« We The People II -- Go Ye Forth | Main | News You Can Use: Trust, But Verify »
Coming Soon to An Environment Near You
A couple of weeks ago in this space we reported on the stellar success of former vice-president Al Gore's book/film/dvd/lecture series/animated cartoon series/action figure/fashion line/video game/fully licensed promotional package combination called "An Inconvenient Truth." (Well, okay, so maybe he hasn't gotten all the way through that list yet. But he will.)
As we pointed out in that threader, thanks in part to Mr. Gore's work having gone box office boffo, environmental politics is the hottest new trend in Washington these days. Global warming: it's not just for science wonks any more. This ain't your grandfather's gas-guzzling old Mobil we're talking about here.
Suddenly it's a whole new solar-powered day. Big-business leaders are suddenly talking about fleet fuel standards in public again. Less-is-more minimalists are discovering that they're the hit of the parties. Conservatives are hugging ethanol corn the way liberals hug trees. Gee, who'd'a thunk it?
And to top it all off a formerly fuddy-duddy former vice president not only wins an Oscar for sticking to his guns and talking about what used to be political anathema, but looks like a shoo-in for winning a Nobel Peace prize over it, too. (When you consider that the last Washington insider to win a Nobel Peace prize was Henry Kissinger, the implicit irony of that is difficult to miss.)
So in these heady post-Gore days, everybody inside the Beltway is in a headlong bipartisan rush to prove that he or she is even more earth-friendly than the next pol. When it comes to cliquing along with the high-powered congressional chi-chi set, green is the new blue (and red).
But while most politicians these days are scrambling to produce some sort of bona fides to buttress their claims of having been environmentally-friendly all along, some of them don't have to scramble to do that -- they've been on the side of the green angels all along. John Kerry is one of the good guys in that regard. His wife Teresa Heinz Kerry is, too. And they've co-written a big new book together, so now they've even got the title page to prove it.
The title of their book is a bit of a tongue-twister in its full form: This Moment on Earth: Today's New Environmentalists and Their Vision for the Future. As the publisher's description of it states,
The environment, and the movement that grew up to protect it, is under attack -- concerted and purposeful. Yet the need for solutions to pressing environmental problems grows more urgent each day. Teresa Heinz Kerry and Senator John Kerry traveled across the country in a national campaign to see at first hand how these issues unite people across party and ideological lines.
From the San Juan Basin to the Gulf of Mexico to the South Bronx, from mothers on Cape Cod to Colorado ranchers, they found a vibrant coalition of people and communities deploying ingenuity, technology, and sheer will power to save the world they know and love. Now, in this passionate and personal book, Senator John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry shine the spotlight on an inspiring cross-section of these new environmental pioneers.
'This Moment on Earth' combines intensive research with keenly observed personal experiences to present a portrait of Americans devoted to the natural diversity and spectacular uniqueness of our country. It also includes an extensive guide on where and how readers can get involved.
This new work of non-fiction isn't just another sky-is-falling compendium of scary facts and figures, it's a hopeful and forward-looking prescription for positive change. But does that mean it's actually a good book as books go, though? Well, at least one guy with plenty of street cred seems to think so:
"John Kerry and Teresa Heinz have written a book that is a profound challenge to all of us but contains, in the examples of the men and women who are fighting the great fight for a better future for our environment, the clear hope that if we can embrace their resourcefulness, determination and essential patriotism we will prevail. Both John and Teresa have been long-time leaders in the battle to save the Earth's environment. Way back when it was not all fashionable, indeed when very few people in the world were even paying attention to it, both John and Teresa were providing outstanding and courageous leadership."
-- former Vice President Al Gore
John and Teresa Heinz Kerry will both be making time to appear on talk shows and visit a number of cities over the next several weeks to discuss this book and the importance of the issues that brought them to write it together. They will be participating in local and regional advocacy group and foundation events, and an online campaign will also be launched in support of the cause.
There's a new web page on John Kerry's website that features excerpts from 'This Moment on Earth', gives the schedule for upcoming media appearances and book tour events, and includes a link where readers can share their own stories of how other green angels have stepped in and helped save the environment in their own locales.
While the Kerrys' new call to environmental action is not exactly light reading compared to, say, 'The Wit and Wisdom of Anna Nicole' or 'Britney's Close Shave Coloring Book', it's a lot more uplifting than 'Favorite Neocons We Have Known and Loved' and a lot more inspiring than 'Coultergeist Explains It All For You'. I give it two ink-stained thumbs up.
This is what I mean. I'm sick of "second tier" candidates being assigned by the media, discounting decades of relevant experience.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6461962,00.html
It is grossly unfair. Our choices are limited by the media & by money. Talented people have to drop out & it's based on money & the media, not expertise or promise.
I will vote Democrat, as always, but I am so damn sick of this embarrassing system that can no longer pass for a fair system of electing officials!
Rick,
Thanks for letting us know about this new book. It's hard to get my focus on environment when all I'm seeing is "Libby, Libby, Libby on the..."
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sfile=nq070306&vts=3620071631
Non Sequitur
This description is apt about the political animals we're dealing with.... I downloaded the image printed it out, and put it on my fridge with magnets. I am SO sick of politicians who stand for nothing, fall for everything, and try to appease not only Tweedle Dumber and his puppet master, but suck up to the minority religious reich who are getting just as much publicity as the candidates Lamestream Media and the reich-wing neoCons are shoving down our throats for '08 (without a fair representation of the other candidates who seem to have stronger positions, from what little I've been able to read about them so far)....!
