Ok... I gotta say: Get your video cam out and have some fun!
[update] Taken from YouTube:
To learn more about the Dodd Amendment, how to contact your Senators, or find out where they are this weekend, visit:HERE!
"It’s a happy coincidence that just yesterday I posted a guide to videoblogging that will assist you in doing just that."
Generals campaign against war
"These troops are not expendable commodities to fulfill the pipe-dream vision of a group of people trying to remake the world in our image," Gard said. "It's time for us to get the hell out of there."
snip
Terrorism threatens the United States, but the war in Iraq is exacerbating the problem, not solving it, the generals said.
Gard, a graduate of West Point and Harvard who served 31 years in the Army, said the idea that "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" is empty rhetoric used to keep Americans scared so they don't question the administration's foreign policy. Fighting in Iraq will not stop someone who wants to blow up a dirty bomb in New York.
"These people are mobile," Gard said. "If they want to come in here, they'll come."
Johns said the military can't fight terrorism on its own. The United States must also look for political solutions, he said.
"It's a war of ideas, it's not a military war," Johns said. "Raw military force is more limited in its usefulness than ever in the history of mankind."
Just wanted to make sure this got mentioned here, even though it's not a strictly Connecticut issue, although it certainly effects many people here. The employee free choice act, one of the top priorities of labor in this year's congressional session, is dead. This bill would have allowed workers to form a union by card-check. The Senate did not reach cloture to end debate and vote. (51-48. They needed 60 votes to force a vote) Steven Greenhouse from the New York Times:The bill would have given workers the right to insist on a procedure, known as majority sign-up, that allows employees at a workplace to form a union as soon as a majority of them signed cards saying they wanted one. Under current law, an employer facing a unionization drive can insist on a secret-ballot election. The bill fueled a feverish lobbying battle between business and labor. Corporate lobbyists and their Republican allies asserted that the bill would infringe on workers’ rights by denying employees the right to a secret-ballot election. Union officials and their Democratic allies said the bill was needed to help reverse labor’s decline, because employers often defeat unionization drives by intimidating and firing workers during secret-ballot elections.
60 Million Workers would join a union if given the opportunity. But this bill didn't even get the chance to get a presidential veto. And those 60 million workers can continue to get harassed and intimidated, and never have the option to gain a measure of job security, fair wages, decent benefits, and self-determination in the workplace.
So again the question is why? Why would Democratic leaders bring up EFCA as a standalone bill - that is, in a form that is most politically easy for the average Republican to oppose? Is it just that Democrats have no “strategery?” Or is it something more insidious?
Does it have something to do with Democrats wanting to set up a situation that allows them to claim they care about workers and labor rights, while making sure that those labor rights continue to get trampled? This wouldn’t be unprecedented…at all. In fact, we saw this situation recently on the Iraq bill, where Democrats manipulated parliamentary procedure to deliberately engineer a situation that let them simultaneously claim they were doing all they could to oppose the war while helping make sure the war continues. Are we experiencing the same thing now with worker rights? And if we are, does it have something to do with the spate of stories about Big Business showering top Democratic leaders in cash and throwing Democratic Hill staffers offers of six-figure corporate lobbying jobs?
I honestly don’t know the answer, as it can sometimes be very tough to tell whether the behavior from folks in Congress is driven by short-sightedness or corruption. That said, its not like Senate defeat of EFCA was a surprise - Democrats knew from the get-go that it would lose as a standalone bill, meaning it really is possible they don’t truly want it to pass in the first place. Nonetheless, moving forward, the bottom line is clear: If Democrats really want to get EFCA passed - as American workers need them to and as they should as the supposed party that represents those workers - it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than setting up legislative scenarios that make sure EFCA doesn’t pass.
Here's the list of Democratic Senators who need to hear from you. Even if they intend to vote for the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007 when it comes to the Senate floor next month, they need to be pushed further to stand up and cosponsor this important component in taking back our country:
* Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
* Max Baucus (D-MT)
* Evan Bayh (D-IN)
* Robert Byrd (D-WV)
* Thomas Carper (D-DE)
* Robert Casey (D-PA)
* Kent Conrad (D-ND)
* Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
* Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
* Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
* Herb Kohl (D-WI)
* Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
* Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
* Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
* Robert Menendez (D-NJ)
* Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
* Patty Murray (D-WA)
* Ben Nelson (D-NE)
* Bill Nelson (D-FL)
* Mark Pryor (D-AR)
* Jack Reed (D-RI)
* Harry Reid (D-NV)
* Charles Schumer (D-NY)
* Jon Tester (D-MT)
* James Webb (D-VA)
* Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Tim Johnson (D-SD) is still recovering from a brain hemorrhage but may be able to come in for a close vote and, what the heck, you might even want to try giving Joe Lieberman's office a call to see if he wants to start doing the right thing.
