TODAY'S TOPICS: Palast/Spitzer, Winter Soldiers, Fox Attacks, Dems Stand/FISA, Adm. Fallon, Olbermann

“Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.”

SNIP

“When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners the Bush administration will not be judged favorably.”

-- Eliot Spitzer, ONE MONTH AGO (Greg Palast article on this below)

"I think when people take a look back at this moment in our economic history, they'll recognize tax cuts work."

-- President Bush, 3/12/08

VERSUS

"[M]aking the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts and Alternative Minimum Tax relief permanent would add $4.3 trillion to deficits and debt over just the next ten years and would substantially worsen the nation's already serious long-term fiscal problems."

-- Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 1/28/08

VIDEO SECTION

More from the Winter Soldier hearings…the crimes being perpetrated in our name, with out money, from the soldiers themselves…literally heartbreaking, but something we must hear, remember, and feel:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DjQxMBacLBE

And the second part of the video I posted on Wednesday from the winter soldiers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DeszyFWL_g&NR=1

Part 2 of Fox Attacks Obama from Robert Greenwald…brilliant and disturbing, as he demonstrates how Fox News drives the other networks coverage through slander and salacious attacks…making the other news stations feel they must keep up with Fox. Sickening…Watch, and sign the petition:

http://foxattacks.com/

Daily Show on Bush’s latest trip to the Gaylord Hotel to speak to the religious media…no joke…funny stuff:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/14/the-daily-show-come-for-the-lord-stay-for-teh-gay/

Olberamann’s “Bushed” series…always a must watch:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/13/countdowns-bushed-protecting-bears-justifying-no-bids-and-sneaking-in-immunity/

Another “Bushed”…Iraq getting worse, and fast. Oh, and the Pentagon now admits there was no connection between Hussein and Al Qaeda, but they won’t post the information, do a press conference, or give it to reporters. Also covered the KBR water scandal. Nice…

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/14/countdowns-bushed-death-destruction-and-secrecy-in-iraq/

Condi = war criminal. My friends at Code Pink have done it again!

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/13/condoleezza-rice-war-criminal/

Olbermann and Maddow once again do a fantastic job explaining the FISA debate, as well as the “resignation” of Admiral Fallon (very worrisome):

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/13/countdown-fisa-fallon-our-petulant-president/

DEMS STAND ON FISA!!!

Sometimes we do get a pleasant surprise, no? House Democrats stood firm on FISA! No f******* Immunity for the Telecoms. I wonder how they feel now that they can sit up straight and walk upright…with new spines and all?

The House has just passed the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 3773, to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to establish a procedure for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence, and for other purposes, by a vote of 213-197-1. The revised House legislation to amend FISA grants new authorities for conducting electronic surveillance against foreign targets while preserving the requirement that the government obtain an individualized FISA court order, based on probable cause, when targeting Americans at home or abroad. The House bill also strongly enhances oversight of the Administration’s surveillance activities. Finally, the House bill does not provide retroactive immunity for telecom companies but allows the courts to determine whether lawsuits should proceed

END

AMERICANS ARE REALLY, REALLY DUMB…THANK THE MEDIA TOO FOR THIS:

The occupation is rarely discussed in the media anymore...And the end result is this:

Twenty-eight percent of the public is aware that nearly 4,000 U.S. personnel have died in Iraq over the past five years, while nearly half thinks the death tally is 3,000 or fewer...

The survey, by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, found that public awareness of developments in the Iraq war has dropped precipitously since last summer, as the news media have paid less attention to the conflict. In earlier surveys, about half of those asked about the death tally responded correctly.

ARTICLE SECTION: Palast, Spitzer

Greg Palast – along with Sy Hersh – is the best investigative reporter in the business…and he’s just shed a whole bunch of light on the “Spitzer Sting”. Funny that the very same day that the Federal Reserve handed over $200 Billion of taxpayer money to bailout the very banks that caused the subprime crisis (while homeowners that got conned have yet to get a cent!) Eliot Spitzer was busted. This article also happens to be an outstanding breakdown of what led to the subprime crisis, who led it, and why?

Unfortunately, as is commonplace in our current zeitgeist, those who go after the real controllers of our country, particularly the economy, are taken down. There was no bigger threat to these powers, particularly the banks, than Spitzer.

Read this article, and see how the two are so connected. A few clips:

While New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was paying an ‘escort’ $4,300 in a hotel room in Washington, just down the road, George Bush’s new Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was secretly handing over $200 billion in a tryst with mortgage bank industry speculators.Both acts were wanton, wicked and lewd. But there’s a BIG difference. The Governor was using his own checkbook. Bush’s man Bernanke was using ours.

This week, Bernanke’s Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks’ mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.

Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers’ bordello: Eliot Spitzer.

SNIP

Do I believe the banks called Justice and said, “Take him down today!” Naw, that’s not how the system works. But the big players knew that unless Spitzer was taken out, he would create enough ruckus to spoil the party. Headlines in the financial press – one was “Wall Street Declares War on Spitzer” - made clear to Bush’s enforcers at Justice who their number one target should be. And it wasn’t Bin Laden.

http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/

More Spitzer questions…the real story, behind the “sex story”, is much bigger than I even thought initially, thus I have to cover it. We must understand the scope of the powers we are up against, and the lengths they will go to preserve power.

A few clips:

During the Bush Administration, his Justice Department has opened 5.6 cases against Democrats for every one involving a Republican. Beyond this, a number of the cases seem to have been tied closely to election cycles. Indeed, a study of the cases out of Alabama shows clearly that even cases opened against Republicans are in fact only part of a broader pattern of going after Democrats.

SNIP

The prosecution is opened under the White-Slave Traffic Act of 1910. You read that correctly. The statute itself is highly disreputable, and most of the high-profile cases brought under it were politically motivated and grossly abusive.

SNIP

The Justice Department has yet to give a full account of why they were looking into Spitzer’s payments, and indeed the suggestion in the ABC account is that it didn’t have anything to do with a prostitution ring. The suggestion that this was driven by an IRS inquiry and involved a bank might heighten, rather than allay, concerns of a politically motivated prosecution. All of these facts are consistent with a process which is not the investigation of a crime, but rather an attempt to target and build a case against an individual.

