Sometimes cartoons say it best

This will make your head hurt

The sad state of todays media outlets

is made obvious by the protest at a Tampa Florida area TV station. The protest was an effort to get the news department to actually report the news.

"Did you get the memo?" read the fliers.

"Air the truth!" said a poster held by retired Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph F. Bohren, outside the WTVT-Ch. 13 studios with about 10 others.

They were there because of what has become known as the "Downing Street Memo," minutes from a meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers on July 23, 2002, at No. 10 Downing St., published May 1 by the Sunday Times of London . The minutes indicate that the United States and Britain had agreed to invade Iraq by the summer of 2002 - months before President George W. Bush asked Congress for permission to engage in military action.

The minutes, written by Matthew Rycroft, aide to British Foreign Policy Adviser David Manning, also suggest that U.S. officials deliberately manipulated intelligence to justify the war.

"If what's in these minutes is accurate, and we have been given no reason to doubt that, then it would appear that the president has committed high crimes, specifically lying to the American public and Congress and engaging in a conspiracy with his administration," said David Dawson, a Washington organizer for the Web site AfterDowningStreet.org, which has reproduced the memo.

And the Progressive Democrats of America are pitching in to help our local media outlets. Since so many of the media outlets now have to be led to the news to report it, they tell us how to remind them about the Downing Street Memo , and what it could mean.

President for sale... Reasonable price

Well it appears we now know what the going rate for the US president, its $25,000.00 US.

Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff’s lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush “Pioneer,” delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove’s personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.

DeLay, Rove, Abramoff and Bush, what a shock.


Personally, I wouldn't give you twenty-five cents for him.

Classic Friday night news release

Southern Command confirms 5 cases of Koran abuse.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American jailers at the Guantanamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects splashed a Koran with urine, kicked and stepped on the Islamic holy book and soaked it with water, the U.S. military said on Friday.

I wonder who Scott and the Administration will blame this on?

Amnesty International made a poor allusion

in calling Guantanamo Bay a Gulag.

While Gulag may evoke the proper revulsion, it doesn't capture the true flavor of the prison we have built in Gitmo (and who knows where else). We have established a system where a person can be un-created. He has no rights, his sentence in prison is for life, unless we change our mind and he has no recourse or appeal.

To find any past example you have to roll the clock back a thousand years. A King, a castle and a dungeon, where a man could be thrown in and forgotten. No other system seems to fit this monster we have created.

The US military is delaying the release of recruiting data

The standard practice is to release them on the 1st of the month. In June they will release the numbers 10 days late.

I wonder why.

TBlog has some tips for recruiters looking for IED bait.

Fear, is it the driving force in our foreign policy?

Fear is a base emotion. It can spring upon us due to a sudden event, or weigh on us over time. One aspect of fear that is interesting to study is how individuals react to it. The fight or flight response is present in animals and humans. It is a key in survival in emergency situations.

It is this fear driven desire to react, to run or fight, that needs to be looked at.

Consider this; You person is in a crowded bar, and sees another person coming at you who looks dangerous. As this threat gets nearer the feared threat make a quick move in your direction. Will you run, punch, or just wait to see what is going on? If fear takes hold, you will either punch or run. If you think you can win, you are more likely to punch, it you don't think you can win, you will flee. The fact that this person was only reaching for a pack of matches wouldn't matter, your fear demands action, and you respond.

If you had the courage to see what develop there would have been no reason for a bar fight.

Consider how our leaders and our society are dealing with the upsets in the world the last few years. We are the biggest meanest guy in the bar, yet our leaders jump in fear at every sudden move made by those we see as dangerous. The cowardly nature of our leadership has infected our society, where the majority appear willing to trade freedom for security.

It was said best by FDR, we do have Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself. We have the size strength and power to respond to any act. We don't have to fear the shadows, and what ifs that exist in the world. Living as cowards, being driven by fear, as this administration has been, is a sure path to failure.