Today is the American Civil Liberty Union's "Day of Action to Restore Law and Justice" and it's the day to call on Congress to restore habeas corpus, fix the Military Commissions Act, end torture and rendition and restore our Constitutional rights.
Calling your Senators and making sure your voice is heard on the importance of restoring habeas corpus is a good place to start. Here's the toll-free number to dial at the U.S. Capitol: 800-862-5530. Just call and ask to be connected to your Senator's office. If you get a chronic busy signal -- which is very possible today -- you can see a directory of direct lines to Senate offices here.
Let's get going. The world is watching.
On October 17, 2006, he went missing without a trace. Last seen in Washington, D.C., his current whereabouts are unknown. Where is he? We don't know.
But we do know Habeas Corpus needs our help. What can you do? Get involved and help us restore Habeas Corpus to his rightful place in our Constitution!
President Bush was presented with a letter Monday signed by 50 high school seniors in the Presidential Scholars program urging a halt to "violations of the human rights" of terror suspects held by the United States.
The White House said Bush had not expected the letter but took a moment to read it and talk with a young woman who handed it to him.
"The president enjoyed a visit with the students, accepted the letter and upon reading it let the student know that the United States does not torture and that we value human rights," deputy press secretary Dana Perino said.
On October 17, 2006, he went missing without a trace. Last seen in Washington, D.C., his current whereabouts are unknown. Where is he? We don't know.
But we do know Habeas Corpus needs our help. What can you do? Get involved and help us restore Habeas Corpus to his rightful place in our Constitution!
On October 17, 2006, he went missing without a trace. Last seen in Washington, D.C., his current whereabouts are unknown. Where is he? We don't know.
But we do know Habeas Corpus needs our help. What can you do? Get involved and help us restore Habeas Corpus to his rightful place in our Constitution!
All of these images can be found at Salon.com, and all of them are part of the images released by the military in its very limited investigation of torture and sexual abuse.
“I’m thrilled to be chosen by the Canadiens, but I really didn’t expect it,” admitted Pacioretty, who was invited to Montreal last Wednesday for testing with other prospects for this year’s draft. “Even though I thought I tested well, I didn’t think they would end up picking me. I couldn’t believe it when I heard my name.”
If comparisons are any indication, the Canadiens may have a special player on the horizon.
“I’ve been sometimes compared to Keith Tkachuk,” revealed Pacioretty. “I like to play physical and I give it all I’ve got whenever I’m sent out on the ice. My goal is be a fan favorite so I can fire up the crowd and bring that energy to my teammates.”
The native of New Canaan, CT turned it on in the second half of the season, bolstering his draft day stock.
“Early in the year I had some great games on some nights and I was invisible on others,” admitted Pacioretty, who saw his NHL Central Scouting ranking among North American skaters rise from No. 23 to No. 16 this season. “I knew I had to be more consistent and that’s what I did. I’m just proud to have been chosen in the first round.”
The Canadiens' Director of Player Recruitment and Development was just as giddy about his second first-round pick on Day 1 of the 2007 draft, Max Pacioretty.
“This is a player with all kinds of power and strength,” said Timmins of the 6-foot-2, 203-pound winger. “He’s also got all kinds of intangibles going for him. And he’s not only got the size, he also got excellent ability.”
When the dust settled after the opening round Friday night, the Canadiens had stuck to their pre-draft game plan.
“We made it clear that we were looking for players who had size, were powerful, talent and had character,” reaffirmed Timmins. “And that’s exactly what we’ve done by drafting McDonagh and Pacioretty.
“We’re also pleased to see that they’ve enrolled at excellent schools for next year,” added Timmins. “Both Wisconsin and Michigan produce very good hockey players. We also know that both of these players will benefit from great physical conditioning coordinators who will ensure their proper development.”
