Will the Real Traitors to America Please Stand Up?
We know who they are...does Fitzgerald? Only time will tell. Let Prissy remind you of this; the non-answers from the White House strongly indicate some people silently invoking the Fifth Amendment...Just think, dear readers- one day the Office of the President may again be held in esteem and respect in the world.
Prissy hopes anyone clinging to illusion this will work out in Dubya's favor seek reality therapy immediately...Prissy's favorite reads are a good place to start.
Prissy is pleased to announce her own young relative has returned to the United States. He brings with him a purple heart, Meritorious service award and combat badge. High speed indeed...
Welcome Home soldiers . Thank you for your commitment-our commitment to you is that in the future, there will be a more responsible use of our military might. That is a promise neoRepublicans can take to the bank. Military Families Speak Out is far more determined than any politician to see this through to its conclusion.
It greatly saddens Prissy and other MFSO members to reflect on the fallen ones from this needless war.
Hot Links
Financial Times news.ft.com/cms/s/74970858-7713-11da-a7d1-0000779e2340.html
Bonds spark fears of US slowdown-December 27 2005 According to analysts at Bank of America, the past six US recessions have been preceded by an inversion of the yield curve, which plots the yields on Treasury bonds against their maturities. The most recent inversion, in late 2000, came just ahead of the recession that began in March 2001. Twice in the past 40 years, however, an inversion of the yield curve has not been followed by a recession. Many economists and Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, do not think this inversion is the prelude to a major slowdown.
The Nation-www.thenation.com/doc/20060109/editors
From the Editors-Bush's High Crimes For the generations who came of age after the mid-1970s, it is worth recalling why warrantless domestic surveillance so shocks the political system. It needs to be repeated that the same arguments cited by Bush--inherent presidential power and national security--sustained the wiretapping of Martin Luther King Jr., unleashed illegal CIA domestic spying and generated FBI files on thousands of American dissidents. It needs to be repeated that in 1974, the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon included abuse of presidential power based on warrantless wiretaps and illegal surveillance. It needs to be repeated that a few months later, presidential aides named Cheney and Rumsfeld labored mightily to secure President Ford's veto of the Freedom of Information Act, in an unsuccessful attempt to turn back post-Watergate restrictions on homegrown spying and government secrecy.
www.mezomorf.com/emailed/news-18259.html
MEZOMORF NEWS OF THE WORLD-Word for Word: The Truce of Christmas, 1914
Rifleman Graham Williams of the Fifth London Rifle Brigade recalled how the mood spread:
Then suddenly lights began to appear along the German parapet, which were evidently make-shift Christmas trees, adorned with lighted candles, which burnt steadily in the still, frosty air! … First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up "O Come, All Ye Faithful" the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words Adeste Fideles. And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing - two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.
The shared carols inspired Capt. Josef Sewald of Germany's 17th Bavarian Regiment to make a bold gesture:
I shouted to our enemies that we didn't wish to shoot and that we make a Christmas truce. I said I would come from my side and we could speak with each other. First there was silence, then I shouted once more, invited them, and the British shouted "No shooting!" Then a man came out of the trenches and I on my side did the same and so we came together and we shook hands - a bit cautiously!
Prissy read in A Chorus of Stones, the men from these units were eventually sent home-they had too much difficulty after this experience in dehumanizing the enemy. They lost the will to kill. Interesting, as the enemy we fight continues to be human...
In a situation like this, false modesty usually kicks in and I say something like “well, sometimes we just get lucky” but to hell with false modesty. Luck had nothing to do with this story just as luck has had nothing to do with many other stories that we all too often break long before the so-called “mainstream media.”
Are we that good? Damn right we are.
On January 22, 2003, before President Bush ordered the in But conversations with sources within the Bush administration, the Pentagon, the FBI and the intelligence community indicate a deepening rift between the professionals who wage war for a living and the administration civilians to want to send them into battle.
