After Katrina fiasco, time for Bush to go - baltimoresun.com

The disastrous federal response to Katrina exposes a record of incompetence, misjudgment and ideological blinders that should lead to serious doubts that the Bush administration should be allowed to continue in office.
After Katrina fiasco, time for Bush to go - baltimoresun.com

Stirling Newberry | Will FEBAR Bring Down the House?

t r u t h o u t - Stirling Newberry | Will FEBAR Bring Down the House?: "The Katrina catastrophe and the failure of response - FEBAR - have primed the pump of a deep well, that of liberal and Democratic anger. It isn't just that traffic on liberal blogs has spiked. It isn't just that the images have been so shocking, the reality of a nation unprepared for disaster so outrageous. It is that it cuts in sharp relief how out of power the Democrats are, and what that really means."

The world press weighs in on Katrina and its aftermath

What foreign observers witnessed from afar, with a combination of shock and awe: "sheer, maddening incompetence".
WORLD VIEWS: The world press weighs in on Katrina and its aftermath: "Don't think the rest of the world -- not just stunned Americans and even some conservative American reporters and commentators who have long served as George W. Bush's loyal mouthpieces -- failed to notice the president's inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina's devastation."

New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize -Katrina's Harvest

Bush's Second Gulf Disaster
New Orleans: A Geopolitical
Prize - News Archive - Stratfor: "The displacement of population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. The physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city's population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States. "

From The Roots :: Pulling the Bush Out

One has to wonder how many people in the bush entourage it must require to prepare the stage for photo ops. Its been reported also that search and rescue helicopters have been shut down while bush has toured in his helicopter. How many more people have to die because of this monster?
From The Roots :: Pulling the Bush Out:Senator Landrieu-"But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast black and white, rich and poor, young and old deserve far better from their national government. "

Values-Bush Asks Not

VALUES
Bush Asks Not

Speaking to a nation that was in the midst of confronting monumental challenges such as poverty and war, President John F. Kennedy said in his 1961 inaugural address, "My fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country ... ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you." Speaking from the Rose Garden to a nation that is simultaneously fighting a war and dealing with perhaps the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history, President George W. Bush failed to issue any such call for sacrifice. The New York Times writes in an editorial, "Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to counsel sacrifice."

BUSH COULD SACRIFICE TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY: Marshall Loeb, editor of Money and Fortune magazines, writes, "The President could show that he, too, is prepared to sacrifice for Katrina's victims, perhaps by rolling back some of his planned tax cuts. The nation can ill afford to pay for a war, tax reductions and this disaster recovery at the same time." But Bush has given no indications he will back off his ideological agenda of more tax cuts which primarily benefit the wealthy. Pete Peterson, former secretary of Commerce under Nixon, wrote, "After 9/11, [the administration] faced a choice between tax cuts and getting serious about the extensive measures needed to protect this nation against further terrorist attacks. They chose tax cuts." And again, as the Iraq war commenced, Bush faced a similar choice. But catering to the arguments of conservative ideologues like Tom DeLay, who argued, "Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes," Bush again failed to call for sacrifice and instead chose tax cuts. Despite the devastating economic impact of Katrina, conservatives are already positioning themselves for a vote next Tuesday on the next priority item: repealing the estate tax -- a tax paid by the wealthiest one percent of Americans who inherit at least $1.5 million. 

BUSH COULD CALL FOR CONSERVATION:  The president of American Petroleum Institute, Red Cavaney, said, "The impact of this devastating storm on oil and natural gas operations will be significant and protracted.... Let us understand: This is not an easy thing." His solution? "Right now would be a good time for everybody to sort of ramp up your energy conservation," Cavaney said, even offering energy-saving tips which could help increase fuel efficiency. AAA is also urging motorists to drive less and conserve fuel. President Bush had an opportunity yesterday to publicly elevate the need for energy conservation, but failed to make the call for sacrifice. Bush implored citizens to "understand this storm has disrupted the capacity to make gasoline and distribute gasoline" but offered no suggestions as to how Americans should cope with the crisis.  He should take his cue from Gov. Mike Easley of North Carolina, who said recently, "I am asking all North Carolinians to conserve gas."

IF YOU ASK, THEY WILL RESPOND: Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, Sen. John McCain complained, "After 9/11, people wanted to serve and they were told to go shopping or get on an airplane.... That's not the answer they wanted to hear. This is an opportunity to serve." Americans have demonstrated time and again that, in the face of tragedy, they will respond with true compassion. Already, the Red Cross has announced that it has collected $21 million in donations for the victims of Katrina, "a figure comparable to the response for tsunami victims following the devastation in Asia earlier this year." "The outpouring of support has been amazing," said Kara Bunte, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross. "People are now starting to see the images on TV and want to help." Americans also responded with amazing compassion in the two months following 9/11, providing approximately 1.6 million blood donations and contributing over $1.3 million to charities and relief agencies. Americans can and will do more to sacrifice; they simply need a president who will ask.

Life in the Bottom 80 Percent

The rich get richer, the poor and middle class get poorer and when congress resumes they will work on making the rich richer by more tax cuts by eliminating the estate tax.
Life in the Bottom 80 Percent - New York Times: "Income inequality is an economic and social ill, but the administration and the Congressional majority don't seem to recognize that."

Still Waiting for a Leader

Waiting for a Leader - New York Times: "Nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

A Can't-Do Government -Paul Krugman

A Can't-Do Government - New York Times: "At a fundamental level, I'd argue, our current leaders just aren't serious about some of the essential functions of government. They like waging war, but they don't like providing security, rescuing those in need or spending on preventive measures. And they never, ever ask for shared sacrifice.
Yesterday Mr. Bush made an utterly fantastic claim: that nobody expected the breach of the levees. In fact, there had been repeated warnings about exactly that risk.
So America, once famous for its can-do attitude, now has a can't-do government that makes excuses instead of doing its job. And while it makes those excuses, Americans are dying. "

Bush gives new reason for Iraq war - OIL

''If Zarqawi and [Osama] bin Laden gain control of Iraq, they would create a new training ground for future terrorist attacks," Bush said. ''They'd seize oil fields to fund their ambitions. They could recruit more terrorists by claiming a historic victory over the United States and our coalition."
Bush gives new reason for Iraq war - The Boston Globe

Hurricane Katrina-The Human Catastrophe in Louisiana and Mississippi

 

The Human Catastrophe
in Louisiana and Mississippi

The human catastrophe and widespread devastation in Louisiana, Mississippi, and elsewhere, as a result of Hurricane Katrina, is eliciting the sympathy and action of people all over the country. The extent of the suffering is almost beyond imagination. Many people in the antiwar movement, in the South, and elsewhere are volunteering and showing other expressions of support for those in need. The possible outbreak of disease caused by sewage contamination of drinking water is just one of the myriad problems facing the population.

