A Few in Florida Finally Get a Clue About Bad Electronic Voting Machines Leading to Rigged Elections

About (bleeping) time, although Sancho has been outspoken for some time, amazing considering the sparcity of intelligence in Jeb Bush's Florida. From the Houston Chronicle by the AP:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida's attorney general said Wednesday his office has issued investigative subpoenas to the three companies certified to sell voting machines in Florida as he reviews a dispute between the firms and Leon County's elections supervisor.

Diebold Inc., Election Systems & Software Inc., and Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. have refused to sell equipment to let disabled voters cast ballots without help in Leon County. Elections supervisor Ion Sancho has been outspoken about his concern that the devices can be easily manipulated to change race outcomes.

The companies' refusal has left Leon County, which is the home of the state Capitol, in violation of the federal Help America Vote Act.

"It is critical for our democratic process to work efficiently and effectively, but of most importance, fairly," Attorney General Charlie Crist said. "These subpoenas are to ensure that the rights of our voters with disabilities as well as all Florida voters are secured."

Congrats to Sibel Edmonds

This courageous little translator/whistleblower receives an award - as well as all the shit flying through the fan - for her efforts.

Three cheers for Sibel!

As the Ted Turner World Turns

He bashes the media, Bush... and frankly, I don't have too many arguments with what he rants about. Let's face it: CNN was a much better news organization under Ted than it is today, by far.

From the article:

"We can't afford the war in Iraq," Turner said. "This is a big waste of time.

"I wish we would say, 'We won and we are going home.' We shouldn't be there. Bombing isn't a way of changing people's minds. You do that with education."

Bush lacks a true understanding of the world, Turner said.

"We had a president of the United States who had been out of the country but once before he was elected," he said.

Ron Paul on Afghanistan, Iraq and Christianity

Ron Paul, an M.D. who is probably one of the more interesting (and usually sane) Republican members of the Texas pol system, writes this at Lew Rockwell.

Former FISA Lawyer Says Bush is Subject to Laws

Story here.

Interesting: Conservative TX GOPer Questions Faulty, Perhaps Fraudulent Electronic Voting Results

From BradBlog, something we should be watching before we get MORE highly irregular election results:

As The BRAD BLOG reported last week, a Conservative Republican former Texas Supreme Court Justice had been considering an Election Contest after electronic voting machine problems and inexplicable tallies plagued the first-in-the-nation March 7th primary in the Lone Star State.

Steve Smith -- who ran for election to the state Supreme Court, Place 2, in the Republican primary against an opponent backed by both Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry and the Bush family -- will be filing an official Election Contest this afternoon in Travis County District Court, The BRAD BLOG has learned.Since our previous report, the Smith for Supreme Court campaign has been examining election tallies around the state and report that they continue to find anomolies in virtually every county they look into.

"The more research we do, the more irregularities we find," campaign manager David Rogers told The BRAD BLOG this morning.The problems are being found on machines made by both Hart InterCivic and Election Systems and Software, Inc. (ES&S) -- the two major Electronic Voting Machine vendors supplying the state of Texas.

Rogers says the campaign plans to file the Contest before 5pm (CT) today. The Contest (to be posted in full here when available) will outline some of the many problems they have found so far including counties "where there were more votes than voters."

Jill Carroll Released

The news that Jill Carroll had been released got me to jump for joy in my kitchen before 8 this morning, something that has never, ever happened.

Carroll was a class act, too. She was quick to say she was not mistreated, making it clear as she has always wanted to present the situation of real Iraqis. I doubt many of us could have been so balanced were we to lose more than two months of our freedom.

While far too many have lost their lives, the peace group's freed men and Jill Carroll show that some of these captors aren't just there to destroy. However, Iraqis and Muslims themselves are frequently the greatest targets of violence, while whites from the West are often considered at least pawns to bargain for. Carroll's Muslim translator, for example, was killed when she was taken.

Remember, too, that we have troops and contractors that have disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. But far too many Iraqis have met this fate. And for this, I do not blame Saddam who has been a non-issue since March 2003. I blame the Bushies and those disastrous contract companies we sent in there.

Must Read: The 10 Commandments of Reporting Religion

Buzzflash points us to Petty Larseny where these commandments are posted in all their sad glory!

I particularly like #8:

Thou shalt not steal the boundaries between faith and reason.

Noni Scalia's Obscene Gesture?

I'm clueless on this, but John at AmericaBlog is insisting that Supreme Court nutcase Noni Scalia release the photo he ordered hidden to prove the Opus Dei wannabe did not make an obscene gesture.

Well, considering Scalia's entire career on the Supreme Court has been obscene....

This link has more.

Ah, Another Righteous Rightie Shows an Interesting Way to Demonstrate Personal Responsibility

With - like any good Bushie - a lie and an evasion which has been the whole Bushdom approach to the war on Iraq.

From Ed&Pub:

How far will critics of media coverage of the Iraq war go to prove reporters are wrongly focusing on the negative?One answer came this week, in a shocking if amusing episode featuring one Howard Kaloogian, a leading Republican running for the seat in Congress recently vacated by indicted Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham.

Kaloogian posted on the official Web site for his campaign a picture taken in “downtown Baghdad,” he said, during his visit to the city, which supposedly indicated that the media was wrong about the level of violence there. “We took this photo of downtown Baghdad while we were in Iraq,” he wrote. “Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it - in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism."

But the blogosphere quickly smelled a rat. The photo featured people who didn’t seem dressed quite right for Iraq, and signs and billboards that looked off, too. In the now-familiar pattern, the ace detective work leaped from obscure blogs to the well-known (Talking Points Memo, Eschaton, Attytood, more), and back again, as eagle-eyed experts proposed alternative locales, with Turkey a likely suspect.In less than a day, it was over. “Jem6X” at the popular DailyKos blog confirmed the street scene was in Bakirkoy, a suburb of Istanbul, not Baghdad.

Tipped off by someone who recognized the actual intersection in Turkey, Jem went through online photo galleries and in a matter of minutes today found a snap taken by a “Faruk” that lined up with the “Baghdad” photo in numerous conclusive ways. Game, set, and match to the blogosphere.Later Wednesday,

Kaloogian admitted the photo was from Turkey but denied he had anything personally to do with posting it on his site. He replaced that Turkey photo with a photo of what he said was Baghdad--taken from a distant hill.

If it walks like a rat, and smells like a rat, and acts like a rat... it's a Bush Bogus Republican!

More Americans Call Themselves Dems

I, for the record, do not call myself Republican or Democrat. I do, however, call myself other names upon occasion (cough).

From Ed&Pub:

NEW YORK In a (perhaps) historic shift, more Americans now consider themselves Democrats than Republicans, the Gallup organization revealed today.

Republicans had gained the upper hand in recent years, but 33% of Americans, in the latest Gallup poll, now call themselves Democrats, with those favoring the GOP one point behind. But Gallup says this widens a bit more "once the leanings of Independents are taken into account." Independents now make up 34% of the population.

When asked if they lean in a certain direction, their answers pushed the Democrat numbers to 49% with Republicans at 42%. One year ago, the parties were dead even at 46% each.

This shift indicates, Gallup says, why its polls show Democrats leading in this year's congressional races.

Considering the weak-kneed, tremorous Dems, it's hard to imagine why - except for the disaster which is Bush and right-wing righties - people would be more likely to call themselves Dems. Dems need to demand better representation - they really, truly do!

Is Jack Abramoff Flat Broke Busted?

That's what I just read at Crooks and Liars.

The man who bankrolled "democracy" and found that just about every Republican politician not only has a price, but is more than happy to prostitute themselves, says he is completely devoid of funds.

So I guess we will pay his attorney's fees now? Isn't that rich?

An Early Fitzmas?

I second this from the Curmudgeonly Crab:

ae of Arse Poetica posts some hopefully hopeful news about possible indictments of two administration officials. Yay!

Oh, ae, I'm hoping against hope, too, and crossing my fingers, saying incantations, lighting candles, not stepping on cracks, avoiding ladders, black cats and broken mirrors. Right now, I'm closing my eyes and saying my favorite prayer: "Please, please, please. Please, oh please."**W

hile it may apppear to be begging, this is a really good prayer and can be said by believers, agnostics and atheists. Try it, in addition to everything else you're doing to fight the madness. It can't hurt, right?

Two-Thirds of Americans Very Worried About Health Care

While the Republicans keep telling us any attempt to have universal health care can't be done here, this is what a Gallup poll tells us:

Two-thirds of Americans say they personally worry "a great deal" about the availability and affordability of healthcare, according to the latest Gallup Poll, making that issue the most worrisome among a dozen measured. It is also the top-ranking issue for Democrats, independents, and Republicans.

