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We Have Questions
Today's question is brought to us courtesy of Media Matters.
Why is CBS paying Nicolle Wallace to sound like Tony Snow?
On September 25, CBS News announced the hiring of Nicolle Wallace, who left her job as White House communications director three months ago, as a "political consultant." Two days later, Wallace made her first appearance on CBS in this capacity and immediately repeated talking points recently advanced by the White House communications office and President Bush himself.
On the September 27 edition of CBS' Early Show, co-host Harry Smith sat down with Wallace for a brief discussion of the recently released National Intelligence Estimate -- completed in April -- which concluded that the Iraq war has led to an increase in global terrorism. Smith first asked her, "What do you make of all of it?" Her response:
WALLACE: I think the most telling thing now is that this NIE has formed the basis of the public communications that the White House has engaged in, in a very concerted effort over the last six weeks to communicate directly to the American people about the stakes in Iraq. And they've made a lot of these points that are ... being played up and that are being politicized by Democrats --have been made by the president.
This would have been a nice time for Harry to say, "Gee Nicolle, even thought you work here at CBS now, you still sound like the President's mouthpiece. I see that's going to be a hard habit to break..."
Go read the whole exchange and watch the video here.
It's not so much the hiring or the presence of Mrs. Wallace that bothers me. It's the complete lack of any other version of reality offered it's viewers by CBS. We get Nicolle Devenish Wallace but no Dee Dee Myers?
This looks like a desperate attempt by corporate media to skew the elections in November by providing a network based daily Republican Talking Points segment that is sure to be entirely fact free.
Which brings me to my next point. Is it possible that progressives will organize some sort of fact finding campaign to expose this nonsense and protest to CBS? Would you become part of such an effort? The research will likely be provided by Media Matters. All folks would need to do is use that information in a write in/call in campaign. Would anyone here be interested in leading such an effort?
And what do you think is the motiviation behind CBS' decision to become the offical headquarters of the White House and RNC Communication Team? Why was Karl Rove's handmaiden hired as the lone political voice at CBS?
We have questions. You have the answers. Let's hear it.
Gonzilla defending his dictator Herr Boosh. Yo, you creepy fascist, WHO started the damned ILLEGAL and UNCONSTITUTIONAL war in the first place so he could bully this nation through fear and threats of terrorist acts by criminals to get to this place where he's the supreme dictator?!?!? Even Republican know the frat brat has NO reputation as a person with any kind of mature judgment, so he's not qualified to make any reasonable decisions regarding war - or anything else. I'm bloody sick and tired of seeing similar phrases by people with brown noses who say Herr Boosh's "judgment in wartime" are all-important!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060929/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/gonzales_judges
Gonzales cautions judges on interfering
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is defending President Bush's anti-terrorism tactics in multiple court battles, said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president's judgments in wartime.
He said the Constitution makes the president commander in chief and the Supreme Court has long recognized the president's pre-eminent role in foreign affairs. "The Constitution, by contrast, provides the courts with relatively few tools to superintend military and foreign policy decisions, especially during wartime," the attorney general told a conference on the judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center.
"Judges must resist the temptation to supplement those tools based on their own personal views about the wisdom of the policies under review," Gonzales said.
And he said the independence of federal judges, who are appointed for life, "has never meant, and should never mean, that judges or their decisions should be immune" from public criticism.
"Respectfully, when courts issue decisions that overturn long-standing traditions or policies without proper support in text or precedent, they cannot — and should not — be shielded from criticism," Gonzales said. "A proper sense of judicial humility requires judges to keep in mind the institutional limitations of the judiciary and the duties expressly assigned by the Constitution to the more politically accountable branches."
His audience included legal scholars and judges, including Justice
Clarence Thomas, one of the Bush administration's most reliable supporters on the Supreme Court.
The attorney general did not refer to any specific case or decision but only to wartime, military and foreign affairs cases in general.
Gonzales has sent Justice Department lawyers into federal courts from coast to coast defending Bush's detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, his plans to try some of them before military tribunals and his use of the National Security Agency to wiretap Americans without court warrants when they communicate with suspected terrorists abroad.
Over administration objections, the Supreme Court ordered that detainees could challenge aspects of their imprisonment in federal courts and overturned Bush's plans for military tribunals, forcing Bush to ask Congress to approve a new version of the panels.
A handful of federal district judges either ordered an end to the warrantless wiretapping or agreed to hear court challenges to it. Opponents of the plan argue the NSA program violates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's requirement that the government get a warrant from a court that meets in secret before wiretapping Americans to gain intelligence information.
The administration contends that despite the statute's language, the president has inherent authority from the Constitution to order such eavesdropping without court permission. Justice lawyers also have argued that the challenges to the NSA program should be thrown out of court because trials would expose state secrets. Most of the judges' rulings and proceedings have been stayed pending appeal.
{{{Click on link for more...}}}
BTW, don't know if it will stay on the web site long, but there has been a VERY annoying photo showing a close-up of a woman's eyes shrowded in a black burka, and purple-tipped thumb online on Yahoo every time I view a Yahoo news story from AP or Reuters for at least a week or more. The caption below it reads "This week in photos Sept. 15-21" - which means the ad is outdated. BUT, today, viewing this Gonzilla story, it's at the top of the page on the left, just below the headline, where there's usually a photo to match the "news" story instead of half-way down the page on the left. I don't know if it will stay in the same place, but it is/was there when I read the Gonzilla story.
re thread
Is Sumner Redstone still CBS? If so, in 2004 he said Bush was better for business, when confronted about not standing by the content of Dan Rather's National Guard story, not running the Niger forgery story ready to air, or the transmitter on Bush's back, and other vulnerabilities.
Good insights on Diane Rehm News Roundup this morning. Comments on habeus corpus, NIE, Abrahamoff & other. They don't think Electronic Surveillance will be brought up for vote in this Congress because it's a concern to libertarians as well as Dems...
The links for streaming audio are here:
http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/
A comment on habeus corpus-- it will go to court on this basis, which has been fundamental to our law since the Magna Carta- not a mere "technical change" that Frist labelled it.
Hmmmm.... the thread header has changed three times in the last little while, so I'm reposting my response to April from another thread.... Skip if you've alread read it.
Posted by: April at September 29, 2006 12:31 PM
The mercenaries are frequently employees of Halliburton subsidiaries, DynCorp and KBR (Kellogg, Brown & Root). Their monthly salaries are in the five figure range.
Three MN residents killed in Iraq were mercenaries (aka 'private security officers'). In-state news, when they reported the deaths, said of two of them that they were employed by DynCorp; I'm not sure who employed the third one who was killed, just in-state 'news' info that he was a 'private security officer.'
