Shocking Security Measures

the first time i've been first, i think

I came in late ... did Obama vote affirmative on Feingold-Dodd amendment to strip the immunity clause from the FISA bill?

the horror story is on Cspan 2

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan2_rm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS2

its not a parody, sad to say. i will say that its good to see that those same yahoos that wrote the scripts for 1950's dod clips have finally found gainful employment.

the bingaman amendment might pass...?

http://firedoglake.com/2008/07/09/fisa-voting-set-to-begin/#more-27663

YAYS 32 NAYS 66.

YAYS:
Akaka
Baucus
Biden
Bingamon
Boxer
Brown
Byrd
Cantwell
Cardin
Casey
Clinton
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Harkin
Kerry
Klobuchar
Lautenburg
Leahy
Levin
Menendez
Murray
Obama
Reed
Reid
Sanders
Shumer
Stabenow
Tester
Whitehouse
Wyden

Last day to celebrate the 4th amendment party!

drinking game is one shot per senate betrayal of our privacy!

vote at 2pm washington time, cspan 2 covering it.

http://www.c-span....t=TV&Code=CS2

Party! Let's drink ourselves silly.... ! Wheee....

sheesh.

http://www.shirley08.com/

it's been good having you here.

you've been here the longest, whaddya think?

I got nothing Jim.

Ha!

about nothing!

I been doing so much with so little for so long

i can do anything with nothing! ; )))

O'Reilly echoed false claim that "unemployment rate now is lower than it was under President Clinton"

http://mediamatters.org/items/200807090003

Well alrighty then!

Let's go conquer the world, Jim!

Feinstein..What a Worthless Cow !

Sorry Ladies but,she just drives me crazy !

Of course she voted Nay on the The Dodd-Feingold-Leahy Amendment.

Just worthless !

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

just takes me awhile to get going

Jesse Ventura to challenge Senator Coleman and Al Franken?
John Aravosis (DC) · 7/09/2008 12:58:00 PM ET · Link
11 Comments · reddit · FARK · Digg It! ·

Now that would be an interesting race, even though we want Franken to win.
In an interview with NPR's David Welna that ran today former Gov. Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Ind-Minn., sounds like he may run for Senate, challenging incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., whom Ventura defeated for governor in 1998, as well as Democratic nominee and former Saturday Night Live humorist Al Franken.

Ventura, born Jim Janos, tells Welna that the main reason he would run is because of Coleman's support for the war in Iraq. "That's the reason I run," he says. "I run because it angers me...All you Minnesotans take a good hard look at all three of us. And you decide: if you were in a dark alley which one of the three of us would you want with you?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/jesse-ventura-t.html

Obama victory could drop oil $40
Chris in Paris · 7/09/2008 12:01:00 PM ET · Link
18 Comments · reddit · FARK · Digg It! ·

Obviously the ramblings of some loony lefty. From CNBC:
If Barrack Obama wins the presidency, the price of oil could fall by $40 per barrel. The financial markets will discount the possibility before hand, at least partially. There are three ways in which this could happen:

1) As was the case during the Clinton administration, Obama might be more inclined to intervene in the foreign exchange market to support the value of the dollar....

2) Obama will speak in a more concilatory tone toward nations in the Middle East. If he does, some of the risk premium would likely be extracted from the oil price.

3) Energy conservation and investment in energy infrastructure are likely to increase if Obama wins...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/25590462

New McCain ad slammed by FactCheck.org
Chris in Paris · 7/09/2008 08:56:00 AM ET · Link
17 Comments · reddit · FARK · Digg It! ·

Stupid facts. Don't the facts know that we're not supposed to question John MCain, no matter how wrong?
McCain's new radio ad, in Spanish, aims to show Florida would benefit from the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which he supports. But every number in the ad is wrong, except one, a prediction of job gains taken from a group favoring the trade deal. And even that number is rounded upward so generously as to flunk third-grade arithmetic.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/145031

and speaks out rather well on the shituation.

Franken always slid away from confronting it.

Coleman is a corp puppet. hrrrrmm?

hard to choose is'nt it?

Many of McCain’s 300 economists ‘don’t actually support’ his full economic agenda.Filed Under: Economy
By Matt at 10:14 am Many of McCain’s 300 economists ‘don’t actually support’ his full economic agenda.
On Monday, after Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) released an economic plan promising to balance the federal budget by 2013, his campaign released a statement signed by 300 economists who were said to “enthusiastically support” the plan. But as Politico reports today, “a good many of those economists don’t actually support the whole of McCain’s economic agenda.” In fact, the statement released by the campaign neglected to mention parts of McCain’s plan that have drawn criticism from many economists:

The statement they signed is 403 words long—and there is no mention of the gas tax holiday or the deficit, which the Congressional Budget Office projects will approach $400 billion this year.

But the Jobs for America plan is a 15-page document that touts a gas tax holiday proposal on the second page and prominently features the promise that “John McCain will balance the budget by the end of his first term” on the fourth page. The press release accompanying the economists’ statement claimed it was “in support of John McCain’s Jobs for America economic plan.”

But some of the economists interviewed by Politico, like the University of Iowa’s William Albrecht, vigorously disagree with these aspects of McCain’s plan. “He’s not going to balance the budget,” Albrecht said. One economist even said he was supporting Obama.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/09/many-of-mccains-300-economists-dont-...

Failed advisers Mark Penn and Karen Hughes team up to counsel ‘corporations in crisis.’
Former Clinton strategist Mark Penn is teaming up with former Bush strategist Karen Hughes to “create a bipartisan consulting organization to advise corporations in crisis.” Penn will hire Hughes as his vice-chairman. Penn “has been blamed in recent months for [Hillary Clinton’s] failed candidacy,” while Hughes failed in marketing Bush’s policies to the Muslim and Arab world. “Karen and I have had so many of the same experiences in the White House and campaigns, and have worked around the world,” Penn said. “But we agreed that we won’t let politics interfere in our business.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/09/failed-advisers-mark-penn-and-karen-...

The perfect couple?

Submitted by toniD on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 1:42pm.

***

Ew.

It just tells you so much. There's no difference in the end between a corporate Dem and a corporate neocon. How could you work with someone like Karen Hughes? Only if you were exactly like her.

where can I get me one a them cool bracelets that lets you shock me if you don't like the way I look?

drinking game is one shot per senate betrayal of our privacy!

...

That's A LOT of shots, Sunny & Cath. ;-p

I see Obama voted YEA on the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment. Perhaps he listened... but, will still overall "support" the bill "as is" if all amendments to strip retro immunity fail.

Hmmmmm.

Dana Milbank Wednesday, July 9, 2008;

"Pander" in Spanish is "Si Se Puede". And chupamedias is hardly sock sucker unless you wear hosiery.

to that PAC place?

Lendman

within 5 seconds.

Is it not spelled 'defense', rather than 'defence' ?

The News & Observer

RALEIGH - L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half-staff Monday, as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley.

When a superior ordered the lab to follow the directive, Eason decided to retire rather than pay tribute to Helms. After several hours' delay, one of Eason's employees hung the flags at half-staff.

The brouhaha began late Sunday night, when Eason e-mailed eight of his employees in the state standards lab, which calibrates measuring equipment used on things as widely varied as gasoline and hamburgers.

"Regardless of any executive proclamation, I do not want the flags at the North Carolina Standards Laboratory flown at half staff to honor Jesse Helms any time this week," Eason wrote just after midnight, according to e-mail messages released in response to a public records request.

He told his staff that he did not think it was appropriate to honor Helms because of his "doctrine of negativity, hate, and prejudice" and his opposition to civil rights bills and the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday........

Free Democracy

Mornin' Kev.. :)

new bids for $35 Bil. contract that went to Airbus. Per CNN

MoveOn.org

"FOX must stop injecting racism, prejudice, and fear into our political dialogue. We intend to hold FOX, its advertisers, and its personalities accountable for FOX's attempts to smear the Obamas."

Petition-Please Sign-Thank You !

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

In trans-Pacific volley, Perino demands apology from senator

From Tokyo comes word that Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, wants an apology from Sen. Barbara Boxer.

The California Democrat and chair of the Senate Environment Committee accused Perino today of lying about why the White House had pushed for deletions in congressional testimony from the Environmental Protection Agency regarding the effects of global warming on public health.

Boxer placed the blame in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney -- and said Perino then lied about the reason for the deletions.

In Japan, where President Bush was attending the annual Group of 8 summit, Perino told reporters Thursday morning (Tokyo time): “I have never said such a thing about a fellow public servant, and I wouldn’t if I didn’t have all the facts."

"I think I deserve an apology," she added, completing the trans-Pacific volley between Capitol Hill and Japan.

