Kerry and Gingrich get a big raise

It's because they are good debaters and it was a debate. The presidential debates were a farce.

Two important "must reads" today.

From Firedoglake--Is the AP trying to erase GOP bad behavior...
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/04/12/is-the-ap-trying-to-erase-gop-bad-behavior-from-the-news/

And from Jesselyn Radack (the whistleblower in the Lindh torture case) who discovered her emails deleted and hardcopies missing from a COURT ORDERED discovery process...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/12/54612/8770

Coverups are not new to this administration. They started early but the media has been awol!

The state of WA House and Senate have passed a bill allowing REAL sex education in schools, and all we need is the Governor's signature to make it real.

We had this back in the '70s in rural South Dakota. There is no reason we can't have it now. I had sex education, REAL sex education, in school and at church. We had Advanced Biology available in a town of 500 people, with government grants to help buy microscopes, dissection equipment & animals etc.

Why can't we do it now? Even still, we get static from people who don't want their children to know the truth; who don't think their sons & daughters are capable of free will and independent, informed decision making.

---

Healthy Youth Act: Bill Headed to Governor's Desk

OLYMPIA, WA - The Washington State House passed the Healthy Youth Act (ESSB 5297) today by a vote of 63 - 34. The bill had been approved in the State Senate with a vote of 30 - 19 on March 7th.

The Healthy Youth Act is quality assurance for sex education in public schools. The bill requires that school districts that choose to teach sex education provide medically accurate and comprehensive information. Anti-choice Representatives Ahern, Anderson, Bailey, Buri, Curtis, Dunn, Haler, Hinkle, McCune, McDonald, Newhouse, Roach, Ross, Schindler, Strow, Sump, and Warnick offered 33 amendments attempting to undermine the bill, all of which were defeated.

"After five years of work on this important issue, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington is very pleased that the Legislature has finally acted to protect the health of Washington teens by approving the Healthy Youth Act," said Karen Cooper, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.

"Teens need reliable information regarding contraception and sexual health in order to make good decisions throughout their lives," said Cooper. "I am amazed that giving teens accurate, complete health information is still controversial in 2007, but clearly it is for some legislators," Cooper added, referring to the four hours of debate prior to final passage of the bill.

"A 2004 statewide survey demonstrated that 78% of Washington parents think we should be teaching ninth and tenth graders about contraception, birth control, and condoms, yet we know that many Washington schools only provide inaccurate abstinence-only programs," Cooper said. "The need for this legislation is clear and we look forward to Governor Gregoire signing The Healthy Youth Act it into law."

Like a scene from V for Vendetta...

At least 8 dead in explosion at Iraq parliament
In stunning security breach, bomber detonates explosives inside cafeteria

-snip-

U.S. officials react
Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said witness accounts indicated a suicide attack. “We don’t know at this point who it was. We do know in the past that suicide vests have been used predominantly by al-Qaida,” the U.S. military spokesman said in an Associated Press broadcast interview.

At White House, National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe condemned the attack by “terrorists and extremists.”

“We’ve known there’s a security problem in Baghdad, which is why the president has structured a new strategy and why Gen. (David) Petraeus and his commanders are carrying it out,” added Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “But this is still early in the process and I don’t think anybody expected there would not be counterefforts by terrorists to undermine the security progress we’re trying to make.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18072203/

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.
Kurt Vonnegut
(click on my name for more)

wrong URL - more Vonnegot, click on my name

From Firedoglake--Is the AP trying to erase GOP bad behavior...
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/04/12/is-the-ap-trying-to-erase-gop-bad-behavior-from-the-news/

And from Jesselyn Radack (the whistleblower in the Lindh torture case) who discovered her emails deleted and hardcopies missing from a COURT ORDERED discovery process...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/12/54612/8770

Coverups are not new to this administration. They started early but the media has been awol!

Posted by: sparrow at April 12, 2007 11:14 AM

@@@@@

Is Radack STILL on the "selectee" list for flying?? If she is, it seems to me that should be challenged in court. There are numerous complaints to the Congress and the TSA from people who are on the "selectee" list etc...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070412/ap_on_go_co/fired_prosecutors
Leahy doubts Bush aides on lost e-mails
President Bush's aides are lying about White House e-mails sent on a Republican account that might have been lost, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) suggested Thursday, vowing to subpoena those documents if the administration fails to cough them up.

"They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" Leahy shouted from the Senate floor.

"You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers," said Leahy, D-Vt. "Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary."

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said there is no effort to purposely keep the e-mails under wraps, and that the counsel's office is doing everything it can to recover any that were lost.

"The purpose of our review is to make every reasonable effort to recover potentially lost e-mails, and that is why we've been in contact with forensic experts," he said.

Leahy scoffed.

"I've got a teenage kid in my neighborhood that can go get 'em for them," he told reporters later.

Senate Democrats continued to toughen their stance against the White House over the firings of eight prosecutors over the winter.

After his speech, Leahy's committee approved — but did not issue — new subpoenas to compel the administration to produce documents and testimony about the firings.
~~~~~
Stanzel said the White House was trying to recover the e-mails and could not rule out that some may have involved the firings.The administration also is drafting new guidelines for aides on how to comply with the law.

Leahy was not buying that.

"E-mails don't get lost," Leahy insisted. "These are just e-mails they don't want to bring forward."
~~~~~
Leahy has not issued any subpoenas, but permission by his committee Thursday would give him authority to require testimony from all eight of the fired U.S. attorneys and several White House and Justice Department officials named in e-mails made public as having had roles in the firings. The White House has refused to make officials such as Rove available to testify under oath.

{{{More on link. Seriously, Patrick Leahy... you have subpoena power: USE IT OR LOSE IT!!! Or get that neighborhood kid to hack into whatever system in which those emails were "lost." While you're at it, get one of your staff people to work on the wording of a bill to repeal the entire MCA '06 which gave Georgie and Dickie dictatorial power and stripped us of habeas corpus, and then start in on the wording of a bill repealing the so-called Patriot Acts.... All talk and no action just leaves us stuck with Georgie and Dickie and an ineffective Lamestream Media who are AWOL about reporting real news. From evening snooze teasers I know the Smith baby's father has been determined by DNA, only she will care someday (and it's really none of our business anyway), and that repulsive worm Imus has been fired from one of his jobs and hopefully he and his prejudice and xenophobia will go back under the rock from which he came - can we move on to news that debunks the Bu$hCo lies that have been told to us since 2000 that none of the bobbleheads seems willing to harp about more than ten seconds on lost sound bytes, all of which should have been talked about at length at the time, so that makes the lies still relevant for debunking...?!?!? Can we go back to actually hearing about real news?!?}}}

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070412/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
Bombing at Iraqi parliament kills 8
Excerpt:
The parliament bombing was believed to be the deadliest attack in the Green Zone, the enclave that houses Iraq's leadership as well as the U.S. Embassy, and is secured by American and Iraqi checkpoints.

{{{So, Georgie and Dickie, how's that surge workin' for ya....?!? Sounds like Orwellian 'war is peace' to me. You're already two of the most loathed people on the planet. Will you still defend your lies for oil illegal war justifications and war crimes torture and false imprisonment justifications when the kool-aid drinking sheeple find out their loved ones died for no good reason whatsoever, other than to make a profit for your corporate oil cronies...? Gee, I wonder if ol' Johnny McCain would feel safe walking inside the Green Zone today?}}}

I don't watch tv but I have it third hand from someone who has had cable news crap on all morning that they seldom mention the violence was in the Green Zone - they are spending most of their time talking about the boys at Duke University getting off.

Speaking of Kerry:

Kerry: Listen to Your Generals, Change Course on Iraq (from the Senate floor today)

Mr. President, I would like to speak today about the situation in Iraq – the devastating attack in Baghdad, the lack of any real political progress as a result of the President’s escalation, the incredible toll it is taking on our armed forces, and what this Administration could learn if they really listened to our generals.

We are now more than four years into the war in Iraq, and tragically it is only now that the Administration has finally realized that there is an urgent need for one individual with the authority to coordinate our overall military and civilian efforts in Iraq – at a time when apparently no one wants the job.

It says a lot that when the President finally decides to appoint a “War Czar” to get everyone on the same page, the situation in Iraq is so bad, and the Administration’s stubborn unwillingness to change course is so persistent, they can’t find anyone to take the job.

So far, the Administration has approached three retired four star generals about the position -- Marine General John J. "Jack" Sheehan, Army General Jack Keane, and retired Air Force General Joseph W. Ralston.

All three declined. These were not opponents of the Administration; in fact, they all had established ties to this Administration. Yet none of them would not take the job. Why not? Why would our top military commanders decline such a high level position?

General Sheehan, a 35 year Marine who once served as the top NATO commander, summed it up pretty well when he said: "The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going."

It’s long past time for a President who insists that he listens to his generals – and not politicians – to finally heed his own advice, and to end a disgraceful record of ignoring the very military the Administration professes to believe in.

This isn’t new. Again and again this Administration has turned its back on the best advice of the uniformed military – and each time they’ve done so at our peril.

Start with General Shinseki, who we all now agree that he was right that we needed a lot more troops to secure Iraq after the invasion. As the former top operating officer at the Pentagon, a Marine Lieutenant General, put it: "the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions--or bury the results.” Instead of listening to General Shinseki, the Administration decided to retire him.

Last year, retired high-ranking military leaders -- many of whom played key combat or planning roles in Afghanistan and Iraq -- came forward publicly to call for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. And across the administration, the warnings of those wore the uniform of their country all their lives -- and who, retired or not, did not resign their citizenship in order to serve their country -- were dismissed as acts of disloyalty, or as threats to civilian control of the armed forces.

In the end, it took an election to replace Secretary Rumsfeld – not the advice of the men and women who had seen him nearly break the military they’d served for decades. That was this Administration’s choice.

It didn’t stop there. Just ask General Casey or General Abizaid, who warned that more US troops would not solve Iraq’s security problem – and could actually slow the process of getting Iraqi security forces to assume more responsibility -- and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who unanimously opposed this escalation. What happened to them? General Abizaid was replaced. General Casey was re-assigned. The Joint Chiefs were over-ruled.

And yesterday, we learned that the Pentagon is going to stretch our overextended military even further by extending combat tours and reducing time between rotations to provide the additional troops necessary for the President’s misguided escalation. What do our military leaders have to say about that?

Robert Scales, a retired Army two-star general, said that to sustain this deployment while giving soldiers the training and rest they need would require twice as many Army and Marine Corps brigades as we have – and then he warned that the Army is about to be "broken." Barry McCaffrey, a retired Army four-star general who recently returned from another fact-finding trip to Iraq, tells us that combat equipment for both the active and reserve components "is shot." His conclusion was simple: "There is no argument of whether the US Army is rapidly unraveling."

At a time when mistake after mistake is being compounded by the very civilian leadership that ignored expert military advice in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, those who understand the price for each mistake is being paid by our troops, our country, and Iraq itself must be heard.

And the message from the generals who were offered the War Czar position has been crystal clear: if they really thought the Administration had a strategy that could succeed in Iraq, why did they turn down the job?

Mr. President, there’s a very good reason for their skepticism: this Administration simply refuses to accept the fact that we need to change course in Iraq.

We keep hearing that the escalation is showing progress –but while the level of Iraqi civilian casualties may have gone down in Baghdad, it has gone up in other parts of the country – and the overall casualty rate has basically remained the same. And just today, we learned of a devastating suicide bombing in the Iraqi parliament, which is in the heart of the heavily fortified Green Zone. Ten people died – including two Iraqi lawmakers -- along with any sense of personal security in what is supposed to be the safest part of Baghdad. This is the progress we’ve been hearing about? And tell me, how are more American troops going to stop a single fanatic with explosives strapped to his chest?

One thing we do know is that American troops are paying the ultimate price for this escalation –in the first seven weeks, the number of U.S. troops who died in Baghdad doubled. On Monday alone we learned of two more soldiers from Massachusetts who died in Iraq -- Captain Anthony Palermo, age 26, of Brockton, Massachusetts, and Sergeant Adam P. Kennedy, 25, of Norfolk, Massachusetts.

The Administration says these men and women are giving their lives because the purpose of this escalation is to allow the Iraqis “space” to make the political deals that we all agree are the only hope for ending the civil war. But if the violence is going down in Baghdad, where is the political progress?

We keep hearing that the Iraqis are getting closer to a deal on sharing oil revenues- but every time, hopes for a final deal turn out to be an illusion. The de-ba’athification law that is a key part of the national reconciliation process was recently denounced by Ayatollah Sistani and is nowhere near completion. The Iraqis are still at square one when it comes to amending the Constitution and disarming the militias. And still, the President refuses to impose any meaningful consequences on the Iraqis for failure to meet these benchmarks.

Mr. President, since we all understand that there is no military solution in Iraq, let’s start measuring the progress on the ground in Iraq by what really counts: whether the Iraqis are making the political deals that are necessary to keep their country together. And right now, we have not seen any of the political progress that would give us cause for optimism.

