Destruction of CIA Interrogation Tapes is Not an Isolated Incident, but Part of a Pattern

drational suggests a motive for the destruction of the tapes.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/19/8304/5350/907/423192

what's up - fire at the White House

heard it on the commute - building w/Cheney's office evacuated while he was out at press briefing - same building where the Nixon tapes were created

literal & metaphorical associations ..

CNN has the story

Alberto Gonzales and other top White House lawyers took part in discussions about destroying CIA videotapes of interrogation of two al Qaeda suspects, the New York Times reported Tuesday night on its Web site.
art.gonzales.gi.jpg

Alberto Gonzales was White House counsel until early 2005, when he became U.S. attorney general.

At least four top White House lawyers discussed the issue with the CIA between 2003 and 2005, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials the newspaper did not identify.

Gonzales, the former attorney general who served as White House counsel until early 2005, was among those who took part, the officials said.

Also involved, according to the Times' sources, were David Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney and is now his chief of staff; John Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council; and Harriet Miers, who succeeded Gonzales as White House counsel.

~~~~

Can we impeach yet, Nancy, Steney, Emmanuel, etc?

Lemme guess, important documents in Cheney's office were destroyed in the fire...

Here Comes Satan Clause

monkey said: Lemme guess, important documents in Cheney's office were destroyed in the fire...

Here Comes Satan Clause

Well...uh..duh!!!

A fire sale cleaning is cheaper than paying for nerds.com (or whatever)

Besides...Nixon had the plumbers so why shouldn't Cheney have the arsonists.

White House on Wednesday took the rare step of publicly asking The New York Times to change the sub-headline of a story on the destruction of CIA tapes showing the interrogations of suspected terrorists.

At issue is the story’s sub-headline that stated: “White House Role Was Wider Than It Said.” The White House called this sub-headline inaccurate and demanded that it be corrected.

“Under direction from the White House General Counsel while the Department of Justice and the CIA Inspector General conduct a preliminary inquiry, we have not publicly commented on facts relating to this issue, except to note President Bush’s immediate reaction upon being briefed on the matter,” stated White House Press Secretary Dana Perino. “Furthermore, we have not described – neither to highlight, nor to minimize -- the role or deliberations of White House officials in this matter.”

The Hill

White House statement

Gee, let's control the press, that's democracy!!!!

One in Five Expect to Borrow to Heat Homes This Winter

by Connie Prater
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

For perhaps as many as 27 million American adults, keeping warm this winter will mean borrowing money and 20 million will use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills, according to a CreditCards.com poll.

more...
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/104038/One-in-Five-Expect-to-Borrow-to-Heat-Homes-This-Winter

WASHINGTON - Even though public opinion is overwhelmingly on their side, Democrats are winding up the year with little accomplished on the military and foreign policy issues that helped propel them to power in the last election.

They have been unable to bring troops home from Iraq or force President Bush to accept a nonbinding timetable on the war. Guantanamo Bay prison remains open, despite a Democratic-led effort to close it. And the legal rights of military detainees are the same as the Republicans left them last year — subject to potentially harsh interrogations without access to federal courts or an automatic right to legal counsel.

Also intact is Bush's ban on aid to international family planning groups that offer abortions, even though Democrats say the policy has enabled the spread of HIV and cost U.S. influence abroad.

The Democrats' poor batting average in the year since retaking control of Congress is caused primarily by their narrow majority status, which has left them unable to overcome procedural hurdles in the Senate, let alone override a presidential veto. On Iraq in particular, Congress this year voted repeatedly to set a timetable for troop withdrawals. Each time, the anti-war measure would scrape by in the House only to sink in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Democrats caucus with a narrow 51-49 majority.

But their inability to effect change also reflects Democrats' all-or-nothing approach. On Iraq, where public opinion was decidedly in their favor, Democrats showed little interest in compromising with Republicans. Their unyielding stance cost them even modest gains in trying to force Bush's hand to bring troops home.

Indeed, the only significant piece of war legislation to be signed by Bush this year was drafted by Sen. John Warner of Virginia, a moderate Republican who sided with Democrats in opposing Bush's decision to send some 30,000 additional troops into Iraq. Warner's bill demanded that two separate independent audits be conducted of progress in Iraq and required that the four-star general in charge of Iraq operations, Gen. David Petraeus, testify before Congress.

Left on the cutting room floor this year were other bipartisan proposals, including one by Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., that would have restricted the mission of U.S. troops to non-combat roles in Iraq but not set a date for troop withdrawals.

Late Tuesday, as the Senate wrapped up the year's work, Democrats offered their most tempered Iraq proposal to date: a resolution expressing the sense of Congress that U.S. troops limit missions to counterterrorism, training the Iraqis and force protection. But the last-ditch effort was too late, with only six Republicans joining it.

The measure failed on a 50-45 vote, ten short of the 60 needed to advance. Five Democrats, expected to have supported the resolution, were not present.

Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott said Democrats never learned the art of the possible and focused too much on "sticking it" to Bush, rather than making progress.

Lott, R-Miss., said Republicans were able to shore up support for the war by allowing members to voice their concerns and occasionally vote against the party. The goal by GOP leadership, he said, was not to allow too many war votes to pile up at once so as to keep the pressure off members.

"It was a challenge on every vote" to keep the GOP unified, Lott said. "But we did it, over and over and over again."

For their part, Democrats say they miscalculated Republican loyalty to a politically unpopular president. But yielding ground to Republicans on Iraq would have been futile, Senate Democratic Whip Richard Durbin said.

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071219/ap_on_go_co/democrats_foreign_policy;_ylt=An3qsaiya2SOUod9wbqCtsSyFz4D

Bush, Cheney visit scene of today's fire near White House

White House: NYT wrong about CIA tapes

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration on Wednesday called "pernicious and troubling" a New York Times article on the White House's role in the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/19/cia.tapes/index.html

No, No, GO BACK TO THE POSTERS.

We were all so happy there, great art.

No, No, No, no, please don't make us talk about torture anymore!

Oh....nevermind.

Carry on.

Please tell me dick tried self-immolation.

SENATE HEARING ON THE APPOINTMENT OF DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL:

LIVE ON C-SPAN 3 now

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan3_rm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3

BULLDOZING OF NEW ORLEANS HUD HOUSING:

High Noon in New Orleans: The Bulldozers Are Ready
By Nicolai Ouroussoff
The New York Times

Wednesday 19 December 2007

Ever since it took over the public housing projects of New Orleans more than a decade ago, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has been itching to tear them down.

Now, after years of lawsuits and delays, it looks as if the agency will finally get its Christmas wish. The New Orleans City Council is scheduled to vote on Thursday on whether to sign off on the demolitions of three projects. HUD already has its bulldozers in place, engines warm and ready to roll the next morning.

