The Threshold of Ignorance

Casey
Good stuff - thanks

That is an interesting site - I will be buying local honey.

This one is not a blog but rather a repository for some articles of Robert Fisk, middle east contributor for the UK Independent. He has a very interesting bio - was shot in Afghanistan and has lived in Lebanon for decades. Once in awhile he's printed in Seattle Post-Intelligencer. http://www.robert-fisk.com/

Many will know this one, but spread it around. http://www.juancole.com/

This seems like a pretty good nutshell summary of what's going on - being sent around by someone who is summarizing Thom Hartmann:

One of the tasks assigned to the US Congress is oversight of the presidency. This is one of our famous checks and balances which is so important to the stability of our country and its system of government.

Over the past four years of the Iraq war the congress has provided NO oversight of the presidential wing of government. There have been no hearings or investigations. (Even though, for instance, $8 billion has disappeared in Iraq, paid to Halliburton.) None.

This means there have been no checks on presidential power and, therefore, the balance has been thrown off. The reason why is because Republicans hold both houses of Congress, they have the power to decide who may hold oversight hearings and who may not. In the past six years they have allowed the Democrats to conduct NO oversight hearings at all.

NONE.

So, what is the point? This congress is currently attempting to change the law to say that the many illegal things that President Bush has done (e.g. eavesdropping without a judicial warrant) are, in fact, legal. (http://www.patriotdaily.com/bm/blog/specters-fisa-amnesty-for.shtml)

They are right now trying to change the FISA law because they are fearful that the Democrats are going to retake either the Senate or the House (more likely the House), launch investigations which should have taken place and haven’t, and possibly hold the presidential wing responsible and accountable for what they have done.

If this is something that strikes you as wrong, please take the opportunity to call your congresspersons and express your concern about their possible attempt to change the law. Democracy works because our citizens get involved. It crumbles when we don’t. Call & discuss with your Representatives House bill number 2453.

Senate Bill on Torture and Detention Faces GOP Filibuster
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006Z.shtml
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist signaled yesterday that he and other White House allies will filibuster a bill dealing with the interrogation and prosecution of detainees if they cannot persuade a rival group of Republicans to rewrite key provisions opposed by President Bush. With Congress scheduled to adjourn in nine days, delaying tactics such as a filibuster could kill the drive to enact detainee legislation before the November 7 elections, a White House priority.

{{{NOT good enough, IMHO....!!! Kill the whole bill, take the paper it's written on and put it through the paper shredder, and do not EVER bring the thing to the floor of the Senate or the House again!!! Torture is torture is torture by any name concocted in BushSpeak, and it is illegal and a war crime. Period. No "civilized" person of any nation on this planet approves of, condones, orders, or participates in torture. I still can't believe this piece of garbage has actually even been discussed as serious legislation in THIS country, the country that pretends to be the moral compass that judges third world rogue nations as uncivilized for torturing people. Thanks to BushCo LIES and illegal war and war crimes, we have already lost our credibility with every other nation in the world; do we need to be declared a rogue nation before our Congress will STOP THIS INSANITY?!?!?}}}

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/20/doing_the_moral_limbo.php
by Paul Waldman, TomPaine.com
Bush and conservatives get in touch with their inner barbarian.

William Rivers Pitt | Swiftboating the Swiftboaters
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006J.shtml
William Rivers Pitt writes: "He [Kerry] did not adequately respond to a series of devastating TV ads by Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, a group that questioned Kerry's service in Vietnam and criticized his later opposition to the war. 'They had money behind the lies, and we did not have sufficient money behind the truth,' Kerry laments."

John Allen, a correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and CNN, offered his take on the Pope's motives in this NY Times Op-Ed piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/19/opinion/19allen.html

Here was my only partly tongue-in-cheek response:

Dear Mr. Allen,

I believe that your Times Op-Ed piece misses the mark.

If the Pope were sincerely interested in opening a dialog, and defending the rights of Christians to worship in the Islamic world, he needed to do nothing more than allude to Mohammad's description of Christians and Jews as "people of the book", who were always to have a place in Muslim society. By using The Koran to shine light upon the repugnant policies of the religious police of Saudi Arabia, the Pope might have both sounded an ecumenical chord and brought shame on the clerics who are clearly defying the teachings of their Prophet.

