« Lori Perdue: the Art of Politics (and vice versa) | Main | A Different Kind of Peaceful Protest »
And This Is Where the Bad Craziness Begins
From the online Iranian news and culture reporting website Persian Journal:
Iranian defector may hold catalyst for war
Mar 11, 2007An Iranian defense official who reportedly defected to the West last week may be in possession of evidence that could be used justify military action against Iran.
Former Iranian deputy defense minister Ali Rez Asgari was secreted away from Turkey to an undisclosed location in Europe by Western officials.
This after he informed American officials several weeks earlier that he wished to defect and provide assistance in bringing down those running his country.
According to a London-based Arabic newspaper, Asgari was in possession of documents definitively linking the Iranian regime to the actions of Lebanon's Hizb'allah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the two main insurgency forces in Iraq -- the Mahdi Army and the Badr Corps.
Asgari was also well acquainted with Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as Tehran's preparations for possible military conflict with the US.
If the evidence -- particularly regarding Iran's role in Iraq's instability -- is verifiable, it could be enough to prompt Washington to begin putting war preparations in motion.
From the global news website All Headline News:
Jerusalem, Israel (AHN) - Media reports at the weekend indicated that former Iranian deputy defense minister Ali Rez Asgari, who is said to have defected to the West last week, is in possession of evidence definitively tying Tehran to terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East.
The documents Asgari is reportedly carrying also contain intelligence on Iran's ballistic missile programs and its plans for possible military confrontation with the U.S.
Asgari was last seen in Turkey. From there, the London-based Arabic daily a-Sharq al-Awsat says he traveled to an undisclosed location in Europe using a false passport with the aid of Western officials.
From the Jerusalem Post:
A senior US official told The Washington Post Thursday that missing Iranian general Ali Rez Asghari was in Western hands and providing intelligence services with information about Hizbullah, Iran and the ties between the two. It was the first time since Asghari's disappearance last month, during a visit to Turkey, that a western official confirmed his fate.
Another US official, who spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, suggested that Asghari's disappearance was voluntary and was orchestrated by Israel.
From the Russian online daily Kommersant:
A former Iranian deputy defense minister who vanished in Turkey last month has appeared in the West willing to provide information on Iran and its ties to Hezbollah, Washington Post reported Thursday. Iranian authorities would not comment the news but said the defected general “had been out of the loop for four or five years” now and, therefore, has no up-to-date information on Iran’s military capabilities and nuclear program. Former Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Ali Rez Asgari is willingly cooperating with Israeli and U.S. intelligence, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran’s ties to the organization, according to the source of Washington Post. In return, Mr. Asgari has been promised asylum in the United States. An Israeli newspaper reports that the former official is currently in Northern Europe.
Mr. Asgari, 63, disappeared on February 7 during a visit to Istanbul. Iran officials suggested that he may have been kidnapped by Israel’s Mossad or the American CIA. Teheran sent a delegation to Turkey to investigate the disappearance. A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, denied that report and suggested that Mr. Asgari’s disappearance was voluntary and orchestrated by the Israelis.
Former Mossad director Danny Yatom is sure that Mr. Asgari defected to the West. “He is very high-caliber,” Yatom said. “He held a very, very senior position for many long years in Lebanon.”
Alis Rez Asgari served in the Iranian government until 2005. His background suggests that he would have deep knowledge of Iran’s ties to Hezbollah and Lebanon. Israeli intelligence agencies said Mr. Asgari had been the one who helped build and found Hezbollah in the 1980s.
Teheran has not as yet given any official comment on Mr. Asgari’s possible defection. However, Iranian officials have mentioned off the record that the former deputy defense minister has no up-to-date information about Iran’s military capabilities. “He has been out of the loop for four or five years now,” an anonymous Iranian official said.
From the Jerusalem News:
An Iranian defense official who reportedly defected to the West last week may be in possession of evidence that could be used justify military action against Iran.
Former Iranian deputy defense minister Ali Rez Asgari was secreted away from Turkey to an undisclosed location in Europe by Western officials.
This after he informed American officials several weeks earlier that he wished to defect and provide assistance in bringing down those running his country.
According to a London-based Arabic newspaper, Asgari was in possession of documents definitively linking the Iranian regime to the actions of Lebanon's Hizb'allah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the two main insurgency forces in Iraq -- the Mahdi Army and the Badr Corps.
Asgari was also well acquainted with Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as Tehran's preparations for possible military conflict with the US.
If the evidence -- particularly regarding Iran's role in Iraq's instability -- is verifiable, it could be enough to prompt Washington to begin putting war preparations in motion.
And from the American MSM news site of the Washington Post:
A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran's ties to the organization, according to a senior U.S. official.
Ali Rez Asgari disappeared last month during a visit to Turkey. Iranian officials suggested yesterday that he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The U.S. official said Asgari is willingly cooperating. He did not divulge Asgari's whereabouts or specify who is questioning him, but made clear that the information Asgari is offering is fully available to U.S. intelligence.
Asgari served in the Iranian government until early 2005 under then-President Mohammad Khatami. Asgari's background suggests that he would have deep knowledge of Iran's national security infrastructure, conventional weapons arsenal and ties to Hezbollah in south Lebanon. Iranian officials said he was not involved in the country's nuclear program, and the senior U.S. official said Asgari is not being questioned about it. Former officers with Israel's Mossad spy agency said yesterday that Asgari had been instrumental in the founding of Hezbollah in the 1980s, around the time of the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut.
Iran's official news agency, IRNA, quoted the country's top police chief, Brig. Gen. Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam, as saying that Asgari was probably kidnapped by agents working for Western intelligence agencies. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Asgari was in the United States. Another U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, denied that report and suggested that Asgari's disappearance was voluntary and orchestrated by the Israelis. A spokesman for President Bush's National Security Council did not return a call for comment.
[...]
Ram Igra, a former Mossad officer, said Asgari spent much of the 1980s and 1990s overseeing Iran's efforts to support, finance, arm and train Hezbollah. The State Department lists the Shiite Lebanese group as a terrorist organization.
"He lived in Lebanon and, in effect, was the man who built, promoted and founded Hezbollah in those years," Igra told Israeli state radio. "If he has something to give the West, it is in this context of terrorism and Hezbollah's network in Lebanon."
[...]
In a January briefing to Congress, then-Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte described Hezbollah as a growing threat to U.S. interests. "As a result of last summer's hostilities, Hezbollah's self-confidence and hostility toward the United States as a supporter of Israel could cause the group to increase its contingency planning against United States interests," Negroponte said.
U.S. intelligence officials said they had no evidence that Hezbollah was actively planning attacks but noted that the organization has the capacity to do so if it feels threatened.
I am immediately suspicious of a man who has extensive experience with training organizations that perceive themselves to be freedom fighters abdicating to cooperate with those whom the "freedom fighters" blame.
But then I was always suspicious of boyfriends who came back after crapping all over our relationship and who then wanted to start over. Nice guys; just needed some more personal growth work.
Maybe it's me...
Bad craziness indeed. Birds of a feather flock together, and it looks like the vultures are circling over Iran.
and 8000+ extra troops are being sent to Iraq.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10597878/
Democrats are nice and all, and I'm glad I'm one, but does anyone think that if it was a democratic president doing all of this crap, he wouldn't have been asassinated by now?
