The Prissy Patriot is a progressive blog which believes in order for Americans to make the correct decisions about their government-facts, not reality TV, are far more helpful. Especially when a country takes on a war or a President that it cannot afford in blood or treasure....The Priss tells you where to get the facts, come to your own intelligent analysis. Good for a laugh, too.
Dick Cheney, still paying women for compliments, after all these years...
7/10/07 Update: Confirmation of Cheney's number appearing on the "List"-should be known very soon...all of Ms. Palfrey's phone number logs are now online. Of course we'll all be disappointed if the ole boy doesn't show up on the list. But that doesn't mean he wasn't there- it just means he didn't make an appointment from his own phone. Many clients call directly from hotel rooms.
On 5:15 PM 6/27/07 Update-from a VERY reliable source...and friend emailed this:
Yes, I have 3 confirmations, 1 from Pentagon, 2 from CIA that (Dick) Cheney was a client.
Cheney and possibly up to 3 GOP presidential candidates are on the list, or "a list" of clients. There were more than one escort service in those days operating in DC among the VIP community.
National security expert Wayne Madsen says that while Cheney was the CEO and president of Halliburton in the 1990s, he used the escort service, where $300 bought a 90-minute-session of what Palfrey called "erotic fantasy."
Dearest Readers, what an interesting interview with Ms Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Forgive the non-edited version, we need Ray-the-tech-guy to help. Prissy is all thumbs with audio editing and Betty is too.
The edited version will be posted sometime later this week. For now, you can go directly to the Freepress.org media site to hear it. (Thanks Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman!)
Ms Palfrey's story is a red flag for Americans not alarmed by the lack of habeas corpus in our legal system.
Although Ms. Palfrey was charged under R.I.C.O. statutes, she was not charged with tax evasion- there were no "co-conspirators" charged along with her.
In 13 years of business, there were no associates arrested and no tax audits from the I.R.S. She tells us she reported her income, filed her taxes along with her accountant, and all 133 of her associates received a 1099 annually.
Last time Prissy checked, it took two or more to make a conspiracy...and she said the government had no interest in her clients- that is, until she decided to release the list.
Ms. Palfrey also explains why she thinks ABC dropped the ball and canceled the story. There are the phone numbers of approximately 10,000 clients on "the list".
Some are very powerful men, obviously. Lot's of them. Like maybe 100 of the top level military and senior government officials in this country-many currently holding top level security clearances.
The problem is not so much buying sexual fantasy talk, the problem is men who indulge in this sort of paid play are very susceptible to blackmail. Especially the ones spouting to the world about their own "family values."
The blackmail concern is not just from 'the enemy' but potentially from anyone, their very own associates or political party can also use it to control them. (or their votes?)
Prissy's problem with these men is based on logic, not their silly fantasy that a beautiful woman actually wants them-overlooking she is paid to pretend.
The men become a national security risk with behavior that would be condemned at least by their wives and constituents. But that might account for some of the maniac like behaviors displayed by these boys...
Wayne Madsen was right-listen to Ms. Palfrey and hear for yourself that Vice President DICK CHENEY is likely on the list...how recently, you ask?
Well, Prissy cannot give you times and dates-not yet anyway, but know this. The only phone records analyzed so far are from 2002-2006-Wayne Madsen claim Dicks visits happened in the 1990's. If you want to hear some other potential list makers, listen to the last five minutes of the show on the podcast below.
Hot Links
This is the raw file of yesterday's interview with Deborah Jeane Palfrey Podcast
The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday for documents relating to President Bush's warrant-free eavesdropping program.
Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were the Justice Department and the National Security Council.
The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal squabbles within the administration over the legality of the program, said a congressional official speaking on condition of anonymity because the subpoenas had not been made public.
At the end of the day, self-justification is the most deeply felt impulse in Pearlstine's account. As he writes in his conclusion: "Time Inc., on behalf of itself and Matt Cooper, spent millions of dollars fighting [special prosecutor] Patrick Fitzgerald in the courts, and we lost every round. When the Supreme Court refused to hear our plea, I folded our hand and turned over our notes to the grand jury. The decision was unpopular, but under the peculiar circumstances of our case it was right."
Arguing that he made the right decision compels Pearlstine to be hard on a lot of other people, starting with Cooper, whom he characterizes as rather giddy and definitely indiscreet, an ambivalent character influenced by his media-savvy wife, Mandy Grunwald. Pearlstine's analysis makes Cooper's ham-fisted mishandling of basic reportorial technique the first cause of the news organization's subsequent torment: "Cooper is an honest hardworking reporter, doing what other honest, hardworking journalists do in Washington. But he was wrong in the ways in which he dealt with his sources. None of his editors, including this one, provided adequate guidance."
The author also is hard on former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, her editors and publisher, all of whom Pearlstine characterizes as people with minds far less rigorous than his own — unsteady and erratic allies in the fight over the subpoenas. For example, he takes the New York Times' editorial on the jailing of Miller to task for failing "to distinguish between an individual's and public company's right to engage in civil disobedience — one of the important distinctions that had been at the heart of my decision to hand over the notes."
There's also this: "One of America's most ferocious defenders of the First Amendment , Floyd Abrams, gave us less good advice than we deserved."
Sue Ellen Wooldridge, the 19th-ranking Interior Department official, arrived at her desk in Room 6140 a few months after Inauguration Day 2001. A phone message awaited her.
"This is Dick Cheney," said the man on her voice mail, Wooldridge recalled in an interview. "I understand you are the person handling this Klamath situation. Please call me at -- hmm, I guess I don't know my own number. I'm over at the White House."
Wooldridge wrote off the message as a prank. It was not. Cheney had reached far down the chain of command, on so unexpected a point of vice presidential concern, because he had spotted a political threat arriving on Wooldridge's desk.
In Oregon, a battleground state that the Bush-Cheney ticket had lost by less than half of 1 percent, drought-stricken farmers and ranchers were about to be cut off from the irrigation water that kept their cropland and pastures green. Federal biologists said the Endangered Species Act left the government no choice: The survival of two imperiled species of fish was at stake.
.
Quotes of the Day
According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about a woman is their eyes, and women say the first thing they notice about men is they're a bunch of liars-unknown
The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.--Henry Louis Mencken
He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers--Charles Peguy
I have no luck with women. I once went on a date and asked the woman if she'd brought any protection. She pulled a switchblade on me. --Scott Roeben,Internet Comedy Icon
Dearest Readers, our podcast is somewhere on the internet. Betty and Prissy decided no way was that a go except with our friends, who claimed to love it! (Nothing like not being able to see your own small handwriting, while reading it live...)
Oh my, we must get used to the live studio audience scene-although they were very friendly faces;)
We will start out doing a weekly Sunday broadcast live and when its good enough, Prissy will post it here!
Germany's role in the Second World War returned to disturb the harmony of the summit yesterday when Poland vowed to seek recognition of its five million dead.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Polish prime minister, complained that Poland would have a far bigger population on which to base its EU voting power if it had not been for the Nazi invasion in September 1939 which started the war.
The Common Market, the forerunner of the EU, was formed in 1957 because European leaders were determined to prevent another conflict. Mr Kaczynski said a proposed new EU voting formula based on population size hurt his country because it had not recovered from its wartime losses.
advertisement
"We are only demanding that we get back what was taken from us," he told Polish national radio. "If Poland had not had to live through the years of 1939-45, Poland would be today looking at the demographics of a country of 66 million."
Americans should pay careful attention to that type of recrimination. Our own government may be facing it soon.
Researchers have stated that the Purdue simulation contradicts the observed facts in other ways, and in the next couple of weeks, they will publish their findings.
Moreover, the Purdue simulation still does not address the flies in the ointment which NIST also ignored:
(1) The simulation either fails to include, or inaccurately represents, the 47 core columns holding up each of the Twin Towers.
(2) Most of the jet fuel burned outside the buildings, especially in the case of the South Tower - which produced a glowing orange fireball as the building was struck at an oblique angle. So the simulation could not hold true for the South Tower.
If the bones at Yale aren't those of Geronimo, Harlyn Geronimo believes they belonged to one of the Apache prisoners who died at Fort Sill. He said they should still be returned.
Harlyn Geronimo wrote last year to President Bush, seeking his help in recovering the bones. He thought that since the president's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was allegedly one of those who helped steal the bones in 1918, the president would want to help return them.
But, Harlyn Geronimo said, "I haven't heard a word."
The White House did not respond to messages seeking comment.
"This subpoena authorization is a critical first step toward uncovering the full extent of the NSA's illegal spying and the role that telecommunications companies like AT&T played in it," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Considering that it's been almost six years since the NSA started spying on Americans without warrants and over a year since that spying was revealed publicly, these subpoenas are long overdue. It's high time for Congress to get to the bottom of this mess."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is suing AT&T for illegally assisting in the NSA spying. The government has asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss EFF's case, claiming that the lawsuit could expose state secrets.
"Our case against AT&T includes evidence from a former employee that points to a massive spying program impacting millions of people -- a program far broader than the government has admitted to," said Bankston. "Americans deserve to know the truth about the NSA program."
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif., former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee), said he has talked to Guard unit leaders who deployed and had to leave their original equipment behind when they returned to the U.S. If there are stateside shortfalls and the gear they took with them overseas wasn’t adequate for war fighting — but would be perfectly adequate for use back home — it should be brought back, he said.
“The implication clearly being,” Hunter said, “that there’s equipment parked in places like Kuwait or in Iraq.” With more than 20,000 up-armored Humvees now with Army and Marine units in Iraq, he said, “those have displaced the non-up-armored Humvees. They should be in the inventory someplace.”
Hunter said he wants someone to determine where those Humvees are now, calculate what the Guard needs, fund the difference, “and spend it. And make the Guard healthy sometime while we’re still young.”
Hunter’s cause is backed by the National Governors Association, which has asked Congress to identify shortfalls and provide the funding to replace equipment used in military operations and left behind in Iraq for other units.
So simple, even a warmonger like Duncan could figure it out.
Cheney's office and the Justice Department have been against the step, arguing that moving "unlawful" enemy combatant suspects to the U.S. would give them undeserved legal rights.
They could block the proposal, but pressure to close Guantanamo has been building since a Supreme Court decision last year that found illegal a previous system for prosecuting enemy combatants. Recent rulings by military judges threw out charges against two terrorism suspects under a new tribunal scheme.
Those decisions have dealt a blow to the administration's efforts to begin prosecuting dozens of Guantanamo detainees regarded as the nation's most dangerous terror suspects.
And...Another bill would grant new rights to those held at Guantanamo Bay, including access to lawyers regardless of whether the prisoners are put on trial. Still another would allow detainees to protest their detentions in federal court, something they are now denied.
Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the scandal surrounding the firings of eight federal prosecutors has not damaged the Justice Department.
Asked on Wednesday by The Associated Press if the firings had hurt the Justice Department's integrity or reputation for independence, he responded simply, "no." Ashcroft then walked away, declining to elaborate, and took no additional questions.
And...Ashcroft bemoaned the loss of public confidence in government, and said law enforcement must help restore that trust through the rule of the law.
"We must assure citizens that there is no one beneath the protection of the law and no one above the reach of the law," he said.
Ashcroft was only looking out for his own behind when he refused to sign off on the illegal wiretapping. That and he wasn't going to break the law right in front of James Comey's face...Comey has too much credibility for Ashcroft to seriously challenge him.
Simultaneously, the head of the CIA, General Michael Hayden, made an unexpected announcement Thursday at the annual convention of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations that the agency would declassify the full 693-page report on CIA wrongdoings and release it Monday.
That report was compiled in 1973 at the order of then-CIA director James Schlesinger, following revelations that the Watergate burglars had CIA help. The existence of report, referred to as the "Family Jewels" has long been known, but only a few bits have been revealed through open government requests.
The CIA's collection of dossiers on 9,900 American citizens was first revealed on the front page of the New York Times in 1974 by Seymour Hersh.
The summary of the report (.pdf) shows that the CIA:
* wiretapped two journalists in 1963 and listened in as they spoke with a dozen Senators and six Congressmen.
* conducted physical surveillance of reporters Mike Getler and Jack Anderson
Domestic Policy Subcommittee Chairman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) released a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission today, asking that it slow down the public offering of Blackstone LP and promising imminent hearings on new risks for small investors created by the Blackstone offering.
Kucinich’s subcommittee has oversight jurisdiction over the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We believe that small investors could be harmed if the SEC allows the IPO to proceed precipitously. The Blackstone LP offering poses new risks for small investors, from which they have been protected until now. Congress needs the opportunity to hold hearings before the SEC allows such a potentially dangerous investment to be offered to the general investing public,” said Kucinich.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Cheney, Megan McGinn, said, “We’re confident that we’re conducting the office properly under the law.” She declined to elaborate.
