PRESS RELEASE -- JULY 31, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Subject: WORST EVER SECURITY FLAW FOUND IN DIEBOLD TS VOTING MACHINE
Contact: Alan Dechert
Reference: PICTURES
(Click on thumbnail. Click again on lower half of picture for high resolution)
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA -- “This may be the worst security flaw we have seen in touch screen voting machines,” says Open Voting Foundation president, Alan Dechert. Upon examining the inner workings of one of the most popular paperless touch screen voting machines used in public elections in the United States, it has been determined that with the flip of a single switch inside, the machine can behave in a completely different manner compared to the tested and certified version.
“Diebold has made the testing and certification process practically irrelevant,” according to Dechert. “If you have access to these machines and you want to rig an election, anything is possible with the Diebold TS -- and it could be done without leaving a trace. All you need is a screwdriver.” This model does not produce a voter verified paper trail so there is no way to check if the voter’s choices are accurately reflected in the tabulation.
Open Voting Foundation is releasing 22 high-resolution close up pictures of the system. This picture, in particular, shows a “BOOT AREA CONFIGURATION” chart painted on the system board.
The most serious issue is the ability to choose between "EPROM" and "FLASH" boot configurations. Both of these memory sources are present. All of the switches in question (JP2, JP3, JP8, SW2 and SW4) are physically present on the board. It is clear that this system can ship with live boot profiles in two locations, and switching back and forth could change literally everything regarding how the machine works and counts votes. This could be done before or after the so-called "Logic And Accuracy Tests".
A third possible profile could be field-added in minutes and selected in the "external flash" memory location, the interface for which is present on the motherboard.
This is not a minor variation from the previously documented attack point on the newer Diebold TSx. To its credit, the TSx can only contain one boot profile at a time. Diebold has ensured that it is extremely difficult to confirm what code is in a TSx (or TS) at any one time but it is at least theoretically possible to do so. But in the TS, a completely legal and certified set of files can be instantly overridden and illegal uncertified code be made dominant in the system, and then this situation can be reversed leaving the legal code dominant again in a matter of minutes.
“These findings underscore the need for open testing and certification. There is no way such a security vulnerability should be allowed. These systems should be recalled”
OPEN VOTING FOUNDATION is a nonprofit non stock California corporation dedicated to demonstrating the need for and benefits of voting technology that can be publicly scrutinized.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
US begins building treaty-breaching germ war defence
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US begins building treaty-breaching germ war defence centre
US begins building treaty-breaching germ war defence centre Julian Borger in Washington Monday July 31, 2006 The Guardian Construction work has begun near Washington on a vast germ warfare laboratory intended to help protect the US against an attack with biological weapon, but critics say the laboratory's work will violate international law and its extreme secrecy will exacerbate a biological arms race. The National Biodefence Analysis and Countermeasures Centre (NBACC), due to be completed in 2008, will house heavily guarded and hermetically sealed chambers in which scientists simulate potential terrorist attacks.
To do so, the centre will have to produce and stockpile the world's most lethal bacteria and viruses, which is forbidden by the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. Three years before that treaty was agreed, President Richard Nixon halted the production of US biological weapons at Fort Detrick in Maryland. The same military base is the site for the new $128m (£70m), 160,000 sq ft laboratory.
The green light for its construction was given after the September 11 attacks, which coincided with a series of still-unsolved anthrax incidents that killed five people. The department of homeland security, which will run the centre, says its work is necessary to protect the country. "All the programmes we do are defensive in nature," Maureen McCarthy, director of homeland security research and development, told the Washington Post. "Our job is to ensure that the civilian population of the country is protected, and that we know what the threats are."
The biological weapons convention stipulates that the signatories must not "develop, produce, stockpile, or otherwise acquire or retain" biological weapons, and does not distinguish between offensive and defensive intentions.
A presentation given by Lieutenant Colonel George Korch said the NBACC would be used to apply "red team operational scenarios and capabilities" - military jargon for simulating enemy attacks.
Some analysts say the extraordinary secrecy surrounding the project will heighten suspicions of US intentions and accelerate work on similar facilities around the world.
US begins building treaty-breaching germ war defence centre Julian Borger in Washington Monday July 31, 2006 The Guardian Construction work has begun near Washington on a vast germ warfare laboratory intended to help protect the US against an attack with biological weapon, but critics say the laboratory's work will violate international law and its extreme secrecy will exacerbate a biological arms race. The National Biodefence Analysis and Countermeasures Centre (NBACC), due to be completed in 2008, will house heavily guarded and hermetically sealed chambers in which scientists simulate potential terrorist attacks.
To do so, the centre will have to produce and stockpile the world's most lethal bacteria and viruses, which is forbidden by the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. Three years before that treaty was agreed, President Richard Nixon halted the production of US biological weapons at Fort Detrick in Maryland. The same military base is the site for the new $128m (£70m), 160,000 sq ft laboratory.
The green light for its construction was given after the September 11 attacks, which coincided with a series of still-unsolved anthrax incidents that killed five people. The department of homeland security, which will run the centre, says its work is necessary to protect the country. "All the programmes we do are defensive in nature," Maureen McCarthy, director of homeland security research and development, told the Washington Post. "Our job is to ensure that the civilian population of the country is protected, and that we know what the threats are."
The biological weapons convention stipulates that the signatories must not "develop, produce, stockpile, or otherwise acquire or retain" biological weapons, and does not distinguish between offensive and defensive intentions.
A presentation given by Lieutenant Colonel George Korch said the NBACC would be used to apply "red team operational scenarios and capabilities" - military jargon for simulating enemy attacks.
Some analysts say the extraordinary secrecy surrounding the project will heighten suspicions of US intentions and accelerate work on similar facilities around the world.
George W. Bush 2000 for President - Son of President Bush
ush was at least complicit in World Trade Center attack
The single thing that sticks out in my mind about the World Trade Center attack is the fact that no fighter jets were scrambled to intercept those commercial jets. Those planes were in the air for over an hour after being hijacked - yet no interceptors we scrambled to stop them.
I used to live in Springfield Missouri. And a few years ago a famous golfer named Payne Stewart was killed in a plane crash. He was from Springfield - so this story had a greater local impact. What happened was that his plane - a small private jet with less than 10 people on board took off from Florida. Shortly after takeoff the plane went off course and failed to respond by radio. Within minutes fighter jets were scrambled and intercepted the plane. They observed frost on the inside of the window indicating a loss of cabin pressure - and that everyone was probably dead. The plane was on autopilot and flew for several hours before running out of fuel and crashing in South Dakota. What I clearly remember was being impressed with how fast that plane was intercepted.
On September 11th there were 4 commercial jets hijacked. All went off course - turned off their transponders - and refused to answer the radio. There was no doubt on the ground that 4 commercial jets we hijacked - yet no intercepter were scrambled - even though these planes were in the air for over an hour. It is standard operating procedure to scramble jets to see wqhat is going on. It doesn't take an order from the President to do this. But someone made an order to stand down and stopped the interceptors. Whoever gave that order is part of a government plot to allow the 9-11 tragedy to occur. I'm not prepared to say we were behind it. But we let it happen. And I have no doubts about that.
The single thing that sticks out in my mind about the World Trade Center attack is the fact that no fighter jets were scrambled to intercept those commercial jets. Those planes were in the air for over an hour after being hijacked - yet no interceptors we scrambled to stop them.
I used to live in Springfield Missouri. And a few years ago a famous golfer named Payne Stewart was killed in a plane crash. He was from Springfield - so this story had a greater local impact. What happened was that his plane - a small private jet with less than 10 people on board took off from Florida. Shortly after takeoff the plane went off course and failed to respond by radio. Within minutes fighter jets were scrambled and intercepted the plane. They observed frost on the inside of the window indicating a loss of cabin pressure - and that everyone was probably dead. The plane was on autopilot and flew for several hours before running out of fuel and crashing in South Dakota. What I clearly remember was being impressed with how fast that plane was intercepted.
On September 11th there were 4 commercial jets hijacked. All went off course - turned off their transponders - and refused to answer the radio. There was no doubt on the ground that 4 commercial jets we hijacked - yet no intercepter were scrambled - even though these planes were in the air for over an hour. It is standard operating procedure to scramble jets to see wqhat is going on. It doesn't take an order from the President to do this. But someone made an order to stand down and stopped the interceptors. Whoever gave that order is part of a government plot to allow the 9-11 tragedy to occur. I'm not prepared to say we were behind it. But we let it happen. And I have no doubts about that.
Camp Casey III and Iraq
Monday, July 31st, 2006
Camp Casey III and Iraq
By Cindy Sheehan
After BushCo's stooge, Nouri al-Maliki was in America last week thanking soldiers for their sacrifices in helping the USA kill and oppress his very own people and thanking Congress for giving George a blank check to spend how he sees fit to kill and oppress the Iraqi people, almost 4,000 of our soldiers in Alaska's 172nd Stryker Brigade were shown how much they are appreciated by having their enlistments extended another 120 days.
I saw the Angel of Death in the skin of Donald Rumsfeld say, while he was busy rushing in or out of the Pentagon (it doesn't really matter), that it is "unfortunate" that the soldiers have to remain in Iraq. I think it is unfortunate for our troops and for the innocent people of Iraq and Afghanistan that Donald Rumsfeld has to remain as the Secretary of War.
I can't imagine how disappointed the families and the soldiers must feel. The 172nd has been in the violent Anbar Province for almost a year and I am sure they and their families were starting to really look forward to their homecoming. I can imagine that there are more than a few mothers out there who were allowing themselves to start breathing again. I am sure mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, children, aunts and uncles, and extended friends and family were already planning coming home parties and anticipating the enormous hugs and overwhelming sense of relief that would accompany their soldiers home, too. Now the 172nd will be redeployed to Baghdad to be right smack dab in the middle of sectarian violence and back in the thick of things. Four more months of heat, spiders the size of puppies, MREs, anxiety and peril; as their Secretary of War and Commander in Chief drive around DC in cushy air-conditioned and up-armored SUVs and also get to sleep in comfy beds, cozy in the fact that the sacrifices of our children and their families are guaranteeing Exxon and other war bandits billions of dollars in profits.
Right-wing people who support the killing of innocent men, women, and children, are trying to stir up crap about my land purchase in Crawford, Tx to run Camp Casey. The worst thing that I have heard a Crawford resident say is that I am a "dumb Democrat." The crap that NEEDS to be stirred up in Crawford is that George and Co have the nerve to go on vacation when our soldiers can't get home after serving in the vile mess that BushCo created. Instead of working for peace and stability in the region, our continued presence there is encouraging and causing the violence. Our troops need to be removed---not increased.
Recent polls showed that 72% or our troops wanted to start coming home by the end of this year and 83% of the Iraqi people want the occupation to end. Those numbers are significant if only for the fact that they are probably low---soldiers and occupied peoples have never felt at liberty, or even secure to share their feelings with the oppressors.
To this end of creating a peace plan that the Iraqi people want and can feel comfortable and secure with (it is, after all, their country), a contingent of peace activists, including myself, will travel to Amman, Jordan to meet with Iraqi Parliamentarians who don't parrot what BushCo wants them to say and would actually like coalition forces to be removed from their country. It is an historic and significant step in this abominable and shameful episode of our history. The meeting is also highly significant since our State Department has been transformed into an adjunct of the War Department and is headed by the Deputy Secretary of War: Condi Rice. We have no diplomats in our country: just war mongers who can clear brush, shop for shoes, and laugh at gullible Americans all the way to the bank while they are depositing their war profits.
We will be meeting with the Iraqi representatives in Amman on August 4th, and many of us will return to Camp Casey in Crawford on August 6th to outline the plan and present a way that Americans and Iraqis can work together to end the killing on both sides of the conflict. August 6th is also a very meaningful date for me because it is the same day, one year ago, that I originally sat in the ditch with other peace mongers and we were eventually joined by thousands of peace mongers from all over the world.
On that day, we will ask to meet with George again to brief him on our meeting with real Iraqis who live, work, and raise their families outside of the Green Zone and outside of the influence of DC. Due to past performance, I don't think he will meet with us, (not very neighborly) but I am sure he will know that we are there and we have an Iraqi driven plan when his only plan is to kill more people because so many have already been killed---which is what "stay the course" and "honor the sacrifices of the fallen" really mean. George is so comfortable cutting and running from Crawford when he feels threatened by the truth, I wish he would cut our soldiers loose from the nightmare of occupation and allow Iraqis to run their own country.
Please come to Camp Casey this year, or donate to help promote peace for our time and our world. Since George has rescheduled his summer to avoid us, we will reschedule our summer to not allow him the pleasure of having a leisurely vacation while the Middle East is burning because of his policies.
If we can't count on our leaders to solve conflicts non-violently, then we must count on ourselves.
We need to get busy putting peace into practice. This is the time to do it and Camp Casey is the place where it will get done.
The Camp Casey dates have been changed to accommodate George's schedule and will be August 6th to September 2nd. Please go to the Gold Star Families for Peace website to stay posted on future exciting developments for Camp Casey III this summer.
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan who was killed in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder and President of Gold Star Families for Peace and currently on Day 27 of the Troops Home Fast.
Camp Casey III and Iraq
By Cindy Sheehan
After BushCo's stooge, Nouri al-Maliki was in America last week thanking soldiers for their sacrifices in helping the USA kill and oppress his very own people and thanking Congress for giving George a blank check to spend how he sees fit to kill and oppress the Iraqi people, almost 4,000 of our soldiers in Alaska's 172nd Stryker Brigade were shown how much they are appreciated by having their enlistments extended another 120 days.
I saw the Angel of Death in the skin of Donald Rumsfeld say, while he was busy rushing in or out of the Pentagon (it doesn't really matter), that it is "unfortunate" that the soldiers have to remain in Iraq. I think it is unfortunate for our troops and for the innocent people of Iraq and Afghanistan that Donald Rumsfeld has to remain as the Secretary of War.
I can't imagine how disappointed the families and the soldiers must feel. The 172nd has been in the violent Anbar Province for almost a year and I am sure they and their families were starting to really look forward to their homecoming. I can imagine that there are more than a few mothers out there who were allowing themselves to start breathing again. I am sure mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, children, aunts and uncles, and extended friends and family were already planning coming home parties and anticipating the enormous hugs and overwhelming sense of relief that would accompany their soldiers home, too. Now the 172nd will be redeployed to Baghdad to be right smack dab in the middle of sectarian violence and back in the thick of things. Four more months of heat, spiders the size of puppies, MREs, anxiety and peril; as their Secretary of War and Commander in Chief drive around DC in cushy air-conditioned and up-armored SUVs and also get to sleep in comfy beds, cozy in the fact that the sacrifices of our children and their families are guaranteeing Exxon and other war bandits billions of dollars in profits.
