can't stop bbq'ing!

*

http://thisishell.com/

Saturday, July 5th, This is Hell! airs a live and completely unedited four hour broadcast beginning at 9 AM (central) on WNUR 89.3 FM Chicago, and streaming live around the world at http://www.wnur.org. And every show is podcast, just visit our Archives.

Our guests this weekend include:

* this week, Pervez Hoodbhoy wrote the article, "Anti-Americanism in Pakistan and the Taliban Menace." Pervez is chairman of the Department of Physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad. He is chairman of Mashal, a non-profit organization which publishes books in Urdu on women’s rights, education, environmental issues, philosophy, and modern thought. He is author of "Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality", now in 5 languages. In 2003, Dr. Hoodbhoy was awarded UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for popularizing science in Pakistan with TV serials, and his film "The Bell Tolls for Planet Earth" won honorable mention at the Paris Film Festival.

* Rick Shenkman is the author of "Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth about the American Voter" (Basic Books), the second chapter of which was excerpted at TomDispatch.com as the article, "How Ignorant Are We?: The Voters Choose… but on the Basis of What?." Rick is an Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter, New York Times bestselling author, and associate professor of history at George Mason university is also the founder and editor of History News Network, a web site that features articles by historians on current events. He also blogs at "How Stupid?"

* Rami Khouri's most recent articles include, "Winds of Diplomacy," "Pretzels and Policies with Mohammad Khatami," "The US War of Ideas at Home," "Israel’s New Diplomacy Needs Palestinians' New Unity," and "Washington’s Grim Performance in the Middle East." All of these can be read by clicking here. Rami is the Director of the Issam Fares Institute of Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut as well as editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East with the International Herald Tribune. In November 2006, he was the co-recipient of the Pax Christi International Peace Award for his efforts to bring peace and reconciliation to the Middle East.

* Patrick Cockburn is the the author of “Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq.” His most recent writing includes, "Who's Actually Winning in Iraq?"

Download the new This is Hell! poster by clicking here!!

Free Democracy

whats the "talker" of the day?

I can't wait...

Hope all are well..

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

Progressive news for minds that matter..

"Johnson" lets fly with the facts you need and the music you enjoy.
New show every Saturday night.

Blue Roots Radio

It starts.....
new
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 9:58am.
Companies begin quest for oil, gas off Fla. coast By MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writer
59 minutes ago

PENSACOLA, Fla. - Oil companies once viewed drilling in the deep waters off Florida as cost prohibitive. Politicians feared even the slightest sign of support would be career suicide.

No more. Record crude oil prices are fueling support for oil and natural gas exploration off the nation's shores. In Florida, movement was underway even before President Bush called on Congress last month to lift a federal moratorium that's barred new offshore drilling since 1981.

The early activity here stems from a 2006 Congressional compromise that allows drilling on 8.3 million acres more than 125 miles off the Panhandle — an area that had been covered by the moratorium, which was enacted out of environmental concerns. In exchange, the state got a no-drilling buffer along the rest of its beaches.

Florida may turn out to be a prelude for other coastal states. If oil or natural gas deposits are found in the newly opened region, experts say it could further the push to explore other once-protected areas everywhere. It also could be a rallying point for critics, who say the new exploration isn't a license to expand exploration.

With gas topping $4 a gallon, recent polls show Americans, Floridians included, more supportive of drilling in protected areas. Some politicians — including Gov. Charlie Crist — have switched sides.

"We think the public is way out ahead of the politicians on these issues. People are more open to (offshore drilling) now," said Tom Moskitis, spokesman for the American Gas Association, a trade group.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080705/ap_on_bi_ge/drilling_off_florida_11

Employers use federal law to deny benefits
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dying of cancer, Thomas Amschwand did everything he was told to make sure his wife would collect on the life insurance policy he had through his employer. "He was obsessed with dotting every `i' and crossing every `t'," Melissa Amschwand-Bellinger recalled about her husband, who died in 2001 at age 30. But Spherion Corp., the temporary staffing company where Amschwand worked, told Amschwand-Bellinger she would not receive any of the $426,000 in benefits she believed she was due. When she went to court, Spherion succeeded in getting her lawsuit thrown out. The Supreme Court on June 27 refused to review the case.

Amschwand-Bellinger received a refund of the few thousand dollars in insurance premiums she and her husband dutifully had paid. The total, she said, would not cover the costs of his funeral. The story has played out often under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Designed to protect employee benefits, the law has been used by employers as a shield against suits.

Federal appeals courts, interpreting Supreme Court decisions dating to 1993, consistently have said companies that offer health, life and retirement benefits under ERISA cannot be sued for large amounts of money, or damages. Instead, they can be sued only for typically smaller sums such as Amschwand's insurance premiums.

Several federal judges have bemoaned the unfairness even as they have felt constrained to rule in favor of employers.

Read more: link

Contractors oppose move to end immunity from Iraqi law
By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, July 5, 2008

Contractors working for the U.S. military in Iraq say a move to end their immunity from Iraqi law would make many leave their jobs instead of face a justice system they do not trust.

Earlier this week, the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said the immunity issue was one of the American concessions made in ongoing negotiations over a long-term security agreement. Since the announcement, contractors — both current and former workers in Iraq — have been buzzing about its implications. There are an estimated 180,000 foreign contractors working in Iraq, more than there are U.S. troops in the country. More than 1,000 have been killed.

"Having worked for two years and two months in Iraq, I can tell you without a doubt, I would in no way work if I fell under Iraqi Law," a deputy sheriff who trains Iraqi police said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. "Are you kidding? You wouldn’t be able to get but the most desperate people to work if they fell under their ridiculous laws."

Like almost all contractors working in Iraq, he is not allowed to do media interviews without approval from his company, so he asked that his name not be used.

Read more: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=...

BUTTE - For his first task as president, Barack Obama said Friday he'll call in the nation's top military officials and “tell them we have a new mission” - end the war in Iraq.

Next on the list is reforming the nation's health-care system, so everyone in the United States has basic health care and costs are reduced for families and businesses.

And, third, craft a new energy policy that “requires a shift away from the sort of wasteful energy usage of the past, and to develop alternative fuels like solar, wind and biodiesel,” Obama said in an interview on his campaign bus near the Montana Tech campus.

... Obama said Friday he believes in “common-sense gun laws” that allow law-abiding citizens to purchase and own firearms, including items such as background checks when buying guns.

“There is not a sportsman or hunter in Montana who is a legal possessor of firearms that has anything to worry about from me,” he said.

Read more: http://missoulian.com/articles/2008/07/05/news/local/ne...

Betancourt, 46, told French TV she was treated abominably. "I wouldn't have given the treatment I had to an animal, perhaps not even to a plant." If the guerrillas were in a bad mood they would tighten the chain around her neck so it was difficult to breathe, she said.

The former presidential candidate fell sick from jungle maladies and would often vomit when she ate. She bathed in rivers fully dressed because male guards would stare. Asked if she had been raped, she said: "I have had painful experiences ... but I don't want to talk about this here, now at this time of happiness."

Luis Hernando Pena Bonilla, kidnapped in 1998, was shot five years ago because the guerrillas found his behaviour unpredictable. They also shot his dog, Laika, who had seldom left his side. The news devastated his mother, Leonor.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/05/colombia.te...

Panama says no to U.S. military base
Fri Jul 4, 2008 4:38pm EDT
PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama has ruled out hosting a U.S. military base to replace one in Ecuador which is being reclaimed by the Quito government, a senior Panamanian official said on Friday.

Panama -- along with Peru and Colombia -- had been tipped as a possible site to replace the Manta air base in western Ecuador, a key strategic asset in Washington's campaign to stop Latin American cocaine from reaching the United States.

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, a close ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, has vowed to cut off his arm before allowing Washington to retain the base when the current lease runs out in 2009.

The U.S. military has said it would like to find another site to retain counter-narcotics capabilities.

Panama's Justice Minister Daniel Delgado said his country's often turbulent history with the United States made the establishment of new bases impossible.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN043834...

Employers use federal law to
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 10:15am.
*******
But,this link doesn't work..

Can you fix,please ? Thanks :)

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

said no to US bases, heard it as a quick blip on the italian news channel so i don't know the details, they mentioned something about reagan and the missile shield and that putin wasn't happy about us bases in their backyard

also possibly these bases were supposed to serve as launchpad for war against iran

the us is not very popular these days, it seems, i wonder why :) too much warmongering maybe and diminished clout with the diminished dollar

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BENEFIT_BATTLES?SITE=MIDTN&SECTIO...

thats a strange link. on my first click thru it took me to an ap site where i had to pick a state and then a paper within that state. it then redirected me to the papers main site. if you go back to the link and then click it again, you get taken to the article as reported by the paper that you chose.

that sorta stuff is just plain wrong. it falls into the same shameful category as cancelling peoples health insurance when they get sick. thanks george, you're doing a heckuva job.

I got those news clips from Democratic Underground.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/

Today's America would disappoint founding fathers
by Robin Elliot | July 4, 2008 - 12:45pm | permalink

This isn't your grandmother's America.

I was lamenting the state of our "news" media, and as an extension, the state of our country. As I witness the disintegration of the quality of journalism, and how non-news stories are endlessly looped and forced down the throats of gullible viewers, I am reminded of how things used to be.

Would Walter Cronkite froth over an Obama campaign nuance? Would David Brinkley rabidly salivate over an uncorroborated, biased mantra? Would Chet Huntley engage in undignified distortions? Journalistic Swiftboating didn't exist. It would have been unthinkable. Maybe I'm romanticizing, and I'm sure there had to have been exceptions, but my perception is that there was a gravitas and a reverence for facts that have since been replaced by a cacophony of memes and a servility to shout fests. The depths into which TV news has devolved is not only repugnant, but unconscionable.

As Americans celebrate the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, an overwhelming majority say the 56 signers of that document would be displeased at how the country has turned out. According to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, close to 70 percent say that if the signers of the Declaration of Independence could see America today they would be disappointed, while just under 30 percent say the founding founders would be happy with the country 232 years later.

» article continues...
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/15666

Hunkering Down in Afghanistan: "We are watching NATO bleed to death on the Afghan plains"
by Mike Whitney | July 4, 2008 - 12:39pm

Afghanistan was supposed to be the "good war"; a "just response" to the attacks of September 11. It was supposed to bring Bin Laden to justice and quash the threat of terrorism where it originated. 95 per cent of the American people supported the invasion of Afghanistan. Now less than half think the U.S. will prevail. The war was promoted as a way to replace a repressive fundamentalist regime with a democratic government based on western ideals. Bush promised to rebuild war-torn country, transform its feudal system into a free market economy, and liberate its women from the oppression of Islamic extremism. But none of the promises have been kept and none of the goals have been achieved. The "good war" has turned out to be--what Tariq Ali calls--"a brutal war of revenge."

