Iraq Good News Explosion

Lewis Black brings us the good news from Iraq:



I like the new video service The Daily Show is providing but I hope they change it to make the video feeds permanent archives of this shows high quality news and comedy format. Otherwise they will, likely, go the way of the dinosaurs in the wake of the YouTube evolution. Expiring in a month is not good enough for what the Blogs are trying to do.

Not 60... It is a 50 Vote Hurdle for Withdrawal Timetable

BooMan takes a look at a common misperception concerning current legislation on the timetable for withdrawl:

THE DUDE: Yeah, my thinking about the case, man, it had become uptight.

All the time I have been thinking about this supplemental bill for funding the war in Iraq I have been working on the assumption that the Senate would need 60 votes to pass the legislation. I thought, briefly, that Reid could invoke reconcilation because the bill would affect the budget, but that only pertains to regular budget legislation, not supplemental funding. Nonetheless, it looks like I've had my head up my ass.

Proponents of the troop withdrawal deadline face a lower hurdle than in earlier Senate votes. Earlier efforts to win approval for a withdrawal timetable needed 60 votes to overcome a filibuster; this time, opponents will be trying to strip a withdrawal plan that's already in legislation. That means it will require a simple 50-vote majority to keep it in.

So, okay, I'm still learning Senate procedure.

WALTER: Dude, nothing is fucked. Come on. You're being very unDude.

This changes things substantially. There was literally no chance that the House version would pass the Senate if it required 60 votes.

But at 50 votes... The hurdles don't seem quite so insurmountable, eh?

It even renders Joe neocon Lieberman's vote and positions as a moot point. There will be enough moderate Republicans that will, likely, make the 50 vote mark an easy one to surpass in this political climate. Ya gotta love that! heh Poor ol' obsolete Joe...

Daily Show: Viacom vs YouTube

I don't know how well this Comedy Central embed works...



Just testing it out here. I won't know if there are comercials or anything like that until I post this and check it out myself.(update: Nope! No commercials, YET, and the video quality is A1 primo)

The BIG problem with these videos?

They expire in a month.

How are we supposed to keep a record of The Daily Show's comedic and politically insiteful genius if it expires? And does their genius expire with this link?

Don't Tread on the 9-11 Dead

Via Nicole Belle at Crooks & Liars:

Kansas City Star: (h/t Sisyphus Shrugged)

The pulverized remains of bodies from the World Trade Center disaster site were used by city workers to fill ruts and potholes, a city contractor says in a sworn affidavit filed Friday in Manhattan Federal Court.

Eric Beck says debris powders - known as fines - were put in a pothole-fill mixture by crews at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, N.Y., where more than 1.65 million tons of World Trade Center debris were deposited after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"I observed the New York City Department of Sanitation taking these fines from the conveyor belts of our machines, loading it onto tractors and using it to pave roads and fill in potholes, dips and ruts," Eric Beck said.

Beck was the senior supervisor for Taylor Recycling, a private contractor hired to sift through debris trucked to Fresh Kills after the trade center attacks. Before the arrival of Taylor's equipment at Fresh Kills in October 2001, the debris was sifted manually by workers using rakes and shovels.

Beck's affidavit was filed by lawyers for the families of Sept. 11 victims who are suing the city in hopes of creating a formal burial place for debris that they say contains human remains.

"It's devastating," Norman Siegel, an attorney representing the families, said of Beck's statement. "When the 9/11 families found about this, they were wiped out."

No wonder the FDNY wasn't too happy with Giuliani. What a way to honor our fallen heroes.

WTF were they thinking?

Have they no decency?

Kucinich: IMPEACH? Yes or No

Watch it, think about it, and respond to it.





Impeach for Peace wants you to tell him what you think:

Respond to this video question from Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) via comments, e-mails, letters and most importantly a DIY Impeachment petition of memorial.

Call Rep. Dennis Kucinich at 202-225-5871 or E-MAIL REP. KUCINICH.

We report... You decide. No spin on this one.

UPDATE:
Chuck Hagel talks impeachment via Saramerica:

“Any president who says, I don’t care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don’t care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed — if a president really believes that, then there are — what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that,” said Sen Chuck Hagel R - Nebraska.

Oooh! Tell me more Chuckie!! I love it when Senators actually speak as if they have (gasp) balls. Or a scrotum, to use the word a certain subsector of librarians loves to hate.

"He’s not accountable anymore, which isn’t totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don’t know. It depends on how this goes,” Hagel says in an interview in the April edition of Esquire magazine.

A far-right-wingnut (and make no mistake on this, he is a wingnuton ALMOST every other issue) talking impeachment.

amnesty day marches on

As Blogtopias' (Y! YCTP!) one and only skippy carries the banner forward with his John Swift inspired Blog amnesty day:

amnesty day marches on:

"amnesty day marches on
one bitchin' bottom line of our blog bump business from the big box blogs' blogrolls brou-ha-ha, if we may be alliterative, is all the new cyber-friends we have made thanks to our subsequent whining about the whole fiasco.

we have not only found a literal plethora of wider scopes and broader swaths in analysis, ideas and opinions, we've made long-lasting acquaintenances with a variety of interesting thinkers and writers"

I want to encourage everyone in the left to take a few minutes every week visiting Blogrolls on other people's Blogs... You never know what gems you might find just by clicking around aimlessly from Blog to Blog. :)

Minutemen Violence Gets Exposure in Court

Battles for control. Defamation of character. Trashing peoples' personal belongings. Stolen money. Beating on women.



The Minutemen Project, founded by ctblogger's favorite Danbury no-show and noted bigot Jim Gilchrist, has it it all and is getting exsposed for what it really is as the battle over control of this freakshow of "armed vigelantes" run amok starts to heat up in the public domain and, more importantly, in the courtrooms.

Man Eegee - Latino Político:

"I can't help but smile. There's a lot going on with the vigilantes this week. Their multi-faceted leadership spat is being battled out in the courts, along with some concrete action by law enforcement to ferret out the ways these nativist movements are fertile ground for hate crimes and human rights violations.

San Diego Police served the leader of the San Diego Minutemen, Jeff Schwilk, and another prominent member of the group with search warrants on Wednesday. The warrants were granted in connection with vandalism at a Rancho Penasquitos migrant camp. KPBS reporter Amy Isackson has details.