Sources say the White House has ordered the FBI and CIA to “find and document” links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
“The implication is clear,” grumbles one longtime FBI agent. “Find a link, any link, no matter how vague or unproven, and then use that link to justify action against Iraq.”
We followed that story up the next day, January 23 with this one: Intel pros forced to fabricate Iraqi intelligence:
U.S. intelligence professionals, under pressure from the Bush administration to provide proof needed to justify war with Iraq, say they have been forced to fabricate evidence of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction as well as the location of non-existent hidden chemical weapon warheads.
The fabricated documentation, shared for the first time with the White House on Thursday, provides the basis for material the administration requires to justify an attack on Iraq.
It was two years, repeat two years, before the same information appeared in mainstream media.
Last year, June 7, 2004, we reported on the U.S. government’s spying on American citizens with the story: Where big brother snoops on Americans 24/7: He certainly makes his case...
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/23/AR2005122301480.htmlF
FBI Whistleblower Coleen Rowley-A Zeal to Defend Secrecy
More important, and contrary to Kristol and Schmitt's assertion that "the Justice Department decided there was not sufficient evidence to get a FISA warrant to allow the inspection of his computer files," no evidence of Moussaoui's suspicious flight training and ties with terrorism was presented to the Justice Department. The department was never contacted and so did not decide anything; therefore, no decision was ever made regarding the given evidence and its subsequent application to FISA standards. Answers the "But Clinton did it too!" This is worse, Bush outright ignored the law...On Rense-Original on KOS- www.rense.com/general69/warr.htm
Here's what Clinton signed:
Section 1. Pursuant to section 302(a)(1) <50> of the Act, the Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year, if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that section.
You don't have to be a lawyer to understand that Clinton allowed warrantless searches if and only if the AG followed section 302(a)(1). What does section 1822(a) require?
the "physical search is solely directed at premises, information, material, or property used exclusively by, or under the open and exclusive control of, a foreign power or powers." Translation: You can't search American citizens.
and there is "no substantial likelihood that the physical search will involve the premises, information, material, or property of a United States person." Translation: You can't search American citizens.
Moreover, Clinton's warrant waiver consistent with FISA refers only to physical searches. "Physical searches," as defined by 1821(5), exclude electronic surveillance. robertdreyfuss.com/blog/
The Dreyfuss Report-December 20, 2005-Interview: Baath leader calls for peace talks
The following is a slightly edited transcript of an interview with Salah al-Mukhtar, an Iraqi Baath Party official who has belonged to the party for 47 years. At the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Mukhtar was Iraq’s ambassador to Vietnam. Previously, he served as ambassador to India, at Iraq’s mission to the United Nations in New York, and as an official in Iraqi information ministry. Although he stressed that he is not an official spokesman for the party or for the resistance in Iraq, it is clear from his comments that he remains close to those leading the fight in Iraq. Before 2003, Mukhtar was close to Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi foreign minister, who is currently in U.S. custody.
In the interview, Mukhtar calls for talks between the United States and the Baath Party, and he strongly denounced Al Qaeda in Iraq for its attacks on civilians, going so far as to accuse Zarqawi of operating under U.S. and Iranian intelligence control.
At present, Mukhtar lives in Yemen. Great interview, Dreyfuss asks informative questions.
Quotes of the Day "Over the weekend, Vice President Dick Cheney made a surprise visit to Iraq, it was yesterday. Cheney was there, and he gave the troops one of his warm holiday sneers. And if you think about it, when you're at war in some far off corner of the world, what better than a visit from a guy who got five draft deferments? Iraqi officials met with Dick Cheney, or as they call him over there, Lawrence of Arythmi." --David Letterman
"President Bush is trying to put the best spin he can on this eavesdropping scandal, like he said today: "This proves we have a government that listens to the people." --Jay Leno
www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7894.shtml Capital Hill Blue-For those who remain skeptics on Bush calling the Constitution, "a g**damn piece of paper."
vasion of Iraq, we ran a story, Role reversal: Bush wants war, Pentagon urges caution. Among the points in that story:
