Blog Cabin: Crazy New Order Archives

November 05, 2008

The Second Gilded Age is OVER!!

I told my history students last year that in my opinion we had been in a second Gilded Age for the past 30 years and that we might be poised to enter a second Progressive Era.

Laissez Faire is, for now, swirling down the toilet, being sucked down by the economy. Some held up John McCain as a latter-day Theodore Roosevelt. Perhaps. We will never know. What we may in fact have is a latter-day Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But comparisons have their limits. Regardless, extremist free-market principles shall fade away for some time.

Let's roll!

Posted by MJuhre at 01:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 09, 2006

Yeah Baby

I chose not to hold my breath before, during, or even after the elections. I find it almost as hard to believe that the Dems have total control of Congress as I do that, once in awhile still, George W. Bush is president. But now that George Allen has conceded, all I can say is "macaca ha ha."

The GOP hubris bubble has burst and its time for them to wipe those smiles off their faces, eat some humble pie...and start shredding documents faster than Kenneth Lay.

Posted by MJuhre at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)

Rumsfeld's Replacement's Connection to Electronic Voting Issue?

[Still no time for blogging myself, but forwarding of potentially useful info? Yes, on occasion. No idea how important it is that this former DCI who will become Sec. of Defense has ties to Bob Ney and the shadowy world of HAVA and black-box voting, but worth a look... ]

FORWARDED BY BLACKBOXVOTING.ORG

Rumsfield replacement (Robert Gates) was director of voting company
by Bev Harris

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfield will resign, reportedly to be replaced by former CIA director Robert Gates.

Gates was on the board of directors of VoteHere, a strange little company that was the biggest elections industry lobbyist for the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). VoteHere spent more money than ES&S, Diebold, and Sequoia combined to help ram HAVA through. And HAVA, of course, was a bill sponsored by by convicted Abramoff pal Bob Ney and K-street lobbyist buddy Steny Hoyer. HAVA put electronic voting on steroids.

You can find copies of the VoteHere lobbying forms here: http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/m_opr_viewer.exe?DoFn=0

I can't get them to save to pdf, perhaps you can. Enter search terms in both "registrant" and "client" fields and put in terms "Rhoads" "Livingston" and "Votehere" (one at a time.). Then look at the gravy train while it was in the process of derailing American democracy.

I first became acquainted with VoteHere when I met a source, Dan Spillane, who is the wonderful guy that identified the Diebold source code modules for me after I found the Diebold files. He is the person who introduced me, and subsequently everyone else, to the odd role of The Election Center and R. Doug Lewis in the elections industry.

Spillane also filled me in on The Livingston Group, VoteHere lobbyists, run by Bob Livingston -- the fellow that Hustler publisher Larry Flynt outed during the Bill Clinton blow job days. Larry Flynt offered a million dollars to anyone who could locate a Republican congressman committing adultery, and out popped peccadilloes by Livingston.

Livingston couldn't live that one down, so he resigned his post as House Speaker-Elect and became a lobbyist -- but that's not all! He also launched a group called "Center for Democracy" which was going to "monitor elections." This group also featured several good old boys from the tobacco industry and some mining companies.

Former VoteHere test engineer Dan Spillane was looking into all this because he had been fired after he questioned the certification process on a touch-screen system in which he had identified 250 flaws. It was way back in November 2002 that Spillane told me, "The voting machine industry is a house of cards. And the certification and testing process is the bottom card in the house of cards."

BUT DON'T RUN OUT OF THE ROOM TO TAKE A SHOWER YET. There's more.

VoteHere was a company shilling cryptographic solutions and filled with NSA types (another director was Admiral Bill Owens, another crony of Rummy, Perle and Wolfowitz). For some reason this company claims it was unable to prevent itself from being hacked. In this alleged hack, VoteHere claims that someone stole their source code. Said source code was offered to me in October 2003, an obvious attempt at entrapment which I refused.

Nevertheless, VoteHere claimed to the media that its master security experts had supposedly "tracked" the hacker and had identified the hacker as an activist in the election reform community.

For some reason, it was decided that I should be investigated in connection with this "hack" of VoteHere -- nevermind that I can't remember how to change the password on my own laptop. Therefore I was interviewed by the Secret Service several times about this. Curiously, they never seemed to ask any questions about VoteHere, only my role in finding the Diebold files and publishing the Diebold memos.

This nonsense eventually culminated in a gag order and a letter from the U.S. Attorney to appear in front of a federal grand jury with information on all the visitors to the Black Box Voting Web site. (As if they couldn't get that in less dramatic ways in post-Patriot Act America). Attorney Lowell Finley (now with http://www.VoterAction.org ) went to bat for me on this. A reporter named George Howland from the Seattle Weekly also got wind of it. When it hit the press, and with Lowell Finley's help, their harassment of me stopped.

VoteHere never sold any voting machines that I can find, but apparently did set up some deals to embed its cryptography into some voting systems. We found memos in the Diebold trash about VoteHere's crypto-crap, and Maryland Director of Elections Linda Lamone shows up in VoteHere-related letters. Sequoia Voting Systems signed an agreement with VoteHere, but its not clear to me whether they ever did anything about it.

Robert Gates stepped away from VoteHere shortly before he showed up in Chapter 8 of my book, Black Box Voting, in a short bit about the VoteHere company history. You can read that here: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

I don't know about you, but I'd rather use a paper, pencil, and count by hand at the polling place than have former CIA director Robert Gates fooling around with my vote.

But that's just me.

-- Bev Harris
Founder, Black Box Voting

P.S. Since the HBO special, I have plenty of moral support, but even after the Secret Service interviews and all the rest of the nonsense my husband and I have had to put up with, there are others who have had it rougher.

I'd like you to take a moment to visit this Web site -- not affiliated with Black Box Voting -- to meet one of the heroic citizens in this movement who has faced the most brutal retaliation of all:
Stephen Heller. If you saw the HBO film "Hacking Democracy" you may remember a scene where I am chastising Diebold for lying about correcting problems with its product. I refer to "Release Notes." Those notes came from a source. Stephen Heller is being threatened with up to five years in prison for allegedly leaking me those documents. Kevin Shelley then decertified Diebold, and recommended criminal prosecution of Diebold. Diebold was never prosecuted, but Stephen Heller is being prosecuted RIGHT NOW. I hope you will donate to his defense. If not for citizens like him, where would your vote be now?

To contribute to Stephen Heller's defense fund:
http://www.hellerlegaldefensefund.com/

* * * * *

Black Box Voting is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501c(3) elections watchdog group supported entirely by citizen donations. We refuse funds from any vendor or vested interest.

To support Black Box Voting: click to http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html or send to:
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98055

Posted by MJuhre at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2006

Turkey, Iran Team up to Attack the "Other" Iraq

As if there weren't enough going on in the Middle East already, the other, other, other war in the region may be heating up.

Who knew?

The Northern, Kurdish-controlled section Iraq, a region so relatively stable that it bills itself to tourists as "The Other Iraq", has been bombed by Turkey and Iran for at least four days without so much as a peep from the American press.

"Scores of Kurds have fled their homes in the northern frontier region after four days of shelling by the Iranian army. Local officials said Turkey had also fired a number of shells into Iraqi territory," writes the the UK's Guardian newspaper today.

Turkey, ostensibly United States's greatest ally in the Middle East, and Iran, ostensibly the United States's greatest enemy, have teamed up to shell the country that the United States is ostensibly trying to build and stabilize. Of more concern is that Turkey and Iran appear poised to cross the Iraqi border to attack the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) , according to reports filed by the Turkish Daily News.

"Citing a statement released on the official Web site of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the [private Doğan News Agency (DHA)] agency said that Turkish and Iranian artillery units have been firing on the mountainous area since Saturday. The statement said the Turkish and Iranian units have been firing simultaneously, alleging that both Turkish and Iranian troops might cross the Iraqi border -- an apparent reference to a cross-border operation on the PKK camps."

In an unrelated(?) event, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Hilmi Güler and Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh, met in Ankara Tuesday to discuss expanding natural gas exports and other energy contracts. (See The New Anatolian)

Posted by MJuhre at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)

August 16, 2006

Bill Clinton Bitch-slaps Lieberman, As Key Republicans Cozy Up

After supporting Joe Lieberman (though not very visibly) in the Connecticut Democratic senatorial primary, Bill Clinton gave JoeMentum a good bitch slapping on ABC's Good Morning America yesterday, saying he is in League with Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.

Trancript:

JAKE TAPPER (ABC): Joe Lieberman said that this was basically liberals in the party purging moderates such as him and you out of the party, and that there needs to be a voice for more moderate national security voices.

CLINTON: Well, if I were Joe and I were running as an independent that’s what I’d say, too. But that’s not quite right. That is, there were almost no Democrats who agreed with his position, which was I want to attack Iraq whether or not they have weapons of mass destruction. And his position was the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld position.

Watch the video at Think Progress. (If link goes dead, hear an archived audio clip (sourced from the Rachel Maddow Show).

Bill must have felt some pleasure letting Lieberman hang out to dry. In the six years since Bush's black ops team kept him from the Vice President's office, Lieberman has not once criticized the Bush administration for its deceptions that led to the Iraq War, but back in 1998, he chastised Clinton, saying he was immoral and abused his office. Back then, Lieberman took Clinton to task over the Monica Lewinsky scandal, saying "such behavior is not just inappropriate. It is immoral."

With a wink to Lieberman, Bush and RNC Chair refuse to endorse GOP candidate.

Clinton's cold shoulder to Lieberman comes as Republicans warm up to the senator by refusing to support the Republican challenger.

This week, White House Tony Snow tripped over himself attempting to explain why Bush is not endorsing the Republican Connecticut senatorial candidate, Alan Schlesinger, leading some to speculate that Lieberman might actually make a switch to the Republican party. (Audio clip sourced from the Rachel Maddow Show.

Last week on Chris Matthews's "Hardball" (MSNBC), Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mellman also refused to endorse the GOP candidate. (Audio clip sourced from the Rachel Maddow Show.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2006

Surprise Suprise -- NYC’s only GOP Congressman is as Corrupt as the Rest

Vito Fossella Rep. (R- Bay Ridge and Staten Island) may picture himself as a kindly friend of children and Muppets.

But in reality, Fossello increasingly resembles so many of his Republican Congressional peers as multiple corruption scandals gain steam.

Yesterday, the Daily News reported Fossello changed his story regarding accusations he violated House rules by using more than $160,000 in taxpayer money for his reelection campaign. The "Muppetgate" allegations center around Fossella's using pictures of himself sitting with Sesame Street’s Elmo in conjunction with a direct-mail campaign promotion.

If misusing taxpayer money for a political campaign isn’t bad enough, The Brooklyn Papers recently reported that Fossella misused more than $52,000 of his campaign money for pleasure trips to Las Vegas and a skiing trip to Colorado, took $16,000 in gifts from political consultants and corporate sponsors for “fact-finding missions” to such places as the Turnberry Isle Resort in Florida.

One such political consultant, the now disgraced Jack Abramoff, hosted a $1000 per-ticket fundraiser for Fossella.

Democratic candidate Stephen Harrison hopes this fall to unseat Fossella, who thus far has refused to debate the challenger. I don’t know much about Harrison, but here’s hoping he is part of a 2006 Democratic Revolution that takes back the House and leaves New York City with 100% Democratic Congressional representation.

(Additional links to the above stories and more can be found at Harrison’s website).

Warrior Souls

I debated momentarily on whether to categorize this nod to Gawker.com as a "Light Hearted Crap" or "Crazy New Order" post. Its connotations a la The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire led me to choose the latter.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2006

Lieberman's Phone Call From the 'Architect' of Bush's 2004 Reelection

Yesterday, I began a post with "If Connecticut voters needed any more evidence that Joe Lieberman is not a 'true Democrat'..." Well, we didn't need more but we got it anyway.

Reuters reports that Chief GOP strategist Karl Rove (I know that's not his title anymore, but let's get real) called Lieberman on election day to "wish him well," though he denied offering Lieberman help from the White House.

Yesterday, ABC News's George Stephanopoulos wrote on his blog that source told him Rove called Lieberman and said "The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do."

----------------------------------
On the lighter side, Liebermania knows where it's at.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

Cheap Lieberman Website Not Hacked

Joe Lieberman’s accusation that Lamont supporters "hacked his site" may have been more than just a disingenuous, if ill-fated ploy to garner last-minute voter sympathy.

While no evidence has been produced to support the accusation, which still appears on Lieberman’s site as of today, Joe Lieberman might really believe his site fell victim to a vicious denial-of-service (DoS) attack.

But only because he doesn’t know anything about managing a website, bandwidth limitations or, for that matter, the difference between bloggers and hackers (the latter of whom, of course, should really be referred to as crackers -- and I ain’t talking about Pat Robertson -- but I digress ).

Investigators of the story point to evidence suggesting that the number of Internet requests to Joe2006.com simply exceeded the bandwidth allotted to the site, which was hosted on a $14.95/mo account at “myhostcamp.com.”

I suspect Joe and some members of his team have also made a fallacious mental connection between the buzz over their campaign being "blogged down" and activities performed by black hat hackers.

See: "Lieberman's 'hack' was no such thing"
"Joe Lieberman Website May Not Have Been Hacked - Report"

Posted by MJuhre at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2006

Shia Leaders Propose Dismantling of Iraq

Civil war? What civil war?

The Bush administration’s blind insistence that Iraq will not erupt in civil war received two major blows this week.

A political bloc of Shia Muslim leaders say that a plan to secede from the new Iraqi government and divide the country along religious lines is the only way to avert sustained sectarian violence. See article in the Los Angeles Times.

Meanwhile, on August 7, General George Casey admitted to ABC news that Iraq is poised for civil war, saying “A countrywide, a threat of a countrywide civil war, I think that, I would say, that probably is the most significant threat right now.”

Posted by MJuhre at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)

Joe Lieberman Needs to Step Aside

If Connecticut voters needed any more evidence that Joe Lieberman is not a "true Democrat," as many have exclaimed, or, at the very least, is not loyal to his party or his constituents, they got it when JoeMentum confirmed last night that he would run as an "Independent Democrat," against Ned Lamont and the Republican nominee to hold onto his Senate seat.

"For the sake of our state, our country, and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand," said Lieberman about his failed primary bid (emphasis mine).

Conventional wisdom says that Lieberman's move will split the Democratic vote and ensure a Republican victory. While the November election could prove the exception to the rule (since many Connecticut Republicans support Lieberman and, so far, the likely GOP nominee for the seat, Alan Schlesinger, isn't gathering much steam), Lieberman's willingness to risk a GOP victory in Connecticut and retention of the Senate in 2006 just proves that he cares more about himself than his party or his constituents.

Lieberman is calling himself an "Independent Democrat." There is no such thing.

Sadly, the political reality on the ground in the modern United States is that a candidate either represents a party or is an "Independent." Lieberman's "Independent Democrat" nomenclature is window dressing for the kicking and screaming child within.

Add this childishness to Lieberman's decision to support Bush's Iraq policy and you get what Lieberman himself ironically dubbed "JoeMentum" -- a downward spiral to political loss.

Many politicians cross party lines on an issue here and there, and are not tarred and feathered for it. Much has been made of Lieberman's unwavering support for Bush's Iraq policy and it is true that his support for a policy that is acutely unpopular with Democrats and, increasingly, with voters of all parties was, in the end, beyond the bounds of political safety.

But his real death knell, of course, came from the venom Dems felt over Joe Lieberman's complacent willingness to offer a reacharound to the same man who, in 2000, unapologetically reamed him out of his just claim to the vice presidency.

There's the rub. To many Democrats, Lieberman simply looks like a lapdog to the GOP. To appear as Bush's little Dem bitch in a time when the GOP's lockstep unity has marginalized anyone left of Dick Cheney, is unacceptable. The majority of Connecticut Democrats last night made it clear that they want their party and their representative to face the GOP head on, not prone. That the newcomer Ned Lamont better reflects their ideals, values, and interests than does Joe Lieberman.

But Lieberman just doesn't care. He is thinking not of his constituents, but of himself. He just wants to keep his Senate seat, probably to foster his delusion that one day he can still win the presidency, or at least the vice presidency.

Joe, if you want to prove to your accusers that they're wrong -- take one for the team. Bow out gracefully, go out with some dignity and complete your corrupt bargain with Bush to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.

Posted by MJuhre at 09:46 AM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2006

Goodbye US Bill of Rights -- Hello Sinclair Lewis

It can't happen here. "Or can it?" wondered writer Sinclair Lewis in 1935.

A Bush administration plan for special military courts would give Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld the power to make ANY crime committed by a US citizen fall under military jurisdiction.

Goodbye Amendments 5 and 6 to the US Constitution, which of course are two of the ten Amendments we call the Bill of Rights.

See the Washington Post article, "White House Proposal Would Expand Authority of Military Courts."

------------------------
Amendment 5

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment 6

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)

July 27, 2006

The War on Science: Researcher Tells Right Wing to Stop Misusing Study

"I would like to remove my name from the list of scientists who dispute global warming," writes Peter Doran in today's New York Times. The associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago has an Op Ed piece telling right-wing, anti-science nuts to stop misusing his research and is name to support their incorrect assertion that the evidence of global warming is "bad science."

Doran's words are a welcome defensive salvo against the War on Science.

---- [excerpts] ----

"...[M]any news and opinion writers linked our study with another bit of polar research published that month... and erroneously concluded that the earth was not warming at all. 'Scientific findings run counter to theory of global warming,' said a headline on an editorial in The San Diego Union-Tribune...

...Our results have been misused as 'evidence' against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novel 'State of Fear' and by Ann Coulter in her latest book, 'Godless: The Church of Liberalism.' ...One recent Web column even put words in my mouth. I have never said that 'the unexpected colder climate in Antarctica may possibly be signaling a lessening of the current global warming cycle.' I have never thought such a thing either."

---- [end excerpt] ----

I have but one criticism. Doran waits until paragraph four to get to the point -- that his studies DO NOT refute global warming -- and instead opens with the background of his research. Personally, I would have led with the “stop misusing my research” angle and then given the background on the facts, if only because many readers skimming the paper might never make it to paragraph four before moving on and might come away with some vague notion about Antarctica being “warmer or cooler than it used to be” or something. But kudos, nonetheless.

Posted by MJuhre at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2006

Charles Barkley: “I Was a Republican Until They Lost Their Minds”

Does Barkley's rejection of the GOP suggest an overall turn of the tide in America? We can only hope.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

July 06, 2006

I Want To See Ken Lay's Dead Body

It's been awhile -- I know. I've been off getting married and what not.

Y'know, for once I actually agree with the New York Post. Ken Lay surely had life insurance and, in this day and age, I don't know if I can believe he's dead until I see someone parades the photos of his body to the world, a la Abu Musab Al Zarqawi or Uday and Qusay Hussein.

"Lay’s death may save his family from ruin" - Financial Express

Posted by MJuhre at 05:21 PM | Comments (0)

June 08, 2006

Army Officer Calls Iraq War "Illegal" -- Refuses to Go

First Lieutenant Ehren Watada of Hawaii, described by the Honolulu Star Bulletin as a patriotic Eagle Scout who had hoped to make the Army his career, has become the first commissioned officer to refuse to fight in Iraq.

Watada said it was his duty not to serve in the Iraq war, calling it "morally wrong" and "illegal" (listen).

Watada, who is stationed at Fort Louis in Washington state, said that Bush administration claims over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction were exaggerated "to fit a policy that was already implemented prior to 9-11." He also called the "mistreatment of the Iraqi people a contradiction to the Army's own Law of Land Warfare."

Watada does not claim to be a Conscientious Objector. He does not oppose all war, but said he would be willing to serve in Afghanistan or elsewhere.

"I wanted to be there for my fellow troops," he said, "but the best way was not to drop artillery and cause more death and destruction; it is to help oppose this war and end it so that all soldiers can come home."

Watada faces a possible Court Martial for desertion or missing troop movement.

Story links:

Newspapers:
Seattle Times

Honolulu Star Bulletin

Wires:
Associated Press

Al Jazeera

Blogs:

Seattlest

News Hounds (they watch FOX, so you don't have to!)

Posted by MJuhre at 02:38 PM | Comments (0)

Zarqawi Killed But Insurgent Bombings Continue

In case you only know the news that Zarqawi was killed...

CNN

Posted by MJuhre at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2006

666

June 6, 2006. George Bush knows what time it is! It may just be that he is the anti-Christ.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2006

Bush Eliminates the SEC Disclosure Rules

Bush signed an "official memorandum" giving John Negroponte, who oversee the CIA and the NSA, the authority to waive SEC-required financial disclosures for companies that are working on secret projects for the government, Business Week reported Wednesday.

Now, I understand why the Bush administration wouldn't want its secret projects to become public via SEC filings, but um, generally a financial line item on an income statement does not disclose national security. What is concerning is, on the surface, this gives Negroponte (who, under Reagan, was heavily involved in America's covert and illegal war in Nicaragua) and by proxy (the financially savvy must forgive the pun), the Bush administration, the ability to authorize any company to withhold elements of its financials -- all they have to do is say that those items must remain secret for national security purposes. Can someone say Halliburton, for starters?

But this "official memorandum" baffles me. Forgive my lack of understanding of American civics, but what is this verses an "Executive Order" and what kind of power does it have? Is there any check against this administration.

Add this memo to the more than 750 Presidential signing statements Bush has tacked onto the laws passed by Congress (these statments basically say "I sign this law but am not bound to follow it") and you really have no Republic left. The American Empire has officially begun and has unofficially begun to fall.

I usually don't like simplistic visual parodies like this but these days we have no need for complex metaphors. It's finally most useful to aim low:

Posted by MJuhre at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2006

US Supplies 200,000 AK-47s to Terrorists

Approximately 200,000 AK-47 assault rifles that the US shipped to Iraqi security forces have disappeared and may have been smuggled to terrorists, The Daily Mirror has reported.

The four planeloads of weapons, which were to be secretly flown out from a US base in Bosnia, have vanished. Though the weapons were supplied by the US Department of Defense, the delivery "was contracted out via a complex web of private arms traders."

It just goes to show that private contractors really are more efficient than government beauracracies. In this case, it seems those contractors got paid by the US, and sold the weapons off on the side, perhaps to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi "Al Qaeda in Iraq" group. Where can we buy stock in these contractors? An entity that knows how to double or triple the value of its own deals is an organization I want a piece of!

Posted by MJuhre at 04:12 PM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2006

Fascism Finally Goes Mainstream

Okay, I'm not sure the headline for this blog post really works, but it's what popped into my head.

But this is very interesting to me. The fact that the NSA is trying "to create a database of every call ever made" in the United States doesn't really surprise me.

But who would guess that USA Today, the McDonald's of newspapers *, would have the scoop that the Bush adminstration has continually lied about its domestic spying program, let alone actually run the story?

Check it out here.

*[Anyone who thinks "the McDonald's of newspapers" is harsh or out of line should have seen the newspaper's "Mass Appeal" ad campaign, in which the news outlet compared itself to a hamburger...No I'm not kidding. USA Today! NSA Tomorrow! ... Okay that's just more nonsense]

Posted by MJuhre at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2006

Culture Freak Projected Terrorist Threat Calendar

It's starting! I made the above DHS threat-level prediction calendar on April 20, knowing it was only a matter of time before something would trigger me to post it.

Well, yesterday the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning about terrorist surveillance of mass transit systems (aha, that's why there were so many cops around Penn Station yesterday -- I knew something was up!).

Why? Because people were arrested in Europe taking pictures at subway stations ... seven months ago.

The White House spin machine is gearing up for election year with a dirty-tricks rehearsal. Luckily, I don't think there is much that can keep their poll numbers from spinning out of its continual downward spiral. Oh. That is, unless someone in the administration gets the idea to nuke Los Angeles and blame Iran for it. Something like that doesn't altogether out of the question. (I'm glad the Houston Chronicle had the notion place the DHS warning under its "Political News" category (see image below), since clearly it is nothing more than political posturing.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke told the Associated Press Wednesday there was no specific or credible intelligence to indicate U.S. transit systems are being targeted, and he described the notice, sent Tuesday, as a routine reminder for transit authority operators, state security advisers and police to remain on guard.

Uh huh. Ya know what else happened yesterday? The United States lost its death penalty case against 9/11 plotter Zacharias Moussaoui. Moussaoui, the only person to be charged in connection with 9/11, received a life sentence instead.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:01 PM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2006

Bush Administration Plame Game Undermined Iran Intelligence

Yesterday on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Washington correspondent David Shuster confirmed rumors that Valerie Plame had been working on Iran nuclear proliferation intelligence before she was outed by the Bushies, and that there are now hints of a future Rove indictment.

See the video here at The Center for American Progress.

Posted by MJuhre at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)

Colbert Coup Leaves Press Corps Cold

If you somehow missed Stephen Colbert tearing the ass out of George Bush and the press corps at this year's annual White House [Radio and Television] Correspondents Dinner, go to ThankYouStephenColbert.org to see Colbert's address in three parts (if you're pressed for time -- watch part 2).

The same group that, two years ago, laughed with George Bush at his outrageous joke ("Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere!"), now laughed at Bush as Colbert lampooned the president and his administration.

But when Colbert turned his jokes on the journalists themselves, their reaction was more muted. While you could always some laughter after each joke, much of Colbert's "praise" for the journalists didn't sit well.

"Over the last five years you people were so good over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, [and] the effects of global warming -- we Americans didn’t want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out."

The press is still trying to figure out how to cover a roast that focused on them.

The Washington Post wrote that Bush and company were none amused by the Colbert's satirical, truth-to-power speech. It also said that Colbert "made no friends in the crowd when he advised them to remember the rules of covering the White House: 'The president makes decisions . . . the press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions.' In your spare time, he advised them, 'write that novel you got kicking around in your head -- you know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know -- fiction.'"

Posted by MJuhre at 12:12 PM | Comments (0)

April 27, 2006

New Film Focuses on Homeless Iraq War Vets

This is a theatrical trailer for "When I Came Home," an independent film about homeless Iraq War veterans
(there are now more than 500, according to the film maker). At least one of the men the filmmaker interviewed has since committed suicide.

I'm posting it just because I think it is an important issue that needs as much publicity as it can get.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2006

Snow Job

It's official.

Tony Snow, the journalist-turned-speechwriter and media affairs specialist for George Bush I, turned-Fox News personality, has turned his back on journalism once again, in order to face the White House press corp.

OK, that paragraph was a bit much. But it's the kind of crap that some editors I've worked for love. But anyway.

According to his Fox News bio, Snow has a more eclectic professional and personal background than one might imagine. He plays several musical instruments and is also an advocate for the mentally ill (which, I have to admit, is not typical of Republicans -- I'm guessing he has a personal connection to someone with a mental illness? That's usually the only thing that will make Republican's budge on social issues. But, I really don't know.)

A friend questioned whether this is the first time a broadcast journalist has been chosen as White House spokesman. I don't know the answer but will be seeking one.

I must say that this is the first time I've heard of someone going full circle twice: from hack to flack, back to hack, and then back flack again. And, of course, in a few years he'll probably be back at FOX as a pundit.

Good night and good luck.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2006

Axis of Execution

The United States ranks fourth in the world in state-sponsored executions, following China, Iran, Saudi, according to a report released by Amnesy International.

(See Reuters article).

Posted by MJuhre at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2006

Today's Needless 'Cartoon'

Actually, last week's... but time is short these days.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2006

Former Asst. Attorney General Chastises Washington Post's Coverage of Bush Leak

Duke Law Professor and former Assistant U.S. Attorney General Walter Dellinger wrote a scathing rebuke to an April 9 Washington Post editorial entitled "A Good Leak," which defended George Bush's 'declassification' (leak) of portions of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq, that bolstered the President's desire to attack that country.

"We don't know exactly what happened in this instance, and we don't know to what extent previous administrations engaged in similar behavior, but we should know this: No anonymous, one-sided release of misleadingly selective parts of a report deserves the accolade "A Good Leak."

Posted by MJuhre at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2006

Berating Bush

A North Carolina real estate broker criticized President Bush at a town-hall meeting at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte yesterday.

