In Memorium
Memorial Daze
I often think the universe operates in mysterious ways. Yesterday, I was at a high school graduation party for a neighbor's daughter. Not knowing many of the people in attendance, I happened to find myself at a table where it seemed congenial enough to eat my grilled chicken, beans, etc. We were outside, and at the head of my table was a kindly looking gentlemen whose vintage was greater than mine.
After most of us were finished eating, the older, guy, Bill, and I started talking. During WWII, he enlisted in the Navy in early 1945 at the age of 19. Which makes him, I believe, 80. He joined the Navy because he didn't want to be in a foxhole. He was still in training at the end of the war.
Bill said one day an officer addressed he and his comrades with an offer. Anyone who wanted to leave the service could step forward and be discharged from service. Those who stayed put would have the opportunity to go to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. This was after both the European and Japanese conflicts were over. Bill stayed stood his ground and began an unexpected Naval career that lasted until 1981.
The more I talked with Bill, the more I liked him. He didn't have a military mindset; he was just a regular guy who found himself in a career he hadn't really thought about. But as we talked, it was apparent the pew he found himself in was to his liking.
He served on ships until 1957, and from then on, he was able to live with his family in various postings around the globe. What intrigued me the most was that he was a cryptographer. And he worked closely with the NSA. Naturally, I couldn't keep my mouth shut and asked him about his views regarding the massive surveillance of Americans. He said quite forcefully, "It should have happened 20 years ago." I thought the congenial conversation was over. But I held my ground, saying I thought it was a mistake. Then, Bill, said two things that confirmed my initial feeling about liking the cut of his jib. "Well", he said, "you have to have a government you can trust, and the second amendment has to be firmly enforced."
This pleasant old man and I stayed on track, and were able to remain seated and talking until his wife came and gathered him up.
Harper's Weekly Review
Listening in by Seymour Hersh
"Last December, the Times reported that the N.S.A. was listening in on calls between people in the United States and people in other countries, and a few weeks ago USA Today reported that the agency was collecting information on millions of private domestic calls. A security consultant working with a major telecommunications carrier told me that his client set up a top-secret high-speed circuit between its main computer complex and Quantico, Virginia, the site of a government-intelligence computer center. This link provided direct access to the carrier’s network core—the critical area of its system, where all its data are stored. 'What the companies are doing is worse than turning over records,' the consultant said. 'They’re providing total access to all the data.'"
Why we published the AT&T docs
"AT&T claims information in the file is proprietary and that it would suffer severe harm if it were released.
"Based on what we've seen, Wired News disagrees. In addition, we believe the public's right to know the full facts in this case outweighs AT&T's claims to secrecy.
"As a result, we are publishing the complete text of a set of documents from the EFF's primary witness in the case, former AT&T employee and whistle-blower Mark Klein -- information obtained by investigative reporter Ryan Singel through an anonymous source close to the litigation. The documents, available on Wired News as of Monday, consist of 30 pages, with an affidavit attributed to Klein, eight pages of AT&T documents marked 'proprietary,' and several pages of news clippings and other public information related to government-surveillance issues."
Verizon refuses to come clean about wire-tapping
"In a tight-lipped 44-page response to the PUC last Friday, Verizon argued that the Commission lacks the authority to investigate a complaint that the telephone company was involved in the NSA program. The company further claimed such information is protected by the 'state-secrets privilege.'"
End the hostile takeover
"In his new book, Hostile Takeover, David Sirota unleashes a stinging 300-page indictment of a system corrupted almost beyond recognition. We have a government in which the greater good is subsumed by corporate interests day in and day out, and where political discourse itself is framed by those very interests; we end up discussing everything but the reasons why average Americans are worse off than they were 30 years ago."
Sirota coins a word I haven't heard and is precisely on target . . . "corporatocracy."
Republicans, incumbents receive large majority of oil lobby cash
"Eighty four percent of the $8.6 million oil and gas companies have contributed to the 2006 elections has gone to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics."
US public widely distrusts its leaders
"Three out of four (75%) said they trust government less than they did five years ago, just 5% said they think corporations do right by the consumers they are in business to serve, and only 25% feel the reporting is fair and accurate in the newspapers they read or the nightly broadcast network news they watch on television. Nearly 60% said they believe the 'state of honesty in America' today is in poor shape (18% said it is in the worst possible shape).
A nation in chains by Chris Floyd
"With the world's attention understandably diverted by the latest scandals and shameless posturings of the Bush Faction – domestic spying, bribes and hookers at the CIA, military units roaring down to the border to scare unarmed poor people looking for work – few noticed a small story that cast a harsh, penetrating light on the corrosion of the national character.
"Earlier this month, the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College London released its annual World Prison Population List. And there, standing proudly at the head of the line, towering far above all others, is that shining city on the hill, the United States of America. But strangely enough, the Bush gang and its many media sycophants failed to celebrate – or even note – yet another instance where a triumphant America leads the world. Where are the cheering hordes shouting 'USA! USA!' at the news that the land of the free imprisons more people than any other country in the world – both in raw numbers and as a percentage of its population?"
FCC chief says won't probe NSA call program
"The Federal Communications Commission will not pursue complaints about a U.S. spy agency's access to millions of telephone records because it cannot obtain classified material, the FCC chairman said in a letter released on Tuesday."
Everything seems to be a secret . . . except for our personal and private lives.
Intelligence czar can waive SEC rules
"President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was opaque to the untrained eye."
BushCo declared war on democracy and the people in 2001; it's time the people responded in kind . . . Serfs up!
Bush's garroting of democracy
"Over the past weekend, George W. Bush and his Justice Department signaled to the U.S. press corps and Congress that they are not beyond the reach of Bush’s 'plenary' – or unlimited – powers as Commander in Chief or his authority as 'unitary executive,' deciding what laws to enforce and how."
The snooping goes beyond phone calls: How the government sidesteps the Privacy Act ny purchasing commercial data
"Buying commercially collected data allows the government to dodge certain privacy rules. The Privacy Act of 1974 restricts how federal agencies may use such information and requires disclosure of what the government is doing with it. But the law applies only when the government is doing the data collecting."'Grabbing data wholesale from the private sector is the way agencies are getting around the requirements of the Privacy Act and the Fourth Amendment,' says Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington and a member of the Homeland Security Dept.'s Data Privacy & Integrity Advisory Committee."