Last January, six people sliced up migrant workers’ belongings in the camps. Police say the vandals cut up blankets, clothes and even workers' shoes.

It's important to understand the context of this investigation. The Minutemen are actually two separate groups that underwent a schism between founder Jim Gilchrist and prominent leader Chris Simcox. This formed the Minutemen Project and Minutemen Civil Defense Corps."

Click on for more on this as Man Eegee fills out the rest of this story.

Major Change at MLN: "The torch; be yours to hold it high."

Branford Boy at MLN announces a passing of the torch:

My Left Nutmeg :: Where Connecticut Dems Scratch That Progressive Itch:

"From the get-go, MyLeftNutmeg was envisioned as a community site, not a vehicle for any one person. However, the real world demands that every blog must have an 'owner,' someone who controls the domain registration, pays the hosting bills, responds to media inquiries, and so forth. Since August 2005 that person has been me.

But no more. I am moving on to other things and have passed the baton, as it were, to younger, more capable hands. The new 'owner' of My Left Nutmeg is ctblogger of ConnecticutBLOG fame."

Thanks for what you have helped to do in and for Connecticut and good luck to you, Branny, and a little note to ctblogger:

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

These simple words that spurred champions on:

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.

Ct Bob takes a hit From CNN

Kudos to Ct Bob on making CNN's hit list for his past efforts:

"Gee, they make a big deal about the fact that I picked up a lousy 1,000 hits, and the other one got like 2 million. Oh, well."

Go check out some of the things that rebel is noted for.

Bilmon, Elizabeth Edwards, and Doing Something About It

Renee over at HowardEmpowerd digs up a nice litlle nugget from Billmon explaining what is happening to supposed "A-list Bloggers":

I wanted to make sure I pointed out this essay by Nonpartisan at My Left Wing. It, in turn, refers to an op-ed piece written by former ("A-list") blogger Billmon way back in September of 2004. It ends with this...

To be sure, there are still plenty of bloggers out there putting the 1st Amendment through its paces, their only compensation the satisfaction of speaking the truth to power. But it’s going to become more difficult for those voices to reach a broad audience. If the mainstream media are true to past form, they will treat the A-list blogs — commercialized, domesticated — as if they are the entire blogosphere, while studiously ignoring the more eccentric, subversive currents swirling deeper down. Not the most glorious ending for a would-be revolution, but also not a surprising one. Bloggers aren’t the first, and won’t be the last, rebellious critics to try to storm the castle, only to be invited to come inside and make themselves at home.

Billmon was a real A-list Blogger... He saw it coming, and spelled it out like very few Bloggers ever could. No matter what the subject was. Some "other" A-list wannabe Bloggers are living the commercialized and domesticated dream now.

Good for them.

They don't represent my "more eccentric, subversive" views, nor what the bulk of the Blogtopia (y! skippy ctp!) is really about. They can continue to try and corner the market on that all they want, and to the exclusion of those that will continue to work for REAL changes.

But that isn't what I wanted to talk about. I pointed to that post by Renee because of Elizabeth Edwards recent announcements:

elizabeth edwards said she was "incredibly optimistic" and said her expectations about the future were unchanged.

We all wish her, and her family well on her road to recovery. And while her post has nothing to do with Elizabeth Edwards directly, a comment in Renee's diary does in a roundabout way.

The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle).

This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors /advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammogram in exchange for advertising.

Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/

A free Mamogram for someone that may need one. I rarely ever ask for anyone to pay anything to anyone on this website. I have no adds here to make money. I am no A-list Blogger (by a longshot... heh) and you should note that all I do is toil away on a regular basis trying to make a difference in this town, state and country. Not for money, not for noterioty, and Lord knows not for "access to the powers that be.

All I am asking you to do here is to click a couple of times with your ever-clicking-mouse-finger to make a difference, yourselves, for a stranger. Maybe even for someone you do know? No money, no buying anything from anyone. Just a few clicks. If you won't do it for me: Do it for Elizabeth Edwards and every other woman that has had to deal with Breast cancer.

Much like Elizabeth Edwards, I think we should all remain "incredibly optimistic" and and our expectations about the future should remain unchanged. Whether we are talking about storming the castle, speaking truth to power, toiling away and doing the little things that make a difference, or trying to cure cancers in our society.

It is the little things that we all do everyday that add up to the big changes in the world around us. Most of these things won't make you rich or powerful, but they might make you feel a little better about yourselves, at the end of the day, thinking you might have made a difference.

And it does, all of it, make a difference.

Oregon: Portland Police Gone Wild

Janet from Peace Gone Wild:

Portland, my home, was terrorized Sunday several times. Not by foreign "terrorists". Not by drugged out hippies.

But by the police force.

snip

An eye witness account speaks to the "peacekeepers":

"Towards the end of the march a group marched towards Burnside and were stopped infront of Carl Greve's by the police. There was massive use of pepper spray initially. However, once things had calmed down and the police were in their alignments it continued to happen. A woman was standing 4 feet away from the police line of for officers chanting "This is what a police state looks like" she was not flipping the police the finger and she was not using any profanity. She was not asked to move, and she never made any attempt to get closer to the police line. She made no gesture of violence, or of any other kind. She just stood there chanting "This is what a police state looks like" when an officer randomly sprayed pepper spray in her face. After the prick police assholes payed out $300,000 for excessive pepper spray force for another protest and promised it wouldn't happen again, guess what, IT DID. To the organizers of the protest YOU CAN NOT TRUST THE POLICE. They lie, they manipulate, and deceit is one of their main character traits. I keep hearing from the organizers of these marches that they are cooperating with the police, but this cooperation is still harming the people protesting. This woman was on the sidewalk, chanting, standing still, she was acting in a non violent fashion, and it didn't matter. You wore t-shirts saying peacekeeper, you failed to do so, and a citizen who was abiding by the law and excising her constitutinal rights had to pay the price."

She has some Videos and a bunch of pictures up from the Portland peace march. Here is one of the YouTubes she has up on march:





Go on and check out the rest of her story, pics, and videos on what happened...

Virtual Trip to Vegas... Good for Your HEALTHcare

Some Emails are well worth Passing on:

Dear Stephen,

We hope you're ready for tomorrow's presidential candidates forum on health care. We're making last minute arrangements now and excitement is building.

Sign up for an email reminder and we'll let you know when the event's about to start.

