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Mothers Day 2007
It's the women, isn't it? Women take responsibility for cleaning up the mess again. Moms from all over the country are flocking to DC, and our house is going to be full this weekend too. I hope every Mom here, or everyone who has a Mom here will celebrate the awesome power of a mother protecting her children, her community, and her country from harm caused by stupidity. Because that is what it is going to take!
We must, as Julia Ward Howe wrote back in the day, RISE UP. So feel those stirrings inside you to speak loudly, write passionately, or engage in actions that STOP WAR NOW.
Gael Murphy at last year's celebration
This year, we are ready with a plan and some great focus!
CODE PINK says:
Mother's Day in DC kicks into high gear tomorrow with actions all day in Congress and a great fundraiser at night. The house is getting full of beautiful pink women with wonderful energy as we prepare for 5 days of inspirational and exciting actions and events. Please join us for as many activities as you can and pass the invite on to your friends and neighbors. Let's turn DC pink for Mother's Day!
We are especially excited about our CODEPINK National Strategy Session on Saturday afternoon. Bring any ideas you have for future actions and campaigns and discuss them with CODEPINK National Staff. Please join us!
The schedule is firming up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday:
Friday: Women Rock the Media! Join CODEPINK and special guests to demand the media give more coverage to women's voices and cover what Mother's Day was meant to be -- a day for PEACE.
Meet us for an action in the morning at the National Press Club and a Media Training in the afternoon. Details on the site.
Saturday: Open House -- Prop-making and Women's Council. Discussion groups will go on upstairs while we make props and visuals for the Festival downstairs (see site for discussion topics). Then at 5:00 we will gather for a CODEPINK National Strategy Session. Please come to DC with ideas for actions and campaigns! Talk to your local group and fellow activists and let's brainstorm some great ideas!
Sunday: Peace Festival and Kid's Peace March with Gloria Steinem and Patch Adams. This will include a moving closing ritual of intertwining roses labeled with the names of the dead into the White House fence while military moms and women speak out.
(More details on the site).
I offer these up because the ideas for actions should not be limited to DC. What can happen in your neck of the woods?
Moms from all over the country are flocking to DC, and our house is going to be stacked to the rafters full of peaceful pink people this weekend too. I hope every Mom here, or everyone who has a Mom here will celebrate the awesome power of a mother protecting her children, her community, and her country from harm caused by stupidity. Because that is what it is going to take!
We must, as Julia Ward Howe wrote back in the day, RISE UP. So feel those stirrings inside you to speak loudly, write passionately, or engage in actions that STOP WAR NOW.
---------------
Edited to add some extra background information on Julia Ward Howe, the upcoming Mother's day holiday, and its *real* meaning as a declaration of peace rather than an artificial excuse for yet another Hallmark moment:
In the United States, Mother's Day was originally suggested by poet and social activist Julia Ward Howe. In 1870, after witnessing the carnage of the American Civil War and the start of the Franco-Prussian War, she wrote the original Mother's Day Proclamation calling upon the women of the world to unite for peace. This "Mother's Day Proclamation" would plant the seed for what would eventually become a national holiday.
[...]
The horrors of the war moved her to campaign tirelessly for peace. She served as president of the American branch of the Women's International Peace Association, and in 1870 she wrote her Mother's Day Proclamation. Julia Ward Howe was also instrumental in the women's suffrage movement. She was a co-founder of the American Woman Suffrage Association and served as editor of 'Woman's Journal.' Her influence on the movement ranks her alongside Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cody Stanton as one of the most important voices of the period.
For more of what Mother's Day really means -- and to find out some things that you can do right now to take back the day for peaceful mothers everywhere, including some special activist e-cards that you can send to your loved ones in lieu of the smarmy commercial paper kind -- visit this CodePink co-sponsored website:
Send A Picture Of Mother
by Johnny Cash
After seven years behind these bars together
I'll miss you more than a brother when you go when you go
If only I had not tried to escape
They'd barred me with you I know, yes I know
Won't you tell the folks back home I'll soon be coming
And don't let them know I never will be free, be free
Sometimes write and tell me how they're doing
And send a picture of mother back to me
Say hello to Dad and shake his poor hardworking hand
And send a picture of mother if you can
I'm happy for you that you got your freedom
But stay with me just another minute or so, or so
After all this sweating blood together
Who'll be my fighting partner when you go, when you go
The hardest time will be on Sunday morning
Church bells will ring on Heaven Hill, Heaven Hill
Please ask Reverend Garrett to pray for me
And send a picture of mother if you will
Say hello to Dad and shake his poor hardworking hand
And send a picture of mother if you can
http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/may/10/breaking_house_to_schedule_straight_up_or_down_vote_on_withdrawal_today
Here's the latest on the back-room negotiations over the Iraq short-term funding bill House Dems are to vote on today: It looks as if for the first time, the House is also going to hold a straight up-or-down vote on whether to end the war.
Last night, Nancy Pelosi called a bunch of liberal members into a meeting and told them that she didn't have the votes to pass the bill, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
So she told the liberal members that in hopes of getting enough votes for passage, she would also schedule a vote on a bill crafted by Dem Rep. James McGovern, the source said.
McGovern's bill would mandate that within three months of passage, military withdrawal would have to commence, to be completed within six months of then. After that, the bill mandates, no Congressional money can be used for military operations -- though there's an allowance for certain types of special ops activities. McGovern's bill was introduced in the rules committee last night.
Here's why this is important. While the chances of passage of the measure are virtually nonexistent, it's the first time that House liberals have been able to leverage a straight yes-or-know vote on withdrawal. "It's huge," said one legislative aide. "It changes the dynamic. It means there will be more and more votes on straight measures like this."
Once safely ensconced in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, however, Cheney appeared to reserve his toughest language for his normal target – the press. Cheney held a lot of photo ops with key Iraqi leaders like Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, but was adamant about not taking questions. At one point, Cheney emphasized to the assembled journalists that “this is just a photo spray.” Later in the day, as reporters filed into an embassy conference room for another photo of Cheney they overheard him tell his staff “then we kick the press out.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/05/09/in-iraq-cheney-sticks-to-the-script/
Motherf*****
I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier
Ten mil - lion sol-diers to the war have gone
who may nev - er re-turn a - gain.____
Ten mil - lion moth - er's hearts
must break for the ones who died in vain_____
Head bowed down in sor - row in her lone - ly years,
I heard a moth - er mur - mer through her tears:_______
"I did -n't raise my boy to be a sol - dier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy.____
Who dares to place a mus - ket on his shoul - der
to shoot some oth - er moth -er's dar - ling boy?"
Let na - tions ar - bi - trate their fu-ture trou - bles.
It's time to lay the sword and gun a - way.___
There'd be no war to - day if moth - ers all would say,
"I did -n't raise my boy to be a sol - dier"
What vic - tor - y can cheer a moth - er's heart
when she looks at her blight - ed home?______
What vic - tor - y can bring her back
all she cared to call her own?__________
Let each moth - er an - swer in the year to be,
"Re - mem - ber that my boy be - longs to me!"___
"I did -n't raise my boy to be a sol - dier,
I brought him up to be my pride and joy.____
Who dares to place a mus - ket on his shoul - der
to shoot some oth - er moth -er's dar - ling boy?"
