howard's 1st.

Good morning mprov!

Are those supposed to be onion rings in the last  box?

Have a good day, everyone.  Off to mine salt.

By George*, I think he's got it !

(*Donald G. that is):

http://www.amistadamerica.org/

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18485889&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=590581&rfi=6

Al Gore Responds to Geldof

Mr Gore speaks so passionately and knowledgeably about global warming that it is easy to see why he has gained so much support.

He won an Oscar for his movie on the subject, An Inconvenient Truth, and is being feted as the next saviour of American politics (even though he claims he’s fallen out of love with politics).

Yet despite his good intentions, the 59-year-old has come under fire from the likes of The Who’s Roger




Daltrey and Live Aid hero Sir Bob Geldof.





Both claimed the Live Earth gigs can do little to change the world. Geldof also accused Mr Gore of hosting “an enormous pop concert” with no clear political goals. When I asked Mr Gore about the criticisms, he gave a robust response.

He said: “We will have specific goals that will be very significant and hard-hitting.

“We will announce those before the concert then emphasise them heavily during the concert.

“What Bob Geldof did with Live Aid and Live 8 was fantastic and he has followed up very diligently, as many of the others involved with Live Aid and Live 8 have. I’ve nothing but good things to say about them.

“These concerts would not be possible in any way without the pioneering and creativity of Geldof and those who helped him.

“But he has said in the aftermath of those efforts how important it is to have specific goals and a continuing follow-on effort and we have designed the Live Earth concerts in just that way.

“This one day, 24 hours long, will not only be a wake-up call for the world but the beginning of a multi-year campaign to organise an effective response to the climate crisis.” Mr Gore has been incredibly impressed with the British response to the climate crisis and singled out Tony Blair for special praise.

He said: “The United Kingdom has been among the real leaders in the world and while every nation needs to do more, including the UK, the UK should receive credit for providing leadership in the world.

“I wish my own country had responded as well and I still hope that eventually it will, it must. I compliment the people of Britain and the people of the United Kingdom and their leaders. It will be a part of Tony Blair’s legacy.”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-200...

I was thinking this morning that North America is really the continent of displaced persons--some voluntarily and others, including the natives, involuntarily.  Even the voluntarily displaced, those from Old Europe, were making lemonade out of lemons, so to speak, since their departure from their native lands was large a response to the perception that "we can't make it here, anymore."

Being a displaced person is different from being a wanderer or adventurer.  It implies that, were their situation otherwise, they would have preferred to stay where they were born.  So, in a sense, they are settling for second-best and it takes an act of will to convince themselves that it's all for the best--that this is the best of all possible places.  In other words, they need to create a myth to console themselves for what they've lost.  That's the American dream--a mental construct after the fact, in compensation for the insecurity they feel.  It's insecurity, or perhaps even inferiority, which makes them aim for superiority.

In any event, having been displaced themselves, the new arrivals on the North American continent saw no reason to refrain from visiting forced relocation on whoever stood in their way.   We're a land of people who habitually move other people about.

Good morning blog!

Hubby's off to work and I need cereal. A staple it has become, hot whole wheat, bran and walnuts. Yum :)

Monica, 5., I was thinking similar as watching news this morning, but one step further how the migration is happening to all parts of the world. England has become an attraction big time.

Hubby's off to work and I need cereal. A staple it has become, hot whole wheat, bran and walnuts. Yum :)
_________________________________________________________________________

I had my Lucky Charms earlier..................

7. LOL Many times he eats better than I too.

...mines cooking now...He had muesli with wild blueberries and hemp seed. For lunch, I had it easier today with left over sauce with onion and eggplant, so I just needed to boil the pasta and cut some melon balls for dessert.

hmmm lucky charms and melon balls. :)

OK, I'm back. a YYUMMMy breakfast. An important start of the day.

Don't skip meals.


OK, Mr. Gore spends another week overseas. After completing visits to Turkey to announce the latest addition to the Live Earth Concerts, then on to Greece and Italy.

Now in London with plans on heading over to France at the end of the week.

France brings another example of the many at hats Mr. Gore wears.


Gore to Bring Talk of Green to Ad Festival
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By ERIC PFANNER
Published: June 18, 2007

The brightest lights in the advertising business are gathering in Cannes, France, this week for an annual celebration of the art of persuading consumers to part with their money. In the industry’s biggest international get-together, awards will be given for the best ads for products like cars, clothing, food and air travel.

And then, on Friday, Al Gore will come to town.

Mr. Gore is scheduled to address the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival as part of the windup leading to the Live Earth concerts on July 7, which are intended to raise awareness of the issue of climate change.

You might think that Mr. Gore and his campaign against global warming would find few friends in Cannes. The production, transport, sale and consumption of goods and services add a few sizes to anyone’s carbon footprint.

Yet Mr. Gore is being accorded rock star status at the festival, an event that in the past has been headlined by industry insiders. The embrace of Mr. Gore shows how “green” advertising has galvanized the marketing community.

“The consumer sentiment out there is just palpable,” said Hamish McLennan, chief executive of Young & Rubicam, the advertising agency that arranged Mr. Gore’s visit to Cannes and helped him to develop the “Save Our Selves” campaign for environmental awareness. “We have to change the way people consume and get people to think about it.”

Full article
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/busine...

sorry for the extra..stuff, above.

Al Gore won't be able to finish this project before he announces, so the criticism might just be a warning to put the follow up team in place before he runs, and is an acknowledgement of that probability.

I'm going to stay in a lurking mode to save space for reports from TBA.

bbl

4.

He won an Oscar for his movie on the subject,

Linda NM,

Do you notice how the media and others who are so afraid of Al Gore keep repeating that Al Gore won an Oscar for Inconvenient Trust?

He didn't of course win one himself, only the movie. I expect if he runs for president, that same media and Gorephoboiacs will accuse Al himself of claiming that he won an Oscar. It would be reminiscent of the I-created-the-Internet media lie which still permeates this same media.

How afraid they are of Gore will they get, prematurely laying all their dirty little traps just in case he runs.

Gore 2008 & 2012

Gorephoboiacs = Gorephobiacs

Ha!

I do hope linda b will have help sending those reports. She will no doubt be very busy.

(delurk) 

Of course the interent as we know and use it daily was very much partly due to Gore's work. just as a global response to warming will be too

very few people have more than a 1% impact on anything

Gore has a chance to imprint two. He can add saving our democracy to that list if he runs.

People too busy to get anything done do most of the work on a lot of projects.

13.

Joan* In*Florida

LOL....no, no, it will be "He claimed to have invented the Oscar".

Joan, did you notice this freudian statement you made "Do you notice how the media and others who are so afraid of Al Gore keep repeating that Al Gore won an Oscar for Inconvenient Trust?"

Trust? Hmm...maybe that means the media is realizing they need to trust he is the best hope? :)

_______________

Phil, yes. Kinda' like Howard turning over DFA to Jim Dean and Tom Hughes.

Although, Roy Neal is such a loyal friend and worker, I suspect he will move back to the White House with Al.

Got much to do...bbl.

The Democrats keep pressing for the necessary, continuing to press Repugs for their status quo is OK position. There is little chance this will pass the Senate, much less the WH, but the Dems are continuing the pressure which is or will (for those yet unenlightened) expose who and what the Repugs really are.

WASHINGTON, June 16 — Senate Democrats are seeking a major reversal of energy tax policies that would take billions of dollars in tax breaks and other benefits from the oil industry to underwrite renewable fuels.

The tax increases would reverse incentives passed as recently as three years ago to increase domestic exploration and production of oil and gas. The change reflects a shift from the Republican focus on expanding oil production to the Democratic concern about reducing global warming.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/washington/18oil.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=c373f01e07f9d107&ex=1182312000&adxnnl=1&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1182182039-Zj9TvNTLcr71ZDyKPXZ+VQ

Kunstler on Iraq

http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary21.html

 It seems to me you can call the situation in Iraq a lot of things, but it's not a war. Not at this point, anyway. Call it an unsuccessful nation-building project, a failed occupation, a botched policing job, a monkey-in-the-middle clusterfuck. All the US political factions, from left to right, do the public a disservice by calling it a war, because it misrepresents what we're doing there.

We're involved in Iraq because we don't want to begin thinking about modifying our behavior at home. We are desperate to preserve our access to Middle East oil because that is the only way we can keep running our society the way we're used to running it. Mostly, we don't want to face the tragic misinvestments we've made in the infrastructure of happy motoring, and we don't want to face the inconvenient truth that there really isn't any combination of alt.fuels that will permit us to keep running all the cars the way we like to run them. Either we keep getting the oil or say goodbye to the American Dream Version 2.K.

18. Linda NM

OK, Trust = Truth.

My Chinese keyboard just does not understand my thoughts.

15.

Phil

Delurk?? LOL

Yup, Al's did much to improve and promote the Internet. His words were deliberately screwed, er skewed.

Waiting to hear from linda b

linda b .....democracy's friend indeed!!!
She will show you as she takes the lead,
to help get training for you and me.

A fighter for our rights, showing what activism is all about.
Cheering on the Governor, from the audience she gives a shout.

GOOO LINDA!

Immigration - read a piece in Pravda that said the UK will have a "Muslim majority' in about 2030.....

Secret Service Agents code names:

Hillary Cinton is Evergreen," given to her by Bill.

Bill Clinton, is  "Eagle"

Sen. John F. Kerry  - "Minuteman"

President Bush, a protectee dating back to the days when his father was president (and with a reputation for  rowdiness before he became a teetotaler) is "Tumbler."

Jimmy Carter, who taught Sunday school, is "Deacon."

George H.W. Bush is "Timberwolf,"

Ronald Reagan was "Rawhide".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/16/AR2007061601079.html

I want to know what Cheney's code name is. : )...

Democrats in the war party don't want a Democratic President

http://www.counterpunch.org/liddell06182007.html

The Democratic Party can do without a president if what the elites of that party really want is war. They still retain their power in the Party which is really their only concern, the perpetuation of the party organization itself. The Democratic Party is the best friend the Republicans ever had. And the Republican Party needs the Democratic Party as much as the Democrats need the Republicans. The only way you can be a winner is if there is a loser. In the two-party system both parties need each other for either party to exist at all. And who needs a president of your own party when the two-party system gets to have its war?

I had my Lucky Charms earlier..................

=================

No wonder yer voting third party - ya eat too much sugar

Waiting for Lindab and report from TBA.....wish i was there, too. I had hoped that after Demfest more of the old-timers would return to the blog. Still hoping...

It would be nice to see some old friends, particularly for those of us who couldn't make it to Deanfest.