While the Pentagon is seeking to occupy the position of coordinator for the relief efforts, it is worth noting where the government, and the Pentagon specifically, has really distributed its resources. Large numbers of the National Guard from Louisiana and Mississippi have been sent to occupy Iraq, and are unable to help in the needed rescue operations. 6,000 members of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard are watching the catastrophe unfold from 7,000 miles away. 40 percent of Mississippi's National Guard force, and 35 percent of Louisiana's is in Iraq. Conditions are likely to worsen in the next few days as rainfall from the hurricane flows into Lake Pontchartrain. Due to collapsed levees, the water is expected to continue to increase in the city of New Orleans until it reaches the same level as the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain.

It's impossible to ignore the class issues associated with this natural disaster. Before the hurricane struck, the government issued a mandatory evacuation order with a "free-market approach." In other words, people were ordered to leave, but the means for evacuation were not provided. More than 300,000 people in the New Orleans metropolitan area could not leave. Who were they? It is the working class and in particular, the African American community in the region that is enduring the worst of the storm. Governor Haley Barbour declared martial law, and announced that looters would be dealt with "ruthlessly." What are poor people stranded in New Orleans supposed to do - wait without food, clothing, or shelter until stores reopen? Again, the Bush administration is spending $200 million a day to occupy, bomb, and wreak havoc on Iraq. It is not only the National Guard members who are in Iraq, but much of the needed emergency equipment for natural disasters. Likewise, the war and occupation is imposing a human catastrophe on the Iraqi people that few in the United States can fathom, given that the big business media largely conceals the depth of suffering caused by U.S. government actions there.

Pat Buchanan says "Impeach bush".

Twice, Bush has taken an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Article IV, Section 4 of that Constitution reads, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against invasion.”

Well, we are being invaded, and the president of the United States is not doing his duty to protect the states against that invasion.

Some courageous Republican, to get the attention of this White House, should drop into the hopper a bill of impeachment, charging Bush with a conscious refusal to uphold his oath and defend the states of the Union against “invasion.”

2005-08-29-buchanan:

Mark Green: We Owe Pat Robertson and Ann Coulter a Big Thank you

The Blog | Mark Green: We Owe Pat Robertson and Ann Coulter a Big Thank You | The Huffington Post: "We owe Pat Robertson and Ann Coulter a big thank you. These two American mullahs of the far (f)right are helping to expose how The Bush Team is in the extreme and we who question this war most prominently Cindy Sheehan � are in the mainstream. "

A CIA Cover Blown, a White House Exposed

A CIA Cover Blown, a White House Exposed - Los Angeles Times

Peace Action

An open letter to members of Congress.
Peace Action: "We have waited too long. Peace talks now. Bring them home safely and soon.
A People's Petition for an Iraq Peace Process"

The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan -Frank Rich

The American public is finally seeing Iraq as that cancer that is draining our military forces and the nations economy and resources. Only when the public demands that the cash flow to this ill conceived adventure will it finally be over. I think that time is drawing near. As always, Frank Rich hits the nail on the head with his articles.
The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan - New York Times: "THIS summer in Crawford, the White House went to this playbook once too often. When Mr. Bush's motorcade left a grieving mother in the dust to speed on to a fund-raiser, that was one fat-cat party too far. The strategy of fighting a war without shared national sacrifice has at last backfired, just as the strategy of Swift Boating the war's critics has reached its Waterloo before Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury in Washington. The 24/7 cable and Web attack dogs can keep on sliming Cindy Sheehan. The president can keep trying to ration the photos of flag-draped caskets. But this White House no longer has any more control over the insurgency at home than it does over the one in Iraq."

Blood Runs Red, Not Blue - Bob Herbert

If the war in Iraq is worth fighting - if it's a noble venture, as the hawks insist it is - then it's worth fighting with the children of the privileged classes. They should be added to the combat mix. If it's not worth their blood, then we should bring the other troops home.
If Mr. Bush's war in Iraq is worth dying for, then the children of the privileged should be doing some of the dying.
Blood Runs Red, Not Blue - New York Times:

Justice Sunday Reloaded - New York Times

When these motherfuckers start paying their share of taxes they wont have near so much time to wail against judges.
Justice Sunday Reloaded - New York Times: "As if the first Justice Sunday weren't disturbing enough, the extreme right produced an angry sequel last Sunday - another church-based rally railing against judges. It was offensive on many levels, from the inflammatory and inaccurate attacks on 'activist' judges to the fact that it was held in a tax-exempt church. If the event's speakers ever got control of the legal system, the nation would be in real trouble."

Someone Tell the President the War Is Over - Frank Rich

The next step? Bring the troops home so bush can claim "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"! After all, how many nations can one president destroy in 8 years.
Someone Tell the President the War Is Over - New York Times: "LIKE the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. 'We will stay the course,' he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man? "

21 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak

Bigger than Watergate. The cast of characters according to Think Progress.
Think Progress - 21 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak

TomPaine.com - The Birthday Bush Wants To Ignore

Happy Birthday to Social Security which becomes 70 on Sunday August 14th.
TomPaine.com - The Birthday Bush Wants To Ignore

t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Bush Is No Nixon

"No mother who lost her son to this Iraq war should be made to stand in a ditch, and yet that is exactly where Cindy Sheehan stands today, by the side of the road in Crawford, Texas. She has been standing there since she heard about the 20 Marines who were killed in Iraq last week, since she heard George W. Bush describe from his vacation home the noble cause for which those Marines died."
t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Bush Is No Nixon
As always, William Rivers Pitt makes more sense than all the cable TV pundits combined. All they seem to consider as news is Aruba and other murder mysteries and reruns of the Michael Jackson trial and its greedy jurors.