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002589

THE “HILLPUBLICANS” – R’S VOTING FOR HILLARY INCREASING

A staggering 16,000-plus Republicans in Cuyahoga County Ohio switched parties when they voted in last week's primary. That includes 931 in Rocky River, 1,027 in Westlake and 1,142 in Strongsville. More than a third of the Republicans in Solon and Bay Village switched. Pepper Pike had the most dramatic change: just under half its Republicans became Democrats.

And some of those who changed - it's difficult to say how many - could be in trouble with the law. At least one member of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections wants to investigate some Republicans who may have crossed party lines only to influence which Democrat would face presumed Republican nominee John McCain in November.

A Movement Is Afoot...

Some Republicans refer to it as "the plot." It started a few weeks ago when conservative radio powerhouse Rush Limbaugh suggested that his Republican following cross over during the primary to vote for Clinton. Clinton, Limbaugh argued, would be easier for McCain to beat in November than Obama.

And more…

...what most pundits missed was the fact that Obama's victory would have been even more overwhelming in Mississippi (and he might have won the popular vote in Texas) if not for the "Limbaugh effect": Republicans voting in the Democratic primary in order to undermine Barack Obama and help John McCain.

Approximately 25 percent of Clinton's voters in Mississippi were Republicans voting for a candidate they hate in order to try to undermine Barack Obama. Obama's 61-37 margin of victory in Mississippi would have been around 70-30 without Clinton's Republican voters, and Obama would have easily expanded his delegate win there from 19-14 to 24-9.

Rarely in American politics have so many people ever intentionally voted for a candidate they hate so much. Approximately 40,000 Republicans in Mississippi decided to vote for Hillary Clinton in order to help her destroy the Democratic Party this year with a divided convention. Hillary Clinton's "big wins" in March failed to help her close the delegate gap, and she cannot possibly win the pledged delegate race against Obama.

The only hope for Hillary Clinton is that Republican voters will help her reduce the gap against Obama, and that the superdelegates will somehow be convinced to obey the will of Rush Limbaugh and his acolytes by stealing the election from the legitimate voters.

END

First Casualty Of The Iran War: Admiral Fallon

On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that CentCom commander Adm. William Fallon, who had been in the position for roughly a year, had submitted his resignation. Fallon's resignation came a week after news first leaked of an article in Esquire magazine by former Naval War College professor Thomas P.M. Barnett that suggested Fallon was the "one man" standing between the Bush administration and war with Iran and that it could cost him his job. "Well-placed observers now say that it will come as no surprise if Fallon is relieved of his command before his time is up next spring," wrote Barnett. Though Fallon publicly rejected the article, he told Gates upon resigning that "the current embarrassing situation, public perception of differences between my views and administration policy, and the distraction this causes from the mission make this the right thing to do." White House aides told the Wall Street Journal that "senior Bush administration officials saw the article as a sign that Adm. Fallon was trying to publicly undercut" President Bush. "It was seen as a form of insubordination," said one White House aide. While Iran has been the focus of much of the commentary surrounding Fallon's exit, Gates called Fallon's resignation "a cumulative kind of thing" that "isn't the result of any one article or any one issue." In fact, Fallon's public disagreements with the administration over Iraq may have had as much influence on his falling out of favor.

A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW: "There was no question that the admiral's premature departure stemmed from what were perceived to be policy differences with the administration on Iran and Iraq," writes Thom Shanker in the New York Times. Especially "where his views competed with those of Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq, who is a favorite of the White House." As a nominee for the CentCom position in January 2007, Fallon refused to endorse Bush's surge strategy, saying that he's "always been someone who felt more comfortable in smaller numbers." Since then, he has been a proponent of "developing plans to redefine the U.S. mission and radically draw down troops" in Iraq in order to "balance deployments across the volatile region" he commanded. Last month, after Gates endorsed a "pause" in troop withdrawals this summer, Fallon told the New York Times that it should only be "temporary and brief" and that U.S. strategy should shift focus to a "supporting, sustaining, advising, training and mentoring role." A "senior Pentagon official" told Slate's Fred Kaplan that Fallon's comments were "unauthorized," which Kaplan says amounts to "challenging the president's policy...at his own initiative."'

NOT HELPFUL' WHEN IT COMES TO IRAN: Although Fallon's preference for diplomatic engagement with Iran rather than saber-rattling has been echoed by Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen, Fallon's manner of delivering that message differed considerably from the administration script. In Barnett's Esquire article, Fallon says a narrow focus on Iran is not wise because "in a part of the world with 'five or six pots boiling over, our nation can't afford to be mesmerized by one problem.'" "This constant drumbeat of conflict" with Iran "is not helpful and not useful," Fallon told al Jazeera in September 2007. In December 2007, he told the Financial Times, "Another war is just not where we want to go." Last year, he was quoted as saying an attack on Iran "will not happen on my watch." In November, after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Fallon allowed it to be reported that he had "ruled out a possible strike against Iran and said Washington was mulling nonmilitary options instead." According to Newsweek, Fallon's main mistake was that he never included the caveat "of course, no options are off the table" in order to stay within administration policy.

RIGHT WING REJOICES: Right-wing war hawks are glad to see Fallon go. The Wall Street Journal Editorial board wrote yesterday that Fallon's resignation is "good news" because it will allow Bush to begin "to pay attention to the internal Pentagon dispute" over Iraq withdrawal. The New York Sun editorial board concurred, arguing that the "real news" of Fallon's resignation is that Petraeus might get to take over as CentCom commander. Writing an op-ed titled "Fallon didn't get it" in the Los Angeles Times yesterday, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Max Boot ridiculed Fallon as one of the "guys who think they're smart" and is "undermining" Bush's Iran strategy. "Fallon makes it more likely, not less, that there will ultimately be an armed confrontation with Iran," wrote Boot. Writing for National Review, conservative hawk Frank Gaffney attacked Fallon as "a military man who has proven himself utterly unserious about the Iranian threat" and "had engaged in serial acts of insubordination and sabotage."

TODAY'S TOPICS: Olbermann Special Comment!, RFK, Spitzer, Clinton/Ferraro, War Costs, Bush Crimes, Iraqis, R's Voting

"Sustainability is another word for justice – for what is just is sustainable and what is unjust is not."