Not likely, according to this response from Natalie Ravitz, Boxer's spokeswoman: "It is the Bush administration that owes the American people an apology for covering up the dangers of global warming."

Good Mornining Alice 8-)

Networks may limit convention coverage
By DAVID PAUL KUHN | 7/8/08 5:36 PM EST

Major television networks are considering curtailing coverage of the Democratic National Convention after Monday’s announcement that Barack Obama will accept his party's nomination in a Denver stadium.

According to several broadcast executives, the networks will still cover all the major speeches. But beyond that, all options are open as they look for savings to balance out the anticipated costs surrounding the stadium event. The acceptance event is an unexpected departure from the traditional convention hall format for which they have spent months planning.

Network executives expect Obama’s relatively late-breaking decision to speak at Invesco Field at Mile High, a 76,000-seat football stadium, could add hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs to already cash-strapped news divisions. Each network has budgeted millions to cover the political conventions, but that spending is already accounted for in specific costs ranging from hotel rooms to staffing to building convention platforms.

For most networks, any additional outlays for the convention would come out of their 2008 campaign budget.

Obama’s decision “makes it enormously more expensive,” said Paul Friedman, senior vice president at CBS News. “It does add to the overall question of how the networks should cover what is a non-news event.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11606.html

I did not write a word
and if you try to spy on me
I'll just flip you the bird.

R.I.P 4 Amendment
You served us well while you were here.

___
bluerootsradio

...

either.

What?

Record numbers of supporters turning out for America's first African American President isn't news?

I'm expecting near 100,000 in that Denver stadium, remember, with no actual sporting event taking up the field, that leaves room for a lot more supporters.

Either that or we have to have the Democratic National Convention in Portland in 2012.

I did not write this message

Submitted by maggiesboy on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 2:25pm.

I did not write a word
and if you try to spy on me
I'll just flip you the bird.

R.I.P 4 Amendment
You served us well while you were here.

___
bluerootsradio
»

Three Turkish policemen have been killed and two others injured after assailants opened fire in front of the US consulate in Istanbul, the local governor and media reports say.
"In terms of reasons… there are speculations of all sorts, one line of thinking is that this is a message to the US and their policies in the region. The other suggestion is that it is the PKK.

Inside job?

Of the four attackers, three were killed, one is still at large and the three dead are all Turkish nationals.
"This will Very much strengthen US-Turkey ties. Definitely security will be stepped up. They have always been sensitive to foreign attacks.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/07/2008799318301604.html

Iran Test-Fires Nine Missiles, Warns It Will Retaliate

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran test-fired nine long- and medium-range missiles Wednesday during war games that officials said aimed to show the country can retaliate against any U.S. or Israeli attack, state television reported.

Oil prices jumped on news of the missile tests, rising US$1.44 to US$137.48 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The military exercise was being conducted at the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which about 40 percent of the world's oil passes. Iran has threatened to shut down traffic in the strait if attacked. It was not clear, however, whether the missile test also took place near the strait.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/09/iran-test-fires-nine-miss_n_111...

News Middle East

Israel plans new settlement units

An Israeli commission has approved the construction of 920 homes in occupied East Jerusalem.

The homes will be built in Har Homa, a neighbourhood that has 10,000 residents, the Jerusalem municipality said in a statement on Wednesday.

Har Homa is known to Palestinians as Jabel Abu Ghneim and is built on confiscated Arab land.

Israel pledged to halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank when peace talks were revived at the conference in the US city of Annapolis last year.

The country occupied and annexed the eastern half of Jerusalem after the 1967 war, a move that was not recognised by the international community.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/07/200879114053172605....

http://foxattacks.com/michelle?utm_source=rgemail

Gunmen Attack U.S. Consulate In Turkey

NPR.org, July 9, 2008 · Armed men opened fire on a security post outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, embassy and city officials said. Three police officers and three assailants were killed.

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman, who asked not to be identified, said there were no reports of casualties among American consulate employees in the attack on a police guardpost near the entrance to the compound in Turkey's largest city.

The city's governor, Muammer Guler, said the identities of the assailants were under investigation but said there was "no doubt" it was a terrorist attack.

Guler said one of the police officers died at the scene during what witnesses said was a 15-minute gunfight. Two died of their wounds at a nearby hospital.

Television images showed four bodies on the ground in front of the high-walled compound situated outside Istanbul city center, overlooking the Bosphorus waterway.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92359555

have not checked the span yet

Senate commits to shielding telecoms from suits

WASHINGTON July 9, 2008, 01:37 pm ET · The Senate on Wednesday affirmed its intention to protect from civil lawsuits telecom companies that helped the government wiretap Americans without court authorization after the Sept. 11 attacks.

It turned back three amendments that were offered during final debate on a bill that overhauls the rules on secret government eavesdropping.

The votes suggest the surveillance bill will pass by an easy margin later Wednesday, and signal an end to almost a year of wrangling between the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, and Congress and the White House over the president's warrantless wiretapping program.

The House approved the surveillance overhaul last month.

The long fight on Capitol Hill has centered on one question: whether to shield from civil lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government eavesdrop on American phone and computer lines after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, without the permission or knowledge of a secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The lawsuits allege that the White House and the companies violated U.S. law by going around the FISA court to start the wiretaps. The court was created 30 years ago to prevent the government from abusing its surveillance powers for political purposes, as was done in the Vietnam War and Watergate eras. The court is meant to approve all wiretaps placed inside the U.S. for intelligence-gathering purposes. The law has been interpreted to include international e-mail records stored on servers inside the U.S.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91721672

that's what george carlin calls dick waving...

The Obama campaign responded by bringing up a comment by McCain from 2004, when he said that if a sovereign Iraqi government asked American forces to quit Iraq, "it's obvious we would have to leave."

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5icMg7uJLrzdcOx0lcwi9lv2TA9LQ

Despite the hype about Iraq being "calm," a typical day such as yesterday still looks like this according to Antiwar.com:

"One American servicemember was killed and five others were wounded in separate incidents around Baghdad. In northern Iraq, four Coalition contractors were also killed, but their nationalities are unknown at press time. At least 36 Iraqis were killed or found dead and 28 more were wounded in other attacks. Also, a UN representative reported that one-sixth of Iraq's population has been displaced due to violence."

http://www.juancole.com/

In every letter, email, fax, and phone call I make, I'm going to make up some super secret missile plans. I encourage everyone to do the same. Make the fucking bastards spy on all us! We'll crash their system with phoney baloney!

GeezusHFuckingKristAmIEverMad!

___
bluerootsradio

In every letter, email, fax, and phone call I make, I'm going to make up some super secret missile plans. I encourage everyone to do the same. Make the fucking bastards spy on all us! We'll crash their system with phoney baloney!

GeezusHFuckingKristAmIEverMad!

___
bluerootsradio

what bill? on the cspan2

treasonous bastards!

I knew this would be the next stupid story:
On Wednesday, Obama said he had second thoughts after seeing how much attention the interview had received. The Obamas had been keeping Malia and 7-year-old Sasha out of the media spotlight.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/09/politics/main4245011.
shtml

scum troll work on KOS;
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/7/9/14847/63901/336/548838

PITTSBURGH -- Welcome to the new John McCain press strategy.

Avoid them.

McCain today held a 10-minute press conference, complete with podium, microphones for the questioners, network-quality audio and a camera for a local television station, which allowed CNN to carry it live.

And where was the national press corps?

Sitting on the runway 27 miles away, having been ferried to McCain's charter plane, totally unaware that a press availability was about to take place until one of the handful of "pool reporters" sent an e-mail alert.

The reporters frantically fired up their cellular modems and logged on to CNN.com to catch the end of the press conference, unable to ask any questions. The handful of reporters there asked about the FISA terrorism bill, Iran and about McCain's pledge to balance the budget.

McCain's schedule for Wednesday included a note about a "gaggle" with the pool reporters, but nothing indicated a live press conference. The tactic was a first for the McCain campaign, which basically shrugged when asked about it.

And,Scared Little Lambs !

Our Founding Fathers Are Rolling Over In Their Graves,Right Now !

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

the worst part is paying for all the dry cleaning for those scared little senators who peed themselves and then voted yes.

you really have to wonder if the admin hasn't wiretapped all the senators and built a blackmail dossier on them.

Strait of Hormuz---how do you pronounce that?
Submitted by Lucille on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 2:43pm.

As the Senate voted to endorse a Bush-administration backed plan to expand its surveillance authority and grant retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated warrantless wiretapping, the American Civil Liberties Union unveiled plans to challenge the new law in court.

“This fight is not over. We intend to challenge this bill as soon as President Bush signs it into law,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project, in a statement provided to RAW STORY as the Senate was voting. “The bill allows the warrantless and dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international telephone and email communications. It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment.”

