What are they trying to hide

Deal on 9/11 Briefings Lets White House Edit Papers

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — The commission investigating the Sept. 11 terror attacks said on Thursday that its deal with the White House for access to highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports would let the White House edit the documents before they were released to the commission's representatives.

The agreement, announced on Wednesday, has led to the first public split on the commission. Two Democrats on the 10-member panel say that the commission should have demanded full access to the intelligence summaries, known as the President's Daily Brief, and that the White House should not be allowed to determine what is relevant to the investigation.

An umbrella group of victims' families joined the criticism, saying the terms of the accord should be public.

- rob 1:21 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Under the GOP

Congress continues its new life of being an actual "stage" for political theater, leaving its purpose of being a legislative body years ago. It's first production was the "Clinton Impeachment." Now they've got the "Pajama Party" going.

Theater of the Absurd

It's nearly 1:30 in the morning, and a group of bleary-eyed young boys and girls--who by now should be asleep, dreaming of rocket ships and ponies--have found themselves in the presumably baffling circumstance of being lined up for a press conference in the U.S. Capitol. They file into a rank-smelling meeting room just a few yards from the Senate floor, where a classic exercise in Washington Kabuki theatre is underway. Republicans are staging a marathon 30-hour debate to protest Democratic filibusters of four conservative judicial nominees. The meeting room, normally reserved for private GOP strategy sessions, has been transformed into a bustling propaganda center for the pro-judge forces. Inside, activists wear dark blue "Justice For Judges Marathon" T-shirts. The room stinks horribly of people, coffee, and decaying munchies.
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Earlier in the evening, however, there had been a few delicious moments as Democrats mocked the phoniness of the marathon. At one point Nevada Democrat Harry Reid noted that when Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist conducted a poll about judicial filibusters on his website, the Democratic position won a 60 percent majority--thanks to some well-coordinated mischief, no doubt--before the posted results mysteriously vanished.

With evident delight, Reid also quoted from a GOP email that Democrats had somehow acquired that day.

It is important to double your efforts to get your boss to S-230 on time. Fox News channel is really excited about the marathon. Britt [sic] Hume at 6 would love to open the door to all our 51 Senators walking on to the floor. The producer wants to know, will we walk in exactly at 6:02 when the show starts so we can get it live to open Britt Hume's show? Or, if not, can we give them an exact time for the walk-in start?

Illinois Democrat Richard Durbin then asked Reid, with a funny faux-earnestness, whether "we [will] get updates from time to time how Fox News would like to orchestrate the rest of this?" "Perhaps so," Reid replied with a smile. "If not, maybe we could check with the Federalist Society, which, coincidentally, is starting their convention tomorrow." This was masterful stuff. Later in the night I would overhear one irked Republican staffer mutter to another "How did they get that email?"
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It's 2:30 and I'm ready for bed. I make one last swing through the GOP nerve center. There I see an adorable brown-haired girl, maybe 10 years old. Her eyes are swollen and red. She's crying. An older woman crouches down.

"What's the matter honey?"

"I just wanna go home," the poor girl whimpers.

"I know. So do I."

- rob 1:19 PM - [PermaLink] -

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To follow up on Michael's post below, I am mostly amused by the fact that this is a Classic Rock station.

Have they listened to the music that they play?
Have they banned the Beatles yet?
What about Mr. Piano Man himself, Billy Joel (from one of his songs: "until they threw an american flag in our face...")?
And of course they don't play any Bruce Springsteen
Or David Bowie (writer of "This is not America" and "I'm afriad of Americans")
no CSN, No Eno or Roxy Music.... I could go on and on.

And they are upset because Anderson (Tull's lead singer) was feeling that many Americans have confused Nationalism with Patriotism. Proving his point this station has banned Jethro Tull songs proving they cannot tell the difference.

Here's an easy, very basic, refresher:
America: Love it or Leave it
That's Nationalism
America: Love it, try to make it better and point out when it does something unamerican
That's Patriotism

Okay, maybe that is too difficult for the managers of FM 105.7 "The Hawk" to understand. Let's try a really stupid analogy.

Your marriage is America. After years of allowing you to have beer while watching football on Sunday your wife declares that you can no longer have beer before 6PM on Sundays.
A nationalist would suck it up and maybe even beat up friends who suggest that there is no problem having beer before 6PM on Sundays.
A patriot would point out to his wife that that new rule could harm the marriage because it would hurt him and thus the marriage because he would build up resentment towards his wife. If the wife can prove there is a reason for the rule, maybe there would be no beer before, say, noon. i.e. Talk about it. Find out what was right and what was wrong.

- rob 10:07 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Hey Aqualung

The Free Beer & Hot Wings Morning Show is entitled to its views -- but not those of Tull, whose classic rock is now permanently banned.

Waving like a dumb flag
Hiding Stars and Stripes behind a shabby pose,
Hey Doubletongue

Feeling alone
the old patriot wandered lonely
instead of freedom it was only flags he could see.

Sitting on the High Bench --
undermining laws of good intent.
Porn underneath his robes --
sticky fingers swearing dirty oaths.

