You gotta wonder ...

What Ol' Joe-mentum has on them. Two posts from Jane over at FDL make me think that either the the top people of the AFL-CIO and NARAL are just stubborn, are on a payroll, or are butt buddies of Leiberman.

First:

...

[AFL-CIO's John] Olsen faced strong opposition within his own union for supporting Joe, and now that Joe has left the party many within the AFL-CIO - including AFSCME, which recently endorsed Lamont - have been putting pressure on the leadership to abandon its unnatural love of Lieberman and back Lamont. Olsen told the NYT yesterday that they won't, however.

...

Second:

...

Local Connecticut NARAL head Carolyn Treiss is well aware of the limitations of Joe Lieberman and his positions with regard to reproductive rights - his comment telling rape victims to take a "short ride" if they want emergency contraception was no doubt one of the factors (along with his critical cloture vote for the ragingly anti-choice Samuel Alito) that led her to buck the national organization and vote for Ned Lamont when she was a delegate to the CT Democratic Convention in May of this year. She then went on to join Conncticut Choice Voice, an organization of pro-choice women supporting Ned Lamont and vigorously opposing Joe Lieberman for the lipservice he pays to women's issues that he quickly abandons whenever it's crunch time.

Nancy Keenan, on the other hand, went out of her way to defy local Connecticut choice groups and give the national NARAL endorsement to Lieberman.

...

So why, in these two organizations, powerful ones, have the leadership stubbornly refused to follow the rank and file's wishes? Call me a cynic, but if there were money or favors behind this, I wouldn't be surprised.

If Thomas Paine Were Here

A BuzzFlash guest contribution by Brent Budowsky. Today's 'must read'.

Thomas Paine and his fellow traitor to the Crown and champion of democracy George Washington must be standing at the Gates of heaven and pounding the table while they call down to us with outrage about what we do.

Never before in the history of the Republic have the politics of fear been used so ignobly to put our freedoms under basic attack.

Never before in the history of the Republic have those freedoms been surrendered so casually, so fearfully, so timidly and so meekly by a society that so easily forgets about the rivers of blood of American heroes who died to give us what we so casually, so fearfully, so timidly and so meekly surrender today.

But I will tell you this: I will be damned if I will surrender even one of my rights, even one of your rights, even one of America's first principles, for somebody else's politics, or somebody else's fear. And I do not believe you would either.

I do not refer to what might happen. I refer to the freedoms that have already been surrendered, largely without a fight, though I propose that those who cannot decide whether voting is worth the effort, consider what these people would do if there is another terrorist attack, a prospect that would make George Washington tremble with anger and make Tom Paine pound his fist with rage.

George Washington crossed the Delaware with troops risking death in a river frozen with ice on a Christmas Eve, rallying them to courage, on behalf of a banner of freedom that they hoped, and prayed, and fought to make timeless.

George Bush implores our people to be afraid, and wants people to think: we may not be comfortable with a President who claims the unilateral power to abrogate the Bill of Rights and violate Federal Law at will with a signing statement, but he makes us feel a little bit safer, so it's ok. And so it happened.

Ski's just gettin' warmed up. Go read.

Coverin' ass

Bob Herbert via Live Journal

It seemed that the only people the president wasn't fighting with were the Democrats, who have gone into a coma, and the yahoos who never had much of a problem with such matters as torture and detention without trial.

As Marvin Gaye once sang, "What's going on?"

The people at the top are getting scared, that's what's going on. The fog of secrecy is lifting, and the Bush administration is frightened to death that it will eventually have to pay a heavy price for the human rights abuses it has ordered or condoned in its so-called war on terror.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Geneva Conventions apply to the prisoners seized by the administration, which means that abusing those prisoners - as so many have said for so long - is unquestionably illegal. And there is also the possibility that the Democrats, if they ever wake up, may take control of at least one house of Congress, giving them the kind of subpoena power and oversight that makes the administration tremble.