-- Mathew Fox

Violence is not power, but the absence of power.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

YES!! Keith Olbermann does a Special Comment on Clinton’s despicable, disgusting and Rovian campaign tactics! And remember, he was a supporter and defender of the Clinton's before this campaign began. But their actions speak for themselves, and now they’ve been “Olbermanned”:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/12/countdown-special-comment-sen-clinton-this-is-not-a-campaign-strategy-this-is-a-suicide-pact/

But the Clintons aren’t done: a recent ad they did clearly shows they darkened the skin of Obama…a lot too. Watch this parody video of “inside the Clinton campaign”…just imagine these thugs coming up with their recent attacks. This is funny stuff!

http://alternet.org/blogs/video/79427/

And one more issue that EVERYONE must understand, we are seeing a massive influx of Republican voters crossing over into the primaries to vote for Hillary (because McCain has got it locked up), in fact, word is 25% of her votes in Mississippi were Republicans! This happened massively in Ohio and Texas too, and now, anywhere there are open primaries, the Republican party has decided to try and beat Obama (led by Limbaugh and others), and get the weaker candidate, Hillary.

And apparently, this just happened in Kucinich's effort to keep his seat in Congress (which he did anyway). 10,000 Republicans came out to vote for his Democratic opponents...Democrats that aren't as outspoken and progressive as Dennis. This is very, very concerning, as the R's have found another way to try and steal elections.

Watch Kucinich break the news:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WTEhYzEuzs

Watch one of my heroes, Robert Kennedy, speak truth to power…as he always did. This amazing clip shows him actually challenging the very Wall Street ways we “measure prosperity”, which I’ve always gone after on this blog…namely the GDP:

From Alternet: How we measure progress reveals our values and shapes our future. So what does America's portrait of progress tell us about our collective values and goals? The traditional portrait presented by most of our media and political leaders includes the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and stock market. But do such measures really reflect our most cherished values and aspirations? In his first major campaign speech on March 18, 1968, Robert Kennedy warned against measuring ourselves by wealth alone.

Watch:

http://alternet.org/blogs/video/79474/

Daily Show covers the Spitzer story…and the media’s salacious appetite for this kind of crap:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/12/jon-stewart-eats-up-spitzer-scandal/

Olbermann’s Bushed series…great stuff:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/11/countdowns-bushed-total-deafness-totally-disgusting-water-and-totally-revisionist-neo-con-history/

And another Bushed…important stuff to know, and remember:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/12/countdowns-bushed-waste-dissent-and-deceptions/

Watch Olbermann and Maddow discuss Ferraro’s comments…

Maddow nails it (the Clintons are doing this on purpose!):

For anybody to be saying that Barack Obama is only where he is because he is black, that black men are so privileged in America that that’s the only thing that explains his success because he’s otherwise unqualified - which is the implication of her comment, would be absolutely offensive, more than regrettable, from anybody commenting seriously on the campaign. Honestly, you know it, you know it would be. But for this to come from somebody whose an official part of the campaign and the campaign did not to disavow that person and distance themselves, is, it’s an incredible decision and therefore does make us question whether they’re doing this on purpose for some reason.”

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/12/countdown-geraldine-ferraros-racial-comments-about-barack-obama/

OBAMA CAMPAIGN MESSAGE AFTER MISSISSIPPI VICTORY (excellent!)

When we won Iowa, the Clinton campaign said it's not the number of states you win, it's "a contest for delegates."

When we won a significant lead in delegates, they said it's really about which states you win.

When we won South Carolina, they discounted the votes of African-Americans.

When we won predominantly white, rural states like Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska, they said those didn't count because they won't be competitive in the general election.

When we won in Washington State, Wisconsin, and Missouri -- general election battlegrounds where polls show Barack is a stronger candidate against John McCain -- the Clinton campaign attacked those voters as "latte-sipping" elitists.

And now that we've won more than twice as many states, the Clinton spin is that only certain states really count.

But the facts are clear. For all their attempts to discount, distract, and distort, we have won more delegates, more states, and more votes.

Meanwhile, more than half of the votes that Senator Clinton has won so far have come from just five states. And in four of these five states, polls show that Barack would be a stronger general election candidate against McCain than Clinton.

END

THE SPITZER BUST: MEDIA INSANITY, BUSH/ROVE STING OPERATION?

The ridiculous amount of coverage its getting, compared to say, the $3 trillion dollar war, banks and subprime lenders role in destroying families and the economy, bush’s vetoing of an anti-torture bill, the resignation of our top navy admiral (Fallon) because of his disagreement with the White House’s desire to BOMB IRAN, Cheney's trip to Israel to negotiate peace with Palestine (can you say Iran is back on the table to be bombed?), and on and on.

Wall Street crooks and moneymongers were literally celebrating in the streets with the news of Spitzer’s bust…how sad…the powers win again, because of sex.

From Democrats.org: The whole investigation by the Bush Administration stinks to high heaven. This isn't a case of "structuring" or "money laundering." The FBI never investigates johns - so why are they investigating Spitzer? The answer is obvious. George Bush and Karl Rove turned the Justice Department into the political destruction arm of the Republican Party. They've prosecuted 5.6 Democrats for every Republican. That's why former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman is rotting in jail, and that's what they want to do to you.

HOW ABOUT BUSH'S PROSTITUTION RING?

George Bush has been tied to a prostitution ring involving as many as 50,000 women and girls. The prostitutes, some as young as 13, are among the 1.2 million desperate Iraqis who fled to Syria after Bush's invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the U.K. Independent.

Bush's invasion destroyed the Iraqi government and unleashed a wave of political and sectarian violence that has killed over 1 million Iraqis and forced 4 million to become refugees, according to the UN.

Facing starvation, as many as 50,000 women and girls have been forced into prostitution in Syria alone, according to Hana Ibrahim of the Women's Will Association.

"70 percent to 80 percent of the girls working this business in Damascus today are Iraqis," 23-year-old Abeer told the New York Times. "The rents here in Syria are too expensive for their families. If they go back to Iraq they'll be slaughtered, and this is the only work available."

According to the Times, "inexpensive Iraqi prostitutes have helped to make Syria a popular destination for sex tourists from wealthier countries in the Middle East. In the club's parking lot, nearly half of the cars had Saudi license plates."

