Monday Namedropping: CALL CALL CALL

crossposted, please help spread the word:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/1/29/81836/8832

Karen I don't know what the coverage has been like in America, but in the rest of the world we know that you mean business. It was great that Jane Fonda addressed the crowds for the first time since her protesting of the Vietnam war. She's right. We've learned precious little. Although I think that most of us have learned a lot, but we don't aspire to living a life in the administrative heart of a country. We need to encourage more peace minded people into politics. Surely, Congress will not continue to ignore you.

Congratulations. Your commitment is truly inspirational. You can move mountains! And the girl in the photo is beautiful!

America's Most Wanted
In a new book, a right-wing critic blames the terrorist attacks of 9/11 on left-wing politicians, movie stars and activists.

By Jerry Adler
Newsweek

Feb. 5, 2007 issue - In 2004, when Sen. Ted Kennedy was temporarily grounded by the appearance of a certain "T. Kennedy" on the No-Fly List, it was treated as an amusing bureaucratic snafu. But is it possible the government was on to something? Dinesh D'Souza, the right-wing author and critic, has made his own list, and Ted Kennedy is the very first name. D'Souza identifies more than 100 people and organizations as part of a "domestic insurgency" that is "working in tandem with [Osama] bin Laden to defeat Bush." Among them are such well-known terrorists as Sharon Stone, Henry Louis Gates and Cindy Sheehan. If you've ever given money to Planned Parenthood or the ACLU, D'Souza wants you to know, you've been aiding groups "at least as dangerous as any of bin Laden's American sleeper cells." So if you find yourself getting on a plane with Kennedy, or even Noam Chomsky, you might want to think about driving instead.

In his new book, ominously titled "The Enemy at Home," D'Souza takes pains to insist that "I am not accusing anyone of treason or even of anti-Americanism." He's merely identifying people who, blinded by hatred of President Bush, actively work to promote the interests of the jihad—by inflating a few tawdry pranks at Abu Ghraib into allegations of torture, for example, or spreading defeatism about America's success in Iraq. So it's not as if he's the second coming of Joseph McCarthy, although he happens to believe McCarthy was by and large right. He's just keeping a list.

But this is only half of D'Souza's indictment of "the Left." It's not just that they're working on behalf of bin Laden—they are also, paradoxically, responsible for bin Laden's hatred of America in the first place, by attempting to foist their decadent moral values on the rest of the world. D'Souza cites the long self-justifying statement bin Laden released in 2002, but ignores the entire first half of it, which deals with the Arabs' geopolitical and economic grievances, and skips to his denunciation of America as "the worst civilization in the history of mankind," sunk into "fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants [and] gambling." To D'Souza, this is a trenchant cultural critique; the road to 9/11 begins with reruns of "Baywatch," raining down their suggestive filth on the conservative, patriarchal societies of Islam.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16840067/site/newsweek/

Posted by: monkey at January 29, 2007 09:22 AM

And to think so many trees were murdered for a book like that to be in print....

Okay. Just called my rep and senators: Nydia, Chuck and Hillary.

Almost wanted to say that they owe him, but just said I would trust him, beyond anyone else, to get this right, and responsibly.

We'll see.

Picked up the Teddy Roosevelt quote off of the below link.

If you also email your senators and reps (or anyone in Lamestream Media), you could remind them what ol' Teddy said....

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/29/hannity-abandons-enemy-of-the-state/
Hannity Abandons “Enemy of the State”

[The President] should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.

Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

President Theodore Roosevelt

Spread the word--it is TOO QUIET over there!

I am heading over to catch up with the Backbone folks in a little while. But we are not hearing nearly enough NOISE!!

PLEASE tell neighbors and friends to call.

Jason Leopold | "Bush Administration Is Focus of Leak Inquiry"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012907J.shtml
Jason Leopold begins: "On the evening of September 27, 2003, Ari Fleischer logged onto a computer and read a story published on the Washington Post's web site - a story that would be printed above the fold on the front page of the paper the next morning. 'Bush Administration Is Focus of Leak Inquiry,' the headline read. 'CIA Agent's Identity Was Leaked to Media.' By the time he finished reading the story, Fleischer's heart 'went into his throat.'"

US Air Raids in Somalia May Be Inefficient, Harmful
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012907P.shtml
US air raids in Somalia to flush out suspect al-Qaeda operatives may be ineffective in fighting terrorism and risk making the country's Muslim population more radical, regional experts warn.
{{{Gee, Ya think?!?}}}

Here's a really good diary summarizing a talk Daniel Ellsberg gave this weekend in CA. Many parts of it are very relevant to the situations/issues we face today with this regime.

It's well worth the read.
A Roadmap to Ending the War from Daniel Ellsberg
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/29/115433/297

This paragraph is particularly relevant to the thread topic:

Furthermore, we need to pressure our legislators to end the war. Ellsberg said that we would have escalated our attacks in Vietnam in '69 but public opinion stopped us from it. So perhaps we can make enough noise to prevent some of the escalation that is planned in Bush's evil little head. Unfortunately, we might never know what we've prevented, but we must continue to vocally oppose the war and take it on faith that our opposition is heard and (in some way) reflected in government and military policy.

I'm taking the liberty of cross-posting this from over at a certain senator from Massachusett's blog so that y'all can dig the photos and be even more there in spirit today:

http://blog.johnkerry.com/2007/01/setadeadlinecom_at_the_dc_peac.html

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

This was truly an incredible event. I'm so glad that I was able to be a part of it.

At the beginning of the week, I wasn't sure if I was going to go or not, but after Senator Kerry made his announcement on Wednesday, I knew that I had to go. It was wonderful seeing so many fellow Kerrycrats, and an honor to help distribute setadeadline.com fliers. Anything for the Senator!

Like GV, I also took a lot of photos. Here's a link to where some of mine are stored in case anyone who hasn't seen them yet wants to take a look.

http://islandblue.smugmug.com/gallery/2405256#126084402

Now all I have left to do is catch up on some sleep!

Posted by Island Blue | January 28, 2007 11:28 PM

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

now step away from your computers and start working those phones right NOW,
Otter

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070129/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iran_4
Bush warns Iran against action in Iraq
WASHINGTON - Deeply distrustful of Iran, President Bush said Monday "we will respond firmly" if Tehran escalates its military actions in Iraq and threatens American forces or Iraqi citizens.
~~~~~
"If Iran escalates its military actions in Iraq to the detriment of our troops and - or innocent Iraqi people, we will respond firmly," Bush said in an interview with National Public Radio.
~~~~~
"It makes sense that if somebody is trying to harm our troops or stop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them," Bush said on Friday.