Doubletongue my friend --
don't start a war so easy
You made us poor, you see,
your money's free.

Lying like a bold son --
smirking as the silly parties run.
Hanging like a dead chad --
stealing votes just like dear old dad.
Hey Doubletongue

Son striking cold --
a young man plundering countries
Taking lives
the only way he knows.

Do you still remember
December's foggy count --
When the lie that
clings on to your fear is
scheming treachery.

And you snatch your battling last state
with deep pockets and no bounds
and the powers loom like
madness on a spring.

- Michael 5:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Soldier Might Face Court Martial For Radio Comments

The husband of Sergeant Jessica Macek, who returned from leave back to Kuwait on Saturday, told WNTA Talk host Chris Bowman that his wife says she may face a court martial for comments she made Friday.

IllinoisLeader.com Rockford correspondent David Hale heard Macek's comments on the Friday morning show. According to Hale, Macek said the President lied about the reasons America military was in Iraq.

If a conservative friend starts going on about how the troops love Bush, please do point out that by law they have to. Freedom of speech does not apply to our troops. It a soldier says what he or she is really feeling they can lose their job, and more.

- rob 2:01 PM - [PermaLink] -

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What Fox News wants more important then Vets to GOP Senate

Forgot to add this little bit to my post below:

Democrats had unsuccessfully attempted to delay the debate until 8 p.m. to allow the Senate to first complete its work on the VA/HUD appropriations bill.

- rob 1:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The wit and wisdom of Jeb Bush, Governor of that embarrasing California wannnabe state

"It looks like the people of San Francisco are an endangered species, which may not be a bad thing. That's probably good news for the country."
...

"I'm glad that Gary Coleman lives in California," Bush said. "A guy like me that believes in limited government probably would have a tough time against a fellow like that because he probably symbolizes smaller government."

- rob 1:19 PM - [PermaLink] -

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It is now official: Fox News is the Ministry of Truth for the Ruling Party (GOP)

51 Senators admit complete loss of all independent thought and pride. They take their orders from Fox News producer.

After Republicans walked into the Senate chamber together to begin the extraordinary session, Democrats argued that their move was not a show of unity but rather a television stunt orchestrated for Fox News. They pointed to a memo from Manuel Miranda, a staffer for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), which said:

"It is important to double efforts to get your boss to S-230 on time ... Fox News Channel is really excited about this marathon and Brit Hume at 6 would love to open with all our 51 senators walking onto the floor -- the producer wants to know will we walk in exactly at 6:02 when the show starts so they get it live to open Brit Hume's show? Or if not, can we give them an exact time for the walk-in start?"

And Senator, could you use the phrase "justice delayed is justice denied," pause after "is," look up to the heavens and with a lump in your throat continue?

Congress no longer works for the betterment of our nation. They are just extras in Fox's new "reality" series: "When adult white men go wild."

found this on: No More Mister Nice Blog - It's Karl Rove's world. We just live in it.

- rob 1:13 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I guess this means we won't hear about the new schools being built (not that new schools aren't a great thing, but is that why we went to war?)
CNN.com - CIA: Iraq security to get worse - Nov. 12, 2003

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A recent CIA assessment of Iraq warns the security situation will worsen across the country, not just in Baghdad but in the north and south as well, a senior administration source told CNN Tuesday.

The report is a much more dire and ominous assessment of the situation than has previously been forwarded through official channels, this source said. It was sent to Washington Monday by the CIA station chief in Iraq.

- rob 1:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Government Outgrows Cap Set by President

Okay. Here it is.
The Democrats: Tax and spend
The Republicans: Don't tax donors and spend more and let the kids figure it out.

Confounding President Bush's pledges to rein in government growth, federal discretionary spending expanded by 12.5 percent in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, capping a two-year bulge that saw the government grow by more than 27 percent, according to preliminary spending figures from congressional budget panels.

The sudden rise in spending subject to Congress's annual discretion stands in marked contrast to the 1990s, when such discretionary spending rose an average of 2.4 percent a year. Not since 1980 and 1981 has federal spending risen at a similar clip. Before those two years, spending increases of this magnitude occurred at the height of the Vietnam War, 1966 to 1968.

- rob 1:21 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Diebold

E-Vote Firm's Bill Comes Due

Citing concerns that Diebold Election Systems installed uncertified software on some electronic voting systems in a California county without the state's knowledge, officials are forcing the company to pay for an audit of all the company's voting machines used in the state in order to win certification for a new model
...

Last week, the voting systems panel surprised Diebold executives and county officials when it halted certification of the TSx system, saying it had received "disconcerting information" about the company violating state election law by installing uncertified software on Alameda County voting systems.

The software, known as GEMS, for General Election Management System, runs on the server which sits in county election centers. GEMS is responsible for tabulating votes sent in from precincts and producing reports from the results.

GEMS is used with Diebold's optical scan system as well as its touch-screen units. And since 12 California counties use the optical scan machines and a thirteenth uses the TS machines also used in Alameda, the state is concerned the problem may exist elsewhere. Los Angeles County also uses a few touch-screen machines for early voting.

