are loading
everything's ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime, I work in the nightime
I might not ever get home

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
this ain't no fooling around
This ain't no mudd club, or C. B. G. B.
I ain't got time for that now

Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peanut butter
to last a couple of days
But I ain't got no speakers
ain't got no headphones
ain't got no records to play

Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time?
Can't write a letter, can't send a postcard
I can't write nothing at all
This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
this ain't no fooling around
I'd love you hold you, I'd like to kiss you
I ain't got no time for that now

Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock
we blended in with the crowd
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines
I know that ain't allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives
or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle so many times now
don't know what I look like!
You make me shiver, I feel so tender
we make a pretty good team
Don't get exhausted, I'll do some driving
you ought to get you some sleep
Get you instructions, follow directions
then you should change your address
Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day
whatever you think is best
Burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks?
They won't help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace
the burning keeps me alive
Try to stay healthy, physical fitness
don't want to catch no disease
Try to be careful, don't take no chances
you better watch what you say

Oh, so it's gonna be like *that*, is it?

Fine. I see your "Life During Wartime" and raise you a "Once In A Lifetime".

----------

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, well... How did I get here?

Letting the days go by
Let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by
Water flowing underground
Into the blue again
After the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime
Water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!

Letting the days go by
Let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by
Water flowing underground
Into the blue again
After the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime
Water flowing underground

Same as it ever was... same as it ever was
Same as it ever was... same as it ever was
Same as it ever was... same as it ever was
Same as it ever was... same as it ever was

Water dissolving... and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by
Let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by
Water flowing underground
Into the blue again
In the silent water
Under the rocks and stones
There is water underground

Letting the days go by
Let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by
Water flowing underground
Into the blue again
After the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime
Water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right? ... Am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
My god!... What have I done?

Letting the days go by
Let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by
Water flowing underground
Into the blue again
In the silent water
Under the rocks and stones
There is water underground

Letting the days go by
Let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by
Water flowing underground
Into the blue again
After the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime
Water flowing underground

Same as it ever was... same as it ever was
Same as it ever was... same as it ever was
Same as it ever was... same as it ever was
Same as it ever was... same as it ever was

(Talking Heads, 1980)

----------

(Now, before anyone accuses marc and I of trying to turn this into a karaoke blog, let me point out for the record that utilizing music and lyrics to help express one's political views has a long and honored tradition in this society. Just ask Woody Guthrie.)

insane as it ever was,
Otter

Vary interest-ting Sherrod:

"Lauren W. Whittington reports in Roll Call that James Carville said he's looking forward to campaigning for Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett if he wins the Democratic nomination to challenge Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine (R) in 2006. "

So am I.

Sources: White House to Accept Torture Ban
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - After months of resistance, the White House has agreed to accept Sen. John McCain's call for a law specifically banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror, several congressional officials said Thursday.

Under the emerging deal, the CIA and other civilian interrogators would be given the same legal rights as currently guaranteed members of the military who are accused of breaking interrogation guidelines, these officials added. Those rules say the accused can defend themselves by arguing it was reasonable for them to believe they were obeying a legal order.

The congressional officials spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt an expected announcement later in the day at the White House, possibly by President Bush and McCain.

These officials also cautioned the agreement was encountering opposition in the House from Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. A spokesman for Hunter said negotiations were ongoing.

But Sen. John Warner, R-Va., Hunter's counterpart in the Senate, was said to be on board. And his spokesman, John Ullyot, said: "Senator Warner is meeting with Chairman Hunter to work out the refinements."

A day earlier, the House endorsed the Senate-passed ban, agreeing that the United States needed to set uniform guidelines for the treatment of prisoners in the war on terror and to make clear that U.S. policy prohibits torture.

That put pressure on the White House at a time when the president finds himself defending his wartime policies daily amid declining public support for the Iraq war and his own low standing in opinion polls.

The White House at one point threatened a veto if the ban was included in legislation sent to the president's desk, and Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to all Republican senators to give an exemption to the CIA.

But congressional sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of the ban, and McCain, a former Navy pilot who was held and tortured for five years in Vietnam, adopted the issue.

The Republican maverick and the administration have been negotiating for weeks in search of a compromise, but it became increasingly clear that he, not the administration, had the votes in Congress.

As passed by the Senate and endorsed by the House, McCain's amendment would prohibit "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" of anyone in U.S. government custody, regardless of where they are held. It also would require that service members follow procedures in the Army Field Manual during interrogations of prisoners in Defense Department facilities.

In discussions with the White House, that languge was altered to bring it into conformity with the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That says that anyone accused of violating interrogation rules can defend themselves if a "reasonable" person could have concluded they were following a lawful order.

The Senate included the McCain provisions in two defense bills, including a must-pass $453 billion spending bill that provides $50 billion for the Iraq war. But the House ommitted them from their versions, and the bills have been stalled.

Negotiations intensified this week, with Congress under pressure to approve at least the spending bill before adjourning for the year.

In recent weeks, the administration had been seeking to add language that would offer protection from prosecution for interrogators accused of violating the provision. But McCain rejected that, arguing it would undermine the ban by not giving interrogators reason to follow the law.

Supporters of the provisions say they are needed to clarify current anti-torture laws in light of abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and allegations of misconduct by U.S. troops at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

The White House long has contended that the United States does not engage in torture.

White House, McCain reach deal on torture ban
http://tinyurl.com/deq7h (Reuters)

The White House and Sen. John McCain have reached agreement on McCain's amendment that would ban torture of detainees in U.S. custody, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Republican said on Thursday.

A White House announcement was expected shortly.

"The deal is done and he's heading to the White House," McCain's spokeswoman said.

Under bipartisan pressure, the White House accepted McCain's amendment, which would ban cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners.

The White House had sought protections from prosecution for interrogators accused of violating the rule, but McCain rejected that, saying it would undermine his amendment.

The White House finally accepted McCain's language, which was similar to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to allow civilian interrogators accused of violating the provision to defend themselves based on whether a reasonable person could have found they were following a lawful order about the treatment of prisoners, congressional aides said...[&more]

(P.S. -- The more I re-read the lyrics to "Once In A Lifetime", the more intensely it hits me just how spookily relevant they are to a terribly Katrina-centered experience for oh so many peoples... *shudder*)

good thing otters like water and vice versa,
Otter

Hey Karen, it was good to see you at the FoE holiday party. Now I wish that I would've left with you and Dick to go to the staffer party. I hope it was a nice time, despite the bummed-outedness -- I am sure many people there are happy to start 2006!

P.S., the curried chicken recipe is open-source at http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=18842

Enjoy!

The Miami Herald has picked up the Diebold testing story from Leon County, FL which was announced by BlackBox Voting (among others) yesterday.

This is it. The Diebold system's hackability has made it into the MSM.

From the end of the article, "But Broward's election supervisor, Brenda Snipes, said she's at least intrigued. She, too, vouches for her office's security, but says there's a need to remain vigilant.

''Is hacking possible? We think we have a secure system. With technology, those people who have that level of expertise, I guess that could be possible,'' Snipes said. ``We need to see what Ion did. He tries a lot of things. He's always analyzing things.''

But [Ion Sancho, Leon County's election chief,] said the time for passive monitoring is over. The Diebold problems show that simple tests haven't been done on at least one major voting system, he said.

''These were sold as safe systems. They passed tests as safe systems,'' Sancho said. ``But even in the so-called safe system, if you don't follow the paper ballots, there is a way to rig the election. Except it's not a bunch of guys stuffing ballots in a precinct. It's possibly one person acting in secret changing thousands of votes in a second.''