Sheesh.
the above was an observation by this user, not a suggestion, and not the view of the DCP.
Just sayin....
There's one MAJOR factual error in that story: the major insurgents in Iraq are Sunni, not Shiite. These groups are reportedly receiving aid from individuals (and potentially government forces) within Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc.
Shiites are responsible for only a small percentage of the American casualties in Iraq.
Now I'll have something new to discuss with an Iranian friend over coffee (sigh).
"War is always a last resort. It is always proof of failure. It is always the worst of solutions, because it brings death and misery."
Jacques Chirac (who will not be running)
Libby is like Jesus: Both found guilty during Lent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf-Kn8nFbeA
Halliburton Moving to Dubai
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/11/114721/693
Guatemala Prepares for Bush Visit
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/11/10929/8565
interesting photo of Nixon getting shoes shined by peasant
Bogota, Columbia:
An air of tension prevailed in the city of 7 million, where strict security measures were in force over the weekend. Checkpoints surrounded the presidential palace and the U.S. embassy, the only locations he was to visit during his 7-hour stay. Museums were closed and cellular telephone usage was blocked in some areas. There were 21,000 police on duty, including 7,000 to guard the Bush motorcade route from El Dorado airport to the presidential palace in downtown Bogota. As the motorcade approached the presidential palace, it was escorted by mounted police in ceremonial dress.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bush12mar12,1,3258718.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Uruguay:
Over lamb chops and cuts of beef, President Bush chatted amiably Saturday at this presidential retreat with a former leader of a legendary band of leftist guerrillas known as the Tupamaros.
(snip) This is the same Mujica who, in comments to the press here, acknowledged feeling odd about the notion of cozying up to a U.S. president. "If I weren't a minister, I'd be marching against Bush," Mujica, a political prisoner for more than a dozen years under the former military dictatorship who long ago renounced violence, told the Argentine daily Clarin before Bush's arrival.
(snip)
The president's trip to Uruguay bared a kind of identity crisis among the leftist government. Many seemed incredulous that Bush could even be invited here. "Señor Bush is the most execrable, murderous, bellicose representative who exists in the world," Vazquez's minister of social progress, Marina Arismendi, declared before the president's arrival.
(snip)
Bush arrived late Friday in Uruguay, a country of 3.4 million that elected Vasquez president two years ago. Vazquez heads a coalition known as the Broad Front, which includes former leftist guerrillas and communists. The experience of the 1973-85 military dictatorship still is recalled vividly here.
(snip)
U.S. officials made no promises, and an industry representative told a local newspaper, "We know Bush is not Santa Claus."
(snip)
During his trip to the region, Bush has repeatedly declined to engage Chavez directly, even refusing to use his name. Rather, he has sought to portray Washington as reaching out to allies across the ideological spectrum.
(snip)
The presidents of countries such as Uruguay and Brazil appear happy to embrace the new White House diplomacy, even as protesters sack McDonald's franchises, burn U.S. flags, torch effigies of the American president and shout "Out Bush!" and "Yankee Go Home!" on major thoroughfares.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bush11mar11,1,2799964.story?coll=la-headlines-world
SUPPORT FAIR TRADE
My relative, a former Viet Nam veteran who had a major stroke last week has been sent home - there were no beds available at the VA hospital closest to his home (250 miles away). While doing MRI and CAT SCANS last week they found two suspicious looking masses in his brain not related to the stroke that need further testing, but he is home until they can get him admitted to the VA hospital.
Maybe it's me...
Posted by: karen at March 11, 2007 11:57 AM
Or me.......
I always heard when I was a kid that Russians were fed propaganda. Now I have heard that "Pravda" means "proof" - anyone know? Luckily, I figured both sides used propaganda, since both sides had missiles pointed at each other. Duck & cover!
Posted by: not my president at March 11, 2007 07:24 PM
... and leave no turn unstoned.
That's what I'm thinkin', anyway.
Excellent post over at FDL for the poets and writers in all of us:
snip -
They recited verses beside the bloodstains, they vowed defiance amid the rubble. Just days after bombers ripped Baghdad's cultural heartland to shreds, the poets and artists were back.
Artist Jabbar Muhaibs, one of the leaders of Thursday's gathering, put a wooden crate over his head during a performance to mourn the death of cultural life in what is left of Mutanabi Street, Iraq's ancient centre of the arts.
"The light will not be lit here again," said Muhaibs mournfully, his voice muffled by the crate.
The blood of the dead stained the street while the ashes of burnt books dusted the rubble of what was once a lively maze of bookshops and cafes where war-weary writers, publishers, teachers and intellectuals once gathered.
Muhaibs, a lecturer at the Baghdad Fine Arts Academy, leapt atop a burnt out car and recited: "What has happened to the poems and the poetry, all covered in blood and lying with the scattered souls and the bodies beneath the rubble?"
snip
full story: http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/03/11/there-is-nothing-but-burning-words/
Maya to 'cleanse' sacred site after Bush visit
March 12, 2007 - 7:34AM
Mayan leaders will spiritually "cleanse" ancient ruins in Guatemala after a visit by US President George Bush, unpopular because of foreign policies going back to Central America's civil wars.
The leaders said they would hold a spiritual ceremony to restore "peace and harmony" at the Mayan ruins of Iximche after Bush tours the site on Monday.
"No, Mr Bush, you cannot trample and degrade the memory of our ancestors," said indigenous leader Rodolfo Pocop during a press conference. "This is not your ranch in Texas."
Cont. .....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/travel/bush-visit-to-spark-cleansing/2007/03/12/1173548056657.html
Thanks Carol. We all have favourite streets like that once was. It touches everyone. I've passed that link on to others.
The Real Reason Halliburton is Moving to Dubai
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/11/21830/4591
So it's easier to do business with the Axis of Evil
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2031172,00.html
British reporters interview anonymous American generals who say the rebels are outstripping us in Iraq and Afghanistan even with more primitive tools than in Korean and Vietnam wars.
Hmm.
"... the major insurgents in Iraq are Sunni, not Shiite. ... Shiites are responsible for only a small percentage of the American casualties in Iraq."
Seems to me there's a bit of americentrism implicit in that view. There's the question of which groups are most active against the American occupying forces; but there's also the question of which groups are most active against other Iraqis. Conflating the two questions is not necessarily valid.
(It's not necessarily invalid either, of course. But my point is that what Iraqis are doing to other Iraqis is not always slash automatically dependent on what Americans are or are not doing in Iraq.)
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2007/03/05/tomo/index1.html
Perfect example of "BushSpeak" ~!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/coleen-rowley/atta-girl-cassandra-ju_b_43175.html
Coleen Rowley
Atta Girl, Cassandra! Just Keep on Trying!
Frank Rich | Why Libby's Pardon Is a Slam Dunk
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031107B.shtml
Frank Rich writes: "Even by Washington's standards, few debates have been more fatuous or wasted more energy than the frenzied speculation over whether President Bush will or will not pardon Scooter Libby. Of course he will."
Kelpie Wilson | Boxed In by a Polar Bear
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031107A.shtml
"Polar bears, those cute, cuddly, white furry animals of the north, are actually one of the world's most formidable predators. They are the only bear species known to stalk and kill human beings for food," says Kelpie Wilson. "For centuries, polar bears and humans have shared the hunting territory of the Arctic, but today as global warming melts the ice, both are threatened."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gonzales12mar12,0,6346976.story
Gonzales is urged to quit 'for the nation'
Sen. Charles Schumer says the attorney general has politicized the Justice Department.