Americans Have a Right to Know Where John Roberts Stands on Critical Issues

John Roberts’ record raises serious concerns about whether he will be fair, independent and will protect the rights and freedoms of all Americans. The American people must know the whole truth before the Senate decides whether Judge Roberts should sit on our nation’s highest court for life.
http://independentcourt.org/Kind.wmv
Independent Court.org

TomPaine.com - More Hackett Jobs

Rural America is not sold on the socially extremist agenda of Republicans to outlaw abortion, intimidate the teaching of science and allow the government to intrude into the personal lives of its citizens. If they were, then the president of the Greater Cincinnati "Right to Life" group, Republican Jean Schmidt, would have swept these rural Ohio counties. Rural America is ready to become Democratic again. For Democrats, going after this weakest link of the Republican majority is the path to the congressional majority in 2006 and the presidency in 2008.


TomPaine.com - More Hackett Jobs

Think Progress VIDEO: Bush I Calls Leakers "Most Insidious of Traitors"

Think Progress VIDEO: Bush I Calls Leakers "Most Insidious of Traitors": "GEORGE H.W. BUSH: "I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors.[Speech at CIA, 4/26/99]"
(Exceptions of course, if you're a republican).

Uzbekians BEWARE! bush will bomb the crap out of you!

Uzbekistan evicts United States from air base - Yahoo! News: "Uzbeki"

Oil and Blood

As usual, Bob Herbert gets it exactly right. No clearer explanation could come closer to the truth.
Oil and Blood - New York Times: "Many high-level government figures believe that U.S. troops will be in Iraq for a minimum of 5 more years, and perhaps 10.
That should be understood by the people who think that the formation of a permanent Iraqi government will lead to the withdrawal of American troops. There is no real withdrawal plan. The fighting and the dying will continue indefinitely. "

Spoof of Bush Wins Faux Faulkner Contest

"'Go and get him Saddam's gun,' Condi said. 'You know how he likes to hold it.'

"Dick went to my desk drawer and took out Saddam's gun. He gave it to me, and it was hot in my hands. Rummy pulled the gun away.

"'Do you want him carrying a gun into the press conference?' Rummy said. 'Cant you think any better than he can?'"


Spoof of Bush Wins Faux Faulkner Contest - ENTERTAINMENT - Comcast.net

Blair's Bombs

Blair's bunker-mantra is that there was terrorism long before the invasion, notably 11 September 2001. Anyone with an understanding of the painful history of the Middle East would not have been surprised by 11 September or by the bombings of Madrid and London, only that they had not happened earlier.
New Statesman: "The hand-wringing over 'whither Islam's soul' is another distraction. As an industrial killer, Christianity leaves Islam for dead. The cause of the current terrorism is neither religion nor hatred for 'our way of life': it is political, requiring a political solution. It is injustice and double standards, which plant the deepest grievances. That, and the culpability of our leaders, and the 'cameras that point the other way', are the core of it."

America's Big Malignant Tumor / Libs are salivating that Karl Rove might go down. But hasn't the worst cancer already spread?

And perhaps most deviously, Rove handed the GOP the double-edged prize of the spiteful Christian right; he galvanized an entire throng of terrified Christians and hard-core homophobic evangelicals from the flyover states to get out there and vote lest those icky liberal gay people swoop in and eat their babies and steal their sons and have sex with their pastors and tastefully redesign their kitchens.
America's Big Malignant Tumor / Libs are salivating that Karl Rove might go down. But hasn't the worst cancer already spread?: "Here's the bottom line: Scandal notwithstanding, Rove's nastiest and most valuable work for this lame-duck president is now complete. And Bush is flopping all over the place: Social Security reform is a disaster and Iraq is an appalling catastrophe and the economy is running on fumes and this nation is an international punch line and Bush's poll ratings are sinking faster than Jenna Bush can slam down a Bud Light. All things over which even Rove himself has little control. "

Iraq's dangerous new friend

Somewhere a guy named Osama bin Laden must be laughing.
Iraq's dangerous new friend: "Now, thanks to the U.S. invasion, a new alliance is being formed between Iran and Iraq that threatens to further destabilize the politics of the Mideast. It wasn't supposed to work out this way. "

TREASONGATE: IT'S NOT JUST KARL ROVE

Since Karl Rove surfaced last week as the White House official who probably unmasked a covert CIA agent, new developments appear to confirm that the deputy chief of staff and chief Bush political strategist has committed treason.
TREASONGATE: IT'S NOT JUST KARL ROVE - Yahoo! News: "Karl Rove has already been found out as a likely traitor to the United States. Now we must work backwards. Does his exposure help to explain some of the Administration's most baffling foreign policy blunders?"

Whitehouse Still Silent on Rove Evidence

Who's running the show up there? These motherfuckers have finally got their tit in a wringer and do I ever love to see them squirm!
ABC 7 News: " The White House is suddenly facing damaging evidence that it misled the public by insisting for two years that presidential adviser Karl Rove wasn't involved in leaking the identity of a female CIA officer. President Bush, at an Oval Office photo opportunity Tuesday, was asked directly whether he would fire Rove - in keeping with a pledge in June, 2004, to dismiss any leakers in the case. The president did not respond."

Bush Fiddles While The World Warms

When it came to actual action—to following the near-universally supported strategy of lowering carbon dioxide emissions—the president remained myopically opposed.
TomPaine.com - Bush Fiddles While The World Warms: "One would have excused Prime Minister Tony Blair if he had refocused the G8 Summit on the issue of terrorism following Thursday's tragic bombings in London. But the fact that he didn't is as significant as any agreement that came out of the meetings."

We're Not in Watergate Anymore

If this Karl Rove affair does not open up a congressional investigation and the main stream media does not jump on this story as in the Watergate scandal then all hope is lost for the survival of the America we all love.
We're Not in Watergate Anymore - New York Times: "Mr. Fitzgerald made his bones prosecuting the mob,' intoned the pro-Bush editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, 'and doesn't seem to realize that this case isn't about organized crime.' But that may be exactly what it is about to an ambitious prosecutor with his own career on the line. That the Bush administration would risk breaking the law with an act as self-destructive to American interests as revealing a C.I.A. officer's identity smacks of desperation. It makes you wonder just what else might have been done to suppress embarrassing election-season questions about the war that has mired us in Iraq even as the true perpetrators of 9/11 resurface in Madrid, London and who knows where else."