Let na - tions ar - bi - trate their fu-ture trou - bles.
It's time to lay the sword and gun a - way.___
There'd be no war to - day if moth - ers all would say,
"I did -n't raise my boy to be a sol - dier"
Just for fun...
check out this video. Don't think I've ever seen Stephen Colbert look so flustered.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Jane_Fonda_fondles_Stephen_Colbert_0510.html
Back on topic...
I think many of you will appreciate the heart-felt writing of the soldiers' moms in this post on jk.com
The Reasons Why
http://blog.johnkerry.com/2007/05/the_reasons_why.html
Appearing uncharacteristically nervous, Colbert then asks Fonda a question about war protesting as she continues to straddle him and kiss his face. She finally responds, "We cannot elect men to office that are afraid of premature evacuation."
WASHINGTON - Democrats pressed for more answers on the firings of U.S. attorneys Thursday even as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insisted he hasn't remembered any new details and Republicans called for an end to the congressional probe.
"The list of accusations has mushroomed, but the evidence of wrongdoing has not," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, top Republican on the panel. "We should not conduct an endless piscine expedition."
Democrats showed no willingness to quit asking questions about whether White House officials ordered the firings of prosecutors not sufficiently loyal to the Bush administration.
"The department's most precious asset -- its reputation for integrity and independence -- has been called into question," Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said as he opened the hearing. "Until we get to the bottom of how this list was created, and why, those doubts will persist."
The Senate had little luck finding the answers three weeks ago, when Gonzales answered dozens of times that he could not recall key details.
"My feelings and recollections about this matter have not changed," Gonzales told the panel Thursday.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18588523/
Motherf****** #2
WASHINGTON - The White House acknowledged public frustration with the Iraq war but tried to play down Republican anxieties Thursday as the House prepared to pass legislation that could cut off funding for U.S. troops as early as July.
The bill is hotly contested by the White House, opposed by nearly all Republicans and unlikely to survive in the Senate. But House Democratic leaders say the measure shows they refuse to back down in challenging President Bush on a deeply unpopular and costly war.
"The president refuses to listen to the American people who want this war to end," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Blunt talk acknowledged
The White House confirmed that Bush held an unannounced meeting this week with House Republican moderates who expressed deepening concerns about the war. Several participants described a remarkably blunt discussion in which lawmakers told the president the war was unsustainable without public support, and was having a corrosive effect on GOP political fortunes.
Presidential spokesman Tony Snow refused to discuss details of the meeting but said, "Of course there are frustrations."
"It is striking to me ... that people are shocked that the president is hearing candid advice from people who have concerns.
"And I'm telling you that where the rubber meets the road, right now here in Washington, Republicans are united, Democrats are divided. Period." Snow said, "If you want disunity, there's far more disunity on the Democratic side."
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18588526/
Neener, neener
I'm rubber, your glue
Whatever you say bounces off of me,
And Cheney You!
I think a Monkey somewhere needs a hug today.
But, I must admit, I enjoy watching said Monkey get all lewd and fired up.
Hell yeah man.
The Voodoo worked!
Here is a vendetta against Michael Moore, for taking an "unauthorized" trip to Cuba.
http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=261577>1=7701
THE ORIGINAL "MAGIC NEGRO" ARTICLE THAT RESULTED IN THE LIMBAUGH "PARODY"
(I think it is exceedingly bitter and mean-spirited toward Obama and towards "whites")
the Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man.
By David Ehrenstein, L.A.-based DAVID EHRENSTEIN writes about Hollywood and politics.
March 19, 2007
AS EVERY CARBON-BASED life form on this planet surely knows, Barack Obama, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, is running for president. Since making his announcement, there has been no end of commentary about him in all quarters — musing over his charisma and the prospect he offers of being the first African American to be elected to the White House.
But it's clear that Obama also is running for an equally important unelected office, in the province of the popular imagination — the "Magic Negro."
The Magic Negro is a figure of postmodern folk culture, coined by snarky 20th century sociologists, to explain a cultural figure who emerged in the wake of Brown vs. Board of Education. "He has no past, he simply appears one day to help the white protagonist," reads the description on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro .
He's there to assuage white "guilt" (i.e., the minimal discomfort they feel) over the role of slavery and racial segregation in American history, while replacing stereotypes of a dangerous, highly sexualized black man with a benign figure for whom interracial sexual congress holds no interest.
As might be expected, this figure is chiefly cinematic — embodied by such noted performers as Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Michael Clarke Duncan, Will Smith and, most recently, Don Cheadle. And that's not to mention a certain basketball player whose very nickname is "Magic."
Poitier really poured on the "magic" in "Lilies of the Field" (for which he won a best actor Oscar) and "To Sir, With Love" (which, along with "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," made him a No. 1 box-office attraction). In these films, Poitier triumphs through yeoman service to his white benefactors. "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" is particularly striking in this regard, as it posits miscegenation without evoking sex. (Talk about magic!)
The same can't quite be said of Freeman in "Driving Miss Daisy," "Seven" and the seemingly endless series of films in which he plays ersatz paterfamilias to a white woman bedeviled by a serial killer. But at least he survives, unlike Crothers in "The Shining," in which psychic premonitions inspire him to rescue a white family he barely knows and get killed for his trouble. This heart-tug trope is parodied in Gus Van Sant's "Elephant." The film's sole black student at a Columbine-like high school arrives in the midst of a slaughter, helps a girl escape and is immediately gunned down. See what helping the white man gets you?
And what does the white man get out of the bargain? That's a question asked by John Guare in "Six Degrees of Separation," his brilliant retelling of the true saga of David Hampton — a young, personable gay con man who in the 1980s passed himself off as the son of none other than the real Sidney Poitier. Though he started small, using the ruse to get into Studio 54, Hampton discovered that countless gullible, well-heeled New Yorkers, vulnerable to the Magic Negro myth, were only too eager to believe in his baroque fantasy. (One of the few who wasn't fooled was Andy Warhol, who was astonished his underlings believed Hampton's whoppers. Clearly Warhol had no need for the accouterment of interracial "goodwill.")
But the same can't be said of most white Americans, whose desire for a noble, healing Negro hasn't faded. That's where Obama comes in: as Poitier's "real" fake son.
The senator's famously stem-winding stump speeches have been drawing huge crowds to hear him talk of uniting rather than dividing. A praiseworthy goal. Consequently, even the mild criticisms thrown his way have been waved away, "magically." He used to smoke, but now he doesn't; he racked up a bunch of delinquent parking tickets, but he paid them all back with an apology. And hey, is looking good in a bathing suit a bad thing?
The only mud that momentarily stuck was criticism (white and black alike) concerning Obama's alleged "inauthenticty," as compared to such sterling examples of "genuine" blackness as Al Sharpton and Snoop Dogg. Speaking as an African American whose last name has led to his racial "credentials" being challenged — often several times a day — I know how pesky this sort of thing can be.
