Sept 15th DC Protest Photos...Finally

(Click any photo to enlarge)

Dearest Readers, Prissy apologizes for being away so long. So long, in fact, a regular Dearest Reader has been blogging to get the message out. Thank you to her.

Prissy is pleased to announce a new blogger Iron Jawed Angel to The Prissy PatriotShe teaches government-AMERICAN government. You can feel free to write to us with any questions you may have.

Finally figured out how to get the protest photos off of the PDA, so here they are. A few important announcements and articles at the bottom of the blog.

The new job has been taking up so much time, but Prissy hopes to be blogging again soon. Always looking for good (and free;) help...Thank You and Welcome Iron Jawed Angel!

Iron Jawed Angel attended the September 15th protest too. A.N.S.W.E.R. was the sponsor and contrary to various news reports, the police IJA spoke with explained how he estimated the march at 100,000 plus. Shame on the media, dropping the ball on democracy-as usual.

Veterans at the front of the line in Washington. Some other orgs spread the ugly rumor that veterans were not allowed to lead the march in 2005. Not true then or now-more like disagreements about speakers...but you should be aware A.N.S.W.E.R. does not support the occupation of Palestine.

A side note: The CIA Leak case is NOT said and done...only Scooter's part. Normally, a prosecutor would use a guy like Libby to flip on the others. Maybe Mr. Fitzgerald was not expecting Libby to take the fall-and then not fall. Who was- besides Bush/Cheney and of course Scooter?

Since Scooter didn't flip, we go to the next stage and on to the other officials unnamed in Libby's indictment. You know, the ones who actually outed Ms Plame for her husbands OpEd piece that started the whole thing. Prissy is here to tell you, its not over...she can smell the fear coming from the White House.

Remember this?

Libby's lawyers argue that since the primary focus is on Libby's state of mind as to whether or not he intentionally lied, "decisions made by certain reporters and their attorneys to challenge grand jury subpoenas and contempt orders are not [relevant] to Mr. Libby's state of mind."

Libby's lawyers also seek to prevent the government from providing evidence that information from the National Intelligence Estimate was illegally disclosed, or that Valerie Plame's status with CIA was classified or covert and that disclosing Plame's status caused damage.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald petitioned the court on Monday to exclude evidence or arguments regarding the government's decision not to file other charges against Libby or not to charge other people connected with the case.

Gee, why do you suppose he was willing to exclude evidence and arguments about the others? Think he's a republican partisan hack? Oh my, Prissy is laughing with mirth at the thought. Bye, bye Dick... Neocon sunrise, by artist Stephen Pitt

Family for Peace

Very creative,that's why protests are so much fun. Even if they aren't very effective-short of getting a million out into the streets.

Ohio is NOT a red state,here's proof!

So much for Rover's campaign to make protesters appear anti-military!

Nancy and Harry best pay attention-their job security isn't looking so good...

Still looking for the hippies those right-wingers keep telling us about...

Ron Paul supporters. Not a bad guy, even if he doesn't like the Dept of Education. Given four years, he would end the war and revive the Constitution -Prissy could live with that. Note: A RP sign on an Ohio road side, was returned to its place after the state workers mowed!

Indeed, Dick with a bullseye on his back. Get him, Fitz!

See this, Nancy? Dearest Readers, Ms. Nancy doesn't understand she is supposed to be a LEADER, not Dubya's ADVOCATE.

End of the line, protesters take a rest outside the Capital building. The arrests you heard about were pre-planned...

Hot Links

The Guardian The man who knew too muchHe was the CIA's expert on Pakistan's nuclear secrets, but Rich Barlow was thrown out and disgraced when he blew the whistle on a US cover-up. Now he's to have his day in court.

Once again, Barlow was able to bounce back. In January 1989, he was recruited by the Office of the Secretary of Defence (OSD) at the Pentagon to become its first intelligence analyst in WMD. For a man uncomfortable with political pragmatism, it was a strange move: he was now in a department that was steeped in realpolitik, balancing the commercial needs of the US military industry against America's international obligations. Within weeks, he had again built a stack of evidence about Pakistan's WMD programme, including intelligence that the Pakistan army was experimenting with a delivery system for its nuclear bomb, using US-provided technology. "Our side was at it again," Barlow says.

Still optimistic, still perhaps naive and still committed to the ideal of thwarting the Pakistan programme, Barlow convinced himself that his experience in the CIA was untypical, the work of a handful of political figures who would now not be able to reach him. When he was commissioned to write an intelligence assessment for Dick Cheney, defence secretary, giving a snapshot of the Pakistan WMD programme, he thought he was making headway. Barlow's report was stark. He concluded that the US had sold 40 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan in the mid-80s - it had been a precondition of the sale that none of the jets could be adapted to drop a nuclear bomb. He was convinced that all of them had been configured to do just that. He concluded that Pakistan was still shopping for its WMD programme and the chances were extremely high that it would also begin selling this technology to other nations. Unbeknown to Barlow, the Pentagon had just approved the sale of another 60 F-16s to Pakistan in a deal worth $1.4bn, supposedly with the same provison as before.

"Officials at the OSD kept pressurising me to change my conclusions," Barlow says. He refused and soon after noticed files going missing. A secretary tipped him off that a senior official had been intercepting his papers. In July 1989, Barlow was hauled before one of the Pentagon's top military salesmen, who accused him of sabotaging the new F-16 deal. Eight days later, when Congress asked if the jet could be adapted by Pakistan to drop a nuclear bomb, the Defence Department said, "None of the F-16s Pakistan already owns or is about to purchase is configured for nuclear delivery." Barlow was horrified.

On August 4 1989, he was fired. "They told me they had received credible information that I was a security risk." Barlow demanded to know how and why. "They said they could not tell me as the information was classified." All they would say was that "senior Defence Department officials", whose identities were also classified, had supplied "plenty of evidence". The rumour going around the office was that Barlow was a Soviet spy. Barlow went home to Cindy. "We were in marriage counselling following my fall-out at the CIA. We were getting our relationship back on track. And now I had to explain that I was being fired from the Pentagon."

Great Blog, Indict Dick Cheney Blogspot

it seems at least some of the documents unsealed on wednesday, in the 10th circuit court of appeals, in denver, support mr. nacchio's extremely bold-faced assertion that he was pressured -- prior to 9/11 -- to grant arguably unconstitutional law-enforcement warrantless access to wholly innocent americans' private telecom records, and conversations. . .

[his contention seems to be that he was then targeted by the government, for refusing to "knuckle- under" to these unconstitutional spying demands. . .

And...this will be fascinating -- and i will post portions of the best unsealed documents right here -- for the world to see -- that cheney, and his one-trick-pony-george-dubbya were well on their way to shredding our constitutional rights, long before the mantra of "nine-eleven- changed-everything" even existed. . .

we shall see -- and learn -- much from this particularly throaty, if felonious, canary, joe nacchio. . . he did run a telecom, you know.

Military wives saying End the WAR!

WaPo, telling it like it really is-for a change WALTER REED AND BEYOND A Wife's Battle When Her Soldier Returned From Baghdad, Michelle Turner Picked Up the Burden of War

The government's sweeping list of promises to make wounded Iraq war veterans whole, at least financially, has not reached this small house in the hills of rural West Virginia, where one vehicle has already been repossessed and the answering machine screens for bill collectors. The Turners have not been making it on an $860-a-month disability check from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

After revelations about the poor treatment of outpatient soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center earlier this year, President Bush appointed a commission to study the care of the nation's war-wounded. The panel returned with bold recommendations, including the creation of a national cadre of caseworkers and a complete overhaul of the military's disability system that compensates wounded soldiers.

But so far, little has been done to sort out the mess of bureaucracy or put more money in the hands of newly disabled soldiers who are fending off evictions and foreclosures.

In the Turner house, that leaves an exhausted wife with chipped nail polish to hold up the family's collapsing world. "Stand Together," a banner at a local cafe reminds Michelle. But since Troy came back from Iraq in 2003, the burden of war is now hers.

Military children for peace. Their father is permanently disabled from his reserve tour in Iraq.

Dearest Readers, please bookmark this organization and tell your friends. Veterans and Military Families for Progress looks out for the rights/benefits of veterans AND their families. Dubya and his neocon buddies don't care who pays the price of their war, but others do.

True Story of the Day

I met a Staff Sgt career vet and his lovely wife. He was injured on his 2nd and 3rd tour-now looking at med retirement. They were age mid 30's. He had the opportunity to tell Bush off-TO HIS FACE!

He was still in a wheelchair at Walter Reed (back surgery, much better, walking now) and was told to go downstairs, then to stand up for Bush. He said no, I'm going back to my room before I'll stand up for that man. So he did. He shared a room with a Marine. So Bush comes up to his room.

He said Bush got to the door way and Sgt said (he's an African American man with booming voice) "Get the fuck outta here." Bush looked like "what did he just say?" He goes on "You heard me, get the fuck outta here-we don't like no bitch's around here." Bush looks at the Marine-Marine says "that's right, we don't like no bitch's around here." Bush left.

Needless to say I thanked him for ALL of his service!! What a great moment in history that shouldn't go untold!