{And Congress Critters couldn't figure out at his original hearings that he would be bad for this country...?!? Sheesh.}
Posted by: NonnyO at March 12, 2007 06:08 AM
Some knew, with laser accuracy, that every single step made by this administration
since Selection 2000 was gonna turn out this bad.
Ah, how I long for the days of good intel.
Report today says American tourisn down 17% between 2000 and 2006 costing billions to American economy. Besides the war and Bush's image as the ugly American and that Americans now dislike rather than welcome foreign visitors, it is reported that it takes upwards of 100 days to get a Visa from Brazil to visit the USA, it cost over $100 for a visa, there are very few visa centers around the word so tourists now have to travel long distances within their country for the privilige of visiting here, we spend next to nothing $4 million/year to promote American tourism and we are one of the few countries without a Minister or its equivalency of Tourism. Talk about image problem, think of all the jobs lost in places like Orlando and Vegas to this rotten economic policy that our Democratic Congress needs to closely examine.
Incidentally Chuck if you are out there today, ouch, Houston just lost thousands of jobs when Cheney and company just packed up American tax payer dollars and moved Halliburton headquarters to Dubai. Guess we are now truly owned by foreign interest, China and Dubai. Curious your thoughts about that story Chuck.
Bubba - you might be interested in this Kossack's opinion RE: why Halliburton is moving to Dubai.
The REALLY real reason Halliburton is moving to to Dubai
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/12/82017/9677
Classic offshoring, classic tax haven, classic Republican business model that leaves American workers in the lurch.
Dick Cheney's Halliburton is running from more than criminal investigation: they are running from taxes during a time of war.
Posted by: madame defarge at March 12, 2007 09:01 AM
Deferment Dick, aka Uncle Alterior Motive, running from something during a time of war... say it ain't so.
Actor Fred Thompson considers 2008 run
Former GOP senator and star of 'Law and Order' to decide in coming months
WASHINGTON - Not enough "star" power for Fred Thompson in a GOP presidential field that includes some of his friends? Whatever the case, the actor and former Tennessee senator is considering getting into the 2008 race.
-snip-
Where he stands
On the issues, Thompson said he:
Is "pro-life," and believes federal judges should overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision as "bad law and bad medical science."
Opposes gay marriage, but would let states decide whether to allow civil unions. "Marriage is between a man and a woman, and I don't believe judges ought to come along and change that."
Opposes gun control, and praised last week's 2-1 federal appeals decision overturning a long-standing handgun ban. "The court basically said the Constitution means what it says, and I agree with that."
Supports President Bush's decision to increase troops in Iraq. "Wars are full of mistakes. You rectify things. I think we're doing that now," he said. "Why would we not take any chance, even though there's certainly no guarantees, to not be run out of that place? I mean, we've got to take that opportunity and give it a chance to work."
Would pardon former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's conviction for perjury and obstruction of justice now, rather than waiting until all his appeals are exhausted. Thompson is a fundraiser for Libby's defense.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17576578/
Drop Dead Fred
Totally OT, but monkey, this one's for you.
Ain’t It Strange?
By PATTI SMITH
ON a cold morning in 1955, walking to Sunday school, I was drawn to the voice of Little Richard wailing “Tutti Frutti” from the interior of a local boy’s makeshift clubhouse. So powerful was the connection that I let go of my mother’s hand.
Rock ’n’ roll. It drew me from my path to a sea of possibilities. It sheltered and shattered me, from the end of childhood through a painful adolescence. I had my first altercation with my father when the Rolling Stones made their debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Rock ’n’ roll was mine to defend. It strengthened my hand and gave me a sense of tribe as I boarded a bus from South Jersey to freedom in 1967.
Rock ’n’ roll, at that time, was a fusion of intimacies. Repression bloomed into rapture like raging weeds shooting through cracks in the cement. Our music provided a sense of communal activism. Our artists provoked our ascension into awareness as we ran amok in a frenzied state of grace.
My late husband, Fred Sonic Smith, then of Detroit’s MC5, was a part of the brotherhood instrumental in forging a revolution: seeking to save the world with love and the electric guitar. He created aural autonomy yet did not have the constitution to survive all the complexities of existence.
Before he died, in the winter of 1994, he counseled me to continue working. He believed that one day I would be recognized for my efforts and though I protested, he quietly asked me to accept what was bestowed — gracefully — in his name.
Today I will join R.E.M., the Ronettes, Van Halen and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On the eve of this event I asked myself many questions. Should an artist working within the revolutionary landscape of rock accept laurels from an institution? Should laurels be offered? Am I a worthy recipient?
I have wrestled with these questions and my conscience leads me back to Fred and those like him — the maverick souls who may never be afforded such honors. Thus in his name I will accept with gratitude. Fred Sonic Smith was of the people, and I am none but him: one who has loved rock ’n’ roll and crawled from the ranks to the stage, to salute history and plant seeds for the erratic magic landscape of the new guard.
Because its members will be the guardians of our cultural voice. The Internet is their CBGB. Their territory is global. They will dictate how they want to create and disseminate their work. They will, in time, make breathless changes in our political process. They have the technology to unite and create a new party, to be vigilant in their choice of candidates, unfettered by corporate pressure. Their potential power to form and reform is unprecedented.
Human history abounds with idealistic movements that rise, then fall in disarray. The children of light. The journey to the East. The summer of love. The season of grunge. But just as we seem to repeat our follies, we also abide.
Rock ’n’ roll drew me from my mother’s hand and led me to experience. In the end it was my neighbors who put everything in perspective. An approving nod from the old Italian woman who sells me pasta. A high five from the postman. An embrace from the notary and his wife. And a shout from the sanitation man driving down my street: “Hey, Patti, Hall of Fame. One for us.”
I just smiled, and I noticed I was proud. One for the neighborhood. My parents. My band. One for Fred. And anybody else who wants to come along.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/opinion/12smith.html
Democrats are nice and all, and I'm glad I'm one, but does anyone think that if it was a democratic president doing all of this crap, he wouldn't have been assassinated by now?
Sheesh.
Posted by: Carol at March 11, 2007 12:04 PM
The question I've asked many people from the Republic Party when more crap is made public: What would you say/think/do if this was a Democratic president?
The usual response: dead silence
Posted by: madame defarge at March 12, 2007 09:41 AM
That's what you get for asking them to think.
Sheepwrecked, Pedro.
It's a gloomy, overcast Monday when we all had to get up one hour earlier...So at least we deserve some late night snarky humor from last week.