Other officials familiar with Mr. Cheney’s view said that he and his legal adviser, David S. Addington, did not believe that the executive order applied to the vice president’s office because it had a legislative as well as an executive status in the Constitution. Other White House offices, including the National Security Council, routinely comply with the oversight requirements, according to Mr. Waxman’s office and outside experts.
Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said last night, “The White House complies with the executive order, including the National Security Council.”
The dispute is far from the first to pit Mr. Cheney and Mr. Addington against outsiders seeking information, usually members of Congress or advocacy groups. Their position is generally based on strong assertions of presidential power and the importance of confidentiality, which Mr. Cheney has often argued was eroded by post-Watergate laws and the prying press.
Bribery
We know that Bandar Bush received $2 billion in bribes to facilitate the deal. So far as we know, so far, that $2 billion was a pure cash transfer, with no strings attached regarding subsequent disbursements etc.
In Sibel's case, we have the bribes flowing into the US, the selling country, presumably because the US taxpayer, literally and otherwise, pays the bills. These bribes flow through to congress people, in envelopes, suitcases and campaign contributions, and the inevitable blackmail.
Lobbying
The BAe investigation has uncovered secret payments of $25million to a former Defense advisor. (As far as I know, these payments are separate to the Bandar Bush deals)
In Sibel's case, (at least some of) the 'lobbyists' are publicly known, and (at least some of) the payments are public. We know who is, or has been, on the Turkish payroll. Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, fmr Dem Senator Stephen Solarz, fmr Defense Secretary William Cohen, fmr Dem House Minority Speaker Dick Gephardt, fmr Speaker Bob Livingston.
So, because the Vice President nominally serves as the head of the Senate, he’s claiming not to be an “entity within the executive branch”. As required by the Executive Order, the National Archives has requested that Attorney General Gonzales decide whether the Office of the Vice President is a part of the executive branch or not (read the letter yourself). In fact, it’s interesting to note that the letter to the letter to the Attorney General points out that the only time the Office of the Vice President is mentioned is to grant a single, specific exemption - and if the OVP wasn’t in the executive branch, it wouldn’t need an exemption.And, according to the letter from Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to Vice President Cheney himself, the Vice President’s response was to recommend the abolution of the Archive’s Information Security Oversight Office in its entirety or, barring those changes, eliminating the section in the EO that permits the ISOO to appeal to the Attorney General and changing certain definitions specifically to exempt the OVP from the requirements of the Executive Order. These changes have, thankfully, been rejected by the inter-agency panel responsible for recommending revisions to the President.As Vice President, Dick Cheney is second only to the President in his responsibilities to the country. And as the second-highest executive in the United States, his actions serve as powerful examples of how to behave to other federal employees. Having the Vice President, and a Republican at that, responsible for egregious breaches in national security sets a very poor example. After all, if the Vice President’s office can be exempt from secrecy requirements, then other offices could be as well. How long will it be before the entire Justice Department uses the identical argument (its duties are split between the executive and judicial branches, after all) to exempt itself from annual ISOO oversight?And what are the sanctions for breaking this particular EO?
(c) Sanctions may include reprimand, suspension without pay, removal, termination of classification authority, loss or denial of access to classified information, or other sanctions in accordance with applicable law and agency regulation.
(d) The agency head, senior agency official, or other supervisory official shall, at a minimum, promptly remove the classification authority of any individual who demonstrates reckless disregard or a pattern of error in applying the classification standards of this order.
As per his own Executive Order, President Bush must, at a minimum, remove Vice President Dick Cheney’s classification authority, but the Vice President’s history of willful disregard of national secrets obviously puts him in the “suspension without pay” or “removal” categories.
Failure to do so puts the President himself in violation of his own Executive Order.
Bear Stearns, a leading US finance firm, is trying to prevent the collapse of two hedge funds with major exposure to the high-risk mortgage sector.
Should it sell off investments cheaply, it is feared similar funds will follow suit, causing a crisis in confidence.
Regulators are monitoring the situation amid fears of wider financial turmoil.
For some time it has been feared that the sharp downturn in the housing market, which has shown little sign of flattening out, will spill over into the wider economy.
If you want to feel alone in a relationship, be with someone who hasn't a clue about what you are going through. Or worse, someone who does have a clue but cannot understand why your pain is a big deal. The two of you can be totally different people in a number of ways, but if a partner is sensitive to how you see the world and experience life, then those differences are unimportant.
Ruth, who has been married to Alex for 31 years, puts it this way, "When we got married, nobody thought it would last because we are so different. Alex is from a working-class family; I am Jewish, he is Lutheran—everyone thought it was a non-starter from the wedding day on. But what they didn't know, and what has been the most important thing in our relationship, is that Alex knows how to listen. Really listen. No matter what, he can see how I'm feeling and he can feel for me. Trust me, that solves a lot of problems."
Prissy mentions the above because she is seeing a outbreak of democrat/independent women leaving their republican husbands/boyfriends. Republican men do not seem to be very good listeners, except when they are looking for love.
Troubled by steep declines in international tourism, U.S. mayors are urging the federal government to spend more money on marketing the United States and to make the entry process friendlier and faster.
Responding to a survey by the Travel Business Roundtable, mayors from the country's top travel destinations said tourism — a driving force of the U.S. economy — needed to be a top priority.
The number of overseas visitors to the U.S. has dropped 17% since its peak in 2000 — and 20% in the top 15 cities — costing more than $100 billion in lost visitor spending through 2005, according to the Commerce Department.
"The dollars derived from tourism are vital to running America's cities," said Jonathan Tisch, chairman of the business group, which is a coalition of travel industry executives.
The problem, gentlemen, is that the marketing has been done for you, compliments of the Bush administration. See below:
President Bush will not back away from his threat to veto appropriations bills, even if it means the possibility of a government shutdown, Office of Management and Budget Director Rob Portman said Tuesday.
Portman, addressing a small group of reporters just after announcing that he will leave the administration this summer, said Bush will veto bills that contain excessive spending, and Congress will have to decide whether it wants to shut down the government over the matter.
"He's going to stick to the vetoes. He would very much like to avoid a government shutdown," Portman said, but "that will be a decision Congress has to make." He noted Congress could also pass a continuing resolution to maintain government operations.
The last government shutdown occurred in 1995, when the new Republican Congress and President Clinton could not resolve a standoff. Since then, lawmakers have used continuing resolutions to keep the government running while spending differences were resolved.
