Think Mukasey is a shoo-in?

AGAIN...gun shot----bloop!

http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/authors/malcolm-nance/

Waterboarding is Torture… Period (Update 2)

One election at a time...

;)
BOO ;

aka WD

afternoon all.

Cya around dark O'clock here, busy doing stuff.

i would never do something like that---i refuse to starve!

Federal Reserve Cuts Rates Quarter Point
Rate Cut Brings Key Interest Rate to 4.5 Percent; Aimed at Housing and Energy Woes

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/MarketTalk/story?id=3799783&page=1

LOS ANGELES - Officials blamed a wildfire that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week on a boy playing with matches, and said they would ask a prosecutor to consider the case.
ADVERTISEMENT

The boy admitted to sparking the fire on Oct. 21, Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Diane Hecht said Tuesday. Ferocious winds helped it quickly spread.

"He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," Hecht said in a statement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071031/ap_on_re_us/california_wildfires

Former Navy SEAL Instructor Offers Another Waterboarding Primer for Mukasey
By Spencer Ackerman - October 31, 2007, 1:27PM
So Michael Mukasey's new line is that waterboarding may be "repugnant," but he's not sure if the Spanish-Inquisition-era torture technique is illegal. Or, to put it another way, he can't say for sure if the practice is illegal until he's confirmed as attorney general.

Mukasey should listen to longtime counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance. Nance, a veteran of counterterrorism operations in Iraq, has written a moving post for the counterinsurgency blog Small Wars Journal explaining, in more detail than anyone else has in public, what exactly waterboarding is. And Nance knows what he's talking about. As an instructor at the Navy's training program for its special forces, Nance (full disclosure, a TPMm pal) confesses that he "personally led, witnessed and supervised waterboarding of hundreds of people" -- not detainees, of course, but would-be SEALs, so they could learn how (hopefully) to resist torture. That training program, known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE), became a template for how to abuse detainees in U.S. custody.

Nance's experience leads him to some sharp conclusions:

1. Waterboarding is a torture technique. Period. There is no way to gloss over it or sugarcoat it. It has no justification outside of its limited role as a training demonstrator. Our service members have to learn that the will to survive requires them accept and understand that they may be subjected to torture, but that America is better than its enemies and it is one’s duty to trust in your nation and God, endure the hardships and return home with honor.
2. Waterboarding is not a simulation. Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.

Waterboarding is a controlled drowning that, in the American model, occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral.

Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its use again and again.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004617.php

Nine of the 10 Democrats on the Judiciary committee have not signaled how they intend to vote, with only Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), saying he will oppose the nomination. But the committee's nine Republicans appear to be uniting in favor of Mukasey, suggesting that he would need only one Democratic vote to win the panel's approval......

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR200710...

Dem's on the committee:

Dianne Feinstein
D-CALIFORNIA

Herb Kohl
D-WISCONSIN

Edward M. Kennedy
D-MASSACHUSETTS

Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
D-DELAWARE

Russell D. Feingold
D-WISCONSIN

Charles E. Schumer
D-NEW YORK

Richard J. Durbin
D-ILLINOIS

Benjamin L. Cardin
D-MARYLAND

Sheldon Whitehouse
D-RHODE ISLAND

I bet he get's at least one Dem.

Probably Feinstein.

Free Democracy

"passes a plate of pumpkin cookies"

Happy Halloween!

One election at a time...

Chucky is in love too...

In the shape of pumpkins :-)

Want some?

awake?

States look to sales tax for funds
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY

A growing number of state and local governments are considering big sales tax increases to pump up sluggish revenue, cut property taxes or pay for new programs.
The sales tax increases would be large — generally 1 cent per dollar or more — and produce billions of dollars in new tax revenue.

By contrast, few significant proposals have been made to raise state income taxes.

Polls show that the sales tax is the least-hated major tax. The property tax is disliked most, followed by the income tax, according to polls by the Tax Foundation and other groups.

"It's a strange thing," says Indiana state Sen. Lindel Hume, a Democrat. "The sales tax is without question a regressive tax that hurts the poor. But every income group prefers it to other taxes." In response to voter concerns, Hume has proposed ending his state's residential property tax by raising the sales tax to 7 cents from 6 cents and lifting the state's flat-rate income tax to 5% from 3.4%.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, backs a 1-cent sales tax increase, too — but not an income tax hike — to slash property taxes. A 1-cent sales tax increase would raise nearly $1 billion annually in Indiana.

Other proposed sales tax increases:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-30-Sales-tax_N.htm?csp=34

Submitted by Annette on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 3:41pm.

In the shape of pumpkins :-)

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

Collect them all 8-)

cool!

if you're still hungry afterwards you can eat me

: )

enough fucking shit pics, please

Young scientists say Fox sold them out to bash global warmingNick Juliano
Published: Tuesday October 30, 2007

Hannity & Colmes focused on negative comments from global warming panel
After CNN aired its heavily promoted "Planet in Peril" series examining the impact of humans on the environment and the devastating impact of earth's rising temperatures, competitor Fox News aired a segment aimed at debunking the "Al Gore rhetoric."

Conservative host Sean Hannity made clear his disdain for CNN's environmental alarm when the show he co-hosts convened a panel of graduate students to discuss the program. Several students involved say their views were misrepresented, and they are now complaining the Fox talker made them out to be a bunch of science-denying rubes.

"We ... feel like we were sold out by Fox News," Chris Hain, one of the participants, told RAW STORY.

Hain was one of about 10 graduate students at the University of Alabama-Huntsville who watched CNN's four-hour mini-series then participated in a focus group led by Dr. John Christy, a professor at the school and prominent global warming skeptic.

More here...

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Students_accuse_Fox_misrepresenting_them_1...

dream on---cock-ee!

now---leaving early

good night yourll!

Sorry, Maron, eating and meat.

http://www.10best.com/Austin/Restaurants/Barbecue/index.html

Some I am more aware of

Kreuz Market

619 N Colorado St, Lockhart, TX 78644 · 512-398-2361

Louie Mueller Barbeque

206 W 2nd St, Taylor, TX 76574 · 512-352-6206

Ruby's

512 W 29th St, Austin, TX 78705 · 512-477-1651

Sam's Bar-B-Cue

2000 E 12th St, Austin, TX 78702 · 512-478-0378

Stubb's Bar-B-Q

801 Red River St, Austin, TX 78701 · 512-480-8341

The Salt Lick Barbecue Restaurant

18300 FM 1826, Driftwood, TX 78619 · 512-858-4959

http://www.sfrecycling.com/AIR/nextshow.htm

At the San Francisco Disposal and Recycling Art Studio - Nemo Gould: Waste Deep. Gould creates his amazing kinetic sculptures out of found objects, so he's a no-brainer match for the dump's artist-in-residence program.

*

Artist In Residence
Norcal Waste Systems Presents: Music and Videos from the Dump

Music and Videos from the Dump On Friday evening, November 16 there will be a special event featuring a performance of Nathaniel Stookey's "Junkestra" and short videos by Banker White, Robin Lasser, Nomi Talisman, Don Ross and Reddy Lieb at the Herbst Theater (401 Van Ness) in San Francisco.

Tickets ($10-15) are now on sale through
City Box Office.

[pinching an australian comedian's play on words]

you've probably seen a cock or two

Lieberman an unseen force in Democrats' clash
Connecticut maverick backs Clinton, criticizes Edwards on Iran policy

WASHINGTON - His name only came up once in passing during Tuesday night’s presidential debate, but in a way, Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democratic presidential contender himself in 2004, was very much present.

Four years ago, it was Lieberman up on stage during the debates with John Edwards and the other Democratic presidential hopefuls.

Now he is playing an important off-stage supporting role in the struggle for the 2008 nomination.

His amendment, co-sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., urging President Bush to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization has become a litmus test for the Democratic contenders.

Last month, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., voted for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, joining 29 other Democrats and 47 Republicans as the Senate OK’d the non-binding statement.

Her vote triggered a fusillade of criticism from her rivals, former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who portrayed the vote as something Bush might exploit to justify an attack on Iran.

“She shouldn’t have done it, because what she’s done is given this president with his history the first step in the authority to move (militarily) on Iran,” Edwards told reporters last Friday in Boone, Iowa.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21553970/

Ask, and well...
Submitted by 60th Street on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 4:02pm

One election at a time...

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Kerouac's first wife, Edie Parker, played a pivotal role in his literary evolution, but her side of the story hasn't been fully known until now. A pampered and venturesome 17-year-old when she first spies handsome Jack pushing Cole Porter in a wheelchair near Columbia University, she falls madly in love. Against her family's wishes, she valiantly marries Kerouac in 1944 in order to spring him from a Bronx jail after he was arrested as an accomplice to their friend Lucien Carr's murder of the stalker David Kammerer. Fascinating in her own right, and writing with compelling lucidity and soulful sweetness, Parker vividly recalls her posh childhood, life in Queens with Kerouac and his parents, and her pride in working as a longshoreman. As she shares intimate details of her hectic wartime life, she provides a rare female perspective on the notoriously misogynistic Beat enclave. The story of how Parker's radiant memoir finally reached print 15 years after her death is yet more poignant testimony to life's mysterious ways. Seaman, Donna

Andrei Codrescu, author of Wakefield
"In these pages we meet the young genius of just before 'On the Road,' adored by all and loved by her most of all."

...

