TODAY'S TOPICS: Special Comment!!, Gitmo Debate, Dem Energy Bill, Shock Doctrine, Military Opposes War
VIDEO SECTION
Olbermann special comment on the whole “lying us into another illegal invasion of an innocent country and murdering millions of people” thing:
One choice quote:
"We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War III about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole, or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked, at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so, whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed were still even remotely plausible.
A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency an unapologetic warmonger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/06/countdown-special-comment-the-nie-reflects-an-unhinged-irrational-chicken-little-of-a-president/
Another brilliant short film by Robert Greenwald…this on income disparity and the hedge fund manager tax break loophole:
From Greenwald: Henry Kravis is a billionaire, the 57th richest person in America. He acquired this wealth by purchasing public companies with borrowed money. To pay off the debt, he cuts benefits at the company, sells its assets, and lays off employees.
This get-rich-quick scheme made him $450 million last year. Meanwhile, his tax rate is lower than teachers, firemen, nurses, even his own cleaning staff! Yet everyday we hear another story, we live another experience, we see another example of the horrific economic pain our country is being devastated by.
It's time all of us started a WAR ON GREED. WATCH:
http://warongreed.org/?utm_source=rgemail
Olbermann and Maddow discuss recent reviews of our very own Department of Homeland Security (hint: they’re horrible). The "Shock Doctrine" at work...privatizing tragegy...the new biggest moneymaker:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/06/countdown-counting-the-failures-of-homeland-security/
And watch an absolutely classic Worst Persons by Olbermann...welcome to Glenn Beck world...and Romney's insane "religion speech"...essentially arguing if you're not, you're not really American or for freedom...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/07/countdowns-worst-persons-billo-joke-line-cartoon-character-glenn-beck/
This is too good! The Show Boston Legal blasts scumbag Glenn Beck...while simultaneously making a fantastic defense of free speech and the freedom of the press! Sometimes this show makes better arguments against the right wing than any people in real life:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/69761/
Shocker…after a massive shift in funding by the Bush administration for abstinence only programs that are proven to actually do the opposite they are intended to do we now are seeing a rise in teen pregnancy. Rachelle Maddow, which MSNBC has apparently made the voice of the left on their network (which is fantastic!) debates these facts with National Abstinence Education Association’s Valerie Huber. Hint: she lives in a fictional reality.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/06/abstinence-only-education-failing-teen-birth-rates-on-the-rise/
Olbermann’s worst persons…Romney being one...and boy is he...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/06/countdowns-worst-persons-two-fox-flunkies-mitt-youre-fired-romney/
Jack Cafferty continues his excellent work, this time taking viewer comments (and he always gets some great ones) on the new revelations that the White House illegally deleted over 10 million emails…and remember, some of these almost assuredly are related to election theft and worse:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/05/cafferty-white-house-illegally-deleted-over-ten-million-e-mails/
From Advancement Project, watch the video (or read these highlights): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Greg Palast reported this a long way back...that being the intentional dislocation of blacks and poor from New Orleans who's homes WERE NOT DAMAGED in Katrina. Remember, that's prime time tourist real estate if it only wasn't for those damn poor black people!
From C&L:
If you read The Shock Doctrine, this news comes as no surprise. HUD/HANO has been itching to destroy the public housing in New Orleans since Katrina hit. It looks like in mid-December 15th, they are slated for demolition:
On the 12th day before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to unleash teams of bulldozers to demolish thousands of low-income apartments in New Orleans. Despite Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil War, HUD is spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over 4600 public housing subsidized apartments and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units–an 82% reduction.
HUD is in charge and a one person HUD employee makes all the local housing authority decisions. HUD took over the local housing authority years ago–all decisions are made in Washington DC. HUD plans to build an additional 1000 market rate and tax credit units–which will still result in a net loss of 2700 apartments to New Orleans–the remaining new apartments will cost an average cost of over $400,000 each!
Affordable housing is at a critical point along the Gulf Coast. Over 50,000 families still living in tiny FEMA trailers are being systematically forced out. Over 90,000 homeowners in Louisiana are still waiting to receive federal recovery funds from the Road Home. In New Orleans, hundreds of the estimated 12,000 homeless have taken up residence in small tents across the street from City Hall and under the I-10.
What a lovely Christmas gift to give those who can least afford it. And we’ll still call ourselves the richest country in the world. In conjunction with Human Rights Day on December 10th, a variety of concerned groups will come together to resist the demolition of public housing in New Orleans. They need your help.
Lots of information and resources available at Advancement Project.
THE CASE OF THE CENTURY? ARGUING HABEUS CORPUS
This is a biggie! The Supreme Court is arguing over whether we should continue to function as a free society, and yes, whether we should even continue to maintain Habeus Corpus. This much we know, the 4 human beings on the court will vote that these prisoners do have the right to a judge, to see their evidence, and even have a trial! We also know the 4 fascist sociopaths on the court will do everything to ensure these prisoners can be tortured and jailed without ever seeing the evidence against them, a lawyer, or a judge, indefinitely...and if Bush wants, forever.
So it likely will come down to the coward Kennedy. Let us pray.
Read this good summation of the case. A few clips first:
Yesterday the Supreme Court heard arguments in what may be the most important constitutional case of the decade: whether the men detained at Guantanamo have a right to a fair trial before a real court…The key issue, Chemerinsky said, “is there’s nothing in the Military Commissions Act that requires that a military proceeding be convened. The government can hold all of these people for the rest of their lives without ever bringing them before a military tribunal. Then the have no ability ever to go before a federal court.” And no matter how long they are held, they can’t come to federal court with a writ of habeas corpus.
SNIP
John Yoo, former deputy assistant attorney general for George W. Bush, now professor of law at UC Berkeley, defends the Military Commissions Act. On NPR recently he argued that granting terrorists the right to a regular trial in a regular court would hamper the war on terror and give aid and comfort to the enemy.
“He’s assuming they ARE terrorists,” Chemerinsky replied. “The whole point is that we don’t know. My client has been in Guantanamo for more than five years, and I still have no idea why he’s there. Maybe he’s a dangerous person, or maybe he’s there because the US paid a warlord who picked him out because they wanted to get the bounty. The only way we can know if somebody is a terrorist or a criminal is to have due process of law.”
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/06/5653/
DEMS GAIN LATINO SUPPORT (THANKS REPUBLICANS!)
By 57 percent to 23 percent, more Hispanic registered voters say they favor Democrats than Republicans, according to a survey by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center.
That 34 percentage point Democratic edge — which includes people who said they lean toward either party — has grown since July 2006, when a Pew poll measured a 21 point difference. Then, 49 percent of registered Hispanic voters said they favored Democrats and 28 percent chose Republicans.
END
DEMS PASS ENERGY BILL...A GOOD ONE TOO!
We rightfully give the Democratic party a lot of hell. In that same vein, we must also recognize them when they do something actually pretty damn good. This energy bill, all things considered, is the best produced from congress in, literally, decades. That is something to applaud (obviously we can do better...but the landscape probably won'te even allow this...due to filibusters and/or a veto).
This is also one of those prime examples of yes, just how much of a difference still exists between the two major parties. On the environment in fact, there is probably no issue area in which that difference is starker (and remember, I was an environmental political consultant for 5 years). The issue has never been, for those that know the facts, that the parties are the same, but rather, the issues is the Democratic party, for lots of reasons, has morphed into a shell of what it once was, what we deserve, and what the country needs. That is not in doubt.
Nonetheless, this is good news. Though it won't likely become law, this is SO MUCH BETTER, than folding tent, and passing an energy bill that won't make a dimes worth of difference just so these fossil fuel industry lackies will vote for it or sign it! The political strategy of compromise, and duck and cover, DOES blur the lines between the parties, and let's the Republicans get away with not having to defend their position or debate these proposals...which are OVERWHELMINGLY supported by the public by the way. So let's have a fight!!
Here's a good summary from Truthout's environmental editor:
The final bill will now include a 35 mpg CAFE standard, an RES of 15 percent, and 21 billion dollars of investment in the renewable energy economy.
Among other things, the 21 billion dollars will fund production tax credits for solar and wind power over a four-year period; it will fund research and development programs for renewable energy and job training programs for solar power installers; and it will fund individual tax credits for solar energy, home weatherization and purchase of fuel efficient vehicles like plug-in hybrid cars.
Tyson Slocum, of Public Citizen, thinks taxing the oil industry is a sensible way to fund renewable energy. He points out most of the 13.8 billion dollars in oil industry tax breaks the energy bill would repeal were awarded very recently, in 2004 and 2005, at a time when the oil industry was making record profits.
Scott Sklar, a solar energy industry lobbyist, also favors the Democrats' tax strategy. He compared the current energy bill to the Energy Policy Act of 2005: "The 2005 Energy Policy Act cost 14 billion dollars and 8 billion of that went to subsidize oil, coal, gas and utilities. It was paid for by cutting low income health programs. Poor people paid for the oil subsidies."
Tyson Slocum was pleased the 50 billion dollars in loan guarantees for new nuclear plants passed in the Senate version last summer have now been dropped.
When asked how he would rate the final version of the energy bill, Slocom said he would give it a seven out of ten. One of the things keeping it from being a ten was "inadequate money for household support to move to greater energy efficiency." For instance, although the bill doubles the solar energy tax credit from $2000 to $4000, since the cost of a complete solar electric system is upwards of $20,000, only the affluent will be able to take advantage of it.