The reason President Bush has been trying so frantically to get Congressional passage of his plan to interrogate and try terror suspects is that he needs its contorted interpretations of the law to keep important cases from falling apart, and to cover the collective keisters of higher-ups who may have authorized or condoned war crimes.

The people who would have to worry, if war crimes were found to have been committed, would be those at the top of the command structure who crafted policies that were illegal and ordered them carried out - or who turned a blind eye to atrocities.

Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush, Gonzales, and on and on.

Since there's only so much rope, I propose we create a compound in the Mojave Desert for the many who will be awaiting the approaching 'final stretch'. They can be housed in FEMA trailers left over from Katrina. Not fancy, but very expensive digs. If the outgassing from the trailers' construction materials, or the heat, or the cold, or the sanitary facilities, or the food (I suggest leftover C-rations), or the rattlesnakes or boredom don't kill 'em, there'll always be the end of a rope. Eventually. Something for them to live for.

Petition

MoveOn.org

"The Senate must not pardon President Bush for breaking the law by illegally wiretapping innocent Americans. Instead, Congress should be holding him accountable."

Go. Do.

Torture? ¡No! Justice? ¡Si!

Americablog

Since the White House says what it's doing isn't torture, they need to set up a demonstration. Take someone like Karl Rove or Ken Mehlman, and apply some of those techniques. Do it on live TV (although no nakedness from either..ick). I wonder what kind of confessions could be wrangled from those two after a little waterboarding. Their boss says it's not torture.

Where do I pre-order the DVD?

Daddy Frank on the phone about Bush

Check out a clip from Frank Rich's interview with The Young Turks, or watch the full interview.

Craven.Evil.Traitors.

I love my country the same way I love my kids. I know my children aren't angels, and I love them,flaws and all. And when the flaws end up hurting others or are just plain nasty,I don't spare my kids the consequences of their actions. Because I love them. I know that if I don't stop the rotten behavior,not only could it hurt someone else, it will make my kid into a monster. Which isn't good for the kid either. Same goes for my feelings about America. Though if I had to choose between my country and my family, my kids and grandkids would come first. I am oftentimes their only advocate(or at the very least,their primary advocate),and it's a commitment I proudly honor the best I can. It's kind of funny, the things I want and work for,for them,by extension are also good for the country overall. It just works out that way. I can't see me having to choose between my kids and my country unless my kids did something truly heinous,and even then, there's NOTHING either of my kids or any of my grandkids could do that would make me abandon them entirely. I think it's entirely possible to love someone and allow them to feel the consequences for their actions. I can also be angry with someone I love(not to be confused with being abusive)and still adore them and love them fiercely.One could argue that I might not get so upset with them if I didn't care so much(in a healthy way,I don't need to control things so much that I fly into a rage if things don't go my way,trying to scare people into bending to my will).

Conservatives today are pretty much very unable to grasp basic concepts like Cause and Effect,what real multitasking is(ask a mom about that one.I've been known to cook dinner,talk on the phone-for bidness,not yakking-,and tend to laundry whilst holding a baby on my hip),that you can love someone or your country without them being your narrow definition of"perfect", and mostly,they've just become the people who brought you"Fuck Everybody But Me"as their trademarked credo.

I'm not speaking about actual good old fashioned conservatism here either. Barry Goldwater style folks,who while sometimes more than a bit uptight,are frugal,fair,and not too brutal in what they feel is Government's role in our lives. Those are Conservatives I can sit down and have enlightening discourse with,without fighting and lying and shouting being a part of things. And chances are,even as a Proud Liberal,we'd find we agree on more stuff than not. But these days,Goldwater style folks are considered downright liberal. Welcome to the club,it must really be confusing as hell these days to hold healthy conservative values and politics,you don't feel like you belong anywhere,do you? Well,come on in and have a seat,I'll make some coffee or grab you a beer. Now you get how us Liberal types have been feeling for quite some time. We can't defend this crap anymore, and if you're willing to admit your party is nothing more than a massive critical enterprise and want to work with us to help stop it, I welcome you.