Marc Maron at the Punchline San Francisco Nov. 8-10.

show some pics with some character, some verve

not just "oh, that pic has 'shit' written on it"

a pic that has merit beyond it's purpose

Bushit

One election at a time...

impeachn07 Austin BBQ
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 4:00pm.

-----------------------------------------
thanks! you saw my post?!
so cool thanks again!
I'm gettin' hungry

-impeachn07

//Think again . (And again .)//

can't lauren close the space between the last word and the subsequent full stop

or is it deliberate?

and if it is deliberate, it's not effective!

i did not watch the debate but i have been reading the blogs this morning reporting on various aspects of it and of course about the ufo and kucinich - i guess the only way to get himself heard is to come out with such statements and metaphors - marc maron nailed it for me -

i'm eating a mars bars

(i feel better now)

yes sir, less tetchy

going to that show, zeek?

Hopefully this place is still around

http://www.texasmonthly.com/food/onthemenu/manitas.php Molly and Ann used to eat there.

Also Guero's for some great Mexican. Amy's Ice Cream. Threadgill's where Janis used to play.

You can find just about everything here

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Guides/Restaurant

I'm jealous.

Hope to make at least one night.

:)

One election at a time...

bummer. that would have been fun...

Oops..I forget where we are..I spose I could look it up.. :)

-i guess the only way to get himself heard is to come out with such statements and metaphors -

That is sad...

I heard kids died from pop rocks and soda... hmmm...snopes.com.

I remember that urban myth in the 70's, scary funny because it was just a myth.

into a soda and reseal it, it will explode.

One election at a time...

that was my summarization in my own words - he just said it elegantly in his own poetic funny way, kind of comparing Kucinich quest to impeach and restore democracy and win the presidency to some far-fetched unicorn in the sky type of venture - so yeah - of course kucinich beliefs in ufos

is Rules
new
Submitted by Lucille on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 3:44pm.
awake?
*******
Somebody out there really likes me..Ah,Hollywood ! ;)
How ya doing buddy?Good I hope!

Is Sammy filling in for Randi today?

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

good morning rules! : )

namesake hero on the radio right now fillin in for randy? Maron's on

Hey, impeachn07, re Austin eatin'
Submitted by zeek on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 4:45pm.
--------------------------

more on austin? way cool
this trips going to be an excellent gastronomical
adventure

thanks for the tips

Google Vid

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

and if you still like a good "record" store, make sure you get over to Waterloo Records. There is always some good music around town.

You should move up your visit to catch Maron.

marc maron in for randi
Submitted by Brett on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 5:05pm.
good morning rules! : )
*******
mmrules are you missing your
Submitted by mire on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 5:06pm.
namesake hero on the radio right now fillin in for randy? Maron's on
*******
On the Left coast..On in about 45 mins.If KLSD hasn't gone over to sports,which will start me old KLSD boycott!Clear Channel blows Trolls !!

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

Clear Channel is blocking Bruce Springsteens new album, "Magic", same as they did to the Dixie Chicks.
Crooks and liars has the scoop.

One election at a time...

feel free to criticise any pic of mine that doesn't meet your standards

my point is make an a tiny effort

that's what counts

anyway, i'll stop bitching...

and get on with my life

: )

*SMASH*

[throws coffee cup against the wall]

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

I owe ya a Fuck off,from the other day..So,Fuck Off ! ;)

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

Clear Channel blows Trolls !!
Submitted by pbtrue1 on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 5:24pm.
Clear Channel is blocking Bruce Springsteens new album, "Magic", same as they did to the Dixie Chicks.
Crooks and liars has the scoop.
One election at a time...
*******
Censorship ? Didn't this place use to be a Democracy??WTF !

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

There is a God.

One election at a time...

.

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

Too funny ! :)

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

I miss him so much.

True genius.
They say bipolars ride the edge between genius and insanity. I say bipolars are too sensitive for this evil Damn world, and pay for their empathic pain with their artistry. How many actors are Bp'ers?

Google it sometime.

One election at a time...

Talking point:let the free market decide

How many times have the trolls told us; the free market decided Air America's fate!

Thank you Fuzzy Channel, you fascist fucktards!

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

This relates to: Clear Channel blows Trolls !!

of course!

oh, for god's sake
Submitted by air-ono on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 4:09pm.
show some pics with some character, some verve...a pic that has merit beyond it's purpose
-------------

it was the ABC Blacklist, and the Republican working in management.

One election at a time...

agreed pb, many components to the equation!

Way beyond

One election at a time...

---Bait's Short Joke Service---

In an unsuccessful suicide attempt, a despondent dyslexic threw himself behind a speeding train.

One election at a time...

see you guys in a bit

(wtf!) only one!!!

i gotta lift my game

: )

by new my favourite artist
(John Currin)

:)
Warren Zevon - Werewolves of London

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

*

that you find attractive?

One election at a time...

---Bait's Funny Mental Image Service---

The Zombie Olympics.

be careful what you wish for, i suppose

: )

What is it about Big Heads
new
Submitted by pbtrue1 on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 6:05pm.
that you find attractive?

One election at a time...
*******
Oh Cranky,that's your cue.. ;)

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

The Zombie platform diving competition.

and showed them to the o.g.

he got mad...

and i also showed him my balls for good measure

so i'm leaving town

*

(ciao)

//by new my favourite artist//

ERK!

by my new favourite artist

*

(unedited, so not to disturb the blog's karma)

Big Giant Head (Introducing himself to Vicki): Hello.
Vicki: Well, hi there.
Big Giant Head: I'm a rocket man, you know.
Vicki: Really?
Big Giant Head: Can I help you jettison your pants?

One election at a time...

NEW YORK With all of the news about Blackwater USA's problems, it wasn't a surprise that a fake story about the company creating a "Department of Corporate Integrity" would make it on to several valid news sites.

CBS News and Politico.com were among the victims of the fraud, reportedly perpetuated by Code Pink, according to Politico, which posted a correction today. CBS reprinted a Politico story on its site.

"In this business, you sometimes come across news items and think, 'You couldn't make that stuff up.' Well, sometimes you can," Politico reported in its note. "Code Pink today pulled off a hoax that pulled in Politico and a number of other news outlets when it ginned up a fake release, saying that Blackwater USA was creating a new 'Department of Corporate Integrity' that would put the 'mercy back in mercenary.' That should have been a tip off."

"We do some silly things, but we didn't do that," Anne Tyrrell, a spokesperson for Blackwater USA, told Politico..........

I have an idea for a Zombie Rastafari movie.

Diplomats ‘upset over forced postings to Iraq.’ In a “contentious” hour-long “town hall meeting” today, several hundred U.S. diplomats “vented anger and frustration Wednesday about the State Department’s decision to force foreign service officers to take jobs in Iraq, with some likening it to a ‘potential death sentence.’” The AP reports on the exchange:

“Incoming is coming in every day, rockets are hitting the Green Zone,” said Jack Crotty, a senior foreign service officer who once worked as a political adviser with NATO forces. […]

“It’s one thing if someone believes in what’s going on over there and volunteers, but it’s another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment,” Crotty said. “I’m sorry, but basically that’s a potential death sentence and you know it. Who will raise our children if we are dead or seriously wounded?”

“You know that at any other (country) in the world, the embassy would be closed at this point,” Crotty said to loud and sustained applause from the about 300 diplomats who attended the meeting in a large State Department auditorium.

http://govexec.com/dailyfed/1007/103107ap5.htm

One election at a time...

Byrd blasts Bush’s ‘rhetorical ghosts and goblins’ on Iran. On the Senate floor today, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) denounced the White House’s saber-rattling on Iran, calling the Bush administration’s warnings of a nuclear threat “rhetorical ghosts and goblins to scare the American people”:

Today is a fitting day to discuss the issue of Iran. Today is All-Hallow’s Eve — Halloween — a day when people don masks and costumes to frighten others. The White House has been busy unleashing its rhetorical ghosts and goblins to scare the American people, with claims of an imminent nuclear threat in Iran, as they did with Iraq.

Watch it:

Earlier this month, Byrd also warned his colleagues against “sleep-walking” into another war, saying, “I hope that we can stop this war of words before it becomes a war of bombs.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/31/byrd-blasts-bushs-rhetorical-ghosts-...

UPDATE: Steve Clemons received a previously undisclosed letter Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) personally sent to President Bush, warning against the “dangerous and increasingly isolated position” the United States could find itself in should it continue to push for war with Iran.

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/002471.php

Now they are waking up.

The beast is watching.

One election at a time...

but before i do...
Submitted by air-ono on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 6:21pm.
//by new my favourite artist//
ERK!
by my new favourite artist

*(unedited, so not to disturb the blog's karma)
*******
;)

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

Arlo Gutherie - alice's restaurant.mp3

Boogie on over! http://www.samsedershow.com/node/989

Months in the making - Hours of content!

Judiciary Dems Lining Up Against Mukasey
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) just announced on the Senate floor that he will vote no on the Mukasey nomination. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced his opposition earlier today.

--David Kurtz

And today I wrote Diane Feinstein to not approve Mukasey. I told her that I hope she could live with herself and the ire of the American people if she approves him.

Next is Schumer!

Judiciary Dems Lining Up Against Mukasey
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) just announced on the Senate floor that he will vote no on the Mukasey nomination. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced his opposition earlier today.

--David Kurtz

http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/1007/Durbin_to_oppose_Mukasey.htm...

