Restore the Constitution

Remember there were DEMOCRATS, like Sherrod Brown (then Rep., now Senator) who voted FOR the "Military Commissions Act".

E18 mp3

french folk fusion // musette waltz

Everything’s Alright When You’re Down, mp3

Sign the petition.

by Stephen Lendman

...
Everything happening in the Middle East in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan in Central Asia is interconnected. In all of it, Washington is partnered with Israel and the EU aiming to subdue the people in both regions, control their resources, and rule over this vast area in colonial-occupier fashion directly on the ground or ideally with puppet-installed governments. Washington leads the effort and intends taking the lion share of what it can plunder provided things go as planned. The EU is tagging along led by Britain and Israel in key roles with the Jewish state getting huge amounts of funding to do it. According to a James Tucker American Free Press May, 2003 report it was at a level of $10 billion a year then with Israel wanting it upped to $12 billion.
...

Everglades, Part 1, mp3

Already signed petition,Sammy.
Will call..
We have Nasty little Anon being an ass.
But,since you don't have to deal with them.
And since you think they are good for the blog for some dumb stupid reason,nevermind!

Assimilated Press:
Washington, D.C. - White House insiders admitted today that Vice President Cheney was observed torturing logic. “The Vice President,” said one staffer who wished to remain anonymous, “is torturing logic and also using a rack to stretch the truth.” The Vice President, who in the past has claimed executive privilege to refuse oversight of his office, has now claimed that he is not part of the Executive branch after all. Mr. Cheney asserts that since his vote serves as the tie-breaker in the Senate and he attends Senate sessions, he is actually part of the Legislative branch. However, Mr. Cheney also has refused to comply with the oversight authority of the legislature, claiming his executive privilege.

“It was horrible,” said the staffer, voice shaking, as he described watching the Vice President torturing logic and truth. “He kept turning the crank on the rack and stretching truth further and further until finally it just snapped. All the while Cheney was shooting piercing glances and hammering the truth with questions. Then he took a whip and tortured logic until logic was moaning and babbling. By the time Cheney was done logic was helplessly and hopelessly illogical. Then he moved on to drowning out protest using a waterboard.“
Asked if President Bush had taken part in the torture the staffer replied, “No, the President wasn’t available to torture logic and stretch truth because he was off somewhere else mangling syntax.”
Tony Snow, White House press spokesman, refuted the charges that the Vice President tortured logic or stretched truth. “We are facing a terrible enemy, which is why it is of the utmost importance to national security that the taxpayers not know how many staffers they are paying to work in the Vice President’s office. It is also vital that no one in America knows who Cheney is meeting with or where he goes. No one should know this crucial information, certainly not regular Americans or Congress, and probably not even the President.”

When asked why citizens should not know what their public servant was doing, Mr. Snow replied, “It’s right there in the Constitution. I’m not sure exactly where, because I’m not a Constitutional scholar like the Vice President is, but he claims it’s in there and I accept his explanation. And so should you.”
Link

(yawn!)

coffee!

Another flashback!
Alright,time to find some Blue Cheer!
Or,Spirt,Quicksilver Messenger Service.. :)

country joe and the fish

or my favorite 'the fugs'

Water No Get Enemy, mp3

What About Me, mp3

-------------------------------------------------
http://www.majorityreportradio.blogspot.com/
(contains Sam Seder Show Open Mic blogger links)
-------------------------------------------------

"If you tune in to any of your favorite webstreams on Tuesday, June 26 and discover nothing but silence, don't panic. That's the way it's supposed to be.

Thousands of webstreams will go silent for the day as commercial and non-commercial webcasters, radio broadcasters, streaming services and even hobbyists turn off the streams to draw attention to an impending royalty rate increase foisted on them by SoundExchange, a front organization doing the bidding for the recording industry, which is attempting to strong-arm webcasters into new and ridiculously impractical royalty rates, the results of which could severely cripple webcasting as we know it.

Participants in this day of silence include some pretty big names. Yahoo, Rhapsody, MTV, Live365, Digitally Imported, Pandora and AccuRadio are just some of the multi-stream providers included. Independent streamers such as Radio Paradise, KQLZ.com and Head-On Radio Network are going quiet as well. Many non-commercial radio entities are also turning off the streams for the day. And radio groups Saga Communications and Greater Media are also going quiet in support of the effort. As of yet, big guns like Clear Channel and CBS Radio have not announced their participation.

Many webcasters are planning to shut off access to their streams entirely, while other webcasters plan to replace their music streams with long periods of silence or whatever interspersed with occasional brief public service announcements on the subject. KCRW in Santa Monica, CA, for example, is replacing music programming with coverage of the Day of Silence. Internet-only webcasters and broadcasters that simulcast online will alert their listeners that “silence” is what Internet radio may be reduced to after July 15th, the day on which 17 months’ worth of retroactive royalty payments — at new, exceedingly high rates — are due to the SoundExchange collection organization, following a recent Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision. ..."

http://www.ltradio.blogspot.com/

Alice, or anybody,...

Is there a credible Mexican newspaper that I can find on-line? (emphasis on credible)

Any recommendations? Anybody?

Thanks.

Great Velvet Underground video, MMR.
I was just jammin' out to this song yesterday.
This, and also "Whiskey in a Jar" by Thin Lizzy.
They play stuff like this on "The Vault" channel on Sirius satellite radio.
I love the VU with Nico... first album.

;)

I'm not sure why some people knock Lou Reed.

http://dailyearth.com/IntnNews/mexico.html

Thanks for the Mexican newspaper portal link.

What link do you go to first when you're getting your Mexican news?

... http://www.elfinanciero.com/ translates completely into Chinese with one click of the mouse, but not into English ...??... I could only get one page of English.

Strange. Or is it me?

Liam Lynch: United States of Whatever

I actually bought that GONG LP

cool

"Subcomandante Marcos, everyone’s favorite masked revolutionary, tries his hand at the classic “bodice ripper” with the publication of an illustrated erotic novel.

It is getting steamy in the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas, and it isn’t just summer humidity. An erotic novel by Subcomandante Marcos, the masked leader of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, is heating things up.
Smoking his ever-present pipe, Marcos presented “Noches de fuego y desvelo” (Nights of Fire and Sleeplessness) to an audience of 200 at the University of Guadalajara’s Social Sciences and Humanities center last Friday. It is the latest part of a series of tales Marcos has entitled “El Amor: Sus modos y ni modos (Love: Its Ways and No Ways)” about love in the ranks of his famous indigenous autonomy movement in southern Mexico. ... "

http://www.guadalajarareporter.com/fullcover.cfm?id=14

narconews.com is my favorite...I just received Nancy Davies book about Oaxaca....

"...if I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot."

LINK

Thanks Alice.

http://narconews.com/

That site works for me. :)

SR...I posted about Subcom's book from The Guardian article a month or so ago..but I think your link is recent...Thanks! Stealin' it.. :)

June 26, 2007 - Thirty-two years later.....

For the past thirty-two years supporters have gathered at Oglala to honor the lives that were lost on June 26, 1975 and the “reign of terror.” This year will be the eighth year that the Oglala Commemoration Committee has sponsored the gathering.

For those of us that are unable to physically attend the gathering at Oglala, we each honor and remember this day in our own special way. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all the victims from the "reign of terror."

Mike Bloomfield & Al Kooper "Stop" (Super Session)

==

Have a great day. I'll talk to you later. :)

Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Driftin' Blues (Monterey 1967)

I read http://www.elnorte.com but just out of habit not because it is particularly inciteful.

Thanks for all the cool music Alice.

Repost
Ann Coulter plays Hardball on Tuesday.