That’s only going to change when the Administration accepts the simple reality that this Congress has acknowledged: Iraqi politicians have repeatedly shown they only respond to deadlines – a deadline to transfer authority, deadlines to hold two elections and a referendum, and a deadline to form a government. Americans should not be dying to buy time for Iraqi politicians hoping to cut a better deal. We should be working to bring about the compromise that is ultimately the only solution to what is happening today in Iraq.

Without a real deadline to force the Iraqis to make a deal, there’s no telling how long it will take – but we do know that American soldiers and Iraqi civilians will continue to die while their politicians wrangle over the details. And that is simply unacceptable.

The same holds true for the diplomacy that is key to any successful our strategy. Last month, Iraq’s neighbors and key players from the international community finally got together at a conference in Baghdad. But nothing tangible came out of it, and there’s no sense of urgency about the upcoming meeting in Egypt. That’s why a deadline is so essential: to focus all the parties on the critical need to help Iraqis reach the political solution that is the only solution.

Mr. President, we owe it to our troops and to our country to have an honest debate and to try to work together to find the way forward in Iraq. But just yesterday, Senator McCain gave a particularly divisive speech in which he said that Democrats were cheering for defeat and surrender in Iraq. Senator McCain knows better. He knows full well that no one wants to see Iraq fall apart. He knows that we all agree on the need to preserve our vital national security interests in the region, and that none of us downplay the risk of a region-wide conflict or an al-Qaeda safe haven. We disagree on the strategy, but we all agree on the stakes. To suggest otherwise does a disservice to our people and our principles.

Yet still, the Vice President hides behind the rhetoric that dares to claim those who offer a new way forward are “undermining” our troops. Undermining our troops? Let’s have that debate – let’s have that debate with a Vice President who helped send them into combat without adequate protection so they can be killed and maimed in humvees that -- four years into this war -- still do not have the armor they need.

Let’s have that debate with an Administration that sent them back into battle in Iraq with serious injuries and other medical problems -- including some who doctors have said are too injured to wear their body armor.

Undermine the troops? How about failing to provide them with proper medical care when they come home with broken bodies and minds -- forcing them to live in run down facilities -- leaving them to fend for themselves as they deal with mountains of red tape.

Undermine the troops? How about extending tours in Iraq so that military families will wait 15 months to see their loved ones instead of 12 months – and reducing time off between rotations so they have even less time when they get home?

Mr. President, this Congress has finally done what this Administration has stubbornly refused to do – to recognize that the best way to support the troops is to change a failed course and implement a strategy that can work for America and for Iraq. And make no mistake: if the President vetoes the supplemental spending bill, he is the one who is denying our troops the funds they need.

We should honor lives lost not with words but with lives saved. That starts by putting aside the hollow rhetoric and straw men that have undermined a real debate for far too long – and supporting an exit strategy that preserves our core interests in Iraq, in the region, and throughout the world. That, Mr. President, is how we support the troops – and bring our heroes home.

BTW: A really good book on the Plame "leak"/smear on the part of the Bushies: "ANATOMY OF DECEIT" by Marcy Wheeler.

Here's how bad the Bushies wanted to take Wilson down:

1) Smear Wilson and his qualifications to conduct a mission for the CIA; trashed his reporting to the CIA on Niger; called him a liar

2) Smear and out his wife; ruin her career; (breaking the spirit of the law if not the letter of the law)

3) Smear the CIA for picking an "incompetent" and "unqualified" person like Wilson to go on the mission; accused the CIA of nepotism..

From the book (information I had not known previously)

It appears that both Ari Fleischer and Dan Bartlett had hinted (on background) to a Time reporter that Wilson had been sent to Niger by a low-level employee at the CIA. My assumption is that both Ari and Bartlett probably knew this was a lie but would want the press to go on a wide goose chase.

The reporter is John Dickerson, he wrote about this incident in "WHERE IS MY SUBPOENA?" in Slate...

Posted by: not my president at April 12, 2007 03:01 PM

Ah, yes, that was the third story talked about on the teasers for the noon news; I knew I was forgetting something.

None of the noon news teasers talked about the Green Zone attack or the missing emails or Gonzo's upcoming testimony... et cetera. Stuff vastly more important to us as a nation - the other stuff only affects a few individuals, not millions of people, so who cares?

Obviously, knowing subjects affecting so few people were upcoming "noon news" topics, I turned off the TV and went online....

A T.V. PROGRAM FOR MR. BUSH!!!!!!

LOL!!!

Record of Iraq War Lies to Air April 25 on PBS
By David Swanson
t r u t h o u t | Guest Columnist

Thursday 12 April 2007

Bill Moyers has put together an amazing 90-minute video documenting the lies that the Bush administration told to sell the Iraq war to the American public, with a special focus on how the media led the charge. I've watched an advance copy and read a transcript, and the most important thing I can say about it is: Watch PBS from 9:00 to 10:30 PM on Wednesday, April 25. Spending that 90 minutes will actually save you time because you'll never watch television news again - not even on PBS, which comes in for its own share of criticism.

While a great many pundits, not to mention presidents, look remarkably stupid or dishonest in the four-year-old clips included in "Buying the War," it's hard to take any spiteful pleasure in holding them to account, and not just because the killing and dying they facilitated is ongoing, but also because of what this video reveals about the mindset of members of the DC media. Moyers interviews media personalities, including Dan Rather, who clearly both understand what the media did wrong and are unable to really see it as having been wrong or avoidable.

It's great to see an American media outlet tell this story so well, but it leads one to ask: When will Congress tell it? While the Democrats were in the minority, they clamored for hearings and investigations, they pushed Resolutions of Inquiry into the White House Iraq Group and the Downing Street Minutes. Now in the majority, they've gone largely silent. The chief exception is the House Judiciary Committee's effort to question Condoleezza Rice next week about the forged Niger documents.

But what comes out of watching this show is a powerful realization that no investigation is needed by Congress, just as no hidden information was needed for the media to get the story right in the first place. The claims that the White House made were not honest mistakes. But neither were they deceptions. They were transparent and laughably absurd falsehoods. And they were high crimes and misdemeanors.

NonnyO
Yes at lunch co-workers went on & on about Anna Nichole's baby and which of the three fathers & so on .. seemed to know nothing else was happening in the world.

NonnyO
While I suspect MSM is still going on about Imus (judging by proportion of newspaper accounts), I doubt they are giving much coverage to trouble in the Green Zone, destruction of a major bridge in Bagdad, or even Paul Wolofowitz' preferential treatment re job/salary for his "girlfriend" (though it's almost impossible to imagine who would date someone who spits on his comb and has holes in his socks, the latter which was reported in the Turkish press moreso than ours).