Obama's fame right now has little to do with his political record or what he's written in his two (count 'em) books, or even what he's actually said in those stem-winders. It's the way he's said it that counts the most. It's his manner, which, as presidential hopeful Sen. Joe Biden ham-fistedly reminded us, is "articulate." His tone is always genial, his voice warm and unthreatening, and he hasn't called his opponents names (despite being baited by the media).
Like a comic-book superhero, Obama is there to help, out of the sheer goodness of a heart we need not know or understand. For as with all Magic Negroes, the less real he seems, the more desirable he becomes. If he were real, white America couldn't project all its fantasies of curative black benevolence on him.
or fun...
check out this video. Don't think I've ever seen Stephen Colbert look so flustered.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Jane_Fonda_fondles_Stephen_Colbert_0510.html
Posted by: dwahzon at May 10, 2007 11:40 AM
@@@@@@@
WOW!!!! JANE FONDA TURNS ON THE HEAT... But Colbert kept his composure... he didn't unravel (as weaker men would). He stayed focused, on the interview and the task at hand.
They do make a cute couple though!!!
BTW: this is the second time Fonda has jumped on Colbert on TV.. The first time was on a cooking show, and Fonda pecked him on the cheek saying " Well.. it says Kiss The Cook."
I think a Monkey somewhere needs a hug today.
Posted by: Christy at May 10, 2007 01:59 PM
I need a miracle every day...
If only you believe like I believe, baby, we'd get by.
Ralpheh
Where is Andy Warhol when we need him?
Ally
Since when did Michael Moore stand around and wait for authorization?! LOL
We need to keep questioning authority!!!
This is a great photo essay. Kayakbiker heard how Denny Hastert drives a gas guzzler to photo ops and then jumps out into an efficient vehicle just in time for the cameras. Then he uncovered the story of how the "Law and Order" candidate used to have a staffer drive him in a big land yacht to his events, and then he'd transfer into a populist-looking red pickup. What a phony. See him exposed! Comments appreciated.
http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/2007/05/republican_lies.html
AL "GONZO" GONZALES TESTIFIES AGAIN!!!!
House Judiciary Committee......
Once again Al sounded very vague, evasive and frankly out-of-touch with what was going on in his office. He could not (or would not) reveal who put together the firing list.
He could not remember much about Monica Goodling - when she was hired, what her role was etc... Under questioning from Rep. Nadler, it was revealed that Goodling was involved in the hiring of career attorneys at DOJ. Nadler suggested that she was not qualified for this responsibility and indeed, it was alleged that she used a political litmus test in the hiring - this is illegal and would explain her pleading the 5th. Goodling will be testifying this week.
There are also 2 other U.S. attorneys (in addition to the original 8) who resigned recently under pressure - one in Arkansas and one in California. Gonzales was asked about the resignation of the US.A. in California and he was very muddled and vague and unconvincing in his answers.
If anyone else is in Southern California, here is a local CodePink Mother's Day Peace Festival, being held in Riverside. At least this is the closest one to me.
http://gaylebrandeis.blogspot.com/2007/05/as-some-of-you-may-know-mothers-day.html
Due to flu and possible work, I will have to count myself out, unfortunately.
Obama getting threats too, I would bet..
2007-05-07
The CBS News website has decided not to allow comments from the public concerning presidential candidate Barack Obama because many of them to date have turned out to be racist in nature, the CBS blog Public Eye reported Friday. It quoted Mike Sims, director of news and operations for CBSNews.com, as saying that the website has often deleted racist comments about Obama; however, "the volume and the persistence" of them made them difficult to handle.
http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-05-07/#tv4
_________________
Posted by: Ralpheh at May 10, 2007 02:31 PM
---------------
Ralpheh,
If you're going to post controversial and inflammatory articles, even when -- and/or especially when -- you are pointing out that they are controversial and inflammatory articles, then you *really* need to include original source links in your posts.
You've already been not very consistent with providing proper attribution & linkbacks or editing out portions of materials you tend to quote at overly long length in your comments here per the Fair Use rules.
Those Fair Use guidelines are posted at the bottom of every blog page right next to the comment box for a reason. So please do pay more attention to following said guidelines in your future postings here, okay?
Thank you.
Here's the link to the roll call for the votes on the McGovern amendment...
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll330.xml
If your representative voted against your wishes (as Kirk, my lame chicken hawk rubber stamper from IL-10 did), I highly recommend you call & voice your opinion. (By the way, Kirk claims to have "led" the group of 11 in a meeting with the commander guy to discuss their concerns over the war. Translation: they're worried about 2008 elections.)
Of course, if your rep voted the way you'd like, you can always call to give your thanks.
Hey Otter,
I sent you mail at your gmail address since that's what I had...if you don't use that anymore, can you give me a shout with whatever email address I should use?
thx
Got it, V, looks good on first pass, will be reading it in more detail as soon soon as the internally-marinated-with-creole-garlic-butter-sauce chicken breasts I have been building here come off the grill -- oh, yeah, and after I eat them too, of course.
(BTW, if anybody didn't notice the extra content & linky-link that got added to the tail end of the thread header here... you really should otter check it out and visit that site, it rocks.)
"The president of the United States has made it clear that he will veto this bill. The Senate leaders, Democrat and Republican, have made it clear that this plan has no chance in the other chamber," said John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Yet here we are, playing political games while our troops are fighting for our freedom and our safety in Iraq."
(Haywood Jablowmy)
Caption Contest
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/POLITICS/05/10/bush.pentagon/newt1.2025.bush.ap.jpg
Posted by: madame defarge at May 10, 2007 07:02 PM
My rep voted with yours.
But then, my rep has no incentive to do the right thing, given that the Dems have completely given up on my district.
And he won't be my rep much longer, since I will move, in a few months, to a different area, where the Dems are at least semi-relevant.
John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Yet here we are, playing political games while our troops are fighting for our freedom and our safety in Iraq."
Posted by: monkey at May 10, 2007 09:59 PM
WHEN are our Congress Critters going to STOP using that false rationalization and bandwagon patriotic slogan to "justify" their illegal war crime in Iraq...??? And by implication use the same hyperbole to "justify" the war crimes of torture and illegal incarceration of people at Gitmo and elsewhere...???
The troops are NOT in Iraq to fight for our freedom or our safety...!!! They are in Iraq to capture, preserve, protect, and defend the oil wells for the sake of the US oil corporations who want the profits from those oil wells...!
The only political game in town is all talk and no action on the part of our Congress Critters who do nothing while more people (on all sides) get killed for lies and oil. Shame on them!
http://www.pbs.org/now/index.html#poll
Is it fair to tie funding for U.S. troops to withdrawal timetables?
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/
Should church and state be separate?
Polls on the above two links....
Bill Moyers Journal | Pat Robertson's University
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051007U.shtml
Bill Moyers Journal takes a look at Regent University, Pat Robertson's Christian leadership institution, which is working to ensure that Biblical principles are reflected in the law of the land.
Bush Administration Withheld Emails About Rove
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051007R.shtml
The Bush administration has withheld a series of emails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protege of Rove's, as US attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Psychiatrists, Children and Drug Industry's Role
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/051007HC.shtml
The intersection of money and medicine, and its effect on the well-being of patients, has become one of the most contentious issues in health care. Nowhere is that more true than in psychiatry, where increasing payments to doctors have coincided with the growing use in children of a relatively new class of drugs known as atypical antipsychotics.