After defeating three attempts to improve the update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Senate was expected to President Bush a FISA update Wednesday. Senators approved the FISA update on a 69-28 vote.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/ACLU_will_challenge_FISA_update_in_0709.ht...

got it

i don't wonder at all.

if anything this should remove all doubts that the senate is free from comprimisation and coercion.

he said it was for the "producer" which probably means it would at least include Lauren. I was donating for Lauren only and hope for new opportunities to do it again for Sam and others who help him out. Plus it was just for a couple of bucks so he needs to raise the rent on this place.

i need some shop therapy time...

i'm going out to play with my Brit bits, i nearly have them sorted and boxed.

They are just about the Only place left that can fight these Assholes !

Now come on..I know you didn't give All your money to Sammy yesterday,or did you ? :)

Only if you can afford it,of course.. :)

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

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here Wednesday as the United States and Russia accused each other of stoking violence in Georgia.

Her trip comes a day after she signed a deal allowing Washington to base part of a new US missile defence system in the Czech Republic, prompting a stark warning from Moscow that it would respond militarily.

The former Cold War rivals have traded accusations of fanning separatist tensions in Georgia itself, where violence has flared in the past week in Abkhazia, one of two regions that broke from Tbilisi after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"Russia has greatly escalated its political and military pressure on Georgia," a senior State Department official told reporters traveling with Rice to Tbilisi, referring to Moscow's moves in the separatist Abkhaz region.

"Russia needs to resume its role as a neutral arbiter of peace rather than a party to the conflict, which Russia is in danger of becoming," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

"Russia needs to realise the empire is gone. Russia needs to respect the territorial integrity of its neighbour," he said, adding Rice would reinforce that point during her talks here.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Rice_arrives_in_Georgia_as_US_Russi_0709200...

A major flaw in the way the internet works could lead to millions of people being targeted by criminals and has prompted the "largest security update" in web history, according to a leading security researcher.

The bug - described as "cache poisoning" - has led to some of the technology industry's largest companies scrambling to come up with a solution before hackers discover how to exploit the flaw.
The flaw exploits the internet's address mechanism, known as the Domain Name System (DNS). This maps the names we associate with websites to the true numerical addresses of their internet servers, in the same way that a mobile phone's address book associates names with telephone numbers.

DNS allows people to visit websites simply by typing in words - such as guardian.co.uk or google.com - rather than entering a string of unmemorable numbers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jul/09/internet.digitalmedia

This is not a parody: Those candy-asses in the Senate passed the Dry-Drunk-in-Chief's FISA wet dream. Why were they elected again?

Oh well, they still have nine percentage points in their approval rating to lose.

US elections: Germans cast doubt on Obama speech at Brandenburg Gate
Barack Obama's planned visit to Europe later this month sparked a political squabble today when the German government expressed reservations about allowing him to deliver a major speech at the Brandenburg Gate.

The Social Democrats welcomed the prospect but the chancellor, Angela Merkel, from the conservative Christian Democrats, cast doubt about it going ahead.

Thomas Steg, a spokesman for Merkel, said there is concern about allowing one of the most symbolic landmarks in Berlin to be used for a partisan speech.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/09/barackobama.uselections20081

US elections: Ventura likely to run for US Senate in Minnesota
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/09/uselections2008.usa

seems like that would guarantee coleman getting returned because he would be taking votes from franken.

on the other hand, franken could drop out and throw his support to ventura.

Clinton, Bush Advisers Steeped in Crisis Join Forces

WASHINGTON -- Two hard-charging political operatives are teaming up to create a bipartisan consulting organization to advise corporations in crisis -- as they work to burnish their own reputations as well.

Former Clinton strategist Mark Penn, chairman and CEO of public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller, is hiring former Bush adviser Karen Hughes as a vice chairman, the principals say. The political combatants, known for their partisan efforts, decided to combine forces to offer a one-stop crisis-communication and public-affairs shop to corporations caught in front-page headlines or faced with a changing Washington.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB121556919458138073.html?mod=speci...

And not that PAC place...?

...to protect the semi-arid savannah region of the Sahel — and its agricultural land — from desertification.

http://www.videocommunity.com/pc/pc/display/7167
911 False Flag

to vote fot key Medicare bill. Re CNN

Wouldn't make a difference, but too bad he wasn't there earlier for the FISA Bill.

You may have been part of a scientific study and not even known it.

New word is out this week that researchers used cell phone towers and call records to secretly track every step made by 100,000 people — without ever getting their permission.

permission. The study, conducted by Boston’s Northeastern University, spawns a slew of as-of-yet unanswered questions. We’ve seen how cell phone spying techniques can let other people tap into your private world undetected, but this marks the first documented time the monitoring’s been used on such a large scale, without any authorization.

Yesterday the money Sam asked for was for the producers of the show. Today it will go for PAC money.

He stated that at the SammyCam site.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, a statistic is a “collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data.” What is more interesting still is its etymology, from the German word meaning “study of political facts and figures” and the Latin “of Politics.”

With that in mind, lets do a statistical study of the voting record of those who would bring about “change” – the Democrats.

It is no secret that the Republicans have passed their fair share of rubber-stamped bills and ignored the collective will of the United States people, but the Democrats would have us believe that they alone have acted in a patriotic and constitutional manner. They ask us to believe that they are listening to our collective voice. They claimed that they would make change, starting with the 2006 mid-term elections and more recently with the Nomination and subsequent “election” of Barack Obama to the White House. Can they back up those claims with good old-fashioned math?

Let’s look at some statistical information based on voting data collected over the past 8 years.

Read the rest at the link... http://www.takebackwashington.com:80/articles/Odds_Of_Change.html.html

While the Democrats continually play the “blame-the-Republicans” game, it becomes a matter of fact versus fiction. The fiction is that Republicans alone are to blame. The fact is that 67% of our Democrats have collectively voted for legislation that removes critical components of our U.S. Bill of Rights. Democrats are as much at fault as the Republicans in the demise of our liberty, yet here we are again faced with another election where citizens are forced to vote for the lesser of two evils, if there truly is such a thing. Statistically speaking, we’ve had change in DC, just not the kind we asked for.

"Jesse Helms, you rat bastard, burn in hell," announced a headline at Daily Kos, the hugely popular left-wing blog

Dancing on the grave of Jesse Helms
By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist / July 9, 2008
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/0...

Bush's Secret Army of Snoops and Snitches

The full scale of Bush's assault on our civil liberties may not be known until years after he's left office.

At the moment, all we can do is get glimpses here or there of what's going on.

And the latest one to come to my attention is the dispatching of police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and utility workers as so-called "terrorism liaison officers," according to a report by Bruce Finley in the Denver Post.

They are entrusted with hunting for "suspicious activity," and then they report their findings, which end up in secret government databases.

What constitutes "suspicious activity," of course, is in the eye of the beholder. But a draft Justice Department memo on the subject says that such things as "taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value" or "making notes" could constitute suspicious activity, Finley wrote.

The states where this is going on include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C.
http://www.alternet.org/rights/90829/?ses=5e047d9050e8d08e7afc78948873a2...

What's The Joke?

I've long appreciated the fact that when you speak in public a massive amount inevitably some stupid shit is going to come out of your mouth, which is why "gaffe" focused political journalism is bad. There are obvious exceptions, of course, like "Macaca" which actually tell us something about the candidate.

But when it comes to joking about killing Iranians... just what is the joke? I appreciate that it was a failed attempt at a joke, but the underlying premise is...it would be funny to kill Iranians.

That's some straight talk we can believe in, my friends.

-Atrios 10:35

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_07_06_archive.html#8160789178729640088

Shit! You guys have been in this conversation since around noon, and and the subject has, of course, shifted away from the tax-paid terrorists who monitor flight-boarding shakedowns.
I just got here, and this has been a principle Anger button for me since practically forever. That's why you see smoke coming out of my ears as I stand in line watching travelers get treated like criminals. Like any 9-11 skilled terrorist would try now to use the same plan used by the guys who actually did it and got all the attention in 2001?

"Please tell me this is a parody"?
Depends, Sam, on what you mean by "this." If "this" is the video, No. If "this" is everything you've experienced since the day you were born, Probably.

A Time-line Of Obama's Statements On FISA
By Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld - July 3, 2008, 11:55AM

We've assembled a time-line of most of Barack Obama's public statements about FISA and telecom immunity.

The Senate could be voting on the FISA bill containing immunity as early as next week, and on June 20th, Obama announced his support for the bill. Obama's position continues to disappoint even some of his supporters, who have formed a surprisingly large group on Obama's Web site to urge him to oppose the bill, and their disappointment has become something of a national story.

In that context, we thought the record of Obama's evolution on the issue should be assembled in one place. Viewing his statements, it's striking how forcefully he argued in the past that the choice between civil liberties and safety is a false one.

