You Can't Outsource Diplomacy

Also posted at:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/11063

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/5/24/16274/9236

Who should these Members be listening to? Madeleine Albright?

No, Barbara Lee just said, "Let's have a national conversation about Iran."

So, people, have at it.

Nice report, Karen. Other than to say it must be a diplomatic solution, I think I speak for others when I say that as much as I keep up with foreign affairs, I do not feel qualified or knowledgeable enough to offer specific suggestions on how to approach this matter diplomatically.

I can say that the saber-rattling, name-calling, bully in the schoolyard approach is a failed approach and it is earning the US deep disrespect and ignominy that will take us years to overcome.

The kos diary which I mentioned on the last thread addresses precisely this area. Truthfully, other than being the renegade in the foreign arena right now that everyone has to keep an eye on, the leadership in the free world has moved from our shoulders. We no longer have the moral authority and respect based on rational competence. The conservatives and George Bush have totally destroyed it and destroyed the US's pre-eminent position even at the same time they were assuring the public that they were maintaining it.

Here's the link to the diary, "Bush has lost the world"...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/23/103646/740

Excellent report, Karen. I'm shocked that Iran is even on the table as yet another pawn in Bush's war games. Where does he propose to drum up the support and manpower for such an invasion? I pray to god the public outcry is loud enough to halt this insanity before it progresses any further.

Thank you for the report, Karen. Bush is scaring the bejesus out of all of us when he eyes Iran with that "lean and hungry look." We need diplomacy not more lunacy.

Ed Schultz predicts that Bush will announce major troop withdawls tomorrow in press conference with Blair. That is great news period, even if being done for political gain.

Excellent piece, especially, for me, the part of real power being influence.

"2. American power: In the old days we measured power by stash; the GNP, military and economic power. The Republican party does not know that true power is measured in influence. Credibility counts as well. Power is measured by competence also--Katrina response affects the perception of the US's competence around the world. They also see we cannot finish what we set out to do. We need to recalibrate our words and reframe.

3. It's not just us -- that is, issues of competence and legitimacy -- there's a void on the international stage right now -- the welfare of humans need to be taken seriously. The Khaddafi article in New Yorker - Khadaffi's son was asked about what they would do without an army if Egypt attacks them". His response: "Why should Libya have an army; the US will defend us." Meanwhile, there are no takers for protection forces in Darfur."

Keep up the good work!

I don't think the end of 2007 is exactly what Schultz was anticipating today when he made that prediction earlier today.

"Iraqi troops will be able to handle security in all 18 of the country's provinces by the end of 2007 with additional training and equipment, the country's new prime minister said Wednesday. It is the second time in a week that he has discussed a timeline passing security responsibilities to Iraqi troops -- a development that President Bush has said would enable U.S. troops to leave."

ABC Tonight just reported that Abramoff's bribery scandal is tied to Hastert.

Karen
Give Jim McDermott a big bear hug. Tell him Seattleites have his back.

Ira
If Abramoff's scandal is tied to Hastert, no wonder he doesn't want Congressional offices searched. Here I thought it was an honorable bipartisan wish to keep separate the three branches of government.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060524/pl_nm/congress_ethics_hastert_dc

House Speaker Hastert under investigation: ABC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, is under investigation by the FBI, which is probing corruption in Congress, ABC News reported on Wednesday.

Posted by Karen at May 24, 2006 03:13 PM

From everything I've read from reputable news sources on the internet (same sources everyone here is reading), Iran is AT LEAST ten years away from technology needed to build a bomb.

I've heard that only once or twice on Lamestream Snooze the few times I've heard them talk about Iran and 'noo-kew-lur' bomb technology. Lamestream Media doesn't emphasize that enough, IMHO... especially in view of the fact that when I've heard them mention it, it's always in connection with some same ol' same ol' warmongering rhetoric DumDum is spewing. Dang, but The Cretin really, really wants an 'noo-kew-lur' war, doesn't he?

One scenario (of many) I can think of if The Cretin is not muzzled with his school-boy-bulling rhetoric and prevented from attacking Iran for NO good reason whatsoever is 'the usual' reason: he would use yet another of his wars to cancel elections here, declare martial law, and set himself up as a dictator in fact, and not just the de facto dictator he already is.