He didn't do that. He instead chose to highlight an ancient exchange that I, as a product of a Jesuit University and a student of comparative religion, found to be both amazingly insensitive and factually untrue. Although I am not a Muslim (and nor will I ever be one), I am happy to argue that there are elements of Islam that appear to me to be an improvement over what I often describe as the "polytheism-lite" perspective of Catholicism - with its Saints to pray to for almost every household and business need.

I also note that this same Pope was behind the publication of the Catechism that condemned yoga, as potentially leading to "a cult of the body". Now I don't know of many people anywhere who live cushier lives than priests at the Vatican. Now that's what I'd describe as a real world "cult of the body".

No, I believe that the former Cardinal Ratzinger simply allowed his authentic, if unconscious, attitude towards Islam to rise to the surface through his use of that exchange in his lecture. As a human being, he's entitled to have these kinds of reactions to people and ideas. We all have them, after all. But as the supreme leader of the Catholic Church, I would hope that he would have enough insight into the human psyche to know when his psychological slip was showing, so to speak - especially in this time of faith-based madness. Maybe he should spend less time reading 14th century emperors and more time reading Jung.

I would also point out what I take to be a curious bit of irrationality in the Pope's larger argument. He describes the God that Muslims worship as being completely transcendent, whereas the God that Christians worship can be known through the application of reason. He seems to imply that a rational approach to spiritual understanding is far superior to a transcendent one.

Yet, what rational basis can Catholics have for accepting the premise that the Pope is infallible in matters of faith and morals? Truly, no reasonable or rational interpretation of history would support a claim of infallibility of any kind, in any area, for the men who have held this position in the past. Yet ever since the year 1870, Popes have insisted that Catholics accept this notion of papal infallibility as if it were transcendent truth! As Oscar Hammerstein penned, "'Tis a puzzlement."

Sincerely yours,

You've got to see/read this. You just have to. Trust me.

Frist Blames Democratic Minority for Do-Nothing Congress, Gets Spanked

http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2006/09/frist-blames-democratic-minority-for-do.html

You can watch the video of Reid & Durbin (my senator & I'm so damn proud of him!) here.

http://alternet.org/blogs/video/

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tore into his U.S. counterpart and his U.N. hosts Wednesday, likening President Bush to the devil and declaring to the annual meeting of the General Assembly that its system is "worthless."

"The devil came here yesterday," Chavez said, referring to Bush, who addressed the world body Tuesday from the same lectern. "And it smells of sulfur still today."

Chavez accused Bush of having spoken "as if he owned the world," and said a psychiatrist could be called to analyze the statement. (Watch Hugo Chavez cross himself as he tells world leaders he can smell the devil -- 1:06)

"As the spokesman of imperialism, he came to share his nostrums to try to preserve the current pattern of domination, exploitation and pillage of the peoples of the world. An Alfred Hitchcock movie could use it as a scenario. I would even propose a title: 'The Devil's Recipe.' "

Chavez held up a book by Noam Chomsky on imperialism and said it encapsulated his arguments: "The American empire is doing all it can to consolidate its hegemonistic system of domination, and we cannot allow him to do that. We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated."

John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, later told CNN that "I think that [Chavez's] rhetoric today shows exactly what kind of man he is."

Bolton said: "We're not going to address that sort of comic-strip approach to international affairs.

"The real issue here is he knows he can exercise freedom of speech on that podium and, as I say, he could exercise it in Central Park, too. He's not giving the same freedom to the people of Venezuela."

Chavez's tirades against Bush have become common. In May, he accused Bush of committing genocide and said the U.S. president should be imprisoned by an international criminal court. (Full story)

Oil supplies loom large in any discussion of U.S.-Venezuela relations. Venezuela was the world's ninth-largest oil producer in 2004 and the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, accounting for 11.2 percent of U.S. imports in 2005, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Double-standard accusation
Chavez also directed his criticism Wednesday to the United Nations, calling the General Assembly "merely a deliberative organ" that meets once a year.

"We have no power, no power to make any impact on the terrible situation in the world," he said.