“While I hear you talk about freedom. I see you assert your right to tap my telephone. To arrest me and hold me without charges,” said Taylor.

To this, Bush simply responded, “yeah” and, a few seconds later, proceeded to interrupt Taylor with a joke to get laughs and claps from the crowd. He did let Taylor finish, however, and even told those booing Taylor to be quiet and let him speak.

Taylor when on to say “I have never felt more ashamed of nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington....I feel like, despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope, from time to time, that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself, inside yourself.”

To this Bush responded “would I apologize for that? The answer is absolutely not.”

Of course, none of this should be altogether surprising. But it is interesting that Bush doesn’t even need to feign humility. He can basically just say, “yeah I’ll tap your phone, bitch. Whatchoo gonna do?” and receive rounds of gleeful applause.

See the video here in WMV format or, if you can't view that format, go to BradBlog.com for a Flash version.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2006

Hammer Falls - Tom Delay to Resign Amid Scandal

Posted by MJuhre at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2006

Jack Abramoff's White Supremacist Ties

It just gets weirder. Yet, sadly, when I reflect on life in the 1980s, it all makes so much sense.

Back when he was a Hollywood producer, GOP slime lobbyist Jack Abramoff did all he could to to keep his films clean. An observant Orthodox Jew, Jack tried to insert good old American values into his final product.

For example, When he made the Reagan-era, anti-commie classic "Red Scorpion" starring Dolf Lundgren, Jack insisted that "obscenity and profanity" be barred from the screen.

Unfortunately for Jack's traditional values, "fuck-you-asshole" style dialogue was an accepted, and expected element of trashy 80s action flicks. The pressures of Abramoff's own beloved, free-market capitalism eventually forced him to cave.

Corporate obscenity and profanity prevailed, and in more ways than one.

Filmed in South Africa occupied Namibia, Red Scorpion spouted not only an an anti-Soviet message, but equated the Nelson Mandela's African National Congress and other members of the anti-Apartheid movement with a Russian plot against the good ... eh ... white-supremacist government of South Africa.

In fact, according to former South African spy Craig Williamson, Red Scorpion was funded by the South African military as part of an intelligence project designed to sway world opinion against the anti-apartheid movement. Abramoff, it turns out, was the South African government's right-hand man in Washington.

So let's recap quickly shall we? Jack Abramoff, the founder of the Committee for Traditional Jewish Values in Entertainment, worked for Nazis. This must be those shameful Hollywood values that the right wing always decries.

Read more in the Raw Story and the Mail and Guardian.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2006

White House Fraudster Allen's Existence Erased

The Bush administration has vaporized Claude A. Allen. Usually I'm reluctant to invoke Orwell analogies for fear of sounding cliche.

Lucky for me, the Bush administration occasionally provides the mandate to do so.

Until sometime very recently, the biography of disgraced Bush policy adviser Claude Allen’s could be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/results/leadership/bio_10.html. Today, visiting that link results in a 404 (“no file found”) error page. Funny, administration bios 9 and 11 are online, but as far as can be determined now from the White House’s Web site, Claude Allen might never have worked there.

Fine.

One could easily make the argument that, since Allen abruptly left his $161,000 position as domestic policy adviser to President Bush in February, one month after being charged with defrauding a Target retail store, his bio would be pulled since he is no longer a White House employee.

The only problem with this argument is that, while Allen’s “bio_10.html” file is gone, the active page “bio_9.html,” is the bio of former FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, who left office in March 2003 and has been succeeded twice.

So, as uninteresting as Allen’s White House bio may be (at least, compared Allen’s emerging profile as a man who defrauded at least 25 stores of more than $5000), here is our screen capture and cached version of that page.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Posted by MJuhre at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2006

Update to Yesterday's Post

If you read yesterday's post, U.S. Top Envoy to Iraq Hints at "Civil War", go back and see the update at the end. Today Borzou shed new light on the key question I raised, before I even had a chance to ask him (thanks Rachel Maddow!).

Posted by MJuhre at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2006

U.S. Top Envoy to Iraq Hints at "Civil War"

Zalmay Khalilzad, the top U.S. envoy to Iraq and a former oil industry consultant who nine years ago "was chatting pleasantly over dinner with leaders of Afghanistan's Taliban regime about their shared enthusiasm for a proposed multibillion-dollar pipeline deal (Washington Post)," has finally dropped the bomb.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Khalilzad said "potential is there" for civil war in Iraq. (Why yes, I'd say Iraq has a LOT of potential for, and quite possibly an already kinetic, civil war.) "'We have opened the Pandora's box and the question is, what is the way forward?'" Khalilzad added.

"Khalilzad's central message that the United States cannot immediately pull out of Iraq jibed with Bush administration policy," writes Daragahi. "But he offered a far gloomier picture than assessments made in recent days by U.S. military spokesmen."

The question in my mind: Did Khalilzad here execute a slip of the tongue when faced with a skilled journalist? Or, has the Bush administration actually tapped "less visible" [to Joe America] executors of policy to create a slow leak of admission that Iraq is in a civil war (remember kids, "sectarian strife" is a synonym)?

Khalilzad has been a right-wing policy enforcer since the Reagan days and, as Daragahi notes, "is among the architects of the U.S. plan to reshape the political balance of the Middle East after the Sept. 11 attacks." (Here I'll read between the lines for you: Khalizad is a Neocon who, along with Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz, Willam Kristol, and others, sought the overthrow of Saddam Hussein as far back as 1997. FUN FACT: 1997 was the same year that Khalilzad, as a consultant for the American oil company Unocal, had dinner with Taliban leaders.)

Ahem. Anyway. Is the Bush administration on its way to "admitting" that Iraq is entering a civil war, in the only pussy ass way it can muster, by keeping mum while shielding itself with more vocal pawns of the policy arena?

I guess we will just have to keep our ears open to find out.

***UPDATE - March 8, 2006***

Today, Borzou was a guest on Rachel Maddow Show (which, if you haven't figured out by now, I listen to religiously). As though reading my mind, Rachel asked Borzou almost precisely my question above.

Maddow: [Citing recent comments from Donald Rumsfeld that the is media exaggerating the violence in Iraq and others who downplay the 'sectarian strife in Iraq] "Has the ambassador been toeing that sort of line that you've been hearing from other people in the administration until now?"

Daragahi: You know, actually the ambassador has not been. On the issue of a possible civil war in Iraq, he's been very frank from the very beginning of the latest crisis which broke out on the 22nd of February after the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samara. He's been quite open about the fact that the country was on the brink of a new level of conflict and that it had pulled back. So he's been very, very, very open about that.

Maddow: Do you sense that his assessment and his frankness about that -- about the risks in Iraq, and the level of violence there right now -- the fact that it does contrast so strongly with what we're hearing right now from Donald Rumsfeld and from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs [of Staff], do you sense that there's any political tension around that, around these two different lines coming from the administration?

Daragahi: Well I can only sort of speculate -- make an informed speculation -- but I think it is important to note that there are these upcoming discussions about ... whether it's possible to reduce troop levels this year, and I think there might be a little bit of worry on the part of certain people in the administration that, were the U.S. to reduce troops dramatically this year, that it might send the wrong message to Sunni arabs who are feeling increasingly besieged by the Shiite-controlled security ministies and might be inspired to form their own militias, which would be potentially another level of chaos and violence in this country -- that it would be an encouragement to the very very extremist Salafi insurgents such as Abu Musab Al Zarqawi who are looking for any signs of weakness in the U.S. And it might also be an encouragement to Tehran -- neighboring Iran definitely has plans on Iraq and its got a geopolitical vision that includes keeping strategic interest in Iraq -- so I'm sure there's a little bit of fear there.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:24 PM | Comments (0)

Reagan's Bartlett says Bush Doomed the GOP

"It is manifestly clear that Bush has not helped the Republican party politically and I think he is setting them up for a fall which we may see as early as the Congressional elections in November."

These are the words of conservative Bruce Bartlett, who worked in the Reagan White House and authored the 1981 bestseller Reaganomics. His new book, Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy, hit the shelves February 28.

Speaking today on Air America Radio's Rachel Maddow Show, Bartlett said Bush's poll numbers will take down some prominent Republicans in this year's elections.

"No Republican member of Congress is going to get reelected with those kinds of [Bush poll] numbers dragging them down, and I think its only a matter of time before the rats start deserting the sinking ship," he said.

The question, of course, is can those rats, who for six years have blindly and willfully stuck by their man Dubya, now shake themselves loose from the rat-trap that his his failed presidency? I sure hope not. That is neater and cleaner than I think is realistic.

Bartlett doesn't seem to think so either, though his book is designed to inspire debate among those in the right wing, in order to salvage the right's political gains and, he believes, the Reagan legacy, policy-wise.

Bush, said Bartlett, called Bush "a failure" and "just a partisan Republican" who "substituted partisan Republicanism -- that is, doing things to help his side, help his pals..." for real conservativism, based on "a desire for power." "But power for what purpose?" he asked. "For its own sake?"

Bartlett even had some strategic political advice for Democrats and said he'd take Bill Clinton over George W. any day:

Bartlett: In the last two election cycles they ran away from Bill Clinton which, whatever else you want to say about him, he was politically effective; he was politically popular, he won two national elections and he was the first Democrat to do that since Franklin D. Roosevelt. I think that getting back to what was good about Bill Clinton's policies might be the ticket for the Democrats to get back in power.

Maddow: At this point I feel, I almost feel like if Clinton could run again he'd win with about, you know, almost a Kim Jong Il proportion of the vote.

Bartlett: Well, if he was running against George W. Bush I'd vote for him.

Maddow: (laughing) I bet you never thought you'd say that before this predidency worked out this way.

Bartlett: (laughing) No I wouldn't!

Posted by MJuhre at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2006

Back To Reality

U.S. Says McCain Anti-torture Law does Not Apply at Gitmo

Washington Post

Posted by MJuhre at 01:17 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2006

GOP Prepares Domestic Detention Centers

Abu Ghraib, U.S.A.?

Maybe. Is it any surprise that our Crazy New Order just gets crazier?

Consortiumnews.com, has pieced together two typical Bush-era slices of news that, together, illustrate a frightening (though perhaps not wholly unexpected) situation: the Republican-controlled U.S. government is making preparations to detain thousands of Americans at army bases across the country.

Crazy? Ten years ago...perhaps. Today? The possibility concerns me, but hardly seems inconceivable.

On February 6, Senator Lindsey Graham lent his support to Bush's illegal wiretapping program during a Senate Judiciary hearing (see partial transcript from the Washington Post, archived here if that link goes dead), telling Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that he believed President Bush "has not only the right, but the duty, in my opinion, to pursue Fifth Column movements... I stand by this President’s ability, inherent to being Commander in Chief, to find out about Fifth Column movements, and I don’t think you need a warrant to do that."

Fifth Column, the term for individuals working within a country to further an invading enemy's military and political aims, originated during the Spanish Civil War.

Of course, today, anyone who questions the actions of the Bush administration is labeled an Al Qaeda sympathizer.

So, add to this the news that, two weeks before Graham's statement, Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root unit announced it had landed a $385 million contract to build detention centers at unused U.S. military bases.

"The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs," reads a Halliburton press release (archived here, in case the link ever goes dead).

"New programs"? Uh...

"The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other U.S. Government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster. In the event of a natural disaster, the contractor could be tasked with providing housing for ICE personnel performing law enforcement functions in support of relief efforts."

Next Katrina, housing the homeless need not be a problem!

Keep your eyes and ears open.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2006

Rick Santorum's Questionable Bank Transaction

I've no time to conduct any substantial bloggery until at least another week (stay tuned for Culture Freak's March Madness). In the meantime, I suggest you read Will Bunch's investigative story on Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) in The American Prospect.

***

With A Little Help From His Friends
Exclusive: An investigation into the private and public finances of Rick Santorum suggests that the Senate GOP might want to reconsider making him its ethics czar.

By Will Bunch

“In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might find they don’t both need to.”

-- U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, in his 2005 book, It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good

***

Bunch took an honest look at Santorum's family and political budgets and discovered some things that could betray the Senator's dream to become the GOP's poster boy on ethics.

go to article

Posted by MJuhre at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2006

The Shot Heard Round the World and the One That Got Away

Cheney's Post-Traumatic Cocktail Disorder

February 16, 2006

Evil Dick: Trigger Happy Cheney Leaked Plame Name

First, read this (Then we connect the dots below):

Cheney's remark on leak may help Libby

By Pete Yost
Associated Press
Published February 16, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney disclosed Wednesday that he has the power to declassify sensitive government information, authority that could set up a criminal defense for his former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Cheney's disclosure comes a week after reports that Libby testified under oath that he was authorized by superiors in 2003 to disclose highly sensitive prewar information to reporters. The information, about Iraq and alleged weapons of mass destruction, was used by the Bush administration to bolster its case for invading Iraq.

When special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald revealed Libby's assertions to a grand jury that he had been authorized by his superiors to spread sensitive information, the prosecutor did not specify which superiors.

But in an interview on Fox News, Cheney said there is an executive order that gives the vice president, along with the president, the authority to declassify information.

"I have participated in declassification decisions," Cheney said.

A legal expert, former Whitewater independent counsel Robert Ray, said Cheney's television appearance could foreshadow a Libby defense. He said Cheney's ex-chief of staff could point to authorization from his superiors as part of his strategy at trial.

On Oct. 28, Libby was indicted on five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI about how he learned of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame and what he told reporters about it.

A defense that Libby was authorized by superiors to leak sensitive data about Iraq would not appear to provide any help on the charge of making false statements.

But Ray noted that setting up defenses before a jury involves more than simply constructing legal arguments.

"You're trying to present a persuasive case that your client should not be found guilty," Ray said. "You're saying that even if my client did it, this is not a case that warrants conviction."

______________________________________________________________

Now Connect the dots:

1) Scooter Libby claimed under oath that he was authorized by superiors to leak classified information to reporters because:

2) Vice President Cheney (formerly Libby's boss) claims has "participated in declassifcation decisions" information in the past and that he has the authority to "declassify" information under an executive order by George Bush. In an exclusive interview with FOX News (duh), Britt Hume asked, "Have you ever done it ['declassify'] unilaterally?" Cheney responded "Uh, I don't wanna get into that." Ergo, Cheney's claim that he has authority to "declassify" is actually a claim that he has immunity to the crime of leaking classified information, since no official declassification procedures were followed when Cheney decided to "declassify" sensitive information to which he was privy.

3)This means Libby's lawyers are engineering a defense that Cheney gave the go ahead to leak Plame's name to reporters.

4) Ergo, Dick Cheney leaked Plame's name, and is ultimately responsible for deliberately exposing the non-official cover of a CIA officer (particularly heinous, perhaps, since it now appears that Plame had been working on Iran's nuclear proliferation issues, when Cheney outed her).

Yes, Cheney knew this was the perfect time to throw out his "I can declassify" claim. While the world is distracted by his having gone nuts with a shotgun ( after drinking beer -- remember he does have two DWI convictions under his belt, whereas Dubya only has one), hHis claim can now filter in, under the radar, to the back of the mind of the public consciousness, from which it might (might) later emerge with an air of legitimacy.

Had Cheney claimed "But I can declassify" two years ago, when Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame first went public and before the investigation that ultimately lead to Scooter Libby and Cheney's office, the American people might (might) have cried foul.

This will be interesting to watch...

Posted by MJuhre at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

January 31, 2006

Canadian Miners Rescued Thanks to Responsible "Refuge" Regulation

TORONTO (AP) - Seventy-two Canadian potash miners Monday walked away from an underground fire and toxic smoke on Monday after being locked down overnight in airtight chambers packed with enough oxygen, food and water for several days. (go to article).

Too bad their counterparts in West Virginia weren't so lucky.

Er, but it wasn't luck. In fact, Canada's trapped miners are alive and well because their government has regulations designed to protect miners from dying horrible deaths by requiring "refuge rooms" (see below)

Here in America, we know that business doesn't need to be told what to do by the government. So a few miners die here and there. There's always someone looking for a job in West Virginia.

Below are Canada's the "refuge room" regulations, (source: Canadian Legal Information Institute).

Refuge stations required
146 (1) An employer must construct, inspect, and maintain a refuge station every 300 m underground in an active working if a person has to travel more than 500 m to reach

(a) the mine exit; or

(b) if a shaft conveyance is used to reach the surface, a shaft station.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to those parts of a mine being developed by an adit or slope or during shaft development operations.

Construction and location of refuge stations
147 (1) An employer must ensure that a refuge station can be sealed to prevent the entry of gases and is constructed

(a) in competent, non-combustible rock;

(b) if it is a non-portable refuge station in a coal mine, of competent rock that may be coal, if there is an adequate non-combustible sealed barrier between the coal and the occupied space; or

(2) An employer must ensure that a refuge station has adequate drainage for liquid and gaseous waste.

(3) An employer must ensure that all parts of any compressed air lines, or water lines supplying the refuge station are made of non-combustible materials.

(4) An employer must ensure that a refuge station is located

(a) at least 100 m from a magazine, diesel fuel storage area, fuelling station or battery charging station; and

(b) where reasonably practicable, in intake air.

(5) An employer must ensure that a refuge station has on the outside of the refuge station, an audible signaling device and a sign identifying it as a refuge station.

Air supply in refuge station
148 An employer must ensure that a refuge station has an air supply that is adequate to sustain, for a minimum of 8 hours, the life of the maximum number of mine workers intended to be sheltered there, by ensuring that the refuge station is

(a) large enough to contain the required air supply; or

(b) equipped with a means of supplying the required air supply by way of compressed air or oxygen.

Equipment in refuge station
149 An employer must ensure that a refuge station is equipped with

(a) an oxygen and flammable gas detector;

(b) a manometer with a scale, mounted on the wall of the refuge station, capable of measuring the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the refuge station;

(c) an adequate supply of potable water that, if supplied in containers, is exchanged for fresh water at least once a month, or is kept until its expiry date if the supply is sealed and date- stamped by a water supplier.

(d) adequate toilet facilities, tables and benches;

(e) an adequate means of voice communication with the surface;

(f) adequate emergency lighting

(g) a Number 2 First Aid Kit as defined by the Occupational Health and Safety First Aid Regulations made under the Act;

(h) a basket-shaped stretcher with restraining straps;

(i) 2 blankets; and

(j) razors for shaving facial hair.

Requirement for refuge station procedures
150 An employer must ensure that procedures are prepared for the use of a refuge station during an emergency that include

(a) instructions for the conduct of persons in the refuge station;

(b) instructions for entering the refuge station in a manner that protects the health and safety of persons sheltered inside the refuge station; and

Procedures posted at refuge stations
151 An employer must ensure that the procedures required by Section 150 are posted in a conspicuous place on the inside and on the outside of each refuge station.

Permitted uses of refuge stations
152 An employer must ensure that a refuge station is not used for any purpose other than as a lunchroom, office, or storage area for first aid supplies and equipment, for the delivery of first aid, or as a place of refuge during an emergency.

Monthly inspection of refuge stations
153 At least once a month, an employer must ensure that a designated person at the mine inspects, maintains and re-supplies the refuge stations and prepares a report of the inspection and any maintenance performed.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2006

Democracy on the March

George Bush and his merry band of Neocons should be proud.

Not only is democracy really taking hold in the Middle East (or "Southwest Asia, as the Pentagon would call it), but the newly empowered People of the region look set to vote in radical, right-wing theocracies that would make Pat Robertson proud (that is, of course, if that voting bloc weren't going to Hell for failing to recognize Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior).

Posted by MJuhre at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)

This is Why New York's Transit Workers Struck

--I aint got time to make this one pretty--

A speech by Republican NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg has vindicated suspicions raised by the Transit Workers Union Local 100.

" 'We must rein in health care and pension costs that have spiraled out of control,' said Bloomberg, calling on municipal unions to share the burden." (The New York Post)

The mayor says New York City's firefighters and policemen should have their healthcare benefits reduced to save the city money. Yes, those who the City and the Nation held up as heros during 9/11, many of whom now suffer serious illnesses from their exposure to burning toxins at the World Trade Center, are apparently a financial burden to the city. So now the Republicans say it's time to alleviate that burden (though perhaps not quite as drastically as Ford Motor Company did).

This is exactly what the TWU 100 said would happen. They knew that if the city reduced their pension and medical benefits, it would set a precedent that would leak into the lives of other city workers.

In addition, the union remembered, that the poor-mouthing Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) that wanted to reduce their benefits, is the same MTA that announced both a $1 billion-plus budget surplus and higher fare prices less than one year after it agreed to sell its Brooklyn real estate to the New York developer darling Forest City Ratner for $50 million, when other developers were offering three times as much.

I was silent last month on the transit strike, because I genuinely had mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it totally sucked for me and many others who live or work in New York to suddenly have no transit service in the week leading up to Christmas. On the other, I grow weary of American corporations, and governments that are increasingly run by corporations, roll back the clock on employee rights. It's the nineteenth century again friends. More and more, employees are being squeezed to the poor house and the grave by billionaire Bloombergs, well-paid MTA managers, and filthy rich Fords.

The full reasons behind the strike were too complicated to get into here, and too complicated for me to say I fully supported TWU 100, or fully supported. Right or wrong, the TWU definitely lost the PR battle, as many New Yorkers screamed for their heads.

But to those who whine "those city workers have better benefits than me -- fuck them! -- I say this: so just because your job sucks, and you have to suck it up and eat it every day, so should everyone else? Should we all just suck it up and take it without a peep, until we're back to 14-hour days, 6 or 7 day weeks, and have no pension, no health benefits, and no job security? (Besides. Go land yourself a government job and then tell me you still whistle the same tune.)

Posted by MJuhre at 08:38 AM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2006

Pentagon Rule Change Suggests Executions at Guantanamo

RULES COULD ALLOW GUANTÁNAMO EXECUTIONS (buried, but present in the Jan. 25, 2006 New York Times)

The Army has issued new regulations for carrying out military executions that could allow the death penalty to be administered at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where more than 500 foreign terrorism suspects are being held. The regulations, issued last week, give the secretary of the Army authority to designate locations for military executions, replacing old rules that required them to take place at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. That could open the way for executions of detainees at Guantánamo, although none of the 10 prisoners there who have been charged with war crimes are facing capital punishment. A law signed by President Bush in December bars federal courts from hearing habeas corpus petitions from Guantánamo detainees challenging their confinement. Eugene Fidell, a Washington specialist in military law, said the Bush administration might have feared that bringing detainees to the United States for execution would allow them to challenge their sentences in federal court once they were no longer at Guantánamo. DAVID S. CLOUD (NYT)

Army may be preparing for execution (Houston Chronicle)

US army changes execution rules (BBC)

New US Army code hints executions at Guantanamo (Xinhua)

Posted by MJuhre at 03:09 PM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2006

The Other Big Brother

It ain't just the NSA. Donald Rumsfeld's own Pentagon is spying on Americans, including a group exercising their Constitutional right of free assembly by protesting in front of Halliburton's headquarters.

Newsweek has the scoop.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2006

Feds Seek to Snoop on Google Searches

I still no time or quarter for real blogging, but if you missed this elsewhere, you won't miss it now. I can't even stop to consider the implications (except perhaps to say that maybe the Libertarians will finally abandon the GOP altogether?):

Google refuses White House search request
(The Guardian)

Google is resisting a White House subpoena to hand over the records of the searches internet users are asking it to perform, it has emerged. (continued)

More Articles:

BBC: Google data request fuels fears

San Jose Mercury News: Google is right to fight Justice Department

Americablog.com: Bush Justice Dept demands Google give feds EVERY search made in June and July 2005 on Google

Washington Post: Google Refuses Demand for Search Information

Posted by MJuhre at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2006

Trench Coat Mafia

or singing canary...

NEXT!

Posted by MJuhre at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2005

Hugo Chavez Welcomes Morales' Victory in Bolivia

Update to yesterday's post:

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez wrote Bolivia's new president, saying his victory represented "a real and true historical vindication" since it is the first time in 500 years that a native American (Morales is an Aymara) was the sovereign ruler of the area.

Check out the article at Venezuela Analysis.

Now it's time for me to join the rest of Manhattan in the walking commute. No time to blog about the transit strike. I have been ambivalent on the strike from the beginning and the more I read or hear about it, the more ambivalent I become. No doubt my feelings would be different if I had to walk two hours like some folks or, worse, be out of a job altogether.

Posted by MJuhre at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2005

As Fascism Rises in U.S., South Leans Further Left

Fostered by the popularity of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales's "Movement Toward Socialism" party appears to have captured the Bolivian presidency.

It has been a decade and a half since communism was supposedly defeated, many would argue, by the policies of the then most right-wing president ever, Ronald Reagan.

And yet, after a steady flirtation with capitalism throughout the Clinton 1990s, Latin America is going red again (and we ain't talking GOP red).

Curiously, this trend is a direct reaction to the policies of a U.S. president born again with fascist cravings that make Reagan look like FDR. The world has looked on for five years as Bush led his country, and thus the "free world" as they used to say (do we/can we still?), with a megolamaniacal hubris and disregard for democracy expected of Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin, but not a U.S. presisdent.

And so could it be that the domino effect the United States feared during the Cold War -- the idea that if one state fell to socialism (e.g. Venuzuela), nearby states might also fall, one after another (Boliva) unless America did drew lines in the sand (Guatamala - 1954, Chile - 1973, Nicaragua - 1980s) -- might now be a reality, and that the United States, of all actors, is actually to blame?

Perhaps in 20 years we can look back at history and make that determination. But shit, something major is happening. The "New World Order" of George Bush I has been amended a few times since it's product launch on March 6, 1991. Where it lands, nobody knows, but in the meantime, look for some good old fashioned coups and assasinations in Latin America (that is, if we can muster the resources, considering the current strain on our intelligence services).

Posted by MJuhre at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

December 16, 2005

Robert Novak Finally Flees to FOX, but Says Bush is a Liar

(Is it yet painfully clear that I've been too busy to do much paying attention to the world lately?)

So, on Dec. 14 Robert Novak said that Bush knows who the leaker is.

"I'm confident the president knows who the source is. I'd be amazed if he doesn't," Novak said at a Tuesday lunch address to the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh. "So I say, 'Don't bug me. Don't bug Bob Woodward. Bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is.'"

If this is the case, then Bush may be caught in yet another lie (sort of).

The following day, the White House team responded that they have no idea what Novak is talking about.

And then today, it is announced that Novak will leave CNN and go to FOX. So curious.

On the one hand, it's about time Novak officially joined GOP TV propaganda outlet known as FOX News. On the other, it is curious that Novak should end up joining Bush's cable-news mouthpiece just as he ends up on the Bushit list.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)

December 09, 2005

Reading Between the (Head)Lines

Quickly, there are two main points to absorb from today's The New York Times we learn the following points:

1) The dubious (and later disproven) claims by the United States of a link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, which was used to justify the invasion of Iraq, was obtained by outsourcing the torture of a detainee to Egypt.

NYT: ("Qaeda-Iraq Link U.S. Cited Is Tied to Coercion Claim")

2) Democrats are seeking copies of drafts of two of President Bush's pre-Iraq war speeches to determine whether he commited an impeachable offense; that is, whether he deliberately lied in his 2003 State of the Union address, when he made the claim that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger (a claim that discredited Ambassador Joe Wilson as well as the CIA). The question is why did this claim appear in the 2003 State of the Union, but not in a high-profile October 2002 speech Bush gave in Cincinnati to outlined his case for invading Iraq? The Dems want drafts of the 2002 speech to find out if the Niger claim had been included in any drafts, but ultimately pulled out of the speech. If that is the case, it would be strong evidence that Bush knew the claim was false when he used it in his 2003 State of the Union speech. And lies by the president, as the right wing itself have insisted satisfy the criteria of "high crimes and misdemeanors," required to invoke articles of impeachment against the president.

NYT: ("Bid for Prewar Iraq Files Raises Political Heat")

Posted by MJuhre at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

December 02, 2005

Dead American Soldiers Haunt, and Hunt Bush

Tonight's one of those nights I wish I had more than basic cable. Those of you with Showtime, I could watch "Homecoming" the movie about dead American soldiers from the Iraq war who return as zombies to vote Bush out.

