Barbara Boxer to appear on Countdown tonight

She will hopefully discuss her press release today( 8 pm MSNBC), which you can read here, or skim through my post of it below.

Press Release of Senator Boxer

Boxer to Offer Sense of the Senate Resolution Calling for Rumsfeld to be Replaced

Calls on Bush to stop scaring the American people and start protecting them

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Los Angeles, CA – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today announced that when the Senate returns to session and resumes consideration of the Defense Appropriations Bill, she will offer an amendment calling on the President to immediately appoint a new Secretary of Defense.

Boxer said, “This latest Rumsfeld rampage cannot stand. By comparing critics of this Administration’s policies in Iraq with those who wanted to appease fascism and Nazism in the run up to World War II, he is slandering the majority of the American people, who oppose the war in Iraq.”

Boxer’s sense of the Senate resolution also points out that Secretary Rumsfeld failed to adequately plan for post-war operations in Iraq, leading to widespread violence, the rise of sectarian militias, and the rapid growth of the insurgency.

A number of retired generals who served our country with honor and distinction have called for Secretary Rumsfeld’s resignation over his mishandling of the Iraq war, including General Anthony Zinni, General Wesley Clark, Lieutenant General Greg Newbo ld, Major General John Batiste, Major General Charles Swannack Jr., Major General John Riggs, and Major General Paul Eaton, as well as numerous United States Senators.

Boxer also commented today on President Bush’s speech in Utah this afternoon, saying “This latest speech by the President was just a long repetition of old messages and rhetoric to scare the American people. The war in Iraq and the war on terror are not one and the same—it’s time to stop scaring the American people and start protecting them.”

Attached is the text of Boxer’s sense of the Senate resolution on Secretary Rumsfeld:

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President of the United States should immediately appoint a new Secretary of Defense with the vision and leadership qualities necessary to lead the Department of Defense

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

September XX, 2006

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should immediately appoint a new Secretary of Defense with the vision and leadership qualities necessary to lead the Department of Defense.

Whereas, on August 29, 2006, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld compared critics of the Administration’s policies in Iraq with those who wanted to appease fascism and Nazism in the run up to World War II, and since critics of the Iraq war constitute a majority of Americans, these slanderous comments apply directly to the American people.

Whereas, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld failed to adequately plan for post-war operations in Iraq, leading to widespread violence, the rise of sectarian militias, and the rapid growth of the insurgency. In 2003, the estimated number of insurgents stood at 3,000. Today, it stands at approximately 20,000.

Whereas, a number of retired generals who served our country with honor and distinction have called for Secretary Rumsfeld’s resignation over his mishandling of the Iraq war, including General Anthony Zinni, General Wesley Clark, Lieutenant General Greg Newbold, Major General John Batiste, Major General Charles Swannack Jr., Major General John Riggs, and Major General Paul Eaton, as well as numerous United States Senators.

Whereas, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has not afforded the brave men and women serving in the Armed Forces of the United States the protections and respect they deserve, sending U.S. servicemembers into Iraq without adequate body and vehicle armor. On December 8, 2004, Secretary Rumsfeld told a gathering of soldiers: “As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”

Whereas, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld presided over the Pentagon during the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, which diminished U.S. standing in the world and caused irreparable harm to the image of the U.S. military.

Whereas, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld twice offered his resignation to President George W. Bush in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.

Whereas, U.S. military operations in Iraq have proven to be extremely costly in terms of both lives and treasure to the people of the United States. As of August 31, 2006, 2,635 troops have lost their lives in Iraq and 19,773 have been wounded. On September 30, 2006, the total cost of the Iraq war will reach $318.5 billion.

Whereas, it is long past time that the United States needs renewed leadership at the Pentagon.

Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That--

the Senate calls on the President to appoint a new Secretary with the vision and leadership qualities necessary to lead the Department of Defense.

Tags: Politics,Bush,Rumsfeld,Barbara Boxer,Countdown,Senate Resolution to replace Rumsfeld

How they voted on Gulf Relief,Vote for Change California!

Hold your elected officials accountable. Do NOT let the Gulf region go to the back pages of your local newspapers. Click the link below to see how your elected fuckwits voted on the major issues which define this administrations and this congresses actions with regard to rebuilding the Gulf and NOLA. Make this an election year issue! Its the least we can do my dear reader. Refuse to "Stay the Course", vote for CHANGE!

Voting Scorecard: House of Representatives (109th Congress)
Hurricane Relief

tags;Politics, Bush, Voting Record, Katrina, NOLA

Rummy and the Big-Dick out on tour for the war effort

And basically they are tossing the rest of us, that don't go with their program, under the bus. Everyone by now has heard or read about Rummy's rant. The push for the 9/11 anniversary, will now overshadow that of our biggest tragedy, the Gulf Region and NOLA after Katrina.

Thats because they all came off looking like fucking boobs and continue to do so with respect to rebuilding the Gulf. Ah, but 9/11, is vastly different..

It works for them. It gives them an enemy to demonize and rail against. When I saw the headline about Rummy's speech I just went..oh fuck, are you kidding me? Seriously..I did.

A bunch of American Legionnaires got to listen to Rummy spew some shit the other day. Poor suckers. Of course Rummy was in his element, so it really worked well for him..go figure.So the shills and Oval Office whores will be warming up the audiences' to the run-up of the anniversary of 9/11. Big-Dick Cheney also gave a barn-burner of a speech at the U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha. He slammed those of us that dare to question or point at them and object to the war machine. Thats his schtick of course.

So Frick and Frack did their stints in front of the home crowds, spewing venom and attacks that in essence will be repeated a million times between now and election day. But Rummy went a step further and really pulled out the big guns, as witnessed by this little writeup over at Slate.com. Ol Rummy gave us these actual questions for us to think on:

Can "we" afford to believe we can negotiate with terrorists? Well, his other choice is war..so I am banking on negotiating..sorry, I am just not into war as a means of solving differences between cultures and countries. And my money is on most of American not being into war as a means to end the bullshit standoffs in the Middle East. So, was he bashing the majority of Americans that do not want to wage war all over the fucking place or what? This part really jacked my jaw: "any kind of moral or intellectual confusion about who and what is right or wrong can weaken the ability of free societies to persevere in any long war."--Did that fuckwit just say we are in for a long fucking war? Did he say we were "confused"???

