LIVE BLOG: Mobile Greets Bush. Or Not

I love the paper plates! I was just drawing animals on paper plates and the kids & I would put them out on the floor, call out a name & try to hit the animal! Paper plates are great for so many situations!! Could put them on popsicle sticks and everyone wave them in unison.

The Secret Service guys were all over our hotel this morning. Disconcerting to see young men with guns in and out of the elevators, along with the modern dance shamans in fringe and feathers.

The contrast between art and war is palpable all right. I spent the morning listening to presentations on dancing community, communal dancing, and building bridges. Then I went to a drumming workshop, where we danced our way around the Mobile government center building.

And then, I walked here, thinking about how arrogance, profiteering, and war are just the antithesis of community.

The negativity alone that this administration is putting into the universe ought to haunt them each and all for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, it's haunting me too.

Karen
That is a really creepy juxtaposition.

How Low Can He Go?
President Bush registers the lowest approval rating of his presidency—making him the least popular president since Nixon—in the new NEWSWEEK Poll.

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Marcus Mabry
Newsweek

June 21, 2007 - In 19 months, George W. Bush will leave the White House for the last time. The latest NEWSWEEK Poll suggests that he faces a steep climb if he hopes to coax the country back to his side before he goes. In the new poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday nights, President Bush’s approval rating has reached a record low. Only 26 percent of Americans, just over one in four, approve of the job the 43rd president is doing; while, a record 65 percent disapprove, including nearly a third of Republicans.

The new numbers—a 2 point drop from the last NEWSWEEK Poll at the beginning of May—are statistically unchanged, given the poll’s 4 point margin of error. But the 26 percent rating puts Bush lower than Jimmy Carter, who sunk to his nadir of 28 percent in a Gallup poll in June 1979. In fact, the only president in the last 35 years to score lower than Bush is Richard Nixon. Nixon’s approval rating tumbled to 23 percent in January 1974, seven months before his resignation over the botched Watergate break-in.

The war in Iraq continues to drag Bush down. A record 73 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Bush has done handling Iraq. Despite “the surge” in U.S. forces into Baghdad and Iraq’s western Anbar province, a record-low 23 percent of Americans approve of the president’s actions in Iraq, down 5 points since the end of March.

But the White House cannot pin his rating on the war alone. Bush scores record or near record lows on every major issue: from the economy (34 percent approve, 60 percent disapprove) to health care (28 percent approve, 61 percent disapprove) to immigration (23 percent approve, 63 percent disapprove). And—in the worst news, perhaps, for the crowded field of Republicans hoping to succeed Bush in 2008—50 percent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of terrorism and homeland security. Only 43 percent approve, on an issue that has been the GOP’s trump card in national elections since 9/11.

If there is any good news for Bush and the Republicans in the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, it’s that the Democratic-led Congress fares even worse than the president. Only 25 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19352087/site/newsweek/

So that's what mandate smells like...

The Congress has a MANDATE to IMPEACH BUSH and Cheney!!!

When will they ACT upon this mandate?

but do the corporations that run this country want Bush and Cheney impeached and is this still a democracy (I mean free republic)?

Posted by: not my president at June 21, 2007 04:13 PM

eHarmingme.com???

Protest briefly halts School Board meeting

Dozens of protesters unhappy about military recruiters in local high schools briefly stopped a meeting of the Seattle School Board meeting Wednesday night.

The protesters, who want recruiters allowed in schools only twice a year, wanted a spot on the School Board's agenda. Their protest, including a "die-in," chants and shirts spattered with what was supposed to look like blood, interrupted the meeting.

http://www.seattlepi.com

(These were kids)

Karen,

Thanks for being there at the protest and for posting the pictures. Even if the numbers were small, the fact is that it may make people think and act themselves.

Just came upstairs after putting an End War Now sign up so people on the street can see it. Lots of Repubs in the hotel bar, looking seriously out of touch. The modern dancers are slipping around the corners, peering this way and that, on the lookout for white guys in suits, or with guns, or both.

Talking with the Vets for Peace: they tell me that everyone down here wants the war to end. I'm not sure that's true; the genteel folks in the hotel bar seem unconcerned about my WE WILL NOT BE SILENT t-shirt, and I think they are headed for the $1000 a plate dinner across the street. Lindsey Graham is on the TV, explaining why we need a wall to keep Mexicans out of our country. There was a Laura Bush spotting. Clearly, a few folks are not feeling the rage...

But I am. I tell the Vets down at the park that they have to call their Members every day. I tell them they have to come to DC and not leave. I tell them that we need every single one of them to get ten friends to email Congress, to make 300 calls a day, to sit in at Congressional offices, to interrupt the flow of business, to get all the people honking their horns at the signs to join them.

I explain that every day, between 35-100 white guys in suits go into their Members' offices and tell them what to do, how to vote, who to listen to. I remind them that those Members work for WE, the PEOPLE, not those white guys in suits. I tell them that it is up to us to BE THE MEDIA and to tell the Members who to listen to.

Representative government. It means they work for US.

I tell them this in the hope that every single action makes a difference. Including this post.

This is the story according to local students:

Seattle Students Shut Down School Board
Demanding Military Recruiters Out of Schools
http://www.yawr.org

“What do we want? Recruiters out! When do we want it? Now!” chanted over 70 antiwar protestors as we marched into to the Seattle School Board meeting Wednesday night. The spirited protest, called by Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR), demanded the school board finally take real action against military recruitment in our schools. As the local TV news King 5 said, it was “intended to be political high theatre, and it certainly was effective.” Another reporter commented: “it was the most dramatic anti-military recruitment rally to date.”

(snip)
High school students, teachers, parents and community activists rallied outside the school board for an hour. With the start of the meeting the rally moved inside, energetically chanting and sitting in at the front of the room. To bring the reality of the war home, some students enacted a “die-in,” lying across the floor covered in blood, while the school board politicians huddled at the side of the room.

Addressing the board and the whole room, Shanay Salas and Ramy Khalil from YAWR then explained our demands to restrict military recruiters. We urged that the board amend its agenda for 10-15 minutes to discuss our proposed policy. Unfortunately, the board refused to discuss our policy, nor would they start the meeting until we ended the sit-in and moved away from the front of the room.

Board member Darlene Flynn condescendingly lectured the students: “This is what democracy looks like, but it’s not what a school board meeting looks like, and we have to have a school board meeting.” This statement, ironically exposing the undemocratic nature of the board, brought loud jeers from the demonstrators. With the protestors holding their ground, the board hurriedly left and reconvened in a back room closed to the public.

This comes against the background of the board refusing to enforce their own policy to restrict military recruiters that was passed two years ago.
(snip)

Since the board refused to listen to the public, we decided to continue the meeting and took public testimony from those who had already signed up to testify. A number of school bus drivers spoke about their struggle to unionize to overcome the terrible wages and conditions they face, which the board is refusing to support. While some members of the audience complained that we had disrupted an official board meeting, an overwhelming majority of the crowd voted to support our decision to continue the meeting in defiance of the board members.

While school board members claim that they cannot implement our policy because it would mean losing $40 million a year in federal funds, the fact is that our policy was carefully constructed to remain within the legal confines of the No Child Left Behind law. By restricting military recruiters to a recruitment fair on equal grounds with college and job recruiters, this policy would have absolutely no effect on federal funding.

(See relevant section of No Child Left Behind and our proposed policy at: http://groups.google.com/group/novapeaceclub)

Wednesday’s school board action was a major success in bringing real pressure to bear on the board and raising the issue of military recruitment in the public consciousness. All the local TV news gave very prominent coverage to the protest (see list of links below). But to win we will need to keep up the pressure on the school board and build an organized, active antiwar movement. This fall YAWR is organizing a major student walkout, which we are trying to spread nationally, to show that business as usual will stop until the military is out of Iraq and out of our schools.

Text of Digby's speech when accepting the Paul Wellstone award:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070702/digby
Digby Speaks: The Netroots Revolution

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/20/the-pushback-against-the-person-of-the-year/
The Pushback Against The “Person of the Year”

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/21/the-fringe-liberal-bloggers-myth/
The “Fringe Liberal Bloggers” Myth
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/06/20/liberalism/index.html
"Fringe liberal bloggers"

http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/bloggers_and_heathers_go_15_rounds?tx=3
Bloggers And Heathers Go 15 Rounds

Excerpt:
Froomkin got the last word. He said: That's precisely the point. You don't respond to administration lies about Iran by not running Iran stories. You respond to it by doing stories--about adminstration lies about Iran.

Sometimes it takes a blogger to see what's in front of a mainstream reporter's face.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq
Army considers longer combat tours again

The Army is considering whether it will have to extend the combat tours of troops in Iraq if President Bush opts to maintain the recent buildup of forces through spring 2008.

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren testified Tuesday that the service is reviewing other options, including relying more heavily on Army reservists or Navy and Air Force personnel, so as not to put more pressure on a stretched active-duty force.

Most soldiers spend 15 months in combat with a guaranteed 12 months home, a rotation plan that has infuriated Democrats because it exceeds the service's goal of giving troops equal time home as in combat. In coming weeks, the Senate will vote on a proposal by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would restrict deployments.