So, what caused the turnaround from the dark days before the Thanksgiving recess, when it looked as though the Democrats would disappoint green expectations for the bill? Scott Sklar credits an outpouring of grassroots pressure.
--Kelpie Wilson is Truthout's environment editor
VOTING FRAUD SECTION...FROM BRAD BLOG
Romney Supporters Seen on Video Stuffing 'Ballot Box' on Touch-Screens at Tampa GOP Straw Poll
Paul Supporters, Who Pledged to Vote Only Once Each, Cry Foul, Document Evidence on YouTube, Make Music Videos of 'Mitt Robbery'...
Straw Poll Organizer Reportedly Tells Woman: 'If you make a big deal out of this, you will get hurt'
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5407
'NOW' VIDEOS: Will The 2008 Vote Be Fair?
PBS Explores Many Of The Ways Republicans And The DoJ Are Working To Disenfranchise Democratic Leaning Voters...
COMPLETE COVERAGE, VIDEOS: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5402
Chairman Waxman Asks Attorney General to Intercede in White House Obstruction in CIA Leak Case
COMPLETE COVERAGE: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5392
MILITARY FAMILIES OVERWHELMINGLY REJECT IRAQ WAR: President Bush has long claimed the support of the military community for his war positions. "They know that the only way to stop them [terrorists] is to stay on the offense, to fight the extremists and radicals where they live, so we don't have to fight them where we live," Bush said last April. He added, "The families...understand that our troops want to finish the job." A new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll finds that "nearly 6 in 10 military families disapprove of Bush's job performance and the way he has run the war, rating him only slightly better than the general population does. Among those families with soldiers, sailors and Marines who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 60% say the war in Iraq was not worth the cost." Nearly 70 percent of families with veterans favor withdrawing troops from Iraq either immediately or within the next year, with only 26 percent favoring staying "as long as it takes." VetVoice has more.
President Bush's mortgage relief plan was "set by the mortgage industry and Wall Street firms. The effort is voluntary and it leaves plenty of wiggle room for lenders. Moreover, it would affect only a small number of subprime borrowers."
The Federal Reserve yesterday revealed that "the amount of equity that U.S. homeowners hold in their homes slipped in the third quarter to the lowest level on record, just above 50 percent."
"At least 46,600 children along the Gulf Coast are still struggling with mental health problems and other serious aftereffects of 2005 hurricanes, according to a new study by the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the Children's Health Fund."
Friday, December 07, 2007
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
TODAY'S TOPICS: NIE, Bush Lies, Olbermann v. Dobbs, Goodman v. Dobbs, Scheer, Hillary Greed, Huckabee Scandal, Peru Trade
VIDEO SECTION
Holy s***! Olbermann totally unleashes on Lou Dobbs for as I have called it, “his descent into madness”. But it’s not just his blatant xenophobia, disinformation, and constant propaganda efforts to demonize Latinos that make him such a driving force in the rising tide of American racism that's a problem...apparently Dobbs has made a whole lot of money off employing “undocumented workers”! Watch Olbermann’s worst person…and knowing how Dobbs temper is barely containable, this could become a real fight:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/05/countdowns-worst-persons-gonzo-hill-hypocrite-lou-dobbs/
Watch Sy Hersh on CNN…asking that all important question about Bush and the NIE report: “What did he know and when did he know it?” As we now know, the information in the report was common knowledge…in fact, Hersh reported it a year ago!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/05/sy-hersh-we-pay-bush-to-know-these-things-what-did-he-know-when/
And this is even better, conservative talk show host Joe Scarborough nails this new mega scandal perfectly. Either Bush knew that he was completely lying about Iran for the past year, or, he’s the stupidest President in the history of the nation (and has the worst advisers in history too) for not understanding the NIE report, or, not asking what it meant.
Of course we all know the truth…they have been lying, while behind the scenes trying to prevent this report from being published or manipulating its conclusions. They failed at both, and now will pay the consequences, as will the Republican party and every candidate that has talked about bombing Iran (and let’s hope it hurts Hillary some too).
Watch:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/69768/
And even more surprising, here’s Buchanan AND Scarborough demanding the Dems hold hearings on this scandal and find out what Bush knew, and when he knew it! This tells me we may be seeing the final bullet in the head of this White House. Impeach for Christ’s sake!!! As Buchanan says, “why are they leading us to war (nuclear) when they KNEW there was no threat?” Indeed.
Watch this!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/05/morning-joe-scarborough-and-buchanan-want-hearings-over-nie/
Biden to Bush: "Invade Iran and we’ll impeach you.” Now, I like this kind of talk, obviously, but it also begs the question: “Why not start impeachment hearings anyway?” There’s literally about 10 counts that you could nail him on (whether successful or not). Still, I like watching Biden when he gets tough sometimes:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/04/hardball-biden-repeats-his-threat-to-bush-invade-iran-and-youll-be-impeached/
Here’s another one of the “highlights” (or lowlights) of the Bush press conference from the other day, as he’s asked if he brought up the recent rape case in Saudi Arabia to his buddy Prince Abdullah. You know the one, she was a 19-year old Saudi woman who was the victim of a brutal gang rape and later sentenced to 200 lashes. The Saudi court blamed her for being an "adulteress who invited the attack."
Watch Bush address the issue…be seated, have a barf bag nearby, and don’t lose all faith in humanity…
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/69664/
IRAN 1 AMERICA 0 (We’re shamed as a nation again!)
Robert Scheer on the latest shame to America…lying about Iran to the whole world, and being schooled by a crackpot like Ahmadinejad. That’s right, he comes out as the truthful one in all this, and this administration, including Hillary and all the other saber rattlers, have helped prop him up, and in the process hurt the chances of the moderates in Iran. Well done!
A few clips:
Bush is such a liar. Or is he just out to lunch on the most important issue that he faces? In October, he charged that Iran’s nuclear weapons program was bringing the world to the precipice of World War III, even though the White House had been informed at least a month earlier that Iran had no such program and had stopped efforts to develop one back in 2003.
SNIP
It’s humiliating to all of us who believe in a free press, separation of powers and individual liberty that a system of government designed by its founders to hold leaders accountable can be so easily manipulated by an unremarkable loser who has been rewarded throughout his life for screwing up. It is hoped that this time around the truth will catch up with him before he gets us in yet another bloody war, just to show he can.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/05/5617/
NO TO PERU “FREE” (CORPORATE) TRADE!
Here’s a good piece explaining why the Peru Free Trade Agreement is, shocker, yet another giveaway to agribusiness interests at the expense of consumers, small farmers, and the environment. Oh, and Hillary and Obama voted for it!
Here’s a few clips from Ben Burkett , vice-president of the National Family Farm Coalition:
...our Congress members seem to be oblivious to the livelihoods of family farmers and the wishes of consumers as they continue to pass more disastrous free trade agreements. Instead of learning from the failed lessons of the National American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the House of Representatives passed the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in November. The U.S. Senate is looking to vote on it this month. Farmers and consumers both here and in Peru will be the big losers. The only winners will be corporate agribusinesses dumping cheap grain and seeking the cheapest labor and most lax environmental standards.
SNIP
As harmful as the Peru FTA will be for American farmers and ranchers, the effects on Peruvian farmers will be just as devastating. As an African American farmer, I am particularly concerned about the impact the agreement will have on the millions of Afro-Peruvian and indigenous farmers. The same international grain traders who dumped below-cost grain into Mexico after NAFTA, driving over a million farmers off the land and fueling illegal migration into the United States, will now do the same in Peru. Many of those displaced Peruvian corn and rice farmers facing economic catastrophe will be forced to migrate or grow illicit drug crops to survive. In July, four million Peruvians took to the streets to voice opposition to the FTA.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/05/5633/
GOODMAN VERSUS DOBBS
Amy Goodman now schools Lou Dobbs too. In fact, he was on her show the other morning…talk about a riveting debate with all kinds of fireworks! He reminded me of an angry petulant teenager…lots of name calling and yelling...all in the face of so much proof of his lies and lack of journalistic integrity that I must admit it was a joy to listen to.
A few clips first:
On March 28, 2006, Dobbs said on his show, “And it’s costing us, no one knows precisely how much, to incarcerate what is about a third of our prison population who are illegal aliens.” As it turns out, the number of noncitizens incarcerated in the U.S. federal and state prisons is closer to 6 percent, not 33 percent. Note that the 6 percent includes legal immigrants as well.
On April 14, 2005, Lou Dobbs opened his show by saying: “The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans. Highly contagious diseases are now crossing our borders decades after those diseases had been eradicated in this country.” CNN correspondent Christine Romans filed a report, then told Dobbs, “There have been 7,000 [cases of leprosy] in the past three years.” CBS’ “60 Minutes” later challenged the fact, pointing out that there had actually been 7,029 cases reported over 30 years. When Lesley Stahl confronted Dobbs on the statistic, he defended it, saying: “Well, I can tell you this. If we reported it, it’s a fact.”
