In 1992, Libby and former Pentagon deputy Paul Wolfowitz wrote a paper favoring the use of pre-emptive force to prevent countries from developing weapons of mass destruction. The paper later won praise from the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, which called it "a blueprint for maintaining U.S. pre-eminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival."Excuse me, EXCUSE ME! This is just bogus feces. No one can fault the United States from trying to prevent the rise of a "great power rival." Unfortunately, the great power rivals have already risen: China and India. They both have nuclear weapons. Oh, and let's not forget North Korea and Pakistan. And, of course, there is Israel, who would bomb us in a second if it suited their purposes.
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet,
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.
Bob Dylan, Mr. Tamborine Man
1965
9. On or about June 12, 2003, LIBBY was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson’s wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Division. LIBBY understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA. (emphasis added)And then Kos has collected these:
When the White House was asked specifically whether Karl Rove, Elliot Abrams or Lewis Libby told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "Those individuals -- I talked -- I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. And that's where it stands." [White House Briefing, 10/10/03]You see, these people knew all along what had happened. And, it tooks us
"I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." [Bush Remarks: Chicago, Illinois, 9/30/03]
You are feeling very sleepy. You are going to give somebody Republican all of your money. You never heard of Valerie Plame, and you want to give me a big, wet, sloppy kiss!And if you don't, I'll use my death ray!
IRVING, Texas - Exxon Mobil Corp. had a quarter for the record books. The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday high oil and natural-gas prices helped its third-quarter profit surge almost 75 percent to $9.92 billion, the largest quarterly profit for a U.S. company ever, and it was the first to ring up more than $100 billion in quarterly sales. (emphasis added)Just in case you were wondering why your gas went up to $3.00 a gallon and why they can't get gas in Miami. Just in case.
Beginning this week, the House GOP lawmakers will take steps to cut as much as $50 billion from the fiscal 2006 budget for health care for the poor, food stamps and farm supports, as well as considering across-the-board cuts in other programs.Simply putting Our Fearless Leader's words into action:
"I encourage Congress to push the envelope when it comes to cutting spending,"How about this one:
"...delay some lump-sum payments to very poor and elderly beneficiaries of Social Security's Supplemental Security Income program."Very Poor and Elderly, did you hear that you creep?
The probe is far from being at an end. According to this reporter's sources, Fitzgerald approached the judge in charge of the case and asked that a new grand jury be empaneled.Stay Tuned. Fitzmas is postponed.
YOU KEEP ME HANGING ON Lt. Colonel Haitham Akram was driving his two young sons in his own car when a bomb hidden on the roadside blasted the vehicle at 8 a.m., engulfing it in flames.... Another car parked nearby also burned, killing two girls aged 7 and 9,....For a while, I agreed with Juan Cole and was against immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Recently, he has changed. So have I. We don't have any choice. We must get out. Our presence does nothing but fuel the insurgency which, like a mad beast, is feeding on the lives of its own children.
A short time later, another roadside bomb exploded in Tikrit near a car carrying children to school, wounding three... (emphasis added)
comes back to haunt us again and again. The following is a recent quote from this idiot in the WSJ: With a single stroke--the nomination of Harriet Miers--the president has damaged the prospects for reform of a left-leaning and imperialistic Supreme Court, taken the heart out of a rising generation of constitutional scholars, and widened the fissures within the conservative movement. That's not a bad day's work--for liberals. There is, to say the least, a heavy presumption that Ms. Miers, though undoubtedly possessed of many sterling qualities, is not qualified to be on the Supreme Court. (emphasis added)As if liberals had anything to do with Dark Eyes nomination, or this is not the same court that elevated a dyslexic bumpkin to the White House. Jeez. Not that I disagree with his estimation of her abilities, though. But we forget what this man is infamous for:
When the Watergate scandal reached a similar stage in October 1973, President Richard Nixon, ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire the intrepid special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson resigned rather than carry out Nixon's order; and so did his deputy William Ruckleshaus. So Nixon had to reach farther down into the Justice department where he found Robert Bork, who promptly dismissed Cox in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre. (emphasis added)What might happen if Fitzgerald indicts Cheney? It is inconceivable that Albert "Chico" Gonzales woud ever resign over this. Just the opposite, he would be rubbing his hands in glee. He has much nastier things up his sleeve. Poor Fitzy would most likely undergo "Extreme Rendition" to Kazakhstan or parts nearby.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: U.S. policy is not to send detainees "to countries where we believe or we know that they're going to be tortured." If a country has a history of torture, Washington seeks additional assurances that it will not be used against the transferred detainee. But the government "can't fully control" what other nations do. He does not know whether countries have always complied with their promises (Washington Post, March 8, 2005)(emphasis added).
