Lizard brains

Boy it'd be nice to have a new thread. Lo and behold...

'England in 1819'

"An old, mad, blind, despised and dying king,
Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow
Through public scorn,--mud from a muddy spring."

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Heard you on Ring of Fire. That was a repeat wasn't it?

FBI probes anti-Jena 6 Web page By BECKY BOHRER, Associated Press Writer
23 minutes ago

The FBI is reviewing a white supremacist Web site that purports to list the addresses of five of the six black teenagers accused of beating a white student in Jena and "essentially called for their lynching," an agency spokeswoman said Saturday.

Sheila Thorne, an agent in the FBI's New Orleans office, said authorities were reviewing whether the site breaks any federal laws. She said the FBI had "gathered intelligence on the matter," but declined to further explain how the agency got involved.

CNN first reported Friday about the Web site, which features a swastika, frequent use of racial slurs, a mailing address in Roanoke, Va., and phone numbers purportedly for some of the teens' families "in case anyone wants to deliver justice." That page is dated Thursday.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement Saturday that some of the families have received "almost around the clock calls of threats and harassment," and called on Gov. Kathleen Blanco to intervene.

A Blanco spokeswoman said the governor had asked law enforcement — primarily state police — to investigate.

"These people need more than an investigation. They need protection," the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. He said his organization would be in touch with President Bush's nominee for attorney general, Michael Mukasey.

"This is a test for the disposition of the Department of Justice to serve as an intervenor and a deterrent" to hate crimes and discrimination, Jackson said. He said federal marshals should protect the families.

Carolas Purvis, whose number was among three listed on the Web site, said she did not feel in danger. Purvis is the aunt of Bryant Purvis, who has yet to be arraigned. She said she has received a number of calls, some from people who say nothing, others to let her know that her number had been put on the site. One, Friday night, used the N-word to her young son, she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070923/ap_on_re_us/jena_six&printer=1;_ylt=...

“The Empty Shoes of War”

by Alison Flensburg

Here are the shoes of a silent soldier,
no longer polished bright,

Here are the shoes of a little girl,
who lost her life last night.

These fancy shoes? They're wedding shoes
that will never see a wedding day.

These scruffy shoes? They're running
shoes of a boy who tried to run away.

Look hard and long at these empty
shoes. Think long and hard about
war.

Think about those who will never,
ever, love and laugh, marry and be merry,
or wear these empty shoes...
anymore.

**
"Parodies for Peace Movement"
(It's called a protest movement.)
PEACHES (aka "Soft and Fuzzy Anonymous")

White House to seek $195B for Iraq
Also, UN head says Iraq security needs to improve for greater UN role.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-warcosts22sep22,0,23...

Submitted by Crank Bait on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 9:27pm.

... Maybe MoveOn is blowing hopeful smoke? If the organization were to become a powerful clearinghouse for political donations, it wouldn't be blowing smoke. It would be calling the tune.
_____________

That's precisely the point.

If MoveOn can wield the power that, say telcoms do, or the insurance industry does, or big-pharma does, then it'll be able to dictate terms -- on the people's behalf, 'stead of any given corporate special-interest (take yer pick).

Here's a post that gets to the heart of the matter (and, incidentally, gets at what Nobs were on about t'other night 'bout money in politics and what can be done w/the rigged game as it presently stands).

.............

Rules #1 - 200,000,000 For Effective Liberal Politics

by tristero

Following up on Digby's recent post, I'd like to remind everyone how the system, like it or not, works. It's quite simple.

If you're mad at the Democrats who denounced MoveOn, do something about it. Give MoveOn money. If you plan to donate to individual political campaigns, give the money to those campaigns through MoveOn (or an equivalent group).

Money talks, people. And direct donations to Democrats won't cut it, except to the best of the best.

When a truly large portion of a Democratic candidate's funding comes from MoveOn - more importantly, when a truly large portion of the Democratic Party's war chest comes from MoveOn and similar groups... well, no guarantees. But I can guarantee that if liberals don't seriously organize their funding of Democrats, we will repeat the awful spectacle of the last few weeks again and again.

(Not to mention the kind of capitulations to the rightwing that, so far, has characterized the 21st century.)

Question: How much money we're talking about here? Answer: heh, heh, heh. C'mon, you weren't born yesterday!

For those of you who have been living under a rug, here's a link to MoveOn. If you don't like MoveOn, no biggie.

Simply donate to a group you do like that endorses and funds political races. And if you donate directly to candidates, do so only to the absolute finest candidates and let the others come begging to MoveOn for endorsements and cash.

One final thing which you may not like to hear. Of course, you have to vote. But I'm sorry to say that if you can possibly afford it, you also have to pony up for decent congresscritters, governors, presidents, etc. No cash, no influence,

Does this sound like a shakedown?

Well, yes.

But remember, we're the reality-based folks and like it or not, you'll have to pay for good government. And if we don't pay, there never will be even a hope of election reform that helps curb the shakedown. Ever.

tristero

Janeane Garofalo: If Colin Powell had found his integrity, he could have changed the course of history Nick Langewis and Mike Aivaz
Published: Saturday September 22, 2007

Bill Maher sits down with musician Rob Thomas, comedienne Janeane Garofalo and author Salman Rushdie. The panel discusses the phenomenon of people who don't speak their minds until they have left their positions of influence, preferring instead to write a memoir or sit down with a reporter to share their grievances, after they can no longer influence change.

Maher cites Alan Greenspan's latest book, indicting the Republican Party for "abandoning their principles." He asks: "Wouldn't that have been a good thing for him to say while he was the Fed Chairman, perhaps?"

"It's not about change," says Thomas. "They don't speak out when it can affect their career."

"It's extremely cowardly," adds Garofalo. "Colin Powell knew he was lying in that 'war of the worlds' scenario in front of the United Nations."

"There is no glory," continues Garofalo. "In fact, it's worse afterwards to say 'You know, I knew this was wrong' -- or 'I knew this was a lie.' And, if Colin Powell had found his integrity on that day he addressed the United Nations, he could have changed the entire history of most of the world, on that day."

"He probably would have been taken out by a sniper, I'm sure."

Maher recalls a Rolling Stone interview in which former President Bill Clinton said that cannabis should be decriminalized.

"Gee, it's too bad you weren't in a position of power for the last eight years to make that point," he quips.

The following video is from HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, broadcast on September 21, 2007:

http://rawstory.com//news/2007/Janeane_Garofalo_on_people_speaking_out_0...

PEACHES. That is too sad. Way too sad.

If I think about that too long I'll just get ill.

its being reported that the white house has enough funds to keep us in iraq till bush leaves in 2009 (assuming nancy doesn't grow a pair in the mean time). so why is he seeking even more funds. is it just to rub our noses in it?

American Family Wants Asylum in Finland
1 day ago

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — An American family with three small children has applied for political asylum in Finland, immigration officials said Friday.

The five family members came to Finland on Tuesday from Germany, said Minna Serradj from the Directorate of Immigration.

"It's very unusual for a U.S. citizen to apply for asylum," Serradj said, declining to give details in line with a policy to protect asylum seekers. "I don't remember when we last had Americans applying."

Serradj declined to comment on local media speculation that the parents possibly were seeking to escape serving in the U.S. armed forces in Iraq.

"We will handle the case just like all the others," she said, adding a decision will be made in three to six months.

Finland has one of the smallest proportions of foreigners in Europe, amounting to just over 2 percent of the 5.3 million population. Last year, 38 of 2,300 applicants were given political asylum.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ggLppZDVe51EYTgAb0PCjChHjSKA

Submitted by Fernando on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 9:11pm.
...I guess the part that sticks in my craw is that more people were not aghast with the hypocrisy and lies he spoke.

Even while the Sheik was being acclaimed, his brains were being blown out for taking part. There is no success in Iraq but what Iraqis make for themselves...

...And to think there are sufficient uneducated and uncaring Americans to vote for that crap. How does that make you feel? Makes me feel a little nauseous I'll confess to that.
----------
Fernando,

My opinion of humanity in general is pretty low. If you and I were taking turns choosing team members, the average American would be the last one picked.

Here is how I see the recent Petraeus flap. Imagine that you and I are attorneys going to trial and Petraeus is a witness against our client (as he de facto was by giving his report to Congress).

So we have the ribboned General on the witness stand. We want the jury to distrust him. Do we call him names? Of course not. We have to take the jury along a journey during which we build a case for bad character. It isn't until we have laid the foundation that we can start calling him a tool and a sycophant and an opportunist and someone who did the bidding of the bad guy in order to receive a reward.

That cannot be done in one advertisement that is, by necessary design, short on text. For many people, the only thing they saw was a uniformed patriot being smeared as a traitor. You gotta admit, it's quite a lot to expect one advertisement like that to successfully smear a guy who people don't really know.

Add to that conundrum the fact that many Americans could have been faithful Nazis in the late Thirties and early Forties simply because it was Germany and they were Germans. (Like our True American Anonymous poster, for instance.)

I can imagine an ad that equates the size of Iraq with, say, Texas and the size of the "Surge" area as, say, Delaware (I don't know if the examples are accurate but accurate examples could be substituted without losing the effect) and that notes the body count during the Surge.

Or I can imagine an ad that pictures Petraeus with text indicating his statistical failure to build an Iraqi army BEFORE he was appointed to lead the failed Surge.

There are lots of possibilities. I think that MoveOn tried to do too much with too little in one ad. MoveOn certainly succeeded in creating controversy, though I think that it is already forgotten old news to the average American.

Sherman Yellen|
Bush Family Table Talk
Posted September 22, 2007 | 01:07 PM (EST)

"America's Grandma," Barbara Bush, is at it again. No, she is no longer advising us that half-drowned African American's who survived Katrina should be comfortable in their distress because they are accustomed to living in squalor, today she is offering up advice on how to raise our children - based I suppose upon her great success in raising hers. She is a public advocate for gathering one's family around the dinner table for conversation, assuring us in her new TV ad that this very act of togetherness will prevent our children from becoming alcoholics and drug abusers. This, from the mother of George and Neil and Jeb??? The first being a former drug abuser and alcoholic, the second a principal figure in an S&L banking scandal that cost the country billions, and the third complicit in the stealing of elections for his brother, which nearly cost the country the country. Can there be no end to Republican Chutzpah?

Early last week we were told by the very people who abused decorated Vietnam hero Max Cleland and John Kerry that the MoveOn ad about the packaged testimony of General Petraeus was an assault upon our military, and now we are to take the advice of the mother of one of America's most dysfunctional families. Momma Bush I fear has more in common with Ma Barker, the notorious mother of a criminal gang of the 1930's than she does with Whistler's mother, or your mother, or mine, assuming that our mother's did not raise a criminal cabal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sherman-yellen/bush-family-table-talk_b_65...

...a collective smackdown. You're right, dr, 'that's the truth' was telling.

Though I was quite disappointed at only being offered a "hyperventilating" w/o a "bedwetter" attached. It's not the same when crankie has to add it in. *snark*

*

This place is special.

You can have my isolation/
You can have the hate that it brings/
You can have my absence of faith/
You can have my everything/

G'nite, gang!

Peace

Our troops receive their orders from officers who in turn receive their orders from the Commander-in-Chief. Our nation's preeminent military power is being used to extort land and oil from Iraq. The Bush Administration is an anathema to the United States of America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftgAG3Vnif8

dr,

The tristero post was all balled-up in what I mischaracterized as "MoveOn emails posted on this blog."

I've been surfing around reading stuff (like the tristero piece) trying to figure out why I'm a Lefty in the minority regarding the Petraeus ad. I'm not insulted by the ad. I just think that MoveOn blew it by going after the man with an oversimplified catch phrase advertisement. If MoveOn gained more membership and accumulated more money than the alienation it created, I'm wrong.

But even if I'm wrong, I believe that MoveOn could have accomplished the same or greater success with less downside. There is no perfect ad campaign but I think that this one fell shorter than it should have.

Details, details
What the Washington Post noted about data that's encouraging suddenly-optimistic Republicans:

GOP Senate offices circulated the results of a Gallup poll released this week that showed 54 percent of those surveyed think Petraeus's plan for removing troops is the right pace, or even too quick. One-third of those surveyed viewed the withdrawal as moving too slowly.

What the same article neglected to mention:

As it happens, the very same poll that Murray allows these GOPers to cherry pick from has a bunch of other numbers in it, too. It finds that 59% want a timetable for withdrawal and that barely one-third think the surge is having a positive effect. Indeed, the pollsters themselves conclude that most of the public's opinions on Iraq "run contrary to the message delivered by Petraeus to Congress last week."

And then, of course, there are the other recent polls, which should be even less encouraging to the stay-the-course crowd.

But what I find really odd is that GOP lawmakers are circulating polls about Iraq at all. How many more surveys do Republicans really need to see before they realize that the country rejected the Bush policy quite a while ago? Their political expectations regarding U.S. public opinion appear to be about as realistic as their expectations for Iraq.

--Steve Benen

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/053932.php

imo
new
Submitted by dr on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 9:19pm.

I sincerely wonder how many folks, right or left, is aware that "MoveOn"'s original name were:

"Censure and Move On"?

These ain't radical leftwing crazies.

***

This has been my point to.. everyone, including the various Senators I called, saying "You are foolish to think that MoveOn is even at all "left wing". They are very centrist because they have 3.2 million members and vote on pretty much everything they do." When you manage by consensus and you have 3.2 million very loosely 'affiliated' people to make consensus, you get something very middle of the road. The extremes are averaged out. For better or for worse.

Frankly, there have been several times where I thought they were too centrist, and it pissed me off.

*

As far as the ad goes, I think it's too much Monday morning quarterbacking to say they could have done something different. I think they hit the mark pretty well. Calling Bush and Cheney out is worthless. At this point it has no effect. We've been there, done that; and it carries less effect now. People's eyes just glaze over and they move along.