"It's too early to look into the next year, but for the Army we have to begin to plan," Geren told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We have to look into our options."
~~~~~
When asked by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., whether maintaining the force buildup would affect soldiers' 15-month combat schedules, Geren said he was unsure and cited "numerous options" available, including a "different utilization of the Guard and Reserve" and relying on the other services for help.

{{{Er... WHAT "other services"...? Mercenaries hired by corporations with no-bid government contracts, which, in effect, privatizes Georgies' and Dickie's war in Iraq...?!?}}}

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6/21/15943/7910
Retiring "Mr. 28%"
Introducing "Mr. 26%".

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/20/olbermann-mocks-oreillys-serious-reporting/
Olbermann Mocks O’Reilly’s “Serious” Reporting

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/20/colbert-names-hypocrite-bork-alpha-dog-of-the-week/
Colbert Names Hypocrite Bork Alpha Dog of the Week

http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/it_s_not_ethical?tx=3
It’s Not Ethical?
President Pro-Life George W. Bush brandished his principles for an audience of activists in the White House East Room and proudly vetoed the federal stem-cell funding bill.

With breathtaking irony, Bush stated, “Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not ethical.” He called the United States “a nation founded on the principle that all human life is sacred.”

Let’s put aside this fanciful rendering of America’s early history, which, if it was founded on such a principle, we had a funny way of demonstrating it to the original inhabitants. Instead, let’s think for a moment about Bush’s record of not destroying human life.

If, in his mind, he was not killing thousands of Iraqis to make life better for the survivors, then why was he killing them? Apparently, then, it’s OK to destroy human life to alter geopolitics, to enhance the power of the United States, to seek revenge on collaterally-placed victims, to try out new weapons and tactics, to give our untested armies a chance to see actual combat, or, just for the holy Hell of it.

In short, destroying human life is fine, unless you’re doing it to save human life. And, if the United States has surmounted its bloody history and moved into a period in which all life is sacred, then a fine way to show it would be to, now and today, stop shooting in Iraq.

{More on link.}

Source: The Gavel

Oversight Committee on the Vice President and Classified Information
June 21st, 2007 by Jesse Lee
From the Oversight and Government Reform Committee:

Vice President Exempts His Office from the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information

Washington, D.C. — The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President’s position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President’s staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President’s executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: “I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. … (I)t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials.”

* Letter from National Archives to the Attorney General (pdf)
* Second Letter from National Archives to the Vice President’s Office (pdf)
* First Letter from National Archives to the Vice President’s Office (pdf)
* Fact Sheet on the Vice President’s Efforts to Avoid Oversight and Accountability (pdf)

Read more: http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=507

also

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/21/2021 (with comments)

Posted by: not my president at June 21, 2007 05:24 PM

I have called Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Conyers, and now I'm calling the moderate Republicans. My question to the Republicans is simple, "Is exempting Hillary Clinton or any other Democratic President from the Presidential laws ok?" If not then they darn well better stand for RIGHT ==Impeachment--Instead of WRONG== doing nothing!

Decision nearing whether to close Guantanamo.

http://tinyurl.com/2aapgb==AP (yahoo)

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Posted by: karen at June 21, 2007 04:30 PM

Thank you so much for going the extra mile.

Re: immigration - how stupid can the Republicans get? They need the immigrant vote to outlaw abortions and homosexuality.

http://tinyurl.com/28m235 AP Yahoo

And going with our discussion on abortion (prevention) and prevention...

Any country who provides abortion will not get contraceptives from the US if Republicans have their way.

Interesting that even if contraceptives fail, they still PREVENT PREGNANCY. You would think that would be a good thing.

Seems to me that this further points that what they want to prevent isn't abortions; it's sex.

This is over the top!!!

(Oh...and this is coming from "the prude here" who withdrew her children from school-taught sex-ed programs to teach them from my own 'family values'. And I considered to be my own responsibility to my family.)

Posted by: sparrow at June 21, 2007 05:55 PM

All sex is evil to these people, except in a married couple for the purposes of procreation, in the missionary position.

I tend to consider sexuality as the Creator's gift to humankind - one that gives people many rights and responsibilities. But it's a gift nevertheless.

"Seems to me that this further points that what they want to prevent isn't abortions; it's sex."

I would agree with both that and what Ally said, a horrible amount of people tend to view sex as 'evil' except when they are doing it.

This nation has such a distorted sexual image of itself it is really scary.

The one debate that drives me batsh*t insane is the breastfeeding thing.

The fact men or to a lesser extent other women will get totally freaked out seeing a baby do what a baby is suppossed to do is not only appalling it makes me sick to my stomach.

Posted by: Christy at June 21, 2007 07:15 PM

Hey! Breastfeeding is the one common ground I've found between the homeschooling group and the liberals.

Posted by: Christy at June 21, 2007 07:15 PM
Posted by: sparrow at June 21, 2007 07:22 PM

Mammary glands are what define mammals; human beinga are mammals. [Check the dictionary.]

I've never, ever understood the whole wig-out over women's breasts, feeding babies (in public or elsewhere). Mammary glands exist for only one function: feeding babies. That's all. Every mammal has mammary glands.

I see breasts on another woman and know she's capable of feeding babies.

Since at least when modern bras were invented, women's breasts have been co-opted as sex objects/toys for men. Some modern women have breast implants or reductions (for looks; to please men). Men need pleasing sex objects which takes away the function of women's breasts, stealing food from babies...?

I don't get it.

Or maybe it was my upbringing. I always knew breasts existed to feed babies. I never considered my own breasts as sex objects.

http://www.americanprogress.org/cartoons/2007/06/062107_iraq.html
Soldiers, Cells...
{Must-see cartoon.}
Cheney Power Grab: Rules Don't Apply to Him
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062107R.shtml
Vice President Dick Cheney has asserted his office is not a part of the executive branch of the US government, and therefore not bound by a presidential order governing the protection of classified information by government agencies, according to a new letter from Representative Henry Waxman (D-California) to Cheney.

Senate Judiciary Committee Subpoenas NSA Spying Documents
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062107S.shtml
The Senate Judiciary Committee just voted 13-3 to authorize chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) to issue subpoenas for documents related to the NSA warrantless surveillance program. Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) voted with the Democrats on the committee to authorize the subpoenas for any legal opinions and advice the Bush administration has received regarding the NSA program.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/trailer/
Last night we screened "Sicko" for the members of Congress and the Senate in Washington, D.C. Earlier in the day we testified during a briefing in Congress called by the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Rep. John Conyers, Jr. I brought with me some of the people who appear in the film to tell their stories -- and it was a powerful moment.

{{{Hmmm.... When Congress Critters who saw this are confronted with proposals about how to fix the health care system, they can't plead ignorance and tell us how wonderful their corporate buddies running the corporate health care and corporate pharmaceutical industries and medical insurance businesses are.... Eventually, this country is going to have to be civilized and adopt some kind of universal health care ('socialized medicine,' the term that makes neoCons have the vapors), so I don't understand why we can't just accept the fact that's staring us all in the face, get busy, and just do it.}}}

Posted by: NonnyO at June 21, 2007 08:02 PM

"Breasts not bombs" was the biggest attraction at the Peace Rally in DC last year.

" I've never, ever understood the whole wig-out over women's breasts, feeding babies (in public or elsewhere). Mammary glands exist for only one function: feeding babies. That's all. Every mammal has mammary glands.

I see breasts on another woman and know she's capable of feeding babies."

Amen sister.

I do not think anything shows us as the retarded sexually backwards idiots we are better than the 'breastfeeding debate'.

Wonderful and up-lifting speech given by a blogger at Our Future:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=860546376283859020&pr=goog-sl

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,139913,00.html

Associated Press | June 21, 2007

BAGHDAD - A series of mortars or rockets slammed into the U.S.-controlled Green Zone on Thursday, and an official said at least one round struck a parking lot used by the Iraqi prime minister and his security detail.

The barrage occurred a day after the U.S. military acknowledged "an increasing pattern of attacks" against the sprawling complex on the west bank of the Tigris River despite a security crackdown now in its fifth month.

A huge plume of black smoke billowed into the sky and helicopters buzzed overhead after about nine blasts occurred in quick succession around 10 a.m.

At least one mortar round struck a parking lot used by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his security detail, an official from the prime minister's office said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

The U.S. Embassy confirmed there were rounds of indirect fire, the military term for rockets or mortars, but said it could not immediately provide details such as where they struck.

If I were a writer, I would love to write a history of the Bush administration. But I would have to come up with a catchy title.

"MISUNDERESTIMATED - THE BUSH YEARS" ??

"IT WOULD BE A WHOLE LOT EASIER IF THIS WERE A DICTATORSHIP.... - AMERICA UNDER BUSH, 2001-2009" ???

"CONSTITUTION? WHAT CONSTITUTION?"

yes .. a "developed" country that can't handle breastfeeding and where alot of babies already have their own bedroom .. watched by their parents over an electronic surveillance system