His minion explained the remark by saying Rummy just wants us to remember history and what happened in the 30's. -Excuse me, but that was a totally different type of vile threat..it was a country lead by a ruler that was quite obvious, and his troops,well they were dressed for combat and fought a traditional war..if there is such a thing..which btw isn't how the current bad-guys fight..And then the bag of batshit compared us to the people that wanted to appease Hitler..oh no he didn't....

Nancy 'bulldog" Pelosi had this reponse to Rummy's bitchfest: "If Mr. Rumsfeld is so concerned with comparisons to World War Two, he should explain why our troops have now been fighting in Iraq longer than it took our forces to defeat the Nazis in Europe,"--Good point Nancy, like I said..this old sumbitch is using tactics that were applied to fighting Hitler, to a new breed of vulgar assholes that hide amongst the woman and children, and do not wear uniforms and fight in the open.

Retired Army officer and and Senator from Rhode Island, Jack Reed a member of the Armed Services Committee btw, had this to say about Rummy's delusional attack on the majority of americans: "Secretary Rumsfeld continually substitutes sloganeering for strategy. And any strategy relies not only on a plan, but also adequate resources. And in the case of Iraq, there was no adequate planning and insufficient resources from the very beginning."--Thank you Jack, and btw..we don't have the soldiers to wage a sustained war against everyone we hate or can't get along with..unless of course we bring back the draft..

Back to the Big-Dick, our VP of whoring..he was really 'en fuego" too, schilling for Bush by reminding his captive audience of Veterans in Reno of the following: "No one can guarantee that we won't be struck again. But to have come this far without another attack is no accident," Cheney said, crediting "sound" decisions by President Bush and vigilance by U.S. agencies and the military."--Jeebus, I almost bit off my tongue when I read about the "sound decisions"..I shat you not dear reader. And god knows "these guys" and their buddies at the NSA and CIA are just the best at stopping terrorist activities..right? Well, they are really good at spying..on us at least.

All I know is..we are going to get a friggin shitload of warmongering between now and 9/11..you can take that to the bank my dear reader. Lets hope the Dems' and those that oppose spending millions of tax dollars,watching thousands of American soldiers die in a losing situation, will keep up the counter-attack on this bravado and bullshit from the Executive Branch's bullies..I can't wait for Bush to hit the circuit..at least he should provide some guffaws..the man can't put two sentences together without looking like the village idiot...but he is the Main Event on the "Support the war or else" Tour this election season.

Bill Frist lied his butt off..

He is back peddaling his ass off about it..but he lied. He fraudently filled out his Doctors License renewal stating he had taken required courses..when he didn't. And you can't tell me that sumbitch didnt' KNOW he lied.. To quote the yahoo article:

"The state of Tennessee requires its licensed physicians to complete 40 hours of continuing medical education every two years. Frist, a heart-lung surgeon who is considering a 2008 presidential run, submitted a license renewal with the Tennessee Health Department stating he has fulfilled that requirement."

Remember my dear reader, Frist is the fuckwit that diagnosed Terry Schiavo by watching a videotape.

This guy is such a pompous douche bag..thanks to First Draft for the headsup. BTW..First Draft has a couple of videos up from NOLA showing the jazz funeral procession from the Dome to St. Augustine's Church today in tribute. Its very moving.

Whistleblower makes YouTube video..since no one will listen to him.

Sweet jesus in a speedo..no one would listen to this guy regarding Coast Guard ship security and safety..so he did what he had to..he made a friggin YouTube video..pathetic ain't it? tags: Politics,Homeland Security Sucks

Bush's visit to NOLA from the Times-Picayune

He went to a Betsy's on Canal Street. He shook hands and made promises to stick by New Orleans through a longterm rebuilding effort.

Funny, but he allowed the closing of the FEMA office in NOLA months ago..but I digress. Back to the Times-Picayune article:

As he walked through the crowd like a politician running for office, he heard this from behind him:
"Mr. President, are you going to turn your back on me?" waitress Joyce Labruzzo asked him. "No ma'am," he said. Then, taking a more somber tone, he added: "Not again," an apparent acknowledgment of the sluggish federal response to Katrina a year ago, one that left thousands stranded and suffering. --and dying..my word..not the article's.

Bush would relay the same sentiment, more formally, in a speech at Warren Easton High School later in the morning.

"I take full responsibility for the federal government's response," the president said. -Gee thats big of him, dont ya think? Its easy to take the blame..much harder to actually DO something about it..

Bush promised continued federal support for the rebuilding of Southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and renewed his pledge to New Orleans - to do "whatever it takes" - first made in a speech at Jackson Square soonafter the flood. --Why has less than half the federal resources put aside to rebuild the area been allocated? Its been a fucking year for christ's sake..

"Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives," Bush said nearly a year ago. "And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again."--Excuse me, but what exactly is it going to take to get you sumbitches to release the funds? Your holding it hostage you lying bag of sheep shit.

"I strongly urge the United States Congress to pass energy legislation that will give the state of Louisiana more revenues from offshore leases so they can restore the wetlands," Bush said. --Hello..every state that has oil drilling either on their land or off their shores get a big piece of the action..every state but Louisanna..and he is "urging" Congress to pass legislation? How about demanding it asshole?

The president offered no details, however, on the amount or percentage of money he'd like to see redirected, a subject of fierce debate in Congress. -This is part of the history I talk about Steve..yes I am talking to you annonny-maus..this is the history of the region, they don't get shit from the Oil revenue..nada..zilch zippo. Alaska gets SO much friggin money, they don't have state sales tax, they also give every man, woman and child a check each year from the oil revenue.NOLA just wants their fare fucking share.

Back to the article: The Bush Administration historically has been wary of sharing offshore oil and gas royalties with the states, but the administration recently endorsed the revenue-sharing bill that recently passed the Senate, in part because it supports more drilling in the Gulf. The bill would give Gulf Coast states 35 percent of royalties on new production in 8 million acres in the eastern Gulf. Bush opposed a separate House-passed bill calling for states to get a cut of royalties on existing wells, too, which would have put substantially more money in the state's coffers.--God forbid he try to make right what the state of LA. has been getting screwed out of for decades.