The first time I heard DynCorp was the employer of the first one killed, I Googled DynCorp, found out it was a subsidiary of Halliburton. Wikipedia has a long article about Halliburton, ties to lots of people we now know are in charge of the government, and it lists the subsidiaries. There's also a group called Blackwater that hires mercenaries, and Blackwater was the group who sent mercenaries to NOLA to guard the city after Katrina/Rita. Halliburton & KBR are receiving tax money from a no-bid contract to repair and rebuild military bases in the south after Katrina/Rita. And Halliburton/KBR is the outfit building 'detention centers' on US soil with a $385 billion dollar open-ended contract.
The detention centers (aka concentration camps!) on US soil are allegedly for "the influx of illegal immigrants" in an emergency situation. However, the immigration flap has died down in media and is largely ignored. If those new concentration camps are sitting empty, who's going to fill them to make a profit for Halliburton...????? Who's going to guard the prisoners, besides DynCorp and KBR, both Halliburton subsidiaries???
"The Problem" with private armies is the fact that they owe their loyalty to the corporations who sign their paychecks. They do not take any oaths to 'preserve, protect, and defend' the US, or the US Constitution....
Rummy's comment on NIE- sometimes intelligence reports are wrong...
James Baker is releasing a book next week that is critical of how BushCo went into Iraq
Posted by Casey Morris at September 30, 2006 01:27 PM
Okay. I'm writing as a person who is NOT an authority on CBS news.... I watched giggly little Couric, the Boosh groupie, on her debut. When she announced her first interview would be with Herr Boosh the following day (I think they ran a one-hour special the following night? - I did not watch it, but remember an ad, I think.) and then the fact that the 'free speech' segment the following Thurs. was featuring Rushie McLimpDick, I decided that I didn't need to watch CBS, that they were going the way of Faux and ABC and the religious reich who are slavishly devoted to Herr Boosh.
HOWEVER, given that Giggles Groupie Couric was at the WH for said interview, I'm wondering if shortly before or after that Turd Blossom's handmaiden was hired to air official propaganda...?
FYI, unless CBS has changed the web page format, Giggles Couric has a blog on the section for the nightly snooze.... I left my opinion about her debut on the CBS evening news blog as to why I would not be watching it, which is why I know there is/was a blog by Giggles Couric and/or her staff.
May I suggest a blog swarm?
I get the daily newsletters from Media Matters (I signed up a long time ago). I can participate that way, too....
The commenters on Diane Rehm seem to think that the Republicans may use somebody like James Baker to drag shrub into developing an exit strategy
[I posted this on the previous thread, right before it changed to a new one again. So I thought I'd repost it here now too. I know it's long, and a bit unfocused in spots perhaps, but that's why I posted it here in the first place. I'm having conflicted thoughts in response to the news in recent days, and I guess I'm looking for your comments/questions/insights into whether my thoughts are still making any outside rational sense at all...]
Hmm, hmm, hmm.
..........
Please bear with me while I ramble on for an extended moment here, y'all. What started out as an wish to write about some things I feel conflicted over has somehow turned into an urge to post what keeps wanting to turn into a half-baked Otter Manifesto or something. But, well... so be it, then.
Those who read these pages regularly know that for most intents and purposes I am an ardent, outspoken proponent of peace and patience. I generally try to urge compromise where there is confrontation, seek understanding where there is antipathy, and honor the inner Ghandi in all of us more than the outer Gaddafi in some of us.
However...
By no means should that be taken to indicate that I am a wimp, a pushover, a quisling, or a cut-and-runner. Yes, I do counsel peace, whenever and wherever peace is possible.
But I am also what some of my friends have called a "Second Amendment Liberal" -- a bleeding-heart liberal peacenik with a concealed-carry permit and the skills to make full use of it when necessary.
Do you remember the incredibly turbulent years of 1968-1970, when bombs were blowing up buildings and people were getting shot down in the streets and civil rights were being trampled into the mud and civil war seemed just a short sharp heartbeat away, right here at home, in the good ol' U.S. of A., at the hands of none other than our own friends and/or countrymen?
I do. And those were ugly, *ugly* times.
I was a peacenik then, and I'm still a peacenik now. However...
Back then there was violence in the air and blood in the streets. People I respected were being assassinated regularly. People I knew were being beaten and tear-gassed regularly. And people just like me were getting shot down in cold blood every day -- not just in far-away Vietnam, but on nearby college campuses as well.
And yes, I counseled peace back then, too. Even when it was time to wipe away the blood and wash away the stink of tear gas, I counseled peace. But not just passive peace, oh, no. It was back then that I saw first-hand that peacemaking really is, of necessity, an active verb; that the simple act of making peace can be braver and more dangerous than the complex art of making war.
It was back then that I first took to heart the words of the Roman emperor Vegetius: "Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum" -- or, in its more oft-quoted shorter form, "Si vis pacem, para bellum." Ira speaks Latin, he can translate those words for you if necessary; but I believe, or at least I'd like to believe, that he doesn't have to.
And it was back then that I also came to understand that sometimes it actually "'tis nobler in the heart ... to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them." I saw that I might at some point have no choice but to bear arms, and so I consciously chose to learn how to use them efficiently and effectively should it ever come down to that.
And still, I counseled peace. I counseled peace back then, and I still do so today. I believe in it body and soul, and I practice its principles in all my affairs.
I was a peacenik then, and I'm still a peacenik now. However...
Vegetius knew that sometimes, the only ways to seek peace also involve having to prepare for war. This country's founders knew that sometimes the only way to prevent the security of a free state from being infringed is for its free citizens to keep and bear arms.
Yes, I counsel peace. But I also know how and why to keep and bear arms. In fact, as a matter of personal policy I believe in being prepared to do so on short notice should that become necessary.
No, I've never shot anybody. I've never had to. (Though on a couple of occasions that was by no means a foregone conclusion.) And no, I've never been shot either. Been shot at, yes. (But fortunately for all concerned, they missed.)
Yes, I was a peacenik then, and I’m still a peacenik now. However...
I am a bleeding-heart liberal peacenik. With a gun.
And until this morning, I have never felt so close to that being a necessary and potentially imminent part of my rights and obligations as a free citizen of these United States.
War has been declared, my friends, my foes -- war not just on outsiders and those who would do harm to ourselves and our families, but on our cherished institutions and on our shared moral commitments to the world.
War has been declared by those who would claim to standfor the causes of truth and righteousness. War has been declared upon the land of the free and the home of the brave by those who are neither free nor brave.
We have met the enemy, and they are us. We are at war with them, though that means being at with ourselves. And who better understood both the horrible cost and the terrible duty of being at war with ourselves than a man who was, ironically enough, a Republican back when that meant being someone who could still hold his head up high? Who could ever speak of such things in more poignant, powerful words than these?
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Vegetius knew. Lincoln knew. And I know. You know, too. We all do.
And may the Goddess forgive me for it, but I never *ever* thought I'd see the day when I would find myself speaking of these things in this way in a public forum such as this one -- and not just find myself speaking of them, but also feeling that I would be shirking my duty as a free citizen were I *not* to speak them in this place and at this time.
Maybe I'm amazed. Maybe I'm appalled. Maybe I'm concerned. Maybe I'm confused. Maybe I'm all of those things, and many other things as well.
