"A Stain on Our Nation's History"*

Oh, come on, now. Why is everybody still making such a fuss over this? For one thing, it's already a done deal. So get over yourselves and just move on, okay? And besides, it has no relevance to folks like us anyway. The only people it affects are the prisoners, and we already know *they're* guilty. So who cares?

they hate us for our free willies,
Otter

Otter,

My husband just got bit hard for saying essentially the same thing you just did only he omitted the part about it only applying to prisoners, because he is my husband therefor not totally stupid. But he said there is nothing we can do about it. I told him we can yell untill we are either jailed or someone listens.

Fe: I have been crying about this all day for the past few weeks we have said everything we can say in this forum about this, I believe in the vague hope that someone anyone in power would read and listen. We have e-mailed mailed sent petitions and begged and no one is listening to us. The Democrats have hung their heads or burried them in the sand. Most people do not know or care what this means to us as a nation or to the world but most of all they are ignoring what this will mean for this nation today andmore impotantly in the future

Our only hope rest in the Supreme Court now we are putting our faith and hopes in a body that has become all to political itself. We hope and pray they will do as Supreme Courts have in the past and put politics aside and vote strictly on what this means to the very thing they are in office to protect the Constitution. Can these men will these men do that I do not know, but I can pray and hope that their jobs mean enough to them that they will. If they allow this law to stand then they have become expendable we no longer need them, they to will become a foot note in someone else history books.

If we aren't all blown to smithereens by bombs dropping on our own continent, or by the military obliterating our own citizens, someday school children may be memorizing 16 October 2006 as the day America died.

I'm retrieving my black clothing from the back of the closet; I'm in deep mourning for our nation.

Nix that... 17 October 2006.... I meant to type...

The propaganda of our times
By Paul R. Dunn
J.B. Priestly in the Root Is Fear wrote: "Almost all propaganda is designed to create fear. Heads of governments and their officials know that a frightened people are easier to govern, will forfeit rights it would otherwise defend, are less likely to demand a better life, and will agree to millions and millions being spent on 'defense'." Between now and Election Day we'll see Karl Rove's minions flaunt the Islamic Fascist line repeatedly and unabashedly to garner votes.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15329.htm

Bob Herbert | Why Aren't We Shocked?
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101706WA.shtml
Bob Herbert wonders why we aren't shocked at the prejudice and violence directed at women and girls? In the media coverage of recent school shootings at an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania and a large public high school in Colorado: "Very little was made of the fact that only girls were targeted. Imagine if a gunman had gone into a school, separated the kids up on the basis of race or religion, and then shot only the black kids. Or only the white kids. Or only the Jews."

FDA Is Set to Approve Milk, Meat From Clones
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/101706HA.shtml
Three years after the Food and Drug Administration first hinted that it might permit the sale of milk and meat from cloned animals, prompting public reactions that ranged from curiosity to disgust, the agency is poised to endorse marketing of the mass-produced animals for public consumption.

Cindy Sheehan | Playing the Numbers Game
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101706R.shtml
Cindy Sheehan asks: "How much of these criminals and their crimes can we stomach? I can't stomach any more, and I call anyone in America who is sick to death of the people we employ to represent us - but who represent their own interests and the war machine's interests - to join Gold Star Families for Peace in front of the White House for a sit-in to surround it and tell the people who mislead us that we want our country back and our troops out of Iraq."

The worst in Iraq is still to come
By Simon Tisdall
In the US, Iraq is now primarily an electoral rather than a nation-building, humanitarian or counter-terrorism issue. With the Republicans fighting to retain control of Congress in next month's midterm polls, George Bush's Middle East freedom mission has become a hard-nosed numbers game.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15323.htm

Why Bush Smiles: Victory is at Hand in Iraq
By Chris Floyd
Yes, victory. You wonder why Bush and his minions maintain the seemingly irrational belief that "things are going well" in Iraq, that "we're making progress," etc.? That's because things are going well in the war they are fighting: the war for money and power.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15328.htm

The courts are starting to accept that the war against Iraq is a crime:
In Britain and Ireland, protesters who have deliberately damaged military equipment are walking from the dock
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1924178,00.html

Oh, and we need to remember the names and faces of the men surrounding Herr Dictator in that photo. It's evidence against them for their support of the bill that killed this country's Constitution, the Bill of Rights, US law, and the Geneva Conventions. It can be used against them in the future if we still have elections in a couple of years....

Posted by: april at October 17, 2006 09:11 PM

April,

Bushco wrote this "law" only because the Surpremes told them that without such a law on the books the government was breaking the law with its prisoner policies. Don't count on the Surpemes to protect the Constitution, they inspired this atrocity.

When the only sound in the empty street,
Is the heavy tread of the heavy feet
That belong to a lonesome cop
I open shop.

When the moon so long has been gazing down
On the wayward ways of this wayward town.
That her smile becomes a smirk,
I go to work.

Judge for sale,
Appetizing young judge for sale.
Judge that's fresh and still unspoiled,
Judge that's only slightly soiled,
Judge for sale.

Who will buy?
Who would like to sample my supply?
Who's prepared to pay the price,
For a trip to paradise?
Judge for sale.

Let the poets pipe of law
in their childish way,
I know every type of law
Better far than they.

If you want the thrill of law,
I've been through the mill of law;
Old law, new law
Every law but true law.

Judge for sale,
Appetizing young judge for sale.
If you want to buy my wares
Follow me and climb the stairs
Judge for sale.
Judge for sale.

thanks for the loan of the coal, porter,
Otter

.. reason #20 why the signing of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 should scare the crap out of YOU!

Tue Oct 17, 1:08 AM ET

Web could be terror training camp: Chertoff

BOSTON (Reuters) - Disaffected people living in the United States may develop radical ideologies and potentially violent skills over the Internet and that could present the next major U.S. security threat, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said on Monday.

"We now have a capability of someone to radicalize themselves over the Internet," Chertoff said on the sidelines of a meeting of International Association of the Chiefs of Police.

-snip-

To help gather intelligence on possible home-grown attackers, Chertoff said Homeland Security would deploy 20 field agents this fiscal year into "intelligence fusion centers," where they would work with local police agencies.

By the end of the next fiscal year, he said the department aims to up that to 35 staffers.

http://tinyurl.com/ydra67

They're watching types...

Ten U.S. troops killed in Iraq
POSTED: 5:45 a.m. EDT, October 18, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- In a deadly day of violence, 10 U.S. service members died in Iraq on Tuesday, the U.S. Military said Wednesday.

-snip-

As of Wednesday, the U.S. military death toll stood at 65 for October and 600 for the entirety of 2006. Since the start of the war, the U.S. military has suffered 2,773 fatalities in Iraq. Seven American civilian contractors of the military also have died in the conflict.

Four days of persistent violence, mainly between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, has left dozens of people dead in the northern Iraqi city of Balad.

However, the U.S. military said Tuesday that increased security has brought a "marked decrease" in the violence, and coalition forces detained "two Iraqi police officers" who are suspected of involvement in the incident that set off the carnage.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/10/18/iraq.main/index.html

Iraq reality check: The cost in lives lost
Bloodshed buries hopes for end to Iraq insurgency

(CNN) Early in the Iraq conflict, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed insurgents as "dead-enders." In 2005, Vice President Dick Cheney said the insurgency was in its "last throes." Now, those descriptions lie buried beneath thousands of bodies -- U.S. troops, Iraqi police, and everyday citizens slain simply because of their religious sect.

The U.S. death toll is well above 2,700, and the coalition death toll just passed 3,000. Last month 776 U.S. troops were wounded -- the highest number in nearly two years. There is no sign the insurgency is waning, and no evidence to suggest it will any time soon.