If we've left out any of Obama's FISA statements, please let us know and we'll add them. Check out our time-line after the jump

Obama comes out against a proposed FISA bill granting retroactive immunity, October 18, 2007:

Obama: "It is time to restore oversight and accountability in the FISA program, and this proposal -- with an unprecedented grant of retroactive immunity -- is not the place to start."
Bill Burton issues a statement, October 24, 2007, reaffirming Obama's position and pledging to support Chris Dodd's filibuster:

"To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies."
Campaign statement, December 17, 2007, further elaborating on this point in regards to a particular upcoming Senate vote on Dodd's filibuster:

"Senator Obama unequivocally opposes giving retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies and has cosponsored Senator Dodd's efforts to remove that provision from the FISA bill. Granting such immunity undermines the constitutional protections Americans trust the Congress to protect. Senator Obama supports a filibuster of this bill, and strongly urges others to do the same. It's not clear whether he can return for the vote, but under the Senate rules, the side trying to end a filibuster must produce 60 votes to cut off debate. Whether he is present for the vote for not, Senator Obama will not be among those voting to end the filibuster."
Obama issues another statement on the FISA bill, January 28, 2008, saying that the dichotomy between civil liberties and security is a false choice:

I strongly oppose retroactive immunity in the FISA bill.
Ever since 9/11, this Administration has put forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand.

The FISA court works. The separation of power works. We can trace, track down and take out terrorists while ensuring that our actions are subject to vigorous oversight, and do not undermine the very laws and freedom that we are fighting to defend.

No one should get a free pass to violate the basic civil liberties of the American people -- not the President of the United States, and not the telecommunications companies that fell in line with his warrantless surveillance program. We have to make clear the lines that cannot be crossed.

That is why I am co-sponsoring Senator Dodd's amendment to remove the immunity provision. Secrecy must not trump accountability. We must show our citizens - and set an example to the world - that laws cannot be ignored when it is inconvenient.

Obama issues a statement endorsing the bill, saying that security needs are more important this objections, June 20, 2008:

"It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives -- and the liberty -- of the American people."

More here:

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/obama_fisa.php

if you stop by...i am on my way down there by train

good afternoon

so, i'm guzzli. . .i mean sipping my FISA cocktail (hemlock + absinthe on the rocks. . .real rocks)

who in NYC will brave the impending thunderstorm to attend the Mark Crispin Miller book thing at the Belmont Lounge (117 E.15 st. near Irving Place) tonight 6:30-8:30???

i'll be there, in rubber boots if necessary (useful for wading through the sewage of this governmentocracy)-

Lucille
Kate Anne
Jenise
nightbird
treebu
Catharine. . . .

i'll probably get there around 6:00 (on foot)

i dont know if i could stay till 8.30 though
hope it does not take me 1 hour to get to the east side now

I did not write a word
and if you try to spy on me
I'll just flip you the bird.

R.I.P 4 Amendment
You served us well while you were here.

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 -- 4:39 PM ET
-----

S.& P. Turns Bearish as Stocks Plunge

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 29.01 points, or
2.3 percent, entering its first official bear market since
2002. The Dow Jones industrials finished down 236.77 points,
or 2.1 percent.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

thing makes me so god damn MAD. Thank You to those who
wanted to keep the "Constitution" & "Bill of Rights" going!
A BIG Thank You to those who have fucking BALLS.

YAYS 32 NAYS 66.

YAYS:
Akaka
Baucus
Biden
Bingamon
Boxer
Brown
Byrd
Cantwell
Cardin
Casey
Clinton
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Harkin
Kerry
Klobuchar
Lautenburg
Leahy
Levin
Menendez
Murray
Obama
Reed
Reid
Sanders
Shumer
Stabenow
Tester
Whitehouse
Wyden

» Senator Jim Webb is NOT one of those either!

I know Barack is glad to have this vote behind him. Do you think he did enough to keep the base intact?

you guys... there in NYC.
Wish I could meet up with ya all.
Give Mark Crispin Miller my regards.
He is a wonderful person

Next time though!

at the Lounge. . .

...
new
Submitted by Alice on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 4:12pm.
While the Democrats continually play the “blame-the-Republicans” game, it becomes a matter of fact versus fiction. The fiction is that Republicans alone are to blame. The fact is that 67% of our Democrats have collectively voted for legislation that removes critical components of our U.S. Bill of Rights. Democrats are as much at fault as the Republicans in the demise of our liberty, yet here we are again faced with another election where citizens are forced to vote for the lesser of two evils, if there truly is such a thing. Statistically speaking, we’ve had change in DC, just not the kind we asked for.
===============================================================

Today's FISA vote is the sort of thing that has been going on for decades--probably longer. We find that on votes for "needs of state" legislation,where the majority of the people oppose the legislation, a huge chunk of the Democrats will go along with the Republicans. What was the vote, 68-29?

What can we do?
*TLL*

http://firedoglake.com/2008/07/09/fisa-final-votes-on-the-fisa-amendment...

Votes on H.R. 6304 -- the FISA Amendments Act in the Senate:
FINAL BILL VOTE: YAYS 69 NAYS 28

NAYS:

Akaka
Biden
Bingaman
Boxer
Brown
Byrd
Cantwell
Cardin
Clinton
Dodd
Dorgan
Durbin
Feingold
Harkin
Kerry
Klobuchar
Lautenburg
Leahy
Levin
Menendez
Murray
Reed
Reid
Sanders
Schumer
Stabenow
Tester
Wyden

on Ralph Nader:

**

Kennedy Returns to Senate as Medicare Bill Passes

By DAVID STOUT
Published: July 10, 2008
WASHINGTON — Senator Edward M. Kennedy returned to the Senate on Wednesday for the first time since being sidelined with cancer and was greeted by a bipartisan barrage of whoops, cheers and applause.

The starchy formality of the Senate floor dissolved as Mr. Kennedy, the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, arrived to cast his vote on an important Medicare bill. The senator’s presence was considered crucial, since 60 votes were required to advance the measure.

“Aye,” Mr. Kennedy said, flashing a thumbs-up when the clerk called his name.

“I return to the Senate today to keep a promise to our senior citizens,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement released by his office, “and that’s to protect Medicare. Win, lose or draw, I wasn’t going to take the chance that my vote could make the difference.”

“As it turned out, the bill cleared an important procedural hurdle by 69 to 30. The 69 “yes” votes were 9 more than required to invoke cloture, and under a previous agreement the measure was considered to be approved after gaining the required votes. Despite gaining 58 votes on an earlier cloture vote, the measure had stalled in the Senate on June 26.

The bill would block a 10 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors because of a statutory formula that reduces payments to doctors when spending would otherwise exceed certain goals.

Mr. Kennedy’s appearance in the chamber was his first since May, when he was found to be suffering from a brain tumor. Minutes before the vote he was seen walking into the Capitol with his smiling wife, Victoria, by his side.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/washington/10kennedy.html?_r=1&partner...

I was sweating this one out!! Especially now!

Peak Oil Theory

Peak oil theory is based on a number of assumptions and omissions that make it less than reliable. To begin with, it discounts or disregards the fact that energy-saving technologies have drastically improved (and will continue to further improve) the efficiency of oil consumption. Evidence shows that, for example, “over a period of five years (1994-99), U.S. GDP expanded over 20 percent while oil usage rose by only nine percent. Before the 1973 oil shock, the ratio was about one to one.”[4]

Second, Peak Oil theory pays scant attention to the drastically enabling new technologies that have made (and will continue to make) possible discovery and extraction of oil reserves that were inaccessible only a short time ago. One of the results of the more efficient means of research and development has been a far higher success rate in finding new oil fields. The success rate has risen in twenty years from less than 70 percent to over 80 percent. Computers have helped to reduce the number of dry holes. Horizontal drilling has boosted extraction. Another important development has been deep-water offshore drilling, which the new technologies now permit. Good examples are the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and more recently, the promising offshore oil fields of West Africa.[5]

Third, Peak Oil theory also pays short shrift to what is sometimes called non-conventional oil. These include Canada's giant reserves of extra-heavy bitumen that can be processed to produce conventional oil. Although this was originally considered cost inefficient, experts working in this area now claim that they have brought down the cost from over $20 a barrel to $8 per barrel. Similar developments are taking place in Venezuela. It is thanks to developments like these that since 1970, world oil reserves have more than doubled, despite the extraction of hundreds of millions of barrels.[6]

Fourth, Peak Oil thesis pays insufficient attention to energy sources other than oil. These include solar, wind, non-food bio-fuel, and nuclear energies. They also include natural gas. Gas is now about 25 percent of energy demand worldwide. It is estimated that by 2050 it will be the main source of energy in the world. A number of American, European, and Japanese firms have and are investing heavily in developing fuel cells for cars and other vehicles that would significantly reduce gasoline consumption.[7]

Fifth, proponents of Peak Oil tend to exaggerate the impact of the increased oil demand coming from China and India on both the amount and the price of oil in global markets. The alleged disparity between supply and demand is said to be due to the rapidly growing demand coming from China and India. But that rapid growth in demand is largely offset by a number of counterbalancing factors. These include slower growth in U.S. demand due to its slower economic growth, efficient energy utilization in industrially advanced countries, and increases in oil production by OPEC, Russia, and other oil producing countries.