After a year in which much federal money has been promised and a much smaller portion delivered, Bush spelled out the need to push rebuilding money through the bureaucratic pipeline more quickly. "All of us agree, at all levels of government," Bush said, "that we've got to get the money as quickly as possible into the hands of the people, so they can rebuild their lives and help this city recover."--Lets check back in oh, say..six months and see if he made good on any of these promises shall we? In the last year, his buddies in the big corporations have raked in the profits while pretending to clean up and rebuild the region..meanwhile the residential areas still lie in ruins.

The original article can be read here.

tags; Politics,Bush,Lying bag of batshit

Don't you just love staged photo-ops? Bush does

Look at this picture. Its the spot where da Shrub had his "press conference" in the gulf region yesterday. Notice the house, the tree..it looks idyllic and reborn doesn't it? Why, of course it does..read the words our Decider-in-Chief spoke in front of this house:

“For a fellow who was here and now a year later comes back, things have changed.”“It’s amazing, isn’t?” he told a gathering under a sweltering sun. “It’s amazing what the world looked like then and what it looks like now.”

Just a few feet away..there was the "real" Biloxi. As the NYT reports:

"Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass."

Now, for my dear reader, this is what's called a "Photo-op"..its a ruse invented to show life as you want it to appear..not as it really is. Toilet seats laying on the ground are not in any sense of the word a normal thing. Neither is the city of Biloxi. Nothing is normal about Biloxi, but if you just watched the 7 second soundbite on your evening news..you would think..hey, its looks ok there, its coming around.

Another soundbite from the Shrub: “The truth of the matter is, we can work together and will, but when disaster strikes, the first people that you rely upon, the people that matter most, are your friends,” Mr. Bush said at another point. “It’s friends helping friends that turns out to make an enormous difference in saving lives and helping to get by the trauma of the first days.”

Now another visual the camera's won't be showing: "Nearby, along the ocean, ravaged antebellum homes and churches still dotted the waterfront. The beach, stretching from Gulfport to Biloxi, was deserted. Debris hung from craggy trees and motels stood shuttered. Blue tarp still patched the roofs of more dwellings than not. At the Biloxi Community Center, which Laura Bush had visited during her shooting of an “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” episode last September following the storm, workers unloaded trays of packaged foods into a dusty space with no air conditioning."

Biloxi is a middle class neighborhood. If they haven't overcome the death and destruction a year later, with most residents having insurance, and a decent income prior to Katrina..what does that say about the plight of the lower-class areas? The carpetbaggers will make a killing however..as witnessed by this snippet from a Biloxi resident: "Three couples gathered on the porch of a destroyed bungalow said costs to rebuild had soared, and they hoped to sell their plots as a package to a developer looking for waterfront views -- a feature they now had since Katrina washed away the single row of houses that had stood between them and the Gulf of Mexico."Put the money in front of me and I'm gone. I don't think it will ever be like it was before," said Wayne McClendon."

Oh, and the casinos are open..of course there is no where to house the majority of the workers..but they are open for business..ain't that just grand? And guess what..they plan on expanding! With all those folks that can't afford to rebuild now..it works well for the casinos..just not too well for the residents who will sell a plot of land for next to nothing to a developer just to get something out their property and move on, trying to restart their shattered lives...but hey..you can come down and gamble!

Tags; Politics, Bush, Katrina, Biloxi

Is Arnold getting desperate here in California? He's lying about Angelides tax reform.

The LAT did a writeup here a few days back about Ahnolds outright lies attacking Angelides on his tax proposal..here is the real truth:

• A tax cut for the middle class, small businesses and seniors totaling $1.4 billion

• A rollback in college tuitions to the pre-Schwarzenegger era, amounting to a $600-million break. Also, a $400-million increase in school spending and affordable health insurance for all kids

• Creation of a blue-ribbon commission to recommend how to raise $2 billion by closing corporate loopholes

• A long-promised hike in the top income tax rate from 9.3% to 11% — same as it was under Govs. Pete Wilson and Ronald Reagan — for individuals making $250,000 a year and couples earning $500,000. That rate would continue for three years, hitting the wealthiest 1% of taxpayers and generating $3.1 billion annually.

I am sure Arnie's handlers learned from the Rovian playbook, but this is outright bs my dear reader..and its time we get the word out that the Governator is running scared and lying his ass off.

Crooks and Liars » Bill Maher: “Scientists” Have Decided to Cut and Run on Pluto

Crooks and Liars » Bill Maher: “Scientists” Have Decided to Cut and Run on Pluto

The new season has started for Real Time with Bill Maher..this is the New Rules he did friday night. He goes after scientists for renouncing Pluto..among other things..thanks to crooks and liars for the video...enjoy!

Protestors show up for Bush's visit

I love this. I so love this. Kennebunkport is a very small town..population roughly 4000 based on 2004 numbers..

This yahoo article states police estimated around 700 protestors showed up when the Shrub went to George the 1st's old homestead for a famiily wedding this weekend. The protestors got to within a half mile of the place before the cops stopped them for security reasons.

Bush declined a game of golf with his daddy in favor of riding his bike on some federal land outside of town. Perhaps that way he doesn't need to deal with anymore reality than he wants to..

"Your doin a heckuva job Brownie"

Just a few statistics a year after the deluge..courtesy of a NYT article.

About 60 percent of former customers have electricity. Just over 40 percent have gas. Seventeen percent of the buses are running. Half the hospitals are closed. So are 77 percent of the child-care centers.

In metro New Orleans, 160,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Katrina left the city itself with 12 million tons of debris. That is about seven times the amount produced when the World Trade Center collapsed. Before the storm, New Orleans had about 450,000 residents. Postal data released this month found 171,000 had returned. That is 38 percent.

New Orleans had 128,000 children before the storm. No one knows how many have now returned, but just 18 percent of public-school students were back by the end of the school year. With families still trickling home, a midrange estimate has the schools reopening with 38 percent of their old seats filled. Extrapolating to the child population as whole, that would mean more than 80,000 children are still gone.

President Bush will surely be making some statements about The Gulf Coast this coming week. I just hope he doesn't do his usual spin job..I hope the sumbitch fesses up to what a mess FEMA is, and how little has been done to rebuild the region. But I am not making book on that.

Mayor Nagin still has no concrete plan to rebuild the residential areas. The city planning commission is now on its third attempt to placate everyone and build a safer, higher city. People that are living in trailers with the funds and ability to rebuild are afraid to start the rebuilding process and find themselves on the wrong side of a construction law if and when Nagin's nimrods finally finish a plan.

