Schmidt and Her DOM in OHIO

Conservatives get a behind the scenes view of what to expect from Schmidt if she wins...

Daily Kos :: Comments OH-2: The Commercial, The Poll, "Swift Boating" & the Pivot:

Yesterday, some of us who emailed the Schmidt campaign got mailbox full returns which pointed to campaign manager Joe Brauns real email address: deanofcorn@aol.com

Some of us did a google search on "deanofcorn" which returned 3 entries. The one in Canada is a mistype, it should have been "dean of com...merce", the M got spliced into a rn.

The only other 2 entries were for a "deanofcorn" user ID for the Scioto County, Ohio GOP and then this BDSM "deanofcorn" solicitation from Cincinnati "I am an experienced Dom seeking a sub for long term exploration and training."

Joe Braun (Schmidt's campaign manager) has the email address deanofcorn@aol.com, and the same deanofcorn user ID for the Cincinnati area GOP site. Its obvious that the BDSM deanofcorn in Cincinnati (the only other reference to deanofcorn on the net) is him. If any further evidence is needed, this article he authored in college puts him at the same age as the individual who likes to perform 'medical exams'.

by tomVA

Now the only thing left to see is if Braun and Schmidt will air some video of their backroom meetings where he "whips" her into shape for the election?

Is there little wonder that the republican party is bringing in another $750,000 from the national level to try and buy her out of this?

Yep... The GOP is a slave to their own hypocrisy!

Hackett is an honorable soldier that served his country. As a Vet, I can appreciate that.

Schmidt is just a subservient low-life that surrounds herself with SCUM.

And the GOP has the nerve to run another "swifty" campaign on Hackett?

Conservative voters of OHIO:

WAKE UP!

The Ohio GOP is as corrupt as any of the ones in Texas or DC. You know it, and the nation knows it.

I am an independent and even I would chose Hackett over that scumbucket Schmidt.

Rove and Libby's Treason

pontificator noted that "at least a half dozen CIA and State department officials have spoken with prosecutors. " Given the testimony of Bill Harlow, a CIA spokesman Novak used to try and confim Valerie Plame Wilson's status in the CIA, it is apparent that none of the GOP talking points about her status at the CIA make any sense at all. Harlow made it plainly clear that Novak had a CIA "NO-go!!" on the story not once, but even a second time after confirming Mrs. Wilson's status as an undercover operator.

Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide Net: "Harlow, the former CIA spokesman, said in an interview yesterday that he testified last year before a grand jury about conversations he had with Novak at least three days before the column was published. He said he warned Novak, in the strongest terms he was permitted to use without revealing classified information, that Wilson's wife had not authorized the mission and that if he did write about it, her name should not be revealed.

Harlow said that after Novak's call, he checked Plame's status and confirmed that she was an undercover operative. He said he called Novak back to repeat that the story Novak had related to him was wrong and that Plame's name should not be used. But he did not tell Novak directly that she was undercover because that was classified.

In a column published Oct. 1, 2003, Novak wrote that the CIA official he spoke to 'asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause 'difficulties' if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name.'"

Since Novak certainly knew the CIA said NO to the story twice it is pretty apperent that Novak should have known what he was doing was illegal at that point.

I guess some people think they should be above the law when it comes to weakening our national security. I can only hope that, after their corpses are released from jail, rove, libby, novak, and any of the other conspirators, enjoy their trip straight to hell for their little "GOP campaign to smear Wilson and the CIA" treason against America.

Santorum: The Village Idiot

Apparently some people in PA have a problem with the moral values Rick Santorum is teaching his kids, as well as the rest of America.

Letters to the editor: 7/21/05:
Not moral messages

As a teacher for the Diocese of Pittsburgh for 14 years, one important lesson I learned was that no matter what I said to the child, whatever the parents said superseded my message. What parents say and how they live sends a message stronger than any teacher's voice no matter what the issue.

Sen. Rick Santorum and his wife have taught their children a powerful lesson on civic responsibility by refusing to pay any tuition money to the Penn Hills School District for their children who attended the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School ('Penn Hills Loses Bid to Charge Santorum,' July 12). Released from that payment on a technicality shows that even an upstanding, moral gentleman like Sen. Santorum teaches his children the following lessons:

1) Take advantage of the system whenever you can.

2) The little guy pays while the rich and powerful guy gets away with it.

3) As a Catholic, you have no obligation to pay your share to the common good in spite of Catholic social doctrine.

Finally, I am shocked that our religious leaders who see Sen. Santorum as some sort of faith-and-morals hero have not spoken up on this issue at all.

SISTER LIGUORI ROSSNER
Sisters for Christian Community
Bloomfield"

Thank you for doing your part Sister Liguori, since we all know it takes a village to raise an idiot, and Lord knows Santorum is an idiot!

Something About Sharm El-Sheik?

You know what? I have read about 15 different stories from various papers in the USA and around the world BUT there is one part of the story that all of them seem to leave out of it. Something I have personal experience with concerning Sharm El-Sheik.

If you click on the link (don't forget to watch the 20 second video there!) you might get an idea what I am talking about.

MFO Southcamp

Don't you think this is a MAJOR EFFIN PART OF THE STORY?

MFO Southcamp

The smaller South Camp, near Sharm el Sheikh on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, is situated on a bluff overlooking the Red Sea.� The camp contains all facilities normally required to support a reinforced battalion sized military unit.

I knew as soon as I started scrolling through one story after another that you would not find any of this reported.

US Contingent

The United States Army provides the single largest contingent to the MFO based at both North and South Camp.

The different activities provided by Task Force HQ, Support Battalion and US Battalion are described in the links above.

Why would the MSM care that there are always American soldiers stationed in Sharm?

Is this a part of the story that might of interested you?

Do you really think that tourists were the "only" targets?

I know, I know... A lot of very wealthy Europpean, American, and Middle East OIL magnates go there often. It is a resort town for the extremely FILTHY RICH... But do any of you think that maybe, just maybe, Gambling Saudi princes and tourists were not the only targets?

Frist's Torturous Decision

If there was ever any question about who is supporting the soldiers, well, the Army Times had no problems figuring this out. They point out how alarmed Dems are that republicans would rather pander to special interest groups like the NRA instead of making the important decisions while we are supposed to be a nation at war.

Army Times - News - More News: "By Rick Maze
Times staff writer

Senate Republican leaders decided Tuesday that a gun manufacturers’ liability bill is more important than next year’s $441.6 billion defense authorization bill.

With Democrats expressing amazement that there could be any higher legislative priority in a time of war than the annual defense bill that includes money for pay and benefits, operations and maintenance, and weapons’ purchases and research, Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Senate Republican leader, decided Tuesday that a bill protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits over the illegal use of firearms was a higher priority.

The decision came after Republican leaders failed to muster the 60 votes needed to prevent amendments not strictly related to the defense budget from being offered to the defense bill.

In a count of 50-48, seven Republicans joined Democrats in voting not to restrict debate, a move that Democratic leaders said would have prevented consideration of amendments to help veterans and survivors of deceased service members, along with other issues."