I breastfed my son til he decided he wanted to be weaned and he slept with us til he decided he wanted his own bed. That was counter to our current cultural norms but consistent with most of the rest of the world's.

Only one person ever stared and that was a businessman. I figured - let him stare, if he needs the education that bad.

I agree that this culture is very mixed up around sex. There must be some happy medium between cultures that cover it all up and those who let it all hang out (with both extremes being prudes and not comfortable with sex).

Maybe some day we'll figure it out. I also agree this is one area (breastfeeding) where the homeschoolers and the liberals cross viewpoints. I got alot of support from La Leche League for breastfeeding long-term but not for going to graduate school. They thought I should be a stay-at-home mother and make my own baby food. I thought I should finish graduate school, pump some of the breastmilk into a bottle that my husband could give my son at times. It worked out fine. I never did find a real support group, but that happens when you have to go your own way and adapt to the best of both worlds.

By the way, I think breasts can be really beautiful in their own right.

Hopefully this won't happen.

Galapagos Islands green scheme alarms scientists
London
June 22, 2007

A US company is poised to dump iron filings off the Galapagos Islands in an experiment designed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Planktos Inc, a "geo-engineering" company, intends to sell carbon "credits" to individuals wanting to offset their personal greenhouse gas emissions. But the proposal has alarmed the US Government and scientists on both sides of the Atlantic. Conservationists claim the dumping of iron filings without a permit is illegal under the international London Dumping Convention and under US law.

More. .....
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/galapagos-islands-green-scheme-alarms-scientists/2007/06/21/1182019283738.html

One of the works, "death poem" by 33-year-old Bahraini Jumah al-Dossari, evokes his plight in the Guantanamo military prison since early 2002:

Take my blood.
Take my death shroud and The remnants of my body.
Take photographs of my corpse at the grave, lonely.
Send them to the world, To the judges and To the people of conscience, Send them to the principled men and the fair-minded."

Article:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/detainees-ponder-justice-in-poetry/2007/06/21/1182019283726.html

Good NPR "Fresh Air" tonight - about BIG COAL - how they helped swing West Virginia, which greatly helped Bush in 2000. He owed them alot of favors, so now we have half of our electricity needs provided by coal-generated juice. Coming up the pike is diesel made from coal which will twice as filthy in terms of carbon as gasoline. Coal is touted as the antidote to foreign oil, but you can't make gasoline from it, just diesel. Gas runs cars, coal makes either diesel or electricity, so the two industries are rather separate.

There are problems with most energy sources and energy alternatives, but the BIG COAL lobby has had as their nemesis Al Gore. His getting into office (or someone resembling him) has been their worst nightmare. The biggest coal company in the world was part of Cheney's secret energy task force and he's heavily invested financially and diabolically in the coal as well as the petroleum industry.

Evil evil evil

Posted by: not my president at June 21, 2007 10:12 PM

And I notice that the coal lobby has been sponsoring various NPR programs as well... :(

This nation has such a distorted sexual image of itself it is really scary.

Posted by: Christy at June 21, 2007 07:15 PM

And the horrible thing in my neck of woods is, American sex culture is still considered liberal and free-going, among the Confucians in my neck of woods.

This is Hillary's triangulating speech at the Take Back America Forum:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5971463117959424862

The speech is rather tedious and uninspiring - a kind of check list of the things that Bush did wrong or failed to do. Hillary goes down that check list with the audience. Pretty typical stuff really, nothing new or interesting.

Hillary avoids Iraq, "the war on terror", Afghanistan, 9-11 until almost the end of the speech (because the advisors have told her, as they told Kerry, to avoid Iraq and the war on terror - they're too controversial and that's the Republican strong suit anyway yada yada).

Conveniently, Hillary blames the Iraq mess, squarely on the Iraqis!!!!! WE gave them a government and democracy and they are messing it up, she says. I wonder if Hillary is still not entirely telling the truth about Iraq, at least by the reporting of Ted Koppel, that she has said to her advisers that we will have troops stationed in Iraq for another 8 years at least.

BTW: no mention of the constantly lying and misleading by the Bush administration (too controversial, I suppose). The Bushies are just incompetent and wrong-headed, that's all.

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at June 21, 2007 10:20 PM

Ally, print this up in whatever language they'll understand.

http://www.armchairsubversive.org/

Ally
The coal industry got its liquid extraction technique from the Nazis.

"For four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has resisted routine oversight of his office’s handling of classified information, and when the National Archives unit that monitors classification in the executive branch objected, the vice president’s office suggested abolishing the oversight unit, according to documents released yesterday by a Democratic congressman."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/washington/22cheney.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1182486752-JPU+Wr7Ll3pvyGiCy3zGpw

In the heat of the day, down in Mobile, Alabama
Working on the railroad with the steel driving hammer
Gotta make some money to buy some brand new shoes
Tryin' to find somebody to take away these blues
"She don't love me" hear them singing in the sun
Payday's coming and my work is all done

Later in the evening when the sun is sinking low
All day I been waiting for the whistle to blow
Sitting in a teepee built right on the tracks
Rolling them bones until the foreman comes back
Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about
We've got an off-schedule train comin' two miles about

Everybody's scrambling, running around
Picking up their money, tearing the teepee down
Foreman wants to panic, 'bout to go insane
Trying to get the workers out the way of the train
Engineer blows the whistle loud and long
Can't stop the train, gotta let it roll on

(Chuck Berry Song)

Chuck in Houston

Actually, that was kind of cheap. I just downloaded the lyrics. Then I read them and it didn't seem quite the way we used to sing it (except the first line, which I had edited to my taste). So here is a reprise, like we used to sing it.

In the heat of the day, down in Mobile, Alabama,
Working in the sun with the steel driving hammer.
Got to make some money, buy some brand new shoes,
Try to find somebody, take away these blues.
"She don't love me" hear them singing in the sun,
Payday's coming and my work is all done.

Later in the evening when the sun is sinking low,
All day I been waiting for the whistle to blow,
Sitting in a teepee built right on the tracks,
Rolling them bones until the foreman comes back.
"Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about;
There's an off-schedule train comin' two miles out."

Everybody scrambling, running around.
Picking up your money, tear the teepee down.
Foreman wants to panic, 'bout to go insane,
Trying to get the workers out the way of the train.
Engineer blows the whistle loud and long,
Can't stop the train, got to let it roll on.

(Chuck Berry Song with minor edits)

Chuck in Houston

PS: "I want some Boom Chuck Rock Now"

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/21/ovp-our-fourth-branch-of-government/
OVP: Our Fourth Branch of Government?

Posted by: sparrow at June 21, 2007 11:22 PM

Thanks - very disgusting reading, but necessary!

(having trouble sleeping this morning)

Some CIA covert activities will be declassified next week:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19360920/

Posted by: sparrow at June 21, 2007 11:22 PM

Thanks - very disgusting reading, but necessary!

(having trouble sleeping this morning)

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at June 22, 2007 04:52 AM

You're not kidding!

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at June 22, 2007 04:52 AM
Posted by: woz at June 22, 2007 06:30 AM

And at this point, I remind you that both parties are not pure, but just as a reminder to anyone that thinks tht liberals are the dirty scum...

I'll be honest, it use to be my pre-conceived notion of liberals. They've been giving us that propaganda for many years.

It's time to recognise that the moral majority is not moral and the liberal left are not filled with loosy Lucies.

Both types are in all parties and we need to be responsible for our own actions first and we need to hold all of our puhlic servants (no matter what party affiliation) to higher standards.

Posted by: sparrow at June 22, 2007 07:13 AM

Of course, there are bad apples in every barrel.

Friend of mine working video at Take Back America conference
sent this link of Jason Alexander and is you look to the right you will see videos from all the speakers.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3316129511262190332&hl=en

This comes from a guy who is becoming an expat soon.

Here is a list of the status of impeachment proceedings broken down State by State. Even Texas is on the list!

http://www.impeachbush.tv/impeach/states.html

Carolina In My Mind
by James Taylor

In my mind I'm going to Carolina.
Can't you see the sunshine, can't you just feel the moonshine?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind?
Yes, I'm going to Carolina in my mind.

Karen she's the silver sun, you best walk her way and watch it shine, watch her watch the morning come.
A silver tear appearing now I'm crying, ain't I? I'm going to Carolina in my mind.

There ain't no doubt in no ones mind that loves the finest thing around,
whisper something soft and kind.
And hey, babe, the sky's on fire, I'm dying, ain't I?
I'm going to Carolina in my mind.

In my mind I'm going to Carolina.
Can't you see the sunshine, can't you just feel the moonshine?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind?
Yes, I'm going to Carolina in my mind.

Dark and silent late last night, I think I might have heard the highway calling.
Geese in flight and dogs that bite.
And signs that might be omens say I'm going, going, going to Carolina in my mind.

With a holy host of others standing round me, still I'm on the dark side of the moon.
And it seems like it goes on like this forever, you must forgive me
if I'm up and in my mind I'm going to Carolina,
can't you see the sunshine can't you just feel the moonshine?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind?
Yes, I'm going to Carolina in my mind.

In my mind I'm going to Carolina. Can't you see the sunshine, can't you just feel the moonshine?
Ain't it just like a friend of mine to hit me from behind?
Yes, I'm going to Carolina in my mind.

Gotta make it back home again soon, gotta make it back on home again soon,