It's not a big secret that I hate large megacorporations(for many,many,many reasons). Whether or not they are run by evil people depends on your definition of evil I guess, but whatever the various intents behind these giant monsters,the RESULTS do end up being pretty nasty. The road to Hell being paved with Good Intentions and all that. Though to be honest,I do think alot of CEO and big shareholder types are indeed nasty pieces of work,almost without exception.

Case in Point:
War Profiteering.

If you're of a mind to follow along here,there's quite alot of video/documentary(and a few text pages) in the following links,but I think it's important to look at this stuff to understand the depths to which Justice is going to have to reach to effect real change for the better. Anything else is just band aids and postponing the inevitable destruction of not just this country,but the entire planet. I don' t think I'm being melodramatic either.

Keep in mind also that our system allows much of this to happen(not to mention that any actual rules/laws that are in place are violated without enforcement anyway)by making politics almost entirely about money and personal enrichment. And many of the people who profit quite a bit are also in charge of key areas in government at all levels. Therefore they have no incentive to do a damned thing to change it. We're kidding ourselves if we think elected officials give a rat's ass about us. There are rare gems like Paul Wellstone, but they are few and far between(and are too often either taken from us too soon,drummed out of office,become jaded and corruptable,or quit in disgust).

((((sigh)))))

War Is A Racket

Dwight D Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation

Why We Fight

War is Sell

Iraq's Missing Billions

Iraq For Sale

See a pattern here? And remember,this is nothing new,it's just grown and morphed and changed over the last few centuries into something that now threatens to engulf the entire planet. And this doesn't even take into account for the massive environmental damage done by these companies and all the sickness and pain this madness causes.

We can't figure out how to stop this if we don't know what's going on. It's deep,scary deep.

Quote of the Day

Via Jo Fish:

I'm just as frustrated as many Americans are that Saddam Hussein still lives. I think we ought to keep the pressure on him. I will tell you this: If we catch him developing weapons of mass destruction in any way, shape or form, I'll deal with that in a way that he won't like. ~ George W. Bush

Guess when the Chimp said this?

February 16, 2000

The invasion of Iraq was planned long before the idiot even thought about running for the Presidency and 9/11 was the key to its implementation. Discuss.

Assessing the threat

Via our pal 42, I found this ed in The Week:

...

Perhaps it's time to re-evaluate the al Qaida threat, said Youssef Ibrahim in The New York Sun. The organization may be capable of occasional bombing strikes on Western civilians, but it's a small, grubby group of fanatics blinded by its own ideology. These few thousand men do not pose "an existential danger to the world." When they fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, they "lost every battle they ever engaged in." Their previous bombings - the World Trade Center in 1993, U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, the USS Cole in 2000 - were "more pugnacious than crippling." Only the grotesquely successful assault of Sept. 11 made al Qaida seem like a menace to Western civilization itself. It's now clear that it is not, said John Tierney in The New York Times. Compared with the Nazis, who had the world's most powerful military, and the Soviet Union, which had the ability to incinerate every square inch of the U.S. in a matter of minutes, al Qaida's terrorists are "a minor problem." It may sound flip to say so, but the fact is that more Americans have died in bathtubs over the past five years than have died in al Qaida attacks. [my ems]

...

The current administration in the United States is a far bigger threat to Western Civilization that Osama ever was. Al Qaeda is a gift from Allah to the Chimp and the military-industrial complex.

A final word about Ann Richards

Please go read the late Former Governor Richards' Speech to the Democratic National Convention in '88. She got it just a teeny bit wrong, but it will show you what kind of lady she was.

Buenas noches, mis amigos!

I am delighted to be here with you this evening because after listening to George Bush all these years, I figured you needed to know what a real Texas accent sounds like.

A tip o' the Brain to Sumo.

Dodge City

NBC Baghdad Blog via Dr. Attaturk (Podiatrist to the Stars):

...