"In September, we did see a rise in sensational attacks," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said October 4. "Last week we also saw the highest number of vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices this year that were both found and cleared, and those that were detonated. The number of IEDs, or improvised explosive devices, is also at an all-time high."

A report published last week in the British medical journal The Lancet suggested the Iraqi death toll due to the war could be in the hundreds of thousands. The White House disputed that figure but provided no figure of its own.

Gen. George Casey, head of U.S. troops in Iraq, said, "I've not seen a number higher than 50,000," though he said he could not recall where he saw that figure. "It's either from the Iraqi government or from us. But I don't remember it precisely."

The United Nations has reported a spike in Iraqi deaths this year, saying more than 3,000 Iraqi civilians died each month in July and August alone.

The violence in Iraq has "spiraled totally out of control," Jan Egeland, the top U.N. humanitarian official, said last week. He estimated 1.5 million internally displaced people who had to flee their homes amid the violence, and another 1.2 million to 1.5 million Iraqis who fled to neighboring countries.

Some universities and hospitals in Baghdad have lost up to 80 percent of their professional staff, Egeland said, and at least a third of Iraqi professionals are estimated to have left their country in recent years.

At a news conference last week, Bush noted that attacks rise each year during the month of Ramadan. And he argued the violence can be seen as a sign U.S. efforts are making headway. "Attacks and casualties have also increased recently because our forces are confronting the enemy in Baghdad and in other parts of Iraq," he said.

They're watching types...
Posted by: monkey at October 18, 2006 06:45 AM

Types like themselves??? Paranoid crooks out to take away the internet, or censor the internet like China still does, as well as monitor the web traffic for all their political competition...?

They could accomplish more with a simple Google search....

To argue for control of the internet by media giants, they'll argue that the internet breeds "ter-riristas'.... and that's why they have to protect children and teenagers from getting access to such stuff - but, of course, they won't stop the pedophiles and sexual predators....

IT'S TRUE: BUSH DECLARES 'NATIONAL CHARACTER COUNTS WEEK'
Post by Bob Geiger
You truly can't make this stuff up
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/43126/
{{{Couple of funny-sad satirical comments, too....}}}

Dead Iraqis, Just Like Jelly Beans
50,000? 500,000? How many have been killed in our miserable war? Bush tries to count
By Mark Morford

George W. Bush was confused.

It certainly wasn't the first time. He was muttering a sullen response to a reporter's question about some big new study. He was saying no, he really didn't believe that it was possible that the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq had resulted in the brutal deaths of more than half a million Iraqi civilians, about 650,000, or 2.5 percent of the entire Iraq population, or one heckuva lot more jelly beans than you could fit into that giant glass jar at the county fair.

Wait, what? Where did that last part come from? Did he just say that out loud? Check the icky media people: No one was looking at him strangely. No reporters were dialing their cell phones in a delirious rush to call their editors with a crazy new Dubya quote. OK. Whew. Must have been in his head. Thank goodness.

Back to business. No, he told the reporter, he could not believe that 650K number, partly because one of his top generals said that number was probably all wrong and that the real number was probably closer to 30,000 or 50,000, even though the general had no real research to back that up and even though this general is one of the best yes-men money can buy. ...

(click here to read the rest)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/10/18/notes101806.DTL&nl=fix

I am beginning to wonder if any of the Bush administration grew up in the Actual United States that they are trying to destroy, and if so what made them hate us so much? Some one should ask them. I am trying to figure out what they found to hate and why when most of them grew up contrary to public belief in very affluant families and had little to worry about in the way of creature comforts. What made them hate us so much. What has this country done to them? What have its people done to them?

Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely: Lord Acton

Posted by: oncall at October 17, 2006 11:15 PM

Then God Help us all, because he is the only one that will be able to.

