Rove Indictment Coming?

Anyone have any popcorn? This is getting good!

I HOPE to God they arrest him! And can someone please tell me if Bush can be charged with crimes once he leaves office or is he off scot-free?

Oh my gosh Casey, I was posting on the last thread, and I looked up and saw the letters "Rove Indict..." and I almost freaked out!!

Please, God. Please, please please.........

Well, tomorrow IS Friday, after all........

We can always hope this Friday will be a big news day, for real.

Bless Patrick Fitzgerald.

$100 CAVEAT: Frist's proposed $100 rebate for gas is tied to permission to drill in Alaska...!!! Or so said the story about all of this on PBS's News Hour just a little bit ago. I heard the other part about the $100 rebate earlier today, but no one said anything about the rebate in the proposed legislation tied to drilling in ANWR.

Some deal, eh? I'll bet people will focus greedily on the $100 rebate and ignore the ANWR drilling clause, and it will zip through Congress without so much as a whisper of dissent or discussion....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060427/ap_on_go_ot/global_warming_states
10 States Sue EPA Over Global Warming

[Carried over from previous thread, but WTF -- so have your personal assistant blueberry her assistant and have her fax my lawyer's personal assistant who will have her own assistant email back a generic and totally content-free reply, and let one of them somewhere somehow sue me for something already...]

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

My personal opinion in re The Donald, which for emphasis' sake is *not* that of the DCP or any other such organization nor anything of its ilk:

Yes, Donald Rumsfeld *should* resign his post as Secretary of MisDefense. Absolutely. Formally, and with prejudice.

But this sentiment -- which once again I reiterate is *purely* my own, and is not representative of any other aquatic mammals and/or e-scrivners and/or any other web-based noms du tron anywhere at any time or any place, ahem -- is directly tied to my awareness of the fact that ritual seppuku is no longer recognized as a valid expiation of accumulated personal guilt and dishonor in modern Western circles of thought these days.

although I still gotta say that if he had even half of (the liddle kiddy-sized version with a special toy in every box) of the political and personal cojones that someone like, say, nancy pelosi does then he'd've resigned long since already,
Otter

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

[Just my extra and additional $.02 -- your $3/gallon mileage may vary of course. Products sold by weight, not volume. Contents may have settled during handling. Do not try this at home. Please do not adjust your set. There are no user-serviceable parts inside your head. Copied right 2006, all rites preserved, by Planet Otter Productions. Thankyouverymuch.]

Crooks and liars has a video link to Rove.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/04/27.html#a8072

Y por esos medios, podemos eliminar el arbusto!!

shrubworld delenda est,
Otter

FROG MARCH!!!!!

Anyone still think it is a good idea to outsource our elections to private companies?

EXCLUSIVE - ES&S MELTDOWN: Texas SoS Office Advises Election Officials to Create 'Emergency Paper Ballots' for Upcoming Elections!
Director of Elections Sends Letter Authorizing Measure in Light of Latest Failure by Electronic Voting Machine Vendor
Says Company's Performance in Most Recent -- of Many Similar Incidences Around the Country -- is 'Completely Unacceptable and Disturbing'


On Monday, Texas Director of Elections Ann McGeehan sent a letter to all state Election Officials authorizing them to create "emergency paper ballots" in light of statewide failures by Election System & Software, Inc. (ES&S) to provide ballots in time for the state's upcoming May 13 Runoff Elections, The BRAD BLOG has learned.

Early voting begins on Monday for those elections and counties across the state do not yet have ballots and, in many cases, programming for their optical-scan and touch-screen voting machines. ES&S has contracts with more than 140 Texas counties.

McGeehan has instructed officials to create and number their own paper ballots, secure boxes to store them in, and hire additional workers to manually hand count ballots as an emergency procedure to deal with the rapidly deteriorating situation.

The letter from McGeehan (posted in full exclusively at the end of this article) -- which does not mention ES&S by name, but refers to the Omaha, Nebraska-based company only as "a certified voting systems vendor" -- was sent in response to complaints from officials around the state that "programming media or, in some cases, your ballots" had not been received yet by officials.

In a statement to the San Antonio's Express-News this morning, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff says, "It sure is exasperating...We are looking at avenues to hold them responsible for this." Bexar County is just one of more than 140 in Texas with whom ES&S has contracts.

"They made their priorities," Wolff says, "and I think Texas certainly wasn't one of them."

The BRAD BLOG has also received statements from officials in other states who were still more direct in expressing their frustration with the company's business practices now being described by some as including "coercion" and "threats."

This most recent embarrassment for ES&S, the country's largest Electronic Voting Machine Vendor, is just the latest in what has now become an epidemic string of failures to meet contractual obligations in scores of states and counties across the country. The BRAD BLOG has reported on many of these troubling problems in a long series of articles in hopes of connecting the dots of those failures to illustrate and warn of the rapidly approaching E-Voting train wreck.