The always-controversial Ann Coulter will be joining us on the Hardball Plaza on Tuesday. We want you to hear from you beforehand and include some of your voices in the conversation. Send us your questions for Ann Coulter

Link to Question form

No Joke!

"Hardball"---06/22/07

MATTHEWS: Are you going to try to impeach him? What will you do, will you go along with Kucinich?

EMANUEL: No. No because what I‘ll say is, I agree with you now, you‘re a member of the legislature, here‘s $100,000 and your Senate presidency office, and that will be your staff.

MATTHEWS: Wow. You think you can carry this, Congressman.

EMANUEL: I think I‘m going to have this fight, and I think what people are going to know at the end of the process—we have a vice president who exudes a level of arrogance and unaccountability to the American people, that thinks he‘s above the law. And we are going to take this to him, and understand that there are consequences to an argument—

Gotta call about internets music royalties

Jim Kweskin Jug Band with Geoff Muldaur, Bill Keith, Fritz Richmond, Richard Greene and some barefoot chick

La Raza recently asked the Urban Institute to study the effects of the ICE raids this winter on the American Citizen children who had their parents detained or deported. Their report should come out at the end of July. How important should we consider that report when determining proper policies for the treatment of undocumented workers and their American children?

Thanks MMR.

Senator K. B. Hutchinson's, status not answering phone,
Rep Sam Johnson, status they just wanted my name and address and Sam hasn't declared a position on Habeas
Senator John Cornyn, Got answering machine.

What a bunch of putz's

I'll try again at my break.

I don't think I need to call Ron Paul on this but can't hurt either. At least maybe they will pick up the phone.

status, He's all over it. No problem getting the phone either.

Somebody picked up the phone this time but when I told them what I was calling me about they forwarded the call to a machine :(

Leonard's Blog.....
Submitted by Alice on Tue, 06/26/2007 - 12:50pm.
June 26, 2007 - Thirty-two years later.....

For the past thirty-two years supporters have gathered at Oglala to honor the lives that were lost on June 26, 1975 and the “reign of terror.”

on bill to protect your rights to unionize.

WTG!

looking good :)

hot, humid, rainy day here. 92! And it's hard to breath. Humidity 100%, oppresive.

So happy I have AC!

“The U.S. Conference of Mayors narrowly endorsed a resolution Monday calling for the Bush administration to begin planning for the swift withdrawal of troops from Iraq.” The war is reducing federal funds “for needed domestic investments in education, health care, public safety, homeland security and more,” the resolution states.

http://www.usmayors.org/

239. Number of bills the House of Representatives has passed and sent to the Senate only to be held up, with conservatives “objecting to just about every major piece of legislation that [Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)] has tried to bring up.”

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/52_146/roadmap/19152-1.html?CMP=OTC-RSS

“Iraq’s conflict is exacting an immense and largely unnoticed psychological toll on children and youth that will have long-term consequences.” A World Health Organization survey of Iraqi children under 10 found that 47 percent reported being “exposed to a major traumatic event over the past two years.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR200706...

First Lugar. Now Voinovich! Per CNN

maybe....

'The Senate on June 26, 2007 voted 51-48 on a Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to Consider H.R. 800 (the House version).

Beacuse 60 votes were needed to invoke cloture, the bill is unlikely to reach a Senate vote on the bills merits during the 110th Congress."

toniD. I just sat through a 3 hour telecon when the manager who called this cluster engagement told me we had no actions as our programs don't need to be addressed. What a waste.

Alito: Big business’s ‘No. 1 ally.’ As the Supreme Court’s term comes to a close this week, Justice Samuel Alito “has emerged as the justice friendliest to the interests of corporations. He sided with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobby, in 13 of 14 cases this term, more often than any of his colleagues. He cast votes to limit punitive damages, ease regulation and restrict suits by investors, consumers and alleged victims of job bias.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=a8MaW0PF9zK4

Glenn Beck to guest host on CNN. Via Atrios, TV Newser reports that right-wing Headline News anchor Glenn Beck “is getting his first gig on CNN next week — and it’s in Paula Zahn’s spot. Zahn is off next week, so Beck is subbing at 8pm the week of July 2. It’ll be Beck’s first time hosting on the mothership.”

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cnn/beck_subbing_for_zahn_next_week_...

Dear activists, colleagues and friends,

A new kind of Brave New Film and campaign has really taken on a life of its own. In the last 5 months, our short Internet films have been watched two million times and have taken on Fox News (and won!), Attorney General Gonzales, John McCain on the war and more.

As it turns out, the creativity and take-no-prisoners approach that defines our documentaries goes a very long way on the Internet -- and allows us to have an impact we never imagined. For example: getting Fox News to back down and apologize for an unfair and outrageous attack on Barack Obama.

We need your help to keep fighting in this new and effective way. Will you become a Brave New subscriber? Pledge $10 a month until November 2008 to fund our aggressive campaigns:

http://bravenewfilms.org/subscriber.php

We need to get to 2,000 subscribers at this stage, and we're already almost half way there.

All our videos are free, and should be so they can reach the widest possible audience. We're funded almost entirely by people like you giving $10 or $20 a month. We don't take any advertising or corporate sponsorships, so we aren't beholden to anyone (but you!).

Subscribers have more fun: early looks at all the videos, and special behind-the-scenes access we will unveil soon at our new bravenewfilms.org website. This is your chance to do something.

It's the end of the second quarter, so there are quite a few presidential candidates out there asking for money this week. We're not about getting a particular candidate elected, we're about setting the progressive agenda and making the candidates respond to what we all care about. You make that happen.

Please become a subscriber: http://bravenewfilms.org/subscriber.php

Thank you... now I'm going to get back to the editing room!

Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Films team

LINK

By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani has confronted a spate of bad news in recent days, from the drug indictment of his South Carolina chairman to criticism for skipping meetings of the Iraq Study Group.

Every campaign faces bad news at one time or another, but with a fundraising deadline looming Saturday, the timing couldn't be worse. Most voters are not tuned in, but for those who are giving and raising money for the former New York mayor, the heartburn-inducing headlines may make them think twice.

Up or Down Vote?

Gravel is the liberals' Nader, in a sense. He speaks much the same message as Nader. Why is he not demonized like Nader? Because he poses no real threat politically. He will be overwhelmed in the primaries, and go back to his Alaskan obscurity. Nader refuses to get hamstrung by the Democrats. (Gravel and Nader are allies, thank good!)

Why I'm a Yellow Dog Democrat, Dkos Edition
by Gary Norton

Up front, I have a confession to make. I was not always a Yellow Dog Democrat. No, in my youth I was too smart for that. While working on a degree in American history I felt sorrow if not contempt for all those voters in prior decades and centuries who voted a straight party ticket without any consideration for the person who was running. They were like sheep following an ancient party loyalty, or their local precinct or union bosses, trusting in others to know better how they should vote.

In fact the phrase itself seemed childish and idiotic.

"I'd vote for a yellow dog if he ran on the Democratic ticket"

Some people say it started in 1928 in the election of Smith versus Hoover. Others trace it back further to the early 1900s. The way I always heard it was "I'd vote for a yellow dog before I'd vote for a Republican."

Link to the rest of the story

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=13156&sectionID=51

Tweety arguing with Coulter. Talking over her.

She's a real piece of work!

Don't know how long I can watch this. They're in a commercial now.

She said Saddam was involved with Al Qaeda. Then Tweety went to commercial.

FLASHBACK: Cheney Argued Energy Task Force Probe ‘Interfered With Executive Branch’
The Office of the Vice President has asserted that Dick Cheney “is not an entity within the Executive Branch” in order to thwart an investigation into his handling of classified material. But there was once a time when Cheney prevented investigations by claiming they interfered with the Executive Branch.