Finally, and perhaps more importantly, claims of “peaked and dwindling” oil are refuted by the available facts and figures on global oil supply. Statistical evidence shows that there is absolutely no supply-demand imbalance in global oil markets. Contrary to the claims of the proponents of Peak Oil and champions of war and militarism, the current oil price shocks are a direct consequence of the destabilizing wars and geopolitical insecurity in the Middle East, not oil shortages. These include not only the raging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also the threat of a looming war against Iran. The record of soaring oil prices shows that anytime there is a renewed U.S. military threat against Iran, fuel prices move up several notches.
Ismael Hossein Zadeh

www.counterpunch.org
*

Edwards would 'seriously consider' VP offer
Posted: 08:45 PM ET

(CNN) – John Edwards said Tuesday that if he were asked to accept the vice presidential slot or a cabinet position in a potential Barack Obama administration, he would “seriously consider” whatever the Illinois senator asked him to do.

It has been widely reported that the former North Carolina senator is on Obama’s vice presidential shortlist. On Tuesday, NPR interviewer Guy Raz called the former Democratic presidential candidate’s presence on the list an “open secret,” and asked Edwards whether he’d weigh accepting a vice presidential offer, or might take himself out of consideration as Virginia Senator Jim Webb had done Monday.

“I’m glad to hear that’s an open secret because I didn’t know it,” joked Edwards of his rumored consideration as Obama’s running mate.

“My answer to that is, I’ve run for vice president, I’ve run for president twice. I would do anything that I felt I could do to serve this country but I think it’s a huge presumption for me or anybody else to suggest what Senator Obama may decide,” he said.

“To answer your question directly: I don’t expect to be asked, have no expectation about it at all, I will – anything that Senator Obama asks me to do, including this, including campaigning for him, I intend to do, because what I’m going to do, I intend to take seriously,” he added. “What I intend to do is everything in my power, use everything in my power to make sure that he’s the next president.”

Pressed on whether that meant he might join the ticket if asked, Edwards would not rule it out. “I am prepared to seriously consider anything, anything he asks me to do for our country,” he told NPR.

When he endorsed Obama in May, John Kerry’s 2004 running mate had said he was not interested in another vice presidential bid.

In June, the Associated Press reported that Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, who has met with Obama's vice presidential search committee, had been told Edwards was on the list of candidates.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/08/edwards-would-seriously-...

Can you spull I-R-A-Q- W-A-R?
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07092008.html*TLL*

is full of New York politics. The prickly stuff. Be careful what you say won't be construed as (anti-semitism...) Kuby brought up Jesse Jackson's regrettable "Hymietown" remark while setting up an alleged recent flap. Supposedly,in response to Barack Obama's right wing Father's Day speech, Jackson said something like, "I'd like to cut Barack's nuts off (for saying that). Kuby said that a "hot mike" may be involved. Anybody catch Fox News today?

Good for you, Jesse Jackson! Always speak truth to power!

*TLL*

A few weeks ago The Rick Copeland remarked to his mother that there was a time when you those who criticized the U.S. were told to move to the Soviet Union. As they cannot travel back into the past it seems that the Republicans are dead set to do the next best thing, namely, turn us into the USSR.

Actually The Rick Copeland has assumed for a long time that many Republicans had a grudging envy of their Rusky komrads -- or at least their ability to keep the press and the slf-styled "rabble" in line.

By destroying Iraq’s oil production, and by hindering much of Iran’s production (Iran, seen as an enemy by the US, has been frozen out of capital markets, blocking it from being able to modernize and even maintain its own huge oil infrastructure), and putting even Kuwait’s and Saudi Arabia’s production at risk, the US war in Iraq has jeopardized about one-third of the world’s oil capacity—a fact not lost on oil speculators. Every rumor of a longer occupation or a wider war in the Middle East—especially a possible attack by the US on Iran--has pushed up oil prices further, as has every attack on a pipeline.

Dear ACLU Supporter,

Today, elected officials in Washington sold out the Constitution -- again.

Cowed by the Bush administration’s pre-election scare tactics, the Senate passed freedom-stealing FISA legislation undermining your Fourth Amendment rights.

This is not a “compromise,” as some in Congress would have us believe. The only thing they compromised is your freedom. Become an ACLU monthly donor, and stand up for your rights.

The FISA Amendments Act allows for mass, untargeted and warrantless surveillance of all communications coming into and out of the United States. And to top it off, it hands immunity to telecom companies for their role in domestic spying. This means your phone calls can be tapped and emails read with virtually no proof of threat, and there's no chance to learn how the telecoms invaded your privacy.

It’s outrageous, unconstitutional and un-American. That’s why the ACLU is prepared to challenge this unconstitutional law the moment President Bush signs it.

Help the ACLU protect your privacy. Make a monthly pledge to support the ACLU’s lawsuit challenging the gutting of FISA and all of our other critical work defending the Constitution.

Now is an especially important time for you to act. Not only can you help fund essential work fighting this unconstitutional legislation but your decision to make a monthly pledge can move us a giant step closer to our target of 2,000 new monthly supporters this month. If we reach that goal by July 31st, the ACLU will earn a $100,000 Matching Gift further strengthening our efforts to stand up for freedom as no other organization in America can.

As a Guardian of Liberty, you can join tens of thousands of your fellow citizens in donating a small amount each month to help the ACLU’s critical work in defense of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Donate now to help the ACLU fight for freedom and move closer to our $100,000 Matching Gift goal.

In one fell swoop, Congress has not only legalized the Bush administration’s secret NSA spying program, it has given the government even more power to listen to our phone calls and read our emails than even the Bush administration illegally claimed for itself under its secret program. And, by granting telecoms immunity, it has greatly harmed the chances of ever learning the extent of the administration’s lawless actions.

While politicians lack resolve, the ACLU and its supporters do not. Stand with the ACLU by becoming a monthly supporter of the ACLU today.

In defense of freedom,

Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director
ACLU

Donation Link

One of the most important lessons I've learned in electoral politics is that most campaigns are won or lost in the field. That truth was driven home in 2006, when the Progressive Patriots Fund's Patriot Corps provided critical grassroots support to Democratic candidates running across the country - helping us win back the House, Senate, and make gains in every state.

That's why I'm pleased to announce that the 2008 Patriot Corps is hiring!

We're looking to hire energetic, personable activists that want to make a difference in the 2008 election cycle. The program will run from September 4 – November 12, 2008. Participants will be paid $500 per week and will be provided housing free of charge on their assigned campaigns.

You can learn more about this exciting program at our 2008 Patriot Corps web page.

Sincerely,

Russ Feingold
United States Senator
Honorary Chair, Progressive Patriots Fund

P.S. The 2008 Patriot Corps will help build a nationwide progressive majority from the ground up, but we need the funds to support it. There is no better investment toward victory in 2008 than the Patriot Corps. Please consider supporting this exciting program.

http://www.progressivepatriotsfund.com/patriot-corps/

Religion has had a lot do with cultural politics throughout history, as it does today. My own religious encounters weren't particularly significant in my life, save for two. I am Jewish, just barely, I guess. I went to Jewish Sunday school until my Bar Mitzvah, which meant going to classes one day a week after regular school was out for a year or so. In Hebrew school I rebelled twice, and I think these acts may have primed what came later.

My religious school required us to write a book review to pass. I had one, from public school, on Moby Dick. So I handed that in, ignoring that it wasn't on the list of (in my view) ridiculous religious books we were supposed to choose from. The teacher wouldn't take my report, which meant I would be the first person in the history of the temple to be left back from Bar Mitzvah. I refused to do another. My mother went ballistic, came to the temple school, and told them Moby Dick was more demanding than the whole list of titles they had and that they better accept my review or there would be big trouble. They gave in and I graduated. Not only did I benefit from mother's willingness to do battle for me, I probably learned to do battle for others.

At a Bar Mitzvah, the ceremony that welcomes 13-year-old Jewish boys into what the religion calls manhood, you have to recite a couple of paragraphs in Hebrew. I didn't have to memorize the paragraphs, just read them. I didn't even have to know what they meant. I just had to pronounce them correctly, out loud, in front of the congregation. Imagine the respect for tradition this inspired. In any event, I couldn't do it. Not knowing what it meant, success depended on rote memory applied to random sounds. It was my worst nightmare. My parents had to pay the temple's cantor to tutor me into marginal competence.

