Rudy calls half the voters "losers"

I'm sure everyone can recall the horrified reaction across the political spectrum when Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean spoke at the 2005 Take Back America conference:
Dean's comment came as he recalled conditions at crowded Ohio polling stations last fall. He wondered who could expect voters to work all day and then stand in line for eight hours to vote. "Well, Republicans, I guess, can do that because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives," he said.
The Republicans immediately went into full-throated shrieking harpy mode:
Tracey Schmitt, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, called the "honest living" comment "mudslinging" and scored Dean for attacking the work ethic of "the record number of hardworking Americans who voted for President Bush."
Tony Fabrizio, another GOP strategist, said Dean is the one who's out of touch with people's real concerns: "He's ranting and raving about Republicans not having held real jobs. It's hatred, hatred and more hatred."
But it wasn't only the Republicans who were appalled at this alleged attack on "hardworking Republicans." The Democrats were upset too:
"[Dean] doesn't speak for me with that kind of rhetoric, and I don't think he speaks for the majority of Democrats." -- Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.
"It doesn't become the chairman of our party to be as loose with his lips as he apparently is." -- Former Democratic Party chairman Bob Strauss
Everyone was in a tizzy because Dean was accused of not just attacking the leadership of the GOP, which is apparently bad enough, but really stepping over the line by implying that average Republicans didn't work for a living. The political rule he broke is that you never attack average voters. (The right-wing talk show haters obviously didn't get that memo.)
So I'm expecting a huge outcry today from both parties about this one:
"Giuliani: Democrats Are a 'Party of Losers'"
Rudy isn't the only one advancing this theme. Just recently Johann Hari wrote an investigative exposé of the National Review Cruise and quoted one of the right's leading intellectual lights:
Yes, D'Souza says, in a swift shift to domestic politics, "of course" Republican politics is "about class. Republicans are the party of winners, Democrats are the party of losers."
I eagerly await the explosion of tut-tutting and finger-pointing from the Beltway political manners mavens about how wrong it is for Republicans to describe their fellow Americans as losers. And I look forward to hearing all the political consultants and gasbags opine about what a terrible political tactic this is because, after all, the party I.D. numbers are looking very bad for Republicans these days, so insulting Democratic voters probably isn't such a hot idea.
I'm listening. Chirp, chirp.
-- Digby LinkHere

How many Saudis supposedly flew the plane into the World Trade Centre Sept 9 11

The Bush-Saudi Connection

He was mum about the terrorist truck bombing of the World Trade Center in .... that 15 of the 19 people who allegedly flew airplanes into buildings in the ...

FOCUS US Set to Offer Huge Arms Deal to Saudi Arabia

David S. Cloud of the The New York Times reports that the Bush administration will seek Congressional approval for a $20 billion arms deal for Saudi Arabia and its neighbors in the Middle East "at a time when some United States officials contend that the Saudis are playing a counterproductive role in Iraq."

"Human assistance of any kind is not on our priorities list."

Report details US refusals of foreign aid after Katrina

The report reveals the US was interested mostly in cash assistance and materials, rather than direct aid from foreign relief workers and doctors, after Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Scientists Hack Voting Machines to Prove Tech Weaknesses

Stealing the Votes of the People, it's easy to steal an election,after all the last two were stolen, weren't they?

"Computer scientists from California universities have hacked into three electronic voting systems used in California and elsewhere in the nation and found several ways in which vote totals could potentially be altered, according to reports released yesterday by the state," reports Christopher Drew in Saturday's edition of the New York Times.

Linkhere

Five Years Later, Cameraman Still Held at Guantanamo

Shashank Bengali, McClatchy Newspapers, says
, "A 38-year-old cameraman for the Arabic news network al Jazeera, Hajj has been imprisoned as an 'enemy combatant' at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for five years, but never charged with any crime. He was arrested by Pakistani police in December 2001 while on his way to a news assignment in Afghanistan, but he's denied having any links to terrorism."
LinkHere

Bit to late for that, you should have bloked them at their confirmations, it's a joke

Schumer: Roberts, Alito 'duped' us; We'll block all judges

Bush Sets the Table for September:

Who You Gonna Believe, Petraeus or Your Own Eyes?
Bush is so gung-ho about listening to Gen. Petraeus not because he is an expert but because he is an expert who agrees with Bush. Read More

The Long Tail of Bill Kristol's Delusions Here's a shock:

Bush thought so much of Kristol's column about the ultimate success of his presidency, he recommended it to his staff. "Who cares if 71 percent of the public think I suck, Bill Kristol says I'm a winner." Read More

The Secretary of Defense Breaks with the President on Sanitizing the War

Gates' emotional tribute isn't going to end this war, but it was remarkable to finally see a high-level administration official so movingly break with the party line. Read More

Iraqi Government Drops Reconstruction Projects

As U.S. Rebuilds, Iraq Won’t Act on Finished Work

The New York Times JAMES GLANZ July 28, 2007 01:39 PM
Iraq's national government is refusing to take possession of thousands of American-financed reconstruction projects, forcing the United States either to hand them over to local Iraqis, who often lack the proper training and resources to keep the projects running, or commit new money to an effort that has already consumed billions of taxpayer dollars.
The conclusions, detailed in a report released Friday by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, a federal oversight agency, include the finding that of 2,797 completed...

Report Shows At Least 116 US Troop Suicides In Iraq

Press Reports: Another Apparent Iraq Vet Suicide

Editor And Publisher Greg Mitchell July 28, 2007 03:07 PM
One of the least covered aspects of the fallout from the Iraq war is the rising toll of suicides, both near the battlefield and back home.
Latest official figures released by the Pentagon reveal at least 116 self-inflicted fatalities in Iraq. But this does not include several dozen still under investigation, nor any of the many cases back in the U.S.

Illegal Immigrants: Uncle Sam Wants You

Come Die for Georgies Illegal War and Occupation

"In the Iraq war, citizenship is being used as a recruiting tool aimed specifically at young immigrants, who are told that by enlisting, they will be able to quickly get citizenship for themselves (sometimes true, depending on what the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch of the Department of Homeland Security finds) and their entire families (not true; each family member has to go through a separate application process). Nevertheless, with the political pressures on Latino families growing daily under this administration, many young Latinos are unable to resist the offer, which immigrants' rights activists see as blatant exploitation of a vulnerable population," reports Deborah Davis for In These Times.

Link Here

Bush Asserts a King's Prerogative

"In theory, President Bush is sworn to faithfully execute the laws of the United States. In reality, he has treated federal law as a menu from which he picks and chooses those laws he likes, while ignoring those that do not suit his taste," writes Jay Bookman for the editorial board of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
LinkHere

The convictions date from 1965

Huge payout for men framed by FBI :

A federal judge in Boston has ordered the US government to pay out more than $100m (£50m) in the case of four wrongly convicted men.

U.S. Outfitting B-2's with Monster Bunker Buster Bombs - Iran May Be Target :

The U.S. is retrofitting its B-2 Stealth bombers with massive bunker-buster bombs - a move that could be a prelude to an attack on Iran and its nuclear facilities.

Iraqi leader tells Bush: Get Gen Petraeus out:

Relations between the top United States general in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki, the country's prime minister, are so bad that the Iraqi leader made a direct appeal for his removal to President George W Bush.

Musharraf has sold country for sake of dollars:

How can the military rulers stop US and Nato forces from attacking tribal regions of Pakistan since they themselves have been using their army to kill tribal people

Musharraf advised by his close military aides to quit: Report:

Though the President did not react to the suggestions, the sources said he might make a decision after his return from an official tour of Saudi Arabia where he's likely to raise this issue with the Saudis in a bid to find "a way out of the political mess without any loss of face".

90 Killed In Occupied Afghanistan Including 40 Civilians:

Nato and Afghan troops clashed with Taliban insurgents and called in airstrikes, killing at least 50 suspected militants and dozens of civilians, local officials and villagers said yesterday.
LinkHere

The Threat Of Martial Law Is Real

By Dave Lindorff
The looming collapse of the US military in Iraq, of which a number of generals and former generals, including former Chief of Staff Colin Powell, have warned, is
happening none too soon, as it my be the best hope for preventing military rule here at home.

LinkHere

Dangers of a Cornered George Bush

Applied Psychoanalysis

By Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity & Dr. Justin Frank

As we watched the pressure build on President Bush, looked toward the additional challenges we expect him to face over the next 18 months, and pondered his tendency to disregard the law and the Constitution, we felt very much in need of professional help in trying to estimate what kinds of decisions he is likely to make.

E-mails Show Rove Protégé Tim Griffin Led Effort To Suppress Minority Votes In 2004

Truthout Jason Leopold and Matt Renner July 27, 2007 07:08 PM
Previously undisclosed documents detail how Republican operatives, with the knowledge of several White House officials, engaged in an illegal, racially-motivated effort to suppress tens of thousands of votes during the 2004 presidential campaign in a state where George W. Bush was trailing his Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry.
The documents also contain details describing how Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign officials, and at least one individual who worked for White House political adviser Karl Rove, planned to stop minorities residing in Cuyahoga County...
LinkHere

Saudis’ Role in Iraq Frustrates U.S. Officials

By HELENE COOPER
Published: July 27, 2007
This article was reported by Helene Cooper, Mark Mazzetti and Jim Rutenberg, and written by Ms. Cooper.
WASHINGTON, July 26 — During a high-level meeting in Riyadh in January, Saudi officials confronted a top American envoy with documents that seemed to suggest that Iraq’s prime minister could not be trusted.
One purported to be an early alert from the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr warning him to lie low during the coming American troop increase, which was aimed in part at Mr. Sadr’s militia. Another document purported to offer proof that Mr. Maliki was an agent of Iran.
The American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, immediately protested to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, contending that the documents were forged. But, said administration officials who provided an account of the exchange, the Saudis remained skeptical, adding to the deep rift between America’s most powerful Sunni Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, and its Shiite-run neighbor, Iraq.
Now, Bush administration officials are voicing increasing anger at what they say has been Saudi Arabia’s counterproductive role in the Iraq war. They say that beyond regarding Mr. Maliki as an Iranian agent, the Saudis have offered financial support to Sunni groups in Iraq. Of an estimated 60 to 80 foreign fighters who enter Iraq each month, American military and intelligence officials say that nearly half are coming from Saudi Arabia and that the Saudis have not done enough to stem the flow.>>>>cont

LinkHere

US Prepares $20 Billion Arms Deal With Saudis

NY Times David S. Cloud July 27, 2007 10:31 PM
WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The Bush administration is preparing to ask Congress to approve an arms sale package for Saudi Arabia and its neighbors that is expected to total $20 billion over the next decade at a time when some United States officials contend that the Saudis are playing a counterproductive role in Iraq.
The proposed package of advanced weaponry for Saudi Arabia, which includes advanced satellite-guided bombs, upgrades to its fighters and new naval vessels, has made Israel and some...

The night Liberty flew out the door.

Flagged down: Activists arrested in row over protest flag, allege abuse by Buncombe deputy

NEWS
David Forbes 07/26 01:35 PM
The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office arrested activists Mark and Deborah Kuhn in West Asheville Wednesday morning after a complaint that the couple was desecrating an American flag. They say a deputy invaded their home and used excessive force.

Fresh from the Iraqi Oven.

Layla Anwar, An Arab Woman Blues - Reflections in a sealed bottle...

I am not sure if you heard that on your news wherever you are, but 13 American soldiers met their fate yesterday in Adhamiya alone. You know Adhamiya don't you? The Ghetto of the 21st century. You know, come on now...The Aushwitz wall of Adhamiya. And (and this is important info) contrary to "popular" belief, according to what I heard, the explosives used were NOT made in Iran (...) In Adhamiya, American tanks are stationed on every single street corner. They(the yankees) have gone as mad as rabid dogs since yesterday...so I was told. Inhabitants of Adhamiya are literally buried at home, soaking in sweat, no water, no possibility to go and buy food and no electricity with an average temperature reaching 53C. I pray that Radhee survives it this time around....

continua / continued

U.S. Drops Baghdad Electricity Reports (To Congress as Daily Power for Residents Falls)

Bush Admin Subpoenas Michael Moore

NY Daily News Ken Bazinet July 27, 2007 08:50 AM
This just in from "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," where Michael Moore is a guest this evening:
The Bush administration has subpoenaed Moore over his trip to Cuba with 9/11 rescue workers, which he included in his new documentary film, "Sicko."

The press release is in the link below.

GOP’s Specter Breaks Air Force One Rules By Criticizing Bush

New York Times JIM RUTENBERG July 27, 2007 11:13 AM
Guests of President Bush aboard Air Force One generally know that he expects them to behave in a certain way: No showboating or mingling with the on-board press corps and, certainly, no criticizing the commander in chief or his team.
Senator Arlen Specter violated both points of decorum on Thursday. He visited with reporters aboard the presidential airplane before it lifted off for Philadelphia and lambasted the attorney general.

LinkHere

Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by a group of right-wing American businessmen

The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.

LinkHere

BBC: Bush's Grandfather Planned Fascist Coup In America

New investigation sheds light on clique of powerbrokers, including Prescott Bush, who sought to overthrow U.S. government and implement Hitlerian policies
Paul Joseph WatsonPrison PlanetTuesday, July 24, 2007
new BBC Radio 4 investigation sheds new light on a subject that has received little historical attention, the conspiracy on behalf of a group of influential powerbrokers, led by Prescott Bush, to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. based around the ideology of Mussolini and Hitler.';
A BBC Radio 4 investigation sheds new light on a major subject that has received little historical attention, the conspiracy on behalf of a group of influential powerbrokers, led by Prescott Bush, to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. based around the ideology of Mussolini and Hitler.
In 1933, Marine Corps Maj.-Gen. Smedley Butler was approached by a wealthy and secretive group of industrialists and bankers, including Prescott Bush the current President's grandfather, who asked him to command a 500,000 strong rogue army of veterans that would help stage a coup to topple then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
According to the BBC, the plotters intended to impose a fascist takeover and "Adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression."

Texas In The Morning

(Article continues below)Madeleine Brown was a businesswoman who worked for Glenn Advertising. Later she claimed she had an affair with Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1988 she told Jack Anderson that: "In the fall of 1963 I was in the Carousel Club with other advertising people and Jack Ruby was saying that Lee Harvey Oswald had been in the club and he had been bragging that he had been bragging that he had taken a shot at Major General Edwin Walker".
On 24th February, 1992, Brown gave an interview on the television show, A Current Affair. Brown claimed that on the 21st November, 1963, she was at the home of Clint Murchison. Others at the meeting included J. Edgar Hoover, Clyde Tolson, John J. McCloy, Richard Nixon, Harvey Bright and Haroldson L. Hunt. At the end of the evening Lyndon B. Johnson arrived: "Tension filled the room upon his arrival. The group immediately went behind closed doors. A short time later Lyndon, anxious and red-faced, re-appeared. I knew how secretly Lyndon operated. Therefore I said nothing... not even that I was happy to see him. Squeezing my hand so hard, it felt crushed from the pressure, he spoke with a grating whisper, a quiet growl, into my ear, not a love message, but one I'll always remember: "After tomorrow those goddamn Kennedys will never embarrass me again - that's no threat - that's a promise."
Brown claimed that Lyndon B. Johnson was the father of her son, Steven Mark Brown. Barr McClellan later confirmed that Madeleine Brown received regular payments from Johnson via his Brazos-Tenth, his money-laundering corporation.
In 1987 Steven Mark Brown filed a lawsuit against the estate of his father. This was unsuccessful and in 1990 he died of cancer.
Brown published her autobiography, Texas in the Morning: The Love Story of Madeleine Brown and President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1997. In the book she claimed that Johnson was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Madeleine Brown died on June 22, 2002. LinkHere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79lOKs0Kr_Y

Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was launched in March of 2005 as a trilateral effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the United States, Canada and Mexico through greater cooperation and information sharing.
This trilateral initiative is premised on our security and our economic prosperity being mutually reinforcing. The SPP recognizes that our three great nations are bound by a shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic institutions.
The SPP provides the framework to ensure that North America is the safest and best place to live and do business. It includes ambitious security and prosperity programs to keep our borders closed to terrorism yet open to trade.
The SPP builds upon, but is separate from, our long-standing trade and economic relationships. It energizes other aspects of our cooperative relations, such as the protection of our environment, our food supply, and our public health.
Looking forward, President Bush, Prime Minister Harper and President Fox have identified emergency management; influenza pandemics, including avian influenza; energy security; and safe and secure gateways (border security and facilitation) as key priorities for the SPP. The Leaders also announced the creation of North American Competitiveness Council to fully incorporate the private sector into the SPP process.
LinkHere

Pouring saltwater in Katrina victims' wounds

As if the delayed response to Katrina itself weren't bad enough, some months ago an acquaintance of mine sent me an e-mail telling me that staunch Republican family members in Mississippi were up in arms at the Bush administration for insisting that they return government loans or provide impossible to obtain documentation.
I don't know if this is the same circumstance or yet another one, but the New York Times reports today that the Small Business Administration just canceled a bunch of Katrina loans without giving any notice:
The agency canceled nearly 8,000 loans without calling the borrowers or mailing them a notice, according to the audit by the agency's inspector general. The homeowners did eventually receive a letter contending that they had voluntarily given up their loans, the report says, even though many told auditors that they actually needed the money. The loans were canceled last year, after the agency had come under fire for being slow to give out rebuilding money, according to the audit. Former agency employees have complained that they were pressured to withdraw the loans to cut the number of applicants whose loans had been approved but not paid out.
Does the Bush administration just cheat reflexively or is cheating something it plans in advance? My friend whose family lives in Mississippi said he thought Bush's reign was going to cut into the Republican brand loyalty on the Gulf Coast. I suppose we'll see about that. But you have to wonder: If the Katrina response didn't do it, what would?
-- Digby

LinkHere

A 21st Century Catastrophe

Michael McCarthy of The Independent UK writes: "Flood-ravaged Britain is suffering from a wholly new type of civil emergency, it is clear today: a disaster caused by 21st-century weather."

Insurance firms warn on flood cover

US Says Qaeda Safe Haven Inaccessible

Reuters reports,
"Al Qaeda's safe haven in northwestern Pakistan is largely inaccessible to outside forces and unlikely to be eliminated soon by the US or Pakistani military, top intelligence officials said on Wednesday."
LinkHere

US Constitution in Grave Danger

"'It's do-or-die time for the separation of powers,' Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office said. 'Congress is facing a historic moment when it can fight for its rightful place in our Constitution or accept the president's continued and sweeping claims of supremacy,'" reports United Press International.
LinkHere

Third Person Charged in Iraq Fraud Case

The Associated Press reports, "A third member of a Texas family has been arrested in connection with what a federal official says is the largest Army contract-rigging and bribery case to emerge from the Iraq reconstruction effort."
LinkHere

Army's 'Debt Of Service' Leaves Vets Perplexed

Citizens For Legitimate Government

While Halliburton rips-off US taxpayers, discharged soldiers who have risked their lives are being hounded for so-called lost or damaged government property. It is in accordance with the Republican ideal for Bush's military to be run more like a business and is how Bush supports our troops.

Raging at Foxes

Congressman Conyers is afraid of Fox News. This is an intolerable situation. There is mounting evidence that Vice President Richard Cheney and President George W. Bush are guilty of methodically and with malice aforethought destroying the balance of power between the three branches of government that has made the United States a stable democracy for two hundred and twenty five years (until the first Bush II term). There is ample and increasing evidence from the testimony of Attorney General Roberto Gonzales to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Department of Justice has been systematically and shamelessly politicized to the point where it no longer bears any resemblance to an impartial, separate branch of government. The Vice President has placed himself above the law through arrogance and beyond the law with the preposterous claim that he is an autonomous department under the control of neither the White House nor the Congress. The President rules by fiat through signing statements, claims of executive privilege and by issuing executive orders. He has total disdain for the people through their elected representatives. And our branch of last resort, the Legislative is paralyzed by Rupert Murdoch and cannot even consider our plea for redress. Fifty-four percent of the American people want Dick Cheney impeached. One man with a right-wing media empire trumps fifty-four percent of us? What is wrong with this picture?
What can possibly be right? Are we going to allow this one little man with multi-billions of dollars buy total access to our collective consciousness of the world around us and so lead us to slash our own constitutional throats by punishing those who endeavor to save our democracy? Murdoch has bought or adversely influenced huge swaths of what passes for news outlets in the modern world and continues to use an unconstitutional corporatocracy to sanction his voracious appetite for more, more juicy, ripe minds to indoctrinate with his warped vision of reality. Should we sit on our hands in intellectual superiority and smile at the Fox sheeple as they quote Bill O’Reilly? No, I think we should at least try to reach them with some simple questions occasionally. Maybe something like, “Have you ever actually seen a marauding gang of tough lesbian women, wielding pink pistols and attacking straight men or young girls? Have you ever seen any such gangs arrested or put on trial? Have you ever read an article in any reputable, reasonably objective newspaper documenting such an event? Have you ever seen a report of such a happening on the nightly news or any news or commentary show other than the O’Reilly Factor?” Do you personally know anyone who can honestly answer yes to any of the above questions?
This is the kind of “journalism” that has the power to frighten a congressman?
Those of us who have never fed at Murdoch’s sheeple trough need to forcefully rescue and reprogram those who have and still do. The Foxes are not only in the hen house, they are perilously close to owning the farm. Congress, as pitifully weak as it has become from years of being willingly dominated by a demonstrably inept and corrupt Executive Branch, is our only defense. We are the fifty-four percent who want Dick Cheney impeached. If Fox News does not; if Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, as laughably irrelevant in any sane world as they are; if Britt Hume, as biased as his “phrasing” of “news” reports is; if all these parodies of truth and objectivity, “fairness and balance” do not want Cheney impeached, well tough cookies. If they are frightening our representatives in congress, we need to yank their fangs!
So, what if fifty-four percent of the nation were to write, call and email Congressman Conyers and just leave this emphatic message, “WE DON’T WATCH FOX!?” We watch Keith Olbermann on MSNBC! And John Stewart and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central! We watch NPR. We even sometimes watch Scarborough Country; have a laugh at Tucker Carlson or watch Pat Buchanan change his mind. We watch ABC. We read and watch and discern. Have no fear. We have your back. We know what’s comin’ down! Do the right thing. Do the people’s business. Investigate, issue subpoenas, call for special investigators and impeach. House Resolution 333. Three times three is the charm.
LinkHere

Conyers Outfoxes Bushie in Contempt Showdown

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
Wed Jul 25, 2007 at 09:19:45 PM PDT
Rep. John Conyers is methodically setting up the legal elements for Congress to pursue statutory and/or inherent contempt proceedings against executive branch officials in a manner that essentially wipes out any claim to executive privilege to shield the truth. A few weeks ago, I wrote a diary on Impeachment by Frog-Marching Congressional Oversight, which suggested that Congress had a better chance -- according to US Supreme Court precedent -- to obtain evidence and testimony from the Bush gang if it conducted a "criminal proceeding" to investigate potential criminal or unlawful conduct by executive branch officials. The beauty of the "criminal proceeding" is that Bush is not likely to prevail on executive privilege claims. Well, it looks like the US Attorney probe has now been officially transformed into a "criminal proceeding" to determine whether Bush officials have violated specific laws. >>>cont

A PRESIDENT'S CONTEMPT

Michael Hammerschlag

A PRESIDENT'S CONTEMPT - After 7 years of lies, corruption, national security failures, and a disastrous unjustified war, the new Dem Congress is asking questions; Heedless of the Constitution, Bush is giving no answers + with unprecedented arrogance, directed staffers to not testify; Time for inherent contempt charges? Tally of Bush's cost in human lives

Holy Shit!!!!!!!

New Evidence Clearly Indicates Pat Tillman Was Executed

New Evidence Clearly Indicates Pat Tillman Was ExecutedArmy medical examiners concluded Tillman was shot three times in the head from just 10 yards away, no evidence of "friendly fire" damage at scene, Army attorneys congratulated each other on cover-up, Wesley Clark concludes "orders came from the very top" to murder pro-football star because he was about to become an anti-war political icon

Paul Joseph WatsonPrison PlanetFriday, July 27, 2007
'Astounding new details surrounding the death of Pat Tillman clearly indicate that top brass decided to execute the former pro football star in cold blood to prevent him from returning home and becoming an anti-war icon.';
Astounding new details surrounding the death of Pat Tillman clearly indicate that top brass decided to execute the former pro football star in cold blood to prevent him from returning home and becoming an anti-war icon.
These same criminals then engaged in a sophisticated conspiracy to create a phony "friendly fire" cover story.
Shocking new facts emerged about the case last night but were bizarrely underplayed by the Associated Press under nondescript headlines like 'New Details on Tillman's Death' - a complete disservice to the horrific implications that the new evidence carries.

Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
"The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.
The doctors - whose names were blacked out - said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.
The report also states that "No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene - no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck."
The article also reveals that "Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments."
So there was no evidence whatsoever of friendly fire, but the ballistics data clearly indicated that the three head shots had been fired from just 10 yards away and then the Army tried to concoct a hoax friendly fire story and sent gloating back-slapping e mails congratulating each other on their success while preventing the doctors from exploring the possibility of murder. How can any sane and rational individual weigh this evidence and not come to the conclusion that Tillman was deliberately gunned down in cold blood?
The evidence points directly to it and the motivation is clear - Tillman abandoned a lucrative career in pro-football immediately after 9/11 because he felt a rampaging patriotic urge to defend his country, and became a poster child for the war on terror as a result. But when he discovered that the invasion of Iraq was based on a mountain of lies and deceit and had nothing to do with defending America, he became infuriated and was ready to return home to become an anti-war hero

As far back as March 2003, immediately after the invasion, Tillman famously told his comrade Spc. Russell Baer, "You know, this war is so fucking illegal," and urged his entire platoon to vote against Bush in the 2004 election. Far from the gung-ho gruff stereotype attributed to him, Tillman was actually a fiercely intellectual man with the courage of his convictions firmly in place.
Tillman had even begun to arrange meetings with anti-war icons like Noam Chomsky upon his return to America before his death cut short any aspirations of becoming a focal point for anti-war sentiment.

According to Daily Kos, Wesley Clark appeared on Keith Olbermann's Countdown last night and stated that "the orders came from the very top" to murder Tillman as he was a political symbol and his opposition to the war in Iraq would have rallied the population around supporting immediate withdrawal.
The notion that the U.S. government gave orders for Army top brass to execute Pat Tillman in cold blood is the most damaging indictment of the Iraq war since it began, trumping the lies about weapons of mass destruction tenfold, but if the establishment media continue to soft-peddle and steam-valve one of the biggest stories of the century its impact will be completely diluted.
It is up to us to make this story go viral because the implications are so dire that they could act as the final death knell for the blood-soaked and illegal occupation of Iraq and become the clarion call to bring our troops home.

LinkHere

Was Pat Tillman Killed By Friendly Fire Or Assassinated Because of His Changed Views On The War?

Army to Punish Seven Officers for Mishandling Pat Tillman Case

Bush shill military leaders sell out America and our troops again by punishing lower level officers, not the top generals and Bush Admin officials who deserve punishment.

Iraqi Lawmakers Missing In Action

LA Times Molly Hennessy-Fiske July 27, 2007 08:50 AM
Missing from Thursday's session of the Iraqi parliament were about half of the members, including the speaker, the former speaker and two former prime ministers.
Also missing: a sense of urgency.
Read entire story here.

Snow Perfectly Conveys White House's Total Arrogance

Bob Geiger, 07.26.2007
As far as Snow is concerned, Congress represents the White House and not the American people -- and that they should spend more time helping Bush in his failed national agenda.
Read Post

BooooooooHooooooooo

Anxious Republicans fear another beating

By Jim Snyder
July 27, 2007
Nine months after Republicans were routed in the midterm elections, campaign observers, K Street lobbyists and political experts say there is little evidence the party can rebound in 2008. The same bad news — the president’s low approval ratings, opposition to the war in Iraq, and the lingering taint of congressional scandal, from the Jack Abramoff investigation to Sen. David Vitter’s (La.) involvement with the alleged “D.C. Madam” — leave observers skeptical that the GOP can dent Democratic majorities, let alone reclaim power in the next election.
“The only thing that has changed is that everything that was bad got worse,” said Bernadette Budde, political director of the Business Industry Political Action Committee. BIPAC supports business-friendly candidates of both parties, though most of the group’s donations go to Republicans.If the election were held today, “We’d be lucky to hold our own,” one House Republican said.

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BOMB AND ROCKET attack rips through Baghdad 'safe' district.

With five days to go before the end of July, an Associated Press tally showed that at least 1,759 Iraqis were killed in war-related violence through July 26, a more than 7 percent increase over the 1,640 who were reported killed in all of June.

By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 26, 8:38 PM ET
BAGHDAD - A highly sophisticated simultaneous truck bombing and rocket attack devastated a Shiite market district in one of Baghdad's safest central neighborhoods Thursday, killing at least 28 people and wounding 95. Separately, the American military announced the deaths of seven U.S. troops.
Although suicide bombings are common in Iraq, it is rare for militants to stage a double attack with such effectiveness. The attackers struck about 6:40 p.m. as the Karradah district's market area was packed with shoppers on the eve of the Islamic day of rest.
An explosives-laden garbage truck exploded near the market at about the same time as a Katyusha rocket slammed into a three-story residential building about 100 yards away. Three columns of smoke billowed into the sky and fires burned on the ground after the thunderous explosions, which set cars and buildings ablaze.
Many residents were crying as they searched for missing relatives.
"The terrorists, curse them, are behind this act," said Firas Rahim, who sells clothes at a stand near the site of the blasts.
"They are angry because the people were celebrating and happy yesterday. Now they took their revenge," he said, referring to the jubilation that filled the streets of Baghdad after the soccer team advanced to Sunday's finals in the Asian Cup.
An Iraqi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, later blamed Sunni extremists for the rocket attack. He did not mention the car bombing reported by police.
The casualty toll was provided by police and hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. They said 14 cars were destroyed along with 17 stores selling everything from accessories to falafel sandwiches.
Rahim said he saw at least three buildings on fire, with firefighters climbing ladders to rescue people stuck in their apartments.
The attack was the deadliest in a series of bombings nationwide Thursday. At least 78 people were killed or found dead, a day after two suicide car bombings killed and wounded dozens of revelers celebrating the national team's semifinal victory in Asia's top soccer tournament.
With five days to go before the end of July, an Associated Press tally showed that at least 1,759 Iraqis were killed in war-related violence through July 26, a more than 7 percent increase over the 1,640 who were reported killed in all of June.
Victims of sectarian slayings were also on the rise. At least 723 bodies were found dumped across Iraq so far in July, or an average of nearly 28 a day, compared with 19 a day in June, when 563 bodies were reported found, according to the AP tally.
Those numbers included civilians, government officials and Iraqi security forces, and are considered only a minimum based on AP reporting. The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported or uncounted.
Despite the increase in killings over the past month, U.S. and Iraqi officials have claimed some success in reducing violence as they fight to gain control of the capital and surrounding areas ahead of a pivotal progress report to be delivered to the U.S. Congress in September.
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Crocker says troop increase is working in Iraq AP

At least 64 U.S. troops have died this month, a relatively low number compared with American death tolls of more than 100 for each of the previous three months, according to an AP count based on military statements.
The No. 2 commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, expressed cautious optimism about the downturn. He said it appeared that casualties had increased as U.S. forces expanded operations into militant strongholds as part of the 5-month-old security crackdown aimed at clamping off violence in the capital, but were going down as the Americans gained control of the areas.
"We've started to see a slow but gradual reduction in casualties, and it continues in July," he said at a news conference. "It's an initial positive sign, but I would argue we need a bit more time to make an assessment whether it's a true trend."
Nevertheless, the daily average for U.S. troop deaths so far in July is 2.46 — higher than the daily average of 2.25 last year.
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New documents on Tillman death

No enemy fire in area, doctors suspicious of bullet holes from start.

Talk to Your best Friend Georgie

US frustrated with Saudis in Iraq

Distrust of Maliki, cash to Sunnis cause rift. 40% of all foreign fighters are Saudi.

Fox Attacks...Bloggers »

Go take a cold Shower, MORON your all hot air, only the Religious Right would evan give you the time of day and listen to your drivel, we hurting your ratings sleeze bag, Hmmmmm?

Robert Greenwald And Brave New Films Jim Gilliam July 26, 2007 09:41 PM
In recent months, FOX Noise has implied that Barack Obama is a terrorist, called black churches cults, and denied the existence of global warming. This week, Bill O'Reilly declared war on the blogosphere and its advertisers like JetBlue.Enough is enough. It's time we hit FOX where it hurts...their bottom line.

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Only Two GOP Candidates Have Agreed To YouTube Debate »

Washington Jose Antonio Vargas July 26, 2007 10:57 PM
Four days after the Democratic debate in Charleston, S.C,. more than 400 questions directed to the GOP presidential field have been uploaded on YouTube -- targeted at Republicans scheduled to get their turn at videopopulism on Sept. 17.
But so far, only Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) have agreed to participate in the debate, co-hosted by Republican Party of Florida in St. Petersburg.

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FBI Director Contradicts Gonzales Testimony

Yeah he's the same as his PUNK of a boss, they do not know how to tell the truthSenators: "He Tells The Half-Truth, The Partial Truth And Anything But The Truth"...Never Seen "An Attorney General So Contemptuous Of Congress"..."At A Minimum Half-Truths And Misleading Statements

NY Times David Stout July 26, 2007 06:55 PM
WASHINGTON, July 26 -- The dispute over the truthfulness of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales reached a new intensity today as the F.B.I. Director, Robert S. Mueller 3rd, contradicted Mr. Gonzales's sworn testimony before a Senate committee.
Mr. Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee that the Bush administration's secret eavesdropping program was the main topic at an encounter in the hospital room of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft on March 10, 2004, contrary to what Mr. Gonzales told a Senate panel on...

Corp Watch reported on this 1 year ago, Trafficking Asian Workers.

'Slave labor' built US Iraq Embassy

Alleged workers kept against their will, lied to about destination.

A U.S. Fortress Rises in Baghdad:Asian Workers Trafficked to Build World's Largest Embassy

by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatchOctober 17th, 2006

John Owens didn’t realize how different his job would be from his last 27 years in construction until he signed on with First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting in November 2005. Working as general foreman, he would be overseeing an army of workers building the largest, most expensive and heavily fortified US embassy in the world. Scheduled to open in 2007, the sprawling complex near the Tigris River will equal Vatican City in size. Then seven months into the job, he quit. Not one of the five different US embassy sites he had worked on around the world compared to the mess he describes. Armenia, Bulgaria, Angola, Cameroon and Cambodia all had their share of dictators, violence and economic disruption, but the companies building the embassies were always fair and professional, he says. The Kuwait-based company building the $592-million Baghdad project is the exception. Brutal and inhumane, he says “I’ve never seen a project more fucked up. Every US labor law was broken.”
In the resignation letter last June, Owens told First Kuwaiti and US State Department officials that his managers beat their construction workers, demonstrated little regard for worker safety, and routinely breached security.

And it was all happening smack in the middle of the US-controlled Green Zone -- right under the nose of the State Department that had quietly awarded the controversial embassy contract in July 2005. He also complained of poor sanitation, squalid living conditions and medical malpractice in the labor camps where several thousand low-paid migrant workers lived. Those workers, recruited on the global labor market from the Philippines, India, Pakistan and other poor south Asian countries, earned as little as $10 to $30 a day. As with many US-funded contractors, First Kuwaiti prefers importing labor because it views Iraqi workers as a security headache not worth the trouble.

No Questions Asked >>>>cont

Pentagon Finds Worker Abuse and Trafficking in Iraq, but Penalizes No One

On April 4, 2006, the Pentagon issued a new contracting directive following a secret investigation that officially confirms what many South Asian laborers have been complaining about ever since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Some contractors, many working as subcontractors to Halliburton /KBR in Iraq, were found to be using deceptive, bait-and-switch hiring practices and charging recruiting fees that indebted low-paid migrant workers for many months or even years to their employers. Contractors were also accused of providing substandard, crowded sleeping quarters, serving poor food, and circumventing Iraqi immigration procedures. While the Pentagon declines to specifically name those contractors found to be doing business in this way, it also acknowledged in an April 19 memorandum that it was a widespread practice among contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan to take away workers passports. Holding onto employee passports -- a direct violation of US labor trafficking laws -- helped stop workers from leaving war-torn Iraq or taking better jobs with other contractors. Contractors engaging in the practice, states the memo, must immediately "cease and deist." "All passports will be returned to employees by 1 May 06. This requirement will be flowed down to each of your subcontractors performing work in this theater." The Pentagon has yet to announce of any penalty for those found to be in violation of US labor trafficking laws or contract requirements.

Sorry Howie, You can't get away with what your friend Georgie does, We are Australia, we the people have a working brains, that cannot be manipulated.

DPP drops Haneef terror charge

By Mark Schliebs: THE terror charge against Mohamed Haneef has been dropped after the DPP explained in detail how the court was given misleading information on the Indian doctor's background.

Blogocracy: Haneef not a terrorist apparently

Haneef into residential detention

4:54pm: MOHAMED Haneef will be released from immigration detention while Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews waits for more information following the collapse of a terror case against the Indian doctor.

Iraq war veteran's parents sue U.S. after suicide

Source: Reuters
BOSTON, July 26 (Reuters) - The parents of an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide sued the U.S. government on Thursday for negligence, charging their son hanged himself after the government ignored his depression.
The suit accuses the federal government of not helping 23-year-old Jeffrey Lucey, who committed suicide in his parents' Massachusetts basement less than a year after returning home from fighting during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson was also named in the suit.
"This government is guilty of not taking care of the troops after they come home," the veteran's father, Kevin Lucey, said in an interview. "We are hoping to show this nation how broken the Veterans administration is. We want to make this a responsive and efficient system."
The action follows another suit in which two veterans' rights groups allege the Department of Veterans Affairs delayed and denied veterans help for combat-related disabilities such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
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U.S. Tracks Saudi Bank Favored by Extremists

Today, Mr. Al Rajhi is a reclusive octogenarian whose fortune is estimated at $12 billion. And Al Rajhi Bank grew into the kingdom's largest Islamic bank, with 500 branches in Saudi Arabia and more spread across the Muslim world.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the bank also set off an intense debate within the U.S. government over whether to take strong action against its alleged role in extremist finance. Confidential reports by the Central Intelligence Agency and other U.S. agencies, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, detail for the first time how much the U.S. learned about the use of Al Rajhi Bank by alleged extremists, and how U.S. officials agonized over what to do about it.
After 9/11, the Saudi monarchy pledged its full support in the fight against global terrorism. And following violent attacks inside the kingdom in the next two years, the Saudis did launch major strikes against militants operating on their soil. But the Saudi government has been far been less willing to tackle the financial infrastructure essential to terrorism. U.S. intelligence reports state that Islamic banks, while mostly doing ordinary commerce, also are institutions that extremism relies upon in its global spread.
As a result, the Bush administration repeatedly debated proposals for taking strong action itself against Al Rajhi Bank, in particular, according to former U.S. officials and previously undisclosed government documents. Ultimately, the U.S. always chose instead to lobby Saudi officialdom quietly about its concerns.
...
Ultimately, the Bush administration again chose merely to continue privately exerting pressure on the Saudis to stiffen their oversight.
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Wonder what same judge would award the innocent Iraqi Civilians murdered in Georgie illegal war and occupation

Judge: Sudan Owes USS Cole Families $8M

FCC Chair: Fairness Doctrine Not Needed

Pence and other Republicans in both the House and Senate countered by introducing legislation to bar the FCC from reinstating the rule.
July 26 10:43 AM US/Eastern
By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federal Communications Commission has no intention of reinstating the Fairness Doctrine imposing a requirement of balanced coverage of issues on public airwaves, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said.
Martin, in a letter written this week to Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and made public Thursday, said the agency found no compelling reason to revisit its 1987 decision that enforcing the federal rule was not in the public interest.
Several Democratic lawmakers suggested that Congress take another look at the doctrine after conservative radio talk show hosts aggressively attacked an immigration reform bill when it was on the Senate floor, contributing to its defeat.
---cut---
Martin, in his letter, said government regulation was not needed to ensure public access to a wide range of opinion. "Indeed, with the continued proliferation of additional sources of information and programming, including satellite broadcasting and the Internet, the need for the Fairness Doctrine has lessened even further since 1987," he wrote.
Pence, in a joint statement with Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., welcomed Martin's position but said Congress should still pass his legislation so that no future administration or FCC chairman could revive the doctrine without an act of Congress.
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Senate Democrat Norm Coleman Blocks Fairness Doctrine Foiler

(Broadcasting & Cable) _ House Democrats have labeled the reintroduction of the FCC's fairness doctrine a non-issue and grandstanding by talk radio, but on Friday Senate Democrats blocked an amendment to an appropriations bill similar to one that passed without incident in the House. Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) tried Friday to amend a defense appropriations bill to insure that the FCC could not reinstate the doctrine. Scrapped by the FCC as unconstitutional in 1987, the doctrine required broadcasters to provide the other side on issues of public importance. It's disappearance from the FCC rulebook helped spur the rise of primarily conservative talk radio.

Oh, yeah, now watch this drive!

Commander AWOL good one
SpiralHawk His "heart breaks" for the troops and their families, don'cha know?

Iraqi Refugees Turn To Gangs Across The Globe

International Herald Tribune Caroline Brothers July 26, 2007 03:46 PM
LYON: A criminal matrix stretching from Poland to Guatemala is exploiting the vast wave of refugees who are fleeing the war in Iraq, Interpol says.
Officials here at the world's international police organization maintain that the hand of a criminal gang was evident in the arrests in Mexico of a group of 11 Iraqis who were trying to enter the United States.
The nine men, a woman and a child - traveling as Cypriots and Poles, but in fact Iraqis - were picked up in northern Mexico. The group was headed for an Iraqi Christian community in San Diego and traveling on false passports, officials at Interpol said.
Their journey last winter, the officials said, was proof of a new front for people smugglers, who attract desperate clients from among the estimated two million Iraqis who have fled a nation where the UN High Commissioner for Refugees says violence claims an average of 100 lives a day.
Refugees have fled into Jordan and Syria, Iraq's neighbors, and are now spreading around the globe. At a meeting in Amman on Thursday to discuss the refugee crisis, Iraq's deputy foreign minister, Mohammad al-Haj Hamoud, asked that its neighbors help the Iraqi refugees "until they can return."
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The U.S. military on Thursday reported eight recent troop deaths in Iraq

Eight U.S. troops killed in Iraq

The U.S. military on Thursday reported eight recent troop deaths in Iraq.
A U.S. soldier from Multi-National Division-Baghdad was killed Wednesday "during a small-arms fire engagement" in southern Baghdad, the military said.
Three Marines and one sailor assigned to Multi National Force-West died Tuesday during combat in Diyala province.
Also, a soldier in the Diyala capital of Baquba died Tuesday of wounds from a roadside bomb. Diyala province is the sprawling territory northeast of Baghdad on the border with Iran.
A soldier was killed Tuesday in Baghdad when a roadside bomb detonated during clearing operations, the military said.
And a Marine assigned to Multi National Force-West died Sunday "in a noncombat related incident" in Anbar province, it said.

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