But instead, Karl Rove just added another Democratic scalp to his collection: Eliot Spitzer's. Spitzer has not been charged with any crime. He was railroaded by the Corporate Media, led by Rupert Murdoch's NYPost and FOX News, with Karl Rove's "loyal Bushies" leaking furiously from Bush's InJustice Department.

So what's the standard here? If hiring prostitutes is a disqualification for office, then David Vitter must resign today too. In fact, a good chunk of the men in politics must also resign (and possibly a few women as well). And a bunch of reporters and editors must quit as well. And pundits too - yes I'm talking 'bout you, Dick Toesucker Morris.

If adultery is the standard, then Larry Craig must resign today, along with half the men in politics and the media. If hypocrisy is the standard, then everyone in politics and the media must resign today, because there isn't one who isn't a hypocrite in some large or small way. Take Saint John McCain on torture, campaign finance, immigration, Iraq, global warming, lobbyists... you name it.

And if a criminal violation is the standard, then George Bush and Dick Cheney should not only resign immediately, they should go before a firing squad for war crimes (invading Iraq and torture) and treason (outing Valerie Plame).

ARTICLE SECTION: SPITZER, SCHEER, STIGLITZ

I'm not going to belabor this whole Spitzer sting operation, but I want to post two articles, one by Robert Scheer detailing the media's horrific coverage of it (rather than important stories), and the other that goes into some reasons why we should believe this was a Justice Dept. hit job.

A few clips from Scheer:

Tell me again: Why should we get all worked up over the revelation that the New York governor paid for sex? Will it bring back to life the eight U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq that same day in a war that makes no sense and has cost this nation trillions in future debt? Will it save those millions of homes that hardworking folks all over the country are losing because of financial industry shenanigans that Eliot Spitzer, as much as anyone, attempted to halt? Perhaps it provides some insight into why oil has risen to $108 a barrel, benefiting most of all the oil sheiks whom our taxpayer-supported military has kept in power?

SNIP

I wouldn't have written this column had I not read The Wall Street Journal's Page 1 news story headlined "Wall Street Cheers as Its Nemesis Plunges Into Crisis." The article begins with the crowing statement "It's Schadenfreude time on Wall Street" and goes on to quote those whom Spitzer went after over what should be considered the criminal greed that has predominated on Wall Street. It was Spitzer, as much as anyone, who sounded the alarm on the subprime mortgage crisis, the obscene payouts to CEOs who defrauded their shareholders and the other financial scandals that have brought the U.S. economy to its knees.

The best rule of thumb these days is that ordinary Americans should be mightily depressed over any news that Wall Street hustlers cheer, for they have been exposed as a dangerous pack of scoundrels quite willing to rob decent, hardworking people of their homes. And of course no one on Wall Street ever paid for sex.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031208D.shtml

Was Spitzer targeted? Gee, he was only the strongest and most dedicated fighter against the Wall Street mafia that we have in this country today!

A few clips:

…the real Spitzer scandal has little to do with his apparent habit of paying young women for sex. Here’s what really needs to be investigated: Spitzer’s fall was triggered not by his visits to prostitutes, but by banks reporting “suspicious” transactions of his to the IRS.

SNIP

It’s hardly a stretch to imagine that Spitzer, a man with countless enemies in the financial world, would be the target of such a vendetta. This in turn raises a host of questions about how and why the subsequent IRS investigation turned into an FBI sting operation.

SNIP

Be that as it may, it’s far more probable that what happened was something like this: An IRS office is tipped off by officials at various banks that Spitzer is depositing a few thousand dollars in different accounts within a day or two. Realizing it has a potential political tiger by the tail, the IRS then contacts the Department of Justice and the FBI.

At the DOJ, the Public Integrity Section launches an investigation. This unit itself has come under intense criticism during the Bush administration for investigating nearly six times more Democratic politicians than Republicans.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/12/7639/

Stiglitz on 3 trillion dollar war...now THIS is an important story! Instead, barely a peep from the media, even as the Democrats held hearings about it, with this Nobel Prize Winning economist Stiglitz demonstrating the fact that this war will destroy and prevent ANY attempt to fix ANY problem we face here at home.

So let's remember the cost, in lives and treasure, before we ourselves are conditioned to forget, and lose that all important human trait that makes us human: EMPATHY! On that note, remember that there's going to be another Winter Soldier hearings held (like those held during Vietnam that John Kerry gave one of the great speeches of all time), by the Democrats, from the 13th -16th, in order to hear the voices, stories, pains, and crimes, from the soldiers themselves, that took place in Iraq. Let's see if the media covers this incredibly important story that strikes at the heart of what we're doing to human beings from another country, as well as our own.

A few clips:

The Bush administration said the war would cost $50 billion. The U.S. now spends that amount in Iraq every three months. To put that number in context: For one-sixth of the cost of the war, the U.S. could put its social security system on a sound footing for more than a half-century, without cutting benefits or raising contributions.

SNIP

The administration has tried to keep the war’s costs from the American public. Veterans groups have used the Freedom of Information Act to discover the total number of injured - 15 times the number of fatalities. Already, 52,000 returning veterans have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. The U.S. government will need to provide disability compensation to an estimated 40 per cent of the 1.65 million troops that have already been deployed.

And, of course, the bleeding will continue as long as the war continues, with the health-care and disability bill amounting to more than $600 billion (in present-value terms).

SNIP

The war has had only two winners: oil companies and defence contractors. The stock price of Halliburton, Vice-President Dick Cheney’s old company, has soared. But even as the government turned increasingly to contractors, it reduced its oversight.

The largest cost of this mismanaged war has been borne by Iraq. Half of Iraq’s doctors have been killed or have left the country, unemployment stands at 25 per cent and, five years after the war’s start, Baghdad still has less than eight hours of electricity a day.

Out of Iraq’s total population of around 28 million, 4 million are displaced and 2 million have fled the country. The thousands of violent deaths have inured most Westerners to what is going on: A bomb blast that kills 25 hardly seems newsworthy anymore.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/12/7634/

Great news from the Associated Press: "Military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide has pulled its plans to build a training facility in a remote area about 45 miles east of San Diego."

TODAY'S TOPICS: When Hillary/Ferraro Attack, Obama, Spitzer v. Justice Dept.?, Solomon, US/Israel, 9/11 Truths

"Al Gore's opulent lifestyle and his virtuous plea to save the planet from global warming don't mesh."