Porter is back in Ohio, spending more time with the family. Prissy and friends think it is more likely he quit because of some 'problems' with the budget. See below:
Statement on Accounting Standard 99
Statement on Accounting Standard 99 relates to fraud indicators, one of them being personnel changes. Pace's forced resignation qualifies as a SAS99 fraud indicator: Personnel appear to have had a different view of legal matters, policy issues, and substantive issues involving large dollar amounts. Whether there is or is not illegal activity is a secondary issue. SAS99 compels government auditor to increase audit scope, or the number of auditors/audit engagements, to mitigate chances of audit fraud, risk, and other misstatements in financial reporting. SAS99 does not apply only to financial statements, but also management reporting, management performance audits.
“Eric Sussman, chief prosecutor in the criminal trial against Conrad Black, must have learnt a thing or two from his boss, US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, about playing tough with the media.
He hasn’t actually hauled any reporters off to prison, as Fitzgerald did with Judith Miller, the former New York Times reporter who refused to tell him the name of her sources.
But Sussman’s team let it be known to the gaggle of Canadian, British and American journalists following the three-month trial that he would refuse to speak to them if any journalist quoted the prosecution team’s relatives, who sometimes drop by the court to watch.
The warning was communicated after the straitlaced Sussman could be heard berating a Canadian journalist on Wednesday for quoting the father of his colleague Julie Ruder, who had been in the courtroom watching Black’s lawyer deliver a closing argument.
Some reporters are still bitter about the Judith Miller ordeal. Wish they were as bitter about their own pre-war reporting...
Quotes of the Day
I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.-- Augusten Burroughs
Howard Hughes was able to afford the luxury of madness, like a man who not only thinks he is Napoleon but hires an army to prove it.-- Ted Morgan
Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history.--George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.--Fred Thompson, Speech before the Commonwealth Club of California
A man's homeland is wherever he prospers.--Aristophanes (450 BC - 388 BC), Plutus, 388 B.C.
Prissy always did have an attitude about following orders from people dumber than herself...
Dearest Readers, later today Prissy and Betty Buckaneer will be doing a pilot for our new radio show, The Progressive Revolution
Prissy will podcast as soon as the tech guys record it, later this evening or tomorrow, it should be posted. While it will be live today in Columbus, the new FM station doesn't have much range yet-but with the podcast online, that won't matter much.
To all the daddies out there today and to the men who are not bio daddies, yet put forth a good example, "Happy Father's Day!"
Congress is renewing its scrutiny of BAE Systems in the wake of allegations that the British defence company bribed a former Saudi ambassador to Washington to secure valuable defence contracts.
The department of justice is also considering whether it should open a full-blown inquiry into whether BAE has violated US anti-bribery laws in relation to its international arms deals.
The top U.S. commander in Iraq said on Sunday he will have a good idea in September how well the troop increase has worked and will be able to provide a forthright report to the policy makers in Washington.
"We can provide a reasonable snapshot of the situation at that time and how things have gone in the surge, both in the security and then in the political and economic arenas," Gen. David Petraeus said on "Fox News Sunday."
President George W. Bush has said Petraeus' September report would be important in deciding the future of U.S. involvement in Iraq, but some in his administration have started to play down its significance to relieve some of the anticipation among members of Congress.
General Sanchez actually does give "candid" reports, now that he is no longer on Dubya's payroll...
“Here, the Government has introduced sufficient evidence to support an inference of deliberate avoidance,” the judge ruled at the trial in Chicago.
Her decision will make it harder for Lord Black to beat US charges that he looted $60 million (£30 million) in bogus “noncompete” payments and perks – including a $62,000 surprise birthday party for his wife Barbara Amiel and a trip for two on the corporate jet to Bora Bora – from the newspaper empire that he ran.
“I don’t think he is walking out of this without a few years,” said Leonard Cavise, a law professor at DePaul University.
Lord Black has loudly protested his innocence in the press, drawing a rebuke from the judge when he declared in one interview that the prosecutors’ case was “hanging like a toilet seat around their necks”. But the normally loquacious peer curtly declined a formal invitation from the judge to testify on his behalf as his lawyers put on an unexpectedly brief defence, lasting only a few days. The only words that he has spoken in court during the three-month trial are: “I decline to exercise my right to testify.”
Patrick Fitzgerald's Chicago office is also prosecuting m'lord -he's got problems on a global scale. This guy will get his goose cooked, much like Scooter. Rich guys are the worst bad guys, for sure.
What motivated the 9/11 hijackers? See testimony most didn't. Watch Lee Hamilton cut off the FBI agent giving him an answer he didn't like.
Page 147 of the 911 Commission Report: Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed (KSM) first came to the attention of U.S. law enforcement as a result of his
cameo role in the first World Trade Center bombing. According to KSM, he
learned of Ramzi Yousef 's intention to launch an attack inside the United States
in 1991 or 1992, when Yousef was receiving explosives training in Afghanistan.
During the fall of 1992, while Yousef was building the bomb he would use in
that attack, KSM and Yousef had numerous telephone conversations during
which Yousef discussed his progress and sought additional funding. On
November 3, 1992, KSM wired $660 from Qatar to the bank account of
Yousef 's co-conspirator, Mohammed Salameh. KSM does not appear to have
contributed any more substantially to this operation.
Yousef 's instant notoriety as the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Cen-
ter bombing inspired KSM to become involved in planning attacks against the
United States. By his own account, KSM's animus toward the United States
stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his vio-
lent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel.
He didn't say violent disagreement with American freedoms...
The April request from the Electronic Frontier Foundation asked the FBI to turn over documents related to its misuse of National Security Letters, self-issued subpoenas that don't need a judge's approval and which can get financial, phone and internet records. Recipients of the letters are forbidden by law from ever telling anyone other than their lawyer that they received the request. Though initially warned initially to use this power sparingly, FBI agents issued more than 47,000 in 2005, more than half of which targeted Americans. Information obtained from the requests, which need only be certified by the agency to be "relevant" to an investigation, are dumped into a data-mining warehouse for perpetuity.
An Inspector General report in March found rampant errors in the small sample of NSLs examined and systemic underreporting of the powers usage to Congress. The report also found that agents issued more than 700 "expedited" letters, some containing materially false sworn statements. These letters had no legal basis and essentially asked companies to turn over data by pretending there was an emergency in order to get the data necessary to get a proper NSL. One former FBI agent says its clear the FBI violated the law.
Now the Justice Department must turn over 2,500 pages of documents a month to the EFF, including information on cozy surveillance contracts between the FBI and telephone companies and information on how data captured by NSLs were put into the FBI's massive data mining warehouse.