Studs Terkel, others sue AT&T over release of records
"The six plaintiffs, whose legal team includes lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, claim the telephone giant violated the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which prevents phone companies from releasing records to the government unless there is an emergency.
"The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, seeks to include all Illinois AT&T customers as plaintiffs in a class action. The plaintiffs are not seeking monetary damages."
Eavesdropping, gagging, and the Constitution by Ray McGovern
"Thursday's slick but evasive testimony by Gen. Mike Hayden, the president's nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, put the spotlight on Hayden's personal role in an aggressive NSA program that skirts strict 30-year-old legal restrictions on eavesdropping on American citizens. As NSA director from 1999 to 2005, Hayden did the White House's bidding in devising and implementing that program without adequately informing Congress - as required by law. When an unauthorized disclosure revealed the program to the press, Hayden agreed to play point-man with smoke and mirrors. Small wonder that the White House considers him the perfect man for the CIA job."
If you've used a telephone in the last five years, read this
Don't spy on me: Tell the FCC to get the spies off the line
"It's illegal and un-American for your phone company to hand your call records to the government without a warrant. But that's just what they're doing, violating the privacy and rights of millions of innocent Americans in the process."
For telecoms, a storm of lawsuits awaits
"The forecast for major US phone companies this spring: continued heat, with a 100 percent chance of gathering lawsuits.
"From New York to Kentucky to Texas, lawyers specializing in class-action litigation are lining up to sue phone firms alleged to have handed over customer records to the National Security Agency without a court order. On Monday, for instance, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois filed suit against AT&T, charging that its actions in the NSA program violated customer privacy."
Justice Dept. seeks to block suits on spying
"The Bush administration has asked federal judges in New York and Michigan to dismiss two lawsuits filed over the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying litigating them would jeopardize state secrets."
Public hearings sough in phone record scandal
"Anticipating that the U.S. federal government would invoke the so-called 'state secrets' privilege to block any lawsuit calling for the disclosure of details about allegations that phone companies shared customer records with the government's biggest spy agency, a major civil rights group has embarked on an alternate course."
Join the ACLU www.aclu.org.
Who's spying on us? Rumsfeld's Pentagon takes the lead
"While claiming that they must 'secure' America for a post-9/11 world, the BushCheney zealots are taking us back to a pre-1776 world. They have been astonishingly successful in a remarkably short time, insidiously taking autocratic step after step, which a compliant Congress and the establishment media have mostly missed, ignored, minimalized—or applauded. These two 'institutions of vigilance' have failed us. So it is up to We The People to assert ourselves against this dangerous rise of authoritarianism in Bush's America."
The war on the free press
"JOURNALISTS. Get the rack ready! Our attorney general is coming for us, snarling like a guard dog at Abu Ghraib."
Bloody scenes haunt a Marine
"Briones, a wiry, soft-spoken 21-year-old interviewed Sunday at his family home in this Central Valley city, said he was not among the small group of Marines that military investigators have concluded killed the civilians, including children, women and elderly men."However, Briones, who goes by Ryan, said he took photographs of the victims and helped carry their bodies out of their homes as part of the cleanup crew sent in late in the afternoon on the day of the killings."
Murtha on Iraq: 'There's not only no progress, it's worse than it was prewar'
"[T]here’s not only no progress, it’s worse than it was prewar. this thing has been mishandled so badly. The American people needed to hear. we’re spending $450 billion on this war by the end of the year, $9 billion a month, and so we need to change course."
Armed groups propel Iraq toward chaos
"Such is the country that the new Iraqi leaders who took office Saturday are inheriting. The headlong, American-backed effort to arm tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and officers, coupled with a failure to curb a nearly equal number of militia gunmen, has created a galaxy of armed groups, each with its own loyalty and agenda, which are accelerating the country's slide into chaos."
Insurgents keep US at bay in Ramadi
"Whole neighborhoods are lawless, too dangerous for police. Some roads are so bomb-laden that U.S. troops won't use them. Guerrillas attack U.S. troops nearly every time they venture out -- and hit their bases with gunfire, rockets or mortars when they don't. "Though not powerful enough to overrun U.S. positions, insurgents here in the heart of the Sunni Muslim triangle have fought undermanned U.S. and Iraqi forces to a virtual stalemate."
War provoking terror, Amnesty says
"'The war on terror and the way it has unfolded actually is premised on the principle that by eroding human rights you can reinforce security,' Khan said. 'And that is why as part of the war on terror we see restrictions being placed on civil liberties around the world.'"
All wars, even "good" wars, promote terror; bad wars amplify it.
Amnesty compares Bush to Pinochet
"Amnesty International says President George Bush's tactics in his fight against terrorists have made the United States comparable to Augusto Pinochet's Chile and Hafez Assad's Syria in its acceptance of torture and disregard of legal restraints."
Certain victory keeps US in Iraq, says Bush
"President Bush said today that he would pull U.S. troops out of Iraq if he didn't think the United States could win the war against terrorism."
Evil moron.
Bush calls for Saddam execution
"'This is a disgusting tyrant who deserves... the ultimate justice,' he said in a US television interview."
Speaking of disgusting (and inept) tyrants who deserve to swing . . . .
Final curtain for Bush and Blair
"In one of its perhaps less elegant wordplays, the Economist magazine declared that the two now constituted as 'an axis of feeble.'"
Iraqi minister backs Iran on nuclear research
"Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari of Iraq today endorsed the right of Iran to pursue the 'technological and scientific capabilities' needed to create nuclear power for peaceful purposes, in the first high-level meeting between officials from the new Iraqi government and its eastern neighbor."
Wrong display of democracy.
Global Eye
"This savage ethos, forged in the dehumanizing crucible of total war, has prevailed against all the many attempts to change it. Even Ellsberg's discovery did little to return the Pentagon, and the nuclear arsenal, to civilian control. The 'whiz kid' McNamara, who by then had become Pentagon chief, demanded a more 'humane' attack strategy. But his call for greater precision in targeting required a whole new generation of deadlier, more sophisticated weapons. The Soviets, who had only four -- four! -- intercontinental missiles when Kennedy took office, felt pressured to respond in kind to the sudden U.S. buildup. This in turn fueled more 'countermeasures' by the Pentagon and its procurement partners. Far from easing tensions, the world moved even closer to nuclear conflagration."
This is a good one to read through. Floyd is commenting on a new book, House of War: The Pentagon and Disastrous rise of American power by James Carroll.