{Click link for more. Called, wrote emails to rep & senators.... But I still wish someone would slap DimWit upside the head and knock some sense into that echo chamber of his delusions.... The escalation can only get more people killed on all sides of this debacle. This insanity just has to stop before it goes further.}

Monkey
That d'Souza guy is an American Taleban, since he blames the left for moral decadence. He is aiding and abetting the modern Crusade, and completely unapologetic. Amazing.

Karen
Love those photos - you knew I would!!

Otter
Heading of to Kerry's blog to see, then on to the phones.

Karen
Say hi to Bill Moyer if you see him.

Posted by: NonnyO at January 29, 2007 01:57 PM

The White House says there has been growing evidence over the last several months that Iran is supporting terrorists inside Iraq and is a major supplier of bombs and other weapons used to target U.S. forces. In recent weeks, U.S. forces have detained a number of Iranian agents in Iraq.

"It makes sense that if somebody is trying to harm our troops or stop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them," Bush said on Friday.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/29/us.iran.ap/index.html

This administration ... evidence... bwahahaha!

Scarychit, mon.

We need to stop selling cluster bombs.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/HRW/ec979e5d2be17242f72dcbe4c8245e25.htm
Human Rights Watch

Watch Cheney's facial expression when Bush mentions alternative energy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK11e8_pmBU

WASHINGTON - This one has gotten a little ic-ky for the White House. Spokesman Tony Snow said Monday that President Bush had no intention of slighting the party now running Congress by referring to it as the "Democrat majority" - as opposed to the "Democratic majority" - in his State of the Union speech.

Bush's dropping of the "ic" at the end of the word prompted grumbling by Democrats that he purposely got their name wrong.

This is not a new charge. The late President Reagan used to refer to the "Democrat Party." Democratic leaders have long considered it demeaning when their suffix is omitted, and some of them figured it was no accident in a speech as highly choreographed and rehearsed as Bush's State of the Union.

Snow said Bush wasn't even aware that he done it, and he certainly didn't mean anything by it. The verbal slip came in the same breath as the president was congratulating Democrats for winning the House and Senate in the November election.

"This is a president who has tried to stay away from the business of doing slurs, and there was none intended," Snow said.

Bush's main theme, in fact, was about cooperating with Democrats and ending petty politics, Snow insisted.

"He spends an entire speech talking about reaching out and working together, and a few people who apparently haven't gotten the message run out and they complain that the letters "ic" were missing from 'Democratic,'" Snow said.

In the language the president was supposed to read, the reference was "Democratic," not "Democrat."

Bush plans to speak to the House Democratic Caucus at its conference this weekend in Virginia.

On the president's schedule, that event is referred to as the "House Democrat Conference."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16872013/from/RS.5/

Yeah sure, the purple band-aids were an accident too.

... by the by, tomorrow is Dick Cheneys birthday... he'll be 66-6.

Be sure to send him your wishes.

Go birthday yourself, Dick head.

Posted by: monkey at January 29, 2007 03:40 PM

I'd get arrested if I sent him my wishes... Will a one-finger salute do?

Hmm. I could quote from it for you here, or I could just urge you to go there and read it for yourselves instead.

http://blog.johnkerry.com/2007/01/update_on_iraq.html

Powerful stuff.

And all the more reason that we need to get these evil and soulless men out of office sooner rather than later.

hey hey ho ho bush and cheney's got to go,
Otter

Former top Bush aide contradicts Libby

Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer testified Monday that Lewis "Scooter" Libby told him about a CIA operative three days before the date that Libby says he learned her identity from a reporter. The timing is crucial since Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, is accused of lying about when he learned that administration critic Joseph Wilson was married to CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/29/cia.leak/index.html

Posted by: monkey at January 29, 2007 03:40 PM

Yeah, triple 6 - hope you get everything your deserve Cheney.

Posted by: Otter at January 29, 2007 05:23 PM

That short video should be run at short intervals on every television and radio network until this madness is stopped. I almost wrote "over" but it can never be over for hundreds of thousands of people.

We have to swamp our reps and Senators with mail and phone calls on binding resolutions to prevent war in Iran, Syria, and elsewhere, while also ending funding for the war in Iraq.
Blog: Free Expression
Post: Scott Ritter on Iran: The War's Already On
Link: http://free--expression.blogspot.com/2007/01/scott-ritter-on-iran-wars-already-on.html

Excerpts from Juan Williams' NPR interview of George "Baby Einstein" Bush at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7065633

The last time I read D'Souza was the End of Racism, which justified cut-rate treatment for black Americans.

It was a popular read among Asian-American reactionaries (who recommended that filth to me).

Sorry I couldn't do anything today - I was bedridden most of the day.

Do I dare say Hillary got swift boated today??
Nice that John doesn't have to take the rap..hehehehehehe

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at January 29, 2007 09:16 PM

Ally--We'll forgive you. But that means tomorrow you must call extra. (Or the next day. Whenever you feel better!)

So get better soon!

leaked from Raw Story to Daily Kos - should be up at NYT website soon

NYT to report Bush taking more power by executive order

President George W. Bush has given his administration a boost in how the government regulates key issues such as civil rights and the environment,

The President "signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules that the federal government develops to regulate public health, safety," privacy and other issues, writes Robert Pear for the Times.

Pear reports that "in an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Bush said that each federal agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee" who will monitor the creation of process and procedures and the associated documentation.

"The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency," Pear writes, "to analyze the costs and benefits of new rules and to make sure they carry out the president's priorities."

Monbiot thinks W is a phony environmentalisthttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2001694,00.html

good discussion of 2 peas in a pod - W / Armahdinejad

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2001703,00.html

Pelosi reaches out to bloggers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6380120,00.html

Posted by: not my president at January 29, 2007 10:30 PM

And those that disagree are disposed of and attacked--ie Jesselyn Radack.

Late night return after a truly special afternoon with the Backbone folks. (Sorry DiAnne--Bill Moyer didn't make it, but we had some great folks from Seattle!)

I'll write more and post pics after sleeping, but it was quite fun and effective!

Many more actions being planned for this week, so I'll share here as they unfurl--so to speak! (heeeheeheee)

OH and thanks to all who called. Keep it up, I saw some folks actually blinking today.

Posted by: not my president at January 29, 2007 07:46 PM

Not a surprise but scary as hell!

The people who give the instructions and those who carry them out are beyond all reason and humanity. I don't even hope for their pain because they have no senses. This is an absolute disgrace! I regard Prime Minister Howard and his bully boy Attorney General, Philip Ruddock, entirely responsible for this.

Hicks tells of 'Nazi' conditions
January 30, 2007 - 2:09PM

Accused terrorist David Hicks has told his lawyers that conditions at Guantanamo Bay, where he has been held for five years, are "like a Nazi concentration camp".

The 31-year-old father of two met his lawyers today inside the newly-created Camp Six at the US military prison in Cuba.

The Adelaide-born Muslim convert showed signs of mental deterioration, his Australian-based lawyer David McLeod said after the meeting.