It's Here! Newsweek Does Nail Rove

David Corn: "There now is clear-cut evidence that Rove was involved in--if not the chief architect of--the actions that led to the outing of Plame/Wilson."

IT'S TIME FOR KARL ROVE TO BE INDICTED FOR PERJURY AND OUTING AN UNDERCOVER CIA AGENT. WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE IN THE MSM? 

MSNBC Analyst Says Cooper Documents Reveal Karl Rove as Source in Plame Case

In August 2003, Ambassador Joeseph Wilson said:
"It's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frogmarched out of the White House in handcuffs. And trust me, when I use that name, I measure my words."
We can only hope he is indicted with a perjury rap at the very least. Maybe this is the beginning of the chickens coming home to roost. OH HAPPY DAY!!!
MSNBC Analyst Says Cooper Documents Reveal Karl Rove as Source in Plame Case

Burn, Canada And Spain, Burn! / Look to the skies, see the wrath of God rain down on married gays! Will hockey and tapas survive?

This is what they sincerely believe, even though no one, not any Canadian, Spaniard or church leader, nor any homophobic U.S. senator, can exactly say how kids will be harmed. Just, of course, that they will. Will kids become premature alcoholics? Sexual deviants? Godless heathens? Wiccans and porn addicts and Danielle Steele fans? Will they get tattoos and pierce their labias and vote Green? Or will they merely suffer a ridiculously high divorce rate, 29 percent higher than the U.S. average, like they already do in the "morally virtuous" red states?
Burn, Canada And Spain, Burn! / Look to the skies, see the wrath of God rain down on married gays! Will hockey and tapas survive?: "Children are going to be horribly affected by legal gay marriage, somehow. This is what the ideologues wail. Children are going to be psychologically damaged and morally mauled and sexually preyed upon by those deviant homos with their crazy beliefs and bizarre sexual practices and their whips and chains and weird paraphernalia and gay agitprop literature and creepy homosexual hand puppets. "

Protesters To Disrupt Soldier's Funeral

UNBELIEVABLE!! And the police plan to assist these criminals.!
Protesters To Disrupt Soldier's Funeral - Yahoo! News: "There were no serious problems. Police plan to escort the Kansas group to the funeral services at 9:30 a.m., and will escort them away again. The police said they are protecting the group's free speech rights."

The US war with Iran has already begun

Aljazeera.Net - The US war with Iran has already begun: "The reality is that the US war with Iran has already begun. As we speak, American over flights of Iranian soil are taking place, using pilotless drones and other, more sophisticated, capabilities.
The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the intelligence-gathering phase. "

Ex-Klansman Gets 60 Years for 1964 Murders

Killen, a sawmill operator and part-time Baptist minister, has been held in Neshoba County Jail since his conviction.
Ex-Klansman Gets 60 Years for 1964 Murders - NEWS - Comcast.net: "One-time Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was sentenced to the maximum 60 years in prison Thursday for masterminding the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers."

Ohio Gov. Taft should resign

As a widening scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation threatens his administration, Gov. Bob Taft last night admitted that he had failed to include golf outings on his annual financial disclosure statements filed with the Ohio Ethics Commission.
"There is no provision in state law for an amended ethics form."

Downing Street Is For Liars / Why isn't the media screaming about the latest proofs of Bush's war scams? Don't you know?

Downing Street Is For Liars / Why isn't the media screaming about the latest proofs of Bush's war scams? Don't you know?: "We are now, instead, focused on endurance. On gritting teeth and getting through and getting the hell out of this new Vietnam Bush has imbecilically driven us into, all while surviving 3.5 more years of one of the most abusive, secretive cadres of warmongering leadership in American history. "

Dean raises cash, party spirits

Dean raises cash, party spirits - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Local - News: "''I think it's great that Dick Cheney went after me. At least they know there's a Democratic Party that's not going to put up with this stuff anymore."

bush's WMD 'Joke': Is the Media Still Laughing?

Bush's WMD 'Joke': Is the Media Still Laughing?: "Bush's WMD 'Joke': Is the Media Still Laughing?
A brief comment at a forum in Washington this week resurrects one of the most shameful episodes in recent media history: The night a roomful of journalists laughed along with a president making fun of the bogus threat that led to a costly war.

By Greg Mitchell

(June 18, 2005) -- Dana Milbank of The Washington Post, in a column on Friday, suggested that the congressional forum the previous day on the Downing Street memos was something of a joke. In his opening sentence he declared that House Democrats took a trip to the land of make-believe in pretending that the basement conference room was actually a real hearing room, even importing a few American flags to make it look more official."

Army says VX spill is no big deal

So what's a little spill like 30 gallons of VX when a single drop is "so lethal a single drop could kill a person in minutes ". I wonder how big a deal it would have been if it had taken place in Washington, D.C. Being out here in jesusland and about 60 miles downwind makes it A GODDAMN BIG DEAL TO ME.
Army says VX spill was contained, neutralized: "so lethal a single drop could kill a person in minutes "

Don't Follow the Money - Frank Rich

Don't Follow the Money - New York Times: "Only once during the Deep Throat rollout did I see a palpable, if perhaps unconscious, effort to link the White House of 1972 with that of 2005. It occurred at the start, when ABC News, with the first comprehensive report on Vanity Fair's scoop, interrupted President Bush's post-Memorial Day Rose Garden news conference to break the story. Suddenly the image of the current president blathering on about how hunky-dory everything is in Iraq was usurped by repeated showings of the scene in which the newly resigned Nixon walked across the adjacent White House lawn to the helicopter that would carry him into exile. "

They Won't Go - New York Times

It's time for those in the Congress to start offering up their sons and daughters as cannon fodder for the bush preemptive war. Perhaps then there would be a quick withdrawal from Iraq and and the focus put on impeachment proceedings of the monsters who started it.
They Won't Go - New York Times: "There's something frankly embarrassing about a government offering trinkets to children to persuade them to go off and fight - and perhaps die - in a war that their nation should never have started in the first place."