ElBaradei: "Nuclear feeds nuclear"
"'Nuclear feeds nuclear. As long as certain countries continue to insist on the indispensable character of nuclear weapons for their security, other countries will want to procure them. It is impossible to escape this simple truth,' declared the International Atomic Energy Agency's director general."
Hold on. You mean there is danger in allowing peace loving countries like the US, UK and Israel that are led by wise leaders like George W. Bush and Tony Blair to have nucular weapons? Stop the presses!
US sets up 215 million pound deal for Afghan arms - from Russia
"American defence officials have secretly requested a 'prodigious quantity' of ammunition from Russia to supply the Afghan army in case a Democrat president takes over in Washington and pulls out US troops."
It wasn't Putin's soul that Smirk "sensed"; it was ammo. Interestingly, the article says the deal involves 78 million rounds of AK-47 ammunition. So, if you take these bullets and combine them with the 200,000 missing AK-47s referenced in the article following, that's 390 rounds per weapon. Connecting the dots in the Bush Family Evil Empire, and one doesn't even have to tap a phone.
US in secret gun deal
"According to a report by Amnesty International, which investigated the sales, the US government arranged for the delivery of at least 200,000 Kalashnikov machine guns from Bosnia to Iraq in 2004-05. But though the weaponry was said to be for arming the fledgling Iraqi military, there is no evidence of the guns reaching their recipient."
A few weeks ago, I mentioned a line from the film, Lord of War, about the AK-47 being the true weapon of mass destruction. I was looking for data to get some idea of the projected death rate, on average, from one AK-47. A number probably exists somewhere, but I couldn't find it. However I did come across a chapter from a book that had this:
"Small arms, explosives and incendiaries are the weapons used in most terrorist acts. While the use of non-conventional weapons -- weapons of mass destruction -- must not be ignored, small arms, explosives and incendiaries have had a more significant impact so far, as recorded terrorist events in recent years demonstrate." Another source said that in third world countries an AK-47 can be purchased for around $6.00. Anyway, 200,000 AK-47s represent a lot of potential mayhem. And in another article I read that pre-2001 Afghanistan was already known as the "Kalashnikov Kulture." So much so that local gunsmiths can craft an AK-47 from memory.
Will your vote count in 2006? 'When you're using a paperless voting system, there is no security,' says Stanford's David Dill
"Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the voting booth, here comes more disturbing news about the trustworthiness of electronic touchscreen ballot machines. Earlier this month a report by Finnish security expert Harri Hursti analyzed Diebold voting machines for an organization called Black Box Voting. Hursti found unheralded vulnerabilities in the machines that are currently entrusted to faithfully record the votes of millions of Americans."
One man's constitutional crisis . . .
"Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives have achieved an almost unprecedented level of bipartisanship in denouncing the F.B.I.'s search of a congressman's office. They talk angrily about the separation of powers and the implications of having an executive branch agency make a foray into a lawmaker's official space. Our first question is where all these concerned constitutionalists have been for the last five years."
Gonzales said he would quit in raid dispute
"Mr. Gonzales was joined in raising the possibility of resignation by the deputy attorney general, Paul J. McNulty, the officials said. Mr. Gonzales and Mr. McNulty told associates that they had an obligation to protect evidence in a criminal case and would be unwilling to carry out any White House order to return the material to Congress."
Alberto Torquemada said, Separation of powers? I'm outta here!"
Zogby poll: Over 70 million American adults support new 9/11 investigation
"According to Janice Matthews, executive director of 911truth.org, 'To those who have followed the mounting evidence for US government involvement in 9/11, these results are both heartening and frankly quite amazing, given the mainstream media's ongoing refusal to cover the most critical questions of that day. Our August 2004 Zogby poll of New Yorkers showed nearly half believe certain US officials 'consciously' allowed the attacks to happen and 66% want a fresh investigation, but these were people closest to the tragedy and most familiar with facts refuting the official account. This revelation that so many millions nationwide now also recognize a 9/11 cover up and the need for a new inquiry should be a wake up call for all 2006 political candidates hoping to turn this country around. We think it also indicates Americans are awakening to the larger pattern of deceit that led us into Constitutional twilight and endless war, and that our independent media may have finally come of age.'"
View of a military expert: Why the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed
"Destruction of the towers by explosions is clear according to the photographs and reports of the eye witnesses. In the picture below, a range of cutting charges have just exploded in the down left sector and a typical white cloud is formed outwards from the wall. Down right, explosions are seen as well. Even a flame is seen."
Let's not forget the structural steel (forensic evidence) from the site was shipped to Asia for scrap while the wreckage was still smoldering.
Beyond Halliburton
"We’re talking about double-billing for hauling the same debris, hauling extra debris to boost reimbursements, overstating mileage—the same old tricks. As a neat touch, inspectors found that Army Corps of Engineers officials had an 'informal agreement' not to challenge bills that exceeded estimates by 50 percent.
"So why is this storyline so achingly familiar? Politically well-connected company gets massive no-bid contract to do re-construction work in New Orleans, Iraq, Afghanistan—wherever. Without any real accountability, said contractor runs up excessive costs for taxpayers. Sometimes the public gets upset; sometimes a wrist gets slapped. But in the end nothing changes."
Ouch! How 'money driven medicine,' abuse cost us $1.8 trillion
"Health-care costs ballooned to $1.8 trillion in 2005, or 16 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product last year, from about 7 percent in 1970. Soaring costs are a big reason why 48 million Americans have no health insurance and U.S. companies that subsidize their employees' health care have yet another disadvantage compared with overseas competitors."
The Al Capone of electricity: Ken Lay will get away with his real crimes by Greg Palast
"And just as Capone went up the river leaving us a permanent legacy of organized crime, so Lay, whether or not he's sent to the slammer, has left us, with the connivance of a few well-placed politicos, an electricity system that is little more than a playground for power-industry predators."
Bush's Enron Lies
"Bush’s defenders will probably reprise that storyline now that former Enron Chairman Lay and former Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling stand convicted of conspiracy and fraud in the plundering of the onetime energy-trading giant. But the reality is that the Bush-can’t-be-bought spin was never true.
"For instance, the documentary evidence is now clear that in summer 2001 – at the same time Bush’s National Security Council was ignoring warnings about an impending al-Qaeda terrorist attack – NSC adviser Condoleezza Rice was personally overseeing a government-wide task force to pressure India to give Enron as much as $2.3 billion."