Everytime I hear that thing about "playing games" or "playing politics" while "our troops are fighting," etc., which, by the way, I only here from Republicans, I am reminded of my Catholic grandmother (in keepingwith the mothers day theme by extension). She always used to say: "It takes two to tango." Also, speaking for myself, I always found it odd that anyone would say that someone is trying to "polticize" as war question. If matters of war are not poltical, what the heck use is democracy? To elect dog-catchers?
Chuck in Houston
Returning vets at higher risk for suicide
VA health clinics lack 24-hour mental health care for troops, review finds
Veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are at increased risk of suicide because not all Veterans Affairs health clinics have 24-hour mental care available, an internal review says.
The report released Thursday by the department’s inspector general is the first comprehensive look at VA mental health care, particularly suicide prevention.
It found that nearly three years into the VA’s broad strategy for mental health care, services were inconsistent throughout the agency’s 1,400 clinics.
Several facilities lacked 24-hour staff, adequate screening for mental problems or properly trained workers.
With about one-third of veterans reporting symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, it is “incumbent upon VHA (the Veterans Health Administration) to continue moving forward toward full deployment of suicide prevention strategies for our nation’s veterans,” the report stated.
In a written response, the VA’s acting undersecretary for health agreed with many of the recommendations. Michael Kussman noted that the VA recently has placed suicide prevention coordinators in each medical center.
The report comes as already-strained troops and veterans say they are suffering more psychological problems due to repeated and extended deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. In a study this month, a Pentagon task force issued an urgent warning for improved care.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18595857/
"I don't want it to be said 50 years from now, 'What happened to America in 2007?,'" Bush said at a fundraiser on Thursday night.
"I see the impending dangers. I understand the consequences of this historic moment. And we will succeed in Iraq," he said.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/11/congress.iraq/index.html
How about "what happened to America from 2000-2007", you useless piece of sh*t?!?!?!?
Posted by: Ally McRepuke at May 10, 2007 10:51 PM
Congratulations on the move. Looking forward to hearing about it in a couple of weeks.
"I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down. I'm still mad as hell..."
What happened was we let a child who had chosen to be left behind in so many ways, become our President.
Ignorance of American history, and the lessons of human experience in general, does not make improbable, if not impossible, schemes any more likely to succeed - even when you imagine that you have God on your side.
Fire Wolfowitz!
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2077597,00.html
PS Bye Bye Blair
Experts Tally Iraq War Health Costs
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/10/BAGIFPOG7Q1.DTL&type=politics
Suicide risks up as well. Not to mention the costs with aging of the population. The system is stretched to the breaking point. Imagine the health care situation in Iraq!
Michael Moore is being investigated for his trip to Cuba with 9/11 victims. Read his letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson here ===>
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/11/93540/9491
If at first you don't succeed, investigate again.
That, at least, seems to be Karl Rove's philosophy.
As McClatchy and The Washington Post report this morning, Rove requested last October that the Justice Department investigate allegations of voter fraud in three jurisdictions. Those three were Milwaukee, New Mexico and Philadelphia -- all battleground states.
The White House really put the heat on. McClatchy reports that at least twice in October, Rove or his deputies passed on word of the allegations to Kyle Sampson. In addition, both Rove and President Bush raised the issue with Alberto Gonzales the same month.
So Sampson passed on the allegations to a Justice Department official named Matthew Friedrich. Friedrich dutifully agreed "to find out whether Justice officials knew of 'rampant' voter fraud or 'lax' enforcement in parts of New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and report back."
Friedrich has told congressional investigators that Sampson also gave him a 30-page report prepared by Wisconsin Republicans about voter fraud in Milwaukee. Sampson apparently expected Friedrich to pass it on to the department's criminal division. Friedrich says he didn't do that because that would "violate strict Justice rules that limit the pursuit of voter-related investigations close to an election." (At least someone in the Justice Department cares about that rule.)
Now, you can see that 30-page report, titled "Fraud in Wisconsin 2004: A Timeline/Summary" here (pdf, see page 10). As the title would indicate, it was nothing but a collection of news clippings related to voter fraud allegations in Milwaukee... in the 2004 election.
Two things about that.
more at http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com
"I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down. I'm still mad as hell..."
Posted by: madame defarge at May 11, 2007 08:57 AM
Looking forward to singing it with you!
I'll send you an email next week to keep you updated of my Chicago plans.
If I were a carpenter,
But then again, no...
Powell's Chief of Staff Proposes Impeachment
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051107M.shtml
Speaking on National Public Radio on Thursday, Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (Retired), Vietnam War veteran, former chief of staff at the State Department from 2002 to 2005 under then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, former acting-director of the Marine Corps War College at Quantico, and currently a teacher of national security at William and Mary College, proposed
impeaching President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney.
Gee Wilkerson!!!!!!!!
May 11, 2007
On Carrier in Gulf, Cheney Issues Warning to Iran
By GRAHAM BOWLEY
Vice President Dick Cheney used the setting of an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf to deliver a stern message to Iran today, warning that the United States would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons or gain the upper hand in the Middle East.
“With two carrier strike groups in the Gulf, we’re sending clear messages to friends and adversaries alike,” he said, in a speech on board the U.S.S. John C. Stennis, according to a pool report provided by journalists traveling with Mr. Cheney.
“We’ll stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region,” he said.
The aircraft carrier was about 20 miles off the coast of Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates, according to the pool report. Mr. Cheney traveled to the Emirates following a two-day visit to Iraq, and will be making other stops in the Middle East on his week-long trip.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/world/middleeast/11cnd-cheney.html
Posted by: Cyrano at May 11, 2007 11:34 AM
Yeah, what Wilkerson said, and STAT!!!!
Oh dear. The Bush administration will run out of decent legal people if it keeps working at this pace. How many other countries in the world has an amnesiac for an Attorney General? I thought memory was a prerequisite for lawyering - especially when it's the Governor General. Hell, they could put someone with alzheimers in there at a fraction of the salary - equal opportunity and all that.
All the lawyers representing Guantanamo residents have been passed over for promotion and may find themselves without a place to practice unless willing to relocate somewhere almost as remote as the moon. Australia is especially sad to learn of Major Mori's fate after representing David Hicks brilliantly.
And someone with Mori's integrity certainly wouldn't be welcomed as a military magistrate.
"The Age also understands that Major Mori has recently been rejected for promotion from Major to Lieutenant-Colonel and refused an application to attend a military judge's course at Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) School, which would have qualified him as a military magistrate.
[ ... ]
However, his commanding officer, Colonel Dwight Sullivan, who is chief counsel for the Guantanamo Bay detainees, confirmed that four of the six military defence counsel who have been considered for promotion had been passed over.
Colonel Sullivan, a military reservist from a civil liberties background who has headed the legal team since 2005, would not speculate on whether the US military was deliberately sidelining lawyers who took a public stand in defence of detainees.
But criticisms by the former US deputy assistant secretary of defence for detainee affairs, Charles Stimson, showed the sometimes poisonous attitudes."