And About the War on Christianity

The previous post referenced more nonsense from Tom DeLay and others today about "a definite major war on Christianity."

Yeah, right, sure.

This is always like having someone keep bitch slapping you and then, when you tell them to stop, that person declares you're warring against him.

I'm a Christian, and I'm certainly not waging war on myself. But I don't consider men like DeLay and Jerry Falwell and James Dobson and Pat Robertson, people who live lives totally bankrupt of morality and responsibility and "brotherly love", Christians in any sense of the word.

These men are specifically subverting Christianity along with politics. We are at war with their attempts to turn our country into a theocracy ruled by them, which is hardly a war against Christianity. It's a war against unintelligent pond scum.

The Criminal, Hot Tub Tom DeLay, Takes More Potshots at Judges

He's one to talk:

Republican Rep. Tom DeLay said Tuesday that former and current Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg "don't get it" when they complain about conservative criticism of judges.

"All wisdom doesn't reside in ... people in black robes," DeLay said.

In recent weeks, O'Connor has said the criticism has threatened judicial independence to deal with difficult issues such as gay marriage. Ginsburg said in a speech that a Web threat against her and O'Connor was apparently prompted by Republican proposals in Congress that tell judges to stop relying on foreign laws or court decisions.

...Earlier, the former House majority leader told activists he agreed with their premise that there is a "war on Christianity.

"Our faith has always been in direct conflict with the values of the world," DeLay said. "We are, after all, a society that provides abortion on demand, has killed millions of innocent children, degrades the institution of marriage, and all but treats Christianity like some second-rate superstition."

DeLay was forced to abandon his job as majority leader while facing indictment on charges that he improperly funneled corporate donations to Republican candidates for the House and amid questions about his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Revisionist History: Casper Weinberger

Listening the last two days to all the grand tales about former Reaganite Casper Weinberger, who died early yesterday, I've noticed how much revisionist history is at work here.

This is a man who was intimately tied to the whole Iran-Contra debacle, which was another stealing of the presidency (Reagan's deals behind the scenes to get the Iranian hostages released ONLY right after he won the election), and Weinberger SHOULD have been tried, convicted, and done prison time. So should Ollie North and Reagan himself.

Now, however, mush mouths like Pat Buchanan and Chris Matthews herald Weinberger as "a class act", a great man, a fine public servant, et al. It's nauseating.

But all of this seems to pale in comparison to the acts of treason and the crimes being committed - even bragged about - by the Bushies.

Abramoff: 6 Years for Fraud in Casino Boat Case

This, however, is not the big Washington case.

April 8th Decision Day for Leading Dems in Vermont Re: Bush Impeachment

Here:

Leading Democrats in Vermont plan to decide in April whether to urge state lawmakers to petition for President Bush's impeachment using a little-known provision in the rules of the U.S. House.

Democratic committees in at least half of the state's 14 counties have passed resolutions calling for impeachment, citing a rule in "Jefferson's Manual," a book of parliamentary guidelines written by Thomas Jefferson that supplements U.S. House rules.

The anti-Bush movement is "genuinely bubbling up from the grass roots," said Jon Copans, the state party's executive director.

The state Democratic committee is scheduled to decide the issue in a special meeting April 8.

The resolutions accuse the Bush administration of lying about the case for war in Iraq and illegally engaging in electronic surveillance of Americans.

Bush Back to Blaming Saddam

At what point does Bush stop blaming Saddam for things, considering the man has been in jail for 2 1/2 years and out of power for more than three?

Yet today, the president comes out and blames Saddam for the violence in Iraq when Hussein is barely an historical footnote today.

No question Saddam was a bad guy. Unfortunately, for a long time, he was a bad guy the Bushies supported which helped him stay in office. Cheney's companies, for example, sold him some of the lovely stuff he used to exterminate his own people as well as the Kurds.

But for Bush to cry Saddam's blame now is lame. Lame. Really, really lame. It just shows how desperate the Bushies are to lay responsibility at anyone and everyone's feet but their own.

The Great Andy Card Replacement

Right - changing the White House chief of staff from one old Bushie to another will make a big deal change in an administration that is blind and deaf to the rest of the country.

As Judd at Think Progress notes:

6.592 trillion: Federal debt on June 26, 2003, the day Josh Bolten became director of the Office of Management and Budget.

$8.364 trillion: Federal debt today.

In the Bush administration, this is grounds for a promotion.

Bolten was Bush's budget man before this, and has been with the Bushies since the start. He's another dismal choice in a sea of horrible choices.

Violence in Tal Afar

From Think Progress:

Tal Afar, an Iraqi town singled out last week by President Bush as a success story for American and Iraqi forces, “was last night the scene of a suicide bombing that killed at least 40 people and wounded 20 others.”

In an “apparent effort to mend his relationship with the press,” President Bush has been “holding informal off-the-record sessions with major news organizations over the last several days.” Knight-Ridder’s Ron Hutcheson said they were “likely part of the outreach aimed at improving support for the Iraq War.”

$28 Billion: Possible revenue oil companies stand to gain over the next five years under an obscure provision in last year’s giant energy bill that allows companies to avoid paying royalties on oil and gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico. “The provision received almost no Congressional debate, in part because Congress was lazy and in part because the provision was misleadingly advertised as cost-free.”

There were some 86 people killed just on Sunday. And those are just the ones we heard about. Jeebus.

Vermont Petition to Impeach the President

Forwarded by the excellent Morgan Brown of Norsehorse's Turf is an online petition that requests the Vermont legislature to begin impeachment proceedings against you-know-who.

I'm sure it's just coincidence, but military helicopter traffic here seems waaaaayyyy up, like the Bushies decided to take the freepers' advice to meet Vermont's free speech with black helicopters. Heh.

G'night John Boy, Mary Ellen, Elizabeth, Jason....

And all the other Waltons out at sea.

And MissM! Sorry I missed you today; I was working on Japanese PDFs (what fun- NOT!).

More Confirmation Bush Was Going to War No Matter What

Read it and weep, in the Times:

LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

"Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning," David Manning, Mr. Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote in the memo that summarized the discussion between Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and six of their top aides.

"The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March," Mr. Manning wrote, paraphrasing the president. "This was when the bombing would begin."

Tom DeLay Aide Pockets a Third of Money Collected by DeLay's Family-Based Non-Profit

Wonder how much of that money kicked back to dear ol' Hot Tub Tom DeLay, eh?

top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group's accounting records.

DeLay's former chief of staff, Edwin A. Buckham, who helped create the group while still in DeLay's employ, and his wife, Wendy, were the principal beneficiaries of the group's $3.02 million in revenue, collecting payments totaling $1,022,729 during a five-year period ending in 2001, public and private records show.

The group's revenue was drawn mostly from clients of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to its records. From an FBI subpoena for the records, it can be inferred that the bureau is exploring whether there were links between the payments and favorable legislative treatment of Abramoff's clients by DeLay's office.

In recent months, Abramoff pleaded guilty to charges of tax fraud and conspiracy to defraud clients and bribe a public official; DeLay (R-Tex.) stepped down from his post as House majority leader; and Buckham folded his lobbying firm, the Alexander Strategy Group.

In the late 1990s, when DeLay's influence was growing, the lawmaker depicted the USFN in a promotional letter as a nationwide, grass-roots organization. In fact, it had a tiny staff that barely registered an impact on Capitol Hill. The group appears to have served mostly as a vehicle for funneling corporate funds to DeLay's advisers and financing ads that attacked Democrats.

Miracle Mouse Testes

One wonders what the extreme right wingnuts will find to protest as being against God that scientists feel they have found that mice testes behave very much like human stem cells. But, trust me, they'll find something.

Bush, Bumbling All Over the Map, See?

From the Boston Herald (heh):

President Bush was feeling chatty this week, rolling from Cleveland to Washington to Wheeling, W.Va., to riff about the elusive and bloody quest for Iraqi democracy.

But the three-day, three-city tour doesn’t mean Bush has flip-flopped on his policy of talking a lot while saying little.

For armchair Bush observers, these sessions provide a fascinating glimpse into the folksy, shoot-from-the-lip communication style brandished by the man who brought us such legendary sound bites as “bring ’em on” and “dead or alive.”

Bush explained that in addition to commander in chief, he’s also the “educator in chief.” Today’s lesson: his God-given ability to spin rambling monologues around the semiautomatic repetition of familiar words, phrases and anecdotes. Victory will be ours as long as we don’t “lose our nerve,” he said four more times Tuesday (saving the sister sound bite “shake our will” for Wednesday).

One of the president’s favorite education tools is to tack the word “see” to the front or back of any statement to sound like he’s conveying key information. (On Wednesday: “An interesting debate in the world is whether or not freedom is universal, see . . .” Then, two seconds later, “See, I believe freedom is universal.”)