See Village Voice and Crooks and Liars stories.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)

FOX News and State Dept. Team up to Promote Patriotism

Fox News and USINFO, the State Department's public information wing, will upgrade their joint efforts advocate patriotism later this month.

On December 31, a third batch of USINFO's 66 demonstrative patriotism bases for patriotic education will be established to mark the 230th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Canada.

Between 2001 and 2005, USINFO set up a total of 200 national demonstrative patriotism bases for patriotic education. These bases have been an important place for Americans to learn the history of the American patriotism and enhance ethics and moral quality, Fox News said.

Local governments are urged to take the advantage of the bases as tourist spots to publicize patriotism to visitors, especially youngsters, it says.

Okay, I admit it. The above is all bunk. (Or is it?). In fact, it is just a creative rewrite of this below story, posted by China's Xinhua news agency.

BEIJING, Nov. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- The People's Daily, China's leading newspaper, is to issue a commentary to advocate patriotism Monday.

A third batch of 66 demonstrative patriotism bases for patriotic education will be established to mark the 70th anniversary of the Long March of the Chinese Red Army and the 60th anniversary of China's victory in the War Against Japanese Aggression, it says.

In 1997 and 2001, the Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) set up a total of 200 national demonstrative patriotism bases for patriotic education. These bases have been an important place for Chinese to learn the history of the CPC and enhance ethics and moral quality, it says.

Local governments are urged to take the advantage of the bases as tourist spots to publicize patriotism to visitors, especially youngsters, as well as CPC members, it says.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)

South Africa's Civil Rights Trump Those in "Land of the Free"

For someone of my generation, or older, it is extremely difficult to fathom a world in which South African citizens enjoy greater civil rights than we do here in the United States.

Yet after little more than a decade since the end of apartheid, the white-minority imposed legal code that enforced a separation of the races in South Africa and denied the black majority's right to vote, South Africa's highest court ruled Thursday in support of same-sex marriages.

The Constitutional Court's ruling stated that the wording of section 30(1) of the country's Marriage Act was unconstitutional because it allowed only for marriages between men and women.

"The common law and Section 30 [1] of the Marriage Act are accordingly inconsistent with sections 9[1] [equality] and 9[3] [dignity] of the Constitution to the extent that they make no provision for same-sex couple to enjoy the status, entitlements and responsibilities they accord to heterosexual couples," Justice Albie Sachs Sachs said.

The ruling effectively legalizes same-sex marriages, though such unions may not be recognized for another 12 months. That is the court-imposed deadline by which parliament must amend the law to include the words or spouse after the words wife or husband.

The Independent (South Africa)

iafrica.com

Los Angeles Times

Posted by MJuhre at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2005

More Fake News From Bush Administration

Move over Jeff Gannon, make way for the Washington, D.C.-based Lincoln Group (LincolnGroup.com).

Not to be confused with "The Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia," a not for profit group dedicated to the study of Abraham Lincoln (who's site is lincolngroup.org), the Lincoln Group is a PR firm.Hired by the Bush administration (and, therefore, the American taxpayer) the Lincoln Group translates stories written by U.S. "information operations" (PSYOPS) troops and then pays Iraqi news outlets to run them as news.

See story in the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:35 PM | Comments (0)

"Bulletproof" Brooks's Bat Mitzvah Bash is More Than Meets the Eye

Long island businessman David H. Brooks gave his daughter Elizabeth a $10 million bat mitzvah party last weekend, featuring performances by an odd array of artists, including 50 Cent, Tom Petty, Aerosmith, Don Henley , Joe Walsh, Stevie Nicks, Kenny G.

While coverage of the event is relegated to the trivial "glamour and glitz" sections of most news organizations (see these stories: one two, three, four, five ), we at Culture Freak feel there is a more serious story here. (And, as is often the case, we have Rachel Maddow of Air America Radio to thank for alerting us to it.)

Daddy Brooks had the means to give Elizabeth this "Paris Hilton for a Day" coming-out party thanks to Bush's war in Iraq and the American taxpayer.

Brooks is the CEO of DHB Industries, which makes bulletproof vests for the U.S. armed forces.

With an annual salary of only $675,000 (plus an $87,500 bonus), a rather paltry sum compared with that of many other American CEOs, you might wonder how Brooks can afford such gaudy extravagance.

Well salary schmalary. Who needs direct cash compensation? In 2004 Brooks exercised DHB stock options worth almost $70 million and at year's end (Dec. 29, 2004), sold 5 million of his 11 million shares of common stock for a whopping $106.4 million.

I found it very curious that Brooks sold out almost half of his interest in the company just as the stock hit its all-time peak (it began to tumble in 2005, as shown in the chart below). And apparently I'm not the only one.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the matter, according to -- gulp -- FOXNews.com.

Never in my wildest imagination did I think that FOX would agree with me that there is a serious story here behind the People magazine schlock, let alone that it would actually be the news source totip me off to the SEC investigation into insider trading violations, and to the several class action lawsuits filed against DHB, including one that stems from a May 2005 recall by the Marine Corps of DHB-made 5,277 combat vests after some of them "failed a test to determine whether they could stop a bullet." (Two weeks ago, the Pentagon recalled 18,000 more.)

I'm rather taken aback, frankly, that FOX News has apparently investigated and reported much of what I planned to write here myself. If this post suddenly looks a bit disjointed, it's because I was just shocked out of my chair.

At any rate, the point I wish to stress is that Brooks's exploding wealth came thanks to DHB's 100 percent net income growth in 2004, according to Hoovers. DHB's defense contracts more than doubled each year 2001 and 2003 (the only years for which I have available figures).

(go to source)

In fact, so pervasive is DHB in the body armor industry, if you Google "body armor," the first, non-advertised site that appears is DHB's business unit, Point Blank Armor.

While the Pentagon has oft-stated that it did not have the funds to purchase enough body armor for its troops in Iraq, so much so that many soldiers had to buy their own, the CEO of the body armor contractor managed to make more than $100 million in one year, and spend ten percent of that on a party for his daughter the next.

It's just another, obscene example, of how the government-contracted private sector robs the American taxpayer and transfer our wealth to itself and ultimately, to folks as unlikely as Stevie Nicks and 50 Cent. (Another example and yet another.)

The FOX News story on Brooks is so good that I'm posting it in the continuation link below, in case the original disappears.

Rock Stars' Host Faces SEC Investigation

David H. Brooks, the man who laid out $10 million for his daughter's bat mitzvah celebration, has been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission since last year.

Brooks gained notoriety in the last couple of weeks when it was revealed he had hired Aerosmith, the Eagles, Stevie Nicks, 50 Cent, Ciara, Kenny G and Tom Petty to play at a party for his 13-year-old daughter this past weekend. Brooks took over the two floors of the Rainbow Room for the event, installing hi-tech sound and light equipment.

Many of the acts are managed by Irving Azoff and Howard Kaufman's powerful Los Angeles firm. But what reports of the lavish, over-the-top and some might say completely inappropriate party was who Brooks was, or what trouble he's been in. It's a lot.

He's under a major SEC investigation, as I will report in a moment. That's not all.

His company, DHB, as reported, is a defense contractor that makes bullet-proof vests for the Army. But what published stories did not report was that DHB is now and has been the subject of several class-action suits stemming from, among other things, a government recall of those bullet-proof vests.

In May, the Marine Corps recalled 5,277 combat vests made by a DHB's subsidiary issued to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Djibouti because of concerns that they failed a test to determine whether they could stop a bullet.

This occurred six months after DHB announced a $100 million contract with the Defense Department on Dec. 23, 2004. The contract, Brooks said at the time, could be worth as much as $500 million.

Coincidentally, Brooks and the insiders at his company sold off about $200 million worth of DHB stock between Nov. 29 and Dec. 29, 2004. Brooks, according to publicly available filings, sold about $186 million himself, not counting another $50 million in sales that had already been planned.

This seems curious to the outsider's eye. Today, DHB sells around $4 a share on the AMEX. Recently, DHB Industries reported it lost $41.7 million in the third quarter of 2005, the result of special charges, stock compensation and research and development costs.

But things were a lot different one year ago today. In fall 2004, the stock began a sudden climb out of the $11-$12 range toward a high of $20. That's where it was on Dec. 23, the same day as the press release announcing the $100 million contract. Brooks and co. had already begun a huge sell off a few days earlier culminating in an even bigger one on Dec. 27.

That's how he was able to bring in Aerosmith and friends for his daughter's party.

Ironically, though, the SEC investigation into DHB had already commenced before that. The company acknowledges being investigated at first for "certain related party transactions between the Company and affiliates of Mr. David H. Brooks (the Company's Chief Executive Officer)."

But they acknowledge that since then, the investigation has widened to matters relating to the Company's reporting and treatment of executive compensation (primarily relating to Brooks).
The SEC investigation also comes from investors learning that Brooks purchased parts for his products made by a company owned by his wife.

Meanwhile, Brooks has also been looking to become the Denise Rich of the Republican party. A quick check of political donations this year shows that Brooks contributed $25,000 this past June to the National Republican Senate Committee.

A spokesman for Brooks, Manuel Rubio, said the company did not comment on their stock price. As for the party, Rubio told me, "I prefer country music."

Posted by MJuhre at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2005

Republican Congressman Pleads Guilty to Bribery by Military Contractors

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif) cried like a little girl yesterday, when he announced he had resigned after pleading guilty to receiving $2.4 million in bribes from military contractors.

Cunningham, who was apparently already pretty well-to-do, and who represented a wealthy, conservative district near San Diego, faces up to 10 years in prison for charges of bribery and income tax evasion. (See LA Times story.)

Wow, who saw this coming? Not me, and I've been waiting with bated breath for a whole slew of Republican Congressmen to go down on bribery charges in an unrelated scandal.

I admit that, Prior to today, Cunningham had not hit my radar. But it is clear that whoever owns dukecunningham.org really dislikes him.

And for good reason: that Grand Old Party (GOP) consertative morality.

When Cunningham's "Flag Protection Amendment" legislation passed last June, the Congressman said "The passage of this legislation today is a victory for every American. The flag has been a bond that has held us together, providing each of us with a sense of common purpose and enabling us to endure when our freedoms were threatened. The American flag is the ultimate symbol of freedom, equal opportunity and religious tolerance."

This crook, this liar -- who gives your tax dollars to military contractors while evading taxes himself, who gives politicians and really all Americans a bad name -- has the audacity to aver that the American people should accept his assault on the first Constitutional Amendment (i.e. to free speech, which indeed pertains to flag burning) in the name of ... freedom. Uh huh.

Well where's your freedom now, "Duke"?

Gone, i'n't it?

Yep. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go.

And stop crying bitch. NEXT!

Posted by MJuhre at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2005

Extortion, Fraud, Favors, and Bribery: GOP Scandal Update

The Los Angeles Times reports that the following Congressman (all Republicans) are now known to be embroiled in the fraud scandal whose central figure is right-wing lobbyist Jack Abramoff: former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), and Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio).

Other stories on the emerging Abramoff-Delay scandal:

Houston Chronicle

Baltimore Sun editorial

FOX News (yes)

Posted by MJuhre at 11:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 23, 2005

Bush Planned to Bomb Qatar; Al Jazeera

Bush Wanted to Bomb Al Jazeera headquarters But Tony Blair talked him out of it.

I guess Tony was smart enough to figure out that it would be hard to say we accidentally bombed our ally Qatar, where the the news channel is based.

Officials in Qatar are shocked (but luckily not awed) by the report, first published in Britain's Daily Mirror on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, British officials are threatening legal action against newspapers that report on the story.

Other coverage:
Financial Times story.
Guardian story.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

6644 Katrina Victims Still 'Missing' -- Toll Has Changed Little in Two Months

"6,644 are still missing after Katrina; toll may rise" (USA Today)

Surely some of these people are alive somewhere and surely some are dead somewhere. On the latter point, these startling numbers again raise the question, has the actual Katrina death toll been deliberately obscured?

Posted by MJuhre at 02:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Corruption May Bring Down Republican Congressmen

The sun is shining and the birds are singing a lot these days.

Military and intelligence officials are coming forward to announce or, in some cases, leak snippets of truth that outline the Bush-administration lies that lead up to the Iraq war.

While the White House crumbles, things are starting to heat up over on Capitol Hill, as Michael Scanlon starts to name names in a corruption scandal that could bring the House down.

A former aide both to GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Congressman Tom Delay (R-Tex.), each of whom are being investigated for various crimes, pleaded guilty Monday to his role in a conspiracy to bribe U.S. congressman in exchange for political favors and for attempting to defraud four Native American Indian tribes. Ya gotta love that Republican morality.

And he's already singing to save his own ass.

ROCK THE HOUSE

According to Scanlon's plea Robert Ney (R-Ohio), took numerous bribes from Abramoff.

"We've never seen an example as egregious as this with these sums of money, the bilking, the cynicism and linkages," said Thomas Mann, a political analyst at the Brookings Institution. I think you're going to see a string of indictments."

Go to articles:

"Threat of federal charges against DeLay grows"
Financial Times

"Growing corruption scandal threatens to engulf Republicans"
The Guardian

"Rep. Ney becomes example in Abramoff probe"
San Jose Mercury News

Posted by MJuhre at 12:30 PM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2005

Smoking Gun - Pentagon Calls White Phosphorus a 'Chemical Weapon'

Think Progress cites this formerly classified 1995 Pentagon document as proof that "white phosphorus" is a chemical weapon, something which has been much under debate since the U.S. confirmed last week that it used the agent as a weapon in the battle of Fallujah. (If above link goes dead, document is archived here.)

In it the Pentagon itself used that label, when describing atrocities perpetrated by none other than Saddam Hussein:

"Iraq has possibly employed phosphorus chemical weapons against the Kurdish population in areas along the Iraqi-Turkish-Iranian borders," the document reads. "In late February 1991, following the coalition forces' overwhelming victory over Iraq...during the brutal crackdown that followed the Kurdish uprising, Iraqi forces loyal to President Saddam (Hussein) may have possibly used white phosphorus (WP) chemical weapons against Kurdish rebels..." (emphasis mine)

Posted by MJuhre at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)

2409 Bush Boxes and Counting

A friendly, but sad reminder. As of today, 2097 U.S. soldiers dead in Iraq; 312 in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon still won't let you see the Bush Boxes.

Yesterday I saw interviews with two of the 15,568 American soldiers who have been wounded in Iraq. One lost both his legs, the other a hand, an eye, and his nose.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

November 21, 2005

No Escape for Bush in Asia

__________________________________________________________

"I was trying to Escape...It didn't work." George Bush could not have said it better himself. Oh wait. He did!

While speaking to reporters in China, a tired, angry little Bush got huffy with reporters, then tried to flee the room just like he tried to flee his collapsing presidency by taking a trip to Asia.

Both efforts failed, but Bush only got laughed at to his face in the first incident.

I've heard the report a few times on radio, but for print, I may as well lift this dispatch from the North Korea Times, since you don't get to do that every day (nor, likekly, would you want to; need a more 'reliable' source? See the LA Times story, "President Lacks the Key to His Exit Strategy").

At his own press conference the U.S.president bristled when asked by a reporter, 'Respectfully, sir, you know we are always respectful, in your statement this morning with President Hu, you seemed a little off your game, you seemed to hurry through your statement. There was a lack of enthusiasm. Was something bothering you?'
Bush replied, 'Have you ever heard of jet lag? Well, good. That answers your question.'

The reporter responded by asking if he could ask another question. The president replied, 'No you may not,' and strode off.

When he reached the doors and tried to open them the president broke into a laugh. One of his aides then came to his rescue and escorted him to the correct doors where he made a hasty escape.

SEE THE CLIP of Bush's failed retreat in this Dutch newscast (.mov file, 900 K; I pulled this from Crooks and Liars, which has two files of the event, one with much better video quality).

Below: In Bush's one reprieve from reality, dumb American president meets smart Asian robot.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:47 PM | Comments (0)

German Spies say Bush Exaggerated WMD Claims; Times Names Hadley in Plame Case

Five senior officials from Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) have told the Los Angeles Times that in the months before the U.S. attacked Iraq, the Bush administration "repeatedly exaggerated" claims made by the informant known publicly only as 'Curveball' that Saddam Hussein Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Times (of London -- owned by Rupert Murdoch no less), reported yesterday that National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was Bob Woodward's source on outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. (The Raw Story first reported this claim Nov. 16.)

Amid the recent chorus of denials by high-placed Bush officials (Condi's, Rummy's) Hadley's answers to the question of whether he was Bob Woodward's source, have thus far been cryptic.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will work with a new grand jury (the one that indicted Libby expired) in the Plame leak investigation. As more witnesses are called in to flesh out Hadley's alleged role (or, at least Woodward's), Plamegate looks poised to haunt the Republicans well into the 2006 election year.

Yesterday, Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote that Woodward's two-year silence on his role in Plamegate, represented a "deeply serious sin."

"He has to operate under the rules that govern the rest of the staff - even if he's rich and famous," she wrote, adding that Woodward should not have publicly commented on the case on CNN's "Larry King Live" and on National Public Radio without disclosing his knowledge of the CIA leak case.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2005

National Security Advisor Leaked Plame Name; Libby Still Fucked

National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was one of Bob Woodward's sources on Plame, according to the Raw Story.

At the time of his conversations with Woodward, Hadley was ... Deputy National Security Advisor. For his work in discrediting Joe Wilson, Hadley was promoted to his current position ... after Condoleeza Rice was promoted to Secretary of State, a rewarded for her stellar role in maintaining security in the United States.

Since the news emerged yesterday that Woodward spoke with someone before Libby spoke with Judith Miler, the right-wing media and a prostitute have tried to spin things to suggest that Libby is off the hook.

But guess what? Libby was not indicted for leaking the identity of a CIA agent, but for conspiracy, perjury, and obstruction of justice. So, regardless of who leaked what when, Libby still faces 30 years in the slammer.

And, last and best, the Bush administration may face yet more problems, if it's National Security Advisor is indicted by Patrick Fitzgerald indicts.

Bush can only hide in Ulaanbaatar for so long. By the time he gets back, there will surely be more great news for him.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)

Under Bush, U.S. Detained 83,000 in War on Terror

Under the Bush America has detained 83,000 People in War on Terror, according to a story in the Chicago Sun Times.

More than 99 percent of those were detained in Iraq or Afghanistan and 68,500 have been released.

This means the government has effectively "disappeared" 14,500 people into its global, black-site prison system in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, Eastern Europe, and other locations. At that rate, the United States will catch up to Argentina in 2009.

It also means that the Bush administration determined it did not have sufficient evidence to suggest that 85 percent of the people it kidnapped were involved in terrorism.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)

"Bush Was Right" by The Right Brothers

The right wing will stop at nothing when it comes to spin. A political action committee (PAC) called RightMarch.com, has put together a Green Day-esque song called "Bush Was Right!" by The Right Brothers.

YOU MUST HEAR IT to believe it. I can't do it justice. You can check out the lyrics too, but I urge you to listen to the mp3 first to get the full shock-and-awe effect.

As illustrated in the below excerpt from their site, they are trying to get MTV to play it.

WILL YOU HELP US? We're putting together a "kickin'" music video right now, and we're preparing a HUGE grassroots campaign to get hundreds of thousands of people to request Bush Was Right! on MTV's "Total Request Live" show... leading to our demands for it to be played in regular rotation!
If they DON'T -- then we'll hit the media in a BIG way, showing how MTV plays left-wing videos while CENSORING conservative videos!

I wondered for a bit whether this was a real band or some jived-up Karl Rove/Jack Abramoff move, though I leaned toward believing the latter. The proof in the pudding came when I found this October 2004 story by Talon News (the employer of fake journalist/White House hack, and sometime gigolo Jeff Gannon - AKA James Guckert), which says that one of the group's members, Aaron Sain is also a member of the RightMarch.com PAC.

See a PDF of the RightMarch.com ad for the "Bush Was Right" single here.

During the 2004 campaign, the group put out a single about John Kerry called "Welcome To The Waffle House." It's a country song and, save for the new single, so are all the others put together by the group. (A whole slew of their songs, including "Dear Mr. Reagan" and "Hey Hollywood" ("we hear your message and it don't sound good") is available at FreeRepublic.com.)

I'm guessing someone figured out that the powerpop (that's what "Alternative" or "College Rock" when I was coming up) sound might function better as youth propaganda then country. Let's hope they put out an Eminem-style ("8 miles to Baghdad"?) next.

On that note, it is curious to learn that, until he determined it was the smart propaganda move, Sain had no interest in "alternative music" (a musical category I cite reluctantly, but which applies to Green Day, at least in terms of 1990s radio-industry parlance), as shown in this excerpt from June 2004 artricle in the Courier Journal of Florence, Alabama. "In the early ‘90’s Aaron moved to Nashville to pursue his dream of making it in the music business. About that time the music Aaron listened to was phasing out. 'The big hair bands of the 80’s whose music I enjoyed so much, such as Def Leppard, Poison and Bon Jovi, were suddenly just gone. And when the music scene went alternative, I turned to country.' " [And when we realized that most the mass market of idiot teenagers had slightly better taste in music than we did, we thought we'd speak their language in preaching our zipperhead right-wing message.]

The Right Brothers' webmaster (and sometime/ful-time drummer?) is a gent named Dave Culbreath. As the owner of the domain name for the band's Web site, he was the first person I hit upon when I first started trying to figure out who these folks were.

A random aside, in case you needed to know, Culbreath's favorite favorite Extra Value Meal is a "Wendy's #1, with NO TOMATO."

To read the full the Courier Journal article on The Right Brothers:

reprinted from the Courier Journal

June 30, 2004

Get Right or Get Left
By Jill Oliver for the Courier Journal

There is a new force in the music industry, a dynamic duo whose passion is writing and music; they are both from Florence and their time is now. Aaron Sain and Frank Highland are the Right Brothers and their first CD , "For My Country" has just been released for public consumption.

It is more than appropriate that these two writer/musicians call the Renaissance City home considering our city's richly diverse musical heritage. Aaron moved to Florence with his family in the fifth grade and remained here until he began college at Freed Hardeman University. Aaron still calls Florence home and visits his family here; his dad is the preacher at Wood Avenue Church of Christ.

In the early '90's Aaron moved to Nashville to pursue his dream of making it in the music business. About that time the music Aaron listened to was phasing out. "The big hair bands of the 80's whose music I enjoyed so much, such as Def Leppard, Poison and Bon Jovi, were suddenly just gone. And when the music scene went alternative, I turned to country."

That switch to country music set ablaze a passion for songwriting and a hunger for anything he could learn about producing music. Writing incessantly, Aaron was supporting his wife and new baby with graphics design and sales jobs. Though every spare moment was spent in his studio behind their home poring over music and lyrics, Aaron was experiencing no success with the songs he was writing. "In 1993 I decided I'd had enough; it was time to stop chasing a dream. I loaded up all of my equipment and decided to put it in consignment. I got halfway to the store and I just could not go through with it."

"I prayed about it and then turned it over to God,"Aaron explained. With the full support of his wife, he decided to give writing his all for one more year. Within six months of that decision, Aaron had landed a job as a staff writer with a big music company. Several years later, he had a pivotal run-in with an old acquaintance from home - Frank Highland.

Frank was born and raised in Florence and while he and Aaron knew each other casually, they were never close friends. However, like Aaron his obsession with music and writing began at an early age. Frank began playing guitar, and trying to write songs at fifteen. "When I had mastered three chords on the guitar, I began writing songs day and night," said Frank. "I was always writing, even if it was just copying the lyrics to songs on the radio to get a feel for the formula."

While at UNA studying commercial music, Frank wrote a song and sent it to Fame Studios. Though the song was never recorded, Frank was encouraged to learn the big music guys felt his songwriting had potential. And it later opened the door for another song to be recorded by the Mel Tillis Publishing Company.

Frank's degree in Recording Industry Management from Middle Tennessee State University and his passion for writing paid off in 1996 when he landed a job as a songwriter with McGraw Music, Tim McGraw's music company. He also later worked as a staff writer at Music Genesis. During that time Frank met up with Aaron on Music Row, altering the course of the future for both men.

Frank and Aaron booked a time to write together and soon began attending the same church. The terrorist attacks in 2001 affected even the music industry in Nashville. So, when the music company where Frank was working closed, he opened his own swimming pool maintenance business. "I was servicing pools and cutting grass to support my family. And in the evenings I was writing with Aaron at the studio," Frank explained.

The two became best friends whose love for writing and interest in politics began to meld. "We became pretty much addicted to Fox News," said Aaron laughingly. Frank added, "Aaron and I agreed that the standards and values of this country have just plummeted in the last fifteen years. Everything that is right has been called into question; decency is under attack."

Aaron and Frank began writing politically edged songs which express their beliefs and their love for this country.

Three months of late nights turning into early mornings birthed their first album together, The Right Brothers. Frank explained, "We are dedicated to waking up the silent majority, motivating them to make a stand for the conservative principles that were the original premise of this country." Aaron agreed, "We're just preaching to the choir; so many people feel as passionately about America as we do. We hope our music will stir those folks up."

One of the songs, entitled Hey, Hollywood! is their response to the America-bashing actors and actresses who criticize President Bush for taking the war to Iraq. The website, www.rightmarch.com, recently posted a link to the song, and in 72 hours, 15,000 people had downloaded it.

The two artists began to realize that the political landscape is changing. "One of the first songs we wrote for the album was From Here On Out. It is our battle cry," Frank stated. "Being conservative by nature, we both began to take more of an interest in politics during the mid-'90's. We live in the greatest country on earth and it will only stay that way if good people speak their minds, voice their opinions and cast their votes. As the famous saying goes, 'All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.' As for us, political apathy is no longer an option," Frank added.

Like many Americans, the Right Brothers felt inadequate in their ability to express their thanks to our troops. "In some small way we wanted to say what was in our hearts," Aaron said. Frank came to the table with most of the title song, For My Country, already finished. As it turned out I was able to help him finish it". The second verse says, turned on the news first thing this morning, saw where two more soldiers died so I could sleep in peace last night in my country. "That is exactly what happened to me," Aaron said. "I woke up - flipped on the TV and the first words I heard were, 'Two more American soldiers were killed today (last night) in Iraq.' This song seems to be touching people in a special way and we're just thankful to be a part of it."

Aaron and Frank also celebrated the release of their album by shipping a case of CD's to the troops in Afghanistan and the spouses at 101st Airborne in Ft. Campbell, KY.

The CD includes a total of 10 original songs and is being officially released on July 4, although copies may be purchased now from their website at www.therightbrothers.com. Copies may also be obtained by mailing a check or money order for $15 per CD to: The Right Brothers, 628 Brook Drive, Antioch, TN 37013 and they will get a copy right out to you.

For My Country is from the heart and soul of Aaron Sain and Frank Highland to yours. For more information about these two talented native sons, you may visit their website, www.therightbrothers.com

Posted by MJuhre at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)

51 Ways To Lie if You're "Vice" President Dick Cheney

I thank Rachel Maddow for alerting me to this:

Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has posted a document illustrating the 51 times Cheney has lied about Iraq. (Culture Freak's archived version, if this one should disappear.)

Posted by MJuhre at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2005

Oil CEOs Lied; Companies Met WIth Cheney's Energy Task Force

I'll let Taylor Marsh and The Washington Post handle this one, but suffice it to say that it's no wonder the Republican Senators did not want the Oil Barrons to testify under oath.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

Did Cheney Leak Plame Name to Bob Woodward?

On Monday, Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward testified under oath before Patrick Fitzgerald that "a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed."

"Citing a confidentiality agreement in which the source freed Woodward to testify but would not allow him to discuss their conversations publicly, Woodward and Post editors refused to disclose the official's name or provide crucial details about the testimony."

If true, the big news is that Woodward, is now writing his third book on the Bush administration, had conversations about Plame with three Bush administration officials but none of them was Libby nor Rove. "Woodward and editors at the Post refused to identify the official to reporters other than to say it was not Libby," writes the AP. It wasn't Rove either, at least according to Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Karl Rove's legal team.

Let's assume this is true. Who's left?

