Happy 4th of July!

hehehehehehe

Olbermann's Special Comment: RESIGN

I previewed this earlier today: bush and cheney must resign.



Good night and good luck.

(h/t Scarce at MLN)

Telcoms Still Out to Steal OUR NET!

Via The Crone Speaks, the FTC is about to kick us to the curb:

I don’t know how I missed this yesterday, but thankfully Kevin didn’t.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has decided to abandon net neutrality and allow telecoms companies to charge websites for access.

The FTC said in a report that, despite popular support for net neutrality, it was minded to let the market sort out the issue.

This means that the organisation will not stand in the way of companies using differential pricing to make sure that some websites can be viewed more quickly than others. The report also counsels against net neutrality legislation.

“This report recommends that policy makers proceed with caution in the evolving dynamic industry of broadband internet access, which is generally moving towards more, not less, competition,” FTC chairman Deborah Platt Majoras wrote.

Who the fuck are these people to tell congress not to enact legislation to do they job they were supposed to do?

They are the same fuckers that we have to beat back off of our internet day after day, month after month, and year after year. They will do everything they can to stifle our free speech. They are as UN-American as you can get. They are corporatist bastards that live to steal things from US citizens and give them to the HUGE CORPs that get fat on what should belong to all us.



Via Save the Internet:

You can help make the internet faster, more open and accessible to all. Tell Congress to preserve Net Neutrality and help ensure that the benefits and promise of the Internet are available to all Americans.

Tell your story to the FCC

Sign the petition and send a message to Congress

Call your members of Congress

Write a letter to your hometown newspaper

Support the SavetheInternet.com Ad Fund

Promote SavetheInternet on your blog or site

Tell five friends to join the fight for Internet freedom

Take action today!

Every Blogger in the nation will not be safe until this constant effort to steal our internet is stopped. This has to do with the BIG Corporations trying to stifle every thing we have built in the Blogosphere, even here in our little Connecticut Blogosphere. But this is bigger than just Blogging. It is the biggest FREE SPEECH issue facing us today.

KO Special Comment Tonight BUSH RESIGN!

You want some Must See TV?




A preview of Keith Olbermann's Special Comment via The Newshole:

Our generation's willingness to state "we didn't vote for him, but he's our president, and we hope he does a good job," was tested in the crucible of history, and earlier than most.

And in circumstances more tragic and threatening.

And we did.... that with which history tasked us.

We enveloped our President in 2001.

And those who did not believe he should have been elected -- indeed those who did not believe he had been elected -- willingly lowered their voices and assented to the sacred oath of non-partisanship.

And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and shaped it to a razor-sharp point...and stabbed this nation in the back with it.

Were there any remaining lingering doubt otherwise, or any remaining lingering hope, it ended yesterday when Mr. Bush commuted the prison sentence of one of his own staffers.

Did so even before the appeals process was complete…

Did so without as much as a courtesy consultation with the Department of Justice…

Did so despite what James Madison -- at the Constitutional Convention -- said about impeaching any president who pardoned or sheltered those who had committed crimes "advised by" that president…

Did so without the slightest concern that even the most detached of citizens must look at the chain of events and wonder:

To what degree was Mr. Libby told: break the law however you wish -- the President will keep you out of prison?

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you broke that fundamental com-pact between yourself and the majority of this nation's citizens -- the ones who did not cast votes for you.

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you ceased to be the President of the United States.

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you became merely the President… of a rabid and irresponsible corner of the Republican Party.

And this is too important a time, Sir, to have a commander-in-chief who puts party over nation.

Tuning in tonight, for sure!

Google Caught Doing More Evil

Yesterday I posted on Google getting caught doing evil:

Connecticut's own Politics in the Zeros Blog catches Google going against their "Don't be evil." motto:

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...

Today an update from Boing Boing (Via Crooks and Liars) on just how low they will go in their "anti-citizen corporate addys":

Mike sez, "I thought you might want to know that Google doesn't even allow individuals to purchase ads critical of large companies. In May 2004, I set up a website to criticize the large medical-testing firm Covance. I bought -- and was willing to pay, out of my own pocket -- a Google AdWord so people searching for Covance would find my site. After a few days, Google told me that their 'policy does not permit the advertisement of websites that contain 'language that advocates against an individual, group, or organization'.' So, apparently HMOs criticizing Michael Moore is okay, but random-guy-with-a-website criticizing a large corporation is not okay. 'Democratic,' indeed. (The full text of Google's email to me is here).

It is pretty clear when Google says "Don't be evil." they mean towards their corporate friends and not the American citizen. If you haven't figured it out already, Corporate America will do anything they can to stop Single Payer Universal Healthcare, and they have no problems working together to discredit Michael Moore and his movie Sicko even though it is only telling you the truth about the failures of the Privatized American Healthcare system. If Google truly believed in its "Don't be evil." statement they would be running addys like this for free:



And this one as well:



If you haven't seen Sicko yet... Go Now! And make sure to take some of your friends. It is the must see movie of the year. And if you need to know about a healthcare plan that can fix many of the problems with our privatized ripoff:

The United States National Health Insurance Act

H.R. 676

"Expanded & Improved Medicare For All"

*introduced by Reps. John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, Jim McDermott and Donna Christensen

"National health insurance is not only the best answer,

it is the only answer to eliminating health disparities."

If you live in CT-05 you may want to know that Rep. Chris Murphy has yet to sign up as a co-sponsor to this bill. Ya think it is time to remind him how important H.R. 676 is to all Americans?

Rep. Chris Murphy's contact info

Chris Murphy
(202) 225-4476,
1 Grove Street, New Britain CT 06053

White House Refuses to Listen to America

And I mean that literally:

Jane Hamsher:

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.

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)

Google Caught Doing Evil

Connecticut's own Politics in the Zeros Blog catches Google going against their "Don't be evil." motto:

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

bush commutes Libby's sentence, a traitor that is trying to cover up a conspiracy to commit treason, are there any of you who still don't think these actions are necessary?

Get this Action Banner for your own web page

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

And so the cover up of a conspiracy of treason in the White House begins, as bush takes away Fitzgerald's lever to get at the truth:

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 Issue

The 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.

(H/T to Oui at BooTrib)

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

Via Bloomberg: (and a h/t to Daily Muck)

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Romney Double Dog Gitmo Express

Rendition on a conservative budget...

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.”

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.

Via Think Progress:

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:

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.

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.

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

via The Hill:

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 and what they stand for. All of them stand up every day for things that we all believe in. What a spineless sack of lying neocon chicken crap we we have for a Senator here in Connecitcut.

You can read up more on how she is doing and what happened at this DC action Blog.

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:

"We Won't Rest Until They're Frog-Marched Out"

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

According to Poynter Online:

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:

Propaganda

And you can bet that it will be propaganda that will help his businesses and his far right wing radical political views.