Record Profits for Some But Workers' Share Hits 40-Year Low

Posted by the ever-vigilant David Sirota who has a book- Hostile Takeover - coming out soon:

As I noted last week, media pundits like Sam Donaldson simply cannot understand why polls show the public is so down on the economic direction of our country. These commentators - who are supposed to reflect the true pulse of America - look at today's Wall Street Journal headline blaring that "Corporate Pretax Profits Jump 14.4% - Strongest Gain Since 1992" and wonder: why, oh dear god why, aren't ordinary Americans aren't jumping with joy?

The answer, as I note in my upcoming book Hostile Takeover, is simple: if you take the five seconds it takes to actually look at the underlying data, you see that those profits aren't actually benefitting ordinary workers - they are increasingly benefitting only those at the very top of the economic ladder.

John Dean: Presidential Censure

Read it here at Raw Story.

Brit PM Tony Blair Will Resign By Christmas

As you may recall, he just barely won re-election less than a year ago. From the London Telegraph:

Tony Blair is to announce his resignation by Christmas, members of his inner circle believe.

The disclosure comes as John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, agreed to try to broker an agreement between Mr Blair and back-bench MPs over the succession after being warned that uncertainty about the leadership is having a disastrous effect on Labour morale.

Joan Ruddock, a former minister, raised the issue of the succession, including the timing of Mr Blair's departure, with Mr Prescott at a meeting of Labour's parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Can't we retire Dubya and Duck! It's Dick! too?

Jesus Would Suffer Under George W. Bush as Well

This cartoon at Harper's says a great deal in one single panel.

Sad, But Oh So Honest

Lifted shamelessly from Mr. Natural at the splendidly honest Left Edge North:

Our Belubbed Leader's Resume

Karlo at SwerveLeft has posted the best, most flattering resume I have ever read for our befuddled smirker president, Mr. Bush.

Go here (you know you want to, you really do).

Past Work Experience
Ran for congress and lost.

Produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.

Bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas; company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

Bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox.

With father's help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.

Accomplishments in Previous Positions

Changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union.

Replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog-ridden city in America. Cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money.

Set record for most executions by any governor in American history.

More White House Staff Shakeup

Cough (from the Borowitz Report):

Attempting to answer the calls within his own party to shake up his beleaguered administration, President George W. Bush today ousted the White House pastry chef and pronounced the shakeup complete. “There have been many Republicans in Congress who have been calling upon me to do something drastic,” Mr. Bush told reporters at the White House.

“I am convinced that by firing the pastry chef, we have fixed the problems.” Mr. Bush, while declining to “play the blame game,” indicated that after much consideration he had concluded that the White House pastry chef was at the root of most of the problems of his administration.

“Let’s face it, during the run-up to the war in Iraq, there was all of that talk about weapons of mass destruction, and the pastry chef didn’t say anything about it,” Mr. Bush said. “If he knew that the intelligence was faulty, he should have spoken up.”

The president added that the pastry chef was “slow to act” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: “Basically, he was just in the kitchen baking the whole time.”

While Mr. Bush said that firing the White House pastry chef would probably solve all of the problems plaguing his administration of late, he was not afraid to take future action if warranted.

“I am fully prepared to fire the person who waters the plants around here,” Mr. Bush said.

Well, it will certainly make as much difference as replacing Andy Card with Josh Bolten, meaning, not at all.

Talk About Corporate Welfare Taken to the Nth Power Under the Bushies

Also from AmericaBlog:

The Bush DHS is using tax dollars to subsidize a Fortune 500 oil company. Not kidding. ONE MILLION DOLLARS for a FORTUNE 500 refinery. That's what we learn from Department of Homeland Security Inspector General's report from February, 2006 (page 21):

For example, a Fortune 500 refinery received a port security grant in round five totaling almost $1 million for fencing and surveillance upgrades at a refinery located in a major port. It did put up the same amount in matching funds.

This company recently reported 3rd quarter net income in excess of $1.2 billion. We remained concerned about the absence of more specific guidance on security measures proposed by private companies that are capable of paying for them, and what measures they should pay for.

Now, which Fortune 500 company -- with 3rd quarter net income of $1.2 billion -- needed tax dollars to build a fence? The GOP loves corporate welfare -- but giving tax dollars to oil companies is a new low.