Chavez called the veto power shared by the five permanent members of the Security Council "anti-democratic," and cited the U.S. veto of a resolution that would have demanded the Israelis halt their bombing of Lebanon this summer.

That move "allowed the Israelis with impunity to destroy Lebanon in front of us all as we stood there watching," Chavez said. He recommended that the world body's headquarters be moved to another country and offered his own as a possible new home.

Chavez also alleged that the United States is planning, financing and setting in motion a coup to overthrow him. The U.S. has denied such accusations in the past.

He accused the U.S. government of having a double standard, protecting terrorists when it suits its leaders.

He noted that he recently returned from a summit of more than 50 heads of state from nonaligned nations in Havana, Cuba, and urged his audience to support their efforts for "a world of peace."

Lest his remarks had not been clear, he closed to applause by saying, "It smells of sulfur here, but God is with us and I embrace you all."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/20/chavez.un/index.html

That's a really interesting site, Casey. Thanks for pointing it out.

So what am I -- chopped liver?

Glad you all enjoyed the website and the comment.

Madame Defarge
Thanks for posting the Reid-Durbin - just came here to see if anyone had

dwahzon
Wasn't sure if you were same as DW - thought probably so - thanks for alerting Casey to that site. Seems I'd seen it before but hadn't bookmarked it or anything.

Many of you probably see TruthOut but this one really stood out for me. Wondered if Wolfowitz would end up sort of being to the World Bank as Bolton is the UN and looks like he's headed that way.

Wolfowitz Shut Down by World Bank Officials
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092006I.shtml
In an effective rebuke to Mr. Wolfowitz, amid accusations from inside and outside the bank that he has pursued his anti-corruption strategy in a high-handed fashion, ministers from around the globe, who are the ultimate governors of the world’s leading development body, moved to assert control.

I don't know- it's hard to think of him without seeing the scene in Fahrenheit 9/11 where his hair just won't lay down & he spits on his comb.

It is amazing how world leaders are amping up their rhetoric and using their bully pulpits - it can be in the Senate or House between parties, or in British Parliament. Or it can be The Pope insulting Muslims or Chavez calling Prez of the US a Devil or back in the day Reagan would call the Soviets the Evil Empire.

What happened to eloquent speeches?

What happened to eloquent speeches?

Posted by: DiAnne at September 20, 2006 05:21 PM

The leader of the so called free world can't string a coherent sentence together without wearing a wire or reading a speech and chews with his mouth open.

1000 Pints of Lite

DWAHZON:

Thanks for the site! I enjoyed reading it and hope to see more references to his work here on this blog! (Actually finding new and exciting blogs these days aside from the traditional ones I go to)

And you are the cream and the sugar in my coffee, dear, not the chopped liver.

Fe...you put chopped liver in your coffee??? California *is* wacky...

Speaking of being surprised:

I was listening to NPR's Fresh Air on Monday afternoon, and have been stewing on what I heard ever since. The piece was about 'Christian Zionism', and the interviews I heard were with Max Blumenthal (the Nation, and Media Matters), and also Pastor John Hagee, who was argued to be perhaps the most influential evangelical pastor in the country.

He scared the CRAP out of me. I'll let you listen and decide for yourselves, but what I took from it was not that these folks are awaiting the Rapture, but that they are actually influencing international situations to make it come sooner.

Here's the link: I'd love to hear your thoughts.

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&agg=0&prgDate=09-18-2006&view=storyview

MADAME D:

I knew my omission in the metaphor used would further the reputation of my state being wacko.

I hereby stand by my state's reputation, but I also prefer my chopped liver on toast.

OMG, Dwahzon and Casey,

The facts in that site are astounding. Thanks for sharing.

California *is* wacky...

Posted by: madame defarge at September 20, 2006 06:03 PM

Yet we still vote Republican. At least in the southern half and in the inland valleys.

So if you think our wackiness and our vanity license plates make us more progressive, you'd be wrong. :(

dw and Casey,

Thanks for sharing the Fourth Rail blog. Very serious stuff and good reporting, and looks pretty darn fair to me too.

The MSM should indeed be ashamed for overlooking what doesn't suit them. I thought we supposedly had corporate media *precisely* in order to avoid having government propaganda media - and I am dead wrong.