Saturday, March 24, 2007
12:15 p.m. EST (9:15 a.m. PST)

If you'd like to watch the live webcast and submit a question online, visit ThinkProgress.org tomorrow at 12:00 pm EST (9:00 am PST).

Here's how it will work:

1. During the forum, ThinkProgress.org will offer you the chance to submit questions to the candidates in real time.

2. Submissions will be reviewed immediately by a panel of health care experts who will select the best entries.

3. Karen Tumulty, the forum's moderator, could ask your question live on the air!

The webcast and live blogging start promptly at 12:15 pm EST (9:15 am PST). Don't forget to sign up for a reminder!

Thanks and enjoy the forum,

Faiz Shakir
Research Director, ThinkProgress.org
Center for American Progress Action Fund

Sounds like a great opportunity to flood the candidates with demands for TRUE Universal Healthcare... You know? The single payer kind that they never seem to be talking about when they abuse the words "Universal Healthcare".

Enough with "reforming" the broken "for profit" system. We need single payer, government funded, true Universal Healthcare.

As a side note: Thinkprogress said in a seperate Email that they invited all of the Preidential candidates to participate in this...

The Progress Report is traveling to Las Vegas today to participate in Saturday's New Leadership on Health Care presidential forum, featuring Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Sen. John Edwards (D-NC), Sen. Mike Gravel (D-AK), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), and Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM). (All the presidential candidates were invited to attend.) The Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are co-hosting the forum. Karen Tumulty, National Political Correspondent for Time magazine, will moderate the forum and ask the candidates about their plans to address our nation's health care crisis. If you happen to be in Las Vegas this weekend and would like to attend the presidential forum in person, we have some seats for you. RSVP here.

I wonder if that invitation included the republican neocon-wet-set? heh

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

Via Lukery:

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak:

"Today is the final day of our Let Sibel Edmonds Speak campaign where we have been asking people to call Henry Waxman's office (202-225-3976, Capitol switchboard 800-828-0498) to demand *public* hearings into the case of former FBI translator and whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds.

Sibel guarantees that if we have public hearings, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Marc Grossman, and Dennis Hastert will go to prison for a long time. If any of that appeals to you, for any reason, call Waxman today. Please."

Check out his site and maybe, JUST MAYBE, you'll want to give Waxman a call?

It would put a nice dent in the neocon agenda...

Ken Krayeske's Day in Court UPDATE: Kenny is FREE!

I know this story has grown quite a bit since this was originally posted... But today is the day that Ken Krayeske (and freedom of speech, political association, THE LIST, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, and other privacy issues) gets a day in court.

The Big Book on Krayeske

(h/t to the CTnewsjunkie that broke all of this first and x-posted at Drinking Liberally in NM)

OK. He has worked on the Green party campaign for the Governor, the Lamont campaign for Senate, and does a lot of Blogging and work as an indie Journalist. Apparently he is perceived as a serious enough threat to our paranoid Governor Jodi Rell that he was arrested at her innaugural prade.

Activist Arrested At Inauguration Parade:

"HARTFORD, Conn. -- Gov. M. Jodi Rell's security detail only watched when a woman left the sidewalk and quickly walked toward Rell during the inaugural parade Wednesday. The woman shook Rell's hand and melted into the crowd.

But a slightly built man who jumped off a mountain bike and ran into the parade route ahead of Rell was intercepted by a state trooper and arrested by a Hartford police officer.

One difference in the way the two incursions were handled: A state police intelligence unit had previously identified the man, Ken Krayeske, as a political activist and potential threat.

A potential threat? What was so threatening about Krayeske that the Trooper had to step in and grab him? And why, and how, had they identified him?(MUCH more below)

Hartford Det. Jeff Antuna wrote in his report that Krayeske hp/2007/01/0drew his attention by rapidly riding up to the parade route near Bushnell Park, dumping his bike and running to a position in front of Rell.

"I immediately recognized the accused as Kenneth Krayeske from the photograph provided by the state police," Antuna wrote.

A state police detective intercepted Krayeske. When Antuna grabbed his arm, police said, Krayeske pulled away.

Photograph provided by State Police? Huh??? According to the Hartford police officers report the State had given the local Hartford police photographs of activists that might be considered threats to "Her Excellency" Governor Jodi Rell.

His lawyer says Krayeske apparently came to the attention of state police by heckling Rell during a campaign stop in Glastonbury last year over her refusal to debate his candidate, Clifford Thornton.

"Are there little circles of law-enforcement officers who have lists of who is naughty and who is nice?" asked Krayeske's lawyer, Norm Pattis. "What is the criteria for inclusion?"

Speaking on behalf of the state police, Lt. J. Paul Vance had nothing to say about how Kreyeske came to the State Police intelligence unit's OR the Connecticut Intelligence Centers attention. He did admit that these unit's do share information and intelligence. Speaking on behalf of Nutmeggers... I knew they shared information, but I had no clue so many agencies were watching all of us?

As for the list:

Nancy Mulroy, a Hartford police spokeswoman, played down the list, saying Krayeske was arrested for his actions.

Pay no attention to the McCarthy inspired list! Just move along to the dangerous actions of Krayeske... OK, Let's do that for the moment. Situation, according to the Hartford police:

"List or no list, if you rush off a bike and start charging toward the governor during a processional parade, you are going to be arrested," Mulroy said. "In this day and age, when security is a very serious matter, you cannot expect to act like that and not have to face the consequences. Our job was to protect the governor, and we took it seriously."

Whoa! He was charging at our Governor? This seems to match the arrest report filed by the officer on the scene dug up and posted at The Courant website. (h/t to Journalist, radio host, and Blogger Colin McEnroe)

According to The Courant article there was a witness to back up the police version of the arrest. Eliot Streim:

Streim, a Hartford lawyer who was watching the parade with a colleague, said police did not intercept Krayeske as he ran into the parade route. On the contrary, Krayeske photographed the governor without incident and was detained by police only after Rell had passed by, Streim said.

Well? He did back them up against the wall. Straim's version seems to leave a lot of doubt about the police version of the arrest.