But lets stop hearing other people talk about problems with Diebold, let's here from within Diebold itself:

• Right now you can open GEMS' .mdb file with MS-Access, and alter its contents. That includes the audit log. This isn't anything new.
  
• 4K Smart cards which had never been previously programmed are being recognized by the Card Manager as manager cards. When a virgin card from CardLogix is inserted into a Spyrus (have tried CM-0-2-9 and CM-1-1-1) the prompt "Upgrade Mgr Card?" is displayed. Pressing the ENTER key creates a valid manager card. This happens in Admin mode and Election mode.
  
• It does not matter whether we get anything certified or not, if we can't even get the foundation of Global stable. This company is a mess! We should stop development on all new, and old products and concentrate on making them stable instead of showing vaporware. Selling a new account will only load more crap on an already over burdened entity.
  
• Elections are not rocket science. Why is it so hard to get things right! I have never been at any other company that has been so miss [sic] managed.

I feel confident about the validity of the results of some of these elections, don't you? Hey Maryland (and others) your tax payer dollars are being used to give an incompetent company money to steal you vote!

- rob 1:07 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The military realizes it has

No friends in high places

“You not only have a former Guardsman in the White House, you have a friend,” President Bush declared during a 2001 visit to an Air National Guard base.
But for 120,000 Guard and reserve members employed by the federal government, friendship seems to have its limits.

The Bush administration last week persuaded Republican lawmakers to vote down a provision in the $87 billion supplemental funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan operations that would have given financial relief to federally employed reservists called to active duty.

The provision, sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., would have reimbursed those federal employees for any pay cut they suffer when mobilized. It was defeated on a party-line vote Oct. 28 during a House-Senate conference.

About 14,000 reservists are now mobilized to assist with operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Durbin estimates that 23,000 federal employees in all would benefit from this sensible measure, at a relatively inexpensive cost of $80 million.
...

Yet again, Bush administration officials and Republican leaders in Congress have shown how cheap talk can be.

- rob 12:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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My bologna has a first name, it's D. U. B. Y. A.

My bologna has a second name, it's big D. I. C. K.

They love to spin it every way

And if you ask me why, I say:

It's cuz their White House has a way with B. O. L. O. G. N. A.

- Michael 11:02 AM - [PermaLink] -

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You know that movie Henry? He beat his mother to death and hacked people -- including his girl, and his best friend -- to bits and packed them into suitcases and left them on the side of the road. That film was based on the exploits of Henry Lee Lucas, whose death sentence was commuted by -- you guessed it -- George W. Bush. The only convicted felon on death row who ever got a pardon during Bush's whole tenure as Governor of Texas was Henry, who might have been the most prolific serial killer in American history. No joke. Highlights from his obituary, from the New York Times:

Henry Lee Lucas, 64, Murderer Who Said He Killed Hundreds

HUNTSVILLE, Tex., March 14 -- Henry Lee Lucas, the convicted killer who 18 years ago confessed to hundreds of unsolved murders and then recanted, died in prison on Monday. He was 64.

The cause was apparently a heart attack, said a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Larry Fitzgerald. He said Mr. Lucas had been taken to the infirmary after complaining of chest pains.

Mr. Lucas was the only man spared from a Texas death sentence by George W. Bush during Mr. Bush's tenure as governor. He was condemned to die for the killing of an unidentified woman whose body was found in a ditch in 1979. The victim became known as Orange Socks because that was all she was wearing.

No witnesses or physical evidence linked Mr. Lucas to the crime, but he confessed to it four times. Later he said he had lied, and work records and a cashed paycheck indicated that he might have been in Florida at the time of the crime.

Mr. Bush agreed that there were questions about the conviction and commuted the sentence to life in prison just four days before Mr. Lucas was set to receive a lethal injection in 1998. During Mr. Bush's six years as governor, 152 people were executed in Texas.

Before being sent to prison in Texas, Mr. Lucas served 15 years in Michigan for beating his mother to death.

After his arrest in 1983, he claimed to have killed as many as 600 people around the country, and detectives from 40 states talked to him about an estimated 3,000 homicides.

In 1999, Mr. Lucas became fascinated by the case of Angel Maturino Resendiz, a drifter known as the Railroad Killer who was linked to at least eight murders in Texas, Kentucky and Illinois.

''If this was 1983, I'd claim these murders, too,'' Mr. Lucas told The Houston Chronicle. ''I made the police look stupid. I was out to wreck Texas law enforcement.''

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

- Michael 10:58 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Back on August 9th Jer Posted this:

Sounds like a job for the Crank Police, but hey, a story about
W. sexually assaulting a black woman?

This is a job for TCS!

I posted a comment that read (edited for typos):

Whoa Jer, How'd you find this? I toowould pit it in the crank file, but the reporter has a good point. A childhood girlfriend of Bush (she says) sues for assault that occured in the year 2000, you would think that should make mention in at least a few papers, rather than one piece in a small local paper.