Global warming predictions are underestimated say scientists
"British efforts to combat climate change have focused on preventing carbon dioxide levels rising above 450 parts per million, equivalent to a rise of 2C. If the world warms by more than this, many climate experts believe fragile ecosystems will be pushed beyond their "tipping point", triggering runaway global warming."
The human ecological footprint
"In 1972 there was still time to achieve a major course correction in the human journey. That opportunity is no longer available. Several studies confirm that the human ecological footprint now exceeds the regenerative carrying capacity of the planet, and our civilization is rapidly approaching a discontinuity unprecedented in history(6)."
In 1972 I read Limits to Growth published by the Club of Rome and was fascinated by the study. It's no surprise now that people in the US are scavenging for copper, stealing it from construction sites and power lines. It's going to get very ugly, I'm afraid.
Bush snubs Gore film on global warming
"Is President Bush likely to see Al Gore's documentary about global warming? "'Doubt it,' Bush said coolly Monday."
Unlike the ostrich, Bush has his head up his ass.
GOA report faults voluntary programs to cut air pollution: Study says administration had not ensured that firms set, meet goals
"The Bush administration's voluntary programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by industry have yet to deliver promised results, according to a report issued yesterday by the Government Accountability Office."
This reminds me of the old joke about using the honor system in schools to prevent cheating. The schools have the honor; the students have the system.
Collapse of the petrodollar looming
"The announcement by President Putin of a Russian bourse trading oil and gas in Roubles threatens the stability of the US Dollar far more than Iran's bourse alone would do, and continues the slide in relations between the old Cold War foes."In his annual State of the Nation address to both houses of parliament on 10 May 2006, Novosti reports President Putin said that work on making the Rouble an internationally convertible currency would be completed by 1 July 2006, six months ahead of schedule. To promote the currency, he announced that an oil and gas stock exchange will be created in Russia, that would trade in Roubles."
OECD warns rebalancing of US deficit may drive dollar down sharply
"The OECD has warned that the eventual rebalancing of the US current account gap 'looks increasingly unavoidable' and will send shock waves across the globe, starting with a slump in the dollar's exchange rate. "The OECD said in its world economic outlook that the depreciation faced by the dollar could be 'of the order of one-third to one-half.'"
Whoa, Nelly!
Quotes from www.bartcop.com:
"It should have been very obvious to us." -- Tony Blair, on the insurgency in Iraq, Link
"Despite setbacks and missteps, I strongly believe we did and are doing the right thing." -- Dubya, who has no problem with sacrificing 2500 lives for a lost cause, Link
"Most of the criticism...has centered not so much on Bush's blustery language as the underlying message. Bush was talking tough when other people's lives were at stake, not his. Many members of the military saw it as a taunt that invited more attacks on U.S. soldiers. And most significantly, Bush was completely underestimating what was still ahead: Well over 2,000 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq since then, with no end in sight. There was no regret for his fundamental misunderstanding of the costs to come." -- Dan Froomkin, Link
"When FBI agents reach into a congressman's home freezer and pull out $90,000 in foil-wrapped bills, it is time for him to resign. When the Justice Department announces that the same congressman is on videotape taking a $100,000 bribe in a Virginia hotel garage, his resignation is overdue. -- Joe Conason, taking about Rep Jefferson's bribe problems Link
"Before entering heaven, (please) George W. Bush must spend a few years in a special purgatory where all inmates are required to watch Baghdad ER non-stop." -- former Senator Gary Hart, Link
"There may come a time when I speak on that but it’s not now; I need more time to frame it carefully if I do. In our system, there’s no intermediate step between a definitive Supreme Court decision and violent revolution." -- Al Gore, saying six years isn't enough time to decide if his election was stolen, Link
"I understand the reporters have a job to do. I talk to them every day. I don't like what they write, but they don't like what I say." -- Murder Monkey, Link But Monkey, that's not true - they don't write what you say. They write what Karl Rove tells them you intended to say.
"A Louisiana state Senate committee unanimously approved a ban on cock fighting, in what appears to be a first step in outlawing gay marriage" -- Amy Poehler, SNL season ender
"George W. Bush is the worst president of our lifetime, and absolutely worse than Watergate-tainted Nixon." -- John Edwards to Judas Maximus Link
"The audio version of Colbert screwing Bush rose to No. 1 at iTunes three weeks to the night of the White House Correspondents Dinner." -- Noam Cohen, Link
"Many myths surround Hoffa's disappearance. Some say he is buried in the end zone of Giants' stadium. Some say he was dumped in Lake Michigan. Some think he is alive and in New Hampshire having an affair with a volunteer fireman that he calls 'Johnnycakes.' So 31 years later, they're s till looking for Jimmy Hoffa. That means they'll find Osama bin Laden in 2037." -- Jon Stewart
"The Republican Party has been reduced to one principle – its own power. It protects the Bush regime from accountability and covers up its lies and misdeeds. Under the myths and lies that enshroud 9/11, the Democrats have collapsed as an opposition party." -- Paul Craig Roberts, Link
"You have no civil liberties if you are dead." --Sen. Pat Roberts, explaining why Americans have lost their civil liberties under Bush Link
"I think Iraq is finished. We’ll just find a way to get out. I frankly don’t think we ever intended to win there. We certainly didn’t send enough troops to close borders, to control the country." --Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA's bin Laden unit, Link The BFEE [Bush Family Evil Empire] can't make any money with order - they need chaos. If we won the war and controlled the country, reporters could see that the primary job of our troops is to get Bush's 2M barrels a day safely to Kuwait.
"Hayden's involvement in the NSA's domestic spying program disqualifies him from heading the CIA. His answers to questions from Congress and the press have been evasive at best and downright false at worst." --Howard Dean, telling the truth again. Will the democrats scold him for that? Link
"Because we're at war and war unsettles people." -- Monkey, when asked why his approval rating is lower than Nixon's before he resigned, Link
"Yes, especially those wars of choice premised on fabrications and cherry-picked information. Yeah, you got that right, that's unsettling." -- AngryMexicano, Link
"Part of my charm is that I always tell people things they don't want to hear." -- Antonin 'Three Fingers' Scalia, Link Tony, you mean like that time when you told the lady reporter to go [screw] herself at church?