"Speaking of vicious, we are 10 months away from anyone even casting the first vote in the presidential election, but already the mud is flying. Did you hear the latest about Barack Obama? He comes from a family of slave owners. He's black, but he's half white. Apparently, on his mother's side, which is the white side, they owned slaves. The Barack Obama camp is going to deny it, but his approval ratings in the South shot up 27 points. That's nothing. Apparently, President Bush's entire family is owned by Saudi Arabia." --Bill Maher
"Yesterday, I. Lewis Libby, a.k.a. 'The Scooter', the vice president's chief of staff found guilty on four of five counts ranging from obstruction of justice to lying to a grand jury. Yes, we got the guy -- the one-man cancer on this White House has been removed." --Jon Stewart
"The White House feels very strongly this is yet another case of activist jurors destroying the lives of the disabled. These $5-a-day zealots were determined to put a man in jail just because a few details slipped his feeble mind." --Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee
"It's hard for us civilians to understand the kind of sacrifice it takes for a congressman to respond to a Washington Post article, so let me put this into perspective for you: They can't just look out their window to see what's happening at Walter Reed. No, they have to get into a car. Walter Reed hospital is more than six miles from the Capitol. ... Getting to Walter Reed from the Capitol is a march through hell, that evidently takes more than four years to make" --Stephen Colbert
Posted by: madame defarge at March 12, 2007 09:34 AM
... and this is OT too, but on-topic with your OT topic, so I figger, wtf...
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A group of New York musicians is planning to do what the Beatles never did -- perform the songs the Fab Four might have recorded as their final album had they stayed together just a little longer.
The Beatles tribute band The Fab Faux -- made up of some of the New York's leading professional musicians -- will perform the songs they think would have been on that album on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The performance at New York's Webster Hall consists of material from the original Fab Four's early solo careers.
All of the tracks will be performed with distinctive Beatles-type arrangements, rather than the spartan feel of Lennon's early recordings and McCartney's first solo effort, recorded at his home almost as a demo tape.
"It's totally on a lark because it didn't happen. It wouldn't have happened," keyboardist and guitarist Jack Petruzzelli said.
-snip-
Many of the songs were tried out by the Beatles while they were together. But the Fab Faux chose December 1970 as the cutoff date for when a song had to be started to give them the best material to work with. The Beatles officially split in April 1970, when McCartney said he was leaving the band.
The Fab Faux was dreamed up a decade ago, by musician Will Lee, who has played with all four Beatles and whose regular gig is playing bass in the house band on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman." He wanted to start "the greatest Beatles band that anyone has ever seen."
Within a year, four other musicians joined the project. There was Rich Pagano, who has toured with Rosanne Cash and Patti Smith, and whose love of the Beatles dates back to playing in a Beatles-tribute band as a teenager.
Petruzzelli, who has played with Joan Osborne and Rufus Wainwright, was also added to the lineup. So too was Jimmy Vivino, Lee's neighbor and the guitarist for NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" band. Guitarist Frank Agnello, who had toured with Marshall Crenshaw and Phoebe Snow, rounded the Fab Faux out as the fifth member.
"We're not a wigs and noses Beatles band," said Vivino. The band's obsession with detail sets them apart from mere pretenders, he said.
"We look at it totally, totally from the music side, the way a chamber orchestra does Mozart or Beethoven."
Lee, who once telephoned Starr to check his theory of how a certain drum sound was produced, said advances in music technology makes their job easier.
"We know the tricks. We know how to get the sound," he said.
The Fab Faux hopes to create the magic that the other three Beatles would have brought to each member's solo work.
"The flavor of what we do is such that it really does satisfy somebody who wants to groove at an event, wants to move and stuff, and it also is just as palatable to those who just want to sit and watch a show, just listen to music," Lee said.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/12/music.beatles.reut/index.html
p.s. monkeyman is sportin a Cleveland hat today... long live rock
Posted by: monkey at March 12, 2007 08:27 AM
Yes, and I'm one of the people who knew from the time of the prez debates that if Georgie was elected there would be a war in Iraq. I journaled about it. The rigged election I didn't count on, nor an errant SCOTUS decision. I was naive; I didn't think anyone would be dumb enough or evil enough to rig an election (let alone two prez elections!).
I knew Georgie was an egotistically stupid and unintelligent man from the get-go. He's only surprised me by being more stupid and more evil than I originally thought he was.
Yes... what would we do if we had a country that once again prized intelligence, compassion, humanity...? Not that people like that would actually be elected, but people like that who would refuse to support evil "leaders" who condone torture and illegal wars - and a media who actually didn't spew propaganda while we're at it....
Ah, I have such pretty daydreams in my old age...!
Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, announced today he is delaying until later in the year a decision about whether to seek the nomination for president.
RE: Captain America's death
The point being made, over and over, is that Captain America's death symbolizes the death of the American dream. Many a commentator has argued variations on this point. Comic book heroes like Captain America and Superman represented a time in American history where the US government upheld basic rights and freedoms, not just at home but overseas. But somewhere in the last 66 years, that calculation changed.
"What killed Captain America was not a sniper's bullet," writes Ari Emanuel in the Huffington Post, a popular liberal blog. "In reality it was the toxic state of Mr Bush and Cheney's America. It's hard to be a star-spangled Super Soldier these days. Given the lip-service-only support this administration gives our troops, the patriotic hero would have to fight evil with a substandard red, white and blue shield, and be stop-lossed into and endless tour of duty."
--snip--
Some may laugh at the connection, but the implied critique of the political landscape created by the Bush administration is well reflected in popular culture. In fact, in the US, it's fair to say comic books and animations (such as The Simpson's and South Park) are finely tuned in to the culture at large, often representing countercultural points of view that are rarely expressed.
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/03/why_captain_america_had_to_die.html
Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley has resigned as temporary head of Walter Reed Medical Center, the Pentagon said today.
That's what you get for asking them to think.
Sheepwrecked, Pedro.
Posted by: monkey at March 12, 2007 09:43 AM
You've got that one right. My remark about VA care and being careful who you vote for last week was met by "The VA has been good to us."
That was, of course, before they were sent home to wait for a bed 250 miles away before they can be admitted for further brain tests on something the doctor said "could be cancer".
I care about them. I want the best for them, and everybody else. But how many times have I said I am going to quit wasting my breath trying to tell them the truth?
On a positive note, however, I have made huge strides in educating some of the others in the group who were in the dark. They are catching on, and are aghast.
Tom Foley, Ted Haggard, Newt Gingrich - now this
Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear.
Reports say he was able to identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.
A foreign ministry official described Ambassador Tzuriel Refael's behaviour as an unprecedented embarrassment.
The incident, which happened two weeks ago, has renewed calls for a radical overhaul of the way Israel appoints and promotes its diplomats.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6441461.stm
Deferment Dick, aka Uncle Alterior Motive, running from something during a time of war... say it ain't so.
Posted by: monkey at March 12, 2007 09:26 AM
Right on. LOL.
Posted by: not my president at March 12, 2007 01:01 PM
I have to get back to work, but I am ROFLMAO.
haha.
TACOMA, Wash. - Dozens of anti-war activists were arrested on Sunday at the Port of Tacoma, where they gathered to protest against the shipment of military vehicles to Iraq.
A deployment ceremony for the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry unit is scheduled for Monday. The brigade will be the first to deploy with all ten versions of the Stryker, including one armed with a cannon that can blast through walls.
Equipment for that deployment is already being shipped out through the Port of Tacoma. Anti-war activists have been gathering at the port since last Saturday to protest, at times violently, the use of the port for a military purpose. But on Sunday, the activists promised a peaceful protest, and the result was an assembly line-like display. Protesters who agreed to commit an act of civil disobedience simply climbed over a barrier against police wishes in an orderly fashion as an expression of their disapproval.