Wow. Am I the only one who missed this news from March 29??? (I checked back on the blog & there was no discussion or mention of it. I only found out about it via a NYTimes editorial.)

HHS official quits after Medicaid action
Thu Mar 29, 8:13 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The head of the federal office responsible for providing women with access to contraceptives and counseling to prevent pregnancy resigned unexpectedly Thursday after Medicaid officials took action against him in Massachusetts.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070330/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/family_planning_resignation

Here's the NYTimes editorial:

A Bad Choice, a Quick Exit

The story of Eric Keroack’s brief stint as director of family planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services brings together three familiar Bush administration themes: a disdain for women’s reproductive health and rights, the sacrifice of science to ideology and incompetence.

Appointed in November, Dr. Keroack was always a disturbing choice to lead the federal office that finances birth control, pregnancy tests and other health care services for five million poor Americans. He previously was the medical director of a private network of pregnancy counseling clinics in Massachusetts that views the distribution of contraception as “demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness,” according to the group’s Web site.

Its program for dissuading women from having an abortion has included spreading the medically inaccurate claim that having an abortion greatly increases the risk of breast cancer. In speeches and writing, Dr. Keroack has promoted the scientifically bereft notion that sex with multiple partners alters women’s brain chemistry in a way that makes it hard for them to form relationships.

It turns out these were not the only reasons Dr. Keroack was unsuitable. Last month he resigned after the Medicaid office in Massachusetts took action in connection with his private medical practice. The details of a continuing investigation (which someone in the White House should have discovered) are still murky, and Dr. Keroack says he plans an appeal. In the meantime, the administration’s ideological blinkers and shoddy process for vetting appointees has produced yet another embarrassment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/opinion/12thu4.html

Posted by: not my president at April 12, 2007 03:07 PM

Question: WHY does Bu$hCo want a "War Czar?" The only "practical" value in a "war czar" is to make us into a militarized nation. Don't we have enough of that already? DimWit doesn't listen to the generals he already has, even if they agree with him; the ones who disagree or have a different opinion about the occupation of Iraq have long since been fired or retired. The point of having a "war czar" is totally lost on me, unless it's to coordinate regular military with mercenaries and start rounding up dissenting US citizens to be sent to Gitmo or wherever else Halliburton has built concentration camps. (I'm not forgetting DimWit's mention in his SOTU address about private citizen armies - mercenaries - becoming a viable military force. I'm opposed to that whole idea.)

From Kerry's remarks: "We keep hearing that the Iraqis are getting closer to a deal on sharing oil revenues- but every time, hopes for a final deal turn out to be an illusion." The "core interests in Iraq" involve the Iraqis voting on a (US written/dictated) constitution that includes turning over ("sharing") the majority of their oil revenues to US oil corporations (did I read some 75% somewhere?), along with control of the Iraqi oil fields and drilling rights.

How does that benefit the Iraqi people if the wealth of their nation is given to US oil corporations per the US-dictated constitution...?

Seems to me that for any Dems to say anything truly credible about Iraq they have to first stop taking campaign contributions from US oil corporations.... As is, both Dems and neoCons are still funding the war. The only glitch in the current legislation that DimWit is threatening to veto is whether or not there's a timeline to get out. Otherwise the Dems are still voting in favor of funding Georgie's illegal war - which, of course, does not get the troops home, and it still makes the troops accessories to Georgie's war crimes....

US priorities regarding Iraq are totally FUBAR, and so hypocritical it just boggles the mind.
.

White House: 'We screwed up' on deleted e-mails
POSTED: 4:03 p.m. EDT, April 12, 2007

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House "screwed up" by not requiring e-mails from Republican Party and campaign accounts to be saved and is trying to recover any documents that may have been deleted, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

The admission came after the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee accused the White House of trying to hide messages related to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, which has stirred up a hornet's nest on Capitol Hill.

Congressional investigators have questioned whether White House aides used e-mail accounts from the Republican Party and President Bush's re-election campaign for official government business to avoid scrutiny of those dealings.

"You can't erase e-mails, not today," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont. "They've gone through too many servers. They can't say they've been lost. That's like saying, 'The dog ate my homework.' "

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters that the e-mails from those accounts should have been saved, but said policy has not kept pace with technology. She said computer experts were trying to retrieve any records that have been deleted.

"We screwed up, and we're trying to fix it," she told reporters.

Perino said Thursday that 22 aides in the political arm of the president's office use party or campaign e-mail accounts, which were issued to separate official business from political work. Some of those accounts were used to discuss the December firings of federal prosecutors in eight cities, a shakeup that has triggered a spreading controversy on Capitol Hill.

Perino said the accounts represent "a small slice of people" in the White House, where about 1,000 people have political duties. But she said, "We don't have an idea on the universe of the number of e-mails that were lost."

"I don't know if Senator Leahy is also an [information technology] expert, but I can assure you that we are working very hard to make sure that we find the e-mails that were potentially lost and that we are responsive to the requests, if there are responses that need providing, on the U.S. attorneys matters," she said. "We're being very honest and forthcoming."

Leahy said the e-mails would have remained on party or campaign computer servers, and he compared the situation to the famous 18-and-a-half-minute gap in one of the Watergate tapes.

"They're there," he said. "They know they're there, and we'll subpoena them, if necessary, and we'll have them."

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/12/white.house.email/index.html

Richard Bell adds to the thread header discussion:

http://globalpublicmedia.com/gingrich_goes_green_in_kerry_climate_debate

It sounded to me like a watershed moment in that it will be difficult to keep up the facade that there are two sides to any story in Congress.

There are at least 535...

Posted by: madame defarge at April 12, 2007 03:51 PM

Thanks for the info! I missed it. I remember reading something when he was appointed and wondering how someone who obviously lacked any credentials could get the post (something else trivial took headlines), but I wasn't aware of the latest on the case. If any Dems objected to the appointment, I don't remember reading it.

Georgie's "government" just keeps falling apart at the seams and all Lamestream Media can do is report gossip. And, of course, keep up appearances with patriotic hoo-rah, and reminders to go shopping and spend money.

That's a sad commentary on the rank willful ignorance of so many people in this country.

Posted by: NonnyO at April 12, 2007 04:12 PM

Keroack was appointed deputy assistant secretary for population affairs (DASPA) by L'il Georgie & only had to receive the approval of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt.

Another heckuvjob guy gone with a hearty good riddance.

madame and nonny,
Just keep passing the ENDUST along.

Endust my arse... we need d-CON!

Kills, roaches, dead.

