They have literally shut down the phone lines and refuse to listen to American citizens that are mad as fuck. (h/t Crooks and Liars)The dirty unwashed masses who populate our juries are fit to judge each other, but evidently not the ruling class. David Broder can breathe a sigh of relief that People Like Him are safe from those overly zealous US Attorneys who might want to hold them accountable to the same absurd standards that the little people must live by. How quaint.
The White House has turned off their phone lines. Evidently they don’t want to hear what you think. There will still be phones tomorrow, and I don’t imagine anyone who cared enough to drop Dubya a line is going to forget.
Grab your favorite libation and Drink Liberally with the only Blogger guaranteed to be plastered all over the Internet!
7/2/07
White House Refuses to Listen to America
Google Caught Doing Evil
They say this right on their Health Care blog in a post with the cutesy title, “Does negative press make you Sicko?“. Google is pitching that the health care industry buy ads from them whenever someone searches for “Sicko” or “Michael Moore, ” ads which will counter the message of Sicko.
Just so there’s no misunderstanding about which side Google is on
Moore’s film portrays the industry as money and marketing driven, and fails to show healthcare’s interest in patient well-being and care.
So all you health care advertisers, go spend your money at Google, combating the evil Michael Moore. We’ll have no criticizing of American health care.
This reminds of radical organizer Saul Alinsky’s dictum. “Pick a target and freeze it. The rats will crawl out to defend them, then you’ll know who your real enemy is.”
I wonder how well this diary (and Politics in the Zeros') will fare on a Google search for Sicko now? Google must hate the fact that they can't slip in any of their anti-citizen corporate addys here. heh
There is also an UPDATE over there worthy of all things bushy in the media these days...
[update] There is more to this story here:
Google Caught Doing More Evil
After Bushies Treasonous Act Today
You are lying to yourselves if you think that anything less will stop these traitorous criminals in the White House.
Bush Commutes Libby's Sentence Before He Squeals
President George W. Bush commuted Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby's 2 1/2-year prison sentence in the CIA leak case, sparing him from punishment the president called ``excessive.''
Bush acted after a U.S. appellate court today refused to let Libby, 56, stay out of prison during his appeal. Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of lying to investigators probing the 2003 leak of CIA official Valerie Plame's identity. Libby's backers had argued for a pardon.
``My decision to commute his prison sentence leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby,'' Bush said in a statement. ``The consequences of his felony conviction on his former life as a lawyer, public servant and private citizen will be long- lasting.''
The only thing worse than the traitors that gave up Valerie Plame Wilson, Brewster Jennings and all of the CIA assets associated with their cover for the anti-nuclear proliferation duties they were in charge of in order to protect the USA?
Finding out that your President is willing to aid and abet the cover up these guilty traitors.
What was bush so afraid of that he yanked this lever to get Libby to testify truthfully out of Fitzgerald's hands?
bush is afraid of the TRUTH. Because the truth would have exposed a conspiracy to illegally out CIA agents. One that bush is now confirming he was part of.
Traitors. This ain't about a blow job. This is about treason against the USA at a time of war.
EVERY FUCKING SINGLE ONE OF THEM IN THE WHITE HOUSE ARE TRAITORS.
Via HuffPo:
The Libby Pardon: Dancing Around the Central IssueThe Huffington Post - The ONLY reason to send Libby to jail during his appeal is to pressure him to sing, and the ONLY incentive to pardon him if he is forced to go to jail is to buy his silence. For all those who say Libby's misstatements were the product of pressure and faulty memory, note this and note it well: Libby's lies were not random, as they would have been if he had just "misremembered". They were all carefully designed to obstruct the investigation from reaching the vice president.
I think bushies action speak to his own treasonous involvement as well.
[update]
I said the pardon clock was ticking... It only took a couple of hours for bush to admit his guilt.
Via TPM Muckraker... Joe Wilson on bush commuting the traitor's sentence:
"From my viewpoint, the president has stepped in to short circuit the rule of law and the system of justice in our country. In so doing, he has acknowledged Mr. Libby's guilt for, among other things, obstruction of justice, which by definition is covering up for somebody in a crime. By commuting his sentence, he has brought himself and his office into reasonable suspicion of participation in an obstruction of justice. The commutation of (Libby's) sentence in and of itself is participation in obstruction of justice."Asked if he expected Bush to pardon or commute Libby's sentence, Wilson replied, "I have never known what to expect. The administration is now trying call this compromise. At end of day, it's allowing a neoconservative cult to engage in special pleading. …
No Delays For Traitor Libby
Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, must go to prison while appealing his conviction for obstructing a CIA leak probe, a U.S. appeals court said.
Libby may be behind bars within weeks after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today denied his request for release. The decision will increase pressure on President George W. Bush to decide soon whether to pardon Libby, 56, as the former White House official's supporters have urged.
Libby ``has not shown that the appeal raises a substantial question'' under federal law that would merit letting him remain free, the court said.

