In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Remove the GOP from congress until they want to do their job.
They provide no oversight. They are neither a check nor a balance. They are fat cats drinking cholesterol from Champaign bottles supplied to them by defense contractors.
They do not want to know what Bush is doing.
AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truthWell isn't this interesting. Remember when I bought General Wesley Clark's cell phone records for under a $100 in order to prove that anyone's privacy could be violated?
Well, since that time there have been a number of bills in the House and Senate to address this problem. The House recently passed one bill unanimously, and a second bill was coming up in the House today. But it suddenly disappeared without a word right when the story broke about the Bush administration illegally spying on all of our phone records.
Coincidence? Not according to what Representative Markey may be hearing.
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Legislation that no one disagreed with - legislation to protect your cell phone records - suddenly disappears from the House floor on the very day that we find out George Bush is spying on - what? - our phone records!
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The HUD secretary defends himself by saying "I Lied"
A Made-Up Story?WHICH IS WORSE, violating the law or pretending to have done so? That's the question posed by the bizarre case of Alphonso Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development and a longtime friend of the president. Two weeks ago, Mr. Jackson said at a business gathering in Dallas that he had canceled a government contract because the contractor criticized President Bush. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president?" Mr. Jackson asked.I think we are looking at a future Medal of Freedom award winner here.
That Mr. Jackson would commit an illegal act -- and rescinding government contracts for political reasons is illegal -- was strange. Stranger still was the fact that Mr. Jackson, a former head of the Dallas Housing Authority with many years of government experience, apparently didn't know that such behavior is illegal, since he bragged about it in public.
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But hold on, because the story took an even more bizarre turn when Mr. Jackson issued a statement declaring that he -- and presumably Ms. Tucker -- had fabricated the entire story. "During my tenure, no contract has ever been rewarded, rejected or rescinded due to the personal or political beliefs of the recipient," he stated.
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The whys of the tax cut.
First: "There is a surplus - so we're giving it back." Nope
Then: "There is a recession - so we're jump starting a recovery." Nope
Now: "We're all going to be voted out of office so we got to loot now while we can." Yep
Senate Approves $70 Billion Tax-Cut BillDemocrats countered that Republicans were favoring the wealthy and even oil companies while letting languish Senate-passed tax breaks on college tuition and state and local sales taxes, as well as a research and development tax credit for businesses. Each expired in December.
They blasted GOP negotiators for dropping a Senate-passed provision that would have closed an inventory accounting practice known as "last in, first out" that is used by oil companies and other businesses to help lower their tax burden.
"The Bush administration and the Republican leadership are far more interested in helping their wealthiest friends than hardworking, middle-class Americans," said Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "The GOP made its choice, and they chose millionaire investors and oil companies over middle class families."
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So they're electrocuting people through the phone now? Otherwise I sadly feel it is almost impossible to shock us with how much these guys have gotten the idea of "freedom" wrong.- Friday, May 12, 2006 -
NSA Whistleblower To Expose More Unlawful Activity: "People...Are Going To Be Shocked"CongressDaily reports that former NSA staffer Russell Tice will testify to the Senate Armed Services Committee next week that not only do employees at the agency believe the activities they are being asked to perform are unlawful, but that what has been disclosed so far is only the tip of the iceberg. Tice will tell Congress that former NSA head Gen. Michael Hayden, Bush's nominee to be the next CIA director, oversaw more illegal activity that has yet to be disclosed:[Tice] said he plans to tell the committee staffers the NSA conducted illegal and unconstitutional surveillance of U.S. citizens while he was there with the knowledge of Hayden. ..."I think the people I talk to next week are going to be shocked when I tell them what I have to tell them. It's pretty hard to believe," Tice said. "I hope that they'll clean up the abuses and have some oversight into these programs, which doesn't exist right now."...
Tice said his information is different from the Terrorist Surveillance Program that Bush acknowledged in December and from news accounts this week that the NSA has been secretly collecting phone call records of millions of Americans. "It's an angle that you haven't heard about yet," he said.
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They say voting for a third party candidate was "throwing away your vote."
But actually the only way to truly "throw away your vote" besides not voting is to vote on an electronic voting machine that leaves no paper trail. The way hundreds of thousands of Americans do.