Using Petraeus' name and identifying it with the idea of "betrayal" is powerful. The fact that his name was not known, gives people pause to say: "Who is Petraeus?", and "What exactly is going on here?" "How is this Petraeus, betraying us?" I forget what you call it in advertising, but basically, you want people to linger on your ad and actually think about it. Especially, a political ad. Wow! What bang for the buck they got!

Additionally, I think it is important to be able to make the distinction that a military guy is betraying us. The kind of person who reads that ad and actually thinks about it, can likely make the distinction that no one is saying that not all military people are betraying us, and if they look into it they will know why.

I also think that Petraeus should feel the heat. It should not be so easy to just go along with the administration. He is in a position to say something. He should not get away with the lies knowing they are lies; just as Colin Powell or Greenspan has no excuse for not saying what they knew when they were in a position to make a difference by telling the truth.

It was about time.

Well executed, MoveOn!

Let's do it again, soon! And often! Before we lose our right to free speech altogether.

Bravo!

Submitted by SEDER on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 9:07pm.

Mitt Romney showing what it takes to win the Gooper primary:

[H]e's going to move "In God We Trust" to the front of the new dollar coins instead of the side. [...]

[Romney added,] "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA."

*******************

Gods Secret Agent, James Dobson doesn't like Mittens Romney.

Either does most of the Rignt-Wing Rah-Rah's.

Mittens is toast.

8-)

Free Democracy

Look at the attack tactics that worked with that lowly quarter of the population. The easily manipulated. You've read or heard of the studies.

I think the ads work because hypocrisy of using swift boat tactics is like knowing your baby is ugly. They are going to lose this fight because every time they call bs there is an example they already mismanaged.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1137855840/bctid1171892510

Submitted by Crank Bait on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 9:57pm.

... cannot be done in one advertisement that is, by necessary design, short on text. For many people, the only thing they saw was a uniformed patriot being smeared as a traitor. You gotta admit, it's quite a lot to expect one advertisement like that to successfully smear a guy who people don't really know.

... There are lots of possibilities. I think that MoveOn tried to do too much with too little in one ad. MoveOn certainly succeeded in creating controversy, though I think that it is already forgotten old news to the average American.

_________________

Much ado about nothing.

Was MoveOn's ad less than optimal? By my lights, yes.

Did it hurt any-fucking-thing? By my lights, no.

If what you say is accurate, Crank, the "uniformed patriot" what got "smeared as a traitor" woulda moved public opinion on Iraq/the "surge"/our beloved nitwit war preznit.

Didn't. Happen.

People still hate this war. People still hate this president. None of that changed.

You can make the case, 'n I'd agree, that the MoveOn ad was less-than-optimal. Republicans acted precisely the way you'd expect them to, but the ad didn't, e.g., get Dems to do what MoveOn hoped Dems would do.

But did the ad "win" support for the surge? For our beloved nitwit preznit? For his policies? No. No. And no. Emphatically not.

The 'Murican peoples is wised up and they's onto the charlatans what runs our country.

The only thing I see happenin' is Democrats, once again, allowed themselves to be mau-maued by rightwing hyperventilating bedwetters (for L@L) who wanna make it seem like Dems are screwing over the troops.

Dems didn't have to endorse the ad, but they certainly didn't have to condemn it.

But that is more of an intramural matter betwixt the Dems and their base. At least by my lights.

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

Already Read It

Submitted by Crank Bait on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:09pm.
dr,

The tristero post was all balled-up in what I mischaracterized as "MoveOn emails posted on this blog."

I've been surfing around reading stuff (like the tristero piece) trying to figure out why I'm a Lefty in the minority regarding the Petraeus ad. I'm not insulted by the ad. I just think that MoveOn blew it by going after the man with an oversimplified catch phrase advertisement. If MoveOn gained more membership and accumulated more money than the alienation it created, I'm wrong.

But even if I'm wrong, I believe that MoveOn could have accomplished the same or greater success with less downside. There is no perfect ad campaign but I think that this one fell shorter than it should have.

_______________

Goddammit, I agrees.

The ad were less-than-optimal. A body might could even say counterproductive.

I ain't endorsin' the ad, I'ma sayin' it's about motherfuckin' time someone had a notion to fight back.

If this is the rocky start a alla that, then sez I, I'ma all for it.

Picking a fight over kids' health

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/053930.php

Apparently, the White House is a little concerned about the political fallout of Bush's opposition to a bipartisan expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). The president called a press conference this week, apparently for no other reason than to denounce Congress' work on making healthcare more accessible to millions of uninsured kids.

Today, Bush emphasized what he describes as a "philosophical" opposition to the ipartisan legislation -- the White House concedes this is about ideology, not results -- in his radio address, which ironically accused lawmakers of putting S-CHIP in jeopardy.

The claim-to-lie ratio was pretty close to 1:1. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities did some helpful fact-checking.

http://www.cbpp.org/9-20-07health.htm

--Steve Benen

Let's check in and see how that MoveOn is pulling in the big $$$ from that pr event:

Abandoning Our Troops: A Betrayal of Trust

This week, Senate Republicans blocked a real opportunity to support our troops—a bipartisan bill to make sure our troops have the downtime they need. We're launching an ad to highlight that in the Republican leader's home state, but we need your help to get it on the air. Can you chip in?

We've reached 76% of our 2nd NEW goal of $2,000,000! ($1,526,752.65)

***

First their goal was $500,000, then $1,500,000, and now within 2 days that has been surpassed and they are reaching for $2,000,000.

Not too shabby.

If you want to contribute:

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/mcconnell.html?id=11277-5102328-Lbsb0O&t=1

Catharine,
In my own defense, I Monday-morning quarterbacked the MoveOn ad before there was a public response. Aside from the monetary and membership success that MoveOn claims from the ad (I didn't even contemplate those aspects), my initial expectations of the backlash were pretty close to the mark.
-----------------------------------------
Fernando,
I agree with you that the slimiest, most base, most annoying, most shocking and most ear-worming advertisements are the advertisements that work best.

The Swiftboat ads worked for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the same reason that Limbaugh has a job.

I would much prefer that MoveOn or any other Left Of Center organization would not stoop to smears and outright lies...though it is all part of the successful advertising game.

Star Vox

MoveOn will forever be defined by the Petraeus ad. The Dems are now free to vote to extend the war in Iraq. The Dems also have good reason to push away from left wing positions. In response MoveOn and pals will respond by turning up the foolishness. By the primary everyone will be nicely settled into their classic stereotype. By November 08 the radical left will have found some impossibly irrelevant third party candidate as they usually do. And the cycle goes on.

which ones? Educate me please Crank.

The stage is now set

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:28pm.

MoveOn will forever be defined by the Petraeus ad. The Dems are now free to vote to extend the war in Iraq. The Dems also have good reason to push away from left wing positions. In response MoveOn and pals will respond by turning up the foolishness. By the primary everyone will be nicely settled into their classic stereotype. By November 08 the radical left will have found some impossibly irrelevant third party candidate as they usually do. And the cycle goes on.

________________

Your sweeping descriptions of the cyclical vagaries of political chance are a comfort 'n a source a inspiration.

It's like readin' Ecclesiastes inna melancholy mood.

One thing inquirin' minds wanna know, tho':

Will you have pulled your head outta yer ass by November aught-eight?

The stage is now set

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:28pm.

***

Let me help you by highlighting some basic things:

1- Marketing 101 [Study it]

2- Not the only ad

3- MoveOn not left wing

4- For the millionth time: we don't care if the Dems get left in the dust.

5- This is not a football game [Bet you're not that good at that though, either]

we don't.

The problem is certainly not a newspaper ad, but the government-media echo chamber which routinely determines much of what enters the public consciousness. Recall Judith Miller's highly-regarded "reports" on the front page of "the newspaper of record" just before our nation bought the proverbial "pig in a poke."

What?

You will all be supporting some radical irrelevant third party crackpot candidate.

What about Senator Mcclellan, Senator Kerry. Now Thats disgraceful.

I live in Texas. My vote don't even count. But I will vote. Assuming they "let" me.

If you think that ad worked - do it again. You might want to apply below:

----

Communications Director Job

DescriptionLocation: New York, NY or Washington, DC

Goal: Fight for a progressive America, bring people into politics, win big issue fights, and take the White House in 2008.

Description: MoveOn.org Political Action is seeking a Communications Director to shape our communications strategy on our advocacy campaigns and going into the Presidential election in 2008.

We’re looking for someone who’s got great judgment, who’s quick on their feet and ready to seize the opportunities that the news cycle provides, who’s excited about the promise of online democracy and the mission of giving MoveOn’s 3.2 million members a voice.

We welcome applicants with business backgrounds as well as non-profit or politics.

that targetting propoganda inside the US is illegal?

At State Dept., Blog Team Joins Muslim Debate

The discussion tacked back and forth for four days, one of many such conversations prompted by scores of postings the State Department has made on about 70 Web sites since it put its two Arab-American Web monitors to work last November.

Slate V Takes Romney Campaign Ad Challenge - Priceless!
By: Logan Murphy @ 6:56 PM - PDT

Download (230) | Play (283) Download (140) | Play (129) (thanks to Scarce for the extra videos)

Mitt Romney’s campaign is running a contest asking people to create political ads using material found at his campaign website. Slate V took them up on the challenge, knocking one out of the park with their ad — Five Brothers. (short advertisement at the beginning) Poor Mitt will never live this one down…

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/22/slate-v-takes-romney-campaign-a...

September 21, 2007: NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano. The find is fueling interest in potential underground habitats and sparking searches for caverns elsewhere on the Red Planet.

Very dark, nearly circular features ranging in diameter from about 328 to 820 feet puzzled researchers who found them in images taken by NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor orbiters. Using Mars Odyssey's infrared camera to check the daytime and nighttime temperatures of the circles, scientists concluded that they could be windows into underground spaces......

Lies?
Submitted by Fernando on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:30pm.
which ones? Educate me please Crank.
-------------------
Swiftboat lies. It is all part of the same game these days so I don't hold much hope that both sides won't use a similar methodology. I don't know that there were any lies in the Petraeus ad but I also do not know that Petraeus did not believe his own testimony.

"Stretching" the truth is already acceptable and outright lies work simply because they are out there for a time before they are discredited.

"Lies of omission" are already acceptable, even in ordinary product advertising.

I have a (now late) favorite uncle who owned an advertising firm which still exists. We had some fun discussions over the years beginning when I was in college. He didn't pull any punches...that is, he didn't defend the integrity of his industry in the least. According to Uncle John, the first rule of advertising is to make the public remember the product. How you make the public remember the product is unimportant and owes nothing to ethics.

I need to remember to write-out "advertisement" instead of using the short form "ad" because I keep misspelling the damn thing as "add".

Mittens Romney is rich and probably will use his wealth as a third party candidate ... doubt anyone but Hugh Hewitt and you will be voting for him.

Free Democracy

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:38pm.

Repeat: By Nov-08
You will all be supporting some radical irrelevant third party crackpot candidate.

________________

Like the Bush administration of aught-four?

Radical like that?

Crackpot like that?

(It's a never-ending source of amazement to me how, after four long fucking years of terminal Bushism, the Jr. Achievers administration still made it close in aught-four. Seen rightly, the Bush administration of aught-four was a radical extremist buncha right-wing revolutionaries. Folks might notta acknowledged that at the time, or even now, but it were so. It's amusing how slaves to conventional thinkin', like our beloved anonymous here, are unable to discern that the political "winners" can be just as "radical" 'n "crackpot" as any "third-party" candidate. Actually, more so.)

EDIT is Your Nixon's 18 minutes

Neo-Nazi Hate Group Posts Personal Information, Threatens Jena 6
By: Logan Murphy @ 6:15 PM - PDT (guest blogged by BillW)

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/22/neo-nazi-hate-group-posts-perso...

As the hate site says: “In Case Anyone Wants To Deliver Justice.” The editor of the website with a swastika at the top says on an audio at the site “I’d like to go down there and put a bullet in each one of those little black kids …” When asked if he might have brought any harm to the Jena 6 by posting that, he told CNN “I don’t know that doing justice can be considered doing harm.”

Download (235) | Play (243) Download (151) | Play (120)

Just sick. Pam has more:

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3058

As former White House press secretary Tony Snow said on an October 2003 edition of Fox News Sunday

“Here’s the unmentionable secret: Racism isn’t that big a deal any more. No sensible person supports it. Nobody of importance preaches it. It’s rapidly becoming an ugly memory.”

Nate has the Snow video.…

http://getintheirface.blogspot.com/2006/07/bush-addresses-naacp.html

dang it pee.ey.yoo.el. What did you see today that made sense? I saw the sunsetting. That made sense.

I saw it in a public park today next to a Farmers Market. There was a 4 hr parking limit. I only stayed an hour thou.

" ,,, that targetting propoganda inside the US is illegal?"

When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.
Richard M. Nixon

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/richard_m_nixon.html

dr: "...It's amusing how slaves to conventional thinkin', like our beloved anonymous here..."
---------------
dr, you ignorant slut. Don't you know that convention is what's right? A Big Mac and a Coke is lunch. Lucky Strikes were prescribed to calm nerves. Lots of kids need Ritalin to survive.

Sheesh. I thought you knew this stuff?

Submitted by Crank Bait on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:44pm.

Swiftboat lies. It is all part of the same game these days so I don't hold much hope that both sides won't use a similar methodology. I don't know that there were any lies in the Petraeus ad but I also do not know that Petraeus did not believe his own testimony ...

______________

[casts a jaundiced eye Crank's way]

"What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

Are you sayin' that b/c the right traffics in swift-boatin' lies and distortions and smears, you fear (but, as you confess, don't actually know) that groups like MoveOn will do the same?