» article continues...
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/15664

Remember Afghanistan is what brought down the Soviet Union.

Submitted by Kevin © on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 9:29am.
...this week, Pervez Hoodbhoy wrote...
------
Sorry, Kevin. I've been writing parodies too long to believe that the name "Hoodbhoy" actually exists.

Don't tell me. Let me guess. He's from Broville, right?

having gone thru their "registration" process your link takes me to the local cincinnati paper. i suspect that at one time you set a cookie binding ap news to democratic underground.

For fixing that link..

Stuff like that story makes you want to Scream !

Fu*ck, the system is so rigged alot of the time..

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

"It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler and the exhibit was cordoned off to stop visitors posing with him."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080705/en_nm/germany_hitler_head_dc
_________________________

I've read this before when Malloy claimed that it was a Jewish conspiracy back in early '05.

Wouldn't it be cool if we outlawed confederate flags and symbols? They want to outlaw flag burning. I believe that confederate paraphenilia is much worse.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

County is very republican. Here's some of the shinanigans going on...

"GOP fails to keep Cullerton off ballot"

Apparently, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a donkey.

Republicans trying to keep a Democratic state Senate challenger off the Nov. 4 ballot because he voted Republican in the February primary were unable to convince a judge Thursday that it's against the law to do that. They used the duck analogy to no avail.

A judge's ruling puts Tom Cullerton's name back on the ballot, overturning A DuPage County Election Commission decision. Cullerton is trying to unseat incumbent Carole Pankau, a Roselle Republican. Cullerton is currently a Villa Park trustee.

Associate Judge Paul Fullerton concluded there is no provision in state election law that prevents a person from voting for one party and then later becoming a candidate in a different primary during the same election cycle.

"It is not the law," Fullerton said. "Election code does not define qualified primary voter."

The judge also ruled that "it's clear" the date appearing on Cullerton's nominating papers is the date when Democrats met and selected the candidate as required by state law. The election commission voted 2-1 to reject Cullerton's candidacy, ruling the nominating date was vague.

"It indicates the date the document was dated and notarized," argued Pat Bond, the commission's attorney. "We have no indication when that (nominating) committee met."

Attorneys for the Republican objectors said they would appeal the judge's ruling to a higher court. Attorney Burt Odelson said they would file the appeal next week. Bond said the commission will decide later whether to be a party to the appeal.

"The commission always has an interest that properly qualified candidates appear on the ballot," he said. "It protects the integrity of the process."

Bond's role in the case came under fire from Democrats recently after it was discovered he and his law firm had donated nearly $1,000 to Pankau's campaign over the past several years.

"It's perfectly legal," Bond said. "Carole is not a party in this case."

Bond said he would not step aside.

DuPage Democratic Party Chairman Bob Peickert called Bond's continued involvement "disturbing."

"He's supposed to represent a bi-partisan board, which this court case concludes it is not and neither is Pat Bond," Peickert said. "If Pat Bond doesn't know election law well enough, maybe he shouldn't be advising the commission. He certainly shouldn't be advising it because of his partisan views."

Cullerton isn't the only candidate in the race Republicans are fighting these days. Addison resident Kevin Allen recently filed to run as an independent only to have his nominating papers questioned. Commission officials said a hearing is slated for 11 a.m. Tuesday to hear the objection. Odelson is handling that case as well.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=214645&src=2

Submitted by Kevin © on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 9:29am.
http://thisishell.com/

Download the new This is Hell! poster by clicking here!!

Full Size = 800x1230 pixels

Realstupidpolitik is quite another.

~-~-~

Running to the middle in an attempt to attract undecided swing voters didn't work for Al Gore in 2000. It didn't work for John Kerry in 2004. And it didn't work when Mark Penn (obsessed with his "microtrends" and missing the megatrend) convinced Hillary Clinton to do it in 2008.

Fixating on -- and pandering to -- this fickle crowd is all about messaging tailored to avoid offending rather than to inspire and galvanize. And isn't galvanizing the electorate to demand fundamental change the raison d'etre of the Obama campaign in the first place?

Old but still a swinger
The Tribune's Michael Martinez catches up to Cheeta, who outlived Tarzan for Guinness record but has no Hollywood Walk of Fame star
By Michael Martinez | Tribune correspondent
9:51 AM CDT, July 5, 2008
PALM SPRINGS, Calif.—At last, I was about to meet a star from Hollywood's golden era, one of the greats from the black-and-white films of the 1930s.

Keep your distance, I was told. Five feet back.

This is common with celebrities.

"He likes his space," said aide Dan Westfall. "He's very territorial."

Last of the line So old is this performer that he holds a Guinness world record.

But this legend gets no respect.

He has yet to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—rejected last month for the fifth consecutive year, for a grand total of seven times in 20 years.

He goes by just one name.

Cheeta.

Tarzan and Jane may be dead, but their chimpanzee companion lives.

The ape is the last of four Cheetas who starred in the old Tarzan movies. Hollywood often used many look-alike animals for one role, such as Lassie.

Because of his extraordinary longevity, this Cheeta is now considered The Cheeta. He's believed to be 76 years old, earning a Guinness certificate as the world's oldest living non-human primate. Chimps in captivity can live up to 60 years; in the wild, up to 40.

Today Cheeta is semiretired and living in Palm Springs, as many of the old entertainers do.

Moving more slowly now but still strong, the 150-pound chimp lives in a private, non-profit sanctuary at the home of Westfall, 63, a retired performer himself who sang, danced and played for laughs at the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies. The sanctuary, a cage for primates, runs from inside the house to the backyard, next to the pool.

With the San Jacinto Mountains as a stunning backdrop, "Casa de Cheeta," as Westfall's house is labeled, even features a lifelike statue of a chimp at the front door.

Tarzan's old sidekick keeps busy, recently completing a music video and appearing in a low-budget black-and-white movie.

"The granddaddy of all Hollywood animals" will even have a book published next February, "Me, Cheeta: My Life in Hollywood" by Cheeta the Chimp, ghostwritten by an author in England. The 320-page book, to be published by the Ecco imprint of HarpersCollins Publishers, is a fictionalized memoir on such moments as when Cheeta starred with Johnny Weissmuller in 1934's "Tarzan and His Mate" and infamously stole the clothes of a naked Maureen O'Sullivan in a swimming scene, an Ecco spokesman said.

Though Cheeta worked steadily in films and TV until 1967, when he appeared in the movie "Doctor Dolittle," he's still second banana to the 2,365 stars on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

"They turned us down two weeks ago and gave it to Tinkerbell," a dejected Westfall said last week, despite 11,000 fans signing an online petition at gocheeta.com.

Spokeswoman Ana Martinez-Holler of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the keeper of the Walk, said she's gotten a lot of complaints.

"I will tell you I got a lot of e-mails. Fans were upset," Martinez-Holler said, adding that about 25 winners are chosen each year from more than 200 nominees. "This is not a Pulitzer Prize. This is a tourist attraction. The least favorite part of my job is telling these people that they aren't selected. I get called all kinds of things, and I don't even vote."

Cheeta spends his days watching cartoons, animal shows and, yes, old Tarzan movies, often on a TV set in his cage. He has diabetes now, and when Westfall gets out the needle to inject insulin twice a day, Cheeta obliges by raising his arm.

He's also an artist, painting in his own trademarked genre called "Ape-Stract." Hundreds of his painted swirls and long strokes have been sent to admirers in more than 30 countries in exchange for a $135 donation ($150 outside the U.S.) used to protect endangered and threatened apes.

Jay Leno has called twice asking for an appearance, but Westfall declined because Cheeta doesn't like getting into a travel box anymore, he said. But Cheeta does like occasional car rides with Westfall.

"He's my life, he's my best buddy, he's my everything," said Westfall, who is divorced with no children.

Cheeta's only surviving offspring, 20-year-old grandson Jeeter, also lives in the sanctuary that's a small animal kingdom of four parrots, a tarantula, two orangutans, a rhesus monkey and five dogs. But Cheeta and Jeeter no longer play together because the kid once bit grandpa's lip in a fight.

"When we're alone, between me and my animals, it's a very spiritual—if you want to call it spiritual—connection," Westfall said. "They're still creatures that feel happy, sad and glad, and we try to maintain that mood around here."

Michael Martinez, the Tribune's West Coast correspondent, says art collectors can order a Cheeta original at cheetathechimp.org.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-cheeta-letter_bdjul06...

Crumbling Pompeii site
in 'state of emergency'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Italian government declared a state of emergency at the Pompeii archaeological site on Friday to try to rescue one of the world's most important cultural treasures from decades of neglect.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/italy_pompeii_dc;_ylt=AjocHiyhjdJqhu_gb4cHYMg...

Fountain of youth?
Red wine gives up secrets

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A compound in red wine may ward off a variety of medical conditions related to aging, providing heart benefits, stronger bones and preventing eye cataracts, researchers said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080703/lf_nm_life/wine_health_dc;_ylt=AqyzP...

John McCain's campaign has accepted millions of dollars from Carl Linger Jr., who has knowingly given money to internationally recognized Columbian terrorist groups the AUC and FARC.

The mainstream media, not surprisingly, is looking the other way on this one. Do you think the same would be happening if Obama's campaign had accepted money from such a contributer?

But, they're not ARAB terrorists, so it's okay...

Iran warns of Gulf blitzkrieg, Hormuz closure

Iran warns of Gulf blitzkrieg, Hormuz closure
Published: Saturday July 5, 2008

Iran's military chiefs warned on Saturday that the Islamic republic would shut down the Strait of Hormuz vital for oil exports and use "blitzkrieg tactics" in the Gulf if it came under attack.

"All the countries should know that if Iran's interests in the region are ignored, it is natural that we will not allow others to use it (the strait)," said army chief General Hassan Firouzabadi, quoted by the Fars news agency.

However, Iran's armed forces joint chief of staff stressed his country's priority was that the Strait of Hormuz remain open.

Speculation has been rife that Israel could be planning a military strike against Iranian nuclear sites, using force to halt Tehran's controversial atomic activities.

The chief of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards militia, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, meanwhile, warned that his forces would use "blitzkrieg tactics" in the Gulf if his country came under attack.

"The Guards are equipped with the most advanced missiles that can strike the enemies' vessels and naval equipment with fatal blows," Fars quoted the Guards chief as saying.

In case of attack, "blitzkrieg tactics and operations of the Guards' boats will not leave a chance for the enemies to run away."

"These words do not mean that the prerequisites of war are being set but these are the strategies that our alert armed forces have prepared for any hypothesis," he added.

The new commander of the US Fifth Fleet, Vice Admiral William Gortney, said on Saturday that the American naval presence in the region was "a very clear message that we are here to maintain security and to provide stability."

"The chief of naval operations wanted me here, I think, because of my experience," Gortney, who was navy chief during the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, told reporters in Bahrain where the fleet is based.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Iran_warns_of_Gulf_blitzkrieg_Hormu_0705200...

I'm off to reorganize my office. :/

Tiptoeing on Bush and Convention
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
WASHINGTON — What if your family was planning a big end-of-summer bash (a Grand Old Party, you might call it) but preferred that you not be seen — or heard?

That is the question hanging over President Bush, with eight weeks to go until Republicans gather in St. Paul to nominate Senator John McCain as his successor. Convention planners, the White House and the McCain campaign are wrestling with how to choreograph a proper send-off for Mr. Bush — sure, his poll numbers are in the tank, but he is still the party leader and president of the United States — while hustling him out the door in time for Mr. McCain to look like his own man.

“It’s a very delicate situation,” said Brian Jones, a former communications director for Mr. McCain’s campaign who also was a top communications strategist during Mr. Bush’s 2004 run for re-election. “Even though the president is the president, this is going to be John McCain’s convention, and you want it to be about John McCain and what his presidency would be.”

A convention is a pivot point, and the theatrics and imagery are often more important than the words. For Mr. McCain, of Arizona, the convention imagery will be especially important, because he must show that he wants to take the nation in a new direction, away from Mr. Bush, yet he cannot escape Mr. Bush’s dominance of Republican Party politics for the last eight years.

The last time Republicans dealt with the passing-of-the-torch question, in 1988, the circumstances were very different. President Ronald Reagan was surging in popularity, and the big fear was that he would overshadow the nominee, the first George Bush, at the convention in New Orleans. So their aides worked out a plan intended to let Mr. Reagan “give oomph to the Bush candidacy,” without stealing the show, said Kenneth W. Duberstein, Mr. Reagan’s chief of staff.

Twenty years later, Mr. Duberstein still describes the plan with relish:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/05/us/politics/05memo.html?adxnnl=1&pagew...

Tropical Storm Bertha may become Atlantic hurricane 05 Jul 2008 15:42:16 GMT
Source: Reuters
MIAMI, July 5 (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Bertha was expected to become the 2008 Atlantic storm season's first hurricane as it steamed toward the United States over open waters between Bermuda and the Caribbean islands, U.S. weather forecasters said on Saturday.

The second tropical storm of what is predicted to be an above-average hurricane season had not strengthened from Friday, when its top sustained winds reached 50 miles per hour (85 km per hour), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

But sea surface temperatures and atmospheric conditions were expected to be "more conducive" in about 72 hours for Bertha to reach hurricane strength, with winds of at least 74 mph (119 kph), the Miami-based center said.

The storm's projected path as a hurricane remained uncertain so far out, with the majority of computer models used to predict storm tracks suggesting Bertha would turn to the north-west toward Bermuda. One model, however, predicted the storm would keep on going straight toward the Caribbean.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N05358951.htm

caught a story about the wildfires in california and was depressed to hear them state in a matter of fact way that they will burn thru the month of july because they can.

its hard to believe that this isn't viewed as being important enough to put together a fleet of fire fighting airplanes that could make short order of this .

did i mention new orleans?

Secretive Agency Under the Spotlight
Chief Tries to Repair CIA as Scrutiny Grows

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 5, 2008; Page A01

Soon after accepting the post of CIA director two years ago, Michael V. Hayden set an unusual goal for his scandal-beset agency: virtual invisibility.

"CIA needs to get out of the news as source or subject," he said in an internal memo to his staff in 2006.

Two years later, that goal is far from met, as Hayden has tacitly acknowledged. In a retirement ceremony last month marking the end of his military career, the Air Force general stressed the need for the agency to "stay in the shadows" while ignoring what he called the "sometimes shrill and uninformed voices of criticism."

The comment reflected the difficulties that Hayden's CIA faces in trying to turn the corner on six years of controversy at the same time that it attempts sweeping internal changes. While the agency's leadership has sought a return to normal and has launched initiatives intended to improve ties with lawmakers and foreign allies, it finds itself in the cross hairs of a Congress determined to force a reckoning over the agency's past intelligence failures and its conduct in the fight against terrorism.

In recent weeks, both the House and the Senate have intensified their scrutiny of the CIA's treatment of detainees, with Senate investigators launching new inquiries into whether agency lawyers influenced the Defense Department's decision to use harsh interrogation techniques in the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Both Congress and the Justice Department are examining whether top CIA officers broke the law in ordering the destruction of videotapes that recorded the waterboarding of al-Qaeda suspects.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/04/AR200807...

Poland rejects US missile shield offer

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Poland_rejects_U.S._missile_shield_offer_0...

Graham's role growing as McCain political confidant
"There’s nobody I trust more than Lindsey Graham," McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, said by phone Thursday from Mexico City. "I'm honored to have him travel with me and give me the counsel I need."
The senators' friendship, grounded in Graham's support for McCain's first White House run in 2000, has sparked reports that Graham could be attorney general or fill another senior post in a McCain administration.
"The best thing I can do for my state and my country is to help John McCain become president," Graham said from Mexico. "That is one of the most important responsibilities I will ever undertake. If John wins, the country will go in a completely different direction than Senator (Barack) Obama would take it. I can't tell you how important it is to me."
If McCain defeats the presumptive Democratic nominee in November, Graham said, "we’re going to have more conservative judges, we're going to have our taxes lowered, we're going to become more energy independent and we're going to win this (Iraq) war."
Graham isn't the only lawmaker accompanying McCain on his campaign trips. Sen. Joe Lieberman, in particular, has also been a frequent traveler.
"What Senator Lieberman is doing is heroic," Graham said

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/43205.html

Submitted by ellwort on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 12:44am.
...As a linguist, I think I yearn for the days way before we were born when the only media for conversation and memory were orality and fingers...
----------
Deductive reasoning leads me to believe that the media for conversation in the days before we were born was bubble-blowing and kicking and maybe making underarm fart noises now and then to embarrass our mothers.

god almighty, do we need more seder or what?

i can't fathom lindsay graham in a position of power like attorney general.

The following caption appears beneath a picture in an AP article:
---
Venus Williams reacts as she defeats her sister Venus to win the Women's Singles Championship on the Centre Court at Wimbledon, Saturday, July 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
---
(Apparently Serena couldn't make it.)

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i0099BjC_GidfbnjmjMFDXAq0FiwD91NP9V81

Large crowds of Iraqi Shiites gather to protest security agreement with U.S.
American and Iraqi officials are no longer optimistic that a long-term security agreement will soon be reached because “negotiations are complicated by political currents in both countries.” AFP reports that “large crowds of Shiites” gathered yesterday to denounce the security pact that the Iraqi government is debating:

“No, no to colonization! Out, out you occupier!” the crowd shouted in the centre of Sadr City where fierce battles raged in March and April between Shiite militants and US forces in which hundreds of people were killed. […]

In the central town of Kufa, protesters chanted anti-US and anti-Israel slogans. “No to America! No to Israel! We reject signing the agreement with the occupation,” shouted devotees.

In the city of Karbala, an aide of revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged Baghdad to refrain from signing a deal that would compromise national interests.

“If the government signs the deal it has to preserve the interests of the people, not compromise sovereignty and not permit Iraq to be used as a base for attacks on neighboring countries,” said Sheikh Abdul al-Mahdi al-Karbalae.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080704/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestussecurity...

Considerably.

As you are never to fly a flag in the rain, tattered, or ever let them touch the ground; if any of these fates befall a U.S. Flag, there is only one proper method of disposal.

Burn it. U.S. Flags are never discarded or thrown away. They must be burned.

"...even if...McCain gets in power. It would be worth it."
Submitted by ghettodefender on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 12:18pm.
*******
Sorry but,

Frustration and being Myopic are one thing..

But,being unrealistic and moronic is another..

Nobody's perfect..But,

Lindsey Graham as Attorney General ? !

We might as all call it a day and Move Out Of The Country !

I'll go South..I don't like the cold..See ya on the road !

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

>>He's from Broville, right?

which is just outta Compton, if I'm not right?

>>Old but still a swinger

right on sister!

Speak the truth to power, the people have the right to know!

Power to the people, right-on!

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 1:13pm.
>>He's from Broville, right?

which is just outta Compton, if I'm not right?
-------
Solid. Exit high five.

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/tpc/ARS_linktous_120_01

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

Government warehouse's use remains an unsolved mystery

A few new clues have emerged regarding the history of a government-owned warehouse in a remote corner of Southwest Washington. Here's what we know:...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008034426_warehouse05m....

By Erik Robinson

The Columbian

A few new clues have emerged regarding the history of a government-owned warehouse in a remote corner of Southwest Washington.

Here's what we know: Employees of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest think the Chelatchie Prairie warehouse is a potential emergency command center, an understanding apparently passed down for two decades through bureaucratic oral tradition.

"We're under agreement to evacuate within 48 hours if requested by FEMA," Ron Freeman, the forest's public-services staff officer, told The Columbian newspaper for a story published May 14. That came as news to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose regional command staff had never heard of it. Intrigued, the newspaper tried to get the lowdown on the building by calling numerous current and retired Forest Service employees.

Was it intended to be a fallout shelter in case of another volcanic eruption? An out-of-the-way repository for the X-Files? An undisclosed location for high government officials?

No one knew.

The mystery amused Mike Merrill, the Vancouver general contractor who said he received the contract to build the warehouse.

"Maybe it's a sign of old age to see some of the buildings I've built become mysterious," Merrill said.

Merrill remembered that the warehouse cost around $2 million to build in 1988. That's more than the $1.75 million spent by Forest Service last year to build a new headquarters office for the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. Merrill said he remembered building the warehouse atop a concrete floor 9 inches thick, sturdy enough to accommodate the future maintenance needs of a robust timber program as well as a "Grand Canyonesque" visitor attraction envisioned for Mount St. Helens.

"That building is seriously well-built," he said.

National forest timber sales have fizzled since the Endangered Species Act's listing of the Northern spotted owl, and monument managers last year permanently shuttered the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center because of chronic budget shortfalls.

These days, forest managers cling to the notion that the warehouse could be turned into an emergency command center on short notice.

Much of the material is stored on pallets to hasten a quick exit. The warehouse includes a shop to repair picnic tables, parking for a pair of firefighting rigs and work space for enforcement officers. It also includes plenty of oddities such as a single ski and boxes full of softball trophies.

The newspaper subsequently filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking contract documents related to the construction of the warehouse. In theory, such a document would specify the building's purpose.

This week, we received our answer from Gifford Pinchot's acting forest supervisor, Lynn Burditt.

Burditt could confirm only that the warehouse was constructed in 1988.

"We are required to retain files for only six years and six months after the final payment is made," Burditt wrote. "Consequently, the file has been destroyed."

1.) The full name is Escherichia coli, which explains why it's called E. coli.

2.) It is found in the gut of all warm-blooded animals, which doesn't explain why eating it is harmful to all warm-blooded animals.

3.) A small portion of your vitamin K needs are supplied by E. coli if the E. coli hasn't killed you first.

4.) If you accidentally ingest E. coli while it is lurking on your jalapenos, you are really going to hate it when you blow lunch.

5.) One of the symptoms of E. coli poisoning is prodigious diarrhea which, in turn, contains more E. coli. It is eerily similar to the 1958 film, The Blob, starring Steve McQueen.

150 party balloons carry Oregon man toward Idaho

Riding in a green lawn chair rigged with a rainbow array of more than 150 giant party balloons, Kent Couch took off with the sun today...

By Jeff Barnard

The Associated Press

BEND, Ore. — Riding in a green lawn chair rigged with a rainbow array of more than 150 giant party balloons, Kent Couch took off with the sun today, hoping to ride the wind from his gas station in Central Oregon all the way to Idaho.

Clutching a big mug of coffee, Couch kissed his wife and kids goodbye, and patted their shivering Chihuahua, Isabella, on the head.

With a push from the ground crew so he could clear surrounding light poles and a cheer from the crowd, he soared over a coffee cart from the parking lot of his gas station, over U.S. Highway 20, and into the bright blue sky.

"If I had the time and money and people, I'd do this every weekend," Couch said before getting into the chair. "Things just look different from up there. You're moving so slowly. The best thing is the peace, the serenity.

"You can hear a dog bark at 15,000 feet."

Couch had to spill some of the 45 gallons of cherry Kool-Aid he carried as ballast in three drums, but then he quickly disappeared into the distance.

He hoped to ride prevailing winds to the area of McCall, Idaho, about 230 miles east. He travels at about 20 mph.

"He's crazy," said his wife, Susan. "It's never been a dull moment since I married him.

"I did tell him next time he went up he had to take me, but he said no, he didn't want anything to happen to me."

This was Couch's third balloon flight. He was inspired by a TV show about the 1982 lawn chair flight over Los Angeles of truck driver Larry Walters, who gained folk hero fame, but was fined $1,500 for violating air traffic rules.

In 2006, Couch had to parachute out after popping too many balloons. And last year he flew 193 miles to the sagebrush of northeastern Oregon, short of his goal.

"I'm not stopping till I get out of state," he said.

To that end, he ordered more balloons. Dozens of volunteers wearing fluorescent green T-shirts with the slogan "Dream Big" filled latex balloons 5 feet in diameter, tied them to strings with a zip tie, and tied clusters of six balloons each to a tiny carabiner clip. A few popped, and one got away before they could be tied on.

"I think it's wonderful he's got guts enough to do it," said retired commercial pilot Bob Banta. "I've owned 12 little airplanes, but I've never done anything like this."

Each balloon gives 4 pounds of lift. The chair was about 400 pounds, and Couch and his parachute 200 more.

"I'd go to 30,000 feet if I didn't shoot a balloon down periodically," Couch said.

For that job he carried a Red Ryder BB gun and a blow gun equipped with steel darts. He also had a pole with a hook for pulling in balloons, a parachute in case anything went wrong, a handheld Global Positioning System device with altimeter, a satellite phone, and two GPS tracking devices. One was one for him, the other for the chair, which got away in the wind as he landed last year.

Each cluster of balloons was clipped by a heavier line to the aluminum tube frame underneath the chair. The ballast tanks filled with the cherry Kool-Aid were attached to the bottom of the frame.

"We wanted some color, and it kind of reminded me of kid days," Couch said.

For food he had some boiled eggs, jerky and chocolate.

Couch flew hang gliders and sky-dived before taking up lawn-chair flights. He said he imagined being a child holding a balloon and taking off.

Couch estimated the rig cost about $6,000, mostly for helium. Costs were defrayed by corporate sponsors.

Hook up the Balloons Myrtle,we're out of here ! !

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

of Independence

[This article is from an anonymous woman now living in South Africa. It was sent to me by a third party, and I have no reason to believe that it’s bogus. In any case, I believe its relevance to the present moment is stunning.–Carolyn Baker, Editor in Chief of Speaking Truth to Power]

Supreme Court encouraging safety shortcuts
Chris in Paris · 7/05/2008 02:46:00 PM ET · Link

Hooray! Best democracy in the world! So the lesson learned is that Big Oil knows they pretty much own the government and can do as they damn well please. Safety? Screw you. Fines? Not on your life. It's not just in distant lands where anything goes, it's right there at home. Nobody is arguing against business, but is it really so hard to find a middle ground between what business wants and what humans wants? As the GOP does the dirty work for Big Oil and their dreams of drilling in ANWR and off the Florida coast, keep in mind how much money industry is investing in legal battles to make it easier for them to ditch safety regulations.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/369710_exxon05.html

July 3-6, 2008 -- Anthrax attacks -- the US Army attacked its own citizens in a biowar assault

WMR has received follow-up information, first reported by Fox News on March 28, 2008, that the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) was the source for the aerosolized anthrax attacks launched against Congress and the news media in late 2001. The attacks were designed to maintain the siege mentality of the American people and ensure quick passage by Congress of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Fox reported in March that "The FBI has narrowed its focus to 'about four' suspects in the 6 1/2-year investigation of the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, and at least three of those suspects are linked to the Army’s bioweapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland . . . Among the pool of suspects are three scientists — a former deputy commander, a leading anthrax scientist and a microbiologist — linked to the research facility, known as USAMRIID. The FBI has collected writing samples from the three scientists in an effort to match them to the writer of anthrax-laced letters that were mailed to two U.S. senators and at least two news outlets in the fall of 2001, a law enforcement source confirmed."

USAMRIID denied it produced or maintained the type of powdered anthrax sent through the mail, an operation that killed two US postal employees at the Brentwood facility in Washington and sickened scores of others and also killed US postal customers around the country. However, Fox News obtained an email from a USAMRIID employee describing how he was surprised to learn the powdered anthrax was produced at Fort Detrick. The e-mail written by the employee who had been asked to compare the anthrax sent through the mail with that produced at Fort Detrick read in part: "Then he said he had to look at a lot of samples that the FBI had prepared . . . to duplicate the letter material . . . Then the bombshell. He said that the best duplication of the material was the stuff made by [name redacted]. He said that it was almost exactly the same . . . his knees got shaky and he sputtered, 'But I told the General we didn't make spore powder!'"

WMR has now learned from an informed source in Frederick, Maryland, the location of Fort Detrick, that the author of the email was in the highest echelons at USAMRIID. Previously, WMR learned from an official of the National Guard Bureau in Provo, Utah that the aerosolized anthrax used in the attacks was originally produced at the US Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, the location of the government's only aerosolized anthrax production facility in the country, and sent to Fort Detrick for use in the postal system attacks in 2001.

WMR has also learned from a source close to the anthrax case that the recent out-of-court settlement by the Justice Department with one-time US government scientist Steven Hatfill was an attempt by the Justice Department to get out from under the anthrax case and a potentially embarrassing production of documents implicating the govenrment through the discovery process. Hatfill sued the government for being named a "person of interest" in the anthrax case. Under the settlement agreement, Hatfill will receive $2.825 million paid out in a yearly annuity of $150,000. The overall settlement by the government with Hatfill and his lawyers is in excess of $5 million.

Former FBI agent Brad Gannon wrote the following on ABC News' website: "The anthrax investigation, almost from the beginning, was hampered by top-heavy leadership from high ranking, but inexperienced FBI officials, which led to a close-minded focus on just one suspect and amateurish investigative techniques that robbed agents in the field the ability to operate successfully."

Even with the proof that Fort Detrick was the source of the anthrax used in the bio-terrorism attack on Congress, the postal system, and the news media, USAMRIID is expanding its BSL (Biosafety Level) -3 and BSL-4 biocontainment laboratories at Fort Detrick, a move that has the citizens of the city of Frederick and Frederick County up in arms. There is now a move to reject the Army's own Environmental Impact Statement on the safety of the expansion and have the National Academy of Sciences review and approve or reject the safety measures being taken by the Army at Fort Detrick. The National Academy of Sciences already rejected a National Institutes of Health (NIH) risk analysis on a proposed BSL-4 lab at Boston University as “not sound and credible."

The history of Fort Detrick and accidents have nearby residents of the bio-warfare lab nervous. In 2002, USAMRIID scientists revealed that over 24 biological agents, including anthrax and Ebola virus, went missing during the 1990s from the Fort Detrick facility. In April 2002, anthrax spores were released into a USAMRIID office and hallway and a USAMRIID scientist tested positive for exposure to anthrax at the facility. In 2003, vials of anthrax and brucellosis were found buried in landfills at Fort Detrick.

A BSL-4 lab is the most secure but most dangerous. BSL-4 labs contain cultures for deadly diseases for which there are no vaccines and no cures. BSL-3 labs are less secure but contain highly-contagious disease cultures that are species-threatening.

Although the United States is a party to international treaties banning the production of biological weapons, the US government is funding the expansion of BSL-3 and BSL-4 biolabs across the country, from Boston University to the University of Texas in Galveston, the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, Battelle Memorial Institute in West Jefferson, Ohio to the University of Illinois in Chicago, Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, and Lawrence Livermore Labs in California to Los Alamos in New Mexico. All are being funded under the rubric of "bio defenses" and are part of "homeland security" and "national defense" funding by the Bush administration.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20080703

It's good to be the king
Chris in Paris · 7/05/2008 01:01:00 PM ET · Link

At least we can finally move past those crazy ideas of the past, when we bothered to show interest in expanding the middle class. It's best that we care more about making the rich even richer and forget about everyone else. As long as we have yacht workers (preferably at or near minimum wage), that's all that matters. Sure it's a shame that 50% of the buyers are from overseas but at least we're still creating enough yacht owners at home.
According to Camper & Nicholsons International, a broker of yacht sales and charter contracts, there are about 3,800 yachts over 80 feet in service around the world now. About 1,800 of those have been built since 2000. The study predicts that that by 2010, there will be 5,000 such yachts on the water.

"There's not enough supply," said Ed Slack, editor of International Boat Industry. "It takes two years to build some of these yachts and the demand hasn't slowed down."

So far, Trinity's largest vessel has been a 192-foot yacht that would carry a replacement price of $60 million to $65 million. The company is working a 242-footer that will have a price tag in excess of $90 million.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080705/ap_on_re_us/super_yachts;_ylt=Av4ibU...