Posted by: monkey at September 20, 2006 04:37 PM

The people of Venezuela are NOT free? That's new to me.

Maybe they don't look free to Bolton because they live under a socialist ruler. But unlike in, say, Cuba, the people of Venezuela have chosen Chavez on their own.

Chavez indeed does look more like a maniac to me now, but I hold W's cowboy politics accountable for creating this monster. 50+ nations holding a conference in Havana last week just to bash the US - good work, W!

Prospects for anti-terror bills improve
Proposal allows warrantless wiretapping, but requires more disclosure

(AP)WASHINGTON - President Bush's embattled anti-terrorism plans got a boost Wednesday when a wiretap bill was revised and a Senate Republican leader said he was hopeful a deal was near on treatment of detainees.

Prospects for the two critical pieces of legislation remained unclear; Congress is speeding toward a recess next week as Republicans fight to retain majority control in the midterm elections.

Nevertheless, a bill by Rep. Heather Wilson gained steam Wednesday after she rewrote it to allow warrantless wiretapping when an attack is imminent, as Bush has demanded. Even so, she told reporters differences between the House and Senate versions were unlikely to be worked out before Congress reconvenes in a lame-duck session after the Nov. 7 elections.

more ons...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14919362/

Posted by: monkey at September 20, 2006 04:37 PM

Bravo, Hugo Chavez, for saying what the majority of Americans feel about the "leader" of the USA, even though no REpublican-controlled television network in the US will air what ordinary US residents feel, only the official propaganda as put out by the Bu$h administration, with appropriate superlative adjectives to describe the story...!

I deliberately did a few seconds of channel surfing when national news came on, and ABC and CBS were both going to cover the story, and then I turned to BBC... I'm going to watch the re-run of BBC news tonight just so I can see that little glimmer of an impish smile on the pretty blonde BBC anchor when the Chavez story was aired. She didn't need any superlative adjectives... ;-)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060920/ap_on_go_pr_wh/abramoff_white_house
Papers show Bush allies' inside access
WASHINGTON - Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House, according to documents released Wednesday that provide the first official accounting of the access and influence the two presidential allies have enjoyed.
The White House released the Secret Service visit records to settle a lawsuit by the Democratic Party and an ethics watchdog group seeking visitors logs for the two GOP strategists and others who emerged as figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Earlier this month, the White House suggested to the judge in that lawsuit that such records need not be disclosed because the information was privileged and might reveal how Bush and his staff get private advice, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.

White House officials said Norquist, who runs the nonprofit Americans for Tax Reform, was cleared for 97 visits to the White House complex between 2001 and 2006, including a half-dozen with the president.

Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition and an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia earlier this year, got 18 meetings, including two events with Bush.

Officials said they believe all meetings with Bush involved larger group settings, such as Christmas parties or policy briefings for GOP supporters.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, however, it was possible some of Norquist's meetings might have been directly with Karl Rove, the president's longtime confidant and political strategist.

"He is one of a number of individuals who worked to advance fiscal responsibility, which is one of the key aspects of the president's agenda," Perino said.

Both Reed and Norquist became involved with Abramoff, the once high-power GOP lobbyist who has pleaded guilty to fraud and is now cooperating with prosecutors in an influence peddling investigation that has rocked Capitol Hill.

Norquist's group advocates lower taxes and less government and he built it into a major force in the Republican Party. Along the way he became friends with Abramoff and Rove.

E-mails obtained this summer by AP show Norquist facilitated several administration contacts for Abramoff's clients while the lobbyist simultaneously solicited those clients for large donations to Norquist's group. Americans for Tax Reform acknowledged Norquist helped Abramoff but said he did nothing improper.

Reed rose to prominence as an organizer of evangelical Christian groups, including the Christian Coalition, inside the Republican Party before moving into business ventures where he did work for Indian tribes at Abramoff's request.

Documents unearthed by congressional investigators showed Abramoff and business partner Michael Scanlon routed about $4 million from Indian tribes to Reed-controlled entities for grassroots work aimed at blocking rival casinos. The revelations came as Reed ran an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor in Georgia.

The release of the visitor records settles lawsuits by the Democratic Party and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

{Click on link for more....}

To be truthful, Nonny, Hugo sounded like he went a little over the edge today. It's one thing to use language like that when you're in a bar or typing on a computer in your home but another thing altogether when you're addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations.