Arguing that the housing was barely livable before the flooding unleashed by Hurricane Katrina, federal officials have cast their decision as good social policy. They have sought to lump the projects together with the much-vilified inner-city projects of the 1960s.

But such thinking reflects a ruthless indifference to local realities. The projects in New Orleans have little to do with the sterile brick towers and alienating plazas that usually come to mind when we think of inner-city housing. Some rank among the best early examples of public housing built in the United States, both in design and in quality of construction.

On the contrary, it is the government's tabula rasa approach that evokes the most brutal postwar urban-renewal strategies. Neighborhood history is deemed irrelevant; the vague notion of a "fresh start" is invoked to justify erasing entire communities.

This mentality also threatens other public buildings in New Orleans that can be considered 20th-century landmarks. If the government gets its way, a rich architectural legacy will be supplanted by private, mixed-income developments with pitched roofs and wood-frame construction, an ersatz vision of small-town America. That this could happen in a city that still largely lies in ruins is both sad and grotesque.

Scattered across the city, the housing complexes involve more than 4,500 units. HUD plans to complete the demolitions within the next six months.

I'll never forgive this government for how they F*CKED with my New Orleans. My older brother lives in the heart of the city, and what is being done there is a crime!

I told you Monkey...

Those log books will be as hard to get rid of as a corpse.

If I were trying to get rid of a dead body... I would have went with fire too.

'....what is being done there is a crime!'

Don't you mean 'ANOTHER' crime...? They are committing so many crimes now, New Orleans is just yet another example to throw on the pile.

We have killed over a million Iraqis for lies. No one here cares. I mean, not really. It is easy, out of sight, out of mind.

The poor left homeless in New Orleans will be just as easy to ignore as over a million dead people is.

This country has ignored the deep south for so long, it may actually be easier to ignore than the million dead.

Well, Well, Well, What do you know?

Kristol, Krauthammer Are Out of Time

Two conservative Time magazine columnists are on their way out the door: Neither William Kristol nor longtime contributor Charles Krauthammer will be on contract with the magazine starting next month. Mr. Krauthammer confirmed the news to Off the Record, and a spokeswoman for Time said Mr. Kristol’s contract would not be renewed.

And according to two sources familiar with the discussions, Time is in negotiations with National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru to sign him to a contributor contract. Mr. Ponnuru, who in 2006 published The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life, has written twice for the magazine over the past month.

The exact reasons for the departures of Mr. Krauthammer and Mr. Kristol, both high-profile backers of the Iraq war, are not entirely clear.

http://www.observer.com/2007/kristol-krauthammer-are-out-time

A Little Late? Bush Admits Iraq Doesn't Have WMD, Audience Laughs

Yesterday at a speech in Virginia, President Bush was forced to correct his own misinformation campaign when a questioner mistakenly said that Iraq currently has nuclear weapons:

Video
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/18/bush-iraq-doesnt-have-nukesobviously-laughter/

From Wikipedia, the free (Liberal) encyclopedia

Broadly speaking, liberalism emphasizes individual rights and equality of opportunity. Different forms of liberalism may propose very different policies, but they are generally united by their support for a number of principles, including extensive freedom of thought and speech, limitations on the power of governments, the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a market or mixed economy, and a transparent system of government.[2] All liberals – as well as some adherents of other political ideologies – support some variant of the form of government known as liberal democracy, with open and fair elections, where all citizens have equal rights by law.[3]

Dennis Kucinich's 52-year-old brother found dead

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/12/dennis_kucinichs_52yearold_bro.html

Oh man, that's awful news.

More not great news news...

Musician Stephen Stills - of folk-rock trio Crosby, Stills and Nash - has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

His bandmate Graham Nash told US TV talk show host Larry King that Stills will undergo an operation on 3 January.

Nash said an early diagnosis of the disease had potentially saved the 62-year-old's life.

more...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7151382.stm

Best wishes for a full recovery, Stephen.

(CNN) -- Government contractors in Iraq face lawlessness reminiscent of America's Wild West of the 1800s, lawmakers said Wednesday at a House hearing into a contractor's rape allegations.

"We need a new sheriff in Iraq to enforce federal laws," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, while testifying in support of Jamie Leigh Jones, a constituent of his who alleges that fellow employees raped her while she worked for KBR Inc. two years ago in Iraq.

No government entity has stepped up to look out for Jones' interests in the case or to ensure that the constitutional rights of contract employees are protected, congressmen said.

Jones, appearing before the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, said sexual harassment is an overwhelming problem among contractors in Iraq and that "the laws have left us nowhere to turn."

"Jamie's case is not unique," Poe said, adding that three other former KBR employees have come forward with allegations of rape and sexual assault in Iraq. "For American contractors, Iraq seems reminiscent of the Old West days," he said.

Rep. Artur Davis, D-Alabama, said contractors are given a blank check to commit crimes in Iraq.

"The wrongdoers know very well that they're not going to be prosecuted," Davis said.

Rep. Dan Lungren, R-California, called the government's response to Jones' allegations "totally unacceptable."

"This sounds like the way we handled sexual assault cases 50 years ago," Lungren said.

Committee members ripped the Justice Department for not appearing at the hearing, where a chair at the witness table was left empty for a department employee.

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/19/contractor.hearing/index.html

New York Times to run correction on CIA tapes article: Developing...

rawstory.com

Echoing complaints she voiced in a written statement earlier Wednesday, Perino said the sub-headline on the Times' front page, "White House Role Was Wider Than It Said," implied that she had willfully misled the press; rather, the Bush administration mouthpiece insisted, she had refused to comment on any details of the CIA tape destruction, except to say the president only remembered learning the spy agency had destroyed potential criminal trial evidence just before the story became public.

Perino said she was assured by Times editors that they would retract the sub-headline and issue a correction in Thursday's edition.

Several reporters in the room pressed Perino on whether the article was inaccurate in its substance, but she refused to provide any illumination on that issue.

"So you're disputing that characterization, not the underlying facts of the story," one reporter asked.

"I am not commenting on the underlying facts of the story," Perino stressed, maintaining the moratorium on illumination the White House has maintained since the story first appeared nearly two weeks ago.

-snip-

"The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged," Mazzetti and Shane wrote.

In Perino's view, that sentence implied she was a liar, but several White House reporters in Wednesday's briefing pointed out that Perino was not mentioned in early editions of the story and that administration officials had privately told several members of the press only of Miers's involvement in discussions over the tapes.

"I am not accountable for all the anonymous sources that you turn up," Perino scolded the assembled reporters. "This says that I was misleading, and I was not."