July 3-6, 2008 -- More on impact on Africa with Obama's current foreign policy team

In a follow-up to WMR's July 2, 2008 article on Susan Rice, Barack Obama's chief foreign policy adviser, and her past in bringing about turmoil in Africa, WMR received the following from a specialist on African affairs:

"[Uganda's Yoweri] Museveni started out as a Marxist politician like so many of the late 60s, early 1970s rebel leaders. Most of them were colleagues and shared military strategy with each other once they took power. Add to your list Laurent Kabila and Blaise Compaore. Meles Zenawi was also a professed Marxist. A number of West African militia leaders trained at Gaddafi's World Revolutionary Headquarters. Laurent Kabila, Blaise Compaore, Charles Taylor, Ibrahim Bah, and Foday Sankoh to name but a few.

In West Africa, Gaddafi helped all of them succeed in their endeavors. Compaore (by providing arms and an airport for flying out diamonds) and Bah (by fighting and recruiting fighters) aided Taylor and Sankoh in Liberia and Sierra Leone respectively. It was Museveni who suggested to [Rwandan President Paul] Kagame to enlist Kabila as a Congolese face to a Rwandan invasion of Zaire in 1996 to give the international community the false impression it was a civil war.

When [Sudan rebel leader John] Garang, Kabila, Kagame, and Museveni were all chums in the 1970s, they cut a deal to help each other take power. Kagame fought alongside Museveni to take Kampala. Museveni provided arms, soldiers, and intelligence to Kagame during his war to take Kigali. Uganda did the same for Garang's SPLA in the late 1990s, and there is reason to believe he is still doing it today. In turn, the SPLA is supplying these weapons to the Fur factions in Darfur, particularly al-Nur's SLA. Compaore reportedly hosted Kagame and his High Command for military planning meetings in early 1994. Recently, Burkina Faso's judiciary was one of the few African states to publicly denounce the Spanish arrest warrants.

Gaddafi also acted as a political adviser to Kagame during the Rwandan War 1990-1994 on a few occasions. According to sources in the Diaspora, it was Gaddafi's idea to have Rwandan Chief of Staff Deogratias Nsabiyimana in the plane with him. Gaddafi reportedly thought he was an able commander and leader, and the Rwandan Army could rally around him after [assassinated Rwandan Hutu President Juvenal] Habyarimana was gone. So a man in the Rwandan government who was working for the RPF [Rwandan Patriotic Front], Enoch Ruhigira, added Nsabiyimana's name to the passenger list and told him the reason was that it was for Habyarimana's security.

You will also notice that Gaddafi went to Uganda earlier this year, despite Uganda's majority Christians being very angry with him over some comments he made. Libya's partially-state owned oil company Tamoil holds the contract to build and maintain the Eldoret (Kenya) to Kampala oil pipeline. It is no coincidence that the individuals in that group who clinged to their Marxist beliefs and actually put them into practice when they took power are now dead (Kabila, Garang).

If Obama is elected, Sudan and Chad will go up in flames."

---------

Of course, that is if Obama puts people like Susan Rice, Tony Lake, Howard Wolpe, Rep. Donald Payne, and James Steinberg into senior foreign policy positions. All have innocent blood on their hands from their time in the Clinton administration. If John McCain is elected president, the entire world will go up in flames.

http://usuallydonewhilenaked.blogspot.com/

...

sometimes maybe it's appropriate to get mad...

Alice

Me and edna ellen chain ourselves naked to the whitehouse? Or you and dada and me and p and treebu and ellwort and nobody and somebody and mr and mrs ICEKNIFE and mhappenow and gbasin do....things...? ;)

Your wish came true..ellwort and treebu inspire me...

on 9/11

FLASHBACK: Ten Years Ago, Bin Laden Demanded Barrel Of Oil Should Cost $144

In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden — the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free — listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans “have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims” by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded.

Ten years ago today, the price of a barrel of oil was just $11. Heading into this holiday weekend, the price of a barrel of oil rested at $144 — a thirteen-fold increase.

One month after 9/11, the New York Times wrote of possible “nightmare” scenarios that would deliver bin Laden’s goal. Neela Banerjee warned that among the “misguided decisions” that would put oil supplies at risk would be “that the United States attacks Iraq.” The Times included this quote in its story:

“If bin Laden takes over and becomes king of Saudi Arabia, he’d turn off the tap,” said Roger Diwan, a managing director of the Petroleum Finance Company, a consulting firm in Washington. “He said at one point that he wants oil to be $144 a barrel” — about six times what it sells for now.

Bin Laden didn’t have to become king of Saudi Arabia to achieve his goal; in fact, Bush’s policies delivered it for him. The Bush administration’s catastrophic decision to invade Iraq, sink the nation into debt to pay for that war, and consequently, weaken the dollar have all caused oil prices to soar astronomically.

Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee last May, Anne Korin, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, reminded Congress about bin Laden’s goal:

[A]bout ten years ago, Osama bin Laden stated that his target price for oil is $144 a barrel and that the American people, who allegedly robbed the Muslim people of their oil, owe each Muslim man, woman, and child $30,000 in back payments. At the time, $144 a barrel seemed farfetched to most. […]

I would like to impress upon this Committee that $144 a barrel oil will be perceived as a victory for the Jihadist movement and a reaffirmation that the economic warfare component of its campaign against the West is a resounding success. There is no need to elaborate on the implications of such a victory in terms of loss of U.S. prestige and our ability to prevail in the Long War of the 21st century.

Indeed, ten years later, a mission accomplished for bin Laden.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/05/bin-laden-144-oil/

Yeah..then what?

Submitted by Alice on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 4:32pm.

***

hey...

Why not?!

do you realize what a genius george carlin was?

Gas prices set 6th straight record
Posted: 06:42 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNN) — Retail gas prices in the United States rose overnight to a record high for the sixth day in a row, and the eighth consecutive daily rise, a daily survey by motorist group AAA showed Saturday.

The national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose to an all-time high of $4.103 from $4.101 the day before, the survey said.

Gas prices are 3 percent higher than they were last month and nearly 39 percent higher, or $1.15 more, than a year ago.

AAA reported Saturday’s national average for higher-octane premium gas was $4.514, up from $4.511 on Friday. The survey also showed the national average price for diesel fuel rose to $4.782 a gallon, up from Friday’s $4.769. The Saturday price for diesel was not a record.

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/05/gas-prices-set-6th-straight-reco...

U.S. halts some Mexican food imports
Posted: 10:00 PM ET
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Food and Drug Administration has told growers and the brokers who handle their products that, starting Monday, health inspectors will halt the shipment from Mexico to the United States of ingredients common to Mexican cuisine, sources familiar with the investigation into salmonella poisoning said.

“At the border, what they do is they take samples of these and they send them to their laboratories and the labs examine them for any possible salmonella or E. coli,” said Tommy Thompson, former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, who said he has been informed of the plan.

Thompson and others told CNN that the probe, which initially focused solely on tomatoes, has been broadened to include scrutiny of cilantro, jalapeno peppers, Serrano peppers, scallions and bulb onions.

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/04/us-halts-some-mexican-food-impor...

I am celebrating his life!

Brilliant commentary.

Get him on it, then tell us... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqITJFGyq4s

omg I'm dead..that's all I eat..

Does The White Queen Rule?

3D Alice In Wonderland - 2010

***
Bless Greenwald for continuing his attack on this topic: bullshit called telecom amnesty.

See, this is what it takes. Not letting up. You can't address all of the issues effectively, so you have to focus on the most important and not let it go.

Bushco gets away with so much because they brazenly flaunt every law and moral code all at once. It makes us numb, and before you can focus on bringing the crime to trial or even get the words out, "it's wrong", the criminals commit a new crime.

***

Glenn Greenwald
Saturday July 5, 2008 09:29 EDT
The political establishment and telecom immunity -- why it matters

Nancy Soderberg was deputy national security advisor and an ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration. Today, she has an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times defending the FISA bill and telecom amnesty. The entire Op-Ed is just a regurgitation of the same trite, vague talking points which the political elite are using to justify this bill, accompanied by the standard invocations of "National Security" which our Foreign Policy elite condescendingly toss around to justify whatever policy they're claiming is necessary to protect us. But it's the language that she uses -- and the brazeness of the lying (and that's what it is) to justify this bill -- that's notable here.

It's notable because the political establishment is not only about to pass a patently corrupt bill, but worse, are spouting -- on a very bipartisan basis -- completely deceitful claims to obscure what they're really doing.

...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/07/05/monarchy/index.html

I knew you were tongue in cheek.

It's notable because the political establishment is not only about to pass a patently corrupt bill, but worse, are spouting -- on a very bipartisan basis -- completely deceitful claims to obscure what they're really doing. This is what Soderberg says is what happened:

"The Senate is dragging its feet because the compromise bill's opponents -- mostly Democrats -- want also to punish the telecommunications companies that answered President Bush's order for help with his illegal, warrantless wiretapping program. That is the wrong target.

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the White House directed telecommunications carriers to cooperate with its efforts to bolster intelligence gathering and surveillance -- the administration's effort to do a better job of "connecting the dots" to prevent terrorist attacks. In its review of the effort, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that the administration's written requests and directives indicated that such assistance "had been authorized by the president" and that the "activities had been determined to be lawful."

We now know that they were not lawful. But the companies that followed those directives are not the ones to blame for that abuse of presidential power.

I would really like to know where people like Soderberg get the idea that the U.S. President has the power to "order" private citizens to do anything, let alone to break the law, as even she admits happened here. I'm asking this literally: how did this warped and distinctly un-American mentality get implanted into our public discourse -- that the President can give "orders" to private citizens that must be complied with? Soderberg views the President as a monarch -- someone who can issue "orders" that must be obeyed, even when, as she acknowledges, the "orders" are illegal.

That just isn't how our country works and it never was. We don't have a King who can order people to break the law. I have no doubt that people like Nancy Soderberg are spending the July 4 weekend paying shallow homage to the Founding, all the while being completely ignorant of or indifferent to the principles they pretend to celebrate.

Thank you mmrules for the info on the animal rescue site.
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/tpc/ARS_linktous_120_01
I go to the site every day as I went originally directly to the site and then signed up to be reminded by them everyday by email. They remind me everyday and I go. One tiny daily good thing.

...

Just compare her claim that telecoms were justified, even required, to comply with the President's "order" to break the law with Thomas Paine's view, set forth in his 1776 revolutionary pamphlet Common Sense concerning how our country was supposed to work:

But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell you Friend, he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal Brute of Britain. Yet that we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve as monarchy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.

Nancy Soderberg and the rest of our political establishment about to immunize telecoms for having broken the law simply don't believe in those principles. And they're saying so explicitly. To them, the President's order to break the law both should and must be obeyed. Where did they learn that?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/07/05/monarchy/index.html

* * * * *

What all of this is really about -- the reason why political elites like Nancy Soderberg are so eager to defend it -- is because they really do believe that lawbreaking isn't wrong, that it doesn't deserve punishment, when engaged in by them rather than by commoners. People who defend telecom immunity or who say that it's not a big deal are, by logical necessity, adopting this view: "Our highest political officials and largest corporations shouldn't face consequences when they break our laws as long as they claim it was for our own good." That's the destructive premise that lies at the heart of this deeply corrupt measure, the reason it matters so much. Just like the pardon of Nixon, the protection of Iran-contra criminals, and the commutation of Lewis Libby's sentence, this bill is yet another step in cementing a two-tiered system of justice in America where our highest political officials and connected elite can break our laws with impunity.

Protecting government and corporate elite from flagrant lawbreaking is what our own political establishment always claimed was the hallmark of third-world, under-developed tyrannies.

[snip]

Following numerous requests from those who contributed to our campaign against those responsible for this FISA and telecom amnesty travesty, we are in the process of preparing a full-page ad -- highlighting how false are the claims being made to justify this bill and the reasons it is so corrupt -- to run this week in The Washington Post (assuming it is accepted) and other similar venues.

-- Glenn Greenwald

http://www.actblue.com/page/fisa

"Politeness pays," the town mayor, Klaus Goedejohann, told the Daily Mail. "We have proved that.'"

Imagine a town with no traffic lights, no stop signs - not even a pedestrian crosswalk.

Sound like a recipe for bumper-to-bumper traffic and constant fender-benders? Think again: Since the town of Bohmte, Germany implemented this radical new anti-traffic control procedure a month ago, there hasn't been a single accident on the busy roads.
...

http://theunapologeticmexican.org/elgrito/

re: That's odd Dan
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 11:07am.

(retake)

"that's odd, dan... my simulated senses have detected no malfuncton"

in the furture

toni will evolve into hal the onboard computer from 2001

.

already malevolent forces of the reich have begun grooming her to serve as their queen for their crowning acheivement...

the kingdom of the mc-ant people

"would you like pheremones with that"

(to which i'm programmed to respond)

SUPER SIZE ME, BABE!

One fascinating thing about the death of Jesse Helms is the conservative reaction...But instead conservatives are taking a line that I might have regarded as an unfair smear just a week ago, and saying that Helms is a brilliant exemplar of the American conservative movement.

And if that's what the Heritage Foundation and National Review and the other key pillars of American conservatism want me to believe, then I'm happy to believe it. But it reflects just absolutely horribly on them and their movement that this is how they want to be seen -- as best exemplified by bigotry, lunatic notions about foreign policy, and tobacco subsidies.

Reading the Corner's unabashed celebrations has been especially remarkable.

http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/

we know your robotic 9000 knees are fucking perfect

here they are basking in the mc-sunlight

and your hair is all shiny blue...

but 1 video of carlin will suffice

or we'll be forced to terminate your flatulent arse

ty

Jesse Helms

After reading over the coverage of Jesse Helms' passing on a prominent conservative blog, it seems apt to quote Sean Connery in Goldfinger, and say that it is "shocking, positively shocking" that the conservative movement has trouble winning over black voters.

Anyway, the two best Helms stories remain:

Soon after the Senate vote on the Confederate flag insignia, Sen. Jesse Helms (R.-N.C.) ran into [African-American Illinois Senator Carol] Mosely-Braun in a Capitol elevator. Helms turned to his friend, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah), and said, "Watch me make her cry. I'm going to make her cry. I'm going to sing 'Dixie' until she cries." He then proceeded to sing the song about "the good life" during slavery to Mosely-Braun.

And, from a Senate hearing:

Secretary of State Warren Christopher: Our support for President Aristide is based upon the fact that he won a democratic election in Haiti, which was certified to be an open and free--

Helms: So did Hitler!

Christopher: --with about 70 percent of the votes and--

Helms: So did Hitler.

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/07/04/jesse-helms-...

america lauds "the greatest generation" that fought in dubya-dubya 2

and in the same breath vote for vermin such as helms

hmmm...

"houston we have an irreconcilable problem"

good thing we got cognative dissonance to save the day

: )

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

Barr makes FISA play for Obama supporters

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Barr_makes_FISA_play_for_Obama_0704.html

The elephant in the convention
Posted July 5th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

The Republicans are planning to throw quite a party in Minnesota in a couple of months. They’re just not quite sure what to do with the President of the United States.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16102.html

enrolment officer: "are you a cognative dissonant fuckhead"

dickhead: "no, sir... i don't disssent"

enrolment officer: "have you ever smoked a latte"

dickhead: "no, sir... i'm american"

enrolment officer: "good, tick the box marked reptile brain"

dickhead: "yes, sir... i have a tick"

George Carlin: Americans Like War
Submitted by Catharine on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 4:17pm.
=============================================================

Carlin made that after the atrocious 1991 Gulf War. We have since bombed "White people" in 1999. The Serbs did not obey orders from Washington, and therefore had to be bombed. I wonder if Carlin had a response to the NATO war on Serbia. It would be nice to see it. I am sure he did.
(Bring on the pork chops.)

Saturday, July 05, 2008

How Dare They

Dirty fucking hippie Joe Galloway.

Early next week the U.S. Senate will vote on an extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with a few small amendments intended to immunize telecommunications corporations that assisted our government in the warrantless and illegal wiretapping it has grown to love.

That such a gutting of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution even made it out of committee is yet another stain on the gutless and seemingly powerless Democratic majority in both houses of Congress.

That a majority on both sides of the aisle — not least of them the presumptive nominees for president of both political parties — intend to vote for such a violation of Americans' right to privacy and of the sanctity of their personal communications is a stunning surrender to those who want us to live in fear forever.

-Atrios 18:02

http://www.eschatonblog.com/

Commentary: How dare they rip the Fourth Amendment?

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/43123.html

...and I talked about the Joe Galloway commentary. GMTA!

___
bluerootsradio

Right now, Obama and his advisors say "well, no matter what we do we have our 'base' locked up because all we have to do is threaten them with McCain as a possibility. Now let's go to town."

So are we such spineless wimps that we will stand by and having given all our money and campaigning support [or even if we have not], give in to this mentality?

And by saying, "OK, you got us there, go ahead and break every promise you made, and outright screw us and generations to come, because whatever you do it can't be worse than McCain" we are perpetuating this kind of behavior.

They are thinking [just like the Republican elite do about their base] that they reeled all those suckers in with that one weak 'threat'; and the suckers who are out there campaigning for Obama will not now stop to question him, because it is too difficult to admit that maybe you made a mistake. So they keep on soliciting for donations and put any misgivings out of their heads.

Just like 'amnesty for telecoms' there are no consequences for bad behavior and so we are condoning it and setting ourselves up for more.

This matters!

I want you back again
I want your love again

*

You gotta tell me you're coming back to me

"yes we can"

vote obama
and if catharine objects
fuck her in the arse

: )

later that day
[air-ono is unceremoniously dumped from obama's team]

I still want to teach Obama and the others a lesson
new
Submitted by Catharine on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 6:58pm.
Right now, Obama and his advisors say "well, no matter what we do we have our 'base' locked up because all we have to do is threaten them with McCain as a possibility. Now let's go to town."

==================================================================
It's not so much we are spineless wimps, as it is the way the system is set up. Both parties serve Big Power. I have heard it called The unelected Money Party. We see this every election cycle. There will be some Democrat who gets the nomination who activists put faith in, or give the benefit of doubt, because he will be better than the Republican. (And third parties don't have a chance to win in a presidential election.)

What can be done?
Keep it firmly in mind that the system is rigged in favor of the Big Money Party and their 2 flunkie electoral parties. Obama is doing his duty at not going far to the center.

Push for reforms that can break the 2-party stranglehold.(Instant runoff voting. Abolish electoral college. What else?) Perhaps electoral reform will be easier to do under a Democratic president. It will likely take 2 or several administrations.

We also need to work on a New New Deal, but that is another conversation.
*TLL*

but all I hear is Bruce Springsteen playing...

Sometimes Firefox pisses me off. It says downloading instead of just playing.

call me a fuckhead on the air

here's some enticement...

your blues is wimpy cliched and dull

: )

Do everything you can right now to tell Obama that you will not tolerate him dishonestly claiming that it is okay if the Fourth Amendment is SCREWED!

Tell him and every other senator that you will not only not vote for them but you will actively work to support people who will do the right thing.

**

Way to go Maggiesboy!

... then he sure as hell won't do it after the election!

http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/SenatorObama-PleaseVoteAgainstFISA

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

Legalities Post -

So here are some questions for the Obama campaign:

Does Obama still support the Freedom of Choice Act?

The Freedom of Choice Act specifically allows abortions after viability where necessary to protect a woman's health, and the legislation refers repeatedly to the guarantees of Roe and Doe, which protect the right to an abortion where necessary for a woman's physical and mental health.

[Obama was a co-sponsor.]

Would he appoint justices like Ginsburg — or like Thomas, Scalia, etc.?

Would he direct his Solicitor General to file a brief supporting state abortion bans that did not include a mental health exception?

[These are questions that I want answered from Obama. Previously, I had concerns about Obama selecting an anti-choice VP.

I have been working with groups to pressure Obama on the issue.]

---------

Excerpts:

In a recent interview, Obama appears to back away from his long-stated positions on abortion (and a proposed federal abortion rights law he had co-sponsored), repudiate 35 years of accepted Supreme Court rulings on the issue and embrace a view on abortion restrictions that has been expressed on the Court only by Justices Thomas and Scalia.

Obama's remarks are printed verbatim in the interview, published yesterday in Relevant Magazine.

Read them — there's no mistaking that Obama says he no longer will support what's long been a cornerstone of the abortion rights debate:

The Court's insistence that laws banning abortions after the fetus is viable (now about 22 weeks) contain an exception to allow doctors to perform them if necessary to protect a pregnant woman's mental health.

Wow.

This has been a central battleground issue in the Supreme Court going back 35 years, to Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, when the Court ruled a woman had a constitutional right to abortion. The decisions said state's can ban all abortions after the fetus is viable -- but that any restrictions must include exceptions to protect a woman's physical and emotional health.


In 1973, when the Court issued Roe and Doe — on the same day — it sided with the abortion rights groups and said states could not interfere with a doctor's medical judgment on whether an abortion was necessary.

"[M]edical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors--physical, emotional , psychological, familial, and the woman's age--relevant to the well- being of the patient," said the Supreme Court in Doe, which was a companion case to Roe. "All these factors may relate to health. This allows the attending physician the room he needs to make his best medical judgment."

...
Obama's comments that he does not support mental health exceptions in so-called post-viability abortions (after 22 weeks) is squarely at odds with that holding, which remains the law of the land today.

Current Supreme Court jurisprudence is understood by lower courts to prohibit those flat-out bans unless the laws provide exceptions for a woman's mental health. Lower courts repeatedly have struck down laws that only provide an exception for serious physical issues as being contrary to Supreme Court precedent.

Indeed, only Thomas and Scalia have expressly supported the position that a mental health exception is not necessary. They penned a dissent to that effect in 1998, when the Court refused to take up the Ohio case that struck down a state law because it did not include an exception to protect a woman's mental health.

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

Link:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/legalities/2008/07/obama-sounding.html

Join and Speak Out..
Submitted by MMRules on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 7:31pm.

Happy right where I am, thanks.

Protest Mp3's..

http://www.protest-records.com/mp3/index.html

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

It's creepy too. All those pod people.

shiver

:)

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

Yeah. I saw that earlier on my surfin' safari around the blogosphere.

You have gone way over the recommended daily allowance of emoticons.

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

Or will we?

8-)

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

Besides not giving the Obama any more money, and threaten to not vote for him, what can we do to pressure Obama?Big petition demanding he support the 4th Amendment?
How about get people to pour into his campaign stops and demand he steer left. I'm serious. What can we do?
*TLL*

we had something like this in new orleans for several months after katrina because many intersections lights were out - I never witnessed an accident, and people were polite, everyone took turns as in the 4-corners full stop sign without showing impatience even though traffic was slow and lines long, everyone curtous waited their turns

i know it can work; it makes sense that people would work together to avoid accidents

Went to the market to get some fresh guacamole and have been a bit busy playing with my new toy, trying to learn how to use it.

Hi Catharine,

Ever vigilant on all the politicians.

I've written to Durbin to talk to Obama. Durbin seems to be left of alot of Senators and he supports Obama. Maybe he'll have some influence. He is also running for re-election this year but he's well liked here in Illinois. I hope he can reason with him.

W.OM.B.A.T.

"win obama my black attack turtle"

*

later that day
[air-ono is unceremoniously dumped from obama's team]

obama spokesman, snoop dogg fronts the media to explain the decision:

"fuck that, nigga"

courteous?

Start the withdrawal on January 21st.

Single-Payer healthcare.

Money for jobs not for war!
Don't be another Pentagon
Whore!

*TLL*

us emoticon bloggers will obey your draconian limits on our freedom

if you curb catharine's extraneous video embeds

: )

btw, are you two still, um...

fucking each other

:p

Have to pick my brother up at the airport. BBL

yeah, sure...

you're going to buy cocaine

You read my mind,Thespian Lipsti..

I email my ass off to these Blowholes we call Politicians..

I'm sure most of us do..We call them too !

What's it gonna take for us to reach these Buttholes ?

That the War Must Stop and Don't Give Away The 4th Amendment ! !

I'm about ready to shave,put on a Wig and Pink Dress and Join Code Pink !

Now,Those Old Babes Don't F*ck Around !

Ideas welcome..Except From Ono ! ;)

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

...dinner that is.

MMRules, thanks for the link, I'll check 'em out.

Mr. ono. I will not only call you a fuckhead, I'll call you a bloody fucking fuckhead it if will make you happy. As for the blues, everyone has their own.

Catherine, the format is 3 mins of blah,blah,blah 17 mintues of music ( the critics are calling "wimpy, cliched and dull" ;-) repeating for 3 hours. If you use iTunes, you can tell the Live365 player to default to iTunes which is what I do.

___
bluerootsradio

Submitted by Thespian Lipsti... on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 7:50pm.
Besides not giving the Obama any more money, and threaten to not vote for him, what can we do to pressure Obama?...I'm serious. What can we do?
--------
Photoshopping him in Muslim garb sharing stewed goat in a cave with Osama bin Laden seems to be a popular choice.

All of those are good ideas. All of the above.

There is not one convenient answer, unfortunately. That is why people get discouraged.

But everything does count, whether you notice an effect or not. Write to everyone you can think of [like Toni did]; protest; call Obama's office and tell him how you feel [before this vote].

To reach the Campaign Headquarters by phone, please call: (866) 675-2008

Call his office in DC: (202) 224-2854

Chicago office: (312) 886-3506

Springfield office: (217) 492-5089

Marion office: (618) 997-2402

Moline office: (309)736-1217

Call all of these. Tell him that even though you are not an Illinois constituent, that his voting for immunity for telecoms, effects all of us in the US. It not only shows him to be a liar, but that he also does not believe in the rule of law!

I think all that we can do is hope. Hope that he is only doing what he must do to be elected. I know what has happened in past each time that we have been betrayed, but maybe this time Obama will move back to the left once elected. It is clear Obama feels he must now move toward the center where he can find more votes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

Ideas

Submitted by Thespian Lipsti... on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 7:50pm.
Besides not giving the Obama any more money, and threaten to not vote for him, what can we do to pressure Obama?Big petition demanding he support the 4th Amendment?
How about get people to pour into his campaign stops and demand he steer left. I'm serious. What can we do?

________________________

FISA: A Time To Sit In At Obama's Campaign Offices?

Which brings up the question, what next? One possibility is to up the pressure by sitting in at campaign offices this coming Monday.

If people are truly serious about their commitment to the rule of law, this is a logical next step. Unlike other lawbreaking, civil disobedience upholds the law by willingly embracing the consequences of its actions in order to challenge injustice.

Furthermore, Obama himself has tacitly endorsed such a move, in the Presidential Debate sponsored by CNN and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute on January 21, 2008, in response to the last question asked:

OBAMA: Well, I don't think Dr. King would endorse any of us. I think what he would call upon the American people to do is to hold us accountable, and this goes to the core differences, I think, in this campaign.

I believe change does not happen from the top down. It happens from the bottom up. Dr. King understood that.

It was those women who were willing to walk instead of ride the bus, union workers who are willing to take on violence and intimidation to get the right to organize. It was women who decided, "I'm as smart as my husband. I'd better get the right to vote."

OBAMA: them arguing, mobilizing, agitating, and ultimately forcing elected officials to be accountable, I think that's the key.

So that has been a hallmark of my career, transparency and accountability, getting the American people involved. That's how we're going to bring about change. That's why I want to be president of the United States, to respect the power of the American people to bring about change.

-------

Obviously, the question of civil disobedience in this context is a very serious matter.

But so is passing this bill that constitutes a frontal assault on the rule of law.

And so it behooves us to ask, in these circumstances, what would Martin do?

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

Link:

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6776

Sounded good.

Delicious Vinyl

WOW!

Fighting for the Fourth Amendment on the Fourth of July | Report to Admin Reply
By maggiesboy 12 seconds ago

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

You can't "change" this, you can only lose it. Immunity will not be stripped from this bill and you know that. Saying that you'll fix it later is not acceptable. Compromise is not option.

Time to fight.
Time to lead.
This voter is asking you to change.

___
bluerootsradio

Good one Star Vox.

Another piece of that article you posted:

"Some would argue that such a move would be highly damaging to Obama's campaign, but others might disagree. It is still quite early in the general election campaign, and putting a stop now to such wrong-headed triangulation, directly violating his own word, could be doing him an enormous favor. What's more, truly demonstrating his capacity to listen to the people and be persuaded--after 8 years of Bush/Cheney--could be the most powerful demonstration imagineable that the change talks about is actually real."

***

By the way, all of Obama's mailboxes are full except in Marion, IL. Oh wait, I am not sure I checked Moline...

http://www.counterpunch.org/montague06232008.html

[excerpt]

Lubricating the Geology

In the 1960s, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal outside Denver, Colorado began pumping liquid wastes into the ground and inadvertently set off a series of earthquakes by lubricating the underground geology. Scientists studying the feasibility of pumping liquid CO2 into the ground near the Wabash seismic zone in Edwardsport, Indiana will need to show why CO2 could not promote more and bigger earthquakes in southern Indiana and Illinois -- and why powerful earthquakes in the Wabash or New Madrid zones will never release Duke's CO2 into the atmosphere. "Never" is a long time.

So far, government scientists have not set any criteria for deciding what makes a "good" site for burying CO2 in the ground. Without such criteria, claiming that any power plant is "capture ready" is a scam. To be "capture ready," a plant has to be capable of capturing its CO2 but also the ground beneath the plant has to be suitable for storing it in perpetuity.

So... is Edwardsport, Indiana the place where the nation's best independent geologists would recommend burial of 344 million pounds of pressurized liquid CO2? Or are Duke Energy and the Clean Air Task Force just using the fake promise of "carbon storage someday" to overcome public opposition to a coal plant so they can make a buck? Not so, insists John Thompson of the Clean Air Task Force. "We're into this plant not because we love coal.... We're just interested in clean air and clean water," he says.

But wait. Recently the Doris Duke Foundation announced a grant of $845,000 to the Clean Air Task Force to promote carbon capture and storage. Hmmm... Duke Power (now Duke Energy) was started in 1905 by Doris Duke's father, James B. "Buck" Duke.

Furthermore, in the past couple of years, the Joyce Foundation has awarded three grants to the Clean Air Task Force to promote "clean coal" -- $55,000, $60,000 and $787,500. So between them Duke and Joyce have given the Clean Air Task Force $1.7 million to promote carbon capture and storage, even, apparently, in active earthquake zones. Maybe for that kind of money, skating to the dark side on such thin ice begins to resemble a scam of such proportions that it can only be labeled "an American success story" -- right up there with junk bond king Michael Milken, Iran-Contra mastermind Oliver North, and Enron's Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay.

Peter Montague is editor of Rachel's Democracy and Health News.

[end excerpt]

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

Just say no to "Coal Liquification".

As this story says, 60 percent of Americans have already been suckered into this scam, approving of the bogus "Clean Coal" mumbojumbo some P.R. firm dreamed up.

It's time for CONSERVATION, new usage policies, and energy generation that leaves minimal "residue" and toxic sludge.

(By the way, liquid coal is something Obama wants U.S. taxpayers to subsidize.)

blues are essential to life

blues add depth to existence...

so maggiesboy don't give me no "each to their own" cop out

file your blues under impotence and not under the blues

i want blood
i demand guts
for i am the lord...

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/buildings/new-england/empire-state/images/k...

further down the line of coke
the veil is removed, and dada's anarchist utopian society is laid bare:

commandment #1

on any given day
thou shall be restricted to as many emoticons as i decree
and on a bad hair day, zero tolerance will be enforced

for i am the lord...

Cindy Sheehan (OK: Code Pink),but she is spot on about the political system.

I know people here freak out about Nader, but if Obama fears a shift to the left, he may be more amenable to go left. And stop triangulating.
(If you hate Nader that much, check out McKinney, or Alice's Socialist candidate. Goddammit! I don't remember her name.):(
*TLL*

There's only one thing left to do.