I counseled peace then, and I still counsel peace now -- *especially* now. I still hold that truth to be self-evident, just as our founders held certain other truths to be self-evident also.
However...
"Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum."
I am a bleeding-heart liberal peacenik.
With a gun.
And it chills me to my core to feel as though that is such a critical, crucial distinction for me to be making here today.
But, well... so be it, then.
May Goddess have mercy on us all.
..........
a pax on all our houses,
Otter
By the by Miss Nonny, did you know a certain Miss Giggles went to the same University of Virginia as did Sen. Curious George Allen?
Montijell-o
Okay this is starting to remind me of the Kerry blog where subjects changed so fast you could actually start reading one by the time you got to the end two more had popped up. I know there is a ton of news but I respectfully ask you all to get a happy medium today between blogs that last years and ones that last 5 minutes pretty pretty please. Not being a smart butt just asking nicely I have to pick Charley up soon, at this rate by the time I get back I will be a hundred blogs behind and I am fast reader :)
Ira speaks Latin, ?? say what, heck I struggle with Spanish and my terrible french. I didn't think you spoke Latin?
nonny I totally agree with you about giggling katie. I didn't realize she was such a ditz, really expected more of her but giggling is the best way to describe her she is certainly not a serious jouralist. I rather liked Bob Schieffer. I think he is smart, probing, fair and a real journalist unlike Kattie, even though his bros is a prominent Republican and was a superior anchor person. Its too bad they pushed him out b/c of his age b/c he was far superior to Katie.
Posted by: Ira at September 29, 2006 02:20 PM
I made the choice never to ever watch MS. Couric as a news Anchor she drove me nuts as a host of the Today show. By the way I need to thank her for leaving I am enjoying the show much more now.
Ask the owners of CBS.
Viacom, Inc. Headquarters
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
Ph: 212-258-6000
fax: 212-285-6100
www.viacom.com
But, Ira, don't all attorneys speak Latin? I mean, isn't that a required part of Lawyering 101, so's you can all hang around the Halls of Justice quidding each others' pros and habeasing each others' corpuses and stuff?
:0)
lawing laws and the lawyers who tell them,
Otter
aimzz--you're right:
FROM TPM MUCKRAKER:
Court Challenge to New Detainee Law May Come In "Days"
By Justin Rood - September 29, 2006, 1:02 PM
With President Bush poised to sign the White House-backed detainee treatment bill into law, groups are promising to challenge it in court "in days."
“I don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance in ‘H’ that this will be found constitutional,” Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told Congressional Quarterly (sub. req.). CCR represents a number of Guantanamo prisoners.
Strangely, some senators who voted for the bill weren't convinced of its constitutionality. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who voted for the bill even after his amendment to preserve certain rights for detainees was defeated, called the proposal "patently unconstitutional on its face," The Washington Post reported. When CQ asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who negotiated with the White House to win minor concessions on the legislation, if the bill was constitutional, he responded "I think so."
hey otter we use Latin terminology in our pleadings but I truly thought Latin is a 'dead' language, read but not spoken.
Actually lawyers are accused of speaking gibberish and I must admit that that is one language I am truly fluent in..
happy res ipsa loquitor
hey otter we use Latin terminology in our pleadings but I truly thought Latin is a 'dead' language, read but not spoken.
Actually lawyers are accused of speaking gibberish and I must admit that that is one language I am truly fluent in..
happy res ipsa loquitor
see even the dcp system recognizes gibberish and caused me to post twice
Ira:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
bene,
Lutra Canadensis
Okay, I see a little explanation is due here.
Yesterday morning, I posted a piece that I had written earlier, not realizing that they were only setting aside one hour of debate, to be split equally among both parties, for each amendment, and I thought the debate was not starting until 1PM. Clearly, the bill's manager, John Warner, changed that schedule at the last minute, so as to disrupt things as much as possible (IMHO).
As this was obviously quite important to have on the top of the page here, I took down the Father Knows Best post, figuring we could get back to that after the votes were done.
Remember, Harry Reid was sure he had the votes to fix the bill in the amendments, so he made a deal with the rules commitee in which a cloture vote was waived essentially, so no filibuster.
As we all know now, Harry was punked. Again. So things went on longer.
Fast forward to today. After and exhausting day and night yesterday, we posted my piece that I had taken down.
Except that I wrote a new one when I came across the Media Matter post on CBS, and wanted to get it out there ASAP. And did.
So, that should explain why there have been three top posts in the last hour.
The other explanation is that we have our fingers on the pulse on politics, baby! We're moving! We're shakin'! We're...okay enough of that. Although we are trying to mix it up a bit more,the above is the real explanation of what happened.
In the last week of Congress in session before midterms, things move fast and it's catch as catch can. We are doing our best to keep up and ask thoughtful questions and give thoughtful commentary to the issues so we can continue to maintain the high quality of discussion here.
Thank you for your patience and participation. I don't plan on more dizzying posting parties for the rest of the afternoon, but who knows?
No clue about Wallace. She's photogenic and reasonably articulate - and that's evidently about all that matters at the networks. Neither depth of knowledge or the likelihood of bias seems to be a determining factor.
Fred Friendly weeps.
Posted by: Otter at September 29, 2006 02:04 PM
Well said, oh brave and furry one.
Posted by: Otter at September 29, 2006 02:04 PM
Guns and roses Otter?
Sherrod Brown going to be on Ed Shultz today.
darn sparrow I can't get Ed Schultz anymore on my xm radio.let me know how Sherrod does please
Ira--stream it online
He's on right now. hurry!
Here is an absolute must read -- the truth about dictatorship and torture from one whose family suffered under one whose name everyone recognizes as a torturer and dictator - Idi Amin.
Hat tip to maccabee for this stop-you-in-your-tracks story...
Another Cabbie. Another Incredible Story.
by Maccabee
Fri Sep 29, 2006 at 01:31:04 PM EDT
A Yellow Cab driven by a tiny African man named Bale pulled up to the curb and the Air Port Taxi authorities pointed me to his taxi. I threw my stuff in the back seat and we headed out to the hotel. I was in Canada this week. It's a long ride to town and I had once again climbed into the cab of a man who had lived to see his country change from a calm pastoral British protectorate to a boiling horrible dictatorship.
His didn't happen in six years. His happened in four months.
"Where you from?"
"Uganda."
"How long have you been here?"
In a thick accent he answered, "about 24 years."
"What brought you here?"
"Freedom."
read the rest here and give it a recommend...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/29/13314/2260
charts showing major media, tentacles & PACs contributed to
http://www.progressiveliving.org/mass_media_and_politics.htm
just picked Ed up on streaming progressive radio on my computer its really cool. never mind, listening to Sherrod now.
Oh...I just want to add before I get busy doing my own work...
Today when I was out, there was a vehicle parked with a "Bush/cheney" sticker and a "Pray" sticker and a "It is POVERTY when a child must die so you can have a choice."