The 4th Brigade was was originally scheduled to deploy in May but is leaving ahead of schedule in accordance with the president's troop surge plan.
http://www.komotv.com/news/6431427.html
Last week I posted a personal story about how my sprinkler repairman said he likes Obama but had heard some where that Obama is a radical Muslim and he just couldn't support a candidate with that tinge. Interesting to now hear the Roger Ailes so called joke repeating exactly that a week later. Our Progressive leaders are being Swiftboated by inuendo and I can report that the public is once buying into that garbage. Karen reponded to my post but I just want to remind her how poisened the right wing world of politics is and to prepare us for the coming slime in '08.
Rep. Waxman Calls for Hearings on Halliburton Move to Dubai
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031207A.shtml
Halliburton, the energy services giant and controversial defense contractor, said Sunday it is opening a new corporate headquarters in Dubai in the Middle East. The planned move surprised longtime critic Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif.,
chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He called for Congressional hearings on the move, saying, "I want to understand the ramifications for US taxpayers
and national security."
Might of surprised Waxman but sure didn't surprise some of us. Remember Halliburton slant-drilling into Iraq, which started the lst Gulf War?
Karen responded to my post but I just want to remind her how poisened the right wing world of politics is and to prepare us for the coming slime in '08.
Posted by: Bubba at March 12, 2007 01:09 PM
Can't I just eat chocolate and drink wine for the next twenty months?
Sh**. I'll start preparing the Comet and the paper towels.
Report today says American tourisn down 17% between 2000 and 2006 costing billions to American economy. Besides the war and Bush's image as the ugly American and that Americans now dislike rather than welcome foreign visitors, it is reported that it takes upwards of 100 days to get a Visa from Brazil to visit the USA, it cost over $100 for a visa, there are very few visa centers around the word so tourists now have to travel long distances within their country for the privilige of visiting here, we spend next to nothing $4 million/year to promote American tourism and we are one of the few countries without a Minister or its equivalency of Tourism. Talk about image problem, think of all the jobs lost in places like Orlando and Vegas to this rotten economic policy that our Democratic Congress needs to closely examine.
Posted by: Bubba at March 12, 2007 08:50 AM
I remember that some people refused to vote for JK because, well, he spoke a foreign language - French.
Also remember American dislike for all things international, from road signs to the metric system.
Honestly, if I were a prospective foreign visitor, the US would be the last country I'd want to be in (right alongside the likes of Iran and North Korea).
Classic offshoring, classic tax haven, classic Republican business model that leaves American workers in the lurch.
Posted by: madame defarge at March 12, 2007 09:01 AM
At least we Americans are not alone.
The CEO of Samsung was just quoted as saying that offshoring is necessary to maintain competitiveness.
BOYCOTT HALLIBURTON-SAMSUNG NEOLIBERAL COMPLEX.
Posted by: not my president at March 12, 2007 02:30 PM
Instead of invading Iraq, we should be invading Saudi Arabia and UAE instead. They have done far more to corrupt American values and democracy than Iraq and Iran ever did.
Funny that no conservative wants to invade these countries.
House oversight chairman wants Rice to answer Niger uranium questions
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The new chairman of a House investigative committee is demanding answers to questions he put to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice nearly four years ago about President Bush's assertion that Iraq once sought uranium from Africa.
In a letter released Monday, Rep. Henry Waxman said Rice responded to only five of 16 letters about the issue when he was the committee's ranking Democrat -- only those that had been co-signed by congressional Republicans.
"I am now renewing my request as the chairman of the chief oversight committee in the U.S. House of Representatives," he wrote.
The uranium claim, which Bush made in his 2003 State of the Union address, was a key element in the administration's case for the invasion of Iraq. Rice was President Bush's national security adviser at the time.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/03/12/monday/index.html
Hope Waxman puts her under oath & on a lie-detector machine (and preferably, one that emits electric shocks when detecting lies...)
Ally McRepuke
Funny - in a survey of 28 countries that was reported last week, US was right there with North Korea and Iran for least popular country. France and Canada were among the most highly rated.
Another thing about Halliburton moving to Dubai -
Besides decreasing their tax burden (aren't they already registered as from Cayman Islands rather than US), if there are charges brought against them, their CEO may have to be extradited from UAE. In any event, US law may not apply. Just like when contractors participate in crimes such as rape, they are not covered under either countries' law or military law. There have to be some ulterior motives on the part of Halliburton for making such a relocation - tax and which courts they're under jurisdiction of.
& too many xenophobic Americans think Dubai is some primitive desert - it's about the richest place on the planet - building the tallest building, the most luxe hotels & malls - artificial islands like the grouping called the World, each with the resort or business of another tycoon from somewhere else in the world. & alot of it is built with slave labor.
Another thing about Halliburton moving to Dubai -
Posted by: not my president at March 12, 2007 03:59 PM
I think they're working with an intelligence agency called the CYA.
alot of it is built with slave labor.
Posted by: not my president at March 12, 2007 03:59 PM
That's what matters. The fabulous riches of Dubai are supported by slave labor.
tsp
the CYA - that's for sure!!
From Elizabeth Walters,
They now plant RFID chips in our passports and plan to insert them in our drivers licenses (readers can be planted in public places to track us, police can carry them in vehicles to determine who we are as we stand on the street or in a crowd).
Now, American Express intends to insert them in its credit card to track you as well.
American Express Addresses People Tracking Plan
http://tinyurl.com/yv2wsq
I apologize if this youtube "madtv Irack Apple Iraq War Parody." was posted previously. I haven't had a chance to read much.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuEDwcfJPSk
Thanks sparrow. It certainly makes its point.
US readies for failure in Iraq
Julian Barnes and Peter Spiegel, Washington
March 13, 2007
US MILITARY planners have begun plotting a fall-back strategy for Iraq that includes a gradual withdrawal of forces and a renewed emphasis on training Iraqi fighters in case the current troop build-up fails or is derailed by Congress.
The strategy, based in part on the US experience in El Salvador in the 1980s, is in the early planning stages and would be adjusted to fit the outcome of the current surge in troop levels, according to military officials and Pentagon consultants who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Cont. .....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-readies-for-failure-in-iraq/2007/03/12/1173548107057.html
NMP:
In Russian, "Pravda" = "Truth" and "Izvestiia" = "News." "Truth" was the "ogran" of the Communist Party and "News", if memory serves, was the state (government) publication. Back in the day, that lead to the joke "there is no truth in the news and no news in the truth."
Chuck in Houston
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070313/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq
Dems abandon war authority provision
WASHINGTON - Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit President Bush's authority for taking military action against Iran as the leadership concentrated on a looming confrontation with the White House over the Iraq war.
Officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) and other members of the leadership had decided to strip from a major military spending bill a requirement for Bush to gain approval from Congress before moving against Iran.