Right-wing people who support the killing of innocent men, women, and children, are trying to stir up crap about my land purchase in Crawford, Tx to run Camp Casey. The worst thing that I have heard a Crawford resident say is that I am a "dumb Democrat." The crap that NEEDS to be stirred up in Crawford is that George and Co have the nerve to go on vacation when our soldiers can't get home after serving in the vile mess that BushCo created. Instead of working for peace and stability in the region, our continued presence there is encouraging and causing the violence. Our troops need to be removed---not increased.
Recent polls showed that 72% or our troops wanted to start coming home by the end of this year and 83% of the Iraqi people want the occupation to end. Those numbers are significant if only for the fact that they are probably low---soldiers and occupied peoples have never felt at liberty, or even secure to share their feelings with the oppressors.
To this end of creating a peace plan that the Iraqi people want and can feel comfortable and secure with (it is, after all, their country), a contingent of peace activists, including myself, will travel to Amman, Jordan to meet with Iraqi Parliamentarians who don't parrot what BushCo wants them to say and would actually like coalition forces to be removed from their country. It is an historic and significant step in this abominable and shameful episode of our history. The meeting is also highly significant since our State Department has been transformed into an adjunct of the War Department and is headed by the Deputy Secretary of War: Condi Rice. We have no diplomats in our country: just war mongers who can clear brush, shop for shoes, and laugh at gullible Americans all the way to the bank while they are depositing their war profits.
We will be meeting with the Iraqi representatives in Amman on August 4th, and many of us will return to Camp Casey in Crawford on August 6th to outline the plan and present a way that Americans and Iraqis can work together to end the killing on both sides of the conflict. August 6th is also a very meaningful date for me because it is the same day, one year ago, that I originally sat in the ditch with other peace mongers and we were eventually joined by thousands of peace mongers from all over the world.
On that day, we will ask to meet with George again to brief him on our meeting with real Iraqis who live, work, and raise their families outside of the Green Zone and outside of the influence of DC. Due to past performance, I don't think he will meet with us, (not very neighborly) but I am sure he will know that we are there and we have an Iraqi driven plan when his only plan is to kill more people because so many have already been killed---which is what "stay the course" and "honor the sacrifices of the fallen" really mean. George is so comfortable cutting and running from Crawford when he feels threatened by the truth, I wish he would cut our soldiers loose from the nightmare of occupation and allow Iraqis to run their own country.
Please come to Camp Casey this year, or donate to help promote peace for our time and our world. Since George has rescheduled his summer to avoid us, we will reschedule our summer to not allow him the pleasure of having a leisurely vacation while the Middle East is burning because of his policies.
If we can't count on our leaders to solve conflicts non-violently, then we must count on ourselves.
We need to get busy putting peace into practice. This is the time to do it and Camp Casey is the place where it will get done.
The Camp Casey dates have been changed to accommodate George's schedule and will be August 6th to September 2nd. Please go to the Gold Star Families for Peace website to stay posted on future exciting developments for Camp Casey III this summer.
Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan who was killed in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder and President of Gold Star Families for Peace and currently on Day 27 of the Troops Home Fast.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Monday, June 26, 2006
IOL: Bush under fire by 9/11 conspiracy theorists
Bush under fire by 9/11 conspiracy theorists
June 26 2006 at 08:31AM
Los Angeles - They wore T-shirts that read: What Really Happened?, snapped up DVDs titled 9/11: The Great Illusion, and cheered as physicists, philosophers and terrorism experts decried the official version of the September 11 attacks that shook the United States to its core.
About 1 200 people gathered at a Los Angeles hotel at the weekend for what organisers billed as the largest conference on the plethora of conspiracy theories that see the 2001 attacks on Washington and New York as, at best, official negligence, and at worst an orchestrated US attempt to incite world war.
"There are so many prominent people who are incredibly well respected and who have stated that the evidence is overwhelming that 9/11 was an inside job," syndicated radio talkshow host Alex Jones told a news conference.
"There are hundreds of smoking guns that people need to be made aware of," said Jones, calling for the impeachment of President George Bush and charging that the mainstream media had been slow to cover the growing movement of 9/11 sceptics.
'9/11 was an inside job'
The 9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda conference comprised two days of seminars, video presentations and talks by groups including Scholars for 9/11 Truth, www.infowars.com and an appearance by actor Charlie Sheen.
Most are convinced the US military command "stood down" on the day of the attack, that the hijackers were trained at US military bases, and that the World Trade Centre towers collapsed because of a series of controlled explosions set before they were hit by two hijacked planes.
Suggested motives range from expected benefits for US arms and oil conglomerates to revolutionary plans for a new world order headed by the US.
The theories, derided by critics as wild and far-fetched, have mostly been confined to the Internet, talk radio and the alternative press. But an August 2004 Zogby opinion poll revealed that 49 percent of New York residents believed US leaders knew in advance of the attacks and failed to act.
The 9/11 Commission, set up in 2002, cited government intelligence lapses in the failure to prevent the attacks, which killed about 3 000 people.
'Wild and far-fetched'
A 10 000-page investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology held that jet-fuel fires weakened the structure of the Twin Towers and led to their collapse.
Sheen, star of the TV sitcom Two And A Half Men, provoked a media storm in March by calling in interviews for an independent investigation.
Sheen "brings the movement some legitimacy," said a Los Angeles student attending the conference, who gave his name as Rico.
Webster Tarpley, author of 911 Synthetic Terror; Made in USA, said the attacks were an example of "state-sponsored, false-flag terrorism" designed by rogue CIA elements "to start the war of civilisations".
Tarpley said Washington was "gripped by war psychosis" and had used terror as a pretext to turn the US into a police state. - Reuters
June 26 2006 at 08:31AM
Los Angeles - They wore T-shirts that read: What Really Happened?, snapped up DVDs titled 9/11: The Great Illusion, and cheered as physicists, philosophers and terrorism experts decried the official version of the September 11 attacks that shook the United States to its core.
About 1 200 people gathered at a Los Angeles hotel at the weekend for what organisers billed as the largest conference on the plethora of conspiracy theories that see the 2001 attacks on Washington and New York as, at best, official negligence, and at worst an orchestrated US attempt to incite world war.
"There are so many prominent people who are incredibly well respected and who have stated that the evidence is overwhelming that 9/11 was an inside job," syndicated radio talkshow host Alex Jones told a news conference.
"There are hundreds of smoking guns that people need to be made aware of," said Jones, calling for the impeachment of President George Bush and charging that the mainstream media had been slow to cover the growing movement of 9/11 sceptics.
'9/11 was an inside job'
The 9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda conference comprised two days of seminars, video presentations and talks by groups including Scholars for 9/11 Truth, www.infowars.com and an appearance by actor Charlie Sheen.
Most are convinced the US military command "stood down" on the day of the attack, that the hijackers were trained at US military bases, and that the World Trade Centre towers collapsed because of a series of controlled explosions set before they were hit by two hijacked planes.
Suggested motives range from expected benefits for US arms and oil conglomerates to revolutionary plans for a new world order headed by the US.
The theories, derided by critics as wild and far-fetched, have mostly been confined to the Internet, talk radio and the alternative press. But an August 2004 Zogby opinion poll revealed that 49 percent of New York residents believed US leaders knew in advance of the attacks and failed to act.
The 9/11 Commission, set up in 2002, cited government intelligence lapses in the failure to prevent the attacks, which killed about 3 000 people.
'Wild and far-fetched'
A 10 000-page investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology held that jet-fuel fires weakened the structure of the Twin Towers and led to their collapse.
Sheen, star of the TV sitcom Two And A Half Men, provoked a media storm in March by calling in interviews for an independent investigation.
Sheen "brings the movement some legitimacy," said a Los Angeles student attending the conference, who gave his name as Rico.
Webster Tarpley, author of 911 Synthetic Terror; Made in USA, said the attacks were an example of "state-sponsored, false-flag terrorism" designed by rogue CIA elements "to start the war of civilisations".
Tarpley said Washington was "gripped by war psychosis" and had used terror as a pretext to turn the US into a police state. - Reuters
The Impeachment Project
he Impeachment Project:
If you feel George W. Bush should be impeached, paint a sign that says "Impeach." and post it in a public place. Details at: http://theimpeachproject.com
Send pictures to: freewayblogger@yahoo.com
The right to post political speech on public property is absolutely guaranteed under the First Amendment of the Constitution. We really need to start using it.
If you feel your country or its democracy is in peril, it's not only your right to speak out, it's your duty as a citizen.
When the founding fathers gave us the right to free political expression, they did it for a reason: so we could Sound The Alarm if we felt our nation was in peril.
It is.
FUN FACT!
If everyone in this country who felt President Bush should be impeached put up a sign, there'd be over 85 million signs.
Send your pictures to:
freewayblogger@yahoo.com
If you feel George W. Bush should be impeached, paint a sign that says "Impeach." and post it in a public place. Details at: http://theimpeachproject.com
Send pictures to: freewayblogger@yahoo.com
The right to post political speech on public property is absolutely guaranteed under the First Amendment of the Constitution. We really need to start using it.
If you feel your country or its democracy is in peril, it's not only your right to speak out, it's your duty as a citizen.
When the founding fathers gave us the right to free political expression, they did it for a reason: so we could Sound The Alarm if we felt our nation was in peril.
It is.
FUN FACT!
If everyone in this country who felt President Bush should be impeached put up a sign, there'd be over 85 million signs.
Send your pictures to:
freewayblogger@yahoo.com
Gold Star Famillies For Peace�:�Camp Casey August 16th-Sept 2nd 2006
Camp Casey August 16th-Sept 2nd 2006
Cindy Sheehan and Gold Star Families for Peace will be returning to Crawford Tx. President Bush has still not satisfactorily answered our question, "What Noble Cause did our loved ones die for?" One year later we are still in the quagmire that is Iraq. As of this writing 2497 of our brave and noble military men and women have died for this Noble Cause. Join us at Camp Casey and show the President that we will not accept one more death be it American or Iraqi.
Camp Casey is run soley through donations and volunteers. We need help to make this summer as successful as last year. Please donate
Camp Casey ettiquette and General info
Camp Casey Calendar of events
Crawford Texas Weather report
List of things to bring
This list will be updated frequently. Please check back.
Previous Camp Casey Photos
Crawford Peace House website
Visit the Crawford Peace House for more info.
Cindy Sheehan and Gold Star Families for Peace will be returning to Crawford Tx. President Bush has still not satisfactorily answered our question, "What Noble Cause did our loved ones die for?" One year later we are still in the quagmire that is Iraq. As of this writing 2497 of our brave and noble military men and women have died for this Noble Cause. Join us at Camp Casey and show the President that we will not accept one more death be it American or Iraqi.
Camp Casey is run soley through donations and volunteers. We need help to make this summer as successful as last year. Please donate
Camp Casey ettiquette and General info
Camp Casey Calendar of events
Crawford Texas Weather report
List of things to bring
This list will be updated frequently. Please check back.
Previous Camp Casey Photos
Crawford Peace House website
Visit the Crawford Peace House for more info.
Warnings on WMD Fabricator''Were Ignored
June 25th, 2006 3:20 pm
Warnings on WMD 'Fabricator' Were Ignored, Ex-CIA Aide Says
By Joby Warrick / Washington Post
In late January 2003, as Secretary of State Colin Powell prepared to argue the Bush administration's case against Iraq at the United Nations, veteran CIA officer Tyler Drumheller sat down with a classified draft of Powell's speech to look for errors. He found a whopper: a claim about mobile biological labs built by Iraq for germ warfare.
Drumheller instantly recognized the source, an Iraqi defector suspected of being mentally unstable and a liar. The CIA officer took his pen, he recounted in an interview, and crossed out the whole paragraph.
A few days later, the lines were back in the speech. Powell stood before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5 and said: "We have first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails."
The sentence took Drumheller completely by surprise.
"We thought we had taken care of the problem," said the man who was the CIA's European operations chief before retiring last year, "but I turn on the television and there it was, again."
While the administration has repeatedly acknowledged intelligence failures over Iraqi weapons claims that led to war, new accounts by former insiders such as Drumheller shed light on one of the most spectacular failures of all: How U.S. intelligence agencies were eagerly drawn in by reports about a troubled defector's claims of secret germ factories in the Iraqi desert. The mobile labs were never found.
Drumheller, who is writing a book about his experiences, described in extensive interviews repeated attempts to alert top CIA officials to problems with the defector, code-named Curveball, in the days before the Powell speech. Other warnings came prior to President Bush's State of the Union address on Jan. 28, 2003. In the same speech that contained the now famous "16 words" on Iraqi attempts to acquire uranium, Bush spoke in far greater detail about mobile labs "designed to produce germ warfare agents."
The warnings triggered debates within the CIA but ultimately made no visible impact at the top, current and former intelligence officials said. In briefing Powell before his U.N. speech, George Tenet, then the CIA director, personally vouched for the accuracy of the mobile-lab claim, according to participants in the briefing. Tenet now says he did not learn of the problems with Curveball until much later and that he received no warnings from Drumheller or anyone else.
"No one mentioned Drumheller, or Curveball," Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Powell's chief of staff at the time, said in an interview. "I didn't know the name Curveball until months afterward."
Curveball's role in shaping U.S. declarations about Iraqi bioweapons capabilities was first described in a series of reports in the Los Angeles Times, and later in a March 2005 report by a presidential commission on U.S. intelligence failures regarding allegations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. But Drumheller's first-hand accounts add new detail about the CIA's embrace of a source whose credibility was already unraveling.
More than a year after Powell's speech, after an investigation that extended to three continents, the CIA acknowledged that Curveball was a con artist who drove a taxi in Iraq and spun his engineering knowledge into a fantastic but plausible tale about secret bioweapons factories on wheels.
But in the fall of 2002, Curveball was living the life of an important spy. A Baghdad native whose real name has never been released, he was residing in a safe house in Germany, where he had requested asylum three years earlier. In return for immigration permits for himself and his family, the Iraqi supplied Germany's foreign intelligence service with what appeared to be a rare insider's account of one of President Saddam Hussein's long-rumored WMD programs.
Curveball described himself as a chemical engineer who had worked inside an unusual kind of laboratory, one that was built on a trailer bed and produced weapons for germ warfare. He furnished detailed, technically complex descriptions of mobile labs and even described an industrial accident that he said killed a dozen people.
The German intelligence agency BND faithfully passed Curveball's stories to the Americans. Over time, the informant generated more than 100 intelligence reports on secret Iraqi weapons programs -- the only such reports from an informant claiming to have visited and worked in mobile labs. Other informants, also later discredited, had claimed indirect knowledge of mobile labs.