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/payback-for-hicks-lawyer/2007/05/11/1178390554710.html
Not just for woz:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21678040-5001031,00.html
Thanks Otter - it's good to go to bed on a laugh.
Posted by: Cyrano at May 11, 2007 11:34 AM
Pretty tough words for a chickenhawk with 5 deferments.
Posted by: nmp at May 11, 2007 12:06 PM
... and to think, there is only 1 letter difference between pacemaker and peacemaker.
I'd like to buy a vowel, Vana.
Monkey
Did you read that people with pacemakers shouldn't use iPods?
Posted by: nmp at May 11, 2007 12:44 PM
Guess that means we shouldn't have a "Buy an iPod fundraiser" to go along with the "buy a Big Mac" fundraiser...
Hello DCPers.
Classes OVER.
Finals NEXT WEEK.
Code Pinkers supposed to be staying here, but some are in jail--Lori Perdue is one of them. Free speech DEAD apparently.
I am reading around the net--it's been WEEKS, literally--and trying to come to terms with where we are.
FRUSTRATED.
Here's a great op-ed by Queen Noor about reclaiming Mother's Day for peace. Please read it in its entirety at the link. (By the way, for once, I'm on topic... Note that please.)
Mothers prove every day, all over the world, that peace and security require cooperation and compassion. Having traditionally occupied a paradoxical position at the heart of society but on the fringes of power, women often bring unique strengths, talents, and perspectives to the quest to resolve conflict and establish freedom. They are willing and able to cut across ethnic, religious and tribal barriers, and break through obstacles through peace in order to do what is best for their families.
It is no coincidence, then, that so many of today's leading peacemakers are themselves mothers.
--snip--
But the day has come for something more than individual efforts. Millions of mothers from Nablus to New York and from Baghdad to Beersheba must begin to find common cause in peace and work together to give their quiet power a louder voice.
--snip--
So from one mother to many others, let us be silent no longer in the face of war and violence. May all mothers and families around the world be blessed with a happy Mother's Day for Peace.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/05/10/commentary.noor/index.html
Posted by: sparrow at May 11, 2007 01:48 PM
Doesn't mean we can't still have "Buy Cheney an iPod Day" though, does it?
(By the way, for once, I'm on topic... Note that please.)
Posted by: madame defarge at May 11, 2007 03:07 PM
Duly recorded, from one topic-hopper to 'nuthah.
A hip, hop
A hibby to the hibby...
iPods able to crash pacemakers
http://tech.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1303186.php/Study_iPods_able_to_crash_pacemakersk
also more Michael Moore stories - imagine if he becomes a political prisoner .. a martyr .. that would see even MORE movies
not see.. I mean SELL more movies
Posted by: monkey at May 11, 2007 03:14 PM
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO .... You so brave!
I was afraid to say the C word and the rest due to the SS monitoring all our words.
So yes... we can have a 'buy Darth an iPod and a burger day.' Let's make it an extra strength iPod and an extra greasy burger.
(Don't worry secret service, we just want Cheney to have fun before he goes goes...)
Oh hell, it's Friday and my eyes deserve some candy. And I'm even willing to share...
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20037288_20037289_1210296,00.html?cnn=yes
Would like to see more of this -
blame placed where it belongs
examples set
With Tony Blair putting a date-specific on his slow-bleed resignation, we can expect the floodgates to open on stories analyzing his ten year run as prime minister and the impact he had on America.
"Hand on heart," he said in announcing he will leave office at the end of June, "I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That's your call. But believe one thing: I did what I thought was right for our country."
Maybe so, but his hand-on-heartfelt convictions had dire consequences for U.S. foreign policy. Blair was exactly what George W. Bush needed to sell his fraudulent and immoral war in Iraq to the American public: a seemingly reasonable and non-partisan stamp of international approval (after all, he'd been bosom buddies with Bill Clinton, hadn't he?). Blair enabled the Bush myth that the invasion of Iraq was a coalition effort, that it wasn't just Mongolia, Moldova, Singapore, Poland, and Tonga making up the Coalition of the Willing to Go Along. It was Britain. Great Britain.
see http://www.huffingtonpost.com
madame
Thank you! That will get me through the rest of the day!
Monkey
Yes .. it's a joke ..
3 more representatives joined Kucinich's call for Cheney's impeachment, including one from IL. It's not earth shattering or maybe even a tremble, but hey, it's a start...
BREAKING: 4 US Reps for Cheney Impeachment
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2007-05-11 18:01. Impeachment
By Matthew Cardinale, Atlanta Progressive News
(APN) ATLANTA – US Rep. Albert Russell Wynn (D-MD) has become the fourth total co-sponsor of US Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) bill to impeach Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, Atlanta Progressive News has learned. In addition to Kucinich, the other two Members of Congress who have signed on to H. Res 333 are US Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) and William Lacy Clay (D-MO).
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/22394
OK. So it was all Rumsfeld's fault. We knew that. But the fault was removed long ago and the mistakes are escalating in deed, monetary and human cost.
Blair frustration with US revealed
Patrick Wintour, London
May 12, 2007
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair was "tearing his hair out" over his inability to influence the Pentagon over postwar planning in Iraq, his former political secretary has claimed.
Lady (Sally) Morgan, in an interview with The Guardian said: "We could talk to the US State Department and to the President, but we had no leverage over the Defence Department, and he (Donald Rumsfeld, the former US defence secretary) had been given the power to make decisions," she said. "It was up to Bush to do the right thing and be in charge, but he was not. Sometimes he (Blair) was tearing his hair out."
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/blair-frustration-with-us-revealed/2007/05/11/1178390554738.html
War Tensions Follow Bush to Commencement
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1151AP_Bush.html?source=mypi
One guy drove a long way to protest.
Another purposely didn't finish his thesis because Bush was coming & he didn't want to graduate with him there.
It's a religious school but there is a belief about "just war."
Nuns protested several times nearby.
"It was up to Bush to do the right thing and be in charge, but he was not. Sometimes he (Blair) was tearing his hair out."
Posted by: woz at May 11, 2007 07:00 PM
(blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...)
Now Poodles decide to make some noice.
Bush approval map - no safe districts for GOP
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/11/81234/2410
let's work on this!
MSM made a big deal about terror threat in Germany. This person who translates German does some debunking.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/11/182231/185
Posted by: not my president at May 11, 2007 07:53 PM
How ironic to see that commencement address at the Catholic school from our Pro-War and Anti-Life pResident, especially since I just read that the Catholic church is likely to toss out their 'pro-choice' and pro-taking-care-of-the- living politicians.
And I'm sure the choice of it being in Murtha's district was not accidental.
Posted by: sparrow at May 11, 2007 08:28 PM
And our Secretary of Faith (Benedict XVI) is talking about the "age of hedonism" in Brazil.
I'm getting close to putting Benedict Motor Works (BMW) next to Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, and Ford as a car company to boycott. BMW is WAY too cozy with the Secretary of Faith.
Posted by: not my president at May 11, 2007 08:23 PM
The Dems will actually have to capitalize on this.