-- Competitive Enterprise Institute, 3/8/08

VERSUS

"Short of tearing it down and staring anew, I don't know how it could have been rated any higher."

-- Kim Shinn, U.S. Green Building Council, 12/13/07, on Gore's home receiving the Council's "second-highest rating for sustainable design"

OBAMA ANSWERS THE CLINTON’S INSANE “HE’D BE A GOOD VP FOR US...BUT HE'S NOT QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT” OFFENSIVE

“With all due respect, with all due respect, I’ve won twice as many states as Sen. Clinton. I’ve won more of the popular vote than Sen. Clinton. I have more delegates than Sen. Clinton. So, I don’t know how somebody who’s in second place is offering the vice presidency to the person who’s in first place.

“But there’s a second point. This is an interesting point — I want you guys to follow me on this. You know Pres. Bill Clinton, back in 1992, when he was being asked about his selection for vice president, he said, ‘The only criteria, the most important criteria for vice president, is that that person is ready, if I fell out in the first week, that he or she would be ready to be the commander-in-chief.’ That was his criteria.

“Now, they have been spending the last two, three weeks — you remember that advertisement with the phone call, telling everybody, getting all the generals to say well we’re not sure he’s ready, ‘I’m ready on day one, he may not be ready yet.’ But I don’t understand. If I’m not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president? Do you understand that?”

END

MORE ON CLINTON INSANITY FROM ALTERNET (you got to give them this: they've really learned a lot from the way Rove and the R's run campaigns...)

Is the Clinton Team Stark Raving Mad? For the life of me I just don’t understand the thinking inside the Clinton campaign (and insided the heads of surrogates):

* Bill and Hillary continuing to promote the idea of a Clinton/Obama ticket with her at the top when she’s behind in delegate count;

* Promoting the idea of Obama as VP after spending time and money on ads to convince voters he’s not ready to answer the 3 AM phone call - why would she want someone she’s declared unqualified on the ticket?

* The assertion by Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson that somehow Obama could cross the imaginary 3AM-ready “threshhold” that Hillary has by the convention and thus be qualified for the VP slot.

* And the latest misfire - Geraldine Ferraro, 1984 VP nominee, claiming Obama has only gotten as far as he has because he is black.

Ferraro: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

That one is pretty breathtaking on several levels, considering her selection as VP was most certainly due in part to the fact she is a woman."

Me: And more, speaking on Fox News, she refused to apologize, accused the Obama campaign of waging a hate campaign against her, and reiterated that the candidate's political success was "in large measure because he is black....you know, the truth is the truth is the truth."

This is a disgrace, and ludicrous, not factual, and bordering on racist. But Hillary said only she disagreed. Wow, that's a powerful statement...

But it gets more insane, the Hillary campaign is claiming the Obama team is waging "false, personal and politically calculated attacks on the eve of a primary." Now THAT'S ORWELLIAN!! You get attacked day after day, you call them on it, and you're the mudslinger. The Clinton campaign is bordering on the ubsurd and demented.

In any case, using this particular line of thinking…

* If Clinton were a black man, Hillary would have been told to drop out of the race after losing 11 contests in a row, after all, John Edwards had to get out after losing only 3.

* If Obama were white, as it has already been noted elsewhere, he’d already be the nominee, because it’s pretty clear that while there are blacks voting for him because of his race, there are certain demographic groups who didn’t vote for him because he’s black, and those are the Reagan Democrats that Hillary is chasing.

In any case, since he’s biracial, does that factor into Ferraro’s deluded thinking? What would happen, for instance, if Obama were not visibly identifiable as black (as in, he could pass), but identified as such — does that make any difference in perceived advantage?

END

Spitzer’s wiretapping…another Justice Dept. Hit Job?

Me: Gee, would the Republican government actually take out the biggest threat to Wall Street criminals in the country? I mean, sure, they’ve stolen the last two Presidential elections, lied us into two illegal wars that have killed a million people and counting, have used the justice department to illegally jail democrats, attempted to influence elections nationwide by bringing up false charges against Dems, regularly wiretap Americans, torture innocent human beings around the world, and on and on.

But would they orchestrate a wiretapping of a Governor that’s as big a threat as Spitzer for the deadly sin of sleeping with prostitutes? (I’m not saying what he did wasn’t hypocritical and wrong) I’ve seen this show too many times to not ask SERIOUS questions. How does that saying go?: “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me seven thousand times in a row, shame on me.”

Here’s C&L asking those tough questions:

Maybe because I’ve been following the Don Siegelman case closely, but when I heard about Elliot Spitzer’s pending indictment, something just didn’t past the smell test. While he’s admitted to involvement with a prostitution ring and I’m by no means absolving him or trying to diminish the charges, there are more than a few unresolved aspects of this that keep me from calling for his resignation.

Jane Hamsher has summed up these little niggling questions very well:

1. Why would the bank tell the IRS and not Spitzer himself if there was a suspicious transfer? Spitzer is a longtime client, a rich guy and the governor. We’re talking thousands of dollars here, not millions. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense that they spotted a “suspicious transfer” made by the governor, and that this is how things began. It’s possible it was just ordinary paperwork the bank had to file with the government whenever some particular flag was raised, but if that’s the case, why did the DoJ go to DefCon 3?

2. What is a USA doing prosecuting a prostitution case? This isn’t normally what the feds spend their time with.

3. Mike Garcia is a Chertoff crony. Sources familiar with the investigation say that he sent a prosecution memo to DC two months ago asking for authority to indict a public figure (Spitzer). Which means they had their case made long before the wire tap of February 13. Why did they then include this line from that conversation in the complaint?

LEWIS continued that from what she had been told “he” (believed to be a reference to Client-9) “would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe — you know — I mean that…very basic things….”Kristen” responded: “I have a way of dealing with that…I’d be like listen dude, you really want the sex?…You know what I mean.”

This salacious detail does not seem like it’s necessary to make their case, and appears to be added for no other purpose than to destroy Spitzer’s career.

Scott Horton (who covers the Siegelman case extensively) and Digby have similar questions, while Glenn Greenwald notes the double standard between the breathless media coverage of Spitzer’s scandal and David Vitter. And Will Bunch looks at the incredible history of the Mann act.