America's Guilty Silence

http://www.counterpunch.org/brooks06182007.html

Most informed US citizens are aware that their government runs a global network of secret detention centers where torture is routinely employed. They also know what this activity looks like, having seen photos of their troops' bestial behavior at Abu Ghraib. If they followed the story, they know that this behavior was also reported at several other prisons and detention centers in Iraq, under policy directives from the very top of the Pentagon.

They know about the human rights horrors of Guantanamo and Bagram Air Force base, that the CIA runs a global ring dedicated to kidnappings, "extraordinary rendition", and torture, that hundreds of our detainees have disappeared, and so on.

It is possible to know these things by reading big city newspapers. An objective observer could glean the general shape of these facts from network television news. The American public has been told. And the public has turned the page.

Do we have any excuse for our abject failure to hold our leaders and ourselves responsible for our nation's most heinous crimes?

We will have to claim that our minds were not our own. The corporate media-government propaganda network had grown so ubiquitous that the people were essentially subjects in a mass brainwashing experiment. Unfortunately, the experiment was a success, so increasingly absurd versions of re-manufactured reality were implanted in the public mind.

The argument has some merit. The elites of this country invented modern propaganda almost a century ago. Today the immense power of corporate-political "opinion formation" in certain reaches the public mind is undeniable. We need to understand how much this system has undermined the public will and dehumanized our lives.

However, to the extent that we as individuals still possess free will and are responsible for our own values, we have no excuse for our mute acceptance of these and other national crimes against humanity. Don't we pay for them with our taxes, continue them with our votes, and support them with our silence?

Surprise! The "Surge" Was Just an Excuse to Increase Long-Term Troop Levels in Iraq! Dang, You Could Have Fooled Us! "Conditions in Iraq will not improve sufficiently by September to justify a drawdown of U.S. military forces, the top commander in Iraq said yesterday." Commitment to Last For Years, Petraeus Claims.

And the Democrats will roll over again,despite the odd flash of brave talk. Democratic members of the war party are calling the shots.

Shameful!

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1338

Dean was right again.

We shouldn't waste our time "taking back America" for the likes of Rahm Emanuel, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, and Steny Hoyer.

How about "taking back America" from them?

It’s interesting to probe Eva Liddell’s article at Counterpunch on the Democratic Party’s plan to intentionally lose presidential elections, to which John linked. He left out the excerpt detailing the party’s attempt to sabotage its own candidate in 2000 so that American bombs could fall on Baghdad in 2003. I’ll just quote it as a public service, because you won’t want to miss it:

"When Bush gave us the spin on Iraq, the mushroom clouds, the weapons of mass destruction, nobody disagreed Saddam was evil. Certainly not the Democratic Party. And the Democratic elites wanted war as much as the Republicans. If it took dumping their own guy in 2000 to do it, so be it. Who designed the butterfly ballot? A Democrat. Whose polls are the hardest to get to? The disenfranchised black constituents of the Democratic Party. Making Gore conduct his campaign by the eight time loser Bob Shrum the guy the Party selects to lose elections was another tip-off. Why would the Democratic elites want their guy Gore when they were smelling war? Gore I am sure wanted to win but that doesn't mean his own Party wouldn't dump him."

32.

And the Democrats will roll over again,despite the odd flash of brave talk. Democratic members of the war party are calling the shots.

Shameful!

You, John, of course have no crystal ball that I am aware of.

It is you who is "shameful" for pretending to know the future.

Joan* In*Florida
Mon, 06/18/07
12:51 pm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I dont know about shameful Joan............so far the Democrats that were elected to get us out of Iraq have failed to do so..........not a good start.....................

I have always worried about people being so loyal to a party or cause that they fail to see and correct the disaster that is unfolding before them.  One does not need a crystal ball as you say, but past history and trends are usually good indicators.................

31.

floridagal

One of the links within the link you gave was so good, I think it deserves some space here.

USA: Dean: Immigration is next wedge

Speaking Thursday in Denver, Dean was critical of Republican congressmen Bob Beauprez and Tom Tancredo, whom he said used fear to divide constituents along racial lines. And trading barbs with Republican chairman Ken Mehlman at the NAACP convention in Milwaukee, where both spoke Thursday, Dean said, “We’re not going to divide Americans to win elections. The Republican Party’s ‘Southern Strategy’ used in the 1960s and 1970s lives today. In 2000, they used the racially charged word “quota” to divide African Americans. In 2004, they used gay marriage. And just you wait; in 2006 its going to be immigrants.”

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1338

Dean was right again.

================== 

We should force  the Republican  to defend the increase in HB-1 visa.  That is,  stealing the most precious human resources from poor countries (their geniuses,) to increase Oracle's bottom line, while simultaneously stealing away the best jobs this country has to offer from  its university graduates.

Mike wrote "so far the Democrats that were elected to get us out of Iraq have failed to do so..........not a good start....................."

I know it's too late to improve their start, but how much time do you think they have to do it so they'll have a good finish? 

Hi Folks,

 Have been having  computer problems, so will be brief.  The July issue of Harper's has some interesting perspectives on the Iraq War.  One conclusion is that it is simply ridiculous that we went into Iraq.  That, we over estimated Saddam twice, first when he attacked Kuwait, and then after 9/11.  The author says that the Iraqis didn't fight, gave up both times.  He also says we are over estimating Iran, that most of their weaponry and tanks are over 30 years old, and they were such a poor fighting force that Iraq defeated them.

He uses the analogy of Mussolini and Ethiopia.  Churchill overestimated Mussolin and let him have Ethiopia.  The Italians wouldn't fight and gave up easily.  Despite the concession, Mussolini went with HItler because the Italians were being defeated by the Ethiopians and  Hitler's troops rescued them.  The conclusion is that we are wasting our resources, exaserbating the violence and causing more harm.  He says that only 60 percent of the people in the Middle East work, that their productivity and exports are below those of sub Saharan Africa, and that they have progresses not at all culturally, educationally, ecologically, economically.  Just ignore them.  They contribute only 30 percent of the world's oil to other countries.  Interesting perspective.

Have to close as computer keeps shutting down. 

Michael Ellis
Mon, 06/18/07
12:57 pm

=============

The only way you can get a third party started is to align it with an existing party and work as a coalition to endorse that party with the proper negotiations and cooperation.    With the help of Democrats, a third party can change the laws of the country to make third party votes meaningful, which must include a runoff election if no party achieves a majority (more than 50% of those who voted.) 

So far, third parties have done just the opposite, they have used the threat of killing the party that has more in common with their beliefs, indirectly helping the party that is farther from their position.  If there is a major third party it has to be cooperative, not confrontational, to change the system, to make it more accomodating to a multi-party system.

...........so far the Democrats that were elected to get us out of Iraq have failed to do so..........not a good start.....................

======================

HERE'S AN EXIT PLAN, MIKE, BUT MOST DEMOCRATS ARE TOO BUSY MAKING BUMPER-STICKERS TO READ IT

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

THE BIDEN-GELB PLAN   ----  A Five Point Plan for Iraq

1. Establish One Iraq, with Three Regions

Federalize Iraq in accordance with its constitution by establishing three largely autonomous regions - Shiite, Sunni and Kurd -- with a strong but limited central government in Baghdad
Put the central government in charge of truly common interests: border defense, foreign policy, oil production and revenues
Form regional governments -- Kurd, Sunni and Shiite -- responsible for administering their own regions

2. Share Oil Revenues

Gain agreement for the federal solution from the Sunni Arabs by guaranteeing them 20 percent of all present and future oil revenues -- an amount roughly proportional to their size -- which would make their region economically viable
Empower the central government to set national oil policy and distribute the revenues, which would attract needed foreign investment and reinforce each community's interest in keeping Iraq intact and protecting the oil infrastructure

3. Convene International Conference, Enforce Regional Non-Aggression Pact

Convene with the U.N. a regional security conference where Iraq's neighbors, including Iran, pledge to support Iraq's power sharing agreement and respect Iraq's borders
Engage Iraq's neighbors directly to overcome their suspicions and focus their efforts on stabilizing Iraq, not undermining it
Create a standing Contact Group, to include the major powers, that would engage Iraq's neighbors and enforce their commitments

4. Responsibly Drawdown US Troops

Direct U.S. military commanders to develop a plan to withdraw and re-deploy almost all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2007
Maintain in or near Iraq a small residual force -- perhaps 20,000 troops -- to strike any concentration of terrorists, help keep Iraq's neighbors honest and train its security forces

5. Increase Reconstruction Assistance and Create a Jobs Program

Provide more reconstruction assistance, conditioned on the protection of minority and women's rights and the establishment of a jobs program to give Iraqi youth an alternative to the militia and criminal gangs
Insist that other countries take the lead in funding reconstruction by making good on old commitments and providing new ones -- especially the oil-rich Arab Gulf countries

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

Plan for Iraq: What It Is - and What It Is Not

Some commentators have either misunderstood the Plan, or mischaracterized it. Here is what the plan is - and what it is not:

1. The Plan is not partition.

2. The Plan is not a foreign imposition.

3. The Plan is not an invitation to sectarian cleansing.

4. The Plan is the only idea on the table for dealing with the sectarian militia.

5. The Plan is an answer to the problem of mixed cities.

6. The Plan is in the self-interest of Iran.

7. The Plan is in the self-interest of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

FOR WHAT ELSE IT IT NOT - SEE THE LINK BELOW and scroll down

http://www.joebiden.com/issues/?id=0009

Tom Bearse
Mon, 06/18/07
1:04 pm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ask thr average iraqi that question.................same thing for Bidens plan, run that one by the people if you dare..........

Joe Biden, Barbara Boxer

Friday, June 15, 2007

.....to bring stability to Iraq by creating a federal system of government that gives Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds local control over their daily lives. This would not be a U.S. imposition; in fact, Iraq's constitution provides for a decentralized, federal system.

Under our plan, which is supported by Republican Sens. Sam Brownback, Gordon Smith and Kay Bailey Hutchison as well as Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, the central government would remain responsible for common interests, such as border security and a fair distribution of oil revenues among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

We would also initiate a major diplomatic surge. It's time to convene an international conference on Iraq that includes the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, and all of Iraq's neighbors, to help support a settlement based on federalism.

And perhaps most critical, this plan would allow for the responsible withdrawal of most U.S. forces from Iraq by 2008. Right now, our troops are in the worst possible .....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/15/EDGKOP3GAP1.DTL

Mike wrote "Ask the average iraqi [how much time Democrats who were elected to get us out of Iraq have to do it to have a good ending.]"

Since it was your critique of the performance of the Democrats in Congress to date under discussion, I thought I would ask you. 

Ask thr average iraqi that question.................same thing for Bidens plan, run that one by the people if you dare..........