So far, both the mainstream corporate media, as well as many elections officials across the country have -- to the delight of ES&S -- failed to notice the remarkably clear pattern of delinquency and failure the company has demonstrated time and again across the nation in recent weeks and months.

Texas was plagued, during their recent March 7th Primary Election, by a host of failures in voting equipment made by both ES&S and Hart InterCivic, another voting machine vendor certified to do business in the state. Those failures on Election Day led to a statewide Election Contest filed by a former Republican Supreme Court Justice after tabulators failed and electronic ballots were misprogrammed and miscounted.

In Jefferson County, TX officials threatened to withhold payment after the debacle until their machines were fixed by ES&S. The company, however, answered by reportedly refusing to program the machines at all for the state's upcoming Runoff Elections unless payment was made in full. The county, in a bind, was forced to comply with the strong-arm tactics.

And now, with new elections just weeks away, officials all over the state are finding themselves -- like many other states across the country -- without the promised ballots from ES&S and scrambling for alternative solutions. Election Director McGeehan describes the situation as "completely unacceptable." Writing in her letter to Election Officials, she says:



We recognize that this kind of service from a certified voting systems vendors [sic] is completely unacceptable and disturbing. We will be pursuing all appropriate remedies from a state level that are available to us.


In the letter, McGeehan goes on to explain that officials should crate "emergency paper ballots" by either creating their own, or using "PDF format to print copies of the ballot" in cases were "proofs" had been previously supplied by ES&S.

Instructions are included for number and initializing thousands of ballots by hand:


After you print a copy of the ballot, you will need to put a ballot number at the top of the ballot beginning with the next ballot number of the last number of your original ballot order. In other words, if you ordered 15,000 ballots numbered 1-15,000, any ballots you create would be numbered beginning with the number 15,001. You will need to put your initials on the back of the ballot so you can determine it was an official ballot provided by you.


Further, officials are instructed that they may have to manually hand count ballots that would otherwise be counted by either optical-scan systems or recorded by touch-screen voting machines.

They are also told to create boxes for the ballot storage and find people to count them. McGeehan writes...

Did you see cover of the New Yorker?
With Rumsfeld chained to the doghouse, in front of the White House?

& someone gave me a thumbs up on the way home from work..
if you could see my car you'd know why. & they had a bumper sticker with something about Cheney & an Air America. Nice end to a rough day .. and now this blog!!

I am going to wear my "Frog March Rove Out Now" button to the gym.

Where are all our blog regular bloggers?

Come out of your lurking and post!!!????!!!!!????

DiAnne,

Love that t-shirt!!

If you find some good ones, let me know, and I'll send you money and you can bring it with when you come to see your mom!!!

This blogger is working for a living. And earning less too! Amazing isn't it. But read this: http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2006/edition_03-12-2006/wpe_lede_story

Hey folks, Beth here from way back. Like Billmon, I disappear for long periods of time.

Speaking of Billmon/Whiskey Bar, he has a pretty good post/theory about Rove's testimony here:

http://billmon.org/archives/002409.html

Truth Shall Prevail

I'll probably come later in summer & will definitely come bearing surprises!!!

test image

http://merovingian.org/images/politics/rove_frog-march_fotoshawpt.jpg

My husband said ABC News is having a feature about Americans who are praying for Divine Intervention at the gas pumps.

A group of Democrats held a press conference at a gas station.

Now there is a prayer service at a gas station outside DC (http://www.praylive.com, I think they said), to ask God for lower prices.

My friend from Thailand was sadly amused (& slightly horrified) when he heard his mother praying to Buddha for money, but this seems even more ridiculous.

Preacher is saying gas prices are a vexation & that God can ease the pain. Well, I guess they are actually praying for restorating of honesty & integrity - I guess they believe there is price gouging.

Commentator is saying God is most concerned about the big profits, probably. This guy is advocating for every person & every pastor in the US to pray for this. Well it will take a hell of a lot more than Divine Intervention to fix all this!

Is this a joke?!

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,750,000 for prayer gas prices. (0.51 seconds)

Posted by: DiAnne at April 28, 2006 12:57 AM

Doesn't matter if it's a joke or not (and BTW, ABC has done a lot of religious stuff recently; it's why I quit watching their infotainment snooze).

It's poetic justice that the christian "base" now has to pray for divine intervention to try to get lower gas prices. It'll never happen as long as the delusional being who thinks he's talking with his personal god is the resident-in-chief.

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha! Serves them right for voting the way they did!!!

An indictment for Turd Blossom.... (that sticks, that is, and where the court proceedings are not delayed until after the '08 election like Scooter's trial is being delayed until after the '06 election).... I would see that as encouraging.

And the "approval" rating for The Cretin dipped one point on one poll.... Encouraging, encouraging.... I said if ALL the polls go below 30% that I'd start singing. I won't start to warm up until all the polls go to 30% (warning: if that happens, get ear muffs then; I no longer sing all that well, but I do plan on singing supersonically loud; the lower the poll ratings, the louder this fat lady plans on singing in direct inverse proportion).