Journalist and author Greg Palast alleged that Griffin was involved in an effort to target 70,000 voters - students, deployed military personnel and homeless people in predominantly African American and Democratic areas for vote caging during the 2004 election Griffin.[3][4]. Monica Goodling cited in her oral and written testimony to the U.S. House Commitee on the Judiciary on May 23, 2007 that Griffin's alleged vote caging activities were desirable for Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty to be informed of, in relation to Griffin's potential Senate confirmation as a U.S. attorney.[5]
snipOn March 14, 2007 the Arkansas Leader wrote about Griffin his "resignation or dismissal ought to be imminent".[15] Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified in his January 18, 2007 appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee:[7] "I am fully committed, as the administration's fully committed, to ensure that, with respect to every United States attorney position in this country, we will have a presidentially appointed, Senate confirmed United States attorney."[7] On May 30, 2007, Greg Palast turned over a series of 500 emails — potential evidence of a crime — by request from House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers; that were inadvertently sent to the wrong email address, by Griffin. [1]
On May 30, 2007, Griffin resigned from his position effective June 1, 2007.[16]
Oh! But it gets MUCH WORSE than this as more is coming out concerning the Aussie's background (via TPM) and it shows a few problems with his immigration status over the years:How bad is the current Republican deathspin?
I think this Calitics story on the immigrants hired to run the California republican party really deserves some serious national attention. It is just way too funny on so many levels.The California Republican Party, they of the anti-illegal immigration platform, have decided that some immigrants are here to do the jobs that Americans won't do - like be their deputy political director.
The California Republican Party has decided no American is qualified to take one of its most crucial positions -- state deputy political director -- and has hired a Canadian for the job through a coveted H-1B visa, a program favored by Silicon Valley tech firms that is under fire for displacing skilled American workers.
Christopher Matthews, 35, a Canadian citizen, has worked for the state GOP as a campaign consultant since 2004. But he recently was hired as full-time deputy political director, with responsibility for handling campaign operations and information technology for the country's largest state Republican Party operation, California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring confirmed in a telephone interview this week.
That's not all, look at the guy who hired him:
Matthews was hired by Michael Kamburowski, an Australian citizen who was hired this year as the state GOP's chief operations officer. But neither new official has experience in managing a political campaign in the nation's most populous state -- and as foreign citizens, neither is eligible to vote.
In fairness to the state GOP, I don't think any Americans really WANT to work for them.
Even the few republican supporters left must see the humour in this given the many right-wingnuts that are against all of the immigrants. Never mind that they can't find any Americans to work for their party. The republican deathspin is that bad.
According to this quite hilarious article in the San Francisco Chronicle, the California GOP has hired as its chief operating officer, an Australian national who the Department of Homeland Security has been trying to deport for repeated immigration violations. As recently as Februrary, Michael Kamburowski, was working, rather haplessly, as a real estate agent in the Domincan Republic until he "ran away without mentioning anything to us," according to his one-time boss, Rico Pester, the owner of Re/Max Island Realty, in the resort town of Punta Cana. (Said his Re/Max bio: "With his attention to detail, laid-back yet professional approach, and sense of humor, Michael will smoothen the road to your dream property in Punta Cana.")
Perhaps it is somehow implicitly redundant to note that in the second half of the 1990s Kamburowski was working for Grover Norquist on immigration policy, tort reform and 'paycheck protection' before becoming the executive director of Norquist's Reagan Legacy Project.
Along the way there were a couple of hasty marriages leading shortly to his new brides submitting "Petition for Alien Relative" forms to get him citizenship, various stints as an "aspiring actor" and even a stay at the Wackenhut Correctional Facility in Jamaica, New York courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security.
"I wouldn't give him my company to run, I can tell you that,'' said Rico Pester, the owner of Re/Max Island Realty in the fashionable Caribbean beach region.
Pester said Kamburowski arrived in Punta Cana in the summer of 2006 and "was so successful that he couldn't sell anything the whole time he was here -- and we provided him with clients. He didn't rent anything and he didn't sell anything. ... I have no idea what he was doing.''
snip
"I couldn't understand how somebody like him could become a (Republican Party) COO,'' Pester said in a telephone interview.
Seems he's decided to spend more time with his family and has left the job.
The guy who ran Arnold's reelection campaign, Steve Schmidt, calls Kamburowski's hiring "almost a parody of incompetence and malfeasance."