What's yer point, 'zactly?

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_110_1.ht...

for the Crank Slap Down.

Submitted by Crank Bait on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:54pm.

dr, you ignorant slut. Don't you know that convention is what's right? A Big Mac and a Coke is lunch. Lucky Strikes were prescribed to calm nerves. Lots of kids need Ritalin to survive.

Sheesh. I thought you knew this stuff?

_______________

Republocrats: "Convention. It's what's fer dinner!"

Vegas sharks: "Conventioneers. It's what's fer dinner!"

thank you dr

Submitted by Fernando on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:56pm.

for the Crank Slap Down.

_____________

It's a leeeetle early to be high-fivin' 'n back-slappin'.

Crank's just as like to throw a bucket a cold water in me face here inna minnit.

To ensure that every motor carrier entering the United States through the cross-border motor carrier demonstration program is inspected and meets all applicable safety standards established for United States commercial motor vehicles. R-Tx Cornyn's lovely bill REJECTED!

Thanks anon.

They also passed a college funding bill and other such stuff.

New Version Of Pink’s Dear Mr. President
By: Logan Murphy @ 12:33 PM - PDT

We don’t usually post music during the day, but I thought this was worth sharing with the class. The song, Dear Mr. President, from Pink’s new DVD, Pink - Live From Wembley Arena is an updated version of the one John posted a while back. They’re both incredible, but this version combines powerful background video which left me with goosebumps. As our president becomes more isolated in his bubble, this song becomes more relevant. Thanks Pink…

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/22/new-version-of-pinks-dear-mr-pr...

Send in the clowns: 2008 Green Party Convention coming to Chicago

And where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns.
Well, maybe next year.
Send in The Clowns

Chicago will be home to a national political convention next year--that of the Green Party.

But not always, as AP reports:

To Green Party members, bringing the convention to Chicago is significant for another reason: Next year is the 40th anniversary of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago that saw clashes between police and anti-Vietnam War demonstrators outside.

This time, (Green Party spokesman Patrick) Kelly said the anti-war protesters will be inside a political convention nominating the Green Party's candidate.

Trust me I know.

Fun all the same.

Before I is skewered on the next Cranky spit, I'd just like to sez, as a matter of punster's courtesy, that "Ah'll be Outbahck." were most prime.

U.S. DoD To Outsource $15B War on Narcoterror

The U.S. Defense Department has invited five contractors to bid on elements of a new multibillion-dollar effort to combat the global flow of illegal drugs allegedly used to finance terrorism.

some say it's the cia policing itself.

By the time Hillary and Fred are done fighting over who has the biggest balls and will therefore be the the most aggressive commander-in-chief, all of you will be running to the Green Party to wallow in another hopeless battle against impossible odds.

dr: "...Are you sayin' that b/c the right traffics in swift-boatin' lies and distortions and smears, you fear (but, as you confess, don't actually know) that groups like MoveOn will do the same?

What's yer point, 'zactly?"
-------------------------
What? Do you think that one team recruits from the "good" colleges and the other team recruits from the "bad" colleges?

If there is a clear line of integrity and ethics between the Left and the Right, how come no one told the Democratic politicos?

In other words, yes. The longer that MoveOn (or any group) stays in the game, the more likely that it will be caught dealing from the bottom of the deck. Karl Rove and his ilk moved the goal posts. It is unlikely that they will be moved back any time soon.

I readily admit that it is nice that Hillary's team refunded Hsu's "bundled" contributions. I am not so naive as to think that they did it because it was the right thing to do. I'm sure that it pained them greatly.

And I readily admit that the Republicans have crossed the line as a matter of practice whereas the Democrats have not. The primary reason for this (I think?) is because the Republicans have a better organized machine that moves in lockstep toward a predetermined goal. The Democrats are a more disparate group that squabbles over every-fucking-thing, which has served to keep them more honest.

Only the George H.W. Bush school of the CIA...There's more than one faction...same for the FBI...

in Congress? Horrors!

Tracking Political Prosecutions
By Scott Horton
September 22, 2007

In the last two weeks, two sources, one of them inside of the Justice Department, have told me that a scheme was hatched in the upper echelons of the Bush Administration shortly after it took office in 2001 or early in 2002. The project identified John Edwards and Hillary Clinton as likely Democratic challengers to President Bush, and identified prominent trial lawyers around the United States as the likely financial vehicle for Edward’s rise. It directed that their campaign finance records be fly-specked, and that offenses not be treated as administrative matters but rather as serious criminal offenses.

The scheme contemplated among other things that raids be staged on the law offices involved, and that the records seized not be limited to campaign finance—there was an acute interest in all politically oriented documents, in order to seize valuable intelligence on strategic planning from the enemy camp.

This all sounds rather fantastic—even more insidious than the enemies list days of the Nixon era. It is precisely the sort of crude harassment that a primitive dictatorship would use against its enemies—like Alexander Lukashenko in today’s Belarus, for instance. But as the descriptions were passed to me, I instantly recognized the pattern described recently in a case which has made the headlines in Michigan involving a prominent lawyer there, and a second case in Los Angeles. According to one source, the number of these cases is at least five and they are scattered about the country. One case, described to me in some detail, closely matches the pattern in Michigan and Los Angeles and occurred in the south on the Gulf of Mexico.

Why, I wondered, would the attorneys involved not scream bloody murder about this? Then it struck me. The threat of criminal investigation and prosecution is devastating to their law practices. Of course, they would keep it completely secret. And that silence has made the entire scheme possible. I am told that these cases involved the attorneys general personally—both John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales—that their go-ahead was needed to stage the raids. And that in each case, the greatest concern within the political pirates commanding the operation has been that the public would get wind of the bigger picture. It was essential to pull it off that each case be viewed as something standing all on its own, and that the fact that there was a politically motivated project be obscured.

more...

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/09/hbc-90001266

"Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in an incident last week in which 11 people died, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case was referred to the Iraqi judiciary." Bush doesn't care. There's a profit/campaign contributor here. And what does it matter if we kill all the Iraqis; then we've achieved victory, yes? The oil is ours.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070922/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=As9I3DV5UVj...

dr: "Ah'll be Outbahck." were most prime.
-------------------
air-ono was badmouthing satirical writing at the time, so it had a secondary deliciousness to it. "Go read the Onion" he said. (I do.)

‘The Big Con’

I have this problem. Whenever I try to explain what's happening in American politics-I mean, what's really happening-I wind up sounding a bit like an unhinged conspiracy theorist. But honestly, I'm not. My politics are actually quite moderate. (Most real lefties, in fact, think I'm a Washington establishment sellout.) So please give let me a chance to explain myself when I tell you the following: American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few of them possibly insane. (Stay with me.)

And what will the anon do when there is a true Dem majority
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 11:15pm.
in Congress? Horrors!
----------------
He'll be on a bar stool alongside the other Real Americans.

The Age of Irresponsibility
How Bush has created a moral vacuum in Iraq in which Americans can kill for free.

By Michael Hirsh
Newsweek
Updated: 2:12 p.m. CT Sept 20, 2007

Sept. 20, 2007 - Imagine a universe where a man can gun down women and children anytime he pleases, knowing he will never be brought to justice. A place where morality is null and void, and arbitrary killing is the rule. A place that has been imagined hitherto only in nightmarish dystopian fiction, like “1984,” or in fevered passages from Dostoevsky—or which existed during the Holocaust and Stalinist purges and the Dark Ages. Well, that universe exists today. It is called Iraq. And the man who made it possible is George W. Bush.

The moral vacuum of Iraq—where Blackwater USA guards can kill 10 or 20 Iraqis on a whim and never be prosecuted for it—did not happen by accident. It is yet another example of something the Bush administration could have prevented with the right measures but simply did not bother about as it rushed into invading and occupying another country. With America’s all-volunteer army under strain, the Pentagon and White House knew that regular military cannot be used for guarding civilians. As far back as 2003, then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld convened a task force under Undersecretary of Defense David Chu to consider new laws that might be needed to govern the privatization of war. Nothing was done about its recommendations. Then, two days before he left Iraq for good, L. Paul Bremer III, the Coalition Provisional Authority administrator, signed a blanket order immunizing all Americans, because, as one of his former top aides told me, “we wanted to make sure our military, civilians and contractors were protected from Iraqi law.” (No one worried about protecting the Iraqis from us; after all, we still thought of ourselves as the “liberators,” even though by then the worst abuses at Abu Ghraib and other places were known.)

Nor can these private armies even be prosecuted in America under U.S. law. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2000, which permits charges to be brought in U.S. courts for crimes abroad, apparently applies only to Defense Department contractors (and even then the administration has rarely used it). Blackwater and other security firms work for the State Department. Even today, despite the crucial role of Blackwater and other private security firms—who employ up to 30,000 operatives in keeping the civilian side of the U.S. occupation going—Iraqis can do nothing if they are abused or killed by them. While many Blackwater operatives are brave and honorable—the company has lost some 30 of its employees in Iraq—many of these paramilitaries have long been known to be cowboys who act as if they are free to commit homicide as they please. And according to numerous Iraqi witnesses, they sometimes do.

Take the case of the Blackwater guard who got drunk at a Green Zone party last Christmas Eve and reportedly boasted to his friends that he was going to kill someone. According to both Iraqi and U.S. officials, he stumbled out and headed provocatively over to the “Little Venice” section, a lovely area of canals where Iraqi officials live. He had an argument with an Iraqi guard, then shot him once in the chest and three times in the back. The next day Blackwater put him on a private plane out of the country—probably only because the incident involved a rare killing inside the Green Zone and the victim was a security guard for a high-ranking politician.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20892483/site/newsweek/page/0/

Submitted by Crank Bait on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 11:11pm.

What? Do you think that one team recruits from the "good" colleges and the other team recruits from the "bad" colleges?

If there is a clear line of integrity and ethics between the Left and the Right, how come no one told the Democratic politicos?

________________

What the hell are you on about, Crank?

Look, no one is above reproach, let's get that established from jumps.

But what I think is a body oughtta condemn a lie when it's a lie. Take 'em as they come.

But it seems to me that your (anticipatory) false equivalence on advertising ethical lapses is neither accurate nor fair.

Republicans lie, routinely, like the cross-ties betwixt the train tracks. Dems, routinely, don't.

If the ad lied, cite it.

If it didn't, it seems kinda churlish to anticipate ills that ain't even occurred yet, just b/c that's the way these things tend to go.

If it goes that way, then, like ever'thing, it'll need addressin'.

But why smear all sides w/the same swift-boat brush when one side engages in that kinda practice and the other side (at this point) don't?

That you continue to think of Democrats as wild-eyed radicals such as yourselves. They are the same Democrats that just condemned you. Real Americans have nothing to fear from Democrats. Democrats don't support the terrorists. Democrats don't impeach elected officials. Democrats don't undermine the military. You are thinking of the Green Party.

American politics has been transformed, yet in this change lies the deeper mystery. The public has not clamored for it. While it is true that, starting around the late 1960s, polls showed a growing backlash against the welfare state, that backlash petered out during the 1980s and actually began to reverse itself a few years later. Which is to say, the public has actually grown less receptive to conservatism in general, let alone the particular upper-class variety practiced by today's GOP.

How do I know this? Here's one example. The National Election Survey has been asking voters for many years whether they would prefer a larger government with more services or a smaller government with fewer services. In 1982, the first year of the poll, 32 percent favored smaller government, and 24 percent preferred larger government (with the remainder right in the middle or expressing no opinion). By 2004, it had completely flipped, with 43 percent preferring bigger government and just 20 percent wanting a smaller one. Other polls have showed that the public has turned away from its antigovernment mood of the 1970s and favored a more active government and more progressive taxes. The public has been moving steadily left for twenty years, while Washington has lurched rapidly in the opposite direction.

Catharine, Fernando, dr et al,
I am as frustrated as you are. I'd like to see some really nasty ads. I'd like to see some candidates dressed-down in public forums. I'd like to hear more politicos saying "We could pull out of Iraq as quickly as possible, never go back, and the sun would still rise in the East just like it always does."

My opinions of the MoveOn advertisement are purely analytical and academic. MoveOn isn't going to do what I tell them to do anyway (yeah, I know I have a vote but, hey, I have a presidential ballot vote too and it hasn't done me much good so far).

I hope the political atmosphere changes in my lifetime. I'm tired of being disappointed. I thought that Watergate had changed everything for the better and that the dismal failure in Vietnam had squashed future stupid wars and that the change from the U.S.S.R. to Russia meant that the U.S. would decommission some nukes and reduce defense expenditures. Boy, was I wrong.

As if there were safety in stupidity alone.
--Henry David Thoreau

After all, by nearly any measure, the American public has grown more socially liberal over this span. Since 1977, the proportion of Americans believing gays should be allowed to teach in elementary school has doubled, from 27 to 54 percent. Those favoring gay adoption has risen from 14 to 49 percent. Since 1976, the proportion of Americans who believe women deserve an equal role in business and political life has nearly doubled, from 30 to 57 percent. The proportion who believe that a woman's place is in the home has collapsed from 10 to 2 percent.

If the public is not moving right on economics, and if it is not even moving right on social issues, then we cannot explain the rise of right-wing economics by looking at the voters. We can only understand it by examining Washington.