In other words, its still a fucked up mess..a year later. Tuesday will mark the anniversary of the levees breaching. Bells will toll across NOLA marking this most henious anniversary. I can't wait for the spin doctors...should be interesting to say the least.

A David Sirota reprint.

Lieberman Defended FEMA Director Before and AFTER Katrina

By David Sirota

On the eve of the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, America is still looking for answers about how our government could allow such incompetence to plague our federal disaster response apparatus. Part of the answer - as with much of the current incompetence from our government - lies in congressional oversight. Where was Congress's oversight of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) before Katrina hit? How could our congressional leaders allow an inexperienced Republican political campaign operative like Mike "Brownie, You're Doing a Heck of a Job" Brown to head up FEMA? How could he be allowed to be put in such a position, especially considering his nomination was overseen by a Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate? The answer is found in one man: Joe Lieberman - the man who both before and - worse - after Hurricane Katrina defended the nomination of Brown, who the Connecticut Senator originally helped shepherd through the Senate.

When Brown was nominated for a top position at FEMA in 2002, Lieberman's Governmental Affairs Committee was the panel that oversaw the confirmation. Sadly, Chairman Lieberman rubber-stamped the nomination, spearheading the praise of Brown and making sure the confirmation went as smoothly as possible. As Lieberman said at the hearing:

"Mr. Brown, you have extensive management experience.... I am glad the President has nominated someone already familiar with FEMA’s mission to become Deputy Director."

Considering FEMA's critical responsibilities, you may have thought that Lieberman would have used all the taxpayer-sponsored resources at his committee's disposal to properly vet Brown's supposedly "extensive management experience." After all, after Katrina, it took Time Magazine just a few days to uncover evidence that Brown's resume was filled with giant holes. Similarly, you may have thought that Lieberman would have used his chairmanship to figure out why, as the Washington Post reported, "five of eight top Federal Emergency Management Agency officials came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters." But on both scores, all that came from Rubber Stamp Joe before Katrina was praise for President Bush's nominees.

But if you aren't appalled enough by Lieberman's conduct before Katrina, then consider his public statements right after the disaster. In an interview with National Public Radio on 9/14/05, Lieberman inadvertently admitted his reflexive rubber-stamp tendencies, and tried to justify it as simply standard operating procedure that should not be questioned. He said:

"Our committee conducted a hearing on the nomination of Michael Brown to be deputy director of FEMA. And in the normal course honestly for deputy positions, you normally say, 'Well, the president, if this person passes all the normal checks, has the right to choose who he wants so long as the person is in an acceptable range.'"

There it is for all to see: Joe Lieberman's entire attitude on everything from Hurricane Katrina to the Iraq War is to reflexively do the Bush White House's bidding. He thinks that should be the "normal course" for Congress and for Democrats. You can see this even in the statements of his campaign spokesman, professional liar Dan Gerstein. Responding to Democratic Senate nominee Ned Lamont's criticism of Lieberman's behavior before and after Katrina, Gerstein said, "Maybe in Ned Lamont’s naïve, reality-challenged world, he thinks simply by yelling loud enough he would have gotten the White House to give him what he wanted, but that’s not how things work in Washington."

Translation: Lieberman is angry that Ned Lamont and the voters of Connecticut don't accept the Beltway's assumption that you have to use Connecticut's Senate seat to be a rubber stamp for President Bush. He wants voters to believe that Senators actually standing up and excercising oversight is "naïve" and "reality-challenged" when, in fact, that's what Senators are specifically elected to do. In short, he wants voters to believe that the Lieberman ideology of "Rubber Stamp First, Ask Questions Later" is actually good for America - and that's exactly why Lieberman is on his way out come November 7th.

Original article can be viewed here at WorkingForChange.com. I am in alot of pain still..sorry for the reprints..

I have NO idea how to feel about this..

The state of MA. is being sued by an inmate that is demanding a sex change operation. The inmate is serving a life term for killing his wife. The state is giving him hormone shots but the price tag for the sex change operation is up to 20k.

I just can't go along with this. I understand his emotional needs, and I have enormous sympathy for him..but he is going to be in prison for the rest of his life..how can not providing him with a sex change operation be considered cruel and unusual punishment? The state has already paid for hormone treatments, laser hair removal, female undergarments and makeup for this guy. The article has this which just blows me away:

"gender-identity disorder is a serious illness that can lead to severe anxiety, depression, suicide attempts and self-castration. They argue that treatment for their condition is a “medical necessity” and denying it would violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment."

I had no idea that transgenders will hurt themselves..it bothers me, but does it bother me enough to say give it to him? He is a murderer..where do you draw the line?

I am so bothered by this issue..its not a priority, but I hate suffering..I also hate murderers...

Also, Karr, he of the JonBenet case is said to have wanted a sex change operation too.

George and Dick..a collage

New poll shows americans aren't as dumb as Republicans think.

Poll..ah yes, they suck usually..their numbers can be skewed to show whatever you want, depending on how you ask the questions, in what order, etc. I do however like this one. It serves my interests therefore I will share it with you, my dear reader...

Its from the NYT/CBS poll which you can check out here in pdf form. This is the opening paragraph in the NYT writeup:

"The poll found that 51 percent of those surveyed saw no link between the war in Iraq and the broader antiterror effort, a jump of 10 percentage points since June. That increase comes despite the regular insistence of Mr. Bush and Congressional Republicans that the two are intertwined and should be seen as complementary elements of a strategy to prevent domestic terrorism."


At least half the general population has seen Alex Trebek and purchased a clue inspite of the Shrub's insistance this week of the following:
“If you believe that the job of the federal government is to secure this country,” he said, “it’s really important for you to understand that success in Iraq is part of securing the country.”

There is hope that voters will follow the same line of reasoning this coming November. The NYT writeup also states there is a difference between Bush's job performance regarding the GWOT and his job performance overall..Georgie's general job performance is still mired in the middle 30's. Their view of Congress isn't a whole helluva lot better, with 60% of those polled saying they are fuckwits and worthless bags of scum-sucking moneygrubbers.

Ok, they didn't say that, I did. But 60% disapproved of the job Congress is doing.

Vote Democratic in November..give the other guys a shot at screwing everything up..what do we have to lose?

Phil Angelides and Ahnold in Bakersfield today.