gotta make it back to Carolina soon, can't hang around, no babe, gotta make it back home again,
gotta make it back to Carolina soon...

I heard the NPR report by David Green about Bush's visit to Alabama. He went to a nuclear plant where he spoke to about 100 employees. Although they produce electricity for much of the south, they didn't turn the electricity on and he complained. He sounded hoarse and it was commented that he hasn't been feeling well. He then went to campaign for a Senator who has recently badmouthed him. Loser.

Meanwhile, Al Gore spoke to a group in Cannes France about "green" advertising. & I can't think of one candidate who has a track record for sustainability or is campaigning on it. John McCain? No thanks.

Posted by: monkey at June 22, 2007 10:03 AM

Are you trying to tell us something? Or are you just out of your mind (as usual)?

where I said "electricity" above, I meant "air conditioning" - well he was supposed to be talking about the environment.

Also heard about how Putin said not to be so hard on Russia about their history of Stalinism when we dumped more explosives on tiny Vietnam than we used in all of WW2 and we also used nuclear weapons on civilians twice in Japan.

Runnin to-and-fro - hard workin at the mill.
Never fail in the mail - yeah, come a rotten bill!

Too much monkey business. too much monkey business.
Too much monkey business for me to be involved in!

Salesman talkin to me - tryin to run me up a creek.
Says you can buy now, gone try - you can pay me next week, ahh!

Too much monkey business. too much monkey business.
Too much monkey business for me to be involved in!

Blond have good looks - tryin to get me hooked.
Want me to marry - get a home - settle down - write a book!

Too much monkey business. too much monkey business.
Too much monkey business for me to be involved in!

Same thing every day - gettin up, goin to school.
No need for me to complain - my objections overruled, ahh!

Too much monkey business. too much monkey business.
Too much monkey business for me to be involved in!

Take home - something wrong - dime gone - will hold
Order suit - hoppered up for telling me a tale - ahh!

Too much monkey business. too much monkey business.
Too much monkey business for me to be involved in!

Been to yokohama - been fightin in the war.
Army bunk - army chow - army clothes - army car, aah!

Too much monkey business. too much monkey business.
Too much monkey business for me to be involved in!

Workin in the fillin station - too many tasks.
Wipe the windows - check the tires - check the oil - dollar gas!

Too much monkey business. too much monkey business.
Dont want your botheration, get away, leave me!

Too much monkey business for me!!

Chuck Berry lyrics

Contacted the Speaker's office by phone and email today about impeaching Cheney:

Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-0100

Email form here:

http://www.speaker.gov/contact/

Hillary jumping the gun....

I watched the mediocre speech which Hillary gave at the Take Back America conference and was bothered by her cavalier use of the phrase "when I become president". "WHEN" not "IF" "if elected president" something a little less arrogant, greedy and more truthful?

Note to Hillary: we have yet to hold the first primary election. You are not even the Democrat nominee for president yet. Can you say something like "if I am nominated and elected president...I will... etc..."???

Well, another candidate has entered the presidential race...

Read about his views on important issues here ==>
http://www.realcities.com/mld/realcities/news/politics/qa_forum.html

This is turning into a total soap opera.

The Fowlers of Coushatta
Douglas Fowler (1906-1980), Red River Parish clerk of court (1940-1952) and Coushatta mayor (1952-1954), was appointed the third Louisiana "custodian of voting machines" after the first two appointees of Governor Earl Kemp Long stepped down following brief tenures. Fowler was nominated to the post in the 1960 Democratic runoff primary and was thereafter a runaway victor in the general election. The office was renamed "commissioner of elections" under the 1974 Constitution. Fowler was elected five times statewide as head of the elections division.

Fowler was succeeded in the post in 1980 by his son, Jerry M. Fowler (born 1940), of nearby Natchitoches. Jerry Fowler, like his father, was also elected five times. Therefore, a member of the Fowler family had controlled the Louisiana elections office for a full four decades.

Douglas Fowler's brother, Hendrix Marion "Mutt" Fowler, Sr., was the mayor of Coushatta and later a Democratic state representative from 1972-1986. He resigned his House seat to become executive director of the Sabine River Authority in Many and was removed from the position amid a scandal involving the circumvention of state bid laws and spending limited funds on low-priority projects. He ultimately served 45 days in the Sabine Parish jail.

In his first election, Jerry Fowler defeated a Republican candidate from Franklin Parish, John Henry Baker, who campaigned on a promise to abolish the elections commissioner's office and return it to the jurisdiction of the Louisiana secretary of state. Long had stripped Secretary of State Wade O. Martin, Jr., of election duties and created the "custodian" position, which became the "commissioner" of elections. Baker polled 37 percent of the vote on the theme that voters should elect him to an office that he wanted to abolish.

Jerry Fowler pleaded guilty in 2000 to state and federal charges of malfeasance in office and conspiracy to launder kickbacks from overcharges to state voting machine vendors. He had been denied a general election ballot spot in 1999 by some 9,000 votes, was convicted of the charges, and imprisoned in Texas. The election commissioner's position went to Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell, who completed the proposal made by John Henry Baker more than two decades earlier and returned the duties to the secretary of state, effective in 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Parish,_Louisiana

Holy Crappola.

Ohio Election officials scandal and shake-up:

http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0320-23.htm

Blowback from Ohio's 2004 Stolen Election is Escalating

by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman

In a bold move "to restore trust to elections in Ohio," Ohio's newly-elected Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, has requested the resignation of all four members of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. The two Democrats and two Republicans were formally asked to resign by the close of business on March 21. Cuyahoga County includes the heavily Democratic city of Cleveland. Brunner is a Democrat who was elected to be Ohio's Secretary of State in November, 2006.

Felony convictions have also resulted in 18-month prison sentences for two employees of the Cuyahoga BOE as a result of what the county prosecutor in the case calls the "rigging" of the outcome in the recount following the 2004 presidential election. Further problems surfaced in the conduct of Cuyahoga County's May, 2006 primary, in the wake of which Michel Vu, Executive Director of the county's Board of Elections recently resigned.

In tandem, the shake-up in Ohio's biggest county reflects a widening storm surrounding the outcome of the 2004 presidential election and the conduct of elections overall in the nation's most pivotal state.

Among those Brunner has asked to resign is Cuyahoga County BOE Chair Robert Bennett, who chairs Ohio's Republican Party. Voting rights attorney Cliff Arnebeck and others have long charged that Bennett worked closely with White House advisor Karl Rove and Ohio's then-Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to secure Bush's 2004 victory in Ohio.

Conyers and Nadler call for Cheney to stay out of pardon discussions re Libby.

(Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler sent a letter to Vice President Dick Cheney, asking him to recuse himself from any involvement in issues related to the I. Scooter Libby criminal prosecution and potential pardon.

"This request is prompted, in part, by your reported comments in which you stated your hope that 'our system will return a final result consistent with what we know of this fine man,'" the Members wrote. "Accordingly, your comments may be seen as and blurring the distinction between the institutional interests of the Office of Vice President and your personal interests in the ultimate results of the prosecution. "

Conyers and Nadler expressed concern that evidence presented at trial linked the vice president to the case and, as a result, his statements in the post-trial process are inappropriate.

"I would hope a sitting Vice-President would not ordinarily suggest the Government seeks any result other than that sought by the line prosecutors of the Department of Justice, or imply that the decisions of the trial court – both as to the validity of the verdict or the proper sentence – should be undone," the letter futher stated.

The full text of the letter is available at:
http://judiciary.house.gov/Media/PDFS/Conyers-Nadler070607.pdf.

Posted by: Ralpheh at June 22, 2007 02:02 PM

Libby shouldn't be pardoned and he should serve out his sentence. I heard on NPR that an almost identical case was just heard by the Supreme Court and the guy had to serve out an almost identical sentence.

Cheney had better watch out, as he may have broken a few laws himself. He's a lame duck and is NOT "sprinting to the finish" (as W and Gonzo like to say they are doing).

Re Ohio
They had better resign. It is unthinkable that we have two illegitimate terms by someone who was not elected at all and that he has caused wars through his irrational reactions to events that he could probably have prevented were he not incompetent!

Sneak previews are happening soon - SICKO by Michael Moore - you can find the nearest theaters at his website.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070622/ap_on_re_us/wyoming_senator
Conservative Wyo. surgeon named senator

Republican John Barrasso, a surgeon and conservative Wyoming legislator, was named as the country's newest U.S. senator Friday to replace the late Craig Thomas.

The temporary appointment, announced by Wyoming's governor, is immediate but won't change the Senate's party breakdown since Thomas was also a Republican. He died June 4 while being treated for leukemia.

Barrasso, 54, will serve in Thomas' place until the beginning of 2009. He said on his application that he also intends to then run in a November 2008 special election to serve out the remainder of Thomas' term, which ends in 2013.

Barrasso also left no doubt that he will be a conservative voice in Washington.

"I believe in limited government, lower taxes, less spending, traditional family values, local control and a strong national defense," the orthopedic surgeon and state senator from Casper wrote in his application.

He said he has "voted for prayer in schools, against gay marriage and have sponsored legislation to protect the sanctity of life."

{More on link.}

Cheney Tried to Nix Agency Targeting Him
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Cheney_tried_to_nix_agency_targeting_0622.html

..says his office is not an "entity" within the Executive branch

NonnyO
Reading thru Wikipedia on the new Wyoming Senator - looks like he's a politically expedient "flip flopper"