Earlier:
Scooter Libby has a new name: inmate number 28301-016. That's according to the Bureau of Prisons, which is ready and waiting for Libby's arrival.
Via Reuters, the appeal wasn't even a close call:
The three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected Libby's request in a one-paragraph order, ruling he has not shown that his appeal "raises a substantial question."
The ruling was issued by all three members of the appeals court panel. Judges David Sentelle and Karen LeCraft Henderson were appointed by Republican presidents while Judge David Tatel was appointed by a Democratic president.
Is the pardon clock ticking? Bush has always been by the book on pardons in the past.
NY Times on the Libby beat:Judge Reggie B. Walton said today that he found no reason to postpone Mr. Libby’s sentence of two and a half years in prison for four felony counts. Defense lawyers had asked that he be allowed to remain free while pursuing appeals.
Judge Walton’s decision means that the defense lawyers will probably ask a federal appeals court to block the sentence, a long-shot move. It also sharpens interest in a question being asked by Mr. Libby’s supporters and critics alike: Will President Bush pardon Mr. Libby?
As for bushies' past record on pardons, well? I have already covered that a couple of times:The only thing we have on record concerning pardons from Bush is something I caught in March from Newsweek:The decision to send Libby to jail before an appeal doesn't change the possibility of a last minute out the door pardon from bush in the dying days of his present lame duck presidency, but it does put the screws to all those involved in the leak sooner rather than later.I would say that things do look particularly bad for Libby, and certainly for his band of merry traitors that don't want to chance Scooter flipping them to avoid prison. I have to start thinking about the possibility that MAYBE bush had nothing to do with the leaking, and as long as there is no pardon that line of reasoning might make sense. The reality is that as soon as bush does give a pardon to Scooter (if he does?), or anyone else that Scooter may flip, it is pretty much an admission of bushies' own guilt.Scooter's Pardon Problem - Bush By the Book
No (scape)goats in this book. But according to Isikoff and Hosenball at Newsweek this is what the (supposed) fall guy can expect:
Scooter Libby’s Pardon Problem :
"Those regulations, which are discussed on the Justice Department Web site at www.usdoj.gov/pardon, would seem to make a Libby pardon a nonstarter in George W. Bush’s White House. They “require a petitioner to wait a period of at least five years after conviction or release from confinement (whichever is later) before filing a pardon application,” according to the Justice Web site.
snip
“You know, I get asked about pardons on a lot of different cases. And there’s a procedure in place,” he said at first. When Bush added that he has been telling members of Congress who have contacted him about the matter to “look at the facts in the case,” Cavuto followed up: “So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying … there is a process in any case for a president to make a pardon decisions. In other words, there is a series of steps that are followed, so that the pardon process is, you know, a rational process,” the president answered."
Get ready for prison now, Scooter...
You have plenty of time before sentencing to get your affairs in order NOW, so there should be no reasons to delay your entering the system as soon as the sentence is pronounced.
As a side note on this:
How strained must the relationship between bush and cheney be, when cheney has to make his plea for a pardon on the national news? Since when do Republicans take their "inner business dirty dealings" public like that? They usually do that stuff behind closed doors.Yes, we shall. Unfortunately, we may have to wait for the dying days of this presidency to get the answer, as to the extent of bush's involvement in the leak.No matter how you look at it, there is no way to justify pardoning Scooter Libby without it being an admission of guilt by the President.
Any innocent President would be furious with Libby and wouldn't pardon him in a million years.
But Bush is not innocent. Libby lied for the President. And if Bush pardons Libby then we will know for certain that the President himself is the one that should be doing jail time for the crime that Libby covered up.