They are NOT doing it in my district. The Dems simply don't exist here.
We just finished watching the video doc of "You Can't Be Neutral On a Moving Train", the Howard Zinn story. This is timely b/c the Code Pinkers are meeting and planning some righteous actions, nonviolent and hopefully, effective, over the next week or so.
So we have been involved in some discussions about effectiveness and inspiration. Oh and by the way, another 50,000 more citizens who care about ending this war would be useful here; if you can, feel free to get here!
"The secret is people, the secret is people getting together; the secret is telling the truth. The truth is powerful, and it can only be suppressed for so long. The truth gets out and when the truth gets out a power is created that is greater than the power of the guns and money that a government posesses." Howard Zinn
"Remember when Ali fought Foreman? He seemed asleep but when he woke up, he was ferocious. So will the people wake up" Howard Zinn
This evening's NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams aired a segment about allegations that Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons (R.) accepted money and favors from a "defense contractor" while he was a U.S. Congressman in 2005. The man making the allegations claims he has "forensic evidence to prove it" including e-mails and pictures.
http://tinyurl.com/36pclp
Karen,
Yep the truth do have a power of it's own.
from shaun dale @ http://www.upper-left.blogspot.com
FDA: the “Faith-based Dining Administration”
Clever headline, no doubt, but the fact - not the prospect, the fact - that the human food supply in the United States has been tainted by poisons used deliberately by Chinese exporters in order to mask inferior product isn't funny. Nobody's been on top of it like Goldy. In no small part because of his vigilance and diligence, here's what we know…
· Tainted pet food has killed or sickened tens of thousands of cats and dogs, some dropping dead within a meal or two of first ingesting melamine and related compounds such as cyanuric acid.
· Autopsies have discovered “plasticized” cat kidneys, clogged with crystals comprised of equal parts melamine and cyanuric acid.
· Laboratory tests have have reproduced the formation of these crystals in a test tube by mixing melamine and cyanuric acid in the presence of urine.
· Tainted pet food containing melamine and cyanuric acid was “salvaged,” and sold as livestock feed, contaminating untold millions of hogs and chickens.
· About three million chickens and several hundred hogs are known to have been slaughtered, butchered and presumably eaten. At least another 20 million chickens are known to have consumed contaminated feed.
If you're not worried, you're uninformed. Stay informed at horsesass.org .
God, I need a new computer. This one has flaky internet connection, intermittently mounts the hard drive, is slower than molasses & the bottom half of the monitor is jittering. I'm about to lose about 5000 songs and 5000 photos (rough estimate) if I don't do something! Ally, what kind of Mac did you get? This one has been awesome, but it's about 5 years old, and that's about 80 in computer years.
What's been done in the name of Jesus?
What's been done in the name of Buddha?
What's been done in the name of Islam?
What's been done in the name of man?
What's been done in the name of liberation?
And in the name of civilization?
And in the name of race?
And in the name of peace?
Everybody
Loves to see
Justice done
On somebody else
Can you tell me how much bleeding
It takes to fill a word with meaning?
And how much, how much death
It takes to give a slogan breath?
And how much, how much, how much flame
Gives light to a name
For the hollow darkness
In which nations dress?
Everybody
Loves to see
Justice done
On somebody else
Everybody's seen the things they've seen
We all have to live with what we've been
When they say charity begins at home
They're not just talking about a toilet and a telephone
Got to search the silence of the soul's wild places
For a voice that can cross the spaces
These definitions that we love create --
These names for heaven, hero, tribe and state
Everybody
Loves to see
Justice done
On somebody else
bruce cockburn, 1981
Nuns protested several times nearby.
Posted by: not my president at May 11, 2007 07:53 PM
----------
And not just any nuns, either -- those were my homies, the local Order of St. Benedictine sisters that I hang with at all the marches & rallies in this corner of the world.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/11/boston-legals-alan-shore-on-gitmo/
Boston Legal’s Alan Shore on Gitmo
{{{For anyone who has not seen the entire show, you should be able to see the whole show in its entirety off of the ABC web site. The subject is also touched upon in other sections of the show. Oh, and check out the ending chat where the script has the reason for the Iraq war all Hillary's fault! If anyone doesn't normally watch this show (I know TSP does, and I try to catch it every week, too), the Denny Crane character William Shatner plays is a misogynistic old perverted fart who spouts neoCon talking points every week, and James Spader's character (Alan Shore) normally does the indignant Dem talking points. Surprising, really, that Mickey Mouse's ABC channel runs such a political show, fiction based on fact, and argues the points in a fictitious court of law, and many of the fictitious court cases were obviously inspired by things that made headlines.... All that on a network that ran a religious special tonight on 20/20, which I refused to watch just because it talked about religion, and the show was originally meant to delve into "news" stories but has devolved to infotainment hackery. Tonight I watched PBS's Bill Moyers Journal and NOW - both of which I think everyone on this blog would have appreciated for subject content and people interviewed.}}}
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/11/pbss-now-is-a-major-oil-company-short-changing-the-american-public/
PBS’s NOW: Is a major oil company short-changing the American public?
http://www.pbs.org/now/
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/11/countdown-gen-batiste-asked-to-leave-cbs-over-votevet-ad/
Countdown: Gen. Batiste asked to leave CBS over VoteVet ad
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/11/reza-aslan-talks-iran-on-the-daily-show/
Reza Aslan Talks Iran on “The Daily Show”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/11/daily-show-president-bush-defines-success-in-iraq/
Daily Show: President Bush Defines “Success” in Iraq
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/11/colbert-the-magic-of-the-bush-presidency/
Colbert: The “Magic” of the Bush Presidency
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/11/monica-goodling-must-testify-on-usa-purge-scandal/
Monica Goodling MUST Testify on USA Purge Scandal
As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities.
Voltaire
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Impeach Bush or Get Rid of the Impeachment Clause
By Dave Lindorff
What is it about impeachment that has the Democratic Party leadership so frightened?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17684.htm
One War Criminal Down, A Fistful to Go
Paul Craig Roberts
Many wonder why Blair destroyed his reputation and that of his country, put himself at risk of being hauled before the International Criminal Court, and squandered his time as prime minister providing cover for George Bush's war of aggression. The answer must be money. We will see which US corporate boards take Blair as a director and which groups pay him six-figure honorariums for speeches.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17681.htm
The Good American
By Scott Ritter
That we have collectively failed to halt and repudiate the war in Iraq makes us even worse than the Germans.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17683.htm
May 12, 2007
Colleagues Cite Partisan Focus by Justice Official
By ERIC LIPTON
WASHINGTON, May 11 — Two years ago, Robin C. Ashton, a seasoned criminal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, learned from her boss that a promised promotion was no longer hers.
“You have a Monica problem,” Ms. Ashton was told, according to several Justice Department officials. Referring to Monica M. Goodling, a 31-year-old, relatively inexperienced lawyer who had only recently arrived in the office, the boss added, “She believes you’re a Democrat and doesn’t feel you can be trusted.”
Ms. Ashton’s ouster — she left the Executive Office for United States Attorneys for another Justice Department post two weeks later — was a critical early step in a plan that would later culminate in the ouster of nine United States attorneys last year.