I'M IN CHARGE, even if I have to hammer the gavel, walk out, and turn off the mikes. What pieces of shit we have running this country!!  

t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Dean Was Right

These Dean statements also, coincidentally, whip the Democratic base into a roaring frenzy as they hear an actual Democratic leader speak their beliefs out loud and in public.
t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Dean Was Right: "The answer is straightforward, and appropriately bold after several years of ineffective limp-noodle Democratic leadership. Every time Dean fires off one of his salvos, reporters flip open their notebooks. Headlines get made, discussion begins, and a whole lot of people start debating the facts and merits of his statements. Is the Republican leadership run by right-wing yahoos? Is DeLay going to jail? Controversy begets press. Dean can see, as well as anyone else, how effective the moderate, soft-touch, treading-lightly approach has been working lately for the Democrats. "

Panel Chairman Leaves Hearing

OUTRAGEOUS!! And truth DOES matter.
Panel Chairman Leaves Hearing: "After repeated criticism of the Bush administration, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee yesterday gaveled a hearing to a close and walked out while Democrats continued to testify -- but with their microphones shut off."

Global Warmin' Is Fer Idjuts / Exxon writes America's energy policy, BushCo chops up emissions reports. Is there any hope at all?

Global Warmin' Is Fer Idjuts / Exxon writes America's energy policy, BushCo chops up emissions reports. Is there any hope at all?: "This, as we all now know, is the BushCo way. They lie about environmental devastation, going so far as to hire known skeptics of global warming to testify in court against piles of data compiled by thousands of world-class scientists the world over that prove the obvious direness of the threat. "

The Mobility Myth

Sadly no such ingredients are evident in the new amerikan proletariat. They are a burger-bloated, pepsi-swilling, chat-show-watching, scratch-card-scratching mob of losers and suckers who actually think that the rich standing on their shoulders got there through that mythical "amerikan dream" avenue.
The Mobility Myth - New York Times: "The privileged classes, with the Bush administration's iron cloak of protection, avoid their fair share of taxes, are reluctant to pay an honest dollar for an honest day's work (the federal minimum wage is still a scandalous $5.15 an hour), refuse to fight in their nation's wars, and laugh all the way to their yachts."

Bush's Optimism On Iraq Debated

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/usfatalities_228.jpg

While Bush and Vice President Cheney offer optimistic assessments of the situation, a fresh wave of car bombings and other attacks killed 80 U.S. soldiers and more than 700 Iraqis last month alone and prompted Iraqi leaders to appeal to the administration for greater help.
Bush's Optimism On Iraq Debated

U.S. Faults 4 Allies Over Forced Labor

While the administration runs their own gulags around the world and systematically enslaves the poor in Amerika we must now shift focus and hope that the rest of the world doesn't notice what's happening here.
U.S. Faults 4 Allies Over Forced Labor - New York Times: " The United States criticized four of its closest allies in the Middle East on Friday, saying Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are doing little if anything to stop forced labor and other forms of 'modern slavery' within their borders."

AlterNet: Turning Up the Heat on Wal-Mart

AlterNet: Turning Up the Heat on Wal-Mart: "Much to the consternation of progressives, working-class voters have given conservatives their votes and, in the minds of many, not voted their economic interests."

Truth and Deceit

Now, with George W. Bush in charge, the nation is mired in yet another tragic period marked by incompetence, duplicity, bad faith and outright lies coming once again from the very top of the government. Just last month we had the disclosure of a previously secret British government memorandum that offered further confirmation that the American public and the world were spoon-fed bogus information by the Bush administration in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.


Truth and Deceit - New York Times: "Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, drunk with power and insufficiently restrained, took the nation on hair-raising journeys that were as unnecessary as they were destructive. Now, in the first years of the 21st century, George W. Bush is doing the same."

Day 141 of Bush's Silence

Today marks Day 141 of Mr. Bush's silence on the genocide, for he hasn't let the word Darfur slip past his lips publicly since Jan. 10 (even that was a passing reference with no condemnation).
Day 141 of Bush's Silence - New York Times: "Mr. Bush even killed the Senate-passed Darfur Accountability Act, which would have condemned the genocide."

William Rivers Pitt | Exploit the Rift

This very excellent article by William Rivers Pitt outlines the the widening cracks in the GOP agenda and how these rifts should be exploited.
t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Exploit the Rift: "Members of the Republican Party's political action corps pride themselves on discipline and adherence to the line. Most of the time they are very good at this, which explains to a degree their ascendancy of late. All of a sudden, however, that discipline has started to crack, and the outlines of a full-fledged civil war within the ranks of the GOP are beginning to become manifestly clear. "

It's All Newsweek's Fault

It's All Newsweek's Fault - New York Times: "Just since the election, we've witnessed the unmasking of Armstrong Williams and Jeff Gannon. We've learned - thanks to Newsweek's parent publication, The Washington Post - that the Pentagon went so far as to deliberately hide the circumstances of Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death from his own family for weeks, lest the truth mar the P.R. advantages to be reaped from his memorial service. Even as Scott McClellan instructs Newsweek on just what stories it should write to atone for its sins, a professional propagandist sits as chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Kenneth Tomlinson, who also runs the board supervising Voice of America and other government-run media outlets. He's been hard at work meddling in the journalism on NPR and PBS.
This steady drip of subterfuge and news manipulation increasingly tells a more compelling story than the old news that Newsweek so egregiously botched. "

Wal-Mart Wins, Workers Lose

TomPaine.com - Wal-Mart Wins, Workers Lose: "Wal-Mart is one of only two employers in Maryland that would have been affected by the law. The other, John Hopkins University, already exceeds the health benefits the law required. The Fair Share Health Care Act would have required Wal-Mart to spend at least 8 percent of its payroll on health benefits. In the course of opposing the bill, Wal-Mart claimed the bill was being pushed solely to benefit one of its competitors in the state, Giant Food. The thing that's interesting about Wal-Mart fingering Giant�which, not surprisingly, endorsed the bill� is that the company now devotes 20 percent of its payroll expenses to health care. Does Wal-Mart really want to beg comparisons with that kind of good corporate behavior?"

Dr. Hager's Family Values

Davis alleges that between 1995 and their divorce in 2002, Hager repeatedly sodomized her without her consent
The Nation | Article | Dr. Hager's Family Values | Ayelish McGarvey

Are you ready for your computer RFID microchip?

They Really Are Watching You / Ready for your own all-new, sinister ID card, courtesy of Homeland Security? Shudder: "They Really Are Watching You
Ready for your own all-new, sinister ID card, courtesy of Homeland Security? Shudder"

Fucking Outrageous!! Now the Whitehouse blames Newsweek for the United States image.