Since they were parked, I wrote out a reply that I placed on their windshield. It said, "War is not pro-life. It is poverty for a President to lie to begin a war and lie about weapons of mass distruction. That makes it murder. It is poverty for them to take from the poor and give to the rich.--signed..."From someone who is really pro-life!"
The major media outlets are connected with Business Roundtable, made up of corporate CEOs. Follow the money.
http://www.businessroundtable.org/aboutUs/index.aspx
Business Roundtable members and contributions
http://www.opensecrets.org/alerts/v5/alertv5_47c.asp
Obviously, they believe what's good for business is good for the country. Bush is good for corporate CEOs including of media conglomerates (they believe), so they're very nice to the White House.
Sparrow:
Hell hath no fury.....
Progressive Living translates Business Roundtable's mission & philosophy into lay English:
Business version:
"Established in 1972, the Roundtable was founded in the belief that chief executives of major corporations should take an increased role in the continuing debates about public policy. The Roundtable believes that the basic interests of business closely parallel the interests of the American people, who are directly involved as consumers, employees, shareholders, and suppliers. Thus, chief executives, although they speak as individuals, have responsibilities, which relate to many factors--including jobs, products, services, and return on investment--that affect the economic well being of all Americans. The Business Roundtable wants to promote policies that will lead to sustainable, non-inflationary, long-term growth in the U.S. economy. To promote growth, competitiveness and exports, the United States must create the right environment for American companies at home and abroad."
Corporatespeak into English:
"In 1961 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in favor of employees on the issue of 'outsourcing'. As businessmen were bent on abandoning the social contract with employees, this ruling was deemed intolerable. Major corporations and big corporate law firms pooled resources and created a committee that drafted destructive amendments to labor laws and then urged hearings on issues pertaining to labor. They also worked with the White House and Congress to make new appointments to NLRB.
Later, this anti-labor group expanded to become the Business Roundtable. In short, the Business Roundtable was founded in the belief that pro-employee rulings couldn't and shouldn't be tolerated, and that CEOs should dictate public policy in this arena. However, the Roundtable also believes that the basic interests of business diverge at nearly every point from the interests of the American people.
The American people are consumers, and should, so far as possible, be deprived of all power to sue for defective products or to file for bankruptcy. The American people are employees, and should be paid as minimally, and with a few benefits, as possible. We should also ensure that the labor market is flooded with as many people as possible who have the skills we want, and we should therefore dictate educational policy. The American people are shareholders, and shouldn't be allowed to meddle in corporate governance, the private preserve of CEOs. The American people are the owners of vast public resources, for which they should be paid little or nothing when they're exploited for private profit.
Thus, chief executives, although they are individuals who should have no less and no more public influence than any other American, want the lion's share of influence for themselves on every issue of importance, including such things as jobs, products, services, and return on investment—anything, really, that might affect the already enormously bloated salaries of CEOs. The Business Roundtable wants to promote policies that adversely affect the economic well-being of all Americans. They want to promote policies that are unsustainable and irresponsible no matter how they affect climate or the environment because they don't want to clean up their mess. They hate inflation because it benefits debt-holders. They care nothing about the long-term growth of the American economy as they are narrowly focused on short-term gains and will do anything to fatten the appearance of the bottom line, and their own pockets. Moreover, the largest corporations are all multinationals and know no national allegiance anyway (which is why they think nothing of shifting the entire burden of social responsibilities to taxpayers).
Therefore, to promote short-term gain, and to further bloat their own salaries, the American people must concede everything to businessmen in a race to the bottom on such matters as compensation, benefits, workplace safety, product liability, the environment, tax law, and anything else that businessmen want. We call this dangerous, selfish, short-sighted, greedy, irresponsible agenda that is blighting the future of all humanity the creation of the 'right' environment. Right, that is for us—wrong for the rest of humanity."
Oh
I'm a Libertarian-leaning liberal but it has nothing to do with guns. I don't want the government involved in decisions I make about my health and body.
AOL/Time Warner was 8th largest Bush donor.
Everybody corporate and greedy wants to be deregulated - less likely to have to hire Americans, provide insurance, pay taxes, clean up toxins. Therefore, they favor Republicans, who favor small government (except for bloated military welfare system).
I don't think these media companies care about issues - from torture to immigration to abortion to gays. I think they care about their bottom line - the Ken Lays. Ken Lay was Bush's biggest corporate CEO donor.
CBS is owned by Viacom (formerly by Westinghouse) - they own also Aetna Life and Casualty Co, Ashland Inc, BDM International Inc, Banc One Corp, Bell Atlantic Corp, Campbell Soup Co, Cardinal Health Inc, Chase Manhattan Corp, Columbia HCA Healthcare Corp, Dell Computer Corp, Dow Jones & Co Inc, Duracell International Inc, General Dynamics Corp, Gillette Co, Harcourt General Inc, Kaman Corp, MBIA Inc, Melville Corp, Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc, Prudential Insurance Co of America, Quaker Oats Co, Phone-Poulenc Rorer Inc, Rockwell International Corp, Sun Co Inc, Union Pacific Corp, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Warnaco Group Inc, Warner-Lambert Co, Westinghouse Foundation.
This is typical. Rockwell International - what do they make?
Weapons 'n Stuff.
We know about the politics of Walmart.
They own Dow Jones, fer crissake!
Republican Congressman resigns today b/c of contact with a 16 year old girl. His webs site says he supports legislation preventing internet porn said a Schultz caller. Ironic? 14 seats to go.
Attention, Fe & Ally!
From macro to micro, it's still the same sleazy selling-out of conscience and lazy lying about legalities on the reich-wingers' end...
---------------
WASHINGTON (AP) - Deer and elk trophy hunts on a Southern California public island would continue under a deal reached Friday by congressional negotiators. The plan defies a federal court settlement and is strongly opposed by the National Park Service, which wants the nonnative game removed.
Language permitting the hunts was included in the final version of an annual defense bill agreed to by House and Senate negotiators as Congress completes work before recessing for the Nov. 7 elections.
That means the plan is likely to become law. The House and Senate were expected to give final approval later Friday or Saturday to the bill authorizing the nation's defense programs.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., pushed the hunting plan over objections from congressional Democrats including Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., whose district includes Channel Islands National Park.
Santa Rosa Island, 40 miles offshore from Santa Barbara, is the second-largest of five islands in the Channel Islands park.
Under the federal court settlement, private trophy hunts now run on the 53,000-acre island are supposed to end in 2011, and the deer and elk are to be removed.
The Park Service bought Santa Rosa Island in 1986 for $30 million from a local ranching family that still owns the hunting concession. Litigation over terms of the deal led to the court settlement.
The National Park Service says the hunts and the nonnative game interfere with indigenous plants and animals on the undeveloped and remote island, including some endangered species. The hunts also restrict public access since much of the island is off limits to visitors while they go on.
Hunter has said his legislation is meant to give military veterans, particularly those who are paralyzed, somewhere to go for hunting and recreation.
