Diary Entry 2025

I took the water taxi to the Freedom Tour dock. It was my first visit to New York City in over a decade and they really refurbished the building well - turning the old 10th floor into a beautiful lobby that looks out over the waters and the long line of Yellow water taxis waiting for fares.

The symposium was as dry as expected. New scientific research confirms that yes indeed the reason why so many coastal cities are underwater is due to the higher sea levels.

President Pierce Bush's EPA reps argued that there was still further need for research. We all then had some wonderful seaweed salad.

Congressional Scientific Commission: Global Warming Is Real, Caused by Humans

- rob 7:19 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Can I be more appalled at Bush?

Can I learn something more about the "man" who unfortunately sits in the White House that would make me even more disgusted?

Why yes I can.

The Shadow War, In a Surprising New Light

One example out of many comes in Ron Suskind's gripping narrative of what the White House has celebrated as one of the war's major victories: the capture of Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan in March 2002. Described as al-Qaeda's chief of operations even after U.S. and Pakistani forces kicked down his door in Faisalabad, the Saudi-born jihadist was the first al-Qaeda detainee to be shipped to a secret prison abroad. Suskind shatters the official story line here.

Abu Zubaydah, his captors discovered, turned out to be mentally ill and nothing like the pivotal figure they supposed him to be. CIA and FBI analysts, poring over a diary he kept for more than a decade, found entries "in the voice of three people: Hani 1, Hani 2, and Hani 3" -- a boy, a young man and a middle-aged alter ego. All three recorded in numbing detail "what people ate, or wore, or trifling things they said." Dan Coleman, then the FBI's top al-Qaeda analyst, told a senior bureau official, "This guy is insane, certifiable, split personality."

Abu Zubaydah also appeared to know nothing about terrorist operations; rather, he was al-Qaeda's go-to guy for minor logistics -- travel for wives and children and the like. That judgment was "echoed at the top of CIA and was, of course, briefed to the President and Vice President," Suskind writes. And yet somehow, in a speech delivered two weeks later, President Bush portrayed Abu Zubaydah as "one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States." And over the months to come, under White House and Justice Department direction, the CIA would make him its first test subject for harsh interrogation techniques.

- rob 7:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Sometimes I cynically say on this here blog that the war in Iraq is often just a vehicle of wealth generation for many of those supposedly aiding us in the effort. Too many American companies seem more interested in making high profits then actually helping out troops. In fact the profits often come at the detriment of our troops.

But the GOP doesn't want to know - they'd rather be blind to the looting of our treasury then risk a campaign donation.

Iraq Debate in Senate Turns Emotional

Earlier today, Republicans defeated a Democratic proposal for an investigation into waste and fraud in military contracts. The proposal, made by Senator Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, called for a panel like the one led by Harry Truman when he was a Senator, which uncovered many abuses in military spending during World War II. It failed by a 52-to-44 vote.

Mr. Dorgan said that military spending is the worst it has ever been "right now Â? right now! I think the American taxpayers are being fleeced."

He offered several anecdotes, including one about 25 tons of nails that he said had been buried in the sand simply because "someone ordered the wrong-sized nails," adding, "It doesn't matter - the American taxpayer is going to pay the bill."

The senator focused on Halliburton, the huge company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, which has become a favorite target of Democrats alleging favoritism and waste in the awarding of Pentagon contracts in Iraq. But Mr. Dorgan said there was plenty of blame on both sides of the aisle. Supervision of military spending, he said, is "the one area where all of us have failed."
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The vote on the Dorgan amendment followed party lines almost exactly, with Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island the only Republican to vote yes; no Democrat voted against it.

- rob 7:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Republicans don't want people to vote.

Studies, Polls, surveys, common sense all show that the vast majority of people do not like the GOP or their stance on the issues. But that is the majority of people - not voters.

With voters it is much closer - but still the GOP doesn't have the numbers.

The only way to get the GOP to win is to limit the number of people who actually vote.

That can be done by fighting voter registration promotion legislation like the motor voter laws.

That can be done by limiting voting machines ing african american areas so voters there have to wait hours to vote, while making sure the machines are ready and available in upper class white areas.

That can be done by striking thousands of African Americans off the voter roles in Forida due to inacurate data that says they were felons.

That can be done by jamming the phones of Democrats trying to get the vote out on election day.

That can be done by registering Democrats for voting and then throwing away their registration cards.

They always tried to be somewhat subtle about this but some GOP House members got a little blatant about their hate of equal opportunity to vote. So now...

GOP Rebellion Stops Voting Rights Act

House leaders abruptly canceled a vote to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act yesterday after rank-and-file Republicans revolted over provisions that require bilingual ballots in many places and continued federal oversight of voting practices in Southern states.
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The Voting Rights Act requires Justice Department preapproval of changes in voting practices in states that used techniques such as poll taxes or literacy tests to discourage blacks from voting in the 1960s. Some Republicans in Georgia, Texas and other states say such efforts to disenfranchise minorities disappeared long ago, and that continued coverage by the act is an unfair stigma.
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But Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said a bipartisan commission found evidence of recent voting rights violations in Georgia, Texas and several other states. "These are not states that can say their hands are clean," she said.

- rob 7:13 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Turning America's House of Representatives to a house of prostitution - Today's GOP

Instead of using their body and sex for personal profit they're using their ability to make laws for personal profit.

We're the folks who pay and for us the climax is a bigger deficit - man that stinks.

Lawmakers' Profits Are Scrutinized

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) made a $2 million profit last year on the sale of land 5 1/2 miles from a highway project that he helped to finance with targeted federal funds.

A Republican House member from California, meanwhile, received nearly double what he paid for a four-acre parcel near an Air Force base after securing $8 million for a planned freeway interchange 16 miles away. And another California GOP congressman obtained funding in last year's highway bill for street improvements near a planned residential and commercial development that he co-owns.

- rob 6:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The really sad thing it is more difficult then you would think.

And this is a woman allowed on cable news networks and network morning shows.

The Hitler vs. Coulter Quiz
Can you correctly attribute the following quotes?

Thanks to Americablog for the link (I think)

- rob 6:11 PM - [PermaLink] -

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This pretty much sumarizes the modern GOP reign: ignore an issue and make it worse and then take the same issue and use it as your campaign platform.

Illegal Hiring Is Rarely Penalized

The Bush administration, which is vowing to crack down on U.S. companies that hire illegal workers, virtually abandoned such employer sanctions before it began pushing to overhaul U.S. immigration laws last year, government statistics show.

Between 1999 and 2003, work-site enforcement operations were scaled back 95 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which subsequently was merged into the Homeland Security Department. The number of employers prosecuted for unlawfully employing immigrants dropped from 182 in 1999 to four in 2003, and fines collected declined from $3.6 million to $212,000, according to federal statistics.

In 1999, the United States initiated fines against 417 companies. In 2004, it issued fine notices to three.

- rob 2:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The past 5 and a half years have all been a lost opportunity - that has destroyed so much opportunity for the future as well.

I'm going to start calling George "FutureKiller"

In 2003, U.S. Spurned Iran's Offer of Dialogue
Some Officials Lament Lost Opportunity

Just after the lightning takeover of Baghdad by U.S. forces three years ago, an unusual two-page document spewed out of a fax machine at the Near East bureau of the State Department. It was a proposal from Iran for a broad dialogue with the United States, and the fax suggested everything was on the table -- including full cooperation on nuclear programs, acceptance of Israel and the termination of Iranian support for Palestinian militant groups.

But top Bush administration officials, convinced the Iranian government was on the verge of collapse, belittled the initiative.

Ah yes, why negotiate in a position of strength when you can negotiate three years later when stuck in a quagmire.

Bush is amazing at finding the incompetent alternative at every historical juncture.

- rob 5:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The GOP economy: Millions of tax dollars converted to thousands of campaign dollars converted to millions in federal spending.

Rinse.

Repeat

A quick lesson in corruption: Inland Empire Pays Firm for D.C. Clout - Los Angeles Times

- rob 4:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Memo to Secretary of State from Ambassodor to Iraq: Things are really really freaking bad.

'Wash Post' Obtains Shocking Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad

NEW YORK The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked "sensitive," that it says shows that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, "the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees."
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Among the other troubling reports:

-- "Personal safety depends on good relations with the 'neighborhood' governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. The central government, our staff says, is not relevant; even local mukhtars have been displaced or coopted by militias. People no longer trust most neighbors."
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-- Two of the three female Iraqis in the public affairs office reported stepped-up harassment since mid-May...."some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative." One of the women is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats.

-- It has also become "dangerous" for men to wear shorts in public and "they no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts." People who wear jeans in public have also come under attack.
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-- Since April, the "demeanor" of guards in the Green Zone has changed, becoming more "militia-like," and some are now "taunting" embassy personnel or holding up their credentials and saying loudly that they work in the embassy: "Such information is a death sentence if overheard by the wrong people." For this reason, some have asked for press instead of embassy credentials.
-- Fuel lines have grown so long that one staffer spent 12 hours in line on his day off. "Employees all confirm that by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without.

But did we mention that they are painting some schools?

Here's the original Post piece: From the Embassy, a Grim Report

- rob 4:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If you've preached that government is incapable of doing anything.

If you've preached that government workers are the leeches of American society.

If you've preached that earning a high wage is what is really important in life.

Should you be surprised when your followers leave their government jobs for high paying jobs in the private sector.

Should you be surprised that the resulting "brain drain" on government agencies means your administration can't even keep up its high level of incompetence and dives to new levels of stink?

Homeland security officials opting out

WASHINGTON - Lured by high salaries and generous perks, many members of the Bush administration's homeland security team are quitting their government posts for private sector jobs in the security business.
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The Times found that at least 90 former officials in the department and the White House Office of Homeland Security now work for companies that do billions of dollars worth of business in the homeland security industry.

Or is working for the Bush administration draining on how to be a true leach - draining money from government coffers using your connections to land pointless contracts.

- rob 4:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Repeat

Unitarian Jihad

Too long have you been buffeted by angry people who think that God talks to them. You have a right to your moderation! You have the power to be calm! We will use the IED of truth to explode the SUV of dogmatic expression!
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We are Unitarian Jihad. We are everywhere. We have not been born again, nor have we sworn a blood oath. We do not think that God cares what we read, what we eat or whom we sleep with.
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Beware! Unless you people shut up and begin acting like grown-ups with brains enough to understand the difference between political belief and personal faith, the Unitarian Jihad will begin a series of terrorist-like actions. We will take over television studios, kidnap so-called commentators and broadcast calm, well-reasoned discussions of the issues of the day. We will not try for "balance" by hiring fruitcakes; we will try for balance by hiring non-ideologues who have carefully thought through the issues.
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People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad! We can strike without warning. Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere! Nice people will run the government again! There will be coffee and cookies in the Gandhi Room after the revolution.

- rob 4:26 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Q: How can you tell when Cheney is lying?

A: His snarl moves.

Cheney Reasserts That Iraqi Insurgency Entered Its "Last Throes" In May 2005

- rob 4:16 PM - [PermaLink] -

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