After killing thousands of Iraqis, Afghans and American service men and women over a war based on lies and fake information it is truly amazing that these criminals can now blame Newsweek for the United States image.
White House Presses Newsweek in Wake of Koran Report - New York Times: "The White House pressed Newsweek on Tuesday to go beyond a retraction and 'help repair the damage' to the image of the United States in the Muslim world after the magazine mistakenly reported that a Pentagon investigation had found that interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, tried to flush a Koran down a toilet."

Religious Right to boycott Microsoft over support for gay rights

Telegraph | News | Religious Right to boycott Microsoft over support for gay rights: "Microsoft is being threatened with organised boycotts by the religious Right after twice reversing its policy on homosexual rights legislation in recent weeks.
Buckling under pressure from rival powerful interest groups, the software giant - which offers generous domestic partner rights for gay employees - performed an embarrassing U-turn over a bill in its home state of Washington that would outlaw discrimination against homosexuals at work."

Bad, Bad Janice Brown is Back

Brown's record shows her to be 'to the right of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.'
The Black Commentator - Cover Story: Bad, Bad Janice Brown is Back - Issue 137: "'She's cut from the same cloth as Clarence Thomas,' said Washington, DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Rep. Diane Watson (CA) went further, declaring Brown �has such an atrocious civil rights record she makes Clarence Thomas look like Thurgood Marshall.� Los Angeles Rep. Maxine Waters, who championed affirmative action in her state, bitterly recalled, �All the work that I did�was undermined by that judge.�"

The Republican Party Loyalty Oath, Courtesy of Kim Jong Il of North Korea

Buzzflash hit the nail on the head with this editorial. When will the people of this country wake up to what's going on. Will it be in November 2006?
The Republican Party Loyalty Oath, Courtesy of Kim Jong Il of North Korea: "Here is what BuzzFlash believes Republicans at the highest levels must swear to:
All Republican Party members have to:
1. Dedicate ourselves to struggle to arouse the whole society in pursuing the theocracy implemented by the great President chosen by God, George W. Bush.
2. To offer our highest loyalty to the anointed President, George W. Bush.
3. To make absolute the authority of the wartime leader, George W. Bush.
4. To believe in the Biblical one-party state thought of the great President, George W. Bush, and to maintain the uniformity of the messages of the President.
Each Republican Party member must also observe the following principles:
5. A Party member only recognizes the authority of President George W. Bush and the Republican Congress -- and Judicial appointees handpicked to carry out the orders of the great President.
6. A Party member accepts unconditionally the teachings of the President and regards them as a yardstick for making all decisions.
7. When making reports, discussing a topic, giving a lecture, or quoting from documents, one has to refer to the President's message of the day and Biblical worldview and never speak or write about something inconsistent with the President's views."

My Squirrel Proof Bird Feeder 

A High-Tech Lynching in Prime Time

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: A High-Tech Lynching in Prime Time: "Once upon a time you might have wondered what Senator Frist is doing lighting matches in this tinderbox. As he never ceases to remind us, he is a doctor - an M.D., not some mere Ph.D. like Dr. Dobson - with an admirable history of combating AIDS in Africa. But this guy signed his pact with the devil even before he decided to grandstand in the Schiavo case by besmirching the diagnoses of neurologists who, unlike him, had actually examined the patient. "

New pope intervened against Kerry in US 2004 election campaign

Yahoo! News - New pope intervened against Kerry in US 2004 election campaign: "WASHINGTON (AFP) - German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican theologian who was elected Pope Benedict XVI, intervened in the 2004 US election campaign ordering bishops to deny communion to abortion rights supporters including presidential candidate John Kerry. "

Who's selling Social INsecurity?

Who's sellin Social INsecurity

Beetles get politically prominent names

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: AP: Beetles get politically prominent names: "Slime-mold beetles are named for the fungilike molds on which they feed. The entomologists collected and borrowed thousands of specimens of slime-mold beetles in order to study their evolution and classification. In so doing, they found more than five dozen new species never before described."

Huge Tax Savings-For those who need it least--at the expense of those who need it most

nuvo.net / Huge Tax Savings: "Corporate taxes now account for about 7.5 percent of overall federal tax receipts, down from a high of 40 percent during World War II. Despite one of the highest ostensible corporate tax rates in the industrialized world, American companies are in fact among the least taxed.
From 2001 to 2003, more than half of all Fortune 500 companies obtained approximately $200 billion in tax savings, nearly double the amount of the previous three years. In addition, more than 25 percent of the 500 corporations paid no taxes at all during the period, despite having profits of nearly $45 billion."

Let them eat bombs

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Let them eat bombs: "A report to the UN human rights commission in Geneva has concluded that Iraqi children were actually better off under Saddam Hussein than they are now.
This, of course, comes as a bitter blow for all those of us who, like George Bush and Tony Blair, honestly believe that children thrive best when we drop bombs on them from a great height, destroy their cities and blow up hospitals, schools and power stations. "

It's All About Assholes

The opinion written by Kennedy in Lawrence and Garner v. Texas striking down anti-sodomy laws is still bugging these mother fuckers.
Conservative leaders meeting in Washington yesterday for a discussion of "Remedies to Judicial Tyranny" decided that Kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee, should be impeached, or worse.
And the Verdict on Justice Kennedy Is: Guilty

DLC Misleadership

Patrick C. Doherty, senior editor at TomPaine.com, returns to examine America's strategic dilemma after taking March off from writing to enjoy his honeymoon. His column, Quo Vadis, focuses on America's big picture: where we are, where we're going and how to get there.
TomPaine.com - DLC Misleadership: "The first piece of staggering news popped out of the United Nations' Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. The report states the problem plainly: the world has over-consumed two-thirds of the world's natural resources"

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/videos.jhtml
COMEDY CENTRAL TV Shows: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: "Jon decrees that the Schiavo feeding tube will soon be removed from the cable media networks."

Schiavo Judge Has Reason to Fear

Leave it to a baptist preacher to stick his nose in other's business. What ever happened to separation of church and state?
village voice > news > Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway: "Probably the worst blow came when the pastor of his church asked him to leave. 'You must know that in all likelihood it is this case which will define your career and this case that you will remember in the waning days of life,' Calvary Baptist Pastor William Rice wrote to his parishioner. 'I hope you can find a way to side with the angels and become an answer to the prayers of thousands.' "

Brain Dead 

Will a British divorcee cost 'Wolfie' his job?