Wow wee..our humble little city in the San Joaquin valley got BOTH candidates today. Yes folks, Phil and Ahnold both came to Bakersfield.

Ahnold however is stumping privately. His meeting with one of the biggest corporate farms, Bolthouse wasn't open to the general public.

Phil was out in the public to discuss his proposal for middle-class tax cuts, spokesman Brian Brokaw said in a press release.

"California's middle class families pay a significantly larger portion of their incomes in state and local taxes than the wealthiest Californians," Brokaw said. "As governor, Phil Angelides' tax cut for California's hard-working middle-class families earning below $100,000 a year will provide a total of $788 million of tax relief to over 4 million working families each year."

Our local rag, the Bakersfield Californian has a poll going currently on who you are going to vote for..

Phil has 30% of the votes to Ahnolds 40%.

That isn't bad in this red city in the reddest county in Cali..hope it sends a message that people aren't buying Ahnolds bs..

New Orleans-The new Iraq

The horror of people still living in tents is one thing..The horror of corporations making money off their misery is entirely another.

The carpetbaggers are going strong in New Orleans. The business's are largely back on their feet, gotta keep them happy right? But the residential areas are far from being rebuilt. The FEMA office closed in May. Nothing says loving like having to deal with Federal red-tape over a telephone.

And the residents are getting the shaft locally too. The energy company known as Entergy is trying to suck funds out of the government to rebuild their infrrastructure. They can afford to do it themselves, they are afterall, a Fortune 500 company.But they don't want to use their own profits. CorpWatch has a nice accounting of their profits:

"Entergy Corp. racked up $10 billion in revenues last year and has $29 billion in collective assets. On paper, there is no question Entergy could comfortably cover its losses and rebuild the infrastructure of its utility business in New Orleans. On May 2, Entergy announced that its first-quarter profit rose nearly 13 percent, as higher energy prices offset disrupted sales following last year's hurricanes. Entergy CEO J. Wayne Leonard received a $1.1 million bonus at the end of 2005, according to SEC records, which coincidentally works out to one dollar per Entergy customer in the Gulf Coast left without power in the weeks following the hurricane."

Corporate Profiteering is alive and well in New Orleans. The names listed are the same corporations, for the most part, making money in Iraq and that doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy. People are still living in tents but big business is raking in the cash. Remind you of anything, or anyplace in particular?

It couldn't be that the people most affected by Katrina were poor, elderly or black, right? That couldn't possibly be the reason that people are no better off today than the day after Katrina hit but the big corporations are just having record profits? I am not pulling the race card, far from it. The people of New Orleans are and were historically poor and black. This fact can not be denied by anyone. That this horror is still going on today on OUR soil disgusts me.

The second part of "When the Levees Broke" airs tonight on HBO. I hope people will watch it and get angry. Angry that our federal government and LA. state and local governments haven't done much of anything to rebuild the homes and lives of the residents of New Orleans. I hope people will realize that carpetbagging corporations are recording record profits while doing very little to earn that largesse both here and in Iraq and Afganistan.

Thank the boys in the Federal government..they are helping their friends in big business while screwing the people of New Orleans, whose only crime was being in the way of a Cat 5 hurricane.

Tags:

Politics,Bush,Katrina Profiteering,FEMA

When the Levee's broke..a synopsis for the hbo-less among us..

For a interview with Spike about the film..here is the link.

I watched and I cried. I am a sap for real life drama..and this is it in spades. We all know about the horror that was Katrina..after she passed. We all know that people were dying in the dome five days after the hurricane went through. What this documentary does is give the people that survived it a forum..and a damn good one..the people that couldnt get out..even if they wanted to before she hit.

There is no voice over..the voices are all the people he has assembled to talk about it..it goes from two days before up until five days after Katrina passed through. Spike picked specific people to document the horror of the event..equally split between white and black. There is K.Blanco, the governor, Nagin, the mayor, CNN correspondant Soledad O'brien and then the ordinary people..a musican, an actor, and just every day ordinary citizens..some poor, some stubborn and refusing to leave. They document the beginning, the hurricane hit and the horror that unfolded after it passed. Some of them watched their loved ones die, some were in the Dome for those horror-filled days without food, water or bathrooms..some were stuck in their attics for days..the footage was graphic, its not for the faint of heart by any means..lots of dead bodies floating in the murky waters..people dead for days in wheelchairs outside the Dome..the one that made me come unglued was the radio guy..who stayed on the radio for five days straight..bringing the people the news they couldnt get since no one had power Spike covered the looting..by jerks and police officers..he talked to police officers that understood people were mostly trying to find food and water.. it was a day by day diary of what was happening..it was gripping and the two hours seem to fly by for me.

Like I said..there isn't a narrarator..the people involved did that. they took you step by step through the day by day horror that help wasn't coming...and then what they had to do to survive..how one man had to leave his mothers body in her wheel chair at the Dome to board a bus to get to something better than the hell on earth inside the Dome..and how it tore him to pieces. the stories will get to you if your human and have one ounce of compassion.

He covers the scewups very well..Bush of course isnt on camera talking..but his coy little impromptu press conferences are. There is also a dash of how politics affected the outcome..and it was more than was reported in the press. Nagel admits he didnt support Blanco's run for the governor office and how that played a part in her dealings with him and what he said was needed. There is the backroom deals on AirForce One wiith Nagle, Bush and Blanco..and how she refused to give over control to the Feds..which caused even more wasted time.He has people that were rich, poor and the inbetweens..all walks of life on this film..all with their own POV's..on what happened and why. The CNN footage is very telling..it shows the inadequacies of the Feds and their lack of obvious compassion for what was taking place down there. Chertoff and Brown come off very bad..as well they should. Blanco sounds defensive and Nagle just sounds like Nagle..a homie that admits he was in over his head.

The film also highlights those that went over and above the call of duty..the normal everyday people that risked life and limb to save neighbors and strangers..The National Guard commander demanding that police put down their guns..

The film covers areas that I never heard about in the MSM..like the fact that one parish put armed guards on a bridge to freedom, refusing to allow people of color to cross and get out of the horror..telling themm to turn around and go back or get shot. There is the story of a black man just walking down the street talking to a friend and was shot by a white man from his front porch who figured him for a looter..the paranoia was rampant after the first two days..people were desperate for water and no food was to be found.