Dana Milbank reports today in the Washington Post:

Cheney has refused to comply with an order governing the care of classified documents; his office concluded that the order does not apply because he is not “an entity within the executive branch.”

That’s quite opposite the argument Cheney made in 2001, when he said that a congressional probe into the workings of his energy task force “would unconstitutionally interfere with the functioning of the executive branch.” Cheney has, in effect, declared himself to be neither fish nor fowl but an exotic, extraconstitutional beast who answers to no one.

Milbank is referring to an instance in 2001 when GAO chief David Walker sent a “demand letter” for information and documents related to Cheney’s energy task force meetings. In response, Cheney wrote a letter to Congress informing lawmakers “of certain actions undertaken by an agent of the Congress, Comptroller General David M. Walker, which exceed his lawful authority and which, if given effect, would unconstitutionally interfere with the functioning of the executive branch.”

Appearing on ABC’s Nightline on July 25, 2001, Cheney said, “This request that in fact we’re supposed to provide [Congress] with this information with respect to…those meetings in the Executive Branch between the Vice President and other individuals strikes me as inappropriate.” Last night, The Daily Show aired the footage of Cheney’s remarks. Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/cheney-exec-branch/

I was hoping for the AAR news staff, at least Crowley and NewsDaddy. Maybe they don't want to burn their bridges or something like that.

Cost Of Cheney’s Executive Office: $4.75 Million
Reacting to the Office of the Vice President’s assertion that it is not an “entity within the executive branch,” Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) will introduce an amendment this week to cut off funding to Cheney’s office. Last night on MSNBC, he was asked how much money is spent on Vice President Cheney for an executive office he claims he’s not apart of:

MATTHEWS: Do you know, Congressman, how much money — how much money is spent by the taxpayer to give this guy a huge operations staff, a huge policy staff? He’s got travel all over the world. Do you know how big a budget he has right now?

EMANUEL: He has a residence. He has an entire operation that supports him as vice president. And then he also has, as you said, the travel. I mean, it’s in the millions of dollars.

Now we have a number. Roll Call reports today that President Bush has requested $4.75 million in fiscal 2008 to fund the Vice President’s operations (parts of which are housed, notably, in the Executive Office Building.)

In related news, Emanuel’s proposal is gaining steam in the Senate. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), who chairs the subcommittee that funds the vice president’s budget, yesterday warned Cheney that “his office would risk losing its budget” unless the vice president agrees to follow the executive order. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) also said he would “seriously consider” legislation to defund Cheney’s office, calling it “one of the only resorts we have.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/cheney-475million/

UPDATE: The White House budget request is HERE.

I guess it's too much to talk to Myla.

He just said to Coulter he like Giuliani! That was it for me!!

Mathews is truly a moron!

Sam has "Special Guest TBA" Maybe he is palnning to have some of the news guys.

Waxman Reveals Numerous New Security Violations, Threatens Subpoenas
House oversight chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) has revealed new evidence “that both the White House and the Office of the Vice President have flaunted multiple requirements for protecting classified information,” beyond the violation of the executive order reported earlier this week.

Last Friday, White House spokesperson Dana Perino stated that the “president and the vice president are complying with all the rules and regulations regarding the handling of classified material.” This is false. As Waxman makes clear in today’s letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding, the Bush administration has repeatedly broken its own guidelines for securing classified information:

White House security officers blocked from inspecting the West Wing. The National Archives is not the only agency ensuring that White House officials comply with the requirements for protecting classified information. The White House Security Office (WHSO) also shares this responsibility. Waxman reports today that WHSO employees “have been blocked from conducting inspections in the West Wing of the White House, where most of the President’s most senior advisors work.”

Karl Rove has had his security clearance renewed. Karl Rove has admitted that he publicly disclosed Valerie Plame’s status as a CIA officer. Under guidelines issued by President Bush in 2005, the “deliberate or negligent disclosure” of classified information can be a “disqualifying” condition to receive security clearance. Yet Waxman reports that Rove has had his security clearance renewed “and not altered in any respect.”

White House ignored security breaches, condoned mismanagement. Management at White House Security Office has been unwilling to “take actions that could embarrass White House officials,” a practice “condoned” by the White House, Waxman writes. For example, the office repeatedly ignored security breaches that were reported by the Secret Service or CIA agents, such as when a “White House official left classified materials unattended in a hotel room.” As a result, there was “plummeting morale among White House security officers,” half of whom quit last year.

Since April, Waxman has tried unsuccessfully to arrange interviews with White House officials overseeing security matters. Unless those interviews are granted, Waxman says, he will bring a motion to subpoena the officials on June 28.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/waxman-security-officers/

James Dobson will freak out when he sees this film

‘Caging’ investigation suggests minority vote suppresion. Several senators have called for the Justice Department to investigate allegations that Karl Rove protege and former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin used a voter suppression tactic known a “caging” while Griffin was at the Republican National Committee. TPMMuckraker assessed the evidence, and found the “caging” efforts disproportionately targeted African-Americans. Says one former Justice official: “It is difficult to explain other than an effort to target Democrats and by extension, minority voters.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/caging-investigation-suggests-minori...

GOP Senators back Lugar’s Iraq shift. “Republican senators expressed support today for Indiana Sen. Richard G. Lugar’s call for an immediate change of course in Iraq,” CQ reports.

“I hail what he did,” said Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., former chairman of the Armed Services Committee. “It shows the strength that each of us individually must bring to this debate.” Warner said that he too feels the September reporting date is too long to wait to revise U.S. war policy. […]

There is a growing feeling among senators that the U.S. presence in Iraq needs review, [Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)] said, adding that he agrees that troops levels should be reduced “as soon as it is realistic to do it.” […]

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said that it is important to find out if the administration is listening to differing views on Iraq. “If they’re not, I think that many of us are going to look at legislation that will limit the number of troops,” he said. Voinovich intends to submit a letter to the administration detailing an exit plan that would include engagement with the Arab League and the United Nations, he said.

UPDATE: The Washington Post buries Lugar’s speech.

UPDATE II: Lugar “just told reporters that the White House called him to ask for a meeting. Lugar would not say who he is meeting with or when it would happen, but all indications are that it will be National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and it will take place later in the week.”

UPDATE III: The Crypt has posted Voinovich’s letter to Bush: “Though it may seem contradictory, I believe we can accomplish more in Iraq by gradually and responsibly reducing our forces and focusing on a robust strategy of international cooperation and coordinated foreign aid.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/gop-senators-back-lugars-iraq-shift/

Iraq war debate falls off media’s radar. Major news outlets devoted just 1 percent of their coverage last week to the Iraq policy debate, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. “Those findings are indicative of a trend in recent weeks in which coverage of the political debate over the war has diminished substantially.”

http://journalism.org/node/6224/print

Breaking: Abramoff-linked Bush official sent to prison. CNN reports that J. Steven Griles, the former No. 2 official in the Interior Department, was sentenced to 10 months in prison today for “lying to the Senate about his relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff,” who got Griles to intervene at the agency for his Indian tribal clients. Griles had proposed “community service” (with a lobbyist group) in lieu of a prison sentence.

UPDATE: More from the AP.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/breaking-abramoff-linked-bush-offici...

Senate conservatives blocking legislation that would enact the 9/11 Commission recommendations and ethics and lobbying reform.

http://democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=277821

hahahahaha

About Steven Griles toniD! Thank you.

I've called the Senator at least a dozen times today, each time getting a machine that says call back later.

Paris Hilton didn't discharge her responsibilities so cavalierly.

A GOP Plan To Oust Cheney

By Sally Quinn
Tuesday, June 26, 2007; 12:00 AM

The big question right now among Republicans is how to remove Vice President Cheney from office. Even before this week's blockbuster series in The Post, discontent in Republican ranks was rising.