Ms. Goodling would soon be quizzing applicants for civil service jobs at Justice Department headquarters with questions that several United States attorneys said were inappropriate, like who was their favorite president and Supreme Court justice. One department official said an applicant was even asked, “Have you ever cheated on your wife?”
Ms. Goodling also moved to block the hiring of prosecutors with résumés that suggested they might be Democrats, even though they were seeking posts that were supposed to be nonpartisan, two department officials said.
And she helped maintain lists of all the United States attorneys that graded their loyalty to the Bush administration, including work on past political campaigns, and noted if they were members of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.
By the time Ms. Goodling resigned in April — after her role in the firing of the prosecutors became public and she had been promoted to the role of White House liaison — she and other senior department officials had revamped personnel practices affecting employees from the top of the agency to the bottom.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/12/washington/12monica.html
From Wikipedia
"In August 1998, Ritter resigned his position as UN weapons inspector and sharply criticized the Clinton administration and the U.N. Security Council for not being vigorous enough about insisting that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction be destroyed. Ritter also accused U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan of assisting Iraqi efforts at impeding UNSCOM's work. "Iraq is not disarming", Ritter said on August 27, 1998, and in a second statement, "Iraq retains the capability to launch a chemical strike." In 1998 the UNSCOM weapons inspectors were withdrawn from Iraq. They were not expelled from the country by Iraq as has often been reported (and as George W. Bush alleged in his infamous "axis of evil" speech))[citation needed] . Rather, according to Butler himself in his book Saddam Defiant, it was U.S. Ambassador Peter Burleigh, acting on instructions from Washington, who suggested Butler pull his team from Iraq in order to protect them from the forthcoming U.S. and British airstrikes which eventually took place from from December 16-December 19, 1998."
Between the Inspections: 1998-2002
Scott Ritter later accused some UNSCOM personnel of spying.[32] On August 31, 1998, Ritter said: "Iraq still has proscribed weapons capability. There needs to be a careful distinction here. Iraq today is challenging the special commission to come up with a weapon and say where is the weapon in Iraq, and yet part of their efforts to conceal their capabilities, I believe, have been to disassemble weapons into various components and to hide these components throughout Iraq. I think the danger right now is that without effective inspections, without effective monitoring, Iraq can in a very short period of time measure the months, reconstitute chemical biological weapons, long-range ballistic missiles to deliver these weapons, and even certain aspects of their nuclear weaponization program."[33]
In June, 1999, Ritter responded to an interviewer, saying: "When you ask the question, 'Does Iraq possess militarily viable biological or chemical weapons?' the answer is no! It is a resounding NO. Can Iraq produce today chemical weapons on a meaningful scale? No! Can Iraq produce biological weapons on a meaningful scale? No! Ballistic missiles? No! It is 'no' across the board. So from a qualitative standpoint, Iraq has been disarmed. Iraq today possesses no meaningful weapons of mass destruction capability."[34]
In 2002, Ritter stated that, as of 1998, 90–95% of Iraq's nuclear, biological, and chemical capabilities, and long-range ballistic missiles capable of delivering such weapons, had been verified as destroyed. Technical 100% verification was not possible, said Ritter, not because Iraq still had any hidden weapons, but because Iraq had preemptively destroyed some stockpiles and claimed they had never existed. Many people were surprised by Ritter's "bizarre turnaround" in his view of Iraq during a period when no inspections were made.[35] In 2000, Ritter produced a film that portrayed Iraq as fully disarmed. The film was funded by an Iraqi-American businessman who had received Oil-for-Food coupons from Saddam Hussein that he sold for $400,000.[36][37] During the 2002–2003 build-up to war Ritter criticized the Bush administration and maintained that it had provided no credible evidence that Iraq had reconstituted a significant WMD capability. In an interview with Time in September 2002 Ritter said there were attempts to use UNSCOM for spying on Iraq.[38]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
If only Scott Ritter had not been an active player in the conspiracy of mistrust of the Clinton Administration, that led directly to the 1998 Senate resolution calling for regime change in Iraq, and with it, a corresponding strengthening of the intellectual argument of the Project for the New America Century group.
The American people have a lot to account for, but so does Ritter - who has conveniently recreated himself since his 1998 temper tantrum.
Here's another great voice speaking about Mother's Day...the most powerful woman in the world & our own Madam Speaker...
(Blog Editors et al: Note that this is TWICE in one thread that I've been on topic.)
As A Mother
This Mother's Day, Julia Ward Howe's call is particularly relevant, not just for mothers, but for all women, all men, all daughters, and all sons. We are in the midst of a war that has taken far too many of our most precious resources - our children. It is a war the American people have lost faith in and are ready to end. It is a failed policy, and we are ready for a new direction.
Read the rest here ==>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-nancy-pelosi/as-a-mother_b_48254.html
Can you make words out of "Mission Accomplished?"
How about "I Lied" - for starters
(Blog Editors et al: Note that this is TWICE in one thread that I've been on topic.)
Posted by: madame defarge at May 12, 2007 08:58 AM
Noted, dated, and sent to the history books.
OTOH... Did someone block all the o/t posts out there in cyberspace for you, Madame?
Posted by: sparrow at May 12, 2007 09:57 AM
Not that I know of...but you never know where & when the NSA lurks...
Billions in Oil Missing in Iraq, U.S. Study Says
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051207Z.shtml
Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.
Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.
The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country’s oil industry.
{{{More on link. Hmmm.... Who stands to gain most from any "misplaced" (siphoned off, stolen) oil from Iraq.... Hmmm...??? Georgie and Dickie and their criminal cabal, perhaps..., hmm??? Or Halliburton with it's new headquarters conveniently located close by in Dubai (and without any extradition treaty with the US).... Let's see now, what was said all those years ago about using Iraq oil revenues to pay for rebuilding Iraq after Georgie and Dickie ordered our US military to destroy it when they lied to us so they could capture the oil...???}}}
William Rivers Pitt | Two Hearings, One Reality
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051107A.shtml
William Rivers Pitt writes: "Another hearing took place on Capitol Hill yesterday that was truly chilling to observe. Representative John Murtha's (D-Pennsylvania) Subcommittee on Appropriations heard testimony from two investigators whose work has been focused on the phenomenon of private military contractors in Iraq. The first to give testimony was Jeremy Scahill, author of 'Blackwater: Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.' The second witness was Robert Greenwald, a documentary filmmaker who recently released a new film titled 'Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers.'"
{{{Quotes from the hearing regarding Halliburton, mercenaries, waste... all *our* tax money, plus other paragraphs later about where the 'supplemental' money is spent.... It'll make you grind your jaws in frustrated anger until your teeth and your jawbone crack.... Pass the Oxycontin....}}}
OxyContin: The Giuliani Connection
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051107E.shtml
Rudolph Giuliani and his consulting company, Giuliani Partners, have served as key advisers for the last five years to the pharmaceutical company that pled guilty today to charges that it misled doctors and patients about the addiction risks of the powerful narcotic painkiller OxyContin.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200705110012?src=clip200705110012
Olbermann "Worst Person" awards: O'Reilly for French "boycott" misinformation, PBS NewsHour for Melanie Morgan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6649053.stm
US Vice-President Dick Cheney issues a warning to Iran from an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf.
http://www.miamiherald.com/103/story/103128.html
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Tenet hands Jeb Bush a big windfall
Jeb Bush will get over $450,000 in the next year from Tenet for being a board member -- about three times what the average director makes at major U.S. corporations.