Right now, I'm in a firm but flexible 'wait and see' mode. Dem legislators have disappointed me way, way too many times since 2000. I'm encouraged when they do the right thing even if their votes lose, but I'm no longer deliriously happy to the point of losing my common sense - early on I lost my common sense thinking Dems would accomplish something the times their soft bleating voices were (almost) "heard." IF/When the Dems start screaming and shouting to do the right things, and IF Lamestream Media keeps repeating any dissenting Dem or Independent opinions over and over an over, I'll perk up my ears.... Maybe.

Y'see, I think "someone" (anyone, everyone) connected with this moronic and criminal administration will do something drastic (as drastic, or more drastic than 9/11 - and I'm no longer convinced they didn't have something to do with 9/11), something that will get the sheeple back on their side, so to speak, and I don't trust that the Dems won't follow where the sheeple lead.... (There's always that pesky stuff about Iran, even if they can't produce a bomb for another ten years, DumDum can still scare sheeple witless by talking about 'ter'ra'.) And, yes. I don't put it past the criminals in *our* White House to start something themselves (in secret, of course), LIE about it and/or blame someone else, and then try to justify yet another war (or two or three) of aggression - all counter to Nuremberg and Geneva Conventions and UN mandates, etc. - so they can coerce people to sign up for the military, or so they can reinstate the draft, or hire more mercenaries via Halliburton or subsidiaries or other companies like them.

I don't for one second genuinely believe the guard and reserve troops will be brought home soon from Iraq and/or Afghanistan in a timely fashion, deadlines or not, and it won't matter who tries to set those deadlines (it's all hot air); I don't for one second believe there will be any redeployment out of the Mideast for any of the regular troops (maybe to adjoining countries, but not out of the area, and it will only happen for a month or so before the November election, and then it's right back to where they were after election day). As long as The Cretin is the appointed Resident, he will keep his illegal, immoral, unethical, unjust, and dishonorable war going (and probably start another one or two or three wars), he will keep the illegal, immoral, unethical, unjust, and dishonorable torture going at illegal detention centers, on or off of American soil or rented property (US military base at Gitmo) or via renditions. I do not for one second believe anything will change in the near future; everything will be status quo for the duration of The Cretin's appointed Residency.

As an interesting aside, I think it was on ABC that I saw an advert for a movie about avian flu pandemic. Never mind it's just NOT possible to have an avian flu epidemic because it does not pass from person to person and only from diseased bird droppings to people if people handle diseased bird droppings, they actually made a something-night movie of such a stupid scenario, and I'd be willing to bet that some mad scientist is busy trying to make an avian flu virus that will pass from person to person to fulfill stupid movie scenarios (and DumDum's people would love it to control the sheeple). It's a scare tactic, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why any TV network would make a something-night movie out of such stupidity, unless they are in cahoots with the propaganda machine at the White House (no, I am not watching it, of course). Keep sheeple credulous and stupid and uneducated and they'll believe anything, however impossible or fictitious (and TV snooze anchors have been yapping about avian flu for months, every time someone at the White House is exposed as a LIAR or is brought up on charges, so it's a good diversion tactic to use in Lamestream Media so they don't talk about the political criminals leadint this country). Actually, they have a real epidemic with mumps just now with Iowa being the center of the epidemic, but not that many people are talking about it.

Oh, and wasn't it convenient that the movie about United 93 came out right now, just in time for the start of the campaign season this summer when legislators go home to gear up for fall election? And I'll bet it gets released in stores about September or even October (s'prize!) this year for sheeple to buy.... I'm refusing to see it just on principle, 'cuz it's just too-too conveniently coming out in an election year, and the only ones who could benefit are the neoCons who specialize in scare tactic psy-ops via propaganda in *our* (un-free) media, especially.... NeoCon politicians use 9/11 to beat their constituents - and this country via Lamestream Spinmeisters, and there's now the perfect Faux Snow Job in office - over the head with fear and terra psy-ops tactics; so far, it still works for them , it seems, even if the rest of us figured out a long time ago it's a bunch of LIES and hot air and we know who the #1 poster boy is to recruit criminals to terrorize people.

So, IF we are fortunate and Turd Blossom is caught in his web of lies and deceit (and whatever else) and does have charges filed against him (on a Friday, just in time for people to ignore the news for two days), the story will no longer be on page one by Monday morning. It might be mentioned on the Monday morning talk shows, but by noon Monday, pffftttt... nothing.

Now, if there is a supreme being, She will wave a magic wand and make sure all my fears for the next few months and the next three years (listed and unlisted) are all wrong.... Just prove me wrong and I'll deal with anyone calling me daft.... (Some days I feel like I've been re-named Cassandra; it's depressing....)