Go here for the whole story...
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/13410061.htm

Ok I'm adding one-
youcan hear it hear
http://www.folkmusic.com/f_mp3.htm

Ashcroft’s Army
Version 2
Words & music by John McCutcheon
(work version 8/12/02)

Last night on TV there he stood
In a suit of somber blue
He said it was time for all Americans
To do what we must do
Take out your x-ray glasses
And your decoder rings
We need ordinary people
To keep an eye on things

So…

I wanna be in Ashcroft’s Army
I wanna be a spy
I wanna watch my neighbor’s doings
Kiss your rights goodbye
In this legal devolution
Here’s your chance for retribution
Let’s just can the Constitution
I’m gonna be a spy

I wanna be in Ashcroft’s Army
I wanna be a fed
I might look like the meter man
But I’m a spy instead
Delivering pizza or the mail
Buddy, you can never tell
I’ll haul your sorry ass to jail
I’m gonna be a spy

I wanna be in Ashcroft’s Army
I wanna be a sleuth
I wanna catch some terrorists
Don’t worry ‘bout the truth
If I see you hanging ‘round
Wearin’ a turban and your skin is brown
You’re gonna take a ride downtown
I’m gonna be a spy

I wanna be in Ashcroft’s Army
I’m gonna be a mole
It’s time to show the rest of the world
Just who’s in control
John Ashcroft he said, “Now shame on you!”
Then the Vice President said it too
Don’t you question what we do
I’m gonna be a spy

I wanna be in Ashcroft’s Army
I wanna a G-Man
He used to be a Senator
But now he is a free man
He’s a Attorney General instead
‘Cause the people of Missouri said
We’d rather vote for a guy who’s dead
I’m gonna be a spy

I wanna be in Ashcroft’s Army
But still I’ve gotta wonder
Where was all this spying
When Adelphia went under
When Enron ran off with the loot
And Worldcom went right down the chute
Some terrorists wear pin-striped suits
I wanna be a spy

©2002 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)

I was reminded of this by reading about our internal spy reports....
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/12/pentagon_domest.html#more

For those who listen to NPR on a regular basis, there's an interesting report from the NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dworking in response to listeners' complaints about using think tanks (especially right wing leaning tanks) without attribution.

He does add up the number of attributions as follows:

The score to date: Right 239, Left 141.

and concludes with...

So I'm with the listeners who complain about NPR’s decision not to more fully identify the think tanks. For many, the lack of a political context can sound too much like "inside-the-Beltway" reporting and I agree. NPR also needs to be consistent about how think tanks are identified; too often conservative institutions are identified as such but liberal ones are not.

More importantly, NPR needs to make sure that it is presenting an appropriate range of ideas and not just from one side of the debate.

Read it all here...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5053335

Bush Hails Iraqi Vote As 'Step Forward'
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush hailed Thursday's voting in Iraq as "a major milestone" in establishing a democratic ally for the United States in the Middle East and moving toward withdrawal of American troops.

The appearance of a buoyant Bush in the Oval Office alongside six smiling young Iraqis displaying purple-stained fingers was an attempt to capitalize on any positive news in Iraq. The parliamentary elections carried high stakes for a White House confronted with increasing public and congressional dissatisfaction with the war.

Bush said, "There's a lot of joy, as far as I'm concerned" about the voting, adding that he was happy with the turnout even without final tabulations.

"We're certain that the turnout was significant and that the violence was down," Bush said, standing in the Oval Office before a roaring fire.

The U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, said there was less violence than during the previous election in October, and more voter participation, including a substantial increase in voting in the predominantly Sunni Anbar province, a hotbed of the insurgency. But he predicted tough and divisive times ahead for the new government.

"We should expect the insurgency not to just go away, but to gradually reduce," said Casey, speaking via video to a town hall-style meeting of Defense Department workers in the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld declared, "This election constitutes a defeat for the enemies of the Iraqi people, the enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government. It constitutes a defeat to the people who have been doing the beheadings and conducting the suicide raids."

There was a strong turnout in Sunni Arab areas, reinforcing U.S. hopes of seeing a stable government and calming the insurgency enough to begin withdrawing some American troops next year. Sunnis had shunned voting last January. Delays in vote counting were expected.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, in Baghdad for the voting, said he was encouraged by what he saw but it was only a step toward building a stable democracy in Iraq, and more help is needed from the international community.

"Let's don't take this election to mean the problems in Iraq are solved — really in many ways they're just beginning," Graham, R-S.C., said Thursday in an interview with NBC's "Today" show.

"We've got a second chance on life here after this election," he said. "Look at this election as a chance to re-engage and learn from our mistakes."

Bush had a more upbeat take.

"This is a major step forward in achieving our objective, which is ... having a democratic Iraq, a country able to sustain itself and defend itself, a country that will be an ally in the war on terror and a country that will set such a powerful example to others in the region, whether they live in Iran or Syria, for example," he said.

He congratulated Iraqis for "refusing to be cowed into not voting" and assured them the United States would stick with the mission there "until we complete this job."

"They don't have to worry. We're doing the right thing," he said.

A day earlier, Bush warned that the elections would be "followed by days of uncertainty," with final results perhaps not available until early January and violence not expected to wane.

The Iraqis who came to the White House to stand by the president's side voted in the United States; the purple ink on their fingers has become the standard mark in Iraq to ensure against multiple voting.

Also in Baghdad, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said the hard part for the Iraqis would come after the vote — forming a government and possibly amending the constitution.

"The bottom line is they still need us here," Biden told CBS' "The Early Show." "But the key to this is not a military solution. It's a political solution."

Iraqis need to write a constitution that the nation's disparate groups can accept. If they don't, Biden said, "all the troops in America will not be able to hold this country together."

Or this one either.

I love my country but I don't trust its sheeple,
Otter

Something else to track....

SusanG at dailykos wittily brings this to our attention:

Sand. Lots of sand. Oil below, brown people above. Corrupt regimes. Human rights violations. Crazed Islamic terrorist cells. Hyped-up "fronts" on the global war on terrorism. Double-talking despots awash in hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money. Sound familiar?

Welcome to ... the Sahara Desert.

[Quoting from The Scotsman]
"The United States has set aside $500 million over the next five years to secure a vast new front in its global war on terrorism: the Sahara Desert."
...
"Critics say the region is not the terrorist zone that some senior US military officers assert. They add that heavy-handed military and financial support that reinforces authoritarian regimes in north and west Africa could fuel radicalism where it scarcely exists."
~snip~

"But, according to The Scotsman article, "Aside from the 2003 kidnapping issue, US and Algerian authorities have failed to present "indisputable verification of a single act of alleged terrorism in the Sahara", Mr Keenan said."

Got that? One single act of verified terrorism in the region. But ... but ... but ... then why are we so terrified of these one-trick-pony kidnappers? Are we simply frozen in the eternal role of playing patsy and Daddy Warbucks to corrupt minor dictatorships worldwide?
~snip~

read more of SusanG's summary here...
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/15/131514/04

The original and much more in depth report is here...
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2403492005

Boys Boys, it's worse than karaoke... it's copyright infrignment !!!!

Now you not only have to worry about the Pentagon but you are dangerously close to the RIAA and the MPAA and the MPA. And Otter.. Talking Heads??

In this geezer infested crowd you should stick to Baez and Dylan.. anything newer and we're lost.

Thanks for lightening what has otherwise been a dreary day.

ladytechie:

Ahem. I *beg* your pardon??

The Talking Heads song that I quoted was released at the beginning of 1980, which means it was recorded sometime prior to that. And the Talking Heads song that marc quoted was released several years earlier than the one I chose was.

What this means is that if if those songs were cars, they'd be old enough to qualify for 'antique' license plates in most states.