More to the point, what key members of the Bush administration has Bob Woodward had incredible access to?

Well, Bush and Cheney themselves, for one thing.

Let's take a quick journey back to an article written just over two years ago by The Nation's Eric Alterman:

In his most recent book, Bush at War, Bob Woodward brags that he was given access to the deeply classified minutes of National Security Council meetings. He also noted, not long ago, that the President sat for lengthy interviews, often speaking candidly about classified information. This surprised even Woodward, who observed, "Certainly Richard Nixon would not have allowed reporters to question him like that. Bush's father wouldn't allow it. Clinton wouldn't allow it.'' But George W. Bush does it--breaking the law in the process--and nobody seems to care. Why? Because Woodward plays ball--he reports Bush & Co.'s actions in the same heroic, comic-book cadences they use themselves. Moreover, he doesn't bother weighing any competing claims or seeking to determine whether anything he is spoon-fed might actually be true.

Woodward one of "The President's Men?"

Until recently, I was only mildly skeptical of Woodward's character and integrity (probably thanks to Robert Redford), but I had been surprised at how much slack he seemed to give the Bush administration.

But now I think it's time to kick it up a notch and put him in the same pile as Judy Miller (because, like her, he withheld information on this case for "journalistic integrity"), and GOP shills Robert Novak and William Kristol (the latter, especially, because I am sometimes convinced that Woodward and Kristol may have been separated at birth).

Woodward has verbally downplayed the Plame investigation in numerous interviews over the past year or so, and some have called him an ass-kissing apologist for the Bush administration. Others have gone so far as to call him an fucking scumbag.

Woodward Quotes on the Plame Leak:

"First of all this began not as somebody launching a smear campaign that it actually -- when the story comes out I'm quite confident we're going to find out that it started kind of as gossip, as chatter and that somebody learned that Joe Wilson's wife had worked at the CIA and helped him get this job going to Niger to see if there was an Iraq/Niger uranium deal."

"When the story comes out, I'm quite confident we're going to find out that it started kind of as gossip, as chatter."

"When I think all of the facts come out in this case, it's going to be laughable because the consequences are not that great."

Other Links:

Bob Woodward, Lost in Cronyism? (Oct. 30, 2005)
The Mixed-Up Files of Mr. Bob Woodward Yahoo News Nov. 16, 2005)

Posted by MJuhre at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)

Pentagon Admits to Chemical Weapon Use in Fallujah

After weeks of denial, the U.S. Department of Defense admitted in an interview with BBC news that it used white phosphorus as "an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants" during the battle for Fallujah last year.

An Italian TV news documentary broke the story on November 8.

But for weeks after the broadcast,which led to massive demonstrations at the U.S. embassy in Rome, the Pentagon insisted it had used the agent only for "illumination" and "obscuring troop movement."

The scope of the government denial of its use of "Willy Pete" (white phosphorus) as a weapon reach bizarre proportions on this "Identifying Misinformation" page of "International Information Programs" section of the State Department's Web site. (I archived it here, if that link goes dead. As of this writing, the last update to the page was made Nov. 10.)

Some excerpts:

The fighting in Fallujah, Iraq has led to a number of widespread myths including false charges that the United States is using chemical weapons such napalm and poison gas. None of these allegations are true...
U.S. forces have used [phosphorus shells] very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes. They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters.

[November 10, 2005 note: We have learned that some of the information we were provided in the above paragraph is incorrect. White phosphorous shells, which produce smoke, were used in Fallujah not for illumination but for screening purposes, i.e., obscuring troop movements and, according to an article, "The Fight for Fallujah," in the March-April 2005 issue of Field Artillery magazine, "as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes..." The article states that U.S. forces used white phosphorous rounds to flush out enemy fighters so that they could then be killed with high explosive rounds.] (Culture Freak archive of "The Fight for Fallujah," if above link goes dead.)

The content on this State Department page is worded very carefully, as might be expected from any crisis-management PR communication. I particularly like the journalistic-like correction on the factual errors. I wonder if they'll eventually issue a correction advising that, in fact, the Pentagon had been lying for two weeks.

The latest spin, and perhaps the best face the government can muster now is that "it was not used against civilians," as Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Barry Venable told reporters.

That claim may not sit well in the public stomach. We now know the military lied about using white phosphorus as a weapon at all, so why should we believe this, especially considering the difference between "enemy combatants" and "civilians" is murky at best?

AGAINST INTERNATIONAL LAW?

Whether it is illegal for the military use of white phosphorus as an anti-personnel (i.e. burn people alive) agent is up for debate.

"White phosphorus is not banned by any treaty to which the United States is a signatory," according to GlobalSecurity.org. "Smokes and obscurants comprise a category of materials that are not used militarily as direct chemical agents."

The chemical falls into this category becuase it was originally used for primarily illumination purposes, including tracer rounds and smoke screens. (That may still be its primary purpose, but I just don't know. The military may have just figured out a way to use it as "legal" chemical weapon, sort of like fuel air explosives.

But, while not explicitly banned, international treaties state that any chemical that can cause harm or death may be classified as a chemical weapon. When a BBC news correspondent pointed this out to Pentagon spokesperson Col. Venable, Venable didn't seem to know how to respond:

BBC: There are suggestions here that if…used in that way, an incendiary weapon such as white phosphorus would be against the various conventions governing the use of weapons during war. Do you disagree?
Venable: Cite the conventions.

BBC: The eh…chemical weapons convention.

Venable: "Okay, does it list white phosphorus as a chemical?"

BBC: No it doesn't but it says a chemical weapon can be any chemical which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm.

Venable: But...uh, this is...we're talking white phosphorus.

If the wording of the chemical weapons convention is followed to the letter, Willy Pete is a chemical weapon.

"White phosphorus results in painful chemical burn injuries," according to GlobalSecurity.org. "Phosphorus burns on the skin are deep and painful…The burns usually are multiple, deep, and variable in size. The solid in the eye produces severe injury. The particles continue to burn unless deprived of atmospheric oxygen. These weapons are particularly nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until it disappears. If service members are hit by pieces of white phosphorus, it could burn right down to the bone..."

Posted by MJuhre at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2005

Iraq is the New Afghanistan, Again

This ain't a clever and pretty post. Sorry. Just the facts ma'am.

It is now clear that last week's hotel bombings in Jordan were perpetrated solely by Iraqis, on the orders of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the (Jordanian) leader of "Al Qaeda in Iraq."

Y'know, two years ago the statement "Iraq is the new Afghanistan," might resonate in the popular culture as simply meaning, "whereas last year's war was Afghanistan, this year's is Iraq."

But now, and I'm sure many another editor out there is screaming it loudly (but it can't be screamed loud enough), we have proof of this statement's more important connotation: that whereas before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, that country existed under a brutal, totalitarian regime with few if any instances homegrown terrorism (thanks to the aforementioned brutal regime), it is now, after the U.S. invasion, a lawless landscape, divvied up by warlords and terrorists who use its soil as a recruiting ground, and training ground to export terrorism to other countries.

I told you this wasn't pretty. That sentence was a mouthful, indeed. But everyone who can muster a voice -- in print, on the air, on the Web, or on the local street corner, needs to disseminate this fact to an American public that might otherwise just wade back and forth between its own ignorance and Republican, damage-control talking points.

Good day.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:35 PM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2005

Bear Naked Libby's

No time for blogging lately, and just when the news gets sexy.

If, by chance, you missed it. Scooter Libby wrote a steamy, if not downright sadistic novel called The Apprentice in 1996.

Now out of print, the book's value is soaring on Amazon.com and eBay, with asking prices as high as $2400.

"The book includes incest, a hunter who wonders if he should shag a freshly killed deer while it's still warm, and a girl kept in a cage and raped by a bear to train her to become a prostitute," writes Editor & Publisher.

"Wow, who would have thought that clean living, family values man Scooter Libby was capable of writing such filth," said one reviewer on Amazon, according to a Reuters story.

Reminds one of Bill O'Reilly who, after settling a sexual harassment lawsuit levied against him by an intern last year(for an undisclosed amount of cash, in exchange for her permanent silence on the matter), reintroduced his 1998 novel that is also rife with sexual and violent imagery: Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Murder and Television (and don't forget, of course The O'Reilly Factor For Kids).

But Trespass hasn't quite had the success of Libby's Apprentice. When I last checked Amazon.com (see screen capture), O'Reilly's trash novel was selling for as low as 20 cents.

My question: how many of these "faith and values" conservatives are would-be, or actual rapists and pedophiles dressed up like Jesus? Perhaps Satan only knows, but Air America Radio host Randi Rhodes has created a list.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

November 04, 2005

Dems vs. the "Republican cover-up Congress"

I've had a hard time finding transcripts of some of the surprisingly forward statements that have suddenly come forth from the Democratic leadership. The Dems have finally stated that the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress are in collusion, engaging in a cover-up of lies and misdeeds executed by the Bush administration.

Moreover, I've not even found a single source in the print or Internet news media that even quoted the most important sound bite, when Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said, Tuesday, that "the separation of powers doctrine is something that does not exist in this town," since the Congress takes its marching orders from the White House.

There may be good stories out there that include this coverage, but I just haven't found them.

Thankfully, video of the statements made by Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi is amply available, so I've done a little transcribing on my own, just because I feel these statements should be more widely publicized, or at least readily available to the public.

Yesterday Pelosi made the following statements at a press conference:

_____________________

…As you know, this week my colleagues in the Senate had to resort to drastic measures, to demand answers to many unanswered questions about Iraq. The Republican Congress has failed in its responsibility to examine the Administration's conduct of the war in Iraq.

The Republican cover-up Congress refuses to answer questions about the existence of weapons of mass destruction as justification for the Iraq war, the mistakes made in the war's management, and the endless cost of this war in terms of -- first in all, lives and the good health of our troops; secondly, the cost in dollars; third the cost in reputation to our country; and [fourth] the cost to the readiness of our military to protect America.

The second part of the Republican Congress cover-up is in intelligence. They refuse to investigate manipulation and misuse of intelligence for political purposes.

There is no greater danger in the intelligence business, than manipulating intelligence to fit a desired outcome. It undermines national security. It's dangerous to our troops, intelligence operatives, and it's dangerous to the American people, and it's destructive to the intelligence process. If mistakes were made, Americans deserve to know.

Congress has an obligation to make sure that decisions to go to war are based on truth and trust. Democrats have repeatedly asked Congress to investigate what went wrong with the intelligence to justify the war in Iraq.

pullquote-2-Pelosi-Calls-it-GOP-coverup-on-House-Floor.jpg

Congress, again, has an obligation to make sure that decisions to go to war are always made properly – anything less is not supporting our troops.

This Congress, which -- you [journalists] have talked about the culture of corruption and cronyism -- is now also and has been for a long time, the Congress of cover-up.

Later today I'll ask the full House to investigate whether the intelligence that led us into war in Iraq was manipulated. Stay tuned on that.
_____________________

Later in the day Pelosi took these words to the House Floor and took Speaker Hastert to task: "Mr. Speaker, I think it think it brings shame to the House for this Congress to be engaged in a cover-up when it comes to reviewing what's happening in Iraq and I appeal the ruling of the Chair."

Earlier in the week, just prior to calling for a closed session of Congress, Senator Reid tore the White House and his Senate colleagues a new one. The following are excerpts from that speech (see the video).

-------------------------------
As a result of its improper conduct, a cloud now hangs over this administration. This cloud is further darkened by the administration's mistakes in prisoner abuse [and] Hurricane Katrina, and the cronyism and corruption in numerous agencies throughout this administration.

And, unfortunately, it must be said that a cloud also hangs over this Republican-controlled Congress, for its unwillingness to hold this Republican administration accountable for its misdeeds on these issues. During the time that we had a Democratic president – eight years – and when the Democrats were in charge of the [Senate] committees – we were in the majority – oversight hearings were held covering the gamut of what went on in that administration. Today there is not an oversight hearing held on anything…

What has been the response by this Republican-controlled Congress to the administration's manipulation of intelligence? Nothing! Did the Republican-controlled Congress carry out its Constitutional obligations to conduct oversight? No! Did it support our troops by providing to them and their families the answers to many important questions? No! Did it even attempt to force this administration to answer the most basic questions about its behavior? No!

Unfortunately the unwillingness of the Republican-controlled Congress to exercise its oversight responsibilities is not limited to just Iraq.

We see it with respect to the prisoner-abuse scandal. We see it with respect to [Hurricane] Katrina. And we see it with respect to the cronyism and corruption that permeates this administration.

Time and time again, this Republican-controlled Congress has consistently chosen to put its political interests ahead of our national security. They have repeatedly chosen to protect the Republican administration rather than to get to the bottom of what happened and why it happened...

Unfortunately, the Senate committee that should be taking the lead in finding these answers is not...

-------------------------------

Holding a press conference after the closed Senate session, Reid said the following to reporters:

"What we saw Friday with the indictments [of I. Lewis Libby] is only a small glimpse of what has gone wrong with this administration.

Congressional oversight is something I have grown up with…in the House of Representatives I spent most of my time in committees doing oversight of the agencies over which the committees had jurisdiction.

This Republican Senate does no oversight – none! None. It's all part of a plan. They obstruct, they take orders from the White House, they do nothing without getting orders from the White House. The separation of powers doctrine is something that does not exist in this town. (See the video.)

Posted by MJuhre at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2005

"Order the Tater Tots" Said Brownie, While Katrina Victims Died of Thirst

"Rep. Charlie Melancon, whose district south of New Orleans was devastated by the hurricane, posted a sampling of e-mails written by Federal Emergency Management chief Michael Brown on his Web site on Wednesday." (See full CNN article.)

"...In the midst of the overwhelming damage caused by the hurricane and enormous problems faced by FEMA, Mr. Brown found time to exchange e-mails about superfluous topics," including "problems finding a dog-sitter," Melancon said...

Click here to download a PDF (700k) copy of all the emails Melancon released (or pull it from the original source.)
Or, check out the these Culture Freak favorites, pulled out from the bunch:

Get the tots and a cherry lemonade

Can I quit now? ha ha ha

Can someone please explain my job to me?

Posted by MJuhre at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)

Rummy's Bird Flu Bonanza

In case you missed it elsewhere, you may want to know that Donald Rumsfeld stands to make millions of dollars thanks to Bush administration policy regarding the latest scare -- the prospect of an avian flu pandemic.

"The prospect of a bird flu outbreak may be panicking people around the globe," writes Nelson D. Schwartz of Fortune magazine but it's proving to be very good news for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other politically connected investors in Gilead Sciences, the California biotech company that owns the rights to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy that's now the most-sought after drug in the world."

Rumsfeld was on Gilead's board of directors from 1988 until he became secretary of defense in 2001, serving as chairman for the last four of those years. He still holds between $5 million and $25 million in company stocks and bonds, according to federal financial disclosures.

"In my years with Gilead, I have witnessed the evolution of one of the industry's premier biotechnology companies," Mr. Rumsfeld said in 1997 when he was named chairman.

Gilead does not currently manufacture Tamiflu, but has licensed the same out to Swiss pharma giant Roche, in exchange for about 10 percent of all sales.

Mufucka Gettin' Paid

The increasing buzz and worldwide fear of a bird-flue pandemic has led to unprecedented orders for Tamiflu in the past six months, increasing Gilead's stock value from $35 to $47 per share. That, Fortune magazine reckons, has rocketed Rumsfeld's already astronomical wealth by at least $1 million already. Last July, the Pentagon itself (Oh snap!) ordered $58 million worth of Tamiflu, according to the article.

On Tuesday, Bush requested $7.1 billion from Congress to address a potentially catastrophic (at least, so they say, who knows?) flu outbreak in the United States, at least $1.2 billion of those funds would go directly to toward Tamiflu production.

"Our goals in seeking this funding are to be able to produce a course of pandemic influenza vaccine for every American within six months of an outbreak," Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt (search) told the Senate Appropriations Committee.

First Halliburton, Now This

"It's all about guns and drugs and oil," said Air America radio's Marc Maron Wednesday, "but drugs is the one we talk the least about, but there are some heavy hitters -- people within [Bush's] Cabinet right now, making a fortune over the potential of millions of people getting sick...That's no surprise obviously."

"Who else has the Tamiflu action? Former Secretary of State [under the elder Bush] George Shultz. He's on the board [of Roche]. Coincidence? How ya feelin'? I'm feeling a little 'floolish.' A little bit. Maybe I need some Tamiflu. Who gets the pay? Rumsfeld Why is it that all these guys are in these businesses?...Doesn't it give you the creeps?...My God, I'm telling you this entire government... is just a money laundering operation, folks. That's all it is. It's a money laundering operation making these guys richer."

Indeed. See last month's post on Dick Cheney's Halliburton wealth.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)

November 02, 2005

Dems Grow A Pair; GOPs Whine Like Babies

Who would have guessed that Harry Reid would grow a pair and catch Bill Frist and the GOP off guard, let alone make them cry like little girls?

Yesterday, in an uncharacteristically brilliant move, Senate Democrats invoked the legislative body's cryptic "Rule 21" to force a closed discussion over the lack of Congressional oversight and examination of the dark tactics employed by the Bush administration to sell its Iraq invasion to the American people (though, for the record -- not this one!). The move forced the GOP to stop obstructing the Senate duty act on the strong evidence of wrongdoing by the White House and investigate the same.

But much more important, of course, the Dems actually blocked the Bush administration's attempt to capture control of the news cycle (after a week of bad news) by parading out its Supreme Court nominee.

"This past weekend, we witnessed the indictment of I. Lewis Libby, the Vice President’s Chief of Staff and a senior Advisor to President Bush. Libby is the first sitting White House staffer to be indicted in 135 years," Minority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor, before calling a secret session that totally caught the GOP off guard.

"The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really about: how the Administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions."

"What has been the response of this Republican-controlled Congress to the Administration’s manipulation of intelligence that led to this protracted war in Iraq? Basically nothing...Unfortunately the unwillingness of the Republican-controlled Congress to exercise its oversight responsibilities is not limited to just Iraq. We see it with respect to the prisoner abuse scandal. We see it with respect to Katrina. And we see it with respect to the cronyism and corruption that permeates this Administration. Time and time again, this Republican-controlled Congress has consistently chosen to put its political interests ahead of our national security. They have repeatedly chosen to protect the Republican Administration rather than get to the bottom of what happened and why..." See Reid's full statements here.

The best part, for my money, is seeing the bully that has stolen our lunch money for five years cry like a little bitch because we learned one of his tricks. I never thought to call the Republicans pussies.

"The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership... They have no conviction. They have no principles...This is a pure stunt." (Hmm, eh, pot calling the kettle black, Bill?) Never, he said, have "I been slapped in the face with such an affront to the leadership of this grand institution." That's because until yesterday, you and your boys were doing the slapping. Well 'wah wah wah.' Don't dish it out if you can't take it cry baby.

Posted by MJuhre at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2005

Cheney Called to Court in Plamegate Probe

Hopefully, by Thursday the television news pundits will be a little bored with the Alito court nomination, and will have fun showing Cheney arrive to testify. (Reuters story, by way of the Whiskey Bar blog. I had no previous knowledge of Whiskey Bar before it was passed onto me today, but it seems very much my style.)

Posted by MJuhre at 11:26 AM | Comments (0)

Wal*Mart-Written Settlement Over Child Labor is a Sham, Says Federal Inspector

Apparently, Chinese prison labor and 75-year old 'greeters' are no longer enough to maintain those "everyday low low prices"; Wal-Mart needs child forklift operators. Thanks to a sham of a settlement, Wal-Mart will probably get to keep them, since U.S. Department of Labor agreed to give the chain two weeks' notice before further inspecting stores for child labor violations.

"In a scathing 94-page report released Monday, a federal inspector general said there were critical flaws in a controversial U.S. Department of Labor settlement with Wal-Mart over violations of child labor laws in Connecticut and other states -- and that Wal-Mart attorneys had written key provisions of the deal." (Read full story in the Hartford Courant).

The New York Times also has the story (link will probably go dead after a week or so).

Posted by MJuhre at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2005

The Merits of our Goods are Univerally Acknowledged

Sadly, I have too much work to do to be blogging at this juncture. What poor timing. I didn't even know Harriet Miers stepped down until about 9:30 p.m. last night.

I urger readers to check out Scooter Libby's indictment (PDF) and, as background, the WMD Report (PDF, 3.2MB), AKA "The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction."

...Now back to work.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2005

Hipocracy has a new face. Wait, sorry, no -- same old faces.

E.J Dionne Jr. has a good editorial in today's Washington Post,"'Rule of Law'? That's So '90s":

"...It seems like a hundred years ago when Clinton's defenders were accusing his opponents of using special prosecutors, lawsuits, criminal charges and, ultimately, impeachment to overturn the will of the voters. Clinton's conservative enemies would have none of this. No, they said over and over, the Clinton mess was not about sex but about 'perjury and the obstruction of justice' and 'the rule of law.' The old conservative talking points are now inoperative. It's especially amusing to see former House majority leader Tom DeLay complain about the politicization of justice."

It is, indeed, especially amusing.

Lest anyone forget how the Republicans locked arms to impeach Bill Clinton in 1998 for perjury and obstruction of justice, after he lied to a grand jury about getting hummers from a White House intern, I thought it useful to pull in some quotations on that subject by some prominent conservatives:

"I would have voted for it. I thought the man lied." - George W. Bush speaking in 1999. (If link goes dead, try this.)

"It was about honor and decency and integrity and the truth," Mr. DeLay said, his voice breaking, "everything that we honor in this country. It was also a debate about relativism versus absolute truth." Tom Delay (now indicted for conspiracy and money laundering in a campaign finance scheme), speaking in December 1998.

"President Clinton committed perjury during his grand jury appearance. The criminal law of the United States forbids perjury before a grand jury..." Senator Bill Frist (now under investigation by the SEC for insider trading), speaking in February 1999.

More to be posted as I come across them. If you have any of your own, please send them in via comment, with link to the original source.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2005

Pundits Pore Over Daily News 'Bush Scoop'

Yesterday, the talking heads of cable television were all abuzz over the (New York) Daily News.

That's not something you hear every day. But yesterday's cover story, "Bushies feeling the boss' wrath", painted a picture of the commander in chief that sounded more like story about George Steinbrenner than George W. Bush.

The story, written by Daily News D.C. Bureau Chief, Thomas DeFrank, paints a picture of a moody and angry Dubya uncharacteristically lashing out at subordinates as his world falls apart around him -- or, as it might be put in more journalistic parlance -- "as his administration faces its toughest challenges to date" (but let's be serious -- things look to go from bad to worse for all things Bush).

[Excerpts]:" 'The President is just unhappy in general and casting blame all about,' said one Bush insider. 'Andy [Card, the chief of staff] gets his share. Karl gets his share. Even Cheney gets his share. And the press gets a big share.' ... 'This is not some manager at McDonald's chewing out the help," said a source with close ties to the White House when told about these outbursts. "This is the President of the United States, and it's not a pleasant sight.' "

When I read the story (on the 5:38 train to New Haven, where I was lucky enough to find the rare, discarded Daily News among the sea of New York Posts the Connecticut business class so adores), I scratched my head and just kind of had a "whaa?" feeling. It isn't the first time I've read of rumors of a brooding, erratic, and irascible Bush (I'd seen one many months ago in a Beltway newsletter, the name of which, sadly, eludes me at the moment). But I hadn't read anything like this in a major daily.

It is a bit of a strange story, what with all its unnamed sources, but frankly, no stranger than one in the Sept. 21 issue of The National Enquirer, which cited inside sources as saying Bush's woes had him crawling back to the bottle. (You may laugh, but they broke the story of Rush Limbaugh's drug addiction, which turned out to be true).

[Huh?]

The National Enquirer story was ignored by the "media elites" as right wingers like to say, and I really had no reason to believe The Daily News story would not be equally ignored (despite the latter paper's generally higher degree of credibility).

But then I went home and turned on CNN (for starters). They were all talking about it. Why?

What I didn't know, is that DeFrank, the story's author, is practically a "Bush insider" himself.

"DeFrank has a unique relationship to the Bush world, particularly to the older generation," writes Joshua Marshall on his blog, Talking Points Memo. "He cowrote James Baker's diplomatic autobiography The Politics of Diplomacy, for instance. And back in the summer of 2001, The Weekly Standard suggested he'd actually been in the running to be chief Pentagon spokesman, before the job went to Tori Clarke."

So, the story has some weight, it seems. What remains to be seen, is whether it has legs, or if it just disappears down the memory hole like the boozing Bush Enquirer story. For today we have buzz about Dick Cheney's involvement in the Plamegate case, the 2000th American death in Iraq, and the likelihood of indictments against Karl Rove and/or Scooter Libby. Of course, it is because of all these issues that Bush is supposedly losing his shit.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2005

Corporate Donor Flies Delay to Court Hearing

When Tom Delay flew to Houston last week to face charges he illegally funneled corporate donations Texas Republicans, he didn't have to fly coach.

Instead, one of his corporate donors was kind enough to loan him a jet. Luckily for Mr. Delay the donor is well respected for its honesty and integrity, and is unlikely to cause any appearance of impropriety in the case.

Of course, I'm joking. Really it could hardly be more ridiculous.

[From the Minneapolis Star Tribune]: DeLay's staff disclosed that he flew to Houston on Thursday morning on a corporate jet owned by R.J. Reynolds, a longtime contributor that has flown him to Puerto Rico and other destinations; they said the jet was "used in compliance with regulations." The company, which has also given $17,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund, did not comment Friday.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)

Former National Security Adviser Calls Administration on Bushit

Brent Scowcroft, the National Security Adviser under the first President George Bush who has often been at odds with the current administration, threw all caution to the wind and called those chumps out in an interview with The New Yorker magazine, released today.

"This [Iraq] was said to be part of the War on Terror, but Iraq feeds terrorism," he told the magazine. Back in August 2002, Scowcroft warned the Bush administration that "an attack on Iraq at this time would seriously jeopardize, if not destroy, the global counter-terrorist campaign we have undertaken."

"...This is exactly where we are now," he said of Iraq, with no apparent satisfaction. "We own it. And we can't let go. We're getting sniped at. Now, will we win? I think there's a fair chance we'll win. But look at the cost."

"... The real anomaly in the Administration is Cheney," Scowcroft said. "I consider Cheney a good friend -- I've known him for thirty years. But Dick Cheney, I don't know anymore."

When the New Yorker asked Scowcroft if the current President George W. Bush son was different from his father, the first President Bush, Scowcroft said, "I don't want to go there," but his dissatisfaction with the son's agenda could not have been clearer, the New Yorker said. Goldberg wrote, "When I asked him to name issues on which he agrees with the younger Bush, he said, "Afghanistan." He paused for twelve seconds. Finally, he said, "I think we're doing well on Europe," and left it at that.
--------------------------
Flashback – Brent Scowcroft – 30 years+ in the shadow world:

Above, images of a 1991 "declassified" memo from Scowcroft to Dick Cheney from MIT Archive. A text version can be found here.

More random Scowcroftness:

His resume at Scowcroft.com

Days into the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Henry Kissinger tells Scowcroft that President Nixon is too drunk to take a phone call from British Prime Minister Edward Heath.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2005

'Official' Corroboration is Nice, But This Falls in the 'No Shit' Category

Former Powell Aide Says Bush Policy Is Run by 'Cabal' (New York Times)

By BRIAN KNOWLTON
Published: October 21, 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 - Secretary of State Colin Powell's former chief of staff has offered a remarkably blunt criticism of the administration he served, saying that foreign policy had been usurped by a "Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal," and that President Bush has made the country more vulnerable, not less, to future crises.

(go to article)

If above link does not work, go here.

Posted by MJuhre at 01:06 PM | Comments (1)

There Goes That Smirk

Ahh that's better (the pic, that is -- see previous post).

But this is an interesting development. Tom Delay's defense team has requested a new judge because of bias concerns.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2005

Smart to the Last...in More Ways Than One

Sadly, we saw no arrest and have no perp-walk images, as Tom Delay today turned himself in to police.

Much as I can't stand the guy, I have to hand it to him. He's smart...and gave himself a makeover in one fell swoop.