This book has two parts. The first half explains how the Republican Party my father admired, the party of social and fiscal responsibility, was transformed into the party of class warfare. It is an astonishing tale, and it begins in the mid-1970s with the rise of a sect of pseudo-economists known as the supply-siders. This small cult of fanatical tax-cutters managed, despite having been proven decisively wrong time after time, to get an iron grip on the ideological machinery of the conservative movement. The supply-siders were not maverick conservative economists, as you might assume; they were amateurs and cranks, convinced that their outsider status enabled them to reach conclusions that had escaped the scrutiny of professional economists. The most prominent among them spent their lives advocating a number of patently ludicrous ideas. (One supply-side guru compared Slobodan Milosevic to Abraham Lincoln. Another said that American upper-class women "are averse to science and technology and baffled by it.") While their other preposterous ideas went nowhere, the equally preposterous notion of supply-side economics took the political system by storm. Why? Because it attracted a powerful constituency: the rich.

Or just stupid?

***
"It is interesting

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 11:31pm.

That you continue to think of Democrats as wild-eyed radicals such as yourselves."

***

The Democrats are pussies for the most part. This is not a football game. Unlike you, we don't identify our politics by the color of our jerseys.

God, you're a moron.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 11:31pm.

Democrats don't support the terrorists [by invading countries unnecessarily and creating violent chaotic safe-havens that get bloodier w/every year of forced occupation].

Democrats don't impeach elected officials [over blowjobs].

Democrats don't undermine the military [by selfishly forcing the military to do what the military cannot do -- create a political solution -- merely to save face for elected officials who won't admit they were in error and have failed].

You are thinking of the Green Party.

_____________

Yer right, Democrats don't seem to does them things.

Crank: "In other words, yes. The longer that MoveOn (or any group) stays in the game, the more likely that it will be caught dealing from the bottom of the deck. Karl Rove and his ilk moved the goal posts. It is unlikely that they will be moved back any time soon."

***

I mean, shit, let's just give up altogether now.

dr: "...If it didn't, it seems kinda churlish to anticipate ills that ain't even occurred yet, just b/c that's the way these things tend to go..."
---------
It is churlish to anticipate the way things will go just (merely) because that has been the prevailing tendency?

Is that how you play poker? C'mon, dr. We are talking about humanity and tendencies here. Do you really want to defend the notion that I am churlish for looking at how things have been to anticipate how they will continue to be?

I could go with Happy Talk but you wouldn't buy into it for a minute.

"Why? Because it attracted a powerful constituency: the rich."

I read down the post and you already typed what I was thinking.

Except I would not have use the arbitrary word "God".

I think this is funny ....

.

Submitted by Kevin © on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 11:35pm.

_______________

Hey, look, a unihorn.

I use it arbitrarily also.

When there is a true Dem majority in Congress? Horrors!//

Fear the pussies? Hahahahahahahaha

How's about I give you a good straight line?

Snap you out of it?

too convenient...

Deputies subdue autistic boy with Taser

But Doris Karras, mother of Taylor Karras, said deputies did not need to use the Taser gun, particularly since she had called various police agencies to alert them that her son was missing.

She said her son would have followed deputies' directions if he hadn't felt threatened. "This was a very aggressive response," she said. She said her son "didn't have any weapon on him. He didn't even have a pencil."

you say they've done nothing? They have stopped the bleeding. That is saying a lot. They must seem ineffectual to your amoeba brain, not mine.

There are crooks in both parties, I assume. But the brazen disregard for the Constitution? Those are some serious boundaries to dis.

Just let that one stand there all by its lonesome.

Says it all.

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 11:49pm.

Supporting that rich 1% and thinking that he's a majority...

Submitted by Catharine on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 11:43pm.
...I mean, shit, let's just give up altogether now.
------------------
Please don't put words in my mouth. I've been subjected to this horse shit longer than you have and I haven't given up yet, though I may as well have for all of the good it has done me.

If there is a knight in shining armor over the horizon, that's terrific. I'm ready.

In the meantime, I don't trust anyone in politics any farther than I can throw them. Human beings, money, and power is a volatile mixture.

was a poor choice of words.

They have slowed Constitutional abuse.

The "bleeding", yeah - its still there.

ALL OVER THE PLACE.

Just how is that? By raising the minimum wage? Lucky Bush is a lame duck, otherwise he would have doubled the surge and and sent even more money to Iraq.

Harrumph

Submitted by Crank Bait on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 11:44pm.

It is churlish to anticipate the way things will go just (merely) because that has been the prevailing tendency?

Is that how you play poker? C'mon, dr. We are talking about humanity and tendencies here. Do you really want to defend the notion that I am churlish for looking at how things have been to anticipate how they will continue to be?

I could go with Happy Talk but you wouldn't buy into it for a minute.

____________

Happy-Talk ain't got nothin' to do w/it, don't b'lieve, Crank.

Will only sez this:

There's a point at which bein' a "pox-on-both-yer-houses" cynic brings in diminishin' returns -- to where don't nothin' get done much less attempted.

The "prevailin' tendency" suggests that you'll be deader'n Julius Caesar one day, but that don't prevent me from talking w/you and enjoyin' yer comp'ny right here 'n now.

You're not giving up. Just frustrated.

has dragged both parties to the right and the lack of it pushed the american people to the left...and ne'er the twain shall meet.

I figured you would have been finished with your post. I'll slow down for ya hun.

Considering the state of the economy at the moment it may have had even a more powerful effect of keeping people from homelessness, hopelessness than originally envisioned...

Follow the money.

Pool our money...

Since I last posted, MoveOn now has for the next ad campaign...

We've reached 76% of our 2nd NEW goal of $2,000,000! ($1,534,997.65)

I just read fuctard anon's comment above. He made my point while mismanaging a dis on me.

But... hey.

did I mis-spell something?

The primaries are no where near yet there are pre disposed "leaders" in the race.

Ok, you know that's funny. The word leaders and the picture juxtaposed. Come on, I know you're holding back.

My conservative epiphany

I was dwelling in a warped world's level of absurdity, one in which the fiscal irrelevancy of $21 billion a month spent on the president's ego and desperate legacy -- a.k.a. national security -- simply never occurred to me.

Alright. Fine.
Submitted by Catharine on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 11:58pm.
You're not giving up. Just frustrated.
--------------------
In my perfect world, Jimmy Carter would become President again just to make War Dog apoplectic.

Israel asks U.S. foreign aid be paid in EUROS

"In the spirit of Yom Kippur, the United States will not hold Israel to any agreements obligating them to accept Dollars as payment for their foreigh aid. We will translate our obligations into Euros or whatever currency that best fits Israel's needs" Secretary RIce said in the Friday, Sept 21 announcement.

Crank: "In my perfect world, Jimmy Carter would become President again just to make War Dog apoplectic."

***

Oh yes.

outlandish swill

This Would Make Me Feel Better

Submitted by Crank Bait on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 12:16am.

In my perfect world, Jimmy Carter would become President again just to make War Dog apoplectic.

______________

If I ain't mistaken ('n I don't b'lieve I is), I reckon I seen Jimmy Carter a-coachin' the Kansas City Royals here t'other day.

Submitted by Crank Bait on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:44pm:
According to Uncle John, the first rule of advertising is to make the public remember the product. How you make the public remember the product is unimportant and owes nothing to ethics.

Familiarity breeds acceptance.

I hate the technique of repeating a simple, punchy message until folks accept it.

I haven't caught up with the thread, nor am I likely to, but I hope this isn't too far off topic.

Pink What's Going On?
Evanescence Bring Me To Life
Hildegard von Bingen

just felt like some music this night -- ;)

"control the terms of the debate"
Submitted by Nobody on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 11:21pm.
‘The Big Con’

This is a pretty good political analysis.

Vitter earmarked federal money for creationist group

WASHINGTON -- Sen. David Vitter, R-La., earmarked $100,000 in a spending bill for a Louisiana Christian group that has challenged the teaching of Darwinian evolution in the public school system and to which he has political ties. The money is included in the labor, health and education financing bill for fiscal 2008 and specifies payment to the Louisiana Family Forum "to develop a plan to promote better science education."

The earmark appears to be the latest salvo in a decades-long battle over science education in Louisiana, in which some Christian groups have opposed the teaching of evolution and, more recently, have pushed to have it prominently labeled as a theory with other alternatives presented. Educators and others have decried the movement as a backdoor effort to inject religious teachings into the classroom.

The group has been an advocate for the senator, who was elected as a strong supporter of conservative social issues. When Vitter's use of a Washington, D.C., call-girl service drew comparisons last month to the arrest of Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, in what an undercover officer said was a solicitation for sex in an airport men's room, Family Forum Executive Director Gene Mills came to Vitter's defense.

In a video clip the group posted on the Internet site YouTube, Mills said the two senators' situations are far different. "Craig is denying the allegations," he said. "Vitter has repented of the allegations. He sought forgiveness, reconciliation and counseling."

...but is there good money in that?
http://images.salon.com/comics/opus/2007/09/23/opus/story.jpg

That was the third speech his wife "accidentally" called in on.

Trying to impress right-wing yokels by telling your wife you love her in front of an audience might work once.... but when they find out this is a political stunt .... ?

...even before he'd told [Donna] Hanover that, technically, he was still married to his second cousin, Regina, he was giddily calling friends and announcing that he was going to marry her. ....

http://www.elle.com/featurefullstory/11532/rudy-giuliani.html

That statement defines our country's archetype.

Went to a Caroline Myss talk once, and she was talking about just that very thing being our country's prevailing archetype. Even if we see something spiritually uplifting in our lives, we immediately think how we could turn it into lotsa moolah. What's the first thing people ask each other when they meet? "What do you do?" They mean, of course, to make money. The Europeans all make fun of us for it. They're right to, too.

ok, that is embarassing at a new level Kevin.

I'd laugh but...
new
Submitted by Nobody on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 12:30am.

Vitter earmarked federal money for creationist group

WASHINGTON -- Sen. David Vitter, R-La., earmarked $100,000

So if I have Ministerial Credential's and I am a church in California,
so to "develop" and research "challenging the teaching of creationist evolution in the public school system, I should get $100,000. correct?

sleep bloggin.

G'nite.

;)

ya but only if you're willing to cover the butts of the guys signing the checks...

Hello Fernando....I e-mailed Friday late morning with some questions about my IMac. Thank You for your support

I might already be
Submitted by Fernando on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 12:58am.
sleep bloggin.

I understand that gentle massage can help to eliminate those unsightly keyboard dents from your forehead.

Thanks much for your Seder archiving service!

Land Shark Bait: "Pizza man."

Cat Chew: "I didn't order a pizza."

Land Shark Bait: "Candygram."

Cat Chew: "A Candygram? From who?"

Land Shark Bait: "Telegram."

Cat Chew: "Who's it for?"

Land Shark Bait: "Telegram for War Dog."

Cat Chew: "Oh, okay. I'll take that. Aaaaaaahhhh!"

That "cake" for Kevin was exactly perfect. Now that's what I was talking about ... leave it to Madhatter Alice -- LOL
LOL ...LOL ;)

Stevie Ray Vaughn video is not playing

that's barking up the wrong tree
in search of the pot at the end of the rainbow

but I'm enjoying the references!

click on it...let it load...then hit play.

sigh...
new
Submitted by Nobody on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 1:17am.

I am enjoying now ... so back to toe-tapping and nodding to beat......then I just have to listen again to "fall into". I might have to break a seal on red wine .. sorry no box ;)

Alice was that you who put that picture up of the chimps???? Cute if that was you . I loved it.

Do not lay up for yourselves

treasures on earth,

where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;

but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “

Matthew 6

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/

I always though this was pretty good advice: Not to go poor and starkers here on Earth if you can avoid it, but that the best of things are those that go beyond heaps of gold and sheaves of bearer bonds.

Turns out there is an exception to Matthew’s rule; an Earthly treasure that can and should be stored up here and now.

From Reuters.

Arctic vault takes shape for world food crops
Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:35am EDT

By John Acher

LONGYEARBYEN, Svalbard (Reuters) - In a cavern under a remote Arctic mountain, Norway will soon begin squirreling away the world's crop seeds in case of disaster.

Dynamited out of a mountainside on Spitsbergen island around 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole, the store has been called a doomsday vault or a Noah's Ark of the plant kingdom.

It is the brainchild of a soft-spoken academic from Tennessee who is passionate about securing food for the masses, and will back up seed stores around the world that are vulnerable to loss through war or disaster.

A 20-metre (66-foot) long concrete entrance, still under scaffolding, juts out of the snow-dusted mountain above the coal-mining town of Longyearbyen.

It is reached by a switchback road rising to 120 meters above sea level, offering spectacular views of the fjord below and snow-capped Arctic mountains beyond.

Visitors descend through the mouth of a gently sloping 40-metre steel tube into the frosty cavern which smells of new cement and is dotted with portable lamps as work progresses for February's opening.

"There aren't going to be any better storage conditions than what we will provide here," founder Cary Fowler told reporters during a recent visit to the site in the Svalbard archipelago off northern Norway. "This is a safety deposit box, like in a bank, where you put your valuables."

Although this is one of the world's most northerly settlements, an electric freezer will be used to keep the seeds in the three-chambered concrete-lined vault at minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 0.4 Fahrenheit).

If the power fails, permafrost will still keep them frozen, but not as deeply.

The project is at the heart of an effort by Fowler's foundation, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, to safeguard strains of 21 essential crops, such as wheat, barley and rice.

Rice alone exists in about 120,000 different varieties.

…

The aim is to preserve genetic diversity, needed by plant breeders in the future to produce varieties able to adapt to challenges like climate change.

Crops consist of numerous species, some as different from each other as a "Dachshund from a Great Dane", Fowler said.

If such a store had existed 10 years ago, he said, the seeds would have been needed about once a year as seed collections have been wiped out -- for instance by a typhoon in the Philippines and war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I'm sorry to say we will be using it a lot," Fowler said.

Eventually, the vault will have capacity for around 4.5 million bar-coded seed samples and it hopes in its first year to collect half a million.

…

What Fowler is protecting is nothing less than the future itself.

Or, rather, the idea that the future is a real place where our children and grandchildren will have to live, work, eat and dance.

A place that deserves our treasure, our labor and our hearts.

Because as Richard Feynman said:
“We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.”

As for me, I don’t need to believe in a Great Bennigan's in the Sky to be happy, or a Hell to frighten me into doing the right thing.

I will settle for knowing that in 10,000 years our descendents will still be here, fucking around, savoring fine writing over a dram of the Irish (made from the umpteenth generation progeny of one of Fowler’s barleys perhaps), and still be striving to figure out the lyrics to "Bennie and the Jets"
("She's got electric boobs"? "Her mom has two"? WTF?)

That a hundred centuries from now the human heart will still be grappling with the Big Questions, that human hands will still be healing, knitting and building amazing things. And that human eyes will be watching sunrises on Mars, the rings of Saturn from Titan, or interstellar whatnots zinging past as we move out among the stars.

That is a treasure worth fighting for.

That is Heaven enough for me.

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/

Nobody, Thank You for that fucking, great, awesome video of Stevie Ray. I got to see his last show @ Alpine Valley (in Wisconsin) that was the only time I got to see him play live. He was with Clapton,Cray,Buddy Guy and others. If Clapton is God then Stevie is Jesus. Thanks again.

Re: Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign (Live in Sweden 1980)

:)

Teasing, the others were great.

y'all.

with the music ;)

;)

Almost forgot to post this:
ACLU donation page.

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

Free book:
Bob Altemeyer's - The Authoritarians

Thanks to toniD for reminding me to read John Dean's column at FindLaw!

Understanding the Contemporary Republican Party: Authoritarians Have Taken Control
Part one
Part two

G'night again.

I hadn't realized just how much I miss Stevie Ray ;(
It just works tonight. ;)

“?”

:0

Pax et Lux

Submitted by Vi_Veri_Veniver... on Sat, 09/22/2007 - 10:27pm.
Star Vox

_________________

Lux mentis lux orbis.

********

"Finis vitae sed non amoris"

("The end of Life is not the end of Love.")

********

Memento vivere!

Remember to Live!

Pax Vobiscum

:)

;)

...The Magazine of Tulane University *** The Wearing of the Green
and pictures of the before and after
and N.O. by Night ... ... ;)

(collapse from exhaustion) G'nite all

http://www.kboo.fm/listen

Listen.

9/20/07

The democratically elected government of Bolivia's first indigenous president Evo Morales Ayma, which is heading a process of democratic change, is Washington's immediate target in Latin America today. Bolivia is in Washington's sight, not only because it is viewed as the weakest link of the growing axis of hope in the region, but because of its role as a catalyst for inspiring the struggles of indigenous peoples, regionally and internationally, for real social justice.

The US government, in collaboration with the gas transnationals, large agribusiness and the old political class of Bolivia, organized through the so-called "civic" committees of the wealthy departments of the Bolivian east have already begun to set in motion their plan aimed at destabilizing this government, potentially through a civil war as a pretext for foreign military intervention. This plan includes: the distribution of racist material inciting people to "bring down this Indian shit", provoking violent confrontations, US government funding of opposition political parties and organisations, mobilisation of fascist youth groups, and the smuggling in arms to the country, amongst others.
...

Now is the time for all intellectuals, union militants, solidarity activists, political parties and progressive minded individuals who believe in real justice and equality to raise their voices in defense of the Bolivian government and its people.No to US interference in
Bolivia!

Signed by:
Australia -Federico Fuentes, Kiraz Janicke, John Percy, Adrian Fuentes
Peru - Hugo Blanco
Chile - Marta Harnecker, Maria Eliana Astaburuaga
Mexico - John Ross
Bolivia - Georg Ann Potter
Canada - Michael Lebowitz, Derrick O'Keefe, Sid Shniad, John Riddell,
Roger Annis Susan Spronk, Nelson Rubio, Canadian Dimension editorial
collective, Vancouver Bolivia committee, Vancouver Socialist Forum,
Judy Rebick
US - Gregory Wilpert, Michael Albert, Benjamin Dangl, Martin
Hart-Landsberg, Walter Lippmann, George Ciccariello-Maher, Al
Campbell, Kirkpatrick Sale, Chesa Boudin, Thomas Mertes, Ronald
Christ, Chellis Glendinning
Cuba - Camila Piñeiro Harnecker
Nicaragua - Felipe Stuart Cournoyer
UK - Pablo Navarrete, Alfredo Saad Filho, Andrew J Silvera, Janet Duckworth
Sweden - Eva Björklund, Anki Ahlsten
Norway - Marta Sánchez
New Zealand - Grant Morgan, Vaughan Gunson, Mike Treen
South Africa - Ighsaan Schroeder

K

It's actually scaring me...

Hold me... (lol) :)

US - Gregory Wilpert, Michael Albert, Benjamin Dangl, Martin

Were you listening?

I was listening.

http://www.thesacredprostitute.com

*

Since I have such a slow connection, I'm not sure if what I heard was what you wanted me to hear...

I don't understand.

yes I heard... :)

*

Yep..

Nicky Rose
Alice

More Profit and Less Nursing at Many Homes

Habana Health Care Center, a 150-bed nursing home in Tampa, Fla., was struggling when a group of large private investment firms purchased it and 48 other nursing homes in 2002.

The facility’s managers quickly cut costs. Within months, the number of clinical registered nurses at the home was half what it had been a year earlier, records collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicate. Budgets for nursing supplies, resident activities and other services also fell, according to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.

The investors and operators were soon earning millions of dollars a year from their 49 homes.

As Ciamak Moresadegh, an Iranian Jewish leader, observed: "If you think Judaism and Zionism are one, it is like thinking Islam and the Taliban are the same, and they are not." Iran's leaders denounce Zionism, which they blame for fuelling discrimination against the Palestinians, but they have also repeatedly avowed that they have no problem with Jews, Judaism, or even the State of Israel. Ahmadinejad, caricatured as a merchant of genocidal doom, has in fact called for "regime change" -- and then only in the sense that he believes a referendum should be held of all Israelis and inhabitants of the occupied territories, including refugees from war, on the nature of the government.

I liked his interview with Mike Wallace.

The US is the biggest terrorist nation in the world. But oh, we have to condemn Iran for terrorism.

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/856/op56.htm

doonesbury and opus both hit a bullseye today.

But you know, it's not new...it's been a steady progression...

I like that Carl Sandburg quote from last night..someday no one will show up for a war..or something like that...

Go go gog and magog. Bomb those ungrateful, hostage-taking Iranians. Show them who is boss.

is what I would call conservative and he even says WWII was set up as well...He was surprised though by the Red Cross article from last week...about them having medical supplies ready prior...

I was surprised when I heard on DN that one young black boy was unaware of what the noose meant in the tree in Jena...

is a noteworthy feat of the famous group THEY.

on PBS tomorrow night?

Fair warnin':

I is about to post my silly pseudonymous skit. W/any luck, we'll get a new thread right quick 'n it can get buried in well-deserved ignominious obscurity. (Altho' I is learnt belatedly that there are no dead-threads on which a body can experiment w/pitcher postin'.)

Feel free to scroll on by. I apologize in advance for postin' sumpin' so long, for which I will be deservedly loathed 'n despised.

If you happen to read it and ain't included in the silly skit, b'lieve me, it ain't personal, it's mostly on account of:

You had the extreme misfortune of not pickin' a personal pronoun for a nick, or

your nick warn't conducive to my weak powers a 'maginin' repartee (I's stretchin' things as it is), or

I just run outta innerest in pickin' at it nomores.

dr

Aw Fuck! Good Night!

We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us...

amount until 2009...

*

If this is the leg they have to stand on...Prrrffffttt...GMAFB

Aw Fuck! Good Night!

Submitted by Nicky Rose on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 7:44am.

Aw Fuck! Good Night!

______________

That's what I likes. A Bronx cheer.

Should mention one last:

I is surmised, I think even correctly, that Waiting for Cicero is aka Weary fucking Cynic.

If this is wrong, I really don't wanna be disabused of this notion for the time being, as it would only serve to fuck up one whole section.

Others may not know this (possibly erroneous) tidbit, so I thought I'd make that double-plus-good apparent, so, while perhaps not funny, it at least has the savin' grace of makin' (possibly erroneous) sense.

dr

I've been waiting to read it...

:)

*

On Sunday night PBS stations across the country will begin airing one of the most anticipated and controversial documentaries of the year –- Ken Burns's The War. It is a seven-part series that tells the story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four American towns.

The documentary sparked controversy because it originally excluded the voices of any Latino or Native American veterans. Under pressure, Burns agreed to add 28 minutes of footage including interviews with two Latino veterans and one Native American.

Meanwhile, local PBS stations have produced companion documentaries to air alongside The War. Here in New York, WLIW produced “New York Goes to War” and “New York War Stories.” Julie Cohen, the producer and director of “New York Goes to War” joins us here at the firehouse along with Sam Toperoff, producer and director of “New York War Stories.”

* Julie Cohen. Producer and director of “New York Goes to War.”

* Sam Toperoff. Producer and director of “New York War Stories.”

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/20/139218

*
JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes. Actually, I got an update recently last week on what’s going on with the Ken Burns film, and apparently, I mean, there have been some changes that Burns has made to his original film, but there is a lot of dissatisfaction still among Latino war veterans and some of the community leaders over, one, the fact that there’s a companion book that has already been published that is part of the whole Ken Burns enterprise that has no mention of any Latinos or Native Americans that are involved, that Burns, himself, has dealt with this as an unfortunate political correctness issue, rather than a huge error on his part, in terms of conceptualizing and developing the film.

And there’s an enormous marketing campaign. Anheuser-Busch is spending $10 million to put, I think, War logos on all of its beer cans in promotion of the Ken Burns documentary.

And I think the feeling of the educators and the community leaders is that the major film, not the local ones that are actually -- some of them are actually very good, from what I’ve heard, but the major film will end up becoming a major piece of educational material in public schools and libraries. So now a campaign is going to be waged around the country to debate in every school district and every local library whether this should be used -- the major film -- should be used as an educational campaign, especially the book, because the book is totally exclusionary, the accompanying book that’s part of the film. So it should be interesting to see how it develops over the next few years.
*