"He shows all the signs of someone who has been kept in isolation for a very long time," Mr McLeod said.

Cont ....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/hicks-tells-of-nazi-conditions/2007/01/30/1169919313538.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-campaign30jan30,0,5278812.story
Liberate political speech
The Supreme Court revisits campaign finance reform's most dubious restrictions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012902090.html
With Iran Ascendant, U.S. Is Seen at Fault
Arab Allies in Region Feeling Pressure

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012902002.htmlSoldier's Death Strengthens Senators' Antiwar Resolve
Kerry, Dodd Demand Stronger Challenge to Bush
Excerpt:"The notion of sense-of-the-Senate resolutions, what the hell does that mean?" Dodd asked yesterday. "Is that all you got?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/washington/30rules.html
Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.
~~~~~
Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said: “The executive order allows the political staff at the White House to dictate decisions on health and safety issues, even if the government’s own impartial experts disagree. This is a terrible way to govern, but great news for special interests.”

Business groups hailed the initiative.

{More on link.}

All men having power ought to be mistrusted.
James Madison

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/29/votevets-creates-new-stop-escalation-ad/
VoteVets Creates New “Stop Escalation” Ad
Video of the ad... It's simple and to the point. IMHO, very effective, espedially since the gentleman with the missing hand and part of his forearm is saying "on the other hand, there's George Bush....". Has anyone seen this ad run on TV yet?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-russ-feingold/breaking-another-iraq-tab_b_39912.html
Senator Russ Feingold
Breaking Another Iraq Taboo
http://feingold.senate.gov/issues_redeploy_factsheet.html
{{{Doesn't look like it will keep our troops out of harm's way, at first glance. Funding any actions by the US military is still 'funding the war' and that is not what we need. We need the troops out NOW.}}}

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gen-wesley-clark/taking-on-the-escalation-_b_39898.html
Gen. Wesley Clark
Taking on the Escalation - Vets Leading the Way

Police Detain Nine in Capitol Hill Antiwar Protest
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012907S.shtml
Nine antiwar protesters were arrested Monday when they gathered in a House office building to read off the names of American and Iraqi war dead.

US Plans To 'Fight The Net' Revealed
By Adam Brookes
A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.
http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/185/52/

{{{BTW, in case few others are on the ICH list, you might not be aware of the fact that ICH now has its server in Holland after their server was hacked into.... The web site owner just sent out an email about it within the last couple of weeks.}}}

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-fleischer30jan30,0,3009219.story
Fleischer then and now: There's a telling difference
Once an unwavering administration foot soldier, the ex-White House spokesman gives an insider's account.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/the-administration-punts-_b_39958.html
The Administration Punts Again: Why Does the Press Play Along?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012900504.html
Former Press Secretary Says Libby Told Him of Plame
Fleischer's Testimony On Timing Supports Prosecution's Case

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012901449.html
Eugene Robinson
The Ba-Da-Boom Crew
If you've been following the Lewis "Scooter" Libby perjury trial, I can understand how you might confuse Dick Cheney with Tony Soprano. Cheney's office is beginning to sound a lot like the Bada Bing, minus the dancers.

Court has been in session for only a week, and already we've heard about characters being set up (Libby, allegedly, to save political wizard Karl Rove), strung along (media bigwigs, who were to be played like patsies), buried in mud (former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who questioned the raison d'etre of the Iraq war) and ratted out (the famously leak-averse Cheney, revealed to be willing to leak like a washerless faucet when it suits his purposes).
~~~~~
Increasingly, the vice president is sounding as if he lives in a la-la land of his own imagining, a place beyond truth.

{More on link.}

Hagel Interview More Anti-War Than Most Dems
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012907A.shtml
Republican senator Chuck Hagel sounds off on the sorry state of Congress, the president's lies, and the vote for war that he now regrets. In an interview for GQ, Hagel explains how he was deceived by the president, and won't let it happen again.

{{{Do yourselves a favor and read this entire interview all the way through. Hagel has the ability to cut to the chase, speak clearly, express himself concisely (mostly in 25 words or less!!!). If the 'Publicans don't choose him as their candidate, but run with the zebra herd and let Lamestream Media and the neoCons choose that infantile, groveling nitwit McCain, they will err greviously. If the election were held tomorrow, Hagel would garner a landslide victory of 90% of the vote just on his anti-war stance. Compared to Hagel, all the Dems have for 'pretzelnit' candidates are essentially mealy-mouthed turnip heads who have mastered the art of rambling on for 25 paragraphs without saying anything meaningful, clearly, or concisely (DINOs, not any different from Bush or his evil minions of neoCons). The Dems should consider recruiting Hagel....}}}

US "Poised to Strike at Iran's Nuclear Sites" From Bulgaria and Romania
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012907C.shtml
President Bush is preparing to attack Iran's nuclear facilities before the end of April, and the US Air Force's new bases in Bulgaria and Romania would be used as back-up in the onslaught, according to an official report from Sofia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/30/washington/30iran.html
Europe Resists U.S. Push to Curb Iran Ties
WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — European governments are resisting Bush administration demands that they curtail support for exports to Iran and that they block transactions and freeze assets of some Iranian companies, officials on both sides say. The resistance threatens to open a new rift between Europe and the United States over Iran.

Frank Rich | Hillary Clinton's Mission Unaccomplished
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012907D.shtml
Frank Rich writes "Few Americans know more than Senator Clinton about health care, as it happens, and if 27 Americans hadn't been killed in Iraq last weekend, voters might be in the mood to listen to her about it." But polls continue to show Iraq dwarfing every other issue as the nation's No. 1 concern.

Excerpts:

The Democrats' pre-eminent presidential candidate can't escape the war any more than the president can. And so she was blindsided Tuesday night, just as Mr. Bush was, by an unexpected gate crasher, the rookie senator from Virginia, Jim Webb. Though he's not a candidate for national office, Mr. Webb's nine-minute Democratic response not only upstaged the president but also, in an unintended political drive-by shooting, gave Mrs. Clinton a more pointed State of the Union "contrast" than she had bargained for.
To the political consultants favored by both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Bush, Mr. Webb is an amateur. More than a few Washington insiders initially wrote him off in last year's race to unseat a star presidential prospect, the incumbent Senator George Allen. Mr. Webb is standoffish. He doesn't care whom he offends, including in his own base. He gives the impression - as he did Tuesday night - that he just might punch out his opponent. When he had his famously testy exchange with Mr. Bush over the war at a White House reception after his victory, Beltway pooh-bahs labeled him a boor, much as they had that other interloper who refused to censor himself before the president last year, Stephen Colbert.