OK... Someone is lying, and the only one I can see with nothing to gain or lose here is the Lawyer/witness. Can Krayeske shed any light on what he was doing at the parade? Take a look:

Photo by Ken Krayeske (photo h/t ct bob)

He was taking pictures! That was a photo taken by Krayeske shortly before he was arrested. Does that look like a photo that someone charging at Granny Paranoia might be able to take? Half of my pictures come out blurry even when I am standing as still as I can. That is a damned good picture considering the subject. (FYI: Krayeske is having a caption contest for the photo to poke fun at inauguRellgate, and celebrate the glorious circumstances of his arrest and 13 hours in jail)

It is bad enough that this guy got arrested for taking pictures, but what is a really scary thought is that Connecticut now has a "LIST" of potential dangegerously threatening people that seems to include peaceful activists like Bloggers, Journalists, campaign volunteers, and obviously photographers.

So now we have a "List", an apparently ginned up arrest, spying on peaceful political activists... And yes he is your typical peaceful activist. Ctnewsjunkie fills in some of Kreyeske's info:

Krayeske was working as a freelance photojournalist at the time of the arrest Wednesday. He also runs a Web site The 40 Year Plan. He was previously arrested in 2003 for demonstrating against the war. In 2004 Krayeske worked on Ralph Nader's presidential campaign and in 2005 he traveled to Syria to report on the war. He has also contributed stories and photos to ctnewsjunkie.com

Atalbot at MLN can give you a little more background on Krayeske.

Now to the last little part in this story: What helped to get all of Connectucut's various secret and not so secret policing efforts and attention and put him on the "LIST". According to Maura at MLN:

Paz makes note in his article of this comment that Ken wrote at Connecticut Local Politics:

Whose going to protest the inaugural ball Jan. 3 with me? No need to make nice after watching this documentary about CJTS

Paz hasn't yet connected this comment to the aspect of this whole outrage that I think is nearly as interesting as the revelation that CTIC has a list of political activists deemed troublesome to Rell -- the fact that the bond for Krayeske was set at the absurdly high level of $75,000.

Since Ken couldn't make this bond, he was kept in lockup all afternoon and night...and then mysteriously sprung without having to make bond at all, simply on promise to appear, at 1:00 AM.

Rell's inaugural ball, which Ken commented at CLP that he'd like to protest, ended at 1:00 AM.

Krayeske is a freelance writer and photographer and his only intention was to photograph "Her Excellency" Governor Jodi Rell. They arrested him on ginned up charges, and held him until after that Rell's ball ended. You have seen most of the the evidence. Do I raelly need to tell you what to make of this?

The Day has a bit more on this from Krayeske's lawyer today:

Pattis called the police department's version "ridiculous," accusing them of "lying and making it up as they go along."

Equally important, he said, is the question of the surveillance and whether Krayeske and other political activists and freelance journalists are being investigated and monitored.

The number of other people on the list and their identities were not available Friday.

"It's not a crime in this country to be a political activist, at least not yet," Pattis said. "It's not apparent that Mr. Krayeske broke any law, it's not apparent that he did anything that any of the rest of us are not allowed to do. This is sort of, police state run riot."

A spokesman for the governor's office declined to comment Friday.

CT police and not so secret police (not secret anymore) have stepped in it big time, and all for the benefit of our paranoid GOP Governor Jodi Rell. They have crossed way over the line of what their stated purposes are. Just check Colin McEnroe's site to see the proof of that:

I am trying to stay with this story as I do the show. I now have the police report on the arrest of Ken Krayeske. The information about him seems to have come, at least partly, from the Connecticut Intelligence Center, a creature of Homeland Security.

Here is its stated purpose. I fail to see how it includes monitoring members of the Green Party:

* Connecticut Intelligence Center

The DEMHS Statewide Anti-Terrorism Task Force is now co-located with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, in an effort to streamline investigations and response to terrorism-related allegations and incidents. A key component of this investigative and law enforcement asset created in 2005 is the Connecticut Intelligence Center ("CTIC"), a multi-agency collaborative operation that includes representatives of the FBI, DEMHS, Connecticut State Police, municipal law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Coast Guard.

CTIC collects, analyzes and disseminates both criminal and terrorism related intelligence to all law enforcement agencies in Connecticut. Serving as a statewide central resource to affect intelligence sharing, CTIC also acts to identify emerging threats and trends. CTIC produces a number of intelligence reports and bulletins, including the CTIC Weekly Briefing and has conducted three seminars for state and local law enforcement professionals. The seminars have helped increase the knowledge of local law enforcement professionals in dealing with terrorist prevention and incidents.

And like the typical GOP low-life she personifies Jodi Rell will likely do nothing and say nothing about this until everyone dogpiles on her. She would prefer to just try and sweep it under the rug. What she didn't count on was that not only has the Blogosphere latched on to this, BUT the MSM has grabbed this one early and has done a lot of digging as well.

Rep. Mike Lawlor (D-East Haven) and CO-Chair of the Judiciary Committee had this to say (Courtesy of Spazeboy.net) at a Capitol briefing:
Part 1 (Length 09:00):




Lawlor is correct:

"This type of conduct, which I guess you could categorize as "bushist" for a want of a better expression in this day and age will not be tolerated in this state."

Part 2 (Length (09:54):

"That, to me, reeks of secret police..."

Part 3 (Length (08:50):

"This is clearly an attempt to intimidate a journalist"..."This is the result of the emergence Bloggers on the political scene"..."This not traditional journalism, its different, slightly more in your face, and appropriately so, because a lot of people can't get away with what they used to in the good old days, not the politicians, not the police, and a lot of other people, and I think this is healthy for the process."..."I think this motivated more by politics than law enforcement"

"It begs the question: "Who else is on that list?"" And also a reference to this snippet from a post as supposed reasoning for Krayeske's outrageous treatment:

I scoped the area because I hoped to snap some photos of Rell during the inaug. I want file shots so when I report on her governance, I can have fresh images for the loyal viewing audience. Unfortunately, according to Mr. Harris, I won't have much access:

Shocking! He was planning to take Photographs!

Part 4 (Length 09:12):

Q: "Are you going to ask for copies of thet list and are you going to make it public?"

A: "Absolutely. We will get to the bottom of this and we will do it publicly."

Also, there is a reference to The letter (Via ctblogger) from Jodi Rell that is about a dollar short and a few days too late for me to believe that she is doing anything but spinning:

Colin McEnroe just posted this on his blog. Seems like the events surrounding the arrest of Ken Krayeske is going to turn into a full-scale investigation. McEnroe just posted this letter Gov. Rell sent to

Department of Public Safety Commissioner Leonard Boyle.

January 8, 2007

Commissioner Leonard Boyle

Department of Public Safety

1111 Country Club Road
Middletown, Connecticut 06457

Dear Commissioner Boyle:

I am writing with regard to the incident last week involving Kenneth Krayeske which led to his arrest by the Hartford Police Department.

I recognize that security assessments are by necessity comprehensive, and I understand that our State and local law enforcement agencies must work together and share information. Law enforcement agencies also have the difficult job of assessing the information they receive. Nonetheless, I was disturbed to read in media reports allegations regarding the existence of a “list� of individuals.

It is my expectation that all State Police information is maintained in strict compliance with federal law. In this environment of heightened security, the use of information must be balanced with the individual rights of our citizens. In providing security and protection, we cannot permit the rights of individuals to be trampled.

The parade was a public event, and moreover an event at which public participation was invited. People also have a right to protest â€" and that right is one of the fundamental freedoms of our state and nation.

Most importantly, security procedures must be uniform and consistent in order to safeguard both the people and places of Connecticut as well as our basic freedoms.

Accordingly, I am requesting that you review the circumstances of this incident. Specifically, I would like to know how this individual came to the attention of State Police and the circumstances under which his name and photo were provided to the Hartford Police Department.

In addition, I am requesting that you evaluate existing procedures to ensure that information gathered by the State Police is reliable and reported to other law enforcement agencies in a responsible manner.

Sincerely,

M Jodi Rell

GOVERNOR

The events surrounding freelance journalist Ken Krayeske's arrest is getting stranger by the second as the outrage mounts.

The letter came out shortly before the planned press conference by Lawlor. Can you get any more "spin reactionary" than that?

As you can see... Lawlor and the other members of the press conference are truly shocked about this and are taking this all very seriously as far as it being a serious abuse of Krayeske's rights and the rights of any other "innocent victims" of the list.

I'll close this out with a humoorous interview by Ct Bob (with Maura) of Krayeske at the Branford BRRRoadwater "polar bear swim":
(length 05:18)

You don't know who I am BUT you are welcome! :) There are many people that will do what we can to support you.

There is an appeal for funds to help cover his legal costs if you want to help a fellow Blogger/Activist/Journalist/Photographer/Citizen!

There is an appeal for funds to help cover his legal costs if you want to help a fellow Blogger/Activist/Journalist/Photographer/Citizen!

Damn!! We were both taken in!

Spazeboy offers an updated link to donate:

Update II: This one's major. It turns out that Krayeske's application for a grant from the SPJ's Legal Defense Fund was published without his knowledge or consent. I feel like a rube for re-posting an excerpt, but I did so only because I know that many of us are interested in contributing toward the payment of his legal bills. All that's left of this post is the info below, which is the only legit way to contribute to Ken Krayeske's legal defense.

Update: Ken Krayeske posted a link to his site in the comments, which now has info on the legal defense fund that's been set up for him by his attorney Norman Pattis:

if you wish to promote liberty, protect freedom of speech and stop false arrests of journalists and/or political activists, please help me out. You can make out checks to "Law Offices of Norman A. Pattis," and in the memo line write "Ken Krayeske Legal Defense Fund." Send the checks to

Ken Krayeske Legal Defense Fund
c/o Law Offices of Norman Pattis
649 Amity Road
Bethany, CT 06524

I repeat that this is the one and only certified way to contribute to my legal defense at this point and time. Thank you all in advance for your assistance, and I am humbled by the amount of emotional support I have received to this point.

I am glad I checked his site before I went out!

[UPDATE]
Via Maura at MLN:

This morning brought good news for Ken Krayeske, reports Jon Lender at the Courant:

Prosecutors at first offered only to nolle the charges of breach of peace and interfering with police -- that is, to not prosecute them but reserve the right to reopen the case for about a year -- on the grounds that Hartford police were in a "no-win" situation because they would have been strongly criticized if something happened to Rell.

But Krayeske's lawyer, Norman Pattis, pushed for an outright dismissal, saying it was Krayeske who was in the "no-win" situation because he was a nonviolent citizen exercising his First Amendment right by taking pictures of Rell for his website, www.the40yearplan.com.

[...]

Prosecutors then agreed to the dismissal, which did not involve any waiving by Krayeske of his right to bring a wrongful arrest suit in federal court.

Norm Pattis did a tremendous job with this case. Congratulations, Ken!

Scooter & Cheney: "Pardon me? Am I loony or what?"

The local public has spoken in a resounding chorus of "HELL NO!"

Should President Bush pardon "Scooter" Libby?
	No	66.34 % (808)
	Yes	33.66 % (410)
Total votes: 1218

It is, very likely, only the minority of loony far-right-wingnuts that still support incompetent-extraordinaire bush that would want their neocon traitor given the IOKIYAR treatment.

As for the rest of the USA? They agree with most of us locals...

Americans 3-to-1 Against a Libby Pardon

As you may know, a jury found Libby guilty on four out of five criminal counts. Do you think George W. Bush should or should not issue a presidential pardon for Lewis "Scooter" Libby?

Yes, should 21%

No, should not 67%

No opinion 12%

There is just no wiggle-room left for right-wing-nuttyness on this issue. If you lie, mislead, obfuscate, etc., and all in an effort to throw sand in the eyes of the umpire, err, prosecutor, you go to jail.

About that cloud over cheney? You know? The one that Fitzgerald was talking about when he discussed why he nailed Scooter. I hear he has suddenly taken ill... I wonder if there will be a resignation in cheney's near future?

"What is wrong with Dick Cheney?" asks Michelle Cottle in the inaugural issue of the newly relaunched New Republic. She then spends the next 2,000 words marshaling evidence suggesting that his cardiac disease has left him demented and mentally disordered.

The charming part of this not-to-be-missed article (titled "Heart of Darkness," no less) is that it is framed as an exercise in compassion. Since she knows that the only way for her New Republic readers to understand Cheney is that he is evil--"next time you see Cheney behaving oddly, don't automatically assume that he's a bad man," she advises--surely the generous thing for a liberal to do is write him off as simply nuts. In the wonderland of liberalism, Cottle is trying to make the case for Cheney by offering him the insanity defense.