Barrasso is considered a "conservative" and is "pro-life," although he has changed his position on this issue. He previously ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for the Senate in 1996 for the seat vacated by the moderate Alan K. Simpson of Cody, an abortion-rights supporter. In 1996, Barrasso had characterized himself as "pro-choice." He lost the primary to anti-abortion advocate Mike Enzi. He has received an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association.

Cheney Under Fire for Stance on Secrecy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062207J.shtml
The House Oversight Committee is demanding that Vice President Cheney explain himself. Is his office part of the executive branch? Part of the legislative branch? Or is Cheney suggesting that as far as federal rules are concerned, his office essentially doesn't exist? The issue at hand is Cheney's insistence that his office is exempt from an executive order issued by President Bush in 2003 requiring all federal agencies or "any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information" to report annually on its activities regarding the classification, safeguarding and declassification of national security information.
{Two articles on this link.}

70s' Documents Portray a Lawless CIA
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062207P.shtml
The CIA will declassify hundreds of pages of long-secret records detailing some of the intelligence agency's worst illegal abuses - the so-called "family jewels" documenting a quarter-century of overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday. The documents, to be publicly released next week, also include accounts of break-ins and theft, the agency's opening of private mail to and from China and the Soviet Union, wiretaps and surveillance of journalists, and a series of "unwitting" tests on US civilians, including the use of drugs.

Posted by: not my president at June 22, 2007 03:44 PM

All of which leads me to believe he'll vote solidly with DimWit and their Criminal Cabal. (So, what else is new with these neoCon criminals?)

I thought the most recent info on Dead-Eye Dickie interesting. He's trying to exempt the office of the VP from both the legislative and executive branches, while having one foot in each, having power in each, claiming power in each, but refusing to be held accountable for his actions in/for either. How convenient (for dictatorial control of his hand puppet, among other things)....

DU--http://tinyurl.com/25htf6

Wiki entry on Dick Cheney. Reflects Dick's new assertion of his own branch in gov't.

He said he has "voted for prayer in schools, against gay marriage and have sponsored legislation to protect the sanctity of life."

Posted by: NonnyO at June 22, 2007 03:19 PM

That's a more intrusive government, not a "limited government" those headless conservative/neoliberal chickens keep parroting.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6/22/132214/882
Brush up on Contempt of Congress

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/23776
Writ of Mandamus to House Dems: Quickest, Easiest Way to Get Impeachment on the Table

White House Facing Contempt of Congress Charges
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062207T.shtml
House Judiciary Committee Democrats warned yesterday that they would pursue a contempt of Congress motion if the White House fails to respond to subpoenas for testimony and documents related to the firings of US attorneys last year.

{{{Oh, BTW, has anyone heard any fallout about Condisleazy??? Last I heard, she had not responded to the subpoena. Is she still not complying? I don't think I've seen anything in print about the non-compliance, and I haven't seen anything where she has testified.}}}

Matt Renner | FBI's 9/11 Saudi Flight Documents Released
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062207A.shtml
Matt Renner reports: "Newly released documents reveal that the FBI suspected that a plane hired to transport members of the bin Laden family from the United States back to Saudi Arabia might have been chartered by Osama bin Laden himself. These new documents raise new questions about the FBI investigation into the 9/11 attacks."

The New York Times | Don't Veto, Don't Obey
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062207E.shtml
The editors of The New York Times write: "President Bush is notorious for issuing statements taking exception to hundreds of bills as he signs them. This week, we learned that in a shocking number of cases, the Bush administration has refused to enact those laws. Congress should use its powers to insist that its laws are obeyed."

Robert Parry | Bush's Mafia Whacks the Republic
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062207H.shtml
Robert Parry writes: "In years to come, historians may look back on US press coverage of George W. Bush's presidency and wonder why there was not a single front-page story announcing one of the most monumental events of mankind's modern era - the death of the American Republic and the elimination of the 'unalienable rights' pledged to 'posterity' by the Founders."

Excerpt (more on link, including an embedded link to the New Yorker article referenced):

It was also an early indication that Taguba's military career was nearing its end. In January 2006, Gen. Richard Cody, the Army's Vice-Chief of Staff, called Taguba and without pleasantries or explanation told Taguba, "I need you to retire by January 2007."

So, the general who had violated the omerta code of silence was banished from Bush's Mafia.

Hersh wrote that the sensitivity over Taguba's report went beyond its graphic account of physical and sexual abuse of Iraqis detained at Abu Ghraib; it also brought unwanted attention to a wider pattern of criminal acts committed with the approval of President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"The administration feared that the publicity would expose more secret operations and practices," including a special military task forces or Special Access Programs set up to roam the world and assassinate suspected terrorists, Hersh wrote.

Hersh quoted a recently retired CIA officer as saying the task-force teams "had full authority to whack - to go in and conduct 'executive action,'" a phrase meaning assassination.

"It was surrealistic what these guys were doing," the ex-officer told Hersh. "They were running around the world without clearing their operations with the ambassador or the [CIA] chief of station." [New Yorker, June 25, 2007, edition]

In other words, President Bush not only had arrogated to himself the right to snatch people off the street and lock them up indefinitely without trial but he had dispatched assassins around the world to eliminate alleged "bad guys."

The bigger picture - the stark and grim image of what had transpired over the past half dozen years in the name of the American people - was that the United States could no longer claim to be a nation of laws and liberties. It had become a country governed by a criminal mob deploying an unsavory collection of capos, consiglieres and hit men.

In this view, George W. Bush was no longer President of a Republic but Godfather of the world's most intimidating crime syndicate. But that was a reality that the U.S. news media could not afford to acknowledge in real time, though it might become the unavoidable conclusion of future historians.

These are not secrets to those of us who have been around awhile and talked to people from the third world. These are some of the reasons why we have been seeing "blowback."

70s' Documents Portray a Lawless CIA
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062207P.shtml
The CIA will declassify hundreds of pages of long-secret records detailing some of the intelligence agency's worst illegal abuses - the
so-called "family jewels" documenting a quarter-century of overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of
leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday. The documents, to be publicly released next week,
also include accounts of break-ins and theft, the agency's opening of private mail to and from China and the Soviet Union, wiretaps and
surveillance of journalists, and a series of "unwitting" tests on US civilians, including the use of drugs.

Also following the stories that say FBI says Bin Laden himself may have chartered aircraft to get his familyout of the country. How negligent that it could casually happen like that, and people could also take flying lessons and ask not to be taught to land, just take off.

He said he has "voted for prayer in schools, against gay marriage and have sponsored legislation to protect the sanctity of life."

Posted by: NonnyO at June 22, 2007 03:19 PM

That's a more intrusive government, not a "limited government" those headless conservative/neoliberal chickens keep parroting.

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at June 22, 2007 06:01 PM

SO TRUE!!

WHY CAN'T PEOPLE REALIZE THAT?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

US Code, Title 44, Chapter 22, Section 2207. Vice-Presidential records
§ 2207. Vice-Presidential records

Vice-Presidential records shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter in the same manner as Presidential records. The duties and responsibilities of the Vice President, with respect to Vice-Presidential records, shall be the same as the duties and responsibilities of the President under this chapter with respect to Presidential records. The authority of the Archivist with respect to Vice-Presidential records shall be the same as the authority of the Archivist under this chapter with respect to Presidential records, except that the Archivist may, when the Archivist determines that it is in the public interest, enter into an agreement for the deposit of Vice-Presidential records in a non-Federal archival depository. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed to authorize the establishment of separate archival depositories for such Vice-Presidential records.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode44/usc_sec_44_00002207----000-.html

A twelve-year-old just told me:

"Google Street Level can photograph you and cookies are kept for every search you make for 24 months, so the thing to do is randomly do things you wouldnt' normally do and search for things you aren't interested in - then they can't figure out your true personality."

He also said that war started in the middle east by the President randomly closing his eyes and throwing a dart at the map, then sending in troops. He knows better but said that the effect is the same.

Posted by: sparrow at June 22, 2007 08:52 PM

His blatant criminality is unbelievably out of bounds.

And, part of the Friday night news dump (more on link):
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070622/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fired_prosecutors
Bush pick for No. 3 at Justice withdraws
President Bush's pick to be the No. 3 official in the Justice Department asked to have his nomination withdrawn Friday, four days before he was to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
~~~~~
The Judiciary Committee had scheduled a hearing on Mercer's nomination for Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the committee had said senators needed the facts from an investigation into the firings of several federal prosecutors before he could be confirmed.