It is really important to understand that this effort to push back the bill is less about the funding for the war and more about getting more important rich elitist agendas to the floor quickly:

With Congress planning to leave town Friday for one-month break, debate on S 397, Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, is expected to last two or three days, and then Senate leaders plan to take up an energy bill, an estate tax reform bill and an Interior Department funding bill

A hat tip to QWQ, who had this note about Frist's torturous decision to sidetrack this:

Also, several folks have noted in the comments that pandering to the NRA is not the only reason the Republicans wanted to delay the Defense Authorization bill -- the White House also wanted to avoid showdowns on detainee treatment and military base closings. The new AP story has that angle, as does this CBS edited version of the original AP story.

Oh, yeah... The bushies don't want to give up their right to torture innocent Iraqis that are held along with the few terrorists in captivity... Go figure, huh? Apparently the republican controlled Senate doesn't work any better in making us safer than torture does at getting useful intel.

Better dead than red...

In homage to her political roots developed in her formative years in Russia Coulter not only dates herself as a really old fart, but offers up this scathing opinion of Roberts:

Welcome to AnnCoulter.com:
"Since the announcement, court-watchers have been like the old Kremlinologists from Soviet days looking for clues as to what kind of justice Roberts will be. "

Coulter went on to discuss the possibility that Roberts would have to:

"perform an abortion during his confirmation hearing, live, on camera, and preferably a partial-birth one."

In my quest to carry a more balanced view of political pundits from the vast GOP spectrum of RED I would be remiss to skip over Rush's view on the candidate:

Rush transcript:
"The Democrats are having a tough time, and they are going to have an impossible time, to oppose the man on anything having to do with any kind of substance."

While we question Oxy-Rush about issues of substance we had no idea that this is an issue we should take up with Roberts?

"But I think what they are going to do, as I said last night, what they are going to do is try to derail the guy at the hearings on the basis of, "He won't answer our questions,""

Well Rush... Does he do drugs like you?

"We don't have much on record of Judge Roberts."

So Rush finally admits that Roberts has a record. OK.... At least we no longer need to clear that up.

Hannity, not wanting to be outdone by his RED friends in demonstrating that "up is down and black is white", had this comment about Roberts on "Hannity and Colmes":

Hannity Transcript:
"Liberals seem convinced that Roberts abortion — seems anti- abortion to them"

My only questions here are:
Was he on drugs when the abortion occured and does his wife know about this particular abortion? If she does not know, than: How much drugs was she on when the abortion happened?

BTC News � Vermont GOP candidate: Impeach Bush

Just when I was starting to think that there isn't even one honest republican left in this country BTCNEWS had to blow that theory out of the water:

BTC News » Vermont GOP candidate: Impeach Bush:
— weldon berger @ 12:33 pm
Permanent Link

Vermont Republican Dennis Morrisseau wants two things: To fill the House seat being vacated by long-time Congressman Bernie Sanders — Sanders is planning a run for the Senate — and to impeach George W. Bush."

It is pretty funny that there are so few real conservatives in the GOP that are patriotic enough to point out how messed up their party is right now.

The bush legacy of being the "Benedict Arnold administration" is a lock for the history books. Eventualy real conservatives will figure it out.

Morrisseau said he imagines there is a lot of soul-searching going on among the Republicans who continue to support Bush.

“If you’re an old and decent Republican and politics takes a 180 in your country, it sometimes takes a while to tell what you ought to do. It took me a while. I’ve been at this for years.”

Go on over and check out more on this story and others from BTCNEWS.

Ronald Reagan on Outing Spies

It appears that Ronnie Raygun's words have come back to haunt the traitors that hero worship him:

Remarks on Signing the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982

Excerpt from the speech delivered by Ronald Reagan:


Whether you work in Langley or a faraway nation, whether your tasks are in operations or analysis sections, it is upon your intellect and integrity, your wit and intuition that the fate of freedom rests for millions of your countrymen and for many millions more all around the globe.…

Like those who are part of any silent service, your sacrifices are sometimes unappreciated; your work is sometimes misunderstood. Because you’re professionals, you understand and accept this. But because you’re human and because you deal daily in the dangers that confront this nation, you must sometimes question whether some of your countrymen appreciate the value of your accomplishments, the sacrifices you make, the dangers you confront, the importance of the warnings that you issue.

And that’s why I have come here today; first, to sign an important piece of legislation that bears directly on your work, an act of Congress whose overwhelming passage by the representatives of the American people is a symbol of their support for the job that you do every day. But even more than this, I’ve come here today to say to you what the vast majority of Americans would say if they had this opportunity to stand here before you. We’re grateful to you. We thank you. We’re proud of you.

If you support the treachery of rove and libby than I hold nothing but contempt for you. The potential dangers that these leakers have exposed networks of agents to, and the security risks they have caused for our nation is nothing less than an act of treason.

Yep! Treason...
Reagan is calling y'all on it from his grave there bushies.

But is there more?
Well, yes there is... Here ya go:

The Congress has carefully drafted this bill so that it focuses only on those who would transgress the bounds of decency; not those who would exercise their legitimate right of dissent. This carefully drawn act recognizes that the revelation of the names of secret agents adds nothing to legitimate public debate over intelligence policy. It is also a signal to the world that while we in this democratic nation remain tolerant and flexible, we also retain our good sense and our resolve to protect our own security and that of the brave men and women who serve us in difficult and dangerous intelligence assignments.

During the debate over this bill, some have suggested that our focus should be not on protecting our own intelligence agencies, but on the real or imagined abuses of the past. Well, I'm glad that counsel was rejected, for the days of such abuses are behind us. The Congress now shares the responsibility of guarding against any transgression, and I have named a new Intelligence Oversight Board and Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board to assist me in ensuring that the rule of law is maintained in areas which must remain secret and out of the normal realm of public scrutiny.

Beyond this, I have full confidence that you'll do your job vigorously and imaginatively while making sure that your activity is lawful, constitutional, and in keeping with the traditions of our way of life. And while you're at your job and while I'm President and while these Congressmen stand at watch, we'll work together to see to it that this powerful tool of government is used to advance, not abuse, the rights of free people.

"The Great Accumulator" (you know? All of that debt Reagan ran up, silly!) must have had his astrologer working overtime that day...

Turdblossom is wilting...

Why is that mean man scowling? Maybe he just saw the latest post over at Escahaton by Atrios... Looks like turdblossom has willted in America's eyes, and while Atrios got the scoop, well, all bush has left is a heaping pile of poop:

ABC NEWS POLL: THE CIA LEAK INVESTIGATION – 7/17/05 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, July 18, 2005 Many Doubt White House CooperationWith Federal Investigation of CIA LeakJust a quarter of Americans think the White House is fully cooperating in the federal investigation of the leak of a CIA operative's identity, a number that's declined sharply since the investigation began. And three-quarters say that if presidential adviser Karl Rove was responsible for leaking classified information, it should cost him his job.