Yes, I see. Unfortunately, every time Bush instructs me to “see,” he reminds me of those Mugsy-type gangsters on Bugs Bunny. (“You dirty terrorists. You’ll never shake our will, see.”)

There is much the president wants us to understand. He deployed the word 26 times Wednesday, including this elegant three-fer: “You got to understand that I fully understand there is deep concern among the American people about whether or not we can win. And I can understand why people are concerned.”

Unfortunately, he doesn’t understand some of us aren’t impressed each time he repeats, “I understand people’s lives are being lost.”

See?

Congratulations to the Half Million Who Marched This Weekend Against Foolish New Anti-Immigrant Laws

Yes, we need to do something, I suppose, about the rising tide of people who just dash over the border. But the answer is not to criminalize anyone who tries to help the poor and desperate who make it to the U.S. The Native American side of me would like to remind everyone, including my Plymouth Rock-landed side, that we are ALL immigrants.

I applaud each and every person who marched this weekend to protest these fool new measures.

Now the Far Right Calls Pop Culture Terrorism

Granted, I too find Paris Hilton and Tom Cruise pretty damned frightening, but this is ridiculous.

Our Condolences to Senator Byrd and His Family

His wife has died after a long illness.

Noni Scalia, an Embarrassment to the Supreme Court and the US

Newsweek asks the question, "Should Scalia recuse himself from the Gitmo case?"

More importantly, I think Scalia should get his ass off the bench. This man is an enemy to democracy, to the judicial process, to our Constitution, and civil liberties, to name just a few.

But read this with regard to the Gitmo issue:

The Supreme Court this week will hear arguments in a big case: whether to allow the Bush administration to try Guantánamo detainees in special military tribunals with limited rights for the accused. But Justice Antonin Scalia has already spoken his mind about some of the issues in the matter. During an unpublicized March 8 talk at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland, Scalia dismissed the idea that the detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution or international conventions, adding he was "astounded" at the "hypocritical" reaction in Europe to Gitmo. "War is war, and it has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to give them a jury trial in your civil courts," he says on a tape of the talk reviewed by NEWSWEEK. "Give me a break." Challenged by one audience member about whether the Gitmo detainees don't have protections under the Geneva or human-rights conventions, Scalia shot back: "If he was captured by my army on a battlefield, that is where he belongs. I had a son on that battlefield and they were shooting at my son and I'm not about to give this man who was captured in a war a full jury trial. I mean it's crazy." Scalia was apparently referring to his son Matthew, who served with the U.S. Army in Iraq. Scalia did say, though, that he was concerned "there may be no end to this war."...

"This is clearly grounds for recusal," said Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights, a human-rights group that has filed a brief in behalf of the Gitmo detainees. "I can't recall an instance where I've heard a judge speak so openly about a case that's in front of him—without hearing the arguments."

From the Front Line to the Unemployment Line

Soldiers return from war to find their military skills won't land them jobs.

Thankfully, Mr. Bush isn't sending the twins to war but they can't seem to find work anyway. Been out of school three years and all they do is party hearty.

Personal Bankruptcies WAY Up

Even with the disastrous changes to the bankruptcy law, filings under George Bush's economy soar by 30% of what were record filings before the law changed.

FEMA Very Good in Bailouts to Affluent; They Just Happen to Miss the Poor

Gee.... apparently FEMA is much better at making sure the rich get checks to cover their expenses than they are at helping the poor emergency stricken. Affluent Floridians, for example, do very well with FEMA.

Delta Force Leader: President Bush Ignited World War III

This guy isn't exactly a fluffy little dove either:

founding member of the elite counter-terrorist unit, Delta Force, suggested that President Bush's invasion of Iraq may have started World War III, according to the Los Angeles Daily News, RAW STORY has learned. The article, acquired by RAW STORY Friday night, is expected in Sunday editions of the paper.

Retired Command Sergeant Major Eric Haney's book "Inside Delta Force" became the basis for the CBS drama "The Unit," where he now assumes technical adviser and executive producer duties.

Excerpts from the forthcoming article written by David Kronke:

Q: What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?
A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.

We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.

Why is The FBI Doing This?

It would seem they have more than enough on their plate without going after critics.

Posted at SpeakSpeak:

The job of the FBI is to enforce laws, not to investigate critics.

For example, if the president of Common Cause attends a meeting of the League of Women Voters and criticizes the Patriot Act, that shouldn’t be investigated by the FBI:

On March 14, [Common Cause President Chellie] Pingree participated on a panel on open government sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Counties, Michigan that received news coverage in the local newspaper on March 17.

A week after the panel, an FBI agent contacted the local League president, Susan Gilbert, to raise questions about Pingree’s published remarks at the panel. In her brief comments addressing the law, Pingree raised some privacy and secrecy concerns about the USA PATRIOT Act, and praised Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) for their leadership on Freedom of Information issue.

According to Gilbert, FBI agent Al Dibrito said that Pingree’s comments on the USA PATRIOT Act were “way off base,” and that the League should have invited someone from the federal government to be on the panel and to respond. DiBrito then told Gilbert that she would be contacted by someone from the assistant U.S. attorney’s office in Grand Rapids to give her the real story on the Patriot Act.
…”Citizens can be intimidated when an FBI agent calls and questions their activities,” said Pingree.

The FBI is so powerful that Congress has continued the PATRIOT Act which lets FBI agents violate our civil liberties.

A meeting of citizens on the PATRIOT Act doesn’t need to include an apologist for this awful law; the FBI has enough power on its own to get its message to Congress.

Nor is it the proper role of the FBI to tell the League of Women Voters whom they should invite to speak at a meeting.

A Bellwether for the Power of a President and the Rights We Claim to Hold Dear Indeed

Important article in The Times:

TAKE a good look at the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui, an admitted member of Al Qaeda who may soon be sentenced to death, after pleading guilty to conspiracy in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. It may be the last time a suspected terrorist will enjoy the full panoply of rights — a jury of civilians, an independent judge, the guarantee of an open trial — accorded to criminal defendants in the United States.

What are the implications of an unending war with no geographical boundaries?
Instead, the government plans to try accused terrorists before special tribunals in which the judge is appointed by the Pentagon, the jurors are military officers and certain canonical rights in our civil system — like the right to be present at all sessions of the trial — are absent. The future of the tribunals will be up to the Supreme Court, which will rule on their legality in Salim Hamdan v. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, which is to be argued on Tuesday.

Salim Hamdan, born in Yemen, was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 and has confessed to working as a driver for Osama bin Laden. Like Mr. Moussaoui, Mr. Hamdan was charged with conspiring with Al Qaeda to commit acts of terrorism. The critical distinction, though, is that Mr. Hamdan was charged as a war criminal, meaning he was designated for prosecution before a military tribunal rather than in a federal court. His lawyers, led by Neal K. Katyal, a professor at Georgetown University, have sued to block the tribunal; hence Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

There is much more at stake here than the fate of one detainee. Mr. Hamdan's case will test a broader strategic shift in the American approach to fighting terrorism. By treating terrorism as an act of war rather than a crime, the Bush administration is hoping to end an embarrassing string of botched criminal terrorism prosecutions, including those of Mr. Moussaoui — where the judge recently rebuked a government prosecutor for improperly coaching witnesses — and Sami al-Arian, who is accused of being an Islamic Jihad activist and who was acquitted of various charges by a Florida jury several months ago

Why have we lowered the standard of proof? Is this really what we want?

Mr Bush: Where is the Good News? 18 More Iraqis Dead, 30 Found Beheaded

Mr. Bush tells us that there are plenty of nice things happening in Iraq. But it's awfully hard to understand then this kind of information in context:

At least 18 Iraqis have died in clashes between US troops and militants loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr at a Baghdad mosque, Iraqi sources report.

The US military said it was investigating the reports, which came from Iraqi police, medical sources and Mr Sadr's aides.

A militant spokesman said those killed were worshipping at the time.

Iraqi security forces earlier found 30 bodies - all of them beheaded - near the town of Baquba.

The Gruesome Reality of Civilian Deaths in Operation Swarmer

Terrible, terrible stuff, as reported in Common Dreams:

...when the [Bushies] launched Operation Swarmer, the Pentagon barred even imbedded reporters. The American public was told that Operation Swarmer was a successful example of US and Iraqi forces working together to wipe out insurgents, but they saw nothing of the effects of the assault on the ground.