But the group Paralyzed Veterans of America -- cited repeatedly by Hunter in support of his plan -- announced over the summer that it opposed the idea because of the difficulty of traveling to and around the island, which has bumpy dirt roads and can only be accessed by boat or plane.
"It is simply outrageous that this deeply misguided proposal has been inappropriately included in the 2007 defense authorization bill in an act of pure congressional hubris," Capps said in a statement Friday. "This is a sad day."
---------------
guns to the left of us guns to the right of us,
Otter
Posted by: Ira at September 29, 2006 04:00 PM
Ira,
16 year old BOY.
And that explains everything!
and I am sure Foley was one of those bloviators promoting the sins of gay marriage.Co chair of the missing child caucus and sex offender law and attacking internet child porn July '06 according to his web site.
maybe Linda will be back here later and can get a big chuckle from this story.
Totally OT, but any recording artists or friends of should check out this post at FDL. You might get money!
http://www.firedoglake.com/2006/09/29/the-spin-im-in-lost-and-found/#more-4731
guns to the left of us guns to the right of us,
Otter
Posted by: Otter at September 29, 2006 04:01 PM
...here we are stuck in the middle with bush.
I guess you could say DeLay and Foley are cutting and running.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/29/151919/169
Another pervert
Ira
Same pervert, I guess! One down, more to go!
the Family Values Crowd and a friend of Hannity. Where is Dobson and Fallwell's outrage?
That depends. Is there any money in it for them?
change is good but folding money is better,
Otter
Today we visited the Senate offices of the twelve Dems who voted for torture.
My co-writer on Fear Up, Marietta, dressed in an orange jumpsuit and we tied her hands and pulled her by a rope around her neck, and we read out loud to the people in each office.
We read out loud a description of one 15-year old boy's experience in GITMO that is highlighted in the Center for Constitutional Right's report on torture, a dialogue taken directly from a transcript of one of the military tribunals at GITMO, and/or this definition of fascism:
• "1. a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond reach of traditional solutions; 2. belief one’s group is the victim, justifying any action without legal or moral limits; 3. need for authority by a natural leader above the law, relying on the superiority of his instincts; 4. right of the chosen people to dominate others without legal or moral restraint; 5. fear of foreign `contamination."
Mostly people looked down and avoided us but many staffers clearly agreed with us. Sen. Salazer's chief aide invited us in and sat down with us. She tried to explain his thinking and a few other staffers in other offices had similar explanantions: that the bill they passed was "better." Better than what, we asked?
Sen. Salazar's aide was almost as emotional as we were; she is obviously torn over the issue. We felt, at least, she heard us and would pass along our anger and questions.
Incidentally, we were escorted by Nick, one of the Capitol Police Department's finest, who turned out to be wonderful. He would not say he supported us, but he was very helpful and supportive of our right to speak. Lovely man.
I felt better afterwards, and I think it was more than the feeling you get from having done just one f***ing thing for peace. I think that although our numbers were few (five of us did this), we were clear and the messages were delivered.
No one is under the illusion that this made a difference, but seeds were planted and maybe that's the best we can hope for now.
We saw guilt and shame and that's good.
Posted by: karen at September 29, 2006 05:00 PM
Nice work as always... and I am a FIRM believer in shaming the hell out of every last soul who doesn't apeear to have one.
Yeah, monkey, we got to tell Lieberman's staffers that we saw no vestiges of a soul in the man.
Posted by: karen at September 29, 2006 05:00 PM
Thanks, Karen!
Karen,
I'd like to know Stabenow's reaction. Especially since I called there and told them I was a precinct captain in her district and that it was bad enough when she supported the bankcruptcy bill or voted against the Kerry-Fiengold, Boxer bill...BUT that this vote she showed a lack of courage to take a moral stand. Then I told them to let her know that her precinct captain resigned.
I then went and threw away every single one of her flyers I was to distribute.
I'll support Granholm and Renier...but hell will freeze before I say one positive word about Stabenow.
My Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, did not vote for torture.
My Senators, Bill Frist & Lamar Alexander, er, don't represent the US or its citizens :p
We did not see Stabenow's people as it was too late--Marietta and I had to leave and the others had a long meeting with Lautenberg's staffers, because that vote really puzzled us. I will report on it later. So technically, I saw ten of the 12.
It does seem as though several of these Dems just cannot wrap their brains around the notion of evil-doing, and they can't see the USA as the evil-doers. They are still parsing and relativistic. They think the courts can and will fix this. They think the bill was improved. Or they made deals earlier. Or else they are being blackmailed...
In the end, they are just human and they just get it wrong. I am grateful for the Senators and Members who got it right. And I have no trouble sharing my feelings with the ones who got it wrong.
Mine, alas, did. One with glee, and one with his nose held and his fingers crossed. Needless to say, the peeps in my krewe are doing our damndest to make sure the former is looking for a new job come November 8.
sanscrotum is a nutless doink,
Otter
Until we don't have so much corporate lobbying and until we have real campaign finance reform, I don't see how Senators aren't obstructed somewhat from voting their conscience. Then we end up kind of in the same boat. There are the red state Democrats, needed to try to gain a majority nationally. There are the moderate Republicans, useful because they sometimes oppose things like the Bush budget. I think it's our system.
They start them early - cartoon & sugar cereals addiction, fast food joints & kiddie movies with product spinoffs, so every kid has the right animated character on his or her sneakers and backpack or can't be seen at daycare or preschool. I know - I work with kids.
For those slightly older:
Just a couple of things everyone should be aware of.
1. Myspace is now owned by Rupert Murdoch, who purchased it for $580 million.
2. If you drink Rockstar, realize that it is owned by Michael Savage's son, who is just as conservative as his father. Michael Savage owns a very large share of the company.
For voters:
Each Congressperson or Senator is responsible for bringing home the bacon for his or her state. Patty Murray, as an example, is on the powerful Appropriations committee. Even though she is dovish, Boeing is always on her tail. You can always follow the money, even though what we hear publicly & what gets people all aroused is ideology. Do people really think General Mills care about our health or Chevron cars about our environment? When the government caters to such corporations then the government is not representing us. Those companies don't care any more about us than they do about people in places like Sri Lanka.
I'm sorry if I sound like Ralph Nader today. He cared more about being right than winning but that doesn't mean he didn't figure some things out back in the day. Michael Moore pretty much gets it about right too. My husband sometimes has Randi Rhodes on in the car. She was talking about all the retired Generals and Admirals who take jobs with weapons companies. They don't care about us either.
& to think I sued him ..
We saw guilt and shame and that's good.
Posted by: karen at September 29, 2006 05:00 PM
YES-S-S-S-S-S-S!!! They need to be shamed to hell and back... and every single senator or representative who voted for either R 6166 or S 3930 should be demanded by their constituents to RESIGN - over the decimation of habeas corpus, if not for approving torture or making war criminals immune from prosecution.