==================

IT DEPENDS of course, like anything else, who asks the questions and how they ask them, but there are many polls that indicate a real ambivalence, of damned the Amercans are here, damned if they not here...under the Bush policies, who can blame them.

Tom Bearse
Mon, 06/18/07
1:37 pm
___________________________________________________________________________

Its really academic what i think and you probabaly would not have the stomach for it anyways Tom, however let the iraqis, the people invaded and occupied decide how they feel about the US making its policy decisions for them.................after all, its they who will decide for themselves whether or not to accept it and make it succeed...............

If it were me, if a foreign country was going to make these decisions on my behalf i would most likely go with switzerland, china or sweden................

It isn't difficult to predict what will happen in Sept.  Most of us here knew that the Sept talk was a red herring and that Betrayus would do just that...lie for putzco.

To predict that the dems will continue to do nothing to end the occupation is also not crystal ball stuff.  The war dems, run by AIPAC and abetted by the repugs, will do nothing.  It would take the repugs defecting and turning sharply on putz/cheney to have any effect at all.

Howard is right.  If the occupation isn't drawn down considerably, we lose again in 08.  The voters don't want putz again, but they'll go for new lies from a new candidate, since they're so disgusted with the dems they elected to get us outta this mess.

Edwards is being marginalized, since he's the best of the 3 *top* tier.  Obama is slated to run with Clinton, IMO, and they will lose, since Clinton is a divider and appeals to the less educated and younger women.  And since racism is still running strong in this country, people will vote against Obama, even if it's subconscious.  And sexism is running strong....same for Clinton.  

Gore or another country for me.  It's at the point where our food, water air and drugs aren't safe anymore.  IMO, we're a third world country with a power-crazed drunk who has his finger on some of the most deadly weapons in the world.

Ånd, IMO, we're a one party country - the War Party.

I'd vote for Kucinich in a heartbeat and he too is marginalized.  I never dreamed a whole country could be insane, but I now believe it.

This from John's article. "And the public has turned the page."

This says it all for me.  This tells me what kind of people live here. 

Hey all, am at the TBA conference, at the DFA table and guess what? NO where to plug in my laptop for power so I will be blogging time to time.

My friend Rachel, Jim Dean , Sheri, Kesh, Wayne and I will be heading up to Jim Webb's office at 4:20pm to lobby for a meeting with staff about the DC Voting rights legislation. It will be a busy day.

Just had lunch and the speakers were from the Apollo Alliance (www. ourfuture.org) Rep Markey, the head of the Sierra Club and others gave some really good speaches.

Just met Sheri and Jim and we had some laughs. Jim is real busy with interviews.

I am so proud that DFA is here and we have some DC for Democracy people and DFA ers from NOVA helping out.

Why in the world would the not have power sockets for blogging? I will find something.

Peace to  all.

any questions ? Let me know via dfa link, Later kiddos.

Mike wrote "let the iraqis, the people invaded and occupied decide how they feel about the US making its policy decisions for them."

This sounds like sound policy, although it differs materially from relying upon the opinion of the average Iraqi, as you first suggested.  Assuming a majority of Iraqis hope to see the U.S. withdraw from Iraq, as I suspect, without knowing, it does, the opinion coincides with that of the current Democratic Congress, which is introducing a series of bills to force the administration's hand in Iraq, the next as early as July.  As my question suggests, however, it will take time to achieve.

a better way to think???

http://break.com/index/tough-to-argue.ht...

seashell wrote "Edwards is being marginalized, since he's the best of the 3 *top* tier."

I in no away agree with the premise of this theorem that Edwards is the best of top tier Democratic candidates, but irrespective of that, who has marginialized Edwards and how?

Joan* In*Florida
Mon, 06/18/07
12:51 pm

I guess I hit a nerve. I don't have a crystal ball, but I'd be willing to bet that the Democrats will huff and puff..........again, and roll over for Bush.......... again.

Tom wrote:

the opinion coincides with that of the current Democratic Congress, which is introducing a series of bills to force the administration's hand in Iraq, the next as early as July.  As my question suggests, however, it will take time to achieve.

They're back at the same old game. Introduce legislation which, if it passes at all, will be vetoed, then throw up your hands and whine about not having the votes to override.

It only takes 41 votes in the Senate to sustain a filibuster. As with Vietnam, the only way to get our brave men and women out of Iraq is to cut off funding, period. That my friends is supporting the troops!

This says it all for me.  This tells me what kind of people live here. 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You are not alone seashell..........many feel the same way...........it amazes me how one country can go from idiolized in 1945 to the dog house in 50 odd years..........and its gonna get worse too.........

The Biden-Gelb plan, or any "made in America" scheme is doomed to failure.

When are these idiots going to get through their thick skulls that the Iraqis will reject out of hand, any solution that is imposed on them, particularly by the Country that made the mess in the first place.

Let's withdraw the troops, and see what happens. It probably won't be pretty, but at least the Iraqis will be in control of their destiny (and oil) and will sort it all out, like the Vietnamese did once the heavy hand of America was lifted.

Tom Bearse
Mon, 06/18/07
2:36 pm

At least Edwards has left the War Party, which neither Obama nor Clinton has done.

John wrote "They're back at the same old game. Introduce legislation which, if it passes at all, will be vetoed, then throw up your hands and whine about not having the votes to override."

I don’t perceive the surrender or whining you’re writing about. The question of funding will be taken up again in the immediate future. I mean I appreciate that it is a democratic, legislative process involved, so you have to summon the will of your caucus and negotiate some compromises to pass a funding bill, but that’s a built-in feature of our law making, courtesy of the Founding Fathers. As I’ve mentioned before, for fast, efficient, effective policy making, you need a powerful dictator at the helm. Despite the obvious benefits, the trade-off seems very drastic to me.

John wrote "At least Edwards has left the War Party, which neither Obama nor Clinton has done."

Which party is he with?

Which party is he with?

The Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.........

John wrote "[Edwards is with t]he Democratic wing of the Democratic Party........."

I'm sure it's unintentional, but there's a nearly hideous aspect of invoking this statement of Dean's to describe Edwards, which is Dean made the statement "What I want to know... is why in the world the Democratic party leadership is supporting the president's unilateral attack on Iraq?", he was referring to the vote by Edwards and others on the Edwards sponsored bill in the Senate. 

Tom Bearse
Mon, 06/18/07
2:52 pm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

yeah, Tom..........lets do the politically correct and neat and tidy thing like drag our feet another 10, 15 20 years..what the hell.....hey as long as you aint over there who cares..right?

Edwards is being marginalized by the CMW who can't stop talking about his haircut and his big home.  He's also not being given equal air time.  It's all Obama and Clinton, and then more Obama and Clinton.

Lindab,  please ask about AIPAC's strangle hold on our foreign policy.  Getting out of Iraq should be the only thing being discussed at TBA.  IMO.  That and kicking AIPAC off the Hill.  And global warming.

We already have an iron fisted dictator/decider/decisionmaker at the helm making policy faster than we can read about it.  He doesn't give a sh^t about Constitutional law; why should Congress?

Not even 41 votes!  That tells me what kind of people are holding office and shouldn't be.  They, too, should be screaming about Abu Graib and all the other war crimes...but not a peep.  They are, for the most part, miserable failures.

I heard Reid say "him and I" the other day.  Did this man ever go to school?  When our pols start using bad grammar, what does that say about our educational system? 

Tom Bearse
Mon, 06/18/07
3:06 pm
 SEE 59. Edwards has renounced and apologized for his cheerleading in 02-03. He is now in the forefront of those calling for removing ALL troops. As I've said above, he's left the War Party, but neither Hillary nor Obama has.

 Important difference

Mike wrote "yeah, Tom..........lets do the politically correct and neat and tidy thing like drag our feet another 10, 15 20 years..what the hell.....hey as long as you aint over there who cares..right?"

I find this somewhat stupid and insulting. First, I have never, ever supported the Iraq conflict and if you think I have, you better find a source for it before publishing it. Perhaps you’re mistaking me for John Edwards. Any reservations I have had about total immediate withdrawal has been for security concerns for Iraqis in the aftermath of the occupation, as I’ve stressed repeatedly. It’s pretty obvious that the politically correct thing in this instance is to get out and watch like Romans at the Coliseum. No blood splattered at those enthusiasts of the manly arts while seated at such a safe distance.

Second, there is no proposed Democratic legislation to have troops in the battle zones of Iraq beyond next year. Obama’s measure would have prevented the troop surge and begun withdrawal last month. You must be thinking of Bosnia.

You have to have a greater appreciation of irony to get the full effect of calling Edwards a representative of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.  

Nevertheless, I'm sick of trying to point out the fact that authorizing an invasion makes you exponentially more responsible for the loss of life and limbs than does not authorizing it and trying to find out how to extricate the country from it once the decision is made.  Cheerleading on the sidelines isn't quite as helpful as someone like Edwards would like, but the distinction seems too fine a point to be grasped.  I'll just go along that Edwards is a great candidate for President.  You're correct that his past actions should not have any bearing on that assessment.

At least Edwards admits he made a mistake, something I've never heard HH Clinton admit.  HH = her highness  .... her elite Highness.

Why do the voters have such a hard time distinguishing between candidates who are good for them and the country and candidates who are not?  My neighbor almost never votes becuz "They're all corrupt."  He has a point. 

I like the theory that this country has fallen prey to mass hypnosis carried on and out thru the CMW.

Certainly there are some signs that the people are waking up; now how do we wake up Congress?  How do we neuter the lobbyists?  How do we get rid of cheney and gonzalez?  It's simply overwhelming to read the news every day.

Just met up with Marcia Moody at the DFA table. Fun, WE are all gonna meet up at the BBQ tonite.

Um, I am gonna ask about Aipaic in a while at one of the plenaries.

Not a lot of happy people here. People seem frustrated. They are not going for the party line.

BBL

Oh for Pete's sake.

Gore Gore Gore!   

linda b, you go girl.  I can't wait for the answer, if it's not skirted completely.  Don't let them be evasive!   You've got guts, Girl!  I'll help with bail money.  :-) Maybe your punishment will be to lick Wolfie's comb for him.  Yuck!

68.

I like the theory that this country has fallen prey to mass hypnosis carried on and out thru the CMW.

sea,

CMW definition?

 I'll just go along that Edwards is a great candidate for President.  You're correct that his past actions should not have any bearing on that assessment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

glad you finally get it Tom (sarcasm noted)

we have had six years of a President who can't learn and change his mind

lets watch over the next weeks and months

linda b wrote "Not a lot of happy people here. People seem frustrated. They are not going for the party line."