I often think the universe operates in mysterious ways. Yesterday, I was at a high school graduation party for a neighbor's daughter. Not knowing many of the people in attendance, I happened to find myself at a table where it seemed congenial enough to eat my grilled chicken, beans, etc. We were outside, and at the head of my table was a kindly looking gentlemen whose vintage was greater than mine.
After most of us were finished eating, the older, guy, Bill, and I started talking. During WWII, he enlisted in the Navy in early 1945 at the age of 19. Which makes him, I believe, 80. He joined the Navy because he didn't want to be in a foxhole. He was still in training at the end of the war.
Bill said one day an officer addressed he and his comrades with an offer. Anyone who wanted to leave the service could step forward and be discharged from service. Those who stayed put would have the opportunity to go to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. This was after both the European and Japanese conflicts were over. Bill stayed stood his ground and began an unexpected Naval career that lasted until 1981.
The more I talked with Bill, the more I liked him. He didn't have a military mindset; he was just a regular guy who found himself in a career he hadn't really thought about. But as we talked, it was apparent the pew he found himself in was to his liking.
He served on ships until 1957, and from then on, he was able to live with his family in various postings around the globe. What intrigued me the most was that he was a cryptographer. And he worked closely with the NSA. Naturally, I couldn't keep my mouth shut and asked him about his views regarding the massive surveillance of Americans. He said quite forcefully, "It should have happened 20 years ago." I thought the congenial conversation was over. But I held my ground, saying I thought it was a mistake. Then, Bill, said two things that confirmed my initial feeling about liking the cut of his jib. "Well", he said, "you have to have a government you can trust, and the second amendment has to be firmly enforced."
This pleasant old man and I stayed on track, and were able to remain seated and talking until his wife came and gathered him up.
Harper's Weekly Review
Listening in by Seymour Hersh
"Last December, the Times reported that the N.S.A. was listening in on calls between people in the United States and people in other countries, and a few weeks ago USA Today reported that the agency was collecting information on millions of private domestic calls. A security consultant working with a major telecommunications carrier told me that his client set up a top-secret high-speed circuit between its main computer complex and Quantico, Virginia, the site of a government-intelligence computer center. This link provided direct access to the carrier’s network core—the critical area of its system, where all its data are stored. 'What the companies are doing is worse than turning over records,' the consultant said. 'They’re providing total access to all the data.'"
Why we published the AT&T docs
"AT&T claims information in the file is proprietary and that it would suffer severe harm if it were released.
"Based on what we've seen, Wired News disagrees. In addition, we believe the public's right to know the full facts in this case outweighs AT&T's claims to secrecy.
"As a result, we are publishing the complete text of a set of documents from the EFF's primary witness in the case, former AT&T employee and whistle-blower Mark Klein -- information obtained by investigative reporter Ryan Singel through an anonymous source close to the litigation. The documents, available on Wired News as of Monday, consist of 30 pages, with an affidavit attributed to Klein, eight pages of AT&T documents marked 'proprietary,' and several pages of news clippings and other public information related to government-surveillance issues."
Verizon refuses to come clean about wire-tapping
"In a tight-lipped 44-page response to the PUC last Friday, Verizon argued that the Commission lacks the authority to investigate a complaint that the telephone company was involved in the NSA program. The company further claimed such information is protected by the 'state-secrets privilege.'"
End the hostile takeover
"In his new book, Hostile Takeover, David Sirota unleashes a stinging 300-page indictment of a system corrupted almost beyond recognition. We have a government in which the greater good is subsumed by corporate interests day in and day out, and where political discourse itself is framed by those very interests; we end up discussing everything but the reasons why average Americans are worse off than they were 30 years ago."
Sirota coins a word I haven't heard and is precisely on target . . . "corporatocracy."
Republicans, incumbents receive large majority of oil lobby cash
"Eighty four percent of the $8.6 million oil and gas companies have contributed to the 2006 elections has gone to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics."
US public widely distrusts its leaders
"Three out of four (75%) said they trust government less than they did five years ago, just 5% said they think corporations do right by the consumers they are in business to serve, and only 25% feel the reporting is fair and accurate in the newspapers they read or the nightly broadcast network news they watch on television. Nearly 60% said they believe the 'state of honesty in America' today is in poor shape (18% said it is in the worst possible shape).
A nation in chains by Chris Floyd
"With the world's attention understandably diverted by the latest scandals and shameless posturings of the Bush Faction – domestic spying, bribes and hookers at the CIA, military units roaring down to the border to scare unarmed poor people looking for work – few noticed a small story that cast a harsh, penetrating light on the corrosion of the national character.
"Earlier this month, the International Centre for Prison Studies at King's College London released its annual World Prison Population List. And there, standing proudly at the head of the line, towering far above all others, is that shining city on the hill, the United States of America. But strangely enough, the Bush gang and its many media sycophants failed to celebrate – or even note – yet another instance where a triumphant America leads the world. Where are the cheering hordes shouting 'USA! USA!' at the news that the land of the free imprisons more people than any other country in the world – both in raw numbers and as a percentage of its population?"
FCC chief says won't probe NSA call program
"The Federal Communications Commission will not pursue complaints about a U.S. spy agency's access to millions of telephone records because it cannot obtain classified material, the FCC chairman said in a letter released on Tuesday."
Everything seems to be a secret . . . except for our personal and private lives.
Intelligence czar can waive SEC rules
"President George W. Bush has bestowed on his intelligence czar, John Negroponte, broad authority, in the name of national security, to excuse publicly traded companies from their usual accounting and securities-disclosure obligations. Notice of the development came in a brief entry in the Federal Register, dated May 5, 2006, that was opaque to the untrained eye."
BushCo declared war on democracy and the people in 2001; it's time the people responded in kind . . . Serfs up!
Bush's garroting of democracy
"Over the past weekend, George W. Bush and his Justice Department signaled to the U.S. press corps and Congress that they are not beyond the reach of Bush’s 'plenary' – or unlimited – powers as Commander in Chief or his authority as 'unitary executive,' deciding what laws to enforce and how."
The snooping goes beyond phone calls: How the government sidesteps the Privacy Act ny purchasing commercial data
"Buying commercially collected data allows the government to dodge certain privacy rules. The Privacy Act of 1974 restricts how federal agencies may use such information and requires disclosure of what the government is doing with it. But the law applies only when the government is doing the data collecting."'Grabbing data wholesale from the private sector is the way agencies are getting around the requirements of the Privacy Act and the Fourth Amendment,' says Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington and a member of the Homeland Security Dept.'s Data Privacy & Integrity Advisory Committee."