Careful what you step in as you follow the treason of rove Atrios... You don't want to come out of it smelling like the Benedict Arnold administration in the White House right now... (If your cats are anything like my dog... There is always the chance of finding a bush turd on the living room floor the hard way! lol)

Young Republicans Following in the Footsteps of the Crooks in Power

Crooks and Liars has a great story on republicans passing the torch of crime on to their youth:

Crooks and Liars: "OYE ALERT: Young Republicans Chairman 'Nathan Taylor' in Hot Water

I kid you not. YR's should have accepted the ad I tried to place. They could have used the extra cash, even if it came from a Frenchman.

Nevada's chapter of the Young Republicans has basically imploded, leaving its chairman with up to $25,000 in personal debt and allegations that he mishandled money. All but three people have resigned from the statewide group, but the fallout could prove increasingly embarrassing to the entire state Republican Party. Today, the chairman of the group, Reno resident Nathan Taylor, plans to hold a press conference attacking three of the state's party leaders -- Sen. John Ensign, Rep. Jim Gibbons and Rep. Jon Porter.

'I've got bills at the hotel I can't pay,' said Taylor, a 29-year-old political science senior at UNR who said he had to quit his food service job and drop classes to plan the convention....read on

Nathan's just doing a job worthy of the CBO. Taylor will probably double his efforts with extra bake sales and some double secret super duper rants. If he enlists, I'm sure he will be able to pay of the bills he ran up with all the extra incentives the Army is offering now. What say you Nathan? Your country needs you.

Also in trouble is a Steve Damion New Jersey College Republicans. Looks like he's out of a job too. "

These criminal republicans are just cut from the same cloth as their national leaders. I agree that they should enlist in the military, if not to support the stupid policies they have so screwed up the nation with so much, than at least to teach tham a little bit about responsibilities and good citizenship.

Maybe after they get out of jail? (snicker)

Fork You Rove!

Here is the text... Read it all... There is no exception for disclosing classified info even if you only confirm a previous source. It is illegal. And they are "trained" to know this before they to get any security clearance.

They are so detailed in this training that even confirming classified info to a news source is a part of that training, and it is definately a no-no.

REP. HENRY A. WAXMAN
RANKING MINORITY MEMBER
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JULY 15, 2005


Fact Sheet
Karl Rove’s Nondisclosure Agreement


Today, news reports revealed that Karl Rove, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff and the President’s top political advisor, confirmed the identity of covert CIA official Valerie Plame Wilson with Robert Novak on July 8, 2003, six days before Mr. Novak published the information in a nationally syndicated column. These new disclosures have obvious relevance to the criminal investigation of Patrick Fitzgerald, the Special Counsel who is investigating whether Mr. Rove violated a criminal statute by revealing Ms. Wilson’s identity as a covert CIA official.


Independent of the relevance these new disclosures have to Mr. Fitzgerald’s investigation, they also have significant implications for: (1) whether Mr. Rove violated his obligations under his "Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement" and (2) whether the White House violated its obligations under Executive Order 12958. Under the nondisclosure agreement and the executive order, Mr. Rove would be subject to the loss of his security clearance or dismissal even for "negligently" disclosing Ms. Wilson’s identity.


KARL ROVE’S NONDISCLOSURE AGREEMENT


Executive Order 12958 governs how federal employees are awarded security clearances in order to obtain access to classified information. It was last updated by President George W. Bush on March 25, 2003, although it has existed in some form since the Truman era. The executive order applies to any entity within the executive branch that comes into possession of classified information, including the White House. It requires employees to undergo a criminal background check, obtain training on how to protect classified information, and sign a "Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement," also known as a SF-312, promising not to reveal classified information.1


The nondisclosure agreement signed by White House officials such as Mr. Rove states: "I will never divulge classified information to anyone" who is not authorized to receive it.2


THE PROHIBITION AGAINST "CONFIRMING" CLASSIFIED INFORMATION


Mr. Rove, through his attorney, has raised the implication that there is a distinction between classified information to someone not authorized to receive it and confirming classified information from someone not authorized to have it. In fact, there is no such distinction under the nondisclosure agreement Mr. Rove signed.

One of the most basic rules of safeguarding classified information is that an official who has signed a nondisclosure agreement cannot confirm classified information obtained by a reporter.


In fact, this obligation is highlighted in the "briefing booklet" that new security clearance recipients receive when they sign their nondisclosure agreements: Before … confirming the accuracy of what appears in the public source, the signer of the SF 312 must confirm through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been declassified. If it has not, … confirmation of its accuracy is also an unauthorized disclosure.3


THE INDEPENDENT DUTY TO VERIFY THE CLASSIFIED STATUS OF INFORMATION


Mr. Rove’s attorney has implied that if Mr. Rove learned Ms. Wilson’s identity and occupation from a reporter, this somehow makes a difference in what he can say about the information. This is inaccurate.


The executive order states: "Classified information shall not be declassified automatically as a result of any unauthorized disclosure of identical or similar information."4


Mr. Rove was not at liberty to repeat classified information he may have learned from a reporter Instead, he had an affirmative obligation to determine whether the information had been declassified before repeating it. The briefing booklet is explicit on this point: "before disseminating the information elsewhere … the signer of the SF 312 must confirm through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been declassified."5


"NEGLIGENT" DISCLOSURE OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION


Mr. Rove’s attorney has also implied that Mr. Rove’s conduct should be at issue only if he intentionally or knowingly disclosed Ms. Wilson’s covert status. In fact, the nondisclosure agreement and the executive order require sanctions against security clearance holders who "knowingly, willfully, or negligently" disclose classified information.6 The sanctions for such a breach include "reprimand, suspension without pay, removal, termination of classification authority, loss or denial of access to classified information, or other sanctions."7


THE WHITE HOUSE OBLIGATIONS UNDER EXECUTIVE ORDER 12958


Under the executive order, the White House has an affirmative obligation to investigate and take remedial action separate and apart from any ongoing criminal investigation. The executive order specifically provides that when a breach occurs, each agency must "take appropriate and prompt corrective action."8


This includes a determination of whether individual employees improperly disseminated or obtained access to classified information The executive order further provides that sanctions for violations are not optional.


The executive order expressly provides: "Officers and employees of the United States Government … shall be subject to appropriate sanctions if they knowingly, willfully, or negligently … disclose to unauthorized persons information properly classified."9


There is no evidence that the White House complied with these requirements.


ENDNOTES

1 Executive Order No. 12958, Classified National Security Information (as amended), sec. 4.1(a) (Mar.28, 2003) (online at Web reference).


2 Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement, Standard Form 312 (Prescribed by NARA/ISOO) (32 C.F.R. 2003, E.O. 12958) (online at Web reference).

3 Information Security Oversight Office, National Archives and Records Administration, Briefing

Booklet: Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement (Standard Form 312), at 73 (emphasis added)(online at Web reference ).

4 Executive Order No. 12958, sec. 1.1(b).

5 Briefing Booklet, supra note 3, at 73.

6 Executive Order No. 12958, sec. 5.5(b) (emphasis added).

7 Id. at 5.5(c).

8 Id. at 5.5(e)(1).

9 Id. at 5.5(b).

Stick a fork in rove...
YEP...
He is done.

Now what we need to know from cheney and bush?