At a Take Back America conference, this has to be an encouraging sign.  If the status quo was idyllic, there wouldn't be much purpose in taking it back.

now that linda b has officially made a report, I can award her a HOWARDLY

come to the Guttenberg City Park at 6:30 and you can join us for a potluck before we hear from all of the candidate's staffers

Clinton, Edwards, and Obama all have good ground games in place and have county co-ordinators; none of those three will be less than viable for lack of trying here

Senator Bayh gave it a similar shot and never got traction; still is an asset in the Senate most of the time

Richardson has made double digits based on his stand on the war and the best TV ads so far

Tom Bearse
Mon, 06/18/07
3:24 pm
__________________________________________________________________________

And your remarks are always condescending.............be nice to Independents, we are the ones who will make or break this election..............you have much to learn.

Mike wrote "And your remarks are always condescending............."

True.  You haven't responded to any of my points.  Didn't I ask nicely enough?

50.

Howard is right.  If the occupation isn't drawn down considerably, we lose again in 08.  The voters don't want putz again, but they'll go for new lies from a new candidate, since they're so disgusted with the dems they elected to get us outta this mess.

This time Howard i not right, though I hate to say that. IMHO he said that to wake up the Dems in Congress, not because he thought it was a fact.

Putz is not running again, nor do most voters want anything to do with candidates who echo him, which includes just about their entire flock of candidates. Just because a voter is disgusted with the Dems will not drive them into the arms of more Bush-Lites.

The right wingnut media many here keep quoting would have us all believe 2008 will be a genuine thugfest between Dems and  Repugs because that's what garners them viewers and because their sponsors hope Repugs will win. That won't happen. 

What Dem voters have to concentrate on is getting the best candidate they can by choosing one closest to a progressive agenda just like we have been doing here. It is that battle within the party that is the only story that will matter in the end since that nominee will become president. We need to get our progressive policies out there whenever possible. That is what will determine our future.

John Edwards is terrific.

I am so proud veeeery of linda b!!! What a gal! Shows us what one person with the

Taking on and rubbing shoulders with the big guys/gals just like she did with the Webb campaign.

I'd be proud to be there helping her if I only could.

Maybe we could plan a cyber party here for her when she returns home to electric power.

Go linda, we're all listening to ya' so blog when you can.

He is no Al Gore, but acceptable.

The Biden-Gelb plan, or any "made in America" scheme is doomed to failure.

When are these idiots going to get through their thick skulls that the Iraqis ....

===============

There are no Iraqis anymore, Einstein, its Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds.  Welcome to the real world.

Tom Bearse
Mon, 06/18/07
4:11 pm

Reply to this

He's half of the Hair / Hair presidential duo of 2004.

Tom Bearse
Mon, 06/18/07
2:52 pm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

yeah, Tom..........lets do the politically correct and neat and tidy thing like drag our feet another 10, 15 20 years..

=================

Mike, it is disingenuous to reduce this issue to an argument of this occupation issue being a choice between one extreme policy (30 years of violent occupation) or the other extreme (cut-and-run of the former Iraq ASAP, and take big oil with you)

That's not discussion.  That is grandstanding.

Joan wrote "He is no Al Gore, but acceptable."

No, he's no Al Gore, but he's Al Goresque.  That's kind of like Al Gore.  It's just that Edwards used his lifeline to get the right answer, whereas Gore knew the answer all along.

81. 82.

======

Edwards had his chance to campaign and lackluster would be a compliment.  Feel the same way about Hillary.  Besides being a woman and Senator, she is just another  Clinton clone.  This party need to move forward.  At least Obama is a new face.

I have a difficult time accepting the premise that the Democratic Party will be blamed for Iraq if they don't end the occupation before the '08 elections.

If the Rethugs can convince enough voters that the occupation has somehow become the fault of the Democratic congress - then shame on those voters.

 Howard made a valid point about the matter at DeanFest two weekends ago. He aknowledged that many people are disappointed that the Congress didn't attach a timeline to the appropriations bill - but noted, rightfully so - that Harry Reid goes to work each day with 49 votes, since Joe Lieberman always votes the wrong way on Iraq and Tim Johnson is still recovering from his physical ailments.

Cynical people - like I am certainly capable of being - suspect that the Democratic Party might like nothing better than having the occupation still ongoing at election time. But, that is presumptive - and no one should ever be swayed into believing that anyone bears more responsibility than BushCo for this mess.

A,AA,IISVGTBHAF.

Tom Bearse
__________________________________________________________________________

And your remarks are always condescending.............be nice to Independents,

=================

Mike, this is the "McLaughlin Group" of blogs - if you are looking for cordiality, sorry to disappoint you.  I am independent but it is a state of mind - not a label - In my 58 years I've been registered as Green, Natural Law, Independent, and Republican, but it  not the label, in is the soul that counts.  My admiration for Biden on this blog is all the proof I need of my independent soul.

88.  Good point, David

I have this recurring nightmare of Lieberman riding a missile through the sky - like in "Doctor Strangelove".

The nightmare ends before the Lieber-bomb suffers premature ejaculation. Tant pis !

Merci beaucoup, Fred.

I wasn't particularly impressed by John Edwards at DeanFest - although I like his Populist themes. He seems sincerely inclined toward single-payer health care coverage - like my candidate Dennis Kucinich has been promoting for years.

David

Thanks again for helping put an (I) after Joementum"s name.

We will be able to follow a money trail after the next reporting period. Obama had a stroke of genius in the campaign somewhere when he offered the chance at a dinner with him for $5 and up donation. added beaucoup names to his donor list to pump the number while lowering the average which makes it more grassroots

bbl

David wrote "I wasn't particularly impressed by John Edwards at DeanFest"

That's because you're not feeling it.  You have to get with the program.  I have it on good authority that Al Goresque John Edwards is terrific.  Voting for the war is not the same as being for the war if you apologize for it. 

I was certainly more impressed by Dennis Kucinich's teleconference call. He had reviewed complaints which had been raised about HR-811 and had withdrawn his support for it.

David wrote "I was certainly more impressed by Dennis Kucinich's teleconference call."

Did he do any singing at Deanfest, because I've heard Kucinich burst into spontaneous song at campaign events.

 He had reviewed complaints which had been raised about HR-811 and had withdrawn his support for it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope that doesn't leave us without any bill.

The Midwest Renewable Energy confab at Stevens Point got over just in time from the looks of the radar screen, nasty storms kicking up in north central Wisconsin.

General Fair Information
Since its inception in 1990, the Renewable Energy & Sustainable Living Fair has has shown 190,000 fairgoers how to change the world while having fun. Each summer the Fair transforms rural Custer, Wisconsin into the global hot spot for renewable energy education. The Fair is the world’s largest renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable living educational event of its kind

http://www.the-mrea.org

Workshop descriptions: 8 page document in pdf format that lists all 170 workshops by number and program area

Tom Bearse
Mon, 06/18/07
4:56 pm

Reply to this

You're absolutely correct that with the information available to them, Congresscritters should never have trusted BushCo with the power to invade Iraq.

Maybe those of us who were adamantly opposed to giving BushCo the unilateral authority were smarter than our representatives - but ignorance of the obvious facts is never a valid excuse.

Phil Specht
Mon, 06/18/07
5:12 pm

Reply to this

There appear to be some pretty serious flaws. I'm in the process of exploring those alleged flaws before I draw any final conclusion.

I suspect the punch line that you're heading towards is "Kum-ba-ya" - or something of that genre.

I try to avoid judging candidates on matters other than their position on the issues.

David wrote "Maybe those of us who were adamantly opposed to giving BushCo the unilateral authority were smarter than our representatives."

I tend to agree, but it's important to note that many of the candidates for the Demcratic nomination - Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt and Lieberman - had a reason in 2002 to be war boosters for the administration.  One year out from the attack on the twin towers, the wimp factor was going to paraded out by Republicans against Democrats for the next two years unless drastic measures were taken.  Graham and Kucinich knew better and didn't succumb but for the others, the urge was irresistable and predictable.  They needed to look vigorous and muscular, not like anemic pacifists.

The rationale is useful to extrapolate the war positions of these people now.  The only war monger is Lieberman, but he's neither a candidate nor a Democrat.  As for the rest, well, if you're Edwards, the wimp factor has lost its elan.  If you're Kucinich, you've probably stuck to your principles.

Joan in FL

CMW definition?  Corporate Media Whores.

The idea that this country is in a trance comes from a psychologist I heard interviewed several years ago.

David, ROFL at the rocket image!

Al Gore gets it.  He's the only person talking about the spiritual component of changing our world and saving it.  While others are slobbering at the religious trough with the fundis, he's using words a Buddhist can love.  Deepak Chopra is another enlightened Being who talks about transformation.  And what this country desperately needs, IMO, is a spiritual transformation, which has nothing to do with religion.  If it's true that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, Americans need to stop thinking in terms of biggest and best and waving flags and rah rah war war war and win win win.  This whole culture is addicted to winning, whether it's an illegal war or an effing football game.  The fact that sports heros make zillions of dollars more than our dying soldiers also tells me who we are....and I'm horrified and embarrassed. 

David wrote "I suspect the punch line that you're heading towards is "Kum-ba-ya" - or something of that genre."

Ha, ha.  No, true story.  I heard him break into a rendition of the national anthem on the campaign trail in 2003, right after he gave his stump speech on C-Span to a bunch of county fair goers.

And still Gonzales is holding office.  He's a national embarrassment and then some.

US Attorneys Fallout Seeps Into the Courts
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061807C.shtml
For months, the Justice Department and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales have taken political heat for the purge of eight US attorneys last year. Now the fallout is starting to hit the department in courtrooms around the country. Defense lawyers in a growing number of cases are raising questions about the motives of government lawyers who have brought charges against their clients. In court papers, they are citing the furor over the US attorney dismissals as evidence that their cases may have been infected by politics.

Our complicit  Congress knows about these crimes against children and does nothing to stop the criminals.   The critters are breathtaking in their inability to think, feel or act.

At Least Seven Afghan Children Killed in US Airstrike
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061807J.shtml
Seven children were killed in a US-led coalition airstrike targeting suspected al Qaeda militants in eastern Afghanistan, a coalition statement said Monday. The strike came hours after the deadliest insurgent attack since the Taliban fell in 2001. Police said on Monday they had detained a suspect in connection with the deadly suicide bombing that destroyed a bus full of police instructors at Kabul's busiest transportation hub, killing 35 people and wounding 52.

Lest we forget what kind of country we've become under the criminals stupid people elected.