Studs Terkel, others sue AT&T over release of records
"The six plaintiffs, whose legal team includes lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, claim the telephone giant violated the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which prevents phone companies from releasing records to the government unless there is an emergency.
"The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, seeks to include all Illinois AT&T customers as plaintiffs in a class action. The plaintiffs are not seeking monetary damages."
Eavesdropping, gagging, and the Constitution by Ray McGovern
"Thursday's slick but evasive testimony by Gen. Mike Hayden, the president's nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, put the spotlight on Hayden's personal role in an aggressive NSA program that skirts strict 30-year-old legal restrictions on eavesdropping on American citizens. As NSA director from 1999 to 2005, Hayden did the White House's bidding in devising and implementing that program without adequately informing Congress - as required by law. When an unauthorized disclosure revealed the program to the press, Hayden agreed to play point-man with smoke and mirrors. Small wonder that the White House considers him the perfect man for the CIA job."
If you've used a telephone in the last five years, read this
Don't spy on me: Tell the FCC to get the spies off the line
"It's illegal and un-American for your phone company to hand your call records to the government without a warrant. But that's just what they're doing, violating the privacy and rights of millions of innocent Americans in the process."
For telecoms, a storm of lawsuits awaits
"The forecast for major US phone companies this spring: continued heat, with a 100 percent chance of gathering lawsuits.
"From New York to Kentucky to Texas, lawyers specializing in class-action litigation are lining up to sue phone firms alleged to have handed over customer records to the National Security Agency without a court order. On Monday, for instance, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois filed suit against AT&T, charging that its actions in the NSA program violated customer privacy."
Justice Dept. seeks to block suits on spying
"The Bush administration has asked federal judges in New York and Michigan to dismiss two lawsuits filed over the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying litigating them would jeopardize state secrets."
Public hearings sough in phone record scandal
"Anticipating that the U.S. federal government would invoke the so-called 'state secrets' privilege to block any lawsuit calling for the disclosure of details about allegations that phone companies shared customer records with the government's biggest spy agency, a major civil rights group has embarked on an alternate course."
Join the ACLU www.aclu.org.
Who's spying on us? Rumsfeld's Pentagon takes the lead
"While claiming that they must 'secure' America for a post-9/11 world, the BushCheney zealots are taking us back to a pre-1776 world. They have been astonishingly successful in a remarkably short time, insidiously taking autocratic step after step, which a compliant Congress and the establishment media have mostly missed, ignored, minimalized—or applauded. These two 'institutions of vigilance' have failed us. So it is up to We The People to assert ourselves against this dangerous rise of authoritarianism in Bush's America."
The war on the free press
"JOURNALISTS. Get the rack ready! Our attorney general is coming for us, snarling like a guard dog at Abu Ghraib."
Bloody scenes haunt a Marine
"Briones, a wiry, soft-spoken 21-year-old interviewed Sunday at his family home in this Central Valley city, said he was not among the small group of Marines that military investigators have concluded killed the civilians, including children, women and elderly men."However, Briones, who goes by Ryan, said he took photographs of the victims and helped carry their bodies out of their homes as part of the cleanup crew sent in late in the afternoon on the day of the killings."
Murtha on Iraq: 'There's not only no progress, it's worse than it was prewar'
"[T]here’s not only no progress, it’s worse than it was prewar. this thing has been mishandled so badly. The American people needed to hear. we’re spending $450 billion on this war by the end of the year, $9 billion a month, and so we need to change course."
Armed groups propel Iraq toward chaos
"Such is the country that the new Iraqi leaders who took office Saturday are inheriting. The headlong, American-backed effort to arm tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and officers, coupled with a failure to curb a nearly equal number of militia gunmen, has created a galaxy of armed groups, each with its own loyalty and agenda, which are accelerating the country's slide into chaos."
Insurgents keep US at bay in Ramadi
"Whole neighborhoods are lawless, too dangerous for police. Some roads are so bomb-laden that U.S. troops won't use them. Guerrillas attack U.S. troops nearly every time they venture out -- and hit their bases with gunfire, rockets or mortars when they don't. "Though not powerful enough to overrun U.S. positions, insurgents here in the heart of the Sunni Muslim triangle have fought undermanned U.S. and Iraqi forces to a virtual stalemate."
War provoking terror, Amnesty says
"'The war on terror and the way it has unfolded actually is premised on the principle that by eroding human rights you can reinforce security,' Khan said. 'And that is why as part of the war on terror we see restrictions being placed on civil liberties around the world.'"
All wars, even "good" wars, promote terror; bad wars amplify it.
Amnesty compares Bush to Pinochet
"Amnesty International says President George Bush's tactics in his fight against terrorists have made the United States comparable to Augusto Pinochet's Chile and Hafez Assad's Syria in its acceptance of torture and disregard of legal restraints."
Certain victory keeps US in Iraq, says Bush
"President Bush said today that he would pull U.S. troops out of Iraq if he didn't think the United States could win the war against terrorism."
Evil moron.
Bush calls for Saddam execution
"'This is a disgusting tyrant who deserves... the ultimate justice,' he said in a US television interview."
Speaking of disgusting (and inept) tyrants who deserve to swing . . . .
Final curtain for Bush and Blair
"In one of its perhaps less elegant wordplays, the Economist magazine declared that the two now constituted as 'an axis of feeble.'"
Iraqi minister backs Iran on nuclear research
"Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari of Iraq today endorsed the right of Iran to pursue the 'technological and scientific capabilities' needed to create nuclear power for peaceful purposes, in the first high-level meeting between officials from the new Iraqi government and its eastern neighbor."
Wrong display of democracy.
Global Eye
"This savage ethos, forged in the dehumanizing crucible of total war, has prevailed against all the many attempts to change it. Even Ellsberg's discovery did little to return the Pentagon, and the nuclear arsenal, to civilian control. The 'whiz kid' McNamara, who by then had become Pentagon chief, demanded a more 'humane' attack strategy. But his call for greater precision in targeting required a whole new generation of deadlier, more sophisticated weapons. The Soviets, who had only four -- four! -- intercontinental missiles when Kennedy took office, felt pressured to respond in kind to the sudden U.S. buildup. This in turn fueled more 'countermeasures' by the Pentagon and its procurement partners. Far from easing tensions, the world moved even closer to nuclear conflagration."