As the reputed architect of the war in Iraq, Cheney is viewed as toxic, and as the administration's leading proponent of an attack on Iran, he is seen as dangerous. As long as he remains vice president, according to this thinking, he has the potential to drag down every member of the party -- including the presidential nominee -- in next year's elections.

Removing a sitting vice president is not easy, but this may be the moment. I remember Barry Goldwater sitting in my parents' living room in 1973, in the last days of Watergate, debating whether to lead a group of senior Republicans to the White House to tell President Nixon he had to go. His hesitation was that he felt loyalty to the president and the party. But in the end he felt a greater loyalty to his country, and he went to the White House.

Today, another group of party elders, led by Sen. John Warner of Virginia, could well do the same. They could act out of concern for our country's plummeting reputation throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East.

For such a plan to work, however, they would need a ready replacement. Until recently, there hasn't been an acceptable alternative to Cheney -- nor has there been a persuasive argument to convince President Bush to make a change. Now there is.

The idea is to install a vice president who could beat the Democratic nominee in 2008. It's unlikely that any of the top three Republican candidates -- former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Sen. John McCain of Arizona or former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney -- would want the job, for fear that association with Bush's war would be the kiss of death.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR200706...

CIA releases papers
that set off scandal
The CIA released hundreds of pages of internal reports Tuesday on assassination plots, secret drug testing and spying on Americans that triggered a scandal in the mid-1970s.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070626/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/cia_family_jewels_...

Study: 'BRICs' overtake
US in energy
The main challengers to U.S. economic power — Brazil, Russia, India and China — have overtaken the United States in dominating the global energy industry, according to a new study by Goldman Sachs.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070626/ap_on_bi_ge/un_economic_tigers;_ylt=...

Agee, Philip. On the Run. Secaucus NJ: Lyle Stuart, 1987. 400 pages.

In 1968 Philip Agee was finally disgusted with his dirty work as a CIA officer in Ecuador, Uruguay, and Mexico. He submitted a letter of resignation and immediately slipped into Cuba, then went to France and Britain. As he wrote his memoirs while scraping by on handouts, he frequently wondered if some of the people who were helping him could be trusted. The answer was "no" -- a typewriter that one friend loaned him was discovered to contain a homing transmitter. Finally his book "Inside the Company" was published in 1975, launching his career as history's most celebrated anti-CIA activist. The CIA kept harassing Agee, even though he retains his U.S. citizenship and has never been charged with a crime. He was expelled from Britain, France, and Holland, and his U.S. passport was revoked in 1979. Today he lives in Germany, is still trying to get his passport back, and does speaking tours on U.S. college campuses.
While "Inside the Company" chronicles Agee's activities as a CIA officer, "On the Run" is part two of his autobiography. It covers the years between his resignation and the publication of his memoirs, and the succession of legal problems in a number of European countries once he became a celebrity. Besides reading almost like a thriller, this book is also valuable as a history of the anti-CIA movement.
ISBN 0-8184-0419-1

on CIA intervention in Venezuela:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1403

at - senate.gov - homepage
The President of the Senate's Role
in the Legislative Process

Old CIA Modus Operandi:

[T]he CIA was responsible for undermining the Salvador Allende government in Chile from 1970 on. It happens that Allende was nearly elected in 1958. Elections came every 6 years in Chile and in 1964, the next election year, the CIA began early on, more than a year ahead of time, working to prevent his election in 1964. The money was spent in part to discredit Allende and the Socialist party and his coalition known as Unidad Popular and to finance Eduardo Frei’s campaign—the Christian Democratic campaign. Frei won that election, but when the next elections came around in 1970 Allende was finally elected. It’s documented that the CIA tried to prevent his ratification by Congress following the election by provoking a military coup, which failed. Allende took power and the CIA was then the action agency for fomenting popular discontent, for continuous propaganda against Allende and his government, for fomenting the very damaging strikes that occurred, the most important of which was the truckers, which stopped the delivery of goods and services over a period of months, and which eventually provoked the Pinochet coup against Allende in September 1973...

MSNBC feature

At Berkeley protest for Save the Oaks

It was during this period [late 1970s] that a process of new thinking began in the upper echelons of the makers of US foreign policy, the new thinking being that these military dictatorships, with all the repression and the disappearances and death squads and so forth, might not be the best way to preserve US interests in Latin America, or other areas for that matter. The new thinking was that the preservation of US interests could better be achieved through the election of democratic governments formed by political elites who identify with the political class in the United States. Here I mean not the popular forces, but the traditional political classes in Latin America, to speak of one area, known as the ‘Oligarchies.’ And so the new American program, which became known as “Project Democracy,” was adopted and United States policy would seek to promote free, fair, transparent democratic elections but in such a way that it would assure that power went to the elites and not to the people.

A foundation was established called the “American Political Foundation” in 1979 with major participation from the main labor center in the United States the AFL-CIO, with the United States Chamber of Commerce and with the Democratic and Republican parties, four main organizations, and the financing for this foundation came both from the government and from private sources. Their job was to study how the United States could best apply this new thinking in promoting democracy. The solution was the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and its four associated foundations: the International Republican Institute (IRI) of the Republican Party, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) of the Democratic Party, the American Center of International Labor Solidarity (ACILS) of the AFL-CIO, and the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) of the United States Chamber of Commerce. Where the AFL-CIO foundation is concerned, they took an existing organization which had worked hand-in-glove with the CIA for many years called the American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD), they simply changed the name...

taking a 'put barking dog and loonie dog friend in house drinking ice water break'.

Elizabeth Edwards Confronts Coulter During Television Appearance
Elizabeth Edwards confronted right-wing pundit Ann Coulter during a live interview on MSNBC this afternoon, charging that Coulter’s “personal attacks” on former senator John Edwards and others were based on “the language of hate.”

Yesterday on ABC’s Good Morning America, Coulter said, “[I]f I’m gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.” She has previously called Edwards a “faggot.” In 2003, she wrote a column claiming that John Edwards drove around with a bumper sticker saying “Ask me about my son’s death in a horrific car accident.”

During an hour-long interview with Coulter today on MSNBC, host Chris Matthews announced that Elizabeth Edwards was on the line. Edwards referenced the attacks above, saying, “I’m the mother of that boy who died. These young people behind you…you’re asking them to participate in a dialogue that is based on hatefulness and ugliness instead of on the issues, and I don’t think that’s serving them or this country very well.” The live audience cheered. Watch it:

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/26/edwards-coulter/

[Astonishly] the Sandinistas agreed to it, and the first thing that happened was that the CIA brought in millions of dollars more, of course. The man who wrote the book on Nicaragua in the 1980s and about this election in 1990 is Bill Robinson, an academic, who lived for quite a bit of the 1980s in Nicaragua, and his book is called A Faustian Bargain. It’s an excellent book, very well documented, very well written. He estimated that the United States spent something in excess of US$20 million for the 1990 elections. And as everyone knows, the Sandinistas lost; the UNO coalition won something like 56% of the vote, and the Sandinistas 40% or something like that. And these operations that were started in order to ensure the defeat of the Sandinistas in the 1990 elections, they continued in order to assure that the Sandinistas would not come into power in the next elections, and that has been the case.

How has this model been applied to Venezuela?