Knowing full well his mug shot would be reproduced by every news outlet, and abused by many a leftist blogs, Delay made sure his mug shot was very photogenic, in order to quite literally put a new face on his image.

It's about the best picture I've seen of him in weeks. Most media outlets, including this one, have chosen lately to exhibit less-than-stellar photos of Mr. Delay.

In fact, when I searched for Delay in Google News today, the two images below appeared by links to relevant stories. But when I clicked on those stories, the above image has supplanted both of them, because it is more newsworthy.

Brilliant. No doubt about it. Hopefully, Delay's date in court tomorrow will wipe that smirk off his face, and this smart mug shot will fade into history.

(AwfulPlasticSurgery.com has some interesting thoughts on Delay's pic.)

Posted by MJuhre at 04:10 PM | Comments (0)

Arrest Warrant Issued for Tom Delay

The stuff that dreams are made of:

The above warrant was posted as a PDF on Nancy Pelosi's web site today, but was later yanked for reasons unknown. (Well, the details are unknown. I think we can all imagine various reasons why she might take it down.) Thankfully, The Smoking Gun pulled a copy before it disappeared. See the BBC's story here.

You can bet we'll post any mug shots and perp-walk photos we can find.

On that note, last month Daily Kos reported that posed (i.e. fake) pictures of Delay's arrest will be sold by Delay's defense team to rais funds...for his defense. No idea whether this is still true, or was ever true.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2005

Without Further Delay - Your Update

Time for your update on the indictment of Tom Delay (aka "The Hammer").

Over the past two weeks, the Congressman's defense team has engineered numerous delay (ho ho ho!) tactics, but all seem to be failing. Delay's lawyers have filed several number of motions to dismiss the indictments, based on highly dubious claims.

Yesterday, for example, the Delay defense team admitted it had no evidence to support its claim that Earle and his staff "attempted to browbeat and coerce" a grand jury as part of a politically charged attack on the Congressman.

Earlier, Delay's lawyers claimed this week that the charge of money laundering could not apply to this case, because anti-money laundering (AML) laws cover only the laundering of "funds", such as coins or currency, and that the money transfers cited in the indictment involved "checks."

Dudes...You might just as well claim that money laundering charges can only be levied against people who actually wash cash with cleaning agents. I'm no lawyer, but I used to cover the AML beat for a little newsletter called Bank Security News, and I can assure you that you can launder money without actually managing any hard cash. Checks are good enough. This was true even before America's AML laws were substantially beefed up in the PATRIOT Act.

And, of course, it was only after Delay's lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the original charge of criminal conspiracy, claiming the law under which it was constructed was not yet in effect, that a second Texas grand jury came back and said "okay, money laundering -- how do ya like dem apples?"

The conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison. The money laundering charge? Five to life, mutha!

Finally, this is old news, but I have this video and haven't posted it yet. The Delay camp is resorting to some downright strange television ads in an attempt to shift the public conversation. Check out this television ad (sorry, WMV file only) by Delay's camp, which compares prosecutor Earle to a bad dog. "Bad Ronnie, Bad." It's not exactly the caliber of spin I've come to expect from the GOP.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2005

Memogate II: Electric Boogaloo -- Is the Zwahari letter Just Another White House Ruse?

On October 11, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence released what it claims is "a letter between two senior al Qa'ida leaders, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, that was obtained during counterterrorism operations in Iraq. This lengthy document provides a comprehensive view of al Qa'ida's strategy in Iraq and globally. The letter...is dated July 9, 2005. The contents were released only after assurances that no ongoing intelligence or military operations would be affected by making this document public."

But some say this letter doesn't pass the sniff test and at CF we are inclined to agree.

First, U.S. intelligence agencies are not in the habit of divulging to the public the...well the intelligence it collects. In fact, these agencies often refuse to reveal its intelligence to even Congress upon formal request -- especially in the past three years, and especially when the intelligence pertains to Iraq. Therefore, it seems odd that the federal government would randomly release of this grand interception by our spooks, which just so happens to conveniently provide what the U.S. alleges is "a comprehensive view of al Qai'da's strategy in Iraq..."

Second, on October 13, "Al Qaeda in Iraq" disclaimed the letter, calling it "another fabrication ... by the Black House" [what they like to call the White House]. But you can't trust terrorists anymore than you can trust the U.S. intelligence community, right? Fair enough.

Okay, strike three. The U.S. claims this letter was written by Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Yet, one of the final paragraphs in the letter reads "By God, if by chance you're going to Fallujah, send greetings to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi." But...he IS Zarqawi...right? Why would Zawahiri tell Zarqawi to say hello to himself he was in Fallujah.

If fake, this letter's fabricator may have made fatal flaw there -- Oct, 14, 2005 US cannot explain suspicious Zawahri letter passage (Reuters).

If real, then the letter is clearly NOT written to Zarqawi, and U.S. intelligence is clearly a contradiction in terms.

(PDFs of the letter, in Arabic and its English translation, can be downloaded here.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)

And Only One Year Ago I was Sure Dubya Would "Out-Teflon" The Gipper

As I surely hope most of you recall, Reagan was dubbed the "Teflon President" since nothing stuck to him. You know, fun little things like GOP operatives stealing Jimmy Carter's debate briefing book during the 1980 presidential race, the October Surprise, the Iran-Contra scandal that convicted only a few, low-level losers (like future FOX News host, Oliver North).

From 2002 to early 2005, I was convinced that George W. Bush was set to out-Teflon Reagan. His administration had clearly engaged in more immoral and illegal activities than Reagan's (and, as the no-bid contracts of government privitization illustrate, actual corruption -- something which I don't think tainted the Reagan White House). And yet, he was reelected.

But as Congressional Quarterly points out, Bush may turn out to be the "Velcro President." Everything -- the lost Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina failures, Plamegate -- may stick to him and at least destroy his second term, and his legacy. And all because the American people recognize the puppet more than the puppet masters.

Check out CQ's story.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)

Bush's Millenarian Mojo

There is much bicker lately about whether or not George W. Bush really said in June 2003 that God told him to "end the tyranny in Iraq." as Nabil Shaath, the then Palestinian Prime Minister says he did.

If Bush really said then that God spoke to him directly, it was not the only time. During the 2004 presidential campaign, Bush told an audience of Amish in Pennsylvania, "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job," according to the Lancaster New Era.

(The paper's archive of the article is no longer available for free, but FreeRepublic.com has reposted in its entirety here.)

Posted by MJuhre at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Keith Olbermann (host of MSNBC's "Countdown") noted in his blog on October 12 that, since 9/11, all empty "terror threats" leaked by federal sources have coincided with political turmoil for the Bush Administration.

"Last Thursday [October 6] on Countdown," he writes, "I referred to the latest terror threat -- the reported bomb plot against the New York City subway system -- in terms of its timing. President Bush’s speech about the war on terror had come earlier the same day, as had the breaking news of the possible indictment of Karl Rove in the CIA leak investigation. I suggested that in the last three years there had been about 13 similar coincidences -- a political downturn for the administration, followed by a “terror event” -- a change in alert status, an arrest, a warning."

Yes, likely most Culture Freak readers have been thinking this the same, but it's useful when such assertions are made via a media outlet the masses consider to be "legitimate." MSNBC, which has tried to outFOX FOX for the past few years, can hardly be dismissed by the Willam Kristols and Rush Limbaughs of the world as the "liberal press."

Olbermann, in my view, is MSNBC's finest asset (indeed, perhaps, its only redemption). He does the zaniest thing a talking head on television can do: faithfully report based on evidence, regardless of whether that evidence paints an ugly picture.

He has made a comprehensive list of the thirteen of events cited above, and it is worth a look.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

Bitch is Lying

Judith Miller "can't remember" who gave her Plame's name. Uh huh.

Posted by MJuhre at 09:45 AM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2005

Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

Whoops!

Yesterday, George W. engaged in a "spontaneous" chat U.S. toops in Iraq. The only trouble is, before going live, the dress rehearsal for this event was accidentally broadcast via satelite to news rooms around the world, and made it clear the event was, in fact, carefully staged (as if I ever would believe it were not, anyway).

NBC's Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell took the administration to task (see the video from Crooks & Liars -- I encourage you to donate to the site's fund drive, as I am, since it provides a much-needed video archive).

So did some other news outlets. One CF reader advised me that Keith Olbermann did a great round-up of the rehearsal, which you can see here (note to Foxfire users: MSNBC is in cahoots with Microsoft so guess what? Yep, from my experience, you have to use Internet Explorer to view MSNBC video).

Of course, there are are two spins...er sides to every story, eh?

Bush, Troops Have Rehearsed Chat (CBS) * * Pentagon Denies Talk With Troops Was Staged (FOX)

Posted by MJuhre at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

October 12, 2005

Two-Fist Frist

Frist apparently still believes he has a chance in hell of filling George W. Bush's shoes one day, even though his recent flip-flop on federal funding for stem-cell research made him no friend to the Christian right whose support he would most certainly need.

Oh yeah, and he's corrupt.

In addition to the shares his (not-so) blind trust owned in his family-founded Hospital Corp. of America (HCA Inc.)until he ordered them dumped, a few weeks before the stock tanked, it has come to light that he also owned additional secret shares, controlled by his brother, a top officer of HCA.

So, Frist held HCA financial interest in both hands. Can somebody say subpoena?

Posted by MJuhre at 04:12 PM | Comments (0)

Lautenberg: congratulations Halliburton and Vice President Cheney!

Rumor has it that Vice President Dick Cheney is becoming a focus of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's "Plamegate" investigation. Cheney hasn't exactly been in the public eye much these days, but so far, his being investigated by Patrick Fitzgerald is just rumor. On the other hand, this press release, issued by Senator Frank R. Lautenberg office last month, presents known facts about Cheney's conflict of interest, and outright corruption with regard to his Halliburton holdings. Enjoy.

Cheney's Halliburton Stock Options Soar to $9.2 Million

WASHINGTON -- Senator Frank R. Lautenberg reiterated his call for Vice President Dick Cheney to forfeit his continuing financial interest in the Halliburton Co (HAL), in light of the surging value of Vice President Cheney's Halliburton holdings. Vice President Cheney continues to hold 433,333 Halliburton stock options, now worth $9,214,154.93 (at close yesterday.)

"As Halliburton's fortunes rise, so does the Vice President's, and that is wrong," said Senator Lautenberg. "Halliburton has already raked in more than $10 billion from the Bush-Cheney Administration for work in Iraq, and now they are being awarded some of the first Katrina contracts. It is unseemly for the Vice President to continue to benefit from this company at the same time his Administration funnels billions of dollars to it."

All of Vice President's Cheney's stock options are "in the money" for the first time in years. According to the Vice President's Federal Financial Disclosure forms, he holds the following Halliburton stock options:

100,000 shares at $54.5000 (vested), expire 12-03-07 33,333 shares at $28.1250 (vested), expire 12-02-08 300,000 shares at $39.5000 (vested), expire 12-02-09

The Vice President has attempted to fend off criticism by signing an agreement to donate the after-tax profits from these stock options to charities of his choice, and his lawyer has said he will not take any tax deduction for the donations. Valued at over $9 million, the Vice President could exercise his stock options for a substantial windfall, benefiting not only his designated charities, but also providing Halliburton with a tax deduction.

The Vice President also continues to receive "deferred salary" from Halliburton. While in office, he has received the following salary payments from Halliburton:

Deferred salary paid by Halliburton to Vice President Cheney in 2001: $205,298 Deferred salary paid by Halliburton to Vice President Cheney in 2002: $162,392 Deferred salary paid by Halliburton to Vice President Cheney in 2003: $178,437 Deferred salary paid by Halliburton to Vice President Cheney in 2004: $194,852

In September 2003, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a memorandum to Senator Lautenberg concluding that holding stock options while in elective office does constitute a "financial interest" regardless of whether the holder of the options will donate proceeds to charities. CRS also found that receiving deferred compensation is a financial interest.

The CRS report can be downloaded at:

http://lautenberg.senate.gov/Report.pdf [note from Culture Freak - this link was dead when I tried it...hmmm. When I have a sec I'll query Lautenberg's office]

The CRS findings contradict Vice President Cheney's puzzling view that he does not have a financial interest in Halliburton. On the September 14, 2003 edition of Meet the Press in response to questions regarding his relationship with Halliburton where he was employed as CEO for five years, from 1995 to 2000, Vice President Cheney said:

"And since I left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest. I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had, now, for over three years."

Posted by MJuhre at 02:16 PM | Comments (0)

More Terror Horse Shit

So, of course you know by now that the recent NYC terror alert was, as have been all the others since 9/11, a "hoax" (at best), terrorist-sponsored disinformation, the smoke-and-mirrors of domestic politics, or some combination therein. When a real threat emerges will we believe it? Alas, I realize I should always take to heart the words of the National Stranger song, "Always Already": "Where there's smoke there's mirrors...and that's what I expect. All these years of sin ain't over yet."

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Penn Station), carrying a salad purchased with a 10% corporate discount at (New York chain) Seattle Coffee Roasters, the Lord is not my shepherd.

My shepherd it seems, is the dude with the M-16, though its he that follows me up the escalator, rather than the other way around.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. (Well, not really. Actually it's a little unnerving.)

Damn, they put too much balsamic vinnaigrette in my salad.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

October 07, 2005

Slightly Less Jaded Than Two Days Ago

Each day on my way to and from work, I hear the following automated announcement from the Metropolitan Transit Authority: "passengers are advised that their backpacks or large parcels are subject to random search by police. Thank you for your cooperation."

Yesterday morning I marveled how hollow these proclamations had become. Back in July and August, in the wake of the London transit bombings, police actually did search bags, and I even had mine checked twice. But for the past month or so, nothing. Any terrorist recently scouting the subway or commuter rail systems could be relatively confident that no bag searches would take place.

Then, about 7 hours after I had these thoughts, New York City announced it had new(?), specific, and admittedly somewhat daunting threats to our subway system.

To get to my job I arrive by comuter rail at Grand Central Terminal, whereupon I immediately board the Shuttle subway to Times Square. From there I board a train to the Manhattan's other major rail hub, Penn Station, which is located next to Madison Square Garden. I spend the remainder of my day 24 stories above, at Two Penn Plaza, and at 5 p.m. repeat the above commute in reverse.

This means that every day I pass through three likely terrorist targets...twice...during rush hours. Plus, I pretty much stay above or around one of those targets all day.

That's somewhat disturbing, to say the least.

Everybody Loves Raymond

On the flipside, if there's one thing that gives me some feeling of safety, it is that we have Raymond Kelly as our police commissioner. I first learned of Ray Kelly's wildly impressive resume while writing an article on homeland security in 2002.

Last month I suggested he be named to replace Michael Chertoff at DHS, since he actually knows something about security, and has experience coordinating local, regional, national, and even international law enforcement efforts. But now I think, shit, let's keep him in New York. Lacking confidence in DHS, the FBI, or the CIA to fully intercept and/or thwart direct threats to New York City, Kelly has created an international intelligence unit within the NYPD. It's led by an ex CIA agent, and has operatives in London, Israel, Singapore and, soon, Jordan.

Still, while I am not well studied in the acturarial sciences, I can count, and the numbers regarding my commute and workday give me pause. I travel by train and foot through major New York targets 30 times a week during rush hour and spend about 35 hours a week in a cubicle above one. I'm not sure how much longer I'll do this and I'm all but certain that if a New York falls victim to its version of London's July transit attacks, and I'm not killed, I'll quit my job and figure something else out.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)

October 06, 2005

Former U.S. Marine Press Officer Takes Flack From Right Wing

Last week former US Marine Corps Captain Josh Rushing, 32, became the center of controversy for the second time, when Arab news network Al Jazeera hired him as a Washington correspondent for its nascent English-language broadcast.

His first brush with fame (or infamy, as some would have it) came in 2003, when he unknowingly appeared in "Control Room," a documentary film about Al Jazeera and its coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom. At the time of the filming, Rushing was a First Lieutenant, and the junior public affairs officer for CENTCOM in Qatar. His commanders chose him to be the CENTCOM liaison to Al Jazeera, because he had developed a rapport with several of its journalists after asking them to teach him some basic Arabic, a language he did not speak, but which he felt would be useful in order to best do his job.

Proponents of the war and the Bush administration didn't like some of the things Rushing had said on camera.

Those things, of course, were simply honest observations about the difference between the U.S. and Arab media, in their coverage of the war.

"When I watch Al Jazeera," Rushing says in one segment, "I can tell what they're showing and I can tell what they're not showing, by choice. Eh, same thing when I watch FOX on the other end of the spectrum. I know which of the stories that we put out that they're picking up on and which ones they're not giving much bounce. It benefits Al Jazeera to play to Arab nationalism 'cause that's their audience, just like FOX plays to American patriotism for the exact same reason -- American nationalism, because that's their demographic audience and that's what they want to see."

Uh, oh. "Truth? Them's fightin' words."

Now that Rushing is actually joining the Al Jazeera network, the right wing zipper heads are really going after him, calling him a traitor like this half-assed, Ann Coulter wannabe, Debbie Schlussel.
Schlussel who called Rushing a "moron and traitor" in her blog yesterday. "Not only is he a bigger boob than Anna Nicole Smith's entire chest combined," she writes, "Rushing also shares her intellect and the politics of . . . well, Al-Jazeera."

Huh. Wait Debbie, who's the moron?

First, I understand your intended meaning with the "entire chest combined" thing, but in the English language you cannot combine a singular noun (e.g. "chest") unless you combine it with something (like say, your face) and your prose could use some work.

Second, and more importantly, your assertion that Rushing shares "the politics of…Al Jazeera" is not supported by the record.

In a January interview on PBS's "NOW" (watch the
video), Rushing, who joined the Marines at 17 and remained on active duty until he turned 31 (when he felt all but drummed out of the Corps, after Control Room hit movie screens) addressed this point of view very bluntly:

"That's such a stupid, simplistic way to look at it. I haven't befriended Al Jazeera. I don't get in my pajamas and call 'em at night. What I'm advocating is, they are too important to ignore. And the fact that you say Al Jazeera's befriended Al Qaeda is ignorant. If you were in Al Qaeda's shoes, you too would send your tapes to Al Jazeera 'cause that's what everyone [in the Arab world] is watching."

"What the Marines trained me to do was to represent the best of what America stands for to a foreign audience," Rushing told USA Today last week. "That's exactly what I'm going to do."

As per usual, Schlessel and her ilk equate telling the truth with being a traitor. But surely, it is words like these (from Rushing's interview on "NOW") that rile her feathers.

Rushing: "If you look at the culture that starts from the top -- just look at Secretary Rumsfeld and look at the culture there. He says publicly -- it's in the movie Control Room -- he says 'They [Al Jazeera] lie, they lie! They take a bombed out building and put a crying woman in it and say her family was in it.' Well, there were a lot of families in those bombed out buildings and so she's probably not lying. We have to acknowledge the ugly face that war has on it.

…I've been very critical of [FOX News] where they have a culture where they can't be critical of the military -- and the Bush administration I think recognizes that and so often they'll push down messages for military guys to put out instead of administration flacks...

NOW: Did you see this?

Rushing: Well I think I did it. By having me argue why we go to war, instead of the administration, it became this 'oh well if he says it...' y'know because it's kind of sacred cow if the military says it. And I blame FOX a lot for not being more critical of the military -- now I think the military is a great job and I particularly love the Marine Corps and will always love the Marine Corps. But I think it's a healthy environment to have a media that's critical of it -- to ask the tough questions.

But, of course, asking tough questions is a traitorous act, the right wing has asserted for the past five years.

Again, ersatz Coulter, Debbie Schlussel: "Now this enemy-pandering nimrod, Josh Rushing, is the new face of America to billions of radical Muslims worldwide."

Right Debbie, and I suspect he'll do a better job than Karen Hughes is.

An aside: I don't even wanna get started, but I have to at least mention this jackass:

Dan Senor is the former spokesman of the Coalition Provisional Authority (back when Paul Bremmer ran things in Iraq). Now he works for FOX news in the most recent successful example of a government job being transferred to the private sector.

Posted by MJuhre at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)

October 05, 2005

Al Qaeda Posts ‘Help Wanted’ Ad On Website

No idea if it's true, but if it is...wow. See article in the Khaleej Times Online.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)

Totally Jaded in the New World Order

This post is a little disjointed. Forgive me.

So Bush wants to use the U.S. military to enforce quarantines in the event of a pandemic flu outbreak, eh?...Huh. Well, I suppose that figures. It's sad that it hardly fazes me.

Now that we're living in the proto-fascist dystopia envisioned by the movies I enjoyed at a teenager (e.g. Mad Max), Blade Runner, I've decided it's time to review those films to find the instances where life has imitated fiction (you know, like today's trend toward privatization of military and police functions, similar to that in Robocop), or the trend toward private ownership of water utilities, similar to the Mars mining colony in Total Recall, where the mine owner makes his workers pay a fee to breathe oxygen).

In this effort, Blog Cabin commentator HB and I just saw Terry Gilliam's 1985 film Brazil the other day. It the first time she saw it, and the first time for me in many years. Yesterday she emailed me:

I've been listening to the generals speak at the senate hearing on C-SPAN. "Blah blah… terrorists are spread in small cells across the globe... They want to wreck havoc on all civilized societies…" (Reminds me of Brazil!).

Yep. In Brazil, terrorists blow up public places so often, that restaurant patrons spared by the blast continue to nonchalantly dine next to the dead and dying. While growing up, I kind of knew those movies were frightening windows to the future (see my Nov. 4, 2004 posting, The oracle that is Demolition Man), and that was what I loved so much about them.

Now that we're here in the future, the one of the things I find most disturbing is how jaded and nonchalant I have become. Perhaps not quite like the folks in Brazil. The last time I saw a building blow up, my friends and I indeed fled in fear (as the World Trade Center rained down on us). But today, only four years later, I walk by soldiers and bomb sniffing dogs at the rail station and have twice had my bag searched by police. All in a day's work...

So today I read that Bush wants to use the military to enforce quarantines in the event of a flu pandemic. Three years ago a friend of mine warned me that this exact scenario was on the horizon (the only thing she wasn't sure of was which disease Bush would use as his excuse for martial law). I dismissed her as just becoming more paranoid than I was prepared to be.

But today, I'm way beyond that level of paranoia I once dismissed. These days I just assume the worst and, when it arrives, say things like "Huh, martial law eh? Well I just hope I'm not at work in Manhattan when the George Bush transforms it into the huge prison from Omega Man scenario. Well, gotta get back to work."

***********************************
CF reader and Matt weighs in with these thoughts:

This may be the Bushies testing the waters a little bit to see how much they can get away with. They may need one more (biologic) incident, before people
are sufficiently scared to get the bill cleared [e.g. revising the Posse Comitatus Act – Ed.].

Posted by MJuhre at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2005

Bush Booze Fest

The National Enquirer recently reported that Bush has been caught drinking by Laura. I haven't seen any major news outfits pick up on this, so the jury is still out I suppose.

Today, however, I ran across this interesting analysis (from of a photograph of Bush after the infamous "pretzel choking" incident. The author, an alcoholic herself, believes the pretzel was a smokescreen for a fall off the wagon.

I don't know anything about the source of this article, "VH Headline -- Venezuela's Electronic News, but it kind of has the feel of China's People's Daily or the U.S.'s FOX News, only coming from a pro-Chavez Bolivarian revolution point of view.

Don't take my word for it, however. It would take some studying to get a handle on this curious site, and figure out exactly where its writers are coming from. It's definitely weird.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:14 PM | Comments (0)

Cracks in the Veneer

It's hard to tell yet whether the indictment of Tom Delay has legs.

But that doesn't matter, because the story does.

The indictment has put the bigger picture of repeated GOP corruption, legal, and ethical misconduct in play.

Suddenly the smaller stories, like that of David Safavian (see our Sept. 21 posting) and the abrupt resignation of the recently appointed commissioner of the FDA, are crawling out of the back pages of the newspapers, and making headlines on cable news (a medium which, I think it is safe to say, filters through the masses more readily than print).

It's about time.

Delay yesterday dismissed his indictment as a "coordinated, premeditated campaign" by Democrats, who want revenge for Republican gains in the 2004 Congressional election.

Yeah...and good for us! It's about time someone grew a pair and went after these evil-doers.

Truth be told, I think this indictment is a little more than just partisan politics, but the revenge is sweet when it crystalizes news coverage of Republican dirty tricks.

Remember, back in the 90s, Delay called for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton because for getting his pole waxed and lying about it.

Delay, on the other hand, engineered the Congressional redistricting of Texas in order to pack the House of Representatives with Republicans. Oh and let's not forget the other, unrelated ethics probes against Delay.

I can't wait till the Valerie Plame probe comes back to the front pages.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2005

Sweatin' to the Oldies: GOP's Bad Boys Trade Hubris for Hot Seats

Above: House Majority Leader Tom Delay responds to his indictment for conspiracy to violate Texas election laws that ban corporate contributions to state campaigns, and Senate Majority leader Bill Frist responds to an SEC probe into suspected insider trading, after he dumped stock in his family-owned chain of hospitals a few weeks before a poor earnings report led the stock to tank by 15%.

Several officers and directors of Hospital Corp. of America Inc. are also under investigation by the SEC.

Frist says he dumped the stock to avoid the appearance of inpropriety (since he shapes health legislation that can directly affect Hospital Corp. of America's bottom line.

The problem with that explanation is that Frist previously fought to keep that stock, putting it in a so-called blind trust (that eh...ain't that blind), claiming that solved the issue of any conflict of interest.

This scandal comes on the heels of his recent flip-flop decision to support funding for embryonic stem-cell research, which pissed off the right-wing, Christian nutcases he had been pandering to over the past year in hopes of winning support for a 2008 presidential bid.

My prediction? Bill Frist's presidential dreams are over. On Delay, we'll have to wait and see.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:59 PM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2005

Will 500 Prisoners Missing Since Katrina Get Tallied in Official Body Count?

Orleans Parish Prison's 600 inmates were left locked-in as floodwaters rose for four days after hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, according to Human Rights Watch (full story link below).

"They left us to die there," Dan Bright, an Orleans Parish Prison inmate told Human Rights Watch at Rapides Parish Prison, where he was sent after the evacuation.

The jail was reportedly abandoned by the Sheriff's department August 29, the day Katrina hit. Rescue workers did not arrive until at least three days later. More than 500 inmates are now officially listed as "missing."

How many do you suppose drowned? If any did, will they be addded the official Katrina death toll?

And by the way, what the hell is that official death toll? I haven't found a news article on this for a week. Correction: I was wrong about. This Russian news service puts the toll at 1078. A Russian news agency finds it newsworthy but mainstream western media does not? I guess the extra 18 reported dead since Sept. 22 isn't sexy enough news for American editors to bother with.

See Human Rights Watch's story.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)

Rita -- Wuss of a Storm Wipes War Demonstration off Media Map

Between 100,000 and 300,000 protestors joined Cindy Sheehan in Washington, D.C. this weekend to protest the war in Iraq. There were reportedly 400 counter demonstrators.

I saw no coverage on the television news (which was all Rita, all the time), and scant coverage print world.

What more needs to be said?

Posted by MJuhre at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2005

Katrina Body Count Update

Just a quick update to our Sept. 13 post, questioning the ambiguity of the Katrina body count.

For the first time in many days, the question of Katrina body count hit the news again. Below I post a link to a number of those reports. The main news for all of these stories is that (1) the Katrina body count has surpassed 1000, and (2) authorities still expect to find many more bodies from U.S. What is curious in the coverage is that, generally, the headlines from U.S. news sources leverage point (1), e.g."Katrina's Death Toll Climbs Past 1,000," while those from international news sources focus on point (2), e.g. "Many more bodies expected to be unearthed in New Orleans."

9/22/05 body-count stories (opens in new window).

Posted by MJuhre at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2005

ARE THE BODIES AND BODY COUNT BEING DELIBERATELY OBSCURRED?