This is so surreal, I belonged to message groups where I called people who had these kind of conspiracy theories dellusional, because no matter how bad things got I never ever believed we would see such a huge breakdown of the checks and balances our founding fathers put into place. Who would have thought that 3 co-equal branches of government would fall in lock step with one, putting egos aside for no other reason than to retain power. Its happened before in history but not to us, never would the United States land of the home free and brave ever be subjected to this kind of tyranny. I have now appologized to each and everyone of those supposed crazy people. It makes me wonder what else they were right about and that frankly scares the sh*t out of me.

Are there any parts of our Constitution that are still valid?

Because if not, what exactly are our soldiers swearing to support and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic?

Oh and...

Remember when "a stain on our nation's history" referred to an unlaundered blue Gap dress?

Ah, yes.

Leave it to you, V., to remember not only the blue dress but the *brand* of the blue dress.

:0)

dress for success,
Otter

Oh. Duh.

"NEW YORK (AP) - Gap Inc. (GPS), the leader in online sales among apparel specialty chains, plans to move beyond its brands to make its mark on one of the fastest-growing segments in e-commerce: shoes.

"The San Francisco-based chain, on Tuesday is slated to begin testing Piperlime.com, a Web site with 100 shoe brands, from $24 flip-flops from surf-clothing brand Roxy to $900 boots from orthopedist/designer Taryn Rose. Gap, which will officially launch the site Nov. 1, believes a stylish selection hand-picked by its staff can set it apart from online-only shoe merchants such as zappos.com and shoes.com, which offer a massive selection.

"'Online footwear is growing rapidly. And it is so complementary with apparel,' said Toby Lenk, president of Gap Direct, the company's online division. 'It's like peas and carrots. Apparel sells footwear, and footwear sells apparel.'"

There, see? If only Kruschev had had piperlime.com, that embarrassing moment at the U.N. need never have happened.

shoes for industry,
Otter

But from the Otterworld Not All News Is Bad News Department:

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

(CBS NEWS) There’s a sense up on Capitol Hill that the Democrats now have a real shot at regaining control of both houses of Congress, CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports.

Conventional wisdom has been that Republicans' control of the House that is really in danger. Republicans now hold 232 of 435 seats. The Democrats need to pick up 15 seats to take control.

However, the Senate has always been considered safer territory for the Republican majority, since the GOP holds 55 of the 100 seats. With elections this year for only a third of those seats, Democrats need to take away six Republican seats to win the Senate back. The scenario has looked unlikely —- until now.

That's because scandal, the war and a president with low approval ratings have created a very tough climate for Republicans, who are just trying to turn out their voters.

If there's one state that both parties will be focused on every day for the next three weeks, it's Ohio, CBS News correspondent Lee Cowan reports. A crucial Senate race and several tight House races may well tell the tale on Nov. 7.

[snip]

http://tinyurl.com/yjt99t

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

(NEW YORK TIMES) The bellwether state of Ohio appears to have become hostile terrain for Republicans this year, with voters there overwhelmingly saying Democrats are more likely to help create jobs and concluding by a wide margin that Republicans in the state are more prone to political corruption than are Democrats, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Home this year to closely watched races for governor, United States Senate and a growing roster of competitive House seats, Ohio is one of the most contested battlegrounds of 2006, and one in which voters at this point are strongly favoring Democrats on many issues.

The Democratic candidates for governor and Senate hold commanding double-digit leads over their Republican opponents in the poll, and respondents said they intended to vote for the Democratic candidate for the House in their district by 50 percent to 32 percent.

The results contained alarm bells for President Bush and his party across the nation three weeks from Election Day.

The poll found a striking slippage in the president’s standing among white evangelical Christians, a constituency that has provided a strong vote cushion for Republican candidates in recent elections. In November 2004, 76 percent of white evangelical Christians in Ohio voted for Mr. Bush. When asked in this poll whether they approved or disapproved of the job Mr. Bush was doing as president, 49 percent approved while 45 percent disapproved.