But this country is at a grave crossroads. It craves leadership. When Mr. Webb spoke on Tuesday, he stepped into that vacuum and, for a few minutes anyway, filled it. It's not merely his military credentials as a Vietnam veteran and a former Navy secretary for Ronald Reagan that gave him authority, or the fact that his son, also a marine, is serving in Iraq. It was the simplicity and honesty of Mr. Webb's message. Like Senator Obama, he was a talented professional writer before entering politics, so he could discard whatever risk-averse speech his party handed him and write his own. His exquisitely calibrated threat of Democratic pushback should Mr. Bush fail to change course on the war - "If he does not, we will be showing him the way" - continued to charge the air even as Mrs. Clinton made the post-speech rounds on the networks.
~~~~~
This, in other words, is a moment of crisis in our history and there will be no do-overs. Should Mrs. Clinton actually seek unfiltered exposure to voters, she will learn that they are anxiously waiting to see just who in Washington is brave enough to act.

{{{And, Webb still has has Hagel's ability: to cut through all the bullshit and get to the essence of what needs to be said. Obama has somehow "unlearned" that ability as a politician. The inspired speaker we saw at the DNC convention is gone; I caught a sound byte of him on Oprah when he was peddling his last book, and nothing he said about anything political sounded any different from Hillary or the other Dems stuck in the middle....}}}

The Asia Times Online
Middle East
Jan 31, 2007

The Writing's On The Wall For Iran
By Leon Hadar

Rejecting the notion that the United States was planning to attack Iran and Syria, White House spokesman Tony Snow called it a myth or an "urban legend".

"I want to address [a] kind of a rumor, an urban legend that's going around," Snow told reporters at a White House briefing two days after President George W Bush vowed to go after Iranian terrorist networks involved in Iraq violence. "What the president talked about in his speech on Iraq strategy is defending American
forces within Iraq," Snow insisted.

In his January 11 televised speech on US policy in Iraq, Bush had accused Tehran and Damascus of fueling the insurgency in Iraq and expressed disagreement with proposals, including from the Iraq Study Group (ISG), to negotiate with both countries as part of an effort to reach peace and stability in Iraq. He said: "We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq." Bush also announced that he would dispatch another aircraft-carrier battle group and deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries in the Persian Gulf.

Generally speaking, an urban legend is a widely circulated, folklorish story - often based on exaggerated or distorted fact - that is believed to be true by many who repeat it.

So let's see. Many reports circulated in Washington and elsewhere in 2002 and early 2003 that, notwithstanding Bush's stated commitment to deal with Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) through diplomatic means, the White House was already considering plans to oust Saddam Hussein militarily. It seems that Bush et al would characterize such "pre-invasion preparation" speculation as urban legend. After all, Bush and his advisers denied the reports - much in the same way they are challenging the current reports on the possibility of US preparations to attack Iran.

I suppose that when it comes to Washington, something that is urban legend-esque ceases to be a legend only after we read one of Bob Woodward's post mortems in which we end up discovering that those who had been accused of "spreading rumors" were actually telling the truth. We might then learn that the press secretary who had dismissed these facts as nothing more than "rumors" was probably just out of the loop. ("Out of the loop" is what "insiders" call a government official who doesn't have access to information about what the Decider and his Vice are really planning.)

As a journalist who covered Washington in the months leading up to the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003, I recall the many "urban legends" that were circulating at that time. These included rumors about how Vice President Dick Cheney and then-secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld were pushing for a war with Iraq; about how their aides were pressuring the intelligence agencies to come up with "estimates" to help exaggerate the Iraqi WMD threat and Baghdad's alleged ties to al-Qaeda; about how the Americans and the British were secretly drawing up a strategy for a military confrontation with Iraq while pledging to continue to pursue diplomacy; and about how some of the leading Iraqi exiles lobbying for the "liberation" of Iraq, such as Ahmad Chalabi, were untrustworthy characters.

I read some of these reports in the press; others reached me through the grapevine. They were all immediately denied by the White House press officer. Yet after the war had been raging, most of these "rumors" proved to be based on fact. In a way, any political analyst familiar with the way Washington works and the way decisions are made there - who could read between the lines of media reports and official statements, and who would deconstruct the modus operandi and body language of Bush and his aides - had no choice but to conclude that war with Iraq was inevitable. In that case, the conventional wisdom got it right.

So it's not surprising that journalists and pundits who continue to follow their professional instincts are experiencing a certain sense of deja vu as they begin to wonder these days whether Bush and his aides are planning to expand the current war in Iraq to Iran (and Syria). The initial source of this "urban legend" was Bush's infamous "axis of evil" speech, in which he lumped Iran together with Iraq and North Korea as deserving US punishment.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA31Ak02.html

Iran drafts plans to rebuild Iraq
James Glanz, Baghdad
January 30, 2007

Iran's ambassador to Baghdad has outlined an ambitious plan to greatly expand its economic and military ties with Iraq, including an Iranian bank in the heart of the capital.

The plan is almost certain to bring Iran into further conflict with US forces, which have detained several Iranian operatives in recent weeks.

Cont ....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/iran-drafts-plans-to-rebuild-iraq/2007/01/29/1169919273230.html

With Iran ascendant, U.S. is seen at fault
Arab allies in region feeling pressure

By Anthony Shadid
The Washington Post

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Kuwait rarely rebuffs its ally, the United States, partly out of gratitude for the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But in October it reneged on a pledge to send three military observers to an American-led naval exercise in the Gulf, according to U.S. officials and Kuwaiti analysts.

"We understood," a State Department official said. "The Kuwaitis were being careful not to antagonize the Iranians."

Four years after the United States invaded Iraq, in part to transform the Middle East, Iran is ascendant, many in the region view the Americans in retreat, and Arab countries, their own feelings of weakness accentuated, are awash in sharpening sectarian currents that many blame the United States for exacerbating.

Iran has deepened its relationship with Palestinian Islamic groups, assuming a financial role once filled by Gulf Arab states, in moves it sees as defensive and the United States views as aggressive. In Lebanon and Iraq, Iran is fighting proxy battles against the United States with funds, arms and ideology. And in the vacuum created by the U.S. overthrow of Iranian foes in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is exerting a power and prestige that recalls the heady days of the 1979 Islamic revolution, when Iranian clerics led the toppling of a U.S.-backed government.

"The United States is the first to be blamed for the rise of Iranian influence in the Middle East," said Khaled al-Dakhil, a Saudi writer and academic. "There is one thing important about the ascendance of Iran here. It does not reflect a real change in Iranian capabilities, economic or political. It's more a reflection of the failures on the part of the U.S. and its Arab allies in the region."

Added Eyal Zisser, head of the Middle Eastern and African Studies Department at Tel Aviv University in Israel: "After the whole investment in democracy in the region, the West is losing, and Iran is winning."

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16877295/

Bush ignores thousands of Americans.

“I don’t think he really thought a lot about it,” said White House Press Secretary Tony Snow today when asked about President Bush’s reaction to the weekend’s march on Washington. Approximately 100,000 people from around the country converged on the National Mall on Saturday to protest Bush’s escalation in Iraq. Nearly 70 percent of the American public opposes President Bush’s plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq.

http://thinkprogress.org/

Well I guess this really isn't news. He has ignored the majority of Americans for over 6 years & we know he really doesn't think a lot...about anything...

Incoming commander admits miscalculations
Adm. Fallon says U.S. overestimated Iraqi forces’ ability to take control

WASHINGTON (AP) - Adm. William Fallon, who is poised to become the top American commander in the Middle East, says the United States miscalculated the ability of Iraqi forces to take control and underestimated the enemy’s persistence.

“Securing the stability of the country has been more difficult than anticipated,” Fallon said in a written statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Our ability to correctly assess the political, economic and security situation in Iraq has been lacking.”

Fallon’s remarks were submitted in advance of a confirmation hearing Tuesday. Fallon, who commands troops in the Pacific region, has been tapped to replace Army Gen. John Abizaid as head of the U.S. Central Command.