Stand up, and refuse to be scared. Refuse to accept pre-emption, gulags and backpedaling on international treaties and laws. We must realize that nothing is one hundred percent safe, and accept those risk as part of living free.

At some point in time, a terrorist will again attack us on our soil. At some point in the days, months or years to come, a nuclear weapon will be used on this land. When that happens, we will face the greatest challenge to our society. If we allow fear to rule us we will no longer be a free land.

Lying to America or just lying to himself

Only Dick Cheney know for sure.

Watching the recent frenzy of violence in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney is not perturbed. Quite the contrary--he sounds practically elated. "We're making major progress," he said Monday. Iraq, he explained, is "in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

You know that secure, undisclosed location of his? I think we can be sure it's not on this planet.

On the same day Cheney was savoring his delusions, suicide bombers were striking in Iraq.

Wolfowitz takes over at the world bank today

More evidence that in Bush's administration no failure goes un-promoted.

The thought police are at it again

This time 'Human Events' (a right wing publication) is leading the charge. They have outlined a list of the 10 most harmful books on the 19th and 20th century. I do find it humorous who so many on the right are afraid of ideas.


The Communist Manifesto
Mein Kampf
Quotations from Chairman Mao
The Kinsey Report
Democracy and Education
Das Kapital
The Feminine Mystique
The Course of Positive Philosophy
Beyond Good and Evil
General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

and honorable mention

The Population Bomb
What Is To Be Done
Authoritarian Personality
On Liberty
Beyond Freedom and Dignity
Reflections on Violence
The Promise of American Life
Origin of the Species
Madness and Civilization
Soviet Communism: A New Civilization
Coming of Age in Samoa
Unsafe at Any Speed
Second Sex
Prison Notebooks
Silent Spring
Wretched of the Earth
Introduction to Psychoanalysis
The Greening of America
The Limits to Growth
Descent of Man


I guess it is time for the book burners to get the fires stoked.

Scott Norvell admits what we all know about Fox

In a recent Op-Ed Fox's bureau chief in London called the station a private channel, and by his other statements appeared to confirm what many have felt about this source of propaganda. We know Fox is biased, and slanted, but they continue to try to deny this. After this latest bit of bombast, those denials should ring even more hollow.

Here is one quote, captured by News Hounds, that seems to sum up the Fox Lies Channel

Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally, and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly.

W. Mark Felt, of the FBI was Deep Throat

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Like a puzzle, the picture slowly comes into focus.

But, will America notice.

A few weeks ago the phrase, "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" came out into the public arena. With that, the real story of the Invasion of Iraq appear to be at last be coming into view. The fictions that were used as justification for war, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism ties, and nuclear development have been proven false. The wall of lies and obstruction created by the Bush administration are slowly being broken down.

In Salon, Juan Cole looks at the lies that led to war. What is most striking is that even after the world trade center attack, late into September 2001, Bush's insistence on attacking Saddam, instead on Bin Laden. This shouldn't be a surprise, this fact has been mentioned in that past, by Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neil. Both confirmed the Bush administration's obsession on Saddam.

the Bush administration almost took the United States to war against Iraq in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. We know about this episode from the public account of Sir Christopher Meyer, then the U.K. ambassador in Washington. Meyer reported that in the two weeks after Sept. 11, the Bush national security team argued back and forth over whether to attack Iraq or Afghanistan. It appears from his account that Bush was leaning toward the Iraq option.

Meyer spoke again about the matter to Vanity Fair for its May 2004 report, "The Path to War." Soon after Sept. 11, Meyer went to a dinner at the White House, "attended also by Colin Powell, [and] Condi Rice," where "Bush made clear that he was determined to topple Saddam. 'Rumors were already flying that Bush would use 9/11 as a pretext to attack Iraq,' Meyer remembers." When British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Washington on Sept. 20, 2001, he was alarmed. If Blair had consulted MI6 about the relative merits of the Afghanistan and Iraq options, we can only imagine what well-informed British intelligence officers in Pakistan were cabling London about the dangers of leaving bin Laden and al-Qaida in place while plunging into a potential quagmire in Iraq.