Tap,tap,tap,tap.. Mmmmmmmmm ;)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Reporter: "So, Sam! Who's blogging these days?"
Sam: "Nobody."
Reporter: "Nobody?"
Sam: "Uh-huh. Nobody's blogging these days."
Reporter: "Nobody's blogging?"
Sam: "Yeah, Nobody's there."
Reporter: "Nobody's there?"
Sam: "On the blog? Sure. Nobody's there. Course, sometimes Nobody isn't blogging."
Reporter: "Sometimes nobody ... *isn't* ... blogging?"
Sam: "Sometimes. You can't expect for Nobody to be blogging 24/7, can you?"
Reporter (repeating, confounded): "Can't expect ... nobody to be blogging ..."
Sam: "Is there an echo in here?"
Reporter (backing up): "Lemme see if I've got this straight. Nobody is blogging on your blog ..."
Sam: "Yup."
Reporter: "Except sometimes, when nobody isn't blogging?"
Sam: "Precisely."
Reporter: "How is that?"
Sam: "I dunno. Good question. Ask Somebody."
Reporter: "Ask somebody?"
Sam: "Yeah. Ask Somebody why Nobody blogs."
Reporter: "But I'm asking *you*."
Sam: "About Nobody blogging?"
Reporter: "Yes."
Sam: "Ask Somebody."
Reporter: "But I don't *want* to ask *somebody*, I want to ask *you*."
Sam: "Why not? You're being a little unfair to Somebody, to be honest. After all, Somebody oughtta know."
Reporter: "Somebody oughtta know ... why nobody is blogging?"
Sam: "I think so."
Reporter: "Do you know how crazy that sounds?"
Sam: "Hey, pal, I never said this place wasn't a little over the rainbow."
Reporter: "So nobody is blogging on your blog, and you're *fine* w/that?"
Sam: "Why not? Nobody likes it."
Reporter: "Nobody *likes* it?"
Sam: "Oh, Nobody blogs like nobody's business! Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, has the blogging stamina of Nobody."
Reporter: "Isn't that a tautology?"
Sam: "A what?"
Reporter: "All right, all right, all *right* -- for God's sake! If you *won't* help me ..."
Sam: "Well, you don't have to pitch a fit ..."
Reporter: "... then I'll just have to go ask *somebody* myself!"
Sam: "Good idea!"
Reporter: "You approve?"
Sam: "Sure! Somebody should know."
Reporter: "All right then! Now, who do I ask?"
Sam: "Somebody."
Reporter: "Yes, I know, but who?"
Sam: "Somebody."
Reporter: "Yes, but *who*?
Sam: "*Ask* *Somebody*!"
Reporter: "Somebody?"
Sam: "Yes. Ask Somebody about Nobody."
Reporter: "Ask somebody ..."
Sam: "Riiight ..."
Reporter: "About nobody ..."
Sam: "There now! 'By cracky, I think he's got it!' Who says you big-time journalist fellows aren't all that bright?"
Reporter (sarcastically): "Should I ask 'somebody' in particular, or will any ol' 'somebody' do?"
Sam: "Somebody in particular, of course."
Reporter: "*Which* 'somebody’?"
Sam: "No, not Witch Somebody—”
Reporter: “But you just sai—”
Sam: “There's only one Somebody."
Reporter: "But *how* do I know *WHICH* 'somebody' to ask?"
Sam: "Look, pal: For the last time, Somebody's not a witch, and even you can't mess that up."
Reporter (starting over): "All right, wise guy. Let’s take it from the top. You say nobody's blogging on your blog, right?"
Sam: "Just like nobody's business."
Reporter: "So if nobody's blogging, except when nobody *isn't blogging*, and somebody knows why, then fer cryin' out loud: WHO'S BLOGGING?"
Sam: "Nobody."
Reporter: "Dammit-all, *somebody* must be blogging!"
Sam: "Oh, Somebody *might* be blogging. I wouldn't rule it out. But take it from me, pal: There's a right better chance of Nobody blogging than for Somebody to be blogging."
Reporter (looking around the control room desperately): "Can’t somebody here help me out?"
Sam: "Oh, Somebody'd be glad to help. I already told you that."
Reporter: "Look, Sam. How can you say no one blogs on your blog? Surely somebody must blog?"
Sam: "Somebody *does* blog. How many times do I have to tell you that! No wonder nothing important ever makes it into the news. But who is this No One of which you speak?"
Reporter: "You said no one was blogging."
Sam: "No, I said Nobody was blogging."
Reporter: "Semantics, fer chrissakes!"
Sam: "No One never blogs here ..."
Reporter: "That's what I said!"
Sam: "... but Nobody blogs here."
Reporter: "What is the damn *difference*?"
Sam: "No One don't blog here, Nobody does."
Reporter (irritated): "Except when nobody isn't blogging, right?"
Sam: "Bingo."
Reporter: "Do you talk like that on the radio, Sam?"
Sam: "Like what?"
Reporter: "'No one don't blog here, nobody does.'?"
Sam (winningly self-deprecating): "Sometimes. They don't call me Sam Spaz Stumblemouth for nothin'."
Reporter: "You know, I think I'm beginning to understand why everyone is so irritated w/bloggers."
Sam: "Hey, you can lead a horticulture ...”
Reporter: “But you can’t make ’im think.”
...............
Sam: “Maybe there’s hope for you yet. (looking down at blog, picking up greasy grinder) “Oh, look-who's-here: Waiting for Cicero!"
Reporter: "Thank God! Somebody at last."
Sam "No, not Somebody, Waiting for Cicero."
Reporter: "Look here, buddy: Now, you're saying somebody *isn't* waiting for 'Cicero'?"
Sam: "Obviously Somebody isn't Waiting for Cicero or Somebody’d already be there."
Reporter: "But you just said somebody *is* waiting for 'Cicero'."
Sam: "No, I said, 'look-who's here: Waiting for Cicero'!"
Reporter: "So WHO *is* waiting for 'Cicero'?"
Sam: "Weary fucking Cynic."
Reporter: "Hey, watch yer goddamn mouth."
Sam (insouciantly): "Why? Is food falling out?"
Reporter: "Wha-?"
Sam: "I talk while I eat." (stuffing grinder in his face)
Reporter: "Look, 'Cicero' is a real name. Classical Roman orator. At last. I get it. Hallelujah. *Someone* is evidently waiting for 'Cicero' on the blog. So who *is* waiting for 'Cicero'?"
Sam: "Weary fucking Cynic."
Reporter (exploding): "Well, yes, goddammit, I *am* a weary fucking cynic! Wouldn't *you* be after thirty years of this shit? Look, *all's* I'm tryin' to determine is who 'Cicero' is hoping to talk to on the blog?
Sam: "Nobody, probably."
Reporter: “Here we go again. Look, *somebody's* gotta want to talk to 'Cicero'."
Sam: "Somebody might want to talk to Cicero. But Somebody ain’t there, Nobody is. And a Weary fucking Cynic gets on well w/Nobody."
Reporter: "Oh, isn't that charming? In addition to your other many fine talents, Sam, you're also a Yoda-sounding aphoristical philosopher!"
Sam: "A what?"
Reporter: "Never mind. Look, if nobody’s there waiting for ‘Cicero’, don’t you get the sense that – that it isn’t worth the bother?”
Sam: “Nobody knows the blog trouble I’ve seen.”
Reporter: “That nobody cares?"
Sam (singing): “No-body. Cares. For. Me!”
Reporter (increasingly irritated): “Isn’t having a blog sorta pointless if nobody blogs on the fucking thing?”
Sam (breaking out into glorious full-throated song): “I’mmm just a blog, you knowww, and everywhere I goooo ....”
Reporter: “Oh, no, not again!”
............
Sam: "Ono? Oh, no, what did ono do now?"
Reporter: "Wha--?"
Sam: "He's a real corker, that ono."
Reporter: "Are you playing w/me, sir?"
Sam: "Are *you* playing w/*me*, sir?"
Reporter: "You can't answer a question w/a question?"
Sam: "Oh, no? 'What would Jesus do'?"
Reporter (exasperated): "‘Oh, no,’ he says. God, I need air."
Sam: "Oho, ono again?"
Reporter: "Oho, oh, no, *what* again?"
Sam: "Ono!"
Reporter: "Oh, you mean 'Ono'? As in Yoko?"
Sam: "Oh, no, I mean 'ono' as in air."
Reporter: "Ono as in heir?"
Sam: "You've heard of 'air', haven't you? One of the four elements of nature."
Reporter: "Don't get smart w/me, sir!"
Sam: "I wouldn't dream of it. Not quite sure how you'd handle it."
Reporter: "You know, young man, my mood is growing decidedly foul."
Sam: "Oh, well great! You'll fit right in w/ono!"
Reporter: “Good God, it sounds like anarchy around here!”
Sam: Ha! That’s just the way Anarchist Barbie likes it.”
Reporter (clinging desperately to this life-line): "Anarchist Barbie, eh? So where can I find this ‘Anarchist Barbie’?”
Sam: "Go ask Alice. I think she'll know."
Reporter: Where is Alice?”
Sam: “In wonderland.”
Reporter: "Where's the logic ...?"
Sam (antically): "And proportion!"
Reporter: "What *are* you—”
Sam (singing again): “Have fallennn sloppppy deaaaaad.”
Reporter: “--some kinda crank?"
Sam: "Bait?"
Reporter: "Bait?"
Sam: "Is there a slow echo in here?"
Reporter: "Look, I'm *trying* to find something out about one of the very *first* recognizable poster names I've come across since we started talking—”
Sam: “Shofar, so good.”
Reporter: “--and now you're *baiting* me?"
Sam (singing): “Like a bridge over troubled water ...”
Reporter: “Wha--?”
Sam: "If you're lookin' for Bait, talk w/Crank all you want. Just do me a favor -- don't bait Crank w/straight lines, OK?"
Reporter: "Bait crank w/straight lines?"
Sam: "It's kind'uva blog rule."
Reporter: "What's a blog rule?"
Sam: "There are no rules."
Reporter: "But you just said ..."
Sam: "Except 'don't feed Crank Bait straight lines'."
Reporter: "Don't feed crank bait straight lines?"
Sam: "By God, there *is* a slow echo in here! (calling out) Lawyer’n, we gotta do something about that."
Reporter: “Lawyer’n?”
Sam: “By extraordinary rendition, Lawyer’n can make traffic tickets disappear.”
Reporter: "So lemme see if I got *this* line straight."
Sam (wagging finger): "Ut, ut. Already told you -- no straight lines."
Reporter: "Wha--?"
Sam: "Rule #2. Strictly verboten. Crank’ll hit a straight lick w/a crooked stick."
Reporter (not seeing): "I see."
Sam (slapping him jovially on the shoulder): "But don't worry. Everyone does it.”
Reporter (in a fog, plodding on): "Look. The blog rules are: There are no rules, right?"
Sam: "Right."
Reporter: "Except don't bait cranks w/straight lines?"
Sam: "Yes."
Reporter: "Which everyone does anyway?"
Sam: "Correct."
Reporter: "Thereby breaking not one but both rules."
Sam: "Hmm. 'Fraid so."
Reporter: "Isn't that a paradox?"
Sam: "A pair a what?"
Reporter: "Never mind.”
Sam: “Paraquots?”
Reporter: “Hey, yer not tryin' to blow sunshine up my arse, are you?"
Sam: "Nice try, but Sunshine wouldn't have anything to do w/your arse. Sunshine loves Bgurl."
Reporter: "Sunshine loves bee-girl?"
Sam (singing): “Sunshine, on Bgurl’s shoulders, makes Bgurl happppy.”
Reporter: “Yeah, smart-ass, and sunshine in my eyes makes me blind.”
Sam: “This must be that jaded reporter thing I keep hearin’ about, right?”
-------------
Reporter (resolved): "All right, Sam. Square one, OK? You gotta blog, right?"
Sam: "Yep."
Reporter: "And on this blog it's got news and information disseminating onnit, right?"
Sam: "Oh, you bet. toni is a tiger when it comes to digging up news. A real news-hound. Some say Nobody's better at scooping news, but for my money, toni takes the Greek laurel. And hardy."
Reporter: "It’s all Greek to me."
Sam: "Ono kidding? “Well, then, you two will have lots to talk about."
Reporter (ignoring him): “So this 'Tony' character, he's what you might call a news consumer then, right?"
Sam: "He is what you might call a she. And she is definitely *not* what you might call a News Consumer."
Reporter: "She's not?"
Sam: "toni is what you might call a tiger. News Consumer is what you might call a News Consumer."
Reporter: "Isn't that a tautology?"
Sam: "A wha-?"
Reporter: "Never mind. Look, you just *said*, not moments ago, that Toni digs up the news!"
Sam: "She does!"
Reporter: "Toni hunts up stories, right?"
Sam: "You bet."
Reporter: "So this Toni, she's a news-hound, right?"
Sam: "Right."
Reporter: "So obviously Toni's a news-consumer, right?"
Sam: "Of course not."
Reporter: "Of course not?!"
Sam: "Any damn fool could tell you that. Haven't you been listening?"
..............
Reporter (shifting gears): “All right, Sam. Trolls. Got any trolls on yer blog?”
Sam (coyly): "Hmm. These 'trolls' of which you speak? What are they?"
Reporter: "You mean you've never heard of 'trolls' on the internets tubes before, Sam?"
Sam: "Nope. Never. What, are they some kinda Phungus?"
Reporter: "Well, basically, they are social malcontents who try to annoy and disturb other posters w/contrarian viewpoints on ideologically-driven blogs."
Sam: "Would, say, a War Dog do something irritating like that?"
Reporter: "Oh, I suppose ultra-hawkish bloggers might visit a liberal site, sure."
Sam: "How about, say, a war-mongering War Dog who uses an exploding nuclear bomb as an avatar and who discreetly buried his wife under his hot tub, which is where he spins all of his Horatio Alger success stories when not pumping out Piggly-Wiggly circulars and who is now in love w/Hillary Clinton and tools around the Ozarks in a gi-normous Battlestar Galactica RV pretending to ride his bicycle but actually goes to Yakov Smirnov shows in Hillbilly Vegas w/his fellow blue-haired brethren?"
Reporter: "Don't be ridiculous, Sam."
Sam: “But I like being ridiculous. It’s the only thing that gets me thru the day.”
Reporter: “It shows.”
Sam: “Thank you. Perhaps I’ll mark that observation down in a War Dog’s Book someday. Now, this trolling practice of which you speak – I’m intrigued. It sounds rather Garish. No decent human being would ever engage in it. Hmm. Tell me more."
...............
Reporter: "Well, sometimes it’s done anonymously. Do you allow anonymous posting on your blog, Sam?."
Sam: “Hmm. That sounds like a lotta trouble. I’m all for it!”
Reporter: “You know, I understand precisely nothing about blogging from talking w/you, Sam.”
Sam: “Well, looks like my work here is done then. You only need to know one thing, anyways, kind sir.”
Reporter: “What’s that?”
Sam: “Peaches.”
Reporter: “Peaches?”
Sam: “Peaches. It’s a pseudonymous protest movement.”
Reporter: “Peaches is pseudonymous?”
Sam: “See? The blogging world stands revealed. It’s also a greeting. And a farewell. And a critique. Aren’t you glad you stopped by?”
Reporter: “No.”
Sam: “And remember what the dormouse said.”
Reporter: “Feed your head?”
Sam: “Close. Feed your thread.”

dr

looks fun, dr! Will be reading it all with my Sunday morning hot beverage....

The rooster is crowing here and it's still dark outside...time for me to sleep...xoxo goodnight.

I even got confused from time to time.

I didn't make the cut,but so what!
Luv readin ya! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Anyone old enough to remember the opening titles to the TV Show "My Three Sons"? Here's a YouTube link to it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8638990130542370331

It adds some rather creepy to the memory of the 1960's TV!

Here’s the Sunday Talking Head line-up for this morning. (partially via the Contra Costa Times.)

C-Span Washington Journal:7:45am - Thomas Schaller, Baltimore Sun, National Political Columnist | Article; 8:30am - Newspaper Articles & Viewer Calls; 9am - Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis (Ret.), Human Events, Columnist | Column; 9:30am - Trita Parsi, Author, “Treacherous Alliance”.
NBC Meet the Press: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
ABC This Week: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and filmmaker Ken Burns.
CBS Face the Nation: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
CNN Late Edition: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt; French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner; Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.; former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski; former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Fox News Sunday: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; and filmmaker Ken Burns.
I can sum it up with a single sentence: “A whole lotta Hillary and a few extras.” If you are a Hillary fan, you are in luck today — because it’s a five show morning for Sen. Clinton today. (Taylor calls it the “campaign grand slam.”) If you are not a big fan…put on a second pot of coffee, because you are gonna need it. >(And someone tell Oklahoma Kiddo not to turn on the telly. *g* For his own good…)

For those interested in some horse race analysis, the NYTimes has a pseudo-behind-the-scenes as they want you to see them anyway glimpse into some of the campaign back and forth between the Clinton, Obama and Edwards camps. Speaking of Obama, Digby has a piece on the fetid swamp that passes for Republican banter and radio discourse.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/09/23/sunday-talking-head-thread-71/

PS — Twolf1 found a cozy little item worth noting:

The President has named Adam Belmar to be Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Communications for Production. Mr. Belmar currently serves as Senior Producer of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” at ABC News. Prior to this, he served as Senior Producer of “Good Morning America” at ABC News. Earlier in his career, he served as a Producer at the McLaughlin Group and Tribune Broadcasting. Mr. Belmar received his bachelor’s degree from Boston University.