{{{More on link. WHY are Dems STILL caving in to the warmongering neoCons?!?!? With nothing and no one to stop him, Tweedle Dumber will order an attack on Iran and everyone who isn't drinking kool aid knows that. If Congress Critters with an IQ above a rock have not figured that out by now, they should not be holding their offices, nor should they be re-elected when the time comes.... WHO is going to stop Georgie and Dickie from becoming the world dictators in Poppy Bush's New World Order according to PNAC, Carlyle, Halliburton, et al.?!? Memo to Pelosi: Wake the f*** UP, already!!! Put impeachment back on the table!!! WE The People KNOW Georgie and Dickie and their ilk are guilty as sin of war crimes and several other assorted crimes. Just because you haven't heard about it inside your Beltway Bubble doesn't mean it's not general knowledge!!!}}}
Rep. David Obey says some stupid things, acts inappropriately - now he is on YOU-TUBE just like Hillary:
(here is what I would recommend to Rep. Obey: a sincere apology and a retraction of his more stupid statements)
A revealing encounter in the halls of Congress
Leading Democrat denounces "idiot liberals" for demanding cutoff of
war funds
By Barry Grey in Washington DC
12 March 2007
An incident occurred last week that revealed the real attitude of
the Democratic Party leadership to the vast majority of the American
people who are opposed to the war in Iraq and want to see it quickly
ended.
Rep. David Obey (Democrat from Wisconsin), a 20-term congressman who
chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee in the new,
Democratic-controlled 110th Congress, lashed out at the mother of a
Marine and another antiwar activist when they approached him in a
congressional corridor and asked if he planned to vote against a
supplemental funding bill to finance the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Unfortunately for Obey and the Democratic Party, the entire
exchange, which occurred March 5, was videotaped and posted on the
YouTube Internet site. Last Thursday night a blogger sent the video
clip to Washington reporters, and by Saturday it was being widely
reported in the national press. The video can be accessed at
www.grassrootsamerica4us.org.
Obey is the lead sponsor of a supplemental war funding bill
announced last week by the Democratic leadership in the House of
Representatives. The measure is an attempt by the Democrats to
present a bill granting the Bush administration's request for more
than $100 billion to continue and escalate the war in Iraq as a plan
to end the war.
It does this by attaching various conditions—none of which actually
restrict the ability of the administration to further escalate the
war—and stipulating that US combat troops must begin "redeploying"
from Iraq by March 1, 2008 and completely withdraw by September 8 of
next year. (See "Democrats' "withdrawal" plan paves way to
escalation of Iraq war")
Even after that date, however, the bill would allow for the
continued presence of tens of thousands of supposedly non-combat US
troops in Iraq—to carry out "anti-terrorism" missions, protect US
installations and train Iraqi forces. And Democratic leaders have
stressed that their plan will allow the US to expand its military
intervention in Afghanistan. As Obey himself stated, the Democratic
bill "will essentially redirect more of our resources to the war
against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, fighting the right
war in the right place..."
The video clip initially posted on YouTube shows a woman, later
identified as Tina Richards, and a colleague approaching Obey
outside his office in the Rayburn House Office Building. Richards
explains that her son is a Marine who has served two tours of duty
in Iraq and is facing a third tour. She tells Obey her son suffers
from post-traumatic stress disorder and has attempted to commit
suicide. "It took us six months to get his first appointment with
the VA (Veterans Administration)," she tells the congressman. "They
told him after ten minutes it sounds like you have childhood issues."
Obey responds politely, if somewhat curtly, clearly anxious to end
the discussion. However, when Richards asks him if he plans to vote
against the supplemental war spending bill, he grows increasingly
agitated.
"Absolutely not," he declares, "I'm the sponsor of the supplemental.
We're trying to use the supplemental to end the war.... You can't
end the war if you go against the supplemental. It's time these
idiot liberals understand that."
Obey goes on to raise the standard pretext of "supporting the
troops" (by continuing to send them into battle): "I'm not going to
deny the troops body armor," he says. He follows with another
sophistry, pointing to the Democrats' proposal to add nearly a
billion dollars for medical care for soldiers and veterans to Bush's
war spending request as further justification for voting to fund the
war. "I'm not going to deny funding for veterans' hospitals and
defense hospitals," he declares, "That's what you do if you vote
against that bill."
Richards attempts to speak, but Obey cuts her off, saying, "I hate
the war. I voted against it to start with.... But we don't have the
votes to de-fund the war and we shouldn't."
When Richards raises an amendment, proposed by members of the House
Democrats' so-called "Out of Iraq Caucus," to "fully fund the
withdrawal of troops," Obey shouts back, "That makes no sense....
The language we have in the resolution ends the authority for the
war. It makes it illegal to proceed with the war. We don't have to
de-fund something if the war doesn't exist.... The liberal groups
are jumping around without knowing what the hell is in the bill."
There is, in fact, nothing in the Democrats' proposals, either in
the House or the Senate, that makes the war illegal. How, indeed,
could a bill that allocates another $100 billion to fund the war at
the same time end the authority to wage it?
Obey grows even louder and more hysterical when Richards' companion
intervenes and says the Democrats could end the war by cutting off
funding. "How, if you don't have the votes?" Obey demands. "You can
filibuster his [Bush's] supplemental request," the man
replies. "There is no filibuster in the House," Obey shoots
back. "In the Senate they can do it," the man responds. "All they
need is 40 votes."
This perfectly legitimate point, which highlights the lack of any
serious support among congressional Democrats for action to end the
war, is too much for Obey. "I'm sorry," he declares, "I'm the
sponsor of the bill that's going to be on the floor and that bill
ends the war. And if that's not good enough for you, you're smoking
something illegal.... I'm not going to debate anymore. Go talk to
somebody else. Goodbye."
With that, the congressman rushes into his office and slams the door
behind him.
On Friday, after the video had circulated among reporters and on
Capitol Hill, Obey issued an apology, of sorts. "I respect their
passion on the issue," he said, "I wish they would respect mine. We
are both frustrated, and that led us to have an argument that we
never should have had because we both want an end to US involvement
in that war. What divided us was the question of how."
Obey also told the newspaper The Hill he was already under a great
deal of pressure when the encounter occurred with the two antiwar
activists because protesters had been sitting in at his Wisconsin
district office. They had refused to leave and were arrested. "Let
me be frank," he told the newspaper, "That kind of encounter is the
kind of frustration this stupid war is causing across the board."
What Obey displayed toward his questioners was not mere frustration,
but hostility and contempt. And the frustration Obey and the rest of
the Democratic Party apparatus feel is not so much with the war, as
with the mass popular opposition to the war.
The Democratic Party is entirely complicit in this colonialist
enterprise, and fully defends the imperialist aims that underlie it.
But having ridden to power in Congress on the back of the massive
antiwar vote cast by the American electorate last November, the
Democrats have the task of appearing to oppose the war while
opposing any action that would lead to an outright defeat for the
United States in the Middle East.
Obey's assertion that he and the rest of the Democratic leadership
are in agreement with the American people on ending "US involvement
in that war," and that the only question is how to do it, is false.
The majority of Americans want to withdraw US troops and end the
slaughter now because they know the war is based on lies and they
sense it is being waged for deeply reactionary ends. Increasingly,
they associate the war with the assault on their jobs, living
standards and democratic rights.
The Democrats are critical of the war because it has produced a
military and political disaster for US imperialism. As they
repeatedly insist, they are just as committed as Bush to "success"
in Iraq—meaning the suppression of the Iraqi resistance and the
achievement of the basic war aims of the intervention, beginning
with the establishment of US domination of the country's vast oil
reserves.
The difference between these two positions is not a matter of means
or tactics, but an expression of the irreconcilable conflict between
the interests of the American ruling elite and those of the working
class.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/mar2007/obey-m12.shtml
http://www.americanprogress.org/cartoons/2007/03/031207_fema.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/11/91927/1845
New secret US prisons in Africa?