But while the public is fed rosy propaganda, the reality is far more gruesome. Take, for example, the operation in Isshaqi, a small village near Samarra. At 1:30am on Tuesday, March 21, the American troops, accompanied by helicopters , raided the modest rural home of a primary school teacher, Faiz Mratt. According to his neighbor Mohammad Al-Majma, the 27-year-old school teacher, his wife, their three children, his sister, her three children, his father and a woman who was visiting them were all arrested, tied, and beaten, and then the American troops opened fire on the family. “After they executed them, the troops put explosives in the house and blew it up,” said Mohammad, crying. “They killed even the farm animals”

Faiz’s surviving sister was devastated. “They killed my mother, Torkiya Majid, who was 90 years old,” she cried. “They killed Faiz’s three children: Hawra, 4, Aysha 2, and Hussam, who was only 4 months old. They killed my sister Faiza, who was also a schoolteacher, and her children Osama 6, and Asmaa, 5.”

Aziz Khalil, 30, and his fiancée Nidhal Mohammad, 23, who were to be married on Thursday, were also killed. All told, the operation to kill “insurgents” left six children and four women dead.

No Child Left Educated

And this, from The Times:

SACRAMENTO — Thousands of schools across the nation are responding to the reading and math testing requirements laid out in No Child Left Behind, President Bush's signature education law, by reducing class time spent on other subjects and, for some low-proficiency students, eliminating it.

Schools from Vermont to California are increasing — in some cases tripling — the class time that low-proficiency students spend on reading and math, mainly because the federal law, signed in 2002, requires annual exams only in those subjects and punishes schools that fall short of rising benchmarks.

The changes appear to principally affect schools and students who test below grade level.

The intense focus on the two basic skills is a sea change in American instructional practice, with many schools that once offered rich curriculums now systematically trimming courses like social studies, science and art. A nationwide survey by a nonpartisan group that is to be made public on March 28 indicates that the practice, known as narrowing the curriculum, has become standard procedure in many communities.

Curiouser and Curiouser: How the Wiretaps Turn

From US News and World Report:

A federal judge in Oregon has refused to hand over for safekeeping to the FBI a classified document that may show that the NSA conducted warrantless electronic surveillance on an Ashland, Ore., charity that the government alleges had ties to Osama bin Laden. U.S. District Judge Garr King sided with charity attorney Steven Goldberg, who argued that the FBI is a defendant in the case and therefore not a neutral party that can be entrusted with the document. The judge instead has temporarily placed the document with federal prosecutors in Seattle until he can make a decision as to how the material should be handled.

Thomas Nelson, who also represents the charity, al-Haramain Islamic Foundation Inc., gave the document to the judge in February as part of a lawsuit he has filed against the Bush administration alleging that the NSA conducted illegal eavesdropping on conversations between charity codirector Suliman al-Buthe and his American attorneys, Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor. The intelligence was later used to target the charity, Nelson's complaint alleges.

According to the Washington Post and other sources, Treasury Department officials—who were investigating the foundation for terrorist ties—inadvertently gave a copy of the classified document, marked "top secret" and dated May 24, 2004, to an al-Haramain attorney, as part of a routine disclosure of documents the government was citing to designate the charity as a terrorist organization. In May 2004, the attorney gave the document to Belew and Ghafoor, who also represented the charity. Belew in turn gave a copy of the document to a Post reporter. In November 2004, FBI agents took the document back from Belew and the Post reporter saying it contained highly sensitive national security information, according to the Post.

And Still Bush-Cheney Lie: More Iraqis Dying from Militia Violence Than Insurgency

From Reuters:

The U.S. ambassador urged Iraq's divided leaders to rein in militias on Saturday as political blocs failed again to break a deadlock on forming a unity government that they hope can avert civil war.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who is pressing hard for a government more than three months after elections, issued a tough warning about the militias, many of which have ties to powerful Shi'ite leaders and are entrenched in Iraqi security forces and police.

"More Iraqis are dying from the militia violence than from the terrorists," he told reporters during a visit to a Baghdad youth center newly renovated with U.S. funds.

The I Word Gains Momentum (Not to Be Confused with Joe-Mentum, TYVM)

As Christian posts in comments, Brattleboro has joined the number of Vermont communities who have voted to start impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

Also, Constant (from Constant's Pations) points out that cities elsewhere are joining in, some perhaps even in Texas.

What can I say? It couldn't happen to a nastier president.

WaPo's Darling Conservative Plagiarist Blogger Strikes Back

My, he's repentant. He deserves to have that Ann Coulter ad on the same page with his drivel:

In his first public comments since resigning earlier today as a blogger for washingtonpost.com, Ben Domenech says his editors there were “fools” for not expecting an onslaught of attacks from the left.“While I appreciated the opportunity to go and join the Washington Post,” Domenech said, “if they didn’t expect the leftists were going to come after me with their sharpened knives, then they were fools.”

Domenech has been under a steady stream of criticism since washingtonpost.com launched the new blog, “Red America,” on Tuesday.

Domenech, an editor at Regnery Publishing (a sister company to HUMAN EVENTS), was accused of plagiarism by several left-wing blogs.Although Domenech says there is an explanation for nearly all the examples cited by the left-wing bloggers, he felt he was left no choice by washingtonpost.com but to resign.“I felt like if I didn’t resign, they would have pushed me out—if not today, then Monday,” he said.

Jim Brady, executive editor of washingtonpost.com, wrote a note on “Red America” this afternoon explaining Domenech’s resignation.

Poor baby. Like a good little right wingnut hatchet man, it's always someone else's fault.

Dick Cheney Bangs!

Posted by Dedalus at Blah3:

Dick Cheney took some time out from shooting people in the face in order to set the record straight on what a wonderful job he and Bush are doing in Iraq. Obviously, only certain people are to be allowed to have the keys to the country--all others are second class:

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday rejected charges by Democrats that the Bush administration was mishandling Iraq and said: "If they are competent to fight this war, then I ought to be singing on American Idol."

Dick is evidently uninformed about the quality of some of the contestants on that show. Why, I think it's time Dick do a little duet with William Hung:

Talk to me And I’ll tell you my game
We blow shit up in America’s name
We lit the fuse and Iraq’s ticking away
Like a bomb
Yeah, Baby
And we bang! We bang! Oh baby
We’ll invade, invade
I go crazy
'Cause I say we’re leaders
but it’s really just greed
I’m the biggest psycho in history
We bang! we bang!

Foxes Guarding the Hen House: Chinese to Look at Our Cargo Shipments

From Orwell's Grave (good reading):

Is there something someone is not telling us about the Bush administration?

How can an administration that wears the American flag on its sleeve figuratively and on its lapel permanently be the same administration that hires a Middle East country that supported the Taliban and has had ties to Osama bin Laden to administer America's ports?

It's the same American government, the same flag-waving, uber patriotic White House that now proposes, through a no-bid contract, to hire a Hong Kong company, based in Communist China, to direct the use of nuclear inspection equipment for cargo coming to the United States through the Bahamas.

Is there some odd tear in the time-space continuum that I haven't heard about?

How is it that this administration, that has spoken uncountable words about how it is indispensable when it comes to protecting Americans, can so faciley, on two separate occasions, hire foreign corporations to "protect" America, corporations that might reasonably be perceived by many thinking Americans reasonable as somewhat suspect?

Bush Requests and House of Reprehensibles Gives Funding for Initial Phase of Permanent US Bases in Iraq

Stinky, stinky, from the Los Angeles Times:

Even as military planners look to withdraw significant numbers of American troops from Iraq in the coming year, the Bush administration continues to request hundreds of millions of dollars for large bases there, raising concerns over whether they are intended as permanent sites for U.S. forces.

Questions on Capitol Hill about the future of the bases have been prompted by the new emergency spending bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives last week with $67.6 billion in funding for the war effort, including the base money.

Although the House approved the measure, lawmakers are demanding that the Pentagon explain its plans for the bases, and they unanimously passed a provision blocking the use of funds for base agreements with the Iraqi government.

"It's the kind of thing that incites terrorism," Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said of long-term or permanent U.S. bases in countries such as Iraq. Paul, a critic of the war, is co-sponsoring a bipartisan bill that would make it official policy not to maintain such bases in Iraq. He noted that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden cited U.S. military bases in Saudi Arabia as grounds for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The debate in Congress comes as concerns grow over how long the U.S. intends to keep forces in Iraq, a worry amplified when President Bush earlier this week said that a complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq would not occur during his term.Long-term U.S. bases in Iraq would also be problematic in the Middle East, where they could lend credence to charges that the U.S. motive for the invasion was to seize land and oil. And they could also feed debate about the appropriate U.S. relationship with Iraq after Baghdad's new government fully assumes control.

Corporations Who Cry Poor and Hurt the Even Poorer People

From David Sirota:

Attached is a piece published in today's Philadelphia Daily News about how wealthy corporations that dishonestly plead poverty are leaving towns and workers for dead throughout the American heartland...

East Helena's plant was once a lead smelter, owned by Asarco.In 1999, the company was bought by Grupo Mexico. That international conglomerate is headed by Larrea Mota-Velasco, listed as a billionaire by Forbes magazine's "The World's Richest People" in 2001.