The Justice Department told the court that there were more than 100,000 potentially responsive documents and that ten people are working full time on filling the request for documents. Look out for a run on thick, black magic markers in D.C.
Oh yes indeed, we want to know it all...let the lawsuits begin!
Video of the Marine, loyal Bushies and the pentagon wish to make an example of. Interesting that cowards who ducked out of Vietnam are pushing for this...Sgt. Liam Madden-Justified Dissent
Patrick Fitzgerald who told Prissy his blog is a fake! Duh, Mr. Fitzgerald, Prissy's blog is a fake too. Public Service - Good Medicine
Since graduating from Amherst College 25 years ago, Patrick Fitzgerald ’82 has proved himself one of the nation’s best prosecutors, and one of its most remarkable citizens.
The Office of Special Counsel, which has already recommended that GSA chief Lurita Doan be suspended or fired for participating in partisan activities while on the job, is now moving forward with its investigation of nearly 20 other administration agencies.
Eighteen agencies have been asked by the Office of Special Counsel to preserve electronic information dating back to January 2001 as part of its government wide investigation into alleged violations of the law that limits political activity in federal agencies.
The OSC task force investigating the claims has asked agencies, including the General Services Administration, to preserve all e-mail records, calendar information, phone logs and hard drives going back to the beginning of the Bush administration. The task force is headed by deputy OSC special counsel James Byrne.
The White House has admitted that roughly 20 agencies have received a PowerPoint briefing created by Karl Rove’s office “that included slides listing Democratic and Republican seats the White House viewed as vulnerable in 2008, a map of contested Senate seats and other information on 2008 election strategy.”
This is about Ms. Doan's deed as a "loyal Bushie."
Waxman said Doan cannot be an effective leader because she "has abused the trust of her employees, [and] threatened to deny [employees] promotions and bonuses for telling the truth." He also argued she has lost the public's confidence by politicizing GSA.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., on Tuesday said President Bush should fire or suspend Doan immediately. And in April, two Democratic senators called for her to resign in light of "multiple ethical lapses."
The head of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent investigative agency, said in a four-page letter delivered to President Bush late last week that Doan should be "be disciplined to the fullest extent" for violating the Hatch Act and for failing to cooperate fully and honestly with OSC's investigation into the violation.
OSC concluded that Doan violated the Hatch Act's prohibition against using her authority to interfere with or affect an election through her role in a Jan. 26 meeting at GSA headquarters. After a presentation by White House official Scott Jennings, Doan allegedly asked a question about helping Republican candidates, though accounts of her exact wording vary. Doan has maintained that she does not remember making such a comment and has argued that the OSC report is flawed and omits critical evidence.
Before her appointment to head the General Services Administration, Lurita Doan pledged to use a prospective position atop another agency to help the Republican Party.
In a draft of a May 2005 e-mail to a Republican official pitching her credentials to head the Small Business Administration, Doan, who is black, wrote: “I believe that the part[y] has a unique opportunity to make about a 5 percent swing of black votes to the GOP. One of the largest concentrations of wealth and influence lies in the black business community of small black business owners who represent the participants in various SBA programs.”
The Office of the Special Counsel reported to President Bush on June 8 that Doan violated the Hatch Act at a January meeting of GSA political employees. At that meeting, a White House political aide gave a presentation on congressional races that Republicans planned to target in 2008. After the briefing, Doan, a Bush appointee, said something like, “How can we help our candidates,” according to multiple witnesses.
Doan has denied partisan bias and said she is not interested in politics or political polling. But Democratic members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said at a hearing today that the e-mail refuted those claims.
WASHINGTON, Jun 12 (IPS) - U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman’s call for cross-border raids into Iran appears to be the culmination of a two-week long campaign by proponents of war to put the military option centre-stage in the U.S. debate over Iran once more.
The immediate effect of reigniting the let’s-bomb-Iran discussions is the undercutting of the recently initiated U.S.-Iran talks over Iraq, which in turn will cause the military confrontation with Iran to be viewed in a new light.
Senator Lieberman out-hawked the George W. Bush administration on the television news show "Face the Nation" this past Sunday by calling for "aggressive military action against the Iranians," including "a strike over the border into Iran." Repeating by now all but abandoned accusations by the Bush administration of Iranian complicity in the killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, the Connecticut senator’s comments caused a storm in the U.S. media Monday. Suddenly, the military option against Iran was once more at the centre of the U.S.’s Iran debate.
Chico Beat, sent by a military Dad. Happy Father's Day, Tim Kahlor, MFSO Orange County, CA. One of the best military dads Prissy has known in our efforts to end the war. A Letter to a Child Not Yet Born To be delivered in the year 2057, to an American soldier stationed at a base somewhere in Iraq
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush would like to see a lengthy U.S. troop presence in Iraq like the one in South Korea to provide stability... the White House said on Wednesday. The United States has had thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea to guard against a North Korean invasion for 50 years.
Dear Pfc. ___________.
Perhaps you are 18, maybe 19, born in 2038, or 2039, a child not yet born to a child not yet born. If the teaching of history is as bad in your time as it was in ours, you may not have heard of the man who is responsible for your presence in Iraq, so I will begin this letter-sent through space and across time-by telling you that you are where you are because an American president named George W. Bush told the American people that Iraq had stockpiled weapons that were an immediate threat to the security of the American homeland. This happened before you were born, of course, and before your parents were born, too, so it will perhaps surprise you to know that decisions made by a man so very long ago were instrumental in determining the course of your life.
It was that man, George W. Bush, who also told the nation that Iraq had been responsible for an attack on American soil that brought down two skyscrapers in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, and knocked out a chunk of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. that same day. You probably read about these events when you were in middle school. They are as far removed from you in time as the Eisenhower administration was from your grandfather's time. (Eisenhower was an American president a hundred years remote from your own days.)
Anyway, because of that attack and our fear of those weapons, we launched an invasion of Iraq, a hi-tech pounding the military strategists called "shock and awe," designed to scare the bejesus out of the Iraqis and pave the way for our occupation of the place. We did not call it an "occupation," of course. We called it a "liberation," and we were told that the Iraqis would greet us accordingly.
"It is better to die immediately than to die this way," said Tu, who earns 2 million dong ($124) a month as a night-time cleaner at a school.
Phong, his back bent and his left arm shortened, stands up by leaning against the cot railing. He makes unintelligible noises and does not understand when he is spoken to, his parents said.
In 1975, the final year of the U.S. war in Vietnam, Phong's father Nhu Van Phuc spent time at two places now identified by scientists as "hot spots" for dioxin, a small compound within the "agent orange" herbicide that is one of the most toxic known.
The United States maintains there is no scientifically proven link between the wartime spraying and more than three million people Vietnam says are disabled by dioxin over three generations.
It should be pointed out no one in the Bush family is suffering the effects of any war, unless you include a dive in the polls...
Svante Nycander, former editor of Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, gives his view after local politician Dahn Pettersson is fined for hate speech. Pettersson claimed in a motion that 95 percent of all heroin that comes into Sweden comes via Kosovo.
"The ruling in Malmö District Court is damaging to freedom of expression. Many will take it as proof that the authorities are afraid of uncomfortable truths, and that lacking reasoned counter-arguments they punish those who speak plainly.
And..."This is the result of changes at various points in the clause on Agitation against a National or Ethnic Group. The ban has developed in such a way that it inhibits not only prejudiced statements, but also nearly all discussion of sensitive issues that interest a large proportion of the public. Such a law thwarts its own purpose.
Know of fraud, or where the money for Iraq went? Get it off your chest here.
The purpose of the Government Accountability Office's FraudNET is to facilitate the reporting of allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, or mismanagement of federal funds.
If you want to report such allegations, you may do so by filling out a FraudNET Form or by using one of these other methods:
* Send allegations via e-mail to fraudnet@gao.gov
* Send a fax to FraudNet at 202-512-3086
* Write to:
GAO FraudNET
441 G Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20548
As former intelligence officers -- most of us have served the United States in undercover positions -- we are saddened and appalled by the recent public comments of former Senator Fred Thompson, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Governor Mitt Romney -- one a potential candidate and the other two declared candidates for the Republican nomination for president -- with respect to the perjury and obstruction of justice conviction of Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
These men misrepresent the case against Mr. Libby and call into question the integrity of a respected Federal Judge and U.S. attorney. Their positions with respect to the just and fair punishment meted out to Mr. Libby raise serious questions about their commitment to the rule of law free of partisan bias.
We are particularly concerned by the recent speech by Fred Thompson, who declared:
As you may recall, for some inexplicable reason, the CIA sent the husband of one of its employees to Niger on a sensitive mission. She had suggested it. He came back to the U.S. and proceeded to publicly blast the administration. Naturally, everyone wanted to know "who is this guy?" and "why was he sent to Niger?" Just as naturally, the fact that he was married to Valerie Plame at the CIA was leaked.
Larry goes on to write "This is not an issue of Republican versus Democrat. The signatories of this letter include registered Republicans, Democrats, and Independents."
Want a good laugh? Read what some of Scooter equally shallow friends wrote in support of their criminal friend. Birds of a feather, stick together?
E&P Why the 'L.A. Times' Called for Iraq Pullout by Greg Mitchell who finally gets it. What Greg, are your own little darlings getting uncomfortably close to draft age? Better late than never or 50 years from now, like Korea...
(June 13, 2007) -- “I see no moral reason to wait until fall,” Jim Newton, editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times told me earlier today. “We need to evaluate in real time. That’s part of the motivation for the editorial this week. Besides Gen. Petraeus, others have a right to assess the facts as well.”
Newton was referring to an editorial in his paper on Tuesday calling for peace talks and a ceasefire in Iraq. It’s the kind of talk we heard often in relation to Vietnam and later conflicts but oddly missing in regard to Iraq. But the Times is taking all sorts of bold stands on the war these days. Six weeks ago the paper advocated – hold on to your hats – that the U.S. actually start to disengage in Iraq.
That editorial was titled simply, if eloquently, “Bring Them Home.
One beltway insider reports that the entire community is grieving—“weighted down by the sheer, glaring unfairness” of Libby's sentence.
And there’s the rub.
None seem the least weighted down by the sheer, glaring unfairness of sentencing soldiers to repeated and longer tours of duty in a war induced by deception. It was left to the hawkish academic Fouad Ajami to state the matter baldly. In a piece published on the editorial page of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Ajami pleaded with Bush to pardon Libby. For believing “in the nobility of this war,” wrote Ajami, Scooter Libby had himself become a “casualty”—a fallen soldier the President dare not leave behind on the Beltway battlefield.
Not a word in the entire article about the real fallen soldiers. The honest-to-God dead, and dying, and wounded. Not a word about the chaos or the cost. Even as the calamity they created worsens, all they can muster is a cry for leniency for one of their own who lied to cover their tracks.
There are contrarian voices: “This is an open and shut case of perjury and obstruction of justice,” said Pat Buchanan. “The Republican Party stands for the idea that high officials should not be lying to special investigators.” From the former Governor of Virginia, James Gilmore, a staunch conservative, comes this verdict: “If the public believes there’s one law for a certain group of people in high places and another law for regular people, then you will destroy the law and destroy the system.”
Yikes, Prissy just agreed with Pat Buchanan and other female disrespectors...Bill Moyers is one of the best journalists in America. That's why they put him on PBS, so no one else will know what he is saying.
Quotes of the Day
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.-- Henry David Thoreau
The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.--Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian and author of Democracy in America(July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859)
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.--Aristotle
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.--CS Lewis
There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust.--Demosthenes
The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.
The council chose an unfortunate anniversary to publish its decision approving the law, which came exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday on the night of March 3, 1991. The officers’ acquittal at the end on April 29, 1992 sparked riots in Los Angeles.
If Holliday were to film a similar scene of violence in France today, he could end up in prison as a result of the new law, said Pascal Cohet, a spokesman for French online civil liberties group Odebi. And anyone publishing such images could face up to five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (US$98,537), potentially a harsher sentence than that for committing the violent act.
Hey Sarkozy, Could Prissy get some Freedom Fries with that ban? And take a look at what the French have to listen to.
Even if you don't speak French, you can tell he's lit!
DER SPIEGEL: Mr President, it seems like Russia is not very fond of the West. Our relations have somewhat deteriorated. And we can also mention the deterioration of your relations with America. Are we once again approaching a Cold War?
VLADIMIR PUTIN: One can hardly use the same terminology in international relations, in relations between countries, that would apply to relationships between people — especially during their honeymoon or as they prepare to go to the Civil Registry Office.
Throughout history, interests have always been the main organising principle for relations between states and on the international arena. And the more civilised these relations become, the clearer it is that one’s own interests must be balanced against the interests of other countries. And one must be able to find compromises to resolve the most difficult problems and issues.