WHY can't our legislators see that as clearly as we do? WHY are they still giving him everything he asks for...?!? WHY aren't our legislators screaming at the top of their voices demanding the impeachment of this criminal administration? Between the illegal pre-emptive attack of Iraq, the illegal detention and torture of prisoners because of The Cretin's wars (just the top two reasons), the US has less than zero credibility with any world powers anywhere on the globe, and it will be many years before any kind of trust can be restored, thanks to the current administration that was installed in 2000. Diplomacy will have to come from other nations; this nation has no diplomacy, thanks to the cowboy wannabe who currently resides in *our* White House (the "man" who was too cowardly to stay in his cushy flyboy outfit when he was allegedly serving in our military during Nam, so he went AWOL, but now, bygawd, he wants to send other people's kids off to fight his illegal wars and send our people out to torture other people's offspring...).

The Cretin has made the US a rogue nation under his de facto dictatorship.

WHY don't our legislators "get" that?

Our legislators are going to have to be awakened from their dream states, taken off their kool-aid diet, and face reality sooner or later, and I'd rather it were sooner....

NonnyO,

Not one of the legislators listed above is being fooled; nor are they drinking kool-aid. I wrote this piece because I think we seriously need to give credit where it is due. Today I witnessed a frank and open discussion of the concerns; the speakers were questioned by each and every Member present, and the substantive discussions went on after the hearing was over.

Everyone gets it. THere is no need to rant and rave about THESZE folks, and these folks are the ones who can teach their fellow legislators.

Actually, they ALL get it; some are just trying to be strategic for various reasons, and some are trying to be loyal to Bush, for whatever reasons they have.

But one thing is abundently clear: if the Members who were there today are going to accomplish getting support for any preventive measures, they need OUR help.

A bunch of folks getting it in a meeting room inside the Capitol does not make much of a difference. Millions of readers of blogs who subsequently talk to their neighbors and who engage in actions to let THEIR legislators know we will not stand for any action against Iran outside of diplomatic means--well, THAT might work!

So spread the word...

Karen check this out.. I actually used the word 'snark' successfully in an article.

No. It Was NOT 'Funny'

By Christy Cole

As a liberal who laughed all the way through Steven Colbert's performance, I would just like to end this stupid argument once and for all. No. It was NOT 'funny'.

Yes, I laughed, and laughed, and my jaw dropped with the brazenness and stamina of his much lauded act. Sometimes I would remember he was within feet of those he was attacking with comic snark, and my laughter would get quieter and nervous for him. I suddenly felt like a true American again as he hilariously threw all of it directly into the face of a horrific president. I laughed, I giggled, I gasped in sheer joy, then shock.

And then it ended and a silence ensued, only broken now and then by the MSM to declare, completely without context, that Steven Colbert, the man with the biggest balls on earth, was just 'not funny'.

To be honest, my first reaction to this being said was outrage, but something inside me stirred, choking the expression of it off in my throat. Steven Colbert 'not funny'? I wanted to point out the obvious, and then I realized, the obvious was not being pointed out by anyone.

Both sides are 100% correct. Steven Colbert, the comic genius that amazed us that fateful night, was in no way, shape, or form, 'Funny'. We had every right to laugh at his perfect prose and timing, yet, every time he made me snicker, it was hilarity without any amusement what so ever.

No, Steven Colbert was technically 'not funny'. But, he was as charming and entertaining as any single person could be while simultaneously eviscerating a war criminal to his face.

And did so, completely surrounded by the ones that cover up his crimes. He stood in all of their faces and force fed to them all of their hypocrisy, willful blindness, and propaganda. To them it is an absolute fact that he was just 'not funny'. With humor, he damned and implicated almost all of those within reach. To admit he was anything more/less than 'not funny', would be to admit he was dead serious, and they have yet to figure out how to deal with a quagmire of their own making, much less explain it.

To admit he was 'funny' would require the entire 4th Estate to begin their excuses because the joke has long quit being amusing. Over a quarter of a million people are dead, and now all the laughter has died as well. Only a comedian as perfect as he could have single handedly killed the blind euphoria of death. He wasn't trying to be funny.

The next time the president mocks the search of WMD while our sons die, laughter will no longer be an acceptable response. And the entire main stream media that did laugh with him knows their time has come, and no longer will they be able to laugh off the ones that know and understand their crimes against We the People. Their crimes against our own nation can no longer be laughed off instead of explained, because it is not, nor ever has it been fucking 'funny'. He was mocking them all for ever finding it so in the first place.

I laughed even as my guts were twisting in hollow rage. Even as we laughed there was never the slightest trace of pleasure in it.