Seymour Hersh reveals shocking new details of Abu Ghraib; 'Father and son forced to do acts together' John Byrne and David Edwards
Published: Sunday June 17, 2007 reddit_url=window.location.href reddit_title='Seymour Hersh reveals shocking new details of Abu Ghraib; 'Father and son forced to do acts together''
Print This  Email This  

In a Saturday interview with CNN's Late Edition, veteran New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh revealed new details about the coverup of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. His new piece in the magazine can be read here.

"The notion... that our leader, Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense and his aides, they all went and testified in May after the stories about Abu Ghraib became public that 'oh my God, we just didn't know about, we didn't realize how serious it was,' is simply not true."

Blitzer asks Hersh about a quote given by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba said in a May 6, 2004 meeting with Rumsfeld, then-Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and top brass at the Pentagon.

"I described the naked detainee lying on the wet floor, handcuffed, with an interrogator shoving things up his rectum and said, 'That's not abuse, that's torture,'" Taguba said. "There was quiet."

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Seymour_Hersh_shocking_new_Abu_Ghraib_0617.html 

snapshots.  bbl

If you receive DirecTV, Amy Goodman's Democracy Now is on right now (Ch 375). She will be having Michael Moore for the hour.

The video is done!

Which video? The one Demetrius did for this contest, which ate up almost every waking moment of the past week for him–and many moments that should have been sleeping moments.

You can see it here, if you like.

I’m going to appreciate having my husband back. :)

97.  98. 

I like Kucinich.  He was against the war/occupation from the start.  I even had his bumpy sticker once, but  he just doesn't have the solutions.

we are in a mess of monstrous proportions with much of the country still paranoid and jingoist.  We need the experience and Statemanship of someone Biden.  You  cannot make the vote on authorization of Iraq the acid test for candidacy.  That would be analogous to a regime purge, and we are not that extreme.

It is reasonable to assume that some voted for authorization with the hope that it would be a gun to hold to Saddam's head, while the UN inspectors did their job.  B4 the vote, Bush gave no hint of the fact he was going to disregard the U.N. and many assumed giving him authority to "lean on" Saddam Hussein with the threat of force was the best way to go.

I was against the invasion from the start, but cannot honestly say how I would have voted were I put in the position of giving Bush authority at that time.  I don't remember that much and I was not in the position of making that decision.

True.  You haven't responded to any of my points.  Didn't I ask nicely enough?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

tom,

Keep trying..........your almost there though.........lets not forget 2000 and the independent vote then.............

Mike wrote:  "lets not forget 2000 and the independent vote then............."

I'm sorry, but Eva Liddell has debunked this modern day myth at Counterpunch.  Third parties had no effect on Gore's loss in 2000, as it turns out.  Rather, it was the Democrat elites who threw their own party's candidate overboard to insure war with Iraq in 2003 under a Bush administration.  As noted above, she wrote:

""When Bush gave us the spin on Iraq, the mushroom clouds, the weapons of mass destruction, nobody disagreed Saddam was evil. Certainly not the Democratic Party. And the Democratic elites wanted war as much as the Republicans. If it took dumping their own guy in 2000 to do it, so be it. Who designed the butterfly ballot? A Democrat. Whose polls are the hardest to get to? The disenfranchised black constituents of the Democratic Party. Making Gore conduct his campaign by the eight time loser Bob Shrum the guy the Party selects to lose elections was another tip-off. Why would the Democratic elites want their guy Gore when they were smelling war? Gore I am sure wanted to win but that doesn't mean his own Party wouldn't dump him."

113.

Two thumbs up for the animation done by Demetrius, excellent job...thanks for sharing him Renee : )

No time lately myself, me personal life has been on the back burner...need to change that.

Michael Ellis

==========

Hi, Michael, what did you think of  89. ?

I have spent the last sevearll days and hours trying tro get access to our blogbookculb on blog spot.  runnining on empty here.  I want to update it ec.. My last recourse is to hope that jc's family gives me some passwords.

Any way, still taliking to greg palast, is still on, but when is the question. will let everyone know when i do.

I

this is a drvie by post. catch you all tomorrow i hope.

Al Gore Is Getting Hot
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/18/...

I'll pass along the kudos, Reed.

He says he could have easily spent another week fine-tuning the animation, but with tonight being the deadline, he didn't have that luxury. He was pretty tired of that song by the time he finally finished. :) 

Renee in Ohio

============

Interesting video, Renee.  I wonder how they make those graphics are they sythesized or digitized from photos?  That's quite a skill to have these days... I really enjoyed it - but felt like it should have had some kind of ending or story element to the ending.  It ended "too soon."  But I guess art is art and stories are stories.

113.

Renee in Ohio


WAAAAAAAAYYY caOOOOL Renee....uh, Demetrius :)

nice work.

Renee, has Demetrius thought of doing short videos, called Pods, where viewers rate them to get it on tv and then get money. Then too, they have Sponsored pods by Companies in place of commercials where it's like ad placement, sort of what D did in this video...all on Currenttv. Al's tv network.

Give a look, but I warn you, you can get lost here. :)
http://currenttv.com/

The spouse invited company to dinner, so I got to play hostess.  Even made desert.  LOL

Enough domesticity for a week, at least.  The weeds are still calling to be pulled out in the rock garden.  We're promised a few more days of good weather.

BTW, Kucinich has amended his Iraq plan--12 points

!)   1. The US announces it will end the occupation, close military bases and withdraw. The insurgency has been fueled by the occupation and the prospect of a long-term presence as indicated by the building of permanent bases. A US declaration of an intention to withdraw troops and close bases will help dampen the insurgency which has been inspired to resist colonization and fight invaders and those who have supported US policy. Furthermore this will provide an opening where parties within Iraq and in the region can set the stage for negotiations towards peaceful settlement.

Now I know why I don't watch Matthews.  He's annointing Clinton and drooling, saying she's getting her military lingo together and sounding tough.

If she's elected, we'll be in the ME for 50 years...likely anyhow.  If she nominated, she'll  lose.  You watch.  Unless dumb women vote for her and that's looking likely since she's pulling in the high school dropouts.    

seashell, do you get dfalink messages?

Matthews is a total Conservative...what ever that means...in this way, Republican like.

He chokes on Al Gore getting in, because he was a bad boy in 2000 and smeared Al.

Unless dumb women vote for her and that's looking likely since she's pulling in the high school dropouts.

===========

I would love to hear her sing "Stand By Your Man" at the primary.

I posted it on our DFALink blog site.

Nice. 

Keith is back and that makes me feel more hopeful.

If you'll include George the First, I'll agree.  He's the one who hatched this plot in the first place. 

Linda in SF, yes, I get link messages, but I always forget to go look so you have to post something here telling me I have mail.  I liked the old way.

I thought I heard that Hersh was on Matthews tonight but I missed it.

Fred,

What do i think of 89?   Just shows that youve jumped a few ships in your day.........................

Heres a more contemporary history which is more indicative of the trend we are seeing.........

Part 1

Me.....registered Democrat 1976.......1980 saw the beginning of weakness in the party...1984 the trend continues with the Democrats putting up a weak candidate and VP along with other foolish mistakes......1988 things getting progresively worse and its becoming an embarassment belonging to this party..............1992 proven wrong in Clintons win and glad to see the country taking a turn for the better............1996 Im getting disgruntled with Clinton although anything is better that Dole, 2 year old daughter accidentally pushes voting booth button for Perot(a sign of things to come?)...............2000 Gore isa  great candidate, looks like the party is forcing him to Lieberman which would be a disaster, Gore is poorly coached and Im becoming more and more frustrated with the ay politics is working, if we are not careful Bush may pull this out and that would be the Mother of all humliations...................2000 the nightmare begins.............2002/2003 Im discusted with the Democrats and most of the country.....they have fallen for the bait.....their own insecurity is going to bring them a disater in the ME that wil last for decades..............time to research 3rd party and Indpendents..........Dean is the only guy with balls to call out the truth, the only thing that can defeat Bush is a novelty up and comer like dean(although I dont care for several of his issues)............

To be continued tomorow.............................

132. seashell
yes you do. And, you can change your account to "notify you by email when you have messages. ie:
Notify me by email when:
I am sent a message
I am sent a buddy invitation
I am sent a group invitation
I am sent an event invitation

Go to DFA Link and click on "privacy" , those options will be at the bottom of the page.

By Marisa Taylor and Margaret Talev

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON - The investigations into the Bush administration's decision to fire nine U.S. attorneys have exposed how the administration has eroded the firewall between partisan politics and the Justice Department and compromised the independence of the nation's top law enforcement agency.

As early as 2002, administration policymakers, Republican legislators and GOP party officials began injecting politics into criminal investigations and civil and voting rights enforcement and applying political litmus tests to judges and career lawyers at the Justice Department.

A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of thousands of Justice Department documents, congressional testimony and interviews with current and former Justice Department officials reveals that the administration:

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/17386647.htm

http://www.mcclatchy.com/102/story/354.html

134.

yes, Mike, it always looks different in the morning, and I'm a little burnt out to respond at the moment anyway -  I'll read it again and respond tomorrow.

This from cspan is a session in the Take Back America Conference:

Campaign for America's Future Panel on Failure of Conservatism (6/18/2007)

Campaign For America's Future on Women's Issues
A discussion on the topic "Women Rising: The Issues That Count". Speakers include: Irasema Garza, Woring America, Ellen Bravo, author, "Taking On The Big Boys", and Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Moms Rising, are some of the speakers on the panel.
6/18/2007: WASHINGTON, DC:

Campaign for America's Future Panel on Failure of Conservatism
The Campaign for America's Future is holidng a 3-day "Take Back America" conference in Washington, D.C. Melody Barnes, Ctr. for American Progress, and Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect, are two of the panelists on a discussion titled "The War of Ideas: How Conservatism has Failed."
6/18/2007: WASHINGTON, DC:

http://www.c-span.org/videoarchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,

The Lies About Immigration Amnesty

You Tube | June 14, 2007

Alex Jones breaks down the smoke and mirrors show surrounding the Amnesty bill and lays out the real agenda of "immigration reform".

100 Professors Question
The 9/11 Commission Report

Many respected and distinguished university professors have expressed significant criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report. A number even allege government complicity in the terrorist acts of 9/11. Below are the highly revealing public statements on this vital topic of over 100 university professors with links for verification and further investigation.

The collective voices of these respected professors along with over 50 senior government officials and over 100 media professionals and stars give credibility to the claim that the 9/11 Commission Report is tragically flawed. These dedicated individuals from across the political spectrum cannot be simply dismissed as irresponsible believers in some 9/11 conspiracy theory. Their sincere concern, backed by impeccable credentials, demonstrates that criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report is not only reasonable and responsible, it is in fact a patriotic duty.

daniel, i just don't get why you'd make a post like that. its not even art, per say. all you're doing is making it hard for the dial-up people. really, think about it.