And if those songs was female-type wimmins, if you get my drift, they'd be old enough for both marc and I to have dated and maybe even married at least once by now. (Shuckydarn, they'd be old enough for us both to have *kids* with by now. And those kids could be in grade school by now, at that. Oy.)

Although, of course, both those songs are also young enough to be our -- or at least my -- daughters, too. Which just goes to show ya: good music, like good musicians, never really gets old.

So go stick ya geezer in ya sneezer awready, wouldja? Jeez Louise!

it's never too late to have a happy second childhood,
Otter

Thanks Otter, now I feel old...and I thought I was the young one around here!

Posted by: marc trager at December 15, 2005 05:07 PM

Marc,

Perhaps I'm understanding this wrong, but doesn't the elections support Murtha and Kerry (and a few others) who are calling for troop withdrawal?

Seems to me if they're claiming more stability, then let's bring those troops home, starting NOW!

GEEZER?

Did somebody say geezer?

I resemble that remark!

Seems to me if they're claiming more stability, then let's bring those troops home, starting NOW!

Posted by: sparrow at December 15, 2005 07:18 PM

... of course, this is the perfect out for the chickenhawks, and why they are playing this "election" up as the end-all be-all, cuz then they can start pulling out with dignity, some major accomplishment to hang there empty hats on.

The ones struggling to save face is the adminstration ... the troops are the one's who went in with courage and dignity and unfathomable bravery, this administration has bever done anything of the sort.

BTW, several koolaid drinkers told me today that the REAL reason we are in Iraq is to protect Israel from Iran, or vice versa... they lost me with their mind numbing insight. We're there apparently "to keep the peace", as they so conspiratorially put it.

I got yer peace, right here.

Eh? What's that? "Giza", you said? Oh, wait, you said "geezer" instead. Never mind.

Geezer lyrics? I gotcher geezer lyrics right here, yo. Word!

-----

FYI: these lyrics are for the 1956 copyrighted version of the song in question. Alternate verses are included below as well.

The artist wrote and rewrote and recorded a surprisingly large number of alternate versions of "This Land Is Your Land" between the late 1930's and the late 1950's. (So much so, in fact, that there's an entire Wikipedia article devoted to it at http://tinyurl.com/dlzeb )

This version is one that was the basis of the other variations that the latter-day proto-hippie folkies (like the trio that a certain Mr. Lennon once referred to as "Pizza, Pooh, and Magpie") played, way back when in the oh-so-innocent early '60's.

However, lemme tell ya -- as for "This Land Is My Land", when Woody wrote it and when he sang it, however he rewrote it and sang it again, this so-called folkie ballad was for dang sure not a mellow little ballad at all.

Nope. In Woody's hands and in his voice, it was a diatribe, a manifesto, an anthem, a call to action -- in short, it was *exactly* the kind of song that we should all be singing right here, right now. It's a song for the ages, and it's most especially a song for where we're at today.

What can I say? It's a mighty big tent we got here, and Woody knew that too. But I digress...

---------------

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking, I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing"
But on the other side it didn't say nothing
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people
By the relief office I seen my people
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me
As I go walking that freedom highway
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

-----

As I go walkin' my ribbon of highway
I see all around me my endless skyway
Everywhere around me the wind keeps a-whistlin'
This land is made for you and me.

I'm a-chasin' my shadow out across this roadmap
To my wheat fields waving, to my cornfield dancing
As I go walkin' this wind keeps talkin'
This land is made for you and me.

I can see your mailbox, I can see your doorstep
I can feel my wind rock your tip-top treetop
All around your house there my sunbeam whispers
This land is made for you and me.

-----

In the squares of the city, in the shadow of the steeples
Near the relief office, I see my people
And some are grumblin', and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

-----

I followed your low hills, and I followed your cliff rims
Your marble canyons and sunny bright waters.
As the fog was lifting, a voice was saying
This land was made for you and me.

This land was made for you and me.

(Woody Guthrie, circa 1939-1956)

---------------

And we have to follow in Woody's footsteps and keep remembering and keep reminding everybody that this *is* our land –- yes, it is *our* land, not Chevron's or Halliburton's or Bechtel's or International Paper's or any other greedhead corporation's land.

It's *our* land, all of us and all of ours, and don't let any of us ever forget that. Not "to have and to hold," mind you; merely to hold dear and to have stewardship of. As Chief Seattle said, "the land does not belong to us; we belong to the land."

And even though Dick Cheney has to take to his bed with an attack of the vapours (in some undisclosed location, of course) every time somebody remembers and repeats that phrase, it's still as true now as it ever was.

As true as it ever was... as true as it ever was
As true as it ever was... as true as it ever was

woody knew and woody still knows,
Otter

Okay... this one will make you smile if not laugh out loud...

from dailykos poster Sean C

John Dingell smacks O'Reilly on the House floor!

...For anyone who knows John Dingell, they know that he is a serious, no-nonsense Congressman who values hard work in Congress and doesn't take any **** from anybody. In any event, he's become so fed up with this phony "War on Christmas" nonsense being peddled by Bill O'Reilly and the rest of the conservative establishment that he took to the floor of Congress with this poem:

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the House
No bills were passed 'bout which Fox News could grouse;

Tax cuts for the wealthy were passed with great cheer,
So vacations in St. Barts soon would be near;

Katrina kids were nestled all snug in motel beds,
While visions of school and home danced in their heads;

In Iraq our soldiers needed supplies and a plan,
Plus nuclear weapons were being built in Iran;

Gas prices shot up, consumer confidence fell;
Americans feared we were on a fast track to...well...

Wait--- we need a distraction--- something divisive and wily;
A fabrication straight from the mouth of O'Reilly

We can pretend that Christmas is under attack
Hold a vote to save it--- then pat ourselves on the back;

Silent Night, First Noel, Away in the Manger
Wake up Congress, they're in no danger!

This time of year we see Christmas every where we go,
From churches, to homes, to schools, and yes...even Costco;

What we have is an attempt to divide and destroy,
When this is the season to unite us with joy

At Christmas time we're taught to unite,
We don't need a made-up reason to fight

So on O'Reilly, on Hannity, on Coulter, and those right wing blogs;
You should just sit back, relax...have a few egg nogs!

'Tis the holiday season: enjoy it a pinch
With all our real problems, do we honestly need another Grinch?

So to my friends and my colleagues I say with delight,
A merry Christmas to all,

and to Bill O'Reilly...Happy Holidays.

read the rest of Sean C's account here...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/12/15/16532/837

Posted by: marc trager at December 15, 2005 08:05 PM

Yes, the Republicans are certainly hoping for a pull-out too because without it they will lose in 06--unless they steal more votes electronically!

But I don't understand why people think this is helping Isreal. In my opinion, it is leading to more anti-Isreal sentiment than in the last 30 years!

I love a good O'Reilly spanking around the holidays... er, Christmas.

Fauxsty the Showman

Oh, but didn't you know, Cap'n Sparrow??

Behind the scenes, where the Trilateral Commsion does its secret things and where the Illuminati actually controls the entire global mise en scene, Israel is the *real* superpower. It's the *real* puppetmaster. All of us hundreds of millions of so-called free citizens in the western world are merely its dupes and its patsies, and as soon as it uses our proxy power to destroy all of the noble Islamic states, then Israel will turn on us and press us into the mud with its jackbooted feet on our necks and force us to give them our Statue of Liberty so that they can melt it down into bronze projectiles that they can fire into all the helpless villages of hapless villagers in... um, well, someplace that we don't know how to spell, but we're really agitated about it anyhow.

Anyway, we have to cut to a break right now. We'll be right back after this important message from whichever advertiser is paying us the most major benjamins to pander to them at the moment, which is probably the Pentagon in drag anyway, but hey, who's counting?