The dKos link on the previous thread to Faux Snooze screen shot declaring Libby not guilty... Priceless! I just sent it out to many people with this message: "And kool-aide drinkers wonder why normal people with an IQ above a rock never watch Faux Snooze...! Ha!"
Off now to continue my happy dance over the Libby convictions, even as I face reality and realize war criminal sock puppet Tweedle Dumber will pardon his criminal friend who almost certainly took the fall for him and the puppeteer....
Note to Nancy Pelosi: Now would be a good time to start IMPEACHMENT proceedings....
Scooter is busted.
Chuck in Houston
Busted, busted, busted.
Chuck in Houston
PS: Scooter seems more honorable then the bums he took the fall for.
PS: Scooter seems more honorable then the bums he took the fall for.
Posted by: Chuck at March 6, 2007 09:40 PM
And the State of the Union is sorry indeed...
Rick Albertson
Great thread header - first time today I've actually gotten a chance to read it carefully - and I will definitely be going to see JK and THK and will check out their book. Thanks!
Chuck
Scooter Libby is still an arch-neocon, but would have liked to see more of them implicated. It's obvious he was the tip of the iceberg.
Speaking of the tip of the iceberg, I heard nothing but Walter Reed news on my morning and evening commutes. Apparently, the mold in the rooms was the tip of the iceberg and the real story was the bureaucratic bungling. This is to be expected from the same bureaucracy that brought us Hurricane Katrina and that bungled the Iraq war in general. It's amazing to hear media receive a flood of calls and emails from all over the country, not just Walter Reed. There are hospital inspections all over, including our local Madigan. That's just the military part for soldiers who are still in service.
Then the real story begins - the 18 months or so that they must wait to become of the underfunded VA system. Will they qualify? Will their disability be considered real? Will they be perhaps thrown out of the military entirely so as to qualify for nothing? What is going to happen when some of those who are able to do so try to claim the GI Bill? There seems to be no end to the bureaucratic bungling and lack of planning, regardless of which department.
Where is the oversight? Who is at the Helm? For Walter Reed, it was apparently someone who used to be associated with Halliburton. Now that's really disgusting. & then they made money off Hurricane Katrina. & for privatized care, you can bet they'll be at the head of the line for no-bid contracts, as usual.
Chuck in Houston for Aimzz:
You know, when you look at the Libby conviction, and look at all the threads it unravels, or all of the seemingly disparate elements it puts into one focus, it really puts into stark (and documented) relief the amazingly poor stewardship of our Executive Branch these last years (and the amazing apathy of us constituents taken as a whole in respect of that stewardship).
Back in school I always had problems with term papers because I always tried to start with the big picture. Really, you have to start with the little picture and use it to draw the big one. I suppose that's deductive vs. inductive empiricism or something (NonnyO would know). This whole Libby conviction is the little picture that contains all the elements of the big one.
Chuck in Houston
Chuck in Houston for Rick Albertson:
Sorry to be off topic -- you posted a very good thread. By way of defense, I've been waiting for something like this Libby conviction for some four years now.
Sorry!
Chuck in Houston
NMP:
Don't get me started. My dad died in a VA hospital and my mom was a med-tech in the same hospital.
Chuck in Houston
PS: I like to think of the Libby story as the one loose thread in a tapestry of deceit; but that's just my chosen metaphor and far be it from me to quibble with icebergs....
Since the Libby verdict, I think it is time to seriously look at impeaching Cheney. This month's GQ magazine (March) has a long article on impeaching Cheney called "The People vs. Cheney". And with all the sworn testimony and documents that Fitzgerald has amassed for the Libby trial about Cheney's office and the WMD/Wilson/Plame leak, one would think that the next step is to look at the Vice President's office for conspiracy.
There is also Cheney's connection with Halliburton (and who knows what other defense contractors) and possible corruption and conflict of interest charges.
That Bush's people have broken and ignored so many laws and destroyed the careers so many people who have come forward to tell the truth (and got in the way), I think impeachment must be considered. I think that both Cheney and Bush are unfit to lead the country.
QUOTE:
Republican Senator Chuck Hagel posits that unless things change, President Bush could face impeachment hearings...
http://www.esquire.com/features/chuckhagel0407-2
Posted by: sparrow at March 6, 2007 10:48 AM
Chuck:
This is the DCP blog, *everything* is off-topic.
:0)
Chuckeh
Would it help that one of Cheney's cronies had the contract for Walter Reed?
This is the DCP blog, *everything* is off-topic.
Posted by: Rick Albertson at March 6, 2007 10:41 PM
And because everythng concerning Shrub's administration is incestuously interrelated, *everything* is also 'on-topic.'
;o)
This is what I'm talking about - it's from a friend:
Walter Reed has old Halliburton crony in charge of IAP, who now runs Walter Reed.
After listening to 3 hrs of C-Span coverage on Walter Reed, I had to do a little research on the private company hired to take over federal control of our veterans healthcare system. Please take the time to google "Al Neffgen". He was formerly the chief operating officer for government operations for the Americas at Kellogg Brown & Root, Halliburton's engineering and construction group. In his new role, Neffgen will oversee all work performed by KBR for the U.S. government. Then he was appointed CEO of IAP Worldwide Services
IAP Worldwide Services
When he spoke at an employee town hall meeting recently, CEO Al Neffgen of IAP Worldwide Services, Inc. was making a point about customer satisfaction.