Ohio is a Republican-leaning but heavily contested state that twice voted to elect Mr. Bush and gave him his Electoral College margin of victory in 2004. But it is not a perfect microcosm of the country, and in particular has higher levels of economic anxiety, the poll found.

[snip]

Only a third of Ohio voters approve of the job Mr. Bush is doing as president or the way he is handling the economy, and they seem poised to take their discontent out on Republican candidates up and down the ballot. Republican officials at the national level said this week they had all but written off the Senate and governor’s races in Ohio and were diverting resources to other states where they believed they had a better chance of winning.

“In Ohio we’ve seen nothing but our manufacturing jobs cease to exist,” said one poll respondent, David Stuck, 59, of Miami Township, who said he had voted twice for Mr. Bush. Mr. Stuck, a Republican, blamed inaction at the federal level for the evaporation of jobs in Ohio and said he planned to vote for the Democratic candidate for United States Senate, Sherrod Brown, over the incumbent, Mike DeWine, a Republican.

“Call it a protest,” Mr. Stuck said in a follow-up interview. “I haven’t seen anything done in the last six years. To be honest, I’m truly thinking about voting Democratic across the board because I’m tired of Bush.”

[snip]

Many Democrats in Ohio still harbor resentment about the 2004 presidential contest between Mr. Bush and Senator John Kerry, which Mr. Bush officially won by about 120,000 votes out of 5.6 million cast in Ohio. Only 30 percent of Democratic poll respondents said they believed the 2004 vote count was fair and accurate, while 64 percent said it was not. (Many conspiracy-minded Democratic activists accused Mr. Blackwell, who serves as statewide supervisor of elections, of manipulating voting technology to help Mr. Bush win.) Republicans, by 89 percent to 8 percent, said the voting was fair and balanced.

[snip]

http://tinyurl.com/ykwotm

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

spill dewine take that pearl,
Otter

Posted by: Otter at October 18, 2006 08:59 AM

I'll never be your Eric Burden.

Monkey
Saw Jagger do "Paint It Black" last night.

Speaking of music, Kayakbiker went to an Impeachment Rally with a surprise guest & it was Neil Young, who has a website with hundreds of antiwar songs. Click on my name to read about it, & I'll have more up about the Stones later. I got home at midnight & had to be up at 6 AM, which is brutal.

Elections could leave Bush lame duck
Advisers bracing for possible shift in balance of power

By Peter Baker and Michael A. Fletcher
The Washington Post
Updated: 2 hours, 47 minutes ago

On desks around the West Wing sit digital clocks counting down the days and hours left in the Bush presidency, reminders to the White House staff to use the time left as effectively as possible. As of 8 a.m. today, those clocks will read 825 days, four hours. But if the elections go the way pollsters and pundits predict, they might as well read 20 days.

At least that would be the end of George W. Bush's presidency as he has known it. If Democrats win one or both houses of Congress on Nov. 7, the result will transform the remainder of Bush's time in office and dramatically shift the balance of power in Washington. Ending a dozen years basically passed in exile, congressional Democrats would have a chance to help steer the nation again -- following a campaign spent mostly assailing Bush's vision rather than detailing their own.

Around Washington, key figures in both parties have been trying to figure out what a Democratic victory would mean. Bush has been meeting privately with Cabinet secretaries in recent weeks to map out an agenda for his final two years in office. The White House says it is not making contingency plans for a Democratic win, but Bush advisers are bracing for what they privately recognize is the increasing likelihood. And Democratic leaders have been conferring about what they would do should voters return them to power.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15310701/

Saw Jagger do "Paint It Black" last night.

Posted by: DiAnne at October 18, 2006 09:22 AM

I see a red shirt and I want to rip it to shreds and stomp on it.

About the Gap - if you buy something there, get the "Red" products affiliated with Bono - benefit AIDS in Africa. He was trying to get corps to be more responsible.

