Serf's up!
Declaration of Independence
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
Global Eye
"Thus, the sudden, hugger-mugger decision by California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to override the objections of his own experts and certify the eminently hackable voting machines of the politically partisan firm, Diebold, for use throughout the state means, quite simply, that the fix is in for 2008. It doesn't matter who the Democrats run -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, George Clooney or Jesus H. Christ in an Uncle Sam suit. It won't make a bit of difference. California is lost, the presidency is lost and the Bushists are in -- already. It's over."
Harper's Weekly Review
With bipartisan support, US Senate agrees to Patriot Act renewal
"The new agreement will permanently extend most of the Patriot Act’s provisions that would otherwise expire, while making only insignificant changes to a law that has become symbolic worldwide of the attack on democratic rights."
Resolution to impeach Bush - Cheney passes 7-3
"On Tuesday, February 28, 2006, the City and County of San Francisco became the first large municipality to call for the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney, by a 7-3 vote."
Republican congressman predicts Bush impeachment
"Republican Congressman Ron Paul has gone on record with his prediction that the impeachment of George W. Bush is right around the corner but warned that in the meantime the US was slipping perilously close to a dictatorship."
The case for impeachment
This is a longer excerpt from the Lewis Lapham essay I cited last week.
What Bush was told about Iraq
"Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, according to records and knowledgeable sources."
Lethal 'flying gunships' returning to Iraq : Armed airplanes used in Vietnam war secretly moved to Iraq
"The U.S. Air Force has begun moving heavily armed AC-130 airplanes — the lethal “flying gunships” of the Vietnam War — to a base in Iraq as commanders search for new tools to counter the Iraqi resistance, The Associated Press has learned."
Von Rumsfeld loves the smell of cordite in the morning . . . noon . . . evening.
US troops in Iraq: 72% say end war in 2006
"An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and nearly one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International survey shows."
US commander says Iraq crisis has passed
"While Gen. George Casey said anything can happen, he downplayed suggestions the country is headed for civil war."
I enjoyed watching the good general on C-Span . . . the salt and pepper hair . . . the chiseled jaw . . . the bullshit. A Westmoreland moment.
Fmr. UN official: Human rights abuses worse now than under Saddam . . .
"John Pace, who last month left his post as director of the human rights office at the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, said the level of extra-judicial executions and torture is soaring, and morgue workers are being threatened by both government-backed militia and insurgents not to properly investigate deaths."
US seeks funds to build prisons in Iraq
"The U.S. State Department is winding down its $20 billion reconstruction program in Iraq and the only new rebuilding money in its latest budget request is for prisons, officials said on Tuesday."
In the parallel universe of Iraq, it will likely end up with more people in prison per capita than any other country on the planet . . . except the US.
US postwar planning for Iraq almost nonexistent
"The report from the SIGIR office confirms what previous media reports had already highlighted. In a piece from October 2004 entitled 'Pre-war planning was non-existent,' Knight Ridder reported on a meeting held at a US Air Force base just days before the start of the war in March 2003. The meeting was held to discuss the plans to oust Mr. Hussein and restore democracy in Iraq. When the presentation came to the subejct of postwar Iraq, the slide being shown said 'To Be Provided.'"
New leadership crisis as Iraq descends into anarchy
"Leaders of three parties, including Sunnis, Kurds and the secularists of the former prime minister Iyad Allawi, agreed on Wednesday to ask the main Shia bloc to withdraw Mr Jaafari's nomination for prime minister. Shia officials confirmed receiving a letter asking them to put forward a new candidate."
Baghdad official who exposed executions flees
"Faik Bakir, the director of the Baghdad morgue, has fled Iraq in fear of his life after reporting that more than 7,000 people have been killed by death squads in recent months, the outgoing head of the UN human rights office in Iraq has disclosed."
Freedom is on the march!