more...
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Perino_blasts_NYT_headline_on_CIA_1219.html

Does anyone here actually believe that those tapes are MOSTLY of a mentally ill and wounded man getting medical attention, or of him SLEEPING...? Yeah right.

All this crap and yet still not a hint as to how they came to be in the first place.

Or WHY they were made.

The more I have to think about it, the madder I get.

This story is soooooo damn good, the more I read it, the funnier it gets. I'm on like my 5th article about it, and I am laughing my arse off.... HAHA!

A Hoax Exposed at Princeton

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071231/blumenthal

Seriously, just read it!

ROTFLMAO!!!! HAHAHA!

How deep does it go?

"If there really is a vast, right-wing conspiracy, its leaders probably meet in George's basement."

Hmmmmm.

McCain assails Obama for lack of experience
GOP contender criticizes Democrat's call for shift from Iraq to Afghanistan

By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC

WASHINGTON - Add Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain to the list of Sen. Barack Obama’s rivals who are suggesting that he lacks the experience required to be president.

In a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday, Obama pledged that he would “remove our combat brigades from Iraq and increase our military, political, and economic commitment to Afghanistan" as president.

Asked Tuesday night about Obama’s comments, McCain got in a slap about his opponent's slender foreign policy credentials, although he also included other Democrats in his critique as lacking “judgment.”

“They don’t understand the implications of failure in Iraq: that it will directly affect Afghanistan and the entire Middle East,” McCain said. “They simply either don’t have the experience or that judgment to understand that. If we fail in Iraq, the consequences of defeat will spread throughout the region.”

more on...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22326360/

W gains another foreign ally:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7150806.stm

DIE NEOLIBERALS DIE!

McCain doesn't understand that we've already failed in Iraq and that the repercussions are already happening around the world.

monkey, sparrow

McCain is still too busy fighting the Communist Empire - and buying into his Vietnamese-American bloc's mentality that the Islamic extremists are funded by the Commies.

Well, it's now over 100,314 and I think that today's news made the signatures go more quickly again.

LOL WHAT A PAIR LEADING IN THE LATEST NEW HAMPSHIRE POLL:

MITT & HILLARY

(ain't democracy great???):

y The Associated Press Wed Dec 19, 9:21 AM ET

THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats and Republicans in New Hampshire.

___

THE NUMBERS - DEMOCRATS

Hillary Rodham Clinton, 38 percent

Barack Obama, 26 percent

John Edwards, 14 percent

Bill Richardson, 8 percent

___

THE NUMBERS - REPUBLICANS

Mitt Romney, 34 percent

John McCain, 22 percent

Rudy Giuliani, 16 percent

Mike Huckabee, 10 percent

Paul keeps donation from white supremacist
Aide: Candidate to take money and 'try to spread the message of freedom'

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul has received a $500 campaign donation from a white supremacist, and the Texas congressman doesn't plan to return it, an aide said Wednesday.

Don Black, of West Palm Beach, recently made the donation, according to campaign filings. He runs a Web site called Stormfront with the motto, "White Pride World Wide." The site welcomes postings to the "Stormfront White Nationalist Community."

"Dr. Paul stands for freedom, peace, prosperity and inalienable rights. If someone with small ideologies happens to contribute money to Ron, thinking he can influence Ron in any way, he's wasted his money," Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said. "Ron is going to take the money and try to spread the message of freedom."

more on...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22331091/

Spreading freedom, eh? Sounds a lot like someone else we know...

See ya, Dr. Paul!

Giuliani plummets in latest NBC/WSJ poll
Clinton continues to lead Obama; Obama fares better against GOPers

WASHINGTON - After a month’s worth of mostly negative media reports, his campaign’s decision to decrease his activity in the early nominating states and the rise of GOP rival Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani’s national standing has plummeted in the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, providing more evidence that the contest for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination is wide open.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22327166/

Sorry for the length of this post, it's worth reading the whole article...

Hard-liners for Jesus

By Harold Meyerson
The Washington Post
Wednesday, December 19, 2007; Page A19

As Christians across the world prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus, it's a fitting moment to contemplate the mountain of moral, and mortal, hypocrisy that is our Christianized Republican Party.

There's nothing new, of course, about the Christianization of the GOP. Seven years ago, when debating Al Gore, then-candidate George W. Bush was asked to identify his favorite philosopher and answered "Jesus." This year, however, the Christianization of the party reached new heights with Mitt Romney's declaration that he believed in Jesus as his savior, in an effort to stanch the flow of "values voters" to Mike Huckabee.

My concern isn't the rift that has opened between Republican political practice and the vision of the nation's Founders, who made very clear in the Constitution that there would be no religious test for officeholders in their enlightened new republic. Rather, it's the gap between the teachings of the Gospels and the preachings of the Gospel's Own Party that has widened past the point of absurdity, even as the ostensible Christianization of the party proceeds apace.

The policies of the president, for instance, can be defended in greater or (more frequently) lesser degree within a framework of worldly standards. But if Bush can conform his advocacy of preemptive war with Jesus's Sermon on the Mount admonition to turn the other cheek, he's a more creative theologian than we have given him credit for. Likewise his support of torture, which he highlighted again this month when he threatened to veto House-passed legislation that would explicitly ban waterboarding.

It's not just Bush whose catechism is a merry mix of torture and piety. Virtually the entire Republican House delegation opposed the ban on waterboarding. Among the Republican presidential candidates, only Huckabee and the not-very-religious John McCain have come out against torture, while only libertarian Ron Paul has questioned the doctrine of preemptive war.

But it's on their policies concerning immigrants where Republicans -- candidates and voters alike -- really run afoul of biblical writ. Not on immigration as such but on the treatment of immigrants who are already here. Consider: Christmas, after all, celebrates not just Jesus's birth but his family's flight from Herod's wrath into Egypt, a journey obviously undertaken without benefit of legal documentation. The Bible isn't big on immigrant documentation. "Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him," Exodus says the Lord told Moses on Mount Sinai, "for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."

Yet the distinctive cry coming from the Republican base this year isn't simply to control the flow of immigrants across our borders but to punish the undocumented immigrants already here, children and parents alike.

-snip-

We've seen this kind of Christianity before in America. It's more tribal than religious, and it surges at those times when our country is growing more diverse and economic opportunity is not abounding. At its height in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was chiefly the political expression of nativist Protestants upset by the growing ranks of Catholics in their midst.

-snip-

It's difficult today to imagine KKKers thinking of their mission as Christian, but millions of them did.