Reading - April - appreciate what you described doing recently. Have been upset too - the Stones was a great distraction but even thought about "torture" on the way home, the had a bunch of emails about it.

I'm still carrying a torture for my ex-wife.

What a punk georgie is.

We are out of time, our nation will not survive this.

The Disappeared will start forming now, all of us knows what Argentina looked like, it will look the same as it happens here.

It is already happening.

Speaking of 'The Disappeared' my aunt Aline had a niece, Tracy, born on her birthday. Tracy also has a niece, Kaylee, born on the same day.

Had she lived, Aline would have been celebrating her birthday today along with my sister and daughter.

It is a sad day all around.

Justice seems so far away now. For all of us.

Our nation will never be the same after this day.

Christy knows.

Lady Liberty is writhing in her chains already. She shifts her clamps beside that golden door.

So how long, now, before she vanishes completely?

hay una estatua desaparecida,
Otter

So how long, now, before she vanishes completely?

Posted by: Otter at October 18, 2006 09:47 AM

I say she's gone already, but Hastert & Co. won't act on it.

Paging Dr. Strangelove

I will say this one more time, because it is the only thing I can do.

I will say it once more and then I will clear my mind of it and ready my heart for whatever is coming.

If you, if WE do not force the hand of the press by the end of election day, we are DEAD.

And if you think I am exaggerating I am not. If they steal this election they will move immediately to shut us down forever. All dissenters are in danger.

We know people from this very message board will be among those 'Disappeared'. Not just revolutionaries but scholars as well.

Is there anyone here that doubts this is coming...?

If you do not regain the MSM, if you allow them to write you into obscurity, they will. They have been doing it all along.

There is only one way to stop them.

All together.

If it is not done by that night, they will not hesitate to consolidate what it is they have been trying to accomplish all along. The complete destruction of The United States of America.

They have already calculated the level of your resistance and have prepared 'facilities' for it.

No war. No war profits. 'Over there' was never worth as much as right freaking here.

The ultimate war prize is about to be won, or lost.

God help us all.

Posted by: Christy at October 18, 2006 10:25 AM

Charley watched Olbermann with me last night and listened to the Constitutional law expert and when it was over she said, Mom if you disappear what will I do? I was floored I said honey I wont disappear. She said you speak out against Bush and the administration all the time with this new law doesnt that put you in danger? I tried to reassure her but I wasnt all that reassured myself.

We are at a very scarey time in this nations history and Christy I fear you are right.

Sorry to ask again, but I still need to know, if we don't have a Constitution any more, then just *what* are our soldiers swearing to protect and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic?

April
There are too many of us & we are not the first or only country where this has happened. We need to keep going.

I just put up a giant poster at my work space with Rolling Stones logo with the big tongue. It's not really political but still a personal statement. I'm a speech pathologist so maybe I can get by with it.

V
Hey - I just heard on NPR that we are losing on average of four soldiers a day this month.

There is a tipping point beyond which the US populace doesn't appreciate carnage.

Same time we are lamenting, some are rejoicing that the Dow is over 12,000 - it's all relative.

The elite profits off war and they don't send their young to die.

Even now Condi is encouraging Japan to arm & promising our full arsenal. Ships are heading to blockade Iran.

Lieberman supports Bolton. (That's creepier than Keith Richards)

http://thepremise.com/archives/10/18/2006/422

Here’s the headline:

Ten US soldiers killed as Iraq death toll mounts
That’s ten US soldiers killed in one day.

Here’s the accompanying photo:

US Vice President Dick Cheney welcomes home soldiers of the 101st
Airborne Division who havereturned from Iraq (Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty)

Take a look at those faces. Then put ten of them in boxes.

After five deferments from the Vietnam War, that’s what Dick Cheney did for his country today. Put ten troops in boxes and sent them home.

– Mark Barrett

(You have to go to the site to see the photo)

V,

Our soldiers are fighting for 'freedom' you see.