George W. Bush killed droves of the innocent. Steven Colbert killed the strange laughter that followed. In my heart I will be forever grateful to him. I know that he did it for me, and for my children. He did it for the mother's desperately clawing the earth to retrieve their babies from the rubble. Funny or not he is one hell of a great man. Never has a greater or bolder patriot been born. He took my sorrow and drew it out, and showed me how easy it was to laugh at the fear. He taught me I could still laugh in the face of monsters by doing so himself. He told the Emperor that he was, in fact, naked, and that every one knew it.

The silence that followed, has been decidedly 'not funny'. But it was never meant to be. The silence was the whole point, after all. Every show, funny or not, must come to an end. Steven Colbert was not trying to keep the laughter going, he was trying to stop it. And he did so all by himself in a hilarious moment of gravity that we are still staggering under the weight of.

Yes, I found him amazing that night. But, I agree, it just was 'not funny'. Accusing people of serious crimes to their faces rarely is.

That has now been cross posted here

http://mwcnews.net/content/view/7101/26/

And at DailyKos

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/24/215435/379

NonnyO
Sharon's replacement who is visiting Bush will tell him that Iran is "months away" from building a bomb. & Richard Perle has found the "new Chalabi" - a dissident released from prison. Using veiled language, it comes across as if he is a persecuted Christian, thus feeding the fires for those favoring a Crusade & the realization of Armageddon.

On "Fresh Air" tonight (NPR), the head of the fundie college that supplies 7% of the 2004 Bush interns & many for the Heritage Foundation & other neocon institutes (they are fed in from homeschools) is going on about how they are going to reform the culture & take the land, in the form of Christian fundamentalim.

Christy
I think that is the best thing I have read so far that you have written.

Wow NMP.

That is quite a compliment. TY love.

And to think I try to stay away from 'funny' in my normal writing. Like 'love' it is mostly TOO subjective.

These make my blood boil.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003014817_gayrights24m.html

Effort to repeal state gay-rights law gathers momentum from pulpit

OLYMPIA — A referendum campaign aimed at repealing Washington's gay-rights law has no paid signature gatherers, no advertising budget and not much money in the bank. Yet supporters say signatures are rolling in by the thousands.

The reason? The Faith and Freedom Network and Sound the Alarm, two conservative religious groups that existed before the measure was filed, say they are leading an extensive grass-roots campaign, urging congregations throughout Washington to sign petitions and volunteer.
(snip).
Officials with both nonprofit groups say Tim Eyman, who filed the referendum and created a political-action committee to support it, has little to do with their campaign.
"I don't know what Eyman is doing. We're not cooperating with Tim at all on what we're doing," said Gary Randall, president of the Faith and Freedom Network.

Referendum 65
Would overturn a state law passed in January that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Supporters have until June 6 to collect the signatures of 112,440 registered voters to qualify for the November ballot. The legislation adds sexual orientation to a state law that bans discrimination based on race, gender, religion and other categories. Eyman's political-action committee, Let the Voters Decide, has raised less than $4,000 in contributions toward the referendum.
(snip)
Anne Levinson, campaign chairwoman of the opposition group, Washington Won't Discriminate, said Referendum 65 likely will make the ballot, given the efforts of the various religious organizations. Her group has raised more than $100,000 to battle the referendum. Supporters have until June 6 to turn in signatures of at least 112,440 registered voters to qualify for the November ballot.

The religious groups and churches that oppose the gay-rights law have an enormous capacity to gather petition signatures on their own. That was clear at the Northshore Baptist Church, where more than 2,600 people attended its regular services Sunday. The church held three services in a large auditorium with balcony seating. Hundreds of people packed the 9:30 a.m. service as Senior Pastor Jan Hettinga urged them to sign petitions to get Referendum 65 on the ballot.

The congregation also watched a video on a large screen. The presentation, prepared by Sound the Alarm, featured a Seattle attorney who outlined the group's arguments for supporting the referendum. "House Bill 2661 provides legal protection to school teachers who begin the year as women but desire to end it as men," the attorney warned at one point. "Your child may have a cross dresser as a teacher, and there's nothing you can do about."

A long table filled with Referendum 65 petitions in the church lobby was mobbed with people after the service.
(snip)

Levinson, with Washington Won't Discriminate, said the new state law does not infringe upon free speech. "It simply protects people from being fired or kicked out of their housing" because of their sexual orientation, she said.

Her organization has the support of many religious groups and other organizations, including the Washington Association of Churches, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, the Greater Seattle Business Association and the Washington Education Association.