The pictures will stay with me for a long time..the silent montages of dead people..dying people floating and laying on the side of roads..and little children suffering from heat, dehydration and no food for days on end. Soledad O'Brien's film from her walk through the convention after it had finallhy been emptied of people..she called it the stench of death that permeated the entire complex. She talked about the dead man that sat in a wheel chair just outside the entrance for days and days with soldiers just walking by his body like it wasn't there when it was so obvious that it was.She talked about her live interview with "Brownie" who had no clue about how many were at the Superdome or the condititon inside it, even though she told him how many there were, and he had no reaction, like it didn't matter. She confronted him on why his intel was so fucked up, and she knew more about what was going on down there than FEMA did. Still no response from Brownie..the people that were religious and tried to hold everyone together by singing gospel tunes to get them out of their anger at being abandoned by their government and left to suffer and in many cases die.

The second and last part is tomorrow night..see it if you can. We need to remember how America abandoned our own people when it only took two days to get supplies and help to the Sunami folks in Asia..how the news crews could get down there do their stories and get out while the governments..both local, state and Federal said they coulnd't get through...its enough to make you embarrassed to be an American..this the greatest of all disasters..how could our government, state and federal make excuses for their lack of action..all the while playing fucking politics behind the scenes..if it doesnt make you mad your either dead or not paying attentiion.

The music is wonderful..its old jazzz and blues..it fits right in..and the story ..isn't over you know..there is still no plan down there..no rebuilding..no nothing..its very much just like it was five days after Katrina..only the water has resided..and the bullshit and politics still continue while the people suffer..got don't you just love America?

Tags:

Bush,After Katrina,Spike Lee,Kathleen Blanco,FEMA

Food for thought, a film worth seeing on HBO.

First, the Spike Lee film on HBO. Its first run is two parts, Monday and Tuesday evening. "WhenTthe Levees Broke' is about New Orleans after Katrina, the biggest most disgusting act of terror to hit our country this side of 9-11..and we can thank our federal government for most of it.

The Food for Thought is from TalkLeft.com. Its an article up at Washington Monthly. The title is: Higher Power by Robert Dreyfuss. Its about the secret group put together by none other than the Shrub's daddy's favorite Fixer, Jim Baker. Baker has put together a bi-partisan group of folks to figure out how to save the Repubes and take the occupation of Iraq out of the mix. This group has been working in secret since March. It was created by Republican Frank Wolf, representative of VA. Wolf is the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that funds the State Department. I know Baker is a freak, but he is just one person. A blurb from the article to peak your interest:

"Wolf's motivation in creating the Iraq Study Group seems to be genuine concern that the war isn't going well and that public support for it is evaporating. During his visit to Iraq, where he spent hours with U.S. military officers in the field, Wolf says that his eyes were opened. "Some of the things that were told to me, I had never seen before: the destabilization of the region," Wolf told me. "Some of the scenarios that were given to me [included] the overthrow of the Saudi government, [along with both] the Jordanian government and the Egyptian government.... So I just felt, let's take another look. And no one should be afraid of doing it.""

Finally, a repube that admits our current administration has bitten off more than it can chew and he's willing to try something different. I am quite sure its stacked with some powerful Repubes but one I do admire is Sandra Day O'Connor. A centrist group is what is needed and hopefully this group named the "Iraq Study Group" will be able to figure out how to get us out of the shithole known as the occupation of Iraq. Of course people on the left side of the dial fear this is only to save the repubes in the presidential election year of 08, but to me, the goal of getting untangled from Iraq is vastly more important than who is going to sit their white ass in the Oval Office next time around.

The article is a great read, very long and even I havent' finished it yet. I gotta lay down for a bit. Have a good Sunday night, watch Deadwood, only two episodes left..and don't forget about Spike's film on HBO tomorrow and Tuesday night.. TIVO or DVR it..if only to remember that the Shrub and his yahoo's should all rot in hell for what happened to the people of New Orleans, and still continues a year later.

Tags:Bush,Iraq Study Group,Katrina,Fuckwits at the Helm,James Baker

NYT Editorial- Save the Whistleblowers

I have alot going on lately, not the least of which is my screwed up back,which is preventing me from sitting for any length of time..so..I will mostly be reprinting what I consider worthwhile articles from other sources. The original article below can be viewed here.

August 19, 2006

Editorial

Save the Endangered Whistle-Blower

If ever government whistle-blowers needed protection from official retaliation it is now, in the secrecy-obsessed Bush administration. Federal employees daring to disclose fraud and abuse in their bureaucracies have been under virtual siege, isolated as pariahs and shipped off under gag orders to lesser jobs in far-off places.

Appeals to court review under the 17-year-old Whistle-Blower Protection Act have proved fruitless, with the Supreme Court ruling in May that workers have no right to First Amendment protection when they warn lawmakers and taxpayers of government waste and folly. The ruling has thrown the issue back into the lap of Congress. Fortunately, there is enough anger emerging on both sides of the aisle to raise hopes for remedial legislation.

The Senate has unanimously approved an amendment to close loopholes and spell out whistle-blowers’ rights in more forceful detail for the courts. It is attached to a pending military bill, with proponents working for comparably tough legislation to be accepted by the House.

The outcome is not certain. The Justice Department has been opposed to strengthening the law, and a countermove is afoot to give the administration even more power to prosecute whistle-blowers as leakers of official secrets. The coming showdown is a chance for electioneering incumbents to take a stand against the administration’s mania for foiling the public’s right to government transparency.

The best display of Congressional intent would be for lawmakers to not just reaffirm the 1989 law but to extend it to all the national security bureaucracy and to private contractors. The nation’s need for timely whistle-blowers has been painfully driven home by gaffes in pre-9/11 homeland security, the premises for the Iraq invasion, and the administration’s illicit intelligence gathering at home.

Enron Lobbyist Corralling Senate Dem Support for Lieberman

(Reprinted with permission from author, link to original at WorkingForChange embedded in Author's name)
By David Sirota

In the attached story, the Hill Newspaper reports that Enron lobbyist Michael Lewan, Joe Lieberman's former chief of staff, is "work[ing] to quell Democratic discontent with Lieberman and to steer [Senators] away from campaigning against his former boss." Lewan, you may recall, has simultaneously raised cash for Lieberman and now-convicted Connecticut Republican Gov. John Rowland, telling the Hartford Courant that "they are two like-minded guys." Lewan is also the guy the Courant reported recently held a big lobbyist-sponsored D.C. fundraiser for Lieberman. At that fundraiser, Lewan breathlessly begged his fellow professional influence peddlers to fork over more cash to Lieberman, saying that "The Washington lawyers and lobbyists in those rooms will come back for Joe Lieberman. Who knows what Lamont would be like?" Lewan's loyalty to Lieberman is no surprise - after all, Lieberman is the guy who, as the Washington Monthly previously reported, "balked" at Democratic demands to use his committee chairmanship to make sure the Enron investigation got serious. What is surprising and nauseating is that Lieberman's Enron lobbyist has any influence over Democrats.