There is very little on the news today about the bombing in the cafeteria of the Iraqi parliament, and even less about Anna Nicole's baby's daddy. The Don Imus debacle seems to be the only thing the news media wants to focus on, and once again, some Democrats are jumping into the fray making idiots of themselves trying to pacify the followers of the Reverend Al Sharpton, when they should be trying to connect with the average American voter instead.
I'm not a Don Imus fan- I've probably seen him twice before this whole incident, and I didn't like his show so I didn't bother to tune in again. That was my right- the only one who controls my TV remote besides myself is my somewhat possessive (of remote controls) husband, and even he doesn't much care for Don Imus. Having said that, I hope our candidates, all of them, will stay out of this mess and focus on important issues instead. Hillary is already going to Rutgers to commiserate with the poor players. These players are in a state of shock because they have evidently never been the butt of any racist or sexist joke in their lifetimes. In other words, they have never accidently tuned their radio into a rap music station, nor listened to Cris Rock on television, nor watched MTV or seen an old Richard Pryor performance. Their ears are virgin, and they are all to be deeply pitied, and Hillary is just the one to point that out to our nation. I hope she is the only democratic candidate to align herself with the execs at CBS today who decided to end Mr Imus career for making a sick, racist, sexist joke, when that is what he's been known for for years now. Now I know I've raised some hackles, but the hypocrisy of the TV and radio networks on this issue is nauseating.
When a young American family with small children cannot walk from their automobile to the doorway of a Walmart without having their children hear, from a blaring radio, admonitions to "back that ass up," to get down with OPP, or the same F word in song that the parents have tried to block from their cable networks with parental controls, the problem in this country is not Don Imus. He is the whipping boy of an African American culture that, back in the 70's, decided they alone had the right to crude, vulgar language which made women into nothing more than cheap "hos" and sex toys for male gratification. And they tried to tell America that they had the same right to that vulgarity that they had to being the only culture allowed to use the "N" word- because crudeness, vulgarity, sexism, and threatening trash talk was somehow allowable because it was a cultural thing. They told Americans that it was just the "language of the ghetto." Never mind that their mothers and grand mothers and great grandmothers never allowed that kind of talk, or that their dads would have whipped their backsides blue if they ever heard them use that language- it was suddenly allowable, but only to "their" private hip hop culture. And the American public swallowed the lie whole, being afraid to offend or to squelch freedom of speech. Well now the American public is willing to let Don Imus be the scapegoat- to end forever HIS freedom of speech to pacify this disgusting, repulsive, abusive, violent small segment of the African American community. And the Reverend Al is at the forefront of the movement, as he has been at the forefront of so many wrong causes in the past. My argument is this- if CBS and MSNBC are so anxious to stop the "so called" language of the ghetto, which is actually only the language of the drug dealing, crime committing small segment of the African American community, then let them end all contracts with recording companies that produce music with demeaning, vulgar language, and stop glorifying the language of the lowest common denominator in this society. If you ask Don Imus to stop degrading black women, then demand that rappers do the same. Anything else is hypocrisy, and I certainly hope our candidates don't fall into the trap of taking sides on this issue. Because, if they do, they'll lose the American public AGAIN. And this country just can't afford that. Now, I've vented, and I'll take off again and see what Y'all think about it. I think it's all a repulsive, ridiculous farce.

Posted by: Ralpheh at April 12, 2007 03:33 PM

Link to above info from TO about "Bill Moyers' Journal." I checked my local PBS station's listings and it's on at 8 p.m. Apr 25 in our local market (Central Time), but may be on at 9 p.m. in other markets. Looks to be a good show, but read the last paragraph of Swanson's review....

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041207D.shtml

Still, I've sent the story on to practically everyone on my email list. It's LONG past time for someone to tackle the lies that led up to the illegal war....

Posted by: Linda Enterkin at April 12, 2007 06:33 PM

To me, it's the difference between free speech and being a paid speaker. Imus wasn't arrested, indicted, or charged by the government for his free speech (for which he was paid...). He was fired because his advertisers didn't want to be associated with his racist comments.

The market spoke, not the government. In the end, it always comes down to money.

madame- it may always come down to money, but the hypocrisy of the situation is stunning. That's what I hope our political candidates realize- I'm listening to Chris Dodd right now saying he's hoping it will be the beginning of the end of the kind of sexism and racism that the country still experiences, but it will not. This week's issue of Time Magazine has on it's cover a picture of Don Imus asking the question "Who can say what?" As long as racism and sexism is tolerated from ANY group in our society, whether it be from white society or African American society, no change will come. The fact that advertisors will accept violent, sexist music from rappers on the radio, and continue to advertise on those stations, and then punish Imus for his similar remarks, will only lead to more resentment from the white segment of society in America. It will lead to a larger racial divide, not a smaller one. As far as the Rutgers basketball team goes, I'm sorry that they were offended by Imus' remarks- his remarks were wrong. But if these girls have ever bought a rap CD that included sexist songs (as most young people have today), then they have no right to moral outrage. They have financed an industry that led directly to Don Imus' remarks. And what these young women should resent even more than Imus remarks is that the nasty little secret of rap music is that it is purchased more by white teenagers than it is by black teenagers. Its message to white teenagers is that all black women are "hos," that all black men are either drug dealers or pimps, and that all African Americans are promiscuous as far as sex is concerned. IE- African Americans are more animalistic than are white Americans, and therefore looking down on them is perfectly normal. The black male rappers are fostering prejudice against themselves and against black women, and are earning fortunes by doing so. Yes, it is about the money- it's about the money that these hip-hop stars have been making for years while destroying civility and decency in America. And the same companies that fired Don Imus have contracts with these rappers that help pay their salaries. These companies are fostering racism in America, their moral indignation over Imus' remarks is repulsive and totally insincere. Racism is racism- the "N" word is racist, no matter whose mouth it comes from, and that should have been understood years ago by Comedy Central, HBO, and corporate America. It's something average Americans actually have ALWAYS known, but the media has tried to tell us different, and so has so called "liberal" America. It's a lie that should never have been bought by the media, and it's actually a lie that most Americans, black and white, have always known was a lie. It's just that so much money has been made by comedians and singers from propagating that lie, that it's sustained itself. But nothing can make a lie into the truth. That will never be possible.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/12/jon-stewart-evaluates-the-08-republican-field/
Jon Stewart Evaluates the ‘08 Republican Field
ROTFLMAO!