The most depressing thing about the Republican presidential race is that the party's rank and file require their candidates to grow meaner with each passing week. And now, inconveniently, inconsiderately, comes Christmas, a holiday that couldn't be better calibrated to expose the Republicans' rank, fetid hypocrisy.

more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/18/AR2007121801634.html?nav=hcmodule

About Face
The CIA agrees to cooperate with Hill's tapes probe.

Updated: 6:00 p.m. ET Dec 19, 2007

by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball

Faced with the threat of subpoenas, the CIA has reversed its position from last week and is now signaling that the agency will cooperate with an aggressive congressional investigation into the destruction of hundreds of hours of videotapes believed to show the use of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques on two suspected top Al Qaeda leaders, NEWSWEEK has learned.

more...
http://www.newsweek.com/id/80996

"Hard-liners for Jesus"...Excellent article--Monkey.

It's of course what all of us said on this blog and many others. In 2004, people were made to feel unchristian if they supported Kerry. And I still see bumper stickers that say that if you're pro-choice you can't be a Catholic.

However, I do feel that 95% of the progressive side is much more Biblically based than the Republican side. The problem always boils down to those two wedge issues: abortion and gay marraige.

Like abortion and gay-marriage have ANY bearing on the daily lives of the majority of Americans.

Wedgies.

Furthermore, anyone who stands for true peace is way more in touch with biblical principals than warmongering Republicans... even if they are atheist.

Believe it or not.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, I have a difficult time understanding why anyone would care about the sex life of anyone--gay or not--or if they should get married or not. In my opinion, there's a lot more dangerous behavior out there to worry about.

I can understand a little more about the abortion issue, although I'm not at either end of that issue.

People at Kos are making a BIG PUSH to get the 250,000 people by Xmas. Things they're doing:

1. facebook
2. Myspace
3. LTE's
4. Calls
5. Yahoo comments, aol, msn, comments
6. Calling the corporate media and demanding coverage
7. Going to malls and schools and writing it down on money or their credit card and so forth.

There is definately a blackout on Wexler's hearings and yet despite it, there is over 103,000 signers in less than a week.

LATEST ON THE WEXLER PETITION AND VIDEO:

103,590
signed up
and counting...

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Ron Paul is affiliated with Swift Boaters too -specifically, Jerome Corsi, who wrote "Unfit
to Serve" about John Kerry, along with O'Neill.

Click on my name and scroll down a ways. I don't have the link here.

monkey

Thanks for sharing the "Hard-liners for Jesus" article.

It does miss a significant aspect though - the Christian backgrounds of the Republicans' favored immigrant groups, especially the Koreans but many Latin Americans to a lesser extent as well.

California banned gay marriage and almost banned teen abortion on the backs of these conservative immigrants. I will never forget and never forgive.

So much for the Republicans as the party of states' rights:

Feds block California vehicle emissions laws

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22332983/

Domestic automakers are cheering this decision. No wonder nobody in California buys their crap.

Pat Buchanon said on C-Span Washington Journal that the Republican front-runners are Romney and Huckabee.

With McCain is #3. Pat says that Rudy is running #4 and fading.

Justice Dept Refuses To Attend Congressional Hearing On Halliburton Rape Cases

By MADDY SAUER
Dec. 19, 2007

The Department of Justice refused to send a representative to answer questions from Congress today on the investigations into allegations of rape and sexual assault on female American contractors.

"I'm embarrassed that the Department of Justice can't even come forward," said the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, D-Mich.

"This is an absolute disgrace," said Conyers. "The least we could do is have people from the Department of Justice and the Defense over here talking about how we're going to straighten out the system right away."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4027734&page=1

Don't listen to Buchanan - he's a paleocon and at least not a neocon but a con is a con.

Mann Coulter has been speaking out about Huckabee, calling him the type of evangelical liberals would want.

Love to see Giuliani go down but don't like seeing McCain go up.

& Giuliani has foregone the early primary states a long time ago in favor of Florida, New York and California, with their large number of electoral votes. His backers tried to get the electoral system changed from "winner takes all" in CA and failed to get it on the ballot for the primaries, so seek to do so by general election day, then go to the Supreme Court to make it apply to that election.

Beware.

Ron Paul still failing badly in almost all the polls - he is lucky to break above 5% - even with his two "Money Bombs"

Ralpheh

Each election has a wierd combination of fringe nutballs and creepy corporate mainstream candidates.

It never fails.

I heard Paul might run on the Constitution or Libertarian ticket anyway.

I should say that in my video of the graphs, Ron Paul vote is the red line in all the graphs..

Here is the logo for the guy Paul kept the donation from.

Ralpheh

Each election has a wierd combination of fringe nutballs and creepy corporate mainstream candidates.

It never fails.

@@@@@@

I disagree:

This is election and most of the last elections - it is the pretty faces with not much gray matter that are doing well. Ronnie Reagan, Dumbya Bush, Hillary, Mitt, Freddie Thompson.

All of these folks are controlled by the MONIED INTERESTS and the Media Interests.

We are losing our democracy to the money people...

Here is what else I wrote, in case you didn't find it:

It all seems really groovy - he's against the war, he's against the Patriot Act. There are punks walking around with Ron Paul signs. He has a blimp. He has a trailer. There are t-shirts where he looks like Che Guevara. He is a huge star on YouTube. What's wrong with this picture?

Go to On The Issues and you'll see that he is not pro-choice, he is not feminist, he does not favor a progressive tax scheme, he does not have a civil rights record. Why would he be antiwar? He's a Libertarian and so favors defending America, not going on the offense and spending up the public coffer. Why would he be against the Patriot Act? He's a Libertarian and so he does not like the government to meddle in private lives, and in fact likes government small. This does not apply, however, to women and their bodies.

None of this has much to do with the Ron Paul paradox though. Ron Paul buys into the "NAFTA Superhighway" conspiracy and thinks Canada, US and Mexico are headed down the road toward being one nation with one currency. Newsweek wrote about this in a piece called "Highway to Hell." World Net Daily, a conservative rag, then published a rebuttal. If you look closely, you see that the author is Jerome Corsi, who wrote the book that got Paul fired up.

So who is this Jerome Corsi? Does that name ring a bell? It did to me, as I was sitting in the Jacuzzi reading, after my weight workout. I rushed home, typed the name "Jerome Corsi" into Wikipedia and this is what I got:

Jerome R. Corsi is an American author and conservative activist, who at one time was considered a candidate for the Constitution Party's 2008 Presidential nomination.

Corsi received national media exposure as credited co-author (with John O'Neill), of Unfit for Command, a book that topped the New York Times bestseller list. The book, written in cooperation with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, criticized the conduct of John Kerry -- at the time the Democratic candidate for president -- as a naval officer during the Vietnam War and challenged the legitimacy of each of his combat medals. The book also criticized Kerry's later efforts organizing opposition to that war. The book's veracity has been widely challenged.