One of the major difficulties today is that certain members of the international community are absolutely convinced that their opinion is the correct one. And of course this is hardly conducive to creating the trusting atmosphere that I believe is crucial for finding more than simply mutually acceptable solutions, for finding optimal solutions. However, we also think that we should not dramatise anything unduly. If we express our opinions openly, honestly and forthrightly, then this does not imply that we are looking for confrontation. Moreover, I am deeply convinced that if we were able to reinstate honest discussion and the capacity to find compromises in the international arena then everyone would benefit. And I am convinced that certain crises that face the international community today would not exist and would not have had such a dire impact on the internal political situation in certain countries. For example, events in Iraq would not be such a headache for the United States. This is the most vivid, sharpest example but, nevertheless, I want you to understand me. And as you recall, we were opposed to military action in Iraq. We now consider that had we confronted the problems that faced us at the time with other means then the result would have been — in my opinion — still better than what we have today.
It is for that reason that we do not want confrontation; we want to engage in dialogue. However, we want a dialogue that acknowledges the equality of both parties’ interests.
Say what you want about Putin, but he is much smarter than Dubya...
A PKK administrator speaking to AFP said, "We have suffered losses," but declined to give any further details.
The Tehran administration was harshly criticized by Iraq on Sunday because it was reported, "the Iranian forces have entered five kilometers inside Iraq's northern border and bombarded PKK targets."
The Iranian government, however, did not justify the allegation in a statement released yesterday.
Iranian Interior Minister Mustafa Pur Mohammadi said Iran is doing everything it can to prevent the attacks aimed at Turkey from the Iranian border region, highlighting the common benefits of cooperation between Tehran and Ankara.
The German TV-station n24 spreads the following on 2006-12-14 using the title 'Iran's President calls the Holocaust a myth': "The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stepped up his verbal attacks against Israel and called the Holocaust a 'myth' used as a pretext by the Europeans to found a Jewish state in the center of the Islamic world . 'In the name of the Holocaust they have created a myth and regard it to be worthier than God, religion and the prophets' the Iranian head of state said."
(ANSA) - Rome, May 2 - Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi resigned on Tuesday, paving the way for centre-left leader Romano Prodi to form a new government.
Berlusconi formally ended his term as premier three weeks after Prodi squeaked to victory in hard-fought and bitter parliamentary elections .
Before he paid the obligatory call on the head of state, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, to formalise his move, his cabinet held its final meeting .
"We completed our programme, we were the best government of the Republic. They'll be sorry we've gone," he reportedly told outgoing ministers .
The Islamic Republic has never recognized Israel and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map."
Dehqani said naval wargames held in the Gulf last month "carried the warning to those countries that threaten Iran, including America and the Zionist regime".
Experts said the wargames, in which Iran said it had tested new missiles and torpedoes, were a thinly veiled threat that it could disrupt vital Gulf oil shipping lanes if it was attacked.
He endorsed comments by his foreign minister that coca leaves, from which cocaine is produced, have more calcium than milk and should be included on school breakfast menus.
In his first diplomatic spat with the United States, Mr Morales said he wanted the Bush administration to explain why it cancelled a visa for Senator Leonilda Zurita, who was planning a speaking tour.
Ms Zurita has led rallies with chants of "Long live coca!" and "Death to the Yankees!"
The Bush administration forecasts massive disruptions if bird flu or some other super-strain of influenza arises in the United States. A response plan scheduled to be released at the White House on Wednesday warns employers that as much as 40 percent of the work force could be off the job and says every segment of society must prepare.
"The collective response of 300 million Americans will significantly influence the shape of the pandemic and its medical, social and economic outcomes," says an undated 228-page draft version of the report that had not been finalized. "Institutions in danger of becoming overwhelmed will rely on the voluntarism and sense of civic and humanitarian duty of ordinary Americans."
An outbreak could lead to a variety of restrictions on movement in and around the country, including limiting the number of international flights and quarantining exposed travelers. But the government does not foresee closing U.S. borders to fight the spread of flu, in part because it would only slow the pandemic's spread by a few weeks and because it would have such significant consequences for the economy and foreign affairs.
Feeling better?
No Dubya, we can't let this go on much longer...no wonder he couldn't get into a public law school-despite who his Daddy was. Good thing, because Dubya doesn't seem to read very well...
Washington - The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court's approval, the Justice Department said Friday.
It was the first time the Bush administration has publicly disclosed how often it uses the administrative subpoena known as a national security letter, which allows the executive branch of government to obtain records about people in terrorism and espionage investigations without court approval.
Friday's disclosure was mandated as part of the renewal of the Patriot Act, the administration's sweeping anti-terror law.
While the media plays up the significance of the government show trial of the seemingly deranged "“20th hijacker"” Zacharias Moussaoui, not one 9-11 victim'’s lawsuit has been allowed to be heard in a trial by jury. Why have the 9-11 victims, families not been given the same right to have their cases heard in an open trial?
Ellen Mariani, who lost her husband Neil on United Air Lines (UAL) Flight 175, filed the first 9-11 wrongful death lawsuit against UAL on Dec. 20, 2001. Mariani was interviewed on national television in May 2002 by Bill OÂ’Reilly of Fox News, who repeatedly questioned her about why she had chosen to pursue litigation instead of accepting the government fund.
"I want justice," Mariani said. “I want accountability. Who is responsible? I want the truth."”
Today, Mariani, like the other 9-11 plaintiffs, is under a gag order which prevents her from speaking about her ongoing lawsuit. Likewise, thousands of employees of federal agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration have received gag orders in the mail keeping them from telling what they know about the events of 9-11.
Under questioning by Democrats, Bolton said he had not read an article in the New Yorker magazine that the United States had covert military operations in Iran "because I don't have time to read much fiction."
He also rebuffed persistent questions from Democrats on whether in his previous post as the State Department's top arms control diplomat, he had a role in writing administration documents making now discredited assertions about Iraq's pursuit of nuclear weapons.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Congressman. I had no role in this issue," Bolton told Rep. Henry Waxman of California, top Democrat on the Government Reform committee.
Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, remarked that it was "stunning that you were not in the loop."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Tuesday that high gasoline prices which have skyrocketed to a near record are a "crisis" for Americans.
"It is a crisis in the sense of the individual," Bodman told reporters after a meeting with Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi.
National security could be protected, while still allowing cases to move forward, if judges allowed notes and evidence to be seen only in a special room by lawyers with security clearances -- as has happened in Guantanamo Bay criminal cases -- or if judges shut down courtrooms during sensitive sessions, according to Shayana Kadidal, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is separately suing the NSA in an effort to stop what it calls unconstitutional wiretaps.