Test blast in Nevada: A nuclear rehearsal:
Pentagon apparently looks for an optimal size of a 'bunker buster'
http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_3678364

{{{IMHO, testing more bombs, nuclear bombs at that, is just plain... stupid. No other word for it unless I add profanity. Just stupid beyond belief to test bunker busters or any other kind of bombs. When are we, as a species, going to grow up and be civilized and settle any disputes without armed conflict?!?!? War (including preparations for war) only promotes a culture of killing and death....}}}

The Passion of George W. Bush
By Sidney Blumenthal
The president doesn't care that he is reviled. He is a martyr, and someday all will see his glory. Meanwhile, he's got Karl doing his dirty work.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12864.htm
Excerpt:
On Tuesday, Bush reached the invisible but fateful mark of 1,000 days left in his term. It is a magical number associated with the 1,000 days of President Kennedy, the time taken as the title of Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s memoir of that White House. Bush cannot run again and has no obvious successor who will hold his team together. On March 22, he announced that he would leave to the next president the decision about continued U.S. presence in Iraq. In the final days of his backward Camelot he will never, never, never change his basic policies, the source of his unraveling.

{{{Okay... I found something to smile about for today. The Cretin has fewer than 1000 days left in office....}}}

Let Us Now Spit Upon The Earth
You can do it the old way, or you can do it like Bush -- with smirks, mountain bikes and oil
- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, April 28, 2006

Look, see those tire marks? That ungainly footprint? Feel that breath of humid doom upon your skin? Yes, the president was just here. Up in Napa Valley, riding his official Trek Mountain Bike One over the rocks and down the trails and through the cool California mud, a small army of handlers and Secret Service agents and emergency medical personnel by his side and/or rumbling along behind him in big black SUVs. It was very cute, in a fingernail-yanked-with-pliers sort of way.

It was Earth Day weekend. The president talked about how mountain biking helped him "settle his soul" and "burn off excess energy when you're living life to its fullest," which apparently means blindly running your nation into a bloody flaming wall at full speed like a drunk NASCAR driver on Ambien. He talked about how he enjoyed mountain biking because it had such minimal impact on the pristine, wild surroundings. Shockingly, lightning did not strike him dead on the spot.

Later on, the prez talked up the need for wildly implausible hydrogen-powered cars to the California Fuel Cell Partnership, a group who, if they had a drop of integrity and brains among them, didn't believe a single word he said.

Bush on Earth Day. It's like Satan talking up the joys of Easter. It's like Paris Hilton chatting about treading the planet with humility and grace. It's like Jerry Falwell gushing about his love of Brokeback Mountain, Eli Lilly extolling the virtues of meditation and green tea. It is, in a word, embarrassing. Humiliating. Intellectually bludgeoning. And hypocritical in a way, and at a depth, that is as nauseating to stomach as the testosterone levels at a Duke lacrosse frat party.

More on link:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/04/28/notes042806.DTL&nl=fix

There's a significant article in the Guardian about Russia and its willingness to increasingly chart its own path without regard to the policies of other countries, particularly the US and Europe.

It does a good job itemizing and analyzing events over the last few years.

'Russia has left the western orbit'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,,1762953,00.html?gusrc=rss

INCREDULITY DEPARTMENT:

Turned on TV for in-state snooze (want to find out if the rain we're going to get this pm will involve thunder and lightning)...

ABC's GMA reported Dumbya has signed off on a deal to give/sell US munitions manufacturing outfits for the US to a United Arab Emirates (DUBAI) company (or was it companies? - plural), and they reported that this time DumDum got assurances that Dubai wouldn't get any military secrets as a result of owning/running the US munitions manufacturing places.

BTW, I never did find out the result of the Dubai Ports deal and what became of that. Do they now own some of our ports, too?

Sniffing my nose in the air, I smell a stinky fascination between Dumbya and someone in the UAE who wants easy access to the US and/or military munitions. (Does this mean the October s'prise could be an attack from a foreign government from within our own borders using our own munitions and military equipment?)

We've always known Dumbya is nuts. He's been crossing too many lines recently. Who's gonna stop him this time???

THE GREAT BUSH RECLASSIFICATION PROJECT
Molly Ivins, AlterNet
Why does the FBI want to go through a dead man's files and reclassify public information?
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/35551/

Posted by: dwahzon at April 28, 2006 07:56 AM

Well, since the installation of the Resident, he's shown a distinct unwillingness to play nice in the world's sandbox, and quite clearly other leaders of other nations long ago figured out he's the bully on the playground... and, quite frankly, I understand the positions of the leaders of other countries. Who wants to incessantly deal with a spoiled frat boy who can't play nice in the world's sandbox and shows everyone how unwilling he is to get along with anyone else in the world, but who loves it when he can illegally invade other countries....

I seriously doubt that Vladimir Putin and the Russian government are making their decisions based on personal dislike or for that matter, solely in reaction to US foreign policy.