Why do people jump on these bandwagons? Why are dots not connected? When I look at FundRace, I see that Ron Paul gets alot of money from Microsoft programmers. Yet the best discussion of the Paul/Corsi matter was at the Washington RedSkins Forum! As for America losing her sovereignty, Paul and Corsi are barking up the wrong tree, as we have already been bought by China, Dubai, etc. Some supporters are excited because Jerome Corsi was on Alex Jones radio show. Alex Jones is a paleoconservative radio host and filmmaker who is best known for promoting conspiracy theories.

If Paul doesn't get the Republican nomination, word is that he'll run on the Libertarian or Constitution party ticket. As P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Slugbug

http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com

Don't listen to Buchanan - he's a paleocon and at least not a neocon but a con is a con.

@@@@@@

I disagree:

Pat is right about the war in Iraq - we should never have gone in. (And Hillary Clinton IS WRONG - SADDAM WAS NEVER A THREAT and did not have WMD)

Pat is also right about the war in the middle and working class and the decline of the manufacturing base of our economy. Pat is also right about the stateless, selfish, even traitorous global corporations which ship jobs and money out of the country.

Ralpheh

Your wording "pretty faces with not much gray matter", if combined with your other wording "controlled by the MONIED INTERESTS and the Media Interests" is exactly what I mean by "creepy corporate mainstream candidates".

& "losing our democracy to the monied people," if taken too far, is what I mean by "creeping velvet glove fascism."

Just heard abouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

None of this has much to do with the Ron Paul paradox though. Ron Paul buys into the "NAFTA Superhighway" conspiracy and thinks Canada, US and Mexico are headed down the road toward being one nation with one currency. Newsweek wrote about this in a piece called "Highway to Hell." World Net Daily, a conservative rag, then published a rebuttal. If you look closely, you see that the author is Jerome Corsi, who wrote the book that got Paul fired up.

So who is this Jerome Corsi? Does that name ring a bell? It did to me, as I was sitting in the Jacuzzi reading, after my weight workout. I rushed home, typed the name "Jerome Corsi" into Wikipedia and this is what I got:

@@@@@@@

Man oh Man I hate to talk about John Kerry.. but I guess we have to bring him up again.

Could the Kerryites explain to me how a decorated Vietnam Veteran, like Kerry, is out-flanked and out manovuered by a clueless, draft-dodger like George Bush????? How did this happen?

I will let the Kerry Die Hards in on little secret: amazingly and counterintuitively, many, many Vietnam Veterans HATE KERRY. And many Vietnam Veterans LIKE George Bush - PLEASE EXPLAIN... PLEASE...

Your wording "pretty faces with not much gray matter", if combined with your other wording "controlled by the MONIED INTERESTS and the Media Interests" is exactly what I mean by "creepy corporate mainstream candidates".

@@@@@

This includes Pretty Face Hillary - who has been promoted over at AOL News almost daily for president for over a year now. And Hillary who pals around with Rupert Murdock... And the Hillary who is raking in campaign money from Defense Contractors and other Fat Cats...

105,047 so far.

Any idea how high it will go before he acts on it?

"Could the Kerryites explain to me how a decorated Vietnam Veteran, like Kerry, is out-flanked and out manovuered by a clueless, draft-dodger like George Bush????? How did this happen?"

Can non kerryites explain it?

Cause it was actually quite brilliant. You know, if you're evil and therefore willing to do it.

The numbers on that petition just jumped 101 more signatures, in 10 minutes.

35 more since I last hit submit here.

1 1/2 minutes ago.

Just pull it up and hit refresh

Ralpheh

Re: Vietnam Vets continuing to vote Republican

It's the Battered Wives Syndrome - the same kind I see in the immigrant communities of Southern California.

Politics is never black and white. Otherwise, how do you explain white supremacists and immigrant communities binding together to ban gay marriage?

If Paul doesn't get the Republican nomination, word is that he'll run on the Libertarian or Constitution party ticket. As P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."

Constitution - now that'll get a sizable number of votes from Orange County conservatives. Constitution outnumbers Democrats in many neighborhoods here.

Ron Paul may do to the Republicans what Ralph Nader did to the Democrats in 2000. But the Democrats still have the responsibility to nominate the best possible candidate.

Ally McRepuke Author Profile Page said:

Ralpheh

Re: Vietnam Vets continuing to vote Republican

It's the Battered Wives Syndrome - the same kind I see in the immigrant communities of Southern California.

@@@@@

No it a lot worse than that:

We, the progressives, anti-war types, Democrats are losing on the interpretation of the historical significance of the Vietnam War.

Republican Mythology/ Revisionist History now makes the Vietnam War a winnable war and a "just cause": IF ONLY we had allowed the Generals to fight the the Vietnam war (not the "politicians"); if only we had bombed the country more; if only we had killed more Vietnamese?....; if only we had sent more than a measly 400,000 troops to Vietnam (if only we had been willing to take the loss of more than 58,000 dead troops); if only we had been willing to fight another 4 to 8 eight years until "victory" was achieved.

The above are the arguements that are constantly made by Draft-dodger, Chickenhawk pundits like Rush and O'Reilly and Rove. And now the younger generation is believing this BS.... Do you want to hear my story about calling a local military recruiter and asking him about George Bush's military record?? The soldier/recruiter didn't have a clue that Bush had not fought in Vietnam.....

They do not want to admit we lost the Vietnam war.

When I was at the gym I heard something from that era I'd forgotten about. It's from Eric Burdon & I am dedicating it to those Colorado Springs Air Force types who are out Crusading in the same way that those on the other side are out Jihading. None of them will eeeeever
reach the sky.

He blesses the boys as they stand in line
The smell of gun grease and the bayonets they shine
He's there to help them all that he can
To make them feel wanted he's a good holy man
Sky pilot.....sky pilot
How high can you fly
You'll never, never, never reach the sky

He smiles at the young soldiers
Tells them its all right
He knows of their fear in the forthcoming fight
Soon there'll be blood and many will die
Mothers and fathers back home they will cry
Sky pilot.....sky pilot
How high can you fly
You'll never, never, never reach the sky

He mumbles a prayer and it ends with a smile
The order is given
They move down the line
But he's still behind and he'll meditate
But it won't stop the bleeding or ease the hate
As the young men move out into the battle zone
He feels good, with God you're never alone
He feels tired and he lays on his bed
Hopes the men will find courage in the words that he said
Sky pilot.....sky Pilot
How high can you fly

You'll never, never, never reach the sky
You're soldiers of God you must understand
The fate of your country is in your young hands
May God give you strength
Do your job real well
If it all was worth it
Only time it will tell

In the morning they return
With tears in their eyes
The stench of death drifts up to the skies
A soldier so ill looks at the sky pilot
Remembers the words
"Thou shalt not kill"
Sky pilot.....sky pilot
How high can you fly
You never, never, never reach the sky

Ralpheh
You also just answered your own question about John Kerry, Swift Boats, Vietnam, Bush AWOL & all that. Unless it was Ally in her response to you. I'm getting confused now.