The court filing is an interesting read. It is a pdf file and I posted it here on TCS.

It probably was a crank, but it is strange that it was never covered in detail, heck forget detail, it is strange it was never mentioned. You would think it would at least raise an eyebow that she's now dead.

Houston Chronicle Archives: MARGIE D. SCHOEDINGER expired Monday, 9/22/03

According to Bartcop they say it is a suicide.

If she committed suicide whe was obvioulsy troubled (and making up a story about Bush would point to that). But shouldn't anyone look into this a little more? Just a little. I honestly believe nothing nefarious happened, and that she was a troubled woman. But I'm just giving people the benefit of the doubt, I have no knowledge of the case. The Bush administration has frequently proven you can't be cynical enough, so wouuld it be wrong for one or two newspapers to investigate this? Just to put any doubt to rest at least? Or are they still too busy interviewing woman in Arkansas to see if Clinton every looked at them funny.

- rob 4:39 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Verteran's Day

There have been many battles America has fought, some were just, some are not. But no matter the war, America's soldiers risked their lives for our freedom. Soldiers are dying every day in Iraq, and though we should not have gone there, we still pray that come home safetly and quickly. They are heroes.

Disabled American Veterans (DAV) - Donations Section - giving_options

- rob 1:16 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Soros's Deep Pockets vs. Bush

A rich guy who doesn't give to Bush - that makes news?

The $5 million is in matching funds though. Moveon is doing a fundraising drive. If they reach $10 million they get an additional $5 million. Help them out if you got the money to spare (I know, I know, it was easier to give back in the Clinton days, when you had jobs and hope).

- rob 1:11 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Sometimes you really really really should listen to your parents

Does Dubya not respect his elders? (you know - its in the bible)

The Memory Hole >Reasons Not to Invade Iraq, by George Bush Sr.

While we hoped that popular revolt or coup would topple Saddam, neither the U.S. nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. We were concerned about the long-term balance of power at the head of the Gulf. Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome.

This quote is fasinating enough, but perhaps what is even more fasinating and even more frightening is the constant editing of our past (even recent past such as the above essay written in 1998), by the media today.

On 21 September 2002, The Memory Hole posted an extract from an essay by George Bush Sr. and Brent Scowcroft, in which they explain why they didn't have the military push into Iraq and topple Saddam during Gulf War 1. Although there are differences between the Iraq situations in 1991 and 2002-3, Bush's key points apply to both.

But a funny thing happened. Fairly recently, Time pulled the essay off of their site. It used to be at this link, which now gives a 404 error. If you go to the table of contents for the issue in which the essay appeared (2 March 1998), "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam" is conspicuously absent.

Why is Time protecting George the younger? Is George the elder angry? Did he ask Time to pull it? We'll never know because our press no longer believes in reporting, they only reprint press releases.

- rob 1:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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US goods set to double in price as Europe plans huge trade war

The World Trade Organisation gave the European Union permission yesterday to impose huge import tariffs, which will allow price increases of between 8 and 100 per cent on a range of goods.

The row, which began when America imposed special duties of up to 30 per cent on European steel last year, reached a climax yesterday when the trade watchdog gave a final decision in favour of the EU. It said the US action was "inconsistent" with free trade commitments. Europe can now impose duties on products ranging from T-shirts and lavatory paper, to bras, pantyhose, suspenders, ballpoint pens, ski suits and bowling alley equipment. Harley Davidson motorcycles were included in an early draft of the sanctions list, but were not included yesterday.

The EU says its sanctions, amounting to 2.2bn (£1.5bn) a year, will come into force on 15 December unless Washington drops its steel duties. The sanctions would be the biggest in the history of the WTO.

Bush proving he doesn't have any convictions, dropped his religious belief in "free trade" to impose steel tariffs last year in a hope of getting some steel worker votes in 2004. The move was pretty much ridiculed right off the bat: 1) because EU would react strongly (which the did) 2) because it hurt other American industries (made steel more expensive, some steel types not even made in America were also effected doing nothing but putting other American jobs in danger).

Now more jobs may be lost unless if Bush doesn't back down. He should, it'd be better for the nation, but I honestly don't know if he would. He might see it as damaging his swaggering Texas cowboy image, which is obvioulsy more important then the welfare of the people of this country.

- rob 12:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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CNN decides that an informed electorate is less of a priority then a joke question in a debate

The student who asked the most ridiculed question at CNN's "Rock the Vote" debate last week -- "Macs or PCs?" -- says it wasn't her idea.

Alexandra Trustman said yesterday that a CNN producer called her on the morning of the Boston forum and suggested she ask about the Democratic presidential candidates' computer preferences. Puzzled by the request, she writes in Brown University's Daily Herald, she drafted a more complicated question about how the candidates would use technology.

But in Boston, Trustman said, she was handed a notecard with the digital-age equivalent of the boxers-or-briefs choice put to Bill Clinton. She wrote that she told the producer "I didn't see the question's relevance," but that he rejected her proposed query "because it wasn't light-hearted enough and they wanted to modulate the event with various types of questions."