And as one person interviewed on NPR put it, he probably just shot himself in the foot. Venezuela is up for consideration for a 3 year term on the Security Council. The competitor is (I think) Guatemala and Venezuela was considered to be pretty close to a lock on it. This person stated that this speech should have been one that reassured the voting members of the assembly that Venezuela would provide balanced insight in addressing Security Council matters. This speech pretty much did the opposite.

Posted by: dwahzon at September 20, 2006 08:11 PM

Tactful, perhaps not, but was it accurate?

U.N.: Iraq death toll surged over last 2 months
Report cites hundreds more deaths, many as a result of torture

Updated: 1 hour, 47 minutes ago
Reuters

BAGHDAD - Hundreds more Iraqis died in violence in July and August than in the previous two months, many of them tortured to death because of their religion with cables, acid and power drills, a U.N. report said on Wednesday.

The July total of 3,590 deaths was unprecedented, it said, while the August figure of 3,009, though lower, was also among the worst yet.

In its previous report two months ago, it gave a combined figure of 5,818 for the two months of May and June. The latest two-month figure shows an increase of more than 13 percent over that number, which it described as a sharp surge at the time.

“Hundreds of bodies have continued to appear throughout the country bearing signs of severe torture and execution-style killing,” it said in a statement announcing its latest report.

“Terrorist attacks, the growth of militias, the emergence of organized crime reflects a lack of centralized and authorized control over the use of force in the country, which results in indiscriminate killings of civilians,” it said.

Sunnis and Shiites were kidnapped by rival militia and tortured for information about their sect, it said.

“Detainees’ bodies show signs of beating using electrical cables, wounds in different parts of their bodies, including in the head and genitals, broken bones of legs and hands, electric and cigarette burns,” it said.

“Bodies found at the Medico-legal Institute often bear signs of severe torture including acid-induced injuries and burns caused by chemical substances, missing skin, broken bones, missing eyes, missing teeth and wounds caused by power drills or nails.”

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14927839/

Bush would send troops inside Pakistan to catch bin Laden
POSTED: 8:09 p.m. EDT, September 20, 2006

NEW YORK (CNN) -- President Bush said Wednesday he would order U.S. forces to go after Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan if he received good intelligence on the fugitive al Qaeda leader's location.

"Absolutely," Bush told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview scheduled for air Wednesday afternoon.

Although Pakistan has said it won't allow U.S. troops to operate within its territory, "we would take the action necessary to bring him to justice."

But Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, told reporters Wednesday at the United Nations that his government would oppose any U.S. action in its territory.

"We wouldn't like to allow that at all. We will do it ourselves," he said.

MORON...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/20/bush.intv/index.html

WHAT A FRIGGIN IDIOT!

Posted by: Fe at September 20, 2006 06:17 PM
Posted by: Ally McRepuke at September 20, 2006 06:31 PM

I didn't mean to imply that wackiness is bad. Honestly. We're all a bit wacky. But it's more fun to pick on CA because it takes people's eyes off our own states...

(BTW, I was a CA resident for several years in one of my many lifetimes...)

dwahzon, my dear, you need not fear.

Everyone loves you here.

In fact, there must be fifty ways to love your liver...

::ducking and running::
Otter

MADAME D:

I defend my state's right to be wacky and I will vigorously defend your right to enjoy calling my state wacky.

Its the American way.

Ally is right. The diversity of political opinion can vary from county to county, city to city in some regions. The cities can be ultraviolet blue especially in the north. But San Diego is pretty red.

The Valley (east of Oakland is conservative--trending that way for years, and will probably be so for awhile). These are the folks for voted for Schwarzenegger the first time.

Then there's SF/Berkeley/Marin, where Democrats compete with the Green Party of dominance.

Casey:

Was it in a play that I heard the line, "World War III will begin in Pakistan?"

Ah, you North Bay snobs, you're all alike.

Posted by: dwahzon at September 20, 2006 08:11 PM

I heard the statement on the radio. I believe that he was actually harmful to himself and to us. Instead of being a chearleader for some anti-Bush rallying cry, he could have made a real business-like, diplomatic, and highly regarded comment that would have cut like a knife.