Anyway it's Republican Revisionist History.

Email On the Wexler petition from Democrats.com:

On 12/14, Democrats.com was excited to announce Rep. Robert Wexler's campaign to demand impeachment hearings for Dick Cheney. Wexler's goal was 50,000 signatures but with your support, Wexler's petition is near 100,000!
http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com
Wexler is thrilled with your response, and he will hold a virtual town hall meeting on Thursday at 9 pm ET (6 pm PT) on Florida Progressive Radio with Kenneth Quinnell, co-hosted by Democrats.com.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fpc
Wexler has the support of two Judiciary Committee Democrats, Luis Gutierrez (IL-04) and Tammy Baldwin (WI-02). Four others are co-sponsors of H.Res. 333/H.Res. 799, Rep. Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment for Vice President Cheney: Steve Cohen (TN-09), Keith Ellison (MN-05), Hank Johnson (GA-04), and Maxine Waters (CA-35).
But that leaves 14 Judiciary Committee Democrats who have NOT called for impeachment hearings. These 7 voted to send Kucinich's bill to Judiciary on 11/6, so they should publicly support Wexler's efforts: John Conyers (MI-14), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Bobby Scott (VA-03), Brad Sherman (CA-27), Betty Sutton (OH-13), Mel Watt (NC-12), and Anthony Weiner (NY-09).
These 7 voted to kill Kucinich's bill on 11/6, so they need to CHANGE their positions and fulfill their oath of office to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign AND domestic: Howard Berman (CA-28), Artur Davis (AL-07), William Delahunt (MA-10), Zoe Lofgren (CA-16), Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), Linda Sanchez (CA-39), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20).
Please email all House Judiciary Democrats through this petition:
http://www.democrats.com/topelosiandjudiciary
If you are represented by any of the 14 Democrats listed above, please join your local Congressional District Impeachment Committee (CDIC) and plan local actions like letters to the editor, district office visits, birddogging, honkathons, and collecting petitions and personal letters on the streets:
http://democrats.com/cdic-find

Away from the subject, wow woz your very own book in print,that is something, where can I get it?

Yeah they tried so hard, did'nt they?

Defeated Dems Limp Out Of Washington

Congressional Majority Fails To Alter Bush War Plans

The first Democratic-led Congress in a dozen years limped out of Washington last night with a lengthy list of accomplishments, from the first increase in fuel-efficiency standards in a generation to the first minimum-wage hike in a decade.

But Democrats' failure to address the central issues that swept them to power left even the most partisan of them dissatisfied and Congress mired at a historic low in public esteem.

Ain't that the Truth!!!!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/19/AR2007121902643.html?hpid=topnews

Out of print here rossi - as of this year. I think that one is still available from Macmillan in the UK. Check it out on the net. I need to get back to work. They're all out of print. :( Been sick for 12+ years. But - betta now - so - I need to start again! This site claims to have 1 in stock.

http://www.bookworm.com.au/shop/scditem.asp?ProdID=12167

The Inquisition
History Of The World Pt. 1
written by Mel Brooks

The Inquistion (Let’s Begin)
The Inquisition (Look out sin)
We have a mission
To convert the Jew (Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew)
We’re gonna teach them (Wrong from right)
We’re gonna help them (See the light)
And make an offer that they can’t refuse.
(That the Jews just can’t refuse)

Confess…Don’t be boring
Say yes… Don’t be dull
A fact… You’re ignoring
It’s better to lose your skullcap than your skull (Or your gavalt)

The Inquisition (What a show)
The Inquisition (Here we go)
We know you’re wishing that we’d go away
But the inquisition’s here and it’s here to stay

The inquisition (Oh boy)
The inquisition (What joy)
The inquisition (Oi oi)

I was sitting in a chapel I was minding my own business
I was listening to a lovely Hebrew mass
Then these papus person’s plungered
And they throw me in a dungeon
And they shoved a red hot poker up my ass
Is that considerate?
Is that polite?
And not a tube of preparation H in sight.

I’m sittin’ flickin’ chickens
And was lookin’ thru the thickens
When suddenly these guys break down the walls
I didn’t even know them
And they grabbed me by the scrotum
And they started playing Ping Pong with my balls
Oy the agony
Oy the Shame
To make my privates public for a game

The Inquisition (What a show)
The Inquisition (Here we go)
We know you’re wishing that we’d go away
But the inquisition’s here and it’s here to…

Hey Torquemada
What do you say

I just got back from the auto-da-fé ,
auto-da-fé What’s the auto-da-fé?
It’s what you oughtn’t to do but you do anyway.

Skit scat doodlebac doodle be bay

Will you convert….NO NO NO NO
Will you confess….NO NO NO NO
Will you revert….NO NO NO NO
Will you say YES….NO NO NO NO

Now I asked in a nice way
I said pretty please
I bent their ears
Now I’ll work on the knees

Hey Torquemada
Walk this way
We got a new game you might want to play
Pull this handle, try your luck
Who knows Torque, You might win a buck (All right)

Put it in the car
In the car In the car

How we doing. Any converts today?
Not a one, Nay Nay Nay
We’ve flattened their fingers
We’ve branded their buns
Nothing is working
SEND IN THE NUNS !!!

The Inquisition (What a show)
The Inquisition (Here we go)
We know you’re wishing that we’d go away
So come on all you heathens and you Jews
We got some good news for all of yous
You’d better change your point of views today
Cause the inquisitions here, and it’s here to say.

Bush to hold news conference at 10 a.m. ET
President expected to to push Congress for more action next year

NBC News

President Bush plans to give his opinion of the work Congress completed this session during a year-end press conference Thursday.

"The president will talk about the good, bad and the unfinished when it comes to legislation," White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters in a conference call Thursday morning.

In his opening remarks, which are expected to last eight minutes, he also will urge Congress to work in 2008 on important legislative matters, and not to be swayed by the fact that it's an election year. His press conference was scheduled for 10 a.m. EST.

Following the news conference, the president is expected to go to the Veteran Affairs Department for the ceremonial swearing in of Veteran Affairs Secretary James Peake. This afternoon he'll sign legislation that exempts from federal taxation mortgage forgiveness in foreclosure proceedings and then heads to Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit wounded warriors.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22340917/

I'd like to give the president my year end opinion of his performance, but I'd have to sign an allegiance oath to his bullshit agenda, so I guess I'm out.

Christy said:
"Could the Kerryites explain to me how a decorated Vietnam Veteran, like Kerry, is out-flanked and out manovuered by a clueless, draft-dodger like George Bush????? How did this happen?"

Can non kerryites explain it?

Cause it was actually quite brilliant. You know, if you're evil and therefore willing to do it.

Christy...You already know the answer to that question and you don't have to be a Kerry supporter to know it.

M E D I A ' S . P R O P A G A N D A

T E R R O R . A L E R T S

R I G G E D . V O T I N G . M A C H I N E S

V O T E R . S U P P R E S S I O N

V O T E R . I N T I M I D A T I O N

There's many more that can be added to that list, but I'm not going to fight about it with anyone.

The fact is that I personally witnessed the voter suppression and intimidation while working in Ohio that day (and even the months before). People couldn't find out ahead of time where to vote because they didn't have them listed. They were sent to the wrong polling place.

I witnessed actual police intimidation at the one polling place we were sent to the night of the elction which caused at least 2 hours of people to not go out and vote. 2 hours in what would be considered a "Highly Democratic Area" (I was in one of the inner city polling places.) I also know for a fact that others in our group had been disperced to other polling places around the city because they didn't have voting materials and had been waiting HOURS for them to get them. AND people at those polling places reported THE SAME POLICE INTIMIDATION that I witnessed.

That's ONE CITY in ONE STOLEN STATE. Now imagine the same sh*t happening in Cleveland, Columbus, and other areas too.

Let me say that Kerry didn't lose it. Blackwell stole it. Bush stole it. The DOJ and FEC stole it. The media stole it. You can not sit here two years after the fact and after seeing ALL the CRIMES that have happened and stayed secret for 6 years, and still blame one person when a criminal effort of vote tampering, media propaganda, and media suppression would have sunk any candidate--any!

What pisses me off is that when I hear that stories WERE NOT TOLD in 04, and I KNOW that had they TALKED ABOUT Plame and INFORMED PEOPLE IN A TRUTHFUL WAY, or had they talked about ILLEGAL SPYING, then there isn't a chance in h*ll that Kerry or any Dem would have lost the race. They kept things top secret. They obstructed justice. THey misused terror alerts. You KNOW all this Christy, so why ask the question? In your heart, you know it was a stacked deck--so completely stacked by evil people, that before JK was even selected as the candidate, articles were written that it would be impossible to beat a wartime president who also could 'manipulate' terror alerts. (I read that way back in May or June--before I even figured out there was a JK blog.)

So...regarding evil...and copying it...well..that's what our current DOJ is all about...That's what Martin's recent media consolidation was about. And that's what all of this stuff is about.

(Now--to be truthful too...admittedly Kerry's campaign did make some mistakes too. I know they made a huge mistake in August due to the $$ issue. I know they made a mistake by not being more aggressive and by believing those push polls that said not to be more aggressive.

On the other hand, he came out STRONG about Iraq in early September and the media didn't play it. He actually was convincing people despite the media when lo-and behold--OSAMA suddenly surfaced.

Yet despite that, we have a big reason (all of us I mean) to believe that if vast voter suppression, intimidation, and election fraud, media propaganda and suppression hadn't occurred than Kerry would be fixing what Bush f*cked up.

I will add as well, that in 2004, Kerry won the primary and had to run with the Democratic infrastructure that Terry McAulliffe had in place. Remember April? She had NO FUNCTIONING DEMOCRATIC HEADQUARTERS where she was. I helped her set up a system from her own home. (Heck...I was 'precinct chair' in an area in my state that I can't even point to on a map! TG for a few kerry bloggers who helped me make calls to that area.)

So anyways...that's my view from what I experienced and observed.

I do not blame Kerry because I feel it's a combination of many things. In every campaign there will be mistakes, yet because we have a a complicit media mistakes by any dem. are magnified. (Example: Dean scream. Kerry explaining the voting system that gave rise to 'flip flop'. Edward's Hair. Kucinich..UFO. Obama--gay basher at the speach. Hillary...um...Hillary/Bill!)

You and I both know that the Dean scream wasn't worthy of the 24/7 coverage the media gave it. THEY TOOK HIM DOWN. The same as with Kerry and the swifties ...they took him down too! They gave FREE COVERAGE to an advertisement EVEN AFTER IT HAD BEEN DISPELLED AS LIES from August through NOVEMBER. They simply put the ads on their news shows as "SBVFT have come out with another ad..."

Um..yeh..that's news worthy.

And how many people listen to the media or have it on as background noice? At the gym, they have CNN, Fox, or MSGOP on from 6 am until 11 pm. You hear it as background noice as you work out. I think that's called brainwashing.

Ok..so enough blathering from me.

I have been sent WEST by my hubby to pick up some stuff for him.

DARN it!!! Doesn't he know that this birdie wants to FLY SOUTH, not WEST?!!!

BTW...if you don't believe my statements about the complicit media in 04, all you have to do is look at the solid media blackout on Wexler's and the three Judiciary member's op-ed that the papers have refused to print.

I can not say if it's on the tv media since I generally don't have it on.

Good morning , all!

Kiddies have returned to the home fires from college and MY GRADES ARE FINISHED!!

Off to graduation and then I can return to these lively discussions...

(On 2004: what we must must do is discuss what happened in the context of PREVENTION for 2008. I will share some insights upon my return to the political fold here)

Lookin' forward to it, Karen.

Enjoy your time with family and give my regards to my Alma Mater. (I miss the old 'Vous!)

Terp Me!

I said:
Don't listen to Buchanan - he's a paleocon and at least not a neocon but a con is a con.

Ralpheh said:

I disagree:

Pat is right about the war in Iraq - we should never have gone in. (And Hillary Clinton IS WRONG - SADDAM WAS NEVER A THREAT and did not have WMD)

Pat is also right about the war in the middle and working class and the decline of the manufacturing base of our economy. Pat is also right about the stateless, selfish, even traitorous global corporations which ship jobs and money out of the country.

I say:

I have always agreed with Buchanan about the war and he knows how to call out the neocons. I like that part about his position.

Like Paul though, he is on the small government bandwagon, as a paleocon. & though he wants jobs and money in the country, he is virulently anti-immigrant and not pro-union that I know of.

I can read Lew Rockwell or some of the others and get something out of it but the libertarian dog-eat-dog philosophy as far as the poor isn't something I can get behind.

We have already had a system in place where faith-based charities are supposed to do what the government used to do, and people like Paul and Buchanan play right into that scenario.