She doesn't seem to understand that showing how circulatory problems can affect the brain proves nothing unless you first show the existence of a psychiatric disorder. Yet Cottle offers nothing in Cheney's presenting symptoms or behavior to justify a psychiatric diagnosis of any kind, let alone dementia.

What behavior does she cite as evidence of Cheney's looniness?

Those loony republicans. They just can't seem to recognize the symptoms of GUILT... "I am too sick from scooterliedus fitzmas to finish out my term..."

Yup... Or what.

Life's like that...

Sorry for the lack of posts... We had to get to Tennessee in a hurry for a funeral and I didn't really have time to follow anything political in the last ten days anyways.

We got back last night, tired, and I think a couple of us even picked up a bug while down there. The worst week an'a'half we have had in a long while for our family. :(

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 fallguy 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.

Ths Single Payer Healthcare Solution

CT Blue had a diary up on healthcare the other day in which I left this comment:

I am registered for my VA benefits BUT I don't use them because I am one of the few with a better plan (through my wife's job). I can still safely say that the Canadian system is far better than the private insurance we, personally, have here.

Why? Because we are not rich.

I have lived under both healthcare systems (Canadian and US), and I can't for the life of me figure out how you have let the insurance industry and government treat Americans this way?

America can and should do better.

I could sit here and explain all of the ways the Canadian system is better but that would be a waste of time since there are still those of you that have never lived under both systems and I, too often, hear the mantra of the American system is the best. As CT Blue put it:

"a peculiarly American disease: the belief that America is number one in everything because -well, just because. We are the richest, we have more freedom, we have the best healthcare, we have the best athletes, we have the best of everything. It doesn't matter that most of it's not true, it's an article of faith so we don't question it."

I question it from experience. American healthcare #1? It isn't. It is actually a horrible system of healthcare, especially considering the amount of money we pay for this piss-poor service, and it is not even near the top ten in the world. If you cannot figure this out just from the fact that Americans go to Canada to buy their drugs, and are going to Mexico to seek treatments, then you are completely blind to the failures of the American system.

We pay more money for our healthcare than any other nation in the world, and this is what it gets us:

Rank       Country

1         France
2         Italy
3         San Marino
4         Andorra
5         Malta
6         Singapore
7         Spain
8         Oman
9         Austria
10        Japan
11        Norway
12        Portugal
13        Monaco
14        Greece
15        Iceland
16        Luxembourg
17        Netherlands
18        United  Kingdom
19        Ireland
20        Switzerland
21        Belgium
22        Colombia
23        Sweden
24        Cyprus
25        Germany
26        Saudi Arabia
27        United  Arab  Emirates
28        Israel
29        Morocco
30        Canada
31        Finland
32        Australia
33        Chile
34        Denmark
35        Dominica
36        Costa Rica
37        United  States  of  America
38        Slovenia
39        Cuba
40        Brunei
41        New Zealand
42        Bahrain
43        Croatia
44        Qatar
45        Kuwait

#37???

Right down around some South American, Dictatorship, and Middle Eastern countries. The richest nation in the world and we are #37 in providing healthcare to our citizens.

Are you proud?

Just another sign that the "The Great Republican Experiment" has failed completely in their drive to privatize, and all it has done is enrich the insurance companies at our healths' expense. And, just like the war in Iraq, some faux patriotic mantra or slapping a flag or a bumprsticker somewhere isn't going to help a bit.

The Black Commentator has been running a great series on healthcare, and today their topic is "Pull the Plug on the Private Healthcare Industry". Here is some unusually large excerpts from this piece but I encourage you to read the entire series at The Black Commentator:

Single Payer Healthcare Part 13

Every year since 1994, the year in which the Clinton Administration failed to reform the health system in the United States (leaving in place the private health insurance industry dominating the healthcare-delivery system), actual healthcare coverage for people in the United States has continued to shrink. Real costs for private health insurance companies and their profits have skyrocketed. Higher co-pays, premiums and deductibles for the Medicare program have been mandated by the prerogatives of the private health insurance industry.

This is the sleazy side of the healthcare crisis in the United States: private health insurance companies charge more for less coverage and benefit shamelessly from the sheer desperation of people who have no other options. In addition, their inordinate impact on the healthcare system in the United States has prevented the publicly funded healthcare system from fulfilling its potential.

As a result of the dominance of the private health insurance industry, people become impoverished, making some eligible for the deficient Medicaid program, or they live with the extreme anxiety of healthcare insecurity until some become old enough or disabled enough to qualify for the deficient Medicare program, and/or they suffer and they die prematurely from no healthcare at all. Remember, 47 million remain uninsured and another 60 million remain anxiously underinsured. These horrible numbers are increasing every year.

snip

The American people can no longer bear this reality. Nearly 70% of the US citizens want a federally financed (single-payer) national healthcare system. The overwhelming majority of physicians are also demanding the single-payer solution to the healthcare crisis in this country. An impressive number of hospital CEOs want it. They are all demanding that the private health insurance industry must no longer have a choke hold on the healthcare system in the United States.

But where are the presidential candidates? With the exception of Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), all want to keep the private health insurance industry in business keeping people sick, economically desperate, and profiting off the people’s misery. The Republican Party candidates are actively attempting to expand the role of the private health insurance industry. What are Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards doing?

Well, none of them is advocating single-payer because it challenges the prerogatives of corporate America, a major source of their campaign contributions. When Clinton, Obama, and Edwards speak of the single-payer solution not being politically feasible, they are not referring to the democratic will of the American people. We have spoken through the polls and in the 2006 elections. They should listen and take action. Rather, they are actually talking only about their political careers and their need to remain in the good graces of their financial backers. Wherever we encounter these and other presidential candidates, through banners and letters and phone calls to their headquarters, we need to make perfectly clear to each of them that we want a single payer national healthcare system.

snip

Not only are solid majorities in support of single-payer and against the criminal war in Iraq, the American people now understand the relationship between the anti-war movement and the single-payer national healthcare movement. As a result, the political energy of the people is qualitatively higher than it has ever been since ordinary people dismantled Jim Crow segregation and ended the criminal Viet Nam war.

History is now on our side. But, we can not rest. You can help. Demand that Congress now hold full Congressional Hearings on the Health Crisis in the United States.

Specifically, urge speaker of the House, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman, Charles Rangel D-NY); and Congressman, Pete Stark (D-CA), ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Health Committee, during April, the anniversary month of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; to hold full Congressional Hearings on an Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Residents in the United States (HR 676).