In Venezuela, there is something rather similar: you have the Coordinadora Democratica here, comprised of the same sectors of the same organizations as in Nicaragua, although from what I’ve read it has more or less collapsed at this point. But they’ll revive it I’m sure. You have an organization here that is supposedly non-partisan and dedicated to getting out the vote and making sure the elections are clean which is Súmate. You have the private US consulting group here which is called Development Alternatives Incorporated, that is fulfilling the same role that the Delphi International Group fulfilled in Nicaragua, and both the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute also have offices in Caracas, so you have three offices here that are handing out tens of millions of dollars, private offices that in actual fact are under the control of the US embassy and of the Department of State in Washington and of the Agency for International Development (AID). The first contract that was given to Development Alternatives was by AID, while the NED programs continued at a rate of about US$1 million per year. In the wake of the failed coup in April, 2002, the decision was taken in Washington to do the same thing they’d done in Nicaragua, which was to hire a consulting firm to act as a front for AID money which would be much larger than the NED money, and the first contract was signed on August 30th, 2002, which granted a little more than US$10 million over the next two years for political activities in Venezuela...
PHILIP AGEE

Thompson defends lobbying record
Lobbying crucial because likely GOP candidate 'got hands in everything.'

http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.c...

What?!

Of course, that's the mainstream media's radar... but still...

we MUST get it back on the agenda.

The Democrats were calling me for money the other day, and I said "I no longer support the Democrats after all I did for you, getting you the majority on one condition, that you get the troops out of Iraq. And I will no longer give money to you. Please stop calling."

That wasn't the first time I said that in recent weeks.. to people calling for money.

I will give to individual candidates but not to the party organizations.

Coulter is not human or humane. And it has no conscience! Pure evil.

Would love to see karma zap her good!

I wanted to respond to so many posts here, but too little time...

Thanks to all!

They are there to represent us. Keep reminding them. That especially goes for the GOP!

Protestors block Gonzales press conference. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was in Boise today for a press conference to discuss combatting gang activity. But he was forced to move the press conference “this afternoon to the federal courthouse in Boise because more than 100 protesters staked out his chosen site for the event. So instead of holding his conference at the Fort Boise Community Center, Gonzales opted to stage the event more than an hour later at the US District Court building nearby.”

UPDATE: KTVB reports, “Just before his scheduled 2:50 p.m. appearance for media questions and answers, a representative appeared and told the gathered crowd that Gonzales would speak at an alternate site - with only credentialed members of the media present.The crowd erupted in disappointment, with many yelling and screaming. Some chanted ‘coward, coward.’”

"When it meddles in the Muslim world, the United States can be counted upon to blow it.

America has done many great things around the globe, like rebuilding post-war Europe and driving international economic growth. But when it comes to the Muslim world, almost everything the U.S. touches turns to ashes. ..."

http://torsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Margolis_Eric/2007/06/24/4286036-...

Cheney's chief of staff rebukes Kerry on VP's secrecy oversight John Byrne
Published: Tuesday June 26, 2007

Dick Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington, issued a letter to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) today defending the Vice President's interpretation of his office being outside the executive branch - only this time, he said it was because Cheney's office isn't an "agency."

A copy of the letter from David Addington to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was released to RAW STORY. Kerry said the "legalistic" response from Addington "raises more questions than it purports to answer."

"Dear Senator Kerry," Addington writes. "The executive order on classified national security information -- Executive Order 12958 as amended in 2003 -- makes clear that the Vice President is treated like the President and distinguishes the two of them from 'agencies.'"

No longer satisfied with the Vice President's office's claim that Cheney is actually an admixture between the legislative and executive branch, Addington now posits that the Vice President's office is not an "agency."

"The executive order gives the [Information Security Oversight Office], under the supervision of the Archivist of the United States, responsibility to oversee certain activities of 'agencies,' but not of the Vice President or the President."

Kerry said Addington was wrong on that point because the executive order governing the handling of classified material covers "any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information."

Addington insists that the question of whether Cheney is in the executive branch does not apply to the discussion of classified materials.

"Constitutional issues in government are generally best left for discussion when unavoidable disputes arise in a specific context instead of in theoretical discussions," Addington adds. "Given that the executive order treats the Vice President like the President rather than like an "agency," it is not necessary in these circumstances to address the subject of any alternative reasoning, based on the law and the history of the legislative functions of the vice presidency and the more modern functions of the vice presidency, to reach the same conclusions that the vice president is not an 'agency' with respect to which ISOO has a role."

Kerry re-iterated his request that Cheney's office define its place in government. If Cheney intends to ignore two centuries of constitutional precedent in declaring himself outside the executive branch, Kerry asks that he at least provide a justification for that decision.

Read a PDF of the letter here.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Cheneys_chief_of_staff_rebukes_Kerry_0626....

New documents link Kissinger to two 1970s coups Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane
Published: Tuesday June 26, 2007

Release of CIA’s ‘Family Jewels’ provides insight into political juggernaut and Bush Administration adviser

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger pushed for the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and allowed arms to be moved to Ankara for an attack on that island in reaction to a coup sponsored by the Greek junta, according to documents and intelligence officers with close knowledge of the event.

Nearly 700 pages of highly classified Central Intelligence Agency reports from the 1970's, known collectively as the "Family Jewels," are slated for public release today.

However, the National Security Archive had previously obtained four related documents through the Freedom of Information Act and made them public Friday.

“In all the world the things that hurt us the most are the CIA business and Turkey aid,” Kissinger declares in one of those documents, a White House memorandum of a conversation from Feb. 20, 1975. On the surface, the comment seems innocuous, but the context as well as the time period suggests Kissinger had abetted illegal financial aid and arms support to Turkey for its 1974 Cyprus invasion.

In July and August of 1974, Turkey staged a military invasion of the island nation of Cyprus, taking over nearly a third of the island and creating a divide between the south and north. Most historians consider that Kissinger – then Secretary of State and National Security Advisor to President Gerald Ford – not only knew about the planned attack on Cyprus, but encouraged it.

Some Greek Cypriots believed then, and still believe, that the invasion was a deliberate plot on the part of Britain and the US to maintain their influence on the island, which was particularly important as a listening post in the Eastern Mediterranean in the wake of the October 1973 War between Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

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

Around the time of President Nixon's resignation in August 1974, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh started hearing accounts of illegal foreign and domestic CIA activities. On December 20, 1974, Hersh confronted CIA Director William Colby and received confirmation of everything he had learned. Two days later, Hersh went public with the story.

The Family Jewels were described in a New York Times front page article titled “Huge C.I.A. Operation Reported in U.S. Against Antiwar Forces, Other Dissidents in Nixon Years.” According to Hersh, James Schlesinger, who served briefly as CIA director in 1973, had ordered the report in response to the crimes collectively known as Watergate.

Hersh's article stated, “An extensive investigation by the New York Times has established that intelligence files on at least 10,000 American citizens were maintained by a special unit of the C.I.A. that was reporting directly to Richard Helms, then the Director of Central Intelligence and now the Ambassador to Iran.”

Then-CIA director William Colby's initial impulse was to reveal everything in order to give the CIA a clean slate, but President Ford and Kissinger disagreed. By January 3, 1975 when Colby was summoned to the White House for a briefing, they had decided to keep the lid on by forming a blue ribbon commission under Vice President Nelson Rockefeller.

The "memorandum of conversation" document released by the National Security Archive, dated January 4, 1975, transcribes portions of a follow-up meeting between Ford and Kissinger the next day.

Kissinger complains to President Ford about Colby's urge to come clean, saying, "You will end up with a CIA that does only reporting, and not operations ... He has turned over to the FBI the whole of his operation."

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Intelligence_officers_confirm_Kissinger_ro... (scroll to the bottom of the article)

Did Medal of Freedom buy Tenet's silence? RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday June 26, 2007

Revealing that former CIA director George Tenet gave up $2 million in delaying publication of his memoir, an essay in The New Republic speculates President Bush or his father -- or someone close to them -- convinced Tenet to delay and write a book uncritical of the president.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Did_Medal_of_Freedom_buy_Tenets_0626.html

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger pushed for the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus and allowed arms to be moved to Ankara for an attack on that island in reaction to a coup sponsored by the Greek junta, according to documents and intelligence officers with close knowledge of the event.