The big day came and I recited my lines, barely, and then the rabbi, a wise and caring person, called me up to chat, much too quietly for the congregation to hear, before the open Torah. So it was Rabbi Schankman, the background audience, the Torah, and me. He did this with each person being processed to manhood. He said, "Michael, congratulations on becoming a man, and I know we are going to see you pursue your religious training in the temple class next semester, aren't we?" The idea was simple—you had to say yes and then if you reneged later it meant you had lied. Or you had to say no, with him staring down at you and urging a yes. I suspect that that moment caused a great many boys to lie and later rationalize it and thereby helped many boys decide that lying was an okay pursuit, which, when you think about it, was quite an achievement for a religious high holy event. In any case, I looked at him and said, "No, I am done." In 1960, I didn't know how to say "I'm outta here," which would have been perfect. I don't think many kids told Rabbi Schankman the truth. Maybe some components of what made me radical later were in place at age thirteen.

I remember one more thing about my Bar Mitzvah. During the party afterward, some friends and I went up on the roof of the club where it was held. Someone had cigarettes and we intended to smoke for the first time. I can't remember how others enjoyed their inaugural cigarette, but I took one puff and broke into a hacking cough, almost losing my lunch. That was the last time I was tempted by a cigarette, which was the best outcome not only of my graduation, but of my entire time spent at any religious functions at all. Given the form-without-content character of my meager Jewish experiences, it was a struggle for me to be anything other than disdainful of religion, particularly Judaism, until I found political reasons for rethinking some of my attitudes.
MICHAEL ALBERT

(CNN) — The Rev. Jesse Jackson issued an apology to Barack Obama Wednesday for making what he called a "crude and hurtful" remark about the Illinois senator's recent comments directed toward some members of the black community.

According to Jackson, a Fox News microphone picked up comments he meant to deliver privately that seemed to disparage the presumptive Democratic nominee for appearing to lecture the black community on morality.

Con't

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

Why in the holy hell do these people have to make private comments in public? What, they can't hold their tongue until they really are in private?

with Lucille at the Belmont Lounge

that mystery woman. . .

Flummoxed By Vietnam Vet,

Submitted by toniD on Tue, 07/08/2008 - 8:44pm.

Flummoxed By Vietnam Vet, McCain Falsely Claims He ‘Received Every Award From Every Vets Organization’
Posing the first question in a Denver town hall meeting yesterday, a Vietnam veteran challenged Sen. John McCain on his Senate voting record regarding veterans issues, remarking he had voted against increasing vets health funding four years in a row. Ignoring the veteran’s point, McCain testily — and repeatedly — insisted that he had “received every award from every major veteran’s organization in America”:

MCCAIN: I’ve received every award from every major veteran’s organization in America. I received every organization in America their awards. … The reason why I have a perfect voting record from organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion and all the other veterans service organizations is because of my support of them. […]

VETERAN: You do not have a perfect voting record by the DAV and the VFW. That’s where these votes were recorded. These votes were proposals by your colleagues in the Senate to increase health care of the VA in 2003, 4, 5, and 6 for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. And you voted against those proposals. […]

MCCAIN: I’ve been endorsed in every election by every veterans organization that do that, I’ve been supported by them, and I’ve received their highest awards from all of those organizations. So I guess they don’t know something you know.

Watch the video, via AHiddenSaint:

McCain has made the exact same claim before — and it is just a false today as it was then. As ThinkProgress documented, McCain’s so-called “perfect” record has been roundly criticized by prominent veterans groups: He received a grade of D from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and a 20 percent vote rating from the Disabled Veterans of America; Vietnam Veterans of America noted McCain had “voted against us” in 15 “key votes.”

As for the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars — with whom McCain claims to have a “perfect voting record” — both groups vigorously supported Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) GI Bill that McCain tirelessly opposed.

Later in the town hall, McCain admitted he does “not have a perfect voting record,” but then declared that questions about veterans issues were off limits: “I will be glad to debate a lot of things, but not that one,” McCain said.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/08/mccain-veterans-award-redux/

» ============================

Allen: McCain doesn’t want

Submitted by toniD on Tue, 07/08/2008 - 8:46pm.
Allen: McCain doesn’t want his balanced budget pledge to be recorded on tape.
Yesterday, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign released an economic plan promising that McCain will “balance the budget by the end of his first term.” But in a speech in Denver yesterday, McCain refused to mention his strict promise, instead just saying that he will “get government’s fiscal house in order.” On CSPAN’s Washington Journal today, Politico reporter Mike Allen said that the fact that McCain “didn’t actually say it in his speech” is an indication that he doesn’t want to be videotaped making the pledge:

HOST: Start with your story yesterday about Sen. John McCain’s speech in Denver, CO yesterday outlining his new economic plan. You wrote that he promised to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term.

ALLEN: He did, but Greta, what’s fascinating is he did it on the paper he put out on the 15 page book, the McCain Economic Plan, but he didn’t actually say it in his speech. So, he’s getting it both ways. The promise is out there for conservatives who might want to see it, but there’s no videotape of it to show later which might give you some indication of how likely Sen. McCain thinks it is

Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/08/allen-mccain-doesnt-want-his-balance...
============================
»
He's mentally gone.
Submitted by toniD on Tue, 07/08/2008 - 8:50pm.

McCain, The Most Absent Member Of The Senate, Blasts Congress For Taking A Week Off

This morning, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appeared on MSNBC and blasted Congress for being lazy. He said that instead of taking a Fourth of July recess, senators should have stuck around and passed a housing bill....

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

I must conclude McCain is The Absent-minded Absent Senator, no?

Old Ice and the Northwest Passage

an interesting discussion of the impact of global warming. it appears that old ice which is stronger, thicker, and dangerous to shipping will start to drift into the shipping passages because new ice is melting too fast.

Hey. Obama needs to be lectured by Jackson for his Father's Day "responsibility" speech. Bad euphemism. I once heard a Black preacher, on the left, say he would "kick Kevin P---'s ass". KP was a darling liberal lawyer in Seattle who played a key role in busting a union
*TLL*

Primary Election Season: I'll do what you, the voters want. I'll kiss your ass and say anything.

General Election: Fuck you, voters. Who you gonna vote for anyways? McCain? Hahaahahahaahaa!!!

Time for a fukitol pill.

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

I Will Not Obsess! I Will Not Obsess! I Will Not Obsess!

from Drilling In ANWR Gaining In Popularity

To drum up support for the idea, President Bush is citing the small impact of the project environmentally, citing a drilling footprint of less than 2,000 acres according to a Global Monitor story. The President states that this small percentage of the land could supply Americans with 10 billions barrels of oil, equal to what we import from Saudi Arabia in twenty years

==

now this just doesn't pass the smell test. i used google calculator to get:

2 000 acres = 3.12500 square miles

so, i am supposed to believe that by trashing 3 square miles of a nature preserve in the artic that we can get 10 billion barrels of oil. there's only one word to describe this:

bullshit

==

just found this pdf article that pretty much debunks the whole 2000 acre argument. it includes a map that shows how the whole anwr area will be trashed

Two opportunities to see The Grip Weeds perform in NJ this Saturday: July 12, 2:00 pm, at Vintage Vinyl (in Fords, NJ; www.vvinyl.com); and 7:30 pm at The Record Collector (as part of The Living Room Concert Series, www.the-record-collector.com). The shows will be celebrating the band's new album: INFINITE SOUL: The Best Of The Grip Weeds! The 2:00 show at Vintage Vinyl is a FREE in-store performance, while the 7:30 pm gig at The Record Collector is a full show (admission is only $5)! After each set, the band will be signing copies of the new album.

*

I didn't vote for Obama but when he started to look like he was going to be the nominee he didn't look all that bad but now he looks like just another faux Democrat, a closet Republican. Honestly, why the fuck should I donate a single penny to the Democratic party or any Democratic candidates when all they do is roll over on command for their Republican masters? The Democrats are trying to pull a Dukakis in this election, trying to do anything they can to lose what should be the easiest Presidental and Congressional win in the history of this nation. More and more the words of Bill Hicks and George Carlin seem true, that there is no choice, no actual two parties, that it's all bullshit, that we're all slaves.

Organize a donation boycott of Obama's campaign. Let them no, "Not one more penny until you stop the rightward drift."

Yeah, The Apocalypse, one disaster at a time, Cheney-style.

I've experienced three previous California droughts, and my gray water from the washer watered my garden within rationing/conservation and my retained bath water flushed the commode.

