VOICE OF THE MAJORITY

Wondering Where I Went?

2007-04-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

I've moved my blogging operation to another place!
I ACCEPTED AN OFFER FOR MY OLD WEB ADDRESS... WHICH WAS THE ANGELL4AUSTIN.BLOGSPOT.COM WEBSITE... AND THEN CHANGED THE NAME ON THIS PAGE TO "VOICE OF THE MAJORITY", AND THAT'S WHERE YOU ARE NOW...
I'VE MOVED OVER TO MYSPACE.COM.....................
This site will continue to be here, but there won't be any new posts on it.
I'm leaving up this site so that my archives and links will still Google, and of course so that 10,000+ readers can find me over at my new place...
Here is the link:
http://www.myspace.com/josh_angell
THANKS FOR YOUR YEARS OF SUPPORT!
PLEASE VISIT ME OVER ON MYSPACE!

YES, TEXAS SUCKS FOR YET ANOTHER REASON...

2006-09-28T17:22:00.000-07:00

Well, today in the life as a Certified Nurse Assistant pretty much sucked.
It's always surprising when you get backstabbed for no reason.- But, in the line of work that I do, you have to get used to this. There are a whole lot of Nurse's out there that are simply out to get you, just because they are having their own bad day. What's sad, is that when this power struggle and backstabbing takes place, the residents/patients are undoubtedly the ones who have to see that the healthcare system in Texas is pretty much a sham. Take that back, it has to be the worst run healtcare system in the nation. Just take a look at the Nationwide Nursing Home Watchlist, and you'll see what I am talking about...

George W. Bush secret Gay sex life in 1984 Bush's secret life in 1984

2006-09-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

The Truth about George W. Bush
Here you will find out the little known truth concerning President George W. Bush, Victor Ashe, the current American ambassador to Poland (formerly mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee and Exec. V.P.; C.F.O. of Fannie Mae), and their adulterous-bisexual relationship with a Las Vegas woman in 1984.
This situation took place in 1984 in the State of Tennessee. It concerns a 41 year old woman [currently residing in Las Vegas], Victor Ashe and George Bush's encounter in 1984 during the senate debates between Al Gore, Jr., Victor Ashe and Ed McAteer. She was invited to come to Tennessee by Victor Ashe. While attending one of these debates she spoke briefly with Ed McAteer (Senatorial candidate in 1984 who debated alongside Al Gore, Jr. and Victor Ashe, and was responsible in part for the emergence of the Religious Right).
Members of the mainstream media (CNN, FOX/news, Chicago Tribune) have known about this Las Vegas woman [well known in the BDSM underground] since September of 2003 yet they have done little if anything to get to the bottom of it. Like Bush's national guard service records they've given him a free pass concerning the what, where and when of his participation in the Texas Air National Guard.
We believe if the whereabouts and war-time behavior of Senator Kerry during his tour in Vietnam in the early 70's are matters of importance to the American people [according to Sinclair Broadcasting and Swift Boat Vets for Truth] then the past behavior of this President and his involvement in a homosexual situation with another man in the mid 80's is of equal importance.
When this Las Vegas woman told us about her conversation with Ed McAteer we thought it was something that should be looked into. He was being treated for cancer so we had to move quickly to open a dialogue. We believed obtaining a death bed declaration [if it came down to that] of a man of Ed McAteer's stature in the Christian community [he was called the Godfather of the Religious Right] would have held tremendous weight.?Ed [finally] coming forward to say what he witnessed or knew concerning this matter would have been unimpeachable. Ed was a staunch supporter of the state of Israel and quietly lobbied for the post of U.S. ambassador to Israel back in 2001 but was turned down for the position by none other than George W. Bush. It seems in George W. Bush's isolated bubble, ambassadorships are rewards set aside for friends and lovers only.
We initially contacted Mr. McAteer back in May of this year. He mentioned at that time Victor Ashe's sexual shenanigans were no secret in Tennessee. He seemed resentful of his party's choice to back a 'sodomite' which is why he ran as an independent. Ed was on chemotherapy and it was extremely difficult for him to talk so we deferred until late August at which time his wife [Faye] informed us he wanted to talk further but was under doctors orders to refrain from all strenuous activity. Sadly, Ed McAteer passed away on Oct. 5, 2004, before we could do a follow-up interview, he was 78. For Ed's sake [and that of his family] we hope his departure was natural [God's will], however, the timing of it all seems rather untimely in our opinion.?It bares looking into by the Tennessee authorities.?
When he passed way another writer contacted Faye and she imparted to him that Ed seemed upset upon returning from the debate in Chattanooga back in 1984. Was Ed aware of Victor Ashe and George W. Bush's bisexual behavior? Perhaps that is what upset him so.
Unfortunately he didn't get the chance to tell us what he witnessed that night that upset him or if he remembered talking with the Las Vegas woman.
The Las Vegas woman was paid $15,000 to arrange sexual liaisons involving bisexual men for George W. Bush (then private citizen) and Victor Ashe (then a Tennessee State Senator). These adulterous bisexual affairs (3 encounters in all-3 different cities) took place in the state of Tennessee during the 1984 senate debates between, Al Gore, Jr., Victor Ashe and Ed McAteer. An African-American woman was invited to participate in this adulterous sexual encounter with George W. Bush and Victor Ashe immediately following the Chattanooga senatorial debate. This woman was paid $1,500. A few years later the Las Vegas woman was detained in Washington D.C. with Victor Ashe by the Metro D.C. police. She was released but Victor was taken into custody.
So confident was this woman that Ed would have remembered her [and their meeting] she had finally come forward and was prepared to tell it all. She will swear to the authenticity of what is being imparted here, which is the reason that we built this website so we could get this information out to you.
Bush & Co. will no doubt tell the world she's insane, politically motivated thus concocting this for smear reasons. She is of sound mind and body and welcomes all inquires from the mainstream media. This woman deeply laments not having come forward back in 2000 when then Governor Bush was running for the highest office in the land against [ironically] Vice President Al Gore, Jr.
Disclosure of George W. Bush's adulterous bisexual behavior will only happen if the American public demand answers. Contact your local news organizations demanding that this truth be revealed and not go the way of his Texas Air National Guard records.
Direct all media inquires to thetruthaboutbushin84@yahoo.com
UPDATE June 5, 2006 The woman in question is Leola McConnell. She is the Liberal Democratic candidate for Governor of Nevada in 2006
http://bushssecretlifein84.tripod.com

You heard it here first- Petition being sent to the SEC to Investigate NEW YORK POST REPORTER JOHN MAINELLI- SIGN IT HERE Support Truth & Howard Stern

2006-09-22T20:20:00.000-07:00

I started a petition, because I think it is really awful all the negative spin that has begun swirling, from John Mainelli, about Howard Stern. Hopefully, fans will sign this and justice will be served.... click the link below to sign the petition! -

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/fan1906/petition.html

Some success has already come, this asswipe John Mainelli got fired today!!!!!!!!!..........

And here's the story:
Stern Warning Gets Post Writer Canned
JOCK SLAP
SternHoward Stern's words may not carry the same weight now that he's on satellite radio, but he's still got enough juice to get a pesky critic fired. John Mainelli, the New York Post writer who irked Stern by reporting a rumor Tuesday that he would return to terrestrial radio with his tail between his legs, has left the paper after receiving an ultimatum from editor in chief Col Allan.
Allan told Mainelli Wednesday that he had to choose between his freelance job covering the radio industry for the Post and his lucrative sideline consulting for radio stations and owners. "I consider myself fired," Mainelli tells Radar. "I can't live on what I earn from the Post."
Mainelli claims he has made no secret of his consulting relationships in the nearly eight years he's worked at the paper and has always been careful to recuse himself from stories that might present a conflict of interest. But Allan, according to a Post spokesman, was not aware of the arrangement, and would have put a stop to it long ago had he known. Stern has been waging war on Mainelli since Tuesday, when Mainelli reported on speculation that Stern might cut a deal to get part of his broadcast back on terrestrial radio. (Since Stern left CBS in January, his show has only been available to Sirius subscribers.)
Though Mainelli was merely picking up a report from Inside Radio, an industry trade, Stern chose to blast him rather than the source—probably because Mainelli spiced up his story with other damaging details, such as a rumor that Stern was having trouble booking high-profile guests and had lost popularity as an Internet search term. Stern's Howard 100 news team called attention to Mainelli's consulting ties on air, and their reporting was picked up by journalism blog Buzzmachine.com.
Asked whether he's feuded with Stern in the past, Mainelli says, "He's feuded with me," over the number of subscribers Stern has brought to Sirius, among other issues. Nevertheless, Mainelli claims he's been a fan of Stern's—until now.
"I'm very disappointed, and I'm really pissed at Howard Stern," he says. "From now on, anything I write about him will have to have a disclaimer: John Mainelli has an ax to grind against this man."
By Jeff Bercovici 09/22/06 7:01 AM File Under: Buzzmachine.com, Fox, Howard Stern, John Mainelli, satellite radio, Sirius, The New York Post

Former Texas Governor Ann Richards Dies

2006-09-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

Former Texas Governor Ann Richards Dies
September 13, 2006
By KELLEY SHANNON
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Former Gov. Ann Richards, the witty and flamboyant Democrat who went from homemaker to national political celebrity, died Wednesday night after a battle with cancer, a family spokeswoman said. She was 73.
She died at home surrounded by her family, the spokeswoman said. Richards was found to have esophageal cancer in March and underwent chemotherapy treatments.
The silver-haired, silver-tongued Richards said she entered politics to help others _ especially women and minorities who were often ignored by Texas' male-dominated establishment.
"I did not want my tombstone to read, 'She kept a really clean house.' I think I'd like them to remember me by saying, 'She opened government to everyone,'" Richards said shortly before leaving office in January 1995.
She was governor for one term, losing her re-election bid to Republican George W. Bush.
She grabbed the national spotlight with her keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention when she was the Texas state treasurer. Richards won cheers from delegates when she reminded them that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, "only backwards and in high heels."

Richards sealed her partisan reputation with a blast at George H. Bush, a fellow Texan who was vice president at the time: "Poor George, he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."
Four years later, she was chairwoman of the Democratic convention that nominated Bill Clinton for president.
Richards rose to the governorship with a come-from-behind victory over millionaire cowboy Clayton Williams in 1990. She cracked a half-century male grip on the governor's mansion and celebrated by holding up a T-shirt that showed the state Capitol and read: "A woman's place is in the dome."
In four years as governor, Richards championed what she called the "New Texas," appointing more women and more minorities to state posts than any of her predecessors.
She appointed the first black University of Texas regent; the first crime victim to join the state Criminal Justice Board; the first disabled person to serve on the human services board; and the first teacher to lead the State Board of Education. Under Richards, the fabled Texas Rangers pinned stars on their first black and female officers.
She polished Texas' image, courted movie producers, championed the North American Free Trade Agreement, oversaw an expansion of the state prison system, and presided over rising student achievement scores and plunging dropout rates.
She took time out to celebrate her 60th birthday by earning her motorcycle driver's license.
Throughout her years in office, her personal popularity remained high. One poll put it at more than 60 percent the year she lost to Bush.
"I may have lost the race," Richards said after the defeat. "But I don't think I lost the good feelings that people have about me in this state. That's tremendously reassuring to me."
Richards went on to give speeches, work as a commentator for CNN and serve as a senior adviser in the New York office of Public Strategies Inc., an Austin-based consulting firm.
Richards grew up near Waco, married civil rights lawyer David Richards, volunteered in campaigns and raised four children. She and her husband later divorced.
In the early 1960s, she helped form the North Dallas Democratic Women, "basically to allow us to have something substantive to do; the regular Democratic Party and its organization was run by men who looked on women as little more than machine parts."
Richards served on the Travis County Commissioners Court in Austin for six years before jumping to a bigger arena in 1982. Her election as state treasurer made her the first woman elected statewide in nearly 50 years.
But politics took a toll. It helped break up her marriage. And public life forced her to be remarkably candid about her 1980 treatment for alcoholism.
"I had seen the very bottom of life," she once recalled. "I was so afraid I wouldn't be funny anymore. I just knew that I would lose my zaniness and my sense of humor. But I didn't. Recovery turned out to be a wonderful thing."
The 1990 election was rough. Her Democratic primary opponent, then-Attorney General Jim Mattox, accused her of using illegal drugs. Williams, an oilman, banker and rancher, spent millions of his own money on the race she narrowly won.
After her unsuccessful re-election campaign against Bush, Richards said she never missed being in public office.
Asked once what she might have done differently had she known she was going to be a one-term governor, Richards grinned.
"Oh, I would probably have raised more hell."

Former Texas Governor Ann Richards dies at age 73

2006-09-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

Former governor Richards dies at 73
Rest In Peace... Gone now, but her life's work will live on..AUSTIN _ Former Texas Governor Ann Richards -- the witty and flamboyant Democrat who went from homemaker to national political celebrity -- has died at her Austin home. She was 73. Her Family says Richards died tonight surrounded by her family after a battle with cancer.

REST IN PEACE
Dorothy Ann Richards 1933- 2006

Iran Says U.S. Departure Would Calm Iraq

2006-09-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Supreme Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the visiting Iraqi prime minister Wednesday that the way to end instability in Iraq is for U.S. forces to withdraw.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was on the second day of his first visit to Iran since he taking office in May, looking to a close ally of his Shiite-led government for help in calming the violence tearing apart Iraq and in developing Iraq's troubled oil industry.
He told Khamenei the Iranian governments must stop outside influences that are having a "negative" impact on Iraq's security, the Iraqi leader's spokesman said.
With Iraq torn by sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, as well as a Sunni-led insurgency, the United States has frequently accused the Iranian regime of interfering in Iraqi politics and allowing insurgents to cross the border. Tehran denies that.
Khamenei told al-Maliki that Iran "considers it an obligation to support the Iraqi government in practical ways," Iran's state news agency said.
But Khamenei _ who holds the final word in all political matters in Iran _ made clear Iran wants to see the withdrawal of U.S. troops, which he blamed in part for the turmoil plaguing Iraq.
"Part of (Iraq's) sufferings have been due to the actions of the former regime and part is due to the presence of occupiers in Iraq," Khamenei told al-Maliki, according to the Iranian state news agency and state television.
"We hope a day will come when the Iraqi people reach the stage they deserve and that, by cutting the hands of the foreigners, its wealth will come to serve the Iraqi people," Khamenei said.
State TV quoted al-Maliki as saying instability was Iraq's biggest challenge and he blamed the violence mainly on supporters of Saddam's old regime.
No public mention was made of outside meddling in Iraqi affairs. In Baghdad, however, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said al-Maliki underlined that Iraq wants good relations with Iran, but also that "we don't want interference in our internal affairs."
Al-Dabbagh suggested money was flowing from elements in Iran to groups in Iraq, which he did not identify.
It is believed some Shiite parties with militias accused of involvement in sectarian killings have support from groups in Iran, a predominantly Shiite nation. Those parties are also allied to al-Maliki's government, which has struggled to rein in the militias.
"There is interference coming from neighboring countries and it has negative implications for the situation in Iraq," al-Dabbagh told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Baghdad. "We want to bar financing for certain parties."
"Iran has shown it will help, and we want to see implementation of that," he added.
The comments reflect the complex relationship between Iran and Iraq, which is backed by the United States _ Tehran's top enemy. Al-Maliki's Dawa Party is closely allied with Iran as are other Shiite parties in his government, and al-Maliki lived in Iran for part of his long exile during Saddam's rule.
In a meeting with Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, al-Maliki thanked Iran for giving haven to Iraqi leaders opposed to Saddam's rule.
"Iraq is Iran's natural ally," state TV quoted Larijani as telling al-Maliki.
In the latest sign of increasing cooperation, the two countries reached a deal for jointly developing oil fields straddling their border, and eventually Iraq will send crude oil to refineries in Iran for processing, Iraq's Oil Ministry said Wednesday.
Iran is also helping Iraq in its chronic shortages of petroleum products. Under a deal reached last month, Iraq will sell crude oil to its neighbor, which will sell back kerosene, and an Iranian-Turkish company will deliver gasoline, Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told AP.
___

Lynn Samuels SIMPLY THE BEST female Radio Show Host On Earth

2006-09-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

If you haven't discovered her yet, now is the time to check her out. And who is she? Lynn Samuels, that's who. www.sirius.com

Here are some links to get you started to finding out more!

Lynn Samuels - HOMENews updates and commentary by New York radio personality Lynn Samuels.http://www.lynnsamuels.bigstep.com/ - 16k - Cached - Similar pages Lynn Samuels - LYNN SAMUELSNews updates and commentary by New York radio personality Lynn Samuels.http://www.lynnsamuels.bigstep.com/... - 7k - Cached - Similar pages Lynn Samuels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaLynn Samuels (born 1942);is a liberal radio personality based in New York City who ... Lynn Samuels is known for her unique voice, thick accent and honest ...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Samuels - 15k - Cached - Similar pages SIRIUS Satellite Radio - Liberal Talk Radio, Liberal Radio, Left ...Lynn Samuels, the fiercely liberal NYC talk radio legend, now speaks her mind five days a week…exclusively on SIRIUS Left! Lynn's loyal audience knows her ...http://www.sirius.com/siriusleft - 37k - Cached - Similar pages SIRIUS Satellite Radio - Liberal Talk Radio Station – Listen to ...Born in Niagara Falls and raised in Queens, Lynn Samuels has New York in her blood …even though she really wants to move somewhere warmer. ...http://www.sirius.com/servlet/... - 9k - Cached - Similar pages Veteran Liberal Talk Show Host Lynn Samuels Joins SIRIUSLiberal Radio host, Lynn Samuels, joins SIRIUS Satellite Radio in October with her own show. Read more.http://radio.about.com/library/weekly/... - 31k - Cached - Similar pages BuzzFlash Interviews Lynn Samuels, Radio Talk Show HostOn Saturday, August 17, 2002, Lynn Samuels, a liberal talk show personality ... BuzzFlash.com had an opportunity to interview Lynn Samuels about why another ...http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/2002/08/... - 23k - Cached - Similar pages Lynn Samuels (II)Lynn Samuels (II) - Filmography, Awards, Biography, Agent, Discussions, Photos, News Articles, Fan Sites.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1104300/ - 26k - Cached - Similar pages Lynn Samuels (I)Lynn Samuels (I) - Filmography, Awards, Biography, Agent, Discussions, Photos, News Articles, Fan Sites.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0760492/ - 25k - Cached - Similar pages

Charges Possible in Death of Smith's Son

2006-09-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

Charges Possible in Death of Smith's Son

Authorities are leaving open the possibility that criminal charges will be filed in the death of the 20-year-old son of Anna Nicole Smith, the Bahamas coroner said Wednesday.

Her Majesty's Coroner Linda P. Virgill told The Associated Press that authorities believe they know what killed Daniel Wayne Smith, but are awaiting a toxicology report to confirm the findings.

"We do know the cause of death," Virgill said. "But we need to confirm it with a toxicology report."

She declined to disclose details but said there was no sign of physical injury to Smith, who died while visiting his mother, a reality TV star and former Playboy playmate, in a hospital three days after she gave birth to a baby girl.

Deepening the mystery, Virgill said there was at least one other person in the room when Smith died. She refused to elaborate.

"I can confirm that there was definitely a third person in the room at the time of death and I do know who that person is," she said. "But I am unwilling to reveal that information at this time for various reasons."

A formal inquiry may be launched, in which case officials will not publicly disclose their findings until after it is completed, Virgill said in an interview.

Meanwhile, police were reconstructing Smith's steps since his arrival Saturday in the Bahamas, said Reginald Ferguson, the assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamian Police Force.

Ferguson told the AP that no drug paraphernalia or traces of illegal drugs were found on Daniel Smith, in the hospital room or near the room.

"We haven't found any illegal drugs or anything of that nature in the course of this investigation," he said.

Police believe Smith went directly to Doctors Hospital in Nassau, where his mother was, after flying in to the Bahamas, Ferguson said.

Daniel Smith was the son of Anna Nicole and Bill Smith, who married in 1985 and divorced two years later. The son had small roles in her movies "Skyscraper" and "To the Limit." He also appeared several times on the E! reality series "The Anna Nicole Show."

Anna Nicole Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year.

She then feuded with Marshall's son, Pierce Marshall, over her entitlement to the tycoon's estate before he died in June at age 67.

Smith won a $474 million judgment, which was cut to about $89 million, and eventually reduced to zero. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Smith could continue to pursue her claim in federal courts in California, despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall's youngest son was the sole heir.

On the Net:

http://www.annanicole.com/

Kinky Friedman criticized for Katrina comments

2006-09-13T19:31:00.000-07:00

Kinky Friedman criticized for Katrina comments
Associated Press
AUSTIN -- A Houston-area lawmaker said today that she is "vehemently insulted" by independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman's derogatory comments about Hurricane Katrina evacuees.
Friedman last week attributed a spike in Houston's crime rate to the "crackheads and thugs" who evacuated New Orleans.
"He has demonstrated a total lack of human sensitivity," said state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston. "The people of Katrina have lost everything and are suffering not only from the loss of loved ones, but the trauma of the event itself. What has precipitated from this tragedy is behavior that results from a disastrous event."
A spokesman for the Friedman campaign did not immediately return calls to The Associated Press.
"Kinky Friedman has called himself a 'compassionate redneck,' " said Thompson, chairwoman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. "He would do well henceforth to highlight his compassion while de-emphasizing his redneck tendencies."
Houston police have reported that 59 of the 262 Houston murders between Jan. 1 and Aug. 26 involved Katrina evacuees, either as victims or suspects.
Friedman, a comedian running as an independent in the four-way governor race, later said there were "some good people among the evacuees."
Friedman earlier this week also said that we would not pander to different ethnic groups while campaigning for governor.
"I don't eat tamales in the barrio, I don't eat fried chicken in the ghetto, I don't eat bagels with the Jews for breakfast," said Friedman, who is Jewish. "That to me is true racism."

Air America To Declare Bankruptcy

2006-09-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

Air America To Declare Bankruptcy, But Progressive Radio Remains Strong
Air America Radio will announce a major restructuring on Friday, which is expected to include a bankruptcy filing, three independent sources have told ThinkProgress.
Air America could remain on the air under the deal, but significant personnel changes are already in the works. Sources say five Air America employees were laid off yesterday and were told there would be no severance without capital infusion or bankruptcy. Also, Air America has ended its relationship with host Jerry Springer.
The right wing is sure to seize on Air America’s financial woes as a sign that progressive talk radio is unpopular. In fact, Air America succeeded at creating something that didn’t exist: the progressive talk radio format. That format is now established and strong and will continue with or without Air America. Indeed, many of the country’s most successful and widely-syndicated progressive talk hosts —and the best Lynn Samuels (www.lynnsamuels.com) now on Sirius ,
Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, for instance — aren’t even associated with Air America.
Radio giant Clear Channel is so committed to progressive talk radio that, this week, it will announce a partnership with the Center for American Progress and MSS Inc. to conduct a nationwide search for the next Progressive Talk Radio Star.
UPDATE: Air America responds.
If Air America had filed for bankruptcy every time someone rumored it to be doing so, we would have ceased to exist long ago; it may be frustrating to some that this hasn’t happened. No decision has been taken to make any filing of any kind, we are not sure of the source of these rumors and frankly can not respond to every rumor in the marketplace.

2006-09-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

65 Tortured Bodies Found Around Baghdad
By PATRICK QUINN
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The leader of Iraq's biggest Sunni Arab group demanded Wednesday that the beleaguered Shiite-led government take steps to disarm militias after police said the bodies of 65 tortured men were dumped in and around Baghdad.
On a violent day even by the standards of Baghdad, car bombs, mortars and other attacks also killed at least 39 people and wounded dozens. Two U.S. soldiers also were killed, one in enemy action in restive Anbar province on Monday and the other in a roadside bombing south of Baghdad on Tuesday, the U.S. military command said.
The attacks have been unrelenting despite a security crackdown around the capital by 12,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops. The more than 1,500 violent deaths last month at the height of the joint operation speak to the difficulties in restoring any semblance of security to this sprawling city of 6 million people.
Although Sunni Arabs operate some death squads, the vast majority are run by Shiite militias and gangs.

Shiite political groups, including those in power, claim that armed militias have nothing to do with them and that their own military wings were disarmed months ago and turned into social and humanitarian groups. They claim that armed groups and militias are "rogue" elements beyond their control, but many Sunni Arabs contend that they are in fact controlled by Shiite politicians and clerics.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, a Sunni who heads the Iraqi Accordance Front political party, called on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, to take a first step by honoring a pledge to disband militias.
"We hope the government carries out what it pledged and disbands militias and considers them terrorist organizations," al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press. His party is Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political bloc and holds 44 seats in the 275-member parliament.
"Their presence is deteriorating the situation and bringing more troubles to the political atmosphere," al-Dulaimi said of militias. "We call upon all religious authorities to raise their voices and demand militias be disarmed."
Police said 60 of the bodies were found overnight around Baghdad, with the majority dumped in predominantly Sunni Arab neighborhoods.
All the bodies were bound, bore signs of torture and had been shot, police said. Such killings are usually the work of death squads who kidnap people and usually torture them with power drills, or beat them, before shooting them execution-style with a bullet to the head.
The U.S. military said it could not confirm all the executions and that their body count so far was lower than that reported by police.
"It is looking like about a 50 percent discrepancy on execution-style killings so far," said Maj. Josslyn Aberle, chief of the media relations division for the Multi-National Corps-Iraq.
The reason for the difference was not immediately clear. The confusion over numbers underscores the difficulty of obtaining accurate death tolls in Iraq, which lacks the reporting and tracking systems of most modern nations. Also, counts by the U.S. military often lag behind those of the police.
According to Iraqi police, 45 of the bodies were discovered in predominantly Sunni Arab parts of western Baghdad. Fifteen were found in predominantly Shiite areas of eastern Baghdad. And five were found floating down the Tigris river in Suwayrah, just south of Baghdad.
In the two bloodiest attacks in the capital, a car bombing killed at least 19 people and wounded more than 62 in a large square used mostly as a parking lot near the main headquarters of Baghdad's traffic police department.
In eastern Baghdad, a parked car bomb exploded next to an Iraqi police patrol in the Zayona neighborhood, killing at least 12 people and wounding 34.
It is believed that some Shiite parties with militias accused of involvement in sectarian killings have support from neighboring Iran. Those parties are also allied with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.
Al-Maliki, on a visit to Iran on Wednesday, pressed Tehran to stop interference that is having a "negative" impact on his country's security, his spokesman said in an unusual criticism of an ally with which Baghdad's ties are getting closer.
As al-Maliki met with Iranian leaders for a second day, no public mention was made on the issue of interference. Instead, the Iraqi prime minister and Iranian officials exchanged warm vows of growing friendship.
In Baghdad, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said al-Maliki underlined that "we want the best of relations with Iran and we don't want interference in our internal affairs."
Al-Dabbagh suggested that funding was coming from Iran to groups in Iraq, which he did not identify.
"There is interference coming from neighboring countries and it has negative implications for the situation in Iraq," he told the AP in a telephone interview. "We want to bar financing for certain parties."
"Iran has shown it will help, and we want to see implementation of that," he said.
Sunni Arabs fear more sectarian violence will break out if the largest Shiite political bloc in parliament moves to establish autonomous regions as part of a federal Iraq.
Iraq's parliament speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, urged that a bill drafted by the dominant Shiite United Iraqi Alliance not be submitted until parliament amends the country's new constitution, a process that could drag on for months.
American, British and U.N. officials were also said to be urging a postponement.
Sunni Arabs vehemently oppose the bill, saying it could split the country into three distinct sectarian and ethnic regions that would deprive them of the country's oil wealth.
Federalism is already part of Iraq's new constitution and there is an autonomous Kurdish region in the north. However, special legislation and a referendum would be needed to turn Iraq into a full federation.
Shiite leaders of the United Iraqi Alliance were sending delegations to Najaf to meet with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and other prominent Shiites who do not fully support the legislation _ but for different reasons than the Sunnis'. Al-Sadr, for example, wants the issue to be discussed only after U.S. troops leave Iraq.
___
Associated Press reporters Sameer N. Yacoub and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Cairo, Egypt, contributed to this report.

2006-09-13T19:09:00.000-07:00

U.S. Declines Taliban Funeral Target

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. military acknowledged Wednesday that it considered bombing a group of more than 100 Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan but decided not to after determining they were on the grounds of a cemetery.

The decision came to light after an NBC News correspondent's blog carried a photograph of the insurgents. Defense department officials first tried to block further publication of the photo, then struggled to explain what it depicted.

NBC News claimed U.S. Army officers wanted to attack the ceremony with missiles carried by an unmanned Predator drone but were prevented under rules of battlefield engagement that bar attacks on cemeteries.

In a statement released Wednesday, the U.S. military in Afghanistan said the picture _ a grainy black-and-white photo taken in July _ was given to a journalist to show that Taliban insurgents were congregating in large groups. The statement said U.S. forces considered attacking.

"During the observation of the group over a significant period of time, it was determined that the group was located on the grounds of (the) cemetery and were likely conducting a funeral for Taliban insurgents killed in a coalition operation nearby earlier in the day," the statement said. "A decision was made not to strike this group of insurgents at that specific location and time."

While not giving a reason for the decision, the military concluded the statement saying that while Taliban forces have killed innocent civilians during a funeral, coalition forces "hold themselves to a higher moral and ethical standard than their enemies."

The photo shows what NBC News says are 190 Taliban militants standing in several rows near a vehicle in an open area of land. Gunsight-like brackets were positioned over the group in the photo.

The photo appeared on NBC News correspondent Kerry Sanders' blog. Initially military officials called it an unauthorized release, but they later said it was given to the journalist.

NBC News had quoted one Army officer who was involved with the spy mission as saying "we were so excited" that the group had been spotted and was in the sights of a U.S. drone. But the network quoted the officer, who was not identified, as saying that frustration soon set in after the officers realized they couldn't bomb the funeral under the military's rules of engagement.

Defense Department officials have said repeatedly that while they try to be mindful of religious and cultural sensitivities, they make no promises that such sites can always be avoided in battle because militants often seek cover in those and other civilian sites.

Mosques and similar locations have become frequent sites of violence in the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they have often been targets of insurgents and sectarian fighting in Iraq.

2006-09-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

Lawyer says Anna Nicole Smith had to be sedated after son's death
The Associated Press
Anna Nicole Smith frantically tried to revive her son and had to be sedated after he died, her attorney said Wednesday. Authorities termed the death "suspicious" and said criminal charges could be filed.
"The devastation and grief over Daniel's sudden death coupled with the sedation has been so extreme that Anna Nicole experienced memory loss of the event," attorney Michael Scott said.
The chief inspector of the Bahamas coroner's office on Wednesday called the death of 20-year-old Daniel Smith "suspicious" and a formal inquiry that could lead to criminal charges was scheduled for next month.
Smith died Sunday while visiting his mother, a reality TV star and former Playboy playmate, in her hospital room three days after she gave birth to a baby girl.
Police on Wednesday revealed that a third person was in the hospital room at the time of the death.
But Scott said that the third person was another one of Anna Nicole Smith's attorneys, Howard K. Stern.
He said Anna Nicole Smith and Stern continued efforts to revive Smith even after he had been proclaimed dead by staff at Doctors Hospital in Nassau, Scott said.
"Anna Nicole was so distraught at the loss of Daniel that she refused to leave his side and it was necessary to sedate her in order to check her out of the hospital," Scott read from a prepared statement.
He said she suffered memory loss and that it "was necessary for Howard to tell Anna again that Daniel had passed away," he added.
Authorities said they believe they know what killed Smith three days after his mother gave birth to a baby girl, but they were waiting for a toxicology report to confirm the findings.
Anna Nicole Smith, a reality TV star and former Playboy model who went to the U.S. Supreme Court this year to sue for an inheritance, was in seclusion in the Bahamas with family and friends, said Michael Scott, her Bahamian attorney.
"You would expect any parent who sustained this kind of loss" to seek seclusion, Scott said.
A jury inquest, which will be open to the public, is scheduled to start Oct. 23, and Anna Nicole Smith will be required to attend, coroner Linda P. Virgill said.
"Whenever there is a suspicious death we would have an inquest to determine how the person died," Bradley Neely, chief inspector of the coroner's office, told Associated Press Television News.
The autopsy and toxicology reports will not be made public until the inquest is held, to avoid prejudicing the jury, Virgill said.
Jurors will meet in a courtroom inside a weathered, pink-pastel judicial building in the seaside capital, Nassau. If the inquest, which will be open to the public, determines a crime was committed, the case would be sent to the attorney general's office.
Virgill said there was no sign of physical injury to Smith, who was seen helping make his 38-year-old mother comfortable before he died. Anna Nicole Smith noticed him slumped in a chair Sunday morning and called for help. Hospital staff unsuccessfully tried CPR and other measures to revive him.
Scott dismissed media reports that Anna Nicole Smith's son had antidepressants or other drugs in his system.
"It's sheer speculation. It's irresponsible speculation, may I point out," he told reporters.
Ferguson, the assistant police commissioner, told the AP that no drug paraphernalia or traces of illegal drugs were found on Daniel Smith, in the hospital room or near the room.
Police believe Daniel Smith went directly to Doctors Hospital in Nassau after arriving in the Bahamas by plane, Ferguson said.
Daniel Smith was the son of Anna Nicole and Bill Smith, who married in 1985 and divorced two years later. The son had small roles in her movies Skyscraper and To the Limit. He also appeared on the E! reality series The Anna Nicole Show.
Anna Nicole Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year.
She then feuded with Marshall's son, Pierce Marshall, over her entitlement to the tycoon's estate before he died in June at age 67.
Smith won a $474 million judgment, which was cut to about $89 million, and eventually reduced to zero. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Smith could continue to pursue her claim in federal courts in California, despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall's youngest son was the sole heir.

A FEW SHORT FACTS THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND...

2006-09-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

TOTAL SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY

AUTOMOBILE TRACKING
30 million cars now record drivers' behavior
Ford, GM, Honda and Toyota Spy on Motorists
Big Brother Behind The Wheel To Watch Drivers
95.2% Opposed to California DMV Plan Track & Tax
Big brother is watching ... motorists
Total Surveillance Behind the Wheel
Experimental License-plate Scanners Track Cars on Highways
YOUR EVERY MOVE IS BEING WATCHED
Update: 2,000 Cameras To Watch Chicago
Behind traffic cameras lurk less noble motives
Homeland Security Surveillance Cameras Hit Baltimore
Chicago To Expand Video Surveillance System
Google exposes web surveillance cams
Waiting for the Gun
Another Small Town to Install Surveillance Cameras Downtown
LAPD Studies Facial Recognition Software
Licence-plate cameras to trap "criminals"
Listening Microphones Hit the Streets
School Systems Deploy Latest Surveillance Technology
SATELLITE GPS (GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS)
China Plans to Have Over 100 Eyes in the Sky by 2020
Big brother fears over police GPS tracker system
Bus drivers on GPS plan: Get lost!
GPS lets law’s long arm grow
Parents, Bosses Call On GPS Tracking Cell Phones
New Spy Plan Said to Involve Satellite System
Federal judge's ruling on use of GPS worries privacy advocates
People-tracking closer to reality Deal forged to equip VeriChip with global positioning satellite
Satellite to Track New Toll Motorway
Spy Project Threatens Security
BIOMETRICS
EYE FLIGHT: IRIS SCAN FOR JFK PASSENGERS
Facing a Future without Anonymity
The Eyes Have It
Fingerprinting Plays Key Role in Biometrics Boom
Homeland Security Border Biometrics Installed
Biometric ATMs Give Bank Cards the Finger
NATIONAL IDENTIFICATION PROGRAMS
Big Brother wants national ID cards
Propaganda: Do we need a national ID card?
Driver's Licenses As National ID?
Rep. Paul Denounces National ID
National ID Cards: Immigration fix or civil rights hit?
Propaganda: Full speed ahead on ID cards that are 'good for you'
U.S. edges closer to national ID card
Propaganda: Americans Support ID Cards “To Catch Terrorists”

2006-09-12T16:56:00.000-07:00

President Bush says Nine-Eleven has changed all of us...

WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats tore into each over war policy Tuesday, set off by a presidential speech the White House insisted was nonpolitical. A GOP leader said Democrats seemed "more interested in protecting the terrorists" than shielding fellow Americans.
The Democrats contended the president had used a prime-time address commemorating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to make partisan arguments bolstering support for the Iraq war.
"I wonder if they are more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "They certainly do not want to take the terrorists on and defeat them."
Trading barbs, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who had criticized the president's speech as inappropriately political, called Boehner's criticism "cynical tactics."
"Rather than try to defend their own failed record, Republicans have resorted to the desperation politics of fear," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "It is long past time for Republicans to be honest with American people and stop questioning the patriotism of those who recognize that the president's Iraq policy has not worked, is making us less safe and must be changed."
The White House tried to steer clear of the tussle. In fact, Bush spokesman Tony Snow took issue with Boehner's contention that Democrats may be looking out for the terrorists' interests.
Snow said it was unfortunate but perhaps inevitable that "there will be some name calling" in the months before this fall's election as Republicans and Democrats battle for control of Congress.
At the same time, the White House vigorously defended Bush against Democratic charges that the president inappropriately used Monday's televised speech, marking the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, to try to bolster support for the divisive war in Iraq.
Snow said very little of the president's 17-minute address contained controversial statements, and that "this was not an attempt to stir the hornet's nest."
Democratic leaders called the speech a political argument trying to justify the war by linking it to the terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. The Democrats contend mismanagement of the war calls for a change in congressional leadership.
"The president spoke for his administration, not for the nation," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "This was a political move, designed to tap the overwhelming public sentiment to destroy al-Qaida as a way to bolster sagging public support for the war in Iraq."
Reid and Pelosi circulated a letter they sent to the television networks and cable news channels asking for equal coverage of Democratic viewpoints on terrorism and Iraq. "There has been a complete absence of balance in the news coverage of national security issues," they wrote.
In response, representatives for ABC and CBS said the networks cover news fairly and accurately and will continue to do so.
Bush's address paid tribute to the nearly 3,000 victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and described the enemy as a global network of extremists who hate freedom and tolerance. "The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict," he said. "It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and the calling of our generation."
Much of the speech described the administration's foreign policy following the attack and the decision to go after enemies before they could harm Americans.
"I am often asked why we are in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks," Bush said. "The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat."
Bush contended disaster could result if the United States pulled out of the war, emboldening terrorists.
The liberal MoveOn.org planned to air a cable television ad this week accusing Bush and congressional Republicans of politicizing Sept. 11 by exploiting the attacks to invade Iraq and win re-election. Two conservative groups, Progress for America and the Center for Security Policy, started running their own ads last week backing Bush's policy and telling viewers to vote "as if your life depends on it."
Republicans and Democrats in Congress showed other cracks in the unity they espoused for Monday's Sept. 11 remembrance, arguing over language in a commemorative resolution scheduled for debate Wednesday.
Democrats asked Republican leaders to delete a portion that names a series of laws, including the USA Patriot Act, that Congress passed in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
Boehner indicated the GOP leadership didn't plan to change the resolution. "I, for the life of me, I have no idea what the objection is," he told reporters. "At the end of the day, the majority has to do what the majority has to do."
The White House, meanwhile, pushed Congress to enact new anti-terrorism laws, but the administration faced stiff resistance from some senators and House leaders — including some Republicans — who said they would not give the White House a blank check.
That threw into question whether the White House could win its anti-terror measures before the midterm elections. The administration wants legislation to allow for easier prosecution of terror suspects and tracking by electronic surveillance.

Dear Anna Nicole Smith, on the death of your son Daniel...

2006-09-12T16:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Anna,
in the small chance that you may actually read these threads, I want to let you know that I am a big fan of yours... Today, as always, I was listening to the Howard Stern Show, and heard the tragic news about your son. Howard and Robin Quivers and his whole staff were very sad to hear the news. I was shocked. I wanted to tell you that I am happy you have been blessed with a beautiful new baby girl. I can't imagine the happiness of a new baby and then the tragic loss of your son. My heart goes out to you.
Your Friend,
Josh Angell
Austin, Tx.

Anna Nicole Smith... Son DEAD at 20.

2006-09-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

Anna Nicole's son found dead

Officials say Anna Nicole Smith's son Daniel Wayne Smith, seen here with his mother in 2004, died in a Bahamas hospital where he'd gone to visit the reality TV star shortly after the birth of her daughter.
An autopsy is underway on the body of Anna Nicole Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, who was found dead Sunday in her room at Doctors Hospital in Nassau, police in the Bahamas said Monday.
Daniel arrived Saturday and went to the hospital where his mother had given birth days earlier, and he spent the night, Reginald Ferguson of the Royal Bahamian Police Force told the Associated Press. "The mother... saw him in the chair, and he appeared to be sound asleep," he said. "She tried to wake him up, he was unresponsive, and she sounded the alarm." He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Daniel arrived in Nassau Saturday "to share in the joy of his baby sister," says the former Playboy playmate's official website (www.annanicole.com). Anna Nicole gave birth to a 6-pound, 9-ounce girl on Thursday, the site says.
Anna Nicole, 38, "is absolutely devastated," the statement says. The post adds that neither alcohol nor drugs are believed to be a factor.
Her estranged father, Donald Hogan, learned of his grandson's death from TV's The Insider. "I wish I knew what was going on," he told Insider, adding that he met Daniel a handful of times. Daniel's father, Billy Smith, told TV's Extra he was in shock. He said he hadn't seen his son since 1988.

Bush Knew! 9-11-01 THE TOP 40 REASONS TO DOUBT THE OFFICIAL STORY OF SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001 ...

2006-09-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

THE TOP 40 REASONS TO DOUBT THE OFFICIAL STORY OF SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001 ...
An outline in simple talking points ... This overview is in development. If you use the search function with key words, you will discover that 911Truth.org is home to articles backing virtually every point made below. Much of the basic research is available at the Complete 9/11 Timeline (hosted by cooperativeresearch.org), the 9/11 Reading Room (911readingroom.org), and the Spitzer petition and complaint (Justicefor911.org). For physical evidence discussion, see Point 7. THE DAY ITSELF - EVIDENCE OF COMPLICITY1) AWOL Chain of Commanda. It is well documented that the officials topping the chain of command for response to a domestic attack - George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Myers, Montague Winfield - all found reason to do something else during the actual attacks, other than assuming their duties as decision-makers. b. Who was actually in charge? Dick Cheney, Richard Clarke, Norman Mineta and the 9/11 Commission directly conflict in their accounts of top-level response to the unfolding events, such that several (or all) of them must be lying.2) Air Defense Failuresa. The US air defense system failed to follow standard procedures for responding to diverted passenger flights. b. Timelines: The various responsible agencies - NORAD, FAA, Pentagon, USAF, as well as the 9/11 Commission - gave radically different explanations for the failure (in some cases upheld for years), such that several officials must have lied; but none were held accountable. c. Was there an air defense standdown?3) Pentagon StrikeHow was it possible the Pentagon was hit 1 hour and 20 minutes after the attacks began? Why was there no response from Andrews Air Force Base, just 10 miles away and home to Air National Guard units charged with defending the skies above the nation's capital? How did Hani Hanjour, a man who failed as a Cessna pilot on his first flight in a Boeing, execute a difficult aerobatic maneuver to strike the Pentagon? Why did the attack strike the just-renovated side, which was largely empty and opposite from the high command? 4) Wargamesa. US military and other authorities planned or actually rehearsed defensive response to all elements of the 9/11 scenario during the year prior to the attack - including multiple hijackings, suicide crashbombings, and a strike on the Pentagon. b. The multiple military wargames planned long in advance and held on the morning of September 11th included scenarios of a domestic air crisis, a plane crashing into a government building, and a large-scale emergency in New York. If this was only an incredible series of coincidences, why did the official investigations avoid the issue? There is evidence that the wargames created confusion as to whether the unfolding events were "real world or exercise." Did wargames serve as the cover for air defense sabotage, and/or the execution of an "inside job"?5) Flight 93Did the Shanksville crash occur at 10:06 (according to a seismic report) or 10:03 (according to the 9/11 Commission)? Does the Commission wish to hide what happened in the last three minutes of the flight, and if so, why? Was Flight 93 shot down, as indicated by the scattering of debris over a trail of several miles?THE DAY - POSSIBLE SMOKING GUNS6) Did cell phones work at 30,000 feet in 2001? How many hijackings were attempted? How many flights were diverted?7) Demolition HypothesisWhat caused the collapse of a third skyscraper, WTC 7, which was not hit by a plane? Were the Twin Towers and WTC 7 brought down by explosives? (See "The Case for Demolitions," the websites wtc7.net and 911research.wtc7.net, and the influential article by physicist Steven Jones. See also items no. 16 and 24, below.) FOREKNOWLEDGE & THE ALLEGED HIJACKERS 8) What did officials know? How did they know it?a. Multiple allied foreign agencies informed the US government of a coming attack in detail, including the manner and likely targets of the attack, the name of the operation (the "Big Wedding"), and the names of certain men later identified as being among the perpetrators.b. Various individuals came into possession of specific advance knowledge, and some of them tried to warn the US prior to September 11th.c. Certain prominent persons received warnings not to fly on the week or on the day of September 11th.9) Able Danger, Plus - Surveillance of Alleged Hijackersa. The men identified as the 9/11 ringleaders were under surveillance for years beforehand, on the suspicion they were terrorists, by a variety of US and allied authorities - including the CIA, the US military's "Able Danger" program, the German authorities, Israeli intelligence and others. b. Two of the alleged ringleaders who were known to be under surveillance by the CIA also lived with an FBI asset in San Diego, but this is supposed to be yet another a coincidence.10) Obstruction of FBI Investigations prior to 9/11A group of FBI officials in New York systematically suppressed field investigations of potential terrorists that might have uncovered the alleged hijackers - as the Moussaoui case once again showed. The stories of Sibel Edmonds, Robert Wright, Coleen Rowley and Harry Samit, the "Phoenix Memo," David Schippers, the 199i orders restricting investigations, the Bush administration's order to back off the Bin Ladin family, the reaction to the "Bojinka" plot, and John O'Neil do not, when considered in sum, indicate mere incompetence, but high-level corruption and protection of criminal networks, including the network of the alleged 9/11 conspirators. (Nearly all of these examples were omitted from or relegated to fleeting footnotes in The 9/11 Commission Report.) 11) Insider Tradinga. Unknown speculators allegedly used foreknowledge of the Sept. 11th events to profiteer on many markets internationally - including but not limited to "put options" placed to short-sell the two airlines, WTC tenants, and WTC re-insurance companies in Chicago and London. b. In addition, suspicious monetary transactions worth hundreds of millions were conducted through offices at the Twin Towers during the actual attacks. c. Initial reports on these trades were suppressed and forgotten, and only years later did the 9/11 Commission and SEC provide a partial, but untenable explanation for only a small number of transactions (covering only the airline put options through the Chicago Board of Exchange). 12) Who were the perpetrators?a. Much of the evidence establishing who did the crime is dubious and miraculous: bags full of incriminating material that happened to miss the flight or were left in a van; the "magic passport" of an alleged hijacker, found at Ground Zero; documents found at motels where the alleged perpetrators had stayed days and weeks before 9/11. b. The identities of the alleged hijackers remain unresolved, there are contradictions in official accounts of their actions and travels, and there is evidence several of them had "doubles," all of which is omitted from official investigations.c. What happened to initial claims by the government that 50 people involved in the attacks had been identified, including the 19 alleged hijackers, with 10 still at large (suggesting that 20 had been apprehended)? http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-worldtrade-50suspects,0,1825231.storyTHE 9/11 COVER-UP, 2001-200613) Who Is Osama Bin Ladin?a. Who judges which of the many conflicting and dubious statements and videos attributed to Osama Bin Ladin are genuine, and which are fake? The most important Osama Bin Ladin video (Nov. 2001), in which he supposedly confesses to masterminding 9/11, appears to be a fake. In any event, the State Department's translation of it is fraudulent.b. Did Osama Bin Ladin visit Dubai and meet a CIA agent in July 2001 (Le Figaro)? Was he receiving dyalisis in a Pakistani military hospital on the night of September 10, 2001 (CBS)?c. Whether by Bush or Clinton: Why is Osama always allowed to escape?d. The terror network associated with Osama, known as the "data base" (al-Qaeda), originated in the CIA-sponsored 1980s anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan. When did this network stop serving as an asset to covert operations by US intelligence and allied agencies? What were its operatives doing in Kosovo, Bosnia and Chechnya in the years prior to 9/11? 14) All the Signs of a Systematic 9/11 Cover-upa. Airplane black boxes were found at Ground Zero, according to two first responders and an unnamed NTSB official, but they were "disappeared" and their existence is denied in The 9/11 Commission Report. b. US officials consistently suppressed and destroyed evidence (like the tapes recorded by air traffic controllers who handled the New York flights).c. Whistleblowers (like Sibel Edmonds and Anthony Shaffer) were intimidated, gagged and sanctioned, sending a clear signal to others who might be thinking about speaking out. d. Officials who "failed" (like Myers and Eberhard, as well as Frasca, Maltbie and Bowman of the FBI) were given promotions.15) Poisoning New YorkThe White House deliberately pressured the EPA into giving false public assurances that the toxic air at Ground Zero was safe to breathe. This knowingly contributed to an as-yet unknown number of health cases and fatalities, and demonstrates that the administration does consider the lives of American citizens to be expendable on behalf of certain interests.16) Disposing of the Crime Scene The rapid and illegal scrapping of the WTC ruins at Ground Zero disposed of almost all of the structural steel indispensable to any investigation of the collapse mechanics. (See also item no. 23, below.)17) AnthraxMailings of weapons-grade anthrax - which caused a practical suspension of the 9/11 investigations - were traced back to US military stock. Soon after the attacks began in October 2001, the FBI approved the destruction of the original samples of the Ames strain, disposing of perhaps the most important evidence in identifying the source of the pathogens used in the mailings. Were the anthrax attacks timed to coincide with the Afghanistan invasion? Why were the letters sent only to media figures and to the leaders of the opposition in the Senate (who had just raised objections to the USA PATRIOT Act)?18) The Stonewall a. Colin Powell promised a "white paper" from the State Department to establish the authorship of the attacks by al-Qaeda. This was never forthcoming, and was instead replaced by a paper from Tony Blair, which presented only circumstantial evidence, with very few points actually relating to September 11th.b. Bush and Cheney pressured the (freshly-anthraxed) leadership of the Congressional opposition into delaying the 9/11 investigation for months. The administration fought against the creation of an independent investigation for more than a year. c. The White House thereupon attempted to appoint Henry Kissinger as the chief investigator, and acted to underfund and obstruct the 9/11 Commission.19) A Record of Official Lies a. "No one could have imagined planes into buildings" - a transparent falsehood upheld repeatedly by Rice, Rumsfeld and Bush. b. "Iraq was connected to 9/11" - The most "outrageous conspiracy theory" of all, with the most disastrous impact.20) Pakistani Connection - Congressional Connectiona. The Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, creator of the Taliban and close ally to both the CIA and "al-Qaeda," allegedly wired $100,000 to Mohamed Atta just prior to September 11th, reportedly through the ISI asset Omar Saeed Sheikh (later arrested for the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was investigating ISI connections to "al-Qaeda.") b. This was ignored by the congressional 9/11 investigation, although the senator and congressman who ran the probe (Bob Graham and Porter Goss) were meeting with the ISI chief, Mahmud Ahmed, on Capitol Hill on the morning of September 11th.c. About 25 percent of the report of the Congressional Joint Inquiry was redacted, including long passages regarding how the attack (or the network allegedly behind it) was financed. Graham later said foreign allies were involved in financing the alleged terror network, but that this would only come out in 30 years.21) Unanswered Questions and the "Final Fraud" of the 9/11 Commission: a. The September 11th families who fought for and gained an independent investigation (the 9/11 Commission) posed 400-plus questions, which the 9/11 Commission adopted as its roadmap. The vast majority of these questions were completely ignored in the Commission hearings and the final report. b. The membership and staff of the 9/11 Commission displayed awesome conflicts of interest. The families called for the resignation of Executive Director Philip Zelikow, a Bush administration member and close associate of "star witness" Condoleezza Rice, and were snubbed. Commission member Max Cleland resigned, condemning the entire exercise as a "scam" and "whitewash." c.The 9/11 Commission Report is notable mainly for its obvious omissions, distortions and outright falsehoods - ignoring anything incompatible with the official story, banishing the issues to footnotes, and even dismissing the still-unresolved question of who financed 9/11 as being "of little practical significance."22) Crown Witnesses Held at Undisclosed Locations The alleged masterminds of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohamed (KSM) and Ramzi Binalshibh, are reported to have been captured in 2002 and 2003, although one Pakistani newspaper said KSM was killed in an attempted capture. They have been held at undisclosed locations and their supposed testimonies, as provided in transcript form by the government, form much of the basis for The 9/11 Commission Report (although the Commission's request to see them in person was denied). After holding them for years, why doesn't the government produce these men and put them to trial? 23) Spitzer Redux a. Eliot Spitzer, attorney general of New York State, snubbed pleas by New York citizens to open 9/11 as a criminal case (Justicefor911.org). b. Spitzer also refused to allow his employee, former 9/11 Commission staff member Dietrich Snell, to testify to the Congress about his (Snell's) role in keeping "Able Danger" entirely out of The 9/11 Commission Report.24) NIST OmissionsAfter the destruction of the WTC structural steel, the official Twin Towers collapse investigation was left with almost no forensic evidence, and thus could only provide dubious computer models of ultimately unprovable hypotheses. It failed to even test for the possibility of explosives. (Why not clear this up?)25) Radio SilenceThe 9/11 Commission and NIST both allowed the continuing cover-up of how Motorola's faulty radios, purchased by the Giuliani administration, caused firefighter deaths at the WTC - once again showing the expendability, even of the first responders.26) The Legal Catch-22a. Hush Money - Accepting victims' compensation barred September 11th families from pursuing discovery through litigation.b. Judge Hallerstein - Those who refused compensation to pursue litigation and discovery had their cases consolidated under the same judge (and as a rule dismissed).27) Saudi Connectionsa. The 9/11 investigations made light of the "Bin Ladin Airlift" during the no-fly period, and ignored the long-standing Bush family business ties to the Bin Ladin family fortune. (A company in which both families held interests, the Carlyle Group, was holding its annual meeting on September 11th, with George Bush Sr., James Baker, and two brothers of Osama Bin Ladin in attendance.) b. The issue of Ptech.28) Media Blackout of Prominent DoubtersThe official story has been questioned and many of the above points were raised by members of the US Congress, retired high-ranking officers of the US military, the three leading third-party candidates for President in the 2004 election, a member of the 9/11 Commission who resigned in protest, a former high-ranking adviser to the George W. Bush administration, former ministers to the German, British and Canadian governments, the commander-in-chief of the Russian air force, 100 luminaries who signed the "9/11 Truth Statement," and the presidents of Iran and Venezuela. Not all of these people agree fully with each other, but all would normally be considered newsworthy. Why has the corporate-owned US mass media remained silent about these statements, granting due coverage only to the comments of actor Charlie Sheen?GEOPOLITICS, TIMING AND POSSIBLE MOTIVES29) "The Great Game" The Afghanistan invasion was ready for Bush's go-ahead on September 9, 2001, with US and UK force deployments to the region already in place or underway. This followed the failure earlier that year of backdoor diplomacy with the Taliban (including payments of $125 million in US government aid to Afghanistan), in an attempt to secure a unity government for that country as a prerequisite to a Central Asian pipeline deal.30) The Need for a "New Pearl Harbor"Principals in US foreign policy under the current Bush administration (including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle and others) have been instrumental in developing long-running plans for worldwide military hegemony, including an invasion of the Middle East, dating back to the Ford, Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations. They reiterated these plans in the late 1990s as members of the "Project for a New American Century," and stated a clear intent to invade Iraq for the purpose of "regime change." After 9/11, they lost no time in their attempt to tie Iraq to the attacks.31) Perpetual "War on Terror"9/11 is supposed to provide carte-blanche for an open-ended, global and perpetual "War on Terror," against any enemy, foreign or domestic, that the executive branch chooses to designate, and regardless of whether evidence exists to actually connect these enemies to 9/11.32) Attacking the Constitutiona. The USA PATRIOT Act was written before 9/11, Homeland Security and the "Shadow Government" were developed long before 9/11, and plans for rounding up dissidents as a means for suppressing civil disturbance have been in the works for decades.b. 9/11 was used as the pretext to create a new, extra-constitutional executive authority to declare anyone an "enemy combatant" (including American citizens), to detain persons indefinitely without habeas corpus, and to "render" such persons to secret prisons where torture is practiced.33) Legal Trillions9/11 triggers a predictable shift of public spending to war, and boosts public and private spending in the "new" New Economy of "Homeland Security," biometrics, universal surveillance, prisons, civil defense, secured enclaves, security, etc.34) Plundered Trillions?On September 10, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld announced a "war on waste" after an internal audit found that the Pentagon was "missing" 2.3 trillion dollars in unaccounted assets. On September 11th, this was as good as forgotten.35) Did 9/11 prevent a stock market crash? Did anyone benefit from the destruction of the Securities and Exchange Commission offices at WTC 7, and the resultant crippling of hundreds of fraud investigations?36) Resource Wars a. What was discussed in the Energy Task Force meetings under Dick Cheney in 2001? Why is the documentation of these meetings still being suppressed? b. Is Peak Oil a motive for 9/11 as inside job?37) The "Little Game"Why was the WTC privatized just before its destruction?HISTORY38) "Al-CIA-da?" The longstanding relationship between US intelligence networks and radical Islamists, including the network surrounding Osama Bin Ladin. (See also point 13d.)39) Historical Precedents for "Synthetic Terror" a. In the past many states, including the US government, have sponsored attacks on their own people, fabricated the "cause for war," created (and armed) their own enemies of convenience, and sacrificed their own citizens for "reasons of state." b. Was 9/11 an update of the Pentagon-approved "Project Northwoods" plan for conducting self-inflicted, false-flag terror attacks in the United States, and blaming them on a foreign enemy?40) Secret Government a. The record of criminality and sponsorship of coups around the world by the covert networks based within the US intelligence complex.b. Specifically also: The evidence of crime by Bush administration principals and their associates, from October Surprise to Iran-Contra and the S&L plunder to PNAC, Enron/Halliburton and beyond.REASON NUMBER 41:RELATED MOVEMENTS AND PARALLEL ISSUESGround Zero aftermath movements: - Justice for the air-poisoning cover-up (wtceo.org)- "Radio Silence" (radiosilencefdny.com)- Skyscraper Safety (www.skyscrapersafety.org).Election fraud and black box voting, 2000 to 2004. (nov9truth.org)Lies to justify the invasion of Iraq. (afterdowningstreet.org)Use of depleted uranium and its multi-generational consequences on human health and the environment.Longstanding development of contingency plans for civil disturbance and military rule in the USA (See, "The War at Home")Oklahoma City Truth movement. (okctruth.org)Whether you call it "Globalization" or "The New World Order" - An unsustainable system of permanent growth ultimately requires warfare, fraud, and mass manipulation. GOING FORWARD ..."But an inside job would involve thousands of people! How could they keep a secret?" Counter-arguments, red herrings, speculations and false information.Selected essays, books and websites that make the case for 9/11 as inside job. (See Resources)Demanding a real investigation of the September crimes - Not just a patriotic duty, but a matter of survival.

PROTECTING THE TERRORISTS / ALLOWING THEM TO ATTACK
Order W199I-WF-213589 - FBI hindered in Al-Qaeda investigation
- US agents told to "back off" Bin Ladens (ANANOVA)- Bush Thwarted FBI probe against Bin Ladens (AFP)- FBI told to "back off" investigating Bin Laden family before the attacks on Sept. 11th: BBC Newsnight Video - Has someone been sitting on the FBI? BBC Newsnight transcript- Bush took FBI Agents of bin Laden family trail (TIMES OF INDIA)- FBI claims Bin Laden inquiry was frustrated (LONDON GUARDIAN)- FBI 'was told to back off bin Laden family' (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD)- Another FBI Agent Blows the Whistle on 9-11- FBI agent: I was stymied in terror probe- Whistleblower Complains of FBI Obstruction- Judicial Watch press conference featuring special FBI agent Robert Wright - impeded from terrorist investigations- Scandal Inside the FBI: Did G-Men Miss the Boat on 9-11?- SECTION OF W199I DOCUMENT FROM GREG PALAST'S BOOK 'THE BEST DEMOCRACY MONEY CAN BUY'- MINNESOTA FBI AGENTS WERE OBSTRUCTED IN PRE-SEPT. 11 TERRORIST INVESTIGATION BY 'HIGHER-UPS'- FBI Lawyer Tells of Terror 'Roadblock'- Minneapolis agent says FBI headquarters rewrote requests for search warrants for Moussaoui- Agent Claims FBI Supervisor Thwarted Probe- Agent blasts FBI over 11 September 'cover-up'- Angry FBI agents joked about al Qaeda mole at HQ- Another FBI Agent Blows the Whistle - New evidence that the Bureau quashed another terror probe before 9/11- FBI Agent: Bureau Prevented Terror Probe- The ignored warning: FBI officer prevented from prosecuting future 9/11 hijacker - FBI AGENT ROBERT WRIGHT SAYS FBI AGENTS ASSIGNED TO INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS CONTINUE TO PROTECT TERRORISTS FROM CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS
Terrorists trained at US flight schools
- Venice Airport Used for Covert Ops: What they're hiding down in Venice, Florida - MadCowMorningNews coverage of Venice flight schools - Pensacola NAS Link Faces More Scrutiny- Alleged Hijackers May Have Trained At US Bases- FBI Knew Terrorists were Using Flight Schools- Did Terrorist Pilots Train at U.S. Military Schools?- Visas for terrorist pilots surface- Six months later, hijackers' visas arrive at flight school- 6 Months Late, I.N.S. Notifies Flight School of Hijackers' Visas- Bush 'displeased' over hijackers' visas- Reaction of Senator Patrick Leahy to FBI warnings about terrorists being trained at US flight schools- Alert FBI agent gave heads-up in July on Arabs in aviation- FBI Warned of Training Before 11th- FBI Agent Warned of Suspicious Flight Students Last Summer- FBI cover-up of Mohamed Atta's last days- Bin Laden: the former CIA 'client' obsessed with training pilots- Hijack Plot Suspicions Raised With FBI in Aug.- Flight school memo wasn't passed on- Senator seeks Sept. 11 FBI investigation - Pre-Attack Memo Cited Bin Laden- Author of FBI Memo Praised for Expertise- F.B.I. Knew for Years About Terror Pilot Training- FBI Pigeonholed Agent's Request - Canvassing of Flight Schools For Al Qaeda Was Rejected- Agent told CIA of flight students- Agent Linked Pilot Trainees, Bin Laden- Terrorist Ties Cited in Memo- Justice Probed FBI on 9/11 Memo- Visa scam at US Embassy allowed terrorists with links to 9/11 to enter country illegally
Why the attacks occurred on September 11th: '9- 11 Drills'
- On 9/11, CIA Was Running Simulation of a Plane Crashing into a Building- Agency was to simulate plane crash on 9-11 (AirDisaster.com article, Google cache)- Aviation Week's Aviation Week & Space Technology Article (NORAD Drill, Google cache) - The U.S. Government, Not the Hijackers, 'Chose' the Date of the 9-11 Attacks- U.S. SPY Satellite Agency’s Mock 9/11 Drill Exposes Administration Lies
Protection of Zacarias Moussaoui
The Moussaoui-Chechen Coverup [1] [2] [3]- Access Denied - Minneapolis FBI agents impeded in terrorist investigations by Justice Department- The '20th' hijacker had been a suspect for years - but he was ignored by intelligence agencies- FAA security took no action against Moussaoui - Flight School Warned F.B.I. of Suspicions- Back in the Lion's Mouth - The INS had two chances to nab Mohamed Atta. It failed both times.- FAA security took no action against Moussaoui- Moussaoui Probe Pushed U.S. Limits- Eagan flight trainer wouldn't let unease about Moussaoui rest- Could It Have Been Stopped? (CBS report on Moussaoui issue)- CIA Learned of Moussaoui Under Alias- Agent Cited WTC Attack Ahead of 9/11
Terrorist base in UK protected
- Terror links in Europe: MI5 knew for years of London mosque's role- Warnings on jail Muslims were ignored by ministers- London Mosque Leader: We Warned About Radicals- MI5 blunders over bomber
Making it easy for the terrorists to attack
- The Hijackers We Let Escape- Hijackers 'trailed by CIA before attacks'- Report: CIA Knew Two Sept. 11 Hijackers Were in U.S.- September 11 hijacker questioned in January 2001- CIA complicit on September 11? (MICHAEL SPRINGMAN INTERVIEW)- FBI Let Suspected Terrorist Get Away- Anti-terror Prober: OKC Bombing Suspect Worked at 9-11 Airport- Terror Charity Got Fortune 500 Cash- Screening system ignored nationality - INS Action Ruled a Violation of Whistle-Blower Protections (Borders wide open)- Armed pilots banned 2 months before 9-11 - FAA rescinded rule allowing guns in cockpits just before terror attacks- Armed-pilot rule nixed after hijack briefing - Agency removed cockpit gun right despite July al-Qaida warning
Questionable ties
- A Qaeda Terrorist worked with FBI - Ex-Silicon Valley Resident Plotted Embassy Attacks- Taliban Defector was a CIA Informant for Years- Bush's Favorite Terrorist Buddy- Bin Laden's Brother in Law 'An Irish Citizen'- Pakistan ISI spy service 'aiding Bin Laden' (Who runs the ISI? Answer - the CIA)- Was it an ‘intelligence failure’ to give red carpet treatment to the ‘money man’ behind the 9-11 terrorists?- Our 'allies' Saudi Arabia and Pakistan both paid £200 million+ in protection money to bin Laden - India helped FBI trace ISI-terrorist links (White House 9/11 attendee Mahmud Ahmad hotwired $100,000 to lead hijacker) - Is there more to Sen. Graham's claim of a 9-11 cover-up than meets the eye?
Protection of terrorists post-9/11
- The 'airlift of evil' - Why did we let Pakistan pull ‘volunteers’ out of Kunduz?- THE GETAWAY - Questions surround a secret Pakistani airlift- US helped Taliban to safety, magazine claims- US 'let Taleban men escape'- US rejected Iraq offer to turn over alleged World Trade Center bomber- Nuclear plot suspects freed after mix-up- Arab flight students streaming into U.S.- U.S. delayed blacklisting Pakistani al-Qaida group- Sept. 11 Charity Gave Money to Group Defending Terror Suspects- Bin Laden narrowly escaped US raid in Pak : Report (How convenient)- Blunders that let bin Laden slip away- Amnesty plan helps detainees, foes say (terrorists welcome here)- State Dept.: Terrorists Still Welcome Here- Report: CIA Missed Chance to Nab Terrorist- Sheltering A Puppet Master? - Al-Qaida suspect 'hidden by UK agents'- Don't arrest terrorists, INS tells airport agents- Easing sanctions on bin Laden associates urged- How bin Laden's huge convoy gave American forces the slip - Afghans still marvel that 1,000 cars and lorries escaped
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE / WARNINGS IGNORED
CIA meeting with bin Laden
- CIA Agent Met Bin Laden In July (LONDON EVENING STANDARD)- Radio reports new CIA-Bin Laden details (UPI/WASHINGTON TIMES)- Bin Laden Treated in US Hospital (UPI/WASHINGTON TIMES)- La CIA aurait recontre Ben Laden en juillet - Original Le Figaro article in French)- CIA Would Have Met bin Laden in July - Direct Translation From French Le Figaro Article- CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July (LONDON GUARDIAN)- Bin Laden 'met CIA agent before terror attacks' (ANANOVA)- OSAMA BIN LADEN CONTACTED CIA SHORTLY BEFORE TERRORIST ATTACKS (PRAVDA)- Bin Laden Underwent Treatment in July at Dubai American Hospital: Reports (AFP)- CIA Says It Didn't Meet With bin Laden (NEWSMAX/UPI)- Picture of original Le Figaro front page with Bin Laden CIA story
Operation Bojinka / Planes as Bombs
- FBI Charged With Ignoring Repeated Warnings Of Plane-As-Bomb Threat- Hijacker's Plans Were Called 'Project Bojinka' - Were KNOWN TO U.S.- Western Intel Knew bin Laden's Plan Since 1995 - German paper- Filipino police uncover 1995 leads to Sept. 11 plot- Operation Bojinka's bombshell- U.S. warned in 1995 of plot to hijack planes, attack buildings- Bust and Boom (Operation Bojinka)- U.S. Knew of Suicide Hijack Threat in 1995- Abu’s long-standing ties to global terrorism bared- Probe: U.S. Knew of Jet Terror Plots
Warnings Ignored
- MI6 WARNED U.S. OF AL-QAEDA ATTACKS- September 11 attacks called avoidable- America warned two years ago over "September 11": report- NSA Missed A Big Warning- NSA didn't share key pre-Sept. 11 information, sources say- SENATE BIG REVEALS MORE 9/11 WARNINGS- New York Times pulled Al-Qaeda warning- U.S. had agents inside al-Qaeda- Wiretaps May Have Foretold Terror Attacks- Condoleezza Rice Warned Sept. 6 About Imminent Terror Attack (by CFR member Hart)- U.S. Ignored Warnings From French- FBI Was Warned of Sept. 11 Hijacker (Knew phone number, address, car of Hanjour)- Britain warned US to expect September 11 al-Qaeda hijackings- US AUTHORITIES WERE WARNED ABOUT THE TERRORIST ACTS - EVEN BY ARABS- Bulletins warned airports in '98- FAA Warned of bin Laden in 1998- FAA SAT ON PRE-9/11 WARNING- Ashcroft drawn into row over September 11- Bush was given hijack warning by British intelligence - In Sept. 15 interview with NBC, Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged the administration had received warnings- What Went Wrong: A chilling question - did Sept 11 have to happen?- Washington was 'warned of hijack risk'- GENOA: US and Italian officials alerted to possibility of suicide hijackings - Bush warned directly- 1999 Report Warned of Suicide Hijack- For years, signs suggested 'that something was up'- What did the FBI know?- Bush Administration Explanations for Pre-9-11 Warnings Fail the Smell Test- Bush Told of Possible Hijack Plot Before Sept. 11- Bush Was Told of Hijacking Dangers- Congress Eyes Reaction to Pre-Sept. 11 Warnings- Echelon gave authorities warning of attacks- Alex Jones interview with respected lawyer David Schippers - Government had prior knowledge- Middle East-OKC connection David Schippers tells Metcalf feds 'ignored' warnings of WTC attacks- US Ignored Pending Terror attack Warning Says Former FBI Official- Bin Laden Tipped His Hand- CIA Cited Risk Before Attack- Bush Did Not Heed Several Warnings of Attacks- Skolnick - US Had Prior Knowledge Of Emergency- PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT - U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE - 7TH SEPTEMBER (SAYING BIN LADEN WAS ABOUT TO ATTACK)- Egypt Leader Says He Warned America- Egypt Warned U.S. of a Qaeda Plot, Mubarak Asserts- Who Did It? Warnings About bin Laden’s Group- Early Warnings Pre-Sept. 11 Cautions Went Unheeded- CIA 'ignored warning' on al Qaeda- What We Knew: Warning Given......Story Missed- Feds: Evidence suggests hijackers' support in U.S.- CIA, FBI Disagree on Urgency of Warning- FBI Ignored Warnings of Fanatical Student Pilot- German police confirm Iranian deportee phoned warnings- U.S. Commission on National Security warned Bush- U.S. Identified Some Elements of Hijack Plot in Advance- Earlier Hijackings Offered Signals That Were Missed- The failure of government- Warning signs - Should officials have known the terror attacks were coming?- Transcript: Actor James Woods on O'Reilly (9/11 hijackers do a dry run - FBI warned - nothing happens)- The warnings about Sept. 11- FBI 'ignored leads'- Jim Pavitt admits CIA foreknowledge of 9/11 - "We knew and we warned that al Qaeda was planning a major strike."- We've Hit the Targets (Newsweek reports that top Pentagon officials were warned and cancelled flights on September 10th)- Many Say U.S. Planned for Terror but Failed to Take Action- Argentinians Say They Heard Terror Alert Weeks Before 9/11- Canada had hint of trouble pre-Sept. 11- Missed Chance - A wasted FBI asset?- German Intelligence Report warned Bush of exact date of terrorist attack- Moroccan secret agent 'predicted New York attack'- Spy chiefs warned ministers of al-Qaeda attacks- Officials: Sept. 11 attacks were planned since 1998- US Heard 'Tomorrow Is Zero Hour' on Eve of Attacks- NSA Intercepts On Eve of 9/11 Sent a Warning- Panel: '98 meeting foresaw 9/11 attack- Military analyst's terror warning fell on deaf ears - 'Ignorant and inept' FBI failed to heed warning of terrorist attacks- P ilot Said to Boast of Murder Year Before Sept 11 - "In addition the words 'World Trade Center' were mentioned."- Taleban 'warned US of huge attack'- Did the U.S. Ignore Warning of 9-11 Attack? US State Department Official Told by Taliban Aide of Huge and Imminent Attack in July 2001- Prior Knowledge of Sept. 11 Not Just Urban Legend- U.S. Knew of Terror Cell Before 9/11: Probe of Men Began After Return From Afghanistan in 2001- US 'failed to heed' terror warnings- Congress Was Warned Two Months Before 9/11 Attacks- U.S. ignored terror signals, inquiry says- CIA Knew About 3 Hijackers in 2000 - 9/11 Inquiry- Alert on hijackers not 'urgent'- Sept. 11 Hijacker Made Test Flights- In April 2000, a man entered the FBI field office in Newark and detailed how he was involved in a plot by Osama bin Laden to hijack a Boeing 747

OTHER / MISC.
- Carl Cameron's Special Report (FOXNews Video)- JINSA Behind Drive To Cover-Up Israeli Spy Scandal- Spies, or students?- Israeli 'Art' Deportees Were IDF Intel, Intercept, Explosives Experts- THE FIVE ARRESTED ISRAELIS: THE FULL STORY- HUNDREDS OF MOSSAD AGENTS CAUGHT RUNNING WILD IN AMERICA!- THE ISRAELI SPY RING SCANDAL- U.S. Army Officers Say: 'Mossad May Blame Arabs'- THE ISRAELI "MOVERS" FILE- ABC News: Were Israelis Detained on Sept. 11 Spies?- 9/11: What did Israel know? and when did they tell us?- BBC reports on Israeli spy ring with foreknowledge of 9/11- Odigo says workers were warned of attack- Instant Messages To Israel Warned Of WTC Attack- Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large scale terror attacks- Massive Israeli Spy Ring Linked to Sept. 11- Mossad warned CIA of attacks - report- U.S. Breaks Up Major Israeli Spy Ring; Speculation: Mossad Was Aware of Sept. 11 Preparations- Did Mossad Know?
Enron / Taliban in Texas
- ENRON-BUSH-HARVARD-WTC-OIL CONNECTION - Taliban in Texas for talks on gas pipeline- 'Either you accept our offer of a carpet of gold, or we bury you under a carpet of bombs.'- Enron-FedGov Corruption: CIA Used in Corp Espionage, Rackets- The Enron Collapse And The Bush/Republican Connections- Finishing the Jigsaw Puzzle
Highly Suspicious Activity
- Pre-911 N ORAD Exercise Focused on airborne terrorism/planes crashing into buildings- EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBER 01-261 (Jeb Bush declares martial law 4 days before September 11th)- Five of the hijackers lived in a motel right outside the gates of the NSA - The FBI Informant Who Lived With the Hijackers - Sources: Hijackers' ex-landlord was FBI informant- Pentagon officials cancelled September 11 flying plans day before (10th paragraph down)- Bin Laden's Trail - Rushdie Air Ban (banned from flying from September 3rd)- Willie Brown got low-key warning about air travel- US Pulled Plug On 500 Arab/Muslim Websites Day Before Jetliner Attacks- FBI denies internet raid was anti-Arab- Ashcroft Flying High (Ashcroft told to avoid commercial airliners in Summer of 2001)- Trade Center Warning Baffles Police- Some Got Warning: Don't Go Downtown on Sept. 11- Police: Student spoke of attacks before Sept. 11 - No Prior Warning At WTC On 911? WTC Corporate Casualties Correction Reopens Question of Conspiracy or Complacency- PENTAGON WAS PREPARING FOR CRASH SCENARIO IN NOVEMBER 2000- Bush and Atta Visit Same Resort in the Hours Leading to 9-11
Insider Trading Immediately Prior to 9-11
- German Firm Probes Final World Trade Center Deals- Mystery of terror 'insider dealers'- Suppressed Details of Criminal Insider Trading Leads Directly Into The CIA's Highest Ranks- PROFITS OF DEATH - INSIDER TRADING AND 9-11- PROFITS OF DEATH - PART 2 - TRADING WITH THE ENEMY- PROFITS OF DEATH - PART 3 - ALL ROADS LEAD TO DEUSTCHEBANK AND HARKEN ENERGY- SHADY TRADER EYED FOR 9/11 TIP- Lawyer: Accused Man Knew of Attacks- What did 'Tony' know on September 10?- Feds: Ex-Agent Had Key Data - Stock scam charges have eerie link- Still Silence From 9-11 Stock Speculation Probe- Stock trader targeted in Sept. 11 probe agrees to return to New York

2006-09-07T20:31:00.000-07:00

Mandatory Military Terms for Every American. (view more)
Bush to Order Troops to Mexican Border. (view more)
Rice & Rumsfeld Block From Secret Detainees. (view more)
Immigration Rally in Seattle - May 1, 2006 (view more)
Bush Ratings at all time low. (view more)
1397 Failures of the Bush Administration. (view more)
Life
I support all of our Troops, except this asshole. (view more)
Remember. (view more)
Letter from an illiterate Floridian. (view more)
Why do they do it? (view more)
More Hate Mail!! (not quite as retarded) (view more)
How Daddy Bush REALLY Feels. (view more)
Do You support Animal Testing?? (view more)
VOTE FOR IMPEACHMENTClick to Vote!
Why, you ask, should Bush fuck himself?
For 1,900+ dead American soldiers. 15,000+ American soldiers wounded. Countless numbers of innocent Iraqi civilians dead. ("We don't do body counts.") For what? For nothing.
For doing squat since 9/11 to make us safer here at home.
For the policies that have led to the tripling of global terrorist attacks around the world.
For seizing on the fear that surged across this country post-9/11 to push your unjustified, unnecessary war on Iraq. Mushroom clouds anyone?
For "fixing the facts around the policy."
For flat-out lying about WMDs. And soooo many other things.
For joking about those missing WMDs while soldiers were still dying. Yep, that was hilarious.
For attempting to conduct a 'war on the cheap'.
For not putting enough troops on the ground in the first place.
For not properly equipping our troops before sending them to war.
For failing completely to plan for or understand the post-invasion chaos and insurgency. Rumsfeld's explanation? "Stuff happens."
For not firing Donald Rumsfeld.
For losing track of $1 billion in Iraq earlier this week, added to the $8.8 billion you lost earlier. And hey, how about the $300 billion already spent on this endeavor? We can pretty much consider that 'lost' too, can't we? $300 billion... that's like an entire hurricane.
For approving the interrogation practices that led to torture at Abu Ghraib.
For the August 6, 2001 PDB which stated "Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S."
For being too busy 'clearing brush' to pay attention to that memo.
For clearing brush. Period.
For 'My Pet Goat'.
For continuing to cover-up 9/11 failures.
By the way, where is Osama?
For that bullshit bullhorn moment.
For squandering the good will the world showered upon us after 9/11.
For turning so many goddam corners in Iraq that we're now running in circles with no way out.
For sending America's children to be blowed up when you yourself spent the Vietnam era swilling beer in Alabama.
For the Swift Boat attacks.
For Karl fucking Rove.
For rushing back to DC from your ranch to &..39;rescue' Terri Schiavo.
For fiddling at your ranch while not rescuing the entire city of New Orleans.
For having the audacity to link anything, including Hurricane Katrina, to the War (Struggle?) on Terror in order to justify your policies.
For continuing to reward loyalty over competency, moving forward with your policy of cronyism (and nepotism!) even in the face of the Michael 'Heckuvajob' Brownie debacle
For continuing to allow the crooks and thieves who permeate your party to run wild.
For having Lynyrd Skynyrd on your iPod.
For completely ignoring the environment.
For saying "the jury is still out" on Global Warming.
For saying "the jury is still out" on Evolution.
For thinking Jesus Christ was a philosopher. And a Republican.
For being the only president ever to cut taxes during wartime. And for cutting them in such a way that the richest 1% benefit the most.
For continuing to insist on making those tax cuts permanent, even in the face of a $200 billion+ reconstruction effort in New Orleans.
For proposing cuts to benefits for military families to pay for that reconstruction instead.
For repeatedly treating disaster as an opportunity.
For an all-time high trade deficit nearing $700 billion.
For the 7 percent decrease in real value of minimum wage over the past four years.
For the 11 percent increase in poverty over the past four years.
For four straight years in which median household incomes have not increased.
For the 6 million more uninsured Americans created in the last four years.
For hiding the true cost of your Medicare prescription drug bill until it was already passed.
For ramming through a transportation bill filled with a record amount of pork to support such "special projects" as Alaskan Don Young's "bridges to nowhere".
For pushing through an energy bill which includes billions in tax breaks for your oily friends as gas prices continue to soar.
For treating your failed war as though it were a charity, asking Americans for donations to support it. Talk about last throes.
For ignoring real crises while claiming a "crisis" in Social Security when there isn't one.
For being a divider, not a uniter.
For fueling discrimination and hatred of homosexuals by pushing the frivolous idea of a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in order to polarize the electorate so you could win re-election.
For "Mission Accomplished"
For "Bring 'em on"
For "Last Throes"
For "We'll be greeted as liberators"
For "Smoke 'em out"
For "Watch me hit this drive"
For generally being an asshole.

2006-09-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

Bush Can Fuck Himself
Blog and News about the Bush Administration and their failures including the war in Iraq. Highly Critical of George W. Bush and his cabal.

THE TOP 40 REASONS TO DOUBT THE OFFICIAL STORY OF SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001 ...

2006-09-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

2006-09-07T20:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Senate Democratic leadership threatens Disney with legal and legislative sanctions
by John in DC -

This letter was sent today by the entire Democratic leadership of the US Senate. This letter is such a major shot across the bow of Disney, it's not even funny. It is FILLED with veiled threats, both legal and legislative, against Disney. US Senators don't make threats like this, especially the entire Democratic leadership en masse, unless they mean it. Disney is in serious trouble.

Read it, then read my analysis of it below:
September 7, 2006

Mr. Robert A. Iger
President and CEO
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank CA 91521

Dear Mr. Iger,

We write with serious concerns about the planned upcoming broadcast of The Path to 9/11 mini-series on September 10 and 11. Countless reports from experts on 9/11 who have viewed the program indicate numerous and serious inaccuracies that will undoubtedly serve to misinform the American people about the tragic events surrounding the terrible attacks of that day. Furthermore, the manner in which this program has been developed, funded, and advertised suggests a partisan bent unbecoming of a major company like Disney and a major and well respected news organization like ABC. We therefore urge you to cancel this broadcast to cease Disney’s plans to use it as a teaching tool in schools across America through Scholastic. Presenting such deeply flawed and factually inaccurate misinformation to the American public and to children would be a gross miscarriage of your corporate and civic responsibility to the law, to your shareholders, and to the nation.

The Communications Act of 1934 provides your network with a free broadcast license predicated on the fundamental understanding of your principle obligation to act as a trustee of the public airwaves in serving the public interest. Nowhere is this public interest obligation more apparent than in the duty of broadcasters to serve the civic needs of a democracy by promoting an open and accurate discussion of political ideas and events.

Disney and ABC claim this program to be based on the 9/11 Commission Report and are using that assertion as part of the promotional campaign for it. The 9/11 Commission is the most respected American authority on the 9/11 attacks, and association with it carries a special responsibility. Indeed, the very events themselves on 9/11, so tragic as they were, demand extreme care by any who attempt to use those events as part of an entertainment or educational program. To quote Steve McPhereson, president of ABC Entertainment, “When you take on the responsibility of telling the story behind such an important event, it is absolutely critical that you get it right.”

Unfortunately, it appears Disney and ABC got it totally wrong.

Despite claims by your network’s representatives that The Path to 9/11 is based on the report of the 9/11 Commission, 9/11 Commissioners themselves, as well as other experts on the issues, disagree.

Richard Ben-Veniste, speaking for himself and fellow 9/11 Commissioners who recently viewed the program, said, “As we were watching, we were trying to think how they could have misinterpreted the 9/11 Commission’s findings the way that they had.” [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]

Richard Clarke, the former counter-terrorism czar, and a national security advisor to ABC has described the program as “deeply flawed” and said of the program’s depiction of a Clinton official hanging up on an intelligence agent, “It’s 180 degrees from what happened.” [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]

Reports suggest that an FBI agent who worked on 9/11 and served as a consultant to ABC on this program quit halfway through because, “he thought they were making things up.” [MSNBC, September 7, 2006]

Even Thomas Kean, who serves as a paid consultant to the miniseries, has admitted that scenes in the film are fictionalized. [“9/11 Miniseries Is Criticized as Inaccurate and Biased,” New York Times, September 6, 2006]

That Disney would seek to broadcast an admittedly and proven false recounting of the events of 9/11 raises serious questions about the motivations of its creators and those who approved the deeply flawed program. Finally, that Disney plans to air commercial-free a program that reportedly cost it $40 million to produce serves to add fuel to these concerns.

These concerns are made all the more pressing by the political leaning of and the public statements made by the writer/producer of this miniseries, Mr. Cyrus Nowrasteh, in promoting this miniseries across conservative blogs and talk shows.

Frankly, that ABC and Disney would consider airing a program that could be construed as right-wing political propaganda on such a grave and important event involving the security of our nation is a discredit both to the Disney brand and to the legacy of honesty built at ABC by honorable individuals from David Brinkley to Peter Jennings. Furthermore, that Disney would seek to use Scholastic to promote this misguided programming to American children as a substitute for factual information is a disgrace.

As 9/11 Commission member Jamie Gorelick said, “It is critically important to the safety of our nation that our citizens, and particularly our school children, understand what actually happened and why – so that we can proceed from a common understanding of what went wrong and act with unity to make our country safer.”

Should Disney allow this programming to proceed as planned, the factual record, millions of viewers, countless schoolchildren, and the reputation of Disney as a corporation worthy of the trust of the American people and the United States Congress will be deeply damaged. We urge you, after full consideration of the facts, to uphold your responsibilities as a respected member of American society and as a beneficiary of the free use of the public airwaves to cancel this factually inaccurate and deeply misguided program. We look forward to hearing back from you soon.

Sincerely,

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin
Senator Debbie Stabenow
Senator Charles Schumer
Senator Byron Dorgan
The Senate Democratic leadership just threatened Disney's broadcast license. Not the use of the word "trustee" at the beginning of the letter and "trust" at the end. This is nothing less than an implicit threat that if Disney tries to meddle in the US elections on behalf of the Republicans, they will pay a very serious price when the Democrats get back in power, or even before.

This raises the stakes incredibly for Disney.

2006-09-07T20:07:00.000-07:00

George Bush erased any remaining doubt that he is exploiting the struggle against terrorism for his own political gains when he announced the transfer of several key leaders from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo for trials.
The most obvious sign is the fact that he made his big announcement the same day Democrats tried to bring a vote of no confidence against Donald Rumsfeld. Even though the measure was killed by Republicans, Democrats managed to achieve one of their most public and direct criticisms of the Administration's handling of Iraq to date. Yet Bush just so happened to conveniently make his big announcement on the same day and Rummy got an undeserved pass.
By itself, Bush's admission would evoke fear and suspicion: we have been holding several people for several years in secret prisons across the world without any charges. With the all detainee abuse in known prisons like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, one can only imagine what sorts of things went on when even the locations were hidden. After all, part of the point of international prisoner transfers is to keep people in places where torture is allowed.
However, when Bush parades his few terrorist trophy captures and then offers a seemingly magnanimous claim that they will all get hearings, people start to forget the whole secret prison part. Worse, some might even think it is all justified.
The truth is that Bush is not suddenly becoming progressive or reasonable; he's just as obstinate as ever. He tortured the suspects and is now hoping to subject them to as draconian a trial as the Supreme Court will let him get away with.
Bush's confession has also succeeded in further alienating us from our allies. The European Union has demanded that Bush disclose the locations of our secret prisons while foreign newspapers and politicians have blasted the Administration's arrogance.Consider this excerpt from a Japanese report:
In Europe, the head of a European investigation into alleged CIA prisons in Europe said he believed the timing of Bush's disclosure was politically motivated. "It probably has to do with the fact that the elections are coming up in the United States," said Swiss senator Dick Marty.Marty said Bush's speech was "just one piece of the truth," without elaborating. "There is more, much more to be revealed," he added.
Planning stump speeches and rallies is one thing, coordinating CIA and military procedure around your political schedule is something else. This isn't the first time a big counter-terrorism announcement was made on or around damaging events, and it won't be the last. Our intelligence and justice services are not there just to keep Republicans in office. If Bush were really interested in national security, he would stop this exploitation.This isn't about being "soft" against terrorists. If they killed people, or tried to, they belong in jail just like any other criminal. But there is nothing unreasonable about demanding reasonable doubt be proven before punishing someone. That is one of the staples of our own Constitution.If Bush were not so stubborn and conniving, all of our detainees could have started serving their sentences years ago. Instead, he is determined not to show an iota of compromise or sensibility, and we are forced to spend more time dealing with how Bush is abusing prisoners than catching news ones.

All about joshua angell...

2006-09-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

Joshua Angell, also known as Josh Angell (born June 3, 1979), is an outspoken Liberal activist who has run a news blog since 2004, entitled "Voice Of The Majority" which may be viewed at http://voiceofthemajority.blogspot.com
Angell, a frequent caller to radio shows such as Lynn Samuels, The Al Franken Show and The Majority Report- among many others, is often outspoken on what he calls "the lies of the Bush Crime Family". Known locally in Austin, Texas to appear at rallies and anti-war demonstrations, Angell is self described as "The most famous gay activist in Austin that everybody knows OF but nobody KNOWS".
Partnering in campaigns with the ever-running for anything and everything far-left transexual, Jennifer Gale, Angell is best known for his signature gathering for the most extreme left candidates.
Shortly after the 2004 elections, Josh stood at the intersection of Austin's busiest roadways, (IH 35 at Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd) holding a Gay Pride Flag and self-made signs of dissent to the Bush Adminstration, frequently shouting at cars as they drove by that "the 2004 Presidential election was stolen electronically!... Where's the outrage!".
It was rumored in late 2005 that Angell was soon to debut a public access television show, but it has never aired.
Joshua is originally from Chicago, but moved to Austin in 2000. He is often known for wanting to move out of Texas, but has yet to do it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Angell"

2006-08-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

THE TOP 40 REASONS TO DOUBT THE OFFICIAL STORY OF SEPTEMBER 11th, 2001 ...
An outline in simple talking points ... This overview is in development. If you use the search function with key words, you will discover that 911Truth.org is home to articles backing virtually every point made below. Much of the basic research is available at the Complete 9/11 Timeline (hosted by cooperativeresearch.org), the 9/11 Reading Room (911readingroom.org), and the Spitzer petition and complaint (Justicefor911.org). For physical evidence discussion, see Point 7. THE DAY ITSELF - EVIDENCE OF COMPLICITY1) AWOL Chain of Commanda. It is well documented that the officials topping the chain of command for response to a domestic attack - George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Myers, Montague Winfield - all found reason to do something else during the actual attacks, other than assuming their duties as decision-makers. b. Who was actually in charge? Dick Cheney, Richard Clarke, Norman Mineta and the 9/11 Commission directly conflict in their accounts of top-level response to the unfolding events, such that several (or all) of them must be lying.
2) Air Defense Failuresa. The US air defense system failed to follow standard procedures for responding to diverted passenger flights. b. Timelines: The various responsible agencies - NORAD, FAA, Pentagon, USAF, as well as the 9/11 Commission - gave radically different explanations for the failure (in some cases upheld for years), such that several officials must have lied; but none were held accountable. c. Was there an air defense standdown?
3) Pentagon StrikeHow was it possible the Pentagon was hit 1 hour and 20 minutes after the attacks began? Why was there no response from Andrews Air Force Base, just 10 miles away and home to Air National Guard units charged with defending the skies above the nation's capital? How did Hani Hanjour, a man who failed as a Cessna pilot on his first flight in a Boeing, execute a difficult aerobatic maneuver to strike the Pentagon? Why did the attack strike the just-renovated side, which was largely empty and opposite from the high command? 4) Wargamesa. US military and other authorities planned or actually rehearsed defensive response to all elements of the 9/11 scenario during the year prior to the attack - including multiple hijackings, suicide crashbombings, and a strike on the Pentagon. b. The multiple military wargames planned long in advance and held on the morning of September 11th included scenarios of a domestic air crisis, a plane crashing into a government building, and a large-scale emergency in New York. If this was only an incredible series of coincidences, why did the official investigations avoid the issue? There is evidence that the wargames created confusion as to whether the unfolding events were "real world or exercise." Did wargames serve as the cover for air defense sabotage, and/or the execution of an "inside job"?5) Flight 93Did the Shanksville crash occur at 10:06 (according to a seismic report) or 10:03 (according to the 9/11 Commission)? Does the Commission wish to hide what happened in the last three minutes of the flight, and if so, why? Was Flight 93 shot down, as indicated by the scattering of debris over a trail of several miles?THE DAY - POSSIBLE SMOKING GUNS
6) Did cell phones work at 30,000 feet in 2001? How many hijackings were attempted? How many flights were diverted?
7) Demolition HypothesisWhat caused the collapse of a third skyscraper, WTC 7, which was not hit by a plane? Were the Twin Towers and WTC 7 brought down by explosives? (See "The Case for Demolitions," the websites wtc7.net and 911research.wtc7.net, and the influential article by physicist Steven Jones. See also items no. 16 and 24, below.) FOREKNOWLEDGE & THE ALLEGED HIJACKERS 8) What did officials know? How did they know it?a. Multiple allied foreign agencies informed the US government of a coming attack in detail, including the manner and likely targets of the attack, the name of the operation (the "Big Wedding"), and the names of certain men later identified as being among the perpetrators.b. Various individuals came into possession of specific advance knowledge, and some of them tried to warn the US prior to September 11th.c. Certain prominent persons received warnings not to fly on the week or on the day of September 11th.9) Able Danger, Plus - Surveillance of Alleged Hijackersa. The men identified as the 9/11 ringleaders were under surveillance for years beforehand, on the suspicion they were terrorists, by a variety of US and allied authorities - including the CIA, the US military's "Able Danger" program, the German authorities, Israeli intelligence and others. b. Two of the alleged ringleaders who were known to be under surveillance by the CIA also lived with an FBI asset in San Diego, but this is supposed to be yet another a coincidence.
10) Obstruction of FBI Investigations prior to 9/11A group of FBI officials in New York systematically suppressed field investigations of potential terrorists that might have uncovered the alleged hijackers - as the Moussaoui case once again showed. The stories of Sibel Edmonds, Robert Wright, Coleen Rowley and Harry Samit, the "Phoenix Memo," David Schippers, the 199i orders restricting investigations, the Bush administration's order to back off the Bin Ladin family, the reaction to the "Bojinka" plot, and John O'Neil do not, when considered in sum, indicate mere incompetence, but high-level corruption and protection of criminal networks, including the network of the alleged 9/11 conspirators. (Nearly all of these examples were omitted from or relegated to fleeting footnotes in The 9/11 Commission Report.) 11) Insider Tradinga. Unknown speculators allegedly used foreknowledge of the Sept. 11th events to profiteer on many markets internationally - including but not limited to "put options" placed to short-sell the two airlines, WTC tenants, and WTC re-insurance companies in Chicago and London. b. In addition, suspicious monetary transactions worth hundreds of millions were conducted through offices at the Twin Towers during the actual attacks. c. Initial reports on these trades were suppressed and forgotten, and only years later did the 9/11 Commission and SEC provide a partial, but untenable explanation for only a small number of transactions (covering only the airline put options through the Chicago Board of Exchange). 12) Who were the perpetrators?a. Much of the evidence establishing who did the crime is dubious and miraculous: bags full of incriminating material that happened to miss the flight or were left in a van; the "magic passport" of an alleged hijacker, found at Ground Zero; documents found at motels where the alleged perpetrators had stayed days and weeks before 9/11. b. The identities of the alleged hijackers remain unresolved, there are contradictions in official accounts of their actions and travels, and there is evidence several of them had "doubles," all of which is omitted from official investigations.c. What happened to initial claims by the government that 50 people involved in the attacks had been identified, including the 19 alleged hijackers, with 10 still at large (suggesting that 20 had been apprehended)? http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-worldtrade-50suspects,0,1825231.storyTHE 9/11 COVER-UP, 2001-2006
13) Who Is Osama Bin Ladin?a. Who judges which of the many conflicting and dubious statements and videos attributed to Osama Bin Ladin are genuine, and which are fake? The most important Osama Bin Ladin video (Nov. 2001), in which he supposedly confesses to masterminding 9/11, appears to be a fake. In any event, the State Department's translation of it is fraudulent.b. Did Osama Bin Ladin visit Dubai and meet a CIA agent in July 2001 (Le Figaro)? Was he receiving dyalisis in a Pakistani military hospital on the night of September 10, 2001 (CBS)?c. Whether by Bush or Clinton: Why is Osama always allowed to escape?d. The terror network associated with Osama, known as the "data base" (al-Qaeda), originated in the CIA-sponsored 1980s anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan. When did this network stop serving as an asset to covert operations by US intelligence and allied agencies? What were its operatives doing in Kosovo, Bosnia and Chechnya in the years prior to 9/11? 14) All the Signs of a Systematic 9/11 Cover-upa. Airplane black boxes were found at Ground Zero, according to two first responders and an unnamed NTSB official, but they were "disappeared" and their existence is denied in The 9/11 Commission Report. b. US officials consistently suppressed and destroyed evidence (like the tapes recorded by air traffic controllers who handled the New York flights).c. Whistleblowers (like Sibel Edmonds and Anthony Shaffer) were intimidated, gagged and sanctioned, sending a clear signal to others who might be thinking about speaking out. d. Officials who "failed" (like Myers and Eberhard, as well as Frasca, Maltbie and Bowman of the FBI) were given promotions.15) Poisoning New YorkThe White House deliberately pressured the EPA into giving false public assurances that the toxic air at Ground Zero was safe to breathe. This knowingly contributed to an as-yet unknown number of health cases and fatalities, and demonstrates that the administration does consider the lives of American citizens to be expendable on behalf of certain interests.
16) Disposing of the Crime Scene The rapid and illegal scrapping of the WTC ruins at Ground Zero disposed of almost all of the structural steel indispensable to any investigation of the collapse mechanics. (See also item no. 23, below.)
17) AnthraxMailings of weapons-grade anthrax - which caused a practical suspension of the 9/11 investigations - were traced back to US military stock. Soon after the attacks began in October 2001, the FBI approved the destruction of the original samples of the Ames strain, disposing of perhaps the most important evidence in identifying the source of the pathogens used in the mailings. Were the anthrax attacks timed to coincide with the Afghanistan invasion? Why were the letters sent only to media figures and to the leaders of the opposition in the Senate (who had just raised objections to the USA PATRIOT Act)?
18) The Stonewall a. Colin Powell promised a "white paper" from the State Department to establish the authorship of the attacks by al-Qaeda. This was never forthcoming, and was instead replaced by a paper from Tony Blair, which presented only circumstantial evidence, with very few points actually relating to September 11th.b. Bush and Cheney pressured the (freshly-anthraxed) leadership of the Congressional opposition into delaying the 9/11 investigation for months. The administration fought against the creation of an independent investigation for more than a year. c. The White House thereupon attempted to appoint Henry Kissinger as the chief investigator, and acted to underfund and obstruct the 9/11 Commission.19) A Record of Official Lies a. "No one could have imagined planes into buildings" - a transparent falsehood upheld repeatedly by Rice, Rumsfeld and Bush. b. "Iraq was connected to 9/11" - The most "outrageous conspiracy theory" of all, with the most disastrous impact.
20) Pakistani Connection - Congressional Connectiona. The Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, creator of the Taliban and close ally to both the CIA and "al-Qaeda," allegedly wired $100,000 to Mohamed Atta just prior to September 11th, reportedly through the ISI asset Omar Saeed Sheikh (later arrested for the killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was investigating ISI connections to "al-Qaeda.") b. This was ignored by the congressional 9/11 investigation, although the senator and congressman who ran the probe (Bob Graham and Porter Goss) were meeting with the ISI chief, Mahmud Ahmed, on Capitol Hill on the morning of September 11th.c. About 25 percent of the report of the Congressional Joint Inquiry was redacted, including long passages regarding how the attack (or the network allegedly behind it) was financed. Graham later said foreign allies were involved in financing the alleged terror network, but that this would only come out in 30 years.
21) Unanswered Questions and the "Final Fraud" of the 9/11 Commission: a. The September 11th families who fought for and gained an independent investigation (the 9/11 Commission) posed 400-plus questions, which the 9/11 Commission adopted as its roadmap. The vast majority of these questions were completely ignored in the Commission hearings and the final report. b. The membership and staff of the 9/11 Commission displayed awesome conflicts of interest. The families called for the resignation of Executive Director Philip Zelikow, a Bush administration member and close associate of "star witness" Condoleezza Rice, and were snubbed. Commission member Max Cleland resigned, condemning the entire exercise as a "scam" and "whitewash." c.The 9/11 Commission Report is notable mainly for its obvious omissions, distortions and outright falsehoods - ignoring anything incompatible with the official story, banishing the issues to footnotes, and even dismissing the still-unresolved question of who financed 9/11 as being "of little practical significance."22) Crown Witnesses Held at Undisclosed Locations The alleged masterminds of 9/11, Khalid Sheikh Mohamed (KSM) and Ramzi Binalshibh, are reported to have been captured in 2002 and 2003, although one Pakistani newspaper said KSM was killed in an attempted capture. They have been held at undisclosed locations and their supposed testimonies, as provided in transcript form by the government, form much of the basis for The 9/11 Commission Report (although the Commission's request to see them in person was denied). After holding them for years, why doesn't the government produce these men and put them to trial? 23) Spitzer Redux a. Eliot Spitzer, attorney general of New York State, snubbed pleas by New York citizens to open 9/11 as a criminal case (Justicefor911.org). b. Spitzer also refused to allow his employee, former 9/11 Commission staff member Dietrich Snell, to testify to the Congress about his (Snell's) role in keeping "Able Danger" entirely out of The 9/11 Commission Report.
24) NIST OmissionsAfter the destruction of the WTC structural steel, the official Twin Towers collapse investigation was left with almost no forensic evidence, and thus could only provide dubious computer models of ultimately unprovable hypotheses. It failed to even test for the possibility of explosives. (Why not clear this up?)25) Radio SilenceThe 9/11 Commission and NIST both allowed the continuing cover-up of how Motorola's faulty radios, purchased by the Giuliani administration, caused firefighter deaths at the WTC - once again showing the expendability, even of the first responders.
26) The Legal Catch-22a. Hush Money - Accepting victims' compensation barred September 11th families from pursuing discovery through litigation.b. Judge Hallerstein - Those who refused compensation to pursue litigation and discovery had their cases consolidated under the same judge (and as a rule dismissed).27) Saudi Connectionsa. The 9/11 investigations made light of the "Bin Ladin Airlift" during the no-fly period, and ignored the long-standing Bush family business ties to the Bin Ladin family fortune. (A company in which both families held interests, the Carlyle Group, was holding its annual meeting on September 11th, with George Bush Sr., James Baker, and two brothers of Osama Bin Ladin in attendance.) b. The issue of Ptech.
28) Media Blackout of Prominent DoubtersThe official story has been questioned and many of the above points were raised by members of the US Congress, retired high-ranking officers of the US military, the three leading third-party candidates for President in the 2004 election, a member of the 9/11 Commission who resigned in protest, a former high-ranking adviser to the George W. Bush administration, former ministers to the German, British and Canadian governments, the commander-in-chief of the Russian air force, 100 luminaries who signed the "9/11 Truth Statement," and the presidents of Iran and Venezuela. Not all of these people agree fully with each other, but all would normally be considered newsworthy. Why has the corporate-owned US mass media remained silent about these statements, granting due coverage only to the comments of actor Charlie Sheen?GEOPOLITICS, TIMING AND POSSIBLE MOTIVES
29) "The Great Game" The Afghanistan invasion was ready for Bush's go-ahead on September 9, 2001, with US and UK force deployments to the region already in place or underway. This followed the failure earlier that year of backdoor diplomacy with the Taliban (including payments of $125 million in US government aid to Afghanistan), in an attempt to secure a unity government for that country as a prerequisite to a Central Asian pipeline deal.
30) The Need for a "New Pearl Harbor"Principals in US foreign policy under the current Bush administration (including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle and others) have been instrumental in developing long-running plans for worldwide military hegemony, including an invasion of the Middle East, dating back to the Ford, Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations. They reiterated these plans in the late 1990s as members of the "Project for a New American Century," and stated a clear intent to invade Iraq for the purpose of "regime change." After 9/11, they lost no time in their attempt to tie Iraq to the attacks.
31) Perpetual "War on Terror"9/11 is supposed to provide carte-blanche for an open-ended, global and perpetual "War on Terror," against any enemy, foreign or domestic, that the executive branch chooses to designate, and regardless of whether evidence exists to actually connect these enemies to 9/11.
32) Attacking the Constitutiona. The USA PATRIOT Act was written before 9/11, Homeland Security and the "Shadow Government" were developed long before 9/11, and plans for rounding up dissidents as a means for suppressing civil disturbance have been in the works for decades.b. 9/11 was used as the pretext to create a new, extra-constitutional executive authority to declare anyone an "enemy combatant" (including American citizens), to detain persons indefinitely without habeas corpus, and to "render" such persons to secret prisons where torture is practiced.
33) Legal Trillions9/11 triggers a predictable shift of public spending to war, and boosts public and private spending in the "new" New Economy of "Homeland Security," biometrics, universal surveillance, prisons, civil defense, secured enclaves, security, etc.34) Plundered Trillions?On September 10, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld announced a "war on waste" after an internal audit found that the Pentagon was "missing" 2.3 trillion dollars in unaccounted assets. On September 11th, this was as good as forgotten.
35) Did 9/11 prevent a stock market crash? Did anyone benefit from the destruction of the Securities and Exchange Commission offices at WTC 7, and the resultant crippling of hundreds of fraud investigations?
36) Resource Wars a. What was discussed in the Energy Task Force meetings under Dick Cheney in 2001? Why is the documentation of these meetings still being suppressed? b. Is Peak Oil a motive for 9/11 as inside job?
37) The "Little Game"Why was the WTC privatized just before its destruction?HISTORY
38) "Al-CIA-da?" The longstanding relationship between US intelligence networks and radical Islamists, including the network surrounding Osama Bin Ladin. (See also point 13d.)39) Historical Precedents for "Synthetic Terror" a. In the past many states, including the US government, have sponsored attacks on their own people, fabricated the "cause for war," created (and armed) their own enemies of convenience, and sacrificed their own citizens for "reasons of state." b. Was 9/11 an update of the Pentagon-approved "Project Northwoods" plan for conducting self-inflicted, false-flag terror attacks in the United States, and blaming them on a foreign enemy?40) Secret Government a. The record of criminality and sponsorship of coups around the world by the covert networks based within the US intelligence complex.b. Specifically also: The evidence of crime by Bush administration principals and their associates, from October Surprise to Iran-Contra and the S&L plunder to PNAC, Enron/Halliburton and beyond.REASON NUMBER 41:RELATED MOVEMENTS AND PARALLEL ISSUES
Ground Zero aftermath movements: - Justice for the air-poisoning cover-up (wtceo.org)- "Radio Silence" (radiosilencefdny.com)- Skyscraper Safety (www.skyscrapersafety.org).
Election fraud and black box voting, 2000 to 2004. (nov9truth.org)
Lies to justify the invasion of Iraq. (afterdowningstreet.org)
Use of depleted uranium and its multi-generational consequences on human health and the environment.
Longstanding development of contingency plans for civil disturbance and military rule in the USA (See, "The War at Home")
Oklahoma City Truth movement. (okctruth.org)
Whether you call it "Globalization" or "The New World Order" - An unsustainable system of permanent growth ultimately requires warfare, fraud, and mass manipulation. GOING FORWARD ..."But an inside job would involve thousands of people! How could they keep a secret?" Counter-arguments, red herrings, speculations and false information.Selected essays, books and websites that make the case for 9/11 as inside job. (See Resources)Demanding a real investigation of the September crimes - Not just a patriotic duty, but a matter of survival.

Yes, Our President is as stupid as he looks....

2006-05-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

Bush Speaks With Martha Raddatz
President Bush told ABC News' Martha Raddatz that he's been willing to take on members of his own party over the issue of illegal immigration because he doesn't want the United States "to lose her way over an immigration debate that causes such emotions that we forget what's made us great." Here is a transcript of the full interview, in which they discussed the plan to have the National Guard involved in border security, the construction of a fence along the border with Mexico, and the temporary worker plan: RADDATZ: Mr. President, one of the things that happened today is [California] Gov. Schwarzenegger said he's very concerned about the two-week rotation with the Guard. How would that work? How can they actually accomplish anything in two weeks? BUSH: Well, actually, the Guard goes through training exercises and the Defense Department is going to work with the Guard here and work with the governors to explain why the two week shifts of different Guard units coming down here will help complement the border patrol. First thing is that people have got to understand is we're going to double the border patrol, from 2001 to today, but it doesn't happen overnight. So we've got to get additional help down here in order to get the border patrol to be able to do their job. And there's two-week rotations in Guards and it makes sense to bring them down here. RADDATZ: But one of the things the Guard usually does is train for war ... BUSH: Yeah, but there's units not training for war. In other words, there are units that are not all combat units. They are units that can complement what the border patrol is doing down here. We've got -- listen before I laid it out, I talked to the Defense Department, who talked to the Guard bureau to make sure that which we propose is reasonable and realistic. The governor of Arizona for example is using the Guard. And the Guards right down -- right down on the border here from states other than Arizona. It's a well-thought-out plan. And it makes sense. We gotta make sure that we secure this border. RADDATZ: The sheriff in Yuma told us that today that there were 8,000 arrests, there were 8,000 detainees and he only had room for 50, 52? BUSH: Yeah, I know, that's part of the problem, of course. Is that when we catch people coming in here illegally, particularly from countries other than Mexico, there's not enough space. And so I addressed that the other night in my speech. The process has been called catch and release. You got border and local law enforcement working hard to catch somebody coming in, and then they say, "Well, show back up for your court date," and they don't come back for their court date of course, they meld into society, and so we're expanding the detention facilities along the border here and then expediting the deportation process. Most Mexicans that are caught -- people that are caught here are Mexicans that are coming across and they're -- most of them are deported immediately back home. RADDATZ: The fences, the idea of the fences, which the Senate voted on yesterday. There are a lot of immigration rights advocates who say those fences just drive illegal immigrants to places where they'll die... BUSH: Yeah, I understand that. And that's why we need a temporary worker plan, a program. People are willing to take risks to -- RADDATZ: (CROSSTALK) But you're putting in a fence in the meantime. BUSH: Well, that's because they're sneaking across. Part of the fencing is to make sure we stop flows of people coming across. And we -- we must enforce our border. And uh ... RADDATZ: But that's (CROSSTALK) BUSH: Let me finish, please. There's got to be a comprehensive plan to address border security. Part of it's fencing, part of it's manpower increased, part of it is infrared detection. But part of it is also saying to somebody, "If you're going to come here to do a job somebody's not doing, right now, there ought to be a legal way to do so on a temporary basis." That's why I'm calling for a comprehensive plan. RADDATZ: I know you're calling for a comprehensive plan, but go back to the fences because the fences, people say cause deaths, that people will go out into the desert... BUSH: The point is that you have a system where people don't feel like they have to go out in the desert in the first place. By saying you can come to this country legally on a temporary basis. That's why a temporary worker plan is a necessary part of enforcing the border. RADDATZ: Tell me why you feel so passionate about this issue? Not doing well in the polls, and yet willing to take on your own party on this? BUSH: Well, you know I was the governor of Texas, and I understand the importance of border security. I also understand the importance of treating people with respect and dignity. I don't want America to lose her way over an immigration debate that causes such emotions that we forget what's made us great. And what's made us great is the capacity to help people assimilate into our country as one nation under God. I also think it's important for people to go to Washington to solve problems and not worry about polls and focus groups. And that's how I'm going to continue to lead this nation. And so the other night I talked about a comprehensive plan that by the way, does not grant amnesty. I don't believe in automatic citizenship. But I do believe that people who have been here for a long period of time who've paid a fine, who've learned English, who've got roots in this country ought to be able to get in the citizenship line. But at the back. In other words, be able to apply for citizenship that's not automatic, but be at the end of the line not the front of the line. The only way to solve this problem is to make sure we have a rational debate and have a comprehensive plan. RADDATZ: Mr President, you are not doing well in the polls. You say you don't govern by polls, you try not to pay attention to them, but it has got to concern you that so much of the country is not happy with your leadership? BUSH: Look, the war causes anxiety. I understand that. You know, war is a terrible thing. Particularly when we face an enemy that kills innocent life nearly on a daily basis. And the enemy is trying to shake our will. The American people have got to know that if I believe I'm right I'm going to move forward with a plan. And I believe we're right to be in Iraq, and I know we're right to help that democracy flourish. And that's exactly what we're going to do. RADDATZ: You don't seem like you've changed anyone's mind in the last few months even though you've been out there speaking about it all the time... BUSH: Martha, the enemy has got a powerful tool. And they get on your TV screen by killing innocent people. And, of course, that shakes the confidence of the American people. Most Americans -- listen -- there are some in Washington that say "pull out now." I look forward to debating those voices. Most Americans want us to succeed, and they're wondering whether or not we can succeed. And the point I make to the American people is, we are succeeding. They've got a unity government that has stood up. More Iraqis are in the fight more than ever before. And it's ... we can't lose the battle with the enemy unless we lose our nerve.

After nearly one year of Voice Of The Austin Majority Demanding Police Chief Stan Knee Resign, he FINALLY does, could have been due to pressure from..

2006-05-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

our online petition, which we will re-post here a link in case you want to leave this public disgrace a few choice parting words:
We Demand Chief Knee Resign! PetitionWe Demand The Resignation of Police Chief Stan Knee. We feel as though he does not properly train his force, resulting in Police Shootings That Are FATAL! ...http://www.petitiononline.com/apd123/petition.html

AUSTIN -- Austin Police Chief Stan Knee announced Tuesday he is leaving the force to take a job training law enforcement officers in Afghanistan, ending a tenure of nearly nine years. Click here to read his letter of resignation.
Knee leaves behind a police department that struggled with strained relations with the city's minorities.
"I would like to think the things we did over the last eight and a half years helped make this community a better place to live, a safer place to live," Knee said.
His last day on the job in Austin will be June 4.
Austin City Manager Toby Futrell appointed Assistant Chief Cathy Ellison as acting chief during a replacement search. A 27-year APD veteran, Ellison is the first black woman to serve as interim chief. - AMEN, IT's ABOUT TIME!
ADIOS MOFO!

JENNIFER GALE TO RUN FOR TEXAS GOVERNOR

2006-05-15T18:07:00.000-07:00

AUSTIN NEWS ALERT: BREAKING SEMI-EXCLUSIVE NEWS ANNOUNCED HERE:
JENNIFER GALE NEEDS YOUR HELP!

" I announced on the "Jeff Ward" show that I am running for Governor of Texas at 4:07 p.m. this afternoon.
Now I need help raising the $ 3,750 dollars to become a write-in dark-horse candidate."... JENNIFER GALE

IT IS TIME TO CHANGE THE POLITICS, AND CAST YOUR VOTE FOR MS. GALE... VOTING FOR GALE WILL SEND A STRONG MESSAGE TO TEXAS- THERE ARE TRUE PROGRESSIVES HERE- AND WE WILL USE OUR VOTES TO LET TEXANS KNOW IT IS TIME FOR CHANGE!
PLEASE SEND YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, OCCUPATION, AND THE AMOUNT YOU ARE CONTRIBUTING TO JENNIFER GALE'S GOVERNER'S RACE TO:
Jennifer Gale for Texas Gov.
Re: Supporter of Joshua Angell's Voice Of The Austin Majority
General Delivery
Austin, TX 78767

2006-05-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

THE FIRST 100 WEEKS OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION- LOOK AT THIS: THE BIOGRAPHY OF THE WORST LEADER EVER- A LOOK BACK ON BUSH:

Some have said that Bush, feeling he only has one term to get his conservative policies enacted, is going to forego the honeymoon period as far as actions are concerned and immediately begin enacting his rabid right policies. However, those who have observed his entire political career know exactly what he is up to. His strategy has always been to have his most unpopular policies quickly put into place during the first 100 weeks, then spend the remaining time pretending he's a moderate politician. Obviously, it's now worked twice, first in his run for a second term as Texas governor, secondly in his recent presidential campaign, because most folks seem to have short memories. At present, of course, he is talking as though he is a moderate politician, but his actions show that's a lie. Anyway, please remember to share this list in two years with anyone who claims Bush is a moderate politician and not the rabid conservative that he is.--Politex, 1/22/01
WEEK 33...Bush Plans To Destroy Environmental Protections By Underfunding Enforcement
Given the Bush administration's philosophy of environmental protection -- a preference for carrots rather than sticks -- and its poor overall environmental record, it makes sense to question the wisdom of its proposal to cut 270 enforcement positions from the Environmental Protection Agency and replace them with $25 million in grants to states. Add to that the contents of two critical reports on the EPA -- from the General Accounting Office (GAO) and the EPA's own Office of Inspector General (OIG) -- and it becomes clear that Senate conferees should do more than question the plan. They should insist that it be removed from the appropriations bill passed by the House. The accounting office concluded that the EPA "cannot demonstrate that the staff reductions will be absorbed without impairing its effectiveness." It also noted that in states which do not receive federal grants, "it is possible that the level of enforcement activity may actually be reduced" as a result of the change. Resources aside, what about the relative effectiveness of federal and state enforcement? The Bush administration asserts that states would be better at enforcing EPA regulations, since they do much of the work now anyway and are closer to the pollution problems. However, the GAO found nothing to support that assertion. Furthermore, closeness can work against enforcement. Polluting industries often have more political clout within their states, where their contributions to the economy are most clearly felt, than with the federal government. In a separate report, the EPA's inspector general found significant weaknesses in states' water-quality enforcement programs. It cites a 1998 water-quality inventory showing that "nearly 40 percent of the nation's assessed waters are not meeting the standards states have set for them." It also noted, "The EPA reports that a majority of Americans live within 10 miles of a polluted river, lake, stream or coastal area."" --MST ED, 8/28/01
WEEK 32...Bush Lied About The Effect Of His Tax Cuts On The Ec onomy During The Campaign, And He's Lying Now
"The Congressional Budget Office, which does honest work but under certain constraints -- more on that in a minute -- is supposed to release its own estimate today, but the main results have already been leaked. They show a deficit outside Social Security this year, a tiny surplus next year, then a return to deficit in 2003 and 2004. And these numbers, read properly, flatly refute two of the arguments you'll hear over the next few days. First, the administration will tell you that the return to deficits is the result of the economic slowdown. Not so: the C.B.O., like the administration, assumes that the economy will recover next year, but projects that we will be in deficit through 2004. Why? Because the tax cut grows over time, and the revenue lost because of that growing tax cut is more than the revenue gained from economic recovery. Why has the prospect of surpluses been replaced by the prospect of deficits, even after the economy recovers? To coin a phrase: It's the tax cut, stupid. Second, the administration will try to blame big spenders in Congress for the deficits. But who are these big spenders? The only major new spending items in the C.B.O. projection are for defense and education -- both in response to administration initiatives. And it's the administration, not the Democrats, that has described the defense increase as a mere "down payment" on much larger future sums. Those future defense increases aren't in the C.B.O. projection, because the rules under which C.B.O. operates force it to project the budget as if current policy will remain unchanged. So the C.B.O. projection leaves out the budget-busters it knows are out there, such as Donald Rumsfeld's next installment and the cost of fixing the alternative minimum tax. Put those items in, and the picture is clear: the surplus is gone, and we won't see it again as long as the tax cut goes through as scheduled. But the important point for now involves honor and credibility. Mr. Bush promised not to dip into the Social Security surplus; he has broken that promise. Critics told you that would happen; they have been completely vindicated. Mr. Bush told you it wouldn't; he lied." --Paul Krugman, 8/28/01
WEEK 31...Bush Environmental Policy Is Clearly Anti-Environmental In Those He Hires
"President Bush has been quietly filling key subcabinet posts with conservative activists and industry lobbyists who have spent their careers criticizing the laws they are now sworn to uphold. These appointments should dispel any doubts about Mr. Bush's intention to weaken the strong environmental protections he inherited from the Clinton administration. Unlike his father, who reached into academia and even the environmental community for some of his appointments, Mr. Bush seems determined to return to the Reagan era, when ideologues like James Watt ran the Interior Department and most of the important regulatory jobs were filled with representatives of the businesses being regulated. Nowhere is Mr. Bush's strategy clearer than at Interior, the agency most responsible for protecting the country's natural resources. The department's new deputy secretary, J. Steven Griles, was a top lobbyist for the oil, gas and coal industries, which contributed heavily to Mr. Bush's campaign last year and this year helped shape an energy strategy that would open the public lands to drilling. The new solicitor, William Myers III, was a senior employee of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and represented the nation's grazing interests in lawsuits challenging federal policies that he will now be required to uphold. Bennett Raley, the new assistant secretary for water and science, is likewise a longtime servant of the big landowning and irrigation interests. Lynn Scarlett, the new assistant secretary for policy, was president of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank opposed in principle to most government regulation." NYT ED, 8/19/01
WEEK 30...Bush Rolls Back Medicaid Protections For HMO Buddies
The Bush administration proposed today to roll back some of the protections for Medicaid recipients that President Bill Clinton put in place on the day before he left office in January. The new rules set standards for health maintenance organizations and other managed care plans serving poor people and the disabled under Medicaid. Bush administration officials said they agreed with the intent of Mr. Clinton's rules, but had decided to give states more discretion in deciding how to achieve those goals. Under both sets of rules, Medicaid recipients could appeal the denial or termination of services by a private health plan in which they are enrolled. The Clinton administration said such appeals must be resolved within 30 days. The Bush administration would allow 45 days. In urgent situations, the Clinton administration set a 72-hour deadline for H.M.O.'s to rule on appeals. The Bush administration would allow three working days.... Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said, "The Bush administration has taken every opportunity to side with the H.M.O. industry and against Medicaid patients in these regulations." A Medicaid patient who needs a life-saving treatment on Friday might have to wait until the next Wednesday because the "emergency protections don't apply over the weekend," Mr. Waxman said. About half of the 40 million Medicaid recipients are in managed care. Many are heavy users of medical care. They generally do not have the money to go outside the network of doctors and hospitals selected by their health plans." --NYT, 8/17/01
WEEK 29...Under The Radar Of The Alaskan Drilling Threat, Bush Gives New Massive Kickbacks To The Energy Industry
"Last week the House of Representatives passed the "national energy plan" devised by President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and a mysterious roster of "energy consultants" whose names the administration refuses to divulge, even to Congress, Reuters reports. Of course, the bill has squat-all to do with sane and thoughtful policy-making for the 21st century; it's simply a smokescreen for one of the biggest welfare payouts in American history: $33.5 billion in tax breaks and outright cash subsidies to the energy industry - Big Oil, King Coal, Lord Nuke and Mighty Gas. Yes, that's the same energy industry that's already glutted with record-breaking profits - and the same energy industry that pumped $69 million into campaign coffers last year. Most of that patriotic largess went to Republicans, with the oilmen in the White House getting the heftiest share. But there was enough gravy left over for a few key Democrats too - hence the 36 party stalwarts who jumped ship to join the GOP majority in passing the historic boondoggle. This payback for the legalized bribery humorously known as "campaign finance" was cleverly obscured by media hoo-rah over a side issue: opening the Alaskan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil-and-gas exploration. The House said O.K., but there's little chance the Democratic-controlled Senate will approve any such drilling at all. Both sides know this, but the sideshow allows them to posture for their core supporters while the bill's true goal - massive tax breaks for an already massively wealthy industry - is smuggled into law. It was neatly done, but what else would you expect? These guys are pros - in every sense of the word." --SPT, 8/10/01
WEEK 28...Bush Nominates Anti-Consumer Apologist To Head Up Consumer Product Safety
"When you got up today and readied yourself for work or rousted the kids from bed, probably the last thing on your mind was the future of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Yet, this federal agency influences the safety of nearly every appliance in your home and most of the tools in your garage -- from your coffee pot to your lawn mower, from your kids' skateboards to the baby's crib. Tuesday, for example, the commission joined with Miami-based Burger King to announce the voluntary recall of 2.6 million toys that can break open, releasing small beads that children can choke on. Once ridiculed as the "little agency that couldn't," because of its anemic regulatory clout, the agency in 18 years has developed more muscle, earning the reluctant respect of manufacturers and the wary support of consumer groups. Now the agency, which has an annual budget of $55 million and a staff of 480, has been thrust into the political limelight in a way it never has been. Consumer groups have denounced President Bush's nomination of Mary Sheila Gall as the agency's new chairwoman, saying she would turn the consumer watchdog into an industry lap dog. Consumers Union, which rarely gets involved in political matters, this week said Gall's leadership would cause the commission to "abdicate its responsibility to protect children." Consumers Union, a nonprofit organization that publishes product reviews in Consumer Reports magazine, joins a coalition of consumer groups that includes the Children's Defense Fund and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. 'We rarely take a position toward a presidential nominee,' said Consumers Union spokesman David Butler. 'But in this case, we decided the nominee was so unsatisfactory we needed to speak out.'" --KCS, 8/2/01
WEEK 27...Bush Rejects Germ-Weapons Controls For Bio-Tech And Drug Corp Backers
"Private industry pressure and President Bush's skeptical attitude toward international agreements sparked the administration's decision, expected to be announced Wednesday, to oppose new treaty language enforcing the international ban on biological weapons. The biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries urged the Bush administration to change or reject draft treaty language that would have allowed for spot inspections of bio-manufacturing plants in countries, including the United States, that are party to the 26-year-old Biological Weapons Convention. That pressure combined with administration opposition to several pacts contributed to the decision, according to interviews with current and former U.S. officials, internal documents and congressional testimony. Bush has drawn international ire with his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol on the environment, the International Criminal Court, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and an international pact against trafficking in small arms. The administration also is re-examining its support of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty barring nuclear weapons tests." --Chicago Tribune, 7/24/01
WEEK 26...Bush Plans To Protect Corp Polluters For 18 Months
"The Bush administration yesterday sought a lengthy delay in adopting a new rule for cleaning up thousands of the country's polluted lakes, rivers and streams while it attempts to rewrite the measure. The rule, drafted by the Clinton administration, has been sharply criticized by conservative Republicans in Congress and challenged in court by utilities, manufacturers and farm groups that say it could force them to spend tens of billions of dollars more annually on water cleanup. Yesterday the Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department asked the District of Columbia Circuit Court to postpone action on the legal challenge for 18 months, while the administration reviews the rule and attempts to make it more "workable" and acceptable to critics." --Washington Post, 7/17/01
WEEK 25...Bush And Salvation Army Team Up To Plan Faith-Based Discrimination
"Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that an internal Salvation Army document spoke of a White House commitment to create the exemption for religious organizations that receive federal funds. And in exchange, according to the document, the Salvation Army would lobby intensively for the president's initiative. The White House and the Salvation Army spent all day Tuesday denying that any such agreement had been made, although a presidential spokesman acknowledged that the request was being considered. By evening, the administration announced that the consideration was over and the request had been rejected. Existing laws allowing religious organizations to discriminate in hiring based on religious beliefs offered sufficient protection, according to White House officials. How those laws will be interpreted and applied once the federal dollars start flowing to religious social programs is exactly what must be sorted out in this very delicate balancing act between church and state. Most laws that prohibit discrimination against homosexuals also exempt religious groups, but whether that exemption stands when the Salvation Army or Catholic Charities or any other faith-based group is hiring for its government-funded drug treatment program is still an open question. If the Salvation Army document was an accurate reflection of reality, then it is very disturbing that the White House would engage in this sort of backroom deal-making, circumventing the congressional processes that are currently working to address this matter." --Post-Gazette, July 13, 2001
WEEK 24...Dr. Strangelove Assures Reporters That ABM Treaty With Russians Won't Be Broken By Bush Until October At The Earliest
The Bush administration intends to break ground in Alaska next month on a missile defense test site and to develop a multi-layered shield that will include ship-launched missiles and lasers mounted on airplanes within four years, senior Pentagon officials said yesterday. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is scheduled to outline the plan to Congress today. Officials said he would make clear that the administration is moving as fast as possible to build at least rudimentary missile defenses by 2005, regardless of probable objections by Moscow that the United States is violating the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty....Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld described the effort as an ambitious and accelerated testing program, saying the administration has no intention of breaking the 1972 ABM Treaty any time soon."We have every intention of working out an arrangement with the Russians, and I think we will," Rumsfeld told reporters last night. "I can assure you that if the United States of America intended to do something that would violate the treaty in July or August or September, I would know about it.."
"The ABM Treaty allows each side to build one land-based anti-missile system to protect a single city or field of missile silos. Russia has such a system around Moscow, and the United States originally chose to build one around a missile field in Grand Forks, N.D. But the treaty forbids any system intended to defend the entire nation. It also prohibits the development, testing or deployment of sea- or space-based defenses against long-range missiles.Last week, the State Department instructed U.S. embassies around the world to inform foreign governments that the United States plans to test not just land-based interceptor missiles but also "other technologies and basing modes, such as air- and sea-based capabilities" against long-range missiles."As we have informed our allies and Russia, these tests will come into conflict with the ABM Treaty in months, not years," the department said....Although the administration's plan calls for basing five interceptor missiles there and upgrading a "Cobra Dane" radar installation on Shemya Island in Alaska by 2004, Rumsfeld said that none of the work at Fort Greely would violate the ABM Treaty this year. In the past, government lawyers and arms control advocates have offered differing interpretations of what amount of construction would be allowed under the treaty. "As soon as the construction site becomes recognizably a strategic ABM interceptor launcher, it would violate the treaty," John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, a defense think tank, said yesterday. Experts also offered various predictions about how Russia would react, but all agreed that the stakes for the administration are high. "I'm sure they will protest it as a violation of the treaty," said Spurgeon M. Keeny Jr., president of the Arms Control Association and an arms control official in the Nixon administration, which negotiated the treaty with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev." --WP, 7/12/01
WEEK 23 1/2...Bush Policy Is To Prevent UN From Initiating International Small Arms Control
"The US president, George Bush, is about to spark a transatlantic row over a UN conference which opens today aiming to reduce the 500m Kalashnikovs and other small arms contributing to worldwide carnage. Mr Bush has ordered the US delegation to the New York conference to block the main proposals because he fears inflaming the US gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association, one of the most powerful vested interests in the country. Mr Bush is sensitive to the NRA's insistence that international regulations on small arms could infringe the constitutional right in the US to bear arms. His move will anger the EU countries, including Britain, that support the attempt by UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, to bring order to the arms trade. A UN document published for the conference blames small arms for 4m deaths in 46 conflicts since 1990 - about 90% of them civilians, and 80% of them women and children." --Guardian, July 9, 2001
WEEK 23...Japan's Foreign Minister Tanaka Calls Pez Bush "Totally An Asshole"
"On June 17, a day before Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka would be meeting US Secretary of State Collin Powell, Ms. Tanaka visited German Town High School in Philadelphia where she studied for two years when she was a high school student.The alumnae of the high school gave Ms. Tanaka a grand welcome. She enjoyed a class reunion and talking with her old classmates. Ms. Tanaka did not accompany interpreters and stenographers. She made a remark about George Bush during her conversation with her classmates and her words will remain in the history of Japan's foreign ministers. When she entered the library, she sat in the same wooden chair she used when she was a student. She remarked, "I remember the smell of this chair. It has not changed at all." She was deep in sentimental memories of those days. Makiko Tanaka said, 'What I learned at this school was spiritualism based on religion, the principles of a simple life and love as well as peace. I learned how important it is to listen to others and express one's opinion. I have respected this principle throughout my entire life thus far."
"Then, one classmate raised a political issue and said to her, "There is no scientific proof that the earth is warming and no legitimate reason why we need the 'star wars' missile defense system. Don't you think so?" Ms. Tanaka appreciated the question. In response to that question, Japan's Foreign Minister Makiko reportedly said, "I will definitely oppose the new missile defense plan proposed by President Bush. It is beyond my imagination that we need it." Ms. Tanaka's visit to Washington DC was agreed to by the US government after strenuous efforts by the Japanese government. The objective of her trip was to vindicate what she expressed about US foreign policies at meetings with her counterparts from other countries. She conveyed her messages of criticism about the foreign polices of the US government to them. She must have told them faithfully what she believed. Her address immediately caused problems in the Japanese political world.
"During the conversation with her old classmates at the reception in German Town High School, The Weekly Post learned that Ms. Tanaka made a remark about George Bush, "He is totally an asshole" in English. The majority of her classmates seemed to support the Republican Party, however, they were critical about Mr. Bush's new missile defense plan. When Ms. Tanaka made this remark, the classmates in the room were reportedly excited.There has never been a statesman in Japanese history that called a US president, 'an asshole.'" --Weekly Post Editorial, 6/25/01
WEEK 22...Most Americans Think Bush Policies And Positions Are Not Relevant To Their Needs
"President Bush's approval rating has slipped four percentage points since May and many Americans feel he is not addressing the issues they care about most, according to a poll released on Wednesday by the New York Times and CBS news. The poll of 1,005 adults taken June 14-18, shortly after Bush's first visit to Europe since taking office, showed the president's approval rating fell to 53 percent now from 57 percent last month. Only 50 percent of those polled approved of Bush's handling of the economy while 47 percent approved of his foreign policy performance and just 39 percent agreed with his policies on the environment. Some 44 percent felt the U.S. president was not respected by foreign leaders. ``Ratings on Mr. Bush's handling of foreign policy and the environment are also down, half of Americans are uneasy about his ability to deal with an international crisis, and a plurality says the leaders of other countries do not respect him,'' the pollsters said in a comment accompanying the survey. ...Just 25 percent of those polled said Bush was concentrating on the issues that mattered most to them.``A particular problem for Mr. Bush is that the public does not believe the president is concentrating on the right issues,'' the pollsters said. These issues were listed as health-care reform and the economy, followed by Social Security and Medicare. --Reuters, 6/20/01
WEEK 21...agriculture... "DURANGO, Iowa... Dale Leslein is a longtime hog farmer, a Republican who never joined anything, not even the Future Farmers of America when he was in high school. "I bought into the Reagan philosophy of relying on myself and looking to a smaller government and less taxes," said Mr. Leslein, 35, a third- generation hog farmer in this county of lush hills and imposing bluffs rising along the Mississippi River. Then three years ago he heard about a petition to abolish a mandatory fee assessed on hog sales that produces money for advertising pork. Since then, his life has turned upside down. "I hated that pork check-off tax before I heard of the petition," he said. "I was willing to fight tooth and nail to get rid of it." Mr. Leslein broke his lone-wolf habits and started organizing, visiting every hog farmer in Dubuque County, he said, often before dawn to catch his neighbors before they headed out to their fields. His work paid off. This January, his coalition won a national referendum to abolish the assessment; his county came through with a vote of 278 to 19. Then George W. Bush took office ? the Republican he had voted for ? and the new secretary of agriculture, Ann M. Veneman, overturned the results of the referendum. Ms. Veneman sided with the National Pork Producers Council, the trade association that spends the money from the assessment, holding that the fee should remain in place. She did so without consulting the winning farmers' coalition. "She's not Republican because I've never heard of Republicans who impose a tax after it's voted down in a democratic election," Mr. Leslein said....Wayne Demmer, a hog farmer in Epworth, said he was so angry he got on an airplane for the first time in 30 years and flew to Washington to join a protest and picket outside Ms. Veneman's home. "I've never done anything like that before," Mr. Demmer said. "I was standing with a 60-year-old woman who has been a hog farmer all her life." They distributed leaflets depicting Ms. Veneman as a snake, warning farmers about her "venomous" bite." --NYT, 6/11/01
WEEK 20......
WEEK 19......
WEEK 18......
WEEK 17...gasoline conservation... "The Bush administration is canceling a 2004 deadline for automakers to develop prototype cars that would get up to 80 miles per gallon and could be put into production a few years later. Department of Energy spokesman Joe Davis said that the 2004 deadline for producing a prototype, five-person "supercar" was dead. The department is switching its focus from efficient family sedans to "longer-term technologies" that could be used in all kinds of vehicles, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told Congress last week. Critics say keeping the 80-m.p.g. goal is important as gas prices soar. "We were on the way to a supercar, and now we're putting that kind of progress at risk at a potentially unfortunate moment when consumers are facing rising gas prices," Dan Reicher, assistant secretary for energy efficiency during the Clinton administration, said. --Phila. Inquirer, 5/14/01
DAYS 75-112

2006-05-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

Many conservatives were quite chagrined over President Bush's immigration reform proposal. Guest worker programs? A chance at citizenship for illegal immigrants? A bill co-drafted by Sen. Ted Kennedy? To a lot of conservatives, it sounds too soft, too much like amnesty for law breakers. Tonight's speech -- in which the president proposed up to 6,000 National Guard troops at the Mexican border -- was designed to change that. The president also asked Congress to pay for additional detention centers for illegal immigrants. After all, if you don't have liberals or conservatives backing you, that can be a tough negotiating position. "We do not yet have full control of the border, and I am determined to change that," Bush said in his first prime-time network speech ever that focused on domestic policy. Critics, of course, said that this is all a Rio Grande illusion. At least half of the National Guard has already served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and many military observers said the Guard is stretched too thin. But the president disagreed and saaid the enforcement provision of his immigration reform package is essential. That it's politically essential seems unquestionable. "We will fix the problems created by illegal immigration, and we will deliver a system that is secure, orderly and fair," Bush said.

Truly As Stupid As He Looks:

2006-05-14T19:38:00.000-07:00

Bush to Propose Guard Troops for Border

By NEDRA PICKLER
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush will call for thousands of National Guard troops to be deployed along the Mexico border in support of patrols aimed at keeping out illegal immigrants, White House officials said Sunday on the eve of an Oval Office address announcing the plan.
White House aides worked into the night Sunday to iron out details of the proposal and allay concerns among lawmakers that using troops to man the border would further burden an overextended military.
Two White House officials said Bush would propose using troops as a stopgap measure while the Border Patrol builds up its resources. The troops would play a supportive role to Border Patrol agents, who would maintain primary responsibility for physically guarding the border.
The officials spoke on a condition of anonymity before the address Monday at 8 p.m. EDT. The officials would not say how many troops Bush wanted to use, except that it would be in the thousands but less than an estimate of as many as 10,000 being discussed at the Pentagon.
Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, would not confirm that using National Guard troops was the plan but said it was one of the options the president was considering. But he described the same scenario.
"It's not about militarization of the border," Hadley said on CNN's "Late Edition." "It's about assisting the civilian border patrol in doing their job, providing intelligence, providing support, logistics support and training and these sorts of things."
Bush's National Guard plan is aimed at winning support for broader immigration reform from conservatives in Congress. Bush's main goal is to allow foreigners to get temporary work permits to take low-paying jobs _ an idea favored by the business community. But many conservatives want a tougher approach on illegal immigrants trying to sneak into the country.
About 100 National Guard troops are serving on the border to assist with counter-drug operations, heavy equipment support and other functions.
"I think what it would be is simply expanding the kind of thing that has already been done in the past in order to provide a bit of a stopgap as the Border Patrol build up their capacity to deal with this challenge," Hadley said.
Bush gave the same message to Mexican President Vicente Fox, who called Sunday to express concern about what he called the possibility of a "militarized" border between the two nations. Bush assured Fox that any military support would be administrative and logistical and would come from the National Guard and not the Army, according to a news release from Fox's office.
Criticism of the National Guard plan came Sunday from Democrats, but also an important Republican negotiator in the immigration debate _ Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. He said National Guard troops cannot secure the border over the long term and that he does not think it is wise even in the short term.
"We've got National Guard members on their second, third and fourth tours in Iraq," Hagel said. "We have stretched our military as thin as we have ever seen it in modern times. And what in the world are we talking about here, sending a National Guard that we may not have any capacity to send up to or down to protect borders? That's not their role."
Hagel said the bill under debate in the Senate that he helped write would double the 12,000-strong Border Patrol force over the next five years. "That's the way to fix it, not further stretching the National Guard," he said on ABC's "This Week."
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said there may be a need for troops to fill in while the Border Patrol is bolstered. But he did not seem confident that the National Guard could take on the extra duty.
"We have stretched these men and women so thin, so thin, because of the bad mistakes done by the civilians in the military here, that I wonder how they're going to be able to do it," Biden said, also on ABC.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he supported using the National Guard on the Mexican border. He said lawmakers who doubt that the National Guard, whose members have served for years in Iraq and went to the Gulf Coast after last summer's hurricanes, could take on border patrol duty are "whining" and "moaning."
"We've got to secure our borders," Frist said on CNN's "Late Edition." "We hear it from the American people. We've got millions of people coming across that border. First and foremost, secure the border, whatever it takes. Everything else we've done has failed. We've got to face that. And so we need to bring in, I believe, the National Guard."
Frist said the full Senate planned to begin debating the immigration bill Monday and that it would take up to two weeks to pass.
Senators would have to resolve any differences with the House version of the bill, which did not address the guest worker issue but increases penalties for illegal immigration activities and funds a 700-mile border fence.
The statement from Fox's office and another from the White House said the two presidents agreed that immigration reform be comprehensive _ meaning that it go beyond the tough punitive measures that some conservatives are promoting to stem the flow of immigrants.
White House spokeswoman Maria Tamburri said Bush made clear to Fox that "the United States considered Mexico a friend and that what is being considered is not militarization of the border, but support of border capabilities on a temporary basis by the National Guard."

Cheney the Focus of CIA Leak Court Filing

2006-05-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

Cheney the Focus of CIA Leak Court Filing

By PETE YOST
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a new court filing, the prosecutor in the CIA leak case revealed that Vice President Dick Cheney made handwritten references to CIA officer Valerie Plame _ albeit not by name _ before her identity was publicly exposed.
The new court filing is the second in little more than a month by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald mentioning Cheney as being closely focused with his then-chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, on Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, who is married to Plame.
With the two court filings, Fitzgerald has pointed to an important role for the vice president in the weeks leading up to the leaking of Plame's identity.
In the latest court filing late Friday, Fitzgerald said he intends to introduce at Libby's trial in January a copy of Wilson's op-ed article in The New York Times "bearing handwritten notations by the vice president." The article was published on July 6, 2003, eight days before Plame's identity was exposed by conservative columnist Bob Novak.
The notations "support the proposition that publication of the Wilson Op Ed acutely focused the attention of the vice president and the defendant _ his chief of staff _ on Mr. Wilson, on the assertions made in the article and on responding to those assertions."
The article containing Cheney's notes "reflects the contemporaneous reaction of the vice president to Mr. Wilson's Op Ed article," the prosecutor said. "This is relevant to establishing some of the facts that were viewed as important by the defendant's immediate superior, including whether Mr. Wilson's wife had 'sent him on a junket,' the filing states.
The reference is to the fact that the CIA sent Wilson on a trip to Africa in 2002 to check out a report that Iraq had made attempts to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger.
Wilson concluded that it was highly doubtful an agreement to purchase uranium had been made.
The Bush administration used the intelligence on supposed efforts by Iraq to acquire uranium from Africa to bolster its case for going to war.
After the invasion, with the Bush White House under pressure because no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, Wilson wrote the op ed piece for The Times. In it, he accused the Bush administration of exaggerating prewar intelligence to exaggerate an Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction.
Defending the administration against Wilson's accusations, Libby and presidential adviser Karl Rove promoted the idea that Wilson's wife, Plame, had sent him on the trip to Africa. Administration critics have said such a move was an attempt to undercut Wilson's credibility.
The prosecution's court papers also stated that Cheney told Libby around June 12, 2003, that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, a month before her identity was outed.

Government Monitoring About 200 Million Americans' Calls

2006-05-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Government Monitoring About 200 Million Americans' Calls ??? YES, IT IS TRUE!

As controversy continues to swirl around the National Security Agency program that taps the phones of suspected terrorists within the United States, a USA Today story reveals another piece of the president's NSA spying program.
Addressing the issue this afternoon, President Bush did not confirm or deny the report and said the intelligence operations he's authorized are "lawful" and "appropriate."
The newspaper says that the spy agency has been collecting information on every phone call made in this country.
"Chances are that your cell phone calls, as well as your home phone calls, have been tracked," said Leslie Cauley, the reporter who broke the story. She said there was a "high likelihood" that this information was being passed on to the FBI and CIA.
Bush said any intelligence activities specifically target terrorists. "Our intelligence activities strictly target al Qaeda and their known affiliates," Bush said. "We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans."
The paper reports that three of the nation's largest phone companies -- AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth -- have been turning over detailed call histories of all their customers since Sept. 11, 2001, to help the NSA compile what it hopes will be "the largest database ever assembled in the world."
About 200 million people have had their call records monitored, Cauley said. This means the NSA keeps track of the outgoing and incoming calls, but not the callers' Social Security numbers or addresses.
"This is referred to as data mining. They slice and dice these numbers a thousand different ways," Cauley said. "They analyze patterns. If you're NSA, you look for suspicious patterns."
In all their comments about the eavesdropping program, U.S. officials never revealed that they were involved in this massive collection of telephone data. Instead the president has described the NSA surveillance program this way: "The program applies only to international communications. In other words, one end of the communication must be outside the United States."
The NSA responded to the report with a statement.
"Given the nature of the work we do, it would be irresponsible to comment. Therefore, we have no information to provide," the statement read. "However, it is important to note that the NSA takes its legal responsibility seriously and operates within the law."
Gen. Michael Hayden, the president's pick for the next CIA director, has defended the eavesdropping program, saying it goes after al Qaeda operatives.
"This is targeted and focused," Hayden said. "This is not about intercepting conversations between people in the United States."
Hayden is likely to be grilled on the NSA surveillance programs during his confirmation hearings next week.
According to USA Today, this massive NSA data collection program is used to analyze calling patterns that may be helpful in tracking down terrorists. This part of the spy program does not include listening to or recording Americans' conversations. The data NSA gathers are so private that phone companies would normally face steep fines for divulging the information.
According to USA Today, one phone company, Qwest, has refused to turn over its records, citing legal concerns. So far, the White House has not responded to this report.
In the past, it has told ABC News that the NSA's terrorist surveillance program is within the law, and is essential to keeping Americans safe.
"Qwest had concerns about the legality about handing over customer information without having court warrants," Cauley said. "It wasn't that they wanted to participate."
This story was originally reported by ABC News' Jessica Yellin

www.JenniferGale.com

2006-05-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

LET'S KEEP AUSTIN... AUSTIN!
The Official Site for the Jennifer Gale for Mayor Campaign.http://www.jennifergale.com/ - 12k - Cached - Similar pages

Jennifer Gale = Candidate for Mayor, Austin Texas

2006-05-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

THE VOICE OF THE AUSTIN MAJORITY AGAIN ANNOUNCES OUR ENDORSEMENT OF CANDIDATE JENNIFER GALE!

Jennifer Gale: FOR MAYOR
I was wandering around the web and came upon the Austin City Council video statements at the city election site. Though I’m not going to sit through a dozen videos, I was interested in 15 (17?) time candidate Jennifer Gale, former Marine who many of us have come to know and love . Last election cycle when Gale ran in an AISD election, she carried 3 of the 6 campus precincts and her chalk advertisements and round paper ads posted on electricity boxes in West Campus are common place. GO JENNIFER!

But her video. You just have to watch it. The best part is when she breaks out in song! THIS IS A CANDIDATE WHO CAN AND WILL KEEP AUSTIN AUSTIN!
Watch! Look up the city of Austin website, search for Jennifer Gale, and take a look!

VOTE JENNIFER GALE FOR MAYOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
here are some various snippets from the web where you can learn more about Jennifer Gale:
The Austin Chronicle: News: (Jennifer) Gale ForceThe vote in the AISD board elections suggests too many Austinites are just not paying attention.http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/... - 44k - Cached - Similar pages The Austin Chronicle Politics: Love ChildrenJennifer Gale and Leslie Cochran and Ray "The Vet" Blanchette are not ... Jennifer Gale. The transgender (sort of) Gale is the most versatile of our ...http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/... - 21k - Cached - Similar pages Burnt Orange Report - Place 4: Jennifer Gale "gets no satisfaction"time candidate Jennifer Gale, transgender homeless former Marine who many of us on ... And I'll add that I'm happy that Jennifer Gale has a new t-shirt. ...http://www.burntorangereport.com/archives/... - 53k - Cached - Similar pages LET'S KEEP AUSTIN... AUSTIN!The Official Site for the Jennifer Gale for Mayor Campaign.http://www.jennifergale.com/ - 12k - Cached - Similar pages Jennifer Gale - LostPediaJennifer Gale. From LostPedia. The wife of the real Henry Gale ... May not be on the island at all, as suggested by the note Henry Gale wrote to her. ...http://lostpedia.com/wiki/Jennifer_Gale - 11k - Cached - Similar pages Jennifer Gale - LostPedia(Redirected from Jennifer). The wife of the real Henry Gale ... May not be on the island at all, as suggested by the note Henry Gale wrote to her. ...http://lostpedia.com/wiki/Jennifer - 11k - Cached - Similar pages Car-Free Austin Newsletter 11-5-01Not much is known about Jennifer Gale, but the Oct. 26 Austin Chronicle notes that she supports rail transit within the city (though not the existing light ...http://bicycleaustin.info/newsletter/... - 27k - Cached - Similar pages FIE 2005 Author IndexGale, Jennifer. WORK IN PROGRESS - ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF TEAM DYNAMICS ON THE DESIGN PROCESS ... Jennifer Gale and Robert D. Knecht. Gamboa, Francisco ...http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2005/authors/G.htm - 39k - Cached - Similar pages WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Jennifer Gale, Alex Mantzaris - New York TimesJennifer Louise Gale, a daughter of Barbara Whitelaw Gale and Thomas H. Gale of Centreville, Md., was married there yesterday to Demetrios Alexis Mantzaris, ...http://query.nytimes.com/gst/... - 24k - Cached - Similar pages [Hpn] Leslie: Austin's Most Famous Homeless Person FWDHe faces opposition from two homeless people who have never held public office: Jennifer Gale, a perennial candidate for council, and Cochran. ...http://projects.is.asu.edu/pipermail/hpn/2000-May/... - 21k - Cached - Similar pages

2006-05-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

Who has authority to investigate the activities of a nonprofit corporation?
that's a good question... after about 4 hours of researching this on the internet, I found the following information and wanted to make it easier for other people to find... We need to start demanding answers from these corrupt non profit organizations in Texas. I will be requesting under the open records act information on some of Austin's not for profits! About a year ago, an article appeared exposing the dirty little secrets of non-profits in the area, and a news channel covered this... it exposed the top ten or fifteen highest paid Executive Director's at non-profits here in the Austin area... mysteriously, it has disappeared from the web.. somebody must have sued... I can remember a few of the oraganizations, two for sure, I would like to further expose this information, if anybody around has this list that was published about the highest paid salaries of non-profit director's here in the Austin area, please blog it here or email me, we NEED answers and to expose this issue! Joshua Angell, Austin, Texas

The Attorney General has statutory authority to (1) investigate charities that operate as nonprofit corporations, and (2) inspect the books and records of all corporations, including nonprofit corporations. The Secretary of State has no such authority.
The IRS can revoke a nonprofit corporation’s tax exemption for violations of federal tax laws.
13. Are the books and records of a nonprofit corporation available for inspection?
The Texas Non-Profit Corporation Act and the Texas Business Organizations Code require nonprofit corporations to maintain financial records and minutes of certain proceedings and make them available to members for examination and copying. The board of directors is required to prepare or approve an annual financial report. In general, all records, books, and annual reports must be available to the public for inspection and copying. These provisions do not apply to (1) corporations that solicit funds only from their members; (2) corporations that do not intend to solicit and do not actually receive contributions in excess of $10,000 during a fiscal year from sources other than their members; (3) proprietary schools; (4) religious institutions; (5) trade associations or professional associations whose principal income is from dues and member sales and services; (6) insurers; (7) charitable organizations concerned with conservation and protection of wildlife, fisheries, or allied natural resources; or (8) alumni associations.
Under certain circumstances, a nonprofit corporation’s books and records are available to the public under the Texas Open Records Act (chapter 552 of the Government Code). Section 552.003(1)(A) of the Open Records Act defines “governmental body” to include the “part, section, or portion of an organization, corporation, commission, committee, institution, or agency that spends or that is supported in whole or in part by public funds.” For more information on the Open Records Act, contact the Attorney General.

2006-05-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

ROCKEFELLER CALLS FOR ADDRESSING FRAUD AND ABUSE IN NONPROFITS
makes you think about the non-profit's here in Austin... we'll be on this like a fly on jelly...
Cites Transparency as Necessary Ingredient for Accountability and Legitimacy; Praises Good Works by West Virginia Charities
Washington, D.C. – At a Senate Finance Committee hearing aimed at cracking down on potential abuse and fraud in non-profit organizations, Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) on Tuesday called on Congress to take steps to protect taxpayer money by separating “legitimate organizations” from “bad actors.”
“I abhor abuse in the nonprofit sector because it does so much damage,” said Rockefeller. “Many of the proposals that the Committee is considering will dramatically improve the transparency of nonprofit organizations. Allowing more sunshine in is the best way we can guard against abuse and fraud at foundations and charities.
“By requiring nonprofit entities to file more complete information with the Internal Revenue Service, and by making more of this information available to the public, the government, media, and donor community can ensure that organizations are truly fulfilling their charitable missions.
“I know from personal experience that foundations and charities do a tremendous amount of good work across the country,” said Rockefeller. “Since the time I was governor of West Virginia, I have worked with a number of excellent organizations that bring social services and development to the neediest parts of rural America. West Virginia is fortunate to have many excellent charities and community organizations. I’ve met with a number of West Virginia nonprofits lately, and I’ve been very impressed with the great things they are doing.”
Today’s hearing was held to consider the interim report provided by a Panel on Non-Profit Sector established by the Finance Committee. Legislation on addressing nonprofit fraud and abuse is expected to follow the Panel’s full report in June.

Yeah, Today Is One Of those Days I Want To Go Home!

2006-04-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hi!
So, not for the first time ever, but strangely realizing it was feeling like 120 degress, I went outside of my house. If you understand how much I truly hate Texas, I think you'll understand why I don't particularly enjoy going outside outside here, unless I am in my own little area, my oasis if you will... I think it's a combination of fear of rednecks, hatred of heat, the low paying non-union jobs and the following:
A: Being shot by some psycho republican after he cuts me off and slams on his old truck's brakes right before I flip him off
B: Being crushed by some seadonkey of a thing on the road who thinks that EVERYTHING in Texas has to be fucking gigantic.
C: Getting drunk and telling some cowboy that his tight jeans are most likely responsible for the small size of their genitals and the hysterical ignorance, low IQ, and mental blindness of several people in the area, and then him going out to the truck and getting a gun off the rack in the back next to the cooler full of deer meat they scraped off the road, and drive-thru beer, and shooting me with it, and then the cops coming and arresting me for public intoxication and bleeding in a high-traffic area (which is apparently illegal if you're from out of state)
D: Catching the crappiness/brain damage (the kind that slowly eats away your standards) that is apparently contagious here.Anyway, my fears are apparently justified, and not just some delusional conjuration of my diseased brain, as I was dangerously close to experiencing all these things. Fortunately, I avoided being too drunk, getting shot, crushed, run off the road, and catching the crapitude prevalent in the area (although I think I may have contracted some sort of version of the latter for allowing my employer to screw me for years)
I also heard the song "god blessed texas" and thought to myself...dead grass,low pay, Rednecks, Republicans, highest incidence of alcohol related driving fatalaties, highest number of death penalties executed(by about 250)...yeah, god "blessed" texas just like he "chose" the Jews....no, I'm pretty sure god hates Texas just as much as I do...
1. George W. Bush, (and he isn't really from here, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth on the EAST COAST! What's up with that horrible fake souther accent?)
2. Pick-up trucks plague the streets
3. The people in the pick-up trucks
4. Constant heat; no wind
5. The Pro-Government Pro-Oil Pro- Wal Mart Republicans....Gawd!
6. Everything has to be BIG- except for people's paychecks and chances for ever attaining a civilized life.
7. Mormon boys wearing white shirts and black pants and a geeky bicycle helmet on a cheap bicycle showing up with a name tag on and telling you how to get "saved"
8. Homeless people begging for money at every intersection, and the sad thing is, 99 percent of them are veterans! Imagine what this shithole will look like after everyone comes home from Iraq?!? Yeah, and most of the pick-up trucks here dawn a yellow ribbon "support our troops".
9. Baptists
10. Knowing that I will be in this state until I can get it together and get the hell OUT!!!!

The only place I will live here is in Austin! It is an oasis of liberalism, but once you venture farther and farther away from Central or Central East Austin (where I live), forget it!!!

And that's how I have been doing lately...But, it makes me really, really appreciate that fact that I am not a Texan, I am bones and blood Northern Illinois. Now that I have vented, it's time to have a drink.-- Josh

2006-02-12T19:58:00.000-08:00

"Maybe we should rethink our position on Gun Control?"... Dick

2006-02-12T19:24:00.000-08:00

Maybe there is something to be said for gun control? And somebody tell us why Dick has an ambulance on call?
Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter
By LYNN BREZOSKY and NEDRA PICKLER
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.
Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was in stable condition in the intensive care unit of a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday.
"He is stable and doing well. It was almost like he was spending time with me in my living room," said hospital administrator Peter Banko, who visited Whittington.
Banko said Whittington was in the intensive care unit because his condition warranted it, but he didn't elaborate.
The accident occurred Saturday at a ranch in south Texas where the vice president and several companions were hunting quail. It was not reported publicly by the vice president's office for nearly 24 hours, and then only after it was reported locally by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times on its Web site Sunday.
Katharine Armstrong, the ranch's owner, said Sunday that Cheney was using a 28-gauge shotgun and that Whittington was about 30 yards away when he was hit in the cheek, neck and chest.
Each of the hunters was wearing a bright orange vest at the time, Armstrong told reporters at the ranch about 60 miles southwest of Corpus Christi. She said Whittington was "alert and doing fine."
Armstrong told The Associated Press emergency personnel traveling with Cheney tended to Whittington before an ambulance _ routinely on call because of the vice president's presence _ took him to a hospital in Kingsville. From there, Whittington was flown by helicopter to Corpus Christi about 40 miles away.
Cheney's spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president met with Whittington at the hospital on Sunday. Cheney "was pleased to see that he's doing fine and in good spirits," she said.
Armstrong said she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail.
Whittington shot a bird and went to retrieve it in the tall grass, while Cheney and the third hunter walked to another spot and discovered a second covey.
Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said.
"The vice president didn't see him," she continued. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by god, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good."
Whittington has been a private practice attorney in Austin since 1950 and has long been active in Texas Republican politics. He's been appointed to several state boards, including when then-Gov. George W. Bush named him to the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
McBride said the vice president's office did not tell reporters about the accident Saturday because they were deferring to Armstrong to handle the announcement of what happened on her property.
Armstrong, owner of the Armstrong Ranch where the accident occurred, said Whittington was bleeding after he was shot and Cheney was very apologetic.
"It broke the skin," she said of the shotgun pellets. "It knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that.
"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."
Cheney is an avid hunter who makes annual trips to South Dakota to hunt pheasants. He also travels frequently to Arkansas to hunt ducks, among other places.
Armstrong said Cheney is a longtime friend who comes to the ranch to hunt about once a year and is "a very safe sportsman." She said Whittington is a regular, too, but she thought it was the first time the two men hunted together.
"This is something that happens from time to time. You know, I've been peppered pretty well myself," said Armstrong.
The 50,000-acre Armstrong ranch has been in the influential south Texas family since the turn of the last century. Katharine is the daughter of Tobin Armstrong, a politically connected rancher who has been a guest at the White House and spent 48 years as director of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. He died in October. Cheney was among the dignitaries who attended his funeral.
Cheney was legally hunting with a license he purchased in November, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesman Steve Lightfoot said. The vice president flew back to Washington on Sunday evening, according to his office.
___
Nedra Pickler reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Dallas contributed to this report.

2006-01-07T18:44:00.000-08:00

Bob Burnett, The Huffington Post
This is the time of year when "best of" awards are given in categories such as news stories and movies. In the propaganda classification, there is no doubt that Karl Rove, Bush guru and head of the White House bureau of mind control, is once again the runaway winner - the recipient of the 2005 Orwell award.In "1984" George Orwell described a diabolical "Ministry of Truth. " The organization operated a system of mind control, "Newspeak," to keep citizens under the thumb of a totalitarian regime headed by the ubiquitous "Big Brother." Orwell's ideas about mind control found a home in the Bush White House. Under the direction of Karl Rove, the Administration developed their version of newspeak, "Bushspeak." They paraded a series of illusions before a gullible public. The same George Bush who was asleep at the wheel before 9/11 and who responded to the threat of Al Qaeda by diverting our resources into a Iraqi quagmire, is portrayed as a strong leader who would keep America safe.Bushspeak worked: The 2004 Presidential exit polls revealed that Bush supporters believed that Iraq supported the 9/11 attacks (75%) and had weapons of mass destruction (73%). They saw the war in Iraq as directly connected to the war on terror, and they trusted President Bush to do the right thing to win. In The New York Review of Books, Mark Danner observed that in the election Bush voters, "faced a stark choice: either discard the facts, or give up the clear and comforting worldview that they contradicted. They chose to disregard the facts."In 2005, Bushspeak refined its message: Conservatives were portrayed as the true defenders of the country and liberals as spineless appeasers. In June, Karl Rove spoke to the New York Conservative Party. "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." "Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said: we will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said: we must understand our enemies." Classifying most Democrats as liberals, Rove depicted them as gutless. Advocates of a "cut and run" solution in Iraq. In November, Democratic Congressman John Murtha, a hawk and a decorated veteran, called for a swift withdrawal from Iraq. "The United States and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq, but it is time for a change in direction. Our military is suffering. The future of our country is at risk." Bushspeak fired back. White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, accused Murtha of advocating, "surrender to the terrorists." "Endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party."Bushspeak is a key ingredient in all Administration speeches. December 18, Bush spoke to the Nation on the Iraq war. He observed that there are only two positions on terrorists: One is to continue to fight them in Iraq. The other is to "leave them alone." According to the President, the choice is between "victory" and "defeat." He characterized his opponents as defeatists.When it was revealed that Bush had secretly authorized domestic eavesdropping, in violation of the law, The President argued that he had special powers as commander-in-chief. He claimed that his actions had kept America safe, although he offered no proof for this.Under Karl Rove's direction, the Bush Ministry of Truth is constantly in attack mode. Ready to pillory anyone who disagrees with the Administration, to question a critic's sanity, patriotism, and manhood. The President persistently attacks his critics from the basis of his fundamentalist belief, "Since I am aligned with God, I am superior and my beliefs should prevail, and anyone who disagrees with me is inherently wrong." [To quote Jimmy Carter.]Many Americans are unaware of the Rove propaganda machine, and fall under the spell of its relentless assault. Unfortunately, "a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth." Many voters don't know what to believe. They hear passionate arguments for and against the war in Iraq, for and against the Bush national security "strategy." Fortunately, there is an authoritative, independent voice they can turn to. The 9/11 Commission, as the "9/11 Public Discourse Project," recently issued report on the efforts of the Bush Administration to prevent another attack on the homeland. The Project concluded, "We are not as safe as we need to be... there is so much more to be done." "Many obvious steps that the American people assume have been completed, have not been... Some of these failures are shocking." The 9/11 Project observed, "Our leadership is distracted." While 57 percent of Americans disapprove of "the way the President is handling the situation in Iraq," 56 percent approve of "the way Bush is handling the U.S. campaign against terrorism." The relentless onslaught of Bushspeak accounts for this paradox: Despite his many missteps, Americans continue to see George W. Bush as strong on national security. They have faith that he will lead them to "victory," although they don't know what that is.For skillfully constructing this oxymoron and continuing to delude Americans into believing that "ignorance is strength" and "war is peace," the 2005 George Orwell award goes to Karl Rove.

2006-01-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

What's Bugging You Today?
Is it the same "something" or someone shall we say that's bugging me?
Read this, and be your own judge. Bush and his cronies are slowly taking away our very right to dissent. Free Speech? Sort of... but not really. Anyway, read the info, make your own decision, but I think you will agree with me... Mega Dildos to you!- Josh

This is the third in a four-part series about what's really in the USA Patriot Act. Click here to read Part 1 and here to read Part 2.
Section 214, aka "Can I borrow a pen register?"
What it does: "Pen registers" ascertain phone numbers dialed from a suspect's telephone; "Trap and trace" devices monitor the source of all incoming calls. Neither reveals the content of communication. Patriot removes the warrant requirement for these taps so long as the government can certify that the information likely to be obtained is "relevant" to an ongoing investigation against international terrorism.
The law before and how it changed: Under Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, a traditional phone wiretap could be obtained on a showing of probable cause that one of an enumerated list of crimes had been committed. Warrants were valid for only 30 days, and the government needed to report back to the court. Under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act the requirements for a wiretap order were more minimal: The FBI didn't need probable cause or even reasonable suspicion to install a tap, but only had to certify to a judge that information resulting from such a warrant would be "relevant" to an ongoing criminal investigation. Section 214 doesn't change this standard but broadens the reach—making the FISA pen register/trap-and-trace power available in both criminal and foreign intelligence investigations, so long as the government merely certifies that the information obtained would be "relevant to an ongoing investigation." The probable-cause requirement in criminal cases is gone. Courts may not inquire into the truthfulness of the allegations before authorizing a tap.
How it's been implemented: In July 2002 the attorney general's office told the House Committee on the Judiciary that the number of times the tools in Section 214 had been used against Americans was classified and would be provided only to intelligence committees. In August 2002 the DOJ also noted that 214's "streamlining" of the pen/trap request process "has made these less intrusive tools of FISA more reasonable tools of investigation and more available as alternatives to other tools of the Act." Not clear how that's supposed to be reassuring.
Would you know if Section 214 had been used on you? Only if the information obtained was someday used against you in a proceeding; otherwise it's kept secret.
Sunsets in 2005: Yes.
Prognosis: In July 2003 Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Ron Wyden introduced S 1552, the "Protecting the Rights of Individuals Act," which would toughen judicial review for some telephone and Internet monitoring. The bill requires the government to be more specific about targets of wiretaps obtained under the law.
Enough to get you through a cocktail party: While Patriot certainly lowers the standard for obtaining wiretaps to an assertion of mere "relevance" in an ongoing investigation, those standards were awfully low to begin with. It's hard to see how Patriot made life much worse than FISA.
Section 216, aka "Your friendly neighborhood Carnivore"
Section 216 clarifies that pen register/trap-and-trace authority applies to Internet surveillance. Until now, it was at the whim of judges and the Justice Department whether the rules for phone taps applied to the Internet as well.
What it does: Patriot changes the language that was drafted contemplating only telephonic surveillance to include Internet monitoring, specifically information about: "dialing, routing, and signaling." It also broadens such monitoring to any information "relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation."
The law before and how it changed: Before the Patriot Act, Internet surveillance by the feds was essentially unregulated. The availability of an Internet tap turned on whether a judge would apply phone tap rules to the Internet. While the act broadens the use of tapping devices from telephone numbers to Internet and e-mail origins, it actually sets up higher standards for the government to meet. For instance, wiretaps may not be used to intercept "the content" of Internet communications (although the act does not specify what "content" means, which worries civil libertarians).The provision requires that the feds report back on how the wiretap was used. However, warrants can now be sought for any suspected crimes, not merely for terrorism-related acts. Also, judges have no authority to reject these applications.
It was widely reported that the Patriot Act expressly authorized the use of "Carnivore"—the federal Internet surveillance tool. However, Patriot never mentions Carnivore, and the only section that implicates Carnivore requires that the government file a detailed report whenever it installs its own surveillance device on an ISP.
How it's been implemented: The DOJ says it has used the Patriot-amended pen/trap provisions to track the communications of a host of ne'er-do-wells. [The greatest-hits list it sent the House Judiciary Committee in May includes: "(1) terrorist conspirators, (2) at least one major drug distributor, (3) identity thieves who obtained victims' bank account information and stole the money, (4) a four-time murderer, and (5) a fugitive who fled on the eve of trial using a fake passport." They also say the new authority helped them investigate the murder of Daniel Pearl.]
In May 2002 the attorney general sent field offices a memo warning agents against "overcollection," the inadvertent collection of content when using a pen/trap device. The memo mandated that agents must use "reasonably available technology" to avoid capturing content. If content is accidentally captured "no affirmative investigative use may be made of that content"—"except in a rare case in order to prevent an immediate danger of death, serious physical injury, or harm to the national security." Asked at a May congressional hearing how the DOJ defines "content" when it comes to electronic communications, Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh reported, "We consider non-content to be the 'to' and the 'from.' The subject line is content." Nice that they're paying attention, but it does appear that the DOJ acts as the only check on itself, here.
As for Carnivore, the DOJ reported in August 2002 that federal investigators had filed only two notices detailing the installation of surveillance devices on an ISP. Only one of the two was related to a terror investigation. Dinh noted in May that agents retain information about such installations—"including information relating to how it was used, what information was gathered by the device, and ultimately whether or not it was successful in gathering such information"—and make it available to the court that issued the warrant within 30 days.
Would you know if Section 216 had been used on you? Not unless you were someday prosecuted based on information obtained pursuant to this statute.
Sunsets in 2005: No.
Enough to get you through a cocktail party: Section 216 is one of the provisions that may actually protect privacy. By codifying wiretapping law as it's applied to the Internet, Patriot removes a lot of the ambiguity from the prior rules. But as the laundry list above suggests, Patriot authorized this surveillance for a lot more than the war on terror. Which seems a little opportunistic, no?
Section 206, aka "Here, Rover"
Section 206 authorizes roving wiretaps: taps specific to no single phone or computer but to every phone or computer the target may use. It doesn't get as much attention as it should. If the government decides to tap a computer at the UCLA library, every communication by every user can theoretically be intercepted.
What it does: Expands FISA to permit surveillance of any communications made to or by an intelligence target without specifying the particular phone line or computer to be monitored.
The law before and how it changed: Taps were formerly applicable only to specific phones. Under Patriot, the FISA court can authorize taps or intercepts on any phones or computers that the target may use. The foreign intelligence authorities can require anyone to help them wiretap. Previously, they could only serve such orders on common carriers, landlords, or other specified persons. Along with Section 220, which allows a judge to authorize national wiretaps rather than ones limited to her jurisdiction, this severely undercuts a judge's ability to monitor whether taps are being used appropriately and erodes the "particularity" requirement of the Fourth Amendment.
How it's been implemented: When asked in May to detail provisions of the Patriot Act that had helped federal authorities dismantle terrorist networks, the DOJ made no specific mention of section 206. (They also skipped 214.) That's slightly odd, since the DOJ has often used such open-ended questions to grandstand about renewing sunsetted provisions. The DOJ did tell the House Judiciary Committee in July 2002 that the number of roving wiretaps issued is classified, noting that we can "assure the committee that the Department's request for use of such authority … has been limited to those cases where the surveillance ordered by the Court would otherwise be, or would otherwise likely be, impossible." So, at least there's that.
Would you know if Section 206 had been used on you? Not unless the information was someday used to prosecute you.
Sunsets in 2005: Yes.
Enough to get you through a cocktail party: The vast expansion of warrant power is worrisome. The check on the use of wiretapping authority for government fishing expeditions was judicial oversight. Such oversight is impossible when taps are issued nationwide and to a range of phones and computers.

2006-01-02T17:35:00.000-08:00

Nicholas von Hoffman:
'Outlook: Cloudy with continued craziness'
Topic: Republicans
Nicholas von Hoffman, The Huffington Post
The long range predictions of political and social meteorologists at this weather station are gloomy. Bear in mind that there is more money, attention and sex allure for weather persons when storms are forecast than when sunny days are promised, so readers may want to discount the following dark forebodings.January - In his State of the Nation speech President Bush says that the Iraqi war is kinda like a long, long horse race but that the thoroughbred named USA is leading down the home stretch and heading to a barn called Democracy. He expects the American force there can be reduced by the end of May.He tells people that now is not the time to give up on SUVs. He promises that the price of oil and natural gas is going to go down because of the miraculous technology advances our scientists, who are the best in the world, will have growing out of their test tubes, "faster 'an you can say ethanol."Congress repeals the Freedom of Information Act. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says, "It was useless and we are trying to get old, unenforced laws off the books."February - An air marshal who is a member of a VIPER anti-terrorist patrol kills an old man on a commuter train coming into Chicago from suburban Park Forest. The man, Arinsoe Palgrave, 81, carrying an attache case, began emitting strange sounds which the air marshal (name withheld for security reasons) took to be Arabic. After being asked by the marshal for some ID, Palgrave lept from his seat, began jerking and shaking while holding on to his attache case. When Palgrave ignored orders to place his case on the railroad car's floor and assume the position, the marshal was forced, to save the lives of the other passengers, to take the suspected terrorist out. The bomb squad determined that the case contained Palgrave's medical records and a petition to the Veterans Administration to raise his disability payments. A grandnephew, Marcel Palgrave, 23, said that his uncle suffered from an undiagnosed neurological disorder.March - Karen Hughes, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, returns to the Middle East to resume her mission of teaching Arabs how to act right. Hughes, 49, a close collaborator with the President, is said to be one of the most astute political minds in Washington. The highly respected Egyptian newspaper El-Ahram noted her return to its part of the world in an article which contained the phrase, "fat, Christian cow."Congress reaches a milestone. In secret session it passes the first classified law. When asked how people can obey a law they don't know about, House Speaker Denny Hastert, said, "You'll know when you break it because we'll be down on you like a ton of bricks." The ACLU said Classified Law Number 1 was taking the country in "a new direction."April - Karl Rove, George Tenent, John Ashcroft and Fats Domino are awarded the Medal of Freedom. Fats entertains the glamorous Washington audience with "Ain't That a Shame."Avian flu breaks out in Minnesota. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Michael O. Leavitt, says, "Not to worry, the disease is only infecting undocumented immigrants who are being deported as fast as possible."May - President Bush announces that a turning point in the Iraqi war has been reached. He says that three million Iraqi soldiers have been trained, plus four million Iraqi police. Thus one out of every five Iraqis are in the army or law enforcement. He expects the American force there can be reduced by the end of the year.The Department of Energy says that scientists have achieved a release of energy via cold fusion, the way the sun releases energy only a lot cooler. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman tells a press conference that cold fusion can extract enough energy from a teacup of ocean water to power every home and office in the United States for a month. He has his picture taken with the teacup.June - Department of Education reveals it has perfected a computer program to teach Federal law enforcement officials how to connect dots.Officials fear gasoline prices will go through the roof this summer.President Bush tells his radio audience he is worried terrorists may try to disrupt American elections in the fall.The Supreme Court rules that government employees or persons deemed "critical in the G-WAT (global war against terrorism) may not tell others who they are if ordered to be "invisible." The case was originally brought by Grandmother X, who is not allowed to reveal to grandchild Y who his mother is. She may work for the CIA.July - Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman admits to a Senate committee that he dropped the teacup and it broke, which has set back the cold fusion program but he predicts it will be up and running before the last drop of oil has been pumped out of Saudi Arabia. When queried, he is quoted saying, "Senator, you're asking me if I would buy an SUV under present conditions? My answer is yes. We can get another teacup."HHS boss, Michael O. Leavitt, concedes that there have been "a few hiccups" in the avian flue inoculation program but the "people most vital to our society, police, elected officials and risk taking, job creating, innovators with incomes over $500,000 a year" have been vaccinated. When asked about others, Leavitt responded that "most of them have high definition TV." An anonymous HHS official said that, "budgetarily it doesn't make sense to spend money for expensive vaccines on people who most likely will die next winter because they can't afford to heat their homes. Either Big Bird gets you in July or Frosty the Snowman offs you in January," but then added he was only joking. Welfare advocates said the jest was in poor taste.August - A gas station in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, is identified by the Associated Press as the first one in America to charge $10 for a gallon of regular. President Bush says that the price of gas is a sign that the free market is working and the economy is growing.He tells reporters that he is buying each of his twins a Ford Explorer but with the cup holders removed. This month, he tells a group of Marine veterans, will see America reaching a turning point in Iraq. He foresees a "draw down" of American troops by as early as March of 2007, which is way ahead of schedule. Democracy in the Middle East is around the corner, but the President is worried about what may happen here on election day.September - President Bush is accused of ordering the CIA to attack the World Trade Center and that 9/11 was a put-up job. "Why would I do a silly thing like that," the President said when pressed on the point.Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asks Congress to pass a law mandating every child born in the US have a small chip inserted in the back of the neck enabling the government to keep track of who's where and where is who. Gonzales explained that people move around "too much," although not as much as they did before gas hit $10, "but what will happen if prices drop?" he asked.Hurricane Albino destroys Houston, Texas.October - Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman says that his Department hopes to have a new teacup up and running by sometime in the second quarter of next year.A FEMA press release states that Katrina victims are being evacuated from their temporary housing so that Hurricane Albino victims can move in. A spokesperson, when asked what Katrina victims are to do, answered, "They need to deal with it."Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, reacting to a Washington Post story about proactive interrogation, angrily explained to reporters who, he said, had not done their "homework," that when a fingernail is only pulled out halfway, it is "emphatically not a violation of the Geneva Convention, and you, ladies and gentlemen, should know that."The average price of gasoline has dropped to $7.21. Officials said the price of heating oil is over $6.00 a gallon but those using natural gas will have no cold nights this winter if they take out home equity loans.November - - Donald Rumsfeld denies that a sack of fingernails discovered by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh for the New Yorker magazine are human nails. "These are chimpanzee nails. Don't you people know anything?" a testy Secretary of Defense asks Pentagon reporters.In response to repeated inquiries from major Wall Street bond houses, Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill concedes that, "There has been a snafu with our books. We really don't know what is what right now, so there will be no financial information this quarter."White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, says the President believes that Iraq has reached an important milestone. But the milestone is classified "for obvious reasons."In a joint news conference the President and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announce that the elections this month will be held under "Iraqi election rules." For the 48 hours preceding election day no one other than unruly Mexicans will be allowed in the country. All plane and railroad traffic will cease. Schools will be closed and no cars will be allowed on the streets. Only people on their way to or from their voting place will be permitted to leave their homes. The Army will count the ballots and the country will be informed of the election outcome "as soon as it is safe."December - - Secret Service agents and police in Omaha had to use night sticks and pepper gas to protect President Bush from a mob of enraged golden oldies in wheelchairs and on walkers, who assailed the Chief Executive with canes, dentures, hearing aids and empty plastic pill containers. A shocked Chief Executive asked, "What did I do?"Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld concedes not all the fingernails belong to chimps.While lighting the National Holiday Tree, President Bush asks his fellow Americans "to stay the course." He predicts some troops will be withdrawn by the end of May, 2007.

2006-01-02T06:21:00.000-08:00

Siege Heil: The Bush-Rove-Schwarzenegger Nazi Nexus and the Destabilization of California
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

George W. Bush's grandfather helped finance the Nazi Party. Karl Rove's grandfather allegedly helped run the Nazi Party, and helped build the Birkenau Death Camp. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Austrian father volunteered for the infamous Nazi SA and became a ranking officer.

Together, they have destabilized California and are on the brink of bringing it a new Reich. With the Schwarzenegger candidacy they have laid siege to America's largest state, lining it up for the 2004 election.

The Bush family ties to the Nazi party are well known. In their 1994 Secret War Against the Jews, Mark Aarons and John Loftus use official US documents to establish that George Herbert Walker, George W. Bush's maternal great-grandfather, was one of Hitler's most important early backers. He funneled money to the rising young fascist through the Union Banking Corporation.

In 1926, Walker arranged to have his new son-in-law, Prescott Bush---father of President George Bush I, grandfather of George Bush II---hired as Vice President at W.A. Harriman and Company. Prescott became a senior partner when Harriman merged with a British-American investment company to become Brown Brothers Harriman. In 1934 Prescott Bush joined the Board of Directors of Union Banking.

The bank helped Hitler rise to power. It also helped him wage war. As late as July 31, 1941---well after the Nazi invasion of Poland---the U.S. government froze $3 million in Union Banking assets linked to Fritz Thyssen. Thyssen was noted in the American press as a "German industrialist and original backer of Adolph Hitler."

Loftus writes that Thyssen's "American friends in New York City [were] Prescott Bush and Herbert Walker, the father and father-in-law of a future President of the United States." That would be the current president's father, George Herbert Walker Bush, also the former CIA director.

On October 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi Germany's banking operations in New York City, which were under the direction of Prescott Bush. The government seized control of Union Banking Corporation under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The liquidation yielded a reported $750,000 apiece for Prescott Bush and George Herbert Walker. The book, The Splendid Blonde Beast: Money, Law and Genocide, goes into exhaustive detail on Bush-Harriman Nazi money laundering. More recently, Michael Kranish covers the same Bush-Nazi relationships in The Rise of the Bush Family Dynasty published in the Boston Globe. Loftus documents that "Prescott Bush knowingly served as a money launderer for the Nazis. Remember that Union Bank's books and accounts were frozen by the U.S. Alien Property Custodian in 1942 and not released back to the Bush family until 1951."

Often ignored are the Bush family's post-World War II dealings with former Nazis. John Foster Dulles, who had worked with the Bush family in the Harriman Company in laundering money for Nazi Germany, was Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of State. His brother Allen became CIA director.

As Martin Lee documents in The Beast Reawakens, American intelligence recruited numerous top Nazis to spy on the Soviets during the Cold War. Many established connections to the Bush family that had helped finance their original rise to power. In 1988 Project Censored, in its top award, noted "how the major mass media ignored, overlooked or undercovered at least ten critical stories reported in America's alternative press that raised serious questions about the Republican candidate, George Bush, dating from his reported role as a CIA 'asset' in 1963 to his presidential campaign's connection with a network of anti-Semites with Nazi and fascist affiliations in 1988." Investigative reporter Russ Bellant established ties between the Republican Party and former Axis Nazis and fascists.

In 2000 and 2001 the Columbus Alive published a series of articles documenting further links between Bush, Sr. and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his own fascist networks in Japan and Korea.

Karl Rove has parallel ties. The shadowy Rove serves as "Bush's Brain" in the current White House. He is the political mastermind behind the California coup, and is now in the headlines for outing Valerie Plame, the CIA wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson. A consummate strategist, Rove may have outed Plame in retaliation for Wilson's failure to back up the Bush claim that Saddam Hussein was buying nuclear weapons materials in Africa. According to some published reports, as many as seventy CIA operatives have been put at risk by Rove's retaliatory strike.

According to Wilson, and to Retired U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Al Martin (www.almartinraw.com), Rove's grandfather was Karl Heinz Roverer, the Gauleiter of Oldenburg. Roverer was Reich-Statthalter---Nazi State Party Chairman---for his region. He was also a partner and senior engineer in the Roverer Sud-Deutche Ingenieurburo A. G. engineering firm, which built the Birkenau death camp, at which tens of thousands of Jews, Gypsies, dissidents and other were slaughtered en masse.

Rove, who has been based in Utah and associated with the Mormon Church, is widely viewed as the chief engineer of the current Bush administration. He and Tom DeLay are attempting to force the Texas legislature to redistrict its Congressional delegations, adding seven sure seats to the Republican column. By controlling the state houses in New York, Florida, Texas and California, the GOP would have a lock on the four largest states in the union, and thus the ability to manipulate vote counts and strip voter registration rolls in the run-up to the 2004 election.

Rove is a prime behind-the-scenes mover in the Schwarzenegger campaign. On May 1, 1939, a year after the Nazis took control of Schwarzenegger's native Austria, his father Gustav, voluntarily joined Hilter's infamous Strumabteilung (SA), "brown shirt" stormtroopers. This was just six months after the brown shirts played a key role in the bloody Kristallnacht attacks on Germany's Jewish community.

The Vienna daily Der Standard noted recently that "Gustav, a high-ranking Nazi, brought up the bespectacled, rather frail boy with an iron fist and quite a few slaps in the face." Arnold's father favored a Hitler-style mustache in photos.

On October 3, ABC News broke the story of Schwarzenegger's 1977 interview in which he was asked whom he admired. Schwarzenegger replied, "I admire Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for what he did with it."

To cover himself, Schwarzenegger has made substantial donations to the Los Angeles-based Wiesenthal Center, which tracks down ex-Nazis. Arnold has also renounced Hitler.

But he has not renounced his friendship with fellow Austrian Kurt Waldheim, the one-time head of the United Nations with known Nazi ties. The book Arnold: An Unauthorized Biography, documents Arnold toasting Waldheim, who had participated in Nazi atrocities during World War II, at his wedding to Maria Shriver. "My friends don't want me to mention Kurt's name, because of all the recent Nazi stuff and the U.N. controversy," Arnold said. "But I love him and Maria does to, and so thank you, Kurt."

On May 17, 2001, Schwarzenegger also met with Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay of Enron at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles. Through the utility deregulation plan signed into law by Pete Wilson, Schwarzenegger's chief advisor, California was destabilized, bankrupting the state government and opening the door for Tuesday's recall election. Lay has been George W. Bush's chief financial backer, and a close associate of Karl Rove's.

According to Bob Woodward's Bush at War, Bush attended a New York Yankees game soon after the September 11 World Trade Center disaster. He wore a fireman's jacket. As he threw out the first pitch, the crowd roared. Thousands of fans stuck out their arms with thumbs up. Karl Rove, sitting in the box of Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, likened the roar of the crowd to "a Nazi rally."

He would know.

Bob Fitrakis's Spooks, Nuke & Nazis is now available at www.freepress.org. He is co-author with Harvey Wasserman of The SuperPower of Peace v. Bush et. al.. available November 1.

Harvey Wasserman is author of Harvey Wasserman's History of the United States and co-author (with Bob Fitrakis) of The Superpower of Peace v. Bush et. al., soon available from www.freepress.org.

2006-01-02T05:55:00.000-08:00

FROM THE DESK OF DOGGETT:

Dear Joshua:

Knowing of your concerns for protecting our liberties, I offer this update from Washington regarding the shocking revelation that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans without seeking a warrant.Yesterday, I joined several colleagues in filing a "Resolution of Inquiry" requesting that the Justice Department turn over documents in their possession authorizing the NSA's warrantless spying on American citizens' telephone calls and emails and the legal recommendations to do so, subject to any necessary redactions or security classifications. President Bush claimed authority for him to authorize surveillance of Americans rested on the congressional resolution that authorized the war in Afghanistan only a few days after 9/11. In fact, this is just the kind of activity that Congress did not intend to authorize when it gave President Bush the power to attack Afghanistan. I issued the following warning on the floor of the House of Representatives on September 14, 2001:[T]imes of peril can also cause our well-justified anger and desire for immediate action to overwhelm democratic safeguards erected over the last two centuries. The tension that we face tonight is to provide the President with enough authority to eradicate wrongdoing without wronging the carefully crafted systems of checks and balances so essential to our democracy. As we vote for this important resolution with the lives of so many at stake in this important endeavor against terrorism, we cannot let the Executive branch become the exclusive branch. Our approval must represent not the end but the beginning of congressional involvement.The President should stop hiding behind the skirt of national security. There is no justification for denying Congress and the public the documents we seek. On Friday, when the President was asked by Jim Lehrer whether he authorized the secret wiretaps, the President declined to answer, citing national security. But by the next day, with his political security at stake, President Bush not only discussed the domestic spying program but said he would keep doing it. We should not surrender our liberties to any Administration. Retreating to such abusive tactics is weakness, not strength. Authoritarianism is not born full-bodied, it is conceived in small injustices, which tolerated over time, become irreversible. As I stated last week during debate on renewal of the mis-named PATRIOT Act, "Real patriots understand: An all-powerful government can undermine our security just as surely as a dangerous religious fanatic. Intrusive, invasive powers in the hands of a few, with little oversight and no accountability, are a formula for wrongdoing."Please keep me advised of any federal matters on which I may be of assistance.Sincerely,Lloyd---------------U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett201 Cannon House Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20515(202) 225-4865, (956) 687-5921, (512) 916-5921http://www.house.gov/doggett

2005-12-22T17:34:00.000-08:00

Adam McKay, The Huffington Post
Dick Cheney was on a tear yesterday. He got the ball rolling by firing off the following quote defending the President's right to spy on Americans with no approval from any court. "I believe in a strong, robust executive authority and I think that the world we live in demands it," Cheney said. "I would argue that the actions that we've taken there are totally appropriate and consistent with the constitutional authority of the president."Cheney then said he felt that after the Nixon administration executive power has been diminished and needs to be restored. Is it just me or is this a chilling quote? It seems like a line from the Emperor in the most recent Star Wars: "The Power of the Emperor must not be limited by the council or the Jedi in a time of war!"Cheney then cast the deciding vote on budget cuts that seriously limit Medicaid and Student Loans for Americans. This after Congress just made permanent large tax breaks for the wealthiest one percent in our country.Does Dick Cheney know he's evil? I mean it. Does he occasionally look up from his breakfast of one hard boiled egg and a plate of heart pills and say to himself, "Man, I'm an evil fuck"?Bush and Cheney have presided over one of the worst runs in American history: starting a war based on lies that has cost tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions; total failure to deal with Katrina and then blaming others for that failure; basically legalizing torture; outing a CIA spy; tax breaks for millionaires; huge no bid contracts to Cheney's former company; a crazily-divided country that has lost the respect and trust of the world; insane trade deficits...etc, etc, etc, etc.And now Cheney says they need even more power? Isn't this like the coach of the Toronto Raptors saying "Hey, we're 5 and 20. I think it's time I was also made Team President and GM. Plus I want to play point guard."?I think these greedy apes should be doing back flips that they're not in jail.And what is Cheney's reasoning for calling for more power? That there haven't been anymore terrorist attacks. Nothing's been blown up...lately. In case you forgot Dick, it was on your watch that the first big attack happened! And you had intelligence warning you of the attack. But I forgot, that was just, according to Rice, "An historical document." Kind of like if you yell to someone "Hey! Watch out! That car is going to hit you!" And they just stand there and get hit and then later claim that they thought you meant overall, for life, watch out for cars. In a general overall kind of way.Maybe they thought the explicit warnings about the levees in New Orleans were "historical." Or maybe they thought they were quoting the Led Zeppelin song "The Levee's Gonna Break..." After all, Bush liked to party in New Orleans and I'm sure he sometimes got the Led out.But as flagrant as the corrupt Bush administration is in their quest for power, money, and oh yeah, power, the American people still, for the most part, reside in a false reality of TV programming and sports and "Top Ten Gifts for 05!" And the Republicans treat all of this as though it's a big game of Red Rover, Red Rover. Honestly... Republicans... do you really, truly think these guys are doing a good job? Really? 'Cause you're killing us. And Dick Cheney is loving every second of it.

2005-12-22T17:29:00.000-08:00

FEMA Chief Brown Paid Millions to Fla. Residents Unaffected by ‘04 Hurricane to Help Bush Win Votes During Presidential Election
By Jason Leopld
Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances and three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush win a majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign, according to published reports. “Some Homeland Security sources said FEMA's efforts to distribute funds quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key political battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall were undertaken with a keen awareness of the looming presidential elections,” according to a May 19 Washington Post story. Homeland Security sources told the Post that after the hurricanes that Brown “and his allies [recommended] him to succeed Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary because of their claim that he helped deliver Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes.” The South Florida Sun-Sentinel uncovered emails from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush that confirmed those allegations and directly implicated Brown as playing politics at the expense of hurricane victims. “As the second hurricane in less than a month bore down on Florida last fall, a federal [FEMA] consultant predicted a "huge mess" that could reflect poorly on President Bush and suggested that his re-election staff be brought in to minimize any political liability, records show,” the Sentinel reported in a March 23 story. “Two weeks later, a Florida official summarizing the hurricane response wrote that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was handing out housing assistance "to everyone who needs it without asking for much information of any kind."The records the Sentinel obtained were contained in hundreds of pages of Gov. Jeb Bush's storm-related e-mails the paper received from the governor’s office under the threat of a lawsuit.The explosive charges of mismanagement of disaster relief funds made against Brown and FEMA were confirmed earlier this year following a four-month investigation by Richard Skinner, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general. Skinner looked into media reports alleging that residents of Miami-Dade were receiving windfall payments from FEMA to cover losses from Hurricane Frances they never incurred. Hurricane Frances hit Hutchinson Island, Fla., about 100 miles north of Dade County, on Sept. 5. Miami-Dade officials described damage there from heavy rain and winds of up to 45 mph as ''minimal,'' according to the Post. Indeed. A May 14 story in the Sun-Sentinel said: “Miami-Dade County residents collected Hurricane Frances aid for belongings they didn't own, temporary housing they never requested and cars worth far less than the government paid, according to a federal audit that questions millions in storm payouts.Responding to those allegations, Brown held a news conference Jan. 11 blaming the overpayments on a “computer glitch” and said the disbursements were far less than the $31 million that was cited in news reports and involved 3,500 people. Moreover, to silence his critics who said that Hurricane Frances barely touched down in Miami-Dade, Brown cited a report by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to prove that there were legitimate hurricane conditions there and as a result that a bulk of the payments was legitimate. But according to the Sun-Sentinel, NOAA had refuted the weather maps Brown claimed to have obtained from them. That report prompted Congressman Robert Wexler to send off a scathing letter to President Bush calling for Brown’s resignation. Bush rebuffed Wexler. However, the DHS’ inspector general launched a probe to determine how widespread the problems were involving overpayments to Miami-Dade residents. In May, the inspector general released his report. What he found was damning. “The review found waste and poor controls in every level of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's assistance program and challenges the designation of Miami-Dade as a disaster area when the county "did not incur any hurricane force winds, tornados or other adverse weather conditions that would cause widespread damage."In identifying one of the overpayments, the inspector general’s report said FEMA paid $10 million to replace hundreds of household items even though only a bed was reported to be damaged, the inspector general’s report said. "Millions of individuals and households became eligible to apply for [money], straining FEMA's limited inspection resources to verify damages and making the program more susceptible to potential fraud, waste and abuse," the report states.Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, said during a committee hearing in May that Brown “approved massive payouts to replace thousands of televisions, air conditioners, beds and other furniture, as well as a number of cars, without receipts, or proof of ownership or damage, and based solely on verbal statements by the residents, sometimes made in fleeting encounters at fast-food restaurants.”“It was a pay first, ask questions later approach,'' Collins said. ''The inspector general's report identifies a number of significant control weaknesses that create a potential for widespread fraud, erroneous payments and wasteful practices.'' But the most interesting charge against Brown is that he helped speed up payments in Florida and purposely bypassed FEMA’s lengthy reviews process for distributing funds in order to help Bush secure votes in the state during last year’s presidential election. Bob Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, who was a top federal flood insurance official in the 1970s and 1980s and a Texas insurance commissioner in the 1990s, told the Post “that in the vast majority of hurricanes, other than those in Florida in 2004, complaints are rife that FEMA has vastly underpaid hurricane victims. The Frances overpayments are questionable given the timing of the election and Florida's importance as a battleground state.”FEMA consultant Glenn Garcelon actions certainly lends credibility to questions raised by Hunter. On Sept. 2, 2004, Garcelon, wrote a three-page memo titled "Hurricane Frances -- Thoughts and Suggestions." “The Republican National Convention was winding down, and President Bush had only a slight lead in the polls against Democrat John Kerry,” the Sentinel reported in its March 23 story. “Winning Florida was key to the president's re-election. FEMA should pay careful attention to how it is portrayed by the public, Garcelon wrote in the memo, conveying "the team effort theme at every opportunity" alongside state and local officials, the insurance and construction industries, and relief agencies such as the Red Cross.”Gov. Bush received the memo Sept. 30, 2004 shortly before a swell of payments made its way to residents in Miami-Dade who did not sustain damage as a result of Hurricane Frances. A couple of weeks before Gov. Bush received the memo from Garcelon, Orlando J. Cabrera, executive director of the Florida Housing Finance Corp. and a member of the governor's Hurricane Housing Work Group, said in a different memo to Gov. Bush that FEMA was allocating short-term rental assistance to "everyone who needs it, without asking for much information of any kind," the Sentinel reported.In addition, "standard housing assistance," of up to $25,600, Cabrera wrote, is "liberally provided without significant scrutiny of the request made during the initial months; scrutiny increases remarkably and the package is far more stringent after an unspecified time."The DHS audit report found that, under Brown, FEMA erroneously distributed to Miami-Dade residents:• $8.2 million in rental assistance to 4,308 applicants in the county who "did not indicate a need for shelter" when they registered for help. In 60 cases reviewed by auditors, inspectors deemed homes unsafe without explanation, and applicants never moved out.$720,403 to 228 people for belongings based on their word alone.$192,592 for generators, air purifiers, wet/dry vacuum cleaners, chainsaws and other items without proof that they were needed to deal with the hurricane. Three applicants got generators for their homes, plus rental assistance from FEMA to live somewhere else.$15,743 for three funerals without sufficient documentation that the deaths were due to the hurricane.$46,464 to 64 residents for temporary housing even though they had homeowners insurance. FEMA funds cannot be used when costs are covered by insurance.$17,424 in rental assistance to 24 people who reported that their homes were not damaged.$97,500 for 15 automobiles with a "blue book" value of $56,140. In general, the report states that FEMA approved claims for damaged vehicles without properly verifying that the losses were caused by the storm.
Authors Website: www.jasonleopold.comAuthors Bio: Jason Leopold is the author of the explosive memoir, News Junkie, to be released in the spring of 2006 by Process/Feral House Books. Visit Leopold's website at www.jasonleopold.com for updates.

2005-11-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday,
3,000 people gathered in Austin to protest the KKK and their Anti-Gay message.
I was there. This event truly shows how strong our movement is! Only 12 Klan members showed up, but they were met with thousands of peaceful protesters. We countered their message of hate with a message of love. The Klan left City Hall earlier than expected (about 2pm), because their permit to protest wasn't up until 4pm. I guess they felt like 12 against 3,000 was a fight that could not be won! Congrats to all of my brothers and sisters who showed up yesterday to sing, pray, and tell the KKK to go away!
Joshua P. Angell
Austin Texas
I've put a new music video on the blog here: http://angell4austin.blogspot.com , it's Melissa Etheridge's "REFUGEE".
This is in honor of the movement. We don't have to live like refugee's, we CAN and WILL one day win our fight for EQUALITY!
Below are some snippit links to various comments about yesterday's event:

KXAN.com - City To Permit KKK Rally Against Gay Marriage
Email · Print, Text Size. City To Permit KKK Rally Against Gay Marriage ... We'll have more on this story on KXAN NBC Austin First at Four. ...http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=4020533&nav=0s3d

KXAN.com - City To Permit KKK Rally Against Gay Marriage
City To Permit KKK Rally Against Gay Marriage ... The city has reserved the Austin City Hall's south plaza on Lavaca and Cesar Chavez from 1-3 pm on ...http://www.kxan.com/global/story.asp?s=4020533&ClientType=Printable

HoustonChronicle.com - Prop. 2 supporters avoid anti-gay KKK rally
Proposition 2 supporters distance themselves from anti-gay KKK rally. Amendment's backers say they want nothing to do with Austin event ...http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3419002

HoustonChronicle.com - Proposition 2 foes will counter Klan rally
Proposition 2 foes will counter Klan rally. Group schedules 'nonviolent' vigil in Austin, vows not to engage KKK. Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Austin ...http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3429452

Protest a KKK rally in Austin! Austin ISO
Protest a KKK rally in Austin! iso's picture. Submitted by iso on October 25, 2005 - 2:42pm. Start: Nov 5 2005 - 12:00pm. Event Summary:. Protest the Klan! ...http://austiniso.org/node/13

Events Austin ISO
Protest a KKK rally in Austin! Start: 12:00 pm. Event Summary:. Confront the Klan! Meet at Noon on Saturday November 5 at Austin City Hall (Cesar Chavez and ...http://austiniso.org/event/2005/10/30/table/all/all

Burnt Orange Report - KKK to Support Prop 2 in Austin
... it's a really stupid move on the KKK's part to hold a rally here in Austin. ... the KKK shouldnt be allowed to rally up a obvious riot where many will ...http://www.burntorangereport.com/mt/archives/2005/10/kkk_to_support.html

Burnt Orange Report: Comment on KKK to Support Prop 2 in Austin
Don't bring the KKK to Austin? So, you advocate the suppression of free speech ... The fact is, it's a really stupid move on the KKK's part to hold a rally ...http://www.burntorangereport.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=4644

KKK Rally In Austin!!!! Who's going..... - DallasDanceMusic ...
KKK Rally In Austin!!!! Who's going..... Awareness & Politics.http://www.dallasdancemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=170702

Daily Kos: KKK rally in Austin under Christian Family Values to ...
KKK rally in Austin under Christian Family Values to attack Gays!! by AHiddenSaint. Mon Oct 24, 2005 at 04:51:43 PM PDT. The hate is spreading and now guess ...http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/10/24/195143/23
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2005-11-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

Hello, Everyone!If you are interested in the movie, Robert Greenwald's, WAL*MART: The High Cost of Low Price, coming later in the month, you can get in contact with me. SEIU is sponsoring the movie, and they are encouraging everyone who can to set up house partys to show the movie.

Hit me a mail off line. My address is:

PlentyAZZ@Hotmail.com

Best regards,
Jay
Wireless: (443) 514-5959

Move the U.S.A. Forward!

2005-11-06T08:37:00.000-08:00

This week, the director of "Uncovered: The War on Iraq" and "Outfoxed" released his latest film, "Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Prices." It's a powerful exposé on the toll the Wal-Mart behemoth has taken on workers and communities across the country, and how we can help turn the tide.
Wal-Mart is going into attack mode. The company has literally created a war room, staffed with political consultants who are working day and night to undermine the movie and spread pro-Wal-Mart propaganda.1 But it's not working: thanks to the questions raised by the film, national media are tuning in to Wal-Mart's high cost to American families—and last week the movie was featured on page 1 of the New York Times.2
Next week, a coalition of hundreds of unions, churches, small business associations and citizens' groups3 are taking this fight to thousands of living rooms around the country, holding viewing parties to watch the movie and get organized. They've invited us to join them.
Can you host a Wal-Mart movie screening party next Tuesday, November 15th? Sign up today:
http://www.walmartmovie.com/host.php
We'll make sure you get the movie before the 15th if you order by Tuesday, November 8th.
If you can't host a party, you can still buy an advance copy of the new film and send a important message to Wal-Mart: they can spin, but they can't hide. Order your copy online at:http://www.walmartmovie.com/watch.php
These viewing parties are all part of the national "Wal-Mart Week of Action." This week is a great opportunity for MoveOn members to work directly with the members of our partner groups. If you choose to make your screening party public, it will be added to the central pool and local folks from the Service Employees International Union, (SEIU), the Independent Business Association, or any of our hundreds of other partners will be invited to join you.
Once you sign up, you'll receive a special screening packet with everything you need and some easy next steps that your group can take to become part of the solution.
In its debut week the Wal-Mart movie was featured on The Today Show,4 on the front page of the New York Times, and Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A-" rating.5 Salon wrote this glowing review:
"What makes the movie so powerful is the totality of the portrait, both in its details and its sweep. Most of these people are entirely unexceptional Americans from the working class or lower-middle class, believers in flag and country and God and capitalism, not left-wing activists or academics with some theoretical critique. Most of them believed in Wal-Mart, too, and were genuinely horrified to learn that its low prices depended on enforced poverty, whether theirs or somebody else's."6
MoveOn is sponsoring screenings of the film on Tuesday, November 15th, but you can also choose to host another day that week if it works better for you. Please sign up today:
http://www.walmartmovie.com/host.php
After Katrina, we committed to work together to help rebuild a middle class America. It's critical to examine why so many hard working families are watching the American Dream slip away. Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation and nation's largest employer, is a major piece of that puzzle.
Wal-Mart is owned by the nation's wealthiest family,7 but its average salary is below the poverty line8—leaving over half of it's full time employees without health care or dependent on Medicaid.9 It drives down labor standards at home and around the world.10 It has destroyed countless small businesses in thousands of communities.11 And it does it all by absorbing billions of dollars in corporate welfare every year.12
We hope you'll be able to join the national Wal-Mart Week of Action and host a screening Tuesday, November 15th (or another day that week that works better for you). When you sign up to host, you'll get an advance copy of the movie, and later an action packet to help your group plan some easy next steps.
Please sign up to host right now at:
http://www.walmartmovie.com/host.php
And if you can't host a screening, you're still invited to purchase an advance personal copy of the new film at:http://www.walmartmovie.com/watch.php
Thanks for all that you do,
–Ben, Wes, Joan, Micayla and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team Friday, November 4th, 2005
p.s. Here's a note from Director Robert Greenwald to MoveOn members:
"Dear MoveOn Members,One year of intense 24/7 work on this film by the Brave New Films team has turned up very emotional, personal stories of how policy affects people. And with your lead, the film will be a tool for initiating and furthering the fight around economic justice and fairness and the American way of life.
So with great appreciation and excitement, we at Brave New Films present "WAL-MART, the high cost of low price," available to all of you to view and most importantly, to go out into the world armed with the facts and stories it contains. The film has more folks who identify as Republicans then Democrats, and I was very surprised to discover how the Wal-Mart and corporate greed issue cut across any narrow partisan boxes. We have a chance with your help to reach lots of people who might not agree with us on other issues, but on how Wal-Mart is destroying their families, jobs, communities.....they are with us.
Everyplace there is a TV screen and dvd player, can become a screening room for debate, discussion, and change. I look forward to joining with you as we go on the offense and use the film to get a debate going about how the American Dream is being torn apart by a multi-national corporation that only lives by the rule of greed.
With the greatest thanks and excitement,
–Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Films team"
Sources:
1. "A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room," The New York Times, November 1st, 2005http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/business/01walmart.ready.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1131113232-tfvsWUm71jh8iRyFGKS0Fg3.
2. "A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room," The New York Times, November 1st, 2005http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1108
3. For a list of coalition partners and supporters of the Wal-Mart movie, see:http://www.walmartmovie.com/screenings.htm
4. Veiw the Today Show clip here:http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1109
5. "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices," Entertainment Weekly, November 4th 2005http://www.ew.com/ew/article/review/movie/0,6115,1125297_1_0_,00.html
6. "Beyond the Multiplex," Salon.com, November 3rd, 2005http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2005/11/03/btm/
7. "The Forbes 400 Richest Americans," Forbes Magazine, September 24th, 2004http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6082174/
8. "Trouble in Wal-Mart's America" The Washington Post, October 26th, 2005http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1110
9. "Low Prices at a High Cost: Who Really Pays for Wal-Mart Workers' Health Care?" Wal-Mart Watchhttp://walmartwatch.com/home/pages/healthcare#background
10. National Labor Committeehttp://www.nlcnet.org/campaigns/he-yi/he-yi.shtml
11. "Wal-Mart Conference on Wal-Mart Draws Critics of Pay, Benifits," Bloomberg News Service, November 4th, 2005http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1111
12. "Wal-Mart subsidies top $1B," Kansas City Business Journal," May 26th, 2004http://www.moveon.org/r?r=1112
13. "Workers Win Fair Wages as Bush Backs off Davis-Bacon Suspension," AFL-CIO, October 26th, 2005 http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/jobs/ns10262005.cfm
Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.3 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions, no major donors program. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:
http://www.moveonpac.org/donate/email.html?id=6274-3091207-gH5LY94_QUd5TcjqkcHf_Q&t=1
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://political.moveon.org/?id=6274-3091207-gH5LY94_QUd5TcjqkcHf_Q&t=2Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

2005-11-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post leads with a poll showing President Bush
with a 39 percent approval rating and a 60 percent disapproval mark-both a record for Bush in the Post's polling. T
The president had his biggest dip on "issues of personal trust, honesty and values." The Wall Street Journal's world-wide newsbox and New York Times lead with former presidential aide Scooter Libby (shown below left, leaving court yesterday, pleading not guilty to perjury and other charges against him. Libby waived his right to a quick trial, suggesting, as the Journal puts it, "his intention to mount a vigorous defense." USA Today leads with FEMA sending Louisiana a bill for $3.7 billion. Which sounds outrageous-and obviously lead-worthy-until one reads a few paragraphs down and sees that Congress long ago mandated that states pay a portion of disaster relief costs. (No word on how small that portion can be.) The only way the bill can be avoided, apparently, is for Congress to forgive the debt. In the meantime, the charge amounts to half of Louisiana's annual budget. And the state is already facing a billion-dollar deficit this year. The Los Angeles Times' lead says drug companies have given "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to politicians and civil rights groups-including the California branch of the NAACP-that have supported a state proposition just happens to benefit, and be basically sponsored by, the industry. Fifty-eight percent of respondents in the Post's poll said they do not think the president is "honest and trustworthy." Sixty-eight percent said the country is heading in the wrong direction. The reason most-often cited for feeling that way: the economy. The one semi-bright spot: Nearly 50 percent said they support the nomination of Judge Alito (right); only 30 percent said they're against him.The Post, of course, follows that grand newspaper tradition of pretending there are no other polls in the world. CBS, meanwhile, had one this week clocking the president's approval rating at 35 percent. Libby's arraignment lasted all of 10 minutes but did yield a few suggestive nuggets: As the NYT and LAT emphasize, Libby's (new) lawyers said they'll raise First Amendment issues by demanding to see involved reporters' notes. The next hearing is set for February. The Post alone fronts the Senate passing $35 billion in domestic cuts over the next five years; the bill also says the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge can be opened for drilling. The House, though, isn't likely to agree to open ANWR. The Post calls the cuts part of an effort by Republican leaders to "demonstrate fiscal discipline." Among the areas taking small hits: prescription drugs, farm subsidies, and student loans. A similar bill in the House would, among other things, pinch health-care spending for children. One research outfit said about 6 million kids will be, according the Post's paraphrase, "affected" by the change.Everybody mentions that the Senate Judiciary Committee said it will begin hearings on Judge Alito Jan. 9. The White House had been pushing for a quicker start. Meanwhile, the Journal flags some moderate Republican senators expressing a wee bit of concern about Alito. Nominal Republican Lincoln Chafee (seen below, with Alito, left) cited "caution flags," adding, "I have a primary and a general election to worry about."As the WSJ says up high, the European Union said it will look into reports that Poland and Romania are hosting secret CIA prisons. Both countries issued what seem to be denials. The NYT teases word that House Republican leaders have held up a vote to endorse the Senate's recent amendment reinforcing restrictions against mistreatment of detainees. "HOUSE DELAYS VOTE ON U.S. TREATMENT OF TERRORISM SUSPECTS," says the Times. Ten paragraphs later we learn, "Republican and Democratic aides said there were other possible reasons" for the delay. The detainee language is attached to the defense budget bill, and one Democratic aide "said there were still knotty substantive issues" to work out in it. A quick moment to ponder the Times' above story: The paper didn't pull the "delay" out of thin air: Democratic legislators made a stink about it. That the Times played along isn't necessarily evidence of liberal bias. It's just as likely evidence of something more annoying: a lazy habit of falling into a "partisan conflict" storyline regardless of the underlying reality.With rioting in some of Paris' immigrant-dominated suburbs going on for an eighth night, the LAT is the first major to put it on Page One. There were new outbreaks last night in a half-dozen neighborhoods, but the LAT says the "violence seemed less intense" than previously. The WP notices a sliver of success in Iraq: The highway to the airport isn't the world's most dangerous road anymore. With access now limited and heavy patrolling only one person has been killed on it in the past two months. "It's pretty much one of the safest roads in Baghdad now," said one officer, who added, "The enemy's just gone up the road." Meanwhile, the military announced the death of three more soldiers. The GIs' deaths, as usual, don't get headlines. (The NYT though does have a daily box with the names of soldiers killed.)A NYT piece teased on Page One picks up on some e-mails showing that now-former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay pushed now-former super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff (seen below right, listening to his lawyer), to have Abramoff's "charity" donate a couple hundred thousand dollars to DeLay. Abramoff in turn hit up his Indian tribe clients for the cash. The paper doesn't explain where any of this might land in terms of the law or ethics rules. The Post fronts a story about a former D.C. city worker who was sentenced to 21 years in jail for having unprotected sex with some women while he knew he was HIV positive. But that's not what caught TP's eye. This is: "One in 20 [D.C.] residents is infected with the AIDS virus, the highest rate of any major U.S. city."
Eric Umansky (www.ericumansky.com) writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com. Source: Slate Magazine.
Submitted by: Dave Haigler, Abilene, Texas

2005-10-20T19:56:00.000-07:00

Why is Tom DeLay smiling?

After all, he's been indicted. Forced out of his job as House majority leader. And called into court for fingerprinting and a mugshot like a common criminal.
Answer: A photo of DeLay grinning from ear to ear doesn't pack quite the punch in a Democratic attack ad as one that looks more like the mugshot of, say, actor Hugh Grant.
Note the House of Representatives security pin on DeLay's lapel.
He looks in the photo like a proud member of Congress who might just have won the lottery, not one indicted on charges of money laundering. The photo looks like it could have been taken anywhere.
And that was just the point.
Democrats nationally are already sounding as if they'll make DeLay the poster boy for bad Republican behavior in next year's elections, when every House seat and a third of those in the Senate are up for grabs.
DeLay, an 11-term Texas congressman and former pest exterminator famous for enforcing GOP loyalty, faced a tough reelection campaign even before the indictment.
In the 2004 elections, DeLay won 55 percent of the vote, a relatively weak showing for a veteran House leader. His challenger next year is expected to be former Rep. Nick Lampson, who lost his seat in 2004 after he was forced to run in a new district under a redistricting plan pushed by DeLay.
For his mandatory booking Thursday, which caused him to miss voting on a gun industry bill popular in his home state, DeLay did everything he could to prevent images of the event from being committed to film.
Rather, the photo projects the confidence DeLay exhibits in all of his scuffles. For anyone who didn't get it, DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, articulated the message it was intended to send.
"If you saw Congressman DeLay's mugshot, he was smiling," DeGuerin told reporters. "He's eager and he's ready to go."

2005-09-01T16:45:00.000-07:00

BUSH DIDN'T FUND NECESSARY REPAIRS& UPDATES ON THE LEVY SYSTEM- Stop saying "natural disaster"! Most of the death and destruction could have been prevented.... BUSH DIDN'T SEE IT FIT TO SEND ENOUGH FUNDS TO TAKE CARE OF HIS OWN PEOPLE, INSTEAD HE SENT HOMELAND SECURITY $ TO IRAQ...
Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen? 'Times-Picayune' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues
By Will BunchPublished: August 31, 2005 9:00 PM ET
PHILADELPHIAEven though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters may still keep rising in New Orleans. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until it's level with the massive lake.New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
HURRICANE COVERAGE
Editor of Biloxi Paper Surfaces With a Column
'Times-Picayune' Finds New Home, Reports Looting
For 'St. Pete Times,' Katrina Coverage is a Test of Preparedness
Baton Rouge Paper Rides Out the Storm
Biloxi Paper Perseveres
Hurricane Blog, Day 3
Hurricane Blog, Day 2
Hurricane Blog, Day 1Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming. ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness.On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs.There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:"That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount. But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said."The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late.One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer: a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday.The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need."Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."
Will Bunch (letters@editorandpublisher.com) is senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 when he reported for Newsday. Much of this article also appears on his blog, Attytood, at the Daily News.

Links referenced within this article Editor of Biloxi Paper Surfaces With a Columnhttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051377'Times-Picayune' Finds New Home, Reports Lootinghttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051261For 'St. Pete Times,' Katrina Coverage is a Test of Preparednesshttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051260Baton Rouge Paper Rides Out the Stormhttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050992Biloxi Paper Persevereshttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050989Hurricane Blog, Day 3http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051366Hurricane Blog, Day 2http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050692Hurricane Blog, Day 1http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050184letters@editorandpublisher.commailto:letters@editorandpublisher.com

Find this article at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313

Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen? 'Times-Picayune' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues
By Will BunchPublished: August 31, 2005 9:00 PM ET
PHILADELPHIAEven though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters may still keep rising in New Orleans. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until it's level with the massive lake.New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.
HURRICANE COVERAGE
Editor of Biloxi Paper Surfaces With a Column
'Times-Picayune' Finds New Home, Reports Looting
For 'St. Pete Times,' Katrina Coverage is a Test of Preparedness
Baton Rouge Paper Rides Out the Storm
Biloxi Paper Perseveres
Hurricane Blog, Day 3
Hurricane Blog, Day 2
Hurricane Blog, Day 1Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming. ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness.On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs.There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:"That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount. But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said."The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late.One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer: a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday.The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need."Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."
Will Bunch (letters@editorandpublisher.com) is senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 when he reported for Newsday. Much of this article also appears on his blog, Attytood, at the Daily News.

Links referenced within this article Editor of Biloxi Paper Surfaces With a Columnhttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051377'Times-Picayune' Finds New Home, Reports Lootinghttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051261For 'St. Pete Times,' Katrina Coverage is a Test of Preparednesshttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051260Baton Rouge Paper Rides Out the Stormhttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050992Biloxi Paper Persevereshttp://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050989Hurricane Blog, Day 3http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051366Hurricane Blog, Day 2http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050692Hurricane Blog, Day 1http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001050184letters@editorandpublisher.commailto:letters@editorandpublisher.com

Find this article at: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313

--Joshua P. Angell: DEMOCRAT concerned for our Nation please visit my e-headquarters: VOICE OF THE AUSTIN MAJORITY @ http://Angell4Austin.blogspot.com Join The Movement... For A Socially Progressive USA "First They ignore you. Then They laugh at you. Then They fight you. Then, You win." ...Gandhi TAKE BACK AMERICA JOIN THE FIGHT! I am EMPOWERED by Howard Dean! As the Wall Street Journal points out, Bush's victory was "the narrowest win for a sitting president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916."

2005-08-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, life just plain sucks.
I'm growing more and more pissed off as the days go by at our disgraceful President.
He's out there now trying to connect his modern day Vietnam to the September 11th attacks. This is outrageous! What is really sickening is that there are a good number of rednecks who still believe that this is the case. We have to think of a way to really hammer out the facts. I think that this effort is starting to take full swing. If all of us like-minded people start talking to anyone will listen, maybe we can create change. Maybe then life in the USA won't make you sick to your stomach.

So This Is What Christianity Is All About?

2005-08-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU?
Venezuela Slams Robertson Over Remarks
Venezuela's vice president accused religious broadcaster Pat Robertson on Tuesday of making "terrorist statements" by suggesting that American agents assassinate President Hugo Chavez.
On Monday, Robertson said on the Christian Broadcast Network's "The 700 Club": "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability."
"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," he continued. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."
Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said Venezuela was studying its legal options, adding that how Washington responds to Robertson's comments would put its anti-terrorism policy to the test.
"The ball is in the U.S. court, after this criminal statement by a citizen of that country," Rangel told reporters. "It's huge hypocrisy to maintain this discourse against terrorism and at the same time, in the heart of that country, there are entirely terrorist statements like those."

The U.S. government distanced itself from Robertson's comments.
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, appearing at a Pentagon news conference, said when asked: "Our department doesn't do that kind of thing. It's against the law. He's a private citizen. Private citizens say all kinds of things all the time."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called Robertson's remarks "inappropriate."
"This is not the policy of the United States government. We do not share his views," McCormack said.
There was no immediate comment from Chavez, who was winding up an official visit to Cuba on Tuesday. Scores of journalists awaited Chavez at the airport, where he was to board a plane for a trip to Jamaica to discuss a Venezuela initiative to supply petroleum to Caribbean countries under favorable financial terms.
Chavez has emerged as one of the most outspoken critics of President Bush, accusing the United States of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him. U.S. officials have called the accusations ridiculous.
"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war ... and I don't think any oil shipments will stop."
Rangel called Robertson "a man who seems to have quite a bit of influence in that country," adding sarcastically that his words were "very Christian."
The comments "reveal that religious fundamentalism is one of the great problems facing humanity in these times," Rangel said.
Robertson's remarks appear likely to further stoke tensions between Washington and Caracas. Chavez has repeatedly claimed that American officials are plotting to oust or kill him charges U.S. officials have denied.
The United States is the top buyer of Venezuelan crude, but Chavez has made it clear he wants to decrease the country's dependence on the U.S. market by finding other buyers.
Chavez has survived a brief 2002 coup, a devastating two-month strike that ended in early 2003 and recall referendum in 2004. The former army paratroop commander, a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, is up for re-election next year, and polls suggest he is the favorite.

2005-08-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hagel Says Iraq War Looking Like Vietnam
WASHINGTON (AP) - A leading Republican senator said Sunday the war in Iraq is looking more like the Vietnam conflict from a generation ago.

CLICK FOR THE: Full Story

2005-08-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Nazi America. The Bush Hitler and the Bush Nazi's are trying to march onward:
On July 29, the Senate passed S. 1389 to re-authorize the USA PATRIOT Act by unanimous consent.
When compared with the House reauthorization bill, which passed on July 21, the Senate bill creates stronger criteria for using Section 215 to obtain a FISA warrant to search business records. Furthermore, S. 1389 puts a four-year sunset on Section 215, whereas H.R. 3199 extends the sunset for ten years. Next, a conference committee will reconcile the House and Senate bills and create a final piece of legislation on which Congress will vote after it reconvenes on September 6.
The Campaign for Reader Privacy urges you to ask your House representatives to add their names to a letter that Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is circulating, which calls on the conferees who will reconcile the House and Senate versions of the re-authorization bill to adopt the provisions of the Senate bill, S. 1389. "We believe that the changes in S. 1389 provide greater safeguards to Americans' library and bookstore records and reflect the desire of a majority of House members, who voted 238-187 on June 15 to provide greater privacy protections for readers," Sanders writes in his letter, which is co-authored by Representatives C.L. "Butch" Otter (R-ID), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Ron Paul (R-TX), and Tom Udall (D-NM). See below for the letter's full text.
Please call your House representatives TODAY! You may visit www.house.gov to find their contact information.
We also urge you to contact the members of Senate who have been chosen as conferees: Arlen Specter (R-PA), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Michael DeWine (R-OH), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Carl Levin (D-MI). You may find their contact information at www.senate.gov.
For more information, please click here: www.readerprivacy.org/news.jsp

2005-08-10T16:58:00.000-07:00

President and Laura Bush: Meet With Cindy Sheehan!!!!!!!!
The President and First Lady are spending their five-week vacation this summer at the ranch in Texas. Meanwhile, Cindy Sheehan's son Casey won't be spending a five week vacation anywhere this summer -- he was killed in April of 2004 outside Baghdad.
Click here to ask that the President and First Lady meet with Cindy Sheehan.
Cindy Sheehan has now traveled to Crawford, Texas, and is waiting for the President to have a few minutes of free time. She would like the President to fully explain just what the "noble cause" is that he keeps mentioning in his speeches, and how sacrificing even more troops in the Iraq quagmire will "honor the sacrifices of the fallen."
Cindy Sheehan deserves answers to these questions; so does the American public.
Now, the Secret Service is threatening to arrest Cindy Sheehan when Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Rice arrive at the ranch on Thursday. They say her campsite on the side of the road poses a "threat to national security."
President and Mrs. Bush -- meet with Cindy Sheehan; don't have her arrested.

2005-08-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

We Are Still Getting Mail That Indicates The GRASSROOTS Democrat's Continue With All The Energy Of The Dean Movement....From the mailbox to your eyes:
Hi, I'm Michele and I'm really excited about the 2006 elections where democrats can win seats and create balance in our bloated republican government. We could end the war, stop the corporate welfare, cuts to the most needy, and perhaps impeach this corrupted President and his cronies.I've created a website that list each state and the race's contenders, with voting records, issue report cards and possible candidates.Please check out your state. There is information on your senator and/or representative and their contact information.
www.geocities.com/takecontrol2006
It is vital that we all work to elect democrats and/or progressives in our states this election and set aside individual interests. Without checks and balances, democracy is gone. Our country depends on you.
Thanks for letting me rant.Michele

YOU RANT ANY TIME WITH US MICHELE!!!!!!!!!!
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-08-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force study finds thatSocial Security privatization will disproportionately harm lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans
'Social Security privatization is a gamble with the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender elders. It is a gamble our community simply cannot afford.' —National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman
WASHINGTON, Aug. 9 — The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force released a report today that finds that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans will be disproportionately harmed by President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security.
According to Selling Us Short: How Social Security Privatization Will Affect Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Americans, LGBT Americans, on average, have lower incomes than their heterosexual counterparts, which translates into lower Social Security benefits when they retire. In addition, same-sex couples are not eligible for Social Security’s spousal and survivor benefits provisions, making the LGBT community disproportionately vulnerable to the benefit cuts and risks inherent to the president's plan.
"There is a widespread myth that gay people are economically advantaged compared to heterosexuals. U.S. Census data and other national surveys indicate the opposite. In fact, gay and bisexual men earn anywhere from 13 percent to 32 percent less than heterosexual men," said Sean Cahill, director of the Task Force's Policy Institute, which published the study. "If we earn less, we receive a lower Social Security payment in retirement. Any proposals that cut retirement benefits will disproportionately hurt gay people."
Selling Us Short finds that LGBT people of color, in particular, face an income disadvantage that leads to lower Social Security benefits. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, black same-sex couples earn roughly $2,000 to $9,000 less in median annual household income than black married opposite-sex couples, and Hispanic same-sex couples earn roughly $1,000 to $4,000 less in median annual household income than Hispanic married opposite-sex couples.
Discriminatory government policies, meanwhile, place gay people in an even more economically disadvantaged position, increasing the critical need to maintain the economic safety net Social Security is intended to provide.
"Gay people have to report domestic partner health insurance as income to the IRS, but married spouses don't have to report their health coverage as income," explained Cahill. "Gay people can't inherit their partner's pension plan, while a heterosexual widow or widower can be a beneficiary. Not only do we earn less, we are less able to keep what we earn. These are among the many inequities that make same-sex couples particularly vulnerable to cutbacks in Social Security benefits."
Added Many Hu, author of the report: "The federal Defense of Marriage Act continues to deny same-sex couples access to more than 1,000 federal benefits and protections of marriage that opposite-sex married couples currently receive, including Social Security spousal and survivor benefits. Even though LGBT Americans pay in to the Social Security system at the same rate as everyone else, our families and children receive fewer benefits, often in times of crisis. If Social Security is to be changed, it should be changed so that all families are treated fairly."
"Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are more likely to age alone and less likely to have children than their heterosexual counterparts," said Amber Hollibaugh, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's senior strategist and specialist on LGBT elders. "This, coupled with a lower rate of earning makes them particularly reliant on Social Security."
Selling Us Short finds that LGBT elders could be negatively affected by privatization. By 2030, the estimated population of LGBT seniors will range from two to eight million. LGBT elders may be especially dependent on public services for the elderly, including Social Security, because they may be without the same family support systems as heterosexual seniors.
"It is would be wrong to support privatization in exchange for opening a portion of Social Security to same-sex couples while overlooking the fact that marriage equality — which the Bush administration vehemently opposes — would guarantee all Social Security benefits to all same-sex couples. We are unwilling to trade illusory benefits against the benefits and rights of other Americans," said National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman.
Selling Us Short: How Social Security Privatization Will Affect Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Americans is available at http://www.thetaskforce.org/library.

2005-08-09T18:30:00.000-07:00

On August 2nd, we sent a shockwave through the Republican Party. In case you don't know me, I was the Democratic candidate in the special election for Ohio's second congressional district. I am also a veteran of the Iraq War. In a district that has seen 40 point Democratic losses for 15 years, we came within four points. That was after Tom DeLay and the national Republicans poured in a half a million dollars to shore up my opponent. I couldn't be prouder of our campaign. The national Republicans promised to "bury" me, but we stood tough and put them in their place. On Thursday the Washington Post asked their spokesman whether they had fulfilled their promise, and the spokesman admitted simply: "we did not." Newt Gingrich himself called it "a wake-up call to Republicans." There are so many people who made this possible. Never having run for public office before, I was amazed by people's hard work, long hours and dedication to my campaign. I could not have run this race without the grassroots Democrats coming to my aid - in message, in boots on the ground, and in contributions to my campaign. And there was another team who was working on my behalf. At the most critical point of the campaign, the DCCC sent staff to direct a get out the vote operation unlike anything this district has seen in decades. They helped me turn my campaign into a well-oiled machine. Contribute to the DCCC for a Democratic Congress. While I took on my opponent head to head, unbeknownst to me the DCCC was quietly tracking the race, digging up the facts, and feeling out vulnerabilities. They lulled the Republicans into complacency for weeks - then unloaded a massive, devastating ad buy exposing my opponent's ties to the scandal-plagued Ohio Republican Party. My experience as a candidate taught me more than I can say, but I can tell you two things right now:
This race shows that no Republican is safe, and
The DCCC will be the key player in seeing that Democrats take full advantage of Republican vulnerabilities. Contribute to the DCCC for a Democratic Congress. After the chips have fallen in November of 2006, I hope we can look back at my race as the first page in a new chapter in history. A chapter where accountability and integrity were brought back to our government. A chapter where deceit and influence-peddling were not taken for granted from those in power. A chapter where the Democratic agenda of hope and prosperity can make the government work for the American people instead of against them. I am proud that my race for Ohio's 2nd can serve as a template for how we win seats across this country in 2006. Our success, and the help of the grassroots community in my race, gives confidence that we will win in 2006. Please help support Democratic candidates across the country. Contribute to the DCCC for a Democratic Congress. Thanks for listening, and thanks for your support in this thrilling experience. Please help the DCCC - I know they'll make us proud.
Sincerely,
Paul Hackett,
proud Democrat

2005-08-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

Protect our Kids; Reject New Mercury Proposals
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin that has been shown, even in minute doses, to seriously harm young children. The largest single source of mercury in our environment is emissions from coal-fired power plants. Incredibly, the Bush administration now wants to relax the rules and allow these plants to continue polluting our environment with high levels of mercury. Working Assets is partnering with the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) to call attention to this problem, and we're asking you to take action today.
Click here to let your Senators know this is simply unacceptable.
The scope of the problem is clear. Pregnant or nursing women, women of childbearing age, and children are now advised not to eat ANY of the high-mercury fish species such as tilefish, shark and swordfish, and no more than two servings of other types of fish (such as tuna) per week. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 12 women of childbearing age currently has a mercury level in her blood that is unsafe for a developing fetus.
Click here to send a message from LCV's site asking the Senate to tighten -- not loosen -- mercury regulations.
Yet in response to this widespread public health threat, the Bush Administration has proposed a ten-year delay in implementing regulations designed to cut mercury emissions by 90 percent. The Administration also wants to remove coal-fired power plants from the list of mercury sources that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act. In response, Senators Snowe and Leahy have introduced a bipartisan resolution of disapproval to prevent these proposals from going forward.
Click here to visit the LCV web site and tell your Senators to support the Snowe-Leahy resolution.

2005-08-01T05:21:00.000-07:00

Update from Democracy For Texas
Please join us at this month's Meetup, where our special guest will be Barbara Ann Radnofsky, candidate for the U.S. Senate. Barbara Ann will give a short speech, followed by a question and answer session. Glen Maxey and Matt Glazer (who is considering a race for House District 122) will talk about "No Nonsense in November," the campaign against the constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage. www.nononsenseinnovember.com. Music will be provided by The Stonecutters.We'll also talk about setting up meetings with the staffs of our three Congressmen to urge them to investigate the Downing Street memos. We need volunteers to organize the meetings for August 17 and 18, so if you've been looking for a way to get more involved, here's your chance!We'll have an announcement regarding our first candidate training September 30–October 3. And we'll close out the evening with a DVD of Governor Howard Dean's speech at DemocracyFest.
Don't miss it!
When: Wednesday, August 3, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Mother Egan's, 715 West 6th
See you there!
Your Democracy for Texas Steering Committee—Marla Camp, Glen Maxey, Teri Sperry, and Fran Vincent

2005-07-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

Please email Governor Perry to protest the execution of David Martinez scheduled for Thursday July 28.
You can read more about this case in the two newspaper articles below.
To make sure Perry receives your message, in addition to emailing him, please call him and leave a phone message at (512) 463-2000 or you can fax him at (512) 463-1849.
A petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles seeking to commute Matinez's sentence to life or grant a 120-day reprieve was rejected Tuesday by a 7-0 vote.
Thank you to the hundreds of people who took action last month to urge Gov. Perry to sign the Life Without Parole bill, which he signed on June 17.
Thank you for taking action,Texas Moratorium Network!

Please attend a protest or vigil in your city on Thursday, July 28.
In Austin, Campaign to End the Death Penalty is sponsoring a protest at the Governor's Mansion at 5:30 PM on July 28.
Statewide Execution Vigils
Huntsville - Corner of 12th Street and Avenue I (in front of the Walls Unit) at 5:00 p.m.
Austin - At the Governor's Mansion on the Lavaca St. side between 10th and 11th St. from 5:30 to 6:30 PM.
Beaumont - Diocese of Beaumont, Diocesan Pastoral Office, 703 Archie St. @ 4:00 p.m. on the day of an execution.
College Station - 5:30 to 6 PM, east of Texas A &M campus at the corner of Walton and Texas Ave. across the street from the main entrance.
Dallas - 5:30 pm, at the SMU Women's Center, 3116 Fondren Drive
Houston - St. Anne's Church at Westheimer and Shepherd, 5:30 to 6:20 PM.
McKinney - St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Community located at 110 St. Gabriel Way @ 5:30 p.m. on the day of an execution.
San Antonio - Main Plaza across from Bexar County Courthouse and San Fernando Cathedral - Noon
Martinez appeal turned downJuly 27, 2005
Execution set for Thursday; U.S. Supreme Court next for man who killed woman along Barton Creek greenbelt.
By Chuck Lindell AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Texas' highest criminal appeals court refused Wednesday to throw out the death sentence of David Martinez, 29, convicted in 1998 of killing Kiersa Paul on the Barton Creek greenbelt.
Martinez is scheduled to die by chemical injection just after 6 p.m. Thursday for the 1997 murder of Paul, a 24-year-old Minnesota resident who had spent several months living in Austin.
His next appeal will be sent to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Paul was strangled, raped and stabbed on the Barton Creek greenbelt eight years ago this month.
Martinez, who was arrested a short time later, alleged in his appeal that District Attorney Ronnie Earle's office did not adequately investigate claims that as a teenager Martinez was sexually assaulted by his father, Ray Martinez, and his father's companion, Evan Mullen.
Evidence of sexual abuse has prompted juries to opt for a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
Wednesday afternoon, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a two-page order dismissing Martinez's request for a new trial and denying the Austin man's motion for a stay of execution.
Take Action to Protest the Execution
Martinez's last-minute appeal says DA failed to investigate abuse claimsDavid Martinez requests new trial just days ahead of scheduled execution.By Chuck LindellAUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFFWednesday, July 27, 2005
David Martinez, set to be executed Thursday for the 1997 rape and murder of Kiersa Paul on the Barton Creek greenbelt, is seeking a new trial by arguing that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's office shirked its duty.
The last-gasp appeal accuses prosecutors of failing to adequately investigate allegations that Martinez, now 29, was sexually abused as a teenager by his father and his father's boyfriend, practitioners of a sadomasochistic lifestyle who — until recently — eluded defense investigators while "living a kind of underground life," the appeal states.
Martinez's guilt is not in dispute. But had the jury known about the abuse, it might have sentenced Martinez to life in prison rather than death, said Gary Taylor, Martinez's lawyer.
"The body responsible for conducting a criminal investigation of those (abuse) allegations is basically the district attorney's office, which is same office seeking a conviction in this case. If they substantiate and further our claims, then they hurt their case," Taylor said. "It creates a conflict."
Earle's office rejects the conclusions in Martinez's appeal, which was distributed Tuesday to the nine-member Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
"We were never presented with what seemed to be credible evidence that a sexual assault occurred, as is insinuated," said Bryan Case, director of the district attorney's appellate division. "Especially in light of the fact that the most likely contributor of that kind of credible evidence, if it existed, was sitting in jail and had every opportunity and motivation to let us know."
Paul, a cashier at a central Austin bakery who was taking a break from the University of Minnesota, was found eight years ago this week — strangled and raped with her throat slashed eight times and an "X" carved on her chest. The brutality sparked fears that a predator was stalking one of Austin's most beautiful and prized locations. But within a day, police narrowed their search to Martinez, a troubled acquaintance of the 24-year-old woman.
Instead of relief, however, the arrest confronted Austin with a powerfully wrenching story of loss.
It began in the mid-1990s, when Julie Anderson — adopted as a child and living in Austin — tracked her biological family to Minnesota. Suddenly, Paul had a big sister to go with her two younger siblings, and the two women formed an immediate friendship. And so it was natural that a few years later Anderson invited her sister to Austin when Paul needed a break from school and the northern winters.
Paul flourished in Austin, where she made friends and satisfied her love of the outdoors with bike rides along the Barton Creek greenbelt. That's where she rode her bike on a July evening to meet a friend nicknamed "Wolf" because she felt sorry for him. A jogger found her body the next morning. A day later, police arrested Martinez, also known as Wolf. Martinez had Paul's bike, and her blood was found on his pocketknife.
The jury needed only 15 minutes to find Martinez guilty, then three hours to sentence him to death.
Paul's close-knit family watched all of the trial, filling three benches in the courtroom. This week, a woman who answered the phone at the Bloomington home of Paul's uncle said the family would not discuss the case.
"It's just so hard. It's a difficult time right now," she said.
Martinez, who declined a request to be interviewed, lived on the streets for a time before Paul's death. He left home after a dispute with his father, Ray Martinez, and his father's partner, Evan Muller, who had launched a business selling sadomasochistic paraphernalia when David Martinez was 16, his appeal states.
Trial testimony listed conflicting accounts of abuse from Martinez, who said in a presentence report that he was physically and emotionally abused by both his parents, but told a psychiatrist that no sexual abuse occurred.
The sexual abuse allegations became clearer in Martinez's first appeal, which listed three people who were prepared to testify that he was abused by his father and Muller. But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in denying the appeal last year, noted that defense attorneys could not substantiate abuse allegations and that witnesses gave differing accounts of what occurred in Martinez's home.
In fact, both the defense and the prosecution tried, and failed, to subpoena Ray Martinez for the 1998 trial. Nor could he be found during Martinez's first appeal.
With time running out, Taylor recently launched another search for Martinez's father, using almost $10,000 from a private source that Taylor refused to divulge. After a four-state search, an investigator found Ray Martinez in the back yard of his Michigan home, wearing only a thong and nipple rings, the appeal points out.
Ray Martinez denied knowledge of abuse but refused to directly answer questions, according to a statement by investigator David Watson that was included in the appeal. And although a second investigator thought he found Muller's St. Louis home, he was never found or interviewed.
Taylor said finding Ray Martinez adds a crucial piece of potential evidence to his client's case, and he asked the appeals court to grant a new trial with limited discovery — with assistance from prosecutors — to compel testimony by Martinez's father and Muller.
"I can't make someone talk to me. My investigators don't carry badges and wear guns and put you in jail," Taylor said.
Martinez's appeal notes that a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling stated that unless allegations of childhood sexual abuse are thoroughly investigated and presented to a jury, there can be no confidence in a death sentence.
But that investigation was thwarted, Taylor claims, by Ray Martinez's and Muller's refusal to testify and by prosecutors' refusal "to investigate or pursue them," the appeal states.
Case, an assistant district attorney, said allegations contained in a defendant's appeal are not enough to launch an investigation of sexual assault. "Both at time of trial and at the time the (first appeal), it would have been in David Martinez's interest to provide us with that evidence," Case said.
Nor could prosecutors approach Martinez, he said. "We could all be disbarred for trying to talk to the defendant."
In addition, Case said, the prosecution's attempt to subpoena Ray Martinez and Muller shows that an attempt was made to investigate the allegations.
In the meantime, all sides await a decision from the appeals court. If the appeal is rejected, Taylor said his next step would be the U.S. Supreme Court.
"At some point, whether they choose this case or not, (appellate courts) are going to have to address this issue where the district attorney is the caretaker of justice — where if the DA takes one action, he may be prosecuting a wrong but may be hurting his case in another area," Taylor said.