Divide and rule. I think Turkey feared that Cyprus would unite with mainland Greece (Enosis). Bulent Ecevit, an otherwise good social democrat, was the premier who was willing to invade. He became wildly popular in its aftermath. Called "Arslan" Ecevit for leading the country to a splendid victory. (I oppose Turkey's continuing occupation of Cyprus. For many reasons.)

Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane
That Kissinger story posted by the above is old news, no news. Evren's coup happened several years after the Cyprus invasion. As a result of much internal political strife. There is much more that is misleading in it. But no big conspiracy on the writers' part.

Free Democracy

I was wondering what happened to ecrasez l'infâme.
Looks like he has a tour, playing on dates with Rejouissance.
http://www.timetooperate.com/shows.html

As Josh wrote last night, Vice President Cheney's office has had some bad luck with safeguarding classified material.

And no wonder. According to Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), White House officials have a bad habit of leaving classified documents unattended and then shutting down security officers when they seek to investigate. Things are so bad, officers from the White House Security Office have told Waxman, that over half of the staff from that office has resigned in the past year.

-- Paul Kiel

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/014846.php

Rahm's Moment
By Todd Gitlin | bio
Rahm Emanuel plans to introduce an amendment (see details in the update below) to delete spending for Cheney's office on the ground that Cheney claims, when convenient, that the vice-president's office is not "an entity within the executive branch." Rep. Emanuel, who's taken a beating from the liberal wing of the Democrats for refusing to stand up, is standing way up. The House is supposed to vote later this week.

Is this not one of those extraordinary moments when the people's representatives will actually vote on whether to fund the horrific farce that is this administration?

Is this not one of those clear-cut, pivotal moments when a great wave of calls (MoveOn, this means you) should go out to members of Congress? Shouldn't every member of congress have to declare, out loud, how he or she votes on this fundamental measure?

The way Josh and the whole TPM enterprise stepped up on the Social Security issue in 2005 was exemplary. Weaseling members of Congress had to declare themselves.

This time, there are only a few days to mobilize, but why not use them well?

Update Tuesday morning: The Hill reports that Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer are talking about Senate legislation parallel to Rahm's, and Dianne Feinstein made sympathetic noises on Fox News Sunday

Clarificatin Tuesday afternoon: As readers Jay Ackroyd and Nell pointed out a few minutes ago, Rahm's measure will take the form of an amendment to H.R.2829, "the FY 2008 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill." The whole bill, along with its amendments, will probably be voted on Wednesday or Thursday in the Financial Services Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee. So first priority are the members of that Subcommittee:

The Democratic Reps. are

Chair: José E. Serrano (NY)
Carolyn C. Kilpatrick (MI)
C.A "Dutch" Ruppersberger (MD)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL)
Peter J. Visclosky (IN)
Robert E. "Bud" Cramer, Jr. (AL)
Maurice D. Hinchey (NY)
Adam Schiff (CA)
Dave Obey (WI), Ex Officio

The Republicans are:

Ralph Regula (OH)
Mark Steven Kirk (IL)
Dennis R. Rehberg (MT)
Rodney Alexander (LA)
Ken Calvert (CA)
Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio

If the amendment passes the Subcommittee, it goes to the full House Appropriations Committee, chaired by David Obey (WI).

Update: According to the AP, Steny Hoyer, who ought to know, says the amendment "could come up Thursday" before the Subcommittee.

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/jun/25/rahms_moment

Glad you refer to Greenwald frequently and delighted to see he's a guest this week. I just noticed his new book's sales rank is #12 at Amazon. Looking forward to Sunday Seder as always.

roll around on the floor of the Oval Office late at night, laughing hysterically at the things they can do and not only get away with it, but, make HUGE amounts of money out of it at the same time. They are cosmic hustlers! Snake oil salesmen of the HIGHEST order. These are not stupid, goofy buffoons. These two men are getting over like NOBODY ever got over in all of history.

Anon...AKA Bad Vibes...(from the old blog)

On the subject of safeguarding classified information, TPM Reader MF walks us down this memory lane ...

That encrypted cable, intercepted and read by the United States, tipped off U.S. officials to the fact that Chalabi had betrayed the code-breaking operation, the U.S. officials said.
The U.S. sources said that, in the cable to Tehran, the Iranian official recounted how Chalabi had said that one of "them" – a reference to an American – had revealed the code-breaking operation, the officials said. The Iranian reported that Chalabi said the American had been drunk.

...

The account of Chalabi's actions has been confirmed by several senior U.S. officials, who said the leak contributed to the White House decision to break with him.

The FBI has opened an espionage investigation seeking to determine exactly what information Chalabi turned over to the Iranians as well as who told Chalabi that the Iranian code had been broken, government officials said.

The inquiry, still in an early phase, is focused on a very small number of people who were close to Chalabi and also had access to the highly restricted information about the Iran code.

-- Josh Marshall

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/014832.php

if it weren't for pre-sales of Harry Potter.

CNN Picks Up Story Of Rudy South Carolina Co-Chair's Racially Charged Comments
By Greg Sargent | bio
Looks like the big news orgs are starting to pay attention to the "controversial" background of Rudy Giuliani's new South Carolina campaign co-chair.

Yesterday we reported that the official, Arthur Ravenel, Jr., has a bit of a history when it comes to making what are commonly referred to as "racially charged" remarks. Ravenel's greatest hit was probably his reference to the NAACP the "National Association For Retarded People."

Now CNN has grabbed on to the story:

Arthur Ravenel, a former U.S. Congressman and state senator, has his own controversial history. A supporter of flying the Confederate flag on the statehouse grounds, Ravenel referred to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as the “National Association for Retarded People” at a flag rally in 2000, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.

Arthur Ravenel later said he inadvertently mixed up his words and apologized to mentally handicapped people for comparing them to members of the NAACP, according to the newspaper.

CNN adds this interesting tidbit: The Rudy campaign is declining to comment on its new S.C. co-chair's colorful past. If more big news orgs pick up on this, that might change.

More soon.

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jun/26/cnn_...

Is President Bush Part of the Executive Branch?
By Spencer Ackerman - June 26, 2007, 10:34 AM
Dana Perino, the occasionally flustered White House spokeswoman, has at least been consistent in her line that the executive order governing classification procedures that's gotten Dick Cheney into trouble lately also doesn't apply to President Bush. Today The Los Angeles Times' Josh Meyer points out why Perino's been saying that: the president's office itself rebuffed the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) found that in 2005, ISOO investigators came to the West Wing to inspect senior Bush aides' handling of classified information, only to be turned away by White House security officers. At the risk of a cheap shot, Saddam Hussein gave about as much access to UNMOVIC weapons inspectors in 2002 than Bush aides gave to the ISOO.

Now, here's the rub. If President Bush and Vice President Cheney clearly fall outside the scope of the executive order, as Perino said yesterday, why does ISOO, the agency directed under the order to ensure complaince, insist on inspecting them? The order, known as Executive Order 13292, gives the ISOO the authority "to conduct on-site reviews of each agency's program established under this order." Neither the president nor the vice president run any agency. But here's how EO 13292 defines "agency":

"Agency" means any "Executive agency," as defined in 5 U.S.C. 105; any "Military department" as defined in 5 U.S.C. 102; and any other entity within the executive branch that comes into the possession of classified information.
That's President Bush's language: he amended the executive order on March 25, 2003. (Basically, he gave the vice president power to automatically declassify information; it became an issue in the Valerie Plame leak case.) He could have easily cleared up any confusion about ISOO's ability to investigate his own office with a few uses of the word "exempt," but he didn't -- and now he's insisting that the order contains an implicit exemption.