But this so-called drought now, it is different. Now the Sun seems hotter and unlike the other droughts. I get the feeling that there's less atmosphere, like I could reach up my hand and burn it on the Sun.

So Cheney CENSORED documents so that Bush could continue to poo-poo global heating for seven and a half years! So corporations could snatch up water rights without having to explain anything about the morality of cold-bloodedly profit-planning to deny water to those who can't PAY UP FRONT! So more oil deals could be locked in place and the concentration of power in the hands of a core group of cronies could be consolidated.

And lest we forget where the oligarchy is coming from -- that is, predation and self-preservation -- let me mention one other possibility: Getting rid of the 'surplus population' in the words of Charles Dickens' character Ebenezer Scrooge. The Bushes are longtime eugenics supporters. After the exposure of the Nazis' version of it, there was a switch to going underground and accomplishing the same end in terms of 'population control' of undesirables. The switch was to large scale population control efforts. (There's nothing wrong with population control in general imo; we need individuals to take responsibility. But when those in control aimed only at certain portions of the population through the use of funding programs, then I get uncomfortable.) Bush Senior was an advocate of population control. Although, you understand, controlling one's reproduction doesn't apply to the oligarchy, only everybody else! So, my guess would be that Bush Senior has no criticism of Jeb Bush's laerge family. And now we have George Bush the Younger and he is more hands on (or hands off on the case of Katrina victims) in the number he can keep from reproducing at home and abroad.

For the oligarchy that believes in money and that mansions and golf courses will survive as long as the oligarchs rake in the profits while the little guy is ground under their heel, what could be a better TOOL for success than Global Warming/Climate Change. It helps to consolidate power and resources in the hands of a few, it gives the oligarchy an opportunity to get more through the people's despertion to have someone fix the problme, and at the same time, it promises to wipe out lots of people who just get in the way and use up the resources that truly have been limited all along, resources the oligarchs want to keep for their own use and survival. This scenario may be a stretch for alot of people, but I can't think of any other longterm oligarchical motive/motivation for Dick Cheney to CENSOR DATA on the issue of climate, weather, etc. He's not doing this just for his oil deals, because I think he could get those through without ever dealing with the details of global weather/climate changes!

going through right now!!

McCain’s ‘Econ Brain’: America Has ‘Become A Nation Of Whiners’ And Is Just In A ‘Mental Recession’

In an interview with the Washington Times today, former senator Phil Gramm, who is Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) “econ brain,” blamed the state of the economy on “the conviction of many Americans that economic conditions are the worst in two or three decades.” “You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” said Gramm.

Gramm decried the “constant whining” of the American people when it comes to the economy because he believes “we’ve never been more dominant”:

“We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline” despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.

“We’ve never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today,” he said. “We have benefited greatly” from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.

Despite McCain’s recent claim that we are in a recession, he has previously echoed Gramm’s diagnosis of the economy. In April, McCain said that “a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological.” Watch it: At Link

At the same time he was blaming the state of the economy on the economic anxiety of the American people, Gramm also blamed the media. “Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day,” said Gramm.

Blaming the economy on the media is a common McCain campaign strategy. In June, McCain econ adviser Kevin Hassett claimed that the press wants to “convince everyone that the economy is in recession” in order to hurt McCain. Informal McCain adviser Karl Rove argued in February that the economy “stinks” because of the media.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/09/gramm-mental-recession/

My idea was to vote for the person who most represented my ideas and beliefs.

Really...

That's all I have in the way of ideas...(besides chaining myself naked to the whitehouse fence...)

I probably could easily get away with a freeway sign...that's a good idea...

In for Malloy at 6 Pacific Time!

Hoooray!

I was thinking that way yesterday. But if we abandon Obama now, McCain wins by default. How does that advance our ideas and beliefs?

One question I'ld like to see asked of any Democratic strategist or politician if they are on the air is what can I count in the last ten years as a win for the Democratic side? The Republicans have had a field day, getting everything they have wanted, sometimes without any dilution from the "opposition" party. Even if the Democrats could say they stopped something really heinous it would be something but all I see is the Repugs getting everything they want.

The difference I see now between Obama and McCain is the difference between a quick push of the flush handle and holding it down.

Never did understand what was going on with that last night....

But any word on tonight??? Anyone???

and we go from there...

But suppressing the 'inevitable' because of fear is...not right...imo...

"fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd" (you know that song?) ;)

Sammy Cam is pay per view tonight with cash going to a PAC.

"Hindenburg Omen" predicts market crash by October
Chris in Paris · 7/09/2008 04:01:00 PM ET · Link

In recent days there are more and more signs of trouble ahead and this analyst says the "Hindenburg Omen" has been correct 92% of the time. Read more here but it's a combination of factors including having new highs and new lows at the same time. If this proves to be correct this time, will McCain and his bumbling economic brain admit failure? I don't think so either.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=789010961

Foster child denied shot at new liver
A Central Florida foster child needs a life-saving liver, but doctors have taken him off a transplant list because they fear he cannot recover from surgery without a stable home.

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
A disabled foster child whose liver is failing has been removed from a Central Florida hospital's organ-transplant waiting list because hospital administrators fear the state's shaky child-welfare system cannot ensure he has a permanent home in which to recover.

Shands Hospital in Gainesville removed the boy, 15, from a waiting list for organ recipients after administrators determined the boy's unstable living conditions make him a poor candidate for a transplant, said Nick Cox, the Department of Children & Families regional administrator in the Tampa Bay area, where the boy lives.

The state's next move: appeal to Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, which DCF officials hope will put the teen on its transplant wait list.

Shands administrators told DCF chiefs they had serious concerns that the boy might not be in a safe, permanent home for the two years necessary to ensure his body does not reject the new liver, Cox said. The hospital, he said, ``had a big concern about post-placement permanency.''

The teen, who is not being named by The Miami Herald to protect his privacy, is in the advanced stages of liver disease, and doctors say he will need a new liver.

Child welfare bosses contacted doctors at JMH in an effort to place the teen on a wait list there, and the boy cleared his first hurdle when JMH doctors reviewed his medical records and agreed he is in need of a new liver, Cox said.

''Jackson has given me hope,'' Cox said late Monday. ''We think Jackson could be the angel for this child. We are holding our breath that they will be able to clear him'' for the surgery.

Kim Jamerson, a spokeswoman for Shands, declined to discuss the boy's case, saying the hospital did not have enough time late Monday to reach doctors who were involved with his care.

A spokeswoman for JMH said she was unable to get information on the case Monday night.

Although all hospitals that perform transplants have to abide by the same national standards and protocols on choosing recipients, doctors and hospitals can disagree about how to interpret the criteria in particular cases, experts on transplants say.

The boy has had a difficult life, even for a foster child.

Removed from his mother at infancy because she could not kick a crack cocaine habit, the teen had been living with relatives under DCF supervision until about a year ago, when his relatives were unable to continue caring for him. Since then, he has been in foster care in the Tampa Bay area.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/596995.html

other people what to do...

But you know the other day a fellow employee (literally a fellow..one of only two men at work)...he was late..again...and some other stuff he did was not right to me..and I did attempt to tell him what to do...Then I realized what a shitty boss I would be if they tried to make me one (and they are but with no extra pay)....I realized I am really mean when I try to make people do things...Not name calling mean, but curt and not smiling...Some people who are bosses know how to say things nicely...I don't.

MOTHER FUCK! Are you kidding me? Fuck Fuck Fuck I need to learn to read better...

SAM SEDER - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T GIVE MY PORTION TO THAT PAC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT WAS MEANT FOR YOU AND NICKI AND MYLA.

That was my intention...

So please ok?

I agreed to no penis and no vagina with no problem so PLEASE do this for me, PLEASE?

-ALICE

"Water rising in ranks as next hot opportunity"

Long a focus of battles, water
seen as valuable commodity as
climate change creates scarcity

by Andrew Leckey
Tribune Media Services

"...The present-day story unfolding over water's future may offer opportunities for investors able to envision it as a valuable commodity that benefits companies involved in its sale, distribution, purification, and infrastructure...."

[end excerpt]

So. Water is a 'commodity', not a right. How conveniently (if immorally) stated. Indeed stated in a way the PRIVATIZERS of public resources would prefer. You get the feeling they're gonna arrest you for the rainbarrel collecting rain from your roof: "Sorry, that franchise is taken and you must pay a fine plus royalty to the owner of that rainwater."

For MORE ON WATER AS A RIGHT:

http://blueplanetproject.net/

The commodification of water is anti-life.

water when I want one, Nora...

I wonder if Kerry has a lock on this investment as well?

Nuclear Power is filthy, beginning to end, just like oil.

Keep this in mind when the proposition is made to YOUR community to host a nuclear power plant! --

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7496998.stm

Warning over French uranium leak

Waste containing unenriched uranium has leaked into two rivers from a nuclear plant in southern France.