Or was that 'Victory'...?

I guess it does sound a wee bit silly even now to say, 'Our sons are dying for the glorious profits of Halliburton and company'.

I mean, it is true, but it still SOUNDS silly.

Yeah, 'freedom' does sound much better, too bad no one ever asked them directly whos' freedom EXACTLY was being won?

Not our, definately not the Iraqis.

Bin laden maybe.

I am not sure 'Our sons are dying so Osama can own his very own country too.' sounds any less silly either, even if it is just as true as all the other silly stuff.

Kinda throws 911 into a whole new light too, don't it though?

'Victory!'

Once we get whatever that means, our kids will no longer be sacrificed for it.

Clinton giving a speech and MSNBC covering it he is effectivly hitting on some of the issues the Republicans think are important. I am going to stay home and listen and see what if anything he says about the Torture bill.

oh and why they are not so important.

Wallstreet proclaims DOW 12,0000, in anticipation of adults taking over Congress in 3 weeks and responsibly bringing budget deficits back under control. That's my theory that I will be spreading and I am sticking with it.

In other news, Republican Hutchinson now ready to cut and run:

"Sen. Hutchison (R-TX), the President's Senator, has described the situation in Iraq as "chaos" and now believes its time to consider splitting the country into semiautonomous regions, Notes the Dallas Morning News."

Well of course when it starts getting good they interupt. GRRRRRRRRRRRR

Oh good the commentator has a dem and rep on and she is doing the attacking for the republican grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

This is the scary Democratic agenda and why we need to win Va and take control of the US Senate and being able to override anticipated Republican filibusters and vetos. Republican filibusters, gee that sounds strange. Maybe it will be time to start enforcing the extraordinary clause in the filibuster compromise.

from today's Washington Post

"In the House, the Democrats have made clear that there's a first tier of legislation they mean to bring to a vote almost immediately after the new Congress convenes. It includes raising the minimum wage, repealing the Medicare legislation that forbids the government from negotiating with drug companies for lower prices, replenishing student loan programs, funding stem cell research and implementing those recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission that have thus far languished."

"Cognizant that they will owe their victory in part to the public's revulsion at the way Congress does (or avoids) business, the Democrats also plan to revise House rules to enable the opposition party to introduce amendments and to sit on conference committees, from which Republicans have routinely excluded them since Tom DeLay became majority leader."

that is might generous and something I wouldn't ascriobe to especially how they have been treated by the other side.

"They also will ban members from accepting gifts and paid trips from lobbyists."

"By bringing such measures to a vote in the House, and conceivably in the Senate as well, the Democrats will be in the enviable position of doing both good and well: promoting long-overdue policy shifts that the public supports and putting their Republican colleagues in a pickle. Confronted with an up-or-down vote on raising the minimum wage or making medication for seniors more affordable, many Republicans will side with the Democrats. Should the Democrats win the Senate, Republicans will have to calculate the risks of filibustering such mom-and-apple-pie measures. These bills will also pose a conundrum for conservatives such as John McCain, whose presidential aspirations have not been clouded by having to vote on these issues."

"Should they make it through both houses, many of these measures will face a presidential veto. George W. Bush has already vetoed stem cell legislation, and he has staunchly opposed raising the minimum wage since the day he entered politics. What will congressional Republicans do if they're confronted with a series of vetoes of popular legislation? How large will the lame duck president loom in their calculations?"

"

DiAnne is right. Bolton is *way* creepier than Keith Richards.

Oh, wait, I'll bet she meant Joshua Bolton, not Michael Bolton.

No matter. It's still true enough either way.

Yes those are all creepy, but I was speaking of that "thing" that represents us at the UN.

Posted by: DiAnne at October 18, 2006 10:55 AM

The Tongue, it is indeed mightier than the Sordid.

Strolling Drones

Bolton, DiAnne? Nah. More like Strapon.

