Dubya's Speech Continues the Pattern of Deception
In today's WaPo article Asterisks Dot White House's Iraq Argument, the journalists clobber Bush on two key messages in yesterday's speech: the assertion that Congress saw the same pre-war intelligence as the administration, and that independent commissions have determined that the administration did not misrepresent the intelligence. Unspinning the truth, we find:

Bush and his aides had access to much more voluminous intelligence information than did lawmakers, who were dependent on the administration to provide the material. And the commissions cited by officials, though concluding that the administration did not pressure intelligence analysts to change their conclusions, were not authorized to determine whether the administration exaggerated or distorted those conclusions.

This is more of the same deception that has led his ratings into the dumpster. More over at DailyKos.

- Edoc 10:28 AM - [PermaLink] -

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As Texas uber-conservatives aren't sure what marriage is ("I know I have a spouse... but what does that really mean and why do I still have to do the dishes").

Marriage definition proposed

AUSTIN - A West Texas legislator on Monday proposed a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a "union of one man and one woman," a move conservatives called an endorsement of national efforts to ban gay marriage.

The amendment is seen as a sure-fire win in a state where Republicans dominate the House and Senate. Lawmakers convene in January, and they could send the amendment to voters as early as next fall.

Americablog thinks legislating against divorce is probably next. And it probably is.

Many of the uber-conservatives came to their beliefs out of a deep fear and confusion by all the options modern life offers, legal, moral, illegal, and immoral. They are ill equiped to make the right decision for themselves. Be it weak self-esteem, sexual confusion, or something else. While a liberal may want things legal they would never do, an uber-conservative may not be able to resist the temptation and to make it easier on themselves they seek to make it illegal.

Thus divorce is often a horrible and sad thing. Let's make it illegal, they're logic goes. And thus it should be surprising the "born again" Christians have a higher divorce rate then atheists.

Variation in divorce rates by religion:

Religion	% have been divorced
Jews	30%
Born-again Christians	27%
Other Christians	24%
Atheists, Agnostics	21%

Go read the report, it's also interesting to note that the liberal Northeast is the region with the least divorces.

Update: Table Corrected.

- rob 5:32 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Ways to make this century less sucky: Daily Kos: Energy from the Moon

One renewable energy resource that's rarely discussed here, but is already being developed, is the moon. The moon's gravity sends an almost unimaginable quantity of water sloshing back and forth between continents. It happens a couple of times each day and it's called the tides. As any sailor who's tried to beat home against a tidal current can tell you, the amount of energy involved is phenomenal.

There are already several tidal generation works around the world humming, or splashing, along and providing almost free electricity. Since most of our population lives near the coast, shouldn't we considering developing moon, I mean tidal, power.

There isn't going to be on alternative source that solves our energy problems, it is going to be many.

But imagine a world where the gases going into the air are from bogs and cows, not energy plants. Imagine a world where foreign policy is not based on getting black gold (oil that is).

The thing is you really don't have to use your imagination - you just have to get the government interested in actual solutions.

- rob 5:17 PM - [PermaLink] -

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What more can you say: Frist concerned more about leaks than secret prisons

Hmmm what's worse, the American government rejecting any standard of decency, humanity, and transparency and running secret prisons in different parts of the world, including prisons formally used by the Soviet Union - prisons where torture may or may not be happening. Or. Someone letting Americans know what its government is doing.

Frist chooses abhorrent self-destructive policies over the American people.

- rob 5:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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From Talking Points Memo: Very Interesting News out of Italy this morning.

As you know, I've reported that the second report from Italian intelligence to the CIA about the Niger-Iraq story, the report in February of 2002, was a text transcription of what would later turn out to be one of the forged documents.

But there's one more small detail, reported this morning in La Repubblica. The report sent over from Italy removed the out-of-date names (one of the key reasons they were spotted later as forgeries) and replaced them with the correct names. In other words, there seems to have been a conscious effort to cover up the fact that the documents were bogus, to clean them up, as it were.

- rob 5:10 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Classic Santorum
As usual, Santorum serves as poster-child for hypocrisy.

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., says that the No. 1 health care crisis in his state is medical lawsuit abuse and in the past he's called for a $250,000 cap on non-economic damage awards or awards for pain and suffering. "We need to do something now to fix the medical liability problem in this country," he declared at a rally in Washington D.C., this past spring.

But Santorum's wife sued a doctor for $500,000 in 1999.

- Edoc 5:03 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Senate Passes Amendment to Deny WOT Prisoners Access to US Courts
Winning the hearts and minds of the world, the US Senate has decided that non-US citizens can rot in military prisons without access to US courts:

The Senate voted Thursday to strip captured "enemy combatants" at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, of the principal legal tool given to them last year by the Supreme Court when it allowed them to challenge their detentions in United States courts.

Unbelievable, considering that more than a quarter of detainees at Camp X-ray were released with no charges. More at DailyKos.

- Edoc 9:34 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Anti-intellectualism and the Rise of Idiot America
In a similar vein to the Harper's post below, Esquire steps up to the plate with a story about how our collective stupidity has been channelled into awful policy.

"So it ought not shock anyone when the government suddenly found itself at odds with empirical science. It ought not shock anyone in the manner in which it would go to war. Remember the beginning, when it was purely the Gut—a bone-deep call for righteous revenge for which Afghanistan was not sufficient response. In Iraq, there would be towering stacks of chemical bombs, a limitless smorgasbord of deadly bacteria, vast lagoons of exotic poisons. There would be candy and flowers greeting our troops. The war would take six months, a year, tops. Mission Accomplished. Major combat operations are over.

According to Richard Clarke,'They ignored the experts on the Middle East. They ignored the experts who said it was the wrong target. So you ignore the experts and you go in anyway, and then you ignore all the experts on how to handle the postconflict.'

- Edoc 8:55 AM - [PermaLink] -

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A History of the Iraq War, Told Entirely in Lies
(Harper's Online) This is a pretty good satire from earlier this week. Here's an example paragraph:

It was entirely possible that in Iraq you had the most pro-American population that could be found anywhere in the Arab world. If you were looking for a historical analogy, it was probably closer to post-liberation France. We had the overwhelming support of the Iraqi people. Once we won, we got great support from everywhere.

- Edoc 8:50 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Congress realises that they have a role to play in the checks and balances of our government.

(actually they realize Bush is weak and that's the only reason why the cowards are looking to do the right thing - some what)

Congress May Curb Some Patriot Act Powers

A budding House-Senate deal on the expiring USA Patriot Act includes new limits on federal law enforcement powers and rejects the Bush administration's request to grant the FBI authority to get administrative subpoenas for wiretaps and other covert devices without a judge's approval.

Before you clap and say Freedom is on the march (in America)... read on:

Even with the changes, however, every part of the law set to expire Dec. 31 would be reauthorized and most of those provisions would become permanent.

- rob 4:44 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Abramoff is the scandal that could really make Bush a pointless puppy for the next 3 years (yes it is dangerous to have a President that has no powers, but Bush is more dangerous with powers - so we'll take the lesser evil)

Lobbyist Sought $9 Million to Set Bush Meeting

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 - The lobbyist Jack Abramoff asked for $9 million in 2003 from the president of a West African nation to arrange a meeting with President Bush and directed his fees to a Maryland company now under federal scrutiny, according to newly disclosed documents.

The African leader, President Omar Bongo of Gabon, met with President Bush in the Oval Office on May 26, 2004, 10 months after Mr. Abramoff made the offer.

$9 million. Wow, you know under Clinton you could stay in the Lincoln bedroom for like fifty bucks. Everything is more costly under Bush - the deficit - the numbers of war dead.

- rob 4:10 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Why even have confirmation hearings - its already estabilished that Alito won't follow up on stuff he's swears to under oath.

Alito has a history of not keeping his word to the US Senate

We already talked about is Vanguard issue:

When Alito became a federal appeals court judge in 1990, he promised to recuse himself from cases involving Vanguard mutual funds, because he had personal investments through the company. Yet he participated in a case decided in 2002 involving Vanguard.

But here's a new one:

Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., who said in 1990 that he would disqualify himself from cases involving his sister's law firm, was a member of an appeals court that reviewed a 1995 case in which his sister's firm represented one of the parties, according to court records.

It is at least the third instance in which there is no indication the Supreme Court nominee recused himself from the kind of case he had promised a Senate committee he would avoid as a federal judge.

Not sure what the other instance was. Anyone? (though I think 2 should cover it... is Bush's second pick going to go down?)

- rob 4:07 PM - [PermaLink] -

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And Fox News defends family values and Christianity?

America can not defend crimes that we rightly abhor in others.



Is their arguement that everyone we torture wants to kills us? Is that before or after they or tortured. Is it okay because we never torture white Christians? As torture is questioned by many as even being useful is Fox News pushing torture out of blood thirsty vengence?

As Fox News is happy to proclaim against all who disagree with Bush - UnAmerican - I will note that that graphic proves beyond a doubt Fox News is UnAmerican. America is better then that! If Fox News wants to lower America's morals to that of Saddam then can at least do it without the flag draped around every nook and cranny of their sets. You're disgracing it. You are disgracing us.

image via: Stop Watching Fox News or They'll Poke Your Eyes Out with a Stick - Wonkette

- rob 3:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Germ Boys and Yes Men

In early November George W. Bush, struggling to claw his way upward in polls that had acquired the consistency of quicksand after two months of blunders and disasters, launched a new PR blitz. The Administration declared it was taking charge of the nation's health and security with an all-out war on the flu (to be conducted with vaccines provided by well-connected pharmaceutical companies). "Our country has been given fair warning of this danger to our homeland," Bush declared. "It's my responsibility as President to take measures now to protect the American people."

But if Bush hoped to wipe away the stain of Katrina--and the memory of a hapless Michael Brown steering FEMA in circles while New Orleans drowned--he should have thought twice about bringing up the specter of a public health emergency, because the man responsible for coordinating the federal response to a flu pandemic or bioterror attack could well be the next Michael Brown.

Meet Stewart Simonson. He's the official charged by Bush with "the protection of the civilian population from acts of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies"--a well-connected, ideological, ambitious Republican with zero public health management or medical expertise, whose previous job was as a corporate lawyer for Amtrak.

- rob 3:32 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Who are you going to believe?
The Bush White House or your own lying ears?

(follow up to a post yesterday)

White House Stands by 'Not Accurate' Quote in Dispute

NEW YORK Presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan's short answer to a question at his daily press briefing last week has prompted a dispute between the White House press office and two news organizations that offer transcripts of the events.

A spokeswoman for McClellan's office told E&P late Wednesday that the White House is standing by its version of what he said.

At the Oct. 31 briefing, David Gregory of NBC News stated the following question to McClellan about White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby: "Whether there's a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations."

The official White House transcript states that McClellan's response was "I don’t think that's accurate."

But two outside news agencies, Congressional Quarterly and Federal News Service - which provide transcripts for a fee -both reported the response as "that's accurate."
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White House officials contacted the news outlets and ask for a change to their versions of the transcript.
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At Congressional Quarterly, which provides such transcripts to subscribers via the Web, Editor David Rapp had a similar experience with the White House. "They called last week and asked us to make a correction and we investigated and decided to stand by our version," he told E&P. "Their comment is a little bit incongruous, it doesn't jive with what we have."
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When asked about the fact that the White House version contradicts video accounts of the briefing, Perino added, "the White House stenographer was in the room and I was in the room" and they heard McClellan say "I don't think that's accurate'."

You can hear it via a link here:

- rob 1:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I cannot say how saddened I am to learn that when we finally find chemical weapons in Iraq -- its ours

CONFIRMED: white phosphorus is a Chemical Weapon if used to cause harm through toxic properties

Now Bush does have a legalistic out. In a rider to the Senate ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention, riot control, smoke agents, and flame weapons are A OK with the US.

So lawyers again are more important the morals at the Bush White House.

- rob 11:28 AM - [PermaLink] -

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US Army Admits Use of White Phosphorus as Weapon
(Via DailyKos) Well there you have it. We not only maintain our own secret torture rooms, but we use chemical weapons, which killed Iraqi civilians, including women and children. I'm not suggesting that this puts us on equal footing with Saddam Hussein, but nonetheless, it is horrific. This revelation makes the US military spokesman in Iraq a liar, but whatever. The military will next argue that white phospherous is technically not a chemical weapon, based on some twist of the definition. This war sickens me, and sullies us all.

- Edoc 6:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Didn't we ridicule Clinton becuase he had confusion with words like "sexal relations" and "is." Now we are quibbling about "torture"? It really isn't a place we should have ever gotten near.

Classified Report Warned on C.I.A.'s Tactics in Interrogation

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 - A classified report issued last year by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general warned that interrogation procedures approved by the C.I.A. after the Sept. 11 attacks might violate some provisions of the international Convention Against Torture, current and former intelligence officials say.

The previously undisclosed findings from the report, which was completed in the spring of 2004, reflected deep unease within the C.I.A. about the interrogation procedures, the officials said. A list of 10 techniques authorized early in 2002 for use against terror suspects included one known as waterboarding, and went well beyond those authorized by the military for use on prisoners of war.

The convention, which was drafted by the United Nations, bans torture, which is defined as the infliction of "severe" physical or mental pain or suffering, and prohibits lesser abuses that fall short of torture if they are "cruel, inhuman or degrading." The United States is a signatory, but with some reservations set when it was ratified by the Senate in 1994.

This is the really really awful legalistic and sickening part (well all of it was sickening and awful):

Among the few known documents that address interrogation procedures and that have been made public is an August 2002 legal opinion by the Justice Department, which said that interrogation methods just short of those that might cause pain comparable to "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death" could be allowable without being considered torture. The administration disavowed that classified legal opinion in the summer of 2004 after it was publicly disclosed.

- rob 4:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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In one sentence Lott's gives out two truths

Daily Kos: Trent Lott says GOP Senator guilty of leaking story re: secret torture prisons

Hastert and Frist make a big show of calling for an investigation into a leak allegedly affecting national security -- the locations of secret "black site" torture prisons. And then -- BOOM!!! Lott just said, Tuesday afternoon, that he thinks it was a GOP Senator who leaked the info to the Washington Post last week. He says the details had been discussed at a GOP Senators-only meeting last week, and that many of those details made it into the WaPo story.

Money quote from Lott; "We can not remain silent. We have met the enemy, and it is us."

GOP Senators are the enemy when it comes to keeping secrets or The administration is the enemy because we now commit the crimes we once abhor in other nations. He probably meant both.

- rob 4:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A good piece about torture at: War and Piece

And yes, I too find it odd that we are talking about torture in the 21st Century.

Mankind has made zero progress in the past thousands of years, except movies with popcorn and coke are a lot better then watching rabid dogs attack a bear tied to a post.

- rob 4:09 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I've met people who decided the best course of action in dealing with chest pains was to ignore them. If they go to the doctor and something was wrong they couldn't afford to deal with it, and if everything was okay they'd still have to pay for the doctor visit and tests etc. It was just cheaper to suffer in ignorance.

But we are the envy of the world. I see people saying "well in Canada they are rationing healthcare." eh? We aren't rationing it here -- we're outright not giving it out to millions of Americans. Envy my ass.

The article is at Truthout so you won't have to pay: Paul Krugman | Pride, Prejudice, Insurance

General Motors is reducing retirees' medical benefits. Delphi has declared bankruptcy, and will probably reduce workers' benefits as well as their wages. An internal Wal-Mart memo describes plans to cut health costs by hiring temporary workers, who aren't entitled to health insurance, and screening out employees likely to have high medical bills.

These aren't isolated anecdotes. Employment-based health insurance is the only serious source of coverage for Americans too young to receive Medicare and insufficiently destitute to receive Medicaid, but it's an institution in decline. Between 2000 and 2004 the number of Americans under 65 rose by 10 million. Yet the number of nonelderly Americans covered by employment-based insurance fell by 4.9 million.

The funny thing is that the solution - national health insurance, available to everyone - is obvious. But to see the obvious we'll have to overcome pride - the unwarranted belief that America has nothing to learn from other countries - and prejudice - the equally unwarranted belief, driven by ideology, that private insurance is more efficient than public insurance.
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In 2002 the United States spent $5,267 per person on health care. Canada spent $2,931; Germany spent $2,817; Britain spent only $2,160. Yet the United States has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than any of these countries.

But don't people in other countries sometimes find it hard to get medical treatment? Yes, sometimes - but so do Americans. No, Virginia, many Americans can't count on ready access to high-quality medical care.

Damn, next Krugman's going to say there is no Santa Claus (but yet so many politicians keep playing that role: "I'll give you what you need - and cut taxes - how can we afford it? Simple, volume.")

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I posted about this earlier this week, but this bares repeating:

BUSH'S WAR ON PEOPLE OF FAITH....

Today we learn that Bush's IRS is investigating a prominent liberal Episcopal church because of a sermon last fall in which the minister condemned Bush's policy in Iraq. (No word on whether the agency is also going after the Baptist church that kicked out members who voted for John Kerry. Or the churches that helped out the Bush/Cheney campaign last year by sending in their membership directories. Or the Catholic priests who told parishioners it would be a sin to vote for Kerry.)

Don't cry for the Episcopalians, though. They had an out. The IRS offered them a sweet deal: Admit that you violated the law, never do it again, and we'll drop the investigation.

That kind of "deal" is usually called "intimidation."

Um... Jesus preached turn the other cheek, would this be viewed as being anti-war? Would it get him in trouble with the IRS?

And what about the Amish and their whole "pacifism" thang? Seems damn political to me - tax all Amish churches, and Mennonite and Quakers while you are at it (hmm... Nixon was a Quaker - not very pacifist was he?)

- rob 3:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Someone at White House mistakenly says the truth, White House decides to lie about it.

Think Progress; That's Not Accurate: White House Alters Transcript of Press Briefing

Q Whether there’s a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement. We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations.

Congressional Quarterly and FNS both transcribed Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s answer as “That’s accurate.” The White House transcript lists McClellan’s answer as “I don’t think that’s accurate.”

Go to the Think Progress piece to see that part of the press briefing yourself.

- rob 2:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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LOL

White House Gambles That Boosting Kilgore Will Pay Off for Bush

In jumping into the Virginia governor's race just 10 hours before polling booths open, President Bush put his credibility on the line last night and ensured that the results will be interpreted as a referendum on his troubled presidency. But the White House is gambling that after weeks of political tribulations, Bush has little more to lose.

Bush is finally free.

"freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"

- rob 1:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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To follow up with Edoc's post below:

Daily Kos: A curious admission from the White HouseMcClellan says that we don't torture...

Q So then why is the Vice President continuing to lobby on this issue? If you're very happy with the laws on the books, what needs change?

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, you asked me -- you want to ask questions of the Vice President's office, feel free to do that. We've made our position very clear, and it's spelled out on our website for everybody to see.

This is the clearest statement from the White House indicating that VP Cheney is running his own shop that I've seen so far. How can Cheney do anything remotely like this (asking for torture exemptions) without Bush's backing since the VP lacks constitutional authority to do almost anything. If the White House can't speak for the VP then Cheney has gone rogue.

on September 11th a coup happened for a few hours in which Cheney lied to the President to get him out of the way and then gave out orders pretending he had approval for them when, in truth, he did not (some I actually agreed with). Is McClellan the lonely man in the White House trying to say that Cheney is running amok?

- rob 12:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The best news from yesterday's election: School board that backed intelligent design ousted

America can not dumb its way out of the problems we now face. And there is no greater act (well of course there is) then a citizenry standing up and saying "we want our children edumacated!"

Challengers unseated eight out of nine Dover Board of Education members yesterday in a tight race that centered on the issue whether the theory of intelligent design has a place in science classes.

The ninth member of the York County school board was not up for re-election.

The eight board members unseated were all are proponents of a policy -- now the subject of a federal court case -- requiring high school freshmen to hear a statement about intelligent design before biology lessons about evolution.

8 of the 8 out of there, and replaced by folks who thing science is for the classroom and religion is for church.

Victory!

In honor of this win for evolution and science here's some monkey news:

Gigantic Apes Coexisted with Early Humans, Study Finds

A gigantic ape standing 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds lived alongside humans for over a million years, according to a new study.

Fortunately for the early humans, the huge primate's diet consisted mainly of bamboo.
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Humans may have helped destroy the ape.


Further studies of the teeth revealed that the ape was an herbivore, and bamboo was probably its favorite meal. Some scientists believe that an appetite focused on bamboo combined with increasing competition from more nimble humans eventually led to the extinction of Gigantopithecus.

What's with the anti-human crowd?... would apes have ever come up with the genius that is Fox News. I think not.

- rob 11:44 AM - [PermaLink] -

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White House Press Secretary: Deflection and Indirection about Torture
Yesterday, Scott McClellan deflected questions on torture a dozen or more times. The only trick he didn't pull was the "depends how you define torture" canard. Scott has a tough job: lying to the press in order to cover for an administration with zero credibility. My guess is that after Plamegate, Scottie probably doesn't have a strong rapport with Cheney's office these days, and those are the guys running the show on the whole torture issue (and probably every other issue, for that matter).

- Edoc 11:23 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Who says Bush is a failure, not many Presidents would have accomplished this particular feat of Bush's. In fact none have.

Another Bush success story:

Bush Borrowed More Than All Previous Presidents Combined, Group Says

President Bush and the current administration have borrowed more money from foreign governments and banks than the previous 42 presidents combined, a group of conservative to moderate Democrats said Friday.

Blue Dog Coalition, which describes itself as a group "focused on fiscal responsibility," called the administration's borrowing practices "astounding."

According to the Treasury Department, from 1776-2000, the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions, but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion.

America won't recover from the damage Bush has done for decades.

Bush - proving one man can make a difference (for the worst).

- rob 10:53 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Feeling good about yesterday's election results (mostly because it is easily interpreted as a slap to Bush).

Here's another bit of hope for the world: Palestinian's organs go to Israel

The parents of a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank have donated his organs for use in Israel, in the hope of promoting peace.

- rob 10:36 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Chalabi and Rice meet today.

Thing Progress takes a look back at his illustrious recent history.

Sleeping With the Enemy: Chalabi’s Sordid History

CHALABI ATTENDED PLANNING MEETING AT THE PENTAGON JUST DAYS AFTER 9/11 ATTACKS: On September 18, 2001, Richard Perle convened a two-day meeting of the Defense Policy Board, a group that advises the Pentagon. Chalabi, who was a guest speaker at this meeting, made a presentation on the Iraqi threat. [Vanity Fair, 5/04]

Sadly for us (being American citizens) there is a lot more.

- rob 5:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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White House keeps dossiers on more than 10,000 'political enemies'
Is this what has become of our democracy?

Spurred by paranoia and aided by the USA Patriot Act, the Bush Administration has compiled dossiers on more than 10,000 Americans it considers political enemies and uses those files to wage war on those who disagree with its policies.

The "enemies list" dates back to Bush's days as governor of Texas and can be accessed by senior administration officials in an instant for use in campaigns to discredit those who speak out against administration policies or acts of the President.

- Edoc 4:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush's NASA getting people in orbit a priority
Having them do something worthwhile in orbit - distant second.

NASA Axes Space Station Research

Nov. 4, 2005— Scientists who once begged Congress to fund the space station have been notified by NASA that their programs have been canceled....
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"My priority became assuring that the United States would have as close to continuous capability to put people in space first and then conducting research on them after that," he [agency administrator Michael Griffin] said.

You know in 1976 we had the space shuttle and little robot ships on Mars. Now close to 30 years later we've got a mostly grounded shuttle fleet - and robots on Mars (okay, these new robots are way more cool).

- rob 3:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hey were you ever a thug for a war criminal?

You were, well step right up and get some serious cash courtesy of the US taxpayer: Former Serb Red Berets in Iraq

About 30 former members of the Jedinica za Specijalne Operacije Special Operations Unit, better known as the JSO or Red Berets, have been working for private security contractors in Iraq for $8,000 a month.
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The Serbians are providing security for oil fields, government offices and foreign companies. They guard German and English engineers working in Iraq, according Vecernje Novosti.

The Serbians join an increasing number of foreign former military personnel supplementing coalition forces in Iraq. Some media estimates put the number of private security personnel as high as 40,000. Most of these private security companies are paid to be there by the US government... all to keep the number of troops artificially low, and at great expense to the taxpayer (and lowered morale of our own armed service). Its like the corporation that lays people off and then pays them 2 and a half times as much to come back as a contractor. Sure it costs them a lot more money but they do get to have a lower head count in their financial declarations.

- rob 2:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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It's like the NY Times is trying to apologize for allowing Judy Miller print neo-con talking points and calling it "breaking news"

Brutal (and truthful): President Bush's Walkabout - New York Times

After President Bush's disastrous visit to Latin America, it's unnerving to realize that his presidency still has more than three years to run. An administration with no agenda and no competence would be hard enough to live with on the domestic front. But the rest of the world simply can't afford an American government this bad for that long.
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The White House is in an uproar over the future of Karl Rove, the president's political adviser, and spinning off rumors that some top cabinet members may be asked to walk the plank. Mr. Bush could certainly afford to replace some of his top advisers. But the central problem is not Karl Rove or Treasury Secretary John Snow or even Donald Rumsfeld, the defense secretary. It is President Bush himself.

Second terms may be difficult, but the chief executive still has the power to shape what happens. Ronald Reagan managed to turn his messy second term around and deliver - in great part through his own powers of leadership - a historic series of agreements with Mikhail Gorbachev that led to the peaceful dismantling of the Soviet empire. Mr. Bush has never demonstrated the capacity for such a comeback. Nevertheless, every American has a stake in hoping that he can surprise us.

The place to begin is with Dick Cheney, the dark force behind many of the administration's most disastrous policies, like the Iraq invasion and the stubborn resistance to energy conservation. Right now, the vice president is devoting himself to beating back Congressional legislation that would prohibit the torture of prisoners. This is truly a remarkable set of priorities: his former chief aide was indicted, Mr. Cheney's back is against the wall, and he's declared war on the Geneva Conventions.

- rob 2:13 PM - [PermaLink] -

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It was supposed to be a House of the people, but they have made it a den of theives.

In a little known aspect of the Disabilities Act, blind trusts are allowed to see (as long as they squint).

Enter senators, and returns go sky-high

New York - Wall Street stars who make millions by beating the stock market had better beware. A new group has emerged whose returns are sky-high, yet their salaries are a small portion of compensation paid to investment bankers.

They are US senators who, when they are not doing their day job running the country, are rather talented at investing. Senators beat the stock market annually by 12 percent on average, the first comprehensive study of share trading by members of the US's upper house has found.

That is an impressive performance, as fund managers are thought to have the Midas touch if they regularly outperform by about 3 percent, and even hedge funds - which charge steep fees for performance - are now on average only 6 percent better than the market.

The American government of 2005: Lining its pocket while it lies to the populace.

This is how empires fall by the way.

- rob 1:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush's FEMA a marvel of incompetence (its like an itty bitty Bush Adminiatration).

Company under fire won Katrina contracts

A defense contracting firm tangled in the Abu Ghraib prison controversy and an international bribery scheme has been awarded federal government contracts for Hurricane Katrina and other disasters.
Since late September, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded Titan a $450,000 contract for a mobile emergency response vehicle and a $107,058 contract for emergency housing work, according to government records and interviews.

If you are competent, moral, and reasonabliy priced you are no longer allowed to bit on government contracts.

George only promotes failures and frauds in his administration but even in the governemnt you'll eventually run out of them, it is so good Bush is now outsourcing.

- rob 1:01 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Cheney must have left a lasting impression with his time at Halliburton.

They ruin our national standing in the world, cost tax payers money, and weaken our security in Iraq all at the same time. Cheney must be so proud of those guys.

US should repay Iraq for Halliburton work: audit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should reimburse Iraq for $208 million in apparent overcharges paid to a Halliburton Co. subsidiary, an U.N. watchdog agency said on Saturday.

The International Advisory and Monitoring Board for the Development of Iraq conducted a special audit on Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown and Root unit for the procurement and distribution of fuel products and the restoration of Iraq's oil infrastructure.

The monitoring board cited charges of $208 million, costs that earlier had been questioned by U.S. military auditors.

In a statement made public on its Web site on Saturday, the board said it "recommends that amounts disbursed to contractors that cannot be supported as fair be reimbursed expeditiously."

- rob 12:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Sign up another one for the "don't leak" class Harriet Myers is giving over at the White House.

Official Reveals Budget for U.S. Intelligence

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 - In an apparent slip, a top American intelligence official has revealed at a public conference what has long been secret: the amount of money the United States spends on its spy agencies.

At an intelligence conference in San Antonio last week, Mary Margaret Graham, a 27-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency and now the deputy director of national intelligence for collection, said the annual intelligence budget was $44 billion.

Wow that's more than Exxon Mobils profit will be this year (barely). Actually it makes you wonder how much of that money is spent protecting Exxon, Texaco, et al's ability to make money?

- rob 12:46 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush's Approval Ratings Will Not Recover – There Will Be No Comeback
Hot damn, Cenk Uygur hands Bush a beating in today's opinion piece over at the Huffington Post:

Bush isn't going to make a comeback. He's fallen and he can't get up.
...
A comeback presupposes substance and ability. A worthy character who has suffered some setbacks, bad luck or simple human mistakes can make a comeback because he has it in him. Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, Michael Jordan, the Boston Red Sox can mount comebacks. The Arizona Cardinals are not making a comeback this season. They don’t have the team and the ability to straighten out what has gone wrong. They will continue to lose until the end of the season.
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George Bush is the Arizona Cardinals. His team is terrible and he refuses to change any of his players. He doesn't have the personality suited for making necessary changes. Quickly adjusting to changing circumstances is not his forte, stubbornness is. Even if he had the inclination to make a change, he doesn't have the ability. He simply doesn't know what the hell he is doing.
...
George W. Bush will never put in the long hours to make sure we have the right policy in Iraq, in the war on terror, in the budget or anything else that concerns actual governing. He finds these things to be tedious. In reality, they are essential to the job of being President. He is overmatched.
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And when you’re overmatched, you don't put together second half comebacks. You get crushed.

Yes, I've overquoted the article, but its chock-full of smackdowns.

- Edoc 11:01 AM - [PermaLink] -

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US Military Used Chemical Weapons in Iraq
The US military used white phospherous bombs in Fallujah, a new report and video show. It is also alleged that the US used MK77 bombs, which have the same effects as napalm (which is banned by UN resolutions). There is some debate over whether or not white phospherous is a chemical weapon, but, classical definitions notwithstanding, white phospherous has the same destructive, flesh-burning characteristics.

"Phosphorus burns bodies, in fact it melts the flesh all the way down to the bone ... I saw the burned bodies of women and children. Phosphorus explodes and forms a cloud. Anyone within a radius of 150 metres is done for."

The video contains footage of US helicopters carpet bombing areas in Fallujah with white phospherous bombs. Victims bodies are shown melted or skeletonized, their clothes are left behind intact. Personally, I'm waiting for the memo which shows Rumsfeld authorizing its use, which, in a just world would clinch charges for this war criminal.

Update: Democracy Now! posted a follow-up to the white-phospherous as chemical weapon debate. Read the transcript here.

- Edoc 10:22 AM - [PermaLink] -

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- Monday, November 07, 2005 -

For some reason a Bush Administration official outing a CIA agent who researched WMDs during a war supposedly about WMDs is some kind of big deal or something.

The Bush administration is both astonished and saddened by a media able to retain the ability to report on a story for longer then two weeks.

Rove's Security Clearance Widely Questioned

WASHINGTON Ã?— An intelligence analyst temporarily lost his top-secret security clearance because he faxed his resume using a commercial machine.

An employee of the Defense Department had her clearance suspended for months because a jilted boyfriend called to say she might not be reliable.

An Army officer who spoke publicly about intelligence failures before the Sept. 11 attacks had his clearance revoked over questions about $67 in personal charges to a military cellphone.

But in the White House, where Karl Rove is under federal investigation for his role in the exposure of a covert CIA officer, the longtime advisor to President Bush continues to enjoy full access to government secrets.

Another interesting article: White House Tries to Keep Distance From Leak Case

Hopefully they'll backup so far to distance themselves that theyaccidentallyy fall into the cliff that the hack director conveniently put there.

What is really nice about this story is that it is finally making the media take a serious and somber look at the most powerful man in government: Darth Cheney.

Deconstructing Cheney

THE INDICTMENT of the vice president's chief of staff for perjury and obstruction of justice is an occasion to consider just how damaging the long public career of Richard Cheney has been to the United States. He began as a political scientist devoted to caring for the elbow of Donald Rumsfeld. As a congressman, Rumsfeld had reliably voted against programs to help the nation's poor, so (as I recalled in reading James Mann's ''Rise of the Vulcans") it was with more than usual cynicism that Richard Nixon appointed him head of the Office of Economic Opportunity, the antipoverty agency. Rumsfeld named Cheney as his deputy, and the two set out to gut the program-- the beginning of the Republican rollback of the Great Society, what we saw in New Orleans this fall.
...
As Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the nonviolent dismantling of the Soviet Union, Cheney warned Bush not to trust it. When the justification for the huge military machine over which Cheney presided disappeared, he leapt on the next casus belli -- Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Hussein, a former ally, was now Hitler.

Against Cheney's own uniformed advisers (notably including Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell), he forged Washington's choice of violence over diplomacy.
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When the World Trade Center towers were hit in New York, it was Cheney who told a shaken President Bush to flee. The true nature of their relationship (Cheney, not Bush, having shaped the national security team; Cheney, not Bush, having appointed himself as vice president) showed itself for a moment.

The 9/11 Commission found that, from the White House situation room, Cheney warned the president that a ''specific threat" had targeted Air Force One, prompting Bush to spend the day hiding in the bunker at Offut Air Force Base in Nebraska. There was no specific threat. In Bush's absence, Cheney, implying an authorizing telephone call from the president, took command of the nation's response to the crisis. There was no authorizing telephone call. The 9/11 Commission declined to make an issue of Cheney's usurpation of powers, but the record shows it.
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Responding to 9/11, Cheney fulfilled bin Laden's purpose by joining him in the war-of-civilizations. Iraq, therefore (including the prewar deceit for which Scooter Libby takes the fall), is simply the last link in the chain of disaster which is the public career of Richard Cheney.

Boy that really makes Cheney out to be an actual concentration of evil and malevolence.

Oh wait... he is: Cheney Fights for Detainee Policy

Last winter, when Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, began pushing to have the full committee briefed on the CIA's interrogation practices, Cheney called him to the White House to urge that he drop the matter, said three U.S. officials.

In recent months, Cheney has been the force against adding safeguards to the Defense Department's rules on treatment of military prisoners, putting him at odds with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R. England.
...
Just last week, Cheney showed up at a Republican senatorial luncheon to lobby lawmakers for a CIA exemption to an amendment by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would ban torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners. The exemption would cover the CIA's covert "black sites" in several Eastern European democracies and other countries where key al Qaeda captives are being kept.
...
McCain's amendment would limit the military's interrogation and detention tactics to those described in the Army Field Manual, and it would prohibit all U.S. government employees from using cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Cheney pushed hard to have the entire amendment defeated. He twice held meetings with key lawmakers to lobby against the measure, once traveling to Capitol Hill in July, to button-hole Sens. John W. Warner (R-Va.), McCain and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.).

When that tack did not work -- 90 senators supported the measure -- Cheney handed McCain language that would exempt the CIA. Despite Cheney's concerns, Graham said he has not heard any concerns from the CIA suggesting it needs an exemption from the McCain amendment. The CIA declined to comment.

Cheney wants humans tortured. It is simple as that. It is established that information acquired from torture isunreliablee, so that argument is shot. Basically he wants people to hurt. It is called sadism.

- rob 6:28 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Facts are for fools and liberals

Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Suspicions

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 - A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.
...
Mr. Powell relied heavily on accounts provided by Mr. Libi for his speech to the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, saying that he was tracing "the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these weapons to Al Qaeda."

At the time of Mr. Powell's speech, an unclassified statement by the C.I.A. described the reporting, now known to have been from Mr. Libi, as "credible." But Mr. Levin said he had learned that a classified C.I.A. assessment at the time went on to state that "the source was not in a position to know if any training had taken place."

In an interview on Friday, Mr. Levin also called attention to another portion of the D.I.A. report, which expressed skepticism about the idea of close collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda, an idea that was never substantiated by American intelligence agencies but was a pillar of the administration's prewar claims.

Oh, but let's just move on, so a President lied us into a horrible war, jeez you just can't shut up about it, big deal, that's the past, stop being so negative and tell us how to get out of this mess (not that it is a mess nor or we in it of course).

- rob 6:07 PM - [PermaLink] -

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"I smile because I am such a rich man... rich with friends.
...and with what I've been able to loot.

Where's Chalabi?

Is it with his friends in Iran?

IRAQ: FIRST IRAQI PASSENGER PLANE LANDS IN IRAN

The historic flight is being seen as another step in the warming of relations between the two countries, and came as one of Iraq's deputy prime ministers, Ahmed Chalabi, visited Iran and held talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "Protection of Iraq's territorial integrity, independence and might is of special significance to Iran," Iranian state television quoted Ahmadinejad as telling Chalabi.

Or his friends in Washington?

Chalabi to visit US ahead of Iraqi elections

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Iraqi politician most associated with the discredited prewar intelligence that has the Bush presidency in turmoil visits Washington this week as he maneuvers for advantage before Iraq's December 15 elections.

Ahmad Chalabi, Iraq's deputy prime minister, is a former U.S. golden boy who for years was on the Pentagon payroll.
...
Chalabi is to meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and address the pro-Bush American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday, among other meetings and appearances.

- rob 5:56 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Read this posts from Americablog. It is important:

Bush administration threatens liberal church for being anti-war

Yes, the Bush IRS is threatening a "liberal" church because of reports of an alleged sermon quoted in a a newspaper article. A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE. Yes, this is the IRS' basis for threatening a church with loss of its tax status - basically, threatening to destroy that church - because the IRS read an article in the paper.

Not that the Bush administration hates all religions. Conservative Bapstists and far-right fundamentalist Christians taking opinions on politics, that's okay. But you gotta remember, they voted for Bush so that gives them more of a right to the Constitution.

And, lest you be one of those silly students of history, there is nothing similar at all between the Nazi's tactic of progressive silencing critics by coercive and un-democratic uses of the law and government organs and the Bush administration's growing use of the federal government and a willing Congress to silence its critics. Really. No comparison at all.

For more:

AMERICAblog: Bush's IRS to threaten the Pope?

Assuming the IRS isn't violating US law, and the US Constitution, by launching a partisan witch hunt against a liberal church, we assume that the IRS will soon be threatening the tax status of the entire Catholic Church in America since Pope Ratzinger himself overtly tried to throw the US presidential election in favor of George Bush.

And I take you back to July 11, 2004:

American Catholic bishops are trying to defy secret advice from Rome that Communion should not be given to John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate.

The advice is contained in an explosive memo - clearly directed at Sen Kerry - by Cardinal Ratzinger, the Pope's doctrinal advisor, who is head of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - the institutional heir to the Inquisition.

- rob 5:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Well since these guys seem to think having sex education encourages sex, would a class about not leaking secrets mean that pretty much everyone in the CIA is about to be outed?

Bush sends staff back to ethics class

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With his chief political aide under investigation as part of a probe into the public unmasking of a CIA operative, President Bush is sending his staff back to school -- ethics school.

Bush is requiring his executive office staff to attend refresher courses on ethics and handling classified materials, according to a White House memo.

Because having a class will solve everything.

Enron had a book and they never had a problem with ethics.



Enron ethics, by the book -- really, Scout's honor

The booklet begins with a letter from Enron founder and former CEO Kenneth Lay, who assures employees that he conducts business "in accordance with all applicable laws and in a moral and honest manner."

Stop snickering. I'm sure he meant it at the time. Just like he meant, "We know Enron enjoys a reputation for fairness and honesty that is respected. Enron's reputation finally depends on its people, you and me. Let's keep that reputation high."

Sure, Ken, let's do that.
...
We have all worked hard over the years to establish our reputation for integrity and ethical conduct.We cannot afford to have it damaged."

Nope.
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I haven't seen an Andersen Code of Ethics, but if anyone has one, send it this way.

- rob 5:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush Declares: 'We Do Not Torture'
Naw, we just assist foreign agents in questioning "detainees" within an inch of their lives, which may or may-not involve a cauldron of boiling water. More indication that Bush lies, by intention or incompetence.

"Our country is at war and our government has the obligation to protect the American people," Bush said. "Any activity we conduct is within the law. We do not torture."

Amazing quote, coming from the president that has made the term "extraordinary rendition" an ordinary practice. I don't even want to dignify the president's comments by enumerating the cases where our treatment of prisoners (including U.S. citizens) has been contrary to signed international treaties and/or outside the authority of any court of law. As usual, his statements stand in stark contrast to reality.

Update: I just read an interesting Q & A session with WaPo reporter Dana Priest, author of the recent article on CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. Dana states that secret prisons are not against U.S. law, citing Executive Order 1233. This presumes that prisoners are not abused, which George Bush assures us.

- Edoc 11:10 AM - [PermaLink] -

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What the administration is doing while you're watching Scooter & Sammy
(via Truthout.org) Like the mythical hydra monster, the Bush administration is still pushing forward on many other destructive fronts. I quibble with some of the author's points, but overall I agree it's incredibly important not to be distracted by some of the the media sideshows. As the author says: "... anybody who believes this administration is on the run hasn't been reading past the headlines."

- Edoc 10:57 AM - [PermaLink] -

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NYT: Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Suspicions
Everyone else is reporting about this, so I'll hop on the bandwagon. Anyone who's been skeptical about the handling of pre-war intelligence will not be shocked by this at all.

A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.

Also not surprisingly, Republican leaders have been reaching for their lone deflection tactic, the "we were all wrong" defense:

... Senate Republicans... have been arguing that Republicans were not alone in making prewar assertions about Iraq, illicit weapons and terrorism that have since been discredited.

Sure, Democrats also made false assertions-- because, naively, they didn't anticipate the evil aims of this administration. They didn't expect the pre-war intelligence to be stove-piped nor for the White House to deceptively manipulate Congress and the nation into war.

- Edoc 10:14 AM - [PermaLink] -

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- Sunday, November 06, 2005 -

Harry Reid and McCain's Anti-Torture Amendment
(via CrooksAndLiars.com) First Harry Reid warns the Senate that they will invoke a closed session every day until the pre-war intelligence investigation moves forward. Now Senator John McCain vows to add his anti-torture ammendment to every major legislation in the Senate until it's approved.

Speaking from the Senate floor, McCain said, "If necessary - and I sincerely hope it is not - I and the co-sponsors of this amendment will seek to add it to every piece of important legislation voted on in the Senate until the will of a substantial bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress prevails. Let no one doubt our determination."

What we see is Dems and moderates smartly adapting to the political warfare of the White House agenda: hammer, hammer, hammer away-- every day until you can force the issue. It's ok to grind the senate to a halt-- it's the only effective way to show the opposition that you're dead serious.

- Edoc 9:33 AM - [PermaLink] -

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