Within two years of the takeover, Grupo Mexico shut the smelter down, costing East Helena more than 200 jobs.If the story ended there, it would be just another tale about the brutal consequences of globalization on blue-collar America. But what happened after is what should instill fear in millions of workers, urban or rural, blue or white collar.

In 2003, the company hiked health-care premiums for retirees. Executives claimed the company was under financial duress and that it thus "reserves the right to amend or terminate the plans at any time for any reason... even after you retire."

Retirees were forced to accept the increases while a lawsuit dragged into 2004. That was the same year Asarco's corporate parent reported more than a quarter-billion in profits in the fourth quarter alone - yet the company refused to back down.

Last year and this year, it has been more of the same. The company began delaying disability checks to retirees, property tax payments to the budget-strapped East Helena schools and cleanup operations at the smelter.

Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, the company pressed a three-year wage freeze and reductions in pension and medical benefits for its workers in Arizona. These moves came as Grupo Mexico reported profits of more than $1 billion in 2005."

The community worked really hard to understand and deal with the layoffs," said Bob Pyfer, 56, who grew up in East Helena. "But when you hear about those profits and the company's treatment of its retirees, it just makes you angry."Pyfer's grandfather came to East Helena from Slovenia in the 1920s for a job at the smelter, where he worked for 40 years. Pyfer grew up working summers at the smelter, too. Now a lawyer, he sees a disturbing trend that goes way beyond one hamlet."

These workers, like others all over, gave their lives to their company and they incurred serious health risks along the way," he said. "That means, at the very least, these companies shouldn't be able to use bankruptcy or reorganization to get out of what it owes to their workers." Being allowed to do that, he said, is "a serious concern whether you live in East Helena or not."

These reverse Robin Hood tactics are everywhere. At both Delphi and United Airlines, executives have used bankruptcy to enact massive cuts in wages and pensions - while cementing millions of dollars worth of new bonuses for themselves.Similarly, GM and Ford are demanding wage and benefit cuts. But, as BusinessWeek reported in June 2005, "both GM and Ford still pay a dividend, GM CEO G. Richard Wagoner Jr. got a $2.5 million bonus for 2004 on top of his $2.2 million in salary" and "both companies have huge cash hoards - $20 billion at GM and $23 billion at Ford."

True, these companies have problems. But they are using those problems as an excuse to bilk workers and enrich themselves - and our government is doing nothing to stop them.

The Associated Press, Chris Graff, Vermont, and Prez Bush

Those of the Vermont persuasion have undoubtedly heard of Chris Graff and the brouhaha raised here since the AP bureau chief for Vermont, Chris Graff, was canned summarily on Monday. This 30-year veteran is well regarded by politicians and the public of all parties (and non-parties) and his firing prompted politicos like Pat Leahy, Jim Jeffords, Bernie Sanders, and Jim Douglas to ask the AP to reconsider. See the story here.

Why was Graff fired? Really good question and the AP has stayed fairly mum on it. It seems to boil down to Graff's decision to place a column by Leahy that was critical of President Bush on the AP wire as part of Sunshine Week (celebrating the Freedom of Information Act). After he did, the AP pulled the article and told papers NOT to use the article if they already had it. Then Graff was fired on the spot.

This is rather ironic considering Mr. Bush, when not blaming the press for Iraq this week, has been saying how wonderful it is to have a free press... one free to say what it wants so long as it touts what he wants them to say.

But the story obviously has national and even international implications. While the story has been discussed widely on Vermont blogs like Green Mountain Daily and PoliticsVT, it has also appeared nationally. Editor and Publisher, for example, carried the story this week. G

One for Your Book List

Having heard him speak several times now, I think I feel comfortable in recommending Kevin Phillips' "American Theocracy".

For those who don't know him, he's a rather cranky conservative and former GOP strategist. But he's also a rather strong critic of the Bushies with some very good reasons cited. The other day, I heard him say that Bush might make a fairly ok second vice president of a second-rate bank in Amarillo, but certainly not commander in cheat. Phillips is a good example of the many traditional conservations who feel as waylaid by this president as progressives, liberals, and anyone with a brain do.

Buzzflash is offering this book as one of its premiums. If you don't get it there, I highly recommend your local non-chain bookstore (which will make me even more beloved by Amazon, I'm sure). There's also your neighborhood library which is where I'm requesting a copy to read.

Texas Judge Takes Away Tom DeLay's "Right" to Carry Concealed Handgun

Ha!

Vermont Leads the Charge on Impeachment

From the great Vermont Guardian:

As patriots go, Dan DeWalt looks the part. With his ponytail and winter beard, a pair of breeches and a musket would put him right into character in 1775.

But it was no act earlier this month when DeWalt fired the opening salvo of his revolution. Only this time, the shot heard ’round the world came not from a rebel in Massachusetts but from a selectman in Vermont. And rather than start a shooting war, it was meant to put a stop to one.

DeWalt, 49, is as mystified as anybody at his international star status as the author of a town meeting resolution, which Newfane voters passed 121-29, calling for the impeachment of Pres. George Bush, in part because he “used falsehoods to lead our nation to war unsupported by international law.”

Other cities and towns have passed similar measures, including San Francisco. Newfane was the first of five Vermont towns to do so — Brattleboro was expected to take it up at representative town meeting on Saturday. At least six Vermont Democratic County Committees have also voted in favor of impeachment proceedings.

But it has been DeWalt — a carpenter and musician with no television, who reads history books, trolls international shortwave radio broadcasts for news, and until this month had never seen film footage from 9/11 — who has captured international attention from of the likes of The Economist, the U.K. Guardian and The Toronto Star.

The story of his challenge to Bush has been posted on websites in Australia, South Africa, the Basque region of Spain, and covered throughout the United States, from The Dallas Morning News to CNN and USA Today. By the time the Vermont Guardian caught up with him, he been interviewed 25 times. Reuters had just left and The Boston Globe’s photographer was on the way up.

He has also been lambasted and lampooned. The conservative Washington Times saw fit to report his annual income, his marital status, and even his choice of footwear (Birkenstocks). The Associated Press story was posted on “The Terrorism Knowledge Base,” a self-proclaimed “comprehensive databank of global terrorist incidents and organizations.”

John Dean on Bush's NSA Spying and More

Worthwhile article from John Dean at FindLaw with shades of Nixon:

Bush's position is that he does not need Congressional approval for his measures. Even he does not claim that Congress gave him express power to undertake them, but he does claim that Congress indirectly approved such measures when it authorized the use of force to go after those involved in the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States. He also argues that, in any event, approval was not necessary - for he argues that he has such authority under Article II of the Constitution, as the chief executive, and Commander in Chief, charged with faithfully executing the laws of the land and protecting the Constitution.

These arguments are hauntingly familiar to this observer.

No one can question President Bush's goal: Protecting Americans from further terror attacks. But every American should question his means: Openly defying a longstanding statute that prohibits the very actions he insists on undertaking, when done in the very manner he insists upon doing them.

In some two hundred and seventeen years of the American presidency, there has been only one President who provides a precedent for Bush's stunning, in-your-face, conduct: Richard Nixon. Like Bush, Nixon claimed he was acting to protect the nation's security. Like Bush, Nixon broke the law - authorizing, among other things, illegal wiretaps.

Ironically, a stronger case might be made for Nixon's warrantless wiretaps, than for Bush's. Nixon's were installed to track leaks of national security information relating to the war in Vietnam. (He never found the leaker.) He pursued domestic intelligence by illegal means because he believed - based on information from President Lyndon Johnson - that communists had infiltrated the anti-war movement. (No such evidence was ever found.) In addition, he believed that extreme measures were necessary to deal with domestic terrorists, who were responsible for hundreds of deadly bombings. (This is the same argument Bush makes today.)
Nixon also claimed he was only doing what his predecessors had done. That was not untrue - but what had, in the past, been the exception to the rule became standard operating procedure under Nixon.

Editor and Publisher's Greg Mitchell Asks Why the Washington Post Doesn't Just Go Ahead and Hire Bush to Blog

Good for Greg! For those of you who haven't paid attention, WaPo insisted on hiring a specifically conservative blogger - no progressives need apply, tyvm - and spent his first week calling Coretta Scott King a commie and plagiarizing before on day four he was fired quit.

From Ed&Pub:

What if 'Wash Post' Hired Bush as Blogger? With Ben Domenech forced to quit his new blog, The Washington Post says it is looking for another conservative to replace him. Obviously, experience as a journalist is not required. Here's what might happen if the paper's Web site went all the way and hired George W. Bush.