In addition Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was expected to consider the nomination of John Negroponte, the first director of national intelligence, to become deputy secretary of state.

Fallon and Negroponte’s confirmations were not expected to rouse Senate protests, despite bitter opposition in Congress to Bush’s plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16882494/from/RS.2/

r u t h o u t | 01.30

Two Charges Dropped Against Watada
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007J.shtml
The US government has agreed to drop two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer from its case against 1st Lieutenant Ehren Watada. The two counts, dropped Monday, carry a maximum of two years in prison. Watada made comments to reporters in June explaining why he refused to go to Iraq, why he was challenging the Bush administration's reasons for going to war, and why he
considers the war illegal. In exchange for the two counts, Watada's attorney Eric Seitz agreed to stipulate to statements Watada made to reporters - Honolulu Star-Bulletin's Gregg Kakesako and freelance reporter Sarah Olson - so they will
not have to testify.

HE'LL GET 4 YEARs NOT 6

Rupert Cornwell | Leave Iraq or Face Nightmare Scenario
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007K.shtml
Rupert Cornwell writes, "The US must draw up plans to deal with an all-out Iraqi civil war that would kill hundreds of thousands, create millions of refugees, and could spill over into a regional catastrophe, disrupting oil supplies and setting up a direct confrontation between Washington and Iran."

Imagine a world gone to pot... it's easy if you try...

Drugmaker to test fat-fighting marijuana drug
GW Pharmaceuticals says it has a cannabis-derived treatment to suppress hunger; company plans to start human trials.

January 30 2007

LONDON (Reuters) -- Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals Plc said Tuesday it plans to start human trials of an experimental treatment for obesity derived from cannabis.

Cannabis is commonly associated with stimulating hunger. Several other companies, including Sanofi-Aventis with Acomplia, are working on new drugs that try to switch off the brain circuits that make people hungry when they smoke it.

more...
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/30/news/international/bc.gw.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes

No munchies for you.

MSNBC.com LiveVote
Yesterday on NPR, President Bush acknowledged there's a "certain skepticism" when it comes to U.S. intelligence on Iran. Do you trust U.S. intelligence on Iran? * 120 responses

Yes
8.3%

No
92%

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16886534/

Sometimes you run across something in the blogosphere that is just so darn well-written it makes your jaw drop, and then you have to go tell everybody you know about it so they can read it too.

This is one of those things.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/30/85156/6652

Posted by: sparrow at January 29, 2007 10:21 PM

Thanks Suz. I'm feeling better today, so I went ahead and wrote a message to my hardcore partisan Republican Congressman (CA-42). It may fall on deaf ears, but at least I tried.

To the Honorable Gary G. Miller,

I am writing in regards to the current war in Iraq.

The President has asked for a surge of 21,000 troops, and I am asking you to oppose that surge.

The war on Iraq was started because Saddam Hussein was deemed to be possessing weapons of mass destruction, and supporting al-Qaeda; both points have since been proven false. The weapons of mass destruction, if Saddam had any, were no longer usable nor effective; moreover, it was previous US administrations that had armed Saddam with various WMDs in order to help his fight against Iran. As for ties to al-Qaeda, there simply was not any to speak of.

In addition, the US should have been well prepared to set up a democratic Iraq, but the reality is anything but. We went in not understanding the complex dynamics of the rivalry between the Shi'ite Muslim majority in Iraq, and the smaller but powerful Sunni minority represented by Saddam. After helping Saddam slaughter many Shi'ites historically, we turned around, labeled Saddam our enemy, and helped a new Shi'ite government slaughter Sunnis, making other Sunni nations in the region - including our ally Saudi Arabia - nervous. American approach in the region currently is to be involved in the Iraqi civil war between the Sunnis and the Shi'ites, without understanding the dynamics of the two factions, and to become the enemy of both sides. And the President now wants to send more Americans to be caught in the crossfire without being productive or helpful.

The war in Iraq has hurt American ability to respond to other threats, including al-Qaeda. It is only rightful that instead of sending more troops to Iraq, American troops must be redeployed either home, or another place like Afghanistan, where they will be better situated to catch the Osama bin Laden threat. Regardless of whether American troops stay in Iraq or not, Iraq will be in a civil war. The best we can do for the Iraqis is to render assistance to a democratic Iraqi government - but only if they ask specifically.

There is an old saying: Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach him how to fish, and he will eat for life. The Iraqis do not need our protection, rather a means to protect themselves. This is the approach that we need to take in order to turn Iraq into a successful sovereign nation.

There also are talks of preparing for a war against Iran. The Administration is coming up with intelligence that shows Iranian hostility. However, faulty intelligence regarding Iraq has already hurt the Administration's credibility, and we must ensure that any intelligence pertaining to Iran is credible, and not made up, as was the case in Iraq. Besides, a war against a Shi'ite Iran will further upset our new Shi'ite "friends" in Iraq, and American servicemen in Iraq will truly become the enemy of both Muslim sects.

I also ask that to be more effective in the War on Terror, the suspects being held at Guantanamo be charged and tried in a timely manner, or if there are no charges to be filed, sent home. The current Guantanamo practices are breaking the spirit of the American justice system.

I ask that as you play Congress's mandated role as the consultant to the President, you put the true interests of the United States, and the Iraqi people we swore to liberate, above the interests of a political party, a sect, a contractor, or any other special interest.

Thank you.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Senate Republican on Tuesday directly challenged President Bush's declaration that "I am the decision-maker" on issues of war.

"I would suggest respectfully to the president that he is not the sole decider," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, said during a hearing on Congress' war powers amid an increasingly harsh debate over Iraq war policy. "The decider is a shared and joint responsibility," Specter said.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/30/war.powers.ap/index.html

Into every life a little humor must fall:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/30/04959/7879

Posted by: monkey at January 30, 2007 10:31 AM

It's reminding me of a quote by the Furry Freak Brothers

Media echo chamber has continued to spread lies about John Kerry

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200701300006

speaking of Kerry

Kerry Praises Senate Minimum Wage Vote

WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. John Kerry said today’s vote on the minimum wage legislation clears the way for the bill to move forward and bring a long overdue pay raise to American workers. The 87-10 vote in the Senate came as Kerry and other Democrats successfully cleared a key hurdle to completing the Senate bill.

“The Senate vote today was a giant step forward in our effort to win a pay raise for millions of Americans who have had to wait too long for an increase in the minimum wage. The $2.10 increase would take the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour and is long overdue. I look forward to this legislation becoming law and finding other ways to assist men and women who are working hard and trying to make better lives for themselves.”

This doesn't sound good ..

FBI turns to broad new wiretap method
By Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: January 30, 2007

The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed.

Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords.

Such a technique is broader and potentially more intrusive than the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system, later renamed DCS1000. It raises concerns similar to those stirred by widespread Internet monitoring that the National Security Agency is said to have done, according to documents that have surfaced in one federal lawsuit, and may stretch the bounds of what's legally permissible.

Call it the vacuum-cleaner approach. It's employed when police have obtained a court order and an Internet service provider can't "isolate the particular person or IP address" because of technical constraints, says Paul Ohm, a former trial attorney at the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. (An Internet Protocol address is a series of digits that can identify an individual computer.)

That kind of full-pipe surveillance can record all Internet traffic, including Web browsing--or, optionally, only certain subsets such as all e-mail messages flowing through the network. Interception typically takes place inside an Internet provider's network at the junction point of a router or network switch.

The technique came to light at the Search & Seizure in the Digital Age symposium held at Stanford University's law school on Friday....

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6154457.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Democratic chairman of a House panel examining the government's response to climate change said Tuesday there is evidence that senior Bush administration officials sought repeatedly "to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming."