It's an improvisatory kind of legal reasoning, it seems -- and it's no wonder Perino (who's apologizing all the time these days for her lack of a "legal mind") is having trouble keeping up.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003526.php

The C&L link is broken on that video.

The Language of War, by by Myles Hoenig
...
If Iran is attacked, or invaded, people all over the world will rise up against American aggression, from Venezuela to Indonesia. We would be lucky if we are labeled just a ‘pariah nation’. Through the neo-cons own reasoning, we will be giving justification to attack American interests anywhere in the world. Perhaps the biggest mistake in language use is ‘opposition party’.

Fortunately, that term has fallen by the waste side, even by many Democrats. There is no viable opposition party in America. The Green Party is still way too small and ineffective to change either electoral outcomes or policy. However, to many, they are becoming the only alternative to those who once thought they were ‘left’ enough to be Democrats.

The continuing ‘mistake’ is the belief that the Democratic Party is fundamentally different than the Republicans.

As Greens often run on how similar the two parties are, this claim is gaining credibility. Madam Speaker Pelosi, Congressman ‘Kowtow” Conyers, and all others in leadership have given ample reason for reasonable people to see their mistake in relying on them for progressive and anti-war, anti-fascist leadership.
...

House Report 110-023 - EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT OF 2007
together with
MINORITY VIEWS

CONCLUSION
Despite its contortionist title, the so-called `Employee Free Choice Act' represents an egregious and frontal

assault on worker rights, the likes of which have not come before the Committee in more than a decade. The

bill would strip American workers of their right to vote their conscience on the question of unionization in a

federally-supervised private ballot election. Instead, the bill is an open invitation to subject workers to

intimidation, harassment, and deception until they `sign the card.' The bill's provisions increasing damages,

penalties, and remedies are unwarranted and one-sided, and unfairly tip the balance of labor law in the

direction of one party. Finally, H.R. 800's mandatory, binding arbitration provisions would strip workers of the

right to vote on the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, and would serve only to foster more

over-promising and misleading claims, with even less fear of repercussion.

H.R. 800 represents the worst sort of legislation, and we respectfully oppose it.

Howard P. McKeon. R - CA
Tom Petri. R - WI
Peter Hoekstra. R - MI
Mike Castle. R - DE
Mark Souder. R - IN
Vernon J. Ehlers. R - MI
Todd R. Platts. R - PA
Ric Keller. R - FL and
Joe Wilson. R - SC
John Kline. R - MN and
Cathy McMorris Rodgers. R-WA
K. Marchant. R - TX
Tom Price. R - GA
Luis Fortuno. R-PR
C. W. Boustany, Jr. R-LA
Virginia Foxx. R - NC
Rob Bishop. R - UT
David Davis. R - TN
Tim Walberg. R-MI

hate central

As Greens often run on how similar the two parties are, this claim is gaining credibility. Madam Speaker Pelosi, Congressman ‘Kowtow” Conyers, and all others in leadership have given ample reason for reasonable people to see their mistake in relying on them for progressive and anti-war, anti-fascist leadership.
...

I am telling Randi on you. She will naderize you if you call in with that.

I hate this hamstrung reality we exist in.
Corporations Rule!

would bush ever sign this?
opposition solving problems that don't exist
"and unfairly tip the balance of labor law in the direction of one party"
i.e. the worker.

House Report 110-023 - EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT OF 2007
together with
MINORITY VIEWS

CONCLUSION
Despite its contortionist title, the so-called `Employee Free Choice Act' represents an egregious and frontal

assault on worker rights, the likes of which have not come before the Committee in more than a decade. The

bill would strip American workers of their right to vote their conscience on the question of unionization in a

federally-supervised private ballot election. Instead, the bill is an open invitation to subject workers to

intimidation, harassment, and deception until they `sign the card.' The bill's provisions increasing damages,

penalties, and remedies are unwarranted and one-sided, and unfairly tip the balance of labor law in the

direction of one party. Finally, H.R. 800's mandatory, binding arbitration provisions would strip workers of the

right to vote on the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, and would serve only to foster more

over-promising and misleading claims, with even less fear of repercussion.

H.R. 800 represents the worst sort of legislation, and we respectfully oppose it.

Howard P. McKeon. R - CA
Tom Petri. R - WI
Peter Hoekstra. R - MI
Mike Castle. R - DE
Mark Souder. R - IN
Vernon J. Ehlers. R - MI
Todd R. Platts. R - PA
Ric Keller. R - FL and
Joe Wilson. R - SC
John Kline. R - MN and
Cathy McMorris Rodgers. R-WA
K. Marchant. R - TX
Tom Price. R - GA
Luis Fortuno. R-PR
C. W. Boustany, Jr. R-LA
Virginia Foxx. R - NC
Rob Bishop. R - UT
David Davis. R - TN
Tim Walberg. R-MI

hate central

Subject: 'YA JUST GOTTA LOVE " US SENIORS"
>
>
>
>Shown below, is an actual letter that was sent to a bank by an 86 year old
>woman. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in
>the New York Times.
>
>Dear Sir:
>
>I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to
>pay my plumber last month.
>
>By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his
>presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to
>honor it.
>
>I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire pension,
>an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years.
>
>You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and
>also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience
>caused. My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has
>caused me to rethink my errant financial ways.
>
>I noticed that whereas I personally answer your telephone calls and
>letters,
>--- when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal,
>overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become
>
>From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood
>person.
>
>My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore a nd hereafter no longer be
>automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and
>confidentially to an employee at your bank who you must nominate.
>
>Be aware that it is an offense under the Postal Act for any other person to
>open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact which I
>require your chosen employee to complete.
>
>I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about
>him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.
>
>Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be
>countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her
>financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be
>accompanied by documented proof.
>
>In due course, at MY convenience, I will issue your employee with a PIN
>number which he/she must quote in dealings with me.
>
>I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have
>modeled
>it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account
>balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the
>sincerest form of flattery. Let me level the playing field even further.
>
>When you call me, press buttons as follows:
>
>IMMEDIATELY AFTER DIALING, PRESS THE STAR (*) BUTTON FOR ENGLISH
>
>#1. To make an appointment to see me
>#2. To query a missing payment.
># 3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.
># 4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.
># 5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.
># 6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home
>#7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is
>required. Password will be communicated to you at a later date to that
>Authorized Contact mentioned earlier.
># 8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7.
># 9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put
>on
>hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service.
># 10. This is a second reminder to press * for English.
>
>While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will
>play for the duration of the call.
>
>Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an
>establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.
>May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous New Year?
>Your Humble Client
>
>(Remember: This was written by a 86 year old woman)
>'YA JUST GOTTA LOVE " US SENIORS"

Very creepy and unfair thing to say. The guy's been at it long enough to know not to tilt at windmills and when to move on to attainable goals but also found value in making a record when action was not possible. Shame.

Support for war reaches new low. “A new low of 30 percent of Americans say they support the U.S. war in Iraq and, for the first time, most Americans say they don’t believe it is morally justified,” a new CNN poll finds.

Nearly two-thirds of those polled want withdrawal of U.S. troops to begin — either in part or in total. … Asked whether the U.S. action in Iraq is morally justified, 54 percent said no, versus 42 percent who said yes and 4 percent with no opinion. […]

Support for President Bush matched his lowest rank ever in a CNN poll, with 32 percent saying they approve the way he is handling his job, and 66 percent saying they disapprove, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/06/26/poll-support-for-iraq-wa...