*fnord*

faux news needs good noose,
Otter

P.S. -- I still want my effing country back, you bam dastards.

no justice no pizza,
Otter

Um... er...

FYI, y'all, if you go back and take a look at the time stamps where marc and I were posting dueling lyrics and riffing off of each other in a truly-impressive example of mutual free-association word-jamming...

...we weren't actually doing that at all.

Given the time lag involved in thinking of a song that somehow fits the groove, and then going around online and finding the actual lyrics to that song so that you can repost them to the blog, and then copying and pasting and tweaking them so that they make a clear and coherent post and also taking the time to write up a significant and aha!-inducing lead-in and outro to same, well... It's a hella time-consuming thing to be doing while you're doing it.

Now, I can't speak for marc, I'm sure he's a lot faster off the draw than I am (ahem, ahem). But I know for sure that I was already seeking out and building up my "same old wine" lyrics even before marc had put together and posted his "time in a bottle" lyrics.

And then, as an apparent but inadvertently contiguous tag-team followup, I was already seeking out and putting together the "Once In A Lifetime" lyrics, even while marc was seeking out and putting together the "Life During Wartime" lyrics... and then he posted his lyrics right before I posted mine, which so aptly fit into the groove he was doing that it almost seemed like our mothers had called each other up and asked about what clothes we were going to be wearing so that they could be sure our outfits matched when we showed up at school that day.

Except for that they didn't and we weren't. And then Ladytechie interrupted with a 'geezer' comeback right while I was starting of a new post with a lame 'Giza' pun. And marc had already just posted an "I got yer..." signoff mere moments before I posted my own comments what started off with an "I gotcher..." reference right out out of the gate. And so on and so forth. And then, as Buffy's Spike liked to point out from time to time, wackiness ensued.

Now, what do you think are the chances of all *that* happening at random, huh?? Gee. Go figure. Who'd'a thunk it. Criminentlies, if we were as good at running states as we are at doing schtick, then the Democrats would already have a majority in the Senate. (Though a pox on both their Houses, sez I. Aarrggh.)

I for one don't think it's at all bizarre that marc and I should be clicking into the groove in such a hand-in-the-glove fashion even though we've never met each other in person. (Hell's belles, many of you have been spectators at practically every online conversation I've had with the lad.)

I mean, marc beats skins. I stroke a fish. It's what we *do*, after all. So even if we've never been F2F, if we're at all worth our salarium, then our mutually grokking the groove at the gig is practically a given, you dig?

Well, okay, so maybe you don't dig. It's a riddim thang, you might not understand. But trust us on this one, when the skins and the fish are syncing it up together, that's when your feet got so much boogie goin' that your head can't tell 'em no anymore.

If I were to meet marc for the first time playing on a stage -- like at, say, the DCP Bloggers’ Ball (and I still say screw the inaugaration thing, let's go ahead and throw that party anyhow, dammit) -- if we were to unconsciously synchronize the groove just moments before the first beat went down, well... I have to say I'd be pleased and comforted and even inspired by the synchronicity, but not at all surprised by it.

Having the same kinda thing happen in the time-delayed asynchronous textual format of this blog-that's-not-really-a-blog, though... well, I guess you're right, I suppose that it is pretty well unexpected at that.

Though I can't say it's entirely surprising to find it happening in this written rather than riffin' context, either. What can I say -- great minds think alike, they tell me, and apparently marc's and mine do also...

(I have absolutely no idea what I meant by writing down all of that and posting it here to the blog, but... what can I say, it seemed like a good idea at the time.)

hey, you, get offa my brain,
Otter

Otter - I can dig it.

Without music, what would be the point?

received from Oxford via Cornell:

HAVE A MICROSOFT CHRISTMAS

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, except father's mouse.
The computer was humming, the icons were hopping,
As father did last-minute Internet shopping.

The stockings were hung next the modem with care
In the hope that Santa would bring new software.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
With visions of computer games filling their heads.

Dark Forces for Billy, Doom II is for Dan,
Carmen Sandiego for Pamela Ann.
The letters to Santa had been sent out by mom,
To santa@toyshop.northpole.com -

Which now had been re-routed to Washington State
Where Santa's workshop had been moved by Bill Gates.
All the elves and the reindeer had had to skedaddle
To flashy new quarters in suburban Seattle.

After living a life that was simple and spare,
Santa now finds that he's a new billionaire,
With a shiny red Porsche in place of his sleigh,
And a house on Lake Washington just down the way
From where Bill has his mansion, and the old fellow preens
In black Gucci boots and red Calvin Klein jeans.
The elves have stock options and desks with a view,
Where they write computer code for Johnny and Sue.

No more dolls or tin soldiers or little toy drums
Will be under the tree, only compact disk roms
With the Microsoft label. So spin up your drive,
From now on Christmas runs only on Win95.

More rapid than eagles the competitors came,
And Bill whistled, and shouted, and called them by name.
"Now, ADOBE! now, CLARIS! now, INTUIT! too,
Now, APPLE! and NETSCAPE! you're all of you through,

It's Microsoft's SANTA that the kids can't resist,
It's the ultimate software with a traditional twist -
Recommended by no less than the jolly old elf,
And on the package, a picture of Santa himself.

Get 'em young, keep 'em long, is Microsoft's theme,
And a merger with Santa is a marketer's dream.
To the top of the NASDAQ! To the top of the Dow!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away - wow!"

And mum in her 'kerchief and me in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

The whir and the hum of our satellite platter,
As it turned toward that new Christmas star in the sky,
The SANTALITE owned by the Microsoft guy.
As I sprang from my bed and was turning around,
My computer turned on with a Jingle-Bells sound.

And there on the screen was a smiling Bill Gates
Next to jolly old Santa, two arm-in-arm mates.
And I heard them exclaim in voices so bright,
HAVE A MICROSOFT CHRISTMAS,
and TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT.

umm... Gee, mom, what's a "modem", anyways?

me and you and a CAT-5 named boo,
Otter

Posted by: Otter at December 15, 2005 09:11 PM

I'm with you Otter, who needs a rigged election to party? I need an excuse to dress up anyway.

It's three a.m., there's too much noise
Don't you people ever wanna go to bed?

I play a mean electric violin so watch out...

Oh,Mother War, what will you do?
When the battle cries fall silent.
Sweet drummer boys, that you knew,
Left us hard, and violent.

Tis' you who brings the dead to life.
To live among the breathing.
Hear, not, the shattered wife.
See no other mothers grieving.

What have you done, Mother War?
You've killed your sacred sons!
They matter less than distant shores,
And they only cost a gun.

Light our homes with fiery death.
And drink wine in our rubble.
Burn the gardens of the earth.
Seduce them with your trouble,

Mother War dance for us all.
Beat your drums into the night.
Sway your arms as patriots fall.
Turn blindness to their plight.

All these years we loved you so.
So needed was our bidding.
Always reaping what we sow,
And always soon forgetting.

Hold us close, Oh, Mother War.
As cold hatred warms the loins.
Turn paradise into a whore,
And pay in worthless coins.

As we march let us wake the dead.
And remind them what they lost.
Let us eat your cake like bread.
Too polite to state the cost.

Mother War we weep for you,
As you laugh at signs of sorrow.
Children who live this night through,
Will dance with you tommorrow.

Veritas

Electric violin is what I'm getting my husband for Christmas!!

By the way - ck out Newsweek cover - Bush in a Bubble. It's precious.

Report: Bush Permitted NSA to Spy in U.S.

NEW YORK (AP) - President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States - without getting search warrants - following the Sept. 11 attacks, The New York Times reports.

The presidential order, which Bush signed in 2002, has allowed the agency to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States, according to a story posted Thursday on the Times' Web site.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5483360,00.html

Hey Rummy...

If you can read this...

Bl*w Me.

Black Steel (Tricky)

I got a letter from the government
The other day
Opened it and read it
It said they were suckers
They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me givin’ a damn, I said never
Here is a land that never gave a damn
About a brother like myself
Because I never did
I wasn’t wit’ it, but just that very minute...
It occurred to me
The suckers had authority
good to hear again (Martina)

http://www.novaplanet.com Paris
Ecoutez

Posted by: not my president at December 16, 2005 12:19 AM

Let's see...

Pentagon agents dispersed to infiltrate and spy on anti war and peace activists

Secret databases kept on American Citizens (quakers, anti war activists, Bushco protesters)

Secret Executive Orders by Bush ordering the NSA to spy on American Citizens

Secret meetings with Congressional leaders and WH legal staf to come up with "secret legal opinions" (translates into: secret laws) that support violating the law with said EO.

And a congressional leadership that KNEW and went along with it. That was 2002 folks, Daschle was the Senate Majority Leader at the time. The Dems were in control of Congress at the time.

Kind of explains the deliberate lack of oversight and accountability by both parties in Congress, don't it?

My outrage meter has finally blown out.

Posted by: Linda Enterkin at December 15, 2005 11:34 AM

I would SO love it if Al Franken ran against slimey Norm Coleman and won!!! Well, MN did elect a wrestler for governor, so this state has it's quirky political figures from time to time (the state is only now beginning to recover financially from that fiasco because he put it so badly in debt). Have to be careful and designate which Coleman nowadays... Mayor Kelly (Dem who endorsed The Cretin in '04) just lost this fall's mayoral race to a Dem whose surname (altho not related) is also Coleman.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Posted by: wild salmon at December 16, 2005 02:41 AM

As a descendant of Quakers (among other colonial ancestors who came here to avoid having religion imposed on them by their government), it's a sad day that *our* paranoid government is keeping tabs on one of the most peace-loving religious groups in this country who have traditionally done good things (they were instrumental in the underground railroad), and from their earliest founders they didn't discriminate against women or women preachers and advocated educating girls as well as boys. Leave the Quakers alone! They don't shove their religion down the throats of others (nor, if memory serves, do they proselytize)! That, in my book, makes them "good Christians."

As for *our* government spying on peaceniks... I have to add that to a growing list of reasons I would move to another country and give up my US citizenship if I had options. There is no good reason to spy on private citizens who just want to co-exist peacefully with their neighbors and live a peaceful life....

More for the outrage meter....

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/12/16/notes121605.DTL&nl=fix
Fun Bits About American Torture
In many ways, the U.S. is now just as inhumane and brutal as any Third World regime. Oh well?
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, December 16, 2005

"We do not torture." Remember it, write it in red crayon on the bathroom wall, tattoo it onto your acid tongue because those very words rang throughout the land like a bleak bell, like a low scream in the night, like a cheese grater rubbing against the teeth of common sense when Dubya mumbled them during a speech not long ago, and it was, at once, hilarious and nauseating and it took all the self-control in the world for everyone in the room not to burst out in disgusted laughter and throw their chairs at his duplicitous little head.

Oh my God, yes, yes we do torture, America that is, and we do it a lot, and we do it in ways that would make you sick to hear about, and we're doing it right now, all over the world, the CIA and the U.S. military, perhaps more often and more brutally than at any time in recent history and we use the exact same kind of techniques and excuses for it our numb-minded president cited as reasons we should declare war and oust the dictator of a defenseless pip-squeak nation that happened to be sitting on our oil.

This is something we must know, acknowledge, take to heart and not simply file away as some sort of murky, disquieting unknowable that's best left to scummy lords of the government underworld. We must not don the blinders and think America is always, without fail, the land of the perky and the free and the benevolent. Horrific torture is very much a part of who we are, right now. Deny it at your peril. Accept it at your deep discontent.

Torture is in. Torture is the tittering buzzword of the Bush administration, bandied about like secret candy, like a hot whisper from Dick Cheney's gnarled tongue into Rumsfeld's pointed ear and then dumped deep into Dubya's Big Vat o' Denial.

The cruel abuse of terror suspects is sanctioned and approved from on high, and we employed it in Abu Ghraib (the worst evidence of which -- the rapes and assaults and savage beatings -- we will likely never see), and we use it in Eastern Europe and Guantánamo and in secret prisons and it has caused deaths of countless detainees. And Rumsfeld's insane level of Defense Department secrecy means we may never even know exactly how brutal we have become.

Torture is right now being discussed in all manner of high-minded articles and forums wherein the finer points of what amount of torture should be allowable under what particular horrific (and hugely unlikely) circumstances, and all falling under the aegis of the new and pending McCain anti-torture legislation that would outlaw any and all "degrading, inhumane" treatment whatsoever by any American CIA or military personnel at any time whatsoever, more or less.

All while, ironically, over in Iraq, our military is right now inflicting more pain and death upon more lives than any torture chamber in the last hundred years, and where we have recently discovered the fledgling government that the United States helped erect in Saddam's absence, the Iraqi Interior Ministry, well, they appear to be so giddy about torture they might as well be Donald Rumsfeld's love children. But, you know, quibbling.

There is right now this amazing little story over at the London Guardian, a fascinating item all about a group of hardy hobbyists known as "planespotters," folks whose solitary, dedicated pastime is to sit outside the various airports of the world and watch the runway action and make intricate logs and post their data and photos to planespotter Web sites. It's a bit like bird-watching, but without the chirping and the nature and with a lot more deafening engine roar and poisonous fumes.

These people, they are not spies and they are not liberals and they are not necessarily trying to reveal anything covert or ugly or illegal, but of course that is often exactly what they do, because these days, as it turns out, some of those planes these guys photograph are involved in clandestine CIA operations, in what are called "extraordinary renditions," the abduction of suspects who are taken to lands unknown so we may beat and maul and torture the living crap out of them and not be held accountable to any sort of pesky international law. Fun!

It is for us to know, to try and comprehend. The United States has the most WMD of anyone in the world. We imprison and kill more of our own citizens than any other civilized nation on the planet. We still employ horrific, napalm-like chemical weapons.

And yes, under the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld regime, we abuse and torture prisoners at least as horrifically as any Islamic fundamentalist, as any terrorist cell, to serve our agenda and meet our goals -- and whether you think those goals are justifiable because they contain the words "freedom" or "democracy" is, in many ways, beside the point.

Go ahead, equivocate your heart out. It is a bit like justifying known poisons in your food. Sure mercury is a known cancer-causing agent. Sure the body will recoil and soon become violently ill and die. But gosh, it sure does taste good. Shrug.

Maybe you don't care, maybe you're like Rumsfeld and Cheney and the rest who think, well sure, if they're terrorists and if they'd just as willingly suck the eyeballs out of my cat and rip out my fingernails with a pair of pliers as look at me, well, they deserve to be tortured, beaten, abused in ways you and I cannot imagine. Especially if (and this is the eternal argument), by their torture we can prevent the deaths of innocents.

Maybe you are one of these people. Eye for an eye. Water torture for an explosive device. Does this mean that you are, of course, exactly like those being tortured, willing to go to extremes to get what you want? That you are on the same level morally, energetically, politically and, like Cheney and Rumsfeld, you are dragging the nation down into a hole with you? You might think. After all, fundamentalists terrorize to further a lopsided and religious-based agenda. We torture to protect ours. Same coin, different side.

It is mandatory that we all acknowledge where we are as a nation, right now, how low we have fallen, how thuggish and heartless and internationally disrespected we have become, the ugly trajectory we are following.

Because here's the sad kicker: Torture works. It gets results. It might very well save some lives. But it also requires a moral and spiritual sacrifice the likes of which would make Bush's own Jesus recoil in absolute horror. Yet this is what's happening, right now. And our current position demands a reply to one bitter, overarching question: What sort of nation are we, really?

Posted by: wild salmon at December 16, 2005 02:41 AM

Outraged or not...

In 2002, we'd just been hit by 9-11 and people did in fact suffer from temporary insanity! We all went hog-wild. You had probably the majority of people who didn't really believe someone who was innocent would be tortured or held for years without a trial.

You also had a new minority group to 'profile' instead of the traditional ones, so people felt they themselves were safe from anything like the patriot act or torture.

And only now, is it hitting the news as a fact that peace activists are being spyed upon by the Pentagon.

Yes, it does explain the lack of accountability by both sides, but frankly, I think people just need to accept that they made an incorrect decision in 02 and fix the problem now!

Official: Al-Zarqawi mistakenly released in Iraq

Troops reportedly detained terror mastermind but didn't know his identity

Updated: 6:20 a.m. ET Dec. 16, 2005
The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi security forces caught terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the Fallujah area last year but released him because they didn’t realize who he was, the deputy interior minister said in an interview broadcast Friday.

The deputy minister, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp., that Iraqi police “suspected this man” and detained him “along with other members” of his group.

“Afterward, he was released because we did not know the identity of this criminal,” Kamal told LBC. The station said the remarks were made Wednesday but were aired Friday.

“He was not armed,” Kamal said. “He was like any other citizen who was suspected. There was a simple interrogation with him and he was released.”

Kamal said the incident occurred “about a year ago, approximately.” U.S. forces overran Fallujah in November 2004, ending domination of the city by insurgents and Islamic extremists, including al-Zarqawi’s al-Qaida in Iraq group.

Thousands of people were rounded up after the city fell. Most were interrogated and released.

Missed opportunities
CNN broadcast a similar report late Thursday, but it could not be confirmed. But a U.S. official said in Washington that American intelligence believed it was plausible. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in compliance with office policy.

There have been several reports of missed opportunities to capture al-Zarqawi, including an April 28 raid by U.S. forces acting on a tip from local informants that militants reportedly including the terror leader were hiding in a hospital in Ramadi.

more... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10491463/

Posted by: marc trager at December 16, 2005 06:57 AM

Good morning, marc!

Well, I suppose the administration expected him to wear his nametag at the interrogation.

Feingold Now Has Numbers on His Side By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Dec 15, 6:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON - In Congress, where numbers are everything, the math on the Patriot Act suddenly seems to be moving in favor of Sen. Russell Feingold.

He was a minority of one four years ago, when the Wisconsin Democrat cast the lone Senate vote against the USA Patriot Act in the traumatic weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. The law, he said then, gave government too much power to investigate its citizens. Ninety-nine senators disagreed.

Now add more than two dozen senators to Feingold's side, including the leaders of his party and some of the chamber's most conservative Republicans, and the balance of power shifts.

The new Senate arithmetic that emerged this week is enough to place the renewal of major portions of the law in doubt. It was enough to inspire Senate Republican leaders to consider a backup plan in case Feingold's filibuster threat succeeded. Enough to prompt President Bush to dispatch Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to Capitol Hill twice in two days to lobby on the accord's behalf.

No luck so far, said the chief Senate sponsor.

"We've got a battle on our hands," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., told reporters after Gonzales had departed Wednesday.

Bush weighed in personally Thursday, urging opponents of the renewal to abandon the filibuster threats.

"That is a bad decision for the security of the United States," the president said. "I call upon the Senate to end the filibuster and to pass this important legislation so that we have the tools necessary to defend the country in a time of war."

Moments later, the senior Democrat on the issue, Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., told reporters that more than 40 votes exist to sustain a filibuster in a test vote Friday. White House allies said they would rather see the law's 16 temporary provisions expire entirely than give opponents another three months or more to keep whittling away at them.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051215/ap_on_go_co/patriot_act

The Times article that goes with not my president's article.

http://tinyurl.com/9an5u

I am officially STEAMED! HOW DARE ANYONE WITHHOLD INFORMATION INTENTIONALLY FROM THE AMERICAN PUBLIC AND THEN DARE SAY WE HAD FAIR ELECTIONS AND A DEMOCRACY!!!

New York Times admits it held domestic spying story for a full year
RAW STORY

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/New_York_Times_admits_it_held_1215.html

From the above article:

Several officials said the eavesdropping program had helped uncover a plot by Iyman Faris, an Ohio trucker and naturalized citizen who pleaded guilty in 2003 to supporting Al Qaeda by planning to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches. What appeared to be another Qaeda plot, involving fertilizer bomb attacks on British pubs and train stations, was exposed last year in part through the program, the officials said. But they said most people targeted for N.S.A. monitoring have never been charged with a crime, including an Iranian-American doctor in the South who came under suspicion because of what one official described as dubious ties to Osama bin Laden.

*****

Ok, well this may or may not be true. Coming from an administration that lies, coverups, and consistantly abuses their power, I don't believe it.

HOWEVER, regarding the NYT, THEY OWE it to the American People to tell the truth and to let the administration support their facts.

And frankly, they have shown time after time to be a sleeping dog instead of a watch dog. Take them off your "liberal media" moniker list and take them off the 'trustworthy' one as well.

Avi Rubin in the Huffington Post:

The Dirty Little Secrets of Voting System Testing Labs (9 comments )

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at a voting system testing summit hosted by the Secretary of State of California, Bruce McPherson. It was an event that included members of the US Election Assistance Commission, Secretaries of State, local election officials, vendors, voting machine testers, representatives from NIST, social scientists who study voting issues, and computer scientists, such as myself.

Most notable by their absence were Wyle Laboratories and Ciber Inc. Let me explain.

Before election officials can purchase voting systems, those systems need to be certified by a federally accredited lab called an Independent Testing Authority (ITA). There are three such labs in the US: Ciber, Wyle Labs, and Systest. These labs are tasked with testing any proposed voting systems against federal standards, in this case, the 2002 federal standards, soon to be replaced by the 2005 voluntary voting system guidelines (VVSG). You would think that these labs would be very interested in attending a summit such as this, and in fact, they were all invited. Only Systest showed up.

There were several overriding themes that emerged at the voting systems testing summit. Perhaps the most prevalent one was that the ITAs consistently decline to appear at these meetings. Why? Well the main reason is that they are fraught with conflict of interest and incompetence. In fact, had they shown up, they would have been raked over the coals by some of the voting system examiners that attended the summit. For instance, an examiner from Pennsylvania wanted to know how come so many systems that passed the ITA testing still had serious security and even operational flaws. The Systest representative, who had the misfortune of representing his entire industry alone, replied that they were only required to test against the standard. When pressed about whether or not the ITAs would fail a system if a serious flaw was found, the reply was that a memo would be written, but that the system would still pass. I couldn't believe it. The company that was tasked with certifying machines for elections in the United States would still pass them, even if a serious flaw was found, as long as the machine did not violate any aspects of the standard. Unbelievable.

Now, let me talk a bit about the conflict of interest. As a friend of mine put it, the ITAs are not independent and they have no authority. So Independent Testing Authority is a misnomer. Thankfully, NIST is going to change the name next year. Here's where it gets bad. The ITAs are hired by and paid by -- the vendors. That is, when a vendor has a voting machine that they want certified, they find an ITA who is willing to certify the voting machine. Any memos about flaws that are discovered remain confidential. There is no requirement to disclose any problems that are found with the machines. In fact, the entire ITA report is considered proprietary information of the voting machine vendor. After all, they paid for it. This provides an incentive for ITAs to certify machines, to satisfy their clients.