Here, a Facilities Protection Service officer examined the paperwork granting us permission to film at the complex. The Facilities Protection Service (FPS) is a guard force that works for each ministry; since the Ministry of Health is run by a supporter of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Ministry of Health Facilities Protection Service is known to be thoroughly infiltrated by militiamen from Sadr's Mahdi Army.

The FPS officer glanced at my paperwork, told me to leave my crew at the checkpoint and to follow him inside. There I met with a commander of the morgue's FPS platoon, a short man dressed in civilian clothes. He made a phone call to a higher-ranking official and said it was okay for us to film.

As I was walking back outside, gunfire erupted all around us. It turns out the Ministry of Health FPS had gotten into a firefight with nearby FPS officers from the Ministry of Electricity, which is not run by a al-Sadr supporter. Unfortunately, my crew was caught in the middle.

Firefight at the morgue
With bullets crackling overhead, I yelled at my crew to run towards me and take cover behind a concrete barricade. The Ministry of Health FPS also took cover behind our barricade and continued to fire at the Electricity FPS officers about 100 feet away.

One of the Health FPS officers near us was furiously firing a PKC machinegun and yelling, "I will kill every one of them. I will kill every one of those Sunni bastards."

...

How is this not a civil war? Not only the press, but our troops are caught in the middle of this shit every day. We caused this ladies and germs. Iraq under Saddam and his psycho sons was a stable nation. As long as you stayed out of the way, you could live a relatively normal life. If the War in Iraq and the subsequent occupation is not a war crime, the Nazis were chior boys.

'Til her daddy takes the Abrams away...

Stolen with glee and verbatim from Brother Lurch of Main and Central:

What happens when you have the following?

1. Soldiers with too much time on their hands.

2. Soldiers with audio-video equipment

3. Soldiers with a great sense of humor......

http://www.texasjustice.org/kosovo1.wmv

It may be too late, but Liquid Alert!

Charlie Brown Update

Charlie Brown is the Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives from CA-04. I'm on his list, and ergo, so are you. Here are his latest press clips:

In this week's clips:

1. The Sacramento Bee endorsed Charlie Brown for Congress on Sunday, September 17th.

2. A Poll was released earlier in the week showing the 4th CD race between Brown and Doolittle is now a dead heat. And when positives are read about each candidate, Charlie Brown surges to a 9 point lead.

3. The Doolittle camp has acknowledged they are in trouble, announcing President Bush will be visiting the 4th CD on October 3rd to help raise money for Doolittle.

4. Brown launches www.Doolittlefacts.org, a website devoted to the truth on John Doolittle's support for the Abramoff linked government of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands---which tolerates widespread abuses like forced abortions, sex slavery, and sweatshop labor, Doolittle has known about the abuses for more than 10 years, and instead of doing something about them, has championed the cause of using U.S. tax dollars to fund the corrupt CNMI government. Jack Abramoff referred to him as the U.S. Territory's "hero."

5. The Group Republicans for Charlie Brown has formally launched - citing Charlie's strong record on national security, fiscal discipline, and leading with integrity as reasons for their support.

6. John Doolittle has the 2nd worst record on veterans' issues in the House during the 109th Congress. Even though he votes himself a pay raise every year, and sends out taxpayer funded campaign mailers, Doolittle says it's too expensive to provide our troops with the support they've earned and deserve.

Charlie's Latest Blog: Intelligence and the Last Name on the Vietnam Wall.

And much, much more.

Full Clips are attached. (They're available at his site's Media Center - G)

Todd A. Stenhouse
Communications Director
Brown for Congress
P.O. Box 4506
Auburn, CA 95604-4506
800-727-6968
(916) 455-6640--direct
(916) 397-1131--mobile
toddstenhouse@comcast.net
www.charliebrownforcongress.org

Back to Gordon. Charlie has yet to plan anything for my area. This is understandable in light of the fact that 90% of the voters are where he is and not where I am, but it'd be nice if he came up here to show the flag, like a gunboat going up the Yangtze.

