Happy Birthday MLK

thanks Sam.

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Hey... where is everyone?

More than 20 minutes into the Dem's debate, and the questions are all about interpersonal BS. How about something about some concrete issues that matter in the daily lives of the American people?

i cant believe these are question, this is making me sick

America's Mayor
I think the big question of the night is whether Rudy tops the 5% threshold. So far, clocking in at a healthy 4%.

Late Update: 8:42 PM ... At the moment we're back in a close race between Rudy and "uncommitted". At the moment it's Rudy at 3% and Unc at 2%.

Later Update: 8:44 PM ... Unc has pulled ahead of Rudy by about 50 votes. Both at 3% with 2% reporting.

--Josh Marshall

is on now. Red Hot as usual tonight.

New Twist
Rudy goes on the air in Florida with Spanish language ad exploiting 9/11.

--Josh Marshall

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2008/01/rudys_new_spanish_radio_ad_recorde...

would say

Hello TRUTH SEEKERS - hope all is well!

Got that right.
So far Qs

Race & Gender 4

Personalities 1

Campaing Mud 2

Leadership 3

Muslim 1

declared winner in Michigan??? I thought that is what I heard.

maggie's boy
new
Submitted by mo lib on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 9:32pm.
It's interesting how people see things differently. I didn't see Barack rambling at all.
====================================================

Maybe rambling was a bad choice of word. Obama is an excellent speaker. I was only alluding to his "schtick" which is to speak in generalities that no one will disagree with. Hillary has the "day one" schtick, Edwards has the "son millworker and kill the girl again who was denied by her insurance company" schtick.

I did not mean to slight him. Sorry if it was perceived that way.

(Does anyone have a good "foot in my mouth" emoticon to share?)

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

..all is well now!

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

Mitt Romney

Submitted by smcgee43 on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 9:41pm.

declared winner in Michigan??? I thought that is what I heard.

_____________

You bet yer bippy.

Real Michiganderin' 'Muricans like me voted fer Mittens en force today.

Let the circular GOP firing squad continue!

Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.

In 1954, Martin Luther King accepted the pastorale of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

but most importantly... If you are watching the debates?

The Democrats are ALL masters. Of course they have their own motivations and details of their personality but DAMN. Those are some strong humans. Really enjoyed this. And look, nobody had to throw shit at the walls!

You never see shit free skies on Rethug debates.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/us/politics/15cnd-campaign.html?_r=1&h...

By JOHN M. BRODER and MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
Published: January 15, 2008
LANSING, Mich. — Mitt Romney, seizing on his personal ties to a state where his father made his family’s political fortune, captured a must-win victory in the Michigan primary on Tuesday, claiming the first major trophy for his ailing campaign and throwing the wide-open Republican field into further disarray.

Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, led Senator John McCain by 9 percentage points. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, the winner of the Iowa caucus, conceded after polling at 17 percent of the vote.

In the Democratic race with 14 percent of precincts reporting, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won by a commanding margin in a field that did not include her closest competitors, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and John Edwards. However, about a third of voters in the Democratic primary opted to allow the party to choose uncommitted delegates to the national convention, effectively a vote against Ms. Clinton.

“It’s a victory of optimism over Washington-style pessimism,” Mr. Romney told The Associated Press. “The people of Michigan said they believe in someone who is going to fight for them.”

Mr. Romney’s victory guarantees a headache for political watchdogs as the competitive Republican field heads to South Carolina for its Saturday primary. Mr. Romney, Mr. McCain and Mr. Huckabee have each won a major primary or caucus, leaving the party without a clear frontrunner.

Another top Republican, former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, is putting most of his immediate efforts into Florida, which will hold its primary on Jan. 29.

Mr. McCain, of Arizona, conceded the Michigan race, but he told supporters in South Carolina that he would not be deterred in his campaign.

“Starting tomorrow, we’re going to win South Carolina, and we’re going to go on and win the nomination," Mr. McCain said.

Mr. Huckabee has also flown to South Carolina, a state he is looking to win with support from his evangelical base.

Mr. Romney, who was born and raised in Michigan, used his final campaign appearances to remind voters of his personal ties to the state, where his father served three terms as governor. He promised, if elected president, to “not rest” until the state’s battered economic fortunes have been restored.

The message appeared to resonate with Republican voters, more than half of whom said in exit polls that their vote was driven by overwhelming economic concerns. A majority of those polled after they voted said a candidate’s position on the economy was more important than the war in Iraq, illegal immigration or terrorism. The exit poll was conducted by Edison/Mitofsky for the television networks and the Associated Press.

Early reports of sluggish voter turnout may also have helped Mr. Romney’s cause. Freezing temperatures, an early morning snowfall, and a dearth of Democratic contenders on the ballot may have affected turnout, according to a state official.

Jackalope - I couldn't of said it any better myself!

The Democrates are going to fuck themselves with all of this in fighting Bull Shit. Just my opinion.
The moderators I don't think know what real life questions are.

But what about putting a cap on how much interest these companies can charge? There used to be caps!!

Hillary is still kowtowing to these corporations.

unfortunately I am @ work - I cannot see the debates.
I would think I'll be able to see parts of it on You Tube.

You never see shit free skies on Rethug debates No you do not.I am glad that it was a good debate. Can't wait to see highlites of it.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/13/171722/549/52/436243

John Edwards: $7 Million Dollars In One Day - Make It Happen

posted at the same time as Sam.

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in Michigan.

Unc got at least 2%

Prepare to freeze your ass off this coming up weekend.
Its already BRRR COLD out.
Hope you are feeling well.

Try blogging and watching the debate with one of these vying for your attention.

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

what a cutie. What is his/her name???

I'm talking about in the clutch. Which way will she go? Labor or capital?

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

aka "Chainsaw from Hell"

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

It's brrrrrrr cold right now, you are right. Candadian cold wave dipping down this weekend.

Have to work Friday night and all day Saturday.

Doing okay so far. What about you?

turn off that debate!

any debates but for D and R...

*pootooey*

Give a buck for Beck to Edwards!

Thanks!

Wish I could have one. Not allowed where I live. :(

A Cluster-@#$% of candidates asking each other questions ...

Oh yeah, that was after a brief aside on the economy. Oh well, it wasn't that important anyway.

blush and laughing silly.

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commenting to myself! :)

Give your son my best wishes. I am donating to Edwards.

You are never going to be happy until you see a tabby on that stage.

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I was on the other thread
new
Submitted by mo lib on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 10:04pm.
commenting to myself! :)

»
Did you get some good responses?

Yay Toni! I will!

just said enduring bases only in not those word.

so did Hillary.
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Now is the time!

Well not really now, but Friday!

How old will Beck be on Friday?
___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NNGtJ_0vTgk

..but I don't want to wake her up. She's had a rough couple of days. Seizures, long story for a lazy pre-Seder afternoon.

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

Hee!

Toni made a funny!

Edwards = Peace

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Chris Matthews, this evening.

...Rudy's currently in 7th place... behind Uncommitted!

-Atrios 20:26

to. I get very, very aggravated with this crap that I read in the papers & what I see in the news. Just listening to Malloy - I get all worked up.

Glad your doing good. Lets both keep it up.

Catherine -I will donate to Edwards. :)

Ours tend to be debates.

Theirs tend to be gatherings of junkyard dogs.

Overall, listening to this debate calms my nerves. I mean these three are actually debating and trying to outsmart each other. Republican debates are exercises in trying to fuck over your opponents.

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

Chris is not happy....what a smarr-me little weasel.

Edwards The Great White Dope!

The candidate for the folks who just ain't ready!

He will be 11 on Friday.

Ka-ching! I bet we could easily raise $7 million or more if everyone participated even a little.

BLOOMBERGMANIA

SurveyUsa did a bunch of Bloomberg polling. He loses badly nationally. He loses badly in every individual state they polled.

He does come in 2nd... ahead of Rudy Giuliani.. in New York City.

And it appears he consistently pulls more Republican votes than Democratic ones.

It's a good thing Unity08 is there so we can all unite behind our new billionaire overlords.

-Atrios 15:54

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2008_01_13_archive.html#179471369961252161

given a fair chance in US Presidential campaigns...President Tabby, to me, would blow away President R or President D...at least kitties know where to crap...as opposed to the candidates taking money from citizens then proceeding to crap on them...they don't even bury it...just crap and run...

about Peace to help you comment POT97. You so funny. Like Pavlov said.

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part of the 97.

About as catchy as Hillary's original slogans.... er... no one remembers what they were.

I just want to credit cat chew with the source of my entertainment.

what's wrong with Chris Matthews in that picture?

Wish I could have been born a little earlier. Amazing man.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr.]
LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL*
April 16, 1963
MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN:
While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

------- *AUTHOR'S NOTE: This response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama (Bishop C. C. J. Carpenter, Bishop Joseph A. Durick, Rabbi Hilton L. Grafman, Bishop Paul Hardin, Bishop Holan B. Harmon, the Reverend George M. Murray. the Reverend Edward V. Ramage and the Reverend Earl Stallings) was composed under somewhat constricting circumstance. Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of writing paper supplied by a friendly Negro trusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to. leave me. Although the text remains in substance unaltered, I have indulged in the author's prerogative of polishing it for publication. -------

I think I should indicate why I am here In Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in." I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a nonviolent direct-action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here I am here because I have organizational ties here.

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I. compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.

You deplore the demonstrations taking place In Brimingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self- purification; and direct action. We have gone through an these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro .leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good-faith negotiation.

Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants --- for example, to remove the stores humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttles worth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained.

As in so many past experiences, our hopes bad been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self-purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves : "Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?" "Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?" We decided to schedule our direct-action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic with with-drawl program would be the by-product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change.

Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoralty election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run-oat we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run-off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct-action program could be delayed no longer.

You may well ask: "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?" You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word "tension." I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved South land been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken .in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: "Why didn't you give the new city administration time to act?" The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor. will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant 'Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

We have waited .for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God- given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six- year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may won ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there fire two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the Brat to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all"

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal .law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distort the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I- it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and awful. Paul Tillich said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression 'of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? Thus it is that I can urge men to obey the 1954 decision of the Supreme Court, for it is morally right; and I can urge them to disobey segregation ordinances, for they are morally wrong.

Let us consider a more concrete example of just and unjust laws. An unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.

Let me give another explanation. A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama which set up that state's segregation laws was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?

Sometimes a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I have been arrested on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong in having an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade. But such an ordinance becomes unjust when it is used to maintain segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and protest.

I hope you are able to ace the distinction I am trying to point out. In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience.

We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's anti religious laws.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fan in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God-consciousness and never-ceasing devotion to God's will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the robber.

I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "An Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this 'hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to 6e solid rock of human dignity.

You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At fist I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began thinking about the fact that stand in the middle of two opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, are so drained of self-respect and a sense of "somebodiness" that they have adjusted to segregation; and in part of a few middle class Negroes who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best- known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that we need emulate neither the "do-nothingism" of the complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became an integral part of our struggle.

If this philosophy had not emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced that if our white brothers dismiss as "rabble-rousers" and "outside agitators" those of us who employ nonviolent direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and despair, seek solace and security in black- nationalist ideologies a development that would inevitably lead to a frightening racial nightmare.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or. unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent-up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides-and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist.

But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that an men are created equal ..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we viii be. We be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremist for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime---the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jeans Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action. I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some-such as Ralph McGill, Lillian Smith, Harry Golden, James McBride Dabbs, Ann Braden and Sarah Patton Boyle---have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms. Others have marched with us down nameless streets of the South. They have languished in filthy, roach-infested jails, suffering the abuse and brutality of policemen who view them as "dirty nigger lovers." Unlike so many of their moderate brothers and sisters, they have recognized the urgency of the moment and sensed the need for powerful "action" antidotes to combat the disease of segregation.

Let me take note of my other major disappointment. I have been so greatly disappointed with the white church and its leadership. Of course, there are some notable exceptions. I am not unmindful of the fact that each of you has taken some significant stands on this issue. I commend you, Reverend Stallings, for your Christian stand on this past Sunday, in welcoming Negroes to your worship service on a non segregated basis. I commend the Catholic leaders of this state for integrating Spring Hill College several years ago.

But despite these notable exceptions, I must honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say this as one of those negative .critics who can always find. something wrong with the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who 'has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of Rio shall lengthen.

When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leader era; an too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained-glass windows.

In spite of my shattered dreams, I came to Birmingham with the hope that the white religious leadership of this community would see the justice of our cause and, with deep moral concern, would serve as the channel through which our just grievances could reach the power structure. I had hoped that each of you would understand. But again I have been disappointed.

I have heard numerous southern religious leaders admonish their worshipers to comply with a desegregation decision because it is the law, but I have longed to hear white ministers declare: "Follow this decree because integration is morally right and because the Negro is your brother." In the midst of blatant injustices inflicted upon the Negro, I have watched white churchmen stand on the sideline and mouth pious. irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities. In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: "Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern." And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, on Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.

I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious-education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Walleye gave a clarion call for defiance and .hatred? Where were their voices of support when bruised and weary Negro men and women decided to rise from the dark dungeons of complacency to the bright hills of creative protest?"

Yes, these questions are still in my mind. In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? l am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great- grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

There was a time when the church was very powerful in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators"' But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide. and gladiatorial contests.

Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it vi lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

Perhaps I have once again been too optimistic. Is organized religion too inextricably bound to the status quo to save our nation and the world? Perhaps I must turn my faith to the inner spiritual church, the church within the church, as the true ekklesia and the hope of the world. But again I am thankful to God that some noble souls from the ranks of organized religion have broken loose from the paralyzing chains of conformity and joined us as active partners in the struggle for freedom, They have left their secure congregations and walked the streets of Albany, Georgia, with us. They have gone down the highways of the South on tortuous rides for freedom. Yes, they have gone to jai with us. Some have been dismissed from their churches, have lost the support of their bishops and fellow ministers. But they have acted in the faith that right defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. Their witness has been the spiritual salt that has preserved the true meaning of the gospel in these troubled times. They have carved a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of disappointment.

I hope the church as a whole will meet the challenge of this decisive hour. But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham, ham and all over the nation, because the goal of America k freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history, we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages; they made cotton king; they built the homes of their masters while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation-and yet out of a bottomless vitality they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.

Before closing I feel impelled to mention one other point in your statement that has troubled me profoundly. You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping "order" and "preventing violence." I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if .you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.

It is true that the police have exercised a .degree of discipline in handing the demonstrators. In this sense they have conducted themselves rather "nonviolently" in public. But for what purpose? To preserve the evil system of segregation. Over the past few years I have consistently preached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Perhaps Mr. Connor and his policemen have been rather nonviolent in public, as was Chief Pritchett in Albany, Georgia but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of racial injustice. As T. S. Eliot has said: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason."

I wish you had commended the Negro sit-inners and demonstrators of Birmingham for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes. They will be the James Merediths, with the noble sense of purpose that enables them to face Jeering, and hostile mobs, and with the agonizing loneliness that characterizes the life of the pioneer. They will be old, oppressed, battered Negro women, symbolized in a seventy-two-year-old woman in Montgomery, Alabama, who rose up with a sense of dignity and with her people decided not to ride segregated buses, and who responded with ungrammatical profundity to one who inquired about her weariness: "My fleets is tired, but my soul is at rest." They viii be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience' sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he k alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?

If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.

I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us. all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

Yours for the cause of Peace and Brotherhood,
Martin Luther King, Jr.

... and social skills?

Have any of you ever visited one of their blogs and made rude remarks while others were trying to have a civil discussion?

What's wrong with them?

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

did President Tabby sniff catnip? Clearly that is what we need to know.

USER NAV

Donate To Pera, Stick It to Rahm
By: Jane Hamsher Tuesday January 15, 2008 1:30 pm

http://firedoglake.com/2008/01/15/donate-to-pera-stick-it-to-rahm/

Rahm Emanuel loves him some Dan Lipinski. In fact, he loves him so much he gave $2500 to his campaign.

Lipinski is a Bush Dog to the core, so if these things matter to you and you'd like to tell Rahm to stop trying to turn the Demoratic Party into Republican Lite, you can "go positive for Pera" and donate to Lipinski's Blue America primary challenger here.

http://blueamerica.firedoglake.com/

Submitted by Part of the 97 ... on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 10:12pm.

Edwards The Great White Dope!

The candidate for the folks who just ain't ready!

__________________

Yer ridicule is well warranted.

After all, we might go 'n elect an incurious chippy man-child who thinks invadin' 'n occupyin' a country we ain't got no quarrel with is a good idea.

And then where would we be, I axes you?

Fucked, that's where.

Good thing we gots political sages like you lookin' out for us, Wado.

And President Tabby is not afraid of competition, like the Dems and Reps are....

Meow...mo fo... :)

Health Insurance: It’s Always Something, Isn’t It?
By: Christy Hardin Smith Tuesday January 15, 2008 8:45 am

Oklahoma Senate candidate Andrew Rice, on his family's recent tussle with their health insurance provider after their 11-month-old son was hospitalized for pneumonia (via BlueOklahoma):

One month later we learned that our health insurance company was refusing to pay the $10,000 hospital bill because they said our baby Parker had a "pre-existing condition." I'm not kidding. When we argued that baseless reason away, they changed their excuse to "improper notification" by the treating physician, and said it was not a big deal because the hospital would just "write it off." They don't think it is a "big deal" to avoid providing the coverage we pay them for every month, and instead have the Oklahoma taxpayer foot the bill. That tells you something about how they see the world.

Not until they learned that Apple is a physician did the insurance company bureaucrats finally admit they had made a mistake and agreed to pay the legitimate claim....

The career politicians in Washington do not have the courage and integrity to reform this system, while 47 million Americans go uninsured and those of us who are insured must fight a system that is structured to deny claims first and ask questions later! (emphasis mine)

When you contrast Andrew's record with that of current Sen. James Inhofe as Senate2008Guru has done, the need for real change becomes crystal clear.

We have had our own family battles with insurers, and they usually end at the point where I mention both my husband and I are lawyers and can read our coverage provisions -- and say the words "bad faith." It is beyond annoying to have to go through this while paying substantial monthly premiums for coverage. Especially given that most folks throw up their hands in disgust and just pay for things that ought to be covered.

Which is really the point, isn't it? Profit by attritrion.

Let's ask tough questions on health care, beginning with those that Ian points out in this thought-provoking post on our current system and potential changes. And this one about costs to all of us. Because it isn't just Andrew Rice: Jane has battled her insurer on whether her surgery to remove invasive breast cancer and subsequent chemo was "medically necessary." I've had hassles with my chronic lupus diagnosis, but not to the extent that Jane has the last year or so. My point? We are both well-informed consumers who aren't afraid to speak up if there is an issue...and yet we haggle, too.

So long as insurance companies are for profit enterprises, their goal will not be the best health care possible. It will be this -- not paying claims. That is the truth of it, because that is how they profit. For real change, we need better, smarter folks elected to represent OUR interests, not just the biggest contingent of lobbyists and campaign cash.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/01/15/health-insurance-its-always-something-...

all canidates will enforce ROTC funding rules.
No talk about peace dept. here.

Is An Edwards Surprise Looming In Nevada?
By: Blue Texan Tuesday January 15, 2008 7:00 am

I'm relieved that Obama and Clinton have called off the dogs (though I'd like to see the key surrogates involved whacked). But has their bickering given Edwards new life in Nevada?

For the first time since polling began in the Silver State, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has taken a slight lead over U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, and former U.S. John Edwards has come within shooting distance of the two front-runners.

Of 500 likely Democratic caucus-goers surveyed, 32 percent favored Obama, 30 percent favored Clinton, and 27 percent favored Edwards.

It's up for grabs. And this is impressive (emphasis mine):

Most surprising was Edwards' standing, which jumped 15 points from the last RGJ poll in November. Edwards was second in Iowa and third in New Hampshire and has not campaigned in Nevada since those contests.

Think about that. He hasn't been there and he's surging. Compare and contrast his media coverage with Willard's or Grandpa's and ask yourself why he's not getting more press.

If Edwards wins Nevada, all bets are off. He'll get a big bump and 2 weeks of fawning press as the "Comeback Kid" before he returns to the state that he won in 2004. Stranger things have happened -- let's not anoint anyone just yet.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/01/15/is-an-edwards-surprise-looming-in-neva...

quake in terror... She will sing again!
USER NAV

well all righty then... !

I'm not for building more nuclear power plants.

personal surge, not unlike the push Huckabee got, Paul got and even Obama. I'm hoping the public got pissed at the "race debate debacle" this week and takes a fresh look at Edwards as the guy "above the fray".

Talk it up peeps, talk it up!

Fuck the M$M! What do they know?

Remember Hamp-sha!!!

;-)

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

How's your evening?

You're runnin' late!

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

Feeds the homeless and hungry

MONEY POOR...

ahead of Dennis, only 2000 vote difference.

Hellllooooo.. :)

I had a Girlscouts meeting. :-)

I still have plenty of cookies, but unfortunately, everyone, I'm sorry to inform ya'll that we're sold out of 'lemonades' and 'peanut butter sammiches.'

...if you send me a case of thin mints!

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

My Sunday School teacher's wife's dad was in the same class as MLK...

and I had to study that letter from birmingham jail in my "Philosophy of Law" class.

Tragic that the only speech he wrote that people really know is the "I Have A Dream" one. He wrote. Alot.

You know what to do with that little comment of yours -

Edwards The Great White Dope!

The candidate for the folks who just ain't ready!

» shove it up your ass!!!

Howdy girlfriend....hope all is well with you & yours.
Tanks for posting that letter by the way. :)

I liked it too. The caption above it says 'panther' so I guess it's possible that that's a baby panther...

just need an addy and prepayment! :)

I read that you're not feeling well! Would have sent a card but didn't have your email. Hope you're feeling better!

Debate Thread #3
By: Jane Hamsher Tuesday January 15, 2008 7:09 pm

Clinton taking 60% of Michigan vote.

Bowers: "Liberals and Latinos are now the swing voters that will determine the Democratic nominee."

If that's true, as a liberal, I think a little ass-kissing is in order. I'd like to see the candidate who is brave enough to go against Rush Limbaugh's decades of denigrating me and tell me they think being a liberal is a good thing.

Also, both Clinton and Obama are good pals with Rahm Emanuel. A hundred bucks to the first person who asks either of them, on video, what they think of Rahm's enforcement-only immigration bill which has no path to citizenship.

More here:

http://firedoglake.com/2008/01/15/debate-thread-3/

Thanks for this link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR200801...

It's weird but it's only within the last few years that I heard that John Dingell's spouse, Debbie Dingell, was one of the most powerful D's in the country, and a GM exec. The auto giants were never really friends to working people in Michigan, but they played one in the media. Explains John's mostly good but stupid when it comes to the auto industry voting record.

I used to be disgusted, then I tried to be amused...
(Elvis Costello - Red Shoes)
now I'm back to disgusted.

* Are concerned about the poor
* Are concerned about the health of the planet
* Are concerned about the well being of your peers
* Are concerned about the future of *everyone's* children
* Are concerned about the continuance of our democracy
* Actually inhaled and enjoyed it

I'm glad to spend time with ya!

Having said that, I'm outta here cuz I can't take any more mush!

(Sucks being an early riser in this crowd.)

G'nite!

___
brr
Keep your head in the sand and you can't see who's kicking your ass.
☯

Dennis is way better than that comparison.

All good candidates. Epic difference.

USER NAV

You vote today?

Just curious if you went fer Mittens (b/c ever GOP vampire desires a fellow blood-sucking neck to chew on) or went for Dem uncommitted or some other.

(separate point: fwiw, I reconnize -- think it were pbtrue? -- the ideer behind illusorily backin' folks like Paul, but unless backin' Paul is a game-changer, it don't amount to much. Think the Mittens strammegy come together right nice -- McCain ain't the heir apparent b/c Mittens won one, 'n alla the GOP pygmies is got new life and the Gooper blood-letting continues apace. You don't get that GOP money-wastin' fratricidal result by upping Ron Paul's percentage from 6 to 8%.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z77RQ9IUdmg

There is a choice to be made.

Hillary or Obama? End of story.

Later! I'm not sure if I've ever responded to your posts, but it's always good to see you. I've lurked at a lot of AAR sites since day one, and I forget which one you were the postiest with the mostiest at, but I'm so glad to see you being here now.

Transit Panel Urges Gas Tax Increase
By HOPE YEN | Associated Press Writer
6:39 PM CST, January 15, 2008

WASHINGTON - Federal gasoline taxes should be increased up to 40 cents per gallon over five years, a divided special commission urged Tuesday in calling for drastic changes to fix aging bridges and roads and reduce traffic deaths.

The two-year study by the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission is the first to propose broad changes after the devastating bridge collapse in Minneapolis that took 13 lives last August shone a spotlight on the deteriorating national infrastructure. Calling for immediate action, the congressionally created panel warned that "applying patches" is no longer acceptable. It said the nation risks tens of thousands of highway casualties each year and millions of dollars lost in economic growth.

"The crisis is now," the report said.

The 68-page compilation of findings and recommendations, which were supported by nine of the 12 members on the commission, is expected to re-ignite congressional and political debate over raising gasoline taxes. The gas tax has not been increased since 1993, and recent efforts by Congress to increase it have faltered, due in part to objections from the Bush administration.

The commission was expected to present its findings Thursday to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and to a Senate panel later this month, but House Republican leaders quickly said they would oppose a tax hike.

"A dramatic increase in the gas tax does not stand a snowball's chance in hell of passing Congress," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., the top Republican on the House Transportation panel.

In a 10-page dissent, the commission's chairwoman, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, and two other members agreed with several aspects of the report but sharply criticized the proposal for higher gasoline taxes. She and the two commissioners are calling instead for sole reliance on tolls and private investment, which Peters said would avoid sending millions of dollars of new tax revenue to Washington that could end up as congressional pork.

More here

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-transportation-fun...

or did watch the Green Party debate....?

Is this what you're telling me?

No one?

:(

the Democratic debate.

DEBATE LIVEBLOGGING....And we're off. It's our first Kucinich-less debate.

10:35 — More Michigan news: Romney beat Huckabee among evangelicals. Interesting. Overall, though, it's surprising how little difference there is in the vote between various demographic groups on the Republican side. One big difference: voters who like the Bush administration went strongly for Romney, while those who are angry with Bush went strongly for McCain.

10:31 — According to the Michigan exit polls, Democrats who voted in the Republican primary mostly voted for McCain. I guess Kos's effort to goose the vote for Romney didn't work. Oh well.

10:24 — Obama voted for the 2005 energy bill? I didn't know that. Hillary calls it the "Dick Cheney lobbyist energy bill," which is just about right. Hillary wins this one on points.

10:22 — Now everyone is agreeing that Yucca Mountain is the worst idea since New Coke. Yawn.

10:18 — Exactly zero difference between the candidates on whether college campuses should be required to allow military recruiting. Surprisingly, everyone is in favor of treating our young men and women in the military with the utmost respect.

10:08 — Edwards is now trying to insist that keeping a strike force in Kuwait is far different than keeping a strike force in Iraq. Obama calls it a distinction without a difference. I wouldn't go quite that far, but there's really not much daylight between the candidates on this anymore.

10:02 — Hillary's question for Obama: Will he cosponsor my legislation that requires President Bush to get congressional approval for any long-term agreement with Iraq? This is pretty clever, no? It establishes good anti-war cred for Hillary, places her squarely in the "working together" camp, puts Obama in the position of being her junior partner, and threw Obama off his stride for a few moments.

9:51 — Everybody agrees that the bankruptcy law was a bad idea. Glad we got that cleared up.

9:50 — On a purely aesthetic note, Hillary could really stand to turn down the volume a notch.

9:39 — Back from the break. Finally, we're done with the attempt to spark a catfight. I hope.

9:29 — Greatest strength and greatest weakness? Obviously "greatest weakness" will be completely bogus, but "greatest strength," while also bogus, at least tells us what image each candidate wants to project. And I have to say, I'm in awe of just how closely all three of them confirmed their own stereotypes. Obama: The ability to bring people together. Edwards: Fighting for children and families. Clinton: You have to be able to manage and run the bureacracy.

9:25 — More news from Michigan: Hillary Clinton has handily beaten "Uncommitted." And all without running any negative ads.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_01/012907.php

That happened a while ago and is on youtube and has 450 views. This is live and historical.

Have you been hitting the CatNip too?

USER NAV

TAMIFLU

think she would do better fighting Al Queda than Obama?

I don't see how she is more prepared.

Not dissing Dennis, just Giulaini. Very low Dem turnout.
Hillary almost beat Romney.
She sounding just like Bush right know. From the side, she is starting to like like Madeline Albright.

dr,
So...what do you call a female Michigander?

two days ago...

I wish I were hitting the C/N.
Where is Sunshine Jim when you need him??

Alice - everyhting good on your end of the world??

"Also, both Clinton and Obama are good pals with Rahm Emanuel. A hundred bucks to the first person who asks either of them, on video, what they think of Rahm's enforcement-only immigration bill which has no path to citizenship."

http://firedoglake.com/2008/01/15/debate-thread-3/

Toots?

Debate and so revealing. What did you get out of it? I like all of em.

USER NAV

girlfriend?

DON'T THINK SHE IS.

everything - I do know how to spell - its just that sometimes I...oh never mind!

-Kat Swift

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3hOiDDUZe8
On the "spoiler" question...

(Jerry Lewis voice:)

Hey, Mich-EE-gan LAdy! with the Detroit and the thing...

Transgander???

That's the main reason I posted it.

Emanual! Scurge of the Dem party!! Blue dog.

:)

pretty close
Qs
Barack 20
Hillary 19
Edwards 18

he is on a comeback???

Rajah,
You owe me a setup.

Tweety is so ready to tongue bath Hillary. Who knew? *snark*

USER NAV

Seems Sexist

Submitted by Crank Bait on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 10:54pm.

dr,
So...what do you call a female Michigander?

______________

You silly goose!

Just take a Mrs.-a-gander.

Rudy "I Flushed My Rep Down the Toilet By Running for President and All I Got Was This Lousy 3%" Giuliani Update
We're on a commercial break from the debate. And I wanted to do a Rudy update. At the moment, Ron Paul has twice Rudy's number, with more than 3/4 of the vote counted, though Rudy is edging out uncommitted.

In fairness, Rudy's also beating Duncan Hunter, though I'm not sure I realized he was still in the race.

--Josh Marshall

Nevada Debate Blogging 4.0
10:55 PM ... Russert to Edwards: Was It Appropriate for you to talk to Musharraf like I do?

--Josh Marshall

...Several dozen people -- including a pilot, county constable and business owners -- insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.

"People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times," said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts."........
...

I thought that was a very informative debate.

I was an Obama supporter before the debate and am even more enthusiastic about him being our next president after listening to the debate. I liked his ability to put his answers into context. To be able to tell a story that brings meaning to his positions. He came across very thoughtful in his answers. And, he got several responses of laughter from the audience. Hillary looked like she didn't feel well or something. And, Edwards, is passionate in his responses. But, to me his answers, like Hillary's, seemed like stump speeches more than Obama's. I'm not criticizing people here who support Hillary or Edwards. This is just my take on the evening. I am glad I watched. Signing off.

Is giving the Democratic Party response to Bush's State of the Union address on January 28th. :-)

And, she's running for Senate in 2010.

And I look for her to one day be in the White House.

But, we shall see...

That's Kathleen Sebelius. Ms. I KICK ASS :-)

http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2008/01/sebelius_to_del....

ya, that's right down the road. But it's the Bible belt so.....

I wanna repeat

USER NAV

Beck: FDR ‘was one evil son of a b*tch.’ Today on his CNN Headline News show, Glenn Beck went on a rant against former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, blaming him for making the Great Depression “go on and on and on for a decade.” He then added:

I have to tell you, I said on my radio show today, I`m beginning to come to a place where I just — I love my grandfather, but I just want to slap himself across the face for liking FDR. I think that was one evil son of a bitch.

Watch it:

Chris Achorn at My Two Sense notes that “without FDR, people wouldnt be getting social security checks, and he led this nation during World War 2, and helped defeat both Hitler and Mussolini before his death in 1945. Beck is at odds with, well pretty much everyone.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/15/beck-fdr-was-one-evil-son-of-a-btch/

NEW YORK - At least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have committed a killing or been charged in one in the United States after returning from combat, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The newspaper said it also logged 349 homicides involving all active-duty military personnel and new veterans in the six years since military action began in Afghanistan, and later Iraq. That represents an 89-percent increase over the previous six-year period, the newspaper said.
...

Hillary wants to change the bankruptcy laws
Submitted by toniD on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 9:53pm.
But what about putting a cap on how much interest these companies can charge? There used to be caps!

Hillary is still kowtowing to these corporations.

_________________________

Who voted against this legislation (that was an amendment to the bankruptcy law in 2005)?

Was he "kowtowing to these corporations" when he voted on this legislation?

Does it matter why he voted against the legislation?

Where do the candidates stand on various issues?

Cui Bono?

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

Amendment Number: S. Amdt. 31 to S. 256

Statement of Purpose:

To limit the amount of interest that can be charged on any extension of credit to 30 percent.

---------

Link:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm...

-------

Cui Bono?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cui_bono

Happy Birthday Captain Beefheart

Capain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Detroit '71

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

Captain Beefheart - Peaches, French TV '74

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIXjfVD880o

Maybe his magic panties helped.

Roundtable Interview of the President by Print, Wire and Television Reporters
Guest Palace
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Fact sheet Middle East Trip

1:16 P.M. (Local)

MS. PERINO: We'll start on the record, just some general comments and answer a couple of questions. And then if you feel like you want to go off the record, then we'll ask them to turn their tape recorders off.

THE PRESIDENT: Okay, I'd like to go off the record. (Laughter.)
...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWOArdN3A5g
You just want to get out the duct tape.

Leather Lips
USER NAV

January 15, 2008 -- The "Press" is in revolt in Washington, DC

From the production shop of Washington's signature newspaper, the Washington Post, to the 100-year old National Press Club, journalists and newspaper support workers are up in arms over the further attempts to corporatize the Fourth Estate.

Washington area commuters have recently been treated to an advertising campaign sponsored by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) decrying attempts by Washington Post management to raid the production workers' pension fund and its failure to provide workers with a pay raise for five years. The CWA has posted clever ads attacking the Post in Metro stations and on Metro buses.

The campaign has earned the union workers the support of journalists throughout Washington, including those at the Post. Post journalists and editors managed to publish one article in the Post about the CWA campaign. In a January 3, 2008 article in the Post, reporter Thomas Heath reported, "Some of the print ads use the names of the newspaper's sections to help get their point across. For example: 'Some employees are going on five years without a raise. Is kicking workers around a SPORT at the Post?' 'OUTLOOK not good for Post workers looking for fair wages.'"

The Washington Post Company, the parent of the Post, actually earns more revenue from its test preparation and education subsidiary, Kaplan, Inc. Washington Post publisher and CEO Donald Graham has relaunched his firm as an "education and media company." Through its non-journalism-related business link, the Post has been subsumed by an elitist corporate culture rather than a journalistic one committed to the public welfare.

The January 3 Post article pointed out the CWA's biggest point, "The Post reported a profit of $324.5 million in 2006 and 'handed out millions in executive compensation. Despite this, our workers continue to receive nothing. No raises. No parity. No help on health care.'"

Veteran journalists at the National Press Club were in revolt over plans to move the Eric Friedheim Library, a resource for investigative reporters, from the confines of the National Press Club to the fourth floor of the National Press Building in order to open additional event rental space for outside entities. The plans -- reportedly tabled for the time being -- were coupled with the announcement of a strategic relationship between the National Press Club and the insurance giant, Aviva, something that earned a pointed barb from veteran Baltimore Sun columnist and TV pundit Jack Germond at a recent public event at which the partnership was announced.

...

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20080115

Look at this. Alan Greenspan just joined a hedge fund which made huge profits short (or betting against) sub-prime housing in the United States. Greenspan was the one who largely created this bubble.

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article3342208.ece

3 pages and growing of the first things she will do as President.

Journalists at the Voice of America (VOA) have long been up in arms over the move by the Bush administration and members of the International Broadcasting Board (IBB) to shut down traditionally independent VOA radio broadcasts into key parts of the world and provide more support for more politically-biased broadcasts that hew to the neocon line. The move to close some VOA broadcasts were supported by then-Broadcasting Board of Governors Chairman Ken Tomlinson, a longtime friend of right-wing GOP operatives, including Karl Rove, who was recently signed up by the Washington Post Company's other major publication, Newsweek, as a columnist.

The IBB favors forcing international listeners of the VOA to broadcasts by Alhurra, the Arabic language satellite TV channel; Radio Sawa, the Arabic language radio network; Radio Farda, the Persian language radio station that broadcasts into Iran; Radio Free Afghanistan; Radio TV Marti, that broadcasts into Cuba; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that broadcasts into the former USSR and Eastern Europe; and Radio Free Asia, that broadcasts into China, North Kore, Southeast Asia, and Tibet. The curtailment of VOA broadcasts is also intended to force more people to the right-wing satellite networks operated by Rupert Murdoch's worldwide media empire.

Clearly, Washington journalists are beginning to stand up to the corporate tycoons who have tried to turn the Fourth Estate into an echo chamber for corporate propagandists and right-wing political agendas.

Greenspan scams public

Submitted by ottilie on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 11:27pm.

November 14, 1991

Credit card interest rate caps discussed
In 1991, the American economy was in the throes of a slump. Political and fiscal leaders cast about for ways to reverse these woes and on this day, the press reported that President Bush and the Senate were mulling a move to place limits on credit card interest rates. Needless to say, this notion didn't sit well with Wall Street; a day of panicked trading ensued and the Dow posted a hefty 120-point loss.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleYear&id=...

I am not saying Dick Cheney is crooked, but...

I am not saying Dick Cheney is crooked, but...

Credit card companies sidestep usury laws
By Lucy Lazarony • Bankrate.com
For hundreds of years, societies all over the world have protected borrowers by limiting interest rates charged by lenders.

But in today's credit card market, American borrowers are on their own.

Less than half of all U.S. states bother to cap credit card interest rates, and few credit card issuers are based in these states anyway.

Most major credit card issuers are based in states without usury laws and without interest rate caps on credit cards. Banks and credit card issuers based in these states can charge any interest rate they wish -- as long as the rate is listed in the cardholder agreement and the borrower agrees.

And thanks to a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court decision, these the-sky's-the-limit rate policies dominate the credit card business.

State of interest rates
In Marquette vs. First Omaha Service Corp., the Supreme Court ruled that a national bank could charge the highest interest rate allowed in their home state to customers living anywhere in the United States, including states with restrictive interest caps.

"It's whatever is agreed to in the contract," says Michael Donovan, a consumer attorney and partner at Donovan Searles in Philadelphia.

"They can export rates to other states and override state law limits."

When it comes to credit card interest rates, the law in a lender's home state rules. It doesn't matter what kind of rate cap exists in a customer's state.

A funny thing happened after the Marquette ruling. Major credit card companies began relocating to states with liberal or no usury laws. New York-based powerhouse Citibank moved its credit card business to South Dakota in 1981.

"Citibank went to South Dakota, not because South Dakota was a banking center but because it had that particular law," Donovan says.

In 1982, the four largest banks in Maryland relocated their credit card operations to Delaware because of that state's lender-friendly credit card laws. Other states with lender-friendly credit laws include Georgia, Illinois, Nebraska, Nevada, Rhode Island and Utah.

To hang on to the credit card business, many other states loosened state usury limits.

In the early '80s, most states capped credit card interest rates between 12 percent and 18 percent. Today's caps are in the 18-percent to 24-percent range.

Hawaii and the District of Columbia cap credit card interest rates at 24 percent, which isn't much of a cap at all. Missouri caps card rates at 22 percent. And Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wyoming allow credit card interest rates up to 21 percent.

"The unmistakable dynamic is in the direction of deregulation," says Mathew Street, associate general counsel at the American Bankers Association. "The states have moved in the direction of raising the caps or removing the caps."

The low-rate state
One exception is the state of Arkansas. Arkansas' state constitution has kept a tight lid on interest rates for more than 125 years. Amendment 60 to the constitution, approved in 1982, caps interest rates at 5 percent above the federal discount rate. Because of this, Arkansas banks offer some of the lowest credit card rates in the country.

"It's a wonderful thing for our consumers," says Todd Turner, a consumer attorney based in Arkadelphia, Ark.

Every time banks and businesses tried to change the amendment, consumers voted them down.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20020320a.asp

January 15, 2008 -- The ties that bind -- Ehrlich's support for Giuliani

It should come as no surprise that former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich came out as an early supporter of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani for president. Ehrlich's assumption of the role as Giuliani's Mid-Atlantic Regional Chairman was not the first time that Ehrlich was involved in a "Mid-Atlantic" enterprise with Giuliani.

The investigation of top Republicans involved in the Pamela Martin & Associates (PMA) scandal by former US Attorney for Maryland Tom DiBiagio not only focused on Ehrlich's gubernatorial office in Annapolis but also involved the indictment and conviction of former Baltimore Police Commissioner and Ehrlich's state police superintendent Ed Norris for using PMA escorts for trysts that reportedly involved trips to New York City. Norris was hired away from the New York Police Department (NYPD) to be Baltimore Police Commissioner in 2000. Norris and Giuliani's former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, also indicted by federal authorities, were colleagues in the NYPD.

In his endorsement of Giuliani, Ehrlich stated, "As Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani cut taxes, took on crime and government waste." One might ask Ehrlich what he meant when he said Giuliani "took on government waste." More like Giuliani "took up government waste," along with Ehrlich and Baltimore's and New York's top cops.

Kerik was reported by the New York Times to have used a south Manhattan apartment donated for the use of exhausted Ground Zero rescue workers as a bachelor pad for his parties. Giuliani was also accused of misusing city money for his extra-marital trysts.

The nexus of Ehrlich, under investigation for his involvement in the PMA scandal; Norris, indicted in a sex scandal involving Baltimore public funds; Giuliani, also accused of misusing public funds and personnel; and Kerik, indicted for public corruption, makes the Baltimore-New York connection all the more interesting. Giuliani's "Mid-Atlantic Region" appears to have as much to do with corruption as it does with politics.

What is it with Chris Matthews?

Why is he so obsessed with Hillary Clinton?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6o_IuvWOJ8

Ick...
What a question!

I'm not upset that you asked, I'm irritated that I'm foggy on the what and why of what I did.

Yep, I voted.

I loved the Mayberry Machiavellianess of voting for Romney (seems like a Michigan tradition), but I couldn't do it. I've had too many jokes blow up in my face. I also went to the poll after breakfast... didn't want to spew on the poll workers. My city is heavy Republican, they belong to christian churches but don't have a christian sensibility. Anyway, it was FUBAR. The Roman Catholic church that is my polling place would not allow the poll workers access to the building and machines for training (I heard anecdotes from the volunteers). I voted when they opened and it was a weird combo of fascist and sloppy. People there were very good about checking picture IDs, demanding you justify your existance and rights, but they didn't know they had to initial ballot requests, or anything else. They just knew they had to make sure that there weren't any people trying to pull a fast one on 'em.

I love the poll volunteers but they were sincerely effed-over too.

Oh, btw, I ended up casting a vote for Dennis the Menace. I would have voted for Dodd if he hadn't withdrawn. If I had a full slate, I would have gone for Edwards. (When we kill all the lawyers, I don't want to sink the ones that will help me against the big bucks folks, I want to 86 the corporate law sharks!) I like that Dodd after withdrawing still seems to have beaten Gravel, not that it matters. I suspect a lot of Obama and Edwards peeps went for the R ballot. That's what people told me. Of course, Nixon supporters that I knew back in the day claim they never did any such thing. Well, gosh!

More than you wanted to know, perhaps? I am sorry but sometimes I just have to expel the crap. Thanks for asking and apologies if that was a bit too much.

I don't feel like I voted. I feel like I got mugged again.

must at last be an accepted mainstream USAmerican hero because I am now seeing MLK B-day sales ballyhooing:
We have "Dream" deals.

Progress?

I am not sayin' that Dick Cheney is crooked, but the Cayman Islands have added a pheasant season.

http://www.dirtyangels.net/data/12/Better_Days_by_MissTree.jpg

I could use a drink and a smoke.

Submitted by Cat Chew on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 11:41pm.

I loved the Mayberry Machiavellianess of voting for Romney (seems like a Michigan tradition), but I couldn't do it. I've had too many jokes blow up in my face.

__________________

Onay, otay Rom Ney.

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Wednesday, January 16, 2008, National Call-In Day
Congressman Robert Wexler is organizing his colleagues to ask House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers to begin Cheney impeachment hearings. Wexler is asking his fellow Judiciary Committee Members to co-sign a letter to Conyers. We support Wexler in this, and we are also asking congress members not on the committee to send their own letters to Conyers. Please Email your Congress Member here:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/125

Then please call the Capitol Hill Switchboard: (202) 224-3121. They can tell you who your Congress Member is if you don't know, and they can connect you to their office. Ask your representative to urge Chairman Conyers to begin impeachment hearings against Dick Cheney. This is especially important if your representative is a member of the Judiciary Committee. Once you've sent your Email and made your phone call, please urge everyone you know to do the same. If you have further time to help advance impeachment, please call and Email the media.

Do you happen to have an opinion on the meaning of that,
or are you archiving?

http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/4987-impeach-dick-cheney

Which is more of a threat to your health: Al Qaeda or the Department of Homeland Security?

An intriguing new study suggests the answer is not so clear-cut. Although it’s impossible to calculate the pain that terrorist attacks inflict on victims and society, when statisticians look at cold numbers, they have variously estimated the chances of the average person dying in America at the hands of international terrorists to be comparable to the risk of dying from eating peanuts, being struck by an asteroid or drowning in a toilet.

But worrying about terrorism could be taking a toll on the hearts of millions of Americans. The evidence, published last week in the Archives of General Psychiatry, comes from researchers who began tracking the health of a representative sample of more than 2,700 Americans before September 2001. After the attacks of Sept. 11, the scientists monitored people’s fears of terrorism over the next several years and found that the most fearful people were three to five times more likely than the rest to receive diagnoses of new cardiovascular ailments.

Almost all the people in the study lived outside New York or Washington and didn’t know any victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. But more than a 10th of them reported acute stress symptoms (like insomnia or nightmares) right after the attacks, and over the next three years more than 40 percent said they kept worrying about a terrorist attack affecting themselves or a family member.

Their worries were understandable, given the continual warnings from Washington. Officials repeatedly raised the color-coded level of the National Threat Advisory and sometimes explicitly warned of imminent attacks from terrorist cells supposedly operating in America. The alert level has never dropped below yellow (the third of the five levels). About a third to a half of Americans have continued to tell pollsters that they’re personally worried about being victims of a terrorist attack, and that an attack is somewhat or very likely within several months.

“It’s amazing how enduring these feelings of fear are, but look at what’s been going on,” said Alison Holman, a professor of nursing science at the University of California, Irvine, the lead author of the study. “I’d be surprised if those terrorist alerts didn’t contribute in some way to the ongoing worry about terrorism in our sample.”

Another of the authors, Roxane Cohen Silver, also at U.C. Irvine, is a psychologist who is on an advisory council to the Homeland Security Department.

“I’ve regularly pointed out to the department that there are psychological consequences to the raising of the alert,” Dr. Silver said. “Now we’re demonstrating that it may have physical consequences.”

The researchers caution that they’re not sure how serious the physical consequences are, because they’re relying on people reporting that their doctors have diagnosed new cardiovascular ailments. Also, studies like this show correlations, rather than an identifiable cause and effect. But since the researchers have taken into account reports of people’s health problems and anxiety that were collected before Sept. 11, and the levels of lifetime and continuing stress, they’re confident they’ve identified a worrisome increase in heart disease.

After controlling for various factors (age, obesity, smoking, other ailments and stressful life events), the researchers found that the people who were acutely stressed after the 9/11 attacks and continued to worry about terrorism — about 6 percent of the sample — were at least three times more likely than the others in the study to be given diagnoses of new heart problems.

If you extrapolate that percentage to the adult population of America, it works out to more than 10 million people. No one knows what fraction of them might consequently die of a stroke or heart attack — plenty of other factors affect heart disease — but if it were merely 0.0003 percent, that would be higher than the 9/11 death toll.

Of course, statistics of any sort, even when the numbers are rock solid, don’t mean much to people when they’re assessing threats. Risk researchers have found that even when people know the numbers, they’re less worried about death tolls than about how the deaths occur. They have good reasons — called “rival rationalities” — for fearing catastrophes that kill large numbers at once because these events affect the whole community and damage the social fabric.

But continual fear of terrorism is a strain on the social fabric, too. People become reluctant to even get together when public spaces are turned into fortified zones. Civil liberties erode and mistrust increases when the authorities keep warning of lurking terrorists and urging people to report “suspicious” activity, as in the ubiquitous advertisements in the New York subways exhorting people to call in tips to a counterterrorism hot line.

The sponsors of the New York campaign were so pleased with the results that they papered the subways with congratulations to the riders: “Last year, 1,944 New Yorkers saw something and said something.” But as William Neuman reported in The Times, the ads neglected to mention the number of terrorists arrested as a result of the tips: zero.

Meanwhile, how many subway riders were given diagnoses of new heart problems after riding to work every morning looking at ads reminding them that they might be blown to bits any second? Not zero, if you believe the new study.

Even before this study, some doctors were arguing that terrorism wasn’t nearly as dangerous as the related “epidemic of fear,” as Marc Siegel called it in a 2005 book, “False Alarm.” Dr. Siegel, of the New York University School of Medicine, pointed to studies linking fear of terrorism with increased risk of heart arrhythmias and elevated levels of an enzyme that correlates with heart disease.

“The fear response causes the heart to pump harder and faster, the nerves to fire more quickly,” Dr. Siegel said. “Excess triggering of this system of response causes the organs to wear down. For a person who is always on the alert, the result is a burned out body.”

It’s not fair to blame public officials alone for this fear epidemic. We in the news media have done our part to scare people. But since there hasn’t been an attack in America for six years, for domestic drama we’ve had to rely on dire predictions of politicians and security officials.

What if the alerts stopped? What if the security officials looked at this new medical evidence — or at their own perfect record of false alarms — and decided that the nation did not need to be in a perpetual state of yellow alert? What if they even decided that Americans could survive without any color at all?

I guess that’s a hopeless fantasy. No politician wants to be blamed for failing to anticipate a terrorist attack. No bureaucrats willingly abandon a system that keeps them employed.

But maybe these officials could be induced to take one more precaution. The next time they raise the threat level to orange or red, they could add, “Warning: Heeding this alert may be hazardous to your health.”

http://www.insteadof.com/TerrorAttack/p34.htm

38 PROJECT GREENSTAR

As early as 1961, advisors to the late President Kennedy recommended that with the threat of nuclear war hanging over the future, civilized nations could no longer risk overt confrontations that would lead to war, since even conventional war could escalate to Armageddon. If war was necessary it would have to be invisible. It was either invisible warfare or peace, and everyone seemed to agree the economy would "suffer" from peace. Without war, it was believed, the economy would falter and depression would be the dividend of peace. Thus the advisors to the president began to think about what might motivate the U.S. economy as well as war did. They came up with several possibilities, the most fantastic of which was to fake an invasion from outer space...

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

The world needs protected. We need one world command.
We need the New World Order.

It's all in the plan.

Probably Have Toilet Paper Stuck On A Shoe, Too

Submitted by Crank Bait on Mon, 01/14/2008 - 11:12am.
-------------------

inept: 1.) Not apt or fitting; inappropriate.
[Latin ineptus : in-, not; see in–1 + aptus, suitable; see apt.]
----
apt: [Middle English, from Old French apte, from Latin aptus, past participle of apere, to fasten.]
-----------
I love etymology. Since "in" means "not" and "ept" is derived from "apt" which is derived from "aptus" which is the Latin past participle of "apere" which means "to fasten," it could be said that inept means that your fly is down...which is pretty close to accurate.

_______________________

Crank Bait reveals his love of etymology.

Those Latin past participles are hot!

I liked this post, Crank Bait.

n.b. Amantes sunt amentes!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh_Y_WOL2ew
Green Presidential Debate - Ralph Nader
January 13th, 2008
32 minutes

Beset by growing economic concerns on top of the long unpopular war in Iraq, President Bush starts the last year of his presidency with the worst approval rating of his career.

Just 32 percent of Americans now approve of the way Bush is handling his job, while 66 percent disapprove. Bush's work on the economy has likewise reached a new low. And he shows no gain on Iraq; despite reduced violence there, 64 percent say the war was not worth fighting, 2 points from its high.

Given these complaints, 77 percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the country is headed off on the wrong track -- the most since the federal government shut down in a deeply unpopular budget battle in early 1996.

Three post-World War II presidents have gone lower than Bush in overall approval -- Jimmy Carter (28 percent), Richard Nixon (24 percent) and Harry Truman (22 percent). But after three straight years in the doghouse, Bush is just two months away from Truman's record of 38 months without majority approval -- far beyond any other.

Bush's ratings have stayed remarkably stable lately; he received between 33 and 36 percent approval in nine ABC/Post polls in 2007. The change in this poll, while not statistically significant, marks his first foray below one-third approval.

Intensity of sentiment, moreover, remains very heavily against the president. Fifty-one percent strongly disapprove of his work overall, while just 16 percent strongly approve -- strongly negative by better than a 3-1 ratio.

currently 5 users and 19 guests online.
Online users

* pbtrue1
* Alice
* dr
* Star Vox
* Crank Bait

who's missing and logged in as Anon?

http://chomsky.info/debates/1988----.htm

Noam Chomsky debates with Richard Perle
Ohio State University, 1988

*anothernon

Submitted by Star Vox on Wed, 01/16/2008 - 12:15am.
-----
A considerable length of time after I wrote the post, I wanted to edit one itty-bitty detail. Then I thought, "Aww, fuck it."

The giddy inspiration from a muse is like playing with a cute little puppy at a friend's house in a distant city. When you go back for another visit, it's a slobbering fart factory.

For interested readers of chomsky.info, Professor Chomsky ocassionally answers questions posted to ZCommunications by "Z Sustainers" at:

http://www.zcommunications.org/blog/noamchomsky

*anothernon

What's Done Is Done
Submitted by Crank Bait on Wed, 01/16/2008 - 12:37am.
-----

The giddy inspiration from a muse is like playing with a cute little puppy at a friend's house in a distant city. When you go back for another visit, it's a slobbering fart factory.

__________________

Crank Bait,

The giddy inspiration from a muse is always welcome.
That's what I liked about your post.
It was delightful.

-----------

Dante wrote:

O Muses, O high genius, aid me now!
O memory that engraved the things I saw,
Here shall your worth be manifest to all!

----------

n.b. Felicitas est parvus canis calidus.
[Happiness is a warm puppy.]

Not sure if this was covered in a previous thread or not but we wrote Marc through his official myspace page and he wrote back to say he was sick this morning and that's why he wasn't on the webcast Sammycam show.

I sat through the debate. Thought they all did well. I was happy with it til the end when they were all asked when they decided they wanted to be President.

Um, my favorite candidate says he made up his mind a year or so ago after talking it over with his wife and family.

Excuse me? Weren't you running 4 years ago? Didn't you make up your mind then? and after the election was over you set up camp in Iowa hoping to secure it for 2008?

Never underestimate a politicians ability to lie through their teeth - even the ones you like.

He says shit like he doesn't follow politics but he thinks people want candidates who give a rat's ass about things, who are passionate, and I do think that is true. Thank you, Marc.

G'night, sweethearts!

but he thought some folks cared...
I like listening to him
but I don't like watching him eating.

Up there with my favorite all time comedians. Pryor, Cho, Garofalo, Belzer, Carlin. And he's one of my favorite radio personalities of all time, too. His book isn't half bad either.

I want to hear more of Marc,
but seeing him chomping is disgusting!
Seriously, it is yucky!!!
EW!
Please, please!
Maron v. Seder
should be scheded much later in the PT zone!!!
Puuuuleeeeze!!!!!

Woke up in the middle of the night wondering if they'll figure out a way to harvest the souls of clones for energy.

The philosophical debate would be: does a clone even have a soul? I say, yes, as much as anyone else has a soul. And if this soul is made up of tangible energy - the future Dick Cheney's of the world will likely figure a way to harvest them.

And remember, too: When cloning is outlawed - only outlaws will be cloned.

I'm going to try again to sleep.

Sincerely, I hadn't paid much attention to Maron before AAR. Now, nearly four years later, Maron v. Seder is one of my favorite things.

(Julie Andrews!)

G'night or g'morning.

VERY GOOD!

http://web.mac.com/tcriptide/MaronProopsExp/Movie.html

Link ain't working here but I looove Proops, too! :)
G'night!

i had to open it in internet explorer to get it to work...

so creepy
Submitted by Fernando on Tue, 01/15/2008 - 9:54pm.

posted at the same time as Sam.so creepy
==

Cosmic

You're in Tune Fernando.
: )
.=.=.=.=.=
Jamesbennett

I have a weird PC set-up and issues with Q-time, btw.
G'night, again.

no more picture taking inside the stadium at that show I'm working on.
Had this thought. I should sell what I have already on ebay this morning.

Not a good idea.
.=.=.=.=.=
Jamesbennett

not for me or at least i hope so - flying to Mexico in a couple of hours - i did pack bathing suits and stuff though it was a struggle visualizing beach and sunshine while it's cold and rainy and dark outside

i do not expect to have access to the internet tubes where i'm going - i will see you guys after mardi gras - will be missing a bunch of primaries, you'll's insightful commentary, our dear sam sundays and the marc maron's noshows or barelyshows - i don't know if i can survive all this missing -

love and kisses

Get sneakier!

Take care, be well, don't hurt anybody,
just enjoy, and have fun,

!!xoxox!!

hope it's a superb experience!

http://tinyurl.com/yr35p6
me rig
right up near the roof.

.=.=.=.=.=
Jamesbennett

i love the backstage pix.

night gang, love ya all!

War may stimulate economy because of the clear needs it presents. It is silly to suggest we don't have needs without war, however. Those people took the easy way out imo.

Thanks for the link.

USER NAV

its an interesting point that war can stimulate the economy. of greater interest is that kennedy found a non violent war to fight in the form of the space race. the push to put man on the moon yielded benefits and advances for many years.

we could do this again, although this time it should be a national program for energy independence.

figures.

WTH are we supposed to do at this time with Young Turks off air?

USER NAV

i listen to xm and they have had the bill press show on all week. its also on sirius. its actually a pretty good show, sort of a progressive npr.

looks like the pool of people looking for those tier 1 jobs with great benefits is about to grow a little larger:

The Wall Street Journal reports IndyMac Bancorp (NDE 30.24) announced plans to eliminate 2,403 jobs, or 24% of its work force, and said further reductions are likely, in the latest sign of fallout from the mortgage-default crisis.

isn't it odd that a neocon creationist would believe in survival of the fittest?

i just finished watching the promo piece about macbook air, the worlds thinnest ultraportable and all you can say is wow.

USER NAV

last night, as we all should be. at least the cards are out on the table. the fundamentalists won't be happy till the united states of america is the united states of jesus.

Wow did I crash last night! Good thing, I guess because I didn't have to listen to the fake pundits analize the debate last night.

Blackwater Case Faces Obstacles, Justice Dept. Says
By JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON
WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials have told Congress that they face serious legal difficulties in pursuing criminal prosecutions of Blackwater security guards involved in a September shooting that left at least 17 Iraqis dead.

In a private briefing in mid-December, officials from the Justice and State Departments met with aides to the House Judiciary Committee and other Congressional staff members and warned them that there were major legal obstacles that might prevent any prosecution. Justice officials were careful not to say whether any decision had been made in the matter, according to two of the Congressional staff members who received the briefing.

The staff members, who asked not to be identified, disclosed details of the meeting in interviews this week.

The December briefing took place after a federal grand jury had been convened in the case, suggesting that prosecutors had decided to begin hearing testimony with potential prosecution problems still unresolved.

Justice Department officials said Tuesday that the briefing had principally been held to answer questions concerning those problems, one of which arose when State Department investigators granted Blackwater employees a limited form of immunity for what they disclosed. There are also questions about whether federal law applies to the Blackwater contractors.

Justice officials have acknowledged the potential problems, but they have said they were not insurmountable and reiterated that point on Tuesday.

The September shooting, one of the bloodiest involving private security guards in Iraq, set off furious protests from the Iraqi government and has forced a major reassessment in both the Bush administration and Congress over the role of private contractors in the war zone.

Justice Department officials have not publicly discussed the difficulties they face in pursuing prosecutions in the Blackwater case. But according to Congressional aides who received the closed briefing, Justice officials told them they were concerned about both the gaps in the law and the immunity deal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/washington/16blackwater.html?hp=&pagew...

I crashed too. But I didn't watch the debate because I don't have MSNBC and I think they were ridiculous to disinvite Kucinich.

Saudis reject Bush oil plea
Warning of economic fallout unpersuasive
By Mark Silva | TRIBUNE CORRESPONDENT
January 16, 2008

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The world's leading supplier of oil maintained Tuesday that it will not boost production simply to ease pressure on prices, despite President Bush's warnings here that rising oil prices jeopardize the American and world economies.

The Saudi oil minister's apparent rebuff of Bush's plea for increased production, in a nation that controls one-quarter of the world's known oil reserves, was a rough spot in an otherwise smooth two-day visit for Bush, who arrived in the U.S.-allied kingdom Monday to discuss a $20 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia and the need to contain any regional threats from Iran.

Bush, who has insisted that the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are strong, nevertheless said here that the soaring cost of oil could "slow down" the economy at home. Bush has attempted to cast that as a problem for the Saudis as well: If the world's leading oil consumer has trouble, so will the world.

When consumers have less purchasing power because of high prices of gasoline -- in other words, when it affects their families -- it could cause this economy to slow down," Bush told reporters. "If the economy slows down, there will be less barrels of oil purchased."

Bush, who closed his stay in Saudi Arabia by dining at the royal ranch where King Abdullah keeps 150 Arabian stallions, said beforehand he hoped to impress upon the king "a realization that high energy prices can damage consuming economies."

Saudis stress 'stability'

Yet the Saudis' reluctance was apparent before Bush arrived at the ranch. The Saudi oil minister called a news conference Tuesday to assert that the Saudis will maintain their production of about 2million barrels of oil a day, adjusting it only in the interests of market "stability."

"We will raise production when the market justifies it. This is our policy," said Ali Naimi, minister of petroleum and mineral resources.

Asked about the potential impact of oil prices on the U.S. economy, he said: "What affects the U.S. economy is more than the price of oil." But he added, "A recession in the U.S. is very significant to the oil market and demand. ... I'm sure that no one would look with pleasure upon a recession in the U.S."

Asked about gasoline prices -- and if Americans might ever again see prices below $2 per gallon -- the soft-spoken minister laughed and said: "If I knew the answer to that question, I would be in Las Vegas rather than here."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-bush_silva_16jan16,1,...

i think they should get started by filing charges against the individuals at the state department who granted immunity. perhaps obstruction of justice or conspiracy...

I wasn't happy about the Kucinich thing either but wanted to hear what they had to say.

funny, thats not what the financial papers are saying this morning after yesterdays sell off on the citibank debacle propagated its way thru asia and europe.

i guess its like the nie, if you don't like the truth, you just make shit up.

Huckabee... Line the Constitution up with God's law. I guuess the pork industry should be nervous.

seems more like he wants to line his kitty litter pan with the constitution and have us all pledge allegiance to the old testament.

Well Im too cheap to get cable, s o I couldnt watch anyway.

Still, I knew they wouldn't ask any real questions.

~D|

At least I finally got some sleep

a little b-b-bibing in the city this morning...cold

Responding to Recession
By Paul Krugman
Suddenly, the economic consensus seems to be that the implosion of the housing market will indeed push the U.S. economy into a recession, and that it’s quite possible that we’re already in one. As a result, over the next few weeks we’ll be hearing a lot about plans for economic stimulus.

Since this is an election year, the debate over how to stimulate the economy is inevitably tied up with politics. And here’s a modest suggestion for political reporters. Instead of trying to divine the candidates’ characters by scrutinizing their tone of voice and facial expressions, why not pay attention to what they say about economic policy?

In fact, recent statements by the candidates and their surrogates about the economy are quite revealing.

Take, for example, John McCain’s admission that economics isn’t his thing. “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” he says. “I’ve got Greenspan’s book.”

His self-deprecating humor is attractive, as always. But shouldn’t we worry about a candidate who’s so out of touch that he regards Mr. Bubble, the man who refused to regulate subprime lending and assured us that there was at most some “froth” in the housing market, as a source of sage advice?

Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani wants us to go for broke, literally: his answer to the economy’s short-run problems is a huge permanent tax cut, which he claims would pay for itself. It wouldn’t.

About Mike Huckabee — well, what can you say about a candidate who talks populist while proposing to raise taxes on the middle class and cut them for the rich?

And then there’s the curious case of Mitt Romney. I’m told that he actually does know a fair bit about economics, and he has some big-name Republican economists supporting his campaign. Fears of recession might have offered him a chance to distinguish himself from the G.O.P. field, by offering an economic proposal that actually responded to the gathering economic storm.

I mean, even the Bush administration seems to be coming around to the view that lobbying for long-term tax cuts isn’t enough, that the economy needs some immediate help. “Time is of the essence,” declared Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, last week.

But Mr. Romney, who really needs to take chances at this point, apparently can’t break the habit of telling Republicans only what he thinks they want to hear. He’s still offering nothing but standard-issue G.O.P. pablum about low taxes and a pro-business environment.

On the Democratic side, John Edwards, although never the front-runner, has been driving his party’s policy agenda. He’s done it again on economic stimulus: last month, before the economic consensus turned as negative as it now has, he proposed a stimulus package including aid to unemployed workers, aid to cash-strapped state and local governments, public investment in alternative energy, and other measures.

Last week Hillary Clinton offered a broadly similar but somewhat larger proposal. (It also includes aid to families having trouble paying heating bills, which seems like a clever way to put cash in the hands of people likely to spend it.) The Edwards and Clinton proposals both contain provisions for bigger stimulus if the economy worsens.

And you have to say that Mrs. Clinton seems comfortable with and knowledgeable about economic policy. I’m sure the Hillary-haters will find some reason that’s a bad thing, but there’s something to be said for presidents who know what they’re talking about.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/opinion/14krugman.html?ei=5087&em=&en=...

It's cold here too... 21º

mike malloy here in nyc...i am asleep at 9pm, sorry i wake up at 5am everymorning, so by 8pm i am pooped!!

just saw mitt all over the news with the most beautiful smile on his face this morning..

Nevada Supreme Court rules against Kucinich in debate dispute

LAS VEGAS – A lower court order that Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich be included in a MSNBC candidate debate Tuesday was tossed out a few hours before the debate by the Nevada Supreme Court.
Lawyers for NBC Universal Inc. had asked the high court to overturn the lower court order that the cable TV news network include the Ohio congressman or pull the plug on broadcasting the debate Tuesday night with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

AdvertisementThe Supreme Court's unanimous order said that blocking the debate unless Kucinich got to participate would be “an unconstitutional prior restraint” on the news network's First Amendment rights.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20080115-1723-nv-kucinich-ne...

Translating Huck
Mike Huckabee sounded off earlier today on immigration, saying the U.S. should take a break -- "a hiatus" -- from allowing entry to people from countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism.

His remark, an aside during a campaign stop in South Carolina, could be viewed as an effort to differentiate himself from John McCain on the immigration issue. In a shout out to conservative Republicans, Huck's taking a hard right on a matter about which McCain is decidedly out of sync with GOPers.

The Huckabee edict, let's call it, would forbid entry to folks from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria, the five nations listed on the Secretary of State's watch list.

"He's talking about making sure that countries that have country-sponsored terrorists don't get Visas into our country," said Chip Saltzman, Huck's campaign manager, in an interview on MSNBC.

Kagan: de-Baathification law = ‘civil rights legislation.’In an interview on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, AEI’s Fred Kagan, an architect of President Bush’s “surge” strategy, said the new de-Baathification law is the beginning of a new era of “civil rights legislation” in Iraq:

Well, it’s important, and it really is quite an accomplishment. … [I]t requires the Shia to accept having former Baathists in the government. It requires the Sunni to accept that some Sunni Baathists are not going to be in the government. This was a really, this was sort of their, the beginning of their civil rights legislation. And there’s a long way to go, and the implication of this is going to be very important, but it’s really quite significant.

The deeply-flawed and divisive legislation was also trumpeted today by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Gen. Petraeus, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/15/kagan-de-baathification-law-civil-ri...

Oversight Committee to Examine Mortgage CEO Severance Packages
January 14th, 2008 by Jesse Lee
As part of its ongoing investigation into executive pay, the Oversight Committee has invited three CEOs implicated in the subprime mortgage crisis to testify on February 7, 2008, about their severance and compensation packages.

Read letters to Charles Prince, the former CEO of Citigroup (pdf) and E. Stanley O’Neal, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch (pdf).

Full letter to Angelo R. Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial (pdf):

January 14, 2008

Mr. Angelo R. Mozilo
Chairman and CEO
Countrywide Financial Corporation
4500 Park Granada
Calabasas, CA 91302

Dear Mr. Mozilo:

I am writing to request your testimony at a hearing on February 7, 2008, before the Committee on Oversight and Govemment Reform. The hearing will address executive compensation and severance arrangements for CEOs involved in the ongoing mortgage crisis.

According to recent press reports, if Bank of America completes its proposed purchase of Countrywide Financial, you stand to collect tens of millions of dollars in severance payments and other compensation. I request that you be prepared to provide your perspective on this reported pay package. You should plan to address how it aligns with the interests of Countrywide’s shareholders and whether this level of compensation is justified in light of your company’s recent performance and its role in the national mortgage crisis.

The Committee on Oversight and Govemment Reform is the principal oversight committee in the House of Representatives and has broad oversight jurisdiction as set forth in House Rule X. An attachment to this letter provides additional information about testifying before the Committee.

If you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Roger Sherman or David Leviss of the Committee staff at (202) 225-5051.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman
Chairman

Enclosure
cc: Tom Davis
Ranking Minority Member

More here:

http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=1041

Bush’s Energy Policy: Begging for More Oil
By: Scarecrow Wednesday January 16, 2008 5:00 am

Gas Price by gjwalberg
President Bush was in Saudi Arabia yesterday to pursue the linchpin of his Administration's energy policy: He asked the Saudis to produce more oil. Roughly translated, the Saudis said, "No. We will do it only if it's in our interest, not yours."

As Hillary Clinton noted in last night's Democratic debate, Bush has been reduced to pathetically begging the Saudis to sell us more oil at nearly $100 per barrel. The image is even uglier when one realizes that some portion of that record price may consist of risk premia caused by the Administration's own war mongering, including pumping up an obviously ambiguous naval incident with Iran, another of the world's largest oil producers.

At the same time, Secretary Rice showed up in Baghdad, ostensibly to take credit for the Iraqi Parliament's approval of a law that, according to some Iraqis, does not go far enough in undoing the damage Jerry Bremer, Bush's hand picked proconsul, caused in banning Baathists from the Iraqi government. Instead of reconciling, the Iraqis are now arguing whether the new law includes or excludes more Sunnis from government.

But acknowledging such truths in not Rice's trade, and the law probably wasn't her main focus anyway. More likely, Rice was in Baghdad to press al Maliki's government to get Parliament to pass the oil law, which the Administration hopes will give US oil firms privileged access to develop Iraq's oil resources.

http://firedoglake.com/2008/01/16/bushs-energy-policy-begging-for-more-o...

its just political theatre. bush is quite content to leave the price of oil high, after all thats what his campaign contributors paid so dearly for.

NBC's Russert tries to re-ignite supposed race
feud between Obama and Clinton
"These are race-based questions," shouts a male voice in the audience at the Cashman Center in Las Vegas. He spoke after Tim Russert opened with several attempts to re-engage Clinton and Obama on the racially-charged feuding that consumed much of the last week.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0108/Studio_audience_commentary.h...

Michigan GOP congratulates
wrong candidate

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Michigan Republican Party mistakenly sent out a news release Tuesday night congratulating John McCain for winning the state's GOP primary.

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/politics/story/247346.html

Deal would remove Klamath River dams, help struggling salmon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRANTS PASS, Ore. - More than 300 miles of struggling salmon runs would be restored along the Klamath River as part of a landmark $1 billion proposal that represents the largest dam removal project in the nation's history.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080116/ap_on_re_us/klamath_dams;_ylt=AiLSnm...

the Guil---iani!

Death penalty for tycoon rapist
[...]
Millionaire businessman Wu Tianxi began his campaign of rape after being told by a fortune-teller that having sex with virgins would prolong his health.

The People's Daily reported that the 61-year-old, from Henan province, was aiming to have sex with 100 virgins.

A woman who helped Wu to track down the girls - aged between 12 and 16 - was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Wu, who served in the Chinese parliament from 1998 to 2003, had denied the charges saying he had engaged only in prostitution.

But the court in Nanyang city convicted him and handed down the death sentence for the rapes, which took place between early 2005 and April 2007.
[...]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7191103.stm
----------

This is the mind set we are dealing with. This is the one who got caught. They steal that precious innocent(sexual)life essence from these little girls and boys, to supposedly prolong their lives, gain power and authority. It's Satanic in nature.
Death is too good for them.

Cloned meat may be safe, but will consumers eat it?

CHICAGO, Jan 15 (Reuters) - While cloning of meat-producing animals was deemed safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, it may be consumers who determine how widely it is used.
"The big issue is consumer acceptance. Even if USDA and FDA issue a statement, the final arbiter, whether it will be allowed in the market, is consumer acceptance," said Jacinto Fabiosa, co-director and livestock analyst at the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Center in Ames, Iowa.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7228551

talking about last night

Submitted by mystic23 on Wed, 01/16/2008 - 3:23am.
I sat through the debate. Thought they all did well. I was happy with it til the end when they were all asked when they decided they wanted to be President...
--------
Journalism's Requisite Softball Question: "If you were the most powerful tree on earth, what kind of most powerful tree would you be?"
-------------------------
Submitted by mystic23 on Wed, 01/16/2008 - 3:57am.
Woke up in the middle of the night wondering if they'll figure out a way to harvest the souls of clones for energy...
--------
I feel your pain. The mortgage meltdown gave me an idea for a cloan joke that's gone nowhere. In my nightmares I have the perfect audience, know the punchline, but can't remember the setup.
--------------------------
Speaking of jokes (not that you were), I have heard a couple of them lately that have stuck with me. They both came from stand-up deliveries so they won't translate to text with the same punch.

The first is an ancient Arsenio Hall joke: When I was little I wanted to be an astronaut. When I got older I realized that, when Houston radioed my rocket ship, I'd be saying "Yes, NASA. No, NASA."

The second joke (actually two jokes) is from a young comic whose name I don't recall. He set the second joke up with a mini-joke: I know that I'm not supposed to joke about domestic violence, but wouldn't it be cool to watch if everyone knew Karate? [Long pause during applause.] Recently I suspected that my brother-in-law has been abusing my sister. She doesn't have bruises or anything, but the last time they had me over for dinner her cooking had improved dramatically.

above MLK a new thread???

Design blamed for US bridge fall

A design error was behind the collapse of a road bridge in the US city of Minneapolis that killed 13 people last year, an initial report has said.

More than 100 people were also injured when the I-35W bridge fell into the Mississippi River on 1 August.

Initial findings by the National Transportation Safety Board said metal plates used in construction were not thick enough to bear eventual loads.

It blamed the original 1964 design and not sloppy workmanship.
[...]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7190722.stm

He must still be sleepy this AM.

thats no excuse! shoo

should have last night...thats cool!

bullet The Truth
Let's take them one at a time:
bullet His name wasn't Martin Luther King-Confusing!
According to all accounts, the name on Martin Luther King's birth certificate is Michael and there is no evidence that he changed it.
He didn't pick the name Martin Luther out of the air, however.
It was the name his father used and claimed to have given to his son.
According to Africana.com, Martin Luther King, Sr. said that his son's given name was Martin Luther but that the doctor who delivered him put "Michael" on the birth certificate, something he didn't know until much later.
Until adulthood, Martin Luther King, Jr. was known as "M.L." or "Michael."
bullet Martin Luther King plagiarized in college-Truth!
The staff at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project discovered a lot of plagiarism in Martin Luther King's writings and in a 1991 article in THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY said that "plagiarism was a general pattern evident in nearly all of his academic writings" including his doctoral dissertation.
bullet Martin Luther King plagiarized his famous "I Have a Dream" speech-Disputed!
Critics have charged that King plagiarized that too by borrowing from a speech given to the Republican convention in 1952 by an African-American preacher named Archibald Carey, Jr.
Some of them say he gave Cary's speech word-for-word.
It can probably be said that King borrowed from the idea of the speech by Carey (who was a friend of King's), but only the last couple of paragraph's resembled Carey's speech and little of it is word-for-word.
Both men spun their remarks off the words of the song "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/mlk.htm

up on this question....teeheehee!!

then the next question is how many more bridges have this flaw and what is being done about it.

For those with advanced computer knowledge.

WARNING!

Mebroot - How Does This Security Threat Concern Me?
Internet security experts are warning Windows users about a new Rootkit that steals login details for online bank accounts.

These are then sent back to the criminals for either selling to the highest bidder, or for use by themselves to drain the victims funds!
[...]
Why is Mebroot Different?

The Memboot rootkit (first called this by security firm Symantec) is unusual in that it tries to overwrite part of a computer's hard drive called the Master Boot Record (MBR).

This is where a computer looks when it is switched on for information about the operating system it will be running.

"If you can control the MBR, you can control the operating system and therefore the computer it resides on!" wrote Elia Florio on security company Symantec's blog.
[...]
# Mebroot cannot be removed while a operating system is running. However running the "fixmbr" command from within the Windows Recovery Console successfully removes the malicious MBR entry.

# Independent security firm GMER has produced a utility that will scan and remove the Mebroot stealth program! Please note that this is an advanced tool and not to be used without some caution: Click Here
http://www.gmer.net/faq.php
# It seems that so far Windows XP is the most vulnerable operating system so far.

http://www.gmer.net/index.php

Hillary is so conniving man, sorry!

Bush oil price 'begging' is 'pathetic' : Clinton

Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton on Tuesday accused President George W. Bush of "begging" for cuts in oil prices in "pathetic" encounters with Gulf leaders.

The former first lady hit out at the US president as he wrapped up a tour of the Middle East, during a 2008 Democratic presidential campaign debate here.

"President Bush is over in the Gulf now begging the Saudis and others to drop the price of oil," Clinton said. "How pathetic."

"We should have an energy policy right now, putting people to work in green collar jobs as a way to stave off the recession, moving us towards energy independence."

Bush earlier urged oil producers to take action over near record-high prices, prompting his Saudi hosts to vow to increase output when justified by the market.

Bush, facing recession fears at home after prices surged to a record 100 dollars at the start of the year, raised the sensitive issue on the second day of a visit to OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia -- the world's largest oil producer.

He said he planned to discuss with King Abdullah "the fact that oil prices are very high, which is tough on our economy."

"And that I would hope, as OPEC considers different production levels, that they understand that if their -- one of their biggest consumers' economy suffers -- it will mean less purchases, less oil and gas sold."

ACLU says Larry Craig was wronged

ACLU: Sex in restroom stalls is private

ACLU Argues on Behalf of Sen. Larry Craig That Sex in Restroom Stalls Is Private

In an effort to help Sen. Larry Craig, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that people who have sex in public bathrooms have an expectation of privacy.

Craig, of Idaho, is asking the Minnesota Court of Appeals to let him withdraw his guilty plea to disorderly conduct stemming from a bathroom sex sting at the Minneapolis airport.

The ACLU filed a brief Tuesday supporting Craig. It cited a Minnesota Supreme Court ruling 38 years ago that found that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms "have a reasonable expectation of privacy."

http://pageoneq.com/news/2008/ACLU_says_Larry_Craig_was_wro_0116.html

GAO questions report on Iraq

GAO Says Figures in Administration's September 'Benchmark' Report Were Unreliable

The Bush administration, in its last so-called Iraq "benchmark" report, used questionable financial data to assert that the Baghdad government was making progress in managing its budget, a new study says.

The study released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office focused specifically on whether Iraqis were spending their capital budget, that is money for infrastructure needed to boost the country's lagging economic growth and improve poor public services.

The administration reported in its September Iraqi benchmark assessment that Iraq's central government ministries had spent 24 percent of their 2007 capital projects budget as of July 15, 2007. "This report is not consistent with Iraq's official expenditure reports," which show that the central ministries had spent only 4.4 percent of their investment budget as of August, the GAO said. It said capital projects are 90 percent of Iraq's investment budget.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/GAO_questions_report_on_Iraq_011520...

7 Pakistani troops killed, 20 missing

Militants Overrun Military Base in Pakistan; 7 Troops Dead, 20 Missing

Islamic militants overran a military outpost close to the Afghan border in a battle that killed seven Pakistani soldiers and left 20 missing, the military said Wednesday. It claimed 50 attackers also died.

About 200 militants charged the Sararogha Fort from four sides late Tuesday, breaking through the walls with rockets, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas.

Fifteen men from the garrison reached safety in Jandola, an army base located about 22 miles east of the Sararogha Fort, Abbas said.

It was the first time rebels captured a government position since October, when they seized several police stations and military posts in Swat valley, another volatile region in the country's north. The government has since recaptured the valley.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/7_Pakistani_troops_killed_20_missin...

Blue-Collar Jobs Disappear, Taking Families’ Way of Life Along

JACKSON, Ohio — After 30 years at a factory making truck parts, Jeffrey Evans was earning $14.55 an hour in what he called “one of the better-paying jobs in the area.”

Wearing a Harley-Davidson cap, a bittersweet reminder of crushed dreams, he recently described how astonished and betrayed he felt when the plant was shut down in August after a labor dispute. Despite sporadic construction work, Mr. Evans has seen his income reduced by half.

So he was astonished yet again to find himself, at age 49, selling off his cherished Harley and most of his apartment furniture and moving in with his mother.

Middle-aged men moving in with parents, wives taking two jobs, veteran workers taking overnight shifts at half their former pay, families moving West — these are signs of the turmoil and stresses emerging in the little towns and backwoods mobile homes of southeast Ohio, where dozens of factories and several coal mines have closed over the last decade, and small businesses are giving way to big-box retailers and fast-food outlets.

Here, where the northern swells of the Appalachians lap the southern fringe of the Rust Belt, thousands of people who long had tough but sustainable lives are being wrenched into the working poor.

Kenyan police fire warning shots
Protests in Kisumu, Kenya, on 16 January 2008
The situation is tense in the opposition stronghold of Kisumu
Kenyan police in the western city of Kisumu have fired shots over the heads of protesters at a rally against disputed presidential election results.

Some 300 people were trying to march into the town centre when police opened fire. A BBC reporter there saw two people being carried away.

In Nairobi, two women were wounded by stray bullets fired by police in a brief stand-off in the Kibera slum.

The rallies are part of nationwide protests called by the opposition.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7190777.stm

New Hampshire---

and no nothing happened last night in case you asking--

Reuters Poll: Clinton and Obama Tied Nationally
by: Matt Stoller
Wed Jan 16, 2008 at 09:56:05 AM EST
This poll was taken before Michigan and the debate last night.

Clinton, a former first lady who would be the first woman U.S. president, held a 21-point edge over Obama in October. He cut that to 8 points by last month, and the new survey gave her a 39 percent to 38 percent edge.

Her 1-point lead was well within the poll's margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.

Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, and Clinton were essentially deadlocked among a variety of groups, including men, women, Democrats and independents. Obama led substantially, 65 percent to 15 percent, among black voters.

If these numbers are accurate, it looks like the dispute over race has boosted Obama's share among blacks while basically bleeding no support from any other group. I put this clip up a few months ago, it seems rather fitting in light of the last week or so.

:)

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

everything ok?

*

Democratic Debate Open Thread
by: Chris Bowers
Tue Jan 15, 2008 at 20:40:51 PM EST
( - promoted by Chris Bowers)

This is irritating:

This just in from the state Supreme Court: NBC/MSNBC win, Kucinich loses. The congressman from Ohio won't be on stage at the televised debate in 45 minutes.

He argued that the network offered, and then withdrew, an offer that he participate in the debate, and he protested. The court disagreed.

So, now the NEA is suing to shut down precincts for hotel workers on the Strip, and NBC is making sure Democratic candidates are not being included in the debate. You can feel the inclusive, big tent, love in Nevada!

Besides, if there is someone who should be excluded from the debates, it is starting to look like Giuliani should get the boot. Exit polls from Michigan project him to lose to Ron Paul (again).

This is an open thread for the debate or anything else you would like to discuss.

Update: That was a pretty good debate, once the candidates started asking each other questions and the moderators were quieter. I admit that I didn't miss Kucinich, either. One thing I noticed is that Edwards said, at least three times, that he had changed his mind since many of his earlier Senate votes from 1999-2002. Will that work for voters? Personally, I found it refreshing for a candidate to admit he was wrong in the past, and that the more progressive ideas were right. I guess that is because it is what I have been waiting for many Democrats to say for a long time now

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3250

Obama Overwhelmingly Wins Michigan African-Americans
by: Chris Bowers
Tue Jan 15, 2008 at 20:54:53 PM EST

This is remarkable:

According to the Fox exit polls, in the Democratic primary tonight, Clinton took 25% of the African-American vote and "uncommitted" is getting 69% of the African-American vote. Now remember, Hillary is only major candidate on the ballot.

If he can trounce Clinton among African-Americans without even being on the ballot, it seems that Obama has solidified African-Americans behind him nationwide. If, as Matt suggested yesterday, he can secure the white liberal vote, that would be a winning coalition in the Democratic primary nationwide. It would also be a repetition of his coalition in the Illinois Senate primary four years ago.

Liberals and Latinos are now the swing voters that will determine the Democratic nominee.

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3251

do we have any liberal latino's around here :)

Volunteers needed for tomorrow's recount in NH. IMPORTANT that this be observed.

by sally castleman Page 1 of 1 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com

Tell A Friend

This is definitely something worth taking a personal day off work for!
The recount will begin tomorrow in Concord, NH at 9 a.m. It is essential to the integrity of the recount process that it is fully observed AND videographed.
If you live in NH, MA, VT or elsewhere you deem close enough, and this is something you can possibly do, please volunteer. Bring a friend along and make it fun!
A very high order of civic duty!
If you know others who may be available or may know others who may be, please pass this message along. All instructions will be provided.
When you respond please say whether you are offering to observe or to video.
THANK YOU.
Sally Castleman
Election Defense Alliance

Martin Luther King: Letter From a Birmingham Jail 1963

by Martin Luther King Page 1 of 4 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com

Tell A Friend

(the bolding and italics are the editor's, delineating favorite parts)

Access audio clip by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr here.

LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL
April 16, 1963
MY DEAR FELLOW CLERGYMEN:

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statements in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_martin_l_080115_martin_luther_ki...

Just posted your U Tube Vid..Hillary vs Obama to my blog..
Thanks ! I hadn't seen that one..Funny ! :)

Missed Seder v Maron..Hope it's up soon !

How are you all doing today ?
Good I hope ! :)

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

Barbados Signs and Ratifies CTBT

Hats off to Barbados, which both signed and ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) on Monday. The country joins a slew of recent ratifications, including four last year: the Bahamas (November 30), the Dominican Republic (September 4), Palau (August 1), and Moldova (January 16). Before Barbados, the last country to sign the CTBT was Montenegro on October 23, 2006. Can Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, or Trinidad and Tobago be far behind?

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=49725

maron blew it off and its just seder responding to im's

Seder only...Maron was under the weather yesterday!

Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth

by Stephen Pizzo Page 1 of 2 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com

Tell A Friend

Let me start out by saying this column is going to really piss some people off. But I am calling it how I see it. And this is how I see it.

A couple of hundred years ago, back in the old South, white folk made a distinction between "good" negroes and the not-so-good negroes. "Good" negroes stayed in line, were deferential to whites and didn't make trouble. Those were the negroes whites assigned jobs in and around their houses, rather than in the fields. They even had a term for them -- though I have to clean it up a bit: "house negroes."