Nifong got disbarred for partisan electioneering clouding blind justice ;ought to be the focus of the Gonzales hearings and the minimum ought to be disbarment for Gonzales.

Sir Salman Rushdie celebrates his 60th birthday today in familiar circumstances: he is once again the subject of death threats across the Islamic world.

Eighteen years after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill him, a government minister in Pakistan said yesterday that Rushdie’s recent knighthood justified suicide bombing.

sounds like its time to fold up the tents and go home. no more free speech...might offend someone...there's nothing to see here folks... move along...move along...

odd, the juxtaposition of my last 2 posts???

mprov

I'm lurking to save space for linda b reports.

Richardson made an excellent staffing decision for our county today; Biden committed to attending our July 14th workshop.

Obama dot com has a shot of our local parade with the "Obama llama"

and our County Treas. announced we are broke after paying postage for our fundraising letter but checks are beginning to roll in.

an oldie, but goodie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhMUtzOxj...

phil, i think i'm going to do that night school for fundraising. maybe you should too?

2008

Vote Independent

oh ya, like bloomberg is any alternative. join him at the hip with ron paul and get 1/2 a candidate who's still unable to actually run the government.

or.....

should we be ants or bees???

capitalism is the perfect model for planning a hive-like socio-political system. sit on the fence...see where that gets ya.

mprov
Mon, 06/18/07
11:03 pm

Well, I think a majority of the people living in the largest city in the country would disagree with you. 

149. on the other hand, no point in saving funds...spend 'em while ya got 'em...just make something good come out the other end...(i'm sure ya are!!!!)...

154. don't care. sorry not a logical measurement.

 157.

of 75%, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday. Mr. Bloomberg's approval rating had dipped to 73% in a March poll.

no million-billionaires for anything...they've already got theirs and, frankly, don't have a clue.

do you really want government to run like a business???

157. don't care. doesn't translate. go to anywhere else america and pitch bloomberg....

oh, i guess i didn't get it..."smart ass rich guy for president. he'll tell you everything you need to know, and take care of the rest. simply, well, really, 'cause he's rich and you're not"

how far ya going to get on that???

160

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's approval record is at a near record high 74 - 19 percent, and he leads the list when New Yorkers are asked whom they would like to see elected Mayor in 2009, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

In this latest survey, black voters approve of Bloomberg 77 - 18 percent, while white voters approve 80 - 13 percent and Hispanic voters approve 63 - 28 percent.

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

They like him (most of the liberal/moderate/conservative), beacuse people know that government often is run poorly.  From contractors making too money in Iraq and pigs like Delay and Murtha dishing out the money.

mprov
Mon, 06/18/07
11:14 pm

- - - - - - - -

I guess you backed good old Joe over Lamont and his Private Equity queen wife who backs all the business lobby groups and takes a 15% tax rate on her millions of capital gains through creative limited partnership (and LLC) structures of Profits Interests in the form of a carried Interest in deals. 

LOL

so, an independent has higher mores just by being an independent??? pretty weak, even if it is a currently popular statement.

i really wish those who push independent would think about the proposition. (sorry, cheryl.) but let's be real, just for a moment. there is just absolutely no chance that an "independent" candidate is going to be elected to national office. none, nada, nope, sorry, ain't gonna happen. i don't care how much money they have. i don't care if they're the most recent selection on star search. nothing, and absolutely nothing, is going to defeat the parties, at this point, in a national election.

163. go on with your guessing and continue to be wrong. ned wasn't an independent and joe's campaign is not a model to test for any other race.

163. ...despite your snide remark and follow-through.

The Two Faces of Richardson
The “Renewable Energy” and “Diplomacy” Governor Also Has a Cozy Relationship With the Nuclear Industry

Richardson’s hosts and former business partners - CSIS luminaries such as Henry Kissinger and former Senator Sam Nunn - recently wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal promoting global nuclear disarmament: “Reassertion of the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and practical measures toward achieving that goal would be, and would be perceived as, a bold initiative consistent with America’s moral heritage.”

But the real agenda may be to control and move nuclear fuel from warheads to nuclear power plants worldwide, and Governor Richardson has been a part of this plan since his time as Secretary of Energy, and perhaps even before. Kissinger and Nunn spell it out in their editorial:

“Steps would include...Getting control of the uranium enrichment process, combined with the guarantee that uranium for nuclear power reactors could be obtained at a reasonable price, first from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and then from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or other controlled international reserves.”

Our story begins with the privatisation of the US stockpile of nuclear fuel rods,
formerly the property of the United States Department of Energy.

full article
http://thesun-news.com/

159.

mprov

Only if it's run like Google. They even pay for their employees meals. They realized when you're dealing with a large amount of people, the cost of paying for things is much smaller, and the benefit for investing that little cost is actually more valuable to do, because your employees are happier and work more efficiently, work harder-in other words, you get more return for that small investment.

What a concept.

linda, still, i do not want government to run by any economic model. the proposition would divide, place heirarchy, have a high probability of failure, and, quite frankly, be uninspiring and boring.

should we be ants or bees??? i say again???

Here is a good article in Rolling Stone.  You might not agree with him on all the issues, but he is a non kiss ass politician who does not fake stuff and says what he means.....very Dean like.  I think the two would get along great.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11274669/bloomberg_08_can_a_republican_mayor_of_new_york_take_the_white_house

push...push...push up the hill...push..push...

"In his column Krugman took on the "authenticity" of Hillary, Fred Thompson and Rudy noting that Hillary's chief strategist, fired once by Al Gore, is head of a public relations firm that helps corporations fight union organizing drives."

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6/18/132228/703 

 170.

I WILL TAKE LOGIC OVER MURTHA/DELAY PORK POLITICS....WE NEED A FRESH WAY.

But in his time in New York, the mayor has already achieved something more profound, and lasting, than mere development: He has shown Americans what they might get if they ever manage to get politics out of government.

It is summer in the South Bronx, in the nation's poorest congressional district, and a tall Puerto Rican politician named Adolfo Carrion Jr. is addressing the Chamber of Commerce. Carrion, the Bronx borough president, is remembering an ugly episode in the city's history. As a child in 1977, he tells the crowd, he watched as the broadcast of the World Series at Yankee Stadium cut away to images just outside the ballpark, where rioters had started a fire in an empty elementary school that had engulfed the surrounding streets. "Ladies and gentlemen," Howard Cosell intoned, "the Bronx is burning." The moment would become a symbol for the next quarter-century of chaos in New York's outer boroughs.

But Carrion is here today to mark a new epoch: The ugliest ghetto in the country, he says, has cut unemployment to six percent, about the same as Sweden, and is sending up airy new high-rises in lots that once burned. Carrion waits for the applause to die down, and then he turns to the small, stiff-standing white guy on his left. The mayor, he says, deserves the credit. Carrion is a liberal Democrat who opposed the billionaire businessman when he first ran for office; now, he tells the crowd, Bloomberg will go down "as one of the greatest mayors - if not the greatest - in our history."

Missing Emails Finally Go Mainstream On Olberman

See your local crooksandliars or youtube for more.

PA, you buying bloomberg???

let's see: koch, dinkins, guiliani, bloomberg...ya, that's a good run??? who's best? who knows????

these little public attention markers are meaningless.

The Hatch Act says that you cannot deal in political business on government property.

This secret email system, deletion scandal makes Al Gore making a couple of phone calls from the White House look like Jay Walking!

This is a response to Countdown coverage for those of you who don't pay for Cable news--those who don't pay to filled with Corporate propoganda.

Kudos to MSNBC. Thank God you're at least doing it for the money.

According to New York political sources, they discussed a role Boren might play in an independent Bloomberg campaign for president -- generating speculation about a Bloomberg-Boren ticket. In introducing Bloomberg for his commencement speech, Boren praised the mayor's record stabilizing his city's budget and strengthening its economy after the 9/11 attack.

Boren was governor of Oklahoma before serving 16 years in the U.S. Senate. A moderate Democrat, he clashed with President Bill Clinton and left the Senate in 1994 to take the University of Oklahoma post. He declined Ross Perot's offer of the Reform Party vice presidential nomination in 1996 but said he might be open to a 2000 draft.

Kudos to MSNBC. Thank God you're at least doing it for the money.

That being said as a comment on Corporate medias relationship to the welfare of humans, I do belive that Olberman and others on his staff "get it" and are honestly well meaning in a journalistic sense and an American sense.

Random thoughts

The Republican "Brand" is highly damaged. If there was ever a chance to Revive and Re-Brand the term Liberal, THIS IS IT!!

Let the Linguistic Revenge begin.

 It is time for Dems and LIbs and Progs to FULL-THROATEDLY Trumpet polls that show, when you to take the labels out of it, Most Americans Are Liberals And Don't Know It.

IT IS TIME FOR BRAND RENEWAL.

Not in a luke warm corporate dem way, but a ground-swell, American grassroots way.

It is beyond time to exploit the opportunity to BRIDGE THE GAP between Progressive and Libertarians!

Ron Paul was a guest on Stephanie Miller today for God's sake.

Move. Now. Politics is all about timing.

Reid, Pelosi...The Time is NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW!

Politcal Stupidity from the Obama Campaign

http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jun/15clinton.htm

What the Obama himself  should say:

" I  deeply and personally apoligize for the blatant, zenophobic race-baiting that one who expect from the republicans that came from one of my staff members today.

 This is the kind of gutter politcs reminescent of Nixon's Southern Strategy.

This staffer has been unflichingly fired.

This is not the Obama Camaign's vision of American.

More....

It would be great to have a woman President, without question. I believe it is the savoir of humanity.

Gloria Steinam said that "one day an Army of gray haired women may quiety take over the Earth."

I hope so.

But, now is not the time for political ideology. Now is not the time for a far-off Utopia.

Hillary is un-electable  in the general, just like Howard Dean. Unlectable. Period.

She should take her lumps, go back to the Senate, where she is very effective, and GET OUT THE WAY OF GORE.

Democrats in the primary need to be able to see the long view.

Think of the general.That's REAL Winning.  

Gore/Hart

Gore/Obama.

p.s. Bloomberg takes more votes from the Dems than the neo--repugni-GONEs. This may make them not-gone. Think about it!

171.

mprov

No, of course you are correct. A business is a...Corporation.

I was just half joking/but serious of how good a business can run...as opposed to slave labor.

Think of the general.=means the General Election vs. the Primaries.

We need a candidate with SUPER-DUPER LOW Disapproval ratings. We can't afford another 51% President, like Hillary.

This will allow the CORPORATIST MEDIA TO FRAME THE ELECTION AS A HORSE RACE.

dEMS NEED, AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DESERVE A LANDSLIDE!