I first started considering this possibility on Sep. 9. Only a few days after it was widely reported that FEMA was directing news media not to photograph bodies, a news story blanketed the world press, reporting that "Fewer Bodies Than Expected Found in Sweeps". Granted, the source of that news was New Orleans director of Homeland Security Terry Ebberts -- not FEMA, but at least some observers assert that Ebberts is desparately trying to divert attention from his own failures in the past two weeks.

Morgues and Refrigerator Trucks -- No Funerals

But later that same day I heard a radio report of refrigerator trucks moving in and out of areas where FEMA had turned news crews away (I'm going to look for corroboration, or at least the original source, and post it here later). I found additional reports of refrigerator trucks carting the dead from various local news sources.

The next day (Sept. 10) Alice Jackson, a stringer for Time magazine from Springs Miss., whose house was destroyed by Katrina wrote the following in her story, "Life After Katrina":

"There have been no funerals, and we are wondering why. My sister-in-law, who works at the hospital, says the morgue is full and they are using refrigerator trucks. But why are there no funerals? The newspaper does not have obits. Why? Are we denying that people died, or are we saving up all this grief to torment ourselves with after we begin to truly recover? Why would we not begin to bury the dead?"

"Some of us took over morgue operations, helping them run the morgue and do autopsies, logging bodies in and out," funeral director Gene Pellerin told reporters for Lafayette, LA's Daily Advertiser Sept. 12. "Some people were tasked to build racks in refrigerator trucks, and those went out and did recovery," Pellerin said.

Bay St. Louis, Miss. resident Grant Tingstrom, 46 told the St. Augtine Record, " 'You can't get a straight answer to how many people were killed. We're all seriously disappointed in George W.' The official number published in the Biloxi newspaper, is 160 dead in four stricken counties. Tingstrom says, 'They're lying.' Andrew Arceneaux, a volunteer firefighter with East Hancock Volunteer Fire Protection District, said he was involved in search and rescue after the storm. "We pulled 60 bodies about two streets from the shoreline," he said, adding there were 10 refrigerator trucks containing bodies in the city..." (Read full story in new window.)

Let's not forget, also, that journalists were eventually barred from the Superdome, from which there were scattered reports of Katrina survivors dying by the hour of thirst and overheating. (Those reports, I have no real corroboration for so take them with a grain of salt -- or do some and tell me! Previous reports of rapes and assaults in the Superdome were publicly refuted by Capt. John Bryson of the New Orleans police department's sex crimes unit, who happened to be in charge of the 80 or so police officers at the Superdome. He told television reporters he was upset that the hurricane victims at the Superdome were being portrayed as criminals in the reporting spin and that, in fact, "thugs were few" in the Superdome and the crowd largely "policed themselves." He said two attempted rapes were reported, and the individuals arrested. Obviously, from thousands of miles away, I have no way to know which, if either tale from the Superdome, holds more truth. This Chicago Tribune gives some color on this.)

MSNBC has news reported that The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had 6,000 adults and 2,400 children reported missing. Of course, we must consider that most of the missing were likely separated in the diaspora to Texas and other outlying areas. A decent benchmark to determine whether the deathtoll is being tweaked, will to review NCMEC's "missing" numbers in a month or two. If they still have a thousand or more missing, and we are still being told that less than 1000 people died in the Gulf Coast region, then we'll know something ain't right.

***UPDATE***Sept. 22, 2005

9/22/05 body-count stories (opens in new window).

***UPDATE***Nov. 22, 2005
6644 still missing -- stat hasn't changed much in last few months.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:28 PM | Comments (0)

FEMA Sends Trucks Full Of Ice For Katrina Victims To Maine

Yes, Maine! Again I ask, could FEMA's falterings be deliberate? I can't imagine they are, but these ridiculous stories keep coming in.

Read the story from KSDK News, Portland, ME.

Thanks Rachel Maddow for finding news like this we may otherwise miss!

Posted by MJuhre at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

Arrested Bush Official Was Questioned on Terrorist Ties

Below are two stories on the curious situation of David Safavian, arrested September 19. One thing to keep in mind while reading the coverage is that, while Safavian is correctly characterized as an "ex/former" Bush Administration official, that status came about only because he resigned three days before his arrest.

Ex-Bush aide didn't reveal lobbying
Arrested ex-official initially didn't tell panel about work
San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 21, 2005

WASHINGTON -- David Safavian, the Bush administration official arrested Monday, initially failed to disclose lobbying work he had done for several controversial foreign clients when he went before a Senate panel last year to be confirmed as chief of the White House's federal procurement office.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held up Safavian's nomination for more than a year, in part because of lawmakers' concerns about lobbying work for two men later accused of links to suspected terror organizations, according to committee documents. The Senate panel nevertheless approved him unanimously, and the Senate followed suit on Nov. 21, 2004. (See full story.)

Former White House Official Arrested
Wasington Post, Sept. 19, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A former Bush administration official was arrested Monday on charges he made false statements and obstructed a federal investigation into his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to court documents and government officials.

David Safavian, then-chief of staff of the General Services Administration and a former Abramoff lobbying associate, concealed from federal investigators that Abramoff was seeking to do business with GSA when Safavian joined him on a golf trip to Scotland in 2002, according to an FBI affidavit and the officials. (Read full story.)

Posted by MJuhre at 09:10 AM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2005

Mundane Thoughts from this Morning

Three little things that made my morning:

First, on the Times Square Shuttle I saw a woman reading Ferrets for Dummies. I couldn't believe it. I knew there were "Dummies" books for just about everything but this bit of absurdity had escaped me. "Is Not Being a Fucking Moron for Dummies out yet?" I thought to myself. That ferrets are illegal in New York City added color to the moment, but it was time to exit the train.

Normally I would transfer from the shuttle to a downtown #1, 2, or 3 train, but this morning there were even more herds of humans running amok than there are usually. Apparently downtown service was disrupted on the IRT Lexington line, and everyone was scrambling for alternative routes. This was a nightmare I could luckily avoid. It's only a 10 block walk to my office from Times Square, and I could see I was going to be late anyway.

On 34th street and 7th avenue I walked by the giant Timberland boot display, as I do every day, and marveled (as I do every day) at how exactly Timberland became hip-hop gear when, when I was growing up, it was a white-boy shoe. In fact, it was the ultimate white-boy shoe. In the 80s, Timberlands were generally worn two kinds of folk: blue-collar workers, and Led Zeppelin- and Rush-listening burnouts with faded jeans jackets. I remembered my friend Roger, joking that the silly skinheads our town often ranted about "American pride," yet always wore Doc Marten's, a British boot, and that if they were really all about American pride, they would wear Timberlands (of course, today Timberlands are probably made in China -- I haven't a clue.) Anyway, now somehow the ultimate white-boy shoe has gone jiggy. Kinda like Tommy Hilfiger once was...

To round out my 10 minute walk, I watched a homeless, or at least very dirty, hunchback cross 32nd street against traffic, making no real effort to be quick about it. I was sure he was going to get creamed by oncoming traffic, but luckily he just got a vigorous honking. To that, he replied with an over-the-shoulder middle finger aimed directly behind him. He was so nonchalant, he didn't even bother to look at whomever he was flipping off. It was just a reflex. I hadn't seen a person of his type in quite some time, I thought. A complete, old-school, New York City character -- Martin Scorsese kinda shit. It reminded me of how dramatically this city has changed in the last 15 years. Where once there were hunchbacks and other interesting looking characters screaming ideological or religious zeal into megaphones, now there are Starbucks stores and displays of Timberlands.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2005

Hugo Chavez...

Settling well into his new role as heir apparent to Fidel Castro as the most humiliating thorn in the side of U.S. policy, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week earned a round of thunderous applaus after tearing the Bush Administration a new one in a speech at the United Nations during a global summit marking the international body's 60th anniversary.

“There were never weapons of mass destruction, but Iraq was bombed, and, over U.N. objections, (it was) occupied and continues being occupied,” he said, speaking one day after Bush addressed the U.N. and, later, the American people (where he prattled on about God, the U.S. army, and hurricane Katrina).

Chavez said that the attack on Iraq launched by the United States without U.N. demonstrated America's lack of respect for the organization, and suggested moving its headquarters from New York City to an international city “outside the sovereignty of any state.”

He also accused the United States of "abetting "international terrorism," according to the Washington Post.

"The only place where a person can ask for another head of state to be assassinated is the United States, which is what happened recently with the Reverend Pat Robertson, a very close friend of the White House," Chavez said. "He publicly asked for my assassination and he's still walking the streets."

At one point, a U.N. official handed Chavez note advising his allotted five minutes was up. But the Venuzuelan presigent threw it on the floor, turned toward the president of the General Assembly, Jan Eliasson of Sweden, and said: "I think the president of the United States spoke for twenty minutes here yesterday. I would ask your indulgence to let me finish my statement."

After his speech, Chavez got the loudest applause of the summit, according to observers present.

That evening, Chavez appeared on ABC's Nightline, where he told Ted Koppell he had documentary evidence that the United States was preparing scenerios to attack Venezuela under the code name Operation Balboa (read full transcript).

Decent coverage of the speech (many are derived from AP coverage, though it is interesting what elements of the speech different papers chose to include or omit:

Washington Post

Globe and Mail (Ottowa, Ont.)

San Francisco Chronicle

Posted by MJuhre at 05:22 PM | Comments (0)

Private Firm in Charge of Retrieving Katrina Dead Previously Implicated in Florida Body-Dumping Scandals

I won't refer readers to stories at just any random website, but this one at The Raw Story looks sufficiently documented.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)

GOP to Give U.S. Military Authority Over U.S. Citizens?

Republicans look poised to revoke the Posse Comitatus Act and establish military rule in the United States.

That is, at least during times of natural disasters, like the recent flooding of the Gulf Coast.

The Christian Science Monitor reported that Senator John Warner (R - Va.) want to "review" the 1878 law, which bars the armed forces from engaging in law enforcement in the Unite States.

"In rare cases, Warner wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, only the Pentagon has the resources to respond effectively to a catastrophic event," reported USA Today.

Warner's words echo those spoken by Bush in his speech on September 15, (you know, the one where he appeared with his shirt buttoned incorrectly?), in which he called the armed forces "the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice."

Of course, under Bill Clinton's presidency, FEMA was actually capable of managing massive logistical operations on a momen't notice.

But now that Bush has gutted the federal government's funding by cutting taxes for his friends, and gutted the federal government of its professional and capable civil servants by appointing his friends, OF COURSE the U.S. military remains as the only wing of the federal government that can do anything quickly.

Gutting FEMA to its currently impotent status plays perfectly into the GOP's campaign to sway public opinion toward the notion that the federal government is weak and useless, so that the allegedly more efficient private sector can step in and save the day (thank you Halliburton who, according to former employees and CBS news, is wasting and millions of dollars in American-taxpayer money due to poor management and outright fraud).

But it also plays allowing Donald Rumsfeld to unleash the U.S. army against its own citizens.

A couple weeks ago (see the Sept. 7 post), I reflected on a fear held by many in the 1980s, that FEMA would suspend the U.S. Constitution during a time of "national crisis" (an authority bestowed upon it by President Reagan) and how FEMA's recent performance made it clear it couldn't even tie its shoes, let alone establish martial law.

Little did I realize that, duh, the Bush Administration still seeks the ability to establish martial law, but simply planned to just go directly to the U.S. military (and its new army of private contractors), rather than bother letting a civilian authority like FEMA take control.

A Christian Science Monitor poll asked the following question.

Should Congress authorize the use of active-duty troops after domestic emergencies like hurricanes?

The responses, with 818 recorded at the time of this writing are as follows:

No. Changing laws meant to protect civil liberties isn't the way to solve a management problem.
70.9%

Yes. The scope and depth of disasters like Katrina mandate a greater military response.
29.1%

Posted by MJuhre at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2005

The New 'Oraq' World Order

Check out this great story in the Asia Times on the reconstruction of "New Oraq", which notes the similarities between the occupation of Baghdad and New Orleans.

"…it is hard to ignore the comparisons between Baghdad (where I was less than a month ago and have spent more of the last two years) and New Orleans: the anarchy, the looting…We watched a flatbed truck drive by, a man on the back with an M-16 looking up on the roofs for snipers, as is common in Iraq. Private security contractors were stationed outside the Royal St Charles Hotel…

…Iraq and New Orleans now seem to be morphing into a single entity, New Oraq, to be devoured by the same limited set of corporations, let loose and overseen by the same small set of Bush administration officials…"

Posted by MJuhre at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)

Christian and Islamic Fundamentalists Say God Punishing U.S.

As if we needed more evidence that all religious fundementalists are essentially the same, the U.S. Christian right and militant "Islamists", as the press seems to have dubbed them, both believe Katrina was brought by God to punish us.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:34 AM | Comments (1)

September 13, 2005

EPA Official: Bush Administration is Covering up Environmental Impact

The Bush Administration is lying about the environmental impact of hurricane Katrina, according to Hugh Kaufman, senior policy analyst at Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response.

God bless him. The 35-year veteran of the EPA is apparently not intimidated by an administration with a record for destroying the careers of civil servants who dare expose its lies.

Expect Kaufman to be fired soon. Kaufman says the Bush Administration is employing a whitewash policy regarding the hazardous environmental impact caused by flooding in the "Cancer Alley" of the Gulf Coast (so named because of the numerous chemical plants, oil refineries, storage depots, and other industrial facilities in the New Orleans area -- you may have seen some of it on fire in the TV news recently).

Air America Radio's Mark Maron and Mark Riley, interviewed Kaufman Sept. 13, two days after he told The Independent, a British newspaper, that the EPA's current "inept political hacks" running the clean-up were not taking enough water samples and that it will take 10 years of cleanup before parts of Louisiana and Mississippi will be environmentally safe for human habitation:

Hugh Kaufman: First, before we start...my comments are based on my 35 years experience in the emergency response/hazardous waste area at EPA...but I'm not telling you the policy of the Bush Administration. I am not a spokesperson for them.

Mark Maron: Thank God! Is the government -- let's just get right to it, in saying is the government being honest with the American people about the safety of the air and water in New Orleans, right now?

Hugh Kaufman: No they're not.

Kaufman said the EPA had taken only samples of water in the New Orleans area, and declared them free of benzene, toluene, and xylene, which are found in processed petroleum products. "But if you watch your television set, and if you listen to the statements of everyone who's down there, there's an oily sheen on top of all the water down there, and in fact there's been the release of millions of gallons of oil down there. [So] there is benzene, xylene, and toluene in the water. It would be the same as saying 'there are no atoms of hydrogen or oxygen in water.' And if people go by this they will think that the only thing they have to worry about is the bacteria and viruses, and not the hazardous material that's in that water."

Lt. Col. Kent Ralston, the U.S. Marine Corps commander of the unit deployed to the industrial canal area of New Orleans, told The New York Times that "it's an environmental nightmare. It's just chaos, the worst damage I've seen."

In addition, Solid Waste & Recycling magazine, a Canadian trade journal, reports that the Agriculture Street Landfill, a registered Superfund site "on the National Priorities List of highly contaminated sites requiring cleanup and containment" now lies under the floodwaters. "A few years ago the site (or at least the parts not sitting under houses and a school that were built atop it after the landfill closed decades ago) was scraped two feet down and covered with clean soil," writes the magazine.

Guess where all that soil is now?

Kauman said contaminated waters in various sections of the Gulf Coast can cause cancer, birth defects, and other long term health problems down the road, and that TV news viewers will note that none of the officials or citizens involved in rescue, cleanup, and logistics operations at the mouth of the Mississippi are wearing protective gear. "We had the same problem after 9/11," he said. "Four years later, 75% of those responding heroes are sick as dogs and they're starting to die off, and I'm worried that that's gonna happen down [in New Orleans] -- where the heroes will be the first ones to get really sick."

Kaufman also said the policy of the Bush Administration is "the same as in 9/11" -- to cover up the environmental impact.

Complaining that, under Bush, the EPA has been tightlipped with its studies and reports, The Society of Environmental Journalists, and individual reporters have filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain detailed information from the EPA on environmental problems in the Gulf Coast, in New York City post-9/11, and other incidents.

The EPA has been delaying all such FOIA requests as a matter of policy, according to Kaufman.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:28 PM | Comments (0)

Coordinated Chaos and Dismanagement?

I'm not yet prepared yet to go with full-on conspiracy theory, but I'm finding a lot of weirdness that forces me to ask questions.

QUESTION ONE - "DISMANAGEMENT"? WAS THE FEDERAL RESPONSE TO THE KATRINA FLOOD DISASTER, IN PART, DELIBERATELY MISMANAGED?

It began with an email request from a reader: "Will you send me links to anything you come across that suggests what motivation the Administration might have to militarily occupy New Orleans and/or displace the majority of low income residents? The more I read, the more convinced I become that senior officials must have issued stand down (or at least hold back) orders to the National Guard and or FEMA to deliberately escalate the situation in New Orleans. I am thinking that looking at trade journals from the past 5 years might offer some clues, like if the location of the city somehow negatively impacted the refinery or shipping industry..."

Indeed, at least one concern this reader had is correct. Indeed there was at least one "stand-down" order issued by the federal government. A FEMA news release HQ-05-174, issued August 29, advised first responders to stand down until they could be coordinated by state and federal officials. See the exerpts, below (or read the whole thing here on FEMA's website -- should it mysteriously disappear, I have a copy).

"WASHINGTON D.C. -- Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), today urged all fire and emergency services departments not to respond to counties and states affected by Hurricane Katrina without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities under mutual aid agreements and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact. 'The response to Hurricane Katrina must be well coordinated between federal, state and local officials to most effectively protect life and property,' Brown said. 'We appreciate the willingness and generosity of our Nation’s first responders to deploy during disasters. But such efforts must be coordinated so that fire-rescue efforts are the most effective possible.' "

In the wake of the flooding FEMA rejected or thwarted a number of relief efforts, including offers of trains by Amtrak to evacuate residents, turning back trucks of supplies donated by Wal-Mart, and preventing the Coast Guard from delivering fuel (links to stories at end of this post).

If there was an effort by the federal government to exacerbate this disaster, what could be the motiviation? Real estate interests? Fostering in our culture the right-wing notion that the Federal government should all but be dismantled? They love to foster the notion that the private sector can do better than the government, even though we know the private sector continually steals from our government, meaning us, the American taxpayers.

Oh, well this is interesting:

Some reports now suggest that Louisiana's political power could soon fall into Republican hands, if its dislocated black population does not return to the state. The following is an excerpt from the Sept. 12 Financial Times story, "Democrats fear state majority will evaporate."

"...A rule of thumb for Democrats is that you only need to win about three in 10 white votes in order to carry the state, says Hal Kilshaw, a Democrat political consultant. 'The state has already been gradually shifting towards the Republicans,' he says. The state is divided into three broad electoral areas. The white Baptists in the north have tended to be solidly Republican, while the Cajun Catholics in the south-western Arcadia area have traditionally been more open to voting for the Democrats. The black vote in New Orleans has helped the Democrats carry the state..."

Of course, even before this, Republican Richard Baker was overheard suggesting that the hand of God had wiped clean the problem of New Orleans's public housing projects (see yesterday's post).

Rense.com, a blog that alerted me to the abovementioned FEMA press release, posted many of the following great list of stories about FEMA. (Some links had gone dead, and I deleted or replaced them.)

Louisiana Senator said FEMA failed to accept Amtrak's offer of assistance in evacuations

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks and prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel

FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid

FEMA turns away generators

QUESTION TWO - ARE THE BODIES AND BODY COUNT BEING DELIBERATELY OBSCURRED?

The next day (Sept. 10) Alice Jackson, a stringer for Time magazine from Springs Miss., whose house was destroyed by Katrina wrote the following in her story, "Life After Katrina":

***UPDATE***Sept. 22, 2005

9/22/05 body-count stories (opens in new window).

Posted by MJuhre at 12:06 PM | Comments (0)

"Nobody Could Predict..." My Ass! Even Mr. Bill Knew

In 2004, Mr. Bill appeared on this prophetic PSA, calling on Louisiana's citizens to save its wetlands before a hurricane came and flooded the city.

Posted by MJuhre at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2005

God Finally Does Something About Section 8 Housing

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." -- Republican Congressman Richard Baker of Baton Rouge, overheard telling lobbyists, as reported by The Wall Street Journal Sept. 9.

Baker says he was misquoted. "What I remember expressing," said Baker in statement, "in a private conversation with a housing advocate and member of my staff, was that ‘we have been trying for decades to clean up New Orleans public housing to provide decent housing for residents, and now it looks like God is finally making us do it.’"

Uh huh. Well, I sure can't say he wasn't misquoted, but the "what I remember" line is usually code for "I'm not sure if what I said was recorded or can be corroborated by more than the one source that reported it."

Baker's voting record is pretty much straight down the GOP line, both on social issues and economic. Baker gets a lot of PAC money from business interests, but then I suppose they all do.

This odd group of Welsh Wiccans have some thoughts on Baker (mainly that he claims to support religious rights, but only Christian religious rights), and list his track record for voting against civil liberties.

"Thank God, for God," Baker might be thinking, as he opens the day's trading at NASDAQ.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)

September 09, 2005

Laura Bush Doesn't Even Know the Name of Hurricane Katrina

"...Speaking to reporters at an elementary school in Iowa, Mrs Bush, 58, wrongly referred to the hurricane as 'Karina' twice," wrote British tabloid The Daily Mirror.

"The blunder follows a gaffe just days ago by President Bush's mother, Barbara, who claimed poverty-stricken refugees were better off thanks to the hurricane..."

Go to story.

If you really want to hear her, this is the only recording I know of on the Web:here.

You need to download the Sept. 8 broadcast of Air America Radio's The Majority Report. It comes in at around 1:16 (one hour 16 minutes) into the broadcast.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)

Inept Political Appointee? Bush's FEMA is Full of 'em

Philadelphia Daily News senior writer William Bunch's Sept. 9, 2005 blog entry:

Two Bush 2000 Florida recount aides were rewarded with top FEMA posts

Reversing an eight-year crusade to rid the now-embattled Federal Emegency Management Agency of political patronage, a newly elected George W. Bush in 2001 named two key players in his Florida recount fight to important FEMA posts.

Go to story.

Go to the main page of Bunch's blog.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

Canadians and an Unemployed Electrician Save St. Bernard Parish

Two days after a broken levy caused massive flooding in New Orleans neighbor St. Bernard Parish, a 50-person rescue team from British Columbia, Canada arrived to save the day.

No one from the U.S. government arrived until two days later (and even then, it was two FEMA officials -- two).

The city of Vancouver's Urban Search and Rescue Team flew to Lafayette, La. on Wednesday Sept. 1, according to Bloomberg, and moved on to rescue victims in St. Bernard Parish the following day.

Until the Vancouver team arrived, rescue efforts in the area had been undertaken by local residents led by Verlyn Davis Jr., an unemployed electrician.

After it became clear that no one from his own government was en route to help relieve his community, Davis turned his parents' restaurant into a shelter and command center, from which dispatched volunteers in the disaster relief effort.

"The governor and the president let thousands of people die and they let them die on their roofs and they let them die in the water," Davis, 45, told the Associated Press. "We got left. They didn't care."

Posted by MJuhre at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2005

Frustrated: Fire Crews to Hand out Fliers for FEMA

Some 1400 firefighters who volunteered to join in the rescue effort in the Gulf Coast were instead flown to Atlanta to train as FEMA public relations volunteers to hand out fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.

The firefighters' first assignment, according to the The Salt Lake Tribune, was to be theatrical backdrops for Bush as he toured devastated areas.

Read this story and pass it around.

Posted by MJuhre at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)

Louisiana Governor Brings in Clinton's FEMA Director to Take Command

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) has brought in James Lee Witt, the former FEMA director under Bill Clinton, to take command.

It's a brilliant move, and not surprising, since the current director of FEMA is clearly incompetent, and considering that the current incarnation of FEMA was downsized and underfunded by the Bush Administration (in an attempt to create "small government", or really, NO [federal] government).

Witt, who is working pro-bono for at least 45 days, met with current FEMA Director Michael Brown and reportedly told him, "Mike, you’re going to do your job, and I’m going to make you do your job. And I’m going to show you how to do your job."

Read the full article from The Hill.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

September 07, 2005

Lesson One: Losers and Lawyers Can't Keep America Safe

I remember when I was afraid that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would suspend the Constitution.

In the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan authorized a secret war against the government of Nicaragua, he signed executive orders giving FEMA broad powers, including the right to suspend the Constitution in a time of a national crisis, including violent and widespread internal dissent or national opposition against a U.S. military invasion abroad.

My mom that told me about that executive order. We were both pretty freaked out.

Back then, Reagan, Bush Sr., and their powerful GOP, CIA, and private-sector allies seemed like a danger to our our democracy. They were, of course, but compared to the current administration, the "Reagan-Bush era" seems like walk in the park.

But anyway, eventually I forgot about the whole FEMA/Constitution issue (most likely after the 1992 election.

I forgot about it until 9/11, when I breathed a sigh of relief, figuring that if FEMA had not declared martial law then, they probably never would (the subtle erosion of Constitutional rights since then is, of course, another matter).

Little did I know that by the time 9/11 rolled around, FEMA couldn't tie its shoes, let alone take over the elected government.

After Bush took over the U.S. government, the capable disaster managers Clinton had placed at FEMA were replaced with political cronies with no emergency credentials.

In February 2001, Bush appointed Joe M. Allbaugh as director of FEMA. Allbaugh's previous job? National Campaign Manager for Bush-Cheney 2000. Before that? Chief of Staff for Texas Governor George W. Bush.

But don't worry. Allbaugh left the agency in 2003 to work on Bush's reelection campaign.

Enter Michael Brown, the current FEMA director.

Brown's last job before joining FEMA? A lawyer by training, Brown, as many a critic has crooned, spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association (IAHA). Oddly this experience is absent from the resume posted on the FEMA web site.

Perhaps that is because the only disaster management experience Brown had before joining FEMA was trying to figure out what to do after the IAHA fired him for incompetence.

Brown was invited to join FEMA by his long-time friend and college roommate...former FEMA director Allbaugh. When Allbaugh stepped down to go back to campaigning for Bush, Brown became director.

Actually, Brown's official title is no longer director, but "Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response," since FEMA is now folded into the Department of Homland Defense.

The idea of the DHS, to combine various agencies like the Secret Service, FEMA, and INS under one roof, in order to streamline and coordinate their efforts protect Americans from terrorism, seemed somewhat reasonable after 9/11, when everyone was all freaked out to learn that even the NYPD and FDNY couldn't talk to each other on their radios.

Unfortunately, when the Republican-controlled Congress and President Bush actually created the DHS, instead of streamlining anything, they created a gargantuan bureacracy that clearly can't manage anything, let alone defend the homeland.

In February 2005, Bush tapped Judge Michael Chertoff, a former prosecutor and Whitewater investigation lawyer to head the DHS.

Dude. A lawyer? A lawyer can't defend me against anything except
other lawyers. What's Jerkoff...er Chertoff gonna do when terrorists strike, send them a friggin' 'Cease and Desist' letter?

In a slighly less nightmarish world, the head of DHS would be someone like New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

To be fair, Kelly does have a law degree. But he has a lot more. He's been the top cop at the NYPD under two different mayors, the Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service (now part of DHS), and the Under Secretary for Enforcement at the U.S. Treasury Department -- where he supervised the the U.S. Secret Service, the ATF, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and other agencies. Further, he also elected Vice President for the Americas of Interpol, the international police organization, served as Director of the International Police Monitors in Haiti, and is a Vietnam vet who retired as Colonel in the Marine Corps after 30 years of service. That's a fucking resume for DHS.

For that matter, much as I disliked the guy, Rudy Giuliani would have been a better candidate for DHS chief than this bone head.
Look at my bone head! .

It just gets worse and worse with these people.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2005

FOX Reporter Becomes Unlikely Media Hero

That is all the perspective you need!

Late last week, while watching televsion news coverage of the Gulf coast disaster, I found an unlikely media hero in FOX News's Shepard Smith. Smith threw Fox's spin machine out the window and instead filed objective, live reports.

Shep was clearly shaken, to the point of almost freaking out, when he reported that the Federal Government had set up an armed checkpoint to prevent flood victims from leaving the convention center in New Orleans.