To think that is to presume that their thinking is US-centric and truthfully, the only people whose vision is so warped that their thinking presupposes that all such decisions are made in reaction to US policy are US citizens. Much of the rest of the world is quite conscious that there are other factors that go into such decisions which have nothing to do with the US or at best, are indirectly and tenuously influenced by US policy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/washington/28dubai.html

Bush Set to Approve Takeover of 9 Military Plants by Dubai

WASHINGTON, April 27 — President Bush is expected on Friday to announce his approval of a deal under which a Dubai-owned company would take control of nine plants in the United States that manufacture parts for American military vehicles and aircraft, say two administration officials familiar with the terms of the deal.

The officials, who were granted anonymity so they could speak freely about something the president had not yet announced, said that the final details had not yet been set and that Mr. Bush might put conditions on the transaction to keep military technology in the United States.

But his action is almost certain to attract scrutiny in Congress, because of the political furor that erupted over the administration's approval of a deal earlier this spring that would have given another Dubai-owned company, Dubai Ports World, leases to operate several American port terminals through its acquisition of a British company, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.

Dubai Ports agreed to drop the port deal after it became clear that Republicans were abandoning Mr. Bush and opposing the takeover.

In this case, the plants in question are owned by Doncasters Group Ltd., a British company that is being purchased for $1.2 billion from the Royal Bank of Scotland Group by Dubai International Capital, which is owned by the United Arab Emirate government.

Because the plants make turbine blades for tanks and aircraft, the deal was reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which sent it on to Mr. Bush himself for a decision, a step used only when the potential security risks or political considerations are particularly acute.

{{{More on link.}}}

Well, if Turd Blossom is charged today, we all know what Lamestream Media will NOT be talking about, in favor of the UAE deal....

Posted by: dwahzon at April 28, 2006 09:01 AM

:-) Thanks! You said that so much better than my lame ability to do so.

After being treated to endless crap spoken by Dumbya, RumDum, Dead-Eye Dick, and Condisleazy telling leaders of other countries that 'this, that, or the other thing MUST happen' it's refreshing to read that other countries are - in effect - thumbing their noses at the US, proving they don't need advice from anyone as unintelligent as Dumbya to make a responsible and mature decision about what's right for their own countries.

And I rather assume Dumbya, et al., will complain about that for the very same reasons.... (I'm so tired of that creature's voice....)

Well this is from Andree in France. She survived computer crashes but her data didn't. But she sends this along - from one of our (Seattle) newspapers:

>
> A blog smorgasbord
> Full story:
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2002953272_foodblog26.html
> Special to The Seattle Times
>
> What is doubling in size every 5 months and is more than 60 times bigger
> than it was three years ago?
>
> (Hint: It's not the national debt.) It's the blogosphere.

& I had read that Daily Kos circulation is about the surpass on-line NY Times.

NonnyO
May want to check this out (or not):

This Week on NOW:

* "God's Country?"
Evangelical Christians are preaching politics in Ohio. Have they gone too far?

The wall between church and state is being stretched once again in Ohio, this time not just by politicians, but by church leaders themselves. So-called "patriot pastors" are mobilizing to deliver one-sided messages about social policy, secular laws and even political candidates ahead of a May 2 gubernatorial primary. NOW takes a closer look at the Ohio Restoration Project, an organization being criticized for using Evangelical Christianity as a vehicle for political advocacy and for strongly supporting conservative gubernatorial candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell.

"When it came time to find a leader, we found one, Ken Blackwell, who said yes, marriage is defined by the Bible as one man and a woman, and I will stand with you," says Russell Johnson, not a professional politician, but a senior pastor at Ohio's Fairfield Christian Church.

Such strong support for a single candidate violates IRS rules, say some 30 religious leaders who've filed multiple complaints against two Ohio "mega-churches" for misusing their influence. With the election just around the corner, the Buckeye State is once again bracing for a political storm of biblical proportions. Next time on NOW.

Actually those stats came from a quarterly report put out by the CEO of Technorati called "The State of the Blogosphere".

You can see Part 1 of the latest report issued on 4-17-2006 at this link...
http://technorati.com/weblog/2006/04/96.html

Here's his summary section:

In summary:

- Technorati now tracks over 35.3 Million blogs

- The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months

- It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago

- On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day

- 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created

- Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour

We saw a bumper sticker yesterday with the simple words: Visualize Impeachment.

Love it.

On Cindy Sheehan et al, it turned into a non-event. Everyone got along well; Frist's staffers were determined to NOT have an incident. They allowed them to sit on the floor and they gave them food...

The new, NICE Republican strategy. Still, people are getting killed in Iraq.

Also, word from southern Iraq (rumors only) that special ops already in Iran...and we are all shocked, right?