First, he could close down his Washington office; return to his work in Chicago, where he serves as the U.S. Attorney; and simply issue a statement that his investigation has ended. (He has no authority to write a report, for the information he has obtained is subject to Rule 6(e) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and thus is secret).Pretty clearly Dean thinks that in the win-place-show categories, Fitzmas comes up wanting. Damn! Dean raises the spectre always present in Washington (and London, and Moscow, etc. etc.) that such indictments would compromise National Security. Of course!
Second, he could extend the grand jury for whatever time he needs to complete his investigation.
And third, he could issue one or more indictments.
We have been kept on tenter hooks and any information that we obtain at this point will be anticlimactic, I can guarantee it. What can Fitzgerald, a good Republican, do? If he indicts Rove and Libby with Cheney as a co-conspirator, we will be forced into a constitutional crisis because, as pointed out before, we are not a parliamentary democracy. We can't remove the government except every four years and we, the dumb idiots that we are, passed up the chance in 2004. Oh, that we were such a government and the will of the people could be more rapidly effected. If these indictments come down, I am not sure we can make it to 2008.Mr. Fitzgerald, please do not be a Scrooge, you will hear chains rattling for the rest of your life and beyond if you don't do the right thing. We made it through Watergate. Let us try this one too.
Rather than the corporate donations DeLay is accused of illegally funneling to candidates, defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin made an issue of the $3,400 in political donations the judge has made to Democratic causes, including one to a group critical of DeLay and Republicans.Let me ask a question. If a case involving a Democrat comes before the Supreme Court, say a case of a contested election, does that mean all the Judges on the Supreme Court who have ever given money to the Republican party have to recuse themselves?
Secondly, the questionnaire that she filled out is an important questionnaire, and obviously they will address the questions that the senators have in the questionnaire -- or as a result of the answers to the questions in the questionnaire.
"We'll bring the first part of our package ... to the floor when we have 218 votes," said Rep. Roy Blunt...the Missouri Republican who has temporarily replaced indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.This is the same Tom DeLay who, according to a blurb on Kos:
Blunt was referring a bill that Republican leaders had hoped to pass in the House on Thursday to cut mandatory federal programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid and student loans, by $50 billion over the next five years, instead of the previously planned $35 billion. (emphasis added)
A Texas court issued a warrant Wednesday for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to appear for booking, where he is likely to face the fingerprinting and photo mug shot he had hoped to avoid.(I know, I know, Boston elected a Mayor while he was still in jail. But, that's Boston. This is the Chamber of Deputies of the United States!)
Rep. Steny Hoyer...of Maryland, a leading Democrat, also said that Republicans have another motivation for pushing a new round of spending cuts....The Republican budget blueprint calls for $70 billion in tax cuts over five years, which would add about $35 billion to the U.S. debt unless more spending reductions are passed.Yea Steny!! You've got my vote.
Iraqis: Civilians Killed in U.S. BombingAs a little blip on the radar screen, her life came and went. And we sit here in our well lighted, air conditioned palaces and do nothing.
Monday October 17, 2005 3:31 PM
By THOMAS WAGNER Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. warplanes and helicopters bombed two western villages, killing an estimated 70 militants near a site where five American soldiers died in a weekend roadside blast, the military said Monday. Residents said at least 39 of the dead were civilians. Sunday's violence near the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi .......(emphasis added)
I was pleased to see that the Sunnis participated in the process. The idea of deciding to go into a ballot box is a positive development.I swear when I googled "Sunni" for images I got this picture:
The latest estimate of at least 40,000 deaths in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir alone would mean more than 54,000 people were killed when the magnitude-7.6 quake hit the mountains of northern Pakistan and India on Oct. 8 -- a jump of more than 13,000 from the official toll.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
The Normalization of Treason, the Republicans' gift to America
by John in DC - 10/16/2005 06:52:00 PM
If a senior White House staffer had intentionally outed an American spy during World War II, he'd have been shot.
We're at war, George Bush keeps reminding us. We cannot continue with business as usual. A pre-9/11 mentality is deadly. Putting the lives of our troops at risk is treason.
Then why is the White House and the Republican party engaged in a concerted campaign to make treason acceptable during a time of war? That's exactly what they're doing. On numerous news shows today, Republican surrogates, their talking points ready, issued variations of the following concerning White House chief of staff Karl Rove's outing of a covert CIA agent as part of a political vendetta:
- It's the criminalization of politics
- Is this 'minor' leak really worth all this?
- Political payback is common and should not be criminalized
- Mis-speaking or mis-remembering is not a crime
Yes, the Republicans are now making light of an intentional effort to expose an undercover CIA agent, working on weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, no less, while we are at war in the Middle East on that very issue.
The GOP has become the party of treason.
It would be one thing for a senior adviser to the president to put the nation's security at risk during a time of war. That could be explained as an aberration - a quite serious one, no doubt - but a fluke nonetheless. But when the president himself refuses to keep his own word about firing that aberration, and when the entire Republican party rallies around that fluke and tries to minimize what is usually a capital offense during wartime, something is seriously wrong with that party and its leadership.
America is ignoring the Geneva Conventions because our president feels that winning this war is so paramount. Our Congress has watered down our civil rights laws. We have jailed American citizens with no access to legal counsel. And our President even believes it is worth lying to the American people in order to wage this so-important battle. All this because we are a nation at war and nothing will be permitted to stand in the way of this life-and-death struggle.
But when a senior aide to the President of the United States endangers the life of an undercover CIA agent, her colleagues and contacts around the world - when he chooses to put at risk our entire effort to undercover weapons of mass destruction before they are used to kill millions in an American city - what response do we get from the Bush White House and the Republican Party? A defensive (offensive) shrug.
The Republican party's gift to the American people, and the Bush administration's legacy, will be the normalization of treason. They are trying to convince Americans that betraying our country during wartime for personal gain is no more serious than running a stop sign or going 60 in a 55 zone.
If a senior aide to the president had intentionally outed an American undercover agent during World War II, an agent whose work was central to our mission of defeating the Germans, that aide would very likely be put to death. While no one is yet arguing that Karl Rove be executed, it is the height of hypocrisy and hubris for the Republican party to attempt to minimize a crime that not only puts our troops at risk, but risks the lives of every American man, woman and child.
It is truly a sad day when the Republican party minimizes treason in a selfish attempt to defend a traitor. President Bush has yet to give a clear explanation as to why 2,000 Americans have given their lives in Iraq. But one thing is for sure. It wasn't to defend our right to treason.
GPs told: prepare for 14 million flu victimsExcuse me. Excuse me! Aren't there planes that land at JFK from Heathrow every five minutes every frigging day of the year?
· Deadly virus enters Europe for the first time
· We are in the dark on epidemic threat, say doctors
Anushka Asthana, Jo Revill and Helena Smith in Athens
Sunday October 16, 2005
The Observer
The bird flu crisis moved a step closer to Britain's shores yesterday as the country's most senior medical adviser demanded that all doctors draw up emergency plans to distribute 14 million doses of drugs to combat the disease.
"Move along, folks, just move along. Nothing to see here."
My gut tells me that the letter is a forgery. Most likely it is a black psy-ops operation of the US. But it could also come from Iran, since the mistakes are those a Shiite might make when pretending to be a Sunni. Or it could come from an Iraqi Shiite group attempting to manipulate the United States. Hmmm. (emphasis added)You know, we can't win in this War when our own side may be propagating crap like this. At some point, we won't believe anybody (not that we do much believing anymore anyway).
Absinthe??? Jeebus, I thought this went out with Paul Valery, or at least John Paul (II) Sartre. Pictures of grungy French Cafes with slouchy spy type individuals (alright, I did read a lot of Alan Furst recently). You, of course, knew that Absinthe is also known under the rubric Wormwood. (Sounds like a C.S. Lewis character, or at least something out of Milton.)Absinthe, the emerald green liqueur associated with excess, is back in business. Having been banned in many countries in the early 20th century, its newly fashionable image...
Originally formulated in Switzerland, absinthe became most popular in 19th century France. Between 1875 and 1913 French consumption of the liquor increased 15-fold. It became an icon of "la vie de bohème," and in fin-de-siècle Paris 'heure verte' (the green [cocktail] hour) was a daily event. Although never as popular in Britain, the fashion of mixed drinks with a "spot" or "kick" of absinthe was reported in London as late as 1930.
Many creative artists had their lives touched by absinthe (Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde, Picasso). The illness of Vincent van Gogh was certainly exacerbated by excessive drinking of absinthe...
Absinthism was associated with gastrointestinal problems, acute auditory and visual hallucinations, epilepsy, brain damage, and increased risk of psychiatric illness and suicide..
alpha-Thujone (the active component of absinthe): gamma-Aminobutyric acid type A receptor modulation and metabolic detoxification.
...observations establish that alpha-thujone is a modulator of the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A receptor. First, the poisoning signs (and their alleviation by diazepam and phenobarbital) in mice are similar to those of the classical antagonist picrotoxinin.
The Thirty Years' War was a conflict fought between the years 1618 and 1648, principally in the Central European territory of the Holy Roman Empire, but also involving most of the major continental powers. It occurred for a number of reasons. Although it was from its outset a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the self-preservation of the Habsburg dynasty was also a central motive. (emphasis added)In any case, it seems bizzare to me that the Catholic Bishops in the United States aren't making a bigger deal over this heresy. They certainly jumped on John Kerry and some refused to give him communion if he was at their Mass not because of heresy but because he did not condemn abortion and homosexuality. For crying out loud:
The penalty for a baptized Catholic above the age of 18 who obstinately, publicly, and voluntarily manifests his or her adherence to an objective heresy is automatic excommunication (latae sententiae) according to Can. 1364 par.1 C.I.C..If a born again evangelical church in Texas isn't involved in heresy against the Roman Catholic Church I would like to know who is.
MiersThis baby is single. Wahoo! Oh Alan,has worshipped as a Catholic and attended Episcopalian and Presbyterian services, according to Judge Nathan Hecht of the Texas Supreme Court, who has dated Miers. She has been a congregant at Valley View for some 25 years and in 1979 was baptized by full immersion, consistent with the church's beliefs. (emphasis added)
Greenspan, who once dated television journalist Barbara Walters, married Andrea Mitchell, NBC’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, in 1997, after a 12-year relationship. They live in the Palisades neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Greenspan, who suffers from back pain, is famous for doing a good deal of his most important work in the mornings, while soaking in his bathtub.But watch out Nino "The Scallion":
Although many have noted his charms, Scalia'sAffirmative action? Affirmative action? Jezus, I never thought Bush would sink so low.
outspoken advocacy has alienated and at times offended some of his colleagues. Once, after a long tirade concluding that affirmative action constituted the most evil fruit of a fundamentally bad seed, a slightly offended Sandra Day O'Connor expressed her displeasure with the comment: "But, Nino, if it weren't for affirmative action, I wouldn't be here."(emphasis added)
(the latter was also pretty devastating to southern Louisiana) and how the victims of those natural disasters are still suffering, including children. Of course the media is now replete with horror stories from Pakistan of children still trapped in the rubble from the gigantic earthquake there.
Stanford robot wins $2 million raceThere is only one conclusion:
By Alicia Chang
Associated Press
PRIMM, Nev. -- A driverless Volkswagen won a race across the rugged Nevada desert Sunday, beating four other robot-guided vehicles that completed a Pentagon-sponsored contest aimed at making warfare safer for humans. (emphasis added)
"President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq ..." And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"George, I hate to tell you, but you fucked up...
In truth, they have endless ambitions of imperial domination and they wish to make everyone powerless except themselves…They seek to end dissent in every form and to control every aspect of life and to rule the soul itself.Remind me, who arrested Cindy Sheehan?
Washington, AP. In an ongoing series of surprises, Dick "Big Time" Cheney and his chief of staff, I. "Scooter" Libby, accepted a lateral offer by the Likuds East to fill vacancies that, as Coach "Sherry" Sharon indicated "occasionally come up." Big Time and Scooter also felt that potential time out sanctions by "Fitzy" Fitztgerald might interfere with their play time and that the stadium in Tel Aviv offered more opportunites. Big bonuses were rumored when they signed.So, what's Coach "Air Guitar" Bush going to do? We here at Central have it from a firm source, speaking sotto voce so as not to be indicted,
that Air Head will fill his roster with a pick from the Supremes, Far Right Division. The likely candidate for the VP slot will be "Scallions" Scalia, who has been itching to get across town for some time ever since Haliburton was providing free booze and sex (Jeff Gannon in the stable) for likely players. 