It is a small world, after all. At least, when you compare it to this find from Mauimom (via the WaPo):

Chalk it up to vacation schedules: Greenspan and his wife, Andrea Mitchell, settled on the date with co-hosts Jim and Kate Lehrer, Michael and Afsaneh Beschloss, and Don and Mary Graham while all were scattered at various summer retreats. Greenspan and Mitchell (both Jewish but not all that observant) didn’t register that the date coincided with the religious holiday — which begins at sundown tomorrow — before 200 invitations were sent.

Wouldn’t want to bruise the gin in the shake-up for the Georgetown cocktail set, now would we? All the Beltway is a giant cocktail weenie. Or a Beach Boys song gone awry. (YouTube)

Betraying Its Own Best Interests

By CLARK HOYT

Published: September 23, 2007

FOR nearly two weeks, The New York Times has been defending a political advertisement that critics say was an unfair shot at the American commander in Iraq.

Clark Hoyt
More Public Editor Columns
E-mail: public@nytimes.com
Phone: (212) 556-7652
Address: Public Editor
The New York Times
620 Eight Avenue.
New York, NY 10018

But I think the ad violated The Times’s own written standards, and the paper now says that the advertiser got a price break it was not entitled to.

On Monday, Sept. 10, the day that Gen. David H. Petraeus came before Congress to warn against a rapid withdrawal of troops, The Times carried a full-page ad attacking his truthfulness.

Under the provocative headline “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” the ad, purchased by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org, charged that the highly decorated Petraeus was “constantly at war with the facts” in giving upbeat assessments of progress and refusing to acknowledge that Iraq is “mired in an unwinnable religious civil war.”

“Today, before Congress and before the American people, General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us,” MoveOn.org declared.

The ad infuriated conservatives, dismayed many Democrats and ignited charges that the liberal Times aided its friends at MoveOn.org with a steep discount in the price paid to publish its message, which might amount to an illegal contribution to a political action committee. In more than 4,000 e-mail messages, people around the country raged at The Times with words like “despicable,” “disgrace” and “treason.”

President George W. Bush called the ad “disgusting.” The Senate, controlled by Democrats, voted overwhelmingly to condemn the ad.

Vice President Dick Cheney said the charges in the ad, “provided at subsidized rates in The New York Times” were “an outrage.” Thomas Davis III, a Republican congressman from Virginia, demanded a House investigation. The American Conservative Union filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission against MoveOn.org and The New York Times Company. FreedomsWatch.org, a group recently formed to support the war, asked me to investigate because it said it wasn’t offered the same terms for a response ad that MoveOn.org got.

Did MoveOn.org get favored treatment from The Times? And was the ad outside the bounds of acceptable political discourse?

The answer to the first question is that MoveOn.org paid what is known in the newspaper industry as a standby rate of $64,575 that it should not have received under Times policies. The group should have paid $142,083. The Times had maintained for a week that the standby rate was appropriate, but a company spokeswoman told me late Thursday afternoon that an advertising sales representative made a mistake.

The answer to the second question is that the ad appears to fly in the face of an internal advertising acceptability manual that says, “We do not accept opinion advertisements that are attacks of a personal nature.” Steph Jespersen, the executive who approved the ad, said that, while it was “rough,” he regarded it as a comment on a public official’s management of his office and therefore acceptable speech for The Times to print.

Outside Iowa, polls find Hillary maintaining large leads

By Donald Lambro

September 23, 2007

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has built double-digit leads over her chief rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination in four of the five major party preference contests in January.

With three months to go before the start of the caucus and primary season, Mrs. Clinton has pulled away from her top challengers in all but the Jan. 14 Iowa caucuses, where she leads by a slim 2.6 percent average in the latest polls.

If her large leads hold up in later contests, it would send her into the "Super Duper Tuesday" battles on Feb. 5 with significant momentum and a strong chance to capture the bulk of the delegates at stake in more than 20 states.

Fukuda wins poll, likely next PM By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 50 minutes ago

The veteran moderate Yasuo Fukuda easily won election as Japan's ruling party president Sunday, pledging to keep a pro-U.S. foreign policy and improve ties with Asia after he almost certainly becomes prime minister later this week.

Fukuda, the 71-year-old son of a prime minister from the 1970s and a former right-hand man to two premiers, won 63 percent of the vote among Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers and delegates, beating his lone rival, former Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

The win essentially guarantees Fukuda's election as outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's successor in parliament on Tuesday because of the LDP's vast majority in the lower house, the more powerful of the two chambers that elects the premier.

Fukuda vowed on Sunday to rebuild the popularity of his party, which has suffered a year of scandals and policy missteps by outgoing Abe, who has been hospitalized since announcing on Sept. 12 that he would resign.

"You have chosen me even though I do not have much experience. I am prepared to do my utmost to live up to my responsibilities," Fukuda said. "I will work to revitalize the LDP, to win back public trust, and push forward with my policies."

Fukuda's key policies include engaging North Korea diplomatically, pushing for extension of Japan's naval mission in support of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, and giving aid to rural regions left behind by the economic recovery.

"We need to show our intention to continue the mission as a message to the international society," Fukuda said of the Afghan mission, which the opposition has vowed to defeat in parliament. "If this drags on too long we might send a wrong message to the world as if we were not committed to making that contribution."

Fukuda, who served as chief Cabinet secretary from 2000 to 2004, has the support of the major factions of the LDP. His dominance over Aso, a hawk who served as Abe's foreign minister until August, was so clear by Sunday that morning papers had already given him the title of LDP president, and he was asked on NHK if he would choose Aso as his foreign minister.

Fukuda would inherit a political environment and LDP left in serious disarray.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070923/ap_on_re_as/japan_politics&printer=1...

Bush-Cheney invite far-right "hate" Freepers to White House
by John Aravosis (DC) · 9/22/2007 03:40:00 PM ET

http://www.americablog.com/2007/09/bush-cheney-invite-far-right-hate.htm...

You'll recall that the Freepers are a far-right, and I mean VERY far right, Web organization that even FOX's Bill O'Reilly criticized as being too extreme. For Bush-Cheney to invite them to White House and then greet them personally... that's pretty sick. It's also likely a sign of the desperation that's sunk in at the White House. When you're at 28% in the polls and most of the sane elements of even your own party are starting to hate you, you have to turn to the insane for support.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1898610/posts

Anon/Gare,and His Girlfriend CM !

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Real Time Overtime: On OJ, Iraq and Democratic Messaging
By: Nicole Belle @ 6:37 AM - PDT In the online exclusive Real Time Overtime, Bill Maher and guests Rob Thomas, Janeane Garafalo and Salman Rushdie weigh in on current events.

Personally, I like Bill’s idea for OJ. Maybe the press would do a better job.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/23/real-time-overtime-on-oj-iraq-a...

now admits conditions in Iraq warrant a date certain for withdrawal. Another slow Candidate?

Do we really want another President that is slow on the uptake?

Hillary caves to reason finally, and shows she has no back bone to stick to her guns after all....

Obviously if I would have known then what I know now... What a tired old excuse for being consistently wrong.

“There is a reason rightwingers are rightwingers. It’s because they are assholes” Janeane Garafalo.

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

solidly calling out Hillary's consistent failure to defend the Constitution. She can't even vote for Congress being the one to declare war.

Has she read the Constitution? Wasn't it once legal to read the Constitution?

anon's who tell us who is in the lead before a single primary vote?

MoveOn under the bus ignoring the fact that the man helped politicize the military.

She's going to hurt bad after today. Its so sad too. She could have done so much.

Anon's have their Heads so far up their asses,they don't know what day it is!
But,they do wish it was 1950!
:)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

I didn't mean to call her Hillbilly. That was wrong of me and totally a Freudian slip. I apologize.

they turn black into white and day into night and the democrats let them

- bill maher -

Dems seek to soften Iraq withdrawal measure

Instead of mandating a hard timeline for withdrawal, they would float the idea of including a goal for withdrawal. They planned to launch a renewed lobbying campaign over the weekend to win GOP support.

Levin said he had a “political inside hunch” more Republicans would be receptive to that plan — but was uncertain whether he and Reed would lose Democrats who support a firm timetable for withdrawal.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) dismissed the idea of softening that language earlier this week, but on Friday, Levin said he and Reid had lengthy discussions where they agreed to push forward with a goal for withdrawal.

“It’s just a realistic assessment of what the facts are,” Levin said of Reid first appearing to back away from a including goal in the measure to now embracing that notion.

After smothering efforts by war critics in Congress to drastically cut U.S. troop levels in Iraq, President Bush plans to ask lawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure -- totaling nearly $200 billion -- to fund the war through next year, Pentagon officials said.If Bush's spending request is approved, 2008 will be the most expensive year of the Iraq war.In 2004, the two conflicts, Iraq and Afghanistan together cost $94 billion; in 2005, they cost $108 billion; in 2006, $122 billion. This isn't a "war against terrorism," it's a mugging of the taxpayers for corporate profiteering.

http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=25886

Let's Make An Oil Deal
A Bush family friend may be undermining Iraqi peace.

By Richard Wolffe and Gretel C. Kovach
Newsweek
Oct. 1, 2007 issue - Ray hunt isn't your typical Texas tycoon. Unlike other billionaire oilmen who hype their legends in the press, Hunt tries hard to keep his name out of the newspapers. The son of wildcatter H. L. Hunt, who lived his life in the spotlight, Ray Hunt rarely gives interviews and re-fuses to provide even mundane details about the workings of his private oil and real-estate ventures. He's given big sums to his alma mater, Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, but he will not allow his name to be affixed to any of the buildings his money helped pay for. Hunt's discretion may be one reason he has developed a close relationship with the Bush family, who greatly value privacy.

Hunt's money could also have something to do with it. Over the years, the oilman raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to elect both George W. Bush and his father. The son rewarded Hunt with a seat on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a panel of outside elders who oversee whether the commander in chief is getting good advice from the intel community. More recently Hunt has been especially generous about helping to plan—and pay for—Bush's postpresidential ambitions. He lobbied the president to build the Bush 43 presidential library at SMU—which is where Laura Bush studied—and since then he's given $35 million to the school to buy some of the land where part of the library complex could sit.

Hunt's generosity may help explain why the White House has been seemingly reluctant to question another of the oilman's projects—this one in Iraq. To the apparent surprise, and irritation, of officials in Washington and in Baghdad, Hunt Oil announced this month that, after secret negotiations, it had struck a deal with leaders in the country's Kurdish-controlled north to explore for oil in the Dahuk region near the Turkish border. News of the deal angered Iraqi Arab leaders, who saw it as a Kurdish power play for the country's oil resources, one that appeared to disrupt already fragile talks over a critical benchmark for peace: an agreement among the Sunni, Shiites and Kurds to share profits from the country's bountiful oil supply. The hope is that a national revenue-sharing law will help defuse tensions—and curtail violence—by getting the three groups to work toward a vital common goal. But the negotiations have stalled, largely because of a lack of trust. The Iraqi Oil minister denounced the Hunt agreement as illegal—though without a law in place it's hard to argue the Kurds have violated it. The Kurds refused to disclose the terms of the deal but insisted they will share the profits.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20920354/site/newsweek/

Who would have ever imagined......

the people have made up their minds:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070920105256AABFoy6

Why not? MoveOn has made it easy for Dems to support our military. MoveOn is George's best friend. George says, "Thanks for the help in funding our war"

Tracking Political Prosecutions

In the last two weeks, two sources, one of them inside of the Justice Department, have told me that a scheme was hatched in the upper echelons of the Bush Administration shortly after it took office in 2001 or early in 2002. The project identified John Edwards and Hillary Clinton as likely Democratic challengers to President Bush, and identified prominent trial lawyers around the United States as the likely financial vehicle for Edward’s rise. It directed that their campaign finance records be fly-specked, and that offenses not be treated as administrative matters but rather as serious criminal offenses.

The scheme contemplated among other things that raids be staged on the law offices involved, and that the records seized not be limited to campaign finance—there was an acute interest in all politically oriented documents, in order to seize valuable intelligence on strategic planning from the enemy camp.

This all sounds rather fantastic—even more insidious than the enemies list days of the Nixon era. It is precisely the sort of crude harassment that a primitive dictatorship would use against its enemies—like Alexander Lukashenko in today’s Belarus, for instance. But as the descriptions were passed to me, I instantly recognized the pattern described recently in a case which has made the headlines in Michigan involving a prominent lawyer there, and a second case in Los Angeles. According to one source, the number of these cases is at least five and they are scattered about the country. One case, described to me in some detail, closely matches the pattern in Michigan and Los Angeles and occurred in the south on the Gulf of Mexico.

Why, I wondered, would the attorneys involved not scream bloody murder about this? Then it struck me. The threat of criminal investigation and prosecution is devastating to their law practices. Of course, they would keep it completely secret. And that silence has made the entire scheme possible. I am told that these cases involved the attorneys general personally—both John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales—that their go-ahead was needed to stage the raids. And that in each case, the greatest concern within the political pirates commanding the operation has been that the public would get wind of the bigger picture. It was essential to pull it off that each case be viewed as something standing all on its own, and that the fact that there was a politically motivated project be obscured.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/09/hbc-90001266

but not in a biblical sense

would only make matters worse, Hillary gives back $850,000.

Why couldn't she do the right thing in the first place?