Like in Ohio, Florida, Georgia, and Maryland (and more states)
Report Claims Very Serious Diebold Voting Machine FlawsA report by Harri Hursti, released today at BlackBoxVoting, describes some very serious security flaws in Diebold voting machines. These are easily the most serious voting machine flaws we have seen to date Â? so serious that Hursti and BlackBoxVoting decided to redact some of the details in the reports. (We know most or all of the redacted information.) Now that the report has been released, we want to help people understand its implications.Fact: Our Democracy is at risk.
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The attacks described in HurstiÂ?s report would allow anyone who had physical access to a voting machine for a few minutes to install malicious software code on that machine, using simple, widely available tools. The malicious code, once installed, would control all of the functions of the voting machine, including the counting of votes.
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In addition, compromised machines would be very difficult to detect or to repair. The normal procedure for installing software updates on the machines could not be trusted, because malicious code could cause that procedure to report success, without actually installing any updates. A technician who tried to update the machineÂ?s software would be misled into thinking the update had been installed, when it actually had not.
On election day, malicious software could refuse to function, or it could silently miscount votes.
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2001: Doug Jones produces a report highlighting design flaws in the machines that became the Diebold touchscreen voting machines.
July 24, 2003: Hopkins/Rice study finds many security flaws in Diebold machines, including ones that were pointed out by Doug Jones.
September 24, 2003: SAIC study finds serious flaws in Diebold voting machines. 2/3 of the report is redacted by the state of Maryland.
November 21, 2003: OhioÂ?s Compuware and InfoSentry reports find critical flaws in Diebold touchscreen voting machines
January 20, 2004: RABA study finds serious security vulnerabilities in Diebold touchscreen voting machines.
November, 2004: 37 states use Diebold touchscreen voting machines in general election.
March, 2006: Harri Hursti reports the most serious vulnerabilities to date discovered.
None of the previously published studies uncovered this flaw. Did SAIC? It might exist in the unredacted report, but to date, nobody outside of Maryland officials and SAIC has been able to see that report.
Many government officials have opined that when we are at war the President is all powerful. Secret renditions (the nice term for America's desaparecidos), torture, domestic spying, etc. All this is an outgrowth of that belief (or excuse).
In the past few years dissent has been considered by many in power (i.e. the ruling party: GOP) as sedition. Free speech is treason.
When extremists believe Bush should be all powerful, when extremists believe he is above the law, when extremists believe disagreement with his policies is unAmerican; is it so hard to believe this flaw not only will be taken advantage of, but already has?
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Our government has never been this more corrupt - tea pot dome was but a tempest in a tea pot - we got a full on banana republic going on here under the GOP.
There are no policies - only money.
Federal agents raid home of CIA's former No. 3 bossVIENNA, Va.– Federal agents Friday morning raided the home of Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who stepped down this week from the No. 3 post at the CIA amid accusations of improper ties to a defense contractor named as a co-conspirator in the bribery case of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
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Foggo resigned his post at the CIA on Monday, after the FBI began investigating whether he improperly steered contracts to Brent Wilkes, a Poway defense contractor and longtime friend of Foggo's. The CIA's inspector general has been investigating Foggo for at least three months.
Wilkes, who has not been charged with a crime, has been identified as one of two defense contractors who plied Cunningham with at least $2.4 million in bribes in return for government contracts. The other contractor, Mitchell Wade, pled guilty to corruption charges in February.
Cunningham, a Republican from Rancho Santa Fe, is serving an eight-year prison term.
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To those that still defend government's intrusion into the privacy of Americans (especially including those in Congress) with the phrase "we are at war" here is an important reminder:- Thursday, May 11, 2006 -
The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
- James Madison
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They know who you called:
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone callsThe National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.They probably know every page you've been to and search term you've used:
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans -- most of whom aren't suspected of any crime.
Microsoft, Yahoo, potatoes and the NSAAccording to CNN (article link), Microsoft and Yahoo are planning on building data storage centres outside of Quincy, Washington. By all accounts a charming little town with a potato based economy.Remember when you went to that site that had an amazing video about the Project for a New American Century - well Uncle Sam probably remembers to.
Quincy has cheap land, cheap hydroelectric power and nice industrial parks to build data centres in. There's easy access by highway 90 to nearby Ginko Petrified Forest State park, and - oh yes - the Yakima NSA facility.
The delete History and delete Cache buttons on your web browser don't work when there is a backup here:
And they know your friends and their friends and their friends and so on and so on and so on...
Report of call database sharpens focus on surveillanceBOSTON (AP) - If the National Security Agency is indeed amassing a colossal database of Americans' phone records, one way to use all that information is in ``social network analysis,'' a data-mining method that aims to expose previously invisible connections among people.So is it too far a jump to think they know what you say?
Social network analysis has gained prominence in business and intelligence circles under the belief that it can yield extraordinary insights, such as the fact that people in disparate organizations have common acquaintances. Companies can buy social networking software to help determine who has the best connections for a particular sales pitch.
``Who you're talking to often matters much more than what you're saying,'' said Bruce Schneier, a computer security expert and author of ``Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World.''
AMERICAblog: We don't even remotely have the entire story about this new phone-records domestic spying scandalHe notes that the USA Today story says:Isn't this one of the reasons we railed against Romania, East Germany and the Soviet Union? For the constant spying on their own citizens."It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation.Rob says of this:This still doesn't sit well with me - we're not even remotely getting all of this story. A database of numbers that simply say A called B cannot possibly be the "largest database in the world". Virtually every single phone company holds years and years of billing records like these. Even pooled together, they wouldn't create the world's largest database, not by a long shot. If you simply attached an audio file to each of those records, well then now you'd be talking about the kind of dataset that would create the "largest database in the world".
Did George just appoint the head of the Stasi to the head of the CIA?
You aren't alone in being troubled. Jack Cafferty channeled most of us today on CCN:We all hope nothing happens to Arlen Specter, the Republican head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, cause he might be all that stands between us and a full blown dictatorship in this country. He's vowed to question these phone company executives about volunteering to provide the government with my telephone records, and yours, and tens of millions of other Americans.
Shortly after 9/11, AT7T, Verizon, and BellSouth began providing the super-secret NSA with information on phone calls of millions of our citizens, all part of the War on Terror, President Bush says. Why don't you go find Osama bin Laden, and seal the country's borders, and start inspecting the containers that come into our ports?
The President rushed out this morning in the wake of this front page story in USA Today and declared the government is doing nothing wrong, and all this is just fine. Is it? Is it legal? Then why did the Justice Department suddenly drop its investigation of the warrantless spying on citizens because the NSA said Justice Department lawyers didn't have the necessary security clearance to do the investigation. Read that sentence again. A secret government agency has told our Justice Department that it's not allowed to investigate it. And the Justice Department just says ok and drops the whole thing. We're in some serious trouble, boys and girls.
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Bush and Rumsfeld's Incompetence and Corruption leads to our guns trained on our men.
So someone in the defense department wanted to return some unknown favor to some arms smugglers (does that person's nickname rhyme with mummy?) - and now al Qaeda has 200,000 brand new AK47s to use on civilians and and our troops.
HAVE 200,000 AK47S FALLEN INTO THE HANDS OF IRAQ TERRORISTS?
FEARS OVER SECRET U.S. ARMS SHIPMENTSOME 200,000 guns the US sent to Iraqi security forces may have been smuggled to terrorists, it was feared yesterday.
The 99-tonne cache of AK47s was to have been secretly flown out from a US base in Bosnia. But the four planeloads of arms have vanished.
Orders for the deal to go ahead were given by the US Department of Defense. But the work was contracted out via a complex web of private arms traders.
And the Moldovan airline used to transport the shipment was blasted by the UN in 2003 for smuggling arms to Liberia, human rights group Amnesty has discovered.
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Bush and Rumsfeld's Incompetence and Corruption leads to our guns trained on our men.
So someone in the defense department wanted to return some unknown favor to some arms smugglers (does that person's nickname rhyme with mummy?) - and now al Qaeda has 200,000 brand new AK47s to use on civilians and and our troops.
HAVE 200,000 AK47S FALLEN INTO THE HANDS OF IRAQ TERRORISTS?
FEARS OVER SECRET U.S. ARMS SHIPMENTSOME 200,000 guns the US sent to Iraqi security forces may have been smuggled to terrorists, it was feared yesterday.
The 99-tonne cache of AK47s was to have been secretly flown out from a US base in Bosnia. But the four planeloads of arms have vanished.
Orders for the deal to go ahead were given by the US Department of Defense. But the work was contracted out via a complex web of private arms traders.
And the Moldovan airline used to transport the shipment was blasted by the UN in 2003 for smuggling arms to Liberia, human rights group Amnesty has discovered.
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Wow - they used the "We could tell you, but then we'd have to kill you" excuse for real!
This world has become dumber than a roger moore james bond flick but without the fun or the bizarre sexualized opening number.
Security issue kills domestic spying inquiry
NSA won’t grant Justice Department lawyers required security clearanceWASHINGTON - The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.
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Qwest: Good Corporate Behavior Should Be Rewarded
Qwest was the only big phone company to tell NSA "no." Good for them.
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Who took the "intel" out of "intelligence"?
Who took the "free" out of "freedom"?
It was you George only you...
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At this point I'm thinking that under Bush the US government has taken enough private info on its citizens to do their taxes for them.
Rove could rebrand it as:
The War on Terror and Paperwork!
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So many bad apples in Congress that even Bush's FDA would say you shouldn't eat their apple sauce. (I dunno, it started as a whole bad apple in a barrel thought and spiraled out of control).
If it weren't for Gerrymandering I don't think the GOP would have any chance at all maintaining their majority.
Lewis Surfaces in Probe of CunninghamFederal prosecutors have begun an investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis, the Californian who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee, government officials and others said, signaling the spread of a San Diego corruption probe.
The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles has issued subpoenas in an investigation into the relationship between Lewis (R-Redlands) and a Washington lobbyist linked to disgraced former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe), three people familiar with the investigation said.
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Hmmm... Johnny seems to be placing a lot of calls to the local Mid-eastern resteraunt. Let's make sure its just falafel.- Wednesday, May 10, 2006 -
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone callsThe National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.Suddenly Congress takes an interest in what our government is doing. Sorry guys you've let him do what he wants for 5 years without even saying "boo." This is your mess.
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans - most of whom aren't suspected of any crime.
Bush: We're not trolling your personal lifeLawmakers demand answers on phone records reportWASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional Republicans and Democrats demanded answers from the Bush administration Thursday about reports that a government spy agency has been secretly collecting records of ordinary Americans' phone calls to build a database of every call made within the country.Not trolling or mining as much as snooping or scouring.
Facing intense criticism from Congress, President Bush did not confirm the work of the National Security Agency but sought to assure Americans that their privacy is being "fiercely protected."
"We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans," Bush said before leaving for a commencement address at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Biloxi.
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Not to be cruel but when a friend sent me this article I assumed he was making some kind of political comment about our Glorious Leader.
Drunk Monkeys Mirror PeopleMay 9, 2006—Monkeys drink more alcohol when housed alone, and some like to end a long day in the lab with a boozy cocktail, according to a new analysis of alcohol consumption among members of a rhesus macaque social group.
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The Deal?
We cut your taxes you donate to our campaigns
GOP Reaches Deal on Tax CutsHouse and Senate Republican negotiators reached a final agreement yesterday on a five-year, nearly $70 billion tax package that would extend President Bush's deep cuts to tax rates on dividends and capital gains, while sparing about 15 million middle-income Americans from the alternative minimum tax.Go to the article, it has a great graph showing the savings for your average america.
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But the package remains controversial, with GOP leaders saying it is essential to sustain a strong economic recovery and Democrats and a few Republicans saying the cuts would mainly benefit the wealthy and add to the long-term deficit.
You make $10,000 to 20,000 you get $2 (yay! we can almost get some milk!)
You make $50,000 to $75,000 you get $110 (Yee haw! A night out at the movies, with money to pay for the sitter - not enough for dinner as well though).
You make $200,000 to $500,000 (and you so do not) - you get $4,499. (Yes! I can afford my annual due at the Posche Driving Club)
You make More than $1 million (and you have others serf the web for you - and yes that spelling error was actually on purpose for once) - you get $41,977. (oh goody - my mistress will get that coat she's wanted).
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The Land of the Free and the Home of the brave
Impatient Senators Target Borders, AnthemThe Senate approved a resolution late Monday evening stating that the national anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, the oath recited by immigrants when they are sworn in as citizens and other songs or statements symbolizing national unity should be spoken or sung in English.Because idiotic pandering to your base worked so well with Terry Schiavo.
"At the opening of the Senate each day, or at a football game, or at a Boy or Girl Scout meeting, we are free to sing or say our national symbols in any language we please, but we ought to sing and say them in our common language, English," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
A similar resolution has been introduced in the House by Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan.
By the way, Senator Alexander I hope that was a misquote or you are up for replacing Bush with that kind of logic.
Anyway - Congress will soon be meeting to update these resolutions to allow for humming the national anthem - as long as you are humming in English of course.
Oh, Say Can You Sing ... the National Anthem?May 8, 2006 — "The Star Spangled Banner" — our national anthem — is under attack. Or so you would think by the rush to defend it on Capitol Hill last week.lawyer... wife... whatever - I'm just worried that my staff is singing.
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we marched up to tourists, school groups, tour guides and our elected officials and posed the question: Oh, say can you sing — the national anthem?
A Chorus of Excuses
Right away we thought we might have arrived at the home of the brave as Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, sweetly sang the entire song beginning to end with gusto, gesturing broadly over the final stanza to the gleaming dome of the U.S. Capitol building. But alas, she was the last to solo.
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But most of the other dozen or so House members we approached suddenly had important business to conduct and fled after offering lame excuses.
"I can probably sing it with a group," said Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala. "If I was in a group, I would sing it."
"I'm not that good," said Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., as he begged off.
And Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, a reported target in the ongoing federal probe of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, waved us off claiming, "I'm on the phone with my wife."
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Seriously - why should any Republican representative get re-elected this year (and probably way over half of the dems don't deserve to get re-elected either)
Talking Points Memo: More on Duke CunninghamSays Rick Gwin, regional head of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, "In my opinion, he [Representative Duke Cunningham] has not been cooperative and I have not gotten any information from him to further develop other targets. I was hoping that from a jail cell, he might become more cooperative, but we just don't have the cooperation that I think we should have."Is it me but every time I here about the parties and hookers connected to Duke, all I can think of is:
And then Gwin says this: "This is much bigger and wider than just Randy 'Duke' Cunningham. All that has just not come out yet, but it won't be much longer and then you will know just how widespread this is."
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What's Rumsfeld saving the money for?
Is he saving it up for a rainy day?
Is he saving it until things get really really really bad with a cherry on top?
Is he saving it for his UAE getaway retirement home?
Rumsfeld Leaves 60 Percent of Funds For Iraqi Forces Unspent, Blames Congress for CutsOh now I get it - having a trained Afghanistan and Iraqi security force is the lynchpin of our withdrawal... but if we don't train them, we don't leave.The U.S. military has spent just 40 percent of the $7 billion appropriated in 2005 for the training of Iraqi and Afghanistan security forces, a top Pentagon priority that is lynchpin for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.Rumsfeld should stop blaming Congress and concentrate on effectively managing the taxpayer funding he’s been given.
Rummy wants to stay forever.
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No really - we don't know Jack.
From Judicial Watch (via the excellent TPM Muckraker) we learn that Jack went into the White House..... twice.
Abramoff: The Results Are In! But...According to the "U.S. Secret Service Access Control Records Report," Abramoff visited the White House on two occasions. On January 20, 2004, Abramoff entered the White House at 10:42:20 a.m. and exited at 11:29:34 a.m. On March 6, 2001, Abramoff entered the White House at 16:23:35 p.m. and exited at 16:49:50 p.m.
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White House Secret Service logs previously obtained by Judicial Watch from the Clinton administration provided additional details such as the "Visitee" and "Room Number," along with the name of the person who requested the visit. The Secret Service had agreed to provide the documents without redaction. Moreover, the two documents provided are not consistent with each other in terms of format and content....
Here's what I just wrote TPM:Well that's false right on the face of it.
The White House itself has said Abramoff attended Hanukkah receptions in 2001 and 2002. I don't think Hanukka was ever in January or March.
Also the picture of Bush with Abramoff was on May 9, 2001. Now admittedly that was in the Executive Office Building right next door. So that isn't a white house visit - its just Bush and his people in the building next door.
Also in 2005 it was reported that in the first 10 months of 2001 Abramoff and his folks had over 200 contacts with the White House - and only one was by Jack himself?
If anyone thinks these documents are real then they don't know Jack.
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As so far George Bush's judgement has been unimpeachable.
Brother Jeb would make 'great' US president: BushPresident George W. Bush praised his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, as an "excellent" leader who would make a "great president" of the United States, according to news accounts.
"I think Jeb would be a great president. But it's up to Jeb to make a decision to run," Bush told reporters at a roundtable interview here with several Florida newspapers.
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White House security, like our nation's security is going in the trash.- Tuesday, May 09, 2006 -How much do you think Osama bin Laden would pay to know exactly when and where the President was traveling, and who was with him? Turns out, he wouldn't have had to pay a dime. All he had to do was go through the trash early Tuesday morning.
It appears to be a White House staff schedule for the President's trip to Florida Tuesday. And a sanitation worker was alarmed to find in the trash long hours before Mr. Bush left for his trip.
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The documents details the exact arrival and departure time for Air Force One, Marine One and the back up choppers, Nighthawk 2 and Three.
It lists every passenger on board each aircraft, from the President to military attaché with nuclear football. It offers the order of vehicles in the President's motorcade.
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From: This Modern World - Bush & Nixon photo finishWhile Bush’s approval rating is still a bit higher than Nixon’s at a comparable point, his disapproval rating now exceeds or equals that of Nixon’s in every Gallup poll except one. This sole exception is the final poll in July, 1974 just before Nixon left office, when Nixon’s disapproval rating was a single point higher at 66%.Go read the post - there is more detail and another graph - worth the visit.
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The religious right have pushed the idea that gays are gay out of personal choice. They need to say this or else it becomes obvious that they are simply bigots calling for legal discrimination.
There is a lot of science that points out it is actually more of a biological issue then a "choice" (and doesn't the religious right have problems with choice anyway). But using science to back up an argument doesn't really work well with a crowd that wants to push creationism as a viable alternative to evolution theory.
Anyway, here's more evidence for them to ignore.
Lesbians' brains respond differently from those of heterosexual womenWASHINGTON -- Homosexuals' brains respond differently from those of straight men and women when exposed to sex hormones, but researchers now say the difference is less pronounced in lesbians than in gay men.
Lesbians' brains reacted somewhat, though not completely, like those of heterosexual men, a team of Swedish researchers said in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A year ago, the same group reported findings for gay men that showed their brain response to hormones was similar to that of heterosexual women.
In both cases the findings add weight to the idea that homosexuality has a physical basis and is not learned behavior.
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I don't know why Senator's are asking for the HUD secretary to resign.Senator demands resignation of Housing Secretary after 'don't like Bush' disputeI mean it looks like he broke the law.Housing Sec. Canceled Contract Because Contractor Criticized Bush, Apparently Violating LawWhich in the Bush administration means you get tenure.
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The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.”
- Chief Sealth (in 1854; he is more familiarly known as Chief Seattle)
Nevada blast delay a victory, critics sayRed tape has snagged the federal government's plans next month for a massive explosion at the Nevada Test Site.
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The two federal agencies say they need to detonate the 700 tons of explosives - an ammonium nitrate-fuel oil mixture many times more powerful than the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing - to calibrate conventional and nuclear weapons needed to take out a deeply buried enemy bunker.
Attorney Robert Hager in Las Vegas said even with new environmental documents released Friday, it is not clear that Nevadans, including the Winnemucca Indian Colony, and Utahns would be safe if fallout from past atomic testing becomes airborne in the explosion.
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Proof that the world is ending - The Vatican has more faith in the importance of science then the United States Government (thanks to Bush).
Creationism dismissed as 'a kind of paganism' by Vatican's astronomerBELIEVING that God created the universe in six days is a form of superstitious paganism, the Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno claimed yesterday.
Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy, said a "destructive myth" had developed in modern society that religion and science were competing ideologies.
He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught in schools alongside evolution, as a "kind of paganism" because it harked back to the days of "nature gods" who were responsible for natural events.
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"Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do."
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Remember Bush says our healthcare system is the envy of the world. The third world that is.- Monday, May 08, 2006 -
U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world, report says - May 9, 2006American babies are three times more likely to die in their first month as children born in Japan, and newborn mortality is 2.5 times higher in the United States than in Finland, Iceland or Norway, Save the Children researchers found.Now one of the many problems of the Fox News like folks that are everywhere on TV and in poltics these days is that communication of these facts is "America Bashing."
Only Latvia, with six deaths per 1,000 live births, has a higher death rate for newborns than the United States, which is tied near the bottom of industrialized nations with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with five deaths per 1,000 births.
No - doing nothing about it is American Bashing. You can not fix a problem if you do not admit there is a problem. I thought Bush learned that when he was 40 and stopped drinking.
- rob 5:29 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Ahhh... Bush nominees always make you proud - don't they?
Gen Hayden and the 4th AmendmentLanday: "...the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution specifies that you must have probable cause to violate an American's right against unreasonable searches and seizures..."
Gen. Hayden: "No, actually - the Fourth Amendment actually protects all of us against unreasonable search and seizure."
Landay: "But the --"
Gen. Hayden: "That's what it says."
Landay: "The legal measure is probable cause, it says."
Gen. Hayden: "The Amendment says: unreasonable search and seizure."
Landay: "But does it not say 'probable cause'?"
Gen. Hayden [exasperated, scowling]: "No! The Amendment says unreasonable search and seizure."
Landay: "The legal standard is probable cause, General -- "
Gen. Hayden [indignant]: "Just to be very clear ... mmkay... and believe me, if there's any Amendment to the Constitution that employees of the National Security Agency are familiar with, it's the Fourth. Alright? And it is a reasonableness standard in the Fourth Amendment. The constitutional standard is 'reasonable'"
which Keith says:OLBERMANN: To quote the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in its entirety, the one the general and the NSA folks are so familiar with and know is about reasonableness and not about probable cause, quote, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Well, maybe they have a different Constitution over there at the NSA.
- rob 5:39 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bush tells a "fish story" and again proves he is not only the biggest failure we've had as a President, but also the most pathetic individual to sit there (and that is saying a lot).
great moments in historysee how three presidents answered the question "what was the best moment of your presidency?"And the fish - well he lied about that:
to summarize:
carter: the camp david negotiations
clinton: the resolution of the kosovo crisis
bush: that time i caught a big fish on my ranchBush says the highlight of his presidential career was catching a 7.5 pound perch in his lake. Except that...The only problem is that the world's record for the largest freshwater perch caught is 4 pounds 3 ounces.
- rob 5:22 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Everybody Limbo!
Sorry Rove it looks like your limbo days may be coming to a close.
Rove's Time in Limbo Near End in CIA Leak CaseFitzgerald, according to sources close to the case, is reviewing testimony from Rove's five appearances before the grand jury. Bush's top political strategist has argued that he never intentionally misled the grand jury about his role in leaking information about undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame to Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003. Rove testified that he simply forgot about the conversation when he failed to disclose it to Fitzgerald in his earlier testimony.
Fitzgerald is weighing Rove's foggy-memory defense against evidence he has acquired over nearly 2 1/2 years that shows Rove was very involved in White House efforts to beat back allegations that Bush twisted U.S. intelligence to justify the Iraq war, according to sources involved in the case.
- rob 5:12 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Yeah, what kind of wack job is against the idea of dropping nukes on humans?
Did Bush Force British Minister Out?,
London Papers: Foreign Secretary Jack Straw's Iran Stance Prompted Angry Bush Call To Blair(CBS/AP) Two London papers have speculated this weekend that complaints by President George W. Bush forced a British minister from his post because of his opposition to the use of nuclear force against Iran.
The Independent suggests that a phone call from the U.S. president to British Prime Minister Tony Blair led to the removal of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw Friday.
The newspaper reports that friends of Straw believe Mr. Bush was extremely upset when Straw pronounced any use of nuclear weapons against Iran "nuts."
- rob 5:05 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Why did it take the press so long to pick up this?
I mean finally there is some sex going on in Washington - you'd figure at least now the press would report on the GOP corruption in detail.
More Questions Surface in the Wake of a Congressman's Bribery CaseWASHINGTON, May 6 — A federal investigation into one congressman's bribe-taking last year has produced a second round of inquiries into the actions of officials at the C.I.A. and the Homeland Security Department and of members of the House Intelligence Committee, government officials say.
These new inquiries reach beyond Randy Cunningham, the former Republican House member from California who was sentenced in March to more than eight years in prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from military contractors. The investigations suggest a growing suspicion among some lawmakers that corrupt practices may have influenced decision-making in Congress and at executive-branch agencies.
Last month, The San Diego Union-Tribune and The Wall Street Journal reported that federal investigators were looking into whether the military contractors involved in Mr. Cunningham's bribery had also arranged limousines, poker parties and prostitutes for him at the Watergate and Westin Grand hotels here.
- rob 4:43 PM - [PermaLink] -
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DeLay Office Knew Abramoff Arranged TripWASHINGTON (AP) -- Prosecutors have e-mails showing Rep. Tom DeLay's office knew lobbyist Jack Abramoff had arranged the financing for the GOP leader's controversial European golfing trip in 2000 and was concerned ''if someone starts asking questions.''
- rob 4:40 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Every Sperm is Sacred - Continued
Contra-ContraceptionDr. Joseph B. Stanford, who was appointed by President Bush in 2002 to the F.D.A.'s Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee despite (or perhaps because of) his opposition to contraception, sounded not a little like Daniel Defoe in a 1999 essay he wrote: "Sexual union in marriage ought to be a complete giving of each spouse to the other, and when fertility (or potential fertility) is deliberately excluded from that giving I am convinced that something valuable is lost. A husband will sometimes begin to see his wife as an object of sexual pleasure who should always be available for gratification."Why he sounds like such a sensitive man - his anti-contraceptive position based on his concern for the feelings of a wife.
Hmmm... I seem to remind me of another anti-contraceptive Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee member appointed by Bush in 2002 who was also very concerned about women's feelings.
Dr. Hager's Family ValuesLate last October Dr. W. David Hager, a prominent obstetrician-gynecologist and Bush Administration appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), took to the pulpit as the featured speaker at a morning service.
...
For Hager, those moral and ethical issues all appear to revolve around sex: In both his medical practice and his advisory role at the FDA, his ardent evangelical piety anchors his staunch opposition to emergency contraception, abortion and premarital sex. Through his six books--which include such titles as Stress and the Woman's Body and As Jesus Cared for Women, self-help tomes that interweave syrupy Christian spirituality with paternalistic advice on women's health and relationships--he has established himself as a leading conservative Christian voice on women's health and sexuality.
...
According to Davis [Dr. Hager's ex-wife], Hager's public moralizing on sexual matters clashed with his deplorable treatment of her during their marriage. Davis alleges that between 1995 and their divorce in 2002, Hager repeatedly sodomized her without her consent. Several sources on and off the record confirmed that she had told them it was the sexual and emotional abuse within their marriage that eventually forced her out.
- rob 4:38 PM - [PermaLink] -
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“Vows of abstinence break more frequently than contraceptives.”
- Robert Selverstone
Abstinence debate roils talk on STDs; PSU student eliminated from panelResearchers organizing a federal panel on sexually transmitted diseases say the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed a congressman to include two abstinence-only proponents, bypassing the scientific approval process.It is about priorities - the health of humans versus the health of sperm.
Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., who chairs the House subcommittee on drug policy, questioned the balance of the original panel, which focused on the failure of abstinence-until-marriage programs. In e-mail to Health and Human Services officials, his office asked whether the CDC was "clear about the controversial nature of this session and its obvious anti-abstinence objective."
Last week the title of the panel was changed and two members were replaced. One of them was a Penn State student who was going to talk about how abstinence programs were tied to rising STD rates.
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.
- Monty Python
- rob 2:48 PM - [PermaLink] -
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