We shall see.
And make no mistake about this: Any pardon from bush, now or later, is enough proof of bushies' involvement in this treasonous act against our nations' security.
Tick Tick Tick...
[update]
It didn't take long for clock to run out. bush is guilty.
6/30/07
Romney Double Dog Gitmo Express
Via Crooks and Liars:
As if Mitt Romney doesn’t have enough on his mind, now he has to contend with angry dog owners.The reporter intended the anecdote that opened part four of the Boston Globe’s profile of Mitt Romney to illustrate, as the story said, “emotion-free crisis management”: Father deals with minor — but gross — incident during a 1983 family vacation, and saves the day. But the details of the event are more than unseemly — they may, in fact, be illegal.
The incident: dog excrement found on the roof and windows of the Romney station wagon. How it got there: Romney strapped a dog carrier — with the family dog Seamus, an Irish Setter, in it — to the roof of the family station wagon for a twelve hour drive from Boston to Ontario, which the family apparently completed, despite Seamus’s rather visceral protest.
Massachusetts’s animal cruelty laws specifically prohibit anyone from carrying an animal “in or upon a vehicle, or otherwise, in an unnecessarily cruel or inhuman manner or in a way and manner which might endanger the animal carried thereon.” An officer for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals responded to a description of the situation saying “it’s definitely something I’d want to check out.”
6/29/07
Alive in Baghdad: Ramadan In Iraq
More original reporting from Iraq by TPM TV's Veracifier, as they release a re-edited version of an earlier report on Ramadan in Iraq:
Neocon Paul Wolfowitz returns to his AEI death cult.
Former World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz — who resigned last month after being embroiled in a corruption scandal at the World Bank — announced that he has found a comfortable landing pad from which to continue to disseminate his right-wing ideology:AEI is right down there in the far right wing Heritage Foundation gutter of shame, and is little more than a front group for right wing nutty propaganda, and featuring such a superb cheerleading chorus to add to the pundits TV lineup of war on real news analysis.Paul Wolfowitz vowed to continue in political life after he steps down as president of the World Bank this weekend following an internal revolt. … He said he would be joining the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank in Washington, as a visiting scholar, which would allow him to continue influencing public policy.
Prior to his recent government service, Wolfowitz served as a member of AEI’s Council of Academic Advisors.
Before the Iraq war, AEI helped spawn the administration’s regime change plans. Several Iraq war architects — such as Richard Perle, Dick Cheney, John Bolton, and Doug Feith — previously worked at AEI before their service in the administration. In February 2003, President Bush delivered a major policy speech to AEI, mapping out his war plan, “thanking them [AEI] for their service” and support for the invasion.
Propaganda and outright lies are their favoured tools.
Truth is their enemy.
Groups like AEI and Heritage Foundation have acted in the interests of the Neoconservative death cult and the corporatist allies that have funded them all along. Do not ever mistake these propaganda groups as representative of a real conservative's perspective. They are warmongers and war profiteers. They are as different from a real, honest, conservative as the difference between my liberal agenda and a communist's.
Protester collapses in Lieberman's office
The 50-year-old woman launched a hunger strike to get a face-to-face meeting with Lieberman but was repeatedly rebuffed, according to Code Pink. However, Lieberman's staff has met with her on the issue.
Angeline was 15 days into her hunger strike and had lived off of clear liquids, according to Code Pink member Medea Benjamin. At one time she was granted a meeting, but the face-to-face was canceled by Lieberman’s office, the group said.
I hope the she is going to be OK. I like
You can read up more on how she is doing and what happened at this
6/28/07
I. Lewis "28301-016" Libby