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, said he and the top Republican on his oversight committee, Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, have sought documents from the administration on climate policy, but repeatedly been rebuffed.

"The committee isn't trying to obtain state secrets or documents that could affect our immediate national security," said Waxman, opening the hearing. "We are simply seeking answers to whether the White House's political staff is inappropriately censoring impartial government scientists."

"We know that the White House possesses documents that contain evidence of an attempt by senior administration officials to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming and minimize the potential danger," Waxman said.

Administration officials were not scheduled to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In the past the White House has said it has only sought to inject balance into reports on climate change. Present Bush has acknowledged concerns about global warming, but strongly opposes mandatory caps of greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that approach would be too costly.

Waxman said his committee had not received documents it requested from the White House and other agencies, and that a handful of papers received on the eve of the hearing "add nothing to our inquiry."

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/30/congress.climate.ap/index.html

Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34bVcLMrcRs

inspiring!

Oh, what a surprise!

White House accused of twisting global warming data

The Democratic chairman of a House panel examining the government's response to climate change said Tuesday there is evidence that senior Bush administration officials sought repeatedly "to mislead the public by injecting doubt into the science of global warming." Rep. Henry Waxman said: "We are simply seeking answers to whether the White House's political staff is inappropriately censoring impartial government scientists."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/30/congress.climate.ap/index.html

Courtesy of tony the American mutt @ Daily Kos (& firedoglake, of course), here's a brief exchange between Jeffress (Scooter's attorney) & Judith Miller... The last line is a classic.

J Let's go back to the beginning of the investigation that began–do you recall when it began?

M I don't recall, I don't remember when the Taubman discussion was

J Did it occur to you to think whether you were somebody to whom such a leak had been attempted.

M I was concerned [pause] sir

J Did you remember that meeting.

M I don't remember what I remembered then.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/30/16200/2134

BTW, check out firedoglake's notes & transcripts -- it's pretty interesting.

http://www.firedoglake.com/

inspiring!
Posted by: karen at January 30, 2007 03:46 PM

Very inspiring! It tells me that ordinary people all over the world advocate peaceful co-existence with our neighbors on this planet.

That really makes the "leaders" of countries the only "extremists" because they are the ones who are advocating war, war, and more war, often based on lies, lies, and more lies so they can control the world's resources (often via corporations who dictate what they want governments to approve). The end does not justify the means when it disrupts the very ordinary lives of ordinary people who only want to live their lives in peaceful co-existence and lead peaceful lives which 'only' includes providing for families, educating children, and the like. It sounds so simple, and ought to be simple. Yet world "leaders" continue to impose the chaos of war on us... (like W and his evil minions).

(And how cute are those children at the end of the tape?! :-) Makes my grandma hormones surge with an urge to hug them!)

Rupert Cornwell | Leave Iraq or Face Nightmare Scenario
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007K.shtml
Rupert Cornwell writes, "The US must draw up plans to deal with an all-out Iraqi civil war that would kill hundreds of thousands, create millions of refugees, and could spill over into a regional catastrophe, disrupting oil supplies and setting up a direct confrontation between Washington and Iran."

Phillip Butler | Don't Let Torture Become the Norm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007M.shtml
Phillip Butler, retired Navy Commander, begins: "Many peace and justice organizations have been promoting and demonstrating lately for awareness of torture and related issues. I'm amazed and profoundly disappointed that this has apparently become necessary in our country. I spent eight years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, from 1965 to 1973. During that time, I and more than 90 percent of my fellow POWs were repeatedly tortured for the extortion of information to be used for political propaganda and sometimes just for retribution. We were not recognized by Vietnam as POWs, but as criminals, because the Vietnamese had not signed the 1949 'Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.'"

Utah Residents Rail Against Divine Strake Test
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007N.shtml
Southern Utah residents welcomed the opportunity Thursday to speak their piece about the proposed Divine Strake explosion test. Person after person stepped to the microphone during the first of Governor Jon M. Huntsman's two Divine Strake public hearings - expressing outrage, grief and frustration. Many blame atomic testing in the 1950s at the nearby Nevada Test Site for a grim litany of illnesses and deaths. Residents fear the non-nuclear Divine Strake blast, also taking place at the Nevada Test Site, will send a mushroom cloud of radiation-tainted litter into Utah.
{{{I bet this demonstration does not make the national news....}}}

Chuck Collins | Slapping the Invisible Hand
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007O.shtml
Chuck Collins writes: "Research by the Economic Policy Institute validates the theory that raising the minimum wage will have a positive effect for low-wage workers without a negative effect on the economy ... Senate Democrats should keep pushing for a minimum wage bill unencumbered by billions in tax breaks. Let's cleanly raise the minimum wage and get on with the people's business."

VIDEO | Anti-War Marches Draw Hundreds of Thousands
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007A.shtml
In this video, Truthout's Scott Galindez reports that "hundreds of thousands" marched on Saturday. That estimate is gleaned from estimates by the event organizers - United for Peace and Justice - Truthout reporters on the scene, and crowd photographs by other news agencies. Our best estimate now is that there were between 300,000 and 500,000 marchers.
{New Video - Geoff Millard who was pictured at the top of a thread a couple of days ago is on the video.}

Posted by: not my president at January 30, 2007 03:23 PM

Problem is, there's enough pork fat amendments on that same bill now to keep the greasers swimming in it for a long time to come. That's what Teddy Kennedy's outburst a few days ago was all about. 'When will the greed stop?' or words to that effect.

The porkers just couldn't reisist, could they?

That bill should have passed on its own, no pork amendments added...!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070130/ap_on_re_us/wto_trial

Jury: WTO protesters' rights violated

A federal jury found Tuesday that the city of Seattle violated the constitutional rights of a group arrested during the World Trade Organization meeting in 1999, a ruling that could cost the city millions of dollars.

The jury found the city liable for violating the rights of about 175 protesters against unreasonable search and seizure, but did not find a violation against their free speech rights.

A lawyer for the city argued that the mixed verdict shows the jury was confused by its instructions, and said Seattle will seek to dismiss the case.

Barring that challenge or an immediate appeal, the class-action lawsuit will move to a damages phase in which the city could be forced to pay millions of dollars. Seattle has already paid $800,000 in lawsuits and settlements stemming from the protests.

"The key point, the lesson learned, is you cannot arrest peaceful protesters here in Seattle or anywhere else in the country," said Kenneth Hankin, a Boeing worker and lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

{More on link.}

down is up & the media turned the country against Iraq... We're so not surprised... Photo suits story

Scientists charge White House pressure on warming
Reuters: http://tinyurl.com/36qqvk

U.S. scientists were pressured to tailor their writings on global warming to fit the Bush administration's skepticism, in some cases at the behest of a former oil-industry lobbyist, a congressional committee heard on Tuesday.

"Our investigations found high-quality science struggling to get out," Francesca Grifo of the watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

A survey by the group found that 150 climate scientists personally experienced political interference in the past five years, for a total of at least 435 incidents.

"Nearly half of all respondents perceived or personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words 'climate change,' 'global warming' or other similar terms from a variety of communications," Grifo said...

link @ January 30, 2007 07:30 PM

~snip~
Rick Piltz, a former U.S. government scientist who said he resigned in 2005 after pressure to soft-pedal findings on global warming, told the committee in prepared testimony that former White House official Phil Cooney took an active role in casting doubt on the consequences of global climate change.

Cooney, who was a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute before becoming chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, resigned in 2005 to work for oil giant ExxonMobil.

Documents on global climate change required Cooney's review and approval, Piltz said...

Congress can halt Iraq war, experts tell lawmakers
Reuters: http://tinyurl.com/yu34rf

The U.S. Congress has the power to end the war in Iraq, a former Bush administration attorney and other high-powered legal experts told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