Trustman said she was informed that the network "thought it would be a good opportunity for the candidates to relate to a younger audience."

It is a debate. If people want "light-hearted" they wouldn't be watching the debate they'd be at the cinema watching School of Rock (which is fun as well as "light-hearted").

This is further proof of the idiocy and arrogance that is today's media. We were all young once, and if we look back and remember, we were complete idiots. This is how CNN relates to a "young audience." They're like the old man down the block who tries to be hip by asking the kids which Beatle they think is "grooviest." Embarrassing. Trustman should sue for defamation of character for making her look like an idiot.

By the way: Dubya is a Mac man. Gore is a Mac man. That pretty much proves the question is useless.

- rob 12:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Few GIs for Veterans Day marches

Not the Bush is stretching us too thin with his own personal vendettas (well the war isn't about WMDs, terrorism, or freeing the Iraqi people so I'm just trying to think of a reason).

- rob 12:19 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Tom Burka's site is a great site to visit frequently, it is always a great take on today's sad politics, and sometimes the humor is also pure wishful fantasy:

U.S. Soldiers Set To Sue Manufacturers of Shoulder-Launched Missiles

U.S. soldiers are contemplating filing an enormous class-action suit against the makers of shoulder-launched missiles in an effort to "make makers accountable for their makings," said Pfc. Ernst Choler dispeptically.

Shoulder-launched missiles can easily bring down a Blackhawk or Chinook helicopter, are portable and easy to hide, and can be found all over Iraq, in ammo dumps, weapons caches; they can be checked out of libraries if you have a card.

"We're going to get whoever made these fricking weapons, and while we're at it, why don't we go after whoever left them lying around unsecured in vast heaps all over Iraq, easily available to resistance members, terrorists, fugitives, and Hussein sympathizers?" said Corporal Danny Isotope.

Soldiers have named Russia as a defendant, but Russia is set to countersue the United States, who provided the Russian-made weapons to Iraq during the Reagan years. Other defendants will be Ronald Reagan, former CIA director William Casey, and Donald Rumsfeld, who arranged the weapons transfer. Reagan, Casey, and Rumsfeld will be exhumed for the proceedings.

Kind of reprinted the whole article... sometimes my cutting and pasting just gets carried away. Do visit the site though for some more great pieces.

- rob 12:17 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Brazillian President graduated from the Bush school of foreign relations

WINDHOEK, Namibia (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's efforts to befriend Africa hit a jarring note when he praised Namibia's capital city as being so clean it didn't seem African.

Of course he failed from the school. If he had passed Bush's school he'd have said that Namibia's capital city was so clean it didn't seem Australian.

- rob 9:52 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Yet another example of why a voter verified paper audit trail is very very very important.

Vote count marred by computer woes

Lebanon -- Boone County officials are searching for an answer to the computer glitch that spewed out impossible numbers and interrupted an otherwise uneventful election process Tuesday.

"I about had a heart attack," County Clerk Lisa Garofolo said of the breakdown that came as an eager crowd watched computer-generated vote totals being projected onto a wall of the County Courthouse rotunda.

"I'm assuming the glitch was in the software."
...

"It was like 144,000 votes cast," said Garofolo, whose corrected accounting showed just 5,352 ballots from a pool of fewer than 19,000 registered voters.

"Believe me, there was nobody more shook up than I was."

Are you listening Maryland? Oh... sorry, its too late for you... sorry to rub it in.

- rob 9:46 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Remember Bush did promise to change the tone in Washington

Reid reads from his Searchlight book during filibuster

In the latest in a series of partisan shots between majority Republicans and minority Democrats, Nevada Democrat Harry Reid took to the Senate floor Monday afternoon to deliver a speech he said would stretch into the evening.

After more than six hours, the 63-year-old Reid was still on his feet before a nearly empty chamber discussing the economy, some of President Bush's controversial judicial nominations and the way the GOP majority has been running the Senate.

Reid read at length from "Searchlight, the Camp That Didn't Fail,'' a book he wrote on his tiny hometown of Searchlight.

He warned the Republicans that "the majority has to work with us or nothing gets done.''

He started the speech after Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky took to the floor to criticize Democrats for being "callow, petulant'' and "unsenatorial.''

The GOP is not acting like we are in a two party system, they are acting as if we are a one party system. And because they are acting like it, we are. They rule the supreme court, the congress, and the executive branch, they rule much of the media, and they don't rule well, not at all.

People might visit this site probably think I'm a die hard democrat. I've been pretty much independent, actually leaning libertarian, until Bush (the stupid one) came around. I love my country, and he's trying to take it away from all of us.

All said and done there is one huge difference between the Republicans and Democrats, the republicans can and will use power, that is why we need checks and balances. If the democrats ruled everything it would not be a good scene either, but at least we'd know that they splinter apart and yell at each other, because they just are good with that much power, and that is a good thing.

Not sure what that has to do with the article though, except that silly things like this is the only way the opposition party can be heard these days, and that is a pity. And a danger.