Two years ago, my research team got our hands on the code that runs inside of Diebold's Accuvote machines. We performed a source code analysis and reported all kinds of serious security problems (see http://avirubin.com/vote/analysis/). It was incredible to me that such machines were actually deployed and used in elections. Equally confounding was that a national testing lab, in this case Wyle Labs, actually certified this machine. Either they did not know the first thing about cryptography and security, or they did not look at the source code. In fact, according to the 2002 standards, they were not required to examine the code.

So, the current state of affairs is grim. The ITA model provides an incentive to certify bad systems, and clearly such systems are being certified all the time. When the ITAs find a serious problem, it is relayed, confidentially to the vendor, and the only thing that the public ever learns is that a machine was certified. If a machine is not certified, nobody ever learns about it. The ITAs are aware enough of how broken the system is that they mostly hide from public events where they might be taken to task. Here's how I would reform the system. First off, I would have all the vendors pay a tax to NIST. NIST would then hire real independent testers to examine any voting machine proposed by a vendor. The testers would be paid more for finding problems with the machines than for certifying them. Thus, you can be sure that the testers tried every way of failing a machine before passing it. Everything done by the testers, every test performed, as well as the result, would be public. Occasionally, to keep the testers on their toes, NIST would throw a machine at the testers with a known serious problem, just to see if the testers could find it, and testers who did not find the problem would be penalized. The whole process would be open and transparent to the public. I doubt systems such as the 2003 Diebold Accuvote would have ever made it to a polling station in that model.

I learned a lot at the voting system testing summit, and I applaud Secretary McPherson for the dialogue that he opened up. I sincerely hope that in such events in the future, there will be no stakeholders who are afraid or ashamed to show their faces.

Send to a friendPost a CommentRead all posts by Avi Rubin

http://tinyurl.com/9cpbk

Ahem, check out the lead story on msnbc.com at this very moment.

Ok, the headline on msnbc.com is ...

"SPYING ON AMERICANS?" (in huge letters)
Report: Bush Ok'd Secret Wiretaps"

... accompanied by a pic of the chimp with that look on his face... you know the one.

The face only a mother could love. E-GADS! Look at hers!

I'M MELTING! I'M MELLLLLTING!

Posted by: marc trager at December 16, 2005 08:10 AM

Hey, it's in the mainstream online now. Do you know if it's on the network tv propaganda news yet? (Remember...I have no regular tv stations.)

NOW...DO WE HAVE ENOUGH PROOF OF FASCISM and the LOSS OF OUR DEMOCRACY?

NOW...DO you think people will listen when we tell them about the corrupt and probable fraud during the election?

A must read--must see from Firedoglake

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_firedoglake_archive.html#113471728043613437

Interesting little tidbit buried in the story about Bush OK'ing spying on Americans...

From the Associated Press...

"The Times said it delayed publication of the report for a year because the White House said it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. The Times said it omitted information from the story that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists."

A year huh? Like, so, this information was available around, say, election time last year?

Posted by: marc trager at December 16, 2005 08:34 AM

See this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=273x59334

Concerns and Revisions

Several senior government officials say that when the special operation began, there were few controls on it and little formal oversight outside the N.S.A. The agency can choose its eavesdropping targets and does not have to seek approval from Justice Department or other Bush administration officials. Some agency officials wanted nothing to do with the program, apparently fearful of participating in an illegal operation, a former senior Bush administration official said. Before the 2004 election, the official said, some N.S.A. personnel worried that the program might come under scrutiny by Congressional or criminal investigators if Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, was elected president.

In mid-2004, concerns about the program expressed by national security officials, government lawyers and a judge prompted the Bush administration to suspend elements of the program and revamp it.

Posted by: marc trager at December 16, 2005 08:34 AM

Slightly redundant post...sorry...but they have it in bold print.

See this... and squash every argument ever about whether House & Senate have same info as the Presidunce...

Memorandum December 14, 2005

TO: Sen. Dianne Feinstein

FROM: Alfred Cumming
Specialist in Intelligence and National Security
Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Division

SUBJECT: Congress as a Consumer of Intelligence Information

This responds to your request for a discussion of Congress and its role as a consumer of national intelligence, and for a listing and a description of some of the U.S. Intelligence Community's principal intelligence products, including an identification of those which the executive branch routinely shares with Congress, and those which it does not.

Limitations on Congressional Access to Certain National Intelligence

By virtue of his constitutional role as commander-and-in-chief and head of the executive branch, the President has access to all national intelligence collected, analyzed and produced by the Intelligence Community. The President's position also affords him the authority - which, at certain times, has been aggressively asserted (1) - to restrict the flow of intelligence information to Congress and its two intelligence committees, which are charged with providing legislative oversight of the Intelligence Community. (2) As a result, the President, and a small number of presidentially-designated Cabinet-level officials, including the Vice President (3) - in contrast to Members of Congress (4) - have access to a far greater overall volume of intelligence and to more sensitive intelligence information, including information regarding intelligence sources and methods. They, unlike Members of Congress, also have the authority to more extensively task the Intelligence Community, and its extensive cadre of analysts, for follow-up information. As a result, the President and his most senior advisors arguably are better positioned to assess the quality of the Community's intelligence more accurately than is Congress. (5)

more... http://feinstein.senate.gov/crs-intel.htm

And notice, too, how they mention the report that Peace activists have been spied upon too.

Finally...a hint of honesty.

We're so deep into this fascist society that it's too unrealistic...but it's reality! Nobody believes this--even though it's been true for a number of years.

Reality Bites!

sparrow:

Yes, the spying-on-ourselves story is all over the MSM -- headlines about it on the AP & REeuters newsfeeds, full story about it on NPR this ayem, etc.

So not to worry. If something is showing up in your Yahoo news feeds, then it's already MSM-enabled.

careful now, don't blow a gasket,
Otter

MSNBC's link to peace activists being investigated by the Pentagon.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10479445/

(Gosh...Sure hope I smiled for their camera!)

Hmmm...so if we can save our democracy, 10 years from now, teenagers will be learning about the second period of McCarthyism.

Ya think Santa might be really, really nice to us this year and give us a great New Year's present with letting that stupid Patriot Act expire?!?!? Please, Santa, please, please, please.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051216/ap_on_go_co/patriot_act

Senate May Derail Patriot Act Extension
WASHINGTON - Several Patriot Act provisions that the Bush administration says are crucial in the fight to stop terrorism on U.S. soil may only be around for another couple of weeks.

A coalition of Senate Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans is threatening to filibuster a congressional agreement to renew 16 key portions of the USA Patriot Act before they expire Dec. 31.

A showdown vote was scheduled Friday, with the White House and its congressional allies rejecting suggestions for a short-term extension of the current law as is. White House allies said they would prefer to let the 16 temporary provisions expire completely rather than give critics more time to add additional restrictions on the FBI's ability to comb through Americans' computer files and bank and library records.

Irony time:

Senator Lott is sueing his insurance agency for non-payment of damages due to Hurricane Katrina.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051216/ap_on_re_us/katrina_lott_lawsuit_1

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the same man who villified lawyers and John Edwards for being a lawyer? Isn't this the man responsible for enacting a rotten tort-reform legislation?

Posted by: sparrow at December 16, 2005 08:48 AM

Oh please please ME!! I hope they are following me to yoga class!!

And I hope they have to read all my emails about DANCE and THEATRE.

And I hope they are reading all my students' papers too!