What did you know AND when did you know it?

And while I am at it...
How friendly were you with Jeff Gannon?
Wink wink
(Hey, Gannon had to be screwing some guy in the White House?)

Iran and Iraq have will sign a military cooperation agreement

Well? I'll be interested in seeing how the right wingnut spinmonster tries get this mountain-sized boulder moving... Here you have the country they claim as a "New Democracy" that will be "American friendly" (You know, the Iraq that neocon wet dreams are made of) announcing they will be signing a military training deal and forming an alliance with Iran.

Yes...The same Iran that the bush pseudocon supporters would love to bomb the hell out of for PROFIT and fun.

Aljazeera.Net - Iran and Iraq to sign military deal:
Thursday 07 July 2005, 13:10 Makka Time, 10:10 GMT

Former foes Iran and Iraq have said they will sign a military cooperation agreement that will include Iranian help in training Iraq's armed forces.

The agreement marks a considerable advance in relations between the two countries that fought a bitter 1980-1988 war and comes despite repeated US accusations that Iran has undermined security in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

'It's a new chapter in our relations with Iraq. We will start wide defence cooperation,' Iranian Defence Minister Admiral Ali Shamkhani told a joint news conference with visiting Iraqi counterpart Sadoun al-Dulaimi.

'We're going to form some committees which will be involved in mine clearance, identifying those missing from the war and also ... to help train, rebuild and modernise the Iraqi army,' Shamkhani added.

Iran last year offered to train Iraqi border guards, but Baghdad declined the offer.

Meddling accusation

US and Iraqi officials have often accused Iran of stirring up instability in Iraq. Tehran denies meddling in Iraq or helping, arming or letting foreign fighters cross its borders.

'Nobody can dictate to Iraq its relations with other countries'

Sadoun al-Dulaimi,
Iraqi defence minister
Asked about possible US opposition to Iran-Iraq military cooperation, Shamkhani said: 'No one can prevent us from reaching an agreement.'

Iraq's al-Dulaimi echoed Shamkhani's comments.

'Nobody can dictate to Iraq its relations with other countries,' he said."

Normally I would just sit back and laugh as the right wing spinmonster choked on the fumes of reality, BUT I think it really is a good time to say something in support of our troops:

PULL THE FUCKING TROOPS OUT NOW YOU MORON OF A PRESIDENT!

A Note to Jeff Gannon Uncensored

Yes Jay... I am talking about the GOP talking point drivel that gets posted on your Web toilet paper ad nauseum.

In recent light of the talking points evidenced by your group of GOP whores that are desperately trying to destroy the New Milford education system with their "penny-wise" solutions that in the long run will only create a disaster for everyone to suffer through as well... Consider this post from dKos that shows what is the future of business in New Milford and this country if we do not invest in today's kids education even more than what either side is considering in our town, state, and certainly by our leaderless nation.

Why Toyota chose Canada over Alabama/Mississippi.

by wegerje

Fri Jul 8th, 2005 at 21:03:52 PDT

(From the diaries. More evidence that an educated workforce and government-subsidized health care are the best forms of economic development -- kos)

They got a $125 Million is subsidies from the Canadians. But that wasn't what sealed the deal, because several southern states offered nearly double the subsidies. What sealed the deal was the quality of education that their potential workers in Canada possessed.

The extra subsidies offered by the U.S. state would have been eaten up by the need to train and educate the workers in those states to the standards of a modern mechanized and digitized automobile plant. CBC news reports:

The factory will cost $800 million to build, with the federal and provincial governments kicking in $125 million of that to help cover research, training and infrastructure costs.

Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double that amount of subsidy. But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.

He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.

It's ironic that those southern states were willing to fork over the money to get the plant, but not to spend the same money to raise the educational standards in their schools. It's a classic penny-wise, pound-foolish approach.

But what about a northern state with better education. Well too bad northern states, you also are being "penny-wise and pound-foolish".

Only now it's health care that is a show stopper"

In addition to lower training costs, Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada, said federal Industry Minister David Emmerson.

"Most people don't think of our health-care system as being a competitive advantage," he said.

Tanguay said Toyota's decision on where to build its seventh North American plant was "not only about money."

"It's about being in the right place," he said, noting the company can rely on the expertise of experienced Cambridge workers to help get Woodstock up and running.

Where is this world going when even the business world has figured out that GOP far-right wing politics make no sense whatsoever? Who would've thunk it, huh? The business world is better off with left social policies that extend educational and health benefits. Even if it costs us a few bucks more now it will pay off in the long run. This is no longer just an opinion of the working man or women, unions, or simply a statistical fact, but it is just plain good business sense. Do any of you nay-sayers have any of that? Apparently not...

ROVE''S TREASON?

This recent report shows a complete lack of uderstanding (or a lack of guts to report it honestly) for what is LIKELY really going on in Pfitz investigation of the Plame leaks...

MSNBC Analyst Says Cooper Documents Reveal Karl Rove as Source in Plame Case By E&P Staff

NEW YORK Now that Time Inc. has turned over documents to federal court, presumably revealing who its reporter, Matt Cooper, identified as his source in the Valerie Plame/CIA case, speculation runs rampant on the name of that source, and what might happen to him or her. Tonight,

...Snip...

"And I know I'm going to get pulled into the grand jury for saying this but the source of...for Matt Cooper was Karl Rove, and that will be revealed in this document dump that Time magazine's going to do with the grand jury."

Other panelists then joined in discussing whether, if true, this would suggest a perjury rap for Rove, if he told the grand jury he did not leak to Cooper.

A fucking perjury rap for a god-damned traitor to our country? I think not... A man who plays politics with the lives of people in our intelligence community, endangers potentially important covert contacts at a time of war, and they talk about perjury? This ain't no fucking BJ!!! This is treason! With all of the stuff coming from the Judge showing a likelyhood of a very real investigation of an espionage conspiracy AND a conspiracy of those that tried to cover it up.

I was reading a good write on the summary of everything circulating the various Blogs on this by kant and it seems pretty obvious what is going on and why bush, cheney, rove, and numerous members of the bush "all-star-fake-news-and-lies" team are lining up to speak to their lawyers. Of course they are just doing that as a precaution... They certainly wouldn't need these lawyers to cover their asses, would they?

It also explains why the media may be worried. Anyone of the media that received any information about the leaks and did not report it to the authorities as a potential crime could be found just as guilty in this conspiracy. Anyone that knew about the leak prior to it's publishing (Novak outing Plame in his editorial) face a very real prospect of becoming "collateral damage" as Joe Wilson put it when Miller was justly sentenced by the judge to sit in the thinking box to ponder whether or not she wants to considered part of these conspiracies.

If I were the judge I would have sentenced miller based on pretending to be a journalist... But I don't like liars like Judy Miller.

Judy Miller (You know, Chalabi's "mouthpiece" for "anonomous tips" he gave her about all of those fictitious WMDs she wrote about in her "Fear, fear, fear!" campaign leading up to the illegal invasion of Iraq?) is part of the cover-up of the alleged espionage if she refuses to give up the names and therefore may become part of this espionage conspiracy. The cover-up part is a near certainty given Judge Tatels statements, and considering her as part of the original conspiracy to out a covert operative is a definite legal possibility. This no longer about keeping sources confidential to protect whistle-blowers for the good of the public. It is about a national securtiy leak and the sources of it that have hurt our country.