LANDLIDE! ! 

 Like George Orwell's 1984, any repugs reading this won't take it as a warning, but as a playbook for spearing Hillary.

I am not against Hillary. I think as far as politicians go she has compartments within herself that are sincerely progressive. I admire her for that, but.........

Onlyl Gore Really Gets it!!

Only Gore can change our direction in the required ten year period according to what we have to do quickly to reverse Global Warming.

Rosie Don't Whore Yourself to Gameshows! You can't talk about Loose Change on the Price is Right!

Everyone is Hollywood knows that once you do gameshows, you can't do anything else!

Roseanne Barr for the view!!!! 

G'Nite, Real Patriots.

Go With NBC Rosie! Make Them Pay You Alot.

Really, gnite this time.

Just checking the latest polls:

USA Today/Gallup Poll

Hillary Clinton 33

Barack Obama 21

Al Gore   18

NBC Poll

Hillary Clinton 39

Barack Obama 25

John Edwards 15

LA Times/Bloomberg

Hillary Clinton 33

Barack Obama 22

Al Gore 15

http://pollingreport.com/wh08dem.htm

There's your winning ticket - so far.  Clinton/Obama.  It could be kind of fun watching these two, first woman, first African American.  H.C. has the experience and Barack has - charisma.

Secret Service Code Names, Washington Post

Hillary Clinton - Evergreen

Bill Clinton - Eagle

Al Gore - Sundance

George W. Bush - Tumbler (named when his father was Pres., had a reputation for being rowdy...

George H. Bush - Timberwolf

Ronald Reagan - Rawhide.

Barack Obama - Renegade --- RENEGADE?

I just want to know what code name they use for - Cheney. : ) 

I found it -  Secret Service code name for Cheney is --- Angler.

Good morning, BFA! Long thread, unsurprisingly.

**********
Sorry to have missed mprov, apparently, and Renee ... good one for Demetrius. I miss you both and am glad that you come back here occasionally. Would love to *see* him here. His wit is missed.

**********
The DoS as Guantanamo equivalent? It certainly doesn't surprise, given who's at the helm.

============
Group: Agency Wrongfully Suspended Security Clearances
By William Fisher
t r u t h o u t | Report
Monday 18 June 2007

As the US struggles to fill critical posts in its diplomatic missions overseas - including its massive new embassy in Baghdad - the State Department is suspending the security clearances of dozens of experienced Foreign Service Officers based on flimsy allegations or bogus accusations.

This charge is being made by an organization known as Concerned Foreign Service Officers (CFSO), which claims that security clearances often remain suspended for years, thus preventing the employee from doing the work for which he or she has been trained. CFSO is calling for an overhaul of the department's diplomatic security management and practices.

[...]
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061807...

192. Mr. Magoo might be more fitting. especially with a gun in hand.

Well, this story goes nicely with the one that I just posted.

Of course, no experienced FSO of integrity would go near the place ...

====================
Embassy Staff In Baghdad Inadequate, Rice Is Told
Ambassador's Memo Asks for 'Best People'
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 19, 2007; A01

Ryan C. Crocker, the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, bluntly told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a cable dated May 31 that the embassy in Baghdad -- the largest and most expensive U.S. embassy -- lacks enough well-qualified staff members and that its security rules are too restrictive for Foreign Service officers to do their jobs.

"Simply put, we cannot do the nation's most important work if we do not have the Department's best people," Crocker said in the memo.

The unclassified cable underscores the State Department's struggle to find its role in the turmoil in Iraq. With a 2007 budget of more than $1 billion and a staff that has expanded to more than 1,000 Americans and 4,000 third-country nationals, the embassy has become the center of a bureaucratic battle between Crocker, who wants to strengthen the staff, and some members of Congress, who are increasingly skeptical about the diplomatic mission's rising costs.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Finally, word from two people who at least have a glimmer of what's really going on in I-P!

Will anyone pay attention? Hardly likely, among the numbskulls who are ruining our country.

================
'West Bank First': It Won't Work
By Robert Malley and Aaron David Miller
Tuesday, June 19, 2007; A17

Having embraced one illusion -- that it could help isolate and defeat Hamas -- the Bush administration is dangerously close to embracing another: Gaza is dead, long live the West Bank. This approach appears compelling. Flood the West Bank with money, boost Fatah security forces and create a meaningful negotiating process. The Palestinian people, drawn to a recovering West Bank and repelled by the nightmare of an impoverished Gaza, will rally around the more pragmatic of the Palestinians.

The theory is a few years late and several steps removed from reality. If the United States wanted to help President Mahmoud Abbas, the time to do so was in 2005, when he won office in a landslide, emerged as the Palestinians' uncontested leader and was in a position to sell difficult compromises to his people. Today, Abbas is challenged by far more Palestinians and is far less capable of securing a consensus on any important decision.

But the more fundamental problem with this theory is its lack of grounding. It is premised on the notion that Fatah controls the West Bank. Yet the West Bank is not Gaza in reverse. Unlike in Gaza, Israel's West Bank presence is overwhelming and, unlike Hamas, Fatah has ceased to exist as an ideologically or organizationally coherent movement. Behind the brand name lie a multitude of offshoots, fiefdoms and personal interests. Most attacks against Israel since the elections were launched by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the unruly Fatah-affiliated militias, notwithstanding Abbas's repeated calls for them to stop. Given this, why would Israel agree to measurably loosen security restrictions?

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Since at least 2000, I have thought of Richard Cohen as an unmitigated scumbag posing as a columnist.

Today's column does nothing to change that opinion. In fact, it only strengthens it.

=================
The Runaway Train That Hit Scooter Libby
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, June 19, 2007; A17

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

E.J. Dionne has a column worth reading today. Let me also say, that frustrated as I am with Dem politics, the Dems are realistically the ONLY other option that we have. We can rail against the system that we have and wish that we had a different one ... and god knows, the system can be improved.

But we've got to deal and play with the hand we have. The only way that we can improve the system is to become part of it. That's the Howard Dean Way. And even though we have some Dems who appear to be craven in their approach to the biggest criminal enterprise in history masquerading as an administration, we've got to keep showing them that we will support their actions ... but we also want to encourage them to be tougher.

==================
Dragging Down the Democrats
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007; A17

There's the brand, and then there's the product. At the moment, the Democratic brand is pretty good while the Republican brand is badly scarred. But when it comes to product, Democrats still have a lot of development work to do. As they toil away, Republicans will be working just as hard to soil the Democratic name.

[...]
Do not envy House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid their supposed power. It would be easier to manage Bush's former baseball team, the Texas Rangers (26 wins, 43 losses as of this morning). Expectations for the Rangers are a lot lower.

Expectations are part of the Democrats' problem. Over the past month or so, congressional Democrats have hemorrhaged support from both ends of the electoral coalition that backed them last November. And both ends had high hopes.

[...]
Given how tarnished the Republican brand is, the GOP's best strategy is to bring Democrats down with them into the murky depths of public disapproval. This might build support for a third-party candidate in 2008 -- which could help Republicans win by splitting the anti-Bush, anti-system vote. It's still early, but not too early for Democrats to worry about this prospect and to brace themselves for some ugly politics for the rest of the year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

I posted the KOS and DU reports, as well as the Seymour Hersh article about the shameful fate of General Taguba, a man of integrity, on Sunday morning, but have noticed only a couple of passing references to it on this blog.

This is BIG, people. Dan Froomkin is helping it seep into the American consiousness.

War crimes, anyone? putz may find it harder and harder to travel outside the US.

===================
New Questions About Abu Ghraib
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, June 18, 2007; 2:12 PM

A New Yorker article is raising uncomfortable questions for the White House about what President Bush knew about the horrific abuse at Abu Ghraib, when he knew it -- and whether he and his top lieutenants bear more responsibility for it than they have acknowledged.

The shocking news and appalling photographs chronicling the sadistic torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. personnel first emerged in April 2004, deeply damaging America's reputation, particularly in the Arab world. Bush responded by expressing disgust at the behavior of a small number of people who, he said, were acting on their own. He said those responsible would be held accountable. And he said he had not seen the photographs before they were made public.

But according to Seymour M. Hersh' s blockbuster story in the New Yorker, Bush was told about the abuse Abu Ghraib long before the photographs went public, failed to respond appropriately -- and may indeed have recognized what happened at Abu Ghraib as the predictable result of administration policy rather than the random act of a few bad apples.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Send in the Clowns! No, They are Already in the White House: "Iraq has emerged as the world's second most unstable country, behind Sudan, more than four years after President George W. Bush ordered the U.S. invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, according to a survey released on Monday." Would One of Those Blonde Bimbo Right Wing Shills Give Bush a Blow Job Already, So We Can Finally Impeach Him and Save America -- and Iraq?

No money where the mouth is, that's for sure.

=================
US failure to pay 'threatens Darfur peacekeeping'
· Budget plan undermines UN deal with Sudan
· Arrears likely to reach $1bn by end of 2007
Simon Tisdall in Washington
Tuesday June 19, 2007
Guardian

A breakthrough agreement to deploy a United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur risks being undermined by a shortfall of up to $1bn (£504m) in US contributions to the costs of global peacekeeping, campaigners said yesterday.

A UN delegation announced on Sunday that Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, had agreed at talks in Khartoum to allow the deployment of a 20,000-strong UN and African Union hybrid force by next year.

The deal ended months of wrangling and followed a direct threat by President George Bush to impose additional sanctions on the Sudanese government.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33004...

Grist for Al Gore's mill ...

===============
The Earth today stands in imminent peril
and nothing short of a planetary rescue will save it from the environmental cataclysm of dangerous climate change. Those are not the words of eco-warriors but the considered opinion of a group of eminent scientists writing in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 19 June 2007

Six scientists from some of the leading scientific institutions in the United States have issued what amounts to an unambiguous warning to the world: civilisation itself is threatened by global warming.

They also implicitly criticise the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for underestimating the scale of sea-level rises this century as a result of melting glaciers and polar ice sheets.

Instead of sea levels rising by about 40 centimetres, as the IPCC predicts in one of its computer forecasts, the true rise might be as great as several metres by 2100. That is why, they say, planet Earth today is in "imminent peril".

In a densely referenced scientific paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A some of the world's leading climate researchers describe in detail why they believe that humanity can no longer afford to ignore the "gravest threat" of climate change.

[...]
http://environment.independent.co.uk/cli...

I really would like to know what happened to poodle to turn him from the once admirable Tony Blair into what he has become: a shameful, craven putz brown-noser, who is in denial about it all.