What is truly stunning is that it appears that the British and not the experts and advisors in Bush's administration, who may have been the most responsible for the US focusing the response on the proper target, Bin Laden.

"Blair came with a very strong message -- don't get distracted; the priorities were al-Qaida, Afghanistan, the Taliban." He must have been terrified that the Bush administration would abandon London to al-Qaida while pursuing the great white whale of Iraq.

The Bush administration's efforts to start a war with Saddam were not limited to creating a false hysteria about him. We also tried to anger him and thus, trick him into striking out. There was a dramatic increase in bombings by US and UK air forces against targets in Iraq. There is little doubt that we wanted to goad Saddam in to striking back. The blood lust for war is clear, and the lengths that Bush and his aids went to stunning.

Geoff Hoon, then defence secretary, told the meeting that "the US had already begun 'spikes of activity' to put pressure on the regime".

When events that are as immoral and duplicitous as these occur, action is demanded. After Downing Street has been created to make sure the truth is not hidden any longer. This collection of peace groups, veteran groups and political actions groups has started a campaign to force congress to investigate if the actions of the Bush Administration are legal, or if the actions may qualify as impeachable offenses.

Consider looking into and supporting their efforts. If you are concerned, find a way to make your voice be heard. At the very least join in Rep. John Conyers Jr.'s effort to have 100,000 persons sign a letter on the Downing Street Inquiry.

Dr. Don Wildmon and the AFA have a new target.

After ending their 9 year boycott of Disney, by declaring victory and walking away, the American Family Association has now taken aim at Ford Motor Company, angered by their promotion of Volvos in Australia, and some of Jaguar's gay friendly advertising.

Based upon the success of the Disney boycott, I suspect Ford isn't to worried

The Iraqi airforce sounds a lot like the Iraqi government

A news report today indicated that 4 US soldiers were killed in an Iraqi Air Force plane.

In the eastern province of Diyala, an Iraqi air force aircraft crashed with four US soldiers and one Iraqi on board, and the US military said an American soldier had died Saturday in Mosul.

1 Iraqi and 4 Americans on the 'Iraqi' Air Force plane.

Interesting, sad, but interesting.

Memorial Day Weekend is starting,

and while we are cleaning the grill, or hitting the beach, or polishing up the boat, do take a moment to remember those who have made personal sacrifices for the good of our nation. Remember that even when the cause was questionable, the men and woman on the point of the spear have little say about where they are pointed.

I will also spend a little time reflecting on a few non-traditional memorials.

Jeffrey Glen Miller, Allison Krause, Sandra Lee Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder of Kent State, and those who have stood up for what was right. Marla Ruzicka, and the other relief and aid workers who have tried to help those needing it most. Terry Lloyd, and the hundreds of members of the media who have died when covering the war efforts around the world. The last group to remember are those who have the misfortune to represent the collateral damage of any war.

Operation Lightining and Thomas Friedman

are the focus of a great bit on Baghdad Burning.

Friedman wonders why thousands upon thousands protested against the desecration of the Quran and why they do not demonstrate against terrorism in Iraq. The civilian bombings in Iraq are being done by certain extremists, fanatics or militias. What happened in Guantanamo with the Quran and what happens in places like Abu Ghraib is being done systematically by an army- an army that is fighting a war- a war being funded by the American people. That is what makes it outrageous to the Muslim world.

In other words, what happens in Iraq is terrorism, while what happens to Iraqis and Afghanis and people of other nationalities under American or British custody is simply "counter-insurgency" and "policy". It makes me naseous to think of how outraged the whole world was when those American POW were shown on Iraqi television at the beginning of the war- clean, safe and respectfully spoken to. Even we were upset with the incident and wondered why they had to be paraded in front of the world like that. We actually had the decency to feel sorry for them.

Incompetence rewarded,again

More evidence that the fastest path to a corner office in the environment created by the Bush Administration is to be a failure at your job.