SNIP
In our conversation with Dobbs, “Democracy Now!” co-host Juan Gonzalez raised the issue of history, of how immigrants have been scapegoated: the Irish in the 1860s, the Chinese in the 1880s and, later, Southern Europeans. Dobbs rolled his eyes, saying, “Are you holding me responsible?” No, and Dobbs knows better. But he must be held responsible for not bringing a historical context to this crucial discussion of immigration reform. The immigration issue will not be solved by vilifying a population. The SPLC has just released a report on the upsurge in anti-immigrant, anti-Latino violence in the U.S.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/05/5615/
Yet ANOTHER Reason NOT to Support Hillary
2006 was a Democratic opportunity, and grassroots supporters dug deep and then deeper to finance an ever-expanding array of competitive races. Hillary, meanwhile, made a conscious decision to raise $52 million for a Senate campaign that she could have won in her pajamas, spent $40.8 million (to beat a token opponent who spent less than $6 million), and transferred the rest to her presidential campaign.
You could say she was just playing the game, but John Edwards and Barack Obama, in comparison, campaigned throughout the country to support worthy Democratic candidates, while doing negligible fundraising for their own pending campaigns. The Edwards campaign ended that season still in debt from 2004. Obama emerged with less than a million in the bank. Their top priorities really did seem to be helping other Democrats win a critical election, instead of subordinating all other goals to their own personal futures.
For another contrast, the entire Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised only $107 million that season, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee $103 million. Hillary spent more than a third as much as either of these, more than any candidate in America that year…Imagine if Hillary had transferred $20 million into the dozen Congressional campaigns that Democrats lost by margins as close as a few hundred votes.
-- Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of Soul of a Citizen and The Impossible Will Take a Little While.
HUCKABEE REVELATIONS…
Just when you thought Mike Huckabee at least didn’t make you want to punch him in the face, or immediately jail him for being a fascist lunatic, it not only turns out he’d never heard of NIE report findings, but he also, due to pressure from anti-clinton fanatics while Governor of Arkansas, released a rapist (25 years early)…who raped again.
From C&L:
Murray Waas: Huckabee’s Role In Serial Rapist’s Release To Discredit Clinton
Huffington Post:
As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.
Confidential Arkansas state government records, including letters from these women, obtained by the Huffington Post and revealed publicly for the first time, directly contradict the version of events now being put forward by Huckabee.
While on the campaign trail, Huckabee has claimed that he supported the 1999 release of Wayne Dumond because, at the time, he had no good reason to believe that the man represented a further threat to the public. Thanks to Huckabee’s intervention, conducted in concert with a right-wing tabloid campaign on Dumond’s behalf, Dumond was let out of prison 25 years before his sentence would have ended. But the confidential files obtained by the Huffington Post show that Huckabee was provided letters from several women who had been sexually assaulted by Dumond and who indeed predicted that he would rape again - and perhaps murder - if released.[..]
Huckabee kept these and other documents secret because they were politically damaging, according to a former aide who worked for him in Arkansas. The aide has made the records available to the Huffington Post, deeply troubled by Huckabee’s repeated claims that he had no reason to believe Dumond would commit other violent crimes upon his release from prison. The aide also believes that Huckabee, for political reasons, has deliberately attempted to cover up his knowledge of Dumond’s other sexual assaults.
In 1996, as a newly elected governor who had received strong support from the Christian right, Huckabee was under intense pressure from conservative activists to pardon Dumond or commute his sentence. The activists claimed that Dumond’s initial imprisonment and various other travails were due to the fact that Ashley Stevens, the high school cheerleader he had raped, was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, and the daughter of a major Clinton campaign contributor.
GOOD NEWS…
51 percent: College students who say "where a candidate stands on the environment would be very important to their vote," according to a survey conducted by American University students.
"In an unprecedented show of solidarity, leaders from 150 global companies endorsed the idea of...legally binding" cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions.
28 GENERALS AND ADMIRALS URGE REPEAL OF DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL: Retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr, an openly gay man, asked Republican presidential candidates at Wednesday's CNN/YouTube debate why they "think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians." Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney hedged: "I'm going to listen to the people who run the military" for advice on Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT), which bans openly gay service members. Today, The New York Times reports that 28 retired generals and admirals plan to release a letter today -- the 14th anniversary of DADT -- urging Congress to repeal the legislation. "We respectfully urge Congress to repeal the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy," the letter says. Signers of the letter are all "high-ranking," including Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when DADT was instituted. Roughly 11,000 servicemembers have been forced out of service for being gay since the policy was implemented in 1993.
NOT GOOD…
A New York Times analysis found that "Medicare spends billions of dollars each year on products and services that are available at far lower prices from retail pharmacies and online stores." For example, Medicare spends more than double the drugstore price on oxygen tanks.
Nearly 3,000 families will be forced out of FEMA trailers by next May when FEMA plans to "close all the trailer camps it runs for victims" of Hurricane Katrina. The trailers have been found to contain dangerous levels of formaldehyde.
VIDEO SECTION
Holy s***! Olbermann totally unleashes on Lou Dobbs for as I have called it, “his descent into madness”. But it’s not just his blatant xenophobia, disinformation, and constant propaganda efforts to demonize Latinos that make him such a driving force in the rising tide of American racism that's a problem...apparently Dobbs has made a whole lot of money off employing “undocumented workers”! Watch Olbermann’s worst person…and knowing how Dobbs temper is barely containable, this could become a real fight:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/05/countdowns-worst-persons-gonzo-hill-hypocrite-lou-dobbs/
Watch Sy Hersh on CNN…asking that all important question about Bush and the NIE report: “What did he know and when did he know it?” As we now know, the information in the report was common knowledge…in fact, Hersh reported it a year ago!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/05/sy-hersh-we-pay-bush-to-know-these-things-what-did-he-know-when/
And this is even better, conservative talk show host Joe Scarborough nails this new mega scandal perfectly. Either Bush knew that he was completely lying about Iran for the past year, or, he’s the stupidest President in the history of the nation (and has the worst advisers in history too) for not understanding the NIE report, or, not asking what it meant.
Of course we all know the truth…they have been lying, while behind the scenes trying to prevent this report from being published or manipulating its conclusions. They failed at both, and now will pay the consequences, as will the Republican party and every candidate that has talked about bombing Iran (and let’s hope it hurts Hillary some too).
Watch:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/69768/
And even more surprising, here’s Buchanan AND Scarborough demanding the Dems hold hearings on this scandal and find out what Bush knew, and when he knew it! This tells me we may be seeing the final bullet in the head of this White House. Impeach for Christ’s sake!!! As Buchanan says, “why are they leading us to war (nuclear) when they KNEW there was no threat?” Indeed.
Watch this!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/05/morning-joe-scarborough-and-buchanan-want-hearings-over-nie/
Biden to Bush: "Invade Iran and we’ll impeach you.” Now, I like this kind of talk, obviously, but it also begs the question: “Why not start impeachment hearings anyway?” There’s literally about 10 counts that you could nail him on (whether successful or not). Still, I like watching Biden when he gets tough sometimes:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/04/hardball-biden-repeats-his-threat-to-bush-invade-iran-and-youll-be-impeached/
Here’s another one of the “highlights” (or lowlights) of the Bush press conference from the other day, as he’s asked if he brought up the recent rape case in Saudi Arabia to his buddy Prince Abdullah. You know the one, she was a 19-year old Saudi woman who was the victim of a brutal gang rape and later sentenced to 200 lashes. The Saudi court blamed her for being an "adulteress who invited the attack."
Watch Bush address the issue…be seated, have a barf bag nearby, and don’t lose all faith in humanity…
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/69664/
IRAN 1 AMERICA 0 (We’re shamed as a nation again!)
Robert Scheer on the latest shame to America…lying about Iran to the whole world, and being schooled by a crackpot like Ahmadinejad. That’s right, he comes out as the truthful one in all this, and this administration, including Hillary and all the other saber rattlers, have helped prop him up, and in the process hurt the chances of the moderates in Iran. Well done!
A few clips:
Bush is such a liar. Or is he just out to lunch on the most important issue that he faces? In October, he charged that Iran’s nuclear weapons program was bringing the world to the precipice of World War III, even though the White House had been informed at least a month earlier that Iran had no such program and had stopped efforts to develop one back in 2003.
SNIP
It’s humiliating to all of us who believe in a free press, separation of powers and individual liberty that a system of government designed by its founders to hold leaders accountable can be so easily manipulated by an unremarkable loser who has been rewarded throughout his life for screwing up. It is hoped that this time around the truth will catch up with him before he gets us in yet another bloody war, just to show he can.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/05/5617/
NO TO PERU “FREE” (CORPORATE) TRADE!
Here’s a good piece explaining why the Peru Free Trade Agreement is, shocker, yet another giveaway to agribusiness interests at the expense of consumers, small farmers, and the environment. Oh, and Hillary and Obama voted for it!
Here’s a few clips from Ben Burkett , vice-president of the National Family Farm Coalition:
...our Congress members seem to be oblivious to the livelihoods of family farmers and the wishes of consumers as they continue to pass more disastrous free trade agreements. Instead of learning from the failed lessons of the National American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the House of Representatives passed the Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in November. The U.S. Senate is looking to vote on it this month. Farmers and consumers both here and in Peru will be the big losers. The only winners will be corporate agribusinesses dumping cheap grain and seeking the cheapest labor and most lax environmental standards.