Via the Daily Muck:
Scooter Libby has a new name: inmate number 28301-016. That's according to the Bureau of Prisons, which is ready and waiting for Libby's arrival.
While Libby is still waiting to actually go to jail they are getting number "28301-016" a room with a barred view ready.
Via BooMan at the Booman Tribune:
What’s with the Frog?
"It's of keen interest to me, to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs.'' - Joseph C. Wilson IV.
To learn the etymology of the term frog-march you can read this column by Bill Safire. He may have spent his career shilling for the Republicans and our intelligence services, but he is a reliable source on language.
In any case, Booman Tribune encourages its users to band together to do the investigative journalism that the mainstream media has forgotten how to do.
The frog is a reminder that politicians do occasionally get drummed out of office for corruption or unethical behavior. And we would like to speed that process along.
In fact, our motto is "We Won't Rest Until They're Frog-Marched Out" So, even if the amphibian is a criminal, you must learn to love the frog.
Well? No rest for the weary, IMHO, as Karl Rove, Richard Armitage, and Dick Cheney are still traitors on the loose... Not to mention all of the other criminal bush administration wankers that have yet to see justice brought down on them for their own very special little crimes.
Warning Shot to Rupert Murdoch
Wall Street Journal reporters across the country chose not to show up to work this morning.
We did so for two reasons.
First, The Wall Street Journal's long tradition of independence, which has been the hallmark of our news coverage for decades, is threatened today. We, along with hundreds of other Dow Jones employees represented by the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, want to demonstrate our conviction that the Journal’s editorial integrity depends on an owner committed to journalistic independence.
Second, by our absence from newsrooms around the country, we are reminding Dow Jones management that the quality of its publications depends on a top-quality professional staff. Dow Jones currently is in contract negotiations with its primary union, seeking severe cutbacks in our health benefits and limits on our pay. It is beyond debate that the professionals who create The Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones publications every day deserve a fair contract that rewards their achievements. At a time when Dow Jones is finding the resources to award golden parachutes to 135 top executives, it should not be seeking to eviscerate employees’ health benefits and impose salary adjustments that amount to a pay cut.
We put the reputation of The Wall Street Journal and the needs of its readers first. That's why we will be back at our desks this afternoon, producing the day's news reports. But we hope this demonstration will remind those entrusted with the future of Dow Jones that our publications' integrity must be protected, and sustained, from top to bottom.
I am guessing they are familiar with the Fox brand of "news", and they likely have a pretty decent idea about the inner workings of how Fox "news" is produced.
Last February at News Corpse Blog:
Last Friday, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Rupert Murdoch sat on a panel where he lamented what he described as a “loss of power” due to the ascension of the Internet and other new media. The notion that this captain of one of the most dominant media conglomerates in the world is trembling in the shadow of bloggers is simply absurd. Especially when you consider the fact that his company is also a dominant player on the Internet with an aggressive acquisitiveness that includes MySpace, the world’s largest online social networking site.
But there was a more shocking exchange that took place that ought to have caused more of a stir amongst professional journalists and all freedom loving people. It was an exchange that revealed something that most conscious beings knew, but which I have never seen explicitly articulated.
Murdoch was asked if News Corp. had managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq. His answer?
“No, I don’t think so. We tried.” Asked by Rose for further comment, he said: “We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East…but we have been very critical of his execution.”Let me repeat this: “We Tried!”
Setting aside the nonsense that they had ever been critical of Bush’s adventures in Baghdad, having confessed to being deliberatly deceitful raises some questions. For instance, how can anyone ever again take seriously Fox News or any of Murdoch’s other instruments of bias? How can News Corp. continue to pretend that they are “fair and balanced?” How can any other media company exhibit the slightest expression of respect or patronization? And speaking of other media companies, where are they now? The Chairman and CEO of a media empire that includes the number one rated cable news network, and numerous newspapers around the world, has just admitted that he tried to use that empire to “shape the agenda” in support of a partisan political goal with consequences of life, death, and global destabilization.
This is what you can expect from a Wall Street Journal in the Murdoch "news" empire:
And you can bet that it will be propaganda that will help his businesses and his far right wing radical political views.
6/27/07
Dodd's YouTube Spotlight
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!
[Update Deux] Spazeboy mentioned this when he saw the Dodd YouTube up at My Left Nutmeg:
"It’s a happy coincidence that just yesterday I posted a guide to videoblogging that will assist you in doing just that."
Generals March on New Hampshire
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."
This Concord Monitor editorial also mentions the very real possibility that Republican Sen. John Sununu "could fall prey to a similar antiwar sentiment that helped oust two incumbent congressmen in favor of Democratic Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter in 2006." Both of the Generals also seem to agree that the incompetent bush administration policies are wrecking the Army and can easily see the parallels to Vietnam in the current failed escalation.
(H/T Buzzflash)
So Much For the American Worker
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.
Sirota sums up exactly what I was thinking when I read the previous link:
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.
6/26/07
HelpThese Senators Too!
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.
The worls is watching BUT...
Where in the World is Habeas Corpus?

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!
Please help them find Habeas Corpus too!
Help These Students!
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.
Will you help them find Habeas Corpus?

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!
Where in the World is Habeas Corpus?

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!
but he can't seem to find Habeas:




Maybe we should look under here again?


Please help us find Habeas Corpus before this country loses all respect in the eyes of the world.
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.
A car that runs on water?
This guy says he has one:
Is this for real? Many have said that the future wars would be for water... And that was just based on survival. Nevermind about diving their SUVs.