With many lawmakers poised to confront President George W. Bush by voting disapproval of his war policy in the coming days, four of five experts called before the Senate Judiciary Committee said Congress could go further and restrict or stop U.S. involvement if it chose.

"I think the constitutional scheme does give Congress broad authority to terminate a war," said Bradford Berenson, a Washington lawyer who was a White House associate counsel under Bush from 2001 to 2003.

"It is ultimately Congress that decides the size, scope and duration of the use of military force," said Walter Dellinger, former acting solicitor general -- the government's chief advocate before the Supreme Court -- in 1996-97, and an assistant attorney general three years before that...

Our friend GlobalVillage has put together a video montage of pictures that she and Island Blue took at the peace march in DC, set to the music of a local musician named McWorm who was at the march with them. It's really good stuff -- check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/HgjW7o3mb1A

Posted by: Otter at January 30, 2007 08:01 PM

Peace makes for such good material.

Hello, hello, hello,
Is there anybody IN there?
Just nod if you can hear me...

And speaking of good material, he segued smoothly, you can find out more about McWorm & his music at http://myspace.com/mcworm

music soothes the savage
Otter

I hear ya, Monkey. I'm shaking my head. (Ok..I'm shaking my fist at Bush and these neoconservative, money-grabbing, power-grabbing, hate-filled, war-mongers too.)

Posted by: aimzzz at January 30, 2007 07:37 PM

The Congress Critters should have all read the Constitution... not listen to Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee and their nefarious "attorneys" who have twisted intent and meaning of that venerable document....

Congress has ALWAYS had the power to stop the war that was illegally and unconstitutionally ordered by the twerp in the White House. They just didn't use the authority granted them in the Constitution....

The bigger question is: Why didn't they stop the war before now? We've known for years that the war is based on lies for oil. The voters know it, have been urging an end to this illegal war crime for years....

So, Congress Critters: Why didn't you stop Georige sooner?

Better question yet: How soon will you stop Georgie now???

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/30/jon-stewart-rips-apart-fnc/
Jon Stewart Rips Apart FNC

Looking 1000 yrs old in pic...

Bush told NPR he had no intention of going into Iran. "This is the kind of thing that happens in Washington," the president said. "People ascribe, you know, motives to me beyond a simple statement — 'Of course we'll protect our troops.' I don't know how anybody can then say, 'Well, protecting the troops means that we're going to invade Iran.'"

Bush warns Iran against action in Iraq
Yahoo: http://tinyurl.com/2yxoc9

#@%!!!$#@ UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

Equipment For Added Troops Is Lacking
**New Iraq Forces Must Make Do, Officials Say** o_O
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012901584.html

Boosting U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 21,500 would create major logistical hurdles for the Army and Marine Corps, which are short thousands of vehicles, armor kits and other equipment needed to supply the extra forces, U.S. officials said.

The increase would also further degrade the readiness of U.S.-based ground forces, hampering their ability to respond quickly, fully trained and well equipped in the case of other military contingencies around the world and increasing the risk of U.S. casualties, according to Army and Marine Corps leaders.

link @ January 30, 2007 10:42 PM

Trucks are in particularly short supply. For example, the Army would need 1,500 specially outfitted -- known as "up-armored" -- 2 1/2 -ton and five-ton trucks in Iraq for the incoming units, said Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, the Army's deputy chief of staff for force development.

"We don't have the [armor] kits, and we don't have the trucks," Speakes said in an interview. He said it will take the Army months, probably until summer, to supply and outfit the additional trucks. As a result, he said, combat units flowing into Iraq would have to share the trucks assigned to units now there, leading to increased use and maintenance.

Posted by: aimzzz at January 30, 2007 10:44 PM

Gosh, nobody ever thinks about necessary logistics lead time (or the necessary logistics underpinning of every tactical operation) in this administration.

I'm shocked it would be happening again.

I heard the guy on NPR who asked Bush if what he would do if his plan didn't work. He was interviewed later by Juan Williams and he wasn't satisfied with Bush's answer. It was very revealing just to listen to his voice. There was a story about all the National Guards from MN who have to stay an extra 4 months.
Used to be they were "weekend warriors" - now they're "two year warriors." One guy was afraid to return and start school - he could attend for maybe a year, then get called back for a couple of years.

Gosh, nobody ever thinks about necessary logistics lead time (or the necessary logistics underpinning of every tactical operation) in this administration.
Posted by: V at January 30, 2007 11:15 PM

That would imply living in... reality

Japanese Minister Wants "Birth-Giving Machines," aka Women, to Have More Babies
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/013007WA.shtml
Japan's health minister did nothing to endear himself to female voters over the weekend when he described women as "birth-giving machines," and implored them to "do their best" to halt the country's decliningbirthrate.

Posted by: not my president at January 30, 2007 11:56 PM

Asian Confucian male chauvinism at its worst.

And this is from Japan, the LEAST Confucian of the Asian nations.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/013007WA.shtml
Posted by: not my president at January 30, 2007 11:56 PM

Excerpt:
"The number of women aged between 15 and 50 is fixed," Mr Yanagisawa, 71, said. "Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can do is ask them to do their best per head ... although it may not be so appropriate to call them machines."

Mr Yanagisawa's reported admission that the description had been "too uncivil" failed to silence his critics.

"It was extremely rude towards women," said Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the Democratic party. "Having children or not having children is naturally a matter that women and households are free to decide themselves."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yangisawa's forgetting a few very important details. 1) It's still a woman's choice. 2) Assuming the pregnancy is not an accident, but a planned pregnancy, BEFORE a woman gives birth, she wants to make sure there are enough resources for her to get her child fed, clothed, housed, schooled.... If there aren't the financial resources to ensure all that, it's better to remain childless, rather than bring a child into a world of poverty.

Telling women to have children is a little like the pope telling women to have children; those men are not the ones who will be there to help raise the children, nor do they provide financial support for for housing the woman and her children, nor for food and clothing and education. It's patronizing and patriarchal beyond all good sense and reason.

If they aren't going to be there to help raise the children or provide for the children, they can keep their opinions to themselves about whether or not a woman "should" or "should not" have a child or children. In other words, you control freakazoids, STFU.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070131/ap_on_go_co/us_iran
Senators warn against war with Iran
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They can 'warn' all they want... but if they aren't willing to DO SOMETHING to stop boy-dictator Georgie, they should probably keep their mouths shut. In the past they've done nothing but weakly and whiningly say 'we shouldn't be doing ... ' - and then they turned right around and gave the spoiled brat everything he wanted in up or down votes with little or no discussion for his legislation, and all that huffing and puffing was for naught. If the Congress Critters are not willing to put some teeth into their legislation and make their bite worse than their bark, they probably don't want to be doing any advance posturing and flapping their gums in the breeze. Congress certainly has the backing of the citizens of this nation IF they really want to stop Georgie's war in short order on an up or down vote - even within this week... but will they do it...??? They could have the troops on the next troop transports home by the end of this week, and the regular military redeployed no later than three months from now - IF they really wanted to, and acted as quickly as Tweedle DimWit forced them to act in the past....

I predict a lot of hot air will be huffed and puffed and nothing will be done....

{{{That's a challenge to you, Congress Critters. Surprise me by actually doing something for a change....}}}

Baker Agrees Reluctantly to Testify on Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007R.shtml
James A. Baker III, the co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, has ended weeks of resistance and today will testify before Congress on the war. Sources familiar with the efforts to persuade Baker to testify said he did not want to appear to be lobbying against President Bush at the height of his push for 21,500 additional troops in Iraq.
Excerpt:
While the decision on whether to appear before Congress has been a delicate dance for Baker, it has also been a sensitive subject for congressional Democrats who do not want to scare off prominent Republicans from testifying at their hearings. A sign of the deference Democrats are willing to show, they are not expected to put Baker under oath tomorrow.
~~~~
{So, if Baker lies, then no one is going to contradict him, and he won't be held accountable for his lies....}

Feingold Ups the Ante on Iraq Funding
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/013007T.shtml
Senate Democrats oppose the war in Iraq, they just don't plan on stopping it. Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), has decided, however, to challenge what he calls the "timidity" of Democratic leaders. He said he's going to introduce legislation cutting off funding for the Iraq War, and he may do it as early as this week.

Excerpts:
In Iowa Sunday, Hillary Clinton said: "At this point, I am not ready to cut off funding for American troops. I am not going to do that." She said that even if Congress passed such a bill, it would be pointless because we have "a president who will veto anything that impinges on his authority."

Feingold is not impressed with that argument. "It is not true this is a futile exercise," he said. "We can say no."

If, for instance, the Democrats attached an Iraq funding cutoff to an appropriations bill, the president would risk shutting down the government by vetoing it.
~~~~~
Feingold has gathered various legal and other experts to testify, but the result is a foregone conclusion. "I am going to lay out the reality that Congress does have this power," Feingold said. "The president does not have the unilateral power to (continue the war) without our consent."

Feingold said a cutoff of funding six months after the law is enacted "makes sense, it is constitutional, and our troops will not be left in the lurch."

Under Feingold's plan, the administration would have to safely redeploy troops from Iraq except for those needed to target counter-terrorism operations and provide security for U.S "infrastructure and civilian personnel" there, and a "limited number" to train Iraqi security services.

Feingold is going to put his fellow Democrats to the test: If you are really against this war, he is going to tell them, now is the time to show it.

"Those (Democrats) who are timid on this, who are they listening to?" he said. "The people don't want us to talk just about ending the escalation. They think this whole war is wrong."

Paulson May Find Bush Is Biggest Hurdle to Social Security Deal
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/013007LA.shtml
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who left one of Wall Street's most powerful posts in part to broker a Social Security overhaul, may find his biggest hurdle is his boss, President George W. Bush. For both substantive and political reasons, any fix to Social Security must both increase revenues and reduce benefits, budget experts say. Paulson, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. chief executive officer, is inviting Democrats and Republicans to talks including all options; at the same time, White House officials appear to rule out raising taxes.

{{{Why is overhauling and bankrupting SS still even being discussed? Putting SS funds in the stock market is the most incredibly foolish idea anyone has ever had. Someone needs to play the part of the old-fashioned schoolteachers, take out a ruler, and whack these idiots on their knuckles with the orders "Don't touch Social Security!"}}}

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2201092.ece
Bush accused of distorting evidence on climate change

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2201103.ece
US 'victory' against cult leader was 'massacre'

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2192966.ece
US plea to Britain: 'Don't abandon main Iraq base'

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2201099.ece
Cash-for-honours trail that leads to Number 10

http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/mary_deje