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/12/pat-leahy-on-missing-rnc-emails-its-like-the-famous-18-minute-gap-in-the-nixon-wh-tapes/
Pat Leahy on missing RNC emails: “It’s like the famous 18 minute gap in the Nixon WH tapes”

Awful Truth About Hillary, Barack, John and Whitewash
By Norman Solomon
This year, with their virtually identical statements about "options" and "the table," the leading Democratic presidential candidates - Clinton, Obama and Edwards - have refused to rule out any kind of attack on Iran. If you're not shocked or outraged yet, consider this:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17520.htm

CBS' response to Imus' comments is problematic inasmuch as Imus will almost assuredly be paid every penny he is owed by the network; and he will assuredly re-emerge elsewhere, probably on Satellite Radio. He will almost certainly make more by virtue of CBS' decision to fire him than had they chosen to suspend him, and then return him to the airways.

Imus' comments were indefensible - but, in a very real sense, that was always been his appeal. He was never my thing. If I wanted to be shocked and entertained, Howard Stern was much more to my taste. But he apparently was America's thing - and to the taste of many notable politicians of both parties. And so many were willing (in Imus' words) to "suck up" to him, in exchange for whatever dubious publicity that brought them.

Gwen Ifill was eloquent yet self-effacing in her Times Op-Ed this week. That a degenerate like Imus felt empowered to refer to Ifill as "the cleaning lady" covering the White House during the late 90s should have alerted Infinity/CBS and MSNBC that a problem existed long before these most recent comments. Those comment warranted his immediate removal from the airways. Where was management then?

That all said, Imus' principle attackers in the media have been the Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. If you're a New Yorker of a certain age, it is impossible to forget Sharpton's completely false accusation that a sitting NYS Attorney General, Robert Abrams, had been masturbating to photos of Tawanna Brawley. As far as I know, the Reverand has yet to pubically apologize for those completely false and incendiary charges. He also refused to apologize when Steven Pagones brought him to court - in an attempt to clear his name of Sharpton's completely unproven accusation that Pagones participated in Brawley's alleged abduction.

And with regard to Reverend Jackson, we here in hymietown are doing fine without you; perhaps you should spend much more time attending to your illegitimate child than worrying about the foibles of Don Imus. How exactly is it that a Reverend can have an illegitimate child, and yet still be called a Reverend? How is it that you still have that title?

Posted by: Ralpheh at April 12, 2007 03:33 PM

Link to above info from TO about "Bill Moyers' Journal." I checked my local PBS station's listings and it's on at 8 p.m. Apr 25 in our local market (Central Time), but may be on at 9 p.m. in other markets. Looks to be a good show, but read the last paragraph of Swanson's review....

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041207D.shtml

Still, I've sent the story on to practically everyone on my email list. It's LONG past time for someone to tackle the lies that led up to the illegal war....

Posted by: NonnyO at April 12, 2007 07:04 PM

@@@@@@@@

The documentary is an hour and a half long... prime-time - I am not complaining too much. And it is coming out when Congress is debating the "surge".... Moyers is probably sick and tired (as we all are) of the constant and unchallenged lies that continue to come from the administration.

Cheney basically can say, in a speech, whatever pops into his head. He does not clear his speeches with the CIA, the Defense Department or the State Department. Cheney doesn't even run his speeches by Shrub Bush... And the press just sits there and makes no comment on this bizarre, horrible way of running the government. The REAL story of the Bush administration is that Cheney and Rove are running the show - RARELY does Bush make a decision. Perhaps getting rid of Rumsfeld was a rare decision that came from Bush and Cheney and Rummy just had to eat it...

THE LACK OF BASIC REPORTING AND ANALYSIS by the media of the Bush administration is shocking. It now comes to light that Rumsfeld was constantly micro-managing every little detail of the Iraq war from the beginning - and doing an awful job of it. Rummy was placing troops in Iraq here, there and elsewhere, in groups of 1,000 - perhaps in even smaller units, 500 or so - That is the job of the generals - to position small units of troops, not the Secretary of Defense... Rumsfeld was constantly quibbling with the generals about troop levels - Rummy didn't dare want to put 500 troops too many into the combat theater - THAT IS WASTE!!!

Big MSM has done a very poor job of informing the American people about Iraq (and terrorism) and has, in fact, helped misinform them by repeating the lies of the Bushies over and over as fact.

It is truly a sad day for American journalism - when the best news and analysis comes from comedians like Stewart and Colbert, and people like Jeff Gannon with no background in journalism end up in the White House press corps...

Reading through some of the comments re Imus/Sharpton etc. - Linda Enterken, Matthew Carnicelli

I saw Sharpton preach last year and he was completely opposed to rappers who called women "bitches" and "hos" and so on.

The media companies don't care - they only care about money. There is alot of money in offensive music and shock jocks. It's only when their sponsors pull out that they react.

If they cared about content, we would have decent news coverage. They care about selling Hummers, alcohol etc. and that's the bottom line, their bottom line.

All hate radio ought to go - not just Imus - for stupicity if nothing more. No more Coulter, no more Limbaugh. No more Dick Cheney on Limbaugh.

I also hate it when people bring up old stuff from the past and to do so is a weak form of argument, as any marriage counsellor can tell you. The same applies in other settings and in situations requiring diplomacy.

Intelligent and endangered

It's touch and go in fight for great apes
Dorie Turner
April 13, 2007

Madu is one of two Sumatran orang-utans in an Atlanta Zoo research program, which uses computer games to study the primates' skills.

ALL of four years old, Bernas is not the computer wizard his mother is, but he is learning.

Just the other day he used his lips and feet to play a game on the touch-screen monitor as his mum, Madu, swung from vines and climbed trees.

The two Sumatran orang-utans are part of new Atlanta Zoo research that uses computer games to study the cognitive skills of the primates.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/its-touch-and-go-in-fight-for-great-apes/2007/04/12/1175971259489.html

Across the lines
Who would dare to go
Under the bridge
Over the tracks
That separates whites from blacks

Choose sides
Or run for your life
Tonight the riots begin
On the back streets of america
They kill the dream of america

Little black girl gets assaulted
Aint no reason why
Newspaper prints the story
And racist tempers fly
Next day it starts a riot
Knives and guns are drawn
Two black boys get killed
One white boy goes blind

Little black girl gets assaulted
Dont no one know her name
Lots of people hurt and angry
Shes the one to blame

Across the tracks - Tracy Chapman

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The alleged "D.C. madam" dropped a name in court documents filed Thursday, but the man named bristled at being accused of hiring the high-end escort service run by Deborah Jean Palfrey.

Government prosecutors say Pamela Martin and Associates was actually a prostitution ring that Palfrey operated in the Washington area for 13 years. Palfrey denies that her business provided sexual services to its customers.