They might learn something important!

new thread... and it's a doozy

Ya think Santa might be really, really nice to us this year and give us a great New Year's present with letting that stupid Patriot Act expire?!?!? Please, Santa, please, please, please.....

Well, I'm certain of one thing. Kaptain Karl is licking his chops at the notion of the Spytriot Act expiring, so when something DOES happen again on our soil due to the accumulated incompetence of this regime, they can blame those wacky liberals.

Either way, it's a Turdblossom Christmas.

(Sadly!) In my inbox:

Fw: Fw: Here is ONE Person's stance on taking CHRIST out of CHRISTMAS

By Debbie Daniel

I'm on a "Merry Christmas" mission and I'm in full throttle. My little yellow VW Beetle has turned into a Christmas billboard with Merry Christmas written across the back window. Yes, I've decided to trek off to work everyday on the public highways with a message that seems to offend people.

At stop lights, I even turn my music up a little louder, and to top it off, I sing along with it. Don't I know that stopping at a red light to roll my windows down only to share the joy of Christmas carols on public streets is a No-No? Don't I fear the Christmas Gestapo and those who would have me remove the written message from my car?

I'm sorry folks, but the only person I'm concerned about "offending" during this Christmas season is the Lord himself. LEAVE THAT MANGER ALONE! We've allowed the Baby Jesus to be kicked out of His lowly manger, and those offended by Christmas are still not happy.

I refuse to let this happen. I'm going to do my part to make sure "Merry Christmas" doesn't become extinct. Because like it or not, if the believers in Christmas don't take a stand now, it's gone forever.

Listen folks, the Christian community has been underestimated before; we will have to show ourselves again.

I walked into a Wendy's Restaurant the other day and was rather exuberant with my "Merry Christmas" greeting to the manager. He didn't have much of a response and I said, "Where's your Christmas spirit?" He said, "We're not allowed to use the words "Merry Christmas" when greeting customers. We can only say "Happy Holiday."

This morning I grabbed a quick breakfast at a Whataburger Restaurant. I noticed there wasn't a single decoration in the store. I asked the manager why they weren't decorated for Christmas. He told me the corporate headquarters decided not to send any decorations to any of their stores, and he didn't know why.

After I heard about all the Macy's and Federated Stores taking down their Merry Christmas signs, the Target stores not allowing the Salvation Army to "Ring the Christmas bells," and the many incidents of children, choirs, and bands not allowed to play or sing Christmas carols, I realized it was happening right here in my own little Texas town.

How can this be? Not Texas!

We do, however, have a store, Hobby Lobby, that plays nothing but Christmas carols during the season. On Christmas Day they run a full page ad in our local newspaper. That ad is not to promote the store, but uses the entire page to tell the story of Jesus' birth. Now that's taking a stand. We need to thank them.

When I saw a news report the other evening of children being taught new words to a song we've sung for years - "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" - I was saddened to hear "We Wish You a Splendid Holiday."

I know now that it's just a matter of time that the "Merry Christmas" greetings will be gone. Look around your town. Notice the "Holiday" greetings and not "Christmas." It's happening right before our very eyes.

Start singing the songs; go down the streets of America singing to your heart's content. Get some of those wash-off markers that these kids use to write on their car windows when they're rooting for their hometown football team. It's easy to do, and if a torrential rain washes it off, write it on there again.

We've got to get this message out. "Go Tell It On the Mountain . . . that Jesus Christ is Born." Sing it, speak it, be a billboard for our Lord.

The story of this "Baby Jesus" alone has brought about more goodwill at this time of year than any other day we celebrate. How can we sit back and allow Him to be snuffed out of our lives?

Is it Jesus, or is it His followers that the "offended" don't like? What kind of revulsion galvanizes one to campaign so vehemently against the mere mention of His name, the mere singing of a carol, or the mere visual of a sign that says "Merry Christmas?"

I can listen to my own boss at work use some of the vilest words and follow up with, "Excuse my French." I may cringe inside at his damning of God's name, but I tolerate it. So if you don't like me wishing you a "Merry Christmas," I'll say, "Excuse my joy." You may cringe that I celebrate the birth of Jesus, but just tolerate it.

I cannot be concerned that "Merry Christmas" offends you. If I'm not careful, the day will come when saying I'm a Christian will offend you.

I'm offended that you're offended. How about that?

When we get to a point that we can no longer take part in a tradition we hold dear, we have no choice; we either defend that tradition or we give it up to those who say NO. That's it . . . period. So, which will it be?

I'm not giving up my "Merry Christmas" joy to anyone. If I know of someone that celebrates another holiday during this time of year, I will be glad to wish them whatever holiday they want. Just tell me what it is and I'll shout it to the world and wish you a grand celebration.

Just give me Christmas. To you merchants: Stop being so hypocritical and "filling your tills" on the back of Jesus! Who do you think is the symbol of giving at this time of year? It was the wise men bringing gifts to the newborn Christ-child.

You want your coffers full, but have ordered your employees to take down all the Merry Christmas signs. If that's the case, I'll buy gifts at a place that understands my joy.

If you're worried about offending someone, you just did. The most recent Newsweek survey shows that 82% of Americans believe that Jesus is the Son of God. So, in trying not to offend a few, you've offended many.

It's okay to jump into the "Merry Christmas" spirit when it fills your cash register, but let's call it something else . . . and don't stop giving . . . and don't stop buying. . . we'll just change the name and you'll never know the difference.

I know the difference and I'm feeling it greatly. It's hard not to be aware that townships across our country have actually banned the singing of Christmas carols because it might offend someone. And it's not just the religious songs; it's the secular ones too. No more "Jingle Bells" or "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" because they're associated with Christmas. Boy, aren't we getting sensitive?

If we're not celebrating Christmas for the hope it gives with the birth of our Savior . . . there is no hope!

I noticed a few years ago that we changed the name of Abraham Lincoln's and George Washington's birthday so as to be all inclusive regarding the Presidents. Hark, if we should recognize anyone as exceptional. Now it's called Presidents' Day.

Well, if we're going to be so all inclusive, next month I'll have to refer to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as Civil Rights Leaders' Day. We don't want to exclude great Americans like Rosa Parks or Cesar Chavez, do we? And to think that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton might be left out.

We might need to change Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Grandparents' Day to All Parents' Day. Just lump them all together.

It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? So what's the difference?

My freedom to celebrate Christmas in the tradition of the Christian religion is as much my right as it is your right to be offended by it. So what are we going to do? Did anyone hear me . . what are we going to do?

Do we defend a person's right to go forward with a time tested tradition (how about 2000 years?), or do we defend a person's right to end it all because they're offended? As long as we live in this great land and have the freedom to express ourselves and what we believe in, we will always offend someone.

If we try to make everything right for everyone, we won't have anything for anyone.

May you always have Christmas in your heart!
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What Debbie Daniel started, let's not let it die here. Let's all do our part.

Let's do something ourselves, and then too, let's pass this on to every

Christian we know and if enough of us shout it out, maybe someone,

somewhere, will hear us and stop this insanity of Atheism from gripping our Country.

And my response to that email:

Please do not send me "They're taking the Merry out of Chritmas" type things. I'm sorry, but I know many, many jewish people and muslum people who absolutely are not offended by someone saying, "Merry Christmas" but who are grateful and appreciative of the thoughtfulness that others want to wish them well by being inclusive and saying "Happy Holidays".

Besides, this trumped-up political-Merry Christmas stuff is divisive. Jesus would NOT have wanted people to use his name or holiday to spread hate and divisiveness. I will not jump on any band wagon that spreads hate instead of love. I grew up with enough of that and instead prefer to spend my adult life uniting people, spreading hope, and spreading peace.

So, thank you for not forwarding this stuff to me in the future.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Sincerely