In late 2002, the Bush administration began scouring intelligence files for reports of Iraqi weapons threats. Drumheller was asked to press a counterpart from a European intelligence agency for direct access to Curveball. Other officials confirmed that it was the German intelligence service.
The German official declined but then offered a startlingly candid assessment, Drumheller recalled. "He said, 'I think the guy is a fabricator,' " Drumheller said, recounting the conversation with the official, whom he declined to name. "He said: 'We also think he has psychological problems. We could never validate his reports.' "
When Drumheller relayed the warning to his superiors in October 2002, it sparked what he described as "a series of the most contentious meetings I've ever seen" in three decades of government work.
Although no American had ever interviewed Curveball, analysts with the CIA's Center for Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control believed the informant's technical descriptions were too detailed to be fabrications.
"People were cursing. These guys were absolutely, violently committed to it," Drumheller said. "They would say to us, 'You're not scientists, you don't understand.' "
In January 2003, Drumheller received a new request from CIA headquarters to contact the German intelligence service about Curveball. This time, Drumheller recalled, the U.S. spy agency had three questions:
Could a U.S. official refer to Curveball's mobile lab accounts in an upcoming political speech?
Could the Germans guarantee that Curveball would stand by his account?
Could German intelligence verify Curveball's claims?
The reply from Berlin, as Drumheller recalls it, was less than encouraging: There are no guarantees.
"They said, 'We have never been able to verify his claims,' " Drumheller recalled. "And that was all sent up to Tenet's office."
When Drumheller listened to Bush's speech several days later, he was astonished to hear the mobile labs described in detail.
"Boom, there it was," he said.
A few days later, Drumheller was handed a draft of another key speech on Iraq: Powell's remarks to the U.N. Security Council accusing Hussein of reconstituting his WMD programs. This time, the speech included an obvious reference to Curveball -- an unnamed "chemical engineer" who worked in one of the labs -- as well as detailed drawings of mobile labs inspired by Curveball's descriptions.
Drumheller said he called the office of John E. McLaughlin, then the CIA deputy director, and was told to come there immediately. Drumheller said he sat across from McLaughlin and an aide in a small conference room and spelled out his concerns.
McLaughlin responded with alarm and said Curveball was "the only tangible source" for the mobile lab story, Drumheller recalled, adding that the deputy director promised to quickly investigate.
Portions of Drumheller's account of his meetings with McLaughlin and Tenet appear in the final report of the Silberman-Robb commission, which was appointed by Bush to investigate prewar U.S. intelligence failures on Iraq's weapons programs. The report cites e-mails and interviews with other CIA officials who were aware of the meetings.
In responding to questions about Drumheller, McLaughlin provided The Post with a copy of the statement he gave in response to the commission's report. The statement said he had no memories of the meeting with Drumheller and had no written documentation that the meeting took place.
"If someone had made these doubts clear to me, I would not have permitted the reporting to be used in Secretary Powell's speech," McLaughlin said in the statement.
In their briefings to Powell on Feb. 4, one day before the secretary's U.N. speech, Tenet and McLaughlin expressed nothing but confidence in the mobile-lab story, according to Wilkerson, Powell's chief of staff, who was present during the briefings.
"Powell and I were both suspicious because there were no pictures of the mobile labs," Wilkerson said. The drawings were constructed from Curveball's accounts.
But the CIA officials were persuasive. Wilkerson said the two men described the evidence on the mobile labs as exceptionally strong, based on multiple sources whose stories were independently corroborated.
"They said: 'This is it, Mr. Secretary. You can't doubt this one,' " Wilkerson said.
On the eve of the U.N. speech, Drumheller received a late-night phone call from Tenet, who said he was checking final details of the speech. Drumheller said he brought up the mobile labs.
"I said: 'Hey, boss, you're not going to use that stuff in the speech . . . ? There are real problems with that,' " Drumheller said, recalling the conversation.
Drumheller recalled that Tenet seemed distracted and tired and told him not to worry.
The following day, Tenet was seated directly behind Powell at the U.N. Security Council as the secretary of state presented a detailed lecture and slide show about an Iraqi mobile biological weapons program.
Tenet, responding to questions about Drumheller's accounts, provided to The Post a statement he had given in response to the Silberman-Robb Commission report in which he said he didn't learn of the problems with Curveball until much later. He did not recall talking to Drumheller about Curveball, and said it was "simply wrong" for anyone to imply that he knew about the problems with Curveball's credibility.
"Nobody came forward to say there is a serious problem with Curveball or that we have been told by the foreign representative of the service handling him that there are worries that he is a 'fabricator,' " Tenet said in his statement.
In late summer 2003, seven months after the U.N. speech, Tenet called Powell to say that the Curveball story had fallen apart, Wilkerson said. The call amounted to an admission that all of the CIA's claims Powell used in his speech about Iraqi weapons were wrong.
"They had hung on for a long time, but finally Tenet called Powell to say, 'We don't have that one, either,' " Wilkerson recalled. "The mobile labs were the last thing to go."
Staff researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report
Warnings on WMD 'Fabricator' Were Ignored, Ex-CIA Aide Says
By Joby Warrick / Washington Post
In late January 2003, as Secretary of State Colin Powell prepared to argue the Bush administration's case against Iraq at the United Nations, veteran CIA officer Tyler Drumheller sat down with a classified draft of Powell's speech to look for errors. He found a whopper: a claim about mobile biological labs built by Iraq for germ warfare.
Drumheller instantly recognized the source, an Iraqi defector suspected of being mentally unstable and a liar. The CIA officer took his pen, he recounted in an interview, and crossed out the whole paragraph.
A few days later, the lines were back in the speech. Powell stood before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5 and said: "We have first-hand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails."
The sentence took Drumheller completely by surprise.
"We thought we had taken care of the problem," said the man who was the CIA's European operations chief before retiring last year, "but I turn on the television and there it was, again."
While the administration has repeatedly acknowledged intelligence failures over Iraqi weapons claims that led to war, new accounts by former insiders such as Drumheller shed light on one of the most spectacular failures of all: How U.S. intelligence agencies were eagerly drawn in by reports about a troubled defector's claims of secret germ factories in the Iraqi desert. The mobile labs were never found.
Drumheller, who is writing a book about his experiences, described in extensive interviews repeated attempts to alert top CIA officials to problems with the defector, code-named Curveball, in the days before the Powell speech. Other warnings came prior to President Bush's State of the Union address on Jan. 28, 2003. In the same speech that contained the now famous "16 words" on Iraqi attempts to acquire uranium, Bush spoke in far greater detail about mobile labs "designed to produce germ warfare agents."
The warnings triggered debates within the CIA but ultimately made no visible impact at the top, current and former intelligence officials said. In briefing Powell before his U.N. speech, George Tenet, then the CIA director, personally vouched for the accuracy of the mobile-lab claim, according to participants in the briefing. Tenet now says he did not learn of the problems with Curveball until much later and that he received no warnings from Drumheller or anyone else.
"No one mentioned Drumheller, or Curveball," Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Powell's chief of staff at the time, said in an interview. "I didn't know the name Curveball until months afterward."
Curveball's role in shaping U.S. declarations about Iraqi bioweapons capabilities was first described in a series of reports in the Los Angeles Times, and later in a March 2005 report by a presidential commission on U.S. intelligence failures regarding allegations that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. But Drumheller's first-hand accounts add new detail about the CIA's embrace of a source whose credibility was already unraveling.
More than a year after Powell's speech, after an investigation that extended to three continents, the CIA acknowledged that Curveball was a con artist who drove a taxi in Iraq and spun his engineering knowledge into a fantastic but plausible tale about secret bioweapons factories on wheels.
But in the fall of 2002, Curveball was living the life of an important spy. A Baghdad native whose real name has never been released, he was residing in a safe house in Germany, where he had requested asylum three years earlier. In return for immigration permits for himself and his family, the Iraqi supplied Germany's foreign intelligence service with what appeared to be a rare insider's account of one of President Saddam Hussein's long-rumored WMD programs.
Curveball described himself as a chemical engineer who had worked inside an unusual kind of laboratory, one that was built on a trailer bed and produced weapons for germ warfare. He furnished detailed, technically complex descriptions of mobile labs and even described an industrial accident that he said killed a dozen people.
The German intelligence agency BND faithfully passed Curveball's stories to the Americans. Over time, the informant generated more than 100 intelligence reports on secret Iraqi weapons programs -- the only such reports from an informant claiming to have visited and worked in mobile labs. Other informants, also later discredited, had claimed indirect knowledge of mobile labs.
In late 2002, the Bush administration began scouring intelligence files for reports of Iraqi weapons threats. Drumheller was asked to press a counterpart from a European intelligence agency for direct access to Curveball. Other officials confirmed that it was the German intelligence service.
The German official declined but then offered a startlingly candid assessment, Drumheller recalled. "He said, 'I think the guy is a fabricator,' " Drumheller said, recounting the conversation with the official, whom he declined to name. "He said: 'We also think he has psychological problems. We could never validate his reports.' "
When Drumheller relayed the warning to his superiors in October 2002, it sparked what he described as "a series of the most contentious meetings I've ever seen" in three decades of government work.
Although no American had ever interviewed Curveball, analysts with the CIA's Center for Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control believed the informant's technical descriptions were too detailed to be fabrications.
"People were cursing. These guys were absolutely, violently committed to it," Drumheller said. "They would say to us, 'You're not scientists, you don't understand.' "
In January 2003, Drumheller received a new request from CIA headquarters to contact the German intelligence service about Curveball. This time, Drumheller recalled, the U.S. spy agency had three questions:
Could a U.S. official refer to Curveball's mobile lab accounts in an upcoming political speech?
Could the Germans guarantee that Curveball would stand by his account?
Could German intelligence verify Curveball's claims?
The reply from Berlin, as Drumheller recalls it, was less than encouraging: There are no guarantees.
"They said, 'We have never been able to verify his claims,' " Drumheller recalled. "And that was all sent up to Tenet's office."
When Drumheller listened to Bush's speech several days later, he was astonished to hear the mobile labs described in detail.
"Boom, there it was," he said.
A few days later, Drumheller was handed a draft of another key speech on Iraq: Powell's remarks to the U.N. Security Council accusing Hussein of reconstituting his WMD programs. This time, the speech included an obvious reference to Curveball -- an unnamed "chemical engineer" who worked in one of the labs -- as well as detailed drawings of mobile labs inspired by Curveball's descriptions.
Drumheller said he called the office of John E. McLaughlin, then the CIA deputy director, and was told to come there immediately. Drumheller said he sat across from McLaughlin and an aide in a small conference room and spelled out his concerns.
McLaughlin responded with alarm and said Curveball was "the only tangible source" for the mobile lab story, Drumheller recalled, adding that the deputy director promised to quickly investigate.
Portions of Drumheller's account of his meetings with McLaughlin and Tenet appear in the final report of the Silberman-Robb commission, which was appointed by Bush to investigate prewar U.S. intelligence failures on Iraq's weapons programs. The report cites e-mails and interviews with other CIA officials who were aware of the meetings.
In responding to questions about Drumheller, McLaughlin provided The Post with a copy of the statement he gave in response to the commission's report. The statement said he had no memories of the meeting with Drumheller and had no written documentation that the meeting took place.
"If someone had made these doubts clear to me, I would not have permitted the reporting to be used in Secretary Powell's speech," McLaughlin said in the statement.
In their briefings to Powell on Feb. 4, one day before the secretary's U.N. speech, Tenet and McLaughlin expressed nothing but confidence in the mobile-lab story, according to Wilkerson, Powell's chief of staff, who was present during the briefings.
"Powell and I were both suspicious because there were no pictures of the mobile labs," Wilkerson said. The drawings were constructed from Curveball's accounts.
But the CIA officials were persuasive. Wilkerson said the two men described the evidence on the mobile labs as exceptionally strong, based on multiple sources whose stories were independently corroborated.
"They said: 'This is it, Mr. Secretary. You can't doubt this one,' " Wilkerson said.
On the eve of the U.N. speech, Drumheller received a late-night phone call from Tenet, who said he was checking final details of the speech. Drumheller said he brought up the mobile labs.
"I said: 'Hey, boss, you're not going to use that stuff in the speech . . . ? There are real problems with that,' " Drumheller said, recalling the conversation.
Drumheller recalled that Tenet seemed distracted and tired and told him not to worry.
The following day, Tenet was seated directly behind Powell at the U.N. Security Council as the secretary of state presented a detailed lecture and slide show about an Iraqi mobile biological weapons program.
Tenet, responding to questions about Drumheller's accounts, provided to The Post a statement he had given in response to the Silberman-Robb Commission report in which he said he didn't learn of the problems with Curveball until much later. He did not recall talking to Drumheller about Curveball, and said it was "simply wrong" for anyone to imply that he knew about the problems with Curveball's credibility.
"Nobody came forward to say there is a serious problem with Curveball or that we have been told by the foreign representative of the service handling him that there are worries that he is a 'fabricator,' " Tenet said in his statement.
In late summer 2003, seven months after the U.N. speech, Tenet called Powell to say that the Curveball story had fallen apart, Wilkerson said. The call amounted to an admission that all of the CIA's claims Powell used in his speech about Iraqi weapons were wrong.
"They had hung on for a long time, but finally Tenet called Powell to say, 'We don't have that one, either,' " Wilkerson recalled. "The mobile labs were the last thing to go."
Staff researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
George W. Bush - Terrorist in the White House - Main Page
George W. Bush - Terrorist in the White House - Main Page: "George W. Bush - Terrorist in the White House
America Is No Longer a Democratic Nation:
Zionists Have Seized Control During The 2000 ELECTION COUP D' ETAT, Installed Puppet Regime
9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB
WOW! NYC TRUTH GROUP UNVEILS SHOCKING BANNER AT WTC Posted By: billym [On 9/11 while W was reading about Goats, his father was in the situation room at the White House directing covert ops that saw Mossad agents remote control planes into the WTC and set off controlled demolitions there. -ed.]
Condoleeza Rice Warned Willie Brown Not To Fly On 9/11 PDF
Government Insider Says Bush Authorized 911 Attacks PDF From Thomas Buyea 9-17-4
Pattern of Megalomania by Schuyler Ebbets
When is George W. Bush going to go on trial for his crimes? -ed.
Austria's Haider says Bush is a war criminal PDF Sat Jun 17, 2006 [That's being too kind. Actually, he is clearly a terrorist. -ed.]
Chavez: Imprison 'genocidal' Bush PDF By: CNN on: 15.05.2006 [All in favor say Aye. The Ayes have it. -ed.]"