In her motion to reconsider appointment of counsel, Palfrey named Harlan K. Ullman as "one of the regular customers" of the business.

Ullman is one of the leading theorists behind the "shock and awe" military strategy that was associated with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"The allegations do not dignify a response," Ullman told CNN. "I'm a private, not a public, citizen. Any further questions are referred to my attorneys."

Ullman -- a former Navy commander and "a highly respected and widely recognized expert in national security whose advice is sought by governments and businesses," according to his Web site -- also said he is considering "some sort of legal action."

His attorney, Marc Mukasey of Bracewell & Giuliani in New York, declined to add to his client's comment.

Palfrey's civil defense attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, told CNN that it was his understanding that Ullman used the business' services but did not engage in sexual activity with the escorts.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/12/dc.madam/index.html

Happy F***in' Friday, Peeps

Posted by: not my president at April 12, 2007 10:49 PM

I'm becoming more and more of a believer in the value of character. The Framers saw character development and virtue as the only secure defenses against corruption - and can anyone today say they were wrong. With the passage of every campaign finance law or closing of every tax loophole, an army of lawyers and accountants on both sides go immediately to work to subvert the will of the Congress, and by extension, the people. If some notion of personal character can not stand against greed and power, what will?

Furthermore, if the Presidency of George W. Bush has demonstrated anything, it's that past is prologue. I always wanted to know more about the extent of his drug and alcohol abuse so I could evaluate his potential for recklessness in the Oval Office. How many times did he really get caught drinking and driving - and what would repeated offenses say about his respect for the rule of law, for society's norms, or his mental fitness to be President? Isn't his behavior as President, in fact, that of a person who has no respect for anything except his personal whims and obsessions? Has he, in a very real sense, been driving drunk while at the head of the vehicle of State?

Past is indeed prologue - especially when individuals have refused to adequately acknowledge and address their own character defects, and have instead learned the lesson that society will soon forget your failures if you distract them enough through exploiting the failures of others.

Don Imus is a pig, but so are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. The moment I read Gwen Ifill's Times Op-Ed piece, my decision about Imus' guilt or innocence was set in stone. Ifill is someone who has earned my respect.

In contrast, Al Sharpton led a rally against Rudolph Giuliani on the first day of his term as Mayor. Giuliani won the Mayor's office in 1993 with a substantial amount of Democratic support. A Republican candidate can't win in NYC without that support; many of us had come to believe that the city was becoming ungovernable with David Dinkins at the helm; and Ed Koch wasn't seen as having been much better. I voted for Giuliani twice on the Liberal Party line. Yes, the Liberal Party line. Yet Reverend Sharpton, this alleged man of the cloth, and former associate of Don King, didn't even give Giuliani a day's grace before his campaign of agitation began. Not a day. If only America knew Al as we know Al.

As for Reverend Jackson, it takes a unique talent to go from minstering to Michael Jackson during his trial to joining the picket line alongside Terry Shiavo's parents in the same week. So many opportunities to thrust oneself into the public eye, but so little time...

I too have witnessed the transformation of the Rev. Al from total a**hole to serious leader and been amazed at the short memories as well as the ability we all have to forgive.

When we heard him speak at the counter-Inaugural in 2001, we about fell over laughing--in both shock and admiration! He spoke searingly about the stolen election and the loss of democracy. When I met him again, in 2004, when he was campaigning with passion and clarity for JK/JE, I was impressed again, with his ability to cut through the bs and tell it like it is.

Jesse Jackson, on the other hand, has few political instincts and is mostly wrong. I hate to feel that way, seriously, but he seems to grate and miss the mark more often than not. He takes things personally and forms his proposals based on ego too often.

I think as a country we do tend to forgive and Imus may even prevail here eventually--if he can truly learn and truly make amendments. Limbaugh and Coulter will no doubt have their turns as well--the hate thing really does not fly and it always bites you in the end.

But when people get away with crap--and they do for a while--they don't get very far. It can be frustrating waiting for that other show to drop, but it always does. Meanwhile, it's good to sip tea slowly and go about our business.

Today our business is personal--we are taking my son to visit the college he thinks is his first choice. This is a joyful day for us. This morning is devoted to fighting for the environment and for peace, but this afternoon we will have to turn it over, and give the time to the family; soon to be an empty nest!

RE: Rev. Al, the ubiquitous Jesse Jackson, & the Imus fall-out

I'm guilty of pretty much ignoring Rev. Al, mostly due to the Brawley case. But I saw & heard him speak in person at Camp Casey in Aug. 2005 & have had respect for him ever since. He's a powerful, passionate human who I think is really trying to do the right thing.

As for Jesse, I'll never forget that old SNL skit that showed a day in the life of Jesse Jackson. It showed photos of all the things happening around the world that day & had Jesse right there in the middle of every photo. That, to me, is the essence of Jesse Jackson. All photo op, no substance.

Lastly, here's something you can do about Imus & the media problem. Imus's racist comments are just one of many on the airways that are owned by huge media conglomerates. FreePress has an action alert up asking us to tell the FCC that we want more diverse, independent and local media owners rather than letting the largest companies buy up even more stations. You can sign it here:

http://www.stopbigmedia.com/minoritymedia.php

And tell your friends about it too. I don't know if petitions actually work anymore, but I'm willing to give it a try, with the hope that change will come about. FreePress claims that we stopped the FCC in 2003 from allowing more media concentration, when more than 3 million people took action to stop Big Media. Maybe we can do that again.

Rove e-mail sought by Congress may be missing
RNC took away his access to delete files in 2005

By Michael Abramowitz

Updated: 1 hour, 42 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A lawyer for the Republican National Committee told congressional staff members yesterday that the RNC is missing at least four years' worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought as part of investigations into the Bush administration, according to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

GOP officials took issue with Rep. Henry Waxman's account of the briefing and said they still hope to find the e-mail as they conduct forensic work on their computer equipment. But they acknowledged that they took action to prevent Rove -- and Rove alone among the two dozen or so White House officials with RNC accounts -- from deleting his e-mails from the RNC server. Waxman (D-Calif.) said he was told the RNC made that move in 2005.

• Full politics coverage

In a letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Waxman said the RNC lawyer, Rob Kelner, also raised the possibility that Rove had personally deleted the missing e-mails, all dating back to before 2005. GOP officials said Kelner was merely speaking hypothetically about why e-mail might be missing for any staffer and not referring to Rove in particular.

The disclosures helped fan the controversy over what the White House has acknowledged to be the improper use of political e-mail accounts to conduct official government business.