Instead, he made himself look like a joke and he made Bush look bad, but it will not be as useful had he taken a dignitary's approach to reprimanding the President of the USA.

I suspect that Mr. Chavez didn't merely go hot-headedly ballistic in his remarks to the U.N. today. Which is not to say that he didn't do just that; if anything, it was totally in keeping with his already histrionic public persona for him to do so.

But I think that there's also a certain part of Mr. Chavez that's been playing 'crazy like a (non-Vincente) Fox' with the rest of the world at the same time. Think about it: today he had unparalleled access to every single news outlet on the entire planet. Boy howdy -- talk about a bully pulpit to preach to the choir from!

Perhaps Mr. Chavez has already figured out that Venezuela is not going to be allowed to join the Security Counsel anytime soon. Perhaps he didn't care whether his remarks offended us, or the UN, or anybody else that he sees as being part of the Establishment. Perhaps he decided to seize the moment and make a globally-broadcast pep talk to the more volatile elements of society in South America and elsewhere instead. It'd be logical to believe that is the case here.

The foaming-at-the-mouth rant that Mr. Chavez delivered on the floor of the UN today wasn't aimed at us. But it was tailor-made for public consumption in the third-world countries that he is attempting to galvanize into a enough of a unified force that they can successfully defy the wishes of the most powerful (if no longer the most ethical) nation in the world.

What Mr. Chavez said today wasn't reasoned discourse, it was rhetorical grandstanding. And it wasn't just hot air, it was an attempt to make the winds of change blow a little harder and a little faster.

In other words, the president of Venezuela was just doing the same thing today that the president of the United States does over and over in his own carefully-scripted public appearances in the red states: he was just energizing his base.

And if we continue to ignore the growing power of that unruly base, we do so at our own peril. Shrubya and his fear-mondering tale-spinners have become so obsessed with trying to manipulate events halfway around the world that they've paid little if any attention to what's been happening in our own hemisphere. And if the short but troubled history of the western world has taught us any lessons at all, it's that those events are going to keep on happening whether the Shrubyites pay attention to it or not.

And they're not. They're not paying attention. But we are. So it's up to us to do something about it. It's up to us to bring about some genuine regime change right here at home. I just hope that we can pull that off before it's too late for America to avoid the gathering storms.

watch out for hurricane hugo,
Otter

good point Otter!

I believe you're right about that too.

Did anyone else, upon hearing that Thailand's military had taken over power in a coup, wonder when our military might do the same?

Or wish they would, anyway????

I'm only really sort of kidding. I'm not liking the look of things lately.

Posted by: Carol at September 20, 2006 10:14 PM

Wow! I'm surprised to hear you say that! Basically, 'cause I thought you were the 'sweet and moderate' one here. I guess that would mean we're all chopped liver.

Seriously...I never considered it. But I think the military understands more than the current administration thinks they do.

Carol
Thanks - (the NPR story) - I'll check that out (the religous zealot thing. I'm a Fresh Air fan. I usually catch it in my car on my commute but I'm on vacation so not in my car. I posted the Guardian story about Rupert Murdoch's new production company for Hollywood Christian movies - it's at the end of the last thread. It's called "Foxfaith." Alot of this really creeps me out too, especially listening to or meeting people who are in the full forces of fanatical evangelism, ie on a quest.

Suz, I think that you and Carol are both right -- you about her, and her about them. Which just makes her observation that much more creepy. Especially since that was the second thing I thought of as soon as I heard about the Thai coup, too.

coup d'etat means never having to say you're sorry,
Otter

Very entertaining set of posts - LMAO
Chopped liver plus Chavez plus Thai coup - very comedic

Feeling like the rest of America and the Republicans just are wiling to continue the farce? I'm telling you that I've learned a lot just by talking to people.

From the gas station, I'm told by their employees that most people come in and pay for the cheaper gas very cynically. Election time's here. They know it. But what's next? They know the answer to that too.

It's been painful for two years. I believe they're going to say, "Enough! Stop the pain!"