For IAP, the customer is the government, and the company’s services range from building Army camps in Iraq to providing ice to US hurricane victims. To Neffgen, a veteran of more than 30 years in government contracting, the point was important. Customer satisfaction matters, especially when a company is growing by acquisition.
Soon Neffgen was ticking off the findings of a detailed questionnaire of 80 government customers covering IAP’s 2005 performance. The survey revealed that 94% expressed a willingness to recommend IAP. An even higher number—a whopping 97%—awarded IAP an overall satisfaction rating. The independent researcher’s report indicated that any score above 90% equates to a world-class organization, explained Neffgen.
“When a merger or acquisition occurs, satisfaction scores often decrease 10 to 20 points, Neffgen said. “But in contrast to that trend, our scores climbed. The results have been helping us secure projects. It’s direct feedback from our government contracting clients, and we use this when we submit new proposals. Like any company, we’re only as good as the recommendations we get from customers.”
It was music to the ears of a CEO fixated on integrating corporate cultures. First of all, Neffgen said, the survey results validated that IAP had skillfully managed the acquisition of Johnson Controls World Services, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Readiness Management Support. That fact, combined with a rapid ramp-up of proposals submitted to the government and subsequently awarded for performance, illustrated a roadmap to success.
Services to the government
IAP operates in an industry sector that might be invisible to many. Today, however, government reliance on the private sector is greater than ever. According to the Professional Services Council, a leading industry trade association, the federal government spent more than $180 billion on services in 2004.
With about 5,000 employees working in more than 25 countries, privately-owned IAP serves the Department of Defense, as well as other federal US and non-US government agencies.
IAP provides a wide variety of services, including contingency operations, facility management, technical services and disaster relief. Often, IAP is called on to perform challenging jobs in difficult circumstances. In Iraq, it builds and operates Army camps the size of small cities. In the southeastern United States, it provides emergency ice and power generation to hurricane victims. IAP supports domestic and foreign military installations, provides technical employees for the US Geological Survey, crafts mock foreign military hardware for US war games, and operates trucks and heavy lift equipment that support US combat forces in Kuwait and Iraq.
IAP’s heritage dates back to the days of Pan American Technical Services, Inc., a company that built America’s first space launch complex at Cape Canaveral, Fla., more than 50 years ago. The namesake International American Products (IAP) was formed in Irmo, SC, in 1990 by Doyle McBride, a retired US Army professional logistician. In response to a burgeoning US government contracting market, McBride’s IAP was growing as well. Providing a variety of logistics and contingency services, the company had grown by 2003 to $156 million from $18 million. McBride soon decided to take on a partner, selling 74% of the company in 2005 to a private investment group.
“The vision was not just to own a multi-million-dollar business, but to grow it into a multi-billion- dollar enterprise,” said Neffgen, who signed on as CEO in 2005. IAP Worldwide Services is well on its way to doing that. The company finished 2005 with more than $1.2 billion in sales and profits were up 34%.
Synergy from acquisition
Neffgen looked upon IAP’s 2005 acquisition of Johnson Controls World Services as a classic opportunity for synergy. Both companies had a rich legacy of contingency contracting and facilities management for the government, both overseas and domestically. As the companies merged resources, it became clear that technology was one key to achieving the standardization and consistency that led to satisfied customers.
For IAP, that technology tool already existed. IAP’s Web-based global business operating system provides standardized forms, processes, and document management for IAP and its customers at the project level. It also links to state-of-the-art information management tools for such functions as financial reporting, work tracking, human resources, and safety, which are a strong part of the company’s culture.
“The beauty of the system is the consistency of our business processes. Customers or employees can log on, whether they are in California or the Middle East. It’s ready from day one of a new project, and we believe it helps ensure that procurement, personnel and cost processes operate efficiently, effectively, and with integrity,” Neffgen concluded.
http://www.redcoatpublishing.com/spotlights/sl_08_06_iap.asp
http://mediamatters.org/items/200703060014?src=item200703060014
Olbermann gave Coulter "gold" in "Worst Person" segment for "faggot" comment; Limbaugh came in second
{Video}
Go to http://www.hrc.org - that the Human Rights Campaign.
This is what's happening.
Already today, three major American corporations have spoken out and pulled their advertising from Coulter’s website. We must insist that the news media follow the lead of Verizon, Sallie Mae and Georgia-based NetBank and place Ann Coulter in the “off-limits” category along with the “David Dukes” of the world — where she belongs.
Take action today! Stand up and send a clear message to Ann Coulter, and those who would provide her with a platform, that calling someone a “faggot” is wrong, and we won’t sit by without taking action.
Make sure that Ann Coulter’s platform for bigotry and hate is dismantled.
Contact Universal Press Syndicate, the largest independent newspaper syndicate in the world, and let them know that carrying Ann Coulter as a syndicated columnist is not acceptable.
(You should be able to do so from their HRC's website)
Mainstream media has even caught wind of this!
Critics cite inept contractors at Walter Reed
Outsourced maintenance may be factor in substandard conditions, they say
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17489352/ (with video)
• Army knew of company's past problems
March 6: Maintenance at Walter Reed Medical Center was outsourced to the same company that caused the ice fiasco after Hurricane Katrina.
WASHINGTON -
Critics say part of the problem may be an Army decision last year to contract out maintenance and support at Walter Reed to a private company, even though government workers argued they could do it better, and for less.