Just pimpin' MMRules mp3 Oasis!
new
Submitted by Brett on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 7:18pm.
Boogie on over! http://www.samsedershow.com/node/989
Months in the making - Hours of content!
*******
I don't wanna tickle, just wanna ride my motorsickle ! :)

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

Jury awards father $2.9M in funeral case

Jury Awards Grieving Father $2.9 Million in Verdict Against Military Funeral Protesters

ALEX DOMINGUEZ
AP News

Oct 31, 2007 17:00 EDT

A grieving father won a $2.9 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

Albert Snyder of York, Pa., sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted the size of the award for compensating damages "far exceeds the net worth of the defendants," according to financial statements filed with the court. The jury was to deliberate later on punitive damages.

Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."

A number of states have passed laws regarding funeral protests, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting such protests at federal cemeteries. But the Maryland lawsuit is believed to be the first filed by the family of a fallen serviceman.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2007/10/kansas_church_liable_in_marine...

Well, no more embarrassing moments in the Paige's dorm due to protection insufficiency. We often hear, "Do they make a prophylactic just for Republicans?"
Why, I'm glad to tell you, yes they do!
For that Family Man
In assorted sizes

Here It Is: A Handy Chart To Follow Senators' Positions On Mukasey
By Greg Sargent - October 31, 2007, 5:16PM
Okay, now that more Dem Senators are coming out and opposing the confirmation of AG candidate Michael Mukasey, it's looking like we may end up with a real confirmation battle here.

So we thought we'd make it easy for you to follow which Senators are where by creating a handy chart to help you keep track of what's going on. It's below.

It tells you which Senators have come out and declared their opposition to Mukasey, which are undecided, and which are for him. A quick note on methodology: We're starting with the assumption that GOP Senators who haven't said otherwise are likely to vote for Mukasey. If any come out and say the contrary, or express doubts about him, we'll move them to the appropriate category.

Also, our tally below is based on the best information we've been able to find, so if you know of a Senator who has said something more definitive on this, please let us know and we'll update the chart appropriately. We'll be keeping this constantly updated for you and we'll be linking back to it regularly. Enjoy:

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/10/here_it_is_a_handy_chart_to_follow...

Obama Camp: ASFCME Endorsed Hillary Because Bill And Union Head Are Pals

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/10/_obama_camp_asfcme_endorsed_hillar...

THE PRICE of oil has reached $95 per barrel, fueled by Fed rate cuts.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OIL_PRICES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&T...

Chart.. :)

Feeling better I hope !
"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Were you able to listen to Maron?

Still the same, unfortunately. Pain is still there.

Trying to deal!

How're you doing?

Almost a daily thing!

They have to have something on her?
Have to look again at who funds her too..
I asked her last week if she remembered when she was a progressive ?
When did she switch to the republican party?

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

Evening MMR
new
Submitted by toniD on Wed, 10/31/2007 - 7:52pm.
Were you able to listen to Maron?

Still the same, unfortunately. Pain is still there.

Trying to deal!

How're you doing?
*******
Do?
I'm listening to Maron now..
Trying to tape it but,the damn stream keeps cutting out!!Arrrrrrrrrgggg!

Hang in there,Toni ! :)
"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

decorated for Halloween:

The Old house looks great ! :)

I wish I could trick or treat ya!
Have fun !
I have a goofy surfer dude mask for the trick or treaters here..
Surfs Up !! ;)

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

The U.S. arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street's favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months and, in the process, dumped their earlier favourite, Barack Obama.

http://www.alternet.org/story/65869/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/10/31/mccain-indicates-support-_n_706...

More and Better Democrats — Like Donna Edwards
By Jane Hamsher on Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 02:59 pm

Last year we had Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton and others showing up for Joe Lieberman and the incumbency protection racket in Connecticut.

Now we have:

– Harry Reid smacking down Chris Dodd and now Ron Wyden for placing holds on regressive, corporate-friendly legislation, while respecting Tom Coburn’s hold on money to investigate civil rights murders;

– Reid and Pelosi doing more to condemn MoveOn than they have to stop the war;

– Nancy Pelosi smacking down Pete Stark and forcing him to his knees for criticizing George Bush, a great encore I must say to taking impeachment off the table.

So I have to ask — if we’re to accept Pelosi and Reid’s assertions to the effect that they can’t get anything done because they don’t have the votes, why is Pelosi sticking her nose into a primary to help get reactionary Al Wynn re-elected?

We’re going to try and raise money for Donna Edwards like we did for Darcy Burner before her. Donna can’t count on the support of groups she should be able to look to in this race, like Emily’s list:

[I]t’s not clear at all that Emily’s List is supporting pro-choice female candidates that actually need the help, like Donna Edwards, who in her life has moved incredibly important feminist legislation in Congress against domestic violence. And it’s weird that candidates with remarkable success on the internet, like Burner, are ignored. The concept ‘early money is like yeast’ came from Emily’s List, and it means that validating organizations can help candidates early on in a way that later money does not. What’s strange is that Emily’s List does not validate you unless you are already ‘in the club’, and that lack of validation means that other donors might consider you ‘fringe’. This was the case with Edwards, who few would support until she managed to almost take the district from Wynn despite having almost no money. If Emily’s List had taken the bet on Edwards, there would be one more Democratic pro-choice candidate in the House today.

MOre here:

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/10/31/thanks-but-i-think-ill-skip-the-pi...

Kaj Larsen's water-boarding video airs Wednesday at 7pm PST/10PM EST in a one hour special report on Current TV

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kaj-larson/a-lesson-for-mukasey-why_b_7065...

Today, Blackanthem.com reports that Petraeus has been trumpeting his new alliance with Chalabi, introducing him to U.S. troops serving in Iraq

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/31/petraeus-chalabi/

to listen to Malloy everyone!!

HAPPY HALLOWEENIE!!!!

Maron re-play is on Green 960 now.

Praise Mike!

But,I just heard it on KLSD San Diego..Probably KLSD's last day of Progressive Radio..
Again,Clear Channel Blows Trolls!!

Listening to Malloy now..But,thanks again.. :)

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

.

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

.

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

Now that's scary!

Some guy in New Hampshire carved that!

.
EXCLUSIVE: The Confederate flag hangs inside a garage at the Clove Valley Rod and Gun Club.

Nobody got shot, but Vice President Cheney still fired up controversy Monday when he went hunting at a private club that hangs the Confederate flag.
Con't
"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

that Annette~~

even scarier!!! The condeferate flag that is!

everybody. :-)

I'm on my way to Kansas ASAP

;-)

The local television news crew interviewed the director of a food pantry charity. The pantry receives applications from needy people and families, sacks an assortment of food to suit, and delivers the groceries.

The food is acquired from churches, various community organizations, wholesalers, retailers, shippers and individuals. Some donations are in the form of cash. The director said that the pantry always had surplus vegetables or fruit in season or other foodstuffs that were donated in big lots, but no longer. The food comes in today, is sorted and sacked, and is delivered tomorrow. There are more applicants than ever before and the donors are not able to keep up. The director said that additional people are being impoverished by higher fuel and food prices and by other inflationary expenses.

The local news carried its article further by interviewing people unrelated to the food pantry. A gas station/convenience store manager said that many of her regular customers purchase gasoline but nothing else because they no longer have pocket money after fueling their cars for their work commute. A customer listening to the interview in progress said that he has a good paying job but that he has been feeling the money squeeze for a couple of years.

This is the first time that I have seen, heard, or read the "consumer confidence" statistics as a flesh and blood story. I believe that the local news editor has avoided airing a bad economic news story until the elephant in the room could no longer be ignored. People who work with the poor are seeing more poor people. People who work with the public are seeing less discretionary cash being spent. The man in the street says things aren't so good.

This won't come as news to those of you who are not Cheney/Bush apologists, but it might be a little worse than we thought.

to get a fucking CLUE.
I think those of us that blog on this site have known that for quite a while!
Crank hows it shakin'??

CANDY!!!

(Gimme!)

kids trick or treating,

dogs barking, Bgurl decorating, fresh coffee!

2

...and taking all my candy!!!

what's the deal?

these kids knock on the front door!

I've gone through 4 bags of `fun-sized' treats...I'm now down to the 2 bags I was going to have a treats for lunches.

Is Halloween candy tax-deductable? maybe as a religious donation?

for that fresh cup of java - if you don't mind the company Jim.?

...with your coffee

Economy Logs Brisk 3.9 Percent Growth

By JEANNINE AVERSA – 6 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy picked up speed in the summer, growing at a brisk 3.9 percent pace, the fastest in 1 1/2 years and an impressive performance even as a credit crunch plunged the housing market deeper into turmoil.

The latest snapshot of the country's economic health, released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, suggested the economy is demonstrating much resilience and thus far holding up well to the strains in the housing and credit markets, which intensified during the third quarter and rocked Wall Street.

A second report from the department showed construction spending rose 0.3 percent in September, the best showing in four months. All-time high spending in both commercial construction by private builders and government projects more than offset weakness in home building.

For the entire July-to-September quarter, individuals ratcheted up their spending. U.S. businesses sold more goods abroad and boosted some investment at home. Those were main factors helping to push up overall economic activity during that period.

The third quarter's growth rate was up slightly from a 3.8 percent pace logged in the second quarter. It marked the strongest showing since the first quarter of last year.

The increase in gross domestic product exceeded analysts' forecasts for a 3.1 percent growth rate for third quarter. Gross domestic product is the value of all goods and services produced within the United States and is considered the best barometer of the country's economic fitness.