The sooner you come to Hillary the happier you will be. It best not to struggle, just lay back, relax, and let it happen. In the end, you will be on Hillary's team. Why not enjoy the ride, the outcome has been predetermined!

U.S. Repeatedly Rebuffed Iraq on Blackwater Complaints

By Sudarsan Raghavan and Steve Fainaru
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, September 23, 2007; Page A18

BAGHDAD, Sept. 22 -- Senior Iraqi officials repeatedly complained to U.S. officials about Blackwater USA's alleged involvement in the deaths of numerous Iraqis, but the Americans took little action to regulate the private security firm until 11 Iraqis were shot dead last Sunday, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

Before that episode, U.S. officials were made aware in high-level meetings and formal memorandums of Blackwater's alleged transgressions. They included six violent incidents this year allegedly involving the North Carolina firm that left a total of 10 Iraqis dead, the officials said.

"There were no concrete results," Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamal, the deputy interior minister who oversees the private security industry on behalf of the Iraqi government, said in an interview Saturday.

The lack of a U.S. response underscores the powerlessness of Iraqi officials to control the tens of thousands of security contractors who operate under U.S.-drafted Iraqi regulations that shield them from Iraqi laws. It also raises questions about how seriously the United States will seek to regulate Blackwater, now the subject of at least three investigations by Iraqi and U.S. authorities. Blackwater, which operates under State Department authority, protects nearly all senior U.S. politicians and civilian officials here.

U.S. Embassy officials did not respond to several requests to describe what action, if any, was taken in response to the six incidents involving Blackwater. Mirembe Nantongo, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman, said the embassy always looks into anything "outside of normal operation procedures."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR200709...

I can't support her during the primaries. And why don't you stop telling me what to do with my FREE WILL. I'm not an automaton as most of the people you know are.

"Resistance Is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated!"

and this wasn't?

Glenn Greenwald
Sunday September 23, 2007 06:21 EST
Dianne Feinstein -- Symbol of the Worthless Beltway Democrat
In the wake of the series of profound failures that define the 2007 Democratic Congress, there is much debate over what accounts for this behavior. There are almost 300 "Congressional Democrats" and they are not a monolithic group. Some of them are unrelenting defenders of their core liberal political values and some are committed to providing meaningful opposition to the radicalism and corruption of the Bush administration. But as the sorry record of the 2007 Congress conclusively proves, they are easily outnumbered in the House and Senate -- especially the Senate -- by Bush-enabling and Bush-supporting Democrats.

The standard excuse offered by many apologists for Bush-enabling Democrats -- that they support the Bush agenda and capitulate to the right-wing noise machine due to political fear of being depicted as too liberal or "soft on terror" -- is clearly inapplicable to many, if not most, of the enablers. California's Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein provides a perfect case study for understanding why the Congress has done virtually nothing to oppose the most extreme Bush policies, while doing much actively to support it.

Feinstein represents a deep blue state and was just easily re-elected to her third term last year. She won't run for re-election, if she ever does, until 2012, when she will be 80 years old. Her state easily re-elected a Senator, Barbara Boxer, with a much more liberal voting record than Feinstein's. Political fear cannot possibly explain her loyal support for the Bush agenda on the most critical issues decided by the Senate.

Additionally, Feinstein is a 74-year-old divorced Jewish woman currently on her third husband, and it is thus extremely unlikely that she harbors any hopes of running in the future on a national ticket. She has as secure a political position as any politician in the country. Whatever explains what she does, it has nothing to do with "spinelessness" or fear. What would she possibly fear?

And yet, her votes over the last several years, and especially this year after she was safely re-elected, are infinitely closer to the Bush White House and her right-wing Senate colleagues than they are to the base of her party or to the constituents she allegedly represents. Just look at what she has done this year on the most critical and revealing votes:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/23/feinstein/index.html

To lobby and campaign for Hillary's running mate. Of course in the end, Bill and Hill will make that choice based on who might offer the most political advantage at the time. But you are free to cheer on anyone you would like to see as #2.

Ignore the pig anon.

Just scroll past his posts. He'll leave eventually when no one plays his game.

to see the silly tactics toniD.

it's enemies!

Tracking Political Prosecutions
Submitted by toniD on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 10:28am.
Tracking Political Prosecutions

In the last two weeks, two sources, one of them inside of the Justice Department, have told me that a scheme was hatched in the upper echelons of the Bush Administration shortly after it took office in 2001 or early in 2002. The project identified John Edwards and Hillary Clinton as likely Democratic challengers to President Bush, and identified prominent trial lawyers around the United States as the likely financial vehicle for Edward’s rise. It directed that their campaign finance records be fly-specked, and that offenses not be treated as administrative matters but rather as serious criminal offenses.
*******

Now this is a story that might,and should have legs!!

Ho hum..Just the Bush Administration breaking the law,again!
Maybe,just maybe this might put some Republican law breaking asses in jail!
We can only hope Justice will be done..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Those who have left seem to be disaffected Air America Fans. Real Americans never quit. Real Americans support our troops and our country.

God Bless America!

You too shall sport a Hillary 08 bumper sticker.

i am willing to bet that there are individuals in hillarys campaign whose job is to flood the blogs and as many other places as possible with these self fulfulling statements about how she has already won the primaries, won the election and that resistance is futile. the msm, which is under the total control of the neocons, is more than willing to go along with this because they think they could put up a dogcatcher, start bashing gays in the middle of october and win the election.

You too shall sport a Hillary 08 bumper sticker.

»

because of Hillary's tragic showing on MTP. She can't decide what support the troops means either.

To see the silly tactics...
new
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 10:59am.

One election at a time...

Says Clinton was the best Republican president.

Hillary. They just love her on ABC. All the wingers do.

I wonder if that's why the wingers love Hillary so much. What a scam.

every week at the end of george snugalopolous, he does a section called in memoriam. within it they run a black page with white text and the voice over is something like "the pentagon released the names of xxx soldiers that died this week in iraq"

i have naively taken this at face value but it struck me this week that its always about 18 to 24 soldiers and it always fits neatly on one page. and so that makes me wonder, is this just one more piece of neat packaging and are more soldiers actually dying.

a more subtle point is that if the surge is working why hasn't the number of our soldiers dying decreased?

Everyone running on both sides are worthless.

Not a single person running for the office of president is worth a pinch of piss.

It is too funny that people will sit on their fat asses all day long and all night long talking about shit that will never change.

Do you really think any of the people running for office will make our world (planet Earth) one bit better?

Time wasters and fools.

Will Congress condemn this ad?
by A Siegel
Sat Sep 22, 2007 at 08:47:42 PM PDT
The Heartland Institute is investing $1 million in advertisements that headline:

Freedom, not Climate, is at Risk

Global Warming is NOT A CRISIS

These ads will be promoting Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who rivals Dick Cheney for his climate denialist attitudes.

Klaus had a despicable OPED in Financial Times earlier this year, discussed by Jerome A Paris in the heavily recommended/visited diary Unbelievable: a fight to death for nuance.

Let us be clear, Global Warming might not be "a" crisis, only because it might turn out to be "the" crisis.

A Siegel's diary :: ::
According to the Prague Post,

President Václav Klaus is getting help from a right-wing U.S. think tank this month to spread a message many see as anti-environmentalist and some Czechs say reflects badly on their country.

Well, come off it, far from just "some Czechs" think this reflects badly on their country. The OPED, earlier this year, was disingenous and truthiness incarnate (putting as politely as possible).

For example, a comment that I posted to FT as a question to Klaus:

You write: ""scientific consensus", which is always achieved only by a loud minority, never by a silent majority".

What evidence do you have of some form of "silent majority" of experts on climate issues who disagree with the base points in the IPCC reports and believe that they are too pessimistic?

Who should I believe about the scientific communities viewpoints? The heads of the world's National Academies of Science or a politician who chooses to prominently cite a science fiction novelist?

For other bloggers questions, check out Unbelievable: a fight to death for nuance. (See my discussion of Klaus within Deniers' new Hot Topic: Predicting a Global Freeze.) For a blogger whose question was "answered" by Klaus and a deconstruction of that 'answer', see Nanne's Václav & Me. (Also excellent, kcurie's Science and Klaus.)

What is going on?

The U.S. group, called theHeartland Institute, is featuring Klaus in its $1 million ad campaign that declares "Global Warming is Not a Crisis." Klaus is pictured next to a photograph of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who is known for championing the message that global warming is a threat to the planet.

Well, it seems to me that the Czech President is taking on the next Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Now, about Heartland, it is hard to know where to start other than, well, it is loudly Global Warming Denier sound machine institution. For just a taste of them, you could take a quick Desmogblog's review of one of their works appropriately titled Ew, I just stepped in a Heartland study!" Well, only a few quick examples of problems there, but they point to the misleading approaches.

If you go to Heartland, you can quickly end up on their heavily footnoted and utterly misleading truthiness. For example, one question is CO2 levels in the atmosphere today are at record high levels. True of False. Answer, truth, is "False". Oh, wow, Al Gore is being proved to be a left-wing loony disconnected with the facts. How about if the question were phrased differently: "CO2 levels in the atmosphere are at record high levels for the past 1 million years and for all human history. True or False?" Answer, True ... hmmm would that change your opinion. Stephen Colbert would be extremely proud of Heartland's truthiness.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/9/22/231041/285

One must only look a the Democrat field. Line them all up and then pick from the right. You get Hillary. Hill and Bill have been to the dance. Hill and Bill understand capitalism and markets. Hill and Bill go along to get along. And the Democrats are only allowed one nominee. All the left leaning, weak kneed, socialist types will be out of the way after the primary.

and right wingers in the same sentence is retarded.

Welcome to The Greens/Green Party USA.

The Greens/Green Party USA has been working since 1984 to make the hope of a more democratic, safer, cleaner world real. Our political goal is an America where decisions are made by the people and not by a few giant corporations.

Our environmental goal is a sustainable world where nature and human society co-exist in harmony.

First organized as the Green Committees of Correspondence, The Greens/ Green Party USA is the oldest, continuously active Green organization in America.

It was our organization that originated the Green Ten Key Values which are now accepted by nearly all Greens in the United States. The Ten Key Values when correctly understood point to a new society and way of life based on Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Cooperation and Non-violence.

The Ten Key Values point to a world entirely different from our present world of violence, corporate greed, and ecological destruction.

You seem to like to repost entire blogs.

How about from now on you post the links to the article so we can decide if we want to read them or not.

that way there would be more room for those who want to write their own stuff.

You make the read on the blog too much trouble for everyone.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

You're funny.

There is no Third party. What alternative universe do you live in?

you never leave this blog do you?

try a paper sack over your head.

how about you keep on doing what you've always done and ignore the faceless criticism. that's the way i like it...

Fernando has trouble living in the truth.

But living in truth is hard when you spend your days chatting it up in chat rooms with only people who agree with you.

Maybe you should head your own advice.

Take a deep breath!

Someone disagrees with you! oh MY!

dr,
Nice work. However, I am shocked, SHOCKED I say, that you didn't take a trip down this little side road...

Reporter: "Let me see your screen."
Sam: "I'll refresh it first." [Turns monitor around so that the reporter can see it.] "There you go."
Reporter: "Oh! A new thread!"
Sam: "Who's on Frist?"
Reporter: "What?"
Sam: "You know; Frist. Terri Schiavo? Does that ring a bell?"
Reporter: "I don't know--"
Sam: "Third base!"

(...)

Greenwald on Feinstein - It ain't pretty!
Submitted by toniD on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 10:51am.
Glenn Greenwald
Sunday September 23, 2007 06:21 EST
Dianne Feinstein -- Symbol of the Worthless Beltway Democrat
*******
And,or The Rethugs got something on her through their illegal wiretapping!!
I emailed this story to her..
I'm sure she will get many a email with this story included!
Thanks for the post ToniD! :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Fernando has trouble living in the truth.

But living in truth is hard when you spend your days chatting it up in chat rooms with only people who agree with you.

Maybe you should heed your own advice.

Take a deep breath!

Someone disagrees with you! oh MY!

are on at different times in different parts of the US.

Some of you were talking about what I hadn't seen yet.

Greenspan back peddling about his comment that the war in Iraq is about the oil.

He was afraid of Saddam causing problems in the Straights of Hermus. Saddam didn't have the ability, militarily or with weaponry to do what Greenspan said he would do. And I don't think he would have had the chance if he tried.

The whole thing was about Saddam threatening to not accept dollars for oil any more. And guess what? Our supposed ally Saudi Arabia want to do just that. No war with Saudi Arabia?

Bush's mismanagement of the war and the economy and not monitoring what the mortgage companies were doing because he wanted to show that there was more home ownership under his presidency caused a huge economic problem here that has devalued our dollars to the extent that it is not the favored money for oil.

It wasn't criticism, trouble maker it was a suggestion.

Maybe you should try knocking that chip off your shoulder before you go out into public.

Sam: "Who's on Frist?"

I thought this was a liberal blog.

I see I was mistaken.

post away Conservatives

see your nonsense ignored. But I feel sorry for you so I'll reply and give you someone to play with.

Dissent is encouraged here you half wit.

Reporter: "Oh! A new thread!"

Reporter: "Oh! A new thread!"

Reporter: "Oh! A new thread!"

Reporter: "Oh! A new thread!"

This is a perfect graphic for this blog
Submitted by toniD on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 10:14am.

If this were true there would be no more cute, homeless kittens. So, no...not a lot of people care to help cute, homeless kittens either.

There is no reason to vote
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 09/23/2007 - 11:15am.

Do you really think any of the people running for office will make our world (planet Earth) one bit better?

________________

I disagree. I will be voting.

Yes, I do think some of the candidates are better than others.

Yes, I think some of the candidates have the potential to make the United States and the international community better.

(How do you define better?)

I especially am encouraged by local and state elections.