"They were moving, come hell or high water, to contract these jobs out," says John Gage, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees.
The contract went to a company — International American Products, or IAP — that played a major role in the ice fiasco during Hurricane Katrina, when trucks roamed the country, delivering little and running up costs to taxpayers.
"They didn't seem to be doing a very good job even delivering the ice, and from what we now see, they didn't do a very good job at Walter Reed, either," says Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee.
In fact, when the Army gave IAP a $120 million contract for administrative, managerial and operational services at Walter Reed, Pentagon watchdogs were investigating complaints that the company overcharged during Katrina and failed to meet ice delivery obligations.
Last fall, a Walter Reed commander warned of "possible mission failure" with skilled government workers leaving in droves, as the hospital's workload of wounded vets increased.
"There was just a void left, and that's what happened," says Gage.
The company declined comment Tuesday. Congressional investigators say that last month about 100 private workers took over jobs previously performed by 350 government employees — with a huge task ahead.
Chuck in Houston for NMP:
Well, oh Lord, the Truth will come out some day. Until then, I guess we'll just have to keep on keeping on.
Chuck in Houston
Lord, I was born a Ramblin' man....
Tryin' to make a living and doing the best I can....
Lord I'm South-bound, baby
Well I'm coming home to to you.
I've got that old lonesome feeling
They sometimes call the blues.
James Brown: Let me hear you say YEAH!
Nobody's business if I do....
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/06/fitzgerald-on-libby-verdict/
Fitzgerald On Libby Verdict
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/06/juror-speaks-out-libby-is-guilty-but-hes-the-fall-guy/
Juror Speaks Out: Libby is guilty, but he’s the fall guy
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/03/06/countdown-joe-wilson-reacts-to-libby-verdict/
Countdown: Joe Wilson Reacts to Libby Verdict
~~~~~
For those who need the grin that comes with knowing SOMEONE in that criminal administration was found guilty of SOMETHING (even if we KNOW they are guilty of so MUCH more, but just haven't been tried for their crimes and wonder if they ever will be tried for their war crimes)....
Excellently written diary that makes some essential points and makes them very well -- well worth reading, bookmarking for later, emailing around the internets, printing out & giving it to your less-than-resolute friends, etc.:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/6/173254/2430
--------------
Let me try and make something clear to the Democratic members of the House and Senate. There's a world of hurt coming your way, and time is running out.
On Iraq, there are no more Friedman Units. There are no more acceptable six month windows to see if the same "plan", called a different name, will produce different results. The situation in Iraq continues to decay; the pressures on our armed forces and, especially, reserve forces continue to edge closer to the breaking point; our troops continue to be put in harm's way on the off chance not that a "plan" will work, but that an in-country miracle will occur.
[snip]
As I wrote last week, we all know that there are no good answers here. The point is not to come up with a be-all, end-all Iraqi plan this week or next to shove down the administration's throat. The point is to start the plan. The point is to lead. The most absolutely critical thing, right here, right now, is to begin limiting the ongoing damage.
No more extendings of already extended tours of duty. No more telling reservists that in exchange for the patriotism of signing up to defend their country in times of dire need, they will now put their civilian lives on hold for the indefinite future, until the nebulous end of the unending "war on terror" itself. No more rationing of equipment because the political cowardice of the planners of this war makes budgeting for that equipment far more politically problematic than simply pretending the problem doesn't exist.
[snip]
There are no good ways out of Iraq: every path is dangerous. That is precisely why so many experts shuddered at the long-term damage of this "preemptive" war. There are no good answers, and events on the ground may dictate altering any proposed plan three months from now, or six months from now, or a year from now -- a shocking concept lost on the Bush administration these last few years.
Fine, then: alter it when the time comes. It is not necessary to end the war tomorrow, it is necessary to do what the Bush administration is entirely incapable of, which is to define how to end it, and start working towards that goal.
We do not know what the next year will bring, but we know how to start getting where we know the endgame of Iraq will eventually go, and the most essential task we currently have to to ensure that no more lives than necessary go towards the political cowardice of the current institutionalized quagmire. We must "support the troops", indeed -- and that means respecting the value of their lives not only when they have died, but when they are alive as well.
[snip]
We are surrounded by political figures in all parties unwilling to make political sacrifices a hundredth as difficult as the sacrifices we expect of the men and women who serve in our military, and in such a time as this, political courage is not optional, it is flatly and unequivocally expected. It is required, and if it is not forthcoming, then the wrath of the American public will grow, and quickly.
Quit jockeying for position among yourselves. Quit expecting ultraconservative apologists to offer anything more than plans to get more people killed and call it "progress". Quit expecting anything but another two years of incompetent buffoonery from the Bush administration. Quit expecting bipartisanship. Quit expecting miracles that haven't come for three years, and aren't just over the horizon now. And quit expecting patience.
You've got weeks, not months. Within the next two weeks, people are going to begin figuring out who's blocking what, and talking about it. Within a few weeks after that, there are going to be be explorations of all the Senators and House members who are willing to keep troops in harm's way without a plan. And within two months, those figures are going to be marked as apologists or worse, and the same fire that rained down on Republicans and on Joe Lieberman last election cycle from an American public deeply, deeply angry about the conduct of the war will begin to rain down on you, and there won't be enough talking points in the world to absolve or defend you.