I may have to offer these kids candy `futures'...or maybe stock options?

Bgurl divvy'ing out the bootie.

i got my engineers hat on and i'm covered with white bondo dust.

i told the kids i was casey jones after the wreck.

theys said cooool!

want a shot of Galiano in your cup as well?

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

a little girl showed up at the door alone, so I took her bag of candy...redistribut the wealth, right?

anyway, I should be set for an hour or 2

hoping for some this year.

we just carved the surface this year.

You just got out..Things will get better!
Think Positive! Alot of peeps here are rooting for ya ! :)

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

"A second report from the department showed construction spending rose 0.3 percent in September, the best showing in four months. All-time high spending in both commercial construction by private builders and government projects more than offset weakness in home building."

I'm a-goin' back out 'fore the rain starts a-fallin',
I'll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner's face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I'll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin',
But I'll know my song well before I start singin',
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Can't sleep.

Hiya MMrules, chubby if you're still around, Brett, Jim.

Did you guys see that link I found today? Too cute... www.myexcusedabsence.com Two boys in some podunk town that will do ya up right to get outta work, and for a minimal fee. Nice, I thought. Might have to buy the package one mischievous day.

"At first we heard the Reggae music. It came from a distance, like bagpipes on the wind."

Inspector Delacroix was jotting notes in a five by nine pad. The interview room was stark and bare, harshly lit by fluorescents that glared on the surface of the table. The young woman sat with her hands in her lap.

"As it grew louder we recognized the song. We could hear voices singing, but the words were hard to make out."

She was visibly distraught. Her voice quaked. She rubbed her palms up and down her thighs. Her clothing was torn and disheveled. Soil and bits of grass and weeds dotted her hair and blouse.

"What was the song?" Delacroix asked. He wanted her to keep talking. She could freeze up at any moment.

"They were...they were singing No Woman, No Cry. That's what we thought at first. Then Ken said 'They're not singing no woman no cry. They're singing no woman no DIE.' When they got closer we could hear that he was right. No woman no die."

Inspector Delacroix did not believe in zombies. According to the young woman, she didn't either, until earlier that evening.

(cont. maybe)

whose candy I `appropiated' came back with her MOTHER!

they were of the opinion that I should give her the candy back!

after a long discussion, I was persuaded to return the candy...

I see that I missed an `r' somewhere in the last post...

Poor Block he died one evening,I'm very glad to state,
He climbed the golden ladder up to the pearly gate.
He said, "Oh Mister Peter, one word I'd like to tell,
I'd like to meet the Astorbilts and John D Rockefell."
Old Pete said, "Is that so? You'll meet them down below."

if I'm going to give it back!

I'll take a shot of Jack in my java
maybe I'll take 4 shots while Im @ it.

(talk about leaded coffee)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/army_contracting

WASHINGTON - The Army, stung by a contracting fraud scandal that has generated more than 80 criminal investigations, needs 1,400 more personnel to deal with the demands of supplying troops in combat, said U.S. officials familiar with a report by federal procurement experts.

The group's report, to be released Thursday, also calls for creating general officer positions within the Army's contracting work force — a move to attract talented men and women to a field most would otherwise avoid because of dim prospects for career advancement.

Collectively, higher numbers, better quality and more clout within the Army's contracting ranks are expected to reduce opportunities for fraud, waste and abuse as tens of billions of dollars continue to be spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials told The Associated Press. They described the report on condition of anonymity because it has not been released.

The report, "Urgent Reform Required: Army Expeditionary Contracting," proposes adding 400 military and 1,000 civilian personnel with contract-signing authority to an Army contracting work force that now has just over 10,000 people.

Additionally, the panel, chaired by former Pentagon acquisition chief Jacques Gansler, recommends giving the Defense Contract Management Agency several hundred more personnel to exercise greater oversight of contracts awarded overseas.

The U.S. officials did not say what the costs of adding more people would be.

The profiteers are very resourceful in buncoing Mr. Block. Election Day is dedicated especially to Mr. Block and his family. They put up a bunch of foxy spell binders label them democrats, republicans, or what not. Then the Block-show is pulled off. The different fakers call each other all kinds of bad names; they have no honor. After election they wine and dine together. The show lasts for months and Mr. Block and his relations enjoy it immensely. The politicians promise meat and the Blocks forget all about liberty steak. If a spellbinder wishes to make a special hit he calls Mr. Block an intelligent sovereign citizen. The dunce almost croaks; he's tickled to death at this. After election he finds out that the wonderful promises are not kept. Election promises are made to be broken. The politician out of office informs Mr. Block that he elected the wrong kind of a fellow. Mr. Block swears revenge to be taken next election when the traitor will be thrown out. Next election it is the same old sham battle again. Only the faces of the fakers are different and some have a bigger belly than others. The assortment of lies and fake issues are also different, to fool Mr. Block more easily.

http://nickthorkelson.com/mrblock.htm

Wondering if they'll find that guy/gal. And if so, who holds the key to the knowledge?

http://www.1010wins.com/Merrill-Lynch-Sues-to-Stop-Racist-E-Mails/115816...

This party's dead
Many Castro district bars and restaurants close early
(10-31) 23:47 PDT San Francisco -- San Francisco got the quiet Halloween night it had hoped for Wednesday as revelers stayed clear of the Castro district's no-party zone.

"People are behaving well. We're happy," Neville Gittens, a police spokesman, said late Wednesday evening. "All of the city's planning and notification is paying off."

Many of the neighborhood's bars and restaurants closed early in response to the city's efforts to shut down this year's Halloween bash to avoid a repeat of the rowdiness and violence that led to the shootings of nine people last year. Then an estimated 200,000 people had crowded into the area for the annual party that's often described as "the gay Christmas."

Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who represents the Castro district, was one of the leaders of the effort to kill the party. He walked through the area Wednesday night, his only costume a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead.

"So far, so good," he said.

Not everyone was happy about the changes.

Paul Ellis, 50, has lived in the Castro for 24 years. He was out on the streets dressed as Henry VIII.

"It's my party in my neighborhood, and that's why I'm out here," he said, although he admitted that it was nothing like last year. "The party has definitely been curtailed ... tepid and bland is a polite way of saying it."

Brian Busta was out at Castro and Market streets, covered from head to toe in white chiffon and holding a sign labeling him "The Widow Castro Halloween."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/31/MN3IT44P3.DT...

Wed 10.31 >>
Art Bell hosts his annual Halloween broadcast of Ghost-to-Ghost, with callers sharing their spookiest stories.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/

I hate to bring everybody down but,this is sad.

.
SPOKANE, Wash. - Washoe, a female chimpanzee believed to be the first non-human to acquire human language, has died of natural causes at the research institute where she was kept.

Washoe, who first learned a bit of American Sign Language in a research project in Nevada, had been living on Central Washington University's Ellensburg campus since 1980. She had a vocabulary of about 250 words.

Con't

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

by digby

Karen Hughes is leaving quite the legacy, isn't she? (But damn, does she have a great resume, or what?)

Here's my best blog post on Karen, from when she took her first tour of the world . Say what you will about her, she accurately reflected the president's around the globe. God help us:

Idiot Abroad

Ezra Klein once asked something to the effect of "why would Bush send a seven foot tall white woman to aid our public face in the Islamic world?" It's a good question, but more importantly, why would you send a seven foot tall white woman who speaks like a 6th grader to aid our public face in the middle east and convince the entire world that all Americans are as dim-witted as the president and that Osama bin Laden is right?
Con't

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

And java is better with tequila than jack...

Never heard of her, but I read that article.

That is pathetic. Positively oh my gosh embarrassing.

and he was walking through, Israel, I think it was, and saying the stupidest things in that documentary I saw...

Back in his office Delacroix reviewed the evidence. There wasn't any. All he had was four persons missing from a suburban wine tasting and one hysterical young woman who witnessed six dreadlocked zombies singing No Woman No Die to the music of an unseen reggae band while they attacked her friends. Then the enlarged group of ten zombies slowly escaped the cul de sac to an accentuated upbeat.

He had one musty dreadlock and an Ethiopian flag lapel pin. It wasn't much to go on. The young woman had been sedated and would not wake for hours.

Inspector Delacroix lit a Viceroy and punched the button on his intercom, "Miss Weatherworn, get Bunny Wailer on the blower, pronto."

It was fifty percent intuition and fifty percent luck. Bunny said that he had seen Peter Tosh sidestepping slowly outside of Kingston not two weeks earlier. "But Tosh was killed in '87," interrupted the Inspector. Wailer took a deep breath and protested without exhaling, "Dat's what I and I be tellin' ya, me son."

Delacroix rolled Bunny's story around in his head while pouring a pint of Early Times into a coffee cup. "This might be a good time for a Caribbean cruise" he said to no one in particular.

Attempt at sleep. Take 3.

Thanks for the bedtime story, Crank.
Submitted by Annette on Thu, 11/01/2007 - 1:26am.
-----------
I haven't gotten to the good part when zombies crash a Third World concert in Tampa.

When the shades have crossed this earthly dome,
The bells of Samhain will ring them home.
We hear their echoes fade out in the morn.
They go to their rest as the New Year is born.

Happy Halloween, my ghoulies and ghosties.

And,put it back in alignment? Thanks !

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

Jason Rhyne
Published: Wednesday October 31, 2007

.
Former White House political director called Abramoff 'point of information,' says Waxman
The Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee is demanding that the White House hand over more than 600 pages of documents detailing the nature of its contacts with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"The White House is withholding hundreds of pages of documents about the activities of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff on the grounds that these documents involve internal White House deliberations," wrote Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) in a Wednesday letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding. "Unless the President is prepared to assert executive privilege over these documents, they should be turned over to the Oversight Committee without further delay."

President Bush has previously denied any connection to Abramoff, who was convicted on three felony counts and sentenced to more than five years in prison. "I don't know him," said the president in 2006.
Con't

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

Looks like the Chimp in charge finally admitted that he won't sign SCHIP because it is funded by a tobacco tax.

U.S. officials have long retaliated against employees who speak out, burying the dangers they expose. Now, Congress wants to give whistle-blowers greater protection -- but President Bush vows to stop it.

Editor's note: This story continues a multiyear series from Salon and the Center for Investigative Reporting scrutinizing the U.S. court system. For more background and resources related to this story, click here.

By James Sandler

If there is any doubt about how the Bush administration treats government whistle-blowers, consider the case of Teresa Chambers. She was hired in early 2002, with impeccable law enforcement credentials, to become chief of the United States Park Police. But after Chambers raised concerns publicly that crime was up in the nation's parks, she was rebuked by superiors and fired. When Chambers fought to regain her job through the legal system meant to protect whistle-blowers, government lawyers fought back, and associated her with terrorists. Despite a multiyear legal struggle, she is still fighting for her job.
Con't

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

47 million Americans lack health insurance: report
Thu Nov 1, 1:21 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of Americans lacking health insurance rose by nearly 8.6 million to 47 million from 2000 to 2006, with children and workers from every income level losing coverage, a new report said on Thursday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071101/ts_nm/healthcare_states_dc;_ylt=AiMw...

Oil jumps to $96
by Chris in Paris · 11/01/2007 02:24:00 AM ET
Discuss this post here: Comments (48) · digg it · reddit · FARK · · Link

Wow, that was fast.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/21568268

Product safety is supposed to be about protecting consumers
by Chris in Paris · 10/31/2007 11:08:00 PM ET
Discuss this post here: Comments (349) · digg it · reddit · FARK · · Link

If the CPSC chairman can't get on board, then it's time to find a replacement. Considering the steady stream of tainted products in the market, it would be nice to see someone take their role seriously.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) yesterday called on the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission to resign, and a Senate committee passed legislation to increase the embattled agency's funding and expand its authority.

Pelosi criticized acting chairman Nancy A. Nord for her opposition to parts of the Senate bill that would widen the CPSC's regulatory role in response to several high-profile recalls of toys containing dangerous amounts of lead and powerful magnets.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), would more than double the agency's funding over seven years, to $142 million. It would ban lead in products for children and raise the cap on civil penalties to $100 million, from $1.8 million. It would also give the agency new responsibilities, including collecting and acting on corporate whistle-blower complaints about product safety.
In a perfect world, industry would care about what they sell and we wouldn't have to worry about such penalties but just as the tooth fairy and Easter Bunny don't exist, industry self regulation doesn't exist either so it's important that we step up regulation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/30/AR200710...

IRS Investigating Whether Hedge Funds, Buyout Firms Are Abusing Tax Laws The Internal Revenue Service has begun an inquiry into suspected tax abuses at hedge funds and private-equity firms after determining many firm partners don't file returns and may have improperly characterized transactions.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ak2Y6HV1zHqM&refer=n...

Foreclosures Doubled in Third Quarter as Adjustable Mortgage Rates Rose U.S. home foreclosures doubled in the third quarter from a year earlier as subprime borrowers failed to make higher payments on adjustable-rate mortgages, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=ae0ofhCudiBY&refer=n...

*

Deregulation + Free Trade = Danger
Submitted by David Sirota on October 30, 2007 - 2:55am.
This New York Times' story could not be more fitting, really. It details how the Bush administration is aggressively fighting a proposal by Arkansas Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor to strengthen the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC).

The story comes on the very day that the Campaign for America's Future is releasing a new report showing the frightening results of our government's decision to underfund the CPSC at precisely the same time both parties have helped pass more and more NAFTA-style trade deals that have encouraged a glut of imports. We are, in short, reducing our ability to protect ourselves right when we need to protect ourselves more.

Pryor's bill is in response to a spate of headlines about the danger toxic imports now pose to American families. His legislation is expected to be voted on this week, is similar to a bill being pushed by Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Diana DeGette, D-Colo., in the House. And it is pretty gutsy when you consider that Pryor represents the state housing the headquarters of Wal-Mart — the company that has most benefited from simultaneously deregulating the CPSC and passing lobbyist-written trade deals.

But regulations and inspections are only half of this issue and only one kind of upcoming vote that affects these issues. Congress will soon be considering a package of NAFTA-style trade deals with countries that have far less stringent product safety laws on their books. The trade deals themselves have no product safety standards in them either, raising two questions:

1. Why is Congress even considering such deals, especially after an election when Democrats promised to seriously reform — rather than abet — America's current standards-free trade policy?

2. Why is Congress considering such pacts without first strengthening the CPSC to make sure we can effectively deal with the deals' consumer safety ramifications?

http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/deregulation_free_trade_danger?tx=3

The economic news isn't good though they try to make it sound good.

Grasping at straws at this point.

Study: Most students in South are poor
By Halimah Abdullah | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — For the first time in more than 40 years, the majority of children in public schools in the South are poor, according to a report released Tuesday.

In 11 Southern states, including Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, a significant increase in the number of poor children attending public school has sent district officials scurrying for solutions on how to best educate kids who are coming from economically disadvantaged homes.

"The future of the South's ability to have an educated population is going to depend on how well we can improve these students' education," said Steve Suitts, a program coordinator with the Atlanta-based Southern Education Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses on Southern educational issues and conducted the study.

In places like Memphis, where roughly 80 percent of students come from low-income homes, that has meant adopting models that address teaching children in poverty. In Miami-Dade, where 61 percent of students are on free or reduced-price lunch, that has meant strengthening efforts to improve all students' math and reading scores and curb dropout rates.

"The reason this presents a profound challenge for us is that low-income students as a group begin school least ready," Suitts said. "They are the students most likely to drop out of school. They perform at the lowest levels on tests that decide graduation and advancement. They have the least access to college."

Twenty years ago, Mississippi was the only state in the country with such a high percentage of poor public school students. However, as textile mills shut down in the Carolinas, Appalachian coal mines cut workers and a recession swept the nation, families in the South were especially hard hit, the Southern Education Foundation report found.

Also hitting the South disproportionately were federal cutbacks in anti-poverty programs, the region's higher rates of underemployment and the increased birthrates of Hispanic and African American children — who are statistically more likely than their white peers to be born into poverty.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/20922.html

War Protests - Why No Coverage?

By Jerry Lanson

Christian Science Monitor October 30, 2007

Coordinated antiwar protests in at least 11 American cities this weekend raised anew an interesting question about the nature of news coverage:
Are the media ignoring rallies against the Iraq war because of their low turnout or is the turnout dampened by the lack of news coverage?

I find it unsettling that I even have to consider the question.

That most Americans oppose the war in Iraq is well established. The latest CBS News poll, in mid-October, found 26 percent of those polled
approved of the way the president is handling the war and 67 percent disapproved. It found that 45 percent said they'd only be willing to keep large numbers of U.S. troops in Iraq "for less than a year." And an
ABC News-*Washington Post* poll in late September found that 55 percent felt Democrats in Congress had not gone far enough in opposing the war.

Granted, neither poll asked specifically about what this weekend's marchers wanted: An end to congressional funding for the war. Still, poll after poll has found substantial discontent with a war that ranks as the preeminent issue in the presidential campaign.

Given that context, it seems remarkable to me that in some of the 11 cities in which protests were held -- Boston and New York, for example
-- major news outlets treated this "National Day of Action" as though it did not exist. As far as I can tell, neither the "New York Times" nor the "Boston Globe" had so much as a news brief about the march in the days leading up to it. The day after, he "Times", at least in its national edition, totally ignored the thousands who marched in New York and the tens of thousands who marched nationwide. The "Globe" relegated the news of 10,000 spirited citizens (including me) marching through Boston's rain-dampened streets to a short piece deep inside its metro section. A single sentence noted the event's national context.

As a former newspaper editor, I was most taken aback by the silence beforehand. Surely any march of widespread interest warrants a brief news item to let people know that the event is taking place and that
they can participate. It's called "advancing the news," and it has a time-honored place in American newsrooms.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1030/p09s02-coop.html

Lucille.Did you guys have fun trick or treating? Hope so.. :)

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

tricking was great a lot of sweet stuff out there!

Roadblock for Telecom Immunity
Senate Judiciary Leaders Resist Leniency for Surveillance

In a blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Democrat and Republican expressed reluctance yesterday to granting blanket immunity to telecommunications carriers sued for assisting the government's warrantless surveillance program.

Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and the ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), had said that before even considering such a proposal, they would need to see the legal documents underpinning the program, which began after Sept. 11, 2001, and were put under court oversight in January.

On Tuesday, the committee was given access to some of the documents. But Leahy said yesterday that he had a "grave concern" about blanket immunity, saying that "it seems to grant . . . amnesty for telecommunications carriers for warrantless surveillance activities."

The activities seem to be "in violation of the privacy rights of Americans" and of federal domestic surveillance law, he said, noting that he is still "carefully considering" what is in the documents.

The immunity provision sought by the White House would wipe out about 40 lawsuits that accuse AT&T, Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel of invading Americans' privacy and constitutional rights by assisting the government in domestic surveillance without a warrant.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR200710...

Maybe this is me, being demanding, but what is the point of writing a book if you're not going to share it with others?

Fuck you, Rowling...

http://omg.yahoo.com/rowling-completes-post-harry-potter-book/news/3619

CNN: 'Pressured' resignation in another GOP gay scandal

Washington State lawmaker Richard Curtis resigned his office tonight after a man he allegedly paid for sex spoke to the media about the encounter. Curtis is the third conservative lawmaker in just as many months to resign amid allegations of soliciting gay sex. CNN noted similarities between the seemingly 'pressured' resignations in this and other Republican scandals involving homosexuality.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CNN_Pressured_resignation_in_another_GOP_1...

So back to sleep I go..I hope..
You all take care..Keep safe.. :)

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

YOU should take care...

Freedom may be on the march, but evidently it can't do jumping jacks.

Hey Sam:

And by 'We're" I mean I'm. Where's the VOD?

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, that in the time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality"

http://www.projectinterchange.org/
(Seminars in Israel)

Sleep well MMR

Just woke from a snooze myself. Can't seem to sleep through the night anymore. Segments of sleep. Too much on my mind I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfSwS4OO51w

oh but what will they do if they dont get immunized?
Submitted by Lucille on Thu, 11/01/2007 - 8:48am.
Roadblock for Telecom Immunity
Senate Judiciary Leaders Resist Leniency for Surveillance

In a blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Democrat and Republican expressed reluctance yesterday to granting blanket immunity to telecommunications carriers sued for assisting the government's warrantless surveillance program.

Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and the ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), had said that before even considering such a proposal, they would need to see the legal documents underpinning the program, which began after Sept. 11, 2001, and were put under court oversight in January
*******

Can't WaPo get anything right,nowadays??

Spying program started before 9/11!
It seems everyone but The Washington Post knows that!

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

A USA Today/Gallup poll finds “a nation of discontent.” 72 percent say they are dissatisfied with how things are going in the USA while just 26 percent are satisfied. “Not since April have even one-third of Americans been happy with the country’s course, the longest national funk in 15 years.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-10-31-mood-cover...

As Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld wrote 20 to 60 “snowflakes” — his trademark missives for developing policy — each day. In a sampling of them obtained by the Washington Post, Rumsfeld “argued that Muslims avoid ‘physical labor’ and wrote of the need to ‘keep elevating the threat,’ ‘link Iraq to Iran’ and develop ‘bumper sticker statements’ to rally public support.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR200710...

uuuummmm---and just who might that be?

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its vote on Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey on Tuesday, Nov. 6. CQ writes, “Once again, a controversial nomination in the Judiciary Committee may hinge on” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who was “noncommittal” Wednesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/washington/01cnd-mukasey.html?hp

Senate Judiciary Committee leaders said yesterday that they had “serious concerns” about immunity for telecoms who participated in the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) called immunity “an after the fact free pass” while Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said those suing the telecoms “ought to have their day in court.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/washington/01nsa.html?ref=us

Earlier this week, John Ashcroft wrote to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and urged him to grant immunity for telecomm companies that cooperate with the government’s spying program. It is “a necessary policy for promoting the national security interests of the United States,” he wrote. But as OpenLeft points out, AT&T employs the Ashcroft Group as lobbyists.

http://openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2149

If I rule the world---

Darth Cheney’s Halloween. Yesterday, President Bush said that when he asked Vice President Cheney what he was going to be for Halloween, Cheney “said, ‘Well, I’m already wearing it.’ Then he mumbled something about the dark side of the force.’” Cheney also recently admitted that he doesn’t mind the “Darth Vader” nickname because it is “one of the nicer things I’ve been called recently.” Evidently, Cheney likes that moniker so much that he used it as his dog’s Halloween costume:

Bush, on the other hand, dressed his two dogs up as a strawberry and a cowboy.

What Will Schumer Do?
Sen. Chuck Schumer's early support for Michael Mukasey may end up paving the way for his confirmation, notwithstanding Mukasey's refusal to call waterboarding torture. From Roll Call (sub. req.):

Still, it’s unclear how Schumer will vote on the nomination because the well-known spotlight seeker has been uncharacteristically mum on Mukasey’s continued refusal to clearly define waterboarding — an interrogation technique in which a detainee is subjected to a simulated drowning — as torture and illegal in the United States.
Asked Wednesday whether he was being noncommittal on Mukasey’s nomination, Schumer replied, “I am not commenting at the moment is what I am.” . . .

One senior Senate Democratic aide said Schumer’s credibility with the Democratic Caucus had been damaged somewhat by the issue, because many saw his status as a member of Judiciary and the No. 3 Senate Democratic leader as giving them clearance to praise the nomination when it was first announced.

“That made a lot of Democrats think he must know what he’s talking about,” said the aide. “People followed his lead and now they’re having to dial it back.”

--David Kurtz

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_53/news/20801-1.html

Issa Funding GOP's California Electoral Vote Initiative
By Eric Kleefeld - November 1, 2007, 9:27AM
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) — whose personal fortune helped launch the 2003 recall of Governor Gray Davis — is now bankrolling the initiative to split California's electoral votes in a manner that would net the Republicans roughly 20 new electors.

"I have made a small contribution," Issa told The Hill. Issa has an interesting definition of "small" — though he did not disclose the full amount, he said it was in the tens of thousands of dollars.

"This is about making people’s votes count," he said. "It’s about proportional representation."

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/11/issa_funding_gops_california_elect...

Bush, on the other hand, dressed his two dogs up as a strawberry and a cowboy..by toniD

Curious George has always been a Fruitin, rootin' tootin, kinda guy.

Small World
Blackwater brought in the PR firm of Mark Penn, Hillary's chief pollster/strategist, to prepare for their congressional testimony a couple weeks ago.

--Josh Marshall

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/washington/01blackwater-sub.html?_r=1&...

As they say:

And another one down/
And another one down/
And another one bites the dust/

No, no, not Karen Hughes as the last of Dim Son's inner Tex-ass, shit-kickin' circle-jerks slinking back into their caves.

No, this is John Cole of Balloon Juice, the now-former Bush administration apologist of Pajamas Media infamy (Do note the PM logo in the upper-left of the page linked below; well, until they banish 'em, anyway.).

*

Say Hello to the Newest Member of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy

[...] I had intended to register independent, but when I got there to do it, I had a moment of clarity - there seemed to be no point leaving the Republican party in protest and joining the unwashed masses. If I really was going to protest, it made no sense to not commit to the opposition party. Besides, as a Republican all these years, I never had any problem voting for libertarians, Democrats, etc., I don’t see why being a Democrat will change anything. And, the 2008 election really is the most important election of my lifetime- the basic foundation of our country has been under assault for a while, now, and I want to vote in the Democratic primary as a Democrat, not as someone with no party affiliation. I want to send a message, and as small as this gesture (which should appropriately be interpreted as a middle finger to the GOP and not as a sloppy wet kiss to Nancy Pelosi) is, I want it to mean as much as possible. There is now one less Republican in WV, and one more Democrat.

Long story short, I got up there to register as an independent, said “Fuck it,” and now I am a Democrat. [...]

Now send me my check from Soros and the 40 virgins.

[Check out the comments below, too.]

*

I'm gonna go sharpen my grappling hooks. There'll be much more draggin' to do for the next year. ; )

Erik Prince has a new boss. The Department of Defense’s Reconstruction Operations Centers is taking over control of the State Department’s security convoys. But the Reconstruction Operations Center is outsourced through a $475 million contract to the British firm Aegis. This means that Erik Prince now will answer to Aegis CEO Tim Spicer, the guy who used his “mercenary army to launch a counter-coup of the government of Sierra Leone” and “plotted the overthrow of the authorities in Equatorial Guinea.” (Wired)

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/10/worlds-most-not.html

:-)

Any good news today?

Speaking of silence, federal agents are investigating allegations that Blackwater illegally exported firearms “silencers” to Iraq. Criminal penalties for smuggling silencers can bring up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $1 million per count. (MSNBC)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21565556/

Since Alberto Gonzales declared victory over white collar crime in July, it is just about time for a postmortem on the Justice Department's Corporate Fraud Task Force. The American Lawyer has taken an exhaustive look at the task force's success (no easy feat, given the government's unwillingness to publish statistics on these investigations). They find that the government obtained a good number of guilty pleas, but that most of that success comes from local U.S. Attorneys without assistance from the national Task Force. More interesting? The drop off in investigations since Bush's reelection: from 357 indictments between 2002-05, to only 26 in the next two years. (Law.com)

http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1193821429242

Watchdog organizations are trying to get the Appropriations Committees to strip earmarks for BAE and ProLogic, both firms that are undergoing federal investigations. The firms are slated for a combined $59 million this year in earmarks. (The Hill)

http://thehill.com/business--lobby/watchdogs-questioning-earmarks-for-co...

wanted to do away with workers' compensation. As a whole. Just, get rid of it. Why does Mukasey's confirmation depend upon the answer to just one question? I have a whole list!

Sadly, I note that he agrees with Gonzales re: wire-tapping.

Mukasey:
"Torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are prohibited by the laws of the United States, which of course includes the Constitution," Mukasey wrote. In contrast, "the weight of authority indicates that warrantless surveillance to collect foreign intelligence (um, how can it be foreign if the surveillance is *in* America?) is not unconstitutional so long as it is otherwise reasonable."

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/27/america/NA-GEN-US-Attorney-Gen...

Next time I call Mom, I gotta remember to say hello to my little friend...

Bush refuses to work with Congress
Oct. 31: Congress won’t give Pres. Bush what he wants so he plans to bypass Congress as much as possible, through governing by administrative order. Newsweek’s Howard Fineman discusses.

http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand=msnbc&tab=m5&rf=http://www.msnbc.m...

Well, the boss single-handedly dissected the copy machine before I got here, and now he wants me to put it back together. And I still have a hangover from last night's party.

Hmm..

I hope the cavalry gets here quick! "Hello? Service Department, por favor..."

I hate copy machines!! Ours, at work, is always breaking down.

I think the problem is that businesses use the copy machine like a printing press copying reams of paper. The copy machine really isn't made to make thousands of copies all at once.

Sometimes I think a printer should be used. Less stress. And less wear on the copier

Plus, my boss is a me-do-it-yourselfer. He'd just as soon have me on my hands and knees fixing this and that as to call somebody. Be it the stain on the carpet, the computer under his desk. While he stands over me and watches me crawling around on the floor. When we freakin' *have* service contracts.

Makes no sense to me...

But somehow, he got a wad of paper stuck underneath the bottom drawer of the copier, down inside of the thing. The drawer won't come out, and the opening to reach inbetween is maybe 3 inches wide. I can get my arm in there, but it's not long enough to get back to the paper. But he had me to try it, anyway while he stood over and watched, as usual.

Why he doesn't like me calling the service people, I'll never know. It's free! What gives? Bosses can be nuts sometimes.

Chrysler to cut up to 12,000 jobs
29 minutes ago
DETROIT - Chrysler LLC said Thursday it plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs, or up to 15 percent of its workforce, as part of an effort to slash costs and match slowing demand for some vehicles.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_bi_ge/chrysler_job_cuts

Stocks plunge on oil, credit worries
41 minutes ago
NEW YORK - Wall Street plunged Thursday as multiplying concerns about inflation and slower economic growth erased optimism about the Federal Reserve's positive take on the economy just a day earlier. The Dow Jones industrials skidded nearly 200 points.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/wall_street;_ylt=A...

Spending growth slowed in September
45 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Consumers, battered by a steep downturn in housing and a severe credit crunch, slowed their spending growth in September while a key gauge of factory activity flashed its weakest reading in seven months in October.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy;_ylt=AjsXT...

Foreclosure filings soar in 3rd quarter
2 hours, 34 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - A soaring number of U.S. homeowners struggled to make mortgage payments in the third quarter, with properties in some stage of foreclosure more than doubling from the same time last year, a mortgage data company said Thursday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071101/ap_on_bi_ge/foreclosure_rates;_ylt=A...

Chimpanzee who knew sign language dies
Submitted by MMRules on Thu, 11/01/2007 - 12:52am.
SPOKANE, Wash. - Washoe, a female chimpanzee believed to be the first non-human to acquire human language, has died of natural causes at the research institute where she was kept.

Washoe, who first learned a bit of American Sign Language in a research project in Nevada, had been living on Central Washington University's Ellensburg campus since 1980. She had a vocabulary of about 250 words.
----------
Last signed words: "I'd rather be in Philadelphia."

So, if I work for Chrysler, there went my job, and, (along with the rest of America), there also went my 401k, my house, and oh yeah, I'm not in the mood to buy anything.

Sounds like no good news there, tonid...

no time but I'm working on a mic which I posted

Later

Why, then, did Pink wanna get out of Philly so bad if the monkey wants to go there?

Goin' to california,
to live in the summer sun
the streets are made of silver
I'm like a rabbit on the run
Philadelphia freedom
well, it's not like you have heard
the city of brotherly love is full of pain and hurt
goin' to california
to find my pot of gold
corruption on every corner
husterls selling sweets
baby is home crying
while her momma's on the street
everybody's dying
have you heard the news today?
a woman in north philly is mouring
the bullet took another son away
i'm goin' to california
I'm going far, far away
I'm going to california; yes
to resurrect my soul
the sun is always shining
or at least that's what I'm told
going to california
there's a better life for me
goin' to california
I'll write and tell you what i see
goin' to california
somebody say a prayer for me

I can't find it, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places?

Iraq war veteran, construction and demolitions expert claims he was at the World Trade Center and witnessed it's demolition by implosion.

Young voters plug in to politics

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not the neon lights or hip-hop beats that make this an unusual whistle stop in the November 2008 presidential contest. It's the youthful faces of those in the crowd.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071031/tc_nm/usa_politics_youth_dc;_ylt=AoQ...

Annette,

Following is an excerpt from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._C._Fields

...There have been stories that he wanted his grave marker to read "On the whole, I would rather be in Philadelphia," his home town, which is similar to a line he used in My Little Chickadee: "I'd like to see Paris before I die... Philadelphia would do!" (In one of his film bits, he made a point of referencing "Philadelphia Cream Cheese." Given his fondness for words, maybe he just liked the sound of his home town's name.) This rumor has also morphed into "I would rather be here than in Philadelphia." The anecdote that Fields often remarked, "Philadelphia, wonderful town, spent a week there one night" is unsubstantiated. It is also said that Fields wanted "I'd rather be in Philadelphia" on his gravestone because of the old vaudeville joke among comedians that "I would rather be dead than play Philadelphia."...

:-) Had no idea.

Cute.

Hey, W!!!!

I got an AG for ya!!!!

Fuck Mukasey. Put *this* guy in there. :-)

http://www.ksag.org/content/page/id/60

Yeah, yeah, I know. Nobody ever listens to me...

bullshit seminars....

Roadblock for Telecom Immunity
Senate Judiciary Leaders Resist Leniency for Surveillance

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 1, 2007; A06

In a blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Democrat and Republican expressed reluctance yesterday to granting blanket immunity to telecommunications carriers sued for assisting the government's warrantless surveillance program.

Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and the ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), had said that before even considering such a proposal, they would need to see the legal documents underpinning the program, which began after Sept. 11, 2001, and were put under court oversight in January.

On Tuesday, the committee was given access to some of the documents. But Leahy said yesterday that he had a "grave concern" about blanket immunity, saying that "it seems to grant . . . amnesty for telecommunications carriers for warrantless surveillance activities."

The activities seem to be "in violation of the privacy rights of Americans" and of federal domestic surveillance law, he said, noting that he is still "carefully considering" what is in the documents.

The immunity provision sought by the White House would wipe out about 40 lawsuits that accuse AT&T, Verizon Communications and Sprint Nextel of invading Americans' privacy and constitutional rights by assisting the government in domestic surveillance without a warrant.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR200710...

we will see now wont we...Feinstein is a guarantee... she LOVES BI-PARTISANSHIP regardless...

WASHINGTON - Angry US diplomats lashed out yesterday against a State Department plan that would send them to Iraq against their will, with one likening it to "a potential death threat" and another accusing the department of providing inadequate care to diplomats who have returned home traumatized.

At a rare, contentious meeting, foreign service officers told senior State Department officials that the move to fill vacancies in Baghdad puts them in danger, jeopardizes the well-being of their families, and could deplete the ranks of those willing to serve overseas at a critical time. Several diplomats said privately they would resign rather than accept orders to serve in Iraq. The president of their union pointed out that about 2,000 State Department personnel have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, greatly taxing the ranks of the 11,000-member core.

"We have had four years of people volunteering to Iraq, and as the size of the mission has increased, demand has outstripped supply," said John Naland, president of the American Foreign Service Association, in an interview after the meeting.

The State Department has struggled to find Foreign Service volunteers to fill 48 of the 252 diplomatic posts that will become vacant next summer in Baghdad as well as other Iraqi provinces. To solve the problem, the department decided on mandatory service in Baghdad if too few volunteers step forward. Yesterday, at a packed meeting to discuss the plan, foreign service officers spoke out passionately against it, an unusual display of internal dissent.

Jack Crotty, a senior Foreign Service officer who has worked overseas, told his superiors that being forced to serve in Iraq is a "potential death sentence and you know it."

"It's one thing if someone believes in what's going on over there and volunteers," he said, according to the Associated Press, "but it's another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment."

Rachel Schnelling, a diplomat who served in Basra, Iraq, got a standing ovation when she said the State Department had failed to care for diplomats after they returned home suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

"I would just urge you, now that we are looking at compulsory service in a war zone, that we have a moral imperative as an agency to take care of people who . . . come back with war wounds," she said at the meeting, according to the AP. "I asked for treatment and I didn't get any of it."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was not at the meeting convened by Harry Thomas, director general of the Foreign Service. Sean McCormack, her press secretary, said that the decision to draft diplomats to Iraq came with Rice's support, and that the move was not taken "lightly."

"Understandably, people are going to have some pretty strong feelings about it," he said. "But ultimately our mission in Iraq is national policy. We as Foreign Service officers swore an oath, and we agreed to certain things when we took these jobs. Part of them is to be available for worldwide assignments. They all agreed to that."