When Sean Hannity tried to turn the spin machine back on, Shep actually shouted him down. A FOX reporter shouting another FOX reporter down? What am I seeing? Even Geraldo Rivera candidly reported (albeit in a slighly more Geraldo-like dramatic way) the situation, and shut off the FOX spin valve.

Eventually, when Sean realized he couldn't stop Shep and Geraldo from reporting the truth, he got rid of them and moved onto the greener pastures of other field reports. I didn't Shep or Geraldo again for hours.

Watch the video -- Windows Media (5MB) or Quicktime (3.5MB) -- which I, again repost from Crooks and Liars. I thank them for seeming to always harness and post the news footage I always want a copy of!

Below, I also repost a partial exerpt prepared by The Next Left.

* * *
Shepard Smith: I'm standing right above that convention center, and they won't let them walk out of there. What they've done is lock them in there.

The government said, 'You go here and you'll get help. Or you go in that Superdome and you'll get help." ... AND THEY DIDN'T GET HELP! THEY GOT LOCKED IN THERE AND THEY WATCHED PEOPLE GETTING KILLED AROUND THEM! They watched people starving. They watched elderly people not get any medicine.

And you know what they've done? They've set up a checkpoint on this bridge ... And it's the only way out. It's the connection to the rest of this world. AND ANYONE WHO WALKS UP OUT OF THAT CITY NOW IS TURNED AROUND! You are not allowed to go to Gretna, Louisiana from New Orleans Louisiana.

Over there, there's hope. Over there, there's electricity. Over there, there's food and water. But, YOU CAN'T GO FROM HERE TO THERE BECAUSE THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO DO IT!!! It's a fact!

Sean Hannity (interrupting): I want to get some perspective here ...

Shepard Smith: THAT IS PERSPECTIVE! THAT IS ALL THE PERSPECTIVE YOU NEED!

Posted by MJuhre at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2005

Increasing Numbers of Journalists Call Politicians on Their Bullshit

Anderson Cooper, who has been visibly emotionally upset almost to the point of speechlessness while covering this story -- joined the fray of journalists (and others, see Mayor Ray Nagin's pleas from a previous post) who are calling high-profile officials on their bullshit.

Cooper tore Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D) a new one on CNN. See the video -- Windows Media (3MB) or Quicktime (5MB+) -- , which I am reposting from Crooks and Liars. I hope they don't mind, but I want to help ensure this footagea doesn't disappear down the memory hole!

If you don't have time to se the video, I post an exerpted transcript below. But it doesn't quite tell the whole story.

* * *

Cooper introduced Landrieu and immediately asked, “Does the federal government bear responsibility for what is happening now? Should they apologize for what is happening now?” Landrieu told him “there will be be plenty of time to discuss those issues,” and proceeded to begin thanking various government officials for their disaster relief support.

Finally, Cooper interrupted her:

Senator, I’m sorry, I haven't heard that [that the Senate just met to appropriate relief funds] because for the last four days, I have been seeing dead bodies here in the streets of Mississippi and to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other — I have to tell you, there are people here who are very upset and angry, and when they hear politicians thanking one another, it just, you know, it cuts them the wrong way right now, because there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman has been laying in the street for 48 hours, and there is not enough facilities to get her up. Do you understand that anger?

Go to Think Progress for more excerpts of the transcript. But, if you have time, I urge you to check out the video clip.

Posted by MJuhre at 01:31 PM | Comments (0)

New Orleans Mayor Nagin's Amazing Radio Interview

I am pissed. I cannot possibly convey how amazing this interview with Mayor Ray Nagin is. He throws politics and etiquette to the wind and just tells Feds to "get off their asses." Read the whole transcript.

Listen to the whole thing if you can. There is a link to the audio on the above page.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:20 PM | Comments (0)

Middle America Witnesses Bush Administration's Incompetence

When Katie Couric starts acting like a real journalist and tells Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that the federal government has totally fucked up and failed to protect the lives of the American people, you know some chickens are finally coming home to roost on the White House door.

Couric, who's journalistic work usually consists of such scoops as Sean Combs telling the world that it can now call him "just Diddy" instead of P. Diddy, joined the voices of many real people (such as victims on the ground and civil servants) who say that the government failed to plan for, and is failing to react quickly enough, to this disaster.

"We knew for several days that this hurricane was going to hit. To say that by Sunday, you'll have 30,000 national guardsmen on the ground...it seems like there's a pretty long lag time in terms of actually having them on site...What about simple things like food and water. It seems many people still haven't gotten those essential supplies. Why is that?

"That's a frustrating issue for me," Brown began in his response that got more and more lame with each word, and isn't worth repeating here.

"Many people say a crucial mistake made by the government is not providing adequate funds to improve the levy system [in New Orleans]...Many people from the Army Corps of Engineers have been asking for years to improve the levy system. Why weren't federal funds allocated for them?"

Brown dodged this question as well, though in all fairness, FEMA does not have control over how federal funds are spent.

The fact is that money promised to improve Louisiana's levy system through the 1995 Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project Act (SELA), was diverted toward Bush's tax cuts and to help fund the war in Iraq.

"The [Army Corps of Engineers] never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain," wrote William Bunch in Editor and Publisher (go to story). "At least nine articles in the [New Orleans] Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars."

FEMA itself actually issued a report in 2001 warning the Bush Administration of the three most likely disasters to hit the United States: a terrorist attack on New York (hmm), a hurricane hitting New Orleans (hmm), and a major earthquake hitting San Francisco.

Will the Bush administration squeak by public opionion again and get away with its complete incompetence, as it has in the past? I can never tell with these folks, since they have continually gotten away with so much nonsens. But it's not looking very good this time.

I'm sure most Americans are now pretty concerned about how exacly the federal government will be able to respond if a major (read: much worse than 9/11) terrorist attack takes place in this country (with the possible exception of New York City, where an enormous police and emergency-services infrastructure is always poised to handle more than any other major U.S. city).

Almost 40 years ago, when CBS news icon Walter Cronkite spoke out against America's war effort in Vietnam, President Lyndon Johnson, said to his press aide 'If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

Well, if Katie Couric begins reporting something of substance, and calling the Administration on its bullshit, Bush may finally lose Middle America. Unfortunately, it's too late.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)

You Want Government Help? Here's Your Government Help

Here's your fucking aid.

Above, a woman wonders why state troopers are arriving at the New Orleans Convention
Center with rifles instead of water.

Below a man nearby covers a dead body with a cloth. (both photos by Eric Gay, AP).
Man covers dead body.

People Die and Rot at Convention Center; Government Scratches Head

MSNBC photo journalist Tony Zumbado reporting at the convention, pleaded with authorities to help the people who had been there on their own since Tuesday:

"These are the families who listened to authorities, who followed directions, who believed in their government. They were told to go to the Convention Center. They did. These are law abiding citizens who have been left behind. They did everything they were told. They are just left behind. There is nothing offered to them. No water, no ice, no C-rations -- nothing -- for the last four days. It's getting very very crazy in there and very dangerous. I don't wanna sound negative against anybody or any official but according to [the victims at theh Conthem and they're there on their own. There's no police. There's no authority. They have been behaving. They have not started any melees, any riots -- nothing. They just want food and support. There's no hostility there so [authorities] don't need to be bringing any guns or anything like that. They need support."

Posted by MJuhre at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)

George Bush's "One-Finger-Victory Salute"

Bush Flips Bird to America

See this video of a 'playful' future president Bush. This was purportedly taped at an Austin, Tex. production company, while Bush was governor of Texas.

Posted by MJuhre at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2005

Oil Storm

American civil oil war

I'm as upset about what people are going through in the the Gulf states as anyone, but this isn't a venue for my emotions, so please don't think that I'm callous for discussing the following:

It was pretty crappy, but did anyone see F/X network's fake documentary, Oil Storm, last June? The premise was that "a category 6 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico slams into Louisiana, crushing the city of New Orleans and crippling the vital pipeline for refined oil that is Port Fourchon."

In the docudrama, the pipeline set off a ripple event that. America got all messed up by something of this mini-apocalypse and, for once, middle class Americans got all uppity.

I'm not sure if this is correct, but I'd swear that one of the things the people were all uppity about, was that Bush refused to open up the U.S. strategic reserve to allay the economic panic caused by the disruption of Louisiana petroleum.

Now I really wish I could see it again (even though, again, it basically sucked) just to see if the Bush Administration is taking from it any cues for its own actions. But now I suspect it will just disappear down the memory hole, it least for a time -- I imagine the TV people would find it to be in bad taste.

If you missed it, go to F/X and check out the trailer for Oil Storm.

Posted by MJuhre at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

Sean Hannity Knows Better Than Louisiana's AG

Last night or the night before (it's been a long week already) I saw this exchange on FOX News:

Sean Hannity

Sean Hannity: Looting has become a big, big problem in New Orleans today. This morning cameras caught people ransacking a grocery store, trying to gather as much food as possible and joining us now on the phone is the Attorney General of Louisiana [Charles C. Foti, Jr., though Hannity failed to introduce him by name]. These images of looting have literally shocked the nation [Yes Sean, THAT is what has shocked the nation]. How bad is it?

Charles C. Foti, Jr.

Attorney General Foti: Well I think there is always the opportunity for looting. Ah, when you think about eh you have no electricity, no food, you have limited water, and the grocery stores are closed. That may not be looting, that might be self-preservation, okay? But we will, aggressively—

Sean Hannity flips you off

—Can I interrupt you? You seem to be minimizing it, but the images we have and that we've been showing ehh... do not really back up what you're saying. [Note: Sean himself said, above that "...cameras caught people ransacking a grocery store, trying to gather as much food as possible..."]

If you don't want to watch FOX news, but would like to learn what horseshit they spew, I recommend News Hounds. "We watch FOX, so you don't have to."

Posted by MJuhre at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2005

Be a Witness: Genocide is News

The Center for American Progress created a television ad criticizing television news networks for their paltry coverage of Darfur.

The ad (click here to see it) points a finger at the networks for covering crap like the missing chick in Aruba, and the "Runaway Bride" while ignoring important and newsworthy events.

But guess what? ABC, NBC, and CBS have refused to air it. Spineless losers. See this article at Think Progess for more.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2005

Pat Robertson Calls for Death

This AP story was forwarded by Jeff, who observed the "religious leader becomes the perfection of modernity [through his] amazing language."

It seems that, only weeks after praying to God to use his hand to create more vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court, Pat Robertson has now called upon the hand of U.S. covert ops to assasinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."

So let me get this straight. We have yet another right-to-lifer -- and a very high profile one -- calling for death. Back in 1986, when Pope John Paul II said America had a "culture of death," he was referring to the country's Pro-Choice majority. But the label clearly befits our culture in so many more ways, and Pro-Life Pat Robertson proves the point. The Pope himself appeared to broaden the scope of his coined phrase in his Christmas message of 2000.

The story point out that, in the past, "Robertson has...suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device [and]... that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

I am left to wonder: could Pat Robertson's increasingly wacky talk become a thorn in the side of the Christian Right, or does the CR just encourage lunatic-fringe-speak these days? I feel like that could go either way and that all the devices of the mind I would normally employ to predict such a thing have been nullified. It's hard to keep one's eye on reality when reality becomes exponentially more surreal each day.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2005

Civil Liberties Eroding with Increasing Speed

So, since 9/11, and especially since the terrorist bombings in London, has the fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution been officially abrogated?

It seems to be null and void at least in practice—I have had my bags searched by police at Grand Central Terminal twice this month. I guess, theoretically, one can refuse to be searched by police and will simply be turned away from the subway system or commuter rail, rather than be arrested.

But what are the police going to do when three swarthy-looking dudes with really big bags refuse to be searched and opt not to enter teh transit system—just let them be on their merry way? I doubt it. Does being swarthy looking, having a big bag, and refusing to be searched combined create probable cause for police to insist on such a search.

Speaking of bags and unlawful search and seizure, these folks have created the messenger bag pictured here, which has the fourth amendment emblazened across its side, follwed by the words "I do not consent to this search." Only problem is, I can see someone wearing this thing into the NYC subway system being put in the position where he/she has to either consent to the search or be really really late for work. Which is it gonna be?

Posted by MJuhre at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2005

Pentagon Requests Raise in Recruitment Age to 42

Uncle Sam wants you – even if you’re 42 years old

(The Army Times)

The Defense Department quietly asked Congress on Monday to raise the maximum age for military recruits to 42 for all branches of the service.

Go to article.

(Thanks Rachel Maddow!)

Posted by MJuhre at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2005

Supreme Court Nomination Provides Media Reprieve from 'Plamegate'

I got the dope moves I have to acknowledge that Bush's nomination of Judge John G. Roberts to take Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Court was strategically brilliant to the point that I'm almost just prepared to give up on my anger with this Administration and just bow down to its political savvy. Roberts is almost certain to sail through the Senate-approval process. And, since he is young, in judicial terms, he might sit on the court until 2040.

I’ll hold off on other comment on this nomination -- at least for now.

That said, one rather deplorable decision Roberts made as a judge was in February, when he decided in favor of the Bush administration, which sought to prevent Gulf War veterans that were tortured under Saddam Hussein's regime from collecting the nearly $1 billion from Iraq previously awarded to them by a federal judge.

The Administration essentially argued that since the U.S. had conquered Iraq, the government that owed our soldiers compensation as per a court order no longer existed.

On the legal side, that may be a sound argument. Quite honestly, I don't really understand how a U.S. court can order a foreign government to pay our citizens compensation for torture in the first place (anyone?), although I suppose that is just part of the spoils of war.

However, the real reasons the Bush administration sought this decision were (1) now that it dominates and funds the Iraqi government, it didn’t feel like ponying up the cash to our troops, and (2) more importantly, the Administration was worried that the original Federal Court decision might set a precedent that could bolster future lawsuits against the U.S. government for mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

***********************
By the way, in case you’re wondering. The pic above is not actually John Roberts, but former Vice President Dan Quayle. But all those conservative white-bred types look the same to me. The big difference, of course, is that John Roberts is no moron.

Posted by MJuhre at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2005

Journalists Smell, and Finally Draw, Blood

Oh crap!

On July 12, Fox News's most sniveling worm of a news anchor, John Gibson, said, "I say give Karl Rove a medal, even if Bush has to fire him. Why? Because Valerie Plame should have been outed by somebody and nobody had the cajones to do it. I'm glad Rove did, if he did do it, and he still says he didn't...You wouldn't send a peacenik to see if we should go to war, if we need to go to war, now would you? That's exactly what happened."

This morning, Air America Radio's Isaac-Davy Aronson reacted to those words: "Ahhhhh-are you serious? I can't stand it. Listen. Peacenik? Joe Wilson -- they are still slamming Joe Wilson after all of this -- Joe Wilson worked for the [elder] Bush Administration. He was sent to Iraq by Bush one. He was the last person authorized to meet with Saddam Hussein...He supported the Gulf War and then when Saddam Husseing threatened to hang all the Americans in Iraq leading up to the war, Joe Wilson went outside the embassy -- after hiding all the Americans in Iraq in the embassy -- with a noose around his neck and said 'Saddam, I'm right here. Come and hang me.' This man is a great American."

Gibson's Rove-shining, Wilson-smearing rant is in line with the GOP spin identified this morning on the Rachel Maddow Show. Every day Air America's Rachel Maddow gives her update on the right wing's backdoor strategies and talking-point PR. Filling in while Rachel vacations this week, Aronson said the GOP spin on the Rove revelations are twofold:

1) Legalese wrangling: i.e. saying that what Rove did was technically not illegal, since he didn't actually mention Valerie Plame's name, only that "Wilson's wife" was with "the agency" (CIA). This nonsense we all expected.

2) Talking points that what Rove did was a good thing (hence Gibson's oratory).

Strategy one might well prevent Rove or anyone else in the administration from indictment, even though what Rove allegedly did is a federal crime. But I'm curious to see whether strategy two can really stick.

Anyone who saw the White House press briefing on July 11 can see that the normally cowed mainstream media smells blood. Can the right wing media really fend them off with torches? (If you have a half hour, I really encourage you see/listen to that press briefing. Go to C-SPAN, do a text search for McClellan, and click on the July 11 news briefing with Scott McClellan. Otherwise, I provide a link the transcript below.)

The press corps really gave Scott a reaming over his shoddy non-answers to questions about Rove's involvement in the Plame affair. After years of brown-nosing and/or being cowed by the Bush adminstration, the White House press corps actually asked tough questions and call the White House on its BS. I could hardly believe it.

This may be wishful thinking, but I can't help but feel like the current generation of reporters are now fantasizing about having their Watergate story. So many other outlandish things this White House has done have disappeared in the media cracks. But the Rove-Plame thing looks like it has legs.

The fact that this all comes on the heels of journalist Judith Miller going to jail for refusing to name her source on the Plame affair (for a story she never wrote) is probably what really gave the press back its bite. Over the past year the government and the right-wing pundits have trounced the mainstream press. We had Memogate, the "Kenneth Tomlinson vs. Bill Moyers and the CPB" affair, the Newsweek story on koran desecretion (which, by the way, was reviewed and given the OK by the Pentagon before it printed, even though Rumsfeld and the entire Bush Administration then condemned it 11 days after publication).

After all that, and now that the Administration has been caught in such a blatant lie (asserting last year that Bush wanted more than anything to "get to the bottom" of who leaked Plame's name, and insisting that Rove was not involved), it appears that the journalists may finally close ranks and not let the Administration off the hook. Could the Bush Administration veneer be fracturing? Are its many PR victories over? Or am I naive? We shall see.

The overreach by the GOP over the Schiavo issue may have been the turning point for the victory of right-wing hubris. Then came the Downing Street memo. Now we know that Rove outed a CIA operative as payback to Joe Wilson's telling the truth that the Niger-Saddam-yellowcake story Bush used to justify the invasion against Iraq was poppycock.

Please Jesus, send in the wolves.

Links:

Transcript of the July 11 White House press briefing with Scott McClellan. If you can't watch the video READ THE TRANSCRIPT. Skip McClellan's opening remarks and go straight to the Q and A.

Transcript of the July 12 White House press briefing with Scott McClellan. Things didn't get too much better for Scott yesterday:

Q All right, you say you won't discuss it, but the Republican National Committee and others working, obviously, on behalf of the White House, they put out this Wilson-Rove research and talking points, distributed to Republican surrogates, which include things like, Karl Rove discouraged a reporter from writing a false story. And then other Republican surrogates are getting information such as, Cooper -- the Time reporter -- called Rove on the pretense of discussing welfare reform. Bill Kristol on Fox News, a friendly news channel to you, said that the conversation lasted for two minutes and it was just at the end that Rove discussed this. So someone is providing this information. Are you, behind the scenes, directing a response to this story?

MR. McCLELLAN: You can talk to the RNC about what they put out. I'll let them speak to that. What I know is that the President directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation. And as part of cooperating fully with that investigation, that means supporting the efforts by the investigators to come to a successful conclusion, and that means not commenting on it from this podium.

The Rachel Maddow Show -- If you don't already listen to her show on Air America Radio, you should! It's only an hour and, if you download the podcast later in the day (like I do, since the show is on from 5:00-6:00 a.m. Eastern Time), it's shorter, because the commercials are taken out. Rachel Maddow kicks ass and my fiancee and I are both in love with her. Every day Rachel combs the domestic and foreign press to find the important political stories that those of us with busy lives might otherwise miss.

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update...

Crap. Maybe the GOP veneer will hold after all.

A couple things worry me about how the Rove story is developing today:

One, almost every major paper's headline today seems to be "Bush will withold judgment on Rove" or "Bush Declines Comment" rather than "Bush Refuses to Comment on Rove," which is, of course, what he is refusing to do.

Of the big names, so far only the Los Angeles Times had the balls to tell it like it is: Bush Refuses to Discuss Rove's Role.

Two, the typical, wussy, Democratic gum flapping like this from Senator Biden, (who normally I like, but who has been annoying me a lot lately -- and just about the time he started thinking about running for president...hmmm) doesn't exactly bolster the wave of public opinion that could crash over Rove and the adminstration.

"The fact [Rove] he didn't give her name, but identified the ambassador's wife ... doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who that is," Biden said on CNN's Inside Politics. "If that occurred, at a minimum, that was incredibly bad judgment, warranting him being asked to leave."

Bad judgment? Ask him to leave? Thanks Joe. Lame ass talk like that are essentially a concession in the war of words, and will sink any chance of indictment.

Back in the late 90s, the GOP's lockstep crooning over "obstruction of justice" got President Clinton impeached for lying about a blow job. Your job as a Democratic leader is to say the following over and over again: "Rove committed a crime by disclosing the identity of a CIA operative (you don't have to name someone to effectively identity him or her). He and possibly others in the Bush Administration then lied about it to the American people for two years."

Whether or not the court ends up agreeing with you is irrelevant. Don't you get it? No, but Rove does.

On the other hand, the continously repeated line from Bush and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, that they "won't comment until this "ongoing investigation is closed" does evince a notion that the White House believes it could be in potentially serious legal trouble.

The administration's refusal to discuss the matter because it might be the smartest legal move means it has to decline to spin the matter at this time, and could look shoddy in the court of public opinion.

Lucky for Rove and Bush, the administration has other outlets to spin for it.

The GOP footsoldiers are on the job. In an interview on said on MSNBC's Scarborough Country, New York Congressman Peter King talked about shooting reporters who questioned the integrity of the Bush Administration. "People like Tim Russert and the others, who gave this guy [Joseph Wilson] such a free ride and all the media, they're the ones to be shot, not Karl Rove."

Posted by MJuhre at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2005

One step closer to monopoly

Bank of America today announced it agreed to buy MBNA Corp.

MBNA is the biggest independent credit card lender (the other is Chase's credit card division, which it purchased from BankOne, which previously merged with First USA).

After this merger, Chase and Bank of America will be the creditors for almost every MasterCard and VISA issued in the U.S. (Your Starbucks VISA or that MasterCard your bank issued to you is almost certainly underwritten by one of these mammoths).

Stay tuned for tomorrow's headline:

Big Commercial Bank to Buy All Other Remaining Commercial Banks

The new entity will be known as "MonolithicUSA The No. 1 (and only!) U.S. national bank"

Posted by MJuhre at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

June 14, 2005

Democrats Play Bitch to their GOP Masters…Again

REAMING

No fists this time, but the House floor again erupted in a spat between Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), and several Democratic representatives.

After two hours of testimony and a number incidents of the Congressional equivalent a cafeteria food fight, Sensenbrenner ended a June 10, Judiciary hearing on the USA PATRIOT Act over the protest of several Democrats. In true GOP “I’m your daddy now” fashion, Sensenbrenner ignored the Dems, took his gavel and walked out of the room, joined by several of his GOP Congressional minions. He then had the microphones in the room turned off, forcing Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) to shout out his last point.

The fun began at the opening, when Sensenbrenner, a co-author of the PATRIOT, insisted that the only witness testimony that would be pertinent to the hearing, and thus included in the record, would be testimony pertaining to the decision of whether or not to renew 16 expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Democrat John Conyers (D-Mich.), had a different view.

Conyers: "We can do this in a friendly tone or in a hostile tone. I think that tells the story to everybody about what the real environment is like here [in Congress]...It's very important that we understand that in this committee and in the other body, we've gone way beyond the 16 sunsetting provisions [of the USA PATRIOT Act], as we all know, and there are more coming every day. To suggest to me and our membership that we are now going to talk about the 16 sunsetting provisions precisely misses the point about why we've called this hearing."

Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc., Judiciary Committee Chair): "Will the gentleman yield?"

Conyers: "Of course."

Sensenbrenner: "Ahh, the Chair has complied with the rules. The Chair believes in complying with the rules, and the Chair expects all the other members to comply with the rules, which includes the rule of the House of Representatives relevant to pertinence and relevancy, and the Chair will enforce those rules as written."

Conyers: "Well, I'm happy to have yield for that information. But section 1001 of the PATRIOT Act, gave the Inspector General the responsibility of investigating, quote, 'complaints of alleging abuses of civil rights and civil liberties by employees and officials of the Department of Justice. All of the topics today that are before us with these four witnesses fall under this category. It does not say only civil liberties [and] abuses under the PATRIOT Act, but civil liberties in general -- in their totality. And all of the witnesses today, I claim, are experts in this area. So, we didn't come here to have a special hearing to be told that we're only going to investigate 16 sunsetting provisions -- that's what we've had nine, ten, eleven hearings about. The question is about the issues of violations or abuses alleged of civil rights and civil liberties. So we didn't come here today to be muted by some well-intentioned recitations of the rules by the Chairman. And I thank you and I return the time."

(At that point, Conyers was then immediately muted by a recitation of rules by the Chair.)

Sensenbrenner: "The Chair strikes the last word and recognizes himself for a brief five minutes." ("Striking the last word" an often-used but odd parliamentary tactic to extend debate time during the amending process. A request to "strike the last word" is essentially an introduction of a "phantom" amendment a pending bill, or rather an amendment to the last amendment already being debated. The "amendment" gives the requestor more time to speak under the House "five-minute rule," which allots five minutes for the mover of an amendment explain it and five minutes for an opponent to rebut. To really understand this, see a much more detailed explanation -- and I suggest read it twice -- here).

Sensenbrenner went on to stop witnesses from testifying as soon as the rules would permit him to do so. When he cut some off in mid-sentence Deborah Pearlstein, U.S. law and security director of Human Rights First, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) got miffed. Nadler is definitely one of the Democratic few members with discernable gonads (Go Nadler!), but in this instance was bent over by Sensenbrenner.

Pearlstein (speaking on the lack of diligence by the Pentagon to prosecute widespread allegations of prisoner abuse): “...This is a failure of the Department of Justice. This is a failure of the Pentagon. This is why we believe in independent commission is needed to look at these things. On the point of why the international community and many Americans may be frustrated by this--”

Sensenbrenner: “...[T]ime has expired. The gentleman from Arizona [is recognized]. The gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Franks.

Nadler: “Mr. Chairman, point of order.”

Sensenbrenner (ignoring Nadler): “The gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Franks, is recognized.

Nadler (louder and more forceful): “Point of order Mr. Chairman.”

Sensenbrenner (in an annoyed voice of resignation): “The gentleman will state his point of order.”
Nadler: “Mr. Chairman it is generally been the practice of this committee that witnesses are permitted to finish their sentence or what they’re saying and not be interrupted in midsentence--”

Sensenbrenner: “The rules state that the Chair has the prerogative to recognize members and to enforce the time limits. The Chair is enforcing the time limits and the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Franks, is recognized.

I think it's time that Democratic members of Congress arrive on the House and Senate floors wearing the ball gags and chains. It would be kind of like the Christian-Right-Terry-Schiavo fanatics wearing duct tape gags with "Life" written on them, except the new Dem attire would also well illustrate their role as the classic S&M submissive in their current relationship with the GOP.

Their good intentions aside, the Dems always end up looking stupid no matter when they try to complain about the Republicans' continuous efforts to ream them, so they may as well go whole hog.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is demanding an apology.

"As House Democratic Leader, I expect all Members to be treated by the majority with dignity and respect. I will ask Speaker Hastert to order Mr. Sensenbrenner to apologize for his behavior to the witnesses at the hearing [Friday], and to promise that this will never again happen," Pelosi said in a press release on Friday.

Ms. Pelosi, the GOP squats down and craps on dignity and respect at every turn. It’s time to stop trying to raise the level of debate to your desired level and play the game that the Republicans have . Don’t give the “then we’re no better than they are” nonsense. Get in there!

"Chairman Sensenbrenner proved again today that he is afraid of ideas, and that Republicans will stop at nothing to silence Democrats,” Pelosi said. “It is quite ironic that at a hearing on the impact of the Patriot Act on civil liberties, the Republicans attempted to suppress free speech," she added, saying that Democrats will not be silenced.

Yeah I’ve heard that before. Ms. Pelosi, until the Democrats learn to stop fighting fair, they will continue to have sand kicked in their face every time. It’s time you learn to throw sand in the eyes of your enemy and kick him in the nuts before he has a chance to bitch slap or sucker punch you.

What is wrong with you people?