The type of campaigning that occurred at the Northshore Baptist Church on Sunday is being replicated across the state. (snip)
Sound the Alarm has distributed its DVDs to more than 5,000 churches. "If 500 of those 5,000 churches responded and were able to get 200 signatures, that's the mark right there practically," said Jacinta Tegman, the group's executive director.

(snip)Tegman said her group was within its rights to produce and send out the DVDs. However, Doug Ellis, assistant director at the state Public Disclosure Commission, said Sound the Alarm does need to report the DVDs sent to churches as a contribution.
_________

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/5/24/220411.shtml

I can only find this one in the rightwing rag right now .. looks very similar to version I saw earlier

More States Want 'Deadly Force' Law

A campaign by gun rights advocates to make it easier to use deadly force in self-defense is rapidly winning support across the country, as state after state makes it legal for people who feel their lives are in danger to shoot down an attacker - whether in a car-jacking or just on the street.

The law has spurred debate about whether it protects against lawlessness or spurs more crime. Supporters say it's an unambiguous answer to random violence, while critics - including police chiefs and prosecutors - warn that criminals are more likely to benefit than innocent victims.

Ten states so far this year have passed a version of the law, after Florida was the first last year. It's already being considered in Arizona in the case of a deadly shooting on a hiking trail.

Supporters have dubbed the new measures "stand your ground" laws, while critics offered nicknames like the "shoot first," "shoot the Avon lady" or "right to commit murder" laws.

At its core, they broaden self-defense by removing the requirement in most states that a person who is attacked has a "duty to retreat" before turning to deadly force. Many of the laws specify that people can use deadly force if they believe they are in danger in any place they have a legal right to be - a parking lot, a street, a bar, a church. They also give immunity from criminal charges and civil liability.
(snip)
Besides Oklahoma, the nine other states to sign on are Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and South Dakota, according to the NRA.

(admittedly some of the last places I'd be inclined to go, unless to selected "oases")

The new Bushism: "suicider".

Check out the following, taken from Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post web site:

"President Bush's exclusive focus on suicide bombers -- 'suiciders,' in his parlance -- when asked about violence in Iraq yesterday once again suggests that he lacks a realistic sense of the current state of chaos in that country.

"'That's the -- but that's one of the main -- that's the main weapon of the enemy, the capacity to destroy innocent life with a suicider,' Bush said yesterday in a brief public appearance with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert."

Found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html)

Man, the guy cannot talk. He sounds so very, very, ignorant. I am so embarrassed that he is President. And that's just the way he talks. What is worse is the main point of the article--how Bush is so out of touch with reality in Iraq. Worst. President. Ever.

The mafia eat their own ..

Justice Department says Hastert not under investigation
BY ANDREW ZAJAC AND MIKE DORNING
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON - In an unusually swift and blunt response to a news report, the Justice Department on Wednesday issued a statement denying an ABC News story that House Speaker Dennis Hastert was under investigation in the far-reaching Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

"Speaker Hastert is not under investigation by the Justice Department," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse, less than an hour after ABC News, citing "high-level Justice Department sources," reported that Hastert "is under investigation by the FBI" in connection with the Abramoff scandal.

Roehrkasse acknowledged that the Justice Department generally neither confirms nor denies news reports asserting the existence of an investigation, but said that the department was moved to respond to the report because of "unique circumstances."

He declined to elaborate. But the ABC report came hours after Hastert, R-Ill., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a rare moment of bipartisan unity in a bitterly divided Congress, demanded that the FBI surrender documents it seized during an unprecedented weekend raid on the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.

Interviewed as he left the House floor following an evening vote, Hastert said there is "absolutely" no truth to the ABC report.

Asked if he thought that the timing of the leaked allegations of an investigation were tied to his complaints about the weekend raid, Hastert replied, "You draw your own conclusions."

A senior Hastert aide said the allegations suggested the leak was payback for the speaker's complaints about the FBI raid.

(read rest at http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/14659445.htm)

Cheney May Be Called in CIA Leak Case

Thursday May 25, 2006 3:01 AM

AP Photo CACL105

By TONI LOCY

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Cheney could be called to testify in the perjury case against his former chief of staff, a special prosecutor said in a court filing Wednesday.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggested Cheney would be a logical government witness because he could authenticate notes he jotted on a July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed article by a former U.S. ambassador critical of the Iraq war.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5843970,00.html

Christy, in a red part of NC recently, I saw a bumper sticker for Stewart/Colbert '08.