By which I assume he means the guy's a solid Republican.
Kurds Get Piece of Oil Wealth; Foreign Investment Questions Linger
While pressure on the Baghdad government mounted, Iraqi oil unions staged protests in early June. Many Iraqis believe the measure would drive the oil industry toward privatization and unfairly benefit outside oil companies."We think the proposed oil law doesn't serve the interests of the Iraqi people at all," said Faleh Abood Umara, general secretary of the Southern Oil Company Union and the Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers' Unions, at a news conference in New York on June 18. "It emphasizes or confirms American hegemony over Iraqi oil fields."
The unions have said they worry negotiations could result in a law that would give foreign companies too much influence. But details of how foreign investors would be involved are still being nailed down, said David Pumphrey, deputy director of the energy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ...
... Foreign oil companies, meanwhile, are waiting for the oil law to provide a structure in which to operate in the country. The law was intended to build confidence in the stability of the system and provide incentives to work in a still violent region.
"This is an industry that makes very long decisions. They reap their profits over a period of decades, and it takes years to develop projects," Greg Priddy, an energy analyst at the Eurasia Group, told the NewsHour in May.
"They need to be confident that it's going to be stable, not just the next few years, but out 30 years or so, way beyond the U.S. occupation."
We knew this was about oil, this just documents it.
ISG Concludes that IRAQ = OILWhat can you say about an article like this?
It's still about oil in Iraq - Los Angeles Times:
A centerpiece of the Iraq Study Group's report is its advocacy for securing foreign companies' long-term access to Iraqi oil fields.
WHILE THE Bush administration, the media and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever-pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group share no such reticence.
Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group report lays out Iraq's importance to its region, the U.S. and the world with this reminder: "It has the world's second-largest known oil reserves." The group then proceeds to give very specific and radical recommendations as to what the United States should do to secure those reserves. If the proposals are followed, Iraq's national oil industry will be commercialized and opened to foreign firms.
The report makes visible to everyone the elephant in the room: that we are fighting, killing and dying in a war for oil. It states in plain language that the U.S. government should use every tool at its disposal to ensure that American oil interests and those of its corporations are met.
It's spelled out in Recommendation No. 63, which calls on the U.S. to "assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a commercial enterprise" and to "encourage investment in Iraq's oil sector by the international community and by international energy companies." This recommendation would turn Iraq's nationalized oil industry into a commercial entity that could be partly or fully privatized by foreign firms."
I guess that is what they mean when they say the ISG was made up of "moderate and bipartisan" elderly statesmen. It means they will shill for the oil industries too.The U.S. State Department's Oil and Energy Working Group, meeting between December 2002 and April 2003, also said that Iraq "should be opened to international oil companies as quickly as possible after the war." Its preferred method of privatization was a form of oil contract called a production-sharing agreement. These agreements are preferred by the oil industry but rejected by all the top oil producers in the Middle East because they grant greater control and more profits to the companies than the governments. The Heritage Foundation also released a report in March 2003 calling for the full privatization of Iraq's oil sector. One representative of the foundation, Edwin Meese III, is a member of the Iraq Study Group. Another, James J. Carafano, assisted in the study group's work.
For any degree of oil privatization to take place, and for it to apply to all the country's oil fields, Iraq has to amend its constitution and pass a new national oil law. The constitution is ambiguous as to whether control over future revenues from as-yet-undeveloped oil fields should be shared among its provinces or held and distributed by the central government.
This is a crucial issue, with trillions of dollars at stake, because only 17 of Iraq's 80 known oil fields have been developed. Recommendation No. 26 of the Iraq Study Group calls for a review of the constitution to be "pursued on an urgent basis." Recommendation No. 28 calls for putting control of Iraq's oil revenues in the hands of the central government. Recommendation No. 63 also calls on the U.S. government to "provide technical assistance to the Iraqi government to prepare a draft oil law."
Go read the entire article and then be sick to your stomachs...
OffTheBus:Just a quick explanation of what they are hoping to accomplish from Arianna Huffington:
HuffPost's Citizen Journalism Project Gets A Name, and Gets Rolling Here's an update on the exciting new citizen journalism project Huffington Post is launching. Read More
At the end of March, I told you about the exciting new citizen journalism project Huffington Post is launching in partnership with NYU professor Jay Rosen and his experimental site, NewAssignment.Net. (If you missed it, read about it here and here).