- rob 9:40 AM - [PermaLink] -

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More on Free Speech Zones (or "how far down the road away from freedom Bush has taken us")

Hiding protestors in 'Free Speech Zones' is cowardly and un-American

Brett Bursey, of South Carolina, attended a speech given by the president at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. He was standing among thousands of other citizens. Bursey held up a sign stating: "No more war for oil."

Bursey did not pose a threat to the president, nor was he located in an area restricted to official personnel. Bursey wasn't blocking a corridor the Secret Service needed to keep clear for security reasons. He was standing among citizens who were enthusiastically greeting Bush. Bursey, however, was the only one holding an anti-Bush sign.

He was ordered to put down his sign or move to a designated protest site more than half a mile away, outside the sight and hearing of the president. Bursey refused. He was then arrested and charged with trespassing by the South Carolina police.

However, those charges were dropped. Understandably, courts across the nation have upheld the right to protest on public property.

Instead, Bursey was indicted by the federal government for violation of a federal law that allows the Secret Service to restrict access to areas visited by the president. Bursey faces up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Members of the U.S. House, including those on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft urging him to drop the federal criminal prosecution of Bursey.

The letter signed by 11 members of the House, including Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, states, in part: "As we read the First Amendment to the Constitution, the United States is a 'free speech zone.' In the United States, free speech is the rule, not the exception, and citizens' rights to express it do not depend on their doing it in a way that the president finds politically amenable. . . . We ask that you make it clear that we have no interest as a government in 'zoning' Constitutional freedoms, and that being politically annoying to the president of the United States is not a criminal offense. This prosecution smacks of the use of the Sedition Acts two hundred years ago to protect the president from political discomfort. It was wrong then and it is wrong now."

The American Civil Liberties Union, on behalf of four national advocacy groups, has filed a lawsuit in federal court charging the Secret Service with a "pattern and practice" of discrimination against protesters that violates their free speech rights. The suit seeks to ban the Secret Service and local police from confining protesters to areas away from the view of public officials and the press.

The federal government has gone much further, however. The Oct. 3, Fresno (Calif.) Bee reported that a member of the Fresno Sheriff's Department had infiltrated a peace group, Peace Fresno, to collect information on members of the group. Peace Fresno has no history of violent protests that would endanger national security.
...

The pattern is clear: the Bush administration wants to suppress civil disobedience and peaceful protest. The federal government has never criminally prosecuted an entire organization for the free speech activities of its supporters. It's an attack on the very core of the First Amendment.

One of this nation's founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, is a forceful protest against the actions of King George III and the British government. Protest actions like the Boston Tea Party, the civil rights movement and anti-war demonstrations have shown that active citizens have the ability to promote and secure democratic ideals.

And to sum it all up, let's hear from our pResident:

"[A]s you know, these are open forums, you're able to come and listen to what I have to say."— Bush, Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2003

- rob 12:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Proving not all members are complete loons all the time

Statement of Rep. Peter DeFazio

Mr. Speaker, next week is November 11. And often, I believe, in this Chamber we pay lip service to our veterans; and we fail to deliver on solid votes and programs that would better demonstrate our recognition of their sacrifice and service. And this year, unfortunately with the budget and the appropriations passed, is no exception.
I was astonished earlier today when a colleague from the Republican majority stood up to pretend to document how great things are for our veterans, all these new services and things we are providing. I am hearing a very different assessment from my veterans and their dependents. And facts are stubborn things.

Here are some real facts, unlike what we heard earlier today: 150,000 veterans are waiting 6 months or longer for appointments; 14,000 veterans have been waiting 15 months or longer for their "expedited'' disability claims; 560,000 disabled veterans are subject to the disabled veterans tax, something we have tried to rectify.

We have 373 cosponsors. There are only 435 people here. If 373 people want something, we should be able to do it, should we not? That is a super, super, super majority. But guess what. The Republican leadership, under urging from the President and Secretary Rumsfeld and threats of veto from the President, are refusing to bring up a repeal of the disabled veterans tax.

We can have tax breaks for people who do not work for a living, the investor class. We can have tax breaks for whole hosts of people and things. But we cannot have tax relief for disabled veterans. Is that not extraordinary? President Bush refused to spend $275 million in emergency money for veterans health care provided by Congress in the fiscal year 2002 supplemental appropriations bill.

- rob 12:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Top Ten Conservative Idiots

1. Ed Gillespie
These days it's hard to believe just how far conservatives have shoved their noses up St. Ronnie of Reagan's ass. Take RNC chief Ed Gillespie for example, who, upon learning that the CBS miniseries "The Reagans" may - gasp - take some dramatic liberties (I mean, it's not like it's a, uh, drama or anything) that he fired off an angry letter to CBS execs. According to CNN, Gillespie insisted that CBS "allow a team of historians and friends of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife" to check out the drama and approve it before airing it. And if CBS refused, Gillespie would - get this - "ask the network to run a note across the bottom of the screen every 10 minutes during the program's presentation informing viewers that the miniseries is not accurate." I mean, fer crissakes, what next? If viewers now need to be told that what they're watching on TV may not be 100% accurate, there are plenty of other shows I can think of that could do with a clarifying message. How about a crawl along the bottom of the screen during "The Bachelor" informing viewers that "while Bachelor Bob insists that he is in love with all of the remaining contestants, in fact he may have already decided who he is going to pick." Or how about during "Threat Matrix" - now there's a show that needs a clarifiying message every ten minutes - "while this program depicts the Office of Homeland Security as a team of hip twenty-somethings who talk cool-sounding cyberbabble and watch live satellite feeds in dimly-lit bunkers before heading off to some exotic location and busting terrorist ass, the real Office of Homeland Security is actually comprised of a lot of fat old white men sitting around conference tables discussing their golf swings." Not that any of this really matters any more since chickenshit CBS bowed to the right-wing pressure and shuffled "The Reagans" over to Showtime where it will be seen by approximately nobody. Cowards.

2. George W. Bush
No weapons of mass destruction - check. No connection to al-Qaeda or 9/11 - check. Looks like Our Great Leader is seriously starting to run out of excuses for invading Iraq and getting us into this ridiculous quagmire. But at least he can still bask in the glory of having removed Saddam Hussein from power and liberated the Iraqi people from his tyrannical regime. The remnants still persist, of course - Bush was heard last week suggesting that "Saddam loyalists, those are the people, the torturers and murderers and thugs that used to benefit from Saddam Husseins regime" being behind the recent attack on an American Chinook which killed 16 of our soldiers. Funnily enough, on the same day Our Great Leader was making this statement, it was announced that "The U.S. administrator of Iraq has decided to conditionally support the creation of an Iraqi-led paramilitary force composed of former employees of the country's security services and members of political party militias." Uh, okay - so that's no weapons of mass destruction, no connection to al-Qaeda or 9/11, and now we're re-hiring "the torturers and murderers and thugs that used to benefit from Saddam Husseins regime" to help run the country. Right... so I guess all we need to do now is withdraw from Iraq, allow Saddam return to power, and we'll be right back where we started. Minus the lives of hundreds of American soldiers and billions of taxpayer dollars of course. Good job, George. (note: kudos to Democrats.com for spotting this connection).

Oh, and here's a link to last week's top ten.

- rob 12:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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From The X-Files Department:

Did NASA Accidentally “Nuke” Jupiter

If you think the Iraqi's are pissed, what about the Jovians?

- rob 12:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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"While speaking at a Christian youth center in Dallas, President Bush said that religion helped him overcome his heavy drinking and rowdiness but it was good ole' fashioned Texas willpower that got him off the cocaine." —Tina Fey

Thanks to The Hamster who collects funny quotes every Monday.

- rob 11:50 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Where was this Al Gore during campaign 2000? Truly makes me wonder. Some highlights from Gore's speech today:

President Bush is claiming the unilateral right to [imprison without due process] any American citizen he believes is an “enemy combatant.” Those are the magic words. If the President alone decides that those two words accurately describe someone, then that person can be immediately locked up and held incommunicado for as long as the President wants, with no court having the right to determine whether the facts actually justify his imprisonment.

Now if the President makes a mistake, or is given faulty information by somebody working for him, and locks up the wrong person, then it’s almost impossible for that person to prove his innocence – because he can’t talk to a lawyer or his family or anyone else and he doesn’t even have the right to know what specific crime he is accused of committing. So a constitutional right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we used to think of in an old-fashioned way as “inalienable” can now be instantly stripped from any American by the President with no meaningful review by any other branch of government.

Or, to take another change – and thanks to the librarians, more people know about this one – the FBI now has the right to go into any library and ask for the records of everybody who has used the library and get a list of who is reading what. Similarly, the FBI can demand all the records of banks, colleges, hotels, hospitals, credit-card companies, and many more kinds of companies. And these changes are only the beginning. Just last week, Attorney General Ashcroft issued brand new guidelines permitting FBI agents to run credit checks and background checks and gather other information about anyone who is “of investigatory interest,” - meaning anyone the agent thinks is suspicious - without any evidence of criminal behavior.

Indeed, this Administration has turned the fundamental presumption of our democracy on its head. A government of and for the people is supposed to be generally open to public scrutiny by the people – while the private information of the people themselves should be routinely protected from government intrusion.

But instead, this Administration is seeking to conduct its work in secret even as it demands broad unfettered access to personal information about American citizens. Under the rubric of protecting national security, they have obtained new powers to gather information from citizens and to keep it secret. Yet at the same time they themselves refuse to disclose information that is highly relevant to the war against terrorism.

And even as they claim the right to see the private bank records of every American, they are adopting a new policy on the Freedom of Information Act that actively encourages federal agencies to fully consider all potential reasons for non-disclosure regardless of whether the disclosure would be harmful. In other words, the federal government will now actively resist complying with ANY request for information.

Moreover, they have established a new exemption that enables them to refuse the release to the press and the public of important health, safety and environmental information submitted to the government by businesses – merely by calling it “critical infrastructure.”

By closely guarding information about their own behavior, they are dismantling a fundamental element of our system of checks and balances. Because so long as the government’s actions are secret, they cannot be held accountable. A government for the people and by the people must be transparent to the people.

Almost eighty years ago, Justice Louis Brandeis wrote “Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. . . . They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty.” Those who won our independence, Brandeis asserted, understood that “courage [is] the secret of liberty” and "fear [only] breeds repression."

Rather than defending our freedoms, this Administration has sought to abandon them. Rather than accepting our traditions of openness and accountability, this Administration has opted to rule by secrecy and unquestioned authority. Instead, its assaults on our core democratic principles have only left us less free and less secure.

There are reasons for concern this time around that what we are experiencing may no longer be the first half of a recurring cycle but rather, the beginning of something new. For one thing, this war is predicted by the administration to “last for the rest of our lives.” Others have expressed the view that over time it will begin to resemble the “war” against drugs – that is, that it will become a more or less permanent struggle that occupies a significant part of our law enforcement and security agenda from now on. If that is the case, then when – if ever – does this encroachment on our freedoms die a natural death?

It is important to remember that throughout history, the loss of civil liberties by individuals and the aggregation of too much unchecked power in the executive go hand in hand. They are two sides of the same coin.

A second reason to worry that what we are witnessing is a discontinuity and not another turn of the recurring cycle is that the new technologies of surveillance – long anticipated by novelists like Orwell and other prophets of the “Police State” – are now more widespread than they have ever been.

[T]he most worrisome new factor, in my view, is the aggressive ideological approach of the current administration, which seems determined to use fear as a political tool to consolidate its power and to escape any accountability for its use. Just as unilateralism and dominance are the guiding principles of their disastrous approach to international relations, they are also the guiding impulses of the administration’s approach to domestic politics. They are impatient with any constraints on the exercise of power overseas – whether from our allies, the UN, or international law. And in the same way, they are impatient with any obstacles to their use of power at home – whether from Congress, the Courts, the press, or the rule of law.

The politicization of law enforcement in this administration is part of their larger agenda to roll back the changes in government policy brought about by the New Deal and the Progressive Movement. Toward that end, they are cutting back on Civil Rights enforcement, Women’s Rights, progressive taxation, the estate tax, access to the courts, Medicare, and much more. And they approach every issue as a partisan fight to the finish, even in the areas of national security and terror.

Our framers were ... keenly aware that the history of the world proves that Republics are fragile. The very hour of America’s birth in Philadelphia, when Benjamin Franklin was asked, “What have we got? A Republic or a Monarchy?” he cautiously replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

And even in the midst of our greatest testing, Lincoln knew that our fate was tied to the larger question of whether ANY nation so conceived could long endure.

This Administration simply does not seem to agree that the challenge of preserving democratic freedom cannot be met by surrendering core American values. Incredibly, this Administration has attempted to compromise the most precious rights that America has stood for all over the world for more than 200 years: due process, equal treatment under the law, the dignity of the individual, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, freedom from promiscuous government surveillance. And in the name of security, this Administration has attempted to relegate the Congress and the Courts to the sidelines and replace our democratic system of checks and balances with an unaccountable Executive. And all the while, it has constantly angled for new ways to exploit the sense of crisis for partisan gain and political dominance. How dare they!

Years ago, during World War II, one of our most eloquent Supreme Court Justices, Robert Jackson, wrote that the President should be given the “widest latitude” in wartime, but he warned against the “loose and irresponsible invocation of war as an excuse for discharging the Executive Branch from the rules of law that govern our Republic in times of peace. No penance would ever expiate the sin against free government,” Jackson said, “of holding that a President can escape control of executive powers by law through assuming his military role. Our government has ample authority under the Constitution to take those steps which are genuinely necessary for our security. At the same time, our system demands that government act only on the basis of measures that have been the subject of open and thoughtful debate in Congress and among the American people, and that invasions of the liberty or equal dignity of any individual are subject to review by courts which are open to those affected and independent of the government which is curtailing their freedom.”

As John Adams wrote in 1780, ours is a government of laws and not of men. What is at stake today is that defining principle of our nation, and thus the very nature of America. As the Supreme Court has written, “Our Constitution is a covenant running from the first generation of Americans to us and then to future genera­tions.” The Constitution includes no wartime exception, though its Framers knew well the reality of war. And, as Justice Holmes reminded us shortly after World War I, the Constitution’s principles only have value if we apply them in the difficult times as well as those where it matters less.

The question before us could be of no greater moment: will we continue to live as a people under the rule of law as embodied in our Constitution? Or will we fail future generations, by leaving them a Constitution far diminished from the charter of liberty we have inherited from our forebears? Our choice is clear.

Albert Gore is an experienced politician. He isn't prone to gaffes, hyperbole, or hysterical posturing. Our country is being taken from us.

- Michael 7:58 PM - [PermaLink] -

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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt



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 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt



"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson



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- James Madison



"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy



"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." - Bill Clinton.