Why does it seem folks like that are the only ones who get it sometimes?

Oh yeah, it's because others, as Karen so delicately pointed out, are "trying to be strategic for various reasons".

Um, how did this country throw off the last oppressive regime? Seems to me it wasn't by being "strategic for various reasons". Or by listening to pollsters and analysts and focus groups. Or by pandering ("that is not flip-flopping, it's pandering, and America deserves a president that knows the difference!").

Oh yeah I forgot, SNL gets it too.

Posted by: beth at May 24, 2006 10:20 PM

He's not MY president.

As regards to the thread head. Outsourced military, intelligence, reconstruction, suppliers, and diplomacy. Remember when Kerry wanted the U.S. to have direct negotiations with N. Korea? Bush on the other hand thought it best if there were six nations involved in the negotiations. Bush was advocating for outsourcing our diplomatic efforts even during the campaign.

Posted by: Veritas at May 24, 2006 10:33 PM

So does David Letterman, but in a more obtuse way.

Posted by: NMP at May 24, 2006 10:27 PM

Wow, those bastards will eat their own.

Posted by: oncall at May 24, 2006 10:41 PM

So we need a new "Comedy Party"?

Would be better than our current comedy of errors.

Sure would keep everyone in short-attention-span America entertained.

OMG look at this...

Some winger on my Kos page actually wrote this:

Yes. WMD's were related to the war, but not a primary cause. So soldiers didn't die looking for them, they died for freedom and American's security. I'm referring to the soldiers overall, not individuals. Yes I'm sure some individual soldiers died while looking for WMD's. I'm sure some died from auto accidents, but that wasn't the reason they are in the country.

by usnjay on Wed May 24, 2006 at 08:24:28 PM PDT

The Congressional Progressive Caucus forum on Iran is now available online (1 hour, 39 minutes total run time). The video is available at this link:

http://www.politicstv.com/blog/?p=32

Christy
What a moron (the winger).

Well I've been enjoying being in the jacuzzi reading Vogue magazine because they had a feature on Marilyn Manson's wedding to Dita Von Teese. He wore Galliano, she wore Vivienne Westwood, she of the 18" waist. They got married in a castle in Scotland. I'm insulted that I wasn't invited. MM's father was a Fundamentalist minister (same as Alice Cooper's). Success is the best revenge. Ditto for Madonna, hanging on the cross & upsetting the fundies. More power to her!

Update: ABC News says Hastert 'bribe' story is solid

"Despite a flat denial from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement sources tonight said ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is "in the mix" in the FBI investigation of corruption in Congress," ABC News' Brian Ross reported late Wednesday. Excerpts:

#
Law enforcement sources told ABC News that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has provided information to the FBI about Hastert and a number of other members of Congress that have broadened the scope of the investigation. Sources would not divulge details of the Abramoff’s information.

"You guys wrote the story very carefully but they are not reading it very carefully," a senior official said. ""Whether they like it or not, members of Congress, including Hastert, are under investigation."

One focus involves a letter Hastert wrote in 2003 urging the Secretary of the Interior to block an Indian casino that would have competed with tribes represented by Abramoff...

ABC’s law enforcement sources said the Justice Department denial was meant only to deny that Hastert was a formal “target” or “subject” of the investigation.

more...
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/05/abc_news_update.html

Bush Calls For New Nuclear Plants
President Talks Of Environmental Benefits, Safety

By Peter Baker and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 25, 2006; A04

LIMERICK, Pa., May 24 -- President Bush promoted nuclear power Wednesday as part of his answer to energy and environmental problems as more companies consider taking advantage of government incentives to build the nation's first new nuclear plant in decades.

In the shadow of twin giant cooling towers, Bush said that his plan to expand nuclear power would curb emissions contributing to global warming and would provide an "abundant and plentiful" alternative to limited energy sources. Bush called the nuclear sector an "overregulated industry" and pledged to work to make it more feasible to build reactors.

"Nuclear power helps us protect the environment. And nuclear power is safe," he said to loud applause from workers at the Limerick Generating Station, about 40 miles from Philadelphia. He added: "For the sake of economic security and national security, the United States must aggressively move forward with construction of nuclear power plants. Other nations are."

more...
http://tinyurl.com/owtdk

Yeah, and if other nations jumped off a bridge, would we?

p.s. All them new nukular raktors sure will make purdy colors when the tarrahists blow em up.

Good morning. Back from the road trip to New Jersey. Number of Bush bumper stickers=one. Number of Kerry Edward's stickers (believe it or not) around 20.