Iraq's death squads: On the brink of civil war
"John Pace, who left Baghdad two weeks ago, told The Independent on Sunday that up to three-quarters of the corpses stacked in the city's mortuary show evidence of gunshot wounds to the head or injuries caused by drill-bits or burning cigarettes. Much of the killing, he said, was carried out by Shia Muslim groups under the control of the Ministry of the Interior."
US cites exception in torture ban
"Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison."
On torture and being "good Americans"
"I never dreamed at that moment that I, as an American, would a few years later face this same question as my government committed mass murder of civilians in Indochina in violation of the Nuremberg Principles. Or that more than four decades later I would still be struggling with what it means to be a 'good American' after learning that a group of U.S. leaders has unilaterally seized the right to torture anyone it chooses without evidence and in violation of international law, human decency, and the sacrifice of the many Americans who have died fighting autocracy and totalitarianism."
Terrorist growth overtakes US efforts
"Thirty new terrorist organizations have emerged since the September 11, 2001, attacks, outpacing U.S. efforts to crush the threat, said Brig. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the Pentagon's deputy director for the war on terrorism.
"'We are not killing them faster than they are being created,' Gen. Caslen told a gathering at the Woodrow Wilson Center yesterday, warning that the war could take decades to resolve."
So what he's saying is that after three years of this phony war, we've created enemies faster than we can kill them, and in many decades this deabcle will be successful because . . . ?
White House delays release of study showing toxic rocket fuel in most Americans
"Following a published report that the Bush Administration is holding up a study that shows most Americans carry a toxic rocket fuel chemical in their bodies at levels close to federal safety limits, Environmental Working Group (EWG) is calling for the immediate release of the study so EPA and state agencies can take steps to protect the public."
I'm glad I wasn't born later.
Midwest oil fined for selling gas too cheaply
"The Minnesota Commerce Department on Thursday announced plans to fine a gas station chain $140,000 for repeatedly selling gas below the state's legal minimum price."
It's good to know one's place.
Loss of Antarctic ice increases
"Two new satellite surveys show that warming air and water are causing Antarctica to lose ice faster than it can be replenished by interior snowfall, and thus are contributing to rising global sea levels."
Flying is dying
"There is no way to halt global warming and continue traveling long distances at high speeds. The only solution is to stop flying in airplanes."
Bush plan would raise deficit by $1.2 trillion, budget office says
"President Bush's budget would increase the federal deficit by $35 billion this year and by more than $1.2 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported on Friday."
When $8.81 trillion isn't enough
"Yesterday, Treasury officials told Senate aides that without an increase in the nation's $8.18 trillion debt limit, the government 'would default on obligations for the first time in history sometime during the week of March 20.' The Senate will have to take up the issue soon since 'federal default is considered unimaginable because it would rattle bond markets, force interest rates higher and shake the economy.' The debt limit increase to around $9 trillion would be the fourth increase in five years. 'I don't think the leadership wants to have any debate on this, and I think the reason is pretty clear,' Finance Committee ranking member Max Baucus (D-MT) told CongressDaily. 'It's embarrassing.'"
Banana republic.
Incomes fall, hunger worsens as Bush says 'we're doing fine'
"Within days, however, the Federal Reserve reported that average incomes after adjusting for inflation actually had fallen between 2001 and 2004."
Quotes from http://www.bartcop.com/ and others:
"I spend a lot of time worrying about disruption of energy because tyrants control the spigots." -- Dubya, the world's most evil tyrant, Link
"I thought it was going to help. I thought it would help remind people that if Osama didn't want me to be president, something must be right with me."
--Dubya, on why his friend Osama released a tape 5 days before the election, Link
"The president said, 'I need to hear from Brown right now what's going on.' I said, 'Mr. President, my estimate is that 90 percent -- 90 percent -- of the population of New Orleans has now been displaced.' And there was just that split second of silence. And [then], '90 percent?' 'Yes sir, that's how bad it is.' "
-- Brownie, Link
"Listen, we weren't getting good, solid information from people who were on the ground. Communications systems got wiped out, and in many cases we were relying upon the media..."