It's time for an update. For starters, the project now has a name and an expected birth date.
We're calling it Off The Bus (OffTheBus.Net), a name that captures the essence of what we're looking to accomplish. Our disparate mix of citizen reporters won't be part of the mainstream pack covering the campaigns -- and will come at it from a wide range of different angles and perspectives, adding a new dimension to campaign journalism. Click here to sign up to become one of them.
In my travels, I've heard so many people express dissatisfaction with the way campaigns are covered -- especially with the obsession with the horse-race aspect of modern politics. Instead of looking at which candidate has made the most interesting national security proposal or who the candidates surround themselves with as advisers, we get endless discussions of who's up, who's down, who's gaining traction, and who's losing it. In short, the majority of today's political coverage has become a dissection of the latest polls. Reporters have become every bit as poll-driven as candidates.
It's been 7 years and we've yet to hear a word of accountability or responsibility from George W. Bush about Iraq. I guess I'll just have to put the words in his mouth. Please watch my new video. It took months to make and takes 3 minutes to watch. Enjoy.
Can anyone spare a few bucks to support another poor Republican criminal?Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) filed papers with the House of Representatives establishing a legal defense fund earlier this week.
Federal investigators stepped up their probe of Feeney's ties to Jack Abramoff in April. Abramoff brought Feeney along on one of his infamous golf junkets to Scotland, this one in 2003. Feeney was one among three lawmakers on the trip -- the other two were ex-Reps. Bob Ney (R-OH) and Tom DeLay (R-TX).
The Senate Judiciary Committee just voted 13-3 to authorize chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to issue subpoenas for documents related to the NSA warrantless surveillance program. Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) voted with the Democrats on the committee to authorize the subpoenas for any legal opinions and advice the Bush administration has received regarding the NSA program.The Center on Democracy & Technology has released a list of the seven “most wanted surveillance documents.” See the full list here.
The confrontation over the documents “could set the stage for a constitutional showdown over the separation of powers.” The Senate Judiciary Committee had previously scheduled to authorize subpoenas last week, but Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) blocked the Judiciary Committee from voting on the subpoenas.
On May 21, the Senate Judiciary Committee made at least its ninth formal request for the documents, but the Justice Department continued its stonewalling.
Via Mother Jones
Congresswoman Pat Schroeder was scrambling eggs, one day back in 1984, when she coined one of the most durable political metaphors of our time. Her 1984 description of Ronald Reagan as "the Teflon President" became instant vernacular, attaching itself to everyone from "Teflon Tony" Blair to "Teflon Don" John Gotti.
It is all the more ironic, then, that our favorite metaphor for bad press that won't stick comes from a product whose toxic legacy will stick around forever. Teflon, it turns out, gets its nonstick properties from a toxic, nearly indestructible chemical called pfoa, or perfluorooctanoic acid. Used in thousands of products from cookware to kids' pajamas to takeout coffee cups, pfoa is a likely human carcinogen, according to a science panel commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency. It shows up in dolphins off the Florida coast and polar bears in the Arctic; it is present, according to a range of studies, in the bloodstream of almost every American—and even in newborns (where it may be associated with decreased birth weight and head circumference). The nonprofit watchdog organization Environmental Working Group (ewg) calls pfoa and its close chemical relatives "the most persistent synthetic chemicals known to man." And although DuPont, the nation's sole Teflon manufacturer, likes to chirp that its product makes "cleanup a breeze," it is now becoming apparent that cleansing ourselves of pfoa is nearly impossible.
Via Dr. Z's Medical Report at Health Talk:
I’ve written a number of times about the importance of using sunscreen, and today there is important news about sunscreen products. An organization called The Environmental Working Group has released a report on their 18-month investigation of 783 sunscreen products with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 or higher. And the results are shocking: “The analysis found that 84 percent of 785 sunscreen products with an SPF rating of 15 or higher offer inadequate protection from the sun’s harmful rays, or contain ingredients with safety concerns.”
The good news is that they also identified 128 products that offer very good sun protection with ingredients that present minimal health risks to users.
Because there are so many products involved, I can’t list either the “bad” ones or the “good” ones here. I urge you to visit the EWG Web site to get the full details.