The Washington Post announced last night (play along with me here, folks) that President George W. Bush had agreed to replace Ben Domenech as the “Red America” blogger at the newspaper’s popular Web site. Bush contributed his first Web posting today, in which he thanked his old rival, Al Gore, for “inventing the internets.” Domenech had been forced out Friday amid charges of rampant plagiarism. Jim Brady, executive editor of washingtonpost.com, said that he was searching for a conservative to replace Domenech, but the quick Bush hiring still came as a surprise.

A Post spokesman said, "Last time we hired someone for that blog who had worked for the White House. So why not go straight to the top?"

The spokeman said the Post was confident the president had never plagiarized because “he hasn’t written anything himself since college”--but this time, unlike in the Domenech case, “we spent a few minutes googling just to make sure.” He added that the Post does not screen bloggers for “misleading statements or outright lies” in their past.

Asked how the president could blog and govern at the same time, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan explained, “He has promised to stay up late each night, until 10 p.m., to work on it—in his pajamas, as is customary for bloggers, we understand.”

Brady had hoped to hire a real reporter this time, but the Post apparently decided it could not pass up another partisan non-journalist, since it's the president.

Bush, in his opening post today, claimed that he was not really all that partisan, since he “disagrees with the president" on certain issues, citing the Harriett Miers appointment and the Dubai port deal.

Press Secretary McClellan said he was “fairly sure” that Bush, unlike Domenech, had never called Coretta Scott King a “communist” when she died since, “after all, he did attend her funeral,” but “you never know.”He added that the White House had convinced the Post that Bush, contrary to rumor, had not made inflammatory remarks posting under the name “Bluto” at National Review Online. In one post there recently, Bluto accused Helen Thomas of "ripping off" an article by P.J. O’Rourke for her recent Gridiron Dinner routine.

DoJ Basically Says NSA Can Bug Us Anyway They Want

Unfuckingbelievable:

WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency could have legally monitored ordinarily confidential communications between doctors and patients or attorneys and their clients, the Justice Department said Friday of its controversial warrantless surveillance program.

Responding to questions from Congress, the department also said that it sees no prohibition to using information collected under the NSA's program in court.

"Because collecting foreign intelligence information without a warrant does not violate the Fourth Amendment and because the Terrorist Surveillance Program is lawful, there appears to be no legal barrier against introducing this evidence in a criminal prosecution," the department said in responses to questions from lawmakers released Friday evening.

When do we stop these bastards? When?

Where Pat Leahy Stands on Bush Censure Issue

Jack McCullough at Green Mountain Daily brings us up to speed here.

Frustrating.

Belated Happy B-Day

to reader "Andrew J. Borden".

One of us is getting pretty old there, Mr. B... and I'd prefer to think it is you. Cough.

Howard Zinn: How Were So Many Americans So Easily Fooled?

Excellent question. And it can't be ascribed totally to Koolaid Konsumption. This is another one I encourage you to read in its entirety; from Howard Zinn:

Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled?

The question is important because it might help us understand why Americans—members of the media as well as the ordinary citizen—rushed to declare their support as the President was sending troops halfway around the world to Iraq.A small example of the innocence (or obsequiousness, to be more exact) of the press is the way it reacted to Colin Powell’s presentation in February 2003 to the Security Council, a month before the invasion, a speech which may have set a record for the number of falsehoods told in one talk. In it, Powell confidently rattled off his “evidence”: satellite photographs, audio records, reports from informants, with precise statistics on how many gallons of this and that existed for chemical warfare. The New York Times was breathless with admiration. The Washington Post editorial was titled “Irrefutable” and declared that after Powell’s talk “it is hard to imagine how anyone could doubt that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction.”

President Bush's Uncle Bucky Makes a Bundle on Nephew's Iraq War Folly

From the LA Times:

WASHINGTON — As President Bush embarks on a new effort to shore up public support for the war in Iraq, an uncle of the commander in chief is collecting $2.7 million in cash and stock from the recent sale of a company that profited from the war.

A report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows that William H.T. Bush collected just under $1.9 million in cash plus stock valued at more than $800,000 from the sale of Engineered Support Systems Inc. to DRS Technologies of New Jersey.

The $1.7-billion deal closed Jan. 31. Both firms have extensive military contracts.William Bush was a director of Engineered Support Systems. Recent SEC filings show he was paid cash and DRS stock in exchange for shares and options he obtained as a director.

Being a Bush is profitable work for very little effort but a lot of deaths... other peoples' deaths.

Is President Bush Just Another Right Wing Talk Radio Show Host?

I (heart) EJ Dionne (but give a rat's patootie for the rest of the Washington Post after the Dommie debacle).

Is President Bush the leader of our government, or is he just a right-wing talk-show host?

The question comes to mind after Bush's news conference this week in which he sounded like someone who has no control over the government he is in charge of. His words were those of a pundit inveighing against the evils of bureaucrats.

"Obviously," said the critic in chief, "there are some times when government bureaucracies haven't responded the way we wanted them to, and like citizens, you know, I don't like that at all." Yes, and if you can't do something about it, who can?

Bush went on: "I mean, I think, for example, of the trailers sitting down in Arkansas. Like many citizens, they're wondering why they're down there, you know. How come we've got 11,000?"
Bush was talking about 10,777 mobile homes ordered up to provide housing for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. As Rep. Mike Ross put it in an interview, most of these "brand-new, fully furnished homes are sitting in a hay meadow in Hope, Arkansas," and are "a symbol of what's wrong with this administration and what's wrong with FEMA."

Bill Moyers: A Time for Heresy

Bill Moyers has an excellent piece up called "A Time for Heresy". I encourage you to read it in full, but here's a bigger-than-average snippet as posted on Tom Paine:

We are witnessing a marked turn of events for a nation whose DNA contains the inherent promise of an equal opportunity at “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” We were not supposed to be a country where the winners take all. The great progressive struggles in our history were waged to make sure ordinary citizens, and not just the rich, share in the benefits of a free society.

Today, however, the majority of Americans may support such broad social goals as affordable medical coverage for all, decent wages for working people, safe working conditions, a good education for every child, and clean air and water, but there’s no government “of, by, and for the people” to deliver on those aspirations. America is no longer working for all Americans.

How did this happen? By design. For a quarter of a century now a ferocious campaign has been conducted to dismantle the political institutions, the legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual, cultural, and religious frameworks that sustained America’s social contract. The corporate, political, and religious right converged in a movement that for a long time only they understood because they are its advocates, its architects, and its beneficiaries.

Their economic strategy was to cut workforces and wages, scour the globe for even cheaper labor, and relieve investors of any responsibility for the cost of society. On the weekend before President Bush’s second inauguration, The New York Times described how his first round of tax cuts had already brought our tax code closer to a system under which income on wealth would not be taxed at all and public expenditures would be raised exclusively from salaries and wages.

Their political strategy was to neutralize the independent media, create their own propaganda machine with a partisan press, and flood their coffers with rivers of money from those who stand to benefit from the transfer of public resources to elite control. Along the way they would burden the nation with structural deficits that will last until our children’s children are ready to retire, systematically stripping government of its capacity, over time, to do little more than wage war and reward privilege.

Their religious strategy was to fuse ideology and theology into a worldview freed of the impurities of compromise, claim for America the status of God’s favored among nations (and therefore beyond political critique or challenge), and demonize their opponents as ungodly and immoral.

At the intersection of these three strategies was money: Big Money.

They found a deep flaw in our political system and zeroed in on it.

Barbara Bush's Beautiful Mind

What is there to possibly say about Barbara Bush giving a donation to Hurricane Katrina victims expressly and solely designed to amount to sales for her other bastard son's (Neil's) educational software company?

Compassion by the Bushies is only for the Bushies. Period.

WHAT? No Maple Syrup in Baghdad? The Infidels!

Jesus' General writes to Vermont's governor. Poor, poor Jim.

Dear Governor Douglas,

I was horrified to learn that there was no genuine maple syrup for breakfast during your trip to Iraq. So, I’ve decided to do something about it. I’ve been on the phone all afternoon, and I am told there are now serious murmurings about a full congressional investigation into this outrage.

Who is to blame? I don’t think we can blame the President. He has made it amply clear that he relies on his Generals in the field to make menu-level decisions. The Secretary of Defense has already said “You go to war with the menu you have, not the menu you might want or wish to have.” Okay…fair enough!

No…the blame lies with the minority party in Congress. When pushed about funding for more maple syrup to support the troops, they change the subject. They rant on…something about body armor and they make silly suggestions about Humvees. They raise stupid ideas that would make the damn things so heavy and slow that the troops would never get back from a night raid in time to enjoy a wholesome breakfast with pure maple syrup.

So, something must be done, Governor. There have been about 22 Vermonters killed in this war. I shudder at the inhumanity of those proud soldiers getting killed without a proper maple syrup-laden Last Breakfast.