-- Dubya, lying again to ABC's Elizabeth Vargas, Link
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a person's character, give him power."
-- Abe Lincoln, who knew Bush's ilk in the 1850s
"FOX News and other Republican surrogates have so prostituted what it means to be a journalist - including using real prostitutes as journalists - that any journalist with an opinion is now suspect. The GOP sycophants have so crossed the line into pro-government propaganda that anyone who tries to criticize government is considered equally, if not more, suspect."
-- John Aravosis,Link
"Every prediction the President made about this war has proven to be false, while virtually every prediction made by war opponents has proven to be true. The President and his followers controlled every part of this war with an iron fist and insisting on the right to exert full-scale, undiluted control over it. And now it has failed. And it’s everyone’s fault except theirs."
-- Glenn Greenwald, Link
"Cheney accused Democrats of wanting to offer 'therapy' to the terrorists. Now he wants to do business with them."
--Alan S, Link
"Until now terrorists had no means of delivering their weapons to the US except through the theft of an airplane or two. Now they have access to every ship entering American thanks to King George, the Duke of Dubai."
-- Clyde the Ripper, Link
"Apparently, Bush did not know about this whole ports thing until the story broke in the newspapers. You know, you could say Reagan was asleep at the switch. At least he knew there was a switch."
-- Bill Maher
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
-- Steven Weinberg, Link
Subject: It seems there was one child left behind! Can the English language survive?
"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."
- George W. Bush"
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
- George W. Bush
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
- George W. Bush
"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."
- George W. Bush
"The future will be better tomorrow."
- George W. Bush
"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
- George W. Bush
"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
- George W. Bush"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."
- George W. Bush
"Public speaking is very easy."
- George W. Bush
"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."
- George W. Bush
"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
- George W. Bush
"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
- George W. Bush
"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."
- George W. Bush
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
- George W. Bush
"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
- George W. Bush
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
Global Eye
"Thus, the sudden, hugger-mugger decision by California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson to override the objections of his own experts and certify the eminently hackable voting machines of the politically partisan firm, Diebold, for use throughout the state means, quite simply, that the fix is in for 2008. It doesn't matter who the Democrats run -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, George Clooney or Jesus H. Christ in an Uncle Sam suit. It won't make a bit of difference. California is lost, the presidency is lost and the Bushists are in -- already. It's over."
Harper's Weekly Review
With bipartisan support, US Senate agrees to Patriot Act renewal
"The new agreement will permanently extend most of the Patriot Act’s provisions that would otherwise expire, while making only insignificant changes to a law that has become symbolic worldwide of the attack on democratic rights."
Resolution to impeach Bush - Cheney passes 7-3
"On Tuesday, February 28, 2006, the City and County of San Francisco became the first large municipality to call for the impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney, by a 7-3 vote."
Republican congressman predicts Bush impeachment
"Republican Congressman Ron Paul has gone on record with his prediction that the impeachment of George W. Bush is right around the corner but warned that in the meantime the US was slipping perilously close to a dictatorship."
The case for impeachment
This is a longer excerpt from the Lewis Lapham essay I cited last week.
What Bush was told about Iraq
"Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, according to records and knowledgeable sources."
Lethal 'flying gunships' returning to Iraq : Armed airplanes used in Vietnam war secretly moved to Iraq
"The U.S. Air Force has begun moving heavily armed AC-130 airplanes — the lethal “flying gunships” of the Vietnam War — to a base in Iraq as commanders search for new tools to counter the Iraqi resistance, The Associated Press has learned."
Von Rumsfeld loves the smell of cordite in the morning . . . noon . . . evening.
US troops in Iraq: 72% say end war in 2006
"An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and nearly one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International survey shows."
US commander says Iraq crisis has passed
"While Gen. George Casey said anything can happen, he downplayed suggestions the country is headed for civil war."