Also contact Healthcare-Now or call us at 1-800-453-1305 so that you can learn of ways in which you can directly support and participate in the historic national human rights movement to guarantee that all residents in the United States have comprehensive world class healthcare and healthcare insurance coverage from cradle to grave.

This is our time in history. Let’s seize it.

Here’s how: For an inspirational 7 minutes, see this little video of Congressman John Conyers talking about how we can win single payer.

About the author: Mr. Sankofa is a human rights public policy specialist and community organizer. He is a national organizer for Healthcare-Now. He is also the strategic planning consultant for the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, Legal Defense, Research, and Education Fund. As a former trial attorney, specializing in complex institutional reform litigation, Mr. Sankofa, directed the AIDS Project of the National Prison Project of the ACLU Foundation. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College in Brunswick Maine and the Antioch School of Law. Raised in Washington, DC, Mr. Sankofa now lives in Brooklyn, New York. Click here to contact Ajamu K. Sankofa, Esq. and Healthcare-NOW.

Here are the links to the previous articles in this series, all of which are must reads:

Read the introduction to this series

Part 1 of this series

Part 2 of this series

Part 3 of this series

Part 4 of this series

Part 5 of this series

Part 6 of this series

Part 7 of this series

Part 8 of this series

Part 9 of this series

Part 10 of this series

Part 11 of this series

Part 12 of this series

Part 13 of this series

Dinesh D'Souza, Chris Shays & Sex

skippy points:

to chug bleach, who deconstructs dinesh d'souza's assigning of blame for the sexual deviancy of abu ghraib to liberal america:

after that one 'will and grace' episode where will forces all those naked muslim guys to get into a pile and deny islam, i think it'd be almost hard to deny what a completely not stupid argument d'souza has come up with.

i also think dinesh d'souza spends a lot of time thinking about all male domination orgies, but i have no other context for that except the fact that he's devoted his life to talking about them.

It's not torture! It's a sex ring. Republican Representative Chris Shays said so:

Shays: "Then the next question is, well what has the US done? Well it has been accused of doing torture. That's what it's been accused of. Now I've seen what happened in Abu Ghraib, and Abu Ghraib was not torture, it was outrageous, outrageous involvement of National Guard troops from Maryland who were involved in a sex ring and they took pictures of soldiers who were naked. And they did other things that were just outrageous. But it wasn't torture."

Oh yes! Shays did say that... And I have the video to prove it.
I am certain that dinesh d'souza would agree 100% with Shay's comments and the pleasure that those pictures they got to keep from that sex-ring brought them both.

Video via Matthew Gertz at My Left Nutmeg:

Got a Beef With a CT Dem? I do...

Via Kos at the big orange cat herd:

Let's not forget this from Ellen Tauscher and her friends:

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
H-232, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Speaker:

We write to encourage you to bring bankruptcy reform legislation to the House floor as soon as the Senate completes its consideration of the bill. The New Democrat Coalition has backed common sense bankruptcy reform in the past and helped in passing the bankruptcy reform bill by overwhelming margins in the House of Representatives during the 108th Congress.

Over the last several years, we have worked to advance reasonable and balanced legislation that would require individuals who have the ability to repay their debts to do so, while preserving the important safety net of bankruptcy under Chapter 7 for those who truly need it. We believe that responsible bankruptcy reform embodies the New Democrat principle of personal responsibility, while at the same time adding important new consumer protections such as requiring enhanced credit card disclosure information and encouraging participation in consumer credit counseling.

It is our hope that the House of Representatives will consider this important piece of legislation in an expedited manner. We stand ready to work with you and our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass bankruptcy reform into law.

Sincerely,

Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher
Rep. Adam Smith
Rep. Ron Kind
Rep. Artur Davis
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy
Rep. John Larson <<<<
Rep. Stephanie Herseth
Rep. Dennis Moore
Rep. Mike McIntyre
Rep. Joe Crowley
Rep. Jay Israel
Rep. David Wu
Rep. Diane Hooley
Rep. Melissa Bean
Rep. Jim Davis
Rep. Harold E. Ford, Jr.
Rep Ed Case
Rep. Jay Inslee
Rep. Shelley Berkeley
Rep. Gregory W. Meeks

When we criticized this crowd, they whined and cried that they were being attacked for being "centrists", refusing to explain how gifting the credit card industry in this manner was "centrist".

That's because the legislation wasn't "centrist". It was corporatist at the expense of American consumers.

Well, Representative Larson... Are you proud of this? Sirota was right, and you and your money party friends selling out Americans to the credit card industry were all wrong. There is a long list of right wingers up there.

Watcha gonna do about it? Did anyone in the Democratic party really think Lieberman would be the end of it?

Elect Real Democrats officially launches
By Met00

Well, today was the formal launch of Elect Real Democrats.

In CT there is one DLC Democrat in the House (Larson). But for those of you who live in "safe" districts, there are any number of other DLC and Blue Dog Democrats for you to consider helping when a progressive Democrat comes along to challenge them.

The interactive map was fun to make and I hope that everyone likes the way it works.

As always, any input that anyone from MLN has is always welcome.

Also, the power of this type of campaign is the power of you telling others about it. Since I personally hate the psuedo-spam from "tell a friend" pages, I have begged in my tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show member progressive Democrat way that you help by letting others know about the site and what we are trying to accomplish.

Before we can help Dr. Dean and his 50-State effort, we have to clean up our own house so we can have a chance to really help the working men and women of America.

I am not a Democratic party member, but this is a better idea than the status quo...

What's the problem CPL Matt Sanchez?

"Wow, who knew a little award and a couple of pictures would get me all this attention? Death threats, hate mail and plenty of people who want to be my "friend"--and it's not even 4 pm!!!" - CPL Matt Sanchez, CPAC honoree

What is the problem?

Is it Matt's service in the Marines?




Nope. He can still be proud of that, regardless of what the right wing will now say about him (and until the military gives him the boot, AND THEY WILL. Even from the Reserves.)

Is it because both Hannity and O'Reilly championed Matt's cause at Columbia Universtiy?




Nope. But this is partly why CPAC made him a TOP honoree last week.

Is it Matt's association with GOP candidates?




Nope. GOP politicians love guys like Matt. Lots of guys like Matt...

Is it because of Matt's short-lived enamoured support from radical right wing pundit-wannabees like Malkin?