Scalia's F-You Photog Fired

AmericaBlog informs us the photographer who snapped the picture of Supreme Court (In)Justice Scalia gesticulating the F word to his critics has been fired.

Of the two people involved here, I think one should be held to a much higher standard and perhaps relieved of his duties. It's now, however, the photographer.

Yet More Preposterous Claims About Jill Carroll

Now the repugnant right is stepping up their vile crap about released hostage journalist, Jill Carroll.

Not only is she suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, they allege, she's quite possibly:

• a traitor to this country
• a Jane Fonda wannabe
• an al Qaeda operative
• on the payroll of the insurgency
• someone whose citizenship should be revoked

Vile, vile people.

Lou Dobbs Day? Perish the Thought

The General discusses illegal aliens (from Mexico, not Mars), Lou Dobbs, and immigration:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds periodical roundups of these workers. Usually they occur on the heels of the harvest and are targeted at farmworkers. Occasionally, one of the many canneries in the area is hit, but only when the workers get too uppity and start talking to union organizers.

The roundups are always elaborately planned and very efficiently carried out. The workers are picked up, held at a temporary facility for a day or two before appearing at an assembly line style hearing, and then sent straight to Mexico (most of our farmworkers come from two Mexican states, Michoacán and Jalisco).

A new roundup began on Tuesday. It's very different from previous ones. Immigration's already hit more than one cannery and, according to Ofjoshua's sources at ICE, they plan to continue raiding canneries through Friday. They've also added restaurants to their list for the first time.

The strangest thing about it is that they aren't holding anyone. They're photographing and fingerprinting them and then picking up their families for similar treatment before letting everyone go. From what I understand, it's as well planned and efficient as every other roundup, except they've done away with the detention, hearings, and deportation.I can't quite figure out why they're doing it this way, but I have to wonder if it's all prep for some kind of Lou Dobbs Day when thousands of illegals are gathered up all across the country to serve as props for one of Our Leader's glorious media events.

The Right's Attack on Jill Carroll

It sure didn't take long for the pond scum right like John Podhoretz to treat freed captive journalist Jill Carroll after she had the *nerve* to say she was treated humanely by her abductors. And just as Podhoretz said, the talking heads on TV tonight are using phrases like Stockholm Syndrome and such to discredit her words.

These people make me way past ill.

Judge Criticizes Post 9-11 Intelligence Overhaul

Government intelligence has become even more of an oxymoron, but this judge says we have gone way over the top and with poor results.

Predatory Lending, Brought to You By Predatory Lobbyists Who Buy Our Politicians

From David Sirota (go here to read it in full):

Last year, I noted how the most bought-off forces in Congress were trying to follow up their passage of the credit card industry-written bankruptcy bill with a new bill to open the door to all sorts of predatory lending practices.

Specifically, the bill would invalidate state laws regulating predatory lending - yet another move by a supposedly conservative federal government to usurp state power. That bill is being spearheaded by Ohio Rep. Bob Ney (R) - a guy so corrupt, he's become somewhat of a household name in political circles. The conventional wisdom in Washington is that laws regulating banking practices are too esoteric to become major political themes in a campaign year. But it is becoming clear that is not the case. On the contrary, as consumer debt is hitting record levels and the middle class economic squeeze is subsequently worsening, debates over these laws are becoming flashpoints for broader debates over how much power our government has ceded to Corporate America, and how that power is being used to bleed ordinary citizens dry. And these flashpoints are occurring in the most politically important states in America.

Turns Out Ann Coulter is Also Too Stupid to Vote

From my neighbors (so to speak) at The Carpetbagger Report, a story I've avoided posting:

Ordinarily, I'm content pretending Ann Coulter doesn't exist, but one item jumped out at me that I considered too entertaining to ignore.

Coulter, you may recall, ridiculed voters in Palm Beach, Fla., after the 2000 presidential election, when thousands of votes were miscast due to the infamous "butterfly ballot." Coulter suggested those who are too stupid to vote properly shouldn't count anyway.

Coulter may want to rethink that whole approach.

Palm Beach County's elections supervisor has given Universal Press Syndicate columnist Ann Coulter 30 days to explain why she voted in the wrong precinct, according to a Wednesday piece by Palm Beach Post columnist Jose Lambiet.