You have no idea how much raw fury there is out there, just under the surface. And all the "Democratic apologists" like me are on our very last ounce of patience, and all the grassroots supporters have torches lit and at the ready, and all the Democrats and Republicans in your district are watching to see whether you're really different from the Republicans or not, and all the troops in Iraq are waiting to see if you can provide an ounce of leadership.
Fix it. Now.
---------------
wage peace not war,
Otter
Yes, otter, that is indeed a good diary with expert advice.
Here's what you can all do today: call your representative to tell him/her to stop funding the war.
Congress is poised to approve another $93 billion, and then yet another $145 billion, for war.
Call the Congressional Switchboard at 888.851.1879 and ask for the office of your representative. If your member of Congress is not available, ask to talk to the foreign policy advisor. If you can't speak to anyone on the phone, leave a voicemail urging your Congressperson to vote NO on the supplemental appropriations. Find your member of Congress here ===> http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
It would also help if you called all the members of the House Appropriations Committee ===> http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/committees.tt?commid=happr
(Mark Kirk, the rubber-stamping republic party representative is on the Appropriations committee from IL-10 with zip codes like 60015, 60022, 60035, 60044, 60045, & 60056 in case you're feeling like making a little Illi-noise...)
Just FYI... If you've been having problems getting through to the site today, I just received this notice from our ISP.
-----
Network Problems
----------------
Beginning around 8:05 AM Eastern, we experienced a massive inbound denial-of-service attack which affected approximately one third of our servers. The attack was traced and blocked at around 8:35 AM, and traffic has since returned to normal levels.
----------------
Sounds like they've handled it. I'll let you know if I hear anything else.
It wasn't enough to attack a mosque. Now pilgrims have been attacked too. & some say it isn't a civil war?
I have to work 12 hours and I woke up in the middle of the night with insomnia because I'd heard Bush use the term "battlefield" twice, with no apparent emotion. There would probably BE no battlefield if not for his stupid decisions. Maybe he thinks we'd be battling in the middle of Nebraska cornfields if we weren't in Iraq. Yeah maybe that's it.
I started remembering being 12 years old and travelling across South Dakota with my mom & 3 younger siblings, to visit my dad at the VA in Rapid City. On the way, our bus had to stop for hours on the highway, because of a burning car. When we got to the VA, my dad had come out of electroshock and he didn't know me. I got presents that were supposed to be from him but I knew they were picked out by volunteers. People used to say "Roger can't hold down a job. He's shellshocked."
Thanks, Bush. You were never on a battlefield and even your hero dad only shot from the air, but he still had the sense not to start a ground war in the middle east.
Nearly 2 million Iraqis have fled their homeland -- what one U.N. official calls a "simmering crisis." In Jordan, Iraq refugees make up more than one-tenth of the population.
From Nic Robertson
CNN
AMMAN, Jordan (CNN) -- Dr. Nafie Abtan once operated a thriving medical clinic in Baghdad, but one day last June he received a hand-delivered letter threatening to cut his head off if he remained.
"We tell you to leave your job and to travel and to leave your hospital," the letter said.
Three days later, he did just that. He fled Iraq for neighboring Jordan, bringing with him his wife, Suhair, and young son, Moutaz.
Abtan and his family are like hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis who have fled their country amid the deadly violence that has wracked the nation and is creating what the international community calls a growing humanitarian crisis.
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/06/iraq.refugees/index.html
More great work, Arbushto.
By Lou Dobbs
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- This new Congress was supposed to be different. Instead, it is being led by a gaggle of partisan hacks pandering to the same special interests and corporate masters as the previous Republican-led Congress.
So-called comprehensive immigration reform legislation is about to take a privileged position on the Democratic agenda in the Senate. It will likely succeed, just as it did in that august chamber last year, when 38 Democratic senators sided with the president to pass the bill and tried to slam amnesty down the throats of the House of Representatives and their 300 million constituents.
And the now Democratic-controlled House is likely to embrace rather than combat the lunacy of amnesty.
-snip-
I've said for years that we cannot reform immigration if we cannot control it, and we cannot control it unless we secure our borders and ports. Once again it is clear that corporate America, special interests and the out-of-touch elites of the Senate have little regard for truth, working Americans, the common good and the national interest.
The Democratic Party is now putting working Americans and their families in the exact same position as the Republicans: last.
This Democratic-led Congress and this Republican President seem intent on pushing middle-class Americans, and truth, into the shadows. We asked for bipartisanship. But I don't think we can stand any more of it.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/06/dobbs.march7/index.html
NEW YORK (CNN) -- He fought and triumphed over Hitler, Tojo, international Communism and a host of supervillains, but he could not dodge a sniper's bullet.
Comic book hero Captain America is dead.
After close to 60 years in print, Marvel Comics has killed off Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, one of its most famous and beloved superheroes amid an already controversial story line, "Civil War," which is pitting the heroes of Marvel's universe against one another.
In the comic series, Rogers was to stand trial for defying a superhero registration law passed after a hero's tragic mistake causes a 9/11-like event.
Steve Rogers eventually surrenders to police. He is later mortally wounded as he climbs the courthouse steps.
Marvel says the comic story line was intentionally written as an allegory to current real-life issues like the Patriot Act, the War on Terror and the September 11 attacks.
"Every child knew about 9/11," says Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Comics. "If [he] could see a TV he knew what 9/11 was. The other similarities [to] things going on are just part of storytelling."
It was a violent and strange end for an American hero.
Captain America first appeared in 1941, just as the United States entered World War II. He was a symbol of American strength and resolve in fighting the Axis powers, and later Communism.
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/03/07/captain.america/index.html
I'm Your Captain
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah
Watchdogs & C-span nerds alert - especially curious what King Abdullah has to say and what is the Pig Book?:
8:00 a.m. - Rep. Rangel and Sen. Kerry - Address Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 17th Annual Legislative Conference.
9:30 a.m. - Senate - Continued consideration of 9/11 Commission Recommendations bill
9:30 a.m. - Bill Gates - Testimony before Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing.
10:00 a.m. - House Energy and Commerce Committee, Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee - Hearing on Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
11:00 a.m. - Joint meeting of Congress - Address by King Abdullah of Jordan.
11:00 am. - Sens. McCain, DeMint, Rep. Flake, Citizens Against Government Waste Pres. Schatz - News conference to release "2007 Congressional Pig Book."
12:00 p.m. - White House Press Sec. Snow - Press Briefing
1:30 p.m. - Army CoS Gen. Schoonmaker, Army Vice CoS Gen. Cody, and Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Kiley - Testimony before House Appropriations Committee Defense Subcommittee hearing on Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
2:00 p.m. - House Appropriations Committee - Hearing on election integrity.
2:00 p.m. - House Science and Technology Committee - Consideration of issuing subpoenas to NASA Inspector General.
Just called Speaker Pelosi's office about the Libby conviction:
1) THE SPEAKER HAS NOT RELEASED STATEMENT OR COMMENT ON THE CONVICTION OF LIBBY, YET.
2) IMPEACHMENT OR AN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY IS STILL "OFF THE TABLE"
Posted by: Ralpheh at March 7, 2007 11:14 AM
This country is now eatin' off the floor... we don't need no stinkin' tables.
Eat A Peach
monkey:
http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/archive/getfuzzy-20070213.html
gittin fuzzy widdit,
Otter
Libby Jurror Query:
"There was a tremendous amount of sympathy for Mr. Libby on the jury. It was said a number of times, 'What are we doing with this guy here? Where's Rove? Where are these other guys?'
Good question, where are these other guys?
Posted by: Bubba at March 7, 2007 12:18 PM
Apparently around some table that we won't touch.
Here's a great song to sing everywhere you go -- loud & proud!
I.M.P.E.A.C.H
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/7/121821/5340
Seriously, listen to it.
If you get a chance, check out this DU research thread. They've been keeping track of GOP contractors (donors) who were given the contract to take care of our military at Walter Reed Hospital.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x360539
And today's top recommended diary at Kos is on voter suppression in the 04 election.
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/7/81651/41812
Posted by: madame defarge at March 7, 2007 12:57 PM
I recommend we send that to our Congress Critters and tell them to confront Pelosi.
I'm still so mad at Pelosi for "taking IMPEACHMENT off the table" that steam is coming out my ears....
Wilson Responds: Bush And Cheney Must Explain Why They Outed My Wife
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/06/wilson-responds-verdict
Congress Says Prepared to Act in Plame Affair
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030707A.shtml
Aides to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Congressman John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said they were engaged in discussions Tuesday about the possibility of holding immediate hearings and subpoenaing Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to provide details of his nearly four-year-old investigation, and the evidence he obtained regarding the role Vice President Dick Cheney and other White House officials played in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson.
Excerpt (more on link - apparently Waxman is/was interested in further investigation at one point?):
In the meantime, if Congress decides to hold hearings or further investigate the roles of other administration officials who were involved in the leak, such as White House political consultant Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney, Fitzgerald said he may be inclined to share the evidence he collected over the course of three years with lawmakers if they ask for his documents.
At least one member of Congress has indicated that he will likely take Fitzgerald up on his offer. Congressman Maurice Hinchey, D-NY, who has led the effort among Democrats in Congress to expand the CIA leak probe, said the guilty verdict returned against Libby does not go far enough in settling questions surrounding Cheney's role in the case, and that he intends to call for a criminal probe to pursue charges against the vice president.
{{{Congress Critters have a green light by 'We The People'... IF they choose to pursue further investigation... and we all know it would lead directly to the NECESSITY of initiating IMPEACHMENT proceedings... So, Congress Critters... WHAT is the hold-up? Subpoena their butts immediately!!! Or don't you really want to find out about the LIES you believed without asking questions, LIES you swallowed, hook, line, and sinker, which will not absolve you of the responsiblity for your votes that helped Georgie start his illegal and unconstitutional war, a war you are still funding and keeping going when the vast majority of Americans want it stopped and the troops brought home immediately...??? Hmmm...?}}}
Fired US Prosecutors Felt Threatened by Republican Lawmakers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030707C.shtml
Thomas D. Williams reports that four US attorneys testified before Congress Tuesday that they believed they were forced to resign for improper reasons. An email from one of the US attorneys, Arkansas's Bud Cummins, was offered by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Schumer, D-NY, as potential Congressional evidence of alleged improper warnings of retribution by high Justice Department officials.
E-Voting on Trial in Columbus, Ohio: The Squire Case
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030707H.shtml
The Squire v. Geer case is more than just a mere election challenge lawsuit; the reliability of electronic voting was on trial last week in a small courtroom in Franklin County, Ohio. Voting rights activists see the issues before the court as going to the heart of democracy itself, and whether or not election results obtained through the computerized voting machines can be trusted.