Also, I'm cheered by the fact that I made a little call myself after hearing a smear ad against Granholm. So I called the Republican Party here and told them that it was not making the case FOR De'vos by lying and smearing the other candidate. I also told them that I know that the Republicans have held the state legislature and the national legislature, so blaming Granholm for their inaction is really more harmful to themselves.

They're reply..."Well...she started the negative ads!" Whatever! I haven't HEARD any of her ads.

Besides, as I explained to them that I was a FORMER Republican and was very disappointed in the extreme neoconservatism in the party, I was told that they'd had TONS of calls (and have made tons of calls) and have heard the same thing.

The hard right has definitely antagonised their moderate supporters and the independents. And they're own calls and canvassing is proving that to be true.

This is appalling! The Republicans have snuck through the Torture Bill out of committee while they knew that one of the Democrats had a previously scheduled press conference!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/20/19237/9278

Sparrow
Good work!

Here is a letter from a former Republican - my uncle.
It will be in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Dear Editor,

I noticed that an important news story on the front page of this paper on Sept 17 about feeding homeless and needy people with leftover food from school cafeterias was almost crowded off the page by a fluff piece about a 1.5 billion housing project in Lakeville. Prospective buyers were enticed to these $900,000 homes by soaking tubs and "wow" rooms with two- story fireplaces. If you must print stories like this, please put them in Saturday's Home page or in the housing ads along with any stories about the "lifestyle" malls with fake store fronts that will be built for these folks.

Please spare us the whining of the developer who is afraid that he will be left with this expensive unsold real estate....Our real sympathy should be with the folks in the homeless shelters and our young people who are giving the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and whose stories are relegated to the back pages.

Jerry H Hall

Posted by: sparrow at September 20, 2006 11:03 PM

So, in other words: *NeenerNeenerNeenerNeener*

they made their own beds but they keep on lying in them,
Otter

Oh great - another "ardent conservative" in the polarized world - Japan's new head of state.

Well, in all fairness to the new head on the block, he does from a country whose culture is quite rigid and *very* conservative by default... so it's not his fault. He can't help it. He was raised that way. Blame the parents, not the child. Blame the culture, not the kid. Blame the -- oh, what the hell, just go ahead and blame the Bush administration for this guy's ascension, too. I mean, they're bound to be secretly and unconstitutionally complicit in it *somehow*...

blame the message not the messengers,
Otter

Posted by: Matthew Carnicelli at September 20, 2006 04:33 PM

Very good reply, Matt.

"psychological slip was showing, so to speak."

Pope Ratzinger's remarks caused me to wonder if they were political.

Sparrow,

I hope you're right. I am deeply concerned that we may not get the change we so desperately need, and feeling helpless to be a catalyst for change during this time because of my circumstances. In fact I guess you could say I am feeling quite afraid.

Keep on keeping on, everybody! It's SO important.

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at September 21, 2006 02:46 AM

correction by Truth:

Pope Benedict, not Pope Ratzinger. Former Cardinal and all that.

It's interesting, Matt, because the only clip I saw of the Pope's remarks was a very short blurb on a network news station (can't remember which one, we had ABC and CBS evening news on tonight),
but it seemed like propaganda to me because of the fact that they only showed the blurb with the Pope saying bad things about Muslims.

I believe the way that one cut was taken and aired was used by the U.S. for political reasons.

Thank you very much, Matt, for posting the article you did. Gave me more of the story.

September 21, 2006
Suits Say U.S. Impeded Audits for Oil Leases
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 — Four government auditors who monitor leases for oil and gas on federal property say the Interior Department suppressed their efforts to recover millions of dollars from companies they said were cheating the government.

The accusations, many of them in four lawsuits that were unsealed last week by federal judges in Oklahoma, represent a rare rebellion by government investigators against their own agency.

The auditors contend that they were blocked by their bosses from pursuing more than $30 million in fraudulent underpayments of royalties for oil produced in publicly owned waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The agency has lost its sense of mission, which is to protect American taxpayers,� said Bobby L. Maxwell, who was formerly in charge of Gulf of Mexico auditing. “These are assets that belong to the American public, and they are supposed to be used for things like education, public infrastructure and roadways.�

The lawsuits have surfaced as Democrats and Republicans alike are questioning the Bush administration’s willingness to challenge the oil and gas industry.