Yes... There is a lot of specualtion about "who may be charged with what?"... But it is becoming very clear that this is more than just a failed political smear by the bush regime... It is more likely about traitors getting charged under the Espionage Act.

Come on Miller, who is the other traitor you are protecting? Is it scooter? cheney? bolton? Powell? Maybe even bush? Perhaps all of them?

My gut instinct says it is cheney and bolton, since they already have shown a willingness to bypass the normal/legal means of getting Intel. It would also explain why the Whithouse refused to confirm or deny what Intel bolton had intercepted that upset the Senators so much in bolton's failed confirmation...

---------------------------



---------------------------

Taking the Fight to Karl!

Take it to Karl

As a Vet, and one that does NOT support the stupidity they call policy coming out of the GOP controlled governments, I have a serious problem with recent statements made by Karl Rove, who is just another notable chickenhawk that refused to back up his dreams of empire with real support for the soldiers in the United States military. Here is a great place for other Vets to voice their opinions about Karl Rove, the chickenhawk elitist:

SOUND OFF, Soldiers!

Email to:
FightingLiberals@yahoo.com

Note: You must include NAME, STREET ADDRESS, RANK and UNIT INFO (OR OTHER VERIFIABLE MILITARY INFO) for verification purposes. I will not publish or disclose that information, but I also will not publish without seeing it. This is to keep this site honest as is possible in the "internets" age. The choice to publish your thoughts is yours.

The Duke of Hurl

We have all read the ongoing fish story (it keeps getting bigger and bigger!) of Republican Randy "The Duke" Cunningham getting a nice profit of $700,000 from Mitchell J. Wade, "the defense contractor whose firm, MZM Inc., saw its number of government contracts soar in the months immediately after the home sale."

Cunningham, obviously feeling a little seasick from the accusations, has hurled noxious reasoning at the situation in claiming that he is the most ethical human on the face of the earth:

signonsandiego.com
"My whole life I've lived aboveboard," Cunningham said. "I've never even smoked a marijuana cigarette. I don't cheat. If a contractor buys me lunch and we meet a second time, I buy the lunch. My whole life has been aboveboard and so this doesn't worry me."

Sure you buy them lunch, just like I am buying your story. Now the sharks are circling in a feeding frenzy around a deal that involves the "rental" of a 42 foot yacht, "The Duke-Stir", owned by Wade.

nctimes.com
Cunningham since April 2004 has been living on Wade's yacht in Washington. The congressman said that in lieu of rent, he paid more than $8,000 in dock fees and $5,000 for upkeep on Wade's boat.

We can set aside the dock fees, because Cunningham rented space for his own boat at the Potomac River marina for years before he moved into Wade's boat. According to Cunningham's accounting, that $5,000 over the last 14 months amounts to $357 a month.

Unless we are missing something, this looks like a sweetheart deal, with Cunningham paying far less than market rent, to say nothing of the true maintenance and depreciation costs of a fancy boat.

$357 dollars per month for a luxurious yacht? "Sweetheart deal"? You have got to be kidding right? Why even bother charging at that price? Around here that will get you a cardboard box in a park to live in.

Now, I am in a pretty generous mood today, so I will be nice enough to allow Cunningham the luxury of claiming the docking fees as a "legitimate" part of his rental fee. That would make $13,000 for 14 months of living on the "Duke-Stir". Being in a generous mood I will say that is about $930 per month. ($928.57 per month, to be precise)

Considering my wife and I pay about 2 grand per month on our mortgage that $930 per month seems a little bit skewerd for a luxury yacht charter?

Heck! My friends and I are looking at paying about a grand to charter a fishing boat for a day. It's a nice fishing boat, but it is not a yacht... So my mortgage really seems WAY too generous a comparison.

I found a nice charter service running out of Annapolis, Maryland, to try and do an honest comparison of how much a yacht would typically cost to charter. I chose only the yachts on the list that were within a few feet of the 42 foot Duke-Stir's length.

Name-------------Length---7 Days---14 Days
Llyric--------------------39------2532-----4561
Ray Sea Lady-------39------2745-----4886
Shenandoah----------41------2379-----4235
Engram-----------------43------3111-----5538
Wind Walker---------43------2196-----3909
Carolina----------------43------3111-----5538

To make this comparison as fair as possible I have also chosen the least expensive yacht on this list of comparable yachts, the Wind Walker, to base some (not so) fun calculations on.

At $3909 for a 2 week charter you would have to figure that it would come in at $7818 for 28 days... But continuing to be in a generous mood I will call that the full monthly charter cost. (Man! Am I ever generous today, huh?)

That means that to charter a yacht like the "Duke-Stir" it would cost $109,452 for 14 months, at the minimum by my more-than-generous calculations. Subtract the generous $13,000 that Cunningham claims to have paid in "rent" and you are looking at what is an extremely generous gift to Cunningham from Wade of...

$96,452

Keep in mind that this generously low calculation of Wades "Duke-Stir" gift is just tip of the iceberg when compared to the titanic $700,000 house warming gift that will sink Cunningham.

Kind of makes you want to hurl when Cunningham says, "My whole life I've lived aboveboard," eh? It is time to throw this ethically challenged Republican overboard. Feed him to the circling sharks. I am certainly being more than generous in that thought than he deserves...

Update: This is an excerpt from a signonsandiego.com news story where they do an indepth evaluation of the actual value of Cunningham's home:

Cunningham previously lived in the same slip aboard a 65-foot yacht called the Kelly C. Coast Guard records list Cunningham as the owner of the Kelly C.

In 1998, when Cunningham was living aboard the Kelly C, he used his position on the defense appropriations subcommittee, which oversees the District of Columbia's budget, to earmark $3 million to refurbish the waterfront where the yacht was docked.

Shortly after Congress approved the funding, Cunningham told Copley News Service he was fulfilling his duties as a member of the subcommittee.

It was not, he said then, because the beautification project would benefit an area he calls home when he is working in the nation's capital. It was, he said, because then-Speaker Newt Gingrich "said he wants to make D.C. a shining city, and so I said, 'OK, . . . I want to clean up the waterfront' . . . not for Duke Cunningham," he added. "I haven't got a nickel invested."

As Cunningham's office tries to deal with questions about Wade's yacht, a controversy continues to swirl around the sale of the congressman's Del Mar house. Real estate professionals in San Diego have questioned the sale's circumstances, saying their review of the comparable sales do not support the price that Wade paid Cunningham in November 2003.

Go read the entire story... It has a nice pic of the luxury yacht, Duke-Stir. It also makes a mockery of Cunningham's "aboveboard" life.

Watch the GOP eat their own alive!

Don't you just love it when the GOP eats it's own children?

If you had any doubts whatsoever about whether or not the GOP is interested in any kind of bi-partisan efforts look no further than the actions of their party when it comes to bi-partisan efforts.