On Friday evening, the department sent notices to between 200 and 300 Foreign Service officers informing them that they had been selected as possible candidates to serve in Baghdad or on provincial reconstruction teams if there are not enough volunteers. Many officers were upset to read media reports of the new assignment plan over the weekend before they received the department notifications at work on Monday.

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, ambitious diplomats flocked to posts there, which were seen as tickets for promotion. But as the danger grew, and as Baghdad became the largest US embassy in the world, filling posts in Baghdad became more difficult.

The so-called surge of troops in Iraq, ordered by President Bush this year, has also stretched the foreign service ranks. Ambassador Ryan Crocker asked for 80 additional positions to increase the US diplomatic presence alongside the increased troops in Provincial Reconstruction Teams and other posts.

Naland said it is "almost unprecedented" to force diplomats to serve in a war zone. "During the Vietnam War, Foreign Service officers were ordered to serve, but for everyone on active duty, this is brand new," he said.

Although senior officials defended the plan, others contradicted McCormack's assertion that they had committed to be sent anywhere in the world.

"People didn't sign up for the foreign service to go get killed in the war zone," said a Washington-based State Department official who volunteered and served in Iraq during the invasion but does not want to return.

"In any other country, an embassy like that would be in evacuation status," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Morale is not helped by news from colleagues in Baghdad who say inadequate security has kept them holed up in the Green Zone, unable to interact frequently with the Iraqi officials and ministries they are supposed to advise.

Rice announced shortly after becoming secretary of state that she would make promotions contingent on serving in difficult posts. But until this point, no one has ever been forced to choose between serving and resigning from the State Department.

Diplomats, even those with critical Arabic language skills, were coaxed or prodded to do their time in Iraq. Former secretary of state Colin Powell was known to have personally called senior officials, or their spouses, to ask them to take posts in Baghdad.

Over the years, however, this policy has created a rift between the State Department and the Pentagon, as senior military officials accuse the diplomatic arm of the government of failing to send enough personnel to work on the Iraq reconstruction teams. Conflicts have emerged within the State Department itself, as some senior officials pressed for a more aggressive policy of assisting the US-led mission in Iraq.

Henry S. Ensher, a Foreign Service officer who served as director for political affairs in the Iraq office inside the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs argued in the March 2006 issue of the Foreign Service Journal that the State Department should "recognize that service in wartime necessitates a complete commitment by all its personnel."

"The Foreign Service is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the highest priority foreign-policy issue winning in Iraq because it has refused to take the one step that would guarantee it a key role, demonstrate seriousness of purpose to the military, and develop a cadre of true area specialists with extreme diplomacy skills," he wrote.

– I will be on Thom Hartmann’s Show today at 2:30 pm ET.

currently 3 users and 9 guests online.
Online users

* Lucille
* toniD
* Annette

Motivations
By Christy Hardin Smith on Thu Nov 1, 2007 at 06:50 am

addington2.jpgThe Mukasey nomination is headed for a vote next week. Sidney has some illuminating thoughts on who was behind the muddled waterboarding testimony in the confirmation hearing, and all the convoluted responses since then. And why:

…Mukasey is not a free agent. He had been strictly briefed and in his testimony was following orders. He has avoided calling waterboarding torture because that is consistent with the administration’s position and past practice. Mukasey’s refusal to disavow waterboarding reveals his acceptance of his assignment to a secondary role as attorney general, an inferior agent, not a constitutional officer, to certain political appointees in the White House.

Those who are responsible for waterboarding have defined and dictated Mukasey’s evasions. His acquiescence demonstrates that no one in his position could take a contrary view to that of David Addington, Vice President Cheney’s former counsel and now chief of staff, who directed and coauthored the infamous memos by former deputy assistant director of the Office of Legal Counsel John Yoo justifying torture, and charged the current acting director of OLC, Stephen Bradbury, to issue new memos rationalizing it.

Addington is the reigning legal authority within the administration, presiding over the attorney general no matter who would fill the job. Addington rules by decree and tantrum, intolerant of any alternative opinion, which he suppresses with intimidation and threat. Gonzales, as White House counsel and then attorney general, was the marionette of Karl Rove and Addington. Rove is gone, but Addington remains….

Jack Balkin has more thoughts along the same lines. Nothing like using someone else’s reputation and job prospects for your own, personal CYA firewall, eh, David? Hey, if the Libby maneuver worked for your boss…

For more on Addington as Cheney’s right hand, read Jane Mayer’s brilliant piece and this from Ari Shapiro at NPR. And these insights from emptywheel from the Libby trial — enigma, that one. Contact information for the Senate Judiciary Committee can be found here…and while you have them on the phone, tell them no basket warrants or retroactive telecom immunity in the FISA bill.

the email I got back from Feinstein. She makes it most difficult!

Thank you for sending me your electronic mail message. I appreciate
your
taking the time to share your thoughts with me.

Because of the volume of e-mail that is received by my office, we can
only
respond to email that includes a California postal address. Please
resend
the text of your e-mail message, including your postal address, and I
will
respond to you as soon as possible.

Should you need additional information about the Congress, or my
offices
in Washington and California, please visit my homepage on the World
Wide
Web. The address is http://feinstein.senate.gov.

Thank you again for contacting me, and I hope you will continue to do
so
in the future.

Sincerely,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

http://www.ilovelibraries.org/

Haunted libraries fall into two types. First, there is the “building with a reputation,” where a convenient murder, curse, or other tragedy has occurred. Library staff can then blame the odd noise, the occasional book falling off the shelf, or glitches in the air conditioning on the resident “scapeghost.” No one reports anything too spooky, and the children’s librarians have a good time with it at story hour.

Second, there are libraries where credible, responsible people observe enigmatic human shapes, hear disembodied voices, and witness other classic parapsychological events. Glib explanations about how the building must be settling ring about as hollow as those mysterious footsteps late at night on the upper floorboards. The library staff learns to live with the phenomena, usually by accepting the paranormal as a normal working condition and the wraiths as superhuman resources.

same email i get back same email Rules showed me...Cindy should have ran against her, i wonder who spoke her out of it!

Huckabee blames Bill Clinton for release of rapist-murderer

Republican president candidate Mike Huckabee has recently come under fire from the conservative American Spectator magazine for having secured the parole in 1997, while he was governor of Arkansas, of a rapist who then murdered a woman.

"Governors don't parole anybody," Huckabee insisted to Fox News. He went on to blame the two Democrats who immediately preceded him in the Arkansas governor's office, saying, "The people who made that decision were all appointees of Jim Guy Tucker and Bill Clinton, who, in fact, commuted his sentence and made him parole eligible."

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Huckabee_blames_Clinton_Admin._for_release...

The Seeing the Documents Excuse
by: Matt Stoller
Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 19:14:05 PM EDT
Here's Jane Harman on why she's looking for a FISA compromise.

For those like me who insist that the President's domestic surveillance program must comply fully with the Constitution and the 4th Amendment, the only way for Congress to get there is with a veto-proof majority. That's why I'm working with Republicans. Got a better idea?

I opposed the FISA-gutting Protect America Act last August and supported the much-improved H.R. 3773, which did not include retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. I call on the White House to do more than share selected documents with a handful of Senators - how do we know what the White House is not providing? In my view, the question of retroactive immunity cannot even be considered until Congress is fully informed about what happened and under what authority.

Harman's arguments are just weird. The President is breaking the law, and the solution is to... change the law so that he's no longer breaking it? I don't get it. Either way, whether he breaks the law and Congress does nothing or whether he breaks the law and Congress excuses all his lawbreaking and gives him authority to do so, the law is pretty meaningless. So who cares?

And the 'we need to see the document' document excuse is also weird. The court is already going over whether the telecom companies were breaking the law. That's what courts do. Why can't Harman consider letting the structures we have for mediating the rule of law - ie. the courts - actually function?

its the Clinton again
Submitted by Lucille on Thu, 11/01/2007 - 12:46pm.

Yeah...nobody will buy that.

By the way, any MIKE DUKAKIS fans out there want to take up for MIKE Huckabee and explain how it's not the fault of the governor when a parolee is released and rapes and kills somebody?

LOL!----Gare

I'm not liking what he is saying. Of course that's nothing new but he's notching up the war rhetoric again. The fight against terrorism.

Iran?

NYC councilman calls for investigation of Rudy. Last month, Brave New Films released a web video detailing the negative impact some of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s decisions had on firefighters on 9/11 — for example, the rewarding of a no-bid contract that prevented faulty radios from being replaced. Now, in a new video, New York City Councilman Eric Gioia, chair of the city’s oversight and investigations committee, has endorsed an investigation into Giuliani’s handling of the radios used by firefighters on 9/11. Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/01/nyc-councilman-calls-for-investigati...

When you get right down to it, Michael Mukasey has refused to answer the question of whether waterboarding is torture for three reasons, which he provided in his letter to Senate Democrats earlier this week. Two of those are readily disputable (not wanting to tip off "our enemies," for example), but the key to his rationale appears to be his expressed fear that the attorney general's public acknowledgment that waterboarding is torture would place interrogators in "personal legal jeopardy."

By this logic, he can't come out and say that waterboarding is torture because the consequences would be disastrous. The New York Times takes a look at that question today and reports that Mukasey is "steering clear of a potential legal quagmire for the Bush administration" by not answering the question.

One legal expert provides the worst case scenario:

Read the full Must Read here.

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Xoy8gCyT2wO2hQR6yogF_pY3FqEBzPIKFPhMJiXyGn1H3...

:)

regarding mukasey!

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