There really are no words to describe the immorality and shamelessness of all this. Here we have an Enron lobbyist and moneyman for a Republican convicted on corruption charges now bragging to the press that he's demanding elected Democrats ignore the results of our party's small-d democratic election. The fact that this is even happening and not raising serious alarm bells shows just how corrupt the Beltway culture has become. The fact that some Democratic Senators (including the vice chair of the Democrats campaign operation whose mission is "to to elect more Democrats to the United States Senate") are actually listening to this Enron lobbyist's demands is beyond disgusting - it tells you exactly why this fight against the hostile takeover of the Democratic Party is so important. On the eve of an election to throw out the majority party on charges of corruption, a party that silently allows a faction of its own elected representatives to follow an Enron lobbyist's demands to ignore voters is a party that undermines its chances of victory by publicly acknowledging it cares more about the wishes of Washington lobbyists than the wishes of thousands of ordinary voters.

Thankfully, the Hill reports that "a group of Senate Democrats is growing increasingly angry about Lieberman’s campaign tactics" and that he "could be stripped of his seniority within the Democratic caucus" after the election. I told McClatchy Newspapers Democrats need to go farther than that - they need to strip Lieberman of his committee assignments right now. That is especially true since, as the Hill notes, "he has adopted rhetoric echoing Republican talking points" to attack not only Connecticut Democratic nominee Ned Lamont, but also top candidates who are the party's best chances of keeping Senate seats out of GOP hands in other states.

Make no mistake about it - this is a litmus test issue for Democratic Senators. Echoing one Senate Democratic staffer quoted in the Hill, the willingness by some Democrats to embrace Lieberman, continue preserving his committee spots, and reward him with seniority should he defeat the Democratic nominee gives the view that some Democrats "view that the Senate is a country club rather than representative of a political party and political movement."

When I talk to audiences around the country about my book Hostile Takeover and I discuss with them the faction of Democrats who undermine their party, this is exactly what I am talking about: people in Congress who view American democracy as their exclusive property to be manipulated and disregarded as they see fit. We as Democrats will never be able to fight the conservative movement effectively if in every fight a handful of our own leaders are selling out, undermining our efforts, and siding with the corrupt forces that are driving this country into the ground.

It is time for Democratic Senators to stop telling everyone how nice a guy they think Joe Lieberman is - he's not a nice guy, he's a craven, selfish, anti-democratic opportunist, and is as mortal a threat to the Democratic Party's ability to take back Congress as George W. Bush is. It is time for Democratic Senators to stop listening to an Enron lobbyist who is demanding they ignore the will of voters. It is time, in short, for our own leaders to stop worrying about country club sensibilities, stop being so comfortable in the minority, and start getting serious about taking back political power.

Democrat Angst Escalates against Lieberman

Breaking news: Repubs back Lieberman publicly.

From an email I rec'd from David Sirota this afternoon. Click on the title of the post above for original article or if that doesn't work: http://thepoliticker.observer.com/2006/08/nrsc-takes-lieberman.html

NRSC Takes Lieberman

It's no coincidence that a purposeful silence has replaced the well-publicized calls from Republicans last month for no-hope GOP Senate candidate Alan Schlesinger to make way for someone more credible.

The state and national party, it seems, have concluded that they can't succeed in Connecticut this year under any circumstance, and would rather see Joe Lieberman win -- which polls show he's likely to do, absent a credible Republican candidate -- than risk handing the election to Democrat Ned Lamont.

This morning, a source at the National Republican Senatorial Committee confirmed in a phone interview that the party will not help Schlesinger or any other potential Republican candidate in Connecticut, and it now favors a Lieberman victory in November.

"We did a poll and there is no way any Republican we put out there can win, so we are just going to leave that one alone," said the NRSC source.

Instead, the NRSC is pulling for Lieberman over Ned Lamont, who rode an anti-war message to a victory in the Aug 8 primary.

"Most Republicans would agree that he'd clearly be a better choice than Lamont," said the source.

--Jason Horowitz

So, the wolf has taken off the sheep's clothing...he comes out of the closet, old Holy Joe and the Repubes in bed..and as for the Repubes..abandoning their own candidate. Isn't that something? Its ALL about winning..at any cost..any cost.

Detroit Judge rules Bush's wiretapping is illegal.

Straight off the wire and into Bush's face... Can I get an amen? Its only a battle, not the war however :( and this will go up the judicial ladder, you can bet your buns on that sportsfans. I do love that it was a female judge..sorry, but I do..sue me :p

Judge Rules Bush's Surveillance Program Unconstitutional
The Associated Press

Thursday 17 August 2006

Detroit - A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

"Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution," Taylor wrote in her 43-page opinion.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs. They believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets of the program, which involves secretly listening to conversations between people in the U.S. and people in other countries.

The government argued that the program is well within the president's authority, but said proving that would require revealing state secrets.

The ACLU said the state-secrets argument was irrelevant because the Bush administration had already publicly revealed enough information about the program for Taylor to rule on the case.

"By holding that even the president is not above the law, the court has done its duty," said Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director and the lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

The NSA had no immediate comment on the ruling.

Taylor dismissed a separate claim by the ACLU over data-mining of phone records by the NSA. She said not enough had been publicly revealed about that program to support the claim and further litigation could jeopardize state secrets.

Tags:

Wiretapping

Bush broke the law

Spying ruled illegal

NSA

But Clinton got a blow job, another Eric Schwartz original

Its entitled "But Clinton got a blow job" and it's a must listen brothas and sistas. Eric is the same guy that brought you the video "Get your Jesus off my Penis" which I featured a few months back. Enjoy folks, its well worth the listen, cuz if you think about it, if we don't laugh about this crap once in awhile..we will explode and/or have a meltdown.