--She will naderize you if you call in with that.--

Maybe it's in her contract....

Worst person in the world! Per Olbermann

Thanks to the Gonzales protesters. It is always amazing how Democracy works. I love this country!

Janice Brown

American journalism.

...as fucking stupid as this is, take the poll.

-Atrios 19:28

http://wardog.blogspot.com/

Atrios graciously asked you to, go to the comments and read them...

http://hardblogger.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/06/26/236510.aspx#comments

Muddle

It's no mystery that there's opposition to a bill which is a messy compromise between opposite agendas. Conservatives hate it, and prominent Democratic politicians haven't really expended any effort to make the liberal case for it. It's sold as a fix to a problem, without either the "fix" or the "problem" being clearly defined. It's Broder Politics at its worst.

The more liberal view of immigration is much more popular than I ever imagined, and it's a shame that Democrats haven't used the opportunity to rally any support for that view. It's what happens when legislation begins as behind-the-scenes compromise.

-Atrios 12:22

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=06&year=2007&bas...

HERE.

#

That creature is the definition of a C***!!! No disrespect meant to the word!!!

new blog rules suck.

says it all.

Durbin takes on judge over combatants
1 hour, 51 minutes ago

A Senate Democratic leader Tuesday urged a Bush-appointed judge to recuse himself from cases involving enemy combatants and requested an explanation about information that might contradict his testimony about the White House's detainee policy.

"It appears that you misled me, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the nation," Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois wrote to Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

He urged Kavanaugh to remove himself from "all pending and subsequent cases involving detainees and enemy combatants." Kavanaugh's court gets more detainee cases than any other.

"Your lack of candor at your nomination hearing suggests you cannot approach these cases with impartiality and an open mind," Durbin wrote.

Kavanaugh declined to comment, but the court released a statement indicating Kavanaugh would not recuse himself from all related cases.

"Judge Kavanaugh's confirmation testimony was accurate, and Judge Kavanaugh will continue to carefully address recusal issues based on the law and facts of each case."

At issue is whether Kavanaugh, then White House staff secretary, misled the Senate panel during his confirmation hearing in May last year about how much he was involved in crafting the administration's policy on enemy combatants.

A Washington Post story Monday suggested that Kavanaugh told his White House colleagues in 2002 that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, for whom Kavanaugh had clerked, would never accept any policy that denied American combatants a lawyer, as was then being considered by the administration.

Durbin, who first raised the issue Tuesday in an interview with National Public Radio, said the story appeared to contradict Kavanaugh's statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing.

During the May 9, 2006 proceedings, Durbin asked Kavanaugh about William Haynes, a controversial nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

"What did you know about Mr. Haynes' role in crafting the administration's detention and interrogation policies?" Durbin asked Kavanaugh.

"Senator I did not — I was not involved and am not involved in the questions about the rules governing detention of combatants. And so I do not have the involvement with that," Kavanaugh replied, according to a transcript

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070626/ap_on_go_co/senator_vs__judge_4&prin...

Sally Quinn Calls for Head of Dick Cheney
by BooMan
Tue Jun 26th, 2007 at 01:23:04 PM EST

Sally Quinn thinks vice-president Dick Cheney should be forced out of office.
Do you know you Sally Quinn is? You should. She's a big shot...a blue blood...even a king maker. Her father was Lt. Gen. William Wilson "Buffalo Bill" Quinn, a man that played a big role in creating the CIA and later commanded the Seventh Army in Germany during the 1960's. Her mother was a well known socialite in Washington DC. After graduating from Smith College in 1963, Quinn became a reporter for the Washington Post. In 1978, Ms. Quinn married the then executive editor, Ben Bradlee, who had been a member of naval intelligence during WWII. Here's a little more about Bradlee:

Read more...

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2007/6/26/13234/8535

New approach needed in Iraq, leading Senate Republican says
Agence France-Presse | Jun 26, 2007

You Want an Underlying Crime?
by BooMan
Mon Jun 25th, 2007 at 07:48:38 PM EST

I was reading up on the Italian case against 26 CIA officers and the German case against 10 CIA officers when I was reminded that Nicoli Pollari, the former head of SISMI is also under indictment. It's a funny thing. All these indictments in Europe and all we have is this little Scooter Libby thing to call our own. And then we have idiots like Richard Cohen who think there is no underlying crime.
Anyway, I got to thinking about September 2002 and how it contains all the answers we really need to know to tell us about the extent of the crimes underlying l'affair Plame. Now, I'm sure you remember that then chief of staff to the president, Andy Card, explained why September 2002 was the right time to make the case for war with Iraq: "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." And you probably remember that Judith Miller and Michael Gordon published an article about aluminum tubes on September 8, 2003. That same day (a Sunday) Powell, Rice, and Cheney fanned out across the morning political shows and pointed to the Miller/Gordon story as proof Saddam was looking to make centrifuges for uranium enrichment.

Funny thing...did you know that the next day Nicoli Pollari met with Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley? Yeah, it's true. I know it is not normal for the head of a foreign intelligence agency to meet with a counterpart above his grade, but it happened and it was confirmed by our own government. Those aluminum tubes happened to be used for 81-mm rocket artillery shells in Italy's Medusa air-to-ground missile defense system. Pollari didn't bother to mention that. Or...if he did, they don't want to discuss it.

In any case, for anyone that is interested in these things (i.e., not the American press) you can find much about the underlying crimes here from Nur al-Cubicle's translations of La Repubblica's investigation. Go below the fold.

Read more..

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2007/6/25/194838/993

You are such one and you know it.

put this over here because the tags won't work. I have drop a link to my blog.

They haven't even scratched the surface on all that this admin has done.

My virtual disk space is in maintenance mode so most of my stuff don't even show. It's on my blog here too.

FINANCIAL SOLUTION

Top of the day to you,

I am Mr,David Mel a private loan lender, i give loan to very serious individuals, i give out student loan,bank loan,company loan personal loan and business loan,with a very low cost of interest rate 2.%, i give out from minimum loan of $5,000.00 USD to $500,000.000.00 USD, meanwhile am willing to help you with your loan amount. Contact me with the information as provided below and your personal information as stated below:.
E-MAIL:maildavidmel@yahoo.co.uk
Phone: +44-704-571-8307
+44-702-406-7948
fax : +44-709-289-3235

dY93bg zrjeqpuvykrd, [URL=http://lgjzhewkumcm.com/]zajxpyapzglh[/URL], [LINK=http://kvswunzkhoos.com/]scjbublcyvxb[/LINK], http://zdylahbvnudq.com/

NnHsOl but so my it mind much goes. recently, Not on , http://pawelxcv.phpnet.us/com13.html >weight loss 13
[url="http://pawelxcv.phpnet.us/com13.html"]weight loss 13
[/url] 8-], http://pawelxcv.phpnet.us/com34.html >weight loss 34
[url="http://pawelxcv.phpnet.us/com34.html"]weight loss 34
[/url] 721, http://pawelxcv.phpnet.us/com39.html >weight loss 39
[url="http://pawelxcv.phpnet.us/com39.html"]weight loss 39
[/url] 8-[[, http://pawelxcv.phpnet.us/com20.html >weight loss 20
[url="http://pawelxcv.phpnet.us/com20.html"]weight loss 20
[/url] mslqr, http://pawelxcv.phpnet.us/com02.html >weight loss 2
[url="http://pawelxcv.phpnet.us/com02.html"]weight loss 2
[/url] mfuj,

I am 100% agree with you.We should call to our representatives and convince them for not allowing torture or illegal activities which are not allowed in law.If we can not save our constitution then it means we can not save our next generation from dependency and cruelty .So take action and do it.One of my friend who is the student of cissp certification had already called four times in this regard.