"The White House has found many ways to keep sunlight from reaching some of the darker corners of the Bush Justice Department, but this is a new one," Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a statement. "With a confirmation hearing looming next Tuesday, they have withdrawn this nomination to avoid having to answer more questions under oath."

Mercer is the sixth senior Justice Department official to leave the tight-knit circle of Gonzales' advisers in the wake of the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last December. He is the only of the group, however, to remain with the Justice Department.

I just watched the first half of PBS's Bill Moyers Journal... about the lobbyists....

If anyone else gets the same show tonight, you might be interested, although at the end of the segment Moyers indicated the interview would be online on their web site.

Posted by: sparrow at June 22, 2007 08:52 PM
His blatant criminality is unbelievably out of bounds.
Posted by: not my president at June 22, 2007 08:59 PM

Yes!!!

Has anyone been brave enough to watch any Lamestream Media news readers to see if this story has made the air waves?

I'm wondering if Congress Critters will stay ominously silent about this...?

That alone should be grounds for impeaching Dickie, not to mention his other known crimes.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070622/barneys_sale.html?.v=6
Jones to Sell Barneys to a Dubai Firm
Jones to Sell Barneys to Affiliate of Dubai-Based Investment Firm Istithmar for $825 Million
NEW YORK (AP) -- In a bid to make the company more profitable and valuable, Jones Apparel Group Inc. said Friday it has reached a deal to sell Barneys New York, synonymous with high New York fashion, to an affiliate of Dubai-based investment firm Istithmar for $825 million.
~~~~~
Boneparth added that the proceeds will be used to invest more heavily into the company's portfolio of brands, which include Nine West, Anne Klein and Evan-Picone.

Jones said it expects to report a gain from the transaction of approximately $290 million. In light of available tax benefits, the company anticipates net cash proceeds after taxes and transaction expenses of about $770 million.

The acquisition is the latest in a buying spree for Istithmar, which since its inception three years ago has invested in more than 30 companies in three sectors -- consumer, industrial and financial services -- deploying in excess of $1.6 billion of capital.

{More on link.)
http://www.daralistithmar.com/

Hmmmmmmmm.... Halliburton moved it's HQ to Dubai; ports (indirectly) owned by Dubai; now a major retail chain owned by a Dubai company.

Hmmmmmmm........

I don't really have the energy to figure out how our new remote works. So watching the media is out for me. I saw at DU that someone said that CNN covered the Bin Ladin (maybe) paying for the Saudi Royal Family's departure after 9-11.

That's about it.

http://news.yahoo.com/comics/uclickcomics/20070622/cx_nq_uc/nq20070622
Non Sequitur

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/22/goings-on-at-gitmo/
Goings on at Gitmo
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the_plank?pid=119605

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/06/22/sen-dick-durbin-goes-after-cheney/
Sen. Dick Durbin goes after Cheney
{Interesting comments from bloggers, too. Most seem to be just as tired as I am of all talk and no action on the part of our Congress Critters.}

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19371599/site/newsweek/
The Case for National Service
Chris Dodd may be in the second tier of Democratic presidential candidates, but his plan to mobilize the country is a winner.
June 22, 2007 - In 1992, the biggest applause line in Bill Clinton’s stump speech came when he outlined a national-service plan that later became AmeriCorps. So it’s surprising that until now no candidate has made service a central part of his or her campaign. President Bush’s call for Americans to “go shopping” after 9/11 teed up the issue for Democrats—who may find that the country is more receptive to this idea than they think.

Barack Obama has talked a bit about a “Youth Services Corps” for disadvantaged young people to work on energy-efficiency and environmental-education projects, and John Edwards has a lightly detailed “Marshall Corps” idea to send 10,000 midcareer experts around the world in a combination of the Peace Corps and the Marshall Plan. But those are targeted programs that aren’t aimed at a whole generation.

~~~~~

Where JFK’s Peace Corps and Clinton’s AmeriCorps started small, Dodd would mobilize swiftly—and on a grand scale; some proposals that are bound to be controversial. He would elevate the Corporation for National Service, which runs AmeriCorps, to cabinet-level status; expand AmeriCorps from its current level of 70,000 corps members a year to 1 million (with the help of a bigger college-tuition grant) by 2016; double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011; establish a “Rapid Response Reserve Corps” to work alongside first responders in a crisis; offer tax credits of up to $1,000 per worker to employers who offer paid time off for community service, and give seniors incentives to serve with $1,000 grants they can use for their own continuing education or that of a child or grandchild.

The part of the plan that will likely engender the most opposition is Dodd’s call for mandatory high-school community service. Schools would be required to have their students to perform 100 hours of community service in order to graduate—or risk losing federal funds. (Most schools don’t receive much federal funding now, but they do get some money to offset the testing costs of No Child Left Behind requirements).

{More on link. This sounds almost exactly like what DimWit proposed in the last SOTU speech, except he seemed to be proposing making the corporate mercenaries part of the US military. And Dodd's plan sounds militaristic...!!! So, would these be the next people called upon to help illegally invade/occupy countries after the Guard and Reserve troops are worn out...? Is this a prelude to a draft...? Yet another organization to "outsource" to corporations...?}

DKos link to Dodd's story & video from Wed.:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6/20/154322/260

NonnyO
I don't know about the tv airwaves but I do listen to NPR on the way home.

1. the Cheney story was huge (hiding email and records and trying to destroy the office that monitors him)

2. the Gitmo story was huge (Cheney wants to keep it, Gates and Condi may not, & the WH cancelled a mtng about it after the press got leaked to)

3. Laura Bush was interviewed before she leaves for Africa and she endorses abstinence, fidelity, condoms. Not sure how that is supposed to work for prostitutes, which will disappear when poverty does. Not sure how it will help teen pregnancy either, as there is no biologically-based sex education.

I really do not like to think about Laura Bush and sex at the same time because it brings to mind repulsive imagery.

Here is the latest from my relatives in their 70s:

Uncle (former Republican) in MN:
I think Bush's attempt to put some wind in his sails by another appeal to the religious right and pro-lifers is even more of a disgrace than his conduct of the war and will hurt the Reps in the election
http://blogsciam.com/index.php?title=is_using_embryonic_stem_cells_for_resear&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Mother (former Republican) ND:
sends LTE from her small ND town
..the real focus should be on how many more disasters the Bush regime will accomplish in the next year and a half
..we will be paying for their mistakes for generations, just in terms of the failed mission in Iraq alone
..the insane rightwing extremists are still in control of the party
..the Democrats have not shown enough backbone..however were they to actually cut off funding, Bush would just leave our troops in harm's way and let them run out of food, ammo, fuel..
..they are sinister enough to do that
..we are living in dark times

My aunt (always Dem so far as I know, OR):
We had a march up Main Street to commemorate the 5th year of the war. The protesters wore black. The newspaper didn't cover the story. Every night a group protests in front of the courthouse between 5-6 PM. In our area, opposition against the war is pretty strong.
We have a new Home Depot - there's quite a push to ignore it and shop the 100 year old hardware store downtown. It has everything you'd ever want. You can buy one screw not a whole pkg etc.

--These they send amongst themselves. My uncle is proud I'm a blogger, my mom refuses to get a computer but loves all the LTEs and my aunt uses the one at the library for free but still mostly relies on snail mail. I wonder how many more like them there are in America, but do they have much power even collectively? I feel and sound cynical sometimes, but how many citizens does it take to equal one corporation? Mainstream candidates get in by virtue of their money as much as their ideas.

All sex is evil to these people, except in a married couple for the purposes of procreation, in the missionary position.

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at June 21, 2007 06:10

All sex is NOT evil to these people, except in a married couple for the purposes of procreation, in the misionary position.

Again, I don't know where you are getting your information. "All these people" like sex....no, they LOVE sex. The only thing they object to is that they feel there should be a commitment before rexual relations start - and that is up for debate, but I know men like sex for sex's sake, and women enjoy it too but equate it more with love and affection. They are against men using unsuspecting women, wooing them in for sexual pleasure only, without caring for the woman, and using her and then dumping her. Certainly does not build her self-esteem or sense of self worth.

By the way, what IS the missionary position? Is the one where the woman is on top in cowboy boots, chaps, and a whip?

NPR covered this "family jewels" (CIA) business too - old Daniel Shorrs, who originally did stories on the CIA at the time this stuff was happening. Most of it I'd heard of before, such as the LSD studies on innocent people, but it's still totally creepy.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007722732

By the way, why is College of the Americas still allowed to exist?
It teaches torture instead of teaching peace.

Someone wrote /NO WAR/ in the chapel prayer book up north and someone else wrote "Why do you think your wishes come before God's?" so then someone wrote "Why would a loving God allow war?" It's an interesting dialogue. Used to be they had all the religious books - Bible, Koran, Torah, Teachings of Buddha etc. Then they removed all but the Bible. I wonder if someone replaced them if they'd be removed? There is no other medical option in the area except that place.

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at June 23, 2007 12:05 AM

Some women like sex for sex's sake too. This is not reinforced by the general culture though.

I think we all need to avoid generalities or qualify them. We have some strong biases and make some strong statements.

I can see sense in arguments all the way from radical feminist to radical Islam, and also nonsense. We should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's hard to sort it all out, but I think it's better to do so than to follow a strict doctrine, unless one is the kind of person who can't or won't sort it out.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/22/11114/2295
Conyers seeks Contempt Motion Against White House over DOJ-Gate

I only got partway through the list of comments, but I sense Kossaks are at the same place many of us are (certainly, the same place I am): Building blocks may be very good to build grass roots support and get some info 'out there' in Lamestream Media [even if it is only mentioned in passing for a few seconds and one has to listen carefully to hear it] about Georgie's and Dickie's crimes, but the undercurrent of fear is that once again the Dems will do nothing whatsoever to impeach. "WE" all know the LONG list of crimes and lies and lies to cover lies and have blogged about it all for years, but still Congress Critters are not DOING anything about it...! Several different groups have drawn up articles of impeachment, including Conyers and Kucinich, and books have been written with articles of impeachment included. It wouldn't take more than 24 hours and a few constitutional legal experts to incorporate all of that to one document to proceed with impeachment proceedings... IF Congress Critters would just get off their butts they could DO IT already...! They're talking this to death (literally, since people are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan every day, thanks to the illegal invasion and occupation), they're not stopping Georgie's and Dickie's illegal war (or their war crimes), and that is just NOT acceptable!!!