SNIP
As harmful as the Peru FTA will be for American farmers and ranchers, the effects on Peruvian farmers will be just as devastating. As an African American farmer, I am particularly concerned about the impact the agreement will have on the millions of Afro-Peruvian and indigenous farmers. The same international grain traders who dumped below-cost grain into Mexico after NAFTA, driving over a million farmers off the land and fueling illegal migration into the United States, will now do the same in Peru. Many of those displaced Peruvian corn and rice farmers facing economic catastrophe will be forced to migrate or grow illicit drug crops to survive. In July, four million Peruvians took to the streets to voice opposition to the FTA.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/05/5633/
GOODMAN VERSUS DOBBS
Amy Goodman now schools Lou Dobbs too. In fact, he was on her show the other morning…talk about a riveting debate with all kinds of fireworks! He reminded me of an angry petulant teenager…lots of name calling and yelling...all in the face of so much proof of his lies and lack of journalistic integrity that I must admit it was a joy to listen to.
A few clips first:
On March 28, 2006, Dobbs said on his show, “And it’s costing us, no one knows precisely how much, to incarcerate what is about a third of our prison population who are illegal aliens.” As it turns out, the number of noncitizens incarcerated in the U.S. federal and state prisons is closer to 6 percent, not 33 percent. Note that the 6 percent includes legal immigrants as well.
On April 14, 2005, Lou Dobbs opened his show by saying: “The invasion of illegal aliens is threatening the health of many Americans. Highly contagious diseases are now crossing our borders decades after those diseases had been eradicated in this country.” CNN correspondent Christine Romans filed a report, then told Dobbs, “There have been 7,000 [cases of leprosy] in the past three years.” CBS’ “60 Minutes” later challenged the fact, pointing out that there had actually been 7,029 cases reported over 30 years. When Lesley Stahl confronted Dobbs on the statistic, he defended it, saying: “Well, I can tell you this. If we reported it, it’s a fact.”
SNIP
In our conversation with Dobbs, “Democracy Now!” co-host Juan Gonzalez raised the issue of history, of how immigrants have been scapegoated: the Irish in the 1860s, the Chinese in the 1880s and, later, Southern Europeans. Dobbs rolled his eyes, saying, “Are you holding me responsible?” No, and Dobbs knows better. But he must be held responsible for not bringing a historical context to this crucial discussion of immigration reform. The immigration issue will not be solved by vilifying a population. The SPLC has just released a report on the upsurge in anti-immigrant, anti-Latino violence in the U.S.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/05/5615/
Yet ANOTHER Reason NOT to Support Hillary
2006 was a Democratic opportunity, and grassroots supporters dug deep and then deeper to finance an ever-expanding array of competitive races. Hillary, meanwhile, made a conscious decision to raise $52 million for a Senate campaign that she could have won in her pajamas, spent $40.8 million (to beat a token opponent who spent less than $6 million), and transferred the rest to her presidential campaign.
You could say she was just playing the game, but John Edwards and Barack Obama, in comparison, campaigned throughout the country to support worthy Democratic candidates, while doing negligible fundraising for their own pending campaigns. The Edwards campaign ended that season still in debt from 2004. Obama emerged with less than a million in the bank. Their top priorities really did seem to be helping other Democrats win a critical election, instead of subordinating all other goals to their own personal futures.
For another contrast, the entire Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised only $107 million that season, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee $103 million. Hillary spent more than a third as much as either of these, more than any candidate in America that year…Imagine if Hillary had transferred $20 million into the dozen Congressional campaigns that Democrats lost by margins as close as a few hundred votes.
-- Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of Soul of a Citizen and The Impossible Will Take a Little While.
HUCKABEE REVELATIONS…
Just when you thought Mike Huckabee at least didn’t make you want to punch him in the face, or immediately jail him for being a fascist lunatic, it not only turns out he’d never heard of NIE report findings, but he also, due to pressure from anti-clinton fanatics while Governor of Arkansas, released a rapist (25 years early)…who raped again.
From C&L:
Murray Waas: Huckabee’s Role In Serial Rapist’s Release To Discredit Clinton
Huffington Post:
As governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.
Confidential Arkansas state government records, including letters from these women, obtained by the Huffington Post and revealed publicly for the first time, directly contradict the version of events now being put forward by Huckabee.
While on the campaign trail, Huckabee has claimed that he supported the 1999 release of Wayne Dumond because, at the time, he had no good reason to believe that the man represented a further threat to the public. Thanks to Huckabee’s intervention, conducted in concert with a right-wing tabloid campaign on Dumond’s behalf, Dumond was let out of prison 25 years before his sentence would have ended. But the confidential files obtained by the Huffington Post show that Huckabee was provided letters from several women who had been sexually assaulted by Dumond and who indeed predicted that he would rape again - and perhaps murder - if released.[..]
Huckabee kept these and other documents secret because they were politically damaging, according to a former aide who worked for him in Arkansas. The aide has made the records available to the Huffington Post, deeply troubled by Huckabee’s repeated claims that he had no reason to believe Dumond would commit other violent crimes upon his release from prison. The aide also believes that Huckabee, for political reasons, has deliberately attempted to cover up his knowledge of Dumond’s other sexual assaults.
In 1996, as a newly elected governor who had received strong support from the Christian right, Huckabee was under intense pressure from conservative activists to pardon Dumond or commute his sentence. The activists claimed that Dumond’s initial imprisonment and various other travails were due to the fact that Ashley Stevens, the high school cheerleader he had raped, was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, and the daughter of a major Clinton campaign contributor.
GOOD NEWS…
51 percent: College students who say "where a candidate stands on the environment would be very important to their vote," according to a survey conducted by American University students.
"In an unprecedented show of solidarity, leaders from 150 global companies endorsed the idea of...legally binding" cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions.
28 GENERALS AND ADMIRALS URGE REPEAL OF DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL: Retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr, an openly gay man, asked Republican presidential candidates at Wednesday's CNN/YouTube debate why they "think that American men and women in uniform are not professional enough to serve with gays and lesbians." Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney hedged: "I'm going to listen to the people who run the military" for advice on Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT), which bans openly gay service members. Today, The New York Times reports that 28 retired generals and admirals plan to release a letter today -- the 14th anniversary of DADT -- urging Congress to repeal the legislation. "We respectfully urge Congress to repeal the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy," the letter says. Signers of the letter are all "high-ranking," including Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when DADT was instituted. Roughly 11,000 servicemembers have been forced out of service for being gay since the policy was implemented in 1993.
NOT GOOD…
A New York Times analysis found that "Medicare spends billions of dollars each year on products and services that are available at far lower prices from retail pharmacies and online stores." For example, Medicare spends more than double the drugstore price on oxygen tanks.
Nearly 3,000 families will be forced out of FEMA trailers by next May when FEMA plans to "close all the trailer camps it runs for victims" of Hurricane Katrina. The trailers have been found to contain dangerous levels of formaldehyde.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
TODAY'S TOPICS: Iran Nukes (Not), Administration Lying (again), Krugman, Nader, Cronkite, Energy Bill, Maddow
That obnoxious sound coming from north of the border: the non-stop laughter of millions of Canadians playing a little game they call payback, mocking the play money we call moolah, "Oh, so I guess you would be talking aboot AMERICAN dollars, eh? Oooh. I don't know there, eh." Our economy isn't in the doldrums. Our economy can't even see the doldrums. Our economy aspires to the doldrums. Dubyah has turned us into a third world banana republic. We're Costa Rica to the rest of the World. With lousier snorkeling.
-- Will Durst
WRONG (actually lying about not wrong) ABOUT WMD'S...AGAIN...SIGH...
See, what the media hasn't fully grasped yet is this information WAS KNOWN by the administration a year ago...yet they prattled on about WW3 anyway...and now they're saying they didn't know what we all know they did. AS Yogi Berra once said, "This is deja vu all over again."
Bush:
But this — we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon…
Is anyone else shocked that it was FOX’s Bret Baier that elicited the “World War III” sound byte? Me neither. Full transcript here if you can stomach it.
Kevin Drum has a good post up and notes:
This NIE was apparently finished a year ago, and its basic parameters were almost certainly common knowledge in the White House well before that. This means that all the leaks, all the World War III stuff, all the blustering about the IAEA — all of it was approved for public consumption after Cheney/Bush/Rice/etc. knew perfectly well it was mostly baseless.
Nothing smells better in the morning to the Neocons than war propaganda. That’s why Cheney tried to hold up the report from coming out.
A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear programme, and thus make the document more supportive of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts of the process provided by participants to two former Central Intelligence Agency officers.
-- Crooks and Liars
Now watch David Gregory grill the President on his latest war hyping…and he just caught W. in a BIG LIE...I'll understand if you cut the video short after the second minute or so of Bush's repetitive blathering and lying...wow he's a moron: (NOTE: See David Shuster and Rachelle Maddow's discussion of this from yesterday)
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/04/george-bush-says-he-got-the-new-nie-report-last-week-oh-really/
We've got the thunderclouds of a recession heading our way. We're in the midst of a housing foreclosure crisis that is tragic in its dimensions. We've got forty-some-million people without health coverage. And the city of New Orleans is still on its knees. So you tune in to the G.O.P. debate on CNN to see what's what, and they're talking about - guns.
SNIP
The incessant drumbeat of brute force as the favored solution to difficult problems serves to normalize state violence to the point where we hardly notice it. Before his widely reported crack about Jesus being too smart to run for office, former Gov. Mike Huckabee talked proudly about the tough challenge he faced in "carrying out" the death penalty in Arkansas. "I did it more than any other governor ever had to do it in my state," he said.