Rove's Involvement in US Attorney Firings Confirmed by White House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031207J.shtml
The White House acknowledged on Sunday that presidential adviser Karl Rove served as a conduit for complaints about federal prosecutors. House investigators declared their intention to question him about any role he may have played in the firing of eight US attorneys.
{{{What, precisely, is Rove's role/title? Isn't he a glorified go-fer and yes-man who was really only hired originally to manage political campaigns and smear political opponents??? Why does he seem to have so much power? Is he in cahoots with Cheney as the puppet-master?}}}
Paul Krugman | Overblown Personnel Matters
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031207O.shtml
Paul Krugman writes: "Nobody is surprised to learn that the Justice Department was lying when it claimed that recently fired federal prosecutors were dismissed for poor performance. Nor is anyone surprised to learn that White House political operatives were pulling the strings. What is surprising is how fast the truth is emerging about what Alberto Gonzales, the attorney general, dismissed just five days ago as an 'overblown personnel matter.'"
Killing the Constitution
By Irene Rheinwald
Impeachment is not enough. Our society is in need of a political and economic overhaul. We need to align civic duty with genuine compassion, the desire to make a better world. - Our entire society needs to shift from a materialistic, elitist theocracy living by outdated norms of colonialism to a truly progressive one, where the dignity of all, regardless of nationality, is honoured.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17290.htm
The Future Has Caught Up With Us
By Paul Craig Roberts
For the past five years, the Bush Regime has held people in secret prisons without warrants, charges, or access to an attorney. Most detainees have been tortured and abused. Bush’s real world victims suffer from more disorientation and hopelessness than Kafka’s character, Josef K.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17288.htm
Excerpt:
Amazing but true--three novels of the early 20th century predicted present day America.
"The United States must cultivate a mental view toward world settlement after this war which will enable us to impose our own terms, amounting perhaps to a pax-Americana.":
U.S. Department of State - Source: Minutes S-3 of the Security Subcommittee, Advisory Committee on Postwar Foreign Policy, 6 May, 1942, Notter File, Box 77, Record Group 59, Records of the Department of State, National Archives, DC.
{{{Interesting 1942 quote from the ICH e-newsletter. I wonder who actually said that or wrote that - and why....? And why, pray tell, is it necessary for the US to act like Imperial Rome: invade, conquer, and occupy countries to impose our government on them or to "civilize" them...? We have no divine right to colonize other countries and act like Big Brother or impose our values or our political system or our dominant religion on others.... Great civilizations existed long before the US of A was even thought of as a concept. The elitist imperialism so marked by the Bu$hCo administration, and so universally hated by the rest of the world, in particular, is going to come back to haunt us and we will pay dearly for their hubris, whether we've objected all along or not (since Bu$hCo is imposing their values on all of us across the board, no matter what). If we were truly a great nation, we would lead by example, not by invasion and occupation and torture and the other ills Bu$hCo has wrought and imposed on so many - to our detriment, even if we strenuously object to their tactics. Obviously, we've not learned the lessons of our past mistakes with slavery, Native Americans, Japanese, et cetera. That Congress Critters have not stopped Bu$hCo in our names (since we "elected" them - if/when the election process was not rigged) indicates to me that we need to elect new people who will truly represent what We The People want, not what corporate America or Wall Street or the other mega-power-hungry groups want....}}}
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/12/cafferty-alberto-gonzalez-is-a-weasel/
Cafferty: Alberto Gonzalez is a weasel. (Video)
{{{I take exception to his saying that if one looked up weasel in the dictionary one would find a picture of Gonzales. Weasels serve a purpose in Mother Nature's scheme of things. Gonzales is more like one of the world's most poisonous snakes.}}}
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/12/c-span-liberalizes-copyright-claims/
C-Span Liberalizes Copyright Claims
http://wcco.com/national/topstories_story_071215821.html
Ex-Escort Service Owner Shares Records
(AP) WASHINGTON The former owner of an escort business said she has reached a deal to share her records of up to 15,000 client phone numbers with a media organization.
"I have decided to hand over all phone records, logs and invoices (including those presently unknown to the government) to what I believe to be one of the most reputable and respected investigative news organizations in the country, to assist me with my needs," Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, wrote in an e-mail to WTOP Radio.
{{{More on link. Heh. Heh. Heh.... Bwahahahahaha...! IF there's anyone "noteworthy" in those lists, we'll be hearing about sex scandals in the near future. And since sex trumps everything else for infotainment snooze, we won't be hearing about the crimes of the administration, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, torture, demonstrations against the illegal war and occupation, Halliburton moving to Dubai, et cetera and so on and so forth....}}}
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-usattys13mar13,0,38283.story
Key figure in Justice Dept. to step down
Gonzales' chief of staff may have played a role in the firing of seven U.S. attorneys.
WASHINGTON — D. Kyle Sampson, the chief of staff to Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, is leaving the Justice Department in the first fallout from the department's bungled firing of U.S. attorneys last year, people familiar with the situation said Monday night.
Sampson, a top lawyer under Gonzales and his predecessor, John Ashcroft, had been identified by congressional Democrats as one of a handful of senior officials whom they wanted to question as part of the deepening investigation into who ordered seven federal prosecutors relieved of their duties in December and why.
The Justice Department is expected to provide further details of its handling of the matter in briefings to congressional leaders this morning, said the sources, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak and because it was a personnel matter.
The House and Senate Judiciary committees also announced Monday that they would ask President Bush's longtime political strategist, Karl Rove, to testify as part of the widening investigation into White House involvement in the politically charged affair.
The White House confirmed Monday night that in early 2005 White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers raised the idea that all 93 U.S. attorneys be replaced at the start of the second Bush term. That suggestion, made to Sampson, was first reported in today's Washington Post.
{More on link. So, once again, everyone but the top criminals fall on their own swords to protect the top criminals....}
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-atheist13mar13,0,7008061.story
Congressman says he doesn't believe in God
Democrat Pete Stark of California is the highest-ranking elected official in the U.S. to make such a public acknowledgement.
{More on link.}
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cameras13mar13,0,3984266.story
Supreme Court TV
The Supreme Court should televise its oral arguments. But Congress can't force it to make the change.
{Opinion column. More on link.}
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/article2352856.ece
As even Halliburton heads for Dubai, what's so special about the place?
And because we need sometimes infotainment snooze for amusement ("sometimes" being the operative word):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6441131.stm
US couples seek separate bedrooms
The poll question with this story is: "Are separate bedrooms the answer to a successful relationship?"
I'd suggest that separate bedrooms are not necessary for a good night's sleep (unless one partner snores); a queen-sized bed would probably help if one partner is a restless sleeper. However, separate bathrooms are mandatory for a more harmonious relationship!