This is a good one to read through. Floyd is commenting on a new book, House of War: The Pentagon and Disastrous rise of American power by James Carroll.
ElBaradei: "Nuclear feeds nuclear"
"'Nuclear feeds nuclear. As long as certain countries continue to insist on the indispensable character of nuclear weapons for their security, other countries will want to procure them. It is impossible to escape this simple truth,' declared the International Atomic Energy Agency's director general."
Hold on. You mean there is danger in allowing peace loving countries like the US, UK and Israel that are led by wise leaders like George W. Bush and Tony Blair to have nucular weapons? Stop the presses!
US sets up 215 million pound deal for Afghan arms - from Russia
"American defence officials have secretly requested a 'prodigious quantity' of ammunition from Russia to supply the Afghan army in case a Democrat president takes over in Washington and pulls out US troops."
It wasn't Putin's soul that Smirk "sensed"; it was ammo. Interestingly, the article says the deal involves 78 million rounds of AK-47 ammunition. So, if you take these bullets and combine them with the 200,000 missing AK-47s referenced in the article following, that's 390 rounds per weapon. Connecting the dots in the Bush Family Evil Empire, and one doesn't even have to tap a phone.
US in secret gun deal
"According to a report by Amnesty International, which investigated the sales, the US government arranged for the delivery of at least 200,000 Kalashnikov machine guns from Bosnia to Iraq in 2004-05. But though the weaponry was said to be for arming the fledgling Iraqi military, there is no evidence of the guns reaching their recipient."
A few weeks ago, I mentioned a line from the film, Lord of War, about the AK-47 being the true weapon of mass destruction. I was looking for data to get some idea of the projected death rate, on average, from one AK-47. A number probably exists somewhere, but I couldn't find it. However I did come across a chapter from a book that had this:
"Small arms, explosives and incendiaries are the weapons used in most terrorist acts. While the use of non-conventional weapons -- weapons of mass destruction -- must not be ignored, small arms, explosives and incendiaries have had a more significant impact so far, as recorded terrorist events in recent years demonstrate." Another source said that in third world countries an AK-47 can be purchased for around $6.00. Anyway, 200,000 AK-47s represent a lot of potential mayhem. And in another article I read that pre-2001 Afghanistan was already known as the "Kalashnikov Kulture." So much so that local gunsmiths can craft an AK-47 from memory.
Will your vote count in 2006? 'When you're using a paperless voting system, there is no security,' says Stanford's David Dill
"Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the voting booth, here comes more disturbing news about the trustworthiness of electronic touchscreen ballot machines. Earlier this month a report by Finnish security expert Harri Hursti analyzed Diebold voting machines for an organization called Black Box Voting. Hursti found unheralded vulnerabilities in the machines that are currently entrusted to faithfully record the votes of millions of Americans."
One man's constitutional crisis . . .
"Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives have achieved an almost unprecedented level of bipartisanship in denouncing the F.B.I.'s search of a congressman's office. They talk angrily about the separation of powers and the implications of having an executive branch agency make a foray into a lawmaker's official space. Our first question is where all these concerned constitutionalists have been for the last five years."
Gonzales said he would quit in raid dispute
"Mr. Gonzales was joined in raising the possibility of resignation by the deputy attorney general, Paul J. McNulty, the officials said. Mr. Gonzales and Mr. McNulty told associates that they had an obligation to protect evidence in a criminal case and would be unwilling to carry out any White House order to return the material to Congress."
Alberto Torquemada said, Separation of powers? I'm outta here!"
Zogby poll: Over 70 million American adults support new 9/11 investigation
"According to Janice Matthews, executive director of 911truth.org, 'To those who have followed the mounting evidence for US government involvement in 9/11, these results are both heartening and frankly quite amazing, given the mainstream media's ongoing refusal to cover the most critical questions of that day. Our August 2004 Zogby poll of New Yorkers showed nearly half believe certain US officials 'consciously' allowed the attacks to happen and 66% want a fresh investigation, but these were people closest to the tragedy and most familiar with facts refuting the official account. This revelation that so many millions nationwide now also recognize a 9/11 cover up and the need for a new inquiry should be a wake up call for all 2006 political candidates hoping to turn this country around. We think it also indicates Americans are awakening to the larger pattern of deceit that led us into Constitutional twilight and endless war, and that our independent media may have finally come of age.'"
View of a military expert: Why the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed
"Destruction of the towers by explosions is clear according to the photographs and reports of the eye witnesses. In the picture below, a range of cutting charges have just exploded in the down left sector and a typical white cloud is formed outwards from the wall. Down right, explosions are seen as well. Even a flame is seen."
Let's not forget the structural steel (forensic evidence) from the site was shipped to Asia for scrap while the wreckage was still smoldering.
Beyond Halliburton
"We’re talking about double-billing for hauling the same debris, hauling extra debris to boost reimbursements, overstating mileage—the same old tricks. As a neat touch, inspectors found that Army Corps of Engineers officials had an 'informal agreement' not to challenge bills that exceeded estimates by 50 percent.
"So why is this storyline so achingly familiar? Politically well-connected company gets massive no-bid contract to do re-construction work in New Orleans, Iraq, Afghanistan—wherever. Without any real accountability, said contractor runs up excessive costs for taxpayers. Sometimes the public gets upset; sometimes a wrist gets slapped. But in the end nothing changes."
Ouch! How 'money driven medicine,' abuse cost us $1.8 trillion
"Health-care costs ballooned to $1.8 trillion in 2005, or 16 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product last year, from about 7 percent in 1970. Soaring costs are a big reason why 48 million Americans have no health insurance and U.S. companies that subsidize their employees' health care have yet another disadvantage compared with overseas competitors."
The Al Capone of electricity: Ken Lay will get away with his real crimes by Greg Palast
"And just as Capone went up the river leaving us a permanent legacy of organized crime, so Lay, whether or not he's sent to the slammer, has left us, with the connivance of a few well-placed politicos, an electricity system that is little more than a playground for power-industry predators."
Bush's Enron Lies
"Bush’s defenders will probably reprise that storyline now that former Enron Chairman Lay and former Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling stand convicted of conspiracy and fraud in the plundering of the onetime energy-trading giant. But the reality is that the Bush-can’t-be-bought spin was never true.
"For instance, the documentary evidence is now clear that in summer 2001 – at the same time Bush’s National Security Council was ignoring warnings about an impending al-Qaeda terrorist attack – NSC adviser Condoleezza Rice was personally overseeing a government-wide task force to pressure India to give Enron as much as $2.3 billion."