So many police cars along the way that my guest asked me if there was a terror alert or something.

Capitol Police Visit Santorum's Penn Hills Home

PENN HILLS, Pa. -- On Wednesday, Capitol Police agents dispatched from Washington spent nearly 90 minutes doing a security check on Sen. Rick Santorum's Penn Hill's house.

"Why would he call Capitol Police when we have Penn Hills police right here? If he's a resident of Penn Hills, why didn't he call the Penn Hills police? And for his kids to be in danger? That's a big joke because his kids are never in this house," Santorum critic Erin Vecchio said.

This is the latest twist in Santorum's long-running clash with a local Democratic couple that Santorum accuses of trespassing and peeking into windows in a bid to prove he doesn't really live there.

"The fact is, that we never stepped foot on that property. I put a challenge out to Rick, saying that I would take a lie detector test if he would take a lie detector test if he ever lived in that house," Vecchio said.

Vecchio is the Penn Hills Democratic chairwoman whose husband was quoted in news reports as saying Santorum's home was emptied of furniture and had no curtains until days ago.

more...
http://tinyurl.com/labyb

Posted by: Christy at May 24, 2006 09:50 PM

Bravo, Christy.

I truly hope you send that to Steven Colbert. I'll bet he would love it too.

Actors who resemble Bush and Rumsfeld needed for comm. shoot
------------------------------------------------

Are you a real or closet actor who happens to resemble either George Bush or Donald Rumsfeld (aka our fearless leaders)? Now you can get paid for your troubles! We are shooting a mock commercial for a director's demo reel, and need your good looks! The shoot will take place almost entirely on a sound stage, with a couple of location shots for Rummy. Please reply with online portfolio or at least email a head shot. This is a one day only job.

Job location is Portland, Oregon

Monkey
We blew up our OWN nuclear plant in the NW (Trojan).
Now WA State is suing the feds to try to keep new waste out of Hanford til the old mess is cleaned up. It's in court right now.
They keep building these things on earthquake fault lines & there is a high cancer rate next to the one that's still standing.
Imagine the Katriina Administration handling nukes.

Dianne: I had the exact same thoughts you had when I first heard that Hastert opposed searching Jefferson's office. I presumed that either Hastert didn't want Pelsoi to force Jefferson out of office to counter the DNC calls against the culture of corruption,or that he too had something to hide. Bipartisanship-Hastert, what a joke. Is there a credible candidate running against Hastert?

Ira -

Hastert has a Dem opponent: John Laesch, who also is a poster at Daily Kos:

Laesch's website: http://www.john06.com/bio.php

Laesch's diaries: http://www.dailykos.com/user/uid:70711

Ira
Yeah I don't remember Hastert being a protector of separation of powers or the Constitution previously.

Hastert aide: Probe rumor is retaliation

WASHINGTON, May 25 (UPI) -- An aide to U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., claims news reports Hastert is being probed in a lobbying scandal is payback by the Justice Department.

Wednesday night, ABC News reported sources at the Justice Department said Hastert was among those involved in a probe of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In an unusual move, the department very quickly issued a denial.

Speaking to The Chicago Sun-Times, Hastert's deputy chief of staff Mike Stokke said he didn't blame ABC News for bad reporting but rather questioned the timing of the "leak." He referred to a stinging challenge Hastert and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., made on Sunday that the FBI surrender documents it seized during an unprecedented weekend raid on the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La.

"We've been in discussion with them since Sunday, with the Department of Justice, on this other matter of unconstitutional search and seizure." Stokke told the newspaper. "I don't recall any threats being made, but this is what is called in baseball a brushback pitch. ABC News got this from somewhere. I don't think they made this up."

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060525-063113-4856r

Posted by: Christy at May 24, 2006 11:38 PM

They died so that the neocons could enact this poem:

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

- Kipling

This Kipling poem was apparently written in response to the US occupation of the Phillipines after the Spanish-American War.

Methinks we're taking this "special relationship" stuff a bit too far...

FBI wants to meet with top House Members in NSA leak probe

RAW STORY
Published: Thursday May 25, 2006

The Federal Bureau of Investigation wants to interview leaders from both parties in the House of Representatives over leaks of information related the the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance activities today's edition of ROLL CALL reports.

Exceprts:

The FBI is seeking interviews with top House Members from both parties to determine whether they leaked details of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program to The New York Times, further fanning the flames of an already tense relationship between Capitol Hill and the Bush administration.