THANK YOU for your efforts. I do hope that somewhere down the line we reap the rewards of what you have sown... shame on both bodies of Congress for having lost their collective conscience, for failing to remember they represent people who abhor and will not tolerate what those bills stand for...!
Amazing - Mark Foley was Chairman of the House Committee on Missing and Exploited Children.
It's so predictable it's almost a law - when someone doth protest too loud, it may not be too conspiratorial to be suspicious.
A Diane Rehm show from yesterday focusing on the NIE. It's interesting hearing the Bush apologist argue that the report supports Bush in saying that Iraq is at the center of the "war on terror" even though it's BushCo's prosecution of the war that made it so & therefore can't leave... at this point, the program audio goes blank for about 2 minutes... curious. It's a good program anyway-- with her, I don't susppect anything beyond technical difficulties.
The links for streaming audio are here:
http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/06/09/28.php#11400
karen I swear that if that vote were November 8 instead of September 28 it would not have passed.After Max Cleland lost Dems are paraoid of Rove's tactics. While that might not be a profile in courage it is unfortunately a political realty. And to hear Bush scream that Dems are playing politics is insane.
Posted by: DiAnne at September 29, 2006 05:55 PM
Wow. This crowd is awesome.
http://www.rudepundit.blogspot.com
The majority of evil in history can be directly tied to people whose intention was to do good. "Good" here is defined by the very people committing the acts. We can see this on a massive scale: the Crusades were fought because the good Christians of the West believed their myths were more real than the Islamic myths and thus the Holy Land needed to be liberated. Most slave owners in America believed that whipping and mutilating wayward slaves actually taught a moral lesson. The British believed that slaughtering Indians and Africans would make the Empire more peaceful. Hitler and most Nazis believed they would make the world a better place by eliminating Jews (and homosexuals, etc.). Jihadists commit suicide bombings and crash planes because they believe their myths are more real than Christian myths. Of course, there's always myriad sundry and soiled reasons for mass evil to be committed: the desire for and/or maintenance of power, the desire for and/or maintenance of wealth, and more. But, at the end of the day, most of the Hutus who macheted body parts off Tutsi neighbors in Rwanda believed they were justified, that they were doing good, that they were protecting themselves, that they were eliminating an enemy.
In none of these situations do we forgive the perpetrators. In none of these historical moments do we simply elide over the violence and horror because the people doing it thought they were making their world a better place. We call "evil" by its name because we know that's what it is.
We are in a unique position, here, now, in this America, in that we are in a moment where we confront whether or not we are going to agree to become evil. No, we're not about to have a Kristallnacht or ethnic cleansing (yet). But our government is now trying to figure out just how evil it will be. The decisions to do evil are most often made by well-dressed people in small rooms, men and women who send out others below them to actually commit the evil acts. Most nations' evil is done as part of a program, documented and prepared, xeroxed and signed off on. A contract of sorts that evil will be done.
The very facts that we are engaged in a debate over how much pain, suffering, and humiliation is too much for the human mind and body; that we are arguing over whether to suspend legal principles that were established centuries ago in order to challenge unchecked power; that there simply exists no compelling reason for soldiers to continue to die in a war, all speak to our teetering on the brink of becoming an evil nation.
Last night, on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann was right: we are led by moral cowards. But, to take it further, more evil has been committed by fearful people than by brave ones. Ask the Bosnians.
We have to accept that, whatever their intentions, whatever reasons they might have had for their actions, the ones that they give mighty speeches about before handpicked crowds and the ones that they only whisper in private to their reflections in the mirror, we are now being led by people who are doing evil. This doesn't mean that others around the world are not doing evil. Just because al-Qaeda members commit evil deeds doesn't mean that Donald Rumsfeld does not. A man who murdered someone in a drive-by shooting is not excused because he is put into a jail cell next to a serial killer.
If we dare accept to our horror and infinite shame that we have allowed ourselves to be represented by people who do evil, even in the name of good, then we can either be complicit - we can go about our daily lives while the stench of the concentration camp pollutes the air of the town - or we can reject evil.
we got to tell Lieberman's staffers that we saw no vestiges of a soul in the man.Posted by: karen at September 29, 2006 05:10 PM
In the end, they are just human and they just get it wrong. I am grateful for the Senators and Members who got it right. And I have no trouble sharing my feelings with the ones who got it wrong.
Posted by: karen at September 29, 2006 05:33 PM
As usual , you hit the nail on the head (Liebermann), and you got it right. Thanks so much for what you've done for us.
DiAnne,
Exactly. Thanks for sharing that.
mbk,
I am glad to do what I do; and it is always for all of us and for all our children.
I look at our kids and I could not do any less. In fact, I usually feel I need to do more. What are they inheriting?
So all the actions, every piece of writing--it's for our kids, oncall's, Suz's, April's, ABQ's, Casey's, DiAnne's, and all the others here--and all the nieces and nephews as well.
Posted by: DiAnne at September 29, 2006 05:55 PM
What?!! That's really sick!
AP story on forbes.com: "Gonzales cautions judges on interfering
http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2006/09/29/ap3055270.html
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. . . said Friday that federal judges should not substitute their personal views for the president's judgments in wartime
Otter: well said! I'm a peacenik who knows how to use a gun, too. (I aim, it hits the center of a target; I was told I am a 'natural shot,' whatever that is; many years ago I won a trophy, tied for first place against a woman with years of experience, four days after I shot a pistol for the first time - I guess the 'natural shot' thing explains why I always used to hit the center of the target when Dad sighted in his deer hunting rifle every year.) The only difference is that I don't own a gun. I know how to use them, yes; but I do not own one. I just can't stand the loud noise, so I never liked guns....
Posted by: monkey at September 29, 2006 02:11 PM
No, I wasn't aware of the university connection.... So much for education implying intelligence comes with a degree from a college or university. If a student is not taught how to think, how to reason or use logic, a degree is meaningless alphabet soup behind a name.
Posted by: Ira at September 29, 2006 02:20 PM
Actually, the thing that sent all my feminine radar on full alert status, sirens blaring, lights flashing, about giggling Katie was her body language aeons ago when she was interviewing The Evil One before the '04 election (sorry; that was long ago, it was a video online that I saw, I think; not sure any longer, I don't have a reference, but I think sound bytes have been on TV during the promo before she became an anchor). Her eyes were 'adoring' and her manner flirty, complete with shy little flirty smile, and her body language was groveling in subserviance! Any more subserviant (body language said she was grateful to be a lowly person), and she would have been on her knees before him, hands in a praying supplication, saying 'yes, massa, suh.' As a woman, I was mortally offended! I really only watched her debut to see if she had changed. Obviously, she has not.
Schieffer, as a brother to someone at the White House or with another Republican campaign in '04, seemed to go out of his way to present progressive and Democratic views just so he couldn't be accused of unbalanced reporting or prejudice because of his brother's Republican connections. You're correct in that Schieffer's reporting was far more 'balanced' than most of Lamestream Media. He should have stayed the anchor at CBS.