The Republican Party has won a lot of elections in recent years. So maybe this crop of candidates knows something about American voters that many us would rather not acknowledge, that too many of them are small-minded, fearful, bigoted and too shallow to recognize policies that are against their own - and their country's - best interests.
-- Bob Herbert, NY Times
VIDEO SECTION...
Excellent beat reporter David Shuster fills in for Olbermann and has Rachelle Maddow on to discuss…wait for it…the new report that demonstrates the shocking news that Bush and Co. have been lying about Iran WMD’s! (I’m being as sarcastic as I possibly can right now):
From CYL: “As Shuster and Maddow point out, the Bush administration has no shame, which is why they had no problem trotting out National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, to float the ridiculous notion that the report wasn’t completed until Tuesday of last week and that President Bush only learned that Iran halted its nuclear program four years ago — the following day.”
Watch:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/03/countdown-bushs-nukyular-credibility-meltdown/
And here’s a great combo…Olbermann reads a recent, and of course funny, Tom Tomorrow cartoon in which O’Reilly is lambasted…all the while, Olbermann uses his O’Reilly impression to do so:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/03/keith-olbermann-reads-tom-tomorrow/
I don’t ask you to watch this to depress you…or sadden…but in the face of the massive wave of “we’re winning in Iraq” (you can’t win an illegal occupation) propaganda, and what I see as the slow re-attaching of a lot of Americans to the Matrix, I must.
Yes…watch yet another fun fact about Iraqi life…hospital death squads…or as Republicans would call it: “Freedom on the March!”:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/04/sunnis-fear-for-their-lives-in-iraqi-hospitals-because-of-death-squads/
Along the same lines as above…Jack Cafferty asks the correct question in regards to Iraq…”if the Iraqi government is so corrupt why are we still dropping billions in it?”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/03/cafferty-if-iraq-is-so-corrupt-why-does-us-still-drop-billions-into-it/
ARTICLE SECTION: Nader, Krugman, Cronkite
I've got a tri of outstanding articles today by outstanding writers/advocates:
NADER:
This is an excellent piece by Ralph Nader on something he knows just a little about: our corporate welfare state, the damage caused by ideologically driven deregulation, and our government’s growing “Wall Street” over “Mainstreet” religion.
Such analyses are especially relevant in the wake of the subprime housing crisis, the rapidly increasing disparity between the rich and poor, and our ever increasing debt…paid off by borrowing…from China…
A few clips:
Why, ordinary taxpayers and consumers may ask, do mortgages extended to homeowners on Elm Street, USA, circle the globe with so much disruption? Because unlike the old days when the local mutual savings and loan association was doing such a quiet, prudent job raising America’s home ownership rate to record highs, the S & L’s are gone and the security speculators have taken over.
Large bundles of home mortgages are bundled into securities which are then transformed into even more abstract and complex risk packages. The greater the risk that these packaged securities entail, the greater the profits. Until, that is, the deck of cards start falling to real ground, which is what began to happen this year, and next year will be worse in both these key sectors of the economy, with its overall effect on the general economy.
SNIP
Let’s drop the enduring myth that these big time, very well-paid speculators are free-wheeling capitalists broadening markets for low-income people. They are wasters of capital (largely using other people’s money as with worker pension funds.) not their own stakes. Such even wilder speculation, generated through even more complex speculative instruments in a super-sonic computer age, will continue until people, who pay the final bills, organize as voters and consumers to make their supreme government cut the corporate welfare umbilical cord that extends from Washington, DC to Wall Street.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/03/5587/
KRUGMAN:
And to continue with today’s focus on economic policy, read yet another dead on Paul Krugman breakdown of the “how’s”, “why’s” and “what to do now’s”.
A few clips:
In a direct sense, this collapse of trust has been caused by the bursting of the housing bubble. The run-up of home prices made even less sense than the dot-com bubble - I mean, there wasn’t even a glamorous new technology to justify claims that old rules no longer applied - but somehow financial markets accepted crazy home prices as the new normal. And when the bubble burst, a lot of investments that were labeled AAA turned out to be junk.
SNIP
But what has really undermined trust is the fact that nobody knows where the financial toxic waste is buried. Citigroup wasn’t supposed to have tens of billions of dollars in subprime exposure; it did. Florida’s Local Government Investment Pool, which acts as a bank for the state’s school districts, was supposed to be risk-free; it wasn’t (and now schools don’t have the money to pay teachers).
SNIP
How did things get so opaque? The answer is “financial innovation” - two words that should, from now on, strike fear into investors’ hearts…the alphabet soup of C.D.O.’s and S.I.V.’s, R.M.B.S. and A.B.C.P. - were sold on false pretenses. They were promoted as ways to spread risk, making investment safer. What they did instead - aside from making their creators a lot of money, which they didn’t have to repay when it all went bust - was to spread confusion, luring investors into taking on more risk than they realized.
Why was this allowed to happen? At a deep level, I believe that the problem was ideological: policy makers, committed to the view that the market is always right, simply ignored the warning signs. We know, in particular, that Alan Greenspan brushed aside warnings from Edward Gramlich, who was a member of the Federal Reserve Board, about a potential subprime crisis.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/03/5569/
CRONKITE IS BACK...
And look whose back! Over 30 years since he started speaking out as the most prominent news anchor in the country against the Vietnam War, Walter Cronkite urges the US to leave Iraq.
That obnoxious sound coming from north of the border: the non-stop laughter of millions of Canadians playing a little game they call payback, mocking the play money we call moolah, "Oh, so I guess you would be talking aboot AMERICAN dollars, eh? Oooh. I don't know there, eh." Our economy isn't in the doldrums. Our economy can't even see the doldrums. Our economy aspires to the doldrums. Dubyah has turned us into a third world banana republic. We're Costa Rica to the rest of the World. With lousier snorkeling.
-- Will Durst
WRONG (actually lying about not wrong) ABOUT WMD'S...AGAIN...SIGH...
See, what the media hasn't fully grasped yet is this information WAS KNOWN by the administration a year ago...yet they prattled on about WW3 anyway...and now they're saying they didn't know what we all know they did. AS Yogi Berra once said, "This is deja vu all over again."
Bush:
But this — we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon…
Is anyone else shocked that it was FOX’s Bret Baier that elicited the “World War III” sound byte? Me neither. Full transcript here if you can stomach it.
Kevin Drum has a good post up and notes:
This NIE was apparently finished a year ago, and its basic parameters were almost certainly common knowledge in the White House well before that. This means that all the leaks, all the World War III stuff, all the blustering about the IAEA — all of it was approved for public consumption after Cheney/Bush/Rice/etc. knew perfectly well it was mostly baseless.
Nothing smells better in the morning to the Neocons than war propaganda. That’s why Cheney tried to hold up the report from coming out.
A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear programme, and thus make the document more supportive of U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney’s militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts of the process provided by participants to two former Central Intelligence Agency officers.
-- Crooks and Liars
Now watch David Gregory grill the President on his latest war hyping…and he just caught W. in a BIG LIE...I'll understand if you cut the video short after the second minute or so of Bush's repetitive blathering and lying...wow he's a moron: (NOTE: See David Shuster and Rachelle Maddow's discussion of this from yesterday)
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/04/george-bush-says-he-got-the-new-nie-report-last-week-oh-really/
We've got the thunderclouds of a recession heading our way. We're in the midst of a housing foreclosure crisis that is tragic in its dimensions. We've got forty-some-million people without health coverage. And the city of New Orleans is still on its knees. So you tune in to the G.O.P. debate on CNN to see what's what, and they're talking about - guns.
SNIP
The incessant drumbeat of brute force as the favored solution to difficult problems serves to normalize state violence to the point where we hardly notice it. Before his widely reported crack about Jesus being too smart to run for office, former Gov. Mike Huckabee talked proudly about the tough challenge he faced in "carrying out" the death penalty in Arkansas. "I did it more than any other governor ever had to do it in my state," he said.
The Republican Party has won a lot of elections in recent years. So maybe this crop of candidates knows something about American voters that many us would rather not acknowledge, that too many of them are small-minded, fearful, bigoted and too shallow to recognize policies that are against their own - and their country's - best interests.
-- Bob Herbert, NY Times
VIDEO SECTION...
Excellent beat reporter David Shuster fills in for Olbermann and has Rachelle Maddow on to discuss…wait for it…the new report that demonstrates the shocking news that Bush and Co. have been lying about Iran WMD’s! (I’m being as sarcastic as I possibly can right now):
From CYL: “As Shuster and Maddow point out, the Bush administration has no shame, which is why they had no problem trotting out National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, to float the ridiculous notion that the report wasn’t completed until Tuesday of last week and that President Bush only learned that Iran halted its nuclear program four years ago — the following day.”
Watch:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/03/countdown-bushs-nukyular-credibility-meltdown/
And here’s a great combo…Olbermann reads a recent, and of course funny, Tom Tomorrow cartoon in which O’Reilly is lambasted…all the while, Olbermann uses his O’Reilly impression to do so:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/03/keith-olbermann-reads-tom-tomorrow/
I don’t ask you to watch this to depress you…or sadden…but in the face of the massive wave of “we’re winning in Iraq” (you can’t win an illegal occupation) propaganda, and what I see as the slow re-attaching of a lot of Americans to the Matrix, I must.