I'd like to get an opinion from Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, William Bennett and James Dobson on whether Paul's getting a little nookie on the side should affect his nomination to head the World Bank. Where are these self righteous bigots when one of their own gets caught dipping his wick outside of the marriage? Get Ken Starr on this pronto!!
the Mail online | Mail - news, sport, showbiz, health and more | Will a British divorcee cost 'Wolfie' his job?: "His womanising has come home to roost,' a Washington insider said. "Paul was a foreign policy hawk long before he met Shaha but it doesn't look good to be accused of being under the thumb of your mistress. "

Where Are the Democrats?

Where Are the Democrats? (washingtonpost.com): "It was a Republican -- Christopher Shays of Connecticut -- who got it right. 'This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy,' he said. Bingo! It is DeLay and the Christian right that set the agenda for the Republican Party and, therefore, for Congress. It is DeLay, whose religious zealotry prompted him to leap all sorts of constitutional barriers and go court-shopping, who, have no doubt about it, would reshape this country in his religious image. "

The Green Door in the Floor

Show me the money shot: How porn made itself at home in America's living room.
village voice > nyclife > The Essay by Howard Hampton: "Delving into The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry, you'll find reams of titillating, funny, appalling, and often pointless information on the $10 billion-a-year business that arose in the cum-mustache wake of Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door. The book dishes the dirt and zeitgeist in roughly equal portions, with hilarious and devastating observations on the passing scene from expert witnesses such as performer-turned-industry health activist Sharon Mitchell (who in the '70s snuck into a theater and gave a mind-blown patron a heart attack when he realized the actress on-screen was actually sucking him off in person: How could The Purple Rose of Cairo hope to compete with that?). But as with most oral histories, the bigger picture tends to get lost in a cut-and-pasty mosaic of who-fisted-whom gossip and flaky subcultural minutiae. As Bob Dylan could have said to Georgina Spelvin: You know something's happening but you don't know what it is, do you, Miss Jones"?

IMAX theaters reject film over evolution

Outfuckingrageous!
CNN.com - IMAX theaters reject film over evolution - Mar 23, 2005: " IMAX theaters in several Southern cities have decided not to show a film on volcanoes out of concern that its references to evolution might offend those with fundamental religious beliefs"

Those Pious Right-wing Hypocrites 

The Bronze Rat

The Bronze Rat

A woman walks into a curio shop in San Francisco. Looking around at the exotica, she notices a very life-like, life-size bronze statue of a rat.  It has no price tag, but it looks so striking she decides she must have it.  

 She takes it to the owner: "How much is the bronze rat?"

 "Twelve dollars for the rat, a hundred dollars for the story," says the owner.

 The woman gives the shop owner twelve dollars.  "I'll just take the rat; you can keep the story."

 As she walks down the street carrying the bronze rat, she notices that a few real rats have crawled out of alleys and sewers, and begun following her down the street.  This is a bit disconcerting, so she begins walking a little bit faster.

 Within a couple of blocks, the group of rats behind her grows to over a hundred, and they begin squealing.  She starts to trot towards the Bay.  She takes a nervous look around and sees that the rats now number in the thousands, maybe in the millions, and they are all squealing and coming towards her faster and faster.

 Terrified, she runs to the edge of the Bay and throws the bronze rat as far out into the Bay as she can.  Amazingly, the millions of rats all jump into the Bay after it, and are all drowned.

 The woman walks back to the curio shop.  "Aha," says the owner, "I'll bet you have come back for the story."

 "Actually no," says the woman.  "I came back to see if you have a bronze Republican."

 

GM Seeking Deep White-Collar Cuts

What's good for General Motors is good for the country, right? Best get in line for a job at Wal-Mart before it's too late.
Yahoo! News - Report: GM Seeking Deep White-Collar Cuts

David Brooks-The Do-Nothing Conspiracy

What a bunch of hogwash! If lumping the "entitlement" programs into one big problem then we should have more of that kind of problem. Instead of running up the cost of preemptive wars on a credit card, instead of shitting on our environment to pad the pockets of those whose greed far exceeds any compassion for saving it, instead of padding the pockets of pharmaceutical companies at the expense of the sick and aged, instead of calling a special session of congress to impose the neo-conservative will on a family matter, then lets have more of the problem of entitlements. If more polarization is the result then fine, bring this government to it's knees and the economy along with it. The people WILL survive.
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Do-Nothing Conspiracy

Iraq-An Unhappy Anniversary

This weekend marks the two-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Two years ago, the White House had waged an aggressive campaign for invading Iraq. Since that time, however, all of the rationales posed by the White House as justification for the war have been thoroughly debunked. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam had no collaborative ties to al Qaeda. Even more egregious, however, is while there was a comprehensive plan for getting into the war, the White House never implemented a real plan for winning the peace and establishing a secure Iraq. Today, more than 1,500 American soldiers have been killed. There still is no exit strategy for U.S. troops. There is no standard for determining when Iraqi security forces will be ready to take over responsibility for their own security. Corruption is rampant, reconstruction is woefully behind, and the American public is becoming increasingly disillusioned with this "war of choice." (According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 53 percent of Americans said the war was not worth fighting and 70 percent said the number of U.S. casualties is an unacceptable price.)

COST OF WAR, THEN AND NOW: In the days after the invasion two years ago, the Bush administration famously predicted the war would pay for itself. Andrew Natsios, head of USAID, remember, told Congress: "In terms of the American taxpayers contribution, [$1.7 billion] is it for the US. The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries and Iraqi oil revenues." Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz backed him up, saying Iraq was a country "that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon." Today, the U.S. is on track to spend more than $300 billion to maintain our troops.

INSURGENCY, THEN AND NOW: Two years ago, the White House claimed U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators by an overjoyed Iraqi people. In July 2003, there were an estimated 5,000 insurgents fighting against U.S. troops. Today, that estimate is closer to 18,000. And while a year ago, there were an average of 14 attacks against U.S. troops per day, now there are more than 70.