The new accusations surfaced just one week after the Interior Department’s inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, told a House subcommittee that “short of crime, anything goes� at the top levels of the Interior Department.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/business/21royalty.html

Posted by: dwahzon at September 20, 2006 08:11 PM
Tactful, perhaps not, but was it accurate?
Posted by: monkey at September 20, 2006 08:20 PM
MORON...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/20/bush.intv/index.html
In other words, the president of Venezuela was just doing the same thing today that the president of the United States does over and over in his own carefully-scripted public appearances in the red states: he was just energizing his base.
watch out for hurricane hugo,
Otter
Posted by: Otter at September 20, 2006 10:06 PM
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/20/19237/9278
Posted by: sparrow at September 20, 2006 11:09 PM

Actually, I agree with all of you....

Chavez went over the top, yes.... But... Chavez dramatically said what the rest of the world has been thinking about Herr Boosh since at least his illegal invasion of Iraq, if not before - and we all knew his "justification" for the invasion was a pack of LIES to begin with, never did figure out why Lamestream Media went along with it, never have understood the bandwagon patriotism, or why Congress has been nothing but a rubber stamp for every piece of idiotic and immoral and illegal legislaton that has taken away or infringed on our rights. Everything since 9/11 (the most fortunate day in the life of King Georgie) has been one insult added to injury, one after the other, sometimes several all at once, capped by this latest outrage of wanting torture made legal and he and his administration and the torturers exempt from being tried for war crimes. As the "face" of America, no one on the planet misrepresents the true character and moral values of the majority of "we the people" in this country more than Bu$h himself. We've all said, written, thought that Bu$h is evil personified. Chavez had the stones to say so on the world stage.

In the years I've been on this blog, haven't we all lamented that none of our Senators or Reps have spoken out against Bu$hCo loudly and at length in Lamestream Media...? No one in this country has had the stones to speak out against him... only Chavez, even if he was overly dramatic. Chavez had the stones to speak out - and on the world's stage.

What wouldn't we all give to have Democrats or Independents or Republicans in this country speak out (and be heard repeatedly in Lamestream Media!!!) against the evil wrought on us, and the world, by that pustule on the @$$ of humanity and this country, that insulting piece of flesh who has so ruined our reputation in the world, so profoundly shown us weekly, if not daily, all the things that do NOT represent the true moral character of the majority of the citizens of this country? Haven't we all recently lamented how outraged and embarrassed we are, thanks to Bu$hCo over this torture bill that could also make them exempt from being charged with the war crimes we KNOW they've committed? Stooping to torture makes us what Bu$h criticizes about the criminals who commit terrorist acts. We will become, by law, exactly the fascists in Nazi Germany became under Hitler. The 'theory of the unitary executive' makes him a de facto dictator (and if he cancels the next elections he will become the dictator-in-fact). That he does not have a conscience and LIES every time he opens his mouth we know. Lamestream Media in this country glorifies him; Congress Critters are either supportive, silent for fear of being called unpatriotic, or are never heard in repeated sound bytes in Lamestream Media if they do bleat weakly against his moral and executive failings. How much lower does the public "face" of this country have to go to have any politician howl in rage against this Criminal Cabal "leading" this country to worse ruin?

Thus far... only Hugo Chavez has had the stones to hold a mirror up to the "face" of this country and show the man for the piece of evil and stinking dung we all know he is. I'm looking for the mirror to shatter if the wording of the torture bill is actually ever "discussed" with any kind of moral and ethical rationality by the political spinmeisters who don't seem to have any more of a conscience than Herr Boosh, since they are the ones who have so glorified the shortcomings of the dictator wannabe "leading" this country. Bu$hSpeak is a dumbed down version of Orwellian Newspeak, but Lamestream Media spinmeisters continue to "interpret" for, and excuse, him and his Criminal Cabal. We've all bemoaned that weekly. Haven't we all had more than enough of illegal, unethical, immoral, unjust, and dishonorable behavior from the "face" of this country?

Was Chavez over the top? Assuredly. Accurate...? To our everlasting shame... Yes, accurate....

NonnyO,

I agree with you. Personally, I don't think Chavez was over the top. He was just tellin' it like it is.

Well, calling him the devil might have been a bit over the top, but I think he made his point.