Speaking of children, here's a treat:
http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=ken_robinson
Thoughts on yesterday's Senate proceedings, from a DU diary, Sept. 28
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/unhappycamper/20
In my 61 years on this planet, I thought I had seen most things.
. . . . [snip--if you read the details, you'll see he has] . . .
I just can’t get my brain around what is being done to our dignity today. I can truthfully say I think I have seen everything.
Something is really, really wrong here.
Off topic (sort of...but then it's all relevent, isn't it?)
Total curfew declared in Baghdad
The Iraqi government has declared an immediate curfew in the capital, Baghdad, to run until Sunday morning.
The move affects both vehicles and pedestrians, a spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister said.
The spokesman did not reveal why a curfew was being put in place, but sectarian violence and blasts have been increasing in recent days.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5393984.stm
[edited to rephrase as a question, in keeping with the thread title]
Is this what freedom on the march & democracy in Iraq look like?
CNN just broadcast transcripts of several alleged Foley emails.
This guy definitely had a problem, and an obsession with getting kids to take off their shorts.
Hey cyrano:
Maybe Nancy Grace should interview Foley on the MSM.
Seems like there was more than one male page involved with Foley's inappropriate conduct.... It does, however, surprise me that ABC (bastion of religious reich wingnuttia) released the emails which would only make the story bigger....
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060929/ap_on_go_co/congressman_e_mails
Foley resigns from Congress over e-mails
Excerpts:
ABC News reported Friday that Foley also engaged in a series of sexually explicit instant messages with current and former teenage male pages. In one message, ABC said, Foley wrote to one page: "Do I make you a little horny?"
In another message, Foley wrote, "You in your boxers, too? ... Well, strip down and get naked."
Foley, as chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, had introduced legislation in July to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet. He also sponsored other legislation designed to protect minors from abuse and neglect.
"We track library books better than we do sexual predators," Foley has said.
Foley was a member of the Republican leadership, serving as a deputy whip. He also was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Foley, who represents an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page in August 2005. Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails that were originally released by ABC News.
Foley's aides initially blamed Democratic rival Tim Mahoney and Democrats with attempting to smear the congressman before the election.
The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy.
Naomi Seligman, a spokewoman for CREW, said the group also sent a letter to the FBI after the group received the e-mails. CREW did not post their copies of the e-mail until ABC News reported them, instead waiting for the investigation.
"The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process," the group wrote, adding that the committee, "must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House."
In 2003, Foley faced questions about his sexual orientation as he prepared to run for Sen. Bob Graham (news, bio, voting record)'s seat. At a news conference in May of that year, he said he would not comment on rumors he was gay. He later decided not to seek the Senate seat to care for his parents.
According to the CREW posting, the boy e-mailed a colleague in Alexander's office about Foley's e-mails, saying, "This freaked me out." On the request for a photo, the boy repeated the word "sick" 13 times.
He said Foley asked for his e-mail when the boy gave him a thank you card. The boy also said Foley wrote that he e-mailed another page.
"Foley, as chairman of the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, had introduced legislation in July to protect children from exploitation by adults over the Internet. He also sponsored other legislation designed to protect minors from abuse and neglect."
Talk about your case of the fox guarding the hen-house.
Wolf Blitzer is following up with John McLaughlin on a CIA briefing in the summer 2001. McLaughlin (who is painted as a villain by David Kay in Woodward's book) claims that their alarms where going off during that period, but that the Bush Administration was not listening closely enough to their concerns.
Iraqi military was planning to stage a coup!
According to Obermannn show report.
*whew*
I am, like, *so* glad that this Woodward guy is just another left-leaning media whore moonbat and that his supposed 'book' is really just a bunch of blatantly-partisan lying drivel made up by a brain-dead over-the-hill hack who's trying to discredit our president in a time of war because he really wants the terrorists to win so they can wave their bloody flags over the rubble of Ground Zero while they fire shoulder-mounted missles at the Statue of Liberty and drink all our liquor and rape all our women and children and sheep.
I mean, can you *imagine* just what kind of crazy, fupped-duck world we Americans would have to be living in for any of that stuff to actually be *true*?
No way, Jose-can-you-see, no *way*!
fingers in me ears I can't hear you,
Otter
Maybe Woodward didn't appreciate being taken for a ride in hos earlier books (tho a journalit of his caliber should have smelled the rot & decay). Better late than never, I always say!
White House Disputes Portrayal in Woodward Book
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/washington/30bookcnd.html?ei=5094&en=5bb7379342f9c3a3&hp=&ex=1159588800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
Iraq: the week the truth was told (except by Tony Blair)
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article1772334.ece
President George Bush is forced to release a secret US intelligence report that says the Iraq war has increased the threat of terrorism
An MoD think-tank, aided by MI6, says the Iraq war has served as a "recruiting sergeant" for extremists in the Muslim world
Former foreign secretary Jack Straw tells Question Time the situation in Iraq is "dire" because of Bush's mistakes
The PM again refuses to countenance that the war in Iraq has increased Islamic terrorism, and the threat to Britain
(UK) Ministers break taboo of criticising Bush
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1772333.ece
British ministers have begun to blame the problems in Iraq on mistakes made by George Bush in the immediate aftermath of the conflict three years ago...
Pat Waring sounds plenty credible to me. Waring is the woman who heard George Allen use the N word multiple time at a Rugby game in the late 70s, and took it upon herself to tell him to shut up.
Bob Woodward says Bush "increasingly removed from reality"
http://www.alaskareport.com/wn10135.htm
President Bush is portrayed as being stubbornly immune to warnings that things might not be going well in Iraq. According to published reports, Woodward describes Bush as "increasingly removed from reality."
*** LOL ***
It was left to Snow to carry the attack against the book, which put the White House in an especially awkward position because it had so enthusiastically embraced Woodward's first two books in his "Bush at War" series, which depicted the president as decisive, informed and in charge.
However, this book, said Snow - who acknowledged that he had not read it - was inaccurate. "There's a whole lot of stuff here [that] melts like cotton candy," he said, adding that no one should be surprised that a book critical of the administration would be published to great fanfare barely a month before the midterm election.
But Snow repeatedly sidestepped questions about specific incidents recounted in the book, reminding reporters that he had been on the job only a few months and could not speak about matters that took place before he arrived earlier this year.
This is unbelievable! NOW...two years too late there's a whistleblower on election fraud!
(Technically it's 4 years too late!)
http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atlantaprogressivenews.com%2Fnews%2F0091.html
ATLANTA – Top Diebold corporation officials ordered workers to install secret files to Georgia’s electronic voting machines shortly before the 2002 Elections, at least two whistleblowers are now asserting, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.
Former Diebold official Chris Hood told his story concerning the secret “patch” to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for Kennedy’s second article on electronic voting in this week’s Rolling Stone Magazine.
Hood’s claims corroborate a second whistleblower who spoke with Black Box Voting and Wired News in 2003.