Those being targeted for interviews include GOP and Democratic leaders, as well as the chairmen and ranking member of the Intelligence committee. Altogether, 15 senior Members and Senators were briefed about the existence of the NSA program before the Times first disclosed it in a Dec. 16 article, according to briefing records released last week by John Negroponte, director of the Office of National Intelligence.

#
When asked about her knowledge of the FBI inquiry into lawmakers' contacts with the Times, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, would only say, "There is no credible claim that anyone in Congress leaked anything."

"So far as I know, there has been no request in writing," Harman added. "I urge the Justice Department to carefully consider separation-of-powers issues and the appearance of intimidation before proceeding any further."

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/FBI_wants_to_meet_with_top_0525.html

Interesting today - also reports Cheney may be star witness but WHEN? I had read that Libby's trial is in Jan. 2007 and if so, that would be AFTER the 2006 elections.

Here the zombie vote will turn out due to zombie church-driven petitions to overturn civil rights law r/t gays. & they'll all vote the same way. It gave me nightmares.

FOCUS | ABC Sticks by Hastert Probe Story
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052506Z.shtml

Despite a flat denial from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement sources said Wednesday night that ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is "in the mix" in the FBI investigation of corruption in Congress. "Whether they like it or not, members of Congress, including Hastert, are under investigation," one federal official said.

Iran and Rumsfeld
A Report by Scott Galindez
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm

On Thursday, May 18, over 40,000 petition signatures against war with Iran were delivered to the White House. Following the delivery of the petitions, Ray McGovern and Cindy Sheehan led a march to Donald Rumsfeld's house, where four people were arrested trying to deliver a message to the Secretary of Defense.

Now when are we going to hear more about Rove?
He's still telling Republicans in Congress how to vote on immigration.

Vincente Fox was in Seattle last night - I wish I'd remembered so as to take the bus down to the Westin to check it out!

Cyrano, Thank You.

To think I had almost forgotten about Kipling.

Here ya go, this ones for you dear.

The House with Nobody in It
Joyce Kilmer

Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I've passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.

I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.

This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.

If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I'd buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free.

Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known.

But a house that has done what a house should do,
a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet.

So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart.

The local news is covering the Enron jury coming back out in a few names with a verdict. Hopefully they will do the right thing and expose this stinch that has undeservedly dirtied our city and image. That will be a breath of fresh air.

Hopefully a Texas jury will reach the same verdict for Tom DeLay. This is truly sweet music to Houston and all the misery that these lowlifes did to thousands here.

Enron former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and founder Kenneth Lay were found guilty today of conspiracy and fraud in the granddaddy of all corporate fraud cases. On the sixth day of deliberations, a jury of eight women and four men convicted the former executives of misleading the public about the true financial health of Enron, the giant energy company that collapsed in late 2001.

Enron's Lay convicted on all 6 charges; Skilling on 19 of 28 charges

Kenny Boy needs to call his bud and ask for a pardon.

Is it just me, or my gloomy rainy morning mood? Is anyone getting the sensation that an awful lot of things are in 'circling the drain' mode? I am not superstitious, I don't see things as omens. But, I can't seem to shake this sense of dread, impending doom feeling.

You go off and read the blogs, the ones we all read and link to, and everything is just at it always is. Places that do snark are snarky. Places that do serious commentary are serious. Maybe it's just time marching on toward November. Does anyone get the sensation that more of what is posted is given over to the feeling that time is running out?

I'm not being specifice here because I don't have just one thing to be zeroed in on. No matter what it is that I read, and truly for the most part, there is nothing screaming 'LAST CHANCE' that I can put my finger on, but it's almost implied somehow.

So, I started to think. (DANGER!!! tut thinking!!) Look, we can all trace the source of our disgust to the SCOTUS decision of 2000, and explain it away. But, that didn't satisfy me. I'm the first one to agree that W. is a disaster, the worst of the worst. So, okay, it's him, but it's not just him and his band of thugs.

So, for me it's been like looking at a Republican Cosa Nostra gone haywire. We've talked about them as though they are all on the same side, doing the same bad deeds for the same common goal. But, that just doesn't fly anymore. At least not for me. Outwardly, they all support each other, but on the side, they all seem to be grabbing as much as they can, even to the point of poaching on each other's turf. It's called ORGANIZED CRIME for a reason.