America Is No Longer a Democratic Nation:
Zionists Have Seized Control During The 2000 ELECTION COUP D' ETAT, Installed Puppet Regime
9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB
WOW! NYC TRUTH GROUP UNVEILS SHOCKING BANNER AT WTC Posted By: billym [On 9/11 while W was reading about Goats, his father was in the situation room at the White House directing covert ops that saw Mossad agents remote control planes into the WTC and set off controlled demolitions there. -ed.]
Condoleeza Rice Warned Willie Brown Not To Fly On 9/11 PDF
Government Insider Says Bush Authorized 911 Attacks PDF From Thomas Buyea 9-17-4
Pattern of Megalomania by Schuyler Ebbets
When is George W. Bush going to go on trial for his crimes? -ed.
Austria's Haider says Bush is a war criminal PDF Sat Jun 17, 2006 [That's being too kind. Actually, he is clearly a terrorist. -ed.]
Chavez: Imprison 'genocidal' Bush PDF By: CNN on: 15.05.2006 [All in favor say Aye. The Ayes have it. -ed.]"
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Bush the 'biggest terrorist in the world today'. 16/05/2006. ABC News Online
Bush the 'biggest terrorist in the world today'. 16/05/2006. ABC News Online: "Bush the 'biggest terrorist in the world today'
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has reacted angrily to new United States sanctions on his country.
The US has banned arms sales and technology transfers to Venezuela, because it says Mr Chavez's Government has failed to cooperate in the US-led war on terrorism.
Speaking on a private visit to London, the Venezuelan leader has thrown the accusation back at his accusers, calling the US an irrational empire and President George W Bush 'the biggest terrorist in the world today'.
'For that you would have to punish the Government of the United States which is practising terrorism,' he said.
'It's bombing whole towns, civilian populations, killing innocent people and women and children in Iraq.'
Mr Bush's administration has had thorny relations with the leftist Venezuelan President, whose country is the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, at 1.5 million barrels per day.
The US Government has charged Mr Chavez's Government with restricting the freedom of the press and harassing the Opposition, while Mr Chavez frequently criticises Mr Bush for the Iraq war and has openly called the US leader a 'coward' and a 'murderer'.
The sanctions announced on Monday ratcheted up US moves to isolate Venezuela in the military sphere.
In January, Washington had intervened to prohibit the sale of US arms or military technology to Venezuela by third countries, such as Spain and Brazil.
In recent months the United States has grown increasingly vocal in its opposition to Mr Chavez and his Government.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has cited Venezuela as the region's biggest problem and has called on US allies to mount a united front in dealing with it."
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has reacted angrily to new United States sanctions on his country.
The US has banned arms sales and technology transfers to Venezuela, because it says Mr Chavez's Government has failed to cooperate in the US-led war on terrorism.
Speaking on a private visit to London, the Venezuelan leader has thrown the accusation back at his accusers, calling the US an irrational empire and President George W Bush 'the biggest terrorist in the world today'.
'For that you would have to punish the Government of the United States which is practising terrorism,' he said.
'It's bombing whole towns, civilian populations, killing innocent people and women and children in Iraq.'
Mr Bush's administration has had thorny relations with the leftist Venezuelan President, whose country is the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, at 1.5 million barrels per day.
The US Government has charged Mr Chavez's Government with restricting the freedom of the press and harassing the Opposition, while Mr Chavez frequently criticises Mr Bush for the Iraq war and has openly called the US leader a 'coward' and a 'murderer'.
The sanctions announced on Monday ratcheted up US moves to isolate Venezuela in the military sphere.
In January, Washington had intervened to prohibit the sale of US arms or military technology to Venezuela by third countries, such as Spain and Brazil.
In recent months the United States has grown increasingly vocal in its opposition to Mr Chavez and his Government.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has cited Venezuela as the region's biggest problem and has called on US allies to mount a united front in dealing with it."
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Thank You Stephen Colbert.
Thank You Stephen Colbert.: "Thank You.
April 30th, 2006
“…This is a battle that can’t really be won — you either got it Saturday night (or Sunday morning, or whenever your life was made a little brighter by viewing Colbert’s performance) or you didn’t. Personally, I’m enjoying watching apologists for the status quo wear themselves out explaining why Colbert wasn’t funny. It’s extending the reach of his performance by days without either side breaking character — the mighty Colbert or the clueless, self-important media elite he was satirizing. For those who think the media shamed itself by rolling over for this administration, especially in the run-up to the Iraq war, Colbert’s skit is the gift that keeps on giving. Thank you, Stephen Colbert!”
-Joan Walsh, Salon Magazine
Colbert Speaks Truth to Power at the White House Correspondents Dinner
60798 Thank Yo"
April 30th, 2006
“…This is a battle that can’t really be won — you either got it Saturday night (or Sunday morning, or whenever your life was made a little brighter by viewing Colbert’s performance) or you didn’t. Personally, I’m enjoying watching apologists for the status quo wear themselves out explaining why Colbert wasn’t funny. It’s extending the reach of his performance by days without either side breaking character — the mighty Colbert or the clueless, self-important media elite he was satirizing. For those who think the media shamed itself by rolling over for this administration, especially in the run-up to the Iraq war, Colbert’s skit is the gift that keeps on giving. Thank you, Stephen Colbert!”
-Joan Walsh, Salon Magazine
Colbert Speaks Truth to Power at the White House Correspondents Dinner
60798 Thank Yo"
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Gen. Hayden is a Liar
Bush Watch Home: "Gen. Hayden is a Liar, and Implies Bush Is One, Too, Says NYT : 'The hearing produced important — and disquieting — news about President Bush's decision to spy on Americans without a warrant....The National Security Agency's domestic surveillance, which General Hayden ran while he led the agency, loomed over the proceedings. General Hayden could not explain coherently why he testified in 2002 that he had no authority to listen to Americans' phone calls without a warrant, when the president had already given him that authority....General Hayden's appearance also made it clear that the one warrantless spying operation Mr. Bush has acknowledged — listening to calls between the United States and other countries — is not the only one. And he testified that he did not, as Mr. Bush has said, design the N.S.A. operation, which violates the 28-year-old legal requirement for a warrant for any domestic wiretapping....The hearing drove home again that the spying is being conducted outside the constitutional system of checks and balances....Attorney General Alberto Gonzales enthusiastically subscribes to Mr. Bush's imperial vision of the presidency, as well as the president's disregard for the balance of powers. Mr. Gonzales's department recently quashed an investigation by its ethics office into the conduct of the Justice Department officials who approved the spying program....The issue is whether [collecting intelligence] will be done legally, and whether Congress will step up to this challenge of its duties and powers. General Hayden's hearing did not provide much hope on either front.'
Observed: Friday May 19"
Observed: Friday May 19"
Bush Watch Home
Bush Watch Home: "Bush Sec. of Treasury Caught in a Lie About Tanking Economy, says Krugman (excerpt): [The falling dollar, the weakening housing market, and the high cost of gas may usher in the end of the Bush spin economy.] 'On May 10 the White House issued a press release titled 'Setting the Record Straight: The New York Times Continues to Ignore America's Economic Progress.' The release attacked The Times for asserting that paychecks weren't keeping up with fixed costs like medical care and gasoline. The White House declared, 'But average hourly earnings have risen 3.8 percent over the past 12 months, their largest increase in nearly five years.'
'On Wednesday Treasury Secretary John Snow repeated that boast before a House committee. However, Representative Barney Frank was ready. He asked whether the number was adjusted for inflation; after flailing about, Mr. Snow admitted, sheepishly, that it wasn't. In fact, nearly all of the wage increase was negated by higher prices. Meanwhile, the return of economic gravity poses a definite threat to U.S. economic growth. After all, growth over the past three years was driven mainly by a housing boom and rapid growth in consumer spending. People were able to buy houses, even though housing prices rose much faster than incomes, because foreign purchases of U.S. debt kept interest rates low. People were able to keep spending, even though wages didn't keep up with inflation, because mortgage refinancing let them turn the rising value of their houses into ready cash.
'As I summarized it awhile back, we became a nation in which people make a living by selling one another houses, and they pay for the houses with money borrowed from China. Now that game seems to be coming to an end. We're going to have to find other ways to make a living — in particular, we're going to have to start selling goods and services, not just I.O.U.'s, to the rest of the world, and/or replace imports with domestic production. And adjusting to that new way of making a living will take time.'"
'On Wednesday Treasury Secretary John Snow repeated that boast before a House committee. However, Representative Barney Frank was ready. He asked whether the number was adjusted for inflation; after flailing about, Mr. Snow admitted, sheepishly, that it wasn't. In fact, nearly all of the wage increase was negated by higher prices. Meanwhile, the return of economic gravity poses a definite threat to U.S. economic growth. After all, growth over the past three years was driven mainly by a housing boom and rapid growth in consumer spending. People were able to buy houses, even though housing prices rose much faster than incomes, because foreign purchases of U.S. debt kept interest rates low. People were able to keep spending, even though wages didn't keep up with inflation, because mortgage refinancing let them turn the rising value of their houses into ready cash.
'As I summarized it awhile back, we became a nation in which people make a living by selling one another houses, and they pay for the houses with money borrowed from China. Now that game seems to be coming to an end. We're going to have to find other ways to make a living — in particular, we're going to have to start selling goods and services, not just I.O.U.'s, to the rest of the world, and/or replace imports with domestic production. And adjusting to that new way of making a living will take time.'"
Bush's Tax Cuts
Bush Watch Home: "Monday May 22
Bush's Tax Cuts To Wealthy Have Not Helped The Economy, Explains Krugman:
Alan Gertler, Reno, Nev.: I'm a scientist, not an economist, so I'm fairly naive when it comes to what drives the economy.
My question is this: Have the tax cuts stimulated the economy as claimed (which I don't believe given the past cases of Reagan and Bush senior), or has it been the willingness of the government to continue massive spending by increasing our debt that has led to the growth of the economy?
Paul Krugman: It's actually neither.
About the Bush tax cuts: the tax cuts of 2001 evidently didn't do the job; these days, the Bush people talk about the economy as if history began in the middle of 2003, after their SECOND wave of tax cuts. But while the economy did start growing, finally, in 2003, the growth wasn't at all of the form you'd expect if tax cuts were responsible. The main tax cuts were on dividends and capital gains; supposedly this would make it easier for businesses to raise funds and invest. But business investment hasn't been the main driver of growth; in fact, businesses have been sitting on huge piles of earnings, reluctant to invest. Instead, the big driver was housing construction and consumer spending. So what really happened? Low interest rates led to a housing boom that eventually turned into a housing bubble. High house prices made people feel richer, and they could borrow against the increased value of their homes, feeding consumer spending. Tax cuts had nothing to do with it."
Bush's Tax Cuts To Wealthy Have Not Helped The Economy, Explains Krugman:
Alan Gertler, Reno, Nev.: I'm a scientist, not an economist, so I'm fairly naive when it comes to what drives the economy.
My question is this: Have the tax cuts stimulated the economy as claimed (which I don't believe given the past cases of Reagan and Bush senior), or has it been the willingness of the government to continue massive spending by increasing our debt that has led to the growth of the economy?
Paul Krugman: It's actually neither.
About the Bush tax cuts: the tax cuts of 2001 evidently didn't do the job; these days, the Bush people talk about the economy as if history began in the middle of 2003, after their SECOND wave of tax cuts. But while the economy did start growing, finally, in 2003, the growth wasn't at all of the form you'd expect if tax cuts were responsible. The main tax cuts were on dividends and capital gains; supposedly this would make it easier for businesses to raise funds and invest. But business investment hasn't been the main driver of growth; in fact, businesses have been sitting on huge piles of earnings, reluctant to invest. Instead, the big driver was housing construction and consumer spending. So what really happened? Low interest rates led to a housing boom that eventually turned into a housing bubble. High house prices made people feel richer, and they could borrow against the increased value of their homes, feeding consumer spending. Tax cuts had nothing to do with it."
Mike Malloy on Bush
Mike Malloy: "He says he talks to God; is he insane? He says God tells him to invade countries and kill people by the thousands; is he insane? He is the worst political leader in US history; is he insane? This morning, President Chucklenuts was interviewed by NBC’s David Gregory on the Today Show. Gregory asked Bush why so many people disapprove of the job he’s doing. Bush brushed aside the public’s concern about his policies and insisted that nearly 70 percent of Americans are simply “unsettled.” Here’s the exchange:
GREGORY: Let me ask you about your leadership. In the most recent survey, your disapproval rating is now one point lower than Richard Nixon’s before he resigned the presidency. You are laughing.
BUSH: I’m not laughing –
GREGORY: Why? Why do you think that is?
BUSH: Because we’re at war, and war unsettles people. Listen, we got a great economy. We’ve added 5.2 million jobs in the last two and a half years. People are unsettled.
GREGORY: But, they’re not just unsettled, sir. They disapprove of the job you’re doing.
BUSH: That’s unsettled.
MALLOY: No, you’re insane.
"
GREGORY: Let me ask you about your leadership. In the most recent survey, your disapproval rating is now one point lower than Richard Nixon’s before he resigned the presidency. You are laughing.
BUSH: I’m not laughing –
GREGORY: Why? Why do you think that is?
BUSH: Because we’re at war, and war unsettles people. Listen, we got a great economy. We’ve added 5.2 million jobs in the last two and a half years. People are unsettled.
GREGORY: But, they’re not just unsettled, sir. They disapprove of the job you’re doing.
BUSH: That’s unsettled.
MALLOY: No, you’re insane.
"
The Writings of Greg Palast
The Writings of Greg Palast: "SPIES AND LIES: STEAL YOUR DATA, STEAL YOUR VOTE
Drum Major Blog
Thursday May 18, 2006
By Greg Palast
There are kooks and cranks and crazies among you who think that George Bush lost the 2004 election. For example, there's an audio blog going around with TV star Larry David reading a story called,'Kerry Won,' a chapter in a book called, Armed Madhouse. I know, because I wrote it.
How you go about jerry-rigging a democracy has a lot to do with two other, seemingly unrelated stories, in the news this week: illegal surveillance of our phone records and the new border war against immigrants.
The glue between these three stories -- elections manipulation, War on Terror and War on Immigration -- is a four letter: data.
ELECTIONS: I'm an investigative reporter for BBC TV. In that job, in November 2000, I discovered that Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush knocked tens of thousands of African-Americans off Florida voter rolls -- thereby handing the Presidency to Brother George. The key to the vote heist was a database of supposed 'felons' whose registration was 'purged.' They were innocent, but hey, that's the data game for you. One man's abuse of data bases is another man's inauguration.