NFRA: Arizona Republican Assembly Votes Unanimously to Censure Senator McCain: "The resolution reads as follows:

WHEREAS, Senator John McCain is presently co-sponsoring, together with his Democrat soul-mate, Senator Teddy Kennedy, a Bill to Reform the Immigration Policy of the United States promoting amnesty for illegal aliens and for their U.S. employers, thus ignoring the opinions of his constituents expressed in numerous polls and personal pleas; and

OMG! The horror! He is doing pretty much what bush has been doing and wanted to do all along... Did you think those little cards bush wanted to give illegal immigrants would have led to anything else?

WHEREAS, Senator McCain deserted the ranks of the Republican Party and the Leadership of the U.S. Senate on the issue of limiting the filibuster of judicial nominations, some of which have been on-hold for several years, thus stalling the President’s agenda for judicial reform; and

OMG! It's unthinkable! Can you believe that he supported a bi-partisan effort to keep the fillibuster in place when most Americans agree with the use of the fillibuster? Maybe most Americans really are not happy with the GOP, huh?

WHEREAS, Senator McCain led the Democrat Party in “reforming” campaign finance, providing for a clear usurpation of 1 st Amendment free speech rights during the last 60 days of an election campaign, and leading to an orgy of spending in the 2004 elections;

OMG! The unspeakable! 60 more days of swift boat lies... Ok, maybe they are right there. lol

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Arizona Republican Assembly (ARA) officially and publicly censures Senator John McCain for dereliction of his duties and responsibilities as a representative of the citizens of Arizona; and "

Yep! The hypocritical GOP... The party that cries about a lack of bi-partisan effort from everyone else, but CENSURES their own members in a cannibalistic manner when they don't like the results of bi-partisan efforts! You are all a bunch of corrupt, lying, sleazy, pornographic, two-faced pieces of CRAP!

CRAP
(Christian Racist Armed Party)

Blue Note Bloggers: EFF: Homepage

Not sure if what you are doing is legal? Not sure if you could get harrased for excersizing your right to freedom of speech? Confusled about how all of the new laws may effect you and your Blog?

Have I got a link for you!

EFF: Homepage: "EFF Announces its New Legal Guide for Bloggers
We are pleased to release a document that informs bloggers of their legal rights. EFF's 'Legal Guide for Bloggers' is a collection of frequently asked questions (FAQs) designed to educate bloggers about their legal rights in a number of areas, including libel law, copyright law, and political advocacy.
Full story, Legal Guide for Bloggers, More on Blogging
June 13, 2005"

EFF.org has been nice enough to put together some simple straight forward answers to many questions that you may have concerning most types of Blogs.

Thanks EFF.org!

This is what you did!

Pollitical accountability, huh?

If you really want to find out who supported bush and the RNC with their money (A sure sign of who they voted for, right?) in the last election I have a link that will lead you to some of their supporters...

http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php

Fundrace Neighbor Search - ignore the lawn signs, see which candidates your neighbors really support

Click on the link, enter your zip, and presto!
A list of some local donors to political campaigns.

The list may not be complete, but it is a good starting point if you want to send a letter of reccomendation that THEY, OR SOMEONE IN THEIR FAMILY SHOULD ENLIST! I found about 8 people in my town that need to know they have yet been held accountable.

Yes, this is what you call accountability.

Atrios recently had a link a link to an interesting Blog by Driftglass (I think it is a crossposted Blog) in response to a Blog on the Downing Street Minutes (OK, so they refered to a memo, but I am fixing that mistake to be kind!)

An excellent read!

"Here's what you said,
and here's what you did.
You were wrong.
Apologize."

Well...
The mantra of this campaign could be:

"This what you did,
and this is what happened.
You were wrong.
ENLIST."

Heck... you could even request an infopack direct from the Army for them! Just fill in their name and address there, the Army will mail it to them. (Make sure you ask about 11x, 11b, 11m, etc., series work because that is Infantry)

Of course... You might want to do a letter in the name of George W. Bush! (Certainly anonomously, at the minimum) Let them know that bush needs THEM! Maybe even bush could get a letter suggesting his daughters enlist?

60,000 Iraqis 'Disappeared' into US Camps

The real news about the latest operations in Iraq?

According to Dahr Jamail it is pretty much chaos purposefully caused by the US military with the intent of causing civil war.

60,000 Iraqis 'Disappeared' into US Camps:
by Dahr Jamail, 1 June 2005
The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/JAM506B.html

Go to the article link and listen to what Dahr has to say in the telephone interview filed from Amman.

Independent journalist, Dahr Jamail, citing local humanitarian and other sources says the number of Iraqis detained by occupation forces is now well over 60,000 -far in excess of the commonly quoted official figure of 17,000.

Speaking exclusively to BreakForNews.com from Amman, Jordan on Monday night, Jamail said his sources included many doctors and the director of a humanitarian organization in Fallujah.
Broadcast - 05/30/05"

You have known from the begining that the inept bush regime has been operating this like they want complete and total chaos on the streets of Iraq... Guess what?

You were right. Sad but true...

The complete and total violation of the laws of war. Americans that support this in any way, shape, or form are so guilty of crimes against humanity. This completely disgusts me.

It's all Viagras fault!

Recent reports of Viagra's and Cialis' possible blinding side effects has been a hotbed of political conspiracy amongst a very few people with time on their hands for one handed typing.

CNN.com - FDA probes blindness among Viagra users - May 27, 2005: "FDA probes blindness among Viagra users

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health officials are examining rare reports of blindness among some men using the impotence drugs Viagra and Cialis, a disclosure that comes at a time when the drug industry can ill afford negative publicity about another class of blockbuster medicines.

The Food and Drug Administration still is investigating, but has no evidence yet that the drug is to blame, said spokeswoman Susan Cruzan.

This type of blindness is called NAION, or non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy. It can occur in men who are diabetic or have heart disease, the same conditions that can cause impotence and thus lead to Viagra use."

It is expected that Dobson will come out and blame Viagra leading to increased homosexual acts and sex with minors since the users may not be able to see where they are pointing that dangerous object.

Voting groups soon will be seeking injuctions to bar Viagara users from voting since it is already "hard enough for non-users of these powerful drugs to figure out most balloting systems when you aren't blind and horny" according to Bev Harris.

The White House has scheduled a news briefing to announce their support for any drugs that might induce more republican votes as welcome news after comparing staff notes in the Jeff Gannon room (one of the White House hallway closets) and coming to the realization that while they are just small members of the conservative party they certainly needed the support of Viagara to gain re-erection, err, re-election.

While the presidents position on viagra is often referred to as the "doggy style" there is much speculation that both Jeff Gannon and Karl Rove prefer bush on his back and legs in the air. More to come on this "HARD NEWS" story.

Yep, truth can be stranger than fiction...
BUT sometimes fiction is just stranger truth...

Blue Note Bloggers

Unlike our President that has turned a blind eye to American evidence in the Oil-for-Food scandal because of the trail of oily fingerprints, a media ignored part of the Dems minority report on the scandal isn't so kind. The Bayoil links to Enron and bush family members are revealed in the last few paragraphs of this article by Wayne Madsen. I encourage you to click on the article title and read it in full. It is a real eye opener for Americans and a black eye for bush.

Galloway tongue-lashes Coleman; committee documents show Bush political friends and family paid Oil-for-Food kickbacks to Saddam Hussein:

"Coleman and Levin wrote a February 8, 2005, letter to Rumsfeld asking about the operations of the Maritime Interdiction Force in the Gulf prior to the war. A similar letter was sent to the State Department inquiring about the illegal Khor al-Amaya oil shipments. To date, the committee has not received an answer from either Rumfeld or Rice.

Minority report documents indicate that one of the largest recipients of Bayoil Iraqi oil shipments was Enron, the bankrupt company that served as a virtual slush fund for the political campaigns of George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

At the same time Enron Chairman Kenneth ('Kenny Boy') Lay was involved in Vice President Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force secret dealings and when he was stuffing hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pockets of George W. Bush and Cheney's political campaign, he also managed to illegally stick $206, 757 into the pockets of Saddam Hussein and his cohorts.

The Iraqi Oil-for-Food scandal also involves one of the Bush children—Dorothy 'Doro' Bush Koch, sister of George W. Bush and married to Bobby Koch, reportedly a cousin in the oil industry Koch family, the owner of Koch Industries, which is also one of Bush's largest political donors. The minority committee report indicates that Koch Industries was also a major recipient of illegal Iraqi oil and a huge source of kickbacks to Saddam Hussein:

The total sum in kickbacks from George W. Bush's cousin-in-laws to Saddam's bank accounts: $1,294,620.

George Galloway was correct when he called the Coleman Committee the "mother of all smoke screens." Major political contributors and friends of Bush not only paid illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein but personally profited from sanctions-busting with Iraq. Those involved in the scheme included individuals who date back to the Reagan/Bush 41 "cluster bombs and biological and chemical weapons-for-oil" scandal of the 1980s. Galloway is correct when he stated that there is enough evidence on Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair and their neocon advisers to park them in prison cells in The Hague for an awfully long time.

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based journalist and nationally distributed columnist.

Not only does this article reveal bush family and friends connections to the Oil-for-Food scandal, but it also shows ties to members of the bush sr.-Saddam-Iran deals with rummy the dummy, Condi "Chevron" Rice, and Dick Cheney's energy price-hike task force.

Galloway was right in his statements directed at Coleman, and at this point there is only one question left to ask: "Are there any of these modern-day pseudoconservatives that were not dipping their hands in the Oil-for-Food barrel?" The trail of oily fingerprints makes a convincing case for Galloway's statements, and the hypocrisy of all of the bleating going on in the bush herd about UN Oil-for-Food scandals.

Why has nobody impeached this idiot in the White House yet? How much evidence of corruption and lying do you need? The Downing Street Memo and all of the supporting minutes of bush regime meetings with the Blair admin. prove that bush lied to the Senate to start the illegal Iraqi invasion. Now you have evidence that bush and his regime are tied in to Saddam kickbacks. The media ignores these issues. Too many Americans sit on their hands saying to themselves that they are the little guy and can't do anything about it. These are sad times in our nation when good Americans won't get off their ass and do something about it!

www.impeachbush.org

Blue Note Bloggers

Is Newsweek making fun of Scott McClellan and the White House in their latest headline "Consider the Source"? If they aren't, then I am...

MSNBC - Consider the Source

Consider the Source

The State Department says MEK is a terror group. Human Rights Watch says it’s a cult. For the White House, MEK is a source of intelligence on Iran.

By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Updated: 4:35 p.m. ET May 19, 2005

May 18 - A controversial exile movement cited by President George W. Bush as a source of information on Iran's nuclear ambitions is condemned for psychologically and physically abusing its own members in a new report by Human Rights Watch.

In a document scheduled for public release this week, Human Rights Watch alleges that the Iranian exile group known as Mujahedine Khalq (MEK) has a history of cultlike practices that include forcing members to divorce their spouses and to engage in extended self-criticism sessions.

More dramatically, the report states, former MEK members told Human Rights Watch that when they protested MEK policies or tried to leave the organization, they were arrested, in some cases violently abused and in other instances imprisoned. Two former recruits told the human-rights group that they were held in solitary confinement for years in a camp operated by MEK in Iraq under the protection of Saddam Hussein. MEK representatives in the United States and France, where MEK is headquartered, did not immediately respond to NEWSWEEK phone calls and an e-mail requesting comment.

MEK has long been controversial because of its history of violent attacks in Iran, its relationship with Saddam's regime and its background as a quasi-religious, quasi-Marxist radical resistance group founded in the era of the late Iranian shah. In 1997, the Clinton administration put MEK on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist groups. MEK's U.S. supporters, among whom at one point numbered dozens of members of Congress, charged that the Clinton administration only labeled MEK as a terrorist group as part of an ill-conceived attempt to improve relations with the ayatollahs who currently run Iran. However, the Bush administration added two alleged MEK front organizations to the State Department's terrorist list in 2003.

Despite the group's notoriety, Bush himself cited purported intelligence gathered by MEK as evidence of the Iranian regime's rapidly accelerating nuclear ambitions. At a March 16 press conference, Bush said Iran's hidden nuclear program had been discovered not because of international inspections but "because a dissident group pointed it out to the world." White House aides acknowledged later that the dissident group cited by the president is the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), one of the MEK front groups added to the State Department list two years ago.

In an appearance before a House International Relations Subcommittee a year ago, John Bolton, the controversial State Department undersecretary who Bush has nominated to become US ambassador to the United Nations, was questioned by a Congressman sympathetic to MEK about whether it was appropriate for the U.S. government to pay attention to allegations about Iran supplied by the group. Bolton said he believed that MEK "qualifies as a terrorist organization according to our criteria." But he added that he did not think the official label had "prohibited us from getting information from them. And I certainly don't have any inhibition about getting information about what's going on in Iran from whatever source we can find that we deem reliable."

However, current and former senior U.S. national-security officials, who asked not to be named because they are not supposed to talk about intelligence-gathering activities, say that all the major revelations MEK publicly claims to have made regarding nuclear advances in Iran were reported in classified form—and from other sources—to U.S. policymakers before MEK made them public. A Western diplomat familiar with the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations component that has been monitoring Iran's nuclear program, said that while the MEK has occasionally come up with accurate information about Iran's nukes, the group has come up with a similar number of other tips that have not checked out.

According to Human Rights Watch, several members of Congress, including both Republicans and Democrats, only last month attended a Washington meeting of a legal "MKO-backed" group called the National Convention for a Democratic, Secular Republic in Iran. In February, the group says, a think tank co-chaired by retired U.S. military officers called for MEK to be dropped from the State Department terrorist list and recommended that the U.S. government actively support MEK in its campaign to bring down the Iranian theocracy.

According to administration officials, some Pentagon officials want to recruit former MEK members as U.S. secret agents who would infiltrate Iran on intelligence missions. The Pentagon has emphatically insisted that it has no plans to work with the MEK or any of the group's members.

The new Human Rights Watch report offers no insight into the validity or inaccuracy of MEK information about Iranian's nuclear program but it does allege strange and sometimes brutal behavior by the group’s leaders and internal security apparatus. According to the report, MEK, formed in 1965 by three political activists, originally was an "urban guerilla group" which participated in the struggle against the shah that resulted in the 1979 Iranian revolution and produced the current theocratic regime in Tehran.

In an early schism following the revolution, the MEK and Abolhassan Bani Sadr, briefly Iran's president during the 1980 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis, split away from the main revolutionary movement led by Ayatollah Khomeini and went into exile. Later, Bani Sadr in turn split from MEK after a disagreement with Massoud Rajavi, who, with his wife, Maryam, subsequently became the movement's unchallenged leader. During the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam allowed MEK to set up several military camps in Iraq—with a headquarters encampment near Baghdad known as Camp Ashraf—and the group proceeded to conduct paramilitary operations against the Tehran regime, the largest of which was mounted—unsuccessfully—shortly after Iran agreed to a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in the Iran-Iraq War. MEK reportedly lost more than 1,000 fighters in this attack.

According to Human Rights Watch, following this 1988 military defeat, the Rajavi's leadership of MEK became increasingly authoritarian and cultlike. According to an MEK defector's memoir, Rajavi claimed to have a mystical relationship with a prophet known as Imam Zaman, who is Shia Islam's version of the long-awaited Messiah. In order to better cement their relationship with their leader, and hence ultimately their Messiah, Rajavi then instructed his followers to divorce their spouses. The group had already established a practice of "self criticism," under which members were asked to undergo their own personal "ideological revolution" by confessing personal inadequacies in cultlike confession sessions.

Paranoid about defectors and possible infiltrators from the Tehran regime's intelligence apparatus, in the l990s, according to Human Rights Watch, MEK leadership ordered a series of stringent "security clearances" in which "many" members were arrested by group organizers and interrogated and even imprisoned in special buildings inside the boundaries of MEK camps in Saddam-ruled Iraq. Human Rights Watch says the testimony of former MEK prisoners paints "a grim picture of how the organization treated its members, particularly those who held dissenting opinions or expressed an intent to leave the organization."

Witnesses contacted by Human Rights Watch reported two deaths during the course of MEK internal interrogations and other cases of lengthy imprisonment. One MEK detainee interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Mohammad Hussein Sobhani, claimed to have spent eight and a half years in solitary confinement in MEK detention facilities after he started raising questions about the leadership's policies. He said he was beaten on 11 occasions with wooden sticks and leather belts. Another former MEK member interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Farhad Javaheri-Yar, claimed to have been imprisoned in solitary confinement by the group for five years.

Other witnesses told Human Rights Watch claimed it was the practice of MEK interrogators to tie thick ropes around prisoners' necks and drag them along the ground. One witness told investigators: "Sometimes prisoners returned to the cell with extremely swollen necks—their head and neck as big as a pillow." In a statement accompanying its investigative report, Joe Stork, a Human Rights Watch expert on the Middle East, commented: "The Iranian government has a dreadful record on human rights. But it would be a mistake to promote an opposition group that is responsible for serious human rights abuses.”
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7902719/site/newsweek/

Delay and Saudis Lobby to Limit Liability on Cancer-Causing Gas Additive

Here is a trio you know you can trust to srew you over:

Saudis, BIG oil companies, and Tom Delay...

Saudis Lobby to Limit Liability on Cancer-Causing Gas Additive: "Published on Monday, May 16, 2005 by the Boston Globe
Saudis Lobby to Limit Liability on Additive
Gas agent found in N.E. water
by Susan Milligan

WASHINGTON -- A company largely owned by the Saudi government has spent more than $1.5 million since 1998 lobbying Congress to shield the chemical industry from liability for damages caused by MTBE, a potentially cancer-causing gasoline additive that has seeped into water supplies across New England, according to federal documents.

The chemical additive is widely used, particularly in the Northeast, to help gasoline burn more efficiently and meet standards set by the Clean Air Act. But when it gets into drinking water, MTBE is suspected of causing cancer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Many state and local governments -- including New Hampshire and 60 communities in Massachusetts -- have sued oil and chemical companies, claiming that they should have known the risks of using methyl tertiary butyl ether. The communities say the companies must pay to clean up groundwater that became contaminated when MTBE-treated gasoline seeped into the soil from leaking tanks.

But the industry -- helped by the House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas -- has maintained that it should not be obliged to pay for damages caused by a product used to meet a federal requirement for cleaner-burning gasoline."

Click on the link to read the rest...

When there is a lobbyists' dime on the table, you can be sure Tom Delay will pick it up and use it against Americans!

bush's GOP BOBBLE-HEAD DOLLS

What are Voinovich and the rest of the GOP members of the committee really saying? It is perfectly obvious that they are simply making a scripted and rehearsed statement about the Democrats plan to fillibuster bush's radical activist judges. Nothing more, and nothing less.

Your GOP talking point fillibuster smears just won't jive.

While Americans overwhelmingly support the minority protections provided by the fillibuster, GOP committee members are shirking their responsibilities to the people while sitting there nodding their heads like bobble-head dolls in support of bush's reckless choice of candidates. Why do you think there are committees to look at candidates before they go to the floor for a vote Voinovich? What are you payed to do? By whom were you elected to do your job? The president OR the people?

GOP Senator Breaks Ranks, Attacks Bolton - Yahoo! News:

"'Mr. Chairman,' Voinovich said, 'I am not so arrogant to think that I should impose my judgment and perspective of the U.S. position in the world community on the rest of my colleagues. We owe it to the president to give Mr. Bolton an up-or-down vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate.'

The committee, he said, should move the nomination along — but without a recommendation to approve Bolton. 'Let the Senate work its will,' he said.

At day's end, Voinovich prevailed. By a 10-8 party-line vote, the committee followed his recommendation, and now it will be up to the Senate itself to decide.

Afterward, Voinovich said he would vote against Bolton on the floor, but he declined to predict the outcome in the Senate, where Republicans outnumber Democrats 55 to 44, with one independent.

Voinovich said he plans to lobby fellow senators on the matter, saying he intends to 'share my concerns about him with my colleagues in the Senate, hopefully to convince them to not just rubber-stamp this, but rather give this thoughtful consideration.'"

Sorry there bobble-head Voinovich. What your statement really means to Americans is that you and the GOP failed, yet again, to do your job of representing the people. You shouldn't be on the committee if you are incapable of voting against an incompetent choice, and instead invoke your purposefully scripted, and feigned, discomfort with the choice of Bolton.

You, Voinovich, and the rest of the GOP bobble-head committee members, have failed to do what the people pay you to do by putting one of the worst possible candidates for the job at the UN on to the floor for a vote. Your Job was to stop the Senate from wasting it's time voting on the wrong candidates. It was pretty arrogant of you to assume that you are on the committee just to nod your head like a bobble-head doll. You owe it to Americans to do your job Voinovich. You, and the rest of the GOP bobble-heads, are all complete failures.