Yes…watch yet another fun fact about Iraqi life…hospital death squads…or as Republicans would call it: “Freedom on the March!”:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/04/sunnis-fear-for-their-lives-in-iraqi-hospitals-because-of-death-squads/
Along the same lines as above…Jack Cafferty asks the correct question in regards to Iraq…”if the Iraqi government is so corrupt why are we still dropping billions in it?”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/03/cafferty-if-iraq-is-so-corrupt-why-does-us-still-drop-billions-into-it/
ARTICLE SECTION: Nader, Krugman, Cronkite
I've got a tri of outstanding articles today by outstanding writers/advocates:
NADER:
This is an excellent piece by Ralph Nader on something he knows just a little about: our corporate welfare state, the damage caused by ideologically driven deregulation, and our government’s growing “Wall Street” over “Mainstreet” religion.
Such analyses are especially relevant in the wake of the subprime housing crisis, the rapidly increasing disparity between the rich and poor, and our ever increasing debt…paid off by borrowing…from China…
A few clips:
Why, ordinary taxpayers and consumers may ask, do mortgages extended to homeowners on Elm Street, USA, circle the globe with so much disruption? Because unlike the old days when the local mutual savings and loan association was doing such a quiet, prudent job raising America’s home ownership rate to record highs, the S & L’s are gone and the security speculators have taken over.
Large bundles of home mortgages are bundled into securities which are then transformed into even more abstract and complex risk packages. The greater the risk that these packaged securities entail, the greater the profits. Until, that is, the deck of cards start falling to real ground, which is what began to happen this year, and next year will be worse in both these key sectors of the economy, with its overall effect on the general economy.
SNIP
Let’s drop the enduring myth that these big time, very well-paid speculators are free-wheeling capitalists broadening markets for low-income people. They are wasters of capital (largely using other people’s money as with worker pension funds.) not their own stakes. Such even wilder speculation, generated through even more complex speculative instruments in a super-sonic computer age, will continue until people, who pay the final bills, organize as voters and consumers to make their supreme government cut the corporate welfare umbilical cord that extends from Washington, DC to Wall Street.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/03/5587/
KRUGMAN:
And to continue with today’s focus on economic policy, read yet another dead on Paul Krugman breakdown of the “how’s”, “why’s” and “what to do now’s”.
A few clips:
In a direct sense, this collapse of trust has been caused by the bursting of the housing bubble. The run-up of home prices made even less sense than the dot-com bubble - I mean, there wasn’t even a glamorous new technology to justify claims that old rules no longer applied - but somehow financial markets accepted crazy home prices as the new normal. And when the bubble burst, a lot of investments that were labeled AAA turned out to be junk.
SNIP
But what has really undermined trust is the fact that nobody knows where the financial toxic waste is buried. Citigroup wasn’t supposed to have tens of billions of dollars in subprime exposure; it did. Florida’s Local Government Investment Pool, which acts as a bank for the state’s school districts, was supposed to be risk-free; it wasn’t (and now schools don’t have the money to pay teachers).
SNIP
How did things get so opaque? The answer is “financial innovation” - two words that should, from now on, strike fear into investors’ hearts…the alphabet soup of C.D.O.’s and S.I.V.’s, R.M.B.S. and A.B.C.P. - were sold on false pretenses. They were promoted as ways to spread risk, making investment safer. What they did instead - aside from making their creators a lot of money, which they didn’t have to repay when it all went bust - was to spread confusion, luring investors into taking on more risk than they realized.
Why was this allowed to happen? At a deep level, I believe that the problem was ideological: policy makers, committed to the view that the market is always right, simply ignored the warning signs. We know, in particular, that Alan Greenspan brushed aside warnings from Edward Gramlich, who was a member of the Federal Reserve Board, about a potential subprime crisis.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/03/5569/
CRONKITE IS BACK...
And look whose back! Over 30 years since he started speaking out as the most prominent news anchor in the country against the Vietnam War, Walter Cronkite urges the US to leave Iraq.
A few clips:
The invasion of Iraq was illegal from the start. Not only was Congress lied to in order to secure its support for the invasion of Iraq, but the war lacked the support of the United Nations Security Council and thus was an aggressive war initiated on the false pretenses of weapons of mass destruction. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Nor has any assertion of a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda proven to be true. In the end, democracy has not come to Iraq. Its government is still being forced to bend to the will of the US administration.
SNIP
We must ask ourselves whether continuing to pursue this war is benefiting the American people or weakening us. We must ask whether continuing the war is benefiting the Iraqi people or inflicting greater suffering upon them. We believe the answer to these inquiries is that both the American and Iraqi people would benefit by ending the US military presence in Iraq.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120407B.shtml
20 percent: Number of Americans who are unable to afford health care, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A report by the Government Accountability Office said the Defense Department and top military officials including Gen. David Petraeus have sought to show progress in Iraq by citing numbers of Iraqi Security Force units deemed "independent." "But it is unclear how the Pentagon and its officials have reached those conclusions."
THERE’S A REASON BUSH IS THREATENING A VETO OF THE ENERGY BILL…IT WOULD REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL USE…
Though both of these Democratic ideas could be a lot stronger, considering the GOP congress, and the sociopath in the White House, these proposals are a decent start, that could be approved upon once a Democrat is in the White House:
CAFE STANDARDS: With oil futures "up about 76 percent from this year's lowest levels, in January," and Americans concerned about global warming and national security, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) said the timing presented "a perfect political moment" to take action. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) forecasted that the new CAFE standards would result in a lifetime savings to car owners of roughly $4,500 and, more importantly, cut oil imports by 1.1 million barrels per day in 2020, equal to half the amount currently imported from the entire Persian Gulf. Had these standards been fully implemented today, the average driver would have used 160 fewer gallons of gas, and saved $500 this year. "This agreement breaks 30 years of gridlock on fuel economy. ... This is a victory for Americans struggling with $3 per gallon gasoline and would deliver savings of more than $20 billion in 2020," said UCS's David Friedman. The support of the auto industry, along with Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), is key to the measure's success. Rick Wagoner, chairman and CEO of General Motors called the CAFE measures "tough" but assured that "GM is prepared to put forth its best effort" to meet them. Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the trade group that represents Detroit's Big Three, Toyota, Daimler AG, and five other automakers, said that "this tough national fuel economy bill will be good for both consumers and energy security. We support its passage." "This vehicle fuel economy agreement is the single most important step Congress can take to reduce our energy costs and dependence on Mideast oil," said Mark Cooper, Director of Research for the Consumer Federation of America. "Now it's up to Congress and President Bush to leave the past behind once and for all by prompt passage of and signature on these 21st Century fuel economy standards," said Dan Weiss, a fellow at the Center for American Progress.
RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY: Pelosi is also pressing for a controversial provision that requires utilities to generate 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy predicted such a measure would save $35 billion on energy bills through 2030. The measure has powerful enemies, including the utility trade group the Edison Electric Institute and southern Congressmen who mistakenly fear their states don't have enough renewable fuel sources to meet the 15 percent threshold. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the provision would make the bill "very troublesome for all of us in the Southeast," and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) "says Southerners' outrage makes Senate passage a 'worst-case scenario.'" Yet the bill would allow utilities "to purchase credits if renewable fuels are not available and allows efficiency programs as a partial substitute." Even though his state has implemented its own successful renewable electricity standard, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) is leading the fight to oppose the measure, telling reporters yesterday, "At this time, I have instructed my staff to cease their work on the energy bill, since the final bill apparently will not be the product of our bipartisan negotiations." Yesterday, Bush's outgoing economic adviser Al Hubbard threatened a White House veto of the entire energy bill, objecting to the utilities provision and the CAFE standards. He wrote to Pelosi that the bill "should rely on market innovation" rather than legislated standards. "It appears Congress may intend to produce a bill the President cannot sign," Hubbard wrote. Speaking to reporters yesterday, however, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he expected the provision to pass the Senate. "I think, yes, we do have enough votes, but time will tell," Reid said. The House is expected to vote on the energy bill this Wednesday, with a Senate vote on an identical version -- thereby eliminating the need for a conference committee -- to follow next week.
Democrats in the state Legislature think they have found a culprit in the slow response to the big fuel-oil spill in San Francisco Bay last month: the private contractors that shippers are required to hire to be ready to contain and help clean up any potential spill. Daniel Weintraub in the Sacramento Bee -- 12/4/07
Monday, December 03, 2007
TODAY'S TOPICS: Olbermann/Klein, Wolf/Goodman, GOP Scandals, Hagel, Rove, Iran Weapons?, Conservatives, Diebold
Well, the good news is I'm back from DC (unfortunately I was unable to solve and fix the subprime crisis or end predatory lending while there), and the record 6 days of no posts will come to an end! :) The bad news is I have very little time as I'm catching up on all kinds of work here at the office.
So for today, I'm going with lots of copy and pastes from Crooks and Liars, brad blog, and Center for American Progress...and I'll get to columns and clips from them hopefully tomorrow.
"I have to say this is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I've ever seen or ever read about...They have failed the country."
- Republican Chuck Hagel (though speech wasn't covered by media...so not recorded as far as I know)
"I told you the administration was opposed to voting on it in the fall of 2002."
-- Karl Rove, 11/22/07, on the pre-Iraq war vote
VERSUS
"It was definitely the Bush administration that set it in motion and determined the timing, not the Congress."