Lambiet had first reported on Coulter's Florida voting problems last month. In his Wednesday follow-up, Lambiet wrote: "This time, claiming she doesn't even live here — as GOP pundit Ann Coulter has been doing on this spring's college speaking tour when she's questioned about her February election meltdown on Palm Beach — isn't going to cut it. …"

The Lambiet piece continued: "In a registered letter scheduled to be sent to her this week, Coulter is asked to 'clarify certain information as to her legal residence,' elections boss Arthur Anderson said. 'We want to give her a chance,' Anderson said. 'She needs to tell us where she really lives.' Or else? He could refer the case to State Attorney Barry Krischer for criminal charges, Anderson said."

Lambiet cited an official incident report from a poll worker who found Coulter trying to vote in two precincts on the same day, in the same election. As for the possible legal penalties, Lambiet noted that it is a third-degree felony to vote knowingly in the wrong precinct. What's more, lying on a voter's registration can cost up to $5,000 and five years in jail.

Bolten-Bush Bizarro World

Speaking of Blah3, here's some really odd information I just read there:

preznit_giv_me_turkee writes "Some people keep pics of their spouse in their office, Bolten has pics of Bush's hands

His wall collection of Bush photos, typical throughout the White House complex, is unique. The pictures focus exclusively on Bush's hands at key moments in his presidency. Not a single photo of Bush's face can be found."

OK, this is just plain creepy. I think I'm going to forego the container of yogurt I just opened.

Surf the Stranger

Blah3 - a very good blog, IMHO opinion - hopes to reach its one millionth blog visitor mark by the end of April. Consider visiting to see what Stranger, dedalus, and others have to say.

In the What the Bleep Are the Bushies Thinking?!? Department

What indeed? From an Australian paper (because God forbid American news media tell us these things):

THE United States military planned to detonate a 700 tonne explosive charge in a test called "Divine Strake" that would send a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas, a senior defence official said."I don't want to sound glib here but it is the first time in Nevada that you'll see a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas since we stopped testing nuclear weapons," said

James Tegnelia, head of the Defence Threat Reduction Agency.
Mr Tegnelia said the test was part of a US effort to develop weapons capable of destroying deeply buried bunkers housing nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

"We have several very large penetrators we're developing," he said.

"We also have - are you ready for this - a 700 tonne explosively-formed charge that we're going to be putting in a tunnel in Nevada.

"And that represents to us the largest single explosive that we could imagine doing conventionally to solve that problem."

The aim was to measure the effect of the blast on hard granite structures, he said.

And scaring the shit out of the inhabitants to justify more Pentagon spending perhaps? In other words, a terrorist act by our own government perpetrated against its own people.

Lovely. Just lovely.

Congress, Lobbyists, and Industry Responsible for Weakening on Controls on Uranium Exports

Grrrr.....

"The responsibility falls to us, to take necessary action to prevent the horrors of 9/11 being replayed, but on a nuclear scale," declared Spencer Abraham, then-U.S. energy secretary, at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in May 2004. [1] Taking up the cudgels, he announced that Washington was establishing a Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), "to secure, remove, or dispose of an even broader range of nuclear and radiological materials around the world that are vulnerable to theft . . . ensuring they will not fall into the hands of those with evil intentions." The plan was applauded by many who felt the United States was not acting quickly enough to safeguard bomb-grade highly enriched uranium (HEU) from terrorists. [2]

Yet, no sooner did the U.S. government take an important step forward than it took a giant leap back. Barely a year after Abraham's announcement, President George W. Bush signed into law the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which includes an amendment that loosens restrictions on the export of HEU. Driven by a purported need to assure the domestic supply of medical isotopes, which was never actually at risk, the new statute retreats from more than a quarter-century of U.S. efforts to phase out HEU commerce and its catastrophic risks.

The individuals responsible for this legislative debacle comprise a sweeping cast of characters, including foreign producers of medical isotopes, their U.S.-based lobbyists, gullible sectors of the American medical community, and the compliant lawmakers who spearheaded efforts on Capitol Hill. It is a cautionary tale of how a single foreign company can weaken U.S. national security through misleading scare tactics and cold cash.

Americans Are Getting Smarter, Not Falling for Bush/House's Bait-and-Switch

Somebody in America seems a little less ready to let Bush and the idiots in the House of Reprehensibles constantly distract them with bait-and-switch measures.

As proof, there is a CNN poll right now asking which is the greatest threat to American workers:

Illegal immigrants, or
Outsourcing

5:1 (80% to 20%), poll respondents are saying outsourcing, which I believe to be very much the correct answer. Keep passing on the Koolaid, kiddies!