From the June 10 hearing, here is the simple illustration of the difference between Republicans and Democrats, and why the Republicans almost always prevail. The GOP shouts the Dems down and the Dems just whine like sissies.

Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc., Judiciary Committee Chair): "Will the gentleman yield?"

Conyers: "Of course."

(Later)

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) to Sensenbrenner: "Will the gentleman yield?"

Sensenbrenner: "--No I will NOT yield."

Posted by MJuhre at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2005

Outsourcing Journalists: Another knowledge worker falls

A strike at BBC News over job cuts and oustourcing virtually shuts its news operations down. A full-page in the current issue of the Columbia Journalism Review protests a Reuters's plan to move all of its photo-editing operations to Singapore.

It appears that yet another set of American knowledge workers face an uncertain future in Thomas Friedman's "flat" world.

While a constant stream of U.S. technology workers lost their jobs to overseas counterparts in recent years, many of us in the journalism and creative media industries felt our jobs were safe (at least from outsourcing -- not necesarily from that old bastard "head count" concern).

Unlike programming and IT functions, our positions require top-notch writing and editing skills that Asian workers can't yet provide en masse, right?

Alas, what fools we were.

In addition to hatching a new plan to offshore its photo-editing department to Singapore, the British news agency Reuters has already "near-shored" its U.S. online reporting operations to Canada, and moved other news-writing positions to its Bangalore office.

Educated, English-speaking Asians are lining up to take your job (hey-not that I blame 'em).

Chilli Breeze, an India-based firm formed in June 2004, specializes in writing, editing, and publishing online content for Western companies.

I'm sure it's just the beginning.

The American empire is so going down, and its worker/consumer population (formerly known as "citizens"), will go down with it.

Educated American workers must constantly diversify their skill sets if they hope to have a job tomorrow. Only those who posess strategic combinations of skills (such as content- AND code-writing abilities) are likely to remain employed for the long term.

And yet, they should still expect to join the downward spiral in the race to the bottom. I mean, seriously, How long will it be before the voice-in-the-box that greets American drivers with "Good afternoon, welcome to McDonald's" is piped from a work station in Bombay? (UPDATE July 7, 2005: Okay, McDonald's is already on it.)

Links:

Chilli Breeze - Talented Indian writers serving global companies

Discover Diversity: Outsource Your Writing to India

CNN/Money, May 23, 2005: "Strike silences BBC news"

Newsday, May 17, 2005: "Union protests over outsourced news"

IndianTelevision.com, April 11, 2005: "Reuters' US scribes protest outsourcing to India"

Editor & Publisher, February 16, 2005: "Guild: Reuters Profits Jumped on 'Short-Sighted' Strategy"

Global Journalist, October 2004: "Outsourcing the Western Media
Outsourcing is journalism's newest labor issue, with hundreds of Reuters jobs moving to India by 2006. News agencies see it as cutting costs, but journalist organizations question the quality"

The Hindu, Sept 7, 2004: "Outsourcing journalism: Despite threats of legal action, Reuters Bangalore, continues with its expansion plans. Geert Linnebank talks about their local centre."

NewsForge - The Online Newspaper for Linux and Open Source, March 18 2004: "Builder.com outsourcing content production to India"

Associated Press, February 9, 2004: "Reuters to Hire Offshore Journalists to Cover U.S. Firms"

Posted by MJuhre at 01:04 PM | Comments (2)

May 19, 2005

Fight Club; Republicans come to blows on House floor.

A fistfight almost broke out between two Congressmen on the House floor this week over a debate over a bill to lift current limits on embryonic stem cell research (wow, that kind of thing is usually reserved for the South Korean or Taiwanese parliament!).

“Discussions about the bill yesterday became so heated,” reported Rachel Maddow on Air America Radio, “that colleagues had to intervene to stop what was about to become a physical altercation between two Republican Congressman.”

Yes, two REPUBLICAN Congressman.

“Rep. Rick Renzi (Ariz.) came close to a physical confrontation with Rep. Mark Kirk (Ill.) on Monday [sic Wednesday],” reported TheHill.com.

“Renzi started the exchange by saying he was upset that Republicans would poll in their colleagues’ districts without telling them.”

The bill, which has more than 200 co-sponsors, has divided House Republicans. It appears that, finally, moderate GOP members are starting to go head-to-head against their crazy, theocratic counterparts.

And stem-cell research isn’t the only issue to create cracks in the Republican mantle.

Former Congressman and conservative MSNBC talk show host Joe Scarborough said May 18 that he thought the “overconfident…swagger” of House Republicans may be about to end, after a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reported that only 33% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing. That number is lower than it has been since 1994, when Newt Gingrich’s “Republican Revolution” took the House out of Democratic hands.

The poll results come amid heated debate over the threat by Bill Frist and other Republicans to change Senate rules in order ram Bush’s judicial nominees through. Polls taken in recent weeks suggest most Americans disapprove of this so-called “Nuclear option” (as named by Trent Lott – bad call Trent: naming this after something that anyone over 25 links with the phrase “mutually assured destruction”?).

For the first time in years (at least, it seems to me), public opinion turned on Congressional Republicans in late March during the Terry Schiavo political/cultural media fest, when they overstepped their bounds by attempting to overrule numerous state judicial decisions with a Federal law (like they just started overstepping now…well whatever).

The unpopular nuclear-option threat comes right on the heels of Schiavo and it seems Americans would rather Congress spend its time figuring out how to keep the economy from going down the toilet altogether. So, it appears that for the first time in at least four years, the Republicans will be forced to either compromise (imagine!) or risk feeding the wrath of voters who might ream them a new one in the midterm 2006 elections.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

May 12, 2005

United Airlines Bailout Illuminates the Failure of Private Safety Nets

A brief editorial:

I can think of no better argument to support staying George Bush’s privatization and partial dismantling of Social Security than the May 11 bankruptcy court victory by United Airlines that allows the company to dump its pension liability onto the American taxpayer.

We hear from the Republican leadership time and time again that coffers are better managed by private rather than public hands.

But time and time again, we have seen the Federal Government -- that is, you, me and all American taxpayers -- have bail out corporate managements when they cannot or simply choose not to meet their pension promises to retirees.

The United Airlines default shows precisely why increasing the private management of pensions is risky not only to pension holders, but to taxpayers alike.

Posted by MJuhre at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2005

Goodbye Randal Terry

For the left-of-center political strategists in America's ongoing culture war, Pope John Paul II could not have picked a better day to die (or, at least, fall deathly ill — the reports keep changing).

Before I go on, let me say I intend no disrespect to the Pontiff (seriously). But this isn't about him. This is about the American culture war whose most recent battle took place was in a hospice in Florida and (as always) on the television airwaves.

That the Pope's health failed on this, of all days, is a blow to Randall Terry and others who recently used poor Terry Schiavo to further their anti-American goals.

For weeks the these people—who seek destroy the American traditions of pluralism, separation of powers, checks and balances, and the very rule of law in the United States based solely on their personal religious beliefs—have received a media buzz that generated yet another polarizing issue in America's culture war.

The full political and cultural fallout from the Terry Schiavo situation will surely go on, and perhaps has barely begun, but let's face it: the minute Terry Schiavo died yesterday, the news media, particularly the cable news channels, were looking for a new story.

Boy did they get it. These mothers swept down on the Pope so fast that, as with Yasser Arafat, they prematurely reported his death.

Sure, the TV news will continue to report on issues brought forth by the Terry Schiavo story. Indeed the story of the Pope's death, or impending death (“... uh...well we assure you he is very very sick, according to the Vatican”), will be intertwined with that of Schiavo, since her death sparked a debate on life, and end-of-life issues of which the Pope had strong feelings.

But, Schiavo's death ended the suspense required for the drama of 21st-century television news. Our attention-deficit-disorder-driven media outlets ready to move on to the next big thing. The Pope came and saved them.

Posted by MJuhre at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

January 21, 2005

Black Tie and Boots

I missed most of the inauguration ceremony today ‘cause I was too busy with freelance work. But, I did catch some buzz about the Jan. 19, “Black Tie and Boots” pre-inaugural ball. In true Texan style (and with Lyle Lovett entertaining?), the Bushies did the Texas two-step, though it appears W fell short of wearing the proper attire: tuxedo with cowboy boots, hat and bolo tie. Noticeably absent from news coverage of the event was any mention of the late-night “Diaper and Boots” afterparty. Below right, Bush daughter Jenna gives a sign-of-the-devil shout-out to Dick Cheney in a display of deference—wait, no, I'm wrong. She is actually presenting the traditional cowboy “hook’em horns” which, in this context, indicates she’ll be giving double blumpkins at the diaper party.

Posted by MJuhre at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2004

Colin Calls Presidential Election "Fraud"

Today, outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted that election irregularities in Ohio, Florida, and other U.S. states leave in doubt whether his boss, President Bush, truly won the electoral vote, as his campaign has claimed.

“We cannot accept this result as legitimate because it does notmeet international standards and because there has not been an investigation of the numerous and credible reports of fraud and abuse,” Powell said at a briefing at the State Department.

Oh...sorry, no. He was talking about the Ukranain presidential election.

Posted by MJuhre at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2004

History's Timeline: when democracies discover election fraud

Today I saw the following two headlines on the [Bridgeport] Connecticut Post international page: “U.S. will support Palestinian election” and “Iraq’s prime minister confident in Jan. 30 vote.”

Boy, as Bush said, it really looks like “freedom is on the march.”

But then, underneath those headlines, I saw a third— one that painted a clearer picture of today’s world: “Election fraud fires Ukranian anger.”

Ughh... So, tens of thousands of protesters claim that the Ukraine (a member country of the “Commonwealth of Independent States,” or former USSR) recent presidential runoff election was fraudulent. (If you didn’t guess already, the state-run Central Election Commission says the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko lost to Viktor Yanukovych, the incumbent, Moscow-favored, party’s candidate).

Maybe there was Florida election-2000 thing and old people just couldn’t figure out which “Viktor” to vote for, due to poor ballot design.

Regardless, it does appear that American-style democracy really is sweeping the globe.

“In the early 1970s, there were about 40 democracies in the world,” said George George Bush In a Nov. 6 speech marking the 25th anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy. “As the 20th century ended, there were around 120 democracies in the world— and I can assure you more are on the way.”

Now, this is theoretically true, even if among those 120 democracies, Bush is counts Russia. I f you haven’t been paying much attention recently, Russia has been reinvented as a non-Communist, totalitarian regime under President Vladimir Putin, the ex-KGB agent who, under the guise of fighting Russia’s own War on Terror (Chechnya), has declared that he will appoint the governors of Russia’s provinces, rather than let them be elected. Putin also started putting Russia’s powerful new robber barons behind bars. This is fine and dandy since they really are criminals (tax cheats at best, Slavic mafiosi at worst).

But anyway back to Bush’s “freedom on the march crap.” Indeed “democracy” has swept the earth in recent decades.

In the beginning of the basic human historical timeline, there were tribal chieftains. Then there were kings. Modern democracies emerged in the 18th century, and by the early 20th, the world split along two basic tracks: (1) totalitarian states (dictatorships and some monarchies), and (2) democratic regimes of varying forms (and of course, their imperial properties in Asia, Africa, and South America).

And then something remarkable happened—something Bush failed to mention.

Democracies discovered election fraud.

This fantastic development gives people who live in an oligarchy the illusion that they live in a democracy. In the U.S. we have a coalitional oligarchy composed of corporations and the Christian Elite (more commonly referred to as “the Christian Right,” I have chosen to call them the “Christian Elite” in answer to their nonsense term, the “Liberal Elite”—if Liberals were the elite, they would be in power, wouldn’t they?).

So let’s see, less than a year after the contested (oh let’s say it—stolen and illegal) U.S. presidcntial election of 2000, the NeoConservatives convinced Bush to install democracies across the world under force of the American bayonet.

The “new democracies” in Eastern Europe, they said, showed that FreedomTM and capitalism were snowballing, and the U.S. could just as easily turn nasty totalitarian regimes in Islamic countries into democratic, free-market utopias.

Looking great so far! But I think we need to coin a new phrase: “New Democracy.” New Democracy being... well basically, fraudulent democracies installed by the “former” imperialist Old Democracies. “Live free or die, muthas.”

Posted by MJuhre at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2004

The New Face of American Diplomacy

Stamford, Conn., Nov. 17, 2004 — In the second debate between Bush and Kerry, held on October 8, a woman from the audience asked Bush the following:
“President Bush, during the last four years, you have made thousands of decisions that have affected millions of lives. Please give three instances in which you came to realize you had made a wrong decision, and what you did to correct it. Thank you.”
After spewing out 225 words that avoided the question, Bush finally addressed what he said is his only mistake: “Now, you asked what mistakes. I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them. I don't want to hurt their feelings on national TV.”

What I inferred from that was (1) Bush he blames anything that may go wrong on his advisors, and (2) those with opinions of policy that differed from his, were unwelcome.

When he was invited into the White House four years ago, Powell mistakenly thought Bush would respect him. Instead, Bush ignored almost all of Powell’s advice and sent him to the UN to spew nonsense about some dubious evidence on Iraqi WMD, in order to support the imminent American invasion of Iraq.

Rice , it is known, will basically do whatever George, or the Bush’s in general, tell her to do. I am reminded of something someone said to me when my sister and I drove down to Washington, D.C. in January 2001 to see Bush’s inaugural parade (and the high profile protests that accompanied it). A black woman we spoke to said the following about Condoleezza Rice (I paraphrase from memory). “Good for her for getting in there, but you KNOW hat one day when she’s walkin’ down the hall at the White House, that man (Bush) is gonna giver her a pat on the ass.” This woman meant this literally, and believed it. I had my strong doubts that that would take place, but I saw the metaphor immediately.

Now, after being the loyal lapdog for four years, Rice is getting her pat on the back, and her pat on the backside. Now there is no “moderate voice,” no sane voice, at the White House in the conversation about maintaining global stability.

Poor Colin. I had great respect for him until the 2003 UN nonsense.

I’m glad he is leaving, and I’m sure it was of his own volition (the rumor that he and Armitage would step down in January 2005 came as early as August 2003) but that “loyal soldier” crap went to far. He should have left in the middle of his term, like Christine Todd Whitman did (although even she didn’t call Bush on his bullshit). I think it may finally be time for me to get rid of my Colin Powell doll, which I found on sale in a toy store in a Syracuse, N.Y. shopping mall in 1992. Any takers?

images/condi-rice-cartoon.gif
(cartoon source: BlackCommentator.com)

Posted by MJuhre at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2004

The oracle that is "Demolition Man"

A group calling itself Amend For Arnold is lobbying and advertising to amend the Constitution to allow Arnold Schwarzenegger (and, ostensibly, any other naturalized American citizen) to run for president. Article 2 of the Constitution prohibits anyone born outside the United States from holding that office.

First of all, on the face of it, I don’t see why anyone who has been a citizen of 20 years or more in the U.S. should be barred from running for president. I think I’d prefer almost any foreigner to another Texan, for instance (unless maybe its Ann Richards).

What excites me is that this movement was predicted in the 1993 action film “Demolition Man,” starring Sylvester Stallone.

In the movie, which takes place in the mid 21st century, Stallone plays John Spartan, a cop brought out of suspended animation to bring down violent super criminal Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes). At one point in the movie, Stallone gets a shocking lesson on the history he has missed since he was frozen in 1996, by fellow cop Lt. Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock):

Huxley: I’ve been an enthusiast of your escapades for quite some time now. I have, in fact, perused some newsreels from the Schwarzenegger Library, and that time you took that car...

Spartan: —Hold it. The Schwarzenegger Library?
Huxley: Yes. Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. wasn’t he an actor when you...

Spartan: —Stop. He was president?

Huxley: Yes. Even though he was not born in this country, his popularity at the time cased the 61st amendment, in which they said...
Spartan: —I don’t wanna know.

I remember at the time thinking what brilliant little prediction it was. After all, I grew up in the Reagan era, and Reagan of course was a movie star, then president of the Screen Actors Guild, then California governor, and finally president.

I was reminded of the “Demolition Man” reference to Schwarzenegger presidency a little over a year ago, when Arnold was running for governor in the California recall race. I was also struck by the memory of my best friend’s mom and I joking in 1985 — the year “Rambo” came out — that Sylvester Stallone was himself preparing for a future presidential candidacy by working the anti-communist sentiment and right-wing machine-gun machismo so prevalent at the time.

Not so coincidentally, during the summer of 2003, while Arnold’s backdoor bid for the governorship was gearing up, cable TV seemed to be playing a lot of Arnold movies. I even remember seeing them start to appear before Arnold had even announced he would run (someone knew something, or could just feel it in the air perhaps). When “Demolition Man” came on, I taped it so I could fish out the above quote.

But there was a problem. They edited the quote out of the movie.

Now, I’m sure plenty of other stuff was “edited for content,” since channels often cut non-plot-essential elements of movies to make them fit a two-hour time slot.

Still, I started to have a mild concern that the scene would be permanently wiped from future copies of the movie. So, a few months ago, I made the first (and, as yet, only) acquisition for my DVD library.

I have been waiting for the state of the world to catch up with the dystopic sci-fi films of the 80s and early 90s. You know, the ones where corporations run everything, the economic divide between the haves and have-nots is every increasing, petroleum is running low, and the world is subsequently plagued by continuous terrorism and warfare?

Yep. Well, finally, one fun bit of trivia from “Demolition Man.” Future Minnesota governor Jessie Ventura played a generic evil thug guy in it. He, and future California Governor Schwarzenegger also shared the screen together in 1987. Twice, in fact, in “Predator,” and “The Running Man.”

Posted by MJuhre at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2004

Election 2004 Rant

(I rant on a bit in this one) Things don’t look good for the Democrats, the United States, or the world. Regardless of real uncertainties, the American public is once again being swayed by GOP hubris, and essentially telling the world that Bush has won. The Kerry campaign can see the writing on the wall. As last time, any attempt to determine the “true outcome” of the election, whatever that means anymore, would be construed in the halls of Public Opinion as being.

“So do you think it was rigged or not?” Myra called to me from the bedroom this morning.
“I don’t know,” I say. And I don’t.

Now, I don’t necessarily mistrust all or even any of the voter tallies I now see on my television screen. But, sadly, I have no reason to trust any of them either. There was tremendous opportunity for voter fraud in this election, and likely we will never be certain of the true outcome.

It all came down to Ohio. At the time of this writing, Ohio reports 136,483 more counted for Bush than for Kerry. Now, that is a decent margin, assuming all those votes are valid. And, it would probably be a tall order to fraudulently create that many votes for one candidate in one state. But, with an estimated 150,000 uncounted provisional, and tens of thousands of uncounted military absentee ballots the margin could be much narrower.

That said, it is hard to put out of my mind the words of Walden O’Dell, CEO of Diebold, the company which made the electronic voting machines used in many of the state’s election districts. A powerful asset to the Bush campaign, O’Dell wrote in an August 2003 fund-raising letter that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes for the president.”

None of the electronic voting machines in Ohio provide a paper ballots. The state mandated that voting machines provide a paper ballot in time for the 2006 election. Many other electronic voting systems across the country also do not provide a paper ballot.

Granted, according to the counted votes, Bush won the national popular vote by a margin of about 3 million.
But, the electoral vote—the only thing that really counts in this country, as we learned in the 2000 election— is dependent on Ohio.

It is evident that in the future we will able to trust that the counted votes reflect the real intentions of all who voted only in elections determined by margins of 10 or even 20 percentage points.Trumbull, Conn., Novermber 3, 2004, 10:35 a.m.— Struggling for a distraction from what would become very bad news, this morning I took a break from the election coverage by turning to the History Channel, which was airing a program about John F. Kennedy’s presidential.

As I watch footage of the southern segregationists greeting the Freedom Riders’ buses with shouts, bats, homemade clubs, and chains, I am reminded of images of the 2000 election. When the results of that presidential election were still in question, crowds of screaming Republicans shouted down Democrats. The only difference is that instead of wielding clubs, they weilded Bush 2000 signs, American flags, and fashionable effigies of American flags.

“But there is a big difference,” you say. Ah yes, the Southern segregationists in the 1960s were, by and large, members of the Democratic party. Yes, but it was the Civil Rights struggle that transformed the Democratic party, and the politics of the South. The confrontations between the Southern crackers and an alliance of African Americans and their white, liberal sympathizers created an atmosphere of such violent anarchy that JFK — who had heretofor been wary of marginalizing his Southern Democratic base — responded first by sending Federal troops, and then by publicly calling upon Congress to draft civil rights legislation.

The idea that freedom in the United States should apply to all its people created two major reactions by conservative Americans:

They shot JFK’s ass and, over the next five years, assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. and other key figures of the Civil Rights movement.

They all became Republicans. The Dixiecrats, or conservative Southern Democrats abanoned the party that “betrayed them” and embraced the GOP as the new face of hate.
The American social politics of the nineteenth century — of the Abolitionists verses slaveowners — are still being played out, one hundred and forty years later. It is still the same basic social conflict: an enlightened, largely urban population that believes in freedom for all, verses a so-called “Christian,” largely rural, cracker population that seeks to restrict the freedom of others…in the name of “Freedom.” While the latter group usually claims to be followers of Christ, and to have God on its side (you know, like Osama Bin Laden does?).

So, you see, it’s the same folks really. Perhaps its about time we Northerners swarm back down their and burn their cities down all over again. I was in Brooklyn on 9/11. The twin towers were a mere mile from my house, and when they fell my friends and I had to flee our neighborhood as debris rained down un us, and microscopic fibers of asbestos and other toxins filled our lungs, even with our windows closed. Almost 3000 New Yorkers died that day, and they died for the sins of the rural crackers that put nuts like Bush in power.

I don’t want to see that happen again.

Al Qaida, if you must attack us again, please let it be in Texas or some other cracker state.

IT’S THE IMAGE STUPID

Shifting to a different topic, in many ways, it does not really surprise me that the Democrats lost again.
For, there is a very simple reason GOP candidates have had continued, largely unbridled success over its Democratic counterparts. Over the past 30 years, the Republican party, and its unofficial agents (media pundits I need not name here) have figured out that truth and rigtheousness doesn’t really in modern American political battles.

Naive liberals, and most of the Democratic party, still hold onto the notion that speaking truth to power is somehow connected to winning elections.

Republicans, on the other hand, understand how to speak power to truth. They understand that truth is irrelevant, that truth is what you make it, that truth in the media age simply equals the broadest popular perception of reality

POPULAR PERCEPTION = TRUTH

Those who shout their talking points louder own the truth. Most Democrats still don’t understand that for over 50 years, American public opinion has been driven more by X than by issues, by image rather than by ideals. If you exude enough confidence, the people will believe whatever you tell them. (A nod to Foucault I suppose.) Fox News prematurely declared Bush the winner in 2000, and convinced a large number of Americans that Democratic challenges in Florida were tantamount to their being sore losers. Today, Andrew Card held a press conference, saying “we are convinced that President Bush has won re-election with at least 286 Electoral College votes...In Ohio, President Bush has a lead of at least 140,000 votes. The secretary of state’s office has informed us that this margin is statistically insurmountable, even after the provisional ballots are considered.”

Well, if Andy Card and the Republican secretary of state of Ohio say it, that’s good enough for us. No point in scrutinizing possibilities of voter fraud (though only yesterday it was the GOP crying foul in Ohio, leading the fight to investigate possible fraud).

Card also said, “President Bush’s decisive margin of victory makes this the first presidential election since 1988 in which the winner received a majority of the popular vote.”

All of Card’s words will become truth, regardless of what really happened.

Posted by MJuhre at 05:30 PM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2004

Fox And Friends

The other day I was watching FOX News (which should be the beginning of many jokes, I know) and I see Rupert Murdoch being interviewed by…Oliver North. The segment was for North’s War Stories, and the line of questioning pertained to media coverage of the Iraq War.

I couldn’t and still can’t completely wrap my head around this. Here you have North, a liar (before Congress!), convicted felon (until George H.W. Bush pardoned him) and — I would say— traitor (for having deliberately subverted the U.S. Constitution to conduct a secret war). At any rate, as a crimimal and a perjurer, North does not exude the credentials of an ideal journalist (i.e. objective, truth-seeking, unbiased, etc.).

So, of course, FOX hired him.

Anyway, so there North is, interviewing the owner of Fox News’s parent company, News Corporation ("News") ON a Fox News program ABOUT HOW television news channels, including FOX, are covering the war (or, “ covered the war”as they stated, referring to the initial invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003). Murdoch and North discussing media bias in the coverage was a new spin on spin; spin cubed, or perhaps even to the 4th or 5th power.

Holy calypso! About a half hour after I penned this, I got a call from [NAME WITHHELD] of the law firm of [NAME WITHHELD], which represents News.

Okay, at this point I should mention that...I used to work for News and FOX (okay I know!), first as a paralegal at firm retained by News (which was absorbed by the firm that just called me), and later, as an intellectual property consultant in the company’s legal department. Now, during this time, I was attending graduate school to study business journalism. It was...really difficult, to say the least, to know so much about the inner workings of a corporation (especially one I loathed) and, at the same time, be unable to write about it due to the confines of client-attorney privilege. I just have to try forget all the sexy stories I know, but cannot tell, even though now I have no connection to News.

As if it isn’t weird enough that I worked for Rupert Murdoch, by ABSOLUTE coincidence, the very same month I began working in-house at News, as a consultant, the VP who brought me in became an adjunct professor at my college, and taught Legal and Ethical Issues for Journalists. Now, lest you be concerned that I was taught journalistic ethics by someone who represents the New York Post in court, I want to go on record here and say that was a fantastic teacher, and did not pull any punches when discussing examples of legal or ethical issues that involved News properties. She is also a liberal, and a Democrat. I guess you could say her only flaw is working for Rupert Murdoch.

Anyway, as I said, the lawyer for News wanted my advice on a matter I had worked on. Apparently, after I left the firm, this particular matter fell through theh cracks. Now it had come back to haunt them, and the last record on file was an unanswered query letter I had sent out. Boy, if only I could tell you the details! Some of it is a matter of public record, but legal ethics prohibit me from revealing it nonetheless.

UPDATE, September 2004. I just learned that http://www.alternet.org/ (a project of the nonprofit Independent Media Institute) has petitioned the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to cancel FOX News’s trademark registration for “Fair and Balanced”because the words are (1) descriptive of general news content, and therefore not worthy of being awarded exclusive use by any one news organization, and (2) that the words misrepresent FOX News coverage, which a majority of observers believe is anything but fair or balanced. If you want to donate money to the cause, click here. Donations of $30 or more will get you a free DVD of the documentary, “Outfoxed.”

Ahh intellectual property disputes. FOX. “Fair and Balanced.” This brings me back. If only I could tell you the behind-the-scene-stories I know about when Bill O’Reilly filed his lawsuit against Al Franken for using “fair and balanced” in his book title, Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Sadly, I can’t. When the case was filed, I no longer had any connection to News. But, I can’t tell the fun stuff, because I have to protect friends and colleagues who still work there.

Suffice it to say, however, and this is public record. the lawyers working for FOX really botched that suit. The complaint they filed against Franken was so flawed that the judge quickly dismissed it. “There are hard cases and there are easy cases, said District Judge Denny Chin. “This is an easy case, for in my view the case is wholly without merit, both factually and legally.” (Click here to read the whole court transcript — its pretty sweeet.) Also, word has it (read Franken’s book — by sheer coincidence, I bought mine with a Barnes and Noble gift certificate given to me by an intellectual property lawyer at News) that what made O’Reilly really go ballistic, was the fact that his picture appeared on the cover of Franken’s book (and next to the words “liar...lies” no less), and that it was not a very flattering image.

If that was really what got O’Reilly’s goat, I posit this: Had FOX not claimed trademark infringement, but instead filed a lawsuit based on “rights of publicity” (i.e. that Franken was using O’Reilly’s image to promote his book and profit), the company might well have successfully convinced a court to order the removal of O’Reilly’s dumb face. That is a much stronger argument than the dumb trademark infringement one they filed. You know where I learned about rights of publicity issues? Yep, my professor and former boss from News Corp.

Posted by MJuhre at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)