Officials banned people in three nearby towns from fishing, using water from wells, swimming in the rivers or using river water on their crops.

The accident happened at the Tricastin nuclear site at Bollene, some 40km (25 miles) from the city of Avignon.

The French nuclear safety agency said the substance was toxic but the risk to human health was slight.

Uranium concentrations in the Gaffiere river were initially about 1,000 times higher than normal levels but were falling rapidly, spokeswoman Evangelia Petit said.

Some 30,000l (7,925 gallons) of solution containing 12g of uranium per litre spilled from an overflowing reservoir at the facility - which handles liquids contaminated by uranium - into the ground and into the Gaffiere and Lauzon rivers.

Anti-nuclear campaign group Abandon Nuclear Power said it thought the authorities were underplaying the danger posed by the nuclear waste leak....

[end excerpt]

...careful what you ask for, you just may get it.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Clinton's Convention Role Being Negotiated
Democrats Weigh Putting Her Name Into Nomination

Hillary Clinton won a hefty 1,600 convention delegates in six months of primaries. A big question now is whether to let them vote at the Democratic convention.

High on the list of matters that Sen. Clinton and likely Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama are negotiating as her campaign closes down is whether and how her name is put into nomination at the August convention in Denver, said party activists in both camps.

A full roll-call vote that reminds everyone how close she came to being the nominee could reveal party rifts going into the fall campaign, they said. But keeping her name off the roll call could anger her supporters.

It is a "bone of contention" in the negotiations between the Clinton and Obama camps, said Democratic consultant Donna Brazile.
more...
http://hillaryclintonclub.com/2008/07/clintons-convention-role-being.htm...

Democrats' roll call brouhaha
BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Tuesday, July 8th 2008, 9:53 PM

Dunand/Getty
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and former candidate Hillary Clinton at Manchester airport, New Hampshire, last month.

Some prominent New York delegates who supported Hillary Clinton say it would be a bad idea for her name to be placed in nomination at the Democratic convention next month.

Aides to Barack Obama and Clinton remain in negotiations about whether the New York senator, who narrowly lost in the primary marathon, should be paid homage by letting delegates she won vote for her before switching to the winner. "It would be wrong," said former New York State Democratic Chairman Herman (Denny) Farrell, a superdelegate who strongly supported Clinton's candidacy. "There should not be a roll call ... they should unify."

A full roll call could be a reminder of how divided Democrats were.

"I don't see any compelling reason to do anything that is not directed towards unity," said City Councilman John Liu of Queens, a delegate pledged to Clinton. "She said she's supporting Sen. Obama and now we just all need to be on the same page."

Julie Hutchinson, 45, a rank-and-file pledged Clinton delegate from upstate Rochester, said she still believes Clinton would be the better President but agrees it's time to close ranks.

"While I am so disappointed that Hillary did not get the nomination, I don't agree with the roll call," said Hutchinson, her voice breaking with emotion. "It's divisive and it's not good for the party."

But Rosina Rubin, 53, a pledged Clinton delegate from New City, Rockland County, disagreed. "I believe her achievement is the culmination of many, many years of work by many, many women in the political world and that it should be recorded for history," Rubin said. "The road to winning in November comes through the acknowledgment that we had two terrific candidates."

A Clinton aide did not return repeated requests for comment.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/07/08/2008-07-08_democrats...

July 08, 2008
Democratic party insiders trying to pretend that Hillary Clinton and 18,000,000 Democrats don't exist
Democratic party insiders would like Hillary Clinton to disappear. There is some debate about whether or not Hillary's name will formally be placed in nomination at the convention. June Kronholz at the Wall Street Journal sums up this supposed dilemma: "A full roll-call vote that reminds everyone how close she came to being the nominee could reveal party rifts going into the fall campaign... But keeping her name off the roll call could anger her supporters."

Donna Brazile (D-Chaos and Destruction) calls Hillary's nomination a "bone of contention." Brazile acknowledges Hillary's right to have her name put in nomination. "But do you do it?" asked Ms. Brazile. "Politically, does it heighten tensions?"

You want heightened tensions? Try having a Democratic convention without acknowledging 18,000,000 Democratic voters and 1600 Clinton delegates. You try having a "nomination by acclamation" with 1600 voices shouting "No!" How would that look on TV, Ms. Brazile (D-President Al Gore)?

http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2008/07/de...

all on nuke energy and all is well a few weeks ago...(her husband who works in the defense industry told her so)...so I sent that to her..thanks, Nora...

I don't know math..but that is weird...

*

Thanks for the info Toni about Sam's donation thing...so last night it went to the producers and tonight to the pac...I see now...Man so did Lauren work for free all that time?

*

For EB and SJ

The First Unintended Horror Film (1895)?

A contribution (which we always welcome) from one of our readers in Romania:

“The brothers Auguste and Louis Lumière created the first publicly shown movies, the first documentaries and, with this 50-second film shot at a Provence railway station, the first horror picture. It is said that as Paris audiences watched the train chug toward the screen, they believed it was about to crash out of the frame and into the auditorium, and ran out screaming. True or not, the story indicates the power the medium would wield over its audience.

The 50-second silent film captures the entry of a steam locomotive into the train station in the French coastal town of la Ciotat. Like most of the other early Lumière films, L’Arrivée d’un train consists of a single, unedited ‘view’ illustrating an aspect of everyday life.”

Oh man, one of my mothers was telling me how France is
Submitted by Alice on Wed, 07/09/2008 - 8:41pm.
all on nuke energy and all is well a few weeks ago...
---------
Never forget to mention that France is the nuclear power expert, hands down, over any other nuclear power entity on the planet.

The French system is as good as it gets. (I'm not cracking wise here.) France socialized the system so as to have complete control over every aspect of their nuclear power generation; before, during and after. (Dickheads will view the socialized aspect as a negative, but that's because they are dickheads who do not know how carefully and professionally controlled the French nuclear network is.)

When solar fueled or wind fueled or coal fueled or natural gas fueled or oil fueled or, yes, even nuclear fueled power generation personnel suffer an accident, someone dies. He or she falls off of something or is somehow electrocuted or crashes on the highway whilst making the rounds, all resulting in his or her death.

Accidents happen in all forms of industry. People die.

The difference is that the worst possible accident in all forms of electricity production (a mine cave-in or a plant explosion) has a beginning and an end. Not so with a nuclear incident that releases radiation beyond the core.

We are talking Dead Zone here.

But you knew that.

Have you seen them yet?

And today even Blondie got 'political' in the "Blondie" strip!

(And since I'm there -- REX MORGAN strip has a character in his car at a traffic light talking on his cell blackberry and going into road rage. AND did you see in the Sunday funnies how Prince Valiant and his wife the Queen were arguing and then went below in the ship and "made up"? Lots goin' on in the funny papers....)

How dare Obama and Dems join in and do this to us. They are going along with the Shockers of the Neocon/BushCrimeFamily/ShadowGovernment Nexus.

Listen to this later or during the news...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOY8p40QfqA

(I missed a couple threads, so I apologize if this is a repeat.)

No. I didn't...
I will pass that on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOY8p40QfqA

http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/aviation-security/2008/Jul/01/wan...

"So is the government really that interested in this bracelet?

Apparently so.

According to this letter from DHS official, Paul S. Ruwaldt of the Science and Technology Directorate, office of Research and Development, which was written to the inventor whom he had previously met with, Ruwaldt wrote, “To make it clear, we [the federal government] are interested in . . . the immobilizing security bracelet, and look forward to receiving a written proposal.”

The letterhead, in case you were wondering, is from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security office at the William J. Hughes Technical Center at the Atlantic City International Airport, or the Federal Aviation Administration headquarters."

the letter http://media.washingtontimes.com/media/img/blogs/entry_img/2008/Jul/08/H...

The Hughes Technical Center
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/tc/

My man - Senator Leahy - would be a great president - maybe just because he has no ambition to go there. But check this out from yesterday when we thought the majority of senators knew what "STOP" in a red octagon means.
Note: Alice has a cameo in the video option.

http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200807/070808a.html

If it weren't for the cold and snow, I'd live in Vermont. But I've been extremely happy with Sen. Cardin, and I'm in the position to work at seeking a replacement for Sen Mikulski, who I believe has been coerced into voting contrary to her traditional (liberal) leanings, and my current representative Steny Hoyer. I can remember when he first ran for the seat in a district that has changed to include me and exclude me several times over. My last call to his office ended with, "I look forward to seeing him go the way of Al Wynn." It would be a win-win situation--for the country and the district, and, unfortunately, for him as well.

http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&It...

Yes, it does remind you of people who brag about how their dog never simply growls and never attacks-- at least until it mauls the mailman...