From Rice, to Bolton, to Wolfowitz, advancement and praise rewards the failure. Now we learn that the two analyst who's screwed up work led us to claim that Saddams aluminum tubes were a nuclear threat, have

received job performance awards in each of the past three years

Well these days, actually doing your job well, and discovering truth, appears to matter less than sticking to the talking points, and supporting Bush's policy.

So how hard would it have been to discover the truth in this case?

The problem, according to the commission, which cited the two analysts' work, is that they did not seek or obtain information available from the Energy Department and elsewhere showing that the tubes were indeed the type used for years as rocket-motor cases by Iraq's military. The panel said the finding represented a "serious lapse in analytic tradecraft" because the center's personnel "could and should have conducted a more exhaustive examination of the question."

Wow... a phone call, no wonder they missed it.

Cross burnings in NC include St. Luke's Episcopal Church

From Pams House Blend. No doubt a gift inspired by those fine Christians at Westboro Baptist Church .

The cost of your savings at Walmart

One 200-person Wal-Mart store may result in a cost to federal taxpayers of $420,750 per year – about $2,103 per employee. Specifically, the low wages result in the following additional public costs being passed along to taxpayers PER STORE:

* $36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches.
* $42,000 a year for Section 8 housing assistance.
* $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families.
* $100,000 a year for the additional Title I expenses.
* $108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children's health insurance programs.
* $9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance. NO WONDER their prices are so low -- WE'RE making up the difference through our taxes!! And THEY'RE pocketing the profits!

From Seeing the Forest and Wake up Walmart

More evidence about the Koran in the toilet

This time from the FBI . I have to wonder how Scott will respond to this bit of news.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Detainees interviewed by FBI agents at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba complained repeatedly that military guards and interrogators mistreated the Koran, with one alleging that the Muslim holy book had been flushed in a toilet, documents made public show.

Amnesty International condemns the US's

camp in Guantanamo Bay and it worldwide complex of detention centers.

As a superpower, the United States has shirked its responsibility to set the bar for human rights protections and has instead created a new lexicon for abuse and torture, Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan said for the London-based group's annual report launch.

"The United States ... sets the tone for governmental behavior worldwide," Khan said.

"Attempts to dilute the absolute ban on torture through new policies and quasi-management speak, such as 'environmental manipulation, stress positions and sensory manipulation,' was one of the most damaging assaults on global values."

What has constantly amazed me is how the American public has bought into the concept of 'environmental manipulation, stress positions and sensory manipulation,' and not seen them for what they are,


Tourture.

Words of love from the religious right, Part 5

Today guest is James Dobson, of Focus on the Family.

State Universities are breeding grounds, quite literally, for sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV), homosexual behavior, unwanted pregnancies, abortions, alcoholism, and drug abuse.

My observation is that women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership.

Nothing short of a great Civil War of Values rages today throughout North America. Two sides with vastly differing and incompatible world views are locked in a bitter conflict that permeates every level of society. Bloody battles are being fought on a thousand fronts...

But this is the most important quote.

Focus on the Family will continue to fight for moral values. And we'll try to keep you informed of the threats coming against the institutions of marriage and parenthood. But we do need your financial support to get the job done

Please keep those checks comming sheeple.


Parts 1-4 can be found here.

A reminder from the LA Times, that Newsweek was right

Dozens Have Alleged Koran's Mishandling

Senior Bush administration officials reacted with outrage to a Newsweek report that U.S. interrogators had desecrated the Koran at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility, and the magazine retracted the story last week. But allegations of disrespectful treatment of Islam's holy book are far from rare.

An examination of hearing transcripts, court records and government documents, as well as interviews with former detainees, their lawyers, civil liberties groups and U.S. military personnel, reveals dozens of accusations involving the Koran, not only at Guantanamo, but also at American-run detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Owen is still not fit to be a Federal Judge

The centrist agreement will give Owen (and others) an up or down vote. This doesn't mean she is actually fit to serve as a judge.

Our Senators now need to fight to try to get a no vote in this case.