White's of the old South took it for granted that their house-servant slaves were grateful, loyal and even held genuine affection for their masters. So it was a rude awakening when, after Lincoln freed the slaves, those freed house servants packed up and left to strike out on their own.

Many whites were genuinely surprised, even hurt that their former servants, nannies and groundskeepers had turned their backs on them.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stephen__080116_sharper_than_a_s...

i tell ya, i was worried about barbados. this is a genuine relief.

told you
Submitted by Lucille on Wed, 01/16/2008 - 10:20am.
Volunteers needed for tomorrow's recount in NH. IMPORTANT that this be observed.

by sally castleman Page 1 of 1 page(s

*******
Looking through opednews is a hassle..Thanks .. :)

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

'An Absurd, Sadistic Image'

Papers in the Middle East are sharply critical of Bush's current Middle East visit, saying the United States is obsessed with Iran and that he is backpedaling on the positions he staked out at Annapolis.

US President George W. Bush: "Unfortunately, the focus of this epoch-making visit to Abu Dhabi and Dubai has been on the US preoccupation with Iran."
Zoom
REUTERS

US President George W. Bush: "Unfortunately, the focus of this epoch-making visit to Abu Dhabi and Dubai has been on the US preoccupation with Iran."
United States President George W. Bush headed for Saudi Arabia on Monday, the next stop on his eight-day trip through the Middle East. So far, it has been a journey of firsts. It was the first time he visited Israel during his presidency and was the first time an American president visited Bahrain. It is likewise the first time Bush has made a trip to Saudi Arabia.

He came bearing gifts. His adminstration informed Congress on Monday that it intended to sell Saudi Arabia $20 billion worth of arms. His message, though, has focused consistently on the need for piece between Israelis and Palestinians and on the dangers posed to the region by Iran.

It was the latter message that commentators in a number of papers in the region chose to focus on.

The left-wing Lebanese daily As-Safir writes:

"This black caricature of George W. Bush in (Bahrain capital city) Manama is a fitting conclusion to the Arab tragedy. It's an absurd, sadistic image: the sheikh of Bahrain welcoming his exceptional guest with ... a golden sword -- the symbol of loyalty and submission, meaning: "Bleed me white my lord, if my death pleases you!"

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,528561,00.html

Well,It's still free !

What do ya want for nothing,A Rubber Biscuit ! ;)

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

Bow bow bow...

http://rinf.com/alt-news/war-terrorism/preparations-for-war-with-iran/22...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=54b_1200327598

Why would Bush go to the Mideast now? It is likely he went to nail down commitments from the Israelis and acquiescence from the Saudis prior to a planned attack on Iran. Bush, who neither reads nor writes well, has a low comfort level with diplomatic go-betweens, so this is a look’em in the eye trip to talk about what happens when he pulls the trigger.

If not, what is the alternative explanation for the trip? He is going to talk about peace talks likely to drift into the fall; change diplomatic tact, such as a demand Israel end the blockade of Gaza; schedule another Annapolis photo-op? Not likely. In addition, by White House standards this is a stealth trip with the US press attention focused elsewhere.

continued at link

Volunteers needed for tomorrow's recount in NH. IMPORTANT that this be observed.

Found it !

Link-Con't

Forgot you can search by author !
Good post Lucille ! :)

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

Source: http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1656
Truth News - Kurt Nimmo

ABC breaks the ice for us: in the future, and not too far into it, the process of getting and renewing a driver’s license will become more difficult, stressful, and fraught with all manner of unnecessary nonsense supposedly designed to protect us from terrorists, or rather CIA patsies paraded about to frighten us into submission, and as well prevent illegals from taking to the roads, never mind Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Washington and West Virginia allow illegals to hold a license, thus demonstrating the above is little more than a threadbare excuse.

Of course, when the rubber meets the road, we discern the real reason ­ a national ID, complete with RFID and possibly biometrics, is all about easing us into the control grid.
According to apparatchik Michael Chertoff and the commissariat of Homeland Security, the whole affair is a matter of national security. “We are now over six years from 9/11,” Chertoff impatiently declared, “we live every day with the problems of false identification. Simply kicking this problem down the road year after year after year for further discussion, further debate and analysis is a time-tested Washington way of smothering any proposal with process.”

In other words, never mind that most people oppose Real ID and civil libertarians warn of vexing abuse, Chertoff and the neocons are itching to get us all in lumbering databases, the next step in a plan that will ultimately result in the chipping of the population at large.

Continued at Link http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=5271

What do ya want for nothing,A Rubber Biscuit !
Submitted by dan on Wed, 01/16/2008 - 10:32am.
Bow bow bow...
*******
I have a Soft Spot in My Heart for Funny People !

Folks,Who Bring The Funny ! :)

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

Betancourt Family Still Waiting for Freedom

By Jens Glüsing and Stefan Simons

An international network of politicians, friends and family members has spent the past six years trying to liberate Ingrid Betancourt, the former Colombian presidential candidate, from the hands of FARC rebels.

Kidnapped French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.
Zoom
REUTERS

Kidnapped French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.
Juan Carlos Lecompte is not a religious person, and he has never been interested in questions of faith, his spiritual welfare, the church or the pope. A PR specialist, he prefers to spend his time studying politics, the economy and market data. Nevertheless, he prays once a week, every Saturday at noon. He prays fervently and with the hope of someone who has almost lost all hope. He prays for the life of his wife.

It's what he promised her, and he knows that she also prays, at exactly the same hour and on the same day each week, for him and their children. In fact, it is a promise they made to each other in case they were ever separated. That was almost six years ago, before Lecompte's wife, Ingrid Betancourt, 46, was kidnapped by the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist guerilla organization. Betancourt, a politician, was campaigning for the Colombian presidency at the time, an office that ranks among the world's most dangerous jobs. Their mutual promise to pray for each other every Saturday was her personal version of life insurance.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,528716,00.html

In view of yesterday's declaration by the Media that 'all States will comply with the National ID Act by this coming May, or their citizens will be refused permission to fly'—The governor's of the States within the United States need to rebel, as a body, against this completely unwarranted ORDER from the White House via Michael Chertoff, whose own US citizenship is in doubt.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

This new "law" came into existence in complete secrecy, and was signed into law on 5-5-05. Why was it exactly that congress needed to pass the Real ID card legislation without ANY public discussion at all: and then after this piece of national treachery was signed, why was it essentially hidden by a near total news blackout - until now?

leave it to Sam to hack his own blog.

dan - I think all liberals (far left) are the swing vote. If not then how can anyone call Edwards the king maker.

USER NAV

Merkel Tries to Calm Tensions over Immigration

By David Crossland in Berlin

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has distanced herself from the strident immigration rhetoric of her fellow conservative Roland Koch in a lengthy news conference aimed at calming down an increasingly fractious debate that has opened rifts in her government.

Let's all calm down: Merkel faced the press on Tuesday
German Chancellor Angela Merkel tried on Tuesday to defuse a fierce debate about immigration that has poisoned the atmosphere between conservatives and Social Democrats in her grand coalition.

At a hastily convened news conference, Merkel defended Hesse state governor Roland Koch, whose call for a crackdown on "criminal young foreigners" has been labelled as xenophobic and divisive by immigrant groups and members of the Social Democrats.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,528714,00.html

Kucinich asks for New Hampshire recount
Cites concerns over Internet rumors and disparity between polls, results
Image: Rep. Dennis Kucinich in Manchester, N.H.
Charles Dharapak / AP file
Presidential hopeful, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, accompanied by his wife Elizabeth, stopped by Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., Sunday, just prior to the state's primary election.
View related photos

Video
Russert looks back, forward
Jan. 11: NBC's Tim Russert talks about the wild week in politics, including Hillary Clinton’s New Hampshire triumph.

Today show
Kucinich Announces Presidential Bid For 2008
Getty Images file

Video: In his own words
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, touches upon the primary themes of his presidential campaign.

Interactive

Rate Dennis Kucinich's positions
Visit msnbc.com's Candidates + Issues Matrix to rate Kucinich's ideas about the key issues.
updated 9:50 a.m. ET, Fri., Jan. 11, 2008

CONCORD, N.H. - Democrat Dennis Kucinich, who won less than 2 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, said Thursday he wants a recount to ensure that all ballots in his party's contest were counted.

The Ohio congressman cited "serious and credible reports, allegations and rumors" about the integrity of Tuesday results.

Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan said Kucinich is entitled to a statewide recount. But, under New Hampshire law, Kucinich will have to pay for it. Scanlan said he had "every confidence" the results are accurate.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22608231/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/14/AR200801...

Center for Veterinary Medicine, U.S. Food and Drug Administration 14 Jan 2008 (Selected Excerpts) Conclusions Regarding Food Consumption Risks from Bovine Clones and their Progeny

--------

from Dave:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/country/cases_table_2007_...

Examine the chart and try to find numbers related to pandemics: tens of thousands. Can't find that many? Neither can I. Those numbers are pretty much endemic, which means the expected number of cases and hardly qualify for an epidemic. The chart also states the number of cases are laboratory tested, but then how else would yo tell bird flu from any other type of flu? Are there a very unique symptoms, such as coughing up feathers or sitting on piles of twigs and laying eggs, otherwise how would anybody know you had Avian Influenza A/(H5N1)? We are supposed to scared to death of this, as a terrified population is much easier to manipulate, versus one that knows it is being bamboozled.

Out of 926 reported cases in 5 years, there were 344 deaths, which hardly qualifies as anything significant. AIDS on the other hand is listed as an epidemic, but its numbers are more closely related to pandemic. Go figure.

yes --have to agreee

It's nice to spar and discuss topics, but eating and using the word "porrige" doesn't make it a moment for camera

love what he has to say--- when the link or VOD work (doesn't freeze or skip/repeat)---- anyone else have this problem with the VOD?

Democracy Now! Re-Hosts NBC Las Vegas Debate to Include Kucinich After NBC Wins Appeal to Exclude Him

Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich was missing from the stage at last night’s Democratic debate hosted by MSNBC in Las Vegas after he lost a last-minute legal fight with the network over his participation. Last week, NBC told Kucinich that he had met the criteria for the debate. Then, less than two days later, the network changed the criteria and declared that Kucinich was no longer qualified. On Monday, a Nevada judge ordered NBC to include Kucinich but then NBC appealed the ruling and actively fought to keep him off the stage. On Tuesday night, less than an hour before the debate, the Nevada Supreme Court sided with NBC. Democracy Now! decided to break the sound barrier and give Kucinich a chance to take part. In an exclusive broadcast, we re-braodcast excerpts of the debate and give the Ohio Congressman a chance to answer the questions he might have faced if he hadn’t been been silenced.

or lose democracy to the machine manipulators!"

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_ron_corv_080114__22we_the_people...

Spychief Mike McConnell is drafting a plan to protect America’s cyberspace that will raise privacy issues and make the current debate over surveillance law look like “a walk in the park,” McConnell tells The New Yorker in the issue set to hit newsstands Monday. “This is going to be a goat rope on the Hill. My prediction is that we’re going to screw around with this until something horrendous happens.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/01/13/dancing-spychief-wants-to-tap-i...

Vicious SC Flyer Attacks McCain's Vietnam Service
John McCain is being targeted by a nasty flyer that lampoons his captivity in Vietnam and suggests he betrayed fellow POWs.

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2008/01/vicious_south_carolina_mailer_atta...

From the time when Martin Luther King Jr. was alive to now, few things have changed. Yes, African Americans can vote or at least that what the law says. In reality there are things like "caging" lists, the rejections of provisional votes and poor scanning machines in black neighborhoods. One might be lead to think that this administration still considers African Americans as 3/5ths of a person. Peace groups are still being infiltrated, domestic spying is still going on, free speech is still being curtailed. We are in another unpopular war, again against a country that didn't attack us, again started with lies and again being paid for with too much blood. I think that we need to remember him and that his vision for our country is far from being realized.

with comments... The video still doesn't work but I think it's Sam's blog engine and not his post. Linking to ONN has not been good to me here where it works on my blog fine.

USER NAV

Not all that long ago I defended Hillary Clinton from low blows thrown by the official-unofficial water-carrying apparatchiks of the Corporate Mass Media.

Now sadly I have to stand fast and full square against her faction in its ill-considered targeting of Barack Obama, presumably for the sake of somebody’s idea (Mark Penn?) of political advantage. Although one would be hard-pressed to call this wave of Hillary’s “Surge” against all comers a rip-roaring success.

If the Dems split in ’08 and the sick, decrepit, virtually bed-ridden GOP wins the White House (and by unexpected rout retakes the House and Senate in the bargain ) because of it the Clinton name will live in INFAMY. Because it would have been their fault! [More]

http://greenpagan.newsvine.com/_news/2008/01/14/1227440-pork-chop-hillar...

----

Related Link:

http://greenpagan.blogspot.com/

====

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