Thanks to windspike for the 411 on this tune. :)

Tags: Bush,Clinton got a blow job,Eric Schwartz

The House the Boss built

This isn't about....gasp...politics or current events. Well, maybe it could fall under current events...its about baseball. Its about the Yankee$ owner, George Steinbrenner. A man that I have professed to hate for the entire time he has owned the dreaded Yankee$. I used to say I hated the Yank$, but the reality is, I respect them greatly. The 20+ championships, the level of excellence they rise to year in and out. George ruled with an iron fist and everyone inside and outside of baseball knew it. He made sure the press knew it too, he never shrunk from a microphone or camera.

Forbes ranks them as the richest baseball team..hell, conglomerate in sports. They own their own stadium, television network and god knows what else that is associated with the team. They are the hottest selling comodity at MLB.COM for jerseys and knick knacks. They always have the highest payroll and pay dearly for that destinction.

But its about George. I got a little misty as I read the profile on him in the NYT this morning. I can't sleep, my back is killing me and my mind won't shut off. They broke ground Wednesday for the new stadium finally, the one George has been talking about for years and years. If it was the George of old, he would of been preaching and bragging and generally being a snot about the new stadium....but it wasn't the George of old..it was the Old George. He spoke all of 25 seconds. It was evident he was happy as a clam about the start of the new stadium, but he just doesn't talk in public anymore. He really doesn't talk to the press, which is so unlike Steinbrenner. he has learned the art of delagating. He trusts a small group of Yank$ executives and they are his mouthpieces. Ever since he collapsed at the funeral of his dear friend, the quarterback, Otto Graham, Steinbrenner has moved away from publicity, his fire and zest have tempered with time. He's 75 now, and although those close to him say his health is fine..he is...how to put it..distant and unsteady now. His mind is still sharp as a tack, thank god.

For a large part of my adult life I have loved to hate this man and his arrogance. But the story paints a picture that is largely sad, only in the fact that times are changing in the sport I love more than brownie icecream or most relatives. He has owned the Yank$ for 33 years and its coming down to the wire for George. He still is the Boss, but his days are numbered now.

And that makes me sad. It's hard to see a long-time adversary get old and frail. It makes you look inward as well. But the old guy still has a spark, he still likes to have someone squeeze his pectoral and that makes me smile because I know the guy I have loved to hate for so damn long, is still in there.

But I still root for the Red Sox :p

They broke ground for the Yank$ new home and the House of Ruth will be part of the past in a scant few years. Perhaps George will too. But for the beginning of the new era for the Yank$, Wednesday saw the beginning of the "House the Boss built" according to one of the executives speaking during the ceremony.

And I just wanted to say I think that is very fitting, and I hope it made the old man smile and bask in the sunlight of the team he seems to love more than anything else.

Olbermann points out the obvious

There is a good video up here, that is part of Olbermann's nightly show. It goes through the previous 5 years of "terror alerts" and how coincidental they were to various newsworthy items in the press. Keith puts two and two together and they add up to a whole lotta bs on the part of the Federal Government's raising the alert level..hmmm..is this really news to most folks that follow politics? Probably not, but it makes for a good discussion with those that love to parrot the current company line of thought regarding the GWOT.

Exporting democracy with bullets and bombs.

This is my reasoning for why none of these conflicts work. I am sure people will be able to "shoot" holes in my argument, but that matters not.

The "bad guys" for want of a better term, do not fight a traditional war. This fact was painfully obvious in Vietnam.

You can not kill a thought, idea or belief system with weapons of war..you can only kill people. The whole idea of exporting our brand of democracy with bombs, bullets and thousands of soldiers is a ridiculous assumption being made by men who have never been to war. Not one of the asshats currently attempting this bullshit has ever fought in a war.

Eisenhower was a soldier first and a President second. I think that was perhaps a good thing. He saw first hand what war can and can not accomplish, and that was fighting a traditional war where the enemy wears a uniform and carries a gun. Eisenhower's parents were both pacifists but did not object to him entering West Point. He went on to become a military leader and the president that ended the Korean conflict by advocating negtiotiations between the warring factions. Eisenhower had grand plans to end the cold war with Russia via talking but when the Russians shot down a spyplane, they said fuck it, and Nikita Khrushchev never did have Eisenhower visit Russia to continue the talks and the rest, as they say, is history.

This final tidbit of info on our only Republican president to advocate negotiations over armed conflict, its from Wiki: "On January 17, 1961, Eisenhower gave his final televised speech from the Oval Office. In his farewell speech to the nation, Eisenhower raised the issue of the Cold War and role of the U.S. armed forces. He described the Cold War saying: "We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose and insidious in method..." and warned about what he saw as unjustified government spending proposals and continued with a warning that "we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex... Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

Our liberty is another man's hell on earth. Our liberty should not be shoved down the throats of people that do not wish to see it bloom and prosper. We can not make the world over in our image, and who are we to demand that our life is the best of all worlds and everyone who believes different should be wiped off the face of the earth? In order to bring our brand of democracy to the people of the Middle East we will need to use genocide..are all you folks that buy into the GWOT prepared to use that tactic? Are you prepared to kill an entire country of people because they will not bow down to our brand of freedom? Because if you are..

I want no part of it.

I have been reading alot about Dwight Eisenhower recently, trying to find out how a life-long military man could be so good at trying to bring peace through talk and negotiations. I wanted to know why he warned us about the monster known as the "Military Industrial Complex".

I think its very simple..he went to war, he lead the charge and he knew, in the end, that war only kills people..it doesn't kill an idea, thought or a belief.

Are we trying to kill people or a ideal in the Middle East? Bombs and bullets will not work on the latter. A republican president figured that out..after he went to war time and time again as a soldier and a General.

Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Rove and now Olmert have never served in a war. These men never learned the lessons Eisenhower did. That is why they will fail in their attempt to wipe out the "bad guys" in the Middle East.

But I am no one..just a woman that reads quite a bit of history and a woman that respects the right of indigneous people to live their life as they see fit, regardless of someones belief system or their politics.

Quotes from Eisenhower:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
-- Dwight Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address January 17, 1961

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower in a letter to his brother Edgar, November 8, 1954

I voiced to him (Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson) my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945

Peace and Justice are two sides of the same coin.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Tags: Terrorism, War on Terror,Israel,Chickenhawks,Warmongering Fuckwits