A documentary
http://www20.sbs.com.au/sbs_front/index.html
Cutting Edge
Prisoner 345
8.30pm – 9.30pm SBS
Tuesday 13 March 2007
On 15 December 2001, Sami al-Hajj, a cameraman for Al Jazeera, was arrested by Pakistani intelligence officers and handed over to the US military. He was then moved from one prison to the next, ending up in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in June 2002. Almost five years later Sami, like David Hicks, is yet to be officially charged. Prisoner 345 traces Sami al-Hajj's movements before and after his arrest and examines the way he's allegedly been treated by his jailers at Guantanamo Bay. The film is based on Sami's own unclassified letters, testimonies to his lawyer and eyewitness accounts from former Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Genre: Current Affairs
Language: English, Arabic
Rating: M
Other: Closed Captions
Rove's Involvement in US Attorney Firings Confirmed by White House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031207J.shtml
The White House acknowledged on Sunday that presidential adviser Karl Rove served as a conduit for complaints about federal prosecutors. House investigators declared their intention to question him about any role he may have played in the firing of eight US attorneys.
Posted by: NonnyO at March 13, 2007 02:02 AM
Gee, thats funny, on CNN.com right now, it says in a caption under Kraptain Karls bloated picture, 'Karl Rove, Bush's top political adviser, wasn't involved in the firings, the White House says. Rove says Congress is making a "political stink" over the issue.'
Story Highlights
• White House: Miers wanted to start Bush's second term with new U.S. attorneys
• DOJ, adviser Karl Rove shot down the idea; DOJ suggested 8 firings instead of 93
• Spokeswoman: "At no time were names added or subtracted by the White House"
• Democratic senators want to question Rove, who calls row a "political stink"
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/13/congress.prosecutors.ap/index.html
Attorney firings had genesis in White House
Congress probing whether dismissals of U.S. attorneys politically motivated
The dismissals took place after President Bush told Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales that he had received complaints that some prosecutors had not energetically pursued voter-fraud investigations, according to White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17571977/
Oh nice, so now the Bush administration is going to use the tactic that voter fraud wasn't being pursued ENOUGH, the very voter fraud that PUT them there in the first place... twice!!!!
Revolting.
Poll: 58 percent want Iraq withdrawal by 2008 or sooner
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly six in 10 Americans want to see U.S. troops leave Iraq either immediately or within a year, and more would rather have Congress running U.S. policy in the conflict than President Bush, according to a CNN poll out Tuesday.
Though support for Bush's decision to dispatch additional troops to Iraq grew to 37 percent -- up from 32 percent in a mid-January poll -- a slim majority of 52 percent say Congress should block funding for the new deployment.
The CNN poll was conducted Friday through Sunday by Opinion Research Corp. Pollsters interviewed 1,027 adults for the survey, which had a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
-snip-
Tuesday's poll found most Americans support a withdrawal from Iraq, with 21 percent wanting an immediate pullout and 37 percent saying troops should be home within a year. Another 39 percent said the troops should stay in Iraq as long as needed.
They were more closely divided on the issue of funding the president's so-called "New Way Forward," with 52 percent saying Congress should block funds for additional troops and 43 percent opposing such a move.
-snip-
Democratic leaders plan to add a demand for withdrawal by fall 2008 -- or by the end of this year, if Bush is unable to show that the Iraqi government is meeting benchmarks for political progress -- to the president's emergency request for an additional $100 billion in war spending.
In a speech Monday to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, Vice President Dick Cheney said even discussing withdrawal tells "the enemy to watch the clock and wait us out."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, shot back that Cheney and Bush are advocating an "open-ended commitment" of U.S. troops against the advice of military leaders.
The White House and congressional Republicans have warned Democratic leaders against plans that would "micromanage" U.S. commanders in Iraq.
But the latest survey finds Americans more receptive to having Congress take the lead, with 47 percent saying the lawmakers should be "primarily responsible" for setting war policy. Thirty-three percent said the president should be primarily responsible for setting the country's course.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/13/iraq.poll/index.html
We could use a little pumping up with a Tuesday tune. And what better way to do it than with this from a new member of the R&R Hall of Fame...
People Have the Power
Patti Smith
I was dreaming in my dreaming
of an aspect bright and fair
and my sleeping it was broken
but my dream it lingered near
in the form of shining valleys
where the pure air recognized
and my senses newly opened
I awakened to the cry
that the people / have the power
to redeem / the work of fools
upon the meek / the graces shower
it's decreed / the people rule
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
Vengeful aspects became suspect
and bending low as if to hear
and the armies ceased advancing
because the people had their ear
and the shepherds and the soldiers
lay beneath the stars
exchanging visions
and laying arms
to waste / in the dust
in the form of / shining valleys
where the pure air / recognized
and my senses / newly opened
I awakened / to the cry
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
Where there were deserts
I saw fountains
like cream the waters rise
and we strolled there together
with none to laugh or criticize
and the leopard
and the lamb
lay together truly bound
I was hoping in my hoping
to recall what I had found
I was dreaming in my dreaming
god knows / a purer view
as I surrender to my sleeping
I commit my dream to you
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The people have the power
The power to dream / to rule
to wrestle the world from fools
it's decreed the people rule
it's decreed the people rule
LISTEN
I believe everything we dream
can come to pass through our union
we can turn the world around
we can turn the earth's revolution
we have the power
People have the power ...
Speaking of arts:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/13/92630/3401
and thank you for keeping it alive!
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The top U.S. military officer, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, doesn't plan to apologize for telling a newspaper that homosexuality is immoral, his senior staff told CNN on Tuesday.
Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Chicago Tribune on Monday that he supports the "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning openly gay people from serving in the U.S. armed forces.
The general also compared homosexuality to adultery -- behavior that is prosecuted in the military, he said.
"My upbringing is such that I believe that there are certain things, certain types of conduct that are immoral," Pace told the Tribune. "I believe that military members who sleep with other military members' wives are immoral in their conduct."
Pace also told the paper, "I believe that homosexual acts between individuals are immoral, and that we should not condone immoral acts.
"So the 'don't ask, don't tell' [policy] allows an individual to serve the country ... if we know about immoral acts, regardless of committed by who, then we have a responsibility.
"I do not believe that the armed forces are well served by saying through our policies that it's OK to be immoral in any way, not just with regards to homosexual acts," the Joint Chiefs chairman said.
"So from that standpoint, saying that gays should serve openly in the military to me says that we, by policy, would be condoning what I believe is immoral activity," he added.
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/13/gays.military/index.html
Posted by: monkey at March 13, 2007 11:20 AM
Personal beliefs before national interest.
Great. I refuse to pay any more taxes to this IMMORAL government.
Posted by: monkey at March 13, 2007 11:20 AM
Wonder what Uncle Dick has to say about that. Seems to me like it's a personal slam on his daughter.
Representative David Obey's apology regarding "idiot liberals" comment:
“Monday, a group of people, not my constituents, approached me as I was rushing to a meeting and we wound up having an argument.
“I am sorry that I yelled at them. I respect their passion on the issue; I wish they would respect mine. We are both frustrated, and that led us to have an argument that we never should have had because we both want to see an end to U.S. involvement in that war. What divided us was the question of how.
“When they were arguing that I should vote against the legislation that I am sponsoring, they did not know that the proposal would in fact give the House its first opportunity in the four years of this misguided war to vote on a timeline for bringing it to a close.
“I would hope that the president’s announced intention to veto that legislation because of the timeline would convince these folks to reconsider their opposition to it.
“This is just another example of how Americans have become needlessly and painfully divided on a war that I have opposed from the beginning and that the President should never have misled us into.
“I intend to continue to press forward to pass this legislation because it is the best chance we have to bring our involvement in that civil war to a conclusion.”