And the solution is so simple--syrup just isn’t that expensive!The only bright spot in this, Governor, is that you are physically safe from harm after your horrific maple-syrup-less breakfast in the Gulf. I mean, just imagine the national outrage and collective bereavement if you had met your demise in the Persian Gulf--without a proper Last Breakfast! I submit to you that the backlash would become a serious threat to our War on Terror®.

Vermont happens to have the highest mortality rate per capita among American soldiers in Mr. Bush's Iraqi folly.

Speaking of the President's Press Conference

Did anyone else find it as rambling, incoherent, and stupid as I did?

I don't see how anyone believes him. He did not answer a single question accurately or cogently.

The President and Helen Thomas

God love Helen... I certainly do.

Editor and Publisher presents a transcript of her attempt to ask the president a legitimate question and his dissembling in response.

FARC, the DOJ's Latest Lark

Well, now we've declared war on the war on drugs, I think. Bush's other favorite lapdog, Gonzalez, announced today that we're going after leaders of FARC, the Colombian rebel group which he claims is responsible for more than half of the cocaine available around the globe.

But this is another situation that is only black-and-white to the Bushies. FARC exists largely because of our schizophrenic war on drugs and the devastation we've brought to Colombia in its wake. In fact, we've made a mess here with the war on drugs and brought death and destruction to Mexico and every country south of it because of same.

Now, you won't find me defending anyone who markets cocaine. I think it's one of the most life-destructive drugs out there - and Mr. Bush of all people should know this; rumor is this was his nose candy of choice. But considering that I can't believe a single word that comes out of Gonzalez's pampered mouth and I know we have never taken responsibility for the mess we've created in Colombia, I'm not at all sure FARC is the terrible bad guy here. There is just too much not known.

US Attack on Iran Could Bankrupt U.S. - And That's Just the Start of the Bad

From Australia:

THE updated version of the Bush Administration's 2002 national security strategy, released in Washington last week, identifies Iran as the country that may pose the biggest danger to the United States.

According to Reuters, the strategy document, which reaffirms pre-emptive military action as a central tenet of US security policy, raises fears the Bush Administration will resort to force to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

If force is used, it will come in the form of air strikes, as US land forces are already overstretched in the occupation of neighbouring Iraq.

One question still to be confronted is the impact such a strike would have on the US economy and how that would affect the global economy, particularly Australia, which is, after the US, the largest-deficit country in the advanced industrial world.

At the very least, a broadening of the war in the Middle East would be certain to push up interest rates in the US and Australia, because the central banks there would have to protect the currencies' value by increasing yields. How far and fast would depend on judgements about the likely outcome of the military intervention.

An air strike against Iranian nuclear facilities is unlikely to be surgical. There are about 50 sites associated with nuclear development in Iran and they are mainly sited in towns where civilian populations would be at risk. An attack would be certain to inflame the Islamic world against the US, almost certainly lead to a full-scale civil war in Iraq with the support of the predominantly Shiite Iranian people, and the US fleet in the shallow and narrow Persian Gulf would have to withdraw or be vulnerable to Iranian missile attack.

Bushies Wanted Secret Searches of American Homes, Too

Crap!

In the dark days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a small group of lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department began meeting to debate a number of novel legal strategies to help prevent another attack. Soon after, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to begin conducting electronic eavesdropping on terrorism suspects in the United States, including American citizens, without court approval. Meeting in the FBI's state-of-the-art command center in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the lawyers talked with senior FBI officials about using the same legal authority to conduct physical searches of homes and businesses of terrorism suspects--also without court approval, one current and one former government official tell U.S. News. "There was a fair amount of discussion at Justice on the warrantless physical search issue," says a former senior FBI official. "Discussions about--if [the searches] happened--where would the information go, and would it taint cases."

Doolittle Did Much to Break the Rules

Josh and company at Talking Points Memo are all over the story that GOP Congress critter John Doolittle's wife skimmed 15% of all contributions to her husband's campaign. Say what?

Stinky stinky.

Of course, Katherine Harris' own corruption makes it a divided story.

Murder Leading Cause of Death for Iraq-Based Journalists and Media Workers

Also from Ed and Publisher and sadly, not at all surprising:

Dozens of media workers have lost their lives in explosions and crossfire in Iraq, but now murder has overtaken war as the leading killer, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Friday.

In the past 10 days alone, suspected insurgents have murdered three Iraqi journalists and one media support worker, the CPJ said, raising the death toll to 67 journalists and 24 media support workers killed since the war began on March 20, 2003.

"The killings offer a chilling snapshot into recent trends. Iraqis constitute nearly 80 percent of journalists and support staffers killed for their work in Iraq," CPJ said in a statement. "Overall, 60 percent of the journalists and support workers killed in Iraq were targeted for assassination."

12 Americans Face War Crimes Probe

This from Ed and Publisher.

Residents gave new details Monday about the shootings of civilians in a western Iraqi town, where the U.S. military is investigating allegations of potential misconduct by American troops last November.The residents said troops entered homes and shot and killed 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine.

The military, which announced Friday that a dozen Marines are under investigation for possible war crimes in the Nov. 19 incident, said in a statement Monday that a videotape of the aftermath of the shootings in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, was presented in support of the allegations.

The charges against the Marines were first brought forward by Time magazine, which reported this week that it obtained a videotape two months ago taken by a Haditha journalism student that shows the dead still in their nightclothes.

NBC was also talking tonight of a siege in Western Iraq last year that may end up being worse in revelations than the Abu Ghraib scandal. This may or may not be the same case.

However, as we know, when the military investigates itself, it always rules it acted properly.

Shake Up at the White House? Not Enough

With all the news lately that GOPers are saying it's time for some changes at the White House, the problem is that even if such change comes, it will hardly be enough.

Face it: the biggest need for change is in Bush-Cheney, and they aren't leaving. Everyone else is just window dressing. According to the Bushies, no change is needed. I disagree. But even if they were willing to consider a change, it would be to more lame, Bush I rejects. Everyone there is supposed to just go "rah rah" to whatever Bush says, despite how it flies in the face of reason.

So, unless we can use a can opener to get George and Dick out, forget about it.

Impeachment, Doonesbury Style

Brad Blog has it if you missed it. A nod to the mighty Skippy for the link.

As We Begin Year Four of Mr. Bush's Egg-cellent Folly...

Posted at The Carpetbagger Report:

With a terribly sad three-year anniversary upon us, this Center for American Progress paragraph seemed to summarize the landscape nicely.

"As we approach the third anniversary of the onset of the Iraq war," neoconservative-turned-Bush-critic Francis Fukuyama writes, "it seems very unlikely that history will judge either the intervention itself or the ideas animating it kindly." The Bush administration laid out the "ideas animating" the Iraq invasion in its 2002 National Security Strategy. According to the Bush doctrine, "America would have to launch periodic preventive wars to defend itself against rogue states" and "would do this alone, if necessary."

Yet after three years of failed policy in Iraq, the Bush administration yesterday released a "long-overdue" updated National Security Strategy that "offers no second thoughts about the preemption policy" — nor any new ideas for Iraq. "When does consistency become stubbornness…and when does stubbornness become stupidity?" asked Center for American Progress's Bob Boorstin. "When do you give up a doctrine that's not working?"

For that matter, this USA Today poll, published on Friday, helped capture the mood of the nation.

Three years after the invasion of Iraq, more than half of Americans say the war there has touched their own lives, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll finds. By nearly 3-to-1, they say that impact has been a negative one. For most, the conflict has hit close to home: Six in 10 say a close friend, family member or co-worker has served in Iraq. More than one in 10 say someone close to them has been killed or wounded there. Six in 10 in the poll, taken Friday through Sunday, say the war has had a negative effect on the nation.

The confidence when the invasion was launched has been replaced by second-guessing about the wisdom of going to war and dissatisfaction with the way it's been waged. In March 2003, Americans by 3-to-1 said the U.S. action in Iraq was morally justified; now 50% say it's not. A month after the invasion, 85% said the war was going well; now 60% say it's going badly.

A record 60% say the war hasn't been "worth it."

No Casualties in Operation Swarmer? Think Again

Posted at DailyKos, refuting claims by this administration that Operation Swarmer has caused not a single casualty or problem:

Operation Swarmer has been billed by the government as the "largest air assault" since the invasion of Iraq.

On March 17th, the military said there was "no resistance," and no casualties. So far, only less than 80 "insurgents" have been nabbed, and many of them were immediately released. (Though the Department of Defense in its release refers to the Iraqis as "terrorists" not "insurgents.")

Today, we learn that eight civilians, including a child, were killed in clashes between U.S. troops and gunmen in Duluiyah, part of the area targeted in the air assault campaign. It's unclear what exactly is transpiring; there is a media blackout. However, what little information is trickling out from the operation reveals the true cost of this PR campaign.