You're right, monkey, it is indeed. Just ask Mark Foley.

Posted by: Otter at October 18, 2006 12:17 PM

Is there a stain on his story?

Oh that reminds me, Happy Hump Day.

IF you think you've seen it all, go to Salon, watch the ad, get into the site & read all about Rick Santorum and the Eye of Mordor - he compares Iraq to Lord of the Rings.

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/10/17/santorum/index.html

No stain. Skid marks.

Speaking of Foley, anyone come across the cell phone photos of him in Austin at the Old 97s concert? Don't have the link here but saw them on several sites.

Gollum gee, DiAnne!

"As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else," Santorum said. "It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States."

Yeesh.

Hobbitt Fans Unleash Geek Fury on Rick Santorum
Yesterday, Sen. Rick Santorum tried to explain the war in Iraq by drawing an analogy to the Lord of the Rings:

As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else.... It's being drawn to Iraq and it's not being drawn to the U.S. You know what? I want to keep it on Iraq. I don't want the Eye to come back here to the United States.

Really, Santorum should have known better. By invoking LOTR, he was inviting the scrutiny of hordes of Tolkien fans, who, sure enough, are unleashing their fantasy-lit fury on him. First off, Santorum called it the Eye of Mordor, when it's really the Eye of Sauron. Jeeze! Scott Rosenberg exposes more flaws in Santorum's comments:

First of all, in Tolkien's saga, the good guys are outgunned and outmanned by the Dark Lord, whereas in our world, the U.S. is a "hyperpower" whose military, in 2001-2, seemed to bestride the world. Second, in Tolkien, the good guys sent Frodo with the Ring into the depths of Mordor as a sort of last-ditch, bet-everything gamble; then they sent an army to the gates of Mordor as a diversion — to keep the Eye occupied and distract it from the hobbits headed for Mount Doom.

David Weigel at Reason's Hit and Run further explains how Santorum's comments failed to reflect the geopolitical complexities of Middle Earth:

Was Santorum referring to the hobbits' final approach up Mount Doom, when Aragorn (George Bush) was convincing the men of Gondor (Tony Blair) and Rohan (John Howard) to make a final, diversionary push at the Black Gates? Or is he referring to the entire quest of Frodo and Sam (300 million Americans), which was aided at various points by mystical creatures - the Ents, the Dead Men of Dunharrow - that don't have any easy relations in the real war on terror?

And Rosenberg again:

It's hard, in truth, to find any useful Middle Earth analogy to the Iraq War: the parallels break down across the board. Still, you might think of Bush's invasion of Iraq as the equivalent of a beleaguered Gondor, attacked by the armies of Mordor across the River Anduin, sending its army off on an expedition to Far Harad, after its leaders issued proclamations that the White Council had incontrovertible evidence of the Haradrim's possession of Rings of Mass Destruction.

So wait, if Bush is Aragorn, does that mean Condi Rice is Arwen?

(see http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2006/10/2539_hobbitt_fans_un.html)

New thread

One more time for the dolts in the balcony...

If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I’d worked for all my life.
And I had to start again,
with just my children and my wife.

I’d curse the wicked czars above,
that are ruling here today.
‘ cause the flag that used to stand for freedom,
It's been illegally ripped away.

I’m not proud to be an American,
where I know now I’m not free.
And I wont forget the men who lied,
And stole those rights from me.

But I'll gladly stand up,
Next to you and defend her still today.
‘ Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God, grace the USA.

From the lakes of Minnesota,
to the hills of Tennessee.
Across the plains of Texas,
From sea to shining sea.

From Detroit down to Houston,
and New York to L.A.
Well there's pride in every American heart,
and its time we stand and say.

We're not proud of THIS America,
Where We know now We're not free.
And We wont forget the men who lied,
And took those rights from We.

But We'll gladly stand up,
Next to you and defend her still today.
‘ Cause there ain’t no doubt We love this land,
God help the USA