Toga party.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8cmWK1uRu4

Seriously though, I really appreciate this discussion.

Laura Flanders on the Road:

Tapings for livefrommainstreet.org:

Miami, FL. on the 12th

COLUMBUS, OH. 9/28/'08

Gloria La Riva, Peace & Freedom party

Right?

is Never Gonna Stop.

//I got it to work, Maggiesboy//

catharine discovers the play button

: )

and good show too!

My station is not a "blues" station but I do play 'em, I play everything from blues to bluegrass, funk to folk, country to rock 'n roll to jazz. It just has to be good. About the bluesiest I get this week is Bonnie Raitt doing "Love me Like a Man".

Now go back to doing lord stuff. Might I suggest curing some amputees and making the avocado pit a lot fucking smaller? You really blew it on that one Big G.

___
bluerootsradio

The check is in the mail! ;-)

___
bluerootsradio

8:37pm.

The national articles I saw on this did not indicate that it was Feinstein that suggested that Hillary and Barack meet at Feinstein's house. It was not until a day or two later that I saw a small article in the newspaper about how Feinstein orchestrated the meeting at her home.

Feinstein, being a DINO, a war profiteer and millionaire, is not my idea of a progressive. She's in my 'untrustworthy' category for sure.

This is the point where my sci-fi suspense film synapses start firing, and I'm wondering (rising suspense theme music): What happened to Obama when he was "alone" with Hillary in that room in Feinstein's house? Has he ever been the same Obama since then?

Finally I'm gonna get to go to a Laura event. I live in Columbus.
___
bluerootsradio
Hmmm, I thought I signed up for the Main Street mailing list....Nothing in my in box.

Submitted by maggiesboy on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 8:05pm.
...17 mintues of music (the critics are calling "wimpy, cliched and dull")...
---------
Want revenge? Play this:

Rivingtons, The Bird's The Word

bite him,Nora ? ;)

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

PacificFreePress.com

Jesse Helms was a segregationist, and a nasty one at that.

Long after his contemporaries abandoned old "Jim Crow," Helms kept playing the race card when it served him politically.

And when he was not picking on African-Americans, he picked on ethnic minorities, immigrants, trade unionists, gays and lesbians.

While Helms served thirty years in the Senate, his tenure on Capitol Hill was never so historically significant as his crude pursuit of power and the unsettling lengths to which he went to retain it. "He'll be remembered, in part, for the strong racist streak that articulated his politics and almost all of his political campaigns -- they were racialized in the most negative ways," recalled Kerry Haynie, a political science professor at Duke University.

Helms' death Friday, at age 86, brings America a small step closer to the end of the antebellum era in our politics that saw the men who had battled to deny the franchise to millions of Americans because of the color of their skin -- and who fought even more aggressively to deny adequate education, nutrition and health care to African-American children -- make the easy transition to leadership positions in the "modern" Republican Party.

Helms was not always a Republican. As a young man of the Old South, he had no interest in joining an organization that, well into the 20th century, proudly referred to itself as "the party of Lincoln."

Only when the Grand Old Party adopted a southern accent and replaced references to the Great Emancipator with grumping about "racial quotas" did Helms make the switch to the party of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and John McCain. He brought along the symbols and sounds of the "Jim Crow" Democrats, insisting that Republican events celebrate the memory of Robert E. Lee and encouraging the singing of "Dixie" at party rallies.

Come to think of it Hillary ain't quite the same either.

___
bluerootsradio

.

Could also go with Dar William's "I Saw a Bird Fly Away", but that would just be mean.

___
bluerootsradio
I'm having blog issues. Would someone jiggle the thingy and fix it please?

You'd love to be laid bare at my anarchist utopian society.

LatinoLikeMe.com ....

Guess what? I’m going to register my Chicanito self as a Republican and vote for John McCain because, simply put, he gets me.

When asked about how he intended to woo Latinos this fall, McCain said he had a much easier task than did his opponent.

See? Juan…lo siento, John McCain is a Senator from a State where a lot of other Mexicans live and have lived for a long time. That makes him an expert, you see. And just like Señor McCain tells us, if you’re thinking that Barack Obama knows you–just because he sent his adult life working on inner-city, urban issues affecting communities of color (like poverty, gangs, drugs, discrimination)–well, you;re wrong. People of color have very little in common in this nation.

Man I feel better. It’s like I’m lighter, more free. You see, I always thought that for a politician to support immoral and poorly planned war–like Vietnam or the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan–was an equally unjust abuse of Latinos. After all, most of the infantry men and women fighting and dying in these wars are poor, rural/urban young people, people who are disproportionately Latino. But now I don’t.

And I always thought that support for free trade and outsourcing, and busting unions and fighting minimum wage laws, and for bailing out S & L crooks was bad for working people, bad for poor people, and bad for most Latino people. But I guess not.

And I used to think that supporting immigration reform just so a bunch of your state’s big business people could use, objectify, and economically abuse your people was a bad thing. But, well, I mean, I guess…

What a minute! I’ve lived in California my whole damn life and I don’t know anything about surfing, or the way almonds are grown, of even where California cheese comes from. And come to think of it, John McCain has almost never supported the issues I believe are fundamental toward the political, economic, and social equality of Mexican and other Latinos in this nation.....Cont….

Free Democracy

Timesunion.com - DERRICK Z. JACKSON

Train travel is finally becoming a third rail of politics. The first one to fry over it might be John McCain.

For years, McCain, in the comfort of cheap gasoline for autos and airplanes, made Amtrak a personal whipping boy. Despite the fact that Western Europe and Asia zoomed far ahead of the United States by supporting high-speed trains to relieve congestion, promote tourism and now as we are coming to know, save the planet, McCain has spent considerable capital in denying the passenger rail system the capital to modernize.

In 2000, when he was chairman of the Senate Science, Commerce and Transportation committee, McCain killed $10 billion in capital funding for Amtrak. He denounced Amtrak as a symbol of government waste, claiming, "There's only two parts of the country that can support a viable rail system -- the Northeast and the far West."

He made these claims though Amtrak investment had the support of several notable Republicans. Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi warned that Amtrak "is guaranteed and doomed to failure if we don't give it an opportunity to succeed. If you don't have modern equipment, if you don't have the new fast trains, if you don't have a rapid rail system, it will not work."

Tommy Thompson, the secretary of Health and Human Services during President Bush's first term, was Amtrak chairman when McCain blocked the funding. Thompson said, "The traveling public are sending a distress call to escape our nation's endless traffic jams and airport gridlock."

Although Thompson claimed "remarkable progress in turning Amtrak around," despite a past where "it was not run like a business," McCain ignored the distress call. In 2001, then-Amtrak president George Warrington said the funding of rail in America was so bad, it was comparable to similar funding in Estonia and Tunisia.

McCain said, "Amtrak needs to make more progress before any further funding schemes are enacted," while at the same time calling any money for progress a "multibillion-dollar blank check." In 2002, McCain declared that "Amtrak should be restructured to eliminate its reliance on the American taxpayers and to allow for its privatization."

In 2003, McCain allowed that new Amtrak president David Gunn "increased efficiency rather dramatically." But McCain continued in years afterward to fight the capital improvements needed. McCain became a self-fulfilling prophet, making sure that Amtrak remained exactly what he feared it would be, "the albatross blocking the development of a program that actually meets the needs of the traveling public."

Suddenly, the traveling public is demanding the development of commuter and high-speed intercity rail. According to the American Public Transportation Association, light rail (streetcars) was up 10 percent in the first quarter of this year, commuter rail was up by 6 percent, and subways were up 4 percent (Boston subway travel was up by 9 percent)..................

Free Democracy

Josh Marshall exposes AP pushing "the identical McCain/RNC line" in two articles.

AP On the Case! Yesterday we flagged the AP's Jennifer Loven's 'analysis' piece flogging the McCain/RNC spin on Obama's run to the center. Well, as every crack communication operation knows, message repetition is the key to success. And so today we have another 'analysis' piece, this time by the AP's Steven Hurst. And it's practically the same piece. Hurst and Loven actually both use the identical quote from RNC spinmeister Alex Conant.

Says Conant: ""There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience."

The identical quote appears in both pieces. If the pieces weren't bylined I think I might have assumed one was a rewrite of the other. But they actually appear to be two completely original articles, just mouthing the identical McCain/RNC line.

It seems like we might have a case of persistent Solomonism at the AP, even though the master himself is now two jobs on. This is really going to bear watching.

FLASHBACK: Ten Years Ago,
Submitted by toniD on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 4:33pm.
FLASHBACK: Ten Years Ago, Bin Laden Demanded Barrel Of Oil Should Cost $144

In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden — the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free — listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans “have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims” by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded.

Ten years ago today, the price of a barrel of oil was just $11. Heading into this holiday weekend, the price of a barrel of oil rested at $144 — a thirteen-fold increase.

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

If Osama worked for one of the Major Oil Companies, he'd have earned one heck of a 'golden parachute' by now.

What can we do?

Submitted by dada on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 8:30pm.
There's only one thing left to do.

Toga party.

_________________

Good to know that we are not boycotting togas.

O! Plus! Perge! Aio! Hui! Hem!

Cedant arma togae.

-Cicero

Let arms yield to the toga.

May military power yield to civilian power.

Obama is reminding me more and more of Reagan wrapped in Carter's cowardice.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

..if you think that then turn away from your monitor/screen and get back to watching propaganda on fauxsnooze.
___
bluerootsradio

yeah - that'll learn me, crank

stick to your erudite pursuits and text-based humour

that's your cache, son.

music & the visual arts are way out of your league

your attempts at humour using pics are generally feeble

and now your attempt to zing me via music is doubly so

p.s. and your parodies are shit

sure, they're ideal for toothless old grannies

(mmr, fernando, mhappen, nora, maggiesboy, dan, edna, kevin, dada, catharine, star vox, cat chew, mire, basically everyone but me)

who munch them down

while waiting to die

so ffs... take care

: )

Jimmy Carter was no coward..
Submitted by maggiesboy on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 9:54pm.
--------
Carter was not a peanut farmer either. It is an oft-repeated fallacy that I let slide when edna ellen poe used it recently.

She knows better.

Thanks. I may not have seen that. Carter a coward!?

What kind of fooking ignorant piece of shit would say something like that?

http://www.samsedershow.com/node/3399#comment-227544

Jimmy Carter was no coward..
new
Submitted by maggiesboy on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 9:54pm.

___

No spine... which he demonstrated as recently as two years ago when he lied about and tried to retract his comment about monkey boy's foreign policy.

If there is one thing that I admire about Clinton it's that he has guts-- maybe even to an insane, crass extent.

www.sigzone.blogspot.com

I still have some teeth left.