It's just all too frustrating. I feel like a hamster in a cage running on the same circular wheel...!

The only way anything makes sense to me is to take in terms of history and the advance of technology.

Birth control, telephone, cars, telephones, computers, iPods and so on are not "natural." They have been superimposed on us as biological animals.

Society is still not safe for women to have total sexual freedom, because society is skewed with more male rapists, predators, prisoners, aggressors, fetishists, judges and politicians.

Societies which still try to protect women by veiling them, hiding them away and controlling them through legislation are still living as though it is hundreds of years ago. & in some such societies are still rural, tribal, dependent on large families, agricultural.

So this is what the "clash of civilizations" is all about, and we have cultural wars going on between countries but also within our country, in a sense. & we are modern and need oil & they have it.

NonnyO
McDermott told me they aren't impeaching because it would tie things up during the whole lame duck period and nothing else would get done in Congress. He took alot of flak and he is my hero but that is what he said. There is an impeachment panel here this weekend though, and also gay pride and an arts fair. Glad to be home.

Sitting in a bar in Mobile, talking with a bunch of like-minded folks. People are angry and frustrated, just as we are.

I feel like the conversation I am hearing is identical to what we discuss on this blog, and to what happens in DC. People are aware and frustrated.

The solutions to the very real problems we face are here, in the conversations of everyday people: teachers, therapists, lawyers, farmers...

The liars in the government nowadays steal the future from our children and the hope from the world.

I cannot forgive this.

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at June 23, 2007 12:05 AM
Posted by: not my president at June 23, 2007 12:12 AM

Truth, I've gotten my information from the Dominionists I've known in college and since. While they may not represent the average American Christian, they do represent those who have powerful political influence.

Moreover, just as some medications become a toxic brew if improperly mixed, some belief systems - like Confucianism and Dominionist Christianity - were never meant to mix.

I cannot forgive this.

Posted by: karen at June 23, 2007 12:26 AM

And the most unforgivable are those who manipulate the masses, using simplistic wedge issues, to ensure that the people keep voting against their own best interests.

I cannot forgive this.
Posted by: karen at June 23, 2007 12:26 AM

Neither can I....

Like Digby, I didn't "get over" the 2000 election "results" and I will never forgive SCOTUS for their boneheaded decision, and I will never get over the '04 election "results" (that I personally believe were rigged) which saddled us with four more years of this illegal, unethical, immoral, and dishonorable group of criminals.

I used to trust courts, and between the 2000 decision and other things, I can no longer trust the judicial system.

Justice is not blind. Justice is blindfolded. In her hands are the scales of justice and the sword of justice, but she can't see whether or not her decisions are correct until someone removes her blindfold, since her hands are full otherwise. It's time for Justice to see what's right under her nose, but can't see as long as the blindfold is in place.

Like she's a delicate piece of antique porcelain thousands of years old, I want to put on clean cotton gloves and gently remove the blindfold from the eyes of Justice (so she's not blinded by the harsh light, not even mussing her hair so she still looks good), so Justice can see quite clearly that the people who are supposed to fairly represent her have been deliberately keeping her blindfolded and she can then correct the harm that's been done in her name.

I can't believe that the mythical Justice would allow the blindfold to remain in place when she knows so many injustices are being done in her name.

If Justice willingly keeps the blindfold on, then it's time for Nemesis to come in and right the wrongs....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070622/wl_csm/oafricom

Military focuses on development in Africa

Djibouti - When Petty Officer Samson James Hathaway and his US naval construction team arrived in the village of Hol-Hol three months ago, they stood in the 100-degree heat and looked at the camels padding through the boulders and dust.

"We've got our work cut out for us here," thought Petty Officer Hathaway.

The marines and sailors set up home on a makeshift soccer field beside the Djibouti-to-Ethiopia railroad line, close to a Somali refugee encampment. The 26-man team from Gulfport, Miss., is tasked with reroofing the local school, installing new latrines, and building a meeting room. They will remain in Hol-Hol, a two hour off-road drive from the US military base at Camp Lemonier, until the job is completed in September.

This small group is part of a larger US military mission that aims to tackle the root causes of terrorism by focusing on diplomacy and development. Chiefly based at Camp Lemonier, the Combined Joint Task Force for the Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) works to project power into a region that's loaded with tension – most prominently, the civil war in Somalia. They're creating a model that could influence the formation of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), a new, combined US military umbrella group that will become operational in 16 months.

"CJTF-HOA has served as a test-bed for ideas and concepts, and it has found approaches that work well in several countries on the Horn," says Rear Admiral Robert Moeller, executive director of the AFRICOM Transition Team. "Part of AFRICOM's charter is to be more collaborative, and it's important that our African partners see a consistency in our approach. Whether that's a long-term presence, like CJTF-HOA, or rotational, our engagement needs to be sustained."

Camp Lemonier's cramped 100-acre site on the outskirts of Djibouti City houses 1,800 military personnel and employs 700 Djiboutians, who are managed by US civilian contractors. The base comes under naval leadership, with close cooperation from the Marines, the Army, and the Air Force.
~~~~~
The CSIS's Mr. Morrison says American stakes in Africa have risen dramatically in the last couple of years in relation to energy security, counter-terrorism, and intensifying competition with China. "The creation of AFRICOM reflects the need for a more unified approach and a higher priority in managing US military interests on the continent. But it's still at the planning stage. Decisions about AFRICOM's internal structure and base locations will come when the mission is more clearly defined."

{{{?!?!?!?!? Huh??? "They're creating a model that could influence the formation of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), a new, combined US military umbrella group that will become operational in 16 months." "...managed by US civilian contractors." Is this the region in Africa that has oil??? Is this another place Georgie and Dickie plan to illegally invade, counter to the Geneva Conventions??? So much for DimWit's "no nation-building" statement during the 2000 debates...!}}}

There are many voices I read here, that I believe should be loud voices in Congress and elsewhere throughout the administrations of all western democratic countries. Why are so few people with the passion of truth, justice and peace, active members of government? Perhaps, at a stretch, I could count them to double figures, maybe I'd get to 20 American and about 30 Australians. That's because I don't know so much about the goings on, and people, in American politics, except what I read in blogs like this.

After being elected they seem willing to stay silent and do nothing more difficult than raise a hand to vote yay or nay on an issue. You are not unique in this. The same is true of our parliament. I write to them all - on all sides of the fence. When I'm surprised by the passion of an MP who has struggled to make the world a little safer for our indigenous children, I write to congratulate, thank and encourage that politician. It doesn't happen often. But it does happen. I really don't think that all on one side are bad, whilst all on the other side are good. There are good and bad on both sides. There are the peacemakers and the profiteers on both sides.

Perhaps it's time that we really did start to elect values to government. They won't all come from the major parties who are loaded with tax money and corporate buddies with favours to collect.

We've seen, since the 2006 mid term election that absolutely nothing of substance has changed. The same few democrats are trying to raise the bar and force some action. But mostly people vote as the party line tells them to. We can talk about it until we're all dead. And nothing will change. Our children will be turned into killers and go off to kill or be killed.

Does Congress ever have a secret ballot "Vote of conscience"? We've had a few in the last few years - the abortion drug - stem cell research - gay and lesbian rights as regards their children and property. Really contraversial situations bring about a "conscience vote". We didn't have one about the war because Blair, Bush and Howard all believe that they are the Know All of the Universe.

The strong voices of the few principled parliamentarians, can't raise more than a whisper amongst the lazy and secure. It's up to us to make certain that the greedy and the lazy stay away from collecting our dollars for simply raising a hand once or twice a day. Perhaps it's time to load the entire world's political machines with honourable people of Independence.

imho, of course.

US Military v MySpace and YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E22gUUTG2VI

If funny when you watch the video, it is getting scary when you
realize he is the President of the United States...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa3J-L29iT8&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b

SJK (former Intern, Clinton Global Initiatives, Paris France)

Posted by: woz at June 23, 2007 01:46 AM

No secret ballots or vote of conscience....

However, back room deals are made all the time and then the vote is taken in public, so even if a Congress Critter once approved or disapproved of something, the deal made is "I'll vote for your bill if you'll vote for my bill."

Fair? No. Not to the people of this country. But in the last few years the corporations have made out like bandits, bilking the US treasury of billions of dollars (especially Halliburton and its subsidiaries)....

Posted by: not my president at June 23, 2007 01:55 AM

That was painful to watch. I've seen Letterman a few times in the last few years, and so far every night I've watched he has those "Great Moments" - and comparing the illiterate idiot with the great FDR and JFK has always been something to make me cringe and glow red in embarrassment....

This is the content of an email from an Australian group called GetUP and concerns the results of a survey conducted on behalf of same s-x* couples in Australia. www.getup.org.au is a nonprofit organisation which provides opportunities for us to give our voice and signature to a wide range of issues that affect us or our community.

"We've done the research and it's a landslide. A GetUp-commissioned Galaxy poll last weekend reveals a whopping 71 per cent of Australians, including 63 per cent of Coalition voters, believe same s-x* couples should have the same rights as heteros-xual couples in de facto relationships.

"These results should make all Australians proud. Yet on Friday, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission released its year-long inquiry into same s-x discrimination which reveals that discrimination remains ingrained in 58 pieces of federal legislation. From superannuation and workers' compensation to Medicare, tax and pensions, Australians are treated like second-class citizens purely on the basis of their s-xual orientation.

"Right now our politicians are deciding how to respond to these damning findings. This is our urgent opportunity to tell them it's time to wipe this discrimination off th e books forever by giving legal equality to same s-x couples.

"Australians want their friends, family and colleagues in same s-x relationships to have the same rights as other citizens. One piece of legislation, redefining de facto legal status, can start us firmly on the path towards greater equality.

"Sometimes change can only happen when the people lead. And we will. GetUp's poll found majority support for equal rights extends across every demographic, across every region, across every political party in the nation. Tell the politicians it's time they caught up to the people that voted them in."

-* the e is missing to avoid spam filters

NonnyO
It certainly is embarrassing. (w)

Posted by: not my president at June 23, 2007 02:28 AM

Sorry for the red glow lighting up the sky from east of you. I'm still blushing in embarrassment from watching that video.

How could so many people in this nation actually vote for that illiterate, incoherent blob who spews verbal vomit?!?

I don't get it. I will go to my grave not understanding why anyone with an IQ above a rock actually voted for that mush-mouth with no intellectual capacity (and yes, I know Dickie and Turd Blossom alternate between being his puppet masters, but still...). The only answer is rigged elections in more states than we know about.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cheney23jun23,0,863839.story

Bush claims exemption from his oversight order

WASHINGTON -- The White House said Friday that, like Vice President Dick Cheney's office, President Bush's office is exempt from a presidential order requiring government agencies that handle classified national security information to submit to oversight by an independent federal watchdog.

The executive order that Bush issued in March 2003 covers all government agencies that are part of the executive branch and, although it doesn't specifically say so, was not meant to apply to the vice president's office or the president's office, a White House spokesman said.
~~~~~
In the executive order, Bush stressed the importance of the public's right to know what its government was doing, particularly in the global campaign against terrorism. "Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their government," the executive order said.