END

VIDEO SECTION

Stephen Colbert takes apart Hillary’s ludicrous argument that because she has one bigger states, she should be the nominee. Nevermind Obama’s one twice the amount of states, more total votes, and more total delegates. F*** it! Hillary has written a whole new role: its a few big states that matter!

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/11/the-colbert-report-the-w%c3%b8rd-size-matters/

The Daily Show does a piece on our sociopathic clown of a President…tap dancing like a buffoon (and continuing to slaughter Iraqis), and maybe not answering that 3 AM call at all. And of course, the love/hate affair with demented war monger and pathological liar, John W. McBush.
http://alternet.org/blogs/election08/79237/

Great Tom Tomorrow cartoon:

http://static.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/ttclip.jpg

"Bill Moyers interviews former Rep. Mickey Edwards, author of Reclaiming Conservatism: How A Great American Political Movement Got Lost - And How It Can Find Its Way Back, and Matt Welch, author of McCain: The Myth Of A Maverick on what is essentially the bastardization of what the Republican Party has stood for historically."

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/10/bill-moyers-journal-how-the-republican-party-lost-its-way/

From Alternet (warning, very disturbing Iraq photos...but necessary for people to see, and a great sign this is happening).

This week, on March 13-16, a new generation of "Winter Soldiers" -- veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq -- will descend on the nation's capitol to tell America in their own words what they saw during their service in the "war on terror," the Bush administration's signature policy. They'll give a ground's eye perspective on the occupation's toll on the people of those countries and the costs to the military, and they'll tell stories of what it was really like in places like Fallujah and Ramadi -- places that are just names on a map to most of the people back home.

http://alternet.org/waroniraq/79286/

ARTICLE SECTION: Healthcare v. Warfare, Israel/US = Terror States

Warfare and healthcare...how one makes the other so impossible. Read this piece by Norm Solomon, a continual voice and advocate for common sense, compassion, peace, and truth.

A few clips:

It’s kind of logical. In a pathological way. A country that devotes a vast array of resources to killing capabilities will steadily undermine its potential for healing. For social justice. For healthcare as a human right…Gaining healthcare for all will require overcoming the priorities of the warfare state. That’s the genuine logic behind the new “Healthcare NOT Warfare” campaign.
SNIP

In the current presidential campaign, none of the major candidates can be heard raising the possibility of ejecting the gargantuan insurance industry from the nation’s healthcare system. Instead, there’s plenty of nattering about whether “mandates” are a good idea. Hillary Clinton even has the audacity (not of hope but of duplicity) to equate proposed healthcare “mandates” with the must-pay-in requirements that sustain Social Security and Medicare.

For Clinton’s analogy to make sense, we’d have to accept the idea that requiring everyone to pay taxes to the government for a common-good program is akin to requiring everyone to pay premiums to private insurance companies for personal medical coverage.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/11/7600/

Chris Hedges writes another true, and dangerous column on the myriad of crimes against humanity - terrorism in fact - by the US and Israel. Perhaps the greatest purveyors of death and misery in the world today.

A few clips:

We live in a world, at home and in the Middle East, hardened and distorted by hate. We communicate in the language of fear and violence. Human beings are no longer viewed as human beings. They are no longer endowed in our eyes, or the eyes of those who oppose us, with human qualities. They do no love, grieve, suffer, laugh or weep. They represent cold abstractions of evil. The death-for-death means we communicate by producing corpses. And we are all guilty, Americans, Palestinians, Iraqis and Israelis. But we are not all guilty equally.

Israel and the United States bear the responsibility for a world that has unleashed twisted killers such as Abu Dheim. It is the decades of repression in Gaza, as well as the callous occupation in Iraq, that has bequeathed to us a new generation of jihadists and gunmen who walk into yeshivas and spray automatic fire at people bent over books.

SNIP

The long, slow drip of collective humiliation and abuse, along with the tiny and large indignities that go into transforming human beings into fanatics, is rarely understood by those on the outside. It ticks away like a clock until it suddenly explodes in our face. Because we do not know where it came from, it strikes us as incomprehensible, irrational, the product of a demented form of humanity. These killers, however, are not formed by the Quran or Islam or a culture that is morally inferior to our own. They are formed by a 40-year occupation, by the continued expansion of Jewish settlements, by the refusal to allow the return of expelled refugees, by the use of fighter jets to bomb squalid refugee camps and by an Israeli siege of Gaza that has blocked fuel, electricity and essential supplies and created a humanitarian crisis for 1.5 million Palestinians. It is what the Israelis have done to the Palestinians, what we have done to the Iraqis, that has brought us to this impasse. We unleashed this violence and only we can end it.

SNIP

Washington and Jerusalem have little interest in a peaceful settlement. They are blinded by their own military prowess. They do not grasp that a continuation of violence and a tightening of the siege will spur more desperate and embittered young men and women to acts of vengeance. The only route left is to hear the cries of all the victims, Israeli and Palestinian, to recapture empathy. Hamas’ offer to negotiate a truce, an offer backed by 64 percent of Israelis, is the only escape route. There is no option other than to finally give the Palestinians control over their lives and land. It is the only option that will, as well, save us in Iraq. The occupation of Palestinian territory, like the occupation of Iraq, is illegal, increasingly violent and counterproductive.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/10/7579/

In a new book, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias says that a former protege of President Bush told him that he was fired for political reasons. "Iglesias recalls Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton telling him shortly after he was ousted. 'If I were you, I'd just go quietly.'"

9/11 Truths...

Again, if you believe the official 9/11 story we’ve been sold, I’ve got some tupper ware that I’ll sell to you for 2 million bucks. I’ve known about this for awhile, and this is only half the story, but at least it’s finally getting just a little attention. Maybe we can get a rational explanation for the demolition of, I mean collapse due to a fire four blocks aways, of Tower 7 some day too?

Look at this...