Hey, look at this discussion of online political communities:

http://www.politicalgastronomica.com/archives/2006/04/part_3_particip.html

And check out this graph:

"One technique I am supportive of is the Democracy Cell Network designed to train individual supporters to create a network of grassroot supporters in the use of technology and communications tools to support Democratic candidates. Dick Bell and his wife created this group with the "troll-patrol" supporters on the Kerry blog - and have been working very hard on developing some success stories. I liken their effort to the old Underground Railroad - where disparate, but passionate individuals banded together to provide an infrastructure for a common cause..."

Friend says Friday is the day indictments get handed down.

FROG MARCH!!

Should be able to hear new Neil young on here: http://neilyoung.truemajorityaction.org

Posted by: karen at April 28, 2006 09:40 AM

Great to know, Karen! Thanks to you and Dick for the hard work.

Well, the newest Republican corruption scandal just keeps getting better and better...

kos has a new feature up ... and yes, it's about the Republican congressmen and hookers but what really just epitomizes the height of the culture of corruption is the snippet at the end about the limousine company that picked up the congressmen and the hookers and ferried them to and fro.

from Harpers via kos:

I've learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees--including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post. I've also been able to learn the name of the limousine service that was used to ferry the guests and other attendees to the parties: Shirlington Limousine and Transportation of Arlington, Virginia. Wilkes, I've learned, even hired Shirlington as his personal limousine service.

It gets even more interesting: the man who has been identified as the CEO of Shirlington has a 62-page rap sheet (I recently obtained a copy) that runs from at least 1979 through 1989 and lists charges of petit larceny, robbery, receiving stolen goods, assault, and more. Curiously--or perhaps not so curiously given the company's connections--Shirlington Limousine is also a Department of Homeland Security contractor; according to the Washington Post, last fall it won a $21.2 million contract for shuttle services and transportation support.

read the entire kos post here -- has links to other sources...
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/28/10539/3881

dw:

Thanks for the link. Will check it out. I'm just enjoying Jane Hamsher at www.firedoglake.com.

Its my new morning Fitz fix.

The Onion? I am not suggesting these have credibility - I just HOPE they don't. Either or both may not be far from the truth - food for thought.

FOX NEWS-WHITE HOUSE MERGER COMPLETED
Bill O'Reilly Named Secretary of Defense

One day after being named the new White House spokesman, former Fox News pundit Tony Snow announced that a deal merging Fox News and the Bush White House had been successfully completed.

"The merger between Fox News and the White House can be summed up in one word: synergy," Mr. Snow said. "The two entities have been working in lockstep for five years now and this merger is a formal acknowledgment of that fact."

While many Beltway observers had long assumed that a merger between the White House and Fox News was inevitable, not until reporters saw workmen hanging a "Fair and Balanced" sign from the White House portico this morning did they know a deal had finally been struck.

According to those familiar with the deal, the final sticking point in the negotiations was ironed out late last night when President George W. Bush agreed to report to Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch.

Moments after the merger was announced, Mr. Snow introduced the latest member of the Bush Cabinet, Secretary of Defense Bill O'Reilly.

In his first official act as Defense Secretary, Mr. O'Reilly called CNN "a gathering threat" and added the cable news network to the Axis of Evil.

Mr. O'Reilly's comments drew sharp criticism from Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del), who told reporters, "I don't see how CNN can be considered a threat when their biggest weapon is Larry King."

Urban myth? Please?! from "Circle of Wisdom"

This article is timely seeing that Bush just lowered environmental standards for gas producers noting that it will increase gas supply and reduce pump prices!

WHAT GAS SHORTAGE??

I just think everyone should know... I am a tugboat sailor. The gas shortage is totally bogus. There are "fleets" all up and down the gulf coast that you don't know about. They consist of hundreds and thousands of tank barges that we tie up daily that are filled with millions of gallons of fuel. The big companies pump their fuel into the barges and as long as the fuel is in a barge it is considered offshore and not part of the reserve. So, there are millions of gallons of fuel tied up to spud barges all through the bays, intracoastal inlets, and canals all up and down the coast that the companies don't have to report. They fabricate the shortage by pumping their millions of gallons of fuel and hide them in these fleets creating the shortage so they can make their multi billion dollar gains while we can't afford the gas at the pump. I've never in my life asked anyone to forward anything, but this has me fuming. Accidental pun now intended. With many voices, we can put a stop to this.

James F. Ransdell

From Seattle PI blog:

Should the national anthem be sung only in English? Or is a Spanish-language translation acceptable?

My favorites:

Has anybody seen Osama, or are our priorities so out of whack that we're debating whether or not our national anthem should only be sung in English? This country is lost.

Let me get this straight. Here in this "land of the free," our president is now officially discouraging the singing of the national anthem in America's second-most common language? Just wait -- our U.S. Congress, having nothing better to do, will be passing a resolution soon that reiterates the president's cornpone bigotry.

And so I say to the Republicans: Fire away, y'all. Go ahead and lose the Hispanic vote for a generation or two. Is there any way I can help?