But from the start, Bush considered his office and Cheney's exempt from the reporting requirements, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said in an interview Friday. Cheney's office filed the reports in 2001 and 2002 -- as did his predecessor, Al Gore -- but stopped in 2003.

As a result, the National Archives has been unable to review how much information the president's and vice president's offices are classifying and declassifying. And the security oversight office cannot conduct inspections of the executive offices of the president and vice president to see if they have safeguards in place to protect the classified information they handle and to properly declassify information when required.

Those two offices have access to the most highly classified information in all of government, including intelligence gathered against terrorists and unfriendly foreign countries.

Waxman and J. William Leonard, director of the archives' oversight office, have argued that the order clearly applies to all executive branch agencies, including the offices of the vice president and the president.
~~~~~
Several security experts said that they were not aware that the president had exempted his own office from the oversight requirements. But they said it fit a pattern in the administration of avoiding accountability, even on all-important matters of national security.

"If the president and the vice president don't take their own rules seriously, who else should?" said Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute at George Washington University in Washington that lobbies for open government. "If they get a blank check, it's a recipe for disaster. I can't think of a quicker way to break down the credibility of the entire security classification system."

Blanton noted that the White House has acknowledged that as many as 5 million in-house e-mails have disappeared in recent years, at a time when investigators wanted to review them for possible evidence of inappropriate leaks of classified information.

"If there are all these great safeguards in place, then where are the 5 million e-mails?" Blanton asked.

{More on link.}

http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Feducate%2Fcollege%2Fpolisci%2Farticles%2F20070603.htm

Rules 'hiding' trillions in debt
Liability $516,348 per U.S. household

The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year -- far more than the official $248 billion deficit -- when corporate-style accounting standards are used, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

The loss reflects a continued deterioration in the finances of Social Security and government retirement programs for civil servants and military personnel. The loss -- equal to $11,434 per household -- is more than Americans paid in income taxes in 2006.

"We're on an unsustainable path and doing a great disservice to future generations," says Chris Chocola, a former Republican member of Congress from Indiana and corporate chief executive who is pushing for more accurate federal accounting.

Modern accounting requires that corporations, state governments and local governments count expenses immediately when a transaction occurs, even if the payment will be made later.
The federal government does not follow the rule, so promises for Social Security and Medicare don't show up when the government reports its financial condition.

Bottom line: Taxpayers are now on the hook for a record $59.1 trillion in liabilities, a 2.3% increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,348 for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined.

Unfunded promises made for Medicare, Social Security and federal retirement programs account for 85% of taxpayer liabilities. State and local government retirement plans account for much of the rest.

This hidden debt is the amount taxpayers would have to pay immediately to cover government's financial obligations. Like a mortgage, it will cost more to repay the debt over time. Every U.S. household would have to pay about $31,000 a year to do so in 75 years.

{More on link.}

Posted by: not my president at June 23, 2007 01:55 AM

OMG. Doesn't it make you wonder how on earth - even with all the cheating - this loon became president of the US?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6232600.stm
Blair's conversion 'unresolved'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6765249.stm
The US offers Blair a rosy future

Hey - there are all kinds of ways to cheat. This one is much more original than simply hacking electronic votes. Phew, for a second there I thought she'd been sentenced to 10 lashes!

Democracy has gone to the dogs
23.6.2007. 16:23:51

An American grandmother wanted to prove her point that it is too easy for non-US citizens to cast ballots her state, so she managed to register her dog to vote.

Now she finds herself in trouble with the law.

Jane Balogh said she did it to protest a 2005 voter-registration law that she says makes it too easy for non-US citizens to vote.

She put her phone bill in Duncan's name, then used it as identification to register him as a voter.

She said she submitted ballots in the dog's name in the September and November 2006 and May 2007 elections.

She wrote "VOID" on the ballots and did not cast any actual votes.

A state election worker contacted her the second time a ballot was sent in under Duncan's name to ask about the paw print on the envelope.

"'You can't sign with a paw print,"' the election worker told Ms Balogh on November 9.

"I said, 'He can if he's a dog,"' says Ms Balogh, 66, who lives between Seattle and Tacoma in Washington state in the US.

"I wasn't trying to do anything fraudulent.

“I was trying to prove that our system is flawed.

So I got myself in trouble," Ms Balogh says.

Prosecutors have offered the grandmother and Army veteran a deal: plead guilty to a misdemeanour charge of making a false statement to a public official and they will not file a felony charge of providing false information on a voter-registration application.
Ms Balogh says she does not plan to contest the charge because "I know I'm guilty".

Prosecutors said they would recommend she be sentenced to 10 hours of community service, pay a $US250 ($A296) fine and promise not to commit any other crimes for a year.

Acting Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg said his office "can't simply look the other way.

They say you should let sleeping dogs lie, but you can't let voting dogs vote."

SOURCE: AP

http://www.theworldnews.com.au/region.php?id=137906®ion=4

Oh, the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block.
I'd ask him what the matter was
But I know that he don't talk.
And the ladies treat me kindly
And furnish me with tape,
But deep inside my heart
I know I can't escape.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Well, Shakespeare, he's in the alley
With his pointed shoes and his bells,
Speaking to some French girl,
Who says she knows me well.
And I would send a message
To find out if she's talked,
But the post office has been stolen
And the mailbox is locked.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Mona tried to tell me
To stay away from the train line.
She said that all the railroad men
Just drink up your blood like wine.
An' I said, "Oh, I didn't know that,
But then again, there's only one I've met
An' he just smoked my eyelids
An' punched my cigarette."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Grandpa died last week
And now he's buried in the rocks,
But everybody still talks about
How badly they were shocked.
But me, I expected it to happen,
I knew he'd lost control
When he built a fire on Main Street
And shot it full of holes.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the senator came down here
Showing ev'ryone his gun,
Handing out free tickets
To the wedding of his son.
An' me, I nearly got busted
An' wouldn't it be my luck
To get caught without a ticket
And be discovered beneath a truck.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the preacher looked so baffled
When I asked him why he dressed
With twenty pounds of headlines
Stapled to his chest.
But he cursed me when I proved it to him,
Then I whispered, "Not even you can hide.
You see, you're just like me,
I hope you're satisfied."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the rainman gave me two cures,
Then he said, "Jump right in."
The one was Texas medicine,
The other was just railroad gin.
An' like a fool I mixed them
An' it strangled up my mind,
An' now people just get uglier
An' I have no sense of time.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

When Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon,
Where I can watch her waltz for free
'Neath her Panamanian moon.
An' I say, "Aw come on now,
You must know about my debutante."
An' she says, "Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want."
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

Now the bricks lay on Grand Street
Where the neon madmen climb.
They all fall there so perfectly,
It all seems so well timed.
An' here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

** new thread **