ZELIKOW DESIGNED BUSH'S PRE-EMPTIVE WAR DOCTRINE IN 2002: In his new book, New York Times reporter Philip Shenon alleges that 9/11 Commission staff director Philip Zelikow had an obvious conflict of interest while serving on the panel. Zelikow allegedly scaled back criticisms of the White House and did not inform the Commission he helped Condoleezza Rice set up Bush's National Security Council in 2001. Zelikow also held periodic discussions with Karl Rove, which he ordered his secretary to keep off-the-record. He also helped "demote" Richard Clarke, a vocal critic of the administration's counterterrorism policies. This weekend on CSPAN's Book TV, Shenon bolstered the case that Zelikow was inextricably tied to the administration. Shenon said Zelikow authored the September 2002 National Security Strategy (NSS), which outlined the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war and helped make the case for the invasion of Iraq. Zelikow's White House ties were so pronounced that former senator Bob Kerrey threated to Kean, "It's either him or me. Zelikow goes, or I go." In the interview, Shenon concluded that Zelikow's authorship of the pre-emptive strategy "appeared to pose yet another conflict of interest for Zelikow."

TODAY'S TOPICS: NAFTA, Suprime Culprits, R's Help Hillary Win, Wexler, Siegelman, Bernie Saunders

"The first threshold question about a vice president is, are you prepared to be president? So on the one end, they are saying he's not prepared to be president. On the other hand, they're saying maybe he ought to be vice president,"

-- John Kerry on the Clinton's new line that Obama would make a great VP...at the same time they say he's unfit for the Presidency...the reason of course is to try and convince wavering Obama voters or undecideds to believe its a two for one package, so they can vote Hillary and still get Obama, who then could get more experience first

Fun Facts of the Day:

Children in Iraq "have been more gravely affected by the U.S. occupation than any other segment of the population." According to the United Nations, "at least two million Iraqi children lack adequate nutrition" and "only 40 percent of children nationwide have access to safe drinking water."

1 in 8 Iraqi children don’t live to the age of 5…the worst in the world.

122,000 Iraqi children died in 2005, mostly due to the occupation.

Again Iraq, we’re waiting for a “thank you” for “liberating your country”…

VIDEO SECTION

Once again, congressman Wexler from Florida – the one leading the effort to impeach Cheney – speaks out again, this time on Mukasey’s refusal to enforce contempt of congress charges against White House members involved in the Attorney firings. Watch his statement:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/09/rep-wexler-responds-to-mukaseys-refusal-to-enforce-contempt/

I guess this is a start at least, as reporters discuss that yes, the media is John W. McBush’s base, otherwise know as “the disgrace”. And interestingly, part of that is they’re scared of him going berserk. Nice…just can’t wait to have him with a finger on the button:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/09/media-part-of-the-mccain-bubble-hes-a-cranky-old-man-that-got-caught-in-a-lie/

These are always very telling…when a Republican is caught on tape saying what they really believe because they didn’t know they’re being recorded. Wait till you hear what this Oklahoma rep says about gays…and remember, this is not isolated, it’s the MAJORITY of the Republican party that believes this:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/09/oklahoma-state-rep-goes-on-anti-gay-tirade/

Bill Maher’s new rules…always great:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/03/08/real-time-new-rule-stop-saying-americans-are-smarter-than-that/

The FCC is investigating the Siegelman case…particularly the inexplicable blackout in Alabama during the 60 Minutes segment! And of course, the direct connection it has to the larger US Attorney scandal…not those that were fired, but all those that have been using the justice department to influence elections in Republican favor. Criminal F******! Amy Goodman reports:

http://alternet.org/blogs/democracy/79179/

And this is cool too. The child in Hillary’s sickening fear-mongering 3AM ads is now all grown up, and she’s a big obama supporter. She needs to join with Barack and do a counter ad!

http://alternet.org/blogs/video/79088/

ARTICLE SECTION: NAFTA, SUBPRIME, REPUBS AND HILLARY, BERNIE SAUNDERS

The great David Sirota punches another hole in the ludicrous reporting – and claims by Hillary – regarding the NAFTA “incident” that played a major role in sinking Obama in Ohio. Further, he debunks the Orwellian description of these types of corporate written trade agreements as “Free”…when in fact they are “freedom destroyers”.

A few clips:

Clinton spent the last 10 years repeatedly praising the trade deal in speeches, most recently calling the job-killing accord "good for New York and America." Yet, journalists barely mention that record as they transcribe her assertions that, "I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning."

This week, such media negligence went from pathetic to absurd, as a CNN headline blared, "Clinton hammers Obama on NAFTA." Political scribes breathlessly recounted how the New York senator criticized her opponent -- a longtime NAFTA critic -- over a thinly sourced television report claiming his adviser, economist Austan Goolsbee, told Canadian officials to not take the campaign's anti-NAFTA platform seriously. Clinton said the uncorroborated allegations, seeded by Canada's right-wing government, showed "the difference between talk and action." Most journalists regurgitated her charges without noting the difference between Clinton's new fair-trade talk and her decade-long pro-NAFTA actions (nor did they note that the same report said Clinton advisers also did what Goolsbee was accused of).

SNIP

America became an economic force in the early 20th century thanks, in part, to tariffs sheltering our industries. Considering that, why are all tariffs now billed as inherently bad for the economy and "free" trade billed as inherently good?

Speaking of that word "free" -- why does it describe protectionism for corporate profits? "Free" trade deals wrapped in the rhetoric of Sally Struthers ads include no human rights protections. But they include patent protections that inflate pharmaceutical prices. Why does "free" trade refer only to pacts being free of protections for people?

Similarly, why have Washington's "free" traders passed laws blocking Americans from importing lower-priced, FDA-approved prescription drugs from other countries? What is "free" about letting corporations import lead-slathered toys, but barring citizens from importing life-saving medicine?

http://alternet.org/columnists/story/79030/

This is another great piece exposing the real culprits behind the subprime meltdown. As I have always said, this didn’t happen by accident, it wasn’t driven by borrower over-exuberance, and major wall street players engineered it…and here comes a shocker…to make money on the backs of the disenfranchised!

A few clips:

The truth, however, is that this latest boom-and-bust is about stock prices as much as housing prices-and that’s where the real scandal lurks. Skyrocketing home prices dominated the headlines during the boom, but they were nothing compared to the bubble experienced by Wall Street’s housing sector. From early 2002 through late 2005, average home prices rose about 32 percent nationwide, but the paper value of companies like Countrywide Financial, Beazer Homes, and New Century Financial skyrocketed at least 10 times as fast, with their shares posting gains of 300 to 400 percent.