Excerpt (more on link):
Ramirez thought Bush would be a great help to Tenet, with his background in government and business. ``Just getting them off God-knows-how many watch lists they're on right now would certainly be a big step.''
Saturday Cartoons
http://bobgeiger.blogspot.com/2007/05/saturday-cartoons_12.html
Another one at C&L web site; not on Geiger's web site:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/12/the-saturday-cartoons-4/
NonnyO
Billions missing in Iraq .. must have disappeared into the black market and explains where all the ammo comes from for the insurgents. We may be funding troops to fight both sides in a civil war plus financing both sides of the enemies. That's quite an elaborate profit scheme for the arms manufacturers and dealers. Then there is the poppy trade.
I've been thinking about the "flypaper theory" - where we fight them over there so they won't come over here. Actually, I think it's true in reverse. We have been drawn over there and it's much easier for "evildoers" to kill our troops over there where they're not on their own turf and have to have massive BR&K infrastructure and fortified Green Zone and bases. It's all paid for through the black market! Why should anyone bother with expensive, dangerous out-of-country attacks when they can just flood into the mideast war zones from anywhere on the planet?!
There's that juncture between Spain and Morocco where dirty deals are done and there is an "underground railroad" where any Jihadist with a bone to pick can be piped in through Istanbul or Damascus for a fee, stay with someone's cousin en route. Then there's Dubai, where anybody who's anybody does their money laundering.
Corruption at every level - we are the biggest banana republic ever.
By the way, the Guardian had a great op-ed yesterday on Blair's successor. Cracked me up. First he said that both of them use "verb-less sentences" and it's true!! Then he said that the people at the swearing in ceremony or whatever had looks on their faces like a "Moonie wedding" (blank). Love British dry humor.
Posted by: not my president at May 12, 2007 11:34 AM
If you can see a repeat of Bill Moyers Journal or get an excerpt of his interview with a woman author (can't remember her name or the book this second - something about lessons not learned in Viet Nam), listen carefully to the words in the conversation. She deconstructs the language of the current administration admirably and she and Moyers discuss language used by Johnson regarding Viet Nam (Fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here; 'how are they gonna get here? Swim the Pacific?') vs same kind of rhetoric used since DimWit started to sell his war. I taped it and will have to go back and watch it more than once.... I admit I'm crazy about deconstructing slogans and other meaningless rhetoric, if only to keep my brain functioning logically.
There's an excerpt of one of the sections of Moyers' show regarding the cost of the Iraq war, link on the C & L web site (graphic imagery for some of it). All that money going to corporate fascists, going to line the pockets of war criminals and their cohorts.... And for what? They can't buy oil like civilized people from other countries do, so they steal it and kill the people living above the oil...? What if they drill into the site of an undiscovered ancient city and discover ancient artifacts? Would they stop drilling for black gold long enough for an archaeological excavation...?
Sigh....
Posted by: not my president at May 12, 2007 12:27 AM
I have an iMac 17" with Intel Core 2 Duo processor.
Apple Store sells it for $1,199. Mine has optional faster processor, extra memory, and larger hard drive, and cost me $1,549.
(That, and Windows dual-boot, for compatibility with my work PCs and older programs, cost quite a bundle.)
But I have no regrets. This is the greatest (and prettiest) computer I've ever owned.
Correction: I do have one small regret - the Apple Mouse's scroll ball stopped working. That mouse was quite fragile!
Fortunately, I had a spare mouse from my dead laptop PC. It's a Microsoft product, but it works well, and even had drivers for Mac.
Ally
I will probably go for something similar to what you got. I just had to replace the windshield of my Beetle - damn gravel trucks on the commute. In doing so, I walked along some of the areas that haven't gentrified yet (but are headed that way) and took photos, of course.
It looks like many of the "Support Our Troops" signs are fading to white. Maybe that's why McCain et al are so worried about "surrender"! I also saw a building with a sign that said "Mission to Unreached Peoples." I didn't go in. ;)
I was thinking about conservative immigrants and remembering that alot of German and Scandinavian conservatives where my mother lives (eastern ND) are not many generations removed from the "old country" and they are quite conservative. When I lived there, alot of the old people still didn't speak much in English. My mom was talking about a church called "Atonement Lutheran" - maybe not fundamentalist but pretty strict sounding to me!
Original Content athttp://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_michael__070511_bush_administration_.htm
Bush Administration Goes After SiCKO
By Michael Moore
crossposted from Dailykos
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2as5vg DU
Greg Palast Has Rove's E-Mails - "Its All About The Votes"
Dollars & Sense: In the new edition of your book, ARMED MADHOUSE, you report on the theft of the 2008 election. How do you know what they’re doing? Any way to stop them?
Palast: I know because I have Karl Rove’s emails. No kidding. He and his team aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer. They sent copies of their plans to GeorgeWBush.ORG instead of GeorgeWBush.COM addresses — and, heh heh, they ended up in my in-box. Who says this job ain’t fun?
Dollars & Sense: Bush fired eight prosecutors. You were behind the scenes on that story long before it broke in the US. What are they still withholding from us?
Palast: Look, it’s all about VOTES. You’ll see that the prosecutor that Karl Rove insisted in putting in place is a slithery character named Tim Griffin. He’s the guy I busted as the spider-mind behind the “caging lists” which purged thousands of Black voters. The prosecutors fired, as you’ll see in Armed Madhouse, include those, like David Iglesias in New Mexico, who refused to bring phony cases of fraud against legitimate voters. It’s a matter of economics: the Republican party is systematically knocking out lower-income voters; that makes their purges racially biased — but my data show that’s just the effect of hunting down and attacking the ballot power of working class and poor voters. Disenfranchisement is class war by other means.
.......
Palast: A lot of intelligent folk believe Bush had a secret plan to grab the oil fields of Iraq before the tanks rolled. That’s wrong. He had TWO plans. In Armed Madhouse, I show you both — the result of two years undercover for BBC. The plans conflict. There’s the neo-con plan: Privatize — that is, sell off — everything, “especially the oil” industry. That’s a quote from the 101-page document which I learned was written by the neo-cons. That didn’t happen — because a Jim Baker team — he’s the lawyer for both Exxon and Saudi Arabia — secretly wrote a 323-page plan that called for CONTROLLING the oil flow, not owning it. The purpose was to LIMIT the supply of oil from Iraq and keep prices high. This would, “enhance relationship with OPEC” — the oil cartel. That’s a quote from the document you’re not supposed to see.
So here it is: the invasion was about LIMITING the flow of oil from Iraq, keeping prices high, not grabbing the oil to bring prices down for your SUV. The secret Baker plan is now the law in Iraq and prices are over $50 a barrel. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
http://www.gregpalast.com/amy-goodman-and-greg-palast-moms-day-broadcast/#more-1729