Global warming predictions are underestimated say scientists
"British efforts to combat climate change have focused on preventing carbon dioxide levels rising above 450 parts per million, equivalent to a rise of 2C. If the world warms by more than this, many climate experts believe fragile ecosystems will be pushed beyond their "tipping point", triggering runaway global warming."
The human ecological footprint
"In 1972 there was still time to achieve a major course correction in the human journey. That opportunity is no longer available. Several studies confirm that the human ecological footprint now exceeds the regenerative carrying capacity of the planet, and our civilization is rapidly approaching a discontinuity unprecedented in history(6)."
In 1972 I read Limits to Growth published by the Club of Rome and was fascinated by the study. It's no surprise now that people in the US are scavenging for copper, stealing it from construction sites and power lines. It's going to get very ugly, I'm afraid.
Bush snubs Gore film on global warming
"Is President Bush likely to see Al Gore's documentary about global warming? "'Doubt it,' Bush said coolly Monday."
Unlike the ostrich, Bush has his head up his ass.
GOA report faults voluntary programs to cut air pollution: Study says administration had not ensured that firms set, meet goals
"The Bush administration's voluntary programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by industry have yet to deliver promised results, according to a report issued yesterday by the Government Accountability Office."
This reminds me of the old joke about using the honor system in schools to prevent cheating. The schools have the honor; the students have the system.
Collapse of the petrodollar looming
"The announcement by President Putin of a Russian bourse trading oil and gas in Roubles threatens the stability of the US Dollar far more than Iran's bourse alone would do, and continues the slide in relations between the old Cold War foes."In his annual State of the Nation address to both houses of parliament on 10 May 2006, Novosti reports President Putin said that work on making the Rouble an internationally convertible currency would be completed by 1 July 2006, six months ahead of schedule. To promote the currency, he announced that an oil and gas stock exchange will be created in Russia, that would trade in Roubles."
OECD warns rebalancing of US deficit may drive dollar down sharply
"The OECD has warned that the eventual rebalancing of the US current account gap 'looks increasingly unavoidable' and will send shock waves across the globe, starting with a slump in the dollar's exchange rate. "The OECD said in its world economic outlook that the depreciation faced by the dollar could be 'of the order of one-third to one-half.'"
Whoa, Nelly!
Quotes from www.bartcop.com:
"It should have been very obvious to us." -- Tony Blair, on the insurgency in Iraq, Link
"Despite setbacks and missteps, I strongly believe we did and are doing the right thing." -- Dubya, who has no problem with sacrificing 2500 lives for a lost cause, Link
"Most of the criticism...has centered not so much on Bush's blustery language as the underlying message. Bush was talking tough when other people's lives were at stake, not his. Many members of the military saw it as a taunt that invited more attacks on U.S. soldiers. And most significantly, Bush was completely underestimating what was still ahead: Well over 2,000 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq since then, with no end in sight. There was no regret for his fundamental misunderstanding of the costs to come." -- Dan Froomkin, Link
"When FBI agents reach into a congressman's home freezer and pull out $90,000 in foil-wrapped bills, it is time for him to resign. When the Justice Department announces that the same congressman is on videotape taking a $100,000 bribe in a Virginia hotel garage, his resignation is overdue. -- Joe Conason, taking about Rep Jefferson's bribe problems Link
"Before entering heaven, (please) George W. Bush must spend a few years in a special purgatory where all inmates are required to watch Baghdad ER non-stop." -- former Senator Gary Hart, Link
"There may come a time when I speak on that but it’s not now; I need more time to frame it carefully if I do. In our system, there’s no intermediate step between a definitive Supreme Court decision and violent revolution." -- Al Gore, saying six years isn't enough time to decide if his election was stolen, Link
"I understand the reporters have a job to do. I talk to them every day. I don't like what they write, but they don't like what I say." -- Murder Monkey, Link But Monkey, that's not true - they don't write what you say. They write what Karl Rove tells them you intended to say.
"A Louisiana state Senate committee unanimously approved a ban on cock fighting, in what appears to be a first step in outlawing gay marriage" -- Amy Poehler, SNL season ender
"George W. Bush is the worst president of our lifetime, and absolutely worse than Watergate-tainted Nixon." -- John Edwards to Judas Maximus Link
"The audio version of Colbert screwing Bush rose to No. 1 at iTunes three weeks to the night of the White House Correspondents Dinner." -- Noam Cohen, Link
"Many myths surround Hoffa's disappearance. Some say he is buried in the end zone of Giants' stadium. Some say he was dumped in Lake Michigan. Some think he is alive and in New Hampshire having an affair with a volunteer fireman that he calls 'Johnnycakes.' So 31 years later, they're s till looking for Jimmy Hoffa. That means they'll find Osama bin Laden in 2037." -- Jon Stewart
"The Republican Party has been reduced to one principle – its own power. It protects the Bush regime from accountability and covers up its lies and misdeeds. Under the myths and lies that enshroud 9/11, the Democrats have collapsed as an opposition party." -- Paul Craig Roberts, Link
"You have no civil liberties if you are dead." --Sen. Pat Roberts, explaining why Americans have lost their civil liberties under Bush Link
"I think Iraq is finished. We’ll just find a way to get out. I frankly don’t think we ever intended to win there. We certainly didn’t send enough troops to close borders, to control the country." --Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA's bin Laden unit, Link The BFEE [Bush Family Evil Empire] can't make any money with order - they need chaos. If we won the war and controlled the country, reporters could see that the primary job of our troops is to get Bush's 2M barrels a day safely to Kuwait.
"Hayden's involvement in the NSA's domestic spying program disqualifies him from heading the CIA. His answers to questions from Congress and the press have been evasive at best and downright false at worst." --Howard Dean, telling the truth again. Will the democrats scold him for that? Link
"Because we're at war and war unsettles people." -- Monkey, when asked why his approval rating is lower than Nixon's before he resigned, Link
"Yes, especially those wars of choice premised on fabrications and cherry-picked information. Yeah, you got that right, that's unsettling." -- AngryMexicano, Link
"Part of my charm is that I always tell people things they don't want to hear." -- Antonin 'Three Fingers' Scalia, Link Tony, you mean like that time when you told the lady reporter to go [screw] herself at church?
posted by Jerry | 9:37 PM
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