So, is that it? The feeling that something far bigger, and much more dangerous has evolved? If 'A' was tied to 'B' was involved with 'C' who did business with 'D' etc. etc. then at some point you would be able to put all the proper players in their spot on the chart. It's not working out like that. Oh, go ahead and have a laugh at my expense, if you have to, but what I keep coming back to is that the ORGANIZED CRIMINALS are way more interested in their own personal gain than they are about the 'family.'

Of course it's easier and more efficient to keep lining their own pockets if they are in power, and of course absolute power corrupts. It's not that. It's the fact that every big or little corruption taken ALONE, might not have the power to do unimaginable significant damage. The disaster, if it comes, is from the overlap. The thing is, I think that there are quite a number of dirty players with their hands on the dirty money who thought they were the only game in town. The others scams they weren't aware of, and let's be serious, Duke Cunningham didn't call up Tom DeLay to tell him he was taking bribes, it didn't affect them. They were getting theirs.

And, if its' catching up with them, okay, I'm all for crooks getting caught. I'm all for bribers being hauled in and taken apart. I should be overjoyed that someone is singing about someone else to try to keep their sorry butt out of jail. Seize the money, lock them up, off with their heads. That should satisy me, logically, I'm supposed to be overjoyed. So, why do I keep thinking that the worst is still to come?

Bad people in big trouble are very dangerous. Big name lawyers who charge big fees and file big briefs to keep their big crooks free. They all have their muscle out there, leaning on whomever needs to be leaned on. The little guy gives up the guy on the next step up the ladder, and the investigators slowly do what they can to get to the top. It's reasonable to assume that just as much money, if not more is changing hands now as it was in whatever was the original scheme. Imagine what it must be like, right now, to know that it will eventually get to you, if it hasn't already.

I have my doubts that all of them are worried, in the sense that they think they have all their bases covered, and that whatever scheme they were invovled anyone would dare to inform on them. That absolute power thing has a tendency to make one think they are also untouchable. They look at someone like Tom DeLay and rationalize that he made himslef too big, or shot off his mouth too loud, or sailed much closer to the edge than they did. Or they covered their bases better. Or they weren't as dumb as a Duke Cunningham. Nothing like thinking of yourself as the smartest crook on the block, or worse yet, thinking you're not a crook at all.

But, still, dangerous, oh so very dangerous, because as the net starts to get other people, they must start to wonder, not so much how well they will be able to cover their own dirty deals, but how the other guys deals somehow could fracture their own. If they'd only known so and so was doing such and such, then they would have done this instead of that. From shiftless and crafty, they start to get angry.

Is it only money that changed hands, money for contracts, money for campaigns, money for the sake of money? Have they rationalized it to themselves that no one got hurt? Everyone made money off this deal, it's all good. I know what I'm thinking, and it's such a cliche, but where are the bodies? Not simply the defense contracts that have led to military deaths, although those are despicable. And, no I don't think for one minute that every Republican has a hit man on staff going out and offing the snitchers in real life. Politics is much too genteel for that.

We've been astonished to see that their is no level too low to stoop. That it's really possible to be sickened and shocked every day at a new revelation. Assuming it reaches far and wide and touches as many as it does, in politcs, in business, in contracts, in lobbying, we're shouting with glee about who is 'going down.'

It's the victims I can't get out of my head. The names we can all recite are not the victims. We keep track of who is being invetigated, and who paid off, and who got paid, but it's still presented as a kind of white collar crime, and that's wrong. These are not victimless crimes. We've been harmed, each of us, and probably some people are not in the least bit aware of it. All that money came from somewhere, and it bought votes in Congress that damaged people in ways they have yet to even feel. Or fathom.

Maybe that's it. We're so used to being screwed over by the 'rich and powerful' that it's no shock at all and it's no use being upset about it because thats just the way of the world. Maybe I'm feeling the doom and gloom because we are going to feel the effects from this madness for a very long time. In our wallets, sure, but in ways that will hurt much more as time goes on.

It's going to get worse before it gets better. For some people, the dream of getting better is probably long gone. A toppled political leader is not a joyous thing, it's shameful. It shows the entire world that graft and self interest is alive and well, and that buying a politician is pretty darn easy. There is dirty money out there with blood on it, and we haven't seen all of it. I know, I know, blame the ones who voted for them, who put them in power, blame the media. I know full well who to blame, and who lied, and that the truth has to come out. That covers the legal side of things, provided there aren't pardons being bought and paid for on a daily basis. I just can't get over the creeping feeling that there is a very big 'BOOM' we still haven't heard, and perhaps aren't in any shape to prepare for.