-- Former White House spokeperson Ari Fleischer, 12/1/07
AND THIS…MSNBC'S JOE SCARBOROUGH: We have to start with something that we all are talking about a couple of days ago where Karl Rove went on Charlie Rose and he blamed the Democrats for pushing him and the president into war. Is that how it worked?
CARD: No, that's not the way it worked.
-- Then-White House chief of staff Andrew Card, 11/29/07
Again my question: Why is this sociopathic, lying war criminal (Rove) allowed to lie with impunity – both on TV and now as a Newsweek columnist? I mean, what does it say about our media that this guy is given - day in day out - a megaphone to deceive the nation?
VIDEO SECTION
Naomie Klein on Olbermann…two of my favorite people in the world…literally:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/01/the-shock-doctrine-the-evil-of-disaster-capitalism/
And two more of my favorites...Naomie Wolf and Amy Goodman discuss one of my regular editorial topics on this blog for a couple years now: America's descent into fascism:
From Alternet: "In her new book, “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot”, Naomi Wolf says the United States is on the road to becoming a fascist society, right under our very noses. Wolf outlines what she sees as the ten steps to shut down a democratic society and argues that the Bush administration has already implemented many of these steps. Wolf is the author of several books including the 1990s feminist classic, “The Beauty Myth.” In the video to your right Wolf is interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now."
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/69422/
Watch Rove get confronted by a Dem congressman on his latest historical revisionism. In fact, I would say, honestly, its the boldest and most blatant bald face attempt to re-write history that I've ever seen:
http://alternet.org/blogs/waroniraq/69486/
Jess Jackson on the subprime crisis...an issue i've been doing a lot of work on lately but not something I've discussed too in depthly here:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/69419/
Helen Thomas...still one of the only White House reporters that asks...well...tough questions. Watch her confront Dana Perino, the latest piece of human excrement serving as this administration's Press Secretary:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/01/give-helen-thomas-a-raise/
Olbermann versus Dobbs…how to cover a news story correctly and in context...and how not to. This would be great material for a college journalism class:
From C&L: Keith Olbermann brings on VoteVet.org’s Jon Soltz to discuss Rep. John Murtha’s most recent statement that the “surge” is working, noting that most of the rest of the media has been eager to only focus on the first part of his statement, essentially ignoring the second half, where Murtha notes that while the military aspect has done what it needs to, the political aspect has not been successful. Based on this Wired report, I would question if military aspect can really be categorized as “successful,” especially considering that no politicians are ever given a chance to see anything but highly managed events within the Green Zone, and while troop casualties may be down, Iraqi casualties don’t get reported. However, for the purposes of this comparison, let’s give Murtha the benefit of the doubt and simply appreciate the context that Olbermann and Soltz attempt to provide to Murtha’s statement.
Then watch how Dobbs covers the same story...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/01/olbermann-vs-dobbs-your-liberal-media-in-action/
Bob schieffer continues to quietly be one of the few decent tv newsman left today. Here he makes one of the obvious points about why the latest propaganda bombardment regarding Iraq and the surge needs to be taken with a galaxy sized grain of salt:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/02/bob-schieffer-commentary-iraq-is-still-the-place-where-americans-are-dying/
IRAN HALTED WEAPONS PROGRAM IN 2003
NY Times:
A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.
The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran’s ultimate intentions about gaining a nuclear weapon remain unclear, but that Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.
Instead, the N.I.E. concludes it is more likely Iran could have a bomb by the early part to the middle of the next decade. The report states that the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research judges Iran is unlikely to achieve this goal before 2013, “because of foreseeable technical and programmatic problems.”…
read on
YES, REPUBLICANS ARE SICK AND PERVERTED...
This is what conservatives spend their time gathering info on people...put this together with the virtual tsunami of GOP gay and pedophilia scandals and it all starts to become clearer. Just as they are the same type of people that talk tough, and send others to bomb people in their name, but would run like a jack rabbit if asked to fight themselves...be it a war or in a bar...
Conservapedia's most-viewed articles list:
1. Main Page [1,897,388]
2. Homosexuality [1,488,013]
3. Homosexuality and Hepatitis [516,193]
4. Homosexuality and Promiscuity [416,767]
5. Homosexuality and Parasites [387,438]
6. Homosexuality and Gonorrhea [328,045]
7. Homosexuality and Domestic Violence [325,547]
8. Gay Bowel Syndrome [314,076]
9. Homosexuality and Syphilis [262,015]
10. Homosexuality and Mental Health [249,14]
Oil Scandal, Larry Flynt Investigation Led to Trent Lott's Early Exit
I posted the video coverage of this brewing GIANT scandal, with the hidden video cameras, last Monday...its just getting started people...
This post, written by Amanda Terkel, originally appeared on Think Progress
Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) refuses to say why he is retiring from Congress. Many in the media have reported that Lott likely wants to enter the lucrative world of K Street before "tougher restrictions in a new lobbying law" take effect.
But the right-wing American Spectator magazine speculates that brewing corruption scandals may have contributed to Lott's decision:
The tin-foil-hat crowd was almost immediately pushing a Jack Abramoff angle to the surprise resignation of Sen. Trent Lott. But a more recent scandal brewing -- which has already ensnared Sen. Ted Stevens, among others -- may also be playing on Lott's mind.
Lott, Stevens, as well as Rep. Dennis Hastert all have ties to Bill Allen, a larger than life Alaskan businessman who owned Veco, an oil-field services company, and who was a huge benefactor of Republican politicians.
Allen has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska legislators, including Ben Stevens, the son of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). The elder Stevens is currently the target of multiple federal investigation, including one on his ties to Veco.
Lott continues to stand by Stevens, donating $5,000 from his political action committee to Stevens's re-election campaign. Lott also has ties to Allen, who accompanied him to the lavish annual "Waterfall Fishing Tournament" in Alaska. Since 1996, at least 10 current and former lawmakers have attended the trip, an opportunity for "the energy industry's top brass" to influence lawmakers.
In addition to the lawmakers, high-ranking executives from the nation's top oil firms -- including Allen -- attended the Waterfall excursions. Companies with business before Congress occasionally provided free trips to Waterfall for lawmakers and top executives on private company jets.
Lawmakers may have violated congressional ethics rules by not paying for the trips. Marketplace, which originally reported on the event, noted that it could find no PAC, personal, or campaign payments for the trip from Lott.
23 Republican Retirements So Far and More to Come
This post, written by Howie Klien, originally appeared on Down With Tyranny!
Yesterday Trent Lott's unexpected resignation from the Senate and Denny Hastert's long overdue one from the House, brought the number of Republicans leaving electoral politics to 17 in the House and 6 in the Senate. The Chairman of the NRCC, right-wing extremist Tom Cole (R-OK) tried to put on a brave face. "I don't hear a drumbeat that 'We're not effective and I don't like it here anymore.'" Maybe he needs to listen more carefully.
But with so many lawmakers -- including a large number from competitive states and districts -- heading for the exits, it's hard not to point to the GOP's newfound minority status in Washington, the turnover in party leadership and the perilous political environment heading into 2008 to explain the exodus.
Stephen Heller: Felonious Punk No More
The 'Diebold Whistleblower' Sees His Charges Reduced to a Misdemeanor, But Unlike Republicans Who Have Committed Far More Serious Crimes, Heller Continues to Pay
Reflections on Selective Criminal Punishment in Bush's America...
-- Guest Blogged by Stephen Heller
I am no longer a felon. In brief, I became known to some as the "Diebold Whistleblower" when, in January of 2004, I stole and exposed legal documents [PDF] proving that Diebold Election Systems, Inc. was using and planned to continue using illegal, uncertified software in their California voting machines. (By the way, Diebold recently changed its name to Premier Election Solutions, but don't let that fool you; it's still the same bunch of idiots.) Details about my case can be found here and here [PDF].
The punishment for my crime has nearly bankrupted my wife and me, while Lewis "Scooter" lied to a grand jury and was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury and gets to walk away from his crime without a scratch because, like so many others, IOKIYAR....FULL 'MUST READ' STORY (LINKS TO DEFINITION OF IOKIYAR):
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5286
20 Percent of 'Paper Trails' Found Unreadable During Recount on Cuyahoga County Ohio's Touch-Screen Machines
Diebold Fails Again, as County Officials See Potential Disaster on Horizon in Upcoming Presidential Primary...
Diebold touch-screen voting disasters continue in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. When will the new SoS, Jennifer Brunner, simply pull this plug on this entire mess?
FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5369
$1 million: Amount the national debt expands per minute, totaling approximately $1.4 billion a day. The debt is up from $5.7 trillion when President Bush took office in January 2001 and it will top $10 trillion sometime right before or right after he leaves in January 2009."
A Wall Street Journal analysis of subprime mortgages issued after 2000 shows that "an increasing proportion of them went to people with credit scores high enough to often qualify for conventional loans with far better terms." The study reveals "how far such mortgages have spread into the economy -- including middle-class and wealthy communities where they once were scarce."
Well, the good news is I'm back from DC (unfortunately I was unable to solve and fix the subprime crisis or end predatory lending while there), and the record 6 days of no posts will come to an end! :) The bad news is I have very little time as I'm catching up on all kinds of work here at the office.
So for today, I'm going with lots of copy and pastes from Crooks and Liars, brad blog, and Center for American Progress...and I'll get to columns and clips from them hopefully tomorrow.