On to 2004: Same game, new data bases and more purges. But there was a new twist, 'caging lists' which I discovered within Republican Party files (how I got them, well, read the book). These were lists of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Black folk (and a few Jewish voters) -- i.e. Democrats -- whom the Republican Party secretly planned to challenge on election day. They did. It's illegal, but hey, when you steal the Presidency you get the Justice Department as a bonus and that means you control the civil rights enforcement cops. It's the perfect crime.
The challenges, by the way, were based on 'suspicions' about a voters' proper address. We went through the confidential sheets and found, for example, Randall Prausa, one of a large group of African-American soldiers whose addresses became 'suspect' because they were shipped overseas.
But you can't keep using data to bend elections without more data. Hence, the War on Terror, while thin on hunting terrorists, is fat with contracts to hunt for your data profile, from your finances to your voting reco...[ Click here for full article ]"
Drum Major Blog
Thursday May 18, 2006
By Greg Palast
There are kooks and cranks and crazies among you who think that George Bush lost the 2004 election. For example, there's an audio blog going around with TV star Larry David reading a story called,'Kerry Won,' a chapter in a book called, Armed Madhouse. I know, because I wrote it.
How you go about jerry-rigging a democracy has a lot to do with two other, seemingly unrelated stories, in the news this week: illegal surveillance of our phone records and the new border war against immigrants.
The glue between these three stories -- elections manipulation, War on Terror and War on Immigration -- is a four letter: data.
ELECTIONS: I'm an investigative reporter for BBC TV. In that job, in November 2000, I discovered that Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush knocked tens of thousands of African-Americans off Florida voter rolls -- thereby handing the Presidency to Brother George. The key to the vote heist was a database of supposed 'felons' whose registration was 'purged.' They were innocent, but hey, that's the data game for you. One man's abuse of data bases is another man's inauguration.
On to 2004: Same game, new data bases and more purges. But there was a new twist, 'caging lists' which I discovered within Republican Party files (how I got them, well, read the book). These were lists of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Black folk (and a few Jewish voters) -- i.e. Democrats -- whom the Republican Party secretly planned to challenge on election day. They did. It's illegal, but hey, when you steal the Presidency you get the Justice Department as a bonus and that means you control the civil rights enforcement cops. It's the perfect crime.
The challenges, by the way, were based on 'suspicions' about a voters' proper address. We went through the confidential sheets and found, for example, Randall Prausa, one of a large group of African-American soldiers whose addresses became 'suspect' because they were shipped overseas.
But you can't keep using data to bend elections without more data. Hence, the War on Terror, while thin on hunting terrorists, is fat with contracts to hunt for your data profile, from your finances to your voting reco...[ Click here for full article ]"
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Monday, April 17, 2006
Stop The Madman Bush
Please. someone stop the madman
Bush from dropping a nuclear bomb in
Iran.
The Bush crime family and his neocons buddies
are insane people and must be stopped.
People should urge it's congressional/senators to
stop the madman Bush.
The same lies about Iran are being spreaded,
very much like The Pre-Iraq invasion.
While this buidup for war is being done the gas
prices are hitting the ceiling at more than
$3.00/gal to enrich more Bush's buddies from the
oil industry
Bush from dropping a nuclear bomb in
Iran.
The Bush crime family and his neocons buddies
are insane people and must be stopped.
People should urge it's congressional/senators to
stop the madman Bush.
The same lies about Iran are being spreaded,
very much like The Pre-Iraq invasion.
While this buidup for war is being done the gas
prices are hitting the ceiling at more than
$3.00/gal to enrich more Bush's buddies from the
oil industry
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Bush to Propose Billions in Cuts
Bush to Propose Billions in Cuts
Farm subsidies and food stamps are among the targets in the 2006 budget plan, to be sent to Congress on Monday. Opposition is building.
by Joel Havemann and Mary Curtius
WASHINGTON — President Bush will propose a 2006 budget Monday that, despite record spending of about $2.5 trillion, will call for billions of dollars in cuts that will touch people on food stamps and farmers on price supports, children under Medicaid and adults in public housing.
The lower-income Americans who benefit from food stamps and Medicaid do not typically provide the Republican Party with many votes or campaign contributions.
Even before the budget is officially sent to Congress on Monday, resistance to Bush's proposals was welling up Saturday from interest groups that benefit from federal aid and from the members of Congress who represent them.
Powerful agricultural interests were among the first to label Bush's proposed budget cuts as unfair and shortsighted. Farmers receive about $15 billion annually in federal farm program payments to help produce major commodities, including corn, cotton, rice and wheat.
California farmers could end up bearing a disproportionate share of the burden if the cuts in crop subsidies were enacted, said economist Daniel Sumner. "Rice and cotton are very important to this state," said Sumner, who is director of the Agricultural Issues Center at UC Davis.
The cuts are being proposed as the president is striving to keep a campaign promise to rein in government spending and halve the federal deficit in five years. The deficit has soared since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent war on terrorism — and as revenue has fallen as the economy has slowed and tax cuts have taken effect.
In addition to the cuts proposed in the 2006 budget, Bush is expected to ask Congress to approve in principle many billions of dollars in additional, unspecified cuts.
Bush has seemed to challenge congressional Republicans and Democrats to make the tough choices necessary to achieve the deficit reductions that members on both sides of the aisle have called for recently.
"I welcome the bipartisan calls to control the spending appetite of the federal government," he said Saturday in his weekly radio address. "On Monday, my administration will submit a budget that holds the growth of discretionary spending below inflation."
Deficit hawks outside the government welcomed Bush's tone but warned that members of Congress would fight to maintain spending for programs popular with their voters.
"It's going to be a tight budget," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group that lobbies for smaller deficits. "That doesn't mean it's going to be a realistic budget."
Bush's budget will cut "where the money is," Bixby said Saturday, "but it's also where the resistance is."
The lower-income Americans who benefit from food stamps and Medicaid do not typically provide the Republican Party with many votes or campaign contributions.
The proposed budget will give states less flexibility to include working poor families with children as beneficiaries, sources said.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said he was willing to trim farm subsidies if other programs suffered proportionately.
"But if they try to single out the farm bill," Chambliss told reporters on Capitol Hill last week, "then we are going to have one heck of a fight."
The administration will propose a 5% across-the-board cut in price supports for crops and a reduction from $360,000 to $250,000 in the annual cap on subsidies that farmers can receive.
Under the current system, some farmers evade the limit by dividing farms into several separate corporate entities, a practice that the budget also will seek to eliminate.
A Senate Agriculture Committee aide, saying evasion of the cap was extremely rare, argued that farmers needed the safety net of federal aid for the years when they could not sell their crops for the cost of producing them.
In a letter Thursday to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, a coalition of more than 100 organizations led by the American Farm Bureau Federation, said that Congress, in the 2002 bill that authorized farm subsidies for seven more years, had already cut subsidies by $4 billion a year by imposing the $360,000 cap.
"A budget that requires further cuts or structural weakening in these important programs will put at risk the promising environmental benefits of the bill and the nutritional health of some of the poorest populations in our country," the letter said.
In California, 1.5 metric tons of rice is grown a year, second only to Arkansas, said Tim Johnson, chief executive of the California Rice Commission, which has about 1,500 farmer members. Approximately 600,000 acres of farmland in the state were planted in rice in 2004.
"It's not just farmers that benefit — rice plays an important role in the economy of California," Johnson said. "We are an important export crop — about 40% of what's produced in the state is exported to Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other countries."
Daren Coppock, chief executive of the National Assn. of Wheat Growers, said the budget must not be balanced on the backs of farmers. Referring to the $360,000 maximum payment, he said: "If they change it now, that's not terribly helpful to those who made purchasing decisions over a seven-year planning period.
"The other thing to remember: The president always proposes, but Congress writes it and puts it into law," Coppock said. "There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of people to be heard from before this gets finished."
Rumors of the proposed farm subsidy cuts had been widely circulating in Washington for days before officials at the Department of Agriculture confirmed them in a background briefing to reporters. But the food stamp cut, expected to be about $1 billion in a $32-billion program, received less notice.
States must provide food stamps to people on cash welfare. But this is a much smaller population since Congress overhauled welfare in 1976.
A larger number of people now receive federal job-related aid, such as child care for working women with small children. The budget, sources said, gives states less flexibility to provide food stamps to these working poor people.
The nation's governors can be expected to lead the opposition to this proposal, just as they fought a 2003 proposal to cut their federal Medicaid support in return for greater flexibility in administering the program.
Administration officials made public Friday their proposal for increasing access to health insurance, and critics said they expected the budget itself to make another try at giving more flexibility and fewer dollars.
As announced Friday, the administration said it could save $60 billion in Medicaid over 10 years without service cuts. About $40 billion would come from changes in the way Washington pays the states for Medicaid services. The administration says states are gaming the Medicaid program by unfairly inflating costs.
Amid the welter of spending cuts, a few domestic programs were singled out for increases. Among them: community health clinics and aid to schools in low-income neighborhoods — although those schools are slated for a smaller increase than Bush proposed last year.
The budget also will seek $3 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account, the president's signature effort to help poor countries boost their economic growth. That is $500 million more than was sought for 2005 — but $2 billion less than was promised last year for 2006.
And the budget would expand Pell grants, which help the lowest-income students attend college, at the expense of the Perkins loan program for low- and middle-income college students. The $6-billion loan program would be eliminated.
Eighteen housing and community development programs would be consolidated and cut by about 40% to a total of $3.7 billion.
The budget also proposes eliminating federal subsidies for Amtrak, the national passenger rail carrier. Subsidies totaled $1.2 billion this year.
Times staff writer David Colker contributed to this report.
Farm subsidies and food stamps are among the targets in the 2006 budget plan, to be sent to Congress on Monday. Opposition is building.
by Joel Havemann and Mary Curtius
WASHINGTON — President Bush will propose a 2006 budget Monday that, despite record spending of about $2.5 trillion, will call for billions of dollars in cuts that will touch people on food stamps and farmers on price supports, children under Medicaid and adults in public housing.
The lower-income Americans who benefit from food stamps and Medicaid do not typically provide the Republican Party with many votes or campaign contributions.
Even before the budget is officially sent to Congress on Monday, resistance to Bush's proposals was welling up Saturday from interest groups that benefit from federal aid and from the members of Congress who represent them.
Powerful agricultural interests were among the first to label Bush's proposed budget cuts as unfair and shortsighted. Farmers receive about $15 billion annually in federal farm program payments to help produce major commodities, including corn, cotton, rice and wheat.
California farmers could end up bearing a disproportionate share of the burden if the cuts in crop subsidies were enacted, said economist Daniel Sumner. "Rice and cotton are very important to this state," said Sumner, who is director of the Agricultural Issues Center at UC Davis.
The cuts are being proposed as the president is striving to keep a campaign promise to rein in government spending and halve the federal deficit in five years. The deficit has soared since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent war on terrorism — and as revenue has fallen as the economy has slowed and tax cuts have taken effect.
In addition to the cuts proposed in the 2006 budget, Bush is expected to ask Congress to approve in principle many billions of dollars in additional, unspecified cuts.
Bush has seemed to challenge congressional Republicans and Democrats to make the tough choices necessary to achieve the deficit reductions that members on both sides of the aisle have called for recently.
"I welcome the bipartisan calls to control the spending appetite of the federal government," he said Saturday in his weekly radio address. "On Monday, my administration will submit a budget that holds the growth of discretionary spending below inflation."
Deficit hawks outside the government welcomed Bush's tone but warned that members of Congress would fight to maintain spending for programs popular with their voters.
"It's going to be a tight budget," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group that lobbies for smaller deficits. "That doesn't mean it's going to be a realistic budget."
Bush's budget will cut "where the money is," Bixby said Saturday, "but it's also where the resistance is."
The lower-income Americans who benefit from food stamps and Medicaid do not typically provide the Republican Party with many votes or campaign contributions.
The proposed budget will give states less flexibility to include working poor families with children as beneficiaries, sources said.
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) said he was willing to trim farm subsidies if other programs suffered proportionately.
"But if they try to single out the farm bill," Chambliss told reporters on Capitol Hill last week, "then we are going to have one heck of a fight."
The administration will propose a 5% across-the-board cut in price supports for crops and a reduction from $360,000 to $250,000 in the annual cap on subsidies that farmers can receive.
Under the current system, some farmers evade the limit by dividing farms into several separate corporate entities, a practice that the budget also will seek to eliminate.
A Senate Agriculture Committee aide, saying evasion of the cap was extremely rare, argued that farmers needed the safety net of federal aid for the years when they could not sell their crops for the cost of producing them.
In a letter Thursday to Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, a coalition of more than 100 organizations led by the American Farm Bureau Federation, said that Congress, in the 2002 bill that authorized farm subsidies for seven more years, had already cut subsidies by $4 billion a year by imposing the $360,000 cap.
"A budget that requires further cuts or structural weakening in these important programs will put at risk the promising environmental benefits of the bill and the nutritional health of some of the poorest populations in our country," the letter said.
In California, 1.5 metric tons of rice is grown a year, second only to Arkansas, said Tim Johnson, chief executive of the California Rice Commission, which has about 1,500 farmer members. Approximately 600,000 acres of farmland in the state were planted in rice in 2004.
"It's not just farmers that benefit — rice plays an important role in the economy of California," Johnson said. "We are an important export crop — about 40% of what's produced in the state is exported to Japan, Korea, Taiwan and other countries."
Daren Coppock, chief executive of the National Assn. of Wheat Growers, said the budget must not be balanced on the backs of farmers. Referring to the $360,000 maximum payment, he said: "If they change it now, that's not terribly helpful to those who made purchasing decisions over a seven-year planning period.
"The other thing to remember: The president always proposes, but Congress writes it and puts it into law," Coppock said. "There is a lot of work to be done and a lot of people to be heard from before this gets finished."
Rumors of the proposed farm subsidy cuts had been widely circulating in Washington for days before officials at the Department of Agriculture confirmed them in a background briefing to reporters. But the food stamp cut, expected to be about $1 billion in a $32-billion program, received less notice.
States must provide food stamps to people on cash welfare. But this is a much smaller population since Congress overhauled welfare in 1976.
A larger number of people now receive federal job-related aid, such as child care for working women with small children. The budget, sources said, gives states less flexibility to provide food stamps to these working poor people.
The nation's governors can be expected to lead the opposition to this proposal, just as they fought a 2003 proposal to cut their federal Medicaid support in return for greater flexibility in administering the program.
Administration officials made public Friday their proposal for increasing access to health insurance, and critics said they expected the budget itself to make another try at giving more flexibility and fewer dollars.
As announced Friday, the administration said it could save $60 billion in Medicaid over 10 years without service cuts. About $40 billion would come from changes in the way Washington pays the states for Medicaid services. The administration says states are gaming the Medicaid program by unfairly inflating costs.
Amid the welter of spending cuts, a few domestic programs were singled out for increases. Among them: community health clinics and aid to schools in low-income neighborhoods — although those schools are slated for a smaller increase than Bush proposed last year.
The budget also will seek $3 billion for the Millennium Challenge Account, the president's signature effort to help poor countries boost their economic growth. That is $500 million more than was sought for 2005 — but $2 billion less than was promised last year for 2006.
And the budget would expand Pell grants, which help the lowest-income students attend college, at the expense of the Perkins loan program for low- and middle-income college students. The $6-billion loan program would be eliminated.
Eighteen housing and community development programs would be consolidated and cut by about 40% to a total of $3.7 billion.
The budget also proposes eliminating federal subsidies for Amtrak, the national passenger rail carrier. Subsidies totaled $1.2 billion this year.
Times staff writer David Colker contributed to this report.
The Bush Crime Family
It never ends. Bush stands before a select audience -- it doesn't matter who the audience is: members of congress, military personnel, teachers, students -- and promises to assist in the latest investigation into the pulsating, determined criminality of his administration. Outing a CIA agent? "We're cooperating." Defrauding US soldiers who are dying by the scores in an illegal war by providing them with shoddy equipment, when equipment is provided at all? "Awful! We'll find out what's going on here!" Making illegal deals with the energy industry to provide billions in profits at the expense of consumers? "We're on it." Illegal wiretapping of US citizens? "We're shocked! Shocked! And, we're not going to sleep until the truth is fully exposed. Yes, we are completely and fully cooperating!" And then, of course, nothing happens. Nothing happens, that is, to expose the activity. Nothing happens to ensure it will not happen again. Nothing happens to reprimand or remove from office or jail those who were complicit. In fact, the activity continues, only, this time with more attention paid to obstructing justice, burying the facts, hiding the criminality. The lying Bush Bastard has done it again. This time it's his Crime Family's refusal to cooperate with a Senate panel investigating the criminal activity in which Bush and his thugs participated in their "legal" determination that spying on US citizens was okay since the laws do not apply to Bush. In an argument that defines the contempt Bush and his thugs have for the much vaunted Republican Party's claim to respect the "rule of law," the Justice Department (which deals in and enables Bush's criminal behavior; i.e., "Gonzales okays torture") is balking at the Senate panel's request, "arguing that the legal opinions would add little to the public debate because the administration has already laid out its legal defense at length in several public settings." Can you follow that, Truthseeker? The Bush thugs say, "No, we're not going to provide legal documents -- to which the public and certainly the Senate are entitled -- because we've on several occasions stated in public forums that we have the right to do what we are doing. We are the Bush Crime Family and whatever we do it is legal because we are in control and we say it is legal. If the president does it, it is legal. What part of that do you not understand? Murder by the president is legal. Rape is legal. Invading countries for no reason other than wanting their oil is legal. Breaking and entering is legal. Arson is legal. Dumping white phosphorous on children and turning them into flash-burned cinders is legal. Everything we do is legal because we say it is legal. Now, Senate Panel, listen up: No more requests for documents, okay? No more subpoenas, got it? No more picky questions from you college-educated smart-asses. It's over, this separation of powers bullshit. Think we're kidding? One word: anthrax in your mail. Now, sit the hell down and be good little Senators and focus on making those tax cuts permanent." We'll show proper respect to the Bush Crime Family tonight. Join me.
The Mike Malloy Show.
The Mike Malloy Show.
The 40 billion dollars Bush Debacle
The so called "christian fundamentalist" republican party representatives and the Bush crime family just passed today (2/1/06) in the Congress a 40 billion dollars spending cut that will affect the middle and poor classes very much.
Cuts in Student Loans, Wellfare and Medicaid will make the life harder for the majority of Americans.
Middle and Poor Americans are already suffering with the high gas prices thanks to GW Bush oil friends.
This cut coupled with the big tax cuts for the top 2% of Americans are part of the Bush crime family and the so called "Neocons" republicans plan which is to bankrupt the federal goverment and as a result will terminate all the social programs from the goverment (wellfare, medicaid, social-security, federal loan and all federal help programs for the poor).
This federal reserve extermination (The federal deficit is already at unsustained levels at 1 triilion dollars and counting). Onli in Iraq US is spending 2 billion/week. China, Japan and Saudi Arabia owns most of this debt.
This deficit and trade debacle coupled with wire-tapping, religious fanatism, limited civil rights is turning America into a nazi-fascist goverment.
In 2006 and 2006 vote this fascist republican party out of the goverment!!!
Cuts in Student Loans, Wellfare and Medicaid will make the life harder for the majority of Americans.
Middle and Poor Americans are already suffering with the high gas prices thanks to GW Bush oil friends.
This cut coupled with the big tax cuts for the top 2% of Americans are part of the Bush crime family and the so called "Neocons" republicans plan which is to bankrupt the federal goverment and as a result will terminate all the social programs from the goverment (wellfare, medicaid, social-security, federal loan and all federal help programs for the poor).
This federal reserve extermination (The federal deficit is already at unsustained levels at 1 triilion dollars and counting). Onli in Iraq US is spending 2 billion/week. China, Japan and Saudi Arabia owns most of this debt.
This deficit and trade debacle coupled with wire-tapping, religious fanatism, limited civil rights is turning America into a nazi-fascist goverment.
In 2006 and 2006 vote this fascist republican party out of the goverment!!!
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
THE CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT
Yahoo! Mail - jbcard@yahoo.com
THE CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT
Our 40th Year
The San Francisco Bay Guardian this week outlines the case for impeaching President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
The Guardian, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, is one of the first newspapers in the country to call for impeaching the president.
The article, written by City Editor Steven T. Jones, cites top Constitutional lawyers and scholars as well as political figures to make the case that Bush and Cheney have abused executive authority to the point where they may well have committed impeachable offenses.
The article chronicles a growing grassroots movement that has largely escaped the notice of the mainstream news media. Jones' piece and an accompanying note by Executive Editor Tim Redmond, chide the leadership of the Democratic Party for its failures to press the impeachment issue.
http://www.sfbg.com/
THE CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT
Our 40th Year
The San Francisco Bay Guardian this week outlines the case for impeaching President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
The Guardian, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, is one of the first newspapers in the country to call for impeaching the president.
The article, written by City Editor Steven T. Jones, cites top Constitutional lawyers and scholars as well as political figures to make the case that Bush and Cheney have abused executive authority to the point where they may well have committed impeachable offenses.
The article chronicles a growing grassroots movement that has largely escaped the notice of the mainstream news media. Jones' piece and an accompanying note by Executive Editor Tim Redmond, chide the leadership of the Democratic Party for its failures to press the impeachment issue.
http://www.sfbg.com/
ImpeachPAC | Electing a Congress to Impeach Bush and Cheney
ImpeachPAC | Electing a Congress to Impeach Bush and Cheney
Americans Support Impeaching Bush for Wiretapping
Submitted by davidswanson on Sun, 2006-01-15 15:54. Impeachment in the News | Polls
For Release: January 16, 2006
New Zogby Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeaching Bush for Wiretapping
By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,216 U.S. adults from January 9-12.
Americans Support Impeaching Bush for Wiretapping
Submitted by davidswanson on Sun, 2006-01-15 15:54. Impeachment in the News | Polls
For Release: January 16, 2006
New Zogby Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeaching Bush for Wiretapping
By a margin of 52% to 43%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,216 U.S. adults from January 9-12.
Should Bush and Cheney Be Impeached for the Iraq War | Democrats.com
Should Bush and Cheney Be Impeached for the Iraq War | Democrats.com: "Should Bush and Cheney Be Impeached for the Iraq War
(1) In July 2002, George Bush and Dick Cheney deliberately diverted $700 million from the authorized war in Afghanistan to provoke an unauthorized war in Iraq, including a criminal bombing campaign.
(2) On March 18, 2003, Bush and Cheney deliberately lied to Congress when he claimed in writing that continued U.N. inspections would endanger the national security of the U.S. and undermine enforcement of U.N. Resolutions, and that Iraq planned or aided the attacks of September 11, 2001.
(3) By invading Iraq without any threat or just cause, Bush and Cheney launched a War of Aggression in violation of U.S. obligations under the U.N. Charter.
(4) In the conduct of the War, Bush and Cheney violated the Geneva conventions by failing to protect civilians (including journalists) and by authorizing torture of prisoners, which also violated the War Crimes Act of 1996.
George Bush, Dick Cheney, and every top official involved in these policies must be impeached and removed from office.
"
(1) In July 2002, George Bush and Dick Cheney deliberately diverted $700 million from the authorized war in Afghanistan to provoke an unauthorized war in Iraq, including a criminal bombing campaign.
(2) On March 18, 2003, Bush and Cheney deliberately lied to Congress when he claimed in writing that continued U.N. inspections would endanger the national security of the U.S. and undermine enforcement of U.N. Resolutions, and that Iraq planned or aided the attacks of September 11, 2001.
(3) By invading Iraq without any threat or just cause, Bush and Cheney launched a War of Aggression in violation of U.S. obligations under the U.N. Charter.
(4) In the conduct of the War, Bush and Cheney violated the Geneva conventions by failing to protect civilians (including journalists) and by authorizing torture of prisoners, which also violated the War Crimes Act of 1996.
George Bush, Dick Cheney, and every top official involved in these policies must be impeached and removed from office.
"
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Gore Says Bush Wiretapping Could be Impeachable Offense
January 17th, 2006 3:01 am
Former Vice President Says Legislators From Both Parties Did Not Do Enough To Stop Secret Activities
ABC News
Jan. 16, 2006 — In an impassioned speech about President Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping program, former Vice President Al Gore said in Washington, DC, on Monday that "the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently."
Citing Bush Administration policies on torture, rendition and detentions, the winner of the 2000 popular vote said the President's "unlawful" eavesdropping program was part of a "larger pattern" of "seeming indifference to the Constitution."
Asked by ABC News following his speech whether President Bush's domestic spying program constituted an impeachable offense, Gore said it might be and pointed to one of the three Articles of Impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee approved against President Nixon on July 27, 1974.
"That's a legal determination for the Congress to make," Gore told ABC News. "But Article II of the impeachment charges against President Nixon was warrantless wiretapping that the President said was 'necessary' for national security."
"It can be" an impeachable offense, he added.
The domestic eavesdropping program authorized by President Bush following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, bypasses a special federal court whose approval is required under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Ever since the New York Times revealed the secret program last month, the Bush Administration has claimed that the circumvention of the FISA court was justified by arguing, in part, that Congress implicitly authorized the surveillance with the post-9/11 Authorization to Use Military Force.
Gore's speech drew fire from the president's party on Monday. Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, issued a statement criticizing the former Vice President, stating Gore has an "incessant need to insert himself in the headline of the day" and has a "lack of understanding of the threats facing America."
But Gore is not alone in arguing that the warrantless eavesdropping authorized by President Bush conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal arguments. The non-partisan Congressional Research Service reached a similar conclusion earlier this month in a 41-page legal analysis.
While appearing on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on Sunday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) said he, too, does not agree with the White House view that Congress effectively authorized the surveillance with its post-9/11 resolution.
A Partisan Problem
Sen. Specter and Gore part company, however, on the question of whether a president might possess special inherent powers as Commander-in-Chief that would make the National Security Agency domestic spying program permissible in wartime. Whereas Gore is confident that the president does not possess such power, Sen. Specter is hoping to explore the issue when the Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on the legality of the President's program next month.
In his Constitution Hall remarks on Monday, Gore did not confine his criticism to members of the other party. He criticized both Republican and Democratic members of the so-called "Gang of Eight" who were secretly briefed on the NSA program but did not take action to stop the President's "illegal activities."
"Though I sympathize with the awkward position in which these men and women were placed, I cannot disagree with the Liberty Coalition when it says that Democrats as well as Republicans in the Congress must share the blame for not taking action to protest and seek to prevent what they consider a grossly unconstitutional program," Gore said.
The Liberty Coalition is the "trans-partisan" civil liberties group that co-sponsored Gore's speech along with the American Constitution Society.
Supreme Court Criticism
In his Martin Luther King Day remarks, Gore also criticized President Bush for nominating Supreme Court Justices whom he believes will not serve as an adequate check on the executive.
"Whether you support his confirmation or not — and I do not — we must all agree that he will not vote as an effective check on the expansion of executive power," Gore said with respect to Judge Samuel Alito. "Likewise, Chief Justice Roberts has made plain his deference to the expansion of executive power through his support of judicial deference to executive agency rulemaking."
With regards to specific recommendations, Gore called upon congressional candidates to make the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate domestic eavesdropping an issue in the 2006 elections.
He also appealed for new whistleblower protections, comprehensive hearings in the House and Senate, and no renewal of the Patriot Act until adequate constitutional safeguards are added. He also wants telecommunications companies to "cease and desist" their "complicity" in this "apparently illegal invasion of the privacy of American citizens."
Gore's biggest standing ovation came when he said it was "simply an insult" to those who "came before us" to "imply that we have more to be fearful of than they."
In an effort to show that criticism of President Bush's spying program reaches across party lines, Gore was supposed to be introduced by ex-Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), a former House manager in the impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton. Since leaving Congress in 2003, Barr has emerged as an outspoken critic of the effect the Bush Administration's anti-terror policies are having on civil liberties.
The image of the odd bedfellows did not materialize, however, when Barr's satellite connection failed.
Gore Says Bush Wiretapping Could be Impeachable Offense
Former Vice President Says Legislators From Both Parties Did Not Do Enough To Stop Secret Activities
ABC News
Jan. 16, 2006 — In an impassioned speech about President Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping program, former Vice President Al Gore said in Washington, DC, on Monday that "the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently."
Citing Bush Administration policies on torture, rendition and detentions, the winner of the 2000 popular vote said the President's "unlawful" eavesdropping program was part of a "larger pattern" of "seeming indifference to the Constitution."
Asked by ABC News following his speech whether President Bush's domestic spying program constituted an impeachable offense, Gore said it might be and pointed to one of the three Articles of Impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee approved against President Nixon on July 27, 1974.
"That's a legal determination for the Congress to make," Gore told ABC News. "But Article II of the impeachment charges against President Nixon was warrantless wiretapping that the President said was 'necessary' for national security."
"It can be" an impeachable offense, he added.
The domestic eavesdropping program authorized by President Bush following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, bypasses a special federal court whose approval is required under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Ever since the New York Times revealed the secret program last month, the Bush Administration has claimed that the circumvention of the FISA court was justified by arguing, in part, that Congress implicitly authorized the surveillance with the post-9/11 Authorization to Use Military Force.
Gore's speech drew fire from the president's party on Monday. Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, issued a statement criticizing the former Vice President, stating Gore has an "incessant need to insert himself in the headline of the day" and has a "lack of understanding of the threats facing America."
But Gore is not alone in arguing that the warrantless eavesdropping authorized by President Bush conflicts with existing law and hinges on weak legal arguments. The non-partisan Congressional Research Service reached a similar conclusion earlier this month in a 41-page legal analysis.
While appearing on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on Sunday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) said he, too, does not agree with the White House view that Congress effectively authorized the surveillance with its post-9/11 resolution.
A Partisan Problem
Sen. Specter and Gore part company, however, on the question of whether a president might possess special inherent powers as Commander-in-Chief that would make the National Security Agency domestic spying program permissible in wartime. Whereas Gore is confident that the president does not possess such power, Sen. Specter is hoping to explore the issue when the Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearings on the legality of the President's program next month.
In his Constitution Hall remarks on Monday, Gore did not confine his criticism to members of the other party. He criticized both Republican and Democratic members of the so-called "Gang of Eight" who were secretly briefed on the NSA program but did not take action to stop the President's "illegal activities."
"Though I sympathize with the awkward position in which these men and women were placed, I cannot disagree with the Liberty Coalition when it says that Democrats as well as Republicans in the Congress must share the blame for not taking action to protest and seek to prevent what they consider a grossly unconstitutional program," Gore said.
The Liberty Coalition is the "trans-partisan" civil liberties group that co-sponsored Gore's speech along with the American Constitution Society.
Supreme Court Criticism
In his Martin Luther King Day remarks, Gore also criticized President Bush for nominating Supreme Court Justices whom he believes will not serve as an adequate check on the executive.
"Whether you support his confirmation or not — and I do not — we must all agree that he will not vote as an effective check on the expansion of executive power," Gore said with respect to Judge Samuel Alito. "Likewise, Chief Justice Roberts has made plain his deference to the expansion of executive power through his support of judicial deference to executive agency rulemaking."
With regards to specific recommendations, Gore called upon congressional candidates to make the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate domestic eavesdropping an issue in the 2006 elections.
He also appealed for new whistleblower protections, comprehensive hearings in the House and Senate, and no renewal of the Patriot Act until adequate constitutional safeguards are added. He also wants telecommunications companies to "cease and desist" their "complicity" in this "apparently illegal invasion of the privacy of American citizens."
Gore's biggest standing ovation came when he said it was "simply an insult" to those who "came before us" to "imply that we have more to be fearful of than they."
In an effort to show that criticism of President Bush's spying program reaches across party lines, Gore was supposed to be introduced by ex-Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), a former House manager in the impeachment trial of then-President Bill Clinton. Since leaving Congress in 2003, Barr has emerged as an outspoken critic of the effect the Bush Administration's anti-terror policies are having on civil liberties.
The image of the odd bedfellows did not materialize, however, when Barr's satellite connection failed.
If You Want the Bum Impeached
If You Want the Bum Impeached...
There is no doubt that Bush has committed “impeachable offenses.” There is no doubt that millions of Americans – and tens of millions of people in other countries! – would jump for joy if he were to be impeached.
Impeachment, in short, is one way that this regime full of fascists could be driven from power.
Yet not a single Democratic Senator has stepped up to the plate on impeachment. People can debate why this is so, and should – and some of that debate is in the articles on this site. The question we address here is how to change the political equation in this country so that Bush is forced to step down.
To do that, there must be a political demand coming from the grassroots. There must be thousands, and then millions, in the streets demanding that Bush step down – and that the country change direction. “Power,” as the one-time slave and famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass once said, “concedes nothing without a struggle.”
Without such struggle, there will be no impeachment. And without that happening soon, the momentum that currently exists to oust Bush will dissipate, and even the new outrages that have come to light will take on a patina of “legitimacy.” Millions must be awakened to the scope of Bush’s crimes and the danger of his agenda bringing need for him to go!
BUT THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO – NOW!
Nationwide demonstrations are set for January 31 – the night of Bush’s State of the Union address – to be followed by a massive demonstration in Washington, D.C. on February 4. The demand? BUSH STEP DOWN.
If you want Bush to go – if you want to see him impeached – this is where the gauntlet is. Here. Now. Pick it up.
The world can’t wait for there to be more Abu Ghraibs and Alitos. The world can’t wait, lest the controversy over Iran turn into another unjust war, perhaps even more horrendous than the one still raging in Iraq. It can’t wait as the Bush regime claims more and more unbridled power – power to spy on people, to imprison without charges, to torture – without even going through the motions of obeying the law. For more theocrats to be put into positions of power – including in the military.
Get involved. Donate. Organize. Spread the word. And be there.
The world can’t wait.
There is no doubt that Bush has committed “impeachable offenses.” There is no doubt that millions of Americans – and tens of millions of people in other countries! – would jump for joy if he were to be impeached.
Impeachment, in short, is one way that this regime full of fascists could be driven from power.
Yet not a single Democratic Senator has stepped up to the plate on impeachment. People can debate why this is so, and should – and some of that debate is in the articles on this site. The question we address here is how to change the political equation in this country so that Bush is forced to step down.
To do that, there must be a political demand coming from the grassroots. There must be thousands, and then millions, in the streets demanding that Bush step down – and that the country change direction. “Power,” as the one-time slave and famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass once said, “concedes nothing without a struggle.”
Without such struggle, there will be no impeachment. And without that happening soon, the momentum that currently exists to oust Bush will dissipate, and even the new outrages that have come to light will take on a patina of “legitimacy.” Millions must be awakened to the scope of Bush’s crimes and the danger of his agenda bringing need for him to go!
BUT THERE IS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO – NOW!
Nationwide demonstrations are set for January 31 – the night of Bush’s State of the Union address – to be followed by a massive demonstration in Washington, D.C. on February 4. The demand? BUSH STEP DOWN.
If you want Bush to go – if you want to see him impeached – this is where the gauntlet is. Here. Now. Pick it up.
The world can’t wait for there to be more Abu Ghraibs and Alitos. The world can’t wait, lest the controversy over Iran turn into another unjust war, perhaps even more horrendous than the one still raging in Iraq. It can’t wait as the Bush regime claims more and more unbridled power – power to spy on people, to imprison without charges, to torture – without even going through the motions of obeying the law. For more theocrats to be put into positions of power – including in the military.
Get involved. Donate. Organize. Spread the word. And be there.
The world can’t wait.
World Can't Wait | Drive Out the Bush Regime
World Can't Wait | Drive Out the Bush Regime
Al Gore: "US Constitution in Grave Danger" PDF Print E-mail
Al Gore indicted the Bush administration’s "unprecedented claims to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power." Speaking of Bush’s domestic spying program, he said that "what we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President…has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently." Gore gave four compelling reasons why we are in for "something more than another cycle of overreach and regret."
And he said this: "If the pattern of practice begun by this administration is not challenged, it may well become a permanent part of the American system."
Can you come to grips with this and NOT act? Can you know the truth of what is going on and NOT do everything you can to build the BUSH STEP DOWN protests planned for January 31 and February 4?
Shakespeare said that there is a tide in the affairs of men. With the Alito nomination, the wiretap scandal, and the new crisis with Iran, that tide is now raging. Bush will try to use his State of the Union address on January 31 to turn the current decisively his way. If there are not thousands and thousands saying BUSH STEP DOWN at the tops of their voices, he may well succeed. For us to fail to act is to invite disaster.
On the other hand, to act now – to take up the challenge – could make all the difference. There is a tide, but that tide can be turned.
If we don’t want the future that the Bush regime is jamming down our throats, we can do something about it. There are millions who are agonizing. Reach out to them. Now. Volunteer. Donate. Be there. Join us.
The world truly cannot wait. BUSH STEP DOWN.
Al Gore: "US Constitution in Grave Danger" PDF Print E-mail
Al Gore indicted the Bush administration’s "unprecedented claims to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power." Speaking of Bush’s domestic spying program, he said that "what we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President…has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently." Gore gave four compelling reasons why we are in for "something more than another cycle of overreach and regret."
And he said this: "If the pattern of practice begun by this administration is not challenged, it may well become a permanent part of the American system."
Can you come to grips with this and NOT act? Can you know the truth of what is going on and NOT do everything you can to build the BUSH STEP DOWN protests planned for January 31 and February 4?
Shakespeare said that there is a tide in the affairs of men. With the Alito nomination, the wiretap scandal, and the new crisis with Iran, that tide is now raging. Bush will try to use his State of the Union address on January 31 to turn the current decisively his way. If there are not thousands and thousands saying BUSH STEP DOWN at the tops of their voices, he may well succeed. For us to fail to act is to invite disaster.
On the other hand, to act now – to take up the challenge – could make all the difference. There is a tide, but that tide can be turned.
If we don’t want the future that the Bush regime is jamming down our throats, we can do something about it. There are millions who are agonizing. Reach out to them. Now. Volunteer. Donate. Be there. Join us.
The world truly cannot wait. BUSH STEP DOWN.
CONTACT THE CABLE SHOWS | AfterDowningStreet.org
Impeach Pres. Bush!!!!
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/images/cbac.gif
Impeach Pres. Bush!!!!
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/images/cbac.gif
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Bush oil/biz cronies want US to assinate Venzuela's Chavez, dubbed "Operation Balboa" by Pentagon -- Chavez threat to US corporations
Bush oil/biz cronies want US to assinate Venzuela's Chavez, dubbed "Operation Balboa" by Pentagon -- Chavez threat to US corporations
| From: | Bart (129.171.32.13) | |
| Bush oil/biz cronies want US to assinate Venzuela's Chavez, dubbed "Operation Balboa" by Pentagon -- Chavez threat to US corporations | ||
| November 11, 2005 at 8:56 am PST | ||
The Rise Of America's New Enemy
By John Pilger
11/10/05 " -- I was dropped at Paradiso, the last middle-class area before barrio La Vega, which spills into a ravine as if by the force of gravity. Storms were forecast, and people were anxious, remembering the mudslides that took 20,000 lives. "Why are you here?" asked the man sitting opposite me in the packed jeep-bus that chugged up the hill. Like so many in Latin America, he appeared old, but wasn't. Without waiting for my answer, he listed why he supported President Chavez: schools, clinics, affordable food, "our constitution, our democracy" and "for the first time, the oil money is going to us." I asked him if he belonged to the MRV, Chavez's party, "No, I've never been in a political party; I can only tell you how my life has been changed, as I never dreamt."
It is raw witness like this, which I have heard over and over again in Venezuela, that smashes the one-way mirror between the west and a continent that is rising. By rising, I mean the phenomenon of millions of people stirring once again, "like lions after slumber/In unvanquishable number", wrote the poet Shelley in The Mask of Anarchy. This is not romantic; an epic is unfolding in Latin America that demands our attention beyond the stereotypes and clichés that diminish whole societies to their degree of exploitation and expendability.
To the man in the bus, and to Beatrice whose children are being immunised and taught history, art and music for the first time, and Celedonia, in her seventies, reading and writing for the first time, and Jose whose life was saved by a doctor in the middle of the night, the first doctor he had ever seen, Hugo Chavez is neither a "firebrand" nor an "autocrat" but a humanitarian and a democrat who commands almost two thirds of the popular vote, accredited by victories in no less than nine elections. Compare that with the fifth of the British electorate that re-installed Blair, an authentic autocrat.
Chávez and the rise of popular social movements, from Colombia down to Argentina, represent bloodless, radical change across the continent, inspired by the great independence struggles that began with SimOn Bolívar, born in Venezuela, who brought the ideas of the French Revolution to societies cowed by Spanish absolutism. Bolívar, like Che Guevara in the 1960s and Chavez today, understood the new colonial master to the north. "The USA," he said in 1819, "appears destined by fate to plague America with misery in the name of liberty."
At the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001, George W Bush announced the latest misery in the name of liberty in the form of a Free Trade Area of the Americas treaty. This would allow the United States to impose its ideological "market", neo-liberalism, finally on all of Latin America. It was the natural successor to Bill Clinton's North American Free Trade Agreement, which has turned Mexico into an American sweatshop. Bush boasted it would be law by 2005.
On 5 November, Bush arrived at the 2005 summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina, to be told his FTAA was not even on the agenda. Among the 34 heads of state were new, uncompliant faces and behind all of them were populations no longer willing to accept US-backed business tyrannies. Never before have Latin American governments had to consult their people on pseudo-agreements of this kind; but now they must.
In Bolivia, in the past five years, social movements have got rid of governments and foreign corporations alike, such as the tentacular Bechtel, which sought to impose what people call total locura capitalista - total capitalist folly - the privatising of almost everything, especially natural gas and water. Following Pinochet's Chile, Bolivia was to be a neo-liberal laboratory. The poorest of the poor were charged up to two-thirds of their pittance-income even for rain-water.
Standing in the bleak, freezing, cobble-stoned streets of El Alto, 14,000 feet up in the Andes, or sitting in the breeze-block homes of former miners and campesinos driven off their land, I have had political discussions of a kind seldom ignited in Britain and the US. They are direct and eloquent. "Why are we so poor," they say, "when our country is so rich? Why do governments lie to us and represent outside powers?" They refer to 500 years of conquest as if it is a living presence, which it is, tracing a journey from the Spanish plunder of Cerro Rico, a hill of silver mined by indigenous slave labour and which underwrote the Spanish Empire for three centuries. When the silver was gone, there was tin, and when the mines were privatised in the 1970s at the behest of the IMF, tin collapsed, along with 30,000 jobs. When the coca leaf replaced it - in Bolivia, chewing it in curbs hunger - the Bolivian army, coerced by the US, began destroying the coca crops and filling the prisons.
In 2000, open rebellion burst upon the white business oligarchs and the American embassy whose fortress stands like an Andean Vatican in the centre of La Paz. There was never anything like it, because it came from the majority Indian population "to protect our indigenous soul". Naked racism against indigenous peoples all over Latin America is the Spanish legacy. They were despised or invisible, or curios for tourists: the women in their bowler hats and colourful skirts. No more. Led by visionaries like Oscar Olivera, the women in bowler hats and colourful skirts encircled and shut down the country's second city, Cochabamba, until their water was returned to public ownership.
Every year since, people have fought a water or gas war: essentially a war against privatisation and poverty. Having driven out President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in 2003, Bolivians voted in a referendum for real democracy. Through the social movements they demanded a constituent assembly similar to that which founded ChAvez's Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, together with the rejection of the FTAA and all the other "free trade" agreements, the expulsion of the transnational water companies and a 50 per cent tax on the exploitation of all energy resources.
When the replacement president, Carlos Mesa, refused to implement the programme he was forced to resign. Next month, there will be presidential elections and the opposition Movement to Socialism (MAS) may well turn out the old order. The leader is an indigenous former coca farmer, Evo Morales, whom the American ambassador has likened to Osama Bin Laden. In fact, he is a social democrat who, for many of those who sealed off Cochabamba and marched down the mountain from El Alto, moderates too much.
"This is not going to be easy," Abel Mamani, the indigenous president of the El Alto Neighbourhood Committees, told me. "The elections won't be a solution even if we win. What we need to guarantee is the constituent assembly, from which we build a democracy based not on what the US wants, but on social justice." The writer Pablo Solon, son of the great political muralist Walter Solon, said, "The story of Bolivia is the story of the government behind the government. The US can create a financial crisis; but really for them it is ideological; they say they will not accept another Chavez."
The people, however, will not accept another Washington quisling. The lesson is Ecuador, where a helicopter saved Lucio GutiErrez as he fled the presidential palace last April. Having won power in alliance with the indigenous Pachakutik movement, he was the "Ecuadorian Chavez", until he drowned in a corruption scandal. For ordinary Latin Americans, corruption on high is no longer forgivable. That is one of two reasons the Workers' Party government of Lula is barely marking time in Brazil; the other is the priority he has given to an IMF economic agenda, rather than his own people. In Argentina, social movements saw off five pro-Washington presidents in 2001 and 2002. Across the water in Uruguay, the Frente Amplio, socialist heirs to the Tupamaros, the guerrillas of the 1970s who fought one of the CIA's most vicious terror campaigns, formed a popular government last year.
The social movements are now a decisive force in every Latin American country - even in the state of fear that is the Colombia of Alvaro Uribe Velez, Bush's most loyal vassal. Last month, indigenous movements marched through every one of Colombia's 32 provinces demanding an end to "an evil as great at the gun": neo-liberalism. All over Latin America, Hugo Chavez is the modern Bolivar. People admire his political imagination and his courage. Only he has had the guts to describe the United States as a source of terrorism and Bush as Senor Peligro (Mr Danger). He is very different from Fidel Castro, whom he respects. Venezuela is an extraordinarily open society with an unfettered opposition - that is rich and still powerful. On the left, there are those who oppose the state, in principle, believe its reforms have reached their limit, and want power to flow directly from the community. They say so vigorously, yet they support Chavez. A fluent young arnarchist, Marcel, showed me the clinic where the two Cuban doctors may have saved his girlfriend. (In a barter arrangement, Venezuela gives Cuba oil in exchange for doctors).
At the entrance to every barrio there is a state supermarket, where everything from staple food to washing up liquid costs 40 per cent less than in commercial stores. Despite specious accusations that the government has instituted censorship, most of the media remains violently anti-Chavez: a large part of it in the hands of Gustavo Cisneros, Latin America's Murdoch, who backed the failed attempt to depose Chavez. What is striking is the proliferation of lively community radio stations, which played a critical part in Chavez's rescue in the coup of April 2002 by calling on people to march on Caracas.
While the world looks to Iran and Syria for the next Bush attack, Venezuelans know they may well be next. On 17 March, the Washington Post reported that Feliz Rodríguez, "a former CIA operative well-connected to the Bush family" had taken part in the planning of the assassination of the President of Venezuela. On 16 September, Chavez said, "I have evidence that there are plans to invade Venezuela. Furthermore, we have documentation: how many bombers will over-fly Venezuela on the day of the invasion... the US is carrying out manoeuvres on Curacao Island. It is called Operation Balboa." Since then, leaked internal Pentagon documents have identified Venezuela as a "post-Iraq threat" requiring "full spectrum" planning.
The old-young man in the jeep, Beatrice and her healthy children and Celedonia with her "new esteem", are indeed a threat - the threat of an alternative, decent world that some lament is no longer possible. Well, it is, and it deserves our support.
First published in the New Statesman - www.newstatesman.co.uk
Friday, January 06, 2006
No blood for burgers! | Samizdata.net
No blood for burgers! | Samizdata.net
No blood for burgers!
David Carr (London) Health
(0)So George 'Hitler' Bush and his shadowy cabal of extreme right-wing neo-conservative warmongers are, once again, showing their contempt for the peace-loving, democratic will of the international community:
The United States is challenging a strategy by the World Health Organization (WHO) to tackle obesity.Some scientists accuse President Bush's administration of planning to water down proposed junk food regulations, in order to protect big business.
No mention of who these 'scientists' are, mind. Perhaps they are Indyscientists.
Anyway, I support the WHO. I think it is only reasonable and fair that I should be told what I can and cannot eat by a panel of experts from Libya, Chad, Cuba and North Korea. It's for my own good!
LP: Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism (review)
LP: Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism (review)
itle: Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism (review)
Source: WND
URL Source: http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp? ITEM_ID=1283
Published: Dec 11, 2005
Author: unknown
Post Date: 2005-12-11 23:28:08 by Magician
12 Comments
itle: Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism (review)
Source: WND
URL Source: http://shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp? ITEM_ID=1283
Published: Dec 11, 2005
Author: unknown
Post Date: 2005-12-11 23:28:08 by Magician
12 Comments
Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism by Paul Sperry (Book Review)
Is the "war on terror" declared by the Bush administration just a cynical and immoral subterfuge for securing needed Mideast oil, as leftists and anti-war activists claim?
Or is America's ongoing military response to the horrendous attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, not only justified, but motivated totally by compelling national security concerns with no admixture of any other agenda, as administration cheerleaders claim?
Or, does the truth lie somewhere in between? And if so, exactly where?
"Crude Politics: How Bush's Oil Cronies Hijacked the War on Terrorism" makes the unsettling case that the Bush administration, though engaged in an unavoidable and moral war on terror, also tried simultaneously to secure future energy production in the terrorists' home turf and ended up compromising America's national security interests.
While the United States was still reeling from the horror of Sept. 11, 2001, says "Crude Politics" author and investigative journalist Paul Sperry, Bush administration diplomats were resuming talks with Pakistani officials over gas and oil pipelines in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ultimately, the U.S. seized the opportunity of the war-on-terror as a reason to oust the Taliban -- the major obstacle blocking plans for the precious pipelines linking Caspian reserves to hot Asian markets. Indeed, the book documents how the Bush administration tailored the war on terrorism around oil interests in the Caspian region, and to a lesser extent, in Iraq.
With journalistic integrity and painstaking research, Sperry enlightens readers on:
* How commercial gain within the current oil-friendly administration has undermined America's war on terror
* How our safety has been jeopardized because of an overriding effort to charge ahead with a new "Silk Road" through Afghanistan and Pakistan, making the capture of Osama bin Laden a secondary concern
* The nature of war and the politics behind the major decisions being made in the current administration, including those regarding Iraq and other "axis of evil" countries
* Bush's behind-the-scenes operator for regime change in both Afghanistan and Iraq -- former energy consultant Zal Khalilzad.
Paul Sperry is a veteran Washington, D.C., investigative reporter whose reports on national security issues have been picked up by virtually every major news agency in the world. Sperry's journalistic courage and integrity are backed by years of experience, including extensive reporting and editing on national affairs, economics, manufacturing, real estate, and general business coverage. President Bill Clinton "banned" Sperry from the White House in 1999 after the reporter asked him tough questions about the Chinagate fund-raising scandal.
[truth-updates] News from TheTruthAboutGeorge.com
[truth-updates] News from TheTruthAboutGeorge.com
W's Flip Flops and Lies
The "John Kerry flip-flops on the issues" attacks have been relentless these past few weeks, but has anyone really checked Bush's record? For the most part, the media has ignored Bush's obvious flip-flops, but on August 30, Bush's statement that the war on terror could not be won caught national attention. The next day, Bush was back to his firm resolution that "we will win" the war on terror. Fortunately, people are beginning to notice this disturbing trend. The Center for American Progress has issued a series of Bush's embarrassing flip-flops on important issues:
1. Social Security Surplus:
BUSH PLEDGES NOT TO TOUCH SOCIAL SECURITY SURPLUS... "We're going to keep the promise of Social Security and keep the government from raiding the Social Security surplus." [President Bush, 3/3/01]
BUSH SPENDS SOCIAL SECURITY SURPLUS... The New York Times reported that "the president's new budget uses Social Security surpluses to pay for other programs every year through 2013, ultimately diverting more than $1.4 trillion in Social Security funds to other purposes." [The New York Times, 2/6/02]
2. Abortion:
BUSH SUPPORTS A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE... "Bush said he...favors leaving up to a woman and her doctor the abortion question." [The Nation, 6/15/00, quoting the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, 5/78]
BUSH OPPOSES A WOMAN'S RIGHT TO CHOOSE... "I am pro-life." [Governor Bush, 10/3/00]
3. Weapons of Mass Destruction
BUSH SAYS WE FOUND THE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION..."We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories...for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." [President Bush, Interview in Poland, 5/29/03]
BUSH SAYS WE HAVEN'T FOUND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION... "David Kay has found the capacity to produce weapons. And when David Kay goes in and says we haven't found stockpiles yet, and there's theories as to where the weapons went. They could have been destroyed during the war. Saddam and his henchmen could have destroyed them as we entered into Iraq. They could be hidden. They could have been transported to another country, and we'll find out." [President Bush, Meet the Press, 2/7/04]
4. Osama bin Laden
BUSH WANTS OSAMA DEAD OR ALIVE... "I want justice. And there's an old poster out West, I recall, that says, 'Wanted: Dead or Alive.'" [President Bush, on Osama Bin Laden, 09/17/01]
BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT OSAMA... "I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him... I truly am not that concerned about him." [President Bush, Press Conference, 3/13/02]
5. Gay Marriage
BUSH SAYS GAY MARRIAGE IS A STATE ISSUE... "The state can do what they want to do. Don't try to trap me in this state's issue like you're trying to get me into." [Gov. George W. Bush on Gay Marriage, Larry King Live, 2/15/00]
BUSH SUPPORTS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BANNING GAY MARRIAGE... "Today I call upon the Congress to promptly pass, and to send to the states for ratification, an amendment to our Constitution defining and protecting marriage as a union of man and woman as husband and wife." [President Bush, 2/24/04]
For more of Bush's troubling flip-flops visit the Center for American Progress
Michelle Malkin: NO MORE CRONYISM: BUSH DHS NOMINEE DOESN'T DESERVE THE JOB
Michelle Malkin: NO MORE CRONYISM: BUSH DHS NOMINEE DOESN'T DESERVE THE JOB
NO MORE CRONYISM: BUSH DHS NOMINEE DOESN'T DESERVE THE JOB
**updated**
Another disastrous crony appointment in the making
This is Julie Myers, President Bush's nominee to head the the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security.
Her nomination is a joke. A bad joke: (via WaPo)
The Bush administration is seeking to appoint a lawyer with little immigration or customs experience to head the troubled law enforcement agency that handles those issues, prompting sharp criticism from some employee groups, immigration advocates and homeland security experts.The push to appoint Julie Myers to head the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, comes in the midst of intense debate over the qualifications of department political appointees involved in the sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina...
...After working as a federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, N.Y., for two years, Myers held a variety of jobs over the past four years at the White House and at the departments of Commerce, Justice and Treasury, though none involved managing a large bureaucracy. Myers worked briefly as chief of staff to Michael Chertoff when he led the Justice Department's criminal division before he became Homeland Security secretary.
Myers also was an associate under independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr for about 16 months and has most recently served as a special assistant to President Bush handling personnel issues.
Her uncle is Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She married Chertoff's current chief of staff, John F. Wood, on Saturday.
In written answers to questions from Congress, Myers highlighted her year-long job as assistant secretary for export enforcement at Commerce, where she said she supervised 170 employees and a $25 million budget. ICE has more than 20,000 employees and a budget of approximately $4 billion. Its personnel investigate immigrant, drug and weapon smuggling, and illegal exports, among other responsibilities.
Myers was on her honeymoon and was not available to comment yesterday. Erin Healy, a White House spokeswoman, cited Myers's work with customs agents on money-laundering and drug-smuggling cases. "She's well-known and respected throughout the law enforcement community," Healy said. "She has a proven track record as an effective manager."
Oh, give me a ^*&%$# break and a half! This nomination is a monumental political and policy blunder in the wake of the Michael Brown/FEMA fiasco. And I can tell you that contrary to the Miss Mary Sunshine White House spokeswoman's comments, rank-and-file DHS employees and immigration enforcement officials are absolutely livid about Myers' nomination.
This e-mail I received last week says it all:
As you probably know, this is the largest investigative arm of DHS and the second largest Federal investigative agency after the FBI. ICE’s critical homeland security mission is directed at all Customs and Immigration violations occurring in the interior of the U.S. These are the officers that have to respond to calls of illegal aliens, drug loads with a border nexus and the detention and removal of all illegal aliens place in removal proceedings. ICE accounts for close to 80% of all arrests made within the FBI’s joint terrorism task force. ICE criminally prosecutes more individuals than any other Federal agency.My point is, ICE is the lead agency to proactively prevent terrorism in the U.S. Ms. Myers, although learned, has barely the legal requirement to be nominated as the AS for ICE. The law requires 5 years of managerial experience and 5 years of law enforcement experience. Ms. Myers is 35 and has worked as the following(estimates): private attorney 2 years; AUSA EDNY 2 years; Deputy Asst Sec Treasury 2 years; Chief of Staff for Michael Chertoff at Main Justice 2 years; Starr Commission 1 year; Director of Commerce’s Export Control agency 2 years; and the White House Personnel 2 years. The most direct law enforcement experience is supervising 250 Commerce Special Agents which pursues similar violations on export control as ICE. Roughly 11 years of experience to lead the 12,000 law enforcement officer ICE agency. You decide if this is sufficient. I can guarantee you that she would never have been nominated to run the FBI, DEA or Secret Service. It’s almost like the old INS days where they just throw out the political favors. Maybe she’s getting the job because she’s tight with Chertoff. Maybe it’s because she’s the niece of General Myers (Chair Joint Chiefs of Staff). Who knows, but I guarantee you this, the next time some illegal aliens commit a terrorist act on U.S. soil, people are going to be scrutinizing her resume.
Sorry to ramble but unfortunately the majority of DHS is being run by hacks, snot nose youngsters who couldn’t find an illegal alien in Tijuana, and other “connected” people with no knowledge, experience, or business being in the Homeland Security sector. I guess it’s a good resume line to have these days.
Indeed.
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