The song isn't really in English though is it? Try using "to spangle" in a sentence. How many people could describe what is going on when someone is watching a rampart, and hom many can explain how one could gallantly stream?
My guess is that the spanish song will mean a heck of a lot more to the everyday person than the crusty old piece of attrocious poetry we trot out at sporting events.

We did hear about the death of Julia Thorne, JK's first wife, and were saddened to hear. We send lots of love to the family, especially Vanessa and Alex, and to David Thorne, her brother. Here is the Globe article on her:

Julia Thorne, at 61; author, activist was ex-wife of Senator Kerry
By Mark Feeney, Globe Staff | April 28, 2006

Julia Thorne, an author, activist, and former wife of US Senator John F. Kerry, died yesterday in Concord. She was 61.

The cause of death was transitional-cell carcinoma, a form of cancer, according to her daughter Vanessa Kerry.

In a telephone interview, John Kerry called Ms. Thorne ''a great friend to a lot of people" and spoke with emotion of her accomplishments as a parent. ''She was the best mom two daughters could want," he said. ''She was completely committed to the kids and their future."

Her daughter echoed that view.

''She was a phenomenal mother," said Vanessa Kerry, of Cambridge. ''And she affected many others, too. So many people have come up to me over the years, even on the campaign trail, to say how much of a difference her books made for them. People basked in her embrace of life."

Ms. Thorne was the author of ''You Are Not Alone: Words of Experience and Hope for the Journey through Depression" (1993), with Larry Rothstein, and ''A Change of Heart: Words of Experience and Hope for the Journey through Divorce" (1996).

The former book reflected her own experience with depression, something she suffered from during much of the 1980s. She later founded The Depression Initiative, a nonprofit education foundation.

''Depression isn't always a bad thing," Ms. Thorne said in a 1993 Globe interview. ''Under certain circumstances it will teach you things."

Ms. Thorne had a longstanding interest in the arts, dating to a childhood ambition to become a dancer. She served as assistant director of the Institute of Contempory Art during the mid-'70s and was later a board member of the Twyla Tharp Dance Foundation.

Ms. Thorne never felt comfortable with the demands of being a political wife.

''What she disdained more than anything was politics," said Douglas Brinkley in a telephone interview yesterday. Brinkley, the author of ''Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War," added that Ms. Thorne ''didn't enjoy the breakfasts, the lunches, the shaking of hands: the upbeat rigamarole of politics. She loathed the back-stabbing of it. She went on her own journey, one based on spirituality and nature."

Ms. Thorne and Kerry divorced in 1988. She moved to Wyoming in 1993 and became active in environmental causes. After she and Richard J. Charlesworth married in 1997, they moved to Bozeman, Mont.

Julia Stimson Thorne was born Sept. 16, 1944, in New York. Her father, Landon K. Thorne Jr., was a banker. Her mother was Alice (Barry).

Among Ms. Thorne's forebears were Elias Boudinot IV, who was president of the Continental Congress, and two Cabinet members: William Bradford, attorney general under George Washington; and Henry L. Stimson, secretary of state under Herbert Hoover and secretary of war under Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Ms. Thorne spent much of her childhood in Italy, where her father had been appointed to a diplomatic post.

''I was what you might call a high society jet-setter," Ms. Thorne told the Globe in 2003. ''I had been brought up in this rarefied world. My mother was very Edwardian in her value system. She had an idea of what was a decorous life for a young lady, and that didn't include going to colleges. It was more about knowing the right people in the right palaces. It was a waste of a good mind."

Ms. Thorne attended the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Va. ''I hated it there, I just didn't fit in," she said in a 1990 Globe interview. After graduating, she took classes at the New York School of Interior Design and Radcliffe College.

In the summer of 1963, Ms. Thorne was at her family's estate in New York, on Long Island, when Kerry, a Yale classmate of her twin brother, David, arrived for a visit. She was wearing a bikini and singing a Peter, Paul, and Mary song, ''Five Hundred Miles." Clearly smitten, ''he just kind of stood there and looked," Ms. Thorne recalled in a Globe interview. They married in 1970.

Ms. Thorne and Kerry remained friendly after their divorce and she supported his presidential candidacy in 2004. ''I don't have a single reservation about this man," she said in 2003. ''He is an extraordinarily astute politician."

There could be little doubt, though, of her own sense of relief not to be involved in the campaign. ''After 14 years as a political wife, I associated politics only with anger, fear, and loneliness," she wrote in ''A Change of Heart."

''She saw the life of the rich and famous and rejected it," Brinkley said yesterday. ''She saw the life of a celebrity in the modern world and disdained it. She sought the life of a serious person in a thoughtful community."

In addition to her husband, daughter Vanessa, and brother David, of Brookline, Ms. Thorne leaves another daughter, Alexandra of New York; and brother, Landon K. III of Beaufort, S.C.