Gee, Perhaps We Can Get Prisoners to Take Those Tough Jobs in Congress, Too!

Scum sucking idiots (from CNN):

House conservatives criticized President Bush, accused the Senate of fouling the air, said prisoners rather than illegal farm workers should pick American crops and denounced the use of Mexican flags by protesters Thursday in a vehement attack on legislation to liberalize U.S. immigration laws.

Emergency Broadcast System

Is anyone else noticing that tests on TV for the Emergency Alert System, formerly the Emergency Broadcast System, are way up in frequency?

Yes, I realize they're always annoying, but I notice that on New York metro stations, they call them weekly tests now even though I sometimes see them more than once a week on the same station such as WNBC-TV, NBC's Manhattan flagship station.

We're also seeing them that often in Vermont.

Yet they used to be, until very recently, no more than monthly. So why the big increase?

Fear mongering?

As many of you will recall, the one time we did NOT see the Emergency Broadcast System was on 9/11, the one time when it might have been useful. This was because it was headquartered - oh, smart move - in the World Trade Center.

beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beeeeeeeepppppppp!!!

Billions and Billions Spent by the Bushies and We're No Safer

From WaPo (thank you, Michael Chertoff and the Department of Homeland InSUCKurity):

Nearly five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Washington region still lacks a strategic plan to guide preparations for any future attacks or to effectively spend hundreds of millions of homeland security dollars, federal and local officials told a U.S. Senate panel yesterday.

DC is hardly the only case of less security, however.

But with this true, why are all those Bush-friendly defense companies making such huge bundles of money? Hmmmm....

Speaking of Mr. Rumsfeld's Nonsense

While the DoD is busy, with Bush, cutting services and pay and health care for the military currently fighting their bogus wars, Rumsfeld pushed for THIS nonsense to defense contactor staff as reported by WaPo at The Washington Monthly's Political Animal Blog:

Starting this month, U.S. government civilians serving in Iraq and in Afghanistan outside of Kabul are receiving an extra 35 percent above their base salaries for hardship and another 35 percent for danger. Previously, they were paid 25 percent extra for each category, the limits the government had set decades ago for any foreign post.

...."The idea was to recognize service at our most difficult and dangerous posts, and foremost among those posts are Iraq and Afghanistan," said a senior State Department official.

But I thought things were going fine in Iraq and it was only the traitorous fifth columnists in the media who were making it look dangerous?

Mr. Rumsfeld's Great Catch 22 Adventure

The Army under Rumsfeld's direction, along with the reserves etc, aren't always getting equipped with body armor. We know that already, correct?

So why is the Army now outlawing the use of personally-purchased body armor?

This makes about as much sense as our saber-rattling at Iran considering we're getting our asses kicked hard in Afghanistan and Iraq and we're bankrupt here at home in making overpayments to Halliburton, Bechtel, and other lovely defense contractors.

The Good (In)Justice Antonin Scalia: Fuck You to My Critics

Nice. Really nice. And in a church, for Pete's sake. From the Boston Herald:

Amid a growing national controversy about the gesture U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made Sunday at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the freelance photographer who captured the moment has come forward with the picture. Amid a growing national controversy about the gesture U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made Sunday at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the freelance photographer who captured the moment has come forward with the picture.

“It’s inaccurate and deceptive of him to say there was no vulgarity in the moment,” said Peter Smith, the Boston University assistant photojournalism professor who made the shot.

Despite Scalia’s insistence that the Sicilian gesture was not offensive and had been incorrectly characterized by the Herald as obscene, the photographer said the newspaper “got the story right.”

Smith said the jurist “immediately knew he’d made a mistake, and said, ‘You’re not going to print that, are you?’ ”

Scalia’s office yesterday referred questions regarding the flap to Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg, who said a letter Scalia sent Tuesday to the Herald defending his gesture at the cathedral “speaks for itself.”

“He has no further comment,” Arberg said.

Smith was working as a freelance photographer for the Boston archdiocese’s weekly newspaper at a special Mass for lawyers Sunday when a Herald reporter asked the justice how he responds to critics who might question his impartiality as a judge given his public worship.

“The judge paused for a second, then looked directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin, Smith said.

The Italian phrase means “(expletive) you.”

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.