Well, a deal was made.

and only 3 advance, and 2 will be blocked.

The Dobson crowd is having fits, but the far left is also unhappy with the advancement of Owen, Pryor, and Brown (who may have been the least appealing of those being blocked). So, in the tradition of all great compromises, everyone is unhappy.

No more Mister Nice Blog has a far more literate and complete look at the whole deal.

The nuclear option is better than a poor compromise

I had hoped that the centrist of both parties could work out a reasonable deal. One where both sides could get a little of what they wanted. When they were talking approval of 4 or 5 of the 7 who are currently being considered, it appeared reasonable.

The latest rumors are that the current compromise would allow the approval of 6 of the current 7 contested nominations, and restrict the use of the filibuster to 'extreme circumstances'. The dems stop 1 poor choice as a judge, and get to keep the potential use of the filabuster, but only for the next 18 months. In return, they have to approve 6 judges, and at any time the Republicans could decide that any filibuster was being used outside the agreement, and then still vote it away.


The Democrats would be best served to walk away from that, and allow Frist to deploy his nuclear weapon on the Senate.

Working diligently to achieve third world status.

The traditional roll of the leaders of enlightened nations has been to improve the lives of the citizens, and the standing of their nation. With that in mind, the actions of our current administration, and the zombies in the House and Senate who follow their instructions, are perplexing. For some reason, our leaders are working in another direction.

When you think of a third world nation certain traits come to mind. Poverty is always one of the realities of life mentioned. We will also find a huge division in wealth with a very small middle class, limited educational opportunities, corrupt and unresponsive government, and a highly dependent economy.

Right now it sure looks like moving this nation into the third world is the goal of Bush and friends. We now have huge deficits and an enormous amount of debt, but no tax cut is a bad tax cut. The end result will be, with time, unsustainable. This will end up forcing huge cuts to government programs, or huge tax increases or both. The collapse in Argentina is an example of what we can look forward to.

Economic changes are putting new and profound pressure on the middle class. The class of well paying middle class jobs have been shrinking for decades. In addition, the level of compensation for jobs can be greatly out of wack, with top executives earning 400+ times what the average worker earns. We are at risk of becoming a nation of 2 social classes, the ultra rich, and dirt poor.

But it is more that the mountain of debt we are building that threatens our nation. Another thing associated with a third world nation is a government this is adept at deceiving it citizens. There is no doubt that the Bush administration is expert at this. They have developed a media echo chamber that is so effective that no spin is ignored. Aside from the large and very docile talk radio world, they have fake reporters, disingenuous TV host and in a pinch, editorial writers who are bought and paid for.

One other trait is a lack of education and development in scientific areas. This weeks news shows us yet another success in the Bush third world plan. South Korea has made another huge advance in the area of stem cell research. They are starting to run with what they are learning, our scientist are still being kept in their crib, trying to learn how to sit up. What was the reaction of the Bush administration? He condemned S. Korea's efforts, and vowed to veto a bill on this subject.

Stem cells are not the limit of Bush's hatred of science. Bush's administration has obstructed efforts in environmental science, bio ethics, and health. The desires of big industry or the religious right movement where given greater consideration that the scientific fact, according to a report requested by Rep. Henry Waxman.

At times I have felt that some on the right would live to roll the clock back to the 1880s or 90s, When robber barons were right, and domestic staff was easy to find. Now I see it is not only the economic, and social policy of the late 19th century that they love but also the level of scientific advancement, and personal liberty.

Friday's Places to visit

soonergrunt on DailyKos tales of his conversation with a couple of pro war Star Wars fans.

A real tale of horror and murder, from the NY Times. Again I ask, what is being done in my name

Two good visits to Orcinus, first some information on a hate Crime, and the a look at the journalistic standards of Michelle Malkin

A must read, it appears that the Bush Administration

or some of it's supporters have been caught red handed trying to pass off their desires, as 'independent testimony'.

This isn't new, cannonfire reminds us about a similar lie that the American Center for Voting Rights tried to pull.