A memorial service is planned for the fall.

Posted by: DiAnne at April 28, 2006 09:30 AM

I get the weekly newsletters for NOW (so have already seen the info), and sometimes watch it. It's not nearly as interesting since Moyers left.

The one topic that I am sick to death of hearing or reading about is religion in politics. It just goes against the grain of everything I was taught about strict and absolute separation of church and state. It has NO bearing on reality.

I am alternately bored senseless with the topic and repulsed that the sheeple mentality comes into politics via religion, which then filters into the educational system that doesn't teach children how to ask questions and/or think independently 'cuz religion fosters unquestioning sheeple mentality and 'groupthink' where no one ever bothers to have an original thought of their own for fear they won't fit in with the crowd. It is an inherently juvenile mindset.

Furthermore, I don't give a hoot about what Jesus may or may not have thought. IF he existed (no independent supporting documents to prove he existed, and the Romans were good record-keepers, if nothing else, and they mention nothing about him in contemporary sources), he didn't write anything down himself, and the earliest manuscript for any disciple can only be dated to the second century AFTER he died. That's reality. I can deal with reality.

Any speculation about 'what would JC do?' is totally pointless - and I don't really care because if he existed he lived two thousand years ago - not today where we have a madman in *our* White House who has his finger poised to hit the little red button to start a nuclear war (metaphorically speaking).

What Jesus may or may not have thought or done about madmen who could start nuclear war is irrelevant: he didn't write anything about it himself two thousand years ago, and any speculation about what any disciples wrote about what he said or did two hundred years after the fact (none of which has anything to do with today's government in the US, illegal wars started by our appointed 'leader,' or nuclear realities) is also irrelevant. Speculation about religious values as applied to politics in today's world in this country is a waste of time when there are genuine realities involving illegal war and illegal torture and detention and famine and life and death situations to deal with.

As a whole (IMHO - not reflective of anyone else's opinions), religion in politics is irrelevant, a waste of time, and doesn't have anything to do with the very awful reality of a madman installed as pResident of this country who could bring a very real nuclear holocaust to this world.... A pox on all their various sects and cults for being a primary diversion away from political realities.

So, I believe I'll pass on this week's NOW. It's not worth my time to listen to it when I could hear basically the same things on any Lamestream Media network news segment any night of the week. I'm not up for that much boredom and irrelevancy just now, none of which deals with any practical way of ridding our government of The Cretin, the Vice Cretin and their Criminal Cabal and getting someone with some common sense in to run our government.

If the show were dealing with political realities, people talking about how to get rid of the cancerous warmongering wart (aka the 'leader' of this country) and his criminal cabal sitting in *our* White House so we could have peaceful and effective regime change in this country, or if the show had guests who could talk about how to motivate our senators and representatives to get off their collective fat arses to remove that cancerous wart who was installed as 'leader' of this country... or if it dealt with how to get rid of the religious rightwing nut jobs trying to inflict religion into politics... then I'd tune in....

Posted by: karen at April 28, 2006 09:40 AM

Hi everyone.

I'm at the library. Thank God there was one for me to go to while the roads are under construction and traffic is jammed up. Can't waste that gas you know!

Karen, I love that post. That's exactly how I feel about the power of the dcp and blogging. It is the underground railroad and we are fighting just as hard.

And here's a testament to the power of words...

I Have One Hero. I Fail Him Every Day.
by withthelidoff

A few weeks ago, Frontline did an hour on "Tank Man," the mysterious Chinese man who, in 1989, stood up to tanks in Tiananmen Square. I've spent the subsequent weeks deeply upset with myself.

Tiananmen Square, and Tank Man in particular, is my very first memory of current events. And it's never faded.

At the time, I was 7 years old. My world very happily didn't extend much beyond a four block radius of my house, and the closest I came to awareness was that I could recognize the opening chimes of the McNeil/ Lehrer News Hour. For whatever reason, I don't remember much of my childhood. I don't know if I just don't bother remembering things or if I'm blocking something or what, but my one vivid memory is sitting slack-jawed watching this man stare down a tank. I had army men, I knew about tanks. I knew that they ran over people. I couldn't remotely comprehend what was actually going on, and I'm pretty sure I remember dinner being ready, but I knew right then that something huge was happening. Something that had to, in some way, involve me. I didn't realize how long it would last, but a desperate gnawing in my gut started that night and hasn't ever gone away. Without knowing a single thing about what was happening in that man's world, I knew I needed to find my tank.

read the rest here...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/28/145541/307

Katrina Report Rips the White House Anew

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042806A.shtml
A Senate inquiry into the government's Hurricane Katrina failures ripped the Bush administration a new Thursday and urged the scrapping of the nation's disaster response agency. But with a new hurricane season just weeks away, senators conceded that few if any of their proposals could become reality in time.

ripped WH anew what?!

You have the power. (You really do!)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/28/194731/425