================
Iraq 'has ruined case for liberal interventionism'
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor
Published: 19 June 2007

Tony Blair has been told that his foreign policy of intervening in the world's troublespots to uphold democracy is in tatters because of the disaster in Iraq.

Senior Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat MPs challenged the Prime Minister over whether his "liberal intervention" strategy would survive after he leaves office next week because other countries were turning against it. They clashed with Mr Blair when he was quizzed for the last time by the Commons Liaison Committee, which is composed of the chairman of all the select committees.

Mike Gapes, the Labour chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the case for intervening in other countries in future would be "discredited and undermined" by the experience in Iraq. He added that Mr Blair's strategy was now "out of step" with opinion around the world.

Edward Leigh, a senior Tory MP, asked Mr Blair pointedly whether he was "in a state of denial" over Iraq, saying it would be engraved on his political tombstone. He asked whether "in the dark watches of the night" the thousands of people who had died in Iraq returned to haunt him.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politic...

And ... about that *surge* and its *success* ....

================
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
111 Killed or Found Dead in Iraq on Monday

[...]
http://www.juancole.com/2007/06/111-kill...

".....I used to live next to a Jesus Freak mission back in the early Seventies. They'd constantly try to save me from eternal damnation as I sat on my stoop on summer evenings, enjoying the blessings of resplendent Nature at twilight time.

Being a tolerant and respectful person, I'd graciously put up with their efforts, kindly explaining that I had my own beliefs, with which I was very happy.

Then, figuring turnabout is fair play, I strolled into their headquarters one night with a sheaf of anti-Vietnam war leaflets suggesting that napalming innocent children into small, smoldering heaps of cinder and ash wasn't a very Christian thing to do.

They kicked me out!

Back then, as now, the evangelical movement was incestuously tied to rightwing politics, and there was only so much evidence of staggering hypocrisy they were willing to smilingly endure.

You haven't lived -- or learned -- unless you've been angrily, bodily escorted out of "church" by professed followers of the Gentle Nazarene Carpenter.

But I suppose that was just a moderated variant of searching and destroying "enemy" hamlets full of women and children, with bloodily indiscriminate guns blazing, even as small Bibles resided in some offending troopers' pockets.

When God's on your side, you don't question things like the My Lai massacre (or Haditha), or the over 600,000 Iraqis who've perished since the Christian Americans came.

Which is exactly why I'd shout "Hallelujah!" if I woke up tomorrow and discovered that religion had disappeared from the face of the earth.

Don't think I'm only disgusted with Christianity. Take off those suicide belts, Islamic extremists. Bury them deeply beneath the sand, along with any notion that murdering innocent "infidels" can be morally justified.

Together we can find other means to end the abundant abuses from our side that have so understandably enraged you.

Fly another airliner into one of our buildings, though, and you'll probably get your asses nuked, with Christians believing, ever more fervently than now, that it's either their way or the highway (of death).

There's nothing worse on this entire planet than concretized, violent sanctimony.

That's why we should all be singing John Lennon's tune rather than Onward Christian Soldiers:

Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/8174 

I continue to disagree with the putzco incompetence meme.  The chaos and death have been planned,

Part One: Criminality and Immorality

I. Criminality

According to Article VI of our U.S. Constitution, treaties entered into by the United States become the "Supreme Law of the Land." At the urging of President Harry Truman, on July 28, 1945, the U.S. Senate ratified the United Nations Charter by a vote of 89 to 2, with 5 abstentions. Thus the UN Charter became the supreme law of the land. And, thus, the United States was legally prohibited from waging war unless attacked, unless an attack was imminent, or unless the United Nations approved such a war.

Not for the first time, but most egregiously, did a President of the United States violate both his oath to uphold the Constitution and international law when President Bush ordered the unprovoked invasion of Iraq. Unbeknownst to the American public at the time, criminal plans for removing Saddam Hussein not only dominated the early 2001 meetings of Bush's National Security Council, they also crowded out time and attention that would have been better spent attempting to thwart the impending terrorist attacks by al Qaeda terrorists -- about which the Bush/Cheney regime had been frequently warned.

since failed states are ripe for picking by the corps.

The more times change, the more we see how the opportunities were missed.

This is the last ... hope that your day will be better than mine promises to be.
====================
THE ROVING EYE
Levitate the Pentagon
By Pepe Escobar

"I read the news today oh boy." - The Beatles, A Day in the Life, 1967.

"The only enemy of Iraq is the occupation." - Muqtada al-Sadr, 2007.

Forty years ago down in sunny Monterey, California, an ultra-cool black cat from Seattle named James Marshall Hendrix set the
world on fire. "Respect" by Aretha Franklin (written by Otis Redding) was the No 1 hit single in the US (to be replaced, a month later, by "Light My Fire" by The Doors). Hendrix and Otis in Monterey merged into the Summer of Love - the apotheosis of Make Love Not War, vinyl treasures and Indian mottoes dressed in caftans and granny dresses.

Already in the spring of 1967 a stirring wave of counterculture fusion between London and San Francisco was irresistible. Dismissed Harvard sage Tim Leary ordered everyone to "turn on, tune in, drop out" (The Beatles, already in 1966, were quoting from Leary's version of The Tibetan Book of the Dead - "turn off your minds, relax and float downstream").

While the radically politicized were yelling "Kill the pigs!" the Beatles were inventing whole new groovy sounds in the studio and beat poet Allen Ginsberg was singing the praise of Bob Dylan's victims in "Chimes of Freedom" - and assisting LSD experiments unsupervised by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The irretrievably fragmented consciousness of the whole Western world was unifying, at least in the hearts and minds of young people everywhere, even for a fleeting moment in time. It was a river flowing out of the postwar consumer boom, from jazz to the beats to rebels without a cause to Dylan to The Beatles.

[...]
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East...

Hi, Judy.  I also posted something about Abu Ghraib earlier today and agree that it should be front and center.  Of course, we all knew that putzfollies not only knew but condoned the horror....but the people need to have it front and center on the news pages again. 

— this column originally apppeared in Paradise, California's Paradise Post.

If you don't read the Post online, then you miss some revealing comments that come in from readers. For instance, when a Post columnist wrote that Bush was not responsible for the shoddy response to the Katrina catastrophe in New Orleans, a resident of that region responded as follows:

"We in the New Orleans area read newspapers all over the country, written with half truths or no truth at all. Katrina victims are not being fully reimbursed for their losses, wrongful death lawsuits are being thrown out by our court system, jobs and benefit losses due to workplaces being flooded, losses in retirement income due to forced early retirement -- these are just a few of the ways people continue to suffer. We have a government protecting its public relations and not its public. The truth is, the storm (Katrina) had already passed us; it was over with, and then the levees broke."
-- Joe, from Metairie, Louisiana

One of our local compassionate conservatives answered Joe from Metairie with the following words of empathy:

Good morning, everybody

The thread is probably really slow for people on dial-up.  And something is consuming a lot of power.  Perhaps some moving image up-thread?  I can tell on the lap-top when then fan starts up soon after I load a page.  You can have images in background and refuse pop-ups, but they still use power while the page is loaded.  So do some "free" email programs that come with adds.

It's a nuissance.

Maybe you can tell I woke up cranky.  The last thing I was reading before I went to sleep was Kucinich's tweleve point plan for Iraq.  Too many points, Dennis, too many points!  One reason he's not getting much traction in the press is because he's learned the art of giving them information they will never print if only because there's too much of it.  If you don't want the press to cover something, give them more than they want to know.  Giving too little is what gets their juices going.

Anyway, I'm going to write up my rant about the "one trick pony."  It may not be fair.  But then, it's not fair that he's taking credit for opposing the invasion of iraq and having had no effect whatever.  Being right is not enough. 

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Guilt.  Tony Blair has been enmeshed in an association by guilt.  What's he guilty about?  He must have known that the rationale fed the public for the Iraq invasion was bogus.  He chose to ignore that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had already been made to suffer by the sanctions.  He chose to pretend that it was all the fault of Saddam Hussein for refusing to do what the United States demanded.

The Catholic Church knows that confession is good for the soul because guilty secrets gnaw at our innards and make us behave ever more badly to "prove" that there's nothing to be guilty about. 

Sorry to have missed mprov, apparently, and Renee ... good one for Demetrius. I miss you both and am glad that you come back here occasionally. Would love to *see* him here. His wit is missed.

I'll pass that along to him, Judy--as well as the other comments people have made. Sorry I didn't get back online to respond to people last night, but I was feeling under  the weather and the air conditioning doesn't quite make it into our office.

By the way, I've embedded the video in the open thread at HEP. 

Must be off to work now--take care, everyone.

KOS diary

Did you know that the average American consumes about 11 pounds of

cookies per year?

For sure, I'm not average then, Michael.  I don't consume even eleven cookies in a year.  Big thing about X-mas this year was that I didn't have to bake any either.  LOL

but let's be real, just for a moment. there is just absolutely no chance that an "independent" candidate is going to be elected to national office. none, nada, nope, sorry, ain't gonna happen. i don't care how much money they have. i don't care if they're the most recent selection on star search. nothing, and absolutely nothing, is going to defeat the parties, at this point, in a national election

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Thanks for the inspiration mprov.........great nations, religions and groups rose from the ashes of discontent with your very wording........Im certain 231 years ago many on both sides of the Atlantic were saying about an upcoming "peasants" revolt against the crowne...........

I submit to you many would rather belong to a party that was not need of change (maybe in 30 or 40 years) but a group of Independent "free thinkers" simply committed to the ideals this nation was formed from.........so, whats wrong with that?

When you signed up for the military, thats what you pledged to defend I think..........

That's the scary thing about averages. Some are eating about double that amount and some are eating about zero of that amount.

Two people, one who eats no cookies and the other who eats 20 lbs of cookies a year=Average 10 lbs of cookies for each person. ugh!

And I did have a Linzer Tart at Wolfies Rascal House on North Miami Beach last month and almost freaked my entire family out. But, I got to bring one home for hubby. Much better than a black and white. (his old favorites)

Besides, Rascal House hold memories from the late 70's early 80's when it was THE place to go. It was still pretty hopping at that late hour. Neil used to live on the beach near there and loved going there for breakfast with all you can eat fresh mini danish and rolls served all morning long...and I worked near by......auh the memories. :)

michael, i think i just made an honest assessment, that's all.

231 years ago was about taxation. the rest of the stuff just saw an opportunity. they had the numbers and a lot of excellent leadership. i'd submit that the 3rd parties and independents have neither.

your 2nd paragraph implies that someone who is, say a dem, has none of those qualities. your alleged slight is returned.

i think i actually pledged something like"...something about god and country and obeying the law of the pack."

New thread or one loading 219 comments.  You decide.

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new thread

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/21222...

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