IRAQI FORCES, THEN AND NOW: The Pentagon has long been saying Iraqi security forces are on the cusp of taking over responsibility for their own security. It's a lot of politics with very little truth. A new report by the Government Accountability Office found "U.S. government agencies do not report reliable data on the extent to which Iraqi security forces are trained and equipped." For example, the number of Iraqi security forces is consistently overstated. Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said, for example, that there are 145,000 Iraqi troops trained; Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, puts that number at closer to 4,000.

RECONSTRUCTION, THEN AND NOW: Two years ago, the White House promised to restore prosperity to Iraq. However, instead of sending seasoned experts to lead the massive reconstruction, the administration instead sent very young, inexperienced ideologues, chosen for their loyalty rather than their training. Money was bottlenecked; contracts were botched. And that lack of attention had serious consequences. AP reports, "Two years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the tattered and dangerous country has become one of the world's poorest, ranking at the level of Haiti and Senegal." Today, Iraq produces about 700,000 barrels of oil a day less than before the invasion. Electrical capacity has gone backwards. Last June, Iraq was generating less electricity than before the war, leaving most Iraqis with only 12 to 14 hours of power a day. Today, that's fallen even further. According to State Department figures, "Iraq now averages just 8.5 hours of electricity a day, with some provinces getting as little as five hours."

USING CONTRACTORS, THEN AND NOW: The administration put the burden of reconstruction on the shoulders of private, no-bid, outside contractors, many of whom saw it as an easy way to make a quick buck. Today, for example, Pentagon auditors have discovered Halliburton has overcharged American taxpayers by $108 million. Just this week, in the first criminal case of contracting fraud in Iraq, a former manager for Halliburton subsidiary KBR was indicted on 10 counts by a federal jury for cheating the government out of nearly $4 million in Kuwait. A separate audit also found Halliburton can't account for $1.8 billion in a separate contract to repair oil fields in Iraq. It's not just U.S. money missing: the Coalition Provisional Authority also can't account for almost $9 billion in spent Iraqi funds

The Black Commentator - Freedom Rider: Uncle Toms and Turncoats

The Black Commentator - Freedom Rider: Uncle Toms and Turncoats - Issue 130: "America has no shortage of sell outs and traitors. We are awash in good-for-nothing sell out colored preachers. Traitorous Democrats in Congress help corporations enslave us through an atrocious bankruptcy bill. The media sell us out every day when they choose to tell us all about the latest celebrity divorce but ignore the Bush meltdown in the international community or the death toll in Iraq.
The latest stab in the back outrage is the growing number of black ministers who make a political and financial calculation to ally themselves with this most corrupt and unrighteous administration. Their cynicism and greed are so blatantly obvious that they come off as the unscrupulous always do, like lunatics making bizarre pronouncements that have no basis in reality."

The Endless Supply of Oil and Other Fairy Tales

EnergyBulletin.net The Endless Supply of Oil and Other Fairy Tales Energy and Peak Oil News: "Common bloviated pigeon-chesting by those that believe our drive-by fantasyland will continue ad-infinitum include the following claims;

* Ho hum, heard it all in the 70's
* Peak oil = chickenlittlism
* The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stone
* OPEC could simply pump more oil if they wished
* The world is awash in oil
* The market will provide

Obvious logical fallacies aside the final statement has some credibility; we suspect the market will provide with rickshaws and bicycles being high on the demand list. "

Lest we forget

Iraq war 2nd anniversary March 19, 2005

http://www.truthout.org/mm_01/1Tribute.swf

Long Island: Running on Empty

You think gas at $2.35/gallon is expensive? That will be chump change compared to what it will be in a very few years.
The New York Times > New York Region > Long Island: Running on Empty: "If the cost of energy skyrockets, are the suburbs doomed? Would Long Island, already paying among the highest fuel and electricity rates in the country, become an unsustainably expensive place to live?
A way of thinking that says 'yes' is circulating, and has assumed tangible form in a video called 'The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream.' Made in Toronto by the independent producers Gregory Greene and Barry Silverthorn, it explores the idea that the world is running out of cheap petrofuels and predicts the utter ruin of North America's suburbs - and not in the distant future, but somewhere between 5 and 25 years from now."

'Mildly Pro-Choice' Rice Won't Rule Out Presidential Bid

Somebody ought to bitch slap this lying broad into reality. Condi Mushroom Cloud Rice wouldn't make a pimple on Hillary's ass and I'm no fan of Hillary's.
'Mildly Pro-Choice' Rice Won't Rule Out Presidential Bid (washingtonpost.com)

Dean slams Bush on town-hall meetings

Dean slams Bush on town-hall meetings: "Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said yesterday that President Bush's policy of excluding non-Republicans from town-hall meetings on Social Security reform was not an American thing to do."

The Black Commentator - No Fools Allowed

The Black Commentator - No Fools Allowed - Issue 129: "What little remains of American democracy is dissipating in an insipid narcissistic media haze. A haze in which the number of innocent Iraqi civilians, men, women and children, being killed in this unjustifiable war, is considered to be so inconsequential that it is a question not worth asking and not worth reporting.

The fact that Americans did not protest and oppose a second theft of the presidency, and accepted the legitimacy of his election, implicates Americans in George W. Bush's America's war crimes. Beyond America's borders, people can only believe that by electing George W. Bush to a second term in office, a majority of Americans had endorsed the criminal and the crime. "

Personal Accounts Tank in Polls, GOP Says

Yahoo! News - Personal Accounts Tank in Polls, GOP Says: " The heart of President Bush (news - web sites)'s plan for Social Security (news - web sites), allowing younger workers to create personal accounts in exchange for a lower guaranteed government benefit, is among the least popular elements with the public, Republican pollsters told House GOP leaders Tuesday. "

For President's Social Security Proposal, Many Hurdles

The New York Times > Washington > News Analysis: For President's Social Security Proposal, Many Hurdles: "'When a boat springs so many leaks, it only floats for so long,' said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster, who declared that Mr. Bush was losing the momentum he had picked up after making Social Security the centerpiece of his State of the Union address. 'The Democrats have certainly shot holes in it, but the Republicans have also been shooting holes.'"
"This privatization plan is sinking like a rock," said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California.

Just Say No

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Just Say No: "resident Bush's effort to hustle the nation into dismantling Social Security as we know it seems to be faltering: the more voters hear about how privatization would work, the less they like it. "