"I have to say this is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I've ever seen or ever read about...They have failed the country."
- Republican Chuck Hagel (though speech wasn't covered by media...so not recorded as far as I know)
"I told you the administration was opposed to voting on it in the fall of 2002."
-- Karl Rove, 11/22/07, on the pre-Iraq war vote
VERSUS
"It was definitely the Bush administration that set it in motion and determined the timing, not the Congress."
-- Former White House spokeperson Ari Fleischer, 12/1/07
AND THIS…MSNBC'S JOE SCARBOROUGH: We have to start with something that we all are talking about a couple of days ago where Karl Rove went on Charlie Rose and he blamed the Democrats for pushing him and the president into war. Is that how it worked?
CARD: No, that's not the way it worked.
-- Then-White House chief of staff Andrew Card, 11/29/07
Again my question: Why is this sociopathic, lying war criminal (Rove) allowed to lie with impunity – both on TV and now as a Newsweek columnist? I mean, what does it say about our media that this guy is given - day in day out - a megaphone to deceive the nation?
VIDEO SECTION
Naomie Klein on Olbermann…two of my favorite people in the world…literally:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/01/the-shock-doctrine-the-evil-of-disaster-capitalism/
And two more of my favorites...Naomie Wolf and Amy Goodman discuss one of my regular editorial topics on this blog for a couple years now: America's descent into fascism:
From Alternet: "In her new book, “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot”, Naomi Wolf says the United States is on the road to becoming a fascist society, right under our very noses. Wolf outlines what she sees as the ten steps to shut down a democratic society and argues that the Bush administration has already implemented many of these steps. Wolf is the author of several books including the 1990s feminist classic, “The Beauty Myth.” In the video to your right Wolf is interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now."
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/69422/
Watch Rove get confronted by a Dem congressman on his latest historical revisionism. In fact, I would say, honestly, its the boldest and most blatant bald face attempt to re-write history that I've ever seen:
http://alternet.org/blogs/waroniraq/69486/
Jess Jackson on the subprime crisis...an issue i've been doing a lot of work on lately but not something I've discussed too in depthly here:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/69419/
Helen Thomas...still one of the only White House reporters that asks...well...tough questions. Watch her confront Dana Perino, the latest piece of human excrement serving as this administration's Press Secretary:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/01/give-helen-thomas-a-raise/
Olbermann versus Dobbs…how to cover a news story correctly and in context...and how not to. This would be great material for a college journalism class:
From C&L: Keith Olbermann brings on VoteVet.org’s Jon Soltz to discuss Rep. John Murtha’s most recent statement that the “surge” is working, noting that most of the rest of the media has been eager to only focus on the first part of his statement, essentially ignoring the second half, where Murtha notes that while the military aspect has done what it needs to, the political aspect has not been successful. Based on this Wired report, I would question if military aspect can really be categorized as “successful,” especially considering that no politicians are ever given a chance to see anything but highly managed events within the Green Zone, and while troop casualties may be down, Iraqi casualties don’t get reported. However, for the purposes of this comparison, let’s give Murtha the benefit of the doubt and simply appreciate the context that Olbermann and Soltz attempt to provide to Murtha’s statement.
Then watch how Dobbs covers the same story...
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/01/olbermann-vs-dobbs-your-liberal-media-in-action/
Bob schieffer continues to quietly be one of the few decent tv newsman left today. Here he makes one of the obvious points about why the latest propaganda bombardment regarding Iraq and the surge needs to be taken with a galaxy sized grain of salt:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/02/bob-schieffer-commentary-iraq-is-still-the-place-where-americans-are-dying/
IRAN HALTED WEAPONS PROGRAM IN 2003
NY Times:
A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.
The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran’s ultimate intentions about gaining a nuclear weapon remain unclear, but that Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.
Instead, the N.I.E. concludes it is more likely Iran could have a bomb by the early part to the middle of the next decade. The report states that the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research judges Iran is unlikely to achieve this goal before 2013, “because of foreseeable technical and programmatic problems.”…
read on
YES, REPUBLICANS ARE SICK AND PERVERTED...
This is what conservatives spend their time gathering info on people...put this together with the virtual tsunami of GOP gay and pedophilia scandals and it all starts to become clearer. Just as they are the same type of people that talk tough, and send others to bomb people in their name, but would run like a jack rabbit if asked to fight themselves...be it a war or in a bar...
Conservapedia's most-viewed articles list:
1. Main Page [1,897,388]
2. Homosexuality [1,488,013]
3. Homosexuality and Hepatitis [516,193]
4. Homosexuality and Promiscuity [416,767]
5. Homosexuality and Parasites [387,438]
6. Homosexuality and Gonorrhea [328,045]
7. Homosexuality and Domestic Violence [325,547]
8. Gay Bowel Syndrome [314,076]
9. Homosexuality and Syphilis [262,015]
10. Homosexuality and Mental Health [249,14]
Oil Scandal, Larry Flynt Investigation Led to Trent Lott's Early Exit
I posted the video coverage of this brewing GIANT scandal, with the hidden video cameras, last Monday...its just getting started people...
This post, written by Amanda Terkel, originally appeared on Think Progress
Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) refuses to say why he is retiring from Congress. Many in the media have reported that Lott likely wants to enter the lucrative world of K Street before "tougher restrictions in a new lobbying law" take effect.
But the right-wing American Spectator magazine speculates that brewing corruption scandals may have contributed to Lott's decision:
The tin-foil-hat crowd was almost immediately pushing a Jack Abramoff angle to the surprise resignation of Sen. Trent Lott. But a more recent scandal brewing -- which has already ensnared Sen. Ted Stevens, among others -- may also be playing on Lott's mind.
Lott, Stevens, as well as Rep. Dennis Hastert all have ties to Bill Allen, a larger than life Alaskan businessman who owned Veco, an oil-field services company, and who was a huge benefactor of Republican politicians.
Allen has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska legislators, including Ben Stevens, the son of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). The elder Stevens is currently the target of multiple federal investigation, including one on his ties to Veco.
Lott continues to stand by Stevens, donating $5,000 from his political action committee to Stevens's re-election campaign. Lott also has ties to Allen, who accompanied him to the lavish annual "Waterfall Fishing Tournament" in Alaska. Since 1996, at least 10 current and former lawmakers have attended the trip, an opportunity for "the energy industry's top brass" to influence lawmakers.
In addition to the lawmakers, high-ranking executives from the nation's top oil firms -- including Allen -- attended the Waterfall excursions. Companies with business before Congress occasionally provided free trips to Waterfall for lawmakers and top executives on private company jets.
Lawmakers may have violated congressional ethics rules by not paying for the trips. Marketplace, which originally reported on the event, noted that it could find no PAC, personal, or campaign payments for the trip from Lott.
23 Republican Retirements So Far and More to Come
This post, written by Howie Klien, originally appeared on Down With Tyranny!
Yesterday Trent Lott's unexpected resignation from the Senate and Denny Hastert's long overdue one from the House, brought the number of Republicans leaving electoral politics to 17 in the House and 6 in the Senate. The Chairman of the NRCC, right-wing extremist Tom Cole (R-OK) tried to put on a brave face. "I don't hear a drumbeat that 'We're not effective and I don't like it here anymore.'" Maybe he needs to listen more carefully.
But with so many lawmakers -- including a large number from competitive states and districts -- heading for the exits, it's hard not to point to the GOP's newfound minority status in Washington, the turnover in party leadership and the perilous political environment heading into 2008 to explain the exodus.
Stephen Heller: Felonious Punk No More
The 'Diebold Whistleblower' Sees His Charges Reduced to a Misdemeanor, But Unlike Republicans Who Have Committed Far More Serious Crimes, Heller Continues to Pay
Reflections on Selective Criminal Punishment in Bush's America...
-- Guest Blogged by Stephen Heller
I am no longer a felon. In brief, I became known to some as the "Diebold Whistleblower" when, in January of 2004, I stole and exposed legal documents [PDF] proving that Diebold Election Systems, Inc. was using and planned to continue using illegal, uncertified software in their California voting machines. (By the way, Diebold recently changed its name to Premier Election Solutions, but don't let that fool you; it's still the same bunch of idiots.) Details about my case can be found here and here [PDF].
The punishment for my crime has nearly bankrupted my wife and me, while Lewis "Scooter" lied to a grand jury and was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury and gets to walk away from his crime without a scratch because, like so many others, IOKIYAR....FULL 'MUST READ' STORY (LINKS TO DEFINITION OF IOKIYAR):
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5286
20 Percent of 'Paper Trails' Found Unreadable During Recount on Cuyahoga County Ohio's Touch-Screen Machines
Diebold Fails Again, as County Officials See Potential Disaster on Horizon in Upcoming Presidential Primary...
Diebold touch-screen voting disasters continue in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. When will the new SoS, Jennifer Brunner, simply pull this plug on this entire mess?
FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5369
$1 million: Amount the national debt expands per minute, totaling approximately $1.4 billion a day. The debt is up from $5.7 trillion when President Bush took office in January 2001 and it will top $10 trillion sometime right before or right after he leaves in January 2009."
A Wall Street Journal analysis of subprime mortgages issued after 2000 shows that "an increasing proportion of them went to people with credit scores high enough to often qualify for conventional loans with far better terms." The study reveals "how far such mortgages have spread into the economy -- including middle-class and wealthy communities where they once were scarce."
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