Suspicions
Democrats are suspicious that Rove and other senior officials were using the political accounts, set up by the RNC, to avoid scrutiny from Congress. E-mails already in the public record suggest that at least some White House officials were mindful of a need not to discuss certain matters within the official White House e-mail system.

Yesterday, congressional Democrats denounced the White House after administration officials acknowledged this week that e-mails dealing with official government business, including the firing of U.S. attorneys, may have been lost because they were improperly sent through political messaging accounts. Twenty-two White House officials -- and a total of about 50 over the course of the administration -- have been given such accounts to avoid doing political work on government equipment.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, accused the White House of lying about the matter. He was joined by the ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), in calling on the White House to join Congress in setting up a "fair and objective process for investigating this matter."

"You can't erase e-mails, not today," Leahy said in an angry speech on the Senate floor. "They've gone through too many servers. Those e-mails are there -- they just don't want to produce them. It's like the infamous 18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes."

White House officials rejected that explanation. "What we have done has been forthcoming, honest," spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "We are trying to understand to the best of our ability the universe of the e-mails that were potentially lost, and we are taking steps to make sure that we use the forensics that are available to retrieve any of those that are lost."

The disclosures came as White House counsel Fred F. Fielding rejected demands for a compromise on providing testimony and records to Congress related to the prosecutor firings. In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, Fielding said the White House is standing firm with its "unified offer," which would include providing a limited set of documents. The White House has proposed allowing Rove and other aides to be interviewed privately, without a transcript and not under oath.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18084846/

Only in Amurka...
Tons of food spoiled as FEMA ran out of space
More than $40 million-worth of food being tossed out, scavenged for re-use

WASHINGTON - As many as 6 million prepared meals stockpiled near potential victims of the 2006 hurricane season spoiled in the Gulf Coast heat last summer when the Federal Emergency Management Agency ran short of warehouse and refrigeration space, according to agency officials.

In all, hundreds of truckloads of food worth more than $40 million are being thrown away or scavenged for unspoiled contents to be offered to domestic hunger-relief groups, FEMA officials said. Most of the meals were commercial versions of the military's Meals Ready to Eat, which were ruined despite being engineered to withstand the demands of desert and jungle climates.

Federal disaster management officials decided to position huge amounts of food, water and ice in the southeastern United States last year after they were condemned for failing to quickly deliver critical supplies to victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But they stockpiled the supplies without regard for FEMA's strained storage network, creating a different kind of problem when no major hurricane made landfall.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18084847/

Someone explain to me, please, why Imus is fired but Rush Limbaugh who says far worse things is still polluting the airwaves. (And same with Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, and Bill O'Rielly)

Posted by: sparrow at April 13, 2007 09:49 AM

It's their immense talents, dopey.

Superstition
by Stevie Wonder

Very superstitious, writings on the wall,
Very superstitious, ladders bout to fall,
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin glass
Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past.

When you believe in things that you dont understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition aint the way

Very superstitious, wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem, do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream, keep me goin strong,
You dont wanna save me, sad is my song.

When you believe in things that you dont understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition aint the way, yeh, yeh.

Very superstitious, nothin more to say,
Very superstitious, the devils on his way,
Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin glass,
Seven years of bad luck, good things in your past

When you believe in things that you dont understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition aint the way, no, no, no

Good question, Sparrow

Thanks for info on mixed records of AS and JJ, Matt

Generally speaking, I think that there are many nationalists and racists in our country and that it is widely tolerated. Racists can be of any race, though stupid white men still hold the highest positions. There are guys with arsenals to protect their dog, dish and rig and others who use connections on their blackberry to protect their empires. The problem is greed and ignorance, in either case.

We as a society need to tolerate rather than fear diversity and change (transformation).

Rove is coming here tomorrow.

nmp...

your posts of late have been awesome, really.

re: Rove's visit to your area... Everyone there should consider T.P.ing all the tree's on the route he's taking... in honor of his Turdblossomness and the accompanying stank of the last 7 years in tow. Symbolism is still legal, right?

Please, don't squeeze the Chairman.

Posted by: monkey at April 13, 2007 10:33 AM

Song: Hate Is the Star (Song of the Torment) /Hearts Are Hurting, Part 2 Lyrics
Bad Guys:
It begins very small
Seems like nothing much at all
Just a germ, just a speck, just a grain
But the seed has been sown
And before you know it's grown
It has spread through your life like a stain
And its power will strangle your love and your joy
And its hunger consumes for it lives to destroy

Hate is a star; it becomes who you are
Not the hated, but the hater has a torment that's greater
It will eat you alive, consume you and spit you out
Hate's gonna win that there's no doubt about
Hate doesn't care who you are- Hate is the Star!

Learning hate is an art, even people who are smart can be caught, can be crushed, can be creamed
Hate has swallowed you whole
Did you think you're in control
Hate you though, hate you spoke, hate you dreamed
All your hate gave me substance your lives are undone
It's your eve of destruction, your hatred has won!

==

Xena:
I never dreamed that we'd be distanced by a hate
That all the trust we had would go

Gabrielle:
How could I hate you

Xena:
How could it come to pass?
This awful twist of fate

Gabrielle:
How could I hurt you

Xena:
This madness can't be so

Gabrielle:
I can't believe it

Xena:
I never dreamed that any barriers could rise

Gabrielle:
Or that I'd ever see the stranger in your eyes

Xena:
Our hearts were hurting both the same

Gabrielle:
The hurt was tearing up our souls

Xena:
The fury in us made us blind

Gabrielle:
We could not see beyond the pain

Xena:
If we can turn again to love

Gabrielle:
If we can heal these open wounds

Xena:
We'll leave this hatred far behind

Gabrielle:
So not a trace of hate remains

Both:
We'll overcome our damaged past
And we'll grow stronger side by side
To stand together through the storms
We're safe ‘cause love will be our guide

Posted by: not my president at April 13, 2007 10:39 AM

And to add... Not only can the racist be of any race, but the racist can be of any political persuasion as well.

Democratic Underground has censored my thoughts because I dared to suggest, with specific examples, that one did not need to be white to be racist.

I find the whole notion, common among liberals, that "only whites can be racist," to be itself racist.

Posted by: sparrow at April 13, 2007 11:48 AM

Thanks for quoting my favorite lesbian warrior princess. You've made my day. :)

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius--and a lot of courage--to move in the opposite direction" - Einstein

People say that Bush has been a failure as a President. The opposite is true. He has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

He wanted an endless war. He succeeded.

He wanted to make money for his crownies. He succeeded.

He wanted to destroy social spending and increase defence spending. He succeeded.

---T. L.

Everything should be as simple as possible but not simpler.

Albert Einstein