I am a Libertarian when it comes to social issues, such as what happens behind closed doors. Other than that, they have that financial Neoliberalism that Ally talks about, which is a form of selfish Social Darwinism.

Therefore, though the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater, as a liberal, I do not remotely trust Paul or Buchanan.

Here's Buchanan on Immigration:

Immigration tsunami will make whites a minority in US

The prognosis is grim. Between 2000 & 2050, world population will grow to over 9 billion people, but this 50% increase in global population will come entirely in Asia, Africa, & Latin America, as 100 million people of European stock vanish from the Earth. But the immigration tsunami rolling over America is not coming from 'all the races of Europe.' The largest population transfer in history is coming from all the races of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and they are not 'melting and reforming.
Source: The Death of the West, by Pat Buchanan, p. 3 & 12 Oct 15, 2002
Terrorists are among us as undocumented immigrants

Though Osama bin Laden may be the instigator and financier of terror, the war crimes of Tuesday last were carried out by men who live among us. The enemy is already inside the gates. How many others among our 11 million “undocumented” immigrants are ready to carry out truck bombings, assassinations, sabotage, skyjackings?
Source: Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed page Sep 18, 2001
Treat illegal immigration as an invasion & repel it

We cannot continue to allow illegal immigration. A country that loses control of its borders is not a country. The Constitution of the United States obligates the government to protect the states from foreign invasion. If we can send an army halfway around the world to defend the borders of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, why can’t we defend the borders of the United States? I will build a security fence. We will seal the borders of this country cold. We will stop the illegal immigration in its tracks.

http://www.ontheissues.org

Buchanan's tax plan is characteristically Republican and extreme:

Cut capital gains tax to spur “risk investment”

Buchanan said his Small Business proposal would also include a 50% cut in the capital gains tax. Buchanan insisted the lower rate would encourage “risk investments,” critical to economic growth.

Buchanan said he would propose the abolition of all federal inheritance and death taxes, which now stand at 55%. He told his audience that the elimination of death taxes would help keep a business in the family, even after the passing of the founder, while retaining the death tax could destroy a small business, perhaps just as it is being built.

The Buchanan tax plan:
Exempt the first $35,000 of income, then reduce the taxes on the remainder to a flat 16% rate
Encourage personal generosity over public subsidy by retaining charitable giving deductions
Facilitate middle-class investment by maintaining home mortgage interest deductions
Support strong families with a generous per-child tax credit.
Abolish inheritance taxes on estates up to $5 million
Use revenue from tariffs on foreign imports to offset tax relief.

Buchanan is total blowhard NOTHING piece of garbage.

And didja ever notice you never see him and his "sister" Bay together... is it because they are the same person?

Pat's a drag.

Here's what the Buchanan's are doing today...

http://www.theamericancause.org/

CIA to turn over videotape documents

CIA Expected to Quickly Produce Documents on Destroyed Terror Suspect Videotapes

PAMELA HESS
AP News

Dec 20, 2007 07:01 EST

Under a subpoena threat, the CIA is expected to quickly begin turning over to Congress documents related to the destruction of videotapes showing the harsh interrogation of two terror suspects.

The agency could begin producing the material as early as Thursday, according to senior intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of ongoing investigations into the destruction of the tapes in 2005.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said Wednesday the CIA had agreed to turn over the documents sometime this week after he prepared subpoenas for former and current CIA officials and attorneys if they don't voluntarily come before the committee to testify about the tapes. The document request includes records related to the 9/11 Commission and to al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, whose attorneys were seeking interrogation videos.

more...
http://www.rawstory.com/news/mochila/CIA_to_turn_over_videotape_document_12202007.html

White House Docs Sought on Fannie Mae

By MATT APUZZO – 16 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — The former chief executive officer of Fannie Mae says the Bush administration helped orchestrate an accounting scandal that cost him his job and that he wants to use White House documents to defend himself in a shareholder lawsuit.

Franklin Raines, who served as President Clinton's budget director, argues in court documents that the Bush administration felt the government-chartered agency wielded too much power in the mortgage industry. His attorneys say the White House pushed regulators to weaken Fannie Mae and triggered a $6 billion accounting scandal.

Raines subpoenaed the White House for documents in July. Justice Department lawyers will go before a federal judge Thursday to fight it.

Relying primarily on articles by financial journalists and the testimony of industry analysts, Raines describes in court documents an unofficial task force dubbed "Noriega" that was formed to weaken Fannie Mae and drive down its stock price.

Fannie Mae is the largest U.S. buyer and backer of home loans. It was created by Congress but is publicly traded. Raines says the Bush administration wanted to undermine confidence in the agency so it could push for tighter government controls.

Raines names as task force members Assistant Treasury Secretary Wayne Abernathy; presidential economic adviser Keith Hennessey; Kevin Warsh, a special assistant to President Bush for economic policy; Jeffrey Kupfer, who served in 2003 as special assistant to Bush's chief of staff; Associate White House Counsel Reginald J. Brown; and Stephen S. McMillin, an official in the president's budget office.

more...
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gj-VdKWga6meCA2Lk-8aYLVq0UOQD8TKPG081

Sparrow said:

"You KNOW all this Christy, so why ask the question? "

Yes Sparrow, I do know all this, but it wasn't MY question, it was Ralphs.

I was there with you too darlin, I saw it all. But in regards to the specific question of how they took down Kerrys military record, it really was quite a plan. It was not that they did it, it was how they did it that shows their ruthlessness. Their power.

When you are figting someone you know is bigger than you, more moral than you, and has no apparent weakness, then you have to turn their strengths into weaknesses.

Instead of taking aim on something little and stupid, like Obamas name... They instead aimed at the biggest, hardest target for them to overcome and then they dug themselves in like ticks until it gave.

Like I said, if you can not kill the buffalo, then make the buffalo kill himself.

I know what they did to Kerry, it was horrible, wrong and evil. Yet how they took him down was an act of sheer political nerves. It was bold, and it was absolutely effective.

I don't really believe rove is a 'genius'. he simply utilized plans no one else really ever thought they could get away with.

And before republicans can steal another one, I think it is very expediant that dems understand how they took down Kerrys military record. There were a lot of elements involved to make it work, but the overall plan itself will be used again.

And it will be used against us.

Speaking of killing buffalos... The Lakota Nation has Suceeded from the USA.

May the spirit of my ancestors protect them.

Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US

The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States, leaders said Wednesday.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us," long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means told a handful of reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy, gathered in a church in a run-down neighborhood of Washington for a news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States, some of them more than 150 years old.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Descendants_of_Sitting_Bull_Crazy_Horse_1220.html

If they try force to once again subdue the Lakotas.... Let's just say it will not end this time the way it ended before.