Operation Swarmer has caused the displacement of 700 Iraqi families. Most fled the Samara area with nothing but the clothes on their back:

"When they started to hit our city I didn't take anything. I just took my family and ran like hell. We don't have anything to eat or wear," urged Barakat Muhammad, a resident and father of five in Samarra.

The displaced families have taken refuge in abandoned buildings in the outskirts of the city. The situation, as described by the Red Crecent, is a humanitarian crisis:

"We have sent volunteers from the disaster department to monitor the situation and we are preparing ourselves for an emergency," said Ferdous al-Abadi, spokesperson for the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) in Baghdad. [...]

"They need urgent help and we call on all organisations to offer them supplies and medical support as soon as possible," Tikrit stressed.

Those supplies include medical supplies. While the U.S. military maintains there have not been any casualties, local doctors tell a different story:

[L]ocal doctors say that at least 35 civilians including women and children have been treated at the local hospital with injuries caused by the air-strikes. In addition, 18 bodies had been taken to the hospital since 17 March.

"We have run out of supplies and if the operation continues we need urgent surgical materials and pain killers to offer treatment to the innocent victims," Dr Ibraheem Mahmoud, of the emergency department at the local hospital in Samarra, said.

Former Iraqi PM Says Iraq Is in Civil War Now

From Allad Allawi:

It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is…We are in a terrible civil conflict now.

Yet today, everyone from the top military leader in Iraq to Bush to Cheney all claimed not only is there not a civil war, but Iraq was nowhere close to one.

Gee, whom to believe? It's not like the Bushies have ever lied to us, right? Gag.

So Much for Capitol Hill Lobby Reform: Lobbyists Yawn and Say it's Big Business as Usual

Read the Washington Post article and weep. No reform. Our politicians will remain on the lucrative payroll of corporations while we pay their lucrative retirement benefits that exceed anything American workers get.

Newfane Draws Vicious Response for Vote to Impeach Bush

Why am I (ever so sadly) not surprised?

From the Boston Globe:

Angry calls and e-mails flooded Newfane, population 1,680, the next day. One critic sent a mock thank-you note, signed ''Usama Bin Ladin," that applauded the town for its help in ''bringing down" America. Some regular guests of the picturesque, 175-year-old Four Columns Inn notified its owners that they would never visit again.

''Shame on you," one caller said on the town clerk's voicemail. ''A little Socialist town like yourself is a disgrace to America."

Three years into the war in Iraq, with the president's approval rating at an all-time low of 34 percent last month, protests against the Bush administration are mostly small and scattered, even in the most liberal outposts.

I've seen much worse, with calls for Vermont to be listed as a terrorist stronghold, for the entire state to be audited, and for black helicopters to be sent in en masse.

Reality Is Just a Concept With the Bushies: Bush's People Pose as Fox Journalists

From Reuters (astounding):

The White House said it would discipline two government employees who impersonated journalists in advance of a trip by U.S. President George W. Bush to the Gulf Coast, The Washington Post said on Saturday.

The Post quoted a Gautier, Mississippi couple whose home was wrecked by Hurricane Katrina as saying two men identified themselves as journalists during a visit to the couple's home.

Elaine Akins told the newspaper she and her husband Jerry were initially told by the two men that they were Fox News journalists, but that they later identified themselves as Secret Service agents.

Bush visited Gautier on March 8.

"They just came up and said they were with the media, and then they said they were with Fox," Akins was quoted as saying.

Discipline?

Does this mean they get promoted to a cabinet position OR do they get a medal of freedom award, like George Tenet?

Compelling Congress

On Impeachment that is... we don't seem to need to force them to give themselves a healthy, wealthy pay hike and more benefits each year while American salaries and perks are dropping like flies in a bug zapper.

Constant shares some thoughts here.

Saturday War Protests

It's been three years, but who's counting? Certainly not Mr. Bush or Mr. Rumsfeld.

Skippy offers a round-up of protests around the nation and the world today.

Blair: Close Gitmo

Well, as least Tony Blair has extracted his nose from Mr. Bush's anus long enough to admit the obvious: Guantanamo Bay should be closed.

Heaviest Bombing Attacks in Iraq Since Operation Shock and Awe

Or, as Buzzflash refers to this latest madness, "Operation Save Bush's Poll Ratings from the Dumpster".

I Guess the Black Vote Just Isn't Quite As Valued

Not good.

Over the bitter objections of some black leaders, the U.S. Justice Department approved a plan Thursday for New Orleans' first elections since Hurricane Katrina.

The department still needs to approve a few polling place changes but otherwise gave its blessing to plans to hold elections for mayor, City Council and other posts on April 22.

Department officials also said they will send observers to monitor the balloting.

Black leaders have charged that Louisiana officials have not done enough to ensure that voters scattered by the storm will be able to vote. The state plans to set up satellite polling places around the state for New Orleans residents driven from their homes, but chose not to create such stations outside Louisiana.

"Two-thirds of the eligible population has been disenfranchised," the Rev. Jesse Jackson complained after the Justice Department decision. "This is more onerous than the poll tax laws of 1965."

How much more obvious can the Bushies be? The Ohio vote where poorer black precincts were made to wait 8-9 hours to cast a vote? Florida in 2000 and 2004 where the voting rolls were purged to get rid of tens of thousands of black votes? This?

The message is nothing if not clear: if you're black and you're not casting a vote for Bushies, well, they'd just as soon prefer you didn't vote at all; they'll do everything in their power to make sure you don't.

Test

Blogger seems to need a high colonic.

Senators Traitors to US Constitution: Change Law to Make Bush's Illegal Spying "Legal"

From WaPo:

The Bush administration could continue its policy of spying on targeted Americans without obtaining warrants, but only if it justifies the action to a small group of lawmakers, under legislation introduced yesterday by key Republican senators.

The four senators hope to settle the debate over National Security Agency eavesdropping on international communications involving Americans when one of the parties is suspected of terrorist ties. President Bush prompted a months-long uproar when he said that constitutional powers absolve him of the need to seek warrants in such cases, even though the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires warrants for domestic wiretaps.

The program, begun in 2001, was first publicized late last year.

The bill would allow the NSA to eavesdrop, without a warrant, for up to 45 days per case, at which point the Justice Department would have three options. It could drop the surveillance, seek a warrant from FISA's court, or convince a handful of House and Senate members that although there is insufficient evidence for a warrant, continued surveillance "is necessary to protect the United States," according to a summary the four sponsors provided yesterday. They are Mike DeWine (Ohio), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Olympia J. Snowe (Maine).

This is nothing short of criminal; these senators should be removed since clearly, they have no understanding or respect for the U.S. Constitution.. and mind you, several of them are so-called "moderate" Republicans.

As Sandra Day O'Connor said recently, we are walking a very fine line in this country between so-called democracy and a full-fledged dictatorship (or in the case of Duck! It's Dick! Cheney, a dick-tatorship).

WaPo: It's Easier to Rig Electronic Voting Machines Than it is to Rig Vegas Slot Machines

Thank you, WaPo! Finally, a major publication acknowledges the effing obvious:

It's easier to rig an electronic voting machine than a Las Vegas slot machine, says University of Pennsylvania visiting professor Steve Freeman. That's because Vegas slots are better monitored and regulated than America's voting machines, Freeman writes in a book out in July that argues, among other things, that President Bush may owe his 2004 win to an unfair vote count. We'll wait to read his book before making a judgment about that. But Freeman has assembled comparisons that suggest Americans protect their vices more than they guard their rights, according to data he presented at an October meeting of the American Statistical Association in Philadelphia.

How to steal an election? Just ask the Bushies. They've very clearly stolen two national ones (2000 and 2004) and perhaps also the 2002 mid-terms.

And we let them. We should be ashamed. No one who kept silent on the issue deserves to wear a silly flag lapel pin or even whisper that he or she is a patriot.

Carbon Dioxide Rates See Alarming Rise (Thank You, George W. Bush!)

From the BBC:

US climate scientists have recorded a significant rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pushing it to a new record level.

BBC News has learned the latest data shows CO2 levels now stand at 381 parts per million (ppm) - 100ppm above the pre-industrial average.

The research indicates that 2005 saw one of the largest increases on record - a rise of 2.6ppm.
The figures are seen as a benchmark for climate scientists around the globe.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has been analysing samples of air taken from all over the world, including America's Rocky Mountains.

The chief carbon dioxide analyst for Noaa says the latest data confirms a worrying trend that recent years have, on average, recorded double the rate of increase from just 30 years ago.

Funny, CNN spent hours covering the sentencing of Carlie Brucia's killer, Joseph Smith, in Florida yesterday but I didn't hear them mention this once.