"The government is asserting that none of that is good enough," Kadidal said. "They are saying, 'This is so sensitive we can't rely on the judge.'"
Weaver calls that decision political.
"The privilege is being used to hide criminal activity -- embarrassing activity -- and protect the president from adverse publicity and close off the investigation," Weaver said.
Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, denies that the government is trying to hide any wrongdoing.
May those responsible pay dearly for the misuse of our soldiers...
By Ted Ankrum-he is a retired engineer from the Federal Government Senior Executive Service and a retired Navy captain who served four tours in Vietnam and received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart Medals. He is a disabled veteran.
My war was Vietnam. I did four rotations, starting in 1967 and ending with the treaty-required withdrawal of all American troops on March 23, 1973. From there, I went to Thailand to support the continuing USAF missions over Vietnam. I learned a lot, and I thought my country and my military did, too. I became a Congressional candidate because of something that happened during my third tour. One morning a young Seabee came to me, his company commander, and told me he had just gotten a letter from his wife telling him he had a new son. He asked if I could put him in a less-exposed place because he wanted to get home to see his son. I did, but he was killed the next day. I was a supporter of the war, in those days because I believed what I was being told. But after the war, when I read what others had to say, and compared it to my experiences, I came to believe that the whole premise of the war was mistaken. I went back to Vietnam in 2003, and confirmed for myself that we were in the middle of a civil war. Vietnam today is no different from all the other countries in Southeast Asia; this is after the other side outlasted us and after more than 50,000 of my fellow troops were killed. I made a promise that if ever our troops were being sent on another fool's mission, I would do whatever I could to change that. We are on a fool's mission, and I am running for Congress.
That Seabee was killed by an IED. It was made from halite melted out of an unexploded U.S. aerial bomb, and detonated using a discarded PRC-25 radio battery. He was driving a 5-ton Tactical Truck whose "armor"” consisted of sandbags on the floorboards. If you look on my website, you'll see a picture of me driving my M-151 Jeep, gunner at the ready. He was my company clerk, an E-6 Yeoman. What you don't see is the 'hillbilly armor' in the form of half inch steel plates welded underneath the gas tank I am sitting on and the sandbags on the floor.
As executive director of the CIA, Foggo oversees the administration of the giant spy agency. He was appointed to the post by CIA Director Porter Goss after working as a midlevel procurement supervisor, according to former CIA officials.
While based in Frankfurt, Germany, he oversaw and approved contracts for CIA operations in Iraq.
Foggo is a longtime friend of Brent Wilkes, referred to as co-conspirator No. 1 in government documents filed in the Cunningham investigation. The two played high school football and were in each other's weddings.
According to government documents, Wilkes gave Cunningham $630,000 in cash and gifts in exchange for help in getting government contracts.
July 12, 2005-From KOS Diary. Now what did Prissy tell you a long time ago?
Frank Lautenberg Accuses Karl Rove of Treason
On Air America's Morning Sedition, Mark Maron and Mark Riley were interviewing NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg regarding his call for Karl Rove to lose his security clearance as a result of the Plame leak.
Maron said, "Karl Rove is guilty of treason, isn't he?"
Lautenberg responded, "Yes, I think so."
When Senators are accusing White House Deputy Chiefs of Staff of treason, things have reached a new level.
Look for indictment, coming soon...
Quotes of the Day
In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination.--Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.--Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)
Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.--D. H. Lawrence (1885 - 1930)
Best letter to the Editor from Editor and Publisher:
As of this time, no other mainstream media have reported on the effect of Stephen Colbert's brilliant performance that followed Bush's buffoonery at the White House Correspondents dinner. It seems there is a concerted, deliberate media blackout. The scathing satire that set the president fuming (and the audience stunned to silence) hit too close to home.
AND ... once again, the internet has scooped the media. The internet is buzzing about Colbert; the videos have gone 'viral'. The scene of the press jumping to their feet to applaud Bush is being juxtaposed with scenes from years ago when these same sycophants roared with laughter at Bush's insulting skit ("Where are the WMDs?") The transcript of Colbert's presentation is being shared all over the net.
Colbert was not funny; we who watched at home were not laughing. It is hard to laugh at satirical truths about a man who is responsible for so much death and destruction and who so blatantly lies to us. It is hard to watch news correspondents honor and rush to be photographed with this man. Colbert made us look at this as it was happening. He made us drink the "backwash" of this incestuous corporate-government-media poison.
Colbert did not make us laugh. Colbert screams for us.
From a local Ohio college
Perverts of the GOP
GOP: No Child Left Behind
Republican County Constable Larry Dale Floyd was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with an 8-year old girl. Floyd has repeatedly won elections for Denton County, Texas, constable.
Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.
Republican Party leader Bobby Stumbo was arrested for having sex with a 5-year old boy.
Republican teacher and former city councilman John Collins pleaded guilty to sexually molesting 13 and 14 year old girls.Republican campaign worker Mark Seidensticker is a convicted child molester.
Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.
Republican Mayor John Gosek was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from two 15-year old girls.
Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.
Republican Committeeman John R. Curtain was charged with molesting a teenage boy and unlawful sexual contact with a minor.
Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.Republican zoning supervisor, Boy Scout leader and Lutheran church president Dennis L. Rader pleaded guilty to performing a sexual act on an 11-year old girl he murdered.
Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.
Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.
Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.
Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.
Republican advertising consultant Carey Lee Cramer was charged with molesting his 9-year old step-daughter after including her in an anti-Gore television commercial.
Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.
Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.
Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.
Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.
Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.
Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.
Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.
Republican Judge Ronald C. Kline was placed under house arrest for child molestation and possession of child pornography.
Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.
Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.
Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. “Republican Marty”), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.
Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.
Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.
Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.
Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.
Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.
Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.
Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.
Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.
Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).
Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was found guilty of molesting a 15-year old girl.
Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.
Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.
Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.
Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.
Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.
Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.
Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.
Republican city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a "“good military man"” and "“church goer", was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.
Republican director of the "“Young Republican Federation"” Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.
Republican president of the New York City Housing Development Corp. Russell Harding pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer.
Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was found guilty of raping a 15-year old girl. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.
Seen enough yet? The rest should be carefully examined for similiar behaviors.
And no- no Democrats were found to have committed these kinds of offenses-especially those involved in the new "Hookergate". Remember, at least Monica was overage...Thank you to Tales of a Freeway Blogger for this list. Feel free to add, anyone was missed.
Dick Cheney, still paying women for compliments, after all these years...