QotD

From Wayne's Whirled!:

There is already clarity in the...Geneva Convention, and the McCain Amendment. What the Bush administration wants is to introduce vagueness to get away with exactly the same barabarism they have deploying illegally for the past five years. They must be stopped. And eventually, they must be prosecuted for war crimes.

Quote is from that cute little bald-headed Andrew Sullivan on the occasion of the preznit's "Give me what I want or I'll let them kill you in your beds" speech from the Rose Garden. Oh, dearie me!

Webb kicks Allen's ass on Press the Meat

That title may lead you to believe I'm just a smidgen biased. Ya caught me.

Here's a WaPo article on yesterday's debate between highly decorated Marine combat Vet and former SecNav Jim Webb and George Allen (R(acist)-VA) on Meet the Press. Transcript.

Shorter: Webb knew his shit and gave forthright answers. Allen knew Repug talking points and successfully dodged giving direct answers.

Shorter still: "Semper Fi" good. "Macaca" bad.

Fire Lookouts

Just an interesting article on Forest Service fire lookouts in the LATimes.

The one nearest to me, less than ten miles, is Martis Peak Lookout. I've been up there many times. The view is fabulous. The lake in the 'General View South' is Lake Tahoe. On a clear day, increasingly rare, you can see Mt. Shasta, 150 miles to the north. That site says the road is paved, but I've never seen that. They must have paved it pretty recently, but they've done that to a lot of the old dirt roads in the woods around here. It used to be a pretty good dirt bike road, but old Judge Wilson's wife used to summer up there lookin' for smoke, and he would drag his 24-foot trailer up there behind a Cadillac! I think he made the third rut with his oil pan...

Also see the view from Verdi Peak Lookout. The road is I-80 heading east towards Reno. The structure in the lower right is a casino/gas station/blanket-ass smoke shop.

Oh, what the hell, one more: Sardine Peak Lookout.

Just for fun, check out the Tahoe and Toiyabe National Forests. My back yard.

I like it up here in the mountains.

Governator will sign Hang-Up-And-Drive Bill

LATimes

California will become the fourth state in the country to ban motorists from holding cellphones while driving under legislation Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he will sign into law today.

It's a good start, but doesn't address the real problem:

Though the only official opponent of the bill was the Sprint-Nextel cellular phone company, several lawmakers argued that the act of conversing - not of holding a phone - is the real distraction to drivers.

They also argued that children, the radio, pets, hamburgers and sodas are all as likely to divert drivers' attention as cellphones.

They left out the danger of gettin' some skull at 80 per. Talk about distractions! Let alone the thought of what's gonna get bit off in the accident... Heehee!

This won't affect Ah-nold's supporters too much. those Escalades and Navigators have hands-free phones. When they crash into you, they'll get off the hook like they always do.

Go read the rest. Pictures and video, too.

Daily Dave*

Back from the Mejias press conference this afternoon. Being an agitator as opposed to a journalist, I didn't know what to expect. We showed up early (the Mrs. accompanied me) and hung around waiting for the candidate. Personally, I figured he'd show up with an entourage but instead I spotted him coming up the sidewalk alone, stopping to say hello to one of Nassau County's finest who was there to keep things orderly. It was easy duty for the cop.



He said hello to us, and to the big shots from the Long Island environmental community, and then, in the shadow of one of Nassau County's dirtiest Superfund sites, laid out the ways Peter King has failed Long Island in the environmental arena.

Peter King voted against increasing funding for the Superfund, jeopardizing the cleanup of hundreds of toxic sites.

King supported funding cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency.

King voted to allow offshore drilling for natural gas.

King voted to shield gas companies from lawsuits involving MTBE that's infiltrating Long Island's groundwater.

King voted to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.

And then the candidate told us about his accomplishments ...

Ban on Arsenic Treated Wood

Fighting the Expansion of Republic Airport

Solar Panel Sales Tax Exemptions

Hybrid Car Sales Exemption

... Among a host of others before the environmentalists took their turns praising the candidate and giving their endorsements.