{Two articles on this one link.}
William Fisher | New Tests for the Supreme Court
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030707J.shtml
William Fisher writes: "Two of the Bush administration's signature issues may soon face further challenges in the US Supreme Court. In one case, the high court will be asked to review lower court decisions upholding the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act. In the other, lawyers may contest the government's use of the 'state secrets privilege' in a case involving the practice of 'extraordinary rendition.'"
Questions About Cheney Remain
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030707K.shtml
With Tuesday's verdict on Mr. Libby - guilty on four of five counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice - the vice president has been diminished. "The trial has been death by 1,000 cuts for Cheney," said Scott Reed, a Republican strategist. "It's hurt him inside the administration. It's hurt him with the Congress, and it's hurt his stature around the world because it has shown a lot of the inner workings of the White House. It peeled the bark right off the way they operate."
Censoring Our Educators
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030707P.shtml
A nationwide effort is underway in statehouses to censor professors. David Horowitz, a right-wing political pundit who penned the "Academic Bill of Rights" as a guideline to intellectual freedom for students, is leading the movement and driving a number of legislative bills that would prevent instructors from voicing potentially controversial opinions. Free Exchange on Campus says, "Censoring what can and cannot be taught and discussed in the classroom, as the misleadingly titled 'Academic Bill of Rights' and so-called 'intellectual diversity' proposals attempt to do, curbs campus debate and limits learning."
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sFile=nq070305
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sFile=nq070306
The link I posted yesterday. This is obviously a series.
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sfile=nq070307&vts=3720071233
Non Sequitur (another keeper to put on the fridge...)
I wonder what Non Sequitur will have for a political animal tomorrow...? ;-)
http://www.democrats.org/page/invite/deanmessage
Dean video. Seems like a weak 'statement' to me. What about IMPEACHMENT?
My uncle, who is what some would call a fundie preacher, is also a vet who served in Viet Nam.
Night before last he had a stroke, so they took him 67 miles Northwest by ambulance. Today my aunt was told the hospital in Bismarck won't treat him because needs vet funds, so my aunt has to drive him clear to Fargo to the vets.
My aunt was very upset. I sympathized with her, then said "Next time, watch who you vote for".
The Truth just keeps on coming on, doesn't it???
Bush says Libby verdict should be respected
President says he's sad for Libby and his family
Updated: 41 minutes ago
Reuters
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush said on Wednesday that the guilty verdict for a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney must be respected, though he was saddened for Lewis "Scooter" Libby and his family.
"This was a lengthy trial on a serious matter and a jury of his peers convicted him and we've got to respect that conviction," Bush told CNN Espanol in an interview.
-snip-
Bush said he was limiting his comments on the case because it was "an ongoing legal matter."
"On a personal note, I was sad. I was sad for a man who had worked in my administration, particularly sad for his family," Bush said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17502749/from/RS.1/
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at March 7, 2007 04:08 PM
You see, she has to drive him to Fargo cuz the VA won't pay for an ambulance to take him. He is impaired on his left side from the stroke.
Yep, puttin down others who need help is easy, til you need help.
When I was younger, so much younger than today...
MAJORITY LEADER REID ON THE LIBBY CONVICTION:
(it is only four sentences long and carefully hidden)
"I welcome the jury's verdict. It's about time someone in the Bush Administration has been held accountable for the campaign to manipulate intelligence and discredit war critics. Lewis Libby has been convicted of perjury, but his trial revealed deeper truths about Vice President Cheney's role in this sordid affair. Now President Bush must pledge not to pardon Libby for his criminal conduct."
TRANSLATION:
CONGRESS WILL DO NO INVESTIGATION OF THE WMD INTELL
CONGRESS WILL NOT CONSIDER IMPEACHING CHENEY
LIBBY WILL BE PARDONED AT THE END OF BUSH'S TERM
btw;
CONTACTED HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON'S OFFICE ABOUT THE LIBBY CONVICTION.
1) Her statement is longer than Reid's!!! I would say 6 or 7 sentences long.
2) No talk of impeachment
3) No talk of setting the record straight on the Iraq WMD intell
4) Congress will do nothing further in this matter etc...
Oh yeah
5) Libby will be pardoned by Bush....
Censoring Our Educators
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/030707P.shtml
A nationwide effort is underway in statehouses to censor professors. David Horowitz, a right-wing political pundit who penned the "Academic Bill of Rights" as a guideline to intellectual freedom for students, is leading the movement and driving a number of legislative bills that would prevent instructors from voicing potentially controversial opinions. Free Exchange on Campus says, "Censoring what can and cannot be taught and discussed in the classroom, as the misleadingly titled 'Academic Bill of Rights' and so-called 'intellectual diversity' proposals attempt to do, curbs campus debate and limits learning."
Posted by: NonnyO at March 7, 2007 04:04 PM
To me, this sounds like affirmative action - something the conservatives oppose with all their hearts. Except when the "disadvantaged" turns out to be the conservatives themselves.
Maybe they need to realize that fewer academics are conservatives, because today's neoconservative ideology is near impossible to defend in an intellectual manner.
Posted by: Ralpheh at March 7, 2007 05:06 PM
Thank you for staying active and contacting the Democratic bigwigs.
It's pathetic that these morons, just by virtue of being "Democrats" (AKA the only viable alternative to the Republicans), have us held captive to their whims.
Wait.... there are some rays of hope:
An aide to Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday that the senator is still determined to investigate the flawed intelligence that the administration used to convince Congress and the public to back the Iraq war. The Levin aide said the senator will likely seek testimony from Libby, Cheney, and senior members of the White House who played a role in the Plame leak, and that it "makes sense" to fold the issues surrounding the CIA leak case into the hearings about pre-war intelligence since they overlap with the leak case.
(but we know that Jason Leopold has been wrong in the past....)
Iraq War Opponents to March in Washington:
A coalition of anti-war groups is planning a march on the Pentagon to protest the Iraq war. The March 17th protest will come on the 40th anniversary of a 1967 march on the Pentagon that was a major milestone in the anti-Vietnam War movement. VOA's Bill Rodgers reports.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-03-07-voa35.cfm?rss=united
Vermont Votes to Impeach Bush/Cheney:
When Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican with reasonably close ties to President Bush, asked if there was any additional business to be considered at the town meeting he was running in Middlebury, Ellen McKay popped up and proposed the impeachment of Bush and Vice President
Dick Cheney.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/1172344
Seven Countries In Five Years
An interview with General Wesley Clark
“This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.” I said, “Is it classified?” He said, “Yes, sir.
Audio and transcript
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17253.htm
Rudy & McCain Grow Hymens
By Tom Gilroy
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17259.htm
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/03/07/placing_libby_above_the_law.php
Placing Libby Above The Law
by David Corn, TomPaine.com
For once, the system worked. Why are conservatives crying foul over the guilty verdict of I. Lewis Libby?
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/03/07/trampling_on_the_grassroots.php
Congressional Democratic leaders reach to Washington state to stop an impeachment bill.
Trampling On The Grassroots
by Dave Lindorff, TomPaine.com
In the state of Washington, it is the people versus Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party leadership.
At issue is a bill, S8016, submitted in the state’s senate by freshman state Senator Eric Oemig, which would call on the U.S. Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings against President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors against the Constitution and the people of the United States and of the state of Washington.
The measure, which would take the form of a joint resolution by the two houses of the Washington state legislature, accords with the instructions laid out by Founder Thomas Jefferson, who, in his Manual of the Rules of the House of Representatives laid out state joint resolutions as an alternative route for initiating presidential impeachment proceedings in the House, in addition to the more usual route of a member submitting a bill of impeachment.
Jefferson’s prescient thinking was that if Congress, by reason of political cowardice or inattention, ever proved unwilling or unable to initiate impeachment when it was called for, state legislators, far from Capitol Hill and closer to the people, could do it for them.
But two unprincipled and devious Democratic members of Washington’s congressional delegation, Sen. Pat Murray and Rep. Jay Inslee, are undermining Jefferson’s carefully designed fail-safe system by pressuring Democratic state legislators to kill Sen. Oemig’s bill. The Seattle Times reports in a March 2 article that Murray and Inslee are telling Democrats in the state senate to kill the impeachment bill on the grounds that it would lead to “divisiveness” in Washington, and that it would impede the “Democratic agenda” in Congress.
Forget grave spinning! This wholly inappropriate interference in state affairs by the state¹s two leading national political figures must have Jefferson soiling his breeches!
Clearly, Murray and Inslee have decided to abandon their constituents in the state of Washington, a majority of whom want this criminal president impeached, and are instead doing the bidding of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who have completely lost touch with the nation’s voters and with their own sense of principle.
{More on link.}
Posted by: Ralpheh at March 7, 2007 05:06 PM
Thank you for staying active and contacting the Democratic bigwigs.
It's pathetic that these morons, just by virtue of being "Democrats" (AKA the only viable alternative to the Republicans), have us held captive to their whims.
Posted by: Ally McRepuke at March 7, 2007 05:15 PM
@@@@@
I only talked to low-level office people in Pelosi's office about impeachment and Libby. On the other side of the issue, Jason Leopold and Truthout maybe right - hopefully!!! - that the House of Reps. and Pelosi will get serious and act on the Libby conviction.
Also, I would love for Sen. Levin to reopen the whole history of the WMD intell and "16 words" uranium sentence in the State of the Union etc. and track all the WMD baloney the Bushies were feeding us.
Harry Reid's statement on the Libby conviction is embarrassingly weak and vague... perhaps he and Pelosi will come out with a stronger statement...
Bush is sending in the 'truth squad' on the Reed problems.
Translation: coverup begins with serious intensity now.
http://tinyurl.com/27da2m (yahoo-ap news)
I'm reposting this article here because it clearly demonstrates the utter madness of our presence in Iraq today. Has there ever been a point to this insane invasion?
'Al-Qaeda' gunmen lead mass jailbreak
March 7, 2007 - 8:12AM
Suspected al-Qaeda gunmen stormed a troubled Iraqi jail on Tuesday and freed at least 140 prisoners, said the chairman of the area's provincial security committee.
Hasham al-Hamadani of Nineveh province's security council said fighters loyal to al-Qaeda kingpin Omar al-Baghdadi had infiltrated the area around the northern city of Mosul and masterminded the jailbreak.
Foreign Arab extremist fighters were among the prisoners freed in the attack on Badush prison, an Iraqi government facility outside the city, he added.
Cont. .....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/alqaeda-gunmen-lead-mass-jailbreak/2007/03/07/1173166740166.html
Posted by: woz at March 6, 2007 11:42 PM
Hey DCP bloggers:
ThinkProgress is hiring. Lots of you would be great at this!
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/07/thinkprogress-hiring/
(new thread)