Well, not really...

Is it Matt's show of support from noted gay-basher and all-around-hater Ann Coulter?




UMMMM? Ya, that and the fact that Matt is a gay porn star known as Rod Majors:




And... Matt is a male escort as well. <<<(WARNING!!! Nudity in that link.) The Jeff Gannon story all over again.

Michelle Malkin is on top of the story after learning the truth about her former hero, and even answers her own question before asking it:

It's only a matter of time before the MSM goes nuts with the story. Report on the everyday progress in Iraq? Forget it. Sex, homosexuals, and the GOP? Get ready for wall-to-wall coverage a la Foley, Gannon, and Haggard.

Should CPAC organizers be embarrassed if the rumors about his alleged porn star past are true? Well, yes. Next time, they should do more extensive background research before handing out an honor with Jeane Kirkpatrick's name on it.

snip

I guess we'll see who the real bigots--on both sides of the aisle--are now.
(You can find the link for the bigot Malkin here...)

Here is the problem Matt Sanchez:
It doesn't take her more than a few paragraphs to say something really, really stupid and hypocritical. Malkin has Matt going from hero to zero, and all because Malkin and most of her, and Coulter's, CPAC ilk are bigots.

As for Malkin's reports on progress in Iraq?

Here it is: More bombs are going off, more bullets are flying, and more Americans and Iraqis are needlessly dying today because of what semi-epsilon-moron-minuses like Malkin call progress.

H/T to Matt Browner-Hamlin at Emboldened.

One GIANT Leap Towards Media Credibility

Face the facts. At least I wish the MSM would. Arthur Silber at Once Upon a Time:

Greg Mitchell discusses the recent coverage of administration claims about Iran's purported actions in Iraq, and then notes this development:

This made made me reflect on one night last month, just after the Gordon and Baghdad briefing articles, when an e-mailed memo arrived in my inbox. At least one news editor had seen enough.

That night, the first part of the PBS Frontline series on the media was aired, with distressing reminders of newspapers' complicity in the Iraq invasion. It showed Bob Woodward on Larry King's CNN show back then saying there was "almost zero" chance WMD would not be found in Iraq. In a new interview, Judith Miller said she did nothing wrong in her reporting back then, even if the reporting itself was wrong.

A few minutes after that, the e-mail landed in my "new messages" box.

It came from KSFR, a public radio station in Santa Fe, N.M. I don't know anything about the station, although I have been to Santa Fe a couple of times. It seems that the surge in "unnamed officials" had finally pushed News Director Bill Dupuy to take action. He wrote that "until further notice, it is the policy of KSFR's news department to ignore and not repeat any wire service or nationally published story" about Iran, North Korea, and other sensitive foreign areas if it quotes an "unnamed" U.S. official.

"What we have suspected and talked about at length before is now becoming clear. 'High administration officials speaking on the condition of anonymity,' 'Usually reliable Washington sources,' and others of the like were behind the publicity that added credibility to the need to go to war against Afghanistan and Iraq.

"This is a small news department with a small reach. We cannot research these stories ourselves. But we can take steps not to compromise our integrity. We should not dutifully parrot whatever comes out of Washington, on the wire or by whatever means, no matter how intriguing and urgent it sounds, when the source is unnamed. I am also calling on our colleagues in other local news departments -- broadcast and print -- to take the same professional approach."

Very, very well done, Mr. Dupuy. Exceptionally well done, and please allow me to extend my deep gratitude.

And that, my friends, is how you fight the bastards.

I second that well done! All those in favour of media credibility say "Aye!"

Something like this would not solve all of the problems that are currently embeded in much of the MSM's chronically sycophantic stucture, but it would leave them with articles that are more honestly sourced and less likely to be filled with propaganda. (H/T C&L)

Too bad that more smaller papers don't just tune out those unconfirmed sources on Iran forwarded by the press services. The world would likely be a better and safer place if they did.

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby - GUILTY on 4 counts

Justice has been served. Now... Will bush finally fire pardon scooter or will he just leave it to cheney to shoot him?

Emptywheel via Firedoglake:

"The Libby verdict is in:

Count I: GUILTY

Count II: GUILTY

Count III: NOT GUILTY

Count IV: GUILTY

Count V: GUILTY

Fitzgerald has asked for a couple of minutes with Ted Wells.

We will not know anything about potential appeals until after sentencing in June."

As far as appeals? There is nothing appealing about a Neocon, nevermind a guilty Neocon. (Aren't all Neocons guilty anyways?)

And if bush wants to pardon this guilty, lying, sack of dirty neocon trash, just be sure he knows that he was part of the treasonous cabal that outed an entire NETWORK of CIA spies working on nucular counter-proliferation duties.

Bush is already the WORST PRESIDENT EVER... Does he really want to add "Friend of the traitors" to his list of failures too? He might want to think twice about giving a pardon to scooter. It just won't look too good in his presidential library, IF he can ever find somewhere that is willing to stoop so low as to host one for him.

Just an update on doing the time:

Scooter faces up to 30 years in prison for his crimes.

update deux:

News Corpse (Via CT Bob) has Fox spinning a doozy of a lie on the guilty verdict...

update trois: ctblogger has a bunch of videos up on Libby.

DLC loses tax exempt status

Scarce over at MLN digs up a real zinger:

DLC loses tax exempt status:
"Via Forbes (subscription only):

In a previously unreported action, the Internal Revenue Service has revoked the DLC's tax exemption on the grounds that it primarily benefited a private group-Democrats, and particularly 'New Democrats' running for or holding office-rather than the community at large. The DLC has sued in federal court to overturn the decision..."

Go read the entire diary because, proving they are right-wingnuts, the story only gets better as the DLC makes their arguments for tax exempt status.

LOL!

Ned Lamont Interview

CT Bob and Spazeboy have another CT Blogging media original reporting effort up today. Go check out their exclusive interview with Ned Lamont:

Via CT Bob:

"Here's the entire in-depth interview with Ned from last Friday. Spazeboy and I ask questions about the campaign, about the current administration, and about the future. The interview runs about 33 minutes, and concludes with a unique "free association" session."

While you out surfing you might also want to check out ctblogger's video on the Bloggers forum held in Hartford. Connecticut Bloggers are pioneering in real media efforts, ESPECIALLY in the area of video Blogging.