Now those stocks are in free fall-and lurking behind the hand-wringing about overextended buyers and dubious lending practices are the other key culprits: the CEOs who misrepresented their books and cashed out before the public knew what was happening, and the credulous finance reporters and securities analysts who cheered them along until it was too late. And let’s not leave out the SEC-the body charged with protecting the stock-buying public from just this kind of trickery-which stood by and watched as the signs of trouble accumulated. Investigations of housing-sector fraud are only now ramping up, long after they should have.

SNIP

The chattering classes still blame desperate borrowers for not reading the fine print, but perhaps they should reserve some vitriol for Wall Street’s watchdog. If there’s one lesson the commission should have learned long ago, it’s that booms aren’t fueled by market forces alone, but also by healthy doses of fraud, deception, and unchecked opportunism. And it’s invariably everyday folks who pay the price. “The SEC, instead of watching Wall Street, insulates it,” notes Aguirre. “The subprime issue is a direct consequence of the SEC’s failure to act proactively to intercept fraud as it develops.”

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/09/7570/

This is exactly why Bernie Saunders, along with Russ Feingold, are my two favorite American politicians: he pursues policies that help people!

Check out this piece by him on a fantastic amendment he’s authoring…see the specifics in the article. Here’s a few clips:

There are three major trends in American society that must be addressed when the Senate next week debates the federal budget. First, the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major nation in the industrialized world, and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider. Second, it is a national disgrace that we have, by far, the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major country on earth. More than 18 percent of our kids live in poverty. Third, year after year, we have had record-breaking deficits and our national debt will soon be $10 trillion. That is a grossly unfair burden to leave to our kids and grandchildren. It also is economically unsustainable.

SNIP

We have a moral responsibility to put children ahead of millionaires and billionaires. That is why, during the Senate’s consideration of the budget resolution, I will offer an amendment to restore the top income tax bracket to 39.6 percent for households earning more than $1 million a year. Restoring the top income tax bracket for people making more than $1 million to what it was in 2000 would increase revenue by $32.5 billion over the next three years, according to the Joint Tax Committee, including $10.8 billion next year alone.

I would devote that revenue the needs of our children; job creation; and deficit reduction.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/08/7555/

I don’t know if everyone is aware, but in both Texas and Ohio there was a giant surge of Republicans voting for Hillary to ensure the stronger of the two candidates (Obama) didn’t win. In fact, people like Rush Limbaugh were telling Republicans to do exactly that since McCain had already wrapped up the nomination. And if you really believe that the 8% of Hillary’s vote in Texas that were Republicans actually was due to them liking her, I’ve got an old Toyota Corrolla I’ll sell you for 2 million bucks.

A few clips from election integrity leaders in Ohio, Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman…two men I’ve worked with in the past:

Much has been made of Rush Limbaugh’s other far-right commentators’ pleas to Republicans to cast their ballots for her in open primary states like Ohio and Texas. Part of the strategy is to slow down Barack Obama, who analysts argue will be harder for John McCain to beat this fall...there is concrete evidence in Ohio that Republican cross-over voters did, in fact, play a significant role in delivering the Buckeye primary votes to the Senator from New York.

SNIP

In Warren and Clermont counties, in southwestern Ohio, the number of votes cast in the Democratic primary are telling. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that in Warren County, for example, there were 12,440 registered Democrats (9.49%) and 41,377 registered Republicans (31.57%) and 77,237 nonpartisan voters (58.94%). In Tuesday’s primary, 27,855 voters (48.53%) asked for Democratic ballots, representing 223.91% of the registered Democrats in that county.

Warren County is notorious for a “homeland security” alert called by county officials on Election Day 2004, causing the ballots to be diverted to and counted in a restricted unauthorized warehouse.

In Clermont County, there were 14,496 are registered Democrats and 37,714 registered Republicans, as reported by the Enquirer. In the primary, 26,279 people voted Democratic. One Clermont County presiding judge reported running out of Democratic ballots and turning away at least 30 people, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Election observers on 2004 claimed that 100 or so ballots in Clermont County has stickers over John Kerry’s name, that would have caused the vote scanner not to register a marked Kerry vote. In 2004, Warren, Clermont and nearby Butler County gave Bush some 140,00 more votes than Kerry. Bush’s entire margin of victory in Ohio was less than 119,000 votes.

SNIP

Evidence in general would suggest that the intrusion of normally Republican voters into the Democratic primary may signify what statisticians call an “asymmetrical entrance” of new voters. Such a phenomenon could signal malicious cross-over voters…And it would appear that Ohio Republicans and independents who generally vote Republican were key in handing the state to Hillary Clinton. (and Texas too)

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/10/7591/

NSA'S DOMESTIC SURVEILLANCE HAS 'EVOLVED' TO REACH AMERICANS 'MORE BROADLY': In 2003, Congress voted to terminate funding for Total Information Awareness (TIA) a controversial data mining program set up by the Pentagon that "collected electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns." The program continued in various forms by being spread across different intelligence agencies. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the National Security Agency (NSA), "once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system." An inquiry by the paper reveals that the agency's "efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people's communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks." "When it got taken apart, it didn't get thrown away," a former top government official said of the TIA program. Two current officials also told the Wall Street Journal that "the NSA's current combination of programs now largely mirrors the former TIA project. But the NSA offers less privacy protection." "A number of NSA employees" expressed concerns "that the agency may be overstepping its authority by veering into domestic surveillance."

KARL ROVE RATTLED BY STUDENTS AND PROTESTERS AT UNIVERSITY OF IOWA SPEECH: Students and citizens protested former White House adviser Karl Rove before and during a speech he gave last night at the University of Iowa. Before the speech, "groups from around eastern Iowa had been protesting his presence for two hours" and "protesters staged a mock trial" for Rove inside the student union, draping the "side of a nearby parking ramp with a 60-foot anti-Rove banner." Rove also received tough questions from the audience. One attendee asked Rove about the "true" body count in Iraq, prompting Rove to accuse the individual of "perpetuating libel on the military of the United States by accusing them of killing innocent Iraqis." Rove chastised what he said were "stupid statements" from the audience and said a comment from one man showed "a simple, stupid mind." Responding to a question about CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's outing, Rove said, "I haven't been indicted yet, but I fully expect to be by the end of the year." According to an agreement with the university, "Rove only allowed journalists to videotape the first few minutes of his remarks. After that, the media had to turn off all cameras and tape recorders."