Whistleblower Accounts
“With the primaries looming, [Chief of Diebold’s Election Division] Urosevich was personally distributing a ‘patch,’ a little piece of software designed to correct glitches in the computer program,” Rolling Stone Magazine reported.
"We were told that it was intended to fix the clock in the system, which it didn't do," Hood told Rolling Stone. "The curious thing is the very swift, covert way this was done."
"It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state," Hood told Rolling Stone.
"We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from Urosevich. It was very unusual that a president of the company would give an order like that and be involved at that level,” Hood told Rolling Stone.
The “patch” was applied to about 5,000 polling places in Fulton and DeKalb Counties in 2002, Rolling Stone reported.
Hood did not immediately return a text message from Atlanta Progressive News and his voicemail was not operational.
The second whistleblower, Rob Behler, was contracted to work with Diebold in the lead up to the 2002 Elections.
Two patches were applied in June and July 2002 respectively while Behler worked in the Diebold warehouse; another patch was applied in August 2002 after Behler left the warehouse, Wired News reported.
Otter put a pax on all of our houses.
I do not know what a pax is but I am sure this can not be entirely healthy.
What happened to just rolling a house with toilet paper?
s parrow: my only curiosity would be why Diebolt would choose Georgia of all places to screw up voting machines. Other than Max Cleland's loss were their Congressional seats there that weren't slam dunks for Republicans anyways. Perhaps it was intended to skew their race for governor, Does RFK speak about why they chose Georgia or was he saying it was more widespread. Perhaps I should just read his book my self, but Georgia?
pax is the Latin word for peace
Posted by: Cyrano at September 29, 2006 07:21 PM
Down in FL, it's pretty much been a hush-hush fact that Foley walks to the beat of a different little drummer boy.
Ira- I already had the chuckle about Rep. Foley- especially when I remembered that he WAS, previously :-), probably the best known Representative from my state on the airwaves. Of course, Joe Scarborough is the best known former rep from Florida- but he's from my district, so I've chuckled about him for years. His little affairs with his secretaries, the rumors about the campaign worker who died mysteriously in his office overnight, that kind of thing. But Foley was constantly on TV during the 2000 recounts, so it's particularly fun to watch his sudden demise. ABC mentioned that it's been a bad day for Republicans today. Poor things. Ann Richards is smiling down from heaven today, and probably giving God a play by play analysis that is cracking up the creator. Dontcha' think?
William Rivers Pitt | In Case I Disappear
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092906J.shtml
William Rivers Pitt writes: "I have been told a thousand times at least, in the years I have spent reporting on the astonishing and repugnant abuses, lies, and failures of the Bush administration, to watch my back. 'Be careful,' people always tell me. 'These people are capable of anything. Stay off small planes, make sure you aren't being followed.'" He continues: "I thought. I am a citizen, and the First Amendment hasn't yet been red-lined, I thought. Matters are different now."
{{{Poignant poetic, if sad, prose....}}}
David Swanson | Treating Criminality as Daring Boldness
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092906P.shtml
David Swanson writes: "Bush has launched an illegal war, lied to Congress to do so, and misused funds by beginning the war before asking for approval. Bush has targeted civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, and used illegal weapons, including white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and the Napalm-like weapon found in Mark-77 fire bombs. Bush has arbitrarily detained Americans, legal residents and non-Americans without due process, without charge, and without access to counsel. To call this criminal is merely to agree with the US Supreme Court."
Tracking the CIA Torture Flights
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092906O.shtml
President George W. Bush admitted that the United States detains suspected terrorists in secret CIA-run prisons in foreign countries, but refused to disclose the location of said jails. "Doing so would provide our enemies with information they could use to take retribution against our allies and harm our country." A.C. Thompson and Trevor Paglen detail how the CIA transports these "detainees" around the globe. In These Times spoke with Thompson about how they tracked planes going to and from locations that don't officially exist.
Many Civil Rights Taken Away With New Law
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092906K.shtml
The military trials bill approved by Congress redefines the rules for the detention, interrogation, prosecution and trials of terrorism suspects. This bill gives the government extraordinary power to bar terrorism suspects from challenging their detention or treatment through traditional habeas corpus petitions. It allows prosecutors, under certain conditions, to use evidence collected through hearsay or coercion to seek criminal convictions.
HUD Secretary Admitted "Bias" Against Bush Critics
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092906M.shtml
An investigation by the HUD Inspector General reportedly revealed that HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson instructed staff to award HUD contracts to President Bush's political allies and withhold them from his political opponents. ThinkProgress has obtained access to the entire report which shows that the agency set aside the rules.
John Adams was known for the Alien Sedition Act; Bush will be remembered for setting aside Habeas Corpus.
"Slight differences in the Senate version of the bill mean it must be returned to the House, where it is expected to easily win approval today. Republican leaders then plan to forward the bill to the White House with a ceremony on Capitol Hill, in line with the party's effort to highlight its national security credentials before the November election.
"This legislation will give the president the tools he needs to protect American lives without compromising our core democratic values," Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said.
But some lawmakers, Republicans as well as Democrats, called the move to suspend habeas corpus — the demand for legal justification of one's imprisonment — a historic mistake, and one that could cause the entire bill to be struck down.
"This is wrong; it is unconstitutional; it is un-American," said Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The judiciary panel's chairman, Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), said, "Surely as we are standing here, if this bill is passed and habeas corpus is stricken, we'll be back on this floor again" grappling with a future ruling against it by the Supreme Court."
I agree with Specter that not even the Supreme Ct, will allow the President to essentially write laws that expand his own authority.
But let us not forget that our National Guard is bogged down in Iraq and not here to put out forest fires, assist with Katrina victims, or act as the 1500 border guards we were promised months ago. I believe that is part of his job of Providing for the General Welfare of this nation, as required in the preamble of the Constitution. That should be the Dems message over the next 39 days. Our national guard needs to be broght home to protect our borders and provide for the security of the homeland. That is a message that even Pat Buchanan would agree with.
Bush has abandoned the homeland and homeland security and ushered in a new era of gun violence as a biproduct of the violence our young people are seeing in Iraq that we now see erupting in our schools. This was our topic in the irc and hopefully will be our new topic for discussion this weekend.
Hey All:
What's the topic today?
Chuck in Houston
My boy James Webb is hanging tough in my Virginia (at least, two of four grandparents are buried there). Got an email from the Kerry site that we have until midnight tomorrow to pony up for contributions to races.
Chuck in Houston
Chuck I want to bring Iraq, our national guard, our need to have them to defend the homeland and the impact of Iraqi violence to the sudden outburst of gun violence in our schools this week. Our country is going to hell and our guard is bogged down 10,000 or so miles away.
Incidentally if you want to help me with Webb get ahold of me I have been involved.
Indeed. James Webb may be a Neanderthal, but at least he's *our* Neanderthal.
irish i may irish i might,
Otter
have the Guard brought home to defend and protect the homeland from natural disasters
Ira:
Just made a contribution. Does Henley have a snowballs chance?
Otter:
Not sure I follow your drift....
Chuck in Houston