After the press conference Mr. Mejias spoke to the Mrs. and me for a few minutes, explaining that on his watch, the miserable eyesore across the street would be nothing but a bad memory. Of course, I got the Mrs. to take an obligatory snap of Mr. Mejias and me.

I'm the one on the left. Heh ...

And I should add, Mr. Mejias, in his speech, managed to link Peter King and the Chimp at every opportunity. Good man.

Learn about the candidate and volunteer - Dave for America

Contribute - Dave's ActBlue page.

Vote for Dave Mejias. Do you live in NY-03?

*Press conference edition.
Yes, I know about the dates on the pics. I was dicking with my camera and reset them accidentally. Sue me. Click the pics to embiggen.

OsaMaMia!

BuzzFlash is inviting comments on the nature of Rove's October Surprise.

So, let's put this one out to BuzzFlash readers.

Can you predict the October surprise?

Is Osama going to suddenly be "captured" in a pre-arranged "daring raid," which will turn out to be staged, because the Busheviks have had him in custody for sometime, just waiting for the midterms?

Or will there be another October surprise?

Let us know your thoughts.

Some of the thoughts:

I've maintained for several years now that Osama's hanging out at the family compound in Saudi, drinking Margaritas and shooting the breeze with Poppy Bush, getting his feet (or some other part of his body) rubbed by a white slave girl from L.A.---and waiting for his next cameo as the "Phantom Menace". Osama was C.I.A. from the get-go (1979), and you don't just "retire" from the firm when you're THAT important. If they "catch" him, they'll retire him to someplace comfortable and out of the way of prying eyes, with a gold watch for honored service. The Cheney Oil Boyz and Al-Queda are part and parcel of the same team---a team that (at least on the "American" side) acts like a bunch of macho adolescent boys who've just found Daddy's gun in the closet to play with, and who are too pig-headed and stupid to pour piss out of a boot from the instructions on the heel---or care that this planet is coming to pieces climatically, economically, and energy-wise. They think they'll wreck it and then pick up the pieces----well, the law of unintended consequences is kicking in big-time, and we are ALL paying the price! Dangerous goddamn fool chimpanzees with nukes---makes me ashamed of my nationality.

Is there any other reason why the entire area over Cheney's ranch was made a no fly zone? Osama and friends likely are holed up there, guests of our VP, waiting to make appearances as necessary to ensure Repuglican victory.

An October surprise isn't really necessary. The Diebold voting machines are pre set at the factory.

Many more. Enjoy.

Top Ten Worst

Go see Cenk Uygur's list of the Top Ten Worst People in the Bush Administration, with commentary.

You know this list is hideous when John Ashcroft can't crack the Top Ten. John Bolton would finish in the top two of almost any other "worst person" list. But this is a murderer's row of incompetents, fool, knaves, and - in the immortal words of the president - evil-doers.

There is nothing George Bush won't do to cover up his own insecurities. The man has been an abject failure in every aspect of his life. He was terrible at school. He was cowardly in the face of battle. He destroyed every business he ran. And he knows it.

But he buries it deep down inside. He puts on his fake swagger and pretends he earned his place in the world. He was born as American royalty and he thinks he built the empire. He has had everything handed to him and smashed it to pieces.

What is important to him is that he appears powerful and that he wins. What are not important are the consequences of his decisions. The reason we had no post-war plan for Iraq is the same reason Bush had no post-election strategy for governing - because he does not care to govern.

He wants the ticker tape parade, the landing on the aircraft carrier, the hero's welcome. Then what happens afterward is none of his concern. He can't be bothered.

So, I have come to develop a loathing for him. If you want to accuse me of hating George Bush, go right ahead. Guilty as charged. If a man is this indifferent to the people whose lives hang in the balance based on his actions, I think he is a terrible person. If you don't hate him, you're not paying attention.

Congratulations, George W. Bush. You have done what seemed impossible, become less likable than Dick Cheney. You should be proud, you win!

They're all less popular with me than dog shit in my Vibram soles. Mr. Uygur uncorks his true feelings elsewhere in his piece as well. Go read.