I enjoyed watching the good general on C-Span . . . the salt and pepper hair . . . the chiseled jaw . . . the bullshit. A Westmoreland moment.
Fmr. UN official: Human rights abuses worse now than under Saddam . . .
"John Pace, who last month left his post as director of the human rights office at the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, said the level of extra-judicial executions and torture is soaring, and morgue workers are being threatened by both government-backed militia and insurgents not to properly investigate deaths."
US seeks funds to build prisons in Iraq
"The U.S. State Department is winding down its $20 billion reconstruction program in Iraq and the only new rebuilding money in its latest budget request is for prisons, officials said on Tuesday."
In the parallel universe of Iraq, it will likely end up with more people in prison per capita than any other country on the planet . . . except the US.
US postwar planning for Iraq almost nonexistent
"The report from the SIGIR office confirms what previous media reports had already highlighted. In a piece from October 2004 entitled 'Pre-war planning was non-existent,' Knight Ridder reported on a meeting held at a US Air Force base just days before the start of the war in March 2003. The meeting was held to discuss the plans to oust Mr. Hussein and restore democracy in Iraq. When the presentation came to the subejct of postwar Iraq, the slide being shown said 'To Be Provided.'"
New leadership crisis as Iraq descends into anarchy
"Leaders of three parties, including Sunnis, Kurds and the secularists of the former prime minister Iyad Allawi, agreed on Wednesday to ask the main Shia bloc to withdraw Mr Jaafari's nomination for prime minister. Shia officials confirmed receiving a letter asking them to put forward a new candidate."
Baghdad official who exposed executions flees
"Faik Bakir, the director of the Baghdad morgue, has fled Iraq in fear of his life after reporting that more than 7,000 people have been killed by death squads in recent months, the outgoing head of the UN human rights office in Iraq has disclosed."
Freedom is on the march!
Iraq's death squads: On the brink of civil war
"John Pace, who left Baghdad two weeks ago, told The Independent on Sunday that up to three-quarters of the corpses stacked in the city's mortuary show evidence of gunshot wounds to the head or injuries caused by drill-bits or burning cigarettes. Much of the killing, he said, was carried out by Shia Muslim groups under the control of the Ministry of the Interior."
US cites exception in torture ban
"Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison."
On torture and being "good Americans"
"I never dreamed at that moment that I, as an American, would a few years later face this same question as my government committed mass murder of civilians in Indochina in violation of the Nuremberg Principles. Or that more than four decades later I would still be struggling with what it means to be a 'good American' after learning that a group of U.S. leaders has unilaterally seized the right to torture anyone it chooses without evidence and in violation of international law, human decency, and the sacrifice of the many Americans who have died fighting autocracy and totalitarianism."
Terrorist growth overtakes US efforts
"Thirty new terrorist organizations have emerged since the September 11, 2001, attacks, outpacing U.S. efforts to crush the threat, said Brig. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the Pentagon's deputy director for the war on terrorism.
"'We are not killing them faster than they are being created,' Gen. Caslen told a gathering at the Woodrow Wilson Center yesterday, warning that the war could take decades to resolve."
So what he's saying is that after three years of this phony war, we've created enemies faster than we can kill them, and in many decades this deabcle will be successful because . . . ?
White House delays release of study showing toxic rocket fuel in most Americans
"Following a published report that the Bush Administration is holding up a study that shows most Americans carry a toxic rocket fuel chemical in their bodies at levels close to federal safety limits, Environmental Working Group (EWG) is calling for the immediate release of the study so EPA and state agencies can take steps to protect the public."
I'm glad I wasn't born later.
Midwest oil fined for selling gas too cheaply
"The Minnesota Commerce Department on Thursday announced plans to fine a gas station chain $140,000 for repeatedly selling gas below the state's legal minimum price."
It's good to know one's place.
Loss of Antarctic ice increases
"Two new satellite surveys show that warming air and water are causing Antarctica to lose ice faster than it can be replenished by interior snowfall, and thus are contributing to rising global sea levels."
Flying is dying
"There is no way to halt global warming and continue traveling long distances at high speeds. The only solution is to stop flying in airplanes."
Bush plan would raise deficit by $1.2 trillion, budget office says
"President Bush's budget would increase the federal deficit by $35 billion this year and by more than $1.2 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported on Friday."
When $8.81 trillion isn't enough
"Yesterday, Treasury officials told Senate aides that without an increase in the nation's $8.18 trillion debt limit, the government 'would default on obligations for the first time in history sometime during the week of March 20.' The Senate will have to take up the issue soon since 'federal default is considered unimaginable because it would rattle bond markets, force interest rates higher and shake the economy.' The debt limit increase to around $9 trillion would be the fourth increase in five years. 'I don't think the leadership wants to have any debate on this, and I think the reason is pretty clear,' Finance Committee ranking member Max Baucus (D-MT) told CongressDaily. 'It's embarrassing.'"
Banana republic.
Incomes fall, hunger worsens as Bush says 'we're doing fine'
"Within days, however, the Federal Reserve reported that average incomes after adjusting for inflation actually had fallen between 2001 and 2004."
Quotes from http://www.bartcop.com/ and others:
"I spend a lot of time worrying about disruption of energy because tyrants control the spigots." -- Dubya, the world's most evil tyrant, Link
"I thought it was going to help. I thought it would help remind people that if Osama didn't want me to be president, something must be right with me."
--Dubya, on why his friend Osama released a tape 5 days before the election, Link
"The president said, 'I need to hear from Brown right now what's going on.' I said, 'Mr. President, my estimate is that 90 percent -- 90 percent -- of the population of New Orleans has now been displaced.' And there was just that split second of silence. And [then], '90 percent?' 'Yes sir, that's how bad it is.' "
-- Brownie, Link
"Listen, we weren't getting good, solid information from people who were on the ground. Communications systems got wiped out, and in many cases we were relying upon the media..."
-- Dubya, lying again to ABC's Elizabeth Vargas, Link
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a person's character, give him power."
-- Abe Lincoln, who knew Bush's ilk in the 1850s
"FOX News and other Republican surrogates have so prostituted what it means to be a journalist - including using real prostitutes as journalists - that any journalist with an opinion is now suspect. The GOP sycophants have so crossed the line into pro-government propaganda that anyone who tries to criticize government is considered equally, if not more, suspect."
-- John Aravosis,Link
"Every prediction the President made about this war has proven to be false, while virtually every prediction made by war opponents has proven to be true. The President and his followers controlled every part of this war with an iron fist and insisting on the right to exert full-scale, undiluted control over it. And now it has failed. And it’s everyone’s fault except theirs."
-- Glenn Greenwald, Link
"Cheney accused Democrats of wanting to offer 'therapy' to the terrorists. Now he wants to do business with them."
--Alan S, Link
"Until now terrorists had no means of delivering their weapons to the US except through the theft of an airplane or two. Now they have access to every ship entering American thanks to King George, the Duke of Dubai."
-- Clyde the Ripper, Link
"Apparently, Bush did not know about this whole ports thing until the story broke in the newspapers. You know, you could say Reagan was asleep at the switch. At least he knew there was a switch."
-- Bill Maher
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
-- Steven Weinberg, Link
Subject: It seems there was one child left behind! Can the English language survive?
"The vast majority of our imports come from outside the country."
- George W. Bush"
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
- George W. Bush
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Governor, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."
- George W. Bush
"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."
- George W. Bush
"The future will be better tomorrow."
- George W. Bush
"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."
- George W. Bush
"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."
- George W. Bush"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."
- George W. Bush
"Public speaking is very easy."
- George W. Bush
"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."
- George W. Bush
"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
- George W. Bush
"For NASA, space is still a high priority."
- George W. Bush
"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."
- George W. Bush